#i'm gonna need to come up with a new header one of these days... my lineart on it is so shaky

[benevolenterrancy]

Can you draw some more dimwood forest fanart? Your multi fandom animal piece is some of the only art I've ever seen for the series. If you want a more specific idea, could you either draw poppy and ereth being friends or ereth with his fox cubs? Thank you so much

getting a break from the kids

[undercoverpena]

v. you make me feel wild

javier peña x f!reader | chapter five of late night texts

summary: It's the year 2000. Javi is minding his own business on the porch of his pop's ranch when a text from an unknown number vibrates his phone. The only problem is, no one knows he has a phone and no one has his number.

chapter warnings: fluff. flirting. continuous romcom vibes. an: it's happening. everyone stay calm. also, we have a new header ;) wordcount: 2.2k.

text key: bold is you/reader | italics is javi

Woke up this morning and remembered that we’re going to meet

I may have also woke up smiling

On a scale of Javi smiles was it bigger than the one when we destressed one another?

bigger you flirt

I’ve learnt from you. Never used to be like this. I was innocent before talking to you.

somehow baby I doubt that

We can argue about it later if you want? When I kick your ass at the crossword.

cant wait. try not to let those assholes get you down

I’m on my best behaviour this week. Need them to not revoke going to Houston.

oh any special reason

Not really.

ouch baby

Ask silly questions, win silly prizes.

im going to houston too

Oh are you? Any special reason?

gonna meet this beautiful woman who is an outrageous flirt

Great now I'm blushing.

you make it so easy

I have to go, the meeting is beginning, I'm sorry. Speak later, baby xx

Pop doesn’t bring it up, even if he knows. He waits—like dads do.

Forcing Javi to bring it up, all awkward—sweat pebbling around his neck, lower spine and brow. Not helped by the sun beating down on them, having to shout parts over the occasional animal grunt heard over their discussion as they repair the barn door.

Lately, his Pop leaves him to do bits like this alone. But he’s been hovering. More since the phone calls began and a level above that since he walked in on him the other night.

He stews in it. Allows it to thicken before he really brings it up—unsure whether to come out with it or skate around it. The two of them have gotten out of practice when it comes to sharing.

Javi is more used to lying to save face than being honest.

A hazard of his old job, he supposed. A mask he applied so his old man didn’t worry. Now, with those same occupational worries gone, Javi still finds it hard to let people in. Truly in. Not wanting to discuss Colombia, discuss Cali or Escobar.

It all adds to a pile of things the two Peñas don't talk about.

This wasn’t even bad news. It was good. Precisely what everyone wanted—including him—yet the words still seem to ball up in his throat. Rounding off, becoming a lump that sits.

Making it hard to breathe as he lifts a piece of wood; making it hard to twist when he moves to grab the hammer.

So much so, the words eventually just burst out of him. More like a confession than anything else.

“—that must have been real embarrassing for you.”

He can hear you stifling a laugh. His verbal reenactment of the conversation in the field with his Pop having tickled you.

“You’re an awful person,” he says, twisting the cord around his finger, smirking.

“If you feel that way, baby. We can always not meet.”

“Don’t you fucking dare. We’re meeting,” he says, coating his words in playfulness, even if there's a serious undertone remaining.

Turning on the spot, he leans against the wall. Finger looping more of the cord—hearing you lightly laugh.

“What... what is the plan, anyway?”

You hum, and he hears you shifting. Likely getting comfortable or reaching for something.

He’s learnt that often when he calls, you’re on your sofa—a blanket, sometimes over your lap. You like to be cosy, even if it's a warm day.

Other times you’re in your room, sitting on the bed—or under the sheets. It depends entirely on how warm you are, and how you’re feeling.

“Well, work will pay for my hotel for my two-night stay, and then if we, y'know, wanted to stay, I’ll just need to sort a room out for after.”

“How long have you managed to book off?”

It comes out shaky, more than he means it to.

Some of the finer details of your two’s meet left simmering in the centre of your usual conversations.

Both of you are evidently too afraid to ask.

“I’ll have managed to book off the week. Two days, including the day I land, for work and then the rest—if you're not a weirdo—can be with you.”

Grinning, he leans his head back, resting it against the wall. “Bit late now for you to be worrying about me being a weirdo, baby. I know the sounds you make when I make you—“

“Javi!”

Smirking, he bites the inside of his cheek. “It sounds good. Tell me the hotel, and I can book a room there.”

He hears it, the relief. The way you let out a breath, it blowing down the phone—making him smile.

“Y-you don’t mind?” 

“You expected me to?” 

Pausing, he hears you shuffle again. Sounding more like you’re on your bed than your sofa. “I mean, no. I guess I wasn’t sure what you’d assume. Cause, while there’s a good chance when I see you, I’ll want to spend every waking moment with you, there’s, y’know…”

Grinning, he curls the phone line around his palm, fingers sliding between parts. “The chance it could be a lot?”

“I just don’t want to fuck this up.” 

He doubts you could.

From what he knows of you, he’s sure of it.

But, he also isn’t quite ready to confess he’s already pretty head over heels for you. That he is without seeing your face, knowing how tall you are—whether you have dimples or not, whether you smile with your lips or your entire face. 

“How’re you gonna fuck this up, baby?” 

You go silent, wondering if that’s the point you’ve shrugged to no one but your apartment. 

“I’ve heard I’m a lot,” you say quietly. 

Something snaps in him, a fracture running through him. “That’s alright. Steve told me I’m an asshole.”

“You’re not an asshole—“

“And I promise you’re not a lot. If anything, you could actually talk more to me.”

“Shut up, I talk loads.” 

He smiles, biting the inside of his cheek as he sighs. “I'm excited to see you.” 

“Me too.” 

Moving closer to the wall, he swallows, looking at the chipped tile in his kitchen. “You’re not gonna fuck this up, baby.”

“Yeah?”

“Promise. Let me book the room for the same amount of days as you, and then we can take it from there,” he says.

Struggling to hide his smile as you excitedly tell him you'll go grab your hotel details. More so when he's sure he heard you trip over something.

Are we going to do this when we meet?

you want to still do the crossword together

Yeah! We can find a place to pick up the paper if you want?

id like that

Good! Now, hit me with the next one so I can get some sleep so I can see you quicker.

got me blushing baby

7th word is d from ciders and clue is replacing, nine

Insteadof. This one is easy.

yeah im beginning to see that

Maybe we’re getting good at it?

let’s put it to the test, self-confidence six

Okay that one did take me a second but it’s aplomb.

you amaze me

Thank you. I think I should try and get some sleep, don’t want to look half-dead when I see you.

I doubt you ever could

I can’t believe I’m going to see the face that matches that suave voice.

suave ay. cant wait to see how pretty your smile is

You’re making me blush again.

tomorrow ill get to see it in person

You will. Goodnight, baby.

If I wasn’t meeting you it would be criminal being up this early.

Actually, it isn't even early. It is still night.

morning to you to baby I’m about to get on the road

Ok, I'm going to make myself the largest coffee.

Also if you’re not there after half an hour I’ll just head to the hotel.

hermosa I’m picking you up 

I know but just in case, least you know I won’t be standing around. 

you won’t be because I’ll be there 

Javi, this way you have options to take one look at me and drive the other way. 

I won’t do that 

I’m just giving options and in case there is traffic 

hermosa, im not going to stand you up

Okay, can’t blame a girl for wanting to help.

you can help me by getting your ass to the airport

Getting bossy, are we? I like it.

fuck baby you cant say things like that to me when i need to leave

Just something to think about on your long drive. Please drive safe, baby. See you soon.

see you in several hours

Javi is surprised at how smooth the drive is.

He watches the sun rise up as the miles tick on, sliding his aviators from his shirt to up on his nose. He finds a surprising road stop that serves not-bad coffee.

The kind that doesn’t leave that cheap tinge on his tongue or bitterly sitting in the back of his throat.

He doesn’t feel nervous, either.

And on top of that, he finds a parking spot at the airport with ease.

In a way, he worries it’s too good to be true. That such smoothness now means a rocky hill later.

That’s when the nerves kick in. It sitting, fluttering in his stomach—at first, all little wings and then all of a sudden something larger.

Shifting the parking brake into place, he turns the key to silence the car. His pulse creates a beat—steady, almost orchestral—as he glances up at the sea of people stepping out of the airport. 

This is it.

He’s been trying not to picture you—attempting not to turn shapes into something solid. Javi wants the experience when his eyes land on you, as though his world is in black and white, and then he’ll see colour.

It’s what he hopes.

A part, small but insistent, keeps chipping away at him, reminding him to plan for the worst. To have a backup plan—a way out.

Picking up his phone, he stares at the blank screen. Somewhat reassured that you hadn’t either texted that you’d arrived earlier—or worse, you’d changed your mind.

Lifting his chin, sliding his palm over his jeans, he takes a breath—deep, heavy, the kind that expands his chest until it can’t anymore.

You should have landed by now.

His eyes glance at the time on his watch as he takes another breath. Checking down at his shirt, making sure for the hundredth time he hadn’t spilt coffee—ensuring dark brown hadn’t stained pink.

It’s what you had asked for.

How will I know it’s you? youll know Because you’re oh so handsome? yes that and ill wear bright pink For me? You spoil me.

Running his tongue over the front of his teeth, he brushes his palm over his face.

It’s only then that he allows his eyes to flick from face to face, worry creeping in. It trying to merge with the happiness he’s been stifling on the drive. Scanning and scanning, glancing and glancing—

Then, in a worn denim jacket, legs out, dragging a battered suitcase behind, he sees you.

Or who he hopes is you.

If it is, you look nervous. It makes you stand out from the crowd of bustling people around you, as they struggle to get past you, and you struggle to force it behind a smile or banish it from your cheeks.

Even from here, it pulsates. You finding it more difficult as shaky hands pull out something from your pocket, unfolding it, before he sees the most ridiculous hand-drawn sign in between your fingers.

It’s definitely you. 

You who has scratched Javi P onto a piece of paper, all accompanied by a worried expression on your face as you shift from leg to leg. 

Javi isn’t sure why you made the sign. You didn’t need it.

Somehow, against all logic and odds, he knew it was you. His arm shoving the car door wide as he exits, not looking back to check it slams into place as he crosses to you, watching, waiting with his heart in his throat for your eyes to land on him. 

And when they do. 

It’s an eclipse. 

It hits your eyes first, making them gleam like a beacon guiding him home. Then it reaches your cheeks, lips sliding up, teeth showing as you lower the sign, staring at him as he moves closer, forgetting all the others around the two of you.

As though a single soul has never even existed outside the two of you.

It’s just him and you.

Coming to a stop in front of you, he lets himself stare you up and down—voice and texts stitching themselves to the face he now sees. 

Flexing his fingers at his side, Javi watches you slowly lick your lips as his heart slides back into its rightful place. The nerves slowly stop fluttering, and his mind begins to catch back up with him.

And the only thought that remains is: You're beautiful.

More than his mind could ever conjure or create.

“Hi,” you say.

And it falls like glitter from your lips to his ears. 

His lips are unable to relax from their grin, spreading wider, cheeks aching as he fights running his knuckles against your cheek. “Hi.”

an: if this was a sitcom, this would be my season finale... but alas it isn’t, so you only have to wait a week for them to be hanging out *wink, wink*

✨ also, check out this really cool moodboard a beautiful soul made for LNT for the birthday bash

next chapter ->

[piratefalls]

“You are", he says, "the absolute worst idea I've ever had.” - me @ ao3 after watching the movie and thinking "there's probably fic for this."

i like lists. i've lost sleep reading fic like it's gonna disappear the second i look away. i'm making my problem yours. i'm sure a lot of these won't be new to people since they pre-date the movie and it's far from comprehensive but. i'm late to this party. i also can't make gifs, so enjoy the basic canva header.

(baby) don't make me spell it out by extasiswings

One night near the end of first semester 1L finals, just a few weeks before the two-year anniversary of their first kiss, Alex finds himself looking up from his desk with its messy piles of color-coded notes and tabbed textbooks to see Henry asleep on the couch, clearly having dozed off waiting for him to come to bed, and unbidden he thinks, God, I’m going to marry this man. It startles him, the spike of adrenaline that floods through him waking him up and bringing the parts of his brain turning over concepts like proximate cause and strict liability to a standstill as he stares at Henry. I want to marry this man.

God Save the Blessed American President Mom by zipadeea

["June stopped by at lunch; she showed me a delightful channel called Hallmark, which repeats the same story every hour after they swap one round of white, straight, small-town conventionally beautiful actors for another. It was entertaining.” “June and I used to play a drinking game with those. Take a shot every time someone goes ice skating, sledding, or leaves the big city for their tiny hometown.” “Good lord, you must’ve been sloshed in the first ten minutes.”] -- On December 4, 2021, an attempt is made on President Ellen Claremont's life. Alex gets shot instead.

Familiar Gravity by cmere

“Yeah,” Alex breathes, and he pulls back to look Henry in the eyes. “I’ve been fantasizing about you fucking me in this chair for, like, weeks. Every time you sit down here with your stupid book.”   Henry likes it when Alex speaks Spanish and Alex has a request.

Am I the Asshole? by everwitch

AITA for spending Valentine’s Day with my roommate instead of my boyfriend? It’s well past midnight on a Saturday and hardly the first time Alex has scrolled aimlessly on his phone instead of trying to sleep, but it’s definitely the first goddamn time Alex has discovered his roommate has made a lengthy post about last night’s curry debacle to r/AmItheAsshole — a post that’s apparently gone fucking viral. -- In which Alex and Henry are college roommates, and a few thousand strangers think they should fuck.

Everybody needs good neighbours by railmedaddy

To nora(9.37pm): So a funny thing happened My hot neighbour brought me the mcflurry i ordered and we fucked From nora (9.38pm): WHAT DETAILS NOW Which neighbour? Wait, you only have one hot neighbour. Alex, did you fuck a guy?!?!?! ALEX Or Alex meets a hot new neighbour. Shenanigans ensue.

A Picture on Your Corkboard by bleedingballroomfloor

It happens on a random morning in May when Alex, age fourteen, pads into the kitchen to greet his mother and steal a waffle from June's plate and sees a man sitting at their breakfast counter, reading a newspaper, a cup of coffee raised to his lips. Like he belongs. Like it's the most natural thing in the world. June doesn't seem to give the man a second thought. She merely flicks Alex on the forehead and takes back the waffle. Ellen isn't worrying, either. In fact, she's talking to him. Asking what his schedule is like. Making plans for dinner. Alex has never seen this man before in his life.

this is the worthwhile fight by dearhappy

It's not that Henry's scared of their future, he's never been more sure of anything in his life. The thing is they're still trying to figure out how that future is going to look. And he worries about how it'll affect Alex's career in politics.

