#i never interacted with him much before this holidays bc he moved in after i moved out

[jinkicake]

~♡ What’s Valentine’s Day? ♡~

(( Day #8 )) Jean Kirstein x Reader

A/N: Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!! I hope you all had a wonderful day today~~ Thank you for interacting with me and reading my works!!! I appreciate you all so so so much!!!! I wrote this in a rush on my break today so if it is messy and awkward, I am sorry.... Regardless,,, I had to post Jean for my last valentine’s day post bc I started this blog with him and will always end with him. 

SMUTT // NSFWWWWW

WC - 1,417

~~~

“Here,” With little hesitation, you drop a small container into Jean’s unknowing lap. The sensation makes him jolt in his chair, sitting up completely before turning to glare at you. You try to appear unphased by his dramatics, he’s the one who chose to sit outside at a random table on the street. 

“Where did you come from?” Jean eyes you over and visibly softens because of your presence. His previously tensed shoulders drop and his body which was once on high alert relaxes again. “What is this?” You watch as his long fingers toy with the ribbon on the brown box, gently pulling the material before it unravels in his lap. Jean glances at you before lifting the lid and revealing tiny pieces of chocolate. 

Under his confused stare, you shrug. 

“I don’t know, I heard some ladies talking about giving treats today,” You keep the additional information to yourself that you’re supposed to give these sweets to someone you love. Despite being pursued by the man for years, you’re still shy about your own confessions. “I made some for you.”

“You mean Valentine’s Day?” He raises a brow, lips quirking up into a smile as the indifferent expression falls off of your face. 

“How do you know about that?” Swiftly, you sit next to him at the table and gently plop down into your chair. Neither of you breaks from holding your intense stares. Even years later after everything that has happened, after everything that the two of you have gone through, you still enjoy playing games with one another. 

“It’s some holiday celebrated I don’t know where,” Jean dips his head as he continues to look through his newspaper, his hair falls over his face and hides his features from you. “of course, I know about it.”

“I know you didn’t learn about it from that newspaper. You don’t even know how to read that language.” You mock and flick the gray paper in his hands. He always told you he enjoys looking at the paper because he likes the pictures. “Anyway,”

You start to feel timid with your advances, you know the man inside and out and he still never fails to make you nervous. 

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” To the best of your ability, you offer a kind smile. You force yourself to move your stare from the wooden table up to the eyes of your beloved and, the sight does not fail you. Jean is red, bright red, as a blush takes over his face. The color dusts over his cheeks, the bridge of his nose, and the tips of his ears. No matter how much he tries to hide behind his paper and underneath his hat, you can see it all. Subtly, you lean over and press your lips against his cheek. 

The display of affection is only between the two of you, entirely hidden from the public beneath his hat. 

Your own heart is beating rapidly in your chest as you get up and place your hand on his shoulder to offer a gentle squeeze. 

“Wait,” Jean groans and wraps his large hand around your wrist, he pulls you back down to his level and places a proper kiss on your lips. As he presses his lips against your own, his thumb rubs along the veins on the underside of your limb. His peck is sweet, a gentle sign of affection but you’re still heavily affected nonetheless. 

Jean looks as if he wants to say something more as his hand reaches into his pocket but, you beat him to it. The necklace he has for you will just have to wait.

“Jeanie, I still have another present for you,”

This neatly wrapped present takes place in an entirely different location. To give it to your husband, you had to drag him all the way back to your apartment and push him into your bedroom. The lingerie on your body is starting to heat up against your skin as desire takes root in the forefront of your mind. If this Valentine’s Day is all about love, you plan to show it to him in another powerful form. 

Having Jean beneath you is a sight that you savor. His large body underneath your fingertips, bare and sculptured perfectly causes a feeling to arise that you’ll never get used to. The way he stares up at you, pure adoration and lust swimming in his light eyes makes your heart skip a beat. 

You want to rip the rest of your clothes off and tear at the baby-pink material over your hips and chest. 

“It’s pretty right?” Slowly, you grab Jean’s hands and place them on your waist. He naturally moves his large palms over the expanse of your stomach and ribs before cautiously cupping your breasts. His hot touch practically burns your skin through the flowery embroidery of the material. 

“So pretty,” He sounds breathless, sounds as if he has already been fucked plenty of times, and yet, all you’ve done is taken his clothes off. “I love you.” Despite the touch on your body, his eyes are staring directly into yours. “Let me do something for you first, please,”

Originally, you planned to do things your way the whole night. You wanted to do something entirely for him but, when Jean is staring up at you with eyes full of want, you can’t deny him. 

‘No’ doesn’t exist in your vocabulary as he kisses your inner thighs now on either side of his head. The word doesn’t even make any sense as he pushes your panties to the side and spreads your folds with his long fingers, tongue automatically reaching out to lick at your clit. 

The only thing you can do now is take it all and receive everything that he gives you as he starts to eat you out. It’s a sensation you’ll never get tired of. The look of desire and contentment on his face is something you’ll never lose interest in. 

Jean just does it all so well, from the scratch of his thick stubble against your sensitive skin and the pressure his nose applies to your clit. Every time he goes down on you, you’re in heaven. 

“Please,” You try not to let your desperation shine through your voice but, it’s no use. Jean’s loud slurps and sucks fill your chest with pride. He feels so good, his hair feels soft beneath your touch and the intensity of his tongue makes your eyes well up with tears. “I’m so close.”

Your words make the large man audibly groan, eyes squeezing together as he focuses on flicking his tongue against your clit. Back and forth, side to side, Jean laps over and over until your thighs are shaking against his face. 

You could suffocate him in this position and he would thank you. 

His hands trail up your legs before cupping your backside, squeezing and kneading the flesh beneath his palms as he encourages you to ride his face more. You find your own pace by rocking your hips and all it takes is a sharp suck from his hot mouth to send you tumbling. The grip you have on his hair becomes impossibly tight as you jut your core further into his talented mouth. Jean moans loudly at the rough sensation as he works you through your orgasm with neat sucks that cause his cheeks to hollow.

When you’re whimpering, trying to pull away, he slows down his licks to your sensitive clit. 

“Hold on, baby,” He murmurs before forcing you to sit up on his stomach. The position doesn’t last long until you’re being pushed onto your back with Jean between your legs once more. “I’m almost done.”

Avoiding your clit, he spreads you with his fingers and laps at your entrance. The man uses wide, broad strokes of his tongue to lick your cunt clean. Over and over, he devours you until his own selfish desires give in. There’s a calling deep in his gut, a primal need to continue serving you. He dips his tongue into your entrance and again your hands find his hair, lips parting open in a silent scream.

The tight grip against his roots makes Jean groan, hips now digging into the sheets. Oh, he fucking loves this. He desperately needs this, he’ll eat you out until you’re crying and thoroughly finished. There’s so much self-gratification in satisfying you, Jean can’t even think about his own needs right now. 

If you let him do this every night then, perhaps this aged holiday will become something he celebrates daily.

. . .

2023/02/14 ♡

[hashtag-anthems]

My current brainworm is that Astarion is a high elf so his family is probs still alive and I am starting to create my very self-indulgent headcanons for it and I’m putting them all under a read more bc it is Long

I think Astarion was the youngest of his siblings (he has youngest sibling energy), and the first grandchild in the family was born like a few months after him, so he was kind of in a hurry to grow up and be taken seriously. He definitely pulled the “I’m technically your uncle so you have to listen to me!” card with his siblings’ kids who were only a few months younger than him. From what I know of the lore, elves don’t really have accident babies, but I think Astarion was a very spur of the moment decision that happened quite a while after the second-youngest was born. He was the baby, and he hated it.

One of his siblings sees the papers after the nether brain happens and thinks huh that guy looks a lot like my baby brother that moved out to the city to go get an important law job what are the chances?

He’s super hesitant to reconnect for obvious reasons but the more he interacts with them the more he realizes that his family is just batshit insane and “baby of the family who died tragically young comes back as a vampire 200 years later” does not even make the top 10 list of craziest things that have happened this tenday and they just take it in stride and that’s almost worse? somehow?

I think there comes a point where they’re all treating this as so normal, as if he just came back from a very long vacation, he is so out of his depth and feeling smothered, no one is talking about what happened or taking it seriously, and he eventually can’t take it and snaps about how everyone is just pretending that nothing happened, he fucking died and clawed himself out of his own grave and spent two hundred years enslaved to a vampire lord that wanted to sacrifice him to an archdevil, and the most he’s gotten from any of these people is a chuckle and a handwave and a “you’re still our Astarion, we love you, we’re so happy you’re home, it’s not a big deal” but yes it is a big deal! He has not experienced unconditional positive regard very often and is very uncomfortable and feels like they’re hiding something from him.

He doesn’t remember that the day he left home for the last time, he had a big fight with his parents, and they hadn’t spoken in a couple of decades when he died. He doesn’t remember that the last time he saw his oldest brother, he pretended he didn’t recognize him, threatened to call the city watch on him if he didn’t stop with this harassment, and called him some very rude things. He’d been dead for months before any of them heard the news, because Astarion had done so much work to distance them, and he doesn’t even remember any of it.

No one was really going to bring it up, they’re just thrilled they have a second chance to reconnect and if he’s not going to say anything, why would we? We’re just all pretending that nothing happened and we are one big happy family, because that always works so well, right? Once they realize he isn’t bringing it up because he doesn’t remember it even happened, they all kind of settle down.

It takes a lot of work, they have at least one more explosive argument and he almost calls the whole thing a waste of time and vows to never come back, but… it isn’t entirely bad, and he certainly isn’t about to move back in with his parents any time soon, but maybe he can handle a few family dinners around the holidays if he already happens to be in the area…

I just want his family to be full of people you would expect to find in a news article about Fantasy Florida Man and Astarion is actually so normal comparatively

Also I am picturing in my mind that his mother has this beautiful garden and Astarion has a nephew who just joined a druid circle pretty recently and Lady Ancunín’s poor rose bushes will never be the same but she’s very proud of him regardless!

[aldercaps]

this is probably petty but im still so mad at my mums boyfriend lol. he’s an ecofascist vegan who called chernobyl a good thing “because all those animals get to live in peace without humans there” and mocked me at the christmas dinner table in front of my family for talking about how we had rules around respecting the animals we worked on for my zoology paper, literally 15 minutes after sweeping a dead bird out from under my granny’s chair (we were eating outside) because he refuses to keep any of our cats inside. i have my own issues with how my mum lets my cats go outside (if i had a choice in the matter they would be inside only, but she doesn’t listen to me). like, this man would literally rather all farm animals live in “sanctuaries” without ever being ““““abused and exploited”“““ by farmers 🙄 than give a single shit about any of the native and endangered animals he’s actively letting die violent deaths at the hands of his own fucking pet! im sick of it. every time i have ever talked about animal welfare in front of him he’s been condescending, rude and laughed in my face, so i’ve stopped mentioning it because i’ll never change his mind. i just wish he wouldn’t talk about how “humans are a plague unto the earth” and how being vegan is the only option for changing climate change every 15 minutes. we get it, you can never imagine living in cohabitation with anything else without destroying or exploiting it. jeez

[fbfh]

I think you've horribly misread the situation [shitty roommate pt 2] - leo x reader

wc: 2.3k

genre: contemporary drama, you're definitly going to get second hand embarrassment, cozy fluff

pairing: leo x reader, attempted isabella x leo

reader: gender neutral, they/them

requested: hell yeah

warnings: mild swearing, roommate tries to steal your man once again, mentions of various mainstream vampire media (twilight, the vampire diaries etc.), brief mention of castlevania (even though i haven't seen it yet lol), breif mention of videogames and assassins creed, very mild delusion (roommate is secretly convinced leo is a vampire that's in love with her), attempted age gap relationship (she's 17 and leo's 19, he shuts that down real fast), very bad poetry

summary: You and Leo are both looking foward to spending a long weekend together, and Leo is determined not to let anything interrupt it, even if it means turning down your roommate's attempts to seduce him in the kitchen.

a/n: absolutley no hate or shade or judgement to anyone who has the same or similar traits as isabella!!!!!! at her core she's annoying because she's the antagonist, not bc of any isolated trait or traits

also she's shitty cause she keeps trying to steal your boyfriend?????

Edit: I forgot to mention before, but this is a college au where you're both still demigods, so you went to camp and on quests and stuff together

This weekend is going to be all about recharging. Recharging from the ridiculous back to back closing and opening shifts at work, recharging from having to redo that stupid project twice because your professor couldn’t decide on a clear way to define the criteria, and recharging from Isabella having her townie friend Regan over almost non stop to “completely shake up her look” as she put it.

Between the constant presence of someone you’d barely consider an acquaintance and Big Time Rush’s self titled album blasting on repeat out of her giant airpod shaped speaker, it’s been harder than usual to get in some effective self care. You have no idea how many more times you can hear the phrase “I’m going for Jade West meets Elena Gilbert, with just a little Buffy Summers” before you lose your fucking mind.

Thankfully, the hard part is almost over. There’s some minor holiday tomorrow on friday, so you and Leo both have a three day weekend ahead of you, which you intend to spend entirely together. You planned ahead, frontloading homework, chores, errands, and everything you could think of to remove anything that isn’t cuddling or playing video games and watching netflix together from your horizon.

This includes going straight from work to the grocery store to stock the fridge and get any snacks you and Leo want. You had texted him a while ago asking for anything he was craving, and head into the store with a concrete list. After a while, you circle around some aisles, avoiding the check out.

“I feel like I’m forgetting something,” you muse, knowing it’s untrue, but hoping to trigger a memory anyway. You can’t put it off any longer, finally checking out and heading back to your apartment. You’d be lying if you said you weren’t avoiding Isabella just a little.

You know bringing in all these groceries would be way easier with Isabella and possibly Regan’s help, but you just don’t have the social energy to talk to anyone, much less her, right now. By some miracle, you bring everything in yourself, and hope to get it put away before you see Isabella.

You turn to the freezer, putting away the ice cream. When you turn back around, you’re suddenly met face to face with Isabella, who has opened one of the boxes and is picking at a pastry.

“Hey girlie,” she says, elongating the hey.

“Hey,” you reply lethargically, putting the last of the groceries away. She looks at the pastry in her hand like she’s just noticing it.

“Sorry, I can’t help it, I’m italian.” She smiles, endeared by her own behavior. You have no idea what being italian has to do with asking before you open a box of your roommate’s food, but this really isn’t out of character for her. She brings up the fact that she’s half italian more than Lele Pons blames her behavior on being latina.

She’s wearing sweatpants that say chaser on the leg in red and gold varsity font, and a tight tee shirt that says “it’s okay to love them both” with silhouettes of the male love interests from one of the vampire shows she always watches. You collect the plastic bags to put in recycling, and see a piece of paper on the counter.

It reads as follows:

Drowning in my mind

No one hears me cry

Who was I before society

Before society put me in a pink dress

And handed me blonde hair dye

And told me to lose ten pounds or be labeled a freak?

The happiest people cry the most

Let the lyrics be your story

But I’m not like the other skinny blonde pretty girls

I’m

Different

-b.g. xox

You hold back a sigh.

“I think this is yours.” you say, handing it to her.

“Oh, it’s just some of my poetry I left lying around, that’s so embarrassing.”

I know, you think, you do that all the time.

��Did you read it?” She asks, hopefully.

“Nope.”

“Thank god, that would have been so embarrassing. My poetry is something really… deep, and personal to me.”

“Uh huh. Hey, I’m going to be doing a lot of self care this weekend, so-”

“Oh!” she interjects, eerily similar to Phoebe Buffay - you guess she’s been watching friends again - “I wanted to ask… is Leo coming over later?” Her voice is riddled with subtext, the expression on her face a little too invested in your answer.

“Uh, yeah. I told you the other day we’re spending the weekend together…”

She cuts you off again, a sudden, intense look on her face.

“When will he be here?”

You check your phone, scrolling through your recent texts.

“By 7 at the latest.” It’s around 6:40 now.

“Oh my god, I have to change,” she rushes back to her room, presumably digging through her recent additions to her closet.

You’re frozen for a minute after the interaction, left with a furrowed brow and the beginnings of a headache. You blink, then choose to reschedule processing why she feels the need to change for your boyfriend to a more convenient time. That’s enough of that for today. You don’t care what else happens, you’re not talking to anyone besides Leo for at least the rest of the day. You retreat to your room to finally shower and change into something comfy. As you pass by Isabella’s room, you hear her talking to Regan.

“...There’s something almost… supernatural about him.”

You bite back a laugh.

“Do you think he’s a…” Regan begins, ending the sentence with something too quiet to hear, but you’d bet almost any organ she said vampire.

So close. So, so close, and yet… here you are.

Not much later, Leo texts you to let you know he’s here. You read his text, and run out to hug him in the living room before even typing a reply. He picks you up, and spins you around. The embrace is warm and fulfilling and familiar, and you wish it would last forever.

“Hi, Sparky.” you murmur into his neck.

“Estrella…” he says, rocking you back and forth gently and pressing a kiss into your jawline, “I missed you so much.” He punctuates the sentence with another kiss, this one to your lips, and you smile more genuinely than you have all day. You’re about to agree when you remember the good news you’ve been saving to tell him in person.

“Guess what I got on sale for like, half off,” you start, excitedly, continuing at his invested expression, “the Assassin’s Creed bundle I showed you!”

“No way,” he starts, and you nod.

“I’ll go get everything set up, drinks are in the kitchen!” He watches you retreat into your room, disbelieving how he could possibly get someone as perfect as you to fall for him. He’s not going to question his luck. He grabs a couple caffeinated sparkling ices, and meets you in your room, setting down his bag and grabbing some comfy clothes to change into.

