#i was stimming so hard on the “you are my little brother” part like YOU TELL HIM DARRY!!!!🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 MAKE HIM FEEL LOVED YESS

[thedeitywhoplayedwithbricks]

GOODSHSHSHHHHHHHHHHH SO GOOOODDD HOW DO YOU DO IT

about to drop a dallas fic I wrote entirely in one afternoon sitting in a fit or what can only be described as demon possesion

[captain-mj]

omg i thought of this while in the resturant! (We were ehatchign fail army and they were doing scare pranks)

and i thought like "what if soap tried to scare ghoast?"

this could go two ways

ghost isnt fazed at all

or

2. ghost reacts poorly and ends up hurting johnny or worse..

Apologies for being so absent! Here ya go!

Ghost disliked pranks. Ever since his little brother used to scare him with the mask, they just rubbed him the wrong ways. Even the innocent ones like putting salt in the sugar so it would ruin his tea were enough to spark up old anger issues.

Obviously, this went against what the 141 knew him as when it comes down to humor. While outsiders would think a prank on Ghost would end with their heads on pikes, they also didn't know he liked dad jokes and dumb one liners.

So when Gaz and Soap started their prank war, they automatically included Ghost. In retrospect, Ghost really should've sat them down and said no with a little more force, instead of brushing them off and assuming they'd get the picture. But he thought it was over by now and he doubted they'd actually do anything again after he told them he wasn't interested.

Ghost had no way of knowing the man that jumped out at him, a spur of the moment idea on Soap's part and not something planned, as he doubted he could really sneak up on Ghost on purpose, was not going to stab him immediately. Luckily, he had been unarmed, so Soap did not end up with a gaping wound in his throat. Instead, Ghost backhanded him hard enough for his teeth to rattle in his skull.

Soap hit the ground hard and Ghost felt the adrenaline rush through his veins like he got hit by a stim. Giant blue eyes, apologetic but also shocked, blinked up at him.

Ghost wanted to hurt him. Soap must've seen it, but he didn't run. What an idiot.

Ghost turned away and took a deep breath. Noticing just now a very, very startled Gaz and Price.

Price quickly helped Soap up, glancing at Ghost like he might fly off the handle.

Soap took a breath when he got up and slowly let it out. "Hurts like a bitch, but I'm alright, Captain. You okay Simon?"

"I just almost cost you some teeth and you're asking me if I'm alright?"

"Your hands are shaking. You're breathing heavy. Thought you were having a panic attack for a minute."

Ghost shook his head. "You two are like fucking little brother. Always getting yourselves into fucking trouble. Either of you pull that shit again, I'm not stopping at one fucking hit." He hissed it at them and stomped off.

His hands were shaking.

He couldn't tell if he felt more angry at Soap for startling him, himself for getting startled and hitting him or if it was just embarrassment at the whole situation.

Soap found him in his hiding spot. "Simon?"

Ghost sighed. "I'm not going to apologize."

"Neither am I. I'll say getting bitch slapped makes us even." He pulled himself up into the perch. It was hard to get to and overlooked everything.

"I didn't actually hurt you, did I?"

"Nae. Put some ice on it and I was good as rain. Glad you didn't have any rings on though." He smiled but Ghost could see the imprint of the back of his hand. "Did I get you that bad?"

Ghost sighed. "Reminded me of someone."

"Your little brother. So you said. I hope you don't actually think we're alike considering you've kissed me."

Ghost made a face and even through the mask, Soap could tell. "He used to do shit like that. Jump out at me. Fucking hated it. And you're not getting another fucking kiss from me until I know for a fact you're both leaving me out of your little prank thing."

"I can't control Gaz!"

"Learn to."

Soap sighed. "You're breaking my heart, Simon." He smiled at him though, knowing the kiss embargo wouldn't last. "Alright. Changed my mind. I am sorry for scaring you. I know you. While I don't think I could've predicted the backhand, I could've predicted your reaction wouldn't be pleasant."

Ghost sighed loudly and Soap tilted his head. "What's wrong?"

"I hate how weirdly emotionally mature you can get, Johnny." He grabbed him and forced him to turn his head. "I'm sorry too."

"Kiss it better?"

Ghost glared at him before giving him a small kiss through the mask. "There. Fucking bastard."

[goodlucktai]

the way things change

tmnt 2007 word count: 2k post-movie / canon compliant b team & leo-centric

this was my main piece for the @turtlestogetherzine ! it was such a fun project that so many talented people came together on and if you haven’t already you should definitely check out everyone else’s AMAZING contributions !

title borrowed from rivers and roads by the head and the heart

read on ao3

x

Donnie and Mikey have always been something of a matching set. 

During their early years, they went everywhere together. Even when Mikey was at his most irritating and Donnie seemed two seconds away from disposing of him in brutal fashion—even though the two of them could be like night and day at the best of times—they were always on each other’s team first. 

Raph used to call them ‘the twins’ because they were both his younger brothers and they were both, in his own words, tag-teaming little twerps. The twin moniker caught on and even Splinter would use it occasionally. In the back of his mind, Leo still does.

Three weeks after the dust had settled over the remains of Winter Corp, he found himself thinking, Guess some things never change. 

“Donnie, a tablet at the breakfast table?” Leo asks dryly. “Really?” 

Blatant disregard like this for one of sensei’s longest-standing rules was usually much more Raph’s speed. 

Don pauses mid-scroll and thinks for a moment. 

“Mikey, what day is it?” he says eventually.

“It’s the eleventh, dude, you’re good,” is Mikey’s distracted reply. 

He’s making a game out of pouring as much cereal into his bowl as it will physically hold, which has amounted to a sizable mound of off-brand Lucky Charms. Leo is reluctantly curious to see what he’s going to do when he remembers he still needs to add milk. 

Donnie, for his part, immediately goes back to ignoring the rest of them as a whole. 

Raph puts his spoon down. “Explain what just happened.”

“It’s a prime number day,” Mikey says blithely, without looking up from the careful, exacting process of shaking another couple of marshmallow pieces out of the box. “Prime means primo screen-time.” 

Splinter is sipping his tea without refuting Mikey’s explanation, so that must be a thing now. Leo blinks, processing this. He can’t help remembering how it was before he went away, the strict ‘no electronics at the table’ policy, because mealtimes were family times. 

Raph directs his confusion down a different route. “Mike knows what prime numbers are? Since when?”

Donnie looks up from his tablet to angle a narrow look Raph’s way. His warm brown eyes are markedly cooler than before. He clearly didn’t appreciate the joke. 

He’s never been one to pick fights with his siblings. The Donatello Leo knows is a gentle soul, every bit as deadly as the rest of his family, but more inclined to mediate disputes than start one himself. 

So the last thing Leonardo expects is for him to take a page out of Raph’s book at eight in the morning. 

When Mikey starts tapping and humming, Leo can't help smiling a little. It’s a sound he missed in the jungle. 

“God, I can’t even hear myself think around here,” Raph grumbles. 

To Leo’s ears, it’s not unkind. Teasing, but good-natured. Leo knows what Raphael sounds like when he’s ticked off beyond all reason—when he’s angling for a fight and determined to get one, when he’ll say anything to get Leo to punch back—and this is very much not that. 

But something darts through Mikey’s expression that makes the big brother half of Leo’s brain sit up and pay attention. Donnie notices, too. 

“He has ADHD, asshole,” he snaps. “If it bothers you that much, put on some headphones or go away.”

The atmosphere changes on a dime. Splinter’s ears go up, whiskers slicked back. Raph looks as surprised as Leo feels.

“Donnie!” Leo says, more stunned than scolding. 

Donnie puts his tablet down, not quite hard enough to constitute a slam. “Are we really going to pretend that Mikey’s stimming is more annoying than listening to Raph when he’s in one of his moods?”

“Er, no.” Leo briefly looks to Splinter for guidance before he catches himself. “I mean—it’s just the way you said it.”

“The way I said it?” Donnie demands. 

“Dee, knock it off,” Mikey interjects unhappily. “You know I hate it when you guys put me in the middle.”

It pulls Donatello up short. He visibly grits his teeth, then bites out, “Can I be excused?” 

Splinter knows when to pick his battles. It’s a lesson all of his sons could stand to learn. 

“Take your plate, please,” the rat says. 

To Donnie’s credit, he doesn’t storm down the tunnel to the lab, even though it looks like he’d like to. The reinforced door shuts behind him with a decisive clang that rings through the lair. 

Leo feels wrong-footed by the entire exchange. Somehow, in the last three minutes, a comfortable family breakfast went entirely off the rails. 

Mikey isn’t humming anymore. The kitchen feels quieter than it should. 

“Hey, I didn’t mean—” Raph starts uncertainly. 

“Don’t be dumb, I know that,” Mikey says, not looking at anyone. He tips his dry cereal back into the box and then picks at his toast until he’s moved enough of it around that his plate appears halfway finished and he’s allowed to leave the table. 

He does so at a run, booking it to the lab. The door opens right up for him. It was locked the last time Leo tried it. 

And it’s locked the next time he tries it, too, half an hour later. 

“It’s me,” Leo calls, feeling a little foolish standing out in the hall. “Can I come in?”

Donnie’s voice answers immediately. “List the first ten prime numbers and I’ll think about it.”

Okay, this is Donnie with a grudge. Leo remembers enough of what that looks like to tread carefully. 

“I just want to talk,” he says. “Is Mikey okay?”

The door unlocks and Donnie rolls it open. He gives Leo an inscrutable look before he stands back to let him in. 

Mikey is parked in a huge bean bag chair in the corner, headphones on, drawing tablet propped against his knees. His ninja senses must have pinged when Leo walked in; he glances up right on cue and offers a hang-loose sign. Leo mirrors it, entirely because he knows it’ll make Mikey snicker. 

“He’s fine,” Donnie says unnecessarily, sitting down at his desk. “We look out for each other.” 

If that’s a jab, it’s a well-aimed one. 

“Yeah, I see that,” Leo says. “Look, I’m sorry if it sounded like I took Raph’s side back there. But you know that Raph doesn’t think Mikey’s stupid. He would be the first to break somebody’s jaw for implying that.”

“So that makes it okay to say whatever he wants to a neurodivergent teenager?” Don presses, eyes flashing. “But when I say something to Raph—”

Leo can feel himself losing his patience. “Donnie, come on. All I meant was that you shouldn’t pick fights when you know better.”

As soon as he says it he knows it’s the wrong thing to say. Donnie spins his chair around to face the computer monitors, neatly severing his half of the conversation.

“Close the door behind you when you leave,” he says in a clipped tone. 

Across the room, Mikey is watching them with round eyes. He’s a few seconds from tossing his art aside and getting up to diffuse the fight. As much as he hates when his brothers put him in the middle, he has no problem putting himself there. 

It almost seems like Mikey isn’t sure if it’s safe to leave Donnie alone with this strange newcomer who looks a lot like the big brother who left them all behind. 

Leo breathes through the sharp pain that brings him and thinks, Fix this. 

He draws another chair over and sits down. Donnie’s shoulders go stiff but he doesn’t react otherwise. 

“Sorry,” Leo says quietly. 

It takes a minute but eventually Donnie nods, brown eyes full and troubled. 

“Me too,” he replies. “I know I’m being difficult. I’m just—I feel so angry all the time.”

Donnie isn’t Raph. He never had any problem with Leo’s authority. He had his own parts to play on the team, parts he took pride in—doctor, scientist, engineer. He was relieved to hand back that mantle of leadership, to step back into his curated role, but that doesn’t mean everything just returns to the way it was.

Donatello still resents his big brothers for abandoning him, each in their own way. He’s still bitter about all the extra weight he had to carry, without thanks or credit. He’s been stuck in place for the last two years, no outlet, no time for himself, and nobody on his team but Mikey, the one person Donnie has always been directly responsible for and could never bring himself to burden. He picked up an I.T. job he hated and stuck with it for longer than he should have, because he wouldn’t know how to quit something halfway if his life depended on it. His typically strong relationship with Raph—one that Leo’s secretly envied since they were kids—soured and left him without their hothead’s support. He had to figure out how to be a grown-up at the tender age of sixteen. 

Then Leo came back, expecting everything to be exactly how he left it. 

Of course Donnie’s angry. It’s no wonder he’s picking fights left and right. 

“You’re not being difficult, Don,” Leo says immediately, wishing, not for the first time, that Splinter had never sent him away. “If you want to scream and throw things at me, I think that would probably be more than fair.”

“I don’t want to do any of that,” Donnie replies wryly. He swivels his chair slightly, facing Leo again. There’s something grudgingly hopeful about him now—Leo’s little brother, trying to remember how to put his faith in Leo’s hands. 

It’s such a precious thing to hold. Leo can’t screw this up again. 

“You’ve worked out a pretty solid system while I was gone,” he says, bumping Donnie’s shoulder with his fist. “Can you show me the ropes?”

Give Donnie a chance to teach and he shines. Sure enough, he brightens a little. 

“We help April with acquisitions for her antique store on Thursdays. Do you want to come?” 

Leo heard about that from April. Apparently it’s more of a game than a chore, a city-wide scavenger hunt. He was hoping for an invitation but he wasn’t expecting one. He feels himself smile. 

Mikey, who has clearly been listening in, lowers his headphones and asks, “All four of us?”

That brings Donnie up short. Leo jumps in. 

“I told Raph I wanted us to do a team-building exercise sometime soon, and he said he’d be down for anything, as long as you two promised to go easy on him.” 

That’s exactly what he said, too—only he’d added, gruffly affectionate, ‘those tag-teaming little twerps.’ 

“Sound good?” Leo asks them warmly. 

Mikey beams. Donnie’s disagreeable outer shell begins to soften. By some miracle, Leo still knows how to do this. Two years wasn’t enough to overshadow a lifetime. 

It’s a privilege to sit in the lab, watching Donnie bring up files on his latest project, listening attentively to engineering and mechanics that go clean over his head. Mikey joins them at the desk and shows Leo the digital painting he’s been working on, chattering energetically about watercolor and composition and the new brush he’s obsessed with. 

Raph wanders in some time later with an apology in hand—drinks from the twins’ favorite coffee shop. He probably left right after breakfast to be back already. 

Donnie smiles after the first sip. Raph must have got it exactly right.

Leo lets his tea warm his hands and soaks up their company the way regular turtles bask in sunlight. 

Donnie and Mikey built a house in the empty space their brothers left behind. The door isn’t always open, but Leo and Raph can always knock. Maybe they could even live there together someday, once they remember how to be on each other’s team. 

Until then, Leo is willing to put in the work. It’s what he’s always done. 

He’ll do whatever it takes to get back home. 

[koralinewrites]

Got 60 Subaru headcannons?

Subaru's my favorite of the 6 Brothers. I just think he's an angsty adorable dork in need of a hug and some therapey. Though to be honest I like all of the Sakamaki siblings quite a bit. Followup I adore your writing and your thoughts about these charecters. Liking your blog so far. Also you've sold me on liking Laito a whole lot more. Before I didn't really like him as much as some of the others. However you've convinced me otherwise and I like him a lot more now.

AWWW I’m so happy I sold you on Laito! He’s my tragic little wife (aka a grown ass man) and he needs more love 😭

As for Subaru headcanons, he was who I was working on next!! @rainhacelestedastrevas tagging you as this was part of your previous ask!

also I’m gonna add a TW for self harm/suicidal topics, as this IS Subaru we’re talking about here-

60* Subaru Headcanons

*ish

Listens to Hozier and Lana Del Ray

And also Evanescence, Paramore, and Nxcre 

but that should be common knowledge-

Doesn’t have a favorite food because of lack of taste (I think) but is a big texture eater

Likes jello because of the texture, for example

And crunchy things, like chips

Eating is just a way to ‘stim’, basically?

Has the best fashion sense of his brothers

Owns a lot of jewelry

Is a TOTAL romantic

Would never admit it, but has fantasized about being with someone who actually loves him

Secretly reads cheesy romance books

The closeness of the coffin comforts him

Makes him feel safe and secure for once

Favorite color is actually gold

Actually really good at drawing

Loves horror movies

70s/80s/90s classic slashers, to be exact

Halloween, Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, etc.

Plays video games

Would actually really like DND if he had anyone to play it with-

I stand by the fact that he’d play an assassin rogue half-drow

And project HEAVILY onto said character

Other video games he plays are things like Little Misfortune, What Remains of Edith Finch, Sally Face, etc.

Sadder games with heavy topics, basically

Is an actual albino, not just genes from Karlheinz and Christa

Because of that, his eyes do that shaky thing

Very subconscious about that

Doesn’t like making eye contact for that reason

Used to clench his fists so hard his nails would draw blood from his palms

Has broken every bone in his hands at least once

Had to use that one nail polish that tastes bad so he’d stop biting his nails

Has thought about cutting, but ultimately decided against it

Scratches himself though

Sometimes subconsciously, sometimes on purpose

Is why he keeps his nails longer

Any scratches heal without scars

But sometimes wishes he could have them

Nail polish helps by dulling the edges of his nails

Thinks about killing himself at least every three days

Sometimes just stares at his knife

Playing with it, twirling it in his fingers

Just thinking

Has only ever actually tried once in the past

Laito walked in at the right moment, though

Speaking of which, has somewhat ‘bonded’ with Laito

Not that close

Just have talks with each other when either gets REALLY bad

Sometimes wishes he was human

So he could either die easier or be able to drink his problems away

[marshmallowprotection]

Happy Birthday, Saeran and Saeyoung! The 2023 Analysis!

Okay. Time to get our screaming out of the way, people. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. THEY ARE THE BABIEST OF BABIES. IF SOMEBODY IN THIS WORLD EVER TRIES TO MAKE THEM CRY, I WILL DESTROY THEM IN LESS THAN SEVEN SECONDS WITH MY BARE HANDS. I WILL KILL EVERY PERSON IN ROOM AND THAN GET RID OF MYSELF IF THEY CRY.

HAVE I GOTTEN THIS STIMMING OUT OF MY SYSTEM?

NO.

I’m okay. I just needed to scream a little where you guys could see it before I had a minute to break down all the details in this photo. So, as far as what I got right in this photo... the hard light coming through the window was a problem area for a lot of people. I wasn’t sure if they were going to be inside or outside, but these boys are inside. In fact, they’re inside their childhood home and that’s not what I expected given the fact that Cheritz mentioned they were going on an outing for the day.

Well, I know for sure they will be recounting one of their trips outside together on Twitter, but they’re inside this time around for the title screen. I didn’t think they’d be in that house given the fact tat that house is such an awful place. Yet, it’s very bittersweet in a way because that house is a nightmare. But, it’s the only place... where they got to be together before everything changed. It’s a bad memory and a good memory. They can’t get back what they lost—

But, they still have each other and that’s what matters. When Rika and V burned their house down at the end of Ray Route, it was the end of those days. There’d never a way to get a tangible representation of that life they lived. Sometimes, I wonder how Saeyoung feels about that since we don’t get to tell him about that fact. How does he feel about the house being burned down? We know how our boy Saeran feels about it because it’s told to us as plain as day.

But, is it bittersweet for Saeyoung, too?

It’s easy for me to say that Saeyoung might not have cared. After all, he spent years trying to formulate the way to get out of there with his younger brother. If he could get out of there with Saeran, then he would never look back because that place was a living hell.

He wouldn't want to look back at it because he would have what he wanted. He would have his brother and the clothes on his back. But, he didn't get to have that because he had to leave his brother behind due to his deal with the agency. So, what does the representation of his childhood home mean to him? It wasn't the house that mattered to him, it was his brother.

But, much like how Saeran mentions that that house was a representation of life with his brother and mother… does it bother Saeyoung, too? Saeran got a single chance to go back to that home in the end of Ray Route.

It was overwhelming and traumatizing for him to go back to that place, but in other ways, it was a good thing because it reminded him of all the good things he had with his brother in that place. Even though it's hard for him to go through that for the sake of trying to find evidence to save his brother, he goes through with it because it's a part of the process of his closure.

However, because it burned down, Saeyoung is never going to have that. He won’t get the chance to decide if he wanted to go back there or not to confront his demons.

It's not clear if he would even want to go back to that place, but he doesn't even get the opportunity to decide that for himself. It's similar to how he'll never be able to face his mother. He wants nothing to do with his father or his mother, nor would he follow the path that Saeran did to find closure… But if he wanted to tell them off or make them pay for everything they did to him, he should be allowed that opportunity.

