#i might post again for this prompt because I had another au idea i just wanted to be indulgent asdfghgfd

[professionallydeadinside]

Day 6: AU

Day 6 of @bullettrainpromptweek and not to throw out an AU that makes literally no sense but,,,,,,Pearl AU,,,,,,,

[twost3ps]

This boy has been in the drafts for like a month

I'm feeling like I want an Adam sandwich with two slices of Morningstar brothers so you guys are going to hear me out on my LucifurxAdamxMicheal au (and I mean it in a they both share Adam in the end :3 ) In general I'm calling the ship ✨️GuitarStars✨️ boooyaaa I feel like there might be a better name for it but idk

(Also I’ve noticed there is complaint for guitarhero in the adamsapple tag. I'm tagging this post as adamsapple this once of it but post related to this with both brothers will be counted as #guitarstars.

I also completely agree with the complaints. There is a problem with the tagging so this is a very quick reminder to please tag properly!!! Ik it's not meant to be harmful bcz most guitarhero shippers are also adamsapple as well. But i will admit there has been a lot of unecessary tagging (i am guilty of this im so sorry qwq) so please be mindful!!!! Ik this post might go agaisnt that but its just this post i swear sorrryyyy)

ANYWAYS The actual au:

For now I'm calling the au- Angels on My Shoulder (I can't think of a good title rn grrr)

quick sketchs so you get the idea

General prompt:

Adam respawns as a human with all his memories. He lives a normal happy life until he turns 21 when two angels (Micheal and Lucifer) appear on his shoulders with a mission: try convince him into making certain decisions so that he ensures a spot in heaven or hell.

That doesn’t work out very well because adam hates how theyre forcing their ideals onto him one way or another. He doesnt really want to think about heaven or hell anytime soon. Heaven or hell seems like complete torture to him. The fact that he didn't like either of them before he respawned doesn't help.

A revelation happens and both brothers realize it's not gonna work on their terms so they're gonna have to earn his favor first before trying anything. One of the ways is talking it out beacuse adam had expressed several times over that, while at first it was funny, their bickering needs to die because it's getting annoying.

They talk it out. They make up. It takes a whole but they become close again. They try to earn adams favor in the meantime and between time. Everything is at peace. As time goes on though, the wooing is no longer for just adams favor, its now romantic. Both develop feelings for Adam. And since now they made up both made up they are very willing to share him.

The og goal is completely lost. Gone with the dirt and dust. And now what was once a competition to get Adam into heaven or hell has spiraled into heaven and hell trying to get into Adam. If you catch my drift.

Do they get in there?

God bless they do

(Ps they start off as small little mascots but then later grow into their normal form and an added human form. Adam Prefers the small mascots though)

My in-depth of the au that is very subject to change I just wanted to rant is under the cut o3o

So when Adam had died, he respawned onto earth. Born into a normal family and all that jazz. He lives life as normal and has comes to terms with it. He actually loves his life. He doesn’t have to walk on eggshells anymore and lives as normal. He’s not insanely good or insanely bad, he’s just a guy.

A guy who is very happy with himself. After graduating he becomes a national park ranger.

Heaven and hell both know of adams soul, but contant cant be initiated till he turns 21 (It was recognized because I wanna say 21 would be the age Adam technically was in his creation during Eden, and thats when he can process divinity without his body tweaking as if he were any other mortal. Souls grow along with age and all that drama, adams soul in eden was strong enough to stand the sheer power of a seraphims presence) both sides made it their immediate duty to guide him to their path.

Sera wanted Adam in heaven to clear her mind- to have heaven back to perfection with the original perfection creation (also to have her son back, but she's not ready to unpack that for herself.)

Lucifur wanted adam as he could punish him directly for hurting Charlie and her friends. A little tiny part of him also really wants Adam all for himself grrryrvgrvsgrs

So both heaven and hell spawn a representative guide for Adam to follow once his soul is ready to guide. Lucifur nominated himself and Sera nominated Micheal who agreed.

For some reason (probably amix of earth and god or sumn), Adam's presence nulls the powers of both angels and devils. So the first time they appear, Micheal and lucifur appear as small tiny mascots on Adam’s shoulder.

(Adam has flicked both of them away several times and they can't really do anything about it other than fly back and try again)

Both sides had the same idea and Adam connects the dots very fast on why they are here without them telling him. And he's pissed.

His normal life is now ruined.

Adam actually really hates both Lucifur and Micheal. Lucifur for obvious reasons and Micheal because he's just so nitpickey. Micheal had trained Adam in the past and that guy was brutal. Adam understood part of it was with Lucifurs falling and their brother thing and whatever but god daymn bro needed to chill. If Sera was on him like a hawk Micheal had been on him like a spy camera from space monitored by the secret service. In a way, both devalued adams emotions to some capacity so Adam hated both of them equally. Nothing Adam could do about it though because he was human.

In the beginning, both micheal and lucifur kept it really formal between them. Its strained but neither brother imposes on what the other one advises. That doesn’t stay for too long. The formalities between Lucifur and Micheal die pretty quickly. Under 2 months tops. While both are very old and very much adults, they are, first and foremost, SIBLINGS.

Both begin talking over eachother, butting in, shoving eachother. It's like pre eden all over again between the two on who is better. Most of the time they argue about the most random topics forgetting their og purpose.

After one year of enduring both of their bs, Adam feels like he has a dog and a cat rather than two otherworldly gaurdians monitoring his every move.

He doesn't complain though. After a while he's learned to tune them out. He also finds it incredibly entertaining watching the literal devil fight with the a high angel while being incredibly small. And with no powers it resorts to petty slapping. He's gotten pretty used to it....

Except when it comes to them making him choose what actions he takes.

They're always on him about everything. It sucks so much ass. Everything Adam tries to do something good, Lucifur tells him that it's stupid, that he should be more selfish and blocks Adam. He keeps on telling him that deep down adam really isnt all that, and why should he try and do good when everyone knows that hes not really that. Micheal does the same thing in reverse. When Adam does something considered bad, Micheal raves on how he'll go to hell. That Adam was made in perfection and must reach that perfection. That heaven is waiting for him and is available only if he keeps on doing good.

It makes Adam so mad when they remember what they're trying to do.

Adam doesn’t listen to either angel because after living part of his life as just a normal person, he’s come to realize he doesn’t want to think about living life wondering if he’s going to heaven or hell. Adam does not want to face eternal punishment or be in hell. He still really hates sinners, and while the blood hungry killer part of him died with his second life, he still thinks that the majority of those sinners are disgusting to say the least. But he doesn’t want to walk eggshells to be virtuous enough to enter heaven. Heaven, for all its greatness got tiring after 1000s of years. He's grown tired- already hated hell and grew to hate heaven. He doesn’t want to think about either, he doesn’t want those ideas to deter him from choosing what he wants to do. He wants to make both good and bad decisions without an angel watching over him. He wants to be able to make both good and bad decisions. He makes this very clear after a breakdown.

It becomes less of a competition over making Adam choose and more of getting into Adam’s favor after that because their first tactic is clearly not working.

So both agree that they will have to earn adams favor before making him do anything.

But in order to get adams favor both have to learn to get along because it had become one of Adam's biggest gripes. Funny at first, but the bickering and arguments got tiring after the course of a few years.

So they do attempt to make up. Genuinely. It's hard and its tough. Theres a lot there to unpack. But both jnkw that if they don't do this Adam is not going to listen to either of them because getting along has go go both ways.

And they do make up.

By the time Adam is in his early 30s, the close proximity and a lot of Adam yelling to sort it out, allowed for some slow but needed time to talk it out. They would do it infront of Adam who was the mediator, but they mostly would talk when Adam falls asleep as both watch over his dreams (creepos imo). They begin talking about their decision and their lives. Both brothers do acknowledge that they miss each other and that they have committed several wrongs with each other. And soon the fighting turns to light banter and life is good. They still try to earn adams favor but it's a lot more calmer. Everything's more calm.

Atleast that's what adam thought at first.

While bonding and stuff, they both come to the mutual agreement that they could share Adam. So they both freak it and try to woo Adam together.

And then now it's a matter of Adam freaking out because while before, both his little shoulder angels used to argue, they their bickering distracted them enough that Adam could chill and leave.

Now they're both bothering him and helping eachother try to get in adams pants. They're tag teaming him now.

It doesn't take long for their combined forces to make Adam cave.

The og goal is kinda gone. They still put their input but adams become more open it because they're less demanding and he feels like their goals are more aligned to his wants than theirs. Lucifur and Micheal also come to kinda realize that where Adam ends is where Adam ends. They're going to have to just suck it up when the time comes but they'll enjoy sharing while it lasts.

It gets pretty domestic and slice of life here. So the years following is a mix of sibling bonding and having ✨️the rizz✨️ on Adam.

Lucifur talks about hell and Charlie. Micheal talks about heaven and lucifur and his siblings. (Both Micheal and Lucifur arent permannt shoulder angels, they can actually pop away if they wanted to) Adam talks about his life and stuff.

When Adam eventually dies, his soul is neither here or there (because getting absolutely boned by twin morningstars does not make you virtuous or sinful it just makes you a bad bitch) his soul spawns in limbo. He’s deprived from salvation but doesn’t endure the horrors of hell. It’s basically a decent sided garden with a basic house in the middle where the garden ends is white space. On opposite ends of the garden are two doors, one goes to hell and the other to heaven. Turns out, the doors are connected to Micheal and Lucifer’s homes, but only appeared in them once Adam died. He’s allowed outside limbo into heaven or hell of his choosing for a limited amount of time and visites Micheal and Lucifer when he can. On the flip side Micheal and Lucifer can freely walk in and out of the place. I don’t want Adam to be lonely once he enters limbo so Cain and Abel are there because they died before heaven was ready and when he’ll just started.

So that’s pretty much it :3 kinda

incomplete but doesn't have everything I wanna say

Also

I will reiterate what I said at the beginning. I love you my guitarhero ppl but they are right in the tagging. It comes from a place of love so just be mindful!! Also, this is from me, sometimes the adamsapple vs guitarhero thing gets repetitive. It's a very common post ive seen. And I mean in general not just leaking into the adamsapple tag. That might just be me, but I do see it pretty often. Love it but that with the tagging does get a bit old. Really, the problem is a mix of incorrect tagging and the same trope. There's a lot more to the ship, especially with Micheal being free reign rn, so there is a lot of opportunity to show their relationship besides comparing it to Adamsapple.

I feel like somone who ships guitarhero also had to say something so yeyeye

Again, no offense to anyone guitarhero isbmy love but just please be mindful guys o3o

If you read all that thank you lol

[elleloquently]

[ ellie still fucking hated coffee.

but she finished off the drink, just because you made it. ]

| a/n : this has genuinely been in the works for months and im so excited to finally be posting it, so please consider leaving a comment/reblogging! it took ages but im very happy with the end result. over time i had a bunch of requests for coffee shop/college barista au's so i kinda mashed them together. please enjoy! <3

| c/w : swearing

coffee talk - ellie williams

the late summer air might've subconsciously motivated ellie's walk that day, her relaxed demeanour acted as a foolish guise from her anxious thoughts. she usually waited until the last possible minute to leave for class, but something today was different.

maybe she hoped that if she walked around for awhile, her body and mind would tire themselves before class, leaving herself sleepy with concentration instead. maybe she hoped that her early start would somehow prompt a late arrival to class, giving her an excuse to just not go.

ellie sighed, squinting in the sun. it was too early in the semester to start that bad habit.

she came across a little campus cafe on her wander, quickly recognizing it as the one that dina had frequented. she hesitated briefly, trying to peer through the glass windows in a not obvious way. it looked relatively empty, compared to the usual crowd, so ellie dragged herself inside.

the air conditioning instantly hit her warm skin, causing goosebumps on her arms. a small group had claimed a table by a window, chattering away with laptops covering the table top. ellie wasn't exactly sure what she was looking for, and the line was pretty short, not allowing her much time to think. ellie lingered in the doorway, wondering how strange it may appear if she turned on her heel and immediately exited the establishment right after entering, until she heard possibly the sweetest voice to ever hit her ears.

"have a nice day," you regarded softly, handing someone their drink with a quick smile.

you were still relatively new at the job, fumbly and awkward with the interactions. your previous job had sucked. your co-workers were mean, you were paid basically nothing, and you were left with little time to complete assignments. your final straw was getting yelled at over the phone by your manager after calling off of work with the flu.

finally gathering the courage to quit, your friend had rallied you up to work at a campus cafe alongside her. the idea of that sort of work scared you, talking to customers, making drinks, but the pay was good and the hours were flexible. you put in an application and by the end of the week, you had started the training process. it was relatively comfortable, until your friend had suddenly decided to quit and left you alone.

"sorry," she had apologized weakly. "i think i might pick up doordashing or something instead."

you pushed out a quick sigh, drumming your fingers on the counter before plastering a smile on your face, moving to greet the next customer.

ellie craned her neck, trying to see the owner of the voice above the heads of the people that stood in line. once her eyes landed upon you, ellie sucked in a breath. she moved wordlessly into the line, no plan of action in mind.

she watched, dazed, as you entered orders and nodded. when you turned around to grab something and ellie spotted the bow that you were wearing in your hair, her palms began to feel warm. she strained her ears, desperate to hear your voice again above the sound of conversation and the typical coffee shop music.

ellie didn't even notice that there was another person, some guy, also behind the counter until he switched spots with you, greeting a different customer.

fuck, ellie thought, rapidly looking around to watch where you were going. you disappeared into the back, behind a set of secretive doors. ellie's heart sank. she would be up soon, and she didn't even know what she was doing. she didn't want to talk to some random guy.

she just... wanted to talk to some... random girl?

fuck.

someone else wandered into the cafe. ellie contemplated making that person's day, wondering if she should just leave the line. of course she should, this was stupid, but then you reappeared. you were carrying a small brown box, and huffed at a strand of hair that had fallen into your face.

ellie was almost up, and she rapidly began praying to any type of higher power that would listen. please don't let it be the guy, please don't let it be the fucking guy-

"hi," you greeted automatically, restocking a small display of reward punch cards. "what can we get for-" you finally dragged your eyes upwards, freezing at the sight of ellie.

your gaze widened and you mentally cursed yourself for having a horrible poker face. the girl standing in front of you was extremely attractive, to say the very least. you felt trapped in her green-eyed gaze, hand hovering above the cards that you were previously toying with.

ellie cleared her throat, shifting awkwardly on her feet. if anyone's voice matched their appearance perfectly, it was yours. you looked doe-eyed, caught off guard, and ellie's face flushed.

you blinked at the slight cough, snapping back into customer service mode. "what can i get for you?" you asked, pointedly changing the we to i. she had freckles. the smile you offered wasn't forced, but genuine.

fuck. fuck fuck fuck. she had to actually order something, not just stand there and stare at you. it was ellie's turn to be wide eyed, as she scrambled to pinpoint something from the menu. god. she really didn't want to be that person. you had all that time waiting in line, just pick something for christ sake!

you stood awkwardly, smile wavering as you waited for a reply. at least while the cute stranger was distracted by the menu, you could use the opportunity to stare.

mentally, ellie was a mess. she had held the skill of reading for the majority of her life now, but ellie couldn't make sense of a single word that was displayed on the menu. everything blurred together and she could feel your eyes on her as she scrambled for something to say.

"uh, what do you recommend?" ellie questioned, meeting your gaze. her cheeks burned when she noticed that you had winced. ellie wasn't being cute or friendly, she was being annoying. the last thing that you probably wanted was to rattle off a list of seasonal beverages you had been asked to promote. ellie mentally cursed herself, but you were stuttering for an answer before she could take her inquiry back.

"oh! um, well there's the..." you glanced over your shoulder at the seasonal drink specials, and ellie held back a grimace. poor fucking girl, she thought.

your face burned. you were still pretty new to the job, and honestly, penny pinching. despite the few that you've snuck during your shift, you hadn't tried many of the drinks yet. you so badly wanted to have a quick answer, something to impress her with your amazing taste. instead, you faltered, taking too long to answer.

"sorry," you laughed, shaking your head sheepishly. "i'm pretty new to this," you explained, ignoring the stare that you were getting from your co-worker. please don't ask to help me, you silently pleaded. despite the awkwardness of the interaction, you didn't want it to be cut short. you wanted to know if her freckles were always that visible, or if they popped out more due to the summer sun.

"that's okay," ellie said, a little too quickly. she looked down at the nametag that you wore on your apron. your name was written neatly, in your own style with a mix of cursive and regular letters. you had drawn a little flower next to your name.

"that board has some of our summer features though," you explained, finally regaining your footing. you nodded in the direction of a display board. "they're super popular, people really like them. i've tried the lavender one actually, it's super good. uh, we unfortunately don't get the pumpkin spice stuff in for... two more weeks, i think? so... i'm sorry about that," you quietly rambled, wringing your hands.

"pumpkin spice? it's barely september," ellie commented, wrinkling her nose. her attention was drawn to your nails, painted perfectly and neat. she wondered how big of a fool she would be making herself out to be if she attempted to flirt with you.

you shrugged, grinningly bashfully. "it's good," you resigned.

noted, ellie thought. i like pumpkin spice now. ellie opened her mouth to ask about the lavender thing, but the girl behind her in line obnoxiously cleared her throat.

ellie's eyebrows raised and you glanced apologetically at the other girl, who was tapping her foot.

"i'll be right with you," you commented. the girl scoffed and ellie's lips twisted at the sound. you were so sweet, wasting one of your pretty smiles on someone who didn't deserve it.

"yeah, no big deal," the girl replied sarcastically. "it's not like i have a class to get to or anything." she looked around the room, trying to garner support for herself, but no one was paying attention.

"i'll be right with you," you reiterated with a harsher tone. ellie fully blushed, feeling guilty for delaying the interaction. now you were getting backlash and your co-worker was completely eyeing you up, and ellie felt at fault for it. you met her eyes again, apologizing with a sad smile. ellie's grip on the strap of her bag tightened.

"sorry," ellie mumbled as her cheeks burned. "i'll get, um-"

the girl in line sighed again and ellie lost her train of thought, noticing that you were holding back your frustration with a tight smile. finally, a good idea emerged in ellie's head. she knew dina's order by heart. dina was certainly a creature of habit, at least when it came to her food and drink orders. ellie had heard dina order a million times.

ellie confidently allowed dina's coffee order to roll off of her tongue. you blinked in surprise as she gave specific directions, a direct contrast to how clueless she had seemed just a moment ago.

you frantically entered the order into the system, scared of making a mistake and looking dumb. "hey," you called softly, gaining the attention of your co-worker. you recited the order to him, to which he nodded in understanding.

"what's your name?" you asked politely. you grabbed a sharpie, waiting.

ellie's heart skipped a beat and she thought maybe she would have stood a chance, until she realized that you were asking for the drink and not because you genuinely wanted to know.

except, really, you did want to know. having to ask was just a perk.

"ellie."

"ellie," you repeatedly warmly. it was the best thing that ellie had ever heard. "i like it," you mumbled, grabbing a cup from a stack.

"thank you," ellie mumbled, watching as you wrote her name on the cup. your teeth pulled at your bottom lip in concentration, determined to use your best writing. once you had gotten to the second L, you looked up.

"oh," you realized sheepishly. "you can go wait at the end," you gently instructed her. ellie could've facepalmed herself for her stupidity, but didn't want to drag herself away from your presence. ellie wanted to say something more, but failed. she did, however, feel as though she had caused you enough trouble for the day. ellie gave you an awkward smile, as genuine as she could manage, before moving to step away.

once ellie had turned away, you realized your mistake.

"oh! wait!" you called, your voice louder than it had been all day. ellie froze, wondering if she had done something wrong or maybe you wanted to ask for her number.

the girl who was supposed to be next groaned.

"i'm so sorry," you whispered once ellie's body was in front of you again. "i forgot to have you pay," you muttered your confession, humiliated as your co-worker made a tsssk sound.

ellie thought that after this, she might drop out of college and move somewhere, maybe the country. somewhere far away from civilization.

"fuck," ellie swore under her breath, quickly rummaging through her bag for her wallet. "sorry," she said. you gave her the total, eyes lingering on ellie's tattoo while she swiped her card.

"um, do you want a reward card?" you asked, your voice sounding more robotic compared to before.

ellie was ready to automatically say no, but she took in the sight of your rounded cheeks and bashful smile.

"i would love one," ellie replied, and she felt as though her body jolted when your fingers grazed hers, handing over the card.

"if you buy nine drinks, the tenth one is on us!" you chirped, clearly haven gave this spiel before.

"jesus, nine?" ellie grumbled, and to her horror, your smile dropped.

"that's a great number!" she exclaimed awkwardly, scrambling to fix her mistake.

you nodded. "have a good day," you dismissed, and ellie's stomach lurched.

as ellie made her way to the end of the counter, she heard an exasperated "finally!" before you began to mumble apologies. ellie rolled her eyes. asshole.

when her name was called and she was handed her drink, ellie froze. her name, written pretty in your handwriting, punctuated with a doodle of a smile. her pulse quicked, and ellie wondered if she had always been this pathetic or if she had just gotten soft.

before she left, she turned around to give you one last look. you saw her heading for the door, and strained your neck to look at ellie once more before she was gone. you made eye contact, and ellie almost did an awkward half wave that certainly would've kept her up at night, cringing.

you tore your eyes away from ellie, mentally cursing yourself. but god, she was cute.

ellie shook her head discouragingly, once again met with the warm breeze of the afternoon as she stepped outside. she stared down at the little smiley on her cup. ellie frowned. she didn't really like coffee, but she also didn't want to throw it away. she heaved a sigh, holding the beverage as she began her trudge to class.

the doodled smiley carried ellie on a high throughout the entire day.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

ellie had come to find out that maybe, she wasn't particularly good at rationalizing with herself.

she figured that she would have a pretty good chance at seeing you again if she were to visit the cafe on the same day of the week and at the same time that she had previously seen you. she also figured that purposefully seeking out a stranger at their place of employment was pretty damn creepy.

when ellie passed by the cafe on her newly adjusted route to class, she craned her neck each time in hopes of catching a glimpse of you through the window. unfortunately for herself, ellie hadn't been so lucky.

if she had seen you, would she go inside?

mentally, ellie told herself no, but the answer was lousy.

maybe ellie would have, but only to try that lavender whatever drink that has been advertised on the chalkboard sign outside of the cafe. the flowers decorating the board looked a lot like the one doodled on your nametag and... did you draw them? was it your handwriting in purple, swooping letters that she saw now, nearly every day?

will power strong, but her delusion even stronger, ellie did not revisit the cafe and she did not have a crush on a barista that she met only once.

it was purely coincidental that exactly a week later, ellie left early for class again. she accidentally found herself walking the path to the cafe, and since she was so early anyway, ellie found no harm in stopping inside to get a break from the early september heat.

it was practically empty inside, so ellie's gaze quickly found its way to you.

you appreciated a slow day. the campus starbucks had finally staffed up enough to open for the semester, consequently stealing a lot of the little cafe's business. your coworkers complained and groaned about the matter, but you didn't mind. you sort of preferred it like this anyway.

the door chiming drew your attention instantly, and you were quick to recognize the auburn haired girl from the previous week. the sight of her made you grin, teeth on display before you had a moment to overthink it.

ellie's eyes were on you from the moment she stepped inside, and you noticeably faltered.

you weren't smiling right, so you straightened up your posture and dropped your eyes. you didn't want to smile too much, in a way that would be strange to greet a customer that you had only once before.

you pressed your lips into a tight smile. more formal, less i'm glad to see you again. i totally wasn't keeping an eye out for you during every single shift.

there was no line to restrain ellie today, and she sort of wished that there had been. a handful of seconds felt like ages as ellie shuffled to the counter. you were fidgeting, looking at ellie and then looking away.

ellie thought that she might be able to be confident today, swift and suave and just flirty enough to let you on to the idea that she could potentially be interested.

interested in what exactly, ellie wasn't so sure. she had girlfriends before, of course, and had admittedly flirted with her fair share of girls through time. obsessing over somebody random after one encounter though, that was new.

"uh, hey," ellie coughed. off to a fucking strong start, moron.

"hi!" you chirped, wringing your hands behind the counter. if you remembered her, and acted as such, would she think it was weird? what if you pretended not to remember her, but she did remember you, and then she thought that you were rude?

the sound of your voice filled a void that had been left within ellie since the previous week. the reaction it prompted within her was so fucking ridiculous that she deemed herself to be an idiot.

ellie did not have feelings for a barista that she saw once.

well, twice now, but still. no fucking thank you.

