#i wrote this while also holding a conversation with two dudes

[deanbrainrotwritings]

—  GIMME HALF

REQUEST : “hi!! I was wondering if you could maybe write an age gap (legal obv) with female!reader × dean winchester where the reader is like in her 20s and dean's in his 40s :) just some rough smut with choking and hair pulling and spitting (if you're comfortable with it) and dean being like super "hungry" for her, like he's waited a long time for it to happen. also lots of dirty talks cause i absolutely love them hahah :) anyways im in love with your writing and all your stories! thanks a lot! <3” — anonymous

PAIRING : dean winchester x professor!reader (f.)

CHARACTERS : miracle, sam winchester

WARNINGS/TAGS : explicit(18+), angst, enemies to lovers, age gap, voyeurism, smut, oral sex, p in v, praise kink, choking, hair pulling, dacryphilia, rough sex, spitting

WORD COUNT : 8.4k

A/N : devil wears prada song title. @spnkinkevents : #12daysofspnkinkmas2023 — chair sex and food play. I wrote this half-asleep while listening to ASMR, like… that’s how I write most of my stories, plus, they’re always written between 00.00-02.40. Doctor Who references, ‘cause I’m a nerd. I got carried away…. Cliffhanger bc I’m cruel.

There were countless pros and cons to having houses built so close together with windows facing the same direction. 

Pros: Accidentally seeing your hot neighbour walk around naked in the living room and kitchen. Accidentally catching your hot neighbour jerk off when they think that everyone’s asleep.

Yup, she’s seen all of that and more. All from that nameless, freckled, green-eyed man next door. 

Even wholesome things, like him playing with his cute dog, babying the little rascal and spoiling it. Him cooking and baking, being wholeheartedly content with feeding it to the tall, Hazel-eyed puppy dog of a man, the tall man’s gorgeous deaf wife, and his tiny adorable son; the blue-eyed, dreamy dude in a trench coat; and that endearing young boy with blue eyes who looked like a combination of all three of the men. 

There were times where she’d seen the green-eyed man dressed as a cowboy and even a princess to entertain the little baby boy—his nephew. For sleepovers with him, he’d read him bedtime stories while being completely animated. He’d build a bunch of forts, with sheets, the couch, pillows, and some Christmas lights. He'd talk to the little boy and hold serious conversations despite neither of them being able to understand each other. He’d teach the young boy and the baby boy how to fix cars—at least he tried to. He’d pack his best friends' lunches every morning with his hair unkempt, half asleep, while sipping on some coffee. He’d even take naps with the baby, treating him as his own son. 

He’d do ridiculously endearing things, too, such as baking bread at night when he couldn’t sleep. He'd read books only when he was alone, as if he’d be made fun of by his friends, and she finally understood why. They were either romantic, erotic, or completely nerdy and abstract. He had range. He’d watch cheesy soap operas and rom-com k-dramas when he did chores. He loved to collect things such as Pokémon cards and even legos. 

There were a million things he did that she thought were cute. The windows into his house were like the screens of a television, like her favourite character, she got to see him when he’s relaxed and surrounded only by those who love him 

As for the cons, we’ll get to that…

When they first moved in, it was about three and a half years ago. She’d been visiting her family in Kansas City for her oldest brother’s birthday in June. 

When she returned to Lebanon, they had already settled down. There was a brown and beige Ford pickup truck, a black Subaru—both parked in the front, and a sleek black Impala in the driveway.

The youngest, Jack, waved at her one day when he returned with Cas after buying groceries. Then, Cas awkwardly introduced himself and Jack, and gave her the names of the other two men who were brothers, Sam is the tall one and Dean was the freckled one. 

Sam was the most social one. He’d spark up conversation with her whenever he saw her, dropping bits and pieces of information about himself, his brother, his fiancée, Cas, Jack, and Dean’s loyal dog, Miracle. 

After seven months of living together, Sam moved out with his wife, Eileen. They’d just gotten married, and they both invited her. She’d gone, the wedding was pretty, cute, and modest. Y/n had spoken to a few of their close family and friends. Dean, however, kept to himself the whole night as if he were grieving. He’d smile occasionally if any of his friends came to him, he was enthusiastic, and then he'd go back into himself.

Four months later, Sam and EIleen returned; she was pregnant. It was a boy, he’d planned on naming him after his big brother, which Y/n thought was adorable. He hadn’t told his brother, but planned on telling him the day his son was born.

Y/n could tell Dean had mixed feelings about his brother’s departure, mostly negative feelings. He loved Eileen and his nephew. But when it was just him, Cas, and Jack, he'd often drink, despite concerned, useless interventions with Cas. Unless Sam, Eileen, and his nephew were there. He’d never even glance at that top-shelf cupboard.

The good thing was that at least Dean was a happy drunk.

The first time she interacted with Dean was a few weeks after she’d returned from Kansas City, she assumed two things: his heart was closed off to new people, and he’s one hot, irritating, grumpy, sour, old man.

It was the spring semester at Kansas University. Y/n was grading her students’ creative, personal essays in the office downstairs. She was perplexed by the small percentage of her students and their inability to use proper grammar or follow the thorough, detailed checklist she created to get them to pass easily. 

Just when she thought she’d gotten great at making their lives easy, they return the shittiest, half-assed essays. She felt bad for the bad grades, but since the rest of her students managed to get perfect scores or at least proficient scores, she couldn’t just let them pass. 

Loud banging on the door startled her from reading an impressive essay. Her blood ran cold and she scrambled up from her rolling chair, ignoring that she pushed it halfway across the room. 

Her socked feet were quiet on the wooden floor, making her way quickly down the hallway until she got to the shelf where she kept her gun. She pressed it against the door and looked through the peephole, then relaxed when she saw Dean.

She was irritated by the loud knocking, though, regardless of how cute he looked when he was clearly pissed off. She opened the door and set the gun down on the table where she usually placed her keys.

“Lady, have you seen the mess you made outside?” Dean asked her, pointing behind him. She stared at him, stunned by how much prettier he looked up close. Her cheeks turned hot, but she looked past him trying to see whatever he was pointing at. 

She looked at her red Mustang parked in the front as a reminder to restock the kitchen, then looked close to where his house was. She winced at the mud and the running water from her hose going into his nice lawn.

“Shit,” she murmured, toeing her socks off before moving past Dean to turn the hose off. She got distracted by the mud and the puddles as she pulled the hose, and coiled it back where it should have been. It’s been a while since she last let her bare feet feel this beneath, the smell of wet dirt was amazing, even when it wasn’t caused by rainfall.

“Do you always do shit like this?” He asked from behind, his tone harsh. 

She frowned when she turned to look at his furious face, careful to not touch her forehead with her muddy hands when she used her wrist to move hair away from her face.  

“I’m sorry,” she apologised, tilting her head at him. He just rolled his eyes at her, then he stared at his lawn, and ran his hand down his face. “Did I do somethin’ else to piss you off?” She asked, looking around to see if there’s anything else she may have forgotten.

“One, your cat’s too damn loud, crying and meowing for my damn dog when you let him out,” he started, which made her blink in confusion. She didn’t expect something like that to get on his nerves. “And B, why the hell do you have cameras facing my place?” 

She narrowed her eyes at him, her ego being injured fueled her anger and defensiveness. “Okay, listen, Doctor Who, I said I was sorry, okay?” She could tell her words stunned him by the furrowing of his brows in bewilderment, disarming him and shutting him up. “It’s not my fault your dog likes my cat, too. And the cameras are off, they’re there to scare people, so fuck off,” she snapped before she stop herself. 

Dean scoffed at her, “fuck you.” She rolled her eyes at him this time, staring daggers into his back when he turned around to get to his home.

“If you’d fuck me, maybe you wouldnt be such an asshole.” Her snide words made him freeze. He laughed dryly and he turned to face her once more, her arms crossed over her chest.

“Pretty sure I’d still hate you, sweetheart,” he chuckled, crossing his own arms. That stung, even if she didn’t know him personally and half the time she spent romanticising him based on the little bit of information she had. “And I’d rather go fuck some other chick.” She clenched her jaw and breathed in slowly, angry heat began rising up her neck the faster her heart started to beat.

Entirely unintended, she venomously spat, “according to your brother, you haven’t been lucky enough, and you’re not going to be.”

“You talking to my brother about my sex life?” He stepped closer to her, his nostril flaring in anger. Betrayal and hurt crossed his features and she realised her mistake.

“No, just overheard him ‘cause you’re an overbearing douchebag,” she lied smoothly. Truth was, Sam and Eileen did accidentally—drunkenly—tell her how hard it was for Dean to maintain a serious relationship for more than three months. They don’t remember sharing that information. It was easy for her to casually ask about Dean’s love life and availability, masking her attraction to Dean as mere surprise as to how the younger brother got married before the older one. “Makes sense now why no one will sleep with you,” she laughed mockingly, stepping closer to him defiantly.

His face was red now, too. Angry, offended, he rolled his eyes at her smug face and body language. “You don’t know shit about me.”

“Sure, yeah, if that makes you feel better,” she snorted, patting his very nice, broad shoulder with her muddy hand as she made her back into her house. Preoccupied by the small mud-print on his beige Henley, he couldn’t get the last word in or stop her from leaving him flustered in her swampy driveway.

That was the start of a horrible relationship with her neighbour. The neighbour she had a crush on. 

He found all kinds of reasons to complain. Big and small. And she secretly did things to piss him off, occasionally sabotaging his plans. 

The thing was that deep down, she still liked him, but he made her so angry and frustrated. And it felt good to see him angry and frustrated by things she caused either on purpose or accidentally. Any attention was better than no attention.

Eventually, that all changed. The fun, the it’s-better-than-nothing feeling, it didn’t last. Fourteen months later, she stopped the cruel games and decided to avoid him completely. 

When her friends offered to take her out, she agreed, even if she wanted to stay home. If Dean was home, she made sure to never say no to them, and sometimes she’d offer to take them out. Wherever.

She’d started to grade at the cafe, library, or the diner, even if Dean went to all those places often. At least he wouldn’t say anything there around all those people. 

When she grew closer to Sam, Cas, and Jack, she’d find excuses not to go over to Dean’s when they offered either food, game nights, movie nights, or random hangouts. They started to notice too—the tension, the avoidance, the hostility—and they’d go over to her place instead, often without Dean, who’d choose to go out to avoid staying home alone.

It was awful. The rejection started to hurt, yet, he had her heart in the palm of his hand. Deep down, she knew that Dean wasn’t a bad person; he just didn’t like her.

Eventually, Dean ended his animosity, too, and everything went back to ‘normal’. She slowly started to reject offers from her friends to test the water, stayed home to grade, and didn't permit her cat to leave even if it cried for an escape. If she took him out, it was with a leash she eventually got him to get used to.

They ignored each other when they crossed paths—in the driveway, at the grocery store, at diners, at the cafe. They acted like complete strangers. She’d keep her curtains closed, at least she did for the windows that face his house. She made her presence as unnoticeable and as invisible as she could to prevent causing more damage to each other.

Then, about two months ago, on Halloween, Sam, Eileen, Cas, and Jack went to her house to collect candy. Sam made a point of staying back while the rest of them walked to where Dean was waiting—looking anywhere but at her house—to convince her to go to his and Eileen’s place for Thanksgiving. 

He was honest, cute, wide hazel eyes attempting to convince her to try and make amends with Dean. She didn’t doubt it, when he told her that Dean felt guilty, but her pride was bruised, and her heart was broken. She told Sam she would be visiting her own family for that holiday. She omitted that she’d be going to her mother’s house a few miles away, still in Lebanon. And she easily convinced her mother to let her stay the rest of the week until she had to go back to work.

Now, Christmas was near—in four days, to be exact. It wasn’t the holiday spirit that made her change her mind, it was the hurt and the exhaustion of planning her life around avoiding Dean. 

So, she called Sam, she asked if he could do anything to get Dean alone tomorrow. 

For the rest of the day, she would start to prepare everything—even though it was Dean who created the mess—she was willing to make the first move and hopefully meet him halfway. 

She couldn’t lie that she felt embarrassed by how excited she was to see Dean. She couldn't even differentiate the meaning of the butterflies in her stomach, but she powered through her fluttering heart and her shaking hands as she prepared everything before going to see him.

She considered not doing it at all, calling it quits—but the consequences of that quickly made her miserable. That would just mean more avoidance, more hiding, more changing everything about herself to make him happy.

All of this over one little misunderstanding. One bad day where her mouth ran without consulting her brain first ruined what could have otherwise been a good friendship—perhaps even a romantic relationship.

She was twenty-six and just like Dean, she hadn’t had a serious relationship since… Well, ever. The last time someone convinced her to date them was in highschool, and even before that, it took her a month—or less—to figure out she wanted nothing to do with them. She didn’t like the people she dated. She realised quickly that she didn’t even want a future with them, she didn’t even allow them to kiss her or touch her. So she figured that if she didn’t want to marry them, what was the point of wasting her time?

For so long, the first thing she thought of when she felt attracted to someone was: can I stand the thought of their touch? Can I see myself kissing them, letting them kiss me? Can I stand the thought of the fights and staying with them through thick and thin? Can I picture myself with them in the future, permanently?

The answer was always ‘no’ and the attraction died immediately after the realisation. 

With Dean, the answer was different. Not for some stupid reason, like fate, or the boy-next-door trope. No. This was reality, and the real reason was the fact that she got to see who he was before she was attracted to him. 

It was the selflessness, the love in everything that he did, the gentleness of his heart, the kindness that radiated from him, and the ease in the way he did chores, the way he made his friends laugh, his playfulness, the loyalty, the way he was clearly protective. 

It was the open windows of her house into his open windows that let her see through him, down to his very beautiful core. It was the lack of hidden things, the openness of his soul because he felt safe, unwatched. It was real because Cas, Jack, and Sam were proof that even though Dean wasn’t perfect, he was worth it.

The Doctor did say once: the good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice-versa, the bad things don’t necessarily spoil the good things and make them unimportant. 

For the first time, she was willing to take a chance.

She smoothed down the silky emerald-green dress. It was pretty, flowing down her body perfectly, stopping at the middle of her calves…. Actually, now that she looked at herself in the mirror, her curls perfectly maintained, the light touch of makeup, the heels… was it too much?

She ignored those anxious thoughts and made sure she had everything she needed and everything that she prepared before stepping out into the cold.

The spaghetti straps didn’t stop the cold, but the heat of her nervousness at least did something as she walked up to his door and waited after knocking gently. 

When he opened the door, he was stunned to see her.

“What?” He asked bluntly. 

She could tell that the way she was dressed caught him off guard. His eyes moved from her face, up to her hair, back down to the boxes in her hands, and lower to her feet. 

“I’ve got pie,” she said the first thing her mind thought of. Yes, it was blunt, yes, it disarmed him further… It was not smooth, but Dean looked behind him, and then he looked at her once more while biting his lip before opening the door wider, and stepping out of the way for her to enter. 

She exhaled shakily as he scratched the back of his neck. Out of habit, she slipped out of her heels before stepping inside his home, planting her bare feet on the soft, long rug he had. He kindly, wordlessly, took her heels from outside and placed them on the shoe rack he had inside before shutting the door behind her.

She felt so… warm. Finally, she was inside the place she longed to be in. Right where Dean was. Along the walls there were dozens of pictures, but she didn’t go too far, she waited for him.

She felt his presence behind her and it made her shiver, but she couldn’t bring herself to look back at him. Instead, she stared at photos of him with Cas, Sam, Jack, and other people she hadn’t met. Women and Men. Dean was smiling in all of them. And in a large majority of them, they were looking at him while he looked at the camera. 

What a funny thing. 

“Here,” he said from behind her, his deep voice sounded soft, gentle, unlike the last time they spoke to each other. It made her shudder. “Let me help.” She slowly braced herself when she turned around, staring into his beautiful green eyes, illuminated magically by Christmas lights. 

“Thanks,” she whispered, carefully loosening her grip on the objects in her hand for him to take what he wanted—which was everything. 

She stepped to the side when he murmured, “no problem,” and started to walk off to the kitchen. She followed him slowly, took a look around, respectfully, curiously, just when she heard the clicking of nails and the thump of paws on wooden floors, and the bark of his dog headed in their direction. 

“Miracle,” Dean grunted, setting everything down on the table, “not inside.” While the fluffy dog did stop its excited running, his enthusiasm was not lost as he wagged his tail, and playfully got down on his stomach in front of her feet. Still on his belly, Miracle approached Y/n slowly, paws and tongue at her toes, as if testing the waters. 

“Hey,” she greeted softly as she squatted slowly and laughed quietly, gently scratching Miracle’s head as he nudged her hand with his wet nose, staring up at her with adorably wide eyes—much like Sam did. “You’re so cute,” she cooed, her heart warming up when Miracle barked quietly.

He then jumped up and turned towards Dean, who was watching them—perplexed, happy, conflicted. 

“You were asleep,” Dean scolded, but sweetly took Miracle’s head in his hands and kissed him between his ears. Miracle whined and stepped away, sitting in front of Dean as if saying ‘I’ll be good if you let me stay’. “Whatever,” Dean groaned with a smile, which made Miracle happy, because he laid his cheek on his paw and stared up at Dean, resting.

Now, it was awkward. 

Dean caught her staring at him, her expression inquisitive. She cleared her throat awkwardly, but she couldn’t form words. She only now noticed that he was wearing a faded black shirt and hotdog pyjama pants. 

“So…” Dean began instead, “pie.” It wasn’t any better, but it’s as she always said: it was better than nothing. 

“Yes,” she confirmed, “strawberry… you weren’t getting ready for bed…?” She inquired, tipping her chin in the direction of his attire. 

“Not to sleep,” he reassured her, taking a few steps toward the cupboards to pull out two plates, glass cups, and then some utensils from the lower drawer. “Why are you doing this?” Dean asked quietly from where he was across the kitchen, everything still in his hands.

“I deserve better that’s why,” she snapped. He blinked at her, guilty, but she paused and took a deeper breath. Careful to not smear her eyeliner, she rubbed her temples instead. She reached behind her to wrap her ankle around the leg of a chair to pull it out and sit down. “Sorry, I don’t like… being angry,” she breathed out, looking out his kitchen window into her dark living room. She switched the Christmas lights off. “It's very stressful because I…” She turned to look at him and forgot her words as he came closer. 

He looked cuter in person and prettier, still. Three years and nothing has changed, he still had her heart right in his hand. 

“Why?” He pressed, placing everything down on the table in front of her. Looking up at him felt intimidating, so she averted her gaze. He was much older than she was… it made her… feel dumb. See-through. Like he could figure her out in seconds. 

“Because I’m friends with your friends,” she admitted without looking at him, then she reached out to arrange the plates, cups, and utensils. He sat down thoughtfully, and watched her unstack the small boxes she brought over. 

“You’re doing this for them,” he laid out flatly, but he took a seat next to her and stared at her. His eyes on her made her self-conscious, flustered. She bet he could see everything, all the ugly and the weird in her.

“I’m doing this for me,” she corrected him gently, “I just want to be happy,” she sighed, removing the plastic wrap she placed over the pie she baked. “Is that selfish?” She wondered out loud, taking the knife, she stared at it. 

“No,” Dean sighed, wrapping his hand around hers to take the knife. She inhaled sharply at the warmth of his touch, his calloused palms brushing against the back of her hand, sending warmth over her chest, pressing into her wrist with her heart excitedly pounding against her ribs.

She released the knife into his hold, trying to hide how much he affected her, but she doubted she could fully do that with the Christmas lights exposing the blush she could feel on her face. She could feel her veins pumping blood faster, caught up with the heavy beating of her heart. If he looked down at her neck, he could probably see it in her veins.

She looked away, down at Miracle who was still peacefully laying on his belly, and Dean looked away towards the beautiful pie to start slicing into it.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, taking her plate to give her the first slice. She looked up at Dean, taking the plate with a generous slice of strawberry pie. 

“I wanted to be the first to say it…” She complained playfully, trying to maintain eye contact with him, but his beauty was intimidating, forcing her to look away, “soon as my ego stopped being sensitive,” she added. 

Dean laughed softly, placing his own slice on his plate. The sound of his laugh made her smile, her stomach flipped with elation, at the crinkles by his eyes. Her breathy exhale made him look at her.

“Well, I’m forty-four, my ego’s been bruised enough times,” he told her, “I don’t care much for it when…” he trailed off and chewed on his bottom lip thoughtfully. She bit her lip, too, trying not to stare too long at his pretty mouth. 

“Well, thanks,” she murmured, her jaw twitching as she looked away from him. 

“I’d consider all this an apology,” he told her, gazing at her as she opened two rectangular boxes. She smiled, shaking her head. She pulled out a bottle of homemade eggnog along with a decorated jar filled with white frosting, and a small container with crushed peppermint candy. “This isn’t… poisoned, right?” He teased, still watching her while she opened the bottle of rum eggnog, she tilted her head at him, amused. “Just making sure… you did make all this…” he trailed off, impressed.

“Taste the pie,” she encouraged as she started making the drinks.

“You’re just trying to shut me up,” he chuckled gruffly, but he picked up his fork and started to dig in. The strawberry filling barely touched his tongue when he moaned, she watched him not even begin to chew. His brows furrowed and he closed his eyes, savouring the pie. 

It made her blush, but she focused on covering the rim of the cups he brought with the whiskey frosting she made and the peppermint candy shavings before filling it with eggnog.

“You made the frosting, too?” He asked, tipping his head towards the jar. His mouth was full, some strawberry filling dripped down the corner of his mouth, but he picked it up with his tongue. She licked her lips, trying to stop herself from breathing airily, and passed him the eggnog with a nod and slid the jar of frosting towards him to serve herself some eggnog. 

Dean dipped his finger into the frosting, collecting a large amount before wrapping his lips around his finger to suck the frosting off. She forced herself to look away from how hot he looked and ate her own slice of pie instead.

“I’ve seriously been missing out,” he murmured regretfully. “I was real childish,” he told her, “I never should’ve gotten pissed over… everything-”

“Dean,” she interrupted him, giving him a sheepish smile, “you already apologised and I forgive you. Besides, I did things, too.. on purpose… so, I’m sorry.” She pursed her lips and took a sip from her eggnog, swiping her tongue along the sweet frosting.

“You did things on purpose?” He repeated, a smirk on his face. She breathed out a laugh and nodded bashfully. “Why?” he wondered, leaning into her curiously, subtly moving his plate of food towards her. She considered being blunt, but she chose to test him instead.

“Probably the same reason you got pissed at everything I did and didn’t do,” she laughed, pulling a piece of strawberry out of the pie to put it in her mouth.

“I doubt that,” Dean muttered, picking up his own drink, and taking a large gulp. She eyed him closely, her eyes becoming hooded when he licked across his lips after drinking to collect the thin layer of sweetened alcohol on his mouth. 

“What was your reason then?” She wondered flirtatiously, her voice low and seductive. She pushed her plate away with her arm., and mimicked his body language, scooting forward in the chair. 

She watched as his eyes darkened and his jaw clenched, his hand tightening around his fork before he dropped it. She’d never quite been stared at that way before, but it suddenly—almost, made her laugh. Her legs felt weak, her stomach heavy, almost fooling her into thinking she couldn’t get up, but she did.

With a rapid heart and shaky knees, she pushed her chair back, and Miracle lifted his head in alarm. Dean leaned back in his chair, sliding his palms up his thighs, and watched hungrily as she lifted her dress up her legs, squeezing in front of him and part of the table to sit on his lap. 

“Seems like we’ve both been missing out on a lot of stuff,” she whispered, her stomach fluttering for a variety of reasons, but mostly from excitement. He bit his lip, eyes twinkling as he placed his hands slowly on her thighs. She sank her teeth down on her lip, too, breathing heavily when his hands began sliding up her thighs, lifting her dress higher, and higher.

“You look beautiful,” he whispered, continuing to move her dress up until his hands were wrapped around her hips where he could realise she wasn’t wearing any underwear. “I thought I should tell you, before I ruin you,” he rasped, tightening his hold on her hips.

“Fuck,” she moaned, moving forward in his lap until their hips were pressed together. She brought her hands into his hair, and pulled it gently, bringing her mouth close to his, but she never kissed him. She breathed against his lips and when he leaned forward to kiss her, she pulled back teasingly.

“You’re seriously gonna make me wait?” He whispered, slowly rolling his hips up into her, his hard cock pressing into her wet core. She gasped softly against his mouth and laughed breathlessly.

“You feel good,” she praised, flushing as she ground against him harder.

“I’d feel better inside you,” he smirked, sliding one of his hands farther up her dress, his warm palm flattening up her stomach reverently, stopping beneath her breasts..

“I bet,” she moaned, arching into his touch before finally pressing her tinted lips against his. Dean moaned softly against her mouth, pressing against her hungrily, then lifted her up, carefully moving his plate and cup aside to lay her down on the table. 

“Miracle, bed,” Dean ordered when he pulled away from her lips. The dog obediently stood up and excitedly made his way to where Dean’s room was. Dean kissed her once more, drawing her attention away from Miracle and back to him.

She’d never been kissed the way Dean kissed her or touched the way Dean touched her. His hands were everywhere, testing, learning, skillful. He scratched her skin sending sparks down to her already soaked core, kneading her body roughly until she moaned against his mouth. He squeezed her and made her wet. He dug his blunt nails into her and made her nerves ignite. His hands smoothed across her, sailing over her body like she were an ocean and he was a sailor. 

He was desperate, devouring her mouth with his tongue and his teeth, putting his all into the kiss, licking her lips, teasing the inside of her mouth, brushing against her warm tongue. He yearned to memorise the taste of her mouth, to feel close to her, pressing and moaning against her the way he’d done when he ate the pie and frosting. He nibbled on her lips, tugging, biting, claiming, taking the air from her lungs and pulling away at the perfect time. 

He rolled his hips into her frantically and finally started to move away from her now-swollen lips, the colour of her raspberry tint robbed and replaced by the redness of his kiss. 

