#i just wanted to gather some of this stuff together because it makes me. lose it.

[andoutofharm]

patrick & pete + cryptophasia:

noun. Language that is private or impossible to understand, particularly the odd transmission trends which are occasionally formed between twins and are comprehendible only to them.

( pete’s twitter / interview on elvis duran (gifs and description by pigeoncowboys ) / patrick interview (source unknown) / interview with rolling stone (2018) / interview with zane lowe (2023, gifs by 1833outboy ) / kerrang issue 1554 / pete’s disloyal order of water buffaloes annotations / pete and patrick as the two halves of the new smiley face logo / pete's twitter)

[thalwri]

STUFF ME!

synopsis: your mission to collect intel on an auction seems to be going well until sylus catches an unexpected jealous streak.

warnings: porn no plot, couch sex, creampie, super loud possessive sex

wc: 1,2k

sylus was not a jealous man. he wasn’t.

he knew himself as a well assured person without much that could deter him. he knew you were capable of handling yourself well in any situation and that you were loyal to him just as he was to you.

but for some reason he couldn’t figure out why he felt a small agitating tick in his neck when he watched your flirt with an auctioneer to gather information for him. the way you smiled at him, the fact that his grimy hands touched you on your arm, his mere presence within your vicinity– it was maddening.

and that was why– just a floor above the auction hall in your hotel suite– he was balls deep inside you.

you hadn’t even managed to reach the bedroom before your clothes slipped off, your lips were attached to each other, and your hands wandered all over to places only you two had the privilege of touching.

your nails were deep enough to make sylus’ back bleed for how hard he was ploughing into you. his face was buried in your pretty breasts, swollen with arousal and slick from his tongue sucking harsh love bites onto you, bounced with each slap of your hips snapping together.

“sy– wait–“ you hiccuped but your pleas fell to deaf ears. you were overstimulated, overwhelmed and yet so hungry for more.

that relentless goal to drill his cock into you and stuff you until you were only capable of saying his name drove you insane. you didn’t think he’d get this jealous. you didn’t even know it was possible.

“i didn’t like– ah– how he was looking at you.” halfway through the route to painting you with his cum for the second time, sylus’s jealousy had long faded. now he was just relishing in enjoying you– enjoying the process of bringing you to exhaustion just from pleasuring you.

he gave your lips a long sloppy kiss, imagining torturing your clit with his tongue and feeling your walls tighten around his fingers. he knew how much you loved it, and he loved seeing you squirm. your tongues swirled and bumped, leaving you both so wet and hot.

“wanted– fuck, sy– wanted you to–“ you were babbling at that point reaching orgasm number three, all while feeling empty because he decided to punish you by cumming on you instead of deep inside knowing how much you loved it. he was being so, so cruel. leaving you so soaked with your only way of leaking on him is with your own slick and the ring of cream decorating his thick cock.

your back arched just as he bullied his tip consistently at that deliciously vicious pace right on your sweet, sensitive spot. and yet, it felt so tender at the same time. his lips peppered your skin like butterflies tickling your skin, his thumbs massaged your hips while his grip tightened in the gradual slip to lose control. 

“so warm,” his hips pounded into yours at your favourite angle to the point where his heavy sacks were slapping your skin, making that familiar wet plap! plap! plap! noise with the squelches of your soaked pussy being rammed into. “you looked so good tonight, sweetie.”

you couldn’t do anything other than moan out, clawing your nails on his back, fruitlessly sucking on the muscle of his shoulder to not be so loud. the walls weren’t that thick and if room service came by to deliver the meals you had preordered earlier that night, they’d hear the most obscene sounds imaginable. 

the most lewd cries and babbling rambles escaping your pretty lips.

“gonna– gonna cu– god, please sy!” you whined as your walls clenched around his cock for the nth time that night. if your teeth weren’t clamped onto his shoulder you wouldn’t have seen him almost vibrate from the feeling of your pussy almost sucking the cum right out of him. 

“don’t worry– f-fuck–“ he moaned, slowly drawing back to plough his cock back into your weeping cunny. now he was just being mean. his eyes were slowly rolling back as he neared his edge. “ ‘m close too.”

it was just too good to pull out, too good to torture you more and more when he could sink deep in you nice and snug and decorate your walls like a fucking picasso. he just knew that image would beat any form of art. and that was just a loud reminder of how he was completely at your mercy. everything you wanted, he would give.

if his eyes could form heart shapes, he’d be the most love drunk, pussy drunk sucker that would do anything and everything for you. he wanted to spend hours tending to your needs and desires and satiating your insatiable greed for him.

his hand reached down to your aching clit to mercilessly rub circles and pinch at it like his favourite toy. a whimper slipped through your lips from the friction of your wetness between your clit and his fingers. if his relentless pounding wasn’t enough to tip you over the edge you were sure the stimulation to your raw bud would make you pass out.

your babbles turned into complete incomprehensible nonsense mixed with your lewd, slutty moans sounding like a symphony to sylus, just enough to give you one final thrust to bring you to an intense, explosive climax.

a hoarse cry ripped from your throat as your head threw back from the sheer pleasuring force, driving you into a pleasure-fuelled craze. not seconds after, thick hot cum spurted into you like a current washing into a shore.

your fluttering cunny took his seed squeezing around his cock to milk all of it out of him until he shot countless blanks. sylus continued to pound his cum deep into you, fucking you both through your orgasms.

felt so fucking good– so disrespectfully raw and nasty that you felt your stomach tighten and your hips buck against his, squelching the excess cum all over the couch. 

as the thrill began to ebb away, your breathless pants evened out. you moved your hands to stroke sylus’ back in bliss, kissing all the areas you brutally marked and bit him. sylus gently returned the gesture with his massages around your hips, cock still hard, twitching and throbbing, leaking his cum into you.

“i got intel,” you murmured. he groaned into your neck, and indication for you to say more. “the auction’s a dud. the weapons are all rip offs.”

a deep chuckle rumbled into your skin. “knew it.” his grip on your hips tightened as he readjusted his position on the couch to throw your legs onto you before trapping you beneath him with his cock twitching with fervent desire.

“good job, sweetie,” he pecked your lips with satisfaction then kissed you again, swiping your swollen lips with his tongue. “i think i’ll take care of getting intel from now on.”

it was safe to say you weren’t going to go back to that auction. or leave the suite until you were stuffed to the brim.

a/n: lemme feed you guys some good straight up smut

[willowsnook]

Done Waiting

Lando Norris x bsf!reader

She isn’t you

Hi, could I request a salami sandwich with tomato on wheat bread, please, and thank you. Request from @itsnotsophiasworld

—-------------------------------

MF: SOS, can anyone fly to Spain to check on Lando? From what I’ve gathered, he is staying in an Airbnb by himself and very much in his head. I’m caught up in some work stuff, or else I’d make the trip myself. 

Your heart sank reading Max's text to your friend group. Lando had been having a rough season and was constantly getting ripped apart in the media, no matter what he did. All you could do was make sure that he knew you were there for him and try to be around as much as possible, which was easy as you also lived in Monaco. But after the last race before summer break, none of you had heard from him. 

Looking at flights, you quickly replied to the group saying that you could go. One of the many perks of working remotely was that you could pick up your computer and go anywhere, so leaving to help Lando was a no-brainer. There was a flight leaving tonight, so you purchased that and started to pack. 

You wished the world could see him the way that you did. He was a caring, down-to-earth friend who would do anything for the people he loved. It was hard for anyone who knew him not to like him, and it was hard for you not to be in love with him. 

It hadn’t taken you long after meeting him to fall for his charm, but he had been dating someone else then, so you settled for friendship. That was three years ago, and you’d dated guys since, but the feelings still lingered. He could make you feel like you were the only girl in the world, so it was easy to get sucked in. 

Ultimately, you valued your friendship too much to ever act on it, even when you were both single. You’d been through too much together to risk losing him. You had a hunch that he felt the same way about you because of how overly affectionate he was with you compared to everyone else and that you were usually his first call. Still, his life was busy, and you understood that a girlfriend didn’t fit in that picture right now. 

Landing in Spain around 10, you grabbed your luggage before jumping in a cab to the address Max had sent you. The Airbnb was a cute little beach cottage right on the ocean, and you inhaled a deep breath of salty air and instantly felt better. 

The door to the house swung open, and you were greeted by what seemed to be a very irritated Lando. 

“What are you doing here?” He asked, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“Making sure you don’t do something crazy,” you replied, mirroring him with his arms. 

“I want to be alone.”

“I don’t care.” 

You stared at each other for a while, neither one giving in before he finally sighed and moved past you to grab your suitcase, grumbling to himself. The cottage had windows on the backside, allowing a constant view of the ocean, which you could appreciate. Lando put my luggage in the guest room before joining me as you looked at the water. 

“You didn’t have to come; I’m fine,” he muttered. You looked over at him with a sad smile, reaching your hand down to grab his. 

“I wanted to come.” He gave you a small smile, and you took in his exhausted state, noting just how bad it really was. 

“Why don’t we get some rest? Then you’ll be ready for a full day tomorrow,” you suggested, and he looked over at you. 

“I’m here to relax, y/n,” he said, and you smiled mischievously. 

“It will be relaxing, I promise.”

It was not relaxing. 

You dragged Lando out of bed at 7 a.m. to go on a run, and he was not happy with you, but you were just happy he came along. Jogging through the little town, you could tell that his mood was improving as he kept pace with you. 

Out of breath, you were hunched over as you two had climbed to the top of a dune. 

“Are you not relaxed?” Lando teased, and you gave him the finger. “Aren’t you supposed to be working?” 

“Yeah, I need to log on when we get back to the place,” you wheezed, and he handed you his water bottle. “What are your plans for while I work?” 

“Oh, I don’t know, scroll through social media hate, maybe watch all my old races and critique everything I did; the possibilities are endless.” 

Shooting him a look, you sighed, “That would be funny if I didn’t know you’d already been doing that.” 

He looked down at his feet, and you moved over to him, wrapping your arms around his torso. His head found your shoulder, he breathed deeply, and you held on tighter. 

“You’re going to be okay Lan,” you said, looking up at him. 

“I know,” he said sadly. 

Lando spent the rest of the day in the water while you worked, slipping away to get groceries for the night. He hadn’t had time to hide all the takeout bags and boxes he had been surviving on, so you figured a homecooked meal would do him well. 

Having dealt with him being a picky eater for a while, you were finishing up your favorite spaghetti and meatballs recipe when he came back into the house. 

“Smells great,” he commented and you smiled. “Can we eat outside?”

“You read my mind,” you replied, plating the food. 

Eating on the back deck, you felt a sense of serenity as the sound of waves crashing filled your ears. 

“This place is amazing; how did you find it?” You asked, turning to Lando. 

“Honestly, I just opened the app and picked the first place I saw that looked secluded,” he admitted. “I just wanted to be away from everyone.” 

“We are here for you to lean on Lan,” you said softly. “I’m never going to leave you.” 

“I know that, but I just don’t want to disappoint you,” he confessed, and your heart sank. 

“Lando Norris,” you said, forcing him to look at you. “There is nothing you could ever do to disappoint me. I am so insanely proud of everything you’ve accomplished. Please come back to Monaco with me tomorrow.”

“What did I do to deserve you?” He whispered, holding out his arms. You climbed into his lap, wrapping your arms around his shoulders and running your fingers through his hair. 

“You buy me so much shit so I have to be nice to you,” you joked and he giggled. He pulled his head back to look at you, and your breath hitched because of the lack of distance between the two of you. Shifting, you tried to move back but his grip on you tightened so you leaned down to bring your lips to his. As you were a millimeter away his phone started to ring and you rested your head briefly against his, groaning internally. 

Sliding off of him you handed him his phone as it was Max calling. Hearing him tell Max he was coming home the next day made you smile, and you gathered all the dishes to clean up. He joined you a little later, and neither of you brought up the almost kiss; you wrote it off as something that happened in the heat of the moment. 

—------------------------------

Zandvoort was a dream, and you were so glad you made the trip with your friends. The next race you were going to was Singapore and Lando had invited you, Max, and some others to hang out the week before in Portugal. 

Your friend group had rented a big house, and you were ready to soak in the sun and relax after taking the week off work. Pietra and you had flown in together and met up with everyone that night at dinner. 

“Hi, I’m Mary,” a girl you didn’t recognize said to you, holding out her hand. You smiled back warmly, introducing yourself. 

“Mary and I met at a shoot early this year,” Pietra explained, and you nodded. You chatted with her for a while over dinner, glad to have another girl on the trip. 

You were less happy the next day when you watched this girl throw herself at Lando every chance she got. Right now, you were watching as she asked Lando how to show her how to hit the ball off the tee at the golf course where you guys were. 

“Ya know I went golfing with her two weeks ago, and she had a perfect swing,” Pietra muttered and you grimaced, watching Lando wrap his arms around the girl to guide her swing. It seemed like she would find a way to touch him no matter where you went. Up against him at dinner, clinging to him in the pool, leaning on him while you were watching a movie. 

At this point your jealousy was flaring up and you were trying to keep your composure, especially because this girl had been nothing but nice to you. What made it worse was that Lando entertained it, accepting her advances right in front of you. Your mind replayed that almost kiss back in Spain and the way the two of you had gotten closer since that trip. It had seemed to you that something was changing in your relationship, but clearly not. The whole trip you felt like your heart was being ripped apart and you were starting to wonder if you needed to take a break from being around him until you could get over your crush. 

Two nights before you were supposed to leave the group ended up at a club downtown as a pre-celebration for what you predicted would be a Lando win in Singapore. Rounds and rounds of shots were taken and you were dancing with Pietra on the dance floor trying to have a good time. 

You briefly glanced back at the VIP section, and your stomach dropped. Mary was sitting on Lando’s lap, and you watched as she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him in for a kiss. Water instantly filled your eyes, and Pietra looked concerned before following your gaze. She looked at you with such sadness that you decided then and there that you were done. 

Leaving the club you walked back to the Airbnb alone. You weren’t sure if it was your drunkenness or just the emotional exhaustion of the situation but you started to get angry. Time after time, you were there for him and this is what you got back. It would be different if he had made it clear from the start that he wasn’t interested but he didn’t do that. He slept in your bed back in Monaco on nights like these, he spoiled you constantly with gifts, and you knew that he had told other drivers on the grid to back off from you, laying a claim. 

God, you were so fucking over it. 

You gathered all your stuff and threw it in your suitcase, calling for a cab to take you to the airport. You made it down the stairs just as Max was coming in. His face fell as he saw your bag. 

"No y/n don’t go,” he pleaded, and you shook your head, already feeling tears start to fill your eyes. 

“I can’t fucking do this anymore Max,” you said, voice cracking. “I have to protect my heart.” 

“You know he loves you,” he said moving towards you to hold you. “Everyone knows that.” 

“If that’s true, why have I watched him with her this whole weekend? Why did I just watch him sit there when she stuck her tongue down his throat right in front of me,” you yelled and Max stayed silent. “Exactly. I need some space to figure out how things can move forward between us.” 

Max helped you carry your bag outside and the two of you stood silently waiting for the car. Just as it pulled up, Lando walked up to the house, alone. 

“Y/N!” He called out, not seeing your suitcase yet. “Where’d you run off too? I was looking for you.” 

You turned around and his eyes widened seeing your tear stained face, his gaze flickering down to your bag. 

“What’s going on?” He asked hoarsely and you just shook your head turning back to get into the car before you started to sob. 

“Let her go mate,” you heard Max tell him and you looked out the window to see him holding Lando back. The sight made you cry harder as the car finally drove off. 

Lando’s POV

Watching the car disappear down the street, Lando turned to Max, panic and confusion colliding in his mind.

“Why is she leaving, Max? What the hell happened?”

Max let out a sigh, his eyes searching Lando’s face with a mix of frustration and pity. “Mate, she’s in love with you. And honestly, you’re in love with her too, even if you haven’t figured it out yet.”

Lando froze, the weight of Max’s words hitting him harder than he expected. He thought of all the moments he spent with you—the late-night talks, the shared laughter, the comforting silence. He thought about how he’d let Mary get close, but each time she reached for him, a nagging feeling crept up inside him.

She isn’t you.

The thought was so painfully clear now. It didn’t matter how kind or fun Mary was—she wasn’t you. And suddenly, he realized why none of it felt right.

“I need to go,” Lando said suddenly. “I need to go to the airport.” 

He took off down to the main street hailing a cab but when he finally got there, you were gone. 

—--------------------------------------------

You skipped the Singapore GP. You didn’t even watch it on tv so you didn’t know why everyone was wondering why despite winning, Lando looked miserable standing on the podium. 

He had texted you a million times begging you to call him but you declined the call everytime. You were trying to move on. You’d started running again in the mornings, working out of coffee shops,  and hanging out with your girlfriends. Basically you were doing everything in your power to not think of him; and it worked until 10pm each night. Then you were miserable. 

It was two weeks after Singapore when you heard knocking at your door one evening. You weren’t expecting anyone so you were especially surprised to see Oscar standing on the other side of your door. Considering he didn’t live in Monaco, you didn’t really know what to say, just stared at him silently. 

“May I come in?” He asked politely and you nodded, stepping aside to let him through. “Nice apartment.”

“Thanks,” you replied following him into the living room. “What are you doing here?”

He settled down on your couch, motioning for you to join him and you sunk down on the other side. 

“I need you to tell me what happened when you and Lando were in Portugal,” he said slowly and you immediately looked away. 

“It doesn’t matter,” you mumbled, playing with your hands. 

“It does matter,” Oscar insisted. “It’s okay if you finally rejected him but I need to know how to fix him.”

Your head snapped up, “I didn’t reject him Oscar. He basically rejected me.” 

“There’s no way,” Oscar said, shocked and you told him everything that had happened from you flying to Spain for him to him making out with that girl at the club. 

“Trust me when I say that I’m not trying to invalidate your feelings, but I feel like this is a big misunderstanding,” Oscar said and you rolled your eyes. “He is so in love with you y/n. All he does is talk about you.”

“Then why did he never tell me!” You said, voice rising. “I’ve been there the whole time Oscar, and he has never said anything. I want to be with someone who isn’t afraid to love me.” 

Oscar’s heart broke at your words, knowing you were feeling this way. 

“I came here y/n, because he is a mess without you,” he said. “I’ve never seen him like this and it’s starting to affect his racing so I’m begging you to at least think about talking to him.” 

