#i made this on my laptop which has a super low brightness so it's way brighter than i thought it was going to be lmao

[bitchassbucky]

.exe

Word Count: 2.4k

Warning/s: stalkers, bucky being a creepo, reader being a creepo. dark!IT!bucky x dark!reader :-) female & male masturbation, voyeurism (i think), cyber crimes being committed.

A/N: this is my birthday gift to @babyboibucky <3 to my boo, I love you and you have a special place in my heart. this is gonna be a multi-part thing, it's too long to be considered as a one-shot, oops.

please enjoy! :D

follow the CTRL series:

i - .exe

ii - .avi

iii - .raw

iv - .png

v - .zip

CTRL playlist

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4:49 PM

Just 11 more minutes until he can pack his bags up for the weekend.

One new ticket - URGENT

Goddamn it.

Bucky pulled his earphones out in annoyance, just another office idiot who doesn’t know how to print A4 sheets. If the office were to be held hostage and printing out was the only thing that can save them, half of the floor would be dead.

The new name caught his eye, Y/N Y/L. A new hire, it seems like.

Subject: One new ticket - URGENT

Hi, this is Y/N, employee number 0008675309. I’m new here and was told to send a ticket for the equipment request.

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Oh, Bucky’s gonna have a great weekend indeed. Out of pure curiosity, he’s already pulled up your employee file. A cute smile to a cute name. His annoyance dispersing already, just by thinking of ways how he can spend time with you.

Hey, Y/N! Bucky types into the text field, Welcome to the company. I’m Bucky and I got assigned to help you get settled. Do you prefer having a desktop or a laptop? I’ve attached a form in this thread, send it to me once you’re done.

Have an awesome weekend too!

As much as he hates sending out chirpy emails, he can’t help but to smile when you immediately send a reply back.

Thanks, Bucky! So sorry for sending in the request super late. Got caught up with the onboarding. Is it okay if I use my laptop until we can get a unit to my place? PC or laptop is fine with me.

Best,

Y/N

Bucky fights off another smile, rubbing his hand over his stubbled cheek as he carefully types out a reply. Unlike other days, he doesn’t mind staying beyond 5 PM today. It’s not like he has other plans for his Friday night.

No worries, Y/N. He’s already loving your name. Happy to help!

Do you have your laptop with you? I can set it up before you go home for the weekend. I can probably send in the ticket to the guys so you can have your work equipment next week.

His deft fingers are dancing over his mechanical keyboard, clacking away while the clock ticks closer to the weekend.

A ping, another reply from you. You’re new, you’re still excited to make friends in the office. If you only knew how stupid they are, though.

Yeah! I have it on me right now. I actually work on the same floor, I can drop it off there right now.

Bucky glances around his office, looking for any reflective surface he can check himself on. He runs his hand through his hair, taming any stubborn locks that fell out of his low bun. His shirt hangs just right against his huge frame, his pants hugging his figure, accentuating his silhouette even more.

Just as the clock ticks 5:00, a soft knock raps against his door, “come in!”

You are cuter, prettier in person. Your perfume hits his nose and he’s floored—metaphorically.

“Mr. Barnes,” you say, your demeanor somewhat meek and shy. Well, of course, you are. Your frame is nothing against the hunk of the man who just stood up to greet you.

“Bucky.” He prompts, smiling. You reciprocated the smile, but you really weren’t sure what to expect. Maybe a scrawny little dude mousing away on a keyboard?

“Bucky, thank you so much for doing this. I know you’d rather get off of work since it’s Friday and all.”

He hums, taking your laptop in his hands. You notice the rings adorning his fingers—complementing his tanned skin tone and—it’s not appropriate to stare at a stranger’s hand.

Heat creeps up your face as he turns to look at the stickers stuck to your laptop, “you know, I like this band.” Bucky says, pointing to an old sticker, he carefully sets down your laptop on his workstation.

“They’re great,” you muse, taking a seat on a plastic chair by the door.

You take a gander around his small office. There was nothing out of the ordinary but the big black server blinking at the back, so why do you feel trapped?

“Sorry about the temp, we have to keep the room cold for the server in the back,” Bucky explains, noticing how your arms are crossed over your chest. The skirt you’re wearing isn’t doing you any better too.

You stammer out an it’s okay with a small smile.

Bucky worked on your computer quietly, using a USB stick to load all the applications you need to set up a temporary work account on your laptop. After a few minutes, he beckoned you to come here. You scoot over to his desk, rolling the chair forward and beside him. Not too close though.

“So, this note has all your generated passwords. Type those into the app when you first log in, then you can change it if you want to.” Bucky explains, the cursor idles on the screen. He tries not to get too close to you, to give you personal space. It’s a professional workplace after all.

“This app,” he drags a window, pulling up an application, “tracks your hours and your keystrokes. It’s company-mandated because managers want to micro-manage their people, I guess.” Bucky shrugs, his disdain showing through his voice. His tone shifting lower than what you’d expected.

“Sorry, I just hate their new protocol,” his face and voice softening as he looks at you, “it’s a total privacy breach if you ask me.”

You’d normally disagree but something tells you that maybe he’s got a point. Your breath hitched in your throat as he leans closer as if to whisper something, “this note right here? It’s a nifty thing, a little script so your computer doesn’t go to sleep when you’re away. It enables and disables your numlock pad so it counts as a keystroke.”

A smirk finds its place on your face, “well, that’s…something, isn’t it?”

Never in your life would you find yourself flirting with a co-worker but there’s something about Bucky that made you excited. Interested. Intrigued.

Bucky nods, rolling his chair away to fetch a pad of sticky notes. “Another thing from your friendly neighborhood IT guy,” he peels off a leaf and sticks it on your laptop’s built-in camera, “keep your cam covered.”

You give him a chuckle and a playful salute, “yes, sir.”

Bucky’s a modern man. He sees a pretty girl and he gets giddy. He talks to a pretty girl and he gets flustered. But you—you make him feel more than giddy and flustered. There was something familiar about you, and your eyes. Has he seen you before? Met you, even? No, that’s impossible—if he had met you before, he’d surely remember you.

It was 5:34 PM when he gave you your laptop back and sent in an urgent request for your equipment. While taking down the elevator to the lobby, Bucky gave you a few tips on how to ‘survive’ working in the office. According to him, as far as you go in on time and kept your head above the rumors, you’d do fine.

He asked about your first week and he told you about this joint near the building that serves the best burgers and fries.

You’ve got a good feeling that you just made your first friend.

—

The sun was already setting down when you pulled into your apartment’s parking lot. At the very last minute, you turned into a drive-through and got some food on the go. The side trip took out 10 minutes of your time but at least you dodged the awful traffic that was building up by the highway.

Along with your laptop bag and your food, you trudge up to your third-floor apartment. It wasn’t what you wanted—the windows faced the street, the screen door doesn’t lock all the way—but it’s the one you got. As long as it’s got four walls and a roof, right?

You slip out of your work clothes and into some comfy jammies after a rewarding shower; the sooner you can get your food heat up, the sooner you can eat, and drink and then go to sleep.

So while waiting for the microwave to beep, you pry open your laptop. You told Bucky not to shut it down after he worked on it as to not lose your work on another profile, which he understood.

The work account he set up greeted you, along with the bright pink sticky note he stuck to your webcam. That wasn’t real, was it? All those cautionary tales of hackers using webcams to peep on you. Maybe he’s just trying to scare you, like some kind of initiation. Without a second thought, you took off the sticky note. It was kinda annoying anyway.

Clicking the Log Out Work button, your personal account popped into the frame. Your opened apps and documents displaying themselves for you to use. You pulled up Spotify and clicked on the first playlist you saw—which happened to be your intimate playlist.

Sure, the Pavlov reaction is real because halfway through the first song, you already found yourself getting all hot and bothered. This one’s your favorite song too.

You groan in annoyance, your food’s no longer a priority.

Picking up the laptop from the table, you walk to your bedroom, not bothering to shut the door. You live alone, it’s fine. You put the laptop on its loudest setting, setting it on your desk and you plopped down on your bed, the pillows and the comforter pooling on one side.

Your room is illuminated by a streak of light from the street. Your curtains flowing softly with the breeze that just came in.

Glancing at your laptop, you remembered Bucky. How his office smelled when you first walked in. How he stood tall when he greeted you. How he smiled. Those goddamn rings of his.

Before you caught yourself thinking rationally, your fingers are already splayed even over your thighs, caressing the soft flesh of your legs.

Bucky’s smirk and his cologne finding purchase in your fogged brain. Thoughts of him pulling you aside into his office to fool around—voices above hushed whispers as your skin erupts in goosebumps, the chilled air of his office finding its way up to your spine.

Oh, fuck it.

You undress fast, flinging your shirt over your head, dropping it somewhere below the bed. The air in your room making your nipples hard and erect as you pinch them. You breathe out a sigh, the heat of the moment creeping up your torso.

The material of your panties dampening as you imagine yourself bent over his desk, your skirt bunched over your hips as he laps your sopping cunt. Bucky’s tongue exploring your folds up and over until your pussy’s a quivering mess of drool and spit.

Your fingers slip past the band of your underwear. Even you surprised yourself by how wet you are.

God, you met him once and he’s already inching his way into your mind.

But who could blame you? You’ve been all over his Facebook profile when you learned his name via the office’s organizational chart. The first time you saw him, walking around the office with a laptop in his hands, you already knew you wanted to at least formally meet him. A scroll on his page, you found a band that you could tolerate listening to. (They’re okay, just not your taste in music.)

A plan came to mind when your department head told the team that you can work from home from time to time—only if you agreed to use a work laptop, a company-owned one. Your manager advised you to put in the request as soon as you can, for you to secure a unit before the on-hand supplies dwindle.

Deliberately sending in the request late—way, way later—than what your manager told you just so you could pull up the ‘new hire’ card and act dumb.

And it looked like he bought it too.

The image of him fucking you quiet while he grabs you from behind played inside your mind like a memory—a vision. Of how his thick cock would fill you up until your pussy is clenching around him. Would he pinch your throbbing clit, making you squirm and cream around him?

Your fingers are compared nothing to his, that’s for sure. But it does the work for now.

A breathy moan comes out of your mouth as you play with your clit, your cunt dripping down wetness as you continue to fondle your tits.

His hands would make a great addition to your chokers.

Your toes curl and your breath quickens, the coil in the pit of your stomach tightening—white-hot heat creeping up your limbs.

Oh, fuck, Bucky!

—

His ears perked up as he heard you moaning his name.

Bucky was busy watching you enjoy yourself when he got caught in the moment and decided to enjoy himself too.

He was barely keeping himself behaved when you first walked into the floor wearing a button-up and slacks that accentuated your backside. Bucky wished he was the one who gave you the tour and know your name for the first time, but that was impossible—he was in the IT department.

So when he got the news that new hires will be given the chance to work from home, he hoped that he gets to be the one to help you set up.

He was losing hope by the time he got your request, he thought that you opt not to work at home but then there you were, sending him an apologetic email on a late Friday afternoon.

Of course, he happily obliged. He even set up himself a little virtual camp in the background of your computer just so he can continue spending time with you.

Just thinking about you is already making him hard again. Bucky already came in hot spurts of white as he watched you desperately undress earlier. What can he say—he was waiting for you to show your tits already. As such, he correctly guessed that you’d be annoyed with the glaringly bright sticky note he used to ‘cover’ your webcam with.

But seeing you fingerfuck yourself all alone just wasn’t enough for him, he has to have you all by yourself.

[aliteama]

heya! since okkotsu yuta is ur fac character (amiright) can i request for a jealous yuuta with an s/o where they are in a long-distance relationship? like, he was jealous when suddenly the second years interrupted his call with her and how cheerful she sounds talking about the first years?

✧Fic✧

Missing Yuu(ta)

✧A/N: anon.... your mind is so very large for this,  thank you for indulging me 😌🙏

✧ It was difficult saying goodbye, watching him board the plane with your hoodie wrapped around his waist and charm bracelet adorning his wrist to compliment the necklace resting against your collarbone. Tears were shed and hugs were exchanged, squeezing you until you felt your lungs would pop but still not wanting to let go.

There was a set schedule for when he would call you yet due to time difference it was never certain when either of you would pick up. While Yuuta was off training you stayed with the other students getting to know the first years. When you stumbled across Itadori it was merely by accident, searching for Shoko in the infirmary only to find the student who was pronounced dead mere minutes ago.

Tapping away at your phone with a goofy smile on your face, the harsh light emitting from your screen had your eyes squinting to try and adjust in the dimly lit room.

“Senpai! Put your phone down the movies starting” whining from the other end of the couch Itadori tried to swipe your phone from your grasp.

Wiggling around to avoid his grabby hands you unintentionally pressed record, the sounds of your laughter and Itadoris voice loading into the screen before automatically sending.

“Fine fine!” swiping notifications off and tossing your phone aside you leaned into the couch and watched the beginning scene appear on screen. The movie went by in a blur, the protagonist capturing Itadoris attention and drawing him in while you struggled to keep your eyes open.

Glancing around the room in a daze you noticed the clocks slow tick, Yuuta should be free to call by now, “Yuji I’m gonna take my leave now”

“But- The movie isn’t over yet!”

“I’ll drop by later to keep you company” rushing out of the room with your lover in mind you forgot your silently buzzing phone that remained on the coffee table.

Rushing through the dormitory halls you knocked on your fellow second years’ door before swinging your own door open and popping your laptop open with shaky fingers.

“Someone's excited”

“Maki! Of course I am, I haven’t seen Yuuta all week!” you practically shook with excitement as you bounced on your heels.

“Salmon!”

“Toge! You can sit next to me”

Patting the empty space to your left Inumaki flopped onto the mattress and leaned his head onto your shoulder while Maki set up the videocall, rolling into the room Panda pushed Maki forward and propped up behind her to see the screen.

“Panda scoot over!”

“Hello?” appearing on the small screen your eyes turned watery at the refreshing sight of Yuuta, the circles under his eyes fading and hair styled out of his smiling face.

“Oh Y/N’s getting emotional again”

“Shut up Panda! I miss you Yuuta!” 

“I miss you too..” even through the blurry screen you could see the utter enamor in his softening eyes.

“Ok lover boy were here too ya’know”

“Hey Maki, Toge!”

“Spiced cod roe!”

“Actually Y/N earlier I-”

“Senpaii!” marching into your room Nobara dragged a lazed Fushiguro by the collar, “Train with us please!”

“Kugisaki I told you to not bother them right now!”

“Eh? Why not”

“Is that Megumi?” loosing track of the conversation Yuuta tried to pick out all the different voices that spoke over each other.

“Mhm! Megumi come say Hi! And Yuuta this is Nobara Kugisaki, the other first year” spinning the laptop around so Yuuta could see them Fushiguro waved awkwardly while Nobara peered at the screen with a cocked brow.

“Is this the other upper classmen?” 

Tugging at Nobaras arm Fushiguro excused themselves while chewing her ear off for not properly greeting her seniors. Standing up after them Maki urged everyone out of the room to leave you with at least a little privacy. 

“Aren't they fun? Oh Yuuta wait until you meet the other student! He’s such a big ball of sunshine!”

“Actually.. I wanted to ask but who was that you were with earlier”

“Earlier? I was with Yuji”

The bright grin on your face at the mention of Itadori had Yuuta tugging his lower lips between his teeth and chewing at it anxiously. The sound of your laughter from earlier drowning his thoughts, oh how he wished he were there to make you laugh like that.

“Actually, I’ll ring you from my phone I think I left it behind” nodding his head in acknowledgement Yuuta was quick to hang up first which to say the least surprised you as he was usually one to drag out the calls.

Shutting your laptop with a disheartened smile you made your way back to the tucked away room where the bubbling first year resided munching on popcorn with the punch bear tucked close to his chest. Maneuvering around the room you picked up the silenced phone which had overflooded with texts from Yuuta asking who it was making you laugh. 

“Yuji wanna meet my favorite person?”

“Your favorite person? Where are they?”

Climbing into the empty spot besides him you unlocked your phone and clicked on the facetime icon next to Yuutas contact, a single ring was all it took for his tired face to pick up, his eyes narrowing at the pink haired boy next to you.

“Yuuta meet Itadori Yuji!” stretching your arm out to capture the both of you on screen you saw Itadoris excited smile reflecting in the camera.

“Like Okkotsu Yuuta? The super strong Yuuta?” snatching the phone from your hands Itadori rambled on and on about how everyone spoke so highly about him and how excited he was to meet him in person.

Chattering away with your boyfriend you smiled fondly, picking up his odd nature earlier you knew something had bothered him. The contagious grin on Itadoris face had the corners of his lips turning up.

“Y/N Senpai said you were her favorite person too!”

“F-favorite?!”

“Aaha that’s enough Yuji!” pushing at his shoulder seemed to finally break his concentration as the bear was awoken from low cursed energy output and effectively knocked the first year out as a result.

“Whoops, thats a bruise in the making”

“I’m glad I got to meet Itadori”

“Really now? You didn’t seem to happy when I mentioned him earlier”

“I just miss is all, it’s hard seeing you have so much fun with everyone that’s not me..” pulling the phone closer to your face you frowned at the somber look on his face.

“I have fun with you Yuuta! I cant wait for you to come back but even just calling with you now has me all giddy” cheeks flushing at your comment you watched Yuuta fiddle with his screen before pointing the camera at his heated face.

“I cant wait to see you”

“Me neither”

[deniigi]

my supervisor fucked me over with all my other coworkers present. can I request a one shot from you to cheer me up featuring Sammy?

Did I give y’all the fic about the hotpot?

Well if I didn’t, I’m giving it to you now.

Title: hotpot

Summary: Ganke checks the comments for the Blindspot comic daily and there’s this one asshole anon who keeps talking shit about BT.

--

The Blindspot comic went live in the fall and Ganke couldn’t stop checking the hit count every five seconds. All night there had only been ten hits.

He told himself not to be disappointed. The only person who really mattered had read and loved the comic.

Miles said that BT had even forced everyone on the team to read an abridged version of Journey to the West, and had gone as far as to make a quiz to determine everyone’s character.

Miles refused to disclose who he’d gotten.

BT had clearly rigged the game to make himself Sun Wukong and Ganke was proud of him.

That kind of enthusiasm was exactly what he’d been hoping for, anything else now was just icing on the cake.

Even though it would be cool if it wasn’t just BT reading his own comics.

That would be pretty cool, right? Like. If people online all started reading BT’s comic. That would be sort of amazing.

Kind of excellent.

Definitely worthy of an A+ and double pats on the back.

Right?

The hit counter didn’t think so. But hey, five more people had opened the page since last night. That was something, wasn’t it?

 MM: dude why not just ask Sam to tweet out the link?

 How dare you, Miles Morales.

How dare you waltz into this place with logical thought.

GL: I can’t do that. That’s like. Idk. Inflating the views.

MM: okay yeah explain to me how appealing to the person in control of the largest part of his own fandom is inflating the views

GL: I see your logic and I’m banishing it

MM: I’m messaging him

GL: DON’T

MM: too late

MM: he says ‘gimme link’

GL: asdksjsjdks

--

 @blindspot: hi I know y’all can’t get enough of me to the point of asking shockingly invasive questions and for you I say good news! Some amazing folks have gone through the trouble of making a Blindspot comic. it’s good guys check it out [link]

--

 It helped.

A lot.

It helped a lot.

--

 People, on the whole, had great things to say. The panels were screenshotted and tagged and sent all over social media and even though Miles was pretending to be chill and aloof about the whole thing, Ganke could imagine him smiling big and bright and white at his phone non-stop.

Mom and Auntie saw a few of the bits on Twitter and tittered over them in the kitchen like pigeons.

The pride rose like a wave. Ganke kept waiting for the crash.

--

 It came two days later in the form of a comment that read ‘Christ, look at all this fuss. BT is fine. I hate his brother.’

It felt like someone punching the wind out of Ganke’s lungs.

He took comfort in the handful of people who leapt in to shout down the commenter. They emphasized that if the anonymous commenter didn’t like the story or the characters, then they didn’t have to read it and they, especially, didn’t have to say anything about it.

Ganke appreciated those guys. He got the feeling that a lot of the people on there knew that the whole thing had been done but a couple of kids.

Not that Anon cared.

Anon replied to all these comments ‘No, I’m gonna keep reading, thanks. Anyways, the brother is lame. The smart part is cool, but why’s it always gotta be a guy?’

The part that haunted Ganke even after he’d shut his laptop and had gone to stick his head out the window for some big breaths of cleansing air was that Anon was kind of right.

--

 GL: should we have made Guotin’s brother a sister?

MM: no

GL: why not?

MM: cause BT’s always wanted a brother

 Oh.

Okay. Then it was fine?

 MM: yeah man ignore them. it’s chill.

GL: k thanks my ego is huge and fragile

MM: trust me I know

 Asshole. Fine, moving right along.

--

 It didn’t stop. Anon commented on every page. Every. Single. Page.

Ganke didn’t know what to do or say. On the one hand, clearly this person was dedicated and deeply engaged with the comic, on the other hand, they needed a Rude Alert button. Ganke wondered if Ned could code one for them and them only.

The latest of their fury was directed at the big reveal in the second issue—BT’s face.

Having now met Sam, BT, Blindspot, Ganke’s whole image of him had changed.

He was not conventionally attractive as far as like, K-Pop idols and famous Chinese dudes went. His eyes were puffy and narrow and his face was round everywhere but the jaw. He leaned more towards ‘cute’ than ‘sexy,’ which Ganke sort of loved about him.

He was friendly. Stressed and grumpy and feisty as hell, yeah, but first and foremost friendly.

Miles claimed that he called it his ‘number one asset in employability.’ Which was wild because hello, Blindspot.

Obviously, BT couldn’t help his face. But Miles and Ganke could help Guotin’s.

Ganke had sent Miles about fifteen different images of Chinese celebrities and had told him to do his worst. They’d reviewed the final few drafts and had picked one that was most like a young Chen Kun. His face was more oval-shaped than BT’s. His chin and lips were slimmer but more defined. He was pretty, but not so pretty as to be called ‘feminine,’ which Ganke thought was a solid compromise between ‘handsome as sin’ and ‘looks like he’s got a quirky sense of humor.’

Anon hated him.

Anon thought that he looked like an idol, and they were not here for it.

They told ‘the artist’ to give him a mole or something, anything to make him look ‘less pristine. God, I can smell him from here and he smells like Dior and staph habitat.’

Ganke had to look up what a staph infection was. He regretted it. He asked Miles if they should censor Anon.

Miles said ‘mmmmm, idk it’s not like they aren’t saying anything that isn’t true.’

Ganke resented that. Clearly this was defamation of BT. This person hated him and was taking their feeling out on the comic.

 MM: I mean yeah but it’s not like they’re talking about the comic, man. They’re talking about the style and like, thinking about it, a mole or smth to help you tell him apart from other folks would kind of be helpful. Like, especially if we ever put him in a crowd, you know?

 HHHHHH.

Fine.

Anon could stay. But they were on thin ice.

--

 It was hard not to be bitter about Anon’s comments, especially when they arrived daily, as though Anon knew exactly what they were doing and which page they’d left off at. They couldn’t possibly be reading the comic one page at a time, this was intentional.

Ganke’s jaw hurt from all the tooth grinding he’d endured as of late.

This latest one read ‘yo, has BT ever mentioned fighting with a sword? I don’t recall him mentioning. Someone should take that thing away from him before someone loses an eye—or maybe even two.’

That felt like a pointed jibe.

That turned the churning irritation in Ganke’s gut into something much, much colder.

Did Anon know about BT’s black and blue eyes? How could they know? Was it a coincidence? It seemed to be more than a coincidence.

The pile of critiques was growing bigger and bigger, and now that Ganke thought about it, they all seemed to take issue with things that didn’t match the real Blindspot’s personality.

It was as if they knew him.

 GL: miles did you read the new comment from AnonTheAsshole?

MM: lol yeah

GL: tell me if I’m talking out my ass or whatever but like

GL: you don’t think they could be Muse, could they?

 Silence.

 MM: oh no

 Yeah. Fuck.

 MM: chances are low.

GL: they know so much tho??

MM: might be stalker? Maybe someone who’s over-invested in BT’s social media pages?

GL: maybe.

MM: hold on let me ask Spidey to screen it

GL: does he know Muse?

MM: no, but he’s paranoid and he’ll get Wade to be paranoid with him, and then they can decide whether its worth giving to DD for verification. He knows Muse.

 Ganke’s head was spinning. His fingers shook with guilt and the thought of Muse’s pale body hunched over a secret, cracked cell phone in a high security prison who knew where.

In Ganke’s head, he smiled wider and wider, until the skin on his cheeks cracked. He dug out scraps of paper and redrew Blindspot—Sam—with gaping holes for eyes and a screaming mouth and he drew dismembered corpses in black lakes and he laughed.

He just kept laughing.

 MM: hey ganke

MM: it’s going to be okay. It’s just a comic. I’m sure AnonTheAsshole is a stalker. They’re not threatening anyone.

MM: Sam can deal with a stalker. And we can too, okay?

 There was a reason that Miles was a hero. Ganke wiped at his eyes and swallowed.

 GL: okay. Thanks for doing that.

MM: 👍🏾

--

 It took a few hours because Spidey and Deadpool had lives outside of being Spidey and Deadpool, but not so long that Ganke ran out of nails to chew.

Miles messaged him back and said that Spidey had read through everything and ‘escalated it.’ This meant that whatever he’d seen had caused him enough concern to take it to DP.