As you both get settled in, you fill each other in on all the ridiculous shit you’ve been through this week. You finally conclude the bizarre - yet somehow standard - Isabella escapades.

“So I will be avoiding all contact as much as possible,” you laugh.

“Yeah, no shit,” he agrees, “Consider me your human buffer.” You thank him, hugging him again and pressing a kiss to his lips.

The next couple hours are spent cuddling and finishing season 4 of Castlevania. Both reeling from the season finale, you agree this is a good place to take a break, get some food, and decide what game you should start with. It’s already 10pm, which most people would consider too late for dinner, but you have all weekend to fuck up your sleep schedules.

“Let’s review,” Isabella says, holding up two red lipsticks. She turns to Regan. “Which one?”

“That one,” Regan says, pointing to the one on the left, then turns to her list, and continues. “Here’s what we know; we’ve never seen him eat, and he never seems tired. He’s really smart-”

“Almost too smart,” Isabella adds, selecting black rose dangle earrings from her jewelry. Regan agrees, and continues.

“He’s almost hypnotically attractive, and his smile is a little too dazzling.”

“There’s something… supernatural about him. Like he’s not… all human.”

Regan writes this down.

“Plus he’s always wearing black and red, and those flowy button up shirts? It’s all adding up, Ree. That dream that someone was outside my window, the ring, everything…” She says, referencing the black and red cocktail ring she’d found with her stuff when she’d first moved, “I’m not saying it’s definite, just that… there’s a chance.”

“What about…” Regan says hesitantly, nodding toward your room.

“Please,” she scoffs, “he’s only with them to get close to me, like Damon and Caroline. Edward couldn’t have just approached Bella out of the blue, he had to infiltrate her friend group first, to seem less suspicious. Not to sound mean or anything, but they really don’t seem like the type someone… like him… would choose.” her voice gets dreamy when she mentions him.

In spite of having seen most mainstream vampire media almost as many times as Isabella, Regan still considers her the expert on these things, and decides not to point out that Edward didn’t infiltrate Bella’s friend group. Maybe it comes up in one of the retellings she hasn’t read yet.

“So, what now?”

Isabella sets down her lipstick, and turns to her friend.

“I tell him.”

Regan’s eyes widen.

“You’re going to tell him you know?”

“No… not yet. It��s too soon, we don’t have enough evidence. I’m going to tell him I know he’s in love with me, then once he’s secure in our relationship... we’ll see where it goes.”

She stands up, assessing herself in the mirror. She chose her outfit carefully; short red dress with black roses and black mesh collar, black rose bracelet to match her earrings, snug faux leather jacket, and black stiletto ankle booties with a very skinny heel, the zipper on the outside gold, not silver. She fluffs her wavy hair and turns towards the door. She looks back one more time, holding onto the doorway.

“Wish me luck.”

Leo enters the kitchen, seeing Isabella already there, leaning against the counter seductively. She’s wearing an outfit and jewelry this late at night that makes Leo wonder if she’s going to an emo tea party. He puts the takeout in the microwave. She’s still staring at him.

“Uh… hey.”

She lets out a dainty giggle, looking him up and down.

“... Hi.”

At a loss for words, and really wanting the awkward silence to be over, he continues, “Did you need something?”

“What I need,” she walks closer to him, tracing her finger over his collar, “is you.”

What the fuck?

His brain seems to stall for a moment, and she uses this opportunity to continue.

“I know why you’re here. I know that you’re only using them to get closer to me. I know-”

“Woah-”

“That you’re in love with me.”

Okay, double what the fuck.

She takes his stunned silence as shyness, and steps closer, putting her arms around his shoulders.

“You don’t need to play so coy, I-”

This time she’s the one that gets cut off. He grabs her arms and gently steps away, trying to make it abundantly clear that he’s not into this.

“Woah, okay, slow down. First of all, you’re 17 and I’m turning 20 in a couple months, so that’s a hard no. Second, I don’t know where you got this idea, but I am not dating them to get closer to you. We’ve known each other since we were like, 15, and have been through everything together. I’ve only known you for a couple months. I love them. Probably more than I’ve loved anything ever. I thought that was pretty obvious.”

He doesn’t want to be mean, he really doesn’t, but he can tell from the look on her face that she still thinks this is all part of some game.

“So why don’t I ever see you eat? Why are you so smart, and always up at night? I know what you are.”

He has to physically hold back a laugh. He takes a step back, and places his hands on the counter.

“Isabella, I have adhd. And I’m literally an engineering student. Why wouldn’t I be smart and have a shitty sleep schedule?”

She starts to protest, and he pulls out the reheated take out from the microwave.

“And for the record, I do eat.”

Exiting the kitchen quickly and retreating back to your room, he hands you your food.

“I got the game set up!” you say excitedly.

“Nice!”

You take one look at his face and can tell something happened. He sees this, and continues.

“I just had a very… interesting interaction with Isabella,” before he finishes the sentence, your head is already in your hands. You let out a groan.

“What did she do?” you mutter from behind your hands.

He pulls you into his lap, rubbing your back.

“I’m not totally sure,” you laugh, “but I think she thinks I’m secretly in love with her…” you’re both laughing before he can even finish the sentence.

“No…” you laugh, “no fucking way…”

“Believe me, I put an end to that as soon as it started.”

“Oh, I do.”

He runs his hand over your back, and you’re quiet for a moment.

“You know,” he continues, “I think getting our own place has definitely moved up the priority list.”

You couldn’t agree more.

[watchmegetobsessed]

VALERIE - Part V. (Harry Styles)

happy sunday loves!! part 5 is here, buckle up bc we are getting down to business here!! thank you so much for the nice feedbacks, it’s always so moving and inspiring to read your thoughts, so please keep them coming! even if it’s just some gibberish rambling, those are the best haha! now let’s jump right into part 5, we are heading into the christmas mood and im so excited for yall to read this part!! enjoy!

word count: 6.1k

SERIES MASTERPOST

masterlist

By the time November nears its end you officially become a couple with Marcus. It happens gradually, two more dates follow your first one, and then on the third one you agree to test the waters of the possibilities between the two of you exclusively. 

Marcus is a great guy. He is funny, caring and smart, always listens to you and cares for even the smallest details about you when you’re talking. He is great company and never fails to make you feel appreciated and wanted. Exactly what you’ve been looking for in a guy, Rosa really hit the nail on the head this time. 

You easily fall into a habit with him. Fridays are for date nights, sometimes you go for little trips outside the city on Sundays and he never misses a chance to send you flowers throughout the week. He is just the type of guy that’s always there to cheer you up with something whenever the days start to weigh down on your shoulders. 

You even have dinner together with Rosa and Steven one Saturday evening, Rosa keeps giving you those ‘I told you so’ eyes whenever Marcus kisses you shortly or places his hand to your waist. You mostly just roll your eyes at her, not wanting to make a big deal out of the two of you, but Rosa knows how long you’ve been trying to find someone. 

What’s a surprising turn is that you start seeing Harry more. Intentionally. You have no idea how it happens, but it does and you’re not mad about it. Some days you grab lunch together whenever he is in the neighborhood, some days you go shopping with him when his sister doesn’t have the time. Harry is a problematic shopper, he takes a long time to decide on clothes so usually you are the one that forces him to choose and finish before all shops close. 

When he has had a rough week and you happened to call him for whatever reason, the two of you agree to meet up for drinks at his place, then end up playing UNO for hours, slowly emptying out two bottles of wine.

It’s starting to get harder to imagine what it was like when things weren’t like this with him. When you were getting anxiety from just the thought of seeing him or having to talk to him. It’s like the both of you are showing a different version of yourselves to each other and you have to admit you enjoy being friends with him. 

He keeps his habit of teasing you and making jokes about you though, but you don’t mind it. He is not doing it in a mean way with the attempt to piss you off, but to make you laugh and start a playful war where you both throw insults at each other until one of you runs out of it and just starts laughing. You feel a kind of dynamic building between you and him that has a way better effect on you than the continuous killing you were doing before.

You can tell Rosa is thankful for the change as well. Whenever she sees you interact with Harry without making a grimace or have that face that screams how badly you want to hit him, she is relieved that she has one less thing to worry about and Valerie will have two amazing godparents who even like each other.

Christmas is always a big parade in your family. Your mom and your aunts always want to celebrate together so in the past few years it has become a tradition to rent a place out that has enough space for the whole extended family and spend three days there from the 23rd to the 25th. This year your dad found a huge cabin in the woods with ten bedrooms and seven bathrooms, just the perfect size for you all. It’s gonna be your parents, Rosa and Steven with Valerie, Aunt Monica, Aunt Teresa with Uncle Andrew, your cousin Etta, her husband Joe and their two kids, your other cousin Lily with her husband Jeremy and their daughter, and lastly you and Harry.  Though your mom urged you to invite Marcus along as well, he could join you for longer than a dinner, since he was already set to fly home to his family.

“You sure he can’t stay for at least the first night?” you mom asks on the phone one evening. You’re stirring the sauce in the pan. holding the phone to your ear with your shoulder so you have both of your hands free.

“Yes, I’m sure. It’s fine, he can come for dinner and then leave later.”

“I get it, but it would have been fun if he stayed,” she sighs, clearly disappointed that she couldn’t change what’s already set. If you’re being honest you don’t mind that Marcus is not staying for the night. You haven’t been dating for that long, you feel like it would be a little uncomfortable to have him there the whole time. A dinner is perfectly fine as a starter, since he hasn’t met anyone else from your family other than Rosa and Steven.

“Anyway,” she sighs moving on, “Have you figured it out how you’re gonna get there?”

“I don’t know, I guess I’ll tag along with someone.”

“Well, I think you should ask Harry. Everyone else is pretty packed already. Rosa and Steven won’t have any extra space with Valerie this year.”

You nod, even though she can’t see you. These past years Rosa always offered you a ride for the holidays, but even when they brought her over for just one night their car was jam-packed. No way you’re gonna fit in there so you are left with Harry since Marcus can only come in the afternoon.

“Sure, I’ll ask him.”

You shoot him a text that day and he replies right away that you’re welcomed in his car, though he won’t be able to take you back since he is leaving early in the morning on the 25th since he is flying back to the UK to his family. It’s fine, you think, you’ll just probably just tag along with aunt Monica back to the city, she always gets her a car for these occasions. Though it’s not your ideal option, she is not the best partner for rides, because she is a fan of smoking in the car, but you don’t have much of a choice. 

“I’ll call you when I leave, okay?” Marcus tells you on the morning of the 23rd. It’s early, barely seven, but he is up because he needs to work a little today and you are finishing up packing since Harry will be here in an hour to pick you up.

“Sure. Drive safe,” you huff sitting on the edge of the bed, staring down at your suitcase that’s still not closed, clothes are sticking out on the side and you’re sure you’ll have to sit on it to pull the zipper.

“See you later,” Marcus says before you end the call. 

It’s rather comical how you try to close the suitcase but you only care about the fact that you eventually succeed. Only minutes before eight you are packed and ready so when you get Harry’s text that he is outside you can leave right away.

Seeing you with your big suitcase he hops out of the car and rushes to help you.

“How long are you planning to stay, Y/N?” he chuckles lifting the bag up and you just shrug your shoulders with a smirk. You’ve alway been a heavy packer, no need to try to cover it up.

Harry throws your stuff into the back of the car as you take the passenger seat. His phone is hooked to the car, a playlist of his own playing gently through the speakers and you’re surprised to catch on the Christmas feeling in the songs.

“Are you in the spirit?” you ask when he gets into the car.

“Like to set the mood ahead,” he chuckles starting the car and off you go. 

Ridiculous to think about it, but it’s actually the first time you sit in the same car with Harry or see him drive even. The way you two used to be was not quite ideal to have you locked up in such a small place as a car. But now you have nothing against spending the almost hour long drive with him. 

“Can you pull out the navigation when I leave the highway? I’m not sure where exactly I need to head,” he asks you, eyes fixed on the road ahead of him and nodding you open the app on your phone so his can keep on playing the music without the voice of the navigation interrupting it. 

“Excited to spend your first Christmas with us?” you ask. Though Harry was there at several family events, it’s his first Christmas since becoming Valerie’s godfather. 

“I am,” he chuckles, nodding, hands gripping the wheel gently. He is a natural driver, easily working the car, the kind you feel completely safe next to. As Baby It’s Cold Outside comes on a smile stretches across your lips as you start gently bop your head to the song. “I’ve heard crazy stuff about Christmases at your family,” he adds glancing in your way for a second.

“Like what?”

“I remember when Steven told me about his first Christmas with your family. You remember that?”

Searching in your memories you tried to remember when was the first time Rosa brought Steven along. They dated for two years before they got married so it’s been about five years since then, but as you think hard the memory of that specific year pops into your head making you laugh as you nod.

“Oh, yes. The year Aunt Monica almost burned the Airbnb down,” you sigh grinning at the memory. She brought some special kind of cigars that year that were told to be curiosities from somewhere fancy, but they ended up the literal worst quality, flaming bits were falling out them all the time when she would smoke one, almost making the rug catch on fire wherever she went. Best thing is that she was already drunk on the liquor so she didn’t even notice, there was always a person on Aunt Monica duty, following her around, making sure nothing burnt down. 

“Steven said he had a moment when he thought about bailing,” Harry tells you and you gasp, because that’s new information.

“Really?”

“Yeah, but like only for a split second after your dad walked in on him naked in the bathroom. That was kind of the last straw. Luckily Rosa could convince him to stay. Guess it all worked out at the end.” Harry smiles as he stares ahead of him.

You can’t imagine a version where Rosa and Steven don’t end up together. They met through a mutual friend not long after Rosa had a nasty breakup with her scumbag ex. Steven was there to put her back together and be her partner as she found herself again. The change and positive impact he had on her could be seen every day and you were so thankful to him for helping your sister find her way out of such a dark place in her life. It didn’t take them too long to start dating and he proposed a little more than a year later. You still remember how Rosa was screaming in the phone when she called you that evening telling you that Steven proposed. They are quite literally a match made in heaven. It’s been your goal in life to find this person in your life though you haven’t had much luck with men so far. Ironically, if you were in a room with every man you were ever involved with in any kind of way, Harry would be the only one you’d want to talk with. If you had to make this exact same choice just months ago you would have chosen to run out screaming. 

“Maybe this year it’s your turn to get horrified from us,” you laugh, sinking down a little in your seat as you adjust the seat belt. You’re still quite far away from the cabin, you might as well make yourself comfortable. 

“I think there’s not much that I haven’t witnessed yet. I was walked in on at the bathroom once too, but it was your cousin, Etta.”

“When did that happen?” you ask with a heartfelt laugh.

“I think it was last summer at one of your nieces’ birthday party. Luckily everything was already tucked away when she basically barged in.”

“She didn’t miss much,” you tease him with a smirk and your witty comment catches him by surprise.

“Are you saying my dick is not imposing enough to be worthy of peeking?” he asks with raised eyebrows and you’re happy he is driving. His intimidating look would already burn right into your skin by now, but he is forced to watch the road instead. 

“I mean, if you want to put it that way…” you continue, but a laugh escapes your lips.

“Take that back, Y/N,” he orders, sneaking a hard look at you before turning back ahead, but you can see the small smile hiding on his lips. 

“Or what?”

“Or you might find yourself in a war you don’t want to be involved in,” he warns you, but his words don’t quite have the effect on you he wanted. Because in a heartbeat you find yourself feeling… excited? Thrilled? Even curious about his means behind his words. 

“Wouldn’t want to lie, so…” Pretending like you’re sorry you shrug your shoulders as Harry gives you a look that makes your stomach churn. Now either you are gonna have some fun teasing each other or… you just threw yourself into the arms of the Devil himself. Either way, you’re certain Harry won’t leave it in that.

Turning your head to your window you can’t keep your smile contained as you think of the fact that how big of a lie it was. Harry is surely not a guy who should ever worry about any aspect of his manhood. You’re talking from experience. 

***

The cabin is absolutely gorgeous, just the perfect place for a cozy family holiday. Hidden from the busy roads with a secure gate and tall trees on both sides, the back of it is facing a majestic view of the valley and the evergreen covered hill in the distance. With an interior straight from the pages of a magazine, you need just a few moments to adjust to your surroundings upon arriving.

“I saved a nice room for you, Harry!” your mother gushes the moment she sees the two of you walk through the front door. You huff in annoyance.

“And what about me?” 

Harry chuckles giving you a smug grin. “Guess you’re just second after me.”

“It’s his first Christmas with us, he deserves the better room,” your mom shushes at you, making your eyes roll instantly. It’s still hard to believe Harry has this kind of charm over most people.

After greeting everyone who is already there, your dad, Aunt Teresa and Etta with her family, your mom walks the two of you down one of the hallways that leads to several bedrooms. She stops at the last door with an excited grin on her face as she opens it revealing the bedroom behind it. 

You instantly understand why she thought this is the best one. The view is absolutely breathtaking, the gentle noon light is flowing into the room through the floor to ceiling windows, the king sized bed facing them so when you wake up in the morning the first thing you see is the endless sea of evergreens on the side of the hill. Not to mention the room has its own bathroom, not many of the other rooms are blessed with that. There��s a spacious shower that has enough space for at least three people in there and it’s one of those fancy ones that can make you feel like you’re having a shower in the middle of a jungle, mood lights and bluetooth speakers attached to it.

“No fucking way Harry is getting this room!” you gasp as you look around, taking in the luxure your mother is willing to hand over to him.

