#i make a ice-cream before basically just remember to give them a good stir once every hour

[babyblueetbaemonster]

It's supposed to end with them eating ice-cream together in peace. Then everything changed when I learned the lore friendly name.

[whisker-biscuit]

The Birds, The Bees, and The Bottles

Fandom: Psychonauts

Rating: T for mild language and discussions of underage drinking

Summary: Two teens are caught trying to sneak into a bar. Bob finally has a conversation he’s held off for far too long.

Because herbaphony is not the only thing that runs in the Zanotto family.

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

Bob’s phone rang at two in the morning. Judging by the jolly ringtone of Helmut singing Strawberry Fields Forever, it was his personal phone instead of his work one, and that was the real tip off to things being very, very wrong.

He woke up and groggily pulled out of his still-slumbering-husband’s arms to answer the little thing going off on his nightstand.

“H’lo?”

“Bob!” Truman’s voice came out far too loud for the time of night, and far too stressed. “Bob, I’m so sorry to wake you, but something happened with Lili. I need you to pick her up for me, please.”

The older man sat up, much more awake as worry and fear immediately rolled in his gut. Helmut finally began to stir beside him, sensing his partner’s agitation.

“Truman, what’s going on? Pick Lili up from where?”

“The city’s police precinct on Abbey Avenue. She – she called me, but I’m out of state and I wouldn’t get there for hours at least even if I left this instant. She’s not in danger!” He added hastily, hearing the concern before Bob could even voice it mentally. “She didn’t get hurt! She’s just…”

The way he tapered off, the way he hesitated, said more than words could.

“She just got herself into some trouble, and she needs someone to go get her.”

Helmut was sitting up now, and Bob felt the question cross their mental link.

 What happened?

 Truman needs me to pick Lili up from the police station.

“I’m up, I’m on my way right now,” He responded to his nephew verbally, heaving himself out of bed. His husband followed suit despite still looking extremely puzzled, bless him.

“Thank you so much, Bob. I’ll make it up to you as soon as I can, I promise.”

“Don’t worry about it.” The older man waved a dismissive hand even though Truman wasn’t there to see it. “Family is s’pposed to do that for each other anyway.”

“Did I hear that right? Our peppy petunia had a run-in with the law?” Helmut asked as soon as his partner hung up. He paused, and in a lower tone – “she didn’t kill anyone, did she?”

“I don’t think it’s that serious,” Bob said, pulling a coat on over his sleep shirt. “But something tells me we still have a few things to worry about. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Ohohoh, no, don’t even think about hoofin’ it without me. We both know I’m the better driver.”

“Neither of us are very good drivers, Helmut.”

“Exactly! That little bit makes all the difference!”

The herbophanist sighed, charmed despite himself and the situation. “Alright, alright. Let’s not keep her waiting.”

The police precinct was nearly dead at this time of night. While it would’ve felt eerie to anyone else, Bob was grateful for the lack of people, and not just because he was still an introvert of the highest degree.

Two teenagers awaited them in the lobby, sitting on a bench together. One was hunched over and burning a hole in the ground with his downcast eyes. The other sat straight up, defiant, holding a glaring contest with the officer standing over them. When Bob entered the room first and met his great-niece’s eyes, her self-assuredness wavered for a brief moment. She hid the slip-up behind a wall of indifference.

“Lili,” he said softly. Then, just as softly but with a gruff tinge of surprise; “Razputin.”

There was no accusation in his voice, but the former scowled harder and the latter looked like he wanted to employ his invisibility. Bob studied them both a moment before his husband appeared and broke the tension with his mere presence.

“We’re here to bust you out, kiddos!” He announced with spread arms, cheerfully ignoring the looks he received from every person in the room.

“Are you Truman Zanotto?” Asked the officer who finally broke his gaze away from Lili to give them a disapproving once-over.

“No, I’m uh, I’m Bob Zanotto, and this is Helmut,” came the awkward reply. “Truman called me to pick Lili up. She’s my great-niece.”

A few seconds of silence passed as the officer made no move to do anything with that information. Bob cleared his throat.

“We’re, uh, listed in her emergency contacts for school?”

“I see. If you can just fill out some paperwork first, we can release her into your custody.”

The herbophanist watched the way Raz seemed to sink further in his seat at the mention of family contacts. The Aquatos were also out of state right now too, if he remembered correctly. Perfect timing for two minors getting up to mischief.

Well, up until they were actually caught.

“And…Razputin, too?” He asked, catching the teen’s startled gaze and giving him the mental equivalent of a thumbs-up.

The officer raised a brow. “Is he related to you, too?”

“Well, uh –”

“Yep!” Helmut interrupted, strolling right up to Raz and giving him a merry clap on the back. The teen had a physique comparable to most adult Olympic athletes, but even he nearly toppled forward from the force of such a big man. “He’s my third cousin, twice removed. Big family. Very close. Holidays are an experience, lemme tell ya!”

“Fine,” the officer pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine, okay, I’ll make sure he gets cleared for release too. I’ll be right back.”

He stalked off, muttering something about it ‘being too damn early for this’, and the older couple turned to face Raz and Lili. Helmut steepled his fingers together to rest against his mustache.

“So! Now that Officer Spoil-Sport is gone, are we allowed to know what heinous crime has been committed in the night by my favorite pair of mischief-makers?”

The two glanced at each other. Raz was the one to break their silence.

“We, uh…got caught sneaking into a bar.”

Cold heat rushed through Bob’s core. Helmut blinked once, twice, then let out a boisterous chuckle.

“That’s it? Jesus! From the way you two were acting I thought you’d robbed the First National Bank.”

“…Helmut.” His husband murmured. The psi-king lost his mirth as he caught Bob’s eye.

“Ah…w-well, y’know, while I’m certainly glad we won’t hear about a righteous homicide in the news tomorrow, forgery ain’t exactly a humble hobby either.”

“It was just two IDs,” Lili muttered under her breath. “Not a big deal.”

The ice in her great-uncle’s heart turned frigid, but before he or Helmut could say anything to that, the officer was back. He shoved a handful of forms under Bob’s nose and the herbophanist fumbled to grab them before they all tumbled to the floor.

“Uh, uh, thank you.”

“Alright, we’re putting the pause on this conversation to make you free citizens again, but don’t think that means we’re done with it.” The Psi-King gave the teens the sternest look he could manage. “As soon as we get in the car, you two will have a lot of explaining to do.”

“O-Okay.”

“Uh-huh.”

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

No one spoke a word as they got in the car and started the drive back.

Raz seemed content to continue his efforts to blend in with the background of his seat, still not meeting anyone’s eyes, and Lili stared out the window with her chin in her hand, leaning against the car’s backdoor and letting the lights of the city bathe her in neon sickness.

Helmut, bless his soul, dutifully kept the radio going while he drove, changing the station to something more mellow whenever a song started getting a little too upbeat for the collective mood of the vehicle. Bob sat in the passenger side with his arms folded awkwardly. His brain was buzzing, dreading the inevitable conversation he needed to have with his great-niece and trying to figure out how he was going to go about it.

It surprised them all when Raz spoke over the music.

“It was my idea.”

The two adults glanced at each other, then through the rearview mirror at the fidgeting teen.

“Your idea to go looking for a drink? Or to sneak into a bar to do it?” Helmut asked, turning off the radio.

“Both.”

He still wasn’t meeting their eyes. Bob sighed through his nose.

“I don’t believe you.”

Razputin’s head finally snapped up to stare at him in shock for the fast call on his bluff. “I’m telling the truth!”

“I think you’re only telling part of it, kid.”

“No! I’m telling all of it.”

“Razpu-”

“Oh, come off it, Raz,” Lili snapped a little too loud, making the whole car jump. “Quit trying to take the fall for me. It was my idea to try the stupid fake ID thing, okay? Happy now?”

“Wh – uh, who said anything about being happy about it?” Helmut asked, legitimately confused.

“Look. Neither of us had anything to do tonight, and we were bored, so Raz suggested getting a drink somewhere, but Adam and Lizzie are out of town so we couldn’t ask them.” She crossed her arms and spoke without any inflection. “So, we went out but no one would let us do anything cause we’re minors. I thought that was stupid, because we’re agents same as any of you, so I came up with the sneaking-in part. We only got caught cause one of the bartenders recognized Raz from a show.”

There were a lot of loaded things to parse through from that explanation, but Bob’s mind stalled on one particular detail.

“Adam and Lizzie give you two alcohol?”

“Not…often,” Raz admitted. “Just once or twice, when we asked.”

“Do you mean like, a literal once or twice, or a…an estimated once or twice?”

“Did Dad put you up to this?” Lili shot back. “It was just a few times, like he said. What’s with the inquisition?”

“…Lili –”

 “Raz.”

“Okay!” Helmut proclaimed as he slapped his hand against the steering wheel in boisterous aggression. “Who wants some ice cream?”

Everyone stared at him, dumbfounded.

“Cause I’m really feeling some chocolate-vanilla swirl right now. Basic bitch style. Right? Who’s with me?”

Silence.

“Great! Look at that, open Dairy King right there, better take advantage of this opportunity before it slips through our fingers like the melting ice cream we’re all gonna have in about five minutes!”

The psi-king swung into the parking lot in a frenzy and herded the car crew inside before any of them could come out of their shock long enough to protest. It was only as Bob was staring up at fifteen flavors of oversaturated sugary goodness that he realized what had just happened.

He couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief over his husband’s diversion. The tension that had been boiling over was cooled significantly by the sudden non-sequitur, and while the teens were rather half-hearted about picking out their sweet treats, there was no longer a risk of an explosion happening.

Metaphorically and literally.

Helmut caught his spouse’s eye with a meaningful look at Lili the moment all of them had their orders in hand, then slung his arm around Razputin’s shoulders and steered him away. “C’mon my lad! Nothing like the cool night air of three in the morning to keep your Hurricane ™ properly chilled!”

The poor boy had no choice but to let himself be pulled outside, leaving the two Zanottos standing awkwardly in the dingy restaurant. Bob gave a nervous scratch at his chin under his beard.

“How about we, uh, find a seat somewhere?”

Lili couldn’t fully cross her arms while holding ice cream, but she did a good job of making it work anyway. “Sure.”

They sat in a booth in the farthest corner from the front counter. Both great-niece and great-uncle stared at their respective sweet treats as if they could teleport them out of this situation. Bob glanced out the window and saw Helmut and Raz standing outside of the car. The former was on one knee with his hand on the teen’s shoulder, speaking earnestly but inaudibly, and the latter was scuffing the toe of his sneaker against the asphalt.

“Are you going to lecture me?” Lili finally cut through the silence.

Bob turned back to her. “No. Not really.”

“No?” She broke her gaze away from her ice cream just a little bit, eyeing him with surprise. “Then why did Helmut take Raz and leave us alone?”

She was so perceptive, so smart. And yet, still so young.

“Well, I… I still want to talk to you about what happened. I’m just not very, good, at this kind of thing.” He took his spoon and absentmindedly began drawing a flower in his soft-serve. “You already know what you did wasn’t a good idea, right? So I don’t think a lecture would help things any on that front.”

She didn’t respond. He continued.

“It’s less about the fake ID and more…the reasons you made the fake ID. Does that make sense?”

“I guess so, but I know what I’m doing, Uncle Bob. I’m not going to drink irresponsibly.”

The herbophanist shook his head. “But you’ll do irresponsible things to be able to drink in the first place.”

“That’s not –” Lili didn’t have a good rebuttal. She folded her arms and grumpily started eating her cherry chocolate delight. “Whatever. It’s two different things, anyway.”

Against his better judgement, Bob began picking at his own food as he thought about how best to bring the subject back up without making the teen defensive again. Spoons clicking against teeth was the only sound between them for a solid minute.

Finally, an epiphany.

“Did Truman ever…tell you anything, about your great-grandma?”

The girl paused with a bite halfway up to her mouth. She frowned, confused. “Grandma Tia? Not much. Just that she died when he was a baby.”

“Yeah. Yeah, she did.” He ran a tired hand over his face. The ache in his heart might have long-since healed into a scar, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt when pressed. “She passed away when I was nineteen. The doctors told me it was liver failure.”

He didn’t have to say anything else. Lili’s mouth thinned and she put her spoon down, uncomfortable.

“When I…found out the reason behind her death, I was horrified by it. It didn’t make sense to me why she would willingly do something that hurt her so badly, especially when I was right there to love her and help her. It felt like a betrayal that she never got help or made herself stop. I was…disgusted by the mere thought of doing anything like that.”

Bob took a moment to breathe and wipe his eyes. He wasn’t crying, but better safe than sorry.

“It sounds pretty hypocritical when I say it now, doesn’t it?”

His great-niece only gave him a hesitant look.

“Anyway, uh, where was I…” He worried his lip. “Oh, right. I told myself that I’d never touch the stuff after that. I was angry at what she’d done, and I was determined not to have the same ‘weakness’, so to speak. As you know, it, uh, it didn’t last long. I was at a college party barely a year later when I was invited by some friends to drink with them. I didn’t make human friends very easily back then – actually, I still don’t – so I was a little desperate to keep them. It turned out to be pretty hard whiskey, so I got hammered.”

The man leaned back in his seat, staring at the patterns in the booth table.

“Back then, no one really knew how alcoholism could run in a family. Everyone thought it was a personal choice to keep drinking. It wasn’t even classified as an addiction yet. So I didn’t know how susceptible I was, or how careful I had to be. I’d spend months not having a single drink, thinking I was fine and could handle myself, and then I’d get plastered for a week at parties and bars and God knows what else, and it would take me even longer to get myself to stop again. It was like that even when I was with Ford and his gang. It wasn’t until I started dating Helmut that I started trying to change those habits. I’d never met anyone who loved me so unconditionally that I wanted to be a better person for them, until him. And it worked for a while.

“Well, barring our wedding, of course. I got shitfaced at the reception. It was embarrassing afterwards, but Helmut told me it made our cake-eating ceremony a hell of a great time.”

Lili snorted, and it was accompanied by a tiny upturn of her lips. Then it dropped as her expression became solemn. “And then…everything with Maligula happened, right?”

“Yeah. I think you know the rest of that story.”

“Uh-huh.”

Great-niece and great-uncle sat together for a while, just thinking about it all.

“I know I have to be more careful drinking than a lot of people, Uncle Bob,” Lili finally said at length. “My dad warned me about it when I was old enough to ask.”

“Truman is a good dad,” he murmured in response.

“The best dad.”

“Definitely the best dad.”

More silence.

“I didn’t mean to worry you and him,” she continued. “Or scare you. I know it was dumb to do what we did tonight.”

Bob looked at her, and she gave a conceding sigh.

“Okay, it was dumb to do a lot of what we’ve been doing with this stuff. That doesn’t mean I’m not being careful.”

“Kid, it’s not always just a matter of being careful. I thought I was being careful. I thought that for years and years, and when I finally realized I wasn’t, I convinced myself I could stop any time I wanted to, and kept up the same patterns anyway. That’s what I’m trying to get you to understand. I just don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did. I’m just worried about you.”

Lili closed her eyes with a grimace. “I know. I’m sorry, Uncle Bob.”

“Hey, kiddo, look at me.” He waited until she did so. “I’m not mad at you. I’m not disappointed, either. That’s your dad’s job. I get it, is what I’m saying. It gives you a buzz, and it’s fun and exciting, and you just wanted to have a good time with your, uh…”

Bob leaned in a bit, and dropped his voice to a stage whisper.

“Is Raz still your boyfriend?”

“Wha –” her cheeks went red. “Yes, he is!”

“Alright, sorry, I’m just always out of the loop. No one ever tells me when these things change or not. Anyway,” he continued before she could get brighter than the cherries in her ice cream. “I’m just saying that you gotta be more than careful with this kind of thing. Everyone should be, really, but especially people like us. Plants aren’t the only thing that runs in the Zanotto family, unfortunately, so we just have to be aware of it and act accordingly.”

The teen turned this over in her mind. He could practically see the gears moving. When she looked at him again, it was with a slow, contemplative nod.

“No more late-night bar-hopping?” Her great-uncle asked.

“No more late-night bar-hopping.” She answered, sincere.

“Good.” He looked outside. Helmut and Raz were both lying on the front of the car, pointing out stars to each other. The sight made him smile. “Come on, we’ll work on that whole thing about Adam and Lizzie giving you alcohol another time, when it’s not three in the morning. For now, let’s rejoin our boys again and go get some rest, okay?”

“Okay.” Lili slid out of the booth and tentatively took her family member’s hand. His fingers squeezed hers in reassurance. “And...thanks, Uncle Bob.”

“Well, what can I say. Us weird Zanotto plant people hafta look out for each other, right?”

“Right.”

They walked out together, hand-in-hand.

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

A/N: I knew from promotional material that we'd be going into the mind of someone struggling with alcoholism, but Bob's Bottles punched me hard in the gut. It's probably my favorite mind in the game, both because it's visually gorgeous and because it hit a little close to home with some of the themes, like generational alcoholism and how the addiction can make someone a shell of themselves.

I wrote half of this three weeks ago and then found myself really struggling to finish it because it brought up a lot of old feelings I thought I'd sorted through a long time ago.

Psychonauts, man.

[unmanageable-day]

Come to me

PART 26.5 - next

masterlist / previous chapter: 26

Summary. After what happened in a relationship in the past, you found it difficult to trust someone with the gentleman image. ‘Gentleman’ seems like merely a concept and it was probably impossible for someone to be a genuine one. Now that you’re stuck with the number one gentleman at campus for a group project, how would you cope with the one and only Joshua Hong?

Genre. College!au, non-idol!au / friends to lover

Pairing. Joshua x y/n x S.Coups

wc / warning. 1k / prolly grammatical error, and nothing more, i guess? (does mentioning shua’s nickname of the holy jisoos count?? if anyone feels disturbed about it, please do let me know!)

TAGLIST.  @samemagicpoint @unravellyn @nonuuu @seventeeneration @skylions-den @wooziverse @infinitemoods @haoraecane @sunflowergyeomie @flower0930 @riashushu​ — [ send ask or dm if you’re interested to be added in the list! 🖤 ]

a/n: i’ve decided to cut this written part into two chapters. hope you still enjoy it, any comments are warmly welcomed! i have this rough draft ready looong time before those smau parts but it took me a while to rewrite it, so it is kinda tricky to connect all the dots hehe

You set the living room as if you were going on a picnic. Instead of a rug or carpet, you used a yoga mat covered with an old scarf—resulting in Joshua quietly laughed at this sudden creativity. The pizza box was wide opened between you and him. Yet what you two had in your hands were two scoops of ice cream. Joshua was the one suggesting to have this salty-sweet-salty-sweet eating pattern.

"Okay. Let's start with... why does everyone call you a gentleman? Oh, I think I've also heard about the holy Jisoos," you trailed off, stirring the ice cream on your cup.

Joshua chuckled. "I honestly have no idea. Some kids made that up. I mean, I do consider myself as a gentle person but I won't even call myself a gentleman."

You nodded slowly, a spoonful of ice cream went into your mouth.

"And, please, stop with the holy Jisoos. If I find out who started that, I think I will commit a murder," he said, rolling his eyes in annoyance. No one really had ever said this particular nickname right into his face, but still, it was the one he most despises of.

Unconsciously you watched his expression quite eagerly. It was probably the first rime you caught him making that face. Even he still kept his smile intact and never showed it if he was exhausted during overtime—unlike you who looked like a mess when it was past 9 PM in the office. And it was fascinating to hear him wanting to murder someone. Basically the word murder and his by-default smiley face simply didn't match.

He made eye contact and you were flustered. "Come on, ask me more questions," said him, looking as eager as you.

"Are you always this nice to people? I mean, not even a bad intention once a while?" That was the best filtered words you can arrange. The truth is, you wanted to ask 'are you sure you're not being fake with all that kindness?' but now that you think about it, it sounds very rude.

"I do plot some things. Well, not to random people, but to my friends." He shrugged, but his voice started to sound more excited. After the last bite of his ice cream, he took a slice of pizza. "Do you remember the first time we met?"

Your eyes got widened at that question. How can you not? You squinted your eyes, looking guilty. "You mean how I made you come late to your first class?"

"What? That was you?"

"... yeah?"

He paused. Tilting his head, he looked at you with puzzled expression. He surely remembered his first day of uni and the accident of coming late and getting scolded by one of the most legendary lecturer in campus because of somebody. Apparently he was too shocked to remember who it was.

“I know, I ran away when you went in to Prof. Lee’s class,” you shyly confessed, covering your face with your hands. “And our second meeting was not great either,” you mumbled.

“Was it coffee accident?”

You nodded.

He smiled wide to himself. Looking at you fondly, he continued, “I thought that was our first meeting. But knowing the truth of our first meeting, it was quite fascinating.”

“I know it’s probably too late, but I’m sorry about getting scolded by Prof. Lee and for ruining your white shirt.” You bowed down.

Still smiling, Joshua shook his head, suggesting to never mind it. “Anyway, about that white shirt..” A mischievous grin grew wider. "That’s not my shirt. It's Jeonghan's. Just a few days before my first day going to school, he dropped some ragu sauce on my shirt he wore. I was already plotting something, that was why I wore his clothes, but you unexpectedly did it for me. So..." He made a face, which strangely reminded you of Johnny’s ‘not my problem’ face.

"Wait, what?" You squinted in disbelief. "But you looked mad though?"

"I did?" The bambi eyes widened at your accusation. "Rather than mad, I think I was more shocked. I mean who wouldn't, right?"

Eventually, you two laughed it off. You were glad you cleared at least one unsettled matter with this guy.

"I'll confess one more thing. You can judge me as you please," he spoke rather excitedly and you just nodded. "You know, I often got anonymous love letters in my locker."

"People are still doing that like in Japanese comic?" you commented, holding your laugh.

"I know right. But that's not the point. Those letters, I never read them. Either I just leave it in my locker, or I just throw them away. Or sometimes Seokmin would read it for me, and still they ended up in the trash."

A dramatic gasp left your lips. "Oh my gosh, those poor girls.. Maybe they're just shy, you know? You should give them a chance." Instantly you realized what you said just changed the mood.

“Why don’t you give me a chance?” he calmly retorted.

