#i love this show a lot and it should’ve been more popular honestly

[autumnteawithfriends]

It’s hard being a Crashbox fan sometimes, you have to deal with the following

People associating it with Pedophillia because of the Daily Capper

People only knowing who Dora and Slob are (Dora because of the Daily Capper, Slob because of how infamously unsanitary he is)

People who want to fuck Johnny because he’s hot (he doesn’t count for the above point because I legitimately haven’t seen anyone talk about his personality or game, just about how sexy he is)

Eddie Bull vore jokes because those are totally the first thing people want to see when trying to find content of him

Reviews talking about how “scary” this show is and how it gave them spooky scary nightmares and how it shouldn’t have been for kids

How hard it is to find content for any character that isn’t Dora, Johnny, Rocket, Sketch, and maybe Bones

Crashbox being obscure because this show is genuinely amazing and I hate how bland ass anime shit and HH/HB are more popular than this show

[thisisntevenmyfinalblog]

I like Hazbin so far, but I do feel like we could’ve gotten a show with a lot more nuance and depth and less jokes about SA if it was written by someone other than Vivziepop, because let’s be honest… the best parts of Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss are fanmade or written by other people

For example, the song Addict is honestly one of the most iconic and popular songs related to Hazbin Hotel, but it’s a fan song.

The Helluva Boss Pilot was better than Hazbin Hotel’s Pilot (subjective) because it was actually written by someone else.

You can still like HH and HB just fine, I don’t care, but people keep defending Vivziepop like she’s this saint who has done no wrong, and attacking anyone who says anything critical abut her.

Anyways, Hazbin is okay. It’s kinda average, but it’s still enjoyable that I wanna keep watching. I love Sir Pentious, hate how he was treated in Episode 6, and hey, if I get sent death threats or smth I might as well say all my opinions right now so you all can get them out.

The writers don’t know how to write women like Vaggie or Cherri Bomb

Alastor is overrated and overhyped. He could use more personality, and more screentime doing ominous and tricky things, instead of just “shows up, says threatening line, refuses to elaborate, leaves”

People in heaven acting just as bad as people in Hell (like Adam) is not a good or unique take. Good Omens has done it, and they’ve also done it better. I did like that Adam leading the exterminations was something that not everyone knew about, but I don’t think Sera should’ve known about it either. Idk exactly, but I would’ve gone about it in a different way.

Bringing back the writing women thing, I also think Charlie’s writing can be handled a little poorly from time to time. The only thing keeping her afloat for me is that she is to Rapunzel what Hellsa is to Elsa.

I hate Mimzy’s design. I don’t know why.

Actually kinda liked Lucifer just being a weird dad, but he’s should have a better redemption arc before all that.

Not Hazbin Hotel specific, but why are shows so afraid of having more than 15 episodes in a season now? I know they want to cut out filler because they no longer need to run for a certain amount of time, but honestly? Hazbin Hotel needs more episodes. It needs more time to flesh out its story, and this honestly applies to a lot of other shows whose stories could’ve been great if not for streaming.

Stephanie Beatriz is a great actress so use her better. She did amazing as Rosa Diaz from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Vaggie is… (no offense) just another of the badass Latina stereotype. Also, she is an amazing singer, but the super high octave in her and Carmine’s song did not do her voice any justice. It does not need to be that high, you can bring it down an octave or two.

I probably will have more complaints as more episodes come out. We’ll see. I still enjoy watching the show, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not perfect. Receiving criticism doesn’t mean it’s a terrible show, just that it has room for improvement.

If you read this far, thanks. I had to make a blog because I don’t have any other socials to say anything abt it on.

[sheisobvious]

some old stuff I found on pinterest (and below interesting things) - Part 1

Picture 1 

“One minute Taylor is busting out lyrics and being adorable in front of the camera, and the next she is like high-fashion model” 

Q: What type of music are you into right now? 

TS: A Late’80s pop. One of my favorite songs is “She Drives Me Crazy”, by Fine Young Cannibals.It was so ahead of its time.  

App she loves – 8MM vintage camera  

TS: “It lets you put a cool, 1960s-style filter on iPhone videos and gives clips a moody grain” 

Picture 2 

COSMOGIRL 2009 

TS: "My newest hobby is going to wal-mart and putting my CD in front of others in the rack. I have no shame in it!" 

Picture 3 

Seventeen Magazine (2008) 

Q: Do you think that he ( the guy from “Should’ve Said No”) secretly likes being named in your songs? TS: Yeah, probably. Those kinds of guys like getting attention – because I mean, what else is he doing? He’s probably with six different girls who don’t know that they’re being played. 

Q: Has he (Drew from “Teardrops on My Guitar”)  contacted you?  

TS: Actually, he showed up in my driveway a couple of months ago, and it was like in the movies where at the end the guy shows up in your driveway, and you have this awesome kiss – except it’s three years too late. I’m like, Why didn’t you do this years ago ?!? He was stranger by then, so I felt like I didn’t know him anymore. 

Q: Do you ever write songs about anyone other than yourself? 

TS: “Tied Together With a Smile” is about a girl I knew my freshman year. She was absolutely Miss Popular, a pageaant girl, and she looked perfect every day! Always had the cutest outfits, always looked teh best at prom. But sometimes when you get a litle closer to people who look that perfect, you realize that they don’t feel perfect.They feel they’re ugly. And that’s what happened with this girl- I became closer friends with her, and one day she confessed that she was bulimic. 

Q: How did that make you feel? 

TS: It was really hard for me to take. But I never want to make someone feel horrible. do not deserve to be treated like that. I try to reason with  them and be calm about it. After a while, I was just like, "You don't need to do that anymore." So I played that song for her, and I said, "Who do you think that's about?" And honestly, I don't think she ever did it after that. 

Q: Have you ever felt bad about the way you look? 

TS: Everybody does! Everybody looks in the mirror and is like, I wonder why her eyes are huge and mine are smaller. But I realized that if you’re lucky enough to be different from everybody else, don’t change. 

Q: Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be someone eise? 

TS: Oh, my gosh, if I were a different person and I could start all over, I would want to be Hayley Williams from Paramore! I think she’s awesome, and their music is amazing. But you know, I love country music more than anything  in the world – I would never change what I do. 

Picture 4 

“I’ve seen a lot of you get new cars”, she joke to those who worked on the album (Fearless)  

Picture 5 

YOU (2009) 

FAVORITE BOOK – Who Will Cry When You Die? By Robin S. Sharma. It’s a self-help but It’s na easy read. Every page has a new thing you can do to show the people you love that they matter to you. It makes you appreciate what you have. I have a lot more good days now that I’ve read that. 

STYLE ICON – Cahrlize Theron. Thank you for saying I look a bit like her – taht makes my whole week. 

BEAUTY PRODUCTS – My favourite lip colour is Dragon Girl by Nars;l realy like Armani make-up and there's a perfume that l get when ľ'm in the UK called Midnight Rain by La Prairie. And I love Jo Malone candles. 

I: As ever, she sounds too good to be true . It might be one reason why. If we're being honest what eveyone realy wants to see is Taylor Swit being a litte bit naughty. Surely the teetotal Pollyanna façade must have cracks? Anyway, wouldn’t a bit of teenage rebellion be healthy? 

TS: “I've been given the freedom to do whatever I want. I'm 19 –if want to storm out of the house and go to a club and get drunk and take my clothes off and run naked through Nashville, I can do that. I just really would rather not. I's as simple as that. It's not like I’ve been beaten down by some corporation that's forcing me to always behave myself - l just naturally do. Sometimes people are fascinated by the fact that I don't care about partying. almost to the point where they think it's weird.l think when we get to the point where it's strange for you to not be stumbing around high on something at 19, t's a warped world.” 

Picture 6 

PEOPLE, 2009 

Q: You just gave a $250,000 donation to schools you had previously attended or worked with. Why schools? 

TS: The schools that I went to and the amazing people I got to learn from relly turned me into who I am, and I wanted to give back. 

Q:If you’ve done all this by the time you turned 20, what do you want to do bu the time you turn 30? 

TS:I think I’d like to have made a couple more albums that I’m really proud of. I’d like to have a house. I’m not the kid the girl who makes a goal for herself of getting married or starting a family. I’ve never really put a timeline on those sorts of things. So I don’t have any personal goals by the time I’m 30. 

(midnight rain vibe)

Picture 7 

Q: What would you say is your biggest love “don’t” ? 

TS: No one wants to be with someone who desperately needs them. You should want the other person and love him, but you shouldn’t need him. If you depend on him for your happiness, that’s not good ,because what will you do when it ends? 

Picture 8 

TIGER BEAT  

I CALLED THIS ALBUM RED BECAUSE.. “all the different emotions written about on this album, they’re all about the tumultuous, crazy, insane, intense, semitoxic relationships that I’ve experienced in the last two years. In my mind, all of those emotions are red.” 

(I think this is the first time I see her referring to this relationship as toxic before 2022)

Picture 9 

BOP 2012 

Taylor Swift looks down at the floor as she talks about the songs on her new album, Red (it comes out October 22). "They're sad, if I'm being honest,"she confesses. Tay's big blue eyes get a little teary as she thinks about her life right now.In the last two years. Tay says she's felt "all of those emotions, travels around spanning from intense love,intense the workd with frustration, jealousy and confusion." She also admits. "There's been this earth-shattering. not recent, but absolute crash-and-bum neartbreak." 

(in this interview they are weird about her parents divorce)

[mdhwrites]

I love Raine, but I hated them as Eda’s love interest. Everything about their relationship felt forced to me, including how much Eda is supposed to love them. I wish they could’ve been introduced earlier possibly and with a more coherent/integrated role.

(But then I wonder if it’s just because they’re a non-binary character and I like the representation. Because without that aspect, the character honestly felt so useless and random.)

Maybe this is just a gripe I have with toh romance in general but like we’re supposed to believe Eda, who is considered King’s mom, would be putting him in danger with the collector just to stare at Raine?? Like come on. The romance in this show is so cringey to me.

It’s like how Luz reunites with everyone after defeating Belos and immediately shares a hug and kiss with Amity before her mom. 😑 like this is her mom who is seeing her for the first time after this whole nightmare and she didn’t even know if she’d be okay. I feel like she should’ve rushed to her and then Amity could’ve stepped in after. I guess honestly I’m just annoyed by the overemphasis on romantic partners in the show tbh. Could just be a personal problem

So there's a lot I can say about romance on this blog (romance writer has a lot to say on romance, shocking) and especially in regards to the genres TOH is in, both positively and mostly negatively. The thing I REALLY want to point out though is the dog shit treatment of Raine and how it truly emphasizes the fundamental problem of not just romantic relationships but ALL relationships in TOH. See, when Raine is introduced, we don't get a lot about their character. We understand that they are the caution to Eda's brashness and that while their caution is obvious, them having stage fright is actually a great way for Eda to have a way of breaking them out of their shell. Something her enthusiasm, especially as a child, could be useful.

And then we gets Falls and Follies where their stage fright is... Still their main character trait. And then we get Them's the Breaks Kid.

And suddenly, Raine isn't Raine. Now yes, kids can change as they grow up but stage fright is a fairly unique malady. It's not specifically social anxiety and it's not a phobia. It's genuinely about stepping on stage and freezing. That terror of performance. My drama director in High School said that she'd helped a lot of kids with it and the right course of actions were always repetition and exposure. That usually the lines came so naturally and their base confidence was so high that a successful dress rehearsal would make sure they didn't freeze come opening night.

It is something that fades with experience. And in Falls and Follies, Raine might still be the level head to Eda's rowdy behavior, but in the worst way. They're not the nervous kid who overthinks things and needs to be reminded to breathe but instead the smart, grade A kid who is so popular and so above everyone that they're bored by all the 'normies'. Edalyn is interesting in that she stands out, as well as being the strongest. Their is never even a hint of fear or nervousness in them.

This comes to its worst part in the moment that is supposed to tell everyone the two are destined for each other. The moment that the fandom was supposed to immortalize like the major Lumity moments. The moment Eda tries to bean Raine with a ball and Raine, unlike Lilith, catches it not just easily but with flair.

Or in other words, catches it just like Eda would. The moment that I think a lot of people, myself included, started realizing that Raine was just a love interest, just like Amity and then Willow for Hunter, instead of anything even resembling a character. After all, they spend this entire episode showing that they are a clone to Eda. Period.

It actually gets worse as the motivation to protect their loved ones is also an Eda one and they both do it in the same way by just trying not to include them and put distance between them. Their methods, ideologies, etc. like that are literally lock step with one another, just like Amity changes hers to be and Hunter ends up becoming like alongside Willow and Luz. A lot of people point this at as growth for the characters but I still argue that dissolving your own personality for your partner is not a good thing.

And do you want to know how much the writers KNEW Them's the Breaks was a mistake? Just a blatantly wrong choice to make? Well, see, Falls and Follies eventually came out with a second version of the episode with annotations. Little tidbits about the show and lore of the universe. I don't know really any of those tidbits except one, and that this WAS released after Falls and Follies.

"Raine developed stage fright during a production of the Isles version of Romeo and Juliet that they performed with Eda."

That's not word for word, I'm not looking this up for that, but that is what it summarized to. Or, in other words, they went back and had to retcon in stage fright for Raine. Stage fright they developed WITH the person who's dynamic with them should be to bring them out of their shell with.

The worst part? They probably don't see the contradiction. They instead likely went "We made a plothole in Them's the Breaks. What can we do this for shipping fodder?" And then someone else shouted, "MAKE IT SO RAINE GOT STAGE FRIGHT BECAUSE OF A PLAY THAT MADE THEM KISS EDA!"

Now no, that's not explicitly stated but besides just being lazy and referencing Romeo and Juliet (they did have a special name for it), that's the main reason I can imagine for that play causing that specific reaction. After all, Raine had performed for large crowds before. Even done things against the rules and off script in front of crowds and against a FUCKING COVEN HEAD. What could have possibly caused them to gain stage fright from a fucking play?

And if this sort of inconsistency was in a piece of fanfic or a person's personal webcomic and they just admitted to wanting the cute shipping moments, like Yoko Taro saying 2B is a beautiful woman because he likes pretty girls in his games, I would be more okay with it. In a show that is touted as so progressive, having such perfect representation, some of the best romances in television history, etc. etc...

Well, my response is that I guess there's a reason so many straight people have to deal with bland, inconsistent love interests if that's what nonbinaries and lesbians want too.

===========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[kn1felady]

If you want to read QUITE POSSIBLY THE BEST WRITING I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!!!! then I highly suggest reading Dermabrasion by Pennydaniels.

It’s an incredibly popular fanfic so I’m not surprised if most have read this already but the final chapter just posted today and I legitimately cried my eyes out.

The link is at the bottom (sorry about the shitty formatting)

Here is the comment I left on the chapter:

Words cannot explain how much I loved this fanfiction. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I bawled my eyes out by the end of this chapter. No writing before this (even in published works of fiction) has ever made me feel such a wide range of emotions - the most prevalent being content. I love how it didn’t end with the “happily ever after”, but with so many threads that still can be pulled. The best way to describe this ending was bittersweet. It was just…perfect, honestly.

I loved Natsuo’s whole storyline and how he used this trip as a way to escape from heartbreak. I also found it refreshing for a relationship to just…end. Things like that happen. I wasn’t expecting dabi and Hawks to split (how could they??) and thought Haru and Fuyumi was unlikely, so I thought this choice was a great idea.

Fuyumi is one of my favourite characters in this fic because even if she doesn’t always significantly affect the “over-arching” story in the manga/anime, in this she does and it’s given justice. She’s truly the heart of the todosibs. I liked how she was given her time to shine in this chapter, dealing with all the realistic adult issues she would.

Dabi is always fantastic. His one liners always make me exhale through my nose (even chuckle at times!!!) but what I love most is his ability to get vulnerable and, inexplicably, profound. His relationship with hawks was one of my favourite parts of this story and knowing that they’re happy together, even considering marriage, just clenches my heart a tad. A truly understated part was “ Dabi muttered before he turned to Hawks and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.” I’m pretty sure (if my memory serves correctly) that this is the first instant of “romantic” physical intimacy. Seeing how Dabi went from being unable to stand casual touch and the idea of sex with another person, the fact that they’re so comfortable with eachother shows their growth. And I also love the time dedicated to Hawks’ own traumas. One of the first times I genuinely shed a tear for this chapter was when I read: “ And if he walked the Todosibs to the lift and stayed watching the numbers go down and long after for far longer than necessary or appropriate that was his own secret to keep.” Again, I’m not really sure how to explain it aside from how my heart ached for him. Like, I’m happy that this fictional character now has someone to hold and, in extension, a family of his own, but there’s also a part of me that pities him. Does that make sense? Maybe not. It feels like he’s in disbelief with how lucky he is…when he should’ve had it all in the first place.

And that moves me onto Shouto.

Shouto took a bit of a backseat (haha) in this chapter which I…actually don’t mind. This fic started with him alone but now it ended with him accompanied by the people he loves most. He has always been my favourite character for reasons I don’t really know why. The way you write him makes him so much more loveable in so many different aspects. Whilst he may not talk a lot in this chapter, I love how he’s always in the background doing something. I like knowing that he doesn’t have to force himself into discomfort and he can just be. The part that broke my heart a little was: “Sometimes this happened, he was randomly hit by happiness. It could be a little frightening in its intensity sometimes and the fact that (like all intense emotions) it never stayed.” It reminded me of one of the earlier chapters when he left Mina’s party and wanted to shout out that he could be happy. Like Hawks, it makes my heart ache but in a way that I don’t mind. I’m glad he’s happy, with my whole being.

The ending was just the cherry on top. To be perfectly honest, I was expecting a conversation between Shouto and Dabi as the final send off but…I’m not too bothered anymore. They’ve been the central focus within this story and so it doesn’t feel out of place for us to be left with the knowledge that they are just that: Dabi and Shouto. Shouto and Touya. The (I’m assuming) Naruto reference was perfect and added the bittersweet ending I think we all were expecting. It had been a while since the last Naruto reference so it really was a blast from the past!! And the cameo from class 1A was always going to be comedically perfect too!! (as well as the League…who could forget them?? I didn’t even know that I wanted them to find out who Dani’s secret boyfriend was!)

I think what I like most about this fanfiction is how contained it is. It didn’t have to be that massive fiery showdown between Dabi and Endeavor, or a melodrama between Hawks and Dabi. Instead, it’s the complicated mess of relationships and how trauma can be healed. I love the title too; “dermabrasion”. I have to be honest, I had no idea what that meant about a year and a half ago when I first started to read this. But now, especially after finishing it, I’m in awe of how aptly named this is. Dermabrasion doesn’t have to be harsh and quick, it’s the slow healing of skin.

In the thoughts of Natsuo: There in the glow of the little bonfire they made Natsuo felt like… well he felt good. And that was it. Simple.

I’m just so happy they’re all okay now.

I am one of four siblings myself - I’m in Natsuo’s position as the second youngest - and so I feel like the reason I was so emotional reading this final chapter is because I can resonate so well with the Todosibs. It’s currently the winter holidays so for the first time in around 7 months it’s been all my siblings back together again. My two older sisters were both away at university and my younger brother and I were slowly getting on each others nerves. Being together all of us again made me happy. Simple. And it’s weird because we’re finally at an age where we can just be friends now. There’s fewer petty squabbling and I can talk to them as if they /are/ just my friends. One of my sisters is going back to uni tomorrow and I’m sharing my room with the other, and I genuinely feel like I’ll miss them all the more.

