#if anybody else wants to use it...feel free i guess

[eomayas]

be alright • kmg

pairing: non-idol!mingyu x gn!reader, established relationship

genre: angst & fluff

synopsis: reader has a hard time asking for and accepting help, and that’s all mingyu wants to do

warnings: reader uses a purse, hyper-independent reader, arguments, reader is mean to mingyu but it’s resolved, healthy communication, mention of reader wearing women’s clothing

a/n: got inspo from SATC where carries computer breaks lol. i love making my reader unconventional because its not super common in fics!

“let me hold something,” mingyu says, reaching for the bag in your hand, but you jerk it away from him as you fumble with the keys.

“i got it,” you say, balancing your phone, purse, and keys in one hand while not dropping the shopping bags in the other. mingyu sighs quietly behind you, just as you shove the key into the lock with success, and open your your apartment. “see.”

mingyu chuckles, but it sounds more like a scoff that you ignore. you drop your items onto your small kitchen table, hands finally free of holding a million things at once. curse tiny purses and the lack of pockets on women’s clothing! “where do you want these?” mingyu asks from your kitchen, holding up some groceries in his hand. the pantry where you keep them is to his left, but there’s a certain order in which you keep things, and you’d rather not explain it at the moment.

“don’t worry about it, i’ll do it,” you say, walking into the kitchen and plucking the items from his hand. you move around mingyu to the cupboard and put your groceries away, just dancing around him until you’ve put everything in their places. “what’s wrong?” you ask mingyu once you’re done. he leans against one of your counters with his arms crossed over his chest and his face pinched.

mingyu opens his mouth, but closes it immediately as if trying to measure his words. he pokes his tongue in the side of his cheek and sweeps his eyes around your kitchen before landing them on you. “i’m just trying to help,” he says, tugging his beanie off and running a hand through his hair, yanking at the roots.

you tilt hour head to the side, confusion littered across your face. “what do you mean?”

mingyu chuckles and shakes his head, lightly pinching the bridge of his nose before sighing, his shoulders rising and dropping hard, like he’s been holding it in for awhile. “you don’t let me help you—with anything, ever. you never ask me for help,” he says.

“because i don’t need it.”

your response is quick, was sitting on the tip of your tongue the moment he opened his mouth for the second time to explain to you. it’s the truth, whether you wanted to spell it out for him, or if he actually wanted to hear it. you can do things on your own, take care of yourself. you don’t need anybody else to do it for you. “you don’t need it? or you don’t want it?” he fires back, making you cock your head back in surprise. is this your first fight?

“both. and if i needed your help, id ask,” you say, crossing your arms over your chest. the frown on his face deepening.

“i am just trying to help.”

“and if i needed your help id ask, mingyu!” you don’t mean to shout, but you’re done with the conversation. “if you don’t like it, then…” you shrug and gesture vaguely. you watch his face morph from frustration, into something that makes your heart deflate in your chest.

“then what?” he questions, and all you can do is shrug, swallowing the lump in your throat. “really?” he imitates your shrug and straightens up against the counter, hurt taking over his expressions. “how could you say something like that, y/n?”

your nose starts to burn and your throat feels clogged. you sniff and blink a few times to keep the tears that threaten to fall at bay. “that’s just how i am, mingyu. i don’t know what else you want me to say.”

mingyu drops his hands to his sides and pushes himself off of the counter. “i’ll just… see you later, i guess,” he mutters, snatching his beanie off the counter and pulling it on. you don’t make a move to stop him as he walks down the hall to your door. you stay planted in the kitchen, slumping when you hear your front door close—he doesn’t even do you the favor of slamming it so you could have a reason upset with him later, to give yourself an out for how you’ve talked to him. you expect the tears to come, but they don’t. still, you stay rooted in the kitchen for a few minutes to collect yourself and your thoughts.

surely, you’ve been on you own before. the world isn’t going to end because you’re by yourself.

by the third day of no contact, you start to feel like the world may end—maybe not today, but sometime soon. the lack of random, sweet texts throughout the day make you itch for his attention. it starts to makes you feel bad, and by the fourth day you’ve decided you’ve had enough—of the silence, of yourself. all of it.

sitting in the dark of your car, you dial up his number and press it against your ear. your acrylic nail flies up to your mouth, and you anxiously put it between your teeth as the phone rings, and rings, and—“hello?” mingyus voice ripples through the speaker and fills your heart up with hope.

“hi. are you home? can we talk?” you ask. it sounds quiet on the other side of the phone, and you desperately need to see him, before you lose the one person you’ve probably wanted the most in this lifetime.

mingyu is quiet for awhile before saying. “i am,” he takes a pause, and you hold your breath. “you can come over.” and you let out the breath, a sigh of relief at his voice and his words and the fact that you have a chance of getting your man back.

“okay, ill be over soon.”

you pull up in front of his apartment building ten minutes later. you rush out of the car and bound into the lobby, opting for the stairs because there’s already somebody waiting for the elevator. he only lives on the third floor anyway.

coming to a stop in front of his door, you take a deep breath before raising your fist to deliver three short knocks to the door. you count the seconds in your head before he answers—23–and he’s pulling a shirt over his head as he gestures for you to come inside. it takes everything in you not to rush into him, to beg him to come back to you and for his forgiveness. you’re much more civil than that, thanking him for letting you come over, and standing promptly in the foyer.

mingyu chuckles and shakes his head at you before sighing and dropping his shoulders. “y/n, you don’t have to stand in the hallway like you’ve never been here before,” he slips past you, his hand colliding with the small of your back (definitely on purpose), and walks ahead of you into the living room. with a start, you follow after him into his living room, glancing around for a safe place to sit. you worry that if you’re too close to him, your words won’t come out right and this drive here would be a waste of time.

you opt to keep standing, leaning against the wall adjacent from him. he sits lazily on the couch, his arm draped across the back and his legs outstretched in front of him. he keeps his gaze on you, a silent stand off happening between the two of you. “so…” he trails off, and your stomach roils.

“okay, well, first off—i’m sorry for the other day. i know you just want to help, and i appreciate it. i really do. i’m just not a person who needs it, mingyu. it has nothing to do with you specifically—it’s just how im wired,” you say, blowing out a breath. his lip quirks at your last comment before dropping back to the emotionless expression he was wearing previously. “and i really miss you, you know? i-i really, really fucking miss you.” pressing your hands into your stomach, you swallow the lump in your throat and ignore the burning in the back of your nose.

mingyu shifts on the couch, bringing his hand up to his hair to muss. “i know, but you can’t just… you can’t just tell me to get over it, or leave, y/n. i don’t think you realize how mean that was,” you cringe at his words, feeling even more like shit. if he called you a ‘bitch’ you’d probably hate it less than him calling you mean.

your feet are waking you over to him before you realize it. you sit next to him and grab his hands, grateful that he lets you with no pushback. “i really like you, y/n, and i really care about you, too. i don’t think you’re weak, or incapable, when i offer to help you with things. i just want to make things easier for you if i can. i just want you to let me shoulder some of the weight for you,” mingyu adds, his voice sincere and his eyes saying more than his words did. you gnaw at your bottom lip as you try to blink back pathetic tears. you’re not prone to tears, but with mingyu that’s all you feel like you can do right now.

taking a deep breath, you swallow the lump in your throat and try to keep your voice even. “mingyu, im really sorry. i-im just used to taking care of myself,” you let go of one of his hands to harshly wipe away tears from under your eyes, closing them for a brief moment and blowing out a breath. mingyu doesn’t rush you to get the words out, just sits there quietly and waits for you to be ready. “if i start letting you do things for me, one day you’re not going to be there. i can’t let myself get used to that, and then one day you’re gone.”

“i’m not going anywhere.”

that brings a small smile to your lips. “but if you’re—i don’t know, gone, and i need you but you’re not there, what am i supposed to do? and nothing is guaranteed…” you sigh and hunch your shoulders, staring at his face. he looks like he’s choosing his words carefully, opening his mouth and closing it a few times.

“then we will just figure it out, y/n. don’t focus on what hasn’t happened yet, okay? i’m not going anywhere, especially not soon,” he tugs you towards him by your hands, and you fall into his chest and rest your face in the crook of his neck. “just don’t push me away.” he says, his voice a whisper. you cringe inwardly and press a chaste kiss to his neck, letting you lips linger before hugging yourself into him.

he wraps his strong arms around you and holds you tightly against him. “i’m sorry,” you say into his skin, voice hoarse as silent tears leak out of your eyes. you feel relief, and a sort of sadness for who you almost lost, but mainly just relief. you also feel like the biggest asshole ever, but you know that feeling will pass.

“hey,” mingyu coos softly, pulling his head back to look down at you. you lift your head and he wipes your tears away with his thumb. “we’ll be alright, baby.”

and he’s right. you’re not going to magically relinquish all autonomy to make your relationship work, but you can start accepting help when it’s offered, and start asking when some things feel too big for a single person. that’s what a partnership is, right? taking another persons burden and making it your burden too?

[devswritingcornerorsmth]

overwatch ratings based on how they would date

did this a while ago but spent too much time on it for it to not be posted. this is just a personal opinion and personal ratings based off lore and bias tbh. this will be updated with every hero (if I remember to lol)

Tanks:

D.VA: 6/10. Caring and loving, fun gaming dates, but gets recognized a lot, and if it came down to it she’d choose her job to protect south korea over her lover

Doomfist: 4/10. He’d be a gentleman but probably only in it for sex or to be a sugar daddy. He’d treat his “lover” with respect tho so not a total loss i guess.

Junker Queen: 7/10. After the shit she’s been thru i think she doesnt really want a partner cuz shes afraid they’re just using her to get to the throne or that she’ll lose them. She’s protective and caring but also a bit overprotective to the point where it’s like okay calm down. Also might get into a few fights but eh.

Orisa: 0/10. she thinks it would be cute to be in a relationship but knows she cant be in one due to being the “protector of numbani”. so no.

Ramattra: 8/10. Deadass depends if it’s an omnic or not. If his lover is an omnic he will cherish them and take care of them, knowing that they’re one of the few things he loves in this life. If it’s a human then theres some. Problems. He doesnt open up easily and while he’s still protective and caring he can sometimes get very distant towards them because he fears that they only got close to him to use him or kill him.

Reinhardt: 9/10: Perfect gentleman. Treats you with respect and love, and cherishes you no matter what. -1 is because he can be really loud sometimes even when he doesnt mean to be

Roadhog: 5/10. I think of him as aroace but he would try and give it a shot just to feel what it’s like. Hes very quiet but also very calm. He would listen to his lover and do his best to help them, but he moves around a lot thanks to junkrat now and might cut off communication with you just to keep you safe when he's on the run

Sigma: 5/10. A real gentleman, would treat his lover with respect and kindness and love. Only downside is when he has one of his mind breaks and breakdowns. He forgets who he is and just focuses on violence. Also his control of gravity in that state is very fucky so if he’s having a breakdown his lover might get throw to the ground. He feels like jackshit afterwards and probably realizes it’s best not to have someone he cares about so close to him

Wrecking Ball: 0/10 no. he would simply not even if he wanted to. Aroace hampter 

Winston: maybe a 1/10. i feel like he doesnt want a romantic relationship with anybody and just wants friends (aroace monke)

Zarya: 6/10. Protective and caring but would focus too much on her job. would also pick her country over her lover if it did come down to it

Mauga: 8/10: Would treat his lover right and give them anything they asked for. Free beach house, gifts, and a loving, protective, obsessive bf. -2 because slight yandere vibes and can get too possesive-

Damage:

Ashe: 6/10. Partners in crime kinda thing but if you’re not really into that stuff she’s probably not that into you. She has BOB watching you when she cant during a fight but shes always next to you when she can be.

Bastion: 0/10. Dude just wants to live in the woods with his bird he doesnt want that stuff.

Cassidy: 8/10. Southern sweetheart. Treats his partner with love and respect. Only downside is that he’d be out a lot doing his job, but he would let somebody else do it to be with you if it’s a special occasion or if he really wants to stay with you.

Echo: 2/10. Not big on romance but would try it out for science. Sadly in the end it’s not real love so. Oof

Genji: 9/10. Probably doesn’t want a relationship at first because of his body but he gets used to it and opens up his heart. Honestly very good boyfriend would be there to listen and help you with stuff. -1 cuz he might be out doing overwatch stuff a lot and also might not be the most exciting person to be around if you're a hyper person.

Hanzo: 6/10. Can’t see him getting in a relationship after everything thats happened but if he did he’d be kinda bad at it but you could tell that he’s trying his best.

Junkrat: 5/10. I love him but i cant really see him *staying* in a relationship for long. He doesn’t know how to stop sometimes and can get really annoying really quick but he loves making things for his lover and would do his best to keep them away from the dangerous bombs. He loves them a lot but doesn’t know how to turn the love down. Really clingy so if youre into that cool.

Mei: 9/10. Absolute sweetheart. Loves you to bits and takes you out to her favorite restaurants and stuff. -1 cuz you had to have a long distance relationship due to her being in Antarctica and the fact she slept for years with no communication with her lover-

Phara: 4/10. Cares about her job more but would be an okay girlfriend, doing the basics.

Reaper: 1/10. He’s done with love and would probably just just be a sugar daddy or just be there for sex. Even if he did find himself feeling something he’d ignore it and move on

Sojourn:5/10. Not interested in dating or finding love but if it finds her she’ll go for it. Pretty nice girlfriend, makes sure to take care of her lover but does focus on her job a lot more sometimes.

Soldier:76: 0/10. Not interested and has made sure to break off any past relationships. Doesn’t want the people he cares about to get hurt. So he still cares but doesnt go see them.

Somba: 7/10. Would be a pretty good girlfriend if she wanted to have a relationship. She keeps all people she cares about far away and unaware of her deeds at Talon. So a long distance relationship until she can take some time off to go see her lover and vibe.

Symmetra: 3/10. Doesn’t know how to even start a relationship and doesn’t really want to. Her job is important to her so she wouldn’t want distractions from it.

Torbjorn: 6/10. His wife and him had a few children and have been married for a while so he’s probably got the whole love thing covered.

Tracer: 9/10. Probably one of the best on this list. She’s loving and caring and makes sure to spend a lot of time with her partner. 

Widowmaker: 3/10. Last partner she had was um. killed by her so. +3 if you could break down her walls and see the real her but very low chance

Venture: 8.5/10: Would talk to you about rocks, fossils, and everything else they can think about. They’d even let you name rocks around the house. -2 cuz they’ll talk your ear off about rocks n stuff while also bouncing around everywhere. They can also be gone for long periods of time but always makes sure to call. If you can deal with the infodumping and adhd then 9.5/10 for you 

Support:

Ana: 5/10. She doesn’t want a relationship but she’d be very loving and caring to her lover.

Baptiste: 8/10. Great boyfriend, lovers needs always come first and he’s very open and always has an ear out to listen. -2 because he’s constantly on the run and the relationship could get stressed.

Brigitte: 5/10. Mostly focused on her work but would make a pretty good girlfriend if she finds the right person. The relationship would mostly be a test one because she lowkey doesn’t understand it.

Kiriko: 4/10. Would love to be in a relationship but protecting her home is more important than finding love to her.

Lucio: 9/10. Actual sweetheart. Would make music for you and would cancel shows last second if something came up and you needed something. If you need anything he’ll be there to help.

Mercy: 8/10. She’s really focused on her work but no matter what would take time to come stay with you for a while. -2 because sometimes too focused on work and sometimes doesnt have time to see you for a long time.

Moira: 0/10. Not looking for a relationship and would probably lie just to get you strapped to a table and butchered.

Zenyatta: 7/10. Would make a decent boyfriend but he can’t have relationships due to being a monk. He’d be there to listen and to give advice when you needed it.

Lifeweaver: 9/10. Perfect boyfriend in every way. Like no competition. -1 cuz he's on the run from multiple governments so he won't be able to talk all the time or be with you much to his dismay. multiple texts a day tho

Illari: 4/10. Tbh I can't see her getting into a relationship after everything. She's too scared that something will happen with her powers again and hurt her lover

[unboundprompts]

Hey! I love your prompts and I was wondering if you had something for angst no comfort. Person A is depressed and very deep in the hole (physically can't recognize themselves, confusion, maybe hallucinations?) But they never tell anybody about it and they try and hide it like "oh, I binge watched a show" when asked why they look so tired. Person B is super silly and is obvious/chooses to believe them

Thank you so much!!

Angst No Comfort Prompts (ft. Oblivious Friend)

-> feel free to edit and adjust pronouns as you see fit.

"You look exhausted. You okay?" Person B’s tone is casual, light, as they glance at Person A’s hollow eyes and pale face.

Person A forces a weak smile, trying to look convincing. "Yeah, just stayed up binge-watching some show. You know how it is."

Person B laughs, shaking their head. "Classic. I knew you’d get hooked. What was it this time? Another murder mystery?"

Person A’s smile falters for a fraction of a second. "Something like that," they mutter.

Person B doesn’t notice how their hands tremble as they clutch their coffee cup, or how their eyes dart toward the shadows in the corners of the room.

"Hey, you spaced out there for a second."

Person B snaps their fingers in front of Person A’s face, jolting them back to reality. A sickly feeling of déjà vu lingers, like they’ve been drifting in and out of this same fog for days.

"Oh… sorry," Person A mumbles, rubbing their eyes. "Just… tired, I guess."

Person B grins. "Let me guess—another Netflix marathon?"

Person A forces a laugh. "Yeah, you know me."

But Person A doesn’t mention the way the world seemed to melt at the edges just moments ago, or how sometimes they aren’t sure if they’re awake or dreaming.

"Why don’t you ever want to hang out anymore?"

There’s a hint of hurt in Person B’s voice, but Person A barely hears it over the static buzzing in their head.

"I’ve just… been busy," Person A replies, swallowing the tightness in their throat. "Work's been crazy."

Person B huffs, rolling their eyes. "You’re such a workaholic. I’m coming over with takeout tomorrow. You need some fun."

Person A’s heart sinks. They can already feel the panic creeping in, the dread at the thought of having to fake normalcy for a whole evening.

"Yeah, sounds great," they lie, trying not to let their voice crack.

"Did you eat anything today?"

Person B asks casually as they rummage through the fridge. They don’t see the way Person A’s face pales at the question, don’t notice the empty bottles of water and little else on the counter.

"Oh, uh, I grabbed something earlier," Person A says, hoping it sounds convincing. "I’m not really hungry right now."

Person B nods, unfazed. "Good, because I’m starving. Want me to make you a plate anyway?"