“Jealous, much?” he smirks, throwing his sports bag to the bed already ruining the neatly made sheets. He does not deserve this.

“Mom!” you huff turning to her, but she has made her mind up already.

“Your room is nice too, don’t worry Honey. Let Harry have this one!”

“I really can’t believe you are taking his side,” you grumble under your breath, folding your arms on your chest as you take one last look at the stunning view. 

“Come on, Y/N. He is a guest!”

“He is not! You said it yourself he is family now!” you retort and Harry just laughs behind you, so you shoot him a murderous look over your shoulder, that just fuels his entertainment.

“Don’t be silly. Your room is the second one on the right from here,” she smiles at you. “We are gonna take a walk around once everyone arrives, so get settled by then!” she informs you before walking out. 

“Hey,” Harry’s soft voice makes you turn around. “You can have the room if you want.”

Your eyebrows rise at the kind gesture, it’s very not like him, even now in your friendly state, so it’s quite odd that he is willing to switch rooms with you.

“No need,” you shake your head grabbing the handle of your suitcase that you abandoned at the door.

“You sure? It doesn’t matter where I’m sleeping, really.”

“I’m not gonna deal with my mother’s scolding if she finds out I took your room, so you can totally stay.” 

Harry chuckles as you head out, but stop at the door to have one last word with him. “Though I might occupy your bathroom, that shower looks nice.”

“All yours,” he grins before you walk out.

***

By 11 am everyone arrives and the once quiet cabin is now buzzing from life, children running around, Valerie’s babbling shoots through the spacious living area where Rosa set her crib up, your mother is already making preparations for dinner while most of the men are circled around the pool table having a beer since no one has to drive for the rest of the day. 

“When is Marcus arriving?” Rosa asks, eyes on Valerie who is absolutely destroying something that once were an elephant maybe, but she’s been ruthless with the poor animal, chewing and throwing it around all the time, so it’s not just a grey, fuzzy mess.

“Sometime before dinner. He has some work to finish,” you tell her pulling your legs under yourself on the comfy couch.

“And explain again, why isn’t he staying for the night?” she turns to you with a puzzled look.

“Because he is going home to his family early in the morning tomorrow.”

“Okay, but he could have just left from here, didn’t he?”

“It’s… complicated. It’s better if he just goes back home tonight and then leaves from there in the morning.”

What you leave out of the whole explanation is that you didn’t really invite him to stay the night as well. Sounds horrible and ridiculous but you didn’t think you’d have felt comfortable with him staying. You’ve been dating for only barely more than a month and though things are going well, you felt like starting with just a dinner would be a better idea. Marcus didn’t question why you didn’t offer him to stay, it seemed like he was fine with just coming and then going after dinner. 

Does this make you a bad girlfriend? Maybe, but you value your comfort and feelings more than to ruin your favorite holiday with your family. 

Just as you mom said, once everyone is settled in their rooms for the upcoming three days, the whole gang dresses up to have a walk around taking the welcoming little path that runs around the cabin and is smooth enough for Valerie’s carriage as well. Your nieces and nephew are quick to surround Harry and nag him to join them at the front, exploring the woods surrounding the path. It seems like he doesn’t mind it and gladly takes part in the adventure, also secretly looking after them so their parents can have a break and enjoy the stroll in hopes the walk tires the kids out enough that they’ll willingly go to bed in the evening instead of whining to stay up late. 

You’re walking with Etta next to you as she tells you about Hannah’s latest dance competition when you spot that Harry and Oliver, your nephew, Etta’s other kid are suspiciously whispering around pointing in your direction. At last Olly nods and runs up to you showing a quite thick piece of wood into your hand. You look down at him confused.

“Thank you?” you tell him a little unsure what it’s all about.

“I found it in a bush, I want to take it home. Harry said you’ll keep it for me because you have a good hand for thick and hard sticks.”

You almost choke on your own breath, as Olly just carelessly runs back ahead to join his sister. You immediately look over to Etta in fear that she heard what Harry told Oliver, but luckily she was talking with Joe turning back, not really paying attention to the conversation you just had with her son. If she did, Harry probably wouldn’t live by now.

Speaking of the devil, you look in his way and that annoying, smug grin is right there as he nods in your way saluting before he shows his hands into his pockets and turns back around to catch up with the kids. 

That disgusting piece of shit really went into the depth of teaching something secretly dirty to your nephew as a way of payback for your comment in the car earlier. He surely wasn't just joking when he said you’d pay for what you said. And you have a feeling he is just getting started. 

***

Aunt Monica is like a legend in your family. She is the oldest between your mom and her sisters, already in her sixties, but in the heart she still feels like she has just turned twenty. She never married, but had several men in her life, love affairs, short flings, but none of them lasted for more than a year. 

“Why would I settle when there’s so many fish in the sea?” she once told you, her iconic Chanel sunglasses sat on her nose as she sipped on her martini. 

She has worked many jobs throughout her life, she was once a dancer, she waited tables and even worked as a TV host at one point in the ‘80s. She was the true free spirit of the family, her sisters often questioned her sanity, but you think there’s nothing wrong with how she lived her life, enjoying it to the last bit. In the early ‘90s she was seeing a millionaire, probably the only man she would have given her lifestyle up for. Unfortunately, they never married, the man passed away due to his heart problems, however, since he had little to zero family he left basically everything to Aunt Monica. Money, house, cars, business, everything. Being the smart woman that she is, she handed over the business into professional hands but she is still the owner, so the money is still flowing even though she could have lived happily on the money she inherited without ever having to work a day. 

She seems a little odd in your family, but she has always been a loving aunt to you, a caring sister and she never fails to take care of her loved ones. She is the one to pay for all these Christmas getaways, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to stay in places this nice.

“What’s all the money for if I don’t spend it on my family?” she always says when someone questions if she is fine with paying for everything. Your mom and Teresa have tried to convince her to let them at least pay for part of it but she wouldn’t even listen to them. 

She likes to have her own, sometimes odd ways in life. She definitely has a drinking problem, but not in a dangerous way. You have never seen her completely wasted, she just likes to keep things buzzing and always have a drink on her whenever she needs the extra fun. Because of her past she has the greatest stories about meeting famous people back in the days or how soldiers used to try to win her over when she was just a teenager.

“Oh, those things happened,” your mom told you when one day you questioned if you could believe all the crazy stories Aunt Monica tells you. “She was like… the star of the show. Used to hate living in her shadow, but I can’t blame her for enjoying life and doing the things I was too afraid to do myself.”

Now you’re sitting in the sunroom that faces the amazing view behind the cabin, the Christmas tree is standing tall in the corner, beautifully decorated in white and beige. Valerie is snuggled up to your chest as you gently rub her back and you listen to Aunt Monica tell you about how a literal captain once proposed to her after just three days of knowing each other.

“He was a gentleman, but a beast in the bed, Y/N. I’m telling you, men in uniform are just a different level of satisfaction.”

She sighs deep, taking a sip from her margarita that’s definitely not her first drink, and you just laugh nodding.

“He was begging for me to go to Italy with him.”

“And why didn’t you?”

“Who said I didn’t?” she asks with a pretentious hurt look turning to you and you just laugh. You should have known the story would go this way. “I accepted the offer, only turned down his proposal when we sailed off and then we parted as soon as I stepped onto the land of Italy. Broke his heart into pieces, but I was too busy enjoying the Italian summer.”

Harry comes in and hands you a bottle filled with juice that probably Rosa sent for Valerie.

“Thank you,” you smile at him shortly as you adjust the little girl in your arms and hand her the bottle.

“Young boy, have you ever proposed to someone?” Aunt Monica asks Harry who stops in his way as he was already about to head out, but now he walks back to the sofa where she is sitting.

“No, not yet,” he shakes his head.

“And how do you think you would if the time came?”

You watch Harry think to himself at the odd and quite random question. It’s not really something you would have ever asked him, but now that there’s the chance to hear his answer you are listening curiously. 

“Depends on the woman I’m proposing to,” he replies after a few seconds.

“How would you propose to Y/N?”

Your eyes widen as you turn to your aunt with shock all over your face. You definitely didn’t want yourself dragged into this.

“Aunt Monica, that’s--”

“Shush! I’m just asking theoretically. Wanna hear his answer.”

Harry’s eyes wander over to your sitting figure on the sofa as he leans onto the back of the one in front of him. You can feel the heat crawling up on your neck to your cheeks under his burning look and you just know he enjoys how nervous you got from this simple question that wasn’t even asked from you. 

Licking his lips he moves his eyes from you over to Aunt Monica who is still waiting for his answer.

“Something romantic, but not too grandiose, I know she doesn’t like being in the center of the attention that much. Maybe…” Tapping on his chin you listen to his words and without even realizing you hold your breath. “Maybe on a hike with a nice view. She would be admiring the view when I get down on one knee and as she turns around I pop the lid on the box.”

What bugs you is that it’s an awfully accurate description of how you’d imagined your proposal. He was right about many aspects, like how you don’t like being in the center of attention. No idea how he nailed so easily, but he did. 

Glancing down you pretend to be busy with Valerie who is still peacefully drinking her juice, eyes wandering around the room relentlessly.

“So you really look to satisfy her deepest fantasies, careful about even the smallest details. Women appreciate it,” Aunt Monica nods, completely oblivious to how uncomfortable she just made you feel.

“Thank you, I do like to satisfy women,” Harry cheekily answers with a smirk, eyes locking with yours for a moment as Aunt Monica lets out a laugh at the dirty comment. Before you could bite your tongue a retort slips out of your mouth.

“What a shame you don’t always succeed.”

Harry’s eyes turn from playful to dark pretty quickly and you enjoy the victory over him. Your comment in the car earlier already wounded his manhood, now it’s another stab right into his… crotch. It’s the least he deserves after what he taught poor Olly.

“That I don’t believe. He seems like an absolute pleaser.” Aunt Monica winks in Harry’s way who just smiles at her shyly, but you can tell your comment is still bugging him. 

“I think Y/N knows that too herself, am I right?” He tilts his head to the side and you stand your ground with holding his gaze and not looking away.

“Don’t be so sure about that,” you simply say, just when you hear your mom calling out for you. “Would you take her please?” you innocently ask walking up to Harry, holding Valerie out for him. You can tell he is looking for a witty comeback, but he has nothing just yet, so he is stuck with keeping his mouth shut as he takes baby Valerie from you. You gift him with a sweet, but definitely spikey smile before leaving him there with Aunt Monica. 

***

Dinner is already almost ready, you’re helping your mom and Aunt Teresa in the kitchen with the finishing touches, Joe and Harry packing out the wine bottles from the rack Jeremy brought them in, the two of them examining the bottles with such professionalism you almost believe they have the slightest idea about what to look for in a good wine. 

“Should we open some red or white ones for tonight’s dinner?” Joe asks your mom who is the master chef when it comes to the dinner.

“Red would suit better,” she answers. “Are they sweet?”

“Some, yeah,” Harry nods holding up a bottle and checking the label.

“Great. Monica loves that too,” Teresa chuckles as she adds some salt to the mashed potato. 

“And Y/N too,” Harry adds, not even looking up, but he successfully attracts your mom’s attention with his comment.

“She does?” Harry looks up and sees your boiling anger plastered all over your face, so of course he chooses to take it further.

“Oh, yeah. She can drink like a gallon. Wine drunk Y/N is like a whole different person.”

“I told you so many times not to get drunk, Y/N. It’s not too ladylike. When was the last time you saw her drunk?”

“There were plenty of occasions,” Harry exaggerates and you could kill him right there. “Though last time it was the tequila that got her wildin’.”

That damned smirk of his is making your hands curl into fists and for a moment you tell yourself it’s okay to punch him in front of your mother even if she’ll probably disown you for such behavior. 

“Y/N! I have told you a million times that you need to know where your limits lie!” she huffs shaking her head at you while you clench your jaw. Back at it with the lessons about getting drunk. She’ll never get over it, not even when you’ll be forty. Why does it matter to her so much? Sometimes she is the one to get you started, but then she gives you the dirtiest looks when you have one too many. She should just get used to it now. 

“She surely likes to have fun when she has had a few drinks,” Harry continues smugly. “Remember how much fun you had at Rosa and Steven’s wedding?”

“Oh, God! I remember how drunk you were that evening, I could have killed you!” your mother growls and you roll your eyes at her.

“It wasn’t that bad. There were a lot more people who got way more wasted than me,” you try to defend yourself folding your arms on your chest. 

“That doesn’t change that you were too,” she says with a hard look. Great, now she is mad at you for something that happened literally years ago. Kudos to Harry for ruining her mood.

“She wasn’t that bad,” Harry adds and you look in his way with suspicion. “She was a delight when it was time to get her to bed.”

Your mouth almost hangs open, but it seems like you’re the only one understanding what he really meant by that. Luckily, beside you and him, Rosa and Steven are the only people who knows what happened between you and Harry that night, so it’s no surprise no one else catches on the hint.

“You were the one who took her up to her room? Sorry if she was a burden,” your mother sighs and right at that moment you wish the floor would just open up and you could disappear forever. Harry’s satisfied grin is the evidence that he just won another round of this nasty war.

Just as you open your mouth to try and move the conversation to another field you see a pair of headlights pull up to the driveway. Everyone turns to the window as Marcus’ car parks down last in the line. As you step away from the counter you see the confusion in Harry’s eyes about the new guest.

“Oh, amazing! He is here!” your mom cheers, seemingly instantly forgetting about how she was dragging you just a minute ago.

“Who’s here?” you hear Harry ask, but you’re already out of there, heading to the front door to greet Marcus.

Just as you walk out into the cold evening air you see him get out with a warm smile on his lips. You wait for him at the door, arms wrapped around yourself and as he reaches you he places a soft kiss to your lips. 

“Hey, how was the drive?” you ask him.

“It was fine. I didn’t arrive too late, right?”

“No, we were just about to set the table. Come on in, I’ll introduce you to everyone.”

He takes your hand in his as the two of you walk inside, all eyes immediately turning your way at the arrival of your boyfriend.

“Everyone, I want you all to meet my boyfriend, Marcus. He is staying for dinner.”

Your family members walk up to the two of you, shaking hands and introducing themselves to Marcus who smiles at everyone politely, trying his best to remember all the names and information that’s thrown at him all of a sudden. Everyone seems delighted to have him for dinner, the kids instantly make him promise he’ll play a card game with them after dinner and he happily says yes to the invitation. 

You can tell your mom is proud that finally both of her daughters are spending Christmas with a man by their side and you’re almost certain your dad took a liking to Marcus the moment he mentioned he is into fishing.

Everyone seems excited and happy for Marcus, there’s just one face that doesn’t fit in the line of joyful smiles. Harry stands quite far from the two of you and only gets closer when he shakes hands with Marcus. His cocky grin is long gone from his face as he keeps his hard look on your boyfriend who is chatting with everyone. Standing next to Marcus, your hand still holding his, your eyes lock with Harry’s and there’s an unknown, burning feeling in your gut when his hard gaze holds yours. The sudden change and cold act gets you wondering what’s really going on in his mind. He is the first one to look away and you watch him walk into the kitchen and disappear from your sight before you force a smile on your lips and turn back to Marcus.

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[thweaty]

tomdaya tea ☕️

ok i have to submit this because it’s just TEW much to explain otherwise. like i said i stan them both so i been here for it all and know ALL the tea. i’ll give you the rundown of their relationship and then the drama that went down when she was dating jacob. there’s a whole tumblr timeline spanning years you can google if you’re interested in seeing it in detail but i’ll give you the basics. this is going to be a literal dissertation sorry in advance but i feel responsible for letting the general public know about the tomdaya agenda since i know so much

so they started dating in like aug/sept 2016 right after they finished filming homecoming. he went to canada right after to film another movie and during the course of filming she went to visit him and he flew to la to visit her, this is when people started getting sus. when he finished filming this movie he made an ig story about how he was going home to london to be with his family and spend the holidays with them, except he lied because he flew to la to see z and spend thanksgiving with her and her family lmao (he actually spent thanksgiving with her family 3 years in a row 2016-2018….more on that later tho 👀) her cousin exposed them when he posted a video on thanksgiving at her house and you could see her and tom cuddling on the couch. so everyone was like they’re 100% dating. like i said he was always flying to see her, he was going to workout classes with her mom and shit, he always stayed at her house in la (there’s multiple sets of photos of him outside her house with luggage). another thing that convinced people was sometime in early 2017 she made a whole snapchat story about how she was super sick and overworked and then after that accidentally posted a snap to her story that said “your sick girlfriend really loves you”. she deleted it quickly because it was obviously an accident and wasn’t meant to be public but people got screenshots. tom was also in nyc visiting z when she was filming the greatest showman and told a fan he met that he was in town visiting his girlfriend because he dumb. 

so at this point we KNOW they’re dating. zendaya is notorious for being extremely private with relationships, the guy she dated before tom she was with for 4 years and called him her best friend all along. she didn’t admit they actually had dated until after they broke up bc he cheated on her. so her being so private with tom and hiding it was expected. all this same shit goes on for the next nearly three years, they’re doing long distance but he flies to see her at least once a month sometimes more, they spend time with each others families, visit each other on set, etc. 