Déjame Ver Cómo Es Que Floreces by 14carrotgold

Oscar gets in close and bluntly asks, “Earlier. In the bathroom. Did you do it?” Alex scoffs, “No. Don't be a perv. Why would you wanna know that anyway?” Oscar rolls his eyes. “Mind out of the gutter, chamaco. Did you propose?” Ah.  - Henry is introduced to the extended Diaz side of the family at their matriarch's birthday. Shenanigans (and romance and feelings) ensue.

Please Don't Let Me Be So Understood by chamel

“I’m glad you both see it that way,” Dr. Chen says. Then she closes her notebook and folds her hands on top of it. “I think I’m starting to get a sense of where the issues lie. The good news is that you’re both here, and you’re both willing to work on this relationship. That’s promising. Not all of the couples I see are even at that point.” “Sorry, what?” Henry says, voicing Alex’s stuttering thoughts as well. (After one too many fights at work, Henry and Alex are assigned mandatory reconciliation therapy by their boss. Except the therapist thinks they're there for couples therapy... and surely, a bet on who will break first makes more sense than actually correcting her, right?)

Such a Burden, This Flame on My Chest by allmylovesatonce

Alex Claremont-Diaz is relocating back to Austin to join his dad's firehouse. His days as a firefighter in Washington D.C. ended badly, but no one knows that, or knows why. And he plans to keep that close to his chest. He has to shove it back down if he wants to seem like a normal person, if he wants to do the job, if he wants to get along with his new crew, and most of all, if he wants to get to know the hot British firefighter on the squad. No one can know what really happened.

thinking (about last night) by rhosyn_du

“I hope you know that I am literally never going to stop reminding you that you said that. I’m going to, like, take out an ad in the student paper. Maybe hire a skywriter or something. I am definitely telling Pez." "I hate you," Henry tells him. "Lies," Alex says, still laughing. "You know you love me." Henry lets out a heavy sigh. "Well," he says softly, "that's rather the problem, isn't it?" “What, you think we’d be better off if we still hated each other?” “I think," Henry says slowly, "I’d be better off if I could figure out how to stop being so stupidly in love with you.” It takes a few seconds for the words to really register, as distracted as Alex is by the heat of Henry’s breath and wondering how much it would cost to actually hire a skywriter. Once they do, it takes a full minute before Alex can move. Can breathe. Can think. Finally, he forces out a whispered, “What?” When that gets no response, he tries again. This time, his voice actually cooperates. “Wait, what?” The only response he gets is a soft snore and Alex realizes that Henry, the utter fucking asshole, has passed out on his shoulder.

you're the reason i let myself fall by perfect-porcelain (tedddylupin)

Alex doesn't quite know what to expect when he walks into a room with a glowing screen separating him from the person in the other pod. The entire experience makes him skeptical. How can you fall in love with someone you've never met? Or: Love is Blind AU

Sharper Head, Wilder Heart by Dawg1515

"This could work out,” Henry offers. “It could,” Alex replies. “That’s good, then. Someone’s going to have to walk me through the brilliance of Empire Strikes Back, after all.” “Sweetheart, if we’re legitimately dating now, I’m forcing you to watch every movie that has Harrison Ford in it.” “Duly noted.” Or: When the Queen decides it’s time for Henry to settle down with a woman, she arranges a courtship between him and Alex Claremont-Diaz, closeted political powerhouse. Alex secretly tells Henry he’s trans, and Henry tells Alex that he’s gay. To say they become an amazing couple would be an understatement—but nothing is ever that easy for a prince and a president’s son.

every version of you (i love) by coffeecatsme

“So,” the voice narrates as the man squishes the dog’s cheeks and laughs at himself. “There’s this guy that lives next to me with the cutest beagle in the world and this little guy climbs to the fence every day to drop his toys off at, like, 5:30 on the dot, I’m not kidding.” The camera shows the man boop the dog’s nose and press a little kiss to his forehead. There’s a ball in his hands that he hands to the dog, but it slips from his mouth all over again, making the man reach down to grab it. He glares at the dog, but even then he’s still smiling. “And this guy always walks by and picks up the stuff and it’s the cutest fucking thing ever you have no idea.” The camera zooms in farther into the man’s smile, genuine and wild, as he pushes his wild curls away from his face. His eyes flicker up when another figure walks into the frame, his blonde hair falling over his forehead in waves. The man’s smile, impossibly, widens. “Oh. I’m also pretty sure he has a crush on my neighbor.” Or, 5 times David greets Alex with something that belongs to Henry, and 1 time he greets Alex with something that belongs to both of them.

The Duke Who Loved Me by annesbonny, Inareskai, schmulte

This Author knows as well as anyone how much you, gentle readers, enjoy a scandal and a love story. And what could bring more delight that two young gentlemen who bring both of those wherever they go? Join the Duke of Mountchristen and the, untitled, Mr Claremont-Diaz as they attempt to find a Love Match amongst the gossip of the ton.

The Edge of Glory by politics_and_prose

Subject: CD-10 To: Alex Claremont-Diaz (acd@cdlaw.com) From: Natasha Wallace (nwallace@txdems.com) Alex - You know how you jokingly told me to let you know when Mayfield was vulnerable and/or not seeking re-election? Tash

lying in the low light by smc_27

The thing about having a one night stand with the guy your sister is close friends with and gatekept from you is that it becomes really fucking important that she never knows. Or, Alex and Henry have a one year stand. Or, Alex and Henry are in a relationship, only they’re the only ones who don’t know it.

what we might do (if we stop keeping a secret) by indomitablelove

'This isn't how I wanted to tell people. I thought we'd get the chance to do it right.' - Red, White and Royal Blue, Casey McQuiston, p.327 --- or, in another world, Alex and Henry get to do it right.

Who Could Love You The Same as I by MariaDmitrievnaLikesSundays

Inside was exactly what Alex had found himself dreaming about ever since that night at Kensington. The kind of dreams that he forced himself to forget once he woke up, but dreams all the same. A gold band, simple and smooth, with a single square diamond embedded on top. It was small, modest, exactly to Alex’s taste. ”Holy shit,” he said again. “Holy shit.” That was a ring. That was, unmistakably, an engagement ring. Hidden in his boyfriend’s coat. And he had just found it.

—— Or, Alex finds the engagement ring that Henry had hidden, and does exactly what you’d expect him to.

As the World Falls Down by 3bowtruckles

So while we all knew that the 2020 written in the book would be glorious fiction, we didn’t realize that reality would throw us something to take 2020 even further away from the book’s events. This story is where I attempt to merge our 2020 reality and the fiction of RWRB, using research (a LOT of research) to try to figure out what the trajectory of reality might have been. The story starts picking up the timeline after their late-February trip to Paris. After that, it's strictly AU, but I try to keep a lot of the intents of the events in the book (for instance, Alex's trip to confront Henry in Britain after the lake) while still making them fit the narrative I've created.

We'll Change the World Yet to our Dessire [sic] by cresswells

Alex and Henry are engaged and ready to share their announcement with the world, but after the media circus surrounding their forced outing Queen Mary wants them to do things properly this time. To Alex’s surprise, ‘properly’ apparently means taking a Royal Tour around Europe as an official couple. Ten days, five countries and lots of unnecessary wardrobe changes. What could possibly go wrong?

where clouds look like mountains by weather_stained

Four months after the election, while still learning to navigate the complexities of being in a public relationship, Alex finally has the chance to show Henry around Austin.

We'll Invite Something In by smc_27

Alex is grinning a little too hard.  This is absolutely idiotic and pointless and fun.  The cover of Hello UK with a photo of him pulled out and a photo of His Royal Highness Prince Henry Fox-Mountchristen whatever the hell the rest of his names are (Alex knows; he being a dick) with the admittedly stupid but flattering headline which reads: His Royal Highness: He’s just like us and crushes on Pres ACD.

Henry's Cold, Empty Tower by DracoWillHearAboutThis

“I want you,” Henry said, slowly but clearly, “to leave.” When Alex storms Kensington Palace, Henry sends him away. Then, their relationship gets leaked, and it's Henry's turn to fight for Alex.

behind the diamond-shaped glass by Celaestis

Five times Alex and Henry used tea and biscuits to communicate, and one time they don't need to.

The Byline by rosetintednerdglasses

Press Secretary Alex Claremont-Diaz serves at the pleasure of the President, and he does it excellently until a new White House correspondent darkens his press room: Henry Fox, The Guardian.

we've been here forever (here's the frozen proof) by r_holland

Objectively, I am aware that you – a stranger – cannot tell me my own sexuality any better than I can, however... Can you, please? Tell me? It’s 4am and I have been thinking about this for hours, and I can’t sleep. Warmest regards, ACD *** It’s four in the morning, and Alex Claremont-Diaz has managed to follow a research spiral straight down into a personal crisis. It isn’t the first time.

words on the tip of your tongue (but please don't say them) by viciouslyqueer

So close. He was so close to saying those words that have lived inside him for so long, and now it's gone, a moment that slipped right between his fingertips before he could grasp it. Now he’s floating in the middle of the lake alone, the ghost of Henry’s touch still lingering on his skin and an unknown, heartbreaking feeling in his chest. — Or: canon-divergence where Henry doesn't leave the lake house.

The Grand Tour by lucky (revolutionbarbie)

When Henry returned from an audience with Queen Mary looking stony faced and grim, Alex had immediately feared the worst. She had requested to see Henry – and Henry alone – the moment their plane had landed at Heathrow on a visit to Pez’s new shelter in London.  Alex had suggested that they go to see her together just to spite the old hag, but Henry wanted to keep the peace. Since moving to Brooklyn, they had entered into an uncomfortable détente with Queen Mary and Henry was loathe to be the one to break it.  “She wants us to go to Australia. It would be an unofficial Royal Tour, of sorts, with stops in several cities and a short visit to New Zealand. Three and a half weeks in total.”  “She wants to send us on an all-expenses paid Australian getaway? Count me in.”

come and get me by rizcriz

The email arrives 8 days after Henry left the lake house. He contemplates deleting it without reading, but it sits in his Alex inbox, where there are over seventy emails favourited, and somehow it feels wrong and weirdly impersonal. As if leaving without a note were any different. He stares at the from line with an aching longing that seeps into his veins. It settles on his heart like a tangible thing; something warranted and cruel that casts shackles around the aorta and locks them tight so that he might never love again. -- or, alex sends an email instead of flying to KP.

Never Did Run Smooth by clottedcreamfudge

"You and me? Best friends. Stellar. Love that for us. But we could absolutely fake being in love. Dating. Whatever. I know literally everything about you—" (No you don't, Henry thinks firmly) "—and you know everything about me. We would absolutely fucking annihilate the other contestants.” "You're too drunk to apply," Henry points out, like he himself isn't about as wasted as it's possible for him to be without curling up and going immediately to sleep. "I doubt you could spell your own name right on the application. Or mine." Alex grins and pulls something up on his phone; it looks like it takes him a few tries. "Wanna fucking bet?" *** Or: Henry's life is a comedy of errors; a patchwork of oopsie-daisies; a quilt stitched together with hauntingly terrible mistakes. And at the centre of it all is his best friend, Alex Claremont-Diaz; director of said comedy, threading together his oopsie-daisies into a flower crown, rolling around in the quilt of his own making, and this analogy is going to shit because Henry's so in love with him he wants to die.

idk I'll do a part two if anyone wants.

[closurechilde]

EVERYONE WANTS HIM, THAT WAS MY CRIME.

This goes to my baby boy out there who's recovering in Sneznhaya, hope you get better soon my boy. (I thought of this while listening to "Slut!" By Taylor, that's why the title)

Cw: this is me crying over Childe, f!reader, established relationship, archon quest spoilers??

Tonia left his room and went to you, who was pacing around the living room to ease your nervousness. Was he okay? How bad were his injuries? He'll get one hell of a talk once he gets up... is he even asleep? Archons, he should be resting-

"Teyvat calling to big sis!" Teucer yelled, taking you out of your mind. He started calling you that after Ajax explained to him that you were like a big sister but from another family.

"Sorry, I was spacing out, pretty boy..." You say softly, ruffling his hair and making him giggle before looking at Tonia.

"He's up... and asking for you." She says, and you sigh before heading into the room.

The walk there had never felt longer. You can't remember how many times you walked through this hallway to get into his childhood room.

You went there the first time you met his family and his mother wanted to show it to you, saying that "he was such a cute boy when he was younger... Oh, look! This was his favorite plushie!". This was one hell of a walk, but because of your nervousness.

Then it became a routine. Whenever he was away, you went to his family's house and spent your days there, walking through this hallway every day and night.

But now... now this is different. You want to see him. Of course, you do. But you know that you're gonna crumble to whatever it greets you there.

"Okay... it's just him. At least he's alive, isn't he?" You whisper to yourself before opening the door and getting inside.

He opens one of his pretty blue eyes and smiles a bit at you. "Hi, girlie..." He mumbles before putting the pillow he was hugging away to signal you to come and lay down with him.

You hesitate for a bit but give in, letting him hug you as long as he needs you.

But as soon as you touch his skin, as soon as you feel his soft breathing near you, as soon as his arm circles your waist like it always do when you sleep together...

You crumble, hiding your face in his neck as you cry and hug him tight. Not enough for him to hurt but enough for you to comfort yourself.

"Shhh... I'm okay, darling. I'm here, ain't I?" He chuckles before you send him the glare. "Fine... I'm not okay, but at least I'm back."

"Why... Your family could've lost you. I could've lost you." You say, not scolding him but just asking.

"It was calling me, love. I know it sounds strange but... I needed to." He answers, caressing your cheek. You lean into his touch and curl into his chest. The rugged feeling of the bandages on his chest was somehow comforting.

"Look at the good part: You'll have new scars to trace after we f-" "Ajax, don't!" You interrupt him, laughing before he kisses your lips repeatedly.

And he laughs, too. Not that much because it hurts him to even breathe, but he's happy to be the cause of your happiness even if he was the cause to your sadness a few moments ago.