"what can i do for you?" you questioned, customer service manners causing your voice to raise in pitch.

there's a few things that you could- ellie scrunched her eyebrows with a pained expression, tearing herself away from the disgusting thought. jesus christ, what was actually wrong with her?

your smile never wavered as you waited, but your heart was racing. why on earth was it so awkward?

c'mon, fucking pull yourself together. if it goes wrong, you never have to show your face in here again, ellie thought.

"i actually wanted to try that drink you recommended last time," ellie said smoothly.

surprise registered clearly across your face, along with one blaring thought. she remembered you!

the second thought, the always displeasing afterthought, dropped like a weight in your chest. you were pretty sure the cafe didn't have the ingredients you would need.

you smiled anyway, (she remembered you!) giddy and nervous.

"the lavender one, right?" you questioned, and ellie was so in. you remembered the interaction, which might not mean anything at all, but it was better than being forgotten.

"right," ellie confirmed, nodding once with an easy smile.

"right," you repeated, and ellie instantly noticed the uncomfortable expression on your face. shit.

“um so,” you winced as you started, really not in the mood to receive the lashings of an unhappy customer. “i believe we are actually out of the lavender, i can go check in the back just to make sure if you want…”

ellie wanted to say no, that’s totally fine, you’re beautiful and don’t even worry about it, but her mouth tended to work faster than her brain.

ideally, she wouldn’t be opposed to a moment alone to compose herself, so ellie mumbled a quick “sure, that’s fine,” and tried not to be a creep as you turned and quickly walked away, disappearing behind a set of doors into the back.

you already knew there was no possible way that you could make the drink, and you already knew that there were no extra ingredients hidden in the back. you wondered if you could stay hidden and just not go back out.

"i am so sorry," you began, voice high and apologetic as you made your way back to your standing place. "unfortunately we don't ha-"

"that's fine!" ellie squeaked, crimson patching its way onto her cheeks. ellie thought that maybe she should buy you a drink, since it seemed like she only showed up to cause extra trouble for you.

ellie pictured it so clearly in her mind, asking whatever your favorite drink was and ordering it, only to give it to you instead. was that smooth, or lame? she imagined telling jesse and dina about it later and pictured them giving her praise instead of wincing in second-hand embarrassment, so it was game on.

"is there anything else i could get you?" you questioned, tugging at your bottom lip with your teeth.

"actually-"

"hey, excuse me, can i get an ice water to go?"

ellie quickly snapped in the direction of the person who interrupted her. a guy stood near a table in which he was previously sat, packing up a laptop and notebook.

"of course!" you turned away from ellie and she would have sworn that she felt her heart burst. "what size?"

ellie watched intently, jealous as you prepared the simple water cup. why couldn't she be an easy customer like that? what the fuck was wrong with her?

"sorry about that," you muttered sheepishly. your hand hovered over the cash register, still waiting to take ellie's order.

your nails were painted the same color as last time, ellie noted, but they were starting to chip.

"it's all good," ellie breezed, and suddenly remembered that she actually had a class to get to. she recited the previous coffee order without a second thought, thanks dina, and you nodded along intently. you weren't really great at remembering faces and their orders, but something in you made you want to memorize ellie's.

ellie paid (you remembered this time, but no co-worker was around to see it) and she held back a snort when you pulled out a little pink stamp pad.

"do you have your reward card?" you questioned, leaving ellie to look dumbfounded.

"my what?"

"the reward card? buy nine drinks, the tenth is on us?"

"oh! oh, shit," ellie fumbled for her wallet, making a sound of recognition as she pulled out the card. "of course i do," ellie remarked. you swallowed a giggle.

you stamped her card with the pretty pink ink and then began to make the drink. ellie mentally cursed herself for once again ordering something that she didn't like, but it was too late now.

"here you go!" you presented. you had wrote ellie on the cup, even though you technically didn't need to since no one else was around. ellie appreciated it anyway.

"thanks," she murmured, failing to meet your gaze.

"have a good day, okay?"

"you too," ellie remarked, holding up her cup in parting.

when she was outside and the fresh air began to clear her mind, ellie forbid herself from ever going back to that cafe. it was painfully and unnecessarily awkward, especially considering that she didn't know you.

still, her heartstrings were tugged as she stared down at the drink in her hand. last time, your co-worker had actually been the one to make the drink, so ellie didn't feel any guilt about pouring it down the sink.

however, you were the one to make it today. and you were so sweet, and ellie couldn't bear to just throw it away.

ellie gulped, staring at the cup with a grimace. she took a fast, quick sip, and then coughed into her arm so she wouldn't gag.

ellie still fucking hated coffee. but she finished off the drink, just because you made it.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

the next morning, ellie was up early with a mission. a study session with dina wasn't exactly the best thing to motivate ellie to wake up early, but an excuse to see if you were working definitely was.

ellie had no clue of your schedule except for the one day of the week that she had already seen you. it might have been a long shot, but fuck it, the least she could do was get dina a coffee on her way.

campus was quiet when it was early. ellie certainly preferred it that way. it was peaceful, the way the morning light projected a certain softness onto her surroundings. she knew the cafe was open this early, ellie had googled it about seven times the night prior and twice more in the morning to be safe.

to confirm the information once more, ellie could see the glowing lights through the window. it appeared empty, and ellie couldn't even tell who the person was inside until she entered.

"hi," you said almost instantly, and your tone made it clear that you were surprised.

"hi," ellie repeated, not being able to believe her luck.

you had been wiping a table, but you placed the rag down and moved to the counter as you continued to speak.

"you're really determined to burn through that reward card, huh?"

your joke caught ellie off guard, and her feet were carrying her before she told them to. ellie didn't even feel like a person yet, how were you making jokes so early?

"i'll be getting my free drink by noon," ellie retorted.

"ambitious, i like it," you laughed.

ellie was going to have a good day.

she didn't really give a fuck about the reward card, honestly, ellie would only use it if you were around. she was prepared on the off chance that you would be working, and caught you by surprise as she slapped it on the countertop.

"so what'll it be? your usual?" you questioned, tilting your head to the side.

ellie mentally cursed herself for hitting rock bottom, because receiving basic customer service shouldn't be having that effect on her.

"yeah, actually," ellie confirmed, looking flustered as her face dusted pink.

"perfect," you murmured, fingers dancing along the order screen. shit.

"um, shit," you laughed awkwardly, face burning. "i promise i know it but also could you like, remind me?"

ellie laughed because everything about you was so endearing and also because she didn't want you to feel embarrassed.

"for sure," ellie enthused, going through the steps of the order. as you tapped the screen, ellie noted that your nails were painted a different color today.

you were a little slower at making the drink today, not that ellie minded. it was peaceful, watching you hum as you did every step so delicately. ellie felt lucky to be the only person there with you, and then hoped she wasn't weird for having the thought.

the song playing quietly through the speakers above caught ellie's attention once she had noticed that it was the one that you were humming along to. the sound of the acoustic guitar got stuck in ellie's head like a daydream, your absent minded mutters filling the spaces of silence.

"oh man, i love this song," ellie gushed.

"yeah?" you looked up with a grin, pleased by ellie's comment. "me too."

perfect girl. ellie watched as you picked up a sharpie, turning your back to her.

"what other stuff do you guys play here?" ellie questioned, craning her neck to try and see what you were drawing on her cup.

"uh," you didn't think that you had ever been this concentrated on decorating someone's cup before. "anything, mostly. we play our own playlists, like, whoever's working, you know?"

ellie nodded, even though you couldn't see her. "this is yours?"

"my playlist?" you turned back around, immediately caught in ellie's green eyed gaze. "yeah! i don't play my own stuff much though, unless i'm here alone."

"i get that," ellie murmured, watching as you once again made yourself busy.

it was quiet just for a moment, until you handed ellie her drink. your fingers touched for just a moment but your pulse quickened. you hoped you weren't making things weird, but worried that you were by the way ellie dropped her eyes after the small touch.

ellie was silent while she payed, but only because she was trying to think of something more to say.

"hey," ellie said suddenly, causing your eyebrows to raise. "you didn't stamp my card," she complained.

"oops," you said, reaching for your stamp.

"i can't believe you're trying to cheat me out of a free drink," ellie stated, feigning fake shock.

"yeah, guess you'll just have to come back more," you responded through a laugh.

your joke sobered ellie's expression. the brief change made you freeze, and you couldn't decide whether or not the joke was incorrect. oh my god, you barely knew her. then again, it could have been passed off as just a joke about getting more business.

"guess i will," ellie agreed quietly, and your breath caught in your throat. was she joking or flirting? was there something, or were you sleep deprived and crushing on an extremely attractive girl that you barely even knew?

ellie felt satisfied with herself, though was determined to leave before she could manage to fuck anything up.

"thank you," she concluded, moving towards the door.

"anytime. see you soon for that free drink, right?"

ellie scanned your features and cracked a smile. "definitely. have a good one, okay?"

"okay," you sighed and then coughed awkwardly. "have a good day!"

after ellie had left, you slid down to the floor and covered your head in your hands. what the hell were you doing?

ellie quickened her pace to get to dina's, but after one glance at her cup she stopped short.

in black sharpie, you had drawn a flower and a little bee. and then, ellie's name in cursive.

fuck.

ellie looked back towards the direction of the cafe, wondering how creepy she might come off as if she were to march back in there and ask you out.

the doodle on the cup quite literally made her heart ache, and she stood indecisively on the sidewalk.

ellie had gotten this coffee for dina to be a good friend.

ellie also could not fucking stand the idea of passing this cup off to dina and then seeing it be thrown in the trash.

"fuck," ellie muttered.

whatever, dina could use her own fucking cup.

ellie would explain, sort of. maybe.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

"ellie, what the hell is wrong with you?"

dina's shoes slapped heavy against the pavement in a rushed attempt to keep up with her best friend. her hand reached for ellie's arm, a little aggressively, as ellie nearly shoulder checked some guy zooming past on a skateboard.

"huh? nothing," ellie dismissed, blinking around her surroundings as if she had never been on campus before.

"yeah? nothing? since when do you ever want to get a coffee," dina mocked the way ellie had proposed the plan earlier, earning a frustrated sigh from the auburn haired girl.

ellie shook her head, fixating her eyes on the little cafe that she was growing quite familiar (and fond) of.

"change of scenery would be nice," ellie grumbled. "come on, i'm being a good friend. you love this place."

"you're being so weird," dina muttered, stepping ahead of ellie to open the door.

the sudden chill of the air conditioning was a shock to ellie's warm skin. she tried not to look at you as she trailed in after dina.

"i'm gonna get-"

"let me," ellie interrupted, causing dina to raise an eyebrow. "how about you find us a seat and i'll order drinks, yeah?"

the environment was loud with orders and chatter, leaving little room to set up and study. ellie straightened her posture, appearing a lot more confident than she felt.

dina nodded, rolling her eyes with a grin. "i'll grab a table."

ellie waited until dina's back was turned to take a shaky breath as she pivoted to the ordering counter. there wasn't much of a line, only one person, though a gaggle of people waited off to the side for their names to be called.

you didn't notice ellie until she was in line, shifting on her feet and stealing glances that she probably assumed you wouldn't catch.

"hi," you chirped, gaining her attention.

ellie's gaze snapped upwards. she felt surprised to hear your voice, even though you were the sole reason for her even coming inside in the first place. the smile that graced your lips made her head spin, and she was suddenly all too aware that dina was probably watching her now.

"hi," ellie repeated, a little too meekly for her own liking.

"how are you?" you questioned, dropping any trace of your customer service voice.

"good now," ellie replied.

you raised a curious brow but smiled anyway, the presence of your ever growing favorite 'stranger' was exactly the type of break that you yearned for on a day like today.

there was no denying the silly way that ellie made you feel, no matter how much you argued it with yourself.

it wasn't typical of you to get butterflies while customers were ordering.

you relaxed your posture, grateful that there was a lack of impatient people lining up behind ellie. your co-worker was making drinks so you were free to chat, even just for a minute.

"what can i get for you?" you forced yourself to meet ellie's eyes, which you realized quickly was a difficult task.

looking in her eyes for too long made your head whirl. her gaze was so steady, so intentional, it honestly threw you for a loop.

when ellie began to recite the coffee order that you were expecting, you laughed a little and tapped away on the ordering screen and ellie's mouth felt dry with nerves.

"-and uh, a water. please," ellie finished, resting her hand and wallet on the counter.

"switching things up on me now?" you joked, shaking your head with a tsk. "just as i was starting to memorize it."

"gotta keep you on your toes," ellie quipped. if she leaned in closer, just a little, she could smell your perfume. "surely all your other customers don't give you enough of a hard time."

you smiled knowingly with a quick laugh, grabbing the card that ellie was now holding out to you. your fingers touched just briefly and ellie flushed instantly.

"you're totally the most difficult customer we've ever had," you deadpanned.

the humor was on ellie's caliber, and she had started it, yet your sarcastic remark instantly had her feeling guilty.

"right," ellie muttered, and she felt stupid because she knew it was a joke and you were only playing along and what did she expect, a fucking compliment?

"i'm kidding," you rushed, sliding ellie's card back to her. "you're like, the best one."

now ellie really felt like an idiot. she fumbled to return her card into her wallet and tried to ignore how warm she felt.

you smiled awkwardly and ellie wanted to believe that you were being sincere on a personal level, not just reciting some customer service bullshit. completely aware of the fact that she was overthinking it, ellie choked on a laugh. maybe she was just scarred from the trader joe's shopping experience.

"you say that to everyone," ellie recovered, her voice a lot smoother than she felt.

"oh," you disagreed, wide eyed. "pinkie promise. i like when you come in 'cause i don't have to worry about potentially being yelled at or like, verbally attacked."

ellie briefly contemplated making a stupid joke, but your twitchy smile made her heart ache and she wished that she could hang out in the cafe all day, ready to defend you from any asshole that comes in with an attitude.

"never," ellie responded, finally catching your eye. "i would never."

"i know," you replied softly, and immediately felt your face grow warm with embarrassment. why were you being so earnest? you didn't ACTUALLY know, anyway. but you wanted to trust those green eyes, so you did.

this is good, ellie thought. she wanted to say something else, maybe ask a question, but you pushed off the counter and clicked your tongue.

"i'll get you the water while you wait for your coffee," you said quickly, turning away and making yourself busy.

ellie's mouth snapped shut, her racing thoughts stopping dead in their tracks. she noticed that the bow you wore in your hair matched the color of your slouchy sweater and she had to get to know you.

pouring a water obviously didn't take as long as preparing a coffee, so ellie didn't understand why she seemed so caught off guard when you handed her the water.

"thanks..." ellie murmured. talking was usually pretty easy for ellie, considering how long she's been able to do it, so the fact that her mouth and words were drying up now had her about ready to tug at her hair in frustration.

"sorry," you smiled sheepishly. "i would totally make your coffee so you wouldn't have to wait, but i'm on register duty.. so..."

ellie noticed as you tapped your painted nails on the register and oh my fucking god, your nails matched your bow and sweater. how the fuck?

"that's okay, i don't mind waiting," ellie replied smoothly, and the words left her mouth before she could even process them. "as long as i can wait over here?"

here was referring to exactly where she was standing, at the counter with you. your cheeks burned and you nodded once, a silent reply.

"sure," you finally managed to choke out. "i don't blame you, it gets overwhelming waiting in crowds like that..."

fumbled. fumbled fumbled fumbled.

"uh, yeah."

as awkward as it was, you hoped it took a while longer for ellie's drink to be finished. she was cute, there was no sense in trying to deny yourself from acknowledging it. it's not like you were going to say anything, and if it made five minutes of your day more interesting, so what?

"don't tell me you forgot about the reward card," you teased, an easy fall back.

"never," ellie replied, but her eyes widened as she struggled to find it in her wallet. "shit."

you shook your head in disapproval. "and to think i just called you my best customer?"

"ouch," ellie mumbled. "i'll find it, i swear," ellie rushed, taking the idea of a stupid card much too seriously. she was well aware of the fact, but still. you were the one to give it to her after all.

you giggled at her strained expression and rose colored cheeks. "don't worry about it. hey, have you been to that coffee shop downtown?"

ellie's heartbeat quickened, and she wondered if you could tell based purely upon the look on her face. she was nearly ecstatic that you were genuinely talking to her, asking her something, and she wanted to deliver. it was a little deflating though. ellie didn't really love coffee shops, and she didn't want to provide you with an underwhelming answer.

"which one?" ellie inquired, loving the little smile that appeared on your lips before you answered her question.

"it's on the corner of main, on the inside it has this super cool v-"

"vinyl store?" ellie finished, beaming with excitement. "dude, i fucking love that place. i'm there like, every week."

"yeah?" you enthused, butterflies swirling your stomach. "me too! maybe we like... saw each other there before."

"i don't think so," ellie said instantly.

"i mean, you might've, maybe you just don't remember," you offered.

"i would've remembered," ellie replied seriously. she quickly wondered if her response was too cheesy, but you drew your eyes downward and tried to suppress a smile and ellie felt fine.

"fair enough," you mumbled, tracing shapes on the counter.

"so, do you collect vinyls or do you just-"

"did you forget my drink order or what?" dina joked, coming up behind ellie.

ellie shook her head, shifting awkwardly on her feet. shit.

"just waiting," ellie mumbled. she didn't know why she felt uncomfortable, maybe the idea of crushing on the barista at her friend's favorite coffee shop when she didn't even LIKE coffee but was suddenly spending all of her free minutes there, was, odd.

you recognized the girl next to ellie, dina. she came in pretty frequently.

ellie's name was called by your co-worker as her, no - dina's drink was placed on the counter.

"well, wait no longer," dina laughed, playfully shoving ellie away.

ellie glanced at you briefly before grabbing the drink, handing it off to dina with a cheesy grin.

oh.

oh.

the smile dropped from your face just as it felt as though your heart dropped into your stomach. you felt so stupid. especially considering all of the effort you had put into trying to make ellie's cups look cute, and they weren't even for ellie.

you watched as they sat down together and huffed out a sigh, startling as your co-worker tapped you on the shoulder to inform you that they were going on break.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

ellie couldn't stop thinking about you. she had avoided the cafe for a few days following your last interaction. she didn't understand why, but it made her feel guilty.

it's not like she even had a reason to feel that way. but hey, she was a loyal girl. if she decidedly had a secret crush on a barista that she barely knew, it was sacred!

the way that your demeanor had changed was stuck in ellie's head, and honestly, maybe it was making her a little too hopeful. the look on your face had to have meant something.

on the other hand, this was coming from someone who's idea of flirting was smiling while somewhat remaining eye contact.

seriously. seriously? fuck it.

ellie didn't like coffee anyway.

if she completely humiliated herself and ultimately freaked you out forever, she just wouldn't go back to the cafe! easy!

the sunlight covering campus was soft. it would be dark soon, and ellie felt exhausted after a long day of classes. she was well aware that this was definitely a long shot, but she had to try. she had been buying a lot of coffee lately.

please, please let it be worth something.

the sky was fading blue when ellie appeared upon the cafe. the sign on the door said CLOSED! but the lights were on and ellie could've fallen to her knees and screamed thank you to the universe because she could see that you were inside.

you didn't flinch when the bell on the door chimed, signaling its opening.

"we're closed," you stated without looking up, powering off a small machine.

"i know," ellie breathed, standing in the doorway.

you blinked, suddenly feeling flushed. you straightened your posture and waited, unsure what to make of the situation.

surely she wasn't secretly one of those people who were like, i don't care if you're closed, give me my damn coffee now!

you silently pleaded to the universe for that to not be the case. you already had a rough day as is.

"what do you want?" you asked, a hint of exhaustion in your tone.

everything in ellie's body wanted to backpedal. maybe she really did misread everything.

"um, i wanted to say.. uh-"

oh for fuck's sake. just say it.

"i wanted to say sorry?" ellie offered, false confidence leading her to the counter.

"sorry for what?" you questioned, wrinkling your nose.

"i don't like coffee," ellie blurted out. the absurdity made you laugh.

"that's.. okay?" you crossed your arms, raising an eyebrow at the green eyed girl.

"i've just been buying them for my friend," ellie continued, adding more emphasis than necessary to friend.

you pretended not to be delighted. "that's okay. it doesn't matter who customers buy their drinks for," you pointed out.

ellie swallowed a sigh. being referred to plainly as a customer (even though that's exactly what she was) was possibly the most devastating thing to ever happen in her life.

"i know," ellie replied, really amping it up. "i just wanted you to know. that i was buying them for a friend."

your heart was beating so quickly, you felt like a hummingbird.

"oh," you muttered, feeling stumped. "it doesn't matter what i think," you said quickly, looking at the floor.

"it does. i liked the bee. and the little flower. they were cute," ellie explained. her cheeks were completely red and yours were certainly warming up as well.

"thanks.. i thought they were cute too," you said softly, kicking your shoe at the ground.

"great. can i have your number?"

as the words left ellie she blinked heavily, startled by her own actions.

your brain turned to mush. you wanted to laugh but nothing came out so you just stared at ellie in silence.

"mine?"

ellie nodded.

"sure," you breathed, walking to pull out a pad of paper by the register. you retrieved a pen and wrote your number, followed by your name in cursive.

ellie waited in silence, holding her breath. you very easily could've just typed your number into her phone, but ellie found it incredibly endearing that you actually wrote it down instead.

"it's really nice of you to do stuff like that," you murmured, handing the paper to ellie. "buying coffee for a friend and all that."

"not entirely," ellie disagreed, forcing herself to meet your eyes.

you raised your eyebrows in question, and ellie shook her head.

"it wasn't exactly selfless."

"why?" you asked, a curious smile embellishing your features.

"i was only buying stuff so i had an excuse to come in."

you bit back a grin and leaned against the counter. "it's still nice of you to get something for someone else if you didn't like coffee... but why didn't you get like, a smoothie or tea or something?"

ellie didn't have an answer, you could tell by the look on her face and it made you laugh.

"what do you like?" you asked.

"i don't know? tea's fine. hot chocolate?"

you rolled your eyes, pointing to the menu above you that clearly had hot chocolate labeled as a menu item.

"so what? it's september." ellie wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"oh, you're one of those people," you observed, watching ellie's features contort into confusion.

"one of what people?"

"people who only drink seasonally appropriate drinks," you pointed out.

"i... guess?" ellie tried to hold a decent conversation, but she was still buzzing about getting your number and the way your perfume was the best thing that she had ever smelled.

"want me to make you something?" you questioned suddenly. "i bet that i can make you something that you'll actually like, and it won't be coffee."

ellie nodded immediately, but her words conflicted her. "aren't you closed?"

you shrugged, grinning at the girl standing opposite of you. "it's not a big deal. plus, it gets creepy at night. it'll be more fun closing up with some company."

ellie nodded once more, and she would absolutely stay for every single closing shift you ever had if you wanted her to.

you paced back and forth a bit, pulling out some supplies and flipping on some machines.

"what kind of tea do you like?" you inquired, peering over at ellie. "black? green? white? oolong?"

"the... fucking, brown kind?"

your eyebrows raised as you scanned her features, trying to determine whether or not she was joking.

ellie cracked an uneasy smile.

"do you like matcha, or do you think it tastes like grass and dirt?"

"uh-"

"right! i got it," you said decidedly, making yourself busy as ellie watched in confusion and wonder.

the tea that you made was simple, but not plain. it was earthy but not too bitter or dark, and it was a brighter flavor compared to coffee.

ellie chatted with you while you were busy, about majors and assholes on campus that drag their feet and take up entire walkways.

she was actually really easy to talk to, and funny too.

ellie was just glad that she didn't need an excuse to talk to you anymore.

"okay," you announced with bravado. "try this."

you placed the cup in front of ellie, and she hesitantly took a sip.

"it's totally fine if you hate it, there's zero pressure," you clarified.

ellie popped the lid off of the cup, smelling the tea before she took another drink. "it's actually really good," ellie enthused.

"really?" you beamed, feeling quite proud of yourself.

ellie frowned but her heart soared. it was, to ellie's taste, the perfect drink.

"really," ellie confirmed. "how much do i owe?"

you swatted her away, smiling slyly. "consider it your tenth."

ellie faked a gasp. "is that allowed?"