You chewed your lips, unable to answer him right away.

"Y/N, I'm shy too, but since we were assigned for group project, I encourage myself to talk to you instead of sending anonymous letter." He tried to break the ice.

"Like you, Y/N, they only see me as someone with that too good to be true image. If they really mean it, why not approach me personally? You see, I had bad relationships too. There are many people who only like the way I look, the way I behave. How I don't really voice out, how I never show them if I'm angry, how I always say "it's okay" when things start going bad and "I'm sorry" even when the fault is not mine. They thought I'm 24/7 an angel who is never upset."

A small part of your heart just melted to finally see another side of Joshua Hong. You simply could feel the honesty. It was nice to see the ‘humane’ side of him, to see his emotion as he shared a bit about himself. Now you felt bad for having bad prejudice about him.

"There is one thing I’ve been wondering. Why me?" you asked carefully after observing him catching his breath.

"I don't know." He shrugged. "It's just interesting to see you. It looks like there are so many sides of you."

You looked at him, confused.

“When you're with me, do you notice you're very quiet? But when you're with Johnny, you turn into someone else and you express yourself easily. When you're with Mingyu, Seokmin, and Soonyoung, you change again. You play along with them, you get their jokes, overall it's like you're a child again playing with your friends. Then Wonwoo, you used to have that sheepish smile when you talk to him. And when you're with Seungcheol...” Joshua paused, clearing his throat and looked away. “It's clear how you're comfortable with him, you talk freely with him, as if he's an old friend. And the way you smile at him.. how could I not envy him?”

You attentively listened to him while trying to digest everything. You were quite flustered that he paid that much attention to you.

"So I thought, there must be something wrong with me. I was insecure of myself. 'What is it that Seungcheol does better than me?', 'Why the quiet Wonwoo can be close with you while I can't?', 'Am I good enough to be with you?', 'Am I a trust worthy person to you?'. I was always doubting myself whenever I tried to make a move. Especially since Seungcheol butts in."

The pizza was long forgotten as you were drowning in his thoughts.

"If there is one thing I'm lacking, it's confidence. I don't want people to know about that. Also, I'm not really into telling others how I feel, not even to Jeonghan. I tend to bottle up everything instead of expressing my feelings. Then I would overthink, I would be overly sensitive about things. In the end, I wouldn't actually do anything about it. I'm a coward, Y/N." His hands were fiddling with the spoon on his empty cup.

"Y/N, do you like Seungcheol?" he asked suddenly, making you flinched in your seat.

"Honestly it's hard to not to.." you said guiltily. It was such a mystery to you too why you felt guilty. It wasn’t like you and Joshua were something in the first place.

[kezibun]

A storm of a hunt part 3

Part 1

Previous

Next

You hesitantly tell him your name, maybe he was actually just being nice?

"Huh… cool name..." He mumbles.

A waft of coldness crawls over your skin, making goose bumps rise. You can't stop the shiver that follows it.

 "Oh shoot." Papyrus sighs. "That damn heater." 

He stands up, then kicks the little heater a few times and presses the button, but nothing happens. He seems to give up on the heater and you watch him as he walks over to the box labelled torture. Your whole body is tense but you keep you're eye on him as he rummages through the box. He's looking for something that you can be sure of.

 After all this was he really going to hurt you? After what's been said? What will he find in there? What does he want? Maybe he's looking for something to tie you up with. 

 He's just playing some kind of sick game again, like everyone else in this hell hole. You shouldn't trust anyone, not even down here. You just can't especially since all you've been met with is manipulation, lies and treachery. 

Maybe now you could try to escape, slip away while his back is turned. But as you try and sit up, a sharp pain burns in your side, there is no way you're going anywhere while you're in this agony. You sit back down and instinctively hold your injuries, not that it helps. Why does everything hurt worse once you've had a minute to rest?

 Papyrus comes over with something. It looks like a big metal tin. How Is he going to hurt you with this?

He kneels on the floor, setting the tin down, he's filled it with wood and sticks. Then he snaps his fingers over it, an orange spark floats down settling on a twig, it fizzles briefly as it sets alight. The fire is slow to grow but it already feels warmer than the small space heater. The flames grow and dance as they cast an amber glow. You're mesmerised for a moment.

"Do your injuries still hurt?" His question snaps you out of it.

"Yeah, those traps did quite the number on me." You say with a nervous laugh. 

"Let me check your HP."

"Wa-"

In that second the world around goes dark, an encounter? You feel fear creep over you, this wasn't good. 

"-It…."

Damn is he going to fight you? Or just check you like he said? If this was going to be like any of the other monsters you'd encountered before? you're sure it won't be fun.

You look over to your HP. There's something weird about it, it doesn't seem right, and that makes your stomach churn with even more nerves. You don't know what's wrong but It can't be good.

 He stares at you intently for a second.

'Papyrus cheeked your stats he doesn't seem happy with what he sees.' 

It's your turn now. His name is yellow, you know what that means. You're tempted to take a peek at his stats but you really don't have the energy right now and you're pretty sure he won't appreciate it. You are definitely not up for a fight, so you choose mercy. Everything fades back to normal. That wasn't so bad.

He then just walks out, leaving you behind and alone. The only sounds that keep you company are the crackling fire in front of you and the howling wind outside. 

You sigh and huddle up by said fire, pulling the jacket around you again as you wonder what on earth he saw that he didn't like. You hope whatever it was won't get you hurt. How did you ever end up in this situation? If only you could remember.

 You feel the warmth of the fire almost wrap around you as it seeps in and you finally start to thaw. Your toes almost sting like pins and needles as the feeling starts coming back to them. 

It wasn't long though until Papyrus was back, he entered silently like he'd just appeared in the room.

He holds a brown paper bag out to you, "Eat this." 

You take the bag, inside is a donut with black icing and a purple cobweb design on top. You usually would have been suspicious of such a gift, just in case it was poisoned. But at this point you don't really care, you're just happy to get some food. All you can do now is sort of trust him right? as much as you might dislike it. What other choice do you have?

"Thanks." 

You take a bite of the donut, the first flavour you get is sugar, it's very sweet, there also seems to be a bit of a spiced flavour then you taste the weirdest thing, you're hit with a faintly meaty flavour like chicken, mixed with a slightly fishy taste? and there's a dubious crunch to it. Then following it is a sandy texture that tastes smokey, but it's all then taken over by the alcoholic aftertaste that hits next. Despite the weirdness it's actually pretty good, better than snail pie to say the least, possibly the second best thing you've eaten since falling down here, the first being that candy that kept you alive through the ruins. You finish off the whole donut.

Wait. A sudden strange feeling washes over you, you feel the urge to check your stats. Did you just level up? That's kinda mysterious but cool, why would that have happened?

He then sits in front of you.

"What are you doing?" You ask.

"Your wound…How's it?"

"It um... feels a little better."

"Let me check it?" He asks.

You pause and take a moment to think. "I… don't know…" Is the only reply you could conjure up.

"It's ok."

He pulls the jacket off your shoulder.

"Hey don't." You grab his wrist.

He takes your hand and moves it off his wrist with a scowl. Then he pushes your ripped top up enough to see your wound. 

You flinch as his cold phalanges brush against your skin. 

"Sorry." He mutters, but he doesn't stop what he's doing, he looks over your badly wrapped wounds.

Now that he's so close you notice how his cheekbones seem to have a faint rusty glow to them, and he's actually pretty cute. No you can't be thinking like that. He's a skeleton monster that just hunted you down in a snowstorm, and scared you half to death. Not to mention you're now in his torture shed.

"The trap had some magic that stops it healing. I'm gonna to treat it. Can I… um...?" He gestures to your injuries and you fill in the gap.

You think for a minute… Is it smart to let him treat you? Probably not. But it might be your only chance, if anything he's saying is true.

"I did a pretty shoddy job with wrapping it up didn't I? Just be careful... I'd rather not die today you know…" You mumbled. Maybe that hint was a little too obvious, you feel like you basically just yelled please don't kill me. Would it be better to just beg for your life? Would that get you anywhere? Could you let go of what little pride you have left?

"You're lucky. I... can't have you dying yet." He takes his phone out and gets a first aid kit from his inventory. "Could ya hold your shirt up?" 

You do as he asks and hold up your top, the cool air is sharp to your newly exposed skin, you can't help but shiver some more.

"You humans sure feel the cold don't ya?"

Is he trying to strike up a conversation? Or just making an oddball comment?

Either way you don't really answer him… 

And with that he quickly warms his hands over the fire before he ever so carefully unwraps your bloody makeshift bandage. You watch his every move carefully, making sure there's no foul play. He then gets out a small round pot from the first aid kit, it's white with a green symbol on the lid.

"This'll sting but it'll help."

He applies the light green cream, it has a peculiar scent that can only be described as warm and kind, but it feels like he's just rubbed nettles over your flesh, that means it's working right? For you're benefit you hope. He then wraps your wound up, it's not too tight but definitely tighter then whatever you'd managed before. He pulls his jacket back around you. 

"You should try and get some sleep." He pats your head before he sits down next to you. 

"Are you staying?" 

"Yeah. Rest. I'll stay guard."

"Why are you helping me?" You query.

"It's complicated." He huffs. "No more chit chat. Just sleep already." He pulls the hood over your face roughly.

"Ok." You yawn as you lean into the corner of the shed, the wooden wall is cold and hardly an ideal pillow but you are so tired it barely bothers you, you close your eyes and soon enough you're asleep. 

. . .

"MUTT! have you lost your mind?" 

"Hush M'lord, They're sleepin'."

"YES SLEEPING AND NOT DEAD." 

"I can't kill em." 

You open your eyes slightly, stirring awake from the commotion and loud voices. 

You see Papyrus and the other skeleton, his brother?

"Then let me at the darn human." He snaps.

"M'lord you can't." Papyrus stops his brother from getting closer.

"AND WHY NOT!?"

"I told you. I need to figure it out. Trust me."

"You're going soft, don't forget your duty Papyrus! You have a week! NO THREE DAYS! Figure out whatever the heck you need to then get rid of that pest, that rodent." He starts walking off. "If Alphys finds out, I'm dead, this will be the end of my malevolent career. The Queen will have our heads for this! YOU KNOW THAT RIGHT?" He huffs as he storms out. 

You're still so tired… your eyelids are too heavy to keep open… With this new silence you can't stay awake for even a second more.

[sumeshi-t]

past or present— a haikyuu smau

[oikawa x y/n x atsumu]

a/n: hi !! here we have sum words in between pictures 😔🤘🏻

part 10 > part 11 > part 12A | nav.

you place your phone down on the bedside table, sighing as you watched streaks of sunlight enter through the partially opened blinds.

to be honest, you didn't know what got into your head that made you say those words to atsumu. were you always this impulsive? no, not really. you preferred thinking things through.

perhaps deep inside, you just wanted to find out for yourself what it is that you really feel for the blonde miya, and what he genuinely felt for you too.

it wasn't that you wanted to settle down, or be in a committed relationship anytime soon. it's just that you felt like something was missing in your life even after treating your profession as your spouse. maybe you're just not used to all the flirting anymore. or maybe you were getting old, preferring a more direct approach to trivial matters like this.

trivial... matters? is this really something a person could call trivial? 

the early morning thinking made your stomach grumble, prompting you to get off the bed to have breakfast.

'i'll save my appetite for later,' you thought before randomly pulling a bag of bread, then absentmindedly began eating its contents. as soon as you recognize the fluffy texture and creamy taste, a brunette setter flashed through the recesses of your mind.

you look down, noticing that indeed, you were eating milkbread. you faintly remembered how he–oikawa tooru–had once given you a whole month's supply of the food to help in increasing your height. his reasoning was ridiculous, but nonetheless, your dork of an ex was someone you really couldn't resist. 'is that why i was so helpless when we... when he broke up with me?'

just in time, your phone rang, snapping you back into attention. it was atsumu. 

"hello?" 

"y/n... you weren't kidding when you said you were gonna go here, right?"

that was the first time you heard a hint of hesitation in the usually cool, sure-of-himself, atsumu. the thought made you chuckle. "mhhm, i'll be there a little bit before lunch. what food do you want?"

you hear osamu's voice from a distance saying, "leave that to me,"

"well, you heard him. if you're worried he's gonna stick around later, i'll kick him out."

this makes you gasp, feeling a bit embarrassed of yourself for forgetting to consider his twin, "oh! is he gonna be there later? i... i thought he was gonna go work or... something..." you hiss at the end, slowly regretting your decision.

"yep, he has work don't worry." there was a brief pause and then, as he speaks, you could see it in your head that atsumu was smirking through the receiver; the smirk that seemed to have been embroidered on his handsome face since birth. 

"you seem pretty dead set on getting me alone, y/n. why?"

you blush, cheeks heating up with all the blood that suddenly rushed underneath your skin. "b-because! i-it's... it's kind of like a date, right? why, are you two like a package since you're twins?" you berated yourself for stuttering (he was going to tease you for that later, that's for sure). at the same time, you heard something like a pot lid dropping to the floor.

"is... everything okay back there?"

"yeah, samu's fine,"

"...i'm on speaker, aren't i," 

"yep." atsumu pops the last syllable, then proceeds to not put you on speaker anymore. he took an intake of breath, you assumed he was stretching as he asked, "any movies you'd like to watch?"

you sighed, trying to tone down the feeling of embarrassment from the joke you made about the twins, hoping osamu would put it behind him. instead of dwelling on that, you answer atsumu's query, "just nothing too obnoxious, horror is fine, please no porn, cute animated ones are also good, i'm not really that picky with movies." you listed your terms as you get a glass of juice.

atsumu chuckles, snarky comeback ready, "but you do seem picky with the people you date,"

"that, i won't deny."

"and it's a valuable trait to have, right? besides, i think we're both making a good pick here." 

you hum for an answer, before taking a quick sip, 'damn it, he's too good at this,' you thought, biting your lip at having been unable to come up with a retort.

atsumu notices that you haven't said anything so, with a soft smile that you couldn't see, he says, "well, i'm not gonna hold you up for long. see you later, y/n." 

"osamu just chatted to ask if the food was okay. he's so sweet. i said the food was great. sooo, think you can bring those to training some time?" you say, before shooting a potato chip into your mouth.

you only brought some snacks–basically, junk–for when you two watched movies.

atsumu raises his brow, leaning back comfortably on his side of the sofa. you peep at him when he doesn't respond, then teasingly grins. "atsu, don't tell me: are you jealous i called your brother sweet?" 

his ears became a little pink and he aggressively picks the remote up, "why would i be?" he murmurs under his breath. his reaction made you chuckle, before reaching out for his phone. "Ciri, pick a number between one and 20," 

"nice choice, perfectly fitting." atsumu remarks, after putting "50 first dates" on to play.

"right? because this is like our first–no, second–date. unless of course, you forgot about that already."

"i don't have short term memory loss, atsumu."

"no, keep calling me atsu. you're the only one who calls me that." he winks, before digging his hand into the bag of chips atop your lap. 

the rest of the movie marathon afternoon was spent by laughing over the same jokes together, you getting emotional at any scene that made you feel emotional, with atsumu making sure to give you tissues and a bowl of ice cream to calm you down.

first, the two of you began the marathon sitting on either end of the sofa, and gradually, things began to get a little chaotic when the both of you became comfortable with each other; such as your feet on atsumu's lap, turning into atsumu sprawled on the floor with his arm on your leg, while you were on the couch, lying on your belly.

to be honest, atsumu spent more time watching you than focusing on the movies on the screen. he could watch them anytime he wanted to, but to observe you up close, and just being around you, your presence just for himself–atsumu felt that it was a once in a lifetime thing, and knew he shouldn't take this moment for granted.

there were more times he's caught himself smiling at you, whether it was when you got scared from a jumpscare (wherein you then laughed at him for flinching, and he ends up defending himself that it was your screaming that shocked him); or when you couldn't control the outburst if your loud laugh and snorting.

'i wish time would stop.' atsumu thinks. 'from here on out, what will become of us?'

sure he seems confident on the outside, but the truth is, this pro athlete is not much of a pro when it comes to dating. he's never really been interested in the prospect of romance, probably because he was surrounded by those who squeal in joy at the sight of him, and getting one would have probably come in easy for him. he even remembers calling his female fans as pigs (even though they were kinda cute–but they were ruining his game! well fuck, that doesn't matter now)

but you? oh y/n, he never said he didn't like a challenge.

now... should he be more direct than he already was? he was sure that he wanted you for himself, but... 'does y/n even want me that way? does she want... anything like that with me?' 

it was suddenly quiet, as he immersed himself into his thoughts, losing track of which movie it was you were watching. atsumu took a quick glance at you, only to see that you were fast asleep, head on the edge of the seat. somehow you two ended up switching places, you on the floor and him on the couch. 

all his previous thoughts were gone, your peaceful face giving him... peace.

his gentle fingers nimbly brushed a few strands of your hair out of your face. he inches his face closer, his lips just a few inches from your forehead, before you stirred in your sleep.

atsumu gave you one last look before pulling himself away. he smiles to himself, eyes intent on you.

then, he finally notices your horrible position on the floor, which was sure to give you either a back ache or a stiff neck if he was just going to let you be. atsumu sighs, shaking his head.

an idea pops into the blonde setter's mind, causing him to smirk. quickly, he reaches for his phone that was on the couch, swiped open the camera, before looking for a cute angle of yours and grinned at successfully taking a photo of you sleeping soundly without waking you up.

satisfied with his little victory, atsumu finally bends down, carefully wraps his strong arms around your form, and carries you to his shared bedroom. atsumu lays you down on his messy bed (because, he wasn't being possessive, it's just that there was no way he was going to let you end up on his twin's bed).

he took his brother's neat bed, and just let you sleep, toss and turn, while he would toss a ball while lying down. when he grew tired of doing so, and you had your back turned to him, atsumu just pulled his phone out once more and checked the photo he took.

atsumu gently smiles, "i'm so stupid... there's no need for us to rush, am i right y/n?" he murmurs softly, knowing you wouldn't be able to hear him anyway.

for now, he was just going to take his sweet time.

taglist: @tamcitrus @nerdyphantomlady @haikyuuincorrect @aurorahoneybuns @zoppzoop @takingyouruwus @jesquisser @blushinggray

[raywritesthings]

Not His to Change

My Writing Fandom: Arrow Characters: Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance, Robert Queen Pairing: Laurel Lance/Oliver Queen (if you really, really like bittersweet endings) Summary: Oliver gets to the afterlife once his work as the Spectre is completed and finds a surprise - and a lesson - waiting for him. Notes: Basically canon-compliant but not for Ol*city or M*rlance fans. Not really all that Lauriver either, tbh, this fic doesn’t really have an audience. Oh well. *Can be read on AO3, link is in bio*

As Oliver felt the energy leave him, he used his last remaining moments as the Spectre to construct the new world that his friends would inhabit together, a combination of two Earths. Two timelines needing to be merged. He brought back some whose lives had been cut short, softened the blows that others had suffered and crafted what he felt was the best version of reality for each of his loved ones that he could think of.

There were some things that he could not change. His father still remained buried on Lian Yu. Oliver could not think of a way for him to have become the Green Arrow without his father’s sacrifice out there in the life raft; the truth was, he was almost more scared of the man he might have ended up being without the island.

The other was Laurel. Oliver’s heart ached, but guilt twisted in his gut at the thought of callously cutting the doppelganger he had gotten to know the last few years down just for the crime of not being the ‘right’ one. The fact was, he had lost his Laurel years ago. And without her loss, the whole second wave of heroes in their city would never have been recruited. Her legacy had had that much of an effect. So he did his best to create the life he wished she had had the chance to have before it had ended; the life she deserved.

A wistful part of him wished that was a life with him, the same way he had wished it in the dream world the Dominators had created. But guilt stayed his hand again: Mia. Getting to know his daughter as an adult made her so real and alive, he couldn’t bring himself to deny her the right to existence. In the new version of Earth, he would remain with Felicity if only for her. So he would give Laurel her happy ending that the Undertaking had robbed her of instead.

Everything decided, his eyes slipped closed, and Oliver felt himself drift away from the realm of the living. Gradually, he felt awareness settle back into his body. The bone-deep exhaustion had left him, and he slowly sat up in the bed he found himself resting in.

It was his old bed, the same that he had had in the Queen Manor all those years ago. Brow furrowing in puzzlement, Oliver rose and looked through the dresser and closet, finding clothes to change into. Once changed, he ventured out of the room and down familiar hallways and stairs. He could hear the low murmur of voices coming from the kitchen, so Oliver cautiously pushed the door open, freezing in shock at the sight of the two people sitting at the kitchen island.

“—think you’ll stick around long, or back to traveling?” His father was asking.

Laurel shrugged, though as she did so, her eyes drifted to him in the doorway. “There you are, Ollie. We were starting to wonder if you were planning to spend your whole afterlife asleep.”

Her remark lacked the bite Siren would have had, her smile light and teasing instead.

“This is… we’re all here, then? There’s not a- a—” He wasn’t sure how to voice his question. Oliver couldn’t remember if being the Spectre had given him knowledge of Heaven or Hell, but he would have imagined wherever he ended up, he wouldn’t be sharing it with both Laurel and his father. They’d sat on rather opposite ends of the scale of morality, after all.

“Welcome to life after death, son,” his dad said. “Or what did that Dumbledore character call it in those books you liked?”

“The next great adventure,” Laurel supplied.

Oliver still felt a little numb, but as he drew up to his father’s chair, the older man stood and embraced him.

“It’s good to see you,” Oliver mumbled into his father’s shoulder. His real father. Not a dream, not a hallucination. Although, was it really the same thing?

He had changed the least about his father and his life, Oliver felt he could say. But even still, he had done what he could to clean up this and that, with the exception of the affair that had created Emiko. Even that he had improved with Emiko being a welcome member of the family rather than his parents hiding her from him and Thea. So was he talking to the father he knew, or just another figment of the man that wore his face? He hadn’t considered that at all, and it made his stomach twist uncomfortably.

Over his father’s shoulder, Laurel was watching him, her look both knowing and compassionate all at once. But this was a Laurel he had never really known either, as much a stranger to him as her doppelganger had once been.

