#it's just hard to FIND those people in particular to bounce around with

[is-this-tf]

Okay I need to speak my truth: being into character TF for fandoms that rarely get attention from TF artists feels like this

[starsofang]

simon riley x autistic!reader requested by anon! <3 tw: none!

When a certain John Price had recruited you under his own jurisdiction, you were cautious yet excited to be joining a new task force. It was an opportunity you simply couldn’t pass up, and you’d be insane to say no. Price had promised you would fill in the gap that seemed to be missing from their team, and for the most part, he was absolutely correct.

Gaz and Johnny were the most welcoming in the beginning. Price was more the serious type with an occasional bad joke here and then, but all in all, everybody approved of you and had your back so long as you had theirs.

None of them seemed to mind when you’d have days where you’d be talkative on one, and quiet the next. They’d listen to your passionate ramblings on specific topics, or they’d allow you to sit in comfortable silence if they knew you needed it.

There was one person in particular who didn’t seem quite fond of you, and that would be Ghost – or Simon, as Johnny called him on occasion. It wasn’t that he didn’t seem to like you, no. He just seemed distant, purposefully keeping you at an arm’s length and only acknowledging you when necessary.

Johnny had told you not to worry about it, that he’d come around eventually. Simon was impartial to new people and it took him a while to open up.

You did notice, though, that Simon was someone who stared. One too many times, you’d catch those brooding eyes boring into you, as if trying to puzzle you together and figure out where the pieces fit. It would always cause a bit of anxiety to well in you when you’d find his eyes across the room, already locked in on you, and you would find yourself avoiding his stare as soon as you felt it.

It wasn’t until a particular mission had gone bad that you completely shut down. In the presence of your new task force, you had successfully masked yourself as much as possible. But now, when Johnny had nearly been killed, all due to an error in your own judgment, that mask was slipping off and you needed time to let it crumble on your own.

You thought that was all you needed – time. But time proved fruitless as you spent the next few days on lockdown, avoiding all conversation and interaction. Your eyes would stray to the ground, or you’d find yourself staring blankly at the walls of the mess hall with your nails picking at the skin around them from beneath the table.

You didn’t think anybody noticed. After all, everybody was on edge and decompressing from the failed mission, and they didn’t have the focus to see your mind eating you up.

Simon did, though.

He’d seen all the signs, from the way you picked at your nails, to the way you’d consistently tuck your hair behind your ear, even if it was already tucked, and to the way you’d tap your foot along the ground in a repetitive motion, leg bouncing wildly underneath the table during breakfast or debriefs.

At first, none of it made sense to him. He thought it was simple signs of anxiety, and for that, he truly thought that if one bad massion made you close up this much, you wouldn’t last long enough to see a second one. But when he returned to his quarters and searched up all of your stims that he’d taken mental notes of over the course of the week, things clicked.

He didn’t know much about autism. To his embarrassment, you were the first person with autism that he’d actively been around on a daily basis. Everything he’d seen made complete sense, and that last puzzle piece he was trying so hard to fit seemed to fall right into place.

Simon took it upon himself to educate himself. He, too, had his own struggles that not many people had an understanding of, and now that he knew what made sense, he didn’t want you to continue hiding yourself away for the sake of the rest of the team.

It started off small.

When Simon would notice you picking at your fingernails, he’d place a large hand over yours to stop you without sparing a glance in your direction. If he wasn’t there to stop you, he’d silently wrap your fingers up in cute bandages he purchased himself, because he noticed you liked them more than the typical brown ones.

If he noticed you zone out and lose a piece of yourself, where your eyes would find the walls and focus in on them as if they were the most interesting thing in the world, he’d gently grab your shoulder with means to snap you out of it and remind you that he was there with you.

At first, you were surprised when Simon began showing you these subtle signs of companionship. He hadn’t shown any interest in you up until this point, but as time went on, you found yourself actively seeking out that safe space that Simon was slowly building for you.

You crawled your way out of that hole you found yourself in and began returning to normalcy; except now, you didn’t feel you had to mask all the time.

When you returned to your rambling moments, your hand would subconsciously find its way to Simon’s, grasping and fiddling with his fingers while you spoke. He’d never pull his hand away, and instead, he’d sit there quietly with his full attention on you, eyes soft and affectionate from beneath his mask.

Often times, when he’d head to the mess hall to grab a snack or a drink for himself, he began to bring you something back as well – cookies, chips, you name it. If he knew you liked it, he’d snag a couple of whatever it was and place it in front of you without a word (and would absolutely ignore Johnny’s childish whines of how he never did that for him).

This back and forth between the two of you didn’t go unnoticed, and when Gaz nudged Johnny when the three of them sat in the debrief room together, claiming that Simon had a crush, he didn’t blatantly deny it.

Simon wasn’t sure what it was he felt for you. He wanted to see you happy, that he knew for sure, but when Gaz and Johnny continued to feed into their teasing remarks, he was beginning to think that, okay, yeah, maybe he had a bit of a crush.

It took him months to even proclaim this confession to you. He didn’t want to overwhelm you, or god forbid you didn’t feel the same way, didn’t want you to close up on him like you had with others before. Being your safe space was something he took pride in, and for a man who had no knowledge months ago on how to approach you in a way that showed he understood, he didn’t want to ruin that.

That wasn’t at all what happened, though. When he had the gall to tell you, you were practically bursting at the seams. Hands moving wildly, feet causing you to bounce with excitement as you eagerly confessed your own feelings for him. He was scared your lips were crack open from how widely you were smiling and babbling on about your affection.

And when he had the chance to kiss you? He did it with so much tenderness, keeping it as gentle as possible, hands only cupping your cheeks when you told him it was okay.

You had never met someone who was so passionate about you, that they’d learn everything about you. He knew your quirks, your hyperfixations, your interests, your stims. He knew more about you than he did himself at this point.

To have somebody cherish you in such a way that they’d go that far for you, even when they themselves aren’t partial to getting attached to people, it was all Simon ever hoped to make you feel, and it was all you ever wanted to feel understood and accepted.

Simon would happily assure you of that any day.

—

thank u for this idea anon!! i really hope it lived up to your standards, i tried to make it as accurate as possible while trying not to make the stims too specific and detailed since i know many people have different ones and that autism is not linear! <3 please enjoy fluffy simon because he’s my favorite

[chrattenthusiast]

Hate— Matthew sturniolo smut

(not proof read )

authors note 💌 — this is my FIRST time writing smut on this app so please forgive me for this 😔 with that being said I will be taking requests if my account actually reaches ANYONE. It’s kinda long and a little bit angsty but if you like that AND a good old enemies to lover trope (but without the love part!?) this is for you!!!

WARNINGS: nsfw, sexual content, minors dni!!!!!

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

You and matt never had a strong connection. The dynamic of your interactions with him were unclear, you couldn’t comprehend why the blue-eyed man barely acknowledged you, except during heated arguments where nick served as a mediator or the instances where you found yourself under him late at night

On this particular night, you patiently waited until the clock struck 3 a.m. before quietly slipping out of Nick's bed. It didn't seem to matter that Nick could sleep through anything, even an apocalypse.

You then made your way to Matt's bed and lightly tapped on the door three times."

the door swings open and before you could even mutter a sentence, Matt pulls you into the room, shutting the door and slamming you against it.

“you’re late” he says

“ That’s rich coming for a man that begs like a little subby bit-“

you are instantly cut off as matt smashes his lips onto yours. he deepens the kiss letting it get a little too heated, moments later you feel his tongue against yours

“open” he mumbles

you instantaneously obey even though matt was the number 1 person on the list of people you hated, you always caught yourself following his instructions

he grips your jaw, forcing your mouth to open slightly, taking the opportunity– he spits into your mouth

“swallow it like the slutty bitch you are ”

you feel yourself pool after those words leave his lips

matt decided to play it safe by moving down to your neck leaving small kisses

you don’t trust yourself to urge him to go quicker but matt gets the memo when a groan of frustration leave your mouth —he reaches inside your pants running a finger between your folds

“ interesting, you sure get wet so fast for the person you hate ”

“can we move this to the bed cause i do not have a problem getting dick from someone else ”

his hands clutch the flimsy tank top you have on and pulls it over to your head, lifting you up with ease

he walks over to his neatly made and tosses you to the bed smiling maliciously as he watches you bounce on his bed, his eyes dilating more as he watches your chest bounce

he moves onto your sweatpants tossing it somewhere across the room putting his undivided attention onto your underwear, he takes it off slowly knowing it would get under your skin.

Getting frustrated you start to groan, and in a split second he shoves your panties into your mouth

giving you a deadpan look, “ since you have a hard time keeping quiet “ he says

before further protesting, he shoves two fingers into you instantly groaning at how wet you are for him

he liked that, the idea that no one else could satisfy you, he thinks that he’d rather have you hate him knowing you’d always end up in his bed late at night and not in the comfort of another man.

His lips envelop your clit, and your head falls back involuntarily. He sucks it, and you’re greatful that the black lace in your mouth kept you from letting out the loudest moan of your life.

mixtures of whimpers, leave your mouth as your eyes start to tear up with how overwhelming it all is, “my cry baby, he whispers

you start tossing and moving around due to how stimulated you are.

matt holds you down as he circles his tongue around your clit sucking hard but pumping his fingers in and out of you roughly just how you like it. seconds later you feel yourself squirting but he doesn’t hault , you reach out to grab his arm but he stops you mid way

“i’m not done with you yet” he whispers

he takes off his sweatpants, pulling the panties out of your mouth.

he flips you over on all fours and you find yourself face to face with the mirror against his wall

you feel his tip against your folds and you find yourself unconsciously backing up towards him. he instantly slides into you filling you up, you feel your eyes shut racked with pleasure –when matt grabs your jaw.

“ no i need you to look at yourself for me yeah?, look away and i’ll stop.”

you immediately make eye contact with him and that’s when he smiles “you’re always such a good girl for me, taking me so well ”

he picks up the pace of his thrusts, fighting himself to not cum cause you felt so intoxicating — he would never admit that to you he was terrified with the thought of you pushing him away if he ever admitted that he felt anything else but hate towards you

he would rather argue with you all day than loose you. he didn’t like the thought of you with anyone else but him– sure it was selfish but he didn’t care he loved that you were always ready for him down the hallway every time you were over.

you gasp as you feel him pull you to his chest feeling him sink deeper, he wraps his arms around your torso forcing you to take every inch he gave you

in that moment you’re his, you don’t care about the insults you throw at each other, it’s almost like everything he did was perfect?

“im so close please don’t stop “ you whimper

“ i know baby” “ you wanna come for me ?” he says looking at you through the mirror hitting ever perfect spot, giving you tender kisses on along the nape of your neck

you lost the ability to form a sentence as he thrusts gets rougher all of a sudden remembering how you teased him about getting involved with another man

“answer me “

“yes please “ you say not caring how stupid you sound or the fact that he’d use this against you in the mere future

“ you still feel like getting dick from someone else?”

“no” you reply instantly

“no one can ever make you feel like thid , can they pretty?”

“no i swear please i can’t-”

“can’t what ? “ he mocks you

“you can’t take it ?”

“ i think you can ”he encouraged

“take it for me baby”

you continue to meet his hard thrusts working yourself even though all you want to do is come around the man you hate the most

“ atta girl, look at yourself, so pretty taking every inch of me”

he reaches down your folds, circling your senstive clit pushing you further towards the climax, you feel yourself coming he presses his hands against your mouth muffling your screams

whispering sweet nothings into your ear

“that’s it , let it all out for me baby

he begins to groan as he feels himself reaching his climax, not trusting himself either he grabs your neck giving you a harsh kiss. as he releases himself inside you

you collapse against him as pleasure consumes the both of you

he runs his finger against the knots of you hair

“you okay “ he whispers

nodding your head as you couldn’t mutter a single sentence.

he smiles at you, gently wiping the fallen tears from your eyes, he looks down at the both of you connected,

his eyes trained at his dick swallowed by your tight folds, cautiously pulling out — refusing to give you a break you feel his fingers at the entrance of your swollen cunt, not letting his cum slip out. you open your mouth to gasp but you are met with a gentle kiss.

he moves to grabs his boxers putting them on you feeling a sinking weight of disappointment in your chest.

you start to look for your materials he trashed around his room thinking that it was time for you to leave when hault your actions when he speaks suddenly “what are you doing ?”

“leaving ” you reply monotonously

“ sit down, i’m running you a bath ”

this was an unusual for you, you were used to men giving you the cold shoulder after a round of intimacy

you try your best to ignore the weird feeling that bubbles in your chest— secretly enjoying his civility towards you, knowing that the next day everything would go back to the way things always were — leaving a bitter taste of unresolved emotions in the air.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

@mattsd0ll @loveesiren @christinarowie332 @daddyslilchickenfingers2 @mangosrar @kenzieiskoolaid @lucvly @recklesssturniolo

[scottishaccentsareawesome]

Ice told Mav that he'd take this one, after getting the call from Penny.

So, when Ice walks into the Hard Deck, his eyes immediately start searching the room for Bradley, and find him in the back at the pool table.

He heads to the back area of the bar, catching Penny's eye on the way and giving her a wink. When Ice gets to the pool table area he sees that Bradley is not actually alone, he's there with Lieutenant "Bob" Floyd, who looks about as hopeless as Penny sounded on the phone earlier.

Bob suddenly notices Ice's presence, and he stands up a bit straighter as Ice gives him a nod of acknowledgement.

...All the while, Bradley just keeps playing pool and grumbling loudly to himself.

"Sir - " Bob begins.

" - Dismissed."

"Oh, thank you sir..." Bob replies, sounding extremely relieved as he leaves the pool table and heads to the bar.

"Bradley...?" Ice leans over the pool table and tries to get in Bradley's line of sight "...talk to me, please."

"Nothin' to talk about," Bradley replied, as he lined up his shot, then hit the ball over to the middle pocket, and it bounced off the edge of the pocket, missing the target. "You gonna play? Looks like Bob couldn't take the heat."

"I think what Bob couldn't take was the headache you were giving him," said Ice, as he picked up the abandoned pool cue.

"What?"

"Bradley, half the bar can hear you grumbling over here," Ice told him. "You've got black storm clouds floating right over your head for God's sake. What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Bradley insisted. "Now are you gonna play or not?"

Ice shrugged. "Sure," he said.

Ice lined up his shot, and sunk two balls into the far corner pocket, like it was absolutely nothing.

Bradley rolled his eyes as Ice straightened up and tried not to look smug.

"...But I guarantee, with the way I play and the way you seem to be playing right now, it's gonna be a pretty short game," Ice told him.

Bradley sighed. "I'm just a little off tonight, no big deal," he said.

"Any particular reason why?"

"No."

Ice gave him a pointed look.

Bradley huffed. "Just having...issues with...someone," he grumbled.

"Relationship issues?"

"It's not a relationship," Bradley countered, quickly.

"Then what is it?"

"It's....he....he left for a deployment in Italy today," Bradley grumbled. "And I went over to see him just to say goodbye, y'know, and it turned into 'Oh, Rooster, I didn't know you cared?' and so of course I was like, 'I don't care, just send my apologies to all those poor Italian people who'll have to endure your presence for the next few months.' And then it turned into talking about all the Italian guys he was gonna meet over there, and how they'd probably happily 'endure' his 'presence', and then I got mad, so I just kinda left."

"So, you didn't actually get to say goodbye then?" Ice pointed out.

"No, I guess not," said Bradley. "I just...it's so easy for him to just...annoy me like that, and then...stupid Italian guys - "

"So, your problem is that you don't want Jake Seresin to hang around with hot Italian guys, is that it?" Ice asked.

Bradley froze, and stared at Ice.

"...I never said anything about Jake Seresin," he said.

"Bradley, all you ever do is talk about Jake Seresin," Ice told him. "Did the two of you really think you were being discrete?"

"We were being - !" Bradley started, then clamped his lips together for a moment. "...It's always just been a casual thing. Nothing serious or official."

"...But now he's going to Italy," said Ice "...and he might be hanging around with 'hot Italian guys', and you don't like that."

"It's not like he's never been deployed without me before," said Bradley. "It's not like I haven't had to deal with feeling like this before. And I have! I've dealt with it just fine."

"Well, maybe this time is different because you're hitting a breaking point," said Ice. "Maybe, it's time you two finally had a serious talk about this 'casual thing' of yours."