Anyway, I commend you if you read all this way (yes, I know it’s really ramble-y) but I just couldn’t think of a way to otherwise express how much I loved going through this journey. I feel eternally grateful for you creating something as truly heartfelt, painstakingly perfect, and beautiful as this. If you ever decide to write something as amazing as this, I’ll be sure to follow every step of the way.

[shotorozu]

hello!! i saw that your requests were open and wanted to ask if you could do single dad! atsumu suna and sakusa falling in love with reader, like it's sort of a meet cute (or not) but the reader falls for them and the kid and happiness lskfjsdfk have a great day!!

single dad! falling for reader

character(s) : miya atsumu, suna rintarou, sakusa kiyoomi (haikyuu!!)

legend : [Y/N = your name] they/them pronouns used, timeskip au! (because,, single dads.)

headcanon type : fluff, crack and angst if you squint (x reader)

warning(s) : mentions of the character’s ex wives, the ex-wives being jerks for multiple different reasons and ways (so,, be warned. for negligence, not very detailed hitting, and cheating, but not on reader)

note(s) : me, writing for haikyuu?? wow, a surprise! also, it’s been a while since i’ve written for haikyuu so if i don’t get the characterization correctly— ESPECIALLY FOR SAKUSA, i’m sorry in advance.

»»————-　♡　————-««

miya atsumu

at first, his marriage was happy. miya atsumu— successful in his 20s, basically set for life, and with a head strong wife that gave him a wonderful daughter

he was elated when his son, genji came into this world. he wouldn’t swap him out for anyone else. and it was all good, really

until he started spotting marks on genji’s delicate skin, and he even found a large bruise on his shoulder when he was changing his shirt! he almost passed away seeing that

genji would also have a sudden fear of being alone in the house— even when his mother would stay behind to take care of him

but why though? genji’s only 4! what could’ve happened to him? he doesn’t recall hiring any babysitters.

he finally found the answer one day, when he found out that his head strong, intense wife— has been physical with him!

basically, all the love for his wife flew out the window, and he filed for a divorce— and of course, he won custody

and he assumed that his love life would stop at that— and it didn’t sound terrible. all that mattered was that his son was safe, and happy again

but this is where you come in

you work at a toy store, a small business toy store really, that sold the highest of quality only

and atsumu took genji to either replace, or fix the toy he broke a few days back. the place was recommended to him by shoyo— who also had a kid of his own

you’re just two years younger than him, eyes full of determination and care, practically the complete opposite of his ex-wife.

you put up a good conversation with him, while you fixed the toy— the two of you talking about the mutual friends, and that ‘this place should be a lot more popular.’

and also, his son did happen to take a liking to you. he seemed joyous in your presence— compared to how he was with his ex-wife

and from that moment on, the two of you would only become closer— especially when a bunch of his son’s toys started breaking magically

before atsumu knew it, he harbored something for you— the absolute angel you were to the both of them

“‘m sorry for the inconvenience,” the faux blond scratches the back of his next “didn’t know genji here was a ‘lil clumsy weasel,”

you laugh, and genji’s just staring at you with amusement, “it’s fine, genji could break his entire toy box— and i’d still fix it anyway.”

so this was the nerve wracking part, “to make up for it, would you like some coffee later? i could treat ‘ya.”

“is this yer way of askin’ Y/N—”

“shut yer mouth for a sec— uhm,” he looks at you, sheepishly

you laugh, “miya, i wouldn’t mind honestly. but i’d assume you’re busy as it is.”

“not at all!” atsumu replies, “i’ll just, drop off genji first. say yer thanks to Y/N,” atsumu looks at genji, encouraging him to say his thanks

“,,thanks for fixing my toys, Y/N.”

“no problem, genji.” you smile at the two of them when they move to leave the store, fixed toys in hand— as they wave at you before parting

“oh, Y/N?” atsumu calls out,

“yeah?”

“call me atsumu— from now on.” his cheeks are tinted pink, and he can feel genji’s eyes on him.

“oh, uhm. yeah! i’ll see you later, atsumu.”

so yeah— the two of you went out for some coffee, and before he even knew it, he was in love.

it might take him a few months to realize it though

suna rintarou

i can’t imagine him having kids for some reason 💀 but if he were to have any, he’d definitely have a daughter

rintarou himself, didn’t think he would have kids at at all, really. but the moment he was able to meet asuka— his lovely little daughter

he was hooked. he seemed a little awkward at first, not very used to caring for a child. but he was actually decent at his job

he’d sneak into his daughter’s room to hold her when she was upset— even when his wife was too knocked out to realize it, and he’d show her picture books

since she liked them a lot, even when she can’t coherently read a straight paragraph yet.

it started to concern him when he realized how little his wife was involved in the development of their daughter.

she started acting different, a little bit after she didn’t have to breastfeed asuka

and then, that’s when it happened.

“i literally can’t believe you,” he speaks when he’s packing his things, “we have a child together.”

his soon to be ex wife is on the floor, begging him to stay— but he doesn’t care. “look, the idea of you cheating wasn’t very surprising. i don’t care anymore, really. but the fact that you’ve been neglecting asuka for your selfish needs is low. i hope you’re ashamed of yourself.”

his words are so much different that his lenient, calm self. which only solidifies reality

so he leaves with asuka, not caring about the sobs that left his soon to be ex wife’s mouth.

and even though he was still angry at his wife for not being there, he’d never let it show to asuka

he’d still show her picture books, he’d still sit down and watch miraculous ladybug with her— even when she doesn’t understand it all completely

and speaking of picture books— he decided that he needed to buy more for her

so he took her to the bookstore, and he didn’t really know what he was doing. he bought all those previous books when asuka was still a newborn

now it’s a little fuzzy on what he should be looking for. colors, right? he needs a picture book that has plenty of colors.

and that’s where you come in. you’re youthful, despite looking not that far off his age, you’re humming to yourself as you fix the bookshelves

“uhm,” he calls out for your help, and you look at him in recognition “need any help? what are you looking for?”

there’s a helpful glint in your eyes, and it reminded him of what should’ve been in his ex wife’s eyes. “my daughter, likes picture books. and,, i don’t know what i’m doing.”

she’s basically a replica of him, same eye color, and same hair color. but her eyes are much more rounded, youthful.

“cute kid,” you smile when she coos at you, “the children books are this way, follow me!” you exclaim, moving to navigate your way to the children’s book isle

so it seems to be that you really know what you’re doing. most people would’ve recommended picture books with a lot of words, or just no words at all

but you’ve found the books that made asuka exclaim in happiness.

and although it’s not very obvious that rintarou’s caring to his child— he is, and you could tell. despite looking lost, and sometimes bored when you’re explaining the books.

so every 2 weeks, the father would return with his daughter, after he got back from volleyball— and you’d help them pick out on certain books.

rintarou assumed he’d never take a liking in anyone again, but,, here he is. and he doesn’t know how you’ll react to that.

but it’s worth a try— he’d try and get your number when he’d see you again

the next time you see him, the middle blocker’s alone. and he tells you that he needs more picture books for asuka, since she’s staying over at his volleyball friend’s house for a day

“Y/N,”

“yes?” you turn your head, meeting his stare. he looks well,, himself. like how he first sought out for your help a few weeks back

“,, could i get your number? y’know, just in case asuka wanted worded books in the future. you’ve helped a lot, so,,”

you smile, “is this your way of hitting on me?”

he didn’t think it was that obvious, “what?— i mean,” he fumbles to reason out, feeling a bit more awkward. because yes, he’s asking you out but,, he has the power to make things more laxed, y’know?

truthfully, you don’t know much about him. you know a lot about his daughter, sure! but you don’t know anything about her biological mother, or what happened, or why she’s not taking asuka to the bookstore

but you chose not to ask, out of respect. he’d tell you some other day. “i’m just teasing,” you smile, moving to get a small piece of paper— writing your digits on the paper, and placing it in his pocket

“i’d like to see you again,” you smile, “say hi to asuka for me.”

the middle blocker left the store in content, absolutely sure that asuka would love to see you again even when she can’t form proper sentences.

sakusa kiyoomi

didn’t think he’d be fit to be a father— but here he is

though he seems cold, he does take responsibility, and he does love and care for his child, seina

it’s not like he’ll be posting pictures of his child everywhere— i mean, even if he had a different personality, he still wouldn’t be posting his kid everywhere

but he does cherish seina, like his life depended on it. he’d still silently watch her cross out word puzzles in a messy matter, he’d silently listen to her talk about her favorite pastries

he loves her!

so that’s why it made him mad, when even after 4 years of seina being born, her mother made little to no effort in spending time with her

doesn’t matter if it was a simple gesture like tucking her in, or showing up to a birthday— she just,, never did.

it was almost as if she was ignoring seina, which causes some distraught on the child’s behalf— which passed on the negative feeling to him

like,, seina wasn’t an unbearable kid. sure, she acted up here and there, that’s an issue kiyoomi has been trying to fix on his own

but it was nothing too concerning, and it was containable. but his wife treated her like she was absolutely unbearable

and it was super strange because, she’d act normal around him, but would barely acknowledge her own daughter’s existence

so what did kiyoomi do? he confronted her, of course.

and no— his wife wasn’t cheating, and nothing tragic happened that would’ve caused her to be this way

she was just,, lazy

“so.. you gave birth and stopped caring for her? is that it?” furious was an understatement, considering that his wife forgot to make her daughter breakfast

which caused her to sneak out of the house, and ask for some breakfast from some nice neighbors.

“look, if you want nothing to do with her, just say that. i’m taking seina, and leaving.” so yeah now he’s a single father.

to say he didn’t love her was too quick, a part of him didn’t love the fact that his wife loved him, but didn’t show any sign of affection towards her daughter.

he knew it was going to fade away anyway. his feelings for his unofficial ex wife.

and i don’t think he’d plan on seeing new people, since now these days— people just like the idea of being with him

which meant that most people would’ve been scared away, or turned off if they really sat down in a conversation with him

besides the point, kiyoomi was taking his daughter to the bakery again— as she was craving new pastries, and wanted to go to the new bakery that just opened near by

and kiyoomi was like “why not ig” and took her there— but then, this is where he’d meet you for the first time

you were one of the bakers, and it’s not like he was going to pay attention to you— until you did something even HE couldn’t do

“papa, whyyyy” the whining sounding painful in his ears, as his daughter clung to the display of pastries “can’t we get moreeee??”

“seina,” he sighs, “no, we can’t.”

“but—”

“papa, you’re no fair!” her bottom lip trembles, and he could almost FEEL the judgmental stares of the other customers in the bakery

and this is where you come in, “is something the matter?”

“papa won’t.. get me more!” she stares at the selection of pastries, “i’ve been so nice but.. it’s no fair!” her eyes tear up

“don’t cry,” you bend down to blot her tears away with a tissue, “y’know, he probably has a reason, but you’re in luck— actually!” you maneuver behind the counter

you come out from behind, presenting a fresh batch of pastries— that were just right to his daughter’s liking, to the point that it shut her up entirely

“they’re on the house, today’s our opening day, so it’s the bakery’s treat!”you state in a warming matter, grabbing a paper bag to place the pastries in

kiyoomi stares at you, observing you quietly— you could feel his cold stare, even though he’s wearing a medical face mask, that covers about half of his face

you blink, not knowing what is going through his head, and you gesture to his daughter to take them

you clearly don’t know who he is— and that gives kiyoomi some sort of relief, compared to the other customers that are murmuring to each other “sakusa kiyoomi’s here with his daughter! is this what he does in his free time?”

kiyoomi takes the paper bag, giving some sort of non verbal acknowledgement, before he takes his daughter’s hand and leaves

“bye, kind person!” seina calls out to you, which catches you off guard— this causes your coworkers to coo at the girl’s words

“didn’t know sakusa’s daughter was so cute!”

and you’d assume that your interactions with the quiet stranger and his daughter would end at that, but no! life is full of surprises.

the tall masked father comes in again, a little bit before closing time— you were absolutely beat, your back feeling as if boulders were glued to the back, and your feet burning from all of the rush

“oh, what could i do for you?”

he stays quiet, but a small presence sticks behind him, and peers up to you. the face is familiar to you, so you wave “hi there! it’s nice to see you again.”

“i wanna say thanks.” her rounded eyes practically shimmer when they lay themselves on the pastries again, but she shakes her head “for the pastries! they’re very tasty.”

“i’m glad you like them, what was your favorite part of the pastry?”

“the filling! twas yummy!” she gives a toothy grin, “tell me, where ‘dya learn to bake like that?”

kiyoomi stares at the scene unfolding before him. it was.. new. unfamiliar— he hasn’t seen his daughter act like this with anyone else— besides him and his team mates. so, he simply watched.

seina babbled and babbled, much to the your amusement— and the other staff members. you listened to her with your full attention, your interest never wavering in the slightest

it’s a bit later, kiyoomi holds a tired seina in his arms— you expect him to leave the bakery, his daughter’s wishes been fulfilled, and he wouldn’t have a reason to stick around

but then he presents to you a large stack of cash “for the pastries. my,, daughter really liked them.”

your eyes widen, “sir! i told you, the pastries were on the house!” you shake your head, “either way, i can’t take this! it’s too much for some pastries!”

“no, seina insists. in fact, she’s entirely why i’m here.” his tone stays consistent, but even with the mask— you could tell that he’s smiling. “she’s well,, everything. if she’s set on something, then she’ll do everything to achieve her goal.”

you smile at the statement, “thanks for bringing her here sir..?”

kiyoomi hesitates to tell you his name for a moment, an unfamiliar, yet familiar pound in his chest rises— he chooses to not figure it out right now, considering that it would be too soon to pursue a romantic relationship.

but, if his daughter brought him here, then it must be for a reason. “kiyoomi.”

“right,” you smile, “thanks for coming here, kiyoomi. you can give me a call, if seina wants any more pastries.” you write your number on a piece of paper, and hand it to him

he doesn’t reply, but he does take the piece of paper anyway— keeping it in his pocket

and for once, he thinks that he doesn’t hate having to go to the bakery weekly., because there’ll be a warm presence there to greet him— and of course, seina.

likes and reblogs are appreciated, thanks for reading!

i do not own hq!! and it’s characters. haikyuu!! belongs to furudate haruichi, i only own the writing and i do not profit off of my hobby

do not plagiarize, reupload, translate, or use my works for audio readings without permission :))

[absolutebl]

La Cuisine Review - Sweetness & Patience

quick pitch

La Cuisine 

(Thailand March-April GaGa) 

7/10

Tropes: crush, campus star, bully trigger, best boys, soft & sweet 

Look, I am trash for trash, but this was less trashy than most Thai BL pulps. University set about a popular architecture student who is a picky eater and the food science major who has a crush on him and uses food to court him. I COULD NOT ASK FOR MORE. Basically it gave me reason, and room, to breathe by being exactly what I want from a Thai BL with no attempt to be anything else.

I adored the taste-then-cook competition opener. The chef teacher is queer, not just visually but linguistically (using the ja particle). Do I spot an actual butch character in a BL? YES! 

In fact, for a throw-away pulp show this one had some charming points of casual queer rep. 

This was another favorite moment of mine: 

Phai to the pink haired bestie & Kitty (who’s 3rd gender). 

Meanwhile, the seme love interest, P’Ram, is a rich campus moon but also a genuinely nice guy with 2 hot besties. 

So, sure, we are in hella familiar y-novel territory. But if I were into BL for novelty of it, I wouldn’t be into BL. The older architecture phis with their colorless lives coming up with tricky ways to keep meeting up with the bright sparkly queer food service kids is the CUTEST flipping thing. 

It’s like watching two friendship groups falling in love with each other.

What is unique about this one is that this pulp has unexpectedly high production values and good quality cast & wardrobe. Even the het couple is cute. Love the pink hair! 

What a surprise gem. This season’s Nitiman with a better ending.

The romance is VERY chaste and YA-ish, soft and sweet and fun to see some almost old fashioned ideas about teen love. 

Chup being bullied is so sad. But Ram’s “my good boy” is the best, because it’s so true. 

Honestly, RamChup are just about the marshmallow fluffy sweetest softest little snookums. I liked the external bullying as a narrative pressure, although I wish it hadn’t been combined with the faen fatale. I wish this show had just taken shipping culture to task. 

I enjoyed La Cuisine’s moments of self reference too, but it is awful slow. Thank goodness GaGa has 1.5x speed option. It also takes the faen fatale archetype to the next level of extreme evil. 

Everyone got a cute couple ending, even characters I didn’t really recognize, couldn’t remember, or showed no chemistry. But hey, shrug. Also, Sky & Phai = unexpectedly great kiss.

Why did we not get their thread (and Kitty’s for that matter) throughout the show? It would’ve helped with the pacing a lot. (Honestly, these two actors probably should’ve played the leads, IMHO).

In the end, a sweet and kind of pure show, and like Thai desserts perhaps requires too much patience for a layperson. Because of the pacing and the focus on the bad girl character, I did dock it. 

But if you like stuff in the Oxygen vein, then this show is for you, and far better than most Thai BL pulps. That said, I suspect that I enjoyed it more than many would.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

I ran into this tweet and it made me think of this show:

(source) 

[babyboibucky]

Charming (Part 2 of Charm)

Pairing: TFATWS!Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: Bucky has everything planned out for his date with you.

Word Count: 2,566

Warnings: No TFATWS spoilers here, Bucky being charming (hence the title) is a warning in itself

A/N: Ahhh you guys, thank you for all the love for Charm! I didn’t expect for that oneshot to receive so much love from everyone. Can’t thank y’all enough!!! For those who haven’t read it yet, make sure to do so before reading this!

Charm (Part 1) || MAIN MASTERLIST

Bucky nervously waited outside of your apartment building. He made sure to plan really well for this date, he didn’t want to mess up. He really liked talking to you and he wanted you to enjoy this day.

“Okay, I’m ready!” You announced as you stepped out of the building, jogging downstairs to approach him.

You looked excited, Bucky noticed. Okay, that’s good. He’s off to a good start. He found himself smiling at you, admiring this light and bright aura that radiated off of you. He could use a little light in his life and it might be too soon for Bucky to even consider it, but you seemed like the perfect girl to him.

“Hi.” Bucky greeted. “You look beautiful.” He said, eyeing you from head to toe.

Bucky’s confidence grew when your cheeks turned pink at his compliment. You thanked him and let your eyes fall to his left arm, making Bucky instantly regret his decision to forego the gloves. He should’ve worn his jacket on top of his blue henley. All his worries though eventually dissipated when you reassured him.

“Glad you aren’t wearing your gloves, it looked really uncomfortable.” You told him genuinely.

Bucky shyly let out a chuckle, “Yeah.”

“So, to the park?” You asked excitedly.

Bucky made a face, “Actually, I thought of changing our plans a bit. Hope that’s alright?” He asked hopefully.

You narrowed your eyes at him as you nodded, “Hmm, that sounds interesting. Alright then, what do you got?”

