#i wanna convince people there's evil furniture in this game

[sky-squido]

EVIL BENCH

[spilledkauffie]

Game Night

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female!Reader Word Count: 2.2k T/W: fluff A/N: Part 2 of Bingo — a few months later

I am SO SORRY this took me way longer to post than it should have!

Bucky Tag List: @anreeixcobra ❤︎ @tsnelf7 ❤︎ @fandom-princess-forevermore​

It was Friday night, which meant one thing: Game Night. Ever since Yori introduced you at Bingo, you made it a tradition in your relationship to play board games on Fridays. For the most part you kept it to fairly modern games, but tonight was going to be a surprise.

Tonight it was your place, 8 o’clock. Bucky showed up with a six pack of root-beer in glass bottles. You added a few to the fridge as he found his usual seat at your apartment table. He waited for you to round the small apartment’s bar and join him. Sliding the glass bottles across the table to Bucky, you smiled, biting in your bottom lip, as he slid your bottle back, now without its top.

Easily he popped the top off his own bottle with his left hand; it was as he was about to take a sip that he caught sight of your look, “what?” he furrowed his eyebrows, questionably. 

“So. . . tonight,” you tried not to giggle.

“What?” Bucky asked again, this time finding himself following your smile despite his will not to.

“Tonight is going to be special,” you clasped your hands together, “because I found some stuff that’s as old as you.”

“Wow, thanks,” Bucky said sarcastically, taking a sip, shaking his head, blinking softly as he saw you rush to convince him it would be fun. Sighing deeply, he gave in, “alright, what is it?”

“I’ll be right back,” you twirled on your heel and left the room.

Returning to shaking his head and the glass bottle, he paused after settling the bottle on the table. It’d been a long time since anyone cared about anything actually as old as him. He’d been pretty good at keeping up with the times, a lot of things he knew just got an upgrade, but the thought of something from his actual childhood felt a little heartwarming. 

“Okay,” you declared, reentering the room with a stack of vintage boxes in your arms that made Bucky lean back in his chair out of shock, “here we are.” 

His jaw dropped a little at what you had brought out as you set the stack on the table. Watching you take a deep breath and exhale with a smirk, he shook his head, this time silently asking “how?” You set your hands atop the stack, rapping your fingers across the top box as you smiled again. 

Smoothing your hands out across the box top, you cleared your throat, “no peeking,”  bringing Bucky’s attention entirely to you. 

“Option number one,” you held up the rectangular shape with severely faded letters across it, “Scrabble, released 1938.” The box very gently met the table, “option number two,” you looked at him attempting not to giggle as you saw him cross his arms over his chest, genuinely listening to you intently, “Sorry! released 1934, Battleship, original pen and paper game,” you clarified, he lifted his eyebrows, impressed, “and last but not least, Monopoly, released 1935.”

“Wow, you uh- you really did your research,” he commented, looking over the stack of authentically vintage boxes.

“Of course,” you shrugged with a smile, “my boyfriend’s 106, if I want to bring back some childhood nostalgia, that requires some research. . . and late hour ebay bidding in our case.”  

He nodded, a faint smile showing, before it faded with his next words, “I hope you didn’t do too much research on me,” he looked up, hand resting on Monopoly.

You calmly slid down into the seat across from him and stared with a kind smile still on your lips, reaching to touch his hand, you stroked your thumb against his knuckles, “I’m more of a first hand account, direct source, kind of girl when it comes to people,” the corner of his mouth tugged into a smile. 

You knew, just not everything, and he wasn’t sure he was prepared to have another living soul know it all quite yet. Luckily, you were someone who seemed to actually understand that.

“Or,” you announced, lifting a pointer finger, as if requesting a pause whilst you went to a nearby drawer, returning with a much smaller box, “we can get really really old school, even for you” the box met the table top, “standard 52 card deck, English edition, circa 1516. . .obviously not original.”

Bucky chuckled, looking to you, tonguing his cheek, before picking up the cards, “I hate to tell you, but that’s just a little before my time,” he squinted at you, teasingly.

Biting your lip, your shoulders shifted with the giggle that came after his comment, “so, come on,” you sat back down, this time with your elbows on the table and hands laced, to support your resting chin on top of them, “what should I beat your butt in?”

“Oh,” Bucky, attempting to appear insulted, began raising his eyebrows, “you think?”

“Yeah,” you laughed your words while looking at his serious face, “I think, better yet, I know.”

“Well, I don’t know where you get your confidence from. You know you are talking to a local senior Bingo night champion,” he shrugged with a head tilt, as if that was supposed to be a big deal.

“Woooow,” you drew out, smiling uncontrollably.

“But,” he sighed, “okay,” he shook his head once, accepting your challenge, “let’s go, you’re on! Monopoly,” he brought the box towards himself as you set the others on the floor next to your chair.

You watched as he picked up the little metal pieces, examining each one individually. There was an expression you’d never seen before, he was remembering something positive from his past. A memory that sparked a smile that you helped bring about. He surveyed the board, with all its bright colours and familiar street names.

“It’s been-” he paused, looking upward, doing the math in his head, “it’s been 85 years since I played this game,” setting each piece he stopped at the boat, laughing to himself, “you know, Steve used to always be the battleship.” 

A soft smile came across your lips, while you watched him remember exactly how to set it up. You picked the Scottie dog and he picked the vintage race car piece.

“Were you always the race car?” you ventured, wanting to know more about his childhood, you knew he didn’t talk about it often.

“Oh,” he glanced to the piece he had just naturally picked up without a thought, “yeah, well, I think,” he gave a quick, but somber smile, before clearing his throat, and actually looking up, “and my sister, whenever she’d actually manage to get mom and dad to let her stay up with us, she’d always be the thimble,” he leaned back in his chair, smiling, “whenever it was her turn to move she’d put it on her finger and hop it down the street names.” He leaned back to the table, “we never made her go to jail, even if she landed on it, Steve would make up some rule that let her skip it.” 

“That’s really sweet of you guys,” you said, looking softly at his smile.

“Yeah,” he swallowed, “but don’t think you can skip jail,” he changed his tone, preferring not to dwell on the past even if it was positive. 

“Don’t think I’ll be visiting,” you smirk confidently, “better watch out for the money man yourself.” 

“Wow, who is this?” he dropped his jaw, “she’s so sarcastic, does Yori know this side of you? Do you sneak jellybeans under the table or something evil like that?”

Laughing, you took your root-beer, “just give me my $1,500 so the smack down can actually begin.”

Two hours later, after a long battle between Boardwalk, control over the railroads, and many, many visits to jail, you sat back, lips quirked, arms across your chest as your little Scottie sat in jail.

“And three thousand, six hundred, and five. . . I’m sorry, but that leaves you,” Bucky set his elbows on the table, wincing at you, “bankrupt.”

“Fine,” you huffed jokingly, giving your best pout,“you win.”

“Aww, c’mon,” Bucky reached out a hand to touch your forearm comfortingly, accompanied by a smile you couldn’t deny.

“You wanna go again?” You offered seriously, resting your hand on top of his tenderly, happy to see him so happy.

“It was really fun, but let’s play something else, this time you pick,” he offered.

Breaking into a smile, you gave a nod, and he asked what you had in mind. It took a moment, you wanted to make this good, and you wanted to see it be a little more of a struggle for him, if you were honest. 

“You know, I know it’s later than your. . .original timeline, but there’s this fantastic game called Twister,” you smirked, perking an eyebrow to ask if he was up for it. 

“Twister?” He repeated you, tilting his head like a confused puppy, “what’s Twister?”

“I’ll show you, but,” you glanced over to your small apartment living room, “we might need to arrange the furniture a little.”

“Don’t worry,” Bucky stood, “I can handle that.” 

Smiling, you stand, “okay, just push it all to one side, I’ll get the game.” 

Ten minutes later, shoeless, you both stood looking over the polka dotted sheet on the floor. Nodding happily to yourself, Bucky shook his head almost in fear. 

“Make sense?” You asked, having just explained the very simple rules, you turned to face him.

“Oh, I’m sorry I asked,” he sighed, shouldering off his jacket and tossing it onto the couch along with his glove, “yeah, it makes sense,” he set his hands on his hips, pondering this new game intently. 

“Okay, you first,” you held up the spinning arrow, and began.

One hand and foot at a time, sometimes struggling to reach the spinner, but you both made it work pretty well. Having kept to one side of the sheet, it came time to get a smidge more twisted.

Bucky managed to keep balanced and spin a green dot with his left arm, conveniently it placed him right over you. As he began to reach for green, he carefully calculated how best to approach the green dot in order to keep his balance. It was a pretty far reach and he’d need to balance himself whilst reaching over you. 

“What’s the matter old man, can’t quite move like you used to?” you shamelessly giggled. 

Raising his eyebrows at your tone, “ohhh, wow,” Bucky said sincerely, finally placing his left arm over you and to a green dot, now above you he tilted his head sassily, “respect your elders.”

His last sentence only made your giggle turn into a genuine laugh. You closed your eyes and threw your head back a little. Admittedly, Bucky thought it was funny too, but he didn’t laugh, he just took in your smile and the sound of your laugh, enjoying every single moment of it.

When you brought your head back up, you were about to respond sassily, but instead you found his lips meeting yours. With a small squeak of surprise, you relaxed into the kiss, glad that he was finally confident enough with you to take a chance now and then. He tasted like vanilla root beer, which mixed wonderfully with the scent of his cologne you were finally close enough to smell. 

It was soft and slow at first, but slowly, with his right hand palming the arch of your back, you eased into his touch, lower back almost meeting the floor as you both sunk down a little. You completely forgot about the game, as you reached your arms around his neck gently. Keeping the kiss close, you felt him hesitate to deepen it, so you gave him a small sign of encouragement, by moving your hand to the side of his neck, naturally bringing him even closer. 

You had no idea how long you’d been there, on that polka dot sheet, but it was such bliss that you didn’t even care. Smiling into the kiss, you felt him smile back. 

Parting, he pressed his forehead to yours, “I win,” he whispered, lips in a smile. 

“What?” was all you could ask, still mesmerised by the kiss. 

Bucky motioned his head to his left arm which happened to have been keeping the two of you steady. . . all the while remaining on the green dot. You dropped your arms from around his neck, to the floor, elbows supporting you as you looked up at him, shaking your head. 

“That does not count, Bucky,” you tried not to smile as he kept his arm as still as possible.

“What? But my hand’s still on green,” he dramatically gestured to it, making you bite your lip to repress a giggle, trying to match his seriousness.

Shoving his chest directly above you, he feigned an ‘ow!’ before you softly pull him closer again.

“If I kiss you are you gonna hit me again?”

You smirk, “I might if you don’t.” 

Bucky smiled, lips almost touching yours, “alright, sorry,” he smiled, voice almost a whisper as his lips brushed against yours, “I’m still learning the rules to this game.”