He's just never going to get that opportunity. I think he should be allowed to hit Saejoong as much as he wants, just as much as Saeran was right to have a talk with his father.

The boys have had many things taken away from them over the years and it is hard to think about that. Even in the context of the Secret Ending, Saeyoung and Saeran don’t get to face all their demons. Seeing them in their childhood home can be bittersweet in many ways because it was good memories for them but also nightmares. It's hard to describe the feelings you can have about a house of horrors when it was also your only safe place at the same time.

It's difficult to explain that to people who haven't lived through that kind of abuse. Not everybody has the same feelings about the household where things went wrong for them. A lot of people would like the place to be burned to the ground and other people might like to go through the household to be able to sort out their feelings. Then there are people who don't care what happens to the place either way. I don't know, when I see these things, I think about the different kinds of closure that they get throughout the game and it gets to me.

But, yeah, it turns out they're in their childhood home in this picture and the only reason why that threw me off guard was because the background is so vibrant and white. I am so used to seeing their house as this dilapidated household. It isn't a place that feels like it should have any light because their mother doesn't want it to have that. The house never looks like a place that should be warm or inviting. But, to me, the fact that this photo is bright... kind of feels like we’re just seeing through the eyes of the boys.

This doesn't have to be a depressing memory because it's not one. The two of them have each other and this is a representation of that feeling they have when their mother isn't around and they get to just be little kids. They are having a normal experience that any child would have and there's something poetic about that. That's why this picture doesn't look dark or depressing.

They are getting a brief moment of what it feels like to just be a normal kid who is excited to realize that they've grown a little bit since their last birthday.

That is especially a good thing for two kids that are malnourished and not taken care of. It's a well-known fact that the two of them appear much younger than they actually are for quite a long time. That's why Saeyoung looks so happy here. Even though they're in the worst kind of situation, they are alive and they are growing. Despite the fact that nobody wants them to be alive, they are alive and they are together. That doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Saeyoung won’t let Saeran see it as a bad thing. He is fighting hard every step of the way to make sure that his little brother knows that they are going to get out of that house one day and they are going to live the life they deserve. They just have to keep fighting every year no matter what. They will get there and that's what this picture says to me.

It's been another year around the Sun and it's a good thing that they're alive. It has to be. I can even see those stickers as a representation as a countdown clock. Saeyoung would use stickers to mark their progress. He would try to lighten Saeran’s hopes and dreams by saying that once Saeran is tall enough to reach the rocket, they can get out of there. Sure, it might be the fallacy of the childhood fantasy to think that that could be the case, but they are children and they need a reason to keep going.

Saeyoung is a kid, just like his brother, but he’s been parentified and it shows all the time. Look at how Saeyoung always said that they shared a body, so if they had any good things happen to one of them, it also happened to the other. That was the only way Saeyoung could help Saeran feel like he was growing up with experiences he rightly deserved to have. You know what hurts more?

The fact that Saeyoung always tried to make a fuss about Saeran’s height... and the very first thing he says to him in Saeran’s After Ending—

It will show in ways he doesn't even realize for the rest of his life. I guess that's besides the point since I should be talking about the details of the picture, but you know that I can't help myself once I get started talking about the boys. You guys know I'm guilty about talking on and on and on in a tangent. Stickers! The stickers are really cute. I think he probably got them from Rika, but I don’t know for sure. You can’t gauge the twins by looks to figure out their ages, after all.

The little stars are what made me cry, actually.

[Link to Twitter Thread]

115cm is 3'9"ft.

110cm is 3'7"ft.

This is the first time we’ve gotten heights for the twins as children so I’m just so floored. I did do some math on this, though. This picture has to take place before they knew Rika or V. How do I know that? It’s because Rika’s Behind Story gives us a character sprite for teenage Saeyoung and I can use her height to tell you a guesstimate of his height at that time. Not a lot of people know about that since I know a lot of people don’t touch Rika content.

I’ll give y’all that while I’m at it.

So!

Rika is 5′2″. If I use her height to gauge Saeyoung’s height at the time, he is right about 4′11″ or 5′0″. So, this photo has to be well before that takes place all things considered. Saeyoung would’ve needed to hit a major growth spurt to move from his height of 3′9″ to reach that height. Considering how malnourished the boys in this game are, well... it’s hard to know how fast they’re growing considering their bodies never match their ages when they’re kids.

Rika and V commented often how they didn’t look their ages. So,

This is what the difference is between this flashback and the present day. I did a lot of configuring to gauge how old the boys were when this image takes place. I can tell you that at the maximum, the boys are younger than 14 years old in that photo. Saeyoung joins the agency at roughly 14-15 years old depending on what you’re reading or playing in the game since the timeline is just like that. If I had a guess on their age here, I would say they’re somewhere between 9 and 11. That feels about as close as I can place them.

However, I did have a thought when I was working on this. It occurred to me that there is a photo of teenage Saeran out there with him standing next to Rika and V from the After Ending. Now, the two of them are leaning over so that makes it hard to approximate the heights but I’m going to take a shot in the dark for this one.

So, Saeran is always going to trail right under Saeyoung when it comes to how tall he is and I can use my approximation of Saeyoung to figure out how short he is in this particular photo!

Since Saeyoung’s head capped at about Rika’s forehead, that’s how I was able to gauge where his rough height would be. In this photo, Rika has her head just tilted a bit to the side. But, if she were to straighten her back, the top of Saeran’s head would fall somewhere around the area around her mouth and chin. Which, would make sense if Saeyoung’s initial guessed height put him above that. With that in mind, (discount V here, he’s too tall for his own good and he’s squatting to make his work), Saeran’s height here is probably around 4′10″.

Which, knowing that would allow me to make a comprehensive view of what the twins were like at major points in their life. This is just my guess, so take all of it with a grain of salt! You guys know me, I have to spend hours figuring out these details for fun.

It was difficult for me to tell it first but I do think what Saeyoung is writing is his brother's name. The characters more or less seem similar but since it's written in a childish script, I had to do a double take to make sure that was the case since I am no expert in Hangul and I don’t want to say it’s something when I didn’t take a second glance to make sure. 최세란 is Choi Saeran, after all. That detail is the part that makes me want to cry. I know Saeyoung is the one that has to teach his brother who to write.

I want to believe in my heart of hearts that the first word Saeyoung learned how to write was his brother’s name so he could teach him. I don’t think he would’ve asked to learn how to spell his name.

Another thing I should point out is that I didn't expect them to draw the twins in any clothes that weren't already shown to us at the start. The boys don't exactly have options when it comes to their wardrobe. The only clothes they get to wear are the ones that likely come from a donation bin and nothing more than that. Over the years, the boys haven't been drawn in much of anything outside of the basic outfits we've been shown from the start when their children. Meaning that Saeyoung is in a hoodie, and Saeran is in a button-down.

There is something ominous about the fact that Saeyoung picked up a jersey with the number seven on it. I know realistically it's just a fun detail that the artist decided to add to the picture but I'm not the kind of person that would want to go with that since it's not as fun for me from an angle of analysis.

It's almost like a representation of what's to come and I don't think any of us want to think about that. I do really love what they drew Saeran in, though. It’s a simple shirt with a pocket, but imagine the trinkets he could carry in those pockets!

Crying at the thought of him finding a special rock or flower to take back home after a trip with Saeyoung. Anyway, I think it's really all I have to say about this picture this time around. I could go on and on and on about different thoughts and theories I have about their childhood but that could go on forever if I’m being honest. I can just say that it's been 7 years since I met Saeran and Saeyoung for the first time.

I will forever be grateful I had the opportunity to get to know these characters because if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here with all of you today. I don't know where I would be or what I would be doing. They found me at the lowest moment of my life and I thank them every day for being with me.

I could say that a hundred times over and I definitely have in the past. But it doesn't stop being true every time I say it. I love these guys from the bottom of my heart and I know they care about me too. Just as much as I know they care about the rest of you, too. That's the good thing about these characters. They have not only helped many of us realize that we wanted to survive no matter what, but they've learned that they deserve to keep going no matter what, too.

That's why this particular picture hits so hard in the first place because it's a representation of the idea that even if we are stuck somewhere, we can get out no matter how dark things seem.

If Saeran and Saeyoung can do it, we all can. 

[garciafamlover500]

Javier Garcia HC's because why not? (Some things are most likely OOC)

Bisexual (Canon), Transmasc and Polyamorous (both HC).

Autistic + hard of hearing (My man shot a gun right beside the same ear TWICE)

Dating tripp and jesus (Tall, big muscles, beards, this man definitely has a type-)

Cat person all the way, can and will adopt any stray cat he sees

He has a massive sweet tooth and his favorite dessert is pudding. But he also loves latino cuisine with his favorites being nachos, Ropa Vieja, Arroz con pollo and Tamales

Can't cook for shit, never let him inside the kitchen

Lets clem and mariana paint his nails, and sometimes he even lets them doll up his face a little

One time, he lost a bet to tripp and conrad during a game and had to wear a dress for the entire day. At first he felt embarrassed as hell, but as time went by he actually grew to enjoy wearing it, heck some people (including david surprisingly) actually complimented him about it! Needless to say, this was when javi realized he was GNC

(Pre transition) Javi used to bind with ace bandages for awhile because he didn’t have enough money to buy a proper binder until David bought one for him

Started taking HRT when he was 16

Hates hot weather and prefers the cold, he loves snuggling up by the fireplace while drinking a nice cup of hot chocolate with his two giant boyfriends

used to hate his freckles because when he was younger some asshole kid called them ugly. However, after a little reassurance from david he started to grow fond of them. Tripp and jesus love planting small kisses on them whenever they get the chance

Had an emo phase when he was in middle school

Has a tooth gap

Taught gabe and mariana how to play baseball when they were little

Infodumps about baseball A LOT, stims in multiple different ways, and whenever he feels overstimulated mariana would usually lend him her headphones and tape player so he could cool off for awhile

Since he’s HOH, they’ll be times when he has difficulty hearing certain things, so he communicates through sign language sometimes

He also uses sign language to communicate whenever he feels over/under-stimulated, this is due to him going nonverbal when overwhelmed or underwhelmed

Does NOT fully forgive Eleanor, and probably won’t be anytime soon

GARCIA BROTHERLY FLUFF TIME!

He and David are slowly staring to rekindle their relationship, they’ll be times when they meet up on one of the rooftops of one of Richmond’s buildings at night and just talk about random stuff, be it from current events or past memories, while staring up at the stars and enjoying each other’s company

One time, some random douchebag kept bothering javi about his past with gambling, and David just walked up to the guy and fucking decks him in the jaw

David tended to tease javi from time to time whenever javi would gush about Jesus and Tripp. And when javi announced he was dating them, David couldn’t help but feel a little overprotective

He and David would speak spanish when having a conversation somtimes

David was the classic older brother when they were growing up: Pranking javi, putting things out of reach for him, calling dibs on everything first, you name it!

I HC that David was actually pretty good at baseball as a kid, that’s one reason why javi really got into it as well

David was the first person javi came out to as trans, bi AND neurodivergent

After the whole new frontier fiasco, David started to have nightmares about nearly killing javi back at the water tower and would wake up screaming his name with tears in his eye. One night javi caught him having one of these nightmares and when he was able to wake him up, David just broke down in his embrace while apologizing over and over again and javi would just hold him and encouraged him to let it all out.

(possible part 2! Let me know what yall think)

[angel-of-the-moons]

Hi! I just wanted to let you know I loved "Small Surprises." I'm a single mom (boy mom tho) and its nice to read stuff with single mom's as the reader. Its very rare especially in a fandom such as this one. Its actually pretty accurate (to my experience with parenthood) and I loved Victoria she is precious. My favorite part was how they met Jake. That was so cute! I laughed very hard at the end with Khonshu! Excellent job!

Honestly the love that Small Surprises has gotten has absolutely floored me. I adore reading the comments and tags on what people thought of it! It makes my day when I get a blip and see what new things someone has to say about it 🥺

I had so much fun writing it and the dynamics they all began to work out with one another.

Especially Jake! I loved how Jake was with Diatrice in the comics and I just had to make sure Girl Dad Jake was there. He's the protector, the big brother, the guardian... And so much more! I love making sure to write that part of Jake in, as many people saw him in the show and just assumed he was some cold, calculating hitman on Khonshu's behalf. I wanted to show he is so, so much more than what little we saw of him.

Steven having a tiny friend to hyperfixate and stim with will be so good for him, and Victoria having someone who completely understands her will certainly help her come out of her shell with other people more, knowing that just because she's different, doesn't mean she's alone. Yes, Mama knows (and tries to understand) about her baby's tics and mannerisms, but she doesn't know about them, y'know? Steven sure does and he's more than happy to engage with her!

And of course there was Marc having all the reality fall down on him on what he/they started to mean to that sweet little girl when she called him Daddy. I imagine with everything he's been through, Marc is terrified of it all. He's worried that some part of his childhood could resurface in some way. That line of thinking will be addressed in the second fic, for sure!

And ah, of course! Khonshu. I had to squeeze him in there somehow. But don't worry! He won't be as bad as some people may be anticipating (like he is with the boys...)

[pokemenlovingmen]

Hello! I just read the thing I requested and I LOVE IT!!! While reading, I was thinking about how tall S/O compared to Ingo would be. I live for tall s/o fr and dw! I love it when the story is long, it just gets me motivated to read more! so while I still have the chance, can I request tall, extremely calm, and works at the subway masc s/o with Ingo and Emmet? (it can be poly, Not blank shipping ofc) - 🚆Anon

man y’all REALLY want to have a

relationship huh?

I mean… me too though.

I love it, let’s do it!! I just think these pokeguys have had plenty of time to tower over people… if no one is cooking up big spoon reader content, then I’ll do it myself!

Thank you very much for your request, I love the train men haha. And I’m also very glad you enjoyed my previous piece I made for you!! You’re so kind. I’m still very much feeling my way around, trying to figure out what I want from this blog, and y’all have been so sweet. It’s why I feel bad not writing as frequently as I could! I love you guys, my fellow gay yearners out there, y’all are my brothers lmao. I hope you enjoy this one as much as you did the last! (And maybe one day I’ll figure out not just how long I want my actual posts to be, but these intros as well. Too much free space for me to ramble in lmfaooo.) Since you said S/O, I’m going to write this as an established relationship! Also the submas are written as autistic because I’m autistic and I make the rules. Thouuuugh this did end up a little too focused on the twins’ autism coded behavior and I apologize for that. I got a little too into it. But at the same time you can pry autistic submas out of my cold, dead autistic hands I refuse to write them as anything but

The Pillar of Calm — Ingo and Emmet (separately!) with tall, calm depot agent S/O

Emmet

⚪️ — Well, no matter what, the most important thing you need to know about him is he loves you verrrrry much!

⚪️ — You two met when you transferred to work at Gear Station after your first long-running job at the Magnet Train station in Johto. Definitely a bit of a culture shock, considering battles are a BIG no-no on those trains, but you figured things out pretty quick. One of the most important parts of adjusting to your new job was, of course, meeting the subway masters to get the proper rundown on how things worked around here, and that’s where it started.

⚪️ — Emmet is a ball of hard-to-contain energy that he constantly needs to express via stimming or just moving around, and even if words aren’t his strong suit, he has a woeful amount of things he wants to say. You being the strong silent type who can somehow keep a level head in any situation and seldom expresses anything, it seems like your personalities would clash horrifically. But when breaks were called around Gear Station, you were one of the first faces Emmet saw as he hopped off the Super Double Line, and you being your grounded self was honestly reassuring to be greeted with after all the stimulation the constant battling is. The more you hung out, the more it became apparent Emmet could just find some calm and steady his tremendous energy with you there to ground him. It ended up becoming a bit of a behind-your-back joke around Gear Station as other depot agents took bets on when one of you would finally stop dragging your feet and ask about being more than friends.

⚪️ — But that was a long time ago. This is the now!

⚪️ — In the same fashion that brought you two together in the first place, you’re one of the first depot agents Emmet sees when he hops off the train for breaks or for closing, and he’ll come bouncing up to you when he sees you. Right away you lock arms—Emmet loves all the excitement of his job, without a doubt, but sometimes he can just overload without even realizing it’s happening. But you’re so stable and your arms are so strong, kind of locking himself to you brings him back down to earth from all the battling adrenaline.

⚪️ — It’s funny watching you two walk hand-in-hand, or with locked arms. You have a very stiff and simple stride and as calm as you are, there are no points of tension or parts of your body that just need to move sometimes. Meanwhile Emmet takes those big, toy soldier-like steps with perfectly straight legs and swings his arms so much, so walking together you’re perfectly still save for whatever arm he’s swinging around with his motions. You’re never bothered, though. It’s all very cute and you don’t mind your arm getting a little sore from Emmet just being Emmet. You wouldn’t have it any other way.

⚪️ — It’s okay that he’s not great with his words or that he can’t script when apart from Ingo if he’s around you. He can talk as much as he wants with no expectations of making sense or proper sentence structure or correct tone. You’re so laid back, you don’t mind any of it. You feel pretty special for being one of the only people on earth who can make Emmet comfortable enough to stray from his usual script and just talk and talk.

⚪️ — Carry him!! If you’re strong enough, that is. When you two get home from a long day of work, you’ll often find your arms full of giggling Emmet. He actually really likes to be held, and not many people are as significantly taller than him as necessary to do that. (Part of the reason why he’s attracted to guys, to be honest. Hold him with those big strong arms!)

⚪️ — Did I mention your calmness is really grounding? Because it is. He knows there’s no judgement with you and you aren’t a struggle to read when you take so much in stride. It’s so rare and strange to say, but Emmet feels like he can make mistakes around you. And have those mistakes not be a bad thing, I mean. He’s always heard of mistakes being learning tools, but they’ve always felt so punishing to him, he never knew why anyone would want to learn through messing up. At least, not until he met you and he realized he could flub his words and commit any social faux pas when he interacts with you, because he knows you won’t judge. You’re safe. When he’s with you, the world isn’t so harsh and judgmental, it doesn’t pick him apart so severely for being “weird” and “different”. It’s so liberating, to feel so safe in making mistakes and knowing you’ll still love him at the end of the day.

⚪️ — And for your part, you struggle feeling strong feelings, especially excitement. So when good things happen, Emmet feels the excitement for the both of you, and his energy definitely seeps over to you! With him around, feelings don’t blend together and fade into each other so easily. He never expects you to change, he loves your calmness, and it only brings him even more delight when you do get excited about something, because that something really must be amazing, then!! It’s just so comforting to have Emmet there and watch him emote for the both of you.

⚪️ — Beyond the actual therapeutic, helpful little things about this behavior, it’s also just adorable. You make that well known, because Emmet likes that you think he’s adorable. Him? Really? Even if his smile is creepy and never goes away, or he’s always tense and shaking around, or his eyes seem too blank or glassy, you think he’s cute? He’s rather insecure about his appearance, actually—he’s been called creepy and weird many times before, mostly regarding his smile and his erratic movements, so hearing you like all that about him is just so, so validating!

⚪️ — You better be a good big spoon because Emmet loves snuggling up to you and being in your arms. If you’re having a bad day, though, your height difference won’t stop him from holding you! He’s lived with Ingo his whole life after all, he’s gotten pretty good at reading fairly minimal indicators of mood since he’s used to going off so little so he always knows how you’re feeling.

⚪️ — Expect a lot of quick shows of physical affection. He’ll crush you in a side-hug for exactly two seconds before running off, he’ll bounce onto his toes to kiss you on the cheek, he’ll nuzzle his head into your shoulder before it‘s about time to get off the couch and head for work, he just likes physical affection and squeezes in it whenever possible. He’s just always very busy, and that applies to just his thought process and usual way of conducting himself, too, but you never complain about his style of affection.

⚪️ — Of course you swap train stories and facts! He’s very fascinated hearing about the Magnet Train, Unova really hasn’t got around to utilizing high-speed railways yet. And if you have any questions about the Battle Subway, he’s happy to answer!

⚪️ — Emmet’s a professional, of course, so he’s not going to be all over you at work, but he doesn’t hide your relationship either. If you’re working his line and he gets off the train in time to spot you, he’ll run over and give you a quick peck before heading off to wherever he’s headed.

⚪️ — Since words aren’t his forte, he uses all these quick shows of affection as his “I love you”s. So Emmet has likely seldom or even never said a verbal “I love you” to you, but that’s okay, because you know that’s what every one of his kisses and hugs mean.

