#i thought it was teenagers and dude bros that get so hung up about things but apparently not

[yurrfttboyy]

Your cousin was always such a dick to you ever since you got into high school. You knew that it was because he didn’t like that you were gay, but you didn’t know how to change his opinion or try and fix your relationship. It wasn’t until years after high school when he fell on hard times and needed your help that you two would finally start to mend the broken relationship. He desperately needed a place to stay, and you were obviously the only one in the family with the space and means to take him in, but he kept refusing your help. It was pissing you off- you were just trying to help, yet he wouldn’t accept anything from you.

After hearing about him spending a night in a homeless shelter you call him over and demand to have lunch with him, he reluctantly agrees. Once at your dining room table you have a complete meltdown, going all the way back to that first year in high school when he started treating you different. You explained how he’s given you the cold shoulder for the past decade now, and you have done nothing but try to help him and be his friend every step of the way. After unloading your frustrations he finally explains to you what his beef has been for the past decade.

“Dude, remember that sleepover we had right before freshman year started?” He asked. Come to think of it, that was the last sleepover you two had ever had, it was the last time you two had even hung out. “Yeah, well I wasn’t asleep when you started perving out on my feet. I don’t know why I didn’t kick you right in the face or get up and punch you, I still regret letting you get away with it. It was disgusting and changed my entire opinion about you, I always knew you were a little funny but I never thought you would be a downright faggot who pervs on your own cousin’s stinky feet until that night.” He explained through gritted teeth. You couldn’t believe that’s what all this has been stemming from, after all of these years, but now it makes perfect sense.

“Damn, I was just a horny teenager, bro. I know it was wrong and you probably felt pretty violated, but honestly I had no idea you were awake or knew about it and I never meant for it to upset you.” You explained, mindblown to finally be having this discussion with your cousin.

“Yeah, well I was violated. I still feel violated, I bet to this day you probably beat your meat thinking about my stinky feet, and that’s the part that really pisses me off. Knowing that you forever have the memory of my feet to pull from your internal spank bank and fantasize about, the whole thing just makes me completely sick.” He said, the anger clearly evident in his tone and demeanor. You couldn’t believe the anger he had been feeling, no wonder he’s hated you so much.

“What can I do to make it better?” You asked, knowing that the answer would probably be nothing, but you desperately wanted this whole thing to end between you and him. You two were thick as thieves as kids, you just couldn’t believe that your foot fetish is what got between you two for the past decade.

“Cut your dick off, erase your memory, leave me the fuck alone? All of the above?” He answered, his voice dripping with disdain. You were pretty disturbed by this last statement, you could tell he wasn’t joking…there was pure hate in his voice and his eyes. You couldn’t cut your anatomy off, that was clearly out of the question, but the gears in your brain started turning. The bottom line for you was showing your cousin how much you care for him, and keeping him off of the streets and out of the homeless shelter. You couldn’t believe what you were about to propose, but before giving time to talk yourself out of it you just spat it out.

“Ok, so I’m not going through a major surgery just to appease you. It is just feet, after all… however, I am willing to do something for you that I think might help. If it’s the idea of me getting pleasure thinking about your feet that drives you so mad with rage, then what if I buy a chastity belt and let you keep the keys? I know it sounds kind of odd, but I wouldn’t be able to touch myself- therefore you can stay here, rent free of course, and not have to worry about me jerking off to the sight of your feet or the smell of your dirty socks. To be honest it would probably be pretty good for me, that way I don’t get too distracted. Is that an option you’d be willing to explore or discuss?” You asked, hoping like hell he would actually consider the idea and not pounce on you and kick your ass for even suggesting it.

He stared at you with disgust, said the word “wow”, then got up and walked out of the apartment. Just before he opened the door he stopped, turned around like he was about to say something, but instead he just chuckled and walked away. You didn’t know it just yet, but this wouldn’t be the last time you and your cousin would discuss this topic. For now you let him go, realizing that you’d probably only made the situation much worse; but what you didn’t know is that he was actually thinking about it….

[gwynfish]

not trying to throw shade, but i am low-key not a fan of how everyone is so super negative about - not the series itself but quite specifically elrond? sure, it's amazon and it'd be foolish not to remain sceptical, but this whole situation is veering too close to the edge for me. that edge that turns the "debate" into hate and painful for the actor and the people putting effort and energy into his costume and make-up, yk, people that might be affected by the overwhelming negativity and who really are trying their best

[lifewithdavefarts]

DaveFarts - Episode 9 “Trapped In The Closet” [Episode List] Following the most blatant sit-com tropes you can think of, Dave decides to spy on his girlfriend, Dana, because he thinks she’s hiding something. Tim reluctantly decides to join his friend, but the two end up stuck in the girl’s closet, which will eventually turn into a gas chamber.

Trapped In The Closet

“Yeah Dana. Sure. No problem.”

Tim was working on some college tasks, but couldn’t help but to eavesdrop Dave’s conversation with his girlfriend, Dana, on the phone. He could only hear his friend’s replies, which being only the 50% of what they were talking about, it didn’t make a lot of sense. Not that he was interested: Dave was simply hanging out in his room because he had nothing better to do during that warm Summer evening, apparently, and so he simply showed up to Tim’s place with a couple of beers and a remarkable amount of procrastination powers.

Despite being relatively hot outside, Dave was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of long, grey levi jeans, kinda loose as usual. Something that Tim hated about his kink is how quickly he checked his friend’s outfit, something that he always did since Dave is now basically his “fart bud”, against all odds.

“Yeah… yeah… I love you. No… I love you more!”

Kinda funny how Dave, 24, would revert back to an awkward teenager at times whenever he and his girlfriend were on the phone. They probably even acted like that on purpose, because love is doing stupid things together after all.

“Tim. Car. Now!”

Dave hung up and turned weirdly serious, got up and walked downstairs, saying something about getting in the car.

“Wait, what?” Tim asked, questioning whether his friend was being serious or not, but he did follow him to wherever he was going.

“We don’t have much time, Tim. Dana will come back soon. She’s out with her own friends and we have… like… 15 minutes.”

The two walked outside and headed towards the girls’ house, actually only a few blocks away from Tim’s. Tim himself reluctantly followed his bro into this, knowing that, at best, it may turn into a funny mishap to tell to their other pals while being drunk and laugh about it.

“I’ll just pretend your words make any sense, like I usually do…” Tim chuckled, sarcastically, but still following his friend.

“I think she’s hiding something.” Dave explained, walking at a fast pace, Tim right behind him. “She’s been strangely elusive lately and I want to check her room for clues.”

Tim just chuckled in response. “Dave, you do realize that this is not a 90s sit-com, right? Her room? Really? What are you hoping to find out, exactly, anyway? That she’s having some kind of affair behind your back?” he asked, trying to reason with him.

“An affair? You think I’m that kind of guy?” Dave answered, looking surprisingly offended by Tim’s question.   “I just want to make sure she’s fine. She seemed worried about something and she’s like this organized haf-woman/half-machine hybrid who keeps sticky notes in her room to keep an eye on her busy life.”

“Oh…” Tim replied, rather sarcastically.   “Now that makes a lot of sense.”

“Leave your sassiness for later, dork. Can we take your car?” Dave asked.

“Why? We’re already right in front of her house…”

Dave realized that he was so worried that they did, in fact, walked for a couple of blocks and found themselves stepping in Dana’s backyard without even noticing. He just laughed a bit about it.

“Sorry. Love makes me blind.” he joked, knowing that it was a rather silly thing to say anyway.

“Not the words I would have used, but ok.” Tim answered.

“Come on, let’s get inside.” his bro said, with a smirk.  

“Alright… but please, let’s keep a low profile and no awkwa-”

But as they approached to the girl’s house, Dave awkwardly started muttering some kind of theme song that was oddly reminiscent of the Mission Impossibile’s most iconic soundtrack. This guy has a girlfriend, everyone.

“So much for keeping a low profile, Ethan Hunt…” Tim joked.

Dana’s room, following the usual   “average american house tropes” that the writer of this story grew up with in the 90s, was on the second floor. Luckily, the house was empty, so both Tim and Dave could easily climb it without fearing of someone noticing their totally legal actions.

“Look at Tim, such a rebel! Such a fast climber!” Dave whispered, noticing how good Tim was at climbing the girl’s house.

“Thanks. I learned it when I visited your mom.” he joked.

“I thought you’d prefer my dad, you know.” Dave played along, with a rather noticeable reference to Tim’s homosexuality.

“Just… just let’s get done with this.”  

After some awkward climbing, the two found themselves in front of a window leading to Dana’s room. The duo was sitting on a small portion of slanted roof, wondering how to get inside.

“Alright. I could just punch through the window and open it. But you know I don’t like violence against windows.” Dave said, somewhat joking, but really trying to come up with a way to get through this final obstacle.

“Never mind, it’s open.” Tim said, as his hand passed right through the window.   “Or, you know, I got ghost powers all of the sudden, but I doubt it.”

“You’re so funny I forgot to laugh.” Dave commented, as he got inside his girlfriend’s room, making sure no one was there, immediately followed by his sassy friend.

The room was fairly big and messy, books and magazines scattered all around the floor and the bed. Dana was a busy woman: she got a degree in economics but, given the tough times, she had troubles finding a decent job lately. Dave actually suspected that this was the reason she was being nervous about, well, everything, understandably.

“Why don’t you just ask her instead of acting like the perfect boyfriend material that you are?” Tim stated, in his usual snarky tone, noticing Dave basically rummaging through Dana’s more personal stuff.

“Just… let me do my thing ok?” he was serious again, trying to find something that could be clue, deep down knowing that all of that was quite non-sense and even ridiculous, but his stubbornness was showing.   “Wait…”

Something drew his attention. A red (therefore important, according to Dana’s code) sticky note on the nightstand. Something was written on it.

“Oh… I guess I was right…” Dave whispered, eyes glued on the note.

“Something about her job?”  

But Tim didn’t get an answer, as they heard someone coming from downstairs. They probably were so focused on their mission that didn’t even notice how someone got inside the house minutes after them. They went silent and tried to listen to the person’s footsteps.

“Yeah. I’ll keep you posted.”

They heard a muffled female voice getting closer, probably talking on her phone. A voice that was very familiar.

“Fuck! It’s Dana!” Dave whispered.

The two looked around, looking for a quick solution or a place to hide, blatantly ignoring the window they used to get inside in the first place.

“The closet!” Dave said.

Without even questioning whether this was a good idea or not, the duo sneaked inside Dana’s closet and closed themselves inside just as the girl came into her room, still talking on the phone about something.

Tim and Dave managed to mess things up however, as they ended up in a very small section of that apparently big, spacious closet, so they had to arrange themselves in a weird position. Dave was standing up, towering over Tim, who found himself sitting on the floor instead, right behind his friend… with his face perfectly aligned with his loose jeans butt. As his eyes got adjusted to the dark, Tim started to distinguish the seams and texture’s on Dave��s jeans ass, and the tiny red Levi tag on the right back pocket. He couldn’t help but take a look, which he felt really unnecessary, given the context.

“So… this is where you lived for most of your life…” Dave joked, looking around, as if the closet was some kind of fancy mansion.

“Haha! Another gay joke! Great timing, Dave!” Tim muttered instead. The last thing they had to do was talk.

The two waited for a couple of minutes, hoping that Dana would just leave again or even just go downstairs, so they’d have enough time to get out of there in the hopes that Dave didn’t leave any clue of his presence.

“As long a we remain silent…” Tim whispered.   “We have nothing to worry about.”

Only moments after saying that, he felt a very familiar sound greeting his face. It was a long, rumbling sound coming from Dave’s denim ass. It was one of his usual, well-known loud farts, a fart that he was desperately trying to keep as silent as possible. Luckily, Dana was too busy with her phone to even notice the weird noise coming from inside of her closet.

“Dave! What the fuck?!” Tim hissed.

The gassy friend tried not to laugh, realizing how idiotic the whole situation was.   “I’m sorry dude.” he murmured.   “You know what happens when I’m nervous!”  

The smell was unbearable already. Being in a such small space didn’t certainly help. Those were probably some of the smelliest farts Dave ever managed to rip in Tim’s face, although this time was, against all odds, more like an accident.

“Tim…” Dave whispered, carefully placing his butt closer to his friend’s face.

Another fart erupted, sounding dangerously louder than the previous one. The rough surface of Dave’s denim gently caressed Tim’s nose. The blast of gas then turned into something much more subtle, but still otherwise bubbly. Tim felt his nose burn, as really he had no choice but to breath all of that in.

“Dave I swear. If you don’t stop, Dana’s gonna–”

But another   “slow-paced” rumbly fart cut him off. Dave was seriously trying to contain his well-known farting abilities. Tim, instead, was trying to remain calm, feeling like the Universe was somehow messing with him. That was an insane situation: he certainly wasn’t new to Dave’s farts, but in that context, it felt almost like one of his weird dreams about his fart fetish.

“Tim I’m sorry, at least I know you don’t mind… I hope”

Funnily enough, despite the slightly amused tone in his whispering voice, Dave sounded genuinely sorry. Yet he was right: Tim was insanely enjoying it, but knowing that Dana was out there made the whole thing almost surreal. And, once again, as much as Dave always proved so chill about this stuff, he couldn’t help but feel somehow awkward about having his friend face-farting him so non-chalantly.

And yet another   “ninja” fart was ripped all over his face.   Being nervous really turned Dave’s stomach into a messy cloud of gas, and Tim’s nose was there to vacuum it all up, completely defenseless, standing before the sheer power of the gassy friend’s powerful denim-covered anus.

Even though the situation was absurd, Dave couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. After all, the smell hit him too, and it was getting insane even for the farter himself, whose gas just didn’t stop building up.

“Sorry bro… I have to do this.” he whispered.

Tim felt Dave’s hands gently grabbing the back of his head, holding it still, as he pulled him in the clutches of his denim butt. The warm fabric of the jeans was soaking in that unbearable smell. The sniffer then felt the weight of his gassy friend almost crushing his skull. Despite being dark, Tim realized that Dave was basically sitting on him, using his head as some kind of human stool.

The fart was directly ripped in Tim’s mouth at that point, that rumbly sound once again renewing the already destructive stench. It was supposed to be loud, so loud, that Dave had to basically use his friend’s face to deadpan its impressive thunderous noise. The gassy bro was trying to rip it in the form of a long series, hoping that Dana would fail to hear (or even recognize) his well-known gross, but rather impressive talent.

Tim heard his friend’s sighs of relief after each, rumbling fart, but Dave was also trying not to burst into a laughter that could blow their cover. Fart fetish or not, he couldn’t help but to find it more hilarious than gross.

As much as the lack of space in that closet wouldn’t really allow it, Dave even lifted his right leg a bit, while still   “sitting” on his stool-friend, as a way to facilitate the impressive amount of gas gushing out from his anus. It’s not like he had to worry about Tim passing out or finding it too gross, anyway.

That fart itself was lasting longer than both of them anticipated. They lost count of how much time passed, probably a full minute. Tim’s face was warm and sweaty now, still trapped in the clutches of his gassy bro’s denim butt, directly living in person that thin line between Fart Heaven and Fart Hell.

A final sigh of relief, followed by a louder toot and a chuckle.   “Sorry, bud.” Dave muttered, hoping that his plan worked.

Indeed, Dana didn’t hear a thing. She hung up and left the room, her footsteps slowly turning into a far, muffled sound, until silence announced that the duo was now free to get the heck out of there, especially considering how they were almost both choking on farts.

Tim forgot what fresh, non-fart air felt like in his nostrils and so took a deep, refreshing breath the moment he stepped out of that gas closet. Ironically, Dave did the same, maybe even wondering how would Tim even endure something as overwhelming as his farts, but he didn’t really mind anyway. Despite everything, that was oddly hilarious, as the two stared at each other and then bursted into a laughter.

“Now let’s get out of here…” the farter suggested.

But before the two could even walk towards the window, Dana showed up again in her own room. She didn’t even startle.

“What are you two doing here?” she asked, sounding more like an inquisitive mom than an angry girlfriend. She was fairly mature, after all. “I don’t know what you Dumb and Dumber are up to, but I swear if you–”

“I heard the news, Dana. We were just outside your window…” Dave explained, slightly tweaking the truth. “We wanted to play a stupid scary prank but then I heard it, while you were on the phone you know…”

Dana shook her head and laughed a bit. She hugged her boyfriend and kissed him.

“Yes! I got the job!” she giggled. “Sorry I’ve been so cold lately. The job interview made me so nervous…”

“It’s fine, Dana. You’ve always been stone-cold anyway!” Dave joked, earning a playful slap on his chest by his girlfriend.

“Yes, that’s a very import–wait what’s that smell?” the girl asked, sniffling loudly the air around him.

Tim’s heart almost stopped while Dave did his best to not just laugh like an immature prankster. His hair, clothes, skin, were completely “soaked” in his gassy bro’s gas, so naturally he’d himself smell like flatulence.

“Never mind. It must be you, Dave. He farts like crazy when he’s nervous, Tim, I swear.” she said, disgusted but slightly amused as well.

“Ow… it’s part of my charm, babe.” Dave replied, using what he would have considered an irresistible flirty tone of voice, which was super awkward instead.

“And yeah. Tim’s very aware of my skills, right?” he joked, winking at him, like the big teasing bastard he’s always been since he found out about his fart kink.

Tim just shrugged, faking a disgusted look, his heart racing fast, knowing that all he had to do after that was take the biggest shower in the hope that such unbearable stench didn’t fuse with the atoms in his body.

“Well, it’s gonna be a wild ride!” Dana exulted, happy about her new job offer.

“How about a round of beers to celebrate?” Tim suggested. “It’s on me, no worries.”

“Great idea, but I’m paying. I got the job, you dumb-dumbs get to drink!” Dana replied. She was in a very good mood.

“It’s fine, Dana! It’s the least we can do after-“ but Dave interrupted him.

“Come on Tim, stop living in outdated gender roles and let the pretty girl buy you a drink.” he said, faking a serious tone.

The girlfriend simply rolled her eyes and left the room “Just… meet me downstairs when you’re done saving the world, ok?”

As Dana was nowhere in sight, Dave simply turned to Tim and let another huge, long one rip.

“Shhh. Just tying up some loose ends here.” he said, shushing the gay friend, blasting what was left of his gas out.

“Are you finish-“ “Not yet” he simply said, as if he was making sure no particle of gas was left behind.

With one high pitched final note that was met with some immature laughter, Dave sighed in relief.

“With that said” he chuckled “You might want to take a shower.”

Tim simply nodded with an unamused expression.

“Oh, and you might want to leave the other closet you’ve been hiding.”

That was out of nowhere.

“No pressure bro, just know that we’re all always more than happy to have a beer with you.”

“Thanks Da-“

“Despite your bigoted views on gender roles of course.”

“I’m going to punch you now.”

The duo then headed downstairs and no one got punched luckily.

Tim thought about his friend’s words and how it was probably time to leave that metaphorical stuffy closet soon or later, not that he felt forced or anything.

Dana’s closet, however, that’s probably the only one he enjoyed being trapped into…

End of Episode 9

[em0avacado]

Only You

( Angel Reyes x Reader )

trigger warnings : none i think, guys being dudes, soft at the end. Language maybe.

word count : 2.1k ish

You were difficult to figure out, that was one thing you knew very well. You’d grown up around teenage boys all your life, being rough, chaotic and careless is all you knew. It’s who you were. Everyone knew that, but what no one knew? Was that you very, very capable of having a soft spot for someone. It was rare, when you were in highschool you swore to yourself there wouldn’t be another man you’d let close to your heart, and you were doing so well being, well, that bitch™, that when you met Angel Reyes, it threw you off, horribly so. You didn’t know how to handle it, you saw him, and you wanted to make sure he was taking care of himself, which, was likely that he wasn’t. It only got worse when you and him quickly became the best of friends. For some reason, when you started liking him a little more than the rest of your friends, you were lost, so unfamiliar with any emotions, having shut that out eons ago. Somehow, you’d worked it out in your head that you had to be more mean to him than the rest of them.

You had come home late from work one night, you were exhausted, and very much irritated when you heard rustling and noise behind your door. Nearly groaning, you shoved the key in your door and let yourself in, clearly, the boys had done the exact same who knows how long ago. You dropped your bag, and keys on the table before wandering into the very noisy living room where Angel, Ez, Coco, and Gilly were sat on your couch, feet up, beer in hands. Clearing your throat was what caught their attention, their cheers of excitement hurting your pounding head. They looked happy, and relaxed. You wouldn’t admit it but that was your favourite thing to see. Except, Angel. He didn’t look impressed.

“well look who decided to show up.” he said with an unimpressed tone, causing you to roll your eyes.

“Yeah, sorry I came home late to guests I didn’t invite over.” you muttered, pulling your coat off and setting it aside. “next time i’ll let the boss know I can’t take the last shift there might be a bunch of weird men in my home.”

“you sure it was just a late work shit? You not fucking your boss?” he asked with a hint of.. something? In his tone. Who the hell did this man think he was? Rolling your eyes once again, you didn’t have the patience to fight with Angel tonight, you’d said your boss was attractive once in response of him gushing over some girl at Vicky’s and he hasn’t let it go since.

“Why? You jealous?” you asked, and very quickly got a reaction, he got defensive.

“No.” he nearly spat “why would I be jealous of your boss?” his arms crossed over his chest. The rest of them watched with wide eyes. Except Coco, who was too invested in Tiger King.

“Because you want to fuck me.” you said blatantly, he, and Gilly, choked on their beers as Angel quickly tried to regain himself.

“I do not!” he protested, coughing and wiping at his face.

“mhm.” you hummed, pushing off your boots and heading off to the back, wanting to just have a shower before getting comfortable for the night, hoping to forget, even for just a moment, that there was a bunch of home invaders in your living room. Just as you were shutting your bedroom door, you heard mumbles and a then very clear conversation.

“You wanna fuck [Y/N]?” Gilly asked Angel, Ez could only laugh, he knew his brother, he knew he did.

“no.” grumbled Angel.

“Isn’t that kind of gay?” asked Coco. “I mean - she’s one of us, she’s literally beat you up, she’s a bro. That’d be like fucking me.” You snorted at that, of course he’d say that shit. Always. “Isn’t she.. a lesbian?”

Next you heard “Oh shit I thought she was too.” from Gilly.

“She’s not a lesbian! She thinks Bucky Barns is hot, she’s said she wants him to crush her head with that metal arm of his.” Said Ez, you heard Angel huff like a child.

Great, you thought to yourself, now you have a living room full of idiots trying to figure out your sexuality. You grabbed a towel, rolling your eyes at your friends, and went for your shower. Washing away the days stress, replacing the stench of oil and hard work with your signature cucumber, aloe vera scent. You settled on a thick sweater and plaid pj shorts before heading back into the living room where you expected to see the rest of your friends, now more ready to deal with them until you went to bed, but when you saw no one, you grabbed a water and headed to sleep.

The next few days were an endless series of hectic, and tiresome hours put into work, every day something went wrong. You hadn’t been so close to having a total breakdown in forever, but the weight on your shoulders felt so heavy. You couldn’t wait to go home, you had the next two days off and you couldn’t wait but dream of catching dreams and nothing but that. But when you got to your door, it was unlocked. Pulling the gun from your waist, you cocked it and raised it as you entered, only to find Angel at your table with his head in his hands. Setting down your things, you locked the door behind you and shed your work clothes.

This was a routine whenever either one of you had a particularly hard day, you turned to one another, despite the endless banter, you two easily fell into being each other’s safe haven. You deemed it to be because you understood each other, like best friends did, it worked. At some point, though, you’d began to fall for Angel and you had no idea how to deal with it.