[avataroftheglowcloud]

❤️ Sparring Match - Prinxiety Oneshot 💜

Prompt:

Genre: fluff

AU: I imagine it as human, but you can take it as them being in their canon setting too

Warnings: mention of (pretend) stabbing, (plastic) weapons and (pretend) death, though all these things are just briefly acted out and it isn't in detail or anything

A/N: hey! I see people putting fanfictions on here so decided to do the same, so uh, let me know if you wanna see more of my stuff or something! I post fics more regularly on Wattpad, and my account name there is @you_gota_fiend_in_me. I have a Sanders Sides oneshot book and am also working on a Danganronpa oneshots book and possibly a Cecilos (WTNV) oneshots book!

I know this isn't what the original prompt was about, but I found this idea cute. Also, sorry it's short! This was really all I could do with the idea, but I hope you enjoy regardless!

Word count: 362

Virgil didn't quite know how Roman had managed to convince him to do this, but he found himself in the living room with all the furniture pushed against the walls as he "battled" with his boyfriend, plastic swords in both their hands. As their swords clashed together Virgil was walking backwards, Roman following him, and Virgil soon found himself trapped between Roman and a wall. As ridiculous as he thought this game was, he was competitive, and he could tell from the triumphant grin on Roman's face that he was about to lose if he didn't think fast.

They were swordfighting, so that bought Virgil some time to think — until Roman brought the plastic sword to Virgil's throat.

“Surrender!” Roman bellowed.

"Never." Virgil leaned over the plastic sword and kissed Roman. Roman was surprised at how sudden it was, but after a moment he dropped his "weapon" and leaned into the kiss.

Eventually the two pulled away from the kiss, though their heads remained close together. Roman felt something jab his chest and was confused until he saw the smug smirk on his boyfriend's face and realised Virgil hadn't dropped his own sword.

"You fiend!" Roman jumped back, glaring at Virgil, though he wasn't truly mad. Just a sore loser. "Evil!"

Virgil laughed as Roman clutched his chest dramatically and sank to the floor. "I have been wounded! Stabbed without remorse! And by he who I thought loved me, no less."

"Of course I love you, doofus," said Virgil, crouching down to kiss Roman's forehead.

"Too late! I am past the point of being cured. You did this to me, you ... you brute! You barbarian! Bleh." Roman fell fully onto the carpet, feigning death.

"Well, that's a shame," Virgil said with an indifferent shrug, standing up. "Because I was going to propose a date watching Disney movies with the brave prince, but I suppose I'll have to do that on my own now."

"Wait! Maybe the prince shall live after all." Roman scrambled to his feet, much to Virgil's amusement. "Yep! It's a miracle!"

"And does he forgive me?" Virgil asked.

"I suppose," Roman replied.

"Good, let's put the couch back then."

[fanfics-only-for-me]

Call of the Void (Part 1)

Word Count: 1704

This is gonna be hella boring chapter cause I really just wanted to set the scene  I’m half done the next chapter so expect that soon.  This is my first time actually writing anything so some advice will be great ngl <3 

How are the Titans going to handle the reluctant new stray Dick picked up and what exactly is she running from?  Rose doesn't exist and Jeremiah is dead. Everything in the show is the same up to when they find Rose on the telly. Imma just swap her with y/n cause I'm a narcissist. Y/N is 18 nearly 19.  Don't @ me cause i know this is hella shite. Readers bi but I’m not certain if she’s gonna be romantically involved with anyone yet.

Coffee Drops

Dick's been trying to get Rachel to come out of her shell for the past few months.  Knowing about Rachel's struggle fitting in with her peers at school and the recent events surrounding her family, both biological and adopted, Dick deemed a routine would be best.  It would be a way for Rachel to feel at ease, and comfortable.  When Dick was initially adopted by Bruce back when he was young and struggling with his own family stress so to speak, he found that once he fell into an established pattern of behaviour, his mind would settle too.  Thus a routine was swiftly established.

The day would begin with light training as a group and then a small rest, a bit more training and finally breakfast.  During this early morning rest period, Garfield would head off to his room and play whatever game he was currently obsessed with.  Lately, it was some platform based game, Dick even gave it a go once but never got invested, perhaps he was a bit too old for this sort of stuff, either way, gaming definitely wasn't for him.  It wasn't for Rachel either.  She tried playing with Garfield one morning but as soon as her character died; she left leaving Garfield and the console alone.  Dick didn't like having Rachel alone for too long but he didn't want it to seem obvious and push her away. 

God knows what Jason does during his downtime, and judging by what was found on the batcomputer, Dick doesn't want to know. 

Thus birthed their new routine: every morning they'd head off to get coffee together, changing shops every couple days due to Dick's paranoia-fueled habits, Rachel is still a missing person after all.  Dick began to enjoy these coffee trips with Rachel.  He doubted he would ever have kids of his own, especially after Dawn and himself ended.  He did enjoy this feeling though; being Rachel's confidant and support, her father-figure so to speak.  He felt the same towards Garfield but not as intense as with Rachel.  

It was on one of these coffee trips that he noticed something strange.  They were at a new coffee shop, the place had a retro yet Cool Kidz vibe to it, filled with guitars, records, and exclusively old looking wooden furniture abundant with those circle stains you only get if your coffee cup leaks a bit.  

"Got a triple venti mocha for Rochelle and a small coffee for Dirk" 

"Dick"

"Excuse me?"  

"Oh, uh... never mind."  Dick grabbed the two drinks from the counter feeling a fair bit uncomfortable with the barrister's annoyed gaze directed at him. 

"Here", Dick said handing the mocha to Rachel.

"Nice." laughed Rachel before heading towards the sugars with Dick following close behind.

"So have you put any thought into our name?" asked Rachel taking a sip of her drink

"What do you mean?"

"Ugh," Rachel grunted placing her drink on the small counter. 

"Well, you, Hawk, Dawn, and Donna were the Titans," she reasoned reaching for the sugar jar and tilting the sweet crystals into her drink, "So, what are we? The New Titans? Titans 2.0?"

"Titans: The Next Generation?" Dick jokingly offered.

"You're not helping" dismissed Rachel as she finally placed the sugar back down.

"Look, Rach, it doesn't matter what you're called.  It matter's what you do.  We're training for whatever's next." he reassured her.

"There's never a shortage of people out there who wanna screw things up for the rest of us." he continued, "You know what they say, 'All it takes for evil to succeed-"

"-is good men and women to do nothing." Rachel interrupted after licking the stir and throwing it in the bin.  She's heard the same speech from Dick countless times by now.  It seemed as though this little motivational speech of his was more so for himself than anyone else.  To convince himself that this wasn't for nothing; he wasn't chasing the shadow of his own��past glory, but instead carving a new, brighter path for his current family.

"That's right."  said Dick turning to leave, "Good men and women not doing nothing."

"You could put that on a t-shirt, Dick," Rachel muttered following after him.

"Maybe I should," Dick scoffed, reaching the door and holding it open for her.

Dick got caught for a minute in the doorway as a few others took the opportunity to slip through the generously opened door.  After a few of those awkward smile things and some "you're welcomes" later, Dick finally got away from the door and headed towards Rachel.  The car was a few meters away from the shop's entrance, parked beside a ‘50′ speed limit sign.  Once Dick clicked the doors open Rachel immediately plonked herself down in the passenger's side spilling a bit of her mocha on the concrete below.  Dick's eyes glanced at the drops splattering on the ground before taking a step towards the driver's side door. 

It took a second for his mind to process what his eye's caught, but when it did, Dick looked back down towards the coffee drops.  Working as a detective for a number of years, Dick could easily pick out the small puddle of blood on the concrete.  Dick ran over last nights news in his head, no shoot-outs or other violence that could explain how it got here.  It definitely wasn't old, less than 12 hours judging by the still red pigment yet it wasn't fresh seeing as it wasn't disturbed by the early morning foot traffic meaning it had to of dried before rush hour.  It happened last night.  Looking around the area for anything that might help explain things, Dick noticed the blood on the signpost next to him.  It was quite low down, a few smudges of blood on the pole resting near his knee.  Bending down to have a closer look, Dick noticed the small groves; definitely a hand print.

"Dick?" called Rachel, leaning out of the now rolled down window.

"One minute, I'm just checking something."

Dick quickly gave a once over on the ground surrounding him, checking to see if there was some sort of trail hinting towards the injured person's route.  9 am on a weekday: the street was crowded.  He could barely see the ground but even so, Dick thought he should at least see something, the start of a trail at least.  They probably got into a car Dick concluded straightening up. 

'This is a busy enough street with a lot of businesses,' Dick reasoned with himself looking up towards the buildings CCTV cameras, 'a lot of them would have caught something.'

"Dick?" Rachel queried again.

"Coming," Dick said hopping into the car before pulling out onto the street.

"What were you looking at?" Rachel asked.

"I don't know yet, maybe nothing," Dick replied, "Maybe something, I'll double check when we get home."

Rachel rolled her eye's a bit at the "home" part but seemed satisfied nonetheless.

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Once they got back to the Tower, Dick and Rachel walked together towards the training room.  Rachel was supposed to continue training with the others and Dick needed to pass by the training room to get to the computers.

"Fuck man!" shouted Jason. 

They're fighting again.

"You said don't hold back." defended Garfield.

"What were you fucking doing?  I was fucking blindfolded" continued Jason.

"You said, 'Don't hold back.'" Garfield quoted rather annoyed as Rachel and Dick came round the corner.  

"Should I get the hose?" joked Rachel prancing over towards Gar.

"What's going on?" Dick asked the two.

"We did what you said, the blindfold thing, and then he went nuts on me." complained Jason.  

"He said 'Don't hold back.'" Gar quoted for the third time that minute.

"Then why do we even learn to fight like this, man?" Jason complained again.

Dick knew that Jason wasn't settling into the tower like the other two but unlike Garfield and Rachel, Jason was here to train.  

Jason didn't like the Titans tower, he thought it would be more intense like with Rachel's father but this assumption was quickly cut down.  Training in some way or another every day and never actually going out and using what he learnt only caused his anger to boil with no escape for the steam except through his words.  Verbally fighting and arguing at the slightest irritation was his only outlet so he did it every chance he got.

"Hey, it's idiotic." continued Jason heading closer to Dick, "We have eyes."

"In battle, anything can be taken from you." Dick addressed the group stepping forward. 

"You're hands," Dick accentuated this by twisting the fake sword from Jason's hand.

"You're feet..," Dick stabbed the training mat between Gar's feet.

"And you're eyes." Dick was now looking down the dull edge of the wooden sword towards Rachel's face. 

"No matter what is taken, you must be able to keep fighting." Dick lowered the sword and turned towards the other two, "And win. All right get changed, I'll be busy for a few hours so no attack scenarios this morning.  Go have breakfast."

"Yo, look, it's been three months man," Jason said to Dick, "When do I get to go back to Gotham City?"