Miles said that he’d get back to Ganke with DP’s verdict as soon as he had it. In the meantime, he’d run the comments by the other Spideypeople and they thought that it most likely wasn’t malevolent but was maybe something to keep an eye on in the meantime. He tacked onto all, somewhat stiltedly, that he had a weird feeling all of the sudden. The pink Spidey’s tone had changed. She’d shut down and gone cagey, which allegedly wasn’t like her at all. Then she’d told the taller guy to DM her and they’d vanished from the chat. Miles wasn’t sure what was going on there or if maybe they knew something about stuff going on that he didn’t, but he wasn’t super comfortable with it.

 GL: crossing my fingers its nothing?

MM: same man, same.

--

 DP escalated it.

Ganke couldn’t stay still in his room. There was no comfortable place to sit or stand or lay. There was nothing to do that would make him stop thinking about everything.

 MM: It’s gonna be fine, man, DD always knows what to do.

 Miles kept saying that for every step of the way, and yet here they were. Double escalated. Ganke wasn’t so sure he even knew what was happening anymore.

That was scary. Miles was supposed to be part of the in-crowd.

 MM: Wade doesn’t think it’s anything that can’t be nipped in the bud.

 That was easy for a contract assassin to say, wasn’t it?

 MM: he says that you and I are fine. Doesn’t see any links there. Waiting on DD for confirmation of tone.

 Hurry up, Daredevil. Your apprentice’s life might be about to take a nosedive into a heap of trash.

--

 Two hours. One text.

 MM: >:/

 Ganke couldn’t contain the bubble of laughter.

 GL: good news?

MM: [image]

 He opened it.

 SC: HANNAH YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE. STOP BEING A BITCH ON MAIN

HC: You can’t tell me what to do

SC: I CAN

HC: Mom he’s being MEAN

SC: Mom she’s scaring children online

HC: I scare children everywhere I go why are these ones special???

SC: Because I said so

HC: that doesn’t fucking work Samuel you’re not her

SC: I am your older brother

SC: your ELDEST brother

HC: YOU AINT SHIT

SC: THEY DON’T COUNT

SC: HALFSIES COUNT

 What.

 MM: so.

MM: she’s not Muse.

MM: Red’s laughing his ass off at all of us for taking this to a level three

GL: wait I don’t understand

MM: Hannah is Sam’s little sister. She’s found a new hobby in our website.

 Blindspot’s little sister was reading the comic??? Holy shit.

 GL: she hates him?

MM: no I’ve been informed that they would literally commit murder for each other but this is how they express love.

 No way. Siblings were wild.

 GL: so we’re good?

MM: [image]

  SC: apologize 🔪

HC: eat my ass

SC: apologize or else

HC: or else what? You gonna come in here and sit on me? Huh? Huh????

SC: I know your email password. All 3 you cycle through. What was his name? Uuuuuuuuuh Jing?

HC: you fucking bastard

SC: Hi Jing, it’s me, Hannah. I’ve been in mad crush with you since sophomore year. Please notice me senpai 😖

HC: Die

SC: kill me

HC: I will.

 The giggles that came this time were a mix of relief and genuine intrigue. This lady read the comic every day. She took the time to scroll through pictures of her brother being an absolute lunatic and fighting with a huge monkey. Then she hopped into that comment box and took him—not Miles, not Ganke, specifically Blindspot--down a peg.

She must miss him a lot. Ganke wondered if this was her way of keeping him in her thoughts.

 MM: I don’t think we’re getting a sorry, man. DD says Sam’s been at this all morning and has been tricked into apologizing himself twice

GL: so you’re saying that she’s an evil genius

MM: idk but she’s def Sam’s main nemesis. I always thought that older siblings got like, rights or something over younger ones, but idk anymore. Angel says this is normal.

GL: do you think she misses him?

 Miles took a long time to respond.

 MM: yeah

 Yeah, Ganke thought so, too.

 GL: should we change Guo tin’s brother’s name to ‘hamish?’

MM: ASDLDSDSFKdsjf

MM: one moment.

MM: sam says yes. Hannah says that she thinks our comic is shit and we need to draw everything uglier

GL: she’s kind of funny

MM: 👀perhaps she would like to be a consultant?

GL: 👀👀👀👀

MM: brb asking

MM: sam says no. Hannah says she’s got better things to do than proofread comics on the internet. She’s also not sorry. She wants that to be clear. DD says that the conversation has moved from English to Chinese and to maybe duck and cover for now. He says all is good tho. Thanks for checking in.

MM: Muse doesn’t use punctuation and talks in riddles, so if we get any of that, we’re supposed to send it to DP right away.

 Oh, nice. That was a relief.

 MM: oh

MM: sam wants to put us in a chat. Can I give him your number?

 Uh, only if he wanted Ganke to hyperventilate.

 GL: sure

 --

  [GL has been added to a Secure Chat]

 It was a page of characters and emojis that were somehow more menacing than Ganke had ever seen them before. Miles popped a little waving hand into the fray, as though testing the waters, but the characters just carried on scrawling around it.

Ganke wasn’t quite sure what to do.

 GL: hi? Are y’all okay?

 There was finally a pause. Then a few shorter lines of characters. And then finally, Blindspot switched from Chinese to English.

 SC: yes we’re FINE. We’re GREAT. Aren’t we, sibling from hell?

HC: who’re you? Why are you in our family chat? This is a family only zone, can’t you read?

SC: God Hannah he’s Korean don’t be a dick

HC: I can’t not be I learned it from you

SC: fair but pretend in the face of company

HC: okay fine. Hello losers.

MM: adksadfadsdfldfsldf

MM: hi

GL: hi?

SC: go on

HC: UGH

HC: fine

HC: I didn’t mean to shit talk your creation. Only my brother.

SC: also a sin, we’ll get to that later

HC: no one cares about you Samuel, stop spreading lies

SC: you first. We both know this is no lie, my white dad cares about me a whole lot

HC: well we can’t all have white dads now can we

SC: don’t be jealous

MM: lol you really call Matt your white dad??

HC: who is this person and how do they know our mutual parent’s name?

SC: this is not a mutual parent situation how many times have we been through this. He’s mine. Get your own.

MM: hi! 👋🏾I’m Bitsy! Spidey no. 4

GL: I’m his friend. He draws the comic. I write it.

HC: oh. nerd children x2

HC: anyways yeah Matt is our dad

SC: ffs

MM: he’s sort of dadly ig.

HC: ?? oho

SC: mind your face. Think about your face. Think about how much you like your face.

HC: little spider, did you not hear?

SC: kay everyone out. We’re done here

MM: hear what?

HC: lol Sammy you didn’t tell them about how Matthew Mcconaughey adopted you in all ways but paperwork?

 Ganke held his phone away from his face as far as it would go.

 MM: …wait are you for real?

SC: no. okay out.

HC: awwww Sammy so shy now. What are you embarrassed about? It’s cute.

SC: Hannah literally shut up I’m not playing

HC: damn okay sorry

MM: can I be honest?

SC: no

MM: I’m going to be anyways: I think we all sorta knew.

SC: …

HC: right?

SC: what does that even mean?

MM: idk, it just felt right, you know? You two are always fussing at each other and red lost his shit that time you got shot. He doesn’t treat you the way he treats the rest of us and we’re his teammates. He doesn’t even treat spidey like he treats you. So like, yeah. It fits.

MM: I’m really happy for you guys.

MM: is there a reason it’s a secret?

 Ganke eased himself back down onto the mattress. This was real. This was like, actual, real information. Something that he and like, four other people in the world now knew.

He kind of wanted to forget it. It didn’t feel right to know.

 SC: I dunno.

HC: if sam has an honest emotion towards anything he has to calculate its weight so he can make space for it in his collection of satellites.

MM: wh

SC: you’re so not funny.

HC: it’s called emotional repression, darling. It’s all the rage in this family.  

MM: oh

MM: so that’s why you and Red get on so well

SC: HHHHHHH

HC: HA

SC: okay but listen his is different, I’ve only seen him cry at his wedding. I cry at least 4 times a week. Obviously under the bed, but that can’t be emotional repression. That’s expression. That’s clearly expression

HC: I can make the old man cry watch me

SC: please don’t I’ll die

MM: awwwww

SC: shut up it doesn’t even matter.

MM: AWWWWWW

SC: LEAVE ALREADY

MM: no I like it here. I want to hear you talk about how much you love your white dad

SC: I don’t. He loves me. I’m fine with this because it results in food, shelter, and continued employment.

HC: uh huh

SC: I’m using him

HC: yeah because you’re like the most manipulative person I know.

SC: thank you

HC: /sarcasm

SC: I know I ignored it.

MM: so wait why do you actually pretend like you hate him tho?

SC: wh

SC: what the fuck am I supposed to do? Just go on up for a cuddle? Have you met Matt? The second someone starts crying, he finds trash to take out to the bins. Hell no. Life is easier for everyone if I stab him with a stick and he kicks my ass in training. It’s fine.

HC: Sam is learning how to be a Manly Man. This is step one.

SC: I’m plenty manly

HC: you’re what mom imagined as manly

SC: which is perfect. That’s all I need.

HC: mama’s boy

SC: must suck to suck, no one’s kid.

 Wow. Ganke had never been more glad that he didn’t have a sister.

 GL: That’s kind of cool, though.

GL: that you and DD are close like that I mean.

GL: Its different from all the other mentor/mentee superheroes we see who like, sort of hate each other.

SC: wh

SC: OH. you mean Peter and Kate. Peter doesn’t actually hate Stark, fyi. And Kate calls Hawkeye the Old bi-weekly to make sure he’s still breathing. It’s actually pretty normal.

MM: he doesn’t mean like that Sam. I mean, like those guys don’t associate with their Olds now that they’re grown up and stuff, but you and DD stick together. It’s like you’re family.

MM: and that’s super cool. Idk if Spidey would ever consider me family. I don’t think he wants that for us.

SC: I?

SC: oh shit

HC: CLARITY ON THIS FINE DAY. What was your name again, tiny spider?

MM: miles

HC: PRAISE BE TO MILES

HC: AN EMOTION WAS HAD

SC: get fucked

HC: An epiphany was obtained!

SC: would you shut up

HC: Something has finally permeated that non-porous, two-inch thick skull of my esteemed eldest brother

SC: I’m your only brother

HC: you’re not

SC: they don’t fucking count

HC: now will you FINALLY invite our mutual dad to hotpot?

SC: Hannah he doesn’t want to come to hot pot we’ve talked about this. it’s too spicy for him.

HC: I’ll make it 1/3 less spicy

SC: that’s still too spicy

HC: I’ll make it 2/5 less spicy

SC: 3/5

HC: listen

HC: I have all this fucking equipment that SOMEONE left here callously

MM: what’s hotpot?

SC: 👀

HC: 👀

GL: 👀

SC: well fuck

HC: EYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

GL: have we never taken you with us for hotpot???

MM: no?? is this the sticks?

HC: can be. Where do you live?

SC: Hannah no

HC: Hannah yes. We’ll make one here. You’ll make one there.

SC: do you know how much shit I’ll have to buy? Where are we gonna put it?

HC: this wouldn’t be a problem if you’d taken your goddamn inheritance with you to SF

SC: HHHHHH

MM: you guys are actually being serious?

HC: I am. I am here all on my lonesome. Abandoned by my only kin. I require enrichment.

SC: try doing your fucking homework

HC: did anyone hear something?

MM: lololololol I like you

HC: 😊

SC: wh

SC: oh no. No no no.

SC: you two don’t get to be friends

HC: come here bb pspspspspspsps

MM: I’m here

HC: got ‘im. Let’s have hotpot. Sammy send me resippy. We’ll do it together over video so I don’t fuck it up.

SC: I’ve got to go. This has been traumatizing.

HC: byeeeeeeeeeeee

HC: is he gone? Hell yeah, he’s gone.

HC: hey thanks for making that comic thing. It’s hella rad. He loves it. Mom used to call him Monkey when he was little.

GL: omg aw

HC: ikr? P cute. He misses her a lot so I think it brought back good memories. Anyways, I’m actually going to make hotpot. Come over and have some with me, it’s more fun with more people.

MM: you’re not joking

HC: nope, it’s been ages since your whole team has gotten together, right? Ask them to do it. I’m a shit cook, but Sam’ll show us how not to screw it up. And he’s playin’, he’s totally down to hang out with us. We never had more than three people. It’ll be new. Exciting. Enriching even.

MM: are you secretly a nice person, Hannah?

HC: the fuck do you mean ‘secret’??? I’m a delight.

MM: Okay I’ll ask the team and my mom

MM: ganke?

HC: 👀

 That—

Sounded kind of nice?

 GL: I’ll ask my mom.

HC: nice. You can tell them that it’s a friends dinner or whatever. Idc. I promise I’m not going to kidnap and murder you. I’ve got like, class and work and shit. I don’t have time for that.

MM: 👍🏾

GL: 👍🏼

HC: great here I’ll message you my number. This is legit our sibs chat so Sam’ll freak if you’re still here when he gets back.

MM: thank you! And sorry for thinking you were muse!!

GL: yeah that too

HC: lol np ttyl                                    

 That…had really just happened, hadn’t it?

Ganke needed to sit down even though he was already sitting down.

 GL: they’re so nice???

MM: ikr?

GL: are you actually going to ask your mom?

MM: Im gonna ask BT if its cool first. Then yeah. Why not? Our team really hasn’t gotten together in a minute. Everyone’s been super busy. It would be a nice change of pace, and if everyone brings smth then Hannah doesn’t have to pay for anything.

MM: ah, Sam says it’s okay. He says sorry his sister is weird and that he’ll make sure she doesn’t poison us.

GL: I kind of love her

MM: same

MM: okay will check in with the others. Talk to you later.

GL: yeah see you later

 Damn, at this rate, Ganke’s family was going to triple in size, and all thanks to a comic.

Before he left for downstairs, he made a note to make Guo tin’s brother snarkier.

[harlecore]

but please don’t bite.

[urbancripple]

I’ve updated my gear page and added more of my recent recommendations. I also fixed the shitty image formatting so stuff isn’t cut off :D

Each purchase made through those links helps support my site. So many of your have done that recently and it’s been a great help with keeping things running around here. I deeply appreciate it.

This article contains one or more Amazon Affiliate Links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Urban Cripple’s Wheelchair Gear and Accessories

If you want suggestions on what kind of gear you should get for your wheelchair, check out this list.

Wheelchair Tools

Every Day Carry (EDC)

In the Kitchen

Around the House

Bags and Carrying Cases

Food and Fuel

Wheelchair Tools

I don’t carry a ton of gear with me when I go out, but what I do have is super critical to staying safe and mobile while rolling through god‐knows‐what in the streets. Most of this stuff falls in the “Oh shit!” category. You won’t need it every day, but you’ll be glad you have it when you do.

Tekton Long Arm Ball End Hex Key Wrench Set

Most wheelchair components are held together with either with some kind of hex screw. If something goes wrong, you’re going to need a set of wrenches to fix it.

I like this particular set because it comes with both metric and standard wrenches and folds so it can lay flat in your bag or tool wrap.

Pedro’s Tire Levers

Don’t let their size fool you: these are great tire levers. What I love most about these things is the fact that they come in pairs and are designed to wrap around a spoke so you can keep one in place while using the other to remove the tire.

When not in use, they snap together and can easily be tossed in a bag or stashed under your chair.

PRO Bike CO2 Inflator

If you realize your tires are dangerously low after leaving the house or you pop a tube and need to reinflate the replacement, you’ll need a C02 inflator.

Make sure you always keep a couple of spare cartridges on you and remember to never store a fresh C02 cartridge in the inflator: it’ll just be flat by the time you need it.

Black And Decker ASI300 Air Station Inflator

For regular tire maintenance, I really love this air compressor. It’s powerful enough to fill a standard wheelchair tire but small enough to travel in a vehicle. It can even be powered by your car’s DC outlet.

Every Day Carry

This is the stuff I keep with me and use every day.

Foldable Phone Stand That Fits In Your Wallet

It’s a ridiculous piece of plastic and aluminum, but it fits in your wallet and actually works really well to hold your phone up. I use it when doing video calls with coworkers so I don’t have to move my laptop, open it up and plug in my wired headphones.

Harbinger Pro Non‐Wristwrap Weightlifting Gloves

By far, gloves are the most important piece of gear for your chair. City streets are super gross and full of hazards that can stain, cut, or bruise your hands. A good pair of gloves should offer you plenty of protection from hazards while allowing you to maintain your grip, dexterity, and the ability to use touch‐sensitive devices like a smartphone.

That’s why I love these weightlifting gloves from Harbinger. They have enough padding in the palms to protect from dirt, grime, and heat (gripping your tires while going down hill can burn your hands) while the fingerless design lets you keep your dexterity and use a smartphone.

Tactical Flashlight

I know we all usually use our phones when we need a flashlight, but I find a dedicated flashlight to be a lot more effective ( and a lot less expensive if you drop it.)

These flashlights are small, light, and crazy bright. They also come with various modes including strobe and S.O.S.

Contigo Extreme Vacuum Insulated Stainless Steel Travel Mug with Handle

The only way you can safely carry a hot beverage while pushing a wheelchair is by keeping it in an airtight container. I really like this mug because it’s insulated and has a clip. The clip is great because you can easily attach it to your bag or to the back of your chair (I use the backrest release bar). Because it seals so well, you don’t have to worry about it spilling.

Snap Lock Folding Pocket Knife

I like this knife because it’s small, sharp, and easy to carry. Just don’t accidentally leave it in your jeans for the TSA to find (true story).

AmazonBasics Lightning Cable

Fun fact: lightning cables are super cheap if you get them from anywhere except Apple.

Cocoon Grid‐IT Organizer

These things are great for taking all the small stuff that usually ends up rolling around in your bag and keeping it in one place.

Portable Charger Power Bank 22400mAh

Having your phone die is terrifying. This thing will charge your phone and tablet several times over. However, it does take a long time to charge the battery itself.

Slim Portable Charger Power Bank 10000mah

It won’t charge your device as fast or as many times, but it won’t take up nearly as much room in your bag as the other battery.

In the Kitchen

Cooking while everything that is boiling or on fire is at face‐level can be a bit daunting. Here’s some stuff that’ll make it safer and easier.

Meal Prep Containers: 3 Compartment with Lids, Food Containers

These meal prep containers are microwave/dishwasher safe and they stack. It’s a great way to prep meals and save yourself some time and energy.

Extra‐Large Silicone Freezing Tray with Lid

These trays are great for freezing stews and sauces and such. I do a lot of large batch cooking and these are waaay easier than trying to portion stuff out into ziplock bags. The lids make it easy to move it around one handed (what wheelchair user hasn’t gotten wet trying to refill an ice cube tray?)

Silicone Baking Mat

These things are a life saver in the kitchen. Basically, if you use them, you’ll never have to clean a baking sheet/pan ever again.

16 inch Kitchen Tongs

When sitting in a wheelchair and using the stove top, it can be really tough to reach both the temperature dials and anything sitting on the back burner. These super long tongs let you easily reach and turn the knobs on your stove and anything that might be sizzling away on your back burners.

Ove Glove

These things are machine washable and can withstand up to 540 degrees of temperature. They grip well and make it easy to get stuff in and out of the oven. In a pinch, they’ll even double as a makeshift pot holder.

OXO Steel Press & Pour Insulated Cocktail Shaker

If you’re looking for a cocktail shaker that doesn’t freeze your hands off, won’t burst open, and can be operated with one hand, you should get this one. I make a lot of cocktails at home and I really hate cocktail shakers. Your standard Boston style shaker has a tendency to break open on you if you don’t seal it right (and that means your chair gets covered in booze) and it’s a pain to open if you seal it too tightly. This cocktail shaker has a really straight‐forward design. The top is screw-on, it has a simple push button in the lid for pouring and sealing, and it can pour from any direction. I highly recommend it for folks who wanna mix drinks at home but don’t wanna risk wearing their beverage.

Around the House

This is the stuff I keep around specifically because it makes daily life easier for me when I’m at home.

Microfiber Cleaning Cloth

For folks trying to keep their place clean while avoiding using up too many cleaning wipes or paper towels, I’ve found that having a stack of cheap microfiber cloths on hand plus a mix of water and vinegar in a spray bottle really helps keep things sparkly while cutting down on waste.

Multi‐Position Heavy Duty Folding Hand Truck and Dolly

This dolly is great if you need to move something that’s too big or too heavy to carry on your lap. It can be configured in multiple ways and folds up easily for storage.

Retractable Dog Leash

Walking your dog with a standard leash can be tough if you’re in a wheelchair. I use a retractable dog leash with my dog so that I can easily adjust the amount of slack I need to keep her under control while not getting the leash tangled in my chair. In addition, the size of the handle lets me easily loop it through the buckle of my Grab‐It Pack, which means I can securely hold onto the dog while pushing my chair with both hands.

Bags and Carrying Cases

All of the various bags and slings I use to carry stuff when I’m out of the house.

13.3 Inch Sling Bag Riding Hiking Bag Single Shoulder Backpack

13.3 Inch Sling Bag Riding Hiking Bag Single Shoulder Backpack

This bag is small and doesn’t have a ton of storage, but I wanted something that I could wear constantly and had just enough room to hold my backup charging cables and small tools so that I could go out without having to have as much physically strapped to me. If you need something with more storage, they have a bunch of different sizes that are meant to hold more stuff.

This isn’t the exact bag I use day‐to‐day but it is the correct style. I really like the sling style bags: they’re light enough to not restrict my movement and the single strap means it won’t shift around as I push my chair.

Food and Fuel

This is the stuff I carry with me in case I’m too busy to pack a proper meal.

ThinkThin High Protein Bars

It’s always a good idea to keep some kind of portable snack in your bag if you think you’re going to be out and about for an extended period of time. I like to keep a couple of these ThinkThin bars in my bag just in case I’m stuck between meal times. They don’t taste like death or cardboard and they’re not just a glorified candy bar.

[127-mile]

Summer time.

Pairing: Heo Hyunjoon x gender neutral reader.

Genre: Established relationship, break up | Angst, fluff if you squint.

Warnings: Alcohol consumption.

Plot: Summer time has returned, but I’m alone.

You love Hyunjoon, of course you do, more than anything, but love is not always enough.

Word count: +6.8k.

A/N: This is part of the Time Capsule collab hosted by @atbzkingdom​, thank you lovely | Title from The Boyz.

"We are invited to Ten's wedding."

Hyunjoon places a card on the coffee table, and you can hardly take your eyes off of the screen of your laptop. "Oh yeah?" you know you should be a little more excited, because Ten is your best friend, and former roommate, but you can't bring yourself to be. You look at the card which is white, with a lace cut into the paper, giving it a 3D look. "Yeah, it's in Paris."

Paris? You shrug weakly, you are not surprised. Ten always had a taste for luxury, and the financial means, so it was obvious he would do it in a country like France. "When is it?" you ask, and the young man sighs. "Can't you take the invitation, and read it yourself? It's not that difficult." he mumbles before leaving the living room, not without muttering something you can't quite understand between his teeth.

You put your laptop in the armrest of the couch, and you lean in to take the invitation. The writing is delicate, and pretty, and you know it was not Ten who wrote it, but his future spouse. The wedding is in three weeks away, and you nod even though no one is present to see it. Summer vacation starts in two weeks, which would give you time to get there, and even to enjoy the famous city of love for the first time in your life.

But the question is: will Hyunjoon go with you? You know that visiting Paris in on his list of things to do before dying, but for some time now, you have wondered if he still thinks of you when he imagines the adventures he always dreamed of, the details of which are written down in a small notepad on the bedside table from the bed you have stopped sharing for several weeks now. Or months? You do not know, you honestly lost track of time because of work.

With a groan, you get up from the couch you collapsed onto at around 10 am, and walk over to the bedroom where Hyunjoon is to study. When you push the door open, you see him sitting on the bed, his computer resting on his lap, and a couple of books are scattered around him. He has headphones tucked into his ears, thus why he has not noticed you yet. You sit on the edge of the bed, and when his gaze lands on you, he removes on earbud. "Do you need something?" he asks.

"You want to go there?" he tilts his head, frowning. "The wedding, I mean." you add, and he shrugs as he pauses his music, at least, you know you now have his undivided attention. "I don't know. Ten is your friend after all, not mine, it might be weird to go together." this simple sentence is enough to make you feel sick. He talks about you like he would talk about an ex, or a friend, and not his current partner. "He invited us, as a couple, and we are still a couple, right?"

Hyunjoon stays silent, and you feel a weight fall on your stomach. "I see." you come out of the bedroom, shutting the door behind you, why bother trying to make a difference in a relationship, when the relationship is obviously over. It is a waste of time, you know it, but you do not know what else to do. You love Hyunjoon, of course you love him, he is your first love, and you were naive enough to think he would also be your last, but if he does not want the same, you can't force him.

You are ready to let him go, if that's what he wants, because his happiness, and his well-being, are the most important things for you. But for that, he will have to tell you. He will have to talk to you, and to be sincere for once, because you can't read his mind, and you can't stay like that any longer.

You return to the living room, when you realize that he will not come out of the bedroom to catch up with you, he may have already put his headphones back on to continue working. You sit on the couch, and for a minute or two, you sit still, your eyes on the black screen of the television. What brings you out of your trance, is the vibration of your phone on the coffee table, and when you lean in to pick it up, you see Ten's photo appear on the screen.

"Hello?" you answer, and you are immediately met with Ten's giggle, he is probably not alone. "Oh! Y/n, hello, how are you? Taeyong just called me to tell me he received the wedding invitation, did you get it?" he asks, and you hear the excitement in his voice, so much that you can't help but smile, despite the constant sadness that has settled in your head. "Yes, I received it today, it's very nice, and I'm pretty sure you did not make it."