"Why do you say 'casual thing' like that?" Bradley asked. "Like you're judging?"

"I'm not judging it, Bradley. I've been down that road myself before," Ice told him. "And I'm saying 'casual thing' like that because if you're feeling so troubled at the thought of him with somebody else, then maybe it's not a very 'casual' thing at all."

Bradley blew out a long, tired breath, as he stared at the pool table, supposedly looking for another shot.

"One thing I do know for sure, though..." said ice, as he walked around the table to stand beside Bradley "...is that Jake Seresin will not be 'meeting' any hot Italian guys."

Bradley glanced over at him and smirked. "What, you really gonna try and cockblock him from here?" he asked.

"Don't doubt my powers, Bradley Bradshaw, I'm the Commander of the Pacific Fleet, I can do a lot of things," Ice told him. "...Just ask Maverick."

Bradley snorted back a laugh.

"No, I mean, he may talk a big game about what he's gonna do over there, but I guarantee you, he's not gonna do any of it," Ice told him. "He doesn't want to."

"How do you know?" Bradley asked.

"Because I've been him, Bradley," Ice told him. "First he wanted to beat you and be the best pilot, then he wanted to bed you and prove that you wanted him...and now he's trying not to fall in love with you."

Bradley didn't say anything, he actually looked a little terrified now.

"And Bradley," Ice continued. "I guarantee, he may've won those first two rounds, but that last one?" Ice leaned in now and lowered his voice so that only Bradley could hear him "...I think you'll both find that he lost it a long time ago."

Bradley still didn't say anything, so Ice just smiled and straightened up, then put his pool cue back against the wall.

"Work on your game, kid," said the older man. "I'll see you at dinner on Sunday."

Ice then gave him a wave, and walked away, out of the bar.

Bradley thought for a moment, then pulled out his phone as he sat down on a nearby stool.

Can we talk when you get back? he texted.

He only had to wait about a minute before he got a reply.

Sure. You miss me already? (with a smirking emoji, of course)

Bradley took a deep breath, then sent back his reply.

...Yeah. I do.

[lbulldesigns]

AITAH FOR GHOSTING MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS FOR THREE YEARS, FOR MY OWN MENTAL HEALTH?

Posted 7th of January, 2024

Disclaimer: mentions of self-harm, violence, and attempted suicide.

Please bear with me. This post will be long.

I (20f) have been estranged from my family for the past three years.

I want to start off by saying that my family aren't bad people. They were never abusive, and they did care for me, but they could never understand me or the full extent of my issues.

Some background. When I was around five, my sister (26f), we'll call her V, and I witnessed our parents' death at the hands of some trigger-happy Enforcers. We don't know why they decided our parents deserved to die, but they did, and we were left orphaned when the authorities couldn't find any other family to take us in.

We bounced around in the system for a while, fearing being torn from each other at any moment, before a family friend was able to foster and then officially adopt us. Our AD (adoptive dad) was a godsend, he was and still (to my knowledge) is the most patient and gentle man I know. Despite looking like a wolf LOL.

Along with gaining a new father we also gained two brothers (twin 23m) the older twin (C) takes after our dad, Kind and patient. The younger twin (M) however is a little nasty bitch, who took upon himself to make my life in particular an ongoing hell. He was never physically abusive, but he was verbally abusive. It felt like not a day would go by when he wasn't putting me down and treating my existence like it was something insignificant. He never had a problem with V, just me.

For the first six years everyone else would defend me, put him in his place, and overall hold him accountable but at some point, they stopped holding him accountable and just expected me to grow a thicker skin. I still remember the day when I went crying to my sister and rather than comfort me, just rolled her eyes and asked if I could maybe not take him seriously because she needed to finish her group project. To her credit, she apologised for that but it was hard to rely on her after that.

Long story short, M made my home life unbearable, and I had bullies at school that made it unbearable. Especially once I was in high school and my best (and only) friend started making friends of his own. I want to say that I was cool with this, but in reality, I turned into an absolute brat and refused to get along with any of them. I wish I didn't, but I just couldn't help but feel betrayed and genuinely acted on those emotions.

And this is how I was with everyone. Constantly betrayed and acting out. It was no wonder everyone I knew got sick of me.

My Dad was constantly worrying about me.

My older brother avoided me as much as possible, to avoid my outbursts.

My sister was just constantly swinging between feeling guilty, angry, and just done with my constant outbursts. Especially when these outbursts were directed at her girlfriend, who constantly talked about how she wanted to be an Enforcer to protect others (take a wild guess why I couldn't like her). V even slapped me for something I said (I can't remember what) to her GF that made her cry.

And my best friend... hates me.

It's my own fault, obviously.

What led to the title of my post is this.

I told my (former) best friend that I loved him and wanted to be with him, and he just raged at me. Apparently, he was seeing someone and thought that I was pulling something in order to break them up. He didn't believe me when I said that I didn't know he was in a relationship (I genuinely didn't know) but he wouldn't hear it and called me an AH and said he was done with me.

I felt humiliated and heartbroken, when I got home that day I was crying and M was the first person, unfortunately, who I came across. And the first thing he does is scoff and roll his eyes, and said "fucking crybaby".

I don't fully remember what happened, I blacked out, but I remember my dad pulling me off of M and his face was a bloody mess. I'm pretty sure that I broke his nose and then some, my dad was so angry. The angriest I've ever seen him; he actually shook me by the shoulders and demanded what was wrong with me. And when I couldn't answer, they told me to get out. Which I did.

I just bolted from the house, the sound of shouting behind me, and just kept running until I got to the Bridge of Progress.

I was just so empty and lost, and the water below looked so tempting. I was about to end it all when my guardian angel showed up.

Ez (21m) was walking by when he saw me about to jump and, without hesitation, climbed up next to me and asked what we were doing.

He saved me that day, without even trying. He listened to my whining and rather than offer me empty promises of "it'll be okay" instead said "girl you messed up. Wanna go on an adventure with me?"

We've been friends ever since.

I took him on his offer and went home to collect some things, when I got there the lights were off so I climbed up to my bedroom window and let myself in. I grabbed my clothes, some saved up cash, my laptop, and my documents (in case I needed them) and left a note for my family saying "bye".

And that was three years ago. I haven't been in contact with them, I don't follow them on social media, and I left my mobile behind so they were never able to get hold of me.

I completely and utterly. Ghosted them. And I don't entirely regret it.

In the last three years I have gained close friends, experienced new things, seen interesting things, and have felt well enough to actually want to seek therapy. My mental health improved greatly, although I still have issues but still am lot better than I was before.

However, I can't help but feel like an AH. My family weren't bad, just fed up. They are genuinely good people (even M) it's just that I bring the worst out in people. But recently I've been wondering if I should reach out or not.

What if doing so disrupts their lives? What if my leaving improved their lives?

I don't know.

AITAH if I reach out to my family after ghosting them for three years?

(This is a fanfic. Please read tags)

[shamrockqueen]

Predator in the desert

Chapter 1

Pairing : Bucky X reader (Post apocalyptic AU)

Warnings : R18, Kidnapping, Fallout new Vegas vibes, Violence, imminent danger

Word count : 1332

Bucky Masterlist

Scavenging the wasteland was generally frowned upon but not enforced by any laws. Not like there was anyone left to enforce them. But, many people deemed it unsafe and often not worth leaving the limited safety of one’s small shanty town to venture out into the desert wasteland.

You’ve been very lucky thus far, as you’ve broken this rule several times in the hopes of finding useful scraps to trade for enough food to fill your belly for the night. It usually pays off, if only a little. But a little is more than nothing, and it beats starving in the night.

Most of the things to be found were abandoned vehicles and the occasional junk pile that can be taken apart for scrap. Some hauls are better than others, and then there are some days where you don’t find anything. This was one of those days, as nothing popped up on the horizon while you wandered the dusty landscape. You’d hate to waste this trip on nothing, but you couldn’t go much further under this blazing sun.

At some point, you’d just have to call it quits and turn back toward town. You kicked the dust in frustration from the knowledge that you didn’t have a single scrap of food waiting for you back home and not a dime to buy some. You had a bit of water left in your bag that would have to last you the trek back, but you hadn’t the energy to turn around just yet.

You chose instead to hunker down in the shade of a large rock to sip from the near-empty canteen before making the journey back. The feeling of the last drop hitting your tongue was almost as heartbreaking as the lingering metallic taste it left in your mouth.

There wasn’t any time to dwell on it now; instead, you packed your bottle away and got back up.

At the time, it seemed no different than the same old shit life had dealt you every day, but you’d look back on this as a low moment. From here, there would be lower moments, but this one in particular would be the beginning of the end.

You didn’t see him following you from that high ledge; you didn’t see him climb his way down, stalking you along the rocks, but you did hear something. The light crunch of dirt under boots that weren’t yours rang right through your ears, making you stop in your tracks.

The footsteps stopped too as you stood idle, waiting out the dribble of sweat that ran along your back before whipping your head around to see…nothing.

A bit of weeds and dust blew through the barren tundra, but there was no living soul amongst it. Maybe you were hearing things, or maybe you were just an easier target than you’d thought.

Something was following you that day, something that easily evaded your line of sight just in time to take you out. When you turn back towards your path, your head is immediately knocked in the other direction with a burst of pain at the back of your cranium.

Your lights go out with a grunt before your now-loose limbs collide with the hard, dusty ground. You hit it like a heavy bag of rocks, leaving you aching and yet numb.

He watched you for a second, noticing the shallow breaths you still took and wondering whether he dealt too heavy of a blow.

Small rocks were crunched under his heavy boots as he got closer to kneel down by your side. He slipped two of his bare fingers along your neck before applying pressure near your jugular to feel the soft pulse of your heart still healthily beating.

The light bounced off of his dark goggles, only to be dulled by the rough plastic from the rest of his face mask. He stared back out towards the vast wasteland, watching as the sun still hung high above the dry landscape and burned down on the both of you. When he turned his attention back to you, he slipped his arms under your body to better carry you away.

Strings of light filter through your shaking eyelids every now and again as the world around you swayed back and forth. Few images can come through as you fight the black fog threatening to take over your consciousness. There was this tough gray-brown mass moving in and out of your limited field of vision, back and forth in time with the crunching of the rocky sand.

The blood starts to rush to your already-aching head, making it more and more difficult to force your eyes open. You can’t fight it anymore, and your sight is finally stolen from you. The light will only return when your position shifts and you're laid out on some oddly comforting yet lumpy bedding.

Your mind is cloudy, but you could still feel something wide and warm handling the back of your hair as the spout of a cool bottle is pressed to your lips. The second that the wonderful water hits your tongue, your body is moving upright to follow it and gulp it all up.

When the bottle is pulled away, the air in the room is no longer thin, allowing you to take a deep breath and open your eyes to your new surroundings.

Grayed wood and rusted metal made up a pretty rough but well-put-together room. Your eyes circled the area until they landed on the only moving mass within it. Him.

He was still holding the glass bottle when he came into view. His skin was tanned, save for the slashes of scar tissue that ran along his skin in thin white lines.

His dark hair was thick with sweat as it hung at just his shoulders, and his face still had a slight smear of black camo paint, making his face only half visible in your still blurry vision. You had to blink a few times to get the full picture, only to be left a bit speechless by the full image before you.

His muscles were tight and well defined, like they could snap forward and stop a punch within a split second, and they were on full display even through his dirty tank top. Yet, the sight that you linger on the most was his sharp gaze as it stabbed right through your skin. His eyes were a cutting and inescapable blue that made the blood freeze in your veins and the hair on your arms stand on end.

You’d never seen anyone like this in your life. No one could ever dream to look so healthy, let alone so strong. No, the only people left in the wastelands had hollow eyes that sank deep into their skulls, signifying their early demise. The set staring you down had far too much life inside of them, burning like a blue flame.

The only thing that stole your eyes away from his was the gleam of light that bounced off of the interlocking metal muscles that made up his left arm and hand. If you had the strength to do so, you would have kicked yourself for not noticing it immediately. There were few people left in this world with advanced implements such as that, and even fewer that still carried their emblems of war.

Your body felt numb as you stared into the dulled red star at the arm’s shoulder.

They were old stories told to you by the family you used to have; you never truly believed them, as you’d never seen such a symbol not once in your life...not until now.

All the stories that spoke of the red star ended in genocide and destruction. But, you were still alive.

You adjusted your gaze back to his still-stern face, unable to read much from him as his expression lacked obvious emotion. He’d kept you in one piece this far, but what would happen next?

Chapter 2

More Post apocalyptic AU

[bethbluebell]

new to you [ e.williams ] part 1

ellie williams x fem!reader

summary; being the new person in a tight knit community, you would think it’d be tough to create any meaningful relationships but oh were you wrong; and it might just be one new connection in particular that will ultimately be your downfall 

parts; 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 (ongoing series)

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You can’t even remember how you felt or how your situation changed so fast.

After everything happened you started to question what you were actually living for. You desperately wanted to find a meaning to the constant suffering and how to find ways to fight it. You were head-strong, not easily defeated by most things. You were a natural born survivor, numb to experiences that would drive normal people insane.

To cut a long story short; you lost your dad, then your mother and not long ago your big brother. Your dad died just before you could comprehend the world around you, having no treasured memories to think back on but it still managed to hurt just the same.

It was scary being by yourself, you had never done it before. You’ve been attacked, stalked, beaten, shot at but you always had your family to help you bounce back from those traumas. It was easy to underestimate loneliness when the world around you was thrown into chaos.

You remember feeling numb. Unable to feel the cold rain pelting yourself as you stood just beyond the gates. Maybe you had trusted this guy named ‘Jesse’ too easily. Following him to the place he called home and entering without questioning his intentions.

You were badly injured, your skin and clothing staining a deep crimson. It was clear the adrenaline was wearing off but you still managed to move. Your eyesight was blurring, the heavy rain messing with your vision. You could hear voices but you couldn’t make out any words. You couldn’t even feel yourself breathing anymore.

The longer you closed your eyes the more enticing falling asleep felt. In that moment you stumbled, the harsh contact with the ground shocking you as you blacked out.

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It has been three months since you arrived at Jackson. Maria took you in when Jesse found you on a patrol, head to toe covered in blood. She reminded you of your mother and Jesse reminded you of your brother. It was clear they had no ill intentions when you woke up to a hot meal and your wounds neatly bandaged. They asked you questions but didn’t press too hard, they could only imagine what you endured before they found you.

Once you were back on your feet you were given small jobs here and there to ease yourself into the lifestyle. It was nice for a few days but eventually it got tedious. You wanted to do something a little more worthwhile. You started to take a massive interest in the patrol jobs asking Jesse about them. Maria was hesitant at first considering the state they found you in but Jesse convinced her to let you both patrol together. Jesse was the only person you really conversed with in Jackson but you knew you were the talk of the town, I mean your entrance really was something.

After patrolling for a few weeks with Jesse, Maria decided to give you a new partner for the morning patrol; Ellie Williams.

You were confused. Since you were still classed as inexperienced on the patrols you thought they’d partner you with one of the older guys. You were more so shocked that Maria suggested it. On a few occasions you have run into them having words, Maria was always the one to shut it down before it got too heated which ends up with Ellie walking off in a huff.

Maria said the pairing was due to both of your patrol partners Jesse and Dina being asked to thin out a horde so you and Ellie were tasked at patrolling buildings closer to Jackson. You knew Dina and Jesse were in a previous relationship so you would share a few words when hanging out in a big group but you never had the chance to talk to Ellie. Jesse would keep you up to date with his friends relationships like his and Dina's or Ellie and Cats; who was now her now ex-girlfriend.

You stuffed your backpack with all the necessities and slipped on a worn out hoodie due to the weather. Exiting the building you stumbled back lifting your left arm up. The suns golden beams were radiating all around just like rays. The glittering of the snow causing it to appear brighter, straining your eyes where it was almost painful. The patrols always started around sunrise. This was to make sure everyone got a decent amount of rest when they came back early afternoon.

It was a short walk until you met up with the other patrol groups gathering their horses and gear. You climbed upon your horse that you were overly fond of, she was a white horse called Blue. You began stroking her mane as Jesse sauntered his way over to you.

"I made the adjustments like you asked." Jesse announced pulling your shotgun from his half-open backpack and handing it over.