“am I okay to shower?” you asked softly, crouching down beside where he sat, running a gentle hand over his head. He aches for your affections, even the slightest of your touches calmed the man, but he knew that you had to be the one to instigate it. You hated physical contact, it was rare you trusted, let alone liked someone enough to let them touch you. You were picky with it. Angel respected that, though he did sometimes want to just pull you into a hug when his world was spinning, yet he didn’t. You saw it in the way that he involuntarily followed your hand that it was a hard day for him, when he nodded, you gently squeezed his shoulder. “okay, take off your kutte and boots and go lay in bed, i’ll be there after, okay?” when he nodded again and began to move, you headed off to the bathroom quickly to rinse off.

Not all that long after, you’d met him in your room, like you promised. You wore pj shorts, and a tank, he was in his wife beater and boxers. You climbed in, and lifted the comforter wordlessly, inviting him in. He quickly settled against you, his face laid against your chest. You trailed your fingers over his back, drawing soft shapes on his skin a mark that didn’t stain much more than his mind. You both laid in a comfortable silence, his hands were secured at his sides, eventually yours sat in his hair, playing with the short strands as he listened to your heart beat. He never thought he’d be more thankful for someone else’s beating heart.

“Do you like Bucky Barnes more than you like me?” he asked, breaking the silence after a while. You furrowed your brows slightly and looked at him. You saw his glassy brown eyes staring right back at you. Your heart melting at the sight.

“Angel, Bucky is a fictional character.” you answered simply.

“So you do.” he said in disappointment, sighing. Jealousy hung heavy over his head, perhaps it wasn’t just that, perhaps he had an exceedingly difficult day. When he started pulling away from you, you wrapped your arms around his head and pulled him in, the gesture was.. sweeter and much more gentle in your head, but everyone knew you weren’t the most graceful, so you accidentally jabbed him not only in the eye, but also picked his nose for him. Dismissing the fact that you did that, you took his face in your hands and had him look to you.

“Bucky Barnes has nothing on you.” you said, doing your best to sound reassuring.

“What about his arm?” he asked, puppy eyes on full display. This man will be the end of you.

“I’d let you run over my head with your bike.” you told him, trialing your thumbs over his cheeks. Something inside you told you that there was a fine line between platonic and romantic, and that you’ve both bolted passed that line ages ago, in private, at least.

“you really mean that?” he asked yet another question, you knew you were playing into his ego but you could only give in to him.

“i do.” you said, yawning. He wrapped his arms around you again, and settled back down. Shutting his eyes. You had a few minutes at best before you were out, and Angel knew that once you started yawning, it only took a little while till you were out.

But the next morning, when you slowly started to come back to the world of the living, you heard Angel mumbled something into the phone. Being the nosy son of a bitch you were, you listened in. “I don’t know, man. All I know is that if I don’t leave now, I don’t think I ever will. She doesn’t see me the way I see her, I can’t force this on her, I’ll lose her for good and I’d rather have her as a friend, but I can’t lose her. On god little brother I can’t.” he mumbled, and you felt your chest heat up. He was talking about you. To Ez. Shutting your eyes again for a moment, you took a deep breath and climbed out as you heard him rustling around. You grabbed one of the blankets, surrounding yourself with it to try to warm back up after your toes were kissed by the cold. You headed out of the room, your toes padding against the hard wood floor. You’d caught him in the middle of opening the door, and talking to Ez still.

“Please don’t leave.” You said, your voice soft, almost timid. Angel turned around, looking at you all wide eyed.

“Wh - huh?” he looked at you dumbfounded.

“Come back to bed, I’m cold.” you said, clutching the blanket tighter.

“[Y/N], I - I have to go.” he responded, fumbling with the phone in his hand as Ezekiel yelled at him to get his head out of his ass on the line.

“You’re an idiot.” You quickly shuffled closer to him, letting go of your grasp on the blanket, you reached up, cupping his face in your hands and you lead him closer to you. Looking into his eyes, you felt his hot breath brush against your face, taking a second to really look at him before connecting your lips to his in a soft kiss. This was definitely crossing the friendship line, but he was intoxicating. “Don’t leave now. Don’t leave ever.” you said when your lips parted for air. Your eyes on him, all you heard was his heavy breathing, and the cheering on the other end of the phone.

The sight of you right then and there let Angels heart melt into puddle, he hadn’t seen it before but you looked at him like he was the world, and he was, he was your world, even though you’ve quite literally sucker punched him in the stomach for taking your last cheese bun.

“So she’s not a lesbian right?” you heard Coco ask everyone.

“Coco I’m gonna beat your fucking ass.” you said, grabbing the phone before hanging up. “but first imma eat yours.” you tried to say in a serious voice, but the moment Angels face twisted in disgust, you lost it.

“Way to ruin the moment.” he groaned.

“You want me to bring the moment back?” you asked, raising a brow at him when he nodded. You reached up, brushing back his hair, taming the bed head ever so slightly, you brought your hands down to his beard, scraping your nails gently against it as you brought your lips back to his. “give me another kiss then, baby.” your voice drawled out softly, meeting his lips in a soft, yet passionate kiss.

Taking his hand after a few moments, you pulled him back to the bedroom, he was completely caught in a trance. So, as you walked, you set his phone aside, you pushed off his kutte and tossed it on the couch, you unbuttoned his flannel and tossed it on a close by chair. “Are you trying to fuck me?” he asked, bewildered.

“No, not right now.” you chuckled softly. “I want to lay with you, I want your warmth, and your smiles, and your laughter when I tell you some stupid joke, I want your arms around me. I want to hold you. Only you. Let me feel safe in your arms because I don’t anywhere else.” you admitted, pulling him into you. He looked like a lost puppy as you spoke, but then he fully dove into you, not wanting to look back.

“and after our nap? I’m making waffles.” you said in your donkey impression, making Angel roll his eyes. “Angel baby.. When we fuck I’m gonna moan like I think Donkey does when he and that dragon fuck, okay?” you ask, entirely serious.

“oh god please no.” he laughs, hiding his face in your chest.

Tag List :

@mayans-sauce

@queenbeered

@lilacyennefer

[butteraway]

when time runs out | iv

⋆ summary:  A young girl has fallen deeply ill with an unknown disease in her, so with all her free time spent in an empty hospital room, she spends it online playing video games. That's until she meets her cousins friends, one spiking her interest with his extremely vulgare language.

pairing: bakugou katsuki x reader

word count: 2.5k

warnings: none

authors note: I wanna say im so sorry for lying to yall about that extra chapter KJDFFF😭😭 ALSO @chibiiichann I APOLOGIZE FOR SPAMMING YOU WHENEVER I REPLIED TO YOU💀 A DIFFERENT ACC WOULD POP UP BUT THE FIRST CHAPTER WAS AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER EXPLAINING THE OC'S CONDITION JFJDJD

"HAHA! I GOTCHU NOW LOSER!" Y/N smashed the buttons on her controller, basically on the edge of her bed. A grunt was heard through her headphones, then a loud bang with laughing in the background. Y/N felt her stomach turn at the sound of this, feeling a little left out, but smiled nonetheless.

"HOW'D YOU EVEN DO THAT?!! YOU’RE DOING SOME HACKING MY GUY!" Denki yelled through the laughing in the background, hands pulling at his hair. He seriously couldn't believe it!

"I'm not! I just wanted to show Sero I'm way better at this game than you are. And turns out I am!" Y/N let out a loud laugh, falling backwards onto her pillow. After finding out that 'Tape Dispenser' went to her cousin’s school by hearing his voice in the back of Denki's room, she got to learn more about this Sero dude. She already knew this after their last game a few nights ago, but he was so chill. It was still insane for her to find out that her cousin and online friend went to the same hero school. The coincidences in this world. Y/N thought as she grinned.

"It's okay Kaminari, you still lasted a long time! But you did get brutally beat by Y/N at the end though..." Sero said, trying to raise Denki's low spirits, but only succeeded in making him more miserable. Rustling was heard through Y/N's headphones, making it obvious that there was movement happening.

"You don't understand Sero! THIS IS THE ONLY GAME I COULD FULLY BEAT THIS GIRL IN!" Denki shook Sero by the shoulders, quickly doing the action. Cackling was heard through the speakers while the girl wiped a tear from her eye. Sero laughed along, as he was pushed to the ground by Denki. His arms were crossed as he looked away, upset that Y/N managed to finally beat him in every game they played.

"It's okay Denki, not everyone can be as good as me!" Y/N exclaimed, getting up from her bed to start taping specific parts of her room. Kaminari continued to complain about his defeat to Sero, who only chuckled in response. As she finished taping the bottom of the walls, Y/N sat back on her bed, sighing in content.

"So, how are you? I'm doing terribly after being utterly destroyed by you, by the way." Said Kaminari, opening his water bottle and taking large gulps from it. Y/N felt her face light up as she remembered to tell Kaminari of her future activity.

"Bro, you won't believe this! So, basically, they're actually letting me paint my room! All by myself! How fricking cool is that?!" The girl laughed out loud, jumping on her bed in excitement. Kaminari's eyes widen, in surprise and slight fear, sitting up and taking in the new information.

"Wait, really? But isn't that like extremely dangerous? Cuz of the chemicals and what not??" He tried his best to keep his voice leveled, not noticing Sero look at him weirdly. That guy had no idea what was happening.

"Well, they said that they were gonna do something to the paint so it won't hurt me or anything, I don't know what, but-" Y/N was cut off by an extremely confused Sero. "Wait wait wait, hold on. I don't understand what's happening. How can paint harm you? Besides like...eating it. And what do you mean by 'finally getting to paint your room?’ Silence was the only answer he got. Sero gulped in embarrassment, thinking he asked a really personal question.

"Um, it's nothing du-" A loud 'shhhhhhh' was heard from Y/N, who let out a shaky breath. She never really told anyone, it's not like she could either way, being confined in the hospital room for a long time. She pushed a loose strand of her away from her face, preparing herself to tell Sero.

"Well, the reason is because I basically live in a hospital. I can't go outside, or have 'unpurified' air, as the doctors like to say, meaning my interactions with people and the outside world are extremely limited. That means anything that's not cleared of dust and germs, I guess, can be extremely harmful for me? As pathetic as it sounds, it could actually kill me, haha." It was quiet as Sero took in the information, a large wave of emotions crashing on him. A person shouldn't have to be locked in a room for the rest of their life. Especially someone who is such a sweet person like Y/N.

"I-I'm so sorry to hear that Y/N. If you don't mind me asking, how...how long have you been in the hospital?" The young girl answered with a quick 'Two years', and that's when Sero felt his stomach twist uncomfortably. Kaminari abruptly got up and headed towards his door.

"I'm gonna get something to eat, you want something dude?" Kaminari's voice was low and trembling. It didn't take a genius to see that the blonde haired boy needed some time alone. "No thanks." Kaminari let out a hum, quickly exiting his room and closing the door shut. Sero heard the loud sniffs that slowly faded away, as he hung his head down.

"Hey, you good Sero? That was probably a lot to take in, sorry." Sero shook his head, letting a sad smile adorn his face. "It's fine, really. I actually feel honored that you're comfortable telling me. Feels like we're getting closer, to be honest." He smiled happily, meaning every word he said. And Y/N knew that. "Ha, we are though!" The air was tense, despite the two teenagers being in different rooms.

Y/N went to clear her throat, but was interrupted when a light knock echoed throughout her room. "Someone there?" Sero asked, noticing her silence and hearing the very faint knocking.

"Yeah, um Sero, I'll call you guys later, my doctor wants to talk." Y/N quickly replied, seeing Receen open the door and walk in with his thin suit on. Sero let out an ok and they hang up. Y/N finally took in how the doctor looked, noticeable eye bags under his blue-grey eyes, from lack of sleep. His dark hair slightly tousled, probably from putting on the protective helmet that came with the suit, and a small smile on his welcoming face. And a large container of paint in his left hand. Her eyes immediately lit up.

"What’s up doc? I see you have something in your hand, can I see it closer?" The small girl asked, getting up and making a grabbing motion with her hands. Receen chuckled, lifting up the paint for Y/N to see. Even if he were to hand her the container, she wouldn't be able to hold. She was just too weak. Said girl let out a high pitch 'OOOO ' in excitement.

"I'm not sure if you wanted more, but we managed to get you your favorite color! This should be enough to paint the room, you can even put a second layer if you want." Receen walked over to where Y/N put all the equipment, opening the container of paint. And with a low grunt from him, the lid was opened. Y/N watched with amazement as the doctor poured the soft looking paint into a tray. She picked up a roller near her, and drowned the roller in paint, the white fluff getting covered in color.

The two began painting, Y/N's hand shaking every now and then. After painting half the room, they sat in silence, resting for a while. Receen seemed to be tense, though Y/N didn't seem to notice since she was too happy to speak. Receen let out a breath, breaking the silence, causing Y/N to look towards him.

"I didn't get to ask you how you were, did I Y/N? How are you?" Said girl let a beaming smile spread on her face, causing Receen to slightly squint his eyes from the intensity of her smile. "Honestly, I haven't felt this happy in a very long time! I actually still can't believe you guys really let me do this! Thank you so much!"

Receen gave her a small smile while rubbing the back of his neck. "It's not a problem, you could’ve asked sooner and gotten this done a long time ago. You've been here for two years, so please don't be afraid of asking for things!" At the mention of her time spent in the hospital, Y/N lowered her head, causing Receen to wince. Well, might as well tell her. The doctor cleared his throat and began to talk.

"Y/N, as you are aware, I, along with many other doctors and scientists, have been working hard for you to be able to go outside again. To see your family, hug them, be a normal kid again." There was a pause and that alone caught Y/N's attention. She looked up at him. "There is a way for you to finally do that, Y/N."

Shock evident on the girl's face, she abruptly stood up and faced the doctor. There was absolutely no way anyone could have found a cure for someone like her. Someone who had an incurable sickness. Someone who was too sick, to even have medicine. He's lying. Y/N narrowed her eyes at the grown man sitting in front of her.

"With all due respect Doctor, I highly doubt that ​​that's possible. Cuz, y'know? I basically have an incurable disease? I mean, like, even if you did manage to find a way for me to leave this place, how do you even know it's gonna work? I don't think you've tried this medicine since no one in recorded hospital documents in the past have had people like that checked in before-"

"How do you even know that?"

"-so how do you truly know it'll work?" Y/N quickly finished, completely ignoring his statement. Receen sighed, scratching his head. "We live in a world where quirks exist. Would you believe me if I told you centuries ago that the human race would evolve to have super powers? It's kind of like that, but not really." Y/N eyed him suspiciously. He's avoiding the question.

Receen looked straight at the girl standing in front of him. He felt slightly intimidated by her piercing gaze. He quickly looked away and got up, towering over Y/N's small frame. Then he smiled. "Y/N, you are a very sweet girl, no doubt about it. I know how much you want to get out of here, and I want to help you. My team has created this almost perfect pill, especially suited for your sickness. I know you're very cautious, just like your mother, but I can only reassure you, that these are your ticket out of here." He pulled out the bottle from his protective suit, shaking it in front of [Y/N].

Her eyes widened as she restrained herself from reaching out and snatching the bottle. Her eyes slightly narrowed as she pulled herself together. Crossing her arms and slightly tilting her upwards, she looked into the doctor's bright eyes. "There's always a catch when it comes to these kinds of things. What's the price if I take these? My lifespan shortens, I only have five hours to go outside, it drugs me or something?"

"I'm hurt you think I would just give you these without setting out the consequences." There was a slight glint in his eyes before it quickly disappeared. Y/N hummed, urging the doctor to continue.

"There are exactly 15 pills in here. And consuming just one of these bad boys right here, would allow you to go outside! Though, time is very important when taking these. You'd have 10 hours before the pills effects wear off. These would dull your hypersensitive senses, but not to a point where you can't feel, smell or do anything. No no, it'd just be like how you were before. You'd feel slightly dizzy and be a little itchy, but besides that, nothing too extreme. It just dulls all your body senses down." Receen gave Y/N a small smile. She looked a little weary, unsure if what he said was true. She looked at the bottle then back to Doctor Receen, fingers twitching every now and then. Breathing in and letting it out slowly, Y/N stared straight into the doctor's eyes.

If I take these, I can finally go out. I can hug mom and dad, I can be around Denki again. I can meet Sero face to face and feel the grass again! I can be... happy again. But if these don't actually work, I'd immediately die on the spot. I'd be able to go outside though. Aah, so much going outside, I can meet new people! I don't wanna spend the rest of my days slowly rotting away in here anyway.

"So Y/N, are you going to take them or let all our time go to waste?"

Sero looked at his hands solemnly, thinking about what Y/N had told him. He swallowed the lump forming in his throat, then lightly slapped his cheeks to stop the wave of emotions from spilling out.

"Yo, you good dude? It's not everyday I see someone willingly slapping themselves." Kaminari chuckled, walking in and closing the door with his foot as he carried a soda bottle and a bag of chips towards the boy sitting on his bed. Sero grinned, feeling the sadness of everything wash away.

"Yeah, I'm perfectly fine. But what about you though? After we had that conversation, you were, well, umm... kind of out of it." Kaminari froze, letting a dejected smile appear on his face. Dragging a hand down his face, he let out a sorrowful laugh.

"She's my best friend. My first real, true friend. She's basically my sister at this point. So when she collapsed that day, I felt my whole world crashing down. She is the sweetest, the most kindest, person I have ever met. She never let me degrade myself, alway cheered me up when people called me stupid." Kaminari rubbed his eyes, opening the bag of chips and plopping one of them into his mouth.

"It hasn't been the same ever since she left, her parents barely come over anymore, and they're always so sad whenever I see them. My own parents aren't the same either, they treated her like their own daughter. I can't even begin to imagine how Y/N feels about this all. She was the top in our grade, highest scores in our test. No one could compare to her. M-my heart breaks for her. She lost everything." Sero let that information sink in, thinking about how she was before. He smiled as he saw Kaminari's shoulders begin to shake. He cares so much for her.

He put his hand on his shoulder, watching Kaminari slowly lift his face towards him. "Come here you emotional ball of feelings." Being the friendly guy he is, Sero gave the sobbing boy a hug, cuz hugs fix everything.

"No homo though bro." And with that, they both laughed out loud, continuing their bro day.

[im-the-punk-who]

The Real People of Black Sails!

Here’s a quick(I promise....I promise this is as short as I could make it without leaving out some really choice shit) rundown of all the real historical figures peppered throughout Black Sails! I think I caught them all but if you know of others please mention them and I’ll add them on! Under a readmore because this is....so long y’all.

Pirates & Maroons

Anne Bonny (possibly 1697 – unknown; possibly April 1782) Started life crossdressing at her dad’s behest to avoid his wife(who wasn’t Bonny’s mom), married a guy her dad didn’t like, moved to Nassau. There her husband became a spy for Rogers and Anne was like ‘Not cool bro’. She met Jack, they started fucking, and Anne discovered she was really good at stabbing things. Resumed dressing as a man and started trying to seduce Mary Read who was also dressed as a man. They did indeed fall victim to one of the classic queer blunders. Anyway, Anne’s like ‘it’s not gay I’m a chick!’ And Mary is like ‘really?? Then it’s a little gayer than you realize because I’m a chick too!’ They (probably) start banging. Rackham’s like ‘hang on! I’m the only dick in Anne’s life’ and Mary and Anne are like ‘you sure are’ and Mary shows him her boobs and then they have some sort of complicated and probably not totally consensual threeway. Then they get captured because, Jack is That Guy Who Was Too Drunk To Realize His Ship Was Under Attack and Mary and Anne had to defend the ship against like, a whole other crew. Jack is hung(not a dick joke), but both Anne and Mary plead stays of execution due to pregnancy. Anne disappears but possibly is maybe referred to later. No one knows. Neat!

Edit: According to sources from this post there is a genealogical record that refers to Anne and it records her death as 1782. Very neat!

Israel Hands (c.1701-death unknown) Israel Hands was a real pirate and Blackbeard’s first mate. Not much else is known about where he came from or his life, other than that Blackbeard shot him in the knee at one point while supposedly aiming for another man. ‘Oops my bad this pistol is from like, the 18th century or something.’ While recuperating in Bath he was arrested after Teach’s death but took a pardon in exchange for ratting out the colonial officials who had been bribed by Teach. It’s unknown what happened to him after that although That Book About Pyrites says he died a beggar in London.

Benjamin Hornigold (1680–1719) Horny4gold was one of the most well known and influential pirates of the Golden Age. Most other pirates sailed under him or with him at one point, and he was one of the founders of the Pirate Republic of Nassau. He never attacked british ships during his time as captain so that he could be like ‘but brooooo I was acting in Britain’s Interests!!! Bro!!!!!’ But his co-pirates didn’t like that and eventually voted to replace him with Sam Bellamy. He accepted the king's pardon in 1718 and became a pirate hunter instead. Bummer. He was reportedly killed in a shipwreck.

Okay listen Horingold in any universe is a fucking JOKE I have to share this passage with y’all:

“Hornigold is recorded as having attacked a sloop off the coast of Honduras, but as one of the passengers of the captured vessel recounted, "they did us no further injury than the taking most of our hats from us, having got drunk the night before, as they told us, and toss'd theirs overboard"” WHAT A JOKE.

Dr. Howell - (birth/death unknown) John Howell was a pirate surgeon forced into service by Hornigold sometime in early 1717. He sailed with various pirate crews until October before returning into the service of Governor Rogers.

Ned Low (1690–1724) N’EDWARD. Okay I’m serious again. Born in London, Lowe grew up a thief in a thief family before moving to Boston. His wife died in childbirth in 1719, so he decided ‘fuck it I’ll become a Pirate Captain’ and did just that. He was known for torturing the people on board the ships he captured before murdering them and burning the ship. Interestingly though, Lowe was known to have a huge amount of regret over abandoning his daughter when he turned pirate, and wouldn’t force married men into his service. He also reportedly would allow women to return to port safely. Because of his numerous captures and cruelties, he was one of the most well known pirates in his day. There are differing reports about Low’s death - some say his crew mutinied and marooned him and he was subsequently hung, others say his ship sunk in a storm, and some say he just straight up disappeared. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Jack Rackham - (December 26, 1682 – November 18, 1720) Really a pirate, really named himself after a housecat pattern. (No, okay, he didn’t, it was because of his threads. But wouldn’t the cat thing fit too?) Sailed with Vane, Anne Bonny, and Mary Read. Was mostly known for being That Guy Who Was Too Drunk To Realize His Ship Was Under Attack and being Anne and Mary’s captain. He was captured and sentenced to hang after the aforementioned Drunk Blunder in 1720.

Mary/Mark Read - (1685 – 28 April 1721) Much like Anne Bonny, Mary dressed as a boy for much of her youth so a parent could swindle someone out of money. From her teenage years on she continued dressing as a man to find work in the military and as a sailor. She did marry but her husband died young and so she decided to become a pirate. Like ya do. She accepted the king’s pardon in 1718, then mutinied on the privateer she was aboard, once again becoming a pirate. Because pirates are sexy. In 1720 she joined Jack Rackham’s crew and sailed with him and Bonny. Cue the whole ‘Hey you’re hot, also I’m a woman.’ ‘Oh, hey, same hat!’ with Anne. In November of 1720, Rackham’s ship was captured. Mary died of a fever in prison(likely due to her pregnancy) in 1721.