Person A shakes their head, their stomach twisting with nausea at the thought of food. But they smile, and it’s only a little strained. "I’m good. You enjoy."

The couch cushions are lumpy from days of neglect. Person A sits in the same spot, knees drawn up to their chest, wrapped in the same blanket they’ve been using for a week. The TV is on, but the sound is low, and their gaze is fixed somewhere beyond the screen. Their phone vibrates on the coffee table, and they blink as if the sound has traveled to them from a great distance.

"You’re still watching that?"

Person B flops onto the other end of the couch, reaching for the remote. Person A forces a chuckle, dry and thin.

"Guess I got hooked."

Person B doesn’t notice the emptiness in Person A’s eyes or the way their fingers twitch restlessly against the fabric of the blanket.

The coffee cup rattles slightly as Person A sets it on the counter, their hand slipping on the smooth ceramic. The liquid sloshes over the rim, pooling on the countertop. They watch it spread slowly, their mind drifting.

"Whoa, you okay?"

Person B’s hand reaches out to steady the cup, wiping up the spill with a quick swipe of their sleeve.

"Yeah. Just… clumsy today," Person A mumbles, lips barely curving upward.

Person B grins, giving them a playful nudge. "You need more coffee, not less."

Person A manages a laugh, though it catches in their throat like a splinter.

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[riordanness]

bad blood - [h.haddock]

8.2K wordcount

warnings: death mention, panic attack mentions

requested: no

a/n: i usually don’t do author’s notes on my fics bc i don’t think i have really anything to say lmao. however. i wanted to say a quick word about this one, as it’s a kind of old piece but one i was extremely proud of and worked really hard to complete. i loved the humorous parts i wrote, loved the character arc i gave y/n, and just in general really liked how my writing turned out. also, it’s the second longest one-shot (currently) i’ve ever written! anyways, enjoy my lovelies <3

I disliked Hiccup Haddock more than anything else in the entire world. I didn’t like him at all for a very long time, but… well, here is our story.

“Hey love.” A voice appeared next to my shoulder, and I rolled my eyes.

“Go away, Hiccup,” I demanded, refusing to look at him. I was carving a spear out of a wooden stick, so I kept my focus on my knife running back and forth along the wood.

Even without looking at him, I could tell he had a smirk on his face. “Oh love,” he whined. “I want to talk to you.”

He tugged on one of my small braids that ran down the sides of my hair. I whacked his hand away, still not looking at him. “I said go away,” I said again.

He laughed. “I know.”

“So leave me alone.”

A moment’s pause. “But why?”

“Because I hate you and don’t want you around, annoying me to death. I’m busy.”

“But you’re fun to annoy.”

I turned on him, fiercely glaring up at him. The worst thing about Hiccup was how tall he was compared to me. He wasn’t even that tall, I was just super short. Hiccup was a full head higher than me.

Hiccup had a smirk playing around his mouth. “Hey shortcake.”

I hit him. “Shut up, Hiccup.”

“Aww, c’mon sweetheart. I’m bored.”

“That’s nice.” I crossed my arms protectively. Not that Hiccup would ever actually hurt me. Honestly, if it came down to me being in danger, I was pretty sure he’d defend me. I’d known him longer than anybody else I knew.

I might hate him, but it was the truth. Hiccup was an asshole, but I knew deep down he didn’t absolutely hate me. I guess I didn’t hate him, either. He was just a total pain.

“Go ride Toothless or make a friend or do something. Just leave me alone. I don’t care to see you.”

Hiccup sighed, running a hand through his ruffled brown hair. His green eyes flickered with amusement. “Okay, love. I’ll see you later.”

“Don’t call me that.”

He winked. “Sorry love.”

I resisted the childish urge to stamp my foot. “Hiccup!”

He held up his hands. “Okay… okay.” I almost thought he might actually be genuine, until he smirked. “I’ll stop calling you love… darling.”

I knew there was no shutting him up. I turned on my heel without a word, and stamped angrily into my cabin, slamming the door behind me.

Three seconds passed, then there was a knock on the door. I opened it. “Hiccup, go away!”

Hiccup stood there, grinning mischievously. “Fine, fine. Bye, you.”

I rolled my eyes and shut the door. I’d only just turned around when another knock sounded. I gritted my teeth. “Stupid little —“

I opened the door again and stopped short. “Oh! Stoick. Um, hi.” I swallowed. “Sorry, I, uh, I thought you were Hiccup.”

Stoick looked amused. “That’s alright, y/n.”

“Um, would you like to come in?” I offered.

Stoick nodded, and stepped inside. I suddenly felt very conscious of how messy the place was. I didn’t spend much time here, preferring to roam outside or stay at Astrid, my best friend’s house.

“How are you faring up?” Stoick asked.

I shrugged. “I’m okay. Still getting used to the fact that they’re gone, but, you know. It’s okay. I’m okay.”

Stoick nodded. “If you ever need anything, feel free to let me or Hiccup know.”

I groaned internally. “Yeah, like I’d ever ask him for help,” I muttered.

I hadn’t intended for him to hear, but Stoick chuckled softly. “He doesn’t hate you, you know.”

“Sure,” I said. “Because he thinks I’m fun to annoy.”

“That’s not it.”

I waited, but he didn’t elaborate. “O…kay…” I said slowly. “Um. Great. Well, it’s getting late, so if you don’t mind, uh…”

“Oh! Sure, sure,” Stoick said. “Have a good night, y/n.”

A long time after he left, I stood in my empty, cold house, staring at the door, wishing for something to come and fill the hole that was forming inside of me.

“Y/n, did you hear?”

I turned to my best friend. “Um. No. What happened?”

Astrid brushed her hair out of her eyes. “Stoick just told Hiccup he’s going to become chief soon.”

“Cool.” I returned to making the leather straps I’d been softening for my future dragon’s saddle.

See, the thing is, I don’t have a dragon. I know, that’s so weird, everyone in Berk has one, but I’m, well… a dragon killed my parents a few years ago. I’ve never liked them anyways, but after that, I’ve struggled a lot with my feelings about dragons. I’m sure one day I will overcome this fear inside me and own a dragon, but right now? No way.

“That’s all?” Astrid looked offended. “Y/n, that’s so much cooler than cool.” She suddenly laughed. “You know what this means?”

I frowned a little. “No..?”

“Hiccup has to choose a bride.”

I blinked. “Really? Um, so?”

Astrid rolled her eyes, elbowing me as she sat beside me on the ground. “You know you’re in love with him, y/n/n.”

I pretended to gag. “Ugh, as if! Astrid, you know I hate him. I don’t care at all about him in any way, especially not in a romantic way. I don’t care a single little bit if he has to choose a bride.”

“Sure.” Astrid smirked. “You’re secretly hoping he’ll choose you, aren’t you?”

I shot her a glare that warned her to shut up. “He’ll choose you and you know it,” I said.

Astrid wrinkled her nose. “I doubt it,” she said. “Hiccup and I literally never talk. Besides, everybody knows that me and Stormfly are a forever couple.”

I shook my head at her, but I had to smile. “Well, he won’t choose me, and I don’t care about it anyway.”

Astrid looked like she wanted to argue, but she shut her mouth when she noticed someone walking over to us. When I saw who it was, I sighed.

“What do you want?” I demanded.

“Gee, you’re lovely today, darling,” Hiccup teased, plopping himself down next to us.

“Excuse me,” I pointed out. “We didn’t invite you to sit with us.”

Astrid glanced at me, a smirk playing around her mouth. Her eyes were twinkling. I glared at her. I hate you, I mouthed.

I swung one leg over the log so my back was to Hiccup. “So, Astrid,” I said, a little too loudly. “What do you want to do this afternoon?”

“I’m taking Stormfly out for a ride,” Astrid replied. “You’re welcome to join —“

“No,” I said instantly. “Uh, I mean. No thank you. I’m good.” My hands trembled ever so slightly. I coughed, swallowed, and picked up my leather strap, gripping it tightly to stop the shaking.

Hiccup poked his head over my shoulder. “You know—“

I elbowed him in the ribs so hard he tumbled off the log. “Whoa!” he yelped. “Jeez, y/n!”

“Sorry,” I apologised. “I- you startled me.”

Hiccup rolled his eyes. “No I didn’t. You just like hitting people.”

My mouth tightened. “No I don’t. And stop calling me a liar!”

“When did I call you a liar?” He got to his feet, one arm cradling his ribcage. “You’re violent for literally no reason.”

I glared at him. “You just said I was lying. And I didn’t even hit you that hard.”

Hiccup winced. “Uh- yeah you actually did. I think you broke a rib or something.”

I slammed my work to the ground, getting to my feet and facing the boy. “Stop avoiding the fact that you called me a liar! I never ever ever make up anything.”

My eyes glittered with unwanted tears. Involuntary memories sprang into my mind. My parents hugging me. My father’s voice in my hair, my younger voice begging them to promise to return soon. “Of course we will return, darling,” my father said. “We’ve never lied to you, have we now?”

I blinked, forcing the tears away. I hated crying in any situation, but I wouldn’t be able to stand crying in front of Hiccup. I’d never live it down.

“Whatever.” Hiccup glanced at me. His voice suddenly changed. “Want to see something amazing?”

“Yeah,” I grumbled. “The retreating back of your head would be great, thanks.”

Hiccup rolled his eyes. “I’m serious.”

“So am I!” I turned away from him, and only then did I realise Astrid was nowhere to be seen. She must’ve snuck away while Hiccup and I were arguing.

Hiccup’s hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. “C’mon,” he pleaded, and his voice sounded genuinely kind. “It’ll be fun.”

I rolled my eyes. “If I come with you, do you promise to leave me alone after?”

Hiccup nodded.

“Fine,” I muttered. “Where are we going?”

He grinned mischievously. “You’ll see.”

Hiccup turned, and I had no choice but to follow; partly because I was curious, and partly because I wanted him to leave me alone, and this was the only way to guarantee that.

We entered the woods that surrounded the village, and I began to get suspicious. “Hiccup?” I asked. “Where exactly are we going?”

He didn’t answer for almost a minute. “You’ll see.”

I rolled my eyes. “First, that’s not a proper answer. Two, don’t you think that you should tell me before you drag me off somewhere?”

He laughed. “C’mon. Don’t you ever do anything adventurous or risky?”

“Yes,” I answered. “I talk to you.”

“Hey!” He shot me a playful glare.

I managed a smirk. “No, but seriously. Where are you taking me?”

He glanced at me over his shoulder. “Okay. Just stay here a moment. I’ll be right back.”

I frowned, and opened my mouth to complain, but before I could say anything, Hiccup had disappeared into the trees. I had no choice but to wait where I was.

Only a few minutes later, I heard a rush of wind, and a midnight-black dragon landed in front of me. Hiccup sat astride Toothless, one hand in the air.

I yelped, taking a few quick steps backward. “I- shoot, Hiccup. Why are you…” My voice died as Toothless stared at me. A shiver ran down my spine, making me feel sick to my stomach.

“Y/n, it’s fine,” Hiccup assured. “He won’t hurt you. Will ya, bud?”

I shook my head, my throat tightening. “I- no. I can’t do this, Hiccup.” I took another step back, my entire body beginning to shake. This. This what had killed my parents. Dragons couldn’t be trusted. No matter how much Hiccup had tried to convince the village, I would never trust anyone, or anything, ever again.

Hiccup frowned. “Fine.” He leaned down and patted Toothless on the neck. “C’mon, bud. Let’s go.”

Without another word, Toothless spread his wings and they soared into the air.

I stood stock still for a whole minute before I realised I was holding my breath. I let it out all in a rush, and staggered a little. I reached out to hold onto a tree truck for support. My legs felt wobbly and unstable.

I decided it was best if I headed back for the village. I didn’t want to hang around in the woods today anymore. I had a sour taste in my mouth, and I needed some water.

I was twenty meters away from my cabin door when suddenly the ground beneath me was swept away. The village got smaller and smaller, and then I realised what was happening.

“Hiccup Haddock!” I shrieked. Toothless was holding onto my forearms, and I was suspended in the air.

“Yes, m’lady?”

“I am going to kill you!” I yelled up at him, panic temporarily pushing aside my utter agony at being defenceless against a dragon.

“Toothless, put her down,” Hiccup commanded.

Toothless flew around a huge pine tree that was significantly taller than most of the forest, and promptly dropped me onto its highest branches.

I clung to the tree truck, shaking. Tears clogged up my throat, and my legs were so trembly I thought I was going to fall and die.

“Y/n.”

At the sound of Hiccup’s voice, I slowly turned to face him. He looked almost sorry, but I knew that was impossible. The little wretch was trying to make me terrified, for what reason I could only guess. This was his biggest prank yet.

“Hiccup,” I said, trying to keep my voice level (and failing), “you will get me down from here, now.” I gripped the tree tighter. “You will take me home this instant, and you will never ever talk to me again. Do you understand?”

He blinked. “But—“

“Do you understand?!” I yelled.

“Fine,” he sighed. “Here.” He held out his hand.

I stared at it for a second, then gingerly reached out and rested my fingertips on his palm. A tingle ran up the length of my arm. He gripped my wrist, and pulled me up onto the dragon behind him.

Every part of my body that was in contact with the dragon’s felt heated up, like I could burst into flames at any moment. My head pounded in sync with my heartbeat, and my palms were getting sweaty. I was, in short, absolutely terrified.

“… let her down slowly.”

I realised Hiccup was talking. “You got that, bud?”

Toothless made an exasperated grunt, sounding more like a sarcastic teenager than a dragon. That didn’t make me feel any better.

Toothless slowly spread his wings, and for a second, I almost relaxed. Maybe he would fly down gently like Hiccup had asked.

The next second, my illusion shattered. Toothless took off so fast I almost toppled off. I was forced to grab onto the nearest thing to stay onboard (on-dragon?). Unfortunately, that thing happened to be Hiccup.

Whatever. I’d rather not die today. I gripped his shoulders so tightly my knuckles turned white. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, as if not seeing would make it better for me.

The wind whipped in my ears, blowing my dark hair all around my face. I was so scared, so worried, so distraught I felt like crying. I couldn’t, though. I wasn’t dumb enough to cry in front of Hiccup. He would never let me hear the end of it.

Suddenly, I felt the dragon beneath me twisting sideways. We started spinning, twirling in tight circles. My grip tightened on Hiccup’s shoulders.

Someone was screaming, and I was like eighty-five percent sure it was me.

“Toothless!” Hiccup yelled. “Stop this right now! You’re scaring her!”

Toothless took that as a challenge, and dove toward the ocean a hundred feet below. He showed absolutely no signs of slowing or stopping in any way. I opened my eyes, wanting to at least be able to see something in case I died because of this.

“Thanks for nothing, you useless reptile,” Hiccup muttered. I slowly began to realise that maybe Hiccup wasn’t the one at fault here. Of course. It was the dragon’s fault. Dragons weren’t to be trusted, which was exactly what I’d been thinking this whole time.

Just as we were about to hit the water, Toothless opened up his wings. We shot upward, soaring towards the sugar-spun clouds above us.

We levelled out, and my muscles lost some of their tension. Toothless floated in the air, almost flying gently now. I remembered how to breathe, and let out a long, breathless sigh.

“Hiccup,” I managed, my voice hoarse. “I am going to murder you.”

I melted into him, partly in relief that I wasn’t dead, partly in exhausted terror. My arms went around his waist, my forehead falling to rest on his back. My eyes fluttered shut, and a lone tear streaked down my cheek.

Hiccup didn’t say anything for a long while, and so neither did I. Toothless flew long and slow and level, giving me the slightest chance of not murdering him, too.

I’m not sure how long we stayed like that. All I remember is Hiccup’s voice saying softly, “Sweet dreams, love,” before I fell into the welcome arms of sleep.

I woke slowly, curled in a ball inside a warm, soft bed that didn’t feel like mine. When I finally opened my eyes, I realised why it didn’t feel familiar. I wasn’t even in my house.

I sat up, looking around, trying to work out where I was. With a start, I couldn’t even think of a time I’d been inside any other houses in the village except for Astrid’s. I had no idea whose house this was.

“Morning, m’lady,” said a deep voice from the top of the stairs.

I groaned internally. “Oh, gosh, of course it’s you.” I found myself pulling my fingers through my hair, brushing it as nearly as I could, straightening my shirt, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

I dragged myself out of the bed. I was still dressed in the same clothes as yesterday, my usual top and skirt combo, with leggings underneath for warmth. My boots were lying on the floor, so I yanked them on.

I glanced up at Hiccup, who was hanging over the banisters, watching me. With a jolt, all the memories of yesterday flooded in.

Red-hot anger filled me. I clenched my fists. “Are you gonna come down here, or should I just murder you up there?”

Hiccup’s eyes widened. “I- what?”

“You heard me,” I muttered. My knife was missing from my belt, which was just great. I’d probably lost in on that horrific flight yesterday.

I stomped up the stairs, stopping on the one below the one Hiccup was standing on. He leaned against the banister, raising an eyebrow at me.

“Hey shortcake,” he whispered teasingly. “Sleep well?”

I gritted my teeth. “You are so beyond dead right now, Hiccup.”

He chuckled. “Hey. Blame Toothless, alright? There was nothing I could do!”

I wanted to roll my eyes. “Um, okay. And he’s your dragon.”

“That doesn’t mean I can control him!”

I didn’t answer, my gaze sliding away from Hiccup. I sighed, laid my palm on the cold wood banister. “I don’t ever want you to talk to me again, okay? I don’t want to see you; I don’t want to hear you. I don’t even want to know you exist.”

I felt a glistening tear streak its way down my cheek, dripping off the bottom of my chin. “Just—“ My voice broke. “Just leave me alone.”

I turned, and ran out of the house, leaving his door wide open. I headed for the only place I could think of; the woods.

I didn’t stop running until I was deep in the forest, surrounded by unfamiliar trees. I dropped to my knees in the dirt, buried my face in my hands and cried.

Hours later, I slowly rose to my feet. It was growing steadily dark, and the cold was seeping into my bone. I shivered, and wrapped my arms around myself as I walked around in a small circle.

I realised, horrified, that I was completely lost. I had no idea whatsoever where I was, which direction the village was, or what time of day it even was right now.

I eventually sat down on a rock, pulling my knees up to my chest. The darkness was growing. Soon, I didn’t think I would be able to see a thing. I began to get worried.

Who knew what things might be hiding in the shadows? My hand instinctively went to my belt, my my knife was gone. I cursed under my breath, and stood, pressing my back against a tree. I figured it would be safer than sitting on an exposed rock.

I shivered, wrapping my arms tighter around myself, my eyes turning towards the sky, hoping, for some insane reason, that someone might be out there looking for me.

