#i thought i should probably draw the girls all together at some point too... so cute. friendship

[saintjudasi]

leaf kunoichi circa 2006

[frenchkisstheabyss]

♰ ⱠɆ₲łØ₦ ♰

♰ Pairings: demon!matz x chubby!fem!reader, demon!wooyoung x chubby!fem!reader, a sprinkle of demon!san x chubby!fem!reader, (eventual priest yeosang/jongho/yungi x chubby!fem!reader in the future)

♰ Genre: demon au/horror/smut

♰ Summary: Congratulations, darling! It's your destiny to be impregnated by four demons in an ancient Satanic sex ritual that'll lead to the birth of the Antichrist and bring about the end times. Now hop down into this demons' layer and let's get this thing going. Armageddon awaits.

♰ Word Count: 3.1kish

♰ Warnings: breeding kink, unprotected sex, no pulling out, double vaginal penetration, overstimulation, nipple play, breast play, rough sex, lots of breath play, ritualistic sex, scratching, a lil blood, oral sex (f receiving), sensory play, a lil nibbling, huge huge demon dicks so there's mucho vaginal stretching, the dicks can shapeshift (yes, shapeshift), demons give some dom vibes, reader's for sure subby, a lil possessiveness, demonic powers, religious themes, bondage, a lil choking, telepathy, your body's controlled via powers at some point, pet names (pet, little one, darling, good girl), and that should be it.

♰ A/N: Hold on, hear me out, I can explain. No, I can't. I'm a heathen. I like spooky shit and fucking demons so, ya know, here we are. This is the first part in a series I'm writing and it'll probably only get more unhinged from here honestly so, yeah, hop in babes. It's apocalypse time.

“And he asked him, ‘What is thy name?’And he answered saying, ‘My name is Legion, for we are many’” - Matthew 5:9

♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ Laberinto del Demonio ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰

Tucked away on the tree shrouded grounds of an aging Spanish manor, a labyrinth spirals deep into the earth. Beneath the lush grass and packed dirt, surrounded by the twisted roots of trees that feast upon the decaying corpses of those who attempt to intrude, this labyrinth is home to fearsome creatures who’ve peacefully slumbered here for hundreds of years. But tonight they awaken. For you. 

“Such a beautiful girl. Just let me…” Wooyoung compliments, fussing with a few flyaway strands of your hair. In the year that’s passed since Wooyoung came into your life all he’s done is fuss over you. You’ve never known a more attentive lover. Never met a man so intent on catering to your every whim.

Wooyoung likes to say that it’s the Fates that brought the two of you together but that’s more than a grave exaggeration on his part, it’s an outright lie. If he’d waited on the Fates it’d have been another 200 years before he stumbled upon a female descendant of your bloodline. Finding you by any means necessary, however brutal, was paramount to fulfill his mission and to soothe the heart that ached for what he lost when his love was stripped from him all those centuries ago.

Your resemblance to her is uncanny but everything else about you is incredibly unique. It stimulates him in endless ways, everyday with you marked by some new, exciting experience. He adores you beyond measure and the others, soaking you in through their collective consciousness, have grown incredibly fond of you too. 

“There. Perfect, as always” he smiles, taking a step back to admire your silk adorned figure glowing under the light of the moon.

Atop the labyrinth, you admire the torch lit staircase that spirals beneath you. It emits a certain energy that hangs heavy in the crisp autumn air, drawing you towards it. You know what awaits you tonight. Wooyoung went over it with you a dozen times in the last 24 hours alone. It’s something you long for, something that has your body flush with heat at the mere thought of. Yet you can’t seem to shake the nerves that have your fingers trembling as the handsomely dressed dark haired man takes your hand.

Wooyoung strokes your cheek and you soften at his touch, “Are you nervous, my pet?” 

“Not nervous. It’s just…” you sigh, nibbling at your inner lip, “What if I’m not who you think I am? What if I can’t handle it?” 

Wooyoung lets out a laugh you’ve come to liken to a jackal. Loud, mischievous, and undeniably his. “Can’t handle it? It’s that all you’re worried about?” 

He steps in closer to you, stealing a quick, passionate kiss from your crimson stained lips. “You were made for this. In every lifetime you have been and in every lifetime you’ll always be. Now come, the others are waiting.” You soak in Wooyoung’s words, forever a sponge ready to absorb his praise, and gift him the faint smile he needs to lead you forward.

Less forward, more down. 

Down past walls built of jagged stone, thick vines weaving between the cracks sprouting tiny emerald flowers you’ve never seen before. Down past ancient symbols carved in meticulously measured increments. It seems to be instructions of some sort. For what you aren’t sure but a tugging in the pit of your stomach tells you that you’ll soon find out. 

At last reaching the bottom of the labyrinth you find yourself in a cavernous room dimly illuminated by a hundred or so candles. At the center you spot a large pool of slithering black silk not unlike that which hugs your body. Wooyoung leads you to the center and, as he does, you feel the material begin to writhe against your skin. It snakes its way around your curves, exposing your plush figure to the warmth of the pit as you sense you’ve become one with it.

A chorus of voices begin whispering in your ear, invisible hands grasping at your most intimate areas. Wooyoung captures your lips in another kiss, already groaning at thoughts of what he has planned for you. His hands wander below your waist, fingernails growing sharper as they sink into the softness of your ass. You throw your arms around him, deepening the kiss, but he indulges you only for a brief moment before he begins to back away.

“Soon, my love” he says without speaking a word, “See you on the other side.” 

“Woo, wait!” you call out to him but a strong wind whips through the room, extinguishing the flames of the outer candles and swallowing him into darkness. The force of the wind knocks you off your feet but you land with no impact at all, the pit catching you in its embrace, thin strips of silk winding around your thighs. The air around you floods with laughter layered upon laughter, Woo’s melded somewhere in between. 

“Aah, finally I see her through my own eyes” a voice breathes out, tickling your spine. 

“Such a precious little human. So cute” another much deeper voice hums, the vibration ringing through your chest. 

“And she looks so, so…” a third voice chimes in, light as a feather, “Soft!” 

In the blink of an eye the silk wrapped around your thigh transforms into a hand, pitch black with razor sharp claws dripping a thick scarlet liquid down your leg. You let out a scream of absolute terror and it transforms back into the harmless material. It’s as if it were all in your head and the hand was never there to begin with.

“Seonghwa, you’re scaring her!” Wooyoung shouts and invisible arms envelope you, comforting you as your fear subsides. 

“Oh, no. I’m so sorry. I got a little carried away” Seonghwa apologizes, emerging from the pit in his human form.

He swims through the pit as if it were a pool, only his torso visible as he comes between your legs, his much gentler hands smoothing their way up your thigh. You don’t recognize the face of this beautifully androgynous creature but you’re positive you’ve felt his energy around you before.

“Is this better for you?” he asks, breath hitching at the sight of the slick, sweet arousal dripping from your core. 

“Seonghwa?” you moan his name for the first time as his tongue extends to flick your bud. “Woo’s told me so much about you.”

A shimmer of gold ripples across the dark pools that sit where his eyes should be, lips curling into a grin that’s both alluring and sinister. “Aah and what did he tell you about me? Good things?” he asks, his tongue whipping down to prod your tight hole. Seonghwa delights in the string of moans you release as he teases you, pushing his moist tongue into you little by little. Your walls eager to grant him entrance, stretching to accommodate the increasing thickness and length of his tongue. 

“Good? Y-yes, good” you breathe out, shocked at the depths his tongue manages to reach. There are no limitations, no bottoming out. He slips his way into every part of you. Tickling the back of your stomach, lapping at your walls in every direction at once. You can taste yourself on the back of your tongue, a sudden fullness in your throat suppressing your desperate moans. Your body’s no longer yours. It does only what he wishes it to. Moves only as he commands. 

“You’re being greedy. Share her. Now” something inhuman growls, breaking through the fog in your mind.

It’s not something you were meant to hear, the shedding of those performative voices existing solely for your comfort, but you’re far from afraid. On the contrary, such brutality laced with so much need has you clenching tighter, juices gushing out of you as Seonghwa’s tongue thrusts harshly into your core.

Seonghwa grunts defiantly, lifting you a few inches above the pit without laying a finger on you. Your arms dangle at your sides, fingertips grasping at nothing as your body arches against air. Droplets of your arousal run down your thigh, landing on the silk below and the creatures around you release a collective sigh of satisfaction. They can taste you, the ghost of your flavor lingering on their tongues. 

“You are like the other women in your bloodline…” the inhuman voice whispers, becoming more human the closer it gets, “Delicious.”

Two hands reach from outside of your field of vision to caress your plump breasts, firmly pinching your sensitive nipples. Your head falls to the side and you're met with another new face. This one more boyish in his handsomeness but more authoritative in his presence. Wooyoung told you that you’d know his leader when you met him. That you’d feel this immense need to gain his approval, to be as obedient to him as you can be.

“This is Hongjoong” you think and the leader smiles in response.

“Delicious and smart, mmm” he hums, leaning into your neck and breathing your scent deep into his lungs. “Let her speak.” 

The fullness vacates your throat at once, leaving you gasping for air, all those suppressed moans echoing off the labyrinth’s walls. Seonghwa’s tongue flutters softly inside of you now, his pace slowing just enough for you to speak. 

“You know what you’re here for, don’t you little one? Our Wooyoung’s explained it to you well?” Hongjoong asks, kissing you on the neck, his canines nicking at your smooth, fragrant flesh.

You let out a whine, adrenaline coursing through your veins, “Yes…he…everything…told me.”

Hongjoong laughs at your incoherence, finding it quite adorable, “And this is what you want? To let us have our way with you?” He releases one of your breasts, twisting the bud one last time before his hand's gliding down your body to grab handfuls of your belly. “To let us fill you with our seed and let it grow so that we’ll be, all of us, a family?” 

You’re fixated on him, a constellation of tears twinkling on your lashes, “I want it. I want this.” 

“Aah, then we shouldn’t waste any more time” Hongjoong sighs, gesturing to Seonghwa, “Let’s take her together, shall we?” 

Seonghwa’s tongue retreats slowly from your core in an S motion that makes the tip lash sharply at your walls on its way out. The space between you and the pit below begins to close, all current information misleading you to believe the arms you fall into will belong to Hongjoong.

“Relax your body and watch the skies” Seonghwa instructs as you fall against his chest and the vines between the stone walls climb their way up the ceiling. They radiate a vibrant amethyst, the sprouting emerald flowers emitting a sparkling dust that mists through the air. A trail of it drifts down the wall, drawing your attention to the shadows cast upon it by the light of the candles.

That’s when you see it. The silhouette of the creature crawling its way up your body. You’ve yet to feel him but he’s there, advancing up your figure, twisted horns brushing your cheek as it’s face meets yours. Hongjoong takes you carefully by the throat, tilting your head to face him in his human form, “The skies not the shadows, pet. Never our shadows.” It isn’t a threat and it need not be. Your obedience is promised, sealed with a kiss richer than any wine.

Hongjoong’s mouth sips hungrily from yours as he spreads your legs, the swollen head of his cock leaking arousal as it stretches your already soaked core. “Mmphmm” you whine between his lips, your lids squeezing shut the further he pushes into you. He grants pleasure to your walls unlike any the earthly realm could bring. He seems to transform inside of you, shifting into whatever he must to perfectly fill every ridge of your delicate pussy.

Your body wants to clench around him, to feel him as completely as it can but, no matter how hard you try, an invisible barrier prevents it. Anatomy 101 dictates that, with the size of what you’ve taken, there should be not a centimeter of free space. By all means you should be screaming in agony, not pouring out such blissful moans. But, as Woo said, you were made for this and so there’s room still when Seonghwa’s palms come to rest behind your knees, hips rising to lift his pulsing length into your warmth.

Your eyes fall open and Hongjoong breaks from the kiss, freeing you to gurgle and moan as you at last watch the skies. There’s no need for clenching now, no possible way for you to do so. Buried deep within you, they exist both as one and as two. As one when they thrust into you, their demonic growls contrasting the lightness of your moans. As two when they split at the head, charting their own courses to punish your tender nerve endings. 

Seonghwa nuzzles against your neck, licking beads of sweat from your shoulder before it extends down to trace your collarbone. Hongjoong cups one of your breasts, fingertips digging into its plushness as he purses his lips around your nipple, suckling at the bud. Seonghwa’s tongue envelopes your other breast, the tip of his tongue circling your nipple.

Your body’s overcome with an unnatural heat that ravages you like a wildfire. Your mind’s whirling as you think of everything and nothing at once. Your teary eyes remain glued to the skies—always the skies, never their shadows—and your senses begin to shift. No longer are you smelling the honeyed scent of the flowers, you’re tasting it. And what you smell are colors, amethyst and emerald now aromatic as if they were herbs. 

“You are such a beauty to behold” Hongjoong’s voice praises, breaking through the fractured barriers of your mind. 

Seonghwa’s voice coasts in after his. “We haven’t felt this alive in centuries” it says, tickling your consciousness as does the breath at the back of your neck. “Maybe we could keep her like this. Whining and quivering between us. Forever our plaything. Would you like that, darling?” 

Hongjoong dips a hand between your legs, gathering your slick and dragging his drenched fingers across your lips. His laughter rings out in your head, “I think she likes the idea of it. Maybe…”

“Aaah!” you let out a scream that cracks to pieces in your throat. You’re hit with a rush that makes you feel absolutely feral, your nails thrashing at Hongjoong’s back as it overtakes you. 

“Good girl” he coos, unphased by the blood trickling from his wounds, “Come your pretty little brains out for us.” 

Seonghwa allows your legs to drop, strips of silk reaching up to coil around your ankles. His arms come around your waist, keeping you in place to fuck into you harder and faster. Thrusting. Pulsing. Claiming you. Flooding you with their seed until it’s spilling from your core and you’re coming all over their cocks, soaking them in your juices. Never in your life have you felt this perfect. This complete.

It’s impossible to differentiate between the labored breathing shared between the three of you. Even as you drift down from your high your breaths all sound as if they’ve left the same body. You arrived at this place a human but maybe now not as much. A part of you has been given away and, if it means feeling this way forever, you don’t want it back. 

Seonghwa softly brushes your hair away from your cheek, showering it in kisses, “You’ll rest with us now.” 

“Don’t be afraid” Hongjoong says, kissing his way down your tummy, “It can get a bit dark down here.”

“Down where?” you ask weakly before you’re snatched beneath the surface of the pit. Instinctively you begin flailing your limbs in a desperate attempt to keep yourself from drowning but your panic’s soothed by the two sets of arms cuddling up to you.

Surrounded by their warmth, you let the darkness swallow you and drift off to sleep. 

♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ 2. Despertar ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰ ♰

“Woo!” you scream, shooting upright, your heart pounding in your ears. You can’t fathom how long you’ve been asleep, the finer details of the previous events lost in the haze of sleep. You look around for Woo, for any of them, but you’re met only with the light, sparkling mist that hung from the ceiling above the pit.

Stretching your aching legs you feel something slink across them. “Wh…what is this?” you gasp, watching the fluorescent vines curiously explore your figure. Flower buds bloom as the vines reach between your legs, curving to ride your thighs up and around your torso. 

“Pretty aren’t they?” Woo asks, appearing behind you without a sound. 

“Woo, you scared me!” you pout, tempted to elbow him in the shin for frightening you so terribly. 

Woo crouches down to loop his arms around you from behind. “I’m sorry. I didn’t expect you to be so easily frightened all things considered” he teases, resting his chin on your shoulder. A graceful wave of his hand and he’s plucked a flower from the vine, twirling it before your eyes. You marvel at its beauty, the emerald glow creating a halo around your irises.

“Where do these come from?” you ask, brimming with wonder.

There’s a rustling in a nearby corner, the silhouette of a broad shouldered man emerging from the darkness. He smiles at you as he steps into the light of the mist, striking you with his features. Woo tucks the flower behind your ear, pointing to the approaching man. “They come from the mountain.” 

The man kneels before you, his dimpled cheeks inches from your face, and the vines tighten around you at his will. “But you can call me San” he says, obviously as smitten with you as you are with him. “Are you ready for us, love?”

You swallow hard and take your last full breath of air before the vine’s snug around your neck. “Yes, mmm, ready” you moan softly, surrendering to the strength of the vines. 

San takes you by the chin, his thumb tracing your jawline, “Hmm, breaking you will be fun. Just try not to look down too much. Might get lightheaded.” 

“Down?” you ask, glancing around at the bed of vines. You put all of your focus into watching them, searching for something you might’ve missed. But they’re as they were before, humming and glowing, doing their master’s bidding.

San guides your head in the opposite direction, revealing the pit of writhing black silk and the room illuminated with candles. 

“Oh, darling, haven’t you figured it out yet? You aren't down there anymore” Wooyoung laughs, tossing a flower into the air and watching it drift down into the pit, “You’re up here.” 

[yoichichi]

Take It Slow

MINORS DNI

Yuuta Okkotsu x afab!reader

wc: 4.1k

warning(s): established relationship, friends to lovers implied, heavy petting, fingering, masturbation, oral (reader receiving), choking (reader receiving), instance of breath play as a result, slight corruption kink from Yuuta, inexperienced reader, a single instance of slightly mean Yuuta, reader’s chest anatomy is not referenced/described

a/n: first NSFW piece in a VERY long time, was picked from the poll so here you go! hope you all enjoy :)! Also jus wanna say there is NOTHING weird or wrong about being a virgin at any age just so you guys know <33 🫶 also in case it needs to be said, this is an unrealistic portrayal of participating in kink for the first time! Boundaries and safety should be discussed at length before these things, but this is fiction so just wanted to make that clear 😭🤍 anyways enjoy <3

“Yuuta, stop! I don’t wanna talk about it!” You whined and buried your face further into his chest hoping to spare yourself of the embarrassment from the conversation you’re sure the two of you are about to have.

“Sweetheart, I’m your boyfriend, you knew it was gonna come up sooner or later. Besides, you’re literally the one who started the conversation! There’s no way you’re getting out of it now.” He let out a few boyish chuckles as he tried to pry your face away from him and out of the covers, just to see you pressing your lips together and closing your eyes in protest.

Sure, did you figure at some point the fact you haven’t gone farther than holding hands and sharing a few quick pecks was gonna be brought up? Probably. Especially after 4 whole months of being in a relationship? Maybe. Did you think it’d be right now? No! But is it your fault? Unfortunately, yes.

You’d known Yuuta long before the two of you started dating, having been apart of his friend group since freshman year of high school, and you’ve always had a secret crush on your friend. He was kind, never failed to make you smile, charmingly awkward (so charming you almost thought he faked it), & all things endearing. It wasn’t until a few months ago, now in your fourth and final year at University, that the two of you had confessed your feelings for the other. You had a bottle of tequila and Maki to thank for that.

And honestly, it couldn’t have been more perfect since. He was still sweeter than ever, a complete gentleman always, and even though it’d only been a couple months he’s never failed to make you constantly feel cared for and appreciated. There was only one problem: how were you supposed to tell him you’ve lied about every instance of you hooking up ever? And you haven’t even done so much as grind on someone, let alone fuck?

Maybe you could blame it on Yuuji, he’s the one who brought it up the first time anyways, innocently teasing you about how “you probably don’t even know how to give head”. He was 16, and all 16 year old boys are stupid as shit - besides Yuuta you suppose - so you’ll forgive him for it.

“Fuck you Yuuji, you’re just saying that cause you’re embarrassed you can’t last longer than 10 seconds inside a girl.”

“That literally happened once, and it was my first time! What, you’re telling me your first time was any better?”

It was just humiliating to think of looking at your friends, who definitely weren’t virgins anymore (besides Toge, maybe Toge, you never really trusted his whole story - but that’s beside the point), and tell them yeah no, I haven’t even seen a dick in person!

“No, he was ass, too.” You did your best to not draw attention to the way your palms were sweating profusely, fighting every instinct in you to wipe them off on the denim of your jeans.

“Yep, fits the bill.” Mai rolled her eyes at the thought of her own experience with a man, must’ve been pretty bad.

It’d make more sense to blame it on your age than Yuuji really, looking back it wouldn’t have been embarrassing for more than a couple weeks at most to have admitted you were a virgin when the matter was pressed. But that’s not what past you thought, and now it’s current you’s problem.

“I know, I know, but now I change my mind. I shouldn’t have said anything.” Your lips are pushed out and puckered slightly from the way Yuuta has your cheeks squished together - his best effort at making you smile right now.

He lets go of your cheeks to squeeze your shoulder gently, looking at your face for a moment before speaking softly.

“You know you can tell me anything, right? I’d never judge you for anything, make comments, nothing. Swear on it.” His voice dipped low with sincerity as he dramatically “crossed his heart and hoped to die”, it was a little goofy but that’s okay.

It was hard to speak while he was staring down at you like that, you knew he’d be nothing but gentle and kind, but the thought of actually talking about it made your stomach twist ‘n turn.

“Uh”, your voice trembled more than you’d like to admit and it did nothing to help your nerves, “I guess I asked what you’d do if I lied about not being a virgin cause, I’m, like, a virgin. Yeah.” You might’ve stumbled through your sentence, but you got there eventually.

His hand continued to rub circles on your skin as he spoke, “Well, I kind of figured that much when you first asked that, cause why else would you. Is that all you wanted to tell me though?”

Glancing up to meet his eyes, you were confused, visibly confused. Was that it? Was he really not gonna pester about why you lied, when you lied, or why you’re grown and still a virgin?

You squinted your eyes and hummed quietly, unreasonably suspicious of him - which he could clearly see.

Rolling his eyes playfully, he groaned out your name and pulled your face close to his so you couldn’t escape him even if you wanted to.

“Ya know, I was kind of talking about the first question you asked me. The one before you cut me off and changed the subject with the whole ‘I’m a virgin thing.’ I want to talk to you about that.”

You’re sure you were listening, it’s just that his face was so close to you that his breath was intermingling with yours, and you could practically taste the gum he was chewing while studying earlier. Not only that but his eyelashes were so pretty and doll like from this angle, looking up at him with his hands still on your cheeks. And his hands were so warm and soft - or was your face warm?

