#i'm scared to use scott's tag he's on here

[good-chimes]

In honor of Life series four, Life Series Bake Off AU

NEW SERIES LAUNCHES:

Nation charmed by fresh crop of 12 amateur bakers including intensely competitive student GRIAN, ambitious cake artists BDUBS and SCAR, scientific bread experts TANGO and IMPULSE, and ETHO who has no discernible social media presence and, rumor has it, doesn’t officially exist. Married couple JOEL and LIZZIE raise eyebrows—will they be able to compete against each other?—but this is settled when Lizzie immediately announces she would murder Joel in real life to win and has bought the kitchen knife set for it, and Joel lovingly declares he keeps an axe under his pillow in case this happens.

The judges as usual are renowned cake chef PEARL, bread expert MUMBO, and our two inimitable presenters: BIGB, beloved by the nation for his gentle reassurances of weeping contestants, and MARTYN whose main contribution is his trademark eyebrow waggles as we find out from the judges who’s in trouble this week.

TART WEEK (1)

Tart week gets off to a strong start, with contestant REN charming both the judges and Martyn with his exquisite tarte au citron and his total inability to let a double-entendre go to waste (‘I’m just a tart triumph all over’ he proclaims, to Martyn’s immediate delighted riposte ‘Mm, but what do you do on the weekends?’). Law student JIMMY is not so lucky when a misreading of the recipe leads to ten times the correct amount of butter and a catastrophic oven meltdown. Star baker goes to early favorite BDUBS for an exquisite three-tier tart showstopper.

Week one elimination is, of course, the hapless Jimmy, and the recaps are united on two fronts: it's always nice to see someone on the show who reminds you of your own midnight experiments, but holy shit Jimmy, did it not give you a clue when the melted butter started pouring out of the oven like you’d stabbed the spirit of margarine to death in there. Jimmy's butter meltdown becomes a meme and he sells T-shirts; Joel immediately posts a picture wearing one.

CAKE WEEK (2)

Week two brings cake week and an impressive performance from SCAR, who embarks on a showstopper Baked Alaska in the shape of a snow-covered mountain. Tranquil in the face of GRIAN’S constant disparaging comments about his whisking technique and browned meringue, Scar perseveres and is crowned star baker for the week, while Twitter immediately declares Grian the villain of the season. A contingent of viewers theorising ‘could this be flirting’ are swiftly shouted down on social media and retreat to a dedicated subthread on a cookery forum.

Last week’s star baker BDUBS seems distracted by his new-found friendships with the quiet ETHO, who spends hours on the surprisingly unambitious Victoria Sponge. A conspiracy theory emerges that Etho invented the Victoria Sponge, refuted by weak counterarguments like “cannot possibly be true” and “he would have to be several hundred years old.” Meanwhile the nation is won over by JOEL and LIZZIE’S chemistry as they trade quips and spatulas, unfortunately Joel is eliminated after a jam mishap, at which he declares “at least I went out after Jimmy.”

TEA-TIME WEEK (3)

Tea-time week brings florentines and shortbread, but it’s a sad week for love as REN is out after his overambitious scones fail to impress. “I’m heartbroken,” Martyn announces, and cannot be consoled even by Scott’s superb showstopper petite-fours. Ren was a good sport to the end, everyone agrees. Ren spotted at a Covent Garden coffee shop with Martyn three weeks later.

HALLOWEEN WEEK (4)

The mood is jovial for Halloween week, with judge MUMBO in fake vampire fangs while ETHO bakes cookies in the form of anatomically correct skulls. LIZZIE starts off with adorable witch-hat cupcakes in little witch hats, then spends the rest of the episode precisely and effortlessly crafting a blood red mirror glazed sachertorte which the presenters refuse to look at because it “makes them uncomfortable”, and is subsequently awarded star baker for the most genuine aura of threat ever achieved by a cake.

Meanwhile GRIAN and SCAR continue to genially snipe at each other throughout. TANGO asks BDUBS to turn his oven off at a crucial moment; unfortunately Bdubs forgets and then blames Tango for relying on him, leading to the charred mess of Tango’s showstopper and a social media uproar dubbed “OvenGate”. Bdubs alternately sorrowful and dramatically dismissive. This cruel betrayal knocks Tango out of the tent; a public petition is started for his reinstatement.

WEDDING WEEK (5)

Puppet theater designer CLEO has her star turn in wedding week with ranks of beautiful marzipan figurines on all her bakes. An intense rivalry develops between her and wedding-enthusiast BDUBS, who declares his magnificent fondant confection a dry run for his impending marriage to ETHO, a stranger he met ten days ago. When asked by presenters how much of this is a joke, Etho laughs and says “I guess?”, which leaves the nation none the wiser. Unfortunately IMPULSE’S canapes are considered uninspired and he is uninvited from both the wedding reception and the series.

BREAD WEEK (6)

The feared bread week comes around and all the artistic cake-makers wobble badly. SCAR and GRIAN just scrape through, but CLEO’S triumph last week turns to tragedy despite the trouble she has gone to to model a realistic centaur out of sourdough. Bdubs makes an impromptu speech to camera about how she was robbed but he intends to triumph in her honor.

MEDIEVAL WEEK (7)

The experimental medieval week takes the bakers on an outdoor camping trip where they will attempt to build their own stoves and use them to replicate historical bread techniques. BDUBS’S enthusiasm for this and his drive to impress ETHO turn out to be his downfall as, distracted, he builds a stove that bleeds heat and fails to brown his bread. Etho meanwhile excels at both the survival and breadmaking aspects, leading to a divide on Twitter on whether this level of competence is hot or just very concerning, potentially the cake equivalent of a serial killer. The Victoria Sponge theory is raised again. Etho alleviates some concerns by getting lost three times in an open field over the course of the episode, which loses him enough baking time that dark horse SCOTT pips him to the post of star baker.

WINTER WARMTH WEEK (8)

Week eight arrives and five bakers remain: LIZZIE and SCOTT are known to be good all-rounders, ETHO is the reigning technical expert, SCAR remains the favorite on the cakes side, and GRIAN is mainly known for his habit of constantly sneaking spoonfuls of Scar’s cake mix so he can mock the taste. Social media opinion is divided into “Grian is a good baker actually”, “Grian is only still in because of executive meddling”, and the small but determined contingent of “no guys we really think they’re flirting??” who have emerged from their cookery subthread unbowed and with compilations of video evidence.

The set gets cozy with winter warmth week. Brandy-based showstoppers are the order of the day, and LIZZIE wins the episode by crafting a biscuit unicorn with a mane you can set on fire. ETHO invents an intricate brandy plumbing system to shoot flaming alcohol above his plum pudding—this attempt is in fact a good deal too successful and instead sets MARTYN’S hair on fire. GRIAN comes to his aid but ends up adding more brandy. Judge PEARL extinguishes the flames with a bowl of cinnamon milk. The judges are clearly not feeling merciful when it comes to the scores and Etho’s run comes to a premature end.

DOUBLES WEEK (9)

Some old favorites return for doubles week, where each of the remaining four bakers is helped out by an eliminated contestant on the other end of the phone. GRIAN for once assesses the limits of his own talents and asks to pair up with ETHO, a plan that immediately pays off when the contestants are challenged with a tricky technical that sees them baking the perfect pumpernickel bread. SCAR, having asked to pair up with BDUBS, is quickly underwater as neither of them understand yeast.

Scar’s floundering proves too much for Grian, who belligerently passes along his pumpernickel tips from Etho, saving Scar’s technical enough for him to scrape through. When challenged by Martyn, Grian grudgingly admits, “I just want Scar to stay in, okay?” Some recaps clear him of his villain status; others are still convinced it’s a fluke.

Meanwhile SCOTT turns in an efficient technical with help from CLEO and also JIMMY, who is apparently sitting in Cleo’s living room just to heckle Scott. LIZZIE calls on husband JOEL, but a combination of overconfidence and flirting distracts them both, leading to a burnt crust and Lizzie’s elimination from the final four.

MERINGUE WEEK (Final Episode)

In the finale, SCOTT, SCAR, and GRIAN face off over a series of escalating meringue-based challenges. Whatever alliance sprung up between Grian and Scar in the last episode is clearly water under the bridge as the two of them obsessively steal each other’s ingredients and annoy each other into trivial mistakes. This escalates into a noisy quarrel over the main challenge of the week: an edible diorama of a cactus ring. Scar’s attempts to ‘aesthetically correct’ Grian’s mountain diorama leads to Grian melting his sugar-spun cacti with a crème brulée torch.

The two are no longer speaking by the showstopper, where Grian embarks on a desperate attempt to make up points with an ambitious trifle in a castle-shaped wall of macarons while Scar builds his own grand macaron diorama. The clock ticks down. Scott is creating an impeccable strawberry pavlova. The trifle is going badly. Grian is covered in sugar and regret. BigB pats him reassuringly on the shoulder.

At the last moment, Scar sacrifices half his perfect macarons to donate to Grian’s diorama. Grian, for once lost for words, grabs his apron and kisses him right in front of Martyn’s swiftly-derailed countdown. “Grian had a beautiful artistic vision,” Scar says sentimentally afterwards. “You have to respect the craft!” They snog behind the tasting table. Mumbo gamely attempts to award points. Pearl in a laughing fit behind the cameras. Martyn and BigB solemnly wrap up the shot with Martyn’s best cake-based innuendoes. Grian and Scar do not notice.

Scott wins the series. He got so many more points on the cactus ring technical.

[tin-wufborf]

Tin's Favorite Sterek Fics (Part 12)

Hello party people, and welcome to part 12! This installment is brought to you by my summer cold because there's nothing quite like having a cold when it's been 100+ degrees all weekend!

Again, thank you all for all of the support you've shown this series. Before we move forward, I just want to give you all a little heads up that we are now entering my "anti-Scott McCall" era (which I have yet to leave, tbh; I just read less Bad Friend Scott McCall fics than I used to). There aren't a ton of them on the list, but there's enough of them that I feel like a warning is a good idea, and I know there will be more moving forward. Okay? Okay.

No more rambling on for me. I'm working against the clock in terms of when my sinus pressure kicks in for the day, and I want to get this out sooner rather than later so I can get back to simulated trucking.

Smoochies and squeezies!

List and links to previous/next part(s) below.

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DISCLAIMER: This is me warning you all that some of the fics I've included in this list may cover explicit, dark, and/or "taboo" subject matters. I cannot express enough how little I care what anyone thinks about any of that; all I want is for you to use caution when reading anything I've listed here and to please review and heed whatever tags the authors have provided in order to keep yourselves safe. Your experience from this point on is your own responsibility, not mine and not the authors'.

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20

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You and the Night by Hyperion327 (E | 1/1 | 9,634)

Stiles has a secret. Ever since he was ten, there's been... someone who appears in his night from time to time, someone with glowing gold eyes that no human being could ever have. His shadow has been there for years, keeping watch in the darkness. He should be scared, should have told his sheriff father about the intruder from the beginning, but he can't. Not when the shadow has been the one who's comforted him on the lonely nights. Even if he can't see him, he knows one thing for sure: He trusts him absolutely.

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Oblivious Misadventures, and Other Such Tales by Little Spoon (JaydenNara) (M | 6/6 | 11,240)

Going to college was exciting and new, a chance for new friends and a fresh start, and the best part was, there was a supernatural fraternity on campus, meaning Scott finally had the freedom to be himself.

Then he met the resident human who came with a stalker alpha. What was the point of a supernatural fraternity if he still had to pretend to be human. And seriously, did Stiles ever fall asleep somewhere normal?

--

(aka - Five TImes Scott Found Derek and Stiles Sleeping, and the One Time He Didn't)

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Theory of Overprotective Canines by rosepetals42 (T | 1/1 | 11,798)

Stiles is totally looking forward to living alone in his super cool apartment off-campus. He is. He is also very excited to bike to school every day, ready to set up an awesome game room, and definitely over his crush on Derek Hale. Completely over it.

Or at least he is until Derek decides he's moving in with him. And then turns out to be the perfect roommate. And then starts attending all his classes. As a wolf.

This is not going according to plan.

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Throw Me to the Wolves by skoosiepants (T | 1/1 | 13,493)

He feels the physical embodiment of devastated, his already too strung-out mind struggling to wall up all the hurt, the rejection—he takes a deep shuddering breath and looks down at the shredded skin on his arms, at the sluggish way they’re weakly healing.

There is nothing, nothing he wants more than to have Derek sweep in and make everything all better. He should have known, though, that something like that would never happen to him.

OR -

Stiles accidentally gets bitten, and everything goes to hell.

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Where We Belong by thecheekydragon (E | 1/1 | 16,548)

Derek rescues a little werewolf girl and takes on the responsibility of caring for her. Stiles helps.

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And The Moon Shined A Little Brighter by LuneFaitLaFolie (T | 1/1 | 17,952)

It’s not in the same spot, it’s over his left shoulder blade, almost like it’s over the back of his heart, but it’s just as big. It isn’t black either, so it also doesn’t match any of his other rune tattoos, which Stiles can say with confidence without looking, are either black or blue. No, it’s a deep red, the same colour as Derek’s alpha eyes.

It is though, a huge ass matching triskelion permanently on his body, and he has no clue how the fuck to tell Derek about it.

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Safe Place to Land by Green (T | 1/1 | 19,298)

The Hales have been tracking a group of hunters who've targeted small packs with the help of a magic user. When they finally attack the hunter compound, they aren't expecting to find Stiles, a Spark who's practically a slave, and his young werewolf son. Derek isn't expecting the Spark to be his mate, either.

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Foolish devouring things, build your castle in me by LunaCanisLupus_22 (E | 1/1 | 23,181)

“I will marry you,” he declares. “But should any more harm come to my father or my people, I will raze the earth itself until I feel the lifeblood drain from your corpse and paint my skin with it.”

It is not an idle warning, but from the princeling it has none of the desired effect. Derek feels no fear, but in this instance at least diplomacy triumphed over the spilling of more blood. It is all the same to him anyway. But Regent Peter was most insistent they avoid a drawn-out, gruelling war.

“Then we have reached an accord.”

Or the barbarian sterek war AU that nobody asked for.

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She Walks in Beauty series by breakaway71 (2 works | G-T | 29,144)

1. Innocence (G | 1/1 | 964) Claudia wonders, sometimes. 2. All That's Best of Dark and Bright (T | 1/1 | 28,180) It's not a gender identity crisis if you've known all along what the problem is. If you've been purposely trying to ignore it since you were old enough to consciously make that choice. But what happens after that, when you finally learn how to let go?

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No Rest For The Wicked (Love is Kind) by midnightcas (G | 11/11 | 31,328)

When a homeless, scared for his life, kid attempts to hold up Stiles Stilinski's bakery, the last thing he expected was to be offered a muffin...or a job. . . . "I have a feeling that you don’t want to be a felon on the run from the cops your whole life. Especially over such a stupid thing like robbing a bakery. Murder I’d get, but this?”

“Well," his eyes fall to the gun, "I might murder you.”

Stiles swallowed.

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The Accidental Hale Brood by Julibean19 (M | 1/1 | 42,370)

“I know, I just…” Derek trailed off, rubbing his forehead with both hands, frustrated that the right words weren’t coming to him.

“What?” Stiles asked honestly, pulling on one of Derek’s wrists until he could see his expression again.

Derek’s heart pounded in his chest so loud he figured even Stiles could hear it. He inhaled deeply and let the air out slowly through his nose, trying to keep his voice even. “When we take them places, and spend time with them, and make them smile… it feels like…”

“It feels like they’re yours,” Stiles finished for him, licking his lips before snagging the bottom one between his teeth.

“No,” Derek said, taking Stiles by surprise. “It feels like they’re ours.”

“Oh,” Stiles said simply, mouth still slightly open while he contemplated Derek’s words.

Or, the one in which Stiles and Derek have been BCPD partners for years when they are assigned Halloween duty and run into a couple of kids from the orphanage. One fake marriage and two real adoptions later, they somehow become a family.

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Ain't no rest for the wicked by MBlack93 (E | 8/8 | 46,463)

''What the hell happened, Stiles?!'' He hisses.

Stiles tries not to flinch from his dad's tone, but he fails miserably.

''I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I - I woke up and everything in my room was in flames, even the bed, dad, I - I don't know what is happening.''

As soon as he said it, his dad's face closes off.

''You're telling me that you don't know? You didn't remember? Is it possible that you're - you're poss-''

''NO! No, no! No! It can't be. It just can't.''

''But you don't remember Stiles. You don't know what happened.'' His dad remembers him. His eyes are boring into Stiles's.

Stiles falters because no, he doesn't remember, he doesn't know what is happening, but the Nogitsune is gone, he saw it happening, he knows it's gone. He can't be possessed any more.

''Dad-'' before he can finish his sentence, his dad lets out a weary sigh. And a sob escapes his dad when he looks at the burning house.

''I - I don't know if I can deal with this son.'' His dad confesses. And - and that's it. Stiles stops doing anything for a moment until a sob escapes him, and he can feel his heart break into a million pieces.