so this is where it gets interesting. tom is photographed on the euphoria set during a night shoot in like early may 2019. this is apparently right around the time they break up. tom’s best friend tuwaine was dating this girl audrey and when they broke up she started spilling tea on tomdaya (tom unfollowed her after this so it was def true). she said they broke up in may because they were fighting more due to long distance AND tom was tired of being so private, he didn’t want to be public but was over being so secretive and wanted to be a little more lax but she wasn’t comfortable with that. they decided to stay friends. the far from home press tour was in june and they were clearly still super close friends, nobody could even tell they were broken up cause they were so chummy (looking back now it’s more obvious cause tom was saying shit about his love life being a disappointment and stuff). they go their separate ways after the premiere but stay friends and continue to interact on social media, even months after the breakup tom met a girl at a con dressed like mj and asked if he could take a photo with her to send to zendaya so they were def still talking and stuff

fast forward to feb 2020. z is dating jacob and they’re being papped like every single day in nyc. pictures come out of them kissing out in the open in nyc. as a fan of z this was VERY weird to me because she’s always so private, but i was like maybe she’s trying something new because being so private caused the downfall with tom. BUT then she started DMing her fan accounts on twitter and ig asking them to take the kissing photos down (so idk what happened, she had to knew they were being papped but maybe she had second thoughts and regretted it)…. her fan accounts do delete the photos, but it’s too late. everyone has already seen them including tom, who is in the middle of a self-proclaimed instagram break. the day after the kissing photos came out, he goes back on ig and unfollowed two of z’s best friends, one being her assistant and basically brother darnell who tom was also good friends with. he posts a photo on his story of him drinking and puts emojis over his eyes and said something like “back for a minute, now i’m gone again.” he was going through it lmao so he literally went onto ig to be petty and unfollow people close to z because he was mad she was kissing her bf of a few months in public when they were together for nearly three years. and obviously he couldn’t unfollow her so he did the next best thing, and fans obviously took notice. a week later he followed darnell back cause i guess he realized how bad it looked but the damage was already done. tom and z from then on do not interact or acknowledge each other for the next SIX MONTHS. idk if they fought or if she was mad he unfollowed darnell or what. but it was MESSY. 

a month later tom starts dating this girl nadia, she moves into his house a few weeks into dating for quarantine. they date throughout those lockdown months. z breaks up with jacob sometime in june. she gets nominated for the emmy at the end of july, and days after she gets nominated her and tom start liking all of each others photos again. the assumption is he reached out to congratulate her and they made up. a few days after they start interacting again, tom posts a photo of his girlfriend on ig, and z likes it. tom and nadia break up like a week later 💀 he was filming uncharted in berlin at this point, him and z continue to interact, he finishes uncharted and flies right to atlanta to start filming spider-man. they’re still in atlanta now and we know they hang out all the time, but a lot of people think they’re back together because they’ve done some very 👀 things. her mom came to atlanta for thanksgiving and you guessed it… tom spent it with them (which we only know cause the celeb chef who cooked for them posted on his story that he made thanksgiving dinner for zendaya and tom holland. he then deleted and deactivated cause he realized he fucked up lmao). they started interacting with each other’s families and friends again. hunter (jules from euphoria) who is z’s best friend drove to atlanta to see her and her and tom followed each other. tom is very selective of who he follows and doesn’t even follow a lot of his costars so people were shook by this, especially because him and hunter met multiple times before but never followed each other. i have no idea if they’re back together, at the very least they’re good friends again, but i wouldn’t be surprised at all if they were. we’ll see what happens when they finish filming 👀👀👀 lmk your thoughts, questions, concerns etc. 

bitch my fave part was zendaya liking that pic and tom and his gf breaking up a week later 😭😭

[lassieposting]

skulduggery/alt!serpine for the getting together ask game?

I’m bored, so. Send me two (or more) characters for a headcanon on how I’d have them get together

OHOHOHOHO SEE THIS IS A GOOD ONE BC

ive already been thinking about this and im. Lowkey really glad im not the only one

See I always hated skug with any serpine, like I was a passionate anti from 2007 - about three months ago but. I enjoyed their dynamic in phase one and then i read like three of their interactions from sow and got converted or some shit apparently idfk, anyway u know i love an angsty ship

this got really long so tldr; enemies to vitriolic hate-sex buddies to lovers, painfully slow burn, but they'll both die claiming they still hate each other

It begins with China.

She orders him to kill Serpine, and he refuses. He's not even 100% sure why when he does. It's not like they're friends. He's killed people he liked a good deal more than Nefarian Serpine under orders.

But she says, "kill him" and he says, "no", and then things spiral so quickly that it's actually a few days before he even has time to think about her parting shot, flung at him as he walked out on her: "if you want to keep him, you'll be the one looking after him. He's your responsibility, not mine. And if he hurts someone, you -"

He'd shut the door on her at that point, but he knows what she was going to say. You look after him yourself, you train him yourself, and if he hurts someone, you kill him yourself. A wonderfully old-world way of looking at things. He's fairly sure he remembers getting the same speech from the housekeeper when he tried to bring home the ugliest feral tomcat he'd ever seen as a small boy.

(This will come back to bite him. He's not sure how or when, but it will. That's the way of things, whenever he turns his back on China Sorrows. Her last parting shot - a classic "you'll regret this" - ended up getting him killed.)

But then there's Mevolent, and cleaning up a city in the aftermath of its latest Traumatic Event, and putting a size 10 to the backsides of the City Guard, so his priorities get reshuffled somewhat, and it's almost a week later that he thinks to ask, "Heard from Serpine lately? He's being oddly quiet."

Valkyrie blinks at him from the passenger seat. Her fingertips tap tap tap at the touchscreen. She's messaging someone. He doesn't know who. "He's...around."

"Why the pause?"

"Hm?"

"You paused," he points out, switching lanes to get around a hatchback dawdling along at 60. "He's...around. You're trying to hide something from me. I'm aware you still talk to him, you know."

She doesn't deny it. He's gotten used to that, in the last few years. She doesn't tell him things anymore. It's that distance, the distance he can try to banter over but never truly remove. She's a lot further away than his passenger seat. "He's been looking for somewhere to live, like. Now that he's here for good. So, you know. That's probably keeping him busy."

Nefarian Serpine is living out of a stuffy first-floor rented room above, of all things, Vaurien Scapegrace's pub.

He knows this not because China was having Serpine followed (although she was) or because plenty of old faces from the Sanctuary still owe him favours (although they do), but because he receives a text from Scapegrace at a quarter to midnight, in the middle of a grisly murder scene.

have u beaten anyone up lately? do u want to? think thrasher just rented one of our rooms to a war criminal

He taps out a response, half-focused on the screen and half on Valkyrie examining the photos on the dead man's mantelpiece. She looks like she's just figured something out.

Which one? Thrasher, or the other guy?

By the time he's dropped her home, said hello to the furball and returned to the city, morning is bleeding into the sky. He knocks sharply on Nefarian Serpine's peeling rented door, and then again when there's no response.

From inside, a thud.

Then another, followed by some deeply impolite language, and then the door jerks open. Serpine, wearing an impressive bedhead, a scraggly attempt at a beard and a pair of patterned socks with a hole in the toe, squints out into the hall and snaps, "D'you have ANY IDEA what time it is? This place is supposed to - ah, shite. It's you."

"It is," he agrees.

Serpine gives him a sulky jerk of the head - an invitation - and vanishes back inside. He follows, closing the door gently behind him. Inside the room is dark and depressing and smells faintly of mildew and sweat. There are clothes on the floor.

He pulls the curtains open and looks out the window, giving Serpine some privacy to get dressed.

"Found me at last, have you?" Serpine asks from over by the bed. There's a rustle of fabric and the sound of a belt being done up. "What do you want? Come to take my other hand?"

That's it. That's what's different. "Other? You don't seem to be missing any at present, Nefarian. Valkyrie's work, I take it."

Serpine sits down on the bed with a squeak of springs, and when Skulduggery turns to face him, he's smirking and, thankfully, wearing trousers. "Ever so nice of her, wasn't it? Doesn't work like the old one, though. You know. The one I used on you."

He sighs. "And here I thought this last week would've given you time to come up with some new material."

Serpine shrugs and spends a moment picking out a pair of shirts from the wardrobe beside the bed. If it's a test, it's a painfully obvious one. Almost an invitation. Go ahead, shoot me.

No, this is something Skulduggery knows far more intimately. A display of brittle confidence in the face of a threat. I'm not afraid of you. Do your worst.

Serpine is afraid of him. Afraid of being arrested, maybe, or killed, or worse. He'd have relished that fear, once. Delighted in flipping the tables.

He leans back against the desk, ankles crossed and arms folded. After a moment, Serpine turns around with a shirt on a hanger in each hand. He holds them up for an opinion.

Skulduggery points wordlessly at the green one, and the blue goes back in the closet. "If you're not here to kill me, what do you want?"

While Serpine is doing up his buttons, Skulduggery retrieves the folded sheaf of paper from the inside pocket of his long coat, and holds it up. "I came to drop these off."

Serpine's vibrant eyes narrow. "What is that? An arrest warrant?"

"A list of landlords in Roarhaven willing to rent to refugees. Valkyrie mentioned you were looking."

Serpine blinks at him. Skulduggery doesn't often bother with the facade in Roarhaven, but if he had a face right now, he'd be blinking back. It's a weirdly awkward moment.

"...thanks," Serpine says after a moment, tentatively reaching for the papers; Skulduggery leans forward to pass them over. "That'd be...helpful."

He sounds very uncomfortable saying those words. When Skulduggery responds, "You're welcome," he feels much the same.

Serpine unfolds the papers and skims them. Three pages of property listings. Tipstaff had printed them off for him with only a raised eyebrow and a, "Never thought you'd move out of Dublin, Detective."

"What brought this on?"

He looks up. "Hm?"

"You show up here at an ungodly hour of the morning, nobody to rein you in, and you're being helpful? I don't buy it. I know China as well as you do. She told you to kill me, didn't she?"

"She did," Skulduggery acknowledges, and a very old, very spiky part of him gets a kick out of watching the blood drain from Serpine's face. "I told her no."

"Bollocks."

"Hard to believe, isn't it? But it's true. Ah, don't look at me like that, Nefarian. It's got nothing to do with you. I was just feeling argumentative that day. And, if nothing else, I can always rely on China to argue with me if I tell her no."

"So -"

"For my sins, she made you my responsibility, see. I'm supposed to keep an eye on you, make sure you don't get up to any of your old tricks. And if you do, then I'll kill you. I'll be checking in on you to make sure you're behaving yourself. Think of me as a...probation officer, of sorts. With benefits."

More blinking. This version of Serpine is not a morning person. He bets his alternate self got to sleep in far later in this Serpine's dungeon. "I'm not seeing any benefits."

"The benefit is I get to kill you if you step out of line. I never said the benefits were for you."

"Are there any benefits in this for me?"

He considers this for a moment. "You get to live. Because of me. I saved your life. "

Serpine's face is emotionless and his voice is flat.

"Oh," he says. "Yippee."

He's interviewing a witness when his phone rings.

He politely excuses himself, and steps out into the hallway to answer it. "Pleasant."

"Hello!" Serpine says brightly, and launches immediately into, "I want a car."

Skulduggery's fake face blinks at the sigil-embossed wallpaper. It takes a second to even register the voice, and another to pick up on -

"How the -? Who gave you this number?"

"Valkyrie." Serpine sounds completely unapologetic. "And you're supposed to be teaching me to drive."

Serpine can't see his head tilt. He does it anyway. "Am I now? And what gave you that idea?"

"I'm your problem now, remember? Besides, you agreed to it," is the smug answer. "Before our little holiday back to my dimension, I said I wanted a better house and a latte and a car. And driving lessons."

"I never agreed to that."

"Well, you didn't say no. That's agreement by default. Sorry."

"Plenty of people can teach you to drive, Nefarian. You could teach yourself, even. Watch a video on Youtube."

"Detective Pleasant, I am shocked," Serpine teases, suddenly dripping with insincere concern. "Think of all those poor defenceless mortals I could run into. There's an advert on the television about how you're specifically not supposed to hit them with cars. It kills them, apparently. How will I cope without you there to make sure I resist temptation?"

Skulduggery grinds his teeth. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Immensely. I'd completely forgotten how much fun it is to have you at my mercy. And you did say you're supposed to keep an eye on me."

Skulduggery goes quiet for a moment, focusing on reining in the urge to hit something. Serpine's face. He wants to hit Serpine's face. With a chair. Trust him to figure out that being Skulduggery's responsibility meant he could go to him for help.

"Fine."

"Excellent! And now you have my number, so you can let me know when you're free."

"Since when do you have a mobile?"

"Since today," Serpine says airily. "Tanith helped me pick one out. I can talk to anyone, anywhere, whenever I like now. Isn't that great? I mean, I only have two numbers, three now that Valkyrie's given me yours, but still. Now I'll always have someone to talk to."

"This is a work line. It is not for social calls."

A passing sorcerer startles a little at his tone, and he gives her an apologetic smile. As an afterthought, he rolls his eyes in a you know how it is gesture. But she's already walking away, so really he just rolls his eyes at her back, which is probably rude of him.

Serpine is still talking. "- can send little moving pictures, and I've downloaded all these little applications, so now I do all sorts of fun things. Do you use...whatsit...Snapchat? I have Snapchat now. And I've got Angry Birds and Candy Crush and Grindr."

And that? That right there? That is more than he ever needed to know about Serpine.

"Goodbye, Nefarian," he says firmly, and hangs up.

He checks in on Serpine once a week, officially. Unofficially, he clocks more hours than he'd like to admit parked in an alley outside Scapegrace's pub, waiting for someone to scream bloody murder. Serpine spots him a couple of times, gives him a jaunty wave with his newly-regrown hand on his way to the off-licence, mocking and unconcerned.

But nobody gets murdered. Serpine seems to be...behaving. For now.

"I've volunteered you for move-in duty," Valkyrie says, apropos of nothing. When he blinks at her, she shrugs and takes a sip of her coffee. "Serpine's found a flat. He needs some furniture shifting."

He's not going to throw anything at his partner in this busy mortal cafe. He's not.

"I see. And you thought that has anything to do with me because..."

She polishes off the last dregs of her drink with a slurp. "I can't float stuff up stairs."

The apartment Serpine is moving into is a decent two-bedroom on the fourth floor of a six-floor block in a quiet area with a history of minimal unexpected-demolitions-by-overpowered-supervillain. Skulduggery idly wonders, as he pulls up in the parking area behind the building, whether a mass murderer moving in - and the frequent visits by the other mass murderer charged with keeping an eye on him - will bring down housing prices. China will hate that, when she wakes up.

Serpine is waiting for him out front, surrounded by boxes and furniture, already looking a bit frazzled. His outfit is stylish and his slicked-back hair is sticking up in places where he's been running his hands though it. He startles and looks up at the sound of footsteps, and seems to breathe a sigh of relief. "Ah! You came. Valkyrie said you'd know how to go about getting all this, you know. Up there."

"You can hire people for this, you know," Skulduggery tells him. "Removal men."

"With what money?" Serpine asks, a little helplessly. "Valkyrie gave me some of her old things, but I got most of this from - what's the word? - second hand shops, and the refugee aid centre. I've been looking for work, but...you know." He gestures at his face. "This is my criminal record."

Which...is a fair point, so Skulduggery rolls up his sleeves and moves to one end of a squashed two-seater couch. "Fair enough. Grab the other end."

Serpine's mouth almost drops open. "You want to carry it? Like peasants? I thought you were here to float the damn thing!"

Well, he could. But the world isn't actively ending right now, so he can afford to be petty. "I don't use magic unless I have to, these days. We'll be doing this the old-fashioned way."

"But." The last time he saw someone look this aghast was when Valkyrie realised how the citizens of Roarhaven saw her. "But that's manual labour!"

"A little manual labour will do you good."

"Gods, I hate you," Serpine tells him as he moves to grab the other end of the couch.

Skulduggery turns the facade on specifically to give him a smug smirk. "I know."

By the time they're finishing up the boxes, Serpine's new neighbours have come out into the hall to see what all the banging is about. They seem young, mostly - too young to recognise him from the war. Skulduggery is starting to suspect that Serpine has accidentally moved into student housing, but he keeps his mouth shut. Serpine is being chatty and charming, holding court in the corridor, and Skulduggery mostly lets him get on with it in between trips to the bottom of the stairs to pick up more boxes, until a young woman who holds Serpine's front door open for him and chuckles, "Left you doing all the work, has he? He's a talker, your boyfriend. I bet you don't get a word in edgewise."

It's not often that Skulduggery Pleasant is lost for words. "I. I'm sorry. What?"

Fortunately, Serpine chooses that moment to interrupt the conversation he's having and interject, "Oh, no, darling. We're not together. He's just here to make sure I stay out of trouble."

There's something off about how he says it, though. There must be, because the woman taps her nose like he's just confided a secret, and Skulduggery can't help but feel like he's just been made the butt of a joke he doesn't fully understand.

He checks on Serpine once a week. Occasionally Serpine texts him. A blurry photo, usually paired with a caption like, "what the hell is this?"; a set of traffic lights, or a lollipop man, or a chihuahua in a little jumper. Sometimes he responds, but sometimes he doesn't bother.

It's not like they're friends.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, Roarhaven's shopping district is bustling, and Nefarian Serpine is late.

Skulduggery's been people-watching, drumming his fingers on the tabletop, for fifteen minutes when he finally shows up with a to-go coffee cup in one hand and a stack of books under the other arm. He's frowning.

"You're late," says Skulduggery, by way of greeting.

Serpine shrugs, taking the seat opposite. He dumps his books on the round table and gives the menu a cursory glance. "Sorry. I was at the library. Almost missed the bus."

A waitress approaches wearing a shirt stamped with the logo of the little bistro they're sat outside, and while Serpine orders lunch, Skulduggery idly examines the titles stamped along the spines of his book mountain. Some of them look old, leather bound tomes with fancy gold lettering, and the rest seem to be...textbooks, of all things.