He dragged his teeth teasingly along her jaw and licked his way down her neck, pressing his stubbled face into her neck, kissing and sucking softly, searching. She rolled her head to the side, giving him all the access he needed, until finally, she moaned loudly when he sucked into her sweetspot. He smiled against her throat, feeling her take handfuls of his shirt, her hips wiggling impatiently beneath him.

He kissed lower still, then back up to the other side of her neck, and bit her collarbones, kissing every inch of her skin, her shoulders and her sternum. She loved every second of it and slipped her hands beneath his shirt, touching and scratching his skin, pulling him closer as he bucked into her bare core.

“Did you know your shirt was see-through when we first met?” He whispered into her cleavage. She laughed and replied with a breathless ‘no’. “Well.. your tits on display, legs bare in those tiny shorts, all pissed as hell… it was hot,” he chuckled, lowering the thin straps of her dress until the top started to reveal her breasts. 

“Is that why you jerked off that night?” She asked, gripping his hair and tugging hard. He grunted and laughed, staring into her lustful eyes.

“You saw?” He teased, bringing his hand to her breast, squeezing roughly. “The answer’s yes.. And everytime after that, it was also ‘cause of you,” Dean confessed, “couldn’t stop thinking about you, every day and every night. I thought I hated you, but I guess I just needed to fuck you.” 

She chuckled, gripping the hem of his shirt, dragging it up his body as he latched onto her nipple. She hummed softly, tugging hard at his hair, in complete bliss as he wrapped his mouth around the bud, licking, sucking, and biting until she whimpered for him to give her more—which was impossible. He moved onto her other breast, savouring her warm skin with his hotter mouth, tugging her neglected nipple with his fingers, twisting and pinching. 

“Please,” she moaned, yanking his hair so he’d pull away. Dean growled against her flesh and bit down hard on her breast, before pulling away, drawing a mewl from her of his name. 

“You could be nicer,” he muttered, allowing her to lift his shirt up off his body, but he continued to kiss her breasts, sucking gently around the flesh to leave red marks. He lifted her feet up on the table and pressed her thighs close to her chest, opening her up to admire her soaked sex.

“We’re long past nice, pretty boy,” she teased blushing and biting her lip when he stood up straight. She didn’t look at him, too insecure to watch him as he brought his hand to the inside of her thighs, teasing her vulva.

“You think I’m pretty?” He grinned, circling her entrance, moaning at copious amounts of arousal on his fingers. “So wet… you that needy for my cock inside you?” He asked smugly. 

She looked at him now, heat flooding up her face at his obscene words. Before she could say anything about it, the tattoo on his chest drew her attention away from the adorable pride on his face.

“You’re a hunter,” she stated, stunned, blinking at him with a smile. He looked down at himself then at her, speechless. She lifted her hips and hitched her dress up higher to reveal her ribcage where she had the same tattoo, twice as small.

“You’re a professor,” he remarked with arousal on his face, pushing his finger into her. He lowered himself down her body and wrapped his arm around her legs, holding her open as he breathed warmly against her wet cunt.

Before she could close her legs to him demurely, Dean dove in, his mouth hot on her pussy. He ate her out the same way he kissed her, teeth making her whimper, his tongue parting and tasting, picking up the flavour of her wetness as she moaned. 

He salivated on her, humming in satisfaction while he sucked her clit into his mouth while he fingered her. Her hands found his hair once more, pulling hard and almost painfully, but his cock jumped each time inside the thin material of his pyjamas. Dean added a second finger as he moaned against her swollen clit, knuckles deep, pressing against the front of her textured walls, drawing silent moans from her, making her squirm more and more. 

“Fuck,” she panted, “you’re so good,” she praised, flexing her hand above his head before gripping at the honey strands. He slurped lewdly, devouring her pussy, squeezing her hips desperately holding her close to his face while she pushed him harder against her cunt. “Dean… I’m close,” she moaned, closing her legs around his head. 

He moaned again, adding another finger, shoving deep as he circled her swollen clit with his tongue, drawing figures on her clit possessively. She gasped loudly and cried out his name, tensing up when she orgasmed, her walls clamping down on his three fingers. The rapture of her orgasm seemed endless as he continued to tongue at her clit, it made her writhe uncontrollably, and he smirked against her pussy.

Her whiny laugh and the way she squeezed his head to stop him made him chuckle, and he tapped her thigh once he pulled his fingers from within her pulsing walls. She released him, melting into the table while he licked his fingers clean of her release.

“You taste good,” he told her earnestly, “so fucking good.” She bit her lip, giving him a look of disbelief. He narrowed his eyes at her, leaning down to lick a long stripe up her pussy, then down, pushing his tongue past her clenching, wet hole. 

“Dean, fucking…” she moaned, “oh, God, why does that feel good?” She snickered, then he pulled away hovering above her. She opened her eyes to his smug face, his clean fingers squeezed her cheeks roughly until she opened her mouth. She furrowed her brows, whining out with her hands around his wrist so he’d release, but she shut up when he spit in her mouth.

“Taste yourself,” he ordered, licking his lips. Her pupils dilated as she looked into his eyes, the tangy taste of herself made her mouth water and she swallowed. “D’you know how hot you are?” He asked rhetorically, kissing her roughly once more, ravenous and stopped only when he felt her hands pushing his pants down his legs.

“I want you, Dean,” she whispered against his mouth, biting his lip before returning the passion of his kiss.

“Where?” He asked teasingly, wrapping his arm around her waist, he sat her up on the table and gently held her face in his hands, before releasing her to strip completely. 

“I want you inside me,” she told him coquettishly, hopping off the table to slowly let her dress pool around her feet. “I want to ride you, to feel you stretch me open…” she walked towards him, watching him completely aroused, a look of pleasant surprise on his face, “I want you to fill me up, and make me cum on your cock…” she licked her lips, staring down at his cock, erect and leaking precum. “... I’ve never seen a dick this nice,” she told him, wrapping her hand around the base and stepping closer to him.

He grunted, “suck it then.” She laughed through her nose, releasing his cock to fondle his balls. He moaned, stumbling slightly.  “I’ve been wanting to shut you up with my cock in your mouth,” he told her, a smirk on his face, “now, I’m just thinking how pretty you’ll look with your lips wrapped around me.” Dean reached up and curled his fingers around the back of her neck. 

She looked behind him, removed her hand, and tipped her head to the chair, “sit.” 

“Yes, ma’am,” he grinned, kicking the chair towards him like she had earlier, then he sat, legs wide and tempting. “You’re sexier than you were in my imagination,” he told her, watching her get down between his legs, kissing his thighs while looking up at him through her curled lashes. 

“Keep talkin’,” she grinned up at him, taking his heavy cock in her hand once more. Dean gave her a sexy look, smug and aroused.

“I wanna finish in your mouth,” he told her, “want to see you swallow my load.” Pleased, she moved forward and began kissing and licking the length of his cock, teasingly and experimentally feeling the velvety, veiny texture against her hand, tongue, and lips. “I want to hear you choke on my cock, and see what you look like with tears in your eyes as I fuck your pretty face.” She moaned softly, intrigued by the description of his fantasy. 

She dipped her tongue into the slit, moaning at the taste of his precum, drooling over the soft head of his cock before sucking him into her mouth.

“Fuck,” he moaned, tangling his fingers in her hair. She slowly took him deeper, pulling him out of her hot mouth teasingly, then swallowing inch by inch of his hard cock. “You’re so good at that, baby,” he panted, letting her take her time at her own pace, but he gripped her hair tightly. “Don’t stop,” he moaned, staring into her eyes as she continued to take his cock, bobbing her head, not stopping until he hit the back of her throat. She swallowed around him, and he bucked his hips up, releasing a whispered curse, attempting to keep his eyes open to watch her suck him off.

She got comfortable between his legs, taking his freehand to put it in her hair. He took her hair, put it together, and waited for her permission before slowly lifting his hips, pushing his cock slowly into her throat. When she gagged, he slowly pulled back, then pushed back into her, lips parted, releasing quick breaths. 

Eventually, he started to fuck her face in earnest, lifting his hip up off the chair, pulling her hair hard to guide her on and off his dick. Her spit dribbled down her chin in a mixture of his precum. She swallowed as much as she could, moaning and blinking tears that tickled her eyes and her jaw. 

“You look so fucking…” he chocked on a moan, “so damn sexy.” 

She ignored the soreness of her jaw, relaxing it as best as she could as he fucked her near mercilessly. Her pussy throbbed with every sound of his pleasure, clit aching for attention at the way he gazed down at her with burning desire, but she refused to touch herself, enjoying the build-up, the desperation for another orgasm, for his touch. 

He throbbed in her mouth, turning to mush beneath her mouth. He even began to whimper and moan her name, praises and dirty words becoming scarce in attempts to hold back his orgasm, edging himself with her mouth. It didn’t take long for him to hold her with her nose against his pelvis breathlessly. 

He pulled her off his cock, and released her hair to wipe tears tenderly from her hot cheeks with his thumbs, trying to get his mind off the near-pleasure of her mouth around his cock while catching his breath. 

“Yummy,” she rasped, pulling a breathless laugh from him. She wiped her chin with her shoulder and smiled up at him, slowly getting up on her knees to get rid of the ache of sitting on her legs.

She got up, leaning back against the table, admiring him in his red, flushed, somewhat sweaty state. His hair was a mess from her hands and he had a blush around his neck to his ears. She knew the hardness of his body accounted for the fact that he was a hunter, as well as the scars she felt beneath her soft hands, bite marks, bullet wounds, and healed slashes.

“Come closer,” she told him and he laughed, bringing himself and the chair closer, stopping when she sat on his thighs, fixing herself over his strong thighs. “Gonna cum if I tease you?” She asked, tapping the head of his cock. It twitched instantly and he moaned.

“Depends,” he replied breathily, sliding his hands up her body. She hummed softly, spreading her legs, positioning his cock near her soppy folds.

“On what?” She cackled playfully, parting her folds with one hand, circling her clit with her fingers. He watched her lustfully, the wetness that made her pussy shine coated her fingers.

“How wet and warm you feel on my cock,” he replied truthfully. He grabbed her hand and moved it out of the way anyway, taking his cock to push it between her folds, pressing the tip against her clit. 

“Fuck, Dean,” she moaned softly, grasping his shoulders, “you feel… I need you,” she whimpered, rolling her hips along the length of his cock. He moaned with her, moving her hips closer to him, her wetness coating his cock.

“I’m gonna fuck you so good, sweetheart…” Dean moaned, watching her lean back against the table, positioning the soft head of his cock to her entrance. Completely enthralled, he watched himself slip inside her, and she watched him, biting her lip hard in concentration, the stretch of her walls around him almost painful. “Fuck… I can feel how bad you need me… I need you just as bad,” he panted, flexing his hands on her thighs, desperately trying not to thrust up into her warmth. He dug his nails into her flesh, his head tipping back, his hips rolling up.

“Dean,” she moaned again, starting to lift herself up and down his cock, reaching up to cup her breast. “Shit, you feel amazing,” she breathed out, grinding her hips against his until he was fully inside her. 

“You okay?” He asked, one of hands drifting up to knead her breast comfortingly. She nodded, buried her fingers in his hair and brought him in for a kiss as she bent her knees, and tucked her feet in between his thighs.

“I could cum like this,” she mumbled against his lips. His chuckle rumbled through his chest and he shook his head, her pussy clenched at the sound and she started to lift herself up again.

“Don’t worry,” he told her, sucking on his lip momentarily. “I’ll make you cum so hard…” He paused to moan, thrusting up into her slowly, meeting her hip. “...you’ll never want to fuck anyone else,” he promised her, building up the pace of his thrusts until she stopped moving with him altogether, letting him fuck up into her needy cunt. 

“You’ll only wanna be fucked by me,” he continued, watching her lean back with her elbow on the table, her hands roaming his warm body, “and I’ll be there, ready to fuck you hard.” He looked over her shoulder, at the jar of frosting. “Pounding into your sweet cunt,” he swore breathlessly, reaching behind her, dipping his fingers to gather frosting, “makin’ you beg, makin’ you impossibly wet.” He smeared frosting over her nipples, over her collarbone, her sternum, until he had no more while she moaned his name needily. 

“Makin’ you feel things you’ve never felt before.” He gripped her hip with frosting-coated fingers, leaning forward to lick and suck the whiskey frosting from her body. “I’ll fill you up as many times as you want,” he vowed, smoothing her hand up her back, into her hair once more, pulling until she whined his name. “I’ll fuck you wherever you want.”

Her pussy continued to gush over Dean’s cock the more he talked—his breathless, husky voice taking her over the edge. Each rough pull of her hair made her mewl and whimper as she rolled her hips desperately against his. 

“Dean, please,” she whispered, scratching down his back, digging marks into his skin the harder and faster he thrusted into her. Loud skin slapping, the wet sound of her pussy being penetrated, with every push of his cock in and out of her, squelching and driving her crazy. She dug her nails into her palm, making obscene sounds that made her self-conscious.

“I’ll fuck you all over your house, all over mine.” Another moan of his name, another rough pull of her hair. “I’ll fuck you in my car, in your car, anywhere and all over town.” He pulled away from her sticky chest, licked his lips at the sight of her, so she screwed her eyes shut. She felt a warm pool of wetness on her pelvic bone, opened her eyes to him spitting between their bodies, watching his saliva drip down her folds to her clit. 

She’d never heard of or experienced sex quite this raw and dirty.

“I’ll make you scream my name, make you forget how to talk, how to walk…” She leaned back into him, panting into his ear, keeping him close while rubbing her clit. He yanked her hair, forcing her to look at him. 

“Dean…”

“I’ve wanted you for so long,” he whispered, closing his eyes, he breathed against her lips, “and I want you forever.”

As he promised, she cried out his name when she came, squeezing his cock hard, coating him in her release. He grunted her name, cursing loudly as he came inside her, his hot seed spurting into her, filling her as he said he would. 

He circled his arms around her as she writhed once more, releasing her hair as she put her arms around his neck, panting and catching her breath until the pleasure subsided.

“I want all of that,” she murmured after a few moments of silence, kissing his cheek. He squeezed her and moved back, bewildered. He moved hair from her face and tilted his head at her, drawn to her nakedness, her flushed beauty. “First, I want to shower…” Slowly, carefully, she climbed off his lap, her legs shaky, her pussy releasing the mixture of their pleasure. 

“That’s a good start,” he told her softly. “Son of a bitch,” he mumbled when he stood up from the chair and looked around at the mess in the kitchen. “No one’s coming home anytime soon… thanks to Sammy…” Dean trailed off, smoothing his hand over his head to fix his hair.

“Thanks to me,” she came clean with a shy smile, bringing his gaze up to hers. His eyes twinkled and he laughed loudly, tugging her towards him again by her arm, his lips pressing against hers.

➥ sempiternal

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do not steal, plagiarise, translate, or republish my work on another platform

[kiwinatorwaffles]

the real ones know the hermitcraft season 4 logfellas trial. (ive linked the wels pov) so what if wels (a prosecutor) switched places with phoenix (a defense attorney) and they were both forced to play the opposite role in a completely different court

check out this awesome fic my friend sky wrote based off this!

(image descriptions under cut)

Image description

Image 1: A doodle page of Welsknight from Hermitcraft and Phoenix Wright from Ace Attorney. In the middle of the page, the two characters stand next to each other. Wels, instead of his normal knight armor, wears a black suit and slacks over his chainmail while standing confidently with a hand on his hip. On the other hand, Phoenix stands next to him, dazed and nervous. The text between the two fullbodies reads "isekai'ed into each other's courts". Behind the two characters are comic-like cutouts of them close-up. Wels, hair slicked back and wearing a blue suit, holds a hand out as if shouting an objection. Phoenix, wearing Wels' helmet and cape, sweats in panic as an arrow lodges into the backboard just inches away from his face. In the bottom left and right corners, there are doodles of the two characters meeting each other's swapped assistants. Maya and Wels have a back and forth conversation, starting with Maya's speech bubble: "nice to meet you, new guy!" "thanks and uh, it's welsknight." "can i call you 'knight?'" "um, just wels is fine--" "okay, knight!" Wels has a speech bubble with an ellipses, unamused. Phoenix and Cubfan also have a conversation, starting with Phoenix's speech bubble: "but i'm not a prosecutor!" "it's fine, dude!! this is my first time in a court!" "huh? wait... have you passed the bar exam?" "the what?" Then, it cuts to a close-up of Phoenix's face, where he has an expression of disbelief. Cub says, "anyways, put on that helmet. they won't realize you're not whitelisted that way. (and it'll protect you from ren)". Phoenix thinks, "oh my god" in all bold letters.

Image 2: A follow-up shitpost picturing Phoenix and Wels' disbelief at each other's worlds. Phoenix is grabbing Cub by the shoulders in horror, shouting "fym murder is allowed as long as it's funny!?!" in all caps and italicized bold lettering. There is small text below Cub that reads, "cub has not told him about respawning". Wels is next to Maya looking at a photo of the victim, slightly shocked, saying, "oh... uh... that's a lot of blood...." while Maya looks at him in confusion. Wels continues in a drawing below, now appearing more distressed, saying "maybe this is one of those lore servers? where they have a blood plugin? yea surely... surely that's the reason..." To which Maya replies, holding a container of hair gel, "mr. knight can you please stop being insane and gel your hair into spikes?"

End description.

[ultraintrovertedgryffindor]

uh...hehe. no reason why i wrote this...no reason at all🙂in any case, writing this has also let me know i'm not that great at writing threesomes. oh well, ya live and you learn

Summary: You go to a concert of your favorite band and you manage to catch the attention of the vocalist, who invites you backstage for a more intimate meet and greet. In a not so surprising turn of events, the guitarist walks in on you two at just the right moment.

Warnings: Rockstar!Steve x Reader x Rockstar!Eddie, slight drug use, SMUT (MINORS DNI) threesome, fingering, light degradation and name calling (slut, whore), king of consent Steve, grinding, spitroast, oral (m!receiving), overstimulation, multiple creampies, and some Steddie implications and impossible situations

word count | 5.3k🤙🏻

You were finally going to a concert of one of your favorite bands ever, Corroded Coffin. Having enough money saved up to get the tickets, you almost cried tears of joy seeing the big bold letters of Ticketmaster read: You Got ‘Em. Let the Anticipation Begin.

And anticipate, you did.

The waiting was the hardest part. You had bought the ticket a few months in advance, purchasing the VIP meet and greet package as well. You did without thinking honestly, and as soon as you realized what you had done, you almost had a full blown panic attack. You knew this band were just people like everyone else, but these dudes practically saved your life and the realization that you were going to meet them? It felt like you were going to meet God, but like, ten times the nervousness of that. You had no idea how your mind and body was going to handle this. You’d never met your idols and inspirations before. 

You just hoped to every deity out there that you wouldn’t pass out. That would’ve been fuckin’ embarrassing. But the nerves only got worse the day of, the drive to the venue not helping in the slightest, but talking to other fans about each other's shared nerves made you feel a little better knowing you weren’t the only one to feel this way. And before you knew it, it was time to head inside the building to meet and take a picture with the band before the show started. Time sure flies by talking to other people while waiting in line.

You tried to keep your hands from shaking as you waited your turn, seeing the fans in front of you return with wide smiles on their faces and even some with tears. Oh god, you really hoped you didn’t cry, that would be even more embarrassing than fainting somehow. You won’t cry, you won’t cry…

You tried your best to not freak out when you walked up to the band members, but you couldn’t stop the smile that decorated your face when they seemed just as happy to meet you. Okay, you weren’t crying or freaking out, you were behaving like a normal human, so far so good. You made small talk for a few seconds, introducing yourself, telling them how much their music meant to you, etc. You felt a little guilty about it, but you were most excited about meeting Steve and Eddie. They were by far your favorite members, everyone who’s met them always talks about how sweet and down to earth they are, which made you feel much more at ease when you first bought the meet and greet pass. And those comments proved to be right, if anything it was an understatement. 

Steve was somewhat handsy, but not in a creepy way, you could tell that’s just how he interacted with people, but it didn’t stop your face from heating up. What made it worse was how Eddie was staring at you, a smirk on his face as he watched you and Steve talk excitedly. It almost distracted you from the conversation, but Steve’s hand on your shoulder quickly made your brain focus back on him.

For the picture, you were standing in between Steve and the drummer, with Eddie and the other member on the end. But that wasn’t okay with Eddie for some reason, you had to hold in a soft gasp as he pushed his way over to stand next to you, wrapping his arm around your waist with an innocent smile while Steve, after rolling his eyes, put his own arm over your shoulders. 

While you all got in your picture poses, your eyes almost widened comically as you felt a wetness gathering in your underwear…right in front of them. 

Why? Out of all the moments, your body had to pick exactly now to lube itself up. You hoped the band couldn’t tell how your face was. If your cheeks got any warmer, you would probably have steam rising from your skin. You really respected these dudes, you felt awful being so goddamn horny for them. But it seems luck was not on your side because when you lifted your arms to wrap them around Eddie and Steve at the same time, your shirt rode up just enough for Eddie’s hand to touch your skin. “Damn, you’re hot.” Eddie blurted out suddenly, making everyone stare at him in confusion, mostly embarrassment from Steve.

“Dude, what the fuck?”

“No, no, no, not like that.” He winced but before you could get slightly offended, he corrected himself again. “No, fuck, I mean, you are hot but you also feel hot.” The long haired man stuttered, making you giggle.

Then Steve decided to put the back of his hand to your forehead, as if you couldn’t be anymore mortified. “Wow, you’re right, Eds. She does feel kinda hot. You okay?”

Not even having time to register how sweet Steve was for being concerned, you came up with the first excuse you could. “Yeah, yeah, I’m good, I’m always a bit warm. Plus, it’s August.” They seemed to be okay with that excuse enough for the photographer to finally take the fuckin’ picture, allowing you to escape the awkward situation without any more blows to your ego.

“Hope you enjoy the show!” Steve smiled at you before you had to leave. You knew you would.

It was by far the best night of your life so far. Meeting the people you looked up to, watching them perform your favorite songs up close. The barricade was so close to the stage you honestly thought you could probably reach out and they’d be able to reach back, but you were too busy ogling Steve and Eddie to even think about doing such a thing. They all sounded pitch perfect, just like they do on their albums. If you couldn’t hear the breaths Steve took before belting out another lyric, you’d think he was lip syncing because his vocals were perfect. And you didn’t even know Eddie could sing until you heard him doing backup vocals. You felt like you were in heaven. No matter how much your feet burned from being on your feet dancing around and how hoarse your voice was going to be in the morning from how loudly you were singing along, you felt like you could do this forever.

Watching Eddie play guitar was a privilege in its own right, seeing how fast his fingers moved across the fretboard shouldn't have made you as horny as you were. You were positive your underwear was going to be drenched by the time the night was over. Steve winking at you in the crowd didn’t make your situation any better. If you didn’t know any better, it’s like he knew. But he couldn’t, right? No way. You caught Eddie’s eye multiple times as well, you both smiling at each other before he looked back at his guitar. Yeah, this was the life.

All too soon, the show was over and people were starting to head home. Time really does fly when you’re having fun. But something happened and you had no idea how to react. About to head to the merch table, you heard your name called. Out of all the people that called out your name, you never expected it to be Steve. You saw some members of the opening bands out on the standing room floor and merch tables talking and taking pictures with fans, but you never expected to see members of the headlining band out and about. “Hey, did you enjoy the show?” He asked and you had to blink a few times before being able to reply.

“Yeah, yes, I did! It was the first time seeing you guys and you really knocked it out of the park, seriously. I doubt any concert I go to in the future will even come close to this one.”

“I’m so happy you enjoyed it.” He grinned, reaching up to gently grip onto your upper arm. “I mean, from the way a smile never left your face during the show, I figured you must’ve liked it a little.”

You felt your face heat up again, a wide eyed expression on your face. “You…you were watching me?”

He shrugged. “It was hard not to, you’re pretty adorable.” You giggled like a schoolgirl and immediately regretted it, hated being flustered so easily. But being called adorable by the vocalist of your favorite band was definitely not on your mind when you woke up this morning.

“T-Thanks.” You stuttered, unsure of what to do, but Steve already had a plan in mind.

“Look, I’m gonna be straight with you and if I make you uncomfortable at all then you have my permission to kick me in the nuts, I swear.” You chuckled in confusion, but motioned for him to continue. “I think you’re gorgeous, I’m pretty sure I kept looking for you in the crowd cause I don’t remember doing anything but that, besides singing of course. So, only if you’re a hundred percent comfortable with it, I’d like to take you back to my dressing room and…show you how much I appreciate you coming to see us.”

You blanched, your body freezing in shock at the sudden proposition. You were dreaming, you must’ve been. Unable to form words, Steve took your silence as offense and quickly started to apologize, calling himself stupid among other self deprecating words. “No, no, don’t be sorry! I just wasn’t expecting it, is all” You quickly explained.

Steve winced. “I’m sorry, I should’ve phrased it a bit better.”

You giggled. “Steve, stop saying sorry! It’s okay, really! I’d…I’d love to.”

Steve’s eyes lit up instantly, a shine coming to his puppy dog brown eyes. “Really?”

“I haven’t kicked you in the nuts, have I?” You joked with a light smile, eliciting a relieved chuckle from the man.

“Then please…follow me.”

You were all nerves as you followed Steve to the dressing room, wringing your hands and trying to take deep breaths to calm yourself. You obviously wanted this, so badly, but you couldn’t help but to be a bit intimidated alone with one of your heroes.

“You want a drink or weed or anything?” Steve asked politely as he escorted you into his dressing room.

“Oh, no, thanks. I’m good.” You replied, trying your best to keep the timbre in your voice from wavering.

Steve smiled, taking a few cautious steps closer to you, his eyes gazing over your form. “Okay.” You tried to even out your breathing as he gently pulled you to him by your jeans’ belt loops, his hand coming up to trail a finger along your jawline, the act making your core throb and causing goosebumps to raise along your arms.

Impatiently, you went to lean in, but Steve stopped you. “Just to make sure; you do want this, right? You don’t feel pressured? I don’t wanna force you to do anything. You can walk right outta here and I won’t judge you one bit. Hell, you can still kick me in the balls if you want.” Steve’s eyes portrayed genuine care, making your heart melt at his blatant kindness and consideration. It made you absolutely sure.

