#i've had this clip rolling around for ages

[knifefightandchill]

BALDUR'S GATE 3 (2023)

Is it true you left your master? That you broke the spell that binds you to him?

[fozmeadows]

the older I get, the more the technological changes I've lived through as a millennial feel bizarre to me. we had computers in my primary school classroom; I first learned to type on a typewriter. I had a cellphone as a teenager, but still needed a physical train timetable. my parents listened to LP records when I was growing up; meanwhile, my childhood cassette tape collection became a CD collection, until I started downloading mp3s on kazaa over our 56k modem internet connection to play in winamp on my desktop computer, and now my laptop doesn't even have a disc tray. I used to save my word documents on floppy discs. I grew up using the rotary phone at my grandparents' house and our wall-connected landline; my mother's first cellphone was so big, we called it The Brick. I once took my desktop computer - monitor, tower and all - on the train to attend a LAN party at a friend's house where we had to connect to the internet with physical cables to play together, and where one friend's massive CRT monitor wouldn't fit on any available table. as kids, we used to make concertina caterpillars in class with the punctured and perforated paper strips that were left over whenever anything was printed on the room's dot matrix printer, which was outdated by the time I was in high school. VHS tapes became DVDs, and you could still rent both at the local video store when I was first married, but those shops all died out within the next six years. my facebook account predates the iphone camera - I used to carry around a separate digital camera and manually upload photos to the computer in order to post them; there are rolls of undeveloped film from my childhood still in envelopes from the chemist's in my childhood photo albums. I have a photo album from my wedding, but no physical albums of my child; by then, we were all posting online, and now that's a decade's worth of pictures I'd have to sort through manually in order to create one. there are video games I tell my son about but can't ever show him because the consoles they used to run on are all obsolete and the games were never remastered for the new ones that don't have the requisite backwards compatibility. I used to have a walkman for car trips as a kid; then I had a discman and a plastic hardshell case of CDs to carry around as a teenager; later, a friend gave my husband and I engraved matching ipods as a wedding present, and we used them both until they stopped working; now they're obsolete. today I texted my mother, who was born in 1950, a tiktok upload of an instructional video for girls from 1956 on how to look after their hair and nails and fold their clothes. my father was born four years after the invention of colour televison; he worked in radio and print journalism, and in the years before his health declined, even though he logically understood that newspapers existed online, he would clip out articles from the physical paper, put them in an envelope and mail them to me overseas if he wanted me to read them. and now I hold the world in a glass-faced rectangle, and I have access to everything and ownership of nothing, and everything I write online can potentially be wiped out at the drop of a hat by the ego of an idiot manchild billionaire. as a child, I wore a watch, but like most of my generation, I stopped when cellphones started telling us the time and they became redundant. now, my son wears a smartwatch so we can call him home from playing in the neighbourhood park, and there's a tanline on his wrist ike the one I haven't had since the age of fifteen. and I wonder: what will 2030 look like?

[allfearstofallto]

What would Yuri (your yandere bulter OC) do if his lady had an arranged marriege and was meeting the person she was arranged to marry with?

(Y'all make me so happy I could die!! I've been unironically imagining this scenerio for months!!!)

Yandere! Male OC x Reader

“You're much too young to be wed,” Yuri whined softly as his cold finger tips helped you latch the clip of your necklace. A beautiful, pink gem nestled in the center of the neckware drew attention to your bare collar bone, the radiant skin of your chest, and the lovely smile you had just above it. Yet another piece of jewelry your mother had sent you from her travels, she had such a taste for things you liked, despite hardly being around.

You merely scoffed at his words, rolling your eyes in the tandum. While he tied your hair up, you dusted yourself with perfumed powder, staring at yourself the entire time, “You must be insane, Yuri. I'm actually past the average marrying age.”

That much was true. Girls of your status typically married much much younger, usually right after coming of age. Even you yourself received many letters begging for a chance to meet after your debutante, which Yuri would swiftly burn in your fire place when you expressed your distate. You had things holding you back. You longed for schooling, travel, and a the freedom of being young and not tied down. Both your father and Yuri took this news excitedly and never pushed for you to get wed. They both even excitedly told you that you'd never have to leave the manor and if you so pleased, you'd be pampered for the rest of your life.

It sounded nice in theory, living off of your fathers wealth and being a bachelorette until the day you died, but many women at your tea parties were talking about their prospects, fiances, and even their husbands, and suddenly you felt as if you could no longer relate anymore. And the even more harsh realization hit you, that you were lonely. You'd sit quietly at the table, sipping your tea nervously and realizing that maybe it was time for you to begin viewing romance in a different light, not as a hindrance chaining you down, but a new beginning in life.

Your father was expectedly saddened by your announcement and Yuri…well, Yuri’s expression was hard to read. He stood silently for a bit, his lips formed in a tight line, eyebrows starting to furrow a bit behind his thick, round glasses. It was a face you'd never seen him make before, him typically preferring laid back or soft expression.

“You can't actually be serious, my lady,” Yuri forced himself to not sound more hurt than he actually was, but if you listened closely, you could hear his voice tremble, “You always said you'd stay in the manor forever.”

You glanced at yourself once over again in your full body mirror, feeling shy and almost slightly over dressed in the gown you chose. It was such a strange feeling, the way your heart was thumping in your chest, and you couldn't tell if it was excitement or nerves. You could see Yuri behind you in your reflection, a frown still formed on his lips.

“I said that when I was eight! You can't trust the words of a child,”

Yuri sighed again, pushing his snow, white hair out of his face in a sign of stress. A stress reflex that you seldom saw him do. Yuri was a man that was so calm and composed, yet today he was showing so much anxiety. And for what, you'd didn't know.

“Then what of me? This man you're meeting, he's the Duke two cities over. I am here to serve you, my lady, won't I go with you?”

“I'd hate to uproot your life, Yuri,” you began with a sad tone. You couldn't fathom the idea that he could look any sadder, yet as you spoke, his face fell even farther, “B-but mother will be home shortly! She sent a letter saying that it will only be a few more weeks, you could still stay in the manor and tend to her instead.”

Your suggestion is met with a shallow, solemn shake of his head, “You are my life, my lady. I wish to serve no one else.”

[wileys-russo]

hello love, ive been reading your writing recently and i love how you write the players personalities exactly as i imagine them to be!!

ive had an idea that i think you would write perfectly, of alessia adopting a puppy, but as lessi is so clumsy and forgetful, she accidentally leaves out a big bag of crisps and her ‘demon puppy’ as she would call it, eats the whole bag

lessi freaks out and takes it to the nearest vet (aka us) before training and is basically being being a flustered and blushing mess, when she gets to training people pick up on her still tinted cheeks and manage to trick her into gushing about the ‘cute vet’ she met that morning

it could end with lessi returning to awkwardly asking us on a date

thankyou love 🤍

four legged wingwoman II a.russo

"-no you cannot come over for dinner again!" alessia rolled her eyes, pacing around her room with her phone squished in between her shoulder and her ear. "and why not!" vic gasped in offence on the other end of the line.

"because if its not you its one of the other girls. i've had a rotating door of dinner guests almost every single night since i got willow and i want time with my puppy alone!" alessia laughed, her team mates adoring her ten week old puppy just as much as she did, which was making it difficult for her to get any one on one time with her.

"because she is so cute and most of us do not have dogs lessi, you are being selfish!" vic whined, but the blonde held firm in her decision just as she had when lia and leah had tried to invite themselves over tonight too.

"i will literally see you in an hour pavlova, goodbye!" alessia rolled her eyes at the girs insistent begging and ended the call, tossing her phone onto the bed. "now where the hell did i put it?" the striker frowned, hunting around for her spare training top with the other one in the wash.

as adorable as willow was she was the furthest thing from well behaved and was right in the peak of her naughty puppy phase.

if she wasn't chewing things up she was running around with them in her mouth and dropping them all over the house, meaning alessia could barely keep track of anything and as soon as she'd put it down it was being moved.

but the ten week old chocolate lab had the most alluring eyes she'd ever seen so of course alessia could never stay mad at willow as infuriatingly cheeky as she was.

speaking of it was suspiciously quiet as alessia dropped to her knees and sighed in relief finally tugging her training top out from under the bed, huffing at the small teeth holes in the hem of the collar.

"willow!" the blonde called out, frowning when she didn't hear the usual scattering of her nails against the floorboards as she'd bound over. "willow?" alessia called again, quickly changing into her shirt and grabbing her training bag off the bed.

"willow baby where are-" her eyes widened as she hurried into the living room. "oh no no no no!" alessia groaned, grabbing the puppy and tugging her head out of the xl bag of salt and vinegar crisps.

"shit you ate some of the bag too? willow!" alessia gasped realizing there was large bites from the foil as panic set in. "okay um, the vet! we'll go to the vets." alessia spoke to herself, hurrying about like a tornado grabbing what she needed.

"ah willow don't eat that!" alessia huffed, tugging her keychain out of the labs mouth and locking the door up behind them, clipping willow in safely in the passenger seat.

near certain she was breaking more than one road rule alessia sped to the closest vet clinic in record time, sending a hurried half legible voice message to lotte that she would be late to training and why.

grabbing willow out of the car alessia made a beeline inside, wincing as it begun to rain and she did her best to shield the small shivering dog inside her shirt.

finally inside alessia let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in seeing the clinic was almost empty. "can i help you love?" a kind looking middle aged woman asked from the front desk.

"er my puppy ate a full bag of salt and vinegar crisps and most of the bag itself." alessia admitted with flushed cheeks, the receptionist nodding and making a note. "have you been here before?" the blonde shook her head and placed willow down on the floor, tight grip on her leash as the woman handed her a clipboard instructing her to fill it out.

"come on then miss trouble." alessia mumbled, moving to a free seat and maintaining her tight cold on willows leash so she couldn't wander very far. scribbling down her details her eyes would glance to the dog every few moments who didn't seem to be feeling any discomfort.

handing the clipboard back the woman added alessia and willow into the clinic system and gestured for them to sit down, informing there was only one vet in today but it shouldn't be too long a wait.

"oh god willow no!" alessia whispered with wide eyes as the puppy relieved itself right in the middle of the waiting room. "if you've brought her here for bladder control issues im afraid thats just going to need some toilet training." alessias head whipped up at the new voice.

"this must be willow then?" you smiled with amusement, grabbing a roll of paper towel from behind the desk and dropping to your knees. "no please i can do it!" alessia hurried to take it from you though a little too eagerly as she smacked her head into the vets, both of you wincing in pain.

"oh god i am so sorry." alessia apologized with wide eyes, and if her face wasn't red with embarrassment before it must have been the colour of a tomato now.

"its alright, normally its the animals who take a chunk out of me sometimes but i guess its not bad i have a little more contact with humans." you joked, standing up and offering her a hand which she graciously accepted.

"marley do you mind?" you gestured toward the remains of urine on the floor toward the receptionist who nodded, sending alessia a reassuring smile as the girl apologised over and over, dismissing her with a wave.

following after you alessia lifted willow up onto the table as you closed the door behind the pair of you, the blonde seemingly still a little shocked at how young you seemed, you couldn't have been too dissimilar in age to her if she was to go off looks.

"so what brings you here to visit me today willow?" you smiled softly, offering the puppy a treat which she happily accepted. "um well i sort of left a bag of salt and vinegar crisps out and she got into it and ate all of them as well as most of the actual bag." alessia again winced in embarrassment.

"chewer then? they grow out of it." you laughed, scratching behind willows ears and sending alessia a smile which had her stomach flipping. "you have a dog?" alessia asked, wincing yet again at how awkward she sounded.

"i do, and she was once just like miss willow here eating everything and anything she could get her little paws on." you chuckled at the memory, moving to put on a pair of gloves. "has she seemed out of sorts since she ate it? any strange behavior or unusual bowel movements?" you questioned, gently opening willows mouth and inspecting inside as best you could.

"not really? i drove her straight here as soon as i realised." alessia rubbed the back of her neck as you hummed, whistling to gain the puppys attention and quickly checking her pupils with a small torch.

"she seems happy and healthy. did you have somewhere to be?" you asked, nodding to alessia's training kit. "oh just training but i let my team and coach know i'd be late." the striker assured as you rewarded willow with another treat.

"i'd like to keep her here for a few hours in the kennel for observation if thats alright? you're welcome to stay or if you need to go to training i promise you she'll be well looked after. if she's going to pass it or if anything seems a little out of sorts we'll know by midday." you smiled toward the girl who nodded.

"you gave your number when you filled in the patient paperwork right? if anything at all goes wrong or seems remotely off with her we'll call you right away." you assured sensing her hesitation, knowing too well how much owners cared for their pets.

"you should go, really! you'd just be sitting around here twiddling your thumbs. thursdays don't tend to be very busy which is why i'm the only one here, but we have an intern who stays in the kennels to monitor and hang out with the animals so she'll be under constant supervision and i'll check in on her regularly." you continued, willow barking a few times as alessias eyes hovered over here and she gave a nod.

"okay, i trust you."

~

"-she ate the bag too!?" leah asked with wide eyes, tapping the ball back to alessia who nodded with a sigh. "you gotta get her into puppy school less." the blonde grinned with a shake of her head.

"i know i know, the vet told me the same thing. they actually offer obedience classes there so she said she'd talk me through it when i pick willow up later." alessia shrugged, her phone tucked securely into her pants despite the normal rules, jonas making an exception given the circumstances.

the staff calling it for the morning everyone made their way to over to the coolers, chugging down water and cooling off before they were expected in the gym.

"which vet did you take her to?" steph asked curiously as alessia finished recounting her morning adventures to a few more of the girls. "just the clinic closest to me, green road practice?" alessia tried to remember the name.

"oh! yeah we took calvin there for his vaccinations when he was a puppy and for obedience school, they're really good there." steph nodded which helped melt some of the nerves the striker was feeling about it all.

"i just feel so stupid! imagine if it was like a block of chocolate or something she got into?" alessia groaned as they all started to head inside. "hey its like being a parent lessi, you learn on the job and the best way to learn is mistakes!" beth slung an arm around her waist and squeezed her tightly.

"yeah but-" "no buts! she's okay right? and she's in good hands at the vets yeah?"

"yeah i guess its the best place for her. the vet was actually quite young? well i assume so anyway, not that i asked. but she knew so much? to be fully qualified, again assuming she's round my age, and to know so much is really impressive. plus she was the only vet working so she has to know her stuff!" alessia was so caught up in her rambling she missed the amused knowing smiles exchanged between her teammates.

"so was she cute?" kyra grinned catching alessia off guard. "well she wasn't ugly."

"very nice less, make sure to say exactly that when you ask her out!" leah clapped her on the back with a smirk making the blondes eyes widen. "ask her out! what?"

"yeah? you've been going on and on and on about her all morning. you clearly think she's hot so tell her that." kyra shrugged in explanation as alessia scoffed and stuttered out she didn't. "stop it! leave her be." steph warned the younger australian, arm landing on alessia's shoulder.

"she can ask her out anyway she wants to." "steph!"

~

alessia shook her head with a frown, head swamped with the teasing words of her teammates that she'd endured all day.

trying her best to brush them off she exited the car, locking it after her and hurrying inside grateful that the rain had subsided and she would no longer look like a disheveled drowned rat.

"alessia, welcome back." marley the receptionist smiled kindly, waving for her to take a seat advising you were just with another patient and would be with her shortly.

the striker busied herself with the team groupchat which seemed to be going off nonstop as the girls argued over room arrangements for the upcoming away game.

"-and i'll see the pair of you in two months for the next round of injections." her head snapped up at your voice as you waved off an older woman and her cat, meeting her eyes with a smile.

"welcome back. how was training?" you asked, genuinely seeming interested in her answer as you hummed to show you were listening. "well i'm glad you didn't break your foot, i'm only licensed to treat animals injuries." you teased as alessia finished recounting the story of kyra dropping a dumbbell and missing her foot by about a millimeter.