"What would I do without you." You replied teasingly taking the shotgun from his grasp. You asked if he could do anything to reduce the shotguns recoil and it looks like he succeeded. You always envied Jesse’s handiness, never being much good at it yourself. "Are you okay with taking the paired patrol with Dina? The last time I heard you were taking some time apart." You glanced over the shotgun once more awaiting a response.

There was a moment of hesitation as he debated on answering, “Yeah I don't see why not, we still talk on a daily basis but we just aren't together." Jesse replied lightly stroking Blue as he met his eyes with yours, "Listen, (Y/N). I'll be fine. Besides I should be asking you the same question about Ellie." He carried on as he nodded his head in her direction. Ellie was casually talking to Dina whilst sorting the supplies out in her bag.

Your eyes wandered back over to Jesse's in confusion, "Why would you need to ask that?"

"I guess I'm not expecting you to make an effort with her. The only people you really talk to is me and Maria, which isn't a bad thing of course!" You rolled your eyes and looked over at Ellie again.

"It's fine Jesse, you don't need to spare my feelings. I do promise to make an effort its just everyone seems so comfortable in their own little bubble.” He gives you a massive grin and pats your leg.

"Glad to hear it! I just hope you understand I'll be asking all about it once I get back." You laughed at his brotherly behaviour and said your goodbyes. You were pretty nervous as you had no idea what to expect from Ellie but you just hope you get along for the sake of the trip.

Once the gate opens everyone sets off on their different routes so you and Ellie were finally alone. She was riding ahead of you having done this route before which gave you the perfect conversation opener. 

"So, do you do this route often?" You could see Ellie's body freeze for a second at the sudden question, probably not expecting a conversation out of you so soon.

Ellie turned her head towards you before speaking, "Not really, do you?" You studied her side profile as she awaited your response. The route was hardly familiar but you could've swore Jesse took you along this path.

"Maybe once with Jesse, I can't really remember it though." Ellie hummed in response turning her head back. Your reply was vague but you weren’t exactly focusing on your words right now. The comfortable silence left you with your thoughts, your thoughts being clouded by the girl in front of you.

"What's the deal with you and Jesse anyways? You two seem close." Your eyes widened comically not understanding the intent behind her question. Ellie probably meant nothing by it but you took it as a sign of interest. Then again she could just be asking for Dina; her and Jesse did date after all.

You let out a small sigh toying with Blue’s mane, "I guess you could say that, Jesse was the one who brought me to you guys. I'm pretty sure you remember my grand entrance to Jackson." Upon replying to Ellie's question you had just gotten to the patrol point. You stationed your horse in the garage as Ellie had made her way over to you.

"Yeah that looked rough. Do you want to talk about it?" You paused, chewing on the inside of your cheeks as you quietly thought to yourself. Did you?

Ellie’s presence at the side of your horse threw you from your thoughts as you politely accepted her offer of helping you down.

You both decided to venture further into the building, not straying far from each other’s side. You briefly looked over at Ellie and noticed that she was staring back at you. You jumped in response and darted your eyes to the other side of the room, "Oh! Uh, I don't mind but I'm sure you've heard the story from somebody else." You climbed through the window trying your hardest to avoid the broken glass still present.

Ellie followed and made her way over to the logbook, “Please I don't listen to shit talkers like that." She commented sitting on the desk picking up the clipboard and pen, "Though, can't say I'm not curious."

Ellie/(Y/N) - All clear. -E

You gave her a small smile in response, "Ellie, it really is fine. I’m not going to lie and act like the bigger person when even I would want to know what happened." You sat next to her on the desk and breathed in, closing your eyes and fiddling with your fingertips. You could feel Ellie's eyes on you as she placed the clipboard down giving you her full attention.

You were traveling with your big brother after your mother had been shot multiple times by a group of trigger-happy hunters. That happened around two months ago and you could see the damage it was doing to your brother mentally. Despite this he always managed to keep you well fed and healthy. The day that Jesse found you was the day you lost your brother to the infection. He was bitten by a runner on his ankle due to him running out of bullets and not realising until it was too late. You managed to crush the runner's head with your foot but the damage had already been done.

Your brother looked so defeated as his eyes glazed over the bite. He looked like he was about to throw up as he fought the rising fear of facing the inevitable. Your heart leaped into your throat as you began piecing together the situation before you. Maybe it was the pent up emotions of losing your mom and now being forced to come to terms with losing your brother. You just couldn’t understand what went wrong.

Your brother knew what had to happen next to ensure your safety and shushed you saying it was okay. The raw panic noticeable in his voice as he held your face and looked you in the eyes, "You know what you have to do." Your body went cold as he reloaded his pistol and placed it in your hands. You looked up at him, lips trembling and eyes glistening with tears. You held onto the pistol firmly and hesitantly lifted it up to his forehead.

Your stomach clenched as you gripped the gun tighter,  "I love you."

Ellie noticed your change in demeanor and how you were biting your lip to try and hold back the tears. She began gently rubbing your back in circular motions to calm you down. You took two deep breaths and carried on twiddling your thumbs, "After I shot the gun I drew the attention of another horde in the area I suppose. Luckily, Jesse was patrolling at that time and got to me as I barely had enough ammo to defend myself. Who knew runners were so good at hand to hand combat?"

Ellie gave off a little laugh at that comment realising it was your way at trying to lighten the mood. You looked over at her and smiled, slowly dragging yourself off the desk. Ellie followed along quietly. She had an idea of what happened but it hit a lot deeper coming directly from you.

You cleared your throat slowly shuffling towards the exit, "We'd better head off to our next area. I don't want to disappoint Maria since I'm still new to this patrol business." You explained turning around to face her. It was nice patrolling with Ellie. Sure, doing it with Jesse was equally as good but you enjoyed the change.

"Doing it in pairs is fairly new to me too. I usually did it in groups." You paused and knitted your eyebrows together in disbelief.

"Groups? Why out of all people did you go on group patrol?" Ellie sighed heavily.

"My old man insisted." She looked incredibly embarrassed. Her cheeks were tinted red as her eyes refused to meet yours.

Your face softened noticing her discomfort, "That's actually really sweet." You muttered giving her a small smile before opening the exit door for her. She looked at you warily, expecting you to mock her about her overprotective father figure. Most teenagers would've.

You followed behind Ellie on your horse for about 10 minutes making light conversation until she pointed out an area to station your horses. You went off to take a look in the new building, your curiosity getting the better of you. Your dominant hand was hovering over your gun just in case you encountered any infected but overall the place seemed clear.

You jumped over another broken window that led to the outside, observing the back structure.

You came across a jagged but slim crack present at the bottom of the building that no human could possibly fit through. It looked so old and fragile, crumbling at the simple touch of your finger, "Hey Ellie! Did anybody know about this?" You were laid on the floor shining your flashlight through it as Ellie came jogging up beside you.

Ellie shook her head in confusion and crouched own, "Not that I know of." She squinted peering closer, "Holy shit, it looks like it leads underneath the building."

You hummed turning to her, “Yeah seems like it. The bricks look like they'll come loose if I kick them hard enough." Ellie nodded and stood back. You smashed your foot against the wall forcing all the bricks to collapse in unison creating the perfect entrance. You both smiled at each other as Ellie helped you off the ground and gave you a high five, "Alright, masks on. Better to be safe than sorry.”

Once your masks were fixed on, you and Ellie jumped down. Both your flashlights lit up the space that was now visibly swarming with spores. You and Ellie decided to split up to cover more ground and hopefully you'll find some useful supplies.

Spores were almost always a bad sign so you kept your wits about you, making sure you were checking every nook and cranny for possible infected.

As you entered a new room you came across a skeleton with a bottle of alcohol in its grip. Examining it further, it was pretty clear whoever this was took their own life.

A gun was not too far from its other hand alongside a note left on the dresser. You took the alcohol from its grip and shoved it in your bag. It felt wrong given the circumstances but in terms of survival you can’t be too picky.

Moving over to the note you brushed off the dust that’s been gathering for the past few decades and started reading it.

To whoever finds this,

Me and my wife Judy have been bitten. To protect our kids we locked ourselves in the basement. Judy has locked herself in the room next door. I pray she doesn't allow herself to turn but nevertheless I will not be another victim to the infection.

I've tried to reason with Judy but she says she's going to wait it out. How can she allow herself to turn? I really hope she survives this for her sake but even if she does I won't be alive to see it. I hope she comes to her senses. Soon.

You flipped the note over but that was it, "Locked herself in the room next door?” You mumbled staring down at the writers skeleton.

Your eyes widened as your stomach dropped, “Oh fuck-" As soon as you came to the realisation you heard a monstrous groan bellow throughout the building and a gun going off in the next room. You quickly dropped the note darting towards the commotion finding Ellie in a heated fight with a version of infected that you've only ever seen once.

A shambler.

It charged at Ellie throwing her to the ground with a nasty thud. You knew you had to stun the shambler somehow otherwise you'd have no chance of killing it. You swung off your backpack and picked out the alcohol. Your mother taught you how to make a molotov before she passed. This was brought on when a group of psychos thought they owned the city and killed anyone who passed through.

Must be a pretty common thing.

Anyways, clearly one of them liked to smoke because you found 3 lighters and plenty of roll ups on his corpse. The molotovs you made managed to thin out the group as your mother and brother took care of the remaining few.

You began ripping a piece of the shirt underneath your hoodie, putting your mothers teaching to good use. You lit the fabric preparing the molotov just in time. From the corner of your eye you could see the shambler getting ready to charge at Ellie again which forced your body into action. Using your dominant hand you threw the Molotov leaving it no time to react.

You pulled out your shotgun as it burned the mutated flesh causing it to screech out in agony. You fired the remaining shots trying your best to aim for the skull. It was difficult due to the frantic flailing of its arms but you were persistent, making every shot count.

Noticing its change in demeanor you dropped your shoulders and attempted to control your erratic breathing. The shambler fell to its knees bursting out in a vicious cloud of spores as you took a sigh of relief. You peered over at Ellie who was slumped, leaning against the wall clutching her abdomen in pain.

Your eyes did a double take as you saw most of the glass in her mask was missing. You suppressed a shiver as you caught on to her rapid short breaths. This can’t be happening. You stared in utter fear as Ellie continued to breathe in spores.

In the back of your head you knew there was nothing you could do to help her but that still didn’t stop you from trying. "Oh fuck, oh fuck!" You ran over to Ellie in a panic ripping off her mask and clasping your hand over her mouth and nose as best as you could.

"It’s going to be okay, just please stay calm for me." You urged fiddling with the clasp using your other spare hand, “You can have my mask and I’m going to hold my breath, okay? I’ve done it be-!” Your body was slammed against the floor as Ellie held your mask firmly to your face, groaning in pain.

"(Y/N), d-dont" She stammered trying to catch her breath. You easily pushed her off you as she leaned back in pain again, looking at you in desperation.

You sat there sadness clouding your features as you looked over at Ellie’s weakening state. "H-how?" Your eyes scanned all over her face.

For a second you froze, your face hardening, “You aren’t coughing?” You questioned bluntly. Ellie’s breathing began to slow as she averted her eyes away from yours, “How are you breathing in this shit?”

Ellie shifted uncomfortably, "I'm immune." She managed to get out.

Your mouth snapped shut as you reeled yourself back. Naturally, you felt a huge wave of relief but the feeling of possibly loosing someone else was still lingering.

"Your immune." You repeated standing up. "Well thank fuck for that I almost thought you were dead." You scoffed kicking her broken mask aside.

"(Y/N).." Ellie trailed off gazing up at you as you as you picked her up off the floor.

You looked away from her as you lightly let go of her fragile body and threw both your backpacks over your shoulder, "C’mon, Let's get you back home."

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Once you and Ellie arrived back in Jackson she was immediately taken in for medical treatment. Maria asked you what happened but you gave a very vague response and returned home. They offered you treatment but you always preferred to do it yourself, there were only a few minor cuts and bruises anyways.

Whilst treating your own wounds you began replaying in your head what happened. You regretted being rude to Ellie after finding out she was immune but you had no clue why you spoke to her like that to begin with.

Getting frustrated with yourself your movements became sloppy. You hissed in pain as you further irritated your cut and withdrew your hands from your stomach. You struggled to look at yourself in the mirror hating this version of yourself.

Fed up, you took a deep breath and grabbed the bandages left inside your bedside drawer. Once you were all patched up you decided to grab some food. Anything would do right now. You put on a thick jacket and stepped outside; the snow was a lot heavier now than before.

Walking along the streets of Jackson you noticed how quiet it was. You were never out at this time as you'd usually sleep the rest of the day since the morning patrols always sucked the life out of you. It was undeniably gorgeous. Your favourite part of Jackson has always been the fairy lights that framed the buildings. If you weren't so exhausted all the time you'd watch them every night along with the stars.

Once you had collected your food you headed back home. You could vaguely hear voices on the street ahead of you turning the street corner. You mentally kicked yourself for not recognising them sooner. Walking in the same direction before you was Ellie, Dina and Jesse. The last thing you wanted was to be interrogated by Dina and Jesse but this was the only route that led to your house. You could see the outline of their figures begin to stop in the middle of the path urging you to quickly hide yourself behind a conveniently placed tree.

"What do you need to apologise for?" Dina asked standing in front of Ellie with her arms crossed.

Jesse put his hand on Ellie's shoulder to stop her from walking, "There's no point doing it now, (Y/N)'s always asleep at this time."

Ellie nudged Jesse's hand off her shoulder and tried to barge past them until Dina held her back, "Ellie is there something you're not telling us?" Dina questioned glancing over at Jesse.

Ellie huffed and rolled her eyes, "There isn't! I just want to apologise for what happened." She explained looking back at them intensely.

Dina moved her hands to her hips, "You want to apologise because she put herself in danger to save you? That's the job! You protect each other!"

"What if she's mad at me?" Ellie quietly mumbled causing Dina and Jesse to look at one another.

Jesse put his arm around Ellie to comfort her which she just silently accepted, "Why would she be mad? (Y/N)'s saved my ass a bunch of times and we just laugh it off. You're thinking too much into this."

Ellie shrugged in response, "I guess."

"C'mon, you need to rest. You're not helping your condition standing out in the snow." Dina urged walking the opposite direction. The three of them turned around and began walking towards you. You breathed a sigh of relief as they passed and began walking again once they were out of sight. At least you knew Ellie had no hard feelings towards you. It's a shame you couldn't tell her it was mutual.

Once you got back home you ate your food and fell straight to sleep. You had a regular morning patrol with Jesse which started at 6:30am and you knew you’d need as much rest as you could get after today’s events.

After your well needed slumber it was finally time to set off on your patrol with Jesse. You two were riding your horses through the heavy snow until you came to a stop. You jumped off your horse and surveyed the area for any infected. Jesse came up beside you with his gun out, taking the lead.

"So (Y/N), care to elaborate on yesterday's antics?" You rolled your eyes at his question and walked past him.

"There's nothing to elaborate on, we were just jumped by infected. Ellie got hurt so I finished them off and we turned back." There was no way you were going to tell Jesse about Ellie's immunity. It was still a lot for you to digest and besides there's no way he'd believe you.

Jesse shrugged and stopped in his tracks, "Hey, if that's all that happened then I believe you. I only asked because Ellie was acting weird about the whole thing."

"It's fine. It was a rough day for both of us." You reassured him looking back with a small smile.

After looking around and finding no infected you both headed back to your horses. After 5 more hours of patrol, you both finally headed back to Jackson.

As the gates opened you were met with Dina and Ellie who must’ve gotten back just before you. Your two horses were passed off to the stable hands as Jesse strolled his way over to them with you following closely behind. "How'd it go ladies?" Jesse beamed causing them to cut their conversation short and look over in your direction.

Ellie looked down at her shoes once she saw your figure approaching behind Jesse's. "Hi guys." You smiled warmly at them nodding your head in the process.

"Hey you two, we were actually waiting for you to get back." Dina grinned, "I'm sure you've heard of the dance happening this weekend?" You glanced over at Jesse furrowing your eyebrows slightly.

Jesse laughed nudging you, "Well I was going to drag (Y/N) along with me."

“Any excuse to throw me around it seems, what a gentleman.” You joked earning a giggle from both Ellie and Dina. You four were walking through the town but you couldn’t shake the feeling of Ellie’s eyes on you. You didn’t have the confidence to face her which was an unusual new feeling for you.