"for you, yeah." you thought for a moment, chewing on your bottom lip. "but will you please bring your reward card back sometime so that i can stamp it? i bought a bunch of cute stamps and i don't really get to use them 'cause no one ever-"

"absolutely," ellie replied seriously, eyes flicking over your face. this would possibly, definitely, be her best fucking semester yet. ever.

and her favorite cafe. and her favorite drink.

and her favorite barista.

ellie stayed with you while you finished closing, which was sweet.

together you made plans to go to the vinyl shop, after ellie asked if she could ever see you when you weren't on the clock.

you made ellie another tea for the road, but you spent extra time decorating the cup with frilly flowers, little animal characters, and ellie's name in your very best handwriting.

ellie would hold on to that cup, too.

[fangirlwriting-stories]

Easier When Unknown

Summary: Danny could have imagined his life would be interesting after everyone learned his secret, but he didn't think it would be this different.

Author's Note: A phic phight fanfiction! Here are the two prompts:

AU where no one knew Danny was Phantom until PP (or some alternate big reveal of the author's choice). Sam and Tucker are sure that a famous hero like Danny Phantom is too cool to be their friend again, especially since they haven't talked since before freshman year of high school. Danny just wants to be part of the trio again and has no idea how to ask.

Danny finds out that Sam's been being bullied at school and has been hiding it from him and Tucker out of embarrassment.

...

Danny’s life definitely didn’t get easier after his identity was revealed, but it didn’t get that much harder, which was good.  Right?

Or, well, that was a little bit of an oversimplification.  His life definitely got harder in a lot of ways.  People stared at  him wherever he went.  Suddenly all of the popular kids at school wanted to be best friends with him, like he couldn’t see through that change of pace from a mile away.  There were news stations constantly vying for the first interview with the half-ghost kid who defeated the Ghost King.

But his parents stopped hunting him.  And they were going to try to work things out.  And Jazz revealed that she’d actually known for a while now, and that made her more ready to adapt to everything, and she didn’t treat him like anything had changed.

And all of that kind of evened it out, at the end of the day.  Even if he wasn’t exactly sure he was ready to go from town’s enemy to world’s hero.

Because that was another part of this: word of Amity Park, ghosts in general, and what he’d done had been spreading like wildfire since he’d put Pariah Dark back in his coffin.  Suddenly everyone was talking about him, and everyone knew him, and, as stated with the aforementioned journalists, everyone wanted to talk to him.  He woke up every day to see news trucks that were local and ones that were very much not right outside his house.  He’d flown intangibly to school every day for the past month.

Ancients, all this fame needed to die down soon.  He wasn’t sure how much more of it he could take.

He was often so caught up in everything changing all at once, however, that he didn’t have much of a chance to think about things he might want to happen.  Which was why he was a little caught off guard that morning.  He was running from the daily mob of screaming girls who wanted his autograph (which was never something he thought he’d get sick of), and after getting at least a little bit of a lead on them, he turned intangible and dove through the door to the janitor’s closet, then turned back to normal and rested his hands on his knees, panting slightly to catch his breath.

“Uh,” came a very familiar female voice, and Danny’s head shot up.  He found standing on the other side of the closet the one part of his life that hadn’t changed.

And for a long, long moment, he and Sam and Tucker just stared at each other.

Danny’s feelings about Sam and Tucker had never been more mixed.  They really were the one aspect of his life that stayed the same post identity-reveal-to-the-entire-world, and he couldn’t decide whether to thank them for the consistency or be pissed at them for the audacity.

Because he hadn’t talked to Sam and Tucker since the beginning of Freshman year.

And then his secret was revealed to the entire world.

And he still hadn’t talked to Sam and Tucker since the beginning of Freshman year.

“Uh,” Danny said finally, because they couldn’t just all keep staring at each other.  “Hi.”

“Hey,” Tucker said.  Sam nodded in acknowledgement.

Really, guys.  Work with him a little bit, please?

“Are you hiding from people too?” Danny asked, pushing himself up using his knees.

“Yeah,” Sam said.

“I didn’t think you’d be hiding from anyone anymore,” Tucker said, and Danny didn’t miss the tinge of bitterness in his voice.

“Um,” Danny said.  He didn’t seem to have any more words for Sam and Tucker than he had a year and a half ago.

“Danny!” came from outside the closet, and Danny whirled around instinctually.  “Get back here!  What makes you think you can run from me?”

“Hey you mind if I hang out here for a bit cool thanks,” Danny said, moving across the closet until he was right across from Sam and Tucker.  A second later, the door handle started jiggling, and Danny turned intangible, even though he could feel Sam and Tucker’s stares.

The door swung open and Paulina poked her head in.

“Oh, it’s just you two,” she said, disappointment obvious in her voice.  A second later, she perked up.  “Hey, you haven’t seen Danny, have you?”

“No,” Sam said, crossing her arms.  “Would you back off?  We’re trying to hide in a closet here.”

Paulina laughed.  “Sure, okay.  Have fun, losers.”  She slammed the door after herself.

Danny dropped the intangibility as soon as she was gone with a sigh of relief.  “Thanks,” he said to Sam and Tucker.

“Don’t mention it,” Sam grumbled, and leaned back against the shelf behind her.  “I’m surprised you didn’t want to see her, though.”

“Honestly, yeah,” Tucker agreed, giving him a weird look.  “Never thought I’d see the day you’d turn down Paulina.”

“It’s not that,” Danny said.  “I mean she… she’s not…”

The warning bell rang, and all three of them looked towards the door, where they could hear it outside.  For a second afterwards, none of them moved.

Sam did first, pushing herself off the shelf.  “Bye,” she said, starting towards the door.  Tucker followed her closely.

Danny tried not to make his deflation obvious.  “Yeah, okay,” he muttered.  He turned intangible again, and slipped through the floor, rather than try and go past them.

It was only when he actually made it to his homeroom that he realized he still had no idea why Sam and Tucker were in that closet.

…

“Hey, Fenturd— I mean Fenton!”

Danny heaved an internal sigh and looked up from his tray of food to find Dash and Kwan walking up to his table.

“Are these seats taken?” Dash asked with a grin, gesturing at the as-of-yet empty table around him.  He’d gotten to lunch early in order to try and hang on to one.

“Yeah,” Danny said to Dash, leaning over to rest his chin on his hand in what was intended to be a representation of how little he wanted them here.  “I’m holding it for all of the ghosts that are going to show up during lunch and blast you across the room.”

“Ha, you’re a riot Fenton!” Dash said, completely ignoring Danny’s tone and face and sliding into the seat next to him.  Danny cringed and didn’t bother to hide it, sliding as far away from Dash as he could.  Unfortunately, Dash just slid right down after him, which resulted in Danny nearly being pushed off the bench and Dash not noticing.

Kwan followed his lead and took the seat across from Danny, meaning Danny was forced to look in boredom to the side to avoid both of their gazes.  He waited a couple extra seconds, but eventually it became clear that neither of them were going to move.  So, Danny sighed, resigned himself to his life, and picked up one of his terrible school-lunch chicken nuggets.

“So, we were both thinking that maybe you could come watch one of our practices!” Dash called, slinging an arm around Danny’s shoulder.  “The football team’s, I mean.”

“Why would I do that?” Danny asked, making his shoulder go intangible just long enough for Dash’s arm to fall through.

“Well I mean, it would be neat to have you there,” Dash said, glancing across the table at Kwan.  “Right Kwan?”

“Totally,” Kwan agreed with a grin of his own.  “And I mean, you’re pretty good with athletic stuff.  You know, when you’re a cool ghost fighting superhero and not a weak dweeb.  Maybe you could come as Phantom, you know, show us some tricks!”

“Gee, that sounds great,” Danny deadpanned.  “So am I just supposed to ignore the insults in there, or…?”

“Hey,” came Paulina’s voice, and Danny turned around to see her walking up behind them all.  “Can’t you two leave him alone?  It’s clear he doesn’t want to be bothered by you.”

Danny blinked in surprise.  He really hadn’t expected Paulina to pick up on that.  Maybe she actually—

“He’d clearly rather be sitting with me!” Paulina said, reaching down and pulling Danny up by his arm.

“Okay, that’s it!”  Danny went intangible again and slipped out of Paulina’s grasp, then grabbed his lunch and walked out of the room, straight through the doors without bothering to open them.

He made his way out to the front steps of the school and sat down, and managed to get through at least a couple bites before he remembered the reason eating outside was also a bad idea.  The reminder came in the form of a reporter and a camera man leaping out from what he thought was a normal van sitting across the street.

“Mr Fenton!” called one of them as he ran up towards the steps.  “Or would you prefer Mr Phantom?”

“I’d prefer solitude,” Danny snapped, leaning back and away from them both.

“Oh absolutely!  Just a couple of quick questions first of course, you wouldn’t mind.”

The door slammed open behind them, and Danny prepared himself for Dash or Paulina again when, to his surprise, Mr Lancer stepped down the steps and stopped right in front of him.

“You’re on school property,” he said, crossing his arms.  “You have two minutes to get back in your van and drive away or I am calling the police.”

“Sir, can I ask, how long have you known that one of your students is dead?” the reporter asked, shoving a mic in Lancer’s face.

Lancer raised an eyebrow and pulled out his phone, then started dialing 911.  Thankfully, the reporters turned and ran back across the street before he could finish.

Lancer turned back around as soon as they were gone.  “Are you alright?” he asked, casting a concerned look down at Danny.

“Fine,” Danny muttered, picking up his tray and climbing to his feet.  “You know.  Great.”

Lancer looked at him for another second, then said, “Mr Fenton, come and eat your lunch in my classroom.”

“What?  Why?”

“You can sit out of view from my door,” Lancer said.  “It’ll give you a break from the crowds.”

Danny felt a knot in his chest loosen.  “Really?”

Lancer gave him a sympathetic frown.  “I can’t imagine it’s an easy thing to deal with all the time,” he said.  He opened the door again and gestured for Danny to go first, so he did.

And for the first time in a while, he ate his lunch in silence.

…

He wasn’t expecting to see Sam and Tucker again that day.  Most of the time his time at school was spent avoiding every single person he possibly could.  The morning incident in the janitor’s closet had been a once in a blue moon event.

But, as fate would have it, there was a ghost attack during the last period, and after going and taking care of it (just the Box Ghost showing up as an irritation), he landed behind the school to find Sam and Tucker leaning against the wall and talking.

And while he’d originally come back here to try and avoid all of the cheers he’d get going right back into class, he was sort of regretting that decision now.

Sam and Tucker were clearly deep in conversation, but they noticed when he landed right in front of them, and then they all got to do a lovely repeat of that morning’s staring at each other.

“Hiding again?” Tucker asked eventually.

Danny nodded.  “You too?”

Sam nodded.

Danny gave them a curious look.  “From what?”

“Danny!”

Danny groaned audibly this time, as Star ran around the side of the building and straight for him.

“That was so cool the way you just flew off like that!” she called.  “Not a second thought to how you might be putting yourself in danger!”

“Yeah, thanks,” Danny said, already starting to fly away.  “Make my excuses in class, will you?  Got to get this really dangerous ghost back to the portal right away and send him through to the ghost zone.  Great thanks bye!”

He flew off maybe a little bit too quickly for the given situation, but he couldn’t stand another second there, and school was basically over anyway.  He made it home pretty quickly, and thankfully wasn’t stopped by any news outlets on the way, though that was likely because he made the whole trip while intangible.

But while he made it inside without any fuss, as soon as he flew down to the lab he was greeted with his parents working on what looked like a weapon of some kind.

He winced.  He was never quite able to stop the touch of fear that came with his parents working on a ghost weapon.  After a second, though, he floated down to the ground anyway and changed back from his ghost form.

Both his parents startled and looked over at him.

“Danny,” his mom said.  “You’re back early.”

“Yeah uh, ghost fight in last period,” Danny muttered, heading over towards the portal and attaching the thermos to it.  “School was already basically over, so I just came home.”  He hit the button on the side of the portal and sent the Box Ghost flying into the portal, crying out dramatically all the way.

“Well that’s nice,” Mom said, the tension in her voice obvious.

“Yeah, uh, anyway I have homework,” Danny said, starting for the steps.  He had a feeling flying up through the ceiling wouldn’t be a great idea right now.

“Will we see you for dinner, Danno?” Dad asked.  “We were hoping to all eat together tonight.”

Danny tightened his grip on the railing of the stairs.  “Okay.”

He considered asking what they’d be having, but given the tension in the room he really didn’t think he could spend much more time in the lab.

So instead, he just said “See you later,” and headed upstairs.

It’s not that his parents had reacted badly to the Phantom news.  They’d done the important stuff, they’d given him a huge apology and stopped actively hunting him.  But none of them seemed to really know where they stood with each other anymore.  Danny didn’t logically think they were going to hurt him anymore, but it was difficult to get rid of that fear response that for the longest time, it made sense to have.

But at the same time, he could tell it made them feel guilty to see him be scared of them.  Jazz said it wasn’t his fault, and she was probably right.  But he still hated it.

He started first for his bedroom, and made it part of the way through the living room when the front door opened and Jazz sprinted in, slamming the door shut on nearly a dozen reporters.  Danny could still hear their voice through the door after it shut.  Some were asking how it felt to be the brother of a hero, some were asking how long she’d known and how she’d found out, and some were asking how it felt to know her brother was dead.

Jazz heaved out a breath, though all of the reporters were still easily heard through the windows.  Then she looked up and met eyes with Danny.

“Oh hey,” she said, clearly still exhausted.  “How was school?”

Danny didn’t respond, instead gazing out the gap in the curtains to the people shoving cameras in it.

“Sorry,” he said to Jazz.

“Oh, don’t you dare,” Jazz said.  “I know you hate them as much as I do.”

Danny sighed and looked down.  “Yeah.”

“Are you doing okay?” Jazz asked hesitantly.  “I’m sure it’s… a lot.”

Danny snorted.  “Understatement.”

Jazz smiled a little.  “Yeah.”

Danny turned to face her more directly, chewing on his lip.  He’d avoided the topic with her so far, mostly because too much was going on, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been desperately curious.  “Can I…” he said hesitantly.  “Can I be like one of those awful reporters and ask you how you found out?”

Jazz rolled her eyes.  “Don’t be ridiculous.  You’re not a reporter, you’re my brother.  And I know if I tell you it’s not going to end up on the 5:00 news.”

She paused, and turned and glanced out the windows for a moment.  “You want to go upstairs, though?”

“Yes,” Danny said immediately.

So they both ended up in Jazz’s room, sitting next to each other on her bed, with the curtains drawn tight in case the helicopters came back.

“I found out during the Spectra thing,” Jazz started.  “I spotted you transforming.”

Danny nodded, thinking about that.  “Okay,” he said quietly.  “And… why didn’t you say anything?”

“I wanted to wait until you wanted to tell me,” Jazz said.  She sighed, and glanced towards the windows.  “I guess that didn’t really work out.”

“No,” Danny muttered.  “But… I appreciate the sentiment.”

Jazz turned to look at him, concerned.  “Are you doing okay?  I mean, obviously not, just… you know.”

“Oh no, I’m fine,” Danny said, rolling his eyes.  “I always hoped that everyone would learn my secret in the aftermath of an exhausting battle when I was definitely not prepared for them to learn, and then I’d be hounded by literally everyone who suddenly feels entitled to my attention and my time.  Dream come true, this is.”

“I’m really sorry it turned out this way,” Jazz said quietly.

Danny sighed.  “Me too.”

“Is there anything I could do to be helpful?” Jazz asked.

“Do you know if anyone’s figured out time travel yet?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Dammit.”

There was a moment of silence, and Jazz said, “I mean it.”

Danny shook his head.  “There’s nothing you could do that you aren’t already doing,” he said.  “You’re not looking at me different.  Like your entire worldview’s been flipped on its head.  Which, I mean I guess for a lot of people it has, but… still.  It’s nice that you’re not.”

Jazz was quiet for a moment, and then she reached over and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.  And despite how totally lame it was to hug his sister, Danny did the same back.

“Still, if you want me to stand in between you and anyone, just let me know,” Jazz said.

“I wouldn’t ask you do that,” Danny said, pulling back, though he was smiling a little.  “I can just fly away from the news vans, and go intangible to get away from the helicopters.  And Lancer already gave me permission to hide in his office during school hours if I ever need to.”

“Good,” Jazz said with a nod.  She paused for a second, and Danny got the feeling she was about to ask something delicate.  He was proven right when a second later she said, “And what about Sam and Tucker?”

“What about them?” Danny said, glaring away.  “We’ve said about ten words to each other since everything happened.  And about half of them are ‘um.’”

…Okay, so maybe he’s a little more bitter than he realized.  He sighed.

“I can’t expect everything to suddenly change,” he said, turning back to Jazz.  “Our falling out had nothing to do with Phantom.”

Or, it technically did.  Their falling out had been because he constantly ditched them and left mid-way through hangouts.  Because he was Phantom, and had to go fight whatever ghost had shown up.  But they didn’t know that at the time.  And it had been over a year since they’d talked.  They had probably moved on.

“You should still talk to them,” Jazz said.  “And I mean really talk to them.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t see much of an opportunity for that in between getting interrupted every ten seconds, either by classmates or reporters,” Danny said.  He paused, and turned to look at Jazz as a realization struck him.  “Hey, how are you doing with all that, by the way?  It doesn’t look like the reporters are leaving you alone.”

“They’re definitely not,” Jazz said.  “But I can handle myself.  Besides, they tend to leave me alone as soon as they see you.”

Danny smiled a bit.  “Glad I can take that off your shoulders for you.”

“Oh yeah, if anything you owe me,” Jazz said with a smile.  “After everything I did for you?”

“I think I’ve saved your life three times now.”

“Do my dishes for a month and we’re even.”

Danny snorted.  “Sure, you got it.”  He took a deep breath, feeling lighter than he had when he got home.

“Hey, thanks, Jazz,” he said, looking over at her.  “You’re surprisingly easy to talk to.”

“Anytime,” Jazz said, smiling warmly at him.  “I mean it.”

…

The next day didn’t start much better, with flying invisibly to school and hiding in various places until first period starts, but Danny found himself in a better mood despite it.  Talking with Jazz had helped, and knowing he’d have a quiet place to eat lunch helped too.

He still didn’t love being swarmed in the halls on his way to his first period after the warning bell rang, though.  Maybe he could use his well-established reputation for being late for everything and just hide until the halls were empty between classes.

…Or would that not work anymore because everyone knew the reason?

Well, he’d give it a shot anyway.

First period was uneventful, thankfully, aside from everyone spending the period staring at him while he was trying to focus, which was nothing new.  He could tell it was irritating both him and the teacher, however, because eventually he set his chalk down from writing math equations on the board.

“Anyone who doesn’t stop staring at Mr Fenton loses an entire letter grade on the next test,” he snapped.  “This is school, this is not your free time.  Mr Fenton, thank you for at least trying to pay attention.”

“Anytime,” Danny deadpanned, because he wasn’t about to turn down a compliment from a teacher, and he really was trying.

Apparently the threat of losing a letter grade was only enough to sway a couple students, though, likely the ones who hadn’t entirely given up on their grades like he had.

(Although maybe the administration would go easier on him now…?)

Either way, he managed to get at least some of the notes down by the end of the class, and going up to the teacher to ask if there was anything else he absolutely needed to have written down seemed to put him on his better side.  Being a teacher’s favorite was also something he wasn’t used to.

And as a second bonus, staying behind and finishing the notes resulted in a late pass, meaning he could wait until everyone had filed out of the hallway.

Or at least, he thought that’s what he was doing.

Instead, as he turned a corner towards his next period, he stumbled across Dash shoving someone inside a locker.  And instead of adding him to the bunch like he used to, when Dash spotting him he brightened.

“Fenton!  You want to help me stuff these losers in here?”

“Not really,” Danny said, starting over towards them to help out whoever he was bullying.  “You know, if you’re really trying to get on my good side, you might try—” he stopped as he reached the locker.

Well, apparently Dash really didn’t care about getting on his good side, because staring back out at him were Sam and Tucker.

“Uh, hey Danny,” Tucker said, waving at him from inside the locker.

Danny turned back to Dash, raising an eyebrow in what hopefully came across as “are you fucking kidding me.”

“Aw, come on, you’re not trying to say you still care about these losers,” Dash said, like the very idea was ridiculous.  “You can hang out with anyone you want now!  By the way, you’re still coming to football practice later, right?”

“Probably not,” Danny snapped.  He held a hand out to Tucker, who grabbed it.  Danny turned him intangible and pulled Tucker out until he could stand on the floor.

Tucker looked a little off balance after he let go, but Sam still grabbed his hand when he offered the same to her.

“Okay,” Tucker said as Danny set Sam down.  “A little warning next time maybe?”

“Sorry,” Danny said.  He glared back over at Dash.  “Beat it.”

“Aw come on Fenton, you know I didn’t mean anything by it, I just—”

“Beat it or I tell everyone about that time you wet your pants after I saved your life from the Box Ghost.”

Dash went pale, and then quickly left.

“Wait,” Sam said.  “Really?”

Danny snorted.  “Oh yeah,” he said, turning back to face them.  “I could tell you stories about what Dash is like when he’s in danger.”  He paused, looking at them both in concern.  “Are you guys okay?”

Sam glared away, crossing her arms.  “Fine,” she muttered, a note in her voice that Danny couldn’t read.

“Thanks for the help,” Tucker said.  And then they both turned around, clearly about to leave.

“Wait!” Danny yelled after them.  “I— please.”

They both turned hesitantly back around.

“We’re late for class,” Sam said.

“I’ll tell them you got caught up in a ghost attack,” Danny said.  “Just, please can we talk?  Just once, and then we can be done.  Okay?”

They both exchanged a glance, and seemed to say something to each other with their eyes that Danny couldn’t read anymore.

Finally, they turned back to face him, and they both nodded.

“Where?” Tucker asked.

Well, eventually the bell was going to ring, and then the hall would flood with people who wouldn’t leave them alone.  And if they went outside, they’d be met with a similar problem, just with the news crews instead of students.  And if they were going to pretend a ghost attack happened, they should probably go somewhere to make it at least a little more believable.

“How do you feel about the roof?” Danny asked.

“Uh,” Tucker said.  “Have you been there?”

Danny nodded.  “It’s… quiet.  Sometimes.”

They were both quiet for another moment, then Sam nodded.  “Okay.”

Danny started over to them, glanced at Tucker and said, “This is your warning,” and then grabbed them both by the arms, transformed, and flew them all up through the ceiling and onto the roof.

Tucker stumbled a little as Danny let go of him.  “Okay,” he said.  “Needed a different kind of warning there.”

Danny smiled a little bit.  “Be glad you’ve never fallen through the floor in your sleep.”

“That’s not really something I’ve ever thought would happen to me,” Tucker said.

“Tell me about it.”

There’s a couple seconds of silence, and Tucker and Sam exchanged another glance.

Finally, Sam turned back to him and crossed her arms.  “So,” she said.  “You’re Phantom.”

Danny sighed.  “Yeah.”

“Can I ask…” Tucker started.  “I mean what— like how did you become— it’s okay if you don’t want to tell me,” he added quickly, holding up his hands.  “You don’t have to.”

Danny looked at him for a second.  It was definitely the same question he was sick of getting from other classmates and the reporters.  But Tucker at least had given him an out.  And if this really was going to be the last time they talked, he wanted them to know everything.

“You remember the portal in my parent’s lab?” he asked.  “How I told you it just started working one day?”

Tucker nodded.

“That’s… not actually true.  I turned it on.  From… from inside.”

Tucker’s eyes widened.  “Dude.”

Danny gave a short laugh.  “Yeah.”

“What happened with the ghost fighting?” Sam asked.  “I mean did you get pulled into that, or…?”

“What?  No,” Danny said.  “I mean, kind of, sure, but someone had to do it.  I wasn’t going to let people get hurt.”

“But— you got hurt,” Sam said, gesturing at him.  “All the time.  We talked about it around you.  Back when— when we were still talking.”

Danny shrugged.  “I can take it.  Normal humans can’t.”

The phrasing seemed to throw them off, which was fair, but he didn’t take it back.  He wasn’t a normal human anymore.

“Still,” Sam said finally.  “You should have told us.  We could have helped you.”

Danny’s shoulders slumped.  “I know,” he muttered.  “I— I really didn’t want you to find out like this.”

“On the news?” Tucker asked.  “Along with everyone else?  Like we weren’t any different from them?”