Who was I kidding? Who was there that even cared about me that much? I didn’t have parents who were waiting back at home, wondering how late I was going to stay out. I didn’t have siblings who would notice my absence.

Astrid wouldn’t notice this late at night. I tended to wander during the day; she was used to that, but at night it wouldn’t even occur to her that I was anywhere but home.

Hiccup briefly crossed my mind, but I truly did not think he cared about me that much. I didn’t even want him to. I was still so mad at Hiccup, thinking about him made it hard to breathe. I hated him.

“I hate Hiccup Haddock,” I whispered under my breath, trying to make myself feel better. My breath made a wisp of steam in the cold air. I watched it as it floated into nothingness.

My vision suddenly blurred, but I couldn’t tell if it was because of exhaustion or tears. I slumped down to the ground, my legs giving way. I drew my knees close to my chest, hugging them to me. My chin rested on my knees, gazing out at the woods, though I could barely make out anything anymore. I couldn’t even see my own hand clearly, let alone anything else.

I’m not sure how long I sat there, but eventually, I slipped into a deep sleep, half-frozen, chilled to the bone, alone and crying in the darkness.

“Y/n! Y/n? Y/n/n?!”

My eyes fluttered open. I groaned in pain. I felt someone’s arms encircling me, carrying me, but I couldn’t make out anything. Everything was blurred, hazy. The person carrying me was talking, but it sounded far away and watery.

I slumped against the person’s shoulder, closing my eyes. I was tired: so, so tired. Everything ached; my head pounded and throbbed.

I don’t think I feel back asleep, but I wasn’t really aware of anything for a long while. Finally, the person slowed to a walk, and laid me down on a couch or a bed or something. A cup was held to my lips, and I gratefully accepted the water.

I blinked several times, and my eyes focused on a very familiar looking boy, who’s green eyes were staring down at me, full of concern.

“Hiccup?” I asked weakly. “What are you…?”

“I found you in the middle of the woods,” Hiccup replied, his eyes darkening slightly. “Are you okay? Do you need anything else? More water? Are-are you warm enough?”

I laid my head back, rubbing my thumb against my throbbing temple. I let out a long sigh, whether it was of annoyance or exhaustion or pain, I wasn’t sure.

“I hate you so much,” I muttered.

“Gee, thanks,” Hiccup answered. He held the back of his hand against my forehead, testing my temperature. “You don’t seem to be too sick. I think you’re going to be okay,” he said, almost to himself.

“I’m not sick at all,” I said firmly. “I don’t even know why you’re taking care of me. I don’t need you. You—“ My voice suddenly broke with emotion. “You did this to me.”

Hiccup’s eyes filled with sorrow. “Look, Y/n/n—“

“Don’t call me that,” I snapped.

He blinked. “Y/n. I-I am so sorry for what happened yesterday. I, well, I thought it might make it better if you saw that dragons aren’t always vicious. Um…” He glanced down, rubbing the back of his neck. “Toothless didn’t really get the memo.”

He looked at me. “I’m really sorry, Y/n. And I hope that maybe someday you can find it in you to forgive me.” He stood, brushed off his pants, and left, closing the door gently behind him.

I lay there for a while, staring up at the ceiling. I hadn’t noticed it at first, but Hiccup had brought me home. I was in my bed, in my house. I could hear small noises from downstairs, which meant that Hiccup was still here. I wasn’t sure what he was doing down there, but I didn’t really care.

What I cared about right now was what he’d said. And what it had made happen inside of me. Was I really as mad at him as I thought I was? After all, he’d gone out and found me, brought me home, taken care of me. Maybe he’d been trying to be nice, and it really was Toothless who had been doing all those things to me. (Which just proved all my theories that dragons weren’t to be trusted).

I thought again of Hiccup’s eyes staring down at me, his sad voice asking me for forgiveness. The worry in his expression when he asked if I was okay. I hated how much I’d liked that. I hadn’t ever been in love, or even had a crush on anyone. I wasn’t sure if this even was a crush, but if it was, I didn’t like it.

I didn’t like the swirling in my stomach when I heard Hiccup’s voice. I hated how much I suddenly wanted him near me. I disliked how I kind of trusted him. I didn’t want to be in love. I didn’t want to have somebody I believed in again.

Last time I’d loved someone, trusted someone, all they’d done was break my heart and leave me forever. My parents. I wondered if part of my hatred inside was because I’d never truly forgiven them for leaving. For dying and not coming back for me like they’d sworn they would. I blinked back tears, brushing my cheeks with the back of my hand.

I swung my legs out of the bed, standing. I swayed a bit at first, but I forced myself to be steady. I yanked on my boots and slowly pushed open my bedroom door. I stepped out onto the landing, peeping over the edge of the banisters.

Hiccup was down in the kitchen. I was shocked at how much cleaner everything looked. I barely ever tidied up. Not that things got particularly dirty, as I spent little time here, but dust had certainly stocked up over the years. Hiccup had scrubbed away the five years of dirt from my home, and it was sparkling.

Something smelled good, too. It hit me like a brick wall that the fire was going, and Hiccup was cooking something over it. It looked like soup or something similar. I hadn’t had a home cooked meal for ages. I hated cooking, so I just lived on things I grew in the garden, or tidbits from friends.

I shifted slightly, and a floorboard underneath me creaked. Hiccup glanced up, and when he saw me, a slight smile flickered across his face. “Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” I said back, not sure what else to say. I mean, I’d just yelled at him, and made it pretty clear I didn’t ever want to talk to him again. What do you say to someone who’s just cleaned your entire house and taken care of you after you told them that? “What are you making?”

Hiccup glanced down at the pot he was stirring, then back up at me. “Chicken and potato soup. Want some?”

I hesitated, but nodded, with a small shrug. “Why not.” I slowly walked down the stairs, my eyes on Hiccup the whole time. I couldn’t seem to tear my eyes away from him.

He noticed me staring and smiled nervously. “What? Am I in trouble?”

I found myself slowly shaking my head. “No, I don’t think so.” I allowed myself a small, watery smile. “At least not yet.”

Hiccup grinned. “Good. Now sit down and eat.”

I obeyed, setting myself down at the old dining table. I wiped my palm on the wood, expecting it to be coated it dirt, but it shone with new cleanliness. My eyes suddenly filled with tears.

“Hiccup…” was all I could manage.

Immediately, Hiccup knelt in front of me. “What’s wrong?” he asked, almost urgently, staring up into my eyes. “Are you alright?”

I swallowed. “You-you cleaned the house… you’re cooking… I- you…” I let out a broken sob.

For so long, so one had cared. Astrid cared the most, but she was busy with Stormfly and her new baby brother and life in general. She’d offered a few times to have me stay with her and her family, but I’d known that would be far too hard for them. I’d always politely told her I was just fine on my own, thank you. But I wasn’t. I knew that. I needed someone to care so badly that now that someone did, someone cared, it almost hurt.

“Hey, hey,” Hiccup said softly, grabbing me by the shoulders. I realised I was shaking.

“It’s alright,” he assured me. “Come here.” He brought me into a hug, which at first both startled and scared me, but then I melted into it. The hug felt unfamiliar, different, awkward. But nice, somehow.

But this was Hiccup. I untangled myself from him. “Uh,” I stammered, tucking my hair behind my ear, eyes flitting away. “Thanks.”

Hiccup shrugged. “It’s fine.” He stood slowly. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

I nodded. “Yes. I mean, no. I-I guess? I’m not sure…” I stared up at him. “Hiccup, why are you doing this?”

His eyes narrowed slightly. “What do you mean?” He gestured around. “You needed help. You need help. I am the son of the chief; soon to be the chief myself. It’s my job to help the village.”

Something inside me wilted a little. So this was just part of the job to him? The rest of me internally yelled at that bit to shut up, and that we hated Hiccup, so it doesn’t matter what he does. But why did I hate Hiccup?

Thinking back on it now, I really didn’t think he had ever done anything truly bad towards me. Yeah, sure, he’d been a total tease, but I was a rude, bitter, secluded brat to be honest. I didn’t deserve any help from him.

I blinked back unwanted tears. “Um, well, I really appreciate it,” I said. “It was really nice of you to come looking for me.”

Hiccup studied my face for a moment, then pursed his lips and nodded once. “It’s okay, Y/n/n.”

Something inside me jolted. No one had called me that in years before today, when Hiccup had started to. It was the nickname my father had given me. Hearing Hiccup use it had just opened up a deep wound inside me I hadn’t even remembered.

“Please don’t call me that,” I whispered, staring at the floorboards. My feet hung limply in the air just above the floor.

Hiccup glanced over at me from where he was standing, stirring the soup. “Um, okay. Sorry, Y/n.” He stressed my name, saying it slightly slower than the rest of his words.

There was so much tension in the air, and I realised it was all my fault. I made the room awkward and made Hiccup have to watch everything he said. I was a terrible person.

I’d even told Hiccup never to talk to me again, right after I’d woken up in his house. It hit me that he must’ve taken me there after the awful flight on Toothless. Then, I’d screamed in his face that I hated him, and gotten myself lost in the woods because I was selfish and prideful and full of hate.

Even then, Hiccup had gone out and found me. Who knew how long that had taken him? He’d brought me back here, cleaned my house, made me food, and for what? For me to be snappy, harsh, and rude.

I ran my tongue over my lower lip, staring resolutely at the floor. “Hiccup?” I managed finally.

“Yeah?”

“Why are you doing this?” I looked at him, leaning forward with my elbows on my knees. “Be honest.”

Hiccup hesitated, stirring the wooden spoon listlessly around the soup. “What do you mean?” he said finally.

I sighed, sitting up straight and brushing off my skirts. “You know… helping me.” I have a little laugh. “Heavens knows you don’t need to. So why are you really doing all this?”

Hiccup chewed his lip. “Because I’m going to be the Chief of Berk pretty soon. I need to be able to protect my people.” His gaze fixed on mine. “Even when they don’t like me, or want me to.”

Under his fierce eyes, my insides crinkled. I felt exposed, as if I was being examined under a bright light. I dropped my gaze.

“I’m sorry…” I managed, the words sounding funny in my mouth. I hadn’t apologised to Hiccup, for anything, ever.

“It’s okay.” His voice sounded surprisingly even, like he wasn’t even bothered about all this. So it was just me feeling all these things, was it? He was truly just doing this out of a sense of duty. And honestly, why shouldn’t he? I’d already told myself I was a rude little brat, to be totally honest. I didn’t deserve to have people look after me, at all.

I didn’t meet Hiccup’s eyes. “Um, that’s cool. But thank you, really.”

Hiccup nodded, and handed me a steaming mug of hot soup. “Eat up,” he said. “I’ll leave you the rest… have a good night, Y/n.”

And with that, he disappeared. The house felt suddenly very small and lonely, and I shrunk into myself, staring into the fire, sipping tiny bits of soup until I was all warmed up inside.

I gazed around the cabin. It looked so different, all shining and clean. It made me feel like maybe I might be able to move on; get over them leaving me. I shook my head. That would never happen. I didn’t think I was capable of letting it go, of moving forward with my life. I was seventeen years old, and I still held a grudge against my parents for ‘abandoning’ me when I was twelve.

Thoughts whirled through my brain, at an almost dizzying rate. I left my mug on the table, and went to stand by the open window, facing out into the main road of Berk.

A few children were playing in it, kicking a round wooden ball to each other. I watched them for a minute or two, before an absurd idea struck me. I pushed open the front door. “Hey!” I yelled.

The kids turned to look at me, momentarily forgetting their game. “Can I join you guys?” I asked, feeling brave.

The oldest girl looked confused for a moment, then after a brief pause, gave me a smile and a nod. “Sure!” she called.

I grinned, and shut my door behind me, jogging over to them. Playing ball was something I hadn’t done in years, but it felt good to just relax for a while. Plus, it was amazing to see others doing an activity that didn’t revolve around dragons, so I could join in.

Dragons. I shuddered a little, remembering the awful ride on Toothless, and making my feelings around Hiccup even more complicated.

After a good long play, I collapsed to the ground in a heap, blowing up my breath. “Gosh,” I managed. “I can see why kids like playing ball. It’s fun.” I offered the girl who’d let me come play with them a small smile.

“You’re Y/n, aren’t you?” the girl asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.

I hesitated. How did they know who I was? I never really talked to anyone except Astrid, Hiccup and a few other people. Certainly not the children.

“Yeah, I am,” I said slowly. “How do you know my name?”

The little girl allowed herself a smug smile. “Hiccup told us about you.” Turning, she threw the ball to one of her friends.

I was dumbfounded. “Hiccup?”

The girl nodded. “Yeah. He told us you guys used to be friends but now you’re mean to him and won’t let him be nice to you anymore. He said he misses being your friend.”

I wrinkled my nose, staring at her. “Hiccup said he misses me?” I scoffed finally. “There’s no way. You must have heard him wrong. Hiccup hurt me incredibly badly when we were six years old, and ever since then he’s teased and bothered me almost to death. I will never be his friend again.”

I stood, suddenly angry all over again. Angry about how hurt I was, how much I hated Hiccup and my parents for hurting me. I clenched my teeth. “Thank you for letting me join you. Bye.”

I turned and began the walk uphill to Astrid’s house. Right now, I really needed to see my best friend.

When Astrid opened the door, she immediately noticed something was wrong. She frowned. “Are you alright?”

I shook my head. “Everything is so hopeless, A.”

Astrid made a sympathetic face and pulled me into a tight embrace. “It’s okay,” she whispered into my shoulder. “Come on, come inside. It’s freezing.”

Maybe it was. I felt so numb I didn’t think I would’ve noticed even if it was cold enough to give me frostbite. I felt like my insides were frozen, unable to feel anything at all.

Astrid pulled me inside, sitting me down on a chair beside the roaring fire. She knelt down in front of me. “What happened?” she asked, staring into my face.

I shook my head, looking away from her. “I… I don’t even know…” I began to cry, dropping my head in my hands.

Astrid pursed her lips, hugging me again. “Is it your parents? Hiccup? Tell me.”

I took a deep breath, and slowly began to tell her the entire story, beginning yesterday, when Hiccup took me into the woods and the whole, horrible ride on Toothless began. I kept my eyes steadily fixed on the fire as I spoke, quietly recounting the flight, the fight, being lost in the woods and then Hiccup rescuing me and cleaning my house. I even told her about the awkward hug.

The only thing I couldn’t manage to admit to Astrid was how I felt about Hiccup. I couldn’t decide if I hated his guts, or if I wanted nothing more than to be in his arms again.

When I was finished, Astrid let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry, babe,” she said. “But if you ask me… Hiccup wasn’t at fault for what Toothless was doing during that flight. I think he might be telling you the truth; that he just wanted you to see that dragons aren’t dangerous.”

I nodded slowly. I was beginning to believe that. Of course, that just made me hate dragons even more, but there was no point saying that aloud. Astrid knew I hated dragons even more than I hated Hiccup. I would never, ever trust a dragon.

Astrid studied me. “Do you want to know what else I think?”

I glanced at her. “By the look on your face, no. But I guess you’re going to tell me anyway, so… sure.”

Astrid suppressed a smile. “You know me too well,” she said. “But, what I think is, you don’t hate Hiccup at all. You’re just angry. At your parents mostly. But Hiccup hurt you too, years ago. You’re alone now, so you’re taking out your anger on the only person you have any sort of justification to do so to.”

I was silent. Sadly, her words rang hard and true. I could finally see that, yes, my hatred of Hiccup was really just anger at myself, and my parents. It had honestly nothing to do with Hiccup himself. He’d just been unfortunate enough to annoy me all those years ago, so now I’d decided to hate him because of it.

I shook my head in disbelief. “I’ve been so stupid,” I muttered.

“Not stupid,” Astrid said. “Kinda crazy, maybe, but not stupid.”

I looked at her. “I think… I think I should go and apologize to someone.”

She smiled. “Go.”

I jumped to my feet and ran, leaving her front door swinging open in the wind.

I didn’t stop running until I reached Hiccup’s house. I burst inside without thinking about knocking, but stopped short on the threshold.

“Stoick!” I gaped, trying to find the right words. “I, I am so sorry—“

“Y/n,” Stoick replied, getting to his feet. “What brings you here in such a hurry?” His eyes narrowed. “Are you alright?”

I nodded breathlessly. “What? Yes. Yes, I’m fine, thanks, I just —“

“Were you looking for Hiccup?”

I pursed my lips. “I might’ve been.”

Stoick chuckled. “You’ve got spirit, lass. I like that about you.”

I blinked. “Um, thank you?”

“He’s at the beach.”

I smiled. “Thank you, Chief.”

The path that ran towards the beach was thin and steep, covered in loose rocks that skidded under my shoes. More than once I almost fell off the cliff side.

When I reached the beach, I was surprised at how small it seemed. Then again, I hadn’t been here since I was little. I guess my memories of it had faded. With a start, I realised that the last time I had been here was probably with Hiccup himself, back when we were small and best friends.

I spotted Hiccup’s figure walking through the surf a few hundred meters away. I started toward him, slowly in case I scared him with a sudden approach.

The beach itself was small and rocky, round black stones instead of proper sand. The waves here were little and inconsistent, barely making a splash. Sometimes in the summer, we would have a day or two of good weather, and the waves would be bigger, but that was a pretty rare occurrence.

I reached Hiccup, who was now standing with his hands buried in his pockets, his eyes fixed on the horizon.

“What do you see?” I whispered.

“Freedom,” he replied softly, turning to look at me. “When I’m riding Toothless, nothing is impossible. Me, a human, can fly on the back of a dragon. There is something magical about that, Y/n.”

I chewed my lip, considering his words. I guess there was something amazing about that fact, but still… dragons.

“Um,” I said. “I came here to apologise.”

Hiccup’s green eyes turned a darker shade. “For what?”

I dug the side of my shoe in the sand, my eyes sliding away from his. “For… everything.”

He waited, his eyes roaming my face.

I swallowed. “For not being your friend when I should have been. For hating you and your love for dragons. For being a terrible person. For hitting you and hating you and making your life miserable.” During this little speech, my voice had gotten higher and louder. Now it broke, and I felt tears brimming to my eyes. “I’m so sorry, Hiccup,” I cried.

Hiccup didn’t say anything. He stared at me for a count of five, while tears began to stream down my cheeks. What was wrong with me this week? For years, I’d barely cried at all, hiding my emotions inside. Now I was crying, again.

Hiccup did something I didn’t expect. He grabbed my face between his hands. They were tougher than I would’ve thought, calloused and hard from working with metals and wood and materials. He stared into my eyes for long enough for my tears to stop flowing. “Y/n,” he said. “It’s okay. You were forgiven years ago.”