Embarrassment filled Bucky’s entire being when he whipped out a folded piece of paper from his back pocket. He glanced at you and watched your expression as he unfolded it, revealing it to be the size of a bond paper where he had written down his agenda for the day.

“Oh wow, that’s...very interesting.” You pointed out but with no malice. In fact, you were impressed.

Who would’ve thought that guys nowadays came to a date prepared? But then again, Bucky wasn’t from this time but truly appreciated how old-fashioned he still was.

Bucky rubbed his neck, “I made an itinerary but saying that out loud, it actually sounds terrible.”

“Not at all!” You were quick to defend. “I like a well-planned day. I’m not really the spontaneous type so this really works well for me.” You chuckled.

Bucky bit his lip to stop himself from smiling too wide. It seemed like the date would go pretty well, he hoped it’d last the entire day though. He couldn’t help but worry that something might happen that would throw you off. Or that he might end up saying things that you’d find offensive.

“What’s first on the itinerary?” You asked.

-

“I got a strike!” You squealed in excitement and pumped your first in the air.

Bucky took you to a bowling place and honestly, he didn’t expect for you to be so excited about it. He felt silly for outdoing himself for this first date. In fact, he researched about dating in the modern day the moment he got home after meeting you. The tips were very different, some of which he wasn’t comfortable doing. So instead of adjusting to the present, Bucky stayed true to himself.

He was going to do it his own way, no matter how traditional it seemed. This led him to writing down his ideas on a piece of paper and planning everything out properly.

“Looks like I won.” You smirked, seeing the scores flash on the television hanging on the ceiling. “Did you go easy on me? Tell me the truth, Bucky.” You warned as you looked at him suspiciously.

Bucky chortled and shook his head, “I didn’t. It’s been decades since the last time I did this so I got pretty rusty at it.” He explained.

“You ready to grab something to eat?” He asked, checking the time and seeing that it was close to three in the afternoon.

You nodded enthusiastically, “I’m starving! I mean, beating a super soldier at bowling can be really exhausting.” You teased.

Bucky smiled, “Great, but can we stop by somewhere first?”

-

Bucky felt proud at himself when he saw the astonished look in your face.

“Oh my god, is this...?” You asked, eyeing the car that Bucky drove out of a car rental shop.

“A 1942 Pontiac Torpedo.” Bucky boasted before stepping out of the car and leading you towards the front seat.

Bucky waited for you to slip in, your expression still that of utter disbelief, before closing the door and walking around to ride back inside.

“And it’s the convertible one.” He said proudly and laughed at your reaction when he brought down the roof.

“I have no words for this, Bucky. This is amazing!” You exclaimed, running your hands on the compartment and just taking in the beautiful interiors of the vintage car.

Bucky watched you with a soft look in his eyes. He felt kind of selfish for gloating at the fact that this date only proved to himself that he still is James Buchanan Barnes. Despite decades of torture and brainwashing as the Winter Soldier, he still had pieces of himself left.

But seeing you so giddy at the date that he poured so much effort in? Maybe he wasn’t so selfish after all.

“And where will you be taking us next for you to rent this lovely vehicle? I honestly don’t know what to expect after this. I’m just...I love it!” You laughed, unable to hide your excitement.

“We’re having burgers and milkshakes.” Bucky announced.

-

Bucky wanted you to experience what it was like dating in his time, so it was only right that he took you to a diner. But it wasn’t just the regular one, he took you to a drive-in diner where waitresses even wore roller derby skates.

“You just keep on outdoing yourself, Bucky. I’m speechless!” You laughed.

The waitress rolled by your car and took your orders. After she left, there was finally a moment of peace which allowed you and Bucky to have an actual conversation.

“Did you often hang out in one of these places then?” You asked.

Bucky smiled at the memories, “Yeah, used to take Steve with me. He always ended up getting mad whenever he realized that it was a set-up for a double date.”

You hummed in amusement. “You seemed really popular with the ladies, huh?”

Bucky chuckled timidly before letting out a sigh. He turned to you curiously and creased his forehead, “Why didn’t you tell me you knew who I was?” He finally asked.

You seemed surprised at his question but your features softened up almost immediately. Shrugging as if it was no big deal, you told him that you really didn’t feel the need to do so.

“Would it change anything if I told you I knew who you were?” You curiously asked.

Bucky thought for a brief moment, “I probably would’ve excused myself and left.”

“That’s what I thought.” You said. “You seemed comfortable then, I didn’t want to overwhelm you by bringing it up. Besides, I really don’t care about it. I mean, I had fun talking to you and that’s all that matters to me. Superhero or not, I do enjoy your company.”

Bucky snickered, “I don’t think superhero is the right word.”

“You’ll be surprised that a lot of people call you that.” You said, placing a hand on Bucky’s arm, squeezing it to offer him comfort.

Bucky loosened up at your touch and kept his gaze lingering on how your fingers were wrapped around his arm.

“There’s this one kid at the orphanage I volunteer at,” you said, letting go of Bucky’s arm as you adjusted your position in the car so you could turn to him. Bucky almost missed the warmth from your hand on his skin.

“I asked them to draw someone they looked up to and this is his work.” You said, bringing out your phone to show Bucky a photo of the drawing.

Bucky’s breath hitched when you handed him your phone, revealing that the kid drew a man with long brown hair and a metal arm. He used black and gold to color the metal arm, not silver. It didn’t even have the red star on it. When Bucky looked up at you, he saw the most genuine smile he had ever seen.

“I asked him why he chose you and he said that he liked how Captain America’s best friend fought alongside him. For a kid his age, he knew a lot about your history too. He’s a huge fan.” You laughed.

Bucky’s eyes almost brimmed with tears. He was unable to believe that a kid would look up to him, consider him a superhero. All this time he had been seeing himself as a villain still, the bad guy. Someone who would have a hard time redeeming himself. You made him think twice about it, that maybe he had been too harsh on himself.

“You should come with me to the orphanage some time. The kids will love you, Bucky. It’s not that hard to do so.” You said softly, lifting your hand up to fix a strand of Bucky’s hair that was out of place.

It was a beautiful moment between the two of you. Bucky felt vulnerable but safe, like you’d keep him safe. Not from danger but from his very own destructive thoughts. Whenever he loses control of his mind, whenever it wanders into the darkest parts of his past, Bucky tends to self-destruct. And he almost wandered there but you were quick to pull him back to the surface.

“What are you thinking of?” You asked when you noticed that Bucky was just staring at you.

Bucky’s gaze fell onto your lips and then back at your eyes, “Thinking about whether I should just go for it now.”

“Go for what?” You blinked.

Bucky slowly leaned in but was immediately startled when the waitress arrived with your orders.

-

After the diner, Bucky drove to the park where the two of you walked around while talking about well, anything. He learned more about you and this time, he didn’t have to lie about anything whenever you asked him. In fact, Bucky got really comfortable opening up about his life in the 40’s, he even talked about his family.

The two of you talked more until the sun set and the next thing you knew was that Bucky brought you to a drive-in theater and bought pizza to cap off the date.

-

It was a little past ten in the evening when Bucky drove you home. He opened the car door for you and nervously fidgeted with the piece of paper in his back pocket.

“So did you tick off everything on the itinerary?” You asked.

Bucky let out the fakest laugh because no, he hasn’t ticked off everything on his list. There was one more thing that he planned to do at the very end of the date. He had been confident about it, especially after how much you enjoyed the date in its entirety. But, now standing outside your apartment building and staring at you nervously, he wasn’t sure whether he had enough courage to pull this off.

“I uhh...well...” Bucky stammered. “Did you enjoy?” He asked again, just to be sure.

“I am offended that you had to ask because I thought my face was unable to hide at how much I did!” You laughed.

“Thank you for giving me the 1940s experience. I love it. I really do, it’s...it’s been a while since I last went on a date that I really enjoyed.” You shyly admitted, biting your lip and looking up at Bucky through your lashes.

Bucky’s breath got caught in his throat as he gazed down at you. You looked really beautiful, no matter how simple you looked. He wanted to take you out to another date, maybe tomorrow. Or the next day perhaps, actually, Bucky wanted to be with you every single day.

You were so kind and bubbly, you offered so much light to his darkness. He loved how your hopeful attitude rubbed off on him, he badly needed it. And he loved how you made him feel...himself. He was just Bucky Barnes, a guy navigating through the modern times and finding his place in this world. And it would seem like an easy task with you by his side.

“Well, I guess this is it.” You said. “Thanks again, Bucky. I really did enjoy.”

Bucky was surprised when you stepped closer to him for a hug. Feeling your arms wrap around his waist and your hair brush against his chin gave him the boost of confidence he needed to finally check off the last on his date itinerary.

By the time he convinced himself to do it, you already stepped back and bid Bucky good night.

Bucky proved to himself the other night that he still has his charm from back then. And tonight, he was going to prove that his charm was going to sweep you off of your feet.

“Wait, one last thing.” Bucky said, reaching out for your wrist.

He tugged you forward making you squeal, and then wrapped his metal arm around your waist before swooping you down for a kiss.

Bucky wasn’t sure how you would react to his kiss but he could no longer hold himself back. It could either make or break his friendship with you, but Bucky just had to. And it wasn’t just to prove something to himself, he’d been wanting to kiss you all throughout the day. He would have already, at the diner, if only the waitress didn’t interrupt his little moment with you.

He almost panicked when your lips remained still, but it all went away when he felt your hands wrap around his shoulders before finally kissing him back. Bucky’s lips curled into a smile against yours as he slowly straightened, bringing you back up before pulling away.

You panted against his lips, your hands sliding down to rest on Bucky’s chest as his landed on your hips.

“Was that...was that a part of your list?” You breathlessly asked.

“Yes. Almost went for it at the diner but I guess the universe wanted for me to stick to the schedule.” He grinned.

You threw your head back in laughter, “So that’s what you meant by that!”

Bucky laughed in agreement and held your face in his metal hand, noticing how you weren’t thrown off. Instead, you turned your face to even press a kiss on his palm.

“Was I too fast? Kissing you on the first date?” He asked, caressing your face.

You shook your head, “You did wait until the end of the date to do so, I guess your timing was just right.”

“And...how was it?” Bucky meekly asked, almost afraid that he might have sucked given that this was his first kiss in decades.

Smiling, you leaned in again to give him a quick peck on the lips. A reassurance, something to melt Bucky’s worries away.

“What can I say? James Bucky Barnes, you are one charming man.”

Now, Bucky was a hundred percent sure that he still has it in him. And he made a mental note to boast to Yori how his first date with you went.

-

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Some tags aren’t walking ugh I’m so sorry to all those that tumblr failed to tag!

[dourpeep]

Omfg I hate burning my tongue. I made some cookies recently, and got impatient… I’m sure you know what happens next

BRO THAT ALBEDO FANART HNNNNNNNNGH honestly, soft dudes with a more alternative/grunge-y style are honestly my weakness (despite wearing very bright and cute clothes—think decora kei but not as hardcore). But dammit tattoo artist!Bedo brainrot

Just, you go to his shop, wanting to just inform yourself and so on, but you leave with an entire tat on your ankle because the artist’s lil sis told you that “big bro makes reaaaaaally pretty pictures! And he’s so nice, you will love him!” And oh boy, we’re you enamored, and not only with the quick sketch he presented you when you told him what you had in mind.

You needed a mini job anyways, and ask whether you can help out around the shop since 1. The atmosphere is nice and the place is close to yours and 2. Hello? Cute ass colleague? However, your small aesthetic crush morphed into full on pining after seeing Albedo being so soft around his sis, and creating beautiful designs inspired by every customers liking 24/7.

Nonetheless, you were getting confused by him. Was he into you, or why did he buy you a coffee when you came in that morning, with the sweetest note attached to it? Why did he go out of his way to quell all your curiosities (big brain = hot)? Why does he gaze at you with those soft teal orbs, when you haven’t been close for this long yet?

His acquaintances muse that he’s generally a clueless guy when it comes to relationships, whether they are platonic or romantic, and he does tend to give off wrong signals because of that. So far, he rejected everyone who came at him with a gentle smile, apologizing for his tactlessness.

And yet, you could feel that there’s more to it in your case… but you didn’t wanna stick your head in the clouds and get the wrong idea. However, Klee is right there to tell you just how much he’s been talking about you! She ends up asking him whether you can go home with them, because she really wants you to bake for her (one of the single skills that Albedo was not blessed with), and there, as you three stand in the kitchen….

“I’ve never heard big bro talk so much about anyone before… I’m glad big bro likes you soooo much! I really want a big sis!”

Hehe, this is so cute, fuck. I want a bf now :(((

I agree anon, I too long for a significant other-

Kinda.

I think it'd be nice to have someone to cuddle and smooch, though.

And I agree--I'm so weak for soft dudes with grungy vibes Xiao. Like...seeming tough?? Being tough?? But also having a gentle and sweet personality? Please, sign me up.

I personally dress in comfy sweaters + skirts or grunge (but pretty loosely so). There's no in-between.

Wait also might I have a cookie?

I love the idea of Klee basically just hanging out at the shop too hahaha, leave it to Albedo to have both a very steady hand and be responsible enough to take care of an active little girl while working. Props to him, that's for sure. It'd also be cute if the customers can have her pick their tattoo-

Dodoco would unintentionally become a 'thing' at the shop.

That being said, Albedo as your boss (but, as always, please just call him Albedo. You're around the same age anyway and this is a small family-owned place, after all)? He'd be attentive and rather sweet.

Considering that he already does hold a soft spot towards people and their little habits, the seemingly small moments of joy that spark and the smiles that refuse to leave his customer's faces when they see the nearly finished product--it's not entirely surprising. It's hard to miss the smile on his own face.

Albedo would often give you longer breaks, too. While the tattoo parlor is popular, the foot traffic is low, so there's only ever a customer or two getting worked on at a time along with a few curious peeks now and then.

Not to mention, the artist is also quite the skilled chef. The breakfast sandwich he brought in for breakfast? He made himself.

Of course the coffee he bought on his way in.

Because he usually goes right to sketching and prepping the workspace, he'll always leave the tasty morsels and coffee (or whatever beverage you prefer, to your specifications) right on the counter in the front so you can see it when you walk in for the day.

And as always, there's his name signed with his signature 'solar isotoma' (it's what he calls it, at least) detailing that he took care of breakfast for you and that he hopes you enjoy the simple meal he's prepped this time around.

Things go pretty well for the first few weeks of working!

Lots of satisfied customers, playing with Klee in the shop's downtime, conversing with Albedo, or just sitting in silence. You've noticed that he asks quite a bit about your likes and dislikes. Though...you just assume it's because he's not the best conversationalist.

After all, while he's incredibly attractive and his charm is undeniable, the man struggles to strike conversations with his clients and opts for encouraging them to take the reins.

Not to mention the cute blush on his cheeks and gently worded declinations he's had to do often--

You wonder if he's already seeing someone.

Honestly, standing in the kitchen in his apartment should've made you realize how dense you are yourself.

Especially when Albedo is right besides you, elbows nearly touching as you walk through the steps of making a cake with him. His hands are covered in various amounts of flour and batter after a little mishap and Klee is eagerly peeking over the countertop.

Though he's dressed down in a plain tee and sweatpants, his hair down and much longer than you expected, you can still sense the way he's so very concentrated on the task at hand. Like he doesn't want to mess it up. It's cute.

When the cake is finally in the oven, Klee speaks up with her face and hands pressed against the viewing window.

"Big brother likes you soooooo much!"

And suddenly, when your eyes meet wide teal ones, it clicks.

His sweet notes and breakfast on him, the several careful sketches of you placed alongside the ones he does of his clients, how he often invites you over to his apartment over the weekends and after work.

Albedo finds himself shyly looking away for the first time.

When the cake is done, the three of you have indulged in the deliciously sweet snack, you help him clean up while Klee goes off to watch a show on the tv.

He's hesitant, visibly so.

"Would you..." Shutting off the water, he pats his wet hands on the front of his shirt. Under the bright florescent of the overhead lights, his eyes seem to shine. "Perhaps like to join me tomorrow on a date?"

[restapesta]

8 for the sentence starters? 🥺

"You're angry."

Ian looks up from where he's staring daggers into his phone. They're sitting at their kitchen table, across from one another, and there's a crease between his eyebrows followed by a slight downturn of his lips.

And even though this may just be concentration in some people's eyes, to Mickey they're the telltale signs when it comes to understating his husband.

Mickey's taken his sweet time studying Ian Gallagher and all his moods. After ten years of sharing their lives together, being in each other's space, and the silent observing of his partner, he's learned to know all of Ian's expressions and what they entail. These days, there was rarely a mood swing that went by and didn't get caught on Mickey's radar, big or small.

If it were a profession, Mickey would have been an Ian Gallagher expert.

Which is why Mickey knows, for a fact, Ian is angry.

"What are you talking about?" Ian snaps out of his thoughts and asks. It doesn't even matter that his question is rebutted by the constant glancing towards his phone.

Mickey makes a face, one Ian will know how to fucking read. It's the are you kidding me? face. Ian gets those a lot. "You're literally glaring at that poor phone. What's up?"

Ian rolls his eyes.

"I'm not glaring," He says while attempting—that's the key word here—to pocket the said phone into his hoodie, biting at his lower lip.

The hand that's holding the device is gripped tightly around it, and Ian's eyes keep drifting towards the thing as if he's waiting for it to light up and reveal the answer to his biggest worry.

He isn't just angry, Mickey can tell now—he's anxious too.

And as much as angry Ian makes Mickey's chest swell with pride and other things when it's directed at other people that just happened to do something so infuriating they elicited Ian Gallagher's hefty rage; frustrates him to no end when it's aimed at his poor ass—there's just something so worrying to Mickey about this. Fucking anxiety.

Why would Ian be anxious? Why does he keep staring at where his phone is, keeping his fingers wrapped around the screen, even though it's stuffed deep inside his pocket?

Mickey thumbs at his nose. "You get a weird text or something?" He asks nonchalantly.

Well, at least he tries to.

Ian raises an eyebrow at him. Fuck, Mickey should've figured Ian knows all his signs too, goddamn it. The word WORRIED is probably painted across his forehead in bold letters.

He breathes out deeply through his nose and decides to be fucking level. "What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Let me see your phone."

"Why would you need to see my phone?" Ian shoots back, slightly shifting away in his seat.

"Why won't you let me see your phone?"

"Are we that couple now, Mickey? With no privacy?"

He's the one to talk.

"You took a shit while I was in the shower this morning, Ian. You have no concept of what privacy is."

"Hey, shut up, you got used to it in prison."

"I hated it."

"Well, I hated yours, too," Ian mumbles lowly.

"Don't try to distract me. Phone."

"Uh, no?"

"Ian."

"It's not a big deal, okay?"

Mickey knows for a fact that's not true if this resistance is anything to show for it.

"Look man," He says. "I don't even know what it is you're angry or worried about but I can already fucking tell you, it is a big fucking deal."

Ian scoffs, but his eyes are still not meeting Mickey's. "How? I'm literally fine."

"Ian," He grips his husband's chin, forcing him to look him dead in the eye. "I know you better than you know yourself. It's obviously a big fucking deal."

Ian stares at him slightly wide-eyed before redness overcomes his cheeks. He leans out of Mickey's grip, and with a flicker of gaze towards Mickey, he casts it down to the floor, pulling his hand with the phone tentatively out of the pocket so it sits on the table between them.