Once you all made it to the bar Dina turned around to face you, "All jokes aside I think it'll be really fun. Everyone deserves time to chill out and have a few drinks."

You gave off a laugh and began fiddling with your fingers in embarrassment, “I can’t say I like the idea of voluntarily making a fool out of myself but- " The corner of you mouth quirked up breaking out into a wide grin, “- Ah, what the heck you’ve twisted my arm, I’ll be there.”

You were kind of regretting that now standing in the middle of your room feeling completely out of your depth. Saying you were nervous was an understatement. Call it the fear of the unknown but you weren't sure what to expect.

You were born after the outbreak and your family were constantly on the move. Having Jackson to settle down in was a blessing but because of past events you still felt uneasy. Picking an outfit to go to a dance was alien to you and acting as if everything was fine was hard.

It was the day of the dance and you were looking at your collection of clothes in disgust. You were hopelessly scanning the clothes in your closet expecting one item to catch your eye. Shaking off the heavy feeling in your stomach you changed into a pair of blue jeans and a low-cut shirt. You glanced over at the clock and realised Jesse should be at your door any minute now.

You sat on your bed for five minutes until you eventually heard him knocking, "Hey (Y/N)! You ready?" You slowly got up off your bed and took a deep breath. You walked over to the door opening it and staring back at you was Jesse. He looked you up and down with the biggest smile, "Let's get this party started, shall we?"

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Soooo you may have already read this if you’ve went down the ellie wormhole (im very guilty of this) as I have actually posted this on wattpad! I’m currently revamping this whole story and referring it to tumblr but I’m still leaving it on there as of now. 

I’m going to be forming the parts together to create bigger chapters and overall edit this into a better story.

I hope this clears things up & thanks for reading <3

[whumpbug]

no one asked nor requested this but. i had to. i promised a sickfic and i had to deliver because i am finally feeling vaguely ok enough (-｡-;)

please enjoy this little fluffy moment between my boys that are definitely totally just friends and nothing else

whumpee: Simon

caretaker: Archie

༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•

The catalyst had been Simon’s shift in the pediatric unit.

Contrary to what most people might think, Simon actually really loved kids. He found working with them to be very entertaining, and they tended to bring out a softer side of Simon.

It’s just that, well, he was assigned to the pediatric unit in January, the height of flu season.

Now, Simon prided himself on being a very healthy man despite some of his unhealthier habits. He may not sleep as often as he should, but he drank lots of water and ate well and got his flu shot every year.

So when he came home from his shift feeling a little more run-down than usual, he chalked it up to skipping a cup of coffee in the morning and moved on.

He made himself a hasty dinner (a leftover bowl of microwave mac ‘n cheese from the night before) and settled into the couch, content to nap the rest of the day away in preparation for his shift tomorrow, when suddenly his phone chimed.

It was a text from Archie.

[Hey Simon! Just checking to make sure we’re still on to go see that movie tonight? I just emailed you your ticket!]

Fuck.

Simon had completely forgotten about his plans with Archie. Plans that had been in place for nearly two weeks now. Plans that took place in thirty minutes. Flaking was out of the question. No, Simon couldn’t do that to Archie, not after he finally agreed to take a day off of patrol to do this with him.

Simon dragged a hand across his face and groaned lowly. He shot Archie a quick reply of confirmation and let his phone slip from his hand.

He could sleep when he was dead. He could power through a few more hours, surely.

He got up and reluctantly made his way to his bathroom to get ready. The reflection in the mirror looked.. off. His hair was mussed and his entire face was paler than he’d seen in a while, save for the red splotches high on his cheeks. The dark circles that were ever-present were somehow even darker and more pronounced. He looked terrible.

Simon blinked dazedly at the mirror before spurring into action. He doused his hair with water and combed out all the tangles. The wet hair on his neck made him shudder. Then, he quickly splashed his face with cold water to eke more color into it and changed out of his scrubs and into his shirt. 

Once he deemed his appearance acceptable, he texted Archie that he was on his way and locked his door behind him.

••••

Simon arrived at the theater feeling even worse than he had before.

It was with great shame that he silently admitted to himself that he may have picked something up from work.

Now, to go along with the exhaustion, was a vicious chill that clamped around his body and had him pulling his knit sweater even tighter around himself. He also had a splitting headache that made it hard to think and he felt vaguely nauseous, but he elected to ignore that particular symptom.

Just a few more hours, Guevara. You can do this.

He straightened and put on a brave face before finding Archie standing outside the theater and walked right up to him.

“Simon! You made it!” Archie chirped, practically bouncing over to him. “God, I’m so excited. I’ve been wanting to see this movie for months!”

Simon smiled, and despite everything, it wasn’t forced. They were going to watch some new murder mystery movie-- not necessarily a movie Simon would have picked out himself, but seeing Archie so riled up made it worth it.

“Well what are we waiting for? Wouldn’t want to miss those trailers, would we?” Simon managed, leading the way for Archie. He walked in front, mostly so he could hide his sickly appearance from Archie until they were in the dimly lit theater.

Soon, they were situated in the fold-up seats with a big bucket of popcorn. Archie was practically vibrating with excitement, and as much as Simon wanted to match the energy, he could feel himself deteriorating.

He was regretting not washing his hands more often with those kids.

His entire body was hurting now. His headache was raging on, even when the lights shut off for the beginning of the movie. His eyelashes felt like they had weights on them.

Simon tried to stay awake, he really did. Archie had been looking forward to this little outing for so long, and the last thing Simon wanted to do was make his illness known and ruin the evening.

He tried various methods-- biting his tongue, digging nails into his palm, adjusting his position every five seconds-- but he found that his efforts were in vain.

Soon enough, his eyes drooped shut and his head lolled forward.

He hoped Archie would be too enthralled in the movie to notice.

••••

The first thing Simon registered when he woke up was someone shaking his shoulder, and the blurry silhouette of credits rolling on the movie screen in front of him.

“Simon? Hey, wake up. Are you okay?” Archie’s voice filtered in.

Simon groaned softly and scrunched his eyebrows together at the disturbance. He felt a hand settle on his forehead, then slide down to his cheek, and finally his neck. He couldn’t help but lean into the cool touch.

“Oh Simon.. You’re burning up,” Archie cooed, smoothing some hair away from Simon’s sweaty brow. “Why didn’t you say anything..?”

Simon’s head slumped forward as he groaned again. He was having trouble focusing on Archie’s voice, let alone what he was saying. He felt so groggy. Usually he could bounce back from a nap with no problem, but presently, every muscle in his body was screaming at him to curl up and go back to sleep.

He whined lowly. Not only did he feel so miserable, but he had knocked out for the entirety of the movie Archie waited months to see. He had to be the worst friend ever. He hoped Archie would forgive him.

“Hey, it's okay! We can rewatch it another day! Lets just get you home, okay? I’m going to carry you,” Archie declared, adjusting himself a bit.

Something about this didn’t compute. Simon knew he was taller than Archie. There was no way he would be able to carry him all the way to the parking structure where he parked. It couldn’t be possible.

“I have super-strength, silly,” Archie whispered with a soft laugh. “Carrying you feels like carrying a carton of milk to me.”

Oh right. Super-strength. Made sense.

Simon didn’t have too much time to dwell on it before his center of gravity suddenly tilted and he was pressed close to a warm body.

Instinctively, he curled up against it. He let his head fall on Archie’s shoulder and draped his arm around his neck. Archie was so warm and he felt so cold. It was heavenly to be so close to him.

“Someone’s clingy,” Archie mused, beginning the gentle walk to the car.

The process of getting to the car went by in a blur, but Simon was eventually settled in the passenger seat, his own sweater draped across his legs and Archie’s pulled up to his chin.

“Get some sleep. I’ll carry you into the apartment when we get there.”

Simon slept.

••••

The next time Simon woke up, he was laying on Archie’s couch with a thick Darth Vader print blanket. Despite this, he was somehow still shivering. 

“Oh, you’re awake!” Archie smiled as he crouched next to Simon and brushed a knuckle over his brow. “Still warm. I wanted to wait until you woke up to give you medicine.”

Simon blinked. Something felt wrong. Archie shouldn’t be the one doing this. This was one of his rare days off where he let himself just be a person. He shouldn’t be stuck looking after a med student who failed to take the proper precautions during his residency.

Simon couldn’t allow it.

He sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. His arms shook as he pushed himself up.

“No. I’m fine.. Archie.. you should be relaxing.. it’s.. your day off,” Simon managed, yanking the blanket off his legs, only to be met with a ferocious shiver that overtook his entire body.

Archie didn’t react. He only calmly guided Simon back to the couch and covered him with the blanket yet again. Simon couldn’t help but be grateful.

By the look on Archie’s face, Simon had a vague idea that in his previous feverish hazes, he had tried to escape as well.

“Respectfully, if anyone needs to relax here, it’s you. You can hardly even stand,” Archie said firmly, running a hand through Simon’s sweaty hair.

Simon shuddered at the touch and melted, letting his eyes fall closed once again to avoid eye contact. Damn it Archie. Stop making this harder than it needs to be.

“Simon.”

Archie’s voice was more intense than Simon had heard it in a long time, and he forced himself to meet his gaze.

“I truly can’t think of a better way to spend my day off. Let me take care of you. Please? You always do it for me,” He half-whispered, the intensity replaced with a quiet plea.

Simon didn’t respond. Instead, he pulled the blanket tighter and leaned into Archie's hand as it combed through his locks. 

Fine. If that was how it was going to be, oh well.

Archie smiled at Simon’s silent acceptance, and leaned over to kiss the top of his head.

“Get some rest. I’m going to go warm up some soup and get you some ibuprofen.”

Simon sleepily watched him disappear into the kitchen, looking nearly as excited as he did at the start of the movie.

༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•

[bomberqueen17]

WWII museum

So, New Orleans-ing proceeds apace. Tried to go to the Southern Food museum, the website said it was open, the door said it was closed. This was a rather crushing blow as I'd walked about as far as I could walk to get there, and then had to turn around and come back. Don't think I'll be able to try again.

My sciatic nerve has had it with me, and I'm able to get around during the days but it's just hurting so badly at night I sleep in five-minute increments, then have to wake and roll over, and if I'm lucky I can fall back asleep before it hurts too much for me to sleep through it, and if I'm unlucky I lie there until i can't stand it and get up and stretch and try a new position. So that's not great. Stretching stops it from hurting while I am actively stretching, but does not particularly help if i assume literally any other position. No, I cannot sleep in the stretching position. I've tried. I can't even sit in that position, so it's not a very useful method of relief.

Ibuprofen doesn't touch it and neither does Aleve. Those are the only options I have with me, so.

Anyway. I'm getting around fine but really not getting a lot of rest.

Last night we went to a show at Preservation Hall, and they charge literally double for your ticket if you want to sit on the hard wooden benches, and I weighed the odds and the bench was likely to give me sciatica anyway, so I stood and saved myself $25, but it was agony and I paid the price. So today we went to the National WWII Museum, and I asked at the admission desk if they had loaner wheelchairs, and they do.

I have learned that nobody cares why you're in the wheelchair. They have many, you are not snatching it away from someone who needs it more.

It is its own punishment, however. The pathways are marked at the stairs; if you go find the elevator, you then have to wander around trying to find where you're meant to go next. People don't get out of your way and you spend a lot of time staring at the asses of people who don't care that you're there and can't get through and can't see anything. One woman, we asked politely if we could get through, and she made no attempt to move, so we squeezed by, and clipped her foot with our wheel, and she got very angry with us. There was no one close to her, she easily could have shifted her foot, she could both see and hear us. We could not have gone any other route, she just didn't think we had a right to pass.

And some sections of the museum have artfully-designed floors that are rough, with chunks of fake-broken concrete. These are really punishing to try and roll over, and are wildly uncomfortable to bounce along over. Especially in a crowd of people. I understand the aesthetic choice but with the number of visitors with mobility impairments for whom that provides a tripping hazard, I super super wonder what the fuck they were thinking. I saw several elderly folks with rollators and I don't know how they got through those rooms. It was several of them.

One whole section, we could not get to unless we went back through the crowded exhibit to the halfway point to find the elevator again.

As far as the content.... I studied that era extensively in my youth, Dad was obsessed with military history and had a lot of books in the house, and I read several of them cover to cover and back and forwards. One in particular-- my sixth grade social studies teacher was obsessed with the Pacific war in specific, and during the year I was there, he was engaged in hand-painting a huge mural of the Pacific battles on a map on the classroom wall. I was allowed to help stencil on some of the letters. So I found that I knew most of the general conduct of that war, and the book I had obsessed over in specific was a compilation of primary sources, news articles, contemporary firsthand accounts, of many of the major actions of that war. I was astonished at how much I remembered. I also had read a very detailed account of D-Day, similarly, so I was able to rattle off an overview of the thing to Dude while we were staring at a line of people's asses who wouldn't let us through.

As we went through the Pacific wing, in the background there was this weird repeating bit of ambient music that I actually recognized as Brian Eno's An Ending (Ascent), and I was like fuck, I bet I know what that is, and I was horrifyingly correct: that's the room where there's a huge wall-sized enlargement of the devastation at ground zero of Nagasaki, a couple of little things along one wall explaining what happened, and nothing else, it's just this big huge space and the music.

I guess it's tasteful, I guess going into more detail wouldn't help, I guess that's not the place for it; leaving it a big bleak horror serves the purpose and tone. The museum was generally pretty good-- very, very American-centric, but acknowledging various issues of racism and misconduct and propaganda and such in sort of minimal but very present ways. There were repeated mentions of the segregated US armed forces, repeated discussions of what the Black soldiers still managed to achieve, and it especially hit because the group that was the most polite and considerate of my wheelchair was a school group of almost entirely Black high school kids from, clearly, a local-ish school, who were impeccably-behaved despite being kids and horsing around and such-- I timidly said "excuse me" to one and she leapt out of my way and tapped her friend's shoulder, who instantly stopped horsing around and said "oh excuse me!" and also got out of my way and told her friend and the children just all melted out of my path and reformed after me, unbothered, resuming their horseplay, poking at the interactive exhibits, paying surprisingly good attention and also roasting one another, as young teens do. And I thought, as I went on to read about Executive Order 8802, of these kids reading that placard, looking at that exhibit, thinking about what has changed and what, horribly, has not.

(Link is to the museum's website. There are a lot of resources there. There was meant to be a cool feature where you follow a specific veteran's story, but i was assigned Bob Hope and don't care about him so I didn't use that feature. Dude got Robert Capa, though, and I immediately was like "i know all about him" and from across the room was like "that photo on that wall is from your dude" and he was like "what" LOL. I know photographers ok.)

We lasted about five hours. We did not see as much of the museum as I would have on foot. But I also know even just the line to get in would have utterly destroyed me on foot. So we made it through to V-E day and then to V-J day and I sat in that room with the Brian Eno loop and was like You know what, I'm good. I'm good. I can't do any more.

So we went and got frozen margaritas at a fast food joint down the street and now I am recuperating. My sciatic nerve is not great, it won't let me nap either, but I will be able to walk and get dinner, which I wouldn't be if I'd done that museum on foot.

I highly recommend, even if you're mostly in good shape, if you have trouble making it through a museum and get footsore, just borrow a wheelchair, and then switch who's pushing halfway thru the museum. If it's that or cut the visit short.... We did not switch pushers, but Dude found a great deal of relief by leaning on the back of it, and I was able to carry the water bottles without much trouble.

Most museums don't have decoratively-uneven concrete floors.

I did realize, despite my obsessive reading on the topic as a kid, while I know the names of most of the German high command, i could not tell you the names of really any of the Japanese officers of similar rank. I recognized a few, from the placards, but generally I don't have the same level of knowledge there. On the one hand, I feel i should read more Japanese history of the war. On the other hand.... I think my days of being able to absorb that sort of thing might be over. Fourteen-year-old me would have loved this museum and read every placard, and would have been on foot to do it. Forty-whatever I am year old me was interested but horrified, even though I generally knew most of it already. But hearing about the estimated 100,000 Filipino civilians massacred in Manila during the battle for that city meant one thing when I was 14, and now means... well, rather a lot more, I have more context and I can really understand, now, what that means. It wasn't that i didn't understand as a kid. But I had no context.