“I do, Steve. I want this. I want you…” You whispered, feeling your body already being consumed by lust. Your stomach churned at the boyish grin he gave you, gently grabbing a hold of your hips and leaning you against the vanity, tugging at the hem of your shirt before kissing you.

It was soft and slow at first, more of a peck. You could feel him testing the waters, giving you an out just in case you changed your mind at the last minute, but your heated body soon grew tired of his carefulness. Steve let out a quiet noise of surprise as you deepened the kiss, hungry for more of him already.

Your mind went fuzzy as you felt Steve’s hands traveling across every inch of you he could reach, each tentative squeeze and pinch growing more confident as the rougher he got the more mewls he elicited from you. You gasped into his mouth as he started to grind against you impatiently, keeping you securely pinned to the vanity behind you, the desk digging into the small of your back.

“Can I give you a hickey?” Honestly, he asked so sweetly that you had to say yes. So polite, so soft and innocent sounding, it almost made you forget he was grinding his erection against your clothed core.

His lips on your neck raised goosebumps all over your body, you were sure he could feel it. But he continued sucking and licking the soft skin of your neck until stung, making the friction of his pelvis against yours all the more pleasurable. Fuck, you could feel your arousal pooling in your underwear as the minutes passed. The more Steve pressed his obvious erection against you, the more your sticky slick spread. You couldn’t take it anymore. “Steve, please…” You whined, craving more of his touch.

“Tell me what you want, pretty girl.” Steve whispered, his lips coming up to gently nibble at your earlobe.

“I want you to fuck me…but I need you to stretch me out with your fingers first.”

Steve smirked. “As you wish.” And before you knew it, the man had expertly tugged down your jeans along with your damp underwear, then awkwardly tried to remove them over your shoes before you just kicked them off to make it easier. Steve let out a boyish chuckle that made the butterflies in your stomach flutter rapidly before pushing your legs apart to stand in between them. You shivered as Steve ran his fingers through your slick folds, a cheeky grin decorating his face at the feeling. “So wet already?” I’ve been wet ever since the meet and greet, you wanted to say but you were cut short by two of Steve’s fingers entering you without warning. “Still tight, though.” He chuckled, pressing further into you until he was knuckle deep, curling his digits and hitting that sensitive spot at the front of your walls.

Steve looked up at you with bright, wild eyes, a small smile playing at his lips as you stared back at him in a pleasured haze. “That feel okay?” He must’ve known it did, from the way you were breathing heavily, grabbing at his shoulders like a lifeline; but he sounded so genuine that you nodded with a soft whine. “Good. Let me know if it ever stops feeling that way, deal?”

God, he was so sweet and patient, it started to make yours run thin. You wanted him so badly, and after a few more minutes of Steve finger fucking you, you were sure you were ready to take his cock. You palmed him through his jeans, feeling his thickness, making your mouth water. “I need your cock, pretty boy.” Steve’s cheeks dusted a light shade of pink, making you grin.

You eagerly helped him shimmy down his jeans and briefs down to his ankles, too impatient to remove the articles of clothing. You were already so sensitive, so when Steve ran the head of his dick though your slick folds, you let out a pitiful whine. Steve gave you a once over before slowly pushing himself through your entrance, the two of you letting out gasps, groaning once he was fully sheathed. “Are you okay?”

“God, yes, Steve. Please, move…” You whimpered, trying to restrain yourself from canting your hips to get some more friction. You wanted it hard and fast, but Steve decided to take it slow…way too slow.

Steve thrusted in and out languidly, the feeling heavenly but not enough. You could feel how much he stretched you out, could feel every pulse in his veins, could hear how much your cunt was sucking him in deeper and deeper; all the while Steve never broke eye contact with you, he was every expression on your face, how your eyes subtly rolled to the back of your skull every time he brushed against your cervix, ate up every cute noise you made. You knew he was trying to draw this out for as long as possible, smiling every time you whined impatiently. He knew what you wanted, he was just being a fuckin’ tease. “Steve, please…I need it faster. Harder.”

He playfully raised a brow. “What? Trying to get it over with, huh?” He asked, pinching your side through your shirt.

“No-ah!” You yelped as he suddenly rammed into you, the force making you bounce, his grip on your waist the only reason you didn’t fall off the vanity. “Fuck.” You moaned loudly as Steve thrusted into you at a much faster rate, any objects on the vanity’s desk toppling over and falling to the dressing room floor. “Yes, yes, yes…” You cried, feeling his cock beat against your pleasure spot at the front of your walls, trying to keep in your embarrassing wails as he finally was giving you what you wanted.

“Goddamn, you feel so good, pretty girl. Fuck, I’ve been wanting to feel this gorgeous pussy for hours. I loved watching you in the crowd tonight, a smile never leaving your face, looking up at me like I was a god. You sure know how to make a man feel special, huh?” He rambled.

“You-fuck, you are special, Steve.” You tried to reply back, stuttering with every syllable.

“Yeah? Tell me again.”

“Y-You’re s-special, Steve…”

“Fuck, yes…” Steve’s lips attached to your neck once more, his teeth grazing against your sweet spot immediately, your walls pulsing around him as you were already so close to that peak.

You and Steve were so eager to take pleasure from one another, you both didn’t even hear the door to the dressing room open. “Well, well, well, now what do we have here?” You both gasped and turned to the intrusion, a sweltering heat coming to your cheeks as you saw the guitarist staring you both down with a small smirk playing at his lips.

Steve looked at you first, gauging your reaction before he replied to his bandmate, finding no shame or nervousness in your expression. “Caught myself a little groupie, Eds.” Steve chuckled, his thrusts halting to a stop, almost eliciting a whine of protest from you. Fuck, you were almost there. You could feel your almost orgasm dull and fade away. “Ain’t she a beaut’?”

You probably should’ve been mortified, but the way Eddie was staring down at you from his place at the door, you couldn’t help but want him as well. Both him and Steve seemed to pick up on your desires. But from the way you were looking at both of them, it didn’t take a genius to put it together.

Steve leaned down to peck the underside of your jaw, slightly jerking his head in the direction of his bandmate. “Want him to join? Though, I gotta warn ya, he’s a kinky little shit.” He teased.

You giggled, the idea already making your stomach churn with overwhelming excitement. “What, you like being called daddy or something?”

Eddie scoffs, his already dark eyes darkening further. “Anything that’s not missionary is kinky to Steve. What about you, hmm? Why don’t you tell me what kinks you enjoy and I’ll decide if you can handle me or not.”

His words went straight to your core, your walls pulsing around Steve’s dick, making the man grunt. “Big on impact play. Spanking, slapping. Choking is fun. Scratched, bit, hair pulled; love all that.”

Eddie smirked widely, allowing himself to step closer to the two of you. “Right up my alley. I think we’ll get along just fine, sweetheart.” Then he gave a look to Steve, he had stopped thrusting into you as soon as Eddie started to chat you up. “Take her to the couch and keep fucking her, Stevie.” He didn’t have to be told twice, as soon as the words left his mouth, the man above you switched you both over to the little loveseat in the green room, continuing the pistoning movements of his hips, making you cry out at the sudden pleasure. “And you don’t have to call me daddy, sweetheart. Just Eddie. What about you? What titles are you okay with?”

Steve’s cockhead rocking into that sweet spot inside you made your mind go blank once more. You knew what you loved, but nothing came to mind. “Any. All. Whatever you want to call me, Eddie. I’m fine with anything.” You whined, reaching out to palm the growing bulge in his ripped jeans.

“Whatever I want, huh? What if I called you my little whore, hm?”

You blushed. “Or slut…”

“My pretty little slut…” Eddie tested, interrupted by Steve’s groan.

“Fuck, she squeezed down so hard on me when you called her that.” He mumbled out shakily.

Eddie’s eyes lightened up at the conformation. “You liked being degraded, huh?” You squeaked when he wrapped one of his large hands around your throat, squeezing roughly and cutting off your oxygen supply. “You like being called a dumb little slut, don’t ya? Such a greedy little fucktoy.”

“Woah…” Steve laughed in shock. “I was gonna say that’s a little far, but she pulsed around me again. Felt so good…I think you can make her come with those words alone, dude.”

“I could see it on her, man.” He chuckled darkly, removing his hand from your neck, allowing you to take a gasping breath. “Flip her over, Steve.” Taking instruction obediently, Steve flipped you over onto your front, forcing you to slightly lean over the pleated arm of the sofa, making your face level with Eddie’s crotch. “I could just tell she’d love being degraded like the whore she is. Now, go on and take out my cock for me, pretty slut.” You cried out as Steve reentered you from behind, the new angle making stars obscure your vision. A harsh slap to your cheek forced you to come back to reality, Eddie’s expression morphing into impatience “Already too cock drunk to listen to simple commands?” He cooed condescendingly.

Trying to ignore the immense pleasure your body was feeling, you reached up with shaky hands to undo the fly on Eddie’s jeans, feverishly shimmying them down along with his boxer briefs. You gasped as his hard cock sprung from its confines, gently smacking you in the face before you got a hold on it. The tip angry and red, feeling the blood pulsing through the veins on his shaft from underneath your fingertips, your mouth watered in anticipation. You looked up at Eddie with a grin before wrapped your lips around the head of his dick, a relieved sigh escaping his mouth. “That’s a good girl…” Eddie moaned as you tried taking him deeper, your own moans adding a vibration around his cock.

“She caught your eye too, didn’t she?” Steve’s voice echoed from behind you, not stopping his thrusts into you, inadvertently forcing you to take Eddie deeper.

“How could I not? That cute little nervous expression when she met all of us. Plus, she was at the barricade, practically drooling.” The admission made your face flush with heat, but you were too preoccupied to care.

“I could see her eyeing your fingers during all your solos.”

You took a big gasping breath as Eddie pulled out of your mouth, getting on his knees to be level with you, a smirk playing at his lips. “That true, gorgeous? You liked watching my fingers play along my fretboard?” He chuckled condescendingly when you nodded. “Pretty girl’s so cock hungry, hm?”

“Fuck…” You whined as you felt your orgasm build and build, faster than before, feeling edged way too long.

“Oh.” Eddie hummed in amusement. “Steve, I think she’s gonna come. Can you feel it?”

“Yeah, she’s squeezing around me so fuckin’ hard.” He groaned loudly.

You moaned as Eddie’s hand returned to your throat, gripping tightly enough that you felt lightheaded. Sharp pricks of pain shot through your entire body as you felt the pressure on your trachea, but it only careened you forward to your release, eliciting a loud strained moan from your lips. “Fuck, are you gonna come for Stevie, hm?” You nodded, babbling nonsense you were sure Eddie couldn’t understand. “Good slut, go on, come on his dick.” You heard Steve moan beautifully as you pulsed around him, your velvety walls holding him in a vice grip as you shook and jolted from the intensity of your climax. You barely registered the dark chuckle that escaped Eddie as he watched you writhe and sob, almost hyperventilating as you came down.

“Oh, fuck…” Steve whispered, leaning down to place gentle kisses on the nape of your neck. “So good, so good, pretty girl. Doin’ so well for us.” You purred at the praise, the hodgepodge of both Steve’s praise and Eddie’s degradation throwing you for a loop. You barely had time to recover before the two men started to thrust into you at both ends, moaning in overstimulation and gagging on Eddie’s dick as Steve’s continued its relentless pace, desperate to get to his end too.

“Look up at me, sweetheart.” Eddie spoke and your eyes widened when you noticed his phone’s camera pointed down at you. “Such a pretty thing, sucking my cock so good.” He growled, keeping a tight hold on your hair. The fact that he was filming you sucking his dick probably should’ve concerned you, but honestly, it was kind of hot and you were too fucked out to care.

“Fuck, I’m close.” Steve announced, his dick pistoning into you like his life depended on it.

“Yeah?” Eddie grinned, putting his phone away. “You gonna come in her tight little pussy, pretty boy?”

Steve grunted as his thrusts became more sloppy and erratic, using you for his pleasure wildly. “Shit, I’m coming…” He moaned, throwing his head back in pure ecstasy as ropes of his warm cum filled you to the brim. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He chuckled in exhaustion, pulling out and watched as your pussy clenched around nothing, how it slowly pushed his release out and dripped into a little puddle on the loveseat beneath you.

You took deep breaths as Eddie finally pulled out of your mouth, gently wiping drool off your chin before pushing a fucked out Steve out of the way so he could position himself behind you. “My turn, Stevie. Her mouth is fuckin’ phenomenal, but I wanna feel her tight little pussy myself.”

You gasped as Eddie flipped you over, making you face him. He looked fuckin’ angelic with him above you, much like how he looked performing on stage earlier. “Let’s take this shit off.” He growled, all but ripping your shirt and bra off your body, rendering you completely naked while he and Steve were practically still fully clothed. “Gorgeous fuckin’ tits, baby.” He groped them roughly, pinching your nipples until they stung. Eddie was much more comfortable being rough with you than Steve was. You were a hundred percent sure you’d have a multitude of bruises just from Eddie alone.

Again, unlike Steve, Eddie started with a much more rough pace. He wasted no time fully sheathing himself inside you with a hard cant of his hips, your slick and Steve’s leftover cum making his cock slid right in, the force making you cry out. “So tight still, baby girl. I wanna feel you come on my cock too. Think you can do that for me?”

“Maybe. Can try…” You stuttered, your brain practically melting from oversensitivity.

“Aw, she’s so eager.” Steve cooed, running his thumb along the sweat that was formed on the crease of your brow. “A people pleaser, this one, huh?”

Eddie smiled down at you. “That true, sweetheart? You wanna come on my cock just to please me?”

“Y-Yes…want you to feel it too.”

“Then let’s see if we can get you there one more time, okay?” Eddie’s cock was thicker and longer than Steve’s, the stretch a bit more painful but no less delicious. You couldn’t keep in your moans even if you tried. “Yeah, babygirl, let it out for me. Get fuckin’ loud. Let this whole building know how good my cock is making you feel.” You glanced over to see Steve lighting up a joint, his hair tousled and jeans pulled back up to his hips but left them unbuttoned. He looked properly beautiful. “Hey, eyes on me, slut.” Eddie growled, lightly slapping your face to get you focused. “Give me a hit of that, Stevie.”

Steve grinned as he placed the joint at Eddie’s lips, holding it for him as he took a deep inhale and blew the smoke out onto your face. The smell of the drug mixing with sex made for a delightful combo you wouldn’t have expected, the secondhand making into your lungs and making you dazed. With Eddie’s ruthless thrusts and the contact high, you felt yourself building and building up to your second orgasm, wailing and holding onto Eddie’s wrists where his hands were holding onto your love handles with a bruising grip. Your stomach ached with how rough and deep Eddie was inside you, but you never wanted him to stop, not when you were so close to another climax.

“Oh my god…” You sobbed, unable to hold back your loud moans even if you tried, the pleasure all too consuming and intense, you feared you’d black out.

“Oh fuck, you’re gonna come again, aren’t you?” Eddie mocked as he saw your body start to shake, chuckling darkly when you nodded hastily. “Steve, play with her clit for me, would ya?” You almost sobbed as Steve’s deft fingers came back for round two, finding your throbbing nub immediately and rubbing in a swift circular motion, making your eyes roll to the back of your head. Paired with Eddie’s long, thick cock hitting that spot inside you with every thrust, you were barrelling towards your orgasm at speeds that made you lightheaded. The room almost spinning and you couldn’t focus on anything besides the intense, blinding pleasure that was surging through you. “Yeah, good fuckin’ girl, come on this dick.” Eddie groaned, fucking you through your orgasm until your were crying in overstimulation once again.

“S’okay, pretty girl, you can take it.” Steve encouraged, coming to sit next to you to slot his lips against his and wipe away your tears. You couldn’t stop moaning into his mouth as Eddie sped up even more, chasing his release.

“Yes, yes, yes.” Eddie moaned. “You want my cum, slut?”

Steve grabbed your jaw, forcing you to keep your eyes on Eddie. You only nodded, all words escaping you for how fucked out you were, but Steve gripped tightly and making you wince. “Use your words, gorgeous.”

“Yes, E-Eddie, I want your c-cum.” You squeaked. “Come in me, please, Eds.” Eddie grinned at the whiny cadence of your voice, barely able to form the words. Steve started to suck and lick at your nipples as Eddie’s cum painted your inner walls, the man letting out downright beautiful whimpery moans as he finally finished, pulling out of you with a sharp exhale.

Finally able to fill your lungs properly, Steve and Eddie both peppered your face with gentle kisses before they helped clean you up, though not before admiring their handiwork. Hickeys and bruises galore, it looked like you were hit by a truck, you definitely felt like you had been due to the endurance of these two boys. You started to wonder how you were going to be able to walk to your car, let alone drive home with how wobbly your legs were.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Eddie asked softly as he and his bandmate helped you dress.

You beamed giddily. “More than okay. That was…amazing.” You giggled, causing both men to grin proudly. It was like a dream come true…

“Glad you enjoyed yourself, we sure did.” Eddie teased.

“And be sure to let us know whenever you’re coming to another show. We’ll let you have a backstage pass so we can do this all over again, pretty girl.” Steve winked.

“Oh, don’t worry. I definitely will.”

lalalalalalalala brain rot brain rot, i'll be in horny jail bye-bye!

[jeding-png]

I thought I was ready not to cry or how chapter 159 had tricked me.

I read the new chapter twice. I watched each frame twice. I even read that chapter of the novel twice today.

And you know what, dear readers? TO HELL WITH ALL OF IT!

Warning! This chapter is mostly about Derrick.

A familiar face, right? At least for me, because my mother also got angry and tore the leaves out of the notebook when I wrote incorrectly something.

But here Derrick is scolded not because of bad handwriting, but because he dared to question Winter's involvement in the investigation, while Derrick himself was removed from it.

And you yourself know that the phrase "I love you more than the child of my best friend!" is very pleasant, but not always true. :^

"If Marquis Verdandi not give the antidote, we would already be preparing for the funeral!"

However, the Duke notices some very strange behavior in Derrick. His eldest son's trembling body, a confused look and muttering that this is impossible.

Remember how Reynold disclosed that he had a strange dream, as if Penelope was beating Ivonne? On the eve of the conversation with that btch, Derrick also had a similar dream!

Okay, you can stop and enjoy this image for a few minutes. The main thing is to remember that this is not the reality you dream about. I will wait for you..

Again, the feeling of déjà vu, again the scene in the head about how Ivonne must always suffer at the event that is connected with Penelope.

According to unofficial information, the duke thought that Derrick was drunk, so he quickly asked him to leave the office so that his carpet would not be damaged.

Then it was something like this:

Duke Eckhart: Derrick, my son... you better go to your room to rest...

Derrick: But...

Duke Eckhart: STFU, small scum This is an order.

Do you remember this woman? You know... the one who didn't immediately listen to Penelope at the beginning of the manhwa? Yes, the head maid. Well... she's also brainwashed! :D

So this old lady told Derrick that Ivonne was single and looking for the young duke. No, Derrick didn't go to her right away! Can you imagine? His body did not listen to him (because he had problems with his head), so he left.

Okay..... now....

🔊

KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—!!

DERRICK IS SMILING! I THOUGHT I'D SEE THIS IN A FEW YEARS!!!! AND LITTLE IVONNE. LITTLE IVONNEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

🔇

Phew... yes, thanks. Sorry, I can't help myself when I see these two together... when they're children... when they're not two bastards.... *sobs*

As you can see in the second photo, this girl is holding a piece of mirror that she is brainwashing with. Although her smile scares me.

A sweet voice full of hesitation and hope and emotion when Derrick told them to go to Penelope's coming of age together. Tears of happiness and worry about whether they would disturb Penelope... that's all Derrick remembers, not the blue glow of the artifact.

There was a very nice and interesting frame, as the many fragments show Penelope and the various scenes that Derrick remembers.

"Young duke."

...............................................🔇

Of course, our Penelope is beautiful, but we definitely remember chapter 19 and we definitely remember that she looked different.

Derrick, wth? But at least the blue glow in this dude's eyes is going away, thanks.

You know, you can skip reading this post because you'll be looking at Callisto flying sitting by Penelope's bed.

It is literally the sun. The sun at the end of this chapter. The sun after all the sad moments. The sun that will finally crush us with his words.

Callisto is beautiful. Even in the blood of his loved one, but the way he listens carefully to the doctor about Penelope's condition, and then gently takes her hand in his... the touch of his lips to Penelope's palm... I'm melting.

But it seems that you need to open the window or vacuum the dust. Here is a sick person, guys-!

Suffocated for a few more chapters before the end of the season... and we'll be left heartbroken and red-eyed.

G-good news! The next chapter begins with Callisto and Penelope's moment! ^^'

[to-the-stars8]

Learning to Love Slowly

Jason Todd x Reader All Chapters AO3

To the anon who asked me about the fight scene, I found it, so this chapter to you my dude! Also, on a separate note, I wrote this early on in the story, so all events in this chapter are some time before chapters 49-52

53- Fire and Frustration

You and Jason never fought—Correction, the two of you hardly ever fought. Most of the time, the two of you came to a nice compromise and were able to discuss your feelings about the situation. Then again, not every fight could be resolved right away. Sometimes things got too intense in your arguments. 

Practically seething, you could hardly look Jason in the eye, turning away from him with your hands on your hips. For the umpteenth time, he had disappeared without a word. The first time was an easy offense to forgive, the two of you were still figuring out things so it was natural for a bit of miscommunication. Then it happened again, and again. The two of you talked about it endlessly— trying to figure out how this part of Jason’s life wouldn’t outweigh the other parts of yours together. 

Still, this endless conversation about his just up and going when work beckoned was starting to get on your nerves. For a while, you attempted to just keep your feelings about him leaving close to your chest in hopes that it would all sort out eventually. Then, he left you with silence for two whole weeks. Jason was apologetic when he came back, assuring you that this was yet another dire situation with the usual list; this mission needed his full attention, it was too dangerous for him to be around, he didn’t want you to worry, etc.

You didn’t know which was more annoying, the fact that he could use those same excuses over again and you would believe him, or the fact that you knew they were really true. After holding in your anger for so long, you’d met Jason with overflowing anger. When you first started to yell, you took a second to think how wrong it was to talk to him in such a way, but you were too blinded by temporary frustration to care. 

Unfortunately, Jason had a short fuse, too, from the stress, so the flames on both sides burst into a huge house fire. 

“We’ve been together too long for you not to trust me,” Jason said, voice low like he was trying to keep himself from yelling. Despite the anger festering in his chest after you had just spent half an hour practically lashing out at him, he refused to let go fully. He loved you too much to act worse than already was. 

You scoffed, throwing up your hands in frustration. “This isn’t about trust, Jason! It’s about you not talking to me about this stuff.”

“Stuff?” The question was sarcastic. Jason knew exactly what you meant. 

You shook your head. “Your vigilante life. We go over this again and again, let me in just a little so I know what it all is. I just want you to talk to me, to tell me where you’re going to be if you’re going to be—”

“You know what this job is like—”

“I know! But that isn’t fair, I share almost every part of my life with you, I just ask for an inch—”

Jason chuckled, “You do, and I'm thankful for that! I can't control what happens in this line of work, but know I'll be back. Always. You don’t need to worry, I’ll be—”

“Stop talking over me!” You screamed, tears welling up in your eyes. “Why won’t you listen for once?”

Jason pushed himself away from the couch, walking toward you with a look of absolute anger in his eyes. “I always listen to you. When have I ever not listened to you?”

“When I need you to, honeybee. I need you to hear me when I say, please don’t leave me hanging. I worry, Jay. We’ve been over this before. Too many times, in fact.”

Jason stared down at you cooly, and, despite you behind right, he couldn’t bring himself to speak more about the topic entirely. He knew why you were angry, and would even agree with you about it. If he were in your shoes, Jason would be acting the same way. When he looked at you, eyes glassy and cheeks flushed, he realized how much all of this meant to you. 

Scratching his chin, Jason tried to work out how to fix this, but he was still too distracted by wanting to argue that you needed to not worry about him so much. Yet, you wanted in so fucking bad apparently, out of uneasiness for his wellbeing. The realization made him feel his fuck up. 

Sucking in a breath, he finally said, “Let’s talk about this later.”

“No,” Your voice cracked and so did Jason’s heart. 

He turned back to you, hand coming up under your jaw softly, nudging you to meet his gaze. “I just…Fuck, let me cool off, okay? I promise I’ll come back. I—I can’t talk right now.”

You nodded, whispering, “Yeah, that sounds good. I’m still pretty pissed at you.”

Jason let out a breathy chuckle, “Yeah. Me too.”

“Kiss me before you go, honey,” You said. 

He didn’t even think twice before leaning down to capture your lips in a momentary kiss. Even with the fire burning, the craving for each other would never go away. This was just a moment in the years that both of you wanted to come, it would be fixed. 

“I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah,” You breathed, the smoke of the fire finally starting to clear out. “See you later, babe.”

[justasecretflower]

🥀 I need alive Eyeless Jack and his S/O getting married, a wedding aesthetic? Since I love Eyeless Jack. 🥀

That’s when Eyeless Jack won’t become a monster but instead live a happy life.

TYSM for the request🤍

🥀- Getting married to Human! eyeless Jack

Fluff, fem! Reader

Dude I wrote this and it didn’t save now I have to write it again…

____________________________________________

Before the proposal.

-You saved Jack in many ways, obviously he knew that he wanted you to be his bride.

- you looked out for him, getting coffee when he was tired, being a shoulder for him to cry on, warmth for him to hold whenever he got cold.

- after college, you two settled into a small apartment, and he immediately started brainstorming ways to bring up marriage into conversations or finding out which rings you like the most.

- when you said yes to wanting to get married soon, he got to work, setting up a bank account to put money in for just the ring, and then another for the actual marriage and honeymoon.

- he would show you rings people from your college got their s/o and asked you to rate them.

- the ones with the highest ratings he wrote down.