—-------------------------------------

You would have thought that Lando would stop texting after a while but he didn’t. Every morning he texted you “good morning” and gave you updates on his day even though you weren’t responding. His plan seemed to be to slowly chip away at you until you were ready to come back and unfortunately it was working. 

Brazil was the next race that your friend group was attending and you went back and forth on what you should do before finally deciding to book a flight. Max must have told Lando because you immediately were notified that your flight had been upgraded and your hotel had been booked. 

Because of a work event, you weren’t going to be able to get there until Saturday night and probably wouldn’t see Lando until qualifying or after the race. You joined Max and Pietra on the track, bright and early on Sunday morning and you were wondering how Lando would survive with it being this early in the morning. 

Oscar gave you a big hug when he saw you and you could tell he was incredibly relieved that you were there. Qualifying was 20 minutes away and you heading towards the Paddock club when you turned a corner and were immediately wrapped up in two arms. Inhaling his familiar scent, you relaxed into his touch. 

“I missed you so fucking much,” he said into your ear and you hummed in reply. You were still unsure about pretending like nothing ever happened. He pulled back to look at you and his excitement was contagious, pulling a small smile out of you. 

“We’ll talk later okay?” He asked and you nodded. “I have a lot of things I need to say to you.”

He kissed your forehead before running off and you tried to keep your cool. Qualifying was good for him and you were feeling good about the race but a little nervous about the weather conditions. 

Sitting with Max and Pietra in the paddock club the mood was very much anxious. Lando had been doing great until a red flag reset everything. He had fallen down because of pitting and you watched as he went off the track on that first turn, your heart sinking. The rest of the race was a blur and he finished in P6 which you knew would not go over well with him. 

After the race, you felt hesitant heading back to the McLaren hospitality area. You weren’t sure if he’d want to see you, especially in his disappointment. But as you lingered by the entrance, you caught sight of him. Lando was drenched, exhausted, and his usual radiant energy seemed dimmed. Still, he locked eyes with you, a faint smile managing to pull at the corner of his lips.

He walked over slowly, stopping right in front of you. “You waited for me?”

“Of course I did, Lando,” you replied softly, feeling the gravity of the moment settle in. “I always do.”

He nodded, then glanced around at the crowded area. “Can we go somewhere… quieter?”

You followed him through the paddock until you found yourselves outside in a secluded spot overlooking the track. For a moment, neither of you spoke. Finally, Lando took a deep breath.

“I was an idiot,” he began, voice raw with honesty. “You don’t know how many times I replayed that trip to Portugal, thinking about what I could’ve done differently. I didn’t understand how much it would hurt you… I was blind to everything but my own mess.”

You opened your mouth to respond, but he kept going, unable to hold back.

“You’ve been the best part of my life for years, and it took almost losing you to realize how much I’d taken you for granted. I’m sorry, y/n. I thought I was protecting you by not… admitting how I feel. I thought if I never said it out loud, maybe it’d hurt less. But I can’t pretend anymore. I love you.”

Hearing those words, the walls you’d built around yourself began to crack, the anger and disappointment from before softening as you looked into his eyes.

“I’ve loved you for so long,” you whispered and he gave you a soft smile. 

“I know, I’m sorry I didn’t see it before.” 

When he kissed you, it was tender and full of all the unspoken words and missed opportunities between you. As you pulled away, you both smiled, feeling the weight of the past couple of weeks finally lift.

[kanencrow]

The Father who Stepped up - Shauna Shipman | One Shot

Summary: When Shauna gives birth to her baby boy, she finds herself designating you as 'the father who stepped up' after she experiences first-hand how nurturing you are to something so innocent and defenseless. It helps her simultaneously come to terms with the fact that she's a mother, and it also allows her to realize that she's actually kind of into you, too.

Warnings: Swearing, Suggestive Themes, Descriptions of Cannibalism, Talks of Jackie’s Death.

A/N: All characters are 18+ by default, and the reader is gender neutral (no pronouns were used). I'm tempted to do a part two that consists of more domestic stuff amongst you and Shauna because I don't think I added as much I could've in this one shot, but I'm not sure if anyone would want that, so let me know in my inbox!

Word Count: 10000+

It’s like clockwork for Shauna.

She wakes up every single night, at a time where the sun is completely gone, and the room she’s been cooped up in after giving birth is pitch black. Even the illumination of the moon doesn’t peek through the window, and so it only makes it more difficult for her to function when the almost habitual crying of her son sounds off the moment she preemptively wakes up. It’s gotten to a point where her body naturally rouses a few minutes before the baby starts to fuss – like it just knows that her time for sleep is going to get interrupted. It only makes her all the more frustrated and sad, because she values her rest, and she feels that no one wants to take the time to help her care for him.

Shauna’s sleep deprived and grumpy, even as she gathers her aching body and slowly gets up from the bed she’s practically been rotting on for the past few days. Bearing a child with a body that was weak from malnutrition and lack of water was far worse than any traumatic thing she had gone through in the past. So she can’t help the way she groans and whines while she walks over to the makeshift crib you and Van had put together using sticks, leaves, and rocks. It was a nice gift from the two of you, since it gave her a place to put the baby, just so there wasn’t that worry of rolling on top of him while she slept in bed. 

And sure, it made her have to get up more than she wanted, but the thought of losing her son because she wasn’t careful was something that didn’t sit right in her chest. She’d been meaning to thank you and Van for the thoughtfulness, but both of you had been so busy with chores around the cabin – and she could barely walk as is – so it just made the entire task all the more difficult. But with the way neither one of you looked expectant in receiving that form of appreciation, there was a part of her that didn’t find herself rushing in trying to convey how she felt towards the gesture. 

Using it was thanks in itself, right?

She expected the baby to start crying the moment she made it to said crib, but all she got as she rested her hands at the edge of the makeshift bed was complete and utter radio silence. She couldn’t ignore the way her heart jumps to her throat, a rush of anxiety coursing through her like a lightning bolt as the thought of him being dead enters her mind, and when she reaches down into the cradle – only to feel nothing but the blanket she laid out for him – it only forces her worry to skyrocket. Maybe she’s dreaming again, having some sort of nightmare about her boy dying, but she can feel the blanket – the soft fleece against her fingertips, so she knows she’s not asleep.

So, of course, that makes Shauna wonder. Where the fuck is her baby? 

There’s that flash of an image that courses through her mind – a reminder of one of the night terrors she had in regards to her baby boy just a couple days ago. How she heard his screams and his cries, only to find him being used as everyone’s form of satiation. She remembers their blood smeared faces and red teeth as they chewed and chewed and chewed–

“Shauna?” 

It’s like a bullet shoots through her back the moment she hears the softness of your voice fill the otherwise silent air of the cabin. It’s muffled at first, like she’s stuck in a bubble, but then her brain fully snaps out of the weird stupor she found herself in – the one full of fear and anxiety and distrust – and that’s when she suddenly recognizes the incoherent coo of her baby. You took him, she thinks to herself, and there’s a subtle emotion of anger and discontent towards that fact, but she also knows you – even if you haven’t talked to her nearly as much as the others have. Though even then, she knows that you wouldn’t do any of what her mind previously conjured up through dreams and intrusive thoughts. 

That’s all it is. Her mind. Playing tricks on her.

Because you’re kind, you’re careful – gentle – and, even if she didn’t think so when she first woke up, you’re sure as hell one of the only people who’s put in a valiant effort in trying to help her. Both throughout her pregnancy, and even now. Unlike Lottie, who acted like the biological father and insisted that her own child was some sort of incoming prophet, that he was going to change everything. But then you just stuck around, acting as some sort of safety net for her when she needed someone or something to fall back on. Because after losing Jackie, everything felt broken, like a train had gone off the rails and there was no way of pushing it back on track. 

But then you wiggled your way in, through soft words and empathetic or sympathetic glances, and she found herself letting you step through the tiny door of her heart. Because even though the thought of anyone seeing her as weak or incapable of taking care of herself made her want to recoil and die, she couldn’t deny that she needed it, and she couldn’t deny that she wanted you of all people to help her. And maybe that didn’t entirely sit well in her stomach for a good while – or even now, for that matter. That feeling of distrust towards everyone weighed her down, but you were insistent – in a good way, and so she found herself slowly getting over her own fear for the sake of eventually letting you in.

So she should have known you had taken him.

She forgot. 

She could only blame that on her fatigue. 

By the time Shauna turned around to look at you, the baby emitted a quiet coo, as his tiny hands reached up and grabbed at your fingers that you blindly wiggled down at him with your free limb. You were cradling him with your left arm, his head propped up by your bicep as he kicked his feet in the form of a stretch, but you were far more focused on the brunette before you, who looked completely distracted. It was hard to see her, but with the moon having peeked out from behind the trees it was once hiding behind, there was a slight glow on her face, which allowed you to take in the way she stood frozen in her stance and just… stared at you and her kid. 

The little baby in your arms was none the wiser, clearly in his element and content with using your fingers as his own personal form of entertainment. It helped you focus entirely on Shauna, though, when you tilted your head to the side slightly and spoke up, letting your voice break through the long-standing silence that almost suffocated the air. “You okay?” It was a simple question, but it held meaning, an intention, with the way your tone portrayed a genuineness to it. You were curious – maybe concerned, she wasn’t sure, but when you stepped forward slightly, trying to act as a form of comfort, it helped her confirm the fact that you weren’t putting on a facade, just to make her feel like she mattered. 

You actually do think she matters. 

She realized that, even with how slow her mind was being. 

“I was looking for him,” Shauna managed to utter. The response was sudden, and it almost made you flinch with how she didn’t really try to whisper amongst the two of you. But you weren’t offended, or mad for that matter. Just surprised, if not a little endeared by her lack of thoughtfulness. Because you know she’s tired, and you know that if she was wide awake, she probably would have actually put in an effort in keeping her voice down for the sake of not waking anyone up, or rousing the boy in your arms into a state of panic. But luckily, he’s clueless, stuck in his own little world that consisted of him holding your fingers like they were joysticks to an atari. 

“He’s right here,” you quietly assured, after a moment, as you settled your palm against his tiny belly and allowed him to lift your fingers up and down. He was so small, only about a week old, but for such a young little guy, he had been pretty responsive. “I noticed that you haven’t been getting any sleep ever since he came into the world,” you added on, shrugging your shoulders subtly, while Shauna shifted her eyes away from your own to stare down at the baby boy, who struggled to stay awake, as you bounced him slightly in your arms. His eyelids fluttered, and his stubby legs stretched out to hang off either side of your forearm, while you let out the softest huff you could muster, and continued. “I couldn’t sleep tonight, so I wanted to help.” 

Shauna hears your words, and she quickly takes them to heart, which causes her brow to furrow in thought, before she lifts her brown eyes away from her son to look up at you instead. “You didn’t have to do that,” she told you, as though she were almost scolding you. But you could only shrug her off with a shake of your head, knowing that she was just saying that to make herself seem stronger. Which – she was strong – but she also didn’t have to be. 

Not for this, at least. 

“I wanted to,” you quietly mumbled, as you stepped closer to her and sent her a small smile through the darkness of the room. You weren’t even sure if she could see the expression on your face, but you didn’t seem to find it in you to care, when you maneuvered past her and lowered the already sleeping child back into the crib. It forced Shauna to turn her body and watch you, and as you cradled his head and guided it to rest on the little bump underneath the blanket you were laying him onto, it caused her stomach to unintentionally flutter.

She wasn’t surprised that you were so delicate with the boy. Still, it managed to push her into a state of awe, as you slipped your hands out from underneath his body and stood back up to your full height. Through the darkness, she could see the way you stared down at him, admiring the way he peacefully spread out across the blanket, like a little starfish. And his fingers curling into fists were enough to convey to you that he had fully fallen asleep. It meant that your work in helping Shauna rest was done, and as you nodded to yourself and stepped back from the crib to silently make your leave, the brunette ended up reaching out and grabbing a hold of your wrist. 

It was surprising to her that you were thinking of leaving without saying anything, but after spending so many months with you in the wilderness, she guessed that she couldn’t be shocked. You’ve always been quiet, always kept to yourself and spoke to others only when they would speak to you. But that was a while back. Now you seemed a little more outgoing, but there was still a subtle shyness to you. Especially with the way you tensed slightly at her touch, and slowly turned around to look at her, as though you thought you were in trouble. However, you weren’t, and you seemed to recognize that when her fingers tightened slightly to squeeze your joint.

“Thank you,” Shauna stated, “really.”

You replied back with a simple nod and a sheepish smile. And that was when she let go of your wrist and allowed you to take a few steps towards the door and exit the room. And even then, you were as quiet as a mouse and mindful of the resting boy in the crib, and she couldn’t help but feel a certain type of way about you in turn.

It was a good feeling, though.

—————————————————————————

It was the crackling of the fireplace that acted as a form of ambiance to your mind, as you reclined along the window-side seat and stared out through the pane of glass. Your legs remained stretched out in front of you, socked feet moving mindlessly back and forth, while the incoherent murmurs of your teammates sounded off throughout the rest of the cabin, accompanying the resonation of wood crackling under intense heat. Snow fell from outside, coating the ground in even more of the white powder that had been nothing but unforgiving for the past two months, and you couldn’t help but wish for spring to come soon because of it.

There was a feeling that settled inside of your chest – intuition – that told you it was going to eventually melt away. Considering how often the sun had come out as of recent, it made sense. But for now, it was still cold, and you were more than happy to stay inside and admire the outer world from the comfort of the building you’ve been living in. Especially after spending the majority of the day doing chores, chopping wood that you took from the meat shed or shoveling the porch with the intention of keeping you and everyone else from being snowed in. Again. 

Your cheeks felt frozen by the time you stepped back inside of the cabin, but at least the fireplace was roaring with life, and at least Misty was there to give you a hot cup of water. She always made sure to do her part, and whether it was by helping or speaking up to give some sort of logical statement towards a certain idea or discussion, you appreciated her… quirks and all. And, sure, you would have definitely preferred hot chocolate or tea when she did gift you the treat, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, and so you found yourself feeling thankful either way. 

“My god, can you just stop squirming, please?” 

Mari’s voice managed to break out amongst the rest of the softer sounds that echoed throughout the cabin, and just from the frustration in her voice, you could tell that she was the one who had been tasked with taking care of the baby. Even after months of him being alive, Shauna still hadn’t named him, and a part of you was convinced she never would, with how her features always shifted into an expression of melancholy and deep, intense thought whenever she scrutinized the face of her child. You could understand that she was still trying to come to terms with the fact that she was a mom, and although you kept a respectful distance – not wanting to push anything or cross a boundary, you did want to help.

You had, in ways that consisted of making sure he didn’t keep her up at night with his crying. You were more than willing to deprive yourself of sleep for the sake of Shauna having her beauty rest, and it wasn’t like the little dude disliked you or anything. He always seemed happy to be in your arms when you paid him a late night visit and moved out of the brunette’s room to go and sit by the window bench. That spot always gave you front row seats to the moon and the way it shined through to act as his personal nightlight, and you cherished the moment, all while you slowly rocked him back to sleep with his head against your chest. But that was really the extent of your aid, other than feeding him or keeping an eye on him when no one else could. 

But you did find yourself curious as to what Mari was doing. Especially with the way she huffed and puffed about the baby boy and his desire to wiggle like that of a worm. The thought of him giving her a hard time made you sneakily smirk to yourself as you swung your legs off the bench, and the moment you turned your body to look towards the kitchen, you stood up to your full height, all while your eyes caught sight of the girl trying to put a – poorly made – knitted hat on his head. You weren’t sure who made it, but it certainly didn’t look like something someone would wear. And if they did… they sure as hell wouldn’t be able to make it look good. 

Even if it was on someone as cute as Shauna’s son.

He was sitting on the table, and with the way he let out a little whine and grumpily swung his arms up and down, you could tell that he didn't want the hat on his head. But Mari was incessant, muttering something about how it’ll keep him warm, and you could only roll your eyes, as you walked towards the kitchen and scrutinized the scene with an intention of saving the little boy from the girl’s control. Which seemed to go as well as it could, when she eventually lifted her focus away from him and looked at you instead, noticing your presence the moment the floor creaked beneath your feet. It didn’t take her long to let out a huff, before she picked up the baby by his waist and held him out to you as though he was some sort of toy. 

“Here, take him,” Mari grumbled, “I can’t deal with it anymore.” Her patience was practically nonexistent, which wasn’t something you were ignorant to. You remembered the time where she almost strangled Travis because he wouldn’t stop complaining the first week you and everyone else crash-landed in the middle of the forest, so it wasn’t surprising that she was experiencing it in the current moment. Granted, you couldn’t necessarily blame her, but maybe she wasn’t the best person to rely on when it came to babysitting Shauna’s kid. 

So, you were swift in reaching up and pulling the boy into the comfort of your arms, before you settled him onto your hip, and when he immediately rested his head onto your shoulder and tightened his fingers to ball up the fabric of your Wiskayok Yellowjackets hoodie, you felt your heart swell in your chest, discreetly relishing in the way he seemed so comfortable with you. Mari even seemed to don an expression of surprise herself – with a mixture of jealousy – too, when her eyes glanced down to look at the boy, who made a point to direct his attention somewhere else, as though he was holding a grudge against the girl in front of you. 

Like mother, like son, you think.

It was kind of an amusing sight, and you found yourself huffing lightheartedly, as you cradled his butt with your limbs and spoke up. “I don’t think that hat fits him, by the way.” You gave her a teasing look, only to glance down at the child in your hold for the sake of making sure he was okay. And he was, with the way his eyes were now closed, all while he breathed contently against your collarbone and continued to grip the fabric of your hoodie like a lifeline. 

“He was just being difficult,” Mari mumbled, seemingly ignoring your statement and deeming it as incorrect, while she folded her arms over her chest and moved her eyes down to look at the boy, too. “It would’ve fit if he just stopped moving.” 

You found yourself humming at her words, but the sound was entirely mindless, “Whatever you say.” It wasn’t long before you turned your head away from her and took a moment to glance around the vicinity of the cramped cabin. There was an intent in the action, and when you didn’t find who you were subconsciously looking for, you allowed your eyes to fall back onto Mari, while you sent her a look of wonder. “Do you know where Shauna is?”