"oh don't worry i basically have a tab going at the local hospital, i'm cursed to be dreadfully clumsy, always have been." alessia joked back as you lead her out back toward the kennels. "maybe we should be training willow as a service dog then." you grinned over your shoulder, shouldering open the door and waving for her to step inside.

"so she passed the bag around an hour after you left, but besides that her behavior has been completely normal and i can't see any red flags popping up. she's free to go!" you smiled, unlocking the crate where willow was as within seconds she'd sprinted out toward alessia who squatted down.

"hi baby, you been a good girl?" alessia cooed, scooping up the puppy who wiggled and whined and licked all over her face. "i'd try to break her out of that habit, i've seen a lot of dogs eat a lot of poop." you smiled apologetically as alessia paled and immediately placed her back down on the floor wiping her face.

"noted. thank you!"

alessia once again found her head swamped with the words of her friends as you happily explained how the obedience classes worked, the striker humming and nodding to show she was listening when really her head was off with the clouds.

"but of course there isn't any pressure i know theres a whole load of classes and schools, we actually have a bunch of brochures back in the waiting room so please take some and look into whatever option works best for you and willow." you smiled softly, bending down again to play with the small puppy.

some of the best advice alessia had ever been given was by her brother luca, they were incredibly close and as much as he also frustrated her to no end sometimes he had passed on a pearl or two of wisdom over the years.

one of which was that if alessia was ever dreading something to count to three and just do it, because the longer she took to do it the more she'd overthink and the opportunity 9 times out of 10 would be lost.

so now trying to keep that in mind instead of everything else the girl took a deep breath and counted to three as you stood up and brushed off your scrubs.

"look i don't normally do this but i'm trying this new thing where i don't let opportunities pass me by. would you like to grab a coffee or something sometime?" alessia asked nervously, fiddling with the leash in her hand as you looked on in surprise and the striker prepared herself for rejection.

"yeah! i'd love to."

[starry-bi-sky]

Part SEVEN of "Clone Danny"

Red Robin, Danny recognizes, steps away from him as he sits up. "My name is Phantom," he signs, blinking the exhaustion out of his eyes. (From Red Robin's perspective, it looks like he has no eyes. There lacks his signature green glow.) "I'm not a gang member, just an out-of-town vigilante."

Red Robin frowns at him, an uncertain grip on the bō in his other hand. "Phantom?" He repeats, no lacking amount of suspicion in his voice. "How can I believe that?"

Right. Yeah, okay, that's fair. Danny shrugs at him, and slumps against the wall. "Google search?" He gestures, he's been out in the daytime before and he's seen the news articles about him.

Red's eyes narrow at him and Danny simply draws his knees up and faceplants into them, half-listening to Red's murmurs into his comm while also trying to get some extra-shut eye.

("Oracle, can you pull up anything on a vigilante named Phantom? The guy here is claiming to be one." Tim says.

"On it."

"Is this Phantom wearing a white mask?" Bruce asks, his voice gruff like an aftershock. "There's a vigilante who shares the same name, but he resides in Illinois."

"Is this guy from that Amity city you visited ages ago?" Says Tim, before shaking his head. "Don't answer that. Yes, he's wearing some freaky mask. I said it reminded me of Hood's helmet for a reason."

"I've got something," Oracle interrupts, "Bats' right. as usual. The Phantom of Amity Park, not much stuff of this guy but he's only been out for over a year. Apparently, his rogues' gallery consists of ghosts."

"Oh great.")

"Look tell the Batman that I'm sorry for trespassing on his turf," He signs irritably when Red Robin eventually starts talking to (re: interrogating) him again. "It's not like I want to be here."

"How did you get in Gotham anyways?" Red Robin questions, batman was on his way to help deal with the situation but Tim doubted he wouldn't get caught up on the way with dealing with petty crime. "Your turf is nearly a thousand miles away from here."

"Two words." Danny deadpans, "Teleport ghost." (Red Robin winces sympathetically.) "I'm keeping this bastard in the thermos for a month for this alone."

(Danny was ignoring the slow-choking anxiety growing in his lungs over how he was gonna get home. He never takes his phone when he goes out, the risk of breaking it was too high. He had no way of contacting anyone to get him home.)

(He swallows the growing lump in his throat, and buries the feeling in the back of his mind.)

"Thermos?"

Danny unclips his Fenton Phantom Thermos off from his belt loop and shows it to Red Robin. "My ghost-catching device," He says with one hand, tilting it carefully for Red to inspect. "I wish I could say I made it, but its a FentonWorks invention."

(He wasn't sure if it was a smart idea to say who it belonged to, but saying it wasn't his probably loosened up any tracks on him, right?)

"Do you work with these Fentons, then?" Red asks, and something dark and shadowy flickers from the corner of Danny's eye. He glances over, and sees nothing, and his hackles raise.

(Either that was Batman, or a ghost, or Danny's mind playing tricks on him. He couldn't feel his ghost sense building in his throat, so he decided it was either the latter of the former.)

Danny snorts, quiet and gruff. "No." He clips his thermos to his belt again, stifling a smile on his face. "The Fentons hate me actually, I prevent them from catching ghosts themselves. Their son gives me their tech."

He had a cover story, so he might as well stick with it, right?

Batman shows up at that moment, appearing atop the little roof where the door is, and giving Danny a heart attack when he speaks in his low, rumbly voice like thunder rolling in, "Why would they hate you for that?"

Danny shoots up to his feet with a startled yell in his throat, clutching his chest as he whirls around and looks up. He nearly runs into Red Robin, and signs a few choice swears at the Bat.

"wow you're scarier in person, asshole."

"you didn't answer my question."

"Of course I didn't, you scared me." and Danny takes a trembling step back when the Batman jumps down and lands on the roof in front of him. He's faced ghosts before, but somehow the living is always scarier.

"But, um, the reason is a bit.. complicated, I guess." He says, fingers beginning to shake as his adrenaline wears off. God is he tired. He wants to go home. "The Fentons are the local ghost hunters and local crazies. I don't know if I can call them mad scientists because they're harmless to the living."

"But they're extremely anti-ghost. I've heard from their son multiple times the very unethical things they would do to ghosts if they got their hands on one."

Danny 'talks' a little more before calling it quits, even telling Batman that he can't tell him more without putting his identity at risk.

Plus, its getting harder and harder to hide his bone-deep exhaustion and his growing fear of being stranded in the most dangerous city in America with no way home.

"I would love to tell you more, believe me I'm dying to." Danny signs, shaky sarcasm dripping from his fingers. His hands are visibly trembling and he's withholding a slowly growing panic attack. "But I would like nothing more than to figure out a way to get home."

"Do you have no one to contact?"

"Sort of. But only one of them could probably come get me and get me back to Amity by sunrise. And I have no phone."

That one person being Ellie.

=====

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 4.5 (Dani interlude) Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 7.5 (Dan Interlude) Part 8

Taglist: @the-navistar-carol @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @gin2212 @youracearocroatneighbour @luckybyrdrobyn @deeplyconfusedbear @epilepticnerd @beautifulmomenttodrawblank @sara0055 @blusunkhild @letmesayfuxk (?) @latheevening226 @tkiesai @rosedasy @meira-3919

[ophelia-writes-fics]

the thrill of the rush [martin whitly x reader - 18+]

You had always known that Martin wanted kids, but you hadn’t realized quite how badly until you’d agreed to start trying for one.

Tags (please read!): fem!reader, breeding kink, pregnancy kink, lots and lots of praise, like so much praise, pet names, overstimulation, multiple orgasms (fem receiving), daddy kink, begging, mild degradation, rough-ish sex, a bit of biting, aftercare, weirdly soft and tender considering martin is a serial killer but honestly this could be read as an AU where he isn't

Word count: ~1.9k

CWs/TWs:

reader and martin are trying for a baby, but there's no in-depth discussion of pregnancy, and reader isn't pregnant (yet)

full disclosure, i'm only on episode 5 of prodigal son (but i've seen a ton of clips and edits) so if martin's a bit out of character i apologize. i tried to capture his softer, family-oriented side a little bit - i like it when he's scary, but sometimes a bitch just wants to be lavished with love, yk? <3

i'll write some really kinky shit with him later, i've got some fun requests, but for now, enjoy! (oh, and 10th doctor smut will be posted tomorrow, so stay tuned!)

You had always known that Martin wanted kids, but you hadn’t realized quite how badly until you’d agreed to start trying for one. 

However, now that he had you pinned underneath him, practically bent in half, and was pounding into you with reckless abandon, you were starting to realize what exactly you were in for. 

“Oh, f-fuck, please, Martin, s-slow down…” you begged, your hands scrambling for purchase on his forearms as your eyes rolled back from pleasure. 

“Shh, darling, you can take it. You’re my good girl, aren’t you? Just lie there and let me take care of you,” he murmured before gently kissing your forehead and doubling down on his already brutal pace. 

“Mnn…c-can’t take it…too much…” You shut your eyes tightly, thoroughly overwhelmed with pleasure. 

He’d already made you cum twice by going down on you, then twice more while fucking you like this, and despite how overstimulated and sensitive your entire body felt, you were rapidly approaching another orgasm. 

“You can and you will, sweet girl. I’m going to make sure you get just as much enjoyment out of this as I do, and if that means I end up making you cum a dozen more times tonight, then that’s how it’s going to go. You’re going to take it.” He pressed a series of desperate, open-mouthed kisses to the sensitive skin on your neck. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this. Do you know what you do to me? What your body does to me?” 

A particularly hard thrust made you cry out, and from the look in Martin’s eyes, you could tell that was exactly the reaction he was hoping for. His grip on your thighs tightened as he bent you further back, pinning you so that your knees nearly touched your shoulders, fucking you deeper than you’d thought possible. He leaned in close to whisper to you as he pounded you mercilessly, his hand moving between the two of you to rub against your hypersensitive clit. 

“I’ve been waiting on this for ages, darling. I’ve been waiting -- fuck, you feel amazing -- waiting so long to have you like this, all mine for the taking, at long last.” 

Martin groaned, closing his eyes as your cunt tightened around him. You opened your mouth to try and tell him you were getting close, that you needed him, that it was too much and not enough and you needed it so badly, but before you could speak, he pulled you close and kissed you passionately, a stark contrast to the absolutely brutal fucking he was giving you. 

He pulled away, leaning his forehead against yours. “I know, sweetheart, I know, you’re so close, I feel it,” he purred, interrupting himself every so often to kiss you again. “I can feel how badly you want it. It’s all right, darling, let it happen. I’ve got you. I’m not going to stop for anything, I promise. Cum for me, baby, I know you can do it.” 

You could barely even process the words coming out of his mouth, but still, your body obeyed his orders, almost instinctively. You couldn’t have held back if you wanted to, your desperate moan becoming a scream as your orgasm hit you like a ton of bricks, leaving you trembling and whimpering for Martin to please, please slow down, it’s too much, even though you both knew full well that you could take it. He fucked you straight through it, only barely slowing down as you came, then picking up the pace again, thrusting into you with deep, hard strokes. 

“Such a good little girl,” he praised, giving you that look you knew so well as he smiled at you; that thrilling, dangerous look in his eye that made you feel like a cornered prey animal, completely helpless and at his mercy, and you wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. His hand wandered to your neck and wrapped around it - not nearly hard enough to restrict your breathing, but enough so you felt the weight of it, so that you knew you were his and only his. 

You practically melted beneath him at the feeling, letting yourself float away in the waves and waves of pleasure that never stopped. You lavished in his praise, in the feeling of his hands all over you, in the light graze of his beard against your face, your neck, your chest as he kissed you over and over again. 

“Martin, please, I’m ready…”

He pulled back, fixing you with a look that betrayed his own desperation. “Ready for what, sweetheart? Use your words, I won’t know what you want if you don’t tell me.” 

“I -- ngh! -- I want you to cum, please, I wanna feel it, I want…” you trailed off with a gasp as he hit a particularly sensitive spot inside you. 

“What do you want?” 

You moaned, barely able to string a coherent thought together, feeling yourself getting more and more lost in your fog of pleasure. 

Martin grabbed your chin firmly, turning your face to him. “I said, what do you want, hmm?” His gravelly voice was like music in your ears. “Say it, sweetheart. Tell Daddy what you need.” 

You stared up at him through blurry eyes, trying to focus on him in your fucked-out state. “I want…I want you to fill me up. I want to have a baby with you, Martin. I - I need it, please, I’m ready, I want - oh, fuck, oh my god, yes, right there…fuck, I - I want to have your child, please, I need it, Martin…”

That did it. Without even pulling out, he turned you over and quickly positioned you so that you were on all fours, pressing your face into the mattress with a deep moan that was almost a growl. He grabbed your hips hard, using them as leverage to fuck into you even harder, with shallow thrusts that hit the most sensitive places inside you, never pulling even halfway out. 

“Oh, yes, that’s it, my filthy fucking girl. You want Daddy to breed you?” 

He knew the answer, he’d known it since the beginning, that was what had started this past hour of overwhelming pleasure for you, but you knew that he wanted to hear you say it. He wanted you to beg. 

“Yes, yes, fuck, yes! Please, please, I need it, please…” 

“Ah, there’s my good girl. You’re so sweet, aren’t you? Begging like a whore for me to fill you up. There you go, let me hear you moan for it, let me hear how desperate you are for me to put a baby in you, come on…Mmm, such a good girl, lying there and taking it like the slut you are.” 

You could tell from his tone of voice and the way his pace was starting to grow erratic that he was getting close, and you knew that you weren’t far behind him. You absolutely loved it when he got like this, dominant and possessive and half-mad with lust. You could barely hold yourself upright with how badly your body was shaking. 

You felt his grip tighten on your hips, fingers pressing so hard into your soft skin that you were sure you’d have bruises tomorrow, and you whined desperately, the sound growing muffled as Martin shoved your face back into the mattress, his hand tangling in your hair and pulling slightly in a way that sent shivers down your spine. 

“God, you have no idea how hard it’s been for me to hold back, I’ve wanted to do this for so long…can’t stop -- oh, shit, darling, just like that -- god, I can’t stop fucking thinking about how pretty you’ll look carrying my child, how needy you’ll be for me for those nine long months,” he panted, voice shaking ever so slightly. You knew he meant every single word. 

“I’m going to take such good care of you, my perfect girl. You hear me? Daddy’s going to take such good care of you.”

He wrapped an arm around you, toying with your clit in a way that he knew would drive you over the edge at any moment.

“I’m going to take care of you just like I’m doing now. I’m going to make you feel so good that you’ll never want to leave this bed. You won’t have to. Just - oh, god - just say the word and I’ll be at your beck and call. But right now, what I need you to do is cum for me, because--” 

His words broke off with a deep, feral moan before he collected himself enough to speak. “Because, my beautiful darling, I am getting so fucking close to cumming inside you, and I need to feel your needy little pussy take every drop I’m going to give it, do you understand me? I’m going to count down, and when I tell you to, you’re going to give me everything you’ve got, yeah?” 

You moaned and nodded, feeling thoroughly drunk and light-headed with pleasure. 

“Three…” 

You felt yourself tighten around him as his fingers sped up against your clit. 

“Two…” 

You could feel yourself getting closer and closer, so close, so fucking close…

“One…”

It was so much, it was all too much, you couldn’t hold back for even a moment more…

“Fuck, yes, there you go, cum for me, angel, cum for me!” 

You cried out as your final orgasm of the night washed over you like a tidal wave, your throat feeling sore and raw, your body feeling electrified all over as shocks of pleasure coursed through every inch of you, inside and out. Martin had done the same as he came deep inside you, his voice rough as he moaned for you, panting hard, his head thrown back in ecstasy as he filled your cunt with his seed. 

After what felt like an eternity, you collapsed onto the bedsheets as you came down from your high, unable to hold yourself up any longer. Martin laid down beside you, pulling you into his arms, holding you close as he wrapped you both in a blanket. 

He pressed a kiss to your neck before resting his face against your shoulder, sighing contentedly. His arm was wrapped around you, his warm hand resting protectively against your lower stomach, right where you could still feel his cum inside you. 