“Are you really ignoring me right now?” He wondered where your mind wandered to, cause clearly with the way you were looking at him with hearts in your eyes and invisible stars circling around your head - you couldn’t have been listening to him.

“Huh?”

Yeah, you definitely weren’t listening to him.

“Baby, are you okay with talking about what you asked me earlier? It’s okay if the answer is no.” His eyes were glued to your face as your own darted around the room.

You wanted to speak up but your throat was dry and your face was hot, and honestly it felt like your jaw was wired shut; a simple nod will have to do.

It felt like the room was getting smaller at the lack of a response from Yuuta until you felt him lean just a tad closer and gently press his lips to your cheek, “would you rather me show you how I take care of myself, or tell you?”

Oh.

Goosebumps rose along the back of your neck and down your arms at the soft volume of his voice in your ear and the way his breath fanned across your cheek.

“Both, please.” The tenor of your voice matched his as your hands fiddled nervously with the hem of your shirt, unsure what to with them while he moved to give you a kiss and sit up in front you.

The embarrassment of how you asked Yuuta how to give a hand job from earlier began to fade and be replaced with curiosity and eagerness at the sight of Yuuta reaching down to palm at himself.

It was still embarrassing, staring so shamelessly at his growing bulge in obvious intrigue and desire, but it was Yuuta, and Yuuta would never make you feel bad for having human urges and wanting him in this way.

Hesitantly, once he was ready, he tugged at the fabric of his pajama pants until he was fully exposed. He was happy you were so needy and awe struck at the sight of him, because your undivided attention to the way his cock sits in his hand is making him blush.

He spreads his legs just as much as the stretch of his bottoms let him while he dips forward to drip spit in the direction of his lap, his wrist catching the fabric of his shirt and exposing a tease of his lower stomach as he spreads the spit along the length of his cock. Leaning back into a more comfortable position, you take in the way he’s exposed himself to you, his stomach visibly clenching as he rubs his thumb along the slit at the tip of his cock.

It was firm in his hand, and you couldn’t help but squeeze your thighs together from where you sat watching at the vulgarity of it all. His loud and unashamed whimpering, his leaking and twitchy cock, and the way his eyes were never closed, always watching your face, when you would flick your own up to get a peek at his reactions.

You thought maybe he’d be a little more bashful, slow and careful with what he wanted to show you, but if anything, it seems like he’s been waiting for you to ask.

“You like watching me stroke my cock, hm baby?”

Your clit began to throb at the sudden recognition and reminder that you’re involved just as much as he is, as well as the sound of him speaking, and speaking directly at you.

“Answer me angel, even a nod’s okay. Wanna make sure my baby’s feeling good.” His voice was hoarse, but soft, and the sentiment did nothing more than increase your arousal and send butterflies rampant in your stomach.

Settling further into the situation, and gaining some confidence in return, you make your way over to him slowly as you nod your head.

“Want you to tell me, Yuuta.” Your voice is small, quiet.

“Tell you what, pretty?”

He’s got an air of fake innocence around him as he speaks but you couldn’t care less when you’re so close that you can hear his soft and barely audible panting, and smell the light scent of musk and sweat begin to gather along his clothed skin from his excitement and exertion. You’d give him anything he wants at this point, and you’re certain he knows it.

“Yuuta,”, you whine and move in his direction, hovering over his lap with his cock not quite close enough to press against your covered cunt as he strokes himself, “want you to tell me how it feels.”

The pair of you groan together at the lewdness of it all, both of you reveling in the freedom to finally explore your deep attraction for another, no longer embarrassed or fearful to admit or indulge in it.

“Fuck, feels so good baby. ‘M so hard with you watching me like this. You like knowing you’ve got me and my cock this needy without even touching me?” Whining at his response, you lean into him and sloppily place your lips on his, ignoring the urge to smack him on his chest as he chuckles a, “yeah?”, into your mouth at your eagerness.

You both kiss, messy and loud, as you reach and drag your hand down his torso, lightly drawing circles onto Yuuta’s exposed lower stomach with your fingertips.

A strained groan comes from him at the sensation, sighing into your mouth as he sits up to be impossibly closer to you. It was all too much.

He could feel the heat from your body as your thighs squeeze him from each side, hear the crude noises your pussy makes each time you adjust, and he could just imagine how needy your poor cunt would smell. Feeling his stomach tighten and his head get cloudy, he knew he was close, and he wanted you to watch.

“Fuck, you’re gonna make me come baby.” Yuuta’s lips were soft and slick with spit as he spoke against yours, while you felt a hand slide from the back of your neck up to the top of your head, turning you to face down and stare at the way his fist was feverishly tugging at his cock.

“Want my sweetheart to watch how hard they’re gonna make me come, how good they’re taking care of me and my cock.” His voice was strained and low, out of breath, and if you weren’t desperate to watch his cock get some release, you would have protested at the sudden lack of kissing.

“Please, need you to show me baby.” You whined and wrapped your hand around Yuuta’s wrist gently, moving in time with the way he was stroking himself.

Hearing your voice was all he needed to let himself go, throwing his head back and getting his sternum sticky with cum as it stained his t-shirt. His balls and cock twitched as he slowed down his movements, whining when he rubs the tip once more, not wanting it to be over. If it wasn’t for the way you were still hovering over his lap, he would’ve let himself stay like this for a while longer, catching his breath and resting his eyes.

But he could see how bad you needed him, your chest heaving and your body hot against his.

Pulling you into his chest, he speaks against your shoulder softly between gentle kisses, “Want me to take care of you too, baby?”

Your body jolts at the prospect, nerves riddling your muscles and your stomach, making you feel almost weak. The thought made you self-conscious just as much as it made you feel exhilarated, but you couldn’t deny the way your cunt was throbbing and hot. You needed him bad, and you could trust Yuuta. You always could.

Words were too hard, like they often were with him in intimate moments like this (the thought of your first date briefly crosses your mind), so you substitute a pleading “yes” for another messy, longing kiss.

“I got you angel,”, was all he said before you were leaned back on the pillows, Yuuta hovering above you with soft wisps of his hair tickling the sides of your face.

You knew you could trust Yuuta, he always knows what his baby needs.

Delicate fingers graze across your side until they reach the waist band of your bottoms, running back and forth along the top as Yuuta chuckles softly at the way your stomach twitches, waiting for a sign of permission.

A warm hand tugging Yuuta’s in the direction of your heat is all he needs before sliding his hand between your thighs to rub heavy and slow circles onto your clit beneath your shorts.

“Oh, god.” You breathe out and close your eyes, letting him take his time in making you feel good.

Your hole ached every time he dipped a finger down to tease your entrance, gathering more of your arousal to rub into your puffy clit. He was such a tease even when he didn’t mean to be, couldn’t he tell you needed him inside? Can’t he imagine how empty your poor hole feels? Doesn’t he know how often you’ve fucked yourself with your fingers or favorite toy, imagining it’s really him inside instead?

“Yuuta.”

The desperate call of his name makes his stomach flip, eyes quickly searching across your face for a sign of discomfort, “‘M here baby, what do you need?”

Sitting up slowly, your face stops inches from his as you shimmy your way out of your bottoms. Laying back down, you open your legs wide and spread your pussy for Yuuta to see, another hand rubbing at your clit slowly.

“‘S too empty, baby.” You fight back the hot wave of embarrassment that floods your body at your crudeness and use all your will power to stay still, cunt on full display, as you watch Yuuta’s breath quicken and his hand snake down to tug at his cock again despite the slight sensitivity he’s still feeling.

He doesn’t give you much time to linger on your sheepishness before you’re tugged further down the bed by the grip he takes on both of your thighs, his tongue impatiently shoved into your mouth with a loud whimper. You both stay like this a little while longer than you would have liked, his tongue running along the inside of your mouth before he has yours between his lips, switching between sucking on it loudly and licking at the saliva that drips down onto your chin.

God, he was so dirty.

Unable to beg for more, you attempt to wrap your legs up and around his midsection, hoping he’ll catch the hint, but instead you’re stopped by a firm placement of his hand on your inner thigh.

“‘Scuse me, beautiful.” His voice is hoarser than before as he speaks softly against your neck, leaving hasty kisses on any exposed skin while scooting down the bed, landing with his face between your legs.

You could have cried when you felt his tongue poke and prod at your hole, pushing in and moaning loudly before licking long and slow up to your clit. His tongue flicks back and forth as he keeps your lips spread with one hand, deciding to then take his time licking and dragging his tongue between every fold before coming back to suck on your clit.

A strangled groan vibrates deep within your chest as you tug on his hair to bring him impossibly closer to your cunt, as if he needed to devour you whole, while you no longer fought the way your hips were grinding down and writhing beneath Yuuta’s grip. It’s not until you finally feel a finger push inside, slender and slow, that you begin to incoherently beg and whine for more.

It doesn’t take many half-spoken pleas for him to get the idea you need more.

“Ah, Yuuta!” You whimper and internally battle between trying to squirm away and press yourself even further into his mouth, overwhelmed by the pleasure of his two fingers inside pumping in and out of you with his mouth nipping and sucking at your clit.

He sits up, kneeling between you to watch the way you take what he’s giving you.

“Yeah?”, his voice is uncharacteristically cocky and out of breath, “Feels good, baby?”

He was going to be the death of you.

If it wasn’t for the way Yuuta was placed between your thighs, your efforts to clamp them shut would be working. It was all too much, but so fucking good.

“Ah- fuck, oh, oh my god - Yuuta please make me come. Wanna come so bad!” You arch your back and attempt to sit up to reach him, needing him closer, but a hand on your chest pushes you back down and slides up until it rests wrapped around your throat.

“Mmm, I’ll give it to you baby, just want you stay right there. Wanna see what you look like when I make you finish for the first time.” His hand wasn’t holding tight, it was merely keeping you in your spot beneath him, but you wanted him to grab you tighter.

With a shaky hand, you reached to hold onto his wrist like your life depended on it,

“Please choke me.”

His fingers stopped curling into you for maybe a second before he continued, his mouth parting slightly as a gentle moan fell from his lips.

Did you really just ask him that?

You closed your eyes in bliss when he squeezed gently, instinctually doing your best to grind down onto his hand, but it wasn’t enough.

“T-tighter, please.”

It took everything in you to open your eyes and see his reaction, a slight amount of shame building up in your stomach for requesting something that felt so dirty - but all embarrassment fizzled out where it sat when you saw the way he was staring down at you.

Nothing was said as he squeezed you tighter and tighter until you let out a choked moan, your eyes rolling to the back of your head.

“Tap me twice if it’s too much.” You’re not sure when he leaned down to speak lowly to you, but his breath fanning across the side of your neck and face sends chills down your body.

You’re so lost in the pleasure of it all you can only nod when he takes your hand to show you exactly how he wants you to tap against his wrist if you can’t take it anymore.

He sits back up and smiles to himself as he takes you in. You look so.. so.. so pathetic like this. And what, all because he’s got two of his fingers fucking your pussy? Cause he’s the first person to ever make you feel this way?

The latter thought makes his dick twitch and pick up the pace of his fingers until even you can register the crude squelching coming from between your thighs. Thankfully for you, you’re too full of bliss to care - fuck you were so close, and he knows it, too.

Your eyes shoot open when his grip is tightened even more, making it so you can only take in shallow and shaky breaths.

“Gonna have to come around my fingers if you want me to loosen up.” It wasn’t a question of how much you could take, it was a matter of how far you wanted him to go to make you see stars. And apparently this was it with the way he could feel you clench around him at his words, your thighs starting to thrash and shake.

“Fuck, you’re so dirty. My dirty little cunt, huh?” His voice was so misleadingly soft. His register was still high, slightly whiny, but you knew it was all to mock you and your fucked out state. If anything, Yuuta was the one being so dirty, and you were thankful for it.

It was hot, so hot, and you could hear your heart pounding in your head, and you could feel how tight you were clenching around his fingers.

Unable to fight off the feeling and attempt to last a second longer, your body shook as you came hard around Yuuta’s fingers, your nails digging into the forearm of the hand still wrapped around your throat. He kept it there for a brief few moments into your orgasm before letting go to immediately bring his fingers down to your clit, helping you ride out your orgasm for as long as you could handle.

The first full breath you took was loud and followed by an even louder mantra of thank you’s and please’s. It took a soft and slow kiss from Yuuta to quiet your whimpers, and warm, and undeniably semi-sticky hands, rubbing tenderly into your thighs and arms.

You both stayed like that for a while, Yuuta above you with his hands rubbing your muscles carefully, kissing slow and catching your breath while sharing gentle sentiments of love and reassurance. Much to your surprise, you were the first to speak a full sentence as you both relaxed into a more comfortable position.

“Ya know”, your voice had a slight hoarseness to it now, most likely from your earlier activities, “I don’t think I like knowing someone else has gotten to see you like this.”

He brings his head up to rest on his palm with a crooked smile, leaning forward until his lips ghosted over yours as he spoke,

“Yeah? You the jealous type baby?”

This time, you did smack him. And hard.

“Ow?” Yuuta pouts, pretending to be appalled, and rubs circles into his chest as if you had actually smacked him hard enough to feel like anything more than a friendly pat.

His request for an apology is brushed off and amended with a kiss, from which you receive no protest, as you sink further into the comfort of his embrace and, now dirty but once very clean, sheets.

“How about we clean up n get some rest, okay baby?” He sounds distant and quiet when he speaks, his heartbeat louder in your ears than his voice with your head pressed into his chest.

Sighing and shaking his head, he leans down to kiss the top of your head with a small smile. Laundry and a shower can wait a few more minutes if it means he gets to have you like this for even a little bit longer.

——————

taglist: @plutowrites @alert-arlert (I think you asked to be tagged in this??? If not I’m sorry !! This was like a literal year ago I started this so 😭🫶) @touyaz (only cause you liked the snippet 🤭) if you’d like to be added just lemme know!!

[beaker1636]

Tied Up - Noah Sebastian Smut

AN: Here we go, Noah bondage smut. Tied up with Christmas lights, not much of a plot, just straight up smut. Hope ya'll enjoyed this as much as I did writing it because I got into this one 🤣🤣🤣

“Why are you standing at my front door with several strands of Christmas lights?” You ask your boyfriend Noah, eyeing him suspiciously as you open the door.

He isn’t big on holidays, Christmas in particular so this is really out of character for him.  In fact when you were putting up your decorations in your house last night he watched you, refusing to have any part in it and just sat there.  It was a whole fight, you were upset feeling like you did it all yourself while he didn’t understand why you were upset.  Ultimately it led to him storming out and going home, and you not feeling in the mood to finish your decorating and putting the tree up anymore so there it sits, nothing on it.

“Well I believe last night I told you to lighten up… and you told me to get into the holiday spirit so I come with a bit of a peace offering, and maybe some fun,” he gives you a sheepish grin when he steps into your house, hoping that you aren’t too angry with him from last night.

“Okay… and that is?” You question, eyeing him closely as you try to read his mind and figure out what he is getting at.

“Well you liked that one time when I tied you up right? So do you want to do it again? Only this time we would maybe use the string lights? Let me show you how sorry I am and that I am trying to get into the Christmas mood for you?” 

At this point he has moved so he is standing over you, your back against the wall as he looks down at you, leaning in so close that his breath is ghosting over your ear and neck as he speaks.

“Let me make you feel good tonight baby, make up for last night.”

You swallow, suddenly more turned on than you probably should be at the thought of what he wants to do to you, and honestly you are unwilling to admit that to him.

“You think tying me up with Christmas lights will somehow make up for the fight you caused last night?” you question, trying to hide of for the obvious arousal you are feeling thanks to the man blocking you in.

“No, but the multiple orgasms I plan to give you might… and we both know how much you love it when I push you around, turn you into my little whore,” he whispers in your ear.

He brushes your hair off your shoulder on one side so that he can have access to your throat, leaving a light kiss before nibbling on the flesh there, causing you to let out a breathy moan as you press your legs together, telling him all he needs to know.  That you want this even if you are trying to fight that you do.

“See, you want this just as much as I do.  And think about how pretty you will look with nothing but these glowing against your skin as you fall apart on my tongue,” he slowly steps back from you, giving you the chance to turn him down but you don’t .  Instead you find yourself nodding at him, giving in to what he wants.

“Good girl, let’s go to your room then,” he smirks at you as he begins leading you towards your bedroom, setting the bag down and then turning towards you.

He makes his way towards you, backing you against the wall before his lips find yours, much gentler than you are expecting them to be as they slowly draw you into the moment.  Noah can tell that you are a little wound tight still, that he needs you to relax before he starts to bind you, so that is what he is currently working on.  Kissing you gently as he slowly guides you towards your bed, slowly lifting the shirt you have on above his head, not missing that it is one of his own but choosing to ignore that fact for now.  Your bra eventually follows, leaving you in only your panties in front of him as he continues.

He pulls away after he has you sit on the bed, that way he can plug the first strand in before sitting behind you, leaving kisses along your neck as he slowly brings your arms behind your back.  Wrapping the cord around your wrists and gently binding them, making sure they aren’t so tight they’re digging into your skin.

“You look so pretty like this baby, the lights glowing against your skin,” he praises softly before moving to stand in front of you.  Helping you to your knees in front of him before he kicks his sweatpants off, his erect cock now standing at full attention in front of your face as he strokes it, watching you.

“Open your mouth for me, fuck, that’s it,” he groans as you do, leaning forward slightly so you can take the head into your mouth.

You swirl your tongue around the head before leaving a couple teasing licks along the slit, wanting to drive him crazy with your mouth.  He gladly lets you do it for a few moments, enjoying as he watches closely while your lips slowly lower on his dick, you bobbing your head as you begin to take more of him.

Fuck, he loves watching you when you blow him but it’s even better watching you do so while your hands are behind your back, knowing that you can’t pull yourself away from him even if you had wanted to.

He soon grows tired of this, of you barely taking him as, so he pulls your head down to make you take all of him at once, holding you there with a groan when he can feel your throat constrict around him. Tears building in your eyes as you choke around him before he lets you go, giving you a moment to catch your breath before giving an experimental roll of his hips to see if you accept it without complaint before he begins to do so.

“Can I fuck your pretty mouth tonight baby?” He asks, waiting for you to indicate it is okay.

When you nod your head he thrusts into your mouth again, starting slowly so you can get used to it before he begins going harder.  Letting out low groans as he seeks his own pleasure, letting you know how good you are at taking him as he continues until he draws close.  

Right before he finishes he pulls himself out of your mouth with a pop, moving so he can help you get back up off the floor and having you kick your panties off before laying down on the bed for him. 

“Are you still fine with your hands being behind your back? I can move them if this is too uncomfortable while I am doing your ankles,” he asks, looking up at you from where he stands at the foot of the bed.  

“I’m fine,” you answer, watching him closely as he takes your ankles, tying each one to one of your bed posts with more strands of the lights, you watching him as he does.

When you’re secure he looks up at you with a smirk, really enjoying the view of you all spread open, at his mercy to do as he pleases.  He can edge you all night if he chose, or make you finish over and over if he chose to.  He enjoys having this power over you, getting to do as he pleases while you just lay there and take it.

He leans over you, giving you a light kiss before he begins to trail his lips down your throat.  Leaving little marks as he goes, loving the bruises he is leaving along your skin, reminders of who you belong to that’ll stay for the next few days.  He knows you’ll probably be pissed when you realize that he left a couple in visible places, but that is a fight he is willing to deal with later.

You let out a gasp when his lips dip lower, taking one of your nipples in his mouth. Swirling his tongue around it, then lightly biting down as you let out a breathy moan, feeling yourself growing more and more wet with each pass of his tongue across the sensitive peak while his fingers roll the other one between his fingers. Building you up, teasing you relentlessly, wanting you aching for his touch between your thighs before he ever makes it there.

He slowly begins to trail his lips down your torso, but skips from your belly to your thighs, passing over the place that you currently want him most.  Chuckling against your skin when you whine from the lack of contact.

“Patience, this will all be worth it,” he says softly before biting down on your thigh, leaving a mark where he was before he pulls away.

Looking up at your face from between your thighs as he runs a finger through your folds, gathering some of your arousal on it before circling your clit with it, you almost instantly whimper at the contact, at how great the simple act feels.

“Fuck, you’re this wet and all I’ve really done is play with you tits,” he says in amazement, but mostly to himself, almost blown away at how big of a mess he is currently making of you with barely any contact. “Do you want me to use my mouth or my fingers on you first?”

He continues to barely brush your clit as he asks, enjoying when you try to squirm from his movements but can’t.  Enjoying when you realize that it is useless and he can see the frustration cross your face.

When you don’t respond you are met with a stinging slap to your thigh, making you gasp as you shift your hips slightly.

“I believe I asked you a question princess.  How do you want me to make you cum the first time hmm?” He asks you again, now glaring at you from where he is, irritated that you aren’t responding like you are supposed to be.

“I, I want your mouth on me, please?” You ask, turning slightly red as you blush from the embarrassment of being forced to ask him for what you want.  The two of you have done so many things like this but you still don’t like voicing what you want from him, and you are starting to think you never will be comfortable with dirty talk in any capacity.

“That’s better, thank you,” he says.  

He leans down and dives right in, using his tongue to run it from your hole to your clit several times, making you impatient before he finally wraps his lips around your clit and sucks it harshly.  Making you moan and attempt to shift your hips but finding you are unable to.

“Be good and stay still or I’ll stop,” he mumbles before smugly running his tongue across your clit again.  He pulls away long enough to smirk when he sees how wet you are, watching as you begin to drip on your thighs, knowing that it is him and him alone that is turning you into an absolute mess.  

His tongue traced the line of liquid up your thigh, loving the taste of you before he sucks on your clit again, his tongue running circles on it as his lips continue to stay wrapped around it, making you let out a gasp, finding yourself growing close at his actions.  You try your hardest to stay still, to not move at all as your high hits you but you fail, arching your back when you cum against his lips without much warning.  Instantly feeling guilty you broke the rule that he gave you.

“Shit, that was beautiful.  Should I make you cum again princess? I think maybe I should make you with my fingers too, and then my cock.  What do you think?” He asks you, smirking up at you as your breathing evens out after you finally come back down from the high he just gave you.