"It's," He sighs, looking everywhere besides at Mickey. "It's not that big of a deal, really. I just—"

Mickey picks up the phone as he lets Ian find the right words for it. He turns the screen on and types in the passcode—Mickey's fucking birthday, like the sap he is—before his eyes meet the headline of a goddamn news article.

--

PRIDE MONTH, YOUTH CENTERS, GAY JESUS + MORE

Head of the LGBTQIA+ Youth Center, Trevor H., speaks up about pride in Chicago, Gay Jesus movement, future plans, and more in the article below.

--

Gay Jesus? Mickey looks up at Ian.

This former Gay Jesus in front of him?

"What the fuck is this?" He asks, confused. Who's Trevor H. and why is he talking about Gay Jesus? Why is he talking about Ian, years after the whole disaster even occurred?

What the fuck?

"A former groupie of mine sent me the link to this article," Ian runs a hand through his hair. "Turns out my ex did an interview for this article. There's a whole section about me, apparently."

Mickey looks down at the article. Ignores the ex part. Looks back up again. "What does it say?"

"I don't know. Haven't read it."

"Why?"

Ian shrugs. "Don't feel like it." He fiddles with the skin around his thumb.

Well.

If Ian won't, Mickey will.

He scrolls through the article until Gay Jesus popes up, somewhere around question 12.

Ian's pseudonym only appears after a long discussion about how June of 2021 was a turning point for many young people in Illinois, now that social media was playing a greater role in LGBTQ+ exposure.

Mickey was kind of surprised to find his eyes linger on certain passages, reading through them, then hurriedly skimming others once he remembered that Ian was waiting for him expectantly.

There it is, Gay Jesus, halfway through the article.

Mickey clears his throat to read it aloud, but Ian stops him by snatching the phone out of his hand and placing it back onto the table. He scoots over with his chair so both he and Mickey can read it simultaneously.

There's silence as their eyes scan over the words.

--

12. What's your opinion on the Gay Jesus movement that occurred a few years back?

- The Gay Jesus movement was, in my opinion, a good goal with a poorly conceived plan. Its founder was unmedicated at the time, but his intentions were pure, as long as I'm concerned. Conversion therapy is still a large problem in our city, and [Gay Jesus] bit off more than he could chew with it. Ian Gallagher did his time for the incident, and I know that he is probably making a better life for himself now. , the Gay Jesus movement will evolve into something better, with a lot more love, and a lot less violence, which always has been the goal.

Have you spoken with him recently? Any new protests coming up after the years long hiatus?

- Thankfully, no. [chuckles] But I have heard through the grapevine that he's doing well. Out and proud, married, and I hope happy. I believe that's all of the support from Gay Jesus we need—simply the knowledge that sometimes we need to help ourselves first before we try to help others.

--

Ian exhales the second he's finished reading Trevor's answers and slumps back in his chair.

Relief is evident in his features.

"You know," Mickey says after a few seconds of silence. "he just said the truth."

Ian nods, releasing a shaky breath. "Yeah, I honestly expected it to be worse."

"Worse? Ian, what you did was just as wrong as it wasn't. There's nothing bad about wanting to help people."

"I know."

"Then why are you still sad?"

Ian looks up at him suddenly. "How do you know if I'm fucking sad or not?"

"Dumbass, I know you."

Ian groans. "It's creepy."

"That I know you?"

"That you can read me so fucking well."

Mickey smiles up at him, then stands up and comfortably settles himself down onto Ian's lap. Ian's hands go around Mickey's waist almost immediately. The position is gay as fuck, but it feels fucking right.

"This is not something to be angry or sad about, you know?"

Ian sighs. "I guess you're right."

Mickey palms his cheeks and presses a kiss to his lips. "If you read between the lines, that ex of yours is basically saying he supports Gay Jesus."

Ian snorts. "Sure."

"You're really popular, being in a news article and shit."

Ian bites his lip to stop from smiling. Mickey grins himself and pushes on.

"You're sort of a celebrity."

His husband cracks up at that and the two of them laugh about the whole thing as the phone lays discarded at the table.

It wasn't the bad thing Ian thought it would be.

Mickey may not have been there during the Gay Jesus thing, but he's here now, and he still knows Ian better than he knows himself.

And, if he trusts all the knowledge of Ian Gallagher he's gained throughout the years, then he knows Ian's happy right now.

Mickey intends to keep it that way.

[limv3000]

I don’t know about y’all but I don’t exactly get Naruto and Hinata, Sasuke and Sakura’s relationship.

Naruto realized his feelings for Hinata in one movie. Literally after a whole goddamn show was about him chasing his ‘best friend’ and being willing to die for him. Yeah, Naruto cares about hinata and would risk his life for her too, but then again he would do that for anyone. If Hinata had left in OG Naruto, he would probably chase after her but for the sakes of Kiba and Shino. If y’all remember that time when he had to make Kurenai come back and be their Sensei, that’s the type of thing he would do with Hinata (in my opinion).

Even though Naruto had made a promise to get back Sasuke for Sakura, when she had called it off and told him to stop chasing, he still went for it, because he loves him. ALSO, let’s not forget when he literally had a mf heart attack because everyone was giving up on Sasuke. Naruto literally ignored and pushed away everyone just so he can get sasuke. He calls Sasuke his bestie and then forgets about Shikamaru, Choji like, even that annoys me. Shikamaru has literally never judged Naruto, ever. For Sasuke though it’s a different story.

I don’t think Naruto is gay for Sasuke, but Sasuke is gay for Naruto. Obviously I think Naruto loves Sasuke more that just a best friend though. Sasuke calls Naruto his first real friend, and I get that. After Itachi killed his clan, Sasuke was alone and Naruto was the only one who noticed it. In OG Naruto, Sakura had a crush on Sasuke because he was cool, smart, and handsome. She never actually knew who Sasuke was, or what happened. She literally was talking shit about an orphan in front of an orphan. No one does that. Sasuke has never even acknowledged any girls, only Naruto. He’s risked his life and goal for Naruto, he could’ve died knowing that he never got revenge, all for Naruto’s dumbass

I also don’t think Naruto ever had any true feelings for Sakura and was only jealous of Sasuke for getting so much attention. He was also yearning for attention and for someone to acknowledge him, and yeah after Sasuke had left Naruto still was asking Sakura in dates but I just think he simply got used to it. He sacrificed a lot for Sakura, and all for her to ignore and turn him down. Don’t get me wrong Sakura is an ok character, just not some of her choices and behaviors through out the show. Mf literally, accidentally called her ugly.

Now I’ve heard people say “Sasuke tried killing Naruto so many times though”…… it’s like they forgot that he’s tried killing Sakura, Kakashi, Karin, and the whole mf village. He tried killing Naruto because his bro Itachi said that it was necessary for him to gain the Mangekyo Sharingan, and apparently that was the only way to beat Itachi and kill him. He tried killing Sakura because she was in the way, and that she was ‘annoying’. He tried killing the Village because he wanted to avenge Itachi and yeah at that moment, Naruto was in the way and he was blinded by the fact he needed to avenge his clan and brother

People act like Sakura was the one who brought him back and knocked some mf sense into him, no she didn’t. Literally when Naruto and Sasuke had fought he seen Naruto, his memories, and everything about him. Sasuke had seen that Naruto has always had Sasuke in his heart, and he felt bad. He realized why Naruto did everything he did and why Sasuke meant so much to him, he cried when he realized that Naruto was actually a good friend and who were the only people to make Sasuke cry? Itachi and Naruto. Who was the most important person to Sasuke? Itachi. Who reminded Sasuke of Itachi? Naruto.

There’s is just so much things that don’t makes sense. Like, I honestly think they should’ve been together in the end. I think that they didn’t make Naruto like that is because

1) they wanted Boruto

2) fans would be angry and Naruto wouldn’t have been as popular

3) hate.

I honestly think that Hinata and Kiba would have been a great couple. They’ve had more chemistry, moments, and time together than Hinata and Naruto. I honestly don’t know what’s to say about Sasuke and Sakura, like what? He just came back and decided to love Sakura and have a kid? I think the only reason that SasSaku is cannon is because Sasuke wanted to revive the Uchiha clan. What other reason to love Sakura? I fr think that she should’ve at least have Rock-lee a chance. He was a gentleman and is always willing to protect Sakura. Also Neji shouldn’t have died, but that conversations for another time.

I think you all should share your opinions on this, and tell me what you think.

THIS IS NOT A NaruHina AND SasuSaku HATE POST

[no-pucks-given]

TYSON JOST | LIGHT MY WAY HOME

A/N: More than 12.000 words later, more than a month after the initial request from Taylor popped up in my notifications. What a freaking ride. My longest fic I've ever written, and maybe even my favourite one. Thank you, to everyone who hyped me up, send me inspo and send me sweet asks. I couldn't have done this without all of you. Special thanks to @dumb-and-dunner, @chicagoblackhawkslover96, @heybarzy and Chrissy (who doesn't have Tumblr unfortunately).

Warnings: Angst, ‘can I strangle him yet?’ Tyson, swearwords, some major character development and (how could I not?!) a happy ending.

Also: Gabe and Melissa Landeskog play a big part in this fic, so if you aren't comfortable with them, you might want to skip this one.

Word Count: 12.1K

Requested: Yes.

The NHL lifestyle, or the ‘popular’ lifestyle was attractive to all young, hormonal boys. You’d known that for a long time. You stood by Tyson’s side when he got drafted into the wicked world of the NHL. Parties, drinking, sex, training until you can barely move, fights, games, wins and losses. It all had it’s charms, but it also had its dangers. Just like any other guy Tyson wanted to experience it all, the whole package,

You assumed you fell under that ‘whole package’, you were his girlfriend for a reason, right? And you did, for a while. You partied together, came home together, did everything together. But the moment Tyson became older and ‘known’ outside the regular hockey fans, that title didn’t mean much anymore. He became more and more the type of guy you didn’t fall in love with, the type to take you for granted, the type to enjoy the attention of other people, other women in particular. You weren’t the jealous type, you didn’t want to claw out the eyes of every woman that looked at him, but you were at a breaking point. Maybe you were jealous, you weren’t jealous of those other women, you were jealous of the attention Tyson gave them. Attention he should’ve been giving to you, his freaking girlfriend.

You were however the loyal type, the type to come home after a long night. And that’s exactly where things went wrong with Tyson. While you were waiting for him at home with a meal, a warm bed or just simply anything else, he was out. You had no idea where he was exactly, he was simply ‘out’, whatever that might mean. You tried to talk to him, you tried to make him see that this wouldn’t end well for either of you, but he simply waved off your concerns, shrugged his shoulders and moved on.

How do you talk to someone who rediscovered himself? How do you talk to someone who thinks he’s on top of the world? How do you save someone from the downfall of success when they don’t want to be saved? You knew one day he’ll come down from this high, one day he’ll realize that he screwed up. One day he’ll come to the conclusion he let something special slip through his fingers, and for what? Fame? Drinks? A rush of adrenaline? One day. But you knew that it wouldn’t be today.

However today is the day that you’re done. Absolutely fed up with all the bullshit excuses Tyson has been feeding you, all the coming home late or not even coming home at all. You have no idea what he’s been up to these last months, he’s barely home. Even when he’s home it’s like he isn’t really there. You can’t even remember the last time the two of you slept together or the last time you actually went to bed at the same time. Breakfast together? A lifetime ago. A lazy day together? Can’t remember. Date night? Months, months ago. Even thinking about it pisses you off to no end, the pain and hurt slowly making place for a new emotion: anger.

It’s frustrating to say the least. You love and take care of him like he means the world to you, and he does. Tyson on the other hand seems to take you for granted, or forgets you’re here at all. It seems like you’re talking to a brick wall instead of your boyfriend. No matter how hard you try, your words have no impact, your tears don’t make him feel anything. It’s like he’s a totally different person. You barely recognize him anymore these days, he feels like a stranger inside the body of the man you love. It feels like you’re both living your life, besides each other instead of with each other. It hurts, that’s for sure.

Like any other day you’ve prepared dinner, put it on the table and sat down on one of the chairs. All you can do now is wait, wait and pray he’ll show up this time. You even texted him, begged him to come home and simply eat dinner with you for a change. Of course you didn’t get a response, of course it’s complete radio silence from his side. God, you were desperate at this point, you don’t even try to deny it.

With every passing minute your hope disappears little by little. You stare at the food on the table until it’s completely dark outside, no sign of Tyson. Hours passed and you barely noticed it, it isn’t until you try to stand up and your muscles ache from sitting in the same position for a long time that you realize how much time actually has passed. “Fuck this, why am I even trying anymore?” you mutter to yourself, shaking your head. This isn’t worth it, it hasn’t been for a long time. Maybe, just maybe you’re finally ready to admit it to yourself.

Deciding to choose yourself over Tyson is a major decision, one you probably should’ve made sooner. It doesn’t matter, what does matter is that you’re choosing you now. You make the split second decision to just grab your stuff, just the necessary stuff. You remember Gabe’s offer, at the time you waved it off with a smile, pretending it wasn’t as bad as it might look to the outside world, but now? You want nothing more than to take him up on his offer. So what’s stopping you?

Even though you were excruciating calm this whole time, the moment you step into your bedroom, or Tyson’s bedroom, you break. This is real, this is really happening. You grab your bags, filling them with some of your stuff. Some clothes, some toiletries, your makeup, everything you might need. It’s a tough job, it’s even harder when you almost can’t see past the tears. At some point you lose track of things you did and didn’t grab, just shoving random items into your bag.

You let out a frustrated sigh, your body sinking down on the floor. In your hands the box containing all your high school love letters, all the small gifts you made each other. Tyson was quite handy, who would’ve thought that? You smile at the memories, sorting through the box. You frown at the feeling surging through your body, is this how heartbreak feels? Looking down at the contents of the box you sigh, wiping away the tears streaming down your face. Why couldn’t life be as simple as it used to be? It shouldn’t be this hard, right? You grab your prom picture between your fingers, smiling sadly at the two people in the picture, both smiling like they just won the lottery, both utterly in love with the other. How time can change..

You throw the box on the bed, maybe it will remind Tyson what the two of you had was special, maybe he’ll realize what he’s about to lose. If it doesn’t, well, it’s his loss. Hauling your bags downstairs is a full workout, you intended to bring ‘just the essentials’ but you have way more important stuff than you originally thought. You aren’t planning on returning to this house any time soon.

Shutting the car door after you loaded in your stuff gives you some form of relief. You let out the breath you’ve been holding in. You made your decision, it’s time to follow through now. You make your way back inside, and into the kitchen. Cleaning up all leftovers from dinner, which obviously is a lot more than you expected. Although.. did you really think he would show up? You shake your head again, putting the leftovers into the fridge. After you finish the dishes you retreat back to the living room, falling down on the couch with a loud sigh. All you can do now is wait.

You could’ve just left and never look back, but that isn’t your style. If you’re going to leave, you’ll do it the right way. You won’t leave without giving him a piece of mind, letting him know he fucked this up for good. You try to focus on the movie playing on the screen, but your heart keeps beating harder and harder, at this point you wish you would’ve just left instead of waiting for Tyson to show up. God, why did you have to do it the right way? Because you know, deep down, you would’ve wanted him to do it the same way. It’s the humane thing to do, it’s only right after spending such a long time together.

The front door opening brings you out of your thoughts. Honestly you don’t even know what time it is, but frankly you don’t care. All you want right now is to get this off your chest and leave. Tyson’s eyes widen when he comes face-to-face with you, surprisingly he doesn’t seem that intoxicated. You suspected he went out, but at this point he could’ve been anywhere.

“You’re still up,” Tyson says, walking past you and flopping down on the couch.

“Yep, and you missed dinner,” you counter, crossing your arms. Tyson simply shrugs his shoulder, clearly not caring enough to explain his absence. “I texted you to make sure you would be here,” you say, even though you know it doesn’t make a difference.

“Yeah, I was busy,” Tyson answers, looking down at his phone.

You almost feel the need to chuckle, to start laughing at his stupid behavior, but this is anything but funny to you, it fucking hurts. “I’m done, Tyson. I’m fucking done,” you say, shaking your head, trying so hard to keep the tears away.

Tyson looks at you with dull eyes, no emotion visible on his face. “Then go to fucking bed, I really can’t deal with your problems right now,” he sighs, turning his head back to the phone in his hand.

Right now, at this moment you know you made the right decision. This isn’t behavior of someone who’s in love, this isn’t even behavior of someone who loves. “You don’t have to deal with me anymore, because I’m leaving. I’m done, we’re done,” you tell him, emphasizing the last part. Tyson’s eyes shoot to yours, the panic clearly written all over his face now.

“No, we’re not. You can’t break up with me, y/n!” he almost shouts at you, standing up from the couch.

“Yes, I can and I will. You don’t get to act like you care all of the sudden, Tyson. You haven’t acted like a boyfriend in months. You haven’t given me any reason to stay, so I won’t. I’m done with whatever this is,” you say, waving between the two of you. Tyson grabs your wrist, tears starting to pool in his eyes. He opens his mouth to say something but you cut him off. “No. No. You don’t get to do this. It’s over. You put on quite a show, but I can’t say it was very entertaining. This curtain fucking closes right now, show is over. You can act like you care, but I know by now that you don’t,” you tell him, ripping your arm out of his grip.

You walk over to the front door, keeping your head high. Now is not the time to break down, your time will come. You hear Tyson behind you, muttering how sorry he is, excuse after excuse leave his mouth. You open the door, turning around one last time to look at Tyson. “Don’t tell me you’re sorry, ‘cause you’re not,” you say while shaking your head. You close the door behind you, not looking back at what you’ve left behind, only looking forward to what’s yet to come.

It’s when you’re in your car mindlessly driving around when you realize you have nowhere to go. You forgot to call Gabe, and it’s probably way too late now. You quickly check the time, 2am, shit that’s late. You doubt he’s still awake, you feel bad for even thinking about waking him up. Two young children, both of them under the age of 2, and being a professional hockey player probably cost him enough energy already, you don’t need to add to that. “He did say I could always call him when I made my decision,” you say out loud, more to convince yourself that it’s okay than anything else.

You easily find Gabe’s contact, immediately pressing the dial button before you change your mind again. The line only rings twice before Gabe picks up. “I’m guessing you either finally broke up with him or there’s a fire somewhere,” Gabe says from the other side of the line. You chuckle, shaking your head. “And since you’re calling me and not the fire department, my guess is on the first one,” Gabe continues, trying to make you smile some more.

“I did it, I broke up with him, couldn’t stand to be there any second longer,” you sigh, brushing your fingers through your hair.

You hear Gabe’s sigh of relief. “I’m proud of you, y/n. I know this isn’t what you had in mind, but it’s better like this, I promise.”

Gabe turned into one of your best friends over time, Melissa is the older sister you never had and you love their children like they’re your own. Gabe and Melissa welcomed you into their family immediately after meeting you. You hadn’t expected to make friends and you definitely didn’t expect to make friends with the captain and his wife, but you’re so grateful you did. The support you receive from them is overwhelming, you couldn’t wish for better friends. So when Gabe first made you this offer, you were thankful he did, although you were still convinced at that point that Tyson would change.