“You’re incredible,” Martin sighed, his soft exhale tickling the shell of your ear. “You did so well for me, sweetheart, you were wonderful.”

“Yeah?” You gave him a sleepy smile as you settled yourself into his embrace, floating in the afterglow. 

“Mm-hmm,” he replied, and you felt him smile against the curve of your shoulder. “I can hardly wait until you start showing, I won’t be able to keep my hands off you.” He pulled you closer, playfully biting your neck as you giggled, then tilted his head upward to gently kiss your lips with a loving smile. 

“Let’s get some sleep now, sweet girl. I know you’re tired, and you’re gonna need plenty of rest soon, hmm?” 

You nodded, yawning and pulling the blanket tighter around the both of you before settling back into Martin’s warm embrace. 

He hummed quietly, contentedly, and you felt the sound vibrate in his chest. 

“Sleep well, my beautiful girl. I love you with all my heart.”

A/N: thank you so much for reading! if you have any other ideas, my requests are open, so ask away! and again, i've got another fic coming tomorrow, so be sure to check it out if you're interested. feel free to like, comment, rb, share, whatever you like :) love you all!

[sixhours]

One Day at a Time - Chapter 4 - Gestation

Series Chapter Index | Read on AO3 | Complete

Rating: Explicit, 18+, here be smut Series tags: The Last of Us, The Last of Us (HBO), Joel Miller x f!OFC, Joel & Ellie, mostly follows canon, SMUT, gratuitous smut, dubious consent (drunk sex), unplanned pregnancy, fluff, references to past miscarriages, angst, hurt/comfort, romance, age gap (~21 years), childbirth, fluffy baby stuff, I've probably forgotten some so please let me know <3

He’s browsing at the trading post when he sees Charlie again. He’s checked off 14 more days in his little calendar, and each time he picks up the pen, it stirs a bittersweet feeling of anticipation and sheer terror in his gut.

He’s picking over the trades, looking for new sneakers for Ellie, when his eyes fall on something else.

Footed pajamas, impossibly tiny, the little plastic price tag still clipped to the sleeve. His hand drifts over the yellow fabric, faded but minky soft. Warm. Good for winter.

Sarah had pajamas like this once…a sleep suit with a hood and little round ears peeking up from the top. He hasn’t thought about that outfit in…well, decades. The memory of her toddling toward him with those silly little ears poking up from her downy head is so vivid that he can almost hear her trill of laughter and he has to lean on the table to catch his breath, the yellow onesie still clutched in his hand.

“Joel? Are you okay?”

Charlie’s voice comes from over his shoulder, snapping him out of his reverie, and he turns around.

“Yeah…yeah just, uh…yeah, m’fine. What’re you doin’ here?”

He hides the pajamas behind him, balling them up in one large fist.

She holds up a white package. “Heard they had TP. Figured I’d better get down here and snag a roll before it was all gone. You?”

“Lookin’ for stuff for Ellie.”

“Find anything good?”

“She won’t think so.”

Charlie smirks. “Teenagers, huh?”

“Yeah,” he says, shoving the onesie deep into his bag and making for the counter. He drops off a sack of old clothes into the donation bin, all the stuff Ellie has outgrown, and watches as Charlie does the same with her trades.

They find themselves outside, the warmth of late spring making everything smell fresh and green. Charlie’s button-down shirt floats over her jeans in such a way as to hide her midsection, but her proportions have changed. Her face is fuller, her breasts are swollen, and her skin looks so soft and smooth and—

He coughs and looks away, feeling a brief wash of shame for noticing her. Again.

“So you’re, uh…still…”

“Yeah…I’m still,” she says.

“That’s good,” he says, and means it. “Feelin’ okay?”

She shrugs. “A little tired…but yeah. I feel better. So far, so good, I guess.”

He nods thoughtfully and bites his lip, thinking of the calendar next to his bed. He can almost hear the days falling away.

“Look, I…uh…I shoulda said somethin’ before now. I…know I haven’t been the most…uh…I’m not trying to get out of…anything.”

She blinks up at him, brow furrowed, waiting for him to make sense. He winces, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“I wanna help,” he tries again. “However I can. I know it’s not easy goin’ it alone,” he says, looking down at the bag with Ellie’s clothes and the onesie tucked at the bottom. Then he’s thinking of Sarah, of long nights spent pacing and rocking and soothing.

“You’ve done enough.”

“Oh,” he chokes out. “Uh, I, uh…s’pose I deserve that.”

Her eyes widen, cheeks turning a faint pink. Now it’s her turn to fumble her words.

“Oh…I didn’t mean it like that. I meant…you’ve been good. You’ve helped. I–shit. I’m sorry.”

There’s a painfully awkward silence as this sinks in and he bites back a smirk.

“We’re pretty fuckin’ bad at this, huh?”

“Yes,” she sighs. “We are.”

This admission seems to ease something between them. Before he can lose his nerve, he continues.

“Could I come to your next appointment? Is that somethin’ people still do?”

She nods slowly, considering this. “I have one next week. It’s not very exciting, but…you could come with me.”

“I’d like that.”

“I’m not sure you will,” she says. “The midwife is…intense.”

“I’ve heard,” he says. “I think I can handle it.”

He can’t handle it.

The midwife, Joanie, is cold and abrupt and downright abrasive. He can’t imagine this person welcoming anyone, let alone his future child, into the world. He wants to put his arm around Charlie, turn her around, and tell her they’ll find someone else.

But he can’t. Jackson has one midwife. And the town doctor is a 76-year-old man who “doesn’t do babies”.

The woman is dressed in a long, flowing caftan, gray hair pulled neatly into a braid down her back. She looks like a hippie but her eyes are sharp, and her tongue is sharper.

“You brought the boyfriend this time,” she says as Charlie settles on the makeshift exam bed, a chaise lounge with a sheet draped over it. Joel can’t help but notice that Charlie doesn’t bother correcting her.

“You can sit,” Joanie says to him, gesturing to the chair next to the chaise. When he doesn’t move, she throws her hands up. “Or keep hovering. Whatever.”

Joel crosses his arms and barely restrains a snarl. Charlie shoots him a look as she slides her unbuttoned jeans down to her hips.

I told you.

The woman performs a cursory physical exam in silence. It’s obvious they’ve done this routine several times, and neither seems to feel the need to explain it to Joel.

The midwife is frowning, digging into Charlie’s belly with pointed, demanding fingers, feeling around until Charlie winces. Joel clenches a fist at his side, resisting the urge to snap at the woman for being so careless and rough.

“Growth is on track. You’re measuring at sixteen weeks.”

She pulls out a speaker attached to a wand–he vaguely recognizes it from appointments with Sarah’s mother at the beginning–and a tube of gel. She covers Charlie’s lower abdomen with goop and presses the wand in, levering it this way and that, seeking the sound of a second heart. There’s a long moment where he thinks they won’t find it–that this will be the day it all goes to hell.

But then there’s a familiar but distant echo, a rapid pulse of sound, the memory coming back to him across thirty-five years and an apocalypse. It’s the sound that once filled a small room in a sterile hospital. He remembers it as a black-and-white flutter on the ultrasound screen, fast and vigorous and alive .

Mine , he thinks dimly. He sinks into the chair because his legs no longer want to hold him.

The midwife, satisfied she’s found what she’s looking for, holds the wand steady and looks at her watch. It’s the shortest fifteen seconds of Joel’s life and he doesn’t want it to end.

“One-twenty-six. You can sit up.”

Charlie does. Joel notices she doesn’t bother trying to button her jeans. He vaguely remembers Sarah’s mother needing soft, stretchy things, and wonders if Charlie has anything like that.

“Any cramping?” Joanie asks, flipping through a file.

“No.”

“Still bleeding?”

Charlie hesitates for a fraction of a second. “A little. Not every day.”

Joel’s eyes snap to her at that, but she’s not looking at him.

The midwife frowns. “Given your advanced maternal age and your history, I don’t like to hear that.”

Her sharp eyes focus on Joel. “You’re, what, sixty?”

“Fifty-seven.”

“Mmm. Sperm quality after fifty is a crapshoot,” she sighs. “You’re looking at an increased risk of genetic defects.”

Joel grips the arm of the chaise hard enough to rip it from the frame. He’s going to kill this woman.

“Look, I’ll be honest with you,” she continues. “Maternal-fetal medicine in this country was a shitshow before cordyceps, and the pandemic might as well have sent us back to the dark ages. I’ve seen one death for every five live births. Maternal survival rates are better, but only slightly.”

She’s looking at Charlie. “I can’t tell you you’re going to be okay. I can’t tell you your baby is going to be okay. I can only tell you what I think will help your chances and then…we wait and see.”

Charlie nods, her face drawn into a flat, emotionless mask as she takes this in.

“No more patrols. Light duty work only. No lifting. I can give you a doctor’s note for the council to reassign you if your regular job is too strenuous. No sex,” she says, looking pointedly at Joel. “And if the bleeding gets worse–if it’s bad enough that you need a pad–you go on bed rest immediately.”

Her eyes shift back to Joel. “Stress is a baby-killer. Your job is to take care of her and make sure there is no stress. None. If you can’t do that, you need to find someone who can.”

He grinds his teeth so hard he thinks he hears a molar crack.

“We’re done. I’ll see you next week,” she says dismissively.

And then Charlie’s off the chaise and ushering him to the door before he can open his mouth to give the woman hell and they’re stepping out into the rain. They make it to the end of the street before he stops her with a hand on her shoulder.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he says, hating the way his voice shakes, recognizing the animal clawing within his chest as barely contained rage.

“I did–I warned you,” she frowns. “She’s rough.”

“No–I mean, the bleeding. You said you were fine.”

“I was. I am,” she says flatly. “You heard the heartbeat.”

“S’not what I meant and you know it,” he hisses.

Her lip curls in a snarl. “You fucked me once . You think that gives you the right to—to everything?”

He blinks. “That’s not what I said.”

“Then what are you saying?”

When he can’t answer, she turns and walks away. The sight of her retreating back hunched against the rain only serves to stoke the fire of his anger further. Her shirt is getting soaked.

Where the fuck is her jacket? She’s going to get sick.

He catches up and grabs her by the arm, turning her around and holding her in place.

“You heard her. How am I supposed to take care of you if you won’t fuckin’ let me?”

Only then does he see the tears in her eyes, rain mingling with salt on her cheeks. Guilt stabs at him and he loosens his grip.

“I don’t know,” she hisses. “I can’t just…be that person with you. I don’t fucking know you! I don’t even know your middle name, but we’re having a fucking baby. Or maybe we’re not, because our odds are shit, and I should have taken care of this when I had the chan–”

The words hit like a punch to the gut. Without thinking, he pulls her to him, wrapping her in his arms until he’s holding her in the middle of the street. “Stop. Please.”

She shudders but doesn’t push him away. The sky rumbles, threatening a downpour.

He ducks his head, speaking softly. “It’s Arthur.”

She snorts into his shoulder. “What?”

“My middle name. S’Arthur. After my grandfather.”

She makes a noise that sounds like a sob…or a laugh. He can’t tell. The sound stirs a frantic need within him and he grips her by the shoulders.

“Move in with me.”

“What? No.”

“Just until the kid gets here. Let me take care of you both.”

She looks up at him, eyes ringed with dark circles. A raindrop splashes on the tip of her nose and drips into the divot above her upper lip. 

“Do you even want this? I need to hear you say it.”

Any lingering anger melts away. He thinks of the soft yellow onesie still tucked into the bottom of his pack.

“I do,” he says, hoping the two little words are enough to hold her, to convince her.

She ducks her head with a watery sigh, close enough for her hair to brush at his chest. “Let me think about it.”

He nods. “Alright, but…not too long, okay? You’re, uh…”

He trails off as the back of his hand touches her stomach, just grazing the fabric over her bellybutton, before dropping back to his side.

She sniffs. “Yeah. I’m well aware we’re on a schedule.”

“Okay…okay then,” he nods, resuming their walk toward town. They’ve almost reached the trading post when she speaks again.

“It’s Sarah, by the way.”

The name takes his breath as it always does, pulls at that black hole in his heart that even Ellie can’t completely fill.

“I don’t under–”

“My middle name,” she sniffs. “You didn’t ask, but…it’s Sarah.”

He doesn’t trust himself to speak, just ducks his chin in a nod. Sarah. Of course it’s Sarah.

“C’mon,” he says. “Let’s get out of the rain.”

That night, she appears on his porch. The rain has let up, but her hair is still damp, matted to her temples. 

“I’ll stay with you,” she says without preamble. “Under one condition.”

He blinks. “Anything.”

“We don’t talk about the kid. No names, no what-ifs…no…playing house. I can’t do any of that,” she says. “We take it one day at a time and…see what happens.”

“If that’s what you want,” he says, swallowing hard.

She nods, satisfied. “Alright. I can bring some stuff by tomorrow.”

“Good. That’d be good. But I uh, need to tell Ellie,” he pauses, thinking. “Can I make dinner for you? For the three of us, I mean?”

She raises an eyebrow.

“Not playin’ house or whatever,” he clarifies, feeling a blush creep up his neck. “Just…figured the news might go down better with food.”

She nods slowly. “I could do that.”

“You like spaghetti? S’Ellie’s favorite and it’s hard for me to fuck it up.”

“I like spaghetti,” she says, smiling a little. “I get off work at six.”

“Tomorrow,” he says. “Six. See you then.”

That night, instead of staring at the ceiling during his usual sleepless hours, he moves most of his clothes into the spare bedroom closet and cleans his stuff out of the attached bathroom.

As he works, he thinks of Charlie’s unbuttoned jeans straining around her womb and the climbing summer temperatures. Soon there would be no hiding her stomach under a jacket or sweater.

Jackson was friendly, but it was still a small town. People got bored and they talked, and anyone who paid attention would have seen Charlie and Joel together. There were already enough rumors about Tommy Miller’s broody older brother and his mysterious adopted daughter, the one who wore long sleeves even on the hottest days and carried a switchblade.

Ellie.

Another pang of guilt gnaws in his gut. He’d done enough damage to their relationship as it was, and now he’s about to drop a fucking bomb.

He finds himself knocking on the garage door the next morning, hands rubbing restlessly at the thighs of his jeans as he waits for her to answer. He realizes it’s been a few days since he’s talked with her beyond a simple “hello” in passing, or to pass the salt at dinner, or to ask where she’d put the TV remote. He chides himself; Ellie is independent by nature, but she’s still a kid, still his responsibility. She’s never going to trust him again if–

She answers the door, rubbing her eyes and blinking owlishly up at him. She looks so young when she first wakes up, hair tousled, sleep lines on her cheeks.

“Hey, I uh…we’re, uh…having dinner at the house tonight. Makin’ your favorite. Spaghetti.”

She raises an eyebrow. Joel doesn’t usually cook if he can help it; the caf is easier and less prone to burning things. “What’s the occasion?”

He swallows hard. “There’s somethin’ I need to talk to you about. And…Charlie will be there.”

“Ooooo-kay,” she yawns. “Love a good third wheel situation, I guess.”

“S’not like that,” he shakes his head. “She’s just a friend.”

“Yeah, I bet,” she smirks, then sighs dramatically. “I guess I can make room in my packed social calendar for dinner. As long as it’s spaghetti. Maria’s sauce, right? ‘Cause yours is…yikes.”

She sticks her tongue out to drive the point home.

He snorts softly. “Yeah. Maria’s sauce. And garlic bread.”

“Cool.”

He nods, and the moment draws itself out, that awful, awkward, twisting silence filled with all the things he can’t say.

“So…was there something else?” she asks. “I gotta get ready for school.”

“No…nope,” he mutters. “I guess not. I’ll see you tonight, kiddo.”

He doesn’t quite burn the garlic bread, but it’s pretty fucking dark. He’s scraping the crumbs into the sink when Charlie appears at the door with a salad in hand and a backpack slung over her shoulder. She’s wearing an oversized blue button-down over soft black leggings. For comfort’s sake, he hopes the jeans have been retired for a while.