"Bruce doesn't think you're ready, and neither do I" Dick explained, "Look, man, you blew your privileges."

"What?"

"The Batmobile joyrides, the motorcycle on the staircase." Dick continued.

"I was practising my tactical manoeuvres." Jason tried to reason.

"And those websites you bookmarked?  You know that's not what the batcomputer's used for."

The two argued back and forth before Dick tried a different approach.

"Okay, look, here's the thing," Dick began, "I could actually use some help with the others.  They don't have the experience you have."

"Yeah. Yeah, for sure."

"Have you notice how they sort of look up to you?  Follow your lead?" Dick asked,"When you're on point, they're on point.  When you're not?"

"It's true" Jason smirked.

"They need your leadership, Jason... I'm not Robin anymore.  You are." Dick patted Jason Shoulder as he began heading off towards the tech room. 

"Hey wait," called Jason, "If I'm Robin...Who are you?"

"That's a good question."

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[xxgoblin-dumplingxx]

Sick Little Games: Four

B.C.

Bucky had overheard Thor. The big blonde asking what had happened when he noticed your red eyes and mussed makeup. You’d said it was nothing, but it was clear that he didn’t believe you. Stupid kid, Bucky, scoffed to himself. 

He kept a wide berth of Thor, though, knowing you were going to have a very visceral reaction to being close to Bucky and knowing Thor wasn’t as dumb as people tended to think he was. He watched as Thor tucked you against his side and coaxed you into the car with him, out of the public eye. Thor, probably better than most of the others, understood how alien these press events felt for you. How alienating. 

Supersoldiers, spies, billionaires, heroes... there were movies about them. They permeated popular culture so thoroughly that they seemed relatable. Witches though? Witches in this culture were scary. Alien. Often cultural shorthand for evil. Thor knew better. He knew that you, that your kind of witch was indicative of a pure heart. And he knew that these types of events made you feel exposed. 

“My Lady,” Thor said gently, “Please. You are not alright.”

“I'm just stupid, Thor. It’s fine... I just. I’d like to go home and go to sleep, I think. It’s been a long week.” you tell him, carefully taking off the rest of your make up.

Thor frowned, “Are you sure you wouldn’t like me to speak to someone?”

“Thor, I told you. He isn’t interested... Really he hardly even knows I exist.”

Thor scowled, “He knows enough to know how to hurt you clearly.”

“He didn’t do it on purpose,” you sigh, “He’s not a monster; he’s just...”

Thor smiles a little, “He’s a man.”

You nod, “I can’t... no one could be that malicious, right?” Thor looks down at your face. Big eyes, reddened and tears pooling again even now as you try to tell him it’s okay. 

“No one,” he reassured, brushing a soft kiss against your hair. But in his heart, he knew that wasn’t true. Some men. Some kinds of especially broken men take a heart that’s proffered to them and break it. Crush it in their hands the way he’d seen you crumple thick black earth when you’re tracking something.

Thor stays quiet after that. He leaves you to your thoughts and is careful not to press too hard. Back at the compound, he stays near you as you walk through the doors. And so he doesn’t miss when you flinch away from Bucky when you nearly brush against him. Thor watches you scurry towards an elevator to your room, keeping your head down, a pair of heels in your hand, and he frowns. “Hmm,” he rumbles. That filled in another piece for him. 

“What’s up?” Steve asked, looking between you, still obviously upset and Thor. Thor frowned, “I am not sure. The lady has elected to keep her own counsel.”

“Is she pregnant?” Sam blurted out.

“That’s unlikely,” Thor snorted.

“Is it boy trouble, though?” Clint asked, falling into step with them all.

“I promised the lady that what she told me would be in confidence,” Thor said firmly. 

“So, yes, but you can’t tell us that,” Clint snorted.

Thor’s eyes narrowed, and Clint held up his hand, “I’m not gonna ask her, I just wanted to know if I should be kneecapping someone.”

“Or making a move,” Steve said, rolling his eyes.

Clint flushed and rubbed the back of his neck, “That obvious, huh?”

“Boy,” Sam said, smacking the back of his head, “The only person that HASN’T figured it out is Y/N, and that’s because she’s mostly oblivious to anything that isn’t a rectangle with pages.”

The archer rubbed the back of his head and sighed, “Still, she’s not interested in me. At least not like that.”

“Not yet,” Steve said, shrugging, “I mean. It’s not like you really tried anything.”

“If she’s got boy trouble, it’s with someone else,” Clint reminded.

“You could turn her head... with a hair cut. And a personality transplant,” Sam said.

“Hey, fuck you, I’m charming!” he protested.

“About as charming as roadkill,” Bucky said walking by to the training room

“Fuck you too!”

“Not my type.”

Thor rolled his eyes, and Steve chuckled, “Boys, you’re both pretty.”

“Am I not pretty, Captain?” Thor asked, smirking. His booming laugh echoing off the marble foyer when Steve threw up his hands in exasperation.

___________

You sat at the vanity in your room and surveyed the makeup and brushes you had laid out. Then, you looked at your own face. 

Shaggy hair that needed to be professionally cut instead of it just being you lopping the ends off with a pair of scissors when it got unbearably shaggy. Eyes, lips, nose, cheeks, forehead... all of it was nothing to write home about. Not like the girl Bucky had been whispering to on the balcony. Each whispered word, and lingering kiss had felt like a pin shoved into your heart with devastating accuracy. Hitting every insecurity. 

The stupid thing was, you knew spells and cantrips and potions that could make you as beautiful as that woman. More beautiful even. You could make yourself so earth-shatteringly lovely that men would fight and die just to walk you across the street, but...it would only be an illusion. Like it was for that woman. A dream of a fierce fucking contour and some really beautifully applied eye make up. Anyone could learn to do that part. She’d learned, between Natasha and youtube. Something was soothing about the process of putting the various goop on your face to create the look you wanted to wear. And you were halfway through sculpting your own contour when Natasha burst through your door.

“Oh good, you’re getting ready,” she said, lounging on your bed. 

“Where are we going?” you ask.

“Out,” she said, “Girls night out.”

You nod, accepting this, “Not a club, right?”

“No,” she scoffs, “Wine and canvas.”

“Gods bless Pepper,” you laugh, “Did she book the whole building again?”

“Tony insisted,” Nat said stretching.

“Tony?”

“We’re supposed to be interrogating you about your current boy problems.”

You’re heart stutters, and your hand pauses, halfway through putting eyeliner to your eyes, “Boy trouble?” you say out loud while internally cursing Thor. 

“The boys are convinced you’ve got a crush or something...”

You roll your eyes, “As if I’d tell them before I told you.”

“That’s what I said,” she answered. If you were struggling with some unrequited love, you hid it reasonably well. Natasha hadn’t known about it and still couldn’t get a fix on who the object of your affection might be. Maybe you were getting over it on your own. It’s not like you didn’t have a support network to lean on. Perhaps Thor had been more helpful than he had thought.

_____________

A. C.

You aren’t sure how long you’ve had this specific house. But that’s all it is. A house. It’s lightly furnished. A few dishes, enough furniture to make it comfortable. It’s better than it was. For a couple years, you only had lawn chairs and a mattress on the floor. A few books and some plastic dishes. 

It was a place to go to. You had to drive for almost an hour to get anywhere with a movie theater, and there were woods for miles. It was fine. You felt almost safe. Almost okay. There was no one to come towards you with menace in his face. There was no one to prey on the anxieties in your mind.

At least. At least until a beat-up blue pick up rolled down your driveway. You took mental stock of where your staff was in the house and marshaled a little energy to bear, firming up shields and willing yourself not to look surprised... Until you recognize the man that gets out of the car.

“Clint?” you say, tilting your head, releasing the energy you’re holding, “What are you doing here?”

He lopes towards you with a sheepish smile and stops at the steps, “I- I came to find you.”

“Why?” you ask, “Did something happen?”

“I missed you,” he said, cheeks coloring, “Movie night is no fun without someone that understands how to riff on shit.”

“I don’t have a T.V.,” you tell him, rubbing the back of your neck.

“We don’t- I mean. We can just talk.”

“You drove all the way out here to talk?” you ask, taking a hesitant step down to him.

“I mean- I- We don’t have to talk... I could just take you for ice cream. And tell you you're pretty.” He gives you a little crooked smile and holds out his hand.

“I- I dunno if that’s a good idea, Clint.”

“Since when does that matter?” he teases gently, “I don’t wanna stick my tongue down your throat. I just miss my friend.”

“It’s a 30-minute drive to a dairy queen,” you tell him, taking the hand he’s holding out.

“So... 30-minute concert with yours truly as the featured Artist,” he laughed, “Good thing I put new batteries in my hearing aids.”

You giggle and for the first time since he found out you’d left, Clint feels like himself. And it feels good as he helps you up into the passenger seat. 

Tags: @lancsnerd, @thorfanficwriter @blameitonthecauseway @etherealwaifgoddess, @stevieang, @beautybyfire, @sunmoonandbucky @mrsfox79, @bbmommy0902, @mendes-fan, @iheartsebastianstan, @wtfcas @pinknerdpanda, @process-pending, @ladifreakingda, @leasly, @coldbookworm, @hv-chw3, @past-perfect-future-tense, @starkrobb @beardburnsupersoldiers

[dolce-fritz]

So being the new evil girlfriend is fun

So recently my Partner has had some majorly stupid ass drama with their ex. Like this girl, she’s loopier then the Olympic oval, Like normally I’m nice and don’t slander people but like. She’s just, hoo boy. A mess.

And yeah this is from a completely biased stand point. And I’m about to tell you why that I feel the way that I do about this girl from my own experiences. This is going to be long winded, so I’m putting it under a read more. 

So I moved from the lovely state of Utah this year, my homelifes never been 100% great. I love my mom but our issues clash and we do better separate. Not to mention I really wanted to try it out in another state again and this time the right way and not just a spur of the moment decision while i visited like what happened with Florida.

Well, planned my vacation to See my at the time friend to see if I really liked it there.  I knew about their recent split with their Ex, and the two seemed pretty amicable about it. The other roommate was.... hoo, a mess to say the least. and My friend didn't want to be alone with her because they actually had been wanting to tell her to leave because of the issues that she'd brought into the home. anyways that in itself was a bit of drama.

So I was like OK. I'll come check it out and if I like it I'll be your new room mate.

Well. I plan my trip about four weeks out. and end up pretty excited about it. Come to find out with no real surprise that My friends Ex is going to move out before Octobers over.

My friend starts panicking. again doesn't wanna be alone with the other roommate that they're having hardships with. So I say ok... I'm going to do this vacation, then im just going to move on the 20th so I can get my stuff packed.

Shits already starting to go down hill.

I get there. everything seems fine. The ex seems nice, things seem ok. the other roommates.... already trying to cause shit with me and im not even physically in the house. I'm sleeping on a mattress on the floor in an old office space. bought a bunch of furniture because at this point. I know I'm moving here. Its going to happen. This is where I'm going to live might as well help my friend end up getting it taken care of.