[alieinthemorning]

An Addition to Change [Gojo Satoru]

Content: Major Character Death, Angst, AU: No Curses, Blood and Injury, JJK 237 Spoilers

Pronouns: None

Previous: Tears of The Strongest | Next: Fleeting Adolescence

Header: @/nikki101pistar on Twitter

Reblogs: Let me know that you enjoy my work and want to see more, so don't forget to like and reblog (and comment in the tags. I love seeing people’s rambles in the tags)!

This work's concepts, plot and original characters are my own which means I do not allow any sort of creative theft nor do I allow my work to be entered into any sort of A.I. bots. Thank you for respecting my space and boundaries.

Change is something that Satoru did a lot. He changed his clothes, furniture, cars and even house at a whim. Often times, he'd have at least five outfit changes in a day, there would be movers in and out of the house replacing furniture, he'd come home with a new car and about every one-two years you'd be moving to a new place.

And you'd just gone along with it all.

But this?

This was a bit much.

You eyed the child sitting across from you on the large gray couch, brand new, not even a dent in the cushions yet. He had black hair that was sticking up in every direction, violet eyes that bore into your own, unimpressed with...everything it seemed, and a frown that was too old and tired for a child his age.

Your gaze turned to Satoru, who was sitting beside you. He was pointedly looking at his phone, scrolling through social media to avoid both you and the child's stare.

"We can't avoid this, Satoru." You began, "Can you please tell me what happened? But be for real this time."

Because "I just found him, and it seemed like he needed a home!" is not an explanation at all. Sounds like he kidnapped a child off the streets, and you really didn't want to get tied up into something like that.

Satoru sighed in that dramatic way that he does, lolling his head away from you. "I told you—"

The child cut him off. "I've been living alone for a while now. He's been bothering me ever since he found out, and now I'm here, I guess." Satoru glared at him, but nodded along.

"Okay...and what about your guardians?"

"Dead." He replied flatly.

Your heart tightened. That poor baby, to have to navigate the world all by himself and for only he knows how long.

"What's your name?" You asked softly.

"...Megumi."

"Okay, Megumi, what would you like to do? Would you like to go back to where you were, or would you rather stay here with us?"

He was quiet for a moment, playing with the sleeves of his jacket before finally answering you. "...I wanna stay here."

You smiled, "Okay, then." then it dropped, "We literally don't have anything for you."

Satoru laughed loudly, snorting while your head swiveled toward him. "What are we gonna do?"

He stood, wiping a tear from his eye. "We're gonna go shopping, of course."

And after that shopping trip, you and Megumi vowed to never go shopping with Satoru again.

Mornings were always hard for you. It would either be a rough sleep of tossing and turning or a nightmare that disturbed your sleep to the point of waking up just as tired, if not more, than when you went to sleep. So often times you'd lay in bed, fighting between succumbing to sleep or proceeding with living.

But then a small, warm hand landed on your cheek.

"I'm hungry. I would have fed myself, but I don't know where anything is..."

You blinked.

Oh right, Megumi.

You were not ready for a change as massive as this one, but you had to get up regardless because now there was a child in your care. So you pulled yourself up and smiled.

"Good morning, Megumi."

Change was something Megumi also did a lot. However, it made sense with him because he was a child and children were always changing.

His favorite food changed weekly, which kept you on your toes and kept you from fretting on what to make anymore.

He was a growing, which meant new clothes needed to be bought ever few months (which prompted you to convince Satoru to stop buying him such expensive clothing).

His favorite shows and interests were also ever-changing. New toys were bought every week, and it was beginning to get harder to hold a conversation with Megumi since he would always be talking about something new (it was worth it though to see that sparkle in his eye when he talked about the things that he enjoyed).

There were a few things that didn't change, though.

He still loved frogs. He loved going out in the rain to hunt for them, despite usually coming back in empty-handed (you had to stop Satoru from having frogs on standby for rainy days).

He also loved dogs, which prompted Satoru into getting him two dire wolf dogs (how the hell he got them is beyond you).

He still only tolerated Satoru (that's what he said, but he really was opening up to him).

And he still favored you (you don't think that that will ever change, though).

"Thanks for not turning me away..." Megumi told you, as his face was just about buried in Shiro's white fur.

Satoru was still changing, but not as materialistically.

Now he was making more of an effort to be home with you and Megumi (his days were now nine-five, no exceptions and no more bring work home).

More of an effort to bond with Megumi, who was thankfully warming up to him (he was even able to take him out on their own outings without the day going horribly wrong).

More of an effort to understand your words from before.

He is not the strongest, and that's okay (he did cry a bit when Megumi got sick, however. It was something new and scary for him, so you wouldn't tease him about it...much).

"Thank you for taking such good care of Megumi." His arms wrapped around your waist as his lips brushed against your neck, leaving a trail of kisses. "And thank you for staying by my side all this time."

You also were changing.

You think it's a good thing.

"I love you two so much." Your smile was shy, but your words were genuine. "Thank you so much for being a part of my life and turning this house into a home."

You'll never forget the smiles they gave you. Bright, wide, full of teeth and as warm as a sun beam.

Hopefully, you'll continue to change alongside your boys.

There was a lot of present/past tense errors in here lol. A small bit of grammatical errors. And I changed a few things.

Reminder that this was a response to JJK236 lmao

Ko-Fi | Commission | Masterlist

[latenightsimping]

THE EDGE

“...There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who’ve gone over.” - Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels

Summary: A part of the deal to freedom included a stay at Pennhurst. It’ll take everything to keep the hope that one day the locked doors will open, the windows will no longer have bars that block the view, and that one day, the name Eddie Munson will be synonymous with the word ‘innocent’. The hope, he never realised, would also come to be synonymous with your name.

Chapter: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Pairing: Eddie Munson x reader

Word count: 3.9k

Warnings: angst, heavy themes of inpatient treatment/hospitalisation, heavy themes of mental health, institutional deprivation of liberties, body injuries, mentions of suicidal ideation, themes of institutional abuse, can be a dark read (continue with that in mind, look after yourselves), canon divergence, Eddie survives the demobat attack, post-S4 timeline, slow burn romance, eventual smut, 18+, eventual fluff, there will be a happy ending

AN: Chapter three is finally here! Many thanks to my lovely boyfriend @mantorokk-writes for test reading and making the header, I'm forever in love with you <3 This series is gonna be a slow work in progress, but thank you for reading so far! Really excited to see where it's gonna go, and how we're gonna get these two out of this pickle. Enjoy!

Taglist: @edsforehead, @idkidknemore, @harrys-tittie, @gaysludge, @smileygoth

A congealed lump of what was apparently mac and cheese, boiled to death vegetables and bitter orange juice. Eddie had become used to shit food long ago, thanks to a lifetime of only buying the cheapest non-brand groceries to try and save costs. But this… This was something else. Fuck, he was surprised it even passed the mark for being fit for human consumption. It reminded him of the stories his old man used to tell about prison food, about how the trick was to eat it without thinking too much, barely savouring the taste before you swallowed. The similarity getting stuck in his throat.

But at least he wasn’t eating his meals in silence anymore. With you sitting opposite him, filling any dead air with talking about the hospital gossip, though he’d given up on trying to follow along after the first apparent affair taking place. But the content didn’t matter. For the first time in so long, maybe even longer than he realised, you had offered him a seat to get out of trouble with no motive behind the action. Had given him his own pack of cigarettes after swindling one from an orderly just before lunch started, the one that seemed to stare at your chest more than your eyes, putting yourself at risk for no gain of your own. It was exceedingly rare to find people that would do something out of the goodness of their hearts, and the question was rattling around his head with such a velocity that it tumbled from his lips before he even realised. 

“Why are you doing this?” 

Even he internally winced at the lack of warmth in his tone, making it sound more like an accusation than a question. But if it offended you, you didn’t act as if it bothered you. Instead, the corners of your lips twitched upwards, eyes drifting from your tray to his own as you tilted your head. 

“What’dya mean?”

Giving himself a few needed seconds to reframe the words in his head with taking a sip of his drink, he swirled the contents of the paper cup, deciding to stare down into it rather than look up. “I mean, why are you helping me? You don’t know me.” 

From the very quick glance upwards he chanced, there seemed to be something there that was bittersweet. Eyes slightly widened, mouth downturned, yet an ever so slight huff of a laugh as you balled up a serviette in your hands. “Trust me, I know how it feels to be the new guy on the wing. The way the others look at you like you’re a fuckin’ chew toy?” 

He’d noticed the way the other patients stared, when the steel door behind him slammed shut. Some didn’t even look over, too caught up in their own internal world. But there’s a certain feeling that can overcome a person when they’re accustomed to having to be on high alert at all times. A certain flash of the eyes that makes your stomach churn, blood pooling to your feet and your mind telling you to run. You studied his face for a moment, a sympathetic smile briefly twitching at your lips. 

“I had someone look out for me too, when I first got here,” you explained, the paper in your hand now being twisted and toyed with as you spoke. “She uh… Her name was Patty. She was this take no shit kinda woman. Taught me the best way to curb the hunger was smoking cigarettes, which orderlies would give pretty girls special treatment, which patients to never go near. That sorta useful shit.” 

Though you smiled, it didn’t reach your downcast eyes. “She got sick last year. Didn’t say much about it, but it took a toll on her. It finally got her a couple of months back. And you know what the worst thing was about it?” 

Plenty of what you were saying was ‘the worst thing’. Being caught on the wrong side of a power dynamic, having to go hungry because nobody cared, patients having to be caregivers because God forbid those that actually got paid to do it actually did their fucking jobs for once. All of those answers dying on his tongue, replaced with a slow shake of his head.

“Nobody came to see her in the end,” you muttered, brows furrowing as your voice cracked. “She told me she had a son, told me the doctors called him and told him, but he never came. I get it, I mean, not many of us have the luxury of seeing people from the outside… But she was on her fucking deathbed, y’know?” 

When your eyes finally met his, glossy with unshed tears that you seemed so determined to never let overspill, there was a look to you that made all the pieces click together. Made the parts of him that he’d kept buried away for self preservation start to rise back to the surface. Taking a firm grasp of his heart and squeezing for good measure. 

The look of pure fear. 

The fear that one day, both of you would end up like Patty. Untethered to the world outside, cast adrift with the other lost souls. Taking the last few rattled breaths with nobody around to hear them, looking up to the sky and the view still blocked with bars. Nobody with spare change for the ferryman, forever stuck. 

“I’m sorry.” It was all he could think to say, no other words seeming quite right. The tone as hollow as he felt, as shaky as the tremors in his hands that never quite seemed to go away. All he could think to say, but the truth. He was sorry you were here, if your proclaimed innocence was to be believed. He was sorry for himself too, deep down. 

“It’s whatever,” you replied, clearing your throat as you tried and failed to staple the look of nonchalance back on your face with a half decent result. “Anyway, don’t worry about your first therapy session, alright? I got it covered.” 

He shot you a small look of incredulity, head tilted to the side as he followed your lead in piling used napkins and cutlery onto his meal tray. “What’dya mean?” 

The smile you gave him next was finally a genuine one, a glimmer in your eye that could only mean mischief. 

“You’ll see.” 

~

You could see the stress levels that you tried so desperately to lower over lunch to begin raising as you and Eddie filed into the day room for group therapy. How his jaw clenched so hard you were surprised he didn’t break enamel, a shortening fuse near a naked flame as he took his seat next to you. Leg bouncing with beats akin to a hummingbird’s heart, chewing at the skin around his ruined nails with eyesight dancing around the room to end up on the tile right in front of him. You couldn’t blame him; he was walking into the unknown, with no idea where the hell he would end up. You remembered the feeling well. 

Others clad in the same off white uniform as you took their respective seats around you, the energy in the room a palpable, frantic buzz. Nerves, apathy, distaste and mocking. You could feel it all, see it in the faces around you that you’d come to know in the years that you’d been imprisoned. Small naked flames, that could be as harmless as a match or as intense as thermite. The day could go either way. And it would depend on the questions posed to them.

Dr. Madden made his way through the doors, adjusting the thick horned rimmed glasses that permanently perched on his beak-like nose as he took his seat. You’d never liked him; he was nosy, even for a psychiatrist, always putting two and two together to end up with an equation that made no fucking sense. Nothing could ever be simple, in his eyes. Someone’s violent outburst had some convoluted reasoning to do with Daddy issues and not being hugged enough as a child, rather than someone just needing a fucking cigarette and not being given one. It took everything within you not to roll your eyes into the back of your skull as he cleared his throat to begin. 

“Good afternoon everyone,” he began, eyes settling over each patient for a brief second before focusing on Eddie. “We’re welcoming a new person into the wing today. Have you had any sort of therapy like this before, Mr. Munson?”

Eddie’s reply was a brief shake of his head, glance not leaving the cracks of the floor as he fiddled with the split ends of his hair. Madden’s bushy eyebrow raised a fraction as he sat himself slightly forward. “Well, we start with a brief check in. How we’re feeling, what we’d like to talk about in today’s session. Perhaps you could start us off? You seem nervous today.” 

You couldn’t hold back a scoff, the psychiatrist’s beady eyes narrowing on you as you fished through your pockets for your pack of cigarettes. The look on his face evident that he wasn’t amused at your perceived insolence to his ‘therapeutic process’. He could shove that process where the sun didn’t shine, as far as you were concerned. 

“He’s a newbie, of course he’s gonna be nervous,” you shrugged, waving over an orderly with a lighter, who seemed to be watching you with ever so slight trepidation as he ignited the flame that you used to puff life into your cigarette. Huffing out an exhale of smoke that was aimed in his direction. “Bit of a redundant question, isn’t it?” 

Madden was a tough nut to crack, but you’d managed to get the veins in his neck bulging a couple of times. You just needed to know which buttons to press, and it seemed you hit one with a jab to his reasoning. “I don’t find it redundant at all,” he answered with a smile slightly too smug for your liking. “But if you think that an example of a check in could help, maybe you could go first instead?” 

You took a sharp inhale as you gave a grimace of indifference, face scrunched up as you jerked your head towards an older lady that seemed on the edge of her seat to talk. “Why don’t you get Miriam to do it? From what I remember, she was just starting to open up about her fucker of an ex husband.”

Was using another patient’s anger, something you knew got them started into an hour long tangent until they were red in the face unethical? Maybe. But it was every man for himself out here, and you didn’t have anything akin to backup in the process. As expected, the woman launched into a tirade, screechings which contained the words “useless bastard” and “should have divorced him before he did it to me!” melding into the background as you shot a smug smirk in Madden’s direction. To his credit, he was hiding his distaste well, his only giveaway the slight flush creeping above his collar.