“Why?” Mari uttered, a certain glint of… something you couldn’t entirely decrypt suddenly forming in her brown eyes, but when the corner of her lip curled up into a smirk, it gave you the slightest inkling that she was finding your question comical. “Miss her?” And you came out to be correct, which made you immediately scoff at her question, and it only caused that small smile to break out into a grin on her cheeks, “What? Don’t act like you haven’t been trying to worm your way into her heart,” she said, “you’re almost worse than Lottie. With her whole ‘our baby’ thing.”

“Yeah, well, I’m just trying to help her out,” you stated, as you bashfully lowered your eyes, pretending to be occupied with the baby in your arms, who continued to rest comfortably within them. “It’s not easy being a single mom, and I don’t think Lottie’s whole ‘your baby is the key to make the wilderness happy’ bit is really helpful, either,” you added on, as heat rose to your cheeks at the distant thought of being perceived as some sort of lap dog for Shauna. And, granted, your valiant effort to defend her definitely didn’t help your case, but you couldn’t help it, considering the fact that Lottie had been a little… off ever since the baby boy was born. 

You weren’t unaware of the way she would just stare at you whenever you carried Shauna’s son. It was hard to understand if she was jealous of the sight, or if she had something on her mind and simply didn’t know how to address it. But maybe you were also overthinking it, and honestly, you couldn’t – and didn’t necessarily want to – bring yourself to think about it in the current moment, which caused you to quietly clear your throat, before you stepped back and gently hoisted the boy in your arms up to rest more comfortably on your hip. “Where’s Shauna?” you questioned again.

“I don’t know.” Mari shrugged, “Not here, clearly.”

Always the smartass, you thought to yourself, before you rolled your eyes and let out a heavy breath. It wasn’t long before you turned around and walked away from Mari, successfully deeming her as the most unhelpful person in the group, and you ultimately decided to search for Shauna on your own. The only place you could think she would be was the single bedroom within the cabin, and so you found yourself padding in that direction unconsciously, which caused the boy in your arms to tighten his grip on your hoodie, due to your movement. You weren’t even sure if she was going to be in there, but it was the only idea you had when it came to where she might have been, and so you went with the idea, secretly hoping you’d come out to be right. 

The murmurs of the rest of the group ended up disappearing by the time you eventually turned the corner and made it to the door, and when you noticed it slightly ajar, you didn't think anything of it, as you pressed on and pushed it open. It creaked, signifying its age, and you winced, as you glanced down at the baby in your arms, hoping that the high-pitch resonation didn’t stir him from his slumber. You were thankful, though, when all you received in return was a tiny grunt from him that portrayed his unconscious state, and it quelled the worry of possibly waking him up. His features were still relaxed, stuck deep in dreamland while he slightly drooled on your hoodie, and with a small smile at the sight, you lifted your head up to look forward.

You immediately froze in your place when your eyes fell onto Shauna.

The last thing you expected to see was her back, which was covered in nothing but the strap of her charcoal-colored bra and showing off her pallid skin-tone that was complimented by the few freckles that adorned it. They scattered across the expanse of her flesh like stars in the sky, and your pupils naturally flickered back and forth to admire each one. It felt like you had been punched in the gut, with the way your breath silently hitched in your throat, and a weight of something you couldn’t describe settled within your stomach. It wasn’t a negative feeling by any means, but you couldn’t deny the way you felt like some sort of pervert for having waltzed in without so much as knocking. 

You found yourself regretting your actions, though there was no way for you to rewind time or pretend like you had never stepped into the room to begin with. Especially when Shauna seemingly sensed your presence, as though she had some sort of sixth sense, and slowly turned her head to glance over her shoulder, peering at you with a form of curiosity in her brown eyes. You stood there, all the while, probably looking like an idiot, with the way you stared at her with a wide gaze and held her child in your arms stiffly. But you couldn’t find it in you to consciously assess how odd you might have come across. All you could do was stutter out some sort of apology, as you parted your lips and felt your stomach leap to your throat. “I-I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to just – uh…” 

Your voice trailed, and there was a certain air to Shauna’s demeanor that kept you from continuing, when you saw the ghost of an endeared smile fall onto her lips, before she turned back around and reached down to grab an old black band t-shirt that was tattered and had clearly seen better days. You remained idle in your spot, standing in front of the door as though you were a deer stuck in a pair of headlights, and as you dumbly watched the brunette pull the top over her head and allow it to fall down to cover her torso, there was a subtle feeling of disappointment that filled your chest. 

But you attempted to ignore it, while you swallowed and waited for her to reply. 

“Knocking exists, you know,” she uttered quietly, as she slowly turned around to completely face you, and lowered herself to sit down on the bed she had originally grabbed her shirt from. There was a subtle tone of lightheartedness in her voice, but you still felt embarrassment fill your body, as she gave you a tired, teasing look with her brown eyes and tilted her head to the side slightly. She clearly wasn’t offended by your intrusion, much to your own surprise, and that was when you found the ability to move your legs again, when you took a short step forward and bowed your head apologetically. 

“Sorry,” you mumbled, “I should’ve…” 

Shauna shook her head and shrugged, “It’s fine.” 

You decided to keep your lips tightly wound after her response, pressing them together tightly, and you treaded carefully as you sluggishly walked further into the room. Your legs kicked out slightly as you moved, and your eyes flickered around to take in the vicinity that you had found yourself in far more than you probably should have. Ever the conversationalists, neither one of you knew what to say next. Should you have said, ‘hey, here’s your baby,’ as though you were some pizza delivery person? That probably wouldn’t have been a good idea, considering he wasn’t food. But you didn’t know what else to do, except sit down beside her and silently hand her the child…

But even then, that didn’t feel right.

“Is he sleeping?” 

Shauna’s question broke through your muddled thoughts, and you found yourself immediately letting out a quiet breath of relief in turn, which was something you hoped she didn’t hear. When your eyes moved away from a random wall inside the room to meet her brown ones again, it didn’t seem like she picked up on the sound you made, when she simply stared at you with a certain type of earnestness that left you feeling warm inside. Her unwavering gaze after she inquired was enough to create a ball inside of your throat, and you found yourself trying to force it down with a swallow, as you slowly looked back down at the boy in your arms and nodded. 

“Yeah,” you affirmed, “he is.” Your verbal confirmation was the last thing you said, before you eventually made it close to her bed and sat down beside her. The mattress barely dipped with how firm and old it was, but you could still see the way she faintly jostled from the added weight, out of the corner of your eye. You found yourself focusing entirely on her son, though, when you gently maneuvered him in your arms and cradled him like he was a week old again. He was still light, easy to hold without feeling as though your limbs were about to fall off, but his hair had grown in, and it was blond. 

A dirty blond. 

His eyes were brown, though, and his nose looked like it was going to develop into a shape like Shauna’s, the older he got. That cute, slightly imperfect bridge that you always admired whenever you caught sight of the brunette’s side profile. His round face and little lips looked just like hers as well, and you found yourself fascinated and almost amused at how he barely looked like Jeff. Even with the blond hair that hadn’t fully grown in yet and made the little boy look like an old man who was balding. It was surreal, in a way. How the girl beside you had managed to create such a beautiful soul through an ongoing situation that left all of you feeling hopeless and dreadful. 

“I’m sorry.” 

It was the words of Shauna again that tugged you out of your daydream. You found yourself blinking a few times, and when you slowly pulled your eyes away from her son to gaze at her, she was already staring at you, looking into your irises with her brown ones that the baby in your arms carried, too. You had to stop yourself from admiring other parts of her face for the sake of conveying to her that you were listening, and when you mindlessly creased your brow in confusion towards her apology, she took that as her chance to continue, as she scooted closer to you and flickered her focus down towards the child you were holding. 

“I haven’t really been present,” she explained, clarifying herself, with a tone that conveyed shame, “for him.” You glanced down at her mouth for a split second, taking in the way that they were chapped and had dried-up blood on them, which you realized must have been from her anxiously nipping at her lips. Not only that, but it was also the winter, so you weren’t surprised, but even with the sight that didn’t necessarily look pleasant, you still found your stomach fluttering, before you shifted your attention back up to meet her gaze once again. 

You inevitably shook your head, finding your voice, “It’s okay,” you whispered, “I know things have been… hard, for you.” It was difficult to know what to say to help her feel better, but you put in a valiant effort to tread lightly, which seemed to work in your favor, when she slowly deflated and decided to lean closer to you and lower her head against your shoulder. The heavy sigh she let out shortly after was enough to convey that she’d been needing some form of comfort, and although you tensed slightly, you let her have it, as you continued and glanced down at the baby in your arms. “It’s not easy having a kid and then being expected to take care of it after everything that’s happened.”

“I did it to myself,” Shauna mumbled, as she pressed her thigh against yours and mindlessly plucked at the fabric of her t-shirt, “I shouldn’t have meddled with my best friend's love life.” Even with being trapped in the wilderness, there was still a certain air of intelligence in the way she spoke, and you couldn’t help the way the corner of your lip curled up, as you slowly nodded your head in response to her statement. “Now I’m paying for it.” Her tone was dry, ultimately, and you weren't sure if it was because of the fact that she didn’t have it in her to be sad about what happened, or if she was simply angry at herself now, for what she did. 

“At least he doesn’t look like Jeff,” you replied quietly, trying to lighten the mood in your own way, which caused Shauna to scoff dryly, as she pressed her cheek deeper into your shoulder and stared down at the sleeping boy in your arms. “Clearly your genes are stronger.” 

The conversation lulled slightly, but you weren’t surprised, when Shauna silently reached her hand out and wiped her thumb over the corner of her baby’s mouth. Dried spit, you realized, was what she was trying to make disappear, and it reminded you of the little stain you had on your hoodie from his drool, which created an emotion of amusement that fluttered through your chest as you watched her gently tend to her kid. It wasn’t a common occurrence. It was like she was scared to touch him, or hold him, or even be in a room alone with him. But at the same time, she was equally protective. She had mixed feelings, obviously, and you had a feeling as to why that was.

And you didn’t want to bring it up.

But it was nice to see her attentiveness, even if it was something that was short-lived, when she inevitably pulled her hand back from his face, and let it fall onto her lap. “I haven’t even named him,” she suddenly stated, and when you turned your head slightly to look down at her, she pulled her cheek away from your shoulder and sat back up to stare down at the floor between her legs. “I don’t even know how to be a mom,” she added on, and you frowned faintly, before you slowly stood up to your full height and ambled over to the boys’ crib, letting her words drift off into the air, while you settled him against the makeshift bed you and Van created for him, and tucked him under a shirt that acted as a blanket for his small body.

“No one does at first,” you eventually replied, pulling your hands away from him, before you stepped back from the crib and turned around to look at Shauna, who bounced her knee up and down anxiously, not meeting your gaze. “No one gives you a rule book on how to be a parent, Shauna,” you reminded her, “it’s not easy… but that’s why we’re here–” 

“You.” 

Shauna’s mumble cut you off, and you paused to scrutinize her, “What?” 

“You’re here,” she said, as she slowly lifted her head up to meet your eyes, “not them.” Your features faintly flinched in surprise, and when you shifted in your stance and shoved your hands into the pockets of your pajama pants that were just as tattered as all your other clothes, she continued. “You’ve been the only one who’s, like… actually helped me ever since I had him,” she explained, “I mean, other than Van, who helped make the crib with you, you’ve been here to take care of him, while I’ve just…” her voice trailed off, and she shrugged her shoulders, clearly at a loss for what else to say. 

“You’ve got other stuff to deal with,” you uttered, trying to defend her from herself. 

But Shauna shook her head, while you slowly trailed back towards the bed and watched her intently. “Like wallowing and resenting my own child who hasn’t done anything to deserve it?” You let out a deep breath when you turned around and lowered yourself to sit down beside her, and as your brow creased into a look of thought, she felt her eyes sting with unshed tears. “I’ve been the worst mom – you’re more of a parent than I am–” 

“Shauna, stop,” you stated, shaking your head, before you looked at her and watched the way she pulled her face out of her hands and sighed shakily, “you’re not a bad mom,” you told her, “I mean… it’s normal to feel like shit after giving birth,” you added on, with the intention of making her feel less guilty, “postpartum depression is a thing, and you’re probably dealing with that on top of… y’know.” Shauna’s brow furrowed at your words, and when she shifted her brown eyes to meet yours, you could tell she was confused by how you knew that, which caused you to quickly clarify, as you shrugged. “I paid attention in health class.”

“Of course you did,” Shauna laughed out, her voice thick with emotion, as she shook her head and smiled sadly at your words. You chuckled quietly in response to her reaction, feeling a sense of pride swell in your chest towards the fact that you made her giggle, but when she sniffled and glanced down to stare at a certain spot on your face, you felt your heart leap to your throat. “How come we never really talked… before all of this?” she questioned suddenly, as her pupils fluttered back up to meet your gaze, not allowing you the chance to truly dwell on the subtle action, “We were on the same team, yet we barely ever spoke to each other.” 

“Was kinda intimidated by you, actually,” you mumbled sheepishly, which caused her to give you an expression of disbelief, clearly unable to understand what might have been so scary about her. And it caused you to shrug your shoulders, as you shyly turned your head away and stared down at your lap, suddenly feeling small. Like you were exposed entirely. “I don’t know… I always wanted to talk to you, but I just… couldn’t?” You pursed your lips and pressed your palms together, and when you intertwined your fingers, you felt your cheeks heat up as you breathed in deeply and confessed through an exhale, “Guess I was just too scared to talk to a girl that I thought was pretty.” 

At your words, Shauna could only stare at you, her brown eyes focusing on the defined features of your side profile and the way you clenched your jaw tightly out of nervousness, as you stared contemplatively at the floor. Your nostrils flared with a breath, and her heart thudded against her ribcage once that only signified the way your words made her feel. It was a random beat at first, but then it happened again, and again, and again. It cemented her feelings – the way you had secretly made her feel over the span of two months hitting her like an unforgiving truck, and it caused her to swallow thickly, as she broke her focus away from your face and gazed down at your hands instead. 

She wasn’t sure what to say, and it was obvious that the silence that ensued wasn’t one that made either one of you feel comfortable. You shifted awkwardly in your spot, your face feeling flush, while Shauna lost herself in her own mind and continued to stare down at your interwoven fingers. It felt as though you were sixteen again, dealing with your first crush and experiencing mental gymnastics when it came to how you were going to confess that you liked the person you had eyes for. And granted, you were older now, but after spending… however many months in the wilderness, it felt like your social skills had vanished, and you were left ignorant again. 

As well as a fool that had no grasp on how to say, ‘I like you’ to a cute girl.

It felt like hours had passed – when in actuality it was a minute, before you eventually cleared your throat awkwardly and lifted your chin to allow your eyes to shift away from the floor and towards Shauna’s instead. Your lips parted, as if to try and say something – or to defend yourself for what you had already stated – but nothing came out. And while the brunette seemed to find herself frozen in the way she continued to gaze down at your tense hands, you studied her expression, noticing how her features were taut with contemplation and something deeper, but indecipherable.

“I’m sorry.” 

You suddenly apologized, without thinking, and when your voice – soft throughout the air – broke through the clouded thoughts of Shauna’s mind, that was when she blinked and jolted back into reality. Her brown eyes snapped up to your face, feeling them sting with unshed tears, and your brow furrowed to express your genuine guilt for making her feel uncomfortable. But she wasn’t uncomfortable. She was just… shocked. And confused. Because she had always been used to being second best, or stuck in the shadow of someone who was deemed as far more important than she ever could be. But even when Jackie was alive and she was actively experiencing the woes of being ‘the sidekick’ and ‘just the best friend,’ you still noticed her.

Still saw her as Shauna Shipman. 

Not Jackie’s best friend.

And it made her angry that you waited so fucking long to say something. 

To give her any sort of idea that you liked her.

Maybe it was the postpartum hormones that made Shauna swell with a mixture of frustration and sadness, or maybe it was just her, and it had nothing to do with the after effects of her giving birth. Either way, you saw a tear slip from the corner of her brown eye, and she could feel the salty droplet and the way it streaked down her cheek in an almost poetically depressing way. It only caused your breath to hitch in your throat, the guilt in your chest increasing drastically, and when you tried to reach your hand up to wipe away the stain, she grabbed your wrist, halting your movement, just as your fingers grazed over the skin of her face. 

“Shit, I’m sorry–” 

Ever the apologist, Shauna cut you off before you could complete your sentence, when she pushed your wrist down to pin it against your lap and suddenly leaned forward to press her lips against your own. The action was done with a swiftness that left your mind reeling and your body tensing as your body leaned back slightly, but when she unconsciously squeezed your joint that she held onto like a lifeline, you snapped out of your shock. The roughness of her mouth – chapped and dry – against your own, wasn’t unwanted. Especially not when you had been wanting to kiss her for the past year and a half. So it only made sense to relax into it, when you breathed out through your nose and allowed your eyes to flutter shut.

You promptly followed her lead, creating a game that consisted of her pushing and you pulling, as your lips parted to slot together like a perfect puzzle piece. Her grip tightened on your joint all the more, and although her fingernails lightly dug into your skin, it wasn’t enough to get you to move away from her. If anything, it urged you closer to her, when you reached up with your free hand and cupped her cheek. Your mouths moved together, quiet sounds of them smacking together intermixing with the soft breaths that the two of you let out, and before you could even realize what was happening, you were being pushed back against the firm mattress, which allowed her to pin your wrist she grasped above your head, while your other palm fell away from her face to rest against your stomach. 

Shauna pulled her lips away from you in that same moment, and when you let out a quiet pant and fluttered your eyes open, she was already looking down at you with a certain emotion in her brown irises. You weren’t sure what it meant, but with how hazy your mind felt, and with how quick your heart thumped inside of your chest, you couldn’t bring yourself to grow concerned. Especially not with the way she loomed over you, and allowed her fingers to finally loosen around your wrist. Your focus shifted in turn, to watch her as she slid them up and over your palm, before they curled between your own and eventually intertwined in a way that felt like a perfect fit.

“I’m sorry for not telling you sooner,” you mumbled, after a moment, as your eyes shifted back to meet the brunette’s. But Shauna could only shake her head dismissively, not wanting to talk about feelings, before she leaned down and pressed her lips against yours once again. 