Well, we'll see if I manage to scrape together enough brainpower to look into it any further. At any rate, the museum is worth a visit but is A Lot. Very American-Centric, but not as Patriotic as I was worrying. Not as obsessed with Big Machine Phallic Symbol as I was worried, either; it's not that there's none of that but it's largely in the context of discussing how US industrial capacity rapidly switched over to manufacturing war materiel. (Frank admissions in several cases that our stuff was inferior quality/design to both German and Japanese items, but was infinitely more numerous and in several cases it was simply that intelligent users worked out ways to use the items' defects to advantage, or to minimize their disadvantages anyway.)

And the website, linked to above, is pretty informative, with a wealth of images and citations. So there's that.

IDK, I have no like overarching message here, the bit of my sciatic nerve just inside my knee is fucking killing me and i can't think clearly about anything else for a bit, so. There's that, lol.

[l-yourlocalgay-l]

can i request an atypical oneshot of casey x reader or one day at a time elena x reader? maybe you’re sick or injured and she helps you?

All I Need Is You

A/N: I wrote more about how you got the injury than actual Casey content but uh, enjoy?

Word Count: 1.1k

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The whistle blew and before you knew it, the ball was hurtling towards you from the other side of the court.  You were the setter on the volleyball team and you were currently playing the game that would determine whether or not your team would make it to nationals.  In the last 5 years at Clayton the girls volleyball team had not even made it as far as yours had, but you were sure that this was the year you would make it.  

The girls at Greenwich Academy were proving to be  great opponents.  The last 4 sets had been a constant back and forth between the two of your teams with especially long rallies.  The current score was 18-17.  All that your team needed was this one point to win and you would make it.

“I GOT IT I GOT IT!”  you heard the words coming from your mouth before you even had time to register the speed that the ball was coming at.  

As the ball bounced off your arms and towards the libero behind you, the screaming of one particular girl in the crowd could be heard.

“Go Y/N! You got this just one more point!”  Your girlfriend Casey was screaming at the top of her lungs.

You didn’t have to even look at her (not like you hadn’t been looking over at her any chance you got) to know that she and her mom were there sporting matching shirts that Elsa had made just for you.  The shirts were quite obnoxious looking, with them being bright pink with orange letters spelling out your name, but the thought that went behind those shirts had moved you to tears.

You ran off the net and yelled at the libero to send the ball back to you.  The timing on this hit had to be absolutely perfect.  Your steps were exactly where they should be placed, your arm drawing up to hit the ball in the best spot possible.  The rest of the world was tuned out for the 5 seconds you were in the air and all you could see was your hand hitting the ball as hard as you could.  You saw the ball hit the court right in the middle with everyone diving to try and get it, even though they were ultimately too late.  The crowd went wild and so did your teammates and coaches, so excited that the team was finally going to nationals.

The glory of being the last and final point was short lived, however, your happiness faded as soon as you landed. You felt a sharp pain in your ankle and fell to the ground.

While you were falling, you briefly saw Casey booking it down the bleachers before your view was covered up by your teammates and coaches trying to see if you were alright.

“Give her some space!  And someone get Lauren!”  Coach Sampson yelled to the girls around you and the crowd slowly dispersed to allow the athletic trainer to get to you.

You looked around trying to find Casey but it was no luck, there were too many people around and the pain in your foot was making it incredibly hard to focus.  The amount of people in your personal space was enough to make you panic and you were about to until you saw the trackstar literally running to get to you.  The look of worry on her face was adorable and you would’ve told her so, but as your girlfriend knelt by your side the trainer bent your ankle in a way that caused you to cry out in pain and grip onto Casey’s hand, holding on as if your life depended on it.

“Are you okay?”  She asked, her eyebrows furrowing as she tried to figure out what she could do to help you.

You shook your head as tears slipped out and rolled down your cheeks.  Casey wiped the tears off with her free hand and left it to rest on your cheek, whispering to you over and over again about how you would be okay.

---------------------------------------------------

The sound of someone knocking on your bedroom door woke you up, even though all you wanted to do was sleep.

“Mom, it's too early, just let me sleep.”  You grumbled out, upset at having been woken up.

As the door swung open you were surprised to see your girlfriend of 7 months walk in the door holding a grocery bag from a drug store.

“Dude it’s like 2pm, that is not too early.”  Casey said as she walked over to your bed with a huge smile on her face.

Casey had been over at your house every single day since you got the news about your ankle.  You had broken a rather common bone to break and had to stay off of it for the next 4-8 weeks, meaning that with nationals in 2 weeks, you definitely were not allowed to play.

It hurt and tears were shed, but Casey was at your house and with you all the time, so she was making the pain a little more bearable.

“I got your favorite.”  She said in a sing-song voice, pulling a soda and a chocolate bar out of the CVS bag she had.

Your eyes lit up as you pulled the covers down a little bit to reach for the snacks.  Just as you were about to grab them she pulled them back, still with a smile on her face.

“Uh-uh, what’s the magic word?”  Her eyes sparkled as she let out the slightly childish statement.

“Please?”

“Nope! But I guess I could give you these…as long as you do something in exchange.”

“And what would that be?”  You questioned the girl standing in front of you as your eyebrow instinctively raised.

She leaned in a little closer to you, her smirk somehow getting wider, “I want a kiss.”

You giggle at her antics and pull her down by the back of her neck into a sweet kiss.  Somehow it felt like kissing her got better and better each time that you did.  You pulled away for a second but she brought you back in with slightly more force than you were expecting.

When the two of you finally did pull away, the smirk on her face had changed into a small smile and she was looking at you with what could only be described as heart-eyes.

You matched her smile and pulled back the blanket for her to join you in your bed.  She wasted no time as she crawled in with you, putting the snacks on the side table next to your bed.  You rested your head on her chest and listened to her heartbeat speed up a bit because of that.

At some point in your cuddle session, you had fallen back to sleep.  Casey looked at you resting so peacefully and then joined you in your nap.  

The two of you ended up sleeping the day away, seeing as you didn’t wake up until 8pm when your mom knocked on your door and asked if you were going to eat dinner.  You would be tired tomorrow, but Casey was with you, so did it really matter?

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A/N: this ask is from like 2 years ago I'm sorry I haven't been that active since I posted that I wrote fanfic 😭 I'm trying to be in my active Era. Sorry if there are spelling mistakes, I wrote this right now instead of doing my homework.

[triplesilverstar]

An Easter Hunt

Rating: 18+ Minors DNI 

Pairing: Knives X F!Reader

CW: Dom/Sub undertones, Mentions of future, Future children, mentions of public sex

Word count: Roughly 1.3K

A/N: Chapter twenty two of the series, where you and Nai are out for a walk and after a run in with a child you and Nai have a discussion.

Walking through the park that sat in the central location of the city was usually interesting, on this particular Sunday it was more so than usual for one reason. Your boyfriend had wanted to go for a walk which was slowly becoming more and more common for the two of you. 

Just not always during daylight hours since Nai had a thing for ducking into thick foliage at night and sinking into your warmth. 

Another item to add how it was out of the ordinary was that it was the annual Easter egg hunt. The final item being one that made you laugh on the inside because you were not giving him a free reason to punish you. 

Nai, abhorred children.

So seeing a boy, no older than seven come running out of the bushes with a basket filled with colorful eggs, bounce into your boyfriend's leg sending his jeweled prizes tumbling everywhere, and start to cry, while Nai looked down with abject terror was absolutely hilarious to you. 

If it had been anywhere else, Nai would have just snorted his disdain and kept on walking, but today when so many members of the public, and well-known members of the public at that, out and about, it meant he had to try and console the child. “Ah, there there” His head is whipping towards you and for the first time since you’ve known the hard man, a brief flash of panic is reflected in them. You know his panic has nothing to do with the child, more in regards to his public image and you can picture the headlines now. 

CEO of Saverem Inc. Charming businessman or ruthless monster? K. Saverem seen stealing Easter eggs from Children. 

Shaking your head you pick up the boy's basket, placing the displaced eggs back inside, and maybe tossing in a few that had been hidden in the area nearby. All the while hearing terrible consoling from your boyfriend while the child's crying seems to just get louder. Eggs collected, you rejoin them and drop down to be closer to eye level with the boy. 

“Hey there young man. I see you’ve met my boyfriend” Your cheerful tone has the boy turning to look at you instead of rubbing at his eyes. “I know he looks a little scary” you snicker here, causing the boy's tears to slow “but I promise he’s very nice.” A lie, he’s only nice to you and a few select others, and even then that’s when he feels like it.

You hold your hand out and introduce yourself to the boy, who nods and takes your hand so you can help him stand. “Here’s your basket back. Now let's dry those silly tears because I hear the Easter bunny might still be around. You wouldn’t want him to think you didn’t like the eggs he hid for you to find would you?” The boy is shaking his head while you pull some tissue from your purse and gently wipe his face. Tears and snot dried you smile at him, all teeth, to which the boy smiles back “Now, be more careful ok? Next time the people might not be as nice as us.” Waving as the boy runs off you walk to one of the garbage pails next to a bench tossing the used tissues away. 

“Perhaps it would have been more helpful if you had consoled the child first, Pet” You shake your head, not sure what you’d been expecting the gruff man to say. Returning to his side, you take his offered arm as you continue your walk. “While you handled that adequately, there was no need to call me scary.” His tone is back to its normal one of cool indifference, but at this point, you can read in between the lines. He’s going to enjoy using it as an excuse to punish you later, and you find yourself warming at the thought. 

“I won’t say I’m sorry, because I think the kid needed to hear it, besides I don’t think you’re scary. I think you’re quite handsome, with those sharp features of yours.” You grin, feeling the light chuckle through his arm. “You aren’t good with kids though. What are you going to do if we ever have any?” A strange conversation to have in a park, but after this long in the relationship you’d like to know his stance on kids. Hell if you weren’t taking several different kinds of precautious at this point the two of you might have had one already. 

“I never intend to father any offspring. Strange as this may sound Pet, I value my time with you too highly to see it reduced. Most men of my standing procreate to produce an heir to their empire, which are raised by hired help.” You find yourself a little surprised at his words, but they do make sense. Hearing him state that he does, in his Nai way, admit that he enjoys your company does send a shiver down your spine. “I cannot picture you allowing some stranger to raise a child you bear, therefore, children would cut into our time together.” You can honestly admit that was an answer you never expected to hear, but damn Nai and his logic because he is right. You’d want to be a mother to any kid you had, not send them off for a nanny to do the work for you. 

“So you wouldn’t want a Nai junior to take over your company someday?” It does surprise you a little, Nai plans everything. Hell Nai probably already has your entire life planned out for the two of you because at this point you honestly can’t see him getting rid of you. 

“At the rate my brother, and his little harem copulate, I imagine it won’t be too long until my brother is a father. One of his brood should be intelligent enough to garner my attention and I can groom them to take my place.” You almost laugh at that, Nai’s voice full of nothing but disdain, while he loves his brother as much as any normal sibling relationship goes. He despises the fact that his twin is dating not one but two people. While he has no issue with the woman his twin is dating and following like a love sick puppy a woman in his own employ in his human resources department at the moment. It’s the man that his twin is involved with that makes Nai’s blood boil. Nicholas D. Wolfwood. A man that as far as Knives is concerned is like the ten plagues of ancient Egypt and Nai the pharaoh sitting atop his throne. Something about Wolfwood has never sat right in Nai’s gut regarding how the two of them had come to meet, which you’ve heard from Nai often whenever he saw the dark haired man. 

Choosing to change the subject you speak up with a giggle watching another child run by. “Well, what if I want a baby with you?” Glancing at him you can see the cogs in his head turning, almost like it’s a possibility he hadn’t considered. Very much not like the calculating ruthless man he can be. 

“Do you want children with me, Pet?” His voice is controlled as he asks, a single eyebrow raised while he turns to look at your face. 

“I’m not sure” you answer him honestly, because you really don’t know. Not at this point in your life. You tell him the same as you both come to a stop, closer to the main events that seem to be happening in the park. The cool spring air causes you to shiver in your coat, Nai’s hand coming to rest over your fingers. 

“If the time comes, we’ll discuss it then pet. For now, we’ll continue under the pretense we will not be parents.” You find yourself agreeing, but the thoughts do keep swirling around in your head, would you want to have a kid with the brooding man who's stolen your heart? 

Back to series

[tender-emotional-music]

I'm confused as some may see Mike and El potentially having a big happy making out scene as something positive for the byler just because it is parallel (another) with other ships like Stancy. Like, it doesn’t matter that this is another big parallel? Jonathan and Nancy, after Stancy’s biggest scene, became a couple only after a season and a half, and all this time the conflict between Nancy and Steve became stronger. By the way, i’m not trying to somehow erase the evidence of the byler, I’m just confused because this particular parallel simply doesn’t make sense as a positive one simply because the context of the story is different from what Stancy had..

Hi anon! Thanks for the ask. This’ll be a bit long lmao

Honestly I don’t even think that leak is real anyway, so I’m not paying much mind to it when it comes to my own theories. There really isn’t much context, so it’s kind of difficult to extrapolate much based off of it.

Personally, I just can’t really imagine the show putting that sort of scene in there. I think people are drawing those parallels because makeout scenes aren’t really the show’s style, unless it’s to communicate something negative. Sta/ncy is performative and lacks genuineness, Bob dies, and Mike and El’s s3 scene is uncomfortable to watch, is shot to be vaguely voyeuristic, and is undercut with Hopper’s discomfort. So to answer your question, I guess that’s the theme people are picking up on when they say it could be a parallel. However, I agree that people turning it around into something positive for byler are also doing a lot of assumption of context in order to place it among their pre-existing theories, so it’s hard to tell all round.

As I’ve said though, I truly don’t think it’s real. I find it hard to place how it would work in the season on the whole, especially since Mike and El don’t appear to have many scenes together past the first episode, since we know Finn and Millie are on extremely different schedules. They’re playing so coy about it too and just seem to be bouncing ideas off each other, so I don’t think it comes from a genuine source. And of course this comes up right after that love interest “leak” for Will 🙄 (I don’t think rejectedscooper, who said that, is legit either, for the record).

So yeah, it doesn’t surprise me that people are trying to figure out how it would work into their theories, and there definitely is a pattern with how the show portrays these things, but without context there is no way to know, and I’m really not going to trust this leak when Mike and El aren’t spending the majority of the season together, it seems to be at odds with what we know about their storylines moving forward, and the source is dyersfilms of all people and “I saw it with my own eyes.” Be fr

[waitineedaname]

masterpost for my aro4aro chengqing fake marriage fix-it

Part 1: find a place between fact and fiction

Jiang Cheng was embarrassed to admit that this particular solution had occurred to him frequently after their last parting, when he was kept awake wondering about her safety. It wasn’t the most elegant solution, and definitely not his preferred solution, and it would easily create more problems than it solved, but… “What if we were engaged?” “Jiang Cheng, have you gone insane?” Wei Wuxian said, which was really rich coming from him of all people. Wen Qing looked like she agreed with him and this pained her.

Part 2: the less we say about it, the better

“Jiang-zongzhu, I appreciate everything you are doing for me and my family,” Wen Qing folded her hands on her lap and stared him down imperiously, “But I have no intention of having sex with you.” Jiang Cheng wondered if the stress of the last week had finally pushed him over the edge and this was a hallucination caused by qi deviation. “I didn’t expect you to!”

Part 3: the magpie will have his way

Jiang Cheng had a lot on his plate. Political shitshow, balancing the needs of his sect with the needs of newcomers, navigating a new fake-but-also-kind-of-real relationship. He had those problems handled, more or less. The problem he was avoiding, then, was that of Wei Wuxian.

Part 4: the things you do for love are gonna come back to you one by one

She would’ve expected the softness to have been beaten out of him by everything that had happened. She knew it would have been beaten out of her, if she were in his shoes. In some ways, he had hardened up. He was harsher, colder, more pragmatic. It fit him, made him seem more mature as a sect leader. And yet, by some strange miracle, she was allowed to see beyond the facade of Jiang Wanyin, sect leader. Hidden beneath those hard layers was a boy that still cared with such an intensity it would someday tear him apart.  For reasons she could not fathom, he shed that shell around her, and trusted her with the soft interior. She did not feel like she should be trusted with this vulnerable core of his person, but to explain why would be to change everything, so she took the vulnerability he handed her and did her best not to shake.