“Thanks,” he says, taking the bag, frowning at its weight. “You’re not s’posed to be lifting stuff.”

“I can handle a bag of clothes.”

He grunts, gestures to the salad. “You can put that on the table. Ellie’ll be over in a few.”

“Anything I can help with?”

“You can sit,” he says, perhaps too gruffly, placing her pack by the stairs. On the stove, the reheated marinara starts to bubble, spitting red flecks. He rushes to take it off the heat.

Ellie arrives just as Joel is setting the last bowl on the table. She nods in a wary greeting to Charlie, then helps herself to spaghetti and salad and bread.

“So what’s up?” she asks around a mouthful of food, forgoing any small talk—his kid, through and through.

Joel swallows hard, looks at Charlie, who simply shrugs as if to say this is your show .

He opens his mouth but the words are stubborn and nothing seems right.

You’re going to be a big sister.

Your old man is going to be a dad again.

I fucked up and we’re having a baby.

He’d never had to worry about this with Sarah. On the rare occasion a date went further than dinner, he’d been cautious to a fault. He’d been considering a vasectomy before the pandemic but time and savings were sparse. He probably could have had the procedure done back in the QZ, but Tess had been his only partner, and she’d had a hysterectomy in her thirties. An operation that would put him out of commission for any length of time seemed like an unnecessary waste of ration cards.

He realizes he’s lost in thought, and they’re both watching him, still waiting.

“So, uh…Charlie’s gonna move in with me for a bit,” he says. “I’m givin’ her my room, and I’ll take your old one…if that’s okay.”

Ellie narrows her eyes. “You two aren’t… together ?”

“No,” Joel mutters, meeting Charlie’s eyes across the table. “S’temporary. She just needs a place for a bit.”

“Weird, but…fine with me,” Ellie shrugs, then turns to Charlie. “Joel’s good at taking in strays, it’s kinda his thing. Case in point.”

Charlie smiles a little at this, takes a sip of her water.

“She’s, uh, gonna have a baby,” Joel continues, focused on his plate, pushing the food around.

“Oh shit, congrats!” Ellie grins at Charlie, then looks back at Joel. He can’t meet her eyes.

There’s a heavy silence. Joel grips his fork until the design in the handle makes an imprint in his palm. He waits for Ellie to do what she does so well, to pick up the hints, put the pieces together, and say the things he can’t.

“Wait,” Ellie says, looking back and forth between them, mouth dropping open in a scandalized O .

“You didn’t—”

She coughs then, choking on a mouthful of food, and fumbles frantically for her water glass.

“Joel,” she says when she can speak again. “Tell me you didn’t.”

All he can offer is a tiny shrug.

“Holy shit ,” she breathes, fork clattering to her plate. “You slut !”

Not for the first time, Joel wishes she had a proper full name–Elspeth, Eleanor, Elizabeth, Eliza–anything that, combined with a solid middle name, made for a convincing and forceful reprimand.

“Sarah Elizabeth Miller” was always effective when his first kid was being a little shit, even if he rarely had to use it.

As it is, he can only growl Ellie’s short-and-sweet name under his breath and watch it roll right off her back. She doesn’t miss a beat.

“Wow, I can’t…I mean, you just said you weren’t even together –”

“We’re not,” he grates out. “It was a…a one-time thing.”

His face is so hot, he can practically feel the vein throbbing at his temple. He wonders if his second kid will give him a fucking aneurysm before his third kid can even be born.

“Thanks for that, now I need to bleach my fucking brain,” she says. “Gross. So, so gross. Dude, you’re like, sixty .”

“I’m fifty-seven,” he grumbles.

“Yeah, so really fucking old . Do you not know how babies are made ? FEDRA school was shit but even they taught us how to put on a fucking condom—”

“Ellie, we didn’t—“

“Don’t, dude. Just stop. You’re really fucked up, you know that? Like, I know I have issues, but this is fuckin’—”

She’s interrupted by a muffled snort from the other side of the table. Charlie has clapped a hand over her mouth and her eyes are brimming with tears. She’s going to fucking cry because his kid is an asshole and he is an even bigger asshole and this has gone all fifteen kinds of wrong.

Joel would like to die, right now, face down in a plate of spaghetti with his face the color of marinara—anything to end this godawful conversation.

“I’m sorry,” Charlie gasps, and it dawns on him that she’s not crying at all–she’s struggling not to laugh. “I’m so sorry. It’s just, I haven’t–this is just–holy shit .”

She breaks out into a peal of giggles, leaving both Joel and Ellie in stunned silence.

“I’m sorry,” she says again, heaving and hiccuping as she tries to catch her breath. “Everything has been so awful and serious and…this is just so…so…fucking funny –”

Ellie blinks, looking back and forth between Joel and Charlie in wide-eyed amazement.

Something in Joel’s chest unfurls from its tight, anxious knot, and when he meets Charlie’s eyes, he can’t help but return her grin.

“You two are fucked ,” Ellie pronounces, but there’s a slow smile spreading across her face.

“We are,” Joel agrees. “We’re fucked.”

“Totally fucked,” Charlie agrees, then giggles again.

Ellie shakes her head in disbelief, digging back into her spaghetti. “Welcome to the fucking family, I guess.”

Joel shows up for work the next day feeling lighter than he has in weeks. He’d finally slept . Ellie, while completely disgusted, hadn’t disowned him; she’d even hugged him before returning to the garage. And Charlie had made herself at home, joining him on the couch to watch a movie after dinner.

Maybe this could fucking work.

His newfound peace lasts about as long as it takes for Tommy to find him and clap him on the shoulder.

“What’s this I hear about you takin’ in strays?”

Joel scowls, picking up an extension cord and trying to untangle it from a pile of the things. “Don’t believe everythin’ you hear.”

“So Charlie isn’t shackin’ up with you, then?”

“S’not like that. It’s temporary.”

“Uh-huh.”

He shoots his brother a look over his shoulder, weighing his options. The rumor mill isn’t churning as fast as he thought or Tommy would be all over it by now. He rolls his eyes, knowing what comes next will be just about as bearable as a tooth extraction, aware he can’t put it off any longer.

“She’s gonna have a kid.”

“Right,” Tommy snorts. “Your kid?”

Joel turns and holds his brother’s gaze.

“Holy shit,” Tommy breathes. “You’re serious?”

“You’re gonna be an uncle again,” Joel says dryly.

Tommy whistles. “Well, don’t that just beat all. How the hell–”

“The usual way,” Joel grumbles, turning back to his work. “Can we not do this here?”

But Tommy has never been easily deterred. He practically launches himself at his brother for a bone-crushing hug while half the work crew looks on, bemused.

“Christ, get offa me.”

Tommy doesn’t. When he finally pulls away, grinning and gripping Joel’s shoulders, he’s almost teary-eyed.

“Maria’s gonna be thrilled.”

“I doubt it,” Joel mutters, thinking he’s already not held in high esteem by his sister-in-law. Knocking up a girl twenty years his junior is hardly going to redeem him.

“Does Ellie know?”

“Yeah, we told her last night. She’s…about as excited as you’d expect.”

“Damn. I can’t—I mean, I always thought—after—“

Tommy sobers, and the word lingers heavy between them.

After .

“I know,” Joel says, realizing with a dull ache that his brother is the only other person alive who understands the gravity of the situation…the only one who knew Sarah as more than a sad story in their history.

Joel closes his eyes and sees his brother at twenty, Sarah’s tiny arms wrapped around his neck as she clings to his back, laughing wildly as he dives through the sprinklers on the front lawn.

He blinks the memory away, busies himself with the extension cord again. He doesn’t even remember what he wanted it for, but he needs to do something with his hands.

“But it’s good, right? This is good,” Tommy says, finally breaking the silence.

“Yeah,” Joel swallows hard. “It’s good.”

Tommy grins, then frowns just as quickly. “Oh, man. The midwife–”

“Yeah, she’s awful.”

“Maria damn near killed her when Izzy was born.”

“‘Bout ready to myself,” Joel mutters.

“And…you and Charlie ain’t…?”

Joel glares at him in answer. 

“Alright, brother. Damn, man. A kid…and at your age…”

Tommy laughs and ducks just in time to avoid the extension cord as it whips by his head.

[20dollarlolita]

Describing some wigs

Many years ago there was as site called Amphigory.com, and while it's still up, the Amphigory that 16-year-old me spent days browsing is not the Amphigory that still remains. They're still cool, but they'd really scaled back the scope of what they sell. There used to be cosmetics, jewelry, hair dye, a few more things, and wigs.

One of the things that they did about their wig sales that really set them apart was the level of description that they gave every wig. This wasn't just a single stock picture and a name. They took their own pictures of each wig, inside and out, and described each one's strengths and flaws. They weren't like Arda, who designs their own wigs from scratch. They were more like a normal costume reseller, who had a collection of vendors that they'd order stock from. But, unlike most costume wig sellers, they had multiple pictures and a detailed analysis of each wig. You knew what you were getting, which was really important for cosplayers who might need to restyle a wig. If you've never restyled a wig before, you might not be aware, but the wig can make it very easy, or the wig can make it impossible.

Amphigory's wig section is long gone, but I do still buy wigs from a similar company, one that has a collection of wig vendors whose products they sell. This is a shop that I go to is in person, and I love that. I know that I can find some wigs cheaper elsewhere, but I absolutely love that I can go to a small business, roll up to a counter, and physically touch the wigs before I buy them. I can look at them, turn them inside-out, and touch them. I also get to take the wig home that day, instead of waiting for shipping.

But not everyone has this opportunity, and on the offchance that people are considering buying a wig online and google the wig to see worn photos or reviews, here's me making a compilation of wigs I've recently bought and what they actually look like in person. Even with wigs from the same seller, some might be garbage, but some might be hidden gems. So, in the interest of making more information about which wigs are like what, here we go:

California Costumes Pink/Gray Ombre with Star Clips:

First of all, California Costumes gets 0/10 for creativity with names. I love me a good little nickname for a wig. The Costume Mansion, where I bought this, called it "Harmony," and I think that's a better name.

Yes, my wig head is cosplaying its Naruto OC. Let it do its thing.

This is a textured, ombre wig. The actual fiber is ombre, so an individual strand will go from gray color to pink, and the gray is a little bit softer than the pink. Some wigs that are tipped with another color accomplish this by having the color on the ends be longer hair than the top color, but this is a true ombre. I have not tested this for colorfastness, but it's possible that the pink tips won't age super well. The skin top is about 3" wide and does not go all the way to the front of the wig. This means that you can change the part a little bit, but it will always have bangs.

The whole thing is sewn onto a continuous cap, which isn't as forgiving of larger head sizes than one that's just wefts and elastic. It has the built-in net that you sometimes see with cheaper wigs, which is where your hair would go if you want to wear this wig without a wig cap. You, however, don't want to wear this wig without a wig cap. You know better. There's hooks in the back for resizing.

Wefts in the back are about an inch apart, but when I was shaking it around and trying to make it show the mesh, I couldn't actually make it show the mesh without physically parting it. Depending on how you put your hair up under the wig, you might have problems with the mesh showing in the back (lumpy hair will show mesh, hair that's smoothly under a wig cap won't). This is probably a wig you want a matching or light colored wig cap for if you have a larger head.

Overall, cute wig, stock pictures don't do it justice. Available for $20 on Amazon, in case you don't have a local costume shop to support. This item tag reads "ITEM # 7022-068 FTY # 346 HK2203" and I don't know what that means but if someone's googling the tag to look up the wig then hopefully that'll lead them here.

Yuki by Characters:

At least this one has a wig name. And boy howdy is that some big hair. The place I bought this from called it "Cupcake."

I tried on this wig because I really wanted to see how it was constructed, and I bought it because, when I tried it on, it was way cuter than I thought it'd be. It's a rougher fiber, which makes the curls hold their shape really well, but you're going to be fighting to keep the bangs and long forelocks looking smooth. There's no skin top, and the hair radiates from a sort of u-shaped blob at the top. There's so much going on in this wig that it's not particularly obvious, and also you will convince absolutely no one that it's not a wig, so that's not as much a priority to me on this style.

As for how it's actually constructed, there's no teasing in the wig to keep it that big. Instead, the actual cap of the wig is sewn into the shape of the big faux twintails, and then the hair is attached to that structure. Wigs are not hair. Anyway, that means there's pretty much no major restyling that can be done. It's just curly hair about 5" long on a funky structure to make funky big hair. Anyway, because thew cap of this wig is so oversized, it's really comfortable to wear, and it's really accommodating of large head sizes or a lot of hair.

Also because of the cap size, if you don't pin the temples on, it can slide back and make your bangs shorter. You can see that in my picture there. Mine did not come with the little rose clips, but it is supposed to come with the rose clips. It's much curlier than the stock images imply it will be.

This wig would be great for embellishing, since you can sew things directly to the funky shaped cap and not worry about where to support it. It also can handle a full sized BTSSB headbow, if that's a concern.

Someone's selling it on Amazon for $60 and you absolutely should not spend that much for this wig. I see other wig shops selling it for about $30, which is the upper limit on its real fair price, unless you really need the specific shape for it. I'm not going to link any specific shop since I don't have experience buying from them. "Yuki wig" and "Characters Yuki wig" are good search terms.

Characters Peggy Sue wig:

Okay so please be forgiving that my detail pictures are going to be of this wig already styled, because I didn't know I was going to do this post when I started working with it. I'll make a point to spell out what's stock and what's been done. Top pictures here are the most un-styled that I have.

This wig's got a coin-shaped skin top that all the hair radiates from. It comes with long, blunt bangs. The fiber is really shiny and is very easily reshaped by low hair dryer heat. High heat on my hair dryer, too close to the scalp, was how I made the frizzy spot in the back. The cap is a closed mesh cap, but it's nice and stretchy.

The weird boogers on the top of my wig are the orange hilights that I put in (they were just chopped from another wig), but that picture's there to show the size of the skin top. You can also see where I sewed some orange wefts into the wig for all-over recoloring. I re-parted the skin coin so that the hair has a linear part instead of radiating from the center, and then painted it with liquid foundation to make the parted area larger. Mine also has a LOT of baby powder dispersed through it to combat the shine. I spent like four days to try to make this $20 wig look like it's maybe a $35 wig. (The process was: "oh hey I'll be taking my wheelchair to the comic convention. I should cosplay Barbara Gordon because that will be fun. This will be easy and I don't need to put a lot of money or time into it." and then four days passed and I'd spent hours manually highlighting a cheap wig).

And it really needs a bit of love to get it to be less frizzy. Right out of the bag, my wig did not have that outward flip. Unlike the other two, I don't see this being a really usable wig for lolita fashion in pretty much any context, but hey, I'm on a roll with this post.

This wig is listing online for like $30, and that's a bit much IMO. If you have a local shop selling it for $20, well, that's a different matter.

If you want a wig just to change your hair color so that your bright pink hair doesn't clash with your coord, I once bought this wig (according to Amazon in 2015 so it's been...almost a decade...nice to know they're tracking that) and was pretty impressed with the quality for a $17 wig. So, you know, buy that instead of this Peggy Sue wig.

I do own the Lacey Costume Little Women II Wig (Amphigory's "Innocent?" wig) but it's late and I want to go to bed, and all you really need to know about it is that the fiber texture of the ash blond color is really dicey, so that's probably a case where if you need a pigtail wig you need to just get an Arda Chibi. I can still do details if anyone wants. It's just 9:30 and I have to put all these damn wigs away, so good night, everyone.

[dirtybitfic]

COMPANY pt 1

Matt Sturniolo x y/n

contains~ business meeting , fight , slight degrading , little bit of flirting.

y/n pov -

Its currently 4 am and the only reason i'm awake is because my boss called me . I try my best not to fall back asleep as he goes on and on about shit I need to do before todays big meeting. Don't get me wrong I like my job but sometimes my boss drives me insane. I didn't sleep well last night which is not helping the current situation .