Danny winced.  “Yeah.”

A pause.

“If I knew everyone was going to find out, I would have told you first,” he added.  “For what it’s worth.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Sam asked.

“It just… it felt so big,” Danny said, shaking his head.  “And I didn’t know how you’d react.  And… I’m sorry.”

Neither of them said anything for a minute.  Danny wasn’t sure what exactly they were waiting for, but eventually he had to help fill the silence.

“How long has Dash been bothering you?” he asked.

Both of them immediately looked away.

“Oh, come on.  You can’t make this conversation entirely about me.”

“We can’t?” Sam asked raising an eyebrow.

“No.  That’s not fair to me or you.”

Sam glared away again.

“Pretty much since everyone found out,” Tucker said a second later.  “I guess he figured he couldn’t mess with you anymore so he moved on to easier targets.”

Danny clenched his fists.  “Asshole.  I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Tucker said.

“No, I just mean,” Danny gestured vaguely with his hands, not sure what he meant.  “God, I’m so sick of him.  Of all of them.”

Tucker gave him a look.  “You really don’t like all the praise?”

Danny shrugged.  “I dunno.  I guess it beats being hunted.”

Tucker and Sam were both silent for a minute.  Danny looked at them for a second and saw slight horror on their faces.

Oh.  Maybe they hadn’t quite realized that part yet.

“You could have told me about Dash, you know,” Danny said, trying to stop them from thinking too much about that.  “I would have helped.”

“We… kind of didn’t think you’d care,” Tucker said hesitantly.

Danny blinked.  “What?” he asked.

“I mean, you are kind of a big deal now,” Sam said, gesturing at him.

Danny crossed his arms.  “I’m sorry?  Did you miss the part where I didn’t want to be?”

“No, I just mean—” Sam started.

“Yeah, I should go hang out with Dash, huh?  Or start dating Paulina?  Wouldn’t that be just great?”

Sam blinked at him.  “Would it not?”

“Of course not,” Danny snapped.  “None of them actually give a shit about me.   They all just think it’ll get them something if they’re best friends with Phantom.  They still don’t like Danny.   I don’t want to be friends with people who only ever see one side of me.  That—” he looked away.  “That already didn’t work.”

“Oh,” Sam said quietly.  “Sorry.”

Danny sighed.  “It’s okay,” he muttered.

There was another long stretch of silence.

“That wasn’t the only reason, you know,” Sam said.

Danny looked up at her.  “What wasn’t?”

“That we didn’t tell you.  Or— I guess I can’t speak for Tucker.  But it was just kind of embarrassing.”

“Embarrassing?”

“I meant it when I said I noticed you were getting hurt all the time,” Sam said, looking down at the ground.  “You’re fighting actual ghosts, and I’m supposed to come up to you and say ‘hey Dash is being mean to me?’”

Danny stared at her.  “Sam,” he said.  “Don’t be ridiculous.  I would have put the ghosts on hold.”

“I don’t want to call you for backup every time I need help,” Sam snapped.  “You’re not like— my bodyguard.  Even if we had spoken in the last year.”

“Well, I appreciate the sentiment,” Danny said, because he did.  “But you— I hate it when you guys are hurt.”

“We hate it when you’re hurt too,” Tucker said, looking pointedly at him.  “It’s why we didn’t exactly love it when you pushed away while you were so obviously dealing with something.”

Danny winced.  “I’m sorry,” he said again.  “I should have told you.”

“Yeah, you should have,” Tucker said.  And then all of them stood there, none of them saying anything.

Tucker broke the silence again, this time with a sigh.  “But for what it’s worth?” he said.  “Thanks for saving everyone all the time.  And for recently, with that weird ghost king guy.”

Danny nodded.  “Anytime,” he said.  He didn’t have to tell them the part about how he thought he was going to die.  Again.

“And, you know, for what it’s worth?” he said instead.  “Thanks for trying.  While I was being an idiot.  Sorry I didn’t let you help me.”

“How about this,” Tucker said.  “We’ll be there to help you as Danny and Phantom if you kick Dash across the football field once or twice.”

Danny blinked, confused.  “Huh?”

“That sound good to you, Sam?” Tucker asked, glancing at her.

“Yeah, I wanna see that,” Sam said with a nod.  “And I’d like to learn how to kick some ghost butt.”  She smirked over at Danny.  “Maybe I’ll start with yours.”

“Wait, I thought,” Danny said, looking back and forth between them both.  “I thought we said we’d be done after this.”

“Are you kidding?  You think you’re getting rid of us again?” Sam asked.  “Now that we finally know what’s been going on with you?”

“Sorry, you’re stuck with us this time,” Tucker said, crossing his arms with a grin.  “Like we’re gonna let your total loser half go unacknowledged.  You can’t be Phantom all the time.  Sometimes you have to get teased for how much you like NASA.”

“Or get your butt kicked in Doomed,” Sam chimed in.  She raised an eyebrow.  “Sound good?”

Danny didn’t try to hide his smile at all, and instead he closed the space between the three of them and wrapped his arms around Sam and Tucker in a hug.

“That sounds great,” he said, meaning every word.

[asahicore]

gorgeous - lhs

"you should take it as a compliment that i'm talking to everyone here but you / and you should think about the consequence of you touching my hand in a darkened room" - gorgeous by taylor swift

series masterlist - part one - part two - part three

prompt 45 of the 100 kisses list, "we shouldn't do this" but they do so anyway

pairing. best friend's brother!heeseung x fem!reader synopsis. Heeseung comes back from his first year of university a new man - forget nervous, fidgety, dorky Heeseung and say hello to confident, teasing, flirty Heeseung. This change of attitude doesn't help your longstanding crush on your best friend's brother, and neither does the rising tension between the two of you - a tension that is bound to explode. genre. f2l, did i mention this was a best friend's brother au?, only fluff in this part but more to come, perhaps suggestive due to tension between reader and hee and makeout session lol word count. 8.1k (yes an asahicore fic under 10k thank u very much) a/n. hi loves i'm super happy to be posting this bc its the very first fic out of the 100 kisses event and its a project im really excited about !!! i know i said like 2 days ago it'd take me a while to write this but i got super motivated over the weekend and it turned out shorter than i thought and bestie @k-ingzo zo did a super amazing job at beta reading this so i was able to post it really quickly !! anyways hope you enjoy this, pls lmk,, and hope u look forward to the rest of the series as well !! ok bye

Nine years ago

“Y/N, honey, come meet your new friends!”

You rushed down the stairs at your mom’s call - at eight, you were always excited by the idea of new friends. She’d also called Naeun down, but lately, your sister had been acting like doing anything your parents asked her would cost her her life.

There in your living room were four unfamiliar faces, but your parents were smiling warmly, so you weren’t too nervous. Instinctively, you found your mother’s side and she rested her hand on your head, bending down to talk to you.

“Y/N, these are the Lees, they’ve just moved to the neighborhood.”

“Hi,” you greeted shyly, and were met with four hi’s in return.

“Heeseung and Seeun here started going to the same school as you,” she informs, nodding her head towards the young boy and girl. Now that she said it, the boy looked really familiar. You thought you recognized him from school that day - his glasses were definitely memorable. “And Seeun is the exact same age as you!” Your face lit up at that, and her expression mirrored yours as her lips curled into a smile. “Why don’t you show her your room?”

“Sure! Come on,” you said, holding out your hand for Seeun to take. She looked back at her parents who were nodding vigorously at her to follow you. You just played for half-an-hour, and Heeseung joined you quickly, saying he was bored with the adults downstairs. He didn’t talk much, instead found some of your toys to play with in his own corner. 

When the Lees left, you were thinking two things: one, you couldn’t wait to tell Chaeyeong about Seeun, and two, that boy with the big glasses was really, really cute.

-

Now

“Seeun, why the hell didn’t you tell us that your brother is a mega-hottie now?!”

This is what your friend Chaeyeong whisper-screams in lieu of a greeting as she barges in Seeun’s room, plopping down on her bed like it was her own. It might as well have been, considering how long the three of you had known each other.

“If you ever refer to my brother as a mega-hottie again, I’m terminating this friendship,” Seeun replies, not bothering to look up from the bead bracelet she was currently making.

“Oh please, just because you’re his sister doesn’t mean you haven’t noticed how attractive he’s gotten,” Chaeyeong insists, but it just makes Seeun scrunch her nose in disgust.

“Chaeyeong, please stop making it so obvious you’re an only child,” Seeun sighs. You let out a giggle at your friends’ conversation as you search for another color that could go well with the pink beads you’d chosen for your own bracelet. 

Stealthily, Chaeyeong leaves her spot on the bed and sneaks up to you. “Y/N!” she exclaims suddenly, wrapping her arms around your shoulders in a sneak-attack hug that makes you yelp. It makes you drop your half-finished bracelet, the beads falling all over the carpeted floor around you. You look up at Chaeyeong with a pout, but she just smiles at you and starts picking up the beads, gathering the tiny pink jewels in the palm of her hand.

“Y/N, you’re with me on this one, aren’t you?”

You ignore Seeun’s side-eye and give in to Chaeyeong’s encouraging expression. “I guess he does look very…” you pause to carefully consider your word choice. “Different,” you settle on.

“Different? That’s it? Y/N, you should really consider getting some glasses, seeing how you’re so blind to hot boys.” Cue a loud groan, Seeun’s courtesy. You just giggle again, slightly shaking your head at Chaeyeong’s antics. She rolled her eyes, disappointed that you didn’t back her up, but she drops the subject and switches to Seeun’s upcoming birthday party. Something great about being generally quiet? People don’t question it when you don’t partake much in a conversation. You listen and laugh as your friends bicker, but your mind is on something else.

Or rather, it’s on someone else.

Because Chaeyeong is absolutely right - Seeun’s brother has glowed up so much during his time away at university that you had a double-take when he opened the door for you earlier.

The sentence this is so unfair plays over and over in your head.

You’d heard of the freshman fifteen, of college first-years being so stressed over grades and having so little time that their diet consisted of instant ramen, quick cafeteria lunches, and an ungodly amount of coffee. And alcohol, on Friday nights, of course. After seeing how freshman year treated your older sister, you were dreading going to college, imagining it to be the complete opposite of what TV and movies had shown you.

So how the hell had Lee Heeseung gone from high school loser to campus hearthrob in the span of a mere nine months? (After some thinking, you realized that, well, if a woman can create a whole human being in nine months, maybe a regular guy can undergo great physical and mental change in that time, too.)

In September, when you’d last seen him, he wore the same glasses he had for all of high school - those slightly crooked ones that made his eyes look even bigger than they already were. He always had to push them back up his nose but he never bothered to get them fixed, even though all they needed was for the arms to be tightened. You remember his tic-like habit of readjusting his glasses, a habit so strong that he did it even when he wasn’t wearing them. Maybe they bothered him so much that he decided to get rid of them once and for all, you guess. 

Indeed, when he greeted you at his front door earlier (even after years of knowing Seeun and her family and no matter how much they reassure you that it’s okay, you’re unable to come in without knocking first, like Chaeyeong does), he wasn’t wearing his thick lenses you’d grown fond of. His eyes didn’t look unfocused like they usually would without glasses, so you assumed he’d switched to contact lenses - you knew it wasn’t Lasik surgery, because Seeun was always complaining that her parents wouldn’t pay for her or her brother to receive it. 

But it wasn’t just the glasses, of course not. There was an ease and confidence about him that he didn’t have before - no awkward giggles, no darting eyes, no weirdly positioned limbs. He held the door open for you and kept his eyes on you as you walked in, saying it was nice to see you again and asking if you were happy to be done with high school. You already weren’t expecting Heeseung to open the door in Seeun’s stead, so him actually looking at you while he spoke instead of mumbling a few words in your general direction and scratching the back of his neck rendered you completely flustered, cheeks heating up embarrassingly quickly.

His hair was different: it used to sit there atop Heeseung’s head, unsure what to do with itself, but now it was purposefully cut and slightly pushed back. When he turned his head, you saw something shiny dangling from his left ear.

Heeseung had a piercing. Shy, nervous, fidgety electronics club president Heeseung had a goddamn piercing, and it looked amazing. 

And then he laughed. He actually had the audacity to laugh, and then ruffle your hair. You could’ve died right then and there. “You’re still just as cute as before,” he mused, beaming down at you. Then he walked away towards the living room, saying Seeun was in her room upstairs. As if nothing happened. As if you weren’t on the verge of combusting, your saving grace being your friend’s voice calling out your name. You ran up the stairs, wanting to get as far away from Heeseung and his smile and his voice and his touch as possible. You busied yourself with the pearls and the small bracelet-making station Seeun had organized, trying not to think about the vein that ran down his forearm or about how his shoulders looked wider than before. And you’d managed to do that, until Chaeyeong brought him up.

It wasn’t unfair because he’d grown mysteriously hot - it was unfair because to you, Heeseung had always been the cutest boy around, but now other people had surely noticed too, Chaeyeong amongst them. Now, you were just one of the many girls that had a crush on Heeseung, even if yours dated back to the first time you’d met him when the Lees moved into the neighborhood. 

Their parents had been delighted that two girls of their daughter’s age - eight, to be precise - lived on their street. You were delighted that the cute boy you’d seen at school that day was her big brother, just one year older. Chaeyeong and you gladly welcomed Seeun into your friendship and you had each other’s back through the awkward phases of your early teenage years and the stressful times as high school seniors getting ready for college. You shared everything - clothes, jewelry, homework answers, gossip, tears, laughter. Secrets.

You liked to think there wasn’t a thing you didn’t know about them, but you couldn’t say the opposite was true - there was a secret you had to keep from them. A secret that grew bigger and bigger as time passed, but that you needed to keep locked in.

You had the biggest crush known to mankind on your best friend’s brother. It was either keep quiet or tell both of your friends; you trusted Chaeyeong, but you didn’t want her to carry that burden. You had no idea what Seeun’s reaction would be if you admitted you liked her brother, but you didn’t want to risk it. Every best friend’s brother (or brother’s best friend) romance you’d read had told you that the former was always against and deeply disgusted by the idea of their friend dating the latter. The last thing you wanted to do was make things weird, so you said nothing and suffered in silence, as one does. And so, for years, Heeseung was your little secret.

But not anymore, apparently. And it felt unfair. You didn’t have much of a chance to begin with, but now, getting with Heeseung was inimaginable. You’d just have to continue pining from far away, just as you’d gotten used to.

-

Four years ago

Your heart pounded as you made your way to the bus stop, steps heavy and head full of thoughts. Even though your older sister told you there’s nothing to worry about, you couldn’t help it. You were used to walking to school, not taking the bus. After three years of seeing the same people roaming the hallways, it was nerve-wracking to arrive at a place where most faces would be completely unfamiliar. You didn’t know what your teachers would be like, you were scared your classes would be a hundred times harder than before, you heard the cafeteria food was really bad. In short, you were absolutely dreading high school. And today was your first day.

The only thing that calmed you down was knowing that in a few minutes, you’d be with Seeun and Chaeyeong, and just seeing them would make you feel instantly better. You were meeting at the bus stop.

But when you reached it, neither of your friends were there. You shouldn’t have been surprised, since you’d come ten minutes early, but you couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed. That is, until you recognized someone else.

“Heeseung?” you called out before you could stop yourself. The boy snapped his head in your direction, and his eyes widened at the sight of you. Simple things like that made your heart burst with adoration for him.

“Oh, h-hi, Y/N.” He smiled the shy smile you loved so much and looked back at his feet, holding on tightly to the straps of his backpack. You stood next to him, close enough to have a conversation if he wanted to but not so close that it’d be weird.

Heeseung was the only person you felt awkward around. Even though you were on the quieter side and strangers weren’t your favorite people per se, being around people you didn’t know well wasn’t your definition of torture like it seemed to be for Heeseung and other kids from your school. But Heeseung’s awkwardness was contagious, and your crush on him didn’t help your ease of mind - so you imitated his posture, swaying back and forth on your feet as you held onto your backpack straps just to have something to hold onto. You smiled at the ground, not wanting to make him uncomfortable by looking at him, but that meant you missed the growing blush on his cheeks.

“So,” he started, “nervous?” He glanced quickly, just once, at you. You were so surprised at his breaking the silence, used to a quiet Heeseung, that you forgot to answer, simply staring at him. His panicked expression and mumblings were what jolted you out of your daze. “I-I mean, you know, cause it’s your first day and everything, and I was really nervous last year- I am today, too, actually- so I thought maybe, you know, you’re nervous too, but maybe you’re not, I don’t-”

He said all of this so quickly, you started laughing, slightly bending over. He let out a chuckle too, but as you continued laughing, a pout started to form on his lips. “What’s so funny…” you heard him grumble as he kicked a non-existent pebble.

“Sorry,” you said, regaining your breath. “I’m sorry, Heeseung.” The sound of his name made him glance at you again. You wished you could kiss the pout off his lips. “I was nervous, actually. But I feel better now.”

A quick smile appeared on his lips, but he willed it away. “I’m glad my embarrassment made you feel better,” he sighed.

You gently kicked his shoe with yours to make him look at you. “No, it’s because you made me laugh. I needed it. Thanks,” you corrected with a smile. Heeseung may have made you feel awkward, but the easiness with which he always got flustered made you love to tease him slightly.

His smile widened as he looked away once more, the blush having spread to his whole face by then. “Whatever,” he murmured. There was no time to say anything else because Seeun called out your name, practically skipping towards you. 

She gave you an excited hug as a greeting before turning towards her brother with a glare, punching him hard on the bicep, making him wince in pain and reach his hand to cover his arm where she hit him. “Thanks for waiting for me, loser.”

“You were gonna make us late!” he whined, rubbing his arm.

“Yeah, ‘cause I obviously missed the bus,” she tutted.

You watched the siblings with an amused smile, used to the exact same kind of banter at home. Your sister, who was in her last year of high school, had decided not to drive you for some reason only an older sister could make up and pretend was reasonable. Your parents had tried to convince her, but you didn’t mind taking the bus with your friends, so they didn’t push it, just glad they could somehow keep the both of you happy.

Heeseung didn’t say anything in return. Your eyes met for a moment, and his frown relaxed into a smile when he caught your expression. It lasted a second but it was enough to make your stomach twist. Seeun, oblivious, grabbed your arm and started telling you about all the things she was excited about for today. You were worried Chaeyeong wasn’t going to make it, but her footsteps were loud as she ran, reaching you just as the bus stopped in front of you. Heeseung took what you soon found out was his usual spot at the front of the bus while your friends dragged you towards the back of it. You tried not to let your thoughts drift towards the boy with the messy black hair and crooked glasses, but his shy smile replayed in your mind all day. For a year, you’d gotten used to not going to the same school as him - you didn’t know how you’d survive seeing him at least five days a week once again.

-

Now

You were really determined to not let Heeseung’s newfound confidence sway you, physically shaking your head every time a thought of him popped in your head (useless) and racking your brain for reasons you shouldn’t like him (not many of those). There was just one teeny, tiny problem.

He was making it impossible to pine for him at a distance. 

It seemed like everywhere you went, he was there. Maybe that was due to the fact that your most frequently visited place was literally his house, but still. It was frustrating. You didn’t need to be met with his stupid smile whenever he opened the door for you, you didn’t need to catch him cutely napping - how was that even possible?! - in the living room, a random sitcom still playing on the TV, you didn’t need to hear his laughter when his friends were over, and you definitely did not need to see him half-naked as he came out of the bathroom, hair wet from the shower and sticking to his forehead, towel wrapped low around his hips and his abs fully on display. Because of course, you had to be in the hallway, heading to the kitchen to get a glass of water, at the exact same time as him. 

You almost start to resent the fact that Seeun had the comfiest bedroom out of the three of you, as well as the most snack-filled house, which was why you had decided years ago to hang out there the most. Especially during school breaks, you were there almost every day, so you were bound to see Heeseung a lot. But for some reason, that didn’t seem to be enough, and over the course of June, you also ran into him while shoe-shopping with your mom, then another time as you entered the public library just when he left it, and another when your friends and his had decided to get ice cream at the same time. It was like you couldn’t escape him.

The worst part? Every time he saw you, while you simultaneously wanted to run away from him and into his arms, his damnedly handsome face broke into a stupidly beautiful smile that looked far too genuine for your heart. “Y/N! Funny seeing you here!”

No, Heeseung, not funny.

You didn’t want to be that girl whose brain cells stopped working whenever she encountered an attractive male specimen, but that was apparently who you were meant to be, because all words left you when you saw Heeseung. Although you’d been somewhat flustered around him in the past, he was always much more so than you, which reassured you and gave you enough confidence to actually talk to him. But now that he had realized how handsome he was and was clearly using that newfound knowledge against you (or so you thought), you were unable to string a coherent sentence when his shiny eyes bore into yours.

You think he might’ve sensed your awkwardness, because he never lingered, never made useless small talk, just asked about your favorite ice cream flavor or the book he’d checked out, patted your head, then was on his way.

There were so many butterflies in your stomach, you were scared it might fly away.

One afternoon in the middle of July, you and your friends come back from the city pool completely exhausted after playing around for hours in the water. All bundled up and close together, you try to nap on Seeun’s bed. Keyword try, because even though your friends’ soft snores quickly start to fill the silence of the room, you can’t seem to fall asleep, no matter how heavy your eyes feel.

Quietly, you get out of bed and head downstairs to the kitchen, hoping a cold glass of water will help sleep come to you like it usually does. You shouldn’t be surprised to see Heeseung in the dining room/kitchen area, busy with a puzzle, the pieces of which he’s spread out all over the table, but your heart still does a flip. He must be really engrossed in it, because he doesn’t notice your presence in the room until you fill a glass with ice, the sudden sound making his head snap up at you. You hate that his face breaks into a grin as soon as he sees you.

“Oh, hey, Y/N! What are you doing?”

“Just getting some water,” you explain, raising your glass with a small smile. Your whole body tells you to run away, back to Seeun’s bedroom, but something in your gut tells you to stay, to get closer to Heeseung. So you do. “What about you?” you ask, slowly making your way towards the table and peering at the puzzle in progress.

“Just whipping up some brownies,” he retorts with a devilish smirk, big eyes looking up at you. 

You fight back a smile in vain. “Shut up,” you mumble, but take a seat next to him anyway. He seems slightly taken aback by the sudden proximity, and you are too, but you keep your gaze focused on the puzzle in front of you so that you can’t think too much about how close you’re sitting, and how your knees could touch if you angled them just so.

For a small while you sit in silence, watching as he puts pieces together and even finding a couple of your own. It’s a one-thousand piece jigsaw that he’s clearly only just started, but Heeseung doesn’t seem fazed by that. You like seeing how his eyebrows slightly furrow when he’s searching for a particular piece, and the pleased smirk that graces his lips when he finds it. You break the silence after a few minutes.

“So you still like puzzles, then?” you ask, voice low. You’ve always been told you speak quietly - even too quietly sometimes, but you can’t always help it. Especially in situations like this, when it’s silent around you anyways, you don’t see the point of raising your voice. When Heeseung replies, he speaks at the same volume as you, and there’s something comforting about it, about speaking quietly in such a spacious and sunlit room - the words you share are for you two, and you two only.

“Yep, ever since that day.” He glances quickly at you and smiles at the piece in his hand, and it’s like getting a glimpse of the Heeseung you had known all those years. Your heart warms at the sight.

“That day?”

This makes him look properly at you, his eyes darting back and forth between yours as if searching for something there. Your heart is now on fire. “Don’t you remember?”

You tilt your head in response and he turns his attention back to the puzzle. “It was at this table, too. I think your grandparents- your grandma, I think? Anyway, someone had gotten you a puzzle for your birthday.”

You ‘ah’ in realization. “Of course!”

Two years ago

“Y/N, I’m sorry, I don’t think I can do this, it’s so complicated,” Seeun pouted apologetically, looking at you sadly. “We’ve been here like an hour and we’ve barely gotten anywhere.” 

Chaeyeong, head on the table, groaned in agreement. You followed your friend’s gaze to the puzzle in front of you - she was right, you hadn’t made much progress. But you liked it. The picture was pretty and you’d like to see it completed, but more than that, you liked finding the right piece, figuring out strategies.

You hummed, mirroring Seeun’s pout. Chaeyeong snapped her head back up to look at you. You’d think she hadn’t slept in days, but that was just bored Chaeyeong. You loved your friend and her over-dramatic antics. “Can we just take a break?” she asked, tone like you’d kidnapped and forced her to do this.