His dad pulled back, keeping a hand on Oliver’s shoulder as he looked between the two of them. “Laurel asked me to let her know when you were coming to join us. There’s some things you ought to talk about, and I think she can explain it better than me.” There was a brief squeeze to his shoulder. “I know how hard you tried.”

“Tried what?”

But his dad walked out of the kitchen. Laurel slowly got up from her own chair but maintained a few feet of distance between them. “So, how was being master of the universe?”

It took Oliver a second to place the memory that question stirred; sitting on the floor of her apartment with a bowl of ice cream in his hands. He hung his head. “Definitely not what it’s cracked up to be. Let’s say I don’t miss it.”

“Not wanting that kind of power for yourself is what makes you a hero, Oliver. But… you did make some choices. Choices that weren’t yours to make.”

He licked his lips. “I couldn’t just kill your doppleganger.”

Laurel held up a hand. “I’m not talking about her. I’m talking about me and Tommy.”

He stared at her in confusion. “You loved Tommy.”

Laurel sighed. “I did in a way. But he wasn’t the love of my life. You know that better than anyone.”

Oliver shifted from one foot to the other. “I had a daughter, Laurel.”

“And I’m not saying you should have given her up, either. I am saying that I didn’t need to be forced into some kind of consolation prize marriage of convenience to make you feel better. I was happier without it.”

“How do you even know that?” He couldn’t help asking. If he had changed time, didn’t that mean everyone else forgot the old timeline? Wasn’t that how Barry said it worked?

Laurel shook her head. “Since I was dead, I got to pick which version of memories I could keep. I chose the version of the life I actually lived.”

Oliver swallowed a lump that was stubbornly trying to rise up in his throat. “Then… you really are my Laurel.”

“Mm-hm.”

He took a step closer, unable to help himself from folding her into his arms. It had been so long, and he had missed her every single day. She hugged him back.

“Everything you went through, everything you lost,” he said in her ear. “Why would you want to remember?”

“Because it created me. The best version of me I know how to be. I wasn’t going to let anyone take that away from me.” She drew back and cupped his cheek. “Not even you.”

“Only you could be that stubborn,” he said, the warmth in his tone belying his words. Laurel smirked back at him. “What happens when Tommy passes?” Even if he had brought his friend back along with so many of his loved ones, Oliver knew it couldn’t last forever. Everyone died eventually. And when his friend got to the afterlife, expecting a version of Laurel that now only existed as a fiction Oliver had invented to assuage his own conscience…

“Then he’ll find his place in the afterlife. I don’t imagine he’ll want to see me, at any rate.” Laurel left his arms completely, walking back to her chair to get a bag that she’d left hanging off the arm. “Considering he was getting ready to file for divorce before the me in that timeline was killed.”

Oliver’s eyebrows pulled together. “What?”

“From what I was told, he could see exactly what he saw in the timeline you and I remember. No matter how much power you have to wield, you can’t change who people are in their bones, Oliver. Only they can change themselves. And I wasn’t about to do that.” She finished slinging the bag over her shoulder, fixing her denim jacket so that it sat properly.

She loved him still. The lump was back, and he brought a hand up to try and wipe at the moisture starting to gather at his eyes before it could get out of control.

“If I could — if there had been a way,” he started. A way for both Laurel and Mia. God, he’d seen the way Mia had gotten on with Laurel’s doppleganger. He was sure his daughter would have found an even more supportive mentor in the Laurel he had known most of his life. The same way Thea once had.

She shook her head sadly. “Your family comes first, Ollie. We both know that. That’s why I’m not staying here. There’s a whole lot of afterlife to explore, a lot of it I didn’t see when I was alive. So you wait here for your family. It’s okay.”

It wasn’t fair, but he knew he would let her go. She was always the bigger person between the two of them, in the end. She walked past him and towards the door, and he couldn’t quite stop himself from saying, “If we’ve got the rest of eternity to spend here, my family might get sick of me after a while.” How many breaks had he and Felicity taken with their relationship, after all?

She looked back, a wan half-smile tugging at one corner of her lips as the long, blonde hair he remembered best spilled over her shoulder. “Then I guess you’ll just have to come running after me if that happens.”

He nodded. “Always.”

“Goodbye, Ollie.”

“Goodbye, Laurel.”

She let herself out of the kitchen, and he heard the front door shut moments later. Slowly, he walked to the island and took the chair she had sat in. Like most times, she had left him with much to think about.

If anyone could see fit to defy him even when he had held the power of a near-God, it was Laurel. A breathy laugh left him at the thought. She always was able to bring him back down to Earth, even when they were no longer on it. Wasn’t that a relief?

[bngtanah]

Red Lips | JK (m)

summary: “Red Lips Always Lie.” Jungkook was the type of guy your parents always warned you about. Handsome, charming and not to be trusted.

pairing: Jungkook  x Named!Reader

genre: angst, smut

words: 2.8k

chapters: o1| o2|

warning: fuccboi!jungkook, smut, black!reader, barely a plot, like honestly just a thread of plot, angst, 

a/n: i am a fool. I accidentally deleted my blog so this is me re-uploading EVERYTHING.

This was not like Baby. At all.

Standing outside the apartment of a man she barely knew waiting to be buzzed into a building located in a neighborhood she wasn’t familiar with. She wasn’t sure what had come over her last week, she never gave her number out to random guys she met on the street. Let alone guys that bothered her during her morning run but there was something about this one guy that just seemed…. sweet. He wasn’t intrusive and didn’t even push for her to give him her number; she offered it up on a whim when he casually mentioned that it would be nice to see each other again.

There was always the possibility that him being so unassuming was all a part of his game to get her contact information but even the most cunning of men dropped the pretense once they felt safe. They kept in contact through text or phone calls for the better part of the week and not once had he given her any reason to doubt his intentions. It was nice to just talk to someone without the pressure of wondering where it was headed. The heavy buzzing of her date unlocking the entrance shook the young woman out of her musing and made her refocus her thoughts as she reached for the door. This was the first time they were meeting up in person since the morning they met and she was growing more nervous the closer she got to her date’s apartment door.

“110, this is it…” Baby’s soft voice muttered once she came to a stop. Her arm reached forward but paused just before her knuckles connected to the wood. She could hear music, muffled but still audible,  from behind the door and uncertainty made her stop for just a few seconds to contemplate whether she really wanted to do this. As nice as he was this man was still basically a stranger and now she was giving him control over her surroundings. Baby glanced over both her shoulders, making a mental note of any potential escape routes she could use if it came to that then thrust her arm forward to knock swiftly against the front door.

The ten seconds it took him to open the door seemed to creep by and Baby visibly flinched when the barrier swung in and her date for the evening appeared behind it. He was dressed in nothing but a pair of low hanging sweatpants with a dishrag thrown over his bare shoulder and clearly not prepared for her to arrive just yet.

“Baby?” He grinned, stressing the crinkles around his eyes when he looked down.

“Hey, Jungkook. Sorry I guess I’m a little early, I should have called first or something-” She blathered and fidgeted with the key chain attached to her small purse.

Jungkook shook his head and waved her forward “No, you’re good I was just finishing up dinner. Come in, make yourself comfortable.”

Baby nodded and followed Jungkook as he stepped backward then deeper into his apartment. She followed his lead and removed her shoes at the front door, thankful she’d chosen to wear socks today. “So you cook shirtless? That would make an interesting show.” Baby commented and took a seat at one of the bar stools pushed against the kitchen island.

“Ah, no,” Jungkook laughed and shook his head “I spilled some sauce on my shirt… I’m soaking it so it won’t stain.”

“Wow,” Baby whistled and rested her chin in her palm “He cooks and does his own laundry? What horrible personality trait are you making up for?”

Jungkook only snickered and shook his head again “Nuh-uh, I gotta give you something to look forward to right?” He accompanied his teasing quip with a wink that made Baby blush and duck her head. “Let’s talk about you, how was your day?”

“Uhm, pretty good!” She perked up, “Work was crazy, but the office is always busy on Fridays. I was really excited when you texted me, I was going to spend my night on my couch watching VH1 with a bucket of ice cream.”

Jungkook smiled and gave the sauce he was heating a small stir, “Now you get to spend it on my couch with a home-cooked meal- Taste this.”  He blew gently to cool down the sauce then held out the wooden spoon in his hand towards Baby’s lips “It’s bolognese.”

“Wow, that’s amazing.” Baby hummed, licking her lips “Did you really make that yourself?”

He nodded and lowered the temperature of the stove, “Made, bought. It’s all the same thing” Jungkook shrugged with a hearty laugh as he backed away from the stove.

“I don’t think that’s the same thing but I’ll let you cook Jungkook.”  Baby chuckled and shook her head.

“Well, I hope you’re hungry anyway,” he shrugged and reached forward for Baby’s hand, making her flinch and recoil her hand just slightly. “Sorry, I ju- I thought-”

“No, no you’re okay I feel a little weird about this.” She replied quickly “I’m not sure what the protocol…like are we just hanging out? Or is this, like, a date? I don’t know how I should behave.”

Jungkook exhaled and nodded as if he was coming to his own realization. He didn’t reply to Baby’s questions and the suspense of his silence made her regret being so open. It was just like her to ruin something with unnecessary speculation. From the corner of her eye Baby’s could see Jungkook removing the washrag from his shoulder and dropping it to the counter in front of where Baby sat. He crossed over the kitchen island and in a few brief steps he was standing in front of Baby. With his knees, he swiveled the bar stool so that her back was against the counter. He placed a hand on either side of her body and leaned in close until their faces were inches apart. His warm breath fanned over the slope of her nose and across her plump cheeks, transferring warm waves of heat throughout her body. His left hand danced delicately up her forearm until the pads of his fingers smoothed across her skin and pressed against Baby’s neck and pulled her forward into his lips.

They were rougher than Baby had imagined but that did not stop his kiss from being soft and gentle, almost shy. He kept his hands pressed against her neck and nestled by her side, not moving an inch even when Baby parted her lips and sucked on his bottom lip, hard enough to make him groan in a guttural way that sent jolts of arousal straight to her core. She expected to push him away, to make some small effort at backing down when he first swaggered over and Baby realized this man who was still practically a stranger was actually going to kiss her. But this was… fun. Simple and fun and satisfying in a way that Baby hadn’t felt in a long time.

When Jungkook pulled away he traced the outline of Baby’s lips with his thumb and gave her a playful smirk “Do we need to label anything? Let’s just have fun tonight.”

In hindsight, this should have been Baby’s first red flag, Jungkook’s refusal to give her an actual answer. The way he silenced her concerns with a kiss that, as satisfying as it was, did nothing to set a firm boundary on exactly what they were doing from that point on. All of this might have come to Baby’s attention if she hadn’t been so busy admiring the way Jungkook’s pectoral muscles seemed to gleam in the moonlight and the fact that he was still standing with his body slotted between her legs and his thumb massaging circles into her neck.

“I like fun.”

Baby had all intentions of simply getting to know Jungkook a little better when she came over. They’d watch a movie, eat something maybe make out a little, but that was as far as she planned to go. That was all before Jungkook kissed her lips, then leaned back in to kiss her neck and massage her thighs. It was in the midst of all this that Baby decided that ignoring her better judgement and fucking the man she had barely known for a week would be much more fun. She wasn’t sure exactly when they’d moved from the kitchen to Jungkook’s couch. Somewhere between the failed attempted at eating the dinner he had prepared and a conversation about what they could watch on Netflix; their bodies became intertwined in a heated embrace with Baby straddling Jungkook’s waist and his hands holding onto to her ass for dear life.

Yes, this was definitely the right choice, Baby reaffirmed as he stroked her. His heavy, rough hands palmed her, teased her, sent shivers down her spine as Jungkook seemed to inadvertently make up for every lonely, frustrated night Baby spent in her tiny apartment. He was seasoned and concise, each action committed with the sole purpose of making Baby sigh and moan his name again and again. She shuddered as his teeth nibbled her breast, her breath shaking inside her lungs. She shifted in position just slightly, allowing her supple bronzed legs to feel the tensed muscles that made her panties grow damp.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this” Baby sighed, feeling his fingertips gently explore her tender core. The feeling was much more intense than she remembered, having someone touch her in an such an intimate way. She was so wet, so hot and so eager to feel more than just his fingers gently caressing her folds. Jungkook chuckled, pulling his head up to look Baby in the eyes, his fingers never straying from her  pussy.

His fingers teased her before they moved underneath her dress to her hips, grabbing fistfuls of cotton. He pulled down the flimsy fabric, off her legs and over her feet, tossing the item to side and leaving her exposed before him, lean and achingly aroused. Baby watched as he hooked his thumbs into the elastic of his sweats, lowering them until his cock bobbed upwards against his abdomen. He moved quickly with a condom he seemed to pull out of thin air and sheathed himself before pulling Baby down to his lips once more.

“Are you going to let me fuck you, Baby?” He whispered, stealing the breath from her lungs. Baby’s eyes slid shut, and she arched forward, her toes curling as heat flushed throughout her body. She never dreamed she could be this aroused before. And then she felt his wide, firm hands on her hips, guiding and pulling her up and forward, until she felt him against her. She gazed down, watching his thick length hover beneath her, before Jungkook gently maneuvered her down onto him and touched her lips. Baby’s eyes fluttered, her thighs quaking as he pushed inside her eager cunt until their hips met.

Jungkook’s hands settled against her waist and on her hips, his teeth gritting as he looked down at where their bodies met. Her smooth brown skin glowed under the gleam of the moon, in such contrast to his much paler tone. He held her still, leaning back into the couch and watching her bite her lip as he eased in and out of her core. Her body rocked against him, her toes flexing and uncurling as she felt her wetness slip down her thighs and over Jungkook’s skin. Baby shut her eyes, her fingers digging deep into his shoulders in an attempt to hold back her rapidly approaching orgasm. She didn’t want to fall apart just yet, shaking and clenching him hard enough to maybe bring him over the edge with her.

Jungkook responded by nuzzling his nose against pulse before gingerly sinking his teeth into her skin. She groaned when his teeth bit down into her warm flesh, trying her best to keep her moans and whimpers quiet as his hips continued to thrust upwards inside her. Her head fell forward into the crook of his neck and she nipped at his neck as her hands moved upwards to lace into his hair.

She could barely catch her breath as he overwhelmed her with the sensations of his cock pumping into her, his hands groping her slender body and his tongue lapping at her neck to ease the pain.  “Fuck..” she moaned, her hips taking on a mind of their own and grinding down at a quicker pace against his.  “Jungkook… I can’t- I’m gonna come” she moaned breathlessly, her hips grinding down harshly.

His hips pistoned faster at her warning and Baby barely had seconds to adjust to the pace before she felt her tether on reality snap.  She whined sharply against his lips with each rough thrust, placing her forehead against his, her swollen clit throbbed against his slick shaft as her body ground into him. She gripped her hands tightly to the sides of his neck, meeting his eyes as her her body tensed and her orgasm erupted inside her, drenching every inch of his stiff length. She panted deeply against his lips, her heart slamming hard into her chest.

Jungkook stalled beneath her a few moments after, his mouth suckling on one of Baby’s nipples as he came,  groaning into her chest and smacking her bare ass with his large hands. She yelped and straightened her posture, the small jolt of pain bringing her back to her senses for the night. “I never do things like this…” Baby muttered with a slight laugh as she gently slid off Jungkook’s lap and onto his couch.

“There’s a first time for everything,” Jungkook answered as he already began removing the spent condom from his appendage and readjusting himself into his sweatpants. Without another word he stood to his feet and disposed of the garbage then returned to where Baby was still seated. Crouching down on his haunches, Jungkook smiled and curled his fingers around chin and brought her forward to his lips again “I had a really good time tonight, Baby.”

“So did I,” she replied, curling her fingers around his hand.

“We should get together again sometime… I ordered you an Uber it should be here in a few minutes so take your time getting dressed.” He spoke so sweetly and calmly that Baby hardly even noticed that he was effectively kicking her out in the middle of the night after they’d just had sex for the first time.

“Oh! Right, okay… thank you.” She replied while refitting her clothes to their proper position.

“I’d invite you to stay, but I have work tomorrow morning and… well you know how it is.”

“I get it,” Baby nodded “We just met, there’s no need to rush into anything.”

Jungkook nodded and stood up when Baby did, helping her with one of her buttons before pulling her into his body by her waist and kissing her on the lips “We really should do this again sometime. I’ll call you?”

Baby nodded, her mind still hazy with lust as Jungkook guided her towards the door and kissed her again once she was out into the hallway. She was just a few feet away from his doorway when the thought finally hit her that he was really allowing her to leave. Even going so far as to call a car for her just in case she got the idea of staying over. That thought had naturally never crossed her mind. Even if it was late, there was no way she was going to spend the night in the apartment of a man she barely knew. The audacity of him to escort her out like she had any intention of staying annoyed Baby, so much so that she almost contemplated turning around to tell Jungkook just that.

Then she could hear her name being called and when she finally turned around Jungkook was jogging behind her and waving her down. He paused to catch his breath once he was close enough and beckoned Baby closer and closer until they were barely a few inches apart. Jungkook leaned down slowly and intentionally as if he was going to kiss her again but instead he leaned past her mouth and brushed his lips against her shell of her ear “You forgot something…” He accompanied his words with the action of slipping something into the top of Baby’s purse before pressing his lips against her cheek and heading back towards his apartment. Her brow furrowed for a moment until she reached into her purse and felt the familiar cotton fabric of her underwear becoming entangled in her fingers. Baby groaned and buried her face in the palms of her hands, her cheeks glowing with embarrassment.

This was not a mistake she planned on making again.

[iamseeress]

Tokens For Your Appreciation

Summary: Katsuki isn't into birthdays. But he does appreciate the gifts.

___________________

Katsuki isn’t really into birthdays.

He remembers to get his mom a little something every year, he’d eat a slice of his own birthday cake if someone else buys it, but that’s it. Birthdays come and go whether Katsuki does anything about it or not. And if you miss this year, well, there’s always another one coming.

His dad though likes to celebrate birthdays. Not big productions or surprise parties, just enough to mark the occasion as special. There’d usually be a wrapped gift for Katsuki or his mom, and dinner plans in a nicer-than-average restaurant.

Katsuki doesn’t mind it; he just isn’t gonna plan it. Especially not for someone else.

Once when he was 12, trudging at the mall while his dad picked out a gift for his mom when he’d rather be on a run using the cool shoes he got for his birthday, his dad told him giving gifts is part of being in a relationship. It shows your appreciation for the other person and that you care; and when time comes that Katsuki gets a girlfriend or wife, she’d expect Katsuki to remember special dates like anniversaries and birthdays, and gifts on those occasions would not be amiss.

It was a good father-and-son talk, a valuable life lesson for sure thanks, but Katsuki has a goal to achieve, and relationships — romantic or otherwise — are pretty low in his list of priorities. It was low when he was 12, and it’s still low now at 17 turning 18.

In their first year in UA, his classmates hadn’t been aware that his birthday is on April 20. Classes had only begun 2 weeks before and Katsuki could barely remember his classmates’ faces, much less their names. They eventually found out because Iida and Yaoyorozu were given basic information about each student including dates of birth, but by that time Katsuki’s birthday had already passed.

It had come and gone with only a mumbled "happy birthday, Kacchan" from a nervous Izuku.

Izuku knows Katsuki’s birthday, of course. It’s Katsuki’s fate to be in the same class as Izuku since they were in their baby blue pre-school smocks. There’d been more than a handful of cakes and wrapped gifts between them over the years but none at all past grade school. By the time they were in middle school, they didn’t hang out enough to merit an invite to birthday treats or any gift buying.

They used to though. When Katsuki was younger his dad would have him invite a friend or two to have ice cream with him as a special treat after school for his birthday. When he got a little older, the treat included a side trip to the game arcade and a pouch full of tokens for him and his friends.

Izuku had usually been one of those friends, until they weren't friends anymore and Katsuki stopped inviting people altogether. He doesn’t need extras on his birthday.

In their second year in UA, Sato baked him a birthday cake. Katsuki deigned to stay in the dorm common room 30 minutes past his usual bedtime and allowed his classmates — friends by then he supposes — to celebrate his 17th birthday with him. His parents had called to greet him and the next time he was home they went out to dinner in a nice Thai restaurant that had a lot spicy offerings.

Izuku hadn’t gotten him a gift but he’d been smiling when he greeted Katsuki a "happy birthday, Kacchan” before they walked to class together, discussing their English homework on the way.

Katsuki is turning 18 tomorrow. He expects Sato to bake him another cake.

This isn’t because he’s an entitled ass but because Sato bakes a cake most days and definitely one on each of their classmates’ birthdays. Also because Sato had asked him earlier what flavor he would like.

Katsuki told him chocolate. Sato had hummed then explained that he could make a dark chocolate cake with a little red chili for heat and Katsuki found himself impressed and growled out a thanks.

So Katsuki will have a cake tomorrow and very likely a card signed by everyone in their class — he’s had to sign a card for 19 other people plus Aizawa in the past two years; Yaoyorozu is in charge of buying the cards from class funds — and that will be that for Katsuki’s 18th birthday.

For today though, it’s Saturday afternoon and he’s in the common room eating a pre-workout snack of yogurt and berries, watching chaos unfold.

“Are you sure you can’t repay me another way, Aoyama-kun?” Izuku says, in near desperate tones. “Or, or better yet, and this is definitely the better option now that I think about it, maybe we can consider us quits! I did it as your friend and no repayment is needed. At all. Your happiness, Aoyama-kun, is payment enough.”

“Non, non, Midoriya, mon ami. You have done me a great service and I would be remiss in my duties as a friend if I didn’t repay you in kind. Good deeds must be repaid, especially between friends. Otherwise, chaos would reign in the world, n’est-ce pas?”

“Ha ha, yeah, chaos,” Izuku laughs weakly. He throws a pleading glance at Uraraka seated by the sofa.

She dutifully comes to his rescue. Or at least attempts to.

“Aoyama-kun, as heroes-in-training we don’t expect any repayment from those we help. It’s just what we do,” Uraraka says with a cheerful smile. She pauses and a little furrow appears over her brow. “Not that I’d say ‘no’ if they wanna pay me extra.”