“Please?” you ask softly, not really having it in you to say much else but knowing that he won’t accept just a nod for an answer right now.

He dips his head back down, lightly running his tongue over your sensitive clit before abruptly slipping two of his fingers inside of you. You are so wet that he is met with almost no resistance as he sinks them inside of you.  He pulls his hand back only to thrust his fingers back inside of you, rough, as he pulls his mouth away from you.  

He wants to watch your face as you come undone for him again, to see how much pleasure he can bring you with just his hand.

He continues to thrust his fingers inside of you, rough and unforgiving as his thumb begins to rub your clit, adding to the building orgasm that you can feel creeping up on you.  Loving the little sounds that keep dropping out of your mouth as you try to hold back the feeling you are currently experiencing.  He gives you a particularly hard thrust out of nowhere, you moaning at the sensation, at the sting. 

His thrusts of his fingers getting rougher and rougher as the pressure on your clit increases, you finding it hard to keep quiet this time as he pulls you closer and closer to the edge.  He leans up to give you a kiss as he continues, you tasting yourself on his lips as he pulls you over the edge, your second orgasm of the night hitting you harshly.  Him slowing down his movements as you ride it out before halting, giving you several light kisses as you come back down, telling you how amazing you are doing.

“Okay, are you ready for my cock?” He asks you, leaning down to untie your legs. 

When you nod, giving him the okay, he flips you onto your stomach, your hands still tied as he pushes your face down into the mattress while your ass is up.

“I’m going to be rough with you, let me know if it is too much,” he says, pressing one last gentle kiss against your shoulder before he pulls back. Appreciating the view in front of him, how smooth your skin is under his hands.

He is able to see just how wet you are, coating your thighs and glistening in the light of the room.  It pleases him to no end that he is the reason why you are this way, that it is him that you are craving so badly right now.

Without a warning he pushes inside of you, making you cry out both from surprise but also the slight sting of pain as his hard cock stretches you out. No matter how many times you have taken him it still feels so wonderful when he first enters you.  Both of you groan at the feeling as he begins to thrust, deep but forceful dispute the fact that he is begging slowly.

One hand resting on your hips as he brings your body back into his as he pushes forward, each thrust getting harder and harder as he goes, watching how your body jolts and moves with each thrust of his hips against yours.  

Your body feels amazing around him, how wet you are, the way that you are clenching around him, shit it has him close.  He knows that he will not last long from this but judging how you are clenching around him and moaning, he doesn’t think that you are going to last too long either.

Snaking a hand down underneath you he begins to rub your clit again, wanting, no needing to make you finish one last time before he does.  Wanting to stay true to his word about making you fall apart with his mouth, hand and cock like he threatened earlier. Wanting to feel you cum around him, milking him for his own release.

You are so overstimulated from already finishing twice that it doesn’t take much, you falling apart one last time within seconds of him finding your clit, collapsing down on the bed as he continues to ram his hips into yours chasing his own release now.  He groans, slowing his movements down as he finishes inside of you before stilling.  Watching closely at how his cum slowly leaks out of you as he pulls out, moving to untie your wrists for you.

Once you are untied you roll over, staring at the ceiling as your chest heaves, trying to catch your breath as he lays next to you, his head on your shoulder.  You don’t say anything as you lay there, turning your head so that you could kiss him.

He whispers praises to you, telling you how good you did and how beautiful you looked all tied up before getting up and returning with a washcloth, cleaning the mess you both left on your thighs off before glancing at you.

“Why don’t you settle into a warm shower, help soothe your muscles that are probably aching at this point while I change your sheets.  I’ll join you in a couple minutes baby,” he says softly, rubbing the red marks that are on your wrists as he helps you up off the bed.

“That sounds wonderful, I’ll see you in a few minutes, I love you” you say softly, giving him a kiss before you make your way to the bathroom.  The fight from the night before is not forgotten, but figuring that it isn’t worth worrying about tonight.  

[amore-reads16]

Part 5

Overview- things are getting even more tense in the quadrant and the secret relationship that Y/N and Liam are hiding is becoming a problem. There are too many secrets to hide and reveal and Y/N needs to find her footing and keep herself and Liam safe.

Note- I don’t know if there are any Merlin lovers but this giff is perfect for Liam’s reaction to Violets antics in this chapter lmao.

After your talk with Liam you had gone to your own room. You had both discussed how you were going to manage to convince Xaden that you were staying away from Liam, but that should be relatively easy to do as Xaden had convinced Liam to basically become a body guard for Violet Sorrengail. You knew the Sorrengail family pretty well because of your parents you were in the same circles. But you didn’t know the youngest that well despite being of the same age. She was a nice enough girl from what you knew of her and she had been holding up extremely well in the quadrant considering her frail body and the long list of people that wanted to kill her, but you weren’t particularly fond of the idea of Liam spending all of his time with her. She was no threat and you trusted Liam not to do anything, but just the idea made you uneasy. No girl would want their significant other spending that much time with another girl. No one. But you had no say in the matter and causing a fuss would only draw attention to something you didn’t want attention on. So for now you were biting your tongue.

You were currently in the library sorting out some books as it was your duty as a first year when you suddenly heard voices from behind the bookshelf you were standing at. One voice you recognised immediately, it was hard not to when it haunted your dreams and kept you up at night. Of course, just your luck that Liam and Violet would be here. It would be wise at this point to walk away, but today you weren’t feeling wise and instead was feeling nosey and jealous.

“So whatever happened between you and Y/LN? You two were pretty close for a while” Violet asks.

You hear Liam pause for a minute thinking about what to say before he responds “it’s a long story, I guess, but we just didn’t work out”

“Why? The last I saw was you basically chasing after her in the corridors begging her to let you explain something. That doesn’t sound like things just not working out to me” Violet says clearly prying making you wonder why she would be so interested. Jealousy rears its ugly head again.

“Well well aren’t we nosey today Sorrengail. What’s it to you anyway? You interested in her? Because she’s single now I could try and set you two up if she’ll ever speak to me again” he jokes making you shake your head at him.

“What? No! I just- I just thought that maybe something got between you two. Well someone…” she trails off, too embarrassed to finish that sentence

“Who?” Liam demands instantly making your stomach churn. Please violet Sorrengail do not say Bodhi or Liam will loose his shit you quietly pray.

“Xaden” she replies. WHAT. You almost choke on your own spit, so shocked at the name that just left her mouth. Xaden? XADEN? Why the fuck would she think that.

There is a short moment of silence before Liam bursts out laughing so hard it almost compels you to blow your cover and laugh with him. You hear Violet let out a huff as Liam continues to laugh, probably in her face, making her even more annoyed and embarrassed.

“Xaden?” Liam manages to choke out “why ever would you think that?”

Violet lets out another huff “well when she fought Bodhi on the mats the a few weeks ago he couldn’t keep his eyes off their fight and he almost looked worried. I just assumed that maybe there was something going on between them. And then when she walked off the mat she went right up to him and whispered something to him. I- it looked like they were together” she rambles. She couldn’t be further from the truth you thought shaking your head. Now your jealousy had completely dissolved. It was crystal clear that Violet Sorrengail was not interested in Liam. She had the hots for Xaden Riorson. Gods help her.

“Sorrengail it is so transparently clear what is going on here” Liam seemed to had arrived at the same conclusion as you “you like Xaden don’t you?” He asks and you could practically see the taunting smirk on his face by the tone in his voice. You almost felt sorry for the girl. She must be mentally insane to ever have a crush on Riorson. Yeah he is hot as hell, but clearly fucked in the head you think.

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard you say yet Mairi. I was just… curious” Violet responds “and I never even-“ you don’t hear the rest of that sentence as you quietly walk away, your jealousy now dead and your patience gone. You don’t exactly want to hear Sorrengail deny her obvious feelings for Riorson. You had more important things to do.

Putting your last book away you feel a hand slip around your waist tightly. Shit. You elbow the intruder in the stomach grabbing their throat pinning them against the book shelf.

“Liam!” You shout realising who had just grabbed you and who you had just assaulted in the middle of the library.

“Woah! I knew you liked it rough but here? In the library? That’s a new level of kinky” he smirks and you let him go.

“You’re a dick! What are you doing sneaking up on me like that?” You ask.

“Well the whole point of our relationship now is being sneaky” he smugly responds grabbing your waist again to pull you against him.

“Jesus Christ and what part of this” you gesture between the two of you “is being sneaky”

“Well I guess no part, but I just couldn’t resist” he laughs quietly “I knew you were there. Before. When I was talking to Violet”

The smirk on his face makes you want to slap him “and?” you ask.

“And you were jealous. I could feel it through the book shelf basically radiating off you” he teases.

“What like you were with Bodhi ?” you argue back.

“Don’t” his jaw ticks.

“And anyway I have nothing to be jealous of it’s quite clear that the wing leader is the one she wants, not you” you say smiling slightly remembering how much Liam had laughed when Violet thought Xaden was the reason you and him had been on the outs.

“That was hilarious and you should have seen her face gods-“

“You can tell me later” you smile patting his chest and removing yourself from him “we can’t keep on doing this in public. It’s only been a few weeks and we have already been too public” you sigh.

“I know but it’s so hard when you walk around in those lathers that make me want to-“

You quickly cut him off “I’ll see you later Mairi” you wink giving him a quick kiss on the lips before walking off making sure to swish your hips.

“Now that’s not fair” you hear him mutter.

…………………………………………….

Later on that week you were walking to the session you have with Dain and Professor Carr to mature and control your signets. Which of course was a secret to everyone else, except from Liam and apparently the marked ones, and if anyone was to ask where you were, you were in your room sleeping off one of the frequent migraines you got (which you actually didn’t). Rounding the corner almost at Carr’s room your body slams into a rock solid object confusing you immensely. There is no way you had just walked into a wall… no that was not a wall. You look up confused and dazed as to what you just walked into only to see non other than Xaden Riorson. Of fucking course. Ever since your talk with him, in fact ever since that night with the hooded figures, he was everywhere you looked. Perhaps you just hadn’t noticed him before but that seemed impossible as he commands any room he walks into. But now it’s like it was his mission to invade your life. Which made keeping you and Liam a secret even harder.

“Sorry” you quickly mumble and attempt to step around his massive figure but he steps with you obstructing your path.

“Where are you going” he asks brow raised.

Like that was any of his business you think “I don’t think that concerns you” you say tone clipped at the audacity of this man.

He stares at you for a long moment and his jaw clenches as he speaks “you wouldn’t be heading to see Liam would you?”

You startle in shock, there is no way he knows surly ? “No you basically threatened my life and my brother’s life if I was to do that, so why would I risk that over a stupid boy?” You try to sound persuasive but the way Xaden is eyeing you up as if he can smell your lies is unnerving.

“Not basically I did threaten your life” he replies quickly.

That’s it you’d had enough of his attitude “you’re such an assho-“ you don’t get to finish the sentence as suddely Liam and Violet appear at your sides. Liam looks apprehensive as to whatever is transpiring between you and Xaden, whereas Violet is eyeing the two of you up judging the situation.

“Woah hey guys what’s going on here” Liam asks trying to get in between you and Xaden but failing miserably.

“Nothing I was just alerting the wingleader to how much of a dick he is being” you reply with a sarcastic smile aimed at Xaden.

Xaden scoffs shaking his head slightly as he glances at Violet taking in her appearance before levelling his gaze back to you “and I was just reminding cadet Y/LN of her place”

“You know what Xaden you can shove it where the sun doesn’t shine” you spit, frustrated as hell.

“Okay let’s just cool it for a moment-“ Liam starts but you don’t let him finish.

“And what the hell are you doing?” You ask him turning your body to face his

His face startles for a moment confused at why you are mad at him “well- I- I was just seeing what the problem was-“

“No” you stop him again “what are you doing talking to me? I told you Mairi I don’t want you to ever speak to me again so for the last time, and I mean it, leave me the fuck alone before you get yourself hurt” you threaten hoping that Liam catches on to your performance.

He gulps and hurt, real hurt flashes in his eyes, he clears his throat “right, sorry, I just thought-“

“I don’t need you swooping in to save me. I’m a big girl and I can handle myself. Especially around jerks like him” you point over to Xaden who is standing cross armed his gaze flickering between you and Liam trying to read the situation.

“Jerk? That’s the best you can do?” Xaden, the jerk, says with a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Shut it Riorson.” You reply and are about to call him every name under the sun before a firth person enters the gathering you have somehow formed. Great.

“Cadet Y/LN” Dain approaches confused at the sight of the four of you. Perhaps the most unlikely group of four. “Professor Carr is looking for you and asked if I’d escort you to him immediately” he says staring Xaden down as if he could take him. You liked Dain, but boy was his ego overinflated if he thought he could beat Riroson. The man was an asshole but boy was he skilled. “So if you all don’t mind” he continues “I’ll be taking Y/N now”

Liam, who has often expressed to you how much he loathes Aetos, furrows his brows “actually I do mind-“

“Liam” Xaden cuts him off

“Of course let’s go” you say to Dain as you walk away. You hear another set of foot steps near you and Xaden overtakes you and Dain glancing back to look at you once more. The look is filled with the warning he gave before and you know he will not take any more bullshit from you. Good you think it was time things got a bit interesting around here. Game on Riorson.

“And you are telling me there’s nothing going on there” you just about hear Violet say as you round the corner to Carr’s office

“Come on Violet let’s just go” Liam sighs.

………………………………………

After the showdown in the hallways you had made sure you slipped a note under Liam’s door to meet you in your room after curfew, but after the way you spoke to him you was unsure he would even come. Today has been a long day and the ‘meeting’ with Carr had drained you. Mentally and physically. Your signet had been growing more strong recently and you thought it may reflect your need to heal the fragements that was your life at the minute. Everything used to be so whole and you used to feel complete. But after learning of the truth, being subject to threats from Riorson and now having to watch your boyfriend saunter around the quadrant with the youngest and most gorgeous Sorrengail you no longer felt the happiness you used to. You felt fear. Not to mention the cryptic moment you overheard between Dain and his father after your session today. That had just pushed you right over the edge. Being a double spy was tiring.

Liam walks into your room stopping your spiralling thoughts. Usually he walks in with a spring in his step, happy to see you. But today he sluggishly strolls in and immediately stands in the centre of your room whilst you are sat on your bed.

“What’s wrong” you ask and Liam starts to pace.

“I think he knows” he ominously says.

“Who” you ask confused at what Liam is acting so frantic about.

“Who do you think, the Easter bunny?” He snarls back finally stopping his pacing to look at you, hands on hips “Xaden of course”

You gulp back a reply “Oh”

“Yeah oh” he sighs and then lets out an agitated groan.

There was no way he was acting annoyed at you. Like this, any of this, was your fault “Why are you pissed at me?”

Liam lets out a incredulous laugh which is short and clipped “Well you aren’t helping the situation, baiting him at any chance you get!”

You roll your eyes back so hard you think they might be stuck permanently at the back of your head, the audacity! “Baiting him? I’m defending myself Liam! In a situation that you put me in in the first place ! Ever thought of that?” you yell.

He shakes his head and gives you an annoyed look “Let’s not go there. If you don’t like the situation leave it”

“You can’t be serious” you laugh but not because you are humoured, because you are in disbelief.

Liam moves closer to where you are sat on the bed and if you didn’t know him you would almost feel a need to be scared of him “I am. You can’t argue with Xaden and expect him to leave you alone” he bluntly says.

“He’s not going to leave me alone Liam! He’s always watching me!” You shout back getting up from your bed to get closer to him.

“And you’re always watching him!” He argues back

“Oh. My. God. Because I have to! It would be stupid of me to not be looking over my shoulder with him always lurking in the shadows. It’s not just my life on the line here. It’s not just my life I’m sacrificing to be with you, to help your revolution. Remember that!” You spit at Liam. He looks at you for a moment in a strange way something swirling in his eyes that you can’t quite put a finger on.

“That doesn’t mean you have to be up in his face every minute it’s like you have a crush on him or something” his tone lowers and he can barely look at you in the eye. It’s jealousy. That’s what you can see.

“You’re kidding me? Don’t tell me you’ve let Sorrengail and her school girl infatuation with Riorson cloud your judgement enough to think that I in any shape or way have feeling for Riorson!” You shout feeling defeated that you have to keep on defending your self to the man you love.

“I’m not saying that but-“ he starts but you cut him off immediately.

“No buts Liam. We either trust each other or we don’t! This will never work without trust. It’s full disclosure now remember” you grab his hand holding it tightly in your own using your other free hand to grasp his face making him look fully at you.

He takes a deep breath in and grabs your hair playing with it gently “Fine I get jealous. But how can I not when I feel like you talk more to Xaden then you do me. I know it’s not your fault but we barely get any time together and the time we do get is sneaked and rushed. I hate it” he explains and you agree with every word he says. It is hard. But just because something is difficult that doesn’t mean that you give up.

“I hate it too” you admit.

“So how do we change it” he asks.

You sigh pulling away from his hold as you now start to pace your room slowly as you think. “I don’t know. I don’t think we can completely. But how about I start to back off Xaden. You try to get Xaden to back of me and you. And then maybe, just maybe, we’ll be able to find some more time together without the fear of being watched”

“It’s worth a try” he agrees going to sit on your bed “Come here” he says holing his hands out and you fall into his hold sitting on his lap.

“I need to tell you something” you say quietly.

“Go on” he whispers clearly exhausted with everything that is currently weighing down on his soul.

“I overheard the end of a conversation that Dain had with with father today and it was strange” you start

“I’m listening” he ushers you on.

“They were talking about his signet and Aetos said something about Dain using his signet for the greater good despite how uncomfortable it made him. I don’t know the extent of what was said because it was so muffled but I got the impression that Dain’s father wants him to use his signet on someone to try and get some information out of them” you explain.

Liam stiffens for a second “Who”

You shake your head trying to think but nothing comes to mind “That’s what I don’t know and can’t figure out. I’m assuming some criminal or something but I don’t understand the urgency behind it. I thought I should tell you so you could tell the revolution perhaps they could figure it out”

“Thank you.” He says quietly planting a kiss on your forehead.

“I said I’d do whatever it takes to help didn’t I?” You smile and play with his hair combing your fingers through it.

Liam looks at you deeply as if he’s thinking about something and is working up the courage to say it out loud. “You did… look about what I said before. I was just being jealous and I didn’t mean it. I trust you completely. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever trusted anyone the way I trust you. So no matter how hard this gets and what I say out of pure jealousy just know I love you. And I want you. Always and forever.” His confession makes your heart melt and you don’t know what to do about that. What do you do when you are head over heels for someone so much that it consumes your very being?

“God your sappy Mairi” apparently you decide to make a joke about it. Well played Y/N.

“Hay! Say something nice back” he laughs and you know in that moment that the two of you were made for each other. You balance each other out.

“Come on quick one say something loving back…” Rhella your annoyingly nosey dragon decides to butt in.

“I love you too you loser”

[spidermans-l-o-v-e-r]

Orange Blossoms

Pairing: Buck x reader

Word count: 4.3k

Notes: I don’t put safe sex warnings because if you’re old enough to be reading my work you’re old enough to know how irresponsible it is NOT to practice safe sex. That being said 🤣🤣🤣 don’t share makeup. That’s my warning, especially face makeup.

Chapter 4: Strawberry Crush

It is a lot harder to hide the fact that Buck is going on a date than he thought it was. 

Hen is the first to notice he’s wearing his good cologne to work, Chim notices he got his hair trimmed and Bobby notices that all too telling little strut he gets when he’s feeling himself 

Eddie points out he totally got a manicure, just to not seem suspicious. 

“Who is she?” Chim asks as they’re restocking the truck together 

“Who’s who?” Buck pretends to be nonchalant, not even turning to face him 

“The girl. You’ve been way too giddy the last couple of days… there has to be someone” 

“Oh, so a guy can’t be happy?” He scoffs and Chimney rolls his eyes 

“You don’t get like this unless you’re going on a date, Buck. Face it, we all know it!” 

“Even if I was going on a date, which I’m not!!! I wouldn't tell you guys. You’d have her checked out every which way by Athena!”

“We just want to make sure they’re good for you okay?! We care about you”

Buck sighs, looking down at the floor before turning his head to look at Chimney 

“You have to promise you won’t tell” He whispers, there’s no point in not telling Chim… he knows for a fact Maddie probably already has 

“I can’t tell you who she is, I just can’t. But I am going on a date okay? And she’s everything I’ve ever wanted in my entire life and I’m so nervous I’m gonna screw this up”

“Y/N is a sweet girl, Buck, I highly doubt you’re going to mess anything up. Just be yourself okay? Just be the sweet guy we all know you are and it’ll be okay” 

“Are you sure?” He’s starting to wring his hands now and Chim rolls his eyes, putting his hands on Buck’s shoulders and making him look at him 

“I was this scared when I started dating your sister… and look how things turned out for us! Uncle Buck” 

It’s reassuring to hear from someone else and not just Eddie that things will go smoothly, he kinda wishes he could tell Bobby, he’d love some advice. But it’s also just the tiniest bit exciting to be hiding it from him. Which is bad he knows but it’s fine it’ll work out, or Bobby will light him on fire.

He takes a deep breath, relaxing into the truck. He leans his head against the cool metal and looks at Chimney 

“She couldn’t have not told you it was Y/N” 

“My wife and I thoroughly enjoy the tea Buck, especially if it’s big about us!” 

May is helping you get ready, you both tore the room apart trying to put together the perfect outfit. Now she’s got you sat down at the vanity as she helps finish up your makeup 

“I was so confident with him in the beginning, but like… he likes me, likes me. And he’s so flirty-“You sigh and she holds your head still 

“Yeah that sounds like him,” She says as she carefully draws a white wing on your eyelid 

“Do you remember what I told you about what he said about the closet?! I should have said bet” You watch her grab another pen from the table 

“He literally would have died, he’s dramatic as hell I would have loved to see that” She chuckles 

“I know! I should have…” You start to pout and she smirks, spraying setting spray for you 

“I don’t know. What if I mess things up? I’ve never….I’ve had dates before you know?… but none like him”

“Do you like him that much?” 