Even though you do not see him, you know Ten has rolled his eyes, and he is probably pouting. "Why are you saying that? I'm an artist, I could very well have done it!" he mumble, and you laugh softly as you lay back down on the sofa. "Precisely, you are an artist, if you had done it, you would have added a bunch of bright colors everywhere. And you would've made it obvious with your signature somewhere." he hums, and you understand that you were right. "Paris? I thought you would have the ceremony in Thailand, on the beach."

"That's what I wanted to do, but it's summer, so it's going to be super hot, and to be honest with you, I did not want to have to listen to the boys complaining about the heat all day long, hence the decision to choose Paris." it is the best decision he's made, because the boys are definitely going to complain, and they will keep going if they see how much it annoys him. They live to annoy Ten, and so do you. "The city of love, uh."

"Everyone dreams of getting married in Paris." Ten says, and you agree. You never thought about your wedding, but you think that Paris could be a beautiful place to tie the knot. "That's really nice to talk to you, you know, I missed you and all, but you have not told me yet if you are coming or not!"

You nibble on your lower lip, and turn your head when you hear the wooden floor creak under Hyunjoon's weight. "Who is it?" he asks in a whisper, pointing at the phone." Ten." you articulate so as not to attract the attention of the boy on the other side of the phone. He nods, and he sits on the armchair next to you. "Give me the phone." Hyunjoon says, and you obey, frowning.

"Hi, Ten!" he says, and you are really wondering what he is going to say to him, because the two men are not the type to talk to each other on the phone very often except when it concerns you. "Yeah, it's Hyunjoon. I just wanted to let you know that we'll be there. About the place, the hotel, and everything, how do we do?" you sit up on the couch, and even though you know he is going it just to please you, not because he actually wants to go, your heart starts to beat a little faster. "Okay, see you at the wedding, take care." and he hangs up.

"He'll call you later, he's got things to do." he explains, giving you the phone back. "He takes care of the plane tickets, and the hotel rooms, so we don't have to do anything except check that out passports are still valid." and with these words, he goes back to lock himself in the bedroom.

"Can you stop fidgeting?"

Hyunjoon shakes his head with a sigh. "I am bored." he mumbles, and you can't help but sigh too. "It's only been an hour since we took off, and you are bored already? Wait until you hear how many hours are left before we get to Paris." you answer without removing your eyes from your book. You knew even before getting on the plane that it was going to be a very long trip. Hyunjoon does not like to sit around and do nothing.

"But I'm bored, like really, really bored." he says in a whiny voice, and you roll your eyes as you close your book to turn your head. "You can watch a movie, listen to music, or sleep, because you are going to need it with the time difference." he frowns, he seems to be thinking about the options available for him, but with the way he pouts, you realize that nothing appeals to him. "Do you want my book?" you ask as a last resort, but he shakes his head. "Well, there is nothing more I can do for you. Suck it up buttercup."

You know it is a bad idea when you start reading your book again. But for the next twenty minutes, you are surprised to see that Hyunjoon has stopped moving, and that he seems interested in the movie he has chosen on the screen. You smile weakly, but of course, you decided to celebrate too quickly, since the moment you resume reading, you hear him sigh as he removes his headphones. "What?" you snap. "I am bored."

Of course he is.

"Ask a flight attendant for alcohol, get your ass drunk, and sleep until the end of the flight." you groans. When he raises his hand to the button to call a flight intendant, you hit his hand with a frown. A few eyes turn to you when Hyunjoon gasps loudly. "It was a joke, you idiot. It takes two to three days for you to recover from drinking too much, and there is no way I'm carrying your ass off the plane and through the aiport."

"Watch the movie with me then." he says in a low voice, and you heave a sigh. You want to finish this stupid book, but with Hyunjoon, it might be a tad complicated. "Okay, but you better not pause it every two minutes to complain." when he nods with a bright smile, you take the second earbud and you lean on the side to see the screen better and the movie he has chosen. "Midnight in Paris, for real?" you ask, and he shrugs.

He keeps his promise, because until the end of the movie, he does not pause. He does not move, and he does not even speak. In a way, it is nice, but in the other, the movie was so bad that you would have liked to hear him complaining for over an hour. "It was terrible, what the hell." you whisper, as you take off the earbud when the end credits roll on the screen, and when you turn your head, you notice that Hyunjoon is asleep. No wonder he behaved so well.

You remove the earbud from his ear, and you even go as far as to cover him with the blanket that was dropped for you by a flight attendant earlier. You turn off the screen, and finally, you take your book, but when you start reading, the words get mixed up on the page, and it takes more than four tries to figure out what you are reading. Sigh that it is timr for you to sleep.

Nothing better than a bad movie to sleep peacefully for a few hours.

When you open your eyes, it is not because you are not tired, but because Hyunjoon keeps elbowing you in the ribs. You flutter your eyelids, clearing your dry throat. "What do you want?"

"We're almost there."

You rub the sleep out of your eyes with the palms of your hands, and you fasten your belt when the annoucement is made, while yawning. "Are you not bored anymore?" you ask, turning your head towards the young man who does not pay you the slightest attention. His gaze is fixed on the sight offered to everyone through the window, and this time, only his legs are moving, but not because of boredom, but because of the excitement of being in Paris.

"It's going to be so awesome." he says, in a voice a little too loud for the travels around you, but you do not care about them, all that matters is to see him smile for the first time in over a week. "Yes, we are going to have a good time."

At least, you hope so.

After getting off the plane, and picking up your suitcase, the wedding guests find themselves in the airport elbowing their way to the door where Ten is already waiting. They arrived a few days ago to prepare everything for the ceremony. "You are there, finally!" Ten exclaims and he leaps into your arms for a bone-crushing embrace.

You pat his back and when he takes a step back to look at all of his friends who made the trip for his wedding, you wonder if he is going to cry, but he shakes his head. "Well, there are a few cars waiting, which will drive all of us to the hotel. You have the day to rest, or to visit, and the rehearsal dinner will be tonight at 8pm."

"Doesn't the rehearsal dinner have to be the day before the wedding, rather than two days before?" Hyunjoon asks, tilting his head to the side, and Ten shrugs. "I told myself that it would allow everyone to enjoy Paris tomorrow, or to recover from the jet lag as well before the actual wedding." the young man nods, but you see his smirk, he is more excited to have some free time to visit Paris, than for Ten's wedding, and you understand, he is only here to make you happy after all.

"See you guys at the hotel!" Ten says as he gets into a car with Johnny and Taeyong. Hyunjoon opens the back door of the car while the driver takes care of putting the suitcases in the trunk, and he nods to you. "After you." you thank him, and climb into the car before putting on your seat belt. Hyunjoon imitates you, and the driver gets behind the steering wheel. "Can we go?" he asks in a strong French accent and you both nod.

After about ten minutes on the road, when the car is stuck in the traffic, you turn your head towards Hyunjoon. "Do you know what you want to so, or see today?" you know he has a list of places he wants to go to, but you do not know if he's taken it with him. Will he enjoy the city, and come back later to visit? Or not lose the opportunity to visit as much as he can in the limited time you have here? "I thought about the Champs Élysées, I need to find myself a shirt for the wedding." he says, and you nod. "Or maybe you would like to do something else? Maybe visit a museum, or something?"

You frown as you put your hands on your thighs. "Do you want me to come with you?" for the first time since you got into the car, the turns to you, he looks slightly offended for some reason. "Yeah? We came here together, why would I go somewhere without you?" that's a good question, maybe because you do not know which foot to dance on when it comes to him, to your relationship.

"For a lot of reasons, actually," you start, and he frowns. "we have not done anything together for so long. We don't act like a couple anymore, you did not even answered when I asked you if we were still a couple last time around. You are here to make me happy, not because you actually want to be, so I thought you would rather spend time on your own."

"What are you talking about?" Hyunjoon asks, and you just sigh. "You know very well what I'm talking about. You didn't want to come here at first, and now you are here, so it's for you and definitely not for us." you mumble, and he shrugs. And as you expected, he remains silent until the car pulls up in front of the hotel. A very nice hotel.

You get out of the car, and you thank the driver who gives you your suitcase. You walk into the hotel, and for a moment, you forget how to breath at the beauty of the place. The decorations are all lined with what you think is pure gold, and frankly, you knew Ten would go all out, but not that much. "Do you like it?" you jump when Ten whispers, a little too close to your ear, but you still nod; "Yeah, you had to pay a lot to get us rooms here."

He shrugs. "Nothing is too good for my best friends." of course. He hands you a room key. "You are on the fourth floor, room 405." you take the card, and you thank him with a little kiss on the cheek. Kiss that makes him smile, before growling and rubbing his cheek with the back of his hand. "Little shirt." you whisper and you walk to the elevator. Hyunjoon follows you without a word, and luckily, you are not alone, or the mood would have been extremely weird, and tense.

When the door opens, the guests go their separate ways, promising to meet again later for the rehearsal dinner. You push open the door and as you expected, the room is beautiful. The bed in the middle of the room looks huge, and the bathroom which is barely hidden by glass walls is also amazing. "Wow. Your friend is like, really rich." Hyunjoon says, but you do not answer, you put your suitcase in a corner of the room, and you open the door leading to the balcony.

"Oh. My.God." you gasp when you see the view. You have an incredible view of the effeil tower. "Yes, he sure is."

"Are you coming with me or not?" the young man asks, his shoulder pressed against the doorframe, and you turn to him with a shrug. You know it will not change your relationship, that you need to talk more than spending time together ignoring the weird tension between ou, and yet. "Yes, I'm coming, if you don't mind." in response, he shakes his head. "Let's go then."

You would have liked to take a shower before leaving, to get rid of the hours you have just spent on the plane, but you are afraid that he'll change his mind before you leave the bathroom, so you take your bag, and you follow him out of the room, and also out of the hotel. You tale out your phone to send a message to Ten, just to warn him that you will not be there his afternoon, but that you will definitely be back on time for dinner.

From Eleven: you better be on time, or I swear to god, I'm beating your ass as soon as you come back.

Yeah, you better not be late.

The next few minutes are spent in a cab, Hyunjoon admiring the view behind the window, and you nervously play with your fingers, unable to think of anything other than your relationship. And that is not good. You should put all that aisde , and enjoy these few days in Paris, but it's difficult with Hyunjoon who pretends to not know what you are talking about when you mention your couple who is not really one anymore. You know you should wait until you get home to think about it, or talk about it, but here you are, overthinking.

When you are about to open your mouth, the taxi stops and announces the price of this short trip. Which is extremely fucking expensive, and for a second, you hate Ten, but Hyunjoon takes care of paying. You both get out of the car, and you are hardly surprise to see so many people on both sides of the Champs Élycées, this is one of the most popular places in Paris, for tourists, and maybe also wealthy parisians. "Tell me if you want to stop somewhere." he says, and you nod. "Yeah, don't worry."

You are not looking to buy anything, but you needed to spend some time together despite everything, hence your presence. When you keep walking, and Hyunjoon stops, you are quickly pulled against him when he grabs your hand. Hand that you did not realize you were holding before that. "Come on, I want to go in there." you nod, looking at the store sign. "Are you sure you can afford anything here?"

"Definitely not, I'm going to regret everything for the next two years." he says, and you roll yoru eyes, unable to stop smiling. "You know what you could do? Send Ten an invoice after the wedding, ask him to pay you the shirt back, because after all, it is because of his that you are going to spend so much money here." Hyunjoon smiles, and you look away to avoid being blinded by his beauty. "You are right, that's what I'll do."

You follow him through the store, a bit lost in such a large, luxurious store, but he seems perfectly in his element. When he finds a pristine white shirt, he heads for the changing rooms, but stops in front of a pair of shoes. "Do you think he'll pay me back for a pair of shoes too?" he asks, smirking. You shake your head. "I do not believe he'll do it." you chuckle, putting a hand on his back to push him towards the cabins. "Go on, hurry because they decide to kick us both out."

You wait in front of the cabin, arms crossed against your chest. "Does it fit you?" you ask, and you are met by nothing but silence. You open your eyes wide when your hear the thud of something falling. Or rather the thud of someone who bumped a limb against the wall of the cabin. "Hyunjoon, are you okay?" you ask. "It fucking hurts!" he pushes the curtain open, and when you see him rubbing his head, where he bumped into the wall, you burst into a fit of giggle.

You place a hand over your mouth so as not to attract the attention of the vendors, and you shake your head. "I'm sorry." when you are finally calm enough, you look at Hyunjoon who is pouting. "How did you manage to hit your head while trying on a shirt?" he plays with the hem of the shirt, and you expect all kind of answers. "I was trying to take a picture in the mirror, and I didn't see how close I was to the wall." yeah, that's not what you were expecting.

"You are an idiot, do you know that?" you ask, and of course, he nods. "Okay, but does the shirt look good?" he wonders in a small voice, and you take a step back. Of course the shirt fits him. Everything suits him. He could wear a trash bag and he would find a way to make it look good and high end. "It looks great on you, you should take it." when he turns on his heels to return to the cabin, you take the opportunity to take a look at the label and your gasp loudly when you see the price. All this for a simple piece of white fabric. It hurts, even though you are not the one paying for it. It's half of your rent.

When he pays for the shirt, and you both exit the store, a strangled noise escapes his lips, and you turn to him immediately. You expect him to have hurt himself again, or to even have a concussion because of the bump on his head, but no, he is looking at the receipt. "It hurts eh." you say, and he nods with vigor. "Do you think it's too late to go and return it?" you roll your eyes as your take his hand in yours, intertwinning your fingers to resume before walking before he returns inside the store. "You will regret it if you return the shirt."

"Do you want to go have a coffee? My treat, don't worry."

It is for this reason that you both find yourselves in a small café that you found a little further away. You are sitting in the back of the shop, and you are lulled by the warmth and the strong smell of coffee. It is really pleasante. "I don't want to spoil the moment Hyunjoon, but we need to talk." you behin, and he looks up from his cup of coffee, nodding. "You are right, it is about time we do."

Before he starts talking, you put you hand up to silence him immediately. If you do not speak now, if you do not tell him what's on your heart, you never will. "I think we should break up."

"Break up? You want to break up with me?"

At least Hyunjoon had the decency to wait until the door to the hotel room was closed before he started yelling. You sit on the edge of the bed, crossing your arms over your chest. "Yes, that's what I said." he walks to the bed, and he stands in front of you, his hands burried in the pockets of his pants, you know his hands are shaking, and he refuses you to see it. "But why?"

"Is that a serious question?" you scoff, shaking your head. "Hyunjoon, we have not slept in the same bed in weeks, we barely speak to each other, and when we do talk, you are there physically but that's it. I tries to wait, to push back the inevitable, thinking that things were going to change, but nothing is different. You proved it to me when you did not anwer my question, when you did not answer when I asked if we were still a couple. We can't go on like this forever."

"Nothing you can say or do will change the situation, Hyunjoon. I know that we spent part of our teenage years and our young adulthood together, and returning to a routine without each other will be difficult, buty ou can't pretend everything is fine to avoid it, it hurts too much." you explain with a sigh, and Hyunjoon sits on the other side of the bed, his back to you. "But I love you." the young man's voice is so low that you wonder if you have not just imagined it, but no, he said it. "I love you, Y/n."

"Love is not always enough, you know." you say, closing your eyes, letting your back fall onto the soft mattress. "Can't we try to do something? Make things better?" he asks and you shrug even though he can't see you. "It won't do any good. Even though we still love each other, our relationship is over. Staying together, trying to salvage what can't be fixed will only ruin the love that remains between us, don't you think?"

"If we are truly made for each other, we'll find each other again, not matter if it's in a few months, or in five years. But for now, for the sake of our well-being, we have to put an end to this shit show." yes, because your relationship is nothing but a shit show. It is not even a relationship that roommates would have, you live with each other, and that's it. Sometimes, you share a meal when it's a good day. "Maybe you are right." he finally breathes out. When he says these words, you feel a weight lifts off your shoulders, and for a second, you feel guilty. You spent weeks feeling uneasy about the situation, even earlier in the cab you asked yourself question, so shouldn't you be sad about breaking up with your first love? In any case, you should definitely not feel relieved.

But the situation is so bad, there is no other solution.

"How's it going to be, then?" he asks, lying down next to you. And if usually you would have turned to rest your head on his chest, you do not. You put your hands on your stomach, exhaling at lenght. "We are not going to tell Ten anything yet, I do not want to ruin the best week of his life. We are going to spend the next few days in Paris, we are going to pretend we are happy, and that everything is fine, and when we get back, I'll move out."

"But this is your apartment." he whispers, and once more, you have nothing to do other than shrug. "I don't care, I'll find something else." you love your apartment, sure, but you know you will not be able to live in a place that holds so many memories that you shared with Hyunjoon. All your first times, both good and back. The photos on the walls. Memories of evenings spent in the living room, laughing and drinking, imagining a future you thought was possible back then. "We both need a new start."

Hyunjoon does not agree, but he stays quiet.

"Ten, I have a question." Johnny suddenly exclaims as all the guests are settling down around the table in the hotel restaurant; "What do you want?" the groom asks with a frown. "What is the point of a rehearsal dinner?" he asks, but before anyone can answer him, he opens his mouth to continue. "Normally there are rehearsal ceremonies, not just a rehearsal dinner."

Ten sighs openly as he sinks into his chair next to his partner. "Johnny, it's a pre-wedding dinner between us, I just think calling it a rehearsal dinner is a lot more fancy." you roll your eyes as you sit down in your chair, in front of Hyunjoon who does not take his eyes off of you. "If you are not happy, there's a McDonald's not too far from here, I'm sure you can find something there while we feast on some great food."

"I have nothing to add your honor, thank you for inviting us here." Johnny says, and of course, he makes all the guests laugh. "You are very welcome John, all the pleasure is mine." Ten responds, in a somewhat snobbish manner.

Around the table, conversations flow naturally, after all, everyone has known each other for more or less time, and you are even surprised to find Hyunjoon in a deep conversation with Doyoung. Besides, you are not the only one who is surprised, since Jacob leans towards you. "Is your boyfriend okay? I think he just talkes to Doyoung more than he has talked to all of us since you started dating him."

"Yeah, that's weird." you mumble, you've never seen him smile at any of your friends except Jacob, your only "shared" friend. If he tires to make an effort, it is too late, he should have thought about it way sooner. "Is everything okay?" Jacob asks in a low voice, he does not want to attract the attention of others around you, because he knows that they are not as discreet as he is. "Hyunjoon and I broke up earlier."

"What? But why?" Jacob asks, and you laugh softly. "You were my role model when it cames to love." he adds, and you raise your eyebrows. "You should take Ten's example instead, he is the one who is getting married, not me." Jacob scrunches up his face, shaking his head, and you know what he is going to say before he opens his mouth. "Never in my life do I take example from Ten, even thought it is something positive, I do not want to give him that pleasure. That would be too much power for his ego."

"But more seriously, what happened?" Jacob asks, resting his hand on yours. "Life. Work. We just stopped behaving like a couple, and it was time to end it." Jacob pouts, even thought ht was not the one who had the break up with his longtime partner in the city of love, but you know he sympathizes in a way. "I'm really sorry."

"It's okay, I don't know about him, but I feel relieved. I was a lot of stress and pressure to come home after work, and to know that we were going to ignore each other until it was time to go to bed, each on teir own. It's for the best." Jacob squeezes your hand, and you smile gently at himm. "You know I'm here if you need anything after we get home." you nod. "I might need you to let me use your guest room for a week or two while I find a new apartment. Oh, and help me move my things." you say, and he rolls his eyes. "Hold out your hand, and they'll take the whole damn arm."

You are about to speak but Ten gets up from his chair. "I would like to thank all of you for making the trip to Paris for our wedding. You are truly the best, and I am grateful for each and every one of you. So once again, thank you." Then, it's Ten's partner's turn to thank them, the waiters bring in the food which is, of course, absolutely divine. For a few hours, you forget everything, you think only of Ten and the happiness that excudes from him every time he opens his mouth, or when he smiles.

You would not have missed this day for the world.

When dinner ends, and Ten invites everyone to go back to their room for a good night's sleep, you are a little tipsy. You may have let Jacob convince you to have a little too much wine, but it is nothing too bad. Your thoughts are as clear as ever, you do not need help walking to your room, and most importantly, you do not feel like jumping on Hyunjoon, that would be embarrassing, so little time after officially breaking up.

Locking yourself in the bathroom to take a shower is not an option, since there is no door separating it from the bedroom, but it is not like Hyunjoon is going to witness something that he had never seen before, but out of respect, he goes out to the balcony to enjoy the night time warmth of the city until you come out, in your pajamas. "I'm going to sleep on the couch." he says, closing the door to the balcony, and you shake your head as you lie down. "Don't be silly, we can sleep in the same bed."

Hyunjoon lies down, and for a minute, it is silent. The silence is only broken by the noise of the traffic that never stops in the city of love. "You look like you had a good time with Doyoung." you whisper, and you feel him move, probably to nod his head, or to stretch. "Yes, he is nice." of course he is, he just never wanted to take the time to actually get to know your friends like you did with his. "He is. Thank you for making an effort." that's all you say before turning onto your side and closing your eyes.

You let yourself be lulled to sleep, and if Hyunjoon says anything, you do not remember, you closed your mind to avoid hearing something you would not like.

The next day is pleasant.

Hyunjoon is already gone when you wake up, so you take the opportunity to call the room service for a breakfast on the balcony. The sun warms the bare skin or your arms, and you could sit there for hours. It is so nice, of course, as long as you can block out the noise outside, but it is not that hard.

Then, you get dressed, and you join Ten who texted you to warn you that he was awake, and that he wants to spend some time with you, which is cute, kind of. And finally, you get together, not only the two of you, but with all of your friends, as if you were all here to celebrate the start of summer vacation, and not for a weddin.

For hours, you recall school memories, situations you went through together, good and bad times, and Taeyong even ends up crying, which makes you all laugh, but you do not waste a moment to hive him a warm embrace, to tell him that nothing is going to change, no matter where you are in life, or where you are in the world. You will always be there for each other, he does not have to worry that one of you will escape. You can't. You have too much blackmail materials on each other to allowe one of you to leave the group.

And when you push open the door to the hotel room, your heart light and content, you find Hyunjoon sitting on the floor, folding clothes into his suitcase. "Oh you are back." you say, and he looks up at you, nodding. "What are you doing?" you ask, tilting your head to the side, and he closes the cuitcase before getting back on his feet. He heaves a long sigh and you take a step closer to him.

"There's a plane in three hours. I'm going home." you frown. "You are leaving? Why?" he rubs his eyes with the palms of his hands, and you notice how tired he looks, he probably spent the whole night thinking rather than sleeping, and the jet lag is not helping. "I have no reason to be here anymore. Your friends are not my friends. If I came, it was for you, but we are not together anymore, I think it will be better if I just go home."

Of course, you feel a little pain in your heart when he says these words, but you understand it, at least you think you do. "I see. Are you sure of your decision? You know, you don't have to come to the ceremony tomorrow, you can stay, and visit, like you always wanted to. We'll take the plane back home together in two days." he smiles softly, but he shakes his head. "It's nice, but your friends don't like me very much. I don't want to make it worse by staying in Paris but not coming to the wedding. It is for the best, uh?" it's a rhetorical question, but you still whisper a little "yes".

"I already asked the lady from the front desk to call a car to take me to the airport, but I wanted to tell you before leaving." he takes his jacket, his backpack and he approaches the door, dragging his suitcase behind him. "Are you mad at me for leaving?" he asks, and you shake your head. "Of course not. I can't force you to stay. You have to do what feels best for you, Hyunjoon, you do not have to think about me anymore, it's fine."

He opens the door, and you follow him into the elevator, and out of the hotel. Ten crosses you in the lobby and he frowns when he sees Hyunjoon's suitcase, but you gesture him not to approach, you'll explain everything to him later. Once in front of the hotel, he lets the drive take care of his suitcase, and he turns to you. "I'll see you when you get home, alright?" he says, and you lean in to kiss his cheek. "Be careful, okay? Send me a message when you are on the plane, and when you land." he nods, and he rushes into the car.

You love Hyunjoon, of course you do. You know you will always love him, it does not matter if you find your way back to him one day or not. But right now, in Paris, with your friends, everything is fine.

Time will tell.

[violetnotez]

HC: BNHA Boys x GN! reader whose feeling down

Anonymous: Heyo! If you've written something like this already please ignore this and sorry for bothering you! I'd like to request some angsty hcs (because hcs are the only thing my brain ever lets me read peacefully) for Mirio, Tamaki, Denki, Kirishima and Shinsou where their s/o or crush puts her hands on their face. Also, if you can, could you make the reader gender neutral?

Ohhhhhh yes Im in a angsty mood!!!!!

Warnings:

I made these with the intentions the reader and them have been crushing on each other, hope thats okay!

Pairings: Mirio x reader, Tamaki x reader, Denki x reader, Kirishima x reader, Shinsou x reader

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ

m i r i o

Mirio is extremely observant

He knows exactly when and what mannerisms you use when your happy, angry, upset...

he knows you like the back of his hand, so when your not feeling amazing, he definitely knows

He would probably be really worried on the inside, but he has to be positive for you! So he puts up a big smile and his super goofy, dad-joke personality to hopefully get a smile or laugh out of you

He’d catch you with your head in your hand after school one day, the other kids bustling away as you sat under a lonely tree, looking extremely burdened with something

If you two were just crushing on each other, he’d be extremely worried, bidding Tamaki and Neijire a quick goodbye as he made his way over to you

“Oh hey y/n-are you feeling okay? You were looking pretty sad over here, just wanted to see if I can cheer you up!”