You immediately reciprocated that time, no longer hesitant to succumb to the concept of loving her, and when you happily hummed against her mouth, she felt her stomach flip, as a weight of tension slipped off of her shoulders.

Just like water. 

—————————————————————————

There was something oddly therapeutic about the sounds of a baby giggling. The belly laughs that were infectious and left anyone who heard them grinning from ear to ear like an idiot. That may or may not have been you in the current moment, as you watched as Shauna blew raspberries into her boys’ belly from where he laid on her bed. His arms and legs swung back and forth to signify just how ticklish her actions had made him, and you felt your heart swell with affection towards the two, while you watched her pull herself up to look down at him with an expression on her face that conveyed nothing but admiration and love towards the child. 

She named him Jackson.

Because although she had her own personal qualms about Jackie, the thought of forgetting her like a distant memory wasn’t something Shauna could ever fathom, and you couldn’t blame her for it. You remembered having the conversation with her, shortly after you and her started dating, and you were all for it, because you knew how much she loved her best friend, even if the last time they spoke didn’t end on the best terms. She saw it as a form of an apology, in her own way. And although you didn’t fully understand – not nearly as well as she did – you went along with it, because it was her choice in the end, and there was no way in hell you were going to control what she did. 

Besides, Jackson was a cute name. 

It fit him. 

You snapped back into reality when a little fist smacked against your cheek, and you were quick to jolt back slightly, as you blinked and looked down at Jackson, who clearly wasn’t aware of what he had just done. He was far too focused on Shauna tickling his sides teasingly, and when he let out a high-pitch squeal as she picked him up, you chuckled softly, before your eyes flickered up to look at your girlfriend, who seemed a lot happier than two months ago, when you shared your first kiss with her. There was a certain glow to her. One that radiated from under all the dirt and grime that seemed to stain her face, even after washing it with water at the lake just an hour ago, and it made you happy in turn. 

She would never fully heal, you knew that. None of you would, realistically… once you all got out of this mess. But at least she was searching for the good in things now, trying to actively find optimism, rather than the pessimism she had been so used to embodying. And you were well aware that she would always be Shauna. The girl who didn’t get as excited over the things that you or other people would. Or the girl who found far more enjoyment in staying in and reading a book, rather than going out and mingling with people at a party she didn’t truly want to attend. Hell, even now, stuck in the wilderness, she acted like a ghost who occasionally payed the rest of the cabin a visit.  

But it wasn’t a bad thing. 

It would never be a bad thing.

“Hey. Earth to Y/n?” 

You blinked back into reality the moment Shauna’s voice broke through the fog of your mind, and you quickly realized that your eyes had fallen back down without you knowing, which ended in you intensely staring at the spot Jackson had once been laying. All that sat there now was a vacant spot, and it left the brunette feeling slightly worried. Especially with the way your gaze sat unwavering, simply focused down at the sheets, as though they were the most interesting thing in the world to you. It was obvious enough to you that she had put her son down to rest for the remainder of the day, and as you let out a quiet exhale through your nose and flickered your eyes up to meet your girlfriend’s, you rolled over onto your back and raised your brow in silent questioning.

“Hm?” You attempted to play off your daydream with a lackadaisical demeanor, but when Shauna scrunched her features up in both perplexity and concern, you knew you had failed miserably. Her brown eyes practically bored into yours, and you couldn’t bring yourself to avert your gaze, as you watched her move and sit back down on the mattress, before she clasped her hands together, so that they could rest comfortably in her lap, and gave you a certain look. 

“What do you mean, ‘hm’?” she teased lightly with a smirk, as she shook her head in amusement towards your poor ability to play off your bout of distraction. She crossed her legs over the other in that same moment, and when you shrugged your shoulders and sluggishly pushed yourself up into a sitting position, she tilted her head to the side and sent you an expression that conveyed nothing but genuine curiosity. “What were you doing?” she asked, while you stared at her silently, like someone who had been caught doing something they shouldn’t have.

“Just thinkin’,” you admitted, giving her another shrug, as the corners of your lips quirked up faintly. Shauna only rolled her eyes at your simple statement, and when you let out a quiet huff in response, she used your reaction as proof that you were okay.  

Though, even then, your vague explanation gave her the excuse to scoot closer to you, and you found yourself mindlessly leaning into her, as she reached her hand up to cup your cheek. “About what?” She gently rubbed the pad of her calloused thumb over the skin that sat underneath your eye, the touch almost featherlight in the way it felt against you. And you pressed into the feeling, almost melting against the warmth of her palm that cradled the side of your face, which caused her to smile softly in turn, finding satisfaction in how comfortable you were to her affection.

“You,” you eventually replied, before you raised a hand up and curled your fingers around her wrist, “and Jackson.” You gently held the joint in your grasp and turned your head slightly to press your lips against the heel of her palm, “Thinking about how so much has changed. In a good way.” You tugged it away from your face to bring that part of her body down into your lap, and she felt her heart warm, the moment you moved your thumb across the lines that decorated her limb. “I’m happy that you’re both here… that I’m with the two of you,” you mumbled, your voice coming out as a quiet whisper, as you lowered your chin to gaze down at what you were doing. 

Your introspective thoughts about Shauna and Jackson weren’t uncommon, and she knew that, considering the fact that you often found yourself daydreaming when it came to her and her son. How you would stare, and stare, and stare, until she’d eventually notice and snap you out of it with a question. Hell, sometimes your mind buzzed so much to the point where you would wake up in the middle of the night and head outside to sit on the porch. And then you would just… think, about her, or Jackson, or about your teammates that also resided in the cabin. And it was all while you listened to the randomly occurring sounds of owls hooting, or birds flapping their wings and rustling the leaves that they hid within.

“You always have a habit of becoming sappy after we put Jackson to bed,” Shauna uttered suddenly, as she glanced down at your fingers, and watched the way they continued to trace over the lines of her palm. “You know that, right?” You simply shrugged your shoulders, feeling the corner of your lip curve up into a soft, innocent smirk that was entirely mindless, and it caused a quiet huff of endearment to slip from the brunette, before she scooted closer to you – her knee pressing against your thigh – and used her free hand to pinch your chin with her index and thumb, as she slowly tugged your focus up to meet her own once again. 

“I can’t help it,” you replied softly, the moment you met her gaze, smiling a little brighter. The brunette flickered her brown eyes between your own, clearly stuck in a bout of admiration towards the way the color of your irises fit the different contours and features of your face perfectly, and your only form of defense consisted of you shrugging – again – as you pressed your lips together tightly. “It’s not my fault you’re you and he’s him.” It was clear she didn’t know what you meant by those words, with the way her brow faintly creased in reaction to your statement, but she couldn’t bring herself to question you.

She found your form of affection too endearing to try and deconstruct it.

With Shauna still pinching the bottom of your chin, you remained frozen in your spot, staring at her intently and with a certain glint of softness shining in your eyes. “You’re a dork,” she found herself pointing out, and you immediately brightened in reply, when she let out a loving chuckle and tugged you forward slightly, just so she could press her mouth to your own. Her sound of amusement died down the moment the tip of your nose brushed against her own, and when she tipped her head up slightly to graze her lips over your own, her eyelids fluttering, that was when you pushed in and kissed her, making the connection.

There wasn’t a feeling of anxiety or nervousness that filled your chest, as your hand slowly came up to cradle the side of her neck. It wasn’t like the first time you kissed her. Wasn’t a moment full of uncertain movement and uncoordinated positions that left the two of you huffing out embarrassed laughs and flushing with heat. There was intent and fluidity that went into it now, but even if you and her still acted like you had never shared a peck before, you still would have enjoyed the moment either way. But maybe you were also appreciative of the fact that you didn’t feel like you were going to explode anymore, just from feeling her against you.

With the way you were positioned on the bed, it wasn’t difficult for Shauna to shift onto her knees and use one of her hands to press it against your hip bone. Her other limb cradled your face tenderly, her touch possessive but equally gentle, and the moment your back fell against the mattress, and your head was suddenly cradled by the pillow, that was when her lips fell away from you. With a panting breath, your eyes fluttered open and stared up at her to see her own brown irises gazing down at you already, but before you could say anything to her, she was already leaning down – disappearing from your line of vision – to peck the side of your neck.

There was intention in the action, and it made you flush with heat, as she nestled herself between your legs and pressed her palms against your hips to keep herself from falling on top of you. Your eyelids fluttered when you felt the heat of her breath against the skin of your jaw, and as she kissed the line of it, just underneath your ear, your voice broke through the silence, as your head lulled to the side to stare towards the door of the room, which was already closed and providing the two of you with privacy. “What if someone comes in?” you questioned weakly, your voice lacking its usual confidence, as Shauna moved her hand down slightly and slipped her fingers underneath your shirt. 

“Everyone’s outside enjoying the sun,” she mumbled against your flesh, while you tensed up and let out a shaky breath as she smoothed her fingers up your stomach. You ultimately moved past the possibility of anyone barging into the room, even if her words didn’t fully convince you, but when her nails lightly tickled your skin, you couldn’t stop the quiet giggle that slipped from your lips, as your hand shot down to grab her forearm. 

Shauna let out a huff at your action, and you weren’t sure if it was out of annoyance or amusement. But when she nipped at your earlobe with her teeth and curled her fingers to continue lightly grazing her nails over the skin of your belly, you could tell she was simply trying to spur you on in the way you originally reacted. And it seemed to work in her favor, when you tightened your grip on her forearm and let out a quiet grunt that did nothing but convey your displeasure and sensitivity towards her teasing. 

“Shauna,” you groaned quietly, pushing at her limb.

But she didn’t budge, and she only moved her hand to hold your side instead, as she leaned back slightly to gaze down at you, her dilated pupils locking with yours. “What?” she asked, though you knew the question was entirely rhetorical, when you noticed the ghost of a smirk form on her lips, “I’m not doing anything.” Her faux innocence made you roll your eyes, and she chuckled in turn, finding your attitude comical to her, before she hunkered down to kiss the bone of your cheek, as her hand that lingered on your waist suddenly smoothed lower to tease at the waistband of your shorts. 

Her movements still managed to make you squirm, the action ticklish to you, though you also couldn’t deny the way it made your heart speed up, while she watched your expression intently. She searched for any sort of visible response from you, as she hooked her fingers over the elastic, and with the way your eyes flitted to meet her brown ones, it was easy to see the way your features shifted into a look of subtle surprise, the moment you felt the featherlight touch of her fingers graze over the band of your underwear. 

“I’ll go slow–” 

“Guys! Guys!” 

At the sudden voice, which erupted throughout the cabin like an annoying alarm, Shauna’s hand jolted out of your pants as though she had been burned with fire, while you sucked in a sharp breath and snapped your focus towards the door. It opened just as your girlfriend leaned back on her heels with an almost frustrated huff slipping from her lips, and while you propped yourself up onto your elbows, you saw the figure of Van peek through the gap they had created. 

Their eyes were as wide as saucers, and their expression was the brightest you had ever seen since you all became trapped in the wilderness. It made your brow furrow in turn, while the brunette stared at them with an unimpressed expression on her features, clearly unhappy towards the fact that the moment had been ruined between you and her. “What, Van?” 

You snorted quietly at Shauna’s perturbed response, and Van completely ignored it, when they grinned widely and frantically glanced between the two of you with a glint of excitement in their blue eyes. “Nat waved down a fucking helicopter.” Their words were enough to make your face scrunch up in confusion, almost not believing them, and when you pushed yourself up into a sitting position and narrowed your eyes at the goalkeeper, they didn’t even give you the chance to ask what they meant, when they answered the question for you.

“They found us, guys,” Van stated, clarifying themself, “we can finally get out of here.”

This took me way too long to finish.

[jonquilyst]

Day 0 - Introduction

🎵 Dear Mom and Dad, I’m doin’ fine. You guys are on my mind… 🎵

Welcome to the premiere of the 3rd season of Total Drama Sims: the hottest, freshest reality TV show on simblr! I’m your host jonquilyst, though I'm sure by now you already know that 😜

18 ambitious teenagers have gathered to put their wits, guts, and strength to the test to seek out the ✨ grand prize. ✨ Like the previous two seasons, they will compete in crazy challenges, deal with less-than-perfect living arrangements, and face the judgement of each other!

🎵 You asked me what I wanted to be, and I think the answer is plain to see… 🎵

🎵 I wanna live close to the sun. Pack your bags ‘cause I’ve already won… 🎵

Allow me to give you the grand tour of our portable "camp" for this season: an airplane that totally isn't run-down and hasn't been sitting unused in a hangar for years! We will be using this airplane in our journey across the sims world, and it will be here that our contestants will spend their time between challenges!

Because of our tight quarters, everyone will be sleeping and eating all in one place! No more team separation here! That also means we no longer have a designated place for confessionals; they'll be done in the bathrooms, just like the good ol' outhouse from season one!

However, we were able to designate a room for our elimination ceremonies, of course! The door you see here is where our losing contestants will take the drop-of-shame, out of the airplane and onto wherever we're flying over! (Don't worry, TDS will make sure they'll land safely and have accommodations... maybe...)

Now, here's the real kicker of this plane: first class.

I did say that everyone would be sleeping together, but that isn't technically true.

Unique to this season, the team that wins a challenge will win a reward along with invincibility. That reward is first class. Complete with quality beds and all the entertainment to satisfy even the most brainrotted teenager, first class is the place to be!

The beds in economy class? Let's just say we assembled the bedframes ourselves and got the bedding from a dump... 🤭 There's also no room for games and such, so all the fun stuff is in first class!

So! If contestants want nice beds and all the entertainment they want, they will need to work for it. All they need to do is be on the winning team.

🎵 Everything to prove nothing’s in my way. I’ll get there one day! 🎵

Now, allow me to formally introduce you to our 18 new contestants!

(from left to right; top to bottom)

ALANNA CASTILLO (she/her) by @lyratea - A writer who wants an unforgettable adventure

AVERY BENNETT (she/her) by @hellogreta - An athletic girl who wants a break from her chaotic family and home life

BRENDAN TOWNSEND (he/him) by @sanitysims - A skilled cook who is nervous to compete on the show

CARSON FOSTER (he/him) by @changingplumbob - A Llamacorn Scout that was convinced to sign up for the show by his new girlfriend

ELIO ALVORETTER (they/he) by @paracosmic-sims - A generous and outgoing person who is representing themselves and their partners in the competition

ESPRESSO BEAN (she/her) by @riverofjazzsims - The twin sister of Season 2 contestant Coffee Bean; competing to get the Total Drama experience for herself

ESTRELLO PYRE (he/him) by @invisiblequeen - A long-time fan of Total Drama Sims who wants to win the show with kindness and friendship

JOSUE SUAREZ (he/him) by @simsinfinitylt - An outdoorsy guy who was unexpectedly signed up for the show by his abuela

LUCIAN BRIGHT (he/him) by @simstagramsomeone - A gaming streamer who is competing on the show to promote viewership on his channel

MAEVE BARGEN (she/her) by @aniraklova - A mischievous party girl who wants to build relationships with others, both friendships and rivalries

MARILYN MOORE (she/her) by @aliengirl - A spoiled popular girl who signed up for the show because she thought it was acting-related

MATTEO PERALTA (he/him) by @matchalovertrait - A musician who wants to make some new friends and get exposure for his band

MINATO MATSUDA (he/him) by @ravingsockmonkey - A loyal party guy who wants to meet new people

NITE CROWE (she/her) by @kissalopa - A nature and animal-loving half-alien who wants to test herself and try new things

RAYLAN K. RODRIGUEZ (he/him) by @bloomingkyras - A highly competitive boy who likes challenging himself; was inspired to sign up for the show by Season 2 winner Liana Morris

TOMIKO MORIYAMA (she/they) by @kari-sims - A staunch bug-lover who wants to travel the world; signed up for the show without her parent's permission

TOUMA REID BEASLEY (he/him) by @nakasumi-sims - A bubbly shrine caretaker who has an array of survival and outdoorsy skills

ZIGGY SKINT (he/him) by @ethicaltreatmentofcowplants - An outdoorsy boy who is relatively shy but has a strong moral compass

🎵 I WANNA BE, I WANNA BE, I WANNA BE FAMOUS! 🎵

So... We're Waiting on Teams Again?

Yep! Like last season, our contestants will remain teamless until the first challenge, but the unique part about this season is that the first challenge itself will be determining which teams contestants are placed on. And remember, there will be 3 TEAMS this season!

[squinch-depraved]

plllsssss write more for that virgin au i fell in love with it!! i would love to read about schlatt finding out about charlie by accident

ok here's how schlatt finds out about what went down between you and charlie, v short just to get us to the next part where our boy teddy gets to have some fun so stay tuned for that :3

charlie is just. unable to look schlatt in the eyes.

like, he feels so guilty.

even though he didn't technically do anything wrong, charlie feels horrible for breaking down and asking you to sleep with him

and he's got a few hickeys visible, despite his best efforts at covering them up

so ted's all, "ooh, someone got some this weekend!"

and he tries to get charlie to open up about it

but he just mumbles something about not wanting to talk about it and moves on

schlatt flags this as weird, but ted just shrugs and says charlie doesn't have to talk about it if he doesn't want to

but schlatt just can't move on from it.

charlie looks guilty.

he never looks guilty.

what did he do?

schlatt has to figure it out; he's got this feeling in his gut that something's wrong about the whole situation

but he just keeps studying, waiting to see if he can gather any extra information

and he does.

charlie makes the mistake of leaving his phone out, face up, when he goes to talk to a friend about something that happened in one of their classes

a text from you lights up the screen, and ted, sitting next to charlie, reads it first

for schlatt, the phone is upside down, so it takes him a minute

but once he processes your message, he's piecing it together in his mind and his blood runs hot

"'i'm not going to be the one to tell him. you're the one who begged for it, you have to explain to him what we did.'"

he repeats the message out loud once more and slams his books closed, shoving his things into his bag and furiously slinging it over his shoulder

"dude, you aren't even together, you can't control them," ted reasons, trying to salvage the hangout

charlie saunters back over, face falling once he checks his phone and sees schlatt towering over the table with a scowl on his face

"hope it was worth it, man," he mutters, voice laced with anger

"i- i didn't mean to hurt-"

"doesn't matter. i'll see you guys later," schlatt spits out, stalking away from the table and slamming through the library doors

it's silent for a bit before ted speaks

"he'll get over it. give him some time."

"...i hope so."