"A little light reading, Nefarian?"

"Huh?" Serpine - busy watching the waitress walk back inside - swivels round to face him, and shrugs. "Oh. Yeah. I want to see if they match up with the slanderous shite they're teaching at the university."

"Excuse me?"

Serpine shrugs. "Vapid and Ty - you know Ty, weird hair, lives next door - thought it might help me adapt if I learn more about how your world is different to mine, so. I've been sitting in on some classes. Unofficially. History. Mortal Relations. That kind of thing. You have battles here that never happened back home, you know."

Skulduggery folds his arms across his chest and leans back in his chair, amused despite himself. "Mortal Relations? You're going to Mortal Relations lectures. You."

"Shut up," says Serpine, pointing a finger at him. "You don't get to laugh. You're not the one nobody wants to hire. - because that's still a problem, by the way. Aren't you supposed to be helping me with that?"

"I'm supposed to be making sure you don't kill anyone or make a nuisance of yourself. Sorry to disappoint."

"Would it kill you to write me a character reference?"

Skulduggery coughs conspicuously into his gloved hand with the throat he doesn't have. He picks up the top book from Serpine's stack and flips idly through Religion & Warfare: The Rise Of The Church Of The Faceless In The 15th Century . "Think about that one for a minute, Nefarian, and you'll remember why it's not happening."

"Fine. Be like that." Serpine's shoe nudges his leg under the table. "Here, were you at the Battle of Black Rock?"

He has to think about that one for a second, then hums in the negative. "Hm. No. I missed that one. I think that was when I was holed up in Cork with a broken leg. Why?"

"History 201," Serpine muses. "I tagged along this morning. It was mostly about that fight, but it never happened in my dimension. It was borderline slanderous, honestly. The professor is an imbecile."

"You're dying to vent, aren't you?"

"Would you mind terribly?"

Skulduggery pulls his ornate pocket watch from his waistcoat pocket and checks the time. "You've got fifteen minutes. Better talk fast."

Time goes by.

He checks on Nefarian once a week. They have coffee, sometimes. Valkyrie knows not to cross the line of bringing Serpine to Skulduggery's home, but she adds them both to a group chat and neither one leaves.

Nefarian wrecks his first car, and Skulduggery makes the drive out from Dublin at 5.45am to rescue him. He calls the tow truck while Serpine sits, pale and shaken, in the Bentley's front seat, drenched from the rain and squelching miserably every time he moves.

He apologises for calling so early, and for once he sounds like he means it.

Skulduggery takes him through the McDonalds drive thru to cheer him up, and as Nefarian tucks into a box of fries with gusto, he thinks, oh no.

They're not friends. They're not.

"Is this a date?"

Skulduggery tilts his head, hand stilling over the car keys. "I'm sorry?"

Valkyrie tosses another piece of popcorn into her mouth. She's already in her pyjamas, fluffy ones with dogs on them, and she's flicking through the Netflix queue. "You're all dressed up. Is this a date? Have you two finally gotten over yourselves? God knows it's been long enough."

He snatches up the car keys and sniffs, disdainful. "After all these decades, Valkyrie, if that's what your expert detective skills are telling you, I have failed as a mentor."

"And now you're getting defensive."

"I'm doing no such thing. Where's Tanith, by the way?"

She laughs and does double fingerguns at him. "And that's deflection!"

He sighs - dramatically, for her benefit - and as he checks his pocket watch, she continues, "And, she's on her way. Get out, already. You have a date to keep and we have movies to watch."

"It's not a bloody date," he complains, patting his pockets to make sure he's got everything. "And I originally asked you."

"Yeah, but opera's boring. Here, is he meeting you there or are you picking him up?"

"Goodbye, Valkyrie."

"See?!" She shouts after him as he shuts the front door. "Date!"

[marshmallowprotection]

Hello, maybe you coukd give me some tips. I send you that ask already but it means ght be deleted by tumblr and it was all messy and ugly.

So I have one childhood friend, we used to do everything together till highschool. Often she was my only friend, like now. We slowly started to distance from each other sonce she has a boyfriend. For all those years I did my best to accept him and all, told myself that duh she is not obliged to spent time only with me even in situation when she spent less and less time with me. Sometime I had a bit trouble to fully accept bf because sometime when they argued she was venting to me and I felt like his is hurting her but she refused to break up with him. Boy eas very insecure, no friends and so on and one day around graduating junior hight school she wanted to break up with him but he said something like he is gonna hurt himself if she will, or just drop out the school. So she wanted to wait at least until he graduate, but she waited longer. Then just after we graduated hightschool she broke up with him like she had enought. It was prolly a mistake but after she vent I said one or two things about him concerning past events and I said 'wow finally'. After a while they made up and she said she just missend him. I promissed mtself I will never comment whatever she tell me about them, unless in a good way.

Well... the point is that I am probably jellous, that she doesnt want to spent time with me anymore. Alway if I ask her out I give her to eventually pick the date, if nit today then maybe tomorrow etc y know introvert way :D And im trying to save this friendship? She is not the person busy 24/7, unless maybe when she is in uni or we count playing games as being busy. I play games too sometime.

Sometime it seems like she tries to avoid me and dont want to tell me anything. One day I was talking to her in cafee and she was just fidgeting with her phone. She didnt even like heck the socialmedia, just switching between random (system?) folders on the phone. When I asked abt it why she doesnt listen, she said she wanted to do sth but forgot what. Another time I havent seen her for months and she alway soent holidays 1 month her bf comes to her (he lives abroad already I guess) and I dont want to disturb them of feel like third wheel and the other month she come to him. So like week before she pnanned to go I asked her to go out next day. She said she cant. So asked another day, she answered : but I go to my bf. So I surprised that its that soon and sad I missed the oportunity: oh really? When? She: on Friday me: but its Monday(?)(no answer) so...? She: ught I know ;;; but lately I dont really feel like going anywhere :(

Well... maybe I'm childish but I felt sad.

I'm also jellous that they even celebrate each others bdays altought she never do that bc of religious reasons and I've always respected that.

Once I asked her what is with us, we barely talk for last few years and I feel like she is avoiding me. She had no Idea what I was talking about, she felt like everything was the same.

I was told to not have much hope or expectations toward her bu maybe try to text her or maybe arrange a meeting once in a while and try not to become bitter.

The other one sait that that how adulthood looks like, we become busier with private issues and so on and I may act childish and selfish, but as far as I know except for time she go to uni or to her bf she is not that busy, definitely not that busy not to have time to meet with me more than once in a whole year (or none) when we live ~20min apart by foot. I dont want to be burden to anyone or feel like third wheel so I dunno what to do. I have problem with finding friends, she was my only one friend (?) for years. I dont trust ppl easly

I wanted to do more things together outside since we both used to or still do soent too much time on the computer but well... you know, together is easier.

Since I have to do it on my own maybe you have some ideas? Thats stupid wuestion I guess since you dont know my environment. Jogging and biking wont work I guess since I dont have proper bike. I wanted to plant some flowers but I was afraid I screw everything up since im kida kid who grow up in the bubble and Im not sure how to do basics and nobody wanted to help me and its too late already... Walk is fine but I prefer places far from road and since I'm not supposed to go to the forest that I love I dont have many spots to go.

I am sorry for long post. Any even tiny help would be appreaciated. I hope thats not much of the problem, have a nice day or night :)

-PineconeAnon

I do think that it's time for you to let go of the friendship. I know that's hard to do but people grow apart and that's okay. It's okay. You'll be able to make better relationships and move forward but you have to learn to let go and keep walking forward. It sounds like you're holding onto this friendship because you want to keep going on like it's the past but...

It doesn't work like that. Change happens. It hurts sometimes but it's not a bad thing. You can reflect on this with time and learn how to be able to accept it. You need someone that wants to hang out with you and relax with you. It's not childish to be upset but it's important to see when people just... don't have time for you anymore and feelings change.

It just seems like you both have a fundamental misunderstanding and if you can't talk that through, then it's not working. You can try to talk about it but it seems like it'd be better to just let go. She doesn't think there's something wrong but you do. If you feel stress around her instead of friendship, it's not great.

But, that's up to you, you know? You decide your relationships what you want them to be.

I don't really have great advice for making friends as an adult. I'm not exactly going out and interacting with people. I can suggest finding a new set of friends online by joining Discords and interacting with the fandoms you're in because that's how I've made friends. It's easier to do that if you're anxious about making friends outside.

Try new hobbies. Take a deep breath. If you want to garden, try it out. You're not going to be perfect the first time. It's a learning process at anything and you have to just try. You don't get to live it if you don't try. You have to consider your limits and reflect on what is going to be the easiest thing to try.

It's never too late.

Try to start small and work your way up.

[pateldevs]

Hello! I am a little new to your tumblr and love all the stuff you post particularly the wolfstar. I'm a pretty-solid-sorta-background-reader-but-sometimes-talker in the hp ao3 fanfic crew and have read a LOT of dramione and a variety of rare pairs BUT I have been wanting to read wolfstar for like a year and have just never gotten around to finding my jumping off point in that. Do you have an recs? Thanks in advance <3

hey!! first of all welcome and thank you so much for your kind words! (i’m also super honored that you’re looking for my opinion on wolfstar fics!!) tbh i tend to read like the same 5 fics over and over ~for comfort~ but here are some of my faves, putting them below the cut bc i did also include my thoughts and opinions:

if you like marauders-gen fic...

the lost generation — this is it folks. this is the holy grail of fics for me. it’s well-written, it expands way beyond canon, it has lots of regulus content, it develops all the marauders era characters so perfectly. mostly set during marauders era at hogwarts, canon-compliant, with lots of jily as well. it’s super long (it was started in 2013!!) and is still in progress so there is plenty to get through although i did fully get totally up to date (then 130 chapters) in like 2 days when i read it lol. really i can’t recommend this fic enough, i’ve read it like 6 or 7 times in its entirety and it gets me every time.

it never goes out — completed and canon-compliant, another amazing marauders-gen fic set during hogwarts years. if you like reading cultural backstory (e.g. remus being welsh and seeing him interacting with his home & culture during the holidays) then would highly highly recommend since this has a lot of personality & character beyond just “boarding school” kind of vibes. lots of jily, lots of dorlene, much more contemporary in language compared to TLG above (like imo you can tell it’s american influenced but i don’t mind at all), and very in-tune with the 70s time period. cw for themes of abuse, addiction, and self-harm but relevant chapters are always marked. again i’ve reread this like 3 or 4 times and it was also one of the first wolfstar fics i ever read so <3 the author is also super nice!!

holy things — pretty young fic (as in they haven’t gotten together yet) but again it’s canon-compliant, set during the marauders’ years at hogwarts. if you like thoroughly developed metas and hcs about the harry potter universe this is for you! cw for themes of abuse and violence but relevant chapters are marked. background jily and dorlene and bonus content with cho chang’s parents lol. 

sanctuary — ok i always leave and come back to this fic because it’s quite slow-moving and the author is VERY specific about everything. whenever i come back to it i’m just floored by the level of detail. slight au where remus thinks his lycanthropy can be passed through touch but still very much canon-compliant.

brave faces, everyone — THIS IS THE SEQUEL TO IT NEVER GOES OUT and it is fantastic, again same exact vibes as its prequel in terms of historical context/late 70s vibes and a lot of cultural backstory to everyone. LOTS of domestic wolfstar and jily, plenty of background dorlene. again, canon-compliant. cw for themes of addiction, but again the author is super sweet and always marks all the chapters concerned

if you like aus...

the last great american dynasty — ok i don’t read wolfstar aus much BUT i love this one because it’s politics and i love that vibe. also it’s set in the states. slightly young adult (post college), kind of rwrb vibes if you like that! still very young but chapters are super substantial <3

if you want some angst...

the last farewell — ok this is the king of angst fics, it’s set before book 7 where remus tries to grapple with his guilt over marrying tonks so if you like stuff that respects canon/fits with the canon universe/timeline and you don’t mind remadora but still want wolfstar, this is for you. cw for grief obvs

several ways to apologize — a post-whomping willow prank fic, personally i like this one a lot because it’s a refreshing change from the usual “remus is angry everyone is picking sides” kind of fic

it’s alright — this is more hurt/comfort than angst but if you love nightmare hurt/comfort fics this is for you!! i regularly return to this one because i like to ✨project✨ but it’s just such a lovely wholesome fic with a happy ending :’)

to perish by the power of fire — very long one-shot set during hogwarts years with a particular emphasis on remus’ pov and his relationship with his lycanthropy and sirius, plenty of angst but with a happy ending

if you like dadfoot and domestic wolfstar fics (where sirius and remus raise harry)...

hold on to this lullaby — canon-compliant, where sirius manages to get to godric’s hollow and the order shows up right after voldemort finds james and lily :( fast-paced writing but it’s sirius & remus raising harry!! which is super sweet and cute all the time :)

a store of happiness — ok this is another one of my comfort fics, canon-divergent/fix-it starting at the end of book 3 where sirius is exonerated and he and remus take care of harry :) i come back to it probably once a week, it’s so cute <3

[theflannelwizard]

please give us some Mr small or Mr cornelle (corniell? corneille?? how do you spell it) headcanons 😳😳

i will b honest i haven’t given enough thought to the frog man to have much of an opinion on him but!!! i will attempt to do both for u anon! hold on bc this is gonna be a long post!

here’s mr corneille-

gender- this boy is a trans man. not sure where this idea came from but i like it? especially considering how quickly he jumps at any chance to be seen as macho/masc

sexuality- maybe bi? he def has a thing for the school nurse in canon and i’m not opposed to that but they do need to work on honesty and genuine bonding in their relationship.

OTP- i’ve seen him shipped with the nurse and also with steve! both of these are entirely valid but i haven’t given enough thought to them to say either is an otp. i def like the idea of him getting involved in a workplace romance tho, whether or not it leads to drama and gossip amongst the other teachers

BroTP- this man is BEST FRIENDS with steve small and you cannot tell me otherwise!!!!! (unless ur going to tell me they’re dating, which, again, could b cute.) they talk about the students, steve helps him pick out books to teach when mr c gets too excited about multiple options, and they hang out in the teachers lounge together! since they have the same break schedule they also hang out over holidays and shit- maybe they have double dates with larry and the nurse? and they have inside jokes about the students and other teachers. usually it’s nothing hurtful, more just “you had to be there”

NoTP- i feel like there’s a slim chance someone tried to ship him with a student and again. pedo.philia is not allowed. otherwise i’m chill with him being in lots of different relationships! he’s enough of a blank slate that lots of dynamics could work!

A fun dynamic they would have- i bet he’s the kind of Cool Teacher that really inspired Clare and her classmates! I would love to see his teaching style and know how he interacts with his students! it could be especially fun to see him and Anaïs interact, because he’s either one of the most positive and encouraging forces in her life (this could be a sweet bond) or he has a different favorite student, which could lead to her either resenting him or working overtime to become the teachers pet. personally i see anaïs as the type that teachers love and dote on bc she’s so smart and clever and she prefers to hang out with the teacher at lunch and recess since she doesn’t have many friends

Any other fun headcanons or things i wanted to elaborate on- again, this character is kinda new to me, but i like to think he becomes a pacifist after his terrible experience in the ring, which makes the nurse like him even more (he’s sweet and sensitive!!) and also strengthens his bond with mr small, who tries to rope him further and further into hippie culture.

and mr. small!

gender- i like to think he’s nonbinary!! he uses he/they pronouns in his personal life but usually sticks with he/him and mr. while at work (and i’m gonna use he/him for convenience in this post)

sexuality- i mean. he sure is gay for men. maybe bi/pan, but he definitely likes men.

OTP- again, i may be basic but stevelmeyer/smallarry/etc is endgame for me uwu. that said i’m not gonna rain on anyone’s parade if they have a different ship! i talked a lot about these two in the last post, but i didn’t mention that i think they were both absolutely useless before they got together. steve thought he could flirt by just being really nice and always giving larry a tip and being ambiguously very affectionate and it worked but it also threw larry for a loop because 1) is this flirting? not expressly but also no one is nice to larry so maybe it is? but on the other hand- 2) he did this starting the first time he saw larry. maybe he’s just really nice to everyone. larry gets so flustered around steve that he sometimes welcomes him to the wrong store. also steve is enough of a good and decent person that he doesn’t aggressively flirt with people while they’re working and he waits until he finally catches larry on a break/off day to actually make a move. also once they’re more comfortable together larry uses steve as a pillow and eventually rob does the same

BroTP- mr. corneille!!!! bffs!!!! once mr c becomes a pacifist steve is all “hey do you wanna go to a rally with me? it’s for peace” “how do you rally for peace?” “we mostly just hold signs and sing kumbayah but at the very least it’s peaceful within the rally” and “hey do you wanna go thrifting with me? i try to only buy things that are used or recycled” “uh... sure, why not?” “oh thank god larry is at work and rob is at school” “wait, you mean NOW? steve, we’re at school too”

NoTP- i don’t want to see him dating any of his coworkers except maybe mr c. i’m not entirely sure why this is but i feel like he’s not really a dating within the workplace kinda guy. also obviously no minors

A fun dynamic they would have- i LOVE seeing him at work with students, but i wanna home in on him and rob. rob starts coming to him because he’s either sent there or wants to get out of class, where he feels simultaneously ignored and judged. at first he doesnt say anything, just sits there holding his knees and refusing to make eye contact, but eventually steve is able to earn his trust and they start actually talking. rob gets more and more open about his past, his lack of a family, his troubles with making friends and feeling wanted (or even noticed), and all the other shit he’s been through, and steve is actually able to help. his advice isn’t always perfect, but he does a pretty decent job when given a specific problem to fix, and he’s so loving and well intentioned that rob doesn’t hold any mistakes against him. rob accidentally calls him dad during a session once, and it makes steve cry. he immediately goes home after school and asks larry if he wants kids. yes he does adopt rob. yes it does make both of them insanely happy. steve is the cool dad who doesn’t care what rob gets up to as long as he’s safe and not hurting anyone, and rob is so proud that he’s earned his dads trust that he usually does a pretty decent job staying out of trouble. steve is also careful to never smoke in front of rob, even tho rob absolutely knows his dad isn’t sober by a long shot.