This boy is just a literal ball of sunshine as he stares down at you with the brightest grin ever

It doesnt matter if you tell him or not- he will listen to your feelings and give you the best adivce he can if you do tell jim, but he wont be offended if you keep it to yourself

He just wants to see you be the bright, happy person he knows and loves!

Would probably offer to do something or go get something you like, like take a walk in the park or get some ice cream

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ

t a m a k i 

poor tama- he knows you arent feeling well its just he cant rack up the courage to ask!

Your usually at least a little more energetic than him

So he immeditaely knows somethings wrong when you shuffle your way into class, not saying much and going straight to your seat

Every morning he always anticipates you with excitement and nerves- cause he honestly loves seeing you, it brightens his morning, but Tama being Tama his anxiety kicks in 

And he just keeps thinking he’ll something embarrassing like stutter, your go mute, or start shaking, or god forbid he accidentally confuses by accident-

He will watch you with ihs eyes the whole time, instantly very nervous and worried for you-

Hes hoping that maybe its nothing, that maybe your just tired or feeling a little under the weather

But the moment he sees you put your head down he knows something is up- you look like your going to break down at any moment

Its going to take alot out of Tamaki, but he doesnt want you to be by yourself

But this poor thing has to give himself some time to collect himself- it takes alot out of Amajiki to be any type of bold

But he finally walks over to you, and sit across from your seat, his hands tucked into his lap and his hung low

“I-I-just wanted to see...if you were-feeling okay....”

You can tell this boy everything and anything, he is all ears and wants to help

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ

d e n k i

Kaminari is such a sweet heart

Like he may seem like a flirt and it kinda sucks at times for him

Because you kinda “friend zone” him every time he makes a flirtatious move,,,,

AND POOR BABY JUST WANTS TO BE WITH YOU

but anywayssss

this boy is like attached to you and wants you around him 24/7

Like Momo doing a study group? Hes gonna invite you

Hes gonna train? Hes gonna run to your dorm room and see if your free

Bakusquad gonna go out on the weekend? Hold up hes gotta ask and see if you can come-

EXTREMELY ATTACHED TO YOU

So of course, Kirishima asked if he wanted to study a littl bit for a test the next day and hes scrambling to go and go ask you in your dorm if you wanted to join

hes so excited, almost like a little puppy, running to your room and opening up the door with a huge grin

“Hey y/n, you wanna come and- oh shoot, are you okay?”

Your curled up on your bed, your face in your hands, and then you peak through your hands and oh no you look like youve been crying-

He instantly walks over, his knees sinking into your mattress and putting a reassuring hand on your back

If you start breaking down, he WILL hug you

DOES NOT CARE

Also gonna be a sweetheart, calling you little nicknames that he gives you all the time

“Ahh cmon baby girl, dont cry...youre gonna be okay, sunshine, just wait, I promise-”

Hes gonna ditch everything until he knows for sure youll be okay- he’ll run and get his laptop and some food so you guys can just have fun and help you forget 

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ

k i r i s h i m a

THIS ^^^^ BABY ^^^^ RIGHT ^^^^ HERE

Is gonna take care of you!

Hes naturally very caring by heart, but when he sees his crush having a rough day!

Is gonna drop everything and anything for you

Like Kaminari, hes practically attached to the hip to you

(just like a tiny bit more subtle)

But Bakusquad DEIFNITELLLYYYYY knows about his little crush, and constantly teases but also hypes him up to get him to just ask you out

When he notices you looking a little blue, hes deinfitely going to be worries

No matter who he’s with or if hes by himself, he’s gonna leave and come straight to you to see whats wrong 

(*cue Bakusquad staring at him and trying to see whats going on from behind a bush)

Hes gonna be kinda nervous, you are his s/o after all- but he’s gonna push it away 

“Hey, are you feeling alright..you seemed really sad, wanna talk about it?”

hes going to sit himself right next to you and comfort you the best way he thinks he can

If you want to tell him whats going on, he is ready to listen and support you

If you just wanna sit in silence, he’ll sit with you and try to make small talk to get your mind off of it

He’ll probably tell a sorta embarrassing story of himself to make you laugh

And omg if you do UGH he’ll feel so happy and fulfilled cause yay he made you feel better!

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ

s h i n s o u

Shinso is pretty chill

So when he sees you looking really upset, he’s going to be worried but it wont show too much on the outside

He just extremely calm, which is probably a good thing if your emotions are heightened

Also, he knows you like the back of his hand

You literally cannot lie to him and say “your okay”

He will call you outtttttt

‘You look about ready to cry..so tell me, whats been on your mind? You know you can trust me right?”

Hes really good at being comforting

Like he wont SMOTHER you

But he’ll hold your hand while you spew out whats on your mind

Or rub your back if your bawling

You dont even have to tell him anything- he’ll of course try to pry it out a little cause he doesnt want those thoughts eating up at you

But he respects if you want to keep it to yourself

He will make sure to take care of you, bringing you water, blankets, snacks- whatever you need

And for the rest of the day, he’s going to make sure your right next to him

No exceptions

It is his personal duty to make you feel at least a little  better- no matter what

This will include sleeping in his dorm room jnfiifuwiufiwuefuiweif-

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ

Buy Me A Ko-fi! | Masterlist

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ

Taggings:

Everything Taglist (All Fics, All Characters):

@bunnythepipsqueak​ @pasteldaze​  @ionlyspeakinmyheroacademia​     @notadrian​  @hithoeshi​ @sizzlingbarbarianglitter​ @sunnie-nugget​ @shoutosteakettle​ @we-mentally-unstable​ @sm0kingcrack​ @wesparklebitch @kac-chowsballs​

​Kirishima

:@pyrofanatic​

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ

Mirio

:@aservanttotumblur​

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ

[coldasyou]

How to gif without photoshop

Hello! By popular demand (of like 4 people) I am going to write out a tutorial of how I make gifs when I’m on my personal laptop and don’t have access to photoshop. There is another method I use with a different software that is a bit more complicated and if people are interested, I will make a tutorial of that method as well. I’ll do my best to keep this concise, so let’s get started. 

Warning that this is VERY text and image heavy because I know how frustrating it can be when a tutorial feels like it’s skipping steps and I want this to be as clear as possible. Also please read this on desktop, tumblr mobile kills the quality of gifs inside text posts.

This is the video I will be giffing and here is the gif I will be making!

What you need:

 A video to gif

For the best results, I recommend a video that is either 720p or 1080p (basically the higher the quality, the better). Videos with good lighting and bright colors also turn out the best. Unfortunately for me, I gif the TV show Prodigal Son a lot and that show has neither of those things, which is why my gif example is from that show; if you can make a scene with zero lighting or vibrancy look even somewhat decent, you can make anything else look good.

A video downloader or screen recorder

This is the video downloader I use and this is the screen recorder but basically any youtube video download website or screen recorder program works. Keep in mind that ezgif has a pretty low upload limit for videos, so if you want to gif something longer than like ~4 minutes, cut the video down to the specific parts you want first on a website like this one. 

ezgif

A very straight forward website that anyone can access. You don’t need to download anything, it’s all online. 

Bonus: Online Image Editor (not required, but I use this website to add text to gifs)

1. Making the gif:

Once you have a video downloaded, you go to ezgif.com and go to the section video to gif. Click choose a file, scroll to your downloaded video, and hit upload video. Your screen should look like this now.

There are two ways to pull out the sections of the video you want to gif. You can either write in the start and end time in the little sections (you have to convert them to seconds: for example, if my gif started at 1:16 and ended at 1:20, it would be 76 seconds and 80 seconds respectively). Or you can do the method that I feel is easier, where you go to the section you want it to start on, hit pause, and hit the blue button that says “use current position” then let the video play until it hits your stopping point, hit pause again, and click on the second “use current position” button.

Once you have the start and end time recorded, scroll down to the next part of the screen with the size options. For size, select “540xAUTO (for Tumblr)” since tumblr gif sizes start at 540p and go down the more gifs are in a row. For frame rate, try to do either 20 or 25; the higher the frame rate, the smoother the gif will look. If you are trying to gif something in 540p that is longer, you might need to chose 10 to keep it under 5mb, which is the tumblr gif size limit. For method, leave it on FFMPEG. Then hit, convert to gif.

your gif will now look something like this!

Now, this gif is currently 5.7mb, which is above the size limit for tumblr (5mb or above gifs will still play if I recall, but the quality will be really bad when you post them). If I was planning on keeping the gif this size, I would go back and change the frame rate to either 20 or 10 to get the size down. However, I am going to resize the gif to 268p, so I don’t need to worry about it being to big.

Using the correct gif size for tumblr is one of the easiest ways to make sure the gif looks good! For gifs that take up a whole row, the size should be 540p wide. For two gifs in one row, the size is 268p each. For three gifs in one row, the sizes are 177p, 178p, and 177p in that order. Here is a visual of it. 

The next step would normally be resizing the gif, but Prodigal Son youtube videos come with a black banner on the top and bottom that I need to crop out. You will see a menu full of options under your gif, and you want to click on “crop.”

Cropping is pretty straight forward; you just move the little box over the part you want cropped, then hit the “crop image” button. Make sure width stays 540p!

Your gif now looks like this

Next, you look at the options under your gif again, and go to “resize.”

Again, resizing is pretty straight forward. I just put in 268 into the “width” section and leave the “height” section blank since the site will automatically resize the height. You can ignore the other menu options.

Your gif now looks like this

Next step is optional, but I usually do it. Once again, you go to the menu of options under your gif and select “speed.”

Speed is also super straight forward. I almost always reduce the speed of my gifs somewhere from 90% to 80% no matter what, just because I think it makes it look smoother. For gifs that are of short scenes that go really fast, I will reduce it to anywhere from 70% to 50%. You can try different speeds to test out what you think looks best. For this gif, I’m going to put it at 80%.

Here’s what we have so far. Congrats, you have made a gif!

Now for the fun part!

2. Coloring the gif

Go to the “effects” option, in the menu under your gif. You will see a LOT of options, but the panels I’m going to focus on are “colorize”, “brightness and contrast” and “color presets”. This section is going to vary a lot depending on what specific video you are giffing so remember to be flexible and try lots of different options out! It took me a while to get to a place where I can just eye a scene and know what settings to use. It’s super easy to go back and tweak a setting if the gif doesn’t look like how you want it the first time, but it’s a lot of trial and error. 

The main option I focus on in the “colorize” section, is “saturation.” This is what will make all the color in your gif pop out. The saturation I use varies a ton; for scenes that already are colorful/bright, I usually keep it around 120 to 150, since you don’t want it to be over saturated. If I’m making an edit that is supposed to look toned down or more grey/neutral tones, I’ll decreases the saturation in the range of like 90-40. For a show like Prodigal Son, where there is basically zero color vibrancy, I tend to go full out with saturation, usually in the 150-200 range. For this gif, I have it all the way up to 200.

Next is brightness and contrast. This also varies wildly, but a good rule of thumb is I always try to keep my contrast at least 5 points higher than whatever my brightness is, it just makes the lighting more even. You need to find a good balance; obviously, the darker the scene, the higher you want the brightness and contrast, but if you go too high, the gif with be staticy/grainy. For Prodigal Son, which has horrible lighting, my brightness is anywhere from 10-30 and my contrast is anywhere from 15-35. For this gif, my brightness is on the lower side since the scene is outside in natural light; brightness is 16, contrast is 26. 

After you get those settings, I go over to “color presets” section and click on the “tint” option. It will pull up a color chart that looks like this

You ALWAYS want the intensity up to 100. This part is where the most trial and error occurs; there isn’t any one color option that works for every gif. The shade I use most often is light red/pink or light blue/light purple. For scenes that are lacking warm tones (which is almost all of Prodigal Son) I tend to go to the light reds, and for scenes that are lacking cool tones, I go to the light blues. The light reds are best for making characters skin tones look more...like actual skin tones and not totally washed out. To select a color, you just move your mouse around the chart. This is the range of color codes I tend to use.

Again, intensity should be up to 100 (it automatically starts at 50 and I was too lazy to move it while getting screen shots :P). 

For this gif, I actually used a new technique I’ve been trying out where I start with a light blue tint to even out the color tones, then once that gif is done, I go back to effects and add a layer of pink to make the colors brighter. Usually, one color works fine, but sometimes it’s hard to find a good balance (the red colors can get too red and the blue sometimes brings out too much of a yellow shade). For now, I have my color tint set at #eeebff. 

Ultimately, this is what my effect settings look like and this is what the gif looks like now. 

Now, like I said before, I added another layer of tint to this gif. All you have to do is go to the menu under your gif, and click on effects again.

It will take you back to the panel you were just on, expect now your colored gif is on the top and all the settings are blank again. The only setting you need to use now is the tint option; go there, and select a light red shade. I used #fff0f0.

And here is the final gif! To save it, just right click and hit “save image as.”

I know it seems like a long process, but once you get a hang of it, it goes by super fast, especially if all your gifs are coming from the same video.

BONUS: Adding text

If you are trying to gif something with dialogue or you want a quote to put over your gif, you will want to put text over it. ezgif has a “text” option that you can use if you want, but I personally don’t really like their font options, so I use the website Online Image Editor.

This is what it looks like. You can either hit “upload an image” and upload your saved gif, or you can go back to ezgif, right click the gif, hit “copy image url” and paste that url into the “upload from url” option. The web page should now look like this.

It’s pretty straight forward from here; click on the “add text” button and a menu will appear on the left hand with options for the text. 

Type whatever you want the caption to be in the “type text here” box. This website has a ton of font options you can play around with, but when I just want to caption a gif, I stick with “Arial Bold Italic.” For a 268p gif, the font size should be 10-12, depending on how much writing you plan to put on each gif (if some gifs are going to have more writing than others, pick a smaller font size so it stays consistent!) When I make a 540p, the font goes up to 14-16.  I use white for the color and black for the stroke. I make the strokewith 3 because it makes the caption stand out more. Once all these settings are selected, hit the “preview” button under the text box.

You can now drag your text anywhere you want on the image! The only bad thing about this website is that it doesn’t automatically center text, so you either have to eyeball it, or if you’re picky, like me, open up one of those online ruler applications and use it to measure out the center. For captions, I move the text just slightly above the bottom of the gif. 

Finally, you hit apply. Once your gif has the text on it, all you have to do to save it is right click it and hit “save image as.” And here is the finished project!

That got a lot longer than I thought it would, but I hope it was informative! If anything was unclear or if you have further questions, feel free to send me an ask. Thank you for reading.

[northcarolinanative]

𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗  / 𝙲𝚑 𝟷𝟺

Chapter 14: On Your Side 

A/N: Hi guys, it’s me, I know it’s been ages but I’m back, I have finally started to feel a little revived about this series so we’ll see how it goes. I feel low-key like a Riverdale writer because there are so many of my season 2 predictions that I want to put into this, but I don't really know how to. Anyway as always my requests/ask/messages are always open. I hope you enjoy:) 

Description: John B’s Sister comes home from staying with their mom, only to find out that her brother is missing and her dad was murdered. JJ may have just lost his best friend. Her and JJ have to figure out what to do and how to pick up the pieces.

Need to Catch Up? Previous Parts

I woke up to the sound of thunder cracking through the house. I turned to the other side of the bed to see JJ’s back. I saw the movement of his shoulders, rising and falling with his breathing. I got up making my way to the kitchen and fixing a glass of water. I leaned my back against the cool counter looking over the papers that sat there. The clock on the microwave read 4:45am I had a lot to figure out moving forward. I sat down, flicking on a dim lamp for some subtle light. My early bedtime making it impossible for me to go back to sleep. I reached over to the counter for my phone. The light was bright enough to make me squint before looking at the messages on the screen. 

The top message from my mother, asking how I had settled in with John B. I lied, of course, telling her that things were fine and that we were getting along great. I knew that she could say that she kept up with John B all these years, saying that she cared, but I knew the truth. This even further proves that evidence. She wasn’t meant to be a mother, she tried her best but being tied down and in the same place just wasn’t for her. I can’t help but think that if my father had won custody of me if she would have turned away from me too. 

I shook my head, trying not to fall down that rabbit hole in my brain. JJ was turning over in the bed. He rolled over, bunching the blanket up in his arms and holding it into his chest. I smiled to myself as I turned back to my phone. I have no idea what is going on between the two of us right now but I know that I am thankful for him. During my sleep, I missed a text from Kie. She told me to be at the Wreck around 7:30 to help open the breakfast shift. I texted her a quick I’ll be there before, beginning to pull out the papers and maps of John B’s possible whereabouts. 

I shuffled through the papers, trying to find as much information about the ship that I could with the info on the ship maps, as well as a binder that I pulled from my dad’s office. It detailed the kind of ships and had basics for each one. I was not sure how this could help, but I was doing something to move forward. The lack of internet at the Chateau was proving to be an issue as I needed more information. I thought about the few things that I need to look up and jotted them down in my notebook. I folded the maps and the lists into the book before pushing into a bag with my old laptop. The Wreck had the internet, so I was hopeful that Kie wouldn’t mind me using it after my shift. 

My research seemed to do the trick as it killed enough time for me to begin getting ready for my first shift at The Wreck. I quickly showered and got ready, wearing the light blue shirt that read “The Wreck” in obnoxiously large letters across the back. I was slipping on my shoes at the edge of the pull out when a voice started me. 

“Why are you ready?” It was JJ’s rough voice, obviously just waking up. “The sun is barely out.” 

I laughed at him before pointing to the logo on the back of my shirt. “Work calls my friend,” I said with a laugh, but JJ just rolled his eyes falling onto his back. “Feel free to stop by and entertain us?” I questioned. 

“Haha Y/N, I have to get at least 9 hours of beauty sleep, but we’ll see.” He said rolling on his side to face me. His face and tone shifted before his next sentence. “Be careful, okay? That place may be for the tourists, but the Kooks love to stir up trouble over there alright?” I just nodded and smiled slightly before turning to head for my car. 

-- 

My shift at The Wreck was nothing special. All the same as the country club, serve with a smile, a pretty self-explanatory menu, but the only difference was the overwhelming amount of tourists. Not that I minded, as they had no idea who I was, which I liked.  I wasn’t worried about the work, more so the people. I knew JJ was overprotective of the rest of us and meant well, but his words were in the back of my head the whole shift. The last thing I need is a kook making trouble and Mr. Carrera letting me go. 

Kie had me rolling silverware and working in the bar area. She said it was a good intro place before being put out on the floor. It also meant that we could chat and catch up. I liked Kie a lot, she was the closest thing I had to a best friend, even when I was back home. I was still hurt by her words, and hesitant to tell her anything, but I still love her. We were chatting while she went about her side task when I decided to ask about staying around. “Hey, is the Wifi back up here?” I asked, but kept my eyes trained on the task in front of me. 

“I think so?” She answered. 

“Do you think I could use it after my shift? I mean I brought my own computer and I’ll stay outta the way?” I bargained. I just got the job and didn’t want her father to think I was taking advantage of his offer, even if I was. 

“Sure!” She smiled. “We can sit outside at one of those tables when we get off. Pope is coming by and I’m sure JJ will be here before you leave.” I didn’t miss her wink at me after her last statement, the blush more than obvious on my face. Kie was super observant, of course, she noticed something going on between the two of us. 

“Okay yeah,” I said, sighing as she left to carry out an order. While I wanted to spend time with her and Pope, I don’t want to tell them what we’re doing. She’s made her feelings about John B’s accident completely known, and I didn’t want to give them false hope. 

“You look really familiar.” a voice spoke. I looked up from the silverware that I was rolling to be met with blue eyes and frosted tips. 

I’m sure he could see the confused look on my face as I just responded with an “interesting” and a soft smile. I could totally tell that he was a kook by the way that he was dressed. He was dressed in a pastel polo that was only halfway buttoned up and the styling of his hair that no doubt had too many products in it. 

He picked up a menu flipping through it before trying our conversation again. This time being more upfront. “Maybe a name would help you remember me, Y/N?” He said looking directly at me. I felt my skin go cold as he spoke my name. My only run-in with the kook being Rafe and his friends when Kie went full kook. I studied his face as he seemed to laugh a little. He seemed familiar. “Relax, I am on your side here. I figure you heard about your brother and my girl-” He coughed quickly before correcting himself, “my ex-girlfriend.” 

Then it all clicked. “Topper” I breathed out. I hadn’t known him well enough to meet him but had seen him with a few of the other kooks hanging around the boneyard in the past. I remember JJ telling me about the way that he was led out of the church disguised as John B. “What exactly are you doing here?” I asked.

“I figured that you know what happened by now. I’m sure the pogues told you, but I need to talk to you if anyone knows anything it has to be you.” He spoke. I looked up to see Kie trying to get away from her table to come help. Topper seemed to notice. “Meet me outside after your shift? I really need to talk to you.” He said before getting up. “Oh and a stack of pancakes to go please.” He flashed a smile before walking to the side. I quickly wrote up his ticket and pinned it to the wheel as Kie came up beside me. “Don’t worry about Topper, he’s been pretty harmless lately. He keeps asking a lot of weird questions and showing up here. He’s like so obsessed with Sarah it’s crazy.” She paused rolling her eyes. I was hoping that you could get out without an awkward kook visit.” She laughed and nudged my shoulder. 

I let out a sigh. “Yea and to think in the last 5 minutes of my shift. Are the boys on their way?” I questioned. If I was going to go meet with Topper and JJ saw, he would without a doubt start a fight. Something about the way that Topper spoke seemed serious. Also, he helped John B getaway, took whatever the consequences are, so I had to at least give him that. 

“Yea. Pope has to finish up some work with his dad, then they’ll be here.” She said with a smile. “You can go ahead and clock out, I’ll finish up here.” 

I nodded and said a quick “thank you” before making my way to the backroom to put everything away and clock out. My hands shook as I punched in the numbers, turning and putting tips away in my front pocket. I ran my hands over my head, letting out a shaky breath. Just gotta go get it over with. What's the worst that could happen? 

I walked out the back door to see Topper leaned against the front of his Jeep. I looked around for any sign of JJ, Pope, or Heyward’s old beat-up truck. “Okay Topper, this is weird. What the hell is going on?” I said walking to stand in front of him, crossing my arm over my chest. I could feel the way that my glare was harsh on him. 

“Look, Rafe’s losing his shit. I know he’s lost it before but he has really lost it.” He spoke, his tone heavy, almost panicked. 

I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “You're kidding right?” He just shook his head obviously. “Why the fuck do you think I’d care?” I started to get angry, turning to walk away. 

“Y/n! Wait, please!” He said, stepping forward to follow me. I turned to look at him with my eyebrows raised. “Look I believe y’all, that’s why I helped John B.” He admitted. “The way that Rafe has been acting I believe it too, he’s lost it. I think he’s dangerous.” 

I scoffed again. “Really?” I pointed to the now healing split on my cheek and motion to my neck. “I had no idea, Topper.” My voice was laced with sarcasm and anger. “Get to the point please.” I sighed. 

“He’s literally going crazy. I mean he says that he’s seeing Peterkin like he’s hallucinating her. He is dead set on pinning this on John B, saying that’s the only way that she’ll leave him alone. Ward tries to keep him locked up as much as possible, but you and the pogues” He sighed running a hand through his hair, messing it up, “need to watch out for him. You don’t know what he might do.”  

“Well, he is a murder.” I retorted coldly. 

“I know the pogues, they haven’t given up on John B or Sarah. You probably haven't given up on your brother either. I think that they are the last chance at putting this to rest. I wanna help you find Sarah, and your brother” He finished with a heavy breath. 

I tried to keep a poker face and the best way to go about this situation. “Topper, there is nothing we can do,” I spoke slowly trying to think of exactly what to say. I didn’t want to push him away in case we ended up needing his help later, but like the others, no need to involve him in something so uncertain. Not to mention that I had zero intentions of trusting him. “The police have given us nothing to work with, we’re just as in the dark as you.” 

Topper dropped his head to look at the ground. “Right.” He nodded. ”I guess I was just hoping that it wasn’t real, ya know?” His voice was quieter than before. His tone was soft and sounded broken. “Hoping that she wasn’t really gone.” 

I felt bad for him, even if he was pining after my brother’s girlfriend. He lost his girlfriend, to a pogue, then she might have died and his best friend, Rafe turns up to be a murder in a matter of a week. “Trust me, I know Topper,” I said, causing him to look back up and nodded before turning back to his car. “I’ll let you know if we find something though?” 

He smiled as he pulled himself into his Jeep as I headed to my car to get my bag before going back to the restaurant to meet with the pogues. 

Taglist: @nikki082489 @lovelymaybankk @dolanfivsosxox @alexa-playafricabytoto @downbytheouterbanks @heyhargrove @heywards​ @kayln021 @readysteadygo23​ @im-a-stranger-thing​ @thatsonobx​ @dumbxgurl​ @ameeraaa21@zehnuhrfunf​ @imagines-and-preferences1216​ @mileven-reddie​ @sw-eat-ing​ @tangledinsparkles @shawnssongs @karleeluv @rockyyc77​ @omigodyall @whoreforouterbanks @bqbyl0n @hmsjiara​ @kaelyn-lobrutto24 @softstarkey​ 

Masterlist 

[your-dietician]

Best extended 4th of July tech sales 2021

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/lifestyle/best-extended-4th-of-july-tech-sales-2021/

Best extended 4th of July tech sales 2021

Yahoo Life has received compensation to create this article, and receives commission from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change.