⚪️ — If he’s ever getting overstimulated or just plain riled, you give his hand a comforting squeeze that makes everything slow down a bit.

⚪️ — Ingo loves you, by the way (in a platonic sense). He’s delighted to see someone make his brother so happy, and to see Emmet has found someone he doesn’t have to mask with that’s not just him or Elesa. He would do the classic family move and warn you that you better treat Emmet right, but Ingo doesn’t find that warning necessary. He’s seen you working even before you and Emmet got together and knows you’re not at all fickle about your commitments. He’s not worried.

⚪️ — At the end of a long work day, you can expect to find you and Emmet tangled up in each other’s lanky arms and legs, surrounded by all your Pokemon both on and off the bed. And there Emmet will talk and talk, and probably make no sense while he does it, but that’s alright and he’s just happy to spill his thoughts without worrying about how he structures them. He’ll often go until he’s yawning, at which point you shush your beloved conductor and encourage him to maybe go to sleep.

⚪️ — Before burying his face into your chest or stomach, he’ll mumble out a sleepy “well, next stop: dreamland… aaaall aboooard…!” just because he knows it makes you laugh. You’re so stoic, but he absolutely can make you laugh with ease.

⚪️ — He loves that laugh of yours, because hearing it reminds him how free and happy you two are to express yourselves in the safety of one another’s company.

⚪️ — And when you both wake up in the morning and start getting ready for work all over again, Emmet always manages to find some words with so much less effort than it usually takes him as he barges into the bathroom to help you straighten your tie.

“I am Emmet. And you look verrrrry handsome today.”

Ingo

⚫️ — Everything is Emmet’s fault here. I mean… look, he knows that despite what people think, his brother can feel joy and actually feels it quite often, but it can be hard for Ingo to keep up with how upbeat Emmet is and his brother recognizes that as loud as Ingo can get, Ingo is really more built for the quiet and the calm.

⚫️ — (Most of the time. He definitely has his moments, but unlike Emmet he doesn’t have that surplus of energy to always be shaking out. Ingo is just a bit naturally more reserved. He is certainly more verbose than Emmet, but is actually less of a fan of being social than him.)

⚫️ — So knowing he was the personality Ingo spent the most time around, Emmet really got to thinking his brother needed someone who matched his energy levels better. In general, he thinks Ingo needs someone! It makes him verrrry sad, but he knows challengers approach him much more often than Ingo solely because his outward demeanor is more approachable to people. And by god, Emmet is determined to get more people as loud and proud members of the Ingo fan club.

⚫️ — Unceremoniously shoving his poor brother into you, a complete stranger who Emmet deemed to match Ingo’s “vibes”—at their workplace no less!—was probably not the ideal way to go about it, but you guys are dating now so it really is Emmet’s last laugh this time.

⚫️ — Ingo is very quiet and slow with his affection—at least, when he wants to be. There’s a time for words, definitely, but he honestly spins his wheels endlessly when he does talk and considering he has to take charge in that department for both his and Emmet’s sake, he likes being able to wind down with you.

⚫️ — (Definitely not me gay yearning looking up all different types of cuddles but) He likes to sleep in the sweetheart’s cradle position with you. Being nestled in your arms is very comforting for him, and when he can’t sleep, being so close let’s himself get lost in… well, you. He’ll trace his fingers across your skin, just focusing on the texture, listen to your heartbeat as he lays his head on your chest, or bury his head in your side and try and figure out what that body wash you used is supposed to smell like. He can be a restless sleeper, as his mind’s always buzzing every which way, but he always drifts back off eventually when he’s with you.

⚫️ — He does get a little embarrassed about how clingy he can get and how much he wants to be held, though, but you’re just there to love him even if he gets a little flustered about it.

⚫️ — Not huge on PDA because of his self conscious-ness, and NONE at all if you’re at work. This is a professional environment, after all! Of course, you’re so calm and laid back, that’s not an issue for you. Hey, whatever he wants.

⚫️ — Ingo loves his brother, he loves him more than life itself, but despite being identical twins they don’t see eye-to-eye on everything—Emmet’s excitability and energy being something Ingo doesn’t really have. He can get into those moods and does like excitement from time to time, but as much as he adores his job, the constant excitement can be a little much and he can rely on you for some quiet and calm in his life. He doesn’t need to maximize his energy and put on a show to be enough for you.

⚫️ — You’re so quiet, sometimes he worries his lack of volume control upsets you. He’s always so loud, and you’re… not. But you’re okay with him that way, you tell him you understand that’s a hard thing for him to control and the boisterous voice is something you love, anyway. It’s so uniquely him, just something you can hear and smile to yourself about as you think “yep, that’s Ingo”.

⚫️ — Also a bit nervous about publicly being in a relationship, but hey, you’re willing to take it at whatever pace he’s most comfortable with!

⚫️ — You use your height to your advantage, doing stuff that flusters him often—because you know for all his huffing about it, he loves the attention. You swipe his hat sometimes at home and tousle his hair, only to plop it back down all the way over his eyes. You put your arms around his waist when he’s not looking and lift him up, just a little bit—that move is especially useful when Ingo is overworking himself, because he’s literally powerless in that situation and will just hang there, defeated while you carry him somewhere else like you’re a child with an oversized teddy bear.

⚫️ — You and Emmet are some of the only people who can get a real smile out of him. He absolutely still enjoys himself and feels a good amount of joy daily, he just seldom smiles to express it. But you and Emmet are both capable of pushing him into such a good mood, the corners of his mouth twitch up a little bit into his unique half-smile. (Ingo is very self conscious about how unnatural it looks, but you think he’s adorable and it kills him a little every time when you compliment his smile in spite of him growing up hating it. So with how good of a mood he already has to be in in order to get that tiny smile in the first place, that mood only soars higher once you start complimenting said smile. Very pleasant situation he can get himself stuck in.)

⚫️ — Will happily invite you to join him for safety checks on his lines, and even though he’s very much a “no romantic interactions at work” kind of guy, he’s guaranteed to happily infodump about the trains if it’s just the two of you. He’s thankful you’re such a good listener.

⚫️ — One of his favorite shows of affection to you is kissing the back of your hand, especially to say goodbye whenever you need to part ways—and no, he definitely doesn’t go after your hand because he can’t reach your face.

⚫️ — I feel like both he and Emmet need regular reminders to take care of themselves, but Ingo is definitely the more stubborn one in that department, at least when it comes to the business/paperwork side of running the Battle Subway. Emmet throws every ounce of his energy into the battles he loves so much and is so tired by the end of the day, Ingo doesn’t want to make him do it! But in convincing him to step away from work, he’ll at least begrudgingly listen to you.

⚫️ — The only time Ingo’s voice is at its true quietest is at night, when you two are laying next to each other in bed. Your fingers running through his hair, his hand laced with yours, you’re used to him half-consciously mumbling about his feelings when he’s close to falling to sleep, because Ingo’s a sentimental dork and the sleepier he gets, the harder it is for him to hold back rambling like an idiot. He can’t help it! He compensates for his lack of physical emoting by always outright stating what he’s feeling and thinking—at least, most of the time—and though he’s never dishonest about how strong his feelings for you are, a tired Ingo is the sappiest Ingo.

“Mmh… I love you… so much…”

“I love you too, Ingo.”

“I’m so… lucky to have a man like you in my life…”

“You’re sweet.”

“I just love you so much…! With all of my heart…”

“I do too, Ingo. But you should go to sleep now, really.”

[zaccosnacco]

Just wanted to take the time to share some silly HCs I have :D

Ignacio doesn't really like the nickname "Iggy" much, but maybe OCCASIONALLY, you can call him that once (Skiddad might call him that several times tho XD)

Speaking of Skiddad, I HC him to be childhood friends with Frank and Candy Dealer, might seem like a lil random one, but it kinda fits tbh. Although I feel like he's more closer with CD because of the cult and whatnot, but occasionally the gang will hangout together, like the old days.

This one's a little bit of an angsty one, but I HC Gregor to have parental negligence trauma (Because of that scene with him and illusion Dexter). When he was younger, he didn't really want to be a priest in the first place, but because he was so overwhelmed by his parent's neglect, he became one so he'd finally got noticed and appreciated for once...

Ok, for a more wholesome one, Streber loves Uglydolls! (NOT the 2019-2020 one, I'm talking about the classics). He has a lil collection of merch of those things, his favorites would be Ninja Batty Shogun, Ice Bat, and Ox :3c

Another one for Ignacio, he's part Russian and part Latin :> (Also one more that he has a burn scarred black cat named Coal. He usually hates cats, but he LOVES Coal XD)

Radford enjoys Weird Al

Fat Thief's skilled with algebra and biology

And finally ending with some Garcia HCs!

First one is that he WAS the Clown, but after he got shot by Jack and most likely nearly died, he wanted to quit and try to be a better person (I do like that theory of Garcia being the Clown, but I personally don't HC it myself) | He and Ignacio are brothers (THIS HC GIVES ME SO MUCH JOY TBH- | Is an ABBA fan (Voulez Vous and Dancing Queen would be his favs XD) | And finally he has a habit of fidgeting with his tie or tapping his fingers on a hard surface (Specifically tables), it's like a stim for him :D

Either ways that's some HCs I wanted to ramble rq, I hope ya like em!

I love those, I share the iggy head canon personally because Ignacio does not seem to enjoy nicknames

Of course my skiddad will call him anything under the sun so he has to deal with it lol

I also love the garcia being Ignacios brother headcanon so much omg

Also for the Gregor one me and one of my besties headcanon him to just be raised in the church. Raised by the priest who isn’t even related to him

That priest whoever was Ignacios father (and let me tell you he’s also really punchable, when i draw him I give him a box head like skiddads usually drawn with)

I talked about this in my headcanons post but I headcanon Ignacio with some religious trauma, and he is not fond of priests in the slightest

Though i also headcanon Gregor being a childhood friend of his well, until Ig ran away because he wasn’t really enjoying his home. This happened out of the blue and he lost contact with his friend. And he probably doesn’t recognize him in the future because of that

Theres my small ramble, amazing headcanons !!

[perriedoestheirbest]

Pin post cause I wanna set ground rules before I do anything on here

Updated: 12/17/2024 :3

I spell things wrong and grammar is atrocious but please remember I am doing my best as my user handler suggests

Make sure to read the DNI part, that part’s important

I will give you a gold star if you manage to get through this

You ready? Mkay.

🎀🎀🎀🎀🎀

- Main info

Hi! I’m perry, it’s short for Peregrine :3

I’m a minor

I change a buncha stuff nothing is final

I use this blog to express myself, so I do indeed vent I’m tags. Even if it’s in little codes or maybe it’s a simple vent post, my vent tag is Perrie vents (or something similar) feel free to block the tag.

I follow and like interact with likes from my main but I ALWAYS reblog before any of that.

I don’t rlly like the idea of ppl finding my main but those who dig enough, it’s not hard to find.

I support Palestine so already off the bat if you don’t like it, you can leave. I try to keep this a positive space but stuff like supporting Palestine are important no matter the situation. I previously said I’d make a mini post for links on how to support the cause but this is an agere account, and I felt like that’d be too uptight. Still, Free Palestine. No matter the blog. :>

I study psychology and some history for fun.

I really enjoy theories, analyzing things, and headcanons

I usually enjoy horror but in this blog, this is my safe spot where I can take a breather from that stuff cause it’s nice to take a break every once in a while :]

Please be patient with me :>

I find a lot of comfort in nostalgia so I’ll either reblog stim boards or stuff from early 2010’s. Rarely anything else but I’ll indulge in art and fanfiction too if it’s safe for work.

I’m still pretty clueless about the tagging system and will mess up so telling me about it helps loads

I’m trans, transmasc, and genderfluid, I go by he/him or they/them, and I’m also on the a-spec!^^

This blog was originally made for Agere, but because I’m unfamiliar with Agere accounts on tumblr especially it’s gonna take me a hot minute to really post anything, and I most likely won’t.

I do dream regression (idk if that’s the correct term, I’m still new to this). I try to actually regress but it’s hard, so I don’t have much of a small age. I’m still a minor, but my big age IS 10+

I’m interested in the indie film industry, and I enjoy art :3

🌙🌙🌙🌙🌙

- Extra info

My favorite color is pink! :]

I believe cringe culture is dead

I enjoy lemon demon and jack stauber and I make references of them a LOT.

I enjoy over analyzing everything so I’ll mostly reblog headcanons

This blog is completely sfw.

I like to ramble a lot, and tend to do so in tags

I enjoy mixed media of all kinds :>

I’m multifandom

I’m a multishipper, but I don’t usually ship in the fandoms I’m in due to creepy ships I come across so the ships I do enjoy are either very popular or never once heard of

I’m pretty inactive, and this is because I struggle with pretty bad social anxiety that tends to stop me from interacting with any sign of human life, but because I’m trying to cope, I’ll do my best

I’m a radical inclusionist so this is pretty much a safe space if you want it to be one

I’m an older brother

I’m also really weird

I might attempt to draw but I won’t draw often.

Cringe culture is pretty much dead and whoever is keeping cringe culture alive are clearly people who don’t belong on this blog or my main blog either

DMs are ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS closed, again, I’m a minor and I’m uncomfortable interacting with strangers especially on the internet, if I DM you it’s either on accident or because I know you irl

I don’t talk much while I’m in this partial headspace so I don’t talk much. There won’t be much tags, and a very bad tagging system, or lack there of, I should say.

💫💫💫💫💫

- Tagging system so you know what to block or read

Perrie vents — venting tag

🦷🦷🦷🦷🦷

- Hyperfixations

CoD (MW2 and Cold War Black ops) (somehow, 18+ content CoD fans DNI!!!!)

Spiderverse Itsv & atsv

Death Note (the anime)

Attack on Titan (also the anime)

Sally face

Minecraft

Undertale

Underverse

Sans AUs

FNaF (the games and the movie)

DHMIS

Mr. Plant (by Ashur Gharavi)

Bugsnax

Fran bow

TF2/Team Fortress 2

Little misfortune

MCSM

Psychology

The paranormal

Gravity Falls

Analysis of any sort

Video essays

ARGs

Art

💤💤💤💤💤

⚠️‼️DNI‼️⚠️

Zi0n1sts

Z00philes

P3dophiles

R@cists

N@zis/neo N@zis (lmk if I need to update this part cause it’s been awhile since I last did research on this)

NSFW

LGBTphobes

MAP (not the art collab but the other thing)

Anti-antis

Proshippers/comshippers

Shotacons (of any variant, I’m just using this one as an example cause this is the one I remember)

Furry haters/Anti-furrys

Anti-therians/therian haters

AB/DL

DD/LG (of any variant.)

K1nk blogs

Transmed

Radical exclusionists

Anti-age/pet regression

Able1sts

Anti-xenogenders/neopronouns/xenopronouns(<- do we still use this term or was this never a thing?)

Man, that was a long list. Hope that didn’t overwhelm you.

I know there’s a lot but I can’t fully relax without knowing there’s some wall rigidly keeping me from being face to face with actual creeps and strangers I don’t know, so this is my version of a safe space and stability.

💥💥💥💥💥

The end.

I’ll update the main info or extra info if I need too, but this is mostly it for now.

Did you read it? Did you read all of it?

If so, here is a gold star.

⭐️

like I promised :3

[jounosparticles]

HAJDSJD omg im glad we're both brain rotting about this now LMAO okay

i thought about the surgery thing. it was mentioned that tachihara was given less than the others due to his nature as a spy, but im not sure if he can survive or not. if worst comes to worst, im sure he could get the surgery files and have a more private doctor do it. i admit that i haven't thought enough about it, i just kind of assumed tachihara would be fine or somehow find another solution

ALSO YES YES OMG DAZAI AND JOUNO BONDINF!! j feel like the parallels between their pasts would cause some tension at first though. in my mind jouno probably avoids his past like the plague, while dazai embraces it as a part of him or whatever. maybe they intimidate each other at first and then come to realise that they're not threats & actually have a bit in common.

also this doesn't relate to the whole topic but i really desperately want to see tachihara and jouno bond over blindness. like.. as someone that's been losing my vision my whole life, it can be very scary + tachihara's wound was due to a traumatic and severe injury, not just a disease. jouno and tachi seem to be fairly close, from what i barely remember of season 4 and i think this could bring them closer, mafia aside.

also, ranpo and tecchou are very autistic coded. i feel like their autism would clash personally. like in my mind ranpo has very visual stims but tecchou is sensitive to the light. i don't think it'd be a huge deal, they'd just learn to leave each other be when clashes happen.. but i can also see them growing close too.

ALSO YES TECCHOU AND KENJI MENTORSHIP/FRIENDSHIP. tecchou is definitely a big brother figure imo like i think he'd be great at taking care of people. not in huge gestures but in little ways like bringing them stuff that reminds him of them or minor acts of service. and kenji very much seems like a family oriented type of person.

IDK THERES SO MUCH TO THINK ABOIT LIKE?? im going insane this au is ruining me

- 🗡️

oh my god your brain. literally making me so happy i love talking about this!!!

good note on the surgery thing for tachihara!! i didn’t know or didn’t remember hearing that, but it clears it up. possibly there are similar doctors within the mafia as well.

one slightly brutal thought i’ve had before is if something happens to the hunting dogs doctor. they’d be easier to attack than the hunting dogs themself and if they died all of the hunting dogs would slowly have to rot to death. what a vile and awful death to face. ive thought about writing this before but it also makes me a bit sad to think about.

jouno and dazai bonding would be really nice to see. i feel that their senses of morality and justice are vastly different though to the point where becoming close would be hard for the two. with that in mind they could make an interesting combination when it comes to discussing pasts. i fully agree with what you said about jouno hiding the past whereas dazai appreciates his.

and about jouno and tachi i truly hope they do that as well. i have a feeling they’re going to use the vampiric ability to heal his eyes or use yosano but i hope instead they have jouno help him adjust to learning to live without sight. it’s always good to have representation of disabilities in media. i think jouno thinks fondly of tachihara, he addressed him in a friendly manner when they reunited in S4. i would love to see more interactions

I GET YOU with the autism part as well. i feel like they would clash a lot just due to being very different in symptom display. id love to see them talk about how confusing people can be together, i feel that would help them get each other a bit. i glad you see the tetchou autism hc as well!!!

YESSS. kenji and tetchou brothers please!! i love the found family trope. kenji is also just super sweet and probably wouldn’t mind any of the strange things tetchou does.

i love your mind. your ideas are so good!!!!!

[kittythegengarmonarch]

Smol (Mainly because I feel that way).

I'll be honest here, interacting in general is very difficult, but any size is a good size.

Hmmm. I don't know. There were times when I imagined myself (sona specifically) and my f/o living in a giant castle, similar to my brother's favorite fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk (I guess us autistics really like giants... XD), but this castle is quite fancy, and holds a spooky theme. My f/o would be sleeping in his 'normal' sized room (but he doesn't even NEED sleep, mind you), and I'd be sleeping in a little purple 'toy sized' room that he (or someone else) made me. Apologies for the overcomplicated answer. Next question.

Okay, now this one's easy. But I don't want to get into too much detail like the last question. My sona is shown on the picture above (the one on the right). If you'd like to learn more about me (and/or my Gengarsona Kitty), check out my DeviantArt. I don't necessarily 'come out' there, but I do make more work there.

This is probably the only question that I'm having trouble understanding... (I'll edit it when I do.)

Fairies. (Please do note that I'm closer to the regular human size btw. I'm a Gengar.)

Giants.

Both.

Other than Pokémon, Antman (I do enjoy SFW sizey media).

The last TV show I watched was against my will, Gabby's Dollhouse... My brother was watching it when my sister asked me to help her with Pokémon Violet. I do know that there's already a size canon for it.

Please don't be toxic about it. It used to be "If I Killed Someone for You" by Alec Benjamin, but now it's "I'm not a Cynic" by the same singer. If video game music counts, there are 2 specific Bonetrousle remixes, Calcium Carousel(by Planetwolf) and Bone to Pick with. Also, the first part of an FNF Song called 'My Horizon' and one of my favorite FNF songs, "Invincible" but slowed (Let's be real. It hits hard).

If I shrank, I'd actually be quite shy (and hide from the nasty bullies because I'm a ninny). If I grew, such as Gigantamax/Dynamaxed, then the anxiety would probably kick in, because I wouldn't want to hurt anyone.