Any other fun headcanons or things i wanted to elaborate on- working as a guidance counselor is actually the only job he’s ever had. he spent his 20s really deep in drug/hippie culture, and even tho he never wanted to “escape” it, he did realise eventually that he needed a job if he wanted to make it. his parents were always very supportive of him, but they naturally grew more distant as he became an adult. part of the reason he was able to have such a laid back childhood and young adulthood is he had their support. also, as much as he advocates for alternative medicine, he’s not an anti-vaxxer. he’s about learning what herbs and natural medicines can do for you, and using stuff like vaccines and medicines where they’re needed rather than as a first resort- if a tea can cure a headache, why take advil? and he painted janice himself! it took forever, and he’s so proud of her (and himself)

[arlocedwards]

╰ ✧ HARRY STYLES. MUSE NINE. PANSEXUAL ❞ say hello to the s club’s very own ARLO EDWARDS! a TWENTY-FOUR YEAR OLD, CISMALE that goes by HE/HIM pronouns. i heard they were voted BEST SHOULDER TO CRY ON in high school, which says a lot about them because they’re very IDEALISTIC and INTUITIVE, but watch out for their DETACHED and DESTRUCTIVE side as well. i hope they’re ready to take a break from being a MUSICIAN and finally get this summer started! ( kt / 24 / pst / she/her )

hiya! i am kt &+ underneath the read more is some info about my bb, arlo. ** insert clown emoji but make him yee-haw ** 

trigger warning : death .

NAME: arlo cornelius edwards. GENDER: cismale. PRONOUNS: he, him. AGE: twenty-four ( 24 ). BIRTHDAY: february 14th. ZODIAC: aquarius !! HOMETOWN: kent, england. ORIENTATION: pansexual OCCUPATION: drummer. LANGUAGES SPOKEN: english & french. FACECLAIM: harry styles ~ currently featuring long hair.  :’-) 

kt’s note: I KNOW THIS IS SO LONG, SO IF YOU DON’T READ IT, I WILL NOT GET OFFENDED. 

but, just read this so y’know what you’re getting yourself into when interactions open : death tw: arlo will be joining this summers reunion coming from his parents home, post-funeral, trying to escape boxing up his brothers stuff and wanting to not be pitied. :’-( my boy is going through it, so his typical behavior and personality is gonna be v muted for a while.

ᴀʀʟᴏ'ꜱ ʙᴀᴄᴋɢʀᴏᴜɴᴅ

arlo was born in kent, england. i know what you’re wondering, and yes, he does have an accent. :’-) his family moved to new york when he was five years old because arlo’s father was offered a high level position within his company.

arlo was born into a loving family, him being the middle child. he has two supportive parents, sasha edwards (his mother), & carter edwards (his father). there are two years separating him from both his older brother and younger sister. his older brother ( now deceased ) was named holden edwards, and his little sister is named ivy edwards. his older brother can be imagined as eric matthews from boy meets world ( at the end of the day, they were bffs ) & his little sister is quite literally cher horowitz from clueless mixed w/ a splash of bianca stratford from 10 things i hate about you  ( they are polar opposites which makes for a fun dynamic !! )

growing up, arlo enjoyed playing all types of sports - there truly wasn’t anything that he wasn’t really good at, and that’s simply because he’s always been such a competitive individual. he would go home and practice a skill or trick for hours in order to be able to come back the next day and whoop everyone’s asses. he will fight  you over board games and make alliances in monopoly to mess w/ you. 

his interest in taking up an instrument kicked in when he was seven years old. he and his dad were driving back from a hockey game together late at night, and his dad played him the song moby dick by led zeppelin & he knew it was something that he wanted to pursue bc “john bonham was a genius.” ~ arlo vc. and so his dad gifted him a drum set on his eighth birthday !! :’-) soft. but over the years he was exposed to other instruments and can also play the guitar, piano, and he has a nice set of pipes !! harry styles being his vc as well ~ makes it easy. he really wants to learn the saxophone tho??? don’t get him started - he will go on and on and on.

throughout highschoool ; arlo was a v dedicated student. although he’s a bit reckless and loved to goof off, he was always acing classes and applying himself. he genuinely cares for others, you could’ve seen his ass volunteering at a soup kitchen with his mom on sundays and what not! just soft things.

until now - now anti-soft. hard things.  sdgjdjgd okay, so, arlo is A Mess™️. and i say that with so much love in my bones. arlo is the type of friend that is honest, and all about tough love when it’s needed. he doesn’t mind getting into a fight or two if he knows its worth the outcome he’s envisioned. he will tell you when you’re fucking up, and if you’re throwing a punch as a result - catch him leaning into it. this ties in l8r !!

he’s just a bit desperate to feel against following the death of his brother & also post-break up with shanley? ( which give me one hot sec and i’ll go into those v soon ) but overall he just wants to feel like himself again, y’know ?? don’t we all. amen & what not. to break it down, he just feels so intensely that he ends up numbing himself in the aftermath of it all, and he’s sadly willing to put himself into harms way in order to get a bit of that - happiness / pain, it doesn’t matter to him as long as he no longer feels numb. so, if ya see him with some scrapes and stitches ~ MIND YA BUSINESS.

arlo’s lurve life : woo ! okay, welcome back -- let’s get into it. so shanley and arlo dated throughout hs and into their first year of college, for a whopping five years together before they broke up. god if you’ve made it this far, i applaud you...but hmu and let me know your fav color, okay? like and comment below ?? subscribe ?? thx. OKAY BACK TO BUSINESS. in case you’re wondering who broke up with who, gosh so nosy, let me just tell you ‘twas arlo. he did it, we can unfollow his ass now. BUT ~ he didn’t want to ? y’know. he felt like due to the long distance, she was missing out on college experiences and her waiting by the phone for him to call was just sad, and he felt guilty. he wanted her to enjoy her time and felt as if he was weighing her down. although he did try make an effort to fix this doing by visiting her that weekend at her university in chicago, but when he came across her with friends he felt stupid and bailed back to cali again. a couple months later he called her, hoping to apologize for his poor judgement and admit to his mistake of ending the relationship, but she wasn’t the one who answered the phone. arlo assumed the random guy who answered was shanley’s new boyfriend (although , he was shanley’s roommates boyfriend but my sad dumb ass boi didn’t know ). arlo only assumed the voice belonged to shan’s bf bc he swears the voice distinctly said “coming, babe!” ( although he did, just not to shanley) and ever since arlo’s been a bit jaded when it comes to romance. shanley called him back later that day, and arlo shrugged her off bc he was jealous af and drunk - claiming he “butt dialed her and it wouldn’t happen again.” :’-( since then they haven’t been in contact. 

he was so in love with shanley, and despite him being the one to end things, he’s never fully gotten over her. he’s definitely hooked up with other people, but my boy is not the committing type after that relationship. 

after high school, arlo attended stanford university, as they offer one of the best criminal law programs across the nation. wahoo ! yahtzee !

after graduating college, arlo moved to san francisco & moved in with ali !! they have a nice little place overlooking the golden gate bridge w/ quality acoustics for their creative music projects. / also where he currently lives !! :’-) we love a bromance.

while in san francisco, arlo attended university to continue on pursuing his law degree  and after two years was able to graduate with his juris doctor. 

TRIGGER WARNING : DEATH / CAR ACCIDENT / DRUNK DRIVING. the death of his brother is very recent, like four weeks ago recent. arlo and his brother were road tripping across the states back to their family home in NY to visit their parents, when a drunk driver struck the driver side of their vehicle, which on impact killed his brother. arlo has survivors guilt as a result from the accident. he and his brother had switched seats a couple minutes prior to the collision, after arlo had asked to switch with him in order to rest for a bit. :’-( miraculously, arlo was unscathed in the greater scheme of all things injury-based. he’s entering the villa w/ a couple broken ribs, broken left arm and scrapes/cuts. so plz sign his cast. 

post-break up with shanley, they had some type of unspoken agreement of trading off years of who gets to attend the summer( aka who has custody of the sclub ) and so last year, arlo did not attend. however, this year, they somehow got their info wrong about who was going / not going, so they have found themselves here at the same time. this being the first time they’ve seen each other since holidays during their first year of college previous to their break up. so get ready for some spice.

last summer, since arlo wasn’t attending the sclub reunion, he was taking the california state bar exam. which is only offered twice a year - he opted for the one in july and passed! :’-) he spent some time after the exam in europe with hastrid. <3

however, arlo will be joining this summers reunion coming from his parents home, post-funeral, trying to escape boxing up his brothers stuff and wanting to not be pitied. :’-( my boy is going through it, so his typical behavior and personality is gonna be v muted for a while.

ᴘᴇʀꜱᴏɴᴀʟɪᴛʏ

overall : arlo truly strives to be kind, and genuinely wants for everyone to get along. treat people with kindness and the like. he has the best of intentions, but often times that can get a bit muddled with the way he goes about things due to his chaotic energy. he will do anything to lighten a dark mood, and will sacrifice / throw himself under the bus if its needed. however, he also is the type to cause the dark mood depending on the day.

however rn, with his current state of mind, arlo is just going through the motions. numbing himself with unhealthy outlets and has a different type of mentality. definitely engaging in a bit of the more chaotic activities, as well as leaving everyone alone to their own vices as well. whereas his typical behavior would be more so attempting to lead them onto a better path if it meant well for their overall wellbeing. 

habits : smoking cigarettes ( ali likely nags him bc they aren’t herbal ) . staying up into the early hours of the morning, and yet somehow still an early riser ( hence, he drinks an absurd amount of coffee ). yeah, hence. - get it, from the house bunny? sdjfkngdg any who, he’s in a phase of numbing via alcohol and drugs rn. 

personality type : INTP - T / THE LOGICIAN

moral alignment : chaotic good

tarot card : the hermit ( currently )

character inspo : connor walsh from how to get away with murder, jess mariano from gilmore girls, & ambrose spellman from chilling adventures of sabrina ( literally his #1 ranked personality match on a quiz i took ) !! so, we have that ! and also a heavy sprinkle of seth cohen from the o.c.

ʜᴇᴀᴅᴄᴀɴᴏɴꜱ

the album ‘fine line’ by golden child, harry styles in this case will be used as a hc for arlo. arlo wrote and recorded the album - all songs included, with his muse being shanley over the course of the last couple of years. he’s just kind of been sitting on the entire thing, never really feeling it was the right time to release his work/side solo project...but later this summer, he may just leak it. :’-)

arlo is a vegetarian ! he has been since his freshman year of high school.

those who inspire him : roger taylor, mick jagger, alex van halen, john bonham.

LUNA : ali and arlo co-founded the band with friends edie dorn and guy perkins in junior high. playing gigs where they could as often as possible. arlo was on lead vocals, ali as lead guitarist, edie on bass, and guy on drums. although when it came down to recording and what not they seemed to bounce around when it came to other instruments - v experimental. the band took off in college, prior to something strange and over the years they’ve produced numerous albums and have won a couple awards. 

red roses are his Thing™️ ; fans of the band will walk up and hand him them. i think that’s soft. and i am here for it.

he loves fancy wine ~ he’s cultured.

fun fact : dirty dancing is v much so a sharlo movie. they used to practice and be able to successfully pull of the jump & lift dance move literally just for fun / bc they wanted to. after nailing the lift, they learned the entire dance - i can't. dfjkgndjkg SOFT.

arlo has all of harry’s tattoos !! makes it simpler, might add more along the way !! stay tuned, folks !!

also the ‘ h & s ‘ rings that will be seen in photographs later on are for his brother, holden, and bbg, shanley </3

arlo is a gucci enthusiast - having much of his closet filled with staple pieces over the years. to further his love for the brand, he was recently asked to be in an upcoming campaign for the fall season - he’s v jazzed about it.

ᴏᴘᴇɴ ᴄᴏɴɴᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴꜱ

𝖌𝖔𝖔𝖉 𝖎𝖓𝖋𝖑𝖚𝖊𝖓𝖈𝖊 ( open connection ) : with arlo being a bit chaotic in nature, he needs somebody that is likely going to steer him clear from all the ideas that’ll bring him to the brink of disaster. he’s impulsive and in that desperate attempt to feel again, he’s very likely to bring a bit of mayhem upon himself. so while they may constantly worrying and attempting to talk his ideas down, he’s trying to get them to go along with his plan. it may be rare that he actually takes their advice, but when he does it seems to be for the best.

𝖕𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖞 𝖋𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖉 / 𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖋𝖎𝖉𝖆𝖓𝖙 ( open connection ) : these two know how to have a good time together. despite the amount of alcohol they are throwing back and the shenanigans they find themselves in as a result, this is a time where they also find themselves confiding in one another. if you look at their camera rolls, it’s likely they have tons of embracing and unflattering videos and pics of one another, in between their sob-worthy confessionals and venting/rants. these two trust one another, and although they love getting wreckT together, they find themselves discussing very raw and personal details.

open to other connection you may have in mind! :’-)  LMK!!!! <3 i love me some chemistry !!!

ᴛᴀᴋᴇɴ ᴄᴏɴɴᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴꜱ ( featured on arlo’s connections page here !! )

𝖋𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖘 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍 𝖇𝖊𝖓𝖊𝖋𝖎𝖙𝖘 ( taken - simon peralta ) : these two went through rough break ups of their own, and a rebound didn’t sound too bad to either of them at the time things started. it may not occur all the time, but they sometimes still find themselves offering up to one another. this occurred more frequently then any of arlo’s one night stands, obvi, but it never surpassed anything other than the physical aspect of their relationship. the nature of their relationship outside of the bedroom can go either way !!!  :’-)

𝖆 𝖇𝖗𝖔𝖒𝖆𝖓𝖈𝖊 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖆𝖌𝖊𝖘 ( taken - ali mallick ) : as if living together for the past two years wasn’t enough, ali & arlo are also roommates every summer that arlo attends the sclub reunions. these two are always laughing, and saying some ridiculous ish. you’ll likely hear loud jam sessions and howling laughter / the occasional excited shouting back and forth from their room in the late hours. they are truly nothing but a good time and tbh, they know it. that and the fact that they have the best hair in the villa. djfgnjkdfg FIGHT ME !!

𝖍𝖎𝖌𝖍 𝖘𝖈𝖍𝖔𝖔𝖑 𝖘𝖜𝖊𝖊𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖘 ( taken - shanley evans ) : these two began their relationship in their freshman year of high school - spending five years together before breaking up in their freshman year of college. * cries in sharlo * they were the “it” couple, no pennywise included … unless ? anyways, everyone thought that they were going to get married, and arlo was v much in love / thinking shanley was his romantic soulmate. yet when they did break up everyone was shookith - even the birds and the bees.

𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖞 𝖜𝖊𝖗𝖊 𝖗𝖔𝖔𝖒𝖒𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖘 𝖇𝖆𝖓𝖉𝖒𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖘 ( taken - ali mallick , willow finch , sirena rose ) : these four formed something strange. arlo is the drummer of the group, and also writes some songs for the group. they’ve blown up over the years and are a quite successful group.

𝖛 𝖘𝖎𝖇𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖌-𝖑𝖎𝖐𝖊 𝖗𝖊𝖑𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘𝖍𝖎𝖕 ( taken - sirena rose / willow finch ) : these two have a love/hate relationship, very sibling like filled with pranks, competition, teasing and playful banter. however, when it comes down to it they have so much love and respect for one another. they know that no matter what happens they will always have one anothers back and be supportive of the other. pure relationship.

𝖗𝖎𝖉𝖊 𝖔𝖗 𝖉𝖎𝖊 ( taken - delilah jacobs ) : ride or dies ! need i say more ?? these two have one anothers backs despite anything and everything going on otherwise. they play in to one anothers antics and enjoy one anothers presence as they can likely be seen dragging one another across town and causing a bit of mayhem together. you can catch them in their beautiful, bitch #1 & #2 tee's.

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖔𝖙𝖎𝖈 𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖕𝖆𝖓𝖎𝖔𝖓 ( taken - ramona verdez ) : it would be wrong to say one is the more likely the bad influence over the other, although arlo may just be. these two find themselves bounding into, well hell, ( i guess??? ) together. playing on one anothers impulsiveness and if one ends up in the back of a police car, the other is handcuffed to them. and yet despite the length of their potential injuries, they find themselves thinking of something crazier to subject them to the next time around. with arlo having his law degree, he’s always able to squeeze them out of trouble before it gets too serious, so trust - it’s ok !! 

𝖚𝖓𝖑𝖎𝖐𝖊𝖑𝖞 𝖋𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖉𝖘 / 𝖕𝖔𝖑𝖆𝖗 𝖔𝖕𝖕𝖔𝖘𝖎𝖙𝖊𝖘 ( taken -  izzy de la rosa ) : these two may have ran in the same circle, but were complete opposites when it came down to their personalities / styles / perhaps even humor, so it was expected for them to stand their distance. however despite the odds, they just clicked !! opposites attract and what not, ya dig??  somehow their dynamic just works and they have a lot of fun together by introducing new things to one another.