“Uraraka-kun!” Izuku hisses but it was too late.

“Bien sur. We do not expect it but we also do not say no when it is offered and in this case it is not just offered but insisted. Midoriya, I must insist that you allow me to do this for you. As your good friend, and as someone whom you’ve saved magnificently from dire straits,” Aoyama says, an earnest hand on his chest.

Izuku sighs and gives in to the inevitable. “Alright, Aoyama-kun. How do you wanna do this?”

“Fantastique! We meet here tomorrow morning at 9. You bring your charming self and I shall take care of the rest. We should be back in time for dinner with the rest of our merveilleux amis.”

“It’s gonna take the whole day?” Izuku asks, clearly surprised.

“Midoriya, one cannot rush perfection. It will take as long as it will take,” Aoyama says, batting elegantly long eyelashes. “But for now, a bientot. I need to make reservations for our little adventure tomorrow.”

And with a flip of his expertly cut and feathered hair, Aoyama exits the common room, leaving sparkles in his wake.

Izuku collapses on the sofa, rubbing his face with his hands. Uraraka pats his shoulder in commiseration but Katsuki can see her eyes bubbling with laughter.

“Do I wanna know what the fuck that was about?” Katsuki asks, spooning yogurt into his mouth.

“Aoyama-kun wants to give Deku-kun a ‘make-over’,” Uraraka says, very ineffectively muffling the giggles with her hand.

Katsuki raises an eyebrow. “Surprised he can do that in just one day.”

Izuku groans into his hands. “Kacchan, you’re not helping.”

“Cheer up, Deku-kun. You don’t know, you might have fun! He’s probably just gonna take you shopping… ermm, but maybe stay away from flowy long sleeved blouses in case he asks you to get them. I don’t think they’d suit you,” Uraraka says, waving her hand vaguely over Izuku’s well muscled form.

Katsuki imagines Izuku's short, stocky frame in one of Aoyama’s frilly white shirts, the ruffled collars high up his muscle-thickened neck. He snickers.

“Just give it up, Deku. You already said yes. Are you planning to mope there all day or are we doing that spar?”

“Spar please, Kacchan,” Izuku says, standing up. “Make me forget.”

“Always happy to kick your ass, nerd. Meet you back here in 5.”

Katsuki wasn’t quite sure when it happened but barring exceptional circumstances, Saturday afternoons is what he mentally — but never verbally — refers to as ‘Deku time’.

There’s no hard and fast rule about the content, only the participants.

It’s usually some form of physical activity because that’s how they first managed to bridge the gap between them: by fighting until one of them surrendered, got injured, or a teacher intervened. It remains as a way for them to stay in tune with each other, despite that these days they talk more together than Katsuki does with anyone else.

For today, they decide on a no-quirk wrestling match; whoever gets pinned five times should be ashamed of themselves. They are hot and sweaty, muscles bunched up, each trying to get a firm hold on the other — palms, arms, thighs sliding over sweat slicked parts.

An hour and a half in and Katsuki wins: 5 pin downs to Deku’s 3.

Izuku is already pouting underneath Katsuki, getting ready to challenge the last pin down, but Katsuki is taking the win and not giving it back. He grins down on Izuku, flat on his back with a mutinous look in his green eyes.

“That was sneaky, Kacchan.”

“Not my fault you got distracted.”

They had been in the middle of a grapple; Izuku was about to slip away, Katsuki could feel it. Katsuki had his mouth beside Izuku’s ear and he whispered “I wonder what you’d look like after Aoyama’s done with you.”

Izuku had gasped and there had been a tiny lapse in his concentration and Katsuki swooped in. He’d been pinned on the mat in a matter of seconds.

Katsuki should get up, get off Izuku, offer him a hand up, but he was enjoying this too much. He has Izuku beaten, aggrieved and under him. Can anything taste any better?

He’s still gloating, in the middle of relishing his victory when he feels a familiar stirring in his pants. Katsuki clambers off Izuku and gets up, faster than even Iida could have moved.

Teenaged boys get boners. It’s a fact of life.

It generally doesn’t happen when grappling for points or bragging rights — no matter what porn films may show you. The body pumps blood everywhere else except your cock, under the all-important mission of not letting you be pinned to the ground by your opponent.

But the moment the fight instinct is gone, with adrenaline still pumping through you, and you’re in contact with the hard heated body of your stupidly attractive classmate slash friend slash rival, well — blood gets diverted somewhere specific really fast.

It’s happened before, it will happen again. Until all these bullshit hormones stop raging across their teenaged bodies.

Tomorrow, Katsuki will be one year closer to that bliss and he’ll be grateful for it. Because these ‘incidents’ with Izuku have been happening faster, more often, and stupidly harder to get rid off each time it happens. Katsuki has better things to do than rage at his own dick for being a dick.

Katsuki walks off to grab their water bottles, surreptitiously adjusting his pants.

He throws one to Izuku, still lying on the mat with his eyes closed.

Probably willing his own hard-on away, Katsuki thinks viciously.

The bottle bounces on Izuku’s chest, rolls away and gets retrieved with Black Whip.

Izuku eventually sits up and Katsuki reclaims his space in front of him, their knees almost but not quite touching.

“I think I’m nervous about tomorrow,” Izuku says.

“You’re about to be a pro hero and you dress like an 8 year old. Can’t hurt to let him help you,” Katsuki says, blunt as always.

“We’re in uniform when we patrol though, what does it matter what else I wear,” Izuku points out.

“You weren’t in uniform when you fought Gentle Criminal.”

The video had somehow been uploaded, caught viral attention, then picked up by one of the biggest tv news stations a few months ago. It had brought unwanted fame and notoriety to provisional hero license Deku and Midoriya Izuku.

“I suppose we can all be grateful it wasn’t one of your stupid slogan shirts,” Katsuki says.

His muscles are pleasantly tired and an over-all feeling of langour and well-being is washing over him, now familiar after all this time spent with Izuku.

Izuku huffs. “Says ‘Aji Fry’ shirt.”

“Fuck you, I look good in it. You are just a mess.”

Izuku chuckles. “Can’t argue with that. You always look good, Kacchan. If you weren’t such an asshole scaring away people, you’d give Todoroki a run for his money.”

“Better an asshole than a dumb prince.”

“Todoroki’s not dumb,” Izuku says, mostly by reflex than any desire to argue. Katsuki has called everyone worse things.

Katsuki sips his water and doesn’t say anything. Todoroki ranked fifth in their last mid term exams.

“You think this is a good idea, Kacchan? Me getting this ‘make-over’?” Izuku asks.

There is a hesitation in his voice that Katsuki hasn’t heard in a while.

Katsuki knows that somewhere underneath that horrible slogan tee and roomy gym shorts is a body that most pro linebackers would kill to have. Broad shoulders, massive torso, powerful thighs. Built like a freight train and just as unstoppable.

He’s seen it, he’d just been grappling with it. Sometimes he even dreams about it. Stupid teenage hormones.

“You’ll fanboy over All Might even after you’re a pro hero yourself. You’d help little old ladies cross the street by picking them up and their entire goddamned house. You’re always gonna be a crybaby. What does it matter if you can Windsor knot your tie?”

“Just get kitted out with laser boy. If you like it, fine. If you don’t, then don’t do it again. It’s one Sunday. You’ll be a nerd regardless.”

“Kacchan…” Izuku says, green eyes filling with tears.

“What did I tell you? Crybaby.”

“Thank you, Kacchan,” Izuku says, laughing and sniffling at the same time.

“Just go,” Katsuki says, mopping away tears from freckled cheeks with rough fingers. “How bad could it be?”

Katsuki deliberates whether to explode Aoyama, Izuku or himself first.

For as long as Katsuki can remember, Izuku’s hair had been an unruly mass of soft green curls. It clearly had a mind of its own and refused most of Izuku’s efforts to tame it. They tend to stand up more in the mornings when Izuku has just gotten out of bed, and splay themselves out like wonky dandelions seeds during hot humid days.

They’re gone now.

That is, Izuku still has his curls and is not currently bald, but the unruly mess of green is gone. The curls on the lower half of his head had been trimmed away, buzzed off until only a short green fuzz was left. The curls on the sides and top of his head remain intact but they’d been shortened, expertly cut to make the green strands less of a mess that Katsuki had learned to live with and more a temptation he wants to run his fingers through.

Izuku has the audacity, the sheer gall to duck his head down and look sheepish. The soft blush highlighting his freckled cheeks is just overkill.

“I’m still not used to it,” Izuku tells their assembled classmates, “the back of my head feels cold.”

They’re all in the common room, Aoyama and Izuku walked in not 5 minutes ago. Aoyama looking pleased with himself; Izuku looking like he stepped off a fashion magazine, sports edition. The entire room had gone nuts.

Katsuki saw them leave that morning and he knew Izuku had on a pale green tee that said ‘bath robe’.

That’s gone as well and good riddance, replaced by a dark green button up that lent color to Izuku’s eyes and highlighted the planes of his impressive chest. The sleeves are folded almost up to the elbows, exposing arms that Katsuki knew for a fact could lift bridges. The scars only add depth of character to what is already a very delectable picture. The dark jeans Izuku had on actually fit, caressing the tree trunk thighs without being too tight, tapering just right down his legs.

Aoyama had clearly employed some kind of magic. Katsuki’s parents would approve. Short but stacked is not an easy combination to dress up.

Uraraka is clutching Izuku’s arm, looking at him in wonder. Kaminari is running his hands through Izuku’s remaining curls, fluffing them up. Everyone else in the room is crowding him, patting his back, squeezing his arm, telling him he looked great, getting a piece of Izuku’s freely given smile for themselves.

Everyone except Aoyama. Katsuki tears his gaze away from the spectacle that is Deku and finds Aoyama’s eyes fixed on him. He smiles and sparkles at Katsuki.

Katsuki scowls and contemplates exploding Aoyama again for causing this but Izuku is talking now, laughing about something.

“Aoyama-kun wanted me to get my ears pierced. Just one. Maybe get a red stone for an earring. But UA won’t allow that so maybe after graduation,” Izuku says with another laugh.

Katsuki realizes he’s bent the fork he has in his hand into something unusable. He goes to the kitchen to get another fork, bringing his plate of half-eaten cake with him.

He can still hear the laughter from the common area. He slams the plate down on the kitchen counter, but they're made to withstand quirk abuse and doesn’t shatter.

“Do you like my birthday gift to you, Bakugou?”

Katsuki turns and sees Aoyama, sparkling at him.

“What gift?” He asks, confused for a moment. Other than the cake and card, he didn’t get anything from his classmates.

“Sometimes it is difficult to see something if we are too close to it. It’s better if someone else rips away the veil, et voila! And you see what has always been there.”

“The fuck are you talking about?” Katsuki would be more irritated with the cryptic conversation except that he welcomes the distraction from all the giggling happening just a few meters away.

“Do you know that the entire day, our dear friend Midoriya has been talking about how amazing ‘Kacchan’ is? He was quite concerned if you would like his new look.”

Aoyama smiles again, looking both earnest and impish at the same time.

“He likes you.”

“‘Course he does,” Bakugou snaps out.

“Sometimes friends are just friends. Midoriya and I, we are bons amis. Sometimes, friends turn to lovers. It doesn’t mean they are any less friends. Or rivals. They simply become more.”

Katsuki stabs his fork into the chocolate cake, lets the dark sweetness of it cover his tongue.

“Happy birthday, Bakugou. Midoriya deserves the best, don’t you think?”

Message delivered, Aoyama leaves Katsuki.

Katsuki has always been decisive.

Unlike Izuku who mumbles and dithers with choices, trying to cover all possible angles, Katsuki is quick to choose a path and explore it.

Right now, decision made, it is easier to bear the admiring looks and constant touching happening in front of him. Izuku looks happy at least.

Half an hour past his usual bedtime, Katsuki growls out a good night. Everyone calls out their own good nights, happy birthday agains, and see you tomorrows, too used to Katsuki’s ways after 2 years of living together to protest at how early it still is.

He’s already reached the elevator doors when Izuku catches up to him.

“Can we pass by my room first, Kacchan? I have something for you,” Izuku says, the look may be new but the smile is the same warm one he’d always given Katsuki.

Katsuki pushes the number 2 button in response, still looking Izuku over.

“Where’d you get clothes that actually fit?”

“Ah, the clothes are from normal shops. It was the tailor that we had to look for. We had to get everything altered. Anything that fit me across the chest would be too long. What could fit my thighs would be too loose in the waist, and again too long,” Izuku said with a wry twist of his lips.

For all of Izuku’s nervous tics, he had never seemed particularly bothered by his height. He’s not short, per se, he’s past the average height for a Japanese man. But for a pro hero, he’s definitely on the shorter side of the field. He just barely tops Katsuki’s chin.

“So you got more of these?” Katsuki said, picking at Izuku’s shirt.

“A couple more but they’re all still with the tailor. I’m gonna go get them next weekend. Aoyama just made them finish this one set so he can show me off to everyone.”

Katsuki nudges Izuku's red shoes with his own. Izuku looks down at the contact and comes back up smiling.

"Yeah, Aoyama-kun let me keep my shoes. He said the goal is to show a more presentable side of me, not change me."

Izuku begins to tuck a curl behind his ear, realizes there is nothing to tuck and scratches the soft skin at the back of his ear instead.

Katsuki reaches out and encircles Izuku’s wrist with his fingers, pulling it away, halting the nervous gesture. Green eyes look at him in surprise.

“Don’t. You look good,” Katsuki admits. “You, this, it all looks good.”

“Oh. Thanks, Kacchan.”

There is a soft pink tingeing his freckled cheeks, more pleased than embarrassed.

The door opens and Katsuki follows Izuku to his room. It’s familiar. He’d spent hours in this room over the last 2 years; Izuku’s spent even more time in Katsuki’s.

Izuku grabs something bright colored from the desk.

“Here,” he says, holding out a small package wrapped in red and orange paper. “Happy birthday.”

Katsuki takes it, surprised. He hadn’t been expecting a gift but perhaps he should have.

“What’s this?” he asks rather inanely.

“Open it,” Izuku says, smiling at him.

Katsuki finds the flap and pulls on it, tearing the paper to expose a small rectangular box. Inside on a bed of white padding is a thin metal rectangle, the size of an ID card if a bit thicker. It’s a black matte finish with orange edging, portraying a stylized version of his hero mask.

The design is familiar. He’d seen Izuku doodle variations of it on one of his many notebooks. Katsuki hadn’t thought much about it; Izuku has been putting pieces of him on paper since they were kids.

On the flip side is inscribed his hero name in beautiful calligraphy, edged in dark green. Despite the small size, it has heft, lying heavy on his hand. A thin strap of black fine leather is looped on one corner.

It feels luxurious; the craftsmanship excellent.

“You know they can’t make merch of us yet. Officially at least. But you’re gonna be so big when you debut as pro hero, Kacchan. You’re gonna have tons of merch. I wanted to make this for you first.”

Katsuki turns the gift over in his hand, running his fingers over the smooth surface and design, feeling its weight.

“Are you really giving me my own merch?”

Izuku grins. “Tell me you’re not super pumped to see your name and colors.”

Katsuki grins back, sharp and pleased.

“Did you get one for ‘Deku’ for yourself?”

Izuku shakes his head. “No, just this.”

Katsuki rolls his eyes. Hero Deku will have just as much of an impact in the pro hero scene. But Katsuki understands, it's okay to fanboy over other heroes but not over himself.

“I can’t wear my own merch, Deku. That’s tacky. My mom would have my hide.”

Izuku laughs. “You don’t have to wear it. Just keep it somewhere. It slips in the wallet too.”

Katsuki’s fingers are still playing with the metal card, feeling the texture with his fingers.

“How about you wear it?”

Izuku blinks at him.

Katsuki walks over to the familiar backpack sitting on the desk chair. It’s easy enough to loop the leather on one of the front clasps. The black and orange design is stark against the yellow fabric.

Katsuki feels a rush of satisfaction looking at the obvious branding.

“Are you sure about this, Kacchan?”

“Why not. Maybe if you carry this with you everyday, you’ll catch up to me sooner.”

Izuku touches the metal, a small smile on his lips. “I wanted one done for me too,” he admits sheepishly.

“Of course, you did,” Katsuki says, amused. “You’d probably buy all my merch when they come out, even the limited edition ones.”

“Are you kidding? Especially the limited edition ones,” Izuku says, full grinning now.

“But Kacchan,” Izuku says, losing some of his brightness, “I won’t have a gift for you if you give this back.”

“Who says I’m giving it back? You’re just wearing it cause I can’t.”

“Tacky, I know.” Izuku says, smiling again. “Thank you, Kacchan. I hope you enjoyed your birthday.”

“Yeah, I got a good gift this year,” Katsuki says, recalling what Aoyama said, strengthening his resolve.

He’s looking at his gift right now — freckles, green eyes and a warm smile, all made up just for Katsuki.

He steps closer to Izuku, closer than is comfortable even between friends.

Izuku tips his head back, looking at Katsuki, his eyes wide with questions.

“Kacchan?”

“Actually, you could give me another gift,” Katsuki says, voice unintentionally low and raspy.

He lifts a hand, brushing his knuckles across the newly buzzed hair behind Izuku’s perfectly shaped ear, threading it through the unruly curls higher up. He feels Izuku draw in a shuddering breath, see the tip of a wet pink tongue dart out in a nervous gesture, wetting his lips.

“What gift?” Izuku asks, voice thready.

Izuku’s right hand clutches at the front of Katsuki’s shirt and he realizes he’d been slowly leaning down, leaning into Izuku’s space.

“You could give me a kiss,” Katsuki whispers and bends down to give it to himself instead.

Izuku’s lips are soft, moist, impossibly warm.

“Oh,” Izuku says softly when Katsuki pulls away.

“Yeah,” he agrees.

“Happy birthday, Kacchan.”

“So far, the best ever.”

Katsuki is surprised to find he knows when Izuku’s birthday is. He didn’t think he remembered anyone’s except for his parents.

It’s still 3 months away. Katsuki has time to get a matching pro hero Deku design made. Izuku can wear it on his backpack too. Their colors will clash horribly with the yellow but he doubts Izuku would mind.

He realizes Izuku would give him a gift every year now. And he’d have to give one back too because no way he’ll lose to Izuku. Maybe he’ll get him an earring next year, the red would look good against his green curls.

Well, Katsuki still isn’t big on birthdays. But it would be easy enough to remember Izuku’s.

___________________ Author’s Notes:  

Later, Katsuki finds out that it’s much more important to remember Inko’s birthday than her son’s. Izuku will love him no matter what but pleasing in-laws is a top priority mission. Did I research on how to dress a short, stocky man? Why, yes. Yes I did.

This fic was created for the BKDK Katsuki Birthday Exchange 2020 as a gift to Mimocha. They wanted an Ikemen!Deku for Katsuki.

[ahatintimestorybook]

A Royal Problem Chap.9 Cooking Lessons and Realizations

Hello everyone! Here is the next chapter, and it's another filler, but the last filler for now since the next arc/act is going to be the next chapter.

For this story I plan some filler chapters in between certain arcs just as a breather since the arcs on the chapters will be long as shown from my Dead Bird Studios one. Especially the next arc, which I think you guys would like.

Also thanks to ReaderDragon for being my Beta Reader. You're the best!!!

Enjoy the chapter!!!!

Vanessa

It was that same dream again.

Vanessa

Come here.

Vanessa froze, and stepped back from the voice who was calling out to her. As she stepped back the ghostly figure got close to her.

What’s wrong Vanessa?

I thought you cared for-

Vanessa’s eyes quickly opened and saw she was still on Hat Kid’s ship, sleeping in her bed. She turned to see if she woke Hat Kid or Snatcher up, but saw they were still asleep. The latter was snoring loudly, which Vanessa was used to back in the day. She sighed seeing it was all just a dream, a horrible dream that could have turned into a nightmare if she hadn’t woken up. Vanessa lied back down and turned to Hat Kid, not falling back to sleep at the slightest. The dream still played in her head as well as the previous dream of-

Vanessa stopped at her thoughts when she smelt something in the kitchen. It smelt like food, knowing it was C.C cooking breakfast for her, Hat and Snatcher. She wished she knew what time it was, but since they were up in space it felt like nighttime. Slowly, she got out of bed and went over to the window to see where the sun was pointed. It looked like the sun was rising, which relieved her. Vanessa looked back at the two kids sleeping before walking to the kitchen to see what C.C was making.

C.C was humming a song as she put flour, milk and eggs into a bowl and started to mix it all up. She was going to make pancakes for the kids today, and decided to come earlier to cook and surprise the kids with a big breakfast. As she mixed the pancake batter, she heard the door open and turned to see Vanessa peeking from the door.

“Good morning, Vanessa.” C.C beamed.

“Good morning.” Vanessa whispered walking in the kitchen. “I hope I’m not bothering you.”

C.C chuckled. “You're not. I just started making the batter.” She explained. Vanessa tried to look up, but was still a bit short to see what the pancake batter was supposed to look like. C.C then moved one of the chairs for Vanessa to climb up on so she can get a better look.

“Thank you.” Vanessa said, giving a little curtsy before getting up on the chair and seeing the pancake batter.

“You can mix it if you want.” C.C suggested handing Vanessa the mixing spoon. Vanessa looked at the spoon and slowly took it from the cat. She was never offered to mix anything, sure she made cookie dough, but that she made herself, and the cookies were “to die for” as everyone said. It still confused her to what that means.

Vanessa stared at the bowl and at the spoon before putting the spoon into the bowl and started to mix, hard. C.C grabbed Vanessa’s arm stopping her from mixing too fast. “Woah. Woah slow down there.” Soon C.C felt Vanessa flinch the second she grabbed the young princess’s arm. Quickly, she pulled away. “Sorry darlin’ didn’t mean to grab ya there, but you were stirring fast.”

“It's. Alright.” Vanessa whispered as she rubbed her arm. C.C frowned realizing something was bothering the girl, she was going to ask her but with how early it was she decided to hold off on it for now. Vanessa continued to mix, slowly this time till the batter turned nice and smooth. “Does this look good?” She asked, showing the batter to the cat chef.