“Uhm, you know.. that offer you made me? Is that still on the table?” you ask, praying he’ll say ‘yes’, praying you don’t have to sleep in some random hotel tonight.

“Of course, the guestroom is already prepared. Melissa expects you to be here as soon as possible, apparently she ‘really needs to cuddle her little sister’,” Gabe chuckles, you can almost hear him rolling his eyes at his wife.

“Thank you, Gabe. I owe you,” you say softly.

“You don’t. You’re family, y/n,” Gabe says, and you know he means every word he just said. Family. “Now get your ass over here, before Melissa starts a search party,” Gabe chuckles, making you laugh some more, because you know she would. You quickly say your goodbyes, promising you’ll be there in a few minutes. It’s just a short drive from your apartment, or Tyson’s apartment now, to Gabe and Mel’s place.

You kept up your appearance, keeping the tears at bay, but the moment you step out of your car and into Gabe’s arms you’re done. “Come here, I’m so sorry,” Gabe says softly, his hands rubbing soothing circles on your back.

You stand there for a few minutes, simply crying on your best friend’s shoulder, until Melissa squeezes herself between the two of you. “Hush, I need some sister time. Why don’t you grab her stuff?” she says, smiling sweetly at her husband.

Gabe sighs dramatically, sending a wink your way. “Whatever you say, wife.”

Melissa pulls you close to her, an arm around your waist, her head resting on your shoulder. “Come on, I’ll show you your room,” she softly says, leading you into the house. You’ve been here so many times already, but never like this. You’ve never been in a situation like this before, you’re not sure how to handle this. “I can hear the wheels turning in your head. It will be okay,” Melissa says, rubbing your arm soothingly. You sigh, shrugging your shoulders, not sure what to say.

Melissa leads you to your room, pushing you down on the bed, while she takes a seat on the edge of the bed. “I know you’re probably exhausted, but do you want to talk?” Melissa asks softly, her face showing nothing but compassion.

You lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about all that has happened. “I don’t even know what to say, Mel. I don’t even know how I feel right now. I’m just so...” you trail off, not knowing the right words to describe everything that you feel and think right now.

“Confused, relieved, mad?”

You sit back up, looking back at Melissa. “All of the above, I guess? It hurts, but I’m glad I did it. But I also regret it, because I love him, you know? I’m mad he didn’t try harder for me, for us,” you say, trying hard to keep the rush of tears away.

Melissa wraps her arms around you, pulling you close to her. “I know, sweetheart. It will take time, but you’re going to be okay.”

You sigh, knowing she’s right, even though it probably will take more time than just ‘some time’. You did just end a long relationship, it will take a lot of patience and time to work through that. “Thank you, Mel. For letting me stay here,” you mumble against Melissa’s shoulder.

“No need for that. You’re my sister, remember?” Melissa smiles at you.

Gabe softly knocks on the door before opening the door. “Brought your bags, thought you might need them before you go to sleep,” he says, smiling at the sight before him. Your friendship might be unconventional, but he couldn’t care less what other people think about it. Gabe absolutely adores the sister bond you and Mel share, he hoped the two of you would get along, so this? Picture perfect.

“Thanks, Gabe,” you smile at him.

“Do you mind if I steal my wife from you?” Gabe asks, making you and Melissa laugh out loud.

“Nope, she’s all yours,” you chuckle, waving at their retreating backs when they walk out of the room.

You strip out of your clothes, pulling on a sweater. You sigh, realizing you packed some of Tyson’s sweaters out of habit. His smell infiltrates your senses, making it damn hard to keep your emotions under control. It’s right this moment you know exactly how you feel. Heartbroken. The realization that your relationship with Tyson is really over doesn’t give you the satisfaction you hoped for, it doesn’t give you peace, it just fucking hurts. You simply feel hollow, even though deep down you know this was the right choice, this was what needed to happen. You know damn well why you feel so empty, you gave your heart to Tyson a long, long time ago, never expecting to be in a situation you might get it back. You don’t want it back, but you might need it back.

You realize it’s morning when the light softly shines into your room. You sigh, knowing damn well you’re lucky if you slept more than an hour this night. Rolling over you look at the clock on the wall, 9 am, perfect. Deciding it won’t do you any good if you stay in bed any longer, you force yourself out of bed and into the shower. The hot water warms your cold skin, soothing your sore muscles. All the twisting and turning you did all night surely didn’t help the way you feel right now. Why couldn’t life be a bit easier by simply letting the shower wash away all of your hurt, all of your pain? A fresh start, a clean slate.

You slip on some skinny jeans and a soft sweater, not in the mood to even think about doing your makeup. You dry your hair, before making a quick ponytail out of it. You walk down stairs, the chatter and laughter greeting you as soon as you walk into the kitchen. “Morning, guys,” you say, smiling at all the happy faces before you. A round of greetings sound throughout the room.

“How’d you sleep?” Gabe asks you as soon as you sit down next to him with a bowl of cereal.

“Can’t even tell you, suddenly it was 9 am,” you chuckle, shrugging your shoulders at Gabe’s raised eyebrow. “Do you have any idea where my phone is?” you ask Gabe, knowing he grabbed all your stuff out of your car.

“Uhh, I do, but I don’t know if you really want to look at it,” Gabe says, scratching the back of his head before pointing towards the kitchen counter. It’s your turn to raise your eyebrows, walking over to where Gabe’s pointing at.

You unlock your phone, quickly checking your notifications. “Oh damn,” you mutter, looking at the absurd amount of missed calls and messages left by none other than Tyson himself.

You sit back down next to Gabe, dropping your head on your arms. “What do I do now, Gabe?” you groan. “Why does he care all of the sudden?”

Gabe rubs his hand over your back before answering your question. “Because he lost you, y/n. He never thought he would.” You turn your head towards Gabe letting his words sink in.

Gabe gets ready to leave for practice shortly after you settle on the couch with Lucas in your arms. The little man has a fascination with your hair, maybe it’s all babies who have that, but you like to think that you’re special. “Don’t pull out all y/n’s hair, baby boy,” Gabe chuckles, giving his boy a soft kiss on his head. He gives you a kiss on your cheek, softly squeezing your shoulder. You open your mouth to say something, but Gabe cuts you off. “I know what you’re thinking. Don’t worry about it, I’m his captain, but I’m your friend, okay? Just relax, make sure Lucas doesn’t puke on you and go do whatever it is that you women do all day,” Gabe chuckles, knowing you better than you know yourself. You mouth a quick ‘thank you’ to him, wishing him good luck with practice before he runs through the house trying to find his girls to kiss them goodbye.

“Your daddy is a good guy, you know that, Lucas?” you smile at the baby on your lap. Lucas coos, his hands grabbing onto the strands of your hair. “Your daddy and mommy make me feel so loved, even though their children like to see me in pain,” you joke, trying to free your hair from Lucas’s small hands. “Buddy, you’re way stronger than you look,” you mumble, when Lucas pulls on your hair again.

Melissa laughs out loud the moment she walks into the living room. “How many times did I tell you that you need to keep your hair away from him and his grabby hands?” she says, expertly freeing your hair from her son’s fists.

“Apparently not enough times,” you chuckle at her. Melissa joins you on the couch, while Linnea Rae plays on the ground with some of her toys, happily showing you what she got every now and then. It’s times like this that you’re extra grateful for Melissa and Gabe, the way they welcomed you into their family has been nothing but perfect.

“So, what’s going through that pretty head of yours?” Melissa asks, while scrolling through series to watch on Netflix.

You shrug your shoulders. “I don’t know, I’m kind of worried about practice, I think? I don’t want to put Gabe in this position,” you say, keeping your eyes on Lucas.

“You know Gabe would do anything for you, huh? You don’t know how many times he came home utterly frustrated by the way Tyson treated you. He never said anything, because you were still with him, I can’t promise you he will stay quiet this time,” Melissa says, squeezing your shoulder. “He’ll be fine, this isn’t Gabe’s first rodeo.”

You look at Melissa, who simply gives you a wink. “I know, I know. I just don’t want him to get in trouble or anything,” you say, smiling back at her. You trust and know Gabe, so hopefully there won’t be a lot of trouble today.

“If he does though, he probably deserves it.”

Gabe surprises you all with some takeaway when he gets home from practice. It’s been nice eating with other people for change, it’s been way too long. The amount of lonely dinners has been through the roof lately. Gabe nudges you with his elbow, causing you to look up at him. “No frowning at the table.”

Melissa rolls her eyes at her husband while you just stick out your tongue at him. “Sure, dad,” you say, causing Melissa to almost choke on her bite of food before she lets out a loud laugh.

“Yeah, dad. Leave us alone,” Melissa laughs, winking at her husband. Gabe shakes his head at you and Melissa, a grin plastered on his face.

It’s during dessert you find the courage to ask about Tyson. You weren’t sure if you needed to ask Gabe, you weren’t even sure if you wanted to know anything, but now you know you do. “So, did anything happen during practice?” you ask him, playing around with your spoon.

Gabe shakes his head, giving you a small smile. “Not much, just some chirping. Told him I’m his captain and he needs to fucking focus on practice. That seemed to do the trick,” Gabe says, shrugging his shoulders, continuing to eat his dessert.

You look across the table at Melissa who has the same expression on her face as you. Not convincing at all. ‘Sure,’ Melissa mouths at you from across the table. You shake your head at her, furrowing your eyebrows at Gabe’s statement. ‘Nope,’ you mouth back at her, finishing your dessert. You decide to let it go, you don’t even know why you care so much. You shouldn’t, right? You broke things off with Tyson, so why do you care so much what he does and thinks? The answer to that question is pretty simple the longer you think about it. Because you still love him, that’s why.

You thank everyone for dinner and dessert, promising to cook something from them later this week. Right now all you can think about is your bed and a decent night of sleep. God, that sounds like a true dream right now. You strip out of your clothes, crawling into the soft and cozy bed. It doesn’t take long before you fall asleep, showing just how exhausted you truly are.

The weeks that follow are filled with all kinds of activities, the 5 of you falling back into a comfortable rhythm, surprising you considering the situation you’re in. It isn’t every day you take in the ex-girlfriend of one of your teammates, or your best friend, whatever way you want to see things. When you aren’t working you spend a lot of time with the kids, trying to make things easier for Melissa and Gabe whenever they are busy or simply need some time for the two of them. You happily take on some of their care, even if it’s as simple as making sure they get their food in time. Honestly they are two of the sweetest children you’ve ever come across, they always find ways to make you laugh, even though most of the time it isn’t on purpose.

It’s been quiet around the house tonight, Melissa went out with a few of her friends, while she left Gabe and the kids with you. Apparently she needed some ‘alone time’ which didn’t include kids, and definitely didn’t include Gabe after he mentioned he wanted some ‘alone time’ with her as well. You love their friendly bickering, the love they have for each other visible in everything they do. So when Melissa gave her husband a dirty look and flipped him the bird the only logical thing to do was to start laughing at their exchange. “Have fun with them, sweetheart!” Melissa had yelled at you when she walked through the door, leaving the four of you behind.

Together you decide to just have a movie night. It’s late enough for both children to be asleep already, yet early enough to squeeze in a full size movie marathon. “Gladiatorrrrr!” Gabe exclaims excitedly while scrolling through the movie selection on Netflix, pausing on his all-time favorite movie.

You groan, covering your face with your hands. “Please no, have mercy, Gabe,” you laugh, knowing damn well you’re going to sit through this movie again. How many times has it been already? 12? You wouldn’t even be surprised. This dude really loves his movie. You look at Gabe from between your fingers, seeing the look on his face which makes you groan even more. “Fineeee, one more time, Gabe. One more time,” you whine at him, secretly enjoying his taste in movies, something you don’t plan on telling him ever.

It’s a little after 10pm when the doorbell rings. You look at Gabe, who looks just as surprised as you are. “It’s a bit early for Mel, don’t you think?” Gabe asks, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Definitely, unless she drank the whole bottle of champagne again,” you chuckle, thinking back at one of the craziest parties you’ve ever been to with Mel and Gabe.

“Oh God, please don’t remind me of that,” Gabe shudders at the memory of that night, standing up to see who’s on the other side of the door.

Gabe hates to say that he isn’t surprised to see Tyson’s face as soon as he opens the door. Honestly he had expected him at his door days, maybe even weeks ago. The moment Tyson found out you were staying with Gabe he broke, Gabe expected him to fight, to yell, to scream, he expected him to do anything except cry. Which is exactly what Tyson did, breaking down in the middle of practice. For a moment the whole place went quiet, only Tyson’s cries echoing throughout the building. No one knew how to act, no one knew what to do, until Gabe realized he’s the captain for a reason. On and off the ice. It was a weird experience, one Gabe still feels extremely conflicted about. He comforted his teammate, his friend, while his other friend was at his home, utterly heartbroken, trying to get over the guy who was bawling his eyes out on the ice.

After Tyson got over the initial shock the anger took over, just as Gabe expected. It made him almost drop the gloves, something he tried to avoid, not wanting to hurt Tyson. He let him say his things, things that absolutely didn’t make any sense, until he got everything out of his system. “Now can we continue this fucking practice, Jost?” Gabe told him after everything calmed down. Gabe tried to avoid the Tyson/y/n topic as much as possible after that, not wanting to get in the middle of things more than he already was. Until tonight apparently.

Gabe raises an eyebrow at the boy before him. “Why are you here, Tyson?” Gabe sighs, already knowing the answer to that question.

Tyson looks around, eyes flickering from left to right, clearly uncomfortable being here. “I, uh, can I talk to y/n? I know she’s here,” Tyson asks, scratching the back of his head before putting them back in his pockets.

Gabe shakes his head at him. “You can’t, if she wants to talk to you she will find a way to contact you. As long as you don’t get your shit together and prove to me, but most of all to her, that you’ve changed, I won’t let you anywhere near her,” Gabe declares, starting to get annoyed with the way Tyson acts. There’s no way he lets him close to you until you feel like you’re ready to see him again, no way.

Tyson opens his mouth, but Gabe gives him a look that immediately shuts him up again. “I’m saying this as your captain, and definitely not as your friend right now. Go home and leave her the fuck alone. You had your chance, you fucked up and now you have to deal with the consequences. How you deal with those said consequences is up to you, but I suggest you leave now and think about everything you did and didn’t do, okay?” Tyson nods his head, turning around to walk back to his car.

When he’s a few steps away from his car he turns around, smiling sadly at Gabe. “She’s my home, Gabe. Home doesn’t feel the same without her. You out of all people should understand that.”

Gabe chuckles low, shaking his head at his clueless teammate. “I do. I do know what home feels like, but I never, never choose anyone or anything over my ‘home’. Never. You sure as hell did, time after time,” Gabe says frustratedly, before shutting the door, leaving behind an even more frustrated Tyson.

You didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but you caught the sound of Tyson’s voice when you walked to the kitchen, grabbing some more popcorn. You didn’t mean to listen to their conversation, but it felt like you were glued to your place, unable to take another step, unable to do anything but listen.

Gabe walks back into the room, the look on your face immediately letting him know you know. “How much did you hear?” he asks softly, approaching you slowly.

“Enough,” you whisper, before breaking down, no longer able to keep the tears locked away, no longer able to keep your emotions to yourself.

With two steps Gabe is in front of you, grabbing the bowl of popcorn you held onto between your trembling fingers. He guides you back to the couch, urging you to sit down, which is a true challenge for someone who can barely feel the ground they walk on. Gabe wraps his arms around you the moment you sit down, allowing you to cry onto his shoulder as much as you want and need. He whispers sweet nothings while softly brushing your hair out of your face, making sure you have room to breath. Time after time Gabe proves what kind of friend he is, always making sure to be there for you when he’s needed, always doing things with the best intentions. Even if it’s just holding you until you calm down, even if it’s just speaking the truth against Tyson, even if it’s just simply being there for one another.

“Sooner or later he would’ve realized what he lost, what he gave up for an evening of clubbing or God knows what. Apparently it’s sooner rather than later, however make sure you make him work for it, if you ever decide you want to give the two of you another chance,” Gabe softly advises you, when you finally calmed down a bit.

“I will, you know I love him, Gabe. But I don’t know if I should?” you mumble, not sure if it’s a question Gabe has the answer to.

“Sometimes the heart wants what it wants. If he’s serious about you, he will work his ass off to earn back your love and trust, I promise you,” Gabe comforts you, after knowing Tyson for so long he’s positive he knows that Tyson goes above and beyond to get what he wants in life.

Maybe it’s Gabe’s comforting words, maybe it’s knowing deep down Tyson still cares, maybe it’s your own strength, but for the first time in a while you feel a tiny flicker of hope, a little bit of light at the end of the dark tunnel. Maybe, just maybe this was all worth it, maybe this is what needed to happen to get better and move forward. Maybe this is how it was supposed to go.

It’s a weird feeling, knowing your ex still cares about you, but also knowing you aren’t ready to let him back into your life like that. You don’t feel like you’re capable of seeing him yet, let alone talk to him. The need to know how he’s doing, how he’s holding up grows, but also confuses you. It’s simply a weird and confusing situation to be in. Choosing between two, maybe even more ways to handle this, while also waiting for Tyson to make a move, which he obviously can’t since you don’t want to see him or speak to him, is a hard task. A task that will require a lot of thinking. You just need a bit more time to gather your thoughts, give all of your confusing feelings a place, while making sure you put yourself first, you need to put yourself first this time.

So when Gabe invites you to one of his home games a few weeks later you say ‘yes’ right away. It seems like the perfect time and place to see Tyson from a distance again, without putting too much stress on yourself, you can just watch and enjoy the game, you don’t have to force anything. Of course your seats turned out to be way closer to the ice than you expected them to be, although... what did you exactly expect with Gabe? You know he’s been talking to both of you, kind of acting like some sort of messenger. He tried to keep it casual, just slipping in some information during a conversation, but you noticed what he was trying to do. Frankly you’re thankful for his meddling.

Steadily your heart starts to beat faster and faster the more players appear on the ice to warm up. When Gabe appears you aren’t surprised to see Tyson close to him, knowing Gabe they probably had a little chat before they went on the ice. Tyson’s eyes shoot to yours the moment he’s close by, completely forgetting the ability to skate. You gasp when he lands on his ass on the ice, earning himself a round of laughter from the people around him, including Melissa and you. Gabe skates over to him, extending his hand and helping him upright again, but not before clearly telling him he’s ‘a dumbass’. Now that’s something you can agree on.

You know Tyson has something up his sleeve when he skates off to the bench, clearly busying himself with something you can’t see. After a few more stolen glances at each other Tyson skates closer and closer to you, until he’s right in front of the glass. His left hand catches your attention, until he gives you a small and almost shy smile. “Look at him, he’s blushing!” Melissa whispers next to you. You shoot her a quick ‘shut up’ look, before you focus your attention back on Tyson.

Tyson shows you the puck in his gloved hand, mouthing to you to catch it. It takes him two tries before the puck lands on the other side of the glass, safely in your hands. Tyson gives you one last quick smile before he skates off to get ready for the game. Melissa nudges you softly, bringing you back from your thoughts. “So, what’s on there?” she asks, knowing damn well you haven’t even checked.

“I don’t know if I want to look, Mel,” you tell her honestly. Melissa gives you a sad smile, throwing her arm around your shoulders.