*phone call*

Matt - Y/n are you even listening right now

Y/n - Sorry yes mr sturniolo I'm just trying my best to stay awake right now

Matt - Well I will let you go back to bed but you better have things ready when I get to the office am I clear

y/n- yes sir I will have it ready

Matt- Good girl ill see you at 12

Y/n - yep see you in the afternoon

*phone call ends*

I woke back up around 8 and made my way to the office .

I always make it a point to look classy and wear business attire especially when we have big meetings like today. I wear an outfit that I know I look good in but comfortable enough I can sit through 3 hours and write notes for my boss.

I finished up my last task Mr. Sturniolo had giving me on the call earlier and sat at my desk waiting for him to arrive. I've been his assistant for about a year and a half. He's a pretty good boss though he can be harsh and assertive with me at times I try not to take it offensively .I know he just likes things a specific way .

I've been sitting for about 40 minutes when I get call from my boss and I immediately pick it up even though I don't exactly want too

*phone call*

y/n-hey mr sturniolo

matt-hi y/n I just called to tell you that the meeting has been pushed back too 1:30 our clients flight got delayed

y/n- Okay sounds good sir I just finished up the final touches on the presentation and the meeting room is set up and ready

Matt- Atta girl! thank you for getting all that done . Im sorry for calling you at 4 am I know it wasn't the best time

Y/n- Its okay I know you like things done perfectly so im not upset

Matt- Good well I'm parked down stairs and was about to go grab some coffee would you like to come with me?

Y/n- Sure why not ill head down now

Matt- Okay I took the blue convertible today so I have one of the claw clips you left in it a couple weeks ago so your hair doesn't get messed up

Y/n- Oh good thank you

Matt- Of course see you in a couple

Y/n- Yep heading down now bye

*Call ends*

One thing about my boss is he notices the little things most don't for example him knowing I wouldn't want to mess up my hair and keeping the clip in the car just incase I needed it. I know its just a small gesture but it makes me feel some type of way , a way I definitely should not be feeling about my boss. We have a slight age gap given he's 27 and i'm 23 which is yet another reason I should not have the thoughts that I do about him quit often.

I Made my way down to the private parking garage and walked around until I spotted my favorite car Mr Sturniolo owns. Obviously everyone loves a convertible but his is just perfection.

"Hey!" I greet him as I open the door and slide into my seat.

"Hi Good morning " he he greets me with a small smile.

" New suit?" I ask as I look over him noticing i've never seen him wear this suit.

" Yes actually it is" he says with a sigh .

" You don't like it do you?" I ask as I can tell from the sigh and his facial expressions he doesn't seem very excited about it.

" No I hate wearing colored suits but my brother insisted I wear it for todays meeting" he says with an eye roll making me laugh.

" Well for what its worth I think it looks good ... It brings out your eyes" I say smiling over at him.

he return the smile before asking where I want to go for coffee.

I told him to go to Philz so he heads there.

One thing that we do share is music taste so riding around with him is always good. We were listening to "Everlong by the foo fighters" when my phone started to ring.

I look down to see it is my ex who had recently broken up with me . I sigh as I immediately hit decline . He cheated on me for an entire year with a woman who owns a large art gallery and I only found out because I went with matt to buy art for his new penthouse he moved into and saw my boyfriend walking out of her office with lipstick on his face and an untied tie around his neck. Safe to say my boss saw a side of me I wished he never had.

I yelled at him for an hour outside the gallery when he finally broke up with me telling me " I don't love you anymore ... I actually never really did I just liked your body and living with you in your nice ass apartment " so obviously I punched him in the face and he cried like a bitch when I ended up "accidentally" breaking it .

Matt watched the entire thing and safe to say we did not end up buying anything from HER gallery. When we had gotten back to the car Matt had praised me for the way I handled myself and said he was proud of me for breaking his nose .

I felt bad acting how I did in front of him but i'm glad he didn't judge nor fire me for it.

" Zach again" he asks as he pulls into the parking lot giving me his full attention.

" Yes hes been trying to call me all week and I have been ignoring him " I answer as I throw my head back letting out a deep breath.

" They say you never know what you had until its gone . I have known your for a while now and I don't understand why he would cheat on you " he answers in a tone that shows anger and annoyance.

Im glad I have a boss who cares about me outside of work even though some would deem a conversation like this unprofessional it's very normal in our relationship.

"Yeah I don't know either but i'm over it I just want him to leave me alone" I answer ending it with a long sigh and looking over at him.

" Im sorry he's such an ass but we should go in and get our drinks and head back to the office" he answers as turns the car off and unlocks the doors.

I nod as we get out and make our way into Philz and order our drinks Matt always makes it a point to never let me pay which I appreciate but with the amount he pays me i'm very capable of buying my own coffee. I mean shit I live in a 3 bedroom open floor apartment all by myself , Just goes to show I make more than enough money.

We get our drinks and make our way back to the office to get settled in before the meeting.

As we were getting the projector up and running my phone started ringing again . I turn the ringer off and throw it in my bag rolling my eyes. It doesn't go unnoticed by matt when I catch a small smirk runs cross his lips. He doesn't smile too much , I notice that he only really smiles around his family and sometimes me if i'm lucky . He's intimidating which is one reason I was so scared when I first got the job but the thing that kept me going was one day about a month into working for him his mom came into the office and told me that I must be special because he went through 25 interviews before me and he had met me , He was very specific about how he wanted his assistant to act and behave and shockingly I guess that was me. He may have "liked me" but for the first year and a half he was cold and standoffish with me , he would practically ignore me unless he needed me for something or when he would tell me the things that needed to be done for the week.

He finally started warming up to me sometime last year and i'm really glad he did it makes the job 10 times better and enjoyable when he acknowledges and speaks to me .

I sat in my chair by the large windows as I zoned out looking over the city but was snapped out of it when our front desk guy told us through the intercom our clients were on the way up.

This new client we have is actually very exciting . The company that matt owns is a luxury advertisement production company . We make advertisements and plans on ways to promote products and grow the businesses me work with.

Our new client who is on their way up right now is a wine company . Their vineyards are located in the south of France and they have made a new champagne that is flavored with different fruits. They created a new flavor line which is peach, passion fruit , Pear and guava. At first I was skeptical of how well these flavors would taste and if they would really sell or not but after sampling them all I knew they were going to make amazing profit from the new collection.

I sat through thirty minutes of the meeting when my phone continuously rang and vibrated with calls and texts. I knew it was my ex and I started to get fed up so I stopped taking notes so I could just power off my phone.

I grabbed it from my bag with a roll as I saw 6 missed calls and 15 text messages that he had sent in the span of 30 minuets and started powering off my phone .

" You're assistant seems to be more interested in her phone than the importance of this meeting. I must say this is very unprofessional" I hear as my head snaps up and I make eye contact with one of our clients. He glares at me as he scolds me for being on my phone.

" i'm sorry I was just powering it off beca-" I try and explain myself but he immediately cuts me off before I get the chance.

" I don't want to hear any excuses . You need to learn how to respect the people who want to work with your company " he scoffs with a rude eye roll and I cant help the tears that start to fill my eyes.

I look at matt panicking but find him staring at me with an agreed look .

" i'm sorry would you excuse us for a second" matt says as he comes over pulling me out of my chair by my arm and dragging me out o the room.

"I-im sorry I didn't mean to-" I start to say as the tears stream down my face.

" Y/n you need to understand these are very important clients and if this goes right not only I will make a lot of money but so will you . I don't like the way he spoke to you but I will not compromise this deal by saying something to him. So we will take a few minutes for you to calm down and make him think that I set you straight and we will go back in" he says as he places a soft hand on my back soothing me .

I nod " yes sir" I answer as I calm my breathing and look up at him.

We keep eye contact as his eyes seem to grow darker . Something in me stirs as his hand moves up and down slowly on my back at some points getting so low he could grab my ass if he felt inclined too . I hater to say it but his soothing actions are turning me on. Ive always felt a tension between us but I used it aside just telling myself its his cold personality that makes every situation slightly intense .

He moves his hand to my chin holding it and moving my head up to really look at him . He slightly smiles " You calm down?" he asks in a deep voice that for some reason has me clenching my legs together.

"Yes sir i'm sorry for crying I just -"

"I know you don't like being patronized infant of people i've learned that throughout the years you've worked for me . Just be glad your well behaved or you'd really hate me " he says with what sounds like a small chuckle.

" why would I hate you?" I question as I step slightly closer.

"i'm not one to tolerate people misbehaving or defying me . You should know that by now" he answers in a more gravelly voice that has me clenching around nothing .

" right well umm should we go back in " I say in a wavering voice but clear my throat to try and play it off.

He smirks at me but nods his head .

He leads me back to the conference room with a hand on my lower back .

Im moving to open the door but stop when he start whispering to me.

" make it look like I corrected you okay " he whispers before opening the door .

I walk in as I distort my face to make it look as though I am upset and I move quickly to my seat and choose not to even look up at anyone .

I grab my computer and get to typing as matt starts back on the presentation and the clients make their comments and requests .

After about an hour the meeting comes to and end and they decide to go with us for their campaign.

" Me and my wife would like for you to come down to our vineyard in say 4 weeks and shoot promo videos and get photos for the videography does that time frame work for you Mr. Sturniolo?"

the man who blatantly degraded me asks as matt looks to me.

"y/n is the calendar clear that week?" he asks and I pull up his calendar that I schedule and go over it.

" Yes looks like there is only one meeting that week but its with gloria i'm sure we can reschedule it" I answer as I smile at both of them.

"Amazing well my wife is very excited for this campaign . She can be a bit much but what woman isn't right" he says jokingly to matt .

Matt smiles and nods as he leads him out of the office and to the elevator.

I audibly sigh and roll my eyes at his misogynistic comments , safe to say i'm not exactly thrilled ill have to deal with that man on a normal bases but its worth the money so I guess i'll just have to live with it.

Matt comes back in groaning and running his hands through his hair.

" I really do not like that guy" he says making me laugh.

" Trust me neither do I" I say making him chuckle and shake his head.

" He wants us to stay at his estate but I kindly declined . I told him We have many work calls we take and we wouldn't want to be a disruption " he says with a smirk .

I smile widely nodding my head

" Thank god I wouldn't want to be stuck in a house with that man for a day let alone an entire week" I say making him laugh.

" I'll book the hotel so you won't have to worry about that and we'll take the company jet " he says as he grabs his bag and powers off the projector.

" You sure I don't mind dealing with the hotel bookings" I say as I pack up my things as well.

" Yes I have a favorite hotel i've gone too many time there and I know they will give us amazing rooms and the view is amazing" he says as he walks over to me .

" Oh okay" I say smiling up at him.

His hand goes to my jaw like earlier as he moves his thumb softly back and forth .

I lean into the touch as he looks at me deeply like he's studying my soul.

" You did good today I know you're dealing with calls from that asshole and I appreciate you were powering off your phone " he says as he steps him closer to me .

I sigh as I avert my eyes

" Im sorry for causing our client to think of our company as less then because of my actions though" I say still not looking up at him.

" You did nothing wrong you're always a very good girl he's just an asshole who clearly doesn't respect woman"

I blush as I look up at him . His use of the term "good girl" today has gotten me feeling things I shouldn't.

He looks at me as I look up at him .

" If you ever need anything you call me okay . I know i'm your boss but I want you to consider me a friend too " he says as his hand slides down my neck to my shoulder.

His touch leaves goose bumps in its wake which i'm embarrassed about and I can tell he noticed my body reaction by the smirk that grows across his face.

" Yes sir I just wouldn't want to burden you with my problems you have enough to deal with as it is" I answer honestly .

He shakes his head sighing

" Sweetheart you could never be a burden no matter how hard you tried . You're the first assistant i've had for longer than 4 months which can only mean I like you very much and that is rare" he says making me smile .

" Thank you sir I like this job a lot and I hope to keep it for a very long time" I say as I step slightly closer . Our chest are almost flush against each other , im so close I can feel the heat radiating off of him.

" Trust me i'm not letting you go anytime soon " he says in a deep gravely voice that makes me feel such dirty things a literal whimper escapes me .

My eyes widen as I clear my throat and avert my eyes from his.

He grabs my face and turns it to face him again

" Did you just whimper " he asks with a smirk .

" What n-no I was clearing my throat" I say in a panic .

" Are you lying to me y/n " he asks in a teasing tone that almost has be whimpering again.

" No sir " I answer but avoid eye contact.

" Look me in the eyes and tell me the truth" he says in a demanding tone .

I feel as though i'm shrinking into myself as I look up at him .

" Im not lying to you I promise" I say as convincingly as I can.

" You better hope you're telling the truth" he says in a darker deeper voice that has me gulping .

" A-and why is that" I ask as I try and take a step back but bump into the table behind me.

" I don't like liars . Do know what bad lying little girls get y/n " he asks as he steps even closer and i'm forced to sit on the edge of the table as his body is positioned in-between my legs. If anyone where to walk in right now this would be a very compromising position to be in .

" No sir I-i don't" I say .

His entire demeanor changes his large presence now dark and cold as his hand moves to my neck pulling me closer as I gasp in shock.

"They get punished" he kind of growls more than speaks . My mouth opens but no words come out .

He lets go and steps back and goes back to his normal calm demeanor .

I sit in shock as he grabs his bag and starts walking to the door.

"Goodbye y/n see you Tuesday" he says in a kind of sing song tone that has me scoffing. He obviously finds it funny to leave me wet and speechless.

We've never had a moment like that sure we've had weird moments where a little flirting was involved but nothing like what the fuck that just was.

I hop off and grab my bag before rushing down the hall to the elevator . The second I get into my car I scream .

I don't exactly know why I did but it felt great.

I start up my car and put on my nighttime playlist and pull out of the parking garage and pull onto the bright light city roads.

The second I got home I went through all the messages and voicemails from Zach .

15 missed calls from Zach

37 missed texts

all consisting of " call me back" " Im sorry" " I love you so much please" " Fucking bitch answer me" " God your a cunt this is why I cheated on you" and a lot more .

I hate the fact that after listening to three of his voicemails i'm in full tears curled up on my floor in front of my huge floor to ceiling windows.

Im snapped out of my daze when I hear 5 loud bangs on my door . I jump up as my heart pounds . My apartment is the only one on this floor so its not like whoever it is has the wrong apartment .

I slowly make my way to the door when the bangs happen again this time harder .

"OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR Y/N" I hear Zach's voice from the other side .

I panic even more as I slowly go to open the door . The second I turn the lock the door barely open and a fuming Zach marches his way in.

He comes at me so fast I have no time to react . One hand is wrapped tightly around my neck as the other is grasping my hair so tightly I feel like my scalp is on fire.

" You think you're so fucking cute ignoring me huh don't you " he practically spits in my face.

" You-- cheated on me a-and broke up with me w-why are you mad" I choke on as I gasp for in in his tight hold.

" Don't you dare fucking speak to me like that . I said I was sorry but you just want to be a spoiled fucking bitch and ignore my calls" he bites out as his grip on my hair tightens and I scream out in pain.

" You think you are so perfect don't you good fucking too shoes but your just a pathetic little bitch who's unlovable " he shouts in my face as tears start to steam down my face and I cough as I try and pry his hand from my throat.

" I tried to love you I did but you are just so insufferable to be around you know that god your always so pleasant you never do anything bad you're fucking boring all you do is work and come home and sit around doing nothing like a pathetic little loser " He spits as he shoves me into the wall making me yelp.

His hand connects to my face as his fist hits my eye .

He has never acted like this before let alone hit me .

He immediately lets go and steps away also in shock of what he just did .

" I c-cant believe you actually j-just p-punch-ed m-ee" I say in a gasping panicked voiced.

"I-im sorry y/n I ... I didn't mean to I " he says as he steps further away with fear across his face.

"GET OUT GETH THE FUCK OUT " I scream as I fall to the floor and cry .

he runs out closing the door on his way.