"he will, he just needs time to realize he doesn't have any say in what y/n does and he'll be over it like that."

ted snaps his fingers with the last word and receives a shhh from an attendant shelving books nearby

"maybe. he really likes them, though. i think i might have actually fucked up this time, ted. it was incredible, but i don't know if it was worth losing schlatt's friendship."

charlie runs a hand through his hair and blows out a frustrated exhale

"maybe he would be less mad if i slept with them too?" ted asks, more wondering aloud to himself than anything

"because then he would have to be mad at both of us," he says as he works through his thought

"and then you wouldn't feel as bad about being the only one to do it!"

charlie just stares at him for a bit

"are you fucking serious, dude? you're gonna make it that much worse?"

"look, man, if i sleep with her, and tell him, he'll be mad at me too, thus taking some of the blame off you. do you see what i'm getting at?"

"yes, dude, i see what you're getting at, but it's a shitty plan and he's just gonna kill both of us."

"...we shall see," ted answers with a sense of finality, grinning as he packs up his stuff

"i'll let you know how it goes." he smirks down at charlie one last time before pulling his phone out of his pocket to check it

"you're an idiot!" charlie whisper-yells as ted struts away

but ted just raises one hand, middle finger sticking up, and exits the library, determined to get in on the bliss that his best friends had experienced so he would no longer be the only virgin in the group

he's humiliated that he's the last one left, but a trip to your apartment will surely change that

so he takes a deep breath, adjusts his bag, and walks to the side of campus that your home's on, excited to see how this whole situation will unfold

[dr-spectre]

Splatoon - Callie 101!

I have gathered EVERY Callie analysis and ramble I've done and complied them together into one post for your viewing convenience! I go over all the different aspects relating to Callie's arc in Splatoon 2, diving deep into Hypno Callie and clearing up ALL of her misconceptions. Some of these posts are just me rambling and some of them do have overlapping information, but these posts still provide valuable and important information regarding Callie.

In the posts i go over the following:

Clearing up wrong info (She was kidnapped and brainwashed)

Pre-hypnosis

During hypnosis and her behaviour

Explaining hypnosis and it's differences compared to brainwashing

Her being flung out of hypnosis

How she remembers the Squid Sisters

Why she put the shades back on

I love this character to death and i only want the best for her, i hope more and more people come to learn about her true arc and i hope i can inspire some change in the community. Either via more people in the community saying the right terminology across social media and changing the wording from "brainwashing" to hypnosis.

PLEEEAASSEEE!!! reblog and share with others in the Splatoon community because I really do want some change and i want this wonderful character that i love to death to be treated with some more respect. Although she may not seem that important, Callie is one of the most important and significant characters in the franchise and i want more people to treat her as such, rather than some airheaded idiot.

Hearing people say the same stuff over and over again like "Oh she was kidnapped, overpowered and then brainwashed, losing all of her memories, etc." Genuinely gave me a lot of discomfort and i avoided consuming Splatoon 2 content because i was actually scared of seeing Hypno Callie and hearing those words.... That was until i actually did research and began making all of these posts that i shall link.

So here you go and i hope you learn something new about Callie Cuttlefish! (Press Keep reading to view the posts.) 

[i-literally-cant-with-this]

A/N ::: So I don't think I'm broken anymore. 1 week of a actually doing something didn't ruin me. I come back on the weekends.

C/W ::: Draken x F.reader, Make-up sex?, unprotected sex, P->V

WC ::: Kinda long, 3,035. Happy with every word.

You were going over to Draken's place to collect the rest of your stuff today. It's ok though, because he's out doing some stupid Toman shit and won't be there. Seeing him right now would be your absolute downfall. It would permanently wreck you. You're so fucking horny all the time. Yeah, so, you have toys. But your toys will never measure up to his cock. They'll never measure up to his hands or his mouth on you. He could get you wet by just looking at you for too long.

"Ohp, snap out of it, y/n. Stop. Now." You had to remind yourself on the way over there that not only would you not be seeing him, but you wouldn't be fucking him, either. And all the thoughts that penetrated your brain consisted of him. Pounding into you at such an unforgiving pace you thought you were actually going to die - but it was ok. There was no better way to go than being fucked to death by him. Him of all people.

The 2nd in command of Toman. Mikey's №1… in many aspects. Sitting at the red light you started thinking about how Draken was your №1, how you were his №1.5. Mikey always came first when it came to business. You always came first when he was done with that shit.

You were so lost in your thoughts that you didn't notice the light had turned green until the car behind you honked their horn. "Fuck!" You slammed on the gas and turned the wheel a little too hard, causing the car to jerk sideways and you almost lost control. "Perfect visual to my life right now. Goddamn it, Draken. Leave me alone." You were really starting to lose it.

After calming down and pulling over to catch your breath, you realized you were already at your destination. It wasn't like you needed to check the address or anything, you knew exactly where he lived. And so often, you were on auto-pilot. Whenever he called you, you floated out to the car and eased your way down into the driver's seat. Your pussy already sensitive. Reeling in the anticipation of what he was going to do to you. How he was going to make you feel.

"Fuck. Ok, y/n. Keep it together." You hopped out and made your way to the front door. No one was around, and the gate was unlocked. That's always a good sign. Draken must have forgotten to lock it before he left. He was expecting you to come by today, but you double - triple checked the date to make sure he wasn't going to be here. If he were, you know all to well that you'd end up fucking in his room before you left with the rest of your things.

As you unlocked the door with your spare key, you realized he probably left the gate open for you. "Thanks, Ken." you muttered to yourself as you walked into the living room. It was just as clean and organized as you remembered it. Nothing out of place. Everything had its spot. That's one of the things you loved about him.

You made your way to his bedroom, and as soon as you opened the door you were greeted by his scent. That fucking smell. It was so intoxicating. He smelled like a mixture of cologne and musk. Something you couldn't quite put your finger on, but it was so sexy. So damn irresistible. You wanted to rip off your clothes and roll around on his bed just to soak up his aroma. You had half a mind to find his cologne and spray it all over you and your stuff so you could have it permeate your senses one more time and last until the smell completely faded away. But you managed to resist the temptation to go down that path.

"Ok, focus." You had to snap out of it again. "This is the last time you'll be in here. Just grab your shit and go." You gathered your clothes and some other miscellaneous items you had scattered around the room. Some makeup, a few books you borrowed from him, and some other trinkets that you didn't even realize you had left behind.

As you were stuffing everything into your bag, you found one of your old bras. You actually weren't even sure if it was yours. "Damn, Draken." You laughed to yourself as you shoved it into your purse. You didn't know how it ended up in his drawer, but you assumed it was from one of his one night stands. They must have left it behind and he either didn't bother to throw it out or he didn't know what to do with it. You decided to take it and toss it when you got home. "It's not like he's gonna miss it anyway."

Once you were finished, you took one last look around the room. The memories flooded back into your mind. The nights you spent tangled in his sheets, him fucking you so good you almost passed out. The way he whispered in your ear how much he loved you. How he was addicted to your pussy. You remembered how you would sit on his face and grind against him until you came. How he would eat you out like you were the last meal on earth.

"Stop! Stopstopstop it!" You smacked yourself across the face, trying to snap yourself out of it again. You couldn't think about him anymore. It was too much. He was too much. You grabbed your bag and headed out the door, locking it behind you. As you walked out to your car, you saw the garage door was open and you noticed his bike sitting there. It was so shiny and well taken care of. You remember riding on the back of it with him, feeling the wind whip through your hair as he zoomed down the streets. You felt so free with him. So alive.

"Not the point, asshole." You said to yourself, making your way over to the open door. "Hello?" You asked. It wasn't like Draken to leave his door open like this. It wasn't like him to not have his bike. There was no answer so you walked in. "Anyone home?"

And there he was. Sitting on his stool, lowered all the way down so he could work on whatever the hell he was working on. You never knew what he was doing. But you knew that he looked amazing doing it. "Hiiii," you said, slowly dragging out the 'i'. He didn't turn around. Didn't even flinch when you said that.

"You're supposed to be gone, Ken." You said, annoyed. Still, he didn't move. "Did you hear me? I said you're supposed to be gone!" You started to get pissed off. This wasn't part of the plan. He was supposed to be out with Toman, not here. You didn't want to see him. "Hey!" You smacked him on the shoulder.

He jumped up and put his fists in front of him. "FUCK! Don't fucking sneak up on me, y/n! Jesus!" It was then you saw he had earbuds in. A smile spread across your face. You weren't sure if it was the satisfaction of knowing he didn't hear a single thing you said to him or that you scared the shit out of him. He was always so aware of his surroundings. Always knew what was happening. But not today. Today he was at your mercy.

"You fucking scared the shit out of me! What the hell are you doing here?!" He was fuming. You couldn't help but laugh. You hadn't seen him this pissed off since you two broke up. It was a sight to see.

"I came to pick up the rest of my stuff, you jackass. You said you wouldn't be here." You crossed your arms over your chest. He looked so good when he was mad. It made your pussy clench.

"Yeah, well, Mikey had some shit going on and needed me here." He started to calm down after the threat of the unknown smacking him on the shoulder passed. "I didn't think you were gonna stop by today." He leaned back on his stool, eyeing you up and down.

You knew what he was doing. He was checking you out. Trying to get a rise out of you. Make you squirm. "I … don't … look at me like that, Draken." You didn't know what else to say. You were so frustrated with him. "Don't fucking start."

He stood up and walked towards you. "Start what? I didn't start shit, y/n. You're the one who came in here and started hittin’ me and shit. You smacked me on the shoulder." He whispered in your ear. You could feel his breath on you. How hot it was. How sweet it smelled - and you could never get over that. How typically gross things that other people look or smell like, you had grown to love about him. It was infuriating. You were doing so good until today. (Good meaning you had only thought about him while touching yourself. You hadn't actually broke down to see him.)

"Fuck, Draken." You pushed him away from you, but he grabbed your hands and held them in front of you. He was so much stronger than you. It was pointless to try and fight him off. It was pointless, but it wouldn't be a lost effort. Something would come out of it. And you hoped it would go in your favor. "Don't do this to me."

He pulled you in and wrapped his arms around you. "Do what? Hold you? Is that what I'm doing, y/n?" He squeezed you tight. Your back against his chest. His head resting on your shoulder. You could feel his breath on your neck. His cock starting to harden against your ass. "You want me to let you go?"

You shook your head. Yes or no, you don’t have a single clue but you still did it. You didn't want him to let you go. You wanted him to hold you forever. You wanted him to fuck you until you couldn't see straight. You wanted him to make you feel like he used to. But you knew it was wrong. You were broken up. He didn't belong to you. "We can't, Draken. We have to stop."

He turned you around and looked you in the eye. "Stop what? This?" He rubbed his nose against yours. Teasing you. All you could think about was how it would feel to have his lips pressed to yours. It was like a fire had ignited inside you. A burning desire to have him. To feel him. To touch him. "Is this what you want me to stop, y/n? This?"

Before you could say anything, he had his mouth on yours. You tried to resist, but it was useless. Your body melted into him like it always did. The kiss was so slow. So deliberate. So well-planned. You're sure he knew you were coming over today. You both made plans to not have to see each other, that was what was agreed upon. And yet here you both are.

Right where you need to be but not where you want to be? Is that what's happening? Is that the right order? Or is it right where you want to be but not where you need to be. But all you can think about is his taste. His tongue. Tracing your bottom lip from side to side, top to bottom. The warmth of it familiar and all-encompassing. You never wanted to give it up.

He started to pull away, but you grabbed his face and kissed him back. Your hands on his cheeks, pulling him closer to you. He wrapped his arms around you and lifted you up, carrying you into the house. He set you down on the counter and started to pull off your shirt. "I missed this, y/n. I missed you."

He slid his hands down your body and undid your jeans, pulling them off of you. You couldn't believe you were doing this. That you were letting him do this. But you couldn't stop yourself. "I ... hoh ... fuck, Kennn-nuh."

He pulled you down and bent you over the counter. Your tits pressed against the cold marble. He slid his fingers into your panties and felt how wet you were. "So fucking wet, baby. You want my cock don't you? You want me to fuck you, y/n?"

You moaned as he rubbed your clit. "Yes. Fuck. I want you, Ken." He pulled your panties down and spread your ass apart. "Please fuck me, Ken." He spit on your pussy, getting it nice and wet. You heard him unzip his pants and felt the tip of his cock rub against your entrance.

"I'm gonna fuck you, y/n. I'm gonna fuck you so hard you'll forget why we ever broke up. You ready, baby?" He pressed his cock inside you, inch by inch. "Oh, fuck." You whimpered as he filled you up. "So fucking tight. You missed my cock, didn't you, y/n?"

He started to pump into you from behind. You couldn't believe how good he felt. How he stretched you out. The way he hit all the right spots. "I missed your cock, Ken. I missed it so much." He started to fuck you faster, his hips slapping against your ass. "Fuck, you're gonna make me cum already."

He pulled you up and started to play with your tits, his cock still buried deep inside you. "Cum for me, y/n. Cum all over my cock. Let me feel you, baby." He bit your earlobe and squeezed your tits. 

"Oh, fuck!" You started to cum, your pussy clenching around his cock. "Fuck, y/n. I'm gonna cum."

He pulled out and your head dropped at the sudden lack of him. He turned you around and lifted you up, guiding your legs around his waist, He carried you down the hallway to his room but halfway there you slipped down on his cock. "Oh, shit. Fuck!" He started to cum, his cock twitching inside you. "No! Fuck! Not - not here, not yet!"

"Oh, god!" You started to cum again, your juices dripping down his cock and onto his balls. He pressed you against the wall and fucked you harder, his cum spilling out of you and onto the floor. "Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!" He grunted, his cock still pulsing inside you. "Oh, fuck, y/n. I'm still … cumming."

He slowly slid out of you and set you down on the floor. You were both panting, trying to catch your breath. "That was ..." you couldn't even form a sentence. You couldn't believe what just happened. You were supposed to be getting the rest of your stuff. And then Draken wasn't supposed to be here. And now you're cumming on his cock. You didn't know what to think or do. "Ken ... I think ..."

He picked you up and carried you to his bed. "Shh, just shh, y/n." He pushed your legs apart and kicked his pants off the rest of the way, laying down on top of you. "Don't talk. Just feel me, y/n." He kissed you again, this time it was slow and passionate. He slid his cock back into you, pumping in and out of you at an even pace. "I love you."

You looked up at him. "Ken." You put your hands on his hips and stopped him from moving. "You can't. You can't say that to me while you're buried balls deep in my cunt. It doesn't count. It doesn't count right now."

"The fuck are you sayin'. It should count more now than any other time. Why the fuck you think I'm saying it righ' now, hah?" He started to move again, his cock hitting your g-spot with every thrust. "I love you, y/n. I always will. You can't change that."

You pulled him closer to you and kissed him again. You didn't want to argue anymore. You just wanted him. "I love you, Ken. I love you, too." He started to fuck you harder, his cock throbbing inside you. You eyes began to roll back into your head. "Fffuhcckk," you moaned as he fucked you deeper. "Oh, fuck. Oh … fuck."

He grabbed your hair and pulled your head back, exposing your neck. He started to bite and suck on it, leaving a trail of hickeys from your collarbone to your ear. "Cum with me, y/n. Cum with me."

You both started to cum together, his cock spurting inside you. He kept fucking you, his cum dripping out of your pussy and onto the bed. "Ken, stop. Stop, Jesus, mercy, uncle. White flag waving!" You laughed and pushed him away and he rolled over onto his back. He was so fucking hot. His chest covered in sweat, his cock still hard and twitching. "Fuck, you're something else."

He chuckled and grabbed your hand, pulling you on top of him. "Hmm … So are you." He pulled you down and kissed you again, his tongue exploring your mouth. You felt so happy. You forgot how good it was with him. How perfect it was. How in sync you were with each other. "I love you."

You laid on top of him, listening to his heart beating. "I love you. I love you, too."

"So." He said quietly.

"Mm?" It was all you could muster at this point.

"Unpack your shit and bring the rest of it over. You live here. You live with me now." You could feel him smiling against the top of your head.

You looked up at him. "Ken. You can't be serious. I can't ...""Yes, you can. You will. Not letting you go again." He kissed the top of your head and picked up the key you sat down on his nightstand, slipping it back into your hand.

@arlerts-angel @kazutora-kurokawa @southside-otaku @viburnt @katshimizuu @darkstarlight82

[cirilla-fiona-riannon]

You've Got Some Nerve Trying to Buy Me

Translations may not always capture the exact nuances or tone of the original text. Expect grammatical errors and inaccuracies.

Silvio: "Alright then, let's see what you all have brought."

At Silvio's command, the gathered merchants eagerly began to showcase the items they had brought.

Merchant 1: "This is a rare crystal said to exist only in a few places on the continent."

Merchant 2: "This is a golden cup crafted over the course of a year by a master goldsmith known as the Arm of God."

Merchant 3: "This is the fur of a beast that inhabits only limited areas in the north."

Merchant 4: "This painting is said to be the final work of a legendary artist."

With the opportunity to buy Silvio's favor for his birthday, the merchants display their carefully selected items one after another.

(I've never seen these things before.)

(You could buy an entire country with this stuff.)

Silvio: "You're the last one."

(.........)

All the eyes in the hall turned towards me.

I had prepared myself, but my legs still trembled with nervousness.

Silvio: "This all started because you wished for something in exchange for my birthday."

Silvio: "Let's see what the one who started it all has brought."

Emma: "Sure."

(It's gonna be okay. He gave me a hint last night.)

(As the fiancée of the continent's top merchant, I can't afford to lose.)

Emma: "I've prepared the thing you want the most."

I spoke clearly and presented the item.

Merchant 1: "What's that piece of paper?"

Merchant 2: "What is this woman thinking?"

As murmurs spread through the crowd, Silvio silently took the letter and read it.

After a while,

Silvio: "Geez..."

He carefully folded the letter he had just finished reading and let out a big sigh.

Silvio: "As frustrating as it is, this is what I want the most right now."

(----!)

Merchants: "What!?"

Silvio: "As promised, I'll let you buy me."

Emma: "Thank you, Prince Silvio!"

(Phew, it worked!)

Merchant 1: "What's going on? Is that some kind of contract?"

Merchant 2: "What kind of deal did that woman make?"

The hall buzzed with surprise at the unexpected turn of events.