Grab yourself a tech toy; these extended 4th of July tech sales are popping! (Photo: Yahoo Life)

The 4th of July weekend might be over, but its tech sales still remain. That’s right! It’s time to save big on all manner of electronics. Thanks to mid-year release cycles and post-Prime Day overstock, post-July 4th is one of the best moments to shop for all things tech and the sales are still deep.

Whether you’ve had your eye on a new big-screen TV, a cushy pair of premium headphones or a starter set of smart home devices, this post-holiday weekend represents a window of opportunity. The price drops are epic! 

To save you time, we’ve gathered the very best still-alive 4th of July tech deals from Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Lowe’s and more. You’ll find products ranging from small (hello, AirPods) to large (70-inch 4K Samsung TV, anyone?) at amazing discounts.

Snap up the best extended 4th of July tech sales below:

Best 4K-TV sales

A massive Samsung 70-inch 4K TV for just $680? Yes, please! (Photo: Best Buy)

Still on sale for $700 (was $750), this Samsung 70-inch Class 7 Series LED 4K Ultra HD Smart TV has a massive 70-inch display with full 4K Ultra HD resolution; vivid, bright colors and deep, dark black levels. That exceptional picture quality supports HDR (High Dynamic Range) movies and TV shows for the best 4K viewing experience around. And shoppers say this 4K TV is great for families.

“…The whole family loves it, especially my husband,” raved a delighted five-star Best Buy reviewer. “He is so glad we got this! Both him and our son love gaming on this nice sized TV. My daughter and I enjoy watching our shows. We are all pleased to say the least!…”

It’s also Wi-Fi-enabled with smart home support for Alexa, Google Assistant and Samsung’s Bixby. Video-streaming capability is also baked into this cake. Translation: You won’t have to buy a separate device to watch Netflix, YouTube, HBO Max, Apple TV+, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+, Disney+ and much, much more. You’re ready to start binge-watching as soon as you turn it on.

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Check out more 4th of July 4K-TV sales below:

Toshiba 43-inch 43C350KU C350 Series LED 4K Ultra HD Smart Fire TV, $320 (was $370), amazon.com

Insignia 55-inch NS-55F301NA22 F30 Series LED 4K Ultra HD Smart Fire TV, $400 (was $500), amazon.com

Sony 55-inch Class X80J Series LED 4K Ultra HD Smart Google TV, $750 (was $950), bestbuy.com

LG 65-inch Class 4K Ultra HD NanoCell Smart TV, $997 (was $1,200), walmart.com

LG 65-inch Class CX Series OLED 4K Ultra HD Smart webOS TV, $1,900 (was $2,200), bestbuy.com

Sony 65-inch Class X80J Series LED 4K Ultra HD Smart Google TV, $900 (was $1,150), bestbuy.com

Best home audio sales

Get these Beats beauties for half price right now! (Photo: Walmart)

On sale for $149 (was $300) for post-4th of July, the Beats Solo Pro Headphones sync to just about any smartphone or laptop via Bluetooth, delivering rich audio and heart-thumping bass. Super sleek, the pro-level headphones come in Gray and Ivory. They’re noise-canceling, so you can block out just about all background and ambient noise to enjoy your favorite music and podcasts.

“These beats are so pretty. They sound amazing and definitely block out background noise,” raved a savvy Walmart shopper. “They charge and are compatible with iPhones….” 

The Beats have up to 40 hours of battery life per charge, so you don’t have to be tethered to an outlet all day long. They pump out a solid stream of music with top-notch audio for nearly two days — impressive, considering that most wireless headphones tap out after about 30 hours.

Check out more home audio sales below:

Bietrun Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds, $26 (was $130), walmart.com

Beats Flex Wireless Earbuds, $39 (was $50), amazon.com

Apple AirPods (wireless charging case), $160 (was $199), amazon.com

Apple AirPods Max, $490 (was $549), amazon.com

Philips Wireless In-Ear Headphones, $30 (was $60), walmart.com

Beats Solo3 Wireless On-Ear Headphones, $120 (was $200), amazon.com

Samsung Galaxy Buds+, $100 (was $150), bestbuy.com

Meidong Bluetooth Noise-Canceling Over-Ear Headphones, $35 (was $70), walmart.com

Best smartphone and tablet sales

An iPad with 40,000+ five star reviews, for less than $300? Is this for real? (Photo: Amazon)

On sale for $299 (was $329), the latest entry-level iPad model (32GB/Wi-Fi model) has the same impressive 10.2-inch display, quick Touch ID fingerprint sensor and 3GB of memory as the last version, but it features a speedier processor. You’ll notice — and appreciate — the speed with any videos, web sites or games. (For the tech savvy, the speed comes from Apple’s A12 Bionic chip). To say this thing is popular is an understatement: It has a ridiculous 40,000+ five-star reviews!

“I love it! It’s fast and easy to use plus it’s super affordable compared to the other models,” wrote a satisfied Amazon shopper. “The display is beautiful and picture quality is great…It’s like I have a mini laptop everywhere I go. Perfect for students, the screen quality is amazing and the battery lasts all day long.”

Check out more smartphone and tablet sales below:

Apple iPad Air (10.9-inch, Wi-Fi, 256GB), $699 (was $749), amazon.com

Core Innovations 7-inch, $54 (was $70), bhphotovideo.com

onn. 8-inch Tablet Pro, $79 (was $99), walmart.com

Samsung Galaxy A11 (Net10), $99 (was $149), walmart.com

Lenovo Tab M10 Plus, $160 (was $200), bestbuy.com

Best video game sales

Save 60 percent on super-popular games. (Photo: Amazon)

On sale for $20 (down from $50), BioShock: The Collection features all three games in the popular franchise: Bioshock Remastered, Bioshock 2 and Bioshock Infinite. These fun-tastic games explore futuristic science fiction worlds underwater and above the clouds.

“One of the best video game trilogies of modern gaming,” raved a delighted gamer. “All three games play and look fantastic, and 2k has done a great job with the attention to detail with all of them. I’ve had zero performance issues.”

Check out more video game sales below:

Luna Gaming Controller, $56 (was $70), amazon.com

NBA 2K21 (Xbox Series X), $20 (was $70), amazon.com

Mafia: Definitive Edition (PS4), $20 (was $40), amazon.com

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PS4), $15 (was $40), amazon.com

The Sims 4 (Xbox One), $5 (was $50), cdkeys.com

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (Xbox One), $13 (was $35), cdkeys.com

Minecraft (Xbox One), $10 (was $30), cdkeys.com

Outriders: Day One Edition (PS4), $40 (was $60), walmart.com

Microsoft Xbox Series S 512GB with Xbox Game Pass and Accessories, $636 (was $700), qvc.com

Grand Theft Auto V: Premium Edition (PS4), $20 (was $60), walmart.com

Madden NFL 21 (Xbox One), $20 (was $60), walmart.com

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Xbox One), $30 (was $60), walmart.com

The Pillars of The Earth (PS4), $29 (was $45), walmart.com

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled (PS4), $34 (was $40), walmart.com

PlayStation Plus Membership (12 months), $39 (was $60), cdkeys.com

Playstation Plus Membership (three months), $20 (was $25), cdkeys.com

Best smart-home sales

Start building the smart home of your dreams today, with this discounted bundle. (Photo: Lowe’s)

For this extended 4th of July sale, Lowe’s is giving you a chance to score the Google Nest Mini (second generation) and GE Smart Plug for just $40 (was $60).

The next-gen Nest Mini packs the Google Assistant into a sleek design with really great sound. Enjoy crisp vocals and balanced bass while you stream songs from Spotify, YouTube Music, SiriusXM, Pandora, Apple Music and more. Want a smart home? Now’s the time! If you have a phone in your pocket and a Wi-Fi network at home, you’re well on your way to building a smart home.

Plus, the bundle includes the GE Smart Plug (a $15 value), which can easily pair with the Google Nest Mini. Simply plug into a wall outlet, then plug in anything — a lamp, a TV or even a coffeemaker.

Then connect the plug to your Wi-Fi network and use your phone to sync to the Google Home app (for Android smartphones and Apple iPhones). That’s it! Now you can control just about anything in your home with your phone or just the sound of your voice via the Google Assistant. Fun!

“I am amazed at how much sound can come out of this little bitty device,” raved a delighted five-star Lowe’s reviewer. “The ease of setting this little unit up via Wi-Fi was a breeze. All I have done so far was talk to the device and it does what I ask with the weather even popping up on occasion which is what I was looking at. I like the fact that it sync to my devices with the calendar update with the busy schedule I have…I would recommend this little device for not only sound, but also ease of use. It can make your life simple and up-to-date if you carry a busy workload. Set a reminder and it will remind you even with a little music.”

Check out more smart-home sales below:

TP-Link N300 WiFi Extender (TL-WA855RE), $17 (was $30), amazon.com

Google Nest Mini, $35 (was $49), lowes.com

Google Nest Learning Smart Thermostat, $199 (was $249), lowes.com

Google Nest Hello, $149 (was $229), lowes.com

Lenovo Smart Clock Essential, $30 (was $50), lowes.com

Brookstone PhotoShare Digital Picture Frame, $110 (was $130), lowes.com

Moen 7594BL Arbor One-Handle Pulldown Kitchen Faucet, $289 (was $500), amazon.com

Honeywell RLV4300A1005 5-2 Day Programmable Thermostat (renewed), $10 (was $35), eBay.com

Google Nest Cam Indoor Security Camera, $130 (was $200), walmart.com

Defender Ultra HD 4K Wired Outdoor Security System (1TB), $260 (was $450), walmart.com

Monoprice Wireless Smart Outdoor Dual Socket, $25 (was $38), target.com

XODO Smart Wi-Fi HD Video Doorbell, $90 (was $150), walmart.com

DHcamera Wired Spotlight Cam HD Security Camera, $150 (was $230), walmart.com

Garmin Vivosport Fitness Tracker (renewed), $70 (was $200), eBay.com

Kamep Wireless Wi-Fi Video Doorbell Camera, $75 with on-page coupon (was $90), amazon.com

Best home-office sales

Sleek, thin, and convertible (lapop to tablet), this Samsung Chromebook Plus V2 is $180 off. (Photo: Amazon)

For extended 4th of July sales, the slick Samsung Chromebook Plus V2 convertible laptop is just $370 — that’s 33 percent off.

Incredibly thin, the Samsung Chromebook is actually more than just a laptop. It has a brilliant 12.2-inch HD touchscreen display (at 1900×1200 resolution) and flexible 360-degree hinge, so it can rotate to any angle for use as a tablet.

“I wanted both a tablet and a computer. I love that you can download apps and use them for both the computer and the tablet form,” reported a five-star fan. “The stylus makes using Lightroom and other creative apps a breeze. Being able to use the cloud is a must because the storage would fill up pretty quickly…The large screen is also good for editing photos, drawing, and taking notes. Startup, web browsing, and apps are quick. The battery life is really great for everyday use…”

Check out more home-office sales below:

Cloud Massage Shiatsu Foot Massager Machine, $250 with on-page coupon (was $350), amazon.com

Renpho Neck Shoulder Massager, $30 with on-page coupon (was $50), amazon.com

Vybe Percussion Massage Gun, $150 with on-page coupon (was $200), amazon.com

DamKee Massage Gun, $56 with on-page coupon (was $110), amazon.com

WorkEZ Rise Aluminum Laptop Stand, $30 (was $33), qvc.com

Samsung 27-inch Smart Monitor, $300 (was $329), qvc.com

HP OfficeJet Pro 8035e All-in-One Printer, $220 (was $249), qvc.com

Asus Chromebook C223, $265 (was $340), hsn.com

Bell & Howell Adjustable Laptop Desk, $32 (was $50), hsn.com

Embassy NanoShred 8-Sheet Paper Shredder, $100 (was $124), hsn.com

OttLite Wireless Charging Desk Lamp, $35 (was $61), hsn.com

Apple MacBook Pro (mid-2020), $1,099 (was $1,299), bhphotovideo.com

Microsoft Surface Pro 5 (renewed), $540 (was $800), eBay.com

Ousgar 47-inch White Desk, $100 (was $266), walmart.com

Hemu Fashion Bamboo Laptop Lap Tray, $38 (was $80), walmart.com

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[official-impravidus]

5 Times Peter Did Someone Else’s Makeup

By @official-impravidus for @littlemissagrafina

Rating: General

Relationships: Tony Stark & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & May Parker, Peter Parker & Happy Hogan, Happy Hogan/May Parker

Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Happy Hogan, May Parker, Ned Leeds, Michelle Jones, Morgan Stark

Summary: and the 1 time he did his own

(written for the @friendly-neighborhood-exchange)

1

To put it simply, he had been in a rush. Competition season was just around the corner, and MJ was pushing the team to their limits with extra practice, which meant morning practice and after school practice. Peter had barely gotten out of the door once he remembered that he had to get to the school, being in the middle of a deep concentration as he perfected his winged eyeliner. Then, the after school practice ran a half an hour late because everyone was slacking on their ancient Greek philosophers. 

So there he was, scurrying out of the metal doors of Midtown and nearly ripping the car door off its hinges as he rushed into his seat.

“Hey Happy! I’m so so so sorry I’m late. MJ made us stay late because Flash didn’t know difference between Hypatia and Aspasia even though they have over a century apart, and then she started quizzing us on which philosophers specialized in Pythagorean, Peripatetic, or Pyrrhonist, and everyone kept mixing them up and we had to go over it for like twenty minutes until we all had it down and…”

“Don’t need the whole run down, bud. It’s okay,” Happy stated. “Couldn’t understand it if I tried.”

“Right. Sorry,” Peter said sheepishly. “How was your day?”

“Same old, same old. Once I drop you off, I’m heading back to the apartment.”

Peter’s eyes lit up. “Oh, it’s date night! Where are you taking May?”

“Do you remember that new restaurant near that bike shop?”

Peter’s mouth went agape. “That super fancy one where they put chocolate in everything?!”

Happy nodded with a soft grin. “That’s the one.”

“She always looks through the window when we pass by there! She looked up the menu and I swear she was drooling when she read about the bacon mac and cheese.” Peter smiled. “She’s gonna love it, Happy.”

“I hope so.”

“She will,” Peter reassured. With a content sigh, he pulled out his laptop. “I should probably get started on my research paper.”

“You know Tony’s rule,” Happy said.

“No lab work until homework is done,” Peter recited with a nod. “I know, I know. Which is why I’m doing it now.”

“Is it a blackout kinda day or a white noise one?” Happy asked.

“I could go for some of that boring piano music you like.”

Happy shoved Peter’s arm. “It’s not boring.”

“It just strips all the tenseness from my tight, aching muscles. It lulls me to sleep.”

“If it lulls you to sleep, then you shouldn’t be listening to it while you’re doing homework,” Happy said.

“Then, what do you suggest?” Peter asked.

Happy pressed the radio screen and a string quartet of Panic! at the Disco’s “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” began to play.

“Oh, you know me so well.”

Peter fell into a deep focus and had barely realized the car ride was over until Happy had said a soft “we’re here.”

“Thanks, Happy. Have a good evening!” Peter said cheerfully.

“You’re staying here tonight, right?” Happy asked.

“Yeah, I am. It’s a Compound weekend. Why…” Peter’s faced morphed into a disgusted grimace. “Actually, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.” He shook his head. “See you later!” Happy gave a gentle wave before pulling out.

Peter let out a breath, shoving his hands in his pockets, as he headed into the Compound, fiddling with the watermelon gum wrappers crumpled deep in his jeans.

With a skip in his step, he entered the lab, plopping his backpack on the floor and hopping into his rollie chair with a little spin.

“Hello to you too,” Tony said with a laugh. “Bad traffic?”

“Late practice,” Peter corrected.

“She’s really drilling you guys, huh?” Tony asked. “Well, at least you’ll be prepared.” He looked up from his project, but stopped as he caught sight of Peter’s face. “New look?”

Peter furrowed his brows in confusion, but froze. He hadn’t used a makeup wipe on the drive there. “I… uhm… I… it’s not what it looks like.”

“Well it looks good. Would’ve barely noticed if it weren’t for the eyeliner it’s so natural. I mean really, you’re glowing. How do you get your skin looking so dewey and fresh?”

Peter’s brain could hardly catch up. “I mix highlighter with my foundation.”

“See, I’ve never thought about that. Mine always comes out so dull and flat. I’ll have to try that.”

“You, uh, you’ve worn makeup?” Peter stammered.

“When you’re on camera as much as me, you’ve gotta get at least a little pick me up. I mean, some of that shit is high definition. Do I really want people seeing my pores and pimples in high definition? No thank you.”

“Oh. Uh. Wow.”

“You can’t be new at this. I mean, it looks great. I’m jealous if you are.”

Peter shook his head. “I’ve been doing it for a couple months.”

“And why haven’t I seen it?” Tony questioned.

“I, uh, didn’t want you to think it was weird,” Peter admitted.

Tony softened. “Why would you think that?”

“I mean, I worry you think a lot of things are weird. I just, want to... impress you, I guess.”

“Well, wanna know what impresses me? That winged eyeliner. It takes Pepper ten minutes of fiddling with makeup remover on cue tips when she’s doing hers.”

Peter, nearly rendered speechless, nodded again. “It took a lot of practice.” He paused. “You’re really… you don’t think I’m weird?”

“I could never think you were weird, kid.” He pursed his lips. “Well, yes I can, because you put sour skittles in your chocolate ice cream, but that’s what makes me love you. Don’t be afraid to be weird. I’ve been weird all my life. Embrace the weird and conquer the world with your weirdness because one day, what used to be weird will be brilliant and people will want to be weird like you.”

Peter looked to his feet bashfully. “Thanks, Mr. Stark.”

“You know, Pepper has a big charity thing tonight. She could really use your help with her smokey eye.”

Peter perked up. “Really? I’ve… I’ve done makeup on May before, but I’ve never done it on someone with an eye shape like hers.” “Then this will be perfect practice!”

Peter got a little mascara on her eyelid, but he made up with the perfect blend of silver sparkle and charcoal shades.

2

“Stop squeezing your eyes, you’re gonna make the eyeliner bumpy.”

“Well, it’s a little hard to relax when you’ve got a pencil pressing against my eye.”

Peter sighed. “Ned, you just gotta breathe. I’m not gonna poke your eye.”

“It sure feels like you’re poking my eye,” Ned grumbled.

“I’ll do it even lighter,” Peter reassured.

It was 9AM, and Peter was trying to use as much precision in his rush to finish Ned and MJ’s makeup for the pride parade. He had finished his look, a blend of pinks, purples, and blues with silver glitter eyeliner, and was finishing Ned’s rainbow look, or at least, attempting to.

“You were doing so good, man,” Peter whined.

“Because it was all fluffy brushes before this!” Ned groaned. “Just get it over with.”

“I could if you would stop freaking squeezing your eyelids!”

MJ sighed. “Some of us are in the waiting dock, Ned.”

“I’m sorry! I’m not used to this!” Ned exclaimed.

Peter pulled gently at the skin on his browbone, making the skin pulled taunt enough to slide the eyeliner on with one smooth swipe. He followed suit with the other and slumped back into his chair. “Okay. You’re done.” 

“Oh, thank God, because I had to go to the bathroom at like the contour.” He scampered out of the bathroom, legs held tight. 

“What’s in store for me?” MJ asked.

“I was thinking a sharp edged blend of pink and to the dark pink to brown in the crease with a cut crease,” Peter thought out loud.

There was a knock at the door.

“You expecting someone?” MJ asked.

“No?” Peter said, confused. He went to the door, eyes widening in shock at the sight.

There was Tony Stark in a bright blue, pink, and yellow vertical striped suit.

“Mr. Stark! What are you doing here?”

“Today is pride, right?” Tony said with a cheeky grin on his lips.

“I-it is.”

“Great! Then, I’ll give you three a ride. I’m meeting the gang later.”

Peter’s nodded, mouth still wide open. “Because New York pride is endorsed by the Avengers. Right.”

“So, what do you say? I may or may not have pulled out my holographic chrome Ferrari.”

Peter rolled his eyes but let out a light chuckle. “Of course you did.” He stepped out of the way. “MJ’s look will be quick. If you want, I can do something for you?”

Tony grinned. “I’d love that.”

Behind his tinted shades, Tony rocked a pink crease, yellow lid, and blue lower lashline, a big smile adorned by a bright pink lipstick.

3

After the big robot invasion of 2025, the Avengers were beyond exhausted from the dealing with the repercussions and volunteering for the rebuilding.

For the first time in weeks after being preoccupied with volunteering, charity work, and clean up, they could finally relax for a group get together outside of work.

“You know what I could use?” Tony asked to no one in particular. “Really crappy, artificial, not at all traditional Chinese food. Who’s in?” The team all muttered words of agreement, melting into the cushions of the recreation room’s couches. 

“Text me your orders. I sent the menu in the groupchat.”

More mutters of acknowledgement.

Peter settled on the floor, makeup scattered on the coffee table, mouth agape as he stared intently at his reflection, fake lash in hand.

“What are you doing?” Steve asked.

“Graduation is just around the corner and I need to perfect my look for commencements,” Peter explained. He blinked, checking for any warping. “How does it look?” 

The team let out a low murmur of “oo”s and “ah”s and “nice.” 

“That looks fantastic,” Natasha praised.

“The adornments to your face are absolutely astonishing!” Thor praised. “Would you be so kind to apply your pigments to my eyes?”

Peter’s eyes widened. “You want me to do your makeup?”

“I’d love if you did mine, too,” Natasha said.

“I bet you could do some great red, white, and blue for me,” Steve said.

Peter looked around. “That could be really cool. Avengers inspired makeup looks on the Avengers? I mean, that’d be an honor.”

So he got started. As they feasted on fried rice and General Tso’s spicy chicken, they jammed to ABBA and looked fabulous while dancing to Dancing Queen.

4

“So, I made you some of that green juice you like so you can sip on that while we get you ready. We also put together a playlist of all of your favorite dishwashing music which we both know is also your hype playlist and you need to get a little hype! Let loose! In addition, we also brought you some of your favorite hors d’oeuvres such as chocolate covered strawberries, that basil spread with the tomatoes on the crunchy bread, caprese salad, and just a big pile of prosciutto because I know you like to stress eat salty meats.”

May smiled softly. “Thank you, baby. This is amazing.”

“How are you feeling?” Peter asked.

“Nervous. Excited. Mostly excited. How are… are you okay? With this?” 

Peter nodded. “Of course I am. You’re happy, Happy’s happy, and I… I’m happy. I’m happy that you could find something like this after Ben.”

She let out a shaky breath. “I’m getting married.”

Peter grinned. “You are.” He spun her chair. “Now sit there and be pretty while I do you even prettier.”

“You know, you were at my first wedding.”

Peter looked up. “I was?”

“You were just a baby, but Richard and Mary didn’t want to leave you at home after you had just gotten over your pneumonia. You were wearing a little onesie with a tuxedo printed on it, and you had your foofie.”

“I remember my foofie!” Peter smiled nostalgically as he envisioned the fluffy scarf that he snuggled with for years.

“You had just gotten it, and you would just run your fingers on the blue fluff, entranced by the texture on your little fingers.”

Peter chuckled. “Yeah. I loved that thing.”

“But, you caused a little bit of a scene.”

Peter furrowed his brows. “I did?”

“Well, your mom had just come back from feeding you and Ben wanted to make you giggle, so he was dancing with you, twirling and spinning you around, and I guess he jerked you around a bit too much and you vomited.”

“Oh no.”

“In his mouth and all over his tux.”

“Oh no.”

“So, really, there’s no reason to worry about messing anything up because at least you’re not doing that,” she said with a teasing grin.

“Well, I’ll try my best not to do that again,” Peter said. He softened, squeezing her hand gently. “You’re gonna make so many new memories and it’s gonna be awesome, May.”

“So are you,” May said. 

“I’m really happy for you.” He shook his head. “Now don’t you start crying and streak this amazing foundation I just put on.”

She let out a wet laugh and held her arms out. “C’mere.”

Peter gave her a tight hug, snuggling next to her in her cushy chair.

She placed a soft kiss to his forehead. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too.” He pulled away. “Now, c’mon. Stop stalling. I have to get this done so I can do mine.”

5

“Tony. Stop crying.”

“This is an emotional time and I am an emotional man!”

“It’s just homecoming.”

Tony crossed his arms and scowled at Peter. “Well you’re not one to talk about just homecoming.”

Peter pouted. “You crash a plane and nearly get killed by your homecoming date’s dad one time…”

“Look at my beautiful girl.” He pet her hairsprayed locks gently.

Morgan rolled her eyes with a smile on her dark red lips. “You’re so embarrassing, Dad.”

“So, when are we meeting this boy? Because then I’ll really be embarrassing.”

“Dad!” Morgan whined.

“You still have told me nothing about this boy. What are you hiding? Is he an Anti-Avenger protestor? Oh, oh! Or is he a scheming supervillain turning you to the dark side?” He gasped. “Does he work for Oscorp?”

“His name is Miles, he’s an artist, and he’s really really nice so please don’t screw this up for me because I really really like him.”

Tony softened. “I’ll behave.”

“Please,” Morgan pleaded.

“I’ll behave!” Tony repeated.

“He won’t,” Peter stated. “And we both know that.”

“Hey! I take offense to that,” Tony said.

“Well, as much as I love this wonderful family chat, I really gotta finish Morgan’s makeup, and when you stress her out, it makes her eyes scrunch up and I can’t get the blending right so… shoo. Scooch your booch outta here.”

“No. I want to stay,” Tony stated.

“Are you not gonna distract her?” Peter asked with a raised brow.

“Maybe…?”

“Tony!”

“Okay! Fine. I won’t say a word. You won’t even know I’m here.” Peter turned back to Morgan, packing a shimmery white on her lid, but flipped around when he heard a choked sob from behind.