[astranne]

(Natalia Romanova) Crossover Harry Potter x Marvel

So, Natalia Romanova. Daughter of Black Widow and the Winter Soldier. The Avengers are totally her honorary uncles and aunts. Since she‘s James‘ daughter she‘s a super soldier too and HYDRA did some experiments so she‘s now stronger/faster than Captain America. She is now also an empath and telepath. And since this is an AU, Black Widow is a witch (Harry Potter universe here). But she never learned magic like all the others, she never needed speels and a wand. Just like Natalia. The royal family has always been magic, so they are important too in the wizarding world. But since Natasha never has been at the magic places they think she‘s a squib and like her daughter magicless. Anyway.

So, the muggle world thinks, that Natalia goes to a private school with other rich kids, bc Natasha wants her childhood as normals as possible. They send her to Durmstrang, bc this is the perfect school for her. (In this fic, many dark wizard families send their children there, Durmstrang is almost as big as Hogwarts and a proud school. The asshole Igor somewhat is not there) And a former Red Room 'friend' of Natasha is teacher there, so she can train her daughter while school. She goes under the name Natalia Romanoff, but somehow they realize this is the princess of russia. Naturally they try to become her friend, but... her glare is really scary. And then she starts talking about her father and they are like, nooopee not with me. But someone doesn‘t recognizes her. One Draco Malfoy. His father sends him to Durmstrang, bc the school is known for the good teaching in DADA (they totally also learn some dark spells) and Lucius will not send his heir to the school where this Dumbleshit is. Draco only says once, 'my father will hear about this', but no one fears his father. They are all pretty chill and not like britain wizards. So Draco slowly changes, doesn’t become this little brat who runs to his father everytime. He’s more like: oh fuck, my mom will kill me, when he does something dumb. It‘s in the middle of the school year, when he sees Natalia in the library and they just start talking. He has no idea who she is, bc Malfoys hate the muggle world and yeah. Natalia notices that and decides, this is now my best friend. They start to hang out, prank some olders and become friends with Vikor Krum, who starts his career.

And everybody is like: boy, do you realize this is a princess? Draco is just confused until she tells him and he‘s just: why did you do this to me??? I thought we‘re friends? He takes it with humor, yk Draco isn’t this little shit like in canon, Well, he still can be, but only when necessary. Anyway, he’s totally proud, that he’s the best friend of the princess of russia.

Anyway. They become friends and Draco writes a letter, before he comes home. There he casually writes he befriended the Romanova heir and how she teached him some moves with knifes. His father pales, bc draco- how in the bloody hell did you become friends with the russian princess, who is the daughter of the most feared assassin??? His mother is proud and excited to meet this Natalia.

Anywayyy. Draco comes home, his father tries his usual shit, but his son just walks past him and hugs his mother. Narcissa approves™

Uhm... probably should mention that Draco let his hair grow? Bc omg- twelve year old Draco Malfoy with a undercut and a little bun. Omg- and then some years later. You either die, bc he‘s so cute or bc he‘s so hot.

Anyway. Draco and Natalia write through the summer and also meet. James begins to teach Draco, bc you are now the best friend of my daughter. She can‘t always protect you. The Malfoys meet the Romanovas and somehow the whole wizarding world knows this.

Lucius called Natalia a half blood, bc he tought James is one.

“Excuse me, my Lord. But my father is the head of the Barnes family, an old and ancient house of America. He is a true wizard, if the muggels wouldn‘t have tortured him, his magical core still would be intact.“ James stares at Lucius, like he’s ready to kill and then mutters something in russian. Natalia snorts unladylike, while Natasha grins. (James called Lucius a little boy, (in not so nice words) bc he fears his daughter who is twelve years old. Shame on you, Lucius)

Bc Natalia is bored, she created an Instagram account, where she immediately gained millions of followers.

“Hey there! You probably think, what the bloody hell is the princess of-"

“Stop swearing, young lady!“

“And this was my father... anyway. I have summer holidays and while I still prepare for the next school year, I have sooo much time to do nothing! And- Draco, come here! I want you to introduce to Instagram.“ Natalia grins widely, while she films Draco, who was reading a book about the history of Russia.

“What now, Nat?“, he mumbles.

“Look in the camera!“

“You know, if you say that, I will especially not doing it.“

“And this is my best friend Draco.“

“Draco Malfoy.“ She rolles her eyes playfully, when he still ignores her.

“Draco Lucius Malfoy... now stop being such a brat and come here.“

“I hate it, when you call me by my full name.“

“Anyway. This is Draco Malfoy, my best friend. We met in the middle of the school year and since then-“

“Everybody has to suffer because of our alliance.“

“We are friends, Draco! Stop being such a bloody-“

“Young Lady-“

“It was Draco!“ Her fans love their interactions. Some even do competitions about Draco‘s insults at random people.

“My dad teached Draco some things and now he won‘t let this bloody knife-“

“Natalia Romanova, no cruse words in this household.“

“I swear, my dad knows everytime when I cruse. It‘s spooky.“ Draco snorts, while he still twirls the knife in his hand.

“Your father knows everything you do.“

“That‘s true.“

She gets the permission, still to post on social media while being at school. As long she doesn’t exposes the wizarding world.

“I wanted to introduce you to another friend of mine! This is Viktor-“

“Stanislav! Did you hear? I‘m friends with the princess, take that you fucking asshole!“

“We are not friends anymore, Vic! Stanislav, you are now my new best friend!“

“Hey! What about me??“

Some people are concerned, that she only has male friends, since they only met the three.

“Please. Girls can be soo dramatic, it‘s so fucking annoying. But I have some female friends. Like Daphne. But she goes to another school.... Draco? Do you think we could kidnap Daphne, so she goes with us to school?“ Draco is so done with his life. Why did he became friends with her? She only makes problems...

So yeah, Natalia is a cheerful person, but if you try to hurt her friends or family, she raises hell. Draco tries to control the chaos she creates, but is not always successful.

Uhm, fast forward I think? To fourth year, the Triwizard Tournament. Bc Draco and Natalia are one of Victor‘s closest friends, (and have powerful names) the go for a year to Hogwarts. They also meet the golden trio, who has no idea who they are, but Ron is searching for the princess. Hermione tries to stop him, but he already did the mess. Natalia begins raises an eyebrow and asks him what business he has with the princess.

“I need to speak with her.“

“And you are? Draco, is he a part of the pure blood families?“ Draco just shruggs and says: “I‘m not entirely sure, he has the looks of a Weasly and while they are a pure blood family, no one of the elite likes them.“ Harry begins to shout at Draco, Ron too, while Hermione wants to bang her head against the wall.

“I‘m sure, this is a misunderstanding. I‘m not from England, so I don‘t know the important families like Draco does. He simply said what your political position in the wizarding world is. I‘m sure you know the Malfoys, this is Draco Malfoy and he‘s my best friend. I appologies, if something we said came out wrong, but in Durmstrang you normally don‘t offend students with the political positions of their parents.“

Hermione becomes friends with the two, Harry and Ron are then pissed. Does she care? No.

So, they have their fun in Howgarts, they also befriend the Weasly twins and prank some people.

And then comes the fifth year. People loose their absolute shit, bc boy- They haven‘t seen Draco for 3 months and suddendly he‘s one of the hottest teenagers of the world. They start to ship the two, but Natalia doesn’t react to the fans about this.

For information, they are in the sixth year when they come together (somewhat)

But in the summer after the fifth year, some agency contacts Draco and asks him if he wants to do modeling. And he‘s like, why not. Then I have also a name in the muggle world and much influence.

He does a great job. He gains a fandbase, (he already has one) who are like: fucking finally-bitch, what took you so long???

He also starts social medias, mostly talks about his life. And the world meets his mother and they are like: ok wow, we understand, Draco. She‘s an angel, a badass angel. We know now, why he‘s such a perfect boy

So yeah, Draco starts modeling, his father tries to throw a hissy fit but can‘t really do anything about it.

I totally forgot about it, but Voldemort came back and James is like- fuck this shit and killed him. And destroyed all his Horcruxes. He went to all his former followers and was like: bitches, this was a half blood who wanted to destroy the wizarding world. Don‘t follow his mistakes or I‘ll kill you all.

They look at him with big eyes and he then tells, he wants his daughter save and how can she be save, when the parents of her friends follow a mass murderer?

And yeah, this is how the Winter Soldier destroyed Dumbledore’s plans and didn‘t even know it.

And yeah. Draco starts also acting (he‘s really good at it) and is a part time teacher in Durmstrang. Natalia is doing princess stuff, represents her house in the wizarding world and just lives her life.

They marry some years later (the biggest wedding of the century after Natalia‘s parents).

Masterlist

[pokemonswshbutionlyplayedsword]

I’m curious as to how other gym leaders reacted to piers becoming a gym leader, especially ones like Kabu and Opal who could probably see how he was struggling more before that. Do you have any other gym leader hcs?

Great question, anon. Before we get into it, we have to cover a few quick things.

Timeline of Piers’ life:

Went on Gym Challenge (Age 12, still lived with abusive parents, Marnie was not born yet) –> Marnie is Born (Age 13, Parents are still around, and still abusive, but only to Piers) –> Parents Left (Age 15, Marnie is Age 2) –> Became Gym Leader (Age 18, Marnie Age 5, Morpeko is given to her shortly after)

Piers’ family wasn’t very wealthy, but they had a house and enough food for one meal a day. I’ve been skirting around it for a while, but Piers’ parents were really shitty. They spent most of their cash on drugs and alcohol, and were verbally, emotionally and sometimes physically abusive. They manipulated Piers almost every day. They were not cruel in any way to Marnie when she was born, but they were still addicts. They were neglectful to her. I know these things can be kind of touchy, so I will add a tw in the tags. I always say this when I have smth like this, but if there’s an additional tag that you need me to add, please let me know and I will be happy to do it for you.

Not all of the gym leaders that are gym leaders in the game were gym leaders when he became one. The gym leaders that are still around in the game and were there when Piers joined their ranks were Milo (Who Was Pretty New), Nessa (Also Very New), Kabu (Who Had Been a Gym Leader for a While), Melony (Had Been a Gym Leader for a while), Opal (Had Been A Gym Leader for a Very Long Time), and Raihan (New). Leon had been Champion for some time now, and was also part of the group that Raihan and Piers had been in when they went on the gym challenge, though he was probably the youngest there, as he was 10 and most other kids were 12.

OKAY, now we can get into the actual headcanons.

Milo:

-He was a new gym leader when Piers joined the ranks.

-Milo was part of Piers’ group in the gym challenge, but they didn’t interact much.

-When Piers became gym leader, there were a lot of rumors about him being a bad person (bc he’s a dark type user) that Milo believed so he avoided Piers for a while.

-However, when someone becomes a gym leader, the others are supposed to visit and get to know them. This is when Milo really met Piers and learned about his situation with Marnie (vaguely, Piers doesn’t pour his life story out for anyone). And he changed his mind.

-They get along alright. They don’t hang out much, but they’re friendly towards eachother.

-Bonus headcanon: Milo is the tallest person in his family. He and his younger brother get along very well and are quite close.

Nessa:

-Like Milo, Nessa was new when Piers joined.

-She did not partake in the gym challenge, so she never saw Piers battle before. She was a bit skeptical since he always looked “dead” to her.

-When he became a gym leader, she was the first to march over to Spikemuth and welcome him to the team. She learned about Marnie and Piers’ situation (again vaguely) and was absolutely smitten. She thought it was so sweet that Piers was taking care of her and she absolutely loves little kids. She thinks Marnie is just the cutest.

-They get along well, and bc crazy shit always seems to happen at his concert, Piers will call Nessa just so she can get her drama fix.

-Bonus headcanon: She’s got an insane appetite. She can eat for like hours and still be hungry (and skinny cause she’s also got a crackhead metabolism). She’s scared away more than one date with this.

Kabu:

-Kabu’s not great at reading people, but when Piers came to challenge him, he could tell he was stressed and upset. He figured it was nerves, so he gave Piers the same advice he always does “You can challenge me as many times as you’d like.” Piers beat him in the first try (w/o dynamax so yeah he doesn’t need help with battles Kabu)

-Years later, Piers became the gym leader and Kabu came to congratulate him. Learned about Marnie and was all “oh is this what you seemed upset about? People are usually unhappy about being separated from family during the challenge” and Piers was like “um no she wasnt even born yet” so Piers ended up telling Kabu about his parents.

-Kabu tries to be supportive of Piers and help him feel better about his parents and past abuse (but Piers is already doing better bc he has Marnie). Piers appreciates it, but Kabu and Piers aren’t very close.

-They get along pretty well because Kabu really respects Piers’ strength both in battles and emotionally.

-Bonus headcanon: Opal thinks he’s a fool who focuses too much on pokemon battles to even notice anything else around him. She is correct. Sometimes he gets so involved in training he doesn’t notice his pokemon accidentally set his clothes on fire.

Melony:

-By the time Piers made it to Melony’s gym, he was tired, upset, frustrated. His parents had berated him for not dynamaxing, but he wanted to stay true to Spikemuth. He ended up telling Melony this after their battle. She comforted him and stayed with him until he was ready to move on from Circhester.

-Not long after Piers’ parents vanished, they got back in touch. Piers needed her help with Marnie and she practically adopted them. She brought them groceries, invited them to dinner and holidays. Really, she saved Piers more times than he cares to count.

-She was so thrilled to hear Piers was a gym leader. She always knew he was a talented trainer and was sad when he decided he didn’t want to do battles anymore. She’s glad he’s able to do both training and music at the same times, bc he loves them both and is good at them.

-They get along fantastically and see each other on a regular basis just bc they’re practically family. Piers gets along well with Gordie bc of this, but now that they’re fighting, Piers comes around less. He doesn’t like to hear people getting angry and doesn’t want to have to pick a side.

-Bonus Headcanon: Absolutely the best hugger. She always wears fluffy clothes, she’s pretty tall and somewhat stout so she’s pretty soft herself. Everyone loves Melony. There’s not a single person alive who can say they genuinely hate her.

Opal:

-Opal may be a fairy type trainer but she’s like a PSYCHIC. Give her 3 seconds and she’ll know your name, your favorite food, your favorite color, your BMI, your great great great great grandfather-

-She knew something was up with Piers the second she saw him, and being who she is, used her quiz to figure out what it was. Eventually, he spilled and told her everything during the challenge. She gave him some solid advice about protecting himself and sent him on his way with his badge.

-Later, when he became gym leader and she came to see him, she was able to get what had happened after the gym challenge out of him. She offered some more advice and then played with Marnie like old ladies do.

-They’re pretty friendly. Piers is slightly scared of her and she knows it, but she really cares about Piers and hopes he’s doing okay.

-Bonus headcanon: “I’m old, I can do what I want.” -Opal

Raihan:

-Raihan was the challenger that knocked Piers out of the gym challenge during the finals/semi-finals. Raihan was obsessed with how strong Piers was and kept trying to coax him into challenging him again and dynamaxing. Piers left after he lost and didn’t bother to see the rest of the challenge. Piers went home to his parents, who were livid that he lost.

-Not long after Piers’ parents left, he ran into Raihan again, who quickly figured out that it was just him and Marnie. Not long after that, Raihan became a gym leader and used that to help Piers get by and coax him back into training his pokemon.

-It was Raihan who got him to become the new Gym Leader for Spikemuth, so he was very happy. He was the one who introduced Leon and Piers.

-They’re close friends, even though Piers doesn’t act like it.

-Bonus Headcanon: Raihan was raised by a single father. His mother died when he was very young and he has no memory of her. Time to be sad, fellas.

Leon:

-Leon became champion in the finals that Piers was beaten in. He bested the old champion and then met back up with Raihan, who became his friend over the course of his gym challenge. Raihan spoke of nothing but beating Leon and finding Piers. Leon wasn’t very familiar with Piers. They never really met.

-When Piers became Gym Leader, Leon was supposed to go congratulate him, but he was really busy. Raihan weaseled his way into his schedule and dragged him to Spikemuth. There, he met Piers and Raihan explained Piers’ experience from his parents (which Raihan found out about later on) to his situation with Marnie. Leon really began to feel sympathy.

-Leon attempted to become friends with Piers, and it worked to an extent (through Hop I suppose mostly). It wasn’t until much later that Piers and Leon would become good friends.

-They’ve always been on friendly terms, though.

-Bonus headcanon: When Leon became champion, he became very arrogant and distant from his family. Hop was born after he became champion and he wasn’t the best bro at first. He simmered down, though, and really began to bond with his family again.

Thanks for the ask! This one took a while to write because I hadn’t really thought of that.

[hawkinslibrary]

i love hearing what you have to say about season 4!! i promise it’s not too long lol, anyway i have a question for you: what do you think the next season holds for mike & el? i’m a little worried tbh

ahhh thank you !! same rules apply: spoilers ahead, so please read no further and blacklist/filter out the ‘s4′, ‘st4′, ‘spoilers’ tags if you don’t want to see anything !! 

i’m going to talk about them both as individuals and as a pair but first, i have to say that i don’t personally feel like you have to worry about them breaking up or anything again this season. i think s4 is really going to establish romantic jopper and once that happens, i don’t see them, mileven, or jancy not being endgame unless someone actually dies. which -- i’m not going to think about the possibility of anyone dying until i’m forced to confront it, so. this is fiction and it’s already unrealistic and i’m gonna take my ‘everyone survives, happiness all around, time to relax’ endings and go. anyway, i would love to add lumax to this list but i honestly think it could go either way depending on what happens in s4. that’s a different essay, though.