As I felt the gazes of awe and even fear directed at me, Silvio quietly hid his blushing face with his hand.

The next day,

Having successfully won his birthday at the auction, I stayed at the villa.

From the moment we woke up, I spent a dreamlike day with him, from baking a cake to having fun at the beach.

As the sky began to change color, he and I sat side by side on the sandy beach, leisurely watching the sunset.

(We really were together all day from morning till now.)

The pleasant evening breeze cooled my skin, warmed by the wine.

Wearing the dress I'd prepared for today, with my hair tied back, the sea breeze felt even more refreshing than usual.

(I didn't think I'd end up relaxing with him on his birthday.)

(It feels like I received a gift, even though it's his birthday.)

Silvio: "Using the time you won to watch the sunset, you've really started to indulge in some real luxuries."

Emma: "I'm the fiancée of the richest man on the continent, after all."

Silvio: "No argument there."

Silvio: "Still, I didn't expect you to sneak in pretending to be a merchant."

Emma: "Were you surprised?"

Silvio: "Yeah. You really are a woman who never goes along with my plans."

(I was worried about how things would turn out, but I'm glad we could celebrate his birthday like this.)

Silvio: "To be honest, my plans were getting a bit off track, so your proposal was a godsend."

(Plans?)

(Carlo seemed to be hiding something too. I wonder if there was a reason he stayed cooped up in the villa.)

(The merchants seemed to have gathered for the birthday celebration, but...)

(That reminds me.)

------------Flashback-----------

Merchant 2: "You're right. We would also like to celebrate on the day if permitted."

---------Flashback Ends--------

(The way he said that sounds like they weren't allowed to celebrate on the actual day.)

(Even though I won the auction, he really gave me his entire day free.)

(Could it be...?)

Emma: "Were you staying in the villa because you were keeping your entire birthday free?"

Silvio: "..........."

He silently turned away and sipped from his glass.

Emma: "Prince Silvio."

Silvio: "I just didn't feel like dealing with the usual hassle of merchants swarming around me."

(Sure, being celebrated by various people on your birthday could be hectic, but spending an entire week cooped up in the villa was way harder.)

(He went to such lengths to make time for me.)

Silvio: "You didn't need to take such a big risk and write such an embarrassing letter, you know?"

Silvio: "I had my birthday free all along. Tough luck for you."

Emma: "It's mean to call it embarrassing!"

Emma: "You were blushing and getting all red-faced too!"

Silvio: "I was not!"

Emma: "You were!"

Silvio: "Do you have any idea how I felt having to read that letter in front of everyone?"

Silvio: "You took the opportunity to write all sorts of lovesick nonsense."

(He's right. I might have gotten a bit carried away.)

The letter was filled with my heartfelt love for him.

"I, Emma, can make Silvio enjoy, and feel loved on his birthday more than anyone else."

I wrote that I could provide something invaluable that money could never buy.

Emma: "I thought it had to be something significant to win you over."

Silvio: "What I wanted wasn't a letter."

(Yeah. What Silvio wants the most isn't a rare item or a letter—it's me.)

(That night, he came to tell me that.)

Emma: "Thank you."

I leaned against him, letting the slight intoxication take over.

Emma: "I love that about you."

Silvio: "What's that? I didn't catch that. What do you love about me?"

He pulled me closer, his eyes challenging me as they locked onto mine.

(Wait, did I say that out loud!?)

Emma: "Uh, well, I love how you do so much for me and how you love me."

Silvio: "Anything else?"

I realized he was playing with the strap of my dress, making my heart race even more.

Emma: "Everything I wrote in that letter!"

Silvio: "A letter isn't enough. Say it straight to my face like you do when you're being cheeky."

(..........)

He grabbed my chin and made me face him.

(I'm blushing.)

(Is this how he felt when he read my letter?)

Emma: "You're a tyrant, stubborn, and a mean demon."

Silvio: "Hey."

Emma: "But you always take care of me and love me."

Emma: "Every time you do something for me, I get so happy I can hardly contain myself."

Emma: "I love how you always think of me."

Emma: "Thank you for letting me celebrate this special day of yours."

Silvio: ".........."

Silvio: "You're blushing too."

Emma: "Of course I am. Saying something like this face-to-face is... mmph."

Before I knew it, his lips were on mine, and his tongue traced my lower lip.

The lingering scent of alcohol mingled with the kiss, making my head swim.

Emma: "Ah…"

He pulled away, and a soft sigh escaped me.

Silvio: "Hah, this is the most fulfilling birthday I've ever had."

Silvio: "You think so too, right?"

His provocative gaze made my rationality crumble, and the loneliness I'd been storing for a week surfaced.

Emma: "Prince Silvio, let's go back to our room."

Emma: "It's getting dark, and the wind is picking up."

Silvio: "Is that the only reason?"

Emma: "Yes."

Silvio: "You're a terrible liar."

Emma: "......."

His fingers, which had been playing with my dress strap, now traced up my shoulder to my neck.

Silvio: "This whole day is yours."

Silvio: "If you want to go to our room, I'll make it happen."

Silvio: "After all, you still haven't paid the full amount for the day you bought."

We returned to the villa, and I gave him the one thing he wanted most—myself.

Part 1 ╎ Part 2 ╎ Part 3 ╎ Part 4

[shartletswritings]

You've Dug Your Own Grave

CHAPTER 3: Fight Me

No TW!

Enjoy <333

Ekko happily agrees to get a small team together to take you back to your apartment to grab your stuff. You would prefer to go alone, but you relent when he reminds you that you don’t actually know how to get to and from the hideout considering you were blinded when you were brought in. He tells you the plan once you’re at dinner and feeling a lot better after a much-needed nap. You sit in a similar formation as earlier, besides Scar, who is completely absent from the mess hall. You’re happy about that, totally not slightly bummed you don’t have someone to poke fun at. Even if it means you need to behave like a mostly civilized person at the table.

            “Malia and Geo are gonna go with you tomorrow night and you can get whatever you need, sound good?” Ekko’s voice is steady over the chatter of the crowded room. You still haven’t met Geo, but the time you’ve spent with Malia so far has been nice, so you really can’t complain.

            “Thanks, I appreciate it. Most of it is junk, but it would be nice to have some of it with me,” you admit.

            “You shoulda seen how much crap Jordyn brought when they moved in. It took six of us just to bring it back,” Malia says, others nod in agreement, looking haggard just from the memory. You giggle.

            A short, skinny man with long black hair tied in a tight bun sits down at the table across from you, “You’re the new girl, right? Good to meetcha, I’m Geo,” he says, eyes shifting between you and his meager plate of food made up of mostly meat, “I’ve heard a lot about ya.” He takes a mouthful of food and chews quickly, something about his behavior reminds you of a street cat. Before you can even answer you, he continues despite his mouth full of food, “You been on a hoverboard yet?”

            “Hoverboard? Oh, those things you guys ride? No I haven’t.” You take another bite of food, the stewed fish in your bowl surprisingly palatable.

            Geo cracks a wide, toothy smile, bits of rice stuck to his teeth, “I know what we’re doing after dinner.” You arch one eyebrow suspiciously.

            “Geo, you’re gonna kill her,” a man at the table speaks up but Geo waves him off with a stray hand, bringing one foot up to his chair to half crouch on his seat.

            “She’ll be fine, right new girl?”

            You twist your lips in thought, how hard can it be? You’re pretty sure you saw a kid half your age on one this morning. “Yeah, sure, why not.”

 

            You make it all the way outside with a long, black board in hand before you realize you are in deep over your head. The thing is easily taller than half your height, but it surprisingly only weighs a few pounds. Geo runs you through the basics of steering the board; lean where you want to go, press down on your heels to slow down, press on your toes to speed up. It sounds easy enough, right?

            With the board laid flat on the ground, you gingerly step onto the grooves marked for your feet. Some mechanism close to the surface—exactly what you don’t know—locks your feet onto the hoverboard. “Alright, you wanna dig your toes in hard to get it started, like this,” Geo demonstrates and raises a few inches above the ground, but his voice is already feeling far away. Maybe it would be best if I didn’t do this, you think when you notice the small group of Firelights gathering nearby to watch your first attempt. You pick out Jordyn and Malia and silently pray to Jannah or whoever the hell is listening that you don’t embarrass yourself.

            You take a deep breath and follow Geo’s instructions. As expected, the board glows green as it comes to life, the sound of fans whirring as it begins to slowly raise. Geo made it look significantly easier because as soon as the board leaves the ground you completely lose your balance, landing flat on your ass into the dirt—hitting the exact spot you landed on last night. Pain rockets down your legs and you can distantly here people snicker at your failure. The pain shifts to embarrassment, and you clench your jaw; fuck this.

            Immediately you get back up, righting yourself on the board. You dig your toes in like Geo said but this time you’re prepared. Clenching your abs you manage to maintain your balance as you raise up slightly higher. Geo looks slightly surprised, and you smirk triumphantly. A few firelights behind you mumble their approval but you don’t risk turning to look at them; you’re pretty convinced that if you break concentration for even a second, you’ll fall back on your ass.

            “Ok… pretty good,” Geo sounds nonplussed which only adds kindling to the fire burning at your feet. “Now try going around the tree, like this.” He takes off in a blur of green and black in the dying sunlight of the evening, curving around the base of the tree before rounding the corner a few moments later.

            “Take it slow, newbie.” It’s Jordyn’s voice and you clench your jaw, everything in you screaming to ignore their advice; what’s the point of doing it if you can’t show off? Better to go slow then land on my ass again, you remind yourself.

            Gently you press your toes into the board, gradually increasing speed. Its… not as hard as you expected? Seems like getting up was the hardest bit because you find moving to be pretty instinctual. As you begin to form a wide angle around the tree you have to fight the urge to speed up, instead keeping the hoverboard moving at a decently quick speed but just slow enough to still be able to focus on your surroundings, staying low to the ground just in case you fall again.

            By the time you come back to Geo and the small group of Firelights a smug smile has spread on your face. It only grows wider when you slow down enough to see the looks of approval on their faces. “This supposed to be hard or something?” You can practically see Chross shaking his head in disappointment at your hubris. Good thing he isn’t here right now.

            “I think a toddler could go faster than you,” Geo calls and you scowl.

            Flipping him off, you dig your toes down, forcing the board faster. The next loop you make is easily twice as fast and your confidence begins to increase. You can’t believe you ever doubted yourself. You crouch down slightly, allowing the board to angle up to steadily climb higher. Soon you’re about level with Ekko’s balcony. You take a moment to float and take in the hideout as the sun continues to set—only losing your balance for one sickening, heart-dropping moment. It really is gorgeous; the golden lights strewn about make it seem as though the whole area is glowing. You think you could get used to a place like this. Somewhere full of life and love despite the horrors that wait just through the tunnels.

            Feeling especially brave, you continue to climb, the board responding delightfully to even the smallest movements of your feet—Ekko must be a genius, you think. You continue to spiral up the tree and by the time you reach the top you have decided that, without a doubt, you made the right choice joining the Firelights this morning. You’ve never felt more free in your entire life, not when you made your first deal, not when you left the Company, not when you rented that shitty apartment. It is this moment, fifty feet above the ground, that you feel like a person again, for the first time in years.

            A hum behind you catches your attention and you pivot slightly in the air to see Geo floating up towards you. You try not to feel too bad about yourself when you see how much confidence he has in his stance on the hoverboard compared to your awkward balancing act. He flashes you another toothy smile, “You aren’t half bad, girl.” It’s honestly shocking that one man can be both horrifically slimy and charming at the same time, “Thought for sure you’d fall on your ass at least a couple more times.”

            As if on cue, your balance falters for a second and he laughs but you catch yourself much quicker this time, “Don’t flatter yourself, you may make it look easy but it sure as hell isn’t hard.” Assuming you have an insane amount of core strength. You aren’t in bad shape, far from it, but your abs are starting to burn the longer you stand and talk to him. You begin your descent, slower this time to take the chance to savor the wind rushing through your hair.

            By the time you make it back to the ground a few of the Firelights have trickled away but a good chunk of the group looks at you approvingly as you make your clumsy dismount. Adjusting to walking on two legs takes a moment but you only stumble a couple times. Malia walks up to you, “You’re pretty good, have you done this before?”

            You shake your head, still beaming, “It just felt… natural? I guess?” Honestly you aren’t quite sure, but as soon as you got over your initial embarrassment of failing, it wasn’t too difficult.

Jordyn, who had been leaning against Malia, nods their agreement and claps a hand onto your shoulder heavy enough to rattle your jaw. You wince but smile up at them, nonetheless. Something inside of you feels a bit apprehensive at the sudden rush of attention; like a coddled child, but you push it aside willing yourself to enjoy the moment.

 

            You finally arrive back in your room and curl into your bed with a satisfied oof, happy to be off your feet and away from any public scrutiny. Thinking about tomorrow, a bitter-sweet pang hits your chest. Sure you’re happy to be here with the Firelights; if your mood this evening meant anything. But it feels strange at the same time: to even consider living a different life from the one you’ve known for so long. A natural distrust of strangers has been drilled into your head for years now and yet here is this community, welcoming you, a stranger, with open arms. And they’re thriving, better than anything you saw under Chross or on the streets by yourself. Could they really have a place for you here? Ekko and Malia seem to think so, although you can’t be quite sure how much of that is just due to loyalty to Ekko.

            You continue to toss, mind wandering incessantly as you try to sleep. Is it that hard to let yourself be happy? For once? You sit up with a huff; this isn’t going to work. You need sleep, logically you know this, but it just won’t seem to come.

            It doesn’t take long to make your way back to the courtyard and the moonlight provides a respite from the unnatural lights illuminating the hallways of the sleeping quarters. The air outside isn’t quite cool, but the dampness of the evening gives rise to goosebumps along your exposed arms; you don’t bother covering the branding now that most of the Firelights have gone to bed.

            A small green light catches your eye as you walk further into the courtyard, and you initially think it’s a hoverboard in the distance but upon closer inspection you realize it’s a small lightning bug. You can’t recall ever seeing one that glows green, so you reach up to capture it gently in your hands. It’s larger than the ones you’ve seen in Piltover—the trenches are usually too polluted to see them and you aren’t even sure they normally exist down here—green light seeming to come from both its abdomen and wings. You un-cup your hand and watch it fly away, marveling at the sight of it. The longer you stand there, staring up at the night sky, the more of the little bugs you see flitting around the tree. It reminds you of your reason for coming outside in the first place.

            It doesn’t take long to find a hoverboard leaning against the concrete wall. You look over your shoulder and, once satisfied no one is around to see you, place it down, fitting your shoes into the footholds. Just as you are about to press your toes in and wake it up, you hear a shuffle behind you. You turn to see Scar standing a few feet behind you, because of course you do.

            “There a reason you’re using my board?” His arms are crossed.

            Oops. You didn’t know this was his board, “Maybe you shouldn’t leave it lying around if you don’t want someone to take it.”

            He narrows his green eyes, shining nearly the same color as the bugs flying around you, “Maybe you shouldn’t take things that don’t belong to you,” he echoes, rather too smugly for your liking.

            You shrug your shoulders, “Come take it from me then.”

            The board hums to life under your feet and you take off much faster than you had anticipated. Fuck fuckfuckfuck. You throw your arms out to your sides wildly for balance as you go careening towards the wall. Thankfully you manage to get your feet underneath you instead of to your side thus avoiding smashing Scar’s hoverboard. Unfortunately this means that your body takes the impact; scraping down the wall and onto the dirt, feet released from the board as it slides a few meters away from you.

            By the time you finally open your eyes after having them clamped shut from both pain and humiliation, Scar is looking down at you with an annoyed sneer, hoverboard in hand. You think you hear him mumble “Idiot” as he walks away, but its hard to tell over the blood rushing through your ears. You sit up and rest your forehead on your bent knees, giving yourself a few more moments to wallow in the embarrassment you feel before standing back up. Just before he walks back into the hut he looks back at you over his shoulders and leaves his hoverboard on the wall. It’s hard to tell in the relative darkness, but you see a glint of something in his eyes. You smirk despite yourself.

            Finally mustering up the courage you return to the board. It’s still warm in your hand as you place it back on the ground. This time, you make sure to start slow, gradually increasing speed until you feel confident enough to hold your balance. You spend the next… however many hours practicing.

            You don’t stop zipping around until you see a couple people begin to trickle into the mess hall. Fuck, morning already? Sure enough, the sky is beginning its shift from gray-black into a deep purple. You sigh and return to the ground to leave Scar’s board close to where he left it and hobble back to your room to catch at least a couple hours of sleep until, inevitably, the movement of soldiers getting ready for the morning wakes you.

 

            You press the heels of your hands into your eyes and drag yourself out of bed. The clothes from Eve have a bit of dirt on them from your fall, but you don’t really have any other options so you brush off what you can, push your hair out of your face, and walk to find some breakfast.

            “You alright?” Malia asks as you sit down across from her, a bowl of steaming noodles in her hands, “You don’t look great.”

            “Yeah I’m fine. I couldn’t sleep is all.” You take a sip of the spicy broth hoping it’ll jumpstart your sluggish brain.

            “It’s not easy. Adjusting, I mean. Took me a while to settle in. Give yourself time.”

            You give her a humph in acknowledgement before taking a long slurp of your own noodles. “Speaking of which,” you finally say with your mouth half full, “when are we heading out?”

            She swallows her bite before answering, “As soon as Geo is up, really.” The door opens and Geo walks in. “As soon as Geo is ready,” she corrects. You smile and take another bite.

            Behind him, Scar dips his head slightly in the low doorframe and walks in. He meets your eye for a second but doesn’t react.

            Geo sits next to Malia with a mug of coffee, “Saw you zipping around last night,” he says as he takes a sip.

           Malia lifts an eyebrow at you but says nothing. “Couldn’t sleep,” you answer, shrugging. Thinking back on it, perhaps flying around all night wasn’t the best idea with the way your legs and core burn with every movement you make. But you’ll be damned if you let yourself be a weak link to anyone, especially the Firelights.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

            The three of you are sent off by Ekko who opens the stone door covering the main exit tunnel, “Come back in one piece,” he says, and you give him a small wave.