“I think so” You blush and she smirks, stepping backward and handing you a pretty mirror to look into 

“I think you’re going to have that chance to knock him dead” She turns you around in your chair to face the mirror and you gasp, squealing and hugging her to you

“This is perfect”

Buck hates that he has to pick you up down the street. He wants to come up to your door, ring the doorbell, and hold your hand as he walks you to the car. But he’ll have to settle for leaning against his jeep and waiting for you to come down the sidewalk 

You’ve both agreed…Bobby doesn’t need to know about this just yet. 

He’s messing around on his phone, frantically texting Eddie when he hears you coming. Your black Mary Jane’s are tall. They make your legs look so long, he could just stare at them forever. His eyes trail up the black tights you’ve got on, to the tiny little mini skirt with a small slit in the thigh. Your red shirt is so romantic, the material is so soft and pretty. The sweetheart neckline just does things to him. Your collarbones are highlighted and he loves that, he loves the light glittery sheen on your chest again, it catches the moonlight perfectly, really all of your makeup is nice. And that sweet white bow in your hair sends him. You’re too sweet for him, it's official. 

He’s literally delirious… okay maybe not literally but he’s close. 

“H-hi” His voice cracks and he internally groans. So glad that’s back 

“Hi” You give him a little wave and he pushes up from his spot on the jeep. He walks up to you and hugs you, taking a deep breath just to calm down. It’s not helpful in the least, he knows that scent, he’s smelled it before when Maddie’s dragged him to bath and body works. It drove him crazy just from the bottle… and now his favorite girl is wearing it. 

“You uh- you ready to go?” He asks as he opens the door, taking your hand and helping you in. He carefully shuts the door and takes his time walking to his side, just trying to gather his thoughts. 

“I’m sorry we have to meet like this,” you say shyly and he shakes his head, leaning in and kissing your cheek 

“I’d meet you at the restaurant if I had to… me wanting to drive you is just me being selfish. I want as much time with you as possible” 

“I know what you mean,” you say, your cheeks flushing when he kisses you. He pulls your seatbelt a little tighter and you’re off, he keeps one hand on the steering wheel and the other in your lap, you hold onto him, playing with his fingers and he’s trying not to crash the car because you’re too cute. 

He makes small talk on the way, most of it’s just him rambling awkwardly because he’s so nervous, but it’s making you laugh and he loves that sound so he doesn’t mind. Okay well, he does mind the part where he let it spill that he had to take two showers because he was so nervous the first time he showered he forgot to wash like half his body. But the rest he can deal with 

He pulls into the parking lot of a fancy restaurant, it’s a nice place and your eyes widen for a moment 

“We’re eating here?” You ask and he takes your hand and helps you from the Jeep 

“Yeah? I-is this okay? We can go somewhere else if you want. I probably should have okayed it with you first I’m so-“

“No! No Buck this is perfect. It’s- I'm just” 

You’re starting to get nervous and that kind of calms him down a bit, he puts his hands on your shoulders and smiles softly 

“Hey, what’s wrong…is this too much for you?” His voice is soothing as he watches you 

“I…I feel kind of underdressed” You gesture to your outfit and he scoffs, taking you inside anyway. 

“Reservation for Buckley,” He tells the maitre’d and the man nods, grabbing two menus 

“Mr. and Mrs. Buckley if you’ll just follow me” he leads you both to a more secluded area, It is quieter over here, away from the majority of the chaos of the restaurant, and its calming

Buck pulls out your chair for you and you smile, sitting down. He sits in his chair and bites his lip 

“You look…” he gestures awkwardly and you smirk, your nerves finally quieting a little. He knows he should have complimented you earlier when he first saw you. But you just kind of… broke his brain 

“I look?” You trail off and he shrugs, his cheeks are so flushed and he can feel his palms sweating 

“G-good. More than good, so crazy, wonderfully, deliciously, good. Please don’t worry about if you’re underdressed because you’re not… Mrs. Buckley” 

You giggle and shake your head, kicking at his shin lightly under the table 

“Not gonna correct him huh?” 

“Oh hell no, I quite enjoy hearing “Mrs. Buckley” don’t you?” 

You raise an eyebrow and grab your menu, purposely holding it in front of your face so you can’t see him

“Hmmmm how does chicken Alfredo sound?”

You don’t get an answer from him at all and you put your menu down 

“Buck I was just-“

He’s giving you the biggest, sweetest, saddest, puppy dog eyes you’ve ever seen and your heart melts instantly for him 

“Oh come on!!! That’s not fair!! You look so cute oh my god” You reach across the table and cup his face in your hands and he snickers while you baby him 

“Chicken Alfredo sounds delicious, baby,” he says and you kick his leg again 

“I hate you!!”

“Hmm no you don’t” he winks “I kiss you too good”

You roll your eyes at him, putting the menu back up in front of your face so he can’t see how badly he’s making you blush

“You um…. You don’t look so bad yourself you know” You’re mumbling and he’s smirking

“Oh?” He bats his eyelashes playfully and picks up his menu. He can tell how frazzled it’s making you to compliment him and he’s over the moon 

“Maybe I’ll get a steak,” He says, peeking over his menu, he can just see your eyes… you pretty, pretty eyes. There’s glitter there too, your red eyeshadow looks expertly done and he even notices little white hearts dotting your eyelids 

“Steak sounds good,” you say, as he watches you nervously biting the inside of your cheek. 

“You look really pretty, did you do your makeup?” 

Your eyes shoot up to his and you realize he’s been staring at you the entire time 

“M-May helped with the finer details, she’s got a very steady hand”

“Oh, did she do the hearts? I like those” 

“Actually it was a stamp!” You tell him excitedly and he loves the way your eyes widen 

“Wait I have it-“ you do through the small white purse May lent you and pull out the little stamper 

“See?” You hand it to him and he grins, looking it over 

“Can I use it too? So we can match?” 

You nod eagerly as he opens it, twisting the bottom and testing it on his hand 

“Oh this is cute, maybe you and May can do my makeup someday” He chuckles and holds it out to you

“Do it for me?” 

“R-right now?” You look around, and there’s only a couple other people seated where you guys are 

“Yeah, why not?” He waves the pen in front of you “Please?” 

You get up from your chair, your cheeks burning as you stand in front of him, he opens his legs, pulling you closer to him and you blink rapidly, stumbling a little. 

“Careful…” He mumbles, looking up at you. Your hands are a little shaky as you put little hearts all over his face and he hums softly, his eyes closing. 

“Feels nice,” He says his eyes flutter open when you’re done. You bite your lip and put the cap on the little pen

“Looks nice too” you mutter and he grins, smoothing his hands over your hips 

“Can I have a kiss?” 

You nod, your cheeks burning and bend down, cupping his face in your hands and kissing him. He lets out a gleeful little sigh and kisses you back, his hands slide up your back, pulling you closer to him 

“Tastes nice” He purrs, his head is spinning and he just wants you. He’d take you right now if he could. “Like strawberries”

“It’s the lipgloss” You pull away from him some and he pouts, still holding onto you 

“Buck, behave” you scold him playfully and he whines quietly, letting you go reluctantly. You sit back in your seat, put your makeup back in your purse, and look at him, he’s covered in little white hearts and the glitter from your makeup, and he looks heavenly. His eyes are slightly dazed from the kiss and he looks absolutely smitten 

Dinner goes smoothly. Buck is asking so many questions, he just wants to know you inside and out. He seems to hang from your every word and eagerly answers all of your questions. He tells you all about Maddie and gushes about being an Uncle and about how much he loves Jee-Yun. He wants you to meet her so badly, he wants you to meet Maddie too 

“As just a friend thing!! Not like… a girlfriend thing” He blushes and takes a bite of his steak “I want you to have more friends! And Maddie is the best friend you could have! And you know maybe I’m a little biased but she’s really amazing”

“I’d love to meet her, and Jee-Yun!!” You say eagerly. You’re almost as excited as he is about the whole thing and it makes you kind of giddy about things with him. 

Buck pays and you fight him to leave the tip at least, literally fighting him off to leave the money on the table. 

He takes your hand as you two walk out, swinging them playfully 

“The night is still young, do you wanna do something else?” 

“Yeah, sure! Whaddya have in mind?” You ask as he pulls you along, towards his jeep. He’s walking backward, just staring at you with a cute smile on his face. He loves to look at you, to experience you. 

“Well… maybe we can head back to my place?” He opens the door for you and helps you in and you give him a skeptical look, he chuckles and shuts the door, walking around the jeep to get in on his side 

“It’s not like that! I swear! I’m just trying to beat this one level of Super Mario Odyssey and I really need a Cappy… Will you be my player two?” 

Buck comes down the stairs with an old t-shirt that he….may or may not have sprayed cologne on. He’s changed into a pair of sweats and a cropped T-shirt

“There’s a bathroom over there” he points while handing you the shirt and you look at him, your eyes widening at his bare torso…

“Are you sure you don’t want anything more?” 

“Yeah, I’m sure! It’ll be long enough don’t worry” You scamper off to the bathroom and Buck whips out his phone, speed dialing Eddie 

“What?” Eddie answers, putting him on speaker 

“Did you clean my house??” Buck gets busy setting up the switch, grabbing the extra Joycons for you… he may have gone out and bought the special princess peach pink just for you

“Maybe…” Eddie shrugs “I just sort of…guessed? it would end in you taking her home and I wanted to make sure everything was good” 

“Eddieee” Buck whines, fake sniffling and Eddie chuckles “Thanks man, I saw you uh changed my bedding” 

“I doubt it’ll go that far,” He says, and Buck can hear him washing dishes “But if it did, I just thought it would be nice”

“You think she’d ever wanna go that far with me?” Buck asks quietly, looking at the bathroom “And I mean in the future… not you know our first date” 

“You don’t want to score on the first date?” Eddie asks, he sounds like he doesn’t believe it 

“No…for once I don’t. I mean I want to tease the hell out of her, I love watching her blush… but no I want to take my time with her”

“That’s really romantic Buck” 

“I love you too Eddie” Buck grins widely as they both laugh, Buck hears Eddie close the cabinet door and sigh 

“I’m still gonna ask her to be my girlfriend though haha” 

“There’s the Buck I know”

Buck hangs up, promising to call Eddie back as soon as he drops you off at home. He sits on the couch, waiting patiently for you to come out. He starts up the game, nervously chewing his lip, you were taking a bit… should he come check on you?

“Oh…wow” 

He stares at you as you walk towards him, you had said you were gonna keep the tights on but you didn’t. He’s drooling, he knows he is as he watches you fold your clothes nicely and put them in the corner of the couch. You stand in front of him, your hands on your hips

“T-tights?” His voice squeaks out the word, Sabrina was right again. He’s definitely talking nonsense 

“Oh I figured I’d get too hot in them, it’s still long enough though” You look down at the shirt, pulling at the hem of it

“Are you cool with this? I can totally put them on anyway”

He could scoop you up and run you upstairs so easily, he knows it. He could pull you down and take you right there

“Uh-huh,” he says rather dumbly and you bite your lip, looking away from him and then back, just like he does to you 

“You okay?” You ask, stepping forward between his legs and he leans back slowly onto the couch 

“Uh-huh” 

“You ready to play?” You nod at the joycon's on the table and pick them up, sitting next to him on the couch and propping your feet up on the table like he did 

Oh, your toes match your nails. That’s cute, that’s really cute.

You lean back against the couch, putting your head on his shoulder 

“I can wait” 

It takes a minute, but he finally snaps out of it, his cheeks flushing deeply as he shakes his head

“I’m good, sorry. You- you’re just… you’re really pretty”

“I’m just wearing a plain t-shirt Buck” You laugh lightly and he groans 

“Yeah, I know! That’s the embarrassing part” 

“It’s okay. I think you’re really pretty in that shirt too”

You may be on a team together but that doesn’t mean Buck isn’t going to shove you off a cliff just to laugh about it after the fourth time you start to fight him 

“I can’t stand you,” You say, laughing as you push him over and he pushes you back.

“Then sit on my face” 

Your heart stops completely when he says that and you freeze up, your hands gripping the controller as your mouth drops open

He’s giggling a little as he looks at you 

“I’m a slut for a dirty joke”

“I can tell,” you say biting your lip 

“I can stop, if you want” He looks at you with a sincere smile, he pokes at your thigh playfully and you shake your head 

“No it’s okay, they’re funny…” 

“Good. But just let me know if you want me to stop…. You know since we’re on the topic, I want you to know I’d be happy being smothered by your thighs”

“Buck!” 

The two of you play together for a couple of hours, getting him past a lot of stuff he didn’t want to do alone, and he promises to not play without you. You yawn a little and settle back into the couch, you look cute when you’re sleepy, he thinks. He pulls you into his arms for a moment, rubbing your back. You nuzzle into him and pull your legs up into his lap and he smiles, kissing your nose. 

“Can we talk?” He asks softly, and you look up at him, a little smile on your face 

“Yeah sure, what’s on your mind?”

“Trust me when I say, I know that… that it’s so soon” He whispers as he pushes you gently back onto the couch, you let him, opening your legs for him to lay on you. 

“But… will you be my girlfriend?” He asks sweetly, his heart clearly on his sleeve. His eyes are so wide and hopeful. Your heart pounds in your chest as you look at him, those pretty blue eyes shining just for you. He lays his head on your chest and your cheeks flush. Of course, he’s a cuddle monster, he’s a little hesitant before he turns his head, placing soft kisses along your breast before putting his head back down. Oh, he’s definitely trying to butter you up and it’s working. 

“Four dates” You card your fingers through his hair, enjoying the way he melts into your hands and chest. He nuzzles his head into you more and you giggle, hugging him to your chest “Four more dates and then I’m all yours. We gotta get to know each other you big baby” 

“Deal,” He says excitedly, leaning down to kiss you, his body settles between your legs, he’s heavy and warm and you can feel those little butterflies flutter underneath him. He takes his time with you, enjoying the way your lips feel against his. You blush as you feel his hips push down into yours slightly, your thighs tighten on the sides of his waist and he grins 

“You good?” He asks. 

He’s such a little shit too with that cutesy little smirk like he doesn’t know exactly what he’s doing to you, what's currently happening to him, what you can feel between your legs. 

“Yeah I’m good” you mutter shifting your hips a little nervously, you feel his cock twitch against your panties and you squeak. He chuckles into your neck and props himself up on his arms, looking down at you 

“Are you ready to go home?” He’s biting his lip so playfully, appreciating the way you’re squirming nervously underneath him 

“Uh huh…I should go change” He falls to your side, letting you sit up for a minute 

“You could just go home in that, like seeing you in my clothes” He kisses your shoulders where the shirt has slipped down 

“Yeah I can go home and walk through the front door in just your t-shirt,” you tell him sarcastically, leaning into his chest. He nuzzles your neck, nipping at it “Bobby would love that” 

“Sorry I can’t understand your accent” He bats his eyes sweetly and you elbow him in the stomach before getting up 

“Take it home with you, please? You can use it as a sleep shirt or something”

“That I can do,” you tell him, grabbing your clothes from the corner of the couch 

“Anddd maybe you can send me pictures in it sometime… if you want!” He looks down at his hands, twiddling his thumbs 

“Buck, did you just ask me to send pics??” You scoff as you walk towards the bathroom, biting back a little smile.  He sighs behind you, shamelessly watching your ass as you walk. Those hips he just can’t get enough of 

“Maybe. But you know, in a classy kinda way” 

Buck pulls up to the same spot he picked you up at, he takes your hand, kissing the back of it 

“Can I walk you home?” 

“If you don’t mind parking here, you’ll have to leave me a couple of houses down”

“That’s not a problem”

He gets out of the car, comes around, and opens the door for you. 

“Who knew you were such a gentleman?” you tease as he puts his arm around your shoulders and pulls you into his chest. You put your arms around him as you two slowly walk back to Athena’s 

“I uh…. I have an extra key to my apartment” He says, toying with the keys in his pocket “And I know like…. It’s probably not easy sharing a room with May” 

“Okaaay…?” Where the heck was he going with this? 

“I’m just, I’ll send you my work schedule…I have to anyway, you know in order to plan four more sweet dates” he chuckles nervously and you look up at him 

“I’m just… offering you a place to hang out if you ever need space okay? It can’t be easy having the share a room, like you’re both adults with your own lives” 

“Buck you don’t have to do that,” You tell him, hanging onto the front of his shirt “I don’t want to impose” 

“I swear it’s not a problem! I want to do this for you… I mean me and Eddie have keys to each other’s houses! This is just like a cool friend helping a friend, okay?” 

You stop two houses down from Athena’s and he reluctantly lets you go. He takes the keys from his pocket and takes it off the ring, handing it to you

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to…. I just want you to feel like you’ve got a place to go, okay?”

You stand on your toes and he smirks, bending down to your height and tilting your chin up towards him. He kisses you, letting his tongue slide over your teeth before dipping into your mouth, you moan quietly against his lips and his arms snake around your waist. He pulls you up a little taller, your toes just barely touching the ground, 

He’s strong and he wants you to know that. 

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow okay?” He pulls away slowly, that little dazed look in your eyes turning him on. He wonders what else would give you that same look 

“O-okay” 

He sets you back down and pats your butt, giving it a little pinch

“Go on, go home”

You squeak and put your hands over your ass, turning around and glaring at him 

“Goodnight, Buck”

“Goodnight, Doll” 

[artsyjedi]

Life on its form

Any driver x fem!ooc (only mentioned as she)

WARNINGS: driver dies, there are references to depression (mentions of giving up). HEAVILY ANGST - if you find something else, let me know.

Also there's probably some grammar mistakes here and there.

A/N: it's the saddest thing i've written in a year but I couldn't waste the idea. Hope you enjoy :)

From books to movies, love seems to be this enormous thing that works like missing pieces from a puzzle.

Love is supposed to fulfill the empty spaces.

And is very common to hear people say: “It takes effort, and sometimes it’s tiring. But it’s worth it.”

So, during every single relationship, she tried. She tried her best to make it work – because that’s what it takes, right? To some she was loud, to others she was more of an introverted. Fun but not funny, you know? At one point, to one of her partners, she was just enough. She never got too angry or too sad or too happy.

Her partner loved when their friends talked about her. About how good she was, how they wished their own partners were like that. She never complained when he went out with his buddies, wasn't jealous when he got too close to another woman. She was a good girl. His good girl.

It was tiring. But… love requires that. You need to give to receive. And they were good. They were also enough to her. Even when they got mad, like mad-mad, everything was just fine.

For four whole months, they had planned this trip to enjoy the always so beautiful and fun European summer. When the day arrived, they simply said she should go alone, that they weren't on the mood and would be a terrible company. And, on top of all that, they said:

"You should go alone, make friends. It's gonna be good for you. For us, you know? To be apart."

Great. She thought. That clearly meant the relationship wasn't on its best moment. Ups and downs (even though it was more downs than ups). That’s what relationships are made of. No need to think any deeper.

So was right there, on that small country on the northen coast of the Mediterranean Sea, that she learned that love is actually simple and effortless. It comes, stays and requires nothing.

He taught her that. All he wanted from her was sweet nothing.

What was supposed to be a four week trip, became two months. And then three. Between somewhere here and there, she texted her now ex to let them know she wasn't coming back.

All her friends and family thought she had lost it. Who ends a three years relationship because of some random person they just met? They truly thought she had gone mad (to which she responded: yes! Madly in love!).

Was after a great night where they lived, laughed and loved, that he told her he was a Formula 1 driver. She imediatly wanted to cry. Not because of fear of everything being too much, or because he started to ramble about his plans with his ever so excited smile.

She cried because, for the first time in a long time, she felt safe. It didn't matter what would happen, if he was famous, if she would need to deal with all types of people.

He had her. She had him. Nothing else mattered.

When they had to leave the little world they had created during those months and go back to reality, all they felt was deep and raw love.

And then the months became a year. Then a year and a half. And then two years. And then they were living together. What started with a small space on his drawer, became a full section on his closet.

When routine started to catch up, during times where her work demanded more and so did his, with more and more races being add to the calendar, they decided to create a sort of system. Something silly. Something them.

They downloaded some apps for couples, so when they couldn't be together, they could still do things together. Their favourite was one where they could draw. Also, at the end of each day, they would write down to each other those detailed text messages talking about all things.

He also started to leave notes on the pockets of her clothing before leaving. Sometimes he would write poetry, something to make her laugh, or some sort of reminder of how much he loved her. He also loved to leave things with the notes: small gifts, from jewelry to chocolate.

No matter what happened, she knew it would always have something.

But it’s been three months since his accident. Three months she hadn’t found a note, the drawing app widget is nothing more than a white empty board and there is no more detailed messages.

She hadn’t attended the race that weekend, having too much work to do. They did made plans for going to this fancy restaurant he always wanted to try, though. Such a shame they never made it.

Would be a lie to say she remembers much from the days after the news. Actually, she barely remember the day itself. She knows she was the first to get to the hospital, that she was the one to call the family (both hers and his), and then talk with the team.

Some said they were sorry, some tried to find something to blame trying hard to sooth the situation.

But that was life on its form.

Even if it had someone or something to blame, what difference would make? He wasn’t coming back. She wouldn’t hear his laugh anymore, or his tantrums, or his rambling. She would never see again the way he used to lean against every surface he could, or how bad he was at hiding his emotions.

She would never touch him again.

And grief it’s different to every person. There’s no right or wrong way to feel it – as her therapist said. People feel what they feel when they feel and there's nothing you can do to change that.

She accepted easily, better than she thought she would, at least. She did got depressed on the first days, of course, but she kept on going. Always foward.

For first week of her work vacation, she went to her family house. No one dared to say anything. She was laughing, going out with old friends - what was surprising, considering they were sure she would give up.

But that's something she could never do.

She does have something to live for. The memories of every single moment they had together, good or bad, are worth living for.

Now it's been two days since she came back. The apartment is so quiet she allows herself to wonder why she didn't cried yet. From the balcony, she sees the sun making its way towards the line where the sky mets the sea. In a few minutes, it'll also be gone.