“Tony,” he said exasperatedly.

“She’s just growing up so fast!”

1

Peter’s gloved hands trembled as he filled in his eyebrows in a room that did nothing to block the shutters of cameras and excited murmur from the large crowd on the other side of the wall.

Tony took his hand in his and gave them a gentle squeeze. “Are you sure you wanna do this? Because you can back out any time you’d like.” Peter shook his head. “It’s time. The new generation of Avengers deserve to have a real face to lead them, and for the public to trust us, they need to know that I trust them too. The world knows Spider-Man and his good. And now, they’ll know Peter Parker too.”

“They already know Peter Parker,” Tony said softly. “Peter Parker conducted the widest reaching scientific climate change campaign. He promoted carbon storage, protected and expanded forests in every country on every continent on the planet, and invented a reliable and accessible long-term energy source cheaper and easier to manufacture than fossil fuels. God, Peter. Once they find out that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, they’re going to love him even more.”

Peter’s face flushed a warm red. “Thanks, Tony.” He looked to his reflection and smiled sadly. Looking at his brown eyes, red blended to his crease and blue lining his lashline, he realized that this was the end to a lifetime of secrets and a new beginning where he could finally share the whole person he was.

“You ready?” Tony asked.

“How do I look?” Peter asked meekly.

“You look amazing.” He pulled him into a tender hug. “They’re gonna love you, kid.” He placed his hands firmly on his shoulders and gave a little squeeze. “Do you know how proud I am of you? Because I am. You’re really proving yourself to be quite the hero, and I don’t just mean in your bright red and blue, which really, are you sure we can’t negotiate something a little less gaudy…”

“Says Mr. Hot Rod Red and Gold…”

“I mean, bright blue? Even I have enough class and taste to know that bright blue is a little much.”

“Tony,” Peter said.

“I’m so proud of you kid. You’ve grown into a fantastic young man, and you’re gonna keep growing into a visionary for this next century. You might even outshine me.” He shook his head. “No. I know you will. Because I know you, and I know that you’re an intelligent, selfless, innovating, tenacious, unbelievably incredible person, and you’re gonna change the world.” He smiled a tight, teary smile. “And the world’s not gonna know what hit it once you give it all you’ve got.”

Peter slipped his mask on and took one last shaky breath. “Let’s go do this.”

My name is Peter Benjamin Parker and I am Spider-Man.

[renaerys]

PPG One-Shot: Glad to the Point of Fear

For @secretie​ who wanted adult!Blues in quarantine. Which, I have delivered but also it turned into Sister Code™ with some Reds and Greens in there too because I have exactly zero self control. This is also kind of in the same world/after the events of Beyond This Morning, my ongoing adult!PPG/RRB fic over on AO3. You don’t need to have read that to enjoy this, but there are some fun references to it for anyone who has. 

Summary: A new strain of the AB virus has surfaced, forcing all of Townsville into mandatory self-quarantine until a vaccine can be created. Bubbles and Boomer pass the time with a little help from their siblings and their two young children.

xxx

Sunlight through the open curtains crept over the bed slowly, warm fingers through Bubbles’ tousled hair gently waking her from a dream. She couldn’t quite remember the dream, only that it had been warm. She squinted her eyes to the light and wished for that warmth again, just for a little bit longer.

The warmth ended up finding her and wrapped her in a velvet embrace with a sweet sigh.

“Mm,” she mumbled, pressing her face closer.

Boomer’s laugh was low and pleasing against the crown of her head, where he pressed a kiss to her sleep-tangled hair. “It’s morning.”

“Five more minutes,” she said, snuggling closer.

He laughed again and pulled his fingers through her hair, out of her face. “Tired?”

His palm slid around the small of her back. Her tank top had ridden up during the night. Deft fingers traced her skin, following the uneven paths of pale stretch marks they loved well. Bubbles opened her blue eyes and found his watching her behind too-long bangs. A brush of blond stubble dusted his cheeks and chin, ticklish. Normally he was clean-shaven, but the days at home were lax and languid, and Bubbles felt a bit like a carefree teenager again.

She smiled and dragged her nails down his bare chest. “Not so much anymore.”

He grinned in his goofy, cute way, but nothing about the way he flipped them over and pulled her close was goofy. Their kiss was like their morning, unhurried and dreamy. Boomer’s gravity pressed her down into the soft mattress, and slowly their hearts began to skip as they searched for more of each other.

“Bwito?”

Bubbles froze just as Boomer’s hand slipped below the waistband of her sleep shorts, and not a moment too soon. A blaze of blue crashed into their bed and would have broken it (and Boomer) in half if not for Bubbles’ quick reflexes and Super strong arms.

“Bwito!”

Boomer gathered the bedspread over his lap to hide his boner from his two-year-old daughter, but her sudden appearance killed the mood and the morning. Bubbles, frustrated but resigned, managed a tired smile and hugged her daughter close.

“So, you want to be a burrito, huh?”

The little girl laughed. “Mama bwito!”

Bubbles couldn’t stay annoyed that her romantic morning had been cut short, not when her daughter looked up at her with those laughing, ultramarine eyes. “I don’t know, I think a Beryl burrito would taste much better.” She nuzzled Beryl’s short, blonde hair, making her giggle.

“Too loud.”

Boomer, somewhat recovered, got up to greet their newest intruder. “Aw, Bryce, were we laughing too loud for you, buddy?”

Bryce clutched a stuffed Bunny-Bunny toy under one arm and sucked his thumb with the other. Blue eyes so pale they glowed nearly white glared up at Boomer very seriously. Bubbles bit her lip so as not to giggle, but she could do nothing about Beryl squealing and squirming in her arms.

Boomer smiled tiredly and offered his arms to his son. “Okay, I’m sorry. We’ll be quiet, yeah? Can I get a hug?”

Bryce eyed him, skeptical of his overly facetious father always playing games like a child, but he couldn’t resist the hug and floated up on his own to meet Boomer halfway. It was his mistake.

“One burrito, coming up!” Boomer announced, and dashed back to the bed with Bryce.

Bubbles and Beryl erupted with laughter as Boomer quickly rolled them all into one blue, burrito family under the covers. Smooshed between his cackling parents and twin sister, even the normally quiet Bryce succumbed to the fun and burst out laughing. Bubbles plastered him and his sister with kisses and held them tight, wishing this moment would never end.

xxx

“I wanna donut!” Beryl declared from her high chair in the kitchen.

Boomer had managed to get her hair into a cute little topknot, but he’d had to bribe her with one of Bubbles’ sparkly scrunchies. She was in to glitter these days, though he supposed with Bubbles for a mother, he should not have been too surprised.

“Me too,” Boomer said. “But we’re in quarantine, so we can’t go to King Donut until the government can come up with a vaccine for the new AB virus strain.”

Beryl did not like that answer, and her dark blue power sparked around her little fists and rattled the plastic silverware on her tray.

“Uh-oh,” Bryce said, covering his ears. He had gotten out of his own high chair yet again despite how well Bubbles strapped him in there and dashed to his mother by the stove.

Bubbles looked up from the griddle where she was prepping French toast. “What’s going on?”

Boomer shoved a hand over his daughter’s lethal mouth and braced himself for impact. Her Sonic Scream rattled him to the bone even muffled under his own oppressive power. And shit did she have a pair of lungs.

Twitching, Boomer staggered back and leaned on a counter to get his bearings while Bubbles appeared in a flash of bright blue looking quite displeased.

“Beryl, what did I say about inside voices?” she scolded in an extremely intimidating teacher voice.

Beryl looked up at her mother with wide, uncertain eyes. Like Boomer, she was trembling as she too recovered from the force of her mini Sonic Scream.

“Well?” Bubbles said.

It was too much for the two-year-old, and she looked down, ashamed. She muttered something under her breath.

“What was that? I don’t think your father heard you.”

Boomer winced at that tone.

Beryl bit her trembling lip and looked up. “I’m sowwy.”

Bubbles nodded. “That’s what I thought you said.” She stroked Beryl’s round cheek and smiled softly.

Bubbles returned to the cooking, while Boomer and Bryce exchanged a look like they had both dodged a bullet. He winked at his son, earning himself a little smile.

“Better get back in your high chair and stay there, or Mom’s gonna do her own Sonic Scream,” he said.

Bryce was back in his chair faster than Boomer could blink upon hearing that warning, and he bit back a laugh.

“You really are hardcore,” Boomer said as he got out plates for the food.

“And you spoil them too much,” Bubbles said, piling enough French toast onto the plates to feed a family thrice their size.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

Chatter drew their attention. Bryce had technically stayed in his high chair, but now he floated it off the ground and hovered it closer to Beryl’s side of the table, where she had generated a blue energy ball. With a laugh, she threw it impossibly fast at Bryce, who caught it easily and giggled. Boomer had seen them play this game a hundred times before ever since Beryl manifested his corporeal energy powers around the time she also threw her first Sonic Scream tantrum. But even so, the sight of his children laughing and playing together like they had nothing at all to fear in the world twisted something in his heart, and he could never tire of the sight.

A soft brush of lips against Boomer’s cheek drew his gaze from them.

“A kind father is a brave father,” she said.

Boomer’s throat clenched. “Guess I wouldn’t know.”

Her eyes never left his, and her smile was fierce. “Then we’ll teach you every day.”

The love in her voice was so clear he could feel it, and best of all, he knew she meant every word. Heat burned his eyes as he let himself believe her, just a little more every day, but she was patient, and so were their children. They would not grow up like Boomer did. He wasn’t sure if he would ever be as kind and as brave as Bubbles believed he was, but he could be here. Every day, just a little bit longer, he could be here for them like his own father had not been there for him.

She was kissing him before he could get a coherent response out, and god he could taste her love and the love she had for their little family. Bubbles had always had so much of it to give, and even now he could scarcely believe she’d given it to him.

A little gasp and a hair-raising sensation on the back of Boomer’s neck was all the split-second forewarning he got, but it was just enough for him to snatch the blue energy ball Bryce had thrown awry with enough force to blow a small hole in the kitchen wall. Bubbles smiled into their kiss that he didn’t bother breaking as he tossed the ball back to the kids, and Beryl caught it with a delighted squeal.

“French toast time?” Bubbles whispered when they broke their kiss.

Boomer grinned like the smitten fool he was. “The best time.”

“Donuts!” Beryl chanted.

“Fwenchy toe!” Bryce said.

“Bingo.” Boomer set a plate piled high with a small mountain of French toast on Bryce’s tray. “Mm, smell that cinnamon?”

Bryce made a face. “Cinnina… Cimamin…”

“Ooh, so close, Bryce!” Bubbles gushed. “Cin-na-mon. Can you say it?”

“Cinniminanon?”

Bubbles laughed. “Close enough.”

“Me pease!” Beryl said.

“Such a polite little lady.” Boomer gave her a plate, and Beryl immediately grabbed two fistfuls of French toast and shoved them in her mouth. He shook his head. “Well, she had me in the first half, not gonna lie.”

“Okay, Mr. Meme, here’s your plate.” Bubbles set out their own plates, and the four of them went to town on French toast.

xxx

“Did Mayor Bellum give you a status update?” Bubbles asked. She was seated at the kitchen table with her laptop while Boomer entertained Beryl and Bryce in the living room.

Blossom was as pretty and put together as ever despite this being week three of the state-wide quarantine. She was in her immaculate home office with a view of her framed diplomas on the cold, white wall behind her. “Yes, I spoke to her this morning. She said the latest is that the scientists are close to a vaccine, but they’re still running tests.”

“Greeeeeat, so how much longer is that going to be?” Buttercup scowled at the camera from the comfort of her own apartment in the heart of Citiesville. There were discarded toys and a weirdly noticeable number of socks on the floor behind her where she sat on a beanbag. “I’m literally losing my mind over here.”

“I’m not sure,” Blossom said. “But we have to be patient. Just because we’re Super doesn’t mean we’re immune to the virus. This strain is apparently much worse than the original.”

Bubbles bit her lip. “I hope they can work quickly. I would hate for any of the kids to get sick.”

“Everyone will be fine as long as we respect the mandatory quarantine—” Blossom cut off with a sneeze that turned her entire hand to ice.

“Yeah, you seem to be doing just fine,” Buttercup teased.

“Oh for crying out—my laptop!” Blossom was up, one hand on her noticeably round belly and the other currently thawing.

A commotion on her end ensued, and a flash of red blocked out the picture for a moment. “Blossom, how many times do I have to ask you not to scream in the house?” Brick said somewhere off-screen.

“She froze my laptop!” Blossom hissed. “Hurry, before it does permanent damage!”

“Un-fucking-believable…” Fire crackled in the background as Brick carefully melted the preternatural ice.

Bubbles giggled. “Still having those cold spells?”

“Yes, unfortunately. I thought this time it would be easier since I’m not coughing up fire everywhere.” Blossom glared off camera.

“This could not be further from my fault,” Brick said.

“I beg to differ,” Blossom said, clutching her growing belly.

While they argued, a pair of big, fuchsia eyes crept into view under a too-big, red baseball cap.

Bubbles smiled wide. “Hi, Blaze. How are you?”

“Ready to call child protective services?” Buttercup quipped.

Blaze, Blossom and Brick’s three-year-old son, just stared at the camera. “Mama’s all fat.”

Buttercup howled with laughter. Bubbles shook her head.

“What did you just call your mother?” Brick appeared on camera in all his surly glory and picked up his son by the back of his jean overalls.

“Reeeeeeeally pretty,” Blaze said.

Buttercup was in tears.

Brick glared at his son. His son glared right back.

“You’re goddamn right she is. Go get your book. We’ll read another chapter and let your mother finish her call.”

“Yes, Da!”

Blaze disappeared in a fuchsia flourish, and Boomer came up behind Bubbles with a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, I thought I heard your salty, old man voice,” Boomer teased.

Brick narrowed his eyes at the camera. “I thought I smelled Buttercup’s Dorito casserole, but it’s just you.”

“Fuck you,” Boomer and Buttercup said at the same time.

“That was one time,” Buttercup added. “And only because Butch deserved it.”

Boomer sniffed his armpit off screen and gave Bubbles a worried look. She grinned. “You smell fine, Boomer.”

“Uncoo Bick!” Beryl said, zooming over. Bryce was not far behind.

Brick took one look at them and left the room without a word.

Buttercup snorted laughing as she ate a spoonful of ice cream right out of the pint.

“Sorry about that.” Blossom returned, completely thawed. “What did I miss?” She gasped. “Bryce and Beryl? Is that really you? You’re getting so big!”

Bubbles gathered her kids in each arm and hugged them close, while Boomer leaned over her and smiled at the camera. “So big, yeah?”

“Yeah!” Beryl and Bryce said in perfect, adorable unison.

Bubbles felt tears brimming in her eyes, and she kissed each of her children on their little, blond heads. Boomer kissed her head in turn.

“Hey, why don’t we let your mom talk to Aunt Blossom and Aunt Buttercup some more, okay?” Boomer said.

“Ball?” Bryce said, eager.

Beryl began to crackle with power. “Ball!”

Boomer snatched her before she could manifest something that might blow up Bubbles’ laptop on contact. In his other hand, he generated a catcher’s mitt out of pure, concentrated power and handed it to Bryce. “Sure, we can play ball. Last one to the backyard’s a rotten egg!”

Beryl yelped in delight and took off first, followed closely by Bryce. Boomer waved at the camera.

“Sorry for the interruption, ladies.” He winked and went to join the kids outside.

Blossom was smiling from ear to ear. “He’s so good with them.”

“He’s playing ball. Talk about a low bar,” Buttercup grumbled. She continued to ply herself with ice cream.

“Where’s Butch, anyway?” Bubbles asked.

“Probably jerking off somewhere.”

“Buttercup,” Blossom said.

“I’m kidding, obviously.” She looked somewhere off camera. “Looks like he’s getting the shit kicked out of him.”

Bubbles shot her a bemused look. “Oh?”

“We’re playing heroes and monsters today.”

“Yes, I can see that,” Blossom teased.

Buttercup rolled her eyes. “I’ll play when I finish my ice cream break.” There was a loud crash, and Buttercup set aside her ice cream. “Well, here we fucking go.”

“Think fast, Buttercup!” Brisa shouted off screen.

Buttercup rolled and caught a glowing, green ball and cracked it with her bare hands, releasing the two-year-old trapped inside. Bruce blinked her dark, green eyes in a daze. Her dress was askew and her hair was a mess. There was a stain on her collar that look suspiciously like poop.

Buttercup examined the stain with a calculating eye. Then she licked it.

“Oh,” Blossom said, covering her mouth and averting her gaze.

“Butch,” Buttercup said. “What did I say about chocolate in the morning?”

“It’s chocolate milk, chill woman,” Butch said.

Brisa jumped on Buttercup’s beanbag with a giggle and pulled Bruce close. “Now you’re in jail, Bruce. That’s what you get for stealing the goods.”

Bruce frowned and stuck out her lip. “No!”

“Yes,” Brisa said, and what Brisa said was law because she was ten and wise and knew everything.

“No!” Bruce said again, floating out of Buttercup’s arms.

“Yes,” Brisa said.

“No!”

“Yes!”

“Nooooooooo!” Bruce punched Brisa.

Brisa caught her punch in a fist and pushed back. “Yesssssss!”

“Rawr!” A pair of legs obscured the camera, and both girls screamed in delight. “Must…eat…RAWWWRRRR!!” Butch said.

“Butch, I’m on the phone!” Buttercup said.

“I will eat your phone!”

Bubbles laughed and watched as Buttercup somehow managed to get Brisa and Bruce out of there in one piece without maiming anyone. Butch picked up the laptop and shoved his face too close to the camera.

“Hey, my best bitches. Partying in quarantine?” he said.

“Yes, Butch,” Blossom deadpanned. “No one parties as hard as a pregnant woman.”

“Heh, you’d be surprised.”

Before anyone could respond to that, the camera angle shifted harshly and Buttercup once again filled the picture. “What a shit show.” She retreated to her bedroom and sat on the unmade bed she shared with Butch.

“Aw, it’s not that bad,” Bubbles said. “I think it’s kind of nice spending more time at home.”

“Yeah, if you count learning how to homeschool a ten-year-old nice. I swear, Brisa knows more math than I do.”

“It was always your worst subject,” Blossom said.

“Still is.”

“But Butch is helping, right?” Bubbles asked.

Buttercup scowled. “Yeah, obviously. And her school’s doing this online thing. She’s smart. Like, really smart. I just don’t want her to fall behind or whatever. It’s not her fault this shit is happening, and she shouldn't have to bear the consequences.”

Bubbles and Blossom shared a knowing look.

Buttercup ran her hand through her loose hair. “But I swear, when I get out of here, I’m hunting down those idiot Amoeba Boys and giving a new meaning to divide and conquer.”

“Count me in,” Blossom said darkly. “This time, I’m making sure they stay locked up until we have every possible vaccine permutation in hand so this never happens again.”

“Everything’s going to be fine, girls,” Bubbles said. “Just hang in there. At least we’re not on our own, right?”

Blossom’s expression softened. “Right.”

“Yeah, true. I have no idea where Butch gets all his energy, but he’s up at the crack of dawn entertaining the girls like it’s fucking Easter. Meanwhile, I’m exhausted all the time.”

Blossom leaned in closer to the camera. “Buttercup, you’re not…?”

Bubbles gasped. “Wait, what?!”

Buttercup flushed crimson. “Why do you both always jump to conclusions about every goddamned little thing—”

“Oh my god, you are!” Bubbles squealed.

“What did I just say?”

“I haven’t seen you put away a whole pint of ice cream that fast since you were pregnant with Bruce,” Blossom said, grinning triumphantly.

Buttercup hung her head. “Fuck.”

“Buttercup, this is great!” Bubbles said. “How far along are you?”

“Four months.”

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Sure. Pregnancy’s a gift, right? I’m peachy.”

“Buttercup,” Blossom said.

Buttercup pulled at her hair. “Three’s a lot, okay? Not like we planned it this way.”

Bubbles’ expression softened. “Are you happy?”

“What kind of a question is that?”

“The only one that matters.”

Buttercup bit her lip. When she looked up at the camera, Bubbles could see the emotion in her pale, green eyes. There was fear there, but there was hope too.

“I get it,” Bubbles said. “Being happy… It can be scary. Terrifying.”

The sisters were quiet a moment, and Bubbles’ truth hung between them. Better than anyone, she knew how sublimely frightening true happiness could be. A step into the unknown, a pleasure so intense there’s little differentiating it from pain. To hold it could be bliss, but to lose it could be to lose a part of oneself. Bubbles clutched her belly and remembered everything she had lost so many years ago, everything she and Boomer almost had, everything that had torn them apart for four long, lonely years.

But.

But it was worth the risk to be happy. To be glad to the point of fear because fear was inescapable, but so was hope. Where one dwelled, the other was never far behind. After everything, Bubbles believed that with all her heart.

“Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, and I don’t know what’s real,” Buttercup said, so softly Bubbles hardly heard her.

Blossom was quiet, her eyes glassy with unshed tears as she listened.

“I wish he was still alive,” Buttercup said, hardly a whisper, almost a sob. “I wish he could know us now.”

Blossom’s tears froze on her cheeks and disintegrated to stardust. Bubbles wiped her own tears and sniffled softly. Buttercup’s wish lingered there, quiet and humble, and they let it sink and settle.

At length, Buttercup’s sniffling broke the quiet. “Fucking hormones. I never cried this much with Bruce.”

Blossom wiped slush from her cheeks. “I know what you mean.”

Bubbles’ heart ached to the point of bursting, but all she could do was smile. “As soon as they get a vaccine done and let us all out of quarantine, I’m throwing a huge baby shower for you, Buttercup.”

Buttercup hastily wiped her eyes and snorted. “Yeah, well, you’ll have to make it a two-fer. Assuming Blossom doesn’t pop before quarantine is over.”

“I am not having this baby in the middle of a pandemic, I swear to god,” Blossom said.

“Home births can be really intimate,” Bubbles said.

“Yeah, intimate between Blossom’s fist and Brick’s face if it comes to that,” Buttercup said. Her frown turned to a sneer. “Actually, I could get behind that.”

A commotion outside drew Bubbles’ attention. Glass shattered, and she reached up just in time to grab a high-speed energy ball before it could open up a crater in the kitchen floor.

Blossom gaped. “Are you letting them play with energy balls? Bubbles!”

“Oh, leave her alone. At least Boomer’s got those kids doing something active on a Saturday instead of reading a fucking textbook,” Buttercup said.

Blossom gave her a flat look. “Blaze is a genius with a very fertile mind.”

“Jesus Christ, don’t ever utter those words in that order in my presence ever again.”

Bubbles giggled. “I better go deal with this.” She indicated the sparking, blue ball in her fist. “I’ll talk to you girls later, all right?”

“Yeah, bye Bubbles.”

“Love you Bubbles, bye!”

Bubbles closed her laptop and headed outside to the backyard of her childhood home, now her own children’s home. “If you were trying to get my attention, it worked.”

Boomer, Beryl, and Bryce froze where they stood opposite each other in the grass. Bryce hid his energy mitt behind his back, and Boomer did the same with his energy bat.

Beryl pointed at Boomer. “Dada did it!”

Bryce covered his mouth like he was the one who had betrayed their father.

Boomer gaped at his daughter. “Beryl! Snitches get stitches.”

“Hey Beryl, why don’t we practice that Sonic Scream on Daddy? What do you think?” Bubbles said.

Beryl shot into the air and vibrated with excitement. “Yeah!!!”

“Nooooo, Bubbles!” Boomer lamented.

She sauntered up to him and batted her eyelashes. “In this house, accountability is sexy.”

He gulped visibly even as his eyes fell to her smiling lips.

“Uh-oh,” Bryce said, covering his eyes to the punishment he knew was definitely coming Boomer’s way when Bubbles took that tone.

“Uh-oh is right,” Bubbles said, kissing Boomer quickly on the mouth and shoving his energy ball at him. “Let’s play some ball.”

The rest of the afternoon was a blur of laughter and thunder as the Super family took to the skies above their backyard and played a friendly game of catch and throw at the speed of sound, and Bubbles let herself get lost in her happiness.

xxx

If you like my writing and these characters, check out my ongoing multi-chapter adult!PPG/RRB fic Beyond This Morning on AO3. Thanks for reading!

[mor-beck-more-problems]

Desperate Gal Pals of White Crest || Morgan & Cece

TIMING: Current

PARTIES: @thebickedwitchoftherest & @mor-beck-more-problems

SUMMARY: Morgan and Cece hit a roadblock with their research on an exorcism, so they take a field trip.

CONTAINS: drug manipulation tw (magic poisoning), gun (not fired), 

“I know I literally can’t get tired, but if I see one more book handwave harm exorcisms away with ‘wooo dark magic’ and ‘oooh dangerous! Sacrifice!’ I am going keel over with exhaustion. You’ll have to call Regan for my autopsy and explain to my girlfriend that boredom and no helpful answers is the new hip cause of death.” Morgan flopped down the side of the couch, her head dangling over the edge. “Tell me you’ve got something to banish Puritain Carrie,” she groaned. “I need a win. Literally...any kind of win. A can of seltzer of a win.”