            The tunnel out of the hideout is not as horrid as you were expecting. Clearly, all of the sewage tunnels around the base are inactive, but even still, certain… substances tend to stick around. The light from your three collective torches illuminates the curved space you walk through and so far, you haven’t seen anything too awful. Geo and Malia are maskless, to keep a low profile, she had said. It makes sense, this certainly isn’t “official” Firelight business.

            The tunnel leads to the outskirts of a market you used to frequent when you were still working for the Company. It’s almost funny: how close you must have gotten to the life you find yourself living. You’re able to take up the lead and walk your small group to your apartment down in the sumps.

            It isn’t nice, even by undercity standards, but you can still remember how fucking proud of yourself you were the day you moved in. Despite the mold, and the roaches, and the exorbitant rent, it was yours and no one besides your smarmy landlord could take it from you.

            “The two of you can wait down here. It’s really not that much that I need to grab,” you offer to Malia and Geo at the door of the building.

            Malia answers with a shake of her head, “It’s fine, we don’t mind.” Geo looks like he does, but says nothing.

            The three of you are breathing heavily by the time you make it to the seventh floor and down the hall to your old apartment. You go to fumble in your pocket for your key before you realize that you must have lost it in the fire the other night. At least I don’t have to go to my landlord and beg for a new one, you think, gratefully. Just as you are about to kick the door in, you notice that the hinges are already bent. A gentle push to the door sends it swinging inwards. “Huh,” is all you say and the two behind you stay quiet.

            The apartment itself is a wreck. Not that you are an exceptionally clean person, but you certainly didn’t leave it with drawers thrown around and piles of stuff littering the ground. “Shit, someone fuckin robbed you.” Geo’s voice makes it sound like he’s smiling.

            You don’t turn back to him, still gazing at the mess in front of you, “Yeah… guess so.” A beat. “There wasn’t much to take, so they wasted their time.”

            You take a step into the room and immediately walk to the fridge in the kitchen off to the side of the small studio style apartment. With a huff, you pull the fridge from the wall and sure enough, your pathetic stash of savings is still there. You smile and pocket it. “I’m just gonna grab some clothes and we can go,” you say.

            You begin shoving handfuls of clothes into the empty bag you brought, not bothering to fold them from where they lay in piles on the floor. It is strange, you think, that the thieves didn’t take anything, at least nothing you can tell. Really, it’s their own fault, robbing an apartment in the sumps, no one down here has anything worth stealing.

            Just before you’re about to leave, a piece of paper on your kitchen table catches your attention. It’s a… letter? You pick it up and turn it around in your hands. The blood rushes from your face when you see the insignia pressed into the wax seal matching the one branded into your arm. With shaking fingers you tear the envelope open and rip the paper out.

 

Start running

-C

 

            Warm, sour spit gathers in your mouth and you swallow, trying to force your breakfast back down your throat. There is no mistaking exactly who this is from: Chross, head of the Hush Company.

            “Hey, you alright?” It’s Malia behind you. You crumple the letter and shove it into your pocket, turning to look at her.

            “Yeah. Fine. Sorry. We can go.” You feel lightheaded the longer you think about it, so you just…don’t.

            “…Right,” she finally says. Geo looks bored as he leans against the wall, digging under his nails with a knife.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

            You’re silent the whole way back to the base, mind and stomach churning in a nauseating cycle. Scar is the one opening the door of the hideout for you once you make it back and you don’t even look at him.

            It isn’t until you are back in your quarters and safely alone that you let the rising panic overtake you. You start by pacing back and forth in front of your bed until the fear clenching your heart becomes too painful and you crumple to the ground, folded over your legs. You can’t even form coherent thoughts, only a few words slip through the jumble forming in your mind screaming down at you like incessant crows.

            And then the tears come. Horrible, chest splitting sobs leave your mouth and you shove your face in your hands in a desperate attempt to muffle yourself. How did they know where to find you? You’re supposed to be dead to them. Thoughts are beginning to form in your brain. You wish they wouldn’t, you wish you could just sit in stupid, heart clenching fear. But you’re stuck here, sobbing like a child as you clutch desperately at the floor, running nails down cement painfully. It’s the pain that breaks you out of your wailing enough to stop.

            Until you stop breathing. Breathe, you tell yourself, but your throat feels smaller and smaller as you struggle to inhale. Why can’t I breathe? The little bit of air you manage to suck in does nothing to calm the pain bursting in your chest. Are you having a heart attack? God, you hope not. The last thing you need is a Firelight coming into your room to find you dead on the ground.

            No. You need to get out of this room. Now. The walls feel like they’re closing in on you and it’s only suffocating you more.

            You run down the halls and out into the courtyard. Maybe this was a mistake. Everyone is too loud and too happy. Children rush past laughing in a way that might have made you smile a few hours ago but now it only adds to… whatever you feel. Fear? Sadness? Rage? All of them, you decide as you stomp through the dirt.

            In the blur of emotion that is your mind you remember Ekko showing you the training room on his tour yesterday. Yes. That’ll help. Punching things.

            You retrace the steps you remember taking until you find yourself in a room full of makeshift gear weights and punching bags that is mercifully empty of other people. Distantly you think about the fact that wrapping your hands would be smart, but you don’t think you have the dexterity to deal with the fabric with the way your hands are shaking.

            The firmness of the bag as you hit it helps. It helps a lot. You don’t worry about technique as much as you do about hitting it with as much force as you can muster. Soon, the only sounds you can hear are your own panting and your fists colliding with the bag. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” You yell in time with each punch before finishing with a kick to the bag. You lean against the wall to slide down onto the floor, head bent between your knees as you try and catch your breath.

            “You’re doing that wrong.”

            You whip your head up, squinting at Scar from the stinging of sweat in your eyes. “What the fuck did you just say?”

            “Your kick,” he clarifies, looking uninterested in this whole conversation despite being the one to start it, “your technique is shit; you have no balance and no power behind the hit. You’d be knocked on your ass if you tried that in a real fight.”

            You stand up, walking towards him. “You think I can’t fight?”

            He uncrosses his arms, revealing just a tank top instead of the usual semi-armored vest he wears, “I didn’t say that. I just don’t think you’d last long.” He shrugs his shoulders

            “What?” You take another step towards him, rage burning up every other emotion in your system. “I’ll show you exactly how long I can fucking last.” The insinuation of what you say doesn’t even register in your mind. You pull your hands up in front of your face, widening your stance. “Well?”

            Scar snarls, cracking his neck and matching your posture. “Fine.”

            You don’t even wait for him to finish his response before you rush him, a flurry of punches hitting his forearm as he blocks your attack. You can tell he’s hesitating and that makes you even more angry. Does he not think you can handle it? “Fucking fight me.” You shove at his raised arms, leaving you vulnerable. He whips a fist down before you can react, clocking you right in the stomach.

            You cough and stumble, fighting back a gag. It was a stupid mistake really, you deserved the punch. It takes you a breath to right yourself, but once you do, you attack.

            You begin to feel more alive as the fight begins in earnest. It’s a flurry of jabs and almost all come from your own hands, half of them reach their target. Scar retaliates your barrage with his own, much more steady hits. Every movement he makes is calculated, you can tell, but he gives very few signals he is going to hit until he does. Scar may have the power to back himself up, but you’re easily faster than him.

            A missed right hook to your jaw leaves him momentarily off balance. You take the chance as soon as you see it, ducking under his arm to land a fist to his kidney. It may feel like you’re hitting a brick wall with your knuckles, but from the sound he makes you can tell it hurts. His eyes narrow at you as he looks down at your crouched, attentive form beneath him.

            Actually, you’re pretty proud of yourself, holding your own against a significantly stronger, taller man, for as long as you do. You may have talked a big game—as usual—but in all honesty, you didn’t know how long you could last against him. Sure, you’ve been in fights before, but they’ve always been with the intent to kill—or at least seriously injure the other person enough to get the hell away. This fight is… well, you aren’t exactly sure what the goal of this fight is. Proving a point?

            Feeling particularly smug, you decide, as has often proved to be so dangerous, to test your luck. Hopping back, you crouch down low enough to gather enough power to rocket your leg up towards his chest. He grabs your heel in one clawed hand before it reaches its target and pulls, sending you falling to the ground and knocking the wind out of your chest. Before you can scramble back to your feet he presses a foot onto your chest, not quite hard enough to hurt, but enough to keep you pinned to the floor. “I told you, you can’t kick for shit,” he says with a triumphant smirk. He isn’t trying to hide it. This fucking asshole.

            You scowl and bring your legs up, wrapping them around the leg that isn’t placed onto your chest and pulling, hard. He careens to the ground and lands on his back, and you don’t waste a moment before your scrambling over to him to straddle his chest and keep him pinned to the ground, he tries to fight you off but as soon as you are seated, he stops. You don’t even realize what you are doing until you are about three inches from his face.

            The strangest thing is he doesn’t throw you off or spit in your face or anything else you expect him to do. He just… pants and stares. Not even a snarl.

            You begin to notice parts of your body separately, not as a whole and you suspect it’s your mind’s way of keeping you sane. The way your thighs press into the sides of his stomach, his claws digging into the edges of your back as he grips your waist, his breath ghosting across your face. It makes you feel strange. His smell is the worst of all. Not that he smells bad, far from it. It’s that he smells good? A mix of something you couldn’t describe even if you weren’t inches from his face and in the middle of a fight. He smells like sweat and fire and… flowers. Why the fuck does he smell like flowers?

            You finally move to get off and end whatever spell you two have been put under when you find yourself flipped onto your back with Scar looming over you. The studs in his ears glinting in the streams of sunlight that filter through the windows of the training room. He leans down and brings his face even closer to you. Wincing instinctually, your brain tells you to assume the worst. You’re pinned down by a stranger, of course you should assume the worst. And yet, you aren’t scared. You don’t quite know what you feel, but that knot forming in your gut isn’t fear.

            Suddenly, like a rubber band snapping, the moment ends and he’s standing again. You don’t even get a chance to stand up before he is skulking out of the gym, slamming the door behind himself.

AHHHHH I hope y'all enjoyed!!! I do so love tension mwahahaha

TAG LIST: @kiannaf @awenthealchemist

[darkacademicvibes]

Don't Go, But Don't Come Back Either

Luke Castellan x Female!reader angst

Nothing but pain, beware. I am sorry for this. I cried writing it.

You stared at Annabeth for a long moment, your arms had fallen to your sides as soon as she had finished, Percy standing a few feet behind her, hands fiddling with his pen, that he seemed to have some weird attachment to.

The dishes you'd been holding were cracked, shattered across the ground at your feet.

"You're lying" you breathe, choked, and panicked. "You're lying, you're lying Annabeth, Luke wouldn't do tha- my Luke? No, he- he wouldn't betray camp like that" you insist. "He loves camp, he loves you- he loves me, he just wouldn't" you try to sound sure, but it's more of a plead, and it's clear to the three of you.

Annabeth reaches for you, and you stumble away, tears blurring your vision as you turn and run, heading towards the Hermes cabin as fast as your legs could go. They don't follow. A part of you decides that it hurts.

You make your way to the back, the dejected faces of the Hermes cabin making way for you. Luke's bed is messy, how he usually left it, half-heartedly thrown together, his camp necklace tucked under his pillow, his stuff left around it. It looks like he had simply gone on a day-long quest to gather information, or head into the city for groceries like some are every month, not like he had abandoned you. Betrayed you. Abandoned everyone. Betrayed everyone.

It still looked like it belonged to the Luke you knew, the Luke you love, who loves you. You sit on his bed, crying into your hands, embarrassed and hurt and angry.

One of his half brothers sits beside you, pulling you into a gentle hug. "You can stay, y/n, you're like family too, a year and a half doesn't just go away" he assures you. You sniffle, "doesn't it?" You ask softly, "where is he, if you're right? Why did he leave us?" Some part of you hopes it's a sick joke, and a worse part is glad it isn't, because you could never forgive him if it was, and you don't know if you could forgive him for what it is.

So you lose him either way.

You already have.

A few of the other Hermes kids sit with you, some crying, some not. But you allow them.

It takes a very long while before they all seem to wander away, until one of his half sisters place Luke's camp necklace in your palm, alongside the picture of you and Luke your boyfriend had kept under his pillow as well.

"He really loves you, I saw him looking at it every night" she whispers softly, placing a simple, handmade, promise ring into the palm of your hand, atop the picture, beside his camp necklace. "He asked me to make sure you got it if anything happened to him one day" she admits in a small voice, making her way out of the cabin as you stare at the things in your hands.

You slip the ring onto your left hand, tie the necklace around your neck, and fold the picture to hide his face.

And then you kick off your shoes, and curl up in what used to be Luke's bed, cold, and without Luke to keep you warm, heart heavy and aching with the weight of memories that now mean nothing.

"You know I'd never leave you, I love you, I'm gonna marry you one day." Luke grins.

"Oh yeah?" You laugh teasingly.

"Yeah" he hums, pulling you closer as you curl up in his bed. You melt into him, easily falling asleep. You've never felt as loved as you do when you're with him, and you never want it to end.

[yeonmuse]

𓇢𓆸. 𝕯ECELIS ACA𝕯EMY. —— YJW

BLOODBOUND. ִ. 𓍯𓂃

☪︎ ִFull Chapter log Next Chapter

WARNING | EXPLICIT CONTENT ℭontains the mention of blood & voilence. Mentions of sex & death, Jungwon will be a little mean in this one but the way that each member is written in this does not portray their true selves. Includes ot7, angst/romance/fluff

𖤓 reader x yang jungwon ── 𝒢enre. angst. fluff, non idol vamp enha. [reqs are open] ᝰ.ᐟ 𝓁ibrary

𝕾ynopsis. — Yang Jungwon has stood by her side from the age of six to the night of her eternal age ceremony. He has spent nearly her entire life reassuring her that her time would come, that she would possess her vampiric abilities soon enough, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. Her lack in vampiric traits cause a ripple in their friendship, her father is withholding secrets from her and she slowly begins to lose a sense of self, but maybe with Jungwons help she can find out who she is truly meant to be in this life.

More | please remember that the things written in this series are a work of FICTION,meaning NOTHING you read in this series correlates to neither enha nor their storyline.

© YEONMUSE 2024. do not copy, plagiarize or steal my works. You can join the taglist for this series here

CHAPTER 3

Together the three of them sat in silence, what was understood didn’t need to be said and the two of them understood that she needed a moment. They didn’t know what happened between the two of them that caused Jungwon to talk to her like that (truth be told neither did she) but they weren’t going to ask either.

There was a knock on the door and as Fawna went to open it she wanted to slam the door on the man that stood on the other side, but she shouldn’t take her anger out on him after all it wasn’t him that made her cry.

To her surprise yn looked up to find Sunghoon standing awkwardly in the doorway while Fawna stared him down.

“Um..yn I just wanted to check in..to make sure you were okay..Jungwons usually never like that. I think he was just in a bad mood today, I want to apologize on his behalf.” He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly not really knowing what more to say since he wasn't really good with this kind of stuff.

“It's fine.” She lied, it wasn’t fine, he was supposed to be her best friend but here she was crying because of something that he said, something that her dad trusted him and his family to know, something that she trusted him to know.

The rest of the day after that had been a complete drag, Aleera and Fawna eventually had to leave for classes which meant she would be left alone with her thoughts for the day until they returned. She decided to step out of her dorm for some fresh air and she suddenly remembered the one place she had actually paid attention to out of the entire tour, the library.

She silently trudged her way down the hallways and past the corridor until she found herself standing at the entrance of the library. Usually she’d just browse through the books and find whatever piqued her interest but as of now she was on a mission. There had to have been some sort of book here that explained her situation, something that explained why she was so different to all the others. Every book she could find that looked like it had anything to do with the abilities gained as a vampire, she gathered.

She had been struggling to reach the last book on the top shelf even with a step stool when a hand reached for the book she had been trying to grasp and she looked down to find Sunghoon holding the book out for her.

“Oh- Sunghoon.” As she steps down from the step stool she thanks him and takes the book from his hand.

“What are you doing here? You don’t have any classes?”

“I always get my work done early, so my teachers let me go, I tend to come in here where it’s quiet.”

“Oh okay.” He watches her curiously as she takes a seat at the table, books scattered all over the place. As if she realized he had been still standing there she quickly offers him to have a seat with her.

“Reading already? I thought your first class didn’t start for two days?”

“It isn’t for class it's for.” She pauses as if thinking about whether or not she should tell him, but then it occurred to her that there was no point in hiding it, he already knew she was powerless.

“I’m trying to find something that'll explain why I still haven’t gotten any of my abilities yet, no fangs, no nothing, I feel like I'm just not living up to the expectations that my father has set so high for me.”

“Have you found anything?” Sunghoon leans in closer, trying to catch a closer glimpse of the book but it seemed that to any outsider looking in, the two looked like they were cozying up with one another.

“Yang Jungwon, are you even listening? You will go and apologize to her right now. I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but that girl has been there for you for years and her father is counting on us to help her.” Jungwons mom reprimands him, after finding out from Aleera that he had made her cry. With an annoyed huff Jungwon left his mothers office to make his way to her dorm. He had been on his way but stopped dead in his tracks as he heard her voice coming from the library that he had nearly passed up. If everyone was in class right now then who was she talking to?

“I’m trying to find something that'll explain why I still haven’t gotten any of my abilities yet, no fangs, no nothing, I feel like I'm just not living up to the expectations that my father has set so high for me.”

Was she telling someone else about her situation? As he peered through the doorway of the library he was surprised to see none other than Sunghoon stay beside her, leaning in a little too close for comfort and it annoyed him. Why was he sitting so close and why was she talking to him about this? Could he even be mad? It wasn’t like it was a secret to Sunghoon or the others since he had blatantly blurted it out at their table. He was starting to get annoyed with her all over again. Annoyed that she could go without talking to him for so long and now here she was cozied up with Sunghoon spilling her secrets as if she had known him for years. He hated it.

He no longer cared about the apology, backing away from the library door he turns and walks away.

“Have you tried the cursed section?”

“You think I’m cursed?”

“I mean the cursed section doesn’t only have books on curses, it's where most of the books that don’t really have much to do with vampires are.”

“At this rate I’ll look through anything.” She sighs as she closes yet another book that hadn’t helped her in the slightest.

“Mm just come back and meet me here tomorrow, we need special permission for those and since the librarian isn’t in we can’t access them ourselves.”

“Wait- I'm supposed to be going out to the square with Aleera and Fawna tomorrow, they’re supposed to show me around.”