My head is pounding my eyes isn't opening correctly and I haven't gotten off the floor in 2 hours.

My phone starts ringing making me jump but I turn it over to see "Matt Sturniolo(boss)" calling .

I don't answer because of the state i'm in and the last thing I want is my boss knowing wtf just happened .

I get a text

" y/f/m/l/n you better answer your phone this is very important" it reads. Judging by the fact he literally just used my full name I know I have to choice to answer his second call to me.

*phone call*

"H-hello" I say as I sniffle and try to make it sound like i'm not crying and my voice isn't stringed.

" Hey I know its late but the clients from today actually want us to come down Tommorrow and stay until the following Sunday and I already cancelled all the appointments this week that were a conflict so I need you up and ready at 10 am Tommorrow I will pick you up at 10 and well head to the airport" he rambles . I panic not knowing what to do I cant say i'm sick because he'll know thats a lie .

I stay silent as I continue sniffling trying to mask my situation .

" y/n are you there ? " he asks in a slightly worried tone.

"Y-yes its just that ... I can't leave Tommorrow " I say as my voice breaks with the last word.

" What why you obviously don't work Tommorrow so what is wrong?" he asks in more of an interrogational tone .

" I j-just cant okay " I bite back as tears start to stream down my face again.

" Y/n what's wrong are you crying " he asks his tone now soft.

"n-no " I try and say without giving away that i'm lying but obviously fail.

" I can hear you sniffling and your voice is choked up tell me what's wrong" he says in a sweet voice .

I sigh loudly " Zach came by earlier and he ..." I stop myself from finishing my sentence not wanting to tell my boss about the embarrassing events .

" He what y/n" his voice sounding slightly angry now.

" He yelled at me and said really hurtful things and then he ... he punched me " I answer in a squeaky raspy tone.

" HE HIT YOU" matt yells from the other side of the phone

"Y-yes" I say as more tears stream down my face .

"Thats it I'm coming to you is your door unlocked " he ask as I hear keys rattle in the background.

"Wait what n-no don't come here" I say in a panic . I do not want him seeing me like this its for one embarrassing and two he's my boss he shouldn't be coming to my apartment .

" Don't tell me no i'll be down there in 5 minutes that door better be unlocked"

I go to protest but the line goes dead.

As much as I love my apartment it doesn't help that Matt lives in the penthouse at the top floor of the building meaning he has easy access to come and see me if he really wants to hence why hell be down in 5 minutes .

I sit on my floor as I try and at least stop the crying before he gets here.

As i'm sitting calming myself my door opens and in walks matt.

I turn away from the door so he doesn't see my face.

" y/n where are y- why are you on the floor?" his voice rings as steps approach me .

I shrugged but burry my face in my arms .

I feel him sit next to me as his scent fills my nose . I sigh but still don't bring my head up .

" y/n look at me" he says in a soft sweet tone.

"No " I say as I shake my head .

"Y/n please you're safe with me you know that i'm not going to judge you" he says as his large hand soothe up and down on my back .

Im so embarrassed that at my grown age I'm crying infant of my fucking boos.

I lift my head and look at him as a look of anger and pain washes over his face.

" sweetheart" he whispers as he immediately pulls me into his chest cradling me . I feel as though i'm a little girl girl again being rocked back to sleep after a nightmare . I being sobbing in his arms as I choke out all the horrible things Zach called me and said to me.

" You are non of those things. Don't think for a second that what he says is true , You're are amazing , sweet, hard working and strong . He is a crazy ass motherfucker who didn't deserve you in the first place" he says as he rocks me slightly .

I for some reason feel inclined to crawl into his lap and bury my face in his chest . I know this entire situation should not be happening right now but I cant stop myself from doing it.

The thing is he lets me he pulls me closer as he smooths my hair and holds me to his chest tightly .

After god knows how long i've stopped crying and my breathing has become somewhat controlled.

I unbury my head from his chest and look up at him .

He smiles weakly

" My sweet girl" he says as his hand gently runs across my face wiping some tears away . I wince when his hand grazes my eye area.

" where are your pain meds ?" he asks as he runs his hand through my tossed hair .

" My bedside table" I answer in a whispered and exhausted tone.

" Alright come on lets get you upstairs " he says as he picks me up off his lap setting me on the ground and standing up then extending his hand to me , I take it as he pulls me up then follows me up the stairs to where my room is .

he tells me to get into bed as he runs down to the kitchen getting me water and rushing back up .

" which table right or left?" he asks .

I try and remember which one but cant so I just shrugged and answered that I couldn't remember so he goes to the rightsize on first .

He opens it and his mouth pops open as he looks at me .

"w-what are they in there " I ask in confusion as to why he looks shocked .

he just stares as me and slowly shakes his head .

It dawns on me after a couple seconds that that is the one I keep my "personal items in" . My body flys up in bed as I rush to close the drawer .

" Im so sorry I forgot about keeping those in that one I ... god thats so embarrassing.

" I never thought of you as the type to own things like that" he says with a laugh making me groan and hide my face in a pillow.

"Im only messing around with you , i'm not uncomfortable about seeing that its normal" he says as he walks to the other table finding the Advil and pouring out two in his hand .

" Take these to her with the swelling before it gets worse" he says as he walks over to me .

" were seriously just going to breeze over the fact that you ... my boss just say my ... "

" toys yes now take these" he says shoving his hand in my face . I sigh as I take them out of his hand and toe them into my mouth then take the water he had in his hand and swallow them down.

" Now i'm going to help you pack . Where are your suitcases " he says as he start walking around my room searching .

" You're actually joking right there is no way I can go looking like this" I say in a bratty tone . I didn't mean to use that tone its just the way it came out.

" First of all watch your tone but yes you're still coming and it will get better in a day or two and we don't have to start the campaign shooting until Tuesday so we can just stay in until then or when we go out you can just wear sunglasses. Now suitcases where are they?"

I groan but point to the door "hallway closet " I say as I yawn .

He nods and walks to the door opening it and coming back 5 seconds later with two suitcases in hand.

" Okay what do want to pack first pants, shirt ...? " he ask as he sets them out on the couch I have on the wall opposite my bed.

"Well I usually pack pants first "

" Okay where are your pants" he asks looking at me .

" Bottom three rows in the closet" I answer

" Any specific ones you want ?" he asks

" You know what how about you pick 4 pairs and i'll say yes or no " I say as I getting extra comfy in bed .

" Yes ma'am " he says jokingly as he makes his way to my large walk in closet.

He comes out 2 minutes later with 4 pairs in hand.

He holds up the first pair , I nod and he smiles " I really like these ones" he says as he happily packs them in my bag.

Second pair - I happily nod and he packs them.

Third pair - I dead pan as he laughs actually laughs . " You've gotta be kidding those were all the way at the back " I say as I give him a look. " why do you even own these " "They were part of a halloween costume like 2 years ago" he just shakes his head and sets them aside .

Fourth pair - " Matt this is a business trip" I say as a I shake my head no . " I know that sweetheart but we don't have to be in business attire the whole time" " I guess your right okay yes pack those"

"Okay next skirts pick 3 they are hung on the left side along with the dresses pick tow of those" I instruct him as I try and stay awake .

He comes back out with a big smile which i'm finding slightly unsettling given ive never seen him so cheerful before

dress one - " absolutely not"I say. He sighs and sets it aside

Dress two - I smile and nod yes . He neatly packs it

Skirt one - immediate yes

Skirt two - Yes

After 45 more minutes i'm fully packed except for underwear and socks.

"Okay last things are undergarments " he says as he looks at me waiting for to tell him where they are.

" Don't worry about those ill pack those in the morning " I say as I wave him off.

" I have a feeling if I let you do that you'll forget " he says as he tilts his head . I hate to admit but he probably right.

" fine okay top shelf of the drawers on the right wall" I say as my face flushes red. My boss definitely should not be handling my underwear and bras but at this point i'm to tired to care.

"wow these are organized so nicely" I hear him say from inside my closet.

Their's silence for a second before he comes out with a handful of my sets with a smirk on his face.

He sets them on top as well as socks .

"Okay done now shoes " I tell him where the shoes are and he picks all good options so that was easy.

He packs up my makeup and skincare bag putting them in the suitcase with the shoes .

" Okay fully packed and ready to go" he says as he pushes both cases by the door .

"Thank you Sir you really didn't have to do all of this" I say sincerely

" First of all as much as I love you calling me sir when we are outside the office call me matt you calling me sir makes me feel fucking old" he says with a smile.

I choke on air at his beginning comment with makes him chuckle.

" Im grateful I have you as a boss matt"

" Im great full to have you as my assistant y/n "

We both share smiles before he turns on my ceiling fan and comes and sits on the edge of my bed.

" I want you to know I genuinely do care about you y/n not just because you are my assistant but because your all around a great girl " he says as his pulls his hand on my comforter covered leg giving it small shake.

" Thank you matt really I couldn't ask for a better boss" I smile at him with half open eyes.

" I'll let you get some rest and ill take your extra key so you can sleep as long as you can and ill just come down and grab your bags and make sure your up and awake by 10" he says as he pats my leg and stands up.

" You sure I don't mind setting and alarm " I ask .

" Im sure now get some sleep and ill see you in the morning "

"Okay well see you in the morning and thank you again really "

" Of course . Good night y/n "

" Good night matt"

God what the fuck just happened ...

[randomperson99sworld]

Hope

~ Chapter 5 ~

Summary: Dean and Sam Winchester save a young woman —Natalie Johnson, from a coven of witches who are after her deceased grandmothers spell book. At first Dean doesn’t trust her, will he ever? Natalie is just simply a woman who gets roped up in the supernatural world from a mistake her grandmother made.

Pairing: Dean x OC

Warning: Age gap, slow burn, smut (not until the later chapters), language, gore.

Word Count: 2,737

A/N: Please feel free to leave comments! I love reading them. This is my last chapter for the night. I’ve worked all day on these lol

A Few Days Later:

Things had mostly gone back to normal between Dean and Natalie, or at least as normal as things got in the bunker. Dean was still gruff with her, his words often clipped and his tone carrying that familiar edge of impatience, but there was something different now—something softer beneath the surface. Maybe he'd been too hard on her. Hell, he knew he had. He couldn't help it. It was how he was wired—tough, gruff, always on guard.

He'd been the same way with Jack. The kid had never deserved the kind of crap Dean had thrown at him, and Dean knew that now. But it was his defense mechanism, the walls he put up to protect himself from losing more people. Still, after that blow-up with Natalie, he'd been trying—really trying—to be less of an ass. It didn't come naturally, but for her sake, and for Sam's, he was making the effort.

A few days had passed since their argument, and there had been no sign of the witch or the Dark Scroll—the cursed spell book that had gotten Natalie tangled up in all this. She'd been working hard, though, tracking leads and piecing together the book's history. Every time Dean walked past her at the war room table, she was hunched over her laptop, scrolling through old records, auction listings, and black-market websites.

"It's close," she'd said more than once. "I know it's close, I just don't have anything solid yet."

The Dark Scroll had a long, twisted history. Used exclusively for dark magic, it had been passed around for centuries, causing chaos wherever it went. Natalie's grandmother had been the last known owner, but since her death, the book had vanished—likely sold off with the rest of her belongings. Natalie was determined to track it down, though, and Dean couldn't help but respect her determination, even if he still had his doubts about her.

That morning, Sam had burst into the war room with fresh news. "We've got a new case," he said, setting down a stack of papers in front of Natalie. "There's something weird going on in a small town just outside of Lawrence. I think it might be connected to some kind of supernatural entity—a Djinn, maybe—but I need your help with the research."

Natalie glanced up from her laptop, rubbing her tired eyes. "Djinn? Like, grant-wishes-but-then-twist-them kind of Djinn?"

"Exactly," Sam nodded, sifting through his notes. "People have been going missing after making wishes at this creepy old wishing well. I need to cross-reference the town's history with known Djinn activity in the area, but I also want you to keep working on tracking down the Dark Scroll."

"Two things at once," Natalie muttered, stretching her arms. "No problem."

Dean leaned against the doorframe, watching the exchange with crossed arms. "Think you can handle that, geek?"

Natalie shot him a look, half-amused, half-annoyed. "I've been handling it so far, haven't I?"

Dean grunted, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "Fair enough."

Sam shot Dean a warning look, but there was no real heat behind it. He was starting to notice that while Dean was still gruff with Natalie, the edges had softened just a little. That, in Winchester terms, was progress.

"I'll be in and out, checking with local contacts," Sam said, gathering up his gear. "Dean and I will handle the fieldwork, but we'll need you to stay back and monitor everything from here."

"Yeah, yeah," Natalie waved him off with a playful roll of her eyes. "You know I'm your tech support. I'll handle it."

The hours ticked by, and Natalie found herself juggling two tasks—tracking down leads on the Dark Scroll while simultaneously researching Djinn lore and cross-referencing local legends for Sam and Dean. She wasn't sure how she'd fallen so easily into this routine of remote support and hacker extraordinaire, but somehow, she had.

Sam had gone off to investigate the case, leaving Dean behind with her at the bunker for a few hours. He'd been unusually quiet, working on weapons maintenance while Natalie clicked away at her laptop.

"I think I've got something," Natalie said suddenly, her voice breaking the silence. Dean glanced up from the silver knife he was sharpening, his eyes narrowed.

"On the case or the book?"

"The book," she replied, scrolling through an old auction catalog from a black-market dealer. "It was sold off to some collector in Massachusetts a few months after my grandmother passed. I'm trying to track where it went after that, but... it's slow."

Dean set down the knife, wiping his hands with a rag. He stared at her for a long moment, his face unreadable. "You really think this book's gonna solve all your problems?"

Natalie frowned, not sure where he was going with this. "No. But it's important. You know that. If this witch gets her hands on it, a lot of people could die."

Dean sighed, leaning back in his chair. He knew she was right, but the whole situation still didn't sit well with him. His instincts screamed that they were walking into another mess, another disaster waiting to happen. But that was their life, wasn't it?

"I get that," he muttered. "I just hope you're not getting too wrapped up in this."

Natalie gave him a curious look, sensing a rare moment of honesty from him. "You think I'm in over my head?"

Dean shrugged, his expression guarded. "I think... this life doesn't give a damn about what you're good at or what you care about. It just takes. And sometimes, it takes everything."

Natalie studied him for a moment, her frustration softening. She knew Dean was still processing everything—Charlie, Jack, everyone he'd lost. She could see the weight of that loss in the way he looked at her, in the way he tried to keep his distance.

"I get it, Dean," she said quietly, her tone softer than before. "You've been through a lot. More than anyone should have to deal with. But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying. This book—it's not just about stopping the witch. It's... it's about my grandmother. I can't just let it go."

Dean stared at her for a long moment, then finally nodded, his gruff demeanor slipping just a little. "Alright. Just... be careful. We've lost enough people."

Natalie gave him a small, grateful smile. "I will."

Hours later, Sam called in from the field, his voice crackling through the comms. "We found the Djinn's lair. It's bad, Dean. People are trapped in their heads, reliving some kind of twisted fantasy."

Dean cursed under his breath, standing up and grabbing his jacket. "We'll handle it. You got the antidote ready?"

"Yeah," Sam replied. "But we'll need Natalie to monitor the security system here. We need to make sure no one else gets caught in the crossfire."

Natalie sat up straight, already switching gears. "I'm on it."

"Thanks, Nat," Sam said, his tone appreciative. "I don't know what we'd do without you."

As Dean prepared to leave, he glanced over at her, his expression still serious but no longer hard. "Keep us updated. And... good luck with the book."

Natalie nodded, her fingers already flying over the keyboard. "Good luck with the Djinn. Try not to get yourselves killed, okay?"

Dean chuckled under his breath, a rare sound that surprised even him. "No promises."

And with that, he was gone, leaving Natalie alone in the bunker once again, tackling both the hunt for the Dark Scroll and the Djinn case, her mind buzzing with activity. But for the first time, she felt like maybe, just maybe, she wasn't just a liability or a tag-along.