She smiles. Once, her therapist asked her "in one word, and just one, describe your love and why"

She answered that their love was just like the ocean. Not because it's unstable or deep, as some people say. She chose the ocean because it's endless and most likely, it won't ever go away. Now thinking better, she should've had chosen waves instead of ocean: always moving, always coming and going but never dissipating completely.

And that’s what their love is: something that will never just go. Now, some days she feels more, some days she feels less. But it’s there.

With this thought, she decides to change her clothes and do something she's been doing her best to avoid: to wear the last cardigan he bought. It was during that week, it came inside of a beautiful box and he had smiled saying, "i have great plans for this one".

Making her way to the small beach in front of their building, she takes a deep breath and fels that stupid feeling again. The one that puts her on the edge of something that never comes no matter how hard she tries. As if there's something waiting right around the corner.

The sky is now a mix of purple, pink and orange. It's beautiful. The wind becomes cold while she just stands there, feeling the sand wrap her feet. The waves crash, coming and going and then coming again.

It's when a bird flies too close to her that she puts her hands on both pockets. A reflex. Something so normal but that means a lot, specially when she feels one of her hands brush against something.

And there it is. She finally went over the edge, finally saw what is around the corner. Her eyes gets watery, she can feel tears falling down her cheeks and sees the wet dots being created on the sand. She laughs. Suddenly life is less heavy.

Her body almost gives in, but she manages to sit properly. With another deep breath, she sees what he left for her.

Two years ago, during a race week on the US, they managed to scape go to Santa Monica. He insisted on going to the photo booth and she hated every single one of the pictures. He told her to chose one to keep, the others could go.

And he carried that one with him everywhere. Either on his wallet or inside of his helmet.

And now the picture is on her hand, wrapped in a small paper. She's sure it was already there when he gave it to her, and when he kissed her goodbye for the last time.

On his crap handwriting, was written: a memory for you to keep until I come back.

Seing the sun finally disappear and the moon rise on the other side, she reliases she created another memory for her to keep on living for.

[holleighgram]

Hold onto your keyboards, cause I'm about to get ✨️controversial ✨️

I'd like to preface this by saying all interpretations/ headcanons/ readings/ etc. Are valid and I'm in no way discouraging anyone to change their ways.

I watched (and enjoyed) Baloney's "The Truth About Kingdom Hearts!" And I absolutely adored their take on the series, but one line stuck out to me that I really want to expand on because I don't see it being talked about as often as it should.

Kairi doesn't like Riku.

And I think this is a very RICH and IMPORTANT aspect of the Destiny Trio dynamic. It adds to the complexity of these characters, but especially Kairi.

(Another shout out to @violethowler and their INCREDIBLE Constructing Kingdoms series. The video on"The Girl Who Never Grew Up" made me like and understand Kairi so much more. Highly recommend checking it out.)

Kairi doesn't like Riku, and with some pretty valid reasons, but I'll get to that after I compile all the evidence towards this:

In KH:

Kairi likes her life the way it is. She doesn't desire change, but Riku wants nothing but change. He wants to grow up and move on and see the outside world.

And because Sora looks up to him, Sora has jumped on the bandwagon too. Kairi is going along because Sora is. But it is clear that for Kairi, change =/= good. So what does she say?

"You know, Riku's changed."

Sora asks her how, and she kinda bites her tongue. Clearly she had opinions, but doesn't want to badmouth Soras best friend to him. Later she says, "Sora, don't ever change."

Later, after everything, when Kairi is restored and in Travers Town, she doubts that Riku can be saved, despite the fact that she LITERALLY saved Sora from being a heartless. She almost seems like she's trying to convince Sora not to go, or to at least let her come with-- not to save Riku but because she wants to be there with Sora.

At the end of the game, she obviously return to destiny islands and draws the paopu.

During Chain of Memories, everyone forgets about Sora, but the memories of Riku stay intact. For a year. Kairi is well aware that her "friend" is missing. In fact, last she knew of him, he was still taken by Ansem and presumably dead or at least suffering. She doesn't know.

She knows she's a Princess of Heart and has powers thay can help (as she restored Sora after being a heartless). But the most we get is "he's far away, but I know we'll see him again." Like, do you?

I mean, SELPHIE is the one that says "I sure miss him." That's way more than we EVER get from Kairi.

So for a YEAR, she doesn't spare Riku a single thought. But the SECOND she remembers Sora, she is willing to do anything to see him again.

Here's a little bit of speculation for WHY she doesn't like Riku:

1) Perhaps when she first met them as kids, he reminder her of Xehenort, who kidnapped her and yeeted her into space.

2) Kairi wanted to be best friends with SORA, but not Riku. She's afraid that Sora will follow Riku to the outside worlds (where she doesn't want to go) and leave her behind. If it wasn't for Riku, Sora wouldn't want to leave at all.

3) He (as far as we know) opened the door and damned their home into Darkness. That's probably a point of contention for her. Even though Sora so forgiving.

4) He hurt Sora in KH1, but Sora is still loyal to him. She probably sees that as him taking advantage of Sora-- the person she cares most about.

5) He's the reason Sora never came home. If it wasn't for him, they would have gone home at the end of KH1 together.

I can't say for sure how Riku feels about Kairi. He DID drag her corpse around and give into the darkness to save her, but that can be interpreted as solely wanting to "beat " Sora at being the hero. Even still, we get moment in COM where he reflects on missing her. We even see Namine come to his rescue in her form. I definitely feel like there is less animosity there, but who knows.

That's all.

Roast me, Kairi stans, but I love the depth this reading gives to the story and the potential for arcs and character growth for her and she is forced to face who she is without Sora.

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

OHSHCAU (Keysmash)

Part 3

Prev

You know how, when the school year starts up, a teacher might get everyone to go around the room and give a couple of vague facts about themselves? Or, even worse, they might split everyone up into teams based on some random, inconsequential factors and they would all be forced to work together on some dumb task? That way they can get to know new people better?

You know how everyone hates that?

Yeah. Marinette thought that, of all people, her fellow high schoolers would understand. But alas, here she was, glaring down Dick because he wanted to do a team-building exercise. Bastard. She was going to shoot him.

With a paintball gun! Because they were playing paintball!

Do not send cops her way! She will introduce neurotoxins to your system!

Anyways, she had no choice but to agree. Debt’s a bitch.

And, maybe, the idea of shooting the Waynes point blank in the face with paintballs would have swayed her regardless, but who knows. The option was never truly given to her, so who’s to say how she would have reacted?

Certainly, the Waynes would never know.

Which was probably for the best. They could end her life in a couple of phone calls.

She hummed as she absently messed with her paintball gun. They had been split off into pairs. Steph was still on the bench thanks to her copious amounts of injuries, unfortunately, so Marinette hadn’t particularly minded who she was going to end up with (she hated all of the Waynes equally, save fucking Tim, who would avoid her, anyway), and had allowed them to all pair off and leave her with the leftovers.

She was regretting that, now, of course.

Dick wrapped his arm around her shoulders and tugged her into his side. “Don’t get too competitive, please?” He said, and he sounded like he was one more ‘fuck you’ away from begging.

She glanced over his shoulder and found Tim making faces at her behind his back. He was supposed to be heading to one of the other nondescript, frankly unnerving steel tunnels that would lead them to a random place on the map. He should be spending this time with Damian so they could discuss their plans. He was not doing any of these things. He had followed Marinette and Dick to their room instead, and she would be concerned about him trying to figure out where they would end up for the sake of a tactical advantage… but, frankly, that was too smart for him.

He had no good reason to be here. How sweet of him to want to see her off.

She looked back at Dick, her eyes gleaming. “Of course I won’t. Only babies get competitive over stuff like this.”

Tim bristled. But his mic was on, so he was unable to say a word in protest. He could turn his face away from the people to mouth the curses he so clearly wanted to scream, but she could just look in another direction.

Her lips twitched into a kind of grin before she tamped it down.

Dick sighed. Deeply. “I’m guessing I can take that as a no.”

“Aw. You know me so well.”

He snickered. “Well, I’d hope so, since I hired you.”

“No one has ever lied to the people hiring them ever,” she said, nodding sagely.

He grinned. “Which is why we went with… atypical hiring practices.”

“You’ve basically kidnapped me and decided to hold my entire future ransom to make me work for you.”

“Shhhhhhhhh.”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Oh, Marinette,” a voice called, and she was more than happy to let Steph drag her out from under Dick’s arm, even if this meant that a new arm was wrapped around her waist and a face came to rest close to her own.

Marinette raised an eyebrow, but wasn’t too surprised at the sudden closeness. They’d literally slept together, in the same bed, for days. She could handle a little bit of contact. And, besides, they’d both agreed that it fit their characters (a playful flirt would flirt with a girl next door, and a girl next door would blush and let it happen) and it would draw in more customers. Teenage boys and gay teenage girls would both rather enjoy watching ‘wlw content’ when given the option.

Besides, who doesn’t flirt with their friends a little? Now they got to monetize it. A win.

Marinette rested a lazy arm over Steph’s shoulder, careful not to jostle the microphone hovering by the girl’s chin. She gave it a pointed look, and Steph mouthed the word ‘off’. She untensed a little. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Your mic is off.”

“I didn’t get one,” she said, shrugging.

Steph blinked. “Oh. I can give you mine.”

“Well, if I accept that, how am I going to insult Tim without the audience knowing?”

Dick snickered. “You could try not insulting him.”

Marinette gave him a blank look.

He shrugged as if to say ‘well, I tried’. Which, did he really?

But her attention was quickly stolen away when Steph pulled something out from behind her ear and then presented it to Marinette, who looked at it how one might look at a dead rat their cat had just brought in.

“What the hell is that?”

“A mic,” Dick offered.

She glared at him out of the corner of her eyes, and then snapped her attention back to Steph when the girl leaned in to fit the device over her ear. “You’re not putting that on me.”

“What, is the scientist scared of technology?” teased Dick.

She gritted her teeth. “Chemicals are easy to understand. They’re predictable. This? Unreliable. Who knows who's listening in on those wavelengths.”

There was a beat of silence. The two Waynes looked at each other for a moment, something unreadable on their faces.

And then Dick sighed. “Listen, you know how our dad bankrolls the Batman?”

She nodded, still eyeing Steph as if the girl was going to jump her and attach the evil machine to her by force.

“Well, we get a couple of perks. Like this. If anyone tries to hack into these – which, really, why would they? – Batman will be alerted and I’m sure they will never be heard from again… or whatever it is he and his weirdo kids do.”

“Local Batman proves that all cops are corrupt,” she said, still eyeing it warily.

“Not a cop,” said Steph.

“Not corrupt,” said Dick.

She wasn’t sure who was being less realistic.

And it didn’t matter what they said, either way.

Batman was exactly the person she was trying to avoid, thank you very much. But it wasn’t like she could just say that, because being openly wary of the Batman in front of rich people was just begging for them to be suspicious of you. They were too used to their peers being affiliated with the Court of Owls. So, reluctantly, she let Steph place the mic.

The girl drew back slightly once she was sure everything was in place (and, more importantly, that it would stay in place even while they were all running around).

Steph grinned. “There. Done. All you’ve got to do now is press the button and you’ll be live. Anyways. Blush like I said something suuuuper hot, m’kay? They’re staring.”

“Maybe if you do something hot, I will.”

She hummed thoughtfully before she brought her free hand up to cradle Marinette’s face. She tilted her head up, her thumb caressing her cheek, their noses brushing. A quiet click sounded next to her ear as her headpiece was turned on.

“Fixed,” Steph said. Quiet, but close enough to the mic hovering by Marinette’s chin for their audience to hear.

“Thanks,” Marinette mumbled. Thank god she had melanin to hide the reddening of her face somewhat, but she was pretty sure it was obvious regardless.

“Anytime,” Steph teased, going so far as to press a kiss to Marinette’s nose before drawing back. She glanced at Dick. “Your mic is off, too.”

“What, not going to fix mine for me?” Dick joked, lifting a lazy hand to flick the knob by his ear.

Steph snorted. “I’d rather die.”

Dick grinned and immediately tugged Marinette closer to him again. Woe is her. If only she could retaliate by beating his ass like she so wants to do. She hates debt. Thankfully, he didn’t wrap an arm around her this time, instead he let her go in favor of crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re just jealous that you don’t get to teach this sweet little underclassman the ropes.”

Marinette was fighting a valiant battle with her face, trying to keep the unimpressed annoyance off of it. “You’re so kind.”

“Of course! It’s my job as the club leader to make sure that your introduction to the group goes smoothly!”

They wouldn’t be bothering with all of this otherwise.

For you see, a large part of being a Host was based around how physically attractive you were, and if they wanted her to be popular enough to pay off her debt, they would have to introduce her to the potential customers in a way that would draw their attention in that way. So, it had been decided that Marinette’s official introduction should be some kind of physical activity. Especially since their clients were all fellow teens, and likely would see a bunch of people fighting for their lives in slightly skimpy clothes and go ‘ooooooooooh’.

Steph rolled her eyes so hard she must have seen her brain back there. “It would have been easier if we’d just done a pool party.”

“My! A pool party?! Steph, have you no shame? What about her innocence?!”

“Dick. She’s wearing a crop top and yoga pants.”

“A crop top, yoga pants, and tasteful armor,” said Dick. His attempts at defending her honor were… definitely attempts. Marinette could give him that.

Marinette crossed her arms over her chest, grinning. “Would you prefer I work out in a hoodie and sweats?”

“Well,” said Steph. She brought her hands up to press against her own chest, winking. “I don’t want that.”

A glance up at the crowd showed that the people had caught the jist of what she’d said thanks to the overdramatic body language she had opted for. Thankfully. Marinette wasn’t sure how to naturally repeat that for the sake of the people watching.

Her eyes caught on one particular person in the crowd, though.

Fu, leaning against his cane heavily, watching her.

“Alright, Steph, stop flirting with the new recruit,” Dick said, slinging his arm over Marinette’s shoulders again, tugging her closer to his side. “Shoo. Scram. Other synonyms that start with ‘s’. I need to teach her how to shoot – shoot! No, wait, I’m thinking of ‘shoo’, and I’m pretty sure I already said that. Anyways. Leave so I can teach her.”

Marinette’s head jerked around to look at him, her eyebrows disappearing behind her hairline. “I know how to shoot. You just…”

She pointed her paintball gun at a nearby wall and pulled the trigger. A disappointed look crossed her face when, despite the gun clicking to tell her that the trigger was working, nothing came out.

“Hm,” she said, eloquently.

He snickered. “Well, I know why that happened, but before we fix that…” He reached a hand out to adjust her fingers. “Let’s not keep our fingers on the trigger. Unless you want to shoot at anything that dares to surprise you.”

Marinette absolutely wanted that. Unfortunately, she couldn’t say that while in character, so she was stuck smiling and saying, “Thanks, Richard.”

“Dick,” he corrected lightly, as usual.

“You don’t understand how much I can not call you that,” she said. Even if Dick was, often, a dick, and she didn’t usually mind going with whatever nickname or name someone called themself, it’s hard to say the word and still come across as demure.

“Well, then, you can call me something else. How does ‘my liege’ sound?”

Marinette snickered into her hand. “Terrible, King.”

“Oh. Hate that.”

“Got it, Queen.”

He sighed.

“Themporer?” she tried, batting her eyelashes.

“How many of those do you have?”

“So many, gender nonspecific monarch.”

“That one feels like a stretch.”

She shrugged. “Yeah, it is a bit of a mouthful.”

“You know, I’m starting to realize that you use humor to stall.”

Marinette’s face flushed at the direct callout. That had been unnecessary. And she couldn’t even curse him out for it. She hated life.

Whatever. She’d roll with it (not like she had any other choices). She gasped, pressing a hand to her chest. “What do you mean? I was trying to figure out your royal-title-specific pronoun preferences! I had only the best of intentions.”

“Of course, of course. Pretend to get ready to shoot your gun.”

Marinette huffed, mumbling that he was ‘no fun’ as she lifted her paintball gun.

He walked around her slowly, knocking his foot against the inside of her own until she moved them to be shoulder width apart, bending her arms so the recoil wouldn’t hurt as much, bending her knees slightly so she wouldn’t fall over at the lightest of hits…

“You sure know a lot about this,” Marinette said, eyeing him warily.

“Dad made me take some self-defense classes after I got held for ransom for the eight and a half-th time.”

“Eight times is a lot but I guess that’s still surprisingly competent for hi – wait, half-th?”

“Yeah!” he said, and then did not elaborate.

She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting.

He checked her form one last time before nodding to himself. He squinted at her gun for a moment, before cringing.

“I – uh – I’m not used to turning off the safety from an outsider’s point of view…”

“Then here,” she said, starting to stand up straighter and hand it over to him, only for him to rapidly shake his head.

“No, no, no, we need you in that position for as long as possible to get your body used to it.”

Marinette fought back a grimace, her eyes briefly flicking to the people still watching them intently. Dick, as the self-proclaimed ‘king’ of the Host Club, was easily the most popular among guests. She did not want to put a target on her back by looking like she was trying to come onto him. Or because it might look like he was coming onto her. She hated this fucking job. They were coworkers, damn it. She shouldn’t be stressing about getting, like, Court of Owls-style assassinated for being near him!

“Just – just… do it quick,” she said.

He nodded sharply.

Arms wrapped around her from behind, a chin coming to rest upon her shoulder. Warm breath just barely wafted over the side of her neck, earning a few goosebumps. His hands ghosted over the back of her own, briefly, fixing the positioning of her fingers once again (he really didn’t like her tendency to hang onto the trigger, apparently) before flicking the safety off.

He pulled back the second everything was in order, hands up like he was already actively surrendering. They sent the people watching them mildly embarrassed looks. It isn’t doing them much good, though.

Quick! Take legitimacy away from the intimacy!

“I need to stop bringing desserts from home, you’re getting heavy.”

Dick spluttered. “What?”

“I said what I said.”

She would apologize later.

… wait, would Babs count mental damage as adding to her debt?

She was going to apologize so profusely later.

Dick sighed, running a hand through his hair, briefly pushing his bangs out of his eyes. “Tell me why we made you the girl next door again?”

“Out of ideas,” Marinette said.

“Right, right. Any chance we can change it?”

“Well, you’re the king and all, you can choose,” she said, before winking and blowing a kiss to the people up on the viewing platform. “But, hey, everyone knows that most ‘harsh’ people are just hurt people trying to protect themselves from more harm. I’m sure that, with the right person, I could actually be the soft, kind person I portray. After all, every act needs at least a little bit of truth to work, right?”

She glanced at Dick out of the corner of her eyes. He gave the barest trace of a nod.

Good.

She had a bit of a reputation in the school. Not really because she was outright mean to people – she would never say half the shit she said around Adrien and the host club members to people she didn’t know, not without good reason – but because pretty much every student knew about her… antagonistic relationship with Tim. Because during the last finals season they had only been a step above fistfighting in the middle of the hallway. And not even because they had been scared of punishment or expulsion, but instead because Duke and Steph had physically dragged Tim away before he could jump at her.

Whatever. It was totally water under the bridge and she definitely didn’t want him dead anymore.

(Yes, Tim and Marinette could just put aside their differences, and show that they had changed… but Marinette would rather just kill him, to be honest.)

Regardless, it would be hard to convince the general population that the person that had almost fought another member was all that shy and kind. So, they needed to rework her image. Recontextualize her personality.

Whether or not Marinette or any of the other host club members really believed what she was saying didn’t matter, all that mattered was that their guests believed it. Thankfully, they had years worth of toxic media to back up their claims, and the rich kids who had never had real reason to distrust what they’d been told fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

Great. The goal for today is done. Now, if only she could get out of this stupid paintball tournament. She has changed her mind. A chance of shooting Tim in the face is not worth having to simulate a battle.

Maybe if she annoys Dick enough he might just call it off?

She watched him out of the corner of her eyes as they continued down the hallway. He caught her stare and, instead of being confused or upset or uncomfortable, sent her a tiny smile.

Yeah, she didn’t think it would work. You can’t annoy someone with as many younger siblings as he has. They are immune to outside annoyances by this age, she is pretty sure.

There’s no getting out of this.

She almost laughed. Story of her fucking life.

Dick rested his hand on the doorknob, glancing back at her.

“Ready?”

She flashed a wink. “As I’ll ever be.”

Their door opened up into what seemed to be a trench, carved into the ground. Once they had clambered out of the trench, their clothes already stained with dirt (at least she didn’t have to pay for any of it), they found themselves in a heavily wooded area, with a couple of concrete structures dotted around.

She walked to a nearby tree. All of them looked long dead, blackened, as if they had been burned. As if this was a real battlefield.

She rapped her knuckles against it lightly, and wasn’t surprised to find that, whatever it was made of, it wasn’t organic material. Judging by the sound, she would guess styrofoam, paper mache, paint, and a dream.

A quick check of one of the structures revealed it to have no ceiling.

The entire world around them was fabricated to give the people so far above them, standing on the glass and peering down at them with excited grins she didn’t want to look at, a good view of what was going on. No leaves, no roofs, nothing was allowed to take away from their fun.

Oh shit, she thought. This is what it feels like to be in the Hunger Games.

Or to be in one of Riddler’s escape rooms, she supposed.

She watched Dick carefully toeing at the dirt, checking to see how far down it went. Whether it could actually be used as padding, or if the metal hidden beneath would give some nasty bruises if someone fell on it for any reason. Such as dramatically falling over when shot ‘dead’.

Her lips twitched into a wry kind of grin. And he’s supposed to be the ‘dumbest’ one. Who does he think that he’s fooling?

It wasn’t until long after he had confirmed that the ground was, in fact, soft enough for them all to drop dead on without issue, that an alarm alerted them to the fact that the grace period was over, and they were now supposed to be hunting each other to the death.

Marinette brushed her bangs away from her eyes, taking advantage of the opportunity to see how the audience had dispersed themselves. They were, largely, grouped into four spots. No guesses why. Sureeeeeely not because this was where the four pairs of competitors were…

Okay, that wasn’t fair to the customers. There was no way for them to know that the glass wasn’t a one way mirror like they’d been told. They shouldn’t be aware of the fact that this was all a play that had been planned out well in advance. The Waynes weren’t the types to let on that they weren’t quite as ‘airheaded’ as they often portrayed themselves to be, for whatever reason.