He pulled me into a tight embrace. A week ago, I would’ve fought and hit and yelled at him, but now? I melted into Hiccup’s body, burying my face in his chest and wrapping my arms tightly around him, letting my tears flow freely.

For the first time since my parents died, I felt at peace.

For the next three weeks, I tried my hardest to start a routine. To start cleaning my house, cooking meals every day, and (the hardest part of all), going out and talking to someone each and every morning.

Sometimes I just talked to Astrid, when it got bad and I truly couldn’t get enough emotion energy to talk to anyone else. But sometimes I managed. I talked to the kids playing in the streets, to the other girls I never really talked to before, to the guys helping out in the dragon-saddle-making workshop.

But mostly, I talked to Hiccup. I talked to him as if we’d never stopped being friends, as if we were six years old again. It honestly surprised me how easy it was to get along with him now that I didn’t have an eternal grudge against him. Hiccup was still the same person he’d always been. It was me who had changed.

I made an effort to even start working. I’d never done anything like it before, really, but it was honestly alright. I had a few shifts at the dragon workshop a week, and it was kind of fun after a while. Yeah, sure, I still got terrified when someone actually brought their dragon to the shop, but for the most part it was good.

Hiccup worked there sometimes as well, and so did Stoick. Astrid didn’t, because she was a dragon trainer and didn’t really have the time. I would’ve liked it if we were able to work together, but there was no way I would be able to train dragons. At all.

But, you know, life was pretty alright. I still had scars, deep and hidden and probably incurable, but I also had friends. And hope. And maybe, just maybe, a future.

I woke up screaming. My bedsheets were clutched tight in my fists, a tangled mess around my legs. Hot tears were still rolling down my cheeks, and my chest heaved, as if I’d just run the length of the island in my sleep.

I tried to swallow, tried to even out my breathing. My mouth was so dry I could barely swallow properly. I reached for the glass of water that I always had beside my bed, and gulped it down.

I could still evision the awful images from my dreams. Hiccup, Astrid, my parents, all trapped in a circle of flaming dragons. They were screaming for me, calling my name. I couldn’t move, my legs seemingly stuck to the ground. I could do nothing but watch as the dragons slowly spread over the bodies of my loved ones, devouring them. I sank to my knees, screaming in agony.

I shivered, climbing out from under the sheets. I needed to get out of this empty house. I didn’t care if it was the middle of the night, I had to see someone.

I hurried down the stairs, bursting out into the night. Stars glittered in the sky, the night quiet and bright. The cold wind hit me like a wall, and I shuddered. I hadn’t thought of grabbing my jacket.

My feet moved faster than my mind, taking me somewhere that I didn’t even know I wanted to be. I slipped inside Hiccup’s house, tiptoeing to where I knew his room was.

Outside his door, I finally realised what I was doing. Sneaking into Hiccup’s room in the dead of night? What was I thinking? Was I crazy?

Maybe I am, I thought, slowly pushing open Hiccup’s door. I stood still on his doorway for a moment, before quietly slipping over to the side of his bed.

“Hiccup?” I breathed, almost soundlessly.

“Y/n?” Hiccup was instantly awake, sitting up in his bed. “What are you…? Why are you here? Are you okay?” His voice was hoarse from sleep, and he squinted at me.

I hesitated. What was I supposed to say? Oh, I just had a dream about you dying and it terrified me so I’m here to make sure you’re still alive? Of course I wasn’t going to say that.

“I had a nightmare.” I bit my lip, shifting from foot to foot. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea.

Hiccup’s dark eyes gazed into mine. He leaned back slightly, so he could see me more clearly. “Why did you come to me?” he asked quietly, his voice ragged and raspy.

I dropped my gaze. “You were the only one I thought of coming to,” I whispered. “I knew you wouldn’t mind.”

“Of course I wouldn’t mind,” Hiccup said. “Do… do you want to stay here? Or do you want me to walk you back to your house?”

I hesitated. “Could I please just stay here, with you?” I met his eyes for a brief second.

He smiled. “Anything for you.” He said it so flippantly, I might’ve missed it any other time. But my brains snagged on the words, turning them over and over in my mind. Anything for you…

“Thank you, Hiccup,” I whispered. We were both silent for a while. “Can I… can I stay with you until morning?” I asked.

Hiccup stared at me, then nodded. I slowly crawled onto his bed, leaning against the bed-head. Hiccup glanced at me, then lay back down on his pillow. After a moment, I snuggled down next to him, hyper aware of every part of my body under the sheets.

We were nose to nose. I could feel his hot breath on my face. His green eyes glittered in the darkness.

“Goodnight y/n,” he whispered groggily. “I hope you don’t have any more nightmares.” With that, he closed his eyes, and I heard no more from him.

[cheapshrimpysheep]

Hello OP! Hope u don’t mind this request for the demon bros

So just earlier i saw the “raising a pet together” game on tiktok, and i was on a freenzy, IT’S JUST TOO CUTE 🥹 and i’m too single to have anybody to do it with me lol.

What would be their reaction when the MC got them to downloaded the app and raise the virtual pet together?

COMMENTS: Well, I didn't know about this game, so I asked Gemini (Bard) about it to find out a little more about this type of game. Long story short: I told some of my friends about this game and now we are taking care of a virtual kitten together 😊 Thank you so much for the request 😉

What I wrote is based on my little experience playing the game called Pokipet. I hope you and all enjoy 🐶🐱

CHARACTERS: Demon Brothers (Lucifer; Mammon; Leviathan; Satan; Asmodeus; Beelzebub & Belphegor)

TAGS: Fluff; GN Reader; Bullet Points

WORD COUNT: An average of 390 words per character.

CONTEXT - According to Gemini (formerly "Bard"): The "Raising a Pet Together" game is a concept where you and someone else, like a friend, family member, or significant other, work together to raise a virtual pet.

The core idea is to work together to raise a virtual pet, which can be a fun way to: Simulate pet ownership and its responsibilities. Test your teamwork and communication skills. Have a cute and engaging way to interact with someone else.

“Why would we take care of a virtual pet together if we can already do it with Cerberus?” He will ask you.

Well, maybe you just want to try it out and see how it goes.

“Of course everything would be fine. The two of us would be its caretakers. How could anything go if not perfectly?” he sighs and chuckles “Fine. If you really want to do this, then I can accommodate your whims.”

According to Lucifer's traditional Devildom profile, when asked "Cats or Dogs" he answers "Cerberus". So he would choose to take care of a dog and name it Cerberus.

Whenever you open the app to take care of the little virtual Cerberus, Lucifer has already taken care of everything. Feed it? He already did. Give it a bath? He already did it. Pet it? The happiness bar is already maxed out, but you can still do it.

You would probably do more of the decorating of the room and give it clothes and accessories. He'll probably be stupidly good at the minigames and earn a lot of money so you can spend it freely on those things.

Whenever he has a lot of work and opens the app as if it were another of his responsibilities and sees that the virtual Cerebrus is fed and well taken care of by you, he will smile in relief. It's so wonderful to have another person he can rely on and share responsibilities with. You're so good at taking the weight off his shoulders and making him feel at ease.

He will definitely try to use this game to convince you to take care of the real Cerebrus with him instead of a virtual pet.

If the app has a chat and, at night, you both open the app at the same time to put your pet to bed:

Lucifer: Good evening (Y/N)

Lucifer: Are you here to put Cerberus to bed too?

Lucifer: What a pleasant coincidence.

The two of you cuddle your pet until it falls asleep.

Lucifer: Now, you should go to sleep too.

Lucifer: The same applies to me.

Lucifer: But now I want to fall asleep with you by my side.

Lucifer: Come to my room.

Lucifer: I can cuddle you until you fall asleep too.

Lucifer: If what you want is to sleep, of course.

“Raising a pet together?! Do you think I have money to support a pet? I can barely stay out of debt!” Mammon panics and speaks as if you were talking about a child.

But then you explain that it's a virtual pet, on your D.D.D.s.

“Oh...” He blushes a lot. “W-why didn't you say that from the beginning, you dummy?” He thinks for a second and then smiles widely. “Well, if it's free, I guess we can try it.”

According to Mammon's traditional Devildom profile, when asked "Cats or Dogs"  he answers "Cats". If you were surprised, so was I. For a name? Maybe Goldie, like his credit card. A yellow kitten named Goldie.

He'll blush a little when he thinks that you're taking care of a pet together, like a real close couple.

You are the one who will take care of Goldie the most. Giving it food and bath. And there will be many times when you almost don't have the money for it because Mammon will spend it all on toys, clothes and decoration. Even though it's a virtual pet, he will spoil it.

In terms of the pet's needs, he will probably just play with it. And give it treats. He will try to do the minigames to earn more money, but regardless of whether he is good at these minigames or not, he will continue to spend more money than he can earn.

But despite everything, he will try to be as helpful as possible and genuinely try to take care of Goldie so you don't have to do all the work. Sometimes he will even surprise you by taking really ood care of it.

If the app has a chat and, at night, you both open the app at the same time to put your pet to bed:

Mammoney: Oi! What are ya doin' here?

Mammoney: Oh. Ya here to put Goldie to bed too?

Mammoney: Ok. You can do it tonight

You cuddle your pet until it falls asleep.

Mammoney: Aww look at our baby~

Mammoney: PET! I MEAN PET!

Mammoney: hey... if you're still not sleepy either

Mammoney: why don't ya come to my room?

Mammoney: I always feel more relaxed with you by my side

Mammoney: Maybe we can help each other sleep?

Mammoney: Or... do something else if ya want...

“A VIRTUAL PET TO TAKE CARE OF TOGETHER?!?!” Levi is overjoyed with the idea! His eyes were sparkling! You don't need to say anything else, he's already downloading the app. Could this be a test to find out if you would be good parents to a real pet? Or maybe... No! NO LEVI! TOO EARLY!! One step at a time.

According to Levi's traditional Devildom profile, when asked "Cats or Dogs"  he answers "Henry". But since he could only choose between dog and cat, he would probably choose dog, because cats are known to eat fish.

For a name? “Maybe Henry 3.0?” He starts to suggest “Hum... no... Ah! Can I try something?” he writes a name that is accepted and shows it to you so you can confirm or deny the suggestion, with his cheeks slightly flushed. Henry <3 When he sees you smile in confirmation, his smile and enthusiasm only increase.

He's a dedicated gamer, so you don't have to worry about anything at all! He will get so many coins that you will practically be rich in that game. And he will buy everything. EVERYTHING! Decoration, food, toys, clothes, accessories, literally everything that is possible to buy in the game. And you can do whatever you want.

If you show that you would like to contribute more to your pet's care, he will apologize and promise to play less so you can have the opportunity to take care of Henry <3 too. But of course he will continue to open the app almost constantly, even if it's just to see you taking care of Henry <3.

Don't be surprised if he one day shows up with a Henry <3 plush so that the two of you can cuddle your baby whenever you want.

If the app has a chat and, at night, you both open the app at the same time to put your pet to bed:

L3V1: HEYYYYY ^.^

L3V1: Are you here to put Henry <3 to bed too?

L3V1: Let’s do it together!

The two of you cuddle your pet until it falls asleep.

L3V1: Hey... um... are you sleepy?

L3V1: The thing is I'm not sleepy yet

L3V1: Actually I'm now wide awake

L3V1: Could you keep me company for a little while?

L3V1: You know, I always feel sleepier when I'm with you

L3V1: I feel safe and calm

L3V1: If by chance you also feel this way about me

L3V1: Would you like to keep each other company in my room?

L3V1: But it could also be in yours

L3V1: Or not. It's okay if you don't want to

Take care of a virtual pet together? Where one of the options is a cat? Sign him up! And since he can't have a real pet cat, this is the best thing you could have propose to him! (*cough* besides marriage *cough*)

We don't even need the Devildom profile for this one, do we?

For a name? Probably the name of one of his favorite writers. Or... how about the name of one of your (you two) favorite writers? Christopher from Christopher Peugeot ;)

He's not that much into games, but since we're talking about taking care of a kitten, he can reach your level of experience. Or at least he will try. And to do this, he will do two things: 1st - Ask you for help. Which will make you two learn together how the game works. And 2nd - Do a lot of research on the internet about the best ways to play and the best strategies to get lots of coins so that your cat doesn't lack any care.

That game will be one of the main apps on his D.D.D. In addition to apps about books and the chat where he talks to you and the others.

Maybe he'll even find a way to change the background on his phone to a screen shot of your virtual pet.

If the app has a chat and, at night, you both open the app at the same time to put your pet to bed:

stn: Hello.

stn: I see you're here to put Christopher to bed as well.

stn: Why don't we do the honors together?

The two of you cuddle your pet until it falls asleep.

stn: Now we both should go to sleep too.

stn: If you are having trouble falling asleep, you can come to my room.

stn: I will be happy to read with you until you fall asleep.

stn: Your company will also help me rest.

stn: So feel free to come see me.

“Take care of a virtual pet together? That sounds so cute! Oh, but it's not as demanding as taking care of a real pet, is it? I'm not ready for that kind of commitment. I still need my ME time.~”

According to Asmo's traditional Devildom profile, when asked "Cats or Dogs" he answers "Me <3". But you need to choose between a dog and a cat. So you suggest a cat.In real life, cats are generally not as dependent as dogs. And, lets say that they are more likely to take "beauty more seriously" than a dog.

For a name? “OH! Can it be Asmodeus II? Pretty pleeeeease~”

You will be Asmodeus II's main caretaker. Since Asmo will be more interested in spoiling it with toys, clothes and affection. And if he wants to buy something and doesn't have coins for it, he'll try to convince you to play more mini-games to get more coins for him to spend. “Ow, don't be mad at me hon. It's for our little baby. What if I spoil you in real life as a thanks~?”

When he tells his followers about this new virtual pet, eventually, more and more fans will ask him to tell them more and more about how it's going. Which mean that your pet will end up becoming part of his content. But it also ends up making Asmo pay more attention and care for it more.

And don't be surprised if, for a person who didn't want to commit to a pet, he ends up being the one trying to convince you to get a real pet. After all, if a virtual pet is already so good, imagine how much better a real pet would be! How cute would that be! And how much more engagement and new followers his social media would have! But despite this last one, what he really wants is to share a new love with you.

If the app has a chat and, at night, you both open the app at the same time to put your pet to bed:

AsmoBaby: Hey hon~ <3

AsmoBaby: I just wanted to come put our baby to bed~

AsmoBaby: Sorry for always being you the one to do this

AsmoBaby: What if you let me do this tonight? ;)

He cuddles your pet until it falls asleep.

AsmoBaby: Awwww! IT’S SO CUTE!

AsmoBaby: I have to take a screenshot to show my followers!

AsmoBaby: Give me a second~

AsmoBaby: I could see this cute little thing sleeping for hours~

AsmoBaby: But we both need our beauty sleep

AsmoBaby: Oh, that gives me an idea!

AsmoBaby: Why don't you come to my room?

AsmoBaby: We can do our nighttime beauty routines together

AsmoBaby: And we can sleep together if you want to stay with me

AsmoBaby: You deserve some spoiling for taking such good care of our baby <3

“A virtual pet?” Beel wouldn't understand the proposal well at first. “Isn't the point of having a pet to have a true companion by your side? You know, to take care of each other and play together?”

You tell him yes, but that it's just a little experience for you to share. Seeing how much you really want to do that with him, he will smile. “Okay, if you really want it that much, I'll take care of a pet with you. It'll be fun. Anything with you is.”

According to Beel's traditional Devildom profile, when asked "Cats or Dogs" he answers "Dogs". So, a dog will be.

For a name? You're asking a lot of him. Could you choose one for him? But try to keep it from being a food-related name, this will make Beel hungry. (And in the worst possible scenario, he wanting to bite your virtual pet. This is before he becomes attached to it)

He won't care much about aesthetics, you can take care of that if you want. You are free to dress your pet and get it as many toys as you want. Beel will be more interested in feeding it well and exercising.

In terms of playing mini-games to get coins, it would be very balanced, none of you would get many more coins than the other. Unless you're crazy about those mini-games. In that case, you would get more coins than Beel.

You also shouldn't be surprised when he starts talking about the two of you getting a real dog as a pet. Yes, it's true that Lucifer has Cerberus and that he would let you take care of him from time to time, but Beel wants a puppy of both of you. He wants to have a little furry baby with you.

If the app has a chat and, at night, you both open the app at the same time to put your pet to bed:

Beelzeburger: Hey

Beelzeburger: You're also here to put our dog to bed?

Beelzeburger: Being here with you makes me very happy

Beelzeburger: We can do this together

The two of you cuddle your pet until it falls asleep.

Beelzeburger: I'm going to get a snack before going to bed

Beelzeburger: Do you want one too?

Beelzeburger: We can have a midnight snack together

Beelzeburger: I'm going to the kitchen now

Beelzeburger: Do you want to meet me there?

Beelzeburger: Or do you want me to bring a snack to your room?

Beelzeburger: Oh wait!

Beelzeburger: I can eat your snack on the way

Beelzeburger: Sorry, it would be better if you come meet me in the kitchen

“A virtual pet? Well, it's not as demanding as having a real pet. And it would be fun to take care of a pet with you. Okay, we can do it.”

According to Belphie's traditional Devildom profile, when asked "Cats or Dogs" he answers "Dogs". So, a dog will be.

For a name? Well, Belphie would have a little idea. “You know, Beel has always reminded me of a happy dog, especially when he smiles. Ha ha. What do you think about calling it Beel?” That and when you two talk about your pet without giving context, the reactions of the brothers would be fun to watch.

You'll probably realize that taking care of that pet with Belphie is a rollercoaster. One moment he takes care of all the pet's needs and even buys one or two little things for it. And the next, the pet has all its needs at a minimum and needs a lot of care. Those last one usually happens because Belphie has fallen asleep and has been sleeping for a long time. But apart from those times, your care would be quite balanced.

You would probably be more in charge of playing the mini-games to earn coins. That's because Belphie doesn't really like to have that much work, although he tries to do it from time to time so it doesn't always have to be you.

He wouldn't start trying to convince you to get a real pet. Especially a dog. Because he knows it would be a responsibility he's not prepared for and he knows it would end up giving you more work and he doesn't want that. That virtual pet is perfect. At least for now.

If the app has a chat and, at night, you both open the app at the same time to put your pet to bed:

Belphie: Hi

Belphie: You're here too

Belphie: Do you want to put it to sleep?

Belphie: Be my guest :)

You cuddle your pet until it falls asleep.