She was part of the team. And that meant something.

As the hours wore on, and the case unfolded in real-time over the comms, she couldn't shake the feeling that they were getting closer—closer to the truth about the Dark Scroll, closer to finding the witch, and closer to figuring out where they all fit in this strange, broken world.

But for now, all she could do was keep pushing forward.

Natalie sat back in her chair, rubbing her eyes as she scrolled through another old auction listing, her mind wandering. She couldn't help but think about how insane all of this was. A few months ago, her life had been completely normal—working as a cybersecurity analyst, living in her apartment, never worrying about things like witches or cursed books. Now, she was smack in the middle of a supernatural war zone, all because of a dusty old book her grandmother had bought on a whim.

It wasn't supposed to be like this, she thought, glancing at the laptop screen where she'd been piecing together the history of the Dark Scroll. She had told Dean this over and over: her grandmother wasn't a witch, not some secret sorceress hiding spells in her attic. She was just a woman who had an interest in the strange and unusual—kind of like the way people collect crystals or tarot cards, even if they don't believe in them.

Natalie could still remember her grandmother laughing when she first brought home the spell book.

"It's probably nothing," she'd said with a dismissive wave. "But it's a conversation starter, at least."

But now Natalie was caught in this mess—hunted by a witch coven because of that book. It was surreal and terrifying, and sometimes, when she was alone like this, she couldn't help but feel a pang of anger and grief. Not at her grandmother, but at the sheer unfairness of it all. If her grandmother had known what this book would bring into her life, she would've never bought it.

And yet, here Natalie was—tied to a spell book she barely understood and a witch who wanted it more than anything. Every lead felt like another dead end, and she was getting frustrated, though she'd never admit it to the brothers.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Sam's voice coming through her earpiece, his tone tense.

"Natalie, I need your help. Now."

Natalie snapped out of her reverie, immediately shifting her focus. "What's going on, Sam?" she asked, her fingers already flying over the keyboard.

"We've run into a problem," Sam's voice crackled. "The Djinn's stronger than we thought. We're in the lair, but we can't get the hostages out. We need more time."

Natalie's pulse quickened. She glanced at the monitors, tracking the security feed she'd hacked into earlier. "I'm pulling up the museum's internal system now. What do you need me to do?"

Dean's voice came through next, harsh and breathless, like he'd been in the middle of a fight. "Get those damn doors locked. Keep anyone else from getting into this nightmare. We've got enough on our hands in here."

"Got it." Natalie's fingers danced over the keys, her mind focused and clear now. She hacked into the security panel, overriding the local control system. Within seconds, she had full access. "Okay, I've locked down the outer doors. No one's getting in or out."

"Good," Dean grunted, his voice tight with strain. "Now we just need to figure out how to kill this son of a bitch."

Natalie continued to monitor their movements on the security feed, tracking their progress through the museum's darkened halls. She could see flashes of movement on the grainy cameras—Dean swinging his machete at the twisted, shadowy form of the Djinn, Sam pulling unconscious victims from their nightmarish dream worlds. They were holding their own, but just barely.

"Dean," she called through the comms, "the Djinn's moving toward the west wing. You need to head that way before it traps more people."

"We're on it," Sam replied, panting with effort. "Just... keep those cameras rolling. If it moves again, let us know."

Natalie's eyes darted across the screens, scanning for any sign of movement. She felt the familiar rush of adrenaline—the same rush she'd always felt when she was cracking a code or hacking into a system for work. Only now, instead of stopping a cyberattack, she was helping two hunters fight off a supernatural threat.

This wasn't the life she'd chosen, but it was the life she had now. And somehow, she was making it work.

The Djinn was relentless. Dean and Sam were moving as fast as they could, but it was clear from the strain in their voices that they were running out of time.

"Natalie, do we have any other exits?" Sam asked, his voice tight with exhaustion. "We need to get these people out before the Djinn circles back."

Natalie scanned the museum's blueprints. "There's an emergency exit in the north hall. It's not on the usual maps, but I can get it open."

Dean's voice cut in, rough as gravel. "Get it open now."

Natalie hacked into the emergency system, overriding the locked doors. "It's done. You've got five minutes before the system reboots. Get those people out."

"Good work, Nat," Sam said, relief clear in his voice. "We're almost done here."

Dean muttered something under his breath—something that almost sounded like praise. Natalie smiled to herself but didn't press the issue. They were in the middle of a life-or-death situation, after all.

As she continued monitoring the cameras, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye—something darting across one of the screens. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Dean, heads up. It's coming back your way."

Dean's heart pounded in his chest as he and Sam dragged the last of the hostages toward the emergency exit. He could feel the Djinn's presence getting closer, the air growing colder and thicker with every passing second.

"Here it comes," Sam warned, gripping his silver knife tightly.

The Djinn emerged from the shadows, its eyes glowing an eerie blue as it stalked toward them, moving like a predator ready to strike. Dean stepped forward, machete raised.

"Come on, you ugly son of a bitch," he growled. "Let's dance."

The fight was brutal, the Djinn moving faster than either of them had anticipated. It lashed out with supernatural speed, knocking Sam to the ground before turning its glowing eyes on Dean.

Natalie's voice came through the comms, urgent. "Dean, you need to aim for the heart! It's the only way to kill it!"

Dean gritted his teeth, dodging the Djinn's next attack. "Yeah, thanks for the tip."

He lunged forward, swinging the machete in a wide arc. The blade caught the Djinn in the chest, slicing through flesh and bone. The creature let out a piercing scream, its body convulsing before collapsing in a heap on the floor.

Dean stood over it, breathing hard, his muscles aching. "That's right. Stay down."

Sam groaned from the floor, pushing himself up. "We good?"

Dean glanced around, the tension in his body slowly easing. "Yeah. We're good."

Hours later, after the Djinn case was wrapped up and the hostages were safe, Dean and Sam returned to the bunker. Natalie was still at her laptop, her eyes tired but alert.

"How'd it go?" she asked, looking up as they entered the room.

"Djinn's dead," Dean said, collapsing into a chair. "People are safe. Thanks to you."

Sam gave her a grateful smile. "Seriously, Nat. You were a huge help. We couldn't have done it without you."

Natalie smiled, feeling a little warmth bloom in her chest. "Well, I try."

Dean leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples. "So... any new leads on that damn spell book?"

Natalie sighed, shaking her head. "Nothing concrete yet, but I'm close. I can feel it."

Dean huffed, but there was no real edge to it this time. "Yeah, well. Keep at it. Sooner we get that thing, sooner we deal with this witch."

Natalie nodded, her determination renewed. They still had a long way to go, but for the first time in a while, she felt like she was making progress—on the book, on the witch, and maybe, just maybe, with Dean too.

As the night wore on and the bunker settled into its usual quiet, Natalie couldn't help but think that, despite everything, she was exactly where she needed to be.

[electron-road-suspect]

a kiss as a lie or to pretend for jure/kris? 👀

Gotta give me an angsty one, eh? This takes place in my universe, before Chapter 26 of my original Kinktober. CW: unwanted attention in a club.

Jure heads straight to the bar from the dance floor, sweaty and elated. He hadn't had a dance partner - he usually preferred not to have one, just wanted to dance crazily on his own, but he needed a break and a drink.

But before he could flag down the bartender, another man squeezed his way between Jure and the bar, fixing Jure with a leery grin.

"Hey beautiful. You looked good out there," the man says, and Jure barely restrains himself from rolling his eyes. Really, that was the best this guy could come up with?

He attempts to step to the side. "Excuse me," he says, and the other man reaches out and grabs Jure by the wrist.

"Aw, don't run away so quick!" the man says, his grin looking decidedly less cheerful. "I'm trying to have a conversation with you."

Jure's annoyance meter is ticking up. He turns his head slightly and looks around the room, searching for any other members of the band, and he catches eyes with Kris, sitting at a table near the end of the bar. Kris looks at Jure and immediately puts his glass down and stands up, walking toward Jure at a steady clip.

Jure's arm is jostled as the man tightens his grip and yanks Jure's arm downward. "Hey," the man snaps, "I'm talking to you."

"There you are," Kris says, as he reaches Jure and slides his arm around his shoulders. "I've been looking for you for ages!"

The man drops Jure's wrist like it's burned him, and with a scowl, he turns and walks away from the two of them.

Jure lets out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding. "Thanks," he says to Kris, and Kris takes his arm down from Jure's shoulders and smiles as they walk back to the table Kris was sitting at.

But Jure is still uncomfortable. He can feel the eyes of the man boring into his back, and when he subtly turns around to check, he sees that the man has not gone very far, just retreated to the far end of the bar, from which he is glowering at Kris and Jure.

"Kris, I don't think he bought it," Jure says. "You let go of me too quick, he's pretty angry."

"So what?" Kris asks, seemingly not preoccupied.

"I don't want him to make a scene," Jure says shortly, his discomfort rising. He can just imagine how everyone will turn around and look and Jure and his discomfort will be center stage.

"Jure, he's a drunk idiot, who ca-"

Jure cuts Kris off by leaning in and kissing him, his brain buzzing. Fortunately, Kris doesn't jerk away in surprise, returning the kiss. But then he slides his arm behind Jure's head and pulls him closer, his fingers brushing through Jure's hair.

Jure tries not to gasp. Kris's lips are soft against him and he breathes out through his nose sharply as Jure's lips move over his. Too soon, it's over, and Kris is looking Jure in the eyes. Jure slides his gaze over, to avoid Kris's, and he sees the drunk man as he turns and leaves in a huff.

Kris chuckles, and he removes his hand from the back of Jure's head, and Jure misses its presence immediately. "Guess you were right," Kris says.

"Yeah," Jure responds, coming back to himself. "Thanks."

"Anytime," Kris says, winking, before getting up to get another drink.

As Jure watches him go, he re-affirms his resolve to continue to skip Band Movie Nights.

[girlnextdoooor]

Hello! How are you!🩷🩷

If it is not a bother can u write a nsfw with Burt Fableman?

Like you're his (pre-stablished young) girlfriend and you wanna do something special for him( cause he's been feeling down lately)and he's coming from work and then you surprise him all dolled up in a lacy frilly lingerie and you both proceed to have fun.

If plausible can contain ( daddy kink age gap breeding kink and cute pet names )

If you don't wanna do this is completely understandable!! Thank you for your time!!

-🐇

baby doll || burt fabelman x f!reader

summary: he squeezes where he's holding you, causing a sharp gasp to leave you. He knows exactly what he's doing, you can feel it off of him. Burt is as much of a gentleman as they come, but that doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy watching you squirm a little.

warnings: smut (MDNI), age gap, breeding, daddy kink, teasing, fingering, burt is a god at aftercare

a/n: i'm super sorry i'm getting to reqs kind of slow, i work two jobs and i've been kind of busy 😭 this is also not proof read so, enjoy!

Burt was always such a sweetheart, and it broke you to watch him come home day after day upset and irritated because of work. Even further, him still being nothing short of an excellent partner; helping you through college classes, grocery shopping, supporting your own career aspirations, anything you felt strongly about, he was with you. You did everything you possibly could for him in your downtime, and would do more if it weren't for the part of you still wanting some kind of independence such as your own job while taking classes. Although you knew Burt would happily take care of you, you just never let him because he already goes above and beyond for you.

Which is precisely why tonight was special. Having the day off from your job and no classes, you went and picked out a new set of the most beautiful, frilly, pink, lingerie you could get your hands on, along with a brand new pair of lacy stockings. Burt had mentioned in passing before he loves the color pink on you, so obviously that was taken into account. You finish your purchase and make your way back home, anxious to try everything on and make sure it fits you properly. Lord forbid it doesn't fit and you have to go all the way back before he gets home.

You pull the set from the bag, rolling the fabric between your fingers. The image of Burt above you while wearing this very thing is ingrained into your head, causing a heat to pool in your stomach. You shoo the thoughts away long enough to pull your clothes off, shivering slightly at the cool air. The top is fastened with a clip in the shape of a tiny bow, a cute detail you think. You pull the small pink skirt that will absolutely hide nothing over your hips before letting it settle into your skin. It's tight, but not enough to hurt. The stockings are rolled up your legs, stopping an inch above the knee.

A final glance in the full body mirror occupying a corner of the room you and Burt share. You sit looking, wavering between wether to put a little makeup on or keep yourself bare faced. Ultimately, you decide to just put a pop of lipgloss on and keep your face natural. He prefers you that way.

The front door shutting alerts you that he's home. A wave of panic washes over you; you hadn't even taken the tags off the lingerie yet. Hurriedly, you snap the two tiny plastic tags off as his foot steps are echo down the hall. "Honey?" He calls for you. You've barely managed to turn around once he comes through the bedroom door. His eyes meet your own and you can feel the whole room shift. The tension is thick enough to cut as he stands there, drinking your form in.

God, you love it when he looks at you like that.

The heat in your stomach curls into something needier, something stronger. You think for a second he can read your mind as Burt steps towards you, closing the gap. A hand reaches for your hip, and he pulls your body into his. He smells like cedar and bergamot, and it is intoxicating. The hip he has a hold on is seared, as if his touch is burning you from the inside out.

He leans forward, bending towards your neck. "I missed you, my love."

You can feel his breath against you, hot and labored. Small kisses are pressed along the column of your neck, which elicits a shaky sigh from your lips. Almost instinctively, your hands find themselves clutched to his nice button up.

"I missed you too, sweetheart", your words wobble, finding it difficult to keep the want out of your voice.

He squeezes where he's holding you, causing a sharp gasp to leave you. He knows exactly what he's doing, you can feel it off of him. Burt is as much of a gentleman as they come, but that doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy watching you squirm a little.

"What's all this about?" He questions, bringing his other hand up to toy with the lace of the top. You thickly swallow, "It's a surprise for you".

Burt leans back upright so he can stare directly at you, a small smile etched into his features. "You said you liked me in pink..."

The words are replaced with an airy moan when he tugs gently at one of your already hard nipples through the lace, "I do like you in pink, angel. Especially like this." His voice reverberates into your bones, all the way down to the marrow of your frame.

"Daddy please... fuck- Please touch me", you whine, white knuckling his shirt. His eyes widen in surprise at the name before immediately being replaced by something darker. "Oh, baby doll, i'm going to take good, good, care of you", he replies.

In one swift motion he has you hoisted up around his waist like you weigh nothing. The bulge in his pants is pressing deliciously into your unclothed core, causing another whine to leave your mouth. Burt carries you across the room to the bed and gently sets you down, catching a glimpse of your bare cunt.

"Did my baby not put anything on under here for me?" Teasingly, he slowly drags two of his fingers over your already swollen lips, catching the wetness on his fingers. An unhinged moan echoes across the room as your head lolls to one side, mouth half open.

"I thought- Ah!" You're cut off by Burt making slow circles around your throbbing bud. "Keep talking, my love", he says with a loving smile. "I thought it would... Ah- Be easier... And you can... fuck me in the skirt", you finally manage to get out in between moans.

The calloused pads of his fingers know how to play you with precision, how to get any and every noise he wants to hear out of you. You know you sound pathetic, but he could listen to your symphony of moans all day.

Burt moves his hand away from your nub, and is met with a cry of protest from you. "Shhhh baby doll, everything's okay", he whispers, leaning down and giving you a gentle kiss.

His hand returns, this time with two fingers slowly pressing into your heat, while his thumb runs over your clit again in lazy circles. You let a high pitched moan out into his mouth, giving him the advantage to press his tongue into yours. His fingers pump into that sweet spot and you pull from his mouth.

"Oh my god, daddy... Please don't stop I'm so so so close, please," you whine, voice becoming increasingly higher in pitch. Burt's fingers become impossibly faster, letting the wet sounds fill the room along with your angelic voice.

Your hand grips his shoulder like your life depends on it, "I'm gonna cum, daddy, please let me cum, please". He ever so gently groans at the sight of you, "That's it, my love. Cum on daddy's fingers, just like that", he commands sweetly. With his approval voiced, your orgasm washes over you, hips involuntarily grinding down to meet his fingers. Burt continues to move his fingers until you twitch with overstimulation, pressing soft kisses to your neck.