Still… Marinette stretched lazily, rocking back and forth on her feet, trying not to laugh aloud at just how obvious they were all being.

“So, are we heading to the center or skirting around the edges?” she asked.

“Center,” he said, because that was where most of the male clients were, and therefore where Babs and Cass were likely to be. “Let’s see whether there’s a Hunger Games-style cornucopia or something.”

Marinette clicked her tongue lightly. “You can’t tell people what we’re ripping off.”

“I think they already know.”

She huffed, but it’s not as if she genuinely cared.

Without further ado, they were off.

*****

They happened across Babs and Cass in the middle. They seemed to be doing the same thing that Marinette and Dick were, picking around for anything that might be useful. As if the people who had made this place would make an entrance in a spot where they had special items.

“Find anything?” Dick asked, pointing his gun at Babs.

Cass retaliated by pointing her gun at him. He did not seem particularly pleased about this development.

Marinette wasn’t pleased, either, because this meant she had to point her gun at Cass in retaliation. Fuck this script for making her defend Dick Grayson of all people.

Their guests looked to Babs, expecting her to point her gun at Marinette and complete the circle, leading to a dramatic standoff…

Only for Babs to hold up her hands in the universal sign of surrender. “We don’t have to fight,” she said. “It’s better if we don’t. We can’t have Jason or Tim’s teams winning.”

If nothing else, Marinette had to admit that this strategy would have probably worked on her and Dick even if it wasn’t scripted. Because fuck Tim Drake. And, in Dick’s case, Jason, in particular, cannot win, because he would be insufferable about it. They would both take shady deals in a heartbeat if it meant that the other two teams wouldn’t win.

“What do you get from this?” Marinette asked, because it was expected of her.

Cass shrugged. “Fun.”

Valid reason. Marinette (and Dick, too, though she loathed to admit it) could sometimes be fun.

As for Babs…

“If we’re the last two teams, I want to shoot Dick in the face.”

Dick gave a screech of offense, complaining about his ‘beautiful face’. But Marinette sees now downsides! They shook on it before he could get a word in edgewise.

“Alright, team, let’s roll out,” said Babs.

“Don’t I get a say in this?” Dick whined.

“No. We are misandry-ing,” Marinette informed him.

“Perfect. Us girlies have to stick together,” Babs joked lightly.

“True. Can’t wait to kill ‘my liege’ for the sake of women everywhere,” Marinette said, snickering to herself.

Dick snorted at the ‘my liege’ callback, and then seemed to process what she had said. He pressed a hand to his chest. “Excuse you, I’m a girlie, too.”

“Woo, slay queen,” Marinette deadpanned. And then she frowned to herself. “Is ‘my liege’ a gendered term?”

“I… think so?” said Babs. The grammar rules for royalty is not the kind of thing the average teenager is looking up, after all. And, if Babs doesn’t know, then Cass (ESL speaker) and Dick (a liar pretending to be the ‘dumb one’ in a group already known for being stupid) had no shot. Pain. She must live without knowing for the next few hours. Why does god hate her so? Truly, she has suffered more than Jesus.

… perhaps it is jokes like that that make god hate her.

Whatever. She did not believe in Him, therefore He could not hurt her.

Anyways.

“Let’s roll out, then, I guess,” she said.

“Only I’m allowed to make that joke,” said Babs.

Marinette blinked. And then her face reddened. “Oh — I—!”

Cass shook her head in mock disappointment.

Marinette huffed. “Is it too late to un-team?”

“Nah, we shook on it, it’s binding,” Babs said.

Well. If that’s the case. They rolled ou— started off in search of others.

It was, honestly, a lot of meandering around. If they managed to go in the right direction too many times, the illusion would break, after all.

But, if nothing ‘entertaining’ was happening, they needed to work extra hard to have interesting conversations to listen in on. Which was hard. Usually, they entertained their guests by flirting, which was easy and didn’t take that much mental energy, but that was no longer really an option. They weren’t going to flirt with each other, especially since Dick and Cass were siblings and Dick and Babs were exes (Dick once again ruining things for everyone, shame on him). So…

Marinette walked alongside Babs. “If you don’t mind me asking, how the heck are you able to use your wheelchair when the ground is like this?” she said. The wheels didn’t look all that special, after all – it was all clearly high-quality, don’t get her wrong, but it wasn’t like she was looking at the wheelchair version of four wheel drive. And the gun in her lap was barely even moving.

“That’s the most fucked up question anyone’s ever asked me,” deadpanned Babs.

Marinette huffed. “Now, I just don’t think that’s true.”

“When have I ever lied?”

“I’m still convinced that the debt was a scam,” she sniffed.

Babs rolled her eyes but distinctly didn’t deny it. Because she couldn’t, clearly, not because she just didn’t feel that this was worth her time or energy. “This isn’t any worse than going down sidewalks.”

Marinette envisioned the Average Gotham Sidewalk. Then looked at the ground. She supposed that the sticks kind of resembled used syringes, now that she thought about it, and the dirt was surprisingly much smoother than the pothole-riddled concrete.

“Oh,” she said. “Okay, makes sense, yeah.”

Well. She had done her job. Someone else needs to pick up the slack, now.

Babs sent her a flat look that said she needed to say something that would interest the audience, not just her. She fought the urge to grumble under her breath. The microphone would pick that up, too.

She turned to look at Dick.

“Okay, philosophical question: if you are aware that you are in denial, is it really denial, or is it a weird form of acceptance?”

It was silent for a moment.

“Er… I guess… acceptance?”

“But then it’s not denial. Different stage,” Cass said.

“But if you’re aware of it, it can’t be denial,” Dick argued.

Babs sighed. “How ‘aware’ is this ‘awareness’? Because, I’m pretty sure, even people in denial kind of know things are weird.”

“Nonono, you’re aware of the denial,” said Marinette. “Like, you know the thing you’re in denial about is bad and you go ‘nahhhhh’. But it’s a conscious decision.”

“Then… ugh. Denial, I guess.”

Babs and Cass started arguing. Marinette was pretty sure this was the most talkative and passionate she had ever seen Cass.

As for the guests… they were either arguing vehemently themselves or watching other people argue with amused grins.

Marinette, discreetly, gave a little bow in Dick’s direction. He gave a huff of laughter.

By the time they stumbled across another person, Cass seemed pissed off enough to go all out. This wasn’t intentional, but it was still funny to watch Duke go from relatively calm and in control to immediately ducking behind a tree for cover for fear of death.

Until he started firing at them all, too, and they were forced to book it to the nearest shelter.

You might argue that they were cowards, and should help out Cass, and you’d be right, but…

They wouldn’t be much help, to be honest.

The way Duke and Cass were fighting was insane. Like they already knew what each other’s movements were going to be ahead of time, and thus were more intent on waiting for the other to slip up than outright outsmarting each other.

Marinette whistled lowly. “How often do you guys come here?”

“Here? This is the first time, actually,” said Dick, brightly. “But we have something like this back at the Manor.”

She hated rich people.

(This fact has been made abundantly clear over the past few chapters, but she would like to say it again. And again. For as many times as it would take for them to stop pulling Rich People Shit.)

“Woooow,” she said, trying to infuse as much fake cheeriness into her tone as was physically possible when her main thought was about how, technically, friendly fire is possible here. “What a perfectly amazing use of your money.”

He nodded his agreement. Whether or not it was joking did not matter when her blood was boiling beneath her skin. She started to lift her gun, intent on either helping Cass or betraying both Cass and Duke at once, only for a stray bullet to nail the wall by her head the moment she started to poke her head out.

She stared at the purple paint for a moment, eyes wide, before slowly shrinking back into hiding.

She was still pissed off, though!

Before her eyes could drift to Babs and she could weigh the moral implications of sending her out first, a handful of skittles was shoved in front of her face.

“Want some?” said Jason.

She nodded, taking all of the red ones and popping them in her mouth. Dick did the same, but with the green pieces, like a weirdo (who the hell prefers green?). Babs wasn’t nearly as picky, just taking a handful of the rest and popping them like pills.

And then she started to lift her gun.

Marinette nearly choked on her sweet treat.

“JASON?!” Dick yelped.

They scrambled for their own guns.

Jason managed to get a shot off on Babs before he was covered in yellow. Maybe they shot him more times than was strictly necessary, but that was what he deserved for using Skittles against them. Honestly, the fact that Dick didn’t believe in the death penalty was the only thing saving him right now.

As for Marinette… well, she had been too intent on looting his ‘corpse’ for more candy to bother with murdering him via paintball gun. After all, what if the Skittles ended up getting blood or — god forbid — paint on them? She wouldn’t even be able to kill him in retaliation for messing up her snack.

She grumbled when she found paintballs, but pocketed them for extra ammo, in case Cass won and needed more.

Then, finally, she procured her prize: a sharing size bag of candy.

Life is good.

Unless you are Jason Todd.

“Maaaaan,” he groaned. “Those are mine, y’know.”

“Shhhhh, you’re a corpse, you can’t speak,” Dick said, holding his hand out for some.

She set the paintballs in his hand instead.

And then watched on in horror as he bit down on one without thinking.

Dick stared at her for a moment, purple dripping from his mouth.

Marinette swallowed down the temptation to joke about him looking like a vampire in favor of frantically looking up whether paintballs were nontoxic or if they were about to cut this paintball tournament short.

… which she wouldn’t mind, actually, now that she thought about it...

She considered the google page saying that they were nontoxic (for humans, at least, apparently they were not good for animals, which Damian was going to be distressed about when he learned), wondering whether an ambulance visit would be added to her debt. And then decided she didn’t want to risk it.

“You’re fine.”

Want to know who wasn’t fine? Cass and Duke. Apparently, in the time it took for everything to settle, Duke and Cass had killed each other off. Or, well, Duke had slipped up and Cass had ‘died’ in solidarity with him. Mildly concerning behavior, but it was a paintball game and therefore has no real indication of actual behaviors. Hopefully. Marinette genuinely liked Cass.

No time to linger on that particular line of thought.

“If Tim wins I’m pulling a Cass,” Marinette told Dick.

Dick raised an eyebrow. “You’d already be ‘dead’ if Tim wins.”

She thought this over. “Then I’ll come back as a zombie and be killed again. Perfect.”

Jason did not seem to find this funny, but maybe he was still bitter about having his Skittles stolen. Dick grinned and, really, that’s all that matters.

“What do you think real life zombies are like?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Nonexistent.”

“Don’t know what I was expecting from the scientist,” he huffed.

“Fiiiiiine,” she said. She thought, long and hard, about what a real life zombie would be like. Blüdhaven got nuked a while back (deserved, fuck Blüdhaven), and she hadn’t yet heard of zombies, so radiation poisoning wasn’t going to do it. So probably an intentional thing — Jurassic Park style experimentation, or something. Which means that the circumstances would be controlled… except zombies would probably escape the labs, if Marinette were to ever see them. The body would have to be very cold to slow down decomposition. It wouldn’t even halt it entirely.

“Gross,” she decided.

Dick stared at her. “All that thought and you come up with ‘gross’?!”

“I’m not wrong. They’d be gross.”

“That is not the point!” he groaned. “Talk about whether you think they’d be fast or slow, strong or weak, intelligent or not! Talk about whether their decomposition would affect them!”

She snickered. “Careful, Richard, or you’re going to make people think you have a brain in there.”

For a moment, he froze. And then he purposefully relaxed, each muscle individually untensing, one by one. He laughed lightly, but it was a tad bit forced (when wasn’t it, though?). “Yeah, the zombies will come after me if they know.”

“Being stupid has its benefits, yeah?”

He chuckled humorlessly.

Before he could come up with a proper response, though, Tim wandered into their area, drawn by the sound of gunfire from Duke and Cass’s fight. Marinette and Dick pointed their guns at him immediately.

Tim narrowed his eyes. He pointed his gun at Marinette, but seemed hesitant.

Marinette fought off a smirk. She loved having plot armor. At the sight of her face, he only seemed more irritated, which was even better.

But there was nothing he could do.

He set his gun down.

“We could take him as hostage,” Dick offered. “See if that lures Damian –.”

“Nah, too risky,” said Marinette. Without any further ado, she shot Tim.

Tim fell over, and not entirely because that was standard for ‘dead’ people. He hugged himself. His dignity, breaking. In a very literal sense.

It was very quiet. Marinette’s hand found its way to her mouth.

Dick looked at her, his eyes wide and horrified.

“I know I hate you, but… I didn’t mean… I forgot that men have… Tim, I’m so sorry.”

Tim made a pitiful sound.

Shakily, he lifted a hand in a thumbs up.

She made a heart with her own hands. This did not seem to help in the slightest but, frankly, there wasn’t much else she could do.

Luckily, she didn’t need to think about it for long before she was distracted — a voice called from behind them: “Found you.”

She whipped around and shot Damian in the chest.

There were a few moments where no one knew what to do. The boy stared at the paint staining his armor bright yellow. Marinette’s grip felt clammy on her gun.

Dick tipped his head to the side consideringly.

She met his eyes.

She was no longer amused by the intelligence lingering in his gaze as he scrutinized her. She narrowed her eyes at him, briefly, daring him to say something. She wasn’t the only one hiding things, after all.

Play along, she told him. Help me fix this ending.

He relaxed his expression carefully.

They had an understanding. Despite Marinette’s supposed incompetence with guns, when startled she was quick to shoot and accurate. Despite Dick constantly acting as if he was dumb, there was clearly a brain hidden somewhere there. They both knew more than they tried to let on. Maybe that was why they didn’t have much trouble identifying each other’s acts… but, so long as their own secrets remained intact, they could keep each others’.

It was a little nerve-wracking, and yet, strangely, nice, to have someone you don’t have to lie to. That can see past it even when you try.

She smirked and lifted her gun. “See? This is why you keep your finger on the trigger, Dick.”

He grinned and held up his hands in surrender.

*****

Marinette and Dick grimaced as a cooler full of paint was poured over their backs. They definitely felt victorious right about now. This was their prize for winning. Yay them.

Sure, they didn’t exactly, genuinely earn the win, but that’s besides the point.

He looked at her. “You’ve got red in your hair.”

She yelped and brought a hand up to try and get it out, only to remember just a second too late that her hands, too, were covered in paint. She stared at the glob of paint-covered hair hanging limp in front of her eyes for a moment, devastated, and then glared at him.

“You did that on purpose.”

“I was just pointing something out for you,” he said ‘innocently’, unable to quite keep himself from smiling.

She hummed, and then slapped her hand onto his hair. He hissed and reflexively his hands flew up to touch the sore spot, only for him to realize that now he had been the one baited into getting paint in his hair.

“Marinette,” he said, smiling sweetly.

For a moment, one could almost see the regret flickering across her features.

And then he rushed forward to try and trap her in a hug. She shrieked, managing to get only a few steps before she was snatched up, dragged into the evil monster. She barely even had time to fight back before she was thrown over his shoulder, only able to yell off-brand curse words and try to writhe around in hopes of freedom – or, at least, in hopes that she could smear her own paint over every part of him she could reach.

Within minutes, they were swirling messes of red, blue, purple, and the occasional scrap of visible skin.

There were people laughing at their antics.

Both of them froze.

They looked up, and found the other members of the Host Club were enjoying the show.

As well as a few guests, but they couldn’t really retaliate against them.

So, Dick set Marinette down and they met each other’s eyes and silently resolved to make up for that by attacking their fellow club members twice as much to compensate.

*****

Marinette heaved a sigh as she sat on a bench, scrubbing paint off her arm with her millionth wet wipe of the day. Where did the green even come from?

It was then that she realized someone was nearing her.

She looked over her shoulder and found…

Well, someone her age. She recognized her, vaguely, from her English class, but their name eluded her.

The girl smiled nervously at Marinette, wringing her hands and somewhat avoiding eye contact. “I – uh – was wondering if you could Host for me sometime?”

Marinette stared at her for a moment, processing.

And then she lit up, practically jumping from her seat in order to shake the girl’s hand.

“That sounds great! What day would you –?”

She drew her hand back, and cringed at the red strings of paint now connecting their hands.

“I… don’t know if I have more wet wipes,” she said, blushing.

The girl smiled, amused. “If you walk me home, I’ll consider it even.”