“Oh”

“If you’d like- you’re free to join? Then maybe we can meet up here after?” Her suggestion was met with silence as Sunghoon just sat there for a moment.

“Okay.”

“Great! We leave tomorrow at 11! I’ll tell Mrs. Yang you’ll be joining us so that you could be excused for your absence. Thanks for your help today! I should get back to the dorms before the girls get back”

Sunghoon watches as she disappears from view and out of the library. His gaze shifts from the pile of books on the table to the cursed section. Was she really like him? There was no way of knowing now right? It was still far too early to tell, he couldn’t say anything to her unless he knew for sure.

[mikalame]

Give up sweetheart

taglist: @oppopotamus@adissonsss@saumspam@violentnewmarley

This is set in 2002, spending a sleepover at your house, you guys are playing card games while sorta practising. bare with me 😭

"Okay, you kids have fun, call if you need anything" Your dad mutter off before closing the garage door after giving you guys some drinks and snacks for your sleepover/practise.

The 5 of you look at each other's eyes flicking over one another before Bill jumps up running to the makeshift table of cardboard boxes with the assortment of drinks and lollies.

"Oi, no fair!" Georg shouts jumping up as well grabbing a packet of some thing trying to protect it from Bills grabby little hands "I want those" he whinges and Georg shoves them under his shirt, getting more sulky as Georg sticks his tongue out.

While that squabble was going on the 3 others were rummaging through the packets and bottles. Licking pieces of food to 'claim' it. The other 2 see that there chances of food is very slim as crumbs of lollies fall to the ground, "Stop" they yell in sink, Gustav slowly turns around while ____ and tom continue to stuff their faces.

Bill and georg make eye contact with Gustav immadiatly laughing at the look on hia face, the chcolate smeard on the outside of his lips the chip crumbs adding to the texture aswell as the pringle can in his hand.

Wanting to see all the commotion ___ and Tom look behind them to see Georg and Bill on the floor along with gust av who looks like hes about to choke, his hand is hitting the floor while gasping for air.

"Fuck looks like hes choking hahaha" Georg says wiping tears that had gathered at his lashline, there was a pregnant pause before ____ shouted " HE IS CHOKING" you fall to the ground leaving the lollies behind. The boys drop aswell trying to lift him to sit him up "Omg hes gonna die!!" Tom yells panic eating pringles, "No your not gonna die.... just hold on..." you mutter before moving behind him and wrapping your arms around his stomache.

"____, not really the time of hugs" Georg questions, you roll your eyes as you thrust you arms agaist him effectivly popping the stuck peice of popcorn out of his throat hole. A few crackly coughs later and gustav is back to being a human skin colour and not one of an alien.

"Mabey we should calm down on the food" Bill mutters flicking the peice of popcorn into a corner where it will inveitably collect dust and mold over. "Yeah i just saw my life flash before my eyes" Gustav huffs clutching his imaginary pearls.

"Ummmm let me have a look" you hop over to the box of video games you have rummaging through, flicking through the collection before pulling out GTA "this one good" you say holding the game up. The synchronised agreement was enough for you to quit looking and close up the box, grabbing the extra controllers and plugging them up (pretend it works okay)

Time skip cause im to lazy

You and tom had decided to see who was the best driver in Gta making the rules as: No running over people, No cutting through an no distractions to the other player.

"Hey ____ remember the time you liked that guy a-" "SHUT UP TOM" you yell face getting redder "Your cheating tom" Stop cheating" we hear from the background as the 3 others chug on drinks to pass time.

"Not even cheating" Tom rolls his eyes "whatever, your just saying that cause your losing and your trying to distract me" you smirk feeling like you have just one up-ed him."I was only distracting you because you took a wrong turn and aren't going the right way" he chuckles.

"why didn't you tell me" you look over your shoulder at the boys who are mixing the different flavours together. You groan as you try and get back on track, you see Tom black character car in the distance before he speeds around the corner to the last stretch of the map.

You lean forward as your face drops to being serious, the background sounds quieten as the race begins to get more intense. Tom and you are neck and neck as he trys to bump you off the bridge but you drop back a little before ramming into the rear of the car and speeding off in front of him.

"What!, thats so cheating" he scoffs trying to get back into first place dodging all the NPC's that are just walking around. You see the fallen pole that you have marked as your end in the distance you decide to tease tom a little to rile him up some more.

"Tom you cant win im almost there you have no chance" you smirk continuing your rant about how you are so much better at this than him and how you going to get all the 'prize money' which is like $1.50 but still.

As the front of your car is 10 seconds away from crossing the line you mutter into his ear " Give up sweetheart" you giggle as you pull away you both watch as your car crosses over the line although you both have very different reactions to it.

You stand up cheering and hollering the others joining as you hold you $1.50 is the air as you start saying a speech thanking everybody that was in the room. Tom on the other hand was still sitting on the floor face scrunched up as he drops the controller before sulking by the food scattered by the table picking piece pf crumbs up, inspecting it then munching on it.

"Oh Tommie stop sulking, here you can have half of my winnings you know because im such a generous friend" you smile batting your eyelashes holding out the 50 cents. "Its fine" you groans stanching the money from you. Tom looks at you a devious glint in his eye "i was just going easy on you next time your dont gonna be so lucky 'sweetheart'.

HOPE YOU LIKED PLEASE LEAVE REQUESTS

[hannahssimblr]

As the evening draws in, others arrive at the house. It’s been nice, just Evie and I, for the hour alone that we had, once my family left and I finally showered the smell of grass from my body.

We laughed together while preparing the oven snacks that are now laid out on plates on the table, being picked at by people whose surnames I’ve already begun forgetting. It was sad too, in a way, being happy with Evie, and living out some kind of domestic fantasy where she burns the spring rolls and I tell her it’s okay, because I’m a dustbin of a man and I’ll truly eat anything, and maybe later, before going to bed we would brush our teeth together and flash each other frothy smiles in the mirror. 

I considered kissing a flake of pastry off her lip, too, in a temporary burst of madness, before remembering it would be among the worst ideas I ever had. It was just as well I didn’t, because the doorbell was ringing, and four people from school were waiting outside. 

Now, in the light of the golden sunset, we’re apart, as I, on the lawn, listen to a group of guys talk about the college offers pushed through their letter boxes this morning, and Evie sits with Tara Neary and her gang at the patio table and does her best to include herself. I hope they don’t tell her about the weird stuff I did at school, but chances are, they’ve already been through the highlight reel. 

They all turn to look as the patio door swings open and Michelle comes out and down the steps towards me. To my great surprise, she greets me with a hug. 

“Sorry, we’re a bit late,” she says. “Jen had a thing about her hair.”

“Ah, classic Jen,” I glance over her shoulder, and spot that signature flash of red in the kitchen. I’m uneasy, knowing I’ll have to have a grim conversation with her later, but later is later, and now, Michelle is smiling in a way I’m almost sure she never has, surveying the little crowd that has gathered in the garden.

“A good few showed up after all, didn’t they?”

“I think they wanted to see what the inside of my house looked like, to be honest.”

“Don’t be like that! They wanted to give you a proper sendoff, to wish you well on your big adventure.”

“Oh, yeah. That whole thing.”

“Are you nervous?”

I smirk. “Yeah, it’s my first time on a plane. I’m shitting it.”

She rolls her eyes. “You know I’m not talking about the flight.”

“I’m trying not to think about it, to be honest,” and my eyes, once again, find Evie through the crowd. “I’ll just get on the plane, and I’ll let it all sink in when I’m there.”

“Makes sense, in some sort of way, I suppose.”

“The whole thing is surreal,” I admit. “Like, tomorrow, before midday, I’ll be there. Like, I’ll live there. It seems like too much change all at the same time.”

“It’s what you wanted,” she reminds me. “And if you don’t like it, just come home.”

“I doubt I’ll come home. I think that’d be, like, the biggest failure of my life.”

“Worse than losing me?” She says, and I baulk, before she cracks a grin, “God, I was joking.”

I break into a laugh. “Nah, actually you know what was worse than that? Losing Goose.”

“Oh God,” she covers her mouth with her hands, “the Goose of it all. How could I forget about him? Do you have a theory about what happened?”

I grimace. “I want to be realistic, but that also means I don’t really want to speculate, because, I mean… Most likely…”

“Fucking hell, you know, I’ll never forget that…” 

As we talk, and catch up and laugh with one another in ways that we haven’t for a decade, I lose track of time, and don’t pay attention to the sun that dips below the horizon. The evening moths vanish from the garden, and the stars rise and the summer dies, and my last day in Ireland ends without me even noticing.

Beginning // Prev // Next

Corresponding LG Chapter

[sorryimananti-romantic]

Hey bestie sooooo lots of stuff happened and there was an opportunity I was really hoping I was gonna get, and I didn’t. On top of that it went to the same favorite people that get everything every time and I’ve just been feeling really upset and everything so if you’ve got any mingi comfort that would be great. I could just really use a lil virtual hug rn 😅. There’s a bunch of other stuff that led up to this but now im just feeling really hopeless and wanting to give up on my major even though it’s my dream. I think I kinda need to just sit and wallow for a bit and I’ll be fine but if you got any fluff I could use all of it 😅🩷

aw babes i'm sorry to hear that 😭🫂 you and me both honestly really need a virtual hug (nah a real hug actually) and well, i hope you get much better things than what you were aiming for! we never know where the flow of life is gonna take us so hoping for the best for you, always 🩷 and i hope you fight for your dream too! if you want to talk about it, i'm here for you 🩷

a mingi comfort fluff though, who am i to deny you? ;)

there are times in your life when all you want to do is lay down on a bed and sink through it into the void

or lay down on soft grass and hope the ground swallows you

you put a weight over yourself in the form of your blanket- the only physical thing weighing you down among a bunch of other invisible things

but that isn't enough

the warmth of it, the softness of it, it isn't enough

everything is silent. you can hear the static background noise- that's how quiet it is

could this go on forever while you gather your pieces together?

could time stand still for you?

no.

it never will

you're being swallowed by a bunch of thoughts

i'm alone in this world

no one will understand me

everything is over

there's no going back from here

and a bunch of other negative phrases that are murky in your head, but there in all their mighty presence

it feels like everything you've worked for is crumbling down in front of your eyes

everything is going wrong, wrong- where did it all start to go wrong?

you can't quite put a finger to it

all you know is that you are overwhelmingly sad.

the emotion 'sad' didn't make much sense to you- you always thought it was associated with some other emotion or feeling- such as when you lose someone dear and it's associated with grief

but now... you think you're starting to understand a little what's it like to be just sad. the plain old sad

it springs a little sarcastic laugh out of you and you have to purse your lips to keep another awful sound from bubbling out of you

but this time, your ears detect the familiar sound of footsteps in the house and you wonder just how deep in your thoughts you were to miss the sound of the door unlocking

you don't move. you don't make an effort to. you just hope that he goes to take a shower first or starts cooking. you hope he doesn't realise you're home already

you hope you get a little time to yourself so he doesn't have to see you in this state-

but a knock sounds on the door anyway and his voice calls your name, his eyes probably searching the darkness

you hope that he misses your curled figure in the blankets, but he's far too observant for that

he doesn't turn on the lights. you feel the edge of your bed dip as he sits there

"you're not hiding from me... are you?"

it's mingi. you could cry just hearing his voice

"no... just tired. i'll be out in a few minutes."

he doesn't miss the crack in your voice either

"do you want me to give you some space, or do you want me to stay?"

there's one thing you love about mingi. he always asks you what you need

and he always gives you what you ask for

if it's space you need, he will gladly give you it because he realises the importance of personal space and just sorting your own mess yourself

he won't question you until you talk yourself but he will keep reminding you that he's here

he's perfect in that way

but if it's him you need... he'll drop everything to be with you too

he'll either just hold you in silence or mutter affirmations

and for the first time in a while, you don't know what you need

so you tell him exactly that

mingi sighs deeply and gets up. you wonder if he's going to leave so you check through the little gap in the blanket, your heart beating anxiously

but he only draws the curtains apart just a fraction so he can see better

and then he's back, crawling in the bed next to you and asking if he can get in the blanket with you

you allow it. you scoot a bit to give him some space and he positions the blankets so he can hold you in his arms as he lies down next to you

you're slower this time as you make way to him and he notices that too. so he simply just holds you for a while

and you let the tears flow and wet his sweatshirt. you will apologise later, but for now, you can't stop it

his hand caresses your back repeatedly in soft, circular motions. his other hand is holding yours and squeezing it affectionately

you don't know how long you stay like this but at some point, the tears stop flowing and you move a little to wipe your face

"sorry for being a mess," you laugh and he lets out a short chuckle himself

"you know it's perfectly fine with me," he assures you, planting a kiss on the top of your head. "feeling better?"

"a bit, yeah," you tell him. you take a few deep breaths

"what's wrong, love?"

"everything," you sigh. "everything's going wrong at the same time and it's too much, mingi."

mingi brings you back in a hug, this time stronger and a reminder that you're not alone

and you realise that yes- you may have been a little selfish when thinking that you were truly alone in this world

you have him

your constant source of strength, a pillar to lean on

someone who always nudges you in the right direction when you're lost

someone whose words of wisdom heal you

and someone who makes you laugh, especially when he's being goofy like now

"shall we take that little trip now? drop everything and run away?"

"oh, how i wish i could, but i can't run away from this," you sigh.

and just like that, you start talking. slowly, but gradually, you tell him the sequence of events

and he gives you the validation you need- that everything you're feeling right now... it's okay to feel that

he makes you sit in front of him and he holds your hands as you work everything out

he gives objective answers- he knows your strengths and weaknesses, and he suggests the best course

he also plans every possible direction things could go from here on out- something he's really good at

"and like i always say... it can only get better from here, right?"

"sure feels like an all time low, so... yeah?" you say.

"every time i think i'm at an all time low, life throws another one at me"

you laugh at that- he's relatable like this

"well... it can't get worse than this, maybe, yeah?"

"and even if something bad happens," mingi addresses the anxiety in your heart. "even if things don't go as planned and you have to give up something important, you should remember that you're a strong person who can get through this."

you nod, letting his words sink in

"i'm here for you, yes," he says, "but i'm only a guide and emotional support, yeah? whatever you do, it's all you. and you're incredible and amazing. you will get through this. i'm proud of every decision you will make moving forwards. i believe in you, love."

it's all you need to hear and a few tears spill again, but you smile through them as you look at mingi, the dark strands falling over his forehead, his eyes warm

mingi, the person who makes you stand on your own two feet time and time again

mingi, who makes you realise that you can face anything in this world on your own

and mingi, who'll be there when you return from your battles. who'll patch you up, kiss your head and hug you

just like he hugs you now, all warmth and love

he brings you outside so you can eat dinner and it gets better

you don't feel like you're drowning anymore

you're not out of that surface, no, but it's a whole lot better for sure

he talks to you and you address other things in between jokes and kisses exchanged

and when it's time for bed, he holds you, preparing you for tomorrow

it will be okay

you will be okay.

[rorimoon9597]

Lance has always been obsessed with Keith's hair for some reason. He didn't know why at first, but as time went on, it became so clear that he wanted to run his hands though it and feel it on his fingers.

He made comments about it being an ugly mullet to hide that fact. It didn't work, especially not when he confessed to Keith before he left for the Blade.

What? He was going to lose the chance to say anything anyway! And he was so happy when Keith kissed him to shut him up and told Lance that his feelings were reciprocated, he felt as if he were on cloud nine.

Since coming back from his fight with Shiro's clone (who they're forever going to refer to as Kuro as in 'Operation Kurone'), Keith has experienced some changes.

For starters, his eyes were more purple. Before they'd been a grey colour with purple undertones, but now they were properly purple. Then his canines were sharper, practically fangs, and his eyes would sometimes change. When he was angry, his irises would become slits and the sclera of his eyes would become yellow. It was hot, in Lance's humble opinion (Pidge called him an alien fucker when he said that at first. Lance said that Keith's dad was the true alien fucker. Shiro sprayed the water he was drinking everywhere and choked when he said that).

The most noticeable change happened to Keith's hair though. The ends of it lightened, until they were purple. It looked so cool, and it connected Keith to Krolia more. His hair stayed black, but now when it gets out it was purple.

Keith... Didn't think the same way as everyone else.

"I feel like I'm losing my dad. I've only ever looked like my mom, and the one thing that has ever connected me to my dad was my hair." The team had stopped on a planet for a rest, and Keith and Lance had gone off together to hunt down some meat and gather fruit and vegetables.

Lance stopped and grabbed Keith's wrist, forcing him to stop and turn to face him.

"You're still connected to your dad, Keith. It's just not entirely in your appearance," he said. Keith frowned.

"What do you mean?" He asked. Lance hummed.

"You said that he'd go head first into danger, right?"

"Yeah..?"

"And that he was a hero?"

"Where are you going with this?"

"According to your mom, your dad was kind, and reckless, and a hero and someone she loved enough to leave to keep safe."

"Mom said that?" Keith asked, sounding surprised. Lance nodded. "Where are you going with this anyway?"

"Because those are some things that you have in common with your dad," Lance answered. Keith opened his mouth, then closed it.

"... You're right," he eventually said. Keith reached up to his hair and fiddled with a purple end. "That stuff... Does connect me to my dad..."

"I'm never wrong about people things," Lance said, confidently. Keith smiled down at him (that had happened during the two year time dilation that Keith and Krolia went through, and Lance found that he liked having to look up over looking down).

"You know more about people than I do," he agreed. He pressed a kiss to Lance's forehead. "Thank you."

"Anything for you," Lance said. He pressed a kiss to Keith's lips. "Now, let's go catch something that Hunk can make into a good meal."

"Alright."

They worked quickly, and made their way back to the campsite with food that all of them could eat. Hunk was quick to take care of the food, Krolia helping him while Romelle stayed by Allura's side.

Lance sat on a log, and Keith settled himself between his legs. Kosmo flopped down with them.

Lance ran his hands through Keith's hair, smiling as Keith joked with the others and treated Shiro and Romelle like Lance treated his siblings - by annoying the hell out of them out of love.

Lance leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of Keith's head.

"I love you," he whispered. Keith hummed, tilting his head to look up at him. There was a smile on his face reserved just for Lance.

"I love you too," he replied.

_______________________________________

Based off of this post I made