Edward Teach - (c. 1680 – 22 November 1718) He started piracy sailing under Hornigold, and built the fleet alongside him and Stede Bonnet until Hornigold retired. COOL fact about Blackbeard is he was a MASTER showman who liked to light slow burning fuses under his hat to scare his enemies, and he relied more heavily on creating an image his prizes feared than violence. He did a lot of cool shit including ransoming the entire town of Charles Town and annoying the shit out of Woodes Rogers before settling in Bath and later dying of like, a shit ton of wounds while battling Lieutenant Maynard. The battle on Roger’s ship is pretty much what happened minues the keelhauling. Afterwards he was beheaded, his head hung from the bow of Maynard’s ship, and his body was thrown in the bay in Bath, where it’s said his ghost still haunts! Funky!

Charles Vane - (1680 – 29 March 1721)  Really a pirate captain! Known for being Not A Nice Dude. Sailed with Henry Jennings, Edward England and Jackie Rackhammie. He led the pirates in resisting Rogers in Nassau, and yeah he really did light a ship on fire and 18th centuryeet it into Rogers’ line in order to escape. There’s a note that he returned to Nassau to get married but I couldn’t find any info on who he married so he’s gay now. That’s a rule I just made up. Anyway so at one point his ship got into a fight with another ship and Vane ordered a retreat and the crew was like ‘this is BOOshit’ and voted him out in favor of Jack Rackham. Ouch. Vane and some of the crew that supported him left aboard the Katherine(I believe) but then they got caught in a storm that said ‘fuck you specifically to Charles Vane,’ and he was marooned on an island. He survived! Just long enough for a British ship to stop at the island for him to attempt to board, get caught, and then hung. Deus ex piratica.

(Honorary mentions)

John Silver + Captain Flint (sort of but I’m not kidding!) Okay so of course there are a bunch of suspected origins of the characters of Captain Flint and Long John Silver, but the one I like the most is of two brothers - one of whom had a peg leg! - who captured an enormous Spanish treasure and buried it near Ocracoke island. Their names were John and Owen Lloyd. (And yes, John was the one-legged brother.) In 1750 a Spanish treasure fleet named the Flotas de Indias attempted to sail from Havana to Spain in late August, and three ships were wrecked during a hurricane. By a stroke of luck, the Lloyd brothers had been blown to the same inlet as the wrecked ships Guadalupe and Soledad , and managed to convince the Captain to hire them to transport the treasure to Norfolk. 

But of course because they thought the Spanish SUCKED they said ‘psyche’ and just fucked off with it while the Captain was fighting Bureaucratic red tape in North Carolina. Iconique. Owen Lloyd reportedly buried the treasure on Norman Island and  the pair became folk heroes in the area, particularly in St. Kitts.  (P.s., the Stevenson family ran a sugar production business on St. Kitts, and R.L. Stevenson’s great grandfather worked there as early as 1773 - just 25 years after the epic heist. COOL STORY BRO.)

Captain Throckmorton (Okay not really but I just love this guy’s name) Okay so this guy wasn’t really a pirate captain but he was a Steamboat captain in the 1830s and his name is just too ridiculous for someone to make up. Toot toot, motherfucker.

---------

Queen Nanny(Maroon Queen/Madi) (c. 1686 – c. 1755) The spiritual, cultural, and military leader of the Windward Maroons (who the Black Sails Maroons are based on.) She led them alongside her ‘brother’ Quao although the relationship between them isn’t known. Exact information about her origins are not known but best guess is that she was of royal lineage from present-day Ghana, born sometime in the 1680’s. She did have a husband named Adou(who may have been the same person as Quao? I’ve read conflicting stuff), but they had no children. Many of the guerilla warfare tactics we now think of as common practice were developed by Queen Nanny and the other Maroons in their fight against British incursions. (The trap that Flint lays, covering themselves with paint and leaves, and the pits the Maroons lay in the forest are tactics known to have been used by the Windward Maroons.)

Nanny was a fucking legend okay a LEGENDS ONLY legend. She was one of the most instrumental people in preserving African culture among freed slaves and Maroons, and in encouraging the resistance to slavery in the Bahamas and surrounding areas. She was one of three leaders of the First Maroon War (which the war in Black Sails is based on). She initially refused to sign the treaty offered to Cudjoe because she knew the British were losing and was like ‘Why????? Would I surrender???? In a war??? I’m winning?????’

Anyway Queen Nanny was a fucking badass please read every piece of literature you can find on her. (You should absolutely read her full bio because she was fucking badass.)

Cudjoe (not exactly, but Julius is very close) (c. 1690s – 1764) Likely a freeborn son of one of the original escaped slaves turned Maroons, Cudjoe is hailed as one of the greatest Maroon leaders(after Queen Nanny). Much like in Black Sails, these original Maroons were slaves who escaped or overran their masters, forming free communities in the Mountains of Jamaica. The treaty in Black Sails is based on the one Cudjoe negotiated with the British, wanting an ‘honorable peace’ with the enemy, rather than the continued war and better terms that Queen Nanny and Quao wanted. (sound familiarrrrrr?) I do want to note that by the end of his life he became completely disillusioned with the idea that the British should be reasoned with and basically started fights with every British superior he could.

The English, Spanish, and Scottish!

The Guthries So while there wasn’t ever a female head of the Guthrie clan in Nassau, the Guthries were a Scottish merchant clan who emigrated to Boston around 1652 due to religious and racial persecution. While most of the family stayed around Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, John Guthrie moved to Virginia and his brother James Guthrie moved to Bermuda sometime after 1683.

(James Guthrie of Suffolk County, Massachusetts was listed in the will of John Richardson, dated 7 May 1683, in which Richardson says, “I give and bequeath unto James Guthrie all I have in the world except twenty shillings to buy John Harris a ring and ten shillings to buy John Kyte a ring.” This was witnessed by John Raynsford and John Ramsey.) Fellas is it gay.

Anyway, between Virginia and Boston and James’ ties in the Bermuda islands, the family made a shit ton fencing pirated goods during the Golden Age of Piracy, particularly from the Pirate Republic of Nassau.

A John Guthrie(likely a son of James’) was also a Colonel who was part of the peace talks with Cudjoe and the Maroons. Neat!

James Oglethorpe (22 December 1696 – 30 June 1785) Okay listen Oglethorpe was COOL AS FUCK. He is the founder of the colony of Georgia and is imo who Thomas Hamilton is probably based on. Oglethorpe was a HUGE humanitarian and even before he decided to form an entire colony around people not owning slaves. He advocated for better conditions for sailors, and prison reform. In 1732 he read a letter by a slave in Maryland named Ayuba Suleiman Diallo and on the spot decided slavery was terrible, divested himself of his stock in the African Trading Company, and resolved to include a law banning slavery in Georgia to the colony’s charter. Radical, man.

Speaking of Georgia, and specifically his plantation near Savannah, Oglethorpe actively spoke with the native Yamacraw who populated the land to ask permission and trade for the land he sought to build Georgia on. His plantation was meant to help debtors in London, released without any support, from falling back into debt and offering them a way forward to landownership through indentured servitude. I highly recommend anyone interested in early attempts at an equality based colonial system read up on the original charter of Georgia. (Of course there were still problems, but Oglethorpe was one of the most prominent proponents of a non hierarchical society - including limits to the acreage any person could own based on how helpful that land was to the people who worked it, and communal resources.) Oglethorpe was also a lifelong friend with Tomochichi, the chief of the Yamacraw, and worked very closely with him on colonial-indigenous relations.

Vincente de Raja (birth/death unknown) He was the real Governor and military Captain of Cuba from 1716-1717. He was a devoted pirate hunter and encouraged Spanish privateering against the pirates. Due to an attempt by Spain to increase tobacco profits at the expense of the farmers, there was a large revolt which resulted in many of the Cuban officials, including Raja, being replaced. 

William Rhett (4 September 1666 – 12 January 1723) He was a merchant captain and plantation owner in Carolina who served in the colonial militia and hunted pirates. He captured Stede Bonnet and was probably just as much of an asshole as he is in the show.

Woodes Rogers - (c. 1679 – 15 July 1732) The Governor of Nassau who was largely responsible for ending piracy in the Bahamas. He really did offer a universal pardon, which a large number of the pirates took. Fun fact: before he was Governor, he rescued Alexander Selkirk, who is believed to be the guy Robinson Crusoe is based off of! Neat! He really did have a brother who really did die during his privateering exploits which also really did leave him ‘disfigured’. He got sued by his crew, went bankrupt, wrote a book, got famous for writing the book, and he really did have a wife named Sarah whom he divorced shortly after all this happened. He then became Governor of Nassau for the first time. This first term did end in him being imprisoned for debts incurred defending the island from Vane and Teach and the Spanish, but he was released, helped write that most famous A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, and became governor again in 1728. He died in 1732 of just plain exhaustion from dealing with the bureaucracy. Alexa play tiny violin.

[mhdiaries]

Wave 4 Journal of Jackson Jekyll

On September 9...

So it turns out I’m a monster. Well part-time monster actually, which leaves me pretty much full-time confused. It’s not like I didn’t know that mom and dad were both monsters. The first time I saw mom’s Hyde side come out was when I was 5 and we were visiting my dad’s side of the family. Some of the little neighborhood monsters decided that they were going to play “kick the can” only they were going to use me as the can. Every time I tried to run home they blocked my way and pushed me down. I started crying and then they really started making fun of me. Then all of a sudden I heard this roar and there was my mom. Even though it didn’t look like her I knew it was and honestly all I could think was, “Why mother, what big muscles you have.” Needless to say I never had any problem with the local monsters again. Dad’s a fire elemental of course and I grew up playing with Heath so I was never afraid of monsters. I just didn’t think any monster heritage had passed on to me. When I asked mom and dad if they knew me and Holt were the same person they said, “Of course we knew you and Holt were the same person - we’re your parents; now finish your breakfast or you’ll be late for school.” Well thanks for clearing that up for me mom and dad. Cause you know it’s not like having that little bit of information would have been helpful at all. Good thing I’m past those awkward teenage years where news like this could really have a negative impact on my psyche. (Ooh - sarcasm. I like it) HH

On September 12...

I had to go to the mad scientist, I mean mad pediatrician, today. Mom says that until I’m an adult I need to continue seeing him because he has the most experience dealing with growing monsters. I feel fine but mom and dad are worried because what triggers my transformation to Holt has changed. It used to happen when the sun went down but now it seems to be loud music, I think. The waiting room was almost empty except for a mother werewolf and two young cubs. While mom filled out paperwork I sat down and tried to find something to read that wasn’t chewed, gooed or covered in monster germs. Then I heard one of the werewolf cubs say, “Mommy! Is that a normie?” “Yes honey, don’t stare.” “Is he going to eat us?” I could tell that she was embarrassed so I said, “No way - I’m totally allergic to werewolf it makes me sneeze - ACHOO!” The cubs eyes got really wide and then she started laughing, “Aw that’s not true.” Then she held up her foot and said, “I can tie my shoe!” I said, “That’s amazing, can you show me how?” The werewolf mom relaxed too and it turns out she’s related to Clawd’s family. Pretty soon a lab assistant appeared, “Jackson Jekyll?” She led us back to a room and said, “The doctor will be with you shortly.” Then, “The wait.” Which means sitting on the crinkly paper covered exam table forever and wondering what would happen if I started playing with the instruments in the exam room and the doctor walked in. Anyway just about the time I woke up enough boredom and courage to start picking up some of the cooler looking instruments laying on the counter I hear the mad pediatrician pulling my chart and the door opens. He’s wearing a lab coat with purple vampire ducks and his stethoscope cover is a fuzzy yellow dragonhead. I’m sure it calms the younger monsters but it scares the normie out of me that the volatile nature of my elemental side + my hyde heritage + being a teenager = constant change. He said that the trigger would probably change again before I reach adulthood. Then he gave me a lollypop, scheduled me for another test and said he wanted to see me again in three months. Now I’m worried about what the trigger is going to change to next. What if it’s showers? Would it be worth giving them up for the rest of high school just so I can have my own life? (Not unless you want your new nickname to be “Stinky”) HH 

On September 21... 

It seems like I spent the first part of my life wishing I was a monster and now that I am maybe now I wish I wasn’t. (Well you’re stuck with it now.) HH When I was spending all that time trying to get Draculaura to bit me so I could become a vampire I never really thought about anything except wanting to fit in with all the other monsters. Now the part of me that fits in doesn’t even get to enjoy it.(Whine much?) HH It’s like the worst of both worlds and now I don’t fit in anywhere at all. We’re all supposed to meet with Mr. D’eath, the school guidance counselor, this week. Wonder if I’ll need to make two appointments (Lame - I already know what I’m going to be... FAMOUS!) HH

On September 23...

So I had my appointment with Mr. D’eath today it started out  about as terrible as I thought it was going to be. Turns out he’d never counseled a “normie” and it seemed like he didn’t know exactly what to say. In fact, he mostly just spent a lot of time squeezing one of those stress balls made to look like a cartoon character with eyes that bugged out when you squeezed it. It was pretty distracting especially when I realized it was a cartoon “normie”. The squeezing wasn’t nearly as distracting as his “throat clearing” which kind of sounded like a hand full of marbles being run through a garbage disposal. I kept trying to figure out how he made that noise because he doesn’t really even have a throat since as far as I can tell he’s pure skeleton. He must have flipped through my permanent record ten times before he finally said: So you see Hackson... I mean Jackson, the career opportunities for normies in the monster world are somewhat er... um... (sound of marbles being run through the disposal again) limited. There’s monster hunter, monster hunter’s assistant, mad scientist, ooh hunchback! You don’t happen to have a hump do you? No? Bad luck there then. Ah hah! How about Monster/Normie Relations Expert? (Figured it’d be something where the wardrobe is even less cool than what you wear now) HH Well that was something I certainly knew a little something about. I had an old coach in the normie world that used to always say, “Play to your strengths Jackson, play to your strengths.” So Mr. D’eath loaded me down with college brochures and rushed me out of his office. I think both of us were glad it was over. 

On October 8...

Finally took that test my mad pediatrician set up for me. It turned out to be a test to determine the type and volume of music that brings out Holt. So I sat in a soundproof booth wearing headphones while a technician played music at different volumes and with different time signatures. I made it through waltzes, marches, polka and chamber music but I don’t remember what he played next. (That’s when he started playing the good stuff.) HH Anyway the results of the test isolated the trigger; music with a 4/4 time signature played in excess of 90 decibels. You know what’s good about this? Me neither.

On November 2...

It seems now that every monster knows Holt and me are the “same” person/monster I don’t get hassled as much for being a “normie”. Not that it makes any difference to Manny Taur since he pretty much wants to bully down on any creature who’s smaller than he is. When he first started picking on me I stood up to him cause once a bully knows he can push you around he’ll never stop, but Deuce finally took me aside and said, “Listen bro - you’ve won a lot of respect standing up to Manny and don’t take this the wrong way but...” Apparently Manny was waiting for the right time to mash me like a slow matador. I kept waiting for it to happen but it never did. In fact it seemed like Manny was purposely avoiding me for some reason. It was almost like some monster had said something to him. (Yeah - wonder who that could have been?) HH

On November 15... 

Headless Headmistress Bloodgood asked for “volunteers” to help with the middle school carnival fundraiser so Deuce and I volunteered for set up and take down duty. It was cool and we didn’t have to dress up like clowns or sit in the dunk tank. We set up tents, carried boxes then hung out and waited for everything to be over. We checked out some of the other booths too cause we had plenty of time to kill. Venus and Draculaura were doing face painting; Rochelle was teaching monsters how to build sand castles, some of which would have looked pretty good if they hadn’t been built next to Rochelle’s sand cathedra with working bell tower and miniature gargoyles. The best though was the stunt Robecca performed. She flew over the carnival a couple of times to get every monster’s attention then flew straight up until it sounded like her rocket boots stalled and she came streaking back toward the ground like a falling star. A huge gasp went up from the crowd as it looked like she was going to crash then she fired her rockets back up and totally buzzed the crowd less than 20 feet off the ground! It was so awesome I actually gave Holt a chance to see her second performance. (Thanks dude - it was totally rockin’ and I would have been bummed if I didn’t get to see it) HH When the carnival was over we helped take everything down and all the volunteers went to hang out at the Coffin Bean. It was dark by then and I would have missed out on that part of the fun if things were the same as they used to be. Still hoping I won’t have to give up showers someday though. (That makes both of us “Stinky”) HH

[kissjane]

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Another heatwave had struck Berlin, and even at night, even with all the windows open, the heat still hung over the flat share like a damp and muggy blanket, stifling all movement. The boys all lounged listlessly around, not even in the mood to play a video game. Abdi was lazily fanning himself with a take-out menu, Carlos was aimlessly thumbing his phone, and Jonas sipped from a beer, the condensation gliding over the bottle onto his hand. Nobody paid any attention to David and Matteo, which suited them just fine. The latter sat in between the former’s legs, leaning back against his boyfriends’ chest, his head half on David’s shoulder, pressing kisses into his neck. David’s hands were hidden under Matteo’s shirt, stroking lazily over his skin, dipping inside the waistband of Matteo’s shorts occasionally.

All in all, there was nothing out of the ordinary for a Friday summer night.

Suddenly, Carlos looked up.

“Fuck, you guys, can you stop with the foreplay? It’s way too hot to even be watching you two get it on.”

“And don’t even think about getting off,” Jonas added.

Matteo flipped them off without moving his lips away from David’s collarbone, and David laughed.

“Can you blame me? I’ve got my hot and willing boyfriend right here.”

“Hot and willing,” Carlos snorted, “hot because it’s a million degrees outside, and willing because he’s literally always horny for you.”

“Not like David is any better,” Abdi interjected.

“True,” David shrugged. “So what? We’re two teenage boys, and we are into each other. And on top of that, I’m getting shots, so there is that, too.”

“Shots?”, Abdi asked.

“Testosterone,” David clarified.

Abdi didn’t seem to comprehend, though.

“Testosterone shots? Why?”

The four of them shot Abdi an incredulous look, and Matteo face palmed.

“What?”, Abdi repeated, indignantly. “I don’t understand.”

“Because I’m trans,” David said.

“Oh! Oh, yeah, sorry. I forgot.”

And the others laughed, somebody muttering something about Abdi’s brain cell suffering from the heat, and Abdi replied that at least he still had a functioning brain cell, and the conversation went its usual course from there.

David however was quiet. He mused about what Abdi said, and it felt… strange, but also good, to be seen as just one of the boys, a normal guy.

It stuck with him somehow, so when Matteo noticed him lost in his thoughts and nudged him slightly, asking him with his eyes if everything was okay, he just blurted out, “You really forgot I was trans?”

Abdi looked a bit guilty.

“Yeah, man, I’m sorry, I guess I forgot just for a minute there, I didn’t mean to offend you or anything…”

“No, no,” David interrupted quickly, “you didn’t. Quite the opposite, in fact. It’s just… I always feel like I stand out from you guys so badly… It seems strange that you would forget.”

“What do you mean, stand out?”, Carlos, ever curious, inquired. “Other than your disgusting PDA, you’re not doing anything different than the rest of us, are you?”

David hesitated. Maybe he was making a big deal out of nothing.

“Like, I never take my shirt off. You guys do that all the time when it’s hot outside. And I don’t go swimming in the lake with you all…”

“Could be you just don’t like swimming,” Jonas said.

“And other than Matteo, nobody is keeping track of your level of nakedness, dude,” Carlos chuckled.

David blushed.

“Let’s keep it that way,” Matteo mumbled, his lips still exploring any patch of David’s bare skin they could reach.

“You’re just one of the boys, bro,” Jonas said finally. “Of course, we know you’re trans, but it’s not the first thing we think of.”

David smiled, a feeling of giddiness slowly spreading through him. For years, he’d worried about never belonging anywhere, always being the odd one out, always having to fight for his place. And here he was, sitting with his friends, who accepted him as one of them, just like that, without any fuss. His arms tightened around Matteo, as he remembered how Matteo had told him that everybody had been there for him, back then, during their abitur, when he had been outed. He shuddered to think what would have happened had he not met Matteo - Matteo, who had now stopped kissing him and was looking up at him with his ocean eyes half-lidded.

“And you?”, David asked, “do you forget I’m trans sometimes too?”

“No, I don’t,” Matteo replied, after a few moments of consideration. “It’s part of who you are, so it’s important. Like, I wouldn’t forget other things that are important about you, like that you want to make movies, or like shakshuka, or have brown eyes. But it’s not like it’s the first thing that comes to mind when I think about you, either.”

“It’s not?”, David pressed.

Matteo chuckled.

“No. I don’t think about you like, ‘Oh, David, my boyfriend, he’s trans’. It’s somewhere on the list, sure. Like, ‘Oh, David, my boyfriend, he is home and love and warmth and acceptance and belonging and joy and safety, and he’s gorgeous and hot and we have amazing sex, and I love him, and he’s talented and smart and sweet and confident and he’s mine, and he beats us all in ping pong and Mario Kart and he’s competitive like hell and he can’t handle losing, and he’s trans, and he likes obscure indie movies and Detroit and he can’t cook if his life depended on it, but that’s okay because I like cooking for him and he always likes what I make, and his smile calms me down, but it also turns me on, and did I mention he’s hot and he’s also mine, that part is really important, in fact it probably comes up about ten times more than I said it, like those seagulls in Finding Nemo, you know, mine-mine-mine-mine, and sometimes when he talks to me it just melts my insides, and I love running my hand through his hair and cuddling with him and distracting him with kisses when he works, and he usually lets me, too, and he is really supportive and makes me want to be the best I can be, and his drawings are amazing and so are his movies, and it’s just really beautiful when I’m with him, and everything is easier with him, and I really think I could be happy with him for the rest of my life’, or something along those lines, anyway.”

He stopped talking, out of breath, and when he saw everybody staring at him, his cheeks flushed and he hid his face against David’s neck again.

“Teo,” David said eventually. “I love you.”

He was rendered basically speechless, and his thoughts seemed to be stuck on taking Matteo to the bedroom and show him exactly how much he loved him. At least three times.

Jonas raised his beer, which by now was lukewarm and not very tasty anymore, in salute.

“Luigi, man, that just might have been the most beautiful love declaration I’ve ever heard.”

Carlos nodded thoughtfully.

“Except that part about amazing sex, maybe. You didn’t need to add that bit. We can see that with our own eyes way too often.”

He grinned, showing he was just teasing, but David decided to take the opportunity when it presented itself.

“Well, in that case, you’d better be going, because I’m not sure I can wait until we reach the bedroom,” he said, turning Matteo’s face towards him and kissing him hard.

Vaguely he heard Carlos groan, and then the guys getting up, offering some cheery goodbyes, somebody grabbing the last beers from the fridge. It didn’t matter to David. They could have beer, he had Matteo.

“Okay, guys, it’s safe, we’re out, you can start getting off now!’, Abdi yelled from the hallway, before he closed the door behind him.

“Thank god we have permission,” David mumbled against Matteo’s lips, and they both laughed into their kiss.

And whether it was because of the boys’ permission, or David’s testosterone shots, or Matteo’s speech, or just their ever-present desire for each other, they didn’t know or even care, but they were sure of two things: it was, as always, spectacular, and, as predicted, they didn’t make it to the bedroom.

[Rather read on Ao3? Please, be my guest.]

[uno-reverse-fic]

Part 2 Chapter 3

You didn't wake up the next morning, in fact you never went to sleep. You tossed and turned all night lying wide awake in bed. When daylight finally poked it's way through the curtains, you turned over to check the clock. It was sill quite early, but Iida would probably be up by now so at least you'd have someone to talk to. You trudged downstairs and into the common area to find Iida, Yaoyorozu, Hagakure, and Shoji all up bright and early, despite the weekend.