Bonus: it's gonna be a long climb out

He realized too late that Jiang Cheng wasn’t going for the wine. His reflexes were off; another thing to blame on his weakened tolerance. Just as he realized Jiang Cheng’s real intent, a hand snatched his wrist with a bruising grip. He attempted to yank his arm away, but Jiang Cheng held firm, fingers pressed to his pulse point. “Jiang Cheng, dammit, let go!” Wei Wuxian snapped. But the damage was already done. He felt the buzz of Jiang Cheng’s qi as it probed through his meridians – and found them empty.

Bonus: Jiang Cheng is still Jin Ling's favorite uncle

“I’m just saying, if anyone is going to be the fun uncle, it’s obviously me,” Wei Wuxian said, shaking a rattle over Jin Ling’s head. “He’s two,” Jiang Cheng snapped, bouncing Jin Ling on his knee. “Anything that moves and makes noise is fun to him.” “Well, I move and make the most noise, so.” Wei Wuxian leaned in and started making faces at his nephew. “Right, A-Ling? Right?” Jin Ling gurgled happily and clapped his hands.

[lyriumrain]

kinda makes me sad that so many people are bouncing off of dragon's dogma 2's travel system so hard

Do i get annoyed and frustrated with the game sometimes? Yes, I think there's some QoL improvements from Dark Arisen that should have been implemented in this game. But overall that annoyance is outweighed by how much I enjoy it.

I love going on hikes and walks out in the country, but because I don't have a car it's not something I get to do very often. Sorry to be corny, but I like looking at trees, the sea, the mountains in the distance, the grass - all of those things look great in DD2, even on the low/medium settings I have to run the game on.

Yesterday I was able to get up onto a hill top (in-game) that I don't think we're supposed to be able to go - mainly because there was nothing up there except grass. I was convinced there would be a collectible but no - it was just.... a large hill that separated the roads with no gameplay importance. And walking around up there felt exactly like some real life hikes I've been on. It was so quiet and serene.

There are very few games out there that have this specific walkabout-wanderlust feel (I can think of a few off the top of my head - firewatch, death stranding, eastshade, skyrim (if you impose a no-fast-travel challenge on yourself)) but dragon's dogma 1 & 2 are very, very good at representing it. I love how it feels to walk and run around in these worlds, and as a person with adhd/autism i never expected to like it this much.

Sometimes I find myself getting annoyed at enemy encounters because I just want to travel, but I realise i might be in the minority on this particular point lol

[endless-ineffabilities]

easy on the eyes (three fateful midnights) - midnight one

Corinthian x f!Reader

Story Masterlist

a mini prequel to 'easy on the eyes', chronicling the start of the romance between Corinthian and the Reader, across three fateful midnights.

Warnings: smut (18+), cursing, brief mention of violence

Word count: 5.3k

midnight one - "you look like you might need me"

midnight two - "this can be as real as we want it to be"

midnight three - "darling, i'm not ready to let you go"

midnight one

I don't want to be here. Here in a loud, sweaty club, surrounded by inebriated and probably horny 20-somethings.

This is not my perfect Friday night. At all.

But one of my best friends had plucked me out of the safety of my bedroom, using the excuse "It's my birthday in a week, so the celebration starts now!"

I didn't want to let him down, and I thought, maybe he's right. I haven't gone out in a long time, so perhaps I need a change of scenery.

Boy, was I wrong. It's not that I don't enjoy music or drinking or dancing, and I quite like spending nights out with my friend, too. But, I just don't enjoy this particular kind of club - covered in sticky floors, rancid bathrooms, and packed with people of looser morals, even just for a night.

We stand in front of a poseur table, our second drinks propped atop, and I try not to get too irritated at those who hurriedly brush up behind me, causing my side to hit the cold metal.

"Don't look so sour, y/n!" he nearly shouts at me to be heard above the noise, "It's fun! You like this music, right?"

My ear catches a remix of Blue Monday and I yell back, "Yeah, I do!" I sway my body a little, in time with the music, and down the rest of my gin and tonic.

I'll need a whole lot more of that to last through tonight.

He scans the crowd, potentially looking for a catch, and I lean over, "Not a lot of choices tonight, huh."

"Nah," he sips his drink with a shrug, "for now at least."

If either one of us is going to have that kind of fun tonight, it won't be me. My friend is more of the carefree, happy-go-lucky, dating app regular, whereas I tend to be wary of attraction that tends to be rushed or fleeting.

Being the good friend that I am, I want him to truly enjoy tonight if he so wishes. After that last fling of his that ended quite messily, I'd like to help him choose a guy that won't recklessly string him along this time. That was also another reason why he wanted to go out so badly – finding a good distraction.

I know his type - tall, blonde and impeccably dressed. But nobody here seems up to the standard.

Another, more bass-heavy track starts to play. "I'll go get another drink! Do you want one?" I tell him, and he’s obviously liking this song a lot more, his head bouncing up and down to the beat.

He shakes his head, and gestures to his still halfway empty glass. I start to move away, but then he suddenly grabs my arm and pulls me back.

“Woah there,” I try to get my bearings. Was I about to collide with someone? Then again, that’s pretty much inevitable given our current environment, “what is it?”

“Look,” he whispers in my ear, excitement lacing his voice, “There, at the bar.”

“There’s about a hundred people at the bar.” I respond dryly.

“You’ll know when you see him,” he seems electrified, nearly giddy, and I look harder for his mystery man.

Of course. There he stands.

Tall, blonde, and impeccably dressed. Eyes obscured by dark eyeglasses in an already dark club, but that only added to his allure. The perfect package, and I know that my friend’s search for a rebound has determinedly ended. He’s got a small flock of admirers around him, and it’s not hard to see that he’s full of confidence. A kind of magnetism. Standing tall and smiling freely, he seems like the type of person who would be the focus of every room, as he seems to be now.

“You headed to the bar, right?” he asks, smirking coyly, and I already know what he wants me to do.

“I’m on it.” I salute him jokingly, which he does in return, “One hot blonde’s number coming right up.”

I have to push through several warm bodies to get to my destination, and I’m so relieved when I reach it that I slam my hand loudly on the counter.

The blonde Casanova and his little group are to my right, and I steal a glance at him. I probably look too long, because he seems to realize and slowly turns his head, dark eyeglasses boring directly into me.

I tear my eyes away hurriedly. Normally, I wouldn't get nervous if I have no stake in the situation, like right now, because this is all for my friend.

But there's an air about him that feels so intimidating. In an attempt to calm my nerves, I raise my voice, and ask, "Another gin and tonic, please!"

The bartender barely glances my way, occupied with a gaggle of younger girls in the corner.

Then, from the corner of my eye, I see him inch closer until he's leaning on the space right next to me.

He slants himself in a way that I can feel his breath in my ear, but not too close, and whispers, “You look like you might need me.” I wonder how I can hear his words all too clearly, with the bass thumping in the background. His words settle, and all I can think is, the audacity.

“Need you?” I ask incredulously, my words having a distinct edge now. I put on a sarcastic smile, and add, “well, you must think of yourself a great deal.”

“I do, actually.” Of course he does. He smiles sweetly, “That’s why I’m letting myself have all this,” he gestures around, “all this freedom, all this fun.”

“I think you might be too old to consider simply going to the club, freedom. Besides, I have to ask again, why would I need you?”

“This is not all that I meant,” he hovers close to me, and I have to remind myself to avoid becoming intoxicated with his presence, with the attention he gives me. He's a disarming kind of attractive, but men like him are the dangerous kind - they know how exactly to reel you in. “You need me because… you need something more than all this. You look sullen, yet you're surrounded by all these people. I'd say that all this is not your thing, darling."

“You’re here, and you look like you belong, I have to say. So that means you’re not my thing as well, doesn’t it?” I counter, internally patting myself on the back. Does flirting come as easy to him as breathing? That’s what it looks like.

He beams widely, as if pleased with my retort, “Well, why are you here if you’re not having any fun?”

Oh, right. “My friend, actually, who also might be the reason why I headed over here… is interested in you, to say the least.”

“Really? Which one?”

“Well, he… “ I start to say, gauging his reaction.

He senses my hesitance, and assuredly drawls, “Oh, I like all kinds.”

“…is standing over there. The lone guy by the poseur table in the corner.” I wave at my friend, who immediately waves back, a smile growing on his face.

They make eye contact, and blondie here sizes him up. "Handsome."

"Yeah, he's a catch. And you better be nice, or else..."

"Or else what?" He responds right away, amusement lacing his voice.

"He's my good friend, so I'm rightfully protective. If you mess up, I'll come for you."

He holds my gaze, mischievous expression growing. He must be thinking, Really? I know I don't look like much of a threat, but I don't look away. I realize I haven't asked his name. He looks like a Dean? Boyd? Steve?

Our staredown continues, until an arm shoots in between us to land on the counter, connected to a very drunk frat boy looking type. "Can y'all get a room or som'ing? ... need to get a drink."

Blondie maneuvers me a few feet away, smirking, "Truthfully, I don't think he needs another drink."

A giggle bubbles out of my throat. I can't help it, and another one follows. This whole thing seems ridiculous, but the expression on his face makes me giggle even harder, as if he's trying to determine whether I've lost my mind. I still feel his hands on my shoulders, steadying me, and I have to ask, "What's your name?"

"What's yours?"

"Oh, c'mon." The effects of the gin are setting in. Maybe I should complete my task before I say anything too forward. "Anyway, I won't pry. Would you please be a doll and give my friend your number?"

"What about you?" he asks.

"What about me?"

"You're not interested?" His curiosity seems genuine, but I'm not biting.

"This isn't about me, so stop trying." A pair of girls linger close to us, in an attempt to get his attention, but his focus is on me.

"Humor me," he takes my hand, and before I can protest, we walk over to a relatively quieter area near the coat check. He smiles again, "So?"

I cave in, "If you were a romantic prospect, and I'm not saying that you are," I add hurriedly, when he raised his eyebrows, "we wouldn't be meeting at a nightclub, of all places. It's just not the perfect image I have in my head, as weird as that may sound."

"So you're a romantic," he drawls, and I still can't place his accent, but there's a pleasant Southern lilt to it. Which is growing on me, as much as I'd hate to admit.

I shrug, not wanting to divulge anything more about myself.

"If I was your type of person, and if this were the perfect setup, where would we be? A museum? A park? By the ocean maybe?" I sense amusement in his voice.

"Are you mocking me?"

"Wouldn't dream of it, darling. I just really am interested."

I study him, and as hard as he may be to read, I can see that he's being sincere. Or maybe he's just that charming.

"Look, I know it's about the person that you meet, not so much the place, but... I don't know. I love quaint bookstores, libraries. Hidden, quiet places, or maybe even crowded ones that all the more emphasize how the other person simply stands out for you. A light among all else. An unexpected brush with another. When you're not really looking to find someone, but you do, and it catches you off guard. But in a good way." The words rush out of me, and I have to stop myself. What happened to not divulging anything more? I would blame the gin, but heaven forbid, what if I am attracted to him?

"Hmm," is all he responds with. He takes a deep breath, and I feel the urge to find his eyes behind his dark glasses. What color might they be?

"Take your glasses off," I say, bravery kicking in. Or stupidity. Either one.

"Why?" he leans even closer, tilting his head.

"I want to," I pause, my throat constricting, "see your eyes."

He says nothing. Does nothing. We stand face to face in this dark corner, and I suddenly remember my friend waiting for me. Not wanting to waste any more time, I reach up tentatively, my hand inching towards his round, black-out glasses.

Just when my fingers graze the rim, his hand shoots up, effectively halting my attempt.

A long pause follows, with my hand enveloped in his, until he says, "You're dangerous, darling," I feel his words reverberate within me, warming the pit of my stomach.

I tentatively smile back, challenging him, finally settling into our shared rhythm.

But in a split second, he breaks the spell, dropping my hand, "Weren't you going to introduce me to your friend?"

"Oh," my stomach sinks, and I don't like how disappointed I feel, since I'm not here for me after all, "Right."

I take one final look at him, before the haze subsides. Before he sets his eyes on someone else, and I lose him entirely. He was not at all what I expected, but that doesn't matter now.

"Follow me," I gesture with one hand, and I feel him close behind me, as we find our way through the bustling crowd. He places one hand on my waist, while the other shields me from any flailing, dancing limbs. Someone drunkenly sways a bit too close, and I feel myself being pulled back against his chest.

"Easy," I hear his voice low in my ear, making the hairs on the back of my neck tingle.

I regain composure, "I'm okay," and I walk on with more determination. He is not for me, I think to myself, this is not what I think it is. It's just another drunken midnight, and he's just another brazen flirt at a nightclub.

Then again, I don't really want to believe that. But anyway.

When we reach my friend, he gives a relieved grin, "There you are! I thought you two ran off with each other already."

I immediately feel guilty. I must be breaking some cardinal friendship rule by even thinking of stepping in with this charming stranger.

They fall into conversation right away, and the stranger might have given his name in introduction, but I've already forced myself to turn my attention to something else. Luckily, given where we are, the music blares, deafening and persistent. My friend winks at me, and I take it as a sign that they're really hitting it off. I give him a subtle thumbs up, and face the other way, as if to give them privacy. But also to fend off the jealousy creeping in my chest.

Perhaps it's best if I just head home.

"Hey," I intervene half-heartedly, "I'm really tired, so I'll just head back."

"Aww, really?" my friend says, then turns to blondie adding, "Poor thing. She's not that into places like these."

"Yeah, I'm really not," I smile, "I'm just about ready to change into pajamas and jump into bed."

The handsome stranger smiles crookedly, "I'll accompany you out, and make sure you get a ride safely."

"Oh, that's-," I start to protest, but my friend says, "Good idea! That's nice of you to offer. Make sure my girl here doesn't get bothered outside."

My friend then drags a hand flirtatiously down blondie's arm, "I'll be waiting here for you."

"Alright," blondie makes a gesture for me, to which I say, "One second."

He steps away from us, leaning casually by a wall. He looks too perfect to be here, too refined. As if he shines too brightly among all the others, standing out like a sore thumb.

"So, what do we think of him?" I question.

"Quite the charmer," my friend says, "Very polite, very well-mannered, too."

"Yeah, he is," I echoed, "but there's an edge to him. I can't pinpoint it exactly."

"You two disappeared for a while there. Is there something-"

"No," I blurt out, perhaps too hurriedly, "I mean, he seems nice and everything, but I'm not looking for that right now."

"Are you sure? Because it's completely fine if you like him. I won't get in the way of this connection." he says assuringly, and I slightly feel bad again for all that I've been thinking. He's always been considerate, and this was supposed to be his night. Blondie's supposed to be his guy.

"I am," I smile weakly, and I can tell he's not convinced, "Look, just message me later whenever you can, okay? Let me know how it goes. He may be charming as all hell, but most serial killers often are." I wag my eyebrows at him, half in jest, and he laughs.

"Okay," he draws me in for a hug, "Get home safe."

I walk over to blondie, and we make our way out of the nightclub. I feel the cool, brisk air and immediately feel relieved. With my hands on my waist, I turn my face to the night sky with eyes closed, and just focus on breathing.

Then, I remember just who is standing next to me. When I open my eyes, he is staring at me, the tiniest hint of a smile on his lips.

"I just really needed the fresh air."

"Hmm," is all he says again. Maybe he's irked at having to wait with me, and just wants to get back to my friend.

"You know," he starts to say, but nothing could have prepared me for what comes after, "You're quite beautiful."

"What?" I manage to spit out. I've dealt with men like this before, those who tend to dole out compliments so easily, that it becomes hard to find truth in them. But I can't fight the blush that I feel spreading across my face.

"You are somethin' else." he drawls in his own way.

Is he just messing with me? Maybe he's naturally this forward, with a voice like honey, dripping saccharine, "You've only known me for around half an hour. I doubt you're making a worthy assumption."

"I know, but I mean them."

I turn away, looking out onto the street. If he does mean what he said, then I need to get out of here before I do or say something I'll probably regret, and he needs to get back to my friend. He's not for me.

"Best get you home then, darling." he raises an arm, and hails a cab that lingers on the street corner.

I have to know, so I ask, "Tell me your name? I've been calling you blondie in my head all this time, and it doesn't do you justice."

"You'll know soon enough," the cab appears before us, and he holds the door open for me. Damn gentleman. "Sweet dreams, y/n."

I am halfway in the cab, when I realize that I never actually told him my name. I turn around to confront him, but he's gone.