For most of the session, you managed to evade the heat from coming towards you and Eddie. A few more prods to Miriam, staying silent when the psychiatrist asked if anyone else had anything to add. A question to old man Hardy about the house he got kicked out from before being transferred, each person being used like a shield to hide from the questions you knew Madden had for you. You knew you were fucked from the moment he put his hand up to cut off Duane about his teenage trauma prematurely, eyes fixed on you as he sat back in his chair. 

“Does Duane’s story resonate with you?” he asked with a heightened pitch of voice, head slightly tilted as his lips twitched upwards. It caused your back to straighten, knowing full well where he was going with this. Somewhere you swore never to go back to, ever since the nightmares ever so slightly decreased and the flashing images weren’t permanently burned into the back of your eyelids. 

“No.” 

The words reverberated around clenched teeth, knuckles turned white as you gripped the cracked pleather of the cushion you sat on. Out of your peripheral vision, you saw Eddie staring at you with a slight questioning to his glance, and it made your gut twist even more. You hated how suddenly the tentative power dynamic had switched. How your already lacking control was going to spiral even further, if Madden willed it. 

“I think it might, though,” the good doctor continued, the slight smirk being poorly hidden as his head tilted to the side. “You had a lot happen when you were eighteen, didn’t you? When you made the choice to-”

“I’m not going to talk about it,” you snapped back, folding your arms as a poorly constructed buffer between you and the man opposite. Your eyes glanced at the clock on the wall, a slight ease of tension as you realised the time. “Not with only five minutes left of the session.” 

“But you’re going to have to talk about it sooner or later,” he countered, daring to look slightly sympathetic as he regarded you. “You’ve been here two years, and you’ve never talked about that night. It doesn’t show much progress, now does it?” 

You wanted to stand up, pick up your chair, and crash it over the top of his head. How the fuck would he know what ‘progress’ you’d been making? How much work you’d had to put into yourself, rationalising and justifying everything about the night that changed the path of your life, so much that you probably could never step foot on the original trail if you tried. How you still tortured yourself with what you could have done differently, the actions that you did take haunting you like spectres? Madden knew nothing of how often you’d dragged yourself off the precipice time and time again, nothing but bloody fingernails and a quickly ebbing will to live, as you weighed up the decisions of falling asleep to never wake up again against staying alive to do everything in your power to clear the stain on your name.

To Madden’s credit, he didn’t push further. Letting the silence hang in the air, perhaps a non-verbal push that might get you talking. It might have worked, once upon a time. When you had no secrets to hide, too worried about what others thought, wanting to please people so much that it deprived you of happiness. But that was before you were branded a psycho, tossed into this place with the key thrown away. Now, you couldn’t give a shit about what others thought. 

Except, there was a way your stomach dropped when you looked over to see the way Eddie looked at you. Not with disgust or horror, which you were used to by now. There was slight concern in his eyes, mixed with empathy, the combination making you want to squirm in your seat. You didn’t even know each other, yet his humanity seemed to still be intact for now, seeing another person clearly struggling and not being able to do anything about it. 

You decided to stare at the clock on the wall for the rest of the session, filtering out all other noises and focusing on watching the minute hand strike closer and closer until time was up. 

As you put away chairs, you expected Eddie to ask you about it. Maybe try to pry, or get answers for questions that could be in his own mind. But he didn’t. He stayed silent as you both wandered back to the table you met at, sitting down with him wordlessly reaching for the deck of cards in the middle and starting to shuffle. And silent you stayed. Going through the motions of a routine you knew too well; free time, ‘music’ therapy - as if listening to the same vinyl of Bach twice a week for two years would do anything other than make you want to smash your head against the chipped white walls. Dinner consisting of a brick of so-called ‘meatloaf’ that you knew well enough to avoid even attempting to eat, settling for tasteless vegetables and vaguely lime flavoured Jell-o instead. 

Even silent when the orderly Nguyen told you to haul ass to the laundry room for work placement, and to take your new ‘friend’ with you. You were brought out of the routine of folding sheets when you heard Eddie clear his throat, looking up to see him slightly rattled as he sorted various clothing into separate piles. 

“Hey uh… You don’t have to say anything if you don’t wanna, but… Thanks. For today.” You saw the corners of his lips twitch upwards, a ghost of a smile as his eyeline landed on the messy stack of undershirts. “Didn’t have to stick your neck out of me, but you did. Appreciate it.”

You mustered the leftover social energy you had to lift your shoulders into a slight shrug, rubbing the back of your head whilst the other hand took your weight as you leaned slightly on the table. “It’s nothing. Sorry for not being so talkative I just… Still don’t wanna talk about why I’m here, y’know?” 

A curt nod was his reply at first, lips a narrow line and eyes darting around as if he was thinking hard about something. Finally glancing towards the door, then around the room, as if to make double sure that what he was about to say wouldn’t be overheard. He looked panicked; either a deer in the headlights or a lion ready to defend itself, you weren’t sure. 

“They said I killed people.” 

It was so quiet you barely picked up on it, and you had to admit, it took you aback. There was an initial flight or flight reaction that doused your autonomic system, as if his words set off a red light in your head and you had to start looking for an improvised weapon. However, that was pure instinct, only for a second before logic took over. For someone who was apparently a killer, he certainly did look hollow about it all. Besides. Those in glass houses…

“Did you do it?” you mumbled back, eyes leaving his to take the pressure of both of you, hands busying themselves with folding the now grey sheet in front of you, toying with the frayed corner to try and conceal it in the fold somehow. 

“No.”

You found yourself at a precipice. He had stuck his neck out to tell you his charge, not knowing if you’d stick around or bolt and leave him on his own again. It was a sign of trust; an olive branch, that you could either accept or leave hanging between you. You had only known Eddie a day. Less than that, maybe seven hours, tops. But so far, he seemed to have his wits about him. He didn’t strike you as the judgemental type. He didn’t pry, and he tried to distract you when you were at your lowest, instead of offering useless advice or forcing you to open up. When you looked up at him, there was no hint of deceit that you could tell. He was staring at you with those intense eyes of his, an expression reading both ‘I’m telling the truth’ and ‘dear God, I hope you fucking believe me’. 

For so long, you had wanted reinforcements in this place so badly. To not fight alone, to have backup. In the outside world, no way would you trust someone this fast. But this was Pennhearst. A place with different rule sets. You needed to take the help wherever it came from, and hope it didn’t blow back in your face later. 

You needed to give him something in return. 

You didn’t falter with eye contact as you said the words you thought you’d never say. The words that made your stomach churn, made you want to flinch as you said them. “They said I killed people, too.” 

You saw the look on his face to be one of bewilderment, eyes scanning you up and down as if he’d never seen you before. You wondered if that’s what you’d looked like not five seconds ago, mirroring each other as you confessed your sins. “Did you do it?” 

“No.”

The crease between his eyebrows seemed to smooth, after what felt like hours of staring at each other, the only other sounds the rhythmic knocking of the decrepit industrial dryers. It was you who finally broke the silence, busying yourself again with grabbing the pile of undershirts near you by the bottom and pulling it towards you to begin folding. “I don’t expect you to believe me. And if you don’t want me to know about what happened, I’m not gonna push it.” You shook your head as you frowned at the fabric in your hands.

“Why do you believe me? When I say I didn’t do it?” 

You glanced back up at him to find a worried expression on his face, staring at you like he couldn’t quite believe you. As if it was too good to be true, to finally be believed. You wracked your brain for an answer, only to shrug and say the first thing on your mind. “Because guilty people don’t look so frightened of their consequences. I suppose on a subconscious level, they know they deserve the hell they created for themselves.”

You heard a sound which you figured to be a sharp exhale of air through his nose, most likely an attempt at a wry laugh. “You don’t look frightened.”

Your lips turned downward as you frowned again. “You get good at hiding it after a while, I guess.”

You heard your name being called, so softly that your heart nearly shattered. Not your last name being barked out with disdain, or in a patronising tone like a shrink would. It was said like somebody actually gave a shit. You looked up to be met with a look that was one of genuine concern, his eyebrows furrowed and lips slightly parted as if he was wondering what to say. 

It was getting too intense for your liking. 

Shaking your head as you cleared your throat, you flashed a tight smile as your folding became hurried. “Finish that pile quick, yeah? Orderlies hit the roof when you don’t finish your chores on time.” 

To his credit, Eddie didn’t push it. The rest of the time being filled with small talk and comfortable silences, until your names were called to be taken back to your room for the night. The motions of getting ready to bed had become mechanical a long time ago, on autopilot as you brushed your teeth and changed clothes. Hearing the call for lights out, and getting plunged into darkness against your will. You knew that first checks were in an hour. 

You had sixty minutes to cry to yourself about finally being seen, about not being treated like a criminal that deserved the way you were being treated. Hugging the pillow to your face and willing yourself not to be making a sound, clutching the cheap cotton between your fingers as if your life depended on it. Sixty minutes until you needed to shove the emotions back down, and face tomorrow, same as you always did. 

Same as you always did, but at least you had someone on your side. 

[stardusthuntress]

It will all be tagged "zenith writes" to make it easier to find.

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I write for the Clones of Star Wars x reader. You may request a GN!reader version of anything, OR if you spot something offensive or problematic and would like to (politely) let me know that there's a nicer way to phrase it, my inbox is open! Or if you want to pop in and say hi, dm me!

I just write when the inspiration hits. Mostly using this as my emotional processing system - just gonna write it all out. Shouting my nerdiness and pain into the void, maybe one day it will shout back (in a good way, hopefully). Thought others might relate and or have similar comfort mechanisms, so here's my work if ya wanna bother to read any of it!

Key: (consider ALL below to be NSFW, 18+)

* = smutty, even if mildly so, expect mentions of arousal and the like at a minimum

NEW FOLLOWER CELEBRATION!!! There's 111 of you now!!! (STARS that's a LOT!) And you guys decided you want more of my 'Right Attire' set! So that's what's in the works! That being said, FYI the title might change...

...and back to your regular programming!!!

The Bad Boys of Clone Force 99

Sergeant Hunter

* What Does Beauty Look Like? (female!reader) one-shot, implied smut!

* the Right Attire (AFAB!reader) one-shot, smut

ARC Corporal Echo

* a Gala-ctic Evening (female!reader) one-shot, but featuring a smutty *Part 2!

* Hot... in So Many Ways! (femaleMandalorian!reader) one-shot, but will eventually have a smutty part 2!

Crosshair

To Speak Without Words (female!reader) mini-series, WIP

Somebody to Lean On (female!reader) one-shot, hurt-comfort (NEW)

Tech

What Does Real Love Look Like? (female!reader) one-shot, but I couldn’t resist making a *Part 2! With a happier ending that’s starting to get a little smutty!

* Turn Ons (gn!reader) drabble/imagine

EnigmaTech (female!reader) mini-series, WIP (Ch. 2, Ch. 3, Ch. 4, ...) my Tech lives AU! (he lives, but they still gotta go get him, and Cross, and Omega, with reader's help!)

Concealed in a Touch (gn!reader) one-shot, touch-starved comfort fic! (NEW)

All

* Strong Women (female!reader) drabble/imagine - individually, but in one post

Triggered (female!reader) one-shot - deals with body dysmorphia, angsty comfort fic, all the boys being sweet towards reader

The Boys in Blue - the 501st

Captain Rex

Angel Eyes (female!reader) one-shot, Rex is flirty because it felt like it fit him in this scenario! Reader is Chiss (look up Thrawn if this is new to you!)

Ancient Remedies (female!reader) one-shot, I guess it's a hurt-comfort, but Rex is the injured one and your job is to keep him from leaving medbay (NEW)

Additional characters coming soon!

Credit Where It's Due:

Bad Batch boys dividers by @/djarrex

colorful dividers by @/saradika

(hyperspace headers/footers are my own)

Other

Lore rants: look for the tags “stardust rants” “zenith rants”, “infodump”, and “sw lore”

Science: I'm a space scientist by trade, so I have moments when I need to let my science out a bit. Those moments will be tagged as "secret scientist" and "Stardust rants" because my username is in fact, a pun. I could tell you more, but then it wouldn't be a secret, would it? ;P

no clone-cest here please!

[redfoxrunt]

So, hey babes. The like, two of you who probably aren't reading the blog anyway, and all of the hot singles in my area. Just feels more like... talking to the potential of someone here than on Dreamwidth, where the follower count is one account. This is gonna be crazy, but I'm fairly sure I already warned you (nonspecific) about that in the header or pinned post or whatnot; it's what you get, right?

Talking about my parents.

I'm in an insanely unique position, being the child that my parents lost. You don't really get perspective like that from most cases, and yet. I also have it on two levels, rather than just one; first I was the child that was estranged from them, stopped returning calls, etc., and then the child that died. I assume they were at my funeral, but maybe not. I honestly can't even tell if, under the circumstances, they would have been notified that I died. How much of it was in the news? How much information are you entitled to if you're not listed as a contact for the person who's dead? Like, the whole thing is a fucking mess, and obviously I wasn't there to witness any of it, so yeah.

It's not because they did a bad job with me (or D, for that matter.) We always got the best in life as far as they could provide, we were middle class and privileged in that our parents loved each other and loved us and practiced good parenting to the degree that two human beings can. Sometimes they were tired, sometimes they were pissed off, sometimes we tired them, but at the end of the day we were always loved, and that's not something you can take for granted in life. I guess that's part of the problem, though, like - as shitty and entitled as that sounds. Because after Danny died, it was like... the illusion shattered. I spent weeks back home after, because I couldn't exist in my own skin with what had happened and what I'd seen and what I couldn't understand or put into words or any of it, and the child part of me was like... when things are scary and don't make sense, you go home. Real home, not your flat where you're all alone and all the sounds from outside freak you out like you've never heard your neighbours exist before. And the reality check was when none of that helped. My parents didn't come to my bedroom (guest bedroom; they'd repurposed the house since we moved out, like normal people tend to do) for more than to let me know dinner's served or to ask me if I wanted to go out for a little while. And when I didn't, that was all. The realisation that that was all they could do, that no amount of me crying would have them bring my brother back, it killed something in me that I didn't even know I'd had before then. I realised that I can't go home because home isn't this magical safe space where everything will be alright, even though they'd taught me that as a kid. Home had always been the magical place where you go to make everything better, but after D's death, after the funeral, it felt just as fake as - you know? Like a staged play. Nothing in it was real anymore, everything I'd been taught was a lie, and the world is a shitty, horrible, fucked up place that doesn't care about you or your loss or your grief or your pleas. And your parents are just people. And I guess I hated them for it, because they'd lied to me that they were something omnipotent when all along they were just people, just like me, just as powerless and unable to change anything that had happened or would happen next or ever. Blowing on a bruise never did fuck all to heal it. It's all a fucking lie.