Cece was lying on her back on the ground, book in hand and avoiding reading it by listening to Morgan’s melodramatic self-eulogy. She at least knew how to spice up a story and make it more interesting. She made dying of boredom sound marginally interesting. The irony was not lost on Cece. “That’s a lot of pressure to put on me for the record. How am I supposed to talk at your funeral and make your death sound badass that way?” Cece eventually gave in, shutting the book and tossing it away from her in her own dramatic show of exacerbation. “Nothing. These books have lots about magic and yet a surprisingly lacking amount of ghosts. My coven really should have expanded their horizons a bit.” Cece stated, mostly to herself. She rolled over onto her stomach, finding Morgan’s eyes again and pushing herself up, “We need some new source material. There’s got to be somewhere around town with some decent exorcism knowledge, right?”

“You’ll have to make something up much cooler,” Morgan sighed. “Just don’t promise any of my fae friends to tell the truth about me and you’ll be good.” She looked over at the pile of books around them, new purchases on the diamond card Deirdre had gotten for her, and pulls from the Scribrary. She felt guilty about those the most, sneaking in and using Rio’s resources for something he was bound to hate. “We have to be looking in the wrong place. The wrong key-words, or the wrong sections in the library. You would think ‘most brutal harm exorcism’ would be a short dig, but…” She puffed air through her lips. “Apparently the powers that be think discretion is super ‘in.’ Tell me what you found. Let’s go over it again.”

“No worries there. I don’t like making promises to humans.” Cece laughed, thinking of any ideas she could to spice up Morgan’s imagined death and make it a bit more grandeur. She wondered how she could fit fireworks into the story. Maybe one of the daredevil car jumps through a flaming circle. No, this was all way too distracting when she was supposed to be focusing. She shook the thought away and reached for the notepad that she had used to take any notes that she found vaguely helpful. Emphasis on vague. “Nothing too useful. I found some old history on this former Scribe that studied exorcisms. John something. Sounded like a real bore. I got an autobiography by this Amanda Wallace chick who wrote about her haunted house and how she got rid of it. Not exactly sure how factual that one actually is. Basically, I have nothing but crap. You sure we can’t just call the ghostbusters in for this one?”

Morgan’s brow furrowed at the name Wallace. “Is that name from a comic book movie? It sounds familiar…” She turned herself right side up and crawled to Cece to read over her shoulder. She moved so fast, her focus was groggy, but the illustration on the page she was looking at definitely seemed familiar. “No, wait, that’s...fuck, that was in something I read. Not here but…” Morgan fumbled for her laptop and started digging through her browsing history. She looked sheepishly over at Cece, glad that she couldn’t blush. “...Don’t judge me, okay?” She mumbled. Buried under searches for pirated theory articles, halloween themed lingerie, and Buzzfeed quizzes for Which Character from Grey’s Anatomy Are You, was several rows of local blogs, niche social media groups, old news reports, and PDF access links. Morgan scrolled past them all to get to an access link to an article from the library. There was the same picture, Amanda Wallace and a few others. The caption read, Cromwell was mentored in his early years by the local Ghost Watchers Society. Pictured, left to right… The article was about a man named Ernie Cromwell. He was arrested, several times, for vandalism, arson, and public disturbance. He claimed he needed to in order to make the ghosts go away. He also escalated to a much more deadly life of crime after this, around  the period Roy ought to have been town. That’s why she’d been looking in the first place. “Hey, Cece?” She asked. “You wouldn’t happen to know if any of these people are alive, do you?”

“I hope you know that prefacing with that only makes me want to judge you that much more.” Cece perked up immediately, if she wasn’t interested in studying Morgan’s open tabs before, she was definitely interested now. Fortunately, it was so much better than what Cece had predicted. “Oh my god. This might be more embarrassing than if you just had like straight up porn in your search history. Which for the record, I’m in full support of.” Cece added in, finger gunning and winking in Morgan’s direction. “Please tell me you’re an Izzie too.” Cece tried focusing again once Morgan asked her a question about recognizing anyone. She scanned the page but shrugged after a long moment, “I wish I could be more useful. But most of my magic knowledge was before I got to town. I’ve been about as low key as I can manage since I’ve been to town.”

Morgan rolled her eyes. “I appreciate the sex positivity, and so does my girlfriend. And, you know, hopefully she appreciates the spider web themed set I ended up buying. And I’ve taken way too many and no matter what I do, I’m solid 50% Izzie or Meredith. My dark and twisty ways defy simple categories.” She wiggled her brow, mouth curling into a grin, and turned back to the picture. “I swear I’ve seen these faces somewhere. And the names. You don’t remember any from the paper or…” Morgan took out her phone, scrolling furiously. “Oh. Mother of Earth! Oh, this is so weird!” She showed Cece an event page on the UMWC social media page. Two people stood next to a handmade poster advertising GhostWatch Parties. Ostensibly, it was a horror film club. But the names of the two faculty shown were Amanda Wallace and Leigh Cromwell. There was no accounting for coincidence, but it seemed pretty likely that there was a connection to Ernie. “They’re meeting tonight. We have to go, right? Scope things out, set up a time to talk better and see what they can offer, or ask if they have any exorcist finding tips! We’re going, right?”

“Anything for you, as usual.” Cece might not be Deirdre’s biggest fan, but she still wished for a killer sex life for the two. “You know? I can see it, honestly. I support it. Among the characters you could get, I think those are two of the better ones.” Morgan seemed sure that the faces would be familiar, so Cece did her best to study them again, but just ended up shrugging. “You think I read the paper?” She asked the woman curiously. Not a moment later and Morgan was poking the screen and then changing pages to find a social media page. From the college. Cece gasped overdramatically, “Right under your nose this whole time? Also, do you think this horror movie club accepts members that don’t go to the college? Actually never mind that’s not important right now.” Cece jumped up and found her bag, moving towards the coat closet to slip her jacket on. “Well obviously we have to go. What other choice do we have? Plus I need to find out if this club is even worth my time. Which is obviously like a side objective. Priority is the ghost thing for sure. Let’s go!”

The GhostWatchers of White Crest met at Professor Wallace’s ivy covered town house near campus. The gathering was small; only three cars littered the street beyond the driveway. Morgan parked them at the end of the street, positioned to make a quick and easy getaway. The bue-white light of a television illuminated one of the back rooms, bright enough to illuminate parts of the yard as Morgan approached. She knocked on the door gently, but found it already open. Inside was exactly what you would expect from a liberal arts professor. Stacks of papers, catalogues for bamboo kitchenware, and books bursting with post-it’s in every room. Morgan wrinkled her nose at the normalcy of it all. At least she kept a few decorative skull paperweights in the great room and kept the foyer clean.

“How do you think we should play this?” She asked in a whisper, lingering in the front hall, one eye on the back den where the movie, The Innocents, was still going on. “Is it rude if we snoop around first? Should we split up?” Somewhere, she thought, there had to be a private library.

“Wow this place is boring.” Cece yawned as the two slid in through the open door and studied the office that they found themselves in. “You’d think that someone obsessed with exorcisms might have a bit more personality.” She pushed aside a self help book lying on the desk and took a glance at her desk calendar, “She has scheduled times for lunch.” As if that was the most boring thing on the planet.

Either this woman was the worst occultist she had ever seen, or all of her more interesting things were hidden away somewhere. “It’s totally rude, but technically speaking she’s the one that left the door open. She should be more careful about her belongings. So let’s snoop.” Cece wasted no time moving to dig through her other belongings. Given how nonchalant the rest of the room was, Cece wasn’t convinced they were going to find anything too bizarre or helpful just sitting out in the open.

“Oh, didn’t I tell you? They hired me because the fun department was empty,” Morgan teased. She watched her feet carefully as she tiptoed onto the plush carpet with her muddy leather oxfords. She hadn’t planned on playing hide and seek in some dusty mini-mansion when she’d left the house, so she was left cringing at every squeak the leather made on the floor and hoping against hope that everyone in the den was too engrossed in the movie to notice.

As luck would have it, the library was one room off from the den. Morgan pointed at it, giving Cece a look of, I don’t know if I got this. One foot, then the other. Could Cece get in there first.

In the den, someone yawned and got up, murmuring about refills. Morgan dropped to the floor, panic in her eyes. Was this the worst idea ever?

The library had to have something useful. If it was just filled with normal literature and more self help books, Cece was going to lose her mind. At least Morgan seemed pretty into the whole espionage thing, tiptoeing around the place and slipping through the door into the library as silently as a mouse. That swiftness and suave attitude seemed to dissipate when movement could be heard from farther in, someone getting up to get a refill. Morgan dropped immediately and Cece remained in the doorway, unsure what the best thing to do in this scenario was. Would the person asking even come this way? Cece crept back a few steps, peaking around to get just a moment’s glance of someone walking towards them. They would definitely see Morgan if something wasn’t done. Would these people be more interested in calling the cops or offing anyone in their way? Cece couldn’t be sure enough, so she figured her only option was to be a distraction of some sort. Back in the office, Cece found a paper weight on the desk and pushed it aside, sliding it off the desk with a loud crack against the floor. That ought to do some distracting.

Morgan heard the paperweight fall before she realized what Cece was doing. Her head whipped around, question marks sprouting all over her face. But whoever was heading her way turned the other direction to see the commotion, and Morgan was able to take her chance. Hopefully Cece wouldn’t be so far behind.

The library was the same as the rest of the house, expected to the point of comical. There were shelves of matching leatherbound British novels, another set of American ones, a whole row of paperbacks and theory that were almost certainly just for posturing, and… who lived like this? Who actually worked here? This was a magazine-style library. Which meant-- “Fuck.” Morgan covered her mouth and flinched. Too loud. Right.

She started peeking behind books, looking for hidden volumes, then the large desk centered at the back of the room. No one really had secret compartment doors, at least not here, the house was too small but-- Morgan kicked back the rug that covered the floor. Cut into the pale hardwood was a heavy door, older and darker, with a black handle that looked to be iron. She peeked her head out, searching for Cece to get her over here, quickly, before anyone realized how reckless they were being in a stranger’s house.

The door was well-oiled and rose silently at Morgan’s tug, and inside-- “Yes!” Beams of light from the other room flashed on. The shadows in the library vanished. It was time to hurry.

Cece ducked behind the desk to avoid whoever was coming towards her. She had successfully distracted the man from discovering Morgan but hadn’t quite thought through the fact that the man would now be coming towards the source of the noise that Cece had caused. Cece began rifling through her purse quickly, pulling a bin of powder free and cupping some into the palm of her hand. Once the footsteps finally became close enough, Cece popped up from behind the counter. “Hi there.”

The man jumped before settling on a confused expression, “Who are you?” He asked, more curious than angry. Probably unsure if Cece was supposed to be there in the first place. “Uh-” Cece began, trying for a long moment to think of an excuse for too long before finally giving up, “I can’t think of a good excuse” She shrugged before pulling her hand up and opening her palm, blowing and sending the powder directly into his face. He stumbled backwards and Cece jumped forward, grabbing onto his shirt and helping direct his fall into the chair by the desk. She patted him softly. Better to get some rest right there.

She slipped across the floor until she found Morgan and then crawled over to her, “For the record I didn’t sign up for this” Cece whispered at her, eyeing the new door that she had discovered. Before hearing more voices. “Welp, after you!”

Morgan’s muscles were already clenched with confusion and unspoken questions. “Sign up for what?” She hissed. “You said we should snoop! Nothing bad has happened, right? And look at all the spooky books down there!” She shined the flashlight on her phone down the ladder, showing tables full of messy, half open books, arcane circles etched on leather, and iron chimes dangling from the ceiling. “Oh, yes, this is the jackpot.”

“Is it now?” A voice called behind them.

Morgan barely suppressed a squeal as Amanda Wallace filled in the doorway. Her straw-white hair seemed to puff up out of sheer rage. “I don’t remember receiving your RSVP, Professor Beck,” she said stiffly. “May I ask what you are doing in my library, opening my trap door?” A smaller, slightly younger head popped up over Amanda’s shoulder and murmured that she’d see the students out. Leigh Cromwell, probably. Guess they weren’t too late for the party after all.

“Hey, Amanda--!” Morgan drew out the words longer, as if a few more syllables in Amanda would help smooth things over, or give her a better idea about what to do next.

“Don’t ‘hey’ me,” Amanda snapped, bristling with a bitter frown. Downstairs, now.” She pointed into the dimly lit trapdoor room, and her look did not suggest that she was entertaining counterarguments at the moment.

“Ummm” Cece considered what may or may not be considered to be bad in Morgan’s mind. And depending on that, whether or not she wanted to share that with Morgan. Putting a man to sleep was hardly that bad, right? She didn’t hurt the man. He would wake up and at worst his memory would be a bit foggy and maybe have some nausea. Nothing that would last more than a week. “Define bad.”

Morgan was right, this was a jackpot. The space was different from the rest of the house. It didn’t look like the end result of an HGTV makeover, for starters. It wasn’t basic or expected. This room was hidden away and it was used. This woman that the two were spying on definitely used this room.

Speaking of the woman they were spying on. Apparently they had been discovered. Cece awkwardly watched  the exchange. Apparently the two were super close work colleagues. “If there was no RSVP, does that mean she wasn’t supposed to bring a plus one?” Cece grinned slightly, completely ignored by the woman and instead following behind Morgan as the two were led away from the space they had just found.

Morgan backed down into the room, feeling, all of a sudden, that she should have told more people where she was going. Of course, she’d told Deirdre they had a lead, but if she were to drop a pin right now, would Deirdre know what to do with it? Remmy might, but the part where she had to explain what she was doing here might not lead to the best of conversations. But, fortunately, there weren’t any high tech keypads standing in their way of getting out. Just one seriously perturbed old woman.

Morgan made her way over to where the stacks of books were the largest and the shelves were packed to bursting. She looked for sigils, icons, anything recognizable. No one ever labeled ‘find harm here,’ but there were unavoidable markers if you knew how to look for them.

“I should report you to the police, for trespassing,” Amanda snapped. “And I could do much worse. But I would like to know first, Professor Beck, what you are doing in my trapdoor of all things. Do you have no respect for others?”

“On the contrary--” Morgan said carefully, flashing Cece big ‘what do we do?’ eyes, “I have the utmost respect for you and your interests.” She backed away until she could back no further. “The interests you keep a secret, especially. I think I might have something that’s of interest to your attention. A ghost something that is, let’s say, too good for mercy.” She reached out for one of the tomes, a leatherbound journal, by the look of it. Not as old as it was pretending to be, and bursting with pasted-in clips and notes.

“Not so fast.” She took out a little pearl handled pistol, gold and shiny, like something out of Agatha Christie. She cocked the safety with a slow, deliberate click. “That’s sensitive material, Professor. Access has to be earned. Tell me the truth, do what I say, and maybe we’ll see about it.”

The two hadn’t found themselves in an ideal situation, Cece was willing to admit that much. The woman that had discovered them hardly seemed especially dangerous. She was a college professor, taller than Cece was but that was hardly an impressive feat. The only thing she looked capable of seriously harming was a student’s grade point average. Still, the woman had enough to hide that she kept it hidden beneath the library, and she really didn’t like the intrusion by her colleague.

Morgan attempted to sweet talk her way out of it. Honestly, Morgan came across as such a pleasant person that Cece probably would have laughed it off if she had found the woman trespassing in her own home. Then again, maybe that didn’t count when Morgan had already previously lived with her. When Morgan reached for a book, hopefully one that Morgan deemed important, Amanda acted with an elevated decree of hostility. Looked like a bingo to Cece. The woman pulled out a small handgun, pointing it at Morgan but still eyeing Cece every now and again. She didn’t show much interest in Cece at all, which may have been more a mistake than anything else. “Your terms and conditions don’t sound all that appealing.” Cece called to her, straightening her back to give herself the appearance of being taller. She wasn’t sure that it worked. “Don’t get me wrong. You have the upper hand here. We’re totally up to no good. But don’t you have a door number three option?”

The woman finally looked Cece over. It had probably been the first time that she had offered her anymore than a passing glance, “I don’t even know who you are. This doesn’t concern you in the slightest.” She turned away from Cece again, but irritation seemed evident. Cece slowly dug into her purse again. She knew she had something else useful in there it was just a matter of rifling around until she found out. Once she did, she popped the lid off and dipped her fingers into it. “I just wanted to give you the option of rethinking your offer. Morgan and I have places to be. Let us go now and we can all enjoy the rest of our nights in peace.”

This time the woman finally turned the gun away from Morgan and towards Cece, at the same time that Cece rose up her hand and grabbed onto the woman’s wrist. “Have you ever heard of curare?” Cece asked the woman, a hint of curiosity in her voice. Though nothing apparent was happening, the woman hadn’t yet pulled the trigger and instead looked silently at Cece. “Some hunting tribes use it to paralyze prey. Normally, it doesn’t have a lot of effect on humans if ingested orally or through the skin.” By the woman’s expression, it was clear the effects had started to take effect now, “But with a bit of alchemy, it can be altered. All of a sudden, it just takes a tiny bit rubbed against the skin to get into the blood system. As Amanda began to fall back, Cece grabbed onto the gun, letting it slip from the woman’s hands as she crashed against the ground. “You should be able to talk still, it might just be a little mumbled. So try to speak up.”

Cece set the gun against the shelf and crossed her arms, “You got any questions for her?” she asked Morgan. Cece wasn’t sure this counted as life or death exactly, but the gun hadn’t been entirely promising. At this rate, Cece knew that she’d have to do something at the end to make sure that Amanda didn’t hold an unfriendly grudge against the two of them. Cece had gone this long, but now in the span of just a few weeks she would be whipping out the memory spell twice. Yikes. “Spare no details, something tells me that Amanda’s memory of the night might end up a bit fuzzy anyways.”

Morgan was scurrying for Cece and wishing zombies had super speed when it happened. She couldn’t let Cece get hurt and didn’t Cece know she was basically bullet-proof? Not one more friend, not one more life she cared about was going down because of-- and then Amanda’s face was going slack and she was sinking to the floor, and Cece was giving a pretty impressive speech of her own. “Holy shit,” Morgan whispered, suddenly feeling a little woozy with shock. Then, as it settled, “You...are so amazing, Cece!” She ran over and gave her a hug, ecstatic with relief. “Okay, so, one of your proteges was arrested for what sounded like some serious supernatural damage, and he said he had to get the ghosts. So I’m thinking you know a lot about exorcisms, maybe harm exorcisms, specifically?”

Amanda made some unintelligible noises that sounded aggravated enough to mean ‘yes’ to Morgan.

“Great! So, where would I find those? Is it here? Or--here? Or--” At the sound more throaty, aggravated groaning, Morgan knew she was right on the money. She hauled out everything from the self she could carry and started looking. “Woah, Nelly, some of these pages are torn from other volumes.” Morgan peered over the desk at Amanda on the floor. “Have you been defacing historical archives? That’s not very polite, you know. I wonder what would happen if I reported some of these original books as damaged and gave your name? That might be a bummer for research funding and future archive access, right?” Satisfied with her fun, she started flipping through, grateful that even though Amanda was a thief, she was at least an organized one. There was a handy table of contents and index between each hodge podge volume, and by some topics there was a reference number that seemed to correspond to a file, probably in the cabinet at the other end of the room.

Amanda made another slurry attempt at speech.

Morgan’s face crinkled. “French Revolution? Did you hear French Revolution?” She gave Cece a look to make sure she hadn’t misunderstood and started checking dates throughout her haul. Sure enough, there was a hefty volume with some emphasis on the 18th century and quite a few notes in French and English as she started flipping through. “Cece, come look at this,” she said. “I think this… I think I found something! What do these ingredients look like to you?”

If Cece had any worries that Morgan might think she had taken things too far, those fears were immediately quelled when Morgan launched into a hug. Cece hugged back, keeping her finger away from any of Morgan’s skin, “I don’t think this would work on zombies, but better not take the chance.” Considering the rest of the abilities that Morgan had now that she was undead, Cece wasn’t convinced it would have paralyzed her the way it had Amanda. If it did, the fast healing probably would have fixed her pretty quickly. But better to avoid the situation regardless. “But that was nothing. Didn’t want her messing up one of our pretty faces.”

Morgan was far better at searching and researching than Cece was. The extent of Cece’s reading had gone into her plans to get away from the coven. Since then, the books she had stolen and brought with her mostly stayed hidden in the floorboards of her closet. Something for a rainy day, if it ever came. For the most part, Cece scanned the shelves as Morgan actually talked to the woman and searched for something that was useful to her.

Cece hadn’t heard French Revolution at first, but hearing Morgan question it made Cece laugh and clap for Morgan’s better hearing skills, “You know I thought I heard bitch contusion but that makes way more sense.” Morgan flipped through a volume and called Cece over to look at something, but the symbols on the page weren’t like anything Cece had worked with before. “Yikes.” Cece started, trying to look for smaller details and anything that did look familiar, “I can pick out a few things. I see some containment symbols. Probably used to keep something trapped. But nothing that I’ve worked with before.”

“Me either,” Morgan admitted, “But that--” she pointed to the word, “Is definitely French for spirit, and some of these ingredients look like they’re obeying sympathetic principles for inflicting pain. I’m gonna need a dictionary or three to figure some of this out, and you know, an expert, but you saw the containment sigil too, right!” She snapped the book shut and held it close to her chest, her eyes shining with relief. “I think this is it, Cece. I think this is--” Morgan was lost for words and only smiled, glowing with gratitude for her friend. “This is the key to everything I’ve been looking for.”

“Well I know a guy if you need a French interpreter.” Cece stated nonchalantly, “Can’t promise he won’t be grumpy about it though.” Cece couldn’t keep an easy grasp on who in town knew who, but it seemed like a safe bet that Morgan and Kaden were acquainted. “Fuck yeah! Former roomies strike again!” Cece called out triumphantly, raising her hand for a high five. Once the two were done celebrating, Cece remembered that they had company. Cece spun around to their host for the night and clapped her hands together, “Amanda. You’ve just been so welcoming tonight, truly. We had a great time. We’re going to wrap up and then I promise it’ll be like we were never even here.” Cece scooted towards her and knelt down towards the woman. “Are we done here Morgan?”

Morgan joined Cece beside her colleague, still light on her feet with victory and beaming with pride in her friend. “We do make pretty good partners in crime if I say so myself,” she said. “And, you know, aside from, hmm---” She reached back over to the desk and took a couple more books. “These. Just for good measure. And fun. Trespassing is rude, Professor Wallace, but pulling guns on your colleagues is far worse.” She nodded at Cece to work her magic. They’d gotten what they came for and then some.

“This probably won’t hurt,” Cece began, pressing her fingers against Amanda’s temple, “Or if it does you won’t remember it. Which is basically the same thing.” Amanda’s eyes were frantic at first, darting back and forth almost definitely trying to will her body to move. But soon they settled, floating shut as Cece dove into her memories to pluck them free. She figured the last half hour or so would do the trick. The woman would be left with a lot of blurry portions on the night, undoubtedly waking up in this room to wonder how she had gotten here. But those were hardly Cece’s concerns. She made sure to go back far enough to when Amanda started suspecting someone was here. Once Cece was done, she left Amanda on the floor and stood up, “She should be waking up soon. She should be able to move shortly after. If you have what we need, we should get out of here.” Cece suggested, heading towards the exit of the room before snapping and swinging back towards her, “Actually, now is probably the best time to mention that there may be another person that conveniently fell asleep in the office. We may want to stop by on our way out and wipe him too. Just to be safe.”

Morgan stopped halfway on the stairs they came down in just to gape at Cece in awe. “Remind me to never underestimate you for the rest of your days. And maybe bring you up on my list of people to call next time I need help with the forces of darkness. You’re a dangerous lady, Cece Bishop…” She gave Cece a chivalrous hand out of the cellar, grinning in the evening light. “But, then again, so am I sometimes.”

[what-is-your-plan-today]

Stark Spangled Banner One Shot: Growing Pains

Intro: No matter how much you want them to, your kids don’t stay kids forever…

Warnings: None, just a bit of bad language and Katie embarrassing Steve to shit!

Takes place in the SSB universe, November 2022.

“Mom.” Emmy’s voice was soft and Katie instantly looked up from her laptop. “Where’s Dad?” “He’s gone for a run, well as much of a run as he can with Jamie hanging off his back.”  Katie said, frowning slightly as she saw her fifteen year old daughter wasn’t dressed for school “Is everything ok? I can call him.” “No, it’s fine. It’s you I wanted to talk to.” she said, hovering from one foot to the other. “I err…”

She looked down at her feet, a huge flush on her face. Katie closed her laptop and stood up. “Em?” “I think I, well, no I know I err… I started my period and…” “Oh sweetie.” Katie chuckled slightly as she wrapped the girl into a hug “I’m not gonna lie, being a woman sucks at times but other times it’s kinda cool.”

“Cool?” Emmy frowned.

“Yeah, boobs.” Katie said, gesturing to her chest “They tend to fascinate most men.”

Emmy gave a low chuckle before she bit her lip. “I err, I got some on the sheets.”

Katie smoothed back Emmy’s hair and shrugged “It’s no big deal. Look, why don’t you go have a bath, I’ll sort your bed and then we’ll sit and watch shit on TV all day. I can stay home.”

Emmy nodded eagerly “Snacks?”

“Dur.” Katie said, following her up the stairs. Emmy retreated into the bathroom, whilst Katie found her some pads before she stripped the sheets down and headed to the utility room at the side of the kitchen that held their washing machines and dryer. She was just turning the machine on when the door opened and Steve stepped in, Jamie on his back, giggling away. Steve’s face was red from the brisk November air and the part of Jamie’s cheeks which were visible from beneath his hat and above his scarf were also tinged pink a little.

“Laugh it up, pal.”  Steve shook his head, as he bent down so Jamie could slide off his back “That’s the last time I’m taking you.” “You said that yesterday, and the day before.” Katie smirked, taking the kiss he offered, ignoring Jamie’s noise of disgust “You love it.”