His fingers leave you open, and still wanting more. "Daddy..." you whine out, gazing at him through your eyelashes. "What do you need, sweetheart?" He asks gently, bringing one hand to cup the side of your face. You lean into his touch, kissing his palm, before finishing. "I need you to fuck me", you bat your eyes at him innocently.

The heat in his eyes is still there, and you glance down long enough to see his cock is straining against his pants. Burt smiles at you before sitting you up enough to undo the ribbon clasp from the back of your top. Your breasts spill into his hands and he gently massages them. You softly moan at the contact, stomach blazing at his touch.

"I'm going to take care of you, angel. Don't worry", he whispers, leaning down to take one of your pebbled nipples into his mouth.

A groan escapes your mouth as the heat within you is reignited; a fire burning hot beneath the surface of your skin, begging to consume you. Burt moves to kiss your neck, and then your jaw - up, up, up until he places a soft and gentle kiss on your parted lips. His tongue swipes against your bottom lip, and you give yourself over to him in a quiet act of devotion.

Slowly, he hikes the already small skirt up to your hips, leaving you open completely. He pulls away from you to kneel before unbuckling his belt. The clinking of the metal pieces makes your entire body shiver from pure want. You watch his hands eagerly work on the button and zip of his pants until they eventually loosen around his waist, and then continue to stare, mouth salivating, waiting for him to undress further.

Burt chuckles a little at your expression, and the fact that you've been staring at him for so long. "Are you enjoying the show, pretty girl?"

The heat that floods your face is almost instantaneous, giving you enough of a reason to bring your arms to cover the blush. "J-just excited, that's all", you whisper.

You hear him shuffling beside you, but aren't brave enough to take a peek from the safety of your arms. The dip in the bed between your legs is enough to at least make you move the arm laying over your eyes. Burt sits between your legs, shirt unbuttoned, pants off, and the sight has an involuntary whine ripple through you.

He slowly pushes the head of his thick cock against your opening. "Are you alright, my love?"

You swallow the accumulated saliva in your mouth before responding. "Please more, daddy."

With that, he pushes forward, almost agonizingly slow, letting a groan echo through him. Your breath hitches at the delicious stretching, and your fingers dig into the rumpled blanket beneath you with every inch he pushes in. He stills, bottoming out completely, before pulling out slowly and pushing back in.

You swear fire is seeping through your skin. Somewhere along the lines of today you must have swallowed a live electrical wire without realizing. Your entire body crackles and burns beneath the skin, desire flowing through you like lava.

"Faster daddy, please", you cry. Burt simply smiles, eyes half lidded, before roughly snapping his hips to yours over and over again. Your back arches ever so slightly off the bed as a string of moans and whines pour from you.

Burt's hands roam across your glistening skin, squeezing and grabbing as he wants, and you let him. His left hand eventually settles on a hard grip into your hip, and his right grabs the back of your thigh, pushing it up so he can hit deeper.

He pounds into you fervently, like pleasing you is what he lives and breathes to do. "I'm going to cum again, daddy. Ohhhh my god, please don't stop", you beg.

A calloused finger rubs into your clit exactly how you like. "Just like that, angel. Just... like that", he coaxes.

Your orgasm ripples through you, forcing your eyes to roll backwards and rock against Burt's fast pace. Your cunt pulses around him, giving him enough friction to just about cum himself.

"Where does my baby doll want me?" He whispers. It takes all of three seconds for the words to register before you're wrapping your free leg around his waist.

"Inside, please daddy", you moan, still experiencing aftershocks from your own high.

You can see his eyes widen the smallest amount, before he pumps one, two, three times and stills. A low moan rumbles from him as he's spilling deep inside of you. He stays stuck like that, head thrown back, eyes squeezed shut, mouth agape for another ten seconds. His hair is damp and sticking to his forehead in some places. The sight alone is almost enough to make you cum again.

He pulls away from you, chest rising and falling in quick succession while he tries to catch his breath. Finally, he opens his eyes and looks at you, spread beneath him, completely fucked out. He bends over you and kisses you with a gentleness that starkly contrasts your previous activities.

He shifts, pulling himself up off the bed before returning not even a minute later with a warm rag. The rag is gently pressed against your thighs and then your heat itself, working through all of your combined bodily fluids. Burt eventually moves and cleans himself, and then rolls back onto the bed with you.

"I love you, baby doll," he whispers, looking at you with such love and care it makes you want to cry.

"I love you too," you whisper back, a smile plastered to your face.

You both settle in together, him with his strong arms wrapped around you, holding you against his chest. The safety of Burt as a person makes you clutch onto him, and by no means is he letting go.

"What about a shower?" He asks, still in a whisper.

You nod. "A shower sounds good right about now", you punctuate with a laugh.

Burt laughs in response before getting up and taking hold of your hand, pulling you up out of bed. You stand a minute, staring at each other. The sun is just over the horizon, the rays leaking through the curtains to make his beautiful green eyes shine. One of your hands cups his cheek, which he gladly sinks into.

"I really, really, really do love you, y'know?" He smiles at you.

You return the smile and nod, "The crazy thing is, I also really love you."

You wrap your arms around his neck, and his find their way around your waist. Burt slowly sways you with him in a loving and caring embrace, then pulling away just enough to plant a soft kiss to your lips.

"Now about that shower..." He whispers

[noirgasmweetheart]

Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today to lay to rest the $3.99 that I blew renting "the Constant Nymph" on YouTube.

Who knows what that four bucks could have become, had fate been kinder? A Reese's Big Cup? A triple cheeseburger from McDonald's? An IronStrange sticker from Twin Cities Con? A pet rock from a thrift shop? An over-priced Frappuccino? The possibilities are endless, the lost potential infinite.

(Cue bagpipes).

Spoilers below

I knew the movie wasn't good, but I had at least hoped to get some screencaps of the elegant outfits, and some clips of Peter Lorre being sexy. I've never had trouble taking screencaps or recording clips from YouTube rentals in the past. But someone really doesn't want me sharing anything from this movie.

Possibly because of the pedophilia.

Yes, this "romance" is about a tween girl in an overall dress and pigtails lusting for a 50-tear-old pimp, and briefly her 80-year-old uncle. And the 50-year-old pimp lusts for the pigtailed preteen dressed like Ragedy Anne. The pimps wife, rather than be horrified for her (I think) child sister, is instead just jealous. While Lady Slut and Mini-Slut spar over Count Geezer, Peter Lorre glides in thr background like a raven, alternating between looking sexy and looking dismayed.

"When I did this in 'M,' all the crooks in the city organized an epic manhunt, stuffed me in a bag, tossed me down a staircase, put me on trial and tried to execute me. But when a rich asshole does it it's 'romantic?'"

Alright I'll admit it, I didn't watch the whole movie. I skimmed around. Even without the gross pedo plot, it's just boring as balls to me. But God damn, there were so many cool outfits and hairstyles and cool rooms I wanted to screencap. And I wanted to clip PL's scenes to share with the fan base.

"Why are so many of my most attractive roles in my worst movies?"

The movie ends with a tragic death. The death of my $3.99. I think Mini-Slut also dies, from boredom maybe. Oh, spoiler.

Ok Charles Boyer isn't really a "geezer" at this age, he's actually a pretty attractive older man...EXCEPT in this movie, where he absolutely IS a geezer compared to his love interest who resembles a freaking Powerpuff Girl.

Great, now I'm seeing this gross movie retold in my head with the Professor and Bubbles in the lead rolls, Ms. Bellum as the jealous wife, the Mayor as the monocled uncle, and Mojo Jojo as Fritz, just channeling the audience's reaction.

[strawberry-lane]

Curling American Girl doll hair with (warm) hot rollers!

Disclaimer: This is for dolls whose hair will absolutely not hold a curl with regular methods, brush curls, wet set, finger curls etc. And dolls where you won't be heart broken if you have to re-wig them. My Samantha isn't particularly rare, as there are many 90s Samantha's, nor is her hair mint condition. Her bangs were trimmed crooked before I ever adopted her.

I love her very much, but no matter how hard I try her hair always lays straight. One half of her hair will sort of hold a curl, but the other consistently unravels. I've left her wet hair to dry in rollers for days, but the curls never survive if I fidget with her even a bit. Im not sure why her hair does this, because I don't know her history. I found her at an antique store and mostly got her for the trunk and outfits she came with. It was only $200 for the whole lot. How could I not empty my wallet to buy her? Newer AG dolls don't usually have this problem as their curl memory is stronger. I've never attempted this method on Mattel AG dolls so please do a test strand before you attempt this on a Mattel doll.

Step 1.

Dampen the her hair and brush it thoroughly with a wire wig brush. Be careful to get out every single tangle. I like the brushes sold by Our Generation they're much cheaper and bigger than the American girl brand ones, and they come with a spray bottle.

Step 2. This is very important! Absolutely DRENCH your dolls hair. Make sure you also get the underside. Wrap a towel around your doll to protect her cloth body, preferably bigger than the one I had, oops! I know you already know this, but be extremely carefully to protect your dolls eyes from the water.

Step 3. Time to start putting in the rollers! Everyone's rollers are different and take longer or shorter to heat. Mine can only be plugged in for about thirty seconds before they're too hot. The best way to measure the heat is to take the roller out and hold it in your fist for a few seconds. If, even after awhile, it's even slightly uncomfortable they're too hot. We're aiming for warm with here.

How to curl: Section out a small flat strand of hair, and roll it under tightly and smoothly. Make sure no there are no fly aways before you clip it. All dolls have a different curl set so attempt to follow the pattern and direction of the curls if you can still discern it.

Do this throughout the hair.

The photo above is from a day later. I'd recommend dressing you doll before you take the curls down so you won't have to work around them to dress her after the fact. My Samantha is in her lacy whites, as it fit the hair curling occasion.

When removing the curls twist them to keep the curl, well, curled. Don't add product to your dolls hair. They'll hold just fine of their own and product would have to be washed out eventually.

And there you have it! Samantha looks much more like her gorgeous self again!

[tempestaslokni]

Status: Closed for @chancedarling Location: Outside of the Bungalows Spontaneity wasn't Lokni's forte, but this situation was a little different. As he walked, the delicate, silver bracelet in his pocket felt heavier and heavier. He really felt that he wanted to thank Selin for fishing with him. It had been nice to talk to someone so calm and kind despite everything that had happened. There was only one problem; Lokni lacked the courage to give it to her directly. That left him with one other option: to leave it on the doorknob and hope that Selin would notice. Surely the Creator could help him out with that much. Taking things into consideration, he had scrawled a small note using a scrap of paper from one of the books in the warehouse and a pencil he found to write "For Selin," in his chicken scratch handwriting. He opted to leave out his name, she didn't need to know it was from him. After all, it was the sentiment that mattered most, right? Crows gave gifts in similar ways, his mother's windowsill was littered with buttons, fishing hooks, acorns, and other discarded shiny items that the crows deemed proper gifts. It was a "thank you" for feeding them. Selin and Lokni had caught food together, so he thought that this was a suitable gesture. Treading lightly and glancing around, Lokni made his way to the door of Selin's bungalow and looped the bracelet around the doorknob. The note was rolled up within the bracelet, so she should have no difficulty finding it. Silently praying that nobody would move it, Lokni turned to head back to the wilderness. Just when he was about to take his leave, a figure rounded the corner. Lokni froze. He had never seen this person before, and a hefty amount of time had passed since his arrival. The newcomer was the same height as Lokni, and appeared to be of similar age, it was hard to tell. Striking green eyes stared back at him, framed by dark curly hair, and the thought of how much had he seen? echoed throughout Lokni's mind. "Evenin.'" Lokni began, a short, clipped greeting, followed by an attempt to steer any potential conversation from himself, "you new on the island? Don't think I've seen you round these parts before." Unsure if this newcomer had seen the bracelet or not, Lokni turned slightly in an attempt to block his view of the doorknob.

[fallingsunflower]

I forget if I had asks about this but a couple nonnies messaged me privately asking me to post this. A lot of this is stuff we already talked about here but this is it all in one coherent post ♥︎

I think Harry was pretty nervous going into the night from the minute he stepped out of the car. This clip doesn't necessarily show nerves as it does trying to stay out of people's way, which could either just be courteous or show a little of his personality. I know people think he likes attention and I'm sure he does to a degree, but he's not walking confidently around like he owns the place and like people should cater to him. He moves out of the way from people walking, he tucks his arm close to his body which closes him off, and he rolls his lips together (he rolls his lips pretty frequently throughout the night also which usually means something along the lines of uncertainty).

During his red carpet walk, he does a lot of adjusting the strap on his shoulders (which I don't really consider fidgeting but rather I think he's simply adjusting it). He looks like he lost weight for the night so I think it just doesn't fit like it did when he was measured). He also clasps his hands in front pretty often and moves them around a lot which suggests holding back some kind of negative emotions, such as anxiety, frustration, or discomfort (prob anxiety and/or discomfort here). He does a lot of hand fidgeting in general so all of a sudden he's thrown into a pretty intense situation with no pockets to fidget in lol he also hides his thumbs periodically and fidgets with his rings but we already know he does that lol hiding sensitive body parts (like the stomach, thumbs, and groin are all usually linked to subconsciously wanting to hide oneself out of shyness or anxiety, or something similar).

He def isn't in a weird funk or anything, just nervous I think. BUT I would also argue that Trevor Noah's comment threw him later in the night and possibly altered his mood a little.

He seemed alright when introduced. Happy to be there, looking down which signals nerves or insecurity. Stark difference in comparison to Taylor who holds a gaze very well with whoever she's talking to and the camera.

Trevor's panties comment caused Harry to not look back at him for a good couple of seconds. He shook his head, smiled kind of, and was fidgeting with something under the table (his shoe maybe, idk). And then the looking away, fidgeting, smile/grimace, head shaking was more exaggerated after the sex symbol comment.

Obviously I think we all kind of knew Harry would be uncomfortable with that, not rude or super obvious about it, but I found watching the people around him to be pretty telling too. Jeff kept looking at Harry to gauge his reaction and I think almost as a security blanket for him? Tyler Johnson was pretty animated with amusement but looked confused at the end with the green m&m comment (lmao). Lizzo laughed but even she looked like "wtf" and I think she said something like "wow" at the end. I trust her to know what Harry is like tbh. I think she takes him under her wing.

From the seldom shots we see of Harry throughout the ceremony, when he's not performing, he seemed comfortable. He was a little slouched over but it's hard to tell if that was telling of his mood, which also contributes to shyness/anxiety, or if that's just how he is because his posture normally isn't spectacular. I don't think I can properly judge that.

With BOTH of his wins, he reacts the same (a little more for AOTY but the point stands). Hands covering face meaning he doesn't automatically rely on other people for comfort or general feelings and introverts in intimidating situations, covering his mouth which could mean shock, still not really gravitating toward others but rather they pull him in (I could talk about that point in more detail just generally speaking you want). Basically Harry = shy. I've been saying it for ages now but seeing it so blatantly obvious makes my heart hurt 🥲

Also just retagging this sequence of pics.

AND NOW WE GET TO THE PERFORMANCE BECAUSE IT WAS SOOO OBVIOUS HE WAS NERVOUS AND THROWN OFF. The first note was really rough and he almost tripped BUT we now know it was because the stage was moving in the wrong direction 🥲 Harry prob had maybe 3/4 days of proper rehearsals because he only ended tour recently. I'm sure that mishap really really threw him. The performance was rough, not terrible, but I think they did a good job considering the issues we just found out about. I hope Harry knows it's not his fault and he did the best he could. He seemed to grow more comfortable toward the end.

It also makes this comment about how performing went seem sarcastic to me - "it was a dream". It's funny knowing what really happened now after hearing him say that.

Anyway, those are my thoughts :) just opinions. I'm happy to talk more about it.