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I'll be right back (in 24 years) by AnaIsFangirling (Ana_K_Lee) (T | 35/35 | 48,190)

When Derek thought about time travel – and he did, a lot – this was not what he'd had in mind. He'd thought he would see his younger self, tell him to leave Paige alone and NEVER trust Kate Argent. He'd thought he’d get to come back once that was done and everything would be perfect. He never imagined having to relive his entire life.

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Those Are The Days That Bind Us series by s_a_m (3 works | T-M | 63,389)

The series follows Stiles as he struggles to deal with the trauma, heartbreak and betrayals that cause him to run away from Beacon Hills, and the adventures that come during his time away.

[Subsequent parts are in progress and will be posted upon completion.]

1. Those Are The Days That Bind Us (M | 5/5 | 52,171) His father wasn’t stupid. He was an officer of the law, trained to look for patterns. He confronted Stiles about werewolves and they shouted and Stiles tried to explain but his father was so, so, so mad, more mad than Stiles had ever seen him, ever in all his life and then his father looked at him and said, “It’s like you’re not my son anymore.” And Stiles broke. 2. You Have One New Message (T | 1/1 | 5,093) A flash in the corner of John’s eye caught his attention. The home phone had a message. He hit play. ‘You have one new message.’ “Uh, hey Dad. It’s uh, its Stiles.” 3. Himmelfahrtskommando (M | 1/1 | 6,125) She can’t help but laughing at the growing knowledge that her whole life has likely just been one long suicide mission.

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stuck in reverse by crazyassmurdererwall (smartalli) (E | 1/1 | 65,656)

Look, Derek is the worst. Everyone knows that. Their fearless leader is a total and complete failwolf.

Which means the rest of them? Are kind of the worst too. They’re a ramshackle, slap dashed, sorry excuse for a pack that’s about a half second away from getting one of them killed. And this is a problem, because Stiles would really like to survive high school. Thanks.

Still, nobody deserves what Derek has gone through. Nobody.

And it’s about time somebody told him that.

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Just the Same by foxlavender (G | 7/7 | 68,066)

Something is seriously up with the captain of the lacrosse team. There's just no way Derek Hale is human. *** “I was wondering if you're even human. You move so quickly. I mean, it's ridiculously fast. No human should be able to move that fast, y'know? It's unfair for us. I mean, it's obvious you work out, and I don't, so that could be why, but like...I was just wondering if you were human, that's all.”

“Stop talking, Stilinski, or I'll—”

“Put me on the bench all season?” Stiles asks knowing full well that Derek Hale can't threaten him with shit.

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The Fox & The Wolf by Dexterous_Sinistrous (E | 10/10 | 79,151)

The war between the fox and wolf clans has raged for centuries, ignited in a time before anyone can remember. Now both clans—tired of the bloodshed and hate—are searching for a way to end the war.

Crowned prince Stiles Stilinski—heir to the fox clan—has agreed with his father to meet with the Hales, the ruling royal family over the wolf clan. Under the counseling of the Druids, both clans are presented with a solution to the war: unite the Stilinski and Hale clans through marriage. To quell their people's anger, both Stiles and Derek—eldest living Hale Alpha—are urged to accept the other as an equal; as their mate.

For the sake of their people, both houses make the ultimate sacrifice by choosing duty over love. But, out of what was first assumed to be compromised, quickly turns to be a better match than either could have hoped for. But not all is easy for either clan, as some members refuse to believe that the war could end so easily.

[Update: I'm stating here, because some people aren't reading the author note at the beginning, this story was inspired by/based on Amelia Atwater-Rhodes' Hawksong]

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Didn't See That Coming by knittersrevolt (E | 43/43 | 83,838)

Stiles leaves Beacon Hills in the dust after he catches his husband cheating on him.

He finds his way to New York where he starts working for the Hale House Nursery, accidentally adopts a werewolf baby (through no fault of his own thank-you-very-much), and somehow starts training to be an Exorcist Emissary. So, in general, life was going good.

Then he hears that demons have found their way into his hometown. Can he face his inner demons and go back to save the day?

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I know that you love me, even when I lose my head by LunaCanisLupus_22 (E | 13/13 | 135,585)

“We’re not mates, Cora,” he insists. “I mean look at him-“

“Ouch,” the kid says, no longer pushing that shit eating grin.

“He’s- he’s,” Derek tries, at a loss of how to explain why this can’t be possible. Why it shouldn’t be possible.

Or the one where Derek gets attacked by hunters, ends up with amnesia and forgets Stiles is his mate

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Manipulated by DearDaisy (Scribblesnpaws) (M | 30/30 | 221,251)

Nine years ago, Scott kicked Stiles out of the pack. Stiles left and never returned. But now his dad has been hurt, so Stiles returns to take care of him. No one knows the truth of what happened back then, not even Scott or Stiles. But that's about to change.

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[piastrinorris]

busy streets and busy lives • ralph penbury x reader

A strange day at work gets even stranger when you meet a man who claims he's from 1926. With no certainty as to when he can get back, you decide to take him in until that time arrives.

masterlist | prev. | next

Tags: Timewasters (series), modern!au, slow burn, mutual pining, idiots in love™, fluff, some angst, swearing and mentions of adult themes throughout, eventual adult content, alcohol content, drug content, penbury is a fanon surname

Word count: 8.8k

A/N: Here it is, folks. The one you've all been waiting for. Enjoy. <3

I might have been a tiny wee bit self indulgent at one point in particular. Bet you can't tell where.

You frown as you swipe to answer the call from Scott. "Who died?"

"Woooow," a very familiar sarcastic response rings through your ear. "Can't a friend just call up another in this day and age?" You let the silence linger just long enough for him to then add, "Yeah, I'm chatting shit. No, I was going to ask, are you running late?"

You frown, "No, I'm not long about to close up now. Why'd you ask?"

"Well, Ralph texted me." He puts on a voice, the way you all do when talking about your flatmate. "Good afternoon, Scott. I hope you have been keeping well, and that the snow hasn't interrupted your daily life. I would like to request your assistance, I am aware that we have been tasked with making dessert for the Pal Valentine's Day meal later, but unfortunately I have noticed that we are severely lacking in eggs. I was simply wondering if, by chance you could bring some up to the flat? I would be most grateful, and willing to more than compensate you financially! Regards, Ralph."

You groan, "I asked him to get eggs this morning, he didn't want to because there were kids throwing snowballs and he was scared he'd get caught up in it. I told him to suck it up, because they can smell fear, but he's clearly too chicken-shit to go out there."

"Aww, he's never even had a snowball fight before? What even was his childhood?!" You rasp, hoping to quickly evade that topic. "Oh my god, you thinking what I’m thinking?”

You grin, “I think I am. You wanna rally the troops?”

“On it.”

You look up from your phone, still giggling, to see two of your sales assistants watching you, looking at each other and waggling their eyebrows at each other. You shake your head, “At this point, you’re well beyond barking up the wrong tree! My friend Scott and I are planning something,” you flash your eyes mischievously, and they tut back at you.

“Well, at this point, it’s not like we were expecting you to have some hot date on the other end of the line, is it?” One of them jokes, nudging the other as they run off and busy themselves at the other end of the store, still cackling.

“You two are lucky you’re my favourites!” You shout after them with a laugh. “Can I trust you to close up tonight?”

“Nah, we’re gonna loot the place,” one answers with a false sincerity.

“You poor sods won’t find much here,” you point out. “But thank you, you’re the best!” You singsong as you head past them to the back room.

“Then pay us more!” Another jokes.

“If I had control over who earns what, d’you not think I’d have done that by now? You wound me,” you dramatically push your hand to your chest as you walk backwards through the door out of the main shop floor. Once you’ve collected all your belongings, and put on all your layers, it’s pretty much time to close anyway. You salute your colleagues with a, “Godspeed getting home tonight,” and brave the cold.

Since the roads hadn’t been salted by the time you needed to get to work, you’d walked there, and while you would much rather be sitting in a heated car than feeling your cheekbones freeze over, it’s quite nice to walk through the streets of Croydon, watching the thick snow fall with the slightest bit of sun still peeking through. A gentle little reminder that longer, warmer days are just around the corner, and that winter’s soon at an end.

You’re greeted in front of your tower block by all your friends, all with varying expressions. Scott and Connor are eagerly plotting, Anna still looks a little unsure, and Grace just looks like she’s fed up of the cold. “So, what’s the plan, who’s getting him to come downstairs?” you ask once you’re with them.

“That’s what we were just deciding,” Scott replies.

“My suggestion was that Anna would be the least suspicious, but she wants no part of this,” Connor pulls a face and Anna slaps his arm.

“Shut up! I still think it’s mean,” she frowns, and you hold her arm comfortingly.

“Listen, who’d you rather be the first people to engage Ralph in any kind of snow fight, us or those little pricks up there?” You jerk your head over to where a group of middle school-age boys are playing around together. 

She sighs, “Fine, but I’m aiming for his feet, okay?”

“Aw, but it’s fifty points if you hit his face,” Scott teases.

“Okay, okay, before Grace gets hypothermia, let’s just get this over and done with, shall we?” You ask, and Grace nods from somewhere beneath her fluffy hood. “Scott, he asked you to pick up those eggs, didn’t he? Just make up some guff about how they’ve locked the front doors so he needs to come push the button to let you in.”

Scott nods, texts something, and within a few minutes pumps his fist with excitement. “Okay, he says he’ll do it! I told him to wrap up and let me know when he’s on his way down.”

“Tell him you’ve had to step away from the doors so it doesn’t look like you’re loitering,” Connor adds, “so he can’t just run back.”

“Okay, this does feel a little mean, now,” you admit, and Anna looks at you incredulously.

“No, no, you don’t get to back out now! Not after all that talking me round!”

“Yeah, c’mon, you two have been smooth sailing for ages now, surely there’s something that you can only get off your chest by a one-time snowball pelting?” Scott asks, and you think for a moment.

“He did watch the rest of that new show we were watching without me and then spoiled the ending,” you ponder.

“Jail.” Grace pulls her hood back momentarily to stare at you with wide, serious eyes.

You nod, “Yeah. Or a snowball to the shoulder. Both are the same punishment, I think.”

“Totally,” Connor sneers, and you and Grace both flip him off - or you assume that’s why she’s holding the back of her hand up to him, it’s hard to tell with her wearing mittens, but it does put everyone into a heap of laughter.

Connor’s phone beeps, and he gasps as he looks at his screen. “Alright, gang, he’s on his way down! Lock and load.”

You all get into position, snowballs in gloved hands, as you watch Ralph push the door open with ease, walk through it and look back with a frown. He tentatively moves forward one cautious step at a time, his big baby-cow eyes darting around all the while. You all hide a little further back each time until he’s inevitably in line with you all. He looks at Scott first, then his hand, then around at all of you. “Oh, fiddlesticks,” he whispers.

“This is for your own good, mate,” Connor grimaces as you all throw your missiles at him. With a half-scream, half-squawk sound, Ralph tensely curls himself up in self-defence, holding that position long after he’s been hit. “See, mate, that wasn’t so bad, was it? And that was all of us!”

“I thought you were all my friends,” he glares indignantly at you all, and you nod.

“Yeah, which is why we did it knowing you wouldn’t get hurt,” you point out. “You’re alright now, aren’t you?” He nods tentatively. “See? And the best bit, is now it’s your turn, and you get pick of the lot as to who you hit first.”

“Just hit me first, if you like, I won’t mind, and I won’t hit you again, either,” Anna shrugs, but Ralph studies all of you.

“Who’s idea was this?” He eventually asks Anna, who quickly points to you and Scott.

“Wooooow,” Scott shakes his head, but Anna simply flips him off.

Ralph bends down, eyes still flitting between all of you, as he grabs two handfuls of snow and immediately flings them both at the two of you. While you get a tiny little lump that just grazes your chest, at least he landed it with Scott, as that one flew out of his grip and straight into Scott’s mouth. A laugh bubbles out of Ralph’s lips and you all grin back at him.

“Okay, that was good, but a good snowball is two handfuls, smushed together into, yeah, that’s it, just like- ack!” Connor is silenced and humbled by Ralph throwing his third and far bigger snowball, straight into his stomach. “Prick,” he laughs as he scoops another one up to toss at Ralph again, who manages to evade it this time. “Mine was way bigger than theirs!” He makes another, adding, “Although, while I’m here, if you’re not retaliating…” Before extending himself to standing and throwing one at Anna with an almost evil cackle.

Anna gasps, “Only not to Ralph, asshole!” And throws one back at him with a giggle.

Before long, you’re all running around, including Ralph, throwing snowballs at each other and laughing like you were kids again. You’d never had thought, at your big age, that this is how you’d be spending a snowy day, but it brings back good memories of you and your four oldest friends, knocking at each other’s doors after the local news had announced that your school was closed, taking old bin lids up the steepest hills you could climb to slide down again. You look over at Ralph, with the apples of his cheeks glowing as red as his ears and the tip of his nose from all the cold, his whole face lit up as he catapults snowballs in the strangest fashion, and wonder what snow days must have been like for him. Obviously, he wasn’t sledding down hills on bin lids, but you’d have thought he and Victoria and their friends would have had friendly snowball fights. Though, you remember, from what you’ve learned of Victoria and her friends, perhaps those weren’t so friendly when aimed at Ralph.

Your thoughts are interrupted when another snowball hits Ralph, though not from any direction that any of you are standing. You all look over to the gang of young boys, snickering at each other for having landed one on “one of the oldies”, especially commending the offender for “getting the posh one”.

Though rage boils through all of you, it’s Grace, already warmed up from running around, who pushes her hood back to give them all a death stare and tell them, “You’ll regret that.”

As though called to arms, the five of you form a protective wall in front of Ralph and start hurling snowballs at the group of pre-teens at top speed until one of them yells, “Alright, alright, truce! Mercy! Whatever word gets you to stop!”

Just as you all stop, one more snowball flies up above all of you. Over your heads, down, down, and lands perfectly on top of the head of the kid that the others were praising for hitting Ralph. All your friends spin around on the spot so that all of you, as well as the boys, could stare in disbelief at Ralph, who has a small but very proud smile on his face. “Oi, that was sick!” One of the boys yells out. You mouth to Ralph that that’s a good thing as the other boys start laughing and cheering for him, too.

“Okay, alright, we’ve all had our fun,” you start holding your hands up in the air, “but this isn’t getting Palentine’s dinner ready, is it?”

“Isn’t it Valentine’s? That’s tomorrow, innit?” One of the boys answers.

“Nah, isn’t Pal-a-tine the wrinkly geezer from Star Wars?” Another asks.

“I thought it was that place that’s always fighting with Israel,” another comments.

“Maybe pay more attention to your teachers, yeah?” You ask them with a slight nod. You turn to the others. “Still meeting at Anna’s?” You ask, and they all non-verbally confirm. “Cool, see you guys in a bit. Ralphie!” You shout for him and he springs to attention, practically jumping to stand next to you. You smirk, “Ready to go get those eggs I asked for this morning?” He nods sadly and you nudge him towards the row of shops.

As you walk away, Ralph mutters, “I know I’m not supposed to interfere with knowledge about those world wars, but have there really already been ones in space, too?”

Had the snowball incident not already happened, you’d have absolutely messed with Ralph by convincing him that Star Wars were actual battles that took place in outer space. However, enough guilt consumes you that you correct him by trying to explain the entire movie franchise to him as you buy the eggs you need. Though he listens intently and nods attentively, you can tell from the vacant look in his eyes that nothing’s really going in, but at least he’s trying.

Baking with Ralph sounds like a nightmare, but he’s a diligent little helper when he’s trying. He measures your ingredients for you and he’s quick to wash up your equipment once you’re done with it. You’d only planned to go for the safe option of a simple sponge cake, predicting disaster, but the speed at which you’re all done leaves you pleasantly surprised. You’re even able to snap a little photo for Ralph’s instagram without him noticing. Once you’re all dolled up, he suggests you both take one to “show” his instagram and twitter accounts, but you opt to keep that one for just the camera roll. You’ve not seen or heard any speculation about your potential love life revolving around Ralph, and you’d like to keep it that way.

Once you finally get to Anna’s, after explaining that the boys outside of your flats had since decided to gather all the snow in the street to make one giant snowball, and had recruited you and Ralph to roll it when it got too big for them to, until you two couldn’t either. “Perfectly understandable reason,” Connor nods in understanding, and the others agree.

Once all the food is laid out, you’re glad that you all a) worked up an appetite and b) ended up pushing dinner back on top of that, because everybody preparing separate dishes has definitely overestimated what six portions of each part should be. Regardless, it’s another night of eating food, chatting away and ending with dancing around Anna’s living room, much like Ralph’s second night with you.

Another morning of February 14th, another empty bed to wake up in. You sit up, stretching out your arms, and grab your phone to look through the folder in your phone labelled “shitty mspaint valentines” to send to your friends and some of your coworkers, to make them laugh. You’re met with some laughing reactions, some rebuttals and a couple of reactions that you can tell were written with a sarcastic eye roll, which only spurs you on more.