C.C looked at the creamy pancake batter and smiled. “Yes, that’s perfect!” Vanessa smiled and clapped in joy. She handed the batter to C.C who started to make the pancakes. “Would you grab the eggs, bacon and fruit for me please?”

Vanessa sighed hearing the word bacon, as she walked over to the fridge grabbing the carton of eggs, a package of bacon, and a small fruit platter. Vanessa put the fruit on the table and handed C.C the bacon and eggs. The cat smiled and grabbed a few eggs to scramble them along with bacon to cook. Vanessa watched in disappointment when she saw the bacon cooking. She gave a sigh, which caught the cat’s attention.

“Anything wrong darlin?” C.C asked.

“Yeah.” Vanessa sighed.

Before Vanessa could answer, C.C answered for her. “Is it the bacon?” She asked. Vanessa nodded. C.C slightly chuckled. “Now, why in tarnation would a sweet little girl like you not like bacon?”

Vanessa sighs. “Because Luke likes it. No. Loves it more than me.” She whined.

C.C stood there quietly for a bit before laughing. The cat chef laughed so hard she had to hold her stomach. Vanessa was confused, and tilted her head over why C.C was laughing. C.C started to calm down from her laughter and turned back to the young girl. “Sorry for laughin’ darlin’.” she apologized. “But, isn’t it a bit much to hate bacon just because Luke likes it more than you?”

“That’s what everyone said.” Vanessa mumbled.

The chef cat gave a small smile and ruffled Vanessa’s hair a bit. The young princess looked up at the cat. “Well, let’s put it this way.” C.C started. “What do you love more than Luke?”

Vanessa thought and snapped her fingers remembering, “I love sweets. Like cookies, strawberry shortcake, chocolate cupcakes, chocolate pudding with cookie crumbs on top, cookie dough ice cream, macarons,”

C.C cut that young princess off, “basically every known dessert in the world?” She asked.

“Yep!” Vanessa beamed.

C.C smiled at the young princess knowing she acted a lot like Hat Kid when it came to sweets. “So, how did you handle bacon when Luke liked it?” C.C asked.

“Easy, I banned bacon at the man-I mean home. I banned it at home.” Vanessa explained, catching herself as she had a role to play as Hat Kid’s little sister. She couldn’t mention anything about the manor.

“Well that’s mean.” C.C commented. Vanessa shrugged. The princess didn’t know how to reply to that. With that C.C could continue with her explanation. “So, back to your favorite foods. How would you feel if Luke decided to ban sweets at home?” She asked.

Vanessa felt her eye twitch thinking of Luke, her love, banning sweets from her. She would never allow Luke to touch any of her favorite foods. “If Luke ever touched my favorite foods, I’d kick him below the belt. Hard.” She threatened.

“Woah. Woah. Easy there tiger.” C.C reassured as she put her paws on Vanessa’s shoulders. Vanessa started to calm down, but glared at the cat chef. “Now do you wonder why I asked that?” She asked.

Vanessa opened her mouth, but closed it realizing the chef cat was right. Even though Lucas didn’t look upset when she banned bacon in the manor, he might have been holding it in for her. If Lucas did it to her, she would have been upset that she’d go through a tantrum. Something a princess should never do.

Though Lucas was never like that. He was kind, sweet, and would take a bullet, a sword, or any harmful weapon for Vanessa. It made the young princess feel guilty that Lucas was nothing but nice to her and she just treated him like a toy.

Vanessa closed her mouth realizing the truth and nodded. C.C gave a light chuckle and pet the girl on the head. The princess gave a small glare at the cat chef, she already knew what C.C was trying to tell her.

“You see Vanessa, you can’t force someone to give up something they enjoy out of jealousy. You have to understand that you're making the other person feel bad. You can’t control everything in their lives.” C.C explained.

“Wow. You should have told me that many years ago.” Vanessa thought to herself. “I understand.” She mumbled, as that was the only thing to come out of her mouth.

“Good.” C.C replied. “Now, would you like to help me cook the pancakes and serve them to Luke and Hat when they wake up?” The cat asked as she handed a spatula to Vanessa.

Vanessa gave a small smile and nodded as she took the spatula from the cat. The rest of the morning Vanessa helped Cooking Cat with flipping pancakes, and making scrambled eggs and bacon on the side. The princess then put the plates on the table and waited for Hat Kid and Snatcher to wake up.

Once the two other kids woke up, like Vanessa smelling the delicious food C.C was cooking they sat down at the table and enjoyed their breakfast together. “C.C, these chocolate chip pancakes are the best!” Snatcher beameed.

“Ah don’t thank me, Vanessa helped with breakfast.” C.C reminded the young boy. Vanessa smiled as she took a big bite of the pancakes she made.

Snatcher froze, not taking another bite of the pancakes. “Vanessa did what now?” He asked.

“Vanessa helped me cook.” C.C repeated.

Snatcher gulped and pushed the plate of food away from him. C.C and Hat Kid were confused over why the former ghost pushed the princesses cooking away from him. “I think I’m good for breakfast for today.”

“Why?” Hat Kid asked. “I thought you loved bacon?” She reminded the former ghost as she held a piece of bacon with her fork.

“I do! I do!” Snatcher replied to Hat Kid, reassuring her. “It's just…” Snatcher’s voice trailed off as he tried to find the right words to tell Hat Kid explaining about why he wouldn’t eat Vanessa’s cooking. “Vanessa is not the best cook.” Vanessa gave the young prince a glare when he said those words.

Hat Kid gave a small glare to Snatcher for his response. “Snatcher, I don’t think Vanessa’s cooking would be bad if C.C was right next to her the entire time.” She explained.

“Plus I kept an eye on Vanessa, and she didn’t do anything bad with the food.” C.C added.

Snatcher raised an eyebrow as he turned towards Vanessa who just drank her orange juice with a smile. The former ghost sat back down with a glare, and continued eating his breakfast. After breakfast Hat Kid and Vanessa decided to do the dishes together.

“Are we doing anything today?” Vanessa asked as she dried the plates.

Hat Kid sighed, “sorry just another relaxing day.” She replied.

Vanessa pouted as she cleaned up one of the plates and put them in a stack. C.C and Snatcher were cleaning the table seeing the young girl sad over another boring day. The cat gave a smile and spoke up, “well today I’ll be baking cookies. Why don’t you and Luke help me?” C.C suggested.

The young princess gasped in surprise. Snatcher on the other hand froze hearing he and Vanessa will be baking cookies together. A certain memory went through Snatcher’s head; he and Vanessa baked cookies as their first date, which ended with a food fight and almost burning the kitchen of the manor. It was funny back then, but any happy memory with him and Vanessa felt like pain in his chest.

“That would be great! What do you think, Luke?” Vanessa asked. She froze seeing Snatcher frozen in fear like that. “L-Luke, are you okay?” She asked as she put an arm on his shoulder. Snatcher snapped out of it and faced his ex. The latter stepped back a bit.

“Y-yeah. I’m fine. Sure I’ll bake cookies with you two.” Snatcher replied, stuttering a bit. Vanessa clapped her hands in joy as she hugged her prince tight. Snatcher was uncomfortable with Vanessa hugging him, but she was happy so Snatcher just gave her a light pat on the back.

Hat Kid smiled seeing the royal kids had something to do so she can be focused on finding Time Piece shards and other important time travel stuff. “Well, looks like you have something to do.” Hat Kid said. Vanessa giggled in joy, still hugging Snatcher tight. Snatcher sighed, but gave a small smile knowing he had something to do.

However, that smile faded when Snatcher was given an apron with his ghost face on it. “You just love to mess with me kiddo.” He glared. Hat Kid giggled as she helped Vanessa tie her apron on.

“Come on Snatcher, it looks good on you.” Hat Kid complemented as she finished tying the apron on the young princess. Vanessa looked at her apron and saw it was green with little cats patterned on them. “It was my sister’s, but she gave it to me to remember her by before I left.”

Vanessa giggled. “It’s adorable!” She replied. Hat Kid smiled in agreement. The hat-wearing child then took out a green bow and tied Vanessa’s hair up into a ponytail so it won’t be in her face while she cooks. The young princess smiled seeing how pretty her hair was tied up, it made her feel like a different person.

Snatcher rolled his eyes as he and Vanessa walked into the kitchen where C.C was waiting for them. C.C had everything laid out in front of her for her and the royal kids to start baking cookies. “Are you two ready?” C.C asked.

“We are!” Vanessa beamed. C.C smiled and the three got to work on the cookies. C.C held a cookbook as she gave two bowls to the respective royal kids. The cat then read off the instructions and made Snatcher put the wet ingredients in the one bowl, while Vanessa put in the dry ingredients, though it did cause a massive flour explosion that got everyone covered in flour.

After cleaning up as much flour off of them, Snatcher and Vanessa put the dry and wet ingredients in one big bowl as Vanessa opened the bag of chocolate chips and dumped the entire bag into the dough. “That’s a lot of chocolate chips. You sure you want that much?” C.C asked.

Vanessa smiled. “Of course! I love chocolate chip cookies, and a lot of chocolate chips are better!” She explained as she mixed the dough together. C.C rolled her eyes and gave a chuckle.

“I’m surprised the queen of Subcon loved sweets.” C.C noted.

Snatcher chuckled. “Yep she sure do-” Snatcher cut off as he and Vanessa turned to the cat. “Did you just call her the queen?” He asked.

C.C nodded. “I did, Prince Lucas.” She replied.

Snatcher and Vanessa were both in shock that C.C knew the truth about them. They thought Hat Kid did a great job telling everyone that they were siblings, but looks like C.C looked right through the lie. “Y-you knew?” Vanessa asked.

“Of course! I knew all along.” C.C replied as she walked close to the kids, “I’m guessing a Time Piece did this?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Snatcher replied. He went on to explain what happened before turning back into kids. The fight, the Time Piece breaking and being found by Hat Kid not long after. C.C took all of this in and nodded understanding the situation at hand.

“I’m guessing she did the whole you two are her siblings just to hide the fact that you two messed with her Time Piece and regressed into kids.” C.C explained.

Snatcher and Vanessa nodded, but something came to the princesses mind. “Wait, how do you know about us?” She asked.

“I learned about you guys when I was a kitten. You guys were the rulers of Subcon before going missing and an evil witch took over your kingdom.” C.C explained. Snatcher and Vanessa looked shocked, outsiders of Subcon dubbed them missing?

“What do you mean by missing?” Snatcher asked.

“Well an evil witch cursed the kingdom, turned you the monsters, and that was the cause of the fall of Subcon, right?” C.C asked. Snatcher and Vanessa were still shocked and slowly looked at one another. The outsiders of Subcon saw them as missing then what truly happened. Vanessa felt a bit relieved to know not many people knew her actions was the reason Subcon got destroyed. However, how would everyone react when she told them the real story.

“Your sort of right.” Snatcher mumbled quietly. C.C couldn’t hear him, but Vanessa did and elbowed him hard. Snatcher glared as he rubbed his shoulder as the princess smiled smugly as she finished the cookie dough.

Once the dough was done, the royal kids and C.C started to mold the dough so it could form into a cookie. Vanessa was good at this part, except for the fact the cookie dough balls were different sizes. Some were big, and some were normal sized cookies.

The royal kids put the cookies in the oven and waited for them to bake. As they waited, Snatcher cleaned up the kitchen as Vanessa sat on a chair waiting for the cookies to be done. The young prince glared at the young princess and marched up to her.

“Vanessa.” Snatcher growled. Vanessa turned towards the young prince, “could you at least help with cleaning up instead of sitting there?”

“But I like watching the cookies bake.” Vanessa replied, not looking up at the young prince. Snatcher growled, fuming a bit. He knew Vanessa didn’t like cleaning up. He remembered the dinner dates he had with her and Vanessa would leave her plate there as she went to her room to wait for him. He didn’t want the servants to do much of the work so he ended up doing it for them.

C.C gave a soft chuckle as she put her paw on Vanessa’s shoulder. “I bet the cookies will bake faster if you help Prince Luke with cleaning.” She suggested.

“C.C” Snatcher interrupted. “Could you just call me Snatcher from now on?”

“Sure.” C.C replied with a smile.

Vanessa thought for a bit, she didn’t like cleaning but if C.C told her cleaning could bake cookies faster she could help Snatcher a bit. “I guess I could help.” She said. Vanessa was handed a sponge as Snatcher pushed her towards the sink that was filled with the bowls used for baking. The princess sighed and got to cleaning the bowls.

Cooking Cat walked over to Vanessa to see how well she was cleaning the bowls and saw Vanessa just scrubbing the bowls a bit before putting soap in it and leaving it there. “A lesson in cleaning, Vanessa.” C.C spoke up. “Scrub the bowls thoroughly with hot water with the sponge.” She continued as she showed Vanessa how to scrub the bowls.

“Oh. Okay.” Vanessa replied walking back to sink and cleaning the other bowl like how Cookie showed her. The young princess smiled as she cleaned the bowl and put it on the drying rack. Drying the dishes wasn’t too hard as she had to use a dry towel to clean them. C.C put the bowls back on the shelf, and by the time the princess was done the cookies had about 5 more minutes left. The princess gasped in joy as she saw the cookies were almost done.

“That’s how I got the Mafia to clean up back in Mafia town.” C.C whispered to Snatcher. Snatcher chuckled loving how sneaky the cooking cat was.

After the five minutes were up, the cookies were done and left on a plate to cool. The smell of the cookies made the royal kids sigh in happiness. Once the cookies cooled down it would be time to eat it with a nice cool glass of milk.

C.C chuckled and put her paws around the royal kids. “Well now, I’d say this was a successful cookie baking!” She commented. The royal kids smiled and giggled knowing they had a fun baking experience.

Soon, Hat Kid came in and smelt the cookies from her room. “Wow, you baked these delicious cookies!?” Hat Kid questioned.

“Yep.” Snatcher and Vanessa replied at the same time.

“And, they did it without a fight or argument.” C.C added.

Hat Kid smiled and ruffled the royal kids heads. “I’m so proud of you two.” She said before pulling the two into a tight hug. After letting go of the hug the kids grabbed a cookie and went ahead and ate. The cookie was soft and warm and the extra chocolate chips made it sweet.

For Vanessa, this was the best cookie she had ever eaten.

[mrs-i-have-too-many-biases]

Stray Kids’ reaction to their S/O loving spicy food

Scenario: Stray kids reaction to their significant other loving spicy food. Genre: Fluff/ Humour Pairing: Stray Kids members X Reader Word count: 2k Requested: Yes, by @beakhyunbeauty A/n: I hope you like it even though I changed it a little bit, so I could make different scenarios for every member, well as different as possible lol.

Chan:

Chan had taken you out to eat and for some reason he wanted to try 닭발 (Chicken feet) with you. The dish was known for often being spicy and many people can’t eat it, but he just wanted to shock you and just order it.

The restaurant you two would go to was very nice and the food was great. Chan was laughing his ass off when he saw your shocked expression. “ARE THOSE FEET?” You’d yell in a whisper in a shock. He would just laugh and tell her to eat it. As he was taking a bite or a nibble what you would like to call it, he kept staring at you as you ate your chicken.

He was bamboozled when he didn’t see you break a sweat, when he was chugging the milk down his throat. “HOW ARE YOU OKAY?” “I love spicy food remember? And besides, this isn’t even that spicy-“ “WHAT ARE YOU? SATAN?” “IS THAT WHAT YOU CALL YOUR PARTNER?” You yelled at him playfully as you gave him some rice, to blow off the heat that was in his mouth.

“I CALL CRAZY PEOPLE THAT YOU WEIRD-“ “HERE’S SOME MORE RICE!” You laugh, shoving the spoon into his mouth.

Woojin:

You boyfriend knew you like spicy food. He had never tasted yours, but just from the smell he knew he wouldn’t like it. The spiciness would just ruin the taste for him.

Right now you were out with your boyfriend to celebrate their latest comeback. He had been so busy and you wanted to spoil him a little by taking him out for a simple but delicious dinner. Chicken it was!

Woojin had ordered simple fried chicken, whilst you had fried chicken as well, but extra spicy. The order would be set in front of the two of you and without realising Woojin took yours. His eyes widen and he started to breath heavily as the spice kicked him basically in the face. You were shocked by his sudden expression and asked what was wrong. He would set your chicken on your plate, whilst coughing to the waitress for milk and rice. You giggled to yourself when he had calmed down from his coughing fit. “How do you do it? Is your mouth numb? Are you even human babe?” He asked, still in pain. “I just handle spices well? It’s not that spicy tho-“ “NOT THAT SPICY I FELT LIKE I WAS BEING BURNED FROM THE INSIDE!” “I-“ “I CAN’T EVEN TASTE MY OWN CHICKEN!” Woojin whined. “We can take it home and eat it there?” You suggested, really not knowing what to do. “But I’m hungry!” He whines once again, writing a note to himself to always ask whose food was whose.

Minho: This little shit is judging the hell out of you. I’m sorry to say this, but he will. You would put pepper, chili or anything that contained spice on your food. You even tried to put chili flakes on your ice cream, but one that was disgusting and second the ice cream had blocked out the heat so you were sad.

Right now you would be making a grilled cheese at home, but you being you, you put half of the powdered chili jar onto your cheese. Minho was watching you from the doorway, judging you silently.

“If I knew I would be dating Satan, I would have reconsidered this relationship.” He mumbled loud enough for you to hear. He was clearly joking, but he just like teasing you since you would whine out to him and it was the cutest thing ever to him as well.

“Let me live Minho!” You whined whilst slapping his chest playfully. “I am trying, but you aren’t since you’re trying to burn your intestines from the inside by putting all that stuff inside of you-“ “MINHO SHUSH!”

Changbin:

Changbin likes spicy food and when you told him you loved it as well, he got excited and suggested to cook together. You had never mentioned the level of spiciness you liked or could handle and you probably should’ve since you were the one making the food and not Changbin. You see, if Changbin would be the one who was making the food, everything would’ve been fine. If it wasn’t spicy enough for you yet, you could’ve always added some more.

But since you thought and assumed that he’d be on the same level as you, it wasn’t fine. As soon as Changbin took a spoonful of the food you had prepared, he started coughing. The food hadn’t even passed his throat yet and he acted like he was dying.

When he cooled off, literally since he started sweating as well. You apologises to him, wanting to kiss him, but he pushed you away. “GET AWAY FROM ME YOU HOT LIPS!” “IS THAT A COMPLIMENT OR ARE YOU INSULTING ME-“ “YES!”

Hyunjin:

You were in Korea for a few weeks. You had vacation and you wanted to spend it with your lover, Hyunjin. Since you had a long distant relationship, you both tried and wanted to see each other as much as possible, but with Hyunjin’s tight schedule and with you being in college, it was quite hard you could say.

After a whole day of cute and fun activities, you two became hungry so you went out for some spicy cold noodles, since it was a hot day in Seoul. You two sat down and enjoyed each other’s company some more as you waited for you food. When it did arrive, you asked the waiter for some extra pepper. Even more than you had already had in your dish.

Hyunjin looked at you like you were out of your mind, and so did the waiter. “A-are you sure you can handle that?” Hyunjin asked worried. “Of course, I love spicy food. I can handle the heat.” You assured your boyfriend proudly and ate the noodles like a champ. Your boyfriend and the waiter as well were both impressed at your skill, which made you giggle.

“I literally have the hottest partner-“ “Hyunjin!” “What?”

Jisung:

Jisung always wanted to steal your food, even though he had his own in front of him. 

‘Yours just look better.’ He would say. 

‘Why?’ You would reply. 

‘Because it’s yours-‘ 

‘EAT YOUR OWN FOOD DANG IT-‘.

Today was one of those days where Jisung was just in the mood to steal your food. You had prepared some nasi goreng and as usual you added some extra chili flakes to it, to make it to your taste. “Baby, give me some!” He whines as he lays his head on your shoulder, pressing his cheek against yours. You sighed and gave him the spoon, but before he took a bite he asked if it was spicy.

“No, not too much.” You said and honestly it wasn’t. For you at least. Jisung was in tears after one bite, making you rush to his side with plane rice and a carton of milk. “IF YOU DIDN’T WANT ME TO STEAL YOUR FOOD ANYMORE YOU COULD’VE JUST TOLD ME! INSTEAD OF HURTING ME LIKE THIS- WHAT ARE YOU EVEN? DO YOU LIVE ON FIRE OR SOMETHING ARE YOU LIKE AN OVEN- OR THE SUN? BECAUSE YOU SURE ARE MY SUNSHINE!” “Wait what?” You laughed at his rant, tears running down his face as he groaned in pain.

“Do you want me to give you a kiss to make you feel better?” You asked and of course he didn’t reject a chance to kiss you, but he soon regrets it when the heat returns to his lips. “BABY YOU MADE MY LIPS GO ON FIRE WITH YOUR FIREY LIPS-“

Felix:

This baby can’t eat spicy food as well, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him from doing the spicy ramen challenge. He had seen it all over the internet and Felix being Felix, he just had to try it. So he made two packs and dragged you in front of the camera so the two of you could both suffer, well that was his intention to be honest.

Little did he know that you love spicy food and that it was easy for you. You had finished the ramen within five minutes, shocking Felix who was choking in front of the camera. She was totally fine and even snatched a noodle from his plate every now and them.

He would throw his hands up in disbelief and have a mixture of laughter and coughing as he realised how dumb he must’ve been looking.

“I’m sorry STAY I never though that my love would’ve beaten me at something that involves food. I’ll get my revenge though.” “I also don’t think he needs a punishment, because this whole challenge seemed like a punishment to him and he did this to himself.” You giggled to the camera whilst Felix was chugging a whole carton of milk down.

“I’ll update you guys if he’s still alive after this, bye!” You laughed before waved the camera goodbye.

Seungmin:

Seungmin loved your cooking, the simple meals, the small meals, the three course meals etc. This time he came over unexpected and you were making food, for yourself. It was a simple 떡볶이 (Tteokbokki = stir-fried rice cakes), but you knew you had made it spicy, very spicy to be precise.

You told your boyfriend that you would make him some different ones, but he told you didn’t have to and just eat some of the ones you made already. And you could just predict how this would turn out.