“You guys go ahead.” You smiled. “I like it, I can just continue this for a while and you guys do whatever you want.” The three of you spent so much time together that you didn’t need to be doing an activity together to be happy - being in each other’s general vicinity was enough to be considered a hang-out.

“You sure?” Seeun asked.

“Yeah, ‘course.” You chuckled at the obvious relief on your friend’s faces. “Just don’t watch the next Extraordinary You episode without me, okay?”

They both gasped and clutched their hearts like you’d accused them of murder. “How could you even think that, Y/N?!” Chaeyeong exclaimed.

“We would never!” Seeun added.

You shook your head at your friends’ antics, laughing as you waved them off. “Just go, already.”

“Yes, ma’am!” And with that, they were off, running up the stairs to Seeun’s bedroom.

You were only on your own for around ten minutes - the front door opened and closed, and the quiet shuffle of shoes being taken off and replaced with slippers let you know Heeseung had just come home. Seeun always made a show of being exhausted after school, groaning as she threw her backpack to the ground, while Mr and Mrs Lee always announced their arrival with a sometimes cheery, sometimes tired ‘I’m home!’. But Heeseung, quiet as always, simply set his backpack next to the stairs, slipped into his slippers and made his way to the kitchen, fond of a quick snack after school. Even Chaeyeong made herself more known when she entered the Lee household.

Every day except for Fridays, he came home two hours later than his sister because of either magic or electronics club (yes, magic club. It was cute, okay?!). You always looked forward to the monthly meeting of the book club you were in, partly because it meant you could take the bus back with Heeseung afterwards. Even if the ride was usually mainly silent, just sitting next to him was enough for your heart to do all sorts of tricks worthy of an Olympic gymnast. 

“Oh, hey, Y/N,” he greeted softly, probably surprised at seeing you alone at the dinner table.

“Hi, Heeseung. How was the electronics club?” You wanted to make conversation, but you winced immediately at your words - was it normal for you to know what club he had on what days?

But Heeseung seemed to pay it no mind, just smiling shyly, a blush already creeping on his cheeks. “It was nice, thanks.” He opened the fridge, taking out a carton of milk. “Do you want a glass?” When you didn’t respond immediately, he was quick to add, “Of milk? O-or orange juice? Or I can make some tea, if you want-”

His hands were already busy with preparing whatever drink he thought you might want. You held back a chuckle and smiled as you answered, “Milk is fine, thanks.”

His blush spread all the way down his neck and you turned your attention back to the puzzle so he wouldn’t see your grin. “Right, milk. Milk,” he stammered, then got two glasses out of the cupboard.

You loved moments like these with Heeseung - flustered, light-hearted, slightly awkward, moments that made you want to giggle out of nerves and delight. Basically every moment with him was like this, so it’d be more accurate to say you loved every moment with him.

“I didn’t know you liked puzzles,” he said, an upward tilt to his voice, as he set your glass next to you and took a seat across from you. He peered down at the pieces spread out in front of you, fixed his glasses on his nose, and took a big gulp of milk.

“I didn’t either,” you said with a chuckle, and stammered out an explanation when he looked up at you questioningly. “My, um, my grandma gave this to me for my birthday last month. She’s got a lot of grandkids, you know, and I think she might’ve mixed up my other cousin who likes puzzles and me…” Heeseung nods slowly, the corners of his lips tugging up in amusement. “But I don’t mind it,” you add, “I’m having fun, actually. Seeun and Chaeyeong are of a different mind, though. It’s a bit hard doing it on my own but I like it anyway.”

“I can help you,” he suddenly blurted out, and he looked just as surprised at his words as you were. “If you want.”

You smiled at him, and Heeseung and you actually looked at each other, actually held eye contact for three seconds, until you felt your face burn and had to look away. “Sure, yeah, that’d be nice.”

Although it took some time to finish the puzzle - putting 500 pieces together was a lot trickier than you thought it’d be - Heeseung and you managed to do it, high fiving celebratorily after almost two hours of hard work.

Now

“I just had a lot of fun that day.” Heeseung shrugs. “Plus, I already liked things like Legos and Rubik’s cubes, so it made sense I’d like puzzles, too.” 

You nod in response, watching as he twirls a puzzle piece between his thumb and middle finger. “It’s funny that my grandma’s mistake is what made you discover your love for puzzles.”

Heeseung chuckles along with you, and you’re relieved the atmosphere is somewhat lighter than before until he looks straight into your eyes, locking your gaze in his own, and a breath gets trapped in your throat. “I’m glad she did that, otherwise we wouldn’t be here right now.”

You’re still staring at him, dumbfounded, mouth agape, when he looks away with a smirk and turns his attention back to the puzzle, analyzing it seriously as if nothing happened. You come back to your senses after a few seconds, clearing your throat before imitating Heeseung and trying to focus on the puzzle once again. But that’s hard to do when your hands brush ever-so-slightly every time you fumble around the pile for a particular piece, or every time he hits your knee with his, inadvertently or to tease you, you’re not sure.

The first thing to do when starting a puzzle is looking for all the side pieces to build the frame. When Heeseung spots one in the pile next to you, he leans in to grab it, and he’s suddenly close enough for you to get a whiff of his cologne that had faded over the day. You think he’ll just take the piece and sit back in his seat, but instead, he turns his head towards you, and that’s when you realize just how close you are. Close enough that it wouldn’t be hard to close the gap and have your lips on his - just as the thought hits you, his eyes drift down to your parted lips. Is he thinking the same thing?

You take a sharp breath in, eyes fixed on Heeseung, mind racing with thoughts and assumptions of what might be going through his head right now. But your brain goes haywire when a smirk blooms on his lips, clearly enjoying your reaction. His gaze finds your eyes once more and he raises the piece between the two of you, in the small space that separates you. “Got it,” he says quietly, voice lower than usual. It makes your insides melt. He could be very well talking about you - he’s got you absolutely wrapped around his finger, and he seems to know it.

He turns back to the puzzle, smirk still on his lips, and you’re so embarrassed and confused that your flight instinct kicks in. The screech of your chair as you push it back and stand up makes Heeseung look up at you again, his smirk having dissolved in surprise and - disappointment?

No time to ponder, you need to get. out. of. here. 

“Right, well, that was fun, haha,” you breathe out, actually saying the word ‘haha’ and wanting to run away even more thereafter. “I should probably head back to the girls, now.” You’re already backing up and walking away when Heeseung calls out your name, but you just turn around and rush back upstairs, yelling out a small “bye, Heeseung!” on your way.

You’re already back in Seeun’s bedroom when Heeseung shakes his head at your sudden disappearance, an amused smile playing on his lips. “Cute,” he says under his breath.

-

To minimize any chances of running into Heeseung, over the next two weeks, you ask Chaeyeong and Seeun if you could hang out at your house more often, using the excuse that you want to spend as much time as possible there before leaving off to college. They don’t question it too much - next year, they’ll be able to come back fairly regularly to their parent’s houses, since the college they’re going to is less than an hour-long car ride away, but you’ll be further away, too far to come back home often.

It just so happens to be the university Heeseung is studying at, but you don’t need to worry about that right now. They had one of the best English Lit programs in your area and you’d been wanting to go there for all of your high school years - you used to think of Heeseung’s going there as a pro, but right now, it felt more like a con.

You manage to only run into him twice over the course of those two weeks, and both times, just in passing. But now it’s the night of Seeun’s birthday party and it’s impossible to pretend he isn’t there even when you’re in a crowded room together. Heeseung and Seeun’s parents have lended their house for their kids to have a party there, using it as an opportunity to have a date night, and Heeseung and his friends have graciously provided a big portion of the alcohol, saying it was their birthday gift.

You aren’t the biggest fan of alcohol, so you opt for the fruitier, lighter drinks, but still, two hours after the party starts, you can already feel your head start to spin, your voice is louder, everything makes you laugh. When a friend from school tells you they’re playing seven minutes in heaven in the hallway upstairs, you think that's the funniest thing you’ve ever heard and immediately agree to join.

The sight of Heeseung sitting in the circle, already looking at you with a lopsided smile, almost sobers you up completely.

You’d tried to avoid him as best as you could, but it was like you couldn’t escape him - maybe that was due to the fact that the heart of the party was kept to the kitchen and the living room, just a few people sitting on the stairs at the entrance to get away from the noise, but still, it annoyed you to no end that you had to keep seeing him everywhere. Maybe that was also what made the alcohol easier to down.

At some point, you were in the kitchen, doing a shot of God-knows-what with girls from school. You heard his voice before you saw him, and it made you roll your eyes but also your heart skip a beat. “Didn’t know you were such a drinker, Y/N.” You could hear the smirk in his voice, and when his face came into view, you wanted to slap it away. Or kiss it away, maybe.

“I’m not, I’m just trying to have fun,” you retorted, eyebrows slightly furrowed as you poured yourself another shot. I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas started playing in the next room and the girls shrieked before rushing to the made-up dancefloor. You wanted to join them, but something kept your feet firmly planted at the kitchen counter.

Before you could bring the shot glass to your lips, however, Heeseung stole it from you and downed it himself. “Hey!” you protested, but it was done, and he was scrunching his nose at the bitter taste, shaking his head. You wished he could stop being attractive for one damn second.

“You don’t need that to have fun.”

He placed his forearms on the kitchen counter and leaned on them, forcing him to look up at you. You had no idea what the hell he meant by that, nor did you want to try and figure it out - all you knew was that you couldn’t stay there with him when he looked at you so intently, cheeks flushed from the alcohol, hair perfectly disheveled and biceps apparent even under his t-shirt sleeves.

“You’re right, I don’t,” you made yourself say, and spun on your heels to join your friends on the dancefloor. 

And a few drinks later, here you are, sitting in a circle on the hallway floor, Heeseung right in front of you, leaning back on his palms and looking down at you with that same stupid smirk once again.

The game goes as such: one person spins the bottle twice, and the people it lands on have to go to a bedroom closet for seven minutes (timed carefully by Jake, Heeseung’s friend who is taking this game very seriously) to do whatever they want, while the others occupy themselves with other games. When the seven minutes are up, the doors burst open, and you have to leave the closet. 

And because it wouldn’t be any fun otherwise, after a few rounds, the bottle points straight at you, then straight at Heeseung, and before you know it, everyone except for Seeun is cheering, and Heeseung is holding out his hand for you to take, and you do, and he raises you up, and together, you head to his closet, as per the rules of this stupid middle-school game you should never have agreed to play in the first place. You can barely Seeun’s voice as she shouts, “Y/N, I trust you!”, which just makes Chaeyeong burst into laughter and whoop louder for you. You’d also barely registered Heeseung’s friends clapping each other’s backs, smiling like they were in on something.

The sound of the closet door shutting is what snaps you out of your daze. You hadn’t even realized Heeseung had kept your hand in his until he released it, leaning his back against one wall of the closet, facing you. All three bedrooms in the Lees’ house had built-in walk-in closets which meant you weren’t sandwiched between Heeseung and his clothes, but still, you wished you could put more distance between your two bodies - one step closer, and you were done for.

It wasn’t just Heeseung’s presence in the narrow space - it was his scent filling your nostrils, the combined smell of the cologne he was wearing, of the fabric softener on his clothes, and an unfamiliar scent you somehow recognized as unique to Heeseung, his skin, his hair, smells you’d wanted to discover for years but never got close enough to. Well, now you did. And it was intoxicating - you wanted more, wanted to bury your face in the crook of his neck and inhale. You wanted to know what his reaction would be, if he’d let you, if he’d push you away.

All those thoughts were running wild in your head. You didn’t know what to do with yourself. Your stomach was in messy knots, your hands were sweaty and you had no idea where to place them, your eyes wouldn’t stop darting around the dark room. Everywhere but Heeseung. You could feel his eyes on you, but you were too nervous to meet them.

Your breathing must’ve gotten loud enough for him to hear, because all of a sudden, you feel his hand take yours, and he’s stood up from his position against the wall, his body too close to yours for your heart to handle. His thumb rubs what he must think are comforting semi-circles on the back of your hand, but the touch just destroys any capability of thinking straight you had left.

“Y/N,” he calls out, and the sound of his voice makes your eyes close shut. You cannot give in. You had seen Seeun’s disgusted expression when you and Heeseung were picked for the game - if just the idea of you and her brother kissing repulses her, what would she say if she knew it actually happened, or if you started dating? You may have the biggest crush ever on Heeseung, but no one was worth losing your friendship with Seeun.

“Calm down,” he says, and you wish you could be as steady as his voice. “There’s no reason to be nervous.”

This makes you scoff. “You touching me is not helping my nervousness.” The words are out before you can stop them, and in the darkness of the room, you have to concentrate to make out the tilt of Heeseung’s head. You don’t need to see it to know he’s smiling, the satisfied smirk that has been gracing his features for the past month and a half.

“Yeah? Why is that?”

You take your hand out of Heeseung’s and cross your arms over your chest. “You know why,” you say, not intending your voice to come out as weak as it does.

Heeseung takes another step closer to you, and the only ray of light that comes through the panels of the closet door hits his face, making it visible for you to see. “I do, but I want you to tell me.” Another step, making you back up until you hit the wall behind you.

You call out his name shakily. His lips are right in front of you at this point, and you can’t not look at them.

He places a hand delicately on your waist, as if not wanting to scare you off. “Yeah?” He’s so close now that you can feel his breath fanning on your lips.

“We shouldn’t do this,” you say, and finally, your voice is strong like you want it to - but Heeseung isn’t deterred by it.

“Do what?” he asks, pretending to be stupid. “We haven’t done anything. Not yet.” He adds the last part in a whisper, his eyes drifting down to your lips, and you can feel your resolve crumbling piece by piece, the opposite of completing a puzzle.

“You know what I’m talking about,” you whisper back, voice almost pleading with him. Stop this before it’s too late, you want to tell him, but for some reason, at this point, you’re more scared of nothing happening than something happening.

“I do, but I want you to tell me,” he repeats, and you can’t help but let out a chuckle. Laughing helps relieve the tension, but it’s back as quickly as it left when his hold on your waist gets tighter, bringing you closer to him. Your hands that had fallen to your side come up to grab the sides of his t-shirt, gathering the fabric in your fists. There’s no going back now, you can tell - you wait for Heeseung to make a move, both dreading it and craving the relief that will come with it.

Heeseung’s free hand comes up to your face, and he traces your jawline with a knuckle before taking your chin in two of his fingers, gently raising it so that your face is angled up towards him. His touch makes your skin burn and takes away your ability to breathe properly.

“We shouldn’t do this,” you repeat, voice barely audible, a weak and half-hearted attempt at stopping this now that you still can.

“No, we shouldn’t,” he agrees, and before you can say or do anything else, Heeseung presses his lips to yours, finally, finally.

His lips are just as soft as you’d expected them to be, and the kiss is light, slow, careful. You’re grateful for it, because you’re not a very experienced kisser - if Heeseung had plunged his tongue directly into your mouth, you wouldn’t have known what to do. It’s almost like he knows this, like he’s giving you time to figure it out, to get used to it. His hand snakes its way to the small of your back, pressing you closer to him, while the other cups your cheek with his palm. You, on the other hand, have completely forgotten about your hands, only able to focus on where your lips meet.

It’s easy to fall into Heeseung’s rhythm, to let him take control of the kiss. But maybe it’s too easy, because soon enough, you start to want more - as amazing as this is right now, a slow kiss like this is not enough to have dissolved the tension in your body. You remember your hands and inch them up to his hair, your fingers finding purchase there and slightly pulling as you open your mouth just a bit wider, hoping Heeseung will get the message.

For a second, you think you’ve got it all wrong - Heeseung pulls back an inch, peering down at you. You’re both breathing heavily, and you’re scared you might have gone too far. But then, he murmurs a small fuck under his breath, and just like that, his lips are back on yours, your back is pressed against the wall again, his body encaging your smaller one. The kiss now is nothing like it was seconds ago - it’s turned hungry, hot, messy. You love it.

You had no idea you would want to kiss Heeseung like this, but now that you were doing it, you couldn’t get enough. The intensity with which he held you, the feel of his tongue against yours, the small groans that escaped his lips every time you pulled on his hair, it was all making you more drunk than the alcohol had.

You swear you haven’t even been kissing for two minutes, but then, all of a sudden, the doors are snapped open, and light pours in the closet, and Heeseung’s lips aren’t on yours anymore. You hadn’t heard the timer go off, too engrossed in Heeseung to pay anything else any mind. When you turn your head, Chaeyeong and Jake are staring at you and Heeseung, mouths wide open and eyes darting back and forth between the two of you.

“Oh. My. God,” Chaeyeong says, while Jake starts laughing. A shy smile appears on Heeseung’s lips, even plumper and pinker than usual from your kiss. His hair is a mess, and you’re sure you don’t look too different. He scratches the back of his neck, and you can’t believe this sheepish boy is the same that was kissing you roughly not a minute ago.

“Chaeyeong,” you cry out, voice already pleading as you take a step out of the closet and take both of her hands in yours. “Seeun can’t know about this.” She raises her eyebrows in surprise but nods her head in agreement, and you’ve never been so thankful for your friend as now. 

“Would she really mind?” Jake asks, looking at you, then at his friend. You turn to look at Heeseung behind you, who purses his lips.

“I’m not sure, but I have a feeling she would… She’s always told me she didn't want me hanging out with her friends,” Heeseung says, and you and Chaeyeong exchange a look; this was news to both of you.

You have no further time to discuss it, however, because Seeun’s voice calling out your name and Heeseung’s make all four of you widen your eyes. Chaeyeong fixes your clothes and hair as best as she can, then smiles at you reassuringly and nods, prompting you to imitate her. She ushers Heeseung into his bathroom and tells him to “freshen up or whatever,” and you, Jake and Chaeyeong leave the room just as Seeun reaches the door.

“Where’s Heeseung?” she asks, not a trace of suspicion in her voice, peering behind you into her brother’s dark room.

“Just needed the toilet,” Jake answers quickly, and that seems to convince her. 

She turns to you, an amused expression on her face. “Hope that wasn’t too awkward.”

You’re so surprised at your friend’s quickness to assume that nothing could happen between you and her brother, as if the idea was truly unfathomable to her, but you figure it’s for the best. You all head back into the party, Heeseung appearing some five minutes later. He scans the room for you, and when you make eye contact from across the crowded living room, he smiles, his shy, genuine smile that you’d fallen in love with all those years ago. 

You already miss him, you realize, his lips, his touch, his scent. That’s how you know that you’re in deep, deep shit.

permanent taglist: @k-ingzo @bbujiikseu @sunghoonmybeloved @lalalalawon @sd211 @w3bqrl (ask to be removed/added!)

© asahicore on tumblr, 2023. please do not repost, translate or plagiarize my works. reblogs and feedback are always appreciated!

[whackk-kermitt]

Dear PenPal

Prompt: Write a story that only consists of love letters.

STRAP IN, IT’S A LONG ONE! Warning: Fluff, No fire, Mention of homophobic Bullying, Mention of Bullying and Harassment, Shameless(steamy)flirting, some sexting(if you can call it that), Some Angst, happy ending Summary: Due to bullying and harassment at Beacon Hills High, the school board came up with the idea to randomly match each student with another and make them write letters talking about their experiences. At the beginning of the day, they will receive their letter, and by the end of the day have to turn in their response(Receiving a letter every other day) They've been asked to keep their letters anonymous.

Important(sort of): I saw a post where someone said high school au's portray Derek wrong because in high school Derek was completely whipped for Paige and I can't agree more. So soft mushy Derek for one, soft mushy Derek for all!!

Certain grammar mistakes are on purpose, these are handwritten letters I'm emulating here. Others. . .I'm just too lazy to proofread- I mean-THEIR ON PURPOSE

≫ ────── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ────── ≪ Dear penpal,

I honestly don't understand why I'm being made to write about bullying and shit when I'm not the issue in this hellhole school. But Mr Harris said if I don't participate he's gonna knock points off my final grade. Does that count as bullying? I think he has it out for me.

Anyway, Jackson Whittmore is a jackass, and I'm comfortable blaming him for all my problems. If this is you Jackass, your daddy's money means nothing and you're pathetic.

Apparently, we're gonna have to deal with each other all year or until the superintendent gets bored and loses all interest in this project of his. I don't see this still being enforced past a month or two.

They don't want us telling each other our names or anything. which is stupid So I need something to call you. You can call me Batman!

Sincerely, Batman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

It doesn't matter to me whether we're writing to penpals all year, I'm out of here soon enough anyway. But it's a half-decent idea for kids to hear about bullying and what it can do to someone behind the curtain, it opens your eyes. Really makes you think about what you say to people before you say it. Some kid in my homeroom was excused because whatever his pen pal had confessed to him made him cry so hard I thought his eyes would pop out of his head.

As for Jackson Whitt-whore, I totally agree. He's never bothered me in particular, but he's laid into some friends of mine before and I wanted to rip his throat out with my teeth. I know I have some serious issues, but that guy has ISSUES.

If we're gonna deal with each other all year, or however long this lasts we might as well have some fun with it. Right??

Tell me some things about yourself..

Sincerely, Superman (the best dc hero)

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Superman,

Since um when? As cool as Superman is, batman is easily better by at least a hundred times!! Don't embarrass yourself, buddy.

Was it Greenburge?? I heard something about him crying like a baby down the hall lol

I don't know what to tell you without giving away who I am. I mean I'm pretty unnoticeable unless you know what to look for, and then I stick out like a sore thumb.

I like

comics

food

starwars

reading

reading about starwars

reading comics

the smell outside just after rain

watching garbage cop shows with my dad and making fun of all the shit they get wrong

dogs

curly fires (I mentioned food but curly fries are in their own category because they deserve it)

HATe

Jackson Whitt-whore good one

tinny annoying dogs

when I forget my clothes in the washer and they start to stink and I have to wash them again

sports (only because I SUCK) I like watching hate playing

people who think Superman is better than Batman

lack of personal space

derek hale

fake cheese ruining otherwise perfectly good nachos

What about you, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

First off, not really funny about Greenburge. I talked to him about it yesterday and the person writing to him confessed some pretty dark shit that's been said to them. Videos of them got posted online and how they get picked on in school and online by complete strangers. They mention how they were seriously depressed. (Although he does blubber like a baby, it was valid in this case.)

Second, what did Derek Hale ever do to you?

Lastly, I like:

Superman

Reading

Cooking

Basket Ball

Baseball

Comics as well

Family time

My sisters (don't tell them that)

The idea of traveling

Cats

I don't like:

People with zero work ethic

Bullies

People who hunt for sport

People who are dumb enough to think Batman outranks Superman

People who don't like sweets (can't trust them)

Dirt in between my tose

Mr Harris

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Superman,

Oh shit for real about Greenburge? damn. I feel sorry for whoever wrote him that letter.

Also derek hale is a douchebag jerk face. He used to tease the hell out of me but I guess he's mellowed out this year since everyone is talking about all the bullying and shit their penpals are confessing to.

I try not to hold grudges- dad says its not good for me- but I'm gonna hold onto this one. Derek hale can suck my big toe!

also dude it sounds like you just don't like people.. fair enough I guess I don't either but damn you do have issues

-batman

p.s sorry was in a rush, forgot to write until now school gets out in 5

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Batman,

Damn.

I'm gonna be out of town for a few days next week, don't sus out who I am while I'm gone.

Also yeah, I don't trust easily. You know the deal with broken hearts. Been burned too many times. But as a result, I love and hold onto people even harder now. So I guess it's a win-lose.

Are you gonna be at the game tonight? Scratch that, you won't get this until tomorrow. Hope you have fun, otherwise, enjoy whatever it is you're doing tonight.

Question: what do you wanna be when you grow up?

Sorry, I'm just trying to think of ways to get to know you better. You seem cool.

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Superman,

I seem cool? I'm legit a geek with like one actual friend. People just roll their eyes when I speak I roll them back but whatevr

You wanna get to know me cause im cute ;) or . . . you want to get to know me, so you can sus me out first, huh? Well, the race is on baby!

I haven't really thought about what I wanna be, most likely something in law enforcement. Aim high how about the FBI that would be sick!!

What about you tough guy? any big plans for life?

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

I don't even know what you look like, how would I know if you're cute? You don't know what I look like, so you couldn't even say if I'm cute.

I haven't thought about it much either. Maybe I'll open a bookstore or even a bakery? I'm not sure, those are just two things I like pretty well. Might end up in the family business or as a mechanic.