So, I don't know how much anybody else knows about what I did after that, I have a really skewed idea of how much of that is "known" and how much of it I just think should be known, but once I got back on my feet, I was vengeful as fuck and not thinking straight. Part of my revenge was to cut my parents off. Stop answering calls, one word text messages if I needed to reply to something, and when they did what I was clearly asking them to do which was leave me the fuck alone and stop trying to poke their noses into my life, I saw that as further proof that I was right to be angry at them for... failing me, or Danny, or something. For not being fucking wizards.

So that's child loss on child loss for them. I don't recall really thinking about it much at the time. I don't think I was thinking much in general, period, it's just - every time they'd contact me, I'd get this surge like heartburn but in my veins and get this urge to chuck my fucking phone at a wall or out the window. Like fuck off from my life, stop reminding me of everything that's wrong, stop trying to approach me like I'm being unreasonable, because what I feel and how I'm acting is the most reasonable thing in the world. "Tim you need help" just reinforces that there's no help to be had and I'm in this shit alone and other people just make it worse because when I look at them, I know they're the same as me. Nobody can do anything about anything. And it's the sense of powerlessness that I can't take, right? That feeling that we're all just lying to ourselves and each other about having control.

I don't have the energy or interest to go into the rest of that story. There isn't much to talk about in terms of my parents anyway, since I'd cut them off. But it's a sore subject to talk about, like most things, when we try to approach it with D here. When I'm not ignoring he exists to begin with because I just fucking cannot and what am I even supposed to do with any of this, it's still like we're mostly making small-talk about subjects that barely matter while maybe tapping the ice on shit we really need to be talking about with a thin stick, because that's all the ice can take. Diving into child memorial pages, child loss blogs, etc. was both accidental and the bravest and most direct thing we've done so far to address any of it. Felt good to do it together, and just not say a thing while at it. Just experience that side by side and know that he's feeling what I'm feeling and thinking what I'm thinking and that's enough for now. He's joked that maybe it's in the genes for us, the not being able to address things, not wanting to talk. He's better at it than I am, though. At least he tries. I don't know if I'm trying or if I'm just being led along like a blind ass, but either way, it's things we've got to get to if I ever want to feel... less like shit again, I guess. It's fucked trying to do this without a proper therapist but then again talking to a therapist didn't really work the first time around, and now we don't have one to go to. But yeah, reading through all of that was soothing in some sense, which is also fucked up. It's feelings that I haven't gotten to yet. Something about like, maybe I did matter a little after all. Maybe I and my life were beautiful to them. Maybe they saw me like that, too. I don't know. All I feel most days is a failure, or burden, or just not good enough for anybody. So... yeah. Guess that's pretty much all.

[retro-rat]

The website of Virtually Isolated is looking better and better each pass. I got stuff to yap about on the left, links to the blogs and other trash on the right in the form of 150X20 banners and 2 large images. I had a few days off so I started working on it a lot and did like 50 updates in the span of 4 days. I just throw the skeletons of pages online, get motivated by it being out there and instantly start the next few pages, post them, repeat. So now I'm just forcing myself to leave this update till Jan or something. I still have a bunch of pages to keep adding to the Adventure logs or the Webcomic list having actual links and buttons. I have 3 pages that are basically "About Me" but I don't want to condense them honestly. The first one is a little neutral, the second one is more of a time line of playing games as a kid to growing online and where I am now and the 3rd one is just like "Lol, i'm pan, dreaming of transing and a raging, low poly furry" which is a little hidden because plenty of people online still suck. Next big update is gonna have to be the Shrines. I wanna talk so much about this stuff that I loved and have seen turn to shit. I'm still fighting whether or not I should make brand new pages for those or if I can just stick them in the yellow trash background and just add little images here and there. I feel like I should commit, but I might need to learn to use something like Fireworks. That way I should be able to just piece it together in a photoshop clone and then slice my clickables. I also really wanna add a top frame with a mini music player with a quick collection of PSX breakcore tunes played at a low enough volume. Right now every page is it's own thing and any updates on headers or sides needs to be applied to every page separately. This update ain't live yet. I might rush it if I get more work done this week. But it really looks like I've been spamming news every other day right now. Which I have, but each update comes with like at least 4 new pages and various touch-ups. Again, that's Virtually Isolated on Neocities. The place where I'm keeping a collection of ramblings, nostalgia and some of the tabletop stuff from my other blog.

[tellhound]

Hey there CC! Things are going well. Do you have any holiday plans/ any New Years plans/ anything you really want to have happen in 2023?

Sometimes we just need to lie in bed and read something or listen to music, you know? I completely agree with you, and with recharging the social batteries.

Anything good on Youtube/Twitch? I've been watching 1899, on Netflix, honestly, and really enjoy it since it's by the same directors that made another TV show I love. Yeah, just life picking up, lots to do in terms of the future, feeling overwhelmed, feeling as if I've lost someone but they are still there... but I am getting through it, and hopefully I'll be able to surround myself with good things and good vibes, soon. Thank you for letting me talk!

I highly doubt you're making things up, but my only advice is to talk to them about it, and express your feelings. If they make you happy, truly happy, then you deserve it and shouldn't let them go, you know? All I want is for you to be happy!

Frankly, I wanted to write you something to reveal who I am, but thought it might be weird. Do you think that would be weird? Or maybe you don't want to know who I am, perhaps we both like the mystery. And not sure I could do it, I'm shy. You know?

I love your header, and I think the larry is fantastic. Also, saw you like TAD-- have you listened to Marbles? That's a really fantastic, and intricate song...

Much love to you on this... Thursday, I believe it is for you. May it be a wonderful day for you, and may the weekend come quickly!

SA <3

Sweet, wonderful, SA, how happy I am to hear that things are going well!

I think I might've had some plans to celebrate new years with a person who's for very good reasons not a part of my life anymore (I will not elaborate, sorry). So I'll probably just be celebrating with my parents and their cats instead. Might be nice with a quiet new year after this mess of a year. As for things I hope to happen in 2023? I'm working towards getting my driver's license and I'm looking for new jobs. Except for that I just really hope I get to meet Lou in real life. And thinking about it I hope that the bond I have with my ex-best friend will continue growing stronger again now that she and I have started talking again. What about you?

I do know. Lately I know it a little too much.

Mostly just been watching things have on in the background to feel less lonely. Find it hard to actually focus on stuff, I keep thinking too much. Haven't heard of that one before, but it sure does seem interesting. I've added it to my watch list for now.

Wish I could do something to help you, but I'm sending you all my love. Good things are coming for you, I can feel it.

I probably should, shouldn't I? But luck is never on my side when it comes to these types of things. Gonna have to say something to them sooner or later though.

Honestly? Not really no. Maybe it would be a little weird if my guess turns out to be completely wrong, cause I've got a pretty (in my opinion) solid theory on who you are. Either way I'll leave it up to you to decide if you wanna stay anonymous or not.

Just chose it as a temporary one while I'm looking for something better, but since you like it I might let it stay a little while <3

There's not a single tad song that I haven't listened to by now. In fact, without Marbles I probably wouldn't have ended up giving their music an honest chance. And it's all thanks to this line in particular: "You're not flawed, darling, you're just a little under-rehearsed". What would you say is your favorite song from them? If you can chose just one?

Yeah, Thursday! Although it's Friday now that I'm finally answering this. Do you have any exciting plans for this weekend?

[spikesbimbo]

Cloud 39

Pairing: Aran Ojiro x f!eader

Tags; big strong greek god aran (like 7ft tall in his human form), sacrilegious undertones(?), oral sex f!receiving, body worship f!receiving, possessive tendencies, size kink, anal fingering spit, snowballing, dacryphilia, choking, kinda angst at the end

wc:4k

a/n: happy birthday to my man!! And thank you for help with the header pic !!! @selfishwitch​

18+ Minors DNI

-

Your body splayed out across his, arms wrapped around his neck while his large hands held you close, leaning into him as you didn't care anymore, finding comfort in his warm body and cozy scent.

The warm air putting you at ease, eyes peeking out to see the many flowers bloom before you. If you were to die you'd rather do it here than the place you called home. So dark and dreary, always so foggy and gloomy, but here the sun was always shining though the clouds, golden light shining alluringly onto his skin, a place fit for a king.

“Aran, sweetheart.” His honey-like voice breaking you out of your trance. “That’s my name, so why don't you say it? His tall frame leaning into yours, head craning down into your neck as his eyes meet yours before you could look away. “I already told you that you could, are you still scared of me?

“N-no, i ju-. I'm just…. nervous.” You softly stammered out, quickly divertering your eyes from his, afraid you'd get lost in them as you adjusted yourself on his thigh. Legs dangling on the other side as you tried your hardest to ignore his almost naked body. His ivory robe wrapped loosely around one of his broad shoulders, and tied around his slim waist, not looking like he cared if it fell off.

“You okay? You look a little dazed. Don't worry love, m’not gonna eat you up like they said I would.”

“wh-” As if he read your mind, rumors spreading around your town. Never thinking you would get selected to be his yearly offering, your ‘family’ quickly throwing you away to appease the gods. 

His hands covered in gold up to his arms rested on your back, taking up the whole space as his thumb worked its way up and down, not knowing if he was making sure you wouldn't fall from so high up, or reassuring you.

”So,” you started, halting your words. Anxious feeling filling up in your chest as reality set it, remembering you were a sacrifice and not just his companion.

“So what?” he continued, leading you on. Summery eyes still set on you as if he was watching your every move, feeling so little and insignificant under him. Clinging onto him like a child as the fact remained in your head, ‘he could drop you if he wanted’. His realm towering over your city and town, trees looking like grass as you finally got the courage to look down.

“What are you going to do with me?”

“What am i going to do with you?” He lightly chuckled into your temple, teeth smiling white as the clouds his throne was resting high above, skin glowing as his eyelashes fluttered so heavenly, the most beautiful thing you've ever laid your eyes on. 

 He looked like an angel.

“Whatever you want love, m’not going to make you to do anything you don't want to.”

“What do you mean ‘don't want to’?

“I mean sex pretty girl, fornicating. You ever heard of it?” He joked as your face curled up into his chest.

“Y-yes I have!” you stated loudly, quickly trying to cover up. Embarrassment rising in your face at the thought of doing it with him, not wanting to make a fool out of yourself even more.

“So what happened to the others?’ You said trying to get your mind off of it, hoping he didn't notice the way you were squirming on his lap.

“The others?....” Seeing what you meant click in his head as he tilted it. “They can choose whether they want to or not, then I send them on their way. Why my love?” A smirk appraising on his face, heat rising in your body at the word ‘my’.

“You thought I drained them dry and burned them up? The tease in his voice had you flustered, “Unfortunately, humans' heads always come up with the worst thoughts, fear always plaguing in the back of their mind. Even going as far as to do this.” knowing he was referring to you.

“Probably because they're not immortal.” You muttered under your breath, remembering the first time you've ever seen a god in real life. Playing with them as a child, not knowing the difference until one day you were running around in a storm, no one caring to tell you that the violent winds would knock your tiny body off its feet. 

Meeting them at the usual place, the cliff on the coast of the ocean, dancing in the rain with no cares in the world until they stumbled, fear replacing the untroubled, joyful look in your eyes as you saw them fall off the rock. Body moving on its own before you knew it, reaching your hand out, but it was too late, both of your bodies falling many meters down onto the jagged waves and rocks below. 

Grateful that you loved the water, as your body once again moved on its own, muscle memory making you break the surface of the water, voice immediately screaming out for your friend as soon as you caught your breath. 

Not even knowing you were injured until you saw the red stain surrounding you, eyes burning from the salt and the heavy rain drops landing in them as you tried your best to keep them open. Catching a glance of your only friend washed up on the shore, head bloody as they were limp above the sand.

Doing your best to swim up to them as your leg could barely move, finally crawling up to them with all your strength, almost gagging at the sight before you. Head cracked open as your trembling little hands did their best to put it back together, shock overtaking you as their eyes suddenly opened, standing up like nothing happened. Comforting you as they saw you were a shaking mess, asking why you were still bleeding , not knowing the divide between you until that day.

Coming home to your family berating you, saying at least it wasn't your face, knowing they could still marry you off for money. Afraid of death due to that day along with heights, never going above sea level again. Scared by just the thought of it, the reminder scaring you mind, but of course fate would turn out this way, sadly laughing at the thought.

Again as if he could read your mind, his hand traced your damaged skin, understanding your thoughts and comforting you at the same time. Lucky you got sent to such a man, no, a god. Glad to let him use you as he needed, the only one who's ever cared enough to listen to you in your life. 

Letting a little whine out as his hand brushed your inner thigh, involuntary jerking in his hold, grinding against him as you felt him grow harder against your back. "Can I?" he asked, eyes laced with need.

Remembering that this was the usual for him, remembering that you were just his plaything at the end of the day. Lip quivering as your eyes fluttered closed, unsteady hands moving towards your hips, pushing your tiny little makeshift skirt to the side, almost matching his.

"Stop."  

You froze in place. His hands meeting yours, pushing them to the side. Standing up as he took you off his lap, setting you back down. Him resting below you as he gently grabbed your jaw, burning cheeks cooling down. "Look at me, " His soft voice said in a tone that didn't take "no" for an answer. “Look me in the eyes while I undress you.” 

Letting go of your jaw as you listened, his hands moving; pulling off the sash around your waist, the ghost of his touch making you shiver. Eyes locked with his as his head rested on your chest, undoing the knots on your shoulders, the sigh of the top melting off of you. Clothes pooling around your ankles, nipples growing hard at the open air.

"-don't hide yourself."

HIs soft voice coming out in a command, not knowing if you even had control over your body anymore. Shyly lowering your arms, body exposed. The feeling being new, the first man to ever make your heart race this violently, his touch lingering on you.

He was the god and yet here you were getting worshiped, on his knees before you as you were on his throne, large calloused hands resting the weight of your legs as he spread them open, placing open mouthed from your ankles up to your thighs, lips following the scar, almost trying to prove a point, that this was the only difference between you two.

Trying to muffle your moans, skin so sensitive to the touch. His hand feeling like fire moving up to your cheek, thumbing it before tracing his finger over your lips. Freeing them from your teeth, wiping away the blood as he brung it back to his lips.