Marinette hesitantly took her hand again, intertwining their fingers. “Okay. Don’t know if that’s much of a punishment, but if that’s what it takes to repay you…”

~~~~~~~~~~

TBC

Taglist: @ev-cupcake @thatonecroc @toodaloo-kangaroo @fangirlingfanatic

[lonesome-witching]

Do You Like Me?

Another day another prompt. I got an anonymous request to write a prompt in which Nancy reports on a football game and rides with the band on their bus. It also includes a tad bit of jealous Nancy. Enjoy!!

Do you have any prompts yourself? Or do you want to dive into what I wrote before? You can read my previous prompts or send me some new ones.

Nancy loved the newspaper. She loved writing the articles and doing the research. It felt like a place she belonged. It felt like she finally found something she liked. There was just one part she disliked. Perhaps even hated. It was reporting on the Hawkins High sport games. The basketball and football and soccer.

She usually delegated the task to someone else, until today. She couldn’t get out of this one. Not when Hawkins High was so close to not only being the basketball state champions, but also the football state champions. Something like this had never happened before in a small town like Hawkins. So, Nancy had to report on it.

Jonathan Byers had been dragged along to take some pictures. They had known each other their whole lives but had only recently become friends while working on the paper together.

“Where are we supposed to go? There are two busses,” Nancy asked, already frustrated.

“We usually ride with the band, I honestly think it’s better that way,” Jonathan replied, toying with the camera that was already hanging around his neck.

“Which bus is theirs?”

Jonathan looked up, his eyes searching for the green marching band uniforms. “That one.” He pointed at the bus furthest from them where a group of girls stood talking with their hats in one hand and their instruments in the other.

Nancy recognized some of them. A girl named Kate who gossiped a bit too often, the red head was named Veronica or Victoria or something like that, and Robin Buckley. Nancy knew Robin. They had sort of become friends over spring break. Maybe not just sort of. They were friends, officially. Nancy could feel the smile forming on her face. She hadn’t told Robin she’d be here. It could be a pleasant surprise.

“C’mon, wouldn’t want them to leave without us.” Jonathan started walking towards the bus. Nancy cleared her throat and followed.

By the time she reached them Robin had already gotten onto the bus. Nancy pulled herself onto the vehicle. She tried to find Robin, hoping to see an empty spot next to her. She was disappointed when she saw that the red head had taken a seat next to her. With a sigh she fell down next to Jonathan.

“Everything alright?”

“Yes, of course.” Nancy turned in her seat to look at Robin. What she hadn’t expected was for Robin to look over at that exact moment. She wanted to look away, but she couldn’t. Instead, she simply waited for their eyes to meet.

Robin raised her hand, waving excitedly. “Nance, hi!”

Nancy waved back with a small smile on her lips. This was getting ridiculous. It was one thing to be glad to have a new friend, a real friend, it was a whole other thing to stare at her from afar with a smile on her face. She had to get herself in check.

Her notepad was probably her best solace. She doodled a bit on one of the pages. Drawing figures that looked oddly similar to hearts. What would be next? Would she be writing Nancy + Robin into the shapes? Or would she be writing Nancy Buckley all over it? She thought Robin Wheeler sounded better anyway.

She turned around again. Robin seemed entertained by her neighbor’s conversation. She should be glad that Robin had friends. The girl seemed nice enough. Yet, Nancy couldn’t shake the burning feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was foreign and unpleasant. The red head grabbed Robin’s hand, seemingly toying with her fingers as she smiled up at her through her lashes.

Something within her snapped. Nancy jumped up from her seat, stepping over to Robin’s seat.

“Hi, Robin. How are you doing?” Nancy asked, her voice sugar sweet.

“I’m alright, how are you?” Robin’s eyes looked up at her with those lovely blue eyes.

“I’m good, I’m good. So happy to see you.” Nancy turned toward the red head. “Is it alright if I sit here? I just really would love to catch up with my friend.”

The girl’s eyes searched for something when she gazed at Robin, but whatever it was she didn’t find it. The red head sighed and stood up. “Sure,” she muttered.

Nancy fell down next to Robin. Her hand itched to reach for her friend’s, the one the red head had been holding earlier.

“What was that for?” Robin asked, but when Nancy looked over there was a smile on her face.

“What was what for? I just wanted to sit next to my friend. We are still friends, right?” Nancy’s hand reached for Robin regardless of what her mind was warning her for.

“Of course, we are, Nance. I’m just wondering why you scared Vickie away.”

“I didn’t scare her away.” The look on Robin’s face made it obvious she wasn’t taking that as an answer. “Fine, I might have scared her away. I didn’t mean for that to happen. I just wanted to sit next to you, and I was annoyed she had taken my seat. But to be fair, she got you for about half of the ride. I’m taking you for the other half.”

“Taking me?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Do I?” Robin’s eyes fell to their entangled hands resting in her lap. Her thumb stroked Nancy’s knuckles. It felt nice.

“I think you do, don’t you?”

“I’m not sure I do.”

“Oh,” Nancy sighed. She wasn’t sure what to say. She wasn’t sure she knew why she did it anyway. She couldn’t explain herself to Robin.

“Your hands are cold.”

“I’m sorry.” Nancy wanted to pull her hand back, but Robin wouldn’t let her, holding on to her hand.

“No, it’s alright. I don’t mind.”

“Do you like her?”

“I used to.” Robin placed her free hand over Nancy’s. Slowly warming up her fingers.

“Do you like me?”

Robin tensed up, stilling her movements. Nancy thought that was a yes. She hoped it was. The bus stopped. The doors opened. Robin let go of her hand.

[lavendercrumbleshake]

Hello, My name is LavenderCrumble! U can call me Lav or Miss Crumble for short ♡

Some things u should probably know about this blog

*~▪︎☆°♡ This blog is a cutesy, semi-nsfw blog, so some the posts that I write, like or repost will not be safe for work, if u don't like this please block, not report, if u are a minor do not follow me please I will block u.

*~▪︎☆°♡ I am a plus size (kinda working on it as best I can atm) black girl who is 19 years old, & want to make friends & mutuals that are also 18 or older on tumblr, pinterest & on discord, I will link my discord server & other socials here for anybody that wants to join, if anyone has any fun discord servers or other social accounts that are sfw/nsfw u would like to invite me to then my asks are always always open♡

*~▪︎☆°♡ Any pictures that u see on this blog aren't mine and are from Pinterest, Tumblr, or Twitter unless stated otherwise.

*~▪︎☆°♡ Some of my current interests include:

drawing

coloring

anime

anime pop-up places (cafés, merch pop-ups, anime cons, ect) I wanna visit them when I get the opportunity xc

kawaiicore fashion, j-fashion, or just most alt fashion styles in general

makeup

maid cafés

sanrio (but notably kuromi, rilakkuma, korilakuma, hello kitty & my melody)

kawaii cafés

kawaii & sexy costumes/cosplays

cooking (especially asain food recipes)

kawaii bento boxes

cute kitchen appliances, cooking utensils, kawaii bento tools (like the hello kitty rice mold for example) pots, ect (preferably in pastel purple, or of cartoon characters like sanrio mascots)

asian snacks

kawaii food & drink recipes (I wanna recreate kawaii food plates from maid cafés or bento boxes like the ones on my pinterest board, or food from different animes)

super sonico & super pochaco(idk much but I love their mascots their sooo cute! I heard super sonico has an anime n i wanna watch it >v<)

cartoons

anime figurines

gloomy bear

sweet/dessert smelling perfumes & body products

games & gameplay videos(Mostly horror games, story games, visual novel games, RPGs or all of them together)

Tumblr stories/tumblr headcanons/tumblr concepts & prompts (particularly monster fantasy themed stories or relationships, & semi dark headcanons, like some Yan! headcanons for example, monster bf/husband, and Dom bf/husband (idk why I like these but some of them are just fun to read even if i don't resonate with them personally per sey, still trying to figure it out) among others, there really isn't any particular characters that i like for this)

Tbh that's just to name a few, I have a lot more interests than that lol

*~▪︎☆°♡ My favorite colors are usually pastels purple, pink, blue, yellow & green in that order, but I also like most darker colors too, like chocolate brown, black, or dark red, but my least favorite color is and will almost always be orange, idk why I don't like that color much

*~▪︎☆°♡ As is the nature of tumblr, I will also be putting my random thoughts & mentally ill rambling on here too lol, both sfw & nsfw. I love this chaos platform♡

*~▪︎☆°♡NSFW Interests/Kinks

(Plz note that I am a virgin so all of this are just fantasies that I want to try with someone who really cares about me & who I really trust one day)

Giving thighjobs

Giving Assjobs

Giving Pantyjobs

Giving Footjobs (to dicks specifically)

Cockteasing (almost anything that involves giving a guy a huge boner basically)

Humping/Grinding

Handjobs

Blowjobs(I wanna try to give one but I have a bit of a gag reflex rn ;< i need 2 get stuff 4 practice)

Cockwarming(wanna build up to this at some point)

Size difference(both in height & d size, im 4'11 rn due to spine compression from scoliosis but with improved stretching im 5'1)

Praise kink(I like being praised)

Praise & light teasing(it has to be light teasing mixed with Praise specifically, but im still exploring this too)

Worshipping kink( I want a group of paypigs to buy me all that I want & to worship the ground I walk on lol)

Possible Breeding/knotting kink (No Pregnancy or mentions of it) ( I kinda wanna know what it feels like tbh)

Possible dd/lg kink (not sure yet, but I found a lot of stuff that I like under those tags & it's variations)

Possible rope/bontage kink (I'm kinda exploring this one too bcuz I wanna be comfortably tied up & gagged but I have physical disabilities)

Degrading & Praising Simps/Paypigs

Army of cute paypigs

I'd like to be gifted some money, cute clothes,intimates, essentials, toys, & other stuff to take tumblr selfies in & prep for so paypigs & simps can worship & jerk off to them

HARD LIMITS: SCAT, GORE, PISS, INCEST/FAUXPLAY, ABCG KINK, PATRIARCHY KINK, SLAVEPLAY, RAPEPLAY RACEPLAY, HARD SPANKING, VOMIT, KNIFEPLAY, ect

Anything I haven't mentioned here u can just ask & I will update accordingly ♡

*~▪︎☆°♡ Links to my other socials: (if the link to my discord doesn't work then feel free to ask me for a link in the ask box)

DNI ON THIS OR ANY OF MY SOCIALS IF YOU ARE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING: homophobic, transphobic, racist, misogynistic, abelist, fatphobic, currently 55+ or Ana Coach; if u are any of these things I will block you. Do not send unsolicited nude photos of any kind without permission (simply just ask i really don't mind♡) or I will call you out, block you & report you.

*~▪︎☆°♡ (*note) This pinned post will probably be edited with more stuff about me, my hobbies, interests, ect, when i get the time, but for now this will be it ♡

[howdy-cowpoke]

TIMING: During the Winter Wickedland festival LOCATION: The Commons PARTIES: Monty (@howdy-cowpoke) & Kaden (@chasseurdeloup) & Mack (@realmackross) SUMMARY: Monty wants to take Mack out for a fun afternoon to take her mind off things, and convinces Kaden to come along. It’s a holly jolly good time… and there’s singing. CONTENT WARNINGS: none!

—

To say it had been quite the year in Wicked’s Rest was an understatement. She had been pushed off a balcony, went ham on the town, attacked by a werewolf, turned into irl Goo Girl, and stabbed repeatedly, and now, all the zombie wanted to do was to have some fun. So when she was somehow invited to hangout with Monty and Kaden, her other two dads – Mackenzie has a lot of dads in this town okay? – she was reluctant at first, but decided to join in on the holiday fun. Plus, there had been the strong possibility of getting to see Sellama Gomez at some point, and that was always a draw.

Where am I meeting you guys again? She had pushed send on the group text message, not sure of where she was supposed to meet them or what was happening. Just that it was supposed to be a fun day.

—

While Monty wasn’t privy to all the things in Mack’s life that’d been difficult as of late, she sprung to mind when he heard about the winter festival that was being put on. She could use something nice, he figured, and seeing as how Kaden had a bit more experience with people her age, he was inclined to ask his partner along as well. The more the merrier, and all that. 

The pair were walking down a busy street when they both received the text, and Monty glanced around, looking for some landmarks. Starring Role Pâtisserie jumped out at him and tightened his grip on Kaden’s arm, pulling them off to the side and out of the way of other people while he tapped out a reply.

We’re in front of Starring Role. We can wait here for you, there’s a bench nearby! 

Smiling up at Kaden, Monty threaded their fingers before tugging him over to the bench he’d spotted, sitting close before quickly becoming distracted by a passing dog. His soft coo still drew the attention of the owner and they smiled, letting the dog approach for pets. It wasn’t until the corgi and her owner had gone that Monty sat back and sighed. “I should have brought the dogs!” he complained with a chuckle, knowing full well that Azul, Cinder, and Pomelo would be one hell of a handful together and with this many people around. “But ah, I thought we could take Mack back to the farm after, I know she’s been wanting to visit her llama. Sound okay? We could make dinner.” He still had plenty of organs set aside that they could make into something nice for him and Mack, and there was also a good selection of normal food at the house now that Kaden was spending so much time there. 

—

Kaden had seen the big winter festival pop up in town earlier in the month. It was hard to miss it, even if his time was mostly spent corralling reindeer as of late. Truth be told, he didn’t have much intent on visiting it. That was until Monty invited him to join him and Mack to the festivities. He should have seen that coming in some respect. If it wasn’t Monty dragging him there it would have been Alex eventually. He wasn’t sure why he thought he would end up missing the town event in any case. Not that he was complaining about spending time with either of his undead company for the day. 

As they sat and waited, a smile crept onto his face. Kaden  wasn’t sure if the smile on his face was attributed more to the dog or the man next to him reaching down to give it scritches. Probably Monty, if he was being honest.  “If we brought Shadow, too, we’d have one dog per hand,” he added with a laugh. “Probably good we left them at home.” The four of them would have plenty of fun and love the attention but it definitely wouldn’t have been easy on the humans there. Not to mention, wouldn’t give them a lot of spare attention for Mack. “I’m sure we can find some kind of treat to bring back for them and for Mack’s llama. Anyway, dinner later sounds perfect,” he said with a smile as he went to stand up. 

He was pretty sure he saw someone that looked like the kid in question and figured she’d have an easier time spotting them if he was standing. He was tall enough to spot through a crowd most times and even if that wasn’t the case, he’d be able to see her easier this way. 

Once he caught a glimpse of the blonde hair, he waved and tried to catch her eye. He liked Mack. She was good with animals and actually watched nature documentaries sometimes. Also didn’t poke fun at him nearly as much as some of Alex’s other friends. Still, he was a little nervous to see her, didn’t want to intrude being the only one of the three of them with a beating heart. He knew Monty was great at mentoring other people like him and he got the feeling it was important to Mack, too. He didn’t want to be a bother. 

“Good to see you,” he told her when she walked over. “So, what do you two want to do first?”

—

As she made her way through the crowds looking for the location in the returned text, Mackenzie spotted just who she was looking for. Kaden towered over some of the shorter residents of Wicked’s Rest and as she laid eyes on him, a smile came to her face. It was nice having the opportunity to be around people who didn’t have any fault with her. Alex had been MIA, Winter…well that was an entirely different story, and it seemed as though everyone else, aside from Parker, had some excuse of why they hadn’t wanted to come around. Plus, there was the tension between her and Cass, but today was for Monty and Kaden, and as she forced the previous people out of her mind, she walked over to the two men.

“Yeah, good to see you, too. I’m not gonna lie. When Monty said you’d be coming along to this thing, I was kind of surprised. I didn’t expect this to be your scene, but I’m glad you’re here.” She leaned over when she got close enough and gave him a hug, before walking over to give Monty one, “I’m good with whatever you guys prefer. I’m just here for the ride. And to get out of the house for a while.” Mackenzie sent them both a warm smile.

—

The older zombie brightened when Mackenzie appeared, getting quickly to his feet beside Kaden to welcome her. A warm laugh bubbled up from his chest when she announced her surprise that Kaden had agreed to come, because he understood where she was coming from. He could be a rather serious person, at least to those who didn’t know him quite so well as Monty did, and an afternoon of winter solstice frivolity didn’t quite line up with most people’s impression of the man. But Monty knew that if he asked, Kaden would oblige, and he’d have plenty of fun to boot. He was sweet and funny in his way, and the cowboy hoped that that would shine through today for Mack to get a kick out of as well. 

“Getting out of the house is good,” he said softly as he gave the girl a tight squeeze, noting that like himself, she was probably underdressed for the weather. A perk of being dead, he supposed, if you could call it such a thing. He wouldn’t speak for all the zombies he knew, but as far as he was concerned, the cold was much more tolerable than the heat. When dead things get too hot, you start to have… problems.

“I did not have anything specific in mind, though…” He glanced over toward the Common, where the recent snowfall had been collected into a huge mountain that people were sledding on. “... I am curious to see just how uncoordinated any one of us might be on that thing.” There was a mischievous glint in his eyes, one that was begging for trouble. 

—

Kaden didn’t expect the hug, but he was far from upset, returning it without further question. “You caught me,” he said with a smile. “You two are the only reason I’m here.” He took a look around at all the activities and people around them. “Doesn’t look so bad, either way.” It was a nice change of pace from the goo-covered panic he had grown used to witnessing in town. 

The ranger raised a brow as he saw what his partner was pointing them towards. It was clear from the get-go that the cowboy had some sort of tricks up his sleeve with this one. Kaden didn’t know what, but he had a feeling someone was going to be on the other end of a prank. He had a feeling it was going to be himself, no doubt that Mack and Monty would be in on it together. No use avoiding it, it would only delay the inevitable. He huffed out a laugh and smiled. “Alright then, let’s go.” 

Before he could take a single step in the direction of the hill, he paused and furrowed his brow. The words he’d just said didn't sound quite right. Almost… melodic. That was fucking weird. It was probably nothing. He shook it off and kept walking, ushering the two undead right along with him. There were various sorts of sleds and snow tubes at the bottom of the hill to pick up and take with them and slide down. The trash can lid looked like a recipe for disaster. Not that the plastic dish beside it looked any safer but at least it was intended to use in the snow. 

Kaden watched as a group of people zoomed past them down the hill, laughing and yelling on the way. It looked like they had each gotten their own sled and had linked themselves together by holding onto the other’s sleds, hands, feet, you name it. “That looks like the way to go,” he told the others, his voice strangely sing-songy again. Kaden coughed to clear his throat. Putain, what was going on? In lieu of talking and having that happen again, he nodded toward the sleds, picked one for himself, and started the climb to the top of the hill. 

—

Mackenzie was excited by the prospects of the day with her two friends, especially knowing that they had wanted her there. She had already seen a softer side of Kaden when they had been trapped in the cabin together after the Volmugger incident, which had put any rumors of just how tough he was to shame and why a friendship with him had seemed to come easier than expected. And just having another zombie friend in her life, one with much more experience with the undead life than she could even imagine had meant more than Monty would ever know, especially considering all he had done for her when she was tripping on Serpent Flat energy.

The festival had offered a lot of different options to choose from, and seeing that sledding down a pretty large hill is where Monty had suggested and Kaden was leading them definitely didn’t disappoint. In fact, she had missed having adrenaline rushes that weren’t life or death, so this choice of activity had been highly welcomed. It was the unexpected song that Kaden was gracing them with that had caught the younger zombie off guard, “I expected fun, but I never expected to be serana-ded…” She threw a quick hand over her mouth when she, too, began singing instead of speaking, “I wanted a music career…but not like this…”

Seeing the hunter grab a sled as a quick solution to not having to speak - err - sing felt like the way to go, and finding the most worn out and intimidating looking make-shift sled, Mack was ready to feel the thrill of zooming down a hill at a stupid, scary speed to see if she didn’t get thrown half-way across town. Her footsteps following in his, she started to climb the hill as well, “Come on, Monty! Danger awaits!” The words still held a certain melody, but one of excitement and grit.

—

Why… were they both singing? Monty couldn’t help the confused but amused expression that flitted across his face as his gaze jumped between them, that grin remaining as they each picked out a sled and he, an innertube meant for use in water. Was this the prelude to some kind of weird prank? They were not going to get him to sing in public, that was for damn sure. Following the pair as they all hiked up the mound of snow, Monty waited for them to get situated on their respective sleds before dropping his tube between them and clambering into it a little clumsily. Remembering Kaden’s earlier (melodic) comment, he extended a hand to each of them with a grin, then dug his boot into the densely packed snow and dragged his tube forward, pulling them after him as he moved beyond the flattened top and onto the slope. Gravity did the rest, and the three of them went screaming down the hill. 

A few small ramps had been packed into the snow, and Monty realized with a yelp that he was headed right for one. His string of Spanish expletives sounded remarkably song-like as he got launched, losing his grip on the both of them in favor of clinging to his tube like his life depended on it, praying (and screaming) that he’d land upright.

He wasn’t quite so lucky, the wind ripping the lightweight sled out from under him and leaving him to hit the snow again with his back, where he slid down the rest of the hill, spinning until he was coming down headfirst and slowing to a stop at its base. 

If nothing else, the cowboy didn’t seem hurt (obviously) and was instead laughing breathlessly as his inner tube bounced up to him and plopped right on his chest. 

—

Kaden wasn’t sure if was relieved or only more concerned when he wasn’t the only one speaking in melodies. Was Mack just following his lead? He tried to see if she was picking on him just by looking at her, brows furrowed. No luck, couldn’t tell one way or another. Not that he knew what he was expecting to learn just by looking at her. 

Once they were at the top of the hill and sat on their snow tubes, Kaden took Mack and Monty’s hands and readied himself for the ride. When his partner started spouting swears, he couldn’t help but laugh as he watched him head for the ramp ahead. It took him a moment to realize that Monty had let go of his hand but when he did, he tried to reach out to grab the man’s tube to try and keep them together. It was no use. All it did was throw himself off balance and had him sliding down the hill backwards. 

Now Kaden was the one shouting curses in a foreign language, holding onto Mack as best he could. There was no missing the stupid smile plastered on his face on the way down, though, or the laughter in between the expletives. 

“Everyone alright?” he asked once they were all at the bottom, trying to catch his breath as he laughed. His voice was still stupidly sing-song-y. Putain de merde.

—

Mack had positioned herself and latched onto Monty’s hand ready for the thrill of going down the hill at a ridiculous speed. But before she realized it and could really say, err, sing anything else, she felt herself being pulled forward by the momentum of Monty and Kaden moving too. And without holding back, she opened up her mouth and let a loud scream of happiness come out.

It was when she felt the release of Monty’s hand from hers that she realized they had been separated and as quickly as she could, managed to catch Kaden’s in the nick of time as they continued down the hill behind Monty who was now rolling like a whiskey barrel on the loose. And her screaming turned into laughter as she glanced over towards Kaden who was sing cursing in French.

Finally, when the ride was over, Mack leaned her head back and took a deep breath as she released Kaden’s hand, “What a ride! Can we do it again? I want to hit the ramp and fly down to the end!” The words were almost like lyrics as they left her mouth, “What the fuck is happening?” The music seemed to match everything she was singing as she looked to Kaden and Monty, still smiling, but shaking her head.

—

“Ai, the ramp is all yours next time, hermana,” Monty groaned, pushing the innertube off of himself so he could sit up, realizing a little too late that the three of them were still… sing-speaking, as if building up to a full-blown song and dance number in a musical. He wasn’t a huge fan of it, but after more than five years in this town, he knew better than to question the weird goings-on, as long as they didn’t seem to be harming anyone. And this, while annoying and embarrassing, appeared harmless. For now. At least it wasn’t just him.

He sat back for a moment to catch his breath, leaning on his hands and watching other people come soaring down the hill as they had. Everyone’s voices seemed to have a musical quality to them, and he shook his head thoughtfully. Oh well. Might as well ride the wave, as they say. Or in this case, the huge snowbank.

“Let’s do it again! Come on, Kaden, on your feet. Don’t mind the singing, I guess it’s kind of…. neat.” … That rhyme was involuntary. He laughed at himself, holding out a hand to help the man up, then reaching to do the same for Mack. “This feels a little like, you know. Dr. Suess! Like the Grinch, but we’re all Whoville Whos.” Holy shit. 

—

The singing didn’t seem to be stopping. In fact, Kaden was worried the whole thing might turn into a musical number with coordinated caroling coming from the people sliding down the hill behind them if they stayed there. Considering they were starting to rhyme. “I think this is a little out of my league.” The words came out like a melody no matter how hard he tried to temper them. “Let’s go before we get rhyming fatigue.” Really? That was the best rhyme he could come up with. “Putian de merde,” he grumbled in a sing-song aside, “this whole thing is absurd.” The last word came out in a cartoonish version of his own accent, forcing it to rhyme with merde. Even his grumble was melodic. Kaden wanted to ask how to make it stop but he was afraid to open his mouth. 

As much as he didn’t want to speak, it was like there was no way to avoid it. Once they were all standing, Kaden found himself wrapping an arm around each of their shoulders respectively, their steps all keeping in time to the music in the distance. Wait, the music in the distance? Why was there– And it sounded like a backing track to this strange song they were unwittingly writing on the fly. 