It's kind of sad now that I think about it; I've never really considered what I am without my family. Whatever it turns out to be it won't be far from home, that's for sure. Hell, I'm down to be a stay-at-home dad even.

That sounds really nice.

Sincerely, Superman

P.S FBI is super cool

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Superman,

I think it's cute that you felt the need to defend yourself about thinking I'm cute. You so think I'm so cute, don't you??

I also think it's cute that you wanna be a stay-at-home dad. Not gonna lie- dads are hot. Sometimes. but like, dude-wife energy you know??

also, just an idea- might take some serious cha-ching- but if you owned your own bookstore cafe you could totally bring your little ones with you to work and it could become your very own family business

i can imagine Superman jr running around like he owned the place.

"do you know who my daddy is, he owns this place, he's Superman"

SUPERCUTE Get it??

Dumb joke never mind

if were on the topic of getting to know each other whats your deepest darkest secret??

-Batman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Batman,

Sure, Batman, you're cute. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

That's a nice idea though, I like it. Maybe I'll aim for that. I wouldn't mind having my babies grow up and take over a shop I built. Definitely need that "cha-ching" though.

Deepest darkest secret? We only just met, you gotta at least buy me a drink first.

I'm a werewolf.

Your turn Batman

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Superman,

you SOOO think i'm cute!! I'll buy you a drink anywhere anywhen.

Also ha ha ha, super funny. but if you don't tell me yours I'm not telling you mine. hmm, you do have trust issues so I guess it's only gentlemanly of me to do it first- even though I'm buying you a drink at some point now.

Um I'm finding comfort in hoping you never ever know who I am when I tell you this

I've been talking to this guy and I kinda like him. We don't really know each other all that well, but from what I do know, there's nothing I don't like. But I'm not stupid enough to fall for that trap again so I'm not gonna bother

Also also “my babies” you're fucking adorable.

-Batman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

Hope you didn't miss me too much while I was gone.

I know it's Friday and you won't see this until Monday but how have you been? Do you have plans over the weekend? What did you do over the weekend, I should say? I've been home the last three days so I'm itching to go out this weekend.

I'll be at the lacrosse game tonight, then I'll most likely hang out at the arcade with some friends tomorrow. Someone beat my high score on Pac-Man so I've gotta reclaim my crown.

Anyways, whats been up since I've been gone?

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Fuck you Superman

Not really sorry. I forgot you said you'd be gone for a few days and I thought for a while you ditched me.

Also, I was at the arcade on Saturday!! And just to let you know DRH your score was not hard to beat. Your crown is mine forever champ

What time were you there? What if we're were there at about the same time? Dude that's crazy! I was there at about 5ish and stayed for about two hours I think I don't really remember

-batman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Screw you STI,

I left about five o'clock and had to get home for dinner, so we just missed each other. I waisted nearly three hours trying to get my high score back! I finally did it!

And what happens when I go back after your letter yesterday? You're on top again! Screw you. All that time and money for nothing.

I don't know what made you think I'd ditch you before, but now I'm considering it. You are the reason I don't have nice things.

In your wise words, “suck my big toe”!

Sincerely, Superman

P.S your initials sound like damn std

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Haha Superman

Don't be such a sourwolf.

Be humble, dude. Nobody likes a sore loser. Its not my fault I'm better then you, I'm perfect.

But hey maybe if you calm down I can give you some advice. I am perfect after all I give the best advice. And I advise you to take me up of it for the sake of your wolvly-hood.

But if you insist on being a sore loser, I could give you a massage to work out the kinks. ;)

-love yours truly, Batman 

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

“Sourwolf”? Really?

I regret telling you anything.

And don't think I didn't catch that last part. I had to hold it up to the light to see what you scribbled over but I saw it.

If you're so perfect why did you scribble out the shameless flirting? Not confident, hmm? If you're so perfect, why so shy, sti?

I think it’s cute, honestly. But I don't think you could take the heat. I think if we were face-to-face you'd be puddy in my hands. I think your mind would go blank and you'd revert to caveman lingo.

“Huh” “yeah” “mhmm” and a whole lot of grunting.

You're probably so hot under the collar right now you're not even reading this anymore. You're just thinking about us grunting a whole lot. I bet it's so easy to get under your skin.

I wonder what kinds of things you're thinking right now. I wonder if you'll go all day thinking about it. I wonder what you get up to when you're finally home alone.

You'll probably reread this letter over and over won't you, sti?

Can't wait to hear from you tomorrow.

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Holy shit dude

Warn a guy before you say things like that. I literally choked on air my friend thought I was having a panic attack

Jeez I don't even know what to say now

What the hell am I supposed to say?

Yeah you're probably right about when I get home tonight though, not gonna lie. Damn dude

We should meet I think..

-Batman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Batman,

Holy hell, I was joking before. Wasn't expecting you to actually get hot and bothered. Thought you were just gonna roll your eyes and fuck with me.

Dude you actually touch yourself?

Like you seriously went home and I don't even know what to say cause I'm not sure if the teachers read these before passing them on. I don't wanna get into trouble.

But I kinda wanna get into trouble.

I regret nothing, hot damn.

As flattered and curious as I am about meeting you in person, I don't think I want it to be just for sex. You know? Like you seem like such a good guy, I don't wanna waste all my time with you on just that.

I want you to like me more then that.

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Okay superman confession time I guess. Remember the letter I sent you before you took off? The guy I mentioned liking?

Sort kind of was you…

I said before I forgot you had mentioned not being in school for a few days, so when I never got a letter back I thought you put the very obvious pieces together and stopped writing back cause I mad it weird.

But I guess you're just ditzy cause clearly it when right over your head.

I do like you, I wanna meet you. Maybe at the arcade or something? I could show you how to actually be good at Pac-Man.

Only if you want!

-Batman

PS I DID NOT THINK ABOUT TEACHERS READING THIS OMG

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Batman,

That was me?! I didn't even adress it cause I didn't know what to say. I don't have a good track record with relationships and I didn't wanna screw anything up by getting jealous you weren't into me when we've never met.

Holy crap you have no idea how happy I am right now.

I think you're amazing. And I know we've only been talking for a month and it's been mostly banter but I really like the idea of getting to know you better. Person to person.

I’m gonna be honest though, I kind of don't want to cause I don't want you to be disappointed when you find out who I am. I don't think you like me very much outside these letters. I don't even know who you are in the slightest.

I've taken notes about you and tried to figure it out but I'm fucking clueless dude.

I'm nervous to talk new people, actually, anyone, cause I don't know if it's you want I don't wanna drive you away or give you a reason to be any more upset when you meet me.

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Superman,

You are the cutest ditz I've ever not met ever. You have no idea how many times I read that letter and GIGGLED. Honestly, I kinda hate you for it now. That was embarrassing in Mr harris's class. I couldn't help it your so fucking cute I swear

I was like a 13 year old girl getting Justin Bieber's autograph. EMBERASSING

but you're sweet so I forgive you.

I'm ready to meet when you are, I don't wanna push you into something you're unsure of. But I want you to know that whatever I may have thought of you before, whatever impression I gave you to make you think I don't like you, it doesn't really matter now.

I know you well enough that I don't think any of that matters anymore.

Unless I hate you in person cause you were a total dick.

Then I think you'll have to make it up to me. ;)

I take smooches as payment for being a jerk

-Batman🖤

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

You really are something special. But do you really think it would all be swept under the rug, just because I made you giggle?

And we've talking about ouselves and our goals and everything but do you really know me well enough to make such a bold statement like that?

I wanna trust that when we meet it will be like a fucking fairytale, but fairytales are never as fun and a hell of a lot more gory in real life. I don't wanna be a downer but I don't wanna be hurt again. I've told you things about myself I've never told anyone. Things I don't trust anyone with.

I let my guard down and if you end up looking me in the eye and you can't stand what you see, then that's gonna break my heart.

Sincerely, Superman.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

I know that you're sweet. I know that you're a family man. I know you want kids and a big happy family of your own. I know you're smart, you always use basically perfect grammar and spelling. I know you're an introvert who like quiet time with friends more then parties. I know you love to cook. Not just because you told me, but because I get the feeling with you shifters that you're a total mommas boy. And mommas boys can always cook. I know you feel things with all you're heart and I bet you pour everything you have into your family and sisters. Even if you don't want them to know how much you love when they fuck with you. That's just what sibling are for- so I've heard. I know you've got enough charisma and charm that you probably have a lot of friends. But only maybe two or three of them would last long enough to be invited to your wedding someday. I know you are poetic, just based on the last few letters. I know you're funny as hell. You've made me laugh a few times. I know even though you seem like a macho sport guy your really a softy. Total hopeless romantic I bet. I know you're a geek like me, a fucking nerd too I bet. I bet you one of the top kids in class. I know my dad would love you. I know you're a werewolf. Which means if I tell you that tonight I'm gonna go to the store and find the strawberry-scented soap or perfume, what ever I can find, tomorrow you'll be able to sniff me out. You'll hear my heart when I walk into a room super nervous, knowing you'll know its me. I know that you care about me. And I know you're smiling like a little kid right now. I know you'll probably read this over and over but you won't tell a soul.

Have fun sniffing me out today, superman.

-Batman xoxo

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Batman,

I know who you are. You weren't lying when you said you were perfect.

I smelled the strawberries as soon as I knew to look for them. Followed it in between classes. Kind of sent me on a wild goose chase for a bit, was late a couple times. The scent traveled everywhere, couldn't tack it. The you came into lunch, you walked right by me.

Your heart was racing just like you said it would be. It looked like you were looking for me too. I wanted to just walk over and kiss you silly.

I ran away like a fucking loser though.

Just got up and left. I'm sorry I'm such a coward. I miss you though. I know you already went home. I'm staying late to right this to make sure you get this tomorrow.

I almost didn't write anything. I didn't expect you to take me seriously when I told you. Didn't expect you to believe in werewolves or to know anything about us. That kind of scared me.

I had a girlfriend before. She had no clue. When she found out, she moved. She was so afraid of me like she didn't even love me anymore. I was a monster to her all of a sudden.

But for you, you don't seem to care. You used it to help me find you. Used your scent to help me find you and you probably don't know as much as I think you might, but that sort of thing makes the wolf go crazy.

Like a hunting game of cat and mouse but without the murder and eating at the end.

Shit, Stiles, you're so perfect.

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Superman,

I told you so.

But, my friend got bit. I had to sort through Hollywood bullshit and actual facts to help him not kill anyone every full moon. Honestly if I had known there were wolves in Beacon Hills other than the sick fuck that attacked him I probably would've gone to them to help him.

But he's got control over it know. Full moons are more like a girl's time of the month for him now. Don't tell him I said that. Or your sisters! When I meet them I don't want them to be pissy over it.

But I don't mind. The claws and fangs are kinda hot. Definitely not hot on my friend! Ew

But I got to thinking about that night. I kinda liked it more than I thought I would.

I'm still here superman. You can't chase me away with claws and fangs. ;)

-Batman xoxo

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

Warn a guy. I read that first thing this morning and I lost control for a minute. Hand to hide my claws in my jacket. You owe me a new one by the way. The pockets are fucked.

I wanna scent you so bad. You don't smell like me and it makes me uncomfortable. I wanna rap you up on my scent and leave you there until you smell more like me than yourself.

On a more serious note, I think its time I ask. I don't wanna pry but this whole thing was supposed to be about bullying anyway. How did Derek Hale tease you? It's been really bothering me since your first few letters. Why do you hate Derek Hale? I mean you don't seem, at least from your letters so far, to be harboring a serious grudge against Jackson, so what makes Derek that much worse? What did he do exactly?

I don't really remember anything that could make someone hate him as much as you do. Yet I'm biased. So, I guess I'm just concerned.

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

Oh dear lord you're dereks friend??? That's why you think I don't like you? Cause you hang out with that jerk? this is awful I hate you

No i dont sorry

DO NOT TELL HIM ABOUT ME AT ALL

I'm serious Superman. Please.

I was humiliated by him! I dont want to drag up anything and relive freshmen year, it was the worst. Thank god people forgot about it over the summer and it's been peaceful since.

And don't get all wolfy jelly over it, cause I'm over it. Its all you now baby.

I may have let it slip ACCIDENTLY - i talk alot, my mouth moves before my brain can tell it to shut up- that I sort of maybe had a teeny weeny little bit had a major crush on him. the next day his friends were laughing at me in the halls and there was a note in my locker calling me a fag and shit

This was back before danny made it cool to be gay.

I couldn't even muster up the balls to tell my dad what I was crying about when I got home. I spent all last year avoiding him like the plague and yet I still got mean notes in my desk and locker every now and then

like i get he probably doesn't like guys, and even if he did I'm like a fish out of water on my best days- very clumsy- not the prettiest flower in the garden but let a guy down gently you know??

I just wanna forget about him and his stupid face

-Batman xoxo

Ps I owe you a drink, jacket, Pac-Man advice and you owe me smoches. Am I forgetting anything?

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

Don't be mad. . please don't be mad. Derek says he has no clue what you're talking about. He never had any guy confess a crush on him, and he certainly didn't tell anyone about anything like that. Literally ever.

Maybe someone else overheard and they made fun of you? But I don't know, cause you never told him anything like that. Derek isn't the kind of guy to do something that fucked up. He's an ass sometimes and he knows it but he wouldn't do that.

It doesn't change the fact that you were hurt, and I'm so sorry that happened. Whoever is responsible is twisted and deserves a beating. I'll rip their throats out with me teeth, just give me the word!

Please don't be mad!

Maybe try talking to Derek? I'm absolutely certain he will wanna hear from you in person about this.

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

[Blank Page]

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Batman,

Please, please, please talk to me! Nobody else knows about this and I swear Derek won't tell anyone. I want you to understand that Derek would never in a million years use someone's feelings like that to hurt them. He's a total pussy honestly!

He's been taken advantage of by someone he's gave his heart to, so he wouldn't do it to someone else.

I promise you with everything in me, Stiles.

Derek Hale if not that kind of guy, there's a misunderstanding somewhere. I want to understand what happened. I want to help!

Between you and me, Derek is Bi, not out to his family or literally anyone yet. He wouldn't out you like that.

Can you please tell me what happened? Spare no details.

Sincerely, Superman xoxo

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Derek wouldnt out me maybe, but you just outed him??? how the hell am I supposed to trust you after I asked you not to say anything and then you did!! THEN you outed your fucking friend.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Batman,

Yeah, I get how I fucked up there. But Derek was down for it! I let him read the letter and he told me what to say. Think of me as his wingman! He wants to know what happened just as much as I do.

Swear on my mother, Batman.

thats a weird thing to write so sincerely

Yours Truly, Superman xoxo

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Fine Superman.

First off, why didn't you just fucking drop it! I don't wanna mend anything with this guy cause I want you! Derek Hale is dead to me, a thing of the past.

But you wanna know why your friend is a dick, sure.

I was sort of his friend- kind of only because I knew Cora. It was a best friend's-other friend's-friend's-friend thing- cora being the last one. I don't know we just kind of knew each other and we were chill. and that's how we met. we talked for maybe three minutes at Cora's birthday party last year and then I literally only saw him from a distance at school. but I was whipped okay.

I mean have you seen him?? he's fucking perfect. totally unfair

We ended up in a group project though, even though he was out for the week- family emergency or whatever it was. But the group got everyone's phone numbers down to go over shit, and thats how I got his number, and we started talking- like literally every night for a good two weeks. I let it slip on night when we were going back and forth fucking with each other that I liked him

I was gonna play it off like as friends or whatever but he said he had to go and then blocked my number.

The rest is history.

Stiles out

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Stiles,

What was the phone number?? Are you sure you got the right one? Derek never got any texts like that! I swear he wouldn't do that to you. Ever. Not you.

If we can sort this out then you'd see where it all went wrong. And you won't hate him anymore.

I wanna make this right.

Sincerely yours, Superman xoxo

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dude why does this fucking matter? Its not like just because we’d potentially be a thing doesn't mean I have to be buddy buddy with all of your friends. I don't care about whatever happened between me and Derek fucking Hale. I don't give a shit about him. He's old news, loser boring basic news okay.

He's a jerk and there is no way in all his time hanging out with that asshole that called me names and beat me up, and told everyone I was a freak and a fag that he didn't catch on. He had to have known something was happening because the whole school knew it was happening. He may have not been the one to call me those names. Or break my arm and nose. He may have not been the one to tell Jackson all about how I thought he was pretty and smart or whatever I was hyped up for but he still knew I was getting shoved, jumped, and dragged through the dirt.

And just like everyone else who watched, he said NOTHING. didn't step in didn't stop it, nothing.

He may not be a bully, but he's a bystander which is so much worse Superman.

I was hurt and alone and at some point I let myself believe it was actually my fault. I don't care about Derek Hale anymore.

I don't wanna think about him.

If you wanna keep being his bud then whatever defending him and shit go ahead. I won't stop you.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Superman,

Haven't heard from you in two weeks. I've been reading your letters over and over. I miss you. I'm sorry I kind of blue up on you in that last letter.

I ended up taking a lot of things out on you that I shouldn't have. I'm so sorry. I never talked about any of that with anyone, so I kind of just bottled it up. And you poking and the damn broke. Its not your fault.

You just wanted to help, and your stupidly sweet for that.

My feelings for you haven't changed at all. I still wanna be with you, and totally school you at Pac-Man. I wanna argue over Batman VS Superman. I wanna meet you and smooch and cuddle. I wanna go home smelling like you. I want your sisters to like me. I wanna do stupid romantic shit that makes you blush and get all cute.

I want you to talk to me again.

I miss you so much.

Sincerely Yours, Stiles xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

ps I guess I owe you kisses for being a jerk now

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Stiles,

You're really gonna hate me after this one.

I asked around about it. I don't hang out with those guys anymore. You were right, their fucking bullies. I don't know how I never noticed. They were always so cool and nice when I was around. But I guess you weren't their only victim. Basically, the whole school thinks those guys are assholes. And so am I by association.

You never had my number. You were taking Greenburge the whole time. He told Jackson and them about it and they said they thought they were doing me a favor.

If you hadn't been given the wrong number none of this would've happened.

Meeting you last year would've saved me from a lot of pain. You make me feel at home in my skin. I meet Paige at that party right after you. But you never seemed to notice me and Paige did.

When she saw me as I am she made me feel like a monster, I hated myself for it afterward. Still do. I felt like being born the way I am would cost me everything. Like id have to settle for someone who was just okay, because they're a wolf and they get it. Like I was robbed of being with someone as amazing as you because I was a monster.

But here you come, and you're so fucking perfect, Stiles. You make me feel whole again like I can trust my wolf again. I trust you with every part of me.

My anger, fear, loneliness, my love.

I didn't want you to know who I was while you hated my guts. I didn't want you to look at me like I don't even know. I wanted to clear up the misunderstanding before we met in person is what I'm saying. I want you to like me so bad it hurts, Stiles.

Cora made fun of me for crying when Mom put strawberries on our pancakes the other day. I didn't tell anyone about you. I couldn't. Didn't know how to think about you without feeling like shit.

I never wanted to hurt you but I did anyways. I'm so sorry sorry.

Sincerely, Derek Hale

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Derek,

Saw Greenburge with a cast and broken nose. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you? I know you've been suspended for fighting the past few days. But I know you'll be back here today so

I just wanna forget about this. I wanna just get to the good bit where you're all over me because I'm so fucking perfect.

heres my number xxx-xxx-xxxx text me so I can actually have your number this time.

With Love, Stiles

ps meet me in the locker room during lunch so we can be alone

I'm gonna smooch you so hard ≫ ────── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ────── ≪

Part Two (Comming Soon)

•Kermitts Masterlist•

[fictionalcharactersaremypassion]

Oneshots I wanna do (and we'll see how many of them I do) in no particular order:

AU. Ian has internalized homophobia instead of Mickey, who has made peace with being gay early on

(Not my prompt) after Mickey gets angry over the rules in their apartment complex, he runs for head of the residents association

Ian calls Mickey baby who then lashes out initially but then realizes he kinda likes being called baby. Now he's gotta get Ian to do it again without letting his bf know he likes it

While out running errands, Mickey and Ian run into Brooks and he's, of course, horrified to see Mickey again

AU where Mickey and Ian are dating early on and Mandy knows. Ian comes over to the Milkovich residence close to Christmas so he can get help from Mickey and Mandy to decorate cookies for his ROTC group so they can hand them out to children that are in the hospital. Meanwhile, Mickey wants to kiss Ian but he's nervous

Fake dating AU where they didn't hook up, Ian was just Mandy's friend. For Mandy's wedding, she wants Mickey there but he doesn't want to because Terry and one of their cousins will be there (she's resigned to the fact that they'll probably crash anyway so she's letting them come) so she comes up with the idea of him bringing a boyfriend to rub in Terry's face and that bf just so happens to be Ian Gallagher, the guy Mickey had a crush on during his teenage years

Post-s11. Mickey and Ian get into a fight and it's their worst one yet. Ian storms out while Mickey tries to get some sleep, when he wakes up, he's back in his s1 body but that's not all. Something's up because Ian's not his Ian. He has a crush on someone else and doesn't have any interest in Mickey whatsoever

Post-s11. Ian and Mickey wind up in their s1 bodies (and their s1 selves end up in their post-s11 bodies) and now they all have to figure out what's going on and how to get back to their correct time

4 times Liam annoys Mickey by calling him "Ickey" and the one time it doesn't

5 times the Milkovich are there for Ian and the one time he's there for them

5 times people secretly witnessed Mickey being soft with Ian and the one time he does it out in the open

A 5.12 fix-it

Another 5.12 fix it but in this one, Ian dreams of certain events (like dating Trevor/Caleb, breaking up with Mickey, etc) and it makes him realize he wants to get better for both of them

Protective Milkovich brothers! The Milkovich's and Ian are all living in the house (AU, s5 but no Svetlana or Yevgeny) when a cousin of theirs (Joey) comes to stay after getting out of jail

Fix it for 5.12 that involves a reading/watching fanfiction of them seeing (or reading ) about their future together

An AU where the Gallaghers/Milkovich's read or watch a fanfiction of their future (I really wanna do this one but I have no idea what they would be watching or reading)

Northside!Rich! Mickey and Mandy. AU for s3. When the kids get taken into foster care, Ian is hauled off to the Northside and placed with a nice couple. But he misses his siblings and wants to go back. Although it might not all be bad, he makes friends with the neighbors and might have developed a huge crush on Mickey

Northside!Rich! Mickey and Mandy. The two youngest Milkovich's find a true friend in Ian Gallagher after a lifetime of dealing with people who were only interested in them for their money

When a Milkovich relative abruptly comes into the picture. Ian is immediately suspicious. Something doesn't seem right. But the four siblings don't share his concern. But when a secret plot comes to light, Ian sets out to save the Milkovich's

A fire breaks out at the Milkovich residence so Ian begs Fiona to let them stay at the Gallagher house. She allows it but there's one small problem: No one knows that he and Mickey are dating

An autistic Ian fic which I'm still trying to think up a plot for

A long oneshot of Colin and Fiona getting closer starting in HS

Mickey bonding with the Gallaghers

S1. Ian is working at Kash and Grab and Mickey's there. There's a severe storm brewing outside but neither are worried about it. But when it gets worse and the saftest thing seems to be to get the hell out of there, they venture out in it and it might just be the thing that pushes them together

Yev curses for the first time (as a toddler)

Mickey doesn't care about the kid. But when Yev says "dada" and it's said to Ian, it stirs up this horrible feeling that makes him feel sick. He sets out to try and bond with his kid

A fic where Mandy/Iggy/Colin/Fiona are at the wedding and instead of being chased off by singing kids (who won't be featured in this), Terry busts in there and tries to put a stop to it once and for all

A fic that features Yev with his uncles (and Gallavich)

These are just ideas off the top of my head. There could be others I do (probably will be) and like I said, idk how many of these I'll do but we'll see

Plus, as this is mostly Gallavich, there will be other ideas I'll have for Fiona/Colin or Fiona/Iggy that I haven't thought of yet

[saccharinesunsetretired]

First Time For Everything | Wolfbur x Reader

This one stumped me for a while, but here it is! Based off @drop-of-void's Wolfbur AU, more specifically this post that you should definitely check out. I hope I did him justice, because I love Wolfbur very much <3

Summary: Neither you nor Wilbur realized that he could, in fact, knot you despite him not being in rut. It turns out to be a pleasant discovery.