__________________________________________

During the proposal

-proposed in the living room, and no it wasn’t one of those “shut up and take the ring” proposals it was beautiful.

- candles everywhere, flowers with meanings.

Pink camellias for “longing for you

Red camellias for “you’re the flame of my heart.”

White carnation “innocent, pure love.”

Daisy “loyal love”

Hibiscus “delicate beauty.”

Honeysuckle “bonds of love”

And many more.

- he also had balloons aired up, filled with confetti and sparkles, all the way on the ceiling, the with string hanging down.

- he attached little paper hearts on the strings.

- his speech was so good.. like what.

-he told you all about what he felt when he first saw you, everything he thought about when calling you or while holding you.

____________________________________

The wedding / wedding planning

- he lets you go crazy with the money he saved up in his wedding bank account.

-well, not too crazy but you get what I mean, he’s a doctor, he has money.

- doesn’t care if you wanna take him to pick out the dress or not. But he would like to see you dolled up only on the day of the wedding.

- staying up wedding planning with each other, falling asleep laying your head on his shoulder and you with his head on yours, the laptop lightly dimming In front of you

- he cried silent tears when you walked down the aisle. His hand over his mouth staring at you with tears pouring down

- your first dance was a slow dance to unchained melody. Fight me on this.

- he won’t throw the cake in your face. Not even if you want him to. That dress, hair, and makeup was expensive to get done.

____________________________________

Honeymoon/ aftermath

- your honeymoon was wherever you wanted, but he definitely wanted to go somewhere with pretty nature. Like mountain tops, flower fields, and expansive forests.

- he’s so sweet during the honeymoon, carrying you everywhere, calling you nothing but his wife, running to open doors, pressing kisses everywhere 24/7.

- you’ve never seen him smile SO MUCH.

- gets you flowers every week without fail, a date every month, a vacation to yourselves every year.

In conclusion? The best husband.

Tags

[scary-movies-on-netflix]

THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES (2002)

Richard Gere is a “star reporter” at the “Washington Post.”  He and his wife, Debra Messing, go to buy a house, but on the way back to their present, crappy, house, Debra Messing sees something strange in the window.  She is spooked!  The car spins out of control and she bonks her head on the window.  Now, you might think that would kill her, but it doesn’t.  Instead, at the hospital doctors discover that she has a glioblastoma (a brain cancer), and then she dies a few days later.  (It seems like a few days.)

Two years later, Richard Gere is still sad, naturlich.  He drives to Richmond to interview the governor of Virginia, but he enters a fugue state!  His car dies on the side of the road, and he walks to a nearby house, where a guy holds him at gunpoint because, the guy says, Richard Gere has been knocking on his door at 0230 for the past two days.  Local sheriff Laura Linney deescalates the situation (which was weird, because in real life she would have just shot someone) and drops Richerd Gere off at a motel.  Richard Gere discovers that he is in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, which is way off his intended destination of Richmond.  He decides to stay in town to investigate all the weirdness occurring.  The rest of the movie isn’t so much a plot as a bunch of interrelated things just happening:

Richard Gere and Laura Linney drive around and talk to people describing their experiences with the Mothman, an alien or cryptid with red eyes and moth-like characteristics.

Richard Gere hangs out with the guy who held him at gunpoint, named Gordon.  Gordon begins to have dreams predicting upcoming disasters.  He meets a dude named Indrid Cold.  He eventually sits in the cold and dies of exposure, but while he’s supposed to be dead he calls Richard Gere!

In one of the better sequences, Gordon calls Richard Gere .  Gordo says that he has Indrid Cold with him, and he wants to talk to Richard Gere.  A weird voice tells Richard Gere what he’s doing, what he’s holding, the lines from a book he cannot see.  “I want to meet you,” Richard Gere says.  Indrid Cold says, “You already have, [Richard Gere].  I have seen you afraid.  You’re frightened right now, aren’t you?”  Meanwhile, Laura Linney is racing over there, but when she arrives Gordon is fine and Indrid Cold is not there.

Richard Gere goes to visit a paranormal investigator (some dude who wrote a book), twice.  The man lore-dumps about moth-people, but this is mostly extraneous.  He does deliver a decent metaphor, that the Mothman (or moth-people) aren’t necessarily more advanced or smarter than us; they’re maybe like people in a tall building, who can see just a bit farther down the road.

Richard Gere was told to expect a disaster on the Ohio River.  He thinks that this will involve the chemical plant, and he freaks out on the governor of Virginia, who is coming to visit the plant!  Nothing happens.

Things escalate for Richard Gere as his dead wife, Debra Messing, appears.  He gets a letter to await her call at noon on Friday at his house in DC.  He does so, but Laura Linney calls him instead!  She tells him that his wife is dead.  She invites him to Christmas dinner.  Their conversation ends, and the phone rings again!  Richard Gere does not answer and heads back to West Virginia to spend Christmas with Laura Linney.

Finally, in a good set piece, Richard Gere arrives at the Silver Bridge outside Point Pleasant.  There is a traffic jam.  Richard Gere realizes that this is the disaster on the Ohio River, and we have a cool scene where our view shifts from the factory to the bridge.  It collapses and a bunch of cars fall into the river, including Laura Linney’s sheriff truck.  Richard Gere jumps into the water to save her.  They muse over a vision she talked about earlier.

This was…middling to fine.  There are some nice atmospheric moments, such as the phone call and a few other scenes where people encounter the Mothman or Indrid Cold.  We also have lots of red lights like eyes and moth-related shapes as transitions, but this is long, a full two hours, and there’s not enough interesting material to justify the length.  The plot is meandering and lacks focus.  Recommended for fans of Richard Gere or the Mothman. 

[teamconductors]

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Lost Tracks of Time, One Last Stop

Summary: Ingo and Emmet continue their adventures through present day Unova, past Hisui, and future Sinnoh.

Author’s Note: One year ago, on February 20th, I wrote and published the original PMD LTOT oneshot on my personal tumblr. It was inspired by @furiouskettle’s art of Ingo and Emmet as Sneasels in a PMD world. I never expected the fic to get as much attention as it did, but I’m glad it did. I got to tell a full story two funky dudes screwed over by Arceus that reunited, got a sister, saved a legendary pokemon, and now casually time travel between three times.

So I needed to make something for the anniversary, right?

(As always, bl*nkshippers DNI)

In a world with only pokemon, there was Eterna Town. Near the Pearl Guild and Eterna Forest, the town acted as a near-mandatory stop for rescue teams before they set out on missions. Among the teams that frequent the hub was Team Conductors. The co-leaders knew the importance of preparations, which was why they petitioned to have the town as a stop for their subway system.

The team visited all the shops to ask for permission to build a station, though many of the conversations consisted of Ingo explaining what a subway was and why they wanted to build one. The Kecleon brothers gladly accepted the idea of more business. Gimmighoul also jumped at the potential for more customers for their bank. Rampardos’ Apprisal and Kangaskhan gave their approval after an even longer explanation of trains from Ingo. Decidueye hesitated since he didn’t know how much space they would need and if it could interfere with his training dojo’s space, but he relented upon seeing everyone else’s signatures.

Lastly, there was Alcremie’s café and bakery. She was a nervous person, so the idea of her little shop getting more attention made her nervous. Ingo and Emmet decided to give her some time to think on it, and they ordered drinks for the team.

“Um…” Eelektross’ body barely fit inside the café, and he had to loop it along the walls to avoid running into other pokemon. He held his smoothie with his claws, trying to put just enough pinch pressure to hold and not break it. “I’ll… eat outside…” He left the building with Chandelure, who decided to stare at their trainer while floating next to their friend.

Ingo sighed as he sat down next to Emmet and across from Sneasler. The three sat in a corner of the cafe where they can talk more freely. His body visibly relaxed. “Bravo, everyone…”

“Your voice is rough,” Emmet said.

“You didn’t have to explain what subways were to everyone, Ingo. I think most the folk here would’ve said yes,” Sneasler said.

“But they deserve to know what the project is about!” Ingo said. “Getting permissions to make the Battle Subway didn’t make us this exhausted.”

“The train station was already there. We only had to worry about train cars strong enough for pokemon battles,” Emmet said.

“You have a good point, Emmet,” Ingo said. “For now, let us rest until Miss Alcremie makes her decision!”

“Uh, yeah. That’s why we’re still here,” Sneasler said.

“Also, Sneasler, did you want to hear about previous trips to the other stations?” Ingo asked.

“Sure. Anything good happen?” Sneasler asked. She sipped her smoothie.

“We told Elesa everything,” Emmet said.

Sneasler gasped while drinking, resulting in her breathing in liquid. She lurched forward and coughed to clear her throat.

“Are you alright?!” Ingo jumped to standing position to help Sneasler.

After a few more coughs and a brief pounding of her chest, Sneasler regained control of her breathing. “You WHAT?!”

“That was a joke… Sorry, Sneasler,” Emmet said, looking away from her due to guilt.

Ingo sighed. “Because we felt terrible for not being able to tell Elesa why we can turn into Sneasels, we decided to construct a plausible story to show her to almost the right destination of truth. It was tricky to craft something believable since we can’t tell her about the future, but we tried.”

Sneasler raised a brow. “And? How’d that go?”

***

In a café on the outskirts of Nimbasa City, thee pokemon trainers met for coffee. The sun had not yet peaked over the horizon, as the three wanted to meet before most people awakened for the day. The three chose a meeting time so early not only to avoid interference with their schedules but also to allow them to talk more openly without worry of anyone eavesdropping them. Wild Minccino swept the outdoor grounds of the café, avoiding the pokemon of the trainers eating breakfast at their trainer’s feet. Ingo and Emmet sat opposite to Elesa.

Elesa stared at her half-finished latte. “Let me see if I got this right. Ingo got sent to Hisui by Arceus itself to save the world, but either of you could’ve been taken.” She looked at Ingo. “You lost your memories while protecting the other trainer sent to save the world, and that’s what you were like when Emmet found you.”

“That is right,” Emmet said.

Elesa continued, “And then, after the world was saved, this Volo guy tried to get revenge on you two, and that’s why Giratina had you turn into Sneasels? To protect you?”

“I suppose that explanation streamlines the events well,” Ingo said.

Elesa took a sip of coffee. “You two need to get better at lying.”

“What… made you arrive at that conclusion?” Ingo asked.

“Call it a gut feeling,” Elesa said. “Plus I know you too well. You’re not the best liars. Well, something tells me you weren’t entirely lying. The first half sounded about right, but the second half… Some of the pieces don’t fit right.”

“Busted,” Emmet said. His grin grew wider.

Ingo sighed. “As always, your intuition is quite admirable. I am truly sorry, Elesa.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna hold it against you. From the way Giratina talked about things, it sounds like I’m not supposed to know anyway, no matter how much I want to,” Elesa said.

“I am sorry,” Emmet said, his smile lowering enough for Elesa to notice. “I… wanted to clear your train of thought from worrying.” He wanted to put some of Elesa’s mind at ease after all the troubles he caused her and all she did to care for their pokemon in their absence.

Elesa smiled. “I appreciate it. But you two, promise me something.”

“Yes?” Ingo and Emmet said.

“As soon as you’re allowed to tell me what really happened, please do. Because it sounds like you had fun,” Elesa said. “Oh, speaking of…” “Elesa turned and checked around the area.

After staring in confusion, Ingo and Emmet realized what she was doing and scanned their surroundings.

“The station is all clear,” Ingo said. Emmet nodded in agreement.

“Well, I can trust it if you two do. So!” Elesa sat up, and her eyes brightened. “How’s your transformation training going? You said you’re working on it, right?”

“We made excellent progress!” Ingo said. “Emmet and I can carry out transformations on our own accord and complete them within 5 seconds!”

“They are weird to watch,” Emmet said. His gaze drifted away from Elesa and Ingo. “I am Emmet. I am still sorry you saw it.”

“What, am I the only one who’s seen it happen?” Elesa raised a brow at her friends.

“Unfortunately, this is correct,” Ingo said.

“Don’t forget about us,” Eelektross said as he placed his head on Emmet’s lap. Emmet smiled and petted Eelektross’ head.

“As if we could forget!” Ingo said as his Excadrill approached for pets as well. “I apologize to you as well, my pokemon.”

“One day they’ll stop apologizing,” Archeops said. Galvantula, Durant, and Crustle nodded in agreement.

“And what about the interpol? Are they off your backs yet?” Elesa asked.

Ingo sighed. “Despite us staying on course to deny any recollection of where and when we went, the people there are rather persistent in finding out the truth…”

“We are lucky they haven’t found our spike maul and rail spike yet,” Emmet said.

“I mean, you did disappear for a month and then jumped out of a window. Hard to get a flashier entrance than that!” Elesa said. “Maybe we can just tell them some Beheeyems abducted you or something?”

Ingo’s and Emmet’s hearts jumped at the mention of a Beheeyem. Of all the pokemon to mention…

“Changing our story’s track would draw more suspicions than we already have,” Ingo said, frowning deeply. “We will ensure that the international police arrive at a destination that will satisfy their curiosity.”

“I think you will. You guys are smart. Let’s just hope Arceus doesn’t get any funny ideas and try to kidnap anyone else!” Elesa laughed, but then she stopped at once. “Oh, wait, you said there was another trainer that went with you, Ingo. Never mind then.”

“We will figure it out,” Emmet said.

The sun peaked over the horizon and through the trees. Elesa held up a hand to cover her eyes. “That’s my cue! I’m gonna go for a jog before the chill morning air warms up. It just gives me an energizing jolt. Wanna come with?”

“Thank you for the offer, but Emmet and I should depart for the Battle Subway,” Ingo said. “Are all of our passengers ready?”

Ingo’s and Emmet’s pokemon all gave their trainers affirmations of readiness.

“Elesa, thank you for continuing to ride with us despite all of the mayhem we caused,” Ingo said. His frown changed to a smile long enough for Elesa to notice.

She smiled. “Thanks for trying to make me feel better.” Elesa recalled her pokemon to their balls, save for Zebstrika. “C’mon, Zebstrika! Race you to the gym!” She disposed of her empty coffee cup and jogged with her pokemon at her side.

***

Sneasler chuckled. “Kinda sucks you can’t say shit to her. I wanna meet her.”

“Sadly, Almighty Giratina and Mighty Dialga raised an excellent point. Knowing about the future can be dangerous, and I can only imagine how worrying it would be to find out that no living humans exist in the future, even if the destination is rather far,” Ingo said.

“Maybe we can find her reincarnation,” Emmet said, pointing a finger up.

Ingo’s eyes widened. “Emmet, is that a possible destination?”

Emmet shrugged. “Several humans from Hisui and our home time reincarnated. I do not see why it is not.”

“Hm… I think I would rather try and find an alternate path that would lead us to explaining more things to our Elesa. She can keep secrets, but I understand Mighty Dialga’s hesitation,” Ingo said.

“We can deal with that later. Anything else good happen that won’t make me choke on my drink?” Sneasler asked.

Ingo and Emmet proceeded to tell Sneasler about different battles from the Battle Subway, including a multi-battle against two regional champions. In truth, Sneasler could barely keep up with Ingo’s and Emmet’s excitement over giving an exact play-by-play of the battle. Battles with trainers were different than the battles she knew, but it made her wonder about what it’s like to trust someone that much for decisions in a fast-paced battle.

“Okay, that’s enough.” She worried that Ingo really would throw out his voice with his multiple infodumping sessions that day. “What about in Hisui? Anything good that I don’t remember yet?” Sneasler asked.

“I am getting better at being a warden,” Emmet said. “My pokemon are getting verrrry strong. I am almost ready to battle Ingo!”

“You are always welcome to train with me, Emmet, regardless of the strength of your team!” Ingo said.

“No. I meant in a serious battle.”

“Very well, then. Perhaps we can battle next time we arrive there!” Ingo hummed before continuing. “Oh! Emmet met all the other Wardens of the Pearl Guild!”

“It was strange,” Emmet said. “Knowing their reincarnations made it weird.”

“But they accepted Emmet with open arms!” Ingo said.

“Wait, before you continue, I need to know. Emmet, did you meet Melli yet?” Sneasler asked.

Emmet’s smile grew wider. “Yes. I do not like him.”

“Yeah, I figured. What was that like?” Sneasler asked.

“I have to say, Emmet did extremely well to maintain his duty as a Warden and restrain himself!” Ingo said with complete sincerity.

“He said he was better than us because his ward only needed him. He called Ingo a bad warden!” Emmet’s smile grew so wide that his face hurt.

Sneasler sighed. “Yeah, sounds about right. When I remembered him, I asked Electrode about that guy, and she said that the Lord Electrode from then really liked him. I don’t get it.”

“Warden Melli has his… faults, but he sincerely cares for his Ward and maintenance of the Coronet Highlands,” Ingo said. “Emmet challenged him to a battle for the comment, though.”

“I won. None of my pokemon fainted.” Emmet sipped his iced tea in satisfaction.

Sneasler laughed. “Nice. Anything else good happen?”

“Hm… Oh! We had an unusual mission right before we returned to this station!” Ingo said.

***

Several centuries in the past, there was the Coronet Highlands in the Hisui region. Toward the northern region of the area, two human-shaped people kept their watch over the area for the safety of both humans and pokemon.

Emmet pulled on the neckline of the Pearl Clan tunic. While glad to be accepted into the clan that accepted his brother, the tunic worked well to keep him warm. Too well. But he had to wear the uniform for his job, so he continued wearing it even if he was more comfortable in the cold.

Ingo looked at Emmet and fidgeted with his own coat. He felt his Arc Watch vibrate. He rolled up his sleeve slightly to see the screen. As long as other clan members weren’t around, he used the watch’s map to keep an eye on mass outbreaks and massive mass outbreaks of pokemon. The vibrating notification only occurred when a Space-Time Distortion formed.

Emmet sniffed the air and scanned around the highlands as much as he could. He saw a bubble of chaos in the distance near Fabled Spring. “There is a distortion. I am still curious. Why are there stable Space-Time Distortions in Hisui?”

“Well, seeing as Miss Akari has captured Mighty Dialga, Mighty Palkia, and Almighty Giratina at this point, perhaps this is their method of thanking her for saving the world,” Ingo said.

“That sounds weird.” Emmet stretched his arms and shoulders. “I want to visit the distortion. I want to battle strong pokemon.”

“…Emmet, I need you to confirm something for me.” Ingo swiped on the watch screen, turning the two-dimensional map into a projected three-dimensional one of the Coronet Highlands. A wide purple circle represented the distortion, which was expected. “Can you confirm what I see on this map?”

Ingo pointed at the irregularity, which was a single blue dot inside the circle.

“I see the dot,” Emmet said. Though he wore his familiar smile, he was not pleased. “I am Emmet. I am certain it is a passenger.”

“That is what I feared. The blue dots represent our clients for our rescues in the future, but to think we’d see that marker here… Emmet, we must depart for Fabled Spring!”

“Yes. FULL SPEED AHEAD! NO BRAKES!” Emmet began his run down the hill, his arms held straight behind him.

“Emmet, please be cautious as you traverse down a slope!” Ingo ran after his brother.

Emmet and Ingo ran down the Sacred Plaza along a well-trotted path. They passed the graveyard and entered Bolderoll Ravine.

“GET OVER HERE!” Three Graveler curled into balls and chased after the twins.

“This is not good,” Emmet said, glancing at Ingo to make sure his brother would be alright.

An alpha Golem roared, knocking Ingo and Emmet to the ground. He needed no other information than to destroy the humans that entered their territory. The alpha joined his Graveler friends and rolled to crush Ingo and Emmet.

Ingo grabbed his cap, which flew off when he fell. “EMMET! PULL NO BRAKES!” His extraordinarily loud shout made the Gravelers and Golem wince, buying him and his brother precious time to pick themselves up and continue running.

Ingo and Emmet approached the river that led to Fabled Spring. Because mountains and hills surround the spring, the only entry possible without the use of a climbing pokemon like Lady Sneasler was to follow the river. They approached a bridge that led to another part of the highlands.

When they stood on the bridge, Ingo and Emmet grabbed out one pokeball each. “Time to depart!” they both announced. They threw their pokeballs to the river. Out came Ingo’s Magnezone and Emmet’s Crobat. The pokemon turned and saw their humans chased by an avalanche of angry Golem and Gravelers and instantly knew what to do. The two wardens jumped with absolute confidence that their pokemon would catch them before they plummet into the water. Ingo flopped onto Magnezone while Emmet grabbed onto Crobat’s tail. Crobat squeaked from the weight, but he kept his human above the water.

Golem and his Gravelers screeched into a halt on the bridge before they could fall into the water. Though unsatisfied with the outcome, the humans left their territory. They turned to roll back to Bolderoll Ravine.

“Excellent! Bravo!” Ingo said to their pokemon.

“You’re… heavy…” Magnezone said with a strained but monotone voice. They were not used to their human riding on them.

“Oh, I apologize. We are close to our destination.” Ingo pointed forward to the distortion down the river. “Please bring us to the space-time distortion!”

“Are you serious?!” Crobat asked. Going to the distortion did not surprise him; Emmet beelined to a distortion whenever one appeared. He was just surprised since Emmet normally did not ask to carry him across long distances.

“I am Emmet, and he is Ingo. We are always serious,” Emmet said. “Thank you for your service.”

Magnezone and Crobat reluctantly flew toward the distorted Fabled Spring. On a typical day, the Fabled Springs was a flat area of the highlands defined by the sparkling spring that ran through it. Clefairy and other strange but beautiful pokemon gathered in the area, further lending to its graceful atmosphere. At that point, however, there was barely enough land next to the river that the pokemon can drop the Wardens off outside of the violet, swirling barrier. The fairy type pokemon were also absent, hiding from the distortion.

“Thank you, my pokemon! We shall provide you more treats once our mission is complete,” Ingo said as he recalled Magnezone into its pokeball.

“I will do the same,” Emmet said. Crobat nodded and returned to his pokeball as well.

“Once we return to the future, we need to reward Eelektross and Chandelure more for carrying us around places,” Ingo said. “Emmet! Are you ready for departure?”

“I am Emmet. I am ready.”

Ingo braced for impact as he passed through the distortion barrier. The difference in the air was immediate. The Coronet Highlands bared a sharp coldness only outdone by the icelands. Within the distortion, the air instead was warm and thick. Emmet pulled on the collar of his tunic to let out some heat. Instead of the graceful, flat fields the twins knew, the distortion warped the landscape into peaks and valleys. Items like evolution stones, colored slab shards, and even futuristic TMs were scattered around. Lightning sparked and stretched across the swirling violet sky that blocked out the sun.

“Ingo, where is our passenger?” Emmet asked. He began surveying the landscape like he intended to cross a street.

“They should be in the center of the distortion, but given the landscape changes…” Ingo looked up to confirm the map’s information. The map indicated an especially large shift in the center that resulted in a small mountain. Indeed, a grassed mound taller than the ruined pillars near Lord Electrode’s Seat protruded from the spring river.

“How do we get up there?” Emmet asked.

“Allow me to reach our passenger! And please watch my surroundings for me.” Ingo may not have claws while in his human-shape, but his experience climbing as a Sneasel made it easier to climb as a human as well. It helped that the mountain was not too steep to realistically need assistance from someone like Lady Sneasler. Within a minute or two, he reached the top to see who the rescuee was.

“Sir Rei!” Ingo picked up and held the teenager in his arms.

“The Pikachu?” Emmet asked.

“Well, you’re not wrong, but this is the original Rei. We need to transport him to one of the Galaxy Expedition Team’s camps. Thankfully, his injuries do not seem severe, save for his loss of consciousness.”

“Okay. Where is the nearest camp?” Emmet asked.

“That would be...” Ingo pulled up his watch map and focused on the lower section of the Coronet Highlands. “Hm. The summit camp is objectively the shortest distance, but the uphill incline may impact our method of travelling. There is another Galaxy camp near Lonely Spring, which has a more straightforward path but is also a longer distance. On saying that outloud, our path is clear. Let’s depart for the summit-!”

Emmet pulled Ingo backwards by the collar of his tunic. Where Ingo once stood, a Flamethrower blew and would have charred Ingo.

“Thank you, Emmet!” Ingo said. He and Emmet faced the pokemon that spawned from the air: a Magmortar, a Toxicroak, and an Alakazam. Alakazam manifested orbs of psychic energy and launched them to Ingo. He barely jumped out of the way in time. He turned to shield Rei from the dust and grass kicked up from the attack.

“Huh, this feels familiar,” Emmet said as he dodged another Flamethrower from Magmortar.

“Emmet, I cannot battle these pokemon while escorting Rei!” Ingo said while running away from Alakazam and Toxicroak.

“I am Emmet. I will assist you!” Emmet pulled out two pokeballs and threw them toward Ingo. His Garchomp and Porygon-Z popped out and took defensive positions between Ingo and the wild pokemon.

Toxicroak tried to Poison Jab Emmet, but his Garchomp rushed over and used Earth Power to break up the ground beneath them. The distorted area made chunks of ground float up, obscuring Toxicroak’s vision.

Meanwhile, Porygon-Z followed Ingo and used Shadow Ball on the Alakazam. Magmortar engulfed Porygon-Z with his Flamethrower. Porygon-Z shook off the remaining flames and continued shaking as it countered with Tri Attack, paralyzing the Magmortar. Toxicroak tried to butt into the battle with Rock Smash, but Garchomp used Outrage and charged into the Toxicroak as well as the Alakazam.

“We are approaching our destination!” Ingo said. He and Emmet were almost at the edge of the distortion, only diverting from their straight path when the ground shifted in an attempt to trip them.

“You did well!” Emmet said as Porygon-Z and Garchomp recalled themselves into their poke balls. He turned to check on their opponents, but the three hostile pokemon vanished, seemingly replaced by a Sheildon and a Rowlet. “Verrrry strange.”

The Wardens jumped through the violet barrier. The cold air hit their faces like an Icy Wind. The landscape was the same as when they last left it.

“Are you alright, Emmet?” Ingo asked.

“I am Emmet. I am okay, as is my team,” Emmet said.

“Excellent! And let me say bravo to your pokemon as well! ... Well, perhaps we should wait until Sir Rei gets proper medical attention.”