You also post a photo you took yesterday to Ralph’s instagram, to keep his brand alive:

You’re about to drag yourself out of bed when the door opens to reveal Ralph, holding out a tray with two plates piled with waffles, two glasses of fruit juice and two mugs of tea. You watch him carefully set it at the foot of the bed and then sit next to you with your lower lip out in an affectionate pout. “Aww, Ralphie, what’s all this about?”

“Well, usually tradition would have it that Father and I would take Mother and Victoria breakfast in bed on St Valentine’s Day morning, as a tradition, and so Victoria insisted that tradition still be upheld even after our parents… Well, let’s not already put a dampener on the day before it starts! You’ll have to forgive the absence of flowers, I used to have the luxury of picking them out of the garden, but none of the plants in the flat are flowering, and it would be criminal of me to steal from others’ gardens, and all the florists were specifically selling bundles that were far too big for such a gesture, an-”

“Deep breath,” you coach him as you put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “It’s sweet that you still wanted to uphold your little tradition. You know, my dad used to leave me and Mum Valentine’s cards on the doormat, each from “a secret admirer”, though it used to terrify me at first because I didn’t realise it was him!” You pull a face as you take a bite out of a waffle, and Ralph laughs softly. “’Course, after a while, it’d get a bit embarrassing having your dad be your Valentine, but hey, it was one more than I’ve been getting these past few years!” You finish your mouthful and wave the rest of the waffle at him. “These are pushing the boat out for you! Get you!”

“Yes, my dear American friend recommended them to me! And I managed to successfully cook them in the toaster oven!” Ralph chimes gleefully.

“Look at you go!” You beam proudly. “Soon enough, you won’t even need me!”

“Oh, don’t be preposterous,” he mutters under his breath just before taking a big sip of his tea. “Any plans for the day?”

“You mean, other than beating the hoards of men waiting for me outside that door with a stick?” You joke, and Ralph chuckles lightly. You shake your head. “Might just do another self-care day. Be my own Valentine, as if things weren’t sad enough!”

“Well, perhaps I could join you, and we would be our own ones together,” Ralph offers. He awaits your reaction with bated breath. If that goes well, perhaps he could segue into asking you to be his actual Valentine, and that would be at least one more step above simply being housemates, over being bedmates, even.

You take a deep breath in. Maybe you could ask Ralph if he’s willing to take it the slightest step further and be each other’s Valentines. It’s just an arbitrary title, really, but at least you’d have one this year. And, whenever Ralph finally leaves, at least you can remember him as more than just your flatmate who you platonically shared a bed with. Wistfully reminiscing over a Valentine does sound more romantic.

But, you have to respect his boundaries. If he felt comfortable enough to make you breakfast in bed, he would have accompanied it with a request for you to be his, but he didn’t. He’s offering to be his own Valentine, parallel to you. Message received. “That’d be nice!” You put all your effort into trying not to sound disappointed.

It works, as Ralph reads your reaction as being very happy with that idea, and he daren’t tread over that line. “Very well. So, what does being your own Valentine mean?”

“For me? Junk food, junk TV, and in this weather, wearing at least two blankets at all times,” you count off on your fingers, making Ralph laugh. “Though I better head out and get you some of your favourites, too.”

He frowns, “There’s no need, you’ll catch your death of cold out there!”

“I mean, obviously I’d get dressed first,” you pull a face. “But yeah, you deserve to get spoiled a little, too. I mean, you did all this for me,” you gesture to the tray, but Ralph rasps flippantly. “Plus,” you add with a smirk, “don’t want you hoarding all my favourite snacks.”

“There it is!” Ralph grins, pointing a finger to you and leaning in so it hovers close to your nose, making you laugh.

“You caught me!” You hold your hands up in mock guilt. “I’ll head out in a bit, okay?”

Once breakfast is over, and you’ve washed up after you both despite Ralph insisting he would do it and trying to get in - which resulted in some rather creative ways of blocking him out of the kitchen - you get dressed ready to brave yet another cold front.

You know what Ralph’s most favourite sweets are. Jelly Babies. But the ones he loves the most aren't the kind you can get from any shop - of course not, that would be too easy, and this is Ralph. No, his favourites come from an old fashioned sweet shop that lives on the same street as the shop he works in. You remember its location vividly. as you'd made a point to think about memorising it and nothing else the day you'd dropped off a treat to Ralph while at work and seen his latest idea in action - an immersive display where he dresses up to fit in with it too. But you'd firmly blocked that mental image out of your head. Of him surrounded by Wild West imagery while wearing a cowboy hat, a plaid shirt and very well-fitting jeans. You definitely hadn’t focused on that at all.

The trek to the old high street is a long one, especially since the snow that wasn’t quite gritted over had formed a barrier of sludge along the roadside that was creeping into the remnants of yesterday’s clean, soft, crunchy snowfall. You make the most of the childlike wonder that comes from stomping through it while you can, before it inevitably ices over into a deathly lumpy terrain.

You spot someone ahead hobbling through the snow, walking in your direction. You watch them carefully, unsure whether to try and help, casually walk past or actively avoid them, when an unmistakably pungent aroma precedes them. You study them a little closer and shout in recognition, “Homeless Pete!”

The man looks up and grunts at you. “How‘ve you been? Not seen you in ages!” He shrugs. Heart sinking, you note, “You were walking with quite a purpose there. Headed anywhere in particular?” Your fears are confirmed when he points over to the block of flats Ralph showed you that he’d emerged from almost half a year ago. “Oh… Today? It’s working?!” You ask, feeling your heart hurl through the ground. He nods, then gestures to you and flashes you a hopeful look. “What?! No! Not me! No, d’you remember, you brought a guy back with you from the 20s? Well, not these 20s, the nineteen-twenties.” 

He looks blankly at you. You groan, “Please don’t tell me you’re some kind of past Pete who doesn’t know about Ralph, I don’t need a migraine today.” The name seems to resonate with Pete, which is promising. “Yes! Ralph! You remember! He was all dressed up like he was in the army! And he ended up coming back with you! And then he ended up with me! S’pose I better… Could you hold off on using it until I can get him there, too?” Your words hang heavy with sadness, but you knew this day was coming.

Pete stands there in silence for a moment, thinking. He traces the air from time to time, then claps his hands, making you jump. He mimes scratching at a beard along his own stubble-covered jaw. “You mean, you’ve seen Ralph with a beard now?” He nods, pointing downwards in front of himself. “You’ve spoken to him?” Another nod. Pete looks up at the tower block, then at you, gestures with two hands towards the building, then makes an X shape with his arms, waving them down. 

“Please just fucking speak, mate.” You sigh, but he just repeats his actions. As you look lost again, he holds his two hands out again, but stops, looking at you in waiting. “So, that’s you and Ralph?” You guess, and he nods. He moves his hands up towards the building. “You and Ralph went to the place with the… Time machine.” Saying it out loud still sounds insane, even after all this time. He holds one hand close to him, and waves the other one out at you. “Is that one meant to be him?” Another nods, and then the crossed-arms gesture. You frown. “Ralph… Didn’t go in with you?” He shakes his head. “Why not?” He shrugs.

The sorrow and confusion you’ve been feeling this whole conversation start to curdle into all kinds of other feelings. There’s still some confusion there, but mostly it’s anger, frustration, disbelief. He knew how cautious you were about this day finally arriving. He knew of all the countless sleepless nights you’d spent trying to figure out things like how to hide him from your landlord, what to do if he ever falls ill. He knew that every time you picked up your post, you feared a letter from the government with big red letters asking to confirm the identity of the man who’s been claiming to live there despite not being legally registered to. He knows that you’ve been up until all hours some nights searching desperately for some kind of explanation for this phenomenon, since it can’t just be something that only Homeless Pete knows about.

Things had been going so well, especially since Christmas. You’d made peace with the fact that the clock was very much ticking with how long you’d have left with Ralph, and especially after Brighton, you had been telling yourself over and over to not sweat the small stuff, and to just enjoy having him around. You’d figured that with your feelings for him growing stronger the more that he’s around, it’s better for everyone if, instead of constantly counteracting them with the negatives, you’d just let yourself get over him quietly. 

Maybe you should have been more forceful. Created more boundaries. Made it more obvious that he can’t just cheat his own fate, who knows what kind of damage he’s done to… Literally the entire universe, anything could be possible! You’d thought you’d always made it so clear to Ralph to always be preparing for the day he goes back. That no matter how great the life is he’s made for himself here, at the end of the day, all this is, is a learning experience for him to take this level of confidence back with him to his own time.

Forgoing the sweet shop, and any other shop for that matter, you make a beeline home, your steps far more deliberate and angry than the gentle march you had been taking through the snow. Even the sight of the lift in your building angers you, so you push your way up the stairs up until the ninth floor, storming through your front door.

Ralph looks over at you from where he sits on the sofa, delight on his face, which quickly falls when he sees your expression. “Is everything alright?”

“Is it?!” You screech. “Have a guess who I saw out there.”

He frowns. “I’m not sure, I didn’t quite think there was anyone out there who upset you to that degree. Would you like some tea or something to calm down?”

“Don’t you dare tell me to ‘calm down’ when you are the reason I haven’t felt ‘calm’ for almost six months now!” You hold your forehead, and Ralph looks back at you, confused, sad and a little scared.

“I - I quite apologise, is there something I’ve done that’s brought this -”

“Don’t you go giving me the ‘oh, yes, quite’ spiel,” you mock his tone, “not when you’ve been lying to me under my own roof! I trusted you!” You stop yourself when you hear your voice crack at that last sentiment.

He swallows hard. “In what respect have I been dishon-”

“I saw H.P. while I was out, didn’t I?! Going towards that block of flats. So I tell him, I say, oh hang about, Pete, let me go grab Ralph so he can go back. And what do you think he told me?!” You ask, now stood next to the couch, squatting down to get eye level with Ralph.

His eyes dart as he wrings his hands, his eyes squeezing shut and open over and over again. “Yes, well, you see, that -”

“Right, all this umm-ing and ahh-ing is just… Annoying me even more,” you state, rubbing your temples. “I just want the facts, Ralph.”

“You said not to talk about anything from that weekend,” he mutters, and you look at him in disbelief.

“You’ve been holding out on me about this since November?!” You ask incredulously.

“You said! Not to talk! About anything! From that weekend!” Ralph jumps to his feet, punctuating every gap in his sentence with a chop to his palm.

You stand back up to level with him. “Yeah, as in all the shit about - God, are we really gonna drag all of that into light again, now?!”

“Well, if we could just talk about it, calmly,” Ralph gesticulates, but you scoff.

“You gave up all rights to that the moment you started lying to me,” your voice shakes. “It’s you, Ralph. You’re the one person I don’t expect to lie to me, since I don’t lie to you.”

He rasps in disbelief. “That’s not entirely true, now, is it? Or else you wouldn’t react so harshly. There’s something you’re hiding from me, isn’t there? Has your sense of charity finally worn, is that it?” He speaks with the venom in his tone that you’ve only ever heard whenever he’s talking about himself. “What, have you been counting the days down until you could throw me back out? Is that why you’re up until the ungodly hours, researching how to get rid of me sooner?”

You groan, pressing your fingers into your eyelids. “You can’t keep doing this, you can’t just keep making yourself the victim here when that obviously isn’t what I want!”

“Ah, yes, well, you must forgive me for not realising sooner that everything here is exactly as it always has been for my entire life,” Ralph spits. “People pretending to care about me to then use me for my money, or my social status, is one thing, but I have nothing here. Nothing but… Being a pitiful little man.”

“How many more times are we going to have this argument, Ralph? Everybody loves you here!” You punctuate every syllable of the first word with claps. “It’s not just because they pity you, because they don’t know you! They don’t know how you got here, or anything about your shitty family, people just like you! You have to stop being so narrow-minded and start seeing how this,” you gesture in circles in front of him, “affects the rest of us! Especially me, I’m out here having to - to keep track of what secrets I’m keeping and what lies I’m telling to who.”

“Yes, well. Nobody asked you to,” he mutters, looking at the floor.

Your blood now boiling, and all rationality out of the window, you scoff, “Oh, so now you’re ungrateful?!” His eyes snap to yours, but you carry on before he can interrupt you again. “I put my job on the line every time I have to leave early for you. I put my entire livelihood on the line harbouring a fugitive that doesn’t legally exist anywhere, not to mention that I have no clue what to do if you ever need urgent medical attention, if my landlord suddenly decides to kick me out, I don’t know how I’m going to keep them from finding out about you and potentially charging me a fuckton extra, I just - You can’t just think about everything I risk for you even once, can you?”

He frowns, “How dare you say that I don’t care?! I keep a healthy diet, despite all the times you decide we’ll just take away food instead, I keep to myself as much as possible other than the things that you have me do, and whenever I do leave the flat, I leave no trace that I was ever here!”

“Look, we’re getting away from the main problem, here, and I’m not skirting around it any more,” you shake your head. “Why did you lie to me?”

“Strictly speaking, I’ve never told a lie, merely omitted my meeting with Peter from any conversation between you and I,” he points out, and you scowl at him. He sighs, “But you don’t understand. If I told you that, you’d want to know why. And I can’t - there are far bigger things at play here,” he shakes his head.

You look at him in disbelief, “Like what?! Are you some kind of time-travelling spy? An intergalactic detective?”

“Clearly not,” Ralph scoffs.

“Then what, Ralph?” You raise your voice. “What possible reason do you have for - for causing me all that grief all those months ago, just to then go against the one thing you were supposed to do, putting the fate of whatever’s out there at risk all while only living the life of half a person, hm? Why would you choose to stay here like this?!”

“Because I’m in love with you, obviously!”

You and Ralph stare at each other for what feels like hours of silence. His wide, terrified eyes boring into yours as his whole face turns red. His lip quivers and then, suddenly, he pushes past you as you’re still frozen on the spot. You just about turn around to see the last of him rush out of the door, carrying his shoes in his hand.

His coat still hangs on the door, and you can see the snow is falling again. Not realising you’d been holding a breath in the whole time, you groan it out as you grab his coat, wrapping it around your arm to avoid it dragging on the floor, and head out to follow him. You see the display above the lift counting down and curse yourself for having worn yourself out on the way up here earlier.

You huff your way back down the stairs and try to find any trace of where Ralph could have gone. You study the footprints in the snow, vaguely recognising some in the shape of Ralph’s shoes, and decide that it’s as good a lead as any to try and follow them, though they quickly disappear once you get to the main street area. You notice someone loitering and decide it’s worth a shot.

Running across the road to meet them, you ask, “I know this sounds strange, but have you seen a guy go past? Had on a fuzzy blue jumper and no coat, I mean like -”

“Like he was wearing the Cookie Monster’s skin?” They ask with amusement. You sigh with relief, nodding hurriedly and they point, “Went towards the old high street, looked like he was tweaking.”

You thank them and start running as quickly as the resistance from the snow will allow you. It doesn’t help that the wind happens to be blowing the snowfall directly into your face, causing you to constantly stop to rub your eyes or sputter at whatever lands on your mouth.

Once you get back to the street you’d just been to moments before, you sigh with exhaustion as there doesn’t seem to be any trace of him. You still begin pacing the street, looking in every shop window that you pass. You wonder whether he’s hiding at his work, where you wouldn’t be able to get near him, and whether it would be worth asking in there. You’re on good enough terms with his colleague now, and perhaps the eclectic owner of the store might lift your spirits a little. There’s an awful lot of emotional weights on your chest right now, and you’re not sure which ones you’re supposed to be holding. You’re not entirely sure of anything right now, other than that you need to find Ralph.

Not paying attention to what’s in front of you at all, you end up almost vaulting over some poor baby’s stroller as their mother tries to get past you. “Oh my god, I am so sorry!” You apologise hurriedly, and she looks at you with a weirdly knowing smile.

“You looking for the guy who’s been cutting about in just his jumper?” She asks, gesturing to the coat in your arms.

Your eyes widen, “Yes! Oh my god! Have you seen him?!”

“Nice fella, helped me get the little’un across the road amongst all the snow. Really posh?” You nod again, hoping to egg her along. She eventually tells you, “Yeah, I told him to hurry up and get inside, he’ll catch his death! He went over there, towards them flats.” You don’t even need to look in the direction she’s pointing to know where she means.

You thank her profusely, adding a, “Cute baby!” over your shoulder as you quickly make your way down to your next clue.

Thankfully, it’s more than just that, as you find Ralph leaning against the wall of the building just next to the front door, squatting not far from the ground, his arms crossed over his torso and his head sunk low.

He doesn’t look at you as you walk over to him, but you hold his coat out in front of him. “At least put this on, yeah? That mum’ll have your throat, otherwise.” He silently reaches out for it and stands to put it on.

“He’s not here,” he mutters quietly. “Peter, I mean.”

“So, that was your answer to all of this?” You ask, your voice strangely calm considering how tumultuous your internal monologue is. “To just run back to your old life and leave this one all unanswered and up in arms? No care as to how it’d affect anyone else?”