(Almost) Any pet! I actually have 3 in mind - kitten, puppy, and hamster/guinea piggy.

My recent journal of coming out of my g/t shell will tell you that. It's a ridiculously complicate answer, and I don't want to put anyone else through that unintentional harm again.

Dunno. Probably the part from Antman where Yellowjacket accidentally summons that nosy snitch Siri, threatening Antman, and then Siri plays a song that has a name similar to the threat. (I know that it isn't a giant scene, and I know that I dislike Yellowjacket as a character, but still. Go watch the Antman movies, and prepare for Antman Quantumania. I'm very excited to see it.)

It's rare when I find SFW ones. My g/t comfort medias are the comfort ASMRs (there was part of only one violent one that I liked) and the writings on Tumblr, like Bri.

Probably all my life. Honestly. Again, go check the 'Coming out of my shell' journal to learn more.

My favorite g/t content creators are @friendlyfoxpal , @that-one-anime-writer , and Hakunaro(DeviantArt). There's more, but I'll select them for now. Not all of my friends are that interested into g/t, and I think some of them would make fun of me, so I'll pass on that one. Yes, I know I'm a coward.

Oh god...😳 Every time I go to bed, I lure myself to sleep my stimming with my feet, and 'daydreaming' about my f/o petting me

I'm not gonna tell you that. I can keep some secrets. Now this is downright embarrassing. XD (I partially know, partially don't tbh. But I'm still not tellin' you. Or at least not yet. Thank you for understanding.)

g/t asks!

What is your preferred size?

What size do you like to interact with best?

What would your tiny/giant home look like?

Do you have a sona? Tell us about them!

What’s your favorite size trope?

Fairies or borrowers?

Giants or humans?

Sci-fi shrinking or magic shrinking?

What’s your favorite piece of sizey media?

What’s the last TV show you watched, any size headcanons for it?

What song gives you size vibes?

If you suddenly grew/shrunk where you are right now, what would happen?

What kind of pet would you like at your size?

What was your g/t awakening?

What size scenario is the funniest to you?

What’s your comfort g/t media/tropes?

How long have you been into g/t?

Any favorite g/t content creators? People you wanna hype up?

What’s your all-time favorite g/t daydream - the one thing you keep going back to?

A fictional character you really REALLY wanna shrink/grow?

[dykelizard]

dumping all my donnie headcanons bc i cant stop thinking about him!!

-he bites. HARD. soft-shell turtle bites are SO BAD his mouth is the second most dangerous next to raph. if u put your hand too close he WILL bite you and you WILL lose a finger.

-his vision is so bad that he’s pretty much legally blind. most of the time he wears contacts, especially when they’re on the surface fighting, but when he’s at home and comfy he wears these big thick ugly glasses that are all taped together and shit that he’s too attached to get rid of at this point.

-for when he’s working in his lab he has a HUGE pair of prescription goggles that leo always makes fun of him for (and subsequently gets slapped over)

-he gets SUPER cuddly when he’s overtired or overcaffeinated. in addition, whenever he FINALLY goes to sleep, he kicks like crazy. he’s the most restless sleeper in the family for sure. (raph snores, leo sleeps like the dead whenever he actually sleeps, and mikey sleep-walks/talks)

-he’s in the back issues club with splinter because of his extra-sensitive soft shell. he has chronic pain, and sometimes he can’t wear his battle shell for more than a few hours because it irritates both his past injuries and his shell itself, and he gets sore really easily. sometimes when the pain gets really bad, raph will give him shell massages to help.

-he’s the best swimmer out of the mad dogs. he’s CRAZY fast, and he likes to grab his brothers’ legs while underwater (menace)

-when he was younger, before he developed his battle shell prototype, he was way more prone to getting injured and hurting his soft shell. because of it, his brothers would always end up going out of their way to protect him. it always made him feel like he was nothing more than a burden to his brothers, and useless to the team.

-he thought that he was just dragging them down because he was such a liability in battle, which is a big part of the reason why he ended up building the battle shell.

-he would always end up covering his shell with bandaids, and leo would always give him the purple ones to make him feel better. (mikey also would sneak stickers on when he wasn’t looking)

-he takes better care of his machines than himself most of the time. shelldon is always properly oiled and charged, and all his inventions are in pristine condition.

-his favorite stims are rocking, hopping, flapping, cracking his knuckles (he just like me fr), fiddling with things, and doing little dances!!!!

-he would fucking love 100 gecs.

-sometimes if he goes long enough without sleep he’ll just . fall over and pass out no matter what he’s doing. in mid-battle, while experimenting in the lab, while eating pizza, you name it. mans going DOWN. the other turtles have a protocol ready for it in every situation possible.

-he does 15 hour twitch streams that are literally just a live feed of himself inventing building and exploding various new things in the lab. he got 50 viewers once and he refused to shut up about it for a week straight.

-he HATES vegetables. soft shell turtles are primarily carnivores, and he has sensory issues with food texture especially, so he’s SUPER picky.

-however, that being said, he can and will eat bugs.

-his favorite type of pizza is anchovy and olive.

[drakkensystem]

My Personal Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Headcanons

Section 1: They're all queer as fuck

Part 1: All of the turtles are trans/genderqueer in some fashion

Real life facts: For most turtle species- including alligator snapping turtles, box turtles, and red-eared sliders but NOT including softshells (we'll get around to ol' Donnie boy in a minute) you can determine the sex of an individual by looking at the shape of their plastron (aka chest/stomach).

Males always have concave (inward curving) plastrons

Females' plastrons are convex (outward curving), flat, or bumpy. For most species the shape varies from individual to individual, but female plastrons are never concave.

Tldr: concave (inward curving) plastrons = biologically male; any other plastron shape = biologically female

Now, let's look at our 3 (non-softshell) boys' plastrons

First, Raph

Raph's plastron is flat with a bump on top (aka, not concave). Therefore he is AFAB (or should I say AFAH- assigned female at hatching?).

Now I headcanon that he is a binary trans man. When Raph was very young, Splinter realized that Raph didn't like something about his deadname so he asked him about it and eventually got the turtle tot to admit that it felt wrong for him, that it felt more like a girl's name. To which Splinter said, "Are you not a girl?"/genuine and Raph said no, he feels more like a boy. So Splinter was like, "ah, my mistake. I guess you need a boy name then- how about Raphael?" (this would match the Renaissance name he gave his other son) The little turtle thought very hard for a moment. It felt right. "Raph likes that name". Splinter chuckles "Raphael it is"

Then when Donnie and/or Leo had trouble remembering to not use his deadname (Mikey was just learning to talk at the time, so she only ever remembers Raph's name being Raph), Raph would subtly remind them by referring to himself in the 3rd person, and after a while the habit stuck.

Speaking of his brothers:

Mikey, the youngest but the second one to change names and come out.

Here is Mikey's plastron

Flat = Not concave = Mikey is also AFAH.

I said "come out" but Mikey has always known that he was neither a girl or a boy, but rather- both? Or neither? Honestly she doesn't bother to try to figure it out and usually just identifies as "queer as ginger beer, baby!". If pressed for more details about his gender she shrugs and says "genderfluid". Mikey uses mirror pronouns.

When Leo began teasing Mikey about how girly her deadname was (Leo dealing with his own gender dysphoria in an unhealthy way, as per typical of the slider) Mikey decided to change his name for 2 reasons 1)on some unconscious level she understood why Leo was teasing her about the name and he thought if he had a different one it would make Leo less uncomfortable and 2)she was in the middle of a hyperfixation on (the Renaissance artist) Michaelangelo's art and the idea of being named after one of the best artists of all time made him do a happy-stim dance. Incidentally, Mikey is the only one who doesn't care whether anyone knows his deadname (it's Kitsu- a Japanese name meaning "tangerine/orange" because "you bring the sweetness and brightness of this sunny fruit into our lives every day")

Splinter found out that Mikey wanted to change her name and, not having any kind of concept of genders beyond male and female, (and thinking back to his experience with his eldest) came to the conclusion that Mikey was a boy. Mikey tried to explain it to him once, but when Splinter's eyes glazed over Mikey decided she didn't care if his Dad thought of her as a weird kind of boy.

He once had a phase where she decided he wanted to come up with his own neopronouns and landed on "orangeh/orangir/orangehs" (pronounced identically to the english words "orange", "oranger" and "oranges"). Honestly Mikey only kept it up for as long as orangeh did to see the twitch on Donnie's face every time Splinter forced the softshell to use the correct pronouns for his little brother ("But those are ALREADY REAL WORDS with a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MEANING!" "Nuh-uh, I made new ones! :P" "They are pronounced EXACTLY THE SAME!" "Purple, respect your brother's gender identity and call him what he- I mean Orange- wants to be called or I'm taking away your soldering iron for a week!" "GAAURAGH! FiiINE! I will use orangehs DUM-DUM little words to refer to orangir even though orangeh is only doing it to annoy me >:( !!" *Mikey grins smugly*)

Incidentally, this was when Splinter started referring to them by their colors because his neurodivergent ass had trouble remembering to not use his sons' deadnames and if the pronouns were going to change too? That was more than he could handle. But Splinter was dead-set (get it ;) on respecting their gender identities so colors it is (thank God he had already color-coordinated them)

Ah, Leo. Leo Leo Leo

As we can see here, Leo's plastron is not concave, ergo he is also AFAH (also biologically male red-eared sliders' markings often fade as they reach adulthood and their skin produces more melanin, while biologically female sliders retain the same bright coloring they had as hatchlings. But since some male sliders don't get darker skin, we're not going to count this as proof of his gender assigned at hatching. Evidence? yes. But proof? No)

When Raphael came out to their dad, Leo became extremely jealous of his older brother because of Raph's name change because of the extra attention Raph got from their Dad. And, ironically, this only made the red-eared slider firmer in his insistence that he wasn't an "icky boy :P"- he was NOT (!) going to copy his older brother even though he kinda wanted to.

So Leo dealt with his gender dysphoria in other ways -

becoming ultra-competitive ("just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't cream you, DonTon!" "Bring it on then, twin sister" *Leo just gives a wordless scream of rage*)

teasing every single one of his siblings about gender stuff every chance he can (except Raph- the first time Leo implied that Raph wasn't a "real boy" Raph ran off crying and Leo was grounded for a month- with no pizza)

developing that characteristic, deflectingly cocky personality

when things were really bad he became aggressively angry (when this happened he usually got it out by sparring with Raph or Donnie no, not because Leo's jealous, why would he be jealous

When Mikey changed his name, at first Leo became insanely jealous found Mikey to be even more annoying than usual until one day Dr Feelings, in her first ever appearance (*internally* "I only changed my name in the first place to try to make Leo feel better, but now Leo's feeling even more upset! Wait, that's it- feelings. I'll be Dr Feelings") , told Leo that if he was so jealous of Mikey and Raph changing their names, why didn't he just change his?

An argument ensued with Dr Feelings trying to get Leo to tell him what's wrong until finally Leo blurts out:

"Because! It's not like it would stop everyone from calling me a girl anyway!"

"...But if you asked us to we would"

*one existential crisis later*

"Raph, Donnie, Mikey: I have an important announcement to make... I'm not a girl, I'm a boy and my name isn't [deadname] it's Leonardo"

"Did you pick that because you wanted to match how the rest of us are named after famous artists?"

"Or because Michelangelo's greatest rival was Leonardo Da Vinci? :D"

*His twin knew it was because he was going through a Leonardo DiCaprio fixation but other than giving his brother in blue a smirk, Donnie kept his mouth shut*

*sweating* "...Yes, of course that's why"

Raph took it upon himself to make sure that Splinter knew to respect Leo's new name and pronouns and the family has never looked back.

Now, let's swing back around to the autistic softshell.

Now, softshell plastrons are not sexually dimorphic in shape (tangent - is it actually sexual dimorphism when it is actually directly related to mating?) Anyway, our best metric here is shell pattern.

The pattern on a biologically female spiny softshell's carapace (back shell) will change as she reaches sexual maturity. Male spiny softshells retain their hatchling pattern their whole lives.

So, let's look at DonDon's shell pattern as a hatchling and as a teenager.

Donnie's shell still has the same basic pattern it did when he was a baby, so he must have been amah. But don't let those he/him pronouns fool you: Donnie is non-binary.

When his older brother Raph admitted to their dad that he felt more like a boy than a girl and then Splinter gave Raphael a new name, it set gears turning in little Donnie's head.

Donnie asked Raph about his feelings regarding gender and then had a conversation with Splinter- ostensibly to explain why he should call Raph "Raph" and how someone who (from Donnie's perspective) used to be a girl was now a boy. In actuality of course, our little scientist was gathering data about gender and how gender works.

His conclusion? More data is necessary.

So he watches his other siblings. He sees how Leo seems obsessed with gender and is also just, kinda angry, like all the time. He notices how Papá begins to use he/him pronouns for Mikey.

Then when he sees Leo's impassioned coming out speech, he finally arrives at a few conclusions:

1)Your gender is not necessarily tied to your physical sex (and the people who think otherwise are dum-dums whom he will keep away from his siblings at all costs)

2)Some people have very strong feelings about gender.

3)These people's strong feelings about gender are what determines whether they are a boy or a girl

4)Therefore, since he doesn't have strong feelings of being a boy or a girl, he must be neither.

5) Since he's not a girl he sees no point in changing his name and/or pronouns - honestly it would just confuse Papá and besides, with things as they are, he and his brothers' names are all matching.

When Donnie gets exposure to the queer community on the internet he finds out about nonbinary genders ("ah, an explanation for Mikey's confusing babbling about gender") and then xenogenders and suddenly everything clicks into place.

Donnie begins to quietly collect gender labels into a super-encrypted, password protected for-Donnie's-eyes-only document: slowly at first (if he isn't 100% sure that it vibes, he doesn't add it to the document). But then eventually Mikey's carefree attitude about gender rubs off enough that he begins adding anything that vaguely fits (this, of course, necessitates turning his list into a table so that he can add another parameter for each entry- namely, how much does it apply- and then organize them by said metric)

If you ask him what his gender is, he has a spectrum of responses based on how familiar with xenogenders you are.

0 - "Sure, you can use he/him pronouns for me"- for those who lack the context of there being more than 2 genders (aka, Splinter)

1 - "I'm nonbinary, which means I'm neither fully a boy nor fully a girl but he/him pronouns are fine"

2 - "I'm a xenby (that's xenogender+enby) with some masculinity in my gender identity"

3 - "I am a mascuon neurogender gendercollector. My other lead genders include, but are not limited to: autigender, purplegender, techgender and vibrogender"

4 - literally just shows them his gender-collection document- only 2 people have ever had this privilege: Mikey and April. The latter of whom accidentally saw it briefly over his shoulder before even knowing that he's nonbinary/trans, but when she was cool about it made him trust her enough to info-dump about his gender to her (as he does semi-regularly with Mikey when there has been a significant update). Unlike with Mikey, he hasn't info-dumped to April about his gender more than once (she tried, she really did. But she could only pay attention for so long before her eyes started to glaze over)

Some of Donnie's other gender labels include (but are not limited to) darkwebgender, deepwebgender, genderwhat, neurbinary, nesciōgender, rouene, stebaonic, stimgender, void hoarder, xumgender

Queer Headcanon Part 1 | Queer Headcanon Part 2

[poppitron360]

HAPPY STIMMING SO HARD AND SCREAMING THIS IS SO AMAZING THANKK YOU

AAAAAAAHHHHH This touched my little heart more than I can express in one keysmash. I follow your blog because I absolutely love your takes on the characters and your dedication to your writing. I honestly have so much respect for you as a writer so to see you show interest in my art makes me so incredibly happy. I am honoured that you not only take the time to read my fic but also respond with your opinions and have a discussion with me!! I love sharing my work with other people and I love to have it analysed and just wow this is everything to me so THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!!! *Jumps up and down and squeals*

Responding with more Thoughts because I love talking about my fanfics and I LOVE it when people are interested in them.

- Leo using hearing aids is my favourite hc and the fact that it’s not canon pisses me off. It’s a great way to show the lasting effects of the battle with Gaea (and the whole theme of learning to live with the damage of being a demigod instead of avoiding it) and it’s also a good way for some more disability rep! I’m not deaf myself, but I tried to do my best to do the hc justice as authentically as I could. Also Jason knowing all of Leo’s languages, including ASL, morse code, and Ancient Greek is just everything to me.

- Jason “My husband is better than Beyoncé” Valdez is the idea that started this whole fic. Just loving life, and appreciative of everything in it. Loving Leo so fucking much and making a point of SHOWING it- knowing that that kinda love is something Leo never got a lot of (which is why I put an emphasis on Leo’s bio family). I thought it would be a great way to explore the whole “names have power” thing. And also Jason just being happy to be alive. Demigods don’t usually make it this far, and Jason is appreciative every day that he made it. (Because, of course, canonically he didn’t)

- I often make Leo the main comfortee bc he is the guy I project myself onto most and I just wanna be Held. But I wanted to give Jason his moment (I was in the middle of reading the Burning Maze when I wrote that, so I felt like he needed that little relief). I also love how Leo’s solution to everything is Ice Cream- I felt like that was in character for Mr “Focus on what you CAN do to fix the problem” and also so me.

- Literally the only reason I wrote that Christmas scene was just so that Leo could call Thalia his “sister-in-law”. I love characters with the dynamic of “I will threaten you with a knife but, like, as a sign of affection” and Leo is completely unfazed bc he knows that and he’s just “I love you too”. It really shows how much Leo’s integrated himself in Jason’s life that Leo and Thalia are totally comfortable with each other as brother and sister.

- That wedding conversation on the balcony was so REAL and RAW to write. Out of all the moments in this fic, this felt the most realistic and like a conversation I might actually have. I am someone who experiences overstimulation which can stop me from taking part in big events, even if it’s something I wanna enjoy like a wedding. I love that I can give Leo that visual representation of the fire, and the power-suppressing clothes being a metaphor for sensory issues, and I love that he now has that growth of giving himself space to let it out instead of bottling up his powers like he canonically did- he didn’t use them at all in the years between his mom’s death and coming to chb. I used to heavily mask and am in the process of trying to undo that- actually allowing myself to have a meltdown every once in a while instead of trying to suppress it. Leo still forcing himself to wear clothes he’s uncomfortable in for the “safety” of others (or rather- convenience. For me, it can sometimes feel like my autistic traits are somehow causing others harm), but recognising that he needs to give himself space sometimes is so relatable aaaand these are all things I didn’t even realise I was writing into the fic until I typed this now. The things you can learn about yourself through fanfiction!

- The glitch situation genuinely made me have to stop and consider the consequences of my actions. But I couldn’t Unthink the thought so I had to follow through with it. I did genuinely need to lie down for a full minute after writing it, though. A lot of “whyyy did I do that?” But I love that it’s sorta reminiscent of that “what if they’ve actually been dreaming/hallucinating/in a mental institution and none of this ever happened” trope in fantasy that I fear we’ve lost with the death of filler episodes. I love things that make the audience THINK. Also it covers any plot-holes, like the fact that Harley was described like he was still a kid even though chronologically he should be in his twenties by now. Or that vague explanation as to why Jason came back.

- The thing I love about Penny is that I know absolutely fucking nothing about her. The only thing I know for sure is that she is the SASSIEST person alive. And Jason is fond of her despite the fact that she teases him mercilessly. However- I did have a few thoughts on her maybe being a child of Vulcan? The Roman counterparts of Hephaestus kids aren’t talked about much, so it would be fun to explore. I also think Leo developing an older brother/surrogate dad energy would be so cute, especially if I expand upon them wanting kids. But I love the idea of Valgrace being “my mentor and his weird Professor husband that hang around and are cute together and seem to think they’re my dads”

- Extended Grace family would be fun to write, especially exploring whole “Names have power” “Nature vs Nurture” “You are more than who you’re related to” that’s already a theme in the Riordanverse. Jason still finding his place. But also them being super nice and accepting of Leo as part of their family and Leo being a bit baffled by the whole thing because “Unconditional Love? What’s that?”

- I loved writing that ending. I didn’t want to dismiss their trauma and everything they went through bc that would just be an unsatisfying payoff to the hoo and toa books (*cough cough* Caleo) but instead learning to live through it together. Honestly you understood everything I was trying to achieve when writing this entire fic.

- Also, is it still Valgrace if Jason’s changed his last name? Just a thought.