Belphie: Thanks <3

Belphie: Hey, since you're still awake too

Belphie: Come join me

Belphie: Let's cuddle until we fall asleep

Belphie: I always sleep better when I'm with you

Belphie: I also have the best dreams

Belphie: Come sleep with me~

If you dropped in here out of the blue and want to read more from me, you can find it in my pinned post: INDEX

[lohotine]

AN: My parents walked into my room midway of me making this and asked me what I was doing- 😰 Um... enjoy?

Part 2:

https://www.tumblr.com/shmolish/746719597375504384/hi-read-your-um-possessive-shadow-milk-x-reader?source=share

Shadow Milk Cookie x GN! Reader

Oneshot (1/2)

Warnings: Suggestive scenes, marking, possessiveness, mild swearing. MINORS, DNI.

-Jealousy, jealousy-

You had been talking to someone new at the theater. They were naturally charming, and you couldn't help but laugh at their jokes, and smile at how they spoke.

He was obviously in love with you, but for some reason, you didn't notice.

Those hungry eyes should be obvious to anybody, though.

Little did you know, someone else had been watching the entire time.

A certain blue jester, gazing and silently hating from afar.

He knew he could make you laugh so much harder, smile so much wider... Make you feel so much better.

Surely you hadn't forgotten about him.. right?

If you did... he would just have to remind you.

You were finished talking to that person soon enough, and Shadow Milk took this as the perfect opportunity to reunite with you!

"Hello doll. Been having fun without me?" He had that normal smile on his face, like he always did. To any normal person, it would look like nothing was amiss...

But something was very wrong.. The fact that you were talking and smiling with somebody else. And the way he looked at you with those eyes- Shadow Milk Cookie absolutely despised it.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that." You would just smile awkwardly.

"Say... who exactly was he?" Shadow Milk would ask while taking your hand. He just started walking somewhere with you.

"Oh, just a guy I met today. He's pretty funny," you explained.

Shadow Milk nodded his head before quickly shoving both of you into a janitor closet.

"Ack, what are you-" Shadow Milk Cookie put a finger infront of your lips, promptly sushing you. His old smile was replaced with a more sinister and stern look.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" He would take both of your hands and pin them above your head, and you could feel his breath on your neck as he moved closer to it.

"What is this for..?" You'd ask him, breath hitching as he sent butterfly kisses along the side of your neck.

"Doll, you're so oblivious that it hurts."

You could feel him begin to nip at the skin on your neck.

"You seriously didn't notice how he was looking at you?"

You would let out some quiet mewls before responding.

"I guess not-"

He bit down hard on your neck, to which you immediately whined at.

"Doll, you have to be quiet. I know you can take it~ And besides, you wouldn't want someone to hear us, right?" He would ask teasingly. You knew he had that shit-eating grin on his face.

You would shake your head and try your best to stay quiet.

"Struggling, are we? I don't see why. I've been much rougher with you before..."

He would continue sucking and biting at your neck, leaving you no time to rest.

"I guess it's entertaining though."

He moved his other free hand to slowly trail down your side, only stopping to be placed firmly around your waist. He pulled your bodies closer together, yet to him, it was never quiet close enough.

At this point, you were practically melted under his touch, and your legs were trembling.

He had told you time and time again to not be so loud... but it really couldn't be helped.

Purple and red bite marks were dotted all over you neck. There was no hiding all of them..

Shadow Milk would take his knee and nudge between your legs slightly.

"Dove, why don't we take this to the bedroom?

Fin ☆

Uh, if you guys want more, just request- 👀

[sunflowersbones]

Golden Eyes, Golden Lies

Warnings: This fic will contain NON-CON, DUB-CON, Blackmail, Manipulation, Violence, Drug usage, Pyrokinesis, SPOILERS from ep: 1. My warnings are not exhaustive, proceed at your own risk.

[Best friend! GOLDEN BOY/LUKE RIORDAN x reader]

18+ only. This is a dark!fic and explicit. Your media consumption is your own responsibility. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Summary: A new year, a new semester— now that the freshmen are here at Godolkin, you assumed; you would have more fun. A little more authority and bossing around. Little did you know, that your new year was going to be much worse than any freshmen’s.

NOTE: So this was supposed to be my first fic, but i couldn't find it to save my life and now it conveniently pops up. Anyway hello to my first oneshot on tumblr?. Tell me what you think of it, Reblogs are really appreciated, this is tumblr after all. I hope you enjoy!.

DIVIDERS: @firefly-graphics

*

You feel the golden sunrays hit your face as somebody opens your curtains. Slowly awoken from your slumber, your eyes refuse to open, clinging on to a little more sleep. You hear a chuckle around you as you feel a warm hand wrap around your ankle, dragging you down. A little more warmth than anybody else’s—a warmth you’re fondly familiar with.

“Uhh… Luke, five more minutes, please; I barely got any sleep last night.” you hear him chuckle again.

“Yeah, none of that sunshine, you don’t want to miss class; do you?, cuz if you don’t wake up right now, You will.”

You force yourself to rip your eyes open, and now finally awake, you stare at him in all his glory, all prim and tidied up, with no hint of exhaustion on his face; unlike you.

“And whose fault is it, that I’m so tired today?” you quip.

“Oh wow! It’s not our fault at all that you can’t handle a decent party night; I mean, you didn’t even drink that much.”

You hear Cate say, only now noticing her presence as she sits at the edge of your bed with a brown bag in her hand.

“What do you mean it’s not your fault? You forced me to come!.”

“Umm… I did not force you to do anything; I simply told you that I could, if I wanted to; you came of your own free will.”

“It’s the same thing.”

“No, it’s not.” 

“Uh, ok, fine; will you two get out now? I need to change.”

“Just change in front of us,” she says with a coy smile on her lips.

This time, Luke lets out a good laugh as he walks over to you, with a pair of your clothes bunched up in his hands.

“Don’t tease her too much, Cate; you know how she loses it when she’s flustered, right? Nearly hit me with a vase once.”

“Uh! That was when we were six, and you weren’t even that hurt.”

You say as you snatch your clothes, from his extended arm.

“Well, my feelings were hurt, sunshine.”

“Also, not all of us are shameless enough to walk around naked in front of other people, like Luke does,” you say, looking at her. 

“Hey! I don’t have a choice; I think I’d really enjoy it if I didn’t have to get naked in front of random strangers.” He says as she stifles a laugh.

“Now be a good girl and get dressed; I don’t want you panicking about attendance again. Cate’s brought you breakfast, and you can have half of my pineapple pie.”

Cate hands over the brown bag to you with a big smile on her face. “It's your favorite cheese sandwich.”

“For the last time, get out,” you say, smiling through your teeth.

Cate puts her hands around Luke’s neck as she says, “You know, you’re really better at getting her to do stuff than I am; maybe persuasion is your secret superpower.”

“Oh, really.” He smiles, as they kiss and walk away.

“Also, get a room.” You shout at them; you hear a muffled “We’ll just take yours,” by Cate as the door closes.

You sip your second coffee of the day as you walk over to the bench where Cate resides. Two more classes and you’re done for the day. Finally, you can just go back to bed.

“So what are your plans for today?” She asks as you approach her.

“Let me guess, nothing? God, sometimes I think you only get out and meet people if you have Luke by your side.”

“That is not true. I simply think that one should have a balance between partying and not partying.”

“Well, today's not the day. We’re going out, you're coming, and I’m dressing you up.”

“Uhhh, do I have to?.”

“Yes! Okay, yesterday's party was boring; this one is going to be good; I just know it.”

“Fine.” You promise, and join her and walk towards class.

You’re all dolled up and ready. The dress Cate selected for you from her wardrobe wasn’t much different from the one you had initially worn, but she insisted, and you couldn’t turn her down.

You walk outside to the parking lot to find Andre, Jordan, and Luke already there.

“Ooh, you look handsome.” you chime as you walk up to him.

“Blue’s such a good colour on you.” you even out a little crinkle, that was on the fabric.

“Hey, where’s my compliment? It took me a hefty amount of time to select this, you know.”

You raise an eyebrow as you smirk at him. “And still, you chose that, Andre?”

“You know; he’s your pet; you only ever care about him.” He complains, embittered.

Luke chuckles as he shakes his head. He runs his hands over your shoulder as he twiddles with your dress.

“This new?” he asks nonchalantly.

“It’s Cate’s.”

“Ah! Explains the glitter.” He tuts back.

“C'mon, Cate; say something.” Andre complains.

Cate, who has been engrossed on her phone the entirety of this time, now looks up as she calmly says, “It’s true; blue’s his colour. Too bad he’s named Golden Boy, or we could have named him Blue Boy or Ocean Boy or something…”, she says as you giggle.

“No, Cate; compliment me!. God, I can’t get a break.” With a wide smile on her face; she laughs back and says, “You look great, Andre.”

“Thank you,” he quips, arms crossed.

Suddenly, his attention turns to somebody else. “Hey! you’re here.”

You turn around to watch Andre welcome somebody, a girl; you haven’t seen her before; she’s adorned herself with a very pretty silver dress.

“Who is the girl?” You whisper to Cate.

“Idk; somebody Andre knows; she’s a freshmen.”

“A freshmen?”

“Well, you know Andre, if he thinks she’s cool, she must be cool.”

“Nice dress, though, right?”

“Yeah! Glitter; we need to get you one of those.”

“Absolutely not!.”

“Absolutely yes!.” She says; jokingly, with every intention to drag you shopping with her, as you two get seated in the car.

You’re a little buzzed out by the Molly Andre gave you. You look around to find Cate and Marie dancing, but you’re all alone on the couch. You wonder where all of the others went?.

Your head seems to be pounding uncontrollably. You decide that going out into the fresh air would calm you down a bit, but entering back might be a problem; you only got in because of Cate. Fuck it, you think to yourself; nothing about this party is all that great anyway; you’ll just loiter around outside.

All of a sudden, the voices around you become louder—a cluster of chaos—and suddenly, a hand holds on to your arm.

“We need to get the fuck out of here.” Luke says as he drags you along, you fumble; tripping over your feet.

His hand on your arm and the other now on your hip are the only reasons you haven’t fallen down yet.

Your head hurts, and you’re still a little confused. “What’s wrong, what happ— You hold your breath as you watch Jordan pull Andre along; the latter's face and hands are covered with blood; he seems to be in shock.

“What happened?”

“Some asshole bumped into Andre,”—he lets out a deep sigh.

“A girl's hurt; she’s bleeding out.”

“Well, then do something; call an ambulance.”

“No, it’s not gonna be here on time.” You hear Cate say as she moves past you, Luke’s hold on you tightens.

“We need to leave Y/N right now, or we’ll be in big trouble.”

You nod away as he drags you into the car.

You wake up with an unbearable headache as you suddenly remember everything that happened last night. God, it was so bad; you just want to go back to bed and sleep away the entire day. But when did school ever allow you that luxury? You also need to check up on Andre and the others. So you make your way into the shower to savour few more minutes of solitude.

Your mind seems a little scrambled as you walk; your eyes focused on the road. All of a sudden, you hear a loud crash. You look over to see a garbage can fallen with trash littered everywhere. With a little closer inspection, you see a stray of blood all around. As you approach, you hear uncontrollable sobbing. You turn around the corner to see a girl crouched as she holds onto her arm.

“Marie?” Marie looks up at you, a little shocked, before she starts crying again.

You walk over to her, alarmed, as you sit down next to her.

“What’s wrong?”

“Everything.”

The blood still seeping through her cut makes you wince, you place a hand on her shoulder to soothe her. “If this is about yesterday, you saved her. The girl is fine, I called a few people to check up. She’s absolutely fine, you’re a fucking hero.”

She looks at you with a bitter look on her face.

“And you know what prize I’m receiving for it? I’m being fucking expelled; what do I do? I can't go back.” She whispers more to herself than to you.

“What? No. That makes no sense; you saved her. That’s what supes do; if anything, you're going to be transferred into the crime-fighting department for good.”

“Well, I’m not; I’m being expelled. Brink said it to me, to my face, you know why?; to protect you and your friends.”

You look at her as she trembles; a new wave of tears wash through her.

“Look, that’s not going to happen, brink probably panicked; he’s like that about Luke, and you can’t deny the damage that would happen if people found out about what happened.”

“So I have to be your scapegoat.”

“No, you won’t; Luke would never let that happen; he would never let somebody’s life get ruined because of him.

“I highly doubt this is from the board, the board probably doesn’t even know; it was probably brink’s decision to nip it in the bud. People don’t understand that; even supes can’t save everybody, and they get angry when something bad happens because they think we did it on purpose. Luke has a good chance of getting into the seven, but if his reputation is ruined, that’s gone. Brinks worried; he’s just like us; he’s scared.”

“But Godolkin’s not like that; I know everything seems like a façade, with its polished words, corporate environment, and god, the never-ending fucking advertisements.”

Marie chuckles as you let out a laugh.

“They care about their supes, especially the ones who are capable for crime-fighting. You are the ones who protect the world now; they won’t just expell you for trivial reasons.”

“I mean, look at it this way, if they’re going to keep somebody like me around; who barely has any strength or control,” you slowly lift the trash can and move it back to its place as you swivel your fingers. The trash fallen out easier to lift; you put it back into the can. “You think they're going to let go of somebody like you? You're going to be fine, I promise.”

She lets out a deep sigh as she wipes her tears away.

“Telekinesis, huh? It’s cool,” she whispers. “Why aren’t you in crime fighting?”

“Well, they have Andre to do that, and I’m nowhere as powerful. And, uh, I used to have a few issues with control—actually, sometimes I still do. So, I think I’ll just stick to moving boxes for the theatre club. That’s probably the best idea.” You whisper, your mind reverting back to bad memories, and you snap back. You really don’t want to burden her with it.

“But hey, like I said, you will be fine,” you promise her as you squeeze her shoulders once more for assurance.

You drop Marie off at her dorm, encouraging her to rest for some time. On your way, you see Jordan walking past you with an alarmed look on their face. They don’t even bother to respond to your, “hey”; and you wonder just how difficult the whole assistant job really is.

You really don’t have any energy to attend classes today; your attendance is pretty good anyway, bunking classes a day won’t be a problem. You have to talk to Luke about Marie anyway, so you change your route and go to his place. You walk into Luke’s room only to find all the curtains closed; the room is entirely too dark for Luke’s liking. You wonder if he still has classes, then you notice him sitting on his bed, something you didn’t even notice on arrival.

As you walk towards him, you notice that look on his face; he’s been getting it a lot these days. A bad dream, and his mind just goes blank for a while. You’re too scared to ask him what they’re about, and he never gives you a straight answer.

You walk up in front of him; he looks up at you, and it’s almost feels as if he’s staring right through you. You don’t even know if he’s actually acknowledged your presence or not.

You slowly bring a hand to cradle his face. You thought that he’d snap or be surprised, but he doesn’t; he just leans into your hand, with a pained look on his face.

“I’m really tired; my head is killing me, I think... Maybe I should take a nap.”

“Yeah, sure, you want me to leave?”

“No. No, stay; just sleep next to me, please,” he says as he pulls you down to lay next to him. He hugs you a little too tight as you make yourself comfortable.

“It feels like the sleepovers we used to have when we were kids; too bad Sam isn’t here,” he whispers as he leans into you. Your heart breaks at the thought of it. Maybe all you need is a little rest, and maybe everything will be fine.

Everything was not fine at all. You wake up to absolute and utter chaos. Cate seems to be rambling things into her phone, and you can hear the shouting madness outside the room, even through the closed doors.

You sit upright on the bed, rubbing your eyes. The brightness in the room, not helping the situation. You stare at Cate; annoyed, as she stares back at you, her face blanched.

“Do you know?”

“Know what?”

“Oh god! You don’t know, do you, Y/N?”

“What?”

“Brink is dead,” she whispers, but you hear her all the same.

“What!?” you shout back. “How, I—

“I don’t know; Luke and Andre have gone to check on it; I think Jordan’s there too; idk, I hear they’re not letting anybody in either, so idk what’s the point of them going there?”

Everything she says seems to be flying through you; she seems to be saying everything and nothing, all at once.

“No, no; what happened to him? How did he die?”

“We don’t know, some are saying he accidentally lit himself on fire; others say he just left; now there’s this rumour that he hanged himself, which makes no sense because they also say that they haven’t found a body.”

She gets another phone call, and the story is being repeated all over again as you just sit there confused, absolutely and utterly confused.

The days after seemed worse; the authorities barely provided any information, and the dean made it clear that the only thing she wanted her students to focus on was their academics.

The whole thing became just another whisper—a little too quickly for your liking, but what bothered you the most was Luke. He’s been going about life as if nothing had happened, which would be normal for any other student, but he’s not any other student. He’d been so close to brinks; him acting like this doesn’t make any sense. Losing Sam had been so difficult on him, but at least he expressed his pain, anger, and sadness. But this was a whole other level of repression. You were concerned for his well-being; you wish he’d just talk to you, but every time you bring it up, he changes the topic. You’re terrified that suppressing all of these emotions is going to severely damage his mental health.

That’s how you ended up here, in your predicament, barely stable and unable to walk. You didn’t have it in you to deny or stop Luke from using or forcing Andre’s new drugs onto you.

You don’t even know where he’s getting these from, but this one was definitely a little too strong for you. The only reason you haven’t fallen off is because of Luke’s hold on you, but he’s barely coherent himself. You get to your room, and he immediately jumps on the bed as you lie down next to him.

Luke lets out a laugh in his intoxicated state. You turn over and look at him.

“What’s so funny?” You slur away.

“Nothing,” he says as he looks at you. “I can’t believe I’ve been so stupid. It’d been so clear; the woods made it so clear; I still didn’t get it.” A timber of anger was in his voice.

“But I’m glad it wasn’t too late; better now than never, right?” He says, more to himself than to you.

“I seriously don’t understand anything that—

Before you finish your sentence, his lips come crashing on to you; you’re so surprised by it that your body goes off kilter.

His lips latch on to yours with even more ferocity, your weak attempt to push him away is countered by his hands roaming all over your body. His warmth suffocating you as you try to make sense of everything.

“Luke stop..., I… what? What are you—

“Shh.. don’t worry ok; I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. I won’t let anybody hurt you.”

There’s a faraway look in his eyes that terrifies you. One of his hands press on to your stomach, “I’ll protect you, I’ll take care of you, let me take care of you,” he whispers; his hand travels down as he cups your core.

“Ah! Luke; no st— you latch on to his wrist with your hand as his lips find yours again; his hand evades yours without any hesitation.