Warnings/Tags: Smut, fluff, fingering, knotting, reader is afab but gender neutral

Word Count: 2.2k

MINORS DNI - BLOGS WITHOUT AN AGE INDICATOR GET BLOCKED NO EXCEPTIONS

It was strange sometimes, having Wilbur around. There were things that Wilbur didn’t understand about humans, things that you (perhaps foolishly) assumed that he should know. For example, the time he spent an hour staring at your refrigerator trying to figure out the source of the cooling, or the time he nearly broke your phone in an attempt to understand what all the buttons did. 

The first time you had sex with him was similar in a way. He understood the basic mechanics of it, of course, but he was unsure of himself. Humans are just so fragile, he said. I don’t want to hurt you.

You had reassured him that he wouldn’t, that it would all be fine, and it was. Wilbur, for all of his anxiety and hesitation, did just fine. A lot better than fine. It was easily the best sex you’d ever had, mostly because Wilbur was so eager, so willing to do whatever you asked of him and more than happy to learn. It was endearing, seeing him so happy at the thought that he made you feel so much pleasure. 

You assumed that as long as Wilbur stayed in his human form, none of his Lycan traits would unexpectedly show up. He warned you that during his rut, that might not always be the case, but it wasn’t time for that just yet. You figured you had more time before that became a problem. 

You were wrong.

It started out just fine. You were sitting out on the porch with him, enjoying the fresh air. A few innocent touches to Wilbur’s thigh left him staring at you with an intensity that instantly prompted you to kiss him. He kissed you hungrily, more desperately than he usually did. You chalked it up to him just being in the mood more than usual. “Darling,” he gasped against your lips, “I could take you right here.”

You laughed softly between heated kisses as Wilbur’s hands wandered your body. “We’d both get splinters,” you protested. The porch was in decent condition, but it was definitely not the most comfortable or safe.

“Don’t care,” Wilbur replied. His lips went to your neck. He buried his face in your neck and inhaled deeply. A Lycan thing, you figured.

“You’ll care when you have splinters,” you said, sighing contentedly at Wilbur’s touches. “Come on. We can take this inside.”

Wilbur quickly agreed and scooped you into his arms. You let out a surprised little squeak when he did, but he paid no mind. His expression was focused, determined.

He placed you on the bed and wasted no time getting on top of you. He was insatiable in a way that he usually wasn’t, but once again, you blamed it on pent-up desire or something of the sort. His fingers were immediately sliding your shirt up your body, and you were quick to help him remove it entirely.

“Just wanna feel all of you, darling,” he murmured, fingers running down your body to the waistband of your jeans. You helped him hastily unbutton them and pull them down before letting them fall to the side of the bed. Then it was your underwear, which he tugged on so hard that it was nearly ripped right off you. You winced at the tug on your skin.

“Shit, sorry,” Wilbur said, looking slightly alarmed.

You laughed it off. “Feeling especially eager today, Wil?”

“You have no idea,” he replied. His fingers then went to the hem of his own shirt and tugged it off. It was your turn to put your hands on him, tracing the lines of his body with your fingertips. He shivered, a pleasant sight for you. It only took another few moments for him to get completely undressed.

The second you were both completely bare, his lips were back on yours, teeth nearly clashing. Part of you wanted to tell him to be gentle, to slow down, but another part of you only wanted more. Of course, the latter is the side that won. Your hands wandered to his hair, grasping at his curls and pulling him closer. 

With how absorbed you were in the kiss, you almost didn’t realize his hand running down your body. Once it reached your sex, you realized what he was doing. He inserted a finger and silenced your moan with a kiss. The second you pulled away, he was teasing you. “Now who’s eager? Hm?” 

“Please shut up and kiss me again.” Wilbur laughed softly before immediately complying, his lips meeting yours once again as he slowly moved his finger in and out, not enough to do hardly anything but tease. It was simultaneously intoxicating and infuriating. 

Wilbur’s lips then trailed down to your neck, and once again, he inhaled your scent. You couldn’t help but giggle at the ticklish sensation of his breath. “What are you doing?” you asked.

“Um…” Wilbur pulled away just enough so that he could see your face and stopped moving his finger. “Smelling you. Is that…do humans not do that?”

“Not generally,” you said. “But it’s not that weird.” 

“Then can I keep doing it?” Wilbur asked. He was practically a master at giving you puppy-dog eyes whenever he wanted something, and you could hardly ever deny him.

“Sure,” you said. Besides, the feeling of his face against your neck was warm—comforting, in an odd sort of way. He went right back to it, kissing and sniffing at your neck and inserting another finger. You couldn’t help but whine as he nipped softly at the skin on your neck. You couldn’t tell if he was biting harder than usual or if his teeth were somehow sharper. Perhaps another Lycan thing.

He started curling his fingers and watched hungrily as you moaned and arched your back slightly, trying to get closer. His fingers moved frustratingly slow, giving you enough pressure to tease but not enough to get you off. 

“Wilbur, please-“

“You’re not cumming unless it’s on my cock, sweetheart,” Wilbur cooed. “For now, you take what I give you, yeah?” You nodded frantically, preferring even this frustration over nothing. It had taken him a little bit to experiment and figure out how to talk dirty with you, how to tease and what you liked. Thankfully, your preferences often lined up with his. Very convenient.

His lips went back to your neck, biting softly at the skin there. You moaned as his tongue brushed your skin, tasting the beads of sweat that were already forming there. You were getting wetter by the second, to the point where you could hear it as his fingers pumped in and out. Just as soon as he started speeding up, he stopped and withdrew his fingers. 

Normally, you would have complained, but after his earlier words, you knew better. “Ready for me?” Wilbur asked. You watched as he sucked the fluid off his fingers, tasting you so casually that it seemed like nothing to him. You nodded, and he shook his head. “Words, darling, use your words.”

In that moment, you were beyond grateful to your past self for teaching Wilbur about human terms of endearment. The way he said ‘darling’ had you shivering in anticipation. “I’m ready, Wil. You have me.” 

He grinned before leaning in and kissing your jaw. “That I do.” Calloused hands parted your legs, allowing him to settle between them. “You gonna be good and take my cock like I want you to?”

“Y-yes, Wil. Just—please get going.”

He needed no further encouragement. He entered you slowly, soaking in the sounds of your whines as he stretched you out. He let out a sound somewhere between a moan and a grunt as he got settled. Your hands went to his back, holding him close, and he slowly began to move.

His thrusts were deep but slow at first, quickly increasing in speed. You held on, scratching at his back as he thrusted and grinded against you. “I needed this,” Wilbur said between gasps and quick breaths. “Needed you so bad, you have no idea.”

“M-me too,” you managed to say. “Just please keep going.”

“Wouldn’t dream of stopping.” His thrusts increased in speed. You whimpered, nails digging slightly into the skin of his back. You had apologized the first time it happened, but he loved it so much that you didn’t bother to stop anymore. It’s like you’re marking me, he’d said. Marking me as yours.

And you knew how he loved being yours, just as you loved being his. He pushed you closer and closer to your orgasm, and you could feel his thrusts getting sloppier. 

And then, you felt something a little strange, an odd push at your entrance that you hadn’t felt before, like something was bumping around it. It was strange but not at all unpleasant, and before you knew it, you were finishing anyway with a cry of Wilbur’s name.

And then you felt yourself being stretched wider than you’d ever been stretched before, stretched to the point that it burned for a moment before you were filled fuller than you’d ever been. Just like that, Wilbur stopped moving, gasping and panting above you, his eyes slightly wide. You gripped at Wilbur’s shoulders, whimpering at the feeling of being so blissfully and inexplicably full. 

You remembered Wilbur explaining Lycan mating to you, how, during ruts, Lycans would knot their mates. Like…dogs, I guess, he’d said. He was bright red as he explained it before assuring you that it only happened during ruts. 

But this wasn’t a rut—at least, you didn’t think it was—and you still had his knot in you. There was no other explanation for why you felt so full. “W-Wil,” you managed to say, your voice a soft whine.

“Fuck,” Wilbur said under his breath. “Fuck, darling, I-I’m so sorry. I didn’t think this would happen, I…I thought that…that it wouldn’t happen unless I was in rut, and-“

“S’okay,” you managed to say. 

“I’m sorry,” he said again. He wasn’t looking you in the eyes. “I didn’t—I didn’t want to hurt you. I’m so sorry. I-“

“Wilbur,” you managed to say. “It’s okay. This—fuck, this feels so good.” The feeling of being filled like this was addictive, scratching an itch that you didn’t even know you had. You let out a soft gasp as he shifted slightly, trying to get more comfortable. 

“It—it’s good? You don’t mind?” His eyes were wide and hopeful, looking down at you with a mixture of excitement and concern. “It’s okay that I knotted you?”

“Y-yeah,” you said shakily. “It’s good, Wil. Really good.” You let him sigh and lean against you, burying his face in the crook of your neck. You brought a hand up to run your fingers through his hair and gently scratch at his scalp, and he let out a soft, rumbling noise in response. “You okay?”

“So good,” Wilbur said, murmuring against the skin of your neck. “I was so scared that I’d hurt you or that you’d be mad.”

“I’m not mad,” you reassured him. “It feels so fucking good, Wil. It’s perfect.”

“Then I’m gonna do it again,” he murmured. “Knot you as many times as you want, darling.” He kissed the corner of your jaw and nuzzled against you.

You sighed, a soft exhale as you relaxed further. The feeling of being stretched and filled was still there, of course, but having him this close was also warm and comforting. When you breathed in, you could smell him—the scent of sweat, the forest, fresh earth and rain. “How long do the knots stay for?” you asked as you continued running your fingers through his hair.

“A while,” he replied. “Fifteen…maybe twenty minutes. I…I know it’s a long time, and you might not want to do this again, and—“

“Shush,” you said. “I’m comfortable.” When he went silent, you continued. “I told you it was okay, and I meant it. Honest.”

“Okay,” he said softly. He kissed your jaw once again. Rain fell softly on the roof of your little home, the only sound you could hear other than Wilbur’s soft breathing. He let out a low hum and stayed nestled in the crook of your neck, occasionally pressing a kiss there.

The two of you laid like that for a while, letting the time pass peacefully as you enjoyed each other’s warmth. Eventually, Wilbur tensed up a little before releasing into you with a soft moan and a sigh.

The sensation of being filled so entirely was intoxicating, and you found yourself moaning as he pulled out of you. Your sheets would definitely need a good washing after this, but you didn’t care, not when you were so full of him. He gazed at the spot between your legs for a moment, admiring his work. “You like taking me like that, huh? Want me to fill you again?”

You nodded eagerly, pulling him into a kiss. The kiss lasted long seconds, and when you pulled away, he rested his forehead against yours, a small smile playing on his lips. “As you wish, my mate.”

You were definitely in for a long night.

[meekmedea]

au idea: child of divorce

Except it's not really a divorce, unless you count it in terms of friendship. Because it's Hector and Max. And the child in question is actually a grandchild.

Another Hector Lives AU? (someone please stop me)

Hector & Cleopatra take in Clemensia after her parents pass in a car crash. (Foul play? Maybe. Coincidentally, a month later, a few people pass away in a series of unfortunate accidents)

Cleopatra still dies when the building they live in collapses - might have lived had she not gone in for something of Endymion's.

Hector is devastated - First his son. Now his wife. His home is gone too. All he has left is Clemmie, who's like 5 at this point.

Max offering up the presidential estate to him to figure out where to go from here. Their friendship is a bit rocky by this point, but it's not so terrible that Hector would refuse the offer.

It's meant to be a temporary thing, but as the war gets worse, they both agree that it's safer (for Clemensia) to be raised here than somewhere else.

Also Max is a bit worried that Hector is going to go off the deep end if Clemmie gets hurt.

2 old men attempting to raise a child together. Except it's mostly Hector. Max tries, but he offers up questionable advice at times. Prompting Hector to be like 🤨🤨 how did you raise your nieces and nephews by yourself again?

Clemmie ends up calling him 'Uncle Magnus'. Because it's a bit weird to have the kid living in your house call you 'Mr. President'.

Possibly the only kid that Max actually taught how to play piano and ended up sticking to it. Hector can't play to save his life.

A bit of a strange childhood. Very polite kid though.

Knows how to swear in a multitude of languages (Max's fault. Also maybe Hector's fault).

Max: $%^&* 😤 Clemmie, age 5: $%^&* 😊 Max, realizing with horror that there was a child in the vicinity: Clemensia, if I give you ice cream, can you never repeat that again?

Nearly convinced Max to let her have a dog – Hector intervened and said 'no' just before Max gave in.

She is convinced for the longest time that Max's real name was Magnus. Gave the adult Ravinstills a little shock when she was like 'Uncle Magnus!! 😊' and they just stared at Max, like "Who is this kid???"

Mpreg rumours are so strong in this AU. Doesn't matter that they're in the middle of a war, but the Ravinstills (sans Max) are convinced that Hector & Max had/have a thing. Nobody is denying that Clemmie is Endymion's daughter. But Endymion is also dead and unable to defend himself from the Ravinstill Lovechild allegations.

Not sure where Volumnia stands on the allegations. She does know of Clemmie's existence, Hector straight-up introduced her as "This is my semi-friend, Volumnia."

Volumnia doesn't get to be an aunt or anything. It's Dr. Gaul.

'Divorce' with the end of the war, especially with the announcement of the Hunger Games.

Hector (after a shouting match with Max that the entire estate heard) immediately moved out, took Clemmie with him.

Neither of them really interact post-'divorce'

Felix & Clemmie are friends, but there's a part of him always wondering if she's his cousin or something.

Hector doesn't mind their friendship.

Dovecotes & their heart issues

A little bit of a health scare for Hector with his heart when Clemensia is around 9-10. Winds up in the hospital.

The staff are a bit perplexed on who to call. Since Hector is her guardian and her parents are dead.

Nothing serious for Hector, but they want him to stay overnight. And Clemensia can't stay overnight.

They let her call someone to pick her up. She sort of panics and calls Max. (In hindsight, she could have called her mother's side of the family.)

Max could say no, but he doesn't. (In hindsight, he could have dropped her off with her mother's family, but he didn't.) He lets her stay over at the presidential estate. Clemmie's bedroom is exactly as she left it.

Hector waking up in the morning: you let who pick her up again??? what do you mean, you just let him take her? that's not even his kid!

[conkers-thecosy]

Hullo!

So, this might be long, but I wanted to write a proper wee writing update. I have my fingers in a few pies and as October is coming to an end, and thus "Bagginshield-tober" with it, I thought it might be nice to let folks know what my plans are as far as projects go!

I've got three chapters left to write for "Stealing Moments, Moments Away" - I've decided not to do the prompt for Sunday, so this weekend I'm going to park my butt in my desk chair and write those last few chapters. I'm out on Tuesday (my friend is doing a drag show, so I'll be at work all day, then going out for dinner and drinks right after) so I won't have time to update the final chapter on Tuesday. I'm thinking of updating Monday's chapter on Sunday, and Tuesday's on Monday, but we'll see!

Once that's done, I'm going to take a few days off! I wouldn't usually, but I've had such a busy month and I got a bit burned out there for a bit, so I think I need to start scheduling breaks for myself. Next weekend I'll get cracking on "Backs to the Wall" and hopefully get back to weekly chapter updates with that once again!

Now, I know folks were waiting for me to start "King" in November (because that was the original plan!) but if October has taught me anything, it's that I can't work on multiple projects, haha 😅 I had meant to do NaNoWriMo and work on it for that, but honestly? I got so stressed when I was writing "Poet" for Camp NaNo and it's actually the fic I'm least proud of in my whole collection. I've worked so hard on the series, I really want to do the finale justice!

I do feel bad because I know folks are waiting for this one, but I'm going to focus on "Backs to the Wall" first, then write the smutty one-shot set directly after "Poet" and then work on "King". I really hope no one is too disappointed, as it's likely that I won't make a start on it until the new year now - please forgive me! 🙏 

After that I have another canon-verse one-shot that I've been toying with since day dot, and then I might branch out into some AU ideas. But that's a ways off yet!

I know this is a bit of a long post, and honestly I don't know how much anyone will be interested in any of this, but I just wanted to document it somewhere for anyone who might be wondering what I'm up to! I wouldn't want to leave anyone hanging, especially after changing plans with regards to what I'm working on in November.

Thank you to everyone who has been reading and supporting and showing any kind of interest in my little fics! I mean to keep scribbling out my silly bagginshield nonsense for a good while yet, so your enthusiasm keeps me going!

Ily guys! 💛

[bluebunnysart]

(Chimera Teto x Android Miku WIP, another one, yeah, another one lol)

I may not finish WIPs but I can definitely start new drawings!! 😂Hahahaha ! I always try to make them chibis (for simplicity) but I also want to draw details/the full body, so of course it turns into a double full-body drawing that takes forever.... This isn't even the final lineart obviously but it's almost 5 AM again and I know I'm gonna fuss with this some more, so I guess here's a WIP so I can show off what I did at least tonight xD In case I decide to do other things in the meantime...

Tell me why I literally spent like 2 hours (fr) trying to draw Miku 'cuz Miku is hard asf to draw and challenges me to draw better 😂😂😂😂 Anyway (a long-ish) explanation of stuff under the read more 'cuz I don't want to take up people's dashboards. When I finally finish this drawing or the other one, I won't have to yap as much in the post too. xD

A series of things happened today that led to me creating this drawing. (Miku's prefinal lineart is done too btw, I'm just not showing her to you 'cuz no point spoiling the whole drawing lol, plus I might make changes.)

I went to the store for a brief moment 'cuz all my pens kept running out of ink and I was annoyed I didn't have any reliable pens and I wanted a pen to write a continuation to this AU, right.

When I went to the store, there was a song playing and I thought it sounded nice, what little I heard of it before I had to return to work. So once I left the store and was able to look at my phone again, I looked up this song through the lyrics I heard and I found it. And the whole song was even better than I thought: the lyrics and music are INCREDIBLY sweet and now I really like it. xD

Besides liking it in general as a song (this genre of song), I was ALSO super into it because I thought, "This is super End of the World AU-coded (Android Miku x Chimera Teto)" and it made me so happy, excited, and giddy lol.

Like, listen to this...

"When the cloud's above your head / And the sun's not breaking through / You know I'll be there to sing this song for you. / And it goes: / La la la / la la la la la~..."

This is absolutely something the Miku in my AU would sing. This is absolutely a song she and Teto would listen to together-- like, I could draw them listening to it together and that's actually practically what my drawing is lol. I could draw an animatic or make an MV to this song about them... I could make a comic where Miku is singing this directly to Teto and persuades her to sing it with her, especially the chorus (la la la) parts. I smile because in the first fic, Miku also goes "lalala~" (idk the number of la's lol), and it's not like what she sings is this or anything, but it's a small connection that I like. xD I literally discovered this song only today but this is absolutely a song Teto would have in either one of the cassette players or in the MP3 player. This song matches them and the AU too so Miku would absolutely sing it and like it a lot too. This song made me think of my AU and I was already excited/trying to keep writing more so I could get to the good parts, so finding this song made me really excited, ok. xD

Also I'm not sure how you WOULDN'T adore Miku if she sang something like this, especially directly to Teto (her only audience).

All the sweet lines and stuff made me super soft, so I put this song on loop and literally played it for hours. The whole time I was drawing too. It's just so cute and fitting and it's what made me create art for this AU again instead of making Turing Love fanart or one of the other dozens of ideas I have and whatnot. xD

That was a lot of words to explain what prompted this drawing in the first place when it wasn't planned in the slightest, but now I'll talk more about the drawing itself.

I was inspired by all the fanart I've received so far! It'll show in the final drawing. c: But when drawing this, I was looking at Slyvasta's art since I wanted to draw Slyvasta's version of Teto too. Teto is easiest to draw imo, so we've got the scarf, horn, wings, and tail. The pupils were actually added at the very end 'cuz Slyvasta's has sharp pupils and I thought that was cool and a good idea lol: this Teto's eyes can have sharp pupils (dragon/reptile-like) while Miku's eyes are more round yet robotic.

I was thinking about the flavor of tsundere that Teto is (in my AU) and this drawing was partially inspired by me wanting to clarify stuff about that. xD I did call her "cool, gruff, indifferent, etc." which is all true and does apply, but she's still playful and can be lively, even if she's been beaten down by exhaustion and gloominess, as I've mentioned. In other words, she never was a complete downer or anything (I know I said that before), but I wanted to clarify that she's not, like, the cold type who's ONLY frowning or who's grumpy either.

If I think about it, the "trying to act cool/indifferent" thing is mostly an act I think, yeah. xD Like, of course she'll frown or have a neutral uninterested expression if she's bored or she's been through annoying experiences (like starving or encountering various issues), but she's still kicking, if that makes sense. Like, the enthusiasm and zest for life isn't exactly there, but she's doing what she can to get by. I guess she's more of the type to distract herself and focus on other stuff so she doesn't get too existential? So it's not like she isn't lowkey depressed-- she's just the type to make jokes about it. She's basically original mischievous Teto but with some baggage she's carrying.

This might seem like a weird post now based on the stuff I'm writing LOL but I really did think about it, ok. xD The way to characterize her. And she has really valid reasons to be sad and everything, but she's not as harsh and edgy as her appearance implies. That's something that I really like about her: the gap moe lol.

So what does this mean in relation to Miku? Well, Teto is a pretty normal girl who's cool and nonchalant. She's probably arrogant in a cute way too, judging from her catchphrase and how she likes acting like a know-it-all and being praised/appreciated. But basically, the tsundere mainly comes out whenever she gets embarrassed.

The Teto in my AU can smile and has a couple of times, and she's nice because she helps Miku out before she even knows Miku that well. So....

She's probably the type to send Miku soft smiles without even realizing it. Like, she relaxes a lot and is happy or something and then her expression will turn so warm or gentle, I'm pretty sure. 🥰 Her tail and body language already gives her away, so I love the idea of her expression changing into a really affectionate one before she even notices or realizes it. She realizes she's been smiling the whole time after 5 whole minutes pass or Miku points it out and then she's like, "I-I wasn't smiling or anything?! (unsure why she's immediately denying it)" lol.

Anyway, THAT'S when the tsundere comes out. She isn't tsundere towards Miku unprompted, and even though Teto doesn't know how to deal with Miku YET, that doesn't mean Teto walks on eggshells around her or is curt/cold to her. Teto acts very naturally and herself-- she only gets tsundere whenever she's NOT acting like herself, aka being really weak or soft for Miku at different moments.

Her tsundere is a weak kind of tsundere too (unlike Neru, who isn't in this AU anyway), so she'll just get embarrassed or lie or act kinda awkward or prickly to hide her embarrassment (maybe a sharp word or two, along the lines of "Shush" and "Shuddup"), but in the end, she's a very cute and kind girl. 🥰 They both are 🥰🥰🥰

It might take me one or two more iterations before I'm finally satisfied with the final lineart, but this time, I made the time lapse longer, so you'll be able to see how I struggled to draw Miku for like 2 whole hours. xD

This, too, I want to color. I actually wanted to color my first drawing first, but then I discovered the song I mentioned earlier and it made me so hyped up that I wanted to create a whole new piece about it. Along with the other two songs that I associate with this AU, I was really happy to find yet another one. This song is cute in general too, so it was immediately added to my Motivation playlist. xD

With how hard Miku is to draw and how long drawing takes in general, it makes me even more impressed with Miku artists lol. Like, Miku is so demanding but I love her so of course I'll push through until I do her justice... I'm slow because I care a lot and want to do these two right, ok... xD Lineart and the like is more in my comfort zone, but I'll definitely tackle coloring soon; tonight's session only proves that it'll take longer than I expected/5 hours lol.

I'm not only planning to create stuff for my AU only-- I want to make all kinds of Mktt stuff. But I was really inspired by other people's art and this time, I even drew with their art in mind lol.

I have no idea how long it'll take, but I'll continue to make more art! To me, it's the clearest way I show/understand my love lol. I've been inspired seeing other people's art too, so I definitely wanted to draw my own....

Anyway, time to go tf to sleep. (it's 6 AM 😅)

[rhondafromhr]

Last little snippet from the Grace in the church of the starry children au!!

Prompt by @aroace-elgyem. This is the final snippet I plan to post, next update will be a link the the final oneshot on ao3 whenever I finish it!!