I’d write more, but this fic is so long that my keyboard is starting to lag.

For real, though, your takes hit EXACTLY what I wanted people to take away from the fic, so it’s really good to know that my writing gave the desired effect to at least one person. The lines and themes you picked out were all the ones I’m proudest of and your analysis of them was spot on. This genuinely meant so much to me. Again, thank you so much!

Guys… it’s finally here.

After almost three months of working on it, my largest fic ever is finally finished- currently clocking in at around 15k words!!

This is a collection of short stories about “Domestic life with Leo and Jason” and the beautiful things that come out of that- I give this as my gift to the Valgrace community as a reminder that happy endings can happen, just sometimes we have to create them ourselves.

CW: Swearing, brief talk of homophobia, a little bit of angst sprinkled in for good measure.

Word count: 15,580!!

“Violets and Marigolds”

Married Valgrace AU

Jason sat on the warehouse roof, watching the sun rise. His legs dangled off the side. He felt something brush gently against his ankle, and he saw the sole of Leo’s scuffed-up brown Doc Marten work-boot knock a little against his sneaker in the soft swing of Leo’s legs. The pale golden light of dawn glinted on the windows below them. Jason looked up and smiled at Leo.

Sure, insomnia’s a bitch. But Jason didn’t care when the man he loved was sitting next to him and smiling. He knew that he could get through the sleepless nights and he knew that dawn will always come after, no matter what. Whatever happens, the sun will rise. And Leo would be next to him.

They would always have each other.

Jason interlaced his fingers with Leo’s. It was a new day. He didn’t know what it would bring. But he knew he could count on seeing Leo’s face at the end of it, and the start of the next one.

Jason sat down in front of the interviewer.

“Jason Valdez.”

“That’s my name.”

She squinted at the paper and then studied him, “You don’t look like someone whose last name would be something like Valdez.”

Jason stifled a grumble. He hated when people pointed that out. Why couldn’t they keep their nose out of it?

“…Not that it’s any of your business,” Jason said, as calmly and respectfully as he could, “But I took my husband’s last name when I got married.” To emphasise his point, he casually put his hands on the desk in front of him so that his wedding ring was in full view. It was made of a special alloy of both imperial gold and celestial bronze, and carved with intricate designs. Jason loved to show it off.

The interviewer looked at Jason over the top of her thick-framed glasses, “Why?”

“Well…” Jason really didn’t like this woman, but he had to be professional. He decided blunt honesty was the best tactic to shut her up, “I didn’t have the best relationship with my mother. And I’d rather her name wasn’t a part of my identity. My husband, though, I love very much, and I want a piece of him to be with me. Now this job-“

“So, your husband…” The interviewer continued, “Is he any relation to Leo Valdez, the Greek demigod who launched a missile attack on New Rome?”

“You mean the Greek demigod that sacrificed his life to stop Gaea and save the world? Yes, that’s him,” Jason was getting properly annoyed. This was an interview for a job, not a dating profile. She didn’t need to know what went on in his private life.

“But he did launch the attack?”

“He. Was. Possessed.” Jason growled, “By an eidolon. Working for Gaea. He was not in control of his actions. Plus, that was fourteen years ago. Plus, some of Camp Jupiter’s top Praetors themselves saw to it that he was pardoned. His name is cleared, meaning my name is cleared. Now, can we talk about my credentials?”

“I didn’t get the job!” Jason said, dropping his bag by the door and throwing himself onto the couch.

“Oh no!” Leo said, looking up from where he was sitting, cross-legged on the carpet, a collection of sketches and blueprints spread out in front of him.

Jason waved his hand, dismissively, “It’s fine. I didn’t want it anyway. The interviewer gave me a bad vibe.” Jason didn’t mention that Leo’s name had come up in the interview- or that that was the reason why he hadn’t landed the job. It wasn’t Leo’s fault. They knew that living in New Rome might cause some problems, but it was the only decent place to find demigod work, and it wasn’t like Jason was gonna stop being married to Leo.

“How was your day?”

Leo turned back to the mess before him, and started shuffling papers around. “I got a few new commissions in,” He said, “A design for a carseat that massages you. Washing machines with legs. That kinda thing,” He turned back around, “Plus your standard swords, shields, the odd axe. Nothing new there. I’ll head down to the warehouse tomorrow and start working on those.”

“Don’t overwork yourself, amorsito.”

“I’ve had to take on a few extra stuff while you’ve been looking at jobs,” Leo said, “I’m the breadwinner in this household. We gotta pay bills somehow.”

As he talked, he began to fiddle with his hearing aid (He’d needed them ever since the explosion). Jason knew that he only did that when he was really agitated. He switched to ASL.

“Don’t play with that,” Jason signed.

“Sorry,” Leo signed back. He left the device alone and started fidgeting with his wedding ring- twisting it round and round, swapping it between fingers, spinning it on the table. Jason could tell something was wrong.

“What’s up?” He said in English.

“It’s nothing,” Leo replied.

“Querido…” Jason chided, “What is it?”

“It’s nothing… it’s-it’s silly, really. It’s not worth mentioning.”

Jason sat back on the sofa with his arms crossed, a patient expression on his face.

“Okay, fine! It’s just… something you said yesterday kinda… is still on my mind.”

Jason leaned forward, “What did I say, mi estrella?”

“You said… you know how we were talking about you getting a job? And how you wanted to make money to settle down for the future? Like- what did you mean by that, because it seemed like you meant…”

Leo trailed off, not making eye contact with Jason. He bounced his leg up and down so hard that the coffee table next to him was buzzing. He kept on passing his wedding ring between one hand and the other. He reached up to touch his ear again, but then he caught himself and quickly brought his hand down. He kept fidgeting with the ring.

“Do you… do you want kids, Jason?”

Jason was kind of taken aback by the bluntness of the question. He hadn’t meant to broach the whole subject of children to Leo. Not yet. But he’d been lying if he said the answer was anything other than yes, “Well… yeah, eventually. I mean, not right now, obviously, but someday. I’ve always imagined myself as a dad. And with Percy and Annabeth having their baby, and Nico and Will announcing that they’re Trying, it kinda got my head spinning a bit.”

Leo didn’t respond. His eyes were fixed on a spot on the wall in front of him. His leg was jiggling violently now.

“Why? Do you… not want kids?” Jason asked, a little scared to hear the answer.

“I don’t- I don’t know. I mean, I’ve never really seen myself as a dad. I’ve always thought I’d just have my machines. I guess… you don’t think the Roomba is enough, do you?”

Jason shook his head, “No, cariño… I don’t think a Roomba equates to having a child…”

“Why can’t we just be the cool gay uncles? Someone’s gotta do that now that Nico and Will are becoming parents.”

“We can do that, if you want,” Jason said, “But wouldn’t it be so cool to make our family bigger? I get it if you don’t want to bring a child into this world, but we could always adopt- don’t you want to give some poor kid a chance to have the home that you never got?”

There were ways for two male demigods to have biological kids- divine conception and all that. It took a lot of praying and sacrificing to the Gods, but if you were on their good side they’d allow it. That was the route Nico and Will had chosen. It wouldn’t be hard to get their approval- Hera definitely owed them one.

“But we’re demigods,” Leo said, “Life is dangerous for us. I don’t wanna put an innocent kid in harm’s way by inviting it into our lives.”

“I get that,” Jason said, “I really do. But we’re safe in New Rome. Lots of demigods raise families here.”

“I don’t know, Jason…”

“Okay. That’s fine. You don’t have to know everything right now.”

“But… but what if it turns out we want different things? What if I realise, years from now, that “actually no, I definitely don’t want kids” and you realise that “actually yeah, I really do” and then you divorce me for some girl named Tiffany, who has a really weird laugh like a cross between a hyena and a pig but she’s got this really fertile oven and she gives you triplets and I’m left to die alone, only talking to my machines and slowly going crazy? Huh, Jason? What then?”

Jason thought about that for a moment, “But that’s the thing- I don’t want to have kids with Tiffany. The only person I’d ever want to raise a child with is you, mi cielo. That’s who I want on my team. If you don’t want to, then I don’t want to either.”

“So… you’re not gonna leave me for Tiffany?”

“Listen to me, Leo, mi vida.” Jason grabbed Leo’s hand, and Leo’s leg stopped bouncing so much, “Tiffany’s not real. You made her up. And if she was, she sounds like a real bitch. No one compares to you.”

Leo nodded, “Thanks… I-I needed to hear that.”

“Come on,” Jason said, “I’m hungry. Let’s have dinner.”

“I’m cooking again? Man, I’m both the housewife and the breadwinner. What are you?”

The next few interviews were a bust. Eventually, Jason applied for a job as a Roman History professor at NRU.

He shifted in his seat as the interviewer scanned him up and down.

“Wow, I mean… you’re the Jason Grace!” She exclaimed.

“Jason Valdez, actually. I got married.”

“But still… You’re well known across all of New Rome. You slew the Trojan Sea-monster! You toppled the black throne of Kronos and slew the Titan Krios with your bare hands at fifteen! You played a pivotal role in the Second Giant War and helped to defeat Gaea! And again, fought to take down the Triumvirate. You’re an absolute legend!” She looked down at Jason’s resumé, “I don’t even need this. If you want the job, it’s yours.”

“I’d like to be given a fair chance, just like the rest.”

“Noble as ever,” She said, awestruck. She tapped the paper, “Well, this is still impeccable. Top grades at New Rome University. Praetor of the first legion. Pontifex Maximus. Twenty-four years of service in the Fifth Cohort. You’re fluent in Latin, Spanish, Ancient Greek, and American Sign Language. Glowing references from multiple gods. Yeah. You’re hired.”

“Really? Are you sure?”

“I mean, standard interview questions, yadda yadda yadda- why do you want the job?”

“Umm… well, I’d love to teach. I love being a role model, and supporting young people. And I love Roman History. My husband always jokes about me becoming a Professor.”

“Well you certainly are a role model,” The interviewer said, “Kids look up to you and the rest of the Seven from the Prophecy. You’re heroes to them. It would honestly be a privilege to have you as part of our faculty, and really help the students feel like they can achieve things.”

“That’s… that’s great to hear.”

The interviewer grinned, and stretched out her hand for Jason to shake, “Term starts in September. Welcome to the team.”

“Gah!”

The yelp woke Jason up. He stirred, and saw Leo sitting up in bed, hugging his arms to his chest, drenched in sweat and shivering.

“Leo…?” Jason grumbled. He sat up, and wrapped his arms around Leo’s shoulders. Leo drew in a shaky breath. “What is it?” He made sure to whisper it close to Leo’s good ear, since Leo had taken off his hearing aid before bed.

“N-Nothing… bad dream… go back to sleep.”

Jason moved his arms so that he was now gripping Leo’s shoulders, gently but firmly.

“Mi alma, you’re shaking.”

“…It’s cold.”

“You’re basically a human radiator, Leo. You don’t get cold,” Leo’s skin was hotter than usual, which was saying something. It felt like a toaster that had just been switched off.

Leo stopped digging his nails into his arms and held his hands out in front of him, as if making sure they were really there.

“Did you have another flashback?” Jason asked.

“I… I…”

“The night you died?”

Leo nodded, his breathing was still choked and choppy.

“It’s okay, Leo. You’re alive. You’re here. You’re safe. And I love you, mi vida, mi preciosa vida.”

“I’m… I’m alive,” Leo repeated. He looked again at his hands, studying the lines on his palms, “I’m alive.”

Jason moved again, this time hugging Leo’s middle, squeezing it tightly. Leo let out a sob.

Leo put a hand over his heart, like he needed to remind himself that it was still beating. He closed his eyes, and let out a long breath. He seemed to compose himself a little.

“It’s okay…” Jason whispered, although he wasn’t sure Leo could hear him without his hearing aid- he was completely deaf in his right ear, and had chronic tinnitus in his left, a small side-effect of blowing up.

Leo’s breathing was still irregular and shaky, but Jason could feel his heart slow, and his temperature cool down.

“Leo?” Jason asked, after a while.

“Hmm?”

“Is it me, or… are the night terrors… getting worse?”

Leo hesitated, then nodded. “It’s happening most nights, now. I can usually sleep through them, but…”

“Is it just that night, or…”

“No, mi sol. It’s other stuff. Trauma is trauma-ing.”

Jason unwrapped his arms from Leo’s waist and shuffled forwards, so they were sitting side-by-side, cross-legged on the bed.

“Talk to me, bello.”

Leo looked at Jason in that sad way Jason had come to know. It broke his heart a little every time he saw the pain in Leo’s eyes.

“It’s… it’s hard, mi estrella. My life did end that day. And while I’m so, so happy that I got it back… it’s hard to process what happened. That’s what I think the dreams are for- my brain trying to process it all. But… it’s hard. Because, for a moment, the blood lay still in my veins. My heart stopped beating. It’s hard to imagine busy old me lying dead, but…”

“You haven’t slowed down since then,” Jason observed, “And you never did before that. Your whole life- both of them- you’ve spent them constantly moving, never staying still. If you didn’t even stop in death, then when will you?”

Leo sighed, and fidgeted with the fabric of the bedsheets.

“I think your body is telling you it’s time to rest, amor mio,” Jason told him, “You’ve worked so hard. You deserve a break.”

Leo’s shoulders began to shake with another round of silent tears. He buried his face in Jason’s neck, and Jason wrapped his arms around his body. He had to admit, seeing Leo like this scared him. He was one of the strongest, bravest people he knew- to see him reduced to shaking tears, clawing at invisible scars, weeping, curled in Jason’s arms…

Some horrors in this cruel world were too much to handle. And Jason wasn’t sure how much help his comfort actually gave. He was helpless to fight those inner demons for Leo.

So much for “Respected Roman Warrior”, Jason thought, So much for all the medals, all those titles, all that honour.

The person he loved was sobbing into his chest, and Jason was powerless to stop it. All he could do was stroke Leo’s hair, and tell him everything would be alright. He should be doing more- fighting monsters, killing something- but some monsters you just can’t fight. All Jason could do was hold him.

“… Jason?” Leo whimpered, after a while.

“Yes, mi luna?”

“Are you… are you gonna leave me one day?”

Jason cupped Leo’s face in his strong, calloused hands, holding his everything out in front of him on the bed. He rolled forwards on his knees to kiss his forehead.

“I made a vow, remember?” He whispered, “I stood up in front of all our friends and family, in front of several gods and goddesses, and I promised to be yours forever. And you did the same. Do you remember that?”

Leo looked down so that his nose dug into the heel of Jason’s outstretched hands. “I remember. I know we did, but-”

“Hey! Hey- look at me-“ Jason tilted Leo’s head up, so his brown eyes sparkled in the low light of the street-lamps outside, “Have I ever broken a promise?”

“No…”

“There, then it’s settled. I vowed to love you ‘til I die, and I vowed to keep loving you beyond that. Come what may. And I am nothing if not a man of my word. And I know you are too.”

“I am,” Leo agreed, “I really do love you, Jason.”

“I love you too, amour mio.”

Leo still shivered from the fright of the nightmare. Jason held him close, until Leo eventually began to snore. Jason stayed awake, watching Leo breathe, watching his face twitch as he dreamt, his eyes moving under his lids. They stayed like that until the sun rose.

Another sleepless night- but they were still together at the end of it.

September came, and with it Jason’s first day at work.

Jason unlocked the door to his office and walked inside. It was a small rectangular room- nothing special. But the plaque on the front of his desk read Prof. J. Valdez, embossed in imperial gold lettering. Jason smiled at it.

He walked over to his computer monitor and sat down. He took out his briefcase, and began setting items down on the desk. It took him a while to arrange everything in a way that he wanted, but once he was done he stood back and admired his handiwork.

The framed photo of him and Leo on their wedding day, Leo blushing bright red when Jason had kissed him. The little trinkets Leo had made him over the years. A miniature Festus (deactivated). A Rubik’s cube that shuffled and solved itself periodically. Metal flowers in metal flower pots that actually bloomed whenever Jason walked into the room, and closed up when he left. More pictures of them and their friends. Jason and Leo with Piper hanging out at Camp Half-Blood. Double-dates with Nico and Will in New Rome. All of them with Percy and Annabeth’s new baby taken just after they’d brought her home from the hospital. Jason loved all these things. He loved that he could keep them on his desk, to remind everyone that came into his office that he was in love with Leo Valdez.

Just for good measure, he hung a few more photographs of Leo on the walls, and more little handmade creations on his shelves. He couldn’t help it- Leo always made him around seventy thousand little gadgets every Christmas, birthdays, and random Tuesdays. Their apartment was already filled to bursting with these affectionate little gifts. Did Jason really need fifty new forks? Not necessarily, but they were beautifully crafted and he loved them. His pockets were filled with Leo’s little gizmos, all lovingly made and thoughtfully designed. He wouldn’t trade it for the world.

He got to his lecture hall early, and began setting up, plugging in his laptop and pulling up the powerpoint. He’d created a little “get to know me” slide that new teachers often made- complete with yet more pictures of Leo.

He sat down at his desk and sighed.

Jason studied the tattoo on his arm. SPQR stamped on the skin and twenty-four lines all beneath an eagle symbol. That was nothing new. But fresher ink glistened. Next to the eagle, in iridescent gold was a hammer. Surrounding the symbols, also in gold, were three thinly-drawn concentric circles. Other couples chose different designs, but Jason had wanted this one. The hammer, the symbol of Vulcan, showed his union with Leo, and the merging of their families. If they ever had kids, they would also have those symbols, as they would be a legacy of both Hephaestus and Jupiter. The rings around the symbols represented years of marriage. Leo had a similar tattoo- his hammer in the standard black and his eagle in gold encircled in a thick black ring before the thinner gold ones to show that he married into the legion. The tattoo, of course, had been Leo’s idea.

Students began to drip in.

“Is this Roman History with Professor Valdez?” A student asked.

Jason must have grinned a little too hard, because the kid looked a little freaked out.

“Yes. Yes it is.”

He couldn’t help it. It was one of his favourite things ever, to hear his new name. Sometimes, when he was alone, he’d just say it to himself, over and over “Jason Valdez, Jason Valdez, Jason Valdez, Jason Valdez.” Even after he’d been married to Leo for three years, he never got tired of it. And oh! To hear others say it too made him elated beyond description. That’s one of the reasons why he loved the idea of becoming a teacher. He’d get to be referred to as “Professor Valdez” every day. He’d never get used to it in the best way possible.

Once everyone had settled into their seats, he stood up.

“Hello, everybody! My name is Professor Valdez, and I will be your Roman History teacher for most of your time here.”

“LEONIDAS JAVIER VALDEZ!”

“Uh oh,” Leo muttered. “What is it, amorsito??” He called in a sing-song voice from the other room.

“DON’T YOU AMORSITO ME!! COME HERE!”

Jason knew Leo would be reluctant to move, “Are you sure, mi luna? Can’t you come out here and tell me?”

“COME. HERE.”

Jason heard groaning, and Leo appeared in the door.

“Jason Sebastian Valdez,” Leo said, leaning against the doorframe, trying to act as causal and innocent as possible, “What’s up, amor mio?”

“What the fuck is this???” Jason roared.

He gestured to the room. Every inch of every surface- the bed, the floor, the side tables, the windowsill, the top of the wardrobe- was covered with bits of machinery. Copper wiring, bronze plates, circuit boards, pipes, pistons, batteries, scrap metal, plywood, spanners, screwdrivers, discs, spheres, et cetera, et cetera, et-fucking-cetera.

“What's all this junk doing here?” Jason demanded.

“First of all, chiqui, not junk. Second, a certain, ummm… father-in-law of mine took out the power of my workshop in one of his tantrums. Didn't I tell you?"

"No. Why would he do that?"

"Well, a certain father-in-law of yours pissed him off."

Jason sighed and up at the ceiling, “What did he do this time?”

Leo shrugged. “I dunno. God stuff. And tu padre is taking it out on me!”

Jason tapped his foot in annoyance and surveyed the room, “Did you have to do this in the bedroom?”

Leo shrugged again.

“Leo, mi amor, you gotta tidy this- hey, are you listening?”

Leo had turned away.

“Did you just turn off your hearing aid? Are you kidding me?”

No response. Jason tapped Leo on the shoulder and switched to ASL.

“This needs to be tidied up.”

Leo closed his eyes. Jason stamped his feet in frustration. Leo grinned, his eyes still closed.