Kaden hated this. But biting his lip to keep from singing was getting harder to do. It was either clamp down until he bled or give up and go with whatever musical number they’d walked themselves into. “But it’s great being able to spend so much time with both of you. When you’re down or you're blue there’s nothing I wouldn’t do. Just say the word and I’m there, that’s how much I care.” Putain, there were dance steps now. This was dancing. Kaden couldn’t dance, never really tried, but somehow he was performing some kind of choreography all the same, spinning both Mack and Monty around and meeting up with them again, all in time to the swelling music. “Now let’s go explore the rest of this fair.”

In hindsight, maybe he should have tried a little harder to resist whatever was going on. 

—

Mack jumped to her feet with a sudden pep-in-her-step, when Monty gave her hand as she listened to him followed by Kaden singing their respective parts. This entire thing was starting to become really amusing. And it had almost reminded her of the musical she was in as a kid. It was fun and something she wouldn’t soon forget, but what sealed the deal on this memory was Kaden, who could be a bit of a grump, started really getting into the number as he danced in time and spun both her and Monty around.

The young zombie’s eyes lit up with joy as she laughed and broke free from Kaden and Monty, “Kaden, Monty, can this really be? It’s like we’re living in an episode of that show Glee! Singing and dancing to a holiday tune! Snow falling around us, it’s like a Hallmark movie airing at noon!” 

She ran forward, joining up with a group of dancers who had come out of nowhere for a dance break where she flipped and twirled with a genuine smile on her face. When she finished dancing with the group and they all scattered back out to their respective places, Mack met back up with Kaden and Monty, “Come on, Kaden! Don’t be grumpy! Keep singing this tune with me and Monty!” She looked to the cowboy curious for his reaction.

—

Monty had never been poetic. Even with something… strange going on, something inspiring them all to rhyme and sing and dance (and was that music natural?), he failed to connect to any kind of creative side of himself. For Mack, the connection was obvious. Even for Kaden, bless his heart, there was creativity and light in the passion he had for cooking. But Monty? God, he’d never done anything creative in his life, unless you counted a few bad sketches from a century ago. No, he didn’t have much to offer to this strange happenstance, and so he just found himself… laughing. Dancing, sure, being twirled on the spot by Kaden and loving every second of it, but he was too far down the giggling rabbit hole to provide anything of substance. 

When Mack looked at him, it was all he could do to regain his composure long enough to speak between snickers, “Don’t make me choose, don’t make me think! Let’s go for one more slide, then I need a drink.” There was plenty more to explore at this fair, and who knew if this bizarre compulsion would follow them when they left the snow mound, but… he didn’t mind it, really. Singing or not, it was a joy to get to spend the day with the pair. 

As long as it went away eventually. 

[mifithemuffin]

◆Satsuten 8th Anniversary Post Translation◆

Happy Satsuten 8th Anniversary!!

Sanada Makoto made a public post on her fanbox acc with a drawing of characters she doesn't draw together that often. This month it's Rachel and Eddie!

Below is my translation of their possible dialogue in a make-believe interaction scenario. It's mostly gags.

You can find the full blog post here

◆Rachel & Eddie Conversation: Start!◆

Eddie: Wow! A drawing of Rachel and me, what a nice surprise!

Say, Rachel, when was the last time we’ve talked to each other anyway?

Rachel: Probably during Episode.NG?

Eddie: Yeah, I think so too. Man, Episode.NG was such a disaster.

Didn’t you step on me and feed me some extremely spicy pizza back then?

Rachel: Oh, it wasn’t... intentional.

Eddie: Was it now?..

Rachel: I should apologize, shouldn’t I?..

Eddie: Ah! N-no, you don’t really have to!..

I’m actually alright despite all of that! Look, my arms are fine at least, my arms...

Rachel: If you say so.

Eddie: Uhm… Y-yeah…

Rachel: …

Eddie: …

...B-but you know, it’s so rare to have a chance to talk to you like that, I’m really happy!

Because even back when you first came to my floor we didn’t have a lot of time to chat.

Q1: What was your first impression of each other?

Rachel: Nothing outside of “a person who can kill me and lay my body to the ground” I suppose.

Eddie: What?! Is this really it?

Even though I did my best to properly confess my feelings to you!

Rachel: It was... a confession?..

Eddie: Of course! I was interested in you from the very beginning.

It’s not like we have a lot of girls my age coming to the building, you know!

Rachel: I see.

...Even so, why did you decide to confess to me? We haven’t met each other even once.

Eddie: Well, I’ve got plenty of reasons!

First of all, when I saw you burying that little bird on Zack’s floor, I couldn’t help but think: “We’d definitely get along!”

And then I heard your beautiful voice...

Rachel: A little bird… Don’t tell me you’ve been watching me?

Eddie: Yeah! One of the next floors was mine, so of course I had access to security cameras!

Rachel: ...For some reason it doesn’t sit right with me.

Eddie: Huh, why? Urm, s-sorry I guess?..

I don’t think it’s that strange of a behavior for a floor master though…

Q2: Did this impression change after?

Rachel: Yeah, to “green”.

Eddie: Green… Is it because of what I looked like during the trial?

Rachel, don’t you have anything else to say about me?

Rachel: ….

Eddie: ….Okay, nevermind. Just please stop giving me this blank stare.

As for me, I thought you were a little bit selfish.

You're also stubborn, don’t listen to what others tell you and only ever care about making things yours.

But in all honesty, I do get it. You and I are more alike than you think. To the point of maybe someday digging graves together, you know!

Rachel: Not that I wish to dig graves like you, though.

Eddie: Wait, what??

Rachel: So all of this time you thought I’m as passionate about grave digging as you are?..

Eddie: Because you tried your hardest to make a nice grave for the little birdie, I...

Rachel: Eddie… you’re terribly assumptious.

Eddie: But doesn't it make the two of us?! Say, doesn't it?

Rachel: ….

Eddie: Did you frown just now?.. It means this time I'm definitely right!

Rachel: ….

Eddie: Hey, no, don’t ignore me!

Say “yes” already!

Fin!

Sanada-sensei also said she's planning to draw Zack and Danny next month, so if you're interested in more unhinged interactions please consider subscribing to her fanbox!

[affiesque]

As promised, here’s the second half of my random thoughts and observations about Desire Catcher now that I’ve finished my latest rewatch (links aren’t working for me right now, but if you want to read the first half just click on one of the tags on this post and it should come up easily). The entire series is 24 episodes, most of which are somewhere between 35 and 45 minutes long - so, depending on what types of shows you usually watch, it might be a bit of a commitment. But I definitely think it’s worth it.

OK, time to brace yourself, as there’s a lot going on in this second part…

At the halfway mark the relationship between Luo Fei and Lu Fengping is starting to fray (oh look, it's my good friend angst again) - essentially, Lu Fengping is frustrated that his mom’s murder remains unsolved and Luo Fei hasn’t given him much in the way of clues like he was supposed to. Lu Fengping ends up working with the main villain (Bai Ya Xing), who is behind all of the crimes/murders that have been happening, to find his mom’s killer and get revenge. (I won’t spoil the details, but I will say that this particular storyline could probably have used some fleshing out, as the details and motivations don’t quite come together in the end. As I’ve noted before, the real draw with Desire Catcher is the relationships, so you can kind of wave those plot holes away - unless that sort of thing really bothers you, which I totally get.)

There’s a bit of a cat-and-mouse game going on throughout the middle episodes, with Lu Fengping getting more cagey and Luo Fei chasing after him a bit, attempting to figure out what he’s hiding. You get Luo Fei trying to casually inquire with multiple people as to Lu Fengping’s whereabouts when he’s gone for no more than a couple of hours at a time (we get it bro, you’re obsessed), not to mention lurking in the shadows near his apartment at night (yikes, dude). During this period there are definitely times when Lu Fengping looks almost guilty for pulling away and for what he’s planning to do, like he wants to confide in Luo Fei but he can’t - there’s a particular wistfulness to his expressions that’s so on point and gets me every time.

One nice little touch throughout is the many dinner dates the two leads go on - granted, one ends with Luo Fei leaving before they even eat anything, and another has him answering Lu Fengping’s question “Does everyone look like a suspect to you?” with “Yes - you look like one too,” so not exactly the most romantic situations (social skills are not Luo Fei’s strong point). But I am a sucker for those little intimate moments - misty evenings with blurry streetlights, tables piled high with steaming dishes and clinking glasses, the muted conversations of the people around them - and of course the sharing food = love symbolism.

Speaking of tropes, if you’re a fan of jealousy, then DC has got you covered. Again, no big plot spoilers here but Luo Fei finds out Lu Fengping has brought a girl home one night - not for the reason he (or anyone else) thinks, but you can tell he’s in his feelings about it (and Lu Fengping, I love you, but maybe in the future do not kidnap a stranger - even if you had your reasons and you were sort of helping her in the moment). He ends up getting arrested (twice!) for the abduction and when Luo Fei fails to help him, their “big breakup” begins in earnest - Lu Fengping saying “I shouldn’t have counted on you right from the start” got me right in the heart, ngl.

*Books as symbolism alert* - we get just one shot of some books strewn around Lu Fengping’s apartment in the second half, but I did find it interesting that the subtitles call out two of them specifically, which feels important. Those are “The Sea, The Sea” by Iris Murdoch and “It Takes More Than A Carrot And A Stick” by Wess Roberts. The former is about love and loss and romantic ideals by an author known for writing about morality and the power of the unconscious - things that seem relevant to a hypnotist, I would think. The latter actually made me laugh audibly when I noticed the subtitle: “Practical Ways Of Getting Along With People You Can’t Avoid At Work.” Sounds about right for them.

Here’s another alert - BIG GIANT SPOILERS AHEAD!! Click below with caution…

OK, so the big event of the second half is Lu Fengping faking his death(!!) in order to give him the time and space away from Luo Fei/the police to move ahead with his revenge plan. Long story short, Luo Fei thinks Lu Fengping has blown himself up, goes through the five stages of grief, figures out he’s still alive and somehow manages to be like, “Hey, thought you were dead but no biggie - let’s not even hug it out and instead just go right back to teasing each other and solving crimes - it’s all good.” Honestly, I’m glossing over a lot here - how absolutely devastated Luo Fei (and everyone else, for that matter) is when he thinks Lu Fengping is dead, how they finally yell a bit about their feelings and come clean about certain things when they reunite, how the OST rips your heart out again and again in these moments (“Did we meet just to be torn apart?” - I mean, come on), how relieved Lu Fengping looks when he realizes that Luo Fei doesn’t hate him for what he did, how Luo Fei suddenly can’t stop smiling (you’ve come a long way, baby). I think these are probably some of the strongest scenes in the entire show, but I must admit that the way they don’t truly address the fallout of something this intense still bugs me (stay tuned for a fic I’m writing on that very topic, in case that sort of thing interests you - and @thinkonce-acttwice, I ✨promise✨ I’m actually working on it!).

I know I haven’t mentioned Liang Yin in this second-half review yet - what happened/happens to her still plays a major role in the story of Lu Fengping’s mom’s death. I won’t give the details here, but do note that there are some flashback scenes of her getting attacked that might be rough for some viewers - so please keep that in mind. However, aside from a couple of moments where the men in her life feel the need to protect/shelter her despite her being quite capable of handling things herself, I will say that the story gives her back some agency, and it does feel as if by the end she’s come to terms with her past and is in a good place overall. And the relationship between her, Luo Fei, and Lu Fengping gets a really nice resolution - a sort of found family thing that brings them all together.

There’s lots of plot movement as we work our way through the final episodes - the big bad villain is vilaining, there’s an evil nurse who’s in on the shenanigans, poor Professor Ling (Lu Fengping’s mentor and fellow hypnotist) gets accused of being a fraud and ends up in the hospital, Lu Fengping almost stabs himself in the heart while hypnotized by Bai Ya Xing (though of course Luo Fei shows up in the nick of time to save him - I swear, despite knowing that this is just a “bromance” show, every time I watch that scene there’s one split second where it seems like they’re about to lean in and kiss - oof), poor Liang Yin gets kidnapped by the big bad villain (unfortunately, more “man pain”). I tell you, this show is a roller coaster ride every freaking episode.

I won’t spoil the final ending too much, but rest assured Liang Yin is fine. Stuff happens, Lu Fengping ends up in prison - though he sort of puts himself there on purpose, sacrificing himself for Luo Fei, even if he doesn’t come out and say that’s what he’s doing. And he basically gets a form of justice for his mom’s death. The very last bit sees him return from prison on parole - he reunites with the police team and Luo Fei in a slightly cheesy but rather touching moment, though, again, even just a quick hug would’ve been nice…

Bottom line, I love all of them, your honor, and will probably never be over this show - there’s so much to unpack in terms of the role of fate in our lives, how broken people can find something in each other to live for, how to forgive others and, importantly, yourself.

OK, again, this one got away from me, and I know I’m probably forgetting like a million little things, but hopefully I’ve managed to entertain at least one other person with my ramblings. And if anything here has sounded intriguing, please check this little show out so it gets the love it deserves! 🖤

[roguestorm]

Is Jean grey close friends with Sue Storm and Janet? I always thought of them as a trio because they were the only female in their respective groups and they bonded over that haha but did they ever interact in comics?

Good question!

I don't off the top of my head remember any Jean/Janet interactions at all. They probably have interacted at some point, but I don't know when.

For Sue, a couple of places spring to mind:

First, Fantastic Four #286, when the FF + Hercules and Captain America find Jean at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. Jean fights the other heroes, including Sue, believing them to be robots. But when Jean realizes they're real and realizes that she's lost her telepathic powers and also been gone for several years, she starts to have a breakdown, and Sue intervenes on her behalf.

And then Sue also chimes in with Captain America to reassure Jean that her human spirit saved the world from the destruction posed by Dark Phoenix. And then we get this cute moment at the end, where it seems like they're sort of getting to be friends! Yay!

So this issue positions them as mostly strangers before this but on friendly terms by the end of it. (Also, I love the way Byrne draws Jean.)

The next place is Days of Future Present, specifically UXM annual #14. This has Sue explaining Jean's feelings on the subject of Rachel and children and how Jean feels like her life has been laid out for her to Scott.

This makes sense to me given FF 286, where Sue saw firsthand how badly Jean reacted to finding out what had gone on in "her" life without her. This is in 1990, 5 years after FF 286. (They were also abducted together in the Atlantis Attacks crossover the previous year, but I think that's less important to their dynamic.)

But then when Jean expresses these same issues to Sue, Sue points out that she has to think of Rachel.

This casts Sue as an older mother giving advice to a younger mother. Sue understands Jean's frustration, but she's trying to remind Jean that Rachel is having a hard time too and she is underscoring that Jean might have some sort of responsibility to Rachel.

And the last interaction that comes to mind is a retcon, from someone who went, "Wait, these characters should have interacted more than they did!" and that's in X-Men First Class (2007) #1. Professor X asks Sue to come and mentor Jean. From the beginning, Jean is very taken with Sue and very glad to get to go with her.

And she's extra glad to be around Sue when Sue gets what it's like for Jean to be a woman and a superhero (since Jean is the only girl on an all-male team).

Maybe not revolutionary or anything, but certainly cute.

All three of these scenarios have Sue acting as mentor or protector to Jean. I wonder what Sue would get out of a friendship with Jean, especially now that Jean is more established and more confident. There is a foundation that current writers could build off of if they so wished, and it would be cool to see it explored more!

[thatruerealmwalker]

Crawls out of a hole in your wall

GET MAGICAL GIRL'ED MOTHER FUCKER!

"Despite it all, This Empty Shell still Remains." -Pre Acceptance Quote

"Within this Hollow Heart, Love Still Remains!" -Post Acceptance Quote

This is Claire Taker, a new OC I've made! And let me tell you- the origins of the OC is fucking weird.

This tainwreck of a Lady came about because I was reading @zoeywinterrose's smiling critter fanfic on A03 (which you can check out HERE), started letting THE VOICES speak through me, eventually pulled out the original story I have and made the Caretaker seen there into a fully realized character in my story (get it? Claire Taker?), told them so, found each other on tumblr, because friends(?), and they maybe sort of said yes when I said I was gonna draw the character and make and AU of their AU (in some order there, the progression of events may be off a bit)... I DON'T KNOW HOW I GOT TO THIS POINT.

So yeah, I'm gonna be both explaining this character, my own story, and having all that be loosely connected to Poppy Playtime (Again how did I get here?) So the tags are gonna be silly because of that.

Claire Taker is, as said before, a Magical Girl by the name of Heart Hollow (well Technically Magical Woman, she is pretty old but I prefer saying magical girl)... well the term for in my Canon is a "Blessed" or "Actor"... but those are the official terms, she and the others still use Magical Girl and Magical Boy (because that IS what they are)

And yes! There are both Magical Boys and Girls in this World!

Claire Fights with her Fists and Legs, being a close range brawler, as well as fights with her threads. She uses them in a variety of ways, from creating points to jump, pulling things to her or pulling herself to them, wrapping up targets, or even sometimes using them a whips.

Her Threads are also capable of Stitching people back together and healing them! Apparently the world thinks this means she should be one of the few to get constantly injured, needing to reattach her limbs in the middle of fights sometimes! (or it could be seen as caused by her low self worth as well). I mean look at all of those scars! And those are just the ones she couldn't fully heal for different reasons, she gets hurt alot! ("Better then letting one the kids take the hit" she would say)

Her mental health isn't the best, but it gets really bad when she is alone- Luckily, she's gained the trust of the Parents of the three kid members of Her group to look after them while their at work- as well as fostering the teens when they need somewhere private to hand out. (Her home is like one of 2 unofficial team bases)

At this point, almost everyone who isn't an adult (and two who are like 18-19) calls her Auntie- which she is still getting used too.

After finally getting into a far more okay mindset, she takes to jogging and exercise in her free time. She even helps the younger of the team practice fighting forms and working out when they train at all.

She actually owns a good few properties thanks to her parents- and after her depression weakened she put them up for rent. After a while (and learning how to duplicate cash with Starlight from the group's resident self appointed "Chaotic Gremlin") she was able to start getting a good amount of cash saved up for when the group needs a break or wants to go somewhere fun- (The cost is usually split between her and the other full Adult in the group most of the time).

She still has episodes where her is very not okay (like panic attacks or just bad thoughts)- but it never gets to the point where she feels like hurting herself at all anymore. It helps that one of the kids, the team's unofficial mascot, lets himself be her comfort animal when she has these episodes (and while he hates to admit it, he does enjoy her hugs)

That's all for now! If your interest in more of this original story, let me know!.. Though it probably won't be tagged under Smiling critters next... unless I make William apart of this then it will!

A full view of her plot is down below if your interested in that as well- Anyways thanks for reading this and maybe what lies below, and I hoped this sparked your interest/was a fun read all the same! I think I got an AU to write now!

Claire Taker's Story:

(Content Warning! This gets a bit dark!)

Claire Taker used to be a Person of Joy, living life as Happy as any other- even had Children she cherished most dearly... however one day- in a series of events, Claire loses her kids, be it an Accident or something far worse. Believing herself to be solely at fault, she shut down, remaining within her home and rarely leaving. At first those closest to them attempt to help, as it does, even if She rarely talked or interacted. Just being with others helped to keep her afloat...

But she was abandoned- left alone... and that is what sealed her fate. For a long time- years, close to Ten even, she drowned. She lost her smile, her kindness, her emotions, her Love. She tried, and try she did to get better... but she still drowned all the same.

She made many half attempts on her life- and the one time she fully went through with it- she only lived because she forgot to turn off the Safety on the Gun. This attempt was on the day, when she was so close to pulling herself back together that she was reminded of her kids- undoing all the work she did to get better at a single moment (one the prolonged her deep depression for a few more years-)

Eventually, upon one better day Claire spent shopping with a local mall for much needed supplies for her bare home, a Star fell from the Sky and landed nearby. From it formed a Matrix, and Starlight Leaked into the world. The pure, unfiltered and uncontrolled Starlight, the Blood of Creation, tainted the area in its presence, and Claire. The Building Creaked and Groaned as Starlight lashed into the populace surrounding. Many ran as the structure began to collapse around them...

And Yet Claire stepped forward, Drawn in by the Star.

Even while her body warped, as fur sprouted from her skin and monstrous claws ripped out from between her fingers. As her bones cracked and shattered before being reformed. As the demented whispers that long accompanied her gained form, breaking out from Claire's back and ripping into her flesh-

She reached the center, Where the Fallen Star has landed and with her last bit of strength before she became tainted under Starlight, reached out and touched the Glowing Star within the Epicenter-

And Starlight gathered and condensed, leaving her body, the surrounding air, and returning herself from the Monstrous form it was trying to become- And within her hands laid her Matrix, a Softly glowing heart floating between her palms.

A Stranger came to her one day, and promised her he would grant her most wanted wish "To return your children to you" in exchange for gathering as much Starlight she could.

She, like many other Actors, believed his word, and walked forward with a long lost flame in her eyes, ready to do Anything to get her children back.

Even after learning there was others like her (most of them teenagers or young adults), even after learning that many of the monsters she is fighting against and killed to gather Starlight (the Tainted or Cursed) were once people, even after she learned that should she actually get her wish- she would have to kill the other Blessed and steal their Starlight- She continued on.

It was only when the Three Children amongst the Blessed stood against her to protect their older peers then she questioned if what she was doing was worth it- if ignoring the signs that something was wrong was worth it- if her once beloved children would accept being brought back through the blood of others- if she could really kill these three if it was required of her.

It was from there, after giving up and fleeing that she changed from an antagonist to a protector akin to Tuxedo Mask for the Blessed- more so the Three kids that fought in this battle than the other Blessed.

It was here that Claire was taught how to tell if a Cursed was made from a person, animal, or object/fully made from Starlight as well as how to defeat the Tainted without killing the Person or Creature within. She learned that gathering Starlight is unneeded, and should she continue to gather Starlight like she has- she would only overwhelm her Matrix and become a Cursed herself. She learned how to truly use Starlight, how to prevent herself from Tainting someone on accident, and how to dispose of unneeded Starlight safely.

She was slowly pulled into the Group, being one of the Few Actors to listen and stop the senseless fighting between them. Even when she fell and broke, these Bright Souls dragged Claire along, taking her on their group adventures away from the Magic within their lives. Exploring the town, eating at an Café, enjoying the park. Slowly but surely, she became apart of this group, of the team who fought against the darkness that surrounded them.

The rest of the Blessed, especially the younger of them, started to call Claire 'Auntie'.

However, there was one final truth all of them avoided telling Claire, the final Lie told to Claire about the situation, even if in the depths of her heart she knew the answer herself yet feared to speak it aloud in vain hope for it not to be true.

That there was no Wish- That it was the ploy of The Man who Thought Himself God to either gather followers and resources or spark war between those who could threaten his goals and attempt to turn them into monsters- a Truth that they all knew could break Claire, steal her reason for continuing to live, to stand up tall.

They were going to, right after they handled this newest Tainted... but The Man who Thought Himself God appeared near the battles end... and with a smile, knowing Claire's history of mental health, and the reasons for it, held her by the throat while floating in the air, while Claire thrashed and fought with all of her might, while her allies called out in fear and rushed to save her, whispered in her Ear- "I lied~ There is no Wish, no reversing your most heinous Sin. Your children will never come back- for you killed them. They are gone and you killed them."

Claire SHATTERED then and there. Once again all of the work she put into getting better, doing better shattered- and as The Man who Thought Himself God threw her from high above towards the ground- Starlight, once Shining, became fully black- And the Blessed became Cursed under the weight of Despair-

Mother Gospel: The Harbinger of Mourning was born- as so her fellow Blessed fought, and after a long an almost lethal fight, where the extent of Claire's grief and broken heart was bared to the world, the ones who claimed her as their own, with all they had, ripped Claire out of her Depression made Manifest, and saved her from her fate.

Amongst the broken building, Claire laid as her Heart, once healing, was now torn apart once more as she cried tears of sorrow... and then she was hugged by the most youngest of them... then the other children joined in, all crying and making sure their Auntie was okay. The older kids of the Group joined in as well, despite two having to be dragged within. And even the young adults sat nearby and showed their love for Claire-

And that was what it was- Claire was LOVED, and she could Love in return. She was not Alone anymore, and so the dam burst within her and she cried and screamed and hugged back as sadness and joy danced within her. Her Hollow Heart had become not so Hollow anymore.

It took time, but somewhat soon Claire stood, still in mourning of her lost children, still not fully okay, but she could finally move on, she could finally live with those who saved her from that Sea that engulfed her and gave her warmth and belonging.

And so she fought, and even now fights, against those that would bring about the horrors she went through upon to others with the family formed under the Light of the Stars.