i tend to think that the most important dynamic on the show is the one between the whole group and i just don’t really see them spending much more time trying to develop romantic relationships outside of the ones set up since s1/2. maybe steve, robin, and will get love interests, maybe they decide to develop dustin and suzie more, maybe suzie is never even mentioned again, idk. but these will probably all be secondary -- as in less screen time, not less important than the main romances, but probably still less developed. unless it happens to be a new person added to the main cast. which, as of now, the only new mains are brett and priah who has gone from recurring to regular. so.  

i think s3 showed how messy and complicated romantic relationships (or, really just relationships in general) can be. everyone was arguing, there was miscommunication all around, everyone thought they knew what was best, no one was seeing eye to eye. but when it comes down to it, they would do anything for each other. they understand each other better than anyone else ever could. i can’t see them spending another season on breakups and romance drama after the ending of s3.  

mike and el have already been separated once before. this time, mike knows for sure that she’s alive and that’s she’s with the byers. this time, el won’t be kept completely isolated away from everyone else. they’ve made plans to meet for the holidays. they can still call and talk to each other as much as they want. i’m hoping they handle being separated this time better than they did in s2. i don’t want mike to be moping and i don’t want el to spend a lot of the season thinking about how much she misses him. in fact, i think in their case that some distance could be good for them. the same for jancy and jopper, too, honestly. it’ll be nice to see them existing outside of these relationships while still acknowledging how important they are.   

as far as i know, the byers and el stuff has not started filming yet so all there is to speculate on are rumors, the audition tapes, and logical guesses about where the story goes after s3. el obviously moves away with the byers. we still don’t know where. she’ll still be mourning hopper and trying to figure out life without her powers. and, of course, she’ll be in a long distance relationship with mike. i think she’ll be having a hard time and she’ll wish that mike was around, but she’ll realize she’s got a pretty good support system around her now with the byers, too. i’m very, very excited for more joyce and el content particularly, but there’s gotta be some great scenes with her and will and jonathan as well. 

there’s only one audition tape that i can confidently tie into the byers + el plot(s?) and it’s the queen bee/mean girl character ‘angela’. if we’re running with the whole ‘there may be some truth to the audition vids’ thing, then this one teases that el will be going to school and that angela will be bullying her. this is something she would probably want to talk about with mike (b i g troy s1 vibes) but i don’t know if she actually would ? so this is probably more a thing that el and will could bond over or that she could talk about with joyce or maybe jonathan. i do think there will be at least a few calls between the two of them before the action really hits and the whole group is (hopefully...) reunited.

so, el -- at least in the beginning of s4 -- will be going to school where ‘angela’ bullies her, forming a bond with joyce + will + jonathan and becoming part of the family, mourning hopper (+ hopefully having conversations about him + his past with joyce), missing her friends back in hawkins, continuing to learn how to navigate life without her powers, and trying to maintain a long distance relationship with mike. 

mike... i’ve been seeing some wild theories about him today but they aren’t really that far-fetched i think. first, going back to the audition tapes, the ‘eddie’ audition i saw makes it seem like mike is going to be part of the hellfire club with dustin. i’ve recently learned that there’s another version of the scene where ‘eddie’ is only talking to dustin and mike might not be a part of the club after all. if he isn’t part of the club, then the basketball v. hellfire, jocks v. nerds thing turns into lucas v. dustin and mike’s probably there just caught in the middle while max is off distancing herself from everyone.

at this point, i really want mike and max to become good friends. i think the end of s3 gave them the perfect opportunity. s4 max has s2 mike vibes. it’s not the same situation at all, but he knows kinda what she’s feeling and they could connect through that + the fact that they’ll both be missing el. i also just really want... some wheeler siblings content. i’m hopeful that s4 gives us good nancy and mike scenes bc there’s no reason not to give us good nancy and mike scenes (+holly!). however...

while there’s proof that gaten and sadie and natalia and priah have all been filming since production restarted, and while i have reason to believe that caleb has been filming a lot inside/at the studio recently... there’s no evidence that finn has been on set. there’s none for maya and joe, either, but people have said that finn isn’t even in atlanta right now. maybe he is and maybe he just hasn’t been seen and maybe he’ll pop back up tomorrow. or, maybe he already filmed whatever he needed to film for hawkins before production stopped.  

the wild theory that’s popped up today is that everything gets to be too much for him in hawkins and he just... hops on a train to go visit el + the byers. i don’t know if i buy it, but it is interesting to note that he was sitting with them at the table read. and since we can guess that steve and robin will still be working at the video store, robin and nancy will be investigating pennhurst together, lucas and max may have some angst, joyce and murray are probably teaming up for the finding/saving hopper plot, and el is going to bond with will and jonathan, it seems like the order might mean a little something. i’d even bet that dustin and erica have scenes with them bonding over d&d.    

now this theory pretty much only exists because no one’s seen finn on set and one of the paps posted some pics of some trains. there’s also always theories about how there will be issues at home with the wheeler fam and if that’s going to happen, what better time than in s4 when all of his friends are pulling away and el’s gone again. so if he is missing el (and will) that much, and if he has any reason to worry about her and how she’s doing, or if the party becoming distant and issues at home are weighing on him and he feels like he needs to get away, he’s absolutely the type to venture off on a train by himself. i don’t know how it would work since he’s definitely supposed to still be in school and his friends/nancy at least would notice he’s gone, but.. it’s fun to think about and we’ve got zero actual content to go off of right now.  

another way i could see mike’s plot going is that he’s the one trying to keep the party together this season. playing mediator with lucas and dustin, becoming better friends with max, being the connection between the hawkins plot and the byers plot (along with nancy). 

there was also talk of him joining the track team bc the track has been set up with hawkins high colors for filming. but mike ‘this isn’t a stupid sports game’ wheeler? i don’t think so... basically, no one knows at the moment what’s happening with mike wheeler in s4 lol.

s4 mike is just like s4 byers fam -- a complete mystery to me currently. i don’t personally think that he’ll be leaving school and hopping on a train to visit el. i think he’ll be a part of the hellfire club with dustin, or that he won’t and instead will be attempting to keep the party from completely disbanding. i hope that we get wheeler siblings scenes and that max and mike have a breakthrough and become better friends. i also feel like he’ll be having some complicated feelings about hopper, the last interaction they had, etc. and, again, the whole long distance thing with el. 

so... mike and el broke up in s3. it was messy. but then they reconciled. and then hopper “died”. s3 ended with them at this weird place where she’s heard him say that he loves her and she’s told him that she loves him back. things are a little awkward in the scene bc everything has changed at this point, but a kiss, an ‘i love you’, planning to meet up on the holidays, and promising to call frequently all sounds like they’re back together and going to try making the long distance thing work to me. 

i think they’ll be together when s4 starts. i think that we’ll probably only see them talking on the phone or their radios for the first few eps. maybe we’ll see flashbacks or something to them being together on the holidays. the distance might be hard and they’re definitely going to be missing each other. like... el doesn’t have mike or hopper with her now and i’m thinking the party is going to be drifting apart, plus they’re both probably going to have other personal issues that have nothing to do with each other or the party. maybe they’ll be experiencing some emotional distancing of their own while dealing with the aftermath of hopper’s “death”, the move, and whatever’s going on with them at home and at school. i think that once they reunite (probably not until the last half of the season), they’re likely to be stronger than ever. 

now, onto personal theories that have zero basis. for some reason, i can’t get it out of my head that this season might dive into psychological horror a little bit ? like a greatest fears type of thing ?? and i keep thinking about brenner popping back up and using the people el loves to get to her or something and 👀👀 

[shkspr]

can i like. actually ask about ur experience w seretonin syndrome bc the explanations never really made much sense to me slkdjlfskd

yeah for sure!!! warning this is a convoluted story with many interacting factors and i can’t be 100% sure it was serotonin syndrome, but based on my other experiences with circumstances involving one or more of those factors, i’m inclined to believe that was what it was.

to set the scene: it was passover 2018, the first passover after i got my drivers license and also the first passover after i started taking lexapro. these facts are both relevant. and also i was dreadfully ill with some sort of head cold. and seeing as how i could drive, i was my brother’s ride to the seder. i also personally love passover it is my favorite holiday so the possibility of staying home that evening was never a serious option.

so i did what any sensible person would do when they have to be somewhere and they are very sick: i took a full dose of mucinex dm and a full dose of dayquil at the same time, and then i rolled up to the seder. now, you have to keep in mind here that there were several things going on that evening inside my body, so parsing the symptoms was incredibly difficult for me. 

because, okay. the symptoms of serotonin syndrome that i experienced that night were: sweats, shivers, fatigue, headaches, mental confusion, irritability, and nausea. but. those symptoms all could have been caused or exacerbated by one or more of the other factors involved, including: my head cold, my untreated adhd, an abundance of food, alcohol per se plus the effects of mixing alcohol and lexapro.

so while the effects of the serotonin set in sometime while i was driving to the seder, it didn’t really concern me until much later. at first i just assumed i was drowsy and foggy because i was sick. and then the cold medicine actually started working, so i got slightly less headachey and feverish. and then i started drinking, so i got steadily more confused and fatigued. and then i started eating and kept drinking, so i got steadily more nauseated and overheated.

it wasn’t really clear that something was wrong until after dinner, after dessert, when everyone was winding down and the kids were trying to pull me upstairs to play with them and i found i couldn’t move without feeling like a rock crumbling into dust. i was lying on the couch with my eyes closed and trying not to die, and then my aunt asked me if i was alright and i was like no, i’m really sick, you knew this, and she was like no you look like... way worse than before. and i was like i don’t know why this is happening i shouldn’t feel so sick i took two whole doses of cold medicine! and about five Real Adults in the vicinity turned to me and told me in unison that that was a shitty fucking idea.

i waited until i was very soundly sober, and i had several people check me on it, and i didn’t really feel better at all but i was like hm yeah we should go home. and i went into the basement to say goodbye to the brother that didn’t drive there with me, and he was talking to my uncle’s best friend whose name is wolf, and wolf hugged me so hard i heard my ribs creak, and then he said hey are you okay you don’t look too hot, and i said yeah i’m fine i’m just not feeling well, and he wiped the sweat from my forehead with his bare hand and told me to get some rest, and i nearly puked on his shoes, because i hate him.

all in all, that evening was a very poorly conducted experiment in What Not To Do. i’m convinced it was serotonin syndrome because many times before then and since then i have combined alcohol and lexapro and being very sick in various configurations and i have never felt like that except for that night when i took a double dose of cold medicine. there was no control group and no methodology, just me and my viral infection and my antidepressants and my expectorants and cough suppressants and my sauvignon blanc and my mental disorders and my hubris.

[grapesodatozier]

can i get a long head canon list for soft reddie??

of course you can!! 💕 i really took you up on the “long” part lmao so this is under a cut!!

okay so imagine… reddie meeting on the bus

y’all know eddies That Bitch who puts his bag on the seat next to him

it’s his first day on this route bc it’s the first day of his new job

he finds an empty seat and puts his bag next to him as usual, but the bus gets p full at the next stop

a few people get on at the stop after that, and even though eddies staring very intently at a book he’s not really reading, he sees the guy looming over him out of the corner of his eye

“is this seat taken?”

eddies got his public transportation subtle “I’m not interested in conversation” glare ready, but it gets wiped right off his face when he looks up and sees that the guy is fucking hot

“no” eddie pulls his bag off the seat so the guy can sit down

“thanks” the guy grins, and eddie gives back a shy smile. what can he say? he’s gay and a sucker for tall guys with fluffy hair

and the guy kinda spreads his legs into eddies space, which eddie wants to be mad about but like… he smells good so eddie doesn’t say anything

also, eddie rationalizes, he’s tall, so he probably couldn’t help spreading out a little

and eddie kinda wants him in his space

eddie turns back to his book, still not really reading it

“watcha reading?”

eddie tells him

“what’s it about?”

“honestly… I couldn’t tell you”

the guy laughs at that and it’s one of the best sounds eddie has ever heard

and eddie has always done everything in his power to avoid talking to people on public transportation, but this guy is weirdly fun to talk to??

he learns the guys name is richie and tells him that his name is eddie

“I’ve never seen you on this route before” and eddie tells him about his new job

he’s almost sad when he has to get off the bus, but the interaction put him in a good mood and calmed some of his first day jitters

he blushes when richie winks at him and says he’ll see him around (he also wishes eddie good luck, which makes eddie smile)

eddie is surprised but delighted to find richie on the bus when he gets on to go home (though he supposes it makes sense if they’re both working the same 8 hours a day)

there’s a seat open next to him, but eddies not sure if it would be weird to sit next to him?? his heart jumps when richie makes eye contact with him and beams

“eds!” he calls and pats the seat next to him

eddie blushes and takes the seat, giving richie a confused smile “eds?”

“yeah! a cute nickname for a cute guy”

eddie shakes his head and blushes. he pulls his book out, but he kinda knows he won’t get much reading done

sure enough richie talks his ear off until he reaches his stop, and eddies sad to see him leave

he can’t stop thinking about him all night. life alone in his new and still fairly empty apartment is lonely, and he kinda wishes that boisterous voice was filling the silence rather than an episode of the great british bake off

but richie gets on the bus again the next day!! and he sits next to eddie and talks to him the whole way

there’s someone next to richie when eddie gets on that afternoon, which makes his heart drop. richie doesn’t seem to be paying them any mind tho, his headphones are on and his eyes have already found eddie. they exchange smiles and small waves and eddie takes a seat further up the crowded bus next to a sweet looking old lady

he spends the ride pretending to read, his heart weirdly heavy

there are fingers brushing his shoulder at richies stop, and he gives eddie a smile as he gets off

“see you tomorrow”

eddie spends all night thinking about that touch and that smile

the next morning eddie “accidentally” brushes his leg up against richies, and he gets a silly little thrill from it

that afternoon richie has his bag on the seat next to him and smiles knowingly when eddie spots it

“this seat taken?” eddie asks

“reserved, actually” richie grins as he takes his bag off the seat

eddie can’t even try to hide his smile as he sits down

eddie has some friends in town who he gets dinner with that night and he tells them about richie almost immediately

“you met a guy on the bus?” mike asks, both amused and skeptical

“mike, this guy is so my type it’s ridiculous. and he’s funny!! and he saved me a seat next to him today!!”

ben teases him for flirting like a first grader

but the weeks roll on and eddie and richie talk every day, each day learning more and more about one another, and eddie just gets more and more smitten

he genuinely misses richie the one day he’s sick

one day someone asks if they can sit next to him and he says “sorry I’m saving this seat for someone at the next stop” and it makes him weirdly happy??

one day someone tells them their a cute couple, and while eddie stammers out an explanation that they’re not, richie just beams and pinches eddies cheeks

“hear that eds? we’re the couple of the year!”

the idea makes eddies heart flutter and his head feel light

and he continues to talk ben and mikes ears off about it

pretty soon eddie and richie exchange numbers and snapchats

they don’t text much, but richie sends eddie a lot of funny snaps of his day

he once sends him a selfie with one of those reindeer filters when December comes around and eddie can’t believe how cute it is

as the holidays roll around, so does the county holiday stroll

eddie goes with ben and mike and snapchats richie a picture of something related to a conversation they’d had

richie snaps back almost immediately with a picture of a hot chocolate stand captioned “heyyy I’m here too!! come find me 😘”

and richie always uses those kinds of emojis but it still never fails to make eddies heart race

he excitedly shows ben and mike the snap and tells them to keep their eyes out for “the tallest, hottest guy you’ve ever seen”

he also mentions the glasses

eddie blames his shaking hands on the cold, but he knows it’s because he’s never seen richie anywhere other than the bus and he’s nervous and excited

eddies at a stall looking at hats when suddenly there’s a pair of large, cold hands covering his eyes

and then that voice is right in his ear asking “guess who?”

it makes him jump a bit, but he’s beaming as he turns around and sees richie grinning down at him

richie introduces eddie to his friends bev, stan, and bill and eddie introduces him to ben and mike

they start going through the fair as a group of seven, but then there’s a pie stand that richie insists on stopping at despite the crazy long line

“I’ll stay with you” eddie offers, throwing mike and ben a meaningful look

“yeah we’ll catch up!!” richie tells the other five. eddie doesn’t notice richies friends smirking and shaking their heads, too caught up in richie

and then they’re alone, and the conversation flows as beautifully as it always does

they end up sharing a slice of pumpkin pie and taking their time strolling through the festival, neither of them making any effort to catch up with their friends

“hey, do you maybe wanna come over?” eddie asks, surprising himself. he rolls his eyes when richie raises his eyebrows suggestively. “not like that, I just meant… I like hanging out with you, and I’d kinda like to do that somewhere where there’s not a ton of people around

richie eagerly agrees

so they each text their friends and they wind up in eddies apartment shivering

they settle on the couch with some hot chocolate they bought and put on Netflix, but they just wind up talking more

and they’re sharing a blanket and it’s starting to snow and richie looks so nice with his rosy cheeks and his bright blue eyes and his shaggy curls

they both barely realize the conversation dying down as they just look at each other

eddie brushes a stray curl from richies face, and then, after a moment of their eyes meeting to confirm, they both lean in

they spend the night kissing lazily and talking about their feelings, laughing over how into each other they were from the start and recounting all the obvious flirtations they’d both missed

and they cuddle under blankets until richie says he has to go around 1am

richie takes him on a real date the next day

they also start staying at each other’s apartments and riding the bus together, getting on together in the morning and off together in the afternoon

and they always always cuddle

eddie learns that richie loves to kiss him everywhere all the time - his nose, his fingers, his stomach, even his knees, and eddie loves it so much

he loves playing with richies curls, still as endeared by them as they first day they met

eventually they move in together and buy a car, but they still commute together almost every day