Jason grabbed Leo’s shirt and pulled him into a quick kiss. Then he put a hand on Leo’s shoulder, and furiously tapped out a message in morse code.

“TIDY. NOW.”

“Umm… No hablo ingles.” Leo said.

Jason tapped out the same message, this time in Spanish.

Leo groaned again, “Fiiiinee,” He grumbled, “You got me. I’ll do it.” He opened his eyes and switched his hearing aid back on.

“What are you building, anyway?”

Leo sighed, “Typical children of Dionysus, god of theatre, to want a door that only opens if you scream “Veronica! open the, open the door please!” with the rage of a thousand daddy issues.”

“…and you can make that?”

“Well, I’m worried they’ll kill me with drain cleaner if I don’t.”

Leo started to shift piles of materials. Jason started to head to the door, then paused and said, “I’m sorry I called your stuff junk. You’re right. It’s not junk.”

“S’okay, bello. I forgive you.”

Jason kissed him on the cheek, then left the room.

Jason booted up the powerpoint and froze. He had forgotten what was on that lesson plan. The name on the title slide hit him like a brick, almost knocking the air from his lungs.

He could do this. It was fine, he could do this.

He stood up in front of the lecture hall and cleared his throat.

“G-Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. A powerful Roman Emperor, known more commonly as C-“ His voice cracked, “… as Cal-“ Jason gripped the edge of the desk, and tried to blink away the sting in his eyes. Flashbacks shot through his mind, but he pushed them away. He swallowed, “Caligula,” He choked out.

Jason could still feel the impression his gladius left in his palm as he gripped it. He could still remember Caligula’s snarl as Jason approached.

“You’re one of those Camp Jupiter brats, aren’t you?”

“I’m Jason Grace,” he said, “Former praetor of the Twelfth Legion. Son of Jupiter. Child of Rome. But I belong to both camps.”

“Good enough,” Caligula growled, advancing slowly towards him, “I’ll hold you responsible for Camp Jupiter’s treason tonight.”

Jason tried to pull himself back to the present.

“He reigned f-from 37AD to 41…” He gripped the desk harder, his knuckles turning white, and forced down the bile that was rising in his throat.

A blur of memories, flashes of swords and fighting.

He remembered parrying Caligula’s spear with his gladius, every move costing him more and more energy. His muscles were weakening. He’d expended so much energy controlling the winds and the lightning.- he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep up the fight.

“Get out of here!” he called to his friends. “Go!”

“Umm… Professor Valdez?” A voice called, “Are you alright? You look-“

Jason’s ears were ringing. His vision was spinning. He blinked, and tried to bring the world into focus. His eyes fixed on something in the haze. A face, on a photograph. It was Leo’s face, in the home-screen of Jason’s laptop. A picture of them on a picnic date last fall. Jason took a deep breath and straightened up.

“Yeah… I’m- I’m fine,” he managed. He turned back to the projector screen, “Ca-Caligula’s empire stretched across-“ suddenly, he stumbled, and steadied himself on the desk. His head swam.

Pain shot up his left thigh. He glanced down, and saw an arrow sprouted from it. Jason grunted and stumbled. Piper yelled in warning as Caligula charged again. He just managed to roll aside. He remembered grabbing at the air, summoning Tempest with what strength he could spare. He rode against Caligula atop the ventus’ back, jousting sword versus spear. Another arrow took him in the upper arm.

He could feel the distinct acidic taste of vomit in his throat. “Ex- excuse me, class,” He blurted out, and rushed out of the hall.

“I told you this isn’t a game!” yelled Caligula. “You don’t walk away from me alive!”

Below, an explosion rocked the ship. The room was cloven further apart. Jason was bleeding from arrows in each limb now, yet raised his sword in defiance all the same. They circled one another on their horses in the cramped space, trading blows. Incitatus kicked at Tempest with his golden-shod front hooves. The ventus responded with bursts of electricity that scorched the stallion’s white flanks. The air was charged with electricity. He jabbed furiously at the Emperor, slashing like a Greek while Caligula stabbed like a Roman.

Through the fighting, he glimpsed Apollo across the room, standing dumbstruck next to Piper.

He managed to make it to the staff toilets and proceeded to dry-heave over the bowl. His pulse throbbed in his veins. His vision was a blur.

Jason had decided. Piper McLean would not die tonight. Apollo, Meg, all the others… they must live too. Keep fighting for what was right.

And then he thought about Leo.

As Caligula and he jousted around the ruins, knowing he was close to death, he thought about his best friend.

He thought about Leo putting his life before Jason’s to complete the prophecy- dying before Jason could stop him. He thought about the Oracle telling him his fate, and his one consolation being that he might re-unite with Leo in Elysium.

But Leo was alive. And Jason wouldn’t see him again.

He thought about that pointed face, those busy eyes, that sparkling smile. He thought about Leo, covered in scratches and scorch-marks. Tiny Leo, with his impish grin and his tooth gap and his excited bouncing. He thought about the Leo he had seen defeating a Primordial Goddess, that determination, the acceptance. He thought about the many hardships Leo had escaped, how he could face anything and pull through. As Jason fought, he thought about that brilliant, annoying, funny, tragic, genius, terrified, beautiful man- the many sides of him forming something wonderful. Something… human.

After growing up nothing but a soldier, meeting Leo had taught him for the first time how to be a person. Be human.

He met Apollo’s eyes across the ruined throne room.

“GO!” He yelled, “Remember!”

Remember what it’s like to be human.

These feelings replayed in Jason’s mind as he was brought back to that night. Everything he thought of in his final moments, before pain shot up from the middle of his chest, and everything went black.

He stayed there, hunched over the basin of the hollow throne, retching and blinking back tears. The memories began to dissipate, and Jason could think clearly again. Eventually, after much gagging, nothing came out. He flushed anyway, and sat back against the wall of the bathroom stall, breathing hard and shaking. With trembling fingers, he fished out his phone and dialled a number. It was demigod-safe… mostly. Leo had found a way to scramble the signal using modern VPN technology, but the longer you used it the more dangerous it got. It was for emergencies only.

The phone rang twice before Leo picked up.

“You’ve reached the line for the Greatest Husband in the Cosmos, how may I help you?”

“H-… H-help…” Jason repeated.

Leo’s tone instantly changed. “Jason? Jason, baby, what’s wrong? Mi vida, talk to me.”

“I… I need…”

Jason heard panicked clattering over the phone.

“Where are you? Stay there, I’ll find you. Are you at work? Are you safe? Jason, come on, say something.”

“I c-c-…. Ca-… I’m…” Jason swallowed, and listened to the sound of Leo on the other end of the phone, cursing in Spanish under his breath, the unmistakable sound of a frustrated ADHD demigod searching for his keys in a cluttered machine shop. It was a very familiar sound to Jason. He knew it well, and that calmed him. He took a deep breath, “I’m- I’m safe. I’m at New Rome University, I’ll meet you out front, l-lemme just…”

“I’ll be there in ten minuites, okay?” Leo said, “Don’t panic, I’m here. I’ve gotta hang up now, but I’m coming, don’t worry. Just… just hang in there, ‘til I can get to you. I’ll be there as quick as I can, you hear?”

“Y-yes. Okay.”

“Love you. See you in ten.”

“Love you.”

Jason watched Leo’s name blink off the screen. He took a few deep breaths, then unlocked the bathroom stall door.

He didn’t remember waking up on that California beach. He didn’t really remember much of the quest that followed.

The first thing that was clear in his mind was Leo’s face at that Santa Monica airport, grinning as he hopped off Festus’ back. He remembered rushing towards him, burying his face in that warm smell of motor oil and woodsmoke. He remembered laughing. He remembered smiling. Nothing else mattered in that moment. They were together at last.

But flashbacks and nightmares of that fight still haunted him.

On his way out to the front entrance, Jason stopped by the reception area and arranged to have a sub cover his class for the rest of the day. Then he walked out, taking in the fresh air.

He watched as Leo’s massive modified vintage Ford pick-up truck pulled into the drop-off zone. The passenger-side door opened to show Leo at the wheel, his face knotted with concern. Jason hopped inside and shut the door, sighing with relief as the air con blasted his face from the dashboard.

Leo seemed to read the situation instantly. He didn’t ask Jason what had happened. He didn’t smother him with soothing words. He just slapped the steering wheel of the truck (which was twice the size of his torso) and said, “Right. Ice cream?”

They ate their ice cream in the back of Leo's pick-up, parked on temple hill, looking out over the city. Leo had a scoop of lemon sorbet in a pot (he couldn’t have ice cream in a cone- it would melt in his hands and drip down the side before he could finish it. He needed a pot to catch the drips). Jason had a strawberry double-cone with white chocolate sprinkles and a flake.

"So..." Leo began.

"Nope," Jason said, "Don't wanna talk about it. Tell me about your machines."

Leo suddenly brightened, "I got this commission in from a mysterious outsider. Those are always the best."

“Oh?” Jason said, turning his head to lick a drip off his ice cream cone.

“It was an order for delivery. The guy was weird. He was a demigod, but he didn’t seem Greek or Roman.”

Jason was dimly aware that children of gods from other pantheons existed, but he didn’t cross paths with them very often.

“Anyway, it’s posing some interesting challenges, working with different metals, using different styles of metalwork. I’m learning a lot.”

“Sounds fun. Tell me more.”

Leo went on about the new techniques he’d discovered, and how it’s been improving his skill. Jason listened. He loved hearing Leo info-dump about his interests. If anything, it took his mind off old emperor booties. He loved the way Leo’s voice changed, his words slurring with eagerness as they spilled out of his mouth, his hands moving animatedly as he talked, flapping when he got excited. He loved how his curly hair bounced as Leo rocked backwards and forwards on the balls of his feet enthusiastically.

Jason bit off the last of the ice cream at the top, leaving only plain waffle-cone left. He wanted to eat it, but gave it to Leo instead to have with his sorbet. They both knew that the cone was the best bit of the ice cream.

They kept talking until the sun went down and the sky became bright with stars. Jason rested his head on Leo’s shoulder and yawned.

“Come on, sleepyhead. Let’s drive you home,” Leo said, nudging him affectionately.

Jason nodded, drowsily.

The car ride home was in comfortable silence. Leo kept his eyes on the road, but snuck glances at Jason sitting sleepily in the passenger seat.

“Thank you,” Jason said, “For turning a shitty day into a wonderful one.”

Jason explained everything that had happened in the lesson, running out and almost throwing up in the bathroom.

Leo listened in patient silence, his gaze locked on the sprawling city streets in front of them

"I'm sorry, Leo..." Jason said, "I'm moaning about almost dying when you actually did die, it's not-"

"Hey. Whoa. No. This isn't a competition. I don't wanna make you feel like you can't talk to me because my pain and sadness is more painful and sad than yours. You're hurting, I help. That's the deal. That's what I vowed to do. And you do the same for me. No matter what that hurt is, we support each other, capiche?"

Jason nodded, "Capiche. You're right. I'm sorry."

“What are you sorry for, mi estrella?” Leo asked, calmly.

“I… I don’t know…” Jason admitted.

“Exactly,” Leo said. And the matter was settled.

They slipped back into sleepy, non-verbal company until they made it back to their apartment.

Leo kept a little stool next to the forges, which was known only as “Jason’s chair”. Jason often sat, watching Leo stoke the flames. He loved to sit there and see him turning over coals with his bare hands, or working away at his desk next to it. Sometimes Jason got out his laptop and wrote lesson plans while Leo worked. Sometimes Jason helped- if just to be a human spark plug. Sometimes he just sat and observed. They would talk, or sing songs, or just work in silence.

“What’re you working on?” Jason asked from his chair.

Leo rubbed the back of his neck, “I’ve just finished the commission by those Dionysus kids. Hope they like it.”

He picked up his drink and sniffed it, obviously checking for drain cleaner. “I’m now working on a self-playing harp to add ambiance to the temple of Apollo,” He glanced at Jason and smiled, “The one that you re-designed on temple hill.”

He turned back to his blueprint, muttering to himself. Jason watched as he drew long lines across the page with his craftsman’s ruler. Leo touched a button on his hearing aid, and turned up a dial on a small radio in front of him on his desk. He’d rigged up his hearing aid to connect to it via bluetooth, so that he could listen to music as he worked.

The doorbell rang, and Leo opened it. He was greeted with a knife to the throat. He grinned.

Jason sat perfectly still on his stool, watching as Leo poured over his notebooks, nodding his head slightly along with the music in his ears. In their silence, he could just about hear the tinny voice of the music coming from the device. It sounded like Taylor Swift. It probably was.

“How’s my favourite sister-in-law?”

“Your reflexes could be sharper,” Thalia said in response, then she lowered her knife and pulled him into a tight hug. When they broke apart, and she saw Jason standing there, she grabbed him and squeezed him so fiercely Jason thought she might crack a rib.

“Food is on the stove,” Leo announced, “Should be ready in about half an hour. If Piper hasn’t already helped herself to it all.”

“When did McLean get here?” Thalia asked.

“She stayed overnight to sleep off the jet-lag,” Jason explained, then he clapped his hands together, “But now we’re all here, should we do presents?”

Leo shook his head, “Nah, man. Food first. Keep ‘em waiting. That’s how my mom did it. I’ll go see to the kitchen, you guys talk or something. It’ll only be another twenty minutes or so, anyway.”

After a very hearty Christmas dinner cooked by the notoriously skilled Chef Leo, they got to work passing round presents.

Leo had organised them into four little piles, and they took turns opening one present each.

Except there was one slight problem-

Jason had about five million more presents than everyone else. All a variety of sizes and shapes, all wrapped in the same bronze (recyclable) wrapping paper.

Leo didn’t seem to think this was an issue (“I may have made you a few more presents than what we agreed was the limit! So what?”), but Thalia and Piper were exchanging glances, worried they’d have to sit there and watch while Jason unwrapped each one individually and was subjected to a long explanation by Leo as to every device’s multiple functions. To make things go a little faster, they agreed to let Jason unwrap five presents per round instead of the usual one.

Was Jason complaining about how thoughtful his husband was? Fuck no. He loved it. He was gonna put a lot of these in his office when he got back to school.

Leo was first in the circle. Thalia got him a collection of various hides from monsters she had slain. Most of them were still fresh. Leo immediately grabbed a notebook and wrote down some ideas for contraptions he could use them in.

Jason was next. Leo had made him: A picture frame that unlocked and opened up into a shaving mirror, one of those ballerina jewellery boxes with a dancing Festus (Jason didn’t wear jewellery), a large polaroid camera that videoed and printed out Leo’s scroll holograms (“scrollograms!”), a key ring embossed with the words “te amo”, and an airbed pump.

“I thought we could try camping!”

“Leo, do we own a tent?”

Leo glanced nervously at a box-shaped present at the bottom of Jason’s pile.

Piper was next. Jason got her tickets to see Chappell Roan for the three of them. She actually teared up and flung herself into his arms. Leo bounced up and down and flapped his hands, squealing excitedly.

Leo had gotten Thalia the same thing he did every year- a bottle of Texas Hot Sauce.

They went round the circle a few more times, until they had a large pile of gifts next to them.

Alongside his animal pelts, Leo received 50 drachmas towards his Eras Tour Fund, a collection of more notebooks, and The Tortured Poets Department on CD from Jason (“So you don’t have to keep streaming it while you work and attract monsters to the workshop.”). He got another 75 to the Eras Tour Fund from Piper, and various tools from his wishlist. She also got him what looked like a dog coat, but it was fifty times the size.

“It’s for Festus!” She explained, “In case he gets cold in the winter!”

Piper received a customised surfboard from Leo, complete with badass (totally safe) modifications. She also got a large set of different-sized hunting knives from Thalia.

Jason got several thousand more gifts from Leo, which took up most of the sofa and the coffee table. Piper got him one of those fluffy oversized “oodies” that were all the rage online. It was blue, with a large superman logo on the front. Jason argued that he didn’t need to be any warmer than he already was, sleeping next to Leo. Somehow he still found himself buried in it anyway, the hood pulled down over his eyes, just enough so he could see. Thalia got him a framed photo of the two of them when Jason was just a baby.

“Where… where did you find this?” He asked, looking at the photograph, stunned.

“I have my ways,” She remarked, nonchalantly.

Piper had got Thalia a new leather jacket.

“Another one?” Jason asked, “You’ve got loads!”

Thalia shrugged, “All my old ones got blood on them.”

Lastly, Jason handed his gift to Thalia. She opened up the small rectangular box, and pulled out a hunting dagger. She unsheathed it, and examined it. It was hammered a little out of shape, and the blade was warped.

“I’m assuming this wasn’t made by the OG Valdez?” She asked, glancing at her brother.

Jason looked a little sheepish. Leo rubbed his back, reassuringly. “Your metalwork’s getting better, chiqui. It’s good! You can’t help the fact that you’re married to one of the best and most advanced weaponsmiths in the Greco-Roman pantheon. But it’s good work.”

Thalia gave him a sisterly kiss on the cheek. “I love it. Thank you.”

Jason gave her a tight, one-armed hug.

“I actually have something else for you,” Thalia said to him.

“Oh?”

“It’s not a gift, exactly just… news.”

“Good news?” Leo asked.

Thalia neither confirmed nor denied this, just said: “I got a call from someone a couple weeks ago. Our cousins. On our mom’s side. I met them a couple of times as a kid but mom blipped off the radar once she was expecting you. They’d found out I was still out there recently and wanted to get back in touch. They didn’t know about you. I didn’t tell them. I said I’ll think about it, but honestly? I want nothing to do with them. I don’t want to be associated with anything to do with Mom, after what she did to you. And anyway, it’ll be a bitch to explain to them why I still look sixteen. But I thought it was only right you should know, in case you were interested in getting to know them.”

Jason was a little speechless. He’d never really considered the fact that he might have extended family out there. Other Graces. He wasn’t sure what to do. That didn’t bother him though. When he wasn’t sure about something, he’d talk it through with Leo. They’d figure it out together.

Family games began. After a rather violent round of charades, cut short by the fire alarm being set off by someone who will remain nameless, they decided on karaoke.

“KNEE-DEEP IN THE PASSENGER SEAT AND YOU’RE EATING ME OUT-“ Leo and Piper screamed in unison, using the deodorant bottle and the TV remote as fake microphones. They’d moved the coffee table out the way and the two of them were now singing their hearts out in the middle of the living room while Jason and Thalia watched from the couch.

Jason glanced nervously at a vase that was getting dangerously close to Leo’s flailing arms. Maybe Karaoke hadn’t been the best idea.

Piper was yelling furiously into her deodorant bottle, eyes closed, giving her best theatre-kid belt.

Leo was on his knees, screaming at the top of his lungs.

“FUCKED YOU IN THE BATHROOM WHEN WE WENT TO DINNER, YOUR PARENTS AT THE TABLE, YOU WONDER WHY I’M BITTERRRRR- hey! Hey, Jason! Do you think me and Piper should start a band? No, but really? I’ve already picked out our name, we’d be called “Piping Hot!” I think we should do it. Piper? Should we do it?”

“I married that man,” Jason reminded Thalia.

“Y’know, we did ask Chappell Roan if she wanted to join the hunters,” Thalia remarked.

Piper spun around so fast she almost wacked Leo in the face, “Ohh my gods tell me EVERYTHING.”

“This was before I joined,” Thalia said, “And she said no. But she still invites Lady Artemis to her concerts sometimes.”

Piper shoved herself in between the two siblings on the sofa, and began bouncing up and down in excitement as Thalia told stories of all the amazing women who have been asked to join the hunters over the years.

Jason, feeling a little crowded, stood up from the couch and went into the bedroom.

He groaned and rubbed his temples. Soon, he felt hands creep from his waist and hug him around the middle. Leo leaned his warm body into him, and rested his chin on Jason’s shoulder.

“Hmm…You okay?” Leo mumbled.

“Yeah…” Jason stayed in Leo’s embrace for a few seconds, then pulled away, leaning against the dresser.

Leo leaned next to him, sighing and folding his arms.

“You still thinking about what Thalia said? About your cousins?”

“Yeah…” Jason said, again. He turned to him, “What do you think I should do?”

Leo was silent for a few moments. “I dunno…”

“You have family, don’t you?” Jason asked.

Leo’s shoulders tensed slightly. Jason could see his expression become a little guarded, which hardly happened to Jason anymore. But biological family was a touchy subject for both of them. “Yeah. Lots.”