Emmet nodded. The two took off running north to the nearest Galaxy Expedition Team camp. Upon arrival, the Survey Corps members retrieved Rei and had him rest at their tent. They prepared medicine to aid Rei’s healing process. Ingo and Emmet sat on a fallen marble pillar.

“Ingo, I had a thought. Do you know what the distortions remind me of?” Emmet asked.

“Hm? I might know, but please tell me!” Ingo’s eyes widened.

“They are like mystery dungeons.”

“Huh. Could you explain the connection?”

“Guildmaster Irida said that mystery dungeons came without warning. They are dangerous and changed the land. Items and hostile pokemon appear randomly, too.”

“…Huh, what an interesting connection! Now that I think of it, Mighty Palkia mentioned stabilizing the mystery dungeons from the Distortion World merger. Hm… do you think we could arrange a meeting with Mighty Palkia about this?”

“Hm… If we do, could we ask them to not form any mystery dungeons in our subway system?”

“Oh! Emmet, that is brilliant! Sneasler said that there shouldn’t be any risk of a dungeon forming, but a meeting would likely ensure it! Let’s embark on that journey after we finish today’s work here!”

***

“In sum, we applied our experiences in the mystery dungeons to distortions in Hisui, and we even rescued a passenger! Isn’t it astounding?” Ingo asked.

“I love how casual you guys are about meeting legendary pokemon,” Sneasler said. She took a bite of her salted puffs she purchased during the story.

“Were you listening, Sneasler?” Emmet asked.

“Of course I was! I’m glad you got to apply your knowledge and shit.” Sneasler paused. “…Wait, you guys came straight here after that rescue?”

“Yes, but only after Sir Rei regained consciousness and his team was healed,” Ingo said.

“…Have you guys taken a break? Or gone on vacation or something?” Sneasler asked.

Ingo frowned further. “We have not. Since we can travel between our duties, it has been easier to-“

“The time travel crap should mean you have more time to take a vacation!” Sneasler pointed to Ingo.

Ingo closed his eyes to think about what Sneasler said.

“A vacation is a good idea,” Emmet said. “A change of scenery would be nice.”

“Great!” Sneasler clapped her hands once. “So I was thinking-“

“I have a better idea.” Emmet’s smile grew wider. “Sneasler, battle us.”

“…What?” Sneasler asked.

“Sneasler, battle me and Ingo. If you win, we all go on vacation,” Emmet said.

Sneasler blinked. “Or… you know… we can just go on vacation without a battle.”

“Battle us, Sneasler.” Emmet leaned in closer toward Sneasler.

Ingo hummed. “I would feel bad about temporarily abandoning our duties so soon after we began planning construction of the subway. But if it was part of an agreement based on the outcome of a battle, how can I argue against it?”

Sneasler groaned loud enough to attract some head-turns from other customers. “You two are ridiculous… Didn’t we already battle once or twice?!”

“I want a battle where you are not trying to kill us,” Emmet said.

“Emmet, that was rude,” Ingo said.

“Guys, I’m still a lot stronger than you.” Sneasler crossed her arms.

“We fought Arceus and won,” Emmet said.

Sneasler opened her mouth to retort, but she found no argument to beat Emmet’s. If they managed to beat Arceus, then maybe a battle against them both wouldn’t be as one-sided as she feared. “…Okay. So I beat you and we all go on vacation. Dare I ask what you want if you two win?”

Ingo and Emmet shared a look and began thinking. Ingo spoke. “Then we immediately contact Almgihty Giratina and Mighty Dialga to see if we can tell Elesa more than we can now and ask Mighty Palkia our questions about where mystery dungeons originate from!”

“I like that idea,” Emmet said.

“I regret asking,” Sneasler said. “But that’s on me. Alright, alright, alright! Fine! You two will get your battle.”

“Excellent! Let us depart for an appropriate battlefield!” Ingo finished the rest of his drink in one gulp. Emmet did the same.

“Oh, I have a good place in mind,” Sneasler said.

***

In Eterna Forest, there was a grand tree that was cutdown, leaving behind a massive stump. The Noble pokemon used the stump as a meeting table for official business, but there was a clearing next to the area.

“You know, this is kinda a meeting place for the Nobles,” Sneasler said while taking off her basket. She flipped the basket over, letting the two Sneasels tumble out. “Kleavor’s Seat is near, too.”

“Oh! Is our battle going to interrupt his business?” Ingo asked.

“Nah. He’s out doing Noble pokemon stuff,” Sneasler said.

“Maybe we should clean up after…?” Eelektross said.

“Eh, it’s fine. It’s not the first a battle was here. Remember the whole frenzying thing from the past? This was where that Akari girl battled the Kleavor from back then.” Sneasler pointed to the ground.

“Appropriate,” Emmet said.

“Alright, you two. Let’s do this, I guess.” She took off her basket and coat and gave them to Eelektross and Chandelure. Remembering that Anthe the Tailor modified her gray conductor’s cap to reduce damage taken from psychic-type attacks and knowing Emmet would want to use Psycho Cut against her, she began taking it off.

“Pull the brakes! Wear your uniform during a battle!” Emmet said, pointing at Sneasler’s cap.

“What, the hat? I’m already stronger than you. I don’t need to wear this for our fight,” Sneasler said.

“Sneasler, when Emmet and I battle others, we operate at our best because that is what our opponents deserve,” Ingo said.

“This is a serious battle. If a battle is not serious, it is not fun,” Emmet said.

“Just listen to them… please…” Eelektross said. He had curled into a coil on top of the giant tree stump, and Chandelure rested on top of his body. Though they wanted to battle, too, they decided to leave this one to their trainers.

Sneasler rolled her eyes and groaned. “On my ancestors… Fine!” Sneasler slapped her cap back on. She spread her feet and held her claws up in a battle stance. “Serious battle it is. Now do your thing.”

Ingo nodded. “This will be a two-against-one battle. Will Emmet and I cover each other’s weaknesses? Or will your strength overwhelm us? I look forward to finding out!” He pointed to Sneasler and the ground.

Emmet stood and mirrored Ingo’s pose. “Follow the rules and drive safely! We’re headed for victory!”

“ALL ABOARD!” The three said.

Ingo Bulked Up while Emmet Honed his Claws. Sneasler noted their buffs and took the time to get a running start. Poison seeped her claws. She yelled as she charged the Sneasels. Ingo Quick Attacked into Emmet to get his brother out of the way of the Dire Claw.

Sneasler hit the ground where they once stood, her claws digging in slightly. “Shoulda seen that coming.” She pulled her hand out and collected herself. Ingo and Emmet ran at her with Quick Attack and Psycho Cut, respectively. She took Ingo’s attack to her stomach and held her arm up to tank Emmet’s. Her feet slid, leaving a trail of dirt in the ground, but she did not topple. With her other hand, she swung and used a single Aerial Ace on them both.

“She truly isn’t holding back! Bravo!” Ingo said after he recovered from the supereffective attack. He jumped backwards for space and ran around Sneasler. He prepared a Drain Punch but waited for an opening.

“The hell are you doing?” Sneasler asked Ingo. Despite the distraction, she kept her eye on Emmet, who got back up and jumped above her. Sneasler held her arms up to block his Psycho Cut. Emmet landed the attack, then a whistle manifested from nowhere into his hand. The whistle fweeted, which made Sneasler realize he used Beat Up. She turned to see Ingo teleport due to Emmet’s summoning attack. She hit Ingo’s Drain Punch with her Dire Claw. Though Ingo managed to regain some health from Sneasler, an unnatural drowsiness loomed over him.

Emmet saw his brother struggling to stay standing. He knew the attack wasn’t enough to make Ingo faint, so he deduced that Sneasler’s Dire Claw inflicted Ingo with drowsiness. Emmet needed to give his brother space to recover from the status condition. He Ice Beamed Sneasler in the chest. She crushed the ice crystals with a few strikes of her claws. Emmet used another Ice Beam, this time aiming at her feet. Ice covered Sneasler’s feet.

“Shit!” It was much harder for Sneasler to break ice that low while also keeping her eye on Emmet. She struck the ice once and then looked up. Emmet used Ice Beam again. Ice frosted her legs and chest, limiting her movement even more. She wasn’t fully frozen, but it was enough to cause some worry when Emmet ran at her with another Psycho Cut. Unfortunately for Emmet, though, her arms were still free. Sneasler Drain Punched Emmet in the face, making him fly and hit a tree.

With one final head shake, Ingo broke through the drowsiness. Emmet was in dire straits from that direct Drain Punch. He needed to get an opening for them to have any chance at defeating Sneasler. They played defensively due to the difference in strength, but that needed to change if they wanted to win. Emmet used Hone Claws again, and Ingo used Bulk Up. Ingo then charged to Sneasler with Quick Attack. Emmet did the same with Psycho Cut.

The next minute was absolute chaos for Sneasler. She knew they overwhelmed Arceus by attacking with no time to breathe, but to see it in action against her was something else. Ingo switched between Quick Attacks and Drain Punches, darting front to back, left to right. Emmet switched between Psycho Cut and Ice Beam, narrowly dodging Ingo to strike her. Whenever Sneasler hit one twin with an Aerial Ace or Dire Claw, the other would attack her right back. Worse still, Emmet’s Ice Beams kept repairing the ice anchoring her to the ground.

Their flurry of attacks dented Sneasler’s health, but her endurance and noble strength kept her upright. After one last Drain Punch, Ingo took a deep breath to prepare his secret weapon for powerful opponents. It was Emmet’s suggestion, where he made a comment of shame for not thinking of it sooner. 

Ingo Screeched. His yell echoed through Eterna Forest, causing several bird pokemon to fly out in surprise.

“HOLY SHIT!” Sneasler, who had broken off the ice from her legs, covered her ears. Ingo’s voice ringed in her ears. With Sneasler caught off-guard, Ingo and Emmet used Drain Punch and Psycho Cut on Sneasler, breaking her free from the ice cementing her to the ground but also making her tumble. To her surprise, she struggled to get back to her feet. It seemed that the twins were winning, but on closer inspection of them, their legs shook, and their breathing was labored.

All three of them were close to fainting.

Ingo and Emmet needed one more push. Emmet ran ahead while Ingo stayed put to Screech. He saw Sneasler’s body tense from the noise, but she continued running to Emmet. Sneasler’s claws glowed white, and she swiped at Emmet, who jumped to hit her in the head. Her attack landed, stopping Emmet’s momentum. She continued running to Ingo, her claws still glowing white. Ingo Quick Attacked into her body. She swung and struck him right on impact.

Sneasler fell to one knee and allowed herself to breathe with her full body. Meanwhile, Ingo and Emmet bounced along the ground from the force. The edges of both their visions were dark, but instead of the darkness overwhelming them, it retreated.

“That was… False Swipe!” Ingo said as he helped Emmet to his feet. He didn’t consciously pause in the middle of his sentence to take a breath, but he did.

“Alright, that’s enough. We’re done here,” Sneasler said.

“This is… an… early… stop!” Emmet said between breaths.

“None of us… fainted!” Ingo said.

“Are you serious??” Sneasler asked. “You’re both barely standing…! I don’t wanna make you faint!”

“But…” Emmet wanted to refute Sneasler’s argument.

Ingo placed a hand on Emmet’s shoulder. “I understand, Sneasler. We went full speed ahead in our battle, and that’s more than enough.” In truth, Ingo wanted to keep battling until it could officially end. But for the sake of their teammates, he needed to put their health first this time. “Thank you for fighting at full strength with us!”

Emmet nodded. “That was a verrrry fun battle! Let’s fight again sometime!”

“Yeah, yeah… Just eat up please…” Eelektross approached the exhausted pokemon with several oran berries in hand. Chandelure followed behind with Sneasler’s basket hooked around their arms, the basket itself dangling and avoiding any spillage of contents thanks to its cover. They also held Sneasler’s coat on the other arm.

Sneasler consumed her oran berry in two bites and took her basket and coat from Chandelure. “Also, Ingo… Never use Screech again, holy shit. You’re loud enough as is. I saw those two recoiling.” She pointed to the other two members of Team Conductors.

“Oh! Is that true?” Ingo asked Chandelure and Eelektross.

“Well…” Eelektross twiddled his claws. “It was sorta like when you made announcements on the speakers for the first time… It’s been years since I last heard you at that volume…”

“I apologize for hurting you!” Ingo bowed. “I will be more careful about using that attack in the future!”

Chandelure shrugged. Ingo began learning the flame language they used to communicate to Eelektross and told their trainer that they were fine.

“It may have been “fine”, but I still want to ensure that our passengers are not harmed,” Ingo said.

Emmet finished nibbling his oran berry. “I still like the move to lower an opponent’s defense.”

“Yeah yeah yeah…” Sneasler rubbed her ears.

“So… since the battle reached an early stop, who won?” Emmet asked.

“I did.” Sneasler picked up the twins by scruffs of their necks and held one under each arm.

“Sneasler, what is the meaning of this?!” Ingo flailed to try and escape.

Sneasler tossed the Sneasels up. Chandelure tossed to Sneasler her basket. “We’re going on vacation now, got it?” She slapped the cover off her recently-emptied basket just in time for Ingo and Emmet to fall straight in.

“Bravo! That was an excellent throw!” Ingo said as he shuffled to a more comfortable position in the basket. He grazed his claws across the woven grass, and a bump underneath the bottom indicated it still held the Toxic Plate.

“We have been kidnapped,” Emmet said. He and Ingo felt the basket rumble as Sneasler put her basket on.

“Do you know a… good vacation spot…?” Eelektross flew to walk beside Sneasler. Chandelure followed closely behind him.

“Hm, not really… Maybe I can ask Electrode or Arcanine or something,” Sneasler said.

Eelektross sighed. “Anyplace that’s a change of scenery should work…”

As Sneasler and Eelektross tried to figure where to go, Ingo and Emmet quietly enjoyed the feeling of the basket’s shakes as Sneasler walked. Ingo preferred taking train rides for his vacations, and Sneasler’s basket replicating the repetitive motion with ease. Emmet preferred changes of scenery, so he listened attentively to his family’s conversation. Most importantly, however, Ingo and Emmet had peace.

[lucaasunn]

☆ do you want somebody (like i want somebody) ☆

koga oogami x gn!reader

word count: 1.9k words

info: fluff, probably inaccurate lore, reader isnt in the idol course but also not a regular student or producer, maybe counts as a song fic ☾ditto - newjeans☽, npc friends that i couldn't think up good names for whoops, minor language near the end.

a/n: i wrote this while at a cousin’s house HELP. this is purely self indulgent because i’ve been thinking about newjeans recently LMAO.

You can remember every moment you’ve shared with Koga ever since you first met back in your first year at Yumenosaki. His ups, his downs, and everything in between, you were there for it all. You remember comforting him whenever Rei used to go overseas, and eventually DEADMANZ’s disbandment. He always tried to be so indifferent, but you could always tell. Of course you could. He would never let anyone see him like this but you. You supported his impulsive B1 DreFes performances, even if you did get in trouble with the council. You can remember the scolding you two would receive from Keito. Your other friends would always see you sulking when you got to your building afterwards. Everything he did, you were always by his side.

Of course, Koga was always there for you too. Whenever he could, he would make it to your practices. When he did, you never really got any progress done. You would always goof off before he “scolds” you for not being on task. and then he proceeds to distract you further. You’ve had to ban him from the practice rooms a few times. In the middle of your own performances, you could always see him somewhere in the crowd. Every time you walked onto the stage, you would scan the crowd to find him. He found out and would purposefully blend in and make you scan even harder. If you never saw him, he would come up to you after your performance and boast about his “win”.

As the years passed with him, you started to view him differently. Your heart would start to beat faster around him. You could feel your face bloom into warmth when you would accidentally brush hands. You’ve spent nights thinking about his touch, how it would feel to hold his slightly callused hands. And since when did you start staring at his lips when you walked together? You would rant to the friends who shared the same course as you.

“That is seriously sappy. You are so head over heels for him,” Shuntaro teased. You glared at him before you heard another voice speak up.

“Literally! It sounds like it came straight out of a romance novel!”, Hikari exclaimed. You groaned, feeling the heat creep back up your cheeks. You really didn’t want to admit it, but it was very obvious to everyone.

You’re in love with Koga Oogami, your best friend.

“HnhnhnnnggAAAAHH!! God I hate this… I don’t know what to do…”, you complain, your hands gripping the sides of your head before dropping them. You prop one of your arms on the table where the three of you sat, resting your head in your hand.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe just go up to him and tell him you like him?”, Shuntaro suggested, a teasing grin lying on his face. You and Hikari turn to face him, you staring at him with a deadpan expression, and Hikari looking at him as if he murdered someone.

“Dude, they can’t just do that! This is their best best friend. They can’t just casually walk up to him and say ‘Hey, I like you and have liked you since the start of our second year!’”, she argues for you, but you shake your head.

“No no, he’s right. But I’m not doing that. No way,” you look at Hikari, a small almost apologetic smile on your face. She nods. Silence washes over the three of you, not that you minded too much. It takes a bit, but finally someone spoke.

“So, how do you plan on confessing to him?”, Hikari asked you. You didn’t really give the confession much thought. You told yourself that you’d find a way to do it later constantly, even before this conversation, but you never did. you thought about it harder. You want something direct, but still romantic. not abrupt, but not beating around the bush.

What can bridge the two together, you wonder.

“Heeeeyyy, you still there??” Hikari waves a hand in front of your eyes while you blink, focus back on your friends.

“My bad.. I thought about it for a little bit, but I think I have an idea.” You motion for them to lean in and whisper in their ears.

——————

God this was so stupid. That was the most cliché thing you ever thought of. But it’s too late to go back. Your friends are rooting for you now, and you are not chickening out.

Walking next to Koga, you could feel your heart beat out of your chest. You’re not sure what exactly it is. Is it just your feelings for him or is it the anxiety of confessing? The nervousness of messing up your dream scenario? The uncertainty of your best friend becoming your boyfriend or said best friend rejecting you and slowly drifting away afterward? You wish someone could tell you.

Despite all the nerves in your body telling you not to, you managed to ask Koga to wait for you by the front of the school.

“Huh? why d’ya need me to do that? miss me walkin’ you home?”, he teases, leaning forward slightly. You can’t deny that. He has been busy the past few months that you haven’t had time to do so. Still, you jokingly push him away.

“That doesn’t matter right now. I just need you-“ “Hah! You didn’t deny it!” You were cut off short by Koga. You can feel the familiar heat return to your cheeks. This man can be so annoying, but you won’t lie, it was kinda cute.

“If you could let me FINISH, I just need you to meet me there. It’s something important.”

“What’s so important that you need me there? Can’tcha just text or call me?”

All of a sudden your nerves are telling you to back out. To tell him never mind. To keep your relationship the way it is. Don’t ruin it.

“I.. I just need you there, kay?”, you mustered out. He looked at you, admittedly confused, but he left it alone. Whatever it was, he’ll find out later anyway. The two of you make it to the gate and part ways to your respective buildings.

Once you’re sure he’s out of sight, you open your bag, peeking inside before reaching in. You grab a pristine envelope, a paw print sticker sealing the flap shut. You check for any folds or wrinkles, relieved to find none.

‘Even in the worst case scenario, I can at least hope he at least appreciates the effort.’, you thought to yourself sarcastically.

After school came a lot faster than you thought it would. The confession was plaguing you all day, and it was obvious. At least to your friends. You kept thinking of the possible outcomes. Thousands. Thousands of outcomes came to you, some more unrealistic than others.

To say you were anxious was an understatement. But still, you trudged on anyway. You made your way to the front of the main building. It wasn’t difficult to spot Koga, but it was difficult to reach him. The wave of students walking up to friends or leaving made it harder than you thought to get to him him. Still, you made it.

“There ‘ya are. Took ‘ya forever to get here.”

“Not my fault my building is further away from the main building. Besides, don’t you see the sea of other students? I had to weave my way around just to get here!”, you complained. You should’ve thought about this more. There’s way too many people around.

“Well ‘ya should’ve-“ “Yeah, I know, I know. Tell you to meet me somewhere else. Well now we’re going to that somewhere else, okay?” Before he could answer, you grab his hand and run back into the building. You were too focused on getting somewhere private that you didn’t realize that the two of you had intertwined fingers, a pink flush prominent on Koga’s face.

You finally made it to an empty hallway. You let go of his hand. You both take a second to catch your breath.

“What was that for?!”, he yelled.

“I know I said this was important, but I forgot to mention this is also private.”

“Well what is it? I’ve got no clue as ‘ta what this could be.” The question you dreaded, but had also been anticipating for so long. You reach into your bag and hand him the letter.

“To the idiot receiving this letter,

I hope you know I put my whole heart and soul into this.

As you know, we’ve been friends ever since the start of our time at Yumenosaki. Everyday I’ve spent with you has made my life so much better, even if I don’t say it out loud. You’ve been there for me through every important event in not only my performing career, but in my life.

As the days have passed, however, I couldn’t help but feel different around you. I didn’t know what it was at first. I just thought that maybe stage fright was getting to me, since I had a show that week. but it never went away. It only grew. When I sat down to think about it, it all clicked.

My heart would skip beats every time you were near me. I started actively looking to impress you, even in more mundane situations. I looked your way much more than I ever did before. When I lay in bed at night, my thoughts were always filled with you.

My feelings for you, like the memories we share, have grown so big.

I’m in love with you, Koga Oogami.

From,

[name]”

He looked over the letter for what felt like an eternity. The entire time he read it, you couldn’t even look at him. You looked anywhere but him. The silence between you was deafening. He finally spoke up, but he didn’t say anything you expected.

“Say it.”

“..Huh?”

“Say it.”

Out of all the outcomes and scenarios you had envisioned, you never thought he would say this.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to make me say?” You tilt your head in confusion.

“And you call me an idiot. I’m sayin’ to tell me what you wrote to me. Directly. I want ‘ya to.”

And all of sudden, you’re stunned. Your face flushes at his words. Never in a million years did you think this would happen.

“I… I’m in love with you, Koga Oogami.” You feel his callused hands grab hold of yours.

“I’m in love with you too, [name, last name]. ‘Have been for so long.”

You really feel like you’re in heaven. Hesitantly, you go to cup his face, searching for any signs of refusal. Instead, he looks at you with an unfamiliar, yet all too familiar look of tenderness in his eyes. His golden eyes. You always thought they were beautiful.

Subconsciously, you and Koga leaned your faces in closer. Before you knew it, you closed your eyes shut and felt a pair of lips against yours. You've dreamed of this moment for so long, and now it's a reality. His lips fit perfectly against yours, just as you had hoped. You could feel his arms wrap around you, as if ensuring you wouldn’t pull away too early.

Finally, he pulls his lips away from yours. You take a minute to just gaze at him lovingly before cracking and snickering. It isn’t long before he joins too.

“What? We both just confessed to each other and now you’re laughing? Damn.”, he says in between laughs.

“God this was so fucking cheesy.”, You chuckle out.

You wouldn’t have had it any other way.

[teethw0lf]

I had the horrific idea to get high and write about Mista and Narancia getting high using a concept I had already joked about with a friend and this is how it turned out. I wrote it in notes app so I’ll just copy and paste it 💀.

Pizza Heroes

Five edibles. Five. One two three four five. That was the bet. If Mista and Narancia could not finish watching “Low Quality Family Guy Memes” without even so much as cracking a tiny baby smile. The tiniest of all smiles ever in the whole world. They’d have to wake up in the morning and take 5 edibles or more. They’d never done more. But they did today. Fuck them. They were underestimating their power. They were gonna prove them wrong so good. Holy fuck LMAO.

So it was five. That was the requirement. But no. What they took was 10.

Narancias muscles had just started to go on strike just as the both of them got epic fnaf ninja mr. beast jumpscared by Mistas phone. It was loud as all hell and it almost had a rude ass tone to its voice, like it was going “HEY YOU PIECE OF ASS POTHEADS PICK UP NOW.” so naturally mista picked it up, while Narancia stared on in bewilderment only properly described by a cursed emoji reaction image from the depths of Gen Z Pinterest.

“Oh hell- nah. Oh sorry haha. No I was talking to somebody else. Um I’m sick. Cmon- dude ok alright uh. Ok.”

Mista hung up.

He faced Narancia with a look of horror.

They faced eachother with a look of horror.

Only properly described by two cursed emoji reaction images from the depths of Gen Z Pinterest.

Oh god oh fuck.

“Narancia we gotta go to work dude.”

They weren’t even all the way high yet but the thoughts in their brains were already falling out of their nostrils and also ear holes as soon as they formulated, leaving no time and no ability to maintain a proper conversation with anything and anyone. Including the house fly that was annoying them.

“Hey MOTHERFUCKER”

Narancia threw a gnarly punch at the fly but it landed on mistas huge tit.

“AAAAUUUGGGGHHHHHHH’!!!!!!!!!”

He threw his hands up in agony like that one cursed emoji reaction image gif thing where the emoji disintegrates away while holding its hands up and making a face of true and utter distraught.

“Sorry bro. There was a fly.”

They managed to drive to work by sheer luck and sheer luck alone. Narrowly missing a cruel and painful death several times over and somehow not really realizing it unless the other car honked then it was “WOAH FUCK!!!!!”

Dominoes

Expensive ass overrated pizza. Mista and Narancia thought their pizza was just any ass pizza and that that good and definately not $45 for like a medium pizza or something fuck them. But they worked there so whatever.

After clocking in, the two of them put on their dominoes pizza hats with the anime lines behind them and victorious and suspenseful music playing and they grasped each others hands in camaraderie and best friendship and possibly maybe a homestuck romance reference or something really fucking nerdy and cringe and gay like that and they posted up behind the counter. Alone as the fly in Narancia and Mistas house thought it was when Narancia punched it into a tit that must have been like a gigantic and majestic mountain to that tiny little fly. Death by boob mountain. That is hilarious Narancia decided and he randomly doubled over and lost his shit laughing. He could not hold it in. He could not even try to hold it in. He couldn’t. It just came out like vomit except it was laughing. What was he laughing about? Idk honestly I myself can’t remember what I just wrote so you put two and two together okay? Ok.