Well. Day three of my vacation hits. The ex drops that her dad wants her to move out that day. completely screws the pooch for my friend and the other roommate. And basically bails on them and leaves the house just with the things she wants and then just leaves all the rest of her junk here like its her own storage unit. claims she’ll be back for the rest [ Spoilers never happened]  so that... right there puts this sour taste in my mouth. Cause yeah, me and her ex at that point are sharing a bed. Because like theres only three beds in the house until she ends up leaving and so my friends like ill just sleep with you. me i’m very fine sharing my sleeping space with my friends. i’ve done it literally all my life. hell a its not a goodnight sleep unless your on your best friends bed snuggling the shit out of her kaneki ken body pillow listening to true crime documentaries on the TV but like seriously it was no big deal to me. which im begining to wonder if it was a big deal to her. Either way apparently instead of waiting till i officially moved. she bailed and forced my hand. So I had to stay, I couldn’t properly say goodbye to my mom. couldn’t properly get my shit packed. all cause I really didn’t want to leave my friend alone till I could officially move in. So already, I started getting a slight distaste in my mouth for her. but I let it slide. I know how overbearing parents are sometimes.  well, so i cancelled my flights. money spent that i was never going to end up getting back that I could’ve later used towards something for the house.  The girl left. and I was left, Cleaning up the mess that she walked out of and left behind.  Turns out my friend was the only one that was cleaning up around the house. and working a part time job, while trying to side hustle some art for extra money.  They were the one that was handling all the utilities, while their ex was buying everyone food. Separate it would’ve been an easier task if it was just the two of them. but you add in the extra roommate that was only paying her share of rent and none of the food and utilities and shit starts piling up. Well.  sat down and looked at all the finances. found out that while yeah the Ex was making the most money. She didn’t bother to help out with any of the chores. I mean, they split the dish duty. And i’m sitting here wondering how long this pan of fish oils been on the stove for. had to buy new pans cause they were growing cultures.  Hell half her chores and the other roomates were doing the cat boxes. dude it was shit mountain in there. it was so bad the cats were going in the corner. Yet it was like my friend was expected to pick up after them and pick up their slack because they didn’t work as many hours as the other two. Which I’m sorry. if you can’t balance cleaning up after yourself. and working how the hell are you going to live on your own.  Well in comes me, the living off disability. [ which is not a glorious life] I have a lot of time on my hands. so first few days we douche out the house. things start looking good.  in comes the ex to get something and brings this utter douchebag of a man that boasts about him being the whole reason that they broke up. Which like when we were moving out the ex. the ex’s dads...girlfriend??? was like dont let them take advantage of you. which like made me pull up a shit ton of questionmarks. cause yeah i wasn’t going to let the other roommate do that cause i was kinda aware what her game was and it wasn’t playable with me.  everyone had their part to play in this household, and I wasn’t going to play mother for anyone. Well in comes this guy. boast about how he wont let anyone take advantage of her again and im like sure w/e dude. but like i started like... questioning wtf she was actually telling people that my friend actually did to her.  see, what i was told was that it was an intimacy issue. my friends pretty Asexual so like there wasn’t alot of physical involvement. and that things just weren’t going the way that their ex wanted them to. Turns out it was SOOOO much more then that. so curious me, got digging about this girl cause shit just wasnt really adding up.  and I started finding out things. At this time, friend started turning to partner. and eventually we started dating which made shit a lot more uncomfortable with me and this girl. cause yanno, new girlfriend. ex girlfriend. two things dont usually mesh well in situations like this.  Well so, started finding out that while in a relationship she was leading on a bunch of other guys, and at work would like do this whole “im bi” thing if the guy was cute. like she was very male centered for a “lesbian”  She was super horny on main during DND which made EVERYONE uncomfortable. to top it all off she was a narcissist, that had a victim that she could toy with.  She tried to convince my partners parents while they were still together, to talk to their child when there were behaviours that she didnt like. She tried to have an intervention with their friends to force them into transitioning FtM when they were happy just being nonbinary.  they would gaslight them, manipulate them, and  abuse them. I watched this girl in the span of three weeks tear my partner down with her words in front of me. and be nothing but venomous to them. for no other reason then they were actually happy.   While spining all these stories of how she was the one that was wronged.  Well, I started having enough of her coming around just so she could be mean to my partner. She’d come over. immediately go to our fridge to drink some of the booze she left and then pick at my partner for small insignificant things only because she wanted to fight. When i had enough of that. I told my partner, we’re going to DnD early. she can find her own ride.  She came to a family party, invited unknowingly by my partners brother that’s been over seas and in the military. She thought she was going to get a hookup complained she wasn’t having fun because he wasn’t paying attention to her. Snapped at my partners nephews because they wanted to play and made one of them cry. and was just toxic to be around.  That was strike two.  Strike three was watching how she conducted herself around our dnD group. she’d had this guy, mister “ i saved you from your bad relationship” on speed dial, and would tell him things. and then sit and shit talk him when she was bored with him to everyone. We were all sick of it.  The ending straw with me, was when we finally wanted to be done with this drama. told her three months before hand to get off the car insurance. and it wasn’t done. ended up causing a big thing.  She started saying that she’d leave the DND group to make things easier. because Thats what my partner would want. At this point i couldnt stand it any longer. Three months talking to everyone that physically knows her. and see’s what she’s becoming lead everyone to say the same thing about her She was turning into her mother.  No i know fuck all about that. i dont know her mother, i dont know anything about her. I know she’s on a shot that fucks with your brain and ends up messing with your body. I also was on the DEPO shot for three years of my life and its caused so many problems after i was off it.  and thats what i tried to impart to her my wisdom on.  therapy, and a depo shot.  now how we got there is really long winded, and highly dramatic.  id admitted to her our dnd group wanted to chat. she was pushy, respected no ones boundaries, and left our friends house a complete mess. just like she left ours... and god, she ended up pissing me off cause the girl left slippers caked in cat puke in my tub after staining my bathroom doing her hair dye. she disrespected my home, she disrespected out friends, and our friends home. and she was needlessly mean and cruel to everyone around her that didnt serve some purpose to her.  So yeah she had to go.  Here i am thinking that this is the end of it. but i get updates about how I’m apparently the worst abuser in the world just cause I told some spoiled brat of a woman to get off a shot that messes with the brain, and to seek therapy cause this girl needs help. Funny thing is im not the only one that said it. apprently just the loudest voice to have said it.  and this bitch still thinks i dont like her cause she’s not ‘ providing for us financially” We may not have a high roller life. but damn we’re doing just fucking fine. 

[returnofdalivindead]

title ; corrupting luhan chapter ; three of ? pairing ; kailu | hunhan rating ; nc-17 warnings ; rape, underaged (teen x teen) length ; ? summary ; -- aff link (with prologue)

The following week was when Jongin and Sehun made contact with him again. He was nervous and frightened as it was, worried what was next to come, because he knew this was far from the end. It couldn't be with the last time. If they had given him space in hopes of having him calm down, they had definitely failed. Luhan doubted that was the case though, more so suspecting them of doing it on purpose. Make him suffer longer with the unknown.

The boy had been in the middle of playing one of his favorite games on his laptop, when his phone buzzed next to him, another buzz soon following. It had taken him a minute or two to get to it, clearing up the final bits of the quest he was in the middle of, before he checked it. Games as of late, having worked as a great way to get his minds of things. Sort of.

It was from a number he didn't know, reading 'you should be a model, sweetheart.'

The 'sweetheart' already revealed who the sender was, and as if to confirm it and the statement that went with the text, was a picture attached. Showing Luhan, fully naked in the school's bathroom, undoubtedly in the middle of pleasuring himself. From how it was shot, you couldn't even see he was forced into it. Looking at his own face in the picture, it looked like he was enjoying it.

Tears started welling up in his eyes instantly, but he tried holding them back, automatically deleting the picture sent to at least get rid of some of the evidence, as he clutched his phone a little harder in his hand, head hanging low. This had been one of his worst fears, his pretty little head already off assuming they had sent that picture around to others as well. Why wouldn't they? Sure would be in their nature.

He didn't reply the text, not seeing what there was to say, left in his own misery for another couple of minutes before his phone buzzed anew. Shakingly, he checked what it said, afraid it would be a matching picture featuring a headless Sehun and Jongin as well. Their identity kept safe, while they molested him.

'wanna chat??'

No, was what Luhan wanted to reply if he were to reply anything. No matter what the direction was they were gonna take this, he wasn't gonna like it, and it all just became too much. He was left in thought, nothing much but a minute passed before his phone now was going off with his ringtone. He stared at it for a good few seconds, considering rejecting it, turning his phone off and just throwing it aside for now, but his slim fingers seemed to act on their own, thumb sliding towards green.

Slowly he took it to his ear, still not saying anything, but that choked out sob he tried keeping in, wasn't as silent as he wanted it to be.

"Sweetheart, what's the matter? What's gotten you all upset?" It was Sehun's voice. Without the mockery tone, but his words did that just fine on their own.

"W-Who --" Luhan stuttered, struggling to get the words out, and mind all the more in a mess with what Sehun just said to him, he knew damn well what was wrong. Some gibberish followed, ending with a stuttered version of 'the pictures'.

This was the least articulate Luhan had ever sounded, if Luhan had heard a recording of his own voice, he likely wouldn't have been able to make sense of it himself, but Sehun somehow did. At least the main point of what Luhan was trying to say. "Who else have seen the pictures?"

"Ye-Yeah..." Luhan cried, bothered with how calm Sehun sounded. It was like this, none of this, didn't bother him the slightest.

"No one, of course. Just Jongin and I. And well, your photographer."

That calmed Luhan a tiny bit, but really just that; tiny bit. He knew they were either going to, or was gonna threaten him into doing something for the pictures. Yet, his desperate want to just having them gone, showed instead. "Delete t-them, please."

"Aw, look at you asking all politely, how cute, but no. They are, like, star quality, so it is only fair you do a little something in return for that to happen, don't you think? I mean, I would hate to let such good pictures go." If Sehun had told him that two months ago, he would have said it with definite sarcasm, trying to belittle Luhan and make him feel horrible, but Luhan didn't get quite the same feeling this time. He made him feel horrible alright, but he wasn't making fun of him.

When all Sehun got was some more loud sobbing from the other end, he continued. "We will delete it then. Do something for us, and we will do something for you, what do you say?"

"How do I k-know you aren't l-lying again?" Luhan asked after some seconds of crying, clearly winning no sympathy points from Sehun by it.

"I didn't lie the first time, you didn't keep your end of the deal first. Anyway, you can't know, all I can give you is my word, and I promise, we will delete it afterwards."

Luhan was silent for longer then, and Sehun let him take his time, only knowing a fraction of the shit that was going on in his head right now. Luhan really didn't want them to touch him again - certain that was what they were gonna go for -, but the thought of what others would think of him if they saw those pictures seemed to be the greater of two evils right now.