"Ah Surō your awake! I'd expect nothing less from someone like you!" Iida praised, clearly not noticing that the bags under your eyes had grown darker throughout the night, almost as if they wanted to keep some of that inky black for themselves. Yaoyorozu on the other hand noticed your sluggish movements, and lack of sleep right away.

"Oh dear, did you sleep ok last night?" She voiced her concerns, and you didn't have the energy, or the heart, to be sarcastic, so you gave her a light shake of your head.

"I'll go make you some tea then! Maybe it'll help wake you up a bit!" She clasped her hands together and hurried off towards the kitchen with an energetic bounce in her step.

A few minutes later she came back, balancing a tray between her hands, with a few cups of tea and sugar. As the five of you conversed a few more of your classmates made their way to the common area. By late morning that same pair of crimson eyes was watching you from the shadows. You didn't pay any mind to it, in fact you hadn't even noticed Bakugo's watchful gaze. It was Sunday, so you'd have to go back to school tomorrow, that was something you were not looking forward too. Once again the day flew past and before you knew it, the afternoon had already come along.

"Hey Surō!" You heard Kirshima call from behind you, and you turned your head to face him.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go grab something to eat with Mina, Sero, Kaminari and myself?" He asked, you nodded weakly, still exhausted from the lack of sleep.

"Gimme a few minutes." You told him as you turned around to head back to your room.

"Phone? Check. Wallet? Check. Crocs? Check. Unhealthy amount of exhaustion? Check." You thought to yourself. Grabbing a bag for your phone and wallet, you headed back downstairs to join your friends.

If it hadn't been for Kirishima's positively infectious energy, you would've passed out on the sidewalk. You decided to get caffeinated tea with your meal, just to wake you up more, you really were struggling. While the five of you waited to place your orders, a conversation brewed. It started out quite normal, at least normal for a bunch of teenage dumbasses, but the topic soon diverged to you. You quickly dodged any questions they threw your way, but it was no use, they had set you up and cornered you.

"What's Bakugo's room look like!?" Mina whined,

"I mean as far as I could tell it was pretty average. I didn't get a good look, I was two inches tall for God's sake." You answered, but before you could catch your breath, Kaminari threw another question your way,

"What's it like being so short?!"

"BRO! DON'T BE RUDE!" Kirshima scolded, elbowing the Pikachu in the side.

"Whaaaaat? I wanna know!" He argued.

"Yea but you don't have to be so rude about it—"

"It sucks." You said firmly, cutting off whatever Kirshima was going to say next. You finally let your walls down, opening up to your friends about the past week. Only to rant though,

"I HATE it. I don't care how much someone pays me, I will never go through that again. That was 100 percent the worst week of my entire goddam life. I HATE being two inches tall, I HATE not having any say in what I want, I HATE people freaking kidnapping me, and most of all, I HATE that stupid asshole of a blonde. He is such a DICK I have never in all my life met someone who can get on my nerves more than that stupid asshole." You were gripping your glass of water so hard, you swear you heard a crack. Your friends stared at you in utter disbelief, in an instant you had gone from chill and tired, to angry and feral, and back again. The pure, raw, unbridled loathing in your voice had stunned the four of them at how fast it appeared.

"Wow you really do hate him don't you?" Mina said.

"OF COURSE I HATE HIM, HE PRACTICALLY STARVED ME TO DEATH! NOT TO MENTION HE WAS AN UTTER ASSHOLE TO ME THE ENTIRE TIME!" You screamed. Mina scooted a few inches away from you, and it did not go unnoticed, because you immediately calmed down again.

"Sorry, I really just HATE him ya know?" You sad to her, gritting your teeth at the mention of Bakugo.

"We understand, he is a bit of a jerk." Sero said, his arm draping nonchalantly over your shoulders. You gave him a small glare that said "A bit?!" but it quickly dropped back into the monotone expression you were wearing earlier. You sighed, giving up the rant for the time being, and as if on cue, the waitress walked over to take your orders. The rest of lunch went by with no more questions about your week, for fear of another outburst. You were too tired, and too occupied with your meal, to celebrate. The five of you walked back to the dorms together, conversing on the way there.

"I love the food there and all, but nothing can beat Lunch Rush's food. Ive seen the taste of heaven, and I cant go back." Sero commented.

"I'm in the same boat dude, I think we all are." Kaminari added. Mina stepped up next, hoping for a slight change of subject,

"Yea food is great and all, but I was wondering. Surō don't you usually eat a lot more at that place? You looked like you were holding back, whats up with that?" You gripped the plastic-coated styrofoam of your to-go box, and gave Mina a death glare,

"If you were listening earlier, then you would know that I was practically starved to death over the past week, you hollow skulled idiot." Mina went wide-eyed, clearly not expecting your insult or sarcastic tone.

"Well geez, you don't have to be so rude, I was just wondering." She said, avoiding eye contact with you. On the other side of you Kaminari nudged Sero, and leaned in the make a joke that definitely caught your ear,

"I think someone's attitude is rubbing off on Surō," he said.

"Do you have a death wish Pikachu?" You growled.

"Nononono! I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!" He screamed as you chased him down the sidewalk, tackling him the second he slowed down. You pinned him to the ground, and raised your fist in the air, ready to nail him in the face. You felt a pair of hands grab your wrist, and another pair wrapped around your other arm. You whipped around to see Kirishima and Mina prying you off Kaminari. You quickly stood up and ripped your arms away from them to regain your composure. Another death glare was shot in Kaminari's direction, and the five of you agreed not to say anything else on the matter. The rest of the walk back was silent.

You immediately went to your room to gather a few things, before heading to the bathroom to shower. You turned the water to a scalding hot temperature, hoping the steam it created would help clear your mind of unwanted thoughts. The attempt was entirely in vain however, once you stepped out of the girls bathroom you saw the one person that you'd been avoiding. Pale, blonde hair hung in his crimson eyes, which were locked onto you. For once you were the one giving the death glare, you immediately turned and walked the other way, without even so much as a nod in his direction. Storming off to your room, steam almost threatened to pour out of your ears. Meanwhile, Bakugo stared at you as you walked off, confusion littering his face.

"What's her deal?" He asked Kirshima.

"I dunno dude, but she hates your guts now so I'd stay away from her if I were you." He responded. Kaminari butted in next, a fake pouty expression was plastered to his face,

"She blew up in our faces when we mentioned it, she even attacked me!"

"Oh get over it." Mina said, smacking Kaminari playfully on the head.

"That doesn't really make sense. Just yesterday she was trying to pet my hair." Bakugo said, his confusion deepening.

"That was before you got back here right? Maybe she blames you for... ya know... her injuries?" Kirshima suggested. Bakugo's face went from confused to crest fallen, to his normal passive aggressive expression in a matter of seconds.

"She hates me because of what I did. Doesn't she." He thought, turning around and walking away. He he didn't want to cry, but the more he thought about it, the faster the tears welled up in his eyes. His walk turned into a sprint as he ran up to his dorm room. He shut and locked the door behind him, sliding down against it to the floor. The one person he could stand, the one person he trusted, the one person he'd opened up to. The one person he'd loved, he had pushed away. He' hurt you, he'd taken advantage of you, and you hated him for it. Tears streamed down his face,

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry..."

"I DIDN'T WANT TO HURT HER!" He screamed. He ran a hand through his hair, and leaned his head back against the door.

"It— its all my fault." He took a deep breath. No thoughts ran through his head, no tears flowed down his cheeks. It was silent. All except for the faint sound of voices down in the common area. Something felt off, and the more he thought about what it was, the more it dawned on him. The problem wasn't the slightest hint of voices, rather the absence of yours. He missed you telling him everything would be ok. He missed the feeling of your tiny body in his hands. He missed the way you laughed. He missed your stubbornness. He missed you. Now he would never have the chance to just talk to you, because he'd pushed you away. Just like he had done all his life.

You on the other hand were blissful, at least when Bakugo wasn't on your mind. You were so happy to be back, and you couldn't wait for the routine of normal life to start back up again. You ate dinner—still holding off on eating too much—without a single thought of Bakugo, probably because he wasn't there. You didn't see him the rest of the night, but as far as you were concerned, he deserved to wallow in his own dread. When you finally headed up to bed, the tiredness started kicking in, and you thought you might be able to sleep tonight. You were wrong, oh you were so wrong. Once again you laid wide awake in bed all night. But this time there was no tossing or turning, and especially no longing for something else. Your insomnia was entirely from your own stupid decision of drinking caffeinated tea before bed.

Your lack of sleep dragged into the next day, and you were perfectly fine with that, until you realized you had to go to school. You got up early to go grab breakfast, and of course thats when the caffeine started to wear off. You ran into Iida on your way down, who was equally shocked at your exhausted appearance and your timely manner.

"Good morni—"

"Don't talk to me until I have caffeine running through my veins." You cut him off, not wanting to engage in conversation before your morning coffee. You grabbed yourself a bowl, some cereal and milk, before pouring the cereal first because you aren't a psychopath. You sipped your coffee and ate breakfast, as you did this Iida decided to come sit next to you for a bit of early morning conversation. You gladly conversed with him, more awake, now that you had some coffee.

After a pleasantly normal conversation with the class president, you headed upstairs to finish getting ready for school. You buttoned up your shirt and slid your blazer, skirt, and socks on. You gathered up the books scattered across your room and shoved them into your backpack. Slipping on your shoes, and adjusting your tie, you turned around to check the time on your alarm clock. You had about half and hour before school officially stared, so you figured you could just chill out in the common area. However your assumptions were wrong, because as soon as you turned the corner your eyes locked onto Bakugo's slumped figure on the couch. Immediately your good mood was ruined. You tried your best to appear calm as you walked towards the other side of the room, your muscles tense with rage. You didn't notice the way he glanced at you as you strode past him.

You had started to calm down by the time you reached the classroom, only for the fire of animosity to be lit once again when Bakugo walked past you. Thankfully your friends were there to help calm your nerves once again with their usual banter. Suddenly the door slid open, and Aizawa walked through, his yellow sleeping bag was tucked under his arm,

"Alright class listen up because I'm only gonna say this once," He said, and immediately everyone turned their heads in attentiveness.

"I'm more tired than usual because I didn't get much sleep last night. You all have a free for the next few hours, use your time wisely. Wake me up at lunch." He unzipped his sleeping bag and climbed in, falling unconscious in a matter of seconds. The classroom burst into noise. A few students gathered at the back of the room to study and finish any homework they forgot about. However most of your classmates were talking and showing each other memes. Of course you joined in with the majority of your friends and engaged in conversation.

The morning blew past, without a single second of productivity used. Soon the lunch bell rang and Iida went to wake up your teacher. The hall was filled with other students making their way to the cafeteria. You joined in the crowd, thankful that you could get around by yourself again. The food was just as delicious as it always was, and it had satisfied your hunger perfectly. Kirshima's voice rang next to you, causing you to glance up from your food and remember you weren't alone.

"So I was wondering if you guys would like to go out this Saturday. Maybe go to the mall, or see a movie," He asked.

"The mall sounds good to me!" Mina replied.

"Yea, I don't think there are any movies out that looked too interesting." Sero said, and Kaminari nodded in agreement.

"That sounds fun, maybe we can get a few more people to come and have a class-wide day out," You suggested.

"Oh yea that's perfect!" Kaminari exclaimed.

"Alrighty its settled then, I can text the group chat," Mina said, whipping out her phone, which was decked in pink accessories and keychains. You felt your own phone vibrate in your pocket, signifying that the group chat received the message. A few more vibrations came afterwards, probably from people responding to Mina's text. You didn't point them out, instead continued eating and talking.

You were excused from the afternoon training, via Recovery Girl's request. Throughout the afternoon you caught up on homework that you had missed while your were... absent. After what felt like forever, the rest of your classmates poured into the room, exhausted from training. A few minutes later the bell rang and all 21 of you made your way back to the dorms. The rest of the day flew by quickly, filled with the normal afternoon shenanigans.

For the third time this week you trekked to the bathroom for a shower, soon after, heading up to your room to sleep. This time you did fall asleep, but it was light, and you kept waking up at the smallest noises. Just as the day before you woke up exhausted. The day went by slowly, the normal, boring routine finally falling into place. But although the day was slow, by the time you fell asleep I felt like it had blurred past. Another restless night followed the previous, and once again you woke up, drained of all energy. The week was already half over, and you assumed the second half would go smoothly and quickly, just like it used to. How wrong you were. Wednesday was going to be long, you could tell just by the way your movements seemed to slow down when you walked downstairs. The majority of the day went by smoothly and just as slowly as you expected, and for the most part smoothly. At least until you got back to the dorms after school.

Kirshima dragged you to his dorm room, expressing something about a movie night with the rest of your friends.

"Movie night? It's the middle of the week dude." You said.

"Yea I know, but you looked like you needed some cheering up, and Kaminari wanted to watch Shrek." He answered.

"Now that's a reason I can get behind!" You exclaimed.

"They'll be here in a minute I just texted them," You settled down in a beanbag chair over by his TV, trying your best not to recall the last time you'd been in his room. Kirishima began backing towards the door slowly, and you didn't notice until it was too late.

"NOW!" He yelled, before yanking the door open and slamming it behind him, leaving you confused for the next moment. A noise came from the closet, and it opened, your head snapped towards it, eyes wide with fear. Your expression quickly changed to one of betrayal, as Bakugo stepped out of Kirshima's messy closet.

"BACK OF BITCH!" You screamed at him, running to the door to open it, only to find that it was locked. Sero had taped it shut from the outside and you heard a few other voices, presumably the rest of your friends.

"KIRISHIMA EIJIROU, OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!" You yelled, Bakugo stood behind you, a bored expression on his face.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. You two have to make up before I let you out." He said, and you sighed knowing full-well that, when it came to his friends, his patients had no limits. You turned to Bakugo and growled,

"What do you want."

"I want to apologize. I was a complete asshole to you last week, and I'm..." He paused, trying to find the willpower to let his pride sink so he can mend something that had been shattered.

"I'm sorry." You stared at him, a blank expression plastered on your face.

"I hear your apology. However, I still hate you, and because of what you did," you gestured to the bruises littering your arms and legs,

"I can't forgive you."

"But, I helped you, I fed you, I looked after your helpless ass! I—"

"You also THREW ME INTO THE HALLWAY, AND LEFT ME TO DIE! AND YOU FED ME? MORE LIKE STARVED ME HALF TO DEATH!" He gritted his teeth, trying hard not to lash out at you. He'd caused you enough pain already, he drew in a deep breath before continuing,

"I know, and I will make it up to you somehow, I'm—" you cut him off again,

"Why the hell do you care about what I think?! As far as I know you don't give a damn about anyone else!"

"I— I can't answer that. I'm not sure why exactly, but—" he cut himself off and sighed. He knew exactly why he cared what you thought, he was in love, though he'd never admit it,

"I just want you to stop pretending to hate me. We both know it's fake, and I just want you to stop."

"LIKE HELL THIS IS FAKE! DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU DID TO ME?! I CAN'T EVEN WALK DOWN THE HALLWAY WITHOUT GETTING WEIRD LOOKS!" You screamed, anger boiling inside your veins,

"I THOUGHT YOU DIDN'T CARE ABOUT ME?! WELL GUESS WHAT, I DON'T CARE IF YOU DO! IN FACT, I DON'T CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU! I DON'T CARE IF YOU DIE!" You threw his own words agains him, and it took every ounce of focus to not let himself overflow with anger, and heartache.

"Kirshima... open the door." He said through shaky breaths. You didn't notice, you didn't really care either.

"Are you sure bro?" He responded.

"Open. The. Door." He growled. You heard the sound of tape being peeled off the door frame, before the redhead opened the door and looked in cautiously. You shoved him out of the way and stormed off to your room, but not before giving them all a death glare and the middle finger.

You took a shower to try and blow off some steam, but it didn't quite work. You found yourself completely frustrated for the rest of the week, but you weren't completely mad at your friends. They only did it to help Bakugo apologize to you, even though the attempt was entirely in vain. You were exhausted by the time Friday came to a close, and with the week finally over you could look forward to the trip to the mall tomorrow. You closed your eyes and finally got a good night's rest for the first time in what felt like forever.

MASTERLIST

[musicandi]

Hairline Fracture (EMTDeran)

Warnings: Please be gentle with me, this is the first time I am writing in almost 5/6 years maybe even more. I wanted to try and take on the EMT Deran request but this is the first time I am writing animal Kingdom as well. Deran is a little soft in here. 

Deran has been up since 8 last night pulling an almost a 10 hour shift. They have one more run and then he is looking forward to rolling a joint, kicking his feet and not moving for the rest of the day. Whoever told him it was a good idea to become an EMT should be shot in the face. 

He kicks his feet on the dash as he lets out a big yawn earning a laugh from his partner in the driver seat. 

“Dude shut up.” He mumbled as he looks out the window at the sun that was just raising. 

“What! I didn’t say anything.” J says keeping his eyes on the road. J is a good kid, not that much younger than him so they always get along fine. Everyone got a kick at finding out J was his nephew that he never knew but with a raise of an eyebrow it always shuts them up. 

“Why so tired anyways?” J asks. “Wait I thought I saw Lincoln on the way in.” He tilts his head with a smirk that Deran rolls his eyes at. Gosh Clark Lincoln was a mistake and a half. Yea he was hot and sex was good but then when Linc wanted serious he was pretty bummed that Deran didn’t. Now every time he sees him it is either a puppy dog face or a hopefully face. 

“Don’t even start with that J.” Deran moans out.  

“No way, I told you don’t sleep with the nurses, that included Male nurses.” He teases and Deran although wanted to punch him, couldn’t help but crack a little smile. J was cool, a little asshole but cool. 

Soon enough they get to their location which seems to be at a beach that Deran visited a thousands time when he was a teenager. One thing he liked was that no matter how tired he was he knew when to be in the zone and he never failed there. Knowing the procedure like the back of his hand, J being exactly where he was suppose to be, everything flowed them right down to..Oh shit Adrian Dolan. 

Although on the outside Deran remained cool and collective, inside he wanted to know what the hell he did to deserve meeting his teenage crush while he looked like shit after pulling a 10 hour shift. He looks over to his partner and sees him smirking which means maybe he wasn’t as cool and collective as he thought.

“I already told them, they didn’t need to call you guys I am fine.” Adrian’s voice brings him out of his thoughts as he looks down at the surfer sitting on the sun looking like he got the wind knocked out of him.

Deran kneels down next to him. “Alright well can you tell me what happen while I look at your arm?” He asks gesturing toward his arm that was being cradled near his chest. Adrian at first just stared at him before shakes his head lightly and slowly bringing his arm out.

“The wave caught me off guard, pulled me under, kept me in the barrel before slamming me on the reef. But I swear I am fine, nothing that hasn’t happened to me a thousand times.” He explains as he tries to sell his story. Deran could relate. Growing up in Oceanside, there wasn’t much to do as a teenage boy but surf. He remember surfing till the break of dawn, he also remember the cute freckled kid who shredded everyone around him. He looks over to J who seems to be taking his vital and see him nod that he seems to be okay.

“You broke your wrist a thousand times too?” He asks Adrian as he lightly holds the broken appendage.

Adrian rolls his eyes as he nods with a smirk. “I grew up surfing and skateboarding as a kid, what do you think?”

“I think it means you need to come with us Mr. Dolan.” Deran replies with his own smirk, standing up to his feet.”

Adrian seems to be caught off guard with he hears his last name before he realized what he said before that and drops his shoulders. Deran sighs as he squats back down and places his hand on Adrian’s shoulder.

“Come on, the faster you get it looked at the faster you can get back on a board.” He sees out of the corner of his eye that J brought the gurney nearby.

“Fine but can I at least walk to the ambulance please?”

Deran wanted so badly to tell him yes, it was on the tip of his tongue but he guesses J could see his internal battle because he speaks out “Sorry it is against policy. You need to be on the bed.”

J and Deran worked together to get Adrian strapped in and the whole time he could feel J smirking at him, knowing there is a full story there. Deran raises his eyes to his younger partner and shoots him a glare. J softly laughs as he moves to the ambulance. Before Deran knows it J pushes him into the back.

“Don’t worry Bro. Go sit with prince charming, I’ll get you guys there safely.” Deran wanted to punch him in his baby face but instead he flips him the bird before closing the doors. He turns to Adrian and see him sitting there looking down to his lap.

“I thought you did this thousands of times, and you seem to be handling the pain like a champ, what’s up, worried about your board?” He says. As awkward as this could be, he thought might as well make conversation right?

“Nah, my roommate Chad is going to take it home for me. Just kind of bummed I broke my wrist. Thankfully I know how to still work with a cast, but now it means no surfing and a hospital bill. That is never in the budget.” He confessed as he throws his head back.

Deran watches him close his eyes and sigh. He clears his throat when he realizes he has been staring. “I am sorry Mr. Dolan.”

Adrian laughs as he lifts his head. “Come on Dude enough with that. Just call me Adrian since you clearly know who I am. Deran right?”

He laughs as Deran’s eyebrows shot up. He didn’t know Adrian knew who he was. Sure, everyone kind of knew who the cody boys were but out of all of them, Deran was the least of everyone's worries. He didn’t think anyone even remembered him anymore, especially Adrian. He tries to keep his cool by nodding his head as he looks away, he goes to grab Adrian’s wrist again.

“Hopefully it is just a hairline fracture. Faster recovery.” Deran offers as he gently lays it back down.

“A EMT huh? How did you get into this line of work?” Adrian asks. Deran looks up and sees Adrian looking at him with those same soft doe eyes that he remembers as a teenager.

“Umm well when I realized surfing wasn’t going to go anywhere kind of started doing stupid shit, I actually got caught for car theft and got put away for 5 months. When I got out I just remember wanting something different. It blew smurf away when I told her, I think it shocked her even more when I actually made it but it’s been good. Keeps me out of trouble.” He smiles charmingly at the end.

Adrian laughs as he nods along. “I remember surfing with you. I don’t know why we never hung out, we hung out with the same people. I remember you always being there, everyone wanted to be your friend. I think it is because they all thought you were so cool.”

Deran couldn’t help but snort at them. He remembered it being the other way around. Everyone was Adrian’s friend. He was a killer out on the water but probably the nicest person you could meet. “No they wanted to be my friend because I could score them bud.” He adds with a laugh, smiling brighter when it caused Adrian to laugh.

“Bud sounds pretty good right now.” Adrian admits.

“What about you?” Deran replies, trying to keep the conversation going.

Adrian shrugs as he looks back down to his lap. “I am doing okay. I tried to make the circuit. Surfed the QS a couple of times before I got too broke to keep competing. Been working with Tao up at Real Surf shop. Been trying to take class down at UCSD for Business Management.”

“Sounds like things are going good then right?” Deran remembers feeling like that, feeling like the dream becoming impossible, having to make real decisions, be an adult away from the safety of your parents. He believes that why Smurf hated that he became an EMT, got a real job, and moved out. He didn’t need her anymore and she hated it.

“Hang in there Adrian, Things will work out okay.”

A silence grows between them as they keep looking at one another before looking away again. J breaks the silence to announce they are pulling up. Deran moves to get Adrian set up to leave when Adrian grabs his wrist.

“I like you like this. You look good.” He whispers. Adrian flushes like he is embarrassed at admitting it but wanting to stand his ground. Deran can feel himself blush as he turns away and runs his hands through his hair.