“Let’s look together?” she suggests. You don’t know why you’re so nervous, how much can you actually write on a puck? He seemed happy to see you, so there’s no need to be nervous that it’s a bad thing. You look at the puck, turning it around in your hands so you can read the whole thing. ‘Talk after the game?’ is written on the puck, you immediately recognize Tyson’s handwriting and his little smiley face, or.. something that should resemble a smiley face.

“That wasn’t that bad, right?” Melissa asks softly, squeezing your shoulder.

“What if I’m not ready?” you ask her, a question that has been on your mind a lot lately.

“Then you take a step back, you don’t have to prove yourself to anyone, you don’t have any obligations. But he’s trying, y/n. You’ve heard all of Gabe’s stories, you’ve seen it yourself just now. It can’t hurt to at least talk to him.” You think about Melissa’s words, she does have a point there. Talking is something you should’ve done ages ago, or at least Tyson should’ve done that. So this is progress, he’s at least trying this time, that’s more than he used to do.

It’s hard to keep the smile off your face, you can’t even pinpoint why exactly you’re smiling. Whatever the reason is, it’s a good feeling to smile again. The game sure as hell plays a big part in it, the guys are on fire, scoring goal after goal, never giving the puck away for long. There’s barely any time for you to give Tyson a thumbs up, indicating you’re up for a talk after the game. Whenever you look at Tyson when he’s off the ice he’s smiling, whether it is to himself or to one of his teammates, that smile won’t leave his face.

You follow Melissa down to the locker room after the game is over. You’ve done this so many times, but this time it couldn’t be more different. You greet all the girls who are patiently waiting on their man, getting enough comforting words from them to last you a lifetime. When the door to the locker room opens you come face-to-face with Mikko, someone you haven’t seen in a while. Mikko’s face lights up when he spots you outside the locker room. “y/n! I haven’t seen you in so long,” he says, while hugging you tightly.

“I missed you too, goof. It’s great to see you,” you smile at him, wiggling out of his iron grip. Dude’s definitely stronger than he looks.

“Between you and me, Tyson’s a good kid, he just needed to grow up a bit,” Mikko whispers against your ear, before leaving you alone again.

You raise your eyebrow at Melissa, who just shrugs her shoulders. Weird. After a few more minutes Gabe and Tyson appear in front of you, both of them joking around. Tyson nervously looks around, not sure if he should come any closer. Gabe hugs you swiftly before throwing his arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Make sure you bring her home safely, Jost,” Gabe warns him, before quickly saying goodbye to both of you.

You watch them leave, your mouth agape by the way they just left you here. Rude. “Did they just really do that?” you ask no one in particular, still shocked by their actions.

You turn around, looking back at Tyson, who still appears to be nervous. Is he nervous to talk to you? Why would he be nervous? It’s just you. “Hi there,” you smile, looking up at the man in front of you.

“Hi beautiful, it was nice seeing you tonight,” Tyson softly says, giving you a small smile.

Your insides flutter with his use of words, it’s nice hearing them even though you’re not completely sure if he means them the way you hope he does. “It was. You played great, I had a lot of fun,” you say, smiling at the proud look that crosses Tyson’s face for a moment.

Tyson leads you back to the rink, which is now completely deserted, thinking it would be a nice place to chat. For a while the two of you fall back into small talk, ‘how’s life?’, ‘how’s work?’, all that bullshit. You know Tyson and you are avoiding the actual topic that needs to be discussed, or topics? Whatever it is, there’s a lot to talk about. “I missed it here, I forgot how much I loved being here,” you tell Tyson, looking at the lights that lighten up the place, thinking back at the memories full of fun and happiness you both created here.

“I missed you, baby,” Tyson blurts out, completely catching you off guard.

Your eyes shoot back to his, you feel the panic rising inside your body. “Tyson...,” you start, warning him he’s walking on thin ice here.

Tyson’s face falls a bit, seeing the anxious look on your face. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” Tyson groans, rubbing his face harshly, utterly frustrated with himself and the situation.

It’s quiet for a minute, both of you completely lost in thoughts. “Why is this so hard? We used to be able to talk about anything and everything. What changed, y/n?” Tyson wonders out loud.

You feel a painful pang in your heart, because you know damn well what changed. “You did, Tyson. You changed,” you almost whisper, the truth behind those words more clear than ever before.

You watch as Tyson’s whole composure changes in the blink of an eye, in just a split second he goes from the ‘happy’ guy to the guy who’s just as heartbroken as you are. “I did, didn’t I?” Tyson whispers, the tears pooling in his eyes. “I fucked this up, how could I be so stupid?” he mumbles, burying in face in his hands. “I’m so sorry, I regret this more than I could ever admit to you. I’m so sorry, baby,” Tyson cries, trying to keep his eyes focused on you. It’s hard to keep your own tears at bay when the guy you love so much has a breakdown in front of you, so you don’t. You just let them fall.

You don’t make a move to comfort him, you do give him room to let it all out, give him time to gather his composure again. “I looked through the box, the one you left on our bed?” Tyson says, his voice still broken, still thick with emotion. You nod your head, it was something you hoped he would do. “I had no idea you kept all of that throughout the years,” Tyson smiles weakly at you. “It made me realize what a moron I have been these past few months, maybe even longer,” he continues, shaking his head in disappointment. You listen intently at him, this, this is what you hoped for all this time: realization.

“I’m not telling you that you weren’t a moron, because you absolutely were. But I’m glad you came to the same conclusion.”

Tyson chuckles at your statement, giving you half a smile. “I know, I’m a dumbass. I’m a dumbass for acting this way and a dumbass for letting you go. Any guy would be on top of the world with you by his side, and I just let you slip through my fingers,” Tyson tells you, finally showing he knows he’s been a fool all this time, he knows he let something special go.

“Is it too late for us? Can you give us another chance?” Tysons asks you, his eyes flickering between you and the ground.

You sigh softly, knowing this question would come. It’s something you gave a lot of thought, something that crossed your mind daily. “I don’t know, Tyson. I really don’t know. You really fucking hurt me, you know? I can’t just look past that, I need to heal from that,” you tell him. Tyson nods his head, a guilty expression on his face. “You made me feel worthless every single day. You didn’t even give me a second of your time day after day. All you cared about was being away. Being away from me?”

It’s right that moment Tyson interrupts you by grabbing your hands. “No. No. That’s not true, you need to believe me,” he tells you as fast as he can.

“But how can I believe you when you never gave me a reason to? Your actions showed me exactly that, Tyson. I need answers, I need to know why,” you exclaim, starting to panic again, your anxiety taking over.

“Easy, baby. I’ll tell you everything you want to know, everything you want, but right now I need you to breath. Breathe, baby,” Tyson says softly, trying to calm your shallow breathing back down to normal. “Listen to my breathing, try to follow the way I breathe.” You do as he says, following the rise and fall of his chest, gaining back control of your own breathing.

“I’m sorry,” you apologize, while Tyson just shakes his head at you, letting you know it’s okay. “Can you take me home, Ty? We can talk later, okay?” you ask him, suddenly feeling the need to crawl underneath the covers of your bed and just simply sleep for a while.

“Anything you want, y/n,” Tyson says, leading you out of the room and back to his car. You’re pretty sure he mumbled something under his breath, something very closely resembling ‘your home isn’t there, it’s with me’.

The drive to Gabe takes longer than expected, giving you more time to think about Tyson’s earlier question. You still need and want to know how he spent his nights, where he spent his nights, and why he acted like you didn’t exist. That conversation might need to wait until another day, you aren’t up for any more information, any more realizations, you still need to process everything you heard, saw and felt today.

Tyson stops the car in front of Gabe’s house, looking back at you with hopeful eyes. You know he still hopes he gets an answer to his earlier question, and you want to give him at least that. “You need to show me you changed, Tyson. Show me you changed for real and I’ll try to get past everything that happened. I can’t promise you anything,” you tell him softly, meaning everything you just said.

Tyson nods his head, a smile of relief on his lips. “I will, I promise you I will show you I changed and that you’re everything to me. I promise, baby.”

So that’s exactly what Tyson does the next few weeks, every free moment he tries to show you just how much you mean to him, without smothering you. Whether it’s taking you out for dinner, although you’re still waiting for Tyson to actually make you dinner by himself one day, to small coffee dates and fresh flowers at work. It’s been a lot to process, a lot of adjusting to this ‘new’ Tyson, or rather seeing the ‘old’ Tyson again. And you missed him, God you missed him so much.

Tyson seems happier, more at peace with himself these days, it’s a pleasant change. Often you wondered what was really going on inside his head, but you stopped trying after he waved it off again, and again, and again. The late night phone calls, or facetiming during road trips have become a habit again, something you didn’t think you would ever experience again with him. You still take things slow with Tyson, deciding to rather allow yourself to slowly start trusting him again than diving head first into a relationship again. Maybe it will never come that far again, you don’t know how the future will look like for the two of you, but for now it’s enough.

You come face-to-face with a smirking Melissa when you get home from yet another ‘iced coffee and donut’ date, even though you’re pretty sure Tyson isn’t allowed to eat any donuts. “Oh no,” you groan at Melissa’s expression.

“It’s time we have a little sister-sister conversation, don’t you think?” she asks you, ushering you into the living room.

“Do we?” you groan again, not in the mood to handle whatever Melissa wants to talk about now, because you already know it’s either about you, Tyson or you and Tyson.

Melissa flops down on the couch, patting the place next to her, indicating for you to sit your ass down. “Did you already talk to him about it?” she asks, straight to point in pure Melissa-style.

You let your head fall back against the cushions, sighing loudly. “I didn’t. We’re doing great, we’re having fun. I’m going to ruin it if I start asking questions again.”

Melissa stays quiet for a minute, trying to figure out the right way to approach this sensitive topic. “You know you deserve the truth, right? You can’t rebuild a relationship when not everything’s on the table, sweetheart,” Melissa says softly, knowing you’re struggling with this.

“I promise I’ll talk to him after the road trip, I don’t want to create any unnecessary negative energy before,” you promise Melissa, although she gives you a ‘who are you trying to fool here’ look before switching topics.

A few days later you find yourself back at Tyson’s place. It’s weird being here, knowing you don’t live here anymore. Nothing changed, absolutely nothing, Tyson kept everything the way you did, whether it’s out of laziness or out of hope you’ll come back on day. Either way it’s weird coming back to a place that’s no longer your home. You came here to talk, nothing more nothing less. You promised Mel you would, and if you’re being honest with yourself it’s time to know the truth, time to reopen old wounds and finally get some answers. You’ve grown closer and closer to Tyson, without knowing everything, without knowing you’d be able to forgive him if he ever made a misstep. It’s time.

Tyson has been a nervous wreck ever since you called him last night after he returned from the road trip to St. Louis. He knew this was coming, but he prayed you would simply forget, even though he knows that’s not fair at all. He can’t excuse his behavior, and he won’t, not anymore. You deserve nothing but the truth, the full truth. He’s not proud of it, but you leaving him opened his eyes, showed him he really needed to change. Tyson feels like that’s something he truly did, he changed for the better, he can only hope you’ll feel the same way. He can only hope you’re still on the same path after tonight.

“You did great these last games, Ty,” you smile at him. You’re proud of the way he’s been performing these last couple of games, he really stepped up his game.

“I know you didn’t come here to talk about my performances on the ice, so can we please skip the pleasantries?” Tyson sighs, catching you completely off guard with his rather harsh approach. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way, I’ve just been so fucking nervous since you called me,” Tyson curses, frustratedly brushing his fingers through his curls.

“You’re right though, I did come to talk. I think it’s time we lay all our cards on the table,” you tell him, nodding at your own answer.

You nervously bite on your lip, playing with the cup of water in your hand. It isn’t every day you ask your ex these questions. Questions you want the answers to, question you maybe don’t even want to hear the answers of. “I need to know if you cheated on me, Ty,” you blurt out, keeping your eyes on the ground, not wanting to see the look on Tyson’s face.

“Look at me, baby,” Tyson says, urging you to look up at him. “I never cheated on you, I wouldn’t do that to you. I promise.”

You shake your head at him, not knowing what to do with these emotions surging through your body. “It doesn’t make sense, Ty. Where were you all those nights? Where were you every time I lay in bed alone waiting for my boyfriend to come home? Waiting if he actually comes home this time or stays out all night again? Where were you?” At this point you’re past the civil conversations, past the friendly banter, you need answers, you need to know why he did what he did. The reason doesn’t even matter at this point, you need to know why. Why did he leave you alone so many nights, worrying about his well being, worrying about if he would come home at some point?

“Fuck, y/n! I know I fucked up, I know I did. But I swear on everything, I swear on my career, I swear on you that I never, never, touched another woman. I never kissed another woman, I never even danced with another woman, I did not cheat on you,” Tyson exclaims, hoping, praying you hear what he’s saying, that you’ll believe him. He didn’t do anything with another person, it was always you, it still is only you and he’ll do everything in his power to prove that to you every damn day.

“Then where were you, Ty? If you weren’t with another woman, then where the fuck were you every night you didn’t came home? Please enlighten me, because I’m so lost, so fucking lost,” you say, feeling utterly frustrated with yourself, with Tyson, with this shitty situation.

Tyson takes a deep breath, placing his cup back on the table. “Shitfaced drunk to the point I couldn’t even remember my own name, or so stoned I saw freaking elephants running all around town. Spending my money on unnecessary shit at clubs and bars, all to forget, trying to forget the fact that I had a perfect girlfriend waiting for me at home, while I did stupid shit. Fuck, this sounds even worse out loud than in my head,” Tyson groans, burying his face in his hands.

“But...,” you start, before Tyson cuts you off.

“I felt ashamed and guilty, y/n. Ashamed I let it get that far every time, guilty I didn’t tell you, guilty I didn’t come home again. One of the guys would just take me back to their place out of sympathy, letting me crash on their couch, trying to sleep off my haze.”

You try to come up with words to say, with anything but nothing comes out, you just feel.. empty? “I don’t understand, Tyson,” you say, at this point not even sure what you don’t understand.

“I tried, y/n. I tried to just come clean, but I couldn’t when you were so nice all the time, I couldn’t when I knew you would hate it, hate me. You know I’m a fucking lightweight, that makes it even worse. But those are no excuses, there aren’t any. I fucked up,” Tyson sighs, giving you a sad smile, “I couldn’t face you, I didn’t know how to show you my vulnerable side without letting it change the way you saw me. I didn’t want you to see me any different, but I didn’t notice I changed until you packed your bags and left me standing in the doorway.”

You’re absolutely speechless, there are so many things you want to say but you can’t form any sentences, any words. You just stare at him, your mind racing with an unlimited amount of thoughts. “Are you okay, baby?” Tyson asks softly, reaching out to put his hand on your arm.

You shake your head from side to side, wiping away the tears that spilled out. “I’m not okay, I’m definitely not okay,” you tell him. “I feel terrible knowing you didn’t feel like you could come to me, like you couldn’t talk to me. I’ve always been your biggest supporter, nothing would’ve changed that, Ty.”

Tyson gently wipes the tears away from underneath your eyes, scooting closer to where you’re seated. “Come here, baby,” he softly says, opening his arms for you. You hesitate for a second, not knowing if this is the right thing to do. Fuck the right thing, you definitely need a hug right now, and judging by Tyson’s facial expression he needs one as well. You lean forward, putting your arms around his neck, breathing in the familiar scent of his body. How long has it been since you hugged each other? You can’t even remember, way too long. Tyson closes his arms around you, pulling you as close as possible to his own body.

“I missed this, Ty. I missed you,” you confess, the feeling of his arms around you, the feeling of Tyson, bringing back so many memories, so many happier times.

“I know we still have a long way to go, but I hope we’ll do this together. I can’t even tell you how great it feels to have my arms around you again, even if it’s just for a moment,” Tyson says, after you both let go of each other.

“We do, but I’m in if you’re in, Ty,” you agree, wanting nothing more than to work through the issues you still have. It’s time to forgive, time to let go, time to change and time to move on.

“I’m all in.”

The talk you had with Tyson that Wednesday evening did wonders for the both of you. You still had a long way to go before you were even remotely close to where you used to be with Tyson, but the most important thing was that you were working on things. Slowly, but steadily the two of you worked on trusting each other again, telling each other important things again, just simply working on being in a healthy relationship again. Although the word never came up, you were nowhere near ready for that commitment, so you settled on something less intimidating. Friends.

It was supposed to be a regular, normal Friday evening with just Melissa and the kids. Gabe and Tyson were playing one of their most important games this season, both of them begged you to come, but it was too late to find a babysitter. Not wanting to be by yourself there and leaving Mel alone, you decided to sit this one out as well, promising to cheer them on in front of the tv. It’s the least you could do. So there you are, seated on the couch wearing your Jost jersey for the very first time again, just as you promised. Weird, like nothing ever changed, even though the exact opposite is true.

You’re bouncing a giggling Linnea Rae on your knee, looking down at her adorable mini jersey. “Look it’s your daddy!” you exclaim excitedly, pointing at the closeup shot of Gabe.

“Daddy!” Linnea Rae giggles just as excited.

You catch Mel softly smiling at your little interaction with her daughter, enjoying the love you share for each other. It’s been a blessing to have you around here, the way you care for her children, but also for her and her husband has been phenomenal. Mel couldn’t wish for a better friend, for a better sister than you.

“Oh no,” you whisper when Tyson gets slammed hard into the glass. Melissa grabs your hand, squeezing softly.

“He’s going to be fine, he’s a tough guy,” she says, trying her best to comfort you. And he is, like the tough guy Tyson is, he gets up again, shaking off the hard hit. The game continues and you’re glad Tyson is fine, skating like he didn’t just get squeezed between a glass wall and a 200 pound hockey player.

All goes well until Gabe decides the best place to smack his stick is directly against Tyson’s face, again. “Not his face, Gabe! Not his fucking face again!” you yell at the screen, thanking Mel for already putting the kids to sleep.

“Shit, that looks bad,” Melissa almost whispers, squeezing your hand again.

You don’t know many things for sure in life, but you sure as hell know Tyson will be spotting a black eye for weeks. But like the tough guy he already proved to be, he just goes on with the game, trying his absolute best to work as hard as he can, giving himself completely to the game, anything to get his team the victory.

“That’s the second time you gave my man a black eye, Gabe. Why do you keep hurting him?” you whine the second Gabe walks into the living room. For a moment the room stays awfully quiet, until you realize what you just said. “I really said that, huh?” you ask, fighting to keep the smile off your face.

“You sure did. But I’m sorry, it was an accident. Again,” Gabe chuckles, shrugging his shoulders.

“Uhu, again,” you say, rolling your eyes at your best friend.

Gabe grins at you, flopping down on the couch next to Mel. “I’ll try not to hurt his pretty face again, okay?” Gabe laughs, shaking his head at you in a playful way.

“Is it weird if I, you know.. went over to check up on him?” you ask your friends, suddenly insecure about the thought of just showing up at his door.

Gabe gives you a soft smile. “I’m absolutely convinced he’d love that, y/n,” Gabe says, pulling Melissa closer to him.

“I know he would, sis,” Melissa agrees with her husband.

“Fine, okay. I’ll be back in a few. Don’t enjoy yourself too much,” you tell the two lovebirds before finding your stuff and almost running out of the front door.