His classmates, his teachers, his family... he feared they all would think of him as a slut who wanted it all along. Who didn't only want what Sehun and Jongin did to him, but wanted it in pictures to look back at. Thinking about how ashamed his parents would be, got to him the most, his mind even went as far as to worry they would kick him out, not only for being slutty, but a gay whore at that. Who seemingly didn't find one boy enough either.

"... I'll do whatever y-you want me to," Luhan eventually said, still crying but his free hand still for some reason came up to wipe some tears out of his eyes.

"That's my boy, such a good boy, sweetheart," Sehun said, letting out a low hum.

It sounded odd? And threw Luhan off for a brief second, until he heard Sehun let out a short, very deepened, sigh afterwards. When the image of Sehun touching himself to their little chat, flashed before his eyes, he quickly hung up. Throwing his phone on the bed right next to him, staring at it. No texts or calls followed, and oddly enough, that had Luhan cry harder. Worrying it had all been in his head, and Sehun hadn't been stroking his dick while talking to him at all, he didn't get turned on by Luhan crying in his ear. He then turned his phone off, and had it so for the rest of the weekend.

He spent the rest of his weekend mainly in bed crying, curled up into himself. Lost in his own thoughts that seemed to come up with one scenario worse than the other, especially for hanging up on Sehun like that. Yet he couldn't bring himself to contact him again.

-

To his surprise, after turning his phone back on late Sunday evening to set his alarm for Monday, there was no missed calls or texts - at least not from Sehun. Or Jongin for that matter. It took some stress off Luhan's mind, but he stilled needed a good three hours before falling asleep, because his mind kept running in circles of what would happen the day after. He woke up quite a few times during the night as well, yet when he got up, it couldn't be seen.

His mood was clearly down, but he looked less sleep deprived because for now, he was just very alert for what would happen.

His morning routine went as it usually did; taking his morning pee sitting like he preferred, taking a shower, getting dressed, and brushing his teeth and hair. Skipping his breakfast for this one, which didn't go unnoticed by his father, but he made up some half-hearted excuse as to why he didn't have the time. He had to meet someone to get the last bits of a group assignment in place before class started. A decent lie, if it had come out of anyone but Luhan's mouth. The furniture around him wasn't even convinced.

Luhan didn't reach his first class before he ran into Sehun and Jongin, it seemed they had been waiting for him.

"Sweetheart, wanna go for a chat?" Sehun's voice gained his attention, his wording sounding much like the text he had sent him two days earlier. "Somewhere more private?"

They were outside Luhan's classroom, and Luhan had just been about to enter, thinking he was safe for now. Luhan had stopped, turning around to look at them, while a few of his classmates went past him and in. One of Luhan's hands followed the strap of his backpack, clutching the strap. "Class is a-about to start..." Luhan said, hoping that excuse would fly with them.

"It will be quick," Jongin said, smiling but Luhan didn't find it comforting or convincing. "Nothing will happen," he tried assuring him then, and although Luhan didn't buy it, he hesitantly nodded his head, fearing the consequences if he refused them too much. They did take him somewhere more private, but as if to keep him more at ease, they took him outside. Out public, with people able to see them but unable to hear them. It made Luhan feel a little better, even if he knew nothing good would come out of their mouths. And right he was.

"You hung up on me before we could discuss the details last Friday, sweetheart," his voice was dripping with a sweetness, Luhan didn't like. Neither did he like how he kept calling him sweetheart. This had been his thing for awhile now.

When Luhan didn't say anything to it, Jongin seemed to pick up for him, as if he was helping Luhan. "Like where to --"

"Not here! Not in sc-school!" Luhan interrupted him, biting his tongue as soon as he said it, already regretting it. He wasn't in a position to make demands, and he felt they were gonna make that very clear now. But quite contrary to what he was expecting, Jongin smiled at his rushed interruption.

"Then where would you like to do it, precious?"

Luhan's head gave a little unwanted shake at that pet name, not expecting it, and certainly not liking it, but he didn't dare telling him to cut it out. Instead he tried thinking up an answer to his question.

He would be most comfortable in his own home, and in his own bed, then he would feel guaranteed there would be no cameras filming their new activities too, but he didn't wanna create any bad memories in a place he was supposed to feel safe. He wanted that to remain a Sehun and Jongin free zone. With one of them? As much as he hated the idea of exposing himself like that again, it was the only place he could come up with.

"I g-guess with one of you...." he muttered, avoiding eye contact, as he tried ignoring the gross feeling that came with that sentence. Not so much over what they were supposed to do there, but he realized they had him pick a place as if he wanted part of it. "W-Will you then delete all of it?" he dared asking, looking more at Sehun, even if he knew there was no way Jongin didn't have the same copies.

Sehun nodded then. "Of course," he said, and he seemed genuine, but Luhan never really knew with these two. Sehun took a step forward, so Luhan felt he was dangerously close. "Shall we set a day later then? So that pretty ass of yours get some proper rest time?" Sehun let a hand around Luhan, to pat said ass, and it instantly had Luhan take a step away from him, getting all emotional again, he could feel he was about to cry, and he bet they could see it too. Grossed out he would call his butt pretty on top of that. Didn't make it better he vaguely heard Jongin say he thought he already had enough rest time. It was like they already had discussed this among each other, and that thought was scary. He felt they were gonna trick him in some way.

Much to Jongin's delight, Luhan sided with him, though. Again, just sort of. "I-I just want this to be over," he stuttered, trying to will away his tears. The sooner he got it over, the sooner the pictures would be gone. Some part of him knew this was just them trying to make him say he wanted it sooner, their smiles told him so much. They really only heard what they wanted to.

"What a good sport, you are, precious," Jongin smiled, a little too wide so it couldn't be classed as anything but a smirk. They gave him a date and time then, tomorrow after school. Luhan nodded, vision getting more blurry with tears and he quickly spun around and walked away then, heading for the boys' room, because he definitely wasn't ready to head for class just yet.

As he reentered the school, he walked past a girl who most certainly noticed he was crying. She didn't say anything, but he noticed the worried expression on her face, as much as he vaguely recognized her as the girl who had given him Jongin's address. Seeing Jongin and Sehun standing together outside where Luhan came from likely made it very easy for her to figure out what made him cry too. That was their thing, and she had warned him.

-

The wait for it had felt horrible. He had been nervous and on edge, never really trusting any of his seniors, so he still worried the pictures of him would come out before he got to do anything for them. Regardless, he still reached his nervous peak when he was back in Jongin's room with the two others. Not more than having been led in before they went to his room. Luhan kept himself near the door at first, he had left his stuff out by his bike so he didn't have something with him they could take from him.

They were alone, and Luhan had found it weird when he had offered him something to drink before they got started. It felt like he was trying to be nice, to calm his nerves perhaps, but in the back of Luhan's mind he just suspected they would drug him and do things far worse.

Proving he truly expected the worse from them, when he entered the older boy's room, his pretty eyes had been busy scanning the room as well. Looking for any type of hidden camera. Apparently not being as discreet with it as he thought, because Jongin took notice. Sehun likely did too.

"Do you wanna check the room first?" Jongin asked, voice neutral, and it had Luhan flush, feeling awkward as he shook his head no, even if he wanted to. He just didn't want to risk them getting mad with him. There was something else he dared asking, however.

"Will you d-delete the picture first?"

He had been looking at Jongin, but when he out of the corner of his eye saw Sehun shake his head no, he turned to look at him. "No, sweetheart. After," Sehun said.

There really was no guarantee they were speaking the truth, and that was upsetting. He felt like a fool for going along.

Jongin was closest to him, and he more than anything noticed the tears threatening to well up in Luhan's eyes. Luhan suspected it was a failed attempt to comfort him that had him close what little space that was left between them to kiss him, fully on the lips, but keeping it gentle, it was all lips really, just pressing them together. Giving Luhan all the chances he wanted to back out of it, and he was stupid enough to do so. Regretting he did so, but unexpectedly, Jongin didn't get mad. Rather than get mad, he saw the older's eyes trail down his body, clear desire in his eyes.

"Take your clothes off and sit down," he then said, motioning towards the bed. As much as he would love to undress Luhan himself, he figured Luhan would be more comfortable doing it himself. He was right with that assumption too. Luhan wasn't crazy fast stripping down, the same feelings of being nervous and scared strong within him, with their eyes following his every move, but he did it significantly faster than when they had asked that of him in the bathroom. His underwear stayed on for a little longer than the rest, but eventually he pulled those down as well, skinny legs stepping all the way out of them, while he suppressed a sniffle.

Small hands instinctively came to cover himself up. His penis, which he also felt a bit foolish doing, because that likely was the part of him they cared for the least. He then walked past Jongin and sat down as he had been instructed. Feet still securely placed on the floor as he looked between them, waiting for what was coming next.

Feeling exposed he was the only one naked, but on the flip side happy he didn't have to look at their dicks for now. Jongin was the one who stepped up to him, almost as if he had first dibs because it was his home, Luhan thought.

A hand came to Luhan's scrawny chest, fingertips grazing one of Luhan's nipples, before he gave him a gentle push. Not nearly hard enough for Luhan to fall back, but good enough to get his point across, so Luhan lied down, butt still near the edge of the bed, which felt a little weird, but he didn't question him. Neither did he resist, when Jongin's hand pulled his hand off his crotch. "Pull your legs up for me, precious," he said instead.

Luhan did as he said, or did as he thought he wanted. He felt a little unsure, pulling his legs up, while letting his delicate hands to the back of his thighs, closer to the knee. He didn't know if this was exactly what he wanted, but it got everything between his legs nicely exposed, so he thought it might be. Neither did Jongin complain, he more admired him. His privates, the cheeks of his ass especially.

Feeling a little uncomfortable under his stare, Luhan turned his pretty head to look at Sehun. Seeing he wasn't much better, he just seemed more interested in his face and nipples, that definitely had Luhan look away from him. No part of him wanted eye contact with any of them.

As he had been looking at Sehun, Jongin had stepped all the way up too, and had now kneeled down between his legs, hands at last coming to touch him. Touching the back of his thighs to be specific, going a little up to feel the fullness of them, and at the same time helping Luhan keep them up. His touches were as soft as Luhan's skin was, and that weirded Luhan a little out, but he kept quiet, eyes fixated on Jongin now.

Eventually Jongin's hands went down again, and Luhan could feel him touching his cheeks, thumbs dipping in between to spread them and see his cute little hole. Jongin knew he wasn't turned on, his small dick was still as flaccid as they came, but the little twitch it gave with the exposure gave a nice illusion.

Luhan was growing a little anxious, sensing where this was going, but not quite believing it could be so at the same time. His mind couldn't comprehend why Jongin would be the slightest bit interested in doing so, but sure enough, shortly after feeling the older boy's breath on his hole, something much wetter followed.