Narancias laughing made Mista start laughing too.

“Bro stop that you’re making me laugh”

He said with a breathless “heeheehaahaa”

Omfg he sounded just like a donkey.

Narancia was laughing like that chimpanzee at the campfire named Sugriva when asked “is it dinner time”

“Hey mista. If you had a fursona do you think it would be a donkey?” He asked, giggling.

“A donkey? Fucking why.”

Mista asked pretending to be offended because technically he was being called an ass. But ass is a butt and that’s fucking hilarious oh my gods.

The gods are probably shaking their heads at them right now as they stand there making stupid jokes and forgetting what they were supposed to do right here and now. Unbeknownst to them both they are ignoring several orders and are both standing behind the cash register and 4 people have come and and then left after seeing these weirdo loser furries talk about their fursonas.

“Mine would be a chIIIMP-“ Narancia couldn’t finish that last sentence before he started laughing again and it forced the tail end of his sentence to get all loud and yelly. Fuck chimps are so fucking funny. They are so fucking silly and they make loud screaming sounds and it’s hilarious.

“Nah!! Chimps are scary! Buff as hell. Stronger than any man.” Said Mista.

“I’m hungry” said Narancia.

“Oh wait FUCK OH SHIT.”

They both turned their heads so fast the air went through their ears and made a SHOOSH sound.

They’ve been sitting here ignoring 10 orders.

Mista and Narancia scramble into the kitchen like shaggy and scooby doo. Or more like shaggy and shaggy because they are both human men and not a dog. Mista pulls out his Bluetooth speaker and it starts playing his playlist for work. They are not actually allowed to do this but nobody is here not even a manager so fuck those bitches.

They make artful and beautiful pizzas. Narancia sways back and fourth while putting toppings on his pizza to Slow Dancing In The Dark by Joji.

The music fills him with such a floaty and blue emotion. Oh it was so pretty. And sad. Slow dancing is such a pretty name for a song. Slow dancing in the dark. That was just classically romantic and so so lovely. It was roses and dewdrops and a faun stumbling in the rain with an arrow in its back.

Damn it NO this fic is supposed to be funny, Narancia thought, the fourth wall being held in his determined and angry grasp and shaken by the throat. This will NOT become an angsty crush fic.

But then, suddenly, Mista turned around to face Narancia and he said “I want to talk to you about something I saw the other day and it’s really interesting and cool.”

Narancia nodded. Still schmoovin except the song has changed to “Fourth Of July” by Sufjan Stevens.

“No what change the song Mista this song makes my eyes water.”

“I was trying to tell you something hold on-“

“Mista my heart is SENSITIVE AND MUSHY!!!!”

“Okay okay fine”

“Alright tell me”

“Okay Narancia so there is this thing called homestuck-“

Narancia was trying to listen to Mista but he was too busy on trying to make sure the pizza didn’t look like it was made by a person who was extremely high. Oh shit. What if they could tell based off of the pepperoni symmetry.

The phone started ringing. Oh fuck. Oh shit. Wait how long have we been making these pizzas. Just two pizzas. No way….an hour? Oh fuck. No no no.

He picked up the phone.

“This is Pizza”

They hung up.

Mista was laughing at him.

“Mista we are going to get fucking fired I’m so scared bro I’m so fufkced I’m so fucked oh fuck.”

Mista was reminded of the vine with the kid slamming the oven to the beat while his dad plays the horn and they are wearing sunglasses. He thinks about imitating the horn tune and slamming the oven to the beat like the video to make Narancia laugh and stop getting scared, but he didn’t wanna break the oven. What if he was accidentally too rough. So he just went

“Doodoodoodoodoodoodooodoodoofooodoodoodoo”

“Mista what are you doing. Holy fuck we have like. A million orders.”

Narancia started shaking his hands next to his head and pacing and sobbing and crying.

Mista didn’t like seeing Narancia cry! Oh no? His friend. He had to create a distraction. Woah man his muscles were totally not having it. His brain was just a big playdough mound bumpin around in his skull. It was like he was made out of lead. His tounge and his fingers were getting numb and tingly. Yo he was SO high. Woah. Uh oh. Oh no.

Right distraction.

“Okay Narancia so like listen this might make you feel better. So theres this thing called homestuck and there are humans and trolls and they play a game. And theres different kinds of romance but I can’t remember the one that makes me feel about-“

Oh fuck he almost said ‘you’. Narancia can’t know that Mista was totally mega cringe down for him?!!!!!!!

“About this person I think is pretty cute and stuffs.”

His story was not helping Narancia. In fact he was sitting on the floor rocking back and fourth and sobbing but almost completely silent with his mouth hanging open and his eyes squeezed shut like he’s a toddler that fell down and it hurt. The door rang. Oh shit. He tried to pretend like Narancia wasn’t losing his mind behind the counter.

It was Trish.

“Why the fuck are you guys at work like this.”

“Because they wouldn’t let me call out big cheese says I’ll get a write up.”

“You guys look like you’re totally pulling this off and having absolutely no problems. Where is Narancia.”

Trish looked like an emotion Mista couldn’t comprehend. Like dorcelessness. Or maybe she was being sarcastic. Shit was he autistic?

Narancia tried to say “I’m here.” from behind the counter but he only made a sad sobbing sound.

Trish peeked from around the corner at him and he almost got ejected from his body.

“AAAUGH!!!”

he sounded just like Darwin from the amazing world of gumball.

Oh fuck his heart. It was so fast. Holy shit he can’t swallow. It’s like he can’t swallow what if he starts choking. What he he has a SEIZURE!! oh-

“Mista I think Narancia needs to go home.”

Trish poked Narancia like he was a roadkill.

“I need to go to the hospital guys. Can you overdose on weed? I think I’m dying. PleSe don’t let me die.”

“No you can’t overdose on weed, Narancia, oh my fuck- Mista. MISTA.”

Mista was thinking about troll romance.

Then Fugo walked in.

“Did you get the pizza or what it’s been fucking 35 mins- oh my fucking god why are you guys at work.”

“Fugo please tell Trish I could be having heart failure!!!!”

Narancia wailed.

Trish rolled her eyes so hard that it looked like it hurt and it probably did because she rubbed them after.

“Oh god you guys I swear I’m not crazy. Was our shit LACED!?”

Fugo scoffed “no you fucking idiot you took ten fucking edibles that’s what’s going on here.”

“Fugooooo” Narancia wailed.

Trish and Fugo looked at Mista who was staring off into space still standing behind the counter and thinking about troll romance. He couldn’t wait to tell his friends all about this new cool and very much brand new thing called homestuck.

Fugo leaned over to see the absolute state the kitchen was in. As expected there was a burnt pizza in the oven and a pizza that was halfway made and stil frozen halfway falling off the counter. The speaker was playing “DICKE TITTEN” by Rammstein. Ah hell yeah. This was fugos groove he loved pissed sounding German men singing industrial metal.

[andro-dino]

smiles at you. how about some hcs for kira and the other dna bladers. they are all so silly to me <3

waaa the gang <3 I love them. These are all gonna be like post-canon, “all of dna live in an apartment together” focused bc that’s my favorite way to think about them.

I’ve been rereading some of my own fics recently and stumbled upon a line I forgot I wrote about Spike and Genjuro sometimes having to force Arrow to drink water because he usually exclusively drinks sugary drinks and I think that’s silly. I think the idea of arrow randomly being like “man I have a killer headache rn idk why :/“ and them going “well how much water have you been drinking?” And arrow being like “how much what have I huh now?” and them being wildly concerned is very funny.

Adding onto that, I think out of DNA, Spike and Genjuro are the best at taking care of themselves when they need to because the others have like zero sense of self preservation. I think that Karura surprisingly can also pretend to be a sensible human being sometimes as well. I love the idea of Karura having his own little mini spice and veggie garden and helping Spike and Genjuro cook sometimes <3

Dunno how much this is a hc so much as it just kinda implied but Arrow is super inspired by Kira and looks up to him a lot, not only just when it comes to beyblade but like, life as a whole. ESPECIALLY when it comes to fashion. He’s experimented a bit with eyeliner before (mostly just to fill out the gaps in his mask) but eventually wants to try getting into makeup more as a whole and he immediately asks Kira for advice with that. I like to think that the two end up really bonding over it and end up going shopping together a lot and Kira helps Arrow pick out outfits and stuff <3

Ok I cannot hold myself back rn I need to be a little bit angsty bc I think about this with post-canon dna way too much (a lot of these ideas have been sparked by our past conversations lol). I think despite the fact that they are trying to be better people and while I do think the general opinion of them comes around eventually, for a long while immediately after the events of shogun steel they are kinda still public enemies #1 and that makes life ROUGH for all of them for a while. They all have very different views and ways of dealing with that as well.

Kira, still upholding his role as leader, feels a certain level of responsibility and, by proxy, guilt about this. He feels a strong sense of duty towards dna to help guide and protect them from then on out, especially realizing that he hadn’t treated them particularly well in the past. He can’t help but partially blame himself for putting them in the position they are now and in his path for redemption, seeks not only to make it up to the main gang and public at large but dna as well. He feels really guilty when he sees them mistreated by others and feels a level of protectiveness over them. He really takes the idea that he needs to take care of them seriously and occasionally that means taking the fall for them or defending them from people who are being particularly assholeish.

Genjuro kinda wants to keep everyone under the radar while all this is happening and although they know he means well, none of the others are particularly fond of this and kind of end up butting heads with him a lot as a result. The main two especially with this are Baihu and Karura.

Karura tries not to argue with Genjuro much, but at Genjuro’s insistence that they should be trying to keep a low profile and thus not dress as flashy as they usually would, Karura is a little peeved. This strikes a particular nerve with him specifically for two reasons. 1. Karura’s a unique looking dude as a whole, and he finds it’s kinda hard to “keep a low profile” when you’ve got a blue mohawk and burn scars all over your face and body. and 2. His appearance is something he takes pride in. He’s not insecure by any means, and his style being as flashy as it is is an act of embracing his uniqueness in a way that suits him, so to have to change that is something that leaves him particularly disgruntled.

Baihu, by contrast, more directly takes opposition to Genjuro and the two get into a lot of fights because of it. Baihu is used to using trickery, mischief, and brute force to gain traction in life and he takes no qualms in doing that not only to defend his name, but to just survive at times. He and Spike are the ones who are the most easily irritated by the way people look down on them and will frequently start fights with strangers over it, despite being told it’s not worth it. Baihu does not like to be held back and does not like letting people just walk all over them, but he’ll bite his tongue from time to time for the sake of the others. What he won’t do, however, is sit back and let his pack struggle under his watch. I think that along with struggling to be in public, it’s also really tough for them to find ways to support themselves and they tend to get turned away by a lot of businesses and tournaments, so it is hard for them to get by for a while. I think eventually, the wbba is informed of this and provides them support in this regard, but before then, all Baihu knows is that they need to eat. Genjuro does not like it when Baihu steals, but Baihu doesn’t care, because if no one else is gonna provide for them, he will, and it doesn’t matter to him by what means that comes by. (I have thought abt drawing a comic with this idea for AGES. Will I ever get around to it? only time will tell)

I also think they have an interesting time trying to get along with the main gang after everything that’s happened. Zyro is obviously the most forgiving, and since he and Kira very quickly become very close after they’ve bonded, he is more than ready to welcome the rest of DNA with open arms, and is very excited to let his friends properly get to know them. The others do not necessarily share the same kind of enthusiasm.

Maru, bless her soul, I think trusts Zyro’s judgment the most and is willing to give them another shot. She doesn’t necessarily look past all the things they’ve done, but she’s seen other people come around, especially due to Zyro’s influence, and so she trusts that they’ll be able to do the same. She ends up getting along well with Kira, Genjuro, and Arrow (cough cough for no reason in particular ahem ahem)

Shinobu is a little more apprehensive, as I think he’s one to hold grudges, but similarly to Maru, he trusts Zyro and is willing to move forward if he is. He’s definitely the most hesitant around Kira and Baihu (partially also Genjuro bc of the glass box battle but I think they’re more easily able to move on from that). Kira particularly is difficult for him to get along with just bc of everything that happened with him at multiple different points, but I think they end up having some very heartfelt conversations at some points about it and Kira communicates that he understands why Shinobu would still hold a grudge, but he really is trying to change and he hopes that him and the others will be able to prove that to him over time. And it does take time, but Shinobu understands that perspective and is willing to give them a shot.

Ren is hesitant at first, though for those she doesn’t have personal beef with, she’s able to forgive relatively quickly. The others though. oo boy. Her beef with Genjuro was settled with their rematch at the qualifier match attacks when she got the upper hand on him, so despite some slight animosity at first, they’re able to go to friendly rival status fairly quickly afterwards. Arrow and Spike however, she has NOT forgiven for what they did during the dna hq invasion and is not their biggest fan right off the bat. In the end, they decide to settle it like bladers do, and after a fair and even match with them (I think it’d be a duo battle with eight since he also has beef with them for the same reason (I’ll get to that too)) they’re able to understand each other a little more and settle their issues. It’s not immediate forgiveness, but it’s a start.

Kite and Eight are the biggest grudge holders of all time. It is very hard for them to move on. Kite has massive beef with Yoshio, not only because their rivalry was never properly settled, but bc he not only picked a fight with kite, but hurt eight and well and kite does NOT play when it comes to eight. He’s also not particularly fond of Baihu either but I think eventually he’s able to understand the more caring side of him and come to terms with him a little more. There’s the obvious route of his rivalry with Karura continuing as well but they don’t have any real animosity towards each other and it’s mostly just very silly and lighthearted. On eight’s end, he equally is not fond of Yoshio and also has a continued hatred towards Spike and Arrow, and anyone who eight hates Kite hates too. His and Ren’s battle with them helps it a bit, but Eight’s a stubborn little kid and doesn’t let that show for a long while still. He needs to get in what he thinks is their deserved amount of teasing and bullying before he can actually start to warm up to them. I think in the end, what ends up bringing them both around, is Kite connecting with Kira. I actually really love these two as a duo (it’s a shame that a lot of the stuff I’ve seen of them together online is from weirdos) and I think they really could have a genuine heart to heart, with Kira opening up about the responsibility he feels towards dna and kite connecting to that as an older brother. Again, kite cares about his brother more than anything, and protecting him and taking care of him is his biggest priority, so understanding that Kira feels a very similar duty towards the other members of dna, it humanizes them more in kite’s mind and he’s able to empathize with them more, and so he’s more willing to give them a chance afterwards. And since eight would follow kite to the ends of the earth, when kite starts to warm up to them a little more, eight starts to give them a chance as well.

OH MAN YOU KNOW WHAT I JUST THOUGHT ABOUT TJATS REALLY GETTING ME GOING RIGHT NOW. Kira talking to Tsubasa and the other adults.

There’s a certain kind of shame that makes his head hang and a certain degree of fear that he can’t quite place that makes him hesitate as he walks inside the wbba building with Zyro. His gut twists when they go up the elevator and his heart drops when Zyro tells him that that’s as far as he’ll take him, and that Kira needs to talk to them on his own. He’s so used to having a degree of control over everything around him like he did with the garcias and like how he thought he did with doji, so going into an environment where he’s just a powerless teenager, it scares him. He would try to be intimidating but he knows that won’t work on them. His magic has no power in this realm.

The treatment he got from the garcias and doji when he was no longer their perfect little puppet leads him to prepare for the worst, especially considering these are people who have every reason to hate him and persecute him for everything he’s done to them, so he’s dumbfounded when they welcome him with open arms and warm smiles. It feels like a trap— there’s no way it’s not a trap, right? Trying to careen him into a false sense of security? But the longer they talk, the more opportunities to drop the ball they don’t take, and Kira realizes that they’re being genuine. It stabs him in the gut in a way he doesn’t understand. They take no hesitance in assuring that him and dna aren’t getting off 100% scott free, but their punishment is so… not grueling? It doesn’t even sound like a punishment when they say that they’ll have to do community service and take mentorship under Benkei, but that’s what they’ve settled on. And when they emphasize that they know that Kira and the others aren’t bad kids, and were just misguided and still deserving of a second chance, Kira doesn’t even realize that he’s crying until he feels the tears drip from his chin or that the stabbing feeling in his gut has intensified until he’s keeling over for a reason he doesn’t understand. He equally doesn’t understand why there’s a warm hand patting him on the shoulder and another two helping him to his feet. It’s a strange kind of feeling that he hasn’t felt before and he’s not quite sure what it means.

[katy-133]

Clues Rick Prime and C-137 Knew Each Other

[This post is copy/pasted/remixed from multiple reblog posts I wrote for the Rick C-137 & Prime Masterpost on Rick and Morty. I'm putting my thoughts in its own post for organisational purposes.]

Verbal Evidence

Let's look at verbal clues. There is verbal evidence that C-137 and Prime had history together in the past.

"Forgetting the Ice Cream":

During the "forgetting the ice cream" conversation with Beth, C-137 also adds, "One thing to keep in mind, though. It's not just your own ice cream you're forgetting. It's your family's. If you forget it too much, you start having to keep secrets." Which could be interpreted that he kept Prime a secret from his family (kid!Beth and Diane), causing a strain, leading to a falling out between C-137 and Prime.

"The only person we like."

In the (fake) season 3 backstory, Prime says to C-137: "'Lonely'? Dude, you have yourself. Your infinite selves! It's a nonstop party where all the guests are the only person we like."

So here Prime isn't just admitting that likes himself, and by extension, C-137. He uses the word "we." Not, "The only person I like." He's referring to both of them as equals.

"He's the real deal."

When Morty asks C-137 about Prime, C-137 says: "For you to be bait, the guy'd have to value something. He truly doesn't give a shit. He's the real deal."

This is a line a character would say if they know Prime. (Or know about Prime by reputation.) This isn't something you say about someone you met once unexpectedly. It infers that C-137 knew him well.

Parallels

Mr. Nimbus Parallel

C-137 refers to Mr. Nimbus as his "nemesis". In the season 5 episode he appears in, Mr. Nimbus tells C-137: "Before you were my greatest enemy, you were my only friend."

In the Rick-goes-to-therapy season 6 episode, a bunch of villains come to fight C-137, while C-137 tries to find a way to get rid of them without fighting them. C-137 establishes that he doesn't like the idea having a nemesis-type supervillain to fight every episode. He doesn't like how they've just dropped in and are using him like a "platform." But C-137 will fight a nemesis who he has a past history and relationship with.

C-137 refers to one other person as a nemesis: Prime.

"Rick and Morty season seven. Hunting my nemesis."

Side note to add to the parallel: Like Prime, Nimbus also apparently knew Diane:

Mr. Nimbus: "If Diane were alive today, what would she think--" C-137: "Don't f**king establish canonical backstory with me!"

(idk how relevant that is for this section, but I'm including it in case it helps build a timeline for others.)

Crowscare Parallel

(Season 5) When he finds out that the two crows betrayed him, Crow Rick says: "At least 'adventuring' was just a metaphor for romantic partnership so it's not a real breakup."

Someone else pointed this out on YouTube, not me, but the way Crowscare's acting was animated made it look like a metaphor (through visual shorthand) for getting caught cheating (holding the map up to try and hide himself = pulling up a bedsheet to hide in a romcom drama). And Crowscare says, "Crow Rick! Oh, I know what this must look like--"

This adds to the Birdperson parallel by OP above, where C-137 offers portal travel (adventuring) to Birdperson (in response to being in love with him), and Prime offering portal travel to C-137.

[laminy]

So I wrote this a few days ago but didn’t send it because I forgot lol. This is about chapter 14 again because damn did I have thoughts.

Stop it… that date between Rami and Joe. Man I was internally screaming at the to kiss. DUDE

No, I like it,” Joe says. “It makes me feel happy to be here. I like knowing that Earth is pretty great. Though, I already had my suspicions,” he says. “Really?” Rami asks. “How come?” Joe shrugs, and starts walking away, moving towards the next exhibit. “Well, it’s the only planet that I’m on. Obviously. Plus, it’s the only planet with baseball, unless there’s something you’re not telling me. Oh, and junk food.” Rami tries not to snort with laughter, and just playfully rolls his eyes at Joe. “Oh, I see,” he says. They come to a stop in front of a large painting, and Rami tilts his head to the side, trying to get a better look at it. “Plus it’s got you,” Joe says softly in Rami’s ear. “So I’m happy you came back.” Rami immediately feels his cheeks heat up, and he glances over at Joe, who’s just watching him out of the corner of his eye. Rami grins, raising his hand to shyly cover his mouth. He’s in disbelief, he has no idea what to say. “Come on,” Joe says, jerking his head to the left. “I heard they’ve got a mummy!” He starts walking away from Rami. “Okay,” Rami says softly, still looking at the painting. It takes him another couple moments before he starts walking after Joe. He can’t stop smiling and blushing, and it feels like his heart is about to beat out of his chest. Looking at Joe, he thinks he’s happy he came back, too.

STOP THAT! Please kiss and get a room you two 😭 (Rami is so fucking in love lol)

The scene between Rami and Joe when Rami talks about Earth from space. The conversation holds so much sadness but also like… how do I describe it??? Like while Rami was in space and staring down at Earth, he was probably thinking about his family and how gorgeous the Earth looked from that point of view. 

Like Rami imagining his brother on the gorgeous planet he was staring at from space. And then even after Rami finds out he lost Sami, he still finds Earth and that view from space beautiful. I literally have so many thoughts about this chapter and damn do I love this series so much! (lmao I would’ve written more but I had to go into work 😀)

haha well let me say, if there's anything that Rami and Joe will do, it's kiss and get a room haha don't worry about that at all, I think Joe knows where all the good hotels are and he's been imagining that kiss for awhile. and yeah, Rami is so in love. Joe is so in love! their love story is the sweet, lovely, soft one of this fic.

I love all of your thoughts!!

[thechaosisgettingexhausting]

I'm new to Tumblr so it's interesting that immediately a tarot reading appears is resonates so strongly. (I tried finding this persons post but I left the tab so I lost which blog did this)

Butterfly[if it matters Capricorn] = new guy(main dude im talking about)

ex[Gemini] = Wolf

I've been dating this guy that has really switched my perception on relationships. A little background this guy is not well favored by my friend(who is actually one of the mutuals that was the reason I met him) to the point that she didn't talk to me for a while about the issue...thats a long story for another time... this guy has changed my perspective so much that I didn't think anyone could.

Previous to him[Butterfly], I was in a chaotic relationship, constantly inconsistent. I was convinced I didn't want to find anyone else after him[Wolf] because I was exhausted of giving my love, loyalty, time and effort for me to be easily discarded. It wasn't just him but also past people that haven't treated me the best.

This tarot is insane because he truly did emotionally help get me back on my feet...he could tell when I was feeling very vulnerable and he can read the room very fast. he would do small acts to get me out of my dissociative state... it was a week or two from when Wolf and I called it off and I had just explained it to him and his friend. it was like he was taking mental notes of my cues. little did he know I was taking notes also...

we then take this out of the intimate event to dms. he jokes with me and obv I still have a guard up, but he was making it hard NOT to trust him... he was handling me amazingly, asking me in-depth questions that made me really think about my emotions, reactions and how I treat those around me. throughout this he's made me feel so secure and safe. he would constantly reassure me, he's probably the most stable person I've ever dated.

in relation to the tarot reading he literally did introduce me to his friends and he integrated me into his life with ease. mind you, I AM NOT USED TO THIS TREATMENT... with every past dude it felt like I was draining myself so i didn't lose them[imma make a separate blog analyzing my own flaws in relationships] but with him he makes it feel like ease.

he's a writer, he wrote me a letter, for the first time a week or two ago that was so expressive, so sensual and made feel seen, I'm usually the one analyzing and being more in touch with others' emotions. in a way I feel like being with him is truly healing parts of my inner child. he writes beautiful lyrics about love... he reads love poems and is so in touch with his emotions. I know this is bare minimum but sometimes I can barely even regulate my own emotions.

he's always encouraging me to do my best, encouraging me to get better. one of the first things he said to me was along the lines of "I don't want to jump too fast with you because I want you to get better and be able to feel better on your own" already off the bat that combatted my dependency issues. he didn't want me to become dependent on him to be my happiness... which already made me immediately feel seen.

people here obv don't know anything about me but I'm very sexual and I enjoy s3x, a lot of the times when Im with a man Im usually, immediately physically s3xual with them, I held back a lot with Butterfly...read disclaimer at the bottom.... after a while we stopped caring that my best friend didn't like him so we've been sneaking around ever since. but I truly feel like I'm with someone that I can succeed with. he's literally met my dad and sisters, my sisters like him a lot and my dad doesn't care as long as im happy but im sure he'd like him if they had a conversation.

{**DISCLAIMER**}Why did I hold back? I am not supposed to be seeing him or even talking to him. I know now some of you might be thinking I'm home wrecking my friends relationship, maybe you're thinking that Butterfly is my friend's bf but no, she genuinely acts like she hates this man, she's in a relationship with another... Let me clarify that my friend is not in a relationship with Butterfly. I am NO home wrecker.

I could literally talk about this all day but I got other shit to let out

[calamity-unlocked]

Hi! Love your Tumblr page!

I'm curious, don't you think the villagers of Wartwood were too welcoming and nice to Sasha and Grime? I mean, they couldn't have forgotten what happened on Toad Tower, and Sasha didn't give them all the info about the events of True Colors. Even if Anne was loved there and had a big influence in the town, it takes more than that in my opinion for them to be this hospitable. Though, I enjoyed how they unconsciously guilt trip Sasha with their kindness. Honestly, if some of them had been a bit skeptical and distrustful of her it would have been better to emphasize how her actions led to such the disaster of True Colors.

Thank you, and sorry for the late reply! But hey, I managed it before the next ep comes out at least ;)

I formulated a response to this in my head but couldn’t write it out bc Life is Busy. Since then I’ve seen two excellent metas about this subject, one by the lovely @borkthemork (this one) and another that for the love of the gods I cannot find again.