“Of course I care about - well, I suppose the cat's out of the bag. Of course I care about you. It’s why I thought I shan’t burden you any further. I’ve already insulted your generosity by assuming you hadn’t the agency to tell me that you didn’t want me, without taking into account that perhaps you were being genuine. It’s what caused all that trouble when we were in Brighton. And I didn’t want you to feel any more obligated to do anything more out of - I can’t describe it as anything other than pity, but I never wanted you to feel as though you had to pity me, either.”

You sigh, “Look, I get it. It’s complicated as all fuck. Trust me, I’ve been trying to work out all the ins and outs and ups and downs of it all for months, now. But anything here, it just - we don’t know what it’s gonna do, you know? There’s far bigger forces at play here, you literally travelled through time, surely that’s cocked the universe up cosmically somehow? I don’t even know,” you groan in frustration.

“Well, obviously, I wouldn’t have agreed to stay unless I absolutely knew it wasn’t going to put you at any risk. But Peter stated that… Lauren and the rest, they’ve yet to make any sort of return. And since they could have chosen any time, they surely would have by now. I think… I think they stayed, in the past. And it’s not as though the sky’s turned upside down as a result, or that the world is being run by lizard people, now.”

“Depends on who you ask,” you mutter to yourself with a smirk, before looking over at Ralph. “I’m just hurt that you didn’t think to tell me. I know, I know, it was that weekend, but still. You could have told me that you’d thought it safe to stay, regardless of when you’d figured it out.”

“Would you have still been mad at me?” He asks quietly.

“Honestly? Probably,” you shrug. “I’d probably have argued the toss with you over every single possibility that things could still go wrong. But I’d never, ever force you to come here. Haven’t I been saying it all along? I don’t want you to leave. I’ve been dreading the day that you’re not in my bed anymore, that the flat becomes too quiet again, that I’ll have to spend my evenings watching TV alone without your constant nagging.”

“I thought that rather bothered you,” the hint of a soft smile just about tugs at the corners of Ralph’s lips.

“Oh, it does,” you admit, laughing softly, “but I don’t even want to think about a life where I won’t hear any of that, again. You know, and - and just being reminded of you all the time. All our friends always asking after you, and talking about you, never letting me get over you. I’d stay up at night, staring at the bedroom door from the sofa, wondering what’d be worse; that, or you living your old life meaning that you’d never have existed in mine, meaning I’d have no memory of you at all.”

“I’d always perished the thought of leaving - well, all of you, but especially you,” Ralph’s voice is still quiet. “You’d always - always tell me to tell my sister and Lauren to shove it, but honestly, I don’t think I could ever do that without you there with me. Even if they were to throw me out and I had to find my own way around, nobody else would hold a candle to…” He takes a deep sigh. “I always… I know I’ve always been the hopeless romantic, it’s one of my biggest flaws. And after falling for Lauren as soon as I’d seen her, and everything that happened thereafter, I swore to myself that I’d never let myself do that, again. That’s why I joined the French Foreign Legion, so I could focus on the task at hand, and learning how to build a camaraderie with my fellow soldiers. Except none of them wanted to do that. And so I left, and I ended up right here, and it was only a few streets away that -”

“That some dickhead spilled coffee all over you,” you finish his sentence with a smirk.

“I told you then as well, didn’t I, you’re far from one of those,” Ralph looks at you softly. “But I felt it all come back again. Everything I felt when I first saw Lauren. And before Lauren, when it was Maggie. And before Maggie, when it was - oh, heavens, you don’t need to hear about all my failings. But every time, I acted too quickly, and I only caused myself shame and heartbreak. And when I ended up here, I needed - well, something or someone, anything to anchor me, I had no clue what was happening to me. But you were so kind to me, from the very beginning. And I didn’t want to jeopardise your generosity by ruining it the same way I ruin most other things. So I kept my feelings to myself, for once, hoping that the time to leave would catch up before I let my feelings grow. But here we are,” he sighs. “I suppose I shall have to come clean to the others, and seek refuge with one of them. Though not one of your friends as well, I would never put you in that position. I’d have to perhaps tell Loz, out of all of those…”

You frown, “But why would you have to?” He opens his mouth to answer, but you interrupt him, “You’ve not once asked me how I feel about you.”

“Yes, well, you made some things rather obvious in the flat,” he replies coolly.

“Fair enough,” you nod, “but don’t you think I’d only overreact like that if I was really upset? And that I’d only be that upset if I cared about you so much that it’d break my heart to think you could have lied to me? You’ve yet to ask me how I feel about all of this.”

Ralph wrings his hands together, wincing as though bracing for a physical impact as he asks, “Of course, my apologies. So… How do you feel?”

“It’s hard to say,” you admit, trying not to laugh at his offended face. “Okay, I know, I’m being a dick again. I’m just… I dunno, even though, like, I know now that I can say it, it’s still not easy to just, say out loud for the first time.” You let out a long and shaky breath. “I think that… I’ve never been in love before. But if feeling safer being around you, and always wanting to share my life with you, and dreading the day I never see you again, and my heart soaring every time your face lights up with happiness… I think all of those things are the kind of guff people talk about in those romance films. And I didn’t think those kinds of feelings happened in real life, but… I think I know it, now.” You hold his face in your hands and finally say the words that have been dying to leave you all this time. “I love you, Ralph.”

He looks awestruck back at you. You study his face for any other reaction at all, and after a few beats, any sign of life since he remains unmoving, but he soon gleefully grins, leaning in to kiss you. You meet him halfway, moving your arms to wrap around his neck as you press peck after peck against his lips. His arms wrap around your waist as you just kiss him, and nothing else, because nothing else matters. You only break away from each other for air, and to turn your heads to then resume kissing each other as the snow falls around you both.

It’s only when someone clears their throat to get your attention, commenting, “I know it’s Valentine’s Day, but Christ on a bike,” as they push past you, that you actually step away from each other for more than a split second.

You catch Ralph’s eye and hold your hand out to him, “Wanna go get some jelly babies, put on those face masks that make you look like you’re glowing and curl up watching crappy movies and stuffing our faces?”

“I could enjoy watching paint dry in your company, my love,” Ralph smiles warmly at you as he takes your hand, and you take a step back, aghast, but still intertwined with him.

“And where was Ralph the smooth-talker hiding this whole time?!” You ask incredulously, laughing as you fall into step with him.

“Oh, that’s nothing, darling,” he comments, and your heart flies into your throat. You’d heard him call you that in your dreams a hundred times over, but actually hearing it drives you wild. “As I said, I’ve always been quite the hopeless romantic. I’m afraid you’re going to be seeing that at full throttle, now.”

You cackle so hard you bend double. “Oh my god, I can’t believe I’m gonna see Full Throttle Ralph,” you just about manage to choke out the name through your laughter, and he frowns at you.

“I’m simply warning you that, in agreeing to our courtship, you understand that Ralph Penbury does nothing by halves.”

“Oh god, I’m gonna have to do a lot of catching up, then!” You joke, but he squeezes your hand.

“Oh, good gracious, no, you certainly don’t have to do that! You already do more than enough for me, and I don’t show love just to receive it back, anyway,” he shakes his head.

The journey back to your flat takes the best part of an hour, mostly because you keep interrupting your walk to pull Ralph in for more kisses on the way. You can’t help it, the way his face blushes with the cold just makes him look so adorable, who wouldn’t want to kiss him?!

Plus, when you’d gone to pick his sweets up, he’d told you he had somewhere else to be, run out of the shop, and returned minutes later just as you were leaving, with a bunch of flowers. “I’m cutting it a little short, I know, but would you like to be my Valentine?” He asks as he offers you them.

You take them as you exchange the bag of his sweets into his hands, gasping, “How did you find these so last minute?!”

“Well, they were in our window display,” he admits bashfully, and you laugh.

“Wait, these are from your shop?!”

Ralph nods. “Yes, but I don’t think they mind, too much. Babs was punching the air and telling me to ‘Get in, my son’, but I couldn’t leave you outside and I was technically born in time to be her father, let alone son,” he shakes his head, causing you to laugh even more.

“Shit, I forgot to answer you, didn’t I?!” You look over at Ralph adoringly. “I’d love to be your Valentine, Ralphie. D’you wanna be mine? I’m afraid the sweets won’t last nearly as long as these, as an offering, but -”

“They’re perfect. As is my Valentine this year,” he beams, kissing the part of your forehead not obscured by your hat.

Once you get home, you change out of your snow-soaked clothes and decide to wear the pyjamas you’d both gotten for Christmas from your parents. You wonder whether to tell your friends right off the bat what’s happened today. You know Ralph can keep a secret, but ever since you’d said those four words to him, he’s been practically shouting his devotion to you from the rooftops. As much as you can’t wait to share in this big milestone of yours with your best friends, you just want nothing more than some uninterrupted time to spend catching up with all the affection you’ve been so desperately wanting to give to Ralph this whole time, and vice versa. Besides, they’ve all got dates tonight, too. You don’t want to interrupt their evenings. That’s what you’ll tell them when they inevitably find out.

Instead, you spend the afternoon and well into the evening pampering yourself and your - Boyfriend? What would you even call Ralph? Although that remains short lived as he realises that face masks are just a barrier preventing more kissing from happening, and he pouts until he’s got full access once again. Every peck comes with its own sweet nothing - a declaration of love, a compliment, a comment of gratitude. Although he’d told you it wasn’t necessary, you do try to match his energy - but it just becomes exhaustive after a while.

You had your heart set on ordering from your favourite Chinese takeaway from this morning, before the day's events had transpired, but Ralph is more than happy to eat from there, as well. You even go so far as to try and teach him how to hold chopsticks, though his adorable attempts to keep interlocking your fingers to pull your hand to his lips to to kiss it instead are far more adorable.

After watching some cheesy rom-coms - or rather, spending the night cuddling and constantly kissing Ralph some more while Sandra Bullock tries to find love over and over on the TV - you eventually retire to bed. As you do, your phone chimes its specific tone to tell you the group chat has updated. Laying in bed, you unlock your phone to see a photo of Scott and his partner, on their sofa with a glass of wine each, which is then followed by Grace sharing a snap of her and her boyfriend wearing face masks together in her bathroom. Anna sends a mysterious snap of two fancy-looking meals and two glasses being clicked together, one certainly in her own hand but the other is held by a mystery man, and Connor shares a very sweet photo of him and Ralph's friend Lauren in a restaurant booth together.

Ralph's head rests on top of yours as you show him the photos, and you can feel his smile getting wider at the photo of his two friends from different parts of his life here sitting so closely together. You lean your head up to grin at him, "Should we?”

He smiles back at you as you switch to your camera app. You aim it at you and Ralph and look back over at him, for him to press a kiss to your forehead. You close your eyes, smiling into it, and tap at the screen, your muscle memory still knowing exactly where the shutter is without having to see the screen. You type “happy vday from me and my valentine, too 😘”, hit send, laugh loudly with Ralph as you see all four speech bubbles show up at once, and then put your phone on silent and lay it face-down on your nightstand.

You roll back over to snuggle up against his chest, and he wraps his arms around you, tucking your head under his chin as he embraces you. “Goodnight, my love,” you hear him whisper in your ear. “Pleasant dreams.”

“Night, Ralphie. Love you,” you mutter back, holding him tight and breathing in deeply, finally free to indulge all you want in the prospect of having a relationship with the man you’ve been in love with for the last five months.

next chapter

[thebisexualdogdad]

Kira Yukimura x Scott McCall x Allison Argent x Isaac Lahey poly headcanons

Tagging @inhumanshadows who I came up with this idea with

● so basically Scott and Allison were dating

● and then they met Isaac and were like wait we both have a crush on him??

● so Isaac joined the relationship

● then Kira came to Beacon Hills and they were like wait we have a crush on her too??

● so Kira also joined the relationship

● telling all the parents was a trip

● Melissa didn't care she was more concerned about where to put Isaac since he was living with them and obviously couldn't sleep in Scott's bedroom anymore

● Chris was like "really?? You couldn't just date one werewolf but two?? And a kitsune??"

● Ken pretended to understand but then Noshiko had to explain to him what polyamory was, "so all four of them are in a relationship?? Like together?? How did Kira go from being single to having three partners??"

● Allison being the supportive girlfriend cheering in the stands while all three of her partners are on the field during lacrosse games

● every game she rotates wearing a different one of their jerseys

● when all of them go out to dinner it's a whole ordeal

● Allison thought Scott and Isaac ate more food than any one person should be able to but then Kira came along and she can out eat both of them

● they went to an all you can eat buffet once and by the time Allison finished her first plate Scott and Isaac were each on plate three and Kira was on plate five

● and when they order in pizza they have to order at least 6 pizzas and every box is empty by the end

● Chris "really guys? You use my credit card and you couldn't at least save me a slice?"

● they go on runs together through the woods

● Scott and Isaac love scaring Allison and Kira by disappearing then sneaking up and picking them up from behind

● as much as the four of them love spending time together they also make sure to have plenty of one on one time with each other too

● Kira has a master schedule that keeps track of when who is going to have solo dates with who

● Scott and Isaac staying up all night playing video games

● "you both look exhausted what were you doing last night?"

● Scott and Isaac looking at each other like they totally didn't just complete a game in 18 hours that is supposed to take people days "...nothing"

● Allison teaching Kira how to use a crossbow and Kira teaching Allison how to use her katana

● Scott and Isaac are both the "well mark me down as scared and horny" meme the first time they see their girlfriends using each other's weapons in a fight

● Allison and Isaac have a lot of study dates because Isaac doesn't do any of his homework otherwise

● Scott and Kira spend a lot of time lacrosse training

● the look on Coach's face when he found out their relationship situation was priceless

● "huh, so that's what polyamory is? I think I did that once in the 90's"

● Scott and Allison have more of the adventurous dates going to new places and trying new foods

● while Isaac and Kira have more casual dates like bowling or going for ice cream

● movie nights with them all cuddled up together on the couch

● Melissa comes home from her night shift at the hospital to find all of them fast asleep and the movie credits rolling

● unless they put on a horror movie because once again Scott and Isaac think it's hilarious to scare Allison and Kira who then don't sleep at all that night

● Scott, Allison and Kira all stealing Isaac's sweaters which are way too big for them

● one day he shows up to school and sees Scott, "Hey is that my sweater?" Looks at Allison, "that's mine too," looks at Kira, "and that one! No wonder I couldn't find anything to wear this morning."

● Allison being fascinated by both her and Kira's family histories

● they do so much research together

● if any of them ever get hurt the other three completely dote on them until they get better

● Scott "you guys I'm okay, super healing remember?"

● Isaac "just relax here I made soup"

● Scott "you have never cooked in your life"

● Isaac "fine Kira made soup"

● Allison "now that's more beliveable"

● they are the talk of the school when they first get together

● but after the shock factor wears off no one even gives them a second look when they are all walking to their respective classes hand in hand

● or when they are huddled close together on a bench during lunch break being all cute and coupley

● even if someone does say something they don't care

● they are happy in and in love and that's all that matters

[sagegreenfrogs]

*ೃ༄ *:☆about sage☆: *ੈ✩‧₊˚

#GIVEUSTHESAGA #CONTINUETHESAGA #GREENLIGHTARC3 #CONTINUETHEDRAGONPRINCE #WEWANTARC3 @netflix

⭑°⟢last updated: 12/11/2024⟣°⭑

NOT SPOILER FREE FOR TDP S7!!

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ* . °•★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆•° . *☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ* . °•★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆•° . *°•

──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──── "a heart's a heavy burden."──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── "destiny is a book you write yourself." ─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

-> names: just call me sage!

-> pronouns: he/it/they

-> transmasc, biromantic, aegosexual

sharks and trees enjoyer. silly little guy.

currently working on getting diagnosed with autism !! :)

if you post 18+ content without proper tagging DNI! this account is run by a minor, do not speak to me sexually!

-> bigots dni, zutaras dni, shaladin dni, z0os dni, terfs/radfems dni, radqueers dni, anti-choice dni, abelist dni, transmed dni, etc.

TELL @netflix WE WANT TDP ARC 3 (SEASONS 8-10) BY STREAMING THE DRAGON PRINCE ON NETFLIX, USING #the dragon prince AND #giveusthesaga HERE (+ ON TWITTER) AND BY REQUESTING EACH SEASON ON THE NETFLIX SUGGESTIONS WEBSITE!

-> current fandoms: the dragon prince, voltron : legendary defender, avatar : the last airbender, jujutsu kaisen, genshin impact, hermitcraft/mcyt, the disastrous life of saiki k, scott pilgrim, evangelion, dead end : paranormal park, kipo and the age of wonderbeasts, nimona, the owl house, amphibia, gravity falls, she-ra and the princesses of power, parkour civilization, over the garden wall, whitepine, haikyuu! (anime only), arcane

-> things i'm currently getting into/future fandoms (no spoilers please!) : bungo stray dogs, hilda, centaurworld, castlevania, spider-man, cowboy bebop, delicious in dungeon/dungeon meshi, freiren : beyond journey's end, over the garden wall, grishaverse, nana

-> non-fandom interests: theology, history, music, martial arts, psychology, politics

-> fanfic reader & author. my ao3

works:

(bolded works have archive warnings)

the dragon prince:

all's well that ends well to end up with you. sorvus fluff (sorta fanon s6?) complete! cowritten with @a-very-sparkly-nerd

i shine only with the light you gave me . apollo & hyacinthus au sorvus fic. a passion project of mine <3. complete! (major character death)

oh, cupid walks right through. sorvus oneshot, inspired by the famous s6 hug screencap. complete!

and i don't even like you that much... wait, i do (fuck) sorvus oneshot also cowritten with @a-very-sparkly-nerd, complete! (sorta fanon s7)

i was scared of pretty boys and starting conversations sorvus camp + modern au, with @a-very-sparkly-nerd. ongoing. for @sorvus-week-2024 day 1 : camp

within the halls of power lies a nervous heart sorvus oneshot- crownguard knighting ceremony. for @sorvus-week-2024 day 2: crownguard. complete!