Summary: In one timeline, Grace and her family are still highly devoted to their religion, but they worship entirely different Gods (or, rather, Lords) and have to be a little more hush-hush about it. Her old family friend, Uncle Wiley, brings her two special gifts for her eighteenth birthday: a cool, authentic vintage denim jacket from the eighties and her very own copy of the black book. She promises to use it sparingly until she’s older and she’s had more practice, but when Brenda, the pretty cheerleader at school with an obvious crush on her, confides in her that she’d do anything to get back her sister who disappeared, Grace decides to make an exception for her.

Part 1

Part 2

The next morning, Grace completes her outfit with the denim jacket and something about the feeling of its weight on her is just so right, as if it was always meant to be there. She ties up half of her hair with the scrunchy again, too. It’s not because Brenda got it for her or because she wants Brenda to see her wearing it and be happy that she likes it so much, she just prefers to have her hair out of her face. Yeah, that’s it.

She carefully tucks the book into her backpack. Bringing it to school might not be the best idea, but she’s even more reluctant to let it out of her sight. If she keeps it on her person at all times, she won’t lose it and she doesn’t have to worry about anyone messing with it or taking it, either. Even if Max Jägerman thinks snatching all the nerdy kids’ backpacks and dumping the contents into the nearest trash can is the funniest thing in the world, he would never in a million years do that to her. Nobody would. The upside of people leaving her alone is that they leave her alone. She sits down to breakfast with her parents again, fuels up with another piping hot cup of black coffee and heads out the door.

Throughout the day, she finds herself staring at her peers as they move through the hallways, some strolling nonchalantly to their next class and chatting with friends, worried only about making it on time and hoping Miss Mulberry won’t spring a pop quiz on them, others practically sprinting to get the hell out of there before Max can catch them. She watches as all of this is happening, only vaguely aware of it, feeling almost as if she isn’t quite there. Her mind is filled only with thoughts of all the different spells she could try out on them.

If she could catch one of them alone, she could devour their soul and hand it over to Nibblenephym on a silver platter. So long as she was careful to cover her tracks, she’d be fine. This is Hatchetfield, after all. People go missing every day and the police probably wouldn’t look too far into one more disappearance. Uncle Wiley would be so proud if she could pull off something so advanced right away. She knows her parents said to use the book sparingly, but she has to start somewhere. She has to do something or she’ll never learn how to harness its power. Still, she thinks it might not be a bad idea to tread lightly and start with something a little easier. She scowls. It’s so annoying when her parents are right, but they do have a point. They’re pretty well-versed in this type of thing and she knows they have her best interests at heart.

As she’s leaving English, her last class of the day, she gets her chance. She hears yelling, along with the familiar crashing sound of somebody being slammed into a locker. She peeks around the corner, careful not to reveal herself, and sees Max looming over the tall, lanky kid that always wears the bow tie and suspenders (she’s pretty sure his name is Peter. He sits with her at lunch as often as he can to avoid, well, this, but they’ve never really spoken before), holding him by the collar of his shirt. Max says something or other about staying out of his hallway and slams Peter to the ground before walking away and leaving him in a crumpled heap. He struggles to pick himself up and from the way his wrist bends, Grace is pretty sure it’s sprained or broken. This might be a good opportunity to try that healing spell. She steps out of the shadows and slowly approaches him.

“Hey, are you alright?” she asks him, doing her best not to look intimidating. She’s well aware of her reputation and while she normally doesn’t mind it, she does need him to not run away and actually let her get close enough to try out the spell.

“Fantastic,” he says with a bit of a bite “never better. You should see the other guy.”

“Let me see your wrist,” she says, kneeling down beside him “I, um, I know first aid, so I can tell if it’s broken or not.”

He eyes her uneasily, but still extends his arm, too dazed to object. She takes his wrist in one hand and uses the other to reach into her backpack and open the black book, keeping it inside so that he can’t see it. She flips to the page she needs and begins chanting the words slowly and carefully to get the pronunciation just right, saying them as quietly as possible under her breath so that Peter won’t hear. She wills herself to focus, putting every ounce of mental and physical energy in her body towards the task. She feels his wrist move beneath her fingers and when she removes them and opens her eyes, it’s once again straight. Peter looks at his wrist, then back at her, then back at his wrist again and tentatively moves it around, a mixture of surprise and suspicion on his face.

“Not broken,” Grace tells him. It’s not a lie - it isn’t broken, at least not anymore. “I guess Max isn’t as tough as he thinks it is.”

“Right,” says Peter, not sounding very convinced “uh, thanks, I guess. I’ll see you around.” He scurries off, leaving Grace to sit down on the floor. She feels a little weird, almost sort of dizzy and drained and not quite herself, but also more herself than she’s ever been. That really took it out of her. She’s glad she didn’t go straight to soul eating. She’s so focused on trying to breathe normally again that she doesn’t even notice Brenda standing over her until she says,

“Hi, Grace! This seat taken?”

Grace shakes her head, unable to really do anything else and Brenda takes a seat next to her.

“You okay?” she asks.

“Uh-huh,” Grace says “all good. Just a little tired, I guess.”

“Oh, totally, me too,” Brenda says “cheer practice was brutal today. It was all conditioning and they made us run a hundred laps. Like, literally! So many pushups, too. I can’t feel my arms!”

“Wow,” says Grace, genuinely impressed “who knew so much went into cheer. It sounds harder than football, even.”

“Thank you!” says Brenda “that’s what I’m saying! Nobody gets it.” Grace isn’t sure how to respond and they sit in not entirely comfortable, but not entirely awkward silence for a moment before Brenda says, “Hey, I saw you, like, holding hands with the bow tie kid earlier. No judgment. He’s rich, I get it. Just didn’t think he was your type.”

Grace studies her face and she could swear that Brenda almost looks a little hurt, her expression tinged with just a hint of disdain that implies there might in fact be a little bit of judgment for being involved with the bow tie kid.

“Oh, it wasn’t like that,” Grace says quickly. She’s not sure why she’s so eager for Brenda to know that. “Max pushed him and he landed on his wrist kind of funny. I was just checking it out to make sure it wasn’t broken or anything.”

Brenda visibly relaxes, her eyes softening and her lips curling into a fond smile. “That’s actually really sweet,” she says “I don’t know why people are so afraid of you.”

“People are afraid of me?” Grace says, doing her best to sound shocked and appalled. When Brenda’s eyes go wide and she starts to sputter, Grace turns to her with an impish grin and says, “I’m just messing with you. I know.”

Brenda snorts and descends into a fit of laughter. Grace thinks it’s just about the prettiest sound she’s ever heard. She’s pleased that Brenda liked her joke so much. “Okay, I take it back, you’re awful,” she says playfully, lightly swatting Grace’s arm. Grace’s face heats up. She decides not to read into it. Probably just a lingering side effect of doing that spell earlier.

Grace hears footsteps drawing near and looks up to see Kyle. Immediately, she’s a little bit annoyed. She doesn’t have anything against the guy, but does he really have to interrupt her moment with Brenda right now? They’re in the same group of friends and he gets to see her all the time.

“Hey, Brenda,” he says. “Grace,” he adds a bit more flatly.

“Oh, uh, hi, Kyle,” Brenda replies.

“You busy right now?” he says “‘cause I’m struggling, like, hard in AP Calc and we’ve got that test coming up. I know you’re pretty decent at it, so I was wondering if you could help me study?” He rubs his neck nervously. “Maybe at Pasqualli’s? My treat.”

“Pasqualli’s?” Brenda says with a slight scowl “that’s kinda forward, don’t you think?”

“Woah, hey, I didn’t mean it like that,” Kyle sputters, “they just have good breadsticks, that’s all. Besides, it’s the only good study spot in town. All the singing at that coffee shop is so distracting.”

“Yeah, I know they’re good breadsticks,” Brenda replies “everyone likes the breadsticks, that’s not the issue! The point is, I’m not going to share them with just anybody and I’m sorry, but you know I don’t like you like that. I already have a date tonight, anyway.”

Kyle’s face falls, as does Grace’s.

“Oh, uh, you do?” he says.

“Yeah,” Brenda replies “Grace and I are going to Beanie’s.” Grace’s eyes go wide.

“We are?” she says, then it dawns on her that Brenda’s probably just saying that to get out of hanging out with Kyle (although she certainly wouldn’t say no if Brenda invited her for real). She’s not totally oblivious to these things, it just takes her a minute to catch on sometimes. “Oh, cool,” she says, figuring the least she can do is help Brenda out and make it convincing “I know you were a little undecided between that and the new vegetarian restaurant on sixth street, but Beanie’s is good. I’m more in the mood for coffee right now.”

“When aren’t you?” Brenda teases and Grace kind of loves the way it makes it sound like they’ve been dating for a while, maybe even years. As if that weren’t enough, Brenda grabs her hand. Her heart is racing now. Grace laces their fingers together and squeezes, only to really help sell it.

“Wanna get going?” Grace asks.

“Sure,” Brenda says. She temporarily lets go of Grace’s hand to stand and Grace is almost disappointed until Brenda extends her arm again to help Grace up. Grace collects her backpack off of the floor, checking to make sure the book is still safely inside before zipping it up and throwing it over her shoulders again.

“Oh, uh, good for you guys. Happy for you,” Kyle says with an earnest, but sad smile. Grace and Brenda leave, still hand in hand until Brenda notices and pulls away.

“Oh, God, sorry, I didn’t even realize,” she says.

“Don’t worry about it,” says Grace with another one of those awkward, but charming smiles “I didn’t mind.”

“Good,” Brenda says “hey, uh, I think I might go to Beanie’s for real if you want to join me.” There are a few things in this world that Grace will never turn down. A cup of coffee is pretty high up on that list and as of late, so is any opportunity to hang out with Brenda. She agrees and as she sees the way Brenda’s eyes light up, she gets a weird (but not unpleasant) feeling in her chest. Probably just another side effect of that spell. They decide to walk there. It’s only a few blocks away from the school and the parking is absolutely horrendous, anyway.

They arrive and order their drinks. Emma’s working today and the owner’s back is turned, which means they’re on the house. Over her many visits here, Grace has secured a spot as Emma’s second favorite regular next to that dorky office worker who always flirts with her, because she always orders a simple black coffee and never asks Emma to sing when she tips or wastes her time with too much chit-chat. Emma even makes Brenda’s comparatively fancy beverage, an iced americano with two and a half pumps of the house-made pumpkin spice flavored syrup and a splash of oat milk, without much complaint. Grace leads her to her favorite spot at the counter facing the window and they take their seats on the slightly wobbly, mismatched stools at the end. It’s a strategic choice. Grace figures she’ll be a little less nervous if they’re not face to face the entire time.

“So,” says Brenda “if the bow tie kid isn’t your type, then who is?” Grace’s face goes bright red. She nearly chokes on her coffee.

[eponastory]

Heya! Me again! XD I might need some writing advice.

First of all, I'm trying to get back to writing something, but I want to write an ATLA AU retelling where the characters are older and it's Zutara/Sukka/and Taang-based! :) Problem is, I have like 23 unfinished stories on AO3(four more on FF.Net), and I don't want to like, make another story to add it onto the pile, but...well, in your expertise (I mean, I hear that you write really well), should I just focus on the ones I've written now?

Secondly, how do I get back in the groove of writing? I feel like when I get myself going back to it, it just makes my head feel heavy or something, or I'm just tired. ^^; I don't know, maybe I'm writing too much. I just got other stories to update that I haven't for a while and I want to like...not let everybody wait for the next update on those stories, and...well, I just need some advice on procrastination, I guess. ^^;

I hope I'm making sense. I want to write, but I can't seem to get it going. Maybe I'm distracted too much. What do you do when this happens? What should I do? :O

(Also, no worries about the crossovers! I have two one-shot fics of ATLA, but they're both Taang-centric. ^^; They also have Zutara and Sukka in them, but they're only minor. XD I also did some Taang Week stories that I did in 2020. :) Either way, if you don't do crossovers, there are those to read! :D )

I will definitely check them out!

When I can. Because I've got like... four papers to edit for these people in college that are too lazy to edit their own. That's okay, I get paid for it.

And then there is my current fic I'm obsessed (it's unhealthy, I know) with and then I have to start planning for ZKBB...

Please have mercy on me.

I'm also pretty hungry for Chicken Shawarma for some reason and I really need some ice cream. And chocolate. Lots of chocolate.

@omegansamurai *edited because I am a dingus*

I totally missed the middle part of this ask. I apologize for that... I feel like such an idiot for missing that.

So, a neat little trick I like to do is a word avalanche. It helps get the thoughts going and keeps you on track. You just start with one word, and then you find the words, emotions, or senses that go with that word. It helps with creating scenes and prompts, you name it. I've been doing it for years, and sometimes, it ends up being a whole outline for an epic adventure.

If you have the opposite problem of too many projects at once, cut back on the stories that you feel aren't cutting it. Don't try to force something if you get stuck. Let it sit. Think about it while working on another project. Then go back. I like to keep a journal of all my thoughts that randomly pop up when I'm having a difficult time with a story. I write down those thoughts so I can go back to them later. Most of the time, especially with some of my original works, I get really stuck, and they sit for months. With fan fiction, it can be years before I go back to them. But when I do decide to pick them back up again, I have a journal with everything written down on where I wanted to go with it.

Prompts are also a good thing to practice getting better at introspective and character analysis if you are having issues with that. Putting characters in sticky situations tends to develop them more.

Also, it's totally okay to let go of stories you don't feel connected to anymore. You can always go back to them later on if you ever get the drive for it.

But rule number one is always do what you can make the time for. Overwhelming yourself will cause burnout. One idea at a time. Develop it, write it down. Make it work. But don't try to do too much at one time.

Again, I'm sorry for totally missing the point of your ask... I think I had just finished up that chapter and was posting on both my phone and computer.

[mrssimply]

You shared the kiss prompt list so I get to make requests too, right? riiiight? Cause I would love John and Santino with a combo of #9...in public & #35...to gain something 😈

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I GET PROMPTS. LOOK AT THAT. 4K WORDS.

Also, you might note this is only "part I." because when I was figuring it out, I got two ideas. Wastly different ideas but I still decided to have them in the same fic, so now there is a part I. and part II.

I also used the opportunity to write an AU from my own fic (and isn't that narcisism at its peak?). It's a "what if" version of my HC.

So here goes Part I.

I put it on AO3 because it's too long for a simple Tumblr post, but here is the start.

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

The phone vibrated again on the side table. 

Santino’s hands spasmed against the white linen of the sheets. He hissed as it reawakened the pain in his fingers. His left hand was totally useless, three of the fingers broken under his father’s shoes. It was his dominant hand, of course, he’d done that on purpose. 

Blinking, he tried to focus on the ceiling, but only one of his eyes totally opened, and the room swam in front of his eyes, bringing a fresh wave of nausea. He shut his eyelids again with a shuddering breath, choking on the blooming agony coming from his side as he did so. 

He heard high heels clicking on the sterile floor, the woman stopping by his bedside to take hold of the phone. The vibration stopped. 

She sat on the edge of the bed, pushed back a curl from his forehead.

“How do you feel?” Gianna asked.

Trying to talk proved challenging: his throat was sore, but more than that, it felt like his whole face was a giant bruise. His jaw didn’t feel right, and there was a metallic aftertaste when he swallowed.

Still, he tried to push through, using his right hand to try and sit up. It didn’t work, alarm blaring in his body as wounds and bruises flared over his whole torso and right leg. 

He stopped all efforts with a pitiful whine.

Gianna’s cool hand over his forehead felt like a blessing against his feverish skin.

The phone rang again.

They ignored it.

She helped him drink a few sips of water with a straw, using the bed’s control buttons to help him up just enough so he wouldn’t choke.

“Where…?” he tried to ask. She got it anyway.

“Still in New York, a private clinic. No one knows you’re here. Father wants you back in Naples as soon as you can move.”

Santino wanted to laugh but it came out as a sob. He blinked hard to stop the tears from falling, and it exhausted the little energy he had.

The smartphone buzzed once more.

Both siblings looked at it, at the name flashing on the screen until it stopped.

“He’s not gonna quit,” Santino told her. It hurt to move his lips, and his tongue felt heavy, but he knew he needed to deal with that soon.

Gianna sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose before nodding. She handed him the device, he took it with shaking fingers. 

“You know what you have to do.”

He nodded, letting out a shuddery exhale.

This time, when the phone lit up in his hands, he accepted the call.

“Santino,” John breathed, relief coloring his tone. 

“Hello love,” he replied softly in neapolitan, before letting the silence stretch. 

“Where are you?”

Trust John to know something was wrong from two words. Or maybe it was the fact Santino had been gone for a day now, if he trusted the morning light coming from the window.

“I’m with Gianna,” the younger man replied. John wasn’t fooled.

“Where are you?” he insisted. 

Behind him, Santino could hear the rumble of a car at high speed. John had been on a job for the Tarasovs in another state: a supplier that needed to take a step back and leave his second in command take the reins. When John was involved, taking a step back generally meant six feet underground.

His father must have known, Santino mused distantly, he would’ve waited for the right moment to corner his son alone. It also showed that despite his bravado, D’Antonio Senior was just like the others and feared John Wick.

“My father paid me a visit while you were gone,” Santino explained, feeling his throat close up. “He knows. About us.”

John stayed silent, taking the information.

“Where are you?” he repeated a third time, like the rest didn’t matter. 

When he got like this, there was nothing to do, Santino knew that intimately. He’d experienced it numerous times, from John picking him up from his desk to carry him to bed like he weighed nothing, boxing Santino into corners when the young man got angry, waiting for the rage to pass and passively letting Santino snarl and bite him. When he looked at him as he undressed, the assassin’s complete focus on him, on each patch of revealed skin. Patiently waiting for the permission to come closer and—

“I’m already gone,” Santino replied, voice strained by heartbreak, “don’t come for me.”

He hung up, let the phone slide from his hand and clatter to the ground.

Gianna bent to pick it up, caressed his cheek gently, and left.

Read the rest on AO3

[faejilly]

writing patterns

Rules: List the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern!

tagged by @junemermaid, no-pressure tagging anyone who would like, because I have no idea who's seen and either done or passed on this one lately. PLEASE PLEASE DO IT AND BLAME ME IF YOU HAVE EVEN THE SLIGHTEST INCLINATION, I love seeing these things, I'm just brain-dead re: tagging today. 💙

1. Vakarian makes Shepard feel old.

Chicory, Mass Effect, Weaver Shepard, not on AO3 yet because I'm trying to turn it into a series of first/early impressions of the ME1 crew from Shepard's perspective. But then I've done Kaidan's first impression of Shepard already, so I can't decide if I should do her version of that or figure out another one. But also should I add Joker? I should always add Joker. But then in what order? (You can see the overthinking process here, can't you?) SOMEDAY I WILL WRITE WEAVER & TALI AND IT WILL BE DELIGHTFUL. She adores Tali. But also wishes to keep her safely in engineering 99% of the time. BUT ALSO...

anyway. back to sentences. ->

2. Emmett had known that he would see her.

Almond Blossoms, 7kpp, Emmett/Sheltered Princess & a lot of chaperone POV's. Also I posted that in September last year so this is clearly going to be a little depressing in terms of my ongoing 'am I a writer anymore?' existential crisis

3. “Don’t move.”

Never Again, Shadowhunters, Malec, sort of omegaverse, sort of weird magic bonds, a very belated prompt fill from the @knotinmyname anti-ai-scraping event.

4. The Matchmaker may have announced them, they may consider themselves engaged, this might be exactly what they should be doing as these connections are exactly what the Summit claims to be for… but Nathalie’s a 'known’ seductress and suspected murderer, but Clarmont’s only 'allowed’ here for the Royal Family to keep an eye on him, to make sure he knows how generous they are being with their mercy.

Relief, 7kpp, Clarmont/Ambitious Widow (Revaire feels!). Yes, that is just one sentence. Yes, I did that on purpose. No, I probably shouldn't have, but idc. 😅

5. Alec hasn’t even been Marked, still technically a fledgling rather than a Shadowhunter, when he learns that most nephilim can’t hear their weapons sing.

untitled eldritch angel powers prequel, Shadowhunters, Alec Lightwood & Politics is my jam, even when he's like 10 or something. As is weird magic and angel lore that I get to make up! Not on ao3 because I think it's going to be in a bigger thing, but I haven't actually done it yet, but I also get really tired of trying to rearrange my AO3 stuff because then I lose links and comments and brain power that should have been used for maybe writing something again some day.

6. All the dealers know Magnus’ name.

Fluff for @foodsies4me! Malec Auctioneer AU on the floor because it made me smile. (I used to be an auction block clerk.)

7. A familiar flare lit up his apothecary, and Magnus reached out to catch the fire message.

working title is 'wtf the clave is competent' and this is another playing-with-lore Shadowhunters prequel (that will eventually be Malec) started off via a Tangential Tuesdays prompt (which is a thing I would like to properly do again, but I keep not writing which makes it tricky)

8. An Omega heir to two old bloodlines in line for a Headship was something the Nephilim hadn’t seen in almost a century, and ought to have been prestigious enough for Alec to have chosen any path or mate he wanted. [x]

9. That was Magnus. [x]

These are both omegaverse prompts for the aforementioned anti-ai event and actually posted on time last June. Both Shadowhunters and Malec and just little bits and pieces of almost things. And fun on their own, imo, but. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

10. Cullen thought he’d gotten used to seeing this new Hawke in Haven.

Gladiolus, Cullen/Hawke, Dragon Age: Inquisition (Hawke as Inquisitor). Another prompt fill, a ficlet for a collection I have on AO3; its continuing existence is almost entirely @jadesabre301's fault.

Well, picking chapters and scenes posted on tumblr rather than my ao3 was probably good for my sanity, since my ao3 is a bit of a mess.

I seem to start with very declarative sentences this past year or so: we are here and this is what we're dealing with. Which is not... how I have previously concluded this meme, but I'm not sure that it's really any different than usual, just more obvious. It's a habit developed, I think, in writing relatively short-fic and also playing with lore or setting, because I very much need to set up my framework if I want anyone else to follow it.

I definitely should try and play some ME and/or watch some Shadowhunters and clean up some of the bits that I would really really like to have as finished stories though. This has successfully reminded me that I do, in fact, usually like writing and still think like a writer, so that's probably good!

/thank you june 🥰

[cilil]

Can I ask for requests, for example 29 - fairytale, based on the little mermaid Eönwë/Arafinwe? Or the Beauty and the Beast with Melkor/Mairon but in the end it's Belle who is corrupted too? Which idea do you prefer?

⸙ Prompt: Fairytale (little mermaid) | Eönwë x Arafinwë ⸙ Synopsis: After an accident at sea, Arafinwë nearly drowns - if not for a certain Maia swooping in to save him. ⸙ Warnings: Implied/referenced near death experience ⸙ Double drabble, switching POV

» AN: First of all I need to say that I adore both of these prompts you've given me and tbh they deserve a full fic - while I won't make any promises there, I'll definitely keep them in my notes. I chose the Eönwë x Arafinwë one for now, simply because inspiration struck (might revisit the other one at least for a drabble later, but again no promises). I was also inspired to create a fun little AU that goes beyond the fairytale, but that'll be in another post. For now, please enjoy this one!

He was beautiful, even now that he looked like he had been kissed by death itself. 

Eönwë cradled the unconscious Elf in his arms and wrapped his wings around him, a warm, protective embrace of white feathers. 

Arafinwë was his name. And noble he was indeed. 

He shifted, restless now, and Eönwë leaned down to nuzzle his damp hair while humming a soothing melody. The storm was dissipating, and they were safe on the shore, but Arafinwë needed to rest. 

Eönwë knew he shouldn't be here, but he couldn't help himself. He needed to make sure he would be well. 

 ˚ ੈ✧̣̇·˖ 　˚ .　　　✶ ˚　　✦　. 　 ˚　.　　 . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　.  ˚　

When Arafinwë awoke, he was surprised to be greeted by the gentle sounds of the sea and Laurelin's light. He remembered falling, being taken by the waves, lost in the darkness... 

But there was something else, a memory of strong arms holding him and a wonderful voice singing to him. He remembered warmth and feathers and the calming scent of snow and fresh wind.

Slowly, Arafinwë rose. He wished to thank his mysterious rescuer, but he was alone. Had everything been just a dream? 

There was a single white feather stuck in his hair, and he knew it had not. 

If you enjoyed, please consider liking and reblogging!♡

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