So he knows my name but I don't know his? I decide to let it go when the cab driver calls out, "Where are we headed?"

I give him my address, and shut the cab door. Feeling a strange mix of disappointment and guilt and longing, I am determined to completely push blondie out of my head.

This is just another midnight, and he's just another guy.

How I wish I believed that.

▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎

The knife hovers above the slumbering form, moonlight glinting off its smooth surface. This young man, while very appealing in his own right, did nothing to keep Corinthian's thoughts from straying back to you.

After you had left, they had engaged in every degree of flirtation one can think of, before the young man whispered the predictable invitation in his ear. He obliged. Wasn't his plan simply falling into place?

Nightclubs were not among Corinthian's favored haunts, but now and again, he deigns to visit them. To see people engaged in various delights, influenced by substances and coercions. Raw and wild, and yet most were hiding behind masks, behind pretenses. An added benefit, they provided him with an easy selection for his... hobby.

He found that people tend to already be naturally drawn to him, so places like this only provided an additional thrill.

He had actually found you before you found him. He saw your fatigued expression in the crowd, in contrast to your friend who seemed to be thriving in that atmosphere. And when the both of you eventually drew your attention to him, he felt a sort of smugness.

Of course, as always.

You walked over, and he approached you, but you acted like you'd rather be anywhere else. Corinthian was used to people either wanting to be him or be with him. They may be intimidated, or provocative, or simply curious. He was aware of the effect that he had, and it didn't seem to be evident with you.

You were prepared to rebuke his advances, and you were setting him up for your friend instead. Your friend, who is now sleeping here half-nude, while Corinthian deliberates his next move.

They hadn't gone all the way, although that was the intention. Corinthian and your friend were lost in a flurry of kisses upon entering your friend's apartment. Most of their clothes quickly discarded, until Corinthian motioned for them to pause, as if to catch his breath.

"Got a drink?" he asked, sitting down on the bed.

"Sure thing, handsome," your friend smiled, making his way to the kitchen.

Corinthian sat there, deep in thought, as he is now. He had a vision of how this night would turn out to be. Venture to that nightclub, find his prey, indulge in the usual humanly pleasures, and then indulge in pleasure of another kind.

When your friend returned with his drink, Corinthian thanked him and sipped it slowly. Your friend started to pepper his back with soft kisses, muttering affectionate phrases, and the occasional racy remark. They kissed again, bodies colliding on the bed. Until a while later, when your friend stopped to say, "You're not into this, are you?"

Corinthian replied nonchalantly, "Just got something on my mind."

"Does that something happen to be y/n?" Your friend was the one who slipped Corinthian your name earlier, and he didn't even have to ask.

Corinthian huffed, not confirming your friend's thought, but not denying it either.

"You know, it's okay. You were a good distraction for a while, pretty boy. That's all I needed. We can just go to sleep, if you'd like to stay?"

"Alright," Corinthian agreed, "This was a real pleasure, doll."

"Sure," your friend smiled, "and by the way, don't waste any time. She's amazing. If you want y/n, tell her. I can give you her number? But tomorrow, I'm kinda exhausted now."

Corinthian doesn't respond, but your friend took that as an agreement. They spoke for a short while, until your friend rolled over to his side of the bed, mumbled good night, and quickly fell asleep thanks to several daiquiris and a long, tiring night.

Corinthian sits on the bed, feeling something he hasn't felt in a long time. He feels lost. It's as if he's not where he's supposed to be, not doing what he's supposed to. Ever since Dream got captured, he was free to roam the Waking World as he pleased. He knew just what he wanted, and he took it. People became his thing. Their emotions, their habits, their fears.

He relished all of it. Their pleasures and pains gave him a rush. Every eye devoured unleashed a cascade of memories within him. A collection of moments, and sentiments. Not his, of course, but it feels that way nonetheless. It feels human.

And Corinthian knew, this was the closest that he would get. To being human. To having a soul. He knew exactly just what he was and what he was made to do, and he didn't fight it.

A nightmare he shall be. Nightmares he shall unleash.

He stands, prepared to take this young man's eyes. Although asleep, there will be resistance upon the initial strike, but no matter. His end will swiftly follow.

But why wasn't he sure? This is what he does, this is who he is.

His mind travels back to you, "If you mess up, I'll come for you." Adorable.

He could easily disappear after tonight, no one would ever find him. Only you would suspect him, but that wouldn't matter. This would just be another nightmare under his roster.

But you would be in pain. You would carry the guilt, having been the one to introduce your friend to a serial killer. Standing there, Corinthian couldn't, for the life of him, understand why he cared.

You're nobody.

But he still hears your giggle from his memory, sees you smiling up at him.

It eats at him, and makes him feel something else entirely. Something unfamiliar.

He puts his knife back in its sheath.

Maybe this was just a passing fancy, and he plans to just let it run its course. He'll forget about you soon enough. But this could be fun, and if you're here for the taking, then take he shall.

As Corinthian leaves the apartment, a twisted sense of regret passes through him. If he had devoured your friend's eyes, he would have seen you in an infinite array of moments, in the perspective of someone close to you. He would have seen your laugh again and again, heard your sweet voice whispering things in confidence, felt you walking right beside him. So close.

He turns resolute - why not have all that in actuality. Maybe it's time to slip back into the Dreaming, just for tonight.

▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎

My fingers graze the titles on the shelf. I want to read nearly all of them. It's strange how they consist of books that I have yet to read, but have written down on my list.

I am surrounded by wooden bookshelves, designed as if they were molded out of the woods themselves, smooth brown roots running up the sides, golden and green leaves sticking out in a faint pattern. I remember wanting to decorate the bookshelves in my bedroom in the same way. But where am I now?

It seems to be a quaint bookshop, beautiful, with a tall stained glass window in an alcove on one side of the room. I seem to be the only one here, free to read to my heart's delight.

I pull out one of the volumes from the shelf, but I must have miscalculated its weight, because it started to fall out of my hands.

I wait to hear the thud, but instead I hear a voice.

"Oh," he says, "careful there."

He stands next to me with the book in one hand, outstretched in offering. Where did he come from?

"Thanks," I reply shyly, not knowing what to say next.

"You have good taste," he points to the book, "I've read this one myself, and let me tell you, the plot is certainly gripping. The characters were well-written, especially the villain, but you might not like him, of course."

"I quite like villains," I explain, "I've always been drawn to them in books, films, anywhere really. Just any darkly delightful, complex villain, with their own share of inner conflict and turmoil. Fascinating."

"Really?" A slow smile spreads across his face.

"Yeah," I smile in return, "Mind you, most villains wouldn't even consider themselves as such. They're just doing what they think is right."

"But what if," he implores, "the villain is just purely wretched? Downright evil, with nothing to redeem them?"

I think carefully before responding, "Maybe there are some who are like that. But," I pause, and he seems keen to hear my next words, "I like to think there's hope for everyone. Even those with the darkest of hearts."

A comfortable silence follows, and I let my eyes wander on the titles, until he says in a familiar drawl, "You really are somethin' else, darling."

Where did I hear that before?

"I'm y/n," I finally say, holding out my hand.

"The pleasure is all mine, y/n," he takes your hand and places a kiss on your knuckles, "I'm Corinthian."

When I feel him, a memory rushes through my mind. Loud music, cramped bodies, neon lights dancing on his skin. The same dark glasses shielding his eyes.

"You," I mumble, "I know you."

"Do you now?" he laughs, amused by my confusion, turning away to skim another bookshelf.

"Yes," I follow him, "You don't remember?"

"Well, I don't know, but I'll just take your word for it," he turns a book in his hands, "Besides, where do you think we are?"

I look around, and everything appears so polished. Almost too perfect. I realize that it resembles a library, more than a bookshop, with everything arranged and decorated to my liking, as if all of this was a product of my subconscious. One side of the room was completely open, facing a garden, lush and inviting. A warm sheen can be seen all around, as if everything is covered in a layer of fairy dust. I don't hear the usual siren song of the big city, which is replaced by the calming sounds of nature.

The stuff of dreams.

"I'm dreaming?" I breathe out, unsure.

"Do you like it?" I hear him, feeling his warm body behind me.

I hum in confirmation. A shiver rushes through me when I feel his lips on the nape on my neck. I feel him inhale deeply, as if savouring my scent.

"Beautiful," he says in that voice.

I turn around slowly. He looks beautiful, ethereal almost, in this light. This is my dream, so what do I want to happen next?

Kiss me, Corinthian, I think.

He caresses my face and asks, "Can I kiss you, darling?" as if he was privy to my thoughts.

"Yes," I manage to say. I vaguely remember wanting to kiss him in real life, as I do now.

Our lips touch, softly at first, dancing sensually with one another. Then he wraps an arm firmly around me, body flush against mine, and I can feel all of him.

My back arches in pleasure, and I feel him groan into my mouth. Suddenly, he bites down on my lip hard.

I pull away, and I run my tongue over my lip, a faint tanginess lingering in my mouth. I kiss him again, and he sucks my bottom lip, caressing the love bite.

He lifts me up and wraps my legs around his waist, then pushes me back onto a bookshelf. My face hovers inches higher above his, and he looks up at me, dazed and eager.

"Corinthian," I whisper his name for the first time, and it feels like a prayer on my lips. How could I have come up with this name in my dream? It's unusual, and yet fits him perfectly.

We gaze at each other for a while, lost in the moment. He curses softly, "Fuck."

"What?"

"I want you," he purrs.

I want him too. I want all of this to be real. "Then take me."

He drags his lips across my collarbone, my chest. Keeping me propped up against the shelf, he takes my shirt off. He takes a nipple in his mouth, sucking and swirling his tongue, and I feel a wetness start to pool below. He positions a finger in my entrance, and he looks up at me for permission.

I bite my lip, running my fingers over his chiseled face, and nod urgently.

He pushes my underwear to one side, and thrusts a finger in. I feel his middle finger move in and out, while his thumb strokes my clit rapidly. He slides another finger in, picking up the pace.

A series of moans escape my lips, and he's leaning back, as if admiring the view. Suddenly, I don't feel his fingers anymore, and I open my eyes.

He's smirking at me, and he almost looks dangerous. Carnal.

"I want to make you scream."

He gingerly lowers me back on my feet, slides my underwear down my ankles, and I lift each one to take it off.

Then he lifts me up even higher, until my thighs settle on his shoulders, straddling him. He breathes out, and I feel it directly in front of my throbbing opening. He blows into it, teasing me, then without warning, slides his tongue inside.

My arms fly to the side, feeling the hardness of this exquisite bookshelf, in an attempt to keep myself steady. But I can't help but tremble, and writhe in ecstasy, as his lips move frenzied against me.

Moments later, his prediction rings true, and I scream.

▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎ ▪︎

My eyes fly open. I feel warm all over, a sheen of sweat nearly everywhere. What the-

One name rests on my lips, resounding clear, "Corinthian."

And another word bubbles out, when my dream comes rushing back.

"Fuck."

end of midnight one.

(ahhhh) help, I just love writing about Corinthian, that little shit.

This was late yet again, but I had to change up several parts. Apologies if there are any errors, I'll be checking this through later.

And I did mean to write all three midnights in one chapter, but it got too long, so keep a lookout for midnight two and midnight three - they'll be out eventually 😉

Let me know what you think about Corinthian and the Reader here!

P.S. midnights? Is it obvious that I love Taylor Swift?

[midnightshard06]

The Bound By Fate au brain rot continues. I bring you something written this time. An expanded version of one of my flufftober prompts from the au. This one in particular, so that whole fic is within this one just some things mildly changed with the new context. There's still plenty of new stuff here though lol. I will likely eventually put this up on ao3 but it's just gonna be here for now.

Summary: Sonic meets Tails for the first time after the fox saves his life. Upon Sonic's return after their initial meeting to where Tails lives he realizes that the town has been taken over by a group of thugs and decides to do something about it.

Warnings: Mild blood and injury (not described in detail)

Word Count: 4747 words

Sonic moved as slowly and quietly through the maze like canyons as he could. He knew there were people on his trail and any wrong move could give away his location. It was dark, so at the very least he’d be able to see any lights approaching. His ears perked up as he heard the crunching of rock from not too far away. Pausing he scanned the area; entire body tensing in preparation to run. Honestly he really should have been more careful, something like this hadn't happened in a long time. Though he should have known that when he saw that group of hunters during the day that he should have just skipped town. Tired or not.

Once he was satisfied that there was nothing immediately near him he kept moving. If he was lucky they’d lose interest. Though he’d also just take keeping away from them all night at this point. Even if he’d be exhausted come morning he’d still be able to get away. Though keeping away from them was easier said than done. This was a decently large group and well organized he’d give it that. Their leader, an overzealous jackal who called himself Infinite, had proven to be pretty skilled. Sonic had managed to convince the jackal to spar with him during the day so he could get a feel for Infinite’s skill level. It had been closer than Sonic was expecting, but he hadn’t been in danger of losing. The massive downside to that fight though had been Infinite trying to recruit him all day until he’d left to prepare for a hunt with the rest of his group.

What was a group like that doing in a more populated place like this anyway? As far as he’d learned those that believed in “monsters” and actively seeked them out tended to stick to small towns. They always thought they’d have a better chance at finding something that way. Not that Sonic even really knew what these people were going after in the first place. They’d been established long before he was born and he’d never seen anything else like him.

Another nearby sound had him freezing. His ears swiveled around to try and figure out the source of the noise. It was hard to tell because of how the sound bounced off the canyon walls. As he concentrated though he realized that there was sound coming from multiple directions. His heart sank. They’d caught up. 

“You’re quite slippery, but we won’t let you get away that easily.” Infinite emerged from the darkness. He was hard to see due to his black fur, but the glint of a metal sword by his side was unmistakable. “Now you stand no chance of escape and we’ll finally be able to prove to the world our worth.” Sonic’s eyes darted around as the other jackals that made up the group made themselves known. He was surrounded. It was starting to look like his only way out of this would be to fight them. While he didn’t really want to hurt them he also wasn’t just going to lay down and die. “Now!” Infinite shouted before the whole group jumped forward to attack Sonic.

At first he did his best to avoid their strikes and keep an eye out for an opening to escape, but it quickly became clear that the strategy wasn’t going to cut it. By the time he first struck one of the jackals away from him, doing his best to avoid digging his claws into them, he already had a collection of cuts across his body. From there instincts kicked in and everything became a blur. For those moments, however long they were, his world became fight or be killed. By the time all but their leader were knocked out on the ground Sonic was panting heavily. Blood sluggishly dripped from the many cuts and gashes the hunter group had managed to inflict on him. As he stared down Infinite he could barely keep himself from toppling over. Although it was hard to tell in the darkness he’d be willing to bet he’d lost a lot of blood.

Infinite narrowed mismatched eyes at him. “You’ll pay for doing this to them.” He bared his teeth. Sonic couldn’t help but mentally quip back that the jackal had started this but he felt far too tired to say anything out loud. All he could do as the jackal charged him was raise his arms in a lackluster defense. Though much to his surprise Infinite suddenly stopped, pain twisting his face before he collapsed right in front of Sonic. Sonic blinked slowly in confusion before trying to look in the direction Infinite had been coming from. He could only make out a vague silhouette of what he thought was a fox before he felt himself collapsing.

Sonic slowly peeled his eyes open. He felt tired and sort of sore. Where was he? He carefully pushed the blanket that had been draped over him aside. Clearly it was daytime due to him currently not being a werehog. Now his biggest question was, where was he? The room he was in didn't look lived in really. There wasn't much in the way of personal items but he could tell that someone did in fact live here. The scent of someone else was all the proof he needed for that. There were some bandages wrapped around most of his body so he’d be willing to bet that whoever did live here didn’t want him dead. Why waste the time to patch someone up if you were just going to kill them? Of course he felt like he was already mostly healed up, but he’d leave the bandages on for now. Might be weird if he didn’t. Deciding he wasn’t going to figure out anything by staying in the room he opened the door and poked his head out. His ears swiveled around trying to pick up any noise but he couldn’t hear anything. He frowned. Was whoever lived here out? That seemed irresponsable. He decided to slowly walk through the house. Maybe they were just somewhere he couldn’t hear them. He paused. Wait, why was he even here? He couldn’t really remember much from last night but surely something must have happened. Did whoever this was see him in his werehog form? Shaking his head he decided to worry about that later. If this was going to become a problem he could easily run off. They probably wouldn’t be expecting him to be able to move around so soon. It was a nice little house he had to admit, and pretty neat too. If he had some permanent place he stayed he doubted it would stay this clean. Suddenly he heard a noise and he spun around to where it came from. A young looking fox stared back at him, clearly surprised to see him. “You’re up already?” The fox asked. “Uuuuh yeah?” Sonic answered. The two stared at each other in awkward silence for a bit. Sonic knew if he started talking it would just be a flood of questions. “Do you… need anything? Water maybe?” The fox nervously messed with his gloves. Sonic just nodded and gave the kid a shaky smile. Where were his parents? Why would anyone leave their kid alone, especially with a stranger? “Sooo I have to ask, where am I?” Sonic asked after the fox came back with a glass of water. “My house. I brought you back here after I knocked out that guy who was after you last night.” The fox looked down.