You’re giddy the entire drive to Tyson’s apartment. This could go two ways, either it goes extremely well or this backfires completely. You’re hoping for the first one. Seeing Tyson get hurt gave you some realizations. One of them is that you absolutely hate to see him hurt, and you want nothing more than to be there for him, care for him, to tell him everything will be alright. Which brings you to your second discovery of the evening: you still love him, you’re still completely and utterly in love with Tyson. You can’t, really can’t imagine your life without Tyson in it. It’s your turn to tell him you need him, tell him you don’t want to do anything without him, tell him you still see a future together.

You pick up his favorite comfort food on the way over, cake. You know his nutritionist will hate you for this, but he deserves a treat after taking a stick to the face. You chuckle to yourself when you think of the small cake you bought, it’s stupid and childish, but you love it. The fun you already had makes it absolutely worth it. You park in front of the building, hopping out of the car and quickly making your way over to the floor Tyson occupies.

You rummage around in your coat pocket for the lighter you bought alongside the cake. Quickly placing the cover back into the bag, and lighting up the ‘2’ shaped candle. You snicker to yourself, enjoying this way too much. You knock on the door and patiently wait for Tyson to open up. You hear Tyson approaching, making it harder and harder to keep your composure.

The moment he opens the door his face shifts from slight annoyance, to confused, to happy, and back to confused again. “y/n?” he asks softly, looking between you and the cake, confusion clearly written all over his face.

“Happy second black eye!” you yell, before bursting out in laughter.

Tyson can’t help but join you in your laughter, if there’s one thing he loves about you, it’s your wicked sense of humor. “You really are something special, aren’t you?” Tyson chuckles, shaking his head softly at you, a smile playing on his lips.

“You tell me, Jost,” you say, giving him a wink before walking past him and inside his apartment.

“So you bought me a cake?” Tyson asks you, looking over your shoulder to the cake on his kitchen counter.

“I sure did, thought you’d deserved a treat after what Gabe did to you, again,” you laugh.

“He sure likes to hit me in the face with things. But thank you, this really means a lot to me, baby,” Tyson softly says, squeezing your hip with one of his hands, before grabbing two plates. While Tyson cuts the cake you look for something to drink, deciding water will do for the night.

You flop down on the couch next to Tyson, immediately bringing the fork with a piece of cake to your mouth. “Oh God, that’s so good,” you moan out, you picked some killer cake.

“Don’t make those noises, please,” Tyson groans, stuffing his face with cake.

“I’m sorry I picked such a good freaking cake, mister,” you laugh, nudging him with your foot. Tyson rolls his eyes playfully at you, grabbing your foot with his free hand before you can nudge him again and again.

“Movie?” Tyson asks after you both finished your plates, although Tyson finished the last few bites of your piece. Like he said he’s a needy and hungry man.

“Sure, but just something light and funny, Ty. Nothing dark,” you tell him, knowing he’d love to scare you throughout some horror movie.

While Tyson scrolls through the movies, you make yourself more comfortable on the couch, laying back against the cushions with your feet against Tyson. He looks at you, scanning your body, clearly thinking about something since his eyebrows keep furrowing and relaxing.

“Come here, Tyson,” you softly say when he finally picks a movie to watch, opening your arms for him. His eyes shoot to yours, like he can’t actually believe you just told him that. He gives you a quick smile, before moving towards you, laying down beside you.

He rests his head against your chest, just like he used to do so long ago, his arm wrapped around your waist. “Is this okay?” he asks you, making sure you aren’t uncomfortable, even though you’re the one who suggested this.

“It’s perfect, Ty,” you reassure him.

Halfway through the movie you can’t resist the temptation to run your fingers through his curls any longer. Tyson groans softly when your nails rake over his scalp, sending chill through your body. “That’s so good, please never stop doing that,” he groans out, pulling you tighter against him.

“I wasn’t planning on it, Ty,” you tell him, smiling at the way his eyes shoot to yours.

“You aren’t? Are you serious?” he asks you quietly, eyes still locked on yours.

“I am, love. I came to the conclusion that you’re worth all the risks in life. You’re my light, my guiding light in darkness, my light at the end of the tunnel,” you say, leaving a soft kiss on his forehead. You try to express your emotions towards Tyson, trying to make him feel what you felt when you came to the sudden realization he’s worth taking a risk.

“What does that mean, baby?” Tyson asks you softly, an uncertain smile on his lips.

“It means I’m willing to give us another shot, another go. I want to try again, Ty.”

You can’t help the smile that forms on your lips when you look at Tyson’s face, the realization setting in, the happiness and the gratefulness spreading all over his face, the relief flooding through his body.

“How does that work?” Tyson asks again, clearly trying to rid himself of any insecurities, any questions he has. You gladly take those insecurities away from him.

“A clean slate, completely starting over again to give us both a fresh start. How does that sound?” you ask him.

Tyson nods at you, the happiness radiation off him. “A fresh start, I like the sound of that,” Tyson muses. The changes on his face fascinates you, it seems like he goes through a whole range of emotions in just a few minutes. Until he reaches one you know all too well, mischief. He looks at you, the familiar glimmer in his eyes tells you he’s definitely up to something. He sends you a soft and sweet smile, that almost melts you into a puddle right there and then. “Hi, I’m Tyson,” he says, extending his hand to you. You can’t help the laughter that bubbles out of you, this is exactly how Tyson is. Funny, charming, an absolute dream.

“You’re a goof, you know that?” you tell him, softly shaking your head at him, but the big grin on your face tells him you loved that. Tyson intertwined his fingers with yours, squeezing softly. When he doesn’t make any other moves you take matters into your own hand, slowly leaning in and softly pressing your lips on his. The familiarity, the rush of emotion flooding through your body hits you like a ton of bricks. The feeling of his lips against yours light something deep inside of you, and just like that you finally feel complete again.

[kass-storycorner]

Oh god, okay hear me out. I suffer from insomnia and I couldn’t get Childes letter out of my head (btw the English version is so much less “I am in love with you” than the German one. He literally says in the German version that he misses us and wants us to visit him, like straight up this is a love letter!! The English version is really toned down in comparison).

So. I know his birthday is over, at least where I’m from. But. I wrote this whole ass fan fic, that is way too long, because I was so inspired by that letter. I’m not really satisfied with the ending, I honestly wanted to add so much more fluff but… I also didn’t want to make this too long, I actually planned for it to be short??? help (also it’s 4am now noooo)

Happy birthday, Tartaglia

Genre: a little bit angsty, fluff, comfort

Rating: SFW, though mentions of kissing and sharing a bed

Content warnings: mention of a family death, Bennett’s bad luck lol but both are unrelated haha

Characters: Tartaglia x gn!reader, a guest appearance of Bennett, mention of Zhongli

Word count: 2,796 words (oooh f*ck haha)

-

You’ve been busy the whole day doing some commissions for the Adventures Guild and were now on your way to Mondstadt, when you heard a familiar voice call your name. “(Y/N)!”, Bennett called out to you and ran into your direction. A deep sigh left your throat, while you enjoyed Bennett’s company most of the time… you had to deal with a ton of your own bad luck today. Not one of the commissions today went the way they usually did, everything that could’ve gone wrong did go wrong. It was honestly just very frustrating, although you couldn’t be really sure if it was because of bad luck or because your mind was somewhere else most of the day. You shook your head, trying to get rid of the tiredness you already felt in your whole body and made your way towards Bennett. No matter what he needed help with you would be sure you could handle it. And in that moment, as the thought of how it wouldn’t be a big deal whatever Bennett had on his chest, you saw how the young adventure tripped over his own feet and fell face forwards into the dirt. ‘Ouch, that must’ve hurt’, you thought while running up to him. “Are you hurt? Here, let me help you up Bennett”, you asked while helping him get up from the ground. All you got as an answer from him was his usual laugh and smile. “Oh man, I really didn’t see that stone. Haha, thanks for the concern though!” You couldn’t help yourself and chuckled at the way he wiped off the dirt from his clothes. “So, what’s up? What do you want from me?.” “Yeah, right! I nearly forgot!”, he exclaimed and started fumbling in his bag. “Oh, got a present for me?”, you asked sheepishly. “Kinda, not really. Here!” Bennett held a letter in his hands, both bandaged again, and stretching it out to you. “A letter? For me?”, you took it in your hands. In a fine handwriting there was your name on it. It didn’t even took you a second for you to register who’s hand writing it was. What a surprise.

Before you could even start to ask Bennett how he got his hands on the letter he was already excitedly explaining it to you. “Today I had a commission on Dragonspine and to be honest, it didn’t really went that well until I ran into this one guy. I accidentally activated a few Ruin guards and well, even the most seasoned adventurer can’t fight more than one of these at a time and sadly the newest members of Benny’s adventure team had to go home again before we made it even to the mountain.”

The thought of Bennett nearly finding his end today on Dragonspine really… it really did not sit right with you. You made a mental note to ask him later who the new members were that ditched him. After you had your talk with them they wished they had stayed with Bennett on Dragonspine. “Well, in that moment when they approached me that one guy showed up and it only took him a few minutes to defeat them all. (Y/N) that was so cool! I tried to recruit him for my adventure team, but sadly he said he was already occupied with something else. Oh man, it would’ve been so cool to have him on my adventurer team, imagine with such an excellent fighter no one would be afraid of my bad luck to join my team.” While you enjoyed Bennett’s enthusiasm you had to interrupt him. “Wait, wait, Bennett. The person who gave you this letter is on Dragonspine?”

“Oh yeah! As I was saying I tried to recruit him for my team, but failed however we talked a bit and somehow he mentioned that he knew you! When I told him we were friends he asked me to give you this letter the next time I saw you.”

You felt how the excitement in you grew. He was on Dragonspine? He was so close to you again? Now you hardly could pay attention to what Bennett continued to say, all that was on your mind was the man, whom you saw the last time months ago in Liyue was so close again. “Bennett,” you interrupted him again. “Thank you so much for the letter, but I really need to get going. Thank you so much!”

And with that you changed your direction and made your way directly to Dragonspine. “Oh? Okay, bye (Y/N)!”, you heard Bennett call after you, but your mind was already occupied with opening that letter he gave you.

With shaking hands you read what stood on that thin paper in that neat and familiar handwriting:

“Hey, comrade! How have you been? You must have traveled far and wide since we last saw each other, right?

For me, I can only seek out some entertainment for myself. These past couple of days, I’ve used a work opportunity to explore Dragonspine and seek out some local specialties. I hope they will be of use to you.

The harsh cold of the snow-capped mountains is reminiscent to the scenery of my hometown…

Sigh, I’ve had many mundane days that makes me nostalgic of our time together. Whether it’s a fight or a challenge, I always feel that having you around is what makes life really interesting.

Haha, to be honest, I’ve been planning a special day to meet up with you, today could be that chance! If you have no special plans, how about you swing by my place?

I miss you, Tartaglia”

Quickly you put the letter in your bag with what accompanied it and now you were basically running towards Dragonspine. Right now you didn’t want to think about what kind of “work opportunity” there could be for the Harbringer on Dragonspine, all you could think about was seeing him again.

It has been months since you both parted ways in Liyue. You met him while being on a commission, funnily enough it was a bit similar how Bennett ran into him today. In one of Liyues ruins you looked for a book some historian in Liyue Harbour desperately tried to get their hands on. By the amount of Mora they were willing to pay it should’ve been obvious to you that it wasn’t a one-person mission… and still, you went alone into those ruins. You had no problem in destroying the first two ruin guards you ran into, but when three activated at the same time… If it weren’t for Tartaglia back then you would probably be dead. At first you were very thankful for his help, however when you found out he was also there for the book you needed your thankfulness quickly turned into anger. “Well, don’t you think I deserve a reward for helping you out, comrade?”, he teased you.

After that day you somehow always managed to run into him in Liyue Harbour or on your commissions. Back then you only knew him by his name used by the Fatui, Childe. Though it was well known in Liyue that he was one of the Harbringers, you somehow didn’t get that message after months of openly antagonising him. Only after Childe invited himself to your usual afternoon teas with your friend Zhongli you learned about his affiliations, but also more about him. If someone was hearing two people bickering, the people of Liyue knew it was you two. However none of it was malicious. Somehow it was the way you and Childe showed each other the appreciation you had for one another.

The first dislike you had for him grew quickly into a warm friendship. And that friendship grew in something more after awhile.

The first time you noticed a change in your feelings towards Childe was around the time of the Lantern rite festival. One night you were supposed to meet up with Zhongli - but Childe showed up in his instead. Apparently, so Childe, there was a lot to do at the Parlour because of a new promotion the director wanted to try and needed Zhonglis help with, so Zhongli asked Childe to accompany you to the Lantern rite.

Until this day you weren’t sure if this was just a set up by Zhongli, but even if it was, you wouldn’t hold it against him.

That night, when you and Childe walked around Liyue Harbour and watched the lanterns something fundamentally changed between the two of you. After that night you knew so much more about him and he about you. From that day on he wasn’t Childe anymore, he was Tartaglia. And both of you finally knew how the lips of the other felt on your own.

Now you were so close again to feel his warm arms around you, to listen to the sound of his heartbeat when you rested your head on his chest and to feel his lips on yours again. Oh how you missed him too.

Parting ways wasn’t easy. Both of you knew that it was best to not be so public with your relationship, for several reasons. On the one hand the Fatui weren’t what you would call popular - most people would use some stronger word to describe them. Being a Mondstadt citizen in Liyue openly dating a member of the Fatui, yeah no. On the other it was also not really well liked by the Tsaritsa for the members of the Fatui, no matter if you were just a low henchman or a Harbringer, to get involved in that way with outsides. With “not well liked” it was more implied that she forbade any romantic relationships outside and inside the Fatui ranks when they were on a mission. And Tartaglia was on a mission, a mission you knew nothing about, but to be honest? You preferred it that way. The longer you were able to ignore what it meant for him to be part of the Fatui, the better.

So because of all of this you both decided it would be best to keep the relationship in the shadows.

You both knew for sure was that you had to part ways one day, however none of you expected that you were the one going home before Tartaglia. There were a lot of nights of laying in bed with him, sharing stories from each of your homes. You told him about the Windblume Festival and Ludi Hapestrum, he told you about the festivals and traditions of Snezhnaya. When you shared stories of how your little siblings and you loved to collect as many dandelions as possible when you were children to pretend that it was snowing in the summer, he would counteract that story with the times he built entire fortresses with his siblings out of the snow in the winter. Only to then pull you closer and whisper in your ear that he’ll show you how to do that when you come with him back to Snezhnaya. You would always whisper back “okay, but first you’d need to glide with me off Startsnatch cliff”. The lovely nights you both spend together, telling each other of your homes and how much you want to show it to them were harshly interrupted by a letter you got from your family.

Life sometimes isn’t fair. It’s hard and it brutal and it’s short. So when you got the letter from your family informing you that the youngest member of the family had died, it broke you to pieces. They were only 14. That night Tartaglia held you in his arms, his hand on the back of your head, your head pressed into his chest and none of you could say a word. Only the sound of you crying piercing the quite room. Too heavy was the grief for anything to be said anyways.

The day immediately after you received that letter you and Tartaglia parted way, a quite and sad goodbye. None of you were actually sure when you would see each other again. With his hands against your tear stained face, the tears not only being shed out of grief but also out of the pain you had to leave your lover, he promised to write you as often as he could. You promised you would answer. And then you left, wishing he could come with you. Words you did not dare to speak, because you knew he couldn’t, no matter how much he wanted to.

Now you found yourself close to one of the Fatui camps on Dragonspine. It was quite irresponsible to just run up the mountain, without any proper preparation or knowledge where Tartaglias camp actually was. You sighed. The excitement of seeing him after such a long time, after just exchanging letters got the best of you. Frustrated with yourself you made your way towards the campsite, hoping that this time the Fatui henchmen wouldn’t immediately start attacking every stranger they see. However when you arrived at the camp site you saw that no one was there. Too exhausted from the commissions earlier in the day and running up the Dragonspine you let yourself fall down in front of the extinguished campfire. Slowly but surly the cold weather of the Dragonspine was catching up to you.

Going through your bag you were looking for the stones Tartaglia send with his letter, hoping to ignite a fire with them. But before you could find them you heart footsteps in the snow behind you.

You hadn’t even had the chance to turn around before you felt two arms looping around your body, immediately warming you up.

“Hey comrade, did you miss me?”

You felt his head on your shoulders and you couldn’t help but to lean your own against his. One of your hands made its way up to his face, touching his cheek. “Yes,” you whispered.

Turning your head you now looked into his deep blue eyes, they were filled with all the love he had for you. You wished he could look at you like this forever… that you could look at him forever.

Tartaglia leaned a bit forward, placing a soft kiss on your lips and you couldn’t help it but smile.

He slowly pulled away, entangling himself from the hug and holding his hand out to you. “Come, let’s go inside the tent. You must be freezing out here”.

Inside the tent Tartaglia threw one blanket on another blanket over another over you, while lecturing you on what appropriate clothing was for a weather like this. You really didn’t give it any second thought when you made your way to Dragonspine, still wearing the same clothes you would wear on a sunny day in Mondstadt. But you also couldn’t hide it how much you loved to just hear his voice, even when he was nagging you. “It’s fine really, now stop trying to bury me under all the blankets and warm me up yourself”, you took his hand and pulled him towards you onto the plank. “You know some people would find what you said very suggestiv”, he joked, joining you under the immense amount of blankets. “Mmmmh,” was the only thing you replied, completely enamoured with him having you by your side again. For a few minutes the both of you just laid there, close to each other and feeling each other’s heartbeat.

None of you could actually believe your luck to be in the arms of the other again. How much you had missed this. Missed him.

“Hey,” he spoke softly, making you look into his eyes again. “How you’ve been doing?”.

It was such a soft question and you knew what he meant. You wanted to tell him how exhausting everything has been since your arrival, how your family was breaking apart at all ends, what a shit show it all was. In your letters you only alluded to how bad it actually is. How it was all just made worse by him not being at your side. Though you knew you would have to tell him all of this sooner or later, right now you didn’t want to talk about it. Not in detail. Not when today was actually his special day. “It’s manageable, but better now that I’m here with you”, you replied to his question. “You?”

“Better, now that I have you here”, was his reply. You both smiled at each other, a warm and tender smile. Slowly you adjusted your position so that you now were laying on top of him, your chin on his chest. “Hey, there is something I forgot to tell you.”

“Oh, and what is it?”

“Happy Birthday, Tartaglia”, and with that you kissed him.

[toothlesshat]

Series rewrite imminent cuz you have so many goddamn good points about the '22 universe

OH MY GOD ANON YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’VE RELEASED aksjshdjdkgk um I think the only problem are my opinions don’t seem to be very popular in the fandom 😭 but I’m gonna use this post as a way to lay out some changes I’d really like in a rewrite, but I should mention that its been a few months since I saw the series and my memory is fuzzy rn, but I distinctly remember what I did and didn’t like, so here we go.