“Do you… ever think about getting back in touch? After everything that’s happened-“

Leo shook his head vigorously, “Nuh-uh. No way. I think it’s safe to say I don’t have the best experience with my extended family. My own cousins? They used to beat me up for being weird and skinny. I don’t owe those people a gods-damned thing.” He looked down, sadly, “And anyway, I tried… once. Chiron told me, after the fight with Gaea, that he called them to tell them I was dead. They just… didn’t care. My Aunt yelled at him for disturbing her and hung up the phone.”

“That’s horrible!”

Leo shrugged, “I don’t need them. I got you guys.” He glanced fondly through the open doorway of their room, over at Piper and Thalia, who were watching Mean Girls on the sofa (they both had a crush on Regina George), “You’re all the family that I need.”

“Still… there’s something to be said for finding your roots. Your blood. Could be a community there.”

Jason had spent his whole life trying to find where he fit. Camp Jupiter, Camp Half-Blood, on the Argo II, in the mortal world. He’d eventually found his place, with Piper and Leo. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t expand his people. His pack. If his relatives genuinely cared about him, and wanted to meet him…

Leo ran his hands through his hair, “Yeah… I get why some people think blood is important. But not for me. I love my mom because she raised me, not because she gave birth to me. You and Piper… you’ve showed me more love and kindness than the people that are s’pposed to take care of me. You’re my family.” He paused, then added, “But hey, I mean… If finding your blood relatives is what you need to do, then do it.”

“Plus,” Jason added, “If we ever have kids… hypothetically speaking… it might be nice for them to know their heritage.”

“It would…” Leo agreed, “But it’s not necessary.”

Jason sighed, “I don’t know why I’m getting all worked up about this. They don’t even know I exist yet. I guess I’ve sort of always had this fantasy of a nice, nuclear family structure. I know it’s stupid, but-“

“No, it’s not stupid!” Leo said, pulling away from the dresser and turning to face him, “If it’s something you want, then it’s something you want. It’s okay to want normalcy. Everyone has their own beliefs about what family should be. Yeah, it’s the template a western society pushes onto us, but that doesn’t make it inherently evil. It’s nice to want to know the people you’re related to. We’re pack animals- it’s in our nature,” he sighed, “Look. All I’m saying is I’ve done the whole “blood relatives” thing, and it didn’t work out for me, so I adjusted to live without it. Thalia didn’t want it either. That’s her choice. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.”

“But what if they’re shitty, like yours?”

“Then we just say fuck ‘em and we’ll go get ice cream.”

Jason rested his head on Leo’s shoulder, “You’re my favourite husband, did you know that? You’re just the best.”

Leo smiled, “And, if they’re really nice? Then… count yourself lucky, I guess. Not everyone can have that.”

“But you’ll have it,” Jason said, “Any family that is mine is yours now. If I get some shiny new family members then they’ll be yours, too. You might finally be accepted into a big clan of people.”

“That would be kinda nice,” Leo admitted, “But I’ll be happy either way. I’m happy just with you, bello. It is a wonderful dream, don’t get me wrong, and I love that you think it could happen. And I don’t wanna tell you to not get your hopes up, just… I dunno, I guess I find it hard to believe that a wider family like that could accept someone, love them unconditionally just because they share a few genes. But that reflects more about me than it says about you. I think you should go for it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Jason nodded to the open doorway, “Come on, let’s go back out there before they decide to make Fetch happen.”

Jason thought fondly back to a conversation they’d had a few years ago, during one of their sessions of sitting together in the workshop.

“Hey, hermoso?”

“Hmm?” Leo looked up from his sketches. Jason still remembered it now. It was summer, and hot. Leo had tied his hair back to keep it out of his face as he worked. His bronze hearing aid glinted in the low evening light. This was back before they were married, and Leo’s engagement ring twitched a little on Leo’s ring finger as he tapped on the desk.

“I-I was thinking… what if I… changed my name?”

Leo had put his pencil down and turned in his chair, so that he was facing Jason.

“What, like, Fernando Grace or something?”

“No, the, er… the last name. In marriage.”

“So… Grace-Valdez? Or… Valdez-Grace?”

Jason shifted on the seat of his stool. Leo’s amber-brown eyes watched him, noting every tender movement, twitch, and mannerism as Jason sat before him.

“Well… how about just Jason Valdez?”

Leo thought for a moment. “You sure Fernando is off the table? Because I think-“

“Leo, I’m serious.”

“Sorry, I’m just uncomfortable with emotions,” Leo said, “That is… wow. It’s a lot to process… You’re really serious? Like, genuinely?”

“Yeah!” I mean… my mom was kind of a… a…”

“A bitch.”

“Yes. That. I’m perfectly fine with letting her name die out. I don’t really want to be associated with her, or-or what she’s done. But I want you to be a part of me. A part of my identity. I want to be a Valdez. If… If you’d let me.”

Leo’s expression was hard to read at first, Jason could see the cogs turning in Leo’s brain, thinking a million thoughts at once, but then he broke into a gigantic smile.

“Oh Jason! Of course! If you’re sure?”

“Yes,” Jason said, reaching out and taking both Leo’s hands in his, “I am sure.”

- ⚡️ - 💍 - 🔥 - [Okay, so I’ve hit my limit for pictures per posts, so I can’t use any more of those cool page dividers I made, so we’ll have to just pretend ;)] - 🔥 - 💍 - ⚡️ -

Jason walked into his office the first day back from Winter Break.

He sat down in his office chair, and booted up the PC monitor. While he was waiting for it to load, he sat back and surveyed everything on his desk. This was his morning ritual: count your blessings, you have a lot more than you used to.

His eyes fixed on a photograph. Him and Leo at the altar on their wedding day.

Thalia stood to the left in her Best Man’s suit. Percy, Nico, Will, and Reyna had all been groomsmen. Piper stood to Leo’s right as his Maid of Honour. Frank had refused to wear the bridesmaid’s dress that Leo had picked out, and instead settled for a dark blue tux that really did kind of suit him. He stood beside Hazel, just behind Piper. The entire Hephaestus cabin had been the bridal party (little Harley had been a very cute flower boy). Even Hephaestus himself was there, and had agreed to walk Leo down the aisle. Jupiter hadn’t shown. Figures. Jason had to admit that he’d hoped his father would be there, but it was wishful thinking. He didn’t dwell on it though- that day had been the happiest day of his life, he wasn’t going to let his deadbeat daddy ruin it for him.

They were married in June- the sacred month dedicated to Juno. In Roman times, this was meant to be good luck and a blessing on your marriage. While both Jason and Leo had a… complicated relationship with the goddess, they tried their best to keep things civil for the sake of the special day.

Jason had worn a traditional Roman toga. It was white with gold embroidery. Leo had, of course, designed that as well. He was amazing with a sewing machine.

Leo wore a well-fitted tuxedo. The fabric was enchanted to flicker red and gold- with flashes of white and blue, like hot flames. He called it “girl-on-fire core”. It was lined with dragon hide on the inside, making it fireproof.

Wreaths of violets and marigolds adorned the wedding arch. Jason held Leo’s calloused hands in his own, feeling the heat coming off of them in waves, like holding a mug of hot chocolate on a cold Christmas day.

Aphrodite stood next to them under the arch, officiating the wedding.

“Do you, Jason Grace, take Leonidas-“

Leo coughed.

“… Leo Valdez, to be your husband- wed in both mortal law and in the eyes of the gods? Do you, in front of all the people gathered here today, pledge to be true and devoted to him, to have and to hold for eternity? From this day forward, do you vow to be with him, for better for worse, for richer, for poorer, forever? In good times and bad, in sickness and in health, do you promise to love and honor him all the days of your life and beyond, never to part, even in death?”

Jason gripped Leo’s hands in his. He knew that the goddess Aphrodite was right next to him, but honestly? He didn’t give a flying fuck about her. And that was coming from the Flying Fuck himself. All he could look at was Leo. Leo was the most beautiful person in that room. He knew that would definitely displease the goddess, but Jason had given his whole life trying to serve the will of the gods. Now, he was creating a new life. With the phenomenal man in front of him.

Jason felt Leo’s fingers tapping against Jason’s palms where their hands were grasped. A familiar rhythm that Jason knew well. Two short taps. Short tap, long tap, two short taps. Three long taps. Three short taps and a long tap. Tap. Long tap, short tap, long tap, long tap. Three long taps. Two short taps, one long tap.

Jason grinned.

“I do.”

Maybe Aphrodite smiled then, Jason didn’t know. He was lost in Leo’s deep eyes, looking at him and him only.

“I really, really do.”

- ⚡️ - 💍 - 🔥 - [ L+J] - 🔥 - 💍 - ⚡️ -

“Shit!” Jason whispered, as the fork fell to the ground with a loud clatter, “Shhh!” He told the fork, which probably didn’t help.

Leo was asleep on the in the living-room. He’d had another nightmare and had woken up in flames, scorching the duvet. After much consolation that no, Jason had not been hurt in the fire and that yes, it was just a dream, he had finally passed out curled in Jason’s arms, watching Frozen II on the sofa. That was at 5am.

It was now midday and Leo was still asleep. It was his day off, so Jason was currently trying to cook his husband breakfast. There was just one small issue…

Jason couldn’t cook.

He fussed about in their little kitchenette that led off their open-plan living/dining space, a Stand-Up Comedy Special on in the background, the volume down low so as not to wake Leo. He’d somehow managed to burn the avocado, meanwhile the hash-browns were still frozen cold in the middle. He was beginning to get super frustrated with this breakfast burrito. Why couldn’t he have just made cereal instead? But he wanted to do something nice for Leo, and thank him for all the times Leo had cooked.

“Fry bacon over medium heat until crispy,” Jason muttered to himself. As soon as he set the skillet down, the outlets sparked, causing the induction hob to short-circuit, the digital display blinking out. Jason tried several times, but it refused to switch back on. “Fine, be that way!” Jason snapped at the hob.

He didn’t really understand why Leo couldn’t just eat the bacon raw. Jason had been raised by wolves after all- he’d done it loads of times and had only gotten sick twice. But Leo loved food, especially good food. It reminded him of home, of his mother, and family gatherings where everyone all sat around the table good-naturedly, united by the meal enough to not yell at each other. Those mealtimes were the only happy memories Leo had of the family that had kicked him out on the streets and ruined his life. It was safe to say the other Valdezes had not been present at their wedding.

Jason thought back to his own upbringing. How his mom had been so drunk and zonked out that she’d forget to feed him and Thalia. Jason had been so hungry, he’d tried to eat a stapler. He knew Leo had had similar experiences on the streets, and, while Leo had never admitted it, that was probably one of the reasons why he was so short and skinny.

He’d gained a lot of weight since Jason had first seen him on that bus, which Jason was proud of. He imagined that he’d been even thinner before. He was glad to see Leo getting better, but part of him was still sad to see the damage it had done.

Jason wished he could cook. Maybe it was some primal wolf urge to look out for the runt of the litter, but also food was a comfort for Leo, and cooking was a love language to him. He wanted more than anything to make him good meals, see his face light up when he made him something.

“I’m not gonna fuck this up this time,” Jason muttered through gritted teeth. The thought of Leo’s proud expression when he showed off his culinary creation kept him going. He decided to light a small fire over the miniature brasier they kept on the countertop for offerings (scraped a bit of bacon and some sliced tomato into it, praying to Edesia, Roman goddess of Banquets for good luck) and decided to fry the bacon the old fashioned way.

Leo woke up at 1pm (Jason was glad he’d gotten at least the recommended eight hours of sleep). Jason immediately set the plate of burritos down on the coffee table in front of him, grinning eagerly.

Leo reached out and took the burrito, looking perplexed. He examined its contents, “You- you made this?”

“Yup.”

“You cooked?”

“Sure did.”

Leo glanced back at their kitchenette, as if checking for explosion marks. He sniffed the tortilla, cautiously. Jason sat on the edge of the armchair next to him, bouncing up and down a little on the cushion. He could almost imagine his tail wagging in anticipation.

Leo bit into the wrap, and his face lit up. “This is actually not bad! You’re getting better.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, querido. Es muy bueno. You can make this for me again.”

Jason beamed, proud of himself.

“Did you spend all morning on this?”

“I did. I wanted to do something special to cheer you up. I’m glad you like it.”

Leo took another bite. “Oh what a joy to wake up to!” He said, “You really are the best Husband ever.”

“I can’t be,” Jason said, “You exist.”

- ⚡️ - 💍 - 🔥 - [ L+J] - 🔥 - 💍 - ⚡️ -

As the students filed out of the lecture hall, Jason turned and saw Leo leaning against the doorframe. He was dressed in his usual suspenders and tool belt, this time over a black button-up shirt. A clean one, which was unlike Leo. He looked surprisingly dashing with his freshly-washed hair and his brown Doc Martens. Several of Jason’s students had stopped to stare at him, whispering behind their hands. Jason watched as Leo produced a bouquet of violets and marigolds from the back pocket of his tool belt.

Jason walked forward and accepted them, then kissed him on the cheek.

“What’s the occasion, mi cielo?” Jason asked.

“No occasion,” Leo said, “I just love you.”

Jason spied a few of his students taking pictures on their phones.

“You better not be posting those online,” Jason told them, “If I get home to find a hoard of monsters raiding our apartment you’re all getting Ds, understand?”

They nodded. He turned back to Leo.

“There’s still some work I’ve gotta finish up,” Jason whispered.

“Me too,” Leo whispered back, “But… can we talk? Later?”

“Oh! Yes, of course,” Jason said. He could feel himself blushing. His students were staring at them, giggling.

Leo noticed them too. He switched to American Sign Language.

“Let’s go to that restaurant we like. I’ll meet you there at 8pm.”

“Fancy!” Jason signed, “Are you sure this isn’t a special occasion?”

Leo smiled. “I just wanna take you out! I have money, I’m allowed to take my husband out on a date! Just don’t be late. I’ll see you there.”

He gave Jason another peck on the cheek. “I gotta run,” He said, “But talk later, okay?”

“Okay!” Jason called, as Leo rushed off.

Jason stood there, agape, for a few seconds, before the excited whispers from the small crowd of students snapped him out of it.

“Gods, I hope that was his husband.” “He’s so skinny!” “I thought children of Hephaestus were supposed to be huge!” “And ugly, but he was kinda cute.” “No, guys, did you see he’s got, like, five million photos of him on his desk-“

Jason cleared his throat, and they stopped abruptly, “Yes, if you’re curious, that was Mr Valdez. No, I will not be taking further questions at this time. Umm… Class dismissed.”

The gaggle of students left, dragging their feet and sneaking glances back at Jason, talking in hushed whispers.

A little dazed, he made his way up to his office and walked inside. Jason realised he was still holding the bouquet of flowers Leo had given him. He walked over to his desk, emptied his half-drunk cup of tea, washed the mug out and filled it up with water (Leo often teased him for drinking tea. He said it made him look like a British Grandpa. But Jason liked it). He plopped the flowers in it, and sat down at his desk to grade papers.

The sun had set in the early january hours when he heard a faint rap on his door. He looked up. Standing nervously in the doorway was one of his quieter students, Joshua.

“Umm… Professor Valdez?” He asked in a small voice.

“What is it, Joshua?”

“Can- can I come in?”

Jason gestured for the kid to sit down in the chair facing his desk.

“I was- I was working on a project for my Greek Studies course, and we had to write about one difference between Roman and Greek society…”

“Yes…?”

“Well, I wanted to write about how Greeks viewed queer identity compared to the Romans? Because they, like, had fundamentally different views on gender and sexuality and it’s super interesting to me. I know you’re a Roman History professor but you’re also one of the only queer teachers I know, and you’re also just a really good teacher in general… I was wondering if you could help me?”

Jason signalled for him to shuffle over to his side of the desk. He pulled up a few websites on his computer, and began talk about examples of different Greek art that depicted men-loving-men relationships.

They talked for a while, but then Joshua interrupted, pointing to one of the photos on Jason’s desk. “Is that your husband?”

Jason picked up the picture and smiled, “Yes. That’s us at a wedding we went to last spring.” It had been Hazel and Frank’s wedding.

“Woah…” he whispered. He paused, then said, “You know, I’ve always looked up to you. I grew up hearing stories about the Seven demigods who sailed on the Argo II. You’re all huge inspirations.”

Jason nodded at the photograph, “I think so too, that’s why I married one.”

“What was it like… all those months sailing, facing all those terrible monsters?”

Jason remembered back to all those times he’d found Leo crying in the engine room, shivering after a particularly viscous monster attack, a nightmare, or another dirt-formed vision of Gaea. Those tearful nights spent consoling him.

“It… it was hard, especially seeing as we were just teenagers. But at least we had each other.”

Joshua looked at the Rubik’s cube with its self-shuffling sides, “Woah. Did he get you that?”

“He made it, actually. He is one of the best mechanics in the western hemisphere, after all.“

Jason picked it up, fondly, turning it over in his fingers.

The conversation carried on, drifting (as all good conversations do) to Sappho and her poetry. It wasn’t until Jason checked the clock that he realised the time.

“Shit, I gotta meet the Mister for dinner in fifteen minutes. Sorry, Joshua.”

He scribbled down the titles of a few books the kid could borrow from the library, and shouldered his bag. Joshua thanked him and left.

Jason picked up his keys and went to turn off the light. Before he left, he turned and looked at the flowers in the cup. Violets and marigolds. The same flowers they’d had at their wedding. Purple and orange, like the colours of Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter. Leo had an appreciation for a good metaphor.

He turned out the light and left his office, locking the door behind him.

They were one of the first Greco-Roman couples to get married since the camps discovered each other. Their wedding had been a celebration of the merging of both sides. It was becoming more and more commonplace now, but they were in the early stages of creating new traditions between these partnerships.

Jason had always tried to do things a little differently. He’d never liked it when he was told he had to uphold all these “Roman Values” in order to be perfect. He didn’t want to have to fit in a mould. That’s one of the countless reasons why he loved Leo so much. Leo wasn’t perfect. He didn’t try to be. He faked smiles and confidence for survival, but he never stopped being so unapologetically himself while doing it. And when Jason was around him, he couldn’t care less about what people thought he should be. Leo made him a better person because of that.

- ⚡️ - 💍 - 🔥 - [ L+J] - 🔥 - 💍 - ⚡️ -

Jason thought back to their wedding day again.

He remembered their first dance, to the song “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman. Jason stumbled over his feet a little as they danced. Later that night, Leo had torn up the dance floor doing the Macarena. Jason wondered how Leo had managed to go all night without bursting into flames.

Much parties and drinking ensued. Jason was swamped with guests, congratulating him. He made polite conversation with them all, and was so distracted he didn’t even realise that Leo had left the room.

He felt a quick surge of panic as he searched for him, but it soon subsided when he saw Leo out on the balcony of the wedding venue, looking out at the city. He’d taken off his jacket and it was folded on the rail next to him.

The relief gave way to concern, though, when he saw that Leo was on fire.

Jason walked over to him and leaned on the balcony railing next to him, just out of reach of the flames, “Long day?” He asked, trying not to show the worry in his voice.

“Good day,” Leo replied, smiling at him. Jason instantly relaxed.

“Sorry I left- just had to get away from the crowds and cool off,” Leo nodded at the suit jacket, flames licking his face, “That’s the last time I wear something with heat-suppressing polymers. I had to, for safety and all, but man… it was so stuffy. I felt like I couldn’t breathe.” Leo’s chest crackled quietly with the fire in the cool evening air, “Anyway, I needed to decompress. Let some of it out. “

“Understandable. It’s an emotional night.”

“I’m just so incredibly happy, Jason,” Leo said, “It’s hard to keep contained.”

Looking at Leo, Jason felt little zzzts of electricity buzzing through his hair. Yeah, he understood.

“Socialisation is exhausting,” Leo admitted, “Especially when you’re masking. Especially at an intense event like this. But don’t think I’m upset. I’m not. Just a little… overstimulated.”

Jason smiled, “I understand. Take all the time you need. Soon, though, we’ll be off on our honeymoon. Just you and I, alone together.”

Leo closed his eyes at the pleasure of the thought, “That would be nice.”

“Gods, I’m eager to get out of this toga. It’s itchy as heck.”

They exchanged a quick side-eye.

Jason sidled a little closer, careful to keep the fabric of his clothes out of reach of the flames. “I wish I could kiss you,” he said, frowning at the red fire brushing against Leo’s cheek.