It brought an odd sensation to Luhan, not so much the act of him doing so but the why he would be doing this. It was one thing he wanted to stick his dick up there, this was something entirely different. Luhan was nicely hairless down there though, and everything was just so nice and smooth, some part of Jongin had a harder time seeing why someone would not wanna do it.

Luhan's entrance was tightly closed shut, but as he felt Jongin's tongue on it, running around the wrinkled rim and prodding to get inside, it gave small twitches of want. Luhan's entire body had been tense, but with this happening, he could slowly feel himself loosening up, he was afraid Jongin could feel that too.

One of Jongin's thumbs went a little closer to his opening as he was licking, pressing down in an attempt to make it open up a bit and make it easier for his tongue, and he succeeded in doing so. Soon, Luhan felt his tongue press inside of him.

It felt unexpectedly nice. The sounds that went with it was as well, it sounded very wet, and it was getting to Luhan. His body took the greatest liking to it, and soon Sehun was able to tell too. He figured it out when he saw Luhan get more emotional, until then he had seen him be full of confusion and discomfort and his face then turn into one of like, now it was a mixture of that and him growing upset. Sehun figured it was because he was enjoying it, and he was feeling ashamed because of it, and sure enough, when he let his eyes travel down Luhan's skinny body to his mid section - what was between those heavenly thick thighs -, was a growing hard on.

Luhan felt uneasy when Sehun got up in bed next to him, though it was a little better his senior was still wearing clothes. At least that meant he didn't have to deal with his dick just yet, but he knew that was coming.

One of his hands followed the length of Luhan's skinny arm, all the way up towards his hand holding onto his leg. He pulled in Luhan's hand lightly, wanting him to let go, and Luhan did. For a second fearing he would make him touch his dick or something of the kind, but he did none of that, he just allowed Luhan to relax more. Which was impossible given the situation, but it helped him a little. The young beauty slowly realizing the only reason Jongin had asked that of him was for his hands to find purpose, and to prevent him from covering up. Some part of him appreciated Jongin doing that as well.

As much as he would have preferred being allowed to cover himself up, especially as he was getting aroused, he was a little pleased he had known what to do with his hands. Carefully, Luhan removed his other hand from his leg as well, not covering himself up, because he knew that would end up with another request.

Sehun's hand then grazed Luhan's flat stomach, leading it up Luhan's torso to his chest and nipples. Luhan's chest was heaving up and down notably because of what Jongin was doing to him below, and Luhan felt himself grow anxious all over with Sehun's touches, more so over not knowing what would happen, when really all he did, was touch his nipples.

Play with them some, and give Luhan another spark of pleasure from somewhere else, even if nothing compared to what Jongin was doing to his hole. Where he now could feel it wasn't just his tongue intruding below, that was most certainly a finger entering him as well.

Luhan started crying like that, feeling overwhelmed and lost because everything they were doing just felt nice. He knew he shouldn't enjoy it, but he did, so he felt bad.

Saliva had made his ass nice and wet, that made it very easy for Jongin to drag his fingers back and forth, now having come up on two. Allowing them to reach deeper within Luhan than his tongue could, so he could put some more pressure on his prostate and add to his pleasure. He could see how it had Luhan's thighs visibly shake, and how it let him show more off his bodily needs - even if he didn't wish to.

The sweet and pleasurable approach was definitely the way to go with this pretty boy, if you wanted him to be willing, that much had become clear.

In the end, Jongin spend more time fingering him now. At times dipping his head in to let his tongue lick, all of his doings getting low little moans out of Luhan. It was getting to him, that much was clear. Getting to him to the point, Jongin and Sehun knew damn well he had an orgasm building up. Luhan hated them still, and was crying about as much as he was moaning at this point, if not a little less, but physically they made him feel so good.

They were more into pleasing him it seemed, it left Luhan's mind in a mess, and brought him an orgasm much quicker, than even they thought they would be able to get out of him. It was humiliating coming from Jongin rimming and fingering him, but he felt so helpless, there was nothing he could do about it.

The flat stomach Sehun had briefly grazed earlier, was soon decorated with Luhan's own cum as he came, more of a broken cry leaving his lips as he did, as well as he moaned. Meanwhile, his thighs shook more, as his body did a little twitch as his orgasm washed over him.

"You're so pretty, sweetheart," he heard Sehun say, hands not as much on him now, but he clearly still had a hard time keeping them off him completely. His words didn't make Luhan feel any better, even if the compliment was genuine. He thought he was pretty coming though.

Luhan looked at Sehun as he said it, but when he saw movement from Jongin's side, he quickly turned to look at him. Feeling more unsure what he was gonna do than Sehun, because Sehun stayed put for now. Jongin went to bring out some lube, that wasn't much more than a couple of feet away from him, that got Luhan nervous in a whole other way.

Now feeling more certain he was just gonna fuck him in his sensitive state. He always expected the worst from them, so seeing that, he assumed he had just done all of the for him so he would get too sensitive for his dick. In his easily confused mind, it felt like a slap to the face, as if Jongin was calling him a slut, and didn't want him coming from his dick as well.

Which didn't really add up with some of their previous doings, but Luhan couldn't see that now.

Unexpectedly, Jongin didn't start lubing up his ass for him to enter. Instead what he could see him do was pull his fat cock out, that had gotten erect from what had been going on already, and smear some lube on that instead. Luhan felt uncomfortable watching Jongin stroke himself with the lube, looking aside when he felt his hole give a little twitch. Some part of him definitely had started to like the size of Jongin, Jongin really was huge.

Instead of sticking his dick up Luhan's ass next, despite it being more than just ready for him, Jongin's hands went to the boy's thighs and made him close them, pressing his dick in between them. The fullness of Luhan's thighs feeling so good for his dick. Luhan hadn't seen this coming, but some part of him was appreciative Jongin didn't stick it in him. The other thought he would end up doing it anyway, and was just dancing around the unavoidable.

For Luhan, he didn't get a whole lot of sexual pleasure out of some thigh fucking of course, but feeling a throbbing cock rub against him, and so close to his actual hole, slight sparks of excitement came within Luhan. Hole clenching for Jongin, which Luhan was glad the position didn't allow Jongin to notice. Fearing he would see it as more of an offer.

It was a slippery experience because of the lube, and that was exactly what Jongin had aimed for. It felt great, not quite as good as other parts of Luhan, but it was still more than enough. His big hands was holding Luhan's legs firmly, keeping them together, and being able to feel him up all at the same time, definitely being considered a win-win for Jongin.

Due to Jongin's size, feeling the thickness of him turned Luhan on, and at the same time, looking towards his own legs, how long Jongin was allowed Luhan to see the head of his dick on more than one occasion. It was upsetting to him how this as well turned him on, feeling Jongin's balls slap against him had the same effect.

They fell heavily against the backside of his thighs, echoing with a slapping sound of skin connecting, and Luhan started crying all over again feeling himself harden anew. Feeling betrayed by his own body, yet again. As much as he didn't want this, his body seemed to like dick, especially the feeling of it against him. And the look of it too, indicating it was something big that got Luhan going.

Luhan would have been more fine with these discoveries about his sexuality, if it had happened any other way.

To make it worse, he had Sehun sit next to him, touching him here and there, but nothing too inappropriate. Luhan's head having been lifted up into Sehun's lap as Jongin had readjusted his body for his own use as well. Luhan knew Sehun was hard, and that he most certainly would take his turn with him afterwards, but he couldn't feel his hard-on press against the back of his head, something Luhan as well thought was unlike Sehun.

Sehun had played some with his nipples - he couldn't help it really, they looked so cute and attention-seeking -, but when Luhan started crying more noticeably, they came more of it. He stroked the tears away from Luhan's pretty face, while gently shushing him, trying to make him calm down, but failing. He also allowed his fingers to run thought Luhan's soft hair in a way to soothe him, and although Luhan would've liked the gesture normally, he couldn't when the one doing it was Sehun.

"What a good boy you are, sweetheart," Sehun said, a certain type of sweetness to his voice, that Luhan found unsettling. Luhan knew he was talking about him getting hard. He cried some more, shaking his head in denial, refusing to look at what Jongin was doing now, just as much because he sensed Jongin was nearing his orgasm.

Jongin was thrusting between his thighs, going a little faster knowing his climax wasn't too far off. Eyes either taking in Luhan's pretty legs, or trailing up his light body to take in his equally pretty face. Even through tears he looked absolutely beautiful.

When Jongin came, most of his release ended up between Luhan's thighs, some going to the top of his thighs, with even less ending up on the boy's flat stomach, joining his own release. As gross as it felt, Luhan certainly favored that over him coming inside of him, and himself having to clean his hole after Jongin.

Jongin stayed a little, hips still stuttering forward as he released everything on Luhan with his cock going limp. Luhan could feel the transition from hard to soft, and he wasn't so sure how he felt about it at that point. Mainly it was relief, but there was something else too, that Luhan tried not to think about.

With Jongin moving away from him, Sehun moved as well, doing the inevitable at this point. As Luhan had expected, he moved to stand where Jongin had not too long ago, looking at the mess of cum and lube he had left behind. Luhan's legs were closed, while his feet was flat against the bed, but a light push from Sehun had his legs fall apart.

Nudging one of his knees to have Luhan do the rest of his own, letting him see what was between. He looked enough for Luhan to feel uncomfortable and self-conscious under his stare, feeling like he was judging him.

Sehun had been supposed to do the same as Jongin, stay out of his little twitching hole, but he wasn't so sure he could at this point. Resisting his mouth as Jongin thigh fucked him had been hard enough, watching his lips as he panted, cried and moaned. It would have been so easy to shove his dick right in there, but he hadn't.

But now, seeing this. Luhan looked so defiled and filthy, hit him a little harder. Not only that, he knew his hole was ready for it, he had been prepared, and the lube Jongin had used, had followed gravity and gave his dick, balls and ass cheeks a pretty shine. Sure, none had gone inside of him, but Sehun could fix that.

"Turn around for me, sweetheart, get on all fours," Sehun told him, and Luhan looked hesitant. Not much to do as he said, however a raised eyebrow from Sehun slowly had him listen.

If he had the least bit of self-restraint left at this point, it was gone seeing his ass like that, sticking out towards him. Sehun nudged a hand between his legs to make him spread them, ignoring what he got on his hand in return, because it felt absolutely worth it seeing Luhan like this. His actions earned him a questionable look from Jongin, but he didn't say anything. Really he seemed more concerned about Luhan, looking at him for reaction. Jongin had his dick cleaned up and pants pulled back up at this point.

It was obvious what was gonna happen next, all three knew it. When Sehun got his dick out and covered it with lube, it wasn't to fuck his thighs, he was aiming for something more, and sure enough, Luhan soon felt Sehun's slickened dick slip into his stretched hole.

While Luhan's body got exactly what he had been needing, Luhan hated it.