He unzips your pants as he makes his way in. He bites on to your lip painfully so, and as he revels in your pain, you feel a finger press onto you as it makes its way inside. Too overwhelmed and intoxicated, you feel another one of his fingers slip into you as you push onto his chest. Your eyes flutter to keep you conscious, your body too weak and your mind too scrambled, you let your mind and body fall into the depth of unconsciousness.

You slowly awaken as you feel your head being split apart with pain. Your room still dark due to the curtains; You turn around only to feel a chill pass through your body as you see your clothes littered around. Memories of last night come back to you; A part of you is glad that Luke is not around, yet you wish you could talk to him. You wonder if he realises his own mistake, after all you were both drunk and high last night.

You didn’t blame him entirely, yet your heart ached at the idea of having to face him… or Cate. Your guilt ate you alive, even when you weren’t sure if any of it was your fault.

So you steadily avoided all your friends, you hoped nobody would notice, and even if they did, you could always just blame it on the approaching exams.

Your luck only lasted for a week, as you found Cate at your doorstep.

“I barely see you anymore,” she says, the sadness in her voice undeniable.

“It’s just that... There’s exams, assignments, and so much to finish.”

“Is that so?” she says, chewing on her lip. “I’ll help you with it.”

You’ve been studying for the past 40 minutes, and yet nothing seems to enter your brain; you're not even concentrating on what she’s saying. As you re-read the same page for the 4th time, you hear her say.

“Luke and I broke up, you know?”

“what!?”

“Isn’t that why you won’t talk to me, won’t come see me? because you think I’m mad at you.”

You feel your throat constrict, unable to say anything in your defence, although you couldn’t even decide on what to say.

“Oh, dear Y/N,” she says as she holds your hand.

“It’s not; it’s... It’s actually something I’ve always expected, you know, and things have been quite difficult lately. It’s just not the same as it used to be between us, and you’ve always cared for him, and he’s always protected you.”

“I didn’t even believe it when I first found out you were just friends; I’d always thought that one of you would snap out of it. But when Luke asked me out, it was too good to pass.”

“I don’t care,” she says as her eyes tear up.

“I found you and all of our other friends, and that’s all thanks to Luke.”

“I still care for him and you very dearly, ok? I want you to know that I’d never be mad, or fault you for realising the feelings you’ve always had.”

As she spoke to you, all you could do was stare at her; confused and unable to explain anything.

The initial confusion and dread after Cate’s confession soon turned into anger, and after her departure, you found yourself barging into Luke’s room. If he was surprised to see you, he didn’t show it.

“What did you tell Cate?”

“Is that what this is about, Cate? Is that why you’ve been avoiding me all these days?” He says as he comes near you in an attempt to hold you; however, you move to the side; uncomfortable with the whole situation. His face hardens at that, yet his voice remains calm. If you had known better, you’d think he was angry, but this is Luke, your Luke. He never gets angry, not at you.

“Luke I think there’s a confusion; you were high, I was high, I didn’t.. ”

“Cate is fine. Y/N, you’re just worried. Your pushing your feelings aside because you're scared, scared of ruining our friendship, scared that you’ll lose control; you're sacred that you’ll ruin everything like you always do, but you won't. I promise you; I’ll be there for you. I love you, and I always will.”

His words prick you, and you feel your anger bubbling up.

“No, no, no. I’m not… I don’t. Don’t you see I didn’t want to, that night? But you wouldn’t listen; I don’t want you; I don’t want this, whatever you’ve imagined it to be.” The frustration is now evident in your tone.

You’re both quite for a while as he stares at you; the air around you is tense.

“Are you saying that I raped you.” his voice unremorseful of his actions, you feel your breath hitch; you didn’t even what to think of it, let alone say it out aloud.

“I…”

“Really, cuz who do you think is going to believe that?”

His voice had turned cold in a way that was almost unrecognisable to you.

“Cate, Jordan, Andre, I mean, the entire fucking school knows how you are. How you look at me, how you follow me around like a little lost puppy, how you practically cannot exist without me; how completely in love with me you are,” he spits venom as he walks towards you.

“It’s because you’re my best friend.” You cry out, your eyes blurry with tears.

“Exactly, and best friends don’t go around spreading lies about their best friends.”

He takes a deep breath and lets out a sigh as he places his hands on his hips.

“I really don’t want to do this, Y/N, but you leave me with no choice.”

You see his eyes shine burning gold as he approaches you, the heat around you increasing. You move back and dash against the wall. In your panic, you move your fingers to throw a book at him from the shelf nearby. It hits him on the head; he stops for a second, yet it does nothing to deter him; if anything, he’s more angry.

You feel heat sear through you and for a spilt second you believe he might actually kill you. His hands finds yours; the fire in his eyes gone along with your charred ashen clothes.

You feel your whole body tremble, this cannot be happening again. Your inability to stop him makes you feel weak and useless.

You feel his arms wrap around your hips as he pulls you closer, your entire body pressed against his. You feel his heat seep into you, he presses his face into the crook of your neck as he breaths you in, you can feel his heart beat next to yours, but unlike your fast paced frenzy his seems calm.

He pushes you on to the floor and you feel his pelvis dig into you, one of his hands finds your jaw as he kisses you.

“I love you a lot Y/N, I care for you. I’m here to protect you, I won’t lose you, I can’t lose you. You have no idea how dangerous godolkin is, everyone here lies. They don’t care about me, you or any of us.”

He moves his head to look at you, he slowly leans in and snugs himself inside you. One of his hands moves to grope your breast as he slowly thrusts into you, you try to push him off but his other hand moves to hold your hands above you.

The pacing of his thrusts increase and you feel his hot breath on your face, your eye lashes flutter as you feel the tears stain your cheek. His hands moves to your hip and holds on to it so tightly you're sure it’ll bruise.

You feel a knot form inside you, your entire body seething in pain and pleasure. You feel the rush hit high as you come, clenching on to him as both of your moans get mingled.

His hands move towards yours as his fingers intertwine with yours, “You’re mine; mine to love, mine to protect and mine to punish, everybody knows it; but I don’t mind having to prove it, and I think I’ll just have to start with you.”

*

[basu-shokikita]

My Analysis on The Duel

Over the course of my stay in the MTL fandom I've seen several takes on what The Duel means so I wanted to throw my interpretation!

For the record, I used the isolated guitar tracks of Toki and Skwisgaar that user crystalsmeth made for this. Here is Toki's version and here is Skwisgaar's version of The Duel, so feel free to listen to them while you read this. Or you can also listen to the regular version Spotify with your headphones or something.

As we know, Toki walks into the auditions late and begs Dethklok, Skwisgaar specifically, for a chance to prove himself. Skwisgaar accepts and immediately starts playing, leading to the legendary battle.

From the beginning of the song until 0:12, Skwisgaar is the one playing. He's doing the call and he's reckless, unafraid to destroy Toki the way he destroyed every other auditioner.

As such, an afraid but determined Toki answers from 0:13 to 0:20. The rest of Dethklok are shocked, since no one else before him was able to hold against Skwisgaar for even a verse.

While they're metaphorically transported into the sky and turned into mythical beasts, the call and answer dynamic continues. Though their verses are much shorter than the beginning.

Side detail: Toki's verses here are a bit clumsy and improvised, reflecting of his nervousness.

However, around 0:25, a change occurs. When Skwisgaar plays his part, he doesn't stop to listen to Toki's response. On the contrary, he continues playing, and thus creating an harmony with him.

Visually, this is the moment where the tension starts building up, both of them wanting to overcome the other though Toki is visibly behind Skwisgaar.

Toki catches up at 0:38 and they face each other. The call and answer dynamic resumes briefly and intensely as they shoot beams at one another.

While spinning so fast that you can barely tell them apart, the harmony once again returns (0:51). The whirlwind of pink representing Skwisgaar and teal representing Toki only grows bigger, and they're entangled with each other.

There's a sudden cut at 0:55, and in comes the baroque segment. They're still harmonizing but the musical style has changed and so have their clothes and attitudes. They have unimpressed, smug faces, akin to the aristocracy of the time.

But then, around 1:10, their expressions change, indicating the end of this relatively low-pressure part of the exchange. Their fighting is about to resume.

It's 1:15 and they're playing together. But here's the key. It's not call and answer, it's not a harmony they're both fighting off either. It's lead and rhythm guitar. But it's not Skwisgaar playing the lead.

It's Toki.

That's right, go ahead and listen to the isolated tracks I linked at the beginning of the post. For a brief moment, Toki is playing the lead guitar while Skwisgaar takes care of the rhythm guitar. And guess, what? They're happy about it!

As they soar into the skies, they're smiling at each other. Yes, it's faint but you can see it. Both Skwisgaar and Toki joyfully staring at each other, while playing together. Skwisgaar, who minutes ago was defeating auditioners left and right. Skwisgaar, who said they didn't need another guitarist in the band. Skwisgaar who didn't think anybody could match him, less alone conquer him.

That Skwisgaar, relegated to playing the rhythm guitar to this boy he just met and actually enjoying it. I tend to believe this is the moment where he decided he wanted Toki in the band, and by this point on he was just playing for the fun of it, rather than to defeat Toki.

From 1:23 onwards, they're harmonizing though there's something different about it this time, and this is better appreciated with earphones, by the way!

So far, we've had Skwisgaar's guitar come from the right channel, and Toki's guitar come from the left channel. But here, their guitars come together, right in the middle. You can try it with your earphones, if you take off the right or left one during this part, you can still listen to the harmony perfectly, whereas before where you would effectively mute Toki or Skwisgaar's guitar depending on which one you took off.

While Skwisgaar and Toki play in the beautiful skies, surveilled by their animal spirits, their music has fused into one. They have become a single entity.

The call and answer dynamic returns at 1:40 and so do the guitars to their respective channels. The conclusion to this fight is near and the visuals mirror it too, as they turn night-like.

While Toki technically loses the battle, he doesn't lose the challenge, as he's accepted into Dethklok because of his playing and that was the whole point of the auditions.

So, here you have it, my lengthy analysis on The Duel. I haven't really seen people talk about the fact that Skwisgaar, even for a few seconds, allowed Toki to play lead. And it's a fact that drives me insane! I mean, we're talking about Skwisgaar, the guy that truly believes himself to be better than anyone...It really goes to that he respects Toki's playing more than he'll ever admit. Musical soulmates, man...

[itsabouttimex2]

Tbh, I honestly really like the fact that MK's age is unspecified, because like you said in one of your posts, it can the individual viewer identify with him better. I personally like it because I think it's very fan-creation friendly, as in you can make him whatever age you want within a reasonable range and not have to make it an AU or future/past fic. Especially good for the Canon compliant folks!

(To start my silly little rant- obv this is not for people who genuinely can’t see MK as anything but an adult- that’s valid!! Just for people who try to invalidate the headcanons of others. If you see MK as a 100% 18+ and have no way to change your own mind, that’s fine! There’s a big difference between “I won’t ever stop feeling this way” and “No one else is allowed to have their own opinions/headcanons outside of mine.”)

Yes absolutely this is exactly my point! LEGO is honest to god a company built around creativity! The literal intent of LEGO is to provide a fun and stakes-free scenario to exercise creativity for anybody of any age and Lego Monkie Kid sincerely and honestly reflects that with its incredible handling of MK’s age, by leaving it intentionally ambiguous and throwing hints in every which direction to obfuscate any “true” answer.

If you want him to be a kid or a teen or a young adult or hell, even a man in his thirties or whatever, you absolutely can! It’s a wonderful scenario where the age ambiguity is believable and fits into the core theme of what LEGO is fundamentally about- generation spanning creativity.

I like Teen!MK and I like Adult!MK, and I’m willing to die on that hill! I like writing him as a as a kiddo, as a teen, and as a grown man! One of the reasons I made the “Let’s Start Over” AU is because I wanted to write more “unambiguous adult” MK!

Like, I love using real world stuff to inspire headcanons. For example: some species of monkeys (including macaques, like Bonnet Macaques) have cheek pouches! Because of this, I like to think that the FFM Mountain Monkeys, as well as SWK and SEM all have cheek pouches they can use!

And though I know it’s not canon, I can’t help but hope that we’ll see a monkey using their pouch in the show!

But when fans take one of these real world things (in this case, a law) and have, at large, decided… to throw their asses down and spread misinformation in order to further their headcanons as “true” it’s just… weird, I guess?

LEGO is meant for EVERYONE. From kids with poor motor skills barely capable of clicking pieces together to adults with hundreds of dollars to drop on sets, LEGO is a company built on and for creativity.

So when I see people say things like “MK HAS to be an adult! He can drive! He works a full-time job! You can’t think of him as a teen!”

If you watch a show made from a franchise built on imagination and creativity and boundless potential with an specific emphasis on unique artistic style and decided “I arbitrarily cannot suspend my disbelief about a fictional character’s age enough to allow other people to have their harmless headcanons” then…

Well, how?

How can you turn your brain off for mystic monkeys and dragon girls and demon swine chefs? How can you turn your brain off for gods and celestial emperors and spider people with transformative venom? How can you keep mum on ALL of that and then swivel sharply into “actually the story doesn’t make sense if one or two characters are under eighteen but don’t go to school. The magic was fine but that’s too much for me. I can tolerate the demon monkeys but not underage driving or truancy.”

I just… I don’t get it??? At all???

[icanseethefuture333]

Random ass question, but what do you think is the best way for a 4/10 girl to become at least a 7 out of 10? I’m aware that “beauty is subjective” but I’m literally below average, 4/10 is being lenient for me lol

How to have confidence in your physical appearance 🎀

First of all sweetie,

let's not rate ourselves on a scale about how pretty we are! It's really degrading and I feel like you deserve so much better than that. Living in a generation where filters are oversaturated, people using AI to edit their photos, and incels with porn addictions and have never felt the touch of a woman, will call the most beautiful girl "mid". It's so understandable why one's self esteem can feel low at times. You need to change the way you talk about yourself (especially me). Beauty always start from within - as redundant as that sounds. You can't feel pretty if you're not focusing on the reason why you feel this way. A pretty soul (and self concept!) makes a prettier face. Moving on, let's get into the actual tips of a glow up 💖

Let's address the elephant in the room 🐘: you're not ugly, just acting pitiful

Have you ever wondered why you have seen those people who are considered "unattractive" or "unconventionallly pretty" by others be in successful relationships or popular with their peers? It's because they have confidence. Have you ever been attracted to someone that may not necessarily fit the beauty standards or be considered a jaw dropping model, but you thought they were cute anyways because of their personality or charm? That's exactly what I mean. You can be a pretty face or have a nice body, but have terrible self esteem. Living in California my whole life I come across this everyday. There is plenty of beautiful people here, but there is also a lot of people with no sense of humor and no offense, but have no personalities. In other words, you can be attractive, but superficial and boring.

To feel beautiful or more like a "10" even on your worst day is mainly having a good self concept. You need to think with the mindset of "I am the baddest bitch even on my worse days and nobody can make me feel different about that, not even me." Our concept can be changed, reshaped, rebuilt, morphed, etc, into any way we want it to be. Our self concept and dominant thoughts are created by our previous past experiences and what people have told us what we are. For example, if you were bullied in your youth and somebody picked on you for your features. Why would you give a fuck about what a bully thinks??? A person who humiliated and traumatized someone at a weak point in their life does not matter. Their opinion, their actions, their thoughts - doesn't matter. You can change yourself anytime you want, we are animals, we are literally mean to be apart of this cycle called life and our habits, attitudes, opinions, etc, can change at any moment. We are meant to grow and adapt. You get to decide who you are, what you feel, and how you wish people to perceive you. Nobody else. So when you repeatedly say things to people like "I'm not beautiful", they're gonna get tired of it honestly and be like "Yk what damn bitch I guess you are ugly!" because it gets tiring to hear someone complain about the same thing even when they just reassured them (again, I'm guilty of this too). So when you depend on someone to make you feel good about yourself, that's just codependency. You are also giving them the power to manipulate you. Don't do that. Be free and be independent, love yourself. It's your self esteem and you cannot be dependent on anybody else to fill that void you have within yourself.

As Katt Williams said, "It's the esteem of your motherfucking self!"

Why it's not your fault you don't 'feel" pretty

Like I said above, you are most likely a product of your surroundings. Most people are not raised by their parents to have good self esteem or to teach them how to be confident or emotionally secure. There are many environmental factors to insecurity and that it is okay if you are never 100% feeling confident about yourself. People in the media construct this ego to seem "cool" and act conceited as a way to avoid being seen as weak to society. You can be confident and also have insecurities. Confidence is just about being secure with the essence of who you are and setting boundaries when necessary with other people when it comes to that. A confident person doesn't tolerate disrespect.

"Conceited" or confident?: how to avoid confusing the two

I think the most irritating thing to me that is normalized these days is narcissism and conceited people. People will literally act boastful and cocky then say "I'm just confident". Behaving like a narcissist or saying that you are one is not cute and never will be because it's literally a personality disorder, a mental health condition. Everytime I hear this it makes me want to roll my eyes so far back into my head. Try to avoid being this person with a "God complex" because there's a difference between a person who is being loud and fake with "confidence". A real confident person makes moves in silence and is genuine with themselves. If you have to brag or put another person down to feel like hot shit, then you're not a confident person, period.

Tips to enhance your beauty

As I said before anon you are already a 10 in my eyes, but I understand how it feels to not feel pretty at times and we all have our days when we are looking "rough". Here are some self care tips I do that helps me feel pretty and pampered physically ✨️

Get some beauty sleep! This is not just a saying. When your body has time to rest it gives you time to reset & have more energy for the next day. Getting plenty of sleep helps prevent dark circles & puffy eyes as well. If you struggle with falling asleep spray lavender pillow spray, drink tea, or play asmr/soothing sounds.

Skincare & hygiene, this is such a crucial step that everyone should practice in their daily lives. All of us have different skin textures and when we neglect our skin it causes a dry, oily, or bumpy surfaces. Now skin texture is totally normal but if you notice the days where you are not washing your face frequently enough, your skin either looks dull, dirty, or you experience more pimples / acne breakouts. Not to mention how dirty we feel when our body is projecting a certain odor. You don't need to have an extravagant routine, but at least try to have about 4 hygienic products (soap, deodorant, lotion, & body spray/prrfume) and 4 skincare products (facial cleanser (I recommend double cleansing!), serum, SPF/Sunscreen, & face lotion).

Mirror work, saying affirmations in the mirror has proven to be helpful for people's self esteem & feeling more confident with their physical appearance.

Change your wardrobe! Start dressing for your body type & how your ideal self would. It might feel uncomfortable at first but you will feel so much more beautiful! You could try finding videos on tiktok of people with your body type to help (for example, if you are plus sized, you could search your desired aesthetic & find people with the same shape as you).