(more fandoms to come... i have many ideas teeheehee)

personal tags:

#sage yaps or #sage yapping: just me spouting fandom or other-stuff garbage :3

#sage responds: answering from my inbox (pls send asks i love them)

mitski, the crane wives, madilyn nei, sparkbird, hoizer, laufey, beabadoobee, NOAHFINNCE, radiohead, tv girl, lyn lapid, siouxsie and the banshees, bauhaus, the oh hellos, rabbitology, tyler the creator, opal in sky, beltaine, kawir, kimya dawson, aram kachiturian, tchaikovsky, etc. my spotify

★ my inbox is open if u ever have a question or just need to talk! ★

[antvnger]

A blue demon looking boy walked through the streets of San Francisco. "Where am I?" He asked confused with a german accent, while he looked around. He had been practicing teleporting at Xavier's school. That's when Kurt got distracted for only a second and now had no idea where exactly he had landed. As he kept looking around for an indication where he was he saw Scott. Kurt cursed silently, knowing he didn't had his holographic watch with him, that would let him look like a normal human. He took a deep breath and walked over to Scott. First he needed to get back to the school, there he was sure the professor could fix everything else.

Still somewhat unsure Kurt cleared his throat. "Uhm... Guten Tag..." He started and remembered that ha was in the US and people didn't spoke german. "I... I mean hello... good day..." Well yeah, this was awkward Kurt thought and took a deep breath. "Uh... I know I look scary... But please don't scream. I promies I'm not a threat..." Kurt told Scott in a quiet voice and raised his hands, on them only three fingers, to show him he came in peace. His german accent was getting more prominent as he got more nervouse and Kurt really hoped Scott wouldn't get scared because of his apperence, mistaking him for another threat that was here to attack the earth.

Scott’s eyes grow wide for a moment when the blue boy walks up to him and starts speaking. But his surprise quickly turns into curiosity and intrigue. “Hi,” he responds with a wave once Kurt gives him a chance to talk. “I don’t think you look scary. I think you look pretty cool honestly.” He extends his hand out to Kurt. “I’m Scott…though I guess you already know that. What’s your name?”

[blametheeditor]

I just had this idea, wouldn’t the smell of the giants be amplified for the smalls? Everything else is amplified. David’s cologne would be overpowering to anyone unfortunate enough to be near him (he would wear it you can not change my mind). Like the bacteria that creates smell would be more/bigger to tinies than to the giants so in my peanut brain it makes sense! I understand if this makes you uncomfortable though as smell is… weird. Just an idea I wanted to share. Have a great day!

Anon, I have made an entire saga on your idea alone.

It just didn't want to work with me! So I made three separate stories, all about 2,000 long, and then I combined them together. I'm not lying when I say I want to write another one to tag onto it.

So I hope you feel validated! We will have peanut-sized brains together because I absolutely agree and love it! AND, I hope you have a great day as well!

Ignorance At Its Finest

Content Warnings: Cursing. Mentions of murder. Mentions of death. Treating people as lesser than. Unintentionally making someone scared. Being uncaring toward others. Being unsympathetic toward others.

It's all fun and game until Fritz claps back with the 'you smell like'

___________________________

David never thought him wearing cologne would ever be an issue.

Look, he’s a business man. He understands certain things are luxuries, knows the difference between needs and desires.

He’s also a very wealthy man who doesn’t need anyone telling him how to live his life.

Besides, out of everything he has, from the house that’s considered too big for only one person to live in, to the insanely expensive car that sits in his garage and is used once a year, he never thought something that costed a fourth of what one suit in his wardrobe does would make such a ruckus.

Yet here he is.

"Excuse me?”

“The cologne needs to go,” Vincent repeats as he continues to walk toward the door. Because this was stated at the very end of their first meeting, the purple man making it seem as if this is final.

“Hold on!” David exclaims, standing up to follow the other. “You can’t just say-!”

“I did.”

“-there’s no reason-”

“There is.”

“-you have no right-”

That’s when Vincent turns with a look of murder in his eyes. “Oh Davey, I have every right. Besides, it’s just cologne! You’re not going to die without it. The same can’t be said if you keep it, though!”

And that’s how David was left, staring open mouthed after the thing that criticized him for wearing cologne.

He ignores it. Because as much as Vincent terrifies him, it was an inconsequential thing. Honestly he’s unsure how the purple man even knew he was wearing it. Unlike high school boys, he knows how to properly wear it, not to mention it was only spritzed across his neck and not his wrists.

“Go wash your hands and face.”

David knew the name ‘Scott Cawthon’ didn’t belong to a fellow giant. As much as he loathed the idea of one of the lowly creatures technically in a position higher than himself, there wasn’t much he could do.

The only saving grace was the fact the man hadn’t been to his restaurant yet. Only phone calls demanding certain information as well as reviewing the documents that had a singular letter missing. Though it wasn’t certainly fun to realize the resident mutated grape favored the little pest. Meaning when he first hung up on Scott bitching at him, he got a lovely visit, and therefore has to keep himself from so much as accidentally ending the call before his supervisor was truly done.

Today was a special day, however. Apparently, wanting a human to get transferred to his restaurant required a personal visit from the voice over the phone. ‘Ensure the poor boy won’t get stepped on by an egotistical asshole of a giant’ was the exact quote.

When he first spotted the miniscule thing standing in his doorway, he wasn’t impressed. Unlike David as he sits at his desk with gelled hair and a full piece suit, Scott apparently thought appropriate work attire consists of a graphic t-shirt and shirts, his hair left to do as it pleases.

With the words acting as greeting, David’s pissed. “Would you like to repeat that?”

Scott doesn’t hesitate. “Go. Wash. Your. Hands. And. Face.”

“You little-”

“You want a human to come work for you,” the man snaps. “I’m the one who gets to approve or deny your request.”

David glares as it becomes clear Scott does in fact have power over him. And unlike Vincent, someone who should have it considering he stands only an inch shorter than the giant, it’s a human who couldn’t stop being squeezed in a fist or kicked by a shoe.

Yet here they are. Scott having the upper hand with his position in the company, and an extremely dangerous giant who’s at his beck and call.

“May I ask why?” David snarls.

“Your cologne. I know Vince brought it up on your first day.”

Goddamn it!

“What is with you dumbasses and cologne? It’s not like it’s hurting you.”

Scott goes silent. Looks him up and down. “David, out of everyone you could’ve requested to get transferred, why did you want a human?”

He’s not admitting that might’ve only crossed his mind to check once he saw the impressive notes regarding Fritz Smith.

You could’ve backed out.

And let someone waste potential like that?

You own a giant only restaurant. What could a little pest like him do for you?

…that’s a valid question.

“Is this an interrogation?”

“This is an interview. If you have adequate answers for a job description that is nigh-impossible for someone who stands no taller than the fingers of the customers who come here, then we can move onto what you’ll be doing to ensure his safety.”

“I need a face for the restaurant,” David begins with a scowl. “His profile states the animatronics are extremely respectful and mindful of him, some even say they ‘favor’ him. And considering the long list of being fantastic with customer service, glowing reviews, and coworkers stating how reliable he can be as well as the person to go to in any situation, he would be a valuable asset to have him assisting in customer relations while I focus on the business.”

Scott gives a look. “Is it safe to assume you want a secretary?”

Yes.

“My animatronics should be overseen by someone with experience. Considering the dark past Fazbear Corporation hired me specifically to eradicate.”

“God I hate business men.”

“Did I pass your test?” David sneers.

Scott wipes a tired hand over his face. Sighs because he knows the giant is right.

“David, I know this is hard to believe, but the world doesn’t revolve around you. Meaning Fritz will need safety precautions put in place-”

“I’m not an idiot, Scott.”

“-and giants realizing how much they affect humans. This includes your footsteps causing earthquakes, yelling capable of bursting our ear drums, and cologne being almost suffocating.”

David finds himself stopping himself midsentence as the last part registers. Because, of course, he never thought about nor cared how any of his actions effected their smaller counterparts. Not to mention he tries to avoid them all together.

“Aren’t you technically a mile away?”

“I can smell it from here.”

The business man immediately scoffed. “Bull-”

“I’m sure you get plenty of compliments on it, I was getting a nice warm smell with spice undertones when I was first entering the hallway. But standing here, I feel like I’m going to get knocked out from the earthy musk, and the flower doesn’t help mixed in with citrus and chocolate.”

David’s mouth drops for a second before he snaps it shut.

“No more cologne.”

. . .

Fritz is well aware David wears cologne.

When he was first getting transferred, Scott had approached him to ensure he was okay with changing restaurants. And not just the typical checking how far the commute will be and confirming his pay will stay the same or increase. No, the meeting was more in the direction of-

“Your boss will be an egotistical giant who thinks humans are nothing more than pests.”

Honestly, Fritz appreciated the sandy haired man warning him. Despite the older being a human himself, certain things are obvious when someone owns or works for a business that’s categorized as ‘giant only’. He might be a naïve teenager, but it’s impossible to completely avoid belittling comments and actions that every human receives at least once in their life.

Those who live in human only cities might not, but it’s guaranteed working at a restaurant that caters to both counterparts.

“It sounds…interesting.”

Scott had stared at him. “You’re seriously considering it.”

“Think of it this way,” Fritz grinned, held his hands out to physically stop the judgement. “On one hand he was definitely too prideful to back out again once he realized I was human. But if you didn’t immediately tell him no once meeting him, then it sounds like he’s willing to make some changes!”

“And turn you into a stress ball.”

The redhead tensed up at that. Paled at the thought that, if he agreed to it, then he’ll be completely at the whim of not just one giant, but an entire restaurant.

He knows there’s multiple reasons for people wanting to go to only businesses. Taking into account the fact they’re talking about a children’s restaurant, putting giants and humans together isn’t always the best idea. Kids get rowdy, don’t understand the moving action figure is actually a person, and it’s almost impossible to constantly stare at the ground while waiting tables.

Not every giant who works or goes there will treat him like a nuisance who shouldn’t be there.

But for those who do, would he feel comfortable knowing not even his boss cares if he’s safe or not?

“…what’s the updated job description?”

“Greeter,” Scott grunted, watched the surprised expression before he continued. “As well as animatronic watcher, coordinator, and on-hand assistant.”

“Like, on-hand-?”

“I can guarantee you will be grabbed randomly multiple times without being asked first, and not just by David. Your potential coworkers weren’t too happy about me being there. Not as much as your boss, but they won’t respect your preference on how to be picked up. Or if you’d want to be in a hand at all for that matter.”

Fritz looked down in thought. Nearly flinched at someone stepping outside the human hallway they walked in to speak privately.

Snapped his head up with something akin to panic. “Did they touch you-”

“No,” Scott stated gently. Smirked. “They know not to so much as look at me. I’m worried about you.”

Fritz hadn’t known where exactly the human blatantly worried for his safety has in the chain of command. Knew he was the person to go to when it came to hiring, finalizing reports for those who ‘quit’ or got fired, but even a lowly waiter knew the name ‘Scott Cawthon’ held respect and power behind it.

He didn’t have to ask the redhead. Could’ve denied David’s request for any number of reasons without even bringing it up to said employee. Or approved without a second thought and let the teenager get thrown into a circumstance without so much as a warning.

But he had gone to the restaurant. Berated the giant none too fond of those who stand no more than 3 inches tall.

Fritz didn’t want that to be for nothing.

“When can I start?”

Scott sighed. Ruffled his hair. Whacked him upside the head with a look that said ‘you’re an idiot’.

“Tomorrow. And heads up, he wears cologne.”

Fritz was actually confused why that had been a necessary add-on. He works around giants all day long, and never had that been brought up before. He’s noticed when customers and his coworkers come in wearing it, so it’s nothing notable.

He realized why on his first day at his ‘new’ job.

He wasn’t really paying attention at first. David hadn’t been at the door to greet him, instead waiting inside his office just like he had with Scott. Meaning Fritz was more focused on simply surviving the restaurant.

No one would open the door for him. It was Fritz vs. making the perfect timing behind a family while avoiding catastrophic shoes and a slow but very unhuman friendly door.

No one would look at him for more than one second, and even then it was only to sneer down at him. So he had to locate the elusive office himself.

No one would offer a hand either, meaning he was thoroughly terrified trying to get to the wall to travel in safety, forced to sprint as fast as possible and hope some kid didn’t stomp or grab him.

Once he reached the hallway toward the back of the restaurant, had gotten far enough from joyful screams of kids he could actually hear his own thoughts, that’s when he realized two things.

One, he made a terrible mistake agreeing to be transferred.

Two, he could smell something warm with a hint of a spiced undertone.

Fritz didn’t think much of it other than it being a weird second thought. He only continued to travel further into the hallway after spotting a sliver of light escaping from a doorway.

On the plus side, there weren’t any giants walking in and out of the hallway. He was able to take his time and let his racing heart slowly calm down.

But the closer he got, and admittedly worried that if that had been the greeting he received from his coworkers than how is his boss going to react, he couldn’t shake the smell from his thoughts.

It kept getting stronger. Nearly dizzying. He could pick out specific notes from floral, to ‘earthy’, to chocolate.

It hit him as soon as he knocked on the door barely open enough for a human to slip inside. Remembered Scott warning about David wearing cologne.

“I do believe you’re 5 minutes late.”

Fritz tensed up, allowing terror to clench his heart, truly afraid he might be crushed without a second thought. And of course, no one would care. No one would report a lowly human employee ‘disappearing’.

Scott would.

He took a deep breath, nearly choking on the overwhelming smell. “I’m sorry, sir. It won’t happen again.”

Since the beginning of the meeting, he hadn’t been looked at once. The giant suited man remained turned toward his computer, speaking without even looking at the teenager he wanted to hire. But finally hazel eyes much colder than Scott’s glanced over at him.

“Make sure you’re here ten minutes early tomorrow.”

You know, I wonder what I’d prefer. Death by a glare, or death by suffocation via perfume.

“Yes sir.”

Surprisingly, that was the end of it. No specific task to complete. No instructions on what his first day should have. Not even a tour. He was dismissed.

So Fritz did as Fritz’s do. He found the animatronics and immediately struck a deal of having a safe way of getting around the restaurant as well as back up if need be. The best part? He had a long list of bribes thought of on how to convince them to help, but apparently them interacting with a human was enough to bargain with.

And that was that. He had coworkers he could trust as much as possible because Lefty gets grabby when Orville’s around and a boss who ‘trusted’ him on knowing what to do.

He learned the flow of Fazbear Entertainment Center as well as the rules. It really boiled down to getting work done in a timely manner and never bug David. And that meant, if there’s a problem, you make someone ‘David’.

It used to be the day guard named Greg. Until Greg was faced with the issue that Lefty apparently couldn’t keep his paws off the arcade machines. Their boss said ‘take care of it’ and his giant coworker had no idea what to do.

Fritz knew he wasn’t turned to because they realized he didn’t just teleport from place to place. Knew his giant coworkers didn’t pay attention to who exactly swept him off the counter. With the smug look given before a singsong ‘Red!’ it’s safe to say they thought this would be the thing to get him fired.

It’s a right of passage being ‘David’. Fail, and you’re fired without hesitation. Pass, and you get to keep your job.

“Hey Lefty? What if we challenged each other’s high score on the game you choose. I win, you promise to only play before we open and after we close.”

“I win, and I get to challenge you once a day whenever I want.”

Fritz won. Unlike the bear, his other coworkers thought he was delusional for one, trying to bargain with Lefty, and two, think he could play a machine meant only for giants. As if there’s no fancy electronics that can be plugged into any game and allow him to play normally. And if they cared about his safety, they would’ve realized long ago all of the animatronics not only helped him, but respected him with the things he did to make their day better.

Of course, that problem was an easy fix in his eyes.

The issue was that he became ‘David’.

Sometimes it was about the animatronics fighting. Others it was about his coworkers. But a large portion/ was calming angry customers.

He’ll admit, it was draining. But it earned him a lot of respect being able to navigate the best solution for an upset mother or Greg angry at Lefty for hiding his things.

He loves the bear, but the bear is the bane of his existence.

The thing is, with being ‘David’, the true David Harrison took notice.

“Fritz.”

The redhead had to force himself not to jump at the semi-familiar voice he only distantly heard. Because why would the business man waste his time on lowly employees, especially the one human he hired.