Major changes here

Make the series shorter omfg. I know not everyone is going to agree with this, and that’s fine, but I feel like the time travel stuff, the space stuff (the triceratons in general. I know they’re older villains but Jesus dude they came out of nowhere and felt like a replacement to the Kraang) was so unnecessary and it really killed the pacing, which killed a lot of the show for me. I feel like the show has too many fucking villains when the focus should be on Shredder and the Kraang. If I could rewrite the series, I would take all that out and focus more on our main characters and fully flesh out others (like April, Casey and Karai). I feel like the time travel arc happened mostly to show us Splinter pre mutation, but there’s a thousand more clever ways to do that that don’t wear the show down. I really just want to keep the pacing consistent, keep the plot and conflict constant, and work more on the characters, which I think would be better done with a shorter series so they have to use their remaining episodes wisely yk?

Have Leo step down as leader for half a season. I made a post about this, but idk where it is so the gist is that after Tigerclaw is introduced in s2 and they had that huge altercation where they had to choose between calling Splinter or letting Mikey die, Leo has a breakdown and completely pulls away from the team despite everyone’s wishes, but he continues to do vigilantism on his own. I want this because I want Leo to have time away from his role as leader and explore who he is, what he wants, and what he really needs. It’s also a good time for the brothers to come together and learn how to be without him but also realizing they need him! (I also think this would be a fun time to have Leo get closer to Casey since they’re both doing the same thing at that point and flesh him out as well) this would blend into s3 and the farmhouse arc would be when he finally comes back as leader.

Have?? All the brothers defeat Shredder??? It honestly makes me mad that Leo killed him in the end and the others helplessly watched when the Shredder conflict affected all of them! This wasn’t like a Leo specific problem, they all should’ve killed Shredder.

Make the farmhouse arc more impactful character wise. I swear to god it was all filler when this was the perfect time to take each character out of their environment and explore who they are and what growth they need to make. The wasted potential is so frustrating to me omfg

Smaller changes

Cut out the love triangle entirely. That shit was so unnecessary and it wasn’t even interesting and it made Donnie and April hard to enjoy. Make them close friends since they clearly have the potential to be and abandon the romance since the show can’t write it for shit

Same with Leo and Karai, they should be parallels of each other as Splinter’s eldest children.

LET MIKEY FUCKING DO SOMETHING oh my god he’s done so dirty all the time I just want him to actually do something cool and be acknowledged for it. He’s already incredibly skilled, expand on it!

Let Raph keep his character development?? Every other episode he’d be like okay Leo :) I understand why leading is hard now :) then the show will make him bitch about it in the next episode! Raph is a good character and a good person, let him grow ffs

STOP TREATING CASEY LIKE GARBAGE literally nobody gives a fuck about him ever and it makes me sooo mad. Just fleshing out Casey in general please please PLEASE

Call out and work on Splinter. I wouldn’t change how he raised them because that’s a fundamental change in all the characters, but let them actually call him out on it I swear. He plays obvious favorites, demands more out of his kids than they can give, treats them like soldiers more than his sons and it’s just- frustrating that they never really call him out on it. It’s not even that he has to be a demonized character forever, he has his own motivation for doing what he does, but he never fucking tells them! And it explicitly messed them up! Raph is so insecure and resents Leo because of Splinter’s favoritism, and that shouldn’t go unresolved.

And uh that’s all I can think of right now. Maybe I’ll do a post about a full rewrite another day but off the top of my head, these are my ideas and what I want out of the series.

[shadowcipher17]

My Ever After High Ships and Opinions

So I went to Tier maker and decided to have my own opinions on the Ever After High ships, I’m going to explain the ships and why they’re ranked the way they are as well as my personal opinions on them. I am going from the bottom up.

Platonically

Darling x Apple: I already gave my opinion on Darling x Apple as a ship. Despite them being canon, and even before they were confirmed canon, I saw them as just friends. If Darling was introduced earlier (like she was in the books) then she could get more development, but I think even with that I see Darling and Apple as friends.

Briar x Ashlynn: I see them as friends, GREAT friends to be exact. I LOVED Ashlynn and Briar’s dynamic in Thronecoming and how Ashlynn was supportive of Briar’s choice of not wanting to sign and I think these two (and Crystal) go all the way back to Spellementary School (I believe it was said in Epic Winter) so they’ve been friends for a while.

Cupid x Dexter: Just friends. Dexter clearly has a crush on Raven and the majority of Cupid’s focus was pinning for Dexter and should’ve been dropped earlier than finally in Chapter 3, and according to the diaries she fell in love with Dexter by looking at a picture of him. But yeah, just friends.

Raven x Maddie: BEST FRIENDS PERIOD. I LOVE Raven and Maddie’s dynamic throughout the whole franchise. I could see them as a ship but I really prefer their friend dynamic. You have Maddie practically being the only one giving Raven a chance and not judging her for being the daughter of The Evil Queen and is her best friend despite what her mother did to her Wonderland. LOVE IT!

Apple x Ashlynn: They’re fine as friends. Going back on it, I don’t think they had that much interaction (without Briar) despite that conflict in True Hearts Day. But Ashlynn and Apple are fine as friends.

Kitty x Maddie: I would have more to say if it was Kitty x Lizzie, but Kitty and Maddie are fine as friends, they don’t really interact as much as Kitty and Lizzie do but them alongside the Wonderlandians are thick as thieves.

Daring x Apple: Despite them being a supposed couple, they don’t have real chemistry together, they hardly interact with each other but I honestly saw them as the typical popular couple, but the twist that they weren’t destined for each other was good. I can just see them as friends.

Daring x Cerise: I do understand where other fans are coming from with this ship, but I see them as friends, after Thronecoming they don’t really interact all that much. 

Apple x Raven: Just friends. Relationship wise, no. Apple got better but back in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 she wasn’t that good of a friend to Raven. Apple wouldn’t listen to Raven about her not being evil. Apple would just dismiss her thoughts and criticize her about not being evil. She got better after Thronecoming. But despite Apple getting manipulated by the Evil Queen and pressured by Snow White, it was still wrong of her to pressure her into being evil for the sake of her destiny. Raven even tried to have somebody replace her role in order to help Apple get her destiny, but Apple gets mad at her because she NEEDS Raven to be her Evil Queen. But I see them as friends.

They’re Alright

Daring x Lizzie: Now, I’ll admit I can see them as a ship and honestly Daring pre-Epic Winter, across the franchise he’s shown an interest in Lizzie and Lizzie has shown interest in Daring in some areas. I think Daring in general has in interest in girls that don’t put up with his good looks and dazzling smile, Lizzie, Cerise, and Rosabella all show cases of this. But Daring and Lizzie are alright as a ship, just not my favorites.

Cedar x Cerise: I could see Cedar and Cerise as a pairing, roommates to lovers in a way, but even though they’re roommates they don’t interact that much but they’ve been seen around school together a lot, but I can see them as a ship.

Briar x Hopper: Gonna be honest, I don’t really have much on this ship. Me personally, I liked Hopper x Ginger better from Kiss and Spell due to Ginger liking both sides of Hopper rather than just his articulate frog side like Briar does. I can see them as a couple but mainly for their designs with Hopper’s reds and Briar’s dark pinks

Jillian x Humphrey: Going back on the list I would actually put them under platonic. Yeah, they were a good pairing in the webisode but nothing else comes of this. So I’d put them in platonic category.

Had Potential and Could’ve Went Somewhere

Duchess x Sparrow: Honestly, I could see them as a couple, like oddly they could’ve been the rival couple to Ashlynn and Hunter. If they would’ve gotten more development I would’ve been invested in them as a couple (I would’ve been invested in Duchess and Sparrow in general if they had gotten more development) but these two work well off of each other, and with more interaction they could’ve went somewhere.

Darling x Cerise: Considering how much interaction they had in the background of Dragon Games, they could’ve went somewhere! Both of them have secrets that can’t really be shared to the rest of Ever After, because it’s against the rules. They’re both Rebels and defy the norm. I could see them being in a relationship.

Faybelle x Briar: For this one, I’m not just talking about a relationship but in general. THESE TWO COULD’VE WENT SOMEWHERE! Imagine what would’ve happened if Faybelle was introduced in Thronecoming, and introduced earlier. These two are basically the inverse of the Apple and Raven dynamic, it could’ve been that and the fact that according to Faybelle they’re frenemies, they were wasted potential in my opinion. Heck, Faybelle was wasted potential and this is coming from a Maleficent fan, but these two could’ve went somewhere.

Darling x Chase: These two also had potential for me. In Way too Wonderland, they had good playful interactions with each other as the White Knight and the Red Knight. They’re color schemes compliment each other with Darling’s light blue and white/silver and Chase’ red and black color scheme. They’re also polar opposites where Chase enforces rules while Darling breaks rules (in a sense). I wish Chase got to go to Ever After High along with Courtly, I would’ve loved to see them as sparing partners. But I could see them as equal partners.

I Love Them

Ashlynn x Hunter: I loved their development throughout the franchise, from the books to the cartoon. They were pretty much the first couple to be a Royal x Rebel based couple. I like how it was developed but the only downside is that separately Hunter and Ashlynn aren’t that developed as characters after the True Hearts Day special, they’re just about each other.

Alistair x Bunny: I like them as a couple. Sure they may be generic but I really like their relationship. I also like them in general as character and (like most of the characters in this show) I wish they got more development aside from having crushes on each other.

OTP

Daring X Rosabella: Epic Winter made me FALL IN LOVE WITH THIS SHIP! For one, I loved the Daring twist that he ended up being The Beast because looking at overall, it made perfect sense. From Daring’s personality, to him being obsessed with mirrors, I didn’t see it during the shows runtime, but I liked how it was executed mainly on Daring’s part. Rosabella helped change Daring to be selfless rather than selfish and only care about himself and through that journey he genuinely fell in love with her. I really like this relationship and would’ve like to see where it went in the future.

Dexter X Raven: I love Dexter and Raven together. I loved the relationship that they have in the books and the show. Dexter and Raven honestly had more interaction in the books, and according to Raven was her first friend who was a Royal. He loved how Raven stood up for herself in not wanting to follow her destiny (It’s actually worse in the book than the show) but they a genuine good friendship in the books that makes their relationship in show worth it. It also helps that Dexter, had a crush on Raven since before the start of the series in the Shannon Hale books. But I would’ve liked to see their relationship if the series went forward.

But this is my Tier list for Ever After High 

[yandere-daydreams]

Title: Pendent.

Written for a lovely anonymous commissioner.

Pairing: Yandere!Bokuto/Reader.

Word Count: 2.0k.

TW: F. Reader, Toxic Relationships, Possessive Mindsets, Co-Dependency, and (Unintentional) Emotional Manipulation.

[Part Two]

Bokuto was better, when you were around.

Better at playing, obviously, at spiking and receiving and controlling his temper when his performance couldn’t keep up with his temper, but he felt like he was better at everything, from volleyball to mathematics. He felt lighter, he felt stronger, and rarely, when you sat down and smiled so patiently and let him rest his head in your lap as you helped him study, he might’ve been grateful enough to say he felt smarter, too. You’d never believe him, but he’s a caring boyfriend, like that. He’ll always try to make you feel as good as he does, when you’re next to him.

It was only natural, really. The two of you were soulmates, a complementary pair. Bokuto’d been sure of that since the first time he saw you, following in Akaashi footsteps like a kicked puppy, a transfer student fresh from another city entirely, desperately lost and eager to latch onto as many familiar faces as you could. You’d made friends since then, obviously. Hell, your popularity might’ve rivalled Bokuto’s, but he’d liked those first few weeks. His heart had skipped a beat the first time you came to one of Fukurōdani’s games, and he could still remember the first time you’d spoken to him, tripping over your words as you introduced yourself with that small, endearing smile constantly pulling at the corners of your lips. You hadn’t really liked him at first, even if you were always too nice to admit it. You must’ve been intimidated, put off by the friend of a friend who was, admittedly, far from subtle about his interest in you. But, that’s alright. It’s in the past, and all of that happened before he had you, before you had him.

You made him better. The two of you made each other better, and Bokuto wouldn’t know what to do without you.

You agreed to watch him practice, today, too. He should’ve kept his mind on the drills, on the coach’s critics and Akaashi’s quiet requests for him to try to concentrate on the game at-hand, but it was difficult to stay focused with the love of his life so close, leaning against the nearest guard-rail, waving every time his eyes strayed from the court and towards you, instead. It was an instinct, honestly, a reflex to adore his very own masterpiece. Knowing you were there for him only made it better, even if he’d never pass up any opportunity to be close to you. Still, he liked knowing you cared. He liked having you so close. He liked everything about you, but he liked knowing you were his the most--

A volleyball collided with the back of Bokuto’s head, and instantly, he was pulled out of his thoughts and into reality. He snapped around, finding Konoha with one arm still raised and his mouth already open, cutting in before Bokuto could start to complain. “If you haven’t noticed, we’re taking a break,” He explained, only pausing to pick up the ball rolling idly in this direction. “Stop making eyes at your girlfriend and go talk to her, before she realizes she’s dating a stalker.”

“I’m not a stalker,” Bokuto whined, but he was already fighting the urge to find you again, just to make sure you were still there. Just to ease his own paranoid concerns, even if he knew they’d start to brew again as soon as you were out of sight. “You’re just jealous I go to ‘er first. No one that pretty ever comes to see you play.”

Konoha only scoffed, turning on his heel. “That’s because some of us can play without an audience, dumbass.”

Bokuto almost took the time to retort, but he didn’t get the chance. There was a flash of movement in the corner of his vision, a slight hint of color in his peripheral, and then you were wrapped around his arm, leaning against his bicep as you rested your cheek on his shoulder with a contented sigh. It was routine, you’d always been the affectionate type, but Bokuto couldn’t help but feel special. He wanted to feel special, when you went out of your way to touch him. “Kotaro,” You started, drawing out his name playfully, and Bokuto had to bite back a grin. It’d taken you months to use his given name, but the thrill of it never seemed to wear off. “You were great out there, you have to show me how you--”

“One second, alright?” You fell silent, but you brightened as he took your head, pulling away and beginning to tug you in the direction of the gym’s exit. “It’s just a little crowded in here, ‘s all. I want to be alone with you, for a while.”

Your smile wavered, but you didn’t argue, only sinking into his side as he led you outside, the courtyard thankfully empty. Usually, Bokuto wasn’t the jealous type. He wasn’t possessive, and he’d never want to smother you, but there was something satisfying about having you all to himself, about having your eyes on him as he pinned you against the back of the gym, one arm supporting him and the other snaking around your waist, pulling you into his chest as he buried his face in the crook of your neck, letting himself sigh for the first time since practice started. 

Your laugh was like windchimes, like bells, like heaven, ringing out every time he kissed your neck and spurring Bokuto forward despite your attempts to distract him. It was more playful than anything, your fingers tangling themselves in his messy hair as you shake your head, but either way, it didn’t work. It would’ve taken a lot more to rip him away from you, and you should’ve known that.

Still, you scolded him, clicking your tongue before you spoke. “We’re still in public,” You chided, tugging on the collar of his shirt, making a half-hearted attempt to pull him away before giving up, resigning yourself to his eager pecks at your jugular, to the hand slipping under the hem of your skirt, just enough to squeeze your thigh. “If you’re going to be this impatient, I’m going to have to keep you muzzled.” A nip, this time, to the junction of your jaw, and he heard you fight the urge to giggle. “I don’t want your teammates catching us in a… compromising position, y’know?”

Right, of course not. You were always the shy type, too timid to be anything but awkwardly charming, but Bokuto wasn’t. He liked to think he could be the one to break you out of your shell, too, as long as he tried hard enough. “Afraid to show me off?” He laughed, earning a scoff and a soft shove to his chest. “It’s fine, baby. If anyone sees anything, I’ll handle it.”

There was a beat of silence, a tangible deflation. He almost drew back, almost asked what was wrong, but you were talking before he had the chance. “I don’t like the way you handle things, ‘taro.”

You weren’t joking, this time. Your tone was enough to make Bokuto realize that, still stand-offish, but colder, distant in a way that seemed more disappointed than angry. He didn’t let you go, but his grip tightened, blunt nails digging into your soft skin with just enough force to catch your attention. Instantly, you tried to backtrack. “No, I mean, I appreciate it, but you can just be so…” You trailed off, your voice falling into a breathy sigh. “I think you get a little too excited, sometimes. It scares people. It scares me, honestly.”

Something cracked inside of Bokuto’s chest. It wasn’t the first time you’d brought this up, and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last, but it always hurt him to hear you talk about him like… like some overly aggressive jerk. He wasn’t, not really. If he approached one of your friends, it was only because he didn’t trust them, because he knew you were delicate and he’d never be able to forgive himself if you got hurt. If he got a little too bold with a few underclassmen, it was only because he’d heard your name brought up a little too casually in a conversation that wasn’t as respectful as it should’ve been. As your boyfriend, it was the least he could do, and he knew you’d understand if explained that. He knew you would. You’d have to.

Because if you didn’t, things would go back to the way they used to be, before you made him better. When you were still so shy, when you were too busy being swarmed by distraction to see him, to realize the two of you belonged together. It wasn’t your fault. You were new to this, knew to him, but back then, he would’ve done just about anything for your attention. He’d been distraught. He couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, and even on the court, he couldn’t play, not if he knew you wouldn’t be watching. The rest of the team had noticed, but they couldn’t do anything to help. He hadn’t been able to pull himself together, not until you came up to him, white envelope in your hands and your eyes on the floor. Not until he knew you cared about him. Not until he knew you loved him.

Not until you made him better, whether or not you’d meant to.

He knew you liked being popular. It was fun, he’d be the first to admit that. You liked having friends, having fans, having people who left gifts at the foot of your locker and offered to help you study and saw you, even if you rarely let yourself indulge in the privilege. He knew you liked it, but he liked you, he loved you, and all of that, all of them threatened to take you away from him. He’d be a wreck without you. Bokuto didn’t know much, but he knew that. He wouldn’t be able to breath if you left him, if he just sat back and let you leave him.

He stopped thinking, for a moment. It might’ve been a little too impulsive, looking back on it, just a touch too rough, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop, not as he jerked forward, slotting his mouth against yours before you could pull away. He tried to make the kiss as gentle as he could, once he realized what he was doing, but there still must’ve been that jolt of neediness behind it, that undeniable desperation. He could barely bring himself to pull away, but he tried to remind himself that he’d have more time. If you loved him, he’d have more time, and you had to love him.

“I’m sorry.” He was gasping, fighting to turn awful, blurring emotions into something coherent while you stared on, your expression a mix of stun and halting concern. “You know I’d never want to scare you, right, baby? You mean so much to me, and the last thing I’d do is hurt you. I just thought I could help.” He forced himself to stop, after that, to take a breath before he started again, attempting to sound more composed, this time. “You know how much you mean to me, don’t you? And you know I love you, right?”

You seemed reluctant, but you answered. “I know, ‘taro.”

“And you know I’d be a mess without you, right?”

“You’re a mess with me.” This time, there was a hint of something playful, just a ghost of a smile as you went on. “I just need you to promise to be a little more considerate, next time. I know you’re just trying to do what you think is best, but I really need you to try to think these things through. For me.”

You might’ve hesitated, but Bokuto didn’t. He didn’t need to. You were the love of his life, his soulmate, the only person in the world he’d ever cared about this much, and he’d do anything for you.

He was better, when you were around, and he needed to be better.

“I promise.”