“Let’s get you set up.” Deran answers and turns away. He sees Adrian drop his head and feels a punch in the gut. He didn’t want to make him sad but Deran isn’t one for compliments. It's hard when they don’t come your way too often. He manages to catch Adrian’s eyes on more time and tries to give him a smile. Adrian sees it and gives a small smile before looking back down at this hands as he and J move around him. He spouts out all the information to the receiving nurse as they move throughout the hospital. Once they get to the end of the line he knows it is time to go back to the truck and leave for the day but he hesitant by the bed.

He tries to catch Adrian’s eyes one more time but sees the doctor talking to him. So he sighs as he turns to walk away before he feels that light touch on his wrist again, he looks down at the hand then up to Adrian’s blue eyes.

“Don’t be a stranger alright Mr. Cody.” Adrian tease as one side of his lips curls up into a smirk. Deran felt like a weight leaves his chest that he didn’t know he was carrying and he lets out a laugh before nodding his head.

“I guess I will have to see you around then. Adrian” Putting an emphasis on his name. He finally manages to turn away and walks towards J at the end of the hall. He tries to hide his smile knowing J will give him shit. Hearing the little snickering coming from his side he knows that he is failing and pushes J to the side, causing him to laugh harder.

~*~*~*~

It took him two weeks, a lot of teasing and encouragement from both J and Craig, self pity sessions mixed with weed, and pep talks in the bathroom mirror before he finally found himself parked in front of Real Surf Shop. Seeing Adrian again, talking to him about surfing and life, remembering the cute kid who made him questions why he wasn’t like Craig or Baz or even Pope, attempting to flirt with him at one point. It couldn’t be for nothing right?

With one last harsh breath out Deran finally steps out of the car and makes his way into the shop. He sees two workshop both occupied with a worker. He makes out which one Adrian’s in, noticing the cast on his wrist, a tank top showing off arms that he doesn’t remember noticing that day and board dust covering his hair. He stands there taking him while waiting for him to notice him. He hopes it doesn’t take too long before he loses his nerve. Finally their eyes meet and Adrian turns off the machine and takes off his mask.

“Wha..Hey Deran.” He says sounding like he is out of breath, almost in disbelief. Deran can’t really blame him.

“I was wondering if you like beer and burgers?” Deran spits out quickly before he has a chance to talk himself out of it.

Adrian smiles bigger as he crosses his arms over his chest. “Who doesn’t”

Deran’s shoulder drop in relief as he comes to realize that maybe he still has a chance. “There is this hole in the wall bar I go to and was wondering if you would like to join me. We could you know.. Talk some more maybe.” He starts. Adrian starts to move around the board and starts walking to Deran never leaving eye contact till Deran couldn’t anymore and turn his eyes to the floor and runs his hands through his hair. “Maybe we can you know..do something afterwards.” He mumbles to his feet not sure if Adrian could understand him.

Part of couldn’t believe he was doing this. Deran doesn’t do this, he doesn’t ask guys out. He doesn’t try to go on dates with them. He hooks up and has fun and does not have any strings attached. But then again none of them were teenage crushes, none of them were Adrian.

He hears Adrian chuckle and looks up to see him smiling at Deran, both amused and happy with what was going on. Adrian nods as he uncrosses his arms and lightly brushes Deran’s fingers with his cast hand.

“Deran.” He says quietly “breathe.” he tells him.

Deran laughs as he pushes his shoulder. “Dude come on.” He pleads. He does not need to be made fun of here and he knows that is exactly what Adrian is doing. Adrian finally grabs at Deran’s hand and pulls him to his chest.  

“Time and place Cody. I’m there.” Adrian tells him with a smile daring him to do something. Deran smiles as he feels himself wrapping his arms around Adrian’s lower back. He does take a quick sweep around the shop wondering if there was anyone watching them.

“I am going to hold you to that.” He whispers to Adrian as he leans closer to him.

Adrian whispers his respond with a smirk that makes Deran wonder what the hell he is getting himself into but looking forward to it desperately. “That is what I am hoping for.”

Deran knows this guy is going to be the death of him and well…. Deran nevers back down from a challenge.

[andimackbigbang]

Fic By: @tyrussmiles

Art By: @secretlytellingsomeoneyoursecret

Fic-

The air passing through the open windows smelt like salt and fish as the group of teenagers drove down the highway. Cyrus, Jonah, and Buffy were squished into the back seat along with bags and clothing. Amber insisted on taking the passenger seat alongside her girlfriend. Cyrus watched out the window as boats passed beneath the bridge. The sun shone on him, illuminating his face as he rested on his hand. The group was traveling down to Marty’s beach house for his brother’s graduation party. Jonah had been asleep for ages while Buffy scrolled through Instagram. “Cy, you good?” Andi asked looking through her mirror. Cyrus looked up at her and Buffy and Amber both turned to look at him. “Yea. I’m just thinking.” “Okay,” Andi answered flashing him a look once again through the mirror. Cyrus hesitated for a moment. “Why isn’t TJ coming with us?” he blurted. Amber turned to look at Cyrus. She had a wide smile on her face as she said, “Marty invited him to come down a few days early. Plus,” she looked around, “I don’t think we would have room here.” Cyrus smiled, “Yea I guess that’s true.” Buffy flashed Amber a knowing look which made her smile widen. The group was again quiet as they resumed their prior actions. Amber and Andi were the only ones talking but their conversation was inaudible over the sounds of the outside world. Andi’s playlist played as they drove down the highway, it consisted of songs by LANY and Valley and everything in between. It was like they were in some teen romance movie and they were part of a montage with music over it. “Andi,” Buffy complained, “When will we be there?” “We are getting off the highway here and then he said that he is the 6th street in on the beachside,” Andi explained. “Don’t worry Buffy, you’ll get to see your man soon,” Cyrus joked earning him a threatening glance from Buffy. “Can someone wake Jonah up before we get there?” Andi asked without looking back at Cyrus and Buffy. Amber looked back at him and then up at Andi who was focused on the person in front of her making her more and more frustrated. And to think she loved Jonah. She didn’t love him, she loved the girl sitting next to her, who was trying to remain calm as the person in front of her drove as slow as possible. Both Buffy and Cyrus poked Jonah on the sides. His head was resting on the top of his seat so he was facing the ceiling. “Jonah,” Buffy said as she shoved him lightly, “Dude, get up. We’re almost there.” “Jonah,” Cyrus laughed poking him in the arm. “What? What’s happening?” Jonah asked as he once again woke up. “We’re almost there,” Cyrus said motioning to the front of the car. “Oh,” Jonah went back to his previous position and closed his eyes.

“Oh no you don’t,” Buffy said lifting his head back up resulting in laughter from everyone else in the car. “I think this is it,” Andi pulled up next to the house and parked the car. “I think so,” Cyrus confirmed when he saw TJ standing on the porch. Andi turned the car off as they all filed out. Everyone grabbed their things as Marty and TJ came to join them by the car. “Hey, guys!” Both boys greeted as they reached the group. Marty walked over to Buffy and immediately took half of her load. TJ walked up after Marty and walked over to Cyrus first, pulling him into a bro-hug that lingered a little longer than usual. Small acts like that made Cyrus think that maybe, just maybe, TJ might like him the same way that he liked TJ. “The party starts at 5 right, Marty?” Amber asked as she hugged her younger brother. “Yes, so we have plenty of time to go to the beach beforehand,” Marty explained excitedly, “I’ll show you all where to put your stuff and then we can get changed and go.” TJ and Cyrus walked side by side as they made their way towards the house. Both boys were oblivious to their liking of one another. As they fell into step their shoulders bumped every few seconds, but neither one seemed to care if they even noticed. Each one thought about how oblivious the other was to the feelings they kept buried deep inside of them not realizing that they themselves were just as oblivious. TJ held the door open for Cyrus making the rest of the group silently aw. “This is the room where we will stay,” Marty opened the door. The room was bigger than the average bedroom. Three sets of bunk beds lined the wall opposite the door and a pull-out couch sat across from the window. The coach did not currently look like a couch which made it clear that one of the boys had slept there that past night. “You guys can take the bunk beds because I’m gonna sleep on the couch again,” Marty added. “Cyrus, you can sleep here,” TJ said as he walked over the bunk beds closest to the window. Cyrus found the top bunk unmade and began to place his things on the bottom bunk. The rest of the group chose their beds and began to unpack. “The bathroom is over there,” Marty nodded to the open door next to the couch. The group began to change one by one before leaving to go to the beach. “Are we ready?” Buffy asked glancing around at the group as they stood outside the house. “So we only have 4 passes and there are 7 of us. So, who here can pass as 12?” Marty asked laughing slightly. “Cyrus,” the whole group said in unison. “Thank you?” Cyrus said confused. “Marty! Honey, I found 4 more passes in the beach bag,” Marty’s mom yelled out the front door. She handed three to him and everyone took one.

When the group got settled on the beach everyone began to race to the water. Cyrus hung back standing awkwardly in the center of the chairs. “You coming?” TJ asked. The necklace Cyrus wore caught his eye. He ignored it and looked up at Cyrus’s face. “I like the view from here. I’ll watch you guys,” Cyrus lied. “Cyrus, that’s not it,” TJ said knowing something was off. “Okay fine,” Cyrus hesitated, “I’m afraid of the ocean. I love the beach though! Just not the water.” “Do you want me to stay here with you?” “No, I want you to have fun!” Cyrus answered. “Will you come with me? I promise I won't let anything happen to you!” TJ bargained. Cyrus looked down at his feet as he contemplated TJ’s words, “Promise?” “Promise.” TJ took Cyrus’s hand as he led the way to the water, causing both of their stomachs to erupt in butterflies. As the group splashed around in the water, Cyrus never got too far away from TJ. If Cyrus ever seemed to panic, TJ would pull him close. Soon Cyrus wasn’t afraid to leave TJ’s side. “Cyrus!” TJ yelled frantically. Cyrus turned around as a huge wave came right towards them. The rest of the group swam towards the wave knowing it would break over them if they stayed where they were. TJ watched as panic covered Cyrus’s face. TJ swam as fast as he could to where Cyrus stood but it was too late. Both of them were swallowed by the wave, pulling them back to the shore. When the wave released them, Cyrus was laying on top of TJ whose back was in the sand. Both boys went to talk at once and Cyrus rolled off of TJ landing in the sand next to him. “Are you okay?” TJ asked concerned. “Yea,” Cyrus took a deep breath. They looked up to find the group watching them as they sat in the wet sand. TJ stood up and offered Cyrus a hand. Neither one of them let go which made Cyrus’s heart stop. They walked hand in hand back towards the water. TJ couldn’t stop thinking about the necklace Cyrus wore around his neck. He knew exactly what it was and he knew other people knew too because everyone had one. Every single person got one at birth and kept it until the day they died. TJ knew he had one somewhere. I need to wear it later, he thought to himself. “I’m cold,” Cyrus noted with a shiver. “Let’s go dry off then,” TJ added as he turned to face the shore. Cyrus followed behind TJ as they made their way to their things. He picked up his phone checking the time and found that it was 3:30. He looked up at TJ and found that he was already looking at Cyrus. Their eyes met and Cyrus’s stomach did a flip.

“It’s 3:30,” Cyrus managed to say. “We should probably go them then since we all need to shower and the girls need to get ready,” TJ said. Cyrus just then noticed the little amount of space between them, TJ was no more than a foot away from him. “Yea, we should,” Cyrus said voice small. Except, neither one of them moved. They stood there looking into each other's eyes until finally, TJ broke the staring contest that was beginning and lead the way to the water. The teenagers emerged from the water and began to collect their belongings before leaving the beach. Cyrus smoothed out the wrinkles in his t-shirt as he looked over his outfit. He wore a blue polo shirt untucked with a pair of khaki pants. He could hear the sounds of the party from outside the bathroom. He touched the chain that hung around his neck, straightening the charm that hung from it. The silver sun that hung there was warm to the touch but not hot by any means. Cyrus checked his hair one more time before placing a hand on the doorknob. As he opened the door he jumped at the sight of TJ standing there, hand out ready to turn the handle. “Oh sorry,” Cyrus laughed as he stepped out into the hallway. The loud music made his words almost inaudible. “It's all good!” TJ had to yell in order to be heard. Cyrus suddenly felt his necklace heat up. It was way warmer than before which made his stomach do somersaults. He decided to find Andi or Buffy in the mess of people. He slowly walked up the stairs and emerged into the living area. People were everywhere. Most of them were college-aged but some adults who looked to be in their forties and fifties. His eyes scanned the room for his friends. He found Andi and Amber dancing in the corner of the room and Jonah wasn’t too far away from them. Buffy and Marty were nowhere to be seen but Cyrus thought three friends were better than none. Cyrus, Andi, and Amber danced to the old songs that played through the speakers along with the new ones. But, Cyrus couldn’t get the thought of the necklace out of his head. Every once in a while it would heat up and then cool down, but it never went to room temperature. As Cyrus was dancing with his friends the necklace got exceptionally hot. He didn’t look around the room to see who was near him. All he did was take Andi's hand and lead her to the bunk room. He motioned for Buffy to follow and she didn’t hesitate. Cyrus unclasped the necklace and let it slip through his fingers and land on the bed. “Cyrus, what’s wrong?” Andi asked. She sat down next to the necklace and he did the same. He took in a deep breath, “It’s hot.” Buffy’s eyes widened as she realized what that meant. She seemed surprised but then she smiled, “Cyrus, that’s a good thing.”

“I know,” he hesitated, “It’s just...I want it to be TJ so badly and I’m scared that it’s not. Why now of all places would it start to be warm but all the other times I’m with him it’s just...I don’t know...normal?” “Cyrus, I don’t think he wears his very often. TJ doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who would be hung up on that kind of stuff. I mean it would make sense if he doesn’t wear it because it needs to be clasped to work,” Andi explained. “I think you need to go find out who it is right now,” Buffy said pulling Cyrus up from the bed. “Cyrus, I wish my soulmate was here. But yours is, so go find him,” Andi added. “What about Amber?” Cyrus asked turning around to face her. “Cyrus, I’m not here to talk about what I do with my necklace. Go find your man please. Cause clearly they feel it getting hot too,” Andi lightly shoved Cyrus toward the door. “Wait, what if it’s a girl?” Cyrus added in a disgusted tone. “Cyrus!” Andi and Buffy yelled at the same time. “Okay, okay,” he laughed.Taking a deep breath, Cyrus opened the door and stepped out of the bedroom. Finding his soulmate was not an easy task for Cyrus. He pushed through people in every direction and searched every ounce of occupied property in hopes of finding TJ. Nothing. He walked out to the balcony in defeat. Marty’s house was a big size and Cyrus barely knew where every door lead but the balcony had been mistakenly found that afternoon when he went to watch the sunset with TJ. TJ took Cyrus’s hand and lead him to a room that he did not know existed. Cyrus followed as TJ took him through the living room and the kitchen. He followed up the steps and into the guest bedroom. Cyrus furrowed his eyebrows as he entered the room. TJ let go of his hand and pushed open the glass door on the opposite wall. Cyrus’s face lit up when he saw the oranges and pinks that painted the sky. He followed TJ once again in awe over the shades the sky had created. Cyrus stepped close to TJ. His heart beat quickly the whole trip up to the balcony and it wasn’t slowing now. TJ wrapped an arm around Cyrus as they stood and watched the sunset. “Why’d you do this?” Cyrus looked at TJ. “I know you like this kind of stuf ,” TJ said, a soft smile on his face. The sun was almost gone when the door opened behind them. Marty stood there with his arms crossed in front of his chest, a smile on his face. “Hey, sorry. My mom wanted you all to come downstairs for a picture and I thought I saw you two come up here. I’m sorry for making you leave,” he said looking between the two who still stood close together. When Cyrus walked through the glass door this time TJ was already standing there. His heart skipped a beat when the boy turned around to face him. His stomach did somersaults when he realized his necklace wasn’t there. His hand made his way to his chest and his heart sank.

Cyrus watched as TJ placed his hand on his necklace and his face vividly fell. Wait, Cyrus thought, he never had that on before. He put it on because he saw mine. Oh no. “TJ...I,” Cyrus started, “I...I’ll be right back.” Cyrus opened the door and ran down the steps as fast as he could. His heart beat quickly and his head was spinning. Please don’t hate me TJ Kippen because I probably love you, Cyrus thought. He pushed his way through the crowds rarely stopping to say excuse me. When he reached the bunk room his eyes scanned over the beds. His heart was beating out of his chest until finally he saw it. He let out a shaky breath and clasped the necklace around his neck. He was breathing heavily as he reached the guest room. Praying that TJ was there when he opened the door, he took a deep breath. His stomach did a flip when the boy was still standing there. This time both necklaces were hot like fire as they stepped closer. TJ’s longing face turned into a smile. “It’s you,” Cyrus smiled. “And it’s you,” TJ answered with a small laugh. “TJ, I...I like you,” Cyrus stomach did a somersault. “I like you too,” TJ whispered. “I mean clearly-” Cyrus started. “Yea,” TJ answered knowingly. TJ pulled Cyrus into a hug. They stayed there for a few long moments. Cyrus nuzzled his head into TJ’s chest and TJ rested his chin on Cyrus’s head. “TJ?” Cyrus’s voice was small. “Yes?” TJ said, pulling Cyrus into a side hug. “I’m scared. What if we don’t end up being soulmates,” Cyrus worried. “The necklaces don’t lie,” TJ laughed slightly. He held him tight as they looked at the sky. “You’re right,” Cyrus said. He couldn’t hold back his smile. “I know,” TJ joked. “The sky is gorgeous,” Cyrus pointed out. “You always think the sky is pretty, even when the darkest clouds are in the way,” TJ said. “I guess so. But I guess it’s like life. It’s always pretty even when it’s storming,” Cyrus remarked. “You’re cute you know that?” TJ said pulling him in closer, if that was even possible. Cyrus let out a content sigh. “The sky really is pretty though,” Cyrus repeated. “Yea? Well I’ve seen prettier.” “You have not,” Cyrus protested. “Well what if I said that ‘prettier’ was standing right next to me?”

“You’re so annoying!” Cyrus playfully hit TJ on the arm, knowing well his face was a deep shade of red. He turned to face TJ. They were basically on top of each other, and neither one of them had a care in the world. Cyrus smiled connecting their lips. He could feel TJ’s smile as their lips collided. TJ tasted like mint and smelt like cologne. Cyrus melted into him as they stood there on the balcony. I’m marrying this boy one day, Cyrus thought to himself. - Later that night when the party was over, Cyrus and TJ sat together above the sheets of Cyrus’s bed. Cyrus was wearing TJ’s hoodie because it was cold in their room and Cyrus forgot to bring his own. TJ was already wearing a hoodie. A blanket was draped over their legs as the watched High School Musical 3 on Cyrus’s laptop. Cyrus’s head rested on TJ’s shoulder as they watched the movie. Eventually Cyrus drifted off to sleep and TJ did the same. Both boys thought it was perfect. Their friends just admired how perfect the two were from their game of cards on the floor of the bedroom. They are soulmates.

Art-

[heros-amoung-us]

Earpiece Date

Thanks @savanime19 for the request!!!

This is a Bakugou x reader scenario! With the whole bakusquad helping out ;) Might make another part but idk yet. So enjoy this! 

Katsuki Bakugou sat on a park bench alone. His blond eyebrows were narrowed towards each other in agitated concentration. His strong arms, crossed over his chest and his foot tapped nervously against the soft grassy ground. Random civilians paid no mind to the grumpy looking teenager as they passed by him, each one too focused on appreciating and taking in the beauty of the city’s park.

Katsuki shifted uneasily in his bench seat. “Okay, so what do I do when she first gets here?” His voice was hushed, not wanting anyone passing by to hear him talking.

“Slap that bish on the ass and take her to the closest private bathroom, if you know what I mean~” Kaminari’s disembodied voice rang from the ear piece Katsuki was wearing.

The blond felt his blood boil.

“I’m going to fucking murder you so bad that even Satan won’t be able to punish you any worse when you get to HELL.” Katsuki said through his angrily clenched jaw.

“Who invited Kaminari, again?” this time, Sero’s cracking teenage voice came through Katsuki’s ear, along with an offended gasp from the electrical hazard himself.

“Hey!! Bakugou asked for ALL of our help on this date with [L/n]!” Kaminari answered, slightly offended.

“He probably doesn’t want to hear your perverted comments though, Kaminari.” Mina added, her voice sounding girlish and somewhat out of place.

“Yeah man, that comment wasn’t cool. A real man would never talk about [Y/n] like that.” Kirishima commented, earning a string of ‘fine, fine, fine’ from Kaminari.

Katsuki, was currently too focused on looking through the faces of all the people passing by him to respond to his friends in his ear piece. His handsome crimson eyes scanned each person. He felt anxious for some reason. Every time he saw someone pass with (h/c) hair his heart would skip a beat, thinking it was you.

Mina calling his name in his ear pulled him back into their conversation.

“Bakugou! Adjust your camera please, we’re looking at the pavement right now.”

Said male’s eyes went back to scanning the crowd of people. Your arrival was all he could think about. His hands moved on their own to adjust a small explosion pin on the pocket of his black T-shirt. An almost invisible camera was hidden in the pin, which allowed his four friends to see what he was seeing, without being too obvious.

“Bro, how are you feeling?” Kirishima asked.

Katsuki tore his gaze from the passing by people and looked down at is shoes. His right foot was still anxiously tapping on the ground. He ran a hand through his ash blond hair.

“Like fucking Deku. This is so stupid.”

“Awe~ Bakugou~ Are you nervous?” Mina cooed.

Katsuki instantly felt his cheeks and ears heat up.

“NO WAY! NOW SHUT UP!” He lashed out, earning a handful of people around him to become alarmed and hurry away.

Katsuki clenched his jaw together.

“It’s normal to feel nervous before a first date. I mean, you’ve been gunning over [L/n] for what, MONTHS now?!”

“Shut it, low-budget Spiderman,” Katsuki grumbled. He wasn’t fucking nervous. He just felt weird that’s all. His senses were at all time highs as he waited for you to get to the park. “Now give me some real advice you fuckers before she gets here.”

“Okay, okay. What do you have planned for this date Bakugou?” Kirishima asked.

There was a long silence.

“…nothing.”

“Jesus Christ” Kaminari cursed.

“This is gonna be more work than I thought.” Mina breathed out.

“Bro are you serious? You didn’t plan a single thing?” Kirishima asked dumbfounded.

“This is why I asked you idiots to help me out! That was your fucking job!” Katsuki whisper yelled.

“Alright, this is okay. We can plan something before she shows up,” Kirishima reassured, his brain racking through his inventory of date ideas.

“Too late she’s walking towards us!!” Mina frantically yelled.

Katsuki shot his head up, his eye wide as he stared at you walking toward him. His heart rate almost doubled as you smiled at him.

“This is not a drill! I repeat! This is not a drill! Everyone stay calm! Oh god! This is it folks! Here we go!” Kaminari’s disembodied voice was clearly panicking. “Welcome to the show ladies and gentlemen! Oh boy, here we go!”

Your baby blue and white dress hung to your curves nicely. It wasn’t too revealing, which Katsuki liked. Your (h/l) (h/c) flowed breezily in the spring’s air. Katsuki couldn’t help but notice how you stood out from all the nameless extras around. It was as if no one else mattered but you.

“Hey!” Your voice was light and cheery. “Sorry, did I keep you waiting long, Bakugou?”

Katsuki felt his mouth run completely dry as you stood in front of him. His feet were cemented into the ground and his cheeks felt like they were on fire. This was really happening. He was really on a date with you right now.

“Bro! Answer her!” Kirishima yelled into his ear.

Katsuki cleared his throat, hoping to produce some sort of wetness there so he could speak.

“No, I just got here.” He lied. He had been nervously sitting on the bench for twenty minutes.