Which was fine with Fritz! He didn’t want to be constantly berated with comments of ‘pest’ or looks of hatred or be terrified he’ll get grabbed in a fist and squeezed as if he’s some kind of living stress ball-

“Yes sir?”

“Are you able to join me in my office?”

I don’t have a choice, do I?

“Of course!”

He should’ve expected it. He was standing on the counter for the register. Near the edge because, with how many times his coworkers both giant and animatronics alike grab him, it makes it easier for everyone to just pluck him from his work.

It scared him with the speed David grabbed him. And then he was overwhelmed by the suffocating smell of vanilla/earth/flower.

He couldn’t breathe. And being held in a tighter fist than most giants didn’t help either.

By the time they got to the office, Fritz simply freed onto the desk to catch himself from falling on his face, he felt light-headed.

It’s a miracle he hadn’t tripped and fell. Not with how he stumbled a few times before standing with his legs apart, hands held straight on either side, the world seeming to spin, and with each deep breath he took he was only slapped with yet another wave of the cologne.

David stared at him with an unamused look. “What are you doing?”

Fritz panted, trying to breathe without perfume tainting the air, coughing as it just seems to be everywhere. “C-Cologne.”

He received a blank stare. And knowing Scott being as thoughtful as he was, he’s sure the eldest guard had made a comment about it.

It looks like he’ll just have to get used to it.

. . .

David realizes he is the only one who doesn’t realize how much his actions effect humans.

He’ll admit, he’s egotistical. And despite the fact he’s a giant and therefore should be knowledge of how his actions effect those no taller than 3 inches less tall, he doesn’t take the time to be self-aware concerning the smaller counterparts until he’s addressed and told he needs to change a few habits.

It happened when he didn’t watch the ground as he walked, something Vincent had to physically yank him back from possibly stepping on Scott.

It happened when he didn’t realize he turns whatever he’s holding into a stress ball, James seemingly appearing to save Fritz with the redhead too panicked to speak.

It happened when he allowed himself to forget he had a human in his pocket, Mike promising to kick his ass if he ever forgot about a Jerber, and by extension, Irish Jig, Egged Jackass, Hell Spawn, or Phone Guy ever again.

David trusts the others to tell him when he needs to pay more attention, or change something in his routine. Not because he truly trusts them, but because he has much better things to do than realize what the humans he interacts with need.

The only problem is, while the other giants are more self-aware and therefore will watch and teach him how to ensure no one gets severely injured by his hands, they don’t know everything. And if one of his human ‘coworkers’ ever brought up something to him, he would’ve forgotten about it in seconds.

That’s what he believed happened with his cologne. Because Vincent doesn’t count when it came to his first week of meeting the mutated grape.

The only time David remembers anyone bringing up his cologne was during a birthday party at what’s considered Fazbear Entertainment’s ‘first location’. Considering Mike’s the night guard, he’s usually asked to assist the day guard to ensure everyone is safe. Especially due to the restaurant being a mixed one for humans and giants alike, a large party can become concerning.

The only problem was Mike getting sick and needing to stay home.

If this had been before multiple locations being shut down and needing to turn a new leaf less the entire franchise is shut down for good, any human would’ve been asked. Meaning Jeremy would’ve been contacted, though most likely Scott being forced to take his place.

But this was after. So to keep up the good name David bent over backwards to accomplish, a giant had to be found.

Vincent was an obvious no. James apparently had classes to attend.

That’s why David of all people got summoned.

“You do realize I’m a restaurant owner,” he growled down at Scott. Who, surprisingly, hadn’t looked smug in the slightest seeing him at Mike’s location instead of his own. More just looked tired.

He hated it more that Fritz, Eggs, and Scott had been told to come as well. But apparently three humans working together can’t replace an actual giant.

“David, I might be your supervisor, but Afton had to approve someone ‘unqualified’ to take role of a day guard.”

“No one’s qualified.”

“That’s why I put air quotes around it. Just watch for any humans getting grabbed. Mike can do it, so it can’t be that hard.”

David knew what the bastard was doing, comparing him to Mike of all people. But it worked, and he fell silent. Obediently watched the running kids. Upset with himself he had forgotten to bring earplugs considering he can’t duck into his office once a headache began to form.

Realized with a start Fritz had seemingly disappeared from the human area.

In the back of his mind, he knew the redhead at worked at that location previous to being transferred. He also was aware that, despite Mike being Mike, their lead guard knew how to protect both humans and giants alike. Was arguably the best for keeping track and stopping some brat from snatching someone up before it happened.

David doesn’t really watch his only human employee in the giant only restaurant he owns. He both loathes and appreciates the comparison, but he is a bit like Afton in the way Scott is protected purely by name and association across all locations. Everyone who comes into Fazbear Entertainment Center knows Fritz is his human that is never to be touched.

But unlike Afton, no one at Freddy Fazbear’s know the redhead is his. Not when he’s only stopped at the location previously to draft plans on better improving the reputation past the ‘rumors’ of murder and missing night guards.

David cursed before quickly leaving his post, eyes scanning across tables in the hopes of spotting a living action figure having been abandoned. He moved onto searching the floor, wanting to not think about any human attempting to dodge and hide from giants unknowing and uncaring if the smaller counterparts ended up underfoot.

While his search was methodical, he didn’t see a single glimpse of a human. No miniscule flame of-

“HARRISON!”

David froze. Turned toward where he could’ve sworn he heard “Eggs?”

“TABLE! PARTY HAT!”

The business man hadn’t known what he was expecting, but it certainly hadn’t been the human mechanic breathing in relief when a cheap purple and red hat was lifted up to free him. Yet there he was, and David had no choice but to offer a hand that was immediately leapt onto.

Despite the fact Fritz was still missing, he took a moment to look at the chosen item to keep Eggs trapped. “Were you yelling my name the entire time?”

“If you ever became a human 101,” the blond began, slumped into the curled fingers cupped protectively against the giant’s chest. “Don’t ever make a sound until you know a trusted giant is around.”

“How the hell did you know it was me?”

“Dude, I can smell you from a mile away. We need to get Fritz from Freddy, though.”

The idea of Eggs apparently smelling him left his mind the second the human he specifically went looking for was brought up. “Freddy as in…”

Eggs gave him a look like he was losing it. “Fazbear? How many Freddy’s do you know!”

David rolled his eyes. Dropped the blond into his suit pocket. Made his way over to the animatronics locked on stage. “How would I immediately assume Freddy Fazbear had him.”

“Because despite that fact he’s your employee,” said bear begun with a growl, David left frozen at the hostile tone. “You allowed someone to grab him right in front of you.”

“Have anything to say for yourself, David?” Chica added, looking smug as hell.

David. Demeaning and angry attitudes. He had forgotten not all locations were like his animatronics, programmed to address everyone formally by last name and be nothing more than passive aggressive.

“It’s busy,” the giant bristled. “And I realized he was missing and went looking for him. Now hand him over.”

Freddy’s ears flicked unhappily, but his paw offered the redhead as Bonnie snipped “Shit wouldn’t have let either of them get swiped.”

“Well I’m not Mike. Your fucked up night guard will be back by tonight.”

The animatronics didn’t say anything else as he walked away. Or maybe they had, and he was too focused on checking Fritz over for injuries.

“Mr. Harrison, I’m fine,” told him the human had been more shaken up than he let on, voice wavered and hands shook as his prodding fingers were shoved away. “Thank you for finding us.”

“Thanks for trapping me in a pocket, bitch!”

Scott agreed to forcing the two to have a time out once they were put where they belonged. It wasn’t able to be long, not with the party still scheduled for another hour, but David didn’t let any of the three out of his sight after that.

That’s what lands them to now, with him frozen at the door after walking in for their weekly get-together after Eggs called over to him.

“Harrison, is that a new perfume?”

David mentally stumbles over his words until he finally manages a few. “You can smell it from there?”

He can barely see where the blond stands on a table several feet away. He’d be impressed if he wasn’t unnerved and hoping it was guessed purely to try and get inside his head.

He can’t even confirm the miniscule head is tilting in confusion. “Uh, yeah?”

No fucking way.

“No you can’t.”

“Still an earthy smell like your other one,” Scott joins in, freezing David in his tracks once again. “There’s a really small hint of vanilla instead of chocolate. Vince would be the one who can name the flower if he was here tonight, but that’s different too.”

How in the hell-

“Please tell me it’s not on your wrists,” Fritz pipes up if a bit tiredly.

“What’s that supposed to mean!”

At the sound of him being almost distraught, everyone at the table looks over at him, the humans exchanging looks.

“David,” Scott probes. His gentle tone encourages the giant to finally walk the last stretch to the table. “Do you realize just how much your cologne affects us?”

“No.”

“Vince told me he addressed it with you on your first day,” the human deadpans.

David can believe that. He’s also aware of how much the purple man is a bitch.

“I had also made a comment…” Eggs prods.

Yes. Though it was small. And again, he can’t trust the blond for shit.

Scott face palms as frustration slowly appears. “I also told you when we first met.”

Now David does not remember that in the slightest.

The business man looks the information over in his head. Turns it this way and that. Comes to the conclusion the humans in their group including Fritz are being dramatic. Though it’s hard to explain knowing the key notes to his newest cologne, Eggs could’ve found out and did reckon before tonight just to mess with him.

Despite being silent before, James straightens up. “So, much like how our voices are loud even when we’re whispering, smells act in the same way.”

David doesn’t miss Fritz glancing between him and the horror guard. “Right. When giants wear cologne or perfume, it’s pretty potent. Sometimes gets a little overwhelming, especially around the wrists if we’re picked up.”

“Then it might be a good idea we’re conscious of not wearing too much. Never on the wrists.”

David knows what James was doing. This is how he explained humans shouldn’t be treated like a stress ball at least unknowingly, a calm and specific explanation so it’s easy to understand.

Of course, it works. He’ll change his habits concerning putting cologne on before leaving the house. “You’ll just have to deal with it tonight.”

“Because James said something,” Scott snaps.

“Be happy I'm listening at all.”

“Because you never do!” the eldest guard exclaims, standing up as he begins to gesture. “I guarantee Fritz brought up not being able to breathe at least three times before giving up. I did bring it up and proved it when we first met, but you didn’t bother to even remember. Eggs constantly patronizes you with comments regarding it. But you don’t listen until a God damned giant tells you!”

Well I can trust a giant’s judgement, I can’t trust a human’s.

David nearly says it. And then he sees Fritz’s expression like he’d been betrayed.

“I…hadn’t realized,” the giant says carefully.

Scott narrows his eyes. Eggs makes a motion that says ‘bullshit’.

“In the future,” David sighs. “I will try to listen better.”

“Bet $50 it’ll last a week at the most.”

“$100 it’s two,” the business man immediately fires back at the smug looking blond.

“I’ll give it a day,” Scott snarls.

[alexthefly]

For the wip ask game, I was first drawn to Holo-Call Woes because it has the potential to be hysterical but I also see Parker Gets Sidelined and I'm intrigued. He doesn't get many stories and I want to see what he does about it.

So, your choice, you can tell us more about either one (or both!).

Thank you!

Hi! Thankyou so much for asking. 😊

Both these choices have turned out to be quite popular, so if it's okay with you I'll start with Holo-Call Woes in this answer (with thanks to @onereyofstarlight who also requested it) and tag you in the other one later on?

Holo-call Woes (working title) was a one-shot idea that came to me - as so many Wee!Tracys stories do - from real life at home with my kid; specifically when I was trying to talk to my Dad on the phone. 😅

At the moment it's still in fragments, and some of the elements have since been co-opted into Just in Case, but here's the beginning snippet:

"Dad?"

“Boys? Can you see me?”

The view on the holo' screen suddenly lurched sideways.

"Hi Daddy! I bit a snake!"

As far as calls went, it was definitely an interesting start. Jeff Tracy didn’t often find himself lost for words, but in this case it took a second before he felt he could safely answer his three year old - or at least, that’s who he assumed the giant brown eye now taking up the entire screen belonged to. But as he clamped his lips together and carefully swallowed back his amusement, it turned out he didn't need to.

"Put it down Virgie, I wanna see too! And it’s not a snake; it’s a Red Vine,” said Scott, voice full of big-brother authority.

"No s’not, it's a snake. It's wriggly-tickly."

Jeff snorted and bit down on the inside of his cheek. “Where’s your mother, boys?”

“I’m here,” came a melodious, if somewhat weary, voice from beyond his line of sight. “Scott, where did he get that thing?”

The view spun again and managed to catch a brief glimpse of his lady wife before settling on a close-up of a toy dinosaur, complete with drawn-on eyepatch. 

“I swapped them with Kelsey Potter at recess and told Virgie I’d share.” "...Wriggle wriggle wriggle… Is a scary snake."

“Aww, that's kind Honey, but isn't it a bit late for cand- Wait, what did you swap it for?” "Look Daddy!"

Suddenly everything was a big mess of blurry red tangles.

"Virgie! Now it's all sticky!"

"Don' be scared, Scottie. I save you!"

“Eww, no! Mo-om!”

The red disappeared, leaving a sheen of blur that rendered almost everything else unintelligible. The only thing he could just about make out was a somewhat unsteady orange shape lumbering towards him.

"Snik go sssssss," the shape said, briefly filling the picture before abruptly falling out of sight.

Swallowing wasn’t enough this time; Jeff only just managed to disguise his laughter with an impromptu coughing fit, as on-screen a giant pair of outstretched arms appeared to descend from the heavens to retrieve the still-hissing shape.

“John's still no better at staying upright, huh?” he asked, grinning.

An exasperated voice. “Nope. It’s like Bambi on ice around here… Scott honey, would you pass me that cloth please?”

The holo’ went white for a moment before revealing the now clear and slightly harassed - but still to his mind the most beautiful - face of his wife, cuddling a bewildered-looking John to her.

“I swear, it’s like he’s two different children. From the neck up he’s at least a year ahead, but from the hips down…”

She started pretending to eat John’s toes, making him giggle, but the hint of worry in her voice was evident.

Jeff wished so much that he could be there to hold her.

“He’ll get there, Honey. He’s just finding his feet, that’s all. Gravity just comes harder to some of us.”

He flashed what he hoped was a winning smile, and was gratified that she seemed to relax at least a little.

“I know. It’s just Scott couldn’t wait to get up and moving, and Virgil’s always been steady as a rock, so I-” 

She looked at John and took a deep breath.

“I’m being ridiculous, aren’t I?”

Across hundreds of thousands of miles, Jeff felt himself melt. 

God, he loved her.

“Never, darlin’.”

[once-and-future-alaskan]

Eh. Good enough opportunity as any to elaborate on my gender progression because of the way I phrased it in my tags here. I'll put it under the read more for politeness sake.

Starting from the top:

I'm not gonna unpack my entire sob story of my childhood since that's not really the point here and also, like, I'm an adult who works for a living. I'm very much over it and only wish I'd been able to make peace and move past it sooner in life.

In general, I tend to perceive my child self as a boy pretending to be Jango Fett. To respect his wishes and because even he hated our birth name, i will be referring to him as such. Jango exists in a secluded, rarely visited, area of the Mind Kremlin that occasionally nessesitates my attention when his fantasies start to break down and the reality of his lived experience creeps in.

After all, you don't leave a scared and confused kid alone to confront the hard truths about his parents and his upbringing just because you already figured them out, right?

I dont actually wish I could go back and reveal the trans truth to Jango. While I recall more than one fleeting moments of wishing to be a girl as a young boy, they were all promptly dealt with by my parents at the time and in general I don't think they were that meaningful to how I turned out. Really, I feel very comfortable conceiving of Jango, child me, as a boy. I don't think the way one perceives their past gender really has any meaningful implications about their current identity.

No, more than anything, I do wish I could go back and tell him that things are gonna get very scary and confusing, and he DOESN’T just have to accept it. He's going to be weaponized by his parents against each other, and that's NOT OK. He's going to have to endure a lot of abuse of a kind he won't fully understand, and it sucks and it's OK for him to cry about it.

I wish I could tell him he was allowed to find kittens cute, that he should be shameless in his little joys, that he should never stop loving the things he loved. And that yes, I'd give him a hug.

My high school self is more like my teenage selves, plural, since I think of this as the versions of me from like age 12 to 15 and then 15 to 17 as two similar but separate individuals. We'll refer to them as Scott for the former and Nico for the latter.

Sorry, Nic'o. They were very specific about that back then, and as annoying as I find them, I will respect their wishes since I know where this is going. Scott uses he/him still. Nic'o uses he/they with a retroactive heavy preference for they, they only ever identified as just "Ace" because Tumblr discourse hadn't discovered the difference between romantic and sexual attraction yet.

Anyway, Scott and Nic'o exist in various places of the Mind Kremlin and used to like butting their heads in the main office daily to remind me of various horrible and embarrassing memories. With time, though, the two have gotten much quieter and seem to be slowly making their way to Jangos area. It's been some time since Scott was a real nuisance and may have already taken up residence there, Nic'o still lingers outside my office occasionally, though.