“Hold your pegasi, lightning boy! We’re spending the rest of our lives together- there’ll be plenty of opportunities for you to kiss me, don’t you worry.”

“I guess you’re right,” Jason replied.

Leo softened, “Your company’s enough for me, amor mio. That’s all I need.”

Jason looked back at the open doorway, at the party in the venue behind them. “Well I should probably get back in there. They’ll be wondering where we are. If anyone asks, I’ll tell them you’re constipated.”

“How very dignified of you.”

Jason looked into Leo’s eyes, his brown irises turning orange in the glittering fire that wreathed his face, “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Jason went back into the building, looking back at his husband and smiling. Then he proceeded to rejoin the party.

- ⚡️ - 💍 - 🔥 - [ L+J] - 🔥 - 💍 - ⚡️ -

Leo was waiting for him outside the restaurant. He now wore a black suit jacket over his black shirt and suspenders. Jason knew that it had been stolen from his wardrobe. Leo didn’t own many suits.

He’d chosen a table for two under the awning outside the restaurant. Jason kissed him on the cheek when he saw him and sat down across from him. A waitress came over and took their drinks order.

“Umm… Tea, please. Earl Grey.”

“Earl Grey?” Leo said, “That even sounds like a British Grandpa.”

Jason ignored him, “Milk, two sugars please.”

“Hey, whatever floats your trireme, man. And can I have the umm… the umm…” Leo clicked his fingers and scrunched up his face in concentration, “Come on, English!! The… frothy… cow… juice…”

“The what?”

Leo mimed a complicated charade of drinking a certain beverage, which Jason attempted to decipher.

“A… milkshake?”

Leo snapped his fingers and pointed at Jason, “Yes. That. See? I knew I married you for a reason.”

Jason shook his head in disbelief, “I apologise for… whatever that was,” He said to the waitress, “English isn’t his first language.”

“Shut up Valdez," Leo said.

Jason smiled.

The waitress flashed them her customer-service grin and left with their orders. Jason turned to Leo, his perfect Leo, sitting there across the restaurant table just looking perfect. Jason beamed at him.

"What?" Leo asked, upon seeing the cheesy expression on Jason's face.

"Nothing..." Jason said, "So what is it you wanted to talk about?"

Leo ran his hands through his hair. Even after all these years, he still knew how to take the breath out of Jason’s lungs.

“Umm… well, I was thinking hard about that conversation we had a couple months ago, I just haven’t been able to get it out of my mind since…”

“Leo, we’ve had a lot of conversations in the last couple months-“

“The one about having kids! I’ve been thinking…”

“Yes…?” Jason said, dreading what might come next.

“And I’ve decided,” Leo said, twisting the ring around his finger.

Jason held his breath.

“I wanna do it. I want to start a family. At some point. In the future. Not right now, but at some point.”

Jason actually jumped up from his seat. He hugged Leo.

“Oh, Leo, that’s so good to hear!!!”

“Yeah, well… I love you. And I guess, as the son of the God of Creation… I want to create something. With you. Something more than just a Roomba,” he sighed, “I’m not good with organic life forms, but that’s what we do, isn’t it? We face challenges together. We don’t always do things in our comfort zone, but ultimately we risk it for what it’s worth at the end… I dunno, I’m getting cheesy.”

Jason smiled, “I love your cheesiness, Leo.”

Just then, the waitress came back with their drinks and took their dinner orders. Once she left, Jason turned back to Leo.

“You know,” Jason joked, “Since I actually didn’t die fighting Caligula, I’ve always wondered what the Sibyl meant by I will “three letters, starts with D”. I’m guessing, since we re-united after the fight it meant things would eventually lead to “Dad”.”

“Or you’ve been dead this whole time, and this is a delusional Elysium dream,” Leo said in a monotone voice.

“Wh-what?” Jason hurriedly scanned Leo’s face for any sign of a joke, but for some reason he couldn’t quite meet his eyes. They were distorted somehow, like trying to see a monster through the Mist. Fog swirled around the two of them, so Jason lost sight of their surroundings, only Leo’s weirdly blank face. He caught a flash of Leo laughing- a burst between the freakily deadpan expression Leo wore. It was like something had glitched.

Suddenly, the room brightened. They were back in the restaurant, and Leo was looking at him with a curious expression, his brow knotted slightly in concern.

“I didn’t say anything,” Leo said.

“You… You said…” Jason tried to think back to their previous conversation, but his memory of it was somehow distant- like a wound closing from ambrosia.

Leo cocked his head to one side, “You sure you’re alright, Jase?”

Jason blinked, “I’m- I’m fine.” He shook his head, trying to clear the confusion. “Long day. Just a little sleep-deprived. Probably hallucinating. What were we talking about, again?”

“Baby names,” Leo reminded him.

“Oh, right.”

“I think Leo Jr is a very strong name for a child,” Leo said, “Imagine, “Leonidas Valdez the Second! Badass Warrior Mechanic!”

“But what if it’s a girl?”

Leo paused for a few seconds, then said “I was thinking… I could name her after my mom?”

Jason frowned, “Names have power though. While I love the sentiment, I don’t think naming your kid after someone who died young is a very good idea.”

Leo sighed, “You’re right.”

“But it’s a lovely thought, though.”

“Yeah…”

- ⚡️ - 💍 - 🔥 - [ L+J] - 🔥 - 💍 - ⚡️ -

Jason walked into class the next morning.

“Hey, Professor! How’s your twink?”

“He’s not my-“ Jason began, “Well, yes, he is kind of a twink. And he is mine. What’s your point?”

The students laughed.

Jason turned to the projector screen and began to talk, when a student interrupted him.

“Tell us more about your husband, Professor!”

Jason knew this trap. They were trying to de-rail the lesson, get Jason talking about something else and forget to set the homework. If they thought they were gonna get away with not having to learn about Roman History for half a lesson they were wrong. Jason wasn’t gonna fall for their games and tricks.

But oh! He was a sucker for talking about Leo. As much as he wanted to resist, he found himself sinking into a ramble about his husband’s amazingness.

“I mean, he’s only the best thing to come from Huston, Texas. Like, ever. And that includes Beyoncé.”

The entire lecture hall gave a collective gasp of shock.

“You’re not serious, sir?” A student in the front row whispered.

“I am. And I don’t say that lightly either,” Jason may have been raised by wolves, but even he understood Beyoncé’s reverence. “I very much respect Queen Bey and what she does. You know she’s actually a minor goddess now?”

“Really? The gods made her one?” Another student heckled.

Jason shook his head, “No, not the gods. Much like how the Roman Emperors survived for thousands of years because of how much they were worshipped by their subjects, Beyoncé’s cult following has helped her ascend to goddesshood too.”

“Woah…”

“I’d be surprised if the Eras Tour doesn’t do the same thing for Taylor Swift. My husband loves her. We wanna get tickets, but that would mean our kids will never be able to afford to go to college, so… it’s still open for negotiation.”

A student raised his hand, “What other celebrities became gods from their worship?”

“Well,” Jason said, leaning back on his desk, “Have you ever heard of a band called the Beatles?”

Once the lesson had ended, Jason was approached by one of his students. It was Joshua, the kid he’d helped with homework.

“I- I just wanted to thank you for your help, Professor. On the essay. I got a really high grade and I passed my class!”

Jason grinned, “That’s great to hear! I don’t wanna give too much away but I have a feeling you’ll do very well in this class, too.” He tapped the side of his nose, like he was telling some big secret.

Joshua still looked a little nervous, like he had something more to say but wasn’t sure if he should.

“Is everything alright, Joshua?” Jason asked, giving him his kindest smile.

“It’s just… umm… I wanted to thank you for being my favourite teacher. You’re such an inspiring role model… my- my parents, they d-don’t really like the sort of stuff I’m studying… the sort of stuff I was writing that essay about. They’re traditional, see? All about upholding Good Roman Values. But you, being so open about who you are, and about your husband… from someone as heroic and influential as yourself… it meant a lot to me.”

Before Jason knew what was happening, Joshua gave him a quick, tight hug. “Thank you,” the kid whispered. Then he shouldered his backpack, and left the lecture hall.

Jason may or may not have cried a little.

- ⚡️ - 💍 - 🔥 - [ L+J] - 🔥 - 💍 - ⚡️ -

Jason pushed a button, and a large metal door opened inwards onto Leo’s warehouse. He stepped inside, his footsteps echoing on the hard concrete floor. From the cavernous ceiling hung car engines, machine parts, and large automatons. All around him were cluttered racks, standing shelves, and an assortment of other storage solutions. Jason wove his way through the labyrinthine pathways forged from kicked-aside projects. He was carrying a large take-out bag from the Greek Restaurant across the street from campus. Despite the large open space, there wasn’t much room to walk, so he picked his way apprehensively through the mess, nervous that he might step either on some prized masterpiece, or something explosive.

He spotted Leo’s apprentice, Penny, working the forges in the back of the gigantic space. She was hammering out a sheet of stygian iron, her mousy-blonde hair tied messily out of the way. She wore large welder’s goggles, and oversized Dragon-hide gloves.

He gingerly stepped over machinery and made his way over to her, greeting her with a nod. She stopped hammering, and pushed her goggles onto her head with a gloved finger.

“Where’s your Jedi Master?” Jason asked.

She set her hammer down on a nearby workbench and glanced expectantly at his take-out bag. He reached in, brought out a greasy Tupperware box, un-popped the lid, and handed her one of the dolmades. Her expression didn’t waver, she continued to stare at the bag. Jason rolled his eyes and begrudgingly gave her another one. This seemed to satisfy her. “He’s up on the roof,” she said, popping the stuffed vine leaf into her mouth.

He thanked her, and made his way up the metal spiral staircase that led to the roof.

He found Leo sitting on the roof’s edge, facing away from him. Festus sat next to him on his hind legs, his large metal tail wrapped around him like a cat. They both turned when Jason came up. He walked over to them, patted the dragon’s bronze jaw affectionately, and sat down next to Leo, putting the take-out bag between them. He began to dish out the food. Leo raised an eyebrow at the missing dolmades.

“I had to bribe Penny to tell me where you were,” Jason admitted.

Leo chuckled and shook his head in disbelief. His dark curls bounced in the golden light of the setting sun. “That girl has learned well. Never waste an opportunity to swindle free food.”

“Oh, I see. You taught her that.”

They laughed, kicking their dangling feet off the concrete warehouse walls.

“So how was your day?” Leo asked.

Jason scratched Festus’ chin, absent-mindedly. He thought about Joshua, and about the other kids in his class. He thought about how proud he was of the papers he graded. He thought about the bright young minds. Jason had grown up fighting in the legion. He’d faced untold horrors in order to save the world. So had Leo. And they still were saving it in their own way. By passing his knowledge onto the next generation, he felt safe knowing that the future was in their hands. By teaching his students about demigod life, about Roman History, and also teaching them that it was okay for a tough Roman soldier to love another man, he felt like he was still doing all he could to protect the world, but he’d found a less life-threatening way to do it.

“My day was good,” He told him, “What about yours?”

As Leo talked about his latest commissions, Jason looked around him. He remembered how much Leo had saved up to be able to afford to buy this place. But he needed a place to keep Festus (Terminus had been very particular about where the dragon had been allowed to stay, since he technically counted as a weapon). It had meant their honeymoon was spent in some discount resort in the south of Mexico with a low budget hotel room, drinking cheap wine. Jason wouldn’t have traded it for the world.

Leo really did love his machine shop. It had been a dream of his to own one since as long as Jason had known him. He knew that part of that was guilt for burning down the one his mom owned in Texas, that had been in his family for three generations. But Jason could see by the way Leo treated the space that he kept it working to honour his mom. And although Jason had never met Esperanza, he could feel her spirit in the air in this place.

He wondered if she’d be happy for her son that they’d found each other. Jason thought she would. She’d be so proud of Leo- how could she not? Leo was the best thing that had ever happened to Jason. He’d fought tooth and nail to save the world, and now they were living happily in New Rome.

Are we happy? A little voice in the back of Jason’s head said. They still had troubles and hardships ahead of them. Leo still struggled to sleep with the nightmares. Jason still couldn’t say Caligula’s name. People still looked down on Jason for dating the Greek who fired on New Rome. People still gave Jason shit for taking the last name of the man he loved. Queer kids in Jason’s class still struggled to be accepted by their parents. Wars were still happening. Demigods still died. Things might look completely different for them in a few years time. They could be drafted into another fight. They could lose each other. Again.

But they had found their little pocket of peace. The place and time where they could stay. And be happy. Because yes, they were happy.

He sat, side-by side with Leo, looking out at the sunset going from orange to purple to black. He wrapped his arm around his husband’s shoulders. The love of his life. His everything.

He was happy. Despite everything, he was happy. Jason was happy going to work every day, facing whatever there was to be faced, knowing he would come home to Leo at the end.

Jason looked into Leo’s eyes. Leo’s sparkling, dazzling eyes. The freshly-born stars reflected in them as the sky darkened to night. He watched them twinkle in those pupils as they shifted, busily scanning the sky for gods know what. He knew that he was happy, too. They had each other.

Sometimes the fates could be kind that way.

Jason sat on the warehouse roof, watching the stars come out. And he knew, right then and there, that whatever happened, everything was gonna be okay.

- ⚡️ - 💍 - 🔥 - [ L+J] - 🔥 - 💍 - ⚡️ -

Fuuuucckkk this took me ages to write but ohhh my gods-

This is now my longest fic ever and I’ve been obsessed with it for months.

Footnotes/Things I wanna talk about:

One day I realised “Hey, wait! I can make them get married!” And two months and 15K words later (I started writing this on Jason’s bday) here we are.

Penny, Leo’s apprentice- would you wanna see more from her? I know fics with ocs don’t do as well, but it will still mostly focus on Valgrace. I love the idea of talking about my otps from an outsider POV, I can expand on more lore for this universe, and be able to show them just being adorable and cute and fluffy together. Maybe while Leo and Jason are thinking more seriously about kids, Leo tries out his fatherly chops on his apprentice?

No we are not gonna mention Jason’s little “glitch in the matrix” moment back there. Nothing happened, what are you even talking about? [unless you think that would make a good fic to expand upon, I’d be prepared to take a dark route] Just pretend I added that in to explain away any plot-holes.

The “Jason wants to get in touch with his bio family and Leo’s a little sceptical” plot is something I’ve wanted to write about for a while. Particularly as Jason’s whole arc is about finding a place. They’re “The Lost Trio” because each of them are trying to find something. Jason’s trying to find who he is and where he belongs. Leo’s prepared to just settle for any place that won’t shun him for who he is. I fully believe that Leo is perfectly happy just the two of them, whereas Jason’s still on that journey of “what if there’s more of me out there?”. And Leo being Leo, he’d obviously help Jason with that, but he’d remind Jason that he would be loved no matter what, with or without a bio family.

Should I expand on that topic, write a conclusion? I left it a little open-ended and up to the imagination (and bc this fic is already 9k words long as I’m writing this and there are too many plotlines) but it would be something fun to follow up on, maybe giving it it’s own time to properly shine, and get down to the nitty gritty stuff. If the family is good to Jason, Leo would be happy for him but still a little bitter that he never got that chance. If the family is bad to Jason, Jason would struggle with what that means for him (he did a little bit of this in canon when he saw his mom’s ghost in BoO) and Leo would empathise with him, and reassure them that they’re still a family just as them.

I like to cite my sources, so here is the article I found about Ancient Greek wedding traditions in case you’re curious/need inspiration. It was an interesting rabbit-hole.

Also, a lot of this was inspired by @lavenderfairiez’s fic “All I wanted was you” so pls check that out.

Thank you to @xixovart for helping me with the Spanish. I am White As Fuck and British, and I get most of what I know of Latin American culture from In The Heights, so I apologise if I’ve gotten things wrong (I also used google translate for some).

I found I ended up making Jason speak Spanish a lot more than Leo- I feel like Jason is definitely more of an “endearing pet names” kinda guy, wheras Leo is the “fucking ruthless character assassinations” kinda guy. I also have this hc that Jason absolutely LOVES to speak Spanish to Leo, and does it at every opportunity. He thinks of it as “Leo’s language” and adores the fact that he can speak it now, because him and Leo are together, and that makes him so fucking happy.

Jason thinks Leo is just the best thing to ever happen to existence, and I love that.

Lot o’ thoughts about wedding vows, and the theme of promises for Valgrace and PJO in general. I’ve already made a post about it here

Leo is autisic. I feel like that had to be said bc it fuels a lot of my writing choices for this fic. Also I love it. Jason is so accommodating for his needs. They both look after each other and I love that for them.

I have WAY more where that came from. I have a timeline, a backstory, and, like, ten other fic ideas set in that universe. I have AUs of this AU. I have concept art. I have headcanons.

Please let me know what bits of this you enjoyed best, so that I can get a good idea of what to write next.

Page dividers made by me. I spent ages on them and I’m really proud of them so I might reblog with a few close-ups.

Tagging my usual fanfic/Valgrace peeps: @ottpopfic @ginnyluna @groverapologist @echo-stimmingrose @demigod-shenanigans @keefessketchbook @sleepyycapybara @imnoturfriend-im-a-swiftie13 @euryvices @123letsgobestie @kaleidoskuls @fairytalesociology @four-leafed-queer-gal @child-of-helios @green-tea217 @puzzled-pegasus @ollieisanerd @twomanyfandomshelp @lokiwiiiiiii @yoshuko-ew @keefessketchbook @frankzhang-appreciation-posts @frayna-of-the-hollow @via-rant @daonedaonlyskh @hadeslegacyhephgirl @siimplyapril @pjowasmy1stfandom

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to everyone in the Valgrace community- any hcs or posts that inspired me. You guys are just the best.

[neurodiverse-clones]

Im wondering if you could do some Autistic Echo headcanons

And some ADHD Fives headcanons (bc I have always liked the idea of Fives having ADHD)

Please? I would really appreciate it

YELL HEAH OMG

Okay, so I haven’t been super active in the fandom for a while and I don’t really remember what headcanons I’ve talked about before. I saw that you’ve liked a couple of my posts and hypothetically I could double check those but where’s the fun in that? /j

Autistic Echo

One thing I love to think about in autistic characters is how they stim. I think Echo has a general energy-release stim of tapping his toe in his boot. I also think he stims verbally by reciting the regs.

Echo definitely experiences echolalia! I’ve actually written a fic on it, but I misrepresented echolalia in that fic so I’m not going to link it here. It’s a cute little nod to his name, of course, but also I like thinking about the different ways echolalia and palilalia present and I think Echo does it when he’s stressed (I’m projecting lol)!

He likes the weight and compression of his armour! It’s soothing.

He clearly has a hard time getting along with and communicating with other people. This isn’t really a headcanon so much as evidence to the overall autistic!Echo headcanon. I also like that he and his brothers ALL learn to communicate better with each other and get along, that the onus isn’t on the autistic-coded character.

I think he has a special interest in the regs! I think there aren’t a lot of things to have a special interest in when you’re a clone, and of the few options I think the reg doubles as a good way to feel a sense of order and organization, which a lot of us crave.

Another fic I have is about how he gets overwhelmed sometimes in the battlefield and experiences sensory overload! I don’t think it’s an all-the-time thing, or he just wouldn’t survive that environment, but I do think it’s something he experiences on occasion and his brothers do his best to protect him when it happens.

ADHD Fives

Oddly this is harder even though I also have ADHD and totally vibe with it! (Also ADHD Hardcase for SURE.) But I have a few!

I think he’s primarily hyperactive!

He TOTALLY self-medicates with caffeine. He drinks as much caf as he can get without getting in trouble or making himself anxious.

In some ways I think he’s actually found a lot of healthy coping mechanisms. Like, exercise is really good for the ADHD brain and easily accessed for a soldier, likely part of his daily regimen.

External routine is also awesome for ADHD! Although I headcanon him as ADHD-PH, I know that all ADHD is on a spectrum much like autism and he likely still experiences inattentive symptoms, and routine helps. I think that he actually THRIVES in the military, especially on Kamino where routine is strictly regimented.

I think Echo taught him to stim by tapping his toe in his boot! Get out that excess energy when standing at attention or parade rest for long periods of time.

He sits on the floor a lot! Floor-sitting and other forms of active rest are awesome for ADHD, and he finds it super comfortable.

Thank you so much for this ask! It’s giving me ideas for a modern AU (my favorite kind of AU lately lol). Hope you enjoy!