“Oh great! This park is beautiful isn’t it!” You marvelled, looking around at all the trees and flowers.

“Tell her that she looks beautiful!” Mina encouraged.

“Say ‘not as beautiful as you’ the ladies eat that shit up.” Kaminari added.

Katsuki stood up from his position on the bench. He stood beside you and awkwardly shoved his hands in his pant pockets.

“Oi! Yeah that’s good! Say it Bakugou!” Kirishima enthusiastically yelled.

Katsuki felt his cheeks warm up even further. That shit was so cheesy.

“Yeah, you look not as beautiful as you.” Was his actual response. He felt dumb and wished he just didn’t say anything. “I-I mean! Not as…nice or…whatever…as …you.” His voice was an embarrassed whisper by the end.

“Unbelievable,”

“I need a drink already,”

You giggled, which surprised everyone including Katsuki himself. Looking back over to him, your smile made him feel even more nervous. He didn’t know what to do or where to take you now.

Good thing you were easy going.

“Wanna walk along the trail?” You suggested.

Katsuki grunted and nodded in response. Your footstep fell in sync with each other as you made your way to the paved path. It stretched around and through the park in various directions. You had started telling Katsuki about your day and other random things that happened to you during your journey to the park. At first, he tried to pay attention, but after staring at the side of your face for several seconds, your voice began to drown out. The soft features of your face, the soft fluffy look of your hair, the way your eyes lit up while telling a story, it all entranced him. His crimson eyes seemed stuck on you, as if he was looking at a rare and beautiful piece of art.

“Bro…real talk…[Y/n]’s tits look so good in that dress.” Kaminari’s voice grabbed Katsuki by the neck, dragged him out of his peaceful dreamy state, and slapped him into the pit of despair that was perversion.

Usually, comments like these would never bother him. He actually very rarely paid any attention to them. But when it came to you, he couldn’t help but hear them loud and clear.

Katsuki angrily fisted the explosion pin, blocking Kaminari’s and everyone else’s view of your rack. He then felt his whole face redden as his eyes darted down your cleavage. Your tits did look rocking. Katsuki wanted to punch himself.  

“Bakugou! Let go of the camera!” Mina yelled.

“Kaminari what is wrong with you man?”

Bakugou’s grip in his pin tightened. He suddenly felt guilty he made his friends spy on your date. But at the same time, he knew he was beyond clueless, and the last thing he wanted to do was fuck this up.

“What?! Don’t hate the player, hate the game! I can’t help but admire gifts from god.”

“Jesus, someone please mute his mic.”

“Don’t make me come over to your place and tape your mouth shut, dude.”

“Please do, Sero.” Mina huffed.

“I should mute all your mics” Katsuki tried to whisper. Offended gasps could be heard in his ear piece.

“What?” You asked, hearing him suddenly say something. You turned to look at him, still walking in pace.

Katsuki panicked and let go of his pin. “Uh, NOTHING!” He aggressively yelled, his face as red as a tomato.

You giggled again, giving him a soft smile before facing forward again.

“Bro you can’t talk to us when you’re with her!” Sero reminded. Katsuki glared down at the ground.

“Wow!” Your voice once again pulled him out of his little bakusquad ear piece world. He looked up at your glowing smiling face. His gaze followed yours to a large field of colourful flowers. It stretched itself miles across and held, what appeared to be, hundreds of different kinds of flowers. Katsuki didn’t understand why you were so excited about a bunch of flowers, but he was grateful the conversation was no longer on him.

You two had stopped on the edge of the path to admire the field. Katsuki stood beside you. He side glanced, only to see your face turned up into an intoxicating smile. You were intoxicated by the beauty of the flowers, as he was with you. He found himself getting lost in your presence again, reality slowly blurring around him.

“This is perfect! Girls love flowers!” Mina excitedly commented.

“Ask her what her favourite type of flower is.” Kirishima said.

“What’s your favourite?” Katsuki blurted out, his voice rough and low.

You glanced up at him quickly before looking back at the field.

“Flower, I mean. Which kind is your favourite or whatever?”

“I think my favourite is lavender. They’re such a nice purple colour and smell amazing! Do you have one?” You answered, turning towards him.

“They’re all kinda the same to me.” He answered, only really focusing on trying to burn lavender into his memory as your favourite flower.

“I feel like you’re a sunflower kinda guy.” You said. Katsuki raised an eyebrow. “They’re tall like you.” You shrugged.

“I’m not tall, you’re just short.” He said back. You faked an offended scoff and nudged his arm.

“Am not! I’m average you bully!” you laughed.

Katsuki on the other hand, did not laugh. He just stared, at his arm that you nudged.

“We have made contact! One small step for Katsuki, one giant step for class 1A pussy-slaying kind!” Kaminari cheered.

“Jesus shut the fuck up you cock sucker”. Katsuki yelled, almost instinctively.

His eyes widened into saucers the second he realised he said that out loud. He was too terrified to look over to you.

“…what?” You asked, very confused and trying your best to not be offended.

Katsuki brought his hand up to his mouth and just stared at the grass near his feet in horror. How was he supposed to recover from this? He felt his heart sink into his stomach and all he wanted to do was murder that pica-bitch.

The bakusquad was also speechless.

“Bro….” Kirishima said sympathetically.

“Kaminari I’m coming over to your dorm and murdering you right now.” Sero stated, some shuffling noises could be heard soon after. “Mina, Kirishima, save our wounded solider, will ya?”

“NO PLEASE SERO! HAVE MERCY! I’M SORRY BAKUGOU!”

Katsuki clenched his fist at his side so hard his knuckles turned white.

Your light, airy laughter filled his ears and almost sent an electric shock through his body. He stared at the ground in disbelief, thinking it’s gotta be someone else laughing. He slowly turned his head towards you, only to see you clutching your stomach in laughter.

“um…..what?” Mina spoke the thoughts of everyone.

You looked over at Katsuki and tried to calm your laughing down.

“Didn’t know you got so offended by being called a bully~ Did I just find one of Katsuki Bakugou’s soft spots?” You giggled.

You always found it funny how Bakugou was so over-the-top about everything. His intenseness and colourful language together was the funniest thing in the world to you.

“GO WITH IT! JESUS MAN GO WITH IT!” Kirishima frantically yelled.

Katsuki blinked a couple times. “Ah! N-no way! Are you kidding me?! I don’t have any weak spots! I’m as solid as a rock dammit.” He tried to recover.

“Oh yeah?” You teased, lightly punching his chest. “I don’t knowww, you sounded pretty offended~”

Katsuki felt a wave of relief wash over him at your teasing. Fucking right he’s still in this date for the WIN. He gave you a small smirk.

“In your fucking dreams princess! I don’t have any soft spots and I don’t get offended by others, THAT’S why I’m the best.” He folded his arms across his chest

You raised an eyebrow and returned his smirk. “Oh really? I guess…” You started slowly making your way towards the flower field, looking back at Katsuki over your shoulder. “we will see about that~” You turned back to face the front and continued into the field.

Katsuki stood speechless. His cheeks were fire-hydrant red and his heart pounded in his chest.

You were going to kill him.

“Damnnnn…don’t hate me for saying this Bakuguo, but [Y/n] is hot as fuck. That look was something else. Remind me to get tips from her later.” Mina commented in Katsuki’s ear.

Katsuki watched you slowly walk through the field. The tops of the flowers brushing past your thighs. You’d bend down ever-so often to smell a flower and look over to him with half-lidded eyes.

“…agreed…” Kirishima added, his voice low.

Katsuki snapped out of his daze on you and uncrossed his arms.

“If either of you try anything I’ll sent you on fire.” He muttered, only loud enough for them to hear.

The ash blond began casually walking over to where you stood in the field. Other civilians stood around in the field and around as well, admiring the flowers. His gaze darted from his feet to you every couple second. You caught him looking at you and you both immediately looked away awkwardly, your cheeks both heating up.

“Bro pick her some flowers or something.” Kirishima prodded.    

Katsuki shoved his hands in his pockets and slightly pouted. He never thought he’d see himself standing in a flower field, let alone, picking them. You seemed to be enjoying yourself, so I guess it was okay. But didn’t help his ego.

“Dude! She’ll like it!” Kirishima pushed.

“Operation Get Rid of Electrical Hazard has been a success, I’m currently in his dorm room and have cocooned the bastard in tape.” Sero suddenly added.

Mina began hysterically laughing.

“Oh my gosh! I have to see this!” She yelled, making Katsuki slightly wince at her volume.

You noticed and turned towards the blond.

“You okay?” You asked.

Katsuki looked up at you.

“MINA! HELP ME!”

“What the-? How’d you get your mouth loose?”

“PLEASE NO MORE TAP-MM! HMM MH MM!”

“Uh…” Katsuki found it hard to concentrate on both you and the commotion that was going on in his ear. “Yeah,”

You hesitantly nodded, noticing how spaced out he seemed to be. In a sudden realization, you realized that he must be bored looking at flowers. You mentally punched yourself in the face for making him do something so boring for him.

“AHAHAHAH Kaminari!! Kirishima you have to see this! He looks like an angry caterpillar!!” Mina yelled in Katsuki’s ear.

“Guys! We’re supposed to be helping Katsuki right now remember? Just…take lots of pictures and send them to me.”

“Hey,” the sound of your voice once again pulled Katsuki out of his ear piece world. “Do you wanna go get something to eat? I know this really good noodle place only a short walk away.” You suggested.

Katsuki nodded, “Sure,” he said in a bored tone, trying his best to focus on you and not his idiot friends.

As the two of you began walking back to the paved trail, Katsuki caught a glimpse of lavender in his right eye. There was a small bush of it not too far from where he was. Quickly, and without anyone really noticing, he aggressively grabbed a fistful of the flower and pulled some out of the ground.

“Ah…” Katsuki nervously started, feeling his cheeks warm up at the cheesiness of the act. You were walking beside him. You looked over to see the sides of his face a slight pink colour. You also thought you noticed…something…in his ear? Katsuki doesn’t have earrings, does he? “Here” He said, shoving the fist full of lavender into your hands.

Your attention was immediately onto the purple flowers and their clean, fresh scent that filled your nose. You couldn’t help but smile and blush.

“Thank you! These are beautiful Katsuki!” You said, your voice airy and light.

The blond just faced forward, but he felt accomplished and warm inside.

“That was smooth as hell bro! Nice one!” Kirishima yelled.

“Awe~ This is so cute! I’m getting goosebumps!” Mina cheered.

“OW! Mina, watch where you fist pump.” Sero winced. Mina laughed and apologized.

“Okay now it’s conversation time while you guys walk to the park! Ask her how she likes U.A.”

“No, no! Give her a compliment about her training! Like she was really badass in that ship wreck rescue training we did yesterday. Tell her she did great!”

Katsuki opened his mouth to do exactly that.

“Yeah! But girls don’t want to hear that, she did much better when we were learning cpr.”

“Tell her her quirk is manly and awesome! And everyone is jealous!”

“She’s got beautiful eyes that could capture any villain in them with just one look!”

Katsuki felt himself get increasingly confused and frustrated at all the input. Soon, all their voices began talking over each other.

“Your training was…manly and awesome…and your eyes could capture any cpr badass…” Katsuki said, not really hearing himself, only really hearing the jumbled-up words of his friends.

You gave him a quizzical look.

Katsuki cleared his throat and looked down at his shoes.

“Ah, fuck. I mean…you did pretty okay during yesterday’s training, you know.” Katsuki said embarrassed he messed up before.

You smiled and lightly giggled. “Thanks, Bakugou! I thought it was really fun, I might specialize in ship wreckages or something. Not too sure yet.” You shrugged.

Katsuki side glanced over to you briefly before looking back down at the path.

“Yeah? You don’t want to be a hero in a big city or anything?” He asked.

Your steps became synced as you left the park’s path and got onto the sidewalk.

“I don’t really know yet. I like living in the city, sure. But...maybe it’s my quirk or who I am as a person, but I just feel connected to nature and water somehow. So right now, I feel like that’s where I’ll end up; somewhere more rural and a lot of waterfront.”

“NO [L/N]! I wanna fight bad guys in a big city with her!!! We were gonna be roomies!” Mina exclaimed sadly.

“Calm down, she said she wasn’t even sure if that’s what she wanted to do.” Sero said, clearly annoyed with the pink female.

“Bro, this is intense. This means theres even more pressure to lock her down before she goes to be a hero in the middle of no where! You either gotta stop her or wife her, bro!!” Kirishima yelled.

Katsuki couldn’t help but feel slightly upset by your words. Kirishima layered on that pressure like a fat kid layers butter on toast.

“Ah!” He heard you say. You had stopped walking and were standing in front of a small noodle restaurant. “We’re here!”

You quickly stepped up to the door and opened it. “Come on!”

Katsuki slowly followed. He shoved his hands in his pockets as you both walked through the door.

“Alright, operation Lock [L/n] Down is a go! We really gotta turn the charm up 1000 percent here guys! She can’t leave us!” Kirishima yelled, earning determined ‘yeah!’s from Sero and Mina.

Katsuki gulped back a nervous lump in his throat.

This was going to be interesting.

[a-damson-in-distress]

Havoc - Chapter 2

Pairing: SasuSaku

Plot:  Sasuke knew people were still afraid of the club and especially of its Sergeant at Arms – and he wouldn’t have it any other way. He had been untouchable then and still was now. Indeed, there was nothing and no one in this world that Sasuke Uchiha feared. Except Sakura fucking Haruno. Biker AU.

Note: So hi everybody, I’m also continuing my SasuSaku fanfic after it’s been pronounced dead by my year-long absence *coughs awkwardly* sorry about that. Anyway, I really hope you like the new chapter. I’ve got a few great ideas for this story and depending on your responses, I might just try and finish it. So please let me know if you liked it and if you want me to continue it. My main story is still going to be From Dusk Till Dawn (MadaSaku, check it out if you’re into that pairing too), so Havoc will remain a side project for now, unless you convince me otherwise ;) Enjoy!

PS: If you want to read the first chapter, or maybe read it again, because it’s been ages since this story has been posted and you probably forgot what’s going on, you’re going to have to scroll through my blog to get to it. Unfortunately, I can’t post a link to it here, because this way this chapter doesn’t show up under any of the tags. So I had to take out the link to even make this post visible to you guys. Really sorry about that, if anybody knows how to bypass this shit (because it happened to my FDTD chapter, too), I’d be happy if you could help me. :)

Sasuke watched her deliciously bend over the pool table, left hand steadying the cue and right arm drawn back to aim for the white ball. He had to supress a groan threatening to escape his throat at the sight of her tight black jeans stretching over her ass.

God have mercy on him, that woman was still a fine piece of machinery.

He knew he wasn’t the only bastard here ogling the President’s daughter, but at least he had the decency to be subtle about it. Letting his gaze roam around the dimly-lit and packed room of his favourite biker bar, he noticed with a growing rage the many dirty looks and even dirtier gestures thrown her way. Moose’s was not only frequented by the Havoc, but by bikers from other MCs from the region as well. Bikers, who didn’t know about the Havoc’s well-guarded secret in the form of a very enticing, very off-limits pink-haired bombshell. Bikers, who weren’t familiar with the feeling of Sasuke’s foot up their asses – something he was gleefully looking forward to doing should those fuckers not stop drooling like some teenage boys who discovered their dicks for the first time.

Taking a sip of his beer in a feeble attempt to calm his nerves, he watched Sakura throw her head back in laughter at something funny Ino said. As she was rising from her bent-over position, her tiny tank top rose as well, exposing her taut bare midriff. She had borrowed one of her friend’s Black Sabbath tops, because she didn’t want to stick out with her fancy white cashmere turtleneck sweater in a run-down biker bar where one half is clad in dark leather and the other half is basically not clad at all. He would have laughed at the image she was presenting – a delicate, graceful princess in a Black Sabbath shirt – were it not for the fact that he knew Sakura was a die-hard Rock fan.

And by God, she was every bit his dream girl now as she was at seventeen.

Right after she rained down on her dad and him to properly tear the both of them a new one a few hours ago, they convened an emergency church to deal with the clusterfuck one of their latest prospects had dug the club into. As it turned out, the little fucker thought it would be a sneaky idea to hide the small bags of drugs between book pages in Konoha’s smallest, most inconspicuous book shop, tell his customers which books to look out for, and earn some cash on the side that way that nobody would ever have found out about. Were it not for the fact that that tiny little book shop belonged to the President’s daughter, who immediately went and re-introduced the Havoc’s Sergeant at Arms to the soft feeling of her hand slapping the everloving shit out of him.

Despite the fact that the boss tried his best to calm her down and reassure her the club would take care of everything, Sakura stuck around. She made it more than clear that she didn’t trust Sasuke with this matter, especially since she was personally involved. She wanted to make sure there were consequences. So Kakashi invited her to stay for the night and catch up with some old friends before dealing with the poor bastard.

Fast forward a few hours and you had a royally pissed off Sasuke sitting at Moose’s staring daggers into the bikers ogling Sakura’s fine ass. “Bro, you grip that beer bottle any tighter and it’ll burst into a hundred pieces. Pretty sure you don’t want an injured hand for the things you’re gonna do tonight.” Sasuke noticed a shock of blonde hair enter his field of vision and his annoyance immediately went up a notch. “Please, I could beat the crap out of that lil cockroach even when I’m drunk off my ass and with my hands tied behind my back.”

“Probably. But you should still loosen that death grip. Might make some people wonder what makes you so angry,” Naruto cautioned while shooting him a pointed look.

“Drop it,” Sasuke growled threateningly.

Naruto sighed in frustration and leaned back. “Look, man, I know you’ve got history with her and everything, but you gotta stop acting like some brooding love-sick puppy who’s still hung up on his ex-girlfriend if you –“

“She was never my girlfriend.”

“Whatever, dude. My point is, if you really wanna make it up to her, then you’ve gotta stop sulking in the shadows, wondering from afar what could have been. This is your chance, man! She always stays away from the club, but now she’s here, and you have the chance to talk to her and sort that shit out between you two.”

Naruto watched his best friend drop his gaze from the woman in question to the beer bottle in his hand.  This had always been Sasuke’s reaction to all things Sakura: silence. Ever since shit had hit the fan between the two seven years ago, the raven-haired biker refused to talk about the brief time he spent with her. The few times they had seen each other in between, there was nothing but reserved silence and awkward glances.

Naruto sometimes couldn’t believe how utterly dumb his best friend was. Sasuke was incredibly fearless and one of the meanest motherfuckers he had ever met. But when it came to Sakura, his guilty conscience left him a pathetic heap of surly misery. It was sad to watch, really.

“Look, Sasuke… I have no fucking clue what exactly went down between you two, but it’s been eating at you for seven fucking years. Whenever you see her, you become this… this sad little… blob of… I don’t know man, sadness I guess and –“

“You sure have a way with words.”

“It’s just so pathetic, bro. I mean, I can clearly see your eyes tearing up, your nose is getting all red and snotty and –“

“Is that supposed to cheer me up now?”

“Ugh, it’s nasty. And when you start crying, you make all these miserable little noises and –“

“Naruto.”

“You know, snot everywhere.“

“That’s enough.”

“Just… disgusting, really.”

Naruto mentally patted himself on the shoulder when he saw the tiniest hint of a smirk on Sasuke’s otherwise sullen face. Pleased with his execution of a manly encouragement that consisted of straight-up insulting his best friend in order to cheer him up, he leaned forward again, so only Sasuke could hear him.

“Jokes aside, man, I know this shit between you two has been weighin’ on ya. And you think you’re doing the both of you a favour by staying away from her, but you’re not, because it’s obvious that she’s got as much unfinished business with you as you’ve got with her. Otherwise she wouldn’t hold a grudge. You gotta clear the air at some point, because she’s fucking family and you don’t ignore family. So you might as well do it now.”

Naruto took a hold of his beer bottle and moved out of the booth. Before turning to the bar, he slapped his right hand on his best friend’s left shoulder. “But you know, that’s just my two cents. What do I know about love and relationships? I’ve only been happily married for five years now.”

Sasuke just grunted in response and lifted his bottle to his lips to take another sip. He let his eyes find Sakura again and mulled over what Naruto said. He might have been right about a few things. He was definitely right about them finally needing to stop dancing around each other and sit down and have a proper heart-to-heart.

But there was one thing Naruto was without a doubt wrong about: there was absolutely nothing about his clusterfuck of a relationship with Sakura that had anything to do with love.

Instead, it had everything to do with the fact that he had smashed her heart to smithereens on the night of her eighteenth birthday and effectively shut the door on any romance they might have had a shot at, sealing it with a hundred padlocks and nailing it down with wooden boards for good measure.

“He’s been staring at you all night.”

Sakura couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the blonde. She moved around the pool table to determine the angle of her next shot, when she heard Ino’s voice right next to her ear.

“Come on, you know he still has the hots for you, right?”

“Bullshit he still has the hots for me!”

“Aha!” Sakura found herself at the other end of Ino’s accusing finger pointed directly at her face. “I knew that would get your attention. You like thinking Sasuke’s still into you, don’t you?” Sakura resisted the urge to swipe off Ino’s perfectly made eyebrows that were wiggling so hard they were threatening to shoot out of her face.

“Don’t be ridiculous, that has got nothing to do with it. I just find it absurd that the big, bad, cold-hearted Sasuke Uchiha would still think about something that happened seven fucking years ago.”

Ino cocked her head to the side and looked at Sakura with a knowing smile. “But you still think about it.”

Sakura’s shoulders slumped as she exhaled in annoyance. “I’m not talking about it, alright?”

“Look, forehead, I know what he did was terrible, but I also know Sasuke and I know that he’s actually a pretty good guy beneath all that brooding Batman bullshit. I genuinely think that he regrets what he did back then. I mean, he did try to confront you about it several times, but you were the one who shut him down. Why don’t you just let him say what he has to say, let him apologise, and then move on. You might pretend like you’re over that whole thing, but I know what you really want is some closure.”

Sakura sighed in frustration and blew a hair out of her face. She was just about to throw some witty remark back at Ino, when she noticed several bikers move through the crowd at Moose’s. The Havocs were leaving, which was her cue to do the same.

She felt Ino’s hands grab her shoulders and turn Sakura towards her. “Just think about it, alright? You’ll be here for the whole weekend, so this would be the perfect opportunity to finally get this shit over with, which I know is what you actually wanna do instead of ogle his rock-hard abs when you think I’m not looking. Yeah, don’t roll your eyes at me, missy, don’t think I don’t notice these things. Now you go and have fun tonight. But don’t rough him up too bad.”

With a secretive wink, Ino headed for the bar, leaving Sakura alone at the pool table. Just as she was about to turn around and head for the exit herself, she was met with the sight of a seriously pissed off Sasuke who fixed his determined gaze on her.

She watched the muscles in his upper arm flex enticingly as he raised his right hand to his lips to take the cigarette out of his mouth. The smoke was floating out of his inviting lips as they moved to form words that barely reached her sex-starved brain. All Sakura heard was his rumbling growl.

“It’s time.”

The cold air outside of Moose’s did little to clear Sasuke’s head. He was still on the fence about if and how he should approach Sakura. But he’d have to postpone wracking his brain, because the Havocs were gearing up to take care of that lil dipshit who dared to cross the President’s daughter.

“Where’s daddy?”

He whipped his head around to see Sakura trailing right behind him, zipping up that tiny little leather jacket he couldn’t believe still fit her curves.

“Waiting for us at the warehouse.”