Not knowing that you were the only one could ignite such reactions from him in such a short time, making him the greediest he's ever been. Defying his own logic, becoming a hypocrite by wanting to snatch you up and lock you away, keeping you all to himself. Not even asking if you were anyone else’s before his hands roamed all over your body, not even waiting to find out. Knowing right now he'd probably snap and take their lives for touching something that was his.

His.

The thought sounding nice in his head, spreading the rest of you short lived life with him. Waking up to see your pretty, entrancing smile every morning, knowing he could easily get his way. Wanting to hear his name fall from your pretty lips, your voice so sweet and soft, wanting to make you feel relaxed enough to not call him the formalities that he's never believed in.

Stopping before your entrance, wanting to drag it out to make you completely crumble into his arms, working for it as he should. 

His hands encompassing your tits, soft lips following him as well taking your nipple between his teeth after leaves countless kisses on them. Groping and squeezing the other one as his tongue flicked your nipple back and forth, so hot and wet, finally getting you to release those pretty whimpers he knew you had as he once again towered over you. 

His free hand resting on the side of your tummy making it twist, feeling so small and puny under his lust filled gaze as his cold eyes turned warm after meeting yours.

Lowering himself onto his knees once again, releasing your tit with a lewd, wet pop sound, body shaking as he placed his face right in front of your aching cunt. The tip of his tongue parting your slit, kissing it so passionately. Kissing everywhere but your clit, licking and sucking every part of your body but the part that needed it most, so neglected that just his breath could make you cum, not even being touched. 

 Hips trying to best to grind, to get any kind of friction as his hands held you down, not even seeing him flex his muscles to do so, remembering that the only thing you were ever told you were good for had all the attention of a man of power that could take out as many people as he wanted. Sitting back and relaxing the best you could, wanting to be good for him as he'd been to you.

Letting out a squeal as his nose touched your clit, trying your best to not cum as he let out a chuckle, sighing as he pulled away.  “Guess I need to move further huh? Needy little thing.” He whispered into you. The soft tease from his voice making you clench around nothing, ashamed that you got off on the power difference, referring to you as a thing, as humans were just pests in the gods eyes. 

Knowing he definitely saw as he was still on his knees, hands moving to cover your face. Not knowing if his ego could get any bigger but he swore it did, having you right  in the palm of his hand. Thumbs parting your folds as his fingers teased your entrance, whimpers leaving your cracked lips as you tried to muffle them with your hands, teeth sinking into your flesh once again.

“You want my fingers, pretty girl?” he asked, voice thick and deep from arousal as he watched you lift your hips, unable to answer as you face contort in a whine. 

“....Got it.” 

So pliable as you easily gave way thanks to him. His middle finger stretching you out, the feeling so hot as he was curling it inside of you, finding out your body with ease like a second nature to him. Growing uncomfortable as your thighs were getting sticky and wet, feeling spaced out and dizzy at just his finger. Worried about how you were going to take him, pushing it to the back of your head because you were here for his pleasure, not yours.

Rubbing your clit in circles faster until you're coming all over his hand, dripping onto the seat under you. A sob escaping your lips as he doesn't stop, fingers continuing to thrust into you, stopping once he's had his fun with you.

“Came so pretty for me.”  He cooed, admiring your already so blissfully fucked out state.

Raising his soaked lips to yours, spitting your own cum into your mouth as he pushed his tongue in there. Lapping it up as your mind went foggy, legs beginning to tremble while he wrapped his other arm around you, pulling away.

“Just hang on, you're being so good, so good for me, ” Moaning as his fingers replaced his tongue.

“Shh, don’t worry, I’ve got you,” He murmured, trying his best to control his voice while looking at the sight of you lying there, eyes fluttering as they rolled back.

“Its getting dark, love.” he said breaking the silence. Picking up your limp body, bare as the day you were born, muttering out, “I'm taking you to my home.” The sun shining less, sky getting a deeper shade. Seeing the marble and stone pillars surrounding you while he closed the sheer curtains, slightly blocking your view as he set you down on the plush bedding.

“m’gonna make it dirty…” you whispered, legs shifting as you thighs slid together.

Not being able to care less, wanting you and your body so wet and needy for him that he'd need a new one. “I don’t care, my love. Just lay there for me, okay?”

Watching as you crawled to the center of his bed, letting your body collapse. Legs opening as your back arched as, face landing in between the soft ivory pillows. Gritting his teeth moving lower, lifting your thighs up. Moving them out of the way to bury his face into the softness of your ass. Running his thumb down your clit, so swollen as you twitched underneath his finger.

Placing kisses across your ass, the tip of his fingers making their way into your holes, trailing his mouth over your slit. Choking out with a whine embarrassingly loud as you arched your back even more. “Not today my love, wanna see your pretty face right now, wanna see it twist and turn.” 

Flipping you over, placing featherlight kisses all over your face down to your shoulder.  The jewelry was the only thing remaining on his skin, his robe discarded to the side. The gold complementing his perfect body on display for you as he reached over to the stand, grabbing a jug of wine. 

 “C’mere”, wrapping his arm around your middle, pulling you up chest to chest with him, feeling his heartbeat as your head looked up to him. “Drink some,”

Your head resting on his hand as it was tilted back, taking a slow sip from it, some slipping past your lips, falling down onto your chest. The burning feeling making you antsy and jitterish.

“Don't worry, I got you.” Not giving you a chance to respond as he pulled the bottle back.

Tongue tracing the red and purple liquid, lips taking their time moving up from your stomach to your chest, kissing every part of your body that was stained. Taking your nipple into his mouth once again, sucking the wine off of your breasts while you were squirming under his touch.

He grins, sucking and rolling it between his teeth, his fingers teasing the other. The stinging feeling he left behind as he moved on from your neck, finally reading your mouth, thumb tracing them before pouring more wine into your mouth, this time catching it before it spilled, lips meeting yours as he kissed you drunk.

His smile was thoroughly charmed, not just the liquid he was savoring, but your nerves and humiliation were being swallowed up too. “You trust me?” His teeth shining under the moonlight, the glow looking like a halo around him. Nodding out a simple “yeah.”. 

The heat radiating off of him as he hovered over you, your skin erupting in goosebumps as the warmth grew in the small space between you two. His lips meeting yours slow and controlled, still full of greed and passion while his hands roamed over your body with need.

“S’gonna hurt, love.” he muttered, trying to hold back a groan as his tip barely made its way in, legs spread as far as he could get them. Locked around his waist as he wanted so desperately to bury himself in your soft chest, but the thought of missing your face pulled him away.

“Fuck…”

The feeling of finally sliding his cock into you is unlike anything he's ever felt in his long life. Letting out a gasp of breath as he groaned above you, sinking you down pitilessly onto his cock. His hands ‘gently’ gripping your waist, your knuckles turning white as they clenched onto the fabric underneath you. “...hurts”

“Shh… s’okay. You’re doing so good, feel so good. So wet for me, gonna fuck you so good, love. Gonna make you cum over and over again, gonna fill you up.” he cooed, hands finally settling onto your thighs, resting there as he waited for you to get used to his length. The burning feeling quickly growing numb at the thought of not being enough for him, tears welling up in your eyes at the pain and need.

 “a-aran.”

He leans in closer to you, pride blooming in his chest, pressing your sweaty and slick covered body into his. “Hm, love. You okay?”

Nodding hesitantly while your eyes look over his shoulder. “m’not gonna break. I- wa-. No… I need you.”

Kissing your forehead to control himself. “I know you won’t, what d'ya you want?” Wanting to confirm what he thought he heard, hands getting impatient.

“Want you to fuck me, want you to use me,” The needy whine of your voice going straight to his cock.

White shining through his lips. “ I got you, love,” he said leaning back, taking a firmer grip on the top of your hips so he can slam back into you. Voice shattering as you squeal, back curving while your body tires to run away at his brutal pace. The sound of his balls wetly slapping against your ass and his hot breath are the only things you could hear.

“Ah, ara- cant , I-I-, can--”  His face beaming at the incoherent words coming from between your lips, knowing he was dumb fucking you dumb. One of his hands moving from your thigh, up to the base of your neck pushing your head down into the pillow. 

“Feels good? Gonna tell me how much you love my cock?” He groaned, hips getting faster.

“I--ah, hngh, ara-, I-- it f-feels so good, ah, so good--”  Your eyes fluttering shut, trying to stop your tears. “Hngh, p-please,...ple-!” 

“Please what baby? ya’ gotta tell me, or i won't know.” he taunted. Slowing his thrusts down with his pent up effort, making you miss the feeling of his cock bruising your walls.

“please, wanna cum, ple-, ngh, w-wan-, please, I--” You whimpered, hands reaching up to his chest, nails leaving imprints behind, nervousness overcoming your face that you left a mark on a god

His eyebrows furrowing as he leans into you. “Fuck, I’m gonna make you mine,” he breathed heavily into your ear. “I’m gonna show everyone, show the whole world below us who owns you. Who’s the only one who can fuck you like this baby, who can have you cross eyed just from the tip, huh? Tell me.”

“You!” you sobbed, more focused on meeting him halfway, more desperate for his cock, than answering him.

His tight grip on your hips, keeping you from kicking and jerking. “Huh? What was that?” He whispered, fucking you like he was competing for you. 

“Im gon-, m’gonna cum.” Body jiggling under him as his frame blocked your view, the only thing your eyes could see was him.  

“You just take it, don’t you love? You take my cock like that's all you were made for. You gonna cum for me, pretty girl? Gonna cum on my cock? You gonna let me stuff you full? 

Vision going black and starry, head drowning as your body felt like it was floating. Feeling him shove himself into, whining as he let out a sinful moan. “Fuck. m’so close. So close because of you, such a good girl, ” Body shaking as he fucked you into overstimualtion, grinding against your clit with each thrust.

“Mine, all mine.”

Hips stuttering and stalling as his balls were flush against your ass. Spilling inside of you and digging your fingers into his arms. Cock still hard even after you clenched around it, cumming onto him again and the bed sheets beneath you with a choked out moan. 

Thighs trembling as your body was so eased, sleepy and content. Focusing on the feeling of him stretching you out, and the internal feeling as making him proud. Slowly relaxing until he flipped you over on top of him, laying down. His cock slipping slightly out, the feeling of his warm cum escaping leaving you painfully empty.

Collapsing on top of him after your body gave out entirely. Only being able to breath as you felt his hand rest on your lower back. Turning your head to see his eyes closed, seemingly as worn out as you. The night sky being painted in the background, wondering how long you've been at it. 

But as your mind came back to yourself, you realized that you would never be his no matter what the circumstances. Closing your eyes one last time after admiring his face for what sempt like hours, the comfortableness growing as you drifted off to sleep in his big warm arms. Knowing that he'd be more than likely gone when you woke up, wiping your tears one last time.

 You’d done your part.

[userpurple]

Yes that was the photo!! Idk how people live in nyc, it seems like the weather gets so unbearable at times. Ill definitely check out the asmr, ive been looking for new channels to watch anyways! Yeah it sucks that acnh needs a switch, but imo its the best animal crossing game Nintendo has put out so far. I also used to play guitar! Ive lost the calluses on my fingers though so now whenever I play it hurts haha. I totally get the movie thing. I have a habit of choosing video essays on YouTube over movies, even though a lot of the video essays I watch are movie length. Make it make sense brain???? I probably should’ve guessed you liked frozen 2 by your header! It was such a gorgeous movie. What are your favorite kinds of edits to make? - pixel ☕️

hellow again pixel! yup it's sad that animal crossing needs a switch but you know what? i'm gonna go watch gameplays on yt XD like, the ones that record everything right from the very start hehe i've been doing that for genshin impact lately :D

ugh tell me about the calluses! i feel like all string instruments require you to constantly touch them at least once every day if you wanna play them without crying from the burns on your fingertips lmao.

oooo video essays sound interesting! what are they? and yes i did love frozen 2! though i think the plot line didn't make much sense. i watched the disney+ documentary on how they made it and it was just absolute chaos and rushing lol. but i didn't mind that much honestly bc for me the key focus was on how visually STUNNING the animation & graphics were!! especially as an editor and gif-maker, the color palettes were inspiring af + great for enhancing color theory <3 what was your favorite scene/moment from the movie? mine was elsa battling the dark sea and the water horse!

ahhhh favorite edits to make that's hard bc there are so many!! but i'll give you some of my current ones:

i love making edits based around b&w, vintage minimalism and monochrome themes. obviously, with these concepts less is more and i'm something of a minimalist myself. also i love the challenge :) @ikraar is honestly a b&w queen and mist just constantly inspires me! 

handwriting edits! this is a rather recent obsession kslhakljskallf i just love the idea of overlaying your handwriting on a picture it’s just so charming??

collages but i’ve only made one so far for a friend’s birthday (it was my first time trying! i was proud with how it turned out) and for collages nat/miss marshmallow @ohh-goddamn has my absolute mad respect she just rules that category!! 

the final one is posters and redesigns of anything from a movie, tv show or album! this type is probably the one i do most cause it’s what comes the most naturally to me. i’ve been making edits for years, starting with good ol’ picsart and working my way up to photoshop (@magnusedom @cheddarthefluffyboi and @deepika-padukone are my gurus). i like that i can sit in front of a blank canvas on my laptop and just conceptualize the design as i go <3

final one is simple hehe. any edit that lets me use the film grain filter or overlays :’)

what about you? what are your favorite movies? are you a content creator on here as well? 

[jaefmin]

Treat you better | N.Jm

Treat you better - Na Jaemin

↳ Pairing: caretaker!Jaeminx fem!reader [sick!reader]

↳ Genre: fluff, angst, fever, humor (if you notice mine😭), friend!au, anxiety, childhood!friends, tattooed!Jaemin sadlkf they don't even kiss-

↳ Synopsis: It's your stupid, ugly and imperfect body that's giving up right before attending an important meeting with your boss. This could give you a promotion, but your body's in a state to just lay in bed all day. Will you be able to get to the meeting?

↳ WC: 2.7k

Header made by: @vantaengelic Go follow my baby rn!!

↳ Pairing: caretaker!Jaeminx fem!reader [sick!reader]

↳ Genre: fluff, angst, fever, humor (if you notice mine😭), friend!au, anxiety, childhood!friends, tattooed!Jaemin sadlkf they don't even kiss-

↳ Synopsis: It's your stupid, ugly and imperfect body that's giving up right before attending an important meeting with your boss. This could give you a promotion, but your body's in a state to just lay in bed all day. Will you be able to get to the meeting?