Detox from social media 📱, learn when it is time to take a break from your phone & engage with the real world. Scrolling for hours on your phone can be really harmful especially if you're reading negative comments or watching videos that are self depreciating.

Follow people who uplift you, not tear you down. If you are following people who obviously are negative or affect your self esteem somehow, then you do not need to be supporting them.

Make appointments! Whether that is a doctor appointment or lash, nail, or hair appointments. Take care of your mind, health, and body. You could ask your doctor what vitamins you should take or also seek a counselor/therapist to find the root of your insecurities in a safe place. Also sometimes just getting my hair or nails done makes me feel more confident!

Learn to treat yourself. Buy yourself flowers or a gift you always wanted but never received. This could be anything, it doesn't necessarily mean to spend money. For example, cooking your favorite food, having a lazy day, etc. Remember that you deserve to be happy!

Lastly, beauty spells, glamour magick, and manifestation are popular methods for people who wish to enhance their physical appearance. I do all of these myself and I always feel so hot afterwards!

I hope you found these tips helpful beautiful ♡!

[kairiscorner]

May art thou request a Model!Miguel x Reader? Really love all your work. :D

OHHHHH OFC MY LOVELY 💖💖💖 yk, if you want, you can send a more custom request for that pairing/prompt :D BUTTTTT I HAVE AN IDEA, AND I HOPE YOU LIKE IT 🤭

(reblogs are greatly appreciated, it helps get my content out there! if you guys like what you see, please reblog it too <:D)

model!miguel o'hara x gn!make up artist!reader (headcanons and drabbles)

model!miguel is just your average guy behind all the advertisements and publicity this beautiful man gets. he lives his life one day at a time, having less free time than anybody else, even though he doesn't work a 9 to 5 job or have any family or partners that need tending to right away.

model!miguel used to live alone, in a quaint little apartment, catch the morning and afternoon trains to and from his previous job as an intern at alchemax. he hated it there, he felt so suffocated working at a place like that—and though he didn't have much trust in the modeling industry, he took it anyway, because posing for a camera in different poses and outfits was much more preferable than doing inhumane experiments on human subjects.

model!miguel was never the talkative type; he had a mouth that sprinted as opposed to just running, and he was usually really quiet and reserved when not bothered nor spoken to.

model!miguel was that distant co-worker of your model friends, and they always praised and complimented him for his looks, his ability to improvise, and to always captivate the camera readers, the audience; though the only complaints they had was that he never wanted to do anything outside of work, never wanted to talk to anybody... but you, who he found interest in for one thing.

model!miguel met you, a makeup artist for a bunch of amateur models, scrambling from here and there just to get back an eyeshadow palette you lent to the one doing his makeup. you were so out of breath and exhausted by the time you got to his dressing room, you looked like you ran a marathon to get there.

model!miguel couldn't understand a word of what you said, he looked at you in confusion as you wearily pointed to the eyeshadow palette you needed, and a few brushes you forgot to take back from them. "these?" he asked you as he takes the eyeshadow palette and the brushes you were pointing towards. you nod and wobble over to him, nearly falling into his arms as you stumbled; and you did, you did stumble—but he caught you.

model!miguel had amazing reflexes, and... an amazing body to boot. you were as light as a feather in his big, muscular arms–they were a lovely, brown tan with specks of gold when the light hit his skin; his lips were voluptuous, you wondered if they were natural because you've never quite seen lips like those, and... and his eyes–your friends were right, he was captivating, in every sense of the word.

model!miguel held you up and tried keeping you up on your feet, holding your hands so you wouldn't wobble over. "easy now." he whispered repeatedly as you slowly regained your balance and tried shaking the fatigue off. "hard to believe someone actually gives a shit in this place about their job, the makeup artist for me just dashed off the minute some younger model with dimples showed up and forgot all about me." he said with a frustrated huff. you asked miguel if his makeup was already done, to which he chuckled and shook his head at.

model!miguel sighed as he checked the time on his watch, it was five minutes until the shoot, and he wasn't even prepared in the slightest. "well, guess i'll be checking out job listings later. i can't deal with this anymore, it's humiliating." he breathed out in exhaustion as he went on his phone to check for online job listings.

model!miguel least expected the feeling of two smaller hands on the sides of his face, they were cold and a little moist, but they were definitely soft. he heard you muttering under your breath as you reached for some powder and a compact puff. you hesitated, remembering you weren't supposed to handle more popular models–that someone else was going to take care of his makeup for him... right?

model!miguel looked at you with a raised eyebrow, expecting you to do something. "um... you gonna do anything or...?" he asked you, snapping you out of your hesitated trance and stuttering out how you were a mere amateur at being a makeup artist—you didn't feel right doing his makeup when someone else was in charge of you. miguel sighed and gently held your wrist, bringing your hand closer to his face.

model!miguel had a soft expression on his face as he looks up at you. "i seriously don't think they're gonna come back on time before the shoot, it's not worth it to wait for someone who can't even remember you were here." he muttered as you looked back at him, feeling a little struck by his words in a way you couldn't describe, couldn't put your finger on. "sorry, did i overstep a boundary? you, um... you don't have to do it, though, i'll tender my resigna—" you agreed to do it.

model!miguel stayed silent as you puffed some powder on his face to keep him looking all matte and not glossy, to give him a more... natural look, as you would put it. you didn't put any makeup on him, you figured that putting any makeup on a man as gorgeous as him to look 'more appealing to the camera' was a damned crime. you combed through his hair though and told him he looked amazing, in about eight different ways.

model!miguel was surprised; you were nothing like the makeup artists he had before you, who were all stuck-up and did as they were told to, slather makeup on the models and send them off to the set. he knew you were actually passionate about what you did, you had a keen eye for beauty, natural beauty—and you smiled, enjoyed it at every moment you could.

model!miguel thanked you for freshening him up, with you telling him it was no problem, while smoothing out the creases on his shirt—even though that wasn't going to be what he was going to wear—you wanted him to look good, and feel good, by everything you did for him.

model!miguel appreciated your help, though he never really noticed small gestures and things done for him like that before, he now has a sort of throbbing feeling in his chest and a hot fuzzy feeling on his cheeks when he felt your hands roam across his chest, abdomen, and shoulders as you tried smoothing out his shirt. he liked the feeling of your hands, the little tongue flicks you do when focusing, and the little grins you show off when you get all excited and happy about something—but the mundane and exciting parts of the day.

model!miguel cleared his throat as he began to thank you, but faltering in embarrassment as he realized he never asked for your name. you introduced your name to him and instinctively reached a hand out for his—feeling all bashful now because you literally spent five minutes in the dressing room with him and not even telling him your name, introducing yourself like you were a stranger to him all over again. "what a... wonderful name you have. i'll definitely remember this one, i won't let my poor attention to names get the best of me when it comes to you," he told you, adding your name with a sweet smile at the end. it was a brief smile, a brief, tender moment that made you smile, as well.

you may not know it, but, when you two stepped out of that dressing room and went your separate ways... he hopes he can ask you for more than your name, more than just what makeup would look good on him for the next shoot—he wanted to ask you if you were interested in... going with him to the park maybe, and just, sit on a bench with a couple of coffees in your hands and get away from all the cameras, attention, and just breathe with him for a bit.

tags !! @miguelswifey04 @hearts4gabri @hisachuu @wreakingmarveloushavok @fictarian @yuridopted0 @simsrandomstuff @luvstarrstruck @popeheywardssecretgf @meeom @arachnoia @melovetitties @fable-library @ophanimgold @smokeywhalee @capnshtfce

[krawlernyannyan]

I've been rewatching The Firefly Incident via streamer reactions and there's something that's been slowly itching at me for a bit now, and some puzzle pieces are starting to fit together:

In the lobby, when the Something Unto Death shows up, it appears almost exactly in the position it does when it's killing your party members: Directly above the Trailblazer, Black Swan, and Acheron, in prime position to kill any of them...but it doesn't. It ignores all three of them and beelines it to Firefly specifically - there's a shot that makes it clear it was in hair's distance of the Trailblazer and went around us. The minute it finishes doing The Thing, it leaves without so much as a second glance at anybody else.

That one was sitting in the back of my mind for a while but then I saw the first encounter with the SUD again. It's got you and Firefly trapped in a tight room, in prime position to kill both of you before Black Swan shows up...and it doesn't. When it could've gotten both of you, it discards the Trailblazer and only grabs Firefly.

Something Unto Death was specifically targeting her the whole time.

Which leaves the question, why? Here's what I think: We know from entities like Clockie that entities in the Dreamscape can respond and perceive things based on specific emotional states. SUD has killed two people now, so whatever it's going after must be some kind of emotional state or desire that both of its victims shared, that none of the other people in its territory have.

The obvious follow-up question is what that quality is, and there's room for interpretation here considering how much Firefly was hiding from us and how little screentime Robin got to have. I think there's enough that we get shown to make a solid guess, though:

Firefly wanted to escape the confines of her illness and break free of the medical cabin she's been confined to. Robin gives off the impression of a caged bird made to sing - she didn't, and doesn't, want to be here but is participating in the Festival under obligation to The Family. What they both want is freedom. They want to live. They wanted to be free of their respective restraints and have the ability to live their own lives, on their own terms.

That's what the Something Unto Death goes after. I have some ideas and further questions but this post is long enough and I think I've provided enough food for thought. I'll leave off with this though:

I'm convinced there's something - or someone - deep inside of the primal dreamscape that has the same dream. It wants to break free, it wants to be released, and it wants to live. But it doesn't get to. Perhaps it's not allowed to. If that entity can feel and perceive the wishes of the dreamers around it, and can sense that same desire? I'd be pretty mad about it too.

[berberriescorner]

Nobody's Gonna Know

(Part One)

Characters: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as himself x Black!reader (woc!reader), Michael B. Jordan as himself (appearance), and Kiana Ledé as “Jerrika” (appearance).

Summary: What happens when you realize what you’ve always wanted was right in front of your face the entire time?

Warnings: Profanity, daddy kink (you’re not surprised), smut, mentions of violence, drinking, and did I mention smut already😈?

Word Count: (Part One) 4,100+/9,000+. Sorry, lovelies, I couldn’t stop😆.

A/N: Yes, it’s lengthy, but the idea snowballed into something unexpected. I hope you all enjoy it!

Inspired By:

Lounging lazily on your king-size bed, you laid on your back comfortably in an oversized t-shirt. You silently scrolled through Instagram. Your breath hitched at the feel of fingertips gently stroking your calves. Still staring at the phone screen, a wicked little idea popped into your head. You smirked, tapping the add a new post button. Using your free hand, you positioned it atop the head that rested on your pelvis and between your thighs. Not wanting to give him reason to stir, you gently stroked his head, and he relaxed into your touch. The movement of your hand paused long enough to snap the picture. He was none the wiser as he continued to search for something to watch on HBO Max. Eyes still searching the screen, he turned his head slightly and placed a gentle kiss on the inside of your thigh.

“Soft ass thighs.”

A soft moan fell from your lips. You made sure Yahya’s face wasn’t in the shot. Your digits glided across the keyboard, adding a Nicki Minaj lyric as the caption, “My man full, he just ate💦😘.” You tapped the post button and laid your phone on the nightstand.

Yahya had just licked you to tears. No one knew about the two of you. That you started as best friends turned into a sneaky link. The both of you have secretly been trying to figure out what this was morphing into. Unsure of where things were going, you decided to keep things quiet. You both enjoyed teasing the people in your inner circle on IG (they were all extremely nosey). Thus the reason for posting said pic—that it would sometimes get a rise out of the other person was a bonus.

Yahya received a notification that you had posted. Still lying between your legs, he teased, “What thirst trap are you posting now?” He froze, seeing a picture of his current position. He huffed, “You for real?”

Yahya rolled over, still lying on top of your stomach. His hand rained down on your thigh.

“I thought this was supposed to be on the low? You damn near ripped my head off for telling my bro I was over here in the middle of the night. I guess the rules only apply to me,” Yahya grumbled. His face changed from frustration to a sly grin.

“Boy, calm down. Nobody’s going to know that’s you. That’s what makes it so exciting, you teased. “And why do you have that stupid grin on your face?”

“I just noticed the caption, so I’m your man now?”

“Don’t do too much. They’re just lyrics. Relax, my guy.”

“Yeah, right. When are we going to stop playing this game?”

“What game, Yah'?”

“Stop acting like this isn’t more than just a sneaky link now. I’ve been blowing your back out for over four months.”

“And I greatly appreciate it. Why do we have to get into specifics? We have amazing sex. No need to make it more complicated.”

“Are you dating anyone else? I know you better not be fucking anybody other than me, Y/N.”

“I’d hardly call a few dinner dates that haven’t gone past friends, dating. It’s been nothing but innocent, Yah'.”

His jaw ticked at the revelation of you being in the presence of another man’s company.

“For the record, I don’t make a habit of having more than one sexual partner. That’s your thing, not mine.”

“You refuse to let that shit go, huh? I slept with her one time! We had just started whatever this was at the time. I cut her off once I knew this wasn't a one-and-done situation. Who exactly did you go on a date with, sweetheart?”

The question and term of endearment dripped with jealousy. You took a deep breath, preparing yourself for more confrontation. There was no doubt in your mind that the answer would upset him.

“Michael. I know you don’t like him. We just went on two dates. Nothing happened, Yah'.”

He pulled into a seated position on the mattress.

“Out of all these thirsty ass dudes that beg for your attention. He had to be the one you said yes to. How many times have I told you that’s a waste of your time? How do I get you to understand that he just wants to knock you down?”

“Is that not what you’re doing with me?“

“Stop that shit. You know how I feel about you. Your ass doesn't want to hear it because you’re scared. We both know this could be so much more.”

“This is stupid. Why are we arguing? We’re not a couple. This is supposed to be easy and chill.”

“There you go deflecting as usual,” he sighed.

“Do you want me to delete the damn picture, Yahya? It’s the reason this conversation even took place.”

“No, no. Leave it up. You know what? You’re right, love. Lay back down. Let’s just enjoy each other’s company.”

Yahya was the least bit worried about your IG post. It was only for close friends, and he wanted them to wonder. Acting angry was just a means to an end. He had a reason to get his lick back. Now, he had an excuse for what he was planning.

Hearing you went on two dates with Michael sent jealousy coursing through his veins. He made a mental note to keep his enemies closer. Seeing that you were focused on the show, he went to Instagram. Yahya went to Michael’s page and added him to his close friends. 

He wanted to see how your friends were reacting to your photo. He pulled up your page and skimmed through the comments. Yahya chuckled at your best friend's comment. In bold letters, she said, “Okay, best friend! I see you! No clue who that is, but get that head in your comfortable bed! Yaaasss👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾. I expect full details and a face reveal when we link tomorrow. I’m tired of all this damn anonymity.” Yahya laughed, knowing that you weren’t giving up any information.

Yahya waited two days before he put his plan in motion. He hit your line, inviting you for a movie night at his place. You were sure the night would end on your back with Yahya between your thighs. Anytime the two of you were alone, your hands always seemed to roam. Every time you two gave into temptation, it would go for rounds. Knowing this, you brought an overnight bag. He knew just how to put you to sleep.

Only twenty minutes into the movie, you were already at the edge of the mattress. Yahya placed you on all fours with your box braids wound tightly around his hand. He tugged at them, pulling you into the most perfect of arches. His free hand crept to the top of his nightstand. You were plunged deep into the throes of passion and hadn’t noticed him pick up his phone. The only light in the room came from the television. Pistoning in and out of your tight walls, he managed to open Instagram. Yahya needed it to be pitch black to pull off his scheme.

“Nobody watching this shit for real, baby. Alexa! Turn off the tv in the master bedroom,” he groaned.

The tv shut off as he pulled out and slammed back into your slick heat.

“Ye-yes. Fuck, baby,” you cried, arching your back deeper.

His face lit up at that. He continued giving slow, deep strokes as he recorded you both in the dark.

Yahya made sure this was for close friends only. With confirmation, he laid the phone on the mattress next to the two of you. He proceeded to put in work, going crazy in your walls. Your sweet, soft, and sensual moans were like music to his ears. You were used to Yahya laying some good pipe, but tonight he was on demon time. This man was trying to tear your walls down and ruin you for any other man.

“Feel me deep in your shit, baby?”

You moaned in response.

He thrust so deep that your hands instantly flew to his abdomen. You tried to push back against his stomach, wanting him to take it easy on you. He growled, binding your wrist with his free hand.

“Move your fuckin’ hands,” he half moaned, half growled. His hand let go of your hair and rained down, smacking and grabbing your left cheek. He slapped the right cheek before burying his digits in your braids again. “I thought you could take all of it, baby? That’s what you begged for. Right, love? Hmm? This ain’t what you wanted?”

You whimpered.

A faint “Please, Daddy” escaped your lips. 

“What is it, baby? Use your words.”

“I can-ah!”

“Yes, you can, baby. You gon’ be my good girl, and take it,” he whispered, trailing kisses down your back, fully sheathing himself inside you. His length tapped that spot deep within you.

 “Y-yes, baby, I’ll take it, g-give me that di-Yes, Yah'!”

Yahya tapped at your spot repetitively, sending you spiraling. You buried your face in the mattress, clawing at the bedding. Your release approached, barreling toward you like a freight train as you attempted to muffle your screams in the sheets.

“Good. Fucking. Girl. Each word was highlighted with another thrust. “Yeah, come just like that, mama.”

Satisfied with himself, Yahya ended the video and posted it to his stories. He hoped none of your closest friends would recognize your voice. There was only one person he needed to figure it out, Michael. Yahya knew you were going to throw a fit, but so long as nobody could see you. He felt he could get you to be cool with it. Leaning against you, he licked, nibbled, and kissed your shoulder. He was still plunged deep inside you and solid as a rock. Yahya’s lips trailed over to your ear. Releasing a deep groan, he rasped, “Hope you got one more in you, love. Daddy needs to come too. He pulled out until it was just the tip. About to respond, he plunged deep inside, forcing you to gasp. Yahya pulled two more orgasms from your body before spilling inside you.

He made quick work of getting a warm cloth to clean you up. You moaned at the sweet actions of his aftercare. Yahya smirked at how easily it was to turn you on. He swaggered into the bathroom and finished cleaning himself up. 

Collapsing into bed, he pulled you closer and pressed his lips against yours. Rolling onto your side, you pushed back against him, making yourself the little spoon. Yahya’s hand crept from your thigh and up the side of your body. His large palm found its destination as it gently cupped your breast. His lips left light kisses on your shoulder and neck.