“They are spicy though-“

“I think I can handle it.” He said, trying to act confident. He had always heard you about how much you loved spicy food. Needless to say that Seungmin had never tasted your kind of spicy before and he wished he had never had to because the poor boy started to cough and even to hiccup after he ate some.

“Shall I make you a different one?”

“Y-yes p-please.” He said in between hiccups, making you laugh.

Jeongin:

Jeongin loves spicy food, he never knew you did as well. One day you would be over at the dorm and the other members would’ve been out to give the two of you some alone time. Jeongin had offered to be a good boyfriend and make the two of you some food. He made it the way he usually did and it was needless to say that it was quite spicy.

He hadn’t given it a second thought that it could’ve been too spicy for you, until he had taken the first bite and realised it was quite hot. He was about to stop you from eating, but he was already too late. Without even looking at how you were actually doing, he just rushed to the kitchen instead and grabbed the first carton of milk he could find. When he returned, he noticed you staring at him in confusion whilst calmly eating the food he made.

“Y-you can eat it? It isn’t too spicy?” He asks in surprise. “No, I like it! It’s really good, if I were the one cooking, I would’ve put a lot of more spice into it.” You giggled when Jeongin got excited to take you to his favourite restaurants where the two of you could try out their spicy stuff and see who would break first.

“COME AT ME BRO, I CAN HANDLE SPICE BTTER THAN YOU!” “WANT TO BET- did you just bro-zone me?’ “No wait baby, I was caught up in the heat.” “I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE!”

Gifs aren’t mine!

A/n: I hope you liked it!

[sigritandtheelves]

Hour of Lead - Part Two

(Part 1)

2.6k wds | angst | s8: Alone

A/N: This took a little longer than expected. The angst is lightening somewhat, and there will still be one more part at least (two more at the most). This story hasn’t done super well, but I’m kind of invested in working out this emotional arc the way it appeared in canon, so I hope a few folks will enjoy it, at least.

_+_

On the wall is a diagram showing the stages of cervical dilation. On the cabinet across from it, the one that holds bandages and tongue depressants and gauze, is another depicting the progress of fundal height by week. The sketched woman’s body is transparent. She is a hollow outline, backgrounded in favor of the brightly-colored ovals representing her womb. Scully tries to focus on her doctor.

“I’m worried, Dana.” The other woman’s fingers brush her elbow. “Not about the baby. The measurements are good and he’s active... but you haven’t gained much weight, which means you’re giving everything to hm. You need to take care of yourself.”

Scully nods, half-distracted. “I know.”

“What kind of support system do you have?” There’s a brief pause in which the doctor carefully avoids mentioning the child’s father. “Your mom, maybe?”

Another nod. “Yeah. Yes. I can talk to my mom. She’s not far.”

“Could she come stay with you? Help you get ready?”

“I...” She shakes her head. “I don’t know.”

The other woman’s eyes are blue and concerned. She touches Scully’s shoulder this time, and it is strange to feel such kindness in the gesture, to feel any touch at all. She thinks of the last time Mulder touched her—just a tentative tap of his finger on her knee, like she were made of glass or fire that might cut or burn him. She is a ticking time bomb of danger and responsibility, a capsule ready to burst under the tongue of an imperiled spy.

“Well, you need to stop working at least,” the doctor says. “You’re two centimeters dilated and that baby is fully in position. You can’t be comfortable.”

At that, Scully almost smiles. “Feels like I’m sitting on his head most of the time.”

“You basically are, Dana. It could be any time now, so I need you to keep off your feet. Stop wearing heels, don’t do any autopsies, get some rest. And more food.” She leans down, holds eye contact for a moment. “Please. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Good. You’re on maternity leave, effective immediately.”

So Scully slips back into her heels, which she’ll have to give up, and back into her car, which she’ll have to stop driving, and takes herself home to her quiet apartment, feeling just a little bit like a scolded child, but also like she’d give anything to be held and taken care of until this baby comes—a break from holding everything together. Instead she gets out her tool box and drags the scattered pieces of the crib into the nursery.

It’s an hour before she’s almost in tears, trying to hold the two sides she’s assembled together so she can put the screws in place. Her arms aren’t long enough. Her belly is in the way. She tries three more times before she lets them clatter to the floor and slumps back against the wall.

Melvin Frohike finds her that way not long after. He pokes his head through the nursery door. “You rang?”

She tries to smile. Never in her life did she think she’d give this man a key to her apartment, but he’d been a surprising comfort in the months Mulder was missing. And dead. He’d brought her small tubs of ice cream and extra tissues, flowers, a pack of baby socks, pictures of Mulder to put in her scrapbook. He’d called her, drunk and sad, at least twice, and both times she’d found herself sniffling with him.

“Thanks for coming,” she says.

“Never let it be said I’m not handy. Where’s this go?” He lifts one of the crib sides and angles it near the other.

Scully hoists herself up, aligns the two pieces, and pulls a small Allen wrench from her pocket. “If you could just hold these, I can get this bolt in place.”

It’s quiet a moment while she works, setting the pieces then tightening the bolts. She doesn’t make eye contact, but she can feel him watching her.

“Okay, now this other side.”

Frohike lifts the large side piece she’s already assembled, holding it by its smooth wooden bars. “Scully,” he says.

“Hmm.”

“You’re here alone.”

Twist, twist, tighten. “I live alone.”

“You’re getting close to your due date, right? Shouldn’t someone be with you?”

She shrugs. “The doctor said someone should stay with me, but...” She leans her weight against the wrench, making sure the bolt is as tight as possible. “I can call my mom if I need to.”

She feels his eyes again and waits for it. She knows it’s coming. “Look, Scully, I know it’s none of my business. But where the hell is Mulder?”

She chuffs out a small laugh, but it’s dry, like ripping apart a fallen leaf. That was the question of the year, she supposed.  Where was Mulder. “I don’t know,” she says. “At his apartment?”

“But you called me.”

“Yeah.” With three sides assembled, she drops in the slatted bottom and moves to collect the fourth side from its place against the wall. But as she stands, she finds her head swimming for a moment and her vision blurring.

“Hey, take it easy,” Frohike says. “You okay?”

She steadies herself. Nods.

“Sit. I’ll do the last side.”

She watches him for a moment, this little man who loves Mulder almost as much as she does. She passes him the Allen wrench on her way to the rocking chair in the corner. “Thanks.”

He makes quick work of the final piece. There is nothing to do now but lower the mattress into place. Frohike wiggles the corners, checking their sturdiness. “Solid,” he says, and then there is a quiet moment between them while she tries to come up with something to say.

“I don’t think Mulder… He’s still healing, I think. He needs time to adjust,” she says.

“He tell you that?”

She frowns. “When he first came back, he seemed so lost. He said he was having trouble processing everything, but I think he was angry.”

Frohike grunts.

She filters the details carefully. She doesn’t want a pity party. “He’s been doing better since, though. He brought a gift. He came over for pizza.”

“Friendly,” he says. She can se that something’s gnawing at him. He fidgets. He picks up the crib mattress from where it leans against the far wall. Then he says, “Bullshit,” and lowers it into the assembled frame.

The word hovers, sharp, in the air. He’s crossed his arms over his chest. Scully raises her eyebrow in question.

“Are you telling me that bastard got to come back from the grave and still chose to be a deadbeat dad?”

If his face were any hotter, his glasses might fog up, she thinks. She lets the words sink in. Is that what Mulder is? Too enamored of the world to be tied down by domesticity, he’d rather seek the truth alone? Scully rocks in the chair and looks toward the window. “No, it’s not like that.”

“It’s not?”

“He thought he was dying, and now he’s not. I don’t think he ever would have chosen me over his work, if…” She sighs. “I don’t think he’s ever wanted a child. And this,” she tilts her chin toward her middle, “has made me seem different to him, selfish, maybe, because I can’t do the same kind of work I did before. It… it’s not his fault. I can’t force him to want us.”

The room falls silent as Frohike considers this. She watches him clench his fist once, twice, and then he’s shaking his head. “That sonofabitch.”

—

It’s getting late and she’s drifting toward a dream, head slumped on a couch cushion. There’s a child in the dream that she can almost see, with light brown hair and hazel eyes. A baby, fat and smiling and reaching for her nose. She knows its face, has held it in her mind it a thousand times in sleep. The child moves, and suddenly it is a boy: mischief in those same eyes that turns, without warning, to sorrow. She knows those heavy lids, too, but in her waking life. They plead, contrite. I know you, she thinks.

And then the phone is ringing and she pulls her own eyes open to reveal her empty living room. It’s only her in the apartment, and the digital ring of her cordless phone, which sits just far enough away that she must strain over her own bulk to reach it.

“Hello?”

“Why didn’t you call me?”

It’s him. Of course it’s him. “Mulder?”

“I said I’d help you put it together.”

The crib. Frohike had been angry when he left, and she had no doubt he’d had words with Fox Mulder. “You didn’t need to. It’s okay.”

“Damnit, Scully, I want to help.”

“Why?”

“Because… I care about you.”

Little knives, little knives. “We’re fine, Mulder.”

There’s a sound that’s something like a laugh on the other end of the line. “I’m sure you are, but I’m worried,” he said. “Please. What can I do to help?”

Everyone so worried all the time, but what has she ever shown them but strength? She can do this alone. He doesn’t owe her anything. She wants to tell Mulder that if he wants to be useful, he could love her again. He could acknowledge his child, could remember that he told her he wanted this once.

“I have this class,” she says instead. “It’s a birthing class, and I should have done it weeks ago, but…” but you were dead and then alive again and I felt too alone to imagine being a mother. “I’m supposed to come with a partner, but my mom is busy.”

“When is it?

“Tomorrow? My doctor told me to stop working, so I’m … I’m going to get my things from the office in the morning.”

“Because your due date is…”

“The seventeenth.”

There’s a moment, a pause. “That’s this week.”

“Yeah.”

She wonders if he’s doing the math, if he’s counting the months and weeks and trying to piece together memories. Part of her wants to be angry that he hasn’t asked her due date before now, when he’s been home for weeks. Does he realize how those dates line up, she wonders? In August he’d made wishes to a genie and then taken her to see his family’s summer house where they’d loved each other from the attic to the dunes, until their muscles were rubber and their bones were tired.

Funny, she thinks, that he hadn’t wished away his disease. The thought stirs some curiosity in her, some small doubt that she files away for later.

“You shouldn’t be alone, Scully.”

She wants to laugh. She rests her head on her palm, elbow against her rounded belly. “Probably not.”

“Do you want me to stay with you?”

Something catches in her throat, and she must swallow it before she can talk. “Mulder, don’t offer me things I can’t really have. Don’t do that.”

She hears fabric against fabric on his end of the line as he shifts, and then the silence stretches for a moment. “What time tomorrow?”

She is balancing her heartache and her hope. She is slowly constructing the armor that will let her face him in a matter of hours. “Could you come at ten?”

“Okay,” he says.

Before she can say anything else, he hangs up.

—

He’s never watched Oprah in his life, of this she’s certain, which means he’s been reading baby books. The thought makes her feel like she’s swallowed hot rocks. She pictures him standing in a bookstore, looking confused, thinking about her and picking through books on pregnancy and birth. It is a dangerous thought that fuels a dangerous hope, so she locks the image away.

Scully is concerned about Agent Doggett: she doesn’t like the idea of him alone out there. But her anxiety about leaving work is fueled more by the sense that she’s just done exactly what Mulder has expected of her all along—that she’s quit, that she’s finally given up on the work. He tells her she’s paid her dues to the X-Files, and she wonders if he’s always thought of her relationship to the work as transactional. How much was her abduction worth? Her cancer? A gunshot wound to the gut? Infertility treatments?

Today he is all smiles and lighthearted references to the baby. At the birthing class, he seems neither surprised nor disgusted by anything the nurse says: more points in favor of her Mulder-has-purchased-baby-books theory. The nurse uses language like “dads and partners,” and Scully wonders which, if either, he is now. He helps her kneel on the pillow so she can stretch out on all fours. He presses her hips, as instructed, and it’s the most intimacy she’s felt from him since the night he left for Oregon. Her face flushes involuntarily and her heart quickens. When he helps her to stand, he holds her arms, then brushes his fingers against her middle.

“Okay?” He asks, but she’s not sure she can breathe to answer.

The baby answers instead, moving against his fingers, disturbed by the commotion and probably her rapid heartbeat. Mulder looks startled. She touches his hand before he can pull it away and holds it against the tiny limb that presses outward. The expression on his face is worth the slamming of her heart in her chest and the terror that he will withdraw.

“What is that?” He asks, ignoring the nurse who has asked them to move into a new position.

“A knee, I think.”

Mulder shakes his head: here is the wonder she’d looked for in those first days, turning his lips up and his eyes to hers. She smiles at him—they are smiling at each other in a moment she didn’t think possible.

“Dana? You okay?” The nurse checks in and the moment breaks. He pulls his hand away and looks at the floor.

“Fine,” she says, rubbing her abdomen. “Just some acrobatics.” And she moves to sit as the others are doing, stretching her legs, shifting her hips and thinking about the baby moving down down and out into the world.

After, he buys her lunch from a sandwich shop and watches to make sure she eats. “I want to know what it’s been like for you,” he says. “Were you sick in the beginning?”

She stops chewing, and the food feels heavy in her mouth. When she manages to swallow, she says, “Yeah, some. I was tired and dizzy… remember Oregon?”

“That was... because you were pregnant.” She watches him realize what she had figured out months ago. Suddenly he seems less hungry.

“It got worse after that, and then right when it started to get better… well, everything was worse. If I’m being honest, I don’t even remember the middle very well.”

“But you made a scrapbook.”

She looks at him. “Yeah. I did.”

He nods and takes a sip of his soda. “I don’t want you to be alone anymore. I’ll drop you off, and then I’m going to pack some things and come back. I’ll sleep on the couch if you want, but I won’t let you be alone.”

Scully’s stares at her sandwich, face growing hot, hope and fear of disappointment at war. He is being overprotective, maybe. He’s worried about her. He’ll stay until the baby comes, sure, help them get settled, and then head back to his apartment with his fish and his singular quest. Even if that’s true, can she say no to his company? Could she ever reject the near proximity of Fox Mulder?

“Okay,” she says.

Quiet falls between them as they whittle small bites away from their turkey clubs, eyes carefully not meeting. It’s long minutes, a humming tension, before he breaks it:

“I still love you, you know,” he says.

Scully stops breathing, until her lungs hurt and she remembers to inhale. She doesn’t answer, she can’t, but her eyes sting and she manages a small nod.

—

(end part two)

Go to Part Three

[justkpopjokes]

Nice to Meet You, Angel. || Demon!Joshua

Ft. Joshua/Jisoo(s Chri—actually no, the complete opposite)

Anon: Demon Joshua😏

A/N: This AU has gone through 4 whole plot rewrites rip. kinda inspired by Good Omens!! (also 2 aus in a week?? whaaaaaat)

!! This is a gender neutral!reader fluff with 1945 words~ !!

Before we begin the plot, lemme quickly go through the basics of the universe

yayy lin’s doing world building again

there are angels and demons in the universe, simply just the optional jobs of people’s souls once they die

if they choose this job, they don't remember much of their life on Earth, but they do remember events they associate w/strong emotions bc it helps them

for ex. an angel could remember how sad a death made them feel so they know to prevent it

and a demon can remember how angry a bully made them felt so they can make people that level angry

both angels & demons take the form of their bodies when they were alive and roam on Earth

they can also return to Heaven/Hell and observe Earth from their respective realms

also yes demons can be summoned, but lmao you can also just give em a phone call via incantation

the angel equivalent to this phone call is praying

demons can pretty much do anything as long as it relates somehow to the Seven Deadly Sins (pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, sloth)

angel powers are more holy/good, and they can grant things in prayers if they choose, etc

Anyway, YOU KNOW THIS BOI??

THiS bOi sHUa

he's chill af for a demon ok

one of the first demons so like no one really knows how he’s a demon bc he’s so polite

there’s some speculation that he was one of the first to fall but like

what the hell did he do???

But also some say he became a demon out of spite bc he saw a demon commit a “sin” that actually helped someone

so he became a demon just to help people in a more… unholy way

and then he was upset angels hated him just because he was a demon

like wow spirit discrimination

NOW YOU—

you are an angel (literally)

you’re the angel that protects like. atheists/"non-believers" bc c'mon just because they don’t believe in God/gods doesn’t mean they shouldn't have access to that protection service

(yes hello you’re calling APS, the Angel Protection Service sponsored by God, how may I help you?)

so yeah you’re pretty chill yourself since you have to constantly deal with people who don't believe in you lol

One fine day, you were listening to a prayer from a sick college student

ok it wasn't really a prayer but they were like "oh please, my god, let me get some sleep tonight"

you gladly put them to sleep and they slept soundly at night

when you checked on them the next morning, you noticed—

A dEmON?!?

…lying right next to the student (but above the covers, he has boundaries), who isn't stirring at all

if the leather jacket and ripped jeans didn't tip you off, he had some horns on his head to confirm ur suspicions

You: "Hey what in the world are you doing here?!"

???: "What? If they get up rn they won't be able to pay attention in class. I'm letting them rest first"

You: "Wha—who—okay, okay okay… who are you?"

"I’m Joshua, nice to meet you, angel"

Shua knows he has the name of an angel so afterwards he's like. Don't get it confused bish.

you ask him what he's doing, and basically, he's using the sin sloth on this sicko student so they stay in bed and recover instead of going to class

Even tho you feel iffy abt letting a demon affect a human right in front of you, an angel, you are a bit intrigued

you haven't seen a demon use their powers for good before…

who is this guy??

anyway he disappears, presumably to Hell, once the student needs to wake up

which is when u miracle them some bread to get

But don't worry, you're destined to meet again~

which you did, on several occasions

and ok maybe you were glad to talk to someone who was actually interesting

so, yknow,,, if another angel was like "hey y/n uhh there's a demon… bothering? someone? idk but it's a non-believer, that's ur jurisdiction right"

you had a guess on who this demon was…

…and you were right

Joshua: "Oh hey angel"

You: "Ew, you make it sound like a pet name"

JS: "Well I don't know your name, do I?"

You: "Oh. Right. It's Y/N."

he still calls you angel tho, smh that flirt

y'all just bicker and/or chat for a bit whenever u go help the same person

Like one time when he insisted that you let him use gluttony on a teen so they'd eat a lot of ice cream that day

they had just been through a bad break up so u let it slide

Or another time he used wrath on a timid kid so they could stand up to a bully

all of these ended w/you two bickering while walking away

There was this little girl you were watching from heaven who was writing a letter to "Whoever Can Do This"

little girl started listing a bunch of things, which you assumed were toys

but then you realized it was actually stuff like food, friends, a puppy, a loving dad who will go out to the park with her—

so u go down there to check on this lil child

…and that's when you see a familiar leather jacket watching over her and suggesting other things to write

you can’t see him from heaven so ur like gosh darn it I should’ve known

"Joshua?? I should've known it was—"

*cue both shua and the child turning around*

JS: "Oh hey, nice to see you, angel"

Lil' Nugget: *GASP* "Mr. Josh is this ur s/o???"

JS: "Hm? Oh, I mean, no, but um…"

You: "Josh what have u been putting into this one's head…"

Shua's all like "greed! Her dad's been ignoring her since her mom died so we're writing a list of things she wants"

then the smol girl smiles so wide and is like "Mr. Josh is helping me! He's my new friend!!"

ur like awww dangit ok I'll let it slide if u let me help

Once she finishes it, Josh hands the girl's list over to you

he explains quietly he wants you to miracle her dad to pay attention+love his daughter again so they can have/do all the other things on the list

you read it over again and do just that

The little girl gives the list to her father, your miracle allowing them to have a fun afternoon eating ice cream and playing with her toys

And you and Josh have a nice time too~

once y'all left that girl's room, he invited you for some soda

"Coke? I hope you mean Coca Cola"

"Yeah, uh, there's a place with a vending machine not too far from here. We can walk"

You don't spend time on Earth often, but you learn as you walk w/Josh that he "prefers the air up here"

mainly bc he doesn't fit in with the other demons, but he also just likes spending time with humans

(obviously tho he needs to go down to hell occasionally for like conferences and such)

you don't remember if you've ever been on a date before lol

Josh doesn't either, but he does remember how jumbled up ur emotions get, which he is not ready for

then again of course he has, I mean look at that charm

however, you can't remember if the feeling you get when going on ur little date with Shua is love :/

it isn’t really, but just bc this is ur first “date,” so it makes sense

But Josh makes sure to take you out again… for dinner!!!

you were investigating the use of lust and pride at the same time

of course, it was just Josh helping a guy find someone to hook up with

you were kinda disgusted and wanted to leave, so shua gladly took your arm and pulled you away to a restaurant!

y’all had a nice dinner, paying with some money Josh had collected

and then you went to walk together and chat some more

he’s breathtaking, and he actually wants to spend time with you despite y’all being on opposite sides of an inevitable war

You don’t care, going on more dates just to talk and not have to care about ur jobs and other stuff

Shua hears you yell “what the hell” at some point and he’s like woAH you can say that???

“Yeah. I mean, it’s not really polite, but I can. Can you say ‘Thank God?’”

“‘Thank God?’ Well look at that, I can. Good point”

you love him because he’s so chill and doesn’t give a f*** abt anything

except you and humans, apparently

like he could’ve burned or smth by saying “Thank God” or be confined to the basement of Hell for helping people/talking with you, but he doesn’t care lmao

However, no one really knows you’ve been talking with a demon tho so uhhh

when they do you get in a little bit of trouble w/the archangels

ur boss was essentially like “y/n what the HECK are you doing?!? you’re on thin ice rn”

you get mad at him, trying to defend Joshua

and you’re right in doing so, since he just wants to help people with a different set of powers

ur archangel boss sends you back down to Earth, saying you can’t return to Heaven until they work smth out

(they probably want to burn you with Hell fire)

You warn Josh, knowing they might burn you

he’s adamant on keeping you with him, so y’all try to hide or smth

which won’t work of course, but you can try, right?

right?

Shua and you sit together on a bench, with you leaning on his shoulder

“Joshua… I’m scared, I don’t want to be burned!”