I think you, anon, would agree with Bork’s analysis about the tonal dissonance in Turning Point compared to Wartwood’s previous attitude. The town certainly behaved differently towards Sasha than they had towards outsiders in the past. Bork suggests an alternate path the episode could have taken which is way more in line with their established mindset and biases, which is very narratively satisfying and imo mirrors Toad Tax in a lot of ways. I recommend checking it out, in case you haven’t already.

Then the second meta, and if someone can find it please please send it to me in the notes, talks about how the community that is Wartwood has also gone through their own arc. Despite their motto, Wartwood grew more accepting as the show progressed. I really liked this, and agreed with it.

I think, that when Sasha returned to Wartwood, the townspeople’s reaction was not as severe as could have been for multiple reasons.

First, no one knew what was going on and the citizens were afraid for their own lives and those of the Plantars. Sasha and Grime’s arrival was welcomed because they were the only people who could fill them in on the news, altered as it was. Although it was a lie, they seemed to have good intentions

Now, just the promised protection isn’t enough of a reason for a very distrustful town to welcome these people with open arms, especially not considering the bad blood that still simmers. But why I was willing to believe their willingness to host these newcomers without their usual hostility was because post-Toad Tower Sasha was not a stranger to Wartwood! She arrived after the second temple. And yes, the town was not particularly happy about this – but they accepted her nonetheless.

And you know why?

Because Anne endorsed her.

Anne decided to trust Sasha again, and the reason why Wartwood allowed these two former enemies to stay in their town is because Anne vouched for them.

Anne has changed Wartwood so much. She showed them time and time again that their skepticism was unfounded. She started to melt those walls of ice they put around them; not to the point that they were entirely gone, but they had shrunk a little nevertheless.

Mrs. Croaker admitted to Marcy that they would warm up to her eventually; they never told this to Anne, because back then they genuinely didn’t know if this would ever be the case. Telling Marcy this was a mark of growth and a sign recognition that their chilly attitude was not everlasting.

Sasha coming to Wartwood on good terms for the first time marked the third human outsider settling in the town. Those walls of ice had melted a considerable amount – though they were still wary, the outright hostility had calmed down.

A little more wariness would have made sense. But I am also loving the idea that Wartwood is getting a little quicker to accept and respect.

Edit: the meta in question is this excellent post by @sonofrose! I completely stand by this, Wartwood is not just a static place and has gone through its own arc as well.

[luvdsc]

august.

Bad habits are hard to break, and you’ve made a terrible one of loving him.

pairing :: liu yangyang x reader genre :: fluff, angst ⋮ best friend + college au word count :: 10,500 words warnings :: none. playlist :: time lapse (taeyeon) ⋆ 2 kids (taemin) ⋆ daydreams (exes) ⋆ sharing you (lany) ⋆ august (taylor swift) ⋆ too close to love (will hyde) ⋆ sad stripped (lany) ⋆ strangers (taemin) ⋆ the 1 (taylor swift) author’s note :: can you believe that i literally wrote this entire 10k fic in one day aka today ??? whew this gave me the same rush that i got when i wrote my research paper in the class it was due for the day of, printed it out during break, and handed it in at the end of class :’) ↳ part of the almost collaboration series.

Liu Yangyang is jumping fences to escape late night parties, shared laughter over childhood favorite cartoons on February mornings, midnight dancing in the refrigerator light, and November kisses stolen in between the shelves of the nearby 7-Eleven. He is obscure doodles in the margins of your physics notes, good intentions laced in December’s mistakes, strawberry lemonade and broken truths wrapped in summer bliss, and September endings with honest lies.

He is your August, he is your everything, but he isn’t yours.

AUGUST 2018.

August has barely begun to fade away.

You’re eighteen years old, and you’re drunk off of your first taste of freedom, one toe already dipping into the shiny pleasures of adulthood. Your new roommate, Karina, has excitedly told you about the famous beach night themed frat party that kick starts every school year at your university. Everybody who’s anybody would be there, and your heart already races at the thought of going to your very first college party.

“Coral or blue?” Karina holds up a solid colored neon blue bikini and a striped, bright pink one for you to choose between.

“Blue.” You nod towards the first option, and she discards the other one back into the open drawer. You pull out a marigold yellow one and a black one lined with white strings, wordlessly gesturing towards them, and she immediately points to the latter.

“That one is gonna look so cute on you. Well, both would, but I love that one.”

You grin at her, silently thanking whoever decided to pair the two of you together for the random dorming. “Perfect, thanks. Do you know any of the guys hosting the party?”

“Yeah, Dejun? He’s really sweet and a year above us. I met him in the music elective I’m taking.” She turns to take off her shirt and tosses it to the side, pulling on her bikini and wriggling into a pair of ripped jean shorts. “You?”

“Kind of? Jaemin is in my project group in Intro to Engineering. He’s rushing for that frat.” You quickly change out of your outfit and into your chosen swim top and daisy dukes. You make sure to grab a pair of black flip flops from your closet. The bundle of nerves in your stomach grows as you step out of your dorm with your new friend, a bit anxious but also excited to attend your very first party.

Thank goodness for summer weather. It’s still a nice, warm 75 degrees Fahrenheit according to your weather app when you and Karina finally make your way to the frat house. The sun barely begins to set, but the party slash dayger had started earlier and is in full swing. There’s a DJ set up out front, blasting some sort of EDM music, and the lawn is absolutely covered in foam. You see the source of it shakily set up on the roof of the patio along with a couple of boys sitting up there, Hawaiian shirts barely covering their figures. You catch the eye of Jaemin, who happily waves at you from his vantage point, and you wave back at him.

“Oh my god, I love college,” Karina says, grabbing your arm excitedly as the two of you step into the foam. You reach down to pick up some of it before flicking it towards your roommate, who squeals before scooping some up and throwing it in your direction as well.

“Ready for our first shitty college drink?” You pull her through the mass of other students and towards the horribly decorated tiki bar stationed in the corner of the patio.

“Hell yeah, let’s do it.”

The two of you stumble over, still throwing handfuls of foam at each other amidst giggles before making a full stop in front of the bar. The older boy behind the makeshift counter lazily grins at you both, a shell necklace hanging loosely around his neck, and his unbuttoned orange Hawaiian shirt gives you a nice flash of his toned abs.

“Hey, I’m Johnny. What can I get for you two?”

“Two vodka shots, please.”

“Alright, ID?”

You freeze, and Karina’s grip on your arm tightens, and then Johnny laughs, eyes crinkling in the corners. “Relax, I’m just messing with you, freshie. Two vodka shots coming right up.”

He pulls out two small plastic cups and pours out the drinks for you. “How many do you want?”

“This is good for now, thanks.” You and Karina pick up the drinks, smiling a little nervously at him. He flashes another amused smile at you. “Alright, come back anytime if you want another.”

You move away from the patio, and Karina follows close behind. The two of you throw back the drinks and dispose of the empty cups quickly. The burning sensation in your throat disappears after a few seconds, and you turn to your roommate. “Should we find our friends?”

“I think I see Dejun back there! Let’s go say hi, I can introduce you to him.” Karina drags you through the rising foam, the bubbles clinging to your skin, and when you go past the DJ stand, you feel the pounding bass reverberating in your chest harder than ever. You trek past the gate and into the backyard where the foam has risen to your waist, thanks to the enclosed fences. She taps on the shoulder of a boy with the prettiest almond eyes you have ever seen, and you shyly smile at him when he greets you.

“Hey, I’m Dejun.”

Oh my god, even his voice sounds pretty. Older college boys are definitely better and hotter than high school boys. Heck, they’re better than freshman boys. Nobody wants to date a freshman dude, not even the freshman girls.

“Hi, I’m Y/N.” You extend your hand, but then realize how stupid that must be. You hastily start to retract your hand, but he laughs and warmly grasps your hand. Smiling at you, he shakes it firmly, squeezing your hand gently before letting go.

“It’s nice to meet you, Y/N.”

The butterflies in your stomach grow in volume as the conversation goes on, and you’re positively enamored by the end of the night. Karina had given you a look earlier before walking off with Dejun’s friend and joining the dancing crowd. With the addition of his phone number in your pocket and a promise to show you a new song he’s working on with his guitar next Friday, you’re walking on cloud nine.

“Do you want something to drink? I need a refill, and I can go grab you one,” he asks, and you’re about to offer to go with him, but then you remember the teasing upperclassman and simply agree, asking for another shot of vodka.

After he disappears, you look around, eyeing the crowd and wondering if you can spot your roommate anywhere. You bump into someone lightly and turn around to apologize. Your eyes meet a pair of curiously bright ones.

“Sorry about that, I’m looking for my roomie.”

The boy gives you a Cheshire Cat grin. He’s wearing one of those dumb Hawaiian shirts, too, and it’s unbuttoned, but he has a white T-shirt layered underneath it. “No biggie, it’s a massive party and it’s crowded. Who are you looking for?”

“Ah, I don’t know if you know her, but Karina? She went off with this dude, Kunhang, I think?”

His eyes light up at that name. “Oh, I know him! I saw him earlier by the keg stands inside. Your friend might be there, too. I can—”

“THE COPS ARE COMING!” A loud voice bellows, and you freeze up. Suddenly, the music is shut off as everyone starts running away. You start to panic, the terror rising in your chest, and the boy in front of you grabs your hand and pulls you with him. “What are you doing?! Don’t just stand there! We gotta go!”

“Wait, but Kar—” You start to object, but cut yourself off when you bump into his back as he abruptly stops. He scans the backyard, quickly assessing the situation before turning to you.

“There’s way too many people trapped in here, we’re not gonna make it to the gate. We need to climb over the fence. I’ll hoist you up, and you can help me up from there.”

“I don’t even know you,” you protest, and he throws you a look.

“Hi, I’m Yangyang, nice to meet you, I don’t want to get my ass hauled out by the police and continue the icebreakers in jail, so let’s move now. We good?”

“Yeah, okay, we’re good,” you say faintly, mind still whirling around as you try to grasp the situation. “I’m Y/N.”

“Great, now up you go.”

He immediately picks you up without any warning, and you almost fall backwards, arms flailing before you grasp the top of the fence and pull yourself up. Balancing precariously on top of it, you grab his arm, tugging him up until he’s sitting right next to you, too. The both of you swing your legs over the fence and jump down to the other side. You let out a sigh of relief, squatting down as you clutch your heart.

“Oh my god, we made it. I didn’t get arrested at my first party.”

“What an amazing accomplishment.” Yangyang brushes off the back of his shorts. “We aren’t going to jail. Freshman year is gonna be a breeze if your bar is set this low.”

“Hey!” You frown at him, standing up and crossing your arms over your chest. “How do you know I’m a freshman?”

“It’s written all over your face.” You give him a look, and he relents. “Only a freshman would be this scared of getting caught.”

“So are you an upperclassman?”

“Nah, this is my first party, too. I’m rushing for Nu Chi. Hold on, wait here.” He sneaks around the edge of the fence, peering around for a few seconds before jogging back towards you. “Okay, the police are over there. I’m gonna have to wait a while before going back in.”

“You have to go back?”

“Part of tonight’s rush process,” he sighs before turning to you. “Do you live on campus?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna walk back now,” you answer, shifting your weight from one foot to the other. “It’s late, and I’m not in a partying mood anymore.”

“I can walk you back,” he offers, and you shoot him a grateful smile.

“That’d be great, thanks.”

The two of you start the trek back, an awkward lull in the conversation making itself known. You wrap your arms around yourself, shivering slightly when a soft breeze picks up. There’s a light rustling noise, and you pay no mind to it until a soft cloth is draped over your shoulders. Eyes widening, you notice the colorful, palm tree-printed button down shirt wrapped around you and the boy next to you, looking straight ahead with his hands shoved into his pockets. Smiling to yourself, you slip on the shirt, loosely buttoning the front of it.

“So, Yangyang,” you casually begin, testing his name on your tongue for the first time. You decide you like it. It’s cute. He turns to you, raising an eyebrow, and you continue, “Since our lives are no longer in jeopardy, we can continue the icebreakers, right?”

His lips curve into a smile. “Alright, shoot. What’s your first question?”

“Captain America or Iron Man?”

“Oh, Iron Man, hands down. He’s so…”

You meet him in August.

FEBRUARY 2019.

“Hey, where’s your cereal? The Reese’s one?”

February marks six months of your relationship with Dejun. It also marks six months of your friendship with Yangyang. It is time for your weekly Sunday rituals of watching old cartoons and eating breakfast, and you could’ve sworn that box was still half full last week. You rummage through the top drawer Yangyang had designated for snacks and other foods in his dorm as he takes out the milk from his mini fridge and carries it over to his desk.

“I ran out a few days ago. There’s Cinnamon Toast Crunch somewhere in there though.”

With a victorious cry, you manage to pull out the slightly crushed box of the aforementioned cereal from underneath the packages of flamin’ hot Cheetos and spicy nacho Doritos and triumphantly bring it over to your best friend. He already pulls out two bowls (which were stolen from the dining hall) and hands over the plastic spoons in his grasp (which was also taken from the dining hall).

“Thanks.” After dropping a spoon into each bowl, you shake out the sugary cereal squares before pouring the milk because you’re not an absolute heathen who puts milk in first, like Sicheng. Yangyang clambers up to his top bunk bed, and you carefully pass over the two bowls of cereal, milk sloshing precariously near the edges. You climb up afterwards, and he gives you your bowl once you settle down.

“So, Scooby Doo or Pokémon?”

“Mm, we watched Pokémon last Sunday already, so let’s do Scooby Doo this time.” He nods in agreement, pulling up the cartoon from the queue in Netflix, and the two of you lean back against the ginormous mound of pillows and stuffed animals of his that occupy nearly half of his bed.

You’re shoveling a spoonful of cereal into your mouth when he casually asks, “So how’re you and Dejun doing?”

Choking slightly, you quickly swallow. “We’re doing good. I think he booked a table at the Italian restaurant down the street for Valentine’s Day. Are you doing anything for Valentine’s?”

“I’m forcing Renjun to come watch that “‘Happy Death Day’ movie with me.” The faint sounds of the Scooby Doo theme song plays in the background as you hum in acknowledgement, mouth twisting into a mischievous smirk.

“That’s so sweet. So who confessed to who? Not gonna lie, I thought you had a crush on Hyuck, not Jun.”

“... I would shove you right now, but I just did my laundry, and rewashing my comforter is expensive and I’m out of quarters.”

You stick your tongue out at him, and he rolls his eyes before lifting his bowl up to sip the best part of having Cinnamon Toast Crunch: the milk infused with all the cinnamony, sugary goodness. You let your spoon fall back into your bowl with a soft clink, a sudden worrying thought popping into your head.

“I bought him some customized guitar picks and a pretty composition book. Do you think he’ll like it?”

“That’s a pretty basic gift, isn’t it? It feels like something Kun would get him,” he teases, but his heart falls when he notices you chewing on your bottom lip, spoon held limply in your hand.

“Hey, I’m just joking, of course he would like it. He’s completely whipped. He’ll love anything from you.” Yangyang’s voice grows softer, and he fiddles with a stray thread on his comforter, avoiding eye contact with you. “I know I would.”

He looks up slightly and sees you smiling gratefully at him, eyes shining bright. He quickly ducks his head, turning away slightly to hide the hues of pink blooming on his cheeks. He feels you leaning over to rest your head on his shoulder with a quiet sigh, and his breath hitches in his throat.

“Thanks, Yang.”

Replaying the sight of your smile in his mind makes his stomach flip flop, and he resists the overwhelming urge to tell you you’re pretty, pushing it back into the farthest crevice of his mind.  Your head on his shoulder makes him feel like he’s carrying the entire world, and he doesn’t know what to do. He paints on a tight smile of his own, silently hoping you can’t hear the way his heart nearly pounds out of his chest.

Yangyang knows that having feelings for his best friend, specifically one of his good friends’ girlfriends, is something he absolutely should not be doing, but he can’t help it. His stupid heart refuses to listen to his brain. For now, all he can do is desperately hope that this dumb crush of his goes away soon because while 99% of his friends are oblivious (including you), Ten and Donghyuck are not. They’ll be able to spot his feelings from a mile away, like how Kun always knows when there’s a good sale going on at the Asian supermarket downtown (This week, it was the 50% off bean sprouts and chili paste).

Letting out an inaudible sigh, Yangyang carefully rests his head on top of yours. Clutching the empty bowl with one hand, he shoves his other one under his thigh to stop himself from reaching over and tangling his fingers with yours. He stares at the screen, watching until the bright colors blur together.

“Anytime.”

He likes you in February.

AUGUST 2019.

The earth spins around the sun for another time, and August makes its presence known once again. It’s Thursday night, and you’re sitting on the countertop in Nu Chi Theta’s kitchen, swinging your legs back and forth as Yangyang struggles to make some scrambled eggs because the half filled carton of eggs the two of you managed to find is the only thing that isn’t expired (besides Jeno’s protein shakes, but neither of you are gonna touch that cardboard tasting monstrosity).

“Maybe I should make it.” You peer over at the frying pan, wincing when you see the full damage of your future meal. “Did you use oil?”

“Of course I did!” he exclaims indignantly before pitifully pushing around the nearly charred mess of yolk and whites around with his spatula. “I’m not Mark.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” you mutter, waving your hand around to dissipate the acrid burning smell, and Yangyang throws you a dirty look. He grabs a fork and stabs a small chunk of the eggs. Picking it up, he brings it closer to his mouth before hesitating. His eyes dart to you, and you raise your eyebrows at him, a silent challenge in your gaze. The sad piece of egg hovers in the air for a few more seconds before he defeatedly drops it back into the pan.

“Okay, what if we just Uber Eats some McDonald’s?” Turning off the stove, he then tosses the remnants of his cooking into the trash and drops the pan into the sink.

“Stellar plan. Best idea you’ve had all night.” You hop off the counter to stand next to him, propping your chin on his shoulder to see him pull up the app. He immediately puts in your usual order along with his before holding it up for you to see it better.

“Looks good?”

“Looks perfect.”

He clicks the confirmation button, and the delivery is set to come in 30 minutes. You’re suddenly hyper aware of how close you are with your chest pressed against his back and hastily move away, warmth spreading across your cheeks.

Glancing over at your best friend, you don't miss the way Yangyang smiles down at something on his phone before his fingers fly across the screen. When he looks up, you immediately turn away, focusing your eyes on anything but him.

“Hey, you’re going to the Alpha Sig formal, right?” Yangyang calls out, and you throw on a teasing grin.

“You mean Alpha Sigma Psi, also known as the sorority I’m in?”

“Ah, right, yeah.” He flushes, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “But you’re going, right?”

You nod, the sudden realization creeping up on you. “Oh yeah, I am, thanks for reminding me. I completely forgot to ask, but do you want t—”

“Ningning just asked me to go with her,” Yangyang blurts out, and you freeze, failing to hide your shock for a split second before you regain your composure.

“Oh wow, that’s great, Yang! I’ll see you there then.” You try to give him a convincing smile. He wrings his hands, biting his bottom lip. Something is on his mind. You can tell. He’s not someone to hold back with his words, but this time, he is.

“I… I don’t know if I’m gonna go,” he says at last. Your heart picks up a little at that. Does that mean he doesn’t want to go to the dance at all? Or does he not want to go with Ningning? If you asked him now, would it make a difference?

“I’ve never slow danced,” he confesses, leaning against the opposite counter, and your heart drops. So that was it. Of course, he wouldn’t reject Ningning. She’s an absolute goddess, heck, you wouldn’t say no if she asked you either. You stamp out that last flicker of hope.

“What if I suck at it?” he continues, absentmindedly carding his fingers through his hair. “Oh god, I bet Yukhei and Kunhang are never gonna let me live it down. I can do choreographed dances, but I’m gonna mess up over a stupid slow dance. But where am I supposed to put my hands?! Like on her shoulders? Her waist? Do I hold her hand?”

Your eyes follow the way his hair ruffles slightly, and you wonder if it’s as soft as it looks. You swallow hard before saying quietly, “I can teach you?”

His hand pauses mid-movement, and your eyes fly down to meet his. His eyes widen, and he contemplates your offer for a split second before nodding excitedly. “Yeah, that’d be great! Can you teach me right now? While we wait for our food to come!”

“S-sure,” you stammer, flustered at the sudden acceptance and his eagerness. “Um, here? In the kitchen?”

“Yeah, why not?” He shrugs before straightening up. “The lights should be dimmed, right? We can kind of mimic that here to set the mood or whatever.”

He goes over and fiddles with the light switch, flicking it on and off, and you laugh, walking over and placing your hand over his. “What are you doing? Some kind of Kevin Nguyen mating call to look for a rave bae?”

“First off, I’m offended that you think I’d be one of them,” Yangyang narrows his eyes at you. “Secondly, I’m trying to make this feel more formal dance-y. Oh, wait!”

He turns off the lights for the last time and reaches over to pull open the refrigerator doors, the artificial fluorescent light pouring out and mixing with the faint beams coming in through the window from the street lamps outside. He grins at you, satisfied. “Romantic, huh?”

You roll your eyes, but the amused smile on your face gives away your true feelings. “Wow, Romeo, you swept me off my feet. The food is gonna go bad, and Kun is gonna kill you for the high electricity bill.”

“What food? Jeno’s protein shakes probably never expire.” He snorts before standing closer to you, his hands resting on either side of you on the counter. You can see the pretty gold flecks in his irises, and your breath gets caught in your throat. “And I guess this means you gotta teach me fast before we waste more electricity, right?”

You place your hands on his chest and lightly push him away, and he laughs, stepping back. You let out a shaky breath, remembering that your lungs need oxygen in order to, you know, continue living.

“Okay,” you clear your throat before pulling out your phone and putting on a slow song. “Ready?”

“You chose Ed Sheeran? Thinking Out Loud? Really?”

You raise your hands up defensively. “Hey, he’s the king of sappy slow songs that all girls want to be played at their weddings for their first dance.”

When your legs don't work like they used to before,

And I can't sweep you off of your feet,

Will your mouth still remember the taste of my love?

Will your eyes still smile from your cheeks?

“Is this the song you want played at your wedding?” He raises an eyebrow at you, and your face grows warm. You ignore the question, and this time, you’re the one taking a bold step forward, a few centimeters now separating you and your best friend. You see his Adam’s apple bob as he gulps lightly before meeting your eyes.

And darling, I will be loving you 'til we're seventy,

And baby, my heart could still fall as hard at twenty-three,

And I'm thinking 'bout how people fall in love in mysterious ways.

“So, your hands go here.” You take his hands and place them on either side of your waist. His arms freeze up. “Relax, Yang. Precious cargo here.”

He lets out a chuckle, loosening his grip as he starts to relax. You reach up and slide your arms around his neck, interlocking your fingers. You gaze back at him, saying softly, “Now pull me closer.”

He does so.

Maybe just the touch of a hand,

Oh me I fall in love with you every single day,

And I just wanna tell you I am.

“And now follow my lead. We’re going to take one step. And then another. We’re just slowly turning in a circle.”

After a few spins and steps, you stop leading and let yourself be led. Yangyang continues to hold onto you carefully, and you can hear him muttering a 1, 2, 3, 4 count under his breath until he finally gets the hang of it. He grows a little braver, pulling you even closer.

So honey now,

Take me into your loving arms,

Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars.

“Are you going with Dejun?” he asks quietly, and you stiffen at the mention at him before shaking your head.

“No, we broke up in July.”

Yangyang falters in his step before recovering. “Oh. You never told me.”

“Yeah.” You struggle to keep your voice level. “I just… he’s your friend, and I didn’t want to make it weird.”

“You’re my best friend though,” he says firmly, looking you directly in the eyes. His grip on your waist tightens. “It’s his loss. That dumbass just lost the best person who’ll ever come into his life.”

You give him a tired half smile, one that doesn’t quite meet your eyes. He hugs you closer to him, wrapping his arms around your waist and securing you against his chest. You rest your head in the crook of his neck and hope that he doesn’t feel how quickly your heart beats in your chest.

Place your head on my beating heart,

I'm thinking out loud,

Maybe we found love right where we are.

“Thanks, Yang,” you whisper, your breath tickling his skin. He envelops you tightly, and the two of you continue to spin in slow circles, quietly dancing in the refrigerator light as the remaining verses of the song warble in the background.

You think you finally understand what Dejun meant when he said he’s breaking up with you because your heart was already occupied by someone else.

You fall in love with him in August.

NOVEMBER 2019.

[ 12:54 a.m. ] yang 🐏🤪: hey you up?

[ 12:54 a.m. ] yang 🐏🤪: 7/11 in ten mins?

Tiredly rubbing your eyes, you stumble out of your dorm building, one of Jeno’s sweaters draped over your figure. November nights are cold, but this one seems chillier than usual. Yangyang stands near the front steps, and he stiffens up when he notices whose hoodie you’re wearing. He makes no mention of it though when you join him.

“Sorry, did I wake you?” He glances over to you as the two of you walk side by side to the small convenience store just on the edge of campus. You shake your head, shoving your hands into the front pocket of your sweater.

“I was up cramming for midterms. I could use a break anyway,” you shrug. A wisp of your hair falls in your face, and Yangyang starts to reach out to fix it, but forces himself to keep his hand by his side. You reach out to carelessly brush it away, tucking it behind your ear.

“What about you?” You look over at him, noting the bags under his eyes. “Rough night?”

He smiles tiredly at you, shoving his hands into his pockets as he kicks a stray pebble along the sidewalk. “More like rough week. Two more midterms left, and they’re for electromagnetic theory and linear systems.”

“Oh god, good luck. I took linear systems today, and it was absolutely brutal.” You wince, brightening up when you see the familiar neon orange, red, and green lights up ahead.

“Maybe I should just withdraw and take it again next quarter,” your best friend grumbles, kicking the stone as far as he possibly can.

“You really want another quarter with Hwang?”

“You’re right,” he sighs, “I just need to get a C+ to maintain my GPA. C if I’m pushing it.”

The two of you hurry over to the 7-Eleven, quickening your pace, until you reach the store doors, and you pull them open. Entering quickly, you push the door open slightly wider, and Yangyang slips in behind you. The cashier doesn’t even look up, texting away on his phone. You make a beeline towards the chips aisle, grabbing a bag of flamin’ hot Cheetos and a pack of sour gummy worms.