He hated how thick he felt inside of him. He hated how he slowly pushed all of him inside, before Luhan felt absolutely full. He hated how he could feel him throb within him, and he hated how he could hear Sehun pant. And as something minor compared to all of that, he hated when Sehun's hands settled on each side of his narrow hips and held him there as he started bucking into him.

The slapping sounds that had come when Jongin fucked his thighs came again, now just aided by some very squelchy sounds as well. How he was fucking into the boy, leading Luhan to rest on his boney elbows instead, trying to keep himself steady so Sehun would have less of a tight grip on him. With that, he also felt like Sehun could go in deeper.

As dirty as Luhan felt on the inside, he was starting to do on the outside too. His thighs now just felt gross after Jongin, so unclean, while Sehun would make sure his hole wasn't much better soon enough, Luhan assumed.

As much as Jongin wished he had been in Sehun's place, and worried this would get Luhan more hysterical than necessary, he also knew to get him to admit he liked dick, he needed dick. He would just rather have been the one providing it. It was tempting to get a second go at the boy after Sehun, but he knew that was pushing it. Luhan was already dancing around his breaking point. They wouldn't be able to push him much further than they had now. Not today at least.

Before Sehun came, Luhan did. The constant, trusty thrusts against his prostate turned a little too good for him to handle, and his second orgasm hit him. Tiny penis squirting his juices out on the sheet beneath him, as his body shook. He felt ashamed, and scared they would mock him for it. Wouldn't be a first. It was humiliating someone he hated got his body and mind in such a pleasant mess too.

Sehun could feel he wouldn't last much longer than that either. Luhan tightened in on him as he came, and he cried - and actual cry of distress -, so Sehun bucked into him a few more times before he pulled out. Smirking at how Luhan's hole gaped at him so hungrily. Even after he had come, he wanted more. He was truly perfect.

Post-orgasm, Luhan's mind barely picked up what was happening. But his limbs had threatened to give in, which earned him a warned 'stay put, sweetheart'. He didn't realize Sehun had stroked himself into completion until after he felt stripes of cum splatter across his white ass, in what Sehun thought was a messy piece of art.

Luhan's hole was still twitching as Sehun came on him, always needy as ever it seemed, and Jongin and Sehun loved that. Jongin had gotten up behind Luhan now as well, while Sehun tugged himself away, both just looking at his bottom, and now that Luhan felt, their staring. Luhan sniffled, bravely turning around to sit so his front was towards them. Delicate hand ending up in his lap, while his pretty nipples was still hard and exposed.

Meanwhile, his other hand came up to wipe his eyes, trying to rid of some of his tears. "I-I did as you wanted, now it is your t-turn," he said, feeling safe enough saying it considering their dicks weren't out. He assumed that meant they were done with him, but if anything, he guessed he should have learned not to assume things.

He had looked at them as he said it, both of them, but then looked to the side. For something to clean himself up with, at least get the worst of it, before he could get his clothes back on. He felt too exposed like this.

"Of course, precious," Jongin said, getting out his phone, and Luhan's eyes was back on him as he stepped closer to him. His suspicion that Jongin also had copies of his pictures, proving to be right. Figures. Jongin sat down beside Luhan, and Luhan wasn't so sure how he felt about that. He was still too naked to feel comfortable with it, but he did want to see to make sure he actually did it.

He saw Jongin was in his photo album, and he clicked on one of the pictures, Luhan letting out an unintended sob seeing it in the full. It was of all three of them. But he felt a bit of happiness seeing Jongin click the trashcan then, and actually delete it. But then he went out of his pictures again, and a confused expression came to Luhan's pretty features.

Both were watching him, looking for a reaction it felt like, and that they got, once it occurred to Luhan what just happened. Mind a little slower than usual with everything that had happened.

"Delete the rest t-too!" Luhan's voice was so high pitched due to his crying and whatnot, Jongin damn near regretted sitting so close to him.

"You gotta earn that first, sweetheart," Sehun told him, and that only seemed to break Luhan more down.

"I did as you w-wanted," Luhan accused.

"And we did as you wanted."

Luhan cried at that, realizing this had been their plan from the get-go. The amount of pictures they had, was the amount of times they wished to rape him, and he felt he had no choice but go along. Luhan didn't say anything at first, but eventually, they could hear him mumble 'you did not! You did not!' over and over again, through his crying.

Flinching when he felt Jongin try and pull his naked body towards him, it scared him. Worrying they would punish him for his reaction, but he did not. He tried to hug him, which Luhan tried resisting at first but eventually he just gave in, and let him. Face pressed against Jongin's chest as he just cried. He could feel Jongin stroke his back, but never letting it travel any further than that.

"Don't cry, precious," Jongin tried to comfort him, even if he knew it wasn't gonna work. "It wasn't so bad, was it? Did it hurt?" he asked.

To the first question, Luhan definitely felt like saying yes. It was bad, he hated what they had done to him, and what they were gonna make him do again. But he feared what would happen if he said that. Did it hurt, though? Luhan couldn't really say that, not physically at least. They hadn't harmed him like they had before. Knowing that was what they wanted to hear, Luhan aimed to please. Maybe in a last attempt to have them just delete all of it.

He shook his head, nothing more than that, but Jongin could feel it against his chest.

"That's what I thought, precious," Jongin said, still stroking his skin, but also going up to brush through his hair. Actions more affectionate than what he usually would, and Luhan didn't like it. "It is much easier when you just go along, isn't it?" It took some time, but again, Jongin felt a slight nod against his chest that had him smirk. The same reaction was with Sehun. "We deleted a picture like we said we would too. So what does princess say?"

The new pet name made Luhan uncomfortable. He hoped that one wouldn't stick.

On top of that, he frowned. Because he really couldn't figure out what Jongin wanted him to say, so he stayed quiet. A 'hm?' from Jongin, eventually had him mumble out he didn't know. They didn't need to see his face to tell how nervous he was with that, his entire body language said as much.

Luhan jumped feeling a cloth against his butt, quickly looking behind himself to see what as up. Only to find Jongin's hand resting on his waist, ready to hold him in place if he refused, while Sehun had come forward to help clean him up. Something Luhan would much rather have done on his own, but he didn't feel like he could stop it. He tried moving a little at first, but he quickly found out Jongin wasn't gonna make that easy for him. Neither was Sehun.

"Princess says thank you."

Luhan stayed silent at first, but then -

"... Th-Thank you..."

<< previous

[airheadandco]

The Curse 15

Airhead and Zalea were watching the sunset. In Airhead's case, it had been the second time in less than 24h hours. Time travel had its perks and weirdnesses.

"Today has been a strange day," the zebra said, breaking the silence.

The burgundy unicorn simply nodded.

"You've been awfully silent all this time. You didn't even give one of your usual explanation..."

"Yeah..." Airhead let out.

The Zebra sighed wistfully. "Listen, I'm not mad. You want to talk about what happened?"

"I wanted to free you from your curse..." the unicorn admitted in a whisper.

"What curse? The only curses I have to live with are your mind-shattering, reality-breaking plans," she mocked, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah... that..."

"What?"

"You always seem so angry at me, I'm always making your day worse somehow. But you can't leave... I thought you'd be better off free of me. I didn't know exactly what you were at the time... I really thought that if the tribe never disappeared, you'd be free."

The sun disappeared behind the horizon in under the gaze of a shocked zebra and a guilty-looking unicorn.

"You're an idiot," Zalea said.

"I know..."

"Shut up," she ordered. There was no anger in her words, it was almost said conversationally but it still did the trick. Airhead shut up obediently and Zalea sighed tiredly.

"Listen... I know I rant about you. A lot. And honestly who would blame me? But despite having my life threatened weekly, despite seeing reality unravel on a monthly basis, despite your constant defiance of basic rationality and the laws of probability... I'm still here. Despite the fact that I know that following you in your crazy schemes will end in a headache and potentially harm and even more debt, I sill do it. Well a bit less since Jewel and Atlas are there... but still. I don't have to. I could have left anytime but I stayed because we're family! We're supposed to watch each other's back. Not go through time to erase each other's existence."

Zalea shook her head. This is not how she wanted that conversation to go.

"I'm sorry... I never meant to make you feel that way... I should have realised." She put her head in her hooves and sighed again. "I'm bad at this... It may not seem like it, but I do enjoy your company. You made two thousand years of existence feel like a perpetual field trip. I am alive thanks to you... in more ways than one. I may not tell you that often enough but I do enjoy this life."

And then Zalea did something she didn't do often. She hugged Airhead. At first, Airhead didn't react but she finally found the control of her body and reciprocated the affection. It lasted a few seconds, maybe a bit more.

"I am still grounded aren't I?"

"Like you've never been in your life. And you'll have to properly apologize to everyone."

Before the unicorn could answer, an intense scream of frustration echoed from inside the library, quickly followed by Maine and his clone jumping through the window doing a flip and a superhero landing.

Both raccoons took the pose for a second, obviously enjoying their sortie. Their moment of pride passed as the characteristic noise of table being flipped was heard from inside.

"If we were you, we would run," said one of the Maines, jumping on Airhead's back.

"As fast as you can," the second completed, following suit.

"Why?" Airhead asked, confused.

"Come back you insufferable sexy pair of striped furred..."

The rest of Patty scream got lost in the noise of furniture being violently shoved away.

Airhead need not other convincing. She started to gallop as fast as she can. As they disappear into the night, Patty jumped through the window. She watched in the direction where the unicorn had disappeared, squinted her eyes and started to track them.

The whole scene had taken less than thirty seconds. Zalea was said nothing and simply shook her head. This was not the strangest thing that had happened around here. She let the critters deal with their love quarrel and slowly headed inside.

"Nice speech."

Jewel was looking at her, her face neutral but amusement quite visible in her eyes and tone.

Zalea shrugged. "No harm in opening up to her a bit. She's probably already forgotten it by now anyway," she lied. "And you'd better do the same. I don't want my reputation ruined."

"I don't see what you mean," Jewel said finally cracking a sly smile. "Not a single idea."

"What are you talking about lasses," an inebriated Tink asked, leaving the warmth of the library.

"Things that never happened."

"Let's talk about something that never happened before but /should/ happen."

The trio of mare came back inside laughing at Tink drunk flirt.

Airhead was unsure how much time she ran but by the time she finally stopped, she'd reached the outskirts of the village. The few people still out at this hour were more of the critter kind and seemed to be extra careful about not to look in their direction.

"Do you think we lost her?" Airhead asked as the raccoons unmounted her and guided her through the place.

"Probably not," said one of the Maine.

"Patty's like a Terminator," the second added.

"A drunk, sexy Terminator," completed the first again.

"Which makes her twice as dangerous," second Maine finished.

"Oh..." said Airhead, confused at both her new predicament and the duo of raccoons speech pattern. "So what do we do?"

"We hide until she sobers up..."

"... then we can maybe reason with her."

"Okay. What did you do by the way?"

"Well let's say we played a little game of Magic..."

"... she said she could take us both at the same time..."