“Don’t worry y/n, it’ll be okay. I love you, angel, nothing bad will happen”

and just like that, you remember what it feels like to love

“You’re right. I love you too. Help the non-believers for me if I go, alright?”

“I’ll help them just for you.”

Your archangel boss is smart, knowing the worst punishment for you is to be reincarnated without memories

you wouldn’t remember Joshua at all

and when he drags u back up to Heaven, you want to cry

do angels cry holy water? anyway

you’re sent back to Earth as a baby that can’t fend for itself

You remember nothing.

You’ve recently graduated from college and are out looking for a job

you’ve gotten rejected and fired so many times

for ex. just now, after you were arguing with someone who spoke another language that you didn’t know and there was no translator available

the customer wasn’t willing to cooperate either, ignoring your attempts to use an online translator smh

it’s late and you’re tired, so you leave, angry, and start coughing frantically when you inhale too much smoke coming from the alley next to you

naturally, you’re like “What the hell?! Dude, you’re not supposed to be smoking this close to an entrance!”

“Why do you care? You don’t work here anymore”

you take a better look at the stranger once he steps into the light of a nearby lamppost

it’s a dude in a leather jacket and ripped jeans who drops his cigarette

“Need help getting a job, y/n?”

“how do you—what—who are you?”

he extends a hand out to you, which you shake reluctantly

“I’m Joshua. Nice to meet you, angel.”

[dxmxnxshxnx]

@blacktofade was talking about a sugar daddy au and uh, i couldn’t help myself so here

also this is dedicated to @pinkbergara and @yourlocalshaniac

Ryan Bergara sat, slumped over, at UCLA’s library computer, eyes widen in shock.

No way. No fucking way.

He blinked, hoping his brain, still weary from moving into the dorm, was just tricking him.

There, on the screen displaying his bank account information, still sat the total: -489.73.

Fuck.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Ryan bemoaned, shoving another spoonful of stolen Rocky Road ice cream into his mouth.

Kelsey, the owner of said ice cream, had her eyes trained on the TV screen. If Ryan didn’t know her better, he’d probably be irritated that she wasn’t listening.

Thankfully, he did know her, and she was listening. She was just hyper focused on winning this COD match (which he totally gets). He was in her apartment, laying on the couch and mourning his debt-free life. His feet rested in her lap, as she sat cross-legged at the other end.

“I’d apply for another loan, but it takes forever to get them approved and I’ll be over-drafted while the bank figures it out,” he sighed, brows furrowed in thought. “And I don’t really want to sell my soul for school. Not to mention I’ve just spent the whole summer trying to pay off my first loan... and I had money saved up for that from high school.” Which was completely drained first semester. “Holy shit-” 

Ryan suddenly sat up, almost knocking the ice cream off his chest. He grabbed the gallon before it could, but the panicked look in his eyes didn’t disappear. “Holy shit, Kelsey, what the fuck am I gonna do for food? I only paid for my books! I still haven’t paid for tuition or my dorm or-”

Right then, the noise signaling the end of a match played, and Ryan glanced over to see the yellow line highlighting Kelsey’s name at the top of the list.

His leg was pat and he looked back to see Kelsey giving him a sympathetic look. “We’ve all been there,” she said, “I had to ask my mom for food halfway through the first semester. You can eat at my place while you figure it out!” Kelsey gave him a sweet smile and Ryan felt very, very guilty all of a sudden, stirring the melted remnants of ice cream left in the gallon.

He knew she was struggling to pay her tuition as well and she had worse luck than he did. She had to get an apartment this semester because dorms were full. She had to get a roommate because an apartment located close to campus in LA cost an arm and a leg. And then the whole food thing... Here he was complaining about his life when she had it much, much harder.

“No, Kelse, I couldn’t do that.”

“What? Why not? Listen, we broke-ass college students gotta stick together.”

God, she was always so optimistic. Ryan admired her for that. When he heard about her not getting a dorm, she just smiled and said, “It’ll be cool to live in the city! Maybe I’ll find some fun places! Ooh! And I’ll have better Wi-Fi!”

When she was looking for a roommate, she was so excited, mentioning that she “couldn’t wait to meet a cool new friend!”

Kelsey was the strongest person he knew and he worked at LA Fitness IN L.A.

“I just feel bad about it, because I know you’re struggling too.”

“Hey, I’ll be just as poor if you come over and eat a sandwich with me once in a while.” She shrugged. “I’d rather be poor and have good company than rich and be surrounded by people I hate.”

Ryan laughed, “You romantic fucking English major.”

Kelsey said nothing in response, just gave the widest grin that Ryan had ever seen.

“Come on,” she said, pushing Ryan’s feet off her lap and reaching forward to grab another controller. She handed it to Ryan, “Play some COD with me. I’ll give you something to really cry about!”

More than a dozen lost matches later (hey, Ryan was a NBA guy), Kelsey and Ryan were dancing in the kitchen to some stupid meme song that was in Kelsey’s playlist, laughing like manics. They had abandoned COD a while ago, deciding to finally listen to their rumbling tummies and making cheap ramen, lovingly flavored with the spiciest hot sauce they could find in the house.

Despite the music being loud enough to probably annoy Kelsey’s neighbors, it wasn’t loud enough to drown out the door hitting the wall.

Kelsey’s roommate was home.

“Sara!” Kelsey greeted, spinning around immediately. There, by the door, a paint-covered woman, with curly brown and eyes that gleamed impishly. Kelsey, once again, had a wild grin on her face, one that both of her friends knew said mischief. “Show us your moves!”

Sara, despite looking a bit ragged, smiled her own grin. She watched Kelsey show off her own moves for a minute, grin just growing wider and wider, before it finally broke. She laughed, as she dropping her canvas bag by the door and kicking off her shoes. Then, she was boogieing her way over to Kelsey and Ryan, doing some cheesy disco move that had Ryan doubled over and laughing and Kelsey imitating it (again, fucking romantic, cheesy English major).

As much bad luck as Kelsey had, she had just the same amount of good luck. It was like a scale; every once in a while, one side (usually the bad luck side) got a pinch more, tipping her luck that way before the other side got a pinch more and so on.

Ryan remembers the day Kelsey was interviewing roommates. He’s sure his whole class did too, because his phone was going off non-stop during a movie they were analyzing and despite being on silent and flipped over, it kept lighting up the room because Kelsey could not stop raving about this one woman she interviewed -- which, of course, was the lovely Sara. Kelsey was head over heels for Sara from the minute they met.

Sara was a Art major and, apparently, her and Kelsey had SO much chemistry that Kelsey HAD to choose Sara. 

(It was true, though. Kelsey would write something for her class and it would inspire art-blocked Sara to draw something for her class and vice versa. Kelsey was bad at cleaning and good at cooking where Sara burnt water and was basically Marie Kondo. They both loved playing video games -- they both played DPS and had a fun time creating chaos in game. Ryan would call them soulmates, but Kelsey got too embarrassed whenever he said that, so he gave her a little bit of mercy and usually kept that to himself.)

“What is going on?” Sara shouts. She does a twirl to the beat and then holds her arm up for Kelsey, signaling her to grab her hand and twirl underneath it.

“Ryan’s in debt and his life is over!” Kelsey jokes, shouting over the music. Ryan distantly remembers the time Sara’s last class gets out -- 9:30 -- and wonders if they should turn down the music. “So we’re having a Dia De Los Muertos inspired funeral for him!” She lets go of Sara’s hand and just dances in her space. Sara does not seem to mind the close proximity at all.

“Oh shit!” Sara responds, “That fucking sucks, dude!”

“Yeah! He can’t even buy food!”

Sara glances over at Ryan, who is currently doing some shitty version of the cha-cha. “Really?” Kelsey nods and even though it looks like she’s nodding with the beat, Sara knows her better. They twirl opposite directions, almost looking choreographed, and when they come back together, Sara has a look on her face, head tilted and smile tight. 

“What is it?” Kelsey asks and Sara holds up a finger. She twirls away again, this time, going farther and farther until she reaches Kelsey’s phone on the island of the kitchen. 

Stopping the music (which Kelsey’s neighbors are probably thankful for), she spins around to give the two confused faces a bright smile. “I know how Ryan -- and us, of course -- can score some free food, if you’re up to it.”

Kelsey’s face lights up, “I love free food!”

“Didn’t we just eat?” Ryan says, he’s smiling though, because his grumbling tummy agrees with Kelsey. Hey, he’s a man who works out and has a high metabolism... and he’s “growing.” He’s always hungry.

And Kelsey... well, she’s Kelsey.

“So... how are we doing this?” Ryan says, with a lopsided smile. Ryan realizes how much they look like a pack of gremlins up to no good -- which they kinda are. Suddenly, the whole “I’m in horrible debt” thing isn’t looming over this day and he realizes that Kelsey was right -- it’s hard to be miserable in like-minded company.

“So,” Sara starts, using a voice that sounds like she’s giving Kelsey and Ryan an inside scoop. Ryan now pictures them as a group of spies, preparing to infiltrate an important ball. The two in question lean in, despite them being the only people in the house, and Sara continues, “So, in Art History today, we were learning about some art that was painted by people who were. Fucked. Up. Like they were drinking absinthe and doing coke -- I was joking with my friend, Keith, telling him how they must’ve been some WILD partiers and how it put me in a partying mood. And he told me that he and his little crew were going to this party at this bar on 6th street. And, this is the best part-” 

Sara look back and forth between Ryan and Kelsey, excitedly. “Eugene was the one who got invited, so you KNOW it’s gonna be full of people who got that mun-nay! We should hit it up and see if anyone will buy us drinks and food and stuff!”

“Hell yeah!” Kelsey exclaims, “Mooching off the rich for the win! Down with capitalism!”

“You got that right!” Sara says, “Mooch the rich!”

“Mooch the rich!” Ryan agrees. He throws his fist in the air like some French revolutionary and the look of excitement that appears on Kelsey’s face is so funny, he can’t help wheezing at it.

Kelsey and Sara carry on without him, shouting “MOOCH THE RICH!” and pounding their fists in the air, getting louder and louder with each shout.

Ryan’s tearing up from laughing so hard now, because holy shit, Kelsey’s neighbors are gonna think they’re some sort of anarchist cult doing weird cult stuff behind loud music and are Sara and Kelsey doing a picket circle in the kitchen now?? 

-- fuck, Ryan loves his friends.

[elsaclack]

Girl your recent soulmate AU fic!! It was…Poetic Cinema. The hurt/comfort. The pining and smitten Jake. Amy’s “You were worth the wait.” Gosh everything about it was so beautiful. I love it a lot! If you don’t mind, would you write a fic of when they’re talking about soulmates? The line where Amy reminds Jake that he’s felt his soulmate since he was 7 intrigued me and I’d love to read how that convo went. Love your writing and can’t wait to read what you write next!

HIIIIIIIIIII THIS IS KINDA LATE BUT BETTER LATE THAN NEVER RIGHT

anyways it got angstier than i meant it to?? also originally in my head there wasn’t really any one solid conversation where they talked this through - i kind of imagined it as amy slowly gathering information up over the years as jake peppers little comments into otherwise-unrelated conversations if that makes sense. i did always intend for amy to talk about this at some point in this canon - originally, jake only overheard her talking to terry and rosa about it, but i also really liked the angst potential of jake kind of skirting the subject with her and her coming out and saying this without realizing who exactly she’s talking to.

that’ll make more sense when you read it lmao

anyways the first part is set in the captain mcginley years, and the second part is like...their third or fourth date (bc i’m apparently incapable of leaving perfectly good angst as-is in this au)

His chest feels heated with the intensity of her frustration.

It’s been going on all morning - growing stronger by the hour - and if he weren’t so exhausted and hungover from his evening out with Rosa and Charles the night before, he might have the wherewithal to worry.

As it is, he contents himself with the fresh coffee wafting out of the paper cup in his hand and the knowledge that he’s only fifteen minutes late today instead of his standard thirty.

Amy’s voice reaches him the moment the elevator doors slide open, and he can’t help himself - he grimaces into his cup. Because he recognizes that tone: lofty, arrogant, know-it-all lecturer, at the absolute peak of her soap box in the break room. Her conviction is a burning ember glowing bright inside his chest; through the partially opened blinds he sees her standing near the vending machines, turned inward toward the table where Rosa and Terry are held captive, face scrunched just so the way it does when she’s in the midst of a debate.

Inwardly, he sighs.

Charles is waiting for him, hovering near his desk, gaze flitting between him and the break room with blatant nerves. “Hey,” he says, and though his tone is gentle, it grates against Jake’s head like nails to a chalkboard. “You hungover?”

“Yeah,” Jake grunts, letting his messenger’s bag fall from his shoulder and collapsing back into his seat in one movement. “What’s got her all riled up?”

“I don’t know, I just got here,” Charles settles in Jake’s guest chair and leans in, elbows planted on his knees, as if they’re sharing some big secret. “I think she’s talking about the nature of free will?”

“Wow,” Jake toggles his mouse until his computer screen lights up. “Sounds fascinating. Ya’ think closing that door will drown her out?”

“I doubt it. Jake,” Charles leans in closer and Jake pauses, fingers hovering over his keyboard. “I think it has to do with soulmates.”

He’s not certain - he has no way of being certain - but he’s pretty sure he manages to keep his composure despite the block of ice suddenly dropping into his gut. “Okay,” he says slowly - and blessedly, his voice remains steady. “Am I supposed to care about that?”

A look of bewilderment passes over Charles’ face, before indignation takes its place. “I know she’s your soulmate, Jake,” he hisses, leaning back as Jake jerks forward.

“Keep it down,” Jake hisses back, glancing over his shoulder at the break room. He can’t see her face but her voice is still carrying - and her emotions remain steady, not an ounce of shock among them. “How the hell do you know that?”

“You told me. Last night. After your fifth whiskey. Five-Drink-Jake is a chatterbox, I tell ya’ -”

“Does anyone else know? Rosa?”

“She was gone by then. Unless you told the cabbie on your way home, I’m the only one who knows.”

Jake huffs out a breath and drops his head, relief overwhelming for a moment, before snapping back to attention and leaning in closer. “You can’t tell anyone.”

“Jake -”

“I mean it, Boyle, no one can find out about this.”

“You have to -”

“I’m not ready for that yet, and it sounds like she isn’t, either.” He hooks a thumb over his shoulder in the general direction of the break room; Charles’ anguished gaze flits from his face to the door and back again. “Promise me you won’t tell anyone about this.”

Charles stares for a moment, before his shoulders drop. “Y’know I’ve been looking for my soulmate for almost twenty years?” he says softly. “I’d give - I’d give anything to find them. And the minute I do find them...I don’t want to waste another second.”

He leans back in his seat - triumph filtering in through the earnestness - and Jake drops his gaze and bites out a sigh. “This is so not the time or place,” he mutters, “and I’m hungover as hell - I hate Drunk Jake.”

Charles snorts and prods his arm, forcing his chair to roll backwards. “Go,” he says, “Rosa and Terry just left, she’s alone in there.”

“Alright, alright,” Jake grumbles, hauling himself up to his feet and snatching his coffee cup off his desk before trotting off toward the break room.

She’s facing the vending machines when he steps inside, affording him a moment to just watch her shift her weight from foot to foot. The burning conviction he’d felt is still there, though less-pronounced now; she’s mostly consumed with deliberation, as if choosing what plastic-wrapped crap snack is the most healthy option for breakfast. She tilts her head to the right - likely trying to read the nutrition facts on the powdered donut packaging - and a lock of dark hair escaped from her pristine bun slips from behind her ear to lightly graze against the shoulder pad of her pantsuit jacket.

Oh, god, his soulmate wears pantsuits.

He turns his attention to the coffee table and clears his throat, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from grinning in response to her genuine pulse of fear accompanying her quiet gasp. “I’d go for the jumbo honey bun,” he says as he measures out his cream. “Those are fresh. Vending machine dude just loaded ‘em in on Monday.”

“They’re also...half your recommended daily caloric intake,” she says; he allows himself to grin, now, because the amusement in her voice echoes ten times louder in his chest. “Honestly, it’s shocking that you’re such a high-functioning human being and not...constantly going into glucose-related shock.”

“Hey,” he turns his head and finds her staring at him, brows slightly furrowed, eyes lit. “You think I’m high-functioning?”

She rolls her eyes and turns back toward the vending machine, but he can still feel her struggling between amusement and exasperation. “I’d say you’re high-functioning for someone who puts his body through as much abuse as you do. High-functioning in general? That’s a whole different conversation.”

He laughs as he stirs his cream in - and a thrill crashes through him, one entirely unrelated to his own amusement. He glances over his shoulder to find her watching him, her grin somehow bright and half-hidden at once.

His heart skips a beat.

“So...I heard you in here talking to Terry and Rosa earlier.”

Her amusement fades fast; an odd mix of embarrassment and defensiveness take its place. “Yeah,” she says - and her voice is definitely guarded. “I just - uh, we were talking about soulmates. I guess I got a little loud.”

He leans back against the table, still stirring, watching her run her finger down the glass in an ill-fated attempt and seeming nonchalant. “I couldn’t hear what you were actually saying,” he says after a moment - and a minuscule pulse of relief bursts somewhere down in the pit of his belly. “I could just hear that you sounded kind of upset.”

He lets the statement hang, lets it ruminate in her mind. Dozens of emotions are flitting through his chest, so quickly it’s nearly dizzying; she braces a hand on the side of the vending machine and sighs, leaning forward until her forehead audibly clunks against the glass. “My brother...found his soulmate last night.”

Despite the fact that a distinct heaviness clings to both her words and his heart, he feels his brows rise toward his hairline instinctively. “Well that’s - that’s good, right? Isn’t...finding his soulmate a good thing?”

“In theory,” she grumbles; he winces in time with her own pulse of regret. “I mean, yeah, of course it is.” She turns slowly and leans backwards, until her shoulders press against the glass. “I just - it’s got me thinking, is all. He’s the fifth one of us to find his soulmate - it’s just me and two other brothers at this point.”

“And, what, you’re worried you’ll be the last one? Or that - that you’ll never find yours?”

“I’m just frustrated by the whole idea of soulmates in general.” she snaps. “I mean - think about it! Objectively speaking, the concept of two people who have never met before being, like, perfect for each other - or, or completing each other, being each other’s perfect half - whatever metaphor you wanna use! Objectively speaking, it’s completely screwed up! We want to believe that we as humans are afforded the right of basic free will, right? That our lives are anything we want them to be because we get to make our own decisions and choose our own paths, right? Well, if we don’t get to choose who we love - if some big cosmic entity just randomly pairs us all up, the idea of free will itself is a big sham! Who’s to say we don’t have soulmate jobs, or soulmate apartments, or soulmate clothes - who’s to say that any of our choices in life are our own?”

She’s breathing hard, the vending machine forgotten, and Jake’s struggling to remember how to form words. “I-I don’t - I don’t think it’s that deep, Santiago,” he manages to rasp. “It’s not like - it’s not like you’re losing some part of yourself when you find your soulmate. Look at Terry and Sharon. They just happened to meet at a random farmer’s market and they’ve been so happy ever since, but Terry never would have looked twice at her if he hadn’t felt her freak out when that guy stole her purse -”

“I just - I don’t want some random person I don’t know to come gallivanting into my life, thinking they’re entitled to some part of me, because someone else said so.” she interrupts, quieter than before. “I want someone to choose me because they want me. Not just because I’m their soulmate, and not because the universe made the decision for them. I want them to choose me, and I want to choose them, too.”

“Huh,” he hears himself breathe. “I’ve never actually thought about it that way.”

The tips of her ears flush pink as a wave of self-consciousness washes over him. “You just - assumed your soulmate would eventually find you and everything would be perfect?”

“No. I assumed I’d find my soulmate and everything would be perfect.”

Amy’s chin lifts a degree. “You’re receptive?”

He taps his chest. “Since I was seven years old.”

Her brows raise and her surprise is genuine. “Seven,” she repeats softly, and he nods. “That’s so young.” He pulls a long sip from his coffee, watching her process. “Must be a strong connection.”

He lowers his cup slowly, coffee swishing between his teeth before he swallows. He blinks, and behind his eyelids he sees the chalk-scribbled pavement, hears the distant shouts of a soccer game in progress, feels the ghost of her sheer panic squeezing his chest for the very first time. “I’d like to think so,” he admits as the memory fades, voice barely above a whisper.

She presses her lips together as she nods, before inhaling and plastering on a smile. “Let me know when you find them,” she says with a brightness he knows she does not feel.

“Oh, trust me,” he says as he pushes off the table, “you’ll be the first to know.”

“You sarcastic sunnovabitch.”

Jake blinks, frozen half-way through the motion of licking his ice cream cone. Amy’s staring at him like he’s just gone and grown a second head, her own ice cream dripping down her cone, dangerously close to her fingers. “I’m sorry,” he says once he’s recovered, “what did I do?”

“I just got it,” she says, smug and self-assured, and her conviction tickles in the space between his ribs. “I just understood your stupid little inside joke.”

“...’kay, wanna fill me in, then? ‘Cause I definitely don’t get it.”

“You once told me that I’d be the first to know when you found your soulmate.” He furrows his brow, before the memory comes flooding back all at once. “I thought you were just being your usual annoyingly sarcastic self, but you were messing with me, weren’t you?”

“I’m always messing with you, Santiago,” he nudges her side with his elbow and she huffs, playfully indignant. “But, yeah, I was definitely messing with you then.”

“Well that officially makes you a liar. J’accuse!”

He lets out an indignant squawk around his ice cream. “I never lied to you about us being soulmates!”

“Excuse me, but you most certainly did lie!”

“I need receipts or I’m not paying, lady.”

“You told me I’d be the first to know when you found your soulmate - otherwise known as me - but you admitted yourself on our first date that you told Charles first!”

“When I was drunk! My critical thinking skills were compromised! My judgement impaired! Sober Jake would never in a million years -”

“Dissociate and place blame all you want, Peralta, you lied and I caught you red-handed.”

It’s hard to maintain the facade of defense when her amusement and affection are just short of suffocating; after a moment of grappling, he breaks, a broad grin splitting across his face, which she immediately mirrors. “Fine,” he sighs - not an ounce of dejection anywhere in sight. “I’m sorry that I lied and said you’d be the first to know when I actually drunkenly told Charles first. How can I ever make it up to you?”