↳ WC: 2.7k

Ajdjksj- why dId I mAkE tHe syNoPsIs sO cLIcHé

@intokook 🙃🙃

As soon as you're about to pass out from exhaustion, someone knocks at your room's door. Not now. Please. You're barely left with the energy to open your eyes. Your eyelids feel heavy, but soon lift up wide awake when the person enters your room. Those usual creaky sounds of the doors reach your ears only to make you quiver, and, you're blessed with a sight of a pale faced man, hair neatly arranged on his face with a worried expression. Your eyes fall on the man's outfit, a pair of cargos, with a black shirt covering his torso. His facial features seem pleasuring- beautiful orbs with round specs, muscular hands, and beautiful tattoos on them. You immediately recognize the man by his tattoos, and he seems to recognize you too. His appearance disgusts you now that you've realized him. But it's too late to analyze and hate the man in front of you more deeply. Before knowing anything more, you fall asleep.

You feel a hard splash on your face, and in seconds, and you're wide awake. A chill runs down your spine and you begged for the person to have thrown warm water on you. Your eyes witness a standing Jaemin, with a mug of water in his hands. His tattoos attract your eyes towards them, and you can't help but stare at them. "So this is how long it takes to wake you up? I've been shaking you for the past half hour and you are like some big old chimpanzee that doesn't feel anything when an ant's trying to move it." Jaemin baffles. "Hey!" You stammer "Anyways, why are you here?" You ask back. It was oddly strange of Jaemin to be here. "Some man called Jaehyun sent me here. I'm originally taking care of old sick people in an old-age home, but Jaehyun told me about your situation. Trust me, I didn't expect it to be you." Jaemin explained in a high tone. He paused a bit after a comeback again. "And If your condition's hell, then didn't you think of paying the doctor a visit?" His tone seemed like he was sick because of you, and he was criticizing you for even breathing. "That's not how you talk to a sick person." You stood up in your defense "Yeah yeah. 'Sweetie, would you like to visit the doctor? 'Cause I really think we should go there.'" Jaemin mocked you, and you could really see the same young, frustrated Jaemin in him. "You haven't changed at all, have you?"

Jaemin made sure you were seated properly in the car. He drove the seatbelt around you and continued to the driver's seat. He turned on the heater, and asked "So, what's wrong? When did you get your fever?" His tone seemed to have calmed a little bit. "Yesterday night. I had a headache, the night was full of surprises every hour." You replied to him in a voice low pitched. "Don't worry we'll get you all fine. And Jaehyun told me that you had a really important meeting... Or something like that? Would you like to tell me more about it?" Jaemin asked. "Oh yeah, there's a personal meet my boss wants to host with me. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have exaggerated it, only if it wasn't in Vegas." You ended with a sad tone, knowing that you'll never make it in there. And losing your job... for another season of hunger games until you get the next one. You sighed. "Don't worry sweetheart. I'll take you there." Jaemin boldly let out.

"No need to worry Y/N. You're absolutely fine. It's just a viral. All those bacteria are kinda fighting inside your tummy, and you've gotta let the good one win and then bam! Y/N's all back!" Jaemin exclaimed. "Which one's the good one?" You ask him only to have been receiving a weird reply from him. At first, he stammered a bit, and then let out. "Not like you're gonna go and dance with pom-poms inside your tummy to cheer them up. Do you even know how much Jaehyun exaggerated it?" He immediately changed the subject. He kept on talking, and indistinct sounds entered in your ears as you were in your own world, lost, thinking something. Although a smile did appear on your face upon hearing Jaehyun's name, and how he'd taken care of you. He was the best colleague ever, and you had your own little crush on him.

"J-Jaemin?"

"Yes?"

"I really need to clean up my bedroom. You've witnessed how soiled it is. Would you mind doing that for me?"

"While you will...?"

"...Watch the telly?"

......

"Alright, JUST because you're sick. Keep in mind I don't really be so kind to people like you. I hate those years when you're in your twenties. A big judgmental couch potato stuck to your screen."

"Well, you are in your twenties?" You replied after calculating a bit. "Not for long." Jaemin replied. "A decade passes like this." He snapped his fingers to indicate how the years pass, and you seemed to be fascinated with his answers. You knew the old Jaemin, the one that used to bully you in high school, but this one seems interesting. Feels like he's gotten over the series of unfortunate events that you both went across. His aura was different. The kind that would make you jump into his personality's fathomless ocean, and plunge into it. Somehow, he made you feel like he had changed a bit, but at the same time likewise the old Jaemin. The days you spent together, the fights both of you had, all those memories kept haunting you. You never forgot what he meant to you. "Earth to Y/N?" Jaemin snapped you out of your thoughts and you looked back at the tattooed man. "I'm not going to clean up your room." "What?!?! Why?!?" You stood and stared at the air, thinking what happened to your voice. It got harder, huskier, a sense of cough in it. Before you knew it, you were coughing your lungs out like crazy, and that just made Jaemin panic. He started going around in circles, and you immediately asked him to bring water because you knew he wasn't going to do that on his own. "Alright, shh calm down. Relax. Here's your pill. Have it and take rest." Jaemin shortly laid you on the bed after that. His face was on top of yours, and he was about to get your medicines to you, when you felt it coming. You were about to cough. You were trying your best to control it, but Jaemin wouldn't stop lecturing you on relaxing.

Bam.

"UGH!! GROSS Y/N!!!!!!" Jaemin's face was a masterpiece from down where you were looking from. After a couple- err well a lot of 'ewws', 'ughs', 'you're so damn gross' , 'who would want to even take care of you', he finally calmed down.

"What kind of person coughs on the face of their own caretakers?" Jaemin asked after wiping his face for the tenth time. "Face-cougher." You were all giggly and jolly before hearing that name. "Excuse me?" You said. "What's wrong, Face-cougher?" You did not like the new nickname. "You did not call me that." "Yes I just did, face-cougher." Jaemin replies and you are not staying quiet in this. "Y/N is a face-cougher!! Face-cougher!!" Jaemin started teasing and that's all you were taking.

Another bam.

And it isn't good this time too.

This time, you landed right on Jaemin. He put the couch cushions for his defense, but the anger inside you told you to throw the cushion and throttle him right away. And you decided to do that. Of course, not the whole 'throttling' part. He was quick enough to find another good defense. This one was a vessel, the one he decided to cook pasta for you in, but that never progressed further more than deciding. So, physically preparing yourself, you grabbed the spatula and dashed towards Jeno. A thought tingled inside you and you tried to push it away, but it forced you to look at it.

You're sick, Y/N.

You almost forgot about that. Your body was filled with a wave of energy to fight back. This thought didn't last too long, and not before you're outta the dreamy world and back at Jaemin. You were right above him right now. Jaemin immediately used his defense, the closed side facing towards you. You hit the vessel making a loud noise, and it sort of felt that you were getting your panic attack again. It hadn't been a long time since you knew that your spatula wouldn't last against his vessel and now you didn't even have the time to go and change again. He took the advantage of your a-bit-too-late-realization and pounced over you. "Damn it! Is this how girls are when they're sick?!?! Oh pity those male doctors!!" It was kinda weird to hear these things from a guy's mouth, but you knew what an anti-girl person Jaemin was. It reminded you of your colleague Jungkook, who had the same behavior towards girls. Jaemin's arm slipped over, and he landed right on you. There was a worried expression on his face, to get close to you again, a fear of whether you might 'bam' him or not again. He immediately held you for support, but your body was doing nothing other than feeling weak- no mood to stay strong, so you got pulled away with Jaemin. He landed on ground with his back facing it, and had you in a such a position that his body was pressed against yours. Jaemin's face was centimeters apart from yours, and it reminded you of this days when he used to hold you this close. You both stayed still in the moment, processing what just happened. He waited a while, before he stretched out his hand to cup your face. He stroked your skin with his soft hands, a feeling of shiver running down your spine. "Everything's still the same, Y/N." Jaemin muttered. "I'll be here."

"Alright, have this, you'll be fine within half an hour." Jaemin gave you a huge tablet. "Are you sure?" You asked, nervousness filling you up. "Yes, the doctor's prescribed it.'' After having the medicine, you had a nice sleep while He cleaned up your room, and you woke up around six. "Morning, sleeping beauty." Jaemin's voice was heard across the room. Its like he knew that you were going to wake up right at this moment. Freaky how he does that.

Does he have to get back the flirting mode on? You rub your eyes, and try to get up, but due to the weakness inside, you fall back. Jaemin immediately notices and rushes towards you. "Does the medicine make you feel any better?" He asks, a caring tone occupying his voice. He puts his hand under your waist and tries to get you up, the bridal style. "What are you doing!? Move!" You shove his hand away, a stiffness taking shield over your body. "What? I was helping you get up." You saw the innocence in his voice and calmed down a bit. "It's alright, I can handle that."

He gives you a perplexed look and turns to the soft toy in his hand. "Alright, but I must admit, you have a great soft toy collection." Jaemin faces you again, this time with puppy eyes.

"NO. You're not going anywhere with Dolphie. Keep it back."

He turns towards the shelf while mumbling something to himself.

...

"HEY! I'M NOT A MEANIE!"

Jaemin left the dolphin on the shelf and your eyes were forced to shift their gaze towards the whole room. It was way cleaner than you could ever keep it. Everything was finally clean, not dust-coated as it used to stay. Your study table attracted your attention- looking brand new, as if it were just made yesterday. Jaemin must have some experience of helping old age people with their stuff back at his old house. "Wow. It's... pretty." You complimented his efforts. He smiles to you and lays over your bed. "You have pretty great stuff."

"I liked your journal the best."

You felt like throwing yourself outside the window. Or, it might be great to take him in too so he doesn't go around telling everybody about your crushes. "Literally, Y/N," You weren't prepared for what's next. What's he going to reveal? The time you crushed on your math teacher? Or when you imagined a boy naked? But what came out was way worse than all of the book.

"You had a wet dream with me?"

Oh no. Out of all of it this one was what he asked? The tension on your face rose up, blood rushing up to your cheeks. He looked at you and smirked. "Oh, don't worry sweetheart. I've read all of it." You couldn't handle a second before you smashed a pillow right at him. He took it by surprise, and actually got hit by the pillows. "Do girls hit people when they're shy?"

Crackhead.

A thought rose up in your mind. "Yes. They do. And if you get them too shy they might even stab you." Jaemin mocked a scared look on his face and then went, "Heh. You and your stupid girl jokes." You quickly needed something against him... a secret, maybe. You try to recall something embarrassing that he told you, and it strikes faster than you thought.

"I think you might die."

Jaemin's face was left expressionless, "Oh, all because I read your journal and now you're gonna stab me?"

"Close, but not exact."

Before you could tell him the exact reason why he might die, he pulls out a pink book, and turns out, it's nothing but your journal.

"Y/N-" Before any word could come out of that beautiful mouth of this crackhead, you reach out to grab the book from his hands. It seems like he doesn't even want to try, and you have the book in your hands within a flash.

You keep the book with you, hugging it as tight as possible, so that even if he tries to make a grab at it, he would fail. He lays down on your bed, the body-fit shirt hugging him tight. It seemed like his mood had completely changed. He chuckles, "You're still the same, you know? Nothing has changed." He held out your hand. Was he trying to change the topic?

You try to indulge into the conversation, asking "How? Everything has changed over the last decade."

Jaemin had changed completely, and that fact made you think that he would feel the same towards you. You saw a sense of maturity, more of responsibility in him. Ever since both of you separated, it had been hard to move on, every day and night spent in grief. But as usual, life strung the both of you along with it, and you both followed. You suddenly had flashbacks, that night in the club, the pool party... you immediately shook your head, wanting to forget all of the embarrassing moments of your life.

"Y/N, You know that the meeting's tomorrow, right?" Jaemin's face grew serious. "Do you have any idea how you're going to manage?" There was a tone of worriedness in his words. "C'mon! I almost became your wrestle buddy! I can handle it!! I'll just gulp down some of my medicines, and I'll be okay." Your conditions were streets ahead after you got some sleep. Everything felt finer, specially when you woke up to the perfect sight of the room you never had. You played with Jaemin's fingers and then reached out for his arms. You assured him, "Everything's going to be fine, only if I can control myself for puking on you." Not being able to control yourself, you giggled at Jaemin's widened eyes.

"I'm going to wear plastic on me then." You burst out into fits of laughter, "Like JYP?" Jaemin smiled upon you, "Yes."

After all of this, you were sure the trip would be fun, and you probably won't upload the next season of hunger games.

[shaynawrites23]

Soulmate

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader

Moodboard is by the wonderful @heloisedaphnebrightmore, go check out her fics as well! They’re every bit as beautiful as her moodboards 😉 And like an idiot, I forgot about the asks I sent 😂 so the header that I’m still in awe of is by @pcseidcnsvoid!

Word count: 1225

Prompt: Soulmate AU

Written for @marvelouslytrekking’s writing challenge!

Bucky Barnes had never despised his soulmate mark as much as he did now. He examined his right hand, turning it round and round. The palm, his whole palm was pitch black. Before the war, before the fall, it didn't bother him.

Now the sight terrified him. For all he knew the reason his palm was black was because he would strike her, either by accident, or after a nightmare, or perhaps sometime when he was not entirely himself.

For that very reason, Bucky avoided meeting new people if he could help it. After all the heinous crimes he committed under Hydra's command, he couldn't bear the thought of harming the one person he was supposed to love- and who was supposed to love him unconditionally- with his own hand. If he had to live through that, he was sure it would kill him.

"Buck? We've got a new recruit, you coming?" Steve's head poked around the corner and Bucky felt a sudden urge to throw a pillow at his stupid, cheerful face.

"No."

The blond heaved a sigh, disappearing from his view and for a moment, Bucky actually thought he might've given up. Of course not. He should have known, Steve never gave up that easily.

"Buck, it's not good for you too stay holed up in this tower, barely seeing other people. Bruce was watching this documentary the other day discussing humans' social needs, and I caught some of it. It was quite interesting. Apparently we are social creatures, and we need contact with others in order to be health.... Buck?"

The man in question had tuned out Steve's speech, instead engrossed in a book. Or at the very least, pretending to be.

"I know you're not actually reading that book."

"And how do you know that, Steve?" Bucky's expression could easily be compared to that of a parent peppered with incessant questions from a toddler.