“What are you getting, Yang?” You call out over your shoulder, eyes zeroing in on the Red Bull stand at the end of the aisle. When you hear no response, you halt in your steps, turning around. Yangyang stands in the middle of the aisle, looking dazed under the fluorescent lights.

Putting your items back on the shelf, you approach him, reaching out and touching his arm gently. “Yangyang, what’s wrong?”

He jerks back before silently holding up his phone for you to see. There’s a slew of text messages from Ningning a few hours ago, and a quick scan tells you all you need to know. Your heart weighs heavily in your chest when you look back at him, a forlorn expression on his face.

“She dumped me,” he says quietly, shoving the phone back into his pocket. “She said our relationship was like a friendship. She didn’t feel anything. She said we could still be friends if I wanted to be though.”

He jabs a large bag of Lays potato chips angrily as his voice raises slightly higher. “But I don’t get it. Do friends take each other on dates? Do friends spend the night? Do friends hug each other and hold hands walking to class? Do friends spend three hundred dollars to do a surprise weekend trip for their birthday?”

He whirls around to face you, and he’s so close that you can see those pretty golden sparkles in his eyes again. Suddenly, his hands are cupping your face, and the next thing you know, he’s kissing you. Your eyes widen for a fraction of a second before they flutter shut, and you press your lips against his. The 90s pop station music playing overhead seems to fade away, and all you can focus on is that your best friend tastes like spearmint gum and grape soju. He pulls away abruptly, the realization of what he’s done finally hitting him as his chest heaves up and down.

“Do friends kiss like this?”

His voice is barely a whisper, but it cuts through the silence. You feel like you’re spinning out of control, a split second from careening and crashing.

“No, we—they don’t,” you mumble, and Yangyang sees the starstruck look in your eyes, and he wants to apologize: to say sorry for kissing you. But he doesn’t. Because for some reason, he doesn’t feel sorry. He closes his eyes, curling his hands into fists before exhaling slowly. He sees you looking back at him this time, and he wonders if you feel as equally lost as he does.

Because you’re right. Friends don’t kiss each other like that. Friends don’t feel like this about each other.

He kisses you in November.

AUGUST 2020.

The sun still shines bright late into the day, and August greets you like an old friend. You’re absentmindedly doodling in the margins of your notebook designated for Quantum Mechanics. Yangyang sits next to you in the lecture hall, making a bunch of origami cranes before tossing them at Renjun’s head right in front of him. When the bird reaches its target for the sixth time in a row, the annoyed boy whirls around in his seat, glaring at your best friend.

“Stop that,” he hisses, and Yangyang innocently raises his hands in the air. Renjun angrily frowns at him before turning back around in his seat. After a few minutes, Yangyang flicks another crane towards his friend. If this was a cartoon, you would see steam blowing out of your friend’s ears. You silently watch as he wordlessly picks up his phone, seething as he presses on a particular number.

Suddenly, Travis Scott’s SICKO MODE starts blasting, amplified by the large auditorium-like room. The professor goes silent, and everyone turns to see Yangyang scrambling to pick up his phone. He fumbles around for a few seconds with it before finally shutting it off and putting it on vibrate mode. Cheeks burning red, he meekly puts his phone back in his bag and squeaks out a “sorry” before sinking down in his chair (You can see the culprit grinning like the cat ate the canary right in front of him. Karma’s a bitch who also goes by the name of Renjun).

You pat his arm consolingly as he sulks next to you for a few minutes, mouth jutting out into a pout. You decide to take pity on him and lean closer to him, whispering quietly, “Would it make you feel better if I bought you boba after class?”

Immediately, he brightens up. “One oolong milk tea, half sugar with white pearls and coconut jelly?”

“Yes, I’ll pay for your overpriced drink,” you huff, thinking about how his one seven dollar drink could buy you a whole rotisserie chicken that’ll last you a week. At least the fluffy dog at Cloudy with a Chance of Boba is cute and fun to play with. “I’ll even get the honey waffle fries.”

“Heck yeah!” he whisper-yells, fist pumping quietly before he suddenly deflates. “Wait, I can’t. I promised Lia I’d get lunch with her.”

Ah, right, there’s Lia now. Yangyang’s new girlfriend: the only other student who went to Düsseldorf, Germany to study abroad over the summer, and inevitably, the two of them became close. All you really know about her is that she’s pretty, she’s in Iota Theta Zeta, and she followed you on Instagram a few weeks ago (of course, you followed her back because of the unspoken best friend and girlfriend policy).

Her page looks carefully curated, and there’s a common pink tinted theme going on throughout her feed. She has over a thousand followers, and it seems like Yangyang fits perfectly in her magazine curated life, judging by how he occupies nearly every picture taken in the summer with her or how he’s tagged as the photographer. You can’t deny that they look good together, pointedly shoving the green eyed monster back under the bed.

You take a peek at your messy Instagram page where you only post pictures when you’re half drunk, so there’s no semblance of uniformity anywhere. You shrug at him, pocketing your phone.

“No biggie. I’ll see if Karina is up for some boba. She’s been holed up in the dance studio already, and it’s only week two of classes, can you believe it?”

“I remember Ten was the same way,” Yangyang hums, eyes fixated on his phone and fingers tapping away. He laughs quietly, lips curling into a pretty smile, and you glance over curiously.

“What’s so funny?”

“Hmm?” Yangyang finally tears his eyes away from his screen for a split second to look at you before another buzz takes his attention away. He’s distracted, lovestruck, and you wistfully smile before turning back to your notes.

“Sorry, what’d you say earlier?” he loudly whispers a few minutes later, and you barely glance up from the large bulbasaur doodle you’re in the progress of completing right next to the chart marking the wave functions for a bouncing ball that you had copied down from the blackboard.

“Oh, I just asked what was so funny,” you murmur, coloring in the flowers you drew around the Pokémon with your blue ballpoint pen.

He looks confused for a moment before lighting up. “Oh! It was just a German joke. It’s not really funny if I translate it though.”

“Got it, no worries.” You notice the professor starting a new example problem, and you abandon your drawing, focusing on the formulas rapidly filling up the chalkboards in front of you. A quiet chuckle echoes in your ears, and you pause in your note taking to look over and see your best friend still typing on his phone. You make a mental reminder to create a copy of your notes for him later on when you pass the library on the way to the dining hall.

“Hey, Y/N.” Yangyang nudges you gently. “Rain check on the boba?”

You offer him a soft smile. “Of course. Anytime.”

He gives you a quick grin in return before his attention returns to the device in his hand—or rather, the pretty girl behind those texts. Your best friend is sitting right next to you, but you’ve never felt so far away. You know distance makes the heart grow fonder, but you don’t think it’s possible to be even fonder of him than you are now. Bad habits are hard to break, and you’ve made a terrible one of loving him. No wonder it’s beginning to hurt so much.

You lose him in August.

DECEMBER 2020.

December is the coldest month of the year, yet it is also simultaneously the warmest with all the holiday festivities it brings. If Yangyang were to choose a month to describe you, it’d be this one. You are a walking paradox, a conundrum he might never solve, an oxymoron come to life. He doesn’t understand how you can be his best friend, yet feel like a stranger; a friend who he wants as a lover; someone who has created such an impact in his life, but disappears seamlessly here and there.

He wonders when you’ve gotten so distant. He wonders why he never noticed the way you seemed to slip away through the cracks until it’s now nearing the end of the year, and the last time he’s seen you in person was before the November autumn break.

But you’re here.

You’re standing right next to the punch bowl filled with spiked eggnog, wearing a garish knitted button down jumper with brightly colored Christmas lights decorating it. It’s perfectly in theme with the Ugly Christmas Sweater party Nu Chi is holding, and Yangyang is beyond ecstatic to know that you’re attending. He had texted you an invite two weeks ago, and you merely reacted with a thumbs up.

Yangyang swears he was going to follow up with you on that, but he got so caught up with midterms, then meeting Lia’s family for Thanksgiving, then studying for finals, and then finally, preparing for this party. Buying enough beer for twenty-three keg stands is a lot more difficult than it seems (Donghyuck’s car broke down halfway during one trip, and they all had to carry back the packs of beers to the house in 40 degree weather in their Sperry boat shoes and Patagonia long sleeves that definitely weren’t cut out for this kind of weather).

His girlfriend is somewhere in the room, wearing the other half of the reindeer sweater she forced him to put on, but all he can focus on is you. He hurriedly makes his way over, skidding to a stop in front of you, and you’re startled before a smile spreads across your face.

“Hey, you, I haven’t seen you in a while.” You grin at him, reaching out to poke the reindeer tail sticking out from the front of his itchy sweater (Lia got to wear the head half of the reindeer, while he was stuck with the behind).

“Yeah, how have you been?” He reaches around you to pick up a cup and pour himself some eggnog. He offers you one, but you decline with a small shake of your head.

“I’ve been doing good, a bit tired with finals coming up, but what’s new?” You joke, grabbing one of the sugar cookies from the table. You’re secretly surprised that they actually have real food (No, Hyuck, Jell-O shots do not count as real food). You suspect Jaemin has something to do with it. He always contributes to the annual Greek row bake sale.

“Are you here with someone? Did Karina come?” he asks, curiosity coating every word. He looks around for your roommate, but she’s nowhere to be found.

You shake your head. “No, I actually came with—”

“Me!”

Yukhei bounds over, slipping an arm over your shoulder. He hands you a new cup of apple cider, which you accept gratefully. He grins happily at Yangyang, who freezes up at the sight of his tall friend. “I asked her to be my date for the party, and she agreed. She also made our sweaters! Aren’t they so cool? There’s even lights that spell my name and play Christmas songs. She did a bunch of cool programming tricks to make them work.”

Yangyang realizes with a start that the two of you are indeed wearing matching sweaters, and that leaves a rather sour taste in his mouth (and it definitely wasn’t because of expired eggnog). The corners of his lips tilt downward as he presses his lips together tightly.

“So… you two are together?” He gestures between you and Yukhei with a forced laugh. Jealousy never did look good on anybody, and unfortunately, he’s not an exception.

“We’re just seeing each other and seeing how it goes for now,” you answer quietly, noting the way your best friend reacts. You have always been good at reading him, and you tread carefully now, not wanting to make a scene. Drunk Yangyang never holds anything back, and he’s had quite a few pre-game shots already (It definitely doesn’t help that he’s a lightweight, too).

“I see. How did you guys meet? Or I guess, start talking?” He attempts to look intimidating, staring down at Yukhei, but it’s a difficult feat to accomplish, especially when he’s trying to stare down a six foot guy who’s more like an overgrown puppy and his friend.

“Oh, she came by for one of your boba runs, but you were still out with Lia. So I asked if I could go with her.” Yukhei flashes his pearly whites at you, and you chuckle, leaning your head against his shoulder.

“I said yes, and we hit it off, I guess.”

“You guess? And you took him on our boba runs?”

“You were out with Lia,” you say defensively, and he blanches when he hears his girlfriend’s name come out of your mouth.

“You could’ve waited,” he mutters, but you still hear it, and you give him a scathing look, finally too tired of this push and pull game that’s been going on behind the scenes for nearly three years now.

“I did. I waited over an hour here for you, but you didn’t show up or even text me that you were gonna be late. Yukhei was nice enough to offer to go with me.”

He stays silent, and you gnaw on your bottom lip, unsure of what to say next. Yukhei looks at you in concern, but you reach up and squeeze his hand reassuringly, which your best friend doesn’t fail to notice, his lips pressing into an even thinner line.

“I don’t understand what the deal is,” you finally burst out, startling both boys. “What’s the big deal about me and Yukhei going out?”

Something inside of him finally snaps. “The big deal is that you’re basically sleeping through my list of friends and then breaking up with them! First Dejun, then Jeno, now Yukhei? Who’s next? Should I give Renjun a heads up? Pencil you into his planner? Or Sicheng?  Sungchan? You have a class with him, so you’re bound to flirt with him, too, right? When are you gonna stop fucking around with my frien—”

He gasps, stopping mid-outburst as he stares at you in disbelief. Apple cider slides down from his hair, dripping onto his face and soaking into his sweater, the sticky juice clinging to his skin uncomfortably. You’re absolutely seething, the empty cup crackling in your clenched fist. Shocked, Yukhei carefully tugs the plastic away from you and places it on the table before replacing it with his own hand, his thumb caressing circles on the back of your hand soothingly. Yangyang doesn’t dare to meet his furious gaze, lifting his chin to look at you instead. The entire room has hushed down by now, all eyes staring directly at the three of you in a mixture of surprise and slight terror.

“Screw you, Yangyang,” you say lowly, voice shaking with anger. Tears form on the edge of your waterline, but you blink them away before hastily brushing a stray droplet from your cheek. “They asked me out. I said yes. We went out. It didn’t work out. We move on. Just like how you’ve gone out with my  friends. And they didn’t work out, so you moved on. So what’s so wrong about that? What’s so wrong about trying again to find love?”

He can’t answer you, curling his hands into fists until his fingernails indent miniature crescents in his palms—until the pain overtakes the feelings that are threatening to spill from his heart. Yangyang may not be yours, but he doesn’t like the fact that he can’t call you his either.

Love. That’s what you want, that’s what you crave, but not if it’s from him. So what is he supposed to do with love that’s unwanted? It’s bursting at the seams, and he has nowhere to hide it anymore.

He loves you in December.

AUGUST 2021.

August sneaks up on you this time around, and you find yourself in Kunhang’s apartment. All of your close friends are here, starting the last year of youth with one final first day party. You think back to that day three years ago: when your eyes met a pair of equally bright ones for the first time.

Curled up next to Yukhei on the couch, you look across the room and meet those very same eyes, although they seem hazier this time around. Lia is wrapped around his arm, and you think it’s quite ironic how both your and his relationships remain the same after all this time. Perhaps you both were bad luck for each other, leading to the other’s demise with short lived relationships. He looks away from you.

The rules of truth or dare are simple. You cannot ask the same person again until three other people have been asked first, and no one can be asked more than three times in each round. And, for reasons you can’t understand, everyone seems to take the code of truth seriously.

“I’ll start,” Kunhang announces, leaning back in one of the several beanbags he has in his place. “Goeun, truth or dare?”

Goeun sighs, leaning back on the palms of her hands. “Dare.”

“You and Mark, seven minutes in heaven.” Hendery points towards the coat closet, and the immediate reaction of hoots and wolf whistles has the girl rolling her eyes. With an exasperated huff, she stands up and pulls a red faced Mark along with her.

“Wait, you gotta pick the next person!” Donghyuck calls out, and she stops in her tracks, throwing open the closet door and shrugging. “You can choose for me.”

With that, she and Mark disappear behind the door, and Donghyuck turns toward the rest of the group, eyes glimmering mischievously. You pay no attention to him, absentmindedly playing with Yukhei’s fingers. You tug one of his rings off his finger, and he smiles, plucking it from your grasp carefully before holding your hand. He carefully slides it onto your right ring finger, but it falls off. Grinning, he pretends to try it on every single one of your fingers until finally settling on your thumb. The ring fits snugly there, and you admire it, wriggling your thumb around.

“Well, look at that. It fits you. I think that means we’re meant to be,” Yukhei says, smiling broadly, and you laugh, interlocking your fingers with his again before glancing down at the silver engraved band resting on your finger. The weight of the metal feels heavy resting against your knuckle.

“Yangyang, truth or dare.”

Donghyuck’s voice cuts through your thoughts, and you instinctively perk up in your seat at the sound of his name before freezing up in your spot. Yukhei squeezes your hand softly, and you tighten your grip around his fingers.

“Truth.”

“You’re no fun,” Donghyuck sighs, slouching back against the armrest. Yukhei leans over and whispers something in his ear before settling back next to you, shifting slightly to wrap his arm around you. Donghyuck lifts an eyebrow at your boyfriend before shrugging. “Okay, here’s an easy one. Are you in love…”

“Yes.”  is his immediate response, and you notice how Lia absolutely preens next to him.

“… with Y/N?”

Your breath hitches in your throat, and you immediately turn your head to look at Yukhei, your eyes growing wide in horror. He looks apologetic, shoulders drooping. “I’m sorry, but just the way he looks at you, it’s so obvious, and I had to know.”

You whip around to face the boy in question. With bated breath, you look at him, but Yangyang stares at the center of the floor, struggling internally. Everyone is quiet, and it reminds you of the calm before a storm. At last, he looks up, gazing right at you, and you can almost swear that you see those pretty little gold flecks in his irises from here.

“Yes,” Yangyang confesses quietly.

There’s almost a collective gasp rippling through the room, and Yukhei lets out an inaudible swear under his breath. Your grip on his hand grows slack as you fumble to get a grasp on the entire situation.

He loves you. He loves you. He loves you.

The words echo in your mind like a mantra until it grows so loud that you can’t hear any of your own thoughts anymore. Lia is in absolute hysterics, demanding an explanation from him, but he merely shrugs her off. Standing up, he quickly moves to leave the room, glancing at you one more time before disappearing out the front door.

It’s like your body is on auto-pilot after this. You drop Yukhei’s hand, immediately standing up and rushing after your best friend, paying no mind to the hushed whispers that only seem to increase in volume once you leave. You step out onto the porch, and there he is, sitting on the steps.

You quietly stand behind him, contemplating what to say and carefully choosing your next words. But there’s only one question on your mind.

“Why did you say that?”

He stays silent for a moment, staring out at the moon shining brightly ahead. “Because I meant it.”

Your heart wrenches in your chest. “You shouldn’t.”

He finally turns to look at you, an indescribable look in his eyes. It reminds you of heartbreak. “But I do. And I tried not to for the past three fucking years, but I can’t anymore.”

“Since freshman year?” You feel the tears well up in your eyes, and this time, you let them go. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Yangyang grips onto the edge of the stairs tightly, frustration ringing with every word that falls from his mouth. “Because I was scared. And I thought you never felt the same way. You’re my best friend, and I didn’t want to lose you.”

“Yang…” You whisper, hand reaching out as you let it hover over his shoulder for a few seconds. Then, you pull back, curling your fingers into fists, pressing crescent indentations into the palms of your hands.

He stands up, whirling around to look at you, desperate. “Tell me I’m not too late. Please, Y/N.”

Something inside of you breaks. You open your mouth and start to say something when the door opens behind you. Turning around, you see Yukhei. His eyes widen when he sees the two of you standing there.

You know this is it. This is the moment. This is where you have to decide.

“I, I was just looking for you. I wanted to make sure you’re okay.” Yukhei awkwardly rubs the back of his neck, taking a step back. “I’m sorry, I’m gonna go back in and—”

“No, wait, it’s okay,” you gently interrupt him. You reach out and slip your hand into his, and he relaxes, giving you a relieved smile. You smile softly back at your boyfriend before turning to face him, eyes apologetic.

“I’m sorry, Yangyang.”

He and you are asymptotes: two lines curving towards each other, but never touching; two hands reaching towards each other, but never interlocking; two people tangling their red strings of fate, but never tying.

You give him one last glance before going back inside with Yukhei.

You break his heart in August.

SEPTEMBER 2021.

September is supposed to be a new beginning: the transition from summer to autumn. Yangyang doesn’t think he can let go of you as easily as the trees shed their green for gold and red. Wherever he goes, wherever he looks, little reminders of you bloom in every crevice. You’re absolutely everywhere and nowhere, and it drives him crazy.

He thinks he’s gone completely insane when he hears your laugh while he’s walking to the laundromat one day. He shoves his airpods in and continues on his way until he sees you. Walking across the street, there you are. You’re on the phone with someone, and he contemplates going over to say hello. But suddenly, you’re hanging up the phone and waving eagerly at someone. When he turns his head to look, his heart drops and gets buried six feet under. He hurriedly ducks into a nearby bookstore and watches as you run up to Yukhei, slipping your hand into his like it’s second nature to you now. The two of you walk off together, and Yangyang is left standing at the window of the store until the shop owner politely asks if there’s anything he needs.

He doubts a time machine is something they have in stock, so he silently shakes his head and steps out onto the street once again. It is now silent and empty.

He loses you in September.

AUGUST 2022.

A lot can change in eleven months.

You’re twenty two years old, but you feel like you’re eighteen again. You know you’re going to see him for the first time since September at Kun’s housewarming. You had repeatedly assured Yukhei that you’d be fine. After all, life goes on; the world doesn’t stop just because you had a falling out with your best friend, even if it may have been a little more than that. Nevertheless, a year has nearly passed. Time is known to be the best healer, and perhaps your heart has shed its old skin and habits.

Your hand is safely enveloped in Yukhei’s, and the two of you walk towards your older friend’s new apartment. He playfully swings your interlocked hands back and forth, and you giggle, tightening your grip around his fingers. You stop in front of the door, the muffled sounds of a party slipping through the cracks. You suck in a breath, shoulders tensed. He’s in there.

“Are you okay?”

Yukhei squeezes your hand gently, voice laced with concern. You remember to breathe, exhaling slowly and relaxing before nodding. You smile up at him. “I’m okay.”

“If you want, we can go back home now, have another NCIS marathon, and drink this by ourselves.” Yukhei waves around the nice bottle of wine the two of you had brought for Kun. “We can even stop by the convenience store and get some ramen.”

You laugh quietly, the corners of your lips upturning with mirth. “It’s okay, I’m fine, Yukhei, I promise. Plus, I have you, right?”

He brightens up at that, practically beaming at you, and your heart skips a beat. “Right!”

You reach out and knock on the door. Kun greets the two of you, and you enter his apartment. Yukhei still doesn’t let go of your hand, and you follow behind him as you weave your way through the living room, greeting some of your friends. You hear Kunhang calling out to your boyfriend from the kitchen and feel him hesitate next to you. You squeeze his hand gently before letting go and nudging him in the direction of his friend. Yukhei gives you one last look, but you wave him off, smiling goodnaturedly and silently assuring that you’re okay. He swoops down and leaves behind a soft kiss for you before going.

You walk over to the alcohol table, pouring yourself something to drink. Leaning against the wall, you take a sip of your drink, your eyes flitting over the rim of your cup and slowly scanning the room. It feels like forever, like everything is moving in slow motion, like the world is submerged underwater, but it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds.

You find him easily. After all, it’s hard to forget someone whose features you’ve memorized over the past four years. Your eyes map the delicate outline of his face once more, and for a moment, you wonder if red is still his favorite color, or who he shares a carton of Ben and Jerry’s with nowadays. You wonder if he thinks of you sometimes, too.

But then, you wonder where Yukhei is. You search around until you see your boyfriend still standing in the kitchen, laughing at something your mutual friend said. Your eyes soften when you see him grab your favorite snack. You turn back around, your heart swelling in your chest tenfold, and your lips curl upwards, an endeared expression on your face.

That’s when you notice that he’s looking at you.

You brace yourself, waiting for the tidal wave of emotions to wash over you and the quickening of your heart rate to greet you like an old friend. Because that’s what always happens when you’re around him. After all, he is the biggest what-if in your life. He is someone you almost loved forever, someone you almost stayed for.

And yet, nothing happens. You wait a little longer. The world still goes round, and you’re still breathing. There’s no shortness of breath, no erratic heart palpitations, no sweaty palms, absolutely nothing. Liu Yangyang is a stranger in a familiar body, and your heart remains still.

You give Yangyang a faint smile, nodding towards him, and it feels like a sudden jolt in his heart. Time stops, and all he can see is you. You look beautiful. You have always been beautiful. This is his chance. Whatever higher entity out there has taken pity on him and given him a second try to make it right. He finally takes a step towards you, and the tender, encouraging expression in your eyes gives him the strength to take another one. After all, the eyes are the windows to the soul. Clutching his drink in hand, he pushes his way through the crowd. He’s only eight, seven, six, five steps away from you now. A smile grows on his face as relief curls around his heart like a bandage. You’re standing there, waiting for him, smiling at him.

And suddenly, you’re no longer looking at him.

You stopped looking at him.

Yukhei makes his presence known next to you, excitedly chattering about something and gesturing towards the kitchen as he hands you something to eat. It’s a snickerdoodle cookie. Your favorite. Your eyes are fixated on the tall boy, positively sparkling as you beam at him.

Yangyang feels like he can’t breathe. The bandage is ripped off, and all he can feel is excruciating pain like a thousand pinpricks into his heart before the numbness hits. He freezes, rooting himself in that spot on the scratched hardwood floor as his colleagues and friends continue to jostle around him. As his world crumbles around him, he can’t tear his eyes away from you. They stay on you, the barest traces of nostalgia lingering in the dimmed golden flecks of his irises that you had still admired all those months ago. It’s like he’s trapped in a silent film, stuck in a fish bowl and swimming in circles, and he watches in horror as you outstretch your hand and intertwine your fingers around Yukhei’s, leaning up to press your lips against his tenderly. Your boyfriend looks at you like you hung the stars in the night sky yourself (He would believe it if you said you did).

You don’t look at him like that anymore.

Yangyang remembers when you used to. When you used to love him. When you were almost his. He feels something inside of him break for a second time.

The world continues to spin, and yet, he’s still not moving. He’s stuck in quicksand, sinking deeper and deeper as everyone around him moves on—as you move on. He desperately tries to keep you in his view, and his feet finally pick up as he lurches forward. He’s not fast enough. You’re slipping away, walking away from him, hand in hand with Yukhei, disappearing around the corner of the hallway, and he can’t do anything about it. It’s too late. He’s too late. The sticky remnants of cheap beer run down his wrist, and it finally registers in his mind that he had crushed the flimsy plastic cup in his hand sometime in between now and then. In a crowded room full of people, he’s left standing there, alone and lonely.

Almost is the worst way to love someone, Yangyang bitterly realizes. It hurts to lose someone you almost love. No, it was never an ‘almost’. He most certainly loved—loves—you. And it should be impossible to lose someone who was never his to begin with, yet he has. All this time, he thought he had you, but it had always been the other way around.

He was your August, he was your everything, and he is yours.

But you will never be his.

You let go of him in August.