The rumbling of his brothers’ Harleys enveloped them as Sasuke watched some of them leave Moose’s lot. He headed for his V-Rod Muscle and grabbed his jet-black helmet with the name of his bike – War Hog – spray painted on the back in silver and scarlet letters. He was just about to put it on when he felt a presence behind him and turned around, only to be met with the sight of a very annoyed Sakura looking up at him expectantly.

“You ridin’ with me?”

His eyes noted the rise of her perfectly sculpted eyebrow before she spoke, “You got a problem with that?”

There it was again, that feeling of unease that spread in his stomach whenever she pinned him with that scrutinising gaze of hers. “No, just figured you’d rather ride with Naruto. Or anybody else, for that matter.”

“Well the others are already gone, and Naruto said he needed the extra space to secure his bag of torture instruments or whatever.”

Sasuke immediately knew that was bullshit, there was no bag on the back of Naruto’s bike. The Havocs weren’t going to torture the poor bastard. It was just going to be a little slap on the wrist, really.

“Alright, you’re riding with me. Here, put this on,” he grumbled while handing her his helmet and reaching for his spare one.

Sakura looked at the round object in her hands as if it just sprouted a head and started talking to her. At the sight of her disgusted look, Sasuke let out an exasperated sigh. “What, woman?”

“You’re giving me the helmet that has the word hog spray painted on it in big fat letters? Real tactful, Sasuke.”

He couldn’t supress the smirk that was dangling on the edge of his lips. “I can recall a few even naughtier words I used to call you.” His smirk widened when he saw a faint blush taint her cheeks. Sakura scoffed and rolled her eyes in an overly dramatic fashion. “Oh yeah, now that I think about it, I remember you doing that eye rolling thing a lot, too. Only they usually rolled into the back of your head whenever I –“

“Okay, thank you, that’s enough. I’m putting on the helmet now, I can’t hear you.”

A triumphant grin graced his features at the sight of his dream girl wearing his helmet.

“Good girl.”

Sasuke ignored the look Sakura was shooting him, put on his spare helmet while straddling his bike and waited for Sakura to do the same. When he felt her soft curves press against his back and her arms circle around his waist, he let War Hog roar to life.

He turned his head slightly, so she could hear him better over the rumbling of his engine and asked, “You ready?”

She nodded in confirmation. “Hit the road, Sergeant.”

Sasuke took her left hand into his own, pulled her arm tighter around his torso, and gave her a little squeeze. “You hold on tight, sweetheart.”

He could still hear her scoff behind him. “I was practically raised on a bike, I’ll be fine. This is no big deal.”

Lowering the visor on both their helmets, Sasuke took off and left Moose’s parking lot. The cool breeze around him and the low rumbling beneath him he felt whenever he rode his bike always had a calming influence on his often raging mind. This time, it was different though. This time, he had Sakura pressed against his back again for the first time in seven years.

And even though she might have claimed riding with him was no big deal, her tight grip on his waist and the way she leaned her head against his shoulders told him a different story.

[cheeseeatingtrashmonster]

House Arrest

Lukadrien Day 18: Locked Up. Thanks @lukadrienjune

(Read more is just because it’s a bit long, totally sfw)

Read the whole month on AO3

Adrien arrived at school the next day an anxious mess. What had he done? Was his father mad about Luka? How could he have even found out? Even if Nathalie had said something, up until five minutes before his father said he couldn't go anywhere anymore, there really wasn't much to tell. Something else, then? Did his father know about his Miraculous?

Adrien had barely slept, despite the comforting purring that Plagg had kept up most of the night to calm him down. He had been too stressed to answer most of Luka's texts. He didn't want Luka to worry about him, but he also didn't want to get his hopes up, so he said he had a good time but needed to go and spend the rest of the night avoiding looking at his phone.

Nino hadn't even reached their row of seats in the classroom before he was giving Adrien an excited update of their plan. "Dude, I got you a rickshaw and Alix said she has a backpack full of rose petals for some reason, so- bro, what happened to you?"

"We have to cancel the plan," Adrien said, slumping into his seat. "My dad said no going out with friends or to after school activities for a while."

"That sucks, dude! Why is he like this? Did he give a reason for the house arrest?" Nino threw an arm around Adrien's shoulder and tried to squeeze into him that this wasn't normal parental behavior.

"No reason. I don't know what I did."

"Then you probably didn't do anything wrong. This sucks."

"Thanks, Nino," Adrien said, leaning against him for a moment before slumping onto his desk, his arms folded under his head. Something else occurred to him, and he found himself burying a smile in his arms.

"I might not need the whole plan anyway," Adrien said. "I kissed him yesterday."

"What?" Nino almost dropped his phone as he turned to Adrien with a grin. "You didn't tell me this last night! We played video games together for almost two hours!"

"It was too new," Adrien said. "And I was trying to distract myself from the fact that I'm basically grounded."

"That's awesome though, dude! Was it nice? Did he like it? Wait, when did you even see him?"

Adrien told Nino about the photoshoot and the kiss in whispers until the teacher called class to a start. It cheered him up a little but school was long and Adrien was sad and it was too sunny outside to properly mope. Adrien's anxiety had spiked again by the time he got home for the day.

"How was your day?" Nathalie asked when they crossed paths in the kitchen. She didn't look up from her tablet.

"School was fine. I'm missing fencing right now."

"Your father said you needed some time off."

"But I'm going to fall behind," Adrien said. "What about Chinese lessons tomorrow? And I'm going to let the band down if I can't practice with them. What's going on, Nathalie?"

Nathalie put her tablet down and shut off the screen.

"You don't want time off."

It wasn't a question, it was a realization.

"I don't know why he did this, but it's not on my request," Adrien said.

Nathalie sighed. "I will do my best to find out why he did this. For now, don't worry about it. Let the band know you might miss a few practices but are doing your best at home, and I had already told your Chinese tutor that you needed time off."

"Thank you," Adrien said.

"You could have come to me with this, you know," Nathalie said.

"It was Sunday night and you were probably headed home when it happened," Adrien said. "And sometimes it's best to let Father forget things like this for a little while before asking again."

She nodded and picked her tablet back up. "I'll let you know what I find out."

Adrien went and practiced piano since he had finished his homework already. When he got bored of piano, he went to his room and watched anime while starting an essay that wasn't due for a few days. When he got bored of that, he started texting everyone he thought would respond. He was in the middle of flirting with Luka, theorizing about Ladybug's identity with Alya, and sending memes to Nino and Marinette when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," he called over his shoulder, assuming it was Nathalie. It wasn't a great assumption because that's how his father found him lying so that his head and arms hung off the couch with a picture of a dog with its head through a lawn chair captioned "It's called fashion, look it up" on his phone screen.

"Adrien? What are you doing?"

Adrien slid the rest of the way off the couch, shoved his phone in his pocket, and stood to face his father.

"I'm done with my homework and already practiced piano, so I didn't have anything to do," Adrien said, letting a little bit of his annoyance and fear out through passive aggression.

"Nathalie suggested that I speak with you."

They stood in silence, half a room apart, for a good minute before Gabriel sighed and gestured to the couch. They sat, both facing the TV screen as Gabriel finally started to talk.

"You have grown up faster than I could have ever imagined."

Adrien peeked at his father out of the corner of his eye. What did that have to do with anything?

"And I have missed much, I know. So it came as a surprise to me when one of the assistants at the photoshoot said that a blue haired boy had shown up and considerably improved your mood with his presence alone."

It was about Luka. Adrien felt like his chest was too small for his lungs, like his every muscle was preparing him to run, but he was frozen and unable to say a single word before Gabriel spoke again.

"I finally put together that bringing a friend home for dinner with your father might be a little more significant than just another meal." Gabriel turned to Adrien and put a hand on his shoulder. He never spoke of it to anyone, but the small flinch Adrien tried to suppress at his touch would be the biggest regret of his life. "I cancelled your after school activities because I felt I was missing too much of you growing up. This may have been misguided of me. Nathalie seems to think so, and she doesn't usually speak up unless she feels I really need to hear it. This was not intended as a punishment for you, but as a means to free up your time so we can connect again."

Adrien tried to figure out what this meant. It should have surprised him more that his father thought cancelling his activities without telling him why (and without setting up any time for the two of them to be together) was for the good of their relationship, not a punishment. But it wouldn't be the first time that Adrien had a completely different view of his father's actions than his father did.

"Adrien?" Gabriel asked, trying to be as still as possible so Adrien wouldn't flinch again. "Do you like this boy?"

He didn't flinch, but Adrien's eyes dropped to his knees immediately. "Yes," he whispered.

"And he's a good person? Kind, supportive, patient?"

"Yes," he said again, this time a little louder.

"He makes you happy?"

"He wrote me a song," Adrien said, smiling at his knees. "He keeps me from getting nervous before the band goes on stage. I didn't know I could feel this way, but it's so far beyond happy."

Gabriel gave his son's shoulder a squeeze.

"Then I'd like to meet him. Properly, this time."

"Okay," Adrien said. "I'll let him know."

They sat in awkward, but less tense silence for a moment until Gabriel cleared his throat and removed his hand.

"Nathalie seems to like him. That's usually a good sign. She's an excellent judge of character."

"Didn't Nathalie try to punch you when you met or something?"

Gabriel stood and looked down at his son. "She did not try, she succeeded. Like I said, she's a good judge of character."

Gabriel was almost to the door when Adrien turned to ask, "So, can I have my activities back?"

"I will work it out with Nathalie, but yes. I will arrange my own schedule better instead."

It was a promise Adrien had heard before, so he tried not to hope that this time it would really happen.

"Thank you, Father."

"I love you, Adrien."

Plagg flew out from under the couch when the door clicked closed. "See? All that worrying for nothing!"

"Not quite nothing," Adrien said. "If I hadn't bumped into Nathalie, this might have gone very differently. And if Father doesn't approve of Luka when he meets him again, that won't be good either."

"Eh, worry about that only if it happens, I say. I've got a plan, you text Luka and be all sappy and teenager-y and gross and then tell Nino the plan's back on, and I'll have some Camembert. Sound good?"

Adrien laughed. "Sounds good."

Adrien did just that, and when Nathalie found him hanging upside-down from the side of his bed to tell him his activities were back on, he was grinning again. And really, that was all Nathalie had been trying to do.

/*****/

[Two Hours Earlier]

"You can't lock him up forever." Nathalie hadn't even greeted Gabriel in his office.

"He needs a break, Nathalie. I'm not 'locking him up' at all," Gabriel had said. "We can spend more time together if he's home."

"You have cancelled sixteen of the last eighteen dinners you scheduled with him, sir. His availability is not the issue here."

"Fine, then we'll arrange my schedule as well."

"Right, sir. Does that mean you'll be putting the time you spend akumatizing on your calendar so I can help arrange it, or are you cutting into the time you spend on fashion?"

"You're treading a fine line, Nathalie," Gabriel said, frowning at his computer screen instead of at her.

"What is this really about, sir? What good does it do, keeping him from his friends?"

"They're distractions. He needs to focus on what's important."

"Why make him model in the rain? I know you won't use more than three or four of those shots."

"Merely an experiment."

"Why are you punishing the boy? What could he have possibly done?"

Gabriel hadn't noticed Nathalie getting closer as she interrogated him. When her hand reached over to shut off his computer screen, he was surprised she wasn't still across the room.

"Why, sir?"

"Did you know about this Couffaine boy?"

"You're punishing him for having a friend?" Nathalie was very close, and the urge to back away from her was growing.

"I'm punishing him for hiding this from me. I realized what it meant that he made me sit through dinner with that boy who barely spoke. He likes the boy enough to bring him home, but not to tell me why? He likes him enough to make it through that miserable photoshoot, but not enough to bring him inside and say hello?"

"Are you punishing him for growing up? Or are you punishing him because you've made him fear you, fear letting you into-"

"My son does not fear me, Nathalie!" He roared this at her, leaning in to try and-

To try and scare her.

This was ridiculous, because scaring Nathalie wasn't difficult. But if that was how he tried to control her... was that what he did with Adrien too? Could she be right?

Gabriel turned so his back was to Nathalie, hiding his expression from her.

Nathalie knew there was a good chance that Gabriel would turn his anger from his son to her. But Adrien was a child, and powerless. Nathalie was scared, but still had a few cards left to play.

"Then go speak to him. Let him know that he has nothing to fear."

Gabriel pretended to glance at his watch before saying, "It's late enough. You're dismissed for the day."

"Yes, sir."

[mhdiaries]

Journal of Jackson Jekyll

Yes, I do mind if you read my journal.

On September 9...

So it turns out I’m a monster. Well part-time monster actually, which leaves me pretty much full-time confused. It’s not like I didn’t know that mom and dad were both monsters. The first time I saw mom’s Hyde side come out was when I was 5 and we were visiting my dad’s side of the family. Some of the little neighborhood monsters decided that they were going to play “kick the can” only they were going to use me as the can. Every time I tried to run home they blocked my way and pushed me down. I started crying and then they really started making fun of me. Then all of a sudden I heard this roar and there was my mom. Even though it didn’t look like her I knew it was and honestly all I could think was, “Why mother, what big muscles you have.” Needless to say I never had any problem with the local monsters again. Dad’s a fire elemental of course and I grew up playing with Heath so I was never afraid of monsters. I just didn’t think any monster heritage had passed on to me. When I asked mom and dad if they knew me and Holt were the same person they said, “Of course we knew you and Holt were the same person - we’re your parents; now finish your breakfast or you’ll be late for school.” Well thanks for clearing that up for me mom and dad. Cause you know it’s not like having that little bit of information would have been helpful at all. Good thing I’m past those awkward teenage years where news like this could really have a negative impact on my psyche. (Ooh - sarcasm. I like it) HH

On September 12...

I had to go to the mad scientist, I mean mad pediatrician, today. Mom says that until I’m an adult I need to continue seeing him because he has the most experience dealing with growing monsters. I feel fine but mom and dad are worried because what triggers my transformation to Holt has changed. It used to happen when the sun went down but now it seems to be loud music, I think. The waiting room was almost empty except for a mother werewolf and two young cubs. While mom filled out paperwork I sat down and tried to find something to read that wasn’t chewed, gooed or covered in monster germs. Then I heard one of the werewolf cubs say, “Mommy! Is that a normie?” “Yes honey, don’t stare.” “Is he going to eat us?” I could tell that she was embarrassed so I said, “No way - I’m totally allergic to werewolf it makes me sneeze - ACHOO!” The cubs eyes got really wide and then she started laughing, “Aw that’s not true.” Then she held up her foot and said, “I can tie my shoe!” I said, “That’s amazing, can you show me how?” The werewolf mom relaxed too and it turns out she’s related to Clawd’s family. Pretty soon a lab assistant appeared, “Jackson Jekyll?” She led us back to a room and said, “The doctor will be with you shortly.” Then, “The wait.” Which means sitting on the crinkly paper covered exam table forever and wondering what would happen if I started playing with the instruments in the exam room and the doctor walked in. Anyway just about the time I woke up enough boredom and courage to start picking up some of the cooler looking instruments laying on the counter I hear the mad pediatrician pulling my chart and the door opens. He’s wearing a lab coat with purple vampire ducks and his stethoscope cover is a fuzzy yellow dragonhead. I’m sure it calms the younger monsters but it scares the normie out of me that the volatile nature of my elemental side + my hyde heritage + being a teenager = constant change. He said that the trigger would probably change again before I reach adulthood. Then he gave me a lollypop, scheduled me for another test and said he wanted to see me again in three months. Now I’m worried about what the trigger is going to change to next. What if it’s showers? Would it be worth giving them up for the rest of high school just so I can have my own life? (Not unless you want your new nickname to be “Stinky”) HH 

On September 21... 

It seems like I spent the first part of my life wishing I was a monster and now that I am maybe now I wish I wasn’t. (Well you’re stuck with it now.) HH When I was spending all that time trying to get Draculaura to bit me so I could become a vampire I never really thought about anything except wanting to fit in with all the other monsters. Now the part of me that fits in doesn’t even get to enjoy it.(Whine much?) HH It’s like the worst of both worlds and now I don’t fit in anywhere at all. We’re all supposed to meet with Mr. D’eath, the school guidance counselor, this week. Wonder if I’ll need to make two appointments (Lame - I already know what I’m going to be... FAMOUS!) HH

On September 23...

So I had my appointment with Mr. D’eath today it started out  about as terrible as I thought it was going to be. Turns out he’d never counseled a “normie” and it seemed like he didn’t know exactly what to say. In fact, he mostly just spent a lot of time squeezing one of those stress balls made to look like a cartoon character with eyes that bugged out when you squeezed it. It was pretty distracting especially when I realized it was a cartoon “normie”. The squeezing wasn’t nearly as distracting as his “throat clearing” which kind of sounded like a hand full of marbles being run through a garbage disposal. I kept trying to figure out how he made that noise because he doesn’t really even have a throat since as far as I can tell he’s pure skeleton. He must have flipped through my permanent record ten times before he finally said: So you see Hackson... I mean Jackson, the career opportunities for normies in the monster world are somewhat er... um... (sound of marbles being run through the disposal again) limited. There’s monster hunter, monster hunter’s assistant, mad scientist, ooh hunchback! You don’t happen to have a hump do you? No? Bad luck there then. Ah hah! How about Monster/Normie Relations Expert? (Figured it’d be something where the wardrobe is even less cool than what you wear now) HH Well that was something I certainly knew a little something about. I had an old coach in the normie world that used to always say, “Play to your strengths Jackson, play to your strengths.” So Mr. D’eath loaded me down with college brochures and rushed me out of his office. I think both of us were glad it was over. 

On October 8...

Finally took that test my mad pediatrician set up for me. It turned out to be a test to determine the type and volume of music that brings out Holt. So I sat in a soundproof booth wearing headphones while a technician played music at different volumes and with different time signatures. I made it through waltzes, marches, polka and chamber music but I don’t remember what he played next. (That’s when he started playing the good stuff.) HH Anyway the results of the test isolated the trigger; music with a 4/4 time signature played in excess of 90 decibels. You know what’s good about this? Me neither.

On November 2...

It seems now that every monster knows Holt and me are the “same” person/monster I don’t get hassled as much for being a “normie”. Not that it makes any difference to Manny Taur since he pretty much wants to bully down on any creature who’s smaller than he is. When he first started picking on me I stood up to him cause once a bully knows he can push you around he’ll never stop, but Deuce finally took me aside and said, “Listen bro - you’ve won a lot of respect standing up to Manny and don’t take this the wrong way but...” Apparently Manny was waiting for the right time to mash me like a slow matador. I kept waiting for it to happen but it never did. In fact it seemed like Manny was purposely avoiding me for some reason. It was almost like some monster had said something to him. (Yeah - wonder who that could have been?) HH

On November 15... 

Headless Headmistress Bloodgood asked for “volunteers” to help with the middle school carnival fundraiser so Deuce and I volunteered for set up and take down duty. It was cool and we didn’t have to dress up like clowns or sit in the dunk tank. We set up tents, carried boxes then hung out and waited for everything to be over. We checked out some of the other booths too cause we had plenty of time to kill. Venus and Draculaura were doing face painting; Rochelle was teaching monsters how to build sand castles, some of which would have looked pretty good if they hadn’t been built next to Rochelle’s sand cathedra with working bell tower and miniature gargoyles. The best though was the stunt Robecca performed. She flew over the carnival a couple of times to get every monster’s attention then flew straight up until it sounded like her rocket boots stalled and she came streaking back toward the ground like a falling star. A huge gasp went up from the crowd as it looked like she was going to crash then she fired her rockets back up and totally buzzed the crowd less than 20 feet off the ground! It was so awesome I actually gave Holt a chance to see her second performance. (Thanks dude - it was totally rockin’ and I would have been bummed if I didn’t get to see it) HH When the carnival was over we helped take everything down and all the volunteers went to hang out at the Coffin Bean. It was dark by then and I would have missed out on that part of the fun if things were the same as they used to be. Still hoping I won’t have to give up showers someday though. (That makes both of us “Stinky”) HH

[ittybittypbandj]

The Internship - Chapter 3

We’re 3 chapters in, team! Halfway there and things are about to get real!

So buckle up, let’s keep going with this multi-chapter Bittyparse fluff-fest, now featuring special guest Angst.  5 chapters, weekly updates.  Also on ao3. <3

Fic Summary:

Eric Bittle arrived in New York two weeks ago, newly single and ready for a fresh start. This internship was just what he needed to jumpstart his life.

Kent Parson loved his life in New York. He was at the peak of his NHL career. He had friends, the world’s greatest cat, and everything he thought he needed.

He never expected a small Southern blonde to burst into his life and turn everything on its head.

“Okay, brah, so what happened after that?”

Bitty rolled his eyes and adjusted the laptop resting on his knees. “C’mon, Shitty, I told you this part already. He grabbed my arm so I wouldn’t fall and then stared at me for a minute.”

Shitty cupped his chin in his hand and sighed longingly at the screen. “Fucking love at first sight, my man. Like a scene out of a queer-positive, alternate universe John Hughes movie.”

“You sap,” Lardo snorted, and shoved Shitty’s shoulder. “So what will you do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you obviously want to bone him and have his hypothetical babies, so what’s the plan?”

Bitty sputtered. He could feel his cheeks blushing and he covered his face with his hands to hide the evidence. This was embarrassing enough as it was.

“I don’t know, guys…I don’t even know if I like him like that.”

Lardo arched one eyebrow.

Shitty leaned offscreen briefly, then reappeared with a joint between his fingers. He waved it at Bitty decisively. “You can’t fool us, little brah. You look super glowy for a dude who just spent two hours with another dude he didn’t like.”

Bitty sighed. He knew it was fibbing to say that he didn’t like Kent. But what was he supposed to do? He didn’t want to lie, but the situation was a mess. Kent was his client. And Jack’s ex. And a hockey player. Apparently Bitty had a type, and his type was Closeted Top Scorers in the Eastern Conference.

He was pretty sure Kent felt something for him, too. He may not have a lot of relationship experience, and goodness knows it took him and Jack long enough to sort out their feelings, but he also wasn’t born yesterday, and Kent’s winks and smiles and lingering stares…well, he could read between those lines.

“Earth to Bitty…hellloooo?”

Bitty looked back at the screen, where Shitty was waving his arms at the camera.

“Look, I like him. Okay? I want to have his – lordy – his hypothetical babies. But he’s Fancy Feline’s client. Isn’t that illegal or somethin’?”

Shitty stroked his mustache. “It could be problematic, I’ll give you that. But it’s only a conflict of interest if it affects the business relationship. As long as you keep it on the DL and don’t, like, grab his ass in meetings – although, the guy does have a handful of handsome ass…maybe a couple handfuls…”

“Shitty!” Bitty cried. His cheeks were seriously going to catch fire.

“Sorry bro. What was I sayin’? Oh, as long as you keep it professional and don’t let it affect your business decisions, I wouldn’t sweat it. Besides, if they transfer you to another department when your internship ends, you’re golden. You can grab all the hot hockey ass you want.”

Bitty leaned his head back against the headboard. What did he even want? He didn’t want to jeopardize this job, goodness knows he needed it for his resumé. But he also wanted Kent. Lord, how he wanted.

Bitty tried to remember the last time he was this infatuated with another person. It was obviously Jack – he and Jack had circled each other for two years before making a move. They’d wasted so much time that they could have spent together. Bitty didn’t want to make that mistake again.

He didn’t have the luxury of time with Kent. At the end of September, his three-month internship would be over. That was only a month away. What if the company didn’t extend his contract? The Rangers’ season would start in October, and it’s not like Kent would have loads of free time. If Bitty didn’t give him a reason to make time, they might never see each other again.

Lardo leaned in and eyed the screen as she said, “You’re thinking awfully hard, Bits. Care to share?”