“Hmmm.” Steve made a non-committal noise in his throat “Any breakfast going or shall I start some?” “Go get a shower and I’ll make it. We can eat together when Emmy’s sorted.”

Steve frowned “Shouldn’t she be on the bus?”

“She’s not feeling too good.” Katie said, “I told her I’d stay home with her.”

Steve’s frown deepened as he shrugged off his running jacket. “She ok?” “Yeah, nothing a day in front of the TV and a blanket can’t fix.” Katie said, giving him a significant look. As ever it took him a while to cotton on, but when he realised what she was saying, Katie really had to bite back the laugh as his face rearranged itself into a look of surprise, which flickered to pure dumbfoundedness as he struggled for a reply.

“Don’t worry, I got it.” Katie grinned, patting his chest.

“Momma?” a voice came from the kitchen and Katie turned to face Jamie who was stood by the fridge “I hungry.” “Yeah, I’m gonna start breakfast now baby.” she smiled, “Eggs and toast ok?” “Nomm!” he said, grinning as he padded over to the table and pulled himself up into a seat. Steve had to give a snort, without his seat he could barely see over the top of the table. He made his way over, lifted Jamie easily with one hand causing the boy to cackle before he replaced him back on the booster and scooted him closer.

“That better?” he asked, dropping a kiss to his son’s head.

“Fankoo daddy.” he grinned.

“You’re welcome kiddo.” he said straightening up. He turned to Katie “I’m gonna go shower then I’ll come help.”

Katie waved him away with a smile. He took the stairs two at a time and headed into their bedroom. If he was honest he’d been shitting himself about this day for ages. He’d watched Emmy grow up way too fast for his liking over the past few years and now…well he didn’t even want to think about the whole bringing a boy home thing that was going to pop up sooner rather than later he suspected. All he knew was he was thankful for Katie’s level head. He showered quickly, dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a red plaid button down ready for his meetings that day and headed onto the landing, just as Emmy was emerging from the larger bathroom wrapped in a robe.

“Hey sweetie.” he said “Your Ma said you’re not feeling too good.”

She shrugged, “Not really.” “Will a hug help?” he asked and she smiled, nodding. He opened his arms and she stepped into them as he gave her a soft but firm snuggle.

“Thanks dad.” she said softly.

“Any time baby.” he said, dropping a kiss to her head “Now I’d go get dressed if I were you, before your brother eats all the breakfast.”

*****

When Steve came back that evening, his girls were pretty much in the same spot they had been in all day. When he asked if they’d moved Katie grinned and pointed out that they were both in clean sets of Pyjamas and Jamie was in bed, so of course they had moved. Although they were getting take-out for Dinner because she couldn’t be bothered to cook and it was Friday after all. With a good natured roll of his eyes he cast one final look at them over his shoulder before he headed upstairs to change, leaving them to watch Love Actually. It was early in the season, not being December until the week after but he knew what they were like when it came to Christmas so he left them to it.

When he came back downstairs they were deep in conversation, so he paused for a moment at the door. He didn’t mean to listen in, but he didn’t want to interrupt. And if he was honest, there was something so pure and innocent about their chat that he simply couldn’t help it.

“You know, I still never forgave Adam Rickman for breaking Emma Thompson’s heart.” Katie sighed as Emmy scoffed.

“Has dad ever bought you a really crappy gift?” she asked.

“No.” Katie said honestly. “He’s very thoughtful. Although the best gift he gave me wasn’t one he bought anyway.” “Your emerald?” Emmy asked, and Katie made a noise of affirmation. They fell silent for a moment before Emmy spoke again.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Course.”

“If anything happened to Dad…do you think you’d ever like date again?”

Steve frowned slightly as he heard Katie exhale “That’s deep Em…I dunno. I don’t think I’d ever be able to love another man the way I love Steve. In fact I know I wouldn’t. What on Earth made you ask that?” “Oh, Brooke is trying to get Jen dating.” Em said “but she keeps saying she loves Brooke’s dad too much and I kinda think it’s sad as he’s been dead for years. ” “Yeah, well, the thing is Em when you’re in love, and I mean truly in love, it consumes you. That person becomes as much a part of your life as you are and to lose them like that…well I can’t imagine what a hole that would leave in their place.” Katie said gently.

“Yeah, suppose.” “You’ll figure that out soon enough.” Katie chuckled.

“Was dad your first love?”

“He’s been the only man I’ve ever truly been in love with yes.” Katie replied “For most people a first love and a true love are very different things.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, ok, for instance my first love was a guy called Mikey. My first boyfriend. I wasn’t much older than you, dated him for about twelve months.” Katie mused “I loved him, he was the first guy I ever slept with. Then there was Grant and we don’t talk about him, ever as he was an asshole.”

Emmy gave a snort

“But your dad, well, he was different. We cared so much about each other before we even started dating. I mean, if I’m honest, I loved him way before he even asked me out.” “Who made the first move?” “He did.” Katie smirked and at that point Steve gave a scoff and walked into the room.

“Liar.” “Oh you so did!” Katie looked at him, unabashed he’d been listening “You kissed me after Rumlow’s party. You’d have kissed me before that as well if you hadn’t been such a chicken shit.” Steve rolled his eyes and flopped onto the seat at the opposite side of the coffee table. “You didn’t exactly push me away.” “Dur.” it was Katie’s time to roll her eyes as Emmy snorted “I’d been waiting for you to make a move for months.”

Steve raised an eyebrow at her as the teenager quipped “You were still a bit slow on the uptake back then I see.” “Err, less of your cheek young lady.” he said and she giggled.

“You know the first time we had sex he literally ripped my pants off.” Katie grinned at Steve and he pulled a face as Emmy cackled.

“Jesus, Doll.” he flushed bright red.

“Wasn’t the only time either.” his wife shot back and Emmy’s laughter became louder. “Okay,” Steve stood up with a sigh, shaking his head, not particularly wanting to discuss his sex life with his fifteen year old kid. “I’m gonna get the Thai Menu…”

Katie watched him go before she winked at Emmy and stood up, following him into the kitchen. She wrapped her arms around his waist and nuzzled into his shoulder.

“I love how after all this time I can still make you blush.” “You’re a damned nightmare.” he chuckled as his hands rest on top of hers, using them to pull her closer as he turned to face her.

“But you love me.”

“Yeah, yeah I do.” he said, dropping a kiss to her lips.

****

He didn’t quite rip her pants off that night, but it was still passionate enough to send them both into an orgasm induced sleep almost straight away. But Steve was a light sleeper, not as light as he had been once-upon-a-time as sleeping besides his wife gave him a sense of peace. That said, his super-soldier hearing always woke him should something be out of place, so when he was pulled from his slumber it took him a while to realise that the soft voices he could hear downstairs was the TV. Knowing it could only be one person he swung his legs out of bed and pulled on a sweater before he padded down the stairs.

“Emmy? ”he asked gently as he opened the door to the living room. The teenager looked up from where she was sat, knees tucked up besides her.

“Couldn’t sleep.” she shrugged and his sharp eyes didn’t miss the movement her hand made over her tummy.

“Did you take anything?” he asked and she looked at him. “For the pain?”

“Oh, ”she flushed slightly, “yeah, but it hasn’t worked yet.”

He nodded and headed into the kitchen, putting on the kettle. He made the pair of them a hot drink, stuck the heat-pack in the microwave and then paused as he passed his cupboard. The cupboard where he kept his secret stash.

Well, if this wasn’t an occasion it was called for then what was?

Emmy looked up as he placed the peppermint tea down besides her, passed her the heat pack and then wordlessly produced the Dairy Milk bar from his sweatpants pocket.

“You’re giving me your chocolate?” Emmy looked at him.

“Don’t tell your brother.” Steve said as he sat next to her, flopping his feet up on the coffee table.

She grinned and unwrapped the bar, offering him a piece which he took and shoved in his mouth.

“You’re pretty clued up on all this given you’re like a hundred and five.” she grinned cheekily

“Yeah well, I’ve been with your ma for over ten years so I picked up a few tips.” he shrugged. She took a sip of her drink, rearranged her blanket and then picked up his arm so she could snuggle into him. He gently ran his hand over the back of her head as she got comfortable.

“What we watching?” he asked.

“Bad Boys.” she said.

Steve chuckled “I like this one. That is if I’m not too old to keep you company for a while?” “Nah.” she said, grinning as she dropped a kiss to his cheek. “You’re good.” Katie found the pair of them flat out on the sofa the next morning, Emmy’s head propped up on a pillow resting in Steve’s lap as the solider was stretched out down the long side of the L shaped sofa, fast asleep, arm round his daughter and a huge shit-eating-grin on his face.

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[arthurhwalker]

Thinkpad Yoga 2021, Buying Guidance

It's a banner year for Thinkpad Yoga devices, with a lot of keen changes. The Thinkpad products I've been wanting to see for years, are starting to appear.

As always, my buying advise includes the following:

Lurk the Lenovo website for coupons, and sales. They run all the time, but there is often a day or two where a sale, and a coupon, overlap.

Upgrade the Warranty. I've had to make a dozen warranty calls to Lenovo, for myself, and other folks, and having an upgraded warranty on a Thinkpad makes a big difference. The warranty service is always good in my experience, but it can be amazing for a little more.

This year, get the RAM you want, installed at the time of purchase. The new Intel SoC for a lot of products has a the RAM soldered, and can't be upgraded later.

Lenovo has really embraced Linux compatibility of late. You almost don't even need to check with Thinkpads anymore, they are going to be compatible, fit, and ready to go. Many can be ordered to ship with Linux already on board.

Let’s dig in!

X1 Yoga Gen 6 (14" Intel)

The highlights here are a 16:10 aspect ratio for the display, rechargeable Lenovo Integrated Pen, on board in a silo, Intel Iris Xe Graphics (finally, you guys, finally), and up to 32 GB of RAM (also, finally!). 11th Gen Intel Core i5 and i7 Processors, 1145G7, 1135G7, 1165G7, 1185G7, are top performers in realm of UltraBook ULV options. Depending on your region, there will be 4G / 5G LTE WANN options. Also, there is a 57Wh battery that supports rapid charge with a 65W Adapter.

Those display options though:

14" UHD+ 4K (3840 x 2400) IPS, anti-reflection, anti-smudge, touchscreen with Dolby Vision™, HDR400, 500 nits, 90% DCI P3 Color Gamut, TÜV Rheinland-certified for reduced blue light emissions

14" FHD+ (1920 x 1200) IPS, anti-glare, touchscreen with Privacy Guard, 500 nits

14" FHD+ (1920 x 1200) IPS, anti-glare, touchscreen, 400 nits, TÜV Rheinland-certified for reduced blue light emissions

Those options are according to the website, where the PSREF lists four options, one with 100% DCI P3 Color Gamu, and 1500:1 Contrast Ratio. I'll try to get some clarity on that. All have 100% sRGB Anti-Glare, or Anti-Reflective glass treatments, and so forth. I have a Lenovo Yoga product with a UHD 4K Display, and one with a Low-Power FHD display. For working with home, I like the Low-Power because I can make it dim in a dark room. The 500 nit HDR displays can't be turned down enough to be comfortable for my eyes. Awesome in a bright office, or outdoor environment, not great for working from your couch.

Aluminum chassis, top and bottom, AND Lenovo seems to be getting aluminum anodizing and milling down to a fine science. Normally, aluminum products, made by anyone, are kinda sloppy with seams and fit being a little off. The last few recent Lenovo devices with aluminum chassis have been really good. Good enough to not set off my OCD.

As I write this, there is no build your own option for this model, because they just released it recently.

L13 Yoga Gen 2 (Intel)

If you owned an S1 Yoga (the first Thinkpad Yoga), way back in 2013, and loved it, you'll really like the L13 Yoga Gen 1, or Gen 2. They have the same case color, feel, pen-silo placement, and so forth. The Gen 2 does have an option for Integrated Intel Iris X Graphics, with the 11th Gen G7 SoC. A Thunderbolt 4 port has been added to the Gen 2, and it has a MicroSD card reader, which I really appreciate having. Keyboard on these feels deep and nice, even compared to more expensive Thinkpad Yoga products.

The display option, battery life, and so forth are very last year, but I've seen the Gen 1 as cheap as 700 USD, at retailers.

This is the Thinkpad Yoga if you want to get one just for travel, for a young person, carrying around at college, and similar. My S1 Yoga from 2013 has been loaned out many times, case paint rubbed down to the metal at the corners, and it still runs. The L13 Yoga has the same design language, and in some markets I believe they are actually called S2 Yoga Gen 5 and 6.

X13 Yoga Gen 2 (13" Intel)

Announced back on February 23rd, this 2-in-1 laptop has a lot of people very excited. It kinda has all the things.

Up to 11th Gen Intel (hopefully the nicer G7 SoC, as opposed to the lower powered one, but we'll see), with Integrated Intel Iris X Graphics. Premium graphics option, check.

Up to 32 GB LPDDR4 (4266MHz) RAM. More than 16GB RAM option, check.

52.8 Whr Battery, with rapid charge. Something more than a mid 40 Whr battery, check.

Integrated rechargeable pen stylus. Check.

13.3" 16:10 WQXGA or WUXGA sisplay options, Check. (This is incredible news, btw).

Thunderbolt 4 x2 Ports, check.

LTE WANN option, check.

Lighter than 3lb, at 2.65 lb, check.

POWER ON MoC TOUCH FINGER PRINT READER! (Applause, Check)

Black Carbon Fiber Hybrid color / chassis treatment, check

This is the Thinkpad Yoga I have been dreaming about since 2015. I can't think of a single thing I would add or take away from it. It might be perfect.

Press Release says it'll be around in April, starting at 1379 USD. Believe I will be lurking the Lenovo Website for sales and double coupons the latter part of the year. The rest of the Press Release is here.

X1 Titanium Yoga (13.5" Intel) Gen 1

There's a lot to talk about here, but the main reason to get one of these is the 3:2 Aspect Ratio display option.

The 13.5" QHD (2256 x 1504) IPS, anti-reflective, anti-smudge, touchscreen with Dolby Vision, 450 nits has 1200:1 contrast ratio (better than average), with 72% NTSC Color Gamut (average).

But, it's a 3:2 aspect ratio, 2-in-1 Thinkpad Yoga. That said, I haven't held one in my hands, or used one. The general warning with some of the Thinkpad Yoga products for 2021, the keyboard isn't as deep or nice as usual. With how thin and light they are getting Thinkpads, that isn't a surprise. I suspect that this model might have that issue. If you're all right with a shallower feeling keyboard, and just gotta have a 3:2 aspect ratio 2-in-1, maybe pull the trigger on this one.

X1 Nano Gen 1 (13" Nano)

This isn't a Thinkpad Yoga, but because of the Thinkvision M14t portable pen display, I feel like the Nano needs to get talked about a little bit. The non-touch screen, WiFi only model, is 1.99 lbs. The M14t portable pen display is about a 1.5 lb. With a Nano and a an M14t display, one could have a dual-display option, all Think branded, for about the same weight as an X1 Yoga Gen 6. Also, the Thinkpad Nano has a really nice 2K (I love 2k) 16:10 aspect ratio, low power, 100% sRGB color gamut, display.

Having a portal rig that light, with a dual-display set up would be amazing. I could have my basis pics and reference work on the Nano's display, while I was drawing or writing on the M14t. If you're a digital artist that works with two display, one above the other, this could be a silver bullet for working mobile. There is a touch-screen model for the Nano, but I don't recommend getting that to work with a pen display.

Windows 10 really struggles to parse more than one touch screen, or pen display, connected. Getting your pen stylus buttons to work is tough. If the X1 Nano + M14t Setup sounds awesome, get the non-touch display option. It's lighter, and your pen stylus settings should just work on the portable display without fiddling. The M14t display monitor is a really good buy, just in general, because it is one of those products that doesn't come around too often.

Finding an M14t monitor could be tricky. It is often sold out, so some hunting and lurking online may be required.

Non-Yoga Thinkpads

The standout models here are basically anything with an AMD chipset (yay, options!), and the the Thinkpad T15g.

I've recommended a few AMD models since they've been a regular offering in different Thinkpad lines. All good news, people are happy, and I'm much relieved the recommendations worked out. I figured they would, but like most folks that live in Thinkpad Land, we're a little nervous about big changes.

What I'm not nervous about is the Thinkpad T15g.

It's a desktop replacement option that isn't in the X1 line (and limited in configuration options), or in the P Series (expensive, NVIDIA Quadro standard). It has processor options that range from the Core i5-10400H up to a Xeon W-10885M. It's listed as being compatible with all the Linux, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise, Ubuntu, and so forth.

Graphics Options are NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 or 2080 SUPER Max-Q.

It can have up to 128 GB of RAM, DDR4 or ECC for models with a Xeon Processor.

Up to two M.2 2280 SSD drives, with 2 TB each.

There's standard FHD display options, a UHD option, and an OLED UHD option with a 100,000:1 Contrast Ratio, 100% DCI-P3 Color Gamut. With that particular option, a pen stylus will work on it.

The Thinkpad T15g is big (6 lb), and ugly (standard Thinkpad Black chassis finish), but you could work, and game on it with pretty equal ability. It's a Thinkpad ... but for gaming, too?

[twilightbimbo]

Solstice pt 1: Twilight AU

This is an expansion of the Twilight universe with my OC characters!

                                    home is where the heart is

                                    and i’m afraid

                                   i’ve lost my way

Samson

“Why do you think you’ll win? I know when you’re bluffing,” I chided, laughing. Esther rolled her eyes with mild amusement. Esther is the most competitive one in our family and she always tries to best me in poker, despite the fact that I have the gift for sniffing out inauthenticity. 

“‘Cus you suck at poker,” Esther pulled up the corner of her lips in a slight smirk and laid out her winning hand. 

“Har har,” I huffed in frustration. I felt my eyebrows furrow as I realized what was happening. “You assholes!” I exclaimed. Suddenly, the cards of Esther’s winning hand became fuzzy and resembled a glitching computer monitor and then smoothed out into her true, losing hand. I looked up at Esther who was nearly hysterical, tears in her golden eyes from laughing and clutching Chip’s arm. 

“Sorry, brother,” Chip smiled softly and brushed a lock that fell out of Esther’s bun and brushed it behind her ear. I booed loudly and pushed the deck of cards off the dining table between Esther and me in mock anger. 

“Clean that up, Sam,” Sunny said to me without even looking in my direction as she walked past with a basket of laundry. Sunny liked to blend in more than the rest of us. “Keeps us humble,” is one of her favorite phrases. Sunny is the matriarch of our family, even though she is the youngest of us. Technically. 

“Sam, if you couldn’t cheat, you would be terrible at poker,” Stella yelled from her upstairs bedroom. Stella didn’t need to yell, she could even whisper it and we would be able to hear her. But, Sunny forces us to act human at all times, even in our own house. Where no one can see us. Or hear us. Sunny’s word is law. 

Nathalia 

If I was human, I would be panting from running this hard and far. Actually, if I was human I couldn’t run like this at all. I still let air rush in and out of my lungs naturally, tasting the forest around me. I had been feeling the urge to see the ocean lately. I miss home. But, I can’t go back there for a lot of reasons. Mainly because it’s always sunny down there. So, the Oregon coast is perfect for my needs, it’s overcast here the majority of the time. And it felt familiar here, the beach was always a constant for me until I died.

 I have been on the run for three years. That is so dramatic to say, but it’s true. I’ve been through nearly all of California, eastern Oregon, and about every rural area in Washington. I haven’t been around the general public in what seems like forever. If forever means three years and three hundred and sixty-two days. I’ve missed normalcy. I’ve missed being able to call a place my own. I miss belonging to something.

The trees began to clear as the river widened and gray light bled between the branches above as they became more sparse. I slowed down into a more relaxed jog, my damp hair starting to cling from my shoulders all the way to the small of my back. I relaxed my pace completely as I could see the river desperately reaching the ocean, letting my bare feet sink into the mossy and wet forest floor. I walked slowly until the ground turned into sand. I tilted my face up towards the sky and let the gentle rain kiss my face. 

The waves crashing is familiar and it eased some of my longing. Longing? God, I’ve become so pretentious. In my human life, I couldn’t stand being alone for longer than hours and now I’ve gone years. I guess loneliness changes you. 

While I was roaming in Washington, I heard there were vampires who tried to pretend to be humans and go to school and stuff. I was transformed only a year after I graduated high school and I didn’t get the chance to go to college. I had my eyes on the University of California, Los Angeles. But, here I am. Not alive, but also alive. On a beach. In the middle of fucking nowhere. 

“Hey! Aren’t you cold?” A voice called out to me from down the beach. I’ve been practicing for this. I turned my head slowly, trying to be careful of the speed of my movements. I looked down at myself briefly. I was wearing a thin, gray sweater with jeans. And barefoot. It’s probably in the low forties right now and getting colder. So much for attempting to blend in. I looked back at their direction and while I was definitely too far away, I smiled tentatively at them. 

“Got thick skin!” I yelled back, shrugging. The person behind the voice was an older man, the wind carried his scent towards me. I could smell the warm blood and as he slowly approached me, I could hear his faint heartbeat. It would be too easy. In half a second I would be right in front of him, pushing his head back to expose his neck. His red cap would fall off and in my frenzy, I would probably tear apart his windbreaker. Blood on the sand. My eyes red. 

Nope, nope, nope. I’ve gone three years without tasting human blood. I’m not going to fuck this up now. I turned on my heel and went back to the forest, as soon as I was certain I was covered by the thick swarm of trees I took off sprinting. 

Where am I supposed to go now? I need to get better clothes to blend in. I need to find a place to live. “Live”. To be frank, I had it pretty easy. I never had to worry about this kind of stuff. In the distance, I can hear cars sporadically driving on the wet pavement. If there are cars, there are people and if there are people, there are clothing stores and libraries. I changed my direction in order to run parallel to the highway giving myself about a half a mile distance between me and the road. 

It wasn’t much longer, maybe twenty miles or so before I saw neon light tinge the fog and the smell of car exhaust got stronger. Smelled disgusting. I thought about how I would be able to wander into some random mom and pop shop to get clothes without sticking out. I’ve been practicing my self control but it’s much easier when I hold my breath. How can I go without talking to the small town locals without seeming like a bitch? I guess the only thing I can do is hope what they say about first impressions isn’t true. 

Luckily enough for me, the river, which had dwindled down to a creek, ran close enough to the highway so I could wash my feet and legs so I could look less dirty and homely. Unfortunately, about every person I passed stared at me. Everyone has dressed appropriately for the wintery beach weather. Except for me. 

The first clothing shop that looked like it could have clothes for people “my age” and nearly completely empty was the first one I walked into. I bought nearly everything. Well, bought is a loose term. It was about four days after my transformation that I realized I had an ability. A “super talent” he called it. If I want someone to do something I want, they do it. It’s never something intense like falling in love with me or giving me their kidney or anything like that. It’s small stuff like if I want their approval I got it. If I want their coffee, they hand it over. Small stuff like that. 

The shopkeeper handed over around six hundred dollars in merchandise with a bright smile on her face. I made a mental note to make an anonymous donation as soon as possible. Sometimes I felt bad about swindling people, sometimes I felt like it was a necessary evil. A girl’s gotta do what she’s gotta do. 

It wasn’t that hard finding the library after the shops, and lucky for me, the librarian allowed me to stash my shopping bags behind her desk. The public computer whirred to life slowly, I could practically hear the viruses worming around. I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking for, or even where. I tried local listings, Craigslist, even some dark web shit. It wasn’t until I caved and made a fake Facebook account that I was able to find a single bedroom apartment to rent. 

The man who owned the place was rather kind. I hardly had to use my ability to sway him to let me live rent free for the next foreseeable future. His name was Ernie and he had quite the beer belly and a bald spot on the back of his head, reminding me vaguely of a freshly cracked egg.  I assume that he felt quite flattered that I was flirting with him. Actually, it could have been the innate human experience of being my prey who is inevitably lured to his death by my inhuman womanly charm. Who could say?

The apartment was painfully small but fully furnished. I couldn’t say if it was fully furnished as a part of the lease, which I did not have, or my newfound landlord was just too caught up in our conversation. I’ve been told I dazzle people. Whatever that means. A large full length mirror hung in the bedroom and I took a full look at myself for the first time in a long time. 

My dirty blonde hair was a mess. I think I can see a dread forming in the curly mess. My black eyes peered back at me in disbelief, how could I let myself go like this? Dark circles clung around my eyes covering the splatter of freckles on my face, I looked like I hadn’t slept in weeks. More like years, I chuckled to myself. I need to feed soon. An uncommitted corner of my mind thought aimlessly about what animals are in my vicinity. The other portion of my mind looked back in the mirror. I still was pale as before, still more beautiful than I ever was as a human. It’s weird, feeling this conceited but it was true. My very nature was to lure humans in, even more so with my ability. I can get humans to literally lay before me, neck exposed. But, I promised myself a while ago to never feed on humans again. 

This place was definitely not intended to be left fully furnished, a laptop laid on the desk in my new bedroom. I realized I never learned about this town before I decided on it. The ocean picked me. I wiped the laptop and set it up under my preferences. This time, password protected. My google search reminded me I’m currently in Brookings, Oregon. I had made a mental note earlier when I saw the welcome sign out of the corner of my eye on my way into town. 

Oh, perfect! I exclaimed internally. There is a local community college that happened to offer marine biology courses. Marine biology was my intended major before this happened to me. Maybe this is a sign. Maybe I’m being an idiot and making stupid choices by surrounding myself with humans. But, honestly, I’m lonely and I don’t think I can take this punishment much longer. 

Part 2