She pretends to mull it over - she pretends she can’t feel every last ounce of his affection rearing up like a tidal wave at the way the neon pawn shop lights glow against her skin - and then her bright, happy gaze fixates on his face. “You can take me back to my apartment and pretend to watch a movie while we make out on the couch instead.”

“If I have to.”

She lets out a laugh and snatches his hand, but before she can bound off town the street, he tugs her back with just enough force that she stumbles, right into his chest. He swallows her surprised gasp, humming at the mingling taste of his chocolate ice cream and her strawberry; there’s a distinct splat of her ice cream hitting the sidewalk as she lifts both arms up over his shoulders to curl around the back of his neck, curving his back just slightly to better reach her.

“Never gets old,” she whispers against his lips, fingers gently combing through his hair as they slowly break apart.

“You know what else never gets old?”

“Hm?”

“Die Hard.”

“We are not watching Die Hard. Absolutely not.”

“What if I’m the big spoon tonight?”

“Nope.”

“What if I’m the big spoon and I make pancakes in the morning?”

“You’re gonna have to do better than that.”

“Big spoon, pancakes, and I’ll convince Rosa to sub in for you on that stakeout with Charles next week so you can go to that exhibit at the Met?”

“You really are my soulmate, aren’t you?”

[thehomierobbstark]

What was the bomb Ramen recipe?

Aight BOOM I finally got a chance to answer your question so here it is! Thank you for being so patient anon:

To start, I use this video as a reference regarding cooking methods and ingredients/measurements

Here’s the printed instructions for the above video

I don’t follow it fully because I don’t have all the stuff/don’t feel like doin allat, but here’s what I do use:

*1 Tbsp. sesame seeds

*2 cloves garlic (minced or grated)

*½" ginger (grated)

*Scallion (white part, diced)

*2 tsp. sesame oil

*2 tsp. chili bean paste

*2 tsp. soy sauce

*1 cup rice milk [substituted for soy]

*½ tsp Kosher salt

*Dash of white pepper

I also use the following as a personal preference:

Star Anise seeds (about 3 per serving)

Brewed Noodle Dipping Broth (optional)

Fresh Corn cut off the cob (about 1 cup per serving)

Fresh Spinach (1-2 cups per serving)

Mushrooms (sliced; about ½ cup per serving)

Red Onion (some diced, some sliced [for texture difference])

Eggs (1 per serving)

[For the pictures below, since I’m familiar with this recipe the ingredients shown aren’t exact measurements, so don’t get worried if yours don’t match up. I didn’t use all the ingredients below, but also I was cooking for 3 people {for example I only used about half the ginger on the cutting board, but all the spinach, etc etc.} 

If its your first time cooking ramen/this recipe, I’d suggest going with the listed measurements for all the *starred* items until you get more comfortable with your personal taste/preference.]

Heres a few pictures of the ingredients I used, just in case you’re a visual person like myself or you also need an idea for what some of the items look like:

(That hunk of yellow in the middle is grated ginger)

(These are Star Anise seeds)

ALRIGHT! So you’ve got all your ingredients laid out and ready to go.

Starting with your sesame seeds, pour those into a small saucepan and toast them until they’re a nice golden brown. Make sure you start off with low heat because this can get away from you real fast, so stir them regularly every few seconds to keep them from burning.

As you can see above these kinda got away from me [😅] but I was comfortable with the toasted : semi- toasted ratio so I stopped several seconds after this point. Toasting the seeds helps to bring out the oils and flavor, and you can also throw the anise seeds in there at the end for a few seconds to get those a little toasted too if you like.

Now you’re gonna grind up the seeds. Don’t have a mortar and pestle? Cool! Me either! What you might have tho is an ice cream scoop and a mug, so throw that shit in there and get to grinding! (You can also use a ziploc bag and a rolling pin, but remember to let the seeds cool before you dump them in the bag or it’ll melt [yup. been there done that 😅] ).

(Unground sesame seeds)

Once you’ve got those ground up to your desired texture (mostly powdery is good, don’t feel it needs to be perfect you just wanna smash open a good amount of the seeds) start heating up your medium sized pot on low.

This would be the 1:18 mark in the video above, and you’re gonna follow the instructions as so up until 2:18.

Start with your sesame seed oil and let that heat up (only takes a few seconds). Then, dump in your garlic, ginger, and white parts of the scallions ( I call them green onions but whatever lmao) and let that cook for a lil until that shit starts smellin good (or until the white parts of the onion get a little translucent). You can play with your fire a little bit but sesame oil burns fast so try to keep it on the low side to keep your food and pot from burning.

Now, if you’re like me and adding red onion and mushroom too, you can add that in now to get those cookin. The mushrooms might soak up a bit of your oil so feel free to add a little more sesame oil and cook until your veggies are evenly coated. Don’t worry about the mushrooms not being thoroughly cooked yet cuz they’ll soak up the flavors of the broth and get cooked with the next few steps. Don’t forget to add in your sesame and anise seed powder now.

(Forgot to add the mushrooms here lol)

Feel free to turn your heat up to low medium at this point to get your pot headed in a nice simmering direction. Now, you’re gonna add your chili paste, soy sauce, and dipping broth (a quick splash is good enough) and stir that in nicely as well.  I suggest tasting all these ingredients before adding them so you have an idea of the spice and sodium content you’re working with, as well as the flavors. I like my food spicy and not too salty, so I use extra chili paste and low sodium soy sauce.

(Does not include soy sauce or dipping broth yet. Still no mushrooms XD)

The dipping broth I use has a little bit of a sweet flavor in it, so I keep that in mind to prevent from adding too much (if you’re using fresh corn the sweetness will also be heightened, tempting you to add more salt). All of the above ingredients have a good salt content tho, so be mindful of that if you need to watch your salt intake. Also! Taste as you go. That way if you need to add a little of anything you can add it in before you get to the finish line.

[You also may want to take a moment to start another pot of boiling water for your ramen noodles at this point.]

You can turn up your heat now to medium, because we’re about to add in the milk. The recipe above calls for soy milk, personally I use rice milk, but if you wanna use another non dairy milk, thats also great! (I’ve only used soy and rice milk tho so I can’t dictate what the taste may be like with another type of milk)

If you’re not fucking with non dairy milk (understandable lmao) see the substitutions I provided down below.

Add in your milk, stirring to blend all the flavors. You can pour half, stir a little, and pour the other half, or pour it all at once and stir, or pour little by little while stirring. The point is, it doesn’t matter how you do it, long as your pour the shit in there and stir it together 😂. Once you get that all mixed in nicely, you can turn your pot up to full medium or even a low high, to get it bubbling.

(A non bubbling but very delicious pot of broth)

The raw looking onion up there is just the leftover onion slices I added in for texture. At this point, I like to add a little salt and white pepper into my broth and give it a little taste test to see where its at. Sometimes I use a pinch of sea salt, sometimes just regular salt, it depends on what I feel like reaching for. They’re both the same to me, but again if you need to be mindful of your salt intake for personal or health reasons, you can go ahead n skip this step. I also add a few handfuls of fresh spinach to get that cooking down. ***Also don’t forget to add your corn in too!***

Check on your pot of boiling water, and if its ready, go ahead and add your noodles in.  Feel free to use whatever ramen noodles you want, be it Top Ramen, Neoguri, Maruchan, its all up to you. I used Shin Ramyun noodles, in case you’re curious. Cook the noodles as directed.

I don’t really use the flavor packets, because 1) ummm we just made some bomb ass homemade ramen broth SON!!! get that shit outta here 😤😤 but also 2) the salt content is out of this world, and as you keep hearing me say, you wanna keep an eye on that.

BUTTTT if you’re tasting your broth and you feel like maybe it could use a lil sum sum, sometimes I’ll add in a couple sprinkles of the flavor packet to give it a little extra spice and umph (the noodle packs up there are Gourmet Spicy), but I really don’t add much, maybe two amounts of whats shown in the spoon depending how many people I’m cooking for. (Maybe a little more if my grannys not looking lol)

I do however use the vegetable packet, so dump that in the broth too.

I’ll also crack an egg or two into the pot and let that get cooking. I don’t like the boiled runny yolk versions you’ll normally find in ramen, but I like eggs, so I like this much better. Its basically scrambled egg, just wet lol.

(The egg is the little flecks of yellow and white in the pot)

Try to prevent immediately stirring the egg once you crack it in the pot, otherwise you’ll get little baby disintegrated bits, which is okay, but if you want to taste good amounts of egg with the rest of your ingredients, try the following:

Let it sit for maybe half a minute after cracking (start by doing one egg at a time) then taking some wooden chopsticks, or a fork, and just mix back and forth through your broth. If you’re doing this while the pot is still boiling or on medium heat, it won’t take long for your egg to cook, so don’t get worried about the possibility of uncooked egg in the pot. Give it about 2 minutes, maybe a little more for comfort, and you’re good to go! Put your pot on low and let it simmer.

Go ahead and check on your noodles now, they should be done now or close to it. Once they are, drain the water out of the pot and set aside. Sometimes I forget this part, but you want to drain the water to keep the noodles from getting to the translucent/overcooked stage, unless thats your personal preference.

Now if you’re anything like me, you’re probably up there lookin at the last three photos like “woooow Homie, you out here providing ramen recipes but you aint providing the recipe for them potstickers you got goin in the back,”

First of all, mind ya bidness

Nosy ass….

Second of all, these from Trader Joes bruh!

They’re the Thai Shrimp Gyoza ones and they’re in the frozen section.  As you can see, I panfried them, using olive oil and sesame oil (like 1 tablespoon each) and these shits are bomb af. See? Don’t I be comin thru for yall?

But anyway, back to the ramen recipe.

NIGGA you done!! All you gotta do is plate your noodles in a bowl, ladle your broth in there, sprinkle your green onions on top, maybe add little sriracha and BOOM

Congratulations! You just made some bomb ass ramen homie!!!! (peep the panda chopsticks :D)

Now go put on your favorite show, kick back, and get to grubbin! 

Warning: You will absolutely knock tf out after devouring this shit, so clear a space and prepare for that lmao. Trust me, I do it every time 😂😂

////Substitutions////

For the Garlic, Ginger, and Onion, feel free to use the powder versions instead if you don’t have fresh on hand.

There is also sesame seed powder and, apparently, anise seed powder (don’t ask me where to find those two because ionknow)

Kosher Salt- as far as i’m concerned salt is salt, like I said I use regular or sea salt if you don’t have kosher

Rice or Soy Milk- If you wanna use dairy milk, I’d say start with half a cup of dairy and then half a cup of vegetable or chicken broth (low sodium versions are a thing). This will help make it creamy without compromising too much of the flavor you’ve built up. Again, taste as you go to tweak as needed.

Soy Sauce can of course be substituted for the low sodium kind.

Fresh Ingredients: For Corn, Spinach, Mushrooms and even Onions, Frozen or Canned works just as well and its a significantly cheaper option (idk bout canned onions tho). If you’re going the canned route, make sure to just rinse it out first before adding to get rid of any extra salt content and preservatives that might be floating around in there.

***Black pepper can be subbed for white, theres no difference

I know the struggles college students, those on budgets, and peeps who live in food deserts may have when it comes to getting some of these ingredients, so don’t feel you gotta have it all to make it taste good. Just work with what you got, get a little crafty and experiment a little, and maybe try some new things and see how you like it! (Like, seriously, rice milk is great I love it 😂 )

Lastly, this recipe is vegetarian and vegan friendly! (Sans egg for the vegans of course) so its super enjoyable for yall as well!

I’m not vegan nor vegetarian, and I have added meat sometimes in the past, but I like this version the best because it just taste the best to me.

If you try the recipe, feel free to shoot me an ask and tell me how it went! Now go get cookin! :D

[doginshoe]

The Thorn of a Rose

hello! This is a Valentine’s Day piece I wrote for a contest in my discord server. It’s a Nalu x Gruvia server so if you’d like to join I'll leave the link here Genre: fluff, lemon mentions, little hurt/comfort with Lucy being slightly sad, modern au

read on ff.net here

Lucy eyes flittered open as she stirred from sleep, her dull stare meeting wilted roses that were placed in a vase on her bedside table. The blonde removed her naked body from the sticky mess under the sheets and let her legs hang off the edge of the bed. The roses her father sent her stared at her in disgust - her bed mate not even stirring as she tore her gaze from them and padded her way across her apartment in the nude.

The shower washed away the slick feeling on her skin as she stepped into the boiling water. She scrubbed at the marks her fling had left and the dried up substance between her thighs that were the only remainder of their short and uneventful night. Well, for Lucy that was all it was. Another disappointing flirt from the bar that managed to sneak into her bed when she had drowned herself in alcohol. They were always the same.

Her eyes were heavy as she dressed herself, her cheeks sunken and void of colour making her look like death. She had tried to apply make up, but everyone in the office already knew what a sorry of an excuse for a woman she was so she stopped trying. It was near impossible to not hear the rumours that the younger receptionists whispered to each other. Lucy sighed, her father was right about one thing and that was that people did know just what type of girl she was - an easy pass after a bit of buttering up and a glass to drink.

When she left her bathroom her one night stand was gone, but Lucy was happy he had. It was almost torture when the white knights tried to stay to have breakfast and then insist that they’d see her again. Which they didn’t. It was even more degrading than being a simple quick fuck that was later forgotten about - like they were teasing her with the romance she could never even come close to having that was filled with second dates and something more than just sex.

It left a sour taste in the woman’s mouth that deepened her frown as she briskly walked to work. Though, that frown was nothing compared to the scowl that set itself in stone on her face as she got her morning coffee. Everything was fine until the cute young guy working the register called out a quick ‘Happy Valentines Day’ as she turned to leave.

It wasn’t necessarily the fact that he had mentioned it to her, but that he had reminded her that this Thursday was the holiday that she loathed. She knew it was coming - the roses from her father being a reminder that it was close as he sent flowers to her for every bloody holiday. To remind her that he was ready to accept her when she cleaned up her act. However, she had been so caught up in trying to disappear from her own life that she’d forgotten everything.

She looked around her and scoffed, the deep red foil balloon hearts mocking her for not noticing them as they lined basically every shop. Her heart coiled in on itself and it was hard to breathe as she realised just how many happy couples were around. It made her sick and she picked up her pace as she nearly jogged to the office - hoping to drown herself with some spiked coffee and then have a snooze at her desk, or a mental breakdown.

When Lucy reached the sanctuary of her desk, she blew a loud sigh of relief only to have her momentary peace interrupted by the sing song voice of her co worker and desk buddy, Juvia Lockser.

“Good morning~” she chirped as she peeked her head out from behind her computer but then gasped immediately when she laid eyes on the blonde that was slumped in front of her, “what happened, Lucy? Juvia thinks you look worse than usual.”

The exhausted woman looked up and blew strands of hair from her face as she shot Juvia an unappreciative stare.

“I’m just peachy thank you very much,” Lucy grumbled sarcastically. She loved Juvia, the woman she had been working with for almost two years, to bits but sometimes she was just too honest for her own good.

Juvia cheeks tinted when she realised how rude she sounded but she pushed past it, a huge smile forming on her face as her blue eyes took on a sparkly look as she nearly yelled, “Oh, and Happy Valentines Day!”

She was also just too damn happy as well.

Lucy wailed, “Please don’t mention it.” Her head hit the desk again, a whine escaping her as she wondered how hard she’d have to do it to be knocked out, or better yet dead.

“Juvia knows you are having a rough time since you’re last break up,” she sighed, “but today is not time to be sulking! We must set forth and sail and see where our hearts take us.” The desk buddy Lucy had cupped her cheeks as she got a dreamy look about her that made the blonde want to roll her eyes. The mention of her ex stung as the dark cloud rolled over her mind as she recalled how he had broken off their engagement just a month before the wedding.

“Well I don’t know where your boat is heading, but I hope mines into a ditch,” she murmured.

Juvia’s scolded her with a shake of her head. “I do hope you at least remembered a gift for the game of secret Valentine today.”

Lucy froze.

“I thought I asked to not be included in that shit,” she hissed as she leaned forward, eyebrows furrowed.

“Well,” Juvia said simply, “you have the pink card of who you’re meant to be getting something for on your desk.” Her blue eyes looked to the said pink card pinned to her stand up notice board along with many other documents and sticky notes.

Lucy reached for the envelope before ripping it open. Her face paling even more as she read the name of a man in the office scrawled in glittery silver cursive.

“Who the fuck is Max?” She asked bewildered at the woman across from her.

“Oh, he works on the upper floor close to maintenance,” Juvia stated. Her face wincing at Lucy’s foul language so early in the morning.

Lucy pulled at her hair as she groaned, “I don’t have anything!” The woman moped as her head once again slammed onto the wooden desk beneath her where it seemed to be taking up permanent residence. Why did she have to stuck in a stupid work game to buy some loser something. Did maintenance even count as co workers? All they did was keep the place tidy by sweep-

“I’ve got it!” She shouted before she quickly scurried out of her seat, whilst Juvia stared at her retreating form as if she had finally lost it.

.

.

.

Lucy cringed at the broom that was wrapped in newspaper and duct tape when she saw the many other presents that lined the offices pigeon holes where they collected mail or important documents from the bosses. Some had small pink boxes while others were stuffed with large bouquets and chocolates, but they all looked better than her disaster of a present no matter the effort they had put it in.

A sigh left her lips as she taped a large paper sign to the top of the broom that just read ‘MAX’ in capital letters. It wasn’t her fault, the blonde had specifically told the managers assistant Mira that she wanted no part in this stupid game! So with a shrug the blonde turned around to then crash right into someone.

A bag of chocolates fell to the floor and a cuss filled the air as the person tried to readjust their hand on the small bouquet of red and white carnations. Lucy immediately ducked down to help picked up the chocolates, lucky that only a few had spilled from the bag.

“Lucy!” he nearly shouted as she pushed the chocolate into his hand with the flowers, the other holding a hot takeaway cup of coffee that she was glad hadn’t spilt all over her.

“Uh, hi?” she muttered while she eyed him, his pink hair and dark green eyes not sparking anything familiar. She didn’t really know anyone that well in the office so she didn’t know how he had known her name. However, his sudden blush had her wanting to crawl into a hole.

Fuck, have I slept with this guy??

“I didn’t think you’d be at work this early,” he blurted as his eyes looked past her and at the many presents that filled up the pigeon hole.

Lucy’s eyebrows narrowed when she saw he wasn’t looking at her face. It made her angry that he couldn’t even give her enough respect to actually look at her when he spoke to her. Not to mention that the gifts that he held caused a spike of envy to shoot through her body.

“Listen here, buddy” she seethed while she stood up straighter, “I don’t know what we had but could you atleast grow up and treat me with a bit of respect.”

His eyes snapped to her’s in a surprised look. “What are you talking about, Lucy? You’ve really gotten even weirder since I saw you nearly beat up the front door.”

She blinked. Then again.

“Oh, Natsu!” she cried and he gave her a puzzled look. “I’m sorry I’ve had a really shit morning,” she pointed her thumb at the many presents behind her, “I completely forgot this entire thing was on and just, you know.”

“Is that broom wrapped in newspaper your present?”

“Yes.”

Natsu cheeks puffed as he tried to hold in his laughter, but lost it a second after as he bent over and nearly spilled his coffee all over the floor.

Lucy tried to look annoyed but the soft smile that pulled on her lips gave her away. She remembered him now. It had been a week after her fiance had called off the wedding. Lucy had taken time off work, but when she came back she would work overtime to try and distract herself from the cold and lonely apartment that she had to return home to. It was on one of those night where she had stayed back that Natsu ran into her trying to break the glass of the automatic doors because it wouldn’t open. After telling her to put the chair down and showing her the side door for night employees (the sliding doors were shut off after 7pm) they talked while they walked home and even stopped to get ice-cream together at the request of Natsu. Lucy hadn’t seen much of him since, only a grin and wave offered if they passed each other.

Lucy huffed, “I didn’t even ask to be in this! It was actually pretty smart last minute improvisation on my part if I do say so myself.”

Natsu grinned down at her, “No, you’re just a weirdo.”

The blonde’s eye twitched as she crossed her arms, “Well, sorry I’m not planning a highschool confession,” Lucy gestured to the gifts in his arm, “You look damn near ready to propose with all that cheesy stuff!”

“What?” his expression growing worried, “You don’t like this?”

A deep blush coated her cheeks as she turned away. An assortment of hand picked flowers and a bag full of different types of chocolate? No, Lucy didn’t like this. She loved it. Her inner child swooning at his nervous eyes and the pout that rested on his face.

“I mean,” she bit out, “What girl wouldn’t like that?” Her gaze soften, as she let go of the sour clip to her tone. It really wasn’t her place to put him down because of her own issues. “You did a good job.”

Natsu smiled, “Well that’s great because these are for you!” He said while pushing them into her arms.

“Happy Valentines Day!”

Her brown eyes bulged as she took the present.

“Oh, and I also booked us to go paintballing just cause you know… You don’t have to go, but eh yeah.”

She looked up at the sheepish young man as he scratched the back of his neck while looking away from her, digging his face in his scarf. It wasn’t like Lucy hadn’t received a valentine’s day present before, but her eyes watered as she looked back down to the soft petals of the carnations that he had given her. Maybe it was because there wasn’t no incentive that this was all to get her in bed with him, or maybe she had just been so wrapped in telling herself that there was nothing left for her in love that she had driven herself insane. Either way, Lucy couldn’t help the light feeling in her chest as she gave Natsu an ear splitting grin.

“I can’t wait to kick your ass.”

Natsu looked up, eyes wide. “Seriously? Yosh! I’m all fired up.”

Lucy laughed and teased him while they walked out of the break room, both with large smiles on their faces before getting back to their respective desks.

And when she finished work she would go home and dance around her apartment to sappy songs instead of down at the club. She would wash her sheets and hum with delight as she cooked herself dinner. The wilted roses would be in the bin and while she went to sleep the carnations would be in the vase on her bedside table - to be blooming bright the next morning as she opened her eyes and a smile would force its way on her face.

And Lucy would be happy.

I hope you liked it! Thank you UwU