“You’re always trying to cop a feel,” you sassed, sucking your teeth.

“You know this is my emotional support Titty.”

“Shut up, Yah',” you giggled.

Yahya bit his lip and smirked as he tweaked your nipple.

“Uhn-uh! If you’re going to be on my body like this, your ass needs to behave and sit still. I’m exhausted thanks to your big dick bandit ass,” you teased.

“You know you like that shit,” he responded, tugging at your nipple again.

He pressed his semi-hard erection against you. The action caused your breath to hitch.

“Tell me you don’t want me again, and I’ll let you sleep,” he whispered, nibbling your earlobe.

About to reply sarcastically, you lost your train of thought as he dipped his hand between your thighs.

“You were saying something, love?”

“Fuck, you don’t play fair,” you panted.

“Come here, mama. Want you to ride me.”

Sliding down his length, it became clear you wouldn’t be sleeping anytime soon.

“Yah', baby,” you whined.

“I know, baby. I know. I’m going to make you feel good. Ride me, mama,” he urged, guiding your hips.

Though he had fallen asleep satiated and peacefully, his morning was the opposite. Yahya jolted out of his sleep as he struggled to breathe. You had covered his face with a pillow while chastising him.

“I just know your big-headed ass didn’t record us fucking and post it to close friends! Please tell me my eyes are deceiving me.”

Yahya's hand tugged at the pillow over his face. He snatched the pillow, throwing it across the room. He overpowered you, flipping you onto your back as he smirked.

“What’s wrong? You don’t want your side hoes to find out about me?”

“The only side hoe I have is you.”

“Naw, sweetheart. I’m your main dude. You’re just too stubborn to admit it.”

“Whatever! You better hope nobody recognizes my voice, freaky ass,” you kissed your teeth.

“Oh, I hope they do,” he smiled. “You’re not even mad, for real. I know that shit lowkey turns you on. Listen to those pretty little moans, mama.”

You did your best to bite back a smile but lost. Yahya licked his lips, giving you a million-dollar smile.

“I know I sound good. You ain’t gotta sweat me or nothin’.”

“I should’ve left the lights on while I recorded that shit. Give them something to really talk about.”

“You want to tell people we fuck so bad,” you teased.

“It’s going to come out sooner or later. I’ma make you mine, shortie. You can continue to run from it but in the end. You’re going to be mine.”

Wanting to avoid such a touchy topic, you switched the subject.

“Boy, shut up and feed me. I’m hungry. What’s for breakfast, best friend?”

Yahya smiled devilishly, “This dick.”

“Nasty ass. I want food, Yah',” you whined.

“That’s a whole ass meal, fuck you mean?”

Eyes rolling and smacking your teeth, he laughed.

“I forgot how cranky you can be in the mornings. Let’s get the baby’s tummy full. What do you want to eat, baby girl,” he responded in his best baby voice.

“Can you make french toast and bacon? You make it better than I do,” you asked in a cute tone.

“You know I can’t say no to that voice and face. Come on, spoiled brat,” he teased as he slapped your thigh.

Yahya scooped you from the bed, dangling your body over his shoulder. His hand grabbed a handful of your behind, giving it a loud smack.

“Ouch, Yah'! That hurt,” you whined.

“I didn’t mean to smack it that hard. My bad,” he smirked, rubbing the pain away.

“Lying ass.”

Carting you off to the kitchen, he got you fed and full. Neither of you had anything planned. The two of you spent the remainder of your Sunday binging television and ordering takeout. 

When the time came for you to head out, Yahya felt his chest tighten. He was sad to see you leave. If only you two could figure out where to go from here. He’d have you sleeping in his bed every night. Little did you know, your best friend’s feelings for you had existed as long as the friendship had. He just never knew how to tell you. The chemistry and attraction lingered between the two of you. That is, until one drunken night, he did something about it. He fell back on his couch, missing you already, as his mind drifted back to that night.

You were spiraling down a black hole of heartbreak. Yahya came running to offer support and a listening ear to vent to. 

His fist balled up, jaw flexing as his memory replayed the image of you opening the door. 

Your eyes were bloodshot and glassy as you did your best to keep from crying again. Yahya’s heart sank seeing how distraught you were. He stepped closer to you, and in a low baritone, he said, “Hey, mama.” The sympathy in his soothing voice sent a fresh trail of tears rolling down your cheeks. He sighed as his arms snaked around your waist, pulling you as close as possible. Yahya’s chin rested on your head as you curled into his chest, body trembling as the tears flowed. “You’re going to be straight, mama. I promise I got you,” he soothed, rubbing his hands up and down your back. He gave you a minute or two to let it all out. Releasing you, he bent back, using the pads of his thumbs to wipe your tears. Yahya leaned forward, sweeping you up bridal style. “Let’s get you comfy on the couch. I’ll fix us some drinks and snacks. Then you can tell me everything, alright?” Giving him a faint nod, Yahya kicked the door closed. He made quick work of getting you situated on the couch. Yahya wrapped you in your comfort blanket. Gently kissing your forehead, he whispered, “Be right back, love.”

He called from the kitchen, “Are you in the mood for something light or heavy?”

“This calls for the hard shit. Bring the tequila. I don’t even need a damn chaser. Give me something that will make me forget the last twenty-four hours.”

Yahya strode back into the living room, alcohol in hand.

“What are you about to tell me, love?”

“Maybe you should take a couple of shots first.”

Yahya set the shot glasses and bottle on the coffee table. His hand ran down his face as he took a deep breath, “Am I going to have to beat his ass?”

You sat up straight, dropping the blanket around your waist. Pouring two shots, you answered, “Just promise me you won’t lose your temper.”

“No.”

“Yah', please,” you begged, voice trembling.

“The desperation in your voice tells me that I’m going to regret this, but fine, I promise not to lose my temper. What happened?”

“Drink first.”

Shots were thrown back, and you grimaced, pouring out two more. After the second, you started to pour another round, but Yahya’s hand gently grasped your wrist, “No-.”

A small whimper fell from your lips as his eyes grew. Yahya’s eyes darted from your weary ones down to your wrist. His hands were like lightning as he slid your sleeve up a bit.

“No, fuck that, mama! Is this a bruise?” 

“You promised, Yah'.”

“Promises are meant to be broken. Where the fuck is his punk ass at?”

He sprang from the couch, searching his pockets for his keys.

“Where’s he at?”

“No, please, Yahya. You promised! I handled it.”

“Why are you protecting his bitch ass? Has he been putting his hands on you this whole time?”

“I’m not protecting him. I know he’ll press charges against you. It’s not worth it. This is the only time it’s happened, honestly!”

“Don’t lie for him. Tell. Me. Where. He. Is.”

“I’m not lying, Yah'. This is the first time. I handled it, I swear. You should see the side of his face. I smacked the shit out of him.”

“Did he hit you anywhere else,” he asked, checking your face and body for more bruises.

“No, I’m telling you the truth. We were arguing about him getting caught up in his lies and cheating. I told him I was done and that he needed to get the hell out of my house. This dude had the nerve to snatch my wrist, demanding I hear him out. I told him he was hurting me. His response was he didn’t give a fuck. That pissed me off, so I slapped him. He charged at me, and I kicked him in the nuts. How do you cheat on me with a bitch I called a friend and have the nerve to be mad that I no longer wish to be with you? The audacity!”

“I pray he tries to show up while I’m here.”

“He won’t. It’s over, and he understands that now.”

Yahya looked at you, not quite believing it.

“I told his ass if he tried contacting or coming near me again that you’d beat his ass. That or he was going to have a chat with Nina.”

“Thought you didn’t want me to put hands on him. You swear your ass is tough with that baby Glock. Who the fuck puts hot pink on the butt of their gun,” he retorted.

“I don’t want you to, smart-ass, but he knows you would. It was only said to get my point across that I was done with him. Not too much on my baby, Nina.”

Yahya sighed, frustrated that he’d have to keep his promise. He reclaimed his spot on the couch, crossing his arms irritated. You kissed your teeth, “I know you're not mad at me for keeping you out of trouble?”

“It’s whatever. He needs his ass beat, though,” he sulked.

“Just leave it alone, Yah'.”

“I heard you the first time.”

The room grew quiet. It stayed that way for a little while. That was until he heard you sniffling.

“I’m not mad at you, love. I just really want to rock his shit.”

“I know you’re not mad at me. It’s just.”

“What is it, mama?”

“Am I not good enough? Dudes do me dirty, and people I call friends turn out to be grimy. You’re the only person who has always been down for me. I’m so thankful for your years of loyalty and friendship,” you rambled, tears sliding down your face.

Yahya pushed his anger aside, taking a deep breath. His hands reached for your arm, pulling you into him. His palm cradled your head, guiding you to lie against his chest. He kissed your temple, speaking words of encouragement.

“That’s just god's way of making room for the real ones to come into your life, mama. You’re going to be alright, love. You’ll shake back from this. You’re strong, girl. The right man is out there. He’ll love you the way you deserve to be loved.”

As he held you, speaking enlightenment into you. Something shifted inside you. Not quite sure what the feeling was, you shook it off.

“More tequila,” you offered.

The pair of you went shot for shot. It only took a short time for you both to get drunk off your asses. In a drunken stupor, you both laughed as you recounted the numerous times you had to fake a climax with your ex. Yahya was in tears, holding his stomach, laughing uncontrollably.

“This man had to be talked through eating the box. Every. Single. Time. At what point do you finally get the gist of eating pussy? I can’t believe I stayed as long as I did.”

“Why did you stay?”

“The dick was big.”

A hand flew to your mouth, covering your lips, shocked at what you had just revealed.

“Sorry. That was probably too much information. I need to stop drinking,” you slurred, no longer able to look him in the eyes.

Yahya cupped your chin, forcing you to look at him.

“Not too much. That’s some pretty useful information,” he rasped.

Your breath hitched as you looked into his chocolate orbs.

“I don’t follow.”

“That’s what you like, mama?”

Yahya’s hand trailed to your neck. His fingers circled your throat, giving a light squeeze. You knew you should pull away, but your mind and body said two different things.

“Yahya,” you whispered.

“Answer me, mama. That’s what you like?”

You moaned, nodding your head yes. Yahya licked his lips at your response. 

“I want to hear you say it, love. Tell me what you like. I want to make sure you understand what I’m trying to say,” he groaned.

The liquor urged you to take it further. You leaned closer, his hand still squeezing your throat. Lips only inches apart, Yahya watched in awe as you answered, breath tickling his lips.

“I love a big, long, thick di-.”

Before you could finish the sentence, Yahya groaned and devoured your lips. Not giving it a second thought, he slid you on top of his lap as your tongues battled for dominance. Hand still placed around your neck, you ground against his lap, loving the groan he released. 

“I can see why that was useful information now,” you purred.

It was evident, even inside his jeans, you could feel that he was massively large. You pulled back, slipping your shirt off, dropping it to the floor. His eyes sparkled at the sight of your breast as he cupped them, kissing and suckling your neck.

“Are you sure this is what you want, mama?”

“Yes, I want you, Yah'. Fuck the pain away, please.”

Kissing your lips again, he held you close as he raised from the sofa. Arms wrapped around his neck. You tasted each other's lips as Yahya carried you to the bedroom. The following morning wasn’t even awkward. That’s probably because you woke up with Yahya’s head between your thighs. A serious discussion occurred over breakfast. Though you both decided it probably shouldn’t happen again, time would reveal that it was too late to turn back.

I know I left it on yet another cliffhanger, but that's my specialty😆. I got my lovelies, though. The fic is complete, so slide on over to part two. Before you go, leave a comment and tap the love button. Reblogs are greatly appreciated🫶🏾!

Gif Credit: @abdulmateens, thanks again for allowing me to use it for my mood board💗.

Divider Credit: @firefly-graphics.

Tagging a few lovelies:

@sheabuttahwrites , @moebuttta , @darqchilddaydreamz

@alertyoulikeitsamber , @astoldbychae , @miyuhpapayuh

@sunshine-flower , @nightlywords7 , @4everbrookemarie

@delta7of96 , @novaniskye , @1andonlytashae

@shaolyninferno , @mcdesij , @willadean

@partygetsmewetter-x , @blackerthings , @peachbuttetfly

@theraieinfluence , @honestpreference , @queeniekiy

@tashawar , @skyesthebomb , @captainwithoutmakingitlove

[mischievouslittlecreature]

I absolutely adore your OCs and though I'm not in the fandom at all, I think Lucy is my favorite one💖She has dealt with so much but she's a strong lady and doesn't seem to be afraid of anything/anybody. My question to you is how do you get your OC together? The only thing I have is for mine is a name, faceclaim and a fandom but I have no idea what else I can do. Any suggestion? [PS: Keep up the amazing work!]

Oh, thank you so much, Daisy! 🖤 It means so much that you love Lucy so much! She's my baby and it always brings me so much joy to know that others adore her too!

Everyone is different when it comes to developing their OCs, but here's some techniques that have worked for me:

-Keeping notes on them. I have a whole folder dedicated to OC notes. It's where I store my character profiles and any other information on them that I need.

-Ask games. Doing these for your OCs can help your readers get to know them, and can help develop them further.

-Character profiles. This is my personal go-to. The general layout of the one I like to use can found here. I find it really helpful when first building a character to get all this information out somewhere that I can easily access it. Feel free to play around with it if you'd like, add/remove sections or categories, etc.

-Pinterest boards. If my character profiles are my written notes on my OCs, I guess you could say that my Pinterest boards are my visual notes. I like to make one for each series/fic I'm working on. I find it especially useful for finding visual examples of my OC's wardrobe and physical appearance. You can check out my boards here if you want to see how I organize them and everything.

Those are my suggestions for now! Please never hesitate if you have any more questions on anything regarding OCs! I'm always happy to help!

[xviruserrorx]

(Explanations of what each event is is under the cut along with some of my ramblings)

This is for the main thing. In the theoretical Discord I'm currently making I feel like a lot of things can be done as little mini events along the way if anyone would want to do that. That way, aside from whatever the main event is, we can still do other stuff throughout the year. A lot of this is just ideas I'm throwing out into the wild so to speak and to see what interests everyone.

I also kinda want there to be something laid back too because I know that fandom, the craft community, and the disabled community all intersect big time so yeah. Feel free to yell at me from the tags I want to see everyone's input/ideas!

A week long event: I feel like this is too quick because these things takes a lot of time, but in the theoretical Discord I'm currently making we can do little weekly prompts/challenges if it interests anybody.

Nanowrimo: This is a month long thing where everyone has a 50k novel to work on and you work on it everyday for a month. Similarly can be done with crafts/fiber arts/textiles where everyone picks a project and we each have a goal to meet each day

A select few months: Ex. June-August,

Gift exchange: Again another one of my theoretical ideas, might be difficult, sounds pretty fun, maybe could be used for a holiday event thing?

Draw/Write in your own style: This is when everyone creates someone off of the same prompt/image, but I'm this case it's probably be the same Base pattern.

Bang Event: Two or more people of different or the same mediums (a crocheter, a pattern maker, a knitter etc) pair up and make whatever based off of each other's work.

Round Robin/Telephone: For those who don't know, a Round Robin is when you pass along a fanfic from one person to another and you all start where the last person left off. Telephone is very similar but like in telephone only the first person who starts the project has and knows the pattern while everyone else doesn't. Again with this it may be hard and require a lot of planning but it's worth the mention.

Teams/Game type event: So teams event if when people are put into teams (team blue or team [specific fandom name]) and you just create as much as possible for whatever theme the group picks. Now Game type events (I actually haven't seen any of these in recent year) is when you do the same thing but each round everyone votes and gives points to each other and who ever has the most at the end wins.

Bingo: A bingo card filled usually with different prompts/challenges that can be customized or just picked at random

Masquerade/Guess The Maker: Everyone has a concealed Identity and everyone else has to guess who made what.

[robiniswriting]

I’m still amazed that the BBC let Chris “wrote the Cyberwoman episode of Torchwood” Chibnall anywhere near Jodie’s run, never mind putting him in charge of it

gonna be brutally honest here anon I have never seen torchwood so I cannot comment on that specifically, BUT!

chris chibnall isn’t as awful of a writer as people think. in my opinion, he was hindered by his love of classic who. he was writing for a completely different show in a completely different time, and a lot of his plot and lore decisions make more sense when you consider the classic show. not to mention his politics, many of which were stuck in the 1960s-1980s.

as a result, fans of new who didn’t like it — certain key elements of it didn’t really gel with the current show and upset their understanding of the doctor as a character.

chibnall also made the mistake of listening to fans during his first season: everyone was saying they wanted new monsters and a break from daleks and cybermen, so he had a season of totally brand-new monsters. people hated it, said the show was unrecognizable. when he wrote a few new episodes with daleks and cybermen and weeping angels, people wrote it off because they’d already made up their mind about it.

I’ll always be grateful to chibnall for pushing forward and having the first female doctor. the pushback he received for that at the time gets largely forgotten. it would have been easy to give in to the massive pressure and recast — nothing of the seasons had been filmed when jodie was initially announced — but he refused to budge and backed jodie all the way. for that, I’ll always respect him. he’s put up with a lot of shit from the fans.

that having been said, disliking chibnall’s era is so valid. even though I really enjoy thirteen’s run (she is my wife I love her dearly) I can like that era of the show and also have enough critical thinking skills to see the problems with it. I’m pretty sure i’ve said it before but the politics of the chibnall era are atrocious (see: the woman who fell to earth, rosa, arachnids in the uk, kerblam!, spyfall pt. 2, the vanquishers — feel free to ask me to elaborate on any of these) and sometimes he falls into the trap many writers do when writing women, which is to water them down a bit. thirteen is Not as weak as many people make her out to be, but there are a few moments that irk me (see: needing jack harkness to break her out of prison. I’d have been okay with it if maybe she’d managed to stall the judoon long enough to send him a distress signal or something? maybe use the sonic to get his attention? just give her a bit of agency).

anyway, long story short, chibnall’s era has issues. but nowhere near the number that people attribute to it. as for why the BBC handed the show over to him, he was extremely successful as showrunner on broadchurch, had written well-liked episodes of doctor who and been head writer at torchwood in the past, was a massive fan of the show, and vocally wanted to being some changes and mystery to the show, something fans had been clamoring for for ages. my guess is he applied for the job, interviewed like anybody else, and they decided he was the best possible candidate.

no writer is going to have no misses, especially not on a show with such demanding deadlines as doctor who, and every new showrunner is a risk the BBC have to take. at the time, it looked like he was the man for the job. sometimes, it’s all just business.