"If you were, you would know it's titled How to Meet Your Soulmate."

Steve burst into laughter as the brunet instantly dropped the book like he would a hot coal. He then found himself on the receiving end of the infamous Winter Soldier glare, but it didn't stop him.

"Fine, I'll go to your stupid meeting. Punk."

                                            ~

He could hear the laughter in the common room before he even stepped out of the elevator. Steve, oblivious to his friend's inner turmoil, led the way into the group of Avengers circled around someone like pack animals do to protect their young.

The new recruit was a woman. Of course.

His eyes met hers and she smiled, extending her hand for him to shake.

"Hi! I'm (Y/N)!"

"Bucky."

When he made no move to take her hand, she put it back down, seemingly unbothered by his brusqueness.

"Hey, Tin Man, be nice to (Y/N), alright? She's gonna be your buddy on missions, what with you both being snipers and all." Tony slung an arm around her shoulders and she playfully shoved him off.

Great. Partners.

                                            ~

Despite Bucky's curt replies whenever she asked him questions or attempted to have a conversation with him, she didn't get bored and give up. On the contrary, she doubled her efforts to befriend him. On top of that, it seemed to be working. Bucky found himself warming up to her, and that terrified him.

                                            ~

You couldn't sleep. You had just returned from a mission, with Bucky as your partner of course, and as usual he hadn't uttered a single word more than he needed to. Funny, if it had been anyone else, you'd have stopped trying to approach them, but you felt a certain pull to him. Like... like you were meant to get closer to him.

Sighing, you slipped on a pair of socks and padded out of your room. Maybe a nice cup of herbal tea would help you drift off. You yawned, stepping into the elevator, thoughts swarming your mind.

Why was Bucky shutting you out? You knew what kind of terrible things he'd been through, and you knew he felt most comfortable with Steve. But why did he seem closer to the rest of the team than to you? Were you making him uncomfortable? Maybe...

Upon entering the kitchen, you quickly shielded your eyes from the bright light. Apparently you weren't the only one who couldn't sleep.

Blinking rapidly, you allowed your eyes to adjust to the brightness, scanning your surroundings for whichever one of your teammates was still up.

Oh.

You spotted a tall figure, his muscular back facing you. What was it with guys and walking around shirtless? You saw a flash of metal, the familiar whirring of the plates in his arm following soon after.

He turned around to face you and you gulped. You never denied how hot he actually was, but ever since you were young you vowed to save yourself for your soulmate.

"Hey, Bucky. Couldn't sleep?"

He shook his head no. You stepped closer to him in order to turn the kettle on and you didn't miss the way he shied away from you. Just slightly. But you noticed.

"Me neither. Somehow I'm never able to sleep after missions, so I always come make myself tea." You stood on the tips of your toes, reaching for your favorite mug. "It helps."

When he didn't reply, you turned to face him in concern. Bucky was leaning against the counter, staring blankly out the window.

"Bucky? Are you okay?"

“Huh? Yeah, fine,” he muttered, shaking himself out of his daze.

“Do I... do I make you uncomfortable?”

“What? No! Is that what you thought?”

You nodded, and he facepalmed.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel that way. I just tend to avoid people out of habit.”

“It’s alright. I just wanted to know.” You smiled at him, picking up your mug of tea. “It’s late. I should leave you alone. We can talk in the morning.”

You took a couple of steps in the direction of the elevator only to be stopped by a warm hand wrapping around your arm. It sent tingles through your entire body, like tiny electric shocks, though the sensations were rather pleasant.

Sucking in a breath, you turned back towards him. It was the first time he’d reached out to you, either to touch you or talk to you. Your eyes met his electrifying blue ones, eyes that portrayed the same shock you felt. His flesh hand remained wrapped around your arm and he didn’t seem inclined to let go anytime soon. If anything, his grip on you tightened.

“Oh my god.” You were the first to react, setting your tea aside on the counter and reaching up tentatively to brush a stray lock of hair behind his ear. He didn’t flinch at your touch like you thought he might and you mentally did a little happy dance.

“You’re my soulmate,” you both breathed in unison, the realization finally sinking in.

Bucky released his hold on you, examining his palm in disbelief. The black had given way to an array of colors, shining like the Aurora Borealis. He reached for you, as if asking for a hug and you gladly let him embrace you, your arms wrapping around his waist.

“I’m so, so glad I met you this way,” he murmured into your hair.

“Soulmate.”

Whoo I’m really on a roll here! I hope you enjoyed reading my sudden burst of inspiration!

[ruanbaijie]

hiii hanyi!! ive tried writing this like 5 times idk if you got the other ones bc they wouldn't send if you did ignore them XD

I'm your secret santa from ccnet! this ask is gonna be all over the place because im too excited about this event, we have a few things in common!

first of all your header is beautiful!! did you see the jjk vol 0 trailer?? whos your fav jjk character?? (im obsessed with nanami rn)

do you read manga or just watch anime or both?

i just finished tokyo revengers yesterday and i cried! i loved it! who are your favs from the manji gang? i love baji and chifuyu (little bebe)!

kmy season 2 is coming soon are you ready?? IM NOT 😭 who are your favs from kmy??

also what are your fav colors? do you have any anime or film recs for me? what kind of music do you listen to?

ok thats all for now if you watch kmy season 2 as it comes out we can scream about that together sdkfjks as the event nears XD. The more asks i send i'll end them with this emoji 🎄 so you know its me :))

have a nice day love <3

omg helluu!!! alkslkdf this is the first ask I'm getting from you I guess tumblr ate the previous ones up (`皿´＃)

(your excitement is rubbing off on me omg)

thankyoooooo~ (*/▽＼*) yes I did (see the jjk vol 0 trailer)!!! I like gojo and maki and nanami (*tsudaken*) as well hehe but cough yeah full disclosure (and related to your next question) I'm responding solely based on where the anime is up till currently because I very rarely read manga (I have a Very Bad track record of keeping up with any form of reading material that isn't complete yet and I can't binge at one go ▓▒░(°◡°)░▒▓ the only manga I miraculously managed to finish was kny ahahahaha)

omg yes season 2 tokrev when hello that cliffhanger _:(´ཀ`」 ∠):_ (I'm assuming - again... haven't read the manga... - he will go back in time again and prevent chifuyu's death...?) I like a lot of characters there but baji has a special place (╥ω╥) and that one episode for chifuyu and baji's past???? I broke (chifuyu's hair back then tho)

one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't watch kny mugen train in the cinemas because when I finally watched it at home with my headphones the audio was so damn good and I was literal TEARS (mostly because it was so painful to watch but yes also good audio) the experience would've been so much more impactful surrounded by it in the cinema (｡•́︿•̀｡) ANYWAY I digress season 2 yess!! (I should probably catch up but I'm procrastinating a little so I can binge since the first few episodes are more or less mugen train again oop) but omg so hyped for the entertainment district arc it's gonna be UZUI TENGEN TIME. I like giyu, kocho, and akaza - the one that really ripped me to shreds when I was reading the manga was akaza aha (ง ื▿ ื)ว (also I probably have yelled enough about it in the tags before but ishida akira as akaza is 💯💯💯💯💯)

I like red, black, and white! especially red and black when matched together it's like gothic / evil character / gonna raise hell vibes haahaha (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄) what genres of anime/ shows in general do you like? other (comparably) less known anime I really enjoyed are charlotte, shiki, and noblesse (speaking of which I should really get about finishing the webtoon since it's long been completed... refer to previous point of having a Very Bad track record on keeping up with regular releases) but I don't know if they're less known maybe because they're older and/ or smaller releases... (＾＾＃)

the music I listen to... is a mess (ノ*°▽°*) I usually switch from anime soundtracks to kdrama soundtracks to cdrama soundtracks + random chinese songs to random english songs... the one band whose songs I like... considerably more than others is imagine dragons? but even so I don't follow their news religiously so I don't know if I can be considered a huge fan... (I only went to one concert of theirs hah but then again I rarely went to concerts even pre-covid...)

okay I swear I'll start watching kny season 2 soon I also need to catch up on 2 manhuas I started reading but have been procrastinating on aslkdlflk (ง ื▿ ื)ว

ok this ended up being very rambly and long-winded (bad habit hah) have a nice day/ evening too!

[thisnerdsadventures]

I, a campaign manager

so in addition to being a CTO, a CS major, and a dorm vice president, i was also a campaign manager for 2 weeks (the exact campaign that I was managing is not entirely difficult to figure out if you really want to know, especially if you click on the links BUT i will be trying to not mention it specifically here lol). You might be wondering - (1) why and (2) how did you end up becoming a campaign manager..... you're not even a poli sci/gov/humanities/literally anything vaguely related to this major??

You're correct, yes, how did this happen? Well that's a great place to start this story:

How in the world this happened

Friends drag you into stuff. This happens to be the same friend that dragged me to New York, and then was 20% of the reason I got dragged into the negotiation class, and then was maybe 15% of the reason i got dragged into nonprofit activities? In terms of providing unique opportunities in my life, she definitely takes the cake. So one day, she says "I'm running for this position," and me and the squad says "we gotchu." What does that mean? Clearly wasn't sure in the beginning, but we were texting campaign strategies and slogans and tiktok ideas in the chat for fun. None of us had any real responsibilities, especially since the actual candidates were still weighing the playing field and figuring out their platform.

I also was a course 6, so I guess there was some expectation that I would make the website, even though I didn't actually code the website from scratch.

but anyways, it was actual campaign time.

CAMPAIGN SZN

After they figured out the campaign platform, it was game on for the campaign materials. We spent a lot of time on artwork, we photoshopped pictures from a photo shoot, we came up with campaign motto ideas, we brainstormed strategies for officially announcing the campaign. We had an actual campaign meeting to talk over things in mid-April where I met like six different people, friends from both candidates on this ticket, who were supporting this effort. We had a google drive AND a Dropbox. Look at this:

Despite this seemingly organized effort, it was not that organized because this publicity team didn't actually actively do anything for like a week. Many reasons for this: one being it was actually the semester, and it was also CPW weekend. Unfortunately for me, that weekend was literally hell for me, because I was managing this site for our nonprofit, CPW events (so like five zoom calls on a Saturday), classes (because those are still happening), and then the campaign thing finally started, about a week before voting opened. In the form, of a website.

So the tl;dr is I developed an entire Squarespace website in one night. Yes, one night. I had to model it from I think the website from a Harvard campaign site, which took me like three or four hours on a Saturday night, which is a very fast time in my opinion to learn how to use Squarespace. I also bought a domain and figured out how to connect it to Squarespace at like 1 in the morning, which was the first domain I ever bought in my life!

(It expires in a month. I am absolutely going to let it die.)

Also, if anyone from squarespace is reading this for some reason, yall made a really solid product. I actually was very happy with my experience. You all should use it, I am 100% not sponsored by them at all, but honestly it was a very good experience. If you need to develop a website in four hours and don't have a lot of webdev experience, definitely consider it. You can even see website clicks and user analytics, it's actually really put together.

The next day we spend a lot of time going through website changes and artwork changes. It's bad. We had so many discussions about color palettes and the advantages of a 3 column vs 4 column layout. Yes. I'm serious. I'm starting to go crazy.

If anyone's interested, I would say that our website definitely was better than the other campaign's website. Like objectively. Like both campaigns were great, but the website? well. Here's the link (archived because I only paid for 1 month of squarespace :D) The amount of detail that went into it is actually incredible, the amount of spacing, i even had to custom CSS the header image so that mobile headers would show up correctly.

THE CAMPAIGN VIDEO

so sometime during this week, I had this thought about making a really good campaign video. I was very inspired by some of these Google ads that started with a Google search bar. (Yes, I am aware that I am that much of a Google simp.) To be honest, rewatching this ad, I really definitely just copied this entire ad lol, it's ok we don't have to talk about that.

That Wednesday, we coincidentally talked about what makes campaign videos successful. We talked about how Trump's incendiary imagery helped stoke the flames and how it was really effective in getting people to vote, and eventually helped him beat Clinton in the presidential election. So I went and took that and grabbed news clips and campus videos and overlayed that in the video, and it went from like a solid 6 to an 8 immediately, in my honest, unbiased opinion. You can see what I mean in the video itself: [link].

We also had to put together quite a few interviews about what they wanted from the school and were looking for in their candidates, which took a million years of coordination, but we somehow got it done in three days, and everything was put together in a flurry of a weekend, unending changes and small fixes for sixteen hours straight. I could not even tell you how much I learned about premiere pro and how to use layer masks and everything. I even composed the music for the first fifteen seconds of it. Literally, composed, it.

And so on a Sunday afternoon FINALLY right before voting, the video drops. I'm sitting in my backyard absorbing the sun because I hadn't left my computer for 48 hours straight.

It gets like 1000 views or impressions or something in like two days, which is incredible for me, since I'm not a professional by any standards, but I am considering being a professional campaign manager at this point. By the way, we're also managing an Instagram page, a Facebook page, a tiktok page, a website, our individual social media pages, and we're trying to synchronize this video drop and all of our publicity efforts across every single one of these channels. It's chaotic at best.

VOTING SZN

So it's voting week, where we give everyone an entire week to vote. Across the week, it's mostly a waiting game, we make a few more tiktoks and funny videos that we publicize to get out the vote more. The last day, we're thinking about it, and we know the final vote's gonna be close, so we message every. single. person. in our Facebook friends list. I think I singlehandedly convinced like twenty people to vote (and hopefully vote for our ticket).

There's a lot of drama about different stuff. I won't really talk about it because I think it got really messy, but this week and entire couple weeks was a lot to get through honestly. As a reminder, I'm also working on my senior thesis and my nonprofit website work is peaking at this point, so everything is very, very bad and none of us have slept in a while. Also it's the pandemic.

Finally, the results come out. We lost by like 20 votes or something, out of 1500 or so total votes casted or something like that. It's one of the highest voter turnouts in school history or something, I don't quite remember. After that, we're so emotionally drained from this whole thing that we just don't talk about it for a while and that's that.

If the ticket won, I wonder how it would've turned out. I feel like things would've continued to be busy, and maybe that's not a great thing. So maybe everything happened for a reason. I don't know, but those three weeks were quite interesting, quite fun, quite odd. I'm putting those videos in my personal portfolio and am putting Adobe Premiere Pro and Squarespace on my resume and moving on.

Anyways, thought I'd just share! i haven't posted in a while, and this was definitely one of my #weird #odd stories from my time at MIT, which is quite reminiscent of #weird #odd at MIT in general.