"... and that when she won she'd take us both at the same time."

"I guess she forgot we own a bunch of Lighthouse Chronologist..."

"Oh," Airhead said, unsure of what it meant. "Is that bad?"

"It's not the worse..."

"... but it's still a bit evil."

"But hey in the meantime what about we go on a trip across time and go build New New Cheeseland?"

"There was an Old Cheeseland?" Airhead asked unsure of whether or not the duo of raccoons were pulling her leg.

"The most beautiful country in the world..." the said in unison, a gluttony filled nostalgia filling their voice.

"What happened?"

"Turns out cheese is a terrible building material..."

".. people kept eating it..."

"... and it only got worse when we told them about Mac & Cheese..."

"I see... And what about Old Old Cheeseland?"

"That's just France," they said in unison. "But that's not the point. I think it's time we start a new civilisation based on cheese."      

"All we need is a volcano...

"... several tons of macaroni..."

"... and a time machine."

"Luckily we know where to find each of these."

"You wanna come?"

Airhead hesitated for a second.

"I'm still grounded," she excused herself. "And I think I messed up with time enough as it is..."

"Nonsense..."

"... you just picked a bad spot..."

"... and you know what they say about falling and getting up?"

Airhead shook her head. "What do they say?"

"I dunno," they admitted together. They looked at each other and shrugged. "Probably something inspiring."

For a time, they kept walking in silence. The raccoons seemed to know where they were going but the unicorn had no idea what their destination was.

"What I mean is..."

"... your heart was in the right place..."

"... you were just a bit near-sighted..."

"... time travel doesn't have to turn into a tragedy..."

"... you just have to be careful..."

"... and enjoy the ride."

Airhead stayed silent as they closed on some dumpsters. They looked at her for a time. She seemed lost in her thought, though that may have been her natural look... which was already an improvement from the previous too-serious, wear-her-glass Airhead.

"Now that I think of it..." said one of the Maine climbing on one of the bins.

"...I don't really want to face Zalea's wrath..." following his double.

"...but if you want to go on an adventure one day..." Maine number 1 said, opening the bin's lid.

"... when you're not on the zebra's bad side..." added number two, raising a finger for emphasis.

"...you know where to find me," they finished together.

And on those words, they jumped inside the trash containers and didn't come out.

Airhead stayed alone in the dark for a moment, thinking.

"Where am I?"

So... It has been a while hasn’t it... Sorry for the longer-than-expected hiatus. I am back for a few days/weeks and I intend on fully finish that tory wit all its ramifications and little surprises. Sohere’s the end ofthe Curse. THEre will be a small conclusion tomorrow... and maybe more?

A huge thank to @maine-writes , @jewel-atlas  and @ask-doctor-dimension who appear in this story and also to @leaf-lord and @chance-of-chaos who’ve been a huge part of it and whose support helped me through its writing.

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[chocolate-brownies]

Explore what digital detox can mean for you—and the world at large—at Wellspring.

I talk a big game when it comes to mindfulness. In the yoga classes I teach, as well as in conversations with friends, I find myself ranting about the evils of digital devices and social media. And yet I also increasingly catch myself reaching for my phone before getting out of bed in the morning. I obsessively watch every Instagram story in my feed. The sound of a notification, any notification, sets my heart racing with both anticipation and anxiety. It’s a hard truth, but an important one to admit: I am addicted to my devices. Can you relate?

They say that admitting you have a problem is the first step to solving it, a colloquialism I conveniently kept forgetting to follow with a second step. But my dependence has reached unhealthy levels—I’m sleeping poorly and unable to focus on simple tasks, like reading, without “checking in.” It’s time for a hard reset. I’m digitally detoxing for seven whole days, and will document my progress in a journal—that is, assuming I don’t collapse from withdrawal.

Here are the rules:

No personal social media, whatsoever. I can use social media for my job (I manage my yoga studio’s Instagram account) between the hours of 8am and 4pm.

Professional email only between the hours of 8am and 4pm.

No convenience apps (Venmo, Uber, etc.).

Try hard.

Be honest.

Day One

I’m a mess today. I attended a 108 festival in Santa Monica this weekend and flew back home on a red-eye. Disaster. I’m bleary-eyed, nauseous, and totally out of it. The only thing I want to do is binge on Netflix for hours, but I’m pretty sure that mindlessly staring at a screen would be a bad way to kick things off. I consider an online restorative class, but that requires a computer. They make everything so easy, and yet do they really fulfill our needs? I turn my phone off completely, pull down the window shades, drape my body over a bolster, and consider myself dead to the world.

When it’s time for bed, I find myself antsy to the point of clenching my jaw. It’s been almost 24 hours since I checked WhatsApp for messages, and I’m worried I’ll “miss” something. But what could be so important that it’d be sent via WhatsApp at 10 pm on a Wednesday night? I go to bed. 

Day Two

I’m still jet-lagged, but feeling more excited about the detox. As I go about my routine, I catch myself reaching for my phone dozens of times before noon. Literally dozens. This is not good. Each time, I ask myself: What were you planning on doing with it? The answer, I admit sheepishly, is always the same: Instagram.

I decide to dig a little deeper and explore why I feel the need to check IG, and I realize it isn’t out of boredom or curiosity. I notice that the common denominator in each of these close calls is that just before I grab my cell, I have begun to get a little anxiety about deadlines, my career, my hopeless singledom… Turns out, I’m straight-up trying to avoid feelings that oh-so-inconveniently keep creeping in. I decide to make a new rule: Every time I want to avoid a hard emotion by cruising the web, I have to sit, close my eyes, and feel the feels for two minutes. I do a lot of eyes-shut-sitting this week.

Day Three

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. I was working on an article, and I must have blacked out for a sec, because when I “woke up” I was seven images deep on my Instagram newsfeed. Let me reiterate this: I actually opened a new tab on my browser, navigated to Instagram, and started scrolling without realizing that I was doing so.

Apparently I also scroll for procrastination purposes. This was a theme that would recur again and again throughout the week: The second I felt stuck or bored or distracted by whatever I was working on, I would click open a new tab and start to type either “Insta…” or “Twitt…” or “Face…” Cruising around social media sites is my favorite form of postponing a dreaded task, a fact that Mark Zuckerberg would love but my editors would hate. I didn’t cure myself of the urge this week, but I did catch myself in the act earlier and earlier.

Day Four

This is a tough one to share. I realized today that, in addition to texting and IRL chats, one of the main ways I stay in touch with my girlfriends is to swap snarky comments via DM about people we hate-follow on social media. Ugh—it sucks to admit it, and it sucks even more that I do it. Gossip is a huge part of our society’s culture; I’ll even go so far as to say it’s how we’ve been trained to communicate with each other. But that doesn’t make it right.

I realized I was missing the daily lol moments from my best gal pal’s razor-sharp takedowns, and that’s when I first acknowledged the deeper issue. We have so much in common: We both love to cook, teach yoga, and are passionate about wellness. We have zillions of things to talk about and do together. Connecting and fostering a sense of closeness through this social media snark just feels cheap. And lazy. This one is an easy fix: We made plans to meet for tea, and shared an hour of substantial, thoughtful conversation. I left our date feeling refreshed, not guilty and dirty.

Day Five

Okay, I’ve definitely gotten over my withdrawal symptoms and have entered the euphoria stage. I made plans to go out with my parents to celebrate my mother’s birthday, and I had a tight turnaround from my shift at the yoga studio to the time of our dinner reservations. Normally, this type of situation would stress me out as I attempted to take care of my dog, get dressed, and get out the door, but today I felt a sense of lightness. I practically skipped out of my apartment with my cell set to airplane mode. What changed? I’m pretty sure it’s the fact that I had officially crossed “Check Instagram” off my to-do list.

Let me explain: Once again, I’m blushing so hard I’m turning red, but my addiction has roots so deep that I have convinced myself scrolling through random people’s feeds is a necessary step in getting ready to leave the house. It isn’t just a time suck: The real problem is that I’ve placed undue importance on the minutiae of someone else’s life over my own. My voice says that attention and presence are important, but my actions say that what celebrity yoga teachers ate for lunch is more so. I decide to banish my cell from the “getting ready” process from here on out, and lean into the itchy “but I just wanna know” feeling that comes with my abstinence.

Day Six

Last week, while I was on vacation in another state, my folks had my aunt and uncle over for a meal. I knew this not because I was invited or because my mom told me. I knew because my aunt posted pictures on Facebook. This got me thinking how much of my friends’ and family’s life updates I glean from stalking — instead of talking. I’ve learned about my network’s pregnancies, deaths, and engagements through social media, and I’ve definitely shared big news (a book deal, a move, a new job) of my own through the platforms.

I used to tell myself that social updates were simply the most efficient means of reaching the most people all at once, but the more I think about it, the more I’m wondering: Why is it important to reach the most people all at once? If it’s a major life event we’re dealing with, shouldn’t I want to discuss it with personal, face-to-face interactions? And if it’s a boring detail not worth a real conversation, does it really need to be shared? I’ve considered social networks a huge part of my social life for the last ten years, and I’m not going to lie… I’m having an existential crisis over here.

Day Seven

It’s the last day of my digital detox, and I’ve reached a calmer, clearer place by actually engaging with the physical space I’m in. Instead of jumping up to cook dinner, do a final email sweep, and crush the last few items on my to-do list, I spent a few minutes after meditation this evening simply looking around my apartment. Did the light always look so beautiful this time of day? Had my ceilings always been that pretty? They’re REALLY pretty. Have I seriously lived here for four months without noticing them?

I’m suddenly aware of how often I pass time in restaurants, cafés, and parks without looking around. Why? Because my face is buried in my cell. Of course. I became hyper-aware of my own behavior patterns this week as I watched diners whip out their devices the second their dates got up to use the restroom, and I observed people moving forward in a line while scrolling until the second they reached their destination. I made a conscious effort to look up, look around, and spend time observing the buildings, furniture, decorations, and people surrounding me. It’s definitely a practice I’m going to carry with me when this experiment is over.

Parting Thoughts

This was one of the hardest things I’ve done. It wasn’t an issue of willpower; what made this detox challenging was being honest with myself about how unhealthy my addiction has become. There’s no way I was going to undo a decade of learned behavior in the course of a week, but what I will take with me is a clear awareness of my patterns and triggers. So that was step one. Step two is examining this new self-awareness with kindness, patience, and forgiveness.

Will I toss my cell out of my third-floor window? Definitely not. But I absolutely am going to scale back, check in less, and employ mindfulness tactics in my social media and technology usage. I tell my yoga students to play at their edge of discomfort, but not to live in extremes. What better advice than that for living in a digital age?

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Rochelle Bilow is a yoga teacher and wellness writer based in Upstate New York. She’s an advocate for body positivity and healthy attitudes toward food and spends the majority of her free time concocting feel-good recipes. She’s also a nature nut and proud corgi mom. Connect with her at her website and on Instagram.

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