Bitty nodded to himself, decision made.

“I’m gonna go for it.”

Shitty whooped and Lardo smirked.

“Shitty, you’re right. I reckon we can keep it professional, and I don’t wanna lose my chance by waiting. If he’s interested – and that’s a big if.” Bitty pointed at the camera for emphasis. “If he’s interested, I want to give it a shot.”

_/_/_/ \_\_\_

Kent’s phone buzzed for the fifth time in an hour. It was from Eric, another chirp about the episode of Chopped they were both watching. Kent grinned and tucked his toes under Kit’s couch cushion as he typed a reply.

Somehow, ever since their meeting in the café, Kent and Eric had gone from business acquaintances who occasionally texted, to text acquaintances who occasionally talked business. Kent was totally down for the shift. He hadn’t seen Eric in person since then – his schedule had gotten crazy and he knew Eric was swamped with his job – but he was already imagining the things they would do the next time they saw each other.

It was super lame to be crushing this hard on someone he hardly knew. He was almost thirty, for god’s sake, and he probably should have wised up a decade ago. But you know what, fuck it. He’d wasted most of his twenties pining after a teenage heartbreak. He was a grown-ass dude now and he could do what he wanted.

Kent: i found where we should go to our next meeting thingy

Eric: Our monthly touchbase? That’s great! Where?

Kent: i’m not telling. it’s a surprise

Eric: Ok lol, how am I supposed to get there?

Kent: i’ll pick u up

Kent: lambo or r8?

Eric: Bless you

Kent: cool, r8 it is

Eric: [puzzled emoji]

Kent: [sportscar emoji] [thumbs-up emoji] [sunglasses emoji]

Kent set his phone on the table when it became clear Eric wasn’t replying right away. He snuggled further down the couch, and Kit stretched out on her cushion like she was trying to protect her space from his feet. Kent’s legs were sore from a grueling practice today, and it felt good to relax at home.

Kent’s phone buzzed and he grabbed for it. That would be Eric, chirping him about his flashy cars.

Jack: Hi Kent. Ready for pre-season?

Definitely not Eric. That was cool, he could roll with the punches.

Kent: hey zimms

Jack: When is your first game?

Kent: next saturday at home, then leave for a 2-game roadie in cali

Kent: u?

Jack: We play the Isles next Friday

Kent: cool

Eric: how on earth you justify TWO sports cars in NYC, I’ll never know. smh.

Kent’s stomach did a little flip at seeing Eric’s name on the screen.

Kent: three

Kent: sports cars, that is. if u count the beamer

Eric: Lord, where do you even park them?

Eric: Also what day is good to meet? How 'bout Saturday?

Jack: Would you want to meet up this weekend? We’ll be in New York until Saturday afternoon.

Jack: It would be nice to see you.

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.

Kent muted the television. He needed to think right now, and he couldn’t do it with Ted Allen describing kumquat soup in the background. Fucking hell. Of course Eric and Jack wanted to meet on the same goddamn weekend. Kent’s life was basically a Lifetime movie. He scrubbed his face with his hands and weighed his options.

He really wanted to see Eric. That was a given. Eric made him feel weirdly happy. It was the first time in forever that he’d felt this optimistic about someone.

And Zimms…Kent hadn’t hung out with Jack since the doomed frat party of 2014, not unless you counted the small talk at galas and awards ceremonies. He didn’t even know what they had in common anymore other than hockey. It might be totally weird, but meeting up was part of his Being-Friends-With-Jack Master Plan, and he still wanted to be friends, even if it required super awkward hangout time.

A niggling part of Kent’s brain was worried that seeing Jack would dredge up old feelings. Kent was doing fine now, doing great actually, but when Jack had called him ‘Kenny’ last month, his brain had gone totally haywire. What if seeing him was like that, but a million times worse? What if he fell hopelessly in love again?

Kent flopped across the couch and onto Kit, trapping her with his arms and nuzzling his face into her side.

“Tell me what to do, baby girl.”

Kit twisted like a goalie blocking a wraparound and jumped free of Kent’s arms. He watched her disappear into the bedroom.

“I see how it is!” Kent called after her.

His phone buzzed. Crap, he probably should have texted Eric and Zimms back like five minutes ago.

Eric: I'm also free Thursday or Friday

Kent’s stomach swooped. Before he could answer, his phone dinged again.

Jack: I’m sorry if that was overstepping.

Jack: I understand if you don’t want to meet up.

Kent noticed that his stomach didn’t do any swoopy-feelings at seeing Jack’s name on his phone. Huh. That was a good sign, right?

Eric: Basically I have no life yet in this city........ :/

Kent felt the swoopy feeling again. Yep, he definitely only felt it for Eric. Taking it as a sign from the Lifetime movie gods, he replied,

Kent: how's thursday? gotta get my beauty sleep friday and saturdays the game

Eric: Thursday's great! 6pm?

Eric: Y'know, can we make it 7pm instead?

Kent: 7 is perf. text me ur address

And to Jack,

Kent: sure zimms, let’s meet sat morning

Kent unmuted the television and stretched his legs along the full length of the couch. The upholstery was warm where Kit had been sleeping.

Now would probably be a good time to tell Jack and Eric about each other. He was pretty sure adults were supposed to tell each other about being friends with exes, although he’d never been in that situation. It seemed like an upstanding thing that a real adult would do.

But what would he say to Jack that wouldn’t scare him away? And more importantly, what would he say to Eric that wouldn’t be a total buzzkill for whatever feelings Eric potentially had for him?

He stared vacantly at the TV. If he told Eric about Jack, and then Jack decided to ghost him again, he’d ruin his chances with Eric for nothing. His and Jack’s track record of being friends wasn’t exactly stellar. Hanging out with Jack might be awkward and he'd bail after an hour. Surely that wouldn’t warrant telling Eric about. And if it went well, Kent would have plenty of time to tell him later. Right?

Kent nodded at his own logic. He would wait to tell them. It would be fine.

Everything would be fine.

_/_/_/ \_\_\_

“…I’ve been here all night….I’ve been here all daaaay…and boy you got me walkin’ side to side…”

Bitty swayed his hips and sang along over the hairdryer.

He’d been looking forward to this meeting all week. If he was being honest, it was a work meeting only in name. He’d transferred his work files to his phone so he wouldn’t need a laptop. He’d pushed the start time to 7pm so they wouldn’t hit happy hour. He wanted to have the luxury to take things slowly, to suggest dinner or more drinks without the pressure of happy hour ending at seven.

He stepped back from the mirror and gave himself a come-hither look. Should he add eyeliner?

He grabbed his phone off the toilet back.

Bitty: eyeliner??

Lardo: yasss

Bitty: [blowing kiss emoji]

He closed one eye, stuck out his tongue in concentration, and started to apply.

At 7:05, Bitty’s front door buzzed. Kent was downstairs, leaning against a royal blue Audi. He flashed Bitty a smile as he opened the passenger door, then walked to the other side and slid into the driver’s seat. When he pressed the ignition, the powerful engine settled into a deep purr.

“You ready to start your New York education?”

As they crossed the Manhattan Bridge and drove into lower Manhattan, Bitty’s leg bounced restlessly. He forced himself to sit still and squeezed his fingers together in his lap. Kent was right here, and he was so much hotter than Bitty remembered. It was hard to be around him without staring; everything about him felt electric. Eric willed his dick to ignore the observation. His skinny khakis wouldn’t exactly hide an erection.

They pulled up to a swanky hotel and a uniformed man opened Bitty’s door. Kent gave instructions to the valet and handed her a folded bill.

“Is this where we’re going?”

“Nah, we’re just parking. The Dominick does good valet service.” Kent grinned and motioned for Bitty to follow him down the block. “You’ll see. We’re going to a real New York institution.”

The location Kent had picked for their date (meeting, Bitty scolded himself) turned out to be a 1960’s tiki bar that had been in business for fifty years. Kent peppered Bitty with details about local history as they made their way to the bar.

The interior of the bar was dark and hazy. The ceiling was completely covered with autographed dollar bills pushed into the ceiling with drink umbrellas; Kent pointed out his own name, and Bitty politely pretended he could see it in the mass of bills. Surfing movies played on a TV in the corner, vintage posters covered the walls, and everything was covered in a fine film of dust.

Kent ordered drinks – two variations of something fruity and blended, garnished with pineapple – and he let Bitty try both and pick his favorite. They slid into a mostly-hidden back booth. Bitty noticed the bill Kent slipped the bartender, and the ‘Reserved’ sign the bartender removed from the tabletop before they took their seats.

Bitty couldn’t help feeling a little bit awed at the way Kent spent money. Jack and Kent both made a lot of money playing hockey (Kent made two million more, not that Bitty’d checked, that wouldn’t be polite). But they spent it so differently. Jack was reserved and cautious, investing in real estate and vehicles with good mileage and safety records. Kent spent money like it was water. He seemed to view money as a means to solve problems and enjoy himself. After years of coexisting with Jack, Bitty found Kent’s largesse exciting.

As they sipped their drinks, the conversation was light and easy. Bitty leaned into Kent’s space and listened to him describe his favorite New York restaurants. They traded stories and chirps until their glasses were empty and Kent hailed a waiter.

“Another?”

Bitty grinned and nodded. His limbs felt loose and warm. Lordy, he couldn’t even taste the rum in these drinks.

When their refills arrived, Bitty leaned forward to taste Kent’s drink and used the movement as an excuse to shift his knee so that it pressed against Kent’s under the table. Kent glanced up sharply. He didn’t move away. Bitty’s stomach did somersaults.

The thing Bitty loved about conversations with Kent, is how he felt like an equal in them. He didn’t feel young or inexperienced or like an object of adoration – although watching the way Kent’s eyes tracked him as he talked, maybe there was a little of that, too. But he felt like an adult and an equal. Bitty had as many stories to share as Kent did, and Kent seemed genuinely interested in them. He asked follow-up questions about Bitty’s job. He whistled at Bitty’s recounting of the Jam Fiasco of 2015. Bitty thrived on the attention.

By the time they finished their second drinks, Bitty had his hand on Kent’s forearm as Kent regaled him with an embarrassing story of him and his old teammate, Jeff Troy, at a state fair. Bitty gasped as Kent concluded the story by miming a bin of stuffed animals falling on top of them.

“Oh my!” Bitty exclaimed. “Thank goodness y’all were alright.”

Kent looked down at Bitty’s arm, opened his mouth to say something else, closed it again. Bitty was suddenly very aware of the places their bodies were touching.

Feeling brave, he traced his finger down Kent’s arm to his wrist, following a vein just below the skin. Kent inhaled. He watched Kent’s lips, parted slightly with his breath. Bitty wanted to kiss him so badly. He felt invincible from the alcohol and Kent’s attention.

Before he could lose his nerve, he leaned forward and pressed his mouth to Kent’s.

The kiss was gentle and lasted only a few seconds. Kent moved his lips against Bitty’s, hesitantly, chastely. To an outsider it probably looked innocent enough, and before Bitty could lose himself in the moment, Kent pulled away.

“Not here,” he breathed.

Bitty leaned back. Oh lord, how had he forgotten? Kent was famous in this city and he wasn’t out. There could be cameras anywhere. Kent could be outed on Deadspin tomorrow and it would be so awful for his career. Bitty pressed his hands to his face. Goodness, he’d been so selfish.

Kent looked at Bitty with concern. Bitty could feel the flush of embarrassment rising in his cheeks.

“It’s okay,” Kent whispered, “I…I want to, just…later?” He cocked his head to one side and asked in a normal volume, “How about we get some food?”

Bitty nodded, still feeling horrified. Things had been going so well, and he totally messed it up with his stupid recklessness.

They closed their tab and walked outside into the warm September night.

_/_/_/ \_\_\_

“So, uh, is pizza okay? I had a place picked out, but we could find somewhere else if pizza after Mai Tais is a no-go.”

Kent looked at Eric hopefully, wishing he could turn the dial back ten minutes and put the wide, happy grin back on Eric’s face.

“Pizza’s fine.”

Kent tried a new conversation topic. “Got any plans after your internship ends? It must be soon, right?”

Eric nodded. “I think they might give me an offer in a different department, outside the Pet division. I’ve had a couple interviews.” Kent nodded as Eric got into the rhythm of the conversation and started to sound more like himself. “Of course, I want to move to the magazine – Home Cooking, they sell it in supermarket checkouts?” Eric glanced over and Kent made a noise like he’d heard of it, “but it’s so darn competitive. I don’t know where I’ll end up.”

Kent half-smiled. He was happy for Eric, even if it blew that he wouldn’t work with Kent and Kit anymore. He’d known from the beginning that Eric’s internship was temporary. He wondered if it would be appropriate to send a letter of recommendation to someone about the food magazine. He’d seen firsthand how good Eric was at his job. The company would be crazy to let him get away. He filed the thought away for later.

“Will you stay in New York?”

Eric nodded and looked around him in a way that made Kent imagine he was assessing the worthiness of all New York City.

“Yeah, the city’s growin’ on me. The company’s based here. And I’ve made some friends,” he turned and met Kent’s eyes, “I’d feel like I missed out if I left now.”

They lingered over pizza at the little restaurant Kent picked out. Eric perked up after a slice of margherita pizza and a coke. He asked Kent all about this year’s team and how Kent felt about their chances in the preseason.

Kent couldn’t stop looking at Eric’s eyes. They looked fucking beautiful, warm honey brown ringed with dark lashes, and it was all Kent could do to keep his hands to himself. He wished they were somewhere private so he could kiss him again. He wanted to feel Eric’s fingertips on his arm again, to lean into his kiss instead of having to pull away. Would Eric be down for it if Kent asked him to come back to his place? What if he was hella offended? He was Southern, did that make a difference? He should have googled this shit beforehand.

Kent waited until they were back on the sidewalk, strolling away from the restaurant with no particular destination, to ask the question.

“Uh, so, I only live a few blocks from here. It’s a nice night…do you, um, maybe want to walk back to my place and leave the car? I can hire you a ride back to Brooklyn whenever you want.”

He could see Eric blush in the yellow light of the streetlamp. It hadn't been his smoothest line, and he hoped he’d read the situation right.

“I wouldn’t be a bother? Don’t you have early practice?”

“You could never be a bother.”

Kent cringed. Welcome to Cheesy McCheesetown, population him.

Eric smiled tenderly, apparently not noticing Kent’s total lack of cool.

“Well, then. I’d love that.”

Kent grinned. His chest felt lighter than it had in months. Eric liked him. Eric wanted to spend time with him and kiss him and come back to his place and hopefully do other things with him. He felt like he’d won the fucking lottery.

They started walking. Kent looked quickly behind them to see that the street was deserted, then reached out and traced his index finger down the outside of Eric's hand. Eric moved his hand closer and pressed their fingertips together. Kent's face felt warm. He felt like a giddy teenager walking home after the homecoming dance, not that he'd ever had a homecoming. He briefly squeezed their fingers together.

When they reached his building, Eric casually put his hands in his pockets as he followed him inside. He stood off to the side, typing on his phone, as Kent asked the concierge to retrieve his car from SoHo; and Kent remembered that Eric had done this before.

Eric knew how to date a famous athlete in the closet. This wasn’t his first time looking unobtrusive in the lobby of a condo building. It was a very specific skill set, and Kent wanted to fight every homophobe who'd made it so Eric needed to learn those skills in the first place. He deserved so much better. Although he had to admit, not many people knew how exhausting it was for guys like Kent and Jack to keep up the bro-ey pretense of heterosexuality, and it felt really fucking good that Eric understood.

Kent nearly vibrated out of his skin as they rode the elevator up to Kent’s apartment. He kept his hands shoved in his jeans pockets, trying not to look nervous.

As soon as the apartment door closed, he turned to Eric and gingerly took his face in both hands. Eric stared up at him, eyes dark.

“Can I kiss you?” he asked.

Eric grinned without answering, then leaned forward and pressed his lips against Kent’s. Kent tried not to moan at finally getting the contact he’d wanted all night. He brushed his tongue inside Eric’s mouth, relishing the hot wetness. He ran his fingers up through Eric’s hair and smelled his coconut shampoo.

Kent hummed in encouragement as Eric wound his hands around Kent’s back and down over his ass. He squeezed playfully, smiling against Kent’s lips, then pulled away just enough that Kent stopped and looked at him questioningly. When Eric seemed satisfied that he had Kent’s attention, he pushed Kent backward with more strength than Kent would have expected, pressing him against the wall of the entryway and bracing him in place with a hand on each of his hips.

“This okay, hon?” Eric asked through his lashes.

Jesus fucking Christ. “More than okay.”

Eric kissed him again, deep and filthy. A shiver ran down the whole length of Kent’s body, and he instantly felt himself go from mildly aroused to hard as a fucking rock.

A small chirp sounded from behind them. Kent groaned.

He turned his face away from Eric’s lips and grumbled, “Go away, Kit. I’ll feed you later.”

Another chirp. This time Kit came right up to them and butted her head against Kent’s shinbone, annoyed. Kent wondered if locking her in the guest bath would be considered animal cruelty. He sighed and relented.

“Sorry, Eric, I forgot. I usually feed her right when I get home.”

Eric gave him an amused little smirk. “You’d better get on that, Mister Parson. She looks mighty displeased.”

“I’ll be back in two minutes.” He leaned forward and kissed the smirk off Eric’s face with quick, silly, closed-mouth kisses. Eric laughed and squirmed away.

Kent ran to the kitchen and proceeded to set a land speed record for preparing cat food. When he finished, he found Eric in the living room with all the lights turned off, watching the city from the wall-to-wall windows. The night skyline of Manhattan lit up his face in a warm yellow glow. Kent stood behind him and circled his arms around his waist, resting his chin on Eric’s shoulder.

“Amazing, isn’t it?”

Eric half-laughed, half-sighed. “If you’d told sixteen-year-old me that in a handful of years I would be living in New York City, making it on my own, enjoying dinner and drinks and this,” he gestured pointedly between Kent and himself, “with a hot NHL star...I would’ve said you were downright crazy.”

Kent smiled and trailed little kisses down the back of Eric’s neck, feeling pleased with himself when he felt Eric shiver. “C’mon,” he whispered into Eric’s ear.

“Hmm?”

Kent slid his hands over Eric’s torso, brushing the exposed skin at the waistband of his khakis. “Come with me. I know a few things we could do that would make sixteen-year-old Eric blush.”

Eric snorted. “Oh my god, Kent, that line was awful.”

Kent grinned. “Did it work?”

Eric just laughed, full and throaty, and pulled Kent in the direction of the bedroom.

“Uuuugggghhhh.”

Kent groped around on the bedside table for his phone. Why the fuck was his alarm going off? It was so goddamn early. How was anyone awake at this ungodly hour?

He turned off the offending alarm and reached out for Eric, but the bed next to him was empty.

Kent was immediately awake. He sat up.

When had Eric left? Oh god, had he done something to offend him? He tried to recall what would have upset Eric enough for him to leave, but nothing stood out. The last thing he remembered from the night before was both of them crawling under the sheets, post-orgasm, and Eric laying his hand on Kent's chest as they passed out.

He scrubbed his hands over his face and looked around. A little yellow sticky note sat next to his phone.

Kent,

I had so much fun last night.

I left early, needed a shower & clothes before work.

Kick ass in your game.

<3 EB

_/_/_/ \_\_\_

Bitty scrambled for his phone when it buzzed, praying it would be Kent. He’d had two false alarms already this morning – a good-morning note from his mama and a string of eggplant emojis from Shitty.

Kent: my pillow smells like you

Bitty: [blushing emoji] you got my note?

Kent: i did

Bitty: Sorry I had to run, I forgot we had a team meeting at 8 and I kinda needed a shower

Kent: heh yeah

Kent: i mean, if you’d let me swallow like i was planning to

Bitty: Oh lordy

Kent: but nooo, u wanted it on my abs

Bitty: Kent Parson

Kent: and then it got everywhere

Bitty: We are not having this conversation while I’m sittin’ in a SHARED cubicle

Kent: [smiling devil emoji] [winking kiss emoji]

Bitty swiveled his chair so he faced away from his cubicle-mate. He hunched over the screen and reread Kent’s texts, beaming like an idiot.

Bitty: Will I see you before your roadie?

Kent: probably not

Kent: we have practice & team photos today, game tmrw, then hit the road right after

Bitty: :( :( :(

Kent: I’d love to meet up next weekend after i’m back

Bitty: I’d like that :D

Bitty: Btw you earned serious baked goods last night

Kent: i live to please [cherub emoji]

Kent: and my favorite flavor is blueberry

Blueberry. Hmm. Bitty had all sorts of blueberry recipes he could bake for Kent. If he stopped by Whole Foods on his way home from work, he could whip up a batch of blueberry mini crumbles easy-peasy. Or maybe the blueberry brie tartlets the boys had been so fond of at the Haus? He opened his browser to research recipes.

It was a bummer that Kent couldn’t hang out until next week. Bitty had no plans tonight and baking would take his mind off the excitement of the last couple days.

That’s alright, he could wait until next week.

He could wait.

If he stopped on his way home and picked up some blueberries, surely that was alright.

If he washed the blueberries and set the butter out to room temperature, that was just smart preparation.

Well, as long as everything was out, he might as well make a little somethin'.

Two batches of mini crumbles, two batches of tartlets, and one batch of sweet potato cat treats later, Bitty finally felt calm enough to crawl into bed. He knew Kent would be busy tomorrow, but he could drop by quickly and give Kent the baked goods and a good-luck kiss. He wouldn’t even have to go inside. It would be sweet and perfect.

The next morning, Bitty tied two bakery boxes with twine and a little note; presentation was important. Kent had said their practice was over at 10, so at 10:30 he skipped up the front steps of Kent’s building and set down his boxes in the lobby.

Bitty: Hi hon, are you home?

Kent: hi what’s up?

Bitty: I have a surprise for you [winking kissy face]

Kent: ??

Bitty: Let me up and I can show you [winking emoji]

Kent: how about I come downstairs to u?

Bitty: Oh don’t you worry, this won’t take but a minute

Bitty: I don’t mind makin’ the trip

Kent: that’s ok you don’t have to

Kent: i can come down

Kent: i don’t mind

Kent: eric?

Bitty hopped into the elevator with a woman holding a Pomeranian, pushing the button for Kent’s floor after she’d swiped her keycard. He smiled in what he hoped looked like a friendly-not-intruder way. Kent was so silly. He didn’t mind coming up at all. No reason Kent should have to interrupt his routine for Bitty.

Bitty knocked on Kent’s door and Kent opened it right away, like he’d been waiting for him. He had on basketball shorts and a Rangers t-shirt. His hair was sweaty. He didn’t invite Bitty in.

“Hey Eric, I didn’t expect you today.”

“Oh honey, I was just in the area and thought I’d drop off a little somethin’ for the boys on your roadie.”

Bitty handed Kent the packages and Kent smiled as he sniffed appreciatively. He turned briefly to listen to something in the other room, and his smile faded. He turned back to Bitty.

“That’s really cool, man. Thanks.”

Bitty started to wish him good luck, but he stopped when he thought he heard…was that footsteps?

Kent jumped in, “Sorry I couldn’t hang out today, I just–”

“Parse, where are the bowls?”

A tall, dark-haired man in running shorts and yellow sneakers walked into the entryway holding a box of cereal. He froze when he saw Bitty.

Bitty’s heart stopped. “Jack?”

“Bittle.”

Bitty backed away, clutching his phone to his chest. What was happening? He couldn’t breathe. Why was Jack here? From somewhere far away, he heard Kent saying his name.

He turned and ran.