Scott is less interesting from a gender perspective. He was the beginning of my rebellious streak in the form of adopting 2010s internet atheism and communist symbols to piss off my conservative father, even if he didn't realize that's why he was doing it. The only noteworthy facet from a gender perspective was he's when i realized i could call myself whatever the hell i wanted and adopted Scott as my given alias. He is also why I first joined tumblr. Which, for all the numerous faults this sites had then and now, it's how I was even introduced to greater LGBT concepts beyond abstract "gayness" and a boogeyman version of transsexuals.

The way it did this was incomplete, flawed, and typically problematic, but, silver linings.

Nic'o began to take form after finally ending my relationship with my father. Nic'o decided they would have their name legally changed to Nicholas as a life goaI, and adopted Nic'o as their favorite nickname. This is the time when i began identifying as Asexual as it felt most accurate to myself and, as anyone who knows me can tell you, was what i still identified as until last year!

When i say Nic'os gender neutral pronouns are retroactive as there were far more times in this era where I toyed with the idea of being something other than cis, but didn’t understand gender transition in any capacity and never took up non he/him pronouns in that era. As much as I'd love to grace them with the sacred she/hers, I don't think Nic'o was quite there yet mentally.

Anyway. If I could deal with Scott and Nic'o in their times, I'd rip their asses for not trying hard enough and, more importantly, not taking care of themselves. Jfc Nic'o you, especially, looked like shit, how nobody ever told you to shave that nasty ass scraggly neckbeard for three years is a gd mystery to me.

Then, I'd hug them, since I know what was happening in their brains and at home.

For simplicity sake, we'll call myself from the ages of 18 to 22 Taka since that was my online alias till...2021, I think? Maybe? Doesn't matter. Taka used She/They with a heavy preference for She, and if we're being honest, never liked the they at all actually. She identified as Ace-Aro.

Taka exists in one of the suites of the Mind Kremlin and enjoys regularly bsrging into the main office to trigger some horrible memory or whatever. I wouldn’t say she's gotten quieter lately so much as like to act as my worst half sometimes. Of I'm being frank, most of the time I catch myself thinking some internalized transphobia or misogyny that's dressed up in liberal language, it's usually her to blame.

She meant well, gods forgive her. Taka was embarrassingly stuck in the Baby Trans state till she was like 21 or so. Real deep into the "breadtube" thing for entirely too long and surrounded by entirely too many white neoliberal seattle trans women for her own good.

I'd go deeper, but I won't for my own sanity. This was the worst point in my life for many reasons. A lot of it was self inflicted.

The one positive I can say for her was it was in her era I found faith again. I admit to lapsing in my practice for far too long, but my spirituality has been a critical pillar to me in the last few years.

If I could speak to her, I don't think she'd listen, but I'd try and make her see what her relationships for what they were. More than anything else, I think that was the first step.

So now we come to me.

I'm Alaskan. That's not my name, but I don't like people not in my circle using my real one. You can infer it from Nic'os real name, though.

I am a 26 years old trans woman. I use she/her pronouns and am a lesbian-aromantic.

In the last two years I have realized I am a lesbian through the help of my wonderful friends. In using they/them pronouns at work I came to realize how much I hate them when actually applied to myself. I am a woman. I go by she/her. Do not call me otherwise.

I also realized I'm Autistic, which is fun and incredibly obvious.

In the time since Taka, ive learned and grown a great deal, but I still need to do better.

I know if I ever do something like this post again a few years from now, I will be seen as another past version. Perhaps I'll even be seen by my future self as just as bad as Taka, though I certainly hope not.

Regardless, there will always be a better future me, and I can't wait to meet her.

I'll be honest, there was something oddly cathartic about my weird little fit of interacting with past me's posts like she was some random idiot stranger earlier. Something something treating a version of yourself as a separate entity to call her a stupid bitch.

No, i'm not plural, oh my god some of you people i swear.

[timmymyluv]

cinnamon girl.

FAKE INSTA AU.

FC: rosé of blackpink

kpop idol fem!reader x timothée chalamet

hi lovies! i hope u guys are having a wonderful day I missed y'all and had a great time on vacay. had a bit of a writers block with soc med aus and felt they were getting repetitive esp with how often id upload sometimes so I hope you guys like this. pls cont messaging me and saying hi requests or not. I always love hearing from u all. 💗

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tchalzfans OMGG they're so cute love my pawrents and hank

hallebailey glad you liked the baby sling boo 💓

yourusername yes tysm he loves it and it's so comfy so he's always hanging around me now don't have to carry him as much

peta animal lovers 💗💗

petsmart love our pawrents. check ur dms for collab info?

bpfans osndkdkd yn getting all the brand endorsements even for her doggie hank

deuxmoi

liked by ynfans, timothegoat and 500.8k others

we spotted timothee chalamet and y/n l/n in downtown la filming some super secret project. guesses on what it's about? both have been hush hush on what this is about and everyone on set is super tight lipped.

user7 it's clearly from a closed shoot so what are you doing there hello

timo5ever he looks so cute love u timo

ynclan yn has the best legs that go on foreverrr

user11 I heard they've been working with scott or abel I wonder which one now

user09 tru yn featured on a kid cudi song just recently so wouldn't be surprised if they kept collaborating

theweeknd

liked by jennaortega,fkatwigs,dualipa and 55.9m others

literally could have not had the perfect casting for this dream project of mine. even more so to have two of my dearest friends feature on the music video for moth to a flame 🔥

music video out NOW

tagged swedishhousemafia, yourusername,tchalamet

swedishhousemafia 🖤❤️‍🔥

madelyncline been waiting for this one!

taylorswift ▶️▶️▶️🎶

evanmock can't stop watching such a good music video

user67 THE CINEMATOGRAPHY THE CHEMISTRY THE SEXUAL TENSION BETWEEN TIMO AND YN

stephanebak killed it always guys!

ssavannahssmithh you never miss don't you god

kidcudi geniuses in the lab 🔥

tchalamet

liked by calumhood, oliviarodrigo, sadiesink and 60.0m others

exploring NYC.

user18 reminds me of doyoungs billie cover in the same subway stop

liked by billieeillish

nctfans DOIE GOT NOTICED BY BILLIE?

user89 oh she's becoming a new yorker now cute

yourusername wouldn't want to wander around with anyone else even if you get us lost didn't you live here from birth? 🙄

tchalamet we took the scenic route so you can see more places only locals know

user65 excuses timo kskdd good thing he's whipped

yourusername

liked by milliebobbiebrown, champagnepapi, daisyedgarjones and 45.2m others

snippets.

tagged tchalamet

voguefrance 💗

user7 they're so cute oh my god I'm going to cry

yntimo5ever my parents

bellahadid missed you two lovebirds 🦋

yourusername meet you soon bells 🫂

ethanhawke have fun kiddos

tchalamet thanks man

officialrebeccaferguson 💗💗

yourusername miss you rebecca ❤️

[buckybarnesdiaries]

my sergeant

© credits to the author, i found it on pinterest. if you are the author, please send me a message to add your @.

bucky barnes x reader. ⎢ masterlist.

Bucky breaks into your house to make you keep remember one thing.

word count: 1.352 words.

warnings/tags: nsfw, +18!!! clothes on, unprotected sex, hair pulling, language, cursing, sergeant!kink, praise!kink, mention of bodily fluids, a little possessive!bucky, and i don't know what else.

author notes: i'm not sorry for this scene turning me on af every time i watch it. reposted because it didn't show in the tags. none of my stories contain reader’s body descriptions to be inclusive.

Join the tag list here.

Your eyes snapped open, sitting up on your bed barely breathing. You were agitated after having another nightmare you couldn't remember once you were awake. At least this time, you weren't covered in sweat, but your whole body was on fire. Tossing the sheets away, you got up bare feet to head to the kitchen and drink a very much needed glass of freshwater. You drank it in one gulp, gasping while leaving it inside the sink. With both hands on the edge of the counter, you inclined your head back, putting your eyes on the ceiling. Those bad dreams would be the death for you one day, you knew it.

As you felt more calmed and recomforted, you turned around with the intention of going to your bed again. But that was left in the background at the moment you glimpsed Bucky sitting at the dinner table. He didn't scare you, not at all. You were starting to get used to find him there, waiting for you, in the middle of the gloom. He looked exhausted too. Deadly tired. He was reclined against the chair, legs slightly spread and his arm made of vibranium over the table. The soldier didn't utter a word, following your steps walking closer to him with his shiny blue eyes. He didn't even move a muscle when you sat on his lap and placed both hands on the sides of his neck.

Leaning ahead, you pecked his rough and dry lips slowly, taking your time with no rush. Bucky just closed his eyes, slipping his hands down to your hips, nailing his fingers there. He couldn't help but growl quietly the second your mouth trailed a path of short, ephemeral kisses to his jawline till reaching his throat, forcing him to toss his head back. Unconsciously, he urged you to swing your body on top of his. You dragged your incisors on his Adam's apple, causing him to swallow a soft gasp, feeling his digits grabbing your hips strongly —probably, that gesture would leave some marks on your skin.

“I've missed you”. You purred coming back your attention to his lips, as the bulge under the rigid fabric of his pants became bigger and harder because of your dance. You were aware that he looked for you whenever he wanted to put his feet on the ground, feel loved, desired. “My Sergeant…”

Bucky didn't open his eyes, sliding his cold palm to your lower waist and landing the warm one on the back of your head to tangle it in your hair. You groaned against his lips before they were hungrily devoured. The heat in your core grew by leaps and bounds when he repositioned you on his legs and his solid erection was placed under your weakest spot. You couldn't hold back a delicate, sweet moan. One of these that used to drive him insane. With his left hand, Bucky continued encouraging you to rock your hips against his crotch, rubbing it concretely among your folds covered by the soaked fabric of your panties.

You hated sometimes the control he had over you, over your body, over your mind. He could put you to beg with just one look. And he knew it. You were his, that was the absolute truth. And he wanted something else from you, as soon as you increased the pace. Bucky didn't care about your t-shirt, using both of his hands to rip it off from your body. Ruining it like he was going to ruin you. His hand of vibranium went straight to your breasts, giving you goosebumps because of the contrast of his cold fingers pinching them as he caught one of your nipples between his warm lips. You whined his name, securing your hands on his shoulders, out of the world while the sensitivity of your wet and needed cunt became more sensible to the firm rubbing against your panties.

“You want to cum, don't you, babydoll?” He hummed squeezing the nipple covered in his saliva using his thumb and his forefinger, bringing his lips closer to yours.

“Yes… Yes, Sergeant”. You pouted at him, nodding with your chin and looking at him through your eyelids.

“I knew you needed me… I knew my sweet girl needed her Sergeant to make her feel good, am I wrong?” Bucky's hoarse tone was pushing you to the seventh heaven, feeling the tickles borning within your lower belly, swinging your body faster over his rock-hard dick.

“No… No, you're… you're not”. You babbled this time, seeing him curling up the corner of his lips in that charming and breathtaking smirk of him. “I ne— need you inside me… I need you to… fuck me like you me— mean it, my Sergeant, please, I beg you”.

“I will, babydoll, I will… 'Cause you're a good, good girl”. Bucky affirmed unhurriedly, peppering your swollen lips, remembering how good they looked around his cock —sucking his soul out of his body— the last time he appeared in your house. “Open your mouth”.

You obeyed instantly, swallowing a loud whining, letting him tuck his cold thumb between your lips. You licked it using your tongue, giving him a whole show and noticing how a storm of darkness covered his pale blue orbs. When he decided it was well covered in your saliva, Bucky directed it to your panties, not pulling them aside. And he drew circles on your throbbing clit, pressing his fingertip enough to stroke it.

“Oh, f— fuck, Sergeant”. You sobbed arching your back, very close to being thrown above the edge of your limits.

“C'mon, babydoll… cum for me… Show me what only I can make you feel”. He whispered into your ear. A raspy voice that gave you shivers down your backbone. “You're so damn soaked I can feel it under my clothes… Good lord… what a dirty girl you are…”

“Only fo— for you”.

Your response came an instant before the fireworks exploded inside your belly, not being able to stop when the orgasm hit your soul crying his name, dancing your cunt onto his hard cock needed of him. Your thighs strained, your legs were shaking, hanging above the floor and you were panting nonsense words about your Sergeant.

Bucky stormed his tongue into your mouth, invading it with no mercy to dominate yours. Placing his hands back to your hips, he forced you to keep moving, stealing the less air inside your lungs. He was about to cum too, but it'd be a waste if he did it in his boxers; stopping you at the precise moment to push you back enough to undo his belt and zip. Bucky didn't let you time to react. As his cock covered in his own arousal broke free and he removed your ruined panties to the side, he lifted you sufficiently to impale your pussy down.

“Fuck!” You both hissed at the same time, closing strongly your eyelids.

Bucky made you bounce onto his rigid erection, once and once, keen to fill you up with his heated seed. You were a bundle of moans, sobs, and pleas, feeling his most sensible skin stretching your soaked walls and twitching between them. He didn't give you prior notice. Bucky just cum inside your cunt, pushing you down harder till his dick was balls-deep beyond your limits. He growled against your throat, pulling back your hair and your head, to nail his teeth in your sweaty skin.

“Oh, god, my Sergeant…” You gasped with a wrecked tone of voice, finding balance by gripping his jacket in two fists.

“You look like Heaven, babydoll… But you feel like Hell”. Bucky rumbled, making your whole anatomy shake again. “What a shame 'm gonna destroy you tonight…”

And by destroying you he meant you wouldn't be able to walk the next morning, not even to talk because what he has planned for you was to fuck every sweet, warm hole of you —your mouth, your ass, your pussy. Or rather, his mouth, his ass, his pussy. Bucky would make you keep remembering who you belonged to.

feedback is appreciated, please, leave a comment to let me know if you liked it.

and REBLOG!!! 🤍

TAG LIST: @mystic-232 @homesicam @theresnoplatypus @i-love-scott-mccall @slutfornat @goldielocks2004 @whatrambles @multiyfandomgirl40 @spidergirla5 @fanofalltheficsx @nocturnalherb16 @valenquei @golden-hoax @hunter-of-baker-street @missusstark @vhscherry @warm-sensations @addictedtofictionalcharacters @sarahsmcu @tinylumpiaa @amelia-song-pond @heartislubbingdubbing @stolenxkissess @clean-and-claire @winchestersgirl222 @virgoroses @marvel-ousnesss @me-a-hopeless-romantic @rvgrsbrns @maccasbeard @haileygarciasunshine @lewd-alien @kait-is-always-late @mckenna @weenersoldierr @mxltifaves @soldierstucky @theboldandthebootyful @arkofblake @isabellamur @kiwisa @spider-man-lover @rosiebrands @stealapizzamyheart @koressecretidentity @asemistablehundredyearoldman @mayans-sauce @petlaufeyson @megapeacelovemusic-blog @phoenixhalliwell

[aroaceacacia]

I really think this fandom scares too easy when it comes to the possibility of ccs joining Tumblr. I know why people are worried, especially with past events, and I understand that not everyone wants them here, and frankly I don't really care either way. But it really seems that we assume the worst if a cc joins.

sure, its rarely as bad as we imagine it to be.

however. empiresblr had to talk to scott/the empires ccs directly and ask them to give us a bit of space, bc theyd talk abt empiresblr on stream, and also scott joined a fan discord and didnt say anything for several hours. that was a degree of perception that the tumblr mcyt fandom was not expecting and was shocked and scared to go through, because we're not used to it! and now the empires ccs who are here are chill, because scott asked vyeoh why people were upset and vio explained why, and they established a boundary from which we can mutually respect one another.

bdubs on the other hand is a bit harder to reach (doesnt have any specific fandom members on speed dial), AND was just openly talking about his recent interactions with stan twitter in a stream. a members only stream, sure, but a stream nonetheless! and he talked abt how he's been lurking to see what people are up to. it's absolutely not a leap of logic to assume that bdubs could talk about the tumblr community publicly, esp in an embarrassing or negative way. what's more is that, because so much of the current hermitblr/trafficblr etiquette revolves around tag filtering, it's entirely possible bdubs would join tumblr and not figure out how to avoid certain things!

I'm of the opinion that if a CC wants to join tumblr of their own volition, they're welcome to! but directly inviting them into tumblr feels like a step too far. (the exception, imo, being situations where a CC wants to leave twitter or be less active there, like Eret; in that case they're a twitter refugee and its 100% fair game to say "hey tumblr is over here and we're more normal".)

idk something about this ask is just really rubbing me the wrong way. why do you Care. if people get scared at the idea of a cc joining tumblr and it all works out in the end and ppl stop being afraid what does it matter. over time if more ccs join we'll probably get less and less afraid so again. Why Do You Care. if bdubs joins tumblr half the fandom will scatter and the other half will bombard him with maid dresses and he'll either think we're weird and leave or he'll pass the vibe check and stick around, so why are you complaining about How People Feel in my inbox

[germvity]

RISES THE MOON

leon s kennedy x reader // 15 // truthful tyrant

leon spins around, ready to give out to the entity for ruining things between you- but she's already gone. leon deflates, letting out a shaky sigh... surely, jill would know what to do..? right?

tags:

taglist: @hex-touchstarved @trinswhimsys

•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•☾☼☽•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•

"YOU WHAT?" jill yells, and leon sighs. "i told you, it was to protect them! i swear it was to protect them!" leon argues, but his friend rolls her eyes. "of course it was, scott. of course!" her tone is dripping with sarcasm. "fix this behaviour, because it's gonna get you in trouble. and... go apologise to them. no. more." jill speaks as if she's scolding a child, and leon hates it. he hates being spoken down to, but jill would know what to do best.

"okay... thanks, jill." the blonde gets up, and jill rubs her forehead with exasperation. "for god's sake leon, please don't kill anyone else i don't care if you had to do it in anyone's defense." leon furrows his brows, she just didn't understand it fully- yeah that was it. leon nods firmly, leaving his friend; and jill can feel a deep pit forming in her stomach.

"y/n..?" he calls out, keeping his voice soft to almost lure you out- but could it be called that if he was doing it to console you; to care for you? "y/n??" leon peers around a bit, you had to be here somewhere... if you weren't around the lodge then where would you be? "hey, you lookin' for dollface?" frank asks, and leon spins around. "yeah, have you seen them?" the blonde approaches the rebel, stony faced.

"so what if any of us have? they were really upset, doubt they'd wanna see you." danny quips, waltzing in. leon narrows his eyes, adjusting his feet in case he had to defend himself. "they're really upset. i don't think they'd wanna see you out of everyone. just leave ‘em and they’ll come back in their own time." danny shrugs, fiddling with the handle of his knife.

leon wants to reply, but he knows he's not getting any closer to you through them; so, biting his tongue, he turns and leaves. you had to be around here somewhere, he knew it; he had to keep looking. the wilderness snags at his pant legs, but he was determined to find you. "y/n? sweetie? i'm sorry..!” he calls, peering around every tree; every rock, under bushes and in bodies of water.

small sobs make him stop, straightening up as he searches for the source. "baby? is that you?" leon keeps his voice gentle, yet the crying stops. "y/n?" leon steps forward, eyes scanning through the nature around him. eventually, with a few more steps, he spots you; pressed up against a tree stump. "baby..!" leon smiles, approaching you.

once he gets closer, he notices your eyes. you're scared, terrified, and it makes him freeze. "y/n..." he mumbles, crouching before you. "i'm so sorry... i just wanted to protect you." leon reaches to dry your eyes, but you lean back. "don't be scared, darling. i'm here." leon frowns, keeping his hand close to yours as an offer. "why..?" you whisper, eyes only looking into his. "why what?"

"why did you do this, leon?" your question makes him mildly annoyed, but his adoration for you snuffs it. "i was protecting you. i promise it was for your own good." leon smiles slightly, yet you shake your head. "by killing them?" your voice is filled with distress, he wants nothing but to hug you tightly and never let go. "yes... i'll admit it was a bad call. i'm sorry." leon goes to take your hand, yet you pull away. "you're just like them..! you're worse!" tears escape your eyes, and leon feels frustrated.

"i was protecting you! do you want to go back to living in fear?" leon snaps, and you scoff. "nothing's changed, leon. only you." you get up to leave again, yet leon snatches your arm; tugging you back. yelping, you struggle; but he manages to wrestle you back, hugging you tightly. "i was trying to protect you, i'm sorry. i promise it won't happen again; just stay with me." leon pleads, and you finally relax in his grip.

"i don't know... you've changed." his hand practically cradles your head against his shoulder. "i'm sorry. i'm so sorry, darling... i promise i will never do it again." leon sighs. silence lays over the two of you, and eventually you break down; sobbing as your hands curl into his jacket. leon smiles, soothing you as he rests his head against yours. "i've got you, love. it's gonna be okay."

"this has to stop, leon... please." you beg, pulling away to look at him. "i promise." he hooks his pinky into yours, pressing his forehead against your own. "i've been so scared.." you whine, pressing into him. "i know, i know. you don't have to be anymore. i'm here." leon's arms are still tight around you, refusing to let go. "c'mon. you must be starving."

frank was disappointed that you were huddled up against leon, cradling a bowl of soup that joey had made against your chest as the crew all chat like nothing had happened. the rebel was growing accustomed to you coming to him with all this drama. oh well, he thought, if anything happened you would go to him for comfort. "frank, you're foods getting cold." joey nudges his friend, who hums. "yeah, sorry." he mumbles, tuning into the conversation susie and danny were having instead of thinking about you.

leon kept you close, you were curled up on the couch, snug under his arm. it felt good to have you back, he just wanted to shower you with love. with the gang of killers all joking around, you had relaxed; feeling rather at home. leon had finished his own food, letting you have any leftovers. you happily took them, hungry after days of nothing.

the night ends on a high, with everyone laughing and having fun. leon takes your hand, bringing you up to your bedroom. flopping down onto the bed, you sigh as leon shrugs off his jacket; joining you. curling into him, you wrap all your limbs around his body, nuzzling into his neck. “i’m glad we’re okay again.” leon mutters, lips kissing your forehead gently. “me too…” you respond, voice rather sleepy. “i’m not letting you out of my sights for a long time. i promise you’re safe with me.”your lover sighs, and you hum. “just don’t go crazy again… i don’t want that.” you frown, tilting your head back to press a kiss to his lips. “don’t worry, i won’t. i promise you that i’ll do things civilly. i’ll fix this.”

you smile, satisfied with leon’s response. “good. i love you.” your fingers gently graze over his cheek, and leon smiles too, leaning into your hand. “i love you too. i’ll always love you.” he mumbles, kissing your palm gently. “goodnight, love. get some rest.” you nod, huddling closer as a cold gust of wind overtakes the room you’re both inhabiting. “goodnight, leon.”

[realityescapee01]

Derek Hale x Reader (idea. incomplete)

if you pick it up, please tag me. thank you.

"I'm leaving the pack." -Y/N declared.

"What?!? No!" -Scott protested.

Y/N had been with him and Stiles for years, since they were kids. She has been with them through thick and thin, werewolf business and all.

"Why?!?" -Stiles shook Y/N like piggybank.

"Because Derek... I get so nervous! I'm gonna die if this continues. I'm scared he'll know."

Y/N likes Derek. No. She's inlove with Derek. And she couldn't help her heartbeat race when he's around. She thinks it will give out anytime soon.

"So what if you're inlove with him? You don't have to leave the pack!" -Scott.

"And besides, Derek probably knows already. Chemosignal and all. And I can't be the only trophy human in the pack." -Stiles said.

"Yeah. You reek when he's around. Probably everybody else knows too." -Scott

"What?!? Ohmygod! I wanna leave."

"Why leave, he already knows and he seemed okay with it. Don't leave. No point anymore."

So Y/N stayed. Mortified that Derek, and apparently everybody, knows she's inlove with him. Now, Y/N couldn't even look at Derek whenever the pack is together. She's too embarrassed. She also was super conscious of everybody. The way they look at her and then Derek. Agh! They're teasing her. And Stiles isn't helping.

Stiles assigned Derek to be Y/N's partner in a stakeout of a warehouse downtown. So here she is, sitting in Derek's car. Derek just a few inches from her.

Derek was huffing and puffing the whole time. The nervousness is getting to him. The scent of nervousness from Y/N. And he could also hear her fast heartbeat.

"Y/N. Just relax." -Derek got tired of it.

"S-Sorry, Derek. It's just that... well, I supposed you already know that I'm in love with you, chemo signals and all."

Derek just nodded.

"Ohmygod... Sorry, I can't help but get nervous. You're so beautiful. Gods, you're gorgeous. Your eyes, their color, ohgod, so ethereal. And your body, like you're chiseled so nicely. So strong too. After everything you've been through, you're still here to protect everybody. This whole town. Us. Helping out Scott. Saving Stiles. One too many times. Though you seem distant, but you care. A lot. And express it a little differently compared to others. You put yourself upfront to save others. And that's great. You're so great..."

Y/N kept going, saying everything she likes about Derek. While Derek just stared at her... taking in deep breaths... taking in the scent that was coming from Y/N... the scent of pure love and adoration. It was so pleasant. So sweet, so dreamy, so home-y. Derek felt himself get intoxicated by it. He never felt so relax like this after a long while. He stared intensely at Y/N.

Y/N glanced at Derek and saw him staring intensely. Y/N got scared, thinking she offended Derek or weirded him out. "Sorry. I'll stop talking now."

Derek looked away from Y/N and looked back at the warehouse they're watching. He smells nothing but nervousness again from Y/N. He hated it. He wanted to smell that pure love scent again.

-+-+-+- end -+-+-+-

more works on my master list. it is being updated. thank you.

[georgiapeach30513]

Oh man, Story and Carter…seems like she’s going to make the right decision for a 17 year old though. Without knowing if I’m right, I’m always happy when stories of shows of movies let their characters make that choice. There is so much pro-birth propaganda shoved in our faces and we hardly even realize it. Feel free not to post this if you’d prefer. I know it can be a touchy subject.

It's an extremely sensitive subject. But it is apart of life. Let's dive back into Story and Carter...

It Was Her Decision

Summary: What does Story do?

Pairings: Carter Baizen X Story Drysdale

Rating: Angsty and sensitive

Warnings: Mentions of a teenage pregnancy, mentions of abortion, breakup, angry/protective Ransom, 18+ ONLY

Word Count: 1.1K

Desperate Lives AU Masterlist

Story Drysdale Masterlist

You try to watch your daughter over the next few days. She completely avoided Ransom during the day, but at night she was crawling in your bed. Something she hadn't done for months, and now you know why. More than once you woke up to her crying into your chest, and you were unaware of what you needed to do, so you were just there.

That night after supper, Ransom already kicked back to watch TV while you were cleaning up in the kitchen, he stands to open the door, finding none other than Gregory, Lydia, and Carter Baizen, "We need to talk," Gregory informs Ransom.

"Okay, come in. What's this about?"

"Your daughter," Lydia looks around the house looking for Story but she spots you. "Where is she?"

Ransom confused looks between them, "You know very well that Aster is living with Scott in the city. What is this about?"

"Story. Where is she?"

Story hearing the commotion was already walking downstairs, and as soon as she sees Carter, he gives her a weak smile, but you see her heart soar, until her hands go to her stomach, and then she's sad all over again, "Story, I'm sorry for what happened the other night. I panicked I was scared. I shouldn't have said..." Carter pauses when he sees Ransom's grumpy face.

"Would somebody please tell me what's going on?" his eyes look at you, and you're speechless. "Y/N, why are they here? And why is he talking to my daughter like they've seen each other recently?"

"I figured you would know. We're going to be grandparents," Lydia smiles over to Ransom and then back up at Story. Story's eyes find you before back at Ransom.

"Daddy, I'm sorry," but his eyes roll to meet Carter's.

"I thought I told you to stay away from her."

"I couldn't."

"She's seventeen years old. When did you have time..." he turns to look at Story, her hand fiddling with the diamond tennis bracelet. Finally catching on to where all the gifts had been coming from. Ransom had checked his statement multiple times and no high price tag items had been purchased. "How long?" the two of them silent. "HOW LONG?"

"Ransom, we shouldn't make Story upset in her condition," Lydia starts speaking softly to her, and Story walks quickly to your side. "I always knew one of you would be apart of our family."

"Mother stop."

"How long, Carter?"

"Eight months," Story gives him the tiniest smile, because he knew. "I came here on her birthday and gave her the bracelet."

"You weren't there," Ransom uses his low register voice, and you know he's holding back his anger, and you grip tighter to your daughter.

"It was after the party sir. I climbed...I went through her window."

Ransom takes a moment to breathe, his eyes looking at you before back to the Baizen's. "Ransom, there's no need to get worked up. We'll take care of her. Carter has a nice apartment, and has been looking for a house. They can be a family and make it work. We'll need to get you a doctor, how far along do you think you are dear? I heard there was a mistake with your birth control?" Lydia's cloying voice grates on your everlasting nerves.

You're surprised when it's Story that speaks up, "I don't need to see a doctor. There's...I'm not pregnant," with one glance at Carter you see a mixture of relief and pure sadness running through his mind.

"What do you mean? Y/N...what did you do?"

"She had an abortion. She wasn't ready."

Gregory laughs, "Should have known. She wasn't ready for a baby, but was ready to spread her legs."

"Father," Carter looks at his dad pissed, but it's Ransom that gets the final say.

"Get out of my house."

"For too long you two have acted better than us. We have watched your daughters whore around with my son. Did you not know where she was?" Gregory gives a smirk to Ransom and Carter backs away from his dad disgusted.

"Did it mean anything?" your husband's eyes are only on Carter. "Did it fucking mean anything to you?"

"Daddy."

"I should press charges on you."

"Daddy no!"

"I trusted you to protect my baby. And you're taking advantage of her. Bringing your parents here to bully her into being your housewife. I am beyond disappointed in you. I have looked at you like a son. We took care of you when your parents wouldn't. Let you into our home,"

"Ransom, stop it!" you see Carter's face fall with each word. Returning to that scared little boy that you just wanted to show love to.

"While your parents are treating her like a common whore, did they know she had never been on a date, never had a boyfriend, and she was still a virgin? Did it mean anything to you?"

Carter gives one look to Story, mouthing an 'I'm sorry' before standing up straight looking at Ransom, "No, sir."

Story's body crumbles in your arms and she cries out a pained, "You're lying."

"If I have to tell you three one more time to get out of my house, I'm calling the fucking cops. Get. Out. Of. My. House."

"You'll regret this Drysdale," Gregory spits before grabbing ahold of Carter's sleeve, nearly dragging the boy out of the living room. As soon as the door closes, Story dashes upstairs and you go to follow her.

"Not you," his voice growls at you.

"Ransom, my daughter needs me."

"She needed you eight months ago! You knew! You fucking knew about this, and you let him...she needed you," it's hard to look at Ransom, he's hurt, scared, and pissed. A deadly combination. "And then you...how could you?"

"It was her decision. He left her alone when she told him she was pregnant. She was scared. She was scared of you, scared that she lost her first love."

"You took her."

"IT WAS HER DESICION!"

Ransom's eyes fill with tears and he struggles to look at you, "You would have never done that."

"I wasn't seventeen years old."

"She's a baby."

You bite at your lip, your finger messing with your wedding rings, "Exactly. She's a scared baby, and you want to force her to have a baby?"

"No."

"Then quit acting like she's the worse person in the room. I'll take all the blame if that's what you want. I knew that Carter had been here. You did too," Ransom straightens up his face remembering when the two of you rushed back from your weekend getaway. "She said that he waited months before he would have sex with her," Ransom's face turns up in disgust. "She loves him, and he just left," you start to fall, but Ransom's arms catch you. "He left our baby alone and scared. He wasn't returning her calls, Ran, what did you expect her to do?"

"I know. I'm sorry."

"Can I please go see my daughter? She needs me."

"Tell her to get in our bed."

Masterlist

[starlitvalyria]

civil war; — scars and sins

© credits to the author, i found on pinterest. if you own it, let me know so i can add your @

bucky barnes x reader

Summary: In a difficult day, Bucky is presented with kindness when he wasn't expecting

Word count: 446

Warnings: angsty if you squeeze really hard

Author’s note: I'm trying a new style, i hope it works

english it’s not my first language, so I’m deeply sorry for any mistakes or inconveniences. xoxo, lola

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Your week had started it off easy, nothing big, but then everything went to shit in days

When asked about the Sokovian accords, the only thing that came off your mouth was "fuck the government". Stark regretted asking

He knew you would team up with Steve, but he had a bit of hope

Things were fast and confusing, one moment you were in the compound and in the next Clint was picking you up to go get Wanda. After that, it got even more confusing

When you got to the airport and got out of the van, Steve was the first to come to you "are you alright, kid?" you nodded, and he went to talk to the rest of the people and your attention drifted off

"we're outside the law..." he kept talking to some guy called Scott, but you were only focused on the brunette super soldier in front of you.

You approached him, not wanting to scare the man "I'm Y/N, i know all of this is awful... but i just wanted to let you know that we all here know that you're innocent. we just want to help." you gave a soft smile to him, and he retributed.

bucky got confused, why the girl was being nice? he thought it was because Steve asked

the lady voice on the airport speaker went on, and it was time to fight.

Prison definitely wasn't in your plans.

You knew Steve would find a way to save the team, but from the people there, you were the one who really deserved. the thought never diapered of your head

When Steve showed up, nobody was surprised. When he came to you, he knew something was off

"you guys can go, don't waste your time" you said, going back to your cell.

"are you crazy, y/n?" Sam questioned, he looked at Steve in hope the captain would do something

"you are innocent, im not." the blonde man felt sorry for you, he knew how broken you were, but he wouldn't give up

"you don't deserve to be locked up, kid. HYDRA got you when you were a kid, you're brainwashed... come with us, we'll figure it out"

you trusted him, things were going to be fine.

Steve asked another favor for T'Challa and you end it up staying in Wakanda.

You would help Shuri around the lab and in return, could stay in the kingdom

Bucky was on cryo.

Steve, Sam, Wanda and Nat were on the run.

Scott and Clint had decided to stay, in hope to get house arrest

You let yourself believe everything was going to be okay, it needed to be

©deadivyy

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