Sonic briefly choked on the water he was sipping. “U-uh last night? Like actually at night?” He gripped the cup tightly and had to mentally make sure to not use enough pressure to break it.

“Yeah?” The fox seemed confused for a moment before understanding passed over his face. “Oh! I uh did see your other form, but don’t worry!” He waved his hands in front of him. “I don’t mind, and I’m not going to tell anyone!”

Sonic supposed that was probably the truth. If he was scared of Sonic he wouldn’t be here right now. He relaxed his grip and nodded. “Right, ok. Cool.” He sighed and tried to remember what had happened. It started to come back slowly. Being chased by that monster hunting group that had shown up not long after he’d transformed. Getting cornered in the unfamiliar landscape. Not wanting to hurt them even as they attacked him. Then the same fox that was standing in front of him now somehow knocking out Infinite before he could finish Sonic off. “Thank you.” Sonic supposed that was the bare minimum he owed the fox for saving him. He held out a hand. “Name’s Sonic by the way. How did you even know I was in trouble?”

The fox took the offered hand. “Miles Prower, and I may have been following you.” Miles rubbed the back of his head guiltily.

“So you… saw me transform?” Sonic wasn’t really mad he found, just curious.

“I did.” Miles nodded. “I saw you earlier when you came into town and you seemed so nice and cool. I don’t know…” He kicked the ground. “I just wanted to know what you were doing I guess.”

“Fair enough.” Sonic shrugged. “I feel like if I was in your shoes I’d do the same.”

“You’re not mad?” Miles looked up in surprise.

“Why would I be? You saved me dude! How could I be mad at the guy who saved me?” Sonic grinned. Shyly, Miles returned the grin. Before Sonic could ask something else he noticed something about Miles he hadn’t before. The fox had an extra tail. “Oh you have an extra tail?” Admittedly it was pretty hard to tell because of the way Miles was trying to curl the two tails together.

Sonic did not expect Miles to jump and suddenly look very, very afraid. He stood there dumbfounded for a moment, even looking behind him to see if someone or something else was there. There was nothing. He turned back to look at Miles. The fox’s eyes were still blown wide and he’d started shaking, his two tails were curled up even tighter around one another. Sonic frowned and suddenly it clicked. He immediately felt awful. Ok this was fine. He could fix this.

Slowly he put a hand on Miles’ shoulder. Predictably the fox flinched. “Hey it’s ok. I think it’s cool. The extra tail. Makes you unique.” Sonic gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

Miles looked down and grabbed both his tails. “It makes me a target…”

Sonic hummed. “Well whoever’s been messing with you are just a bunch of jerks who don’t know what they’re talking about.”

Miles looked at him in shock. “B-but I’m different a freak I-” He paused as it sunk in who he was talking to.

“I know a thing or two about that Miles.” Sonic tapped him on the nose. “Take it from an expert, you're no freak. Those jerks have no idea what they’re talking about.”

Suddenly he had an armful of fox and he happily returned the sudden hug. It was an odd feeling, to not be slightly on edge around someone. It was a feeling he’d happily embrace though. No one before Miles knew about his werehog form, and the kid was fine with it. Maybe others could be too… He quickly shook that thought from his mind. He’d been gone after far too many times to entertain that for very long. “Thank you…” It was muffled but Sonic could still hear it.

“You’re welcome. I’m sorry that you don’t hear enough people say that.” Sonic rubbed Miles’ back. Eventually Miles let go and gave Sonic a shaky smile. “Hey how bout this. What if I give you a nickname?” Sonic gave Miles a wide grin.

“A nickname?” Miles tilted his head.

“Yeah! I have a feeling I’ll be sticking around a lot and while Miles iiiis a pretty cool name I have an idea for something I think would fit you.” Sonic winked. Miles nodded excitedly. “How about I call you Tails? Cause of how cool yours are.”

Tails gave him a big smile. “I love it.” “So…” Tails glanced over at Sonic who was carefully undoing the unneeded bandages. He’d stuck around for about a day, dealing with a restless night inside to avoid Infinite and his group, but he was eager to get away from here even if he was hesitant to leave Tails alone. Sure he’d just met the kid but Sonic hadn’t met anyone else who he felt completely at ease with before. It wasn’t something he was keen to give up too quick. “How long are you going to be here for?”

Sonic hummed. “Not too sure. I should probably stick around at least one more day to make sure everything’s healed up ok.” He inspected his arm after successfully removing the bloody bandages. He tried to not think about just how close things had been as he ran his other hand along the fur of his arm. Good news was his arm seemed more or less fine. Not even scars to indicate where one of the jackals’ swords had sliced him.

“O-oh right.” Tails grabbed his arm and looked away. “Guess it makes sense that you want to get out of here as soon as you can.”

Sonic put his arm down and frowned as he took in the sad look on the fox’s face. “Hey, buddy. Look at me.” Sonic said gently. Hesitantly Tails looked over at him, hunching in on himself. Sonic’s heart twisted painfully at the sight of the distressed fox. There was no way he could leave the kid feeling like this. He knew all too well what it was like to be alone. How could he in good conscience leave Tails feeling the same way? He opened his arms in silent invitation and it was quickly accepted. It was odd that even after only really knowing the fox for a day he felt protective of him. It felt like they’d known each other much longer. “I’ll come back ok? I promise.” Here he was breaking one of his personal rules for the fox. Never come back to somewhere that people had seen the werehog.

“Really?” Tails’ voice was muffled and soft, but Sonic managed to barely hear it.

“Yeah.” Sonic ruffled the fur on the top of Tails’ head. Tails laughed weakly and pulled himself away from Sonic. 

Tails seemed to search his face for a moment before nodding. “Alright. I believe you.” He wrung his hands. “Don’t be gone too long ok?”

Sonic gave him a soft smile. “I’ll be back before you know it buddy.” Sonic grinned as he caught sight of Tails’ town in the distance. It had been a couple months since he’d first met the fox and in that time he’d finally managed to shake off the apprehension he felt coming back here. It would be good to see him again; see what the fox had been up to. As he sped towards the town he did subconsciously avoid the canyon he’d been caught in before. He also happened to notice something was wrong. As he slowed down and started to walk into town he noticed that everyone seemed to be off the streets. The town looked practically abandoned. He would have thought that too if he couldn’t pick up the occasional noise of someone moving in one of the buildings. 

Suddenly a pang of panic shot through him. Was Tails ok? With no more hesitation he made his way towards the fox’s house. As he expected, the door was locked. Thankfully Tails had been insistent on giving him a key before he left the first time. Sonic felt that the move was maybe a bit irresponsible on the fox’s part, him and Sonic had only known each other for a few days after all, but it would come in handy now. After fishing the key out of one of the bags around his belt he quickly unlocked the door and opened it. Before he could turn around to close and relock it he heard the sound of some sort of mechanism releasing and felt something wrap tightly around his legs. Unable to keep his balance he fell to the floor in a daze.

“Take that you…” Tails popped out from behind some sort of barrier Sonic hadn’t noticed before. His slightly defiant expression faded as soon as he realized it was Sonic. “Sonic!” He scrambled over the makeshift barrier before hastily untying Sonic’s legs. Tails glanced around before closing the door and relocking it. “What are you doing here?” Tails asked as he helped Sonic up. “Not that I'm not happy to see you!” Tails hastily added. “I uh, sort of thought you weren’t going to come back… but you’re here now!” He grinned.

“I was coming back to visit you. Like I promised.” Sonic shook himself out. He’d file away the information that Tails didn’t think he was coming back to address later. For now he needed to figure out what was going on. “What happened here?”

“A couple of skunks came here a few days ago and started acting like they owned the place. They started taking anything they wanted and were forcing people to do things for them.” Tails gently guided Sonic around to the back of his barrier. “Most of us just blocked ourselves in to hopefully avoid them though sometimes them or some of the others they brought with them have been breaking into people’s houses.”

Sonic hummed. “No one here to stop them? Not even… Infinite and his group?” He cringed as he suggested the very group that had hunted him down and nearly killed him the last time he was here. Surely though they’d have been able to handle some rouge group of petty thieves that had rolled into town. Something told Sonic that Infinite wouldn’t like some other group encroaching on his turf, even if they weren’t another hunter group.

“They’ve been gone for a while now, looking for you I think.” Tails frowned. 

Well that was… not great news. He’d have to be extra careful to avoid the group when he came back to visit Tails. “Alright.” Sonic nodded as he started to quickly stretch. “Guess I’ll just have to take care of them myself.”

Tails’ eyes widened in panic. “You can’t fight them on your own! There’s way too many of them.”

Sonic shot him what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about me. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to deal with guys like them. Probably won’t be the last either. Just point me in the right direction and this’ll all be over in no time.”

Tails frowned and looked down. Sonic thought for a moment that maybe the fox wasn’t going to tell him before Tails sighed and gave him a determined look. “I’m going with you.” There wasn’t any room for argument in his tone.

Well it could be helpful to have someone watching his back… even if he didn’t love the idea of putting the fox in harm’s way. Though he was pretty sure there was no way he could convince Tails to stay here. Instead he grinned and nodded. “Alright. Just do your best to keep up.” “Is this all you’ve got?” Sonic smirked triumphantly as he quickly spin dashed into the last of what he was calling the lower level thugs. “Geez you guys are really all talk huh?” He crossed his arms.

Tails crawled out from behind the crate he’d been hiding behind and looked around in awe. “That was amazing!” He looked at Sonic with pure admiration and he almost couldn’t handle a look like that being aimed at him. It was so different to what he was used to.

Instead of letting the fox pick up on that though Sonic just chuckled. “Well of course. I just so happen to be the coolest guy around. Now then. Let’s go have a chat with the people on top shall we?” Sonic cracked his knuckles as he turned to the door.

Tails hummed as he looked at the door. “I have an idea actually.” He pulled the backpack he’d grabbed before they left off his back and started looking through it. “If you can lead those two out here… then the fight should be over before it can really start.” Tails pulled… something out of his bag that Sonic had no idea what it was. He trusted his friend though.

“You got it. How long do you need to do whatever you’re doing?” Sonic gave him a thumbs up and decided not to comment on the way Tails relaxed as he agreed.

The fox glanced around the room they were in, picking up a nearby piece of rope. “Five minutes.” He said after a moment.

“Heh. Easy.” Sonic nodded before kicking down the door that led to the two that started all this. The two skunks that were in the room looked surprised for a moment before both looking annoyed.

“Just who the heck do you think you are!?” The smaller one yelled.

“Who me?” Sonic rose a brow and put a hand on his chest. “Oh you know just someone who’s passing through.

“Then you can keep passin through right back out that door before we make you.” The larger skunk threatened.

Sonic gave the duo an assessing look. They looked capable enough but he was pretty confident that even if Tails didn’t have a plan he could take down these two. Plus they were making it real easy to stall for those five minutes Tails needed. “No, I don’t think I’ll be the one going anywhere.” Sonic grinned and crossed his arms. “I’ll give you two one chance to pack up and leave on your own though.”

“Alright that’s it.” The smaller skunk growled. “Get ready for a beatdown.”

“You better be humble.” The other chimed in.

“There’s no way you’re gonna beat-” The first chimed in again. What was happening?

“Rough and Tumble!” The two finished together.

The two struck a pose and Sonic stared in stunned silence for a moment. Then he couldn’t hold back his laughter at the whole scene. As he held up a hand while he tried to get himself under control the two looked offended. “Sorry sorry.” Sonic chuckled as his laughter died down. “I have to know. How often do you two do that?”

Instead of answering him the two rushed at him. Well if Sonic had been keeping track of time well enough then Tails should be good to go. As the two recklessly charged at him he quickly sidestepped out of the way and watched as the two crashed into the other room. The moment they were in there multiple ropes and nets shot from various parts of the room and practically cocooned the duo of skunks. Sonic poked his head in to make sure everything was good and smiled as Tails emerged and gave him a thumbs up. “Got them.”

“Sure did buddy.” Sonic walked over to Tails and held his hand out for a fist bump. Tails happily returned the gesture. “Great work.” He looked over at Rough and Tumble. The two were trying in vain to escape. “Now we just have to deal with these two…” Tails stuck close to his side as local law enforcement led the defeated thugs away. Sonic knew that the two of them were attracting a lot of attention from the townsfolk who had slowly been wandering out of their houses to see what was going on. He really didn’t like the looks some of them were giving Tails, and the fact that the bit of confidence that the fox had been showing while helping was completely gone had Sonic about ready to snap. 

“I would like to sincerely thank you for your help sir.” One of the officers, a cat, came over and gave Sonic a thankful nod. His eyes lingered on Tails far too long for Sonic’s liking.

He frowned as he placed a gentle hand on Tails’ head. “Miles here helped too. I couldn’t have done it without him or his inventions.” He could feel Tails’ head turn to look up at him, probably in disbelief.

The cat blinked in surprise. “You don’t need to lie-”

Sonic held up his free hand, frown deepening. “I’m not. His help was invaluable and I want to make sure everyone here knows he’s just as responsible for saving the town as I am.” There were a lot of murmurs as the townsfolk all started to talk to each other in hushed voices. What things Sonic could make out he didn’t like.

The cat tried to regain his composure. “I’m sure you would have been fine without the mons-”

Sonic swiftly laid a hand on the officer’s shoulder. It was light, but he knew his look was intimidating regardless. He didn’t get mad often, but people had described it as pretty scary when he did. “Don’t you dare finish that.” Sonic narrowed his eyes and bared his teeth. The officer shakily nodded before Sonic let him go. He turned to scan the crowd that had formed; careful to keep his angry gaze off of Tails. “I need all of you to understand something really basic. Take it from the guy who just helped save your town. Just because someone is different doesn't mean they’re a mon-” He took a deep breath. “Doesn’t mean they’re a monster.” He clenched his fists. “Miles is my friend and what he can do is amazing. He’s amazing. So all of you need to stop treating him differently for something he had no choice in. People don’t ask to be born differently but they are anyway.” He pinned his ears down and let his expression soften as he walked back over to Tails. “You ok bud?” He asked quietly, ignoring the murmuring which had started back up again.

Tails gave him a shaky smile as tears gathered in his eyes. “Yeah.” He sniffled. “No one has ever stood up for me like that before.

“Well as long as I’m around there’ll be at least one.” Sonic smiled.

“Thank you Sonic.” Tails wiped away the tears before they could fall.

“No, thank you Tails.” Sonic ruffled his head. “You helped me and I’m happy to help you.”

Tails gently pulled Sonic into a hug. Once again something Sonic happily accepted. “I don’t think you’re a monster.” Tails said quietly, so quiet that if he hadn’t been so close Sonic would have never heard it. “No one that’s as nice as you can be one.” 

Sonic smiled into Tails’ fur. He felt warm. The fox couldn’t know how much that simple sentence meant for Sonic to hear. Well, maybe he could. “Thank you.” He said just as quietly as Tails’ statement. “Now let’s get out of here.”

“Yeah.” Tails’ reluctantly pulled away. His smile was stronger now. “Let’s go.” Sonic perked up as he heard the door open and shut. “You back Tails?” It had been a few days since the whole Rough and Tumble thing and Sonic had been staying with Tails. With Infinite and his group not here at the moment he felt way more comfortable staying around for longer. Plus he wanted to make sure he’d actually gotten through to the townsfolk with his little speech.

“Yep!” Tails happily called out before poking his head around the corner.

“Everyone nice to you?” Sonic stood up to go meet him.

“Well, not mean at least. It’s better though.” Tails rubbed the back of his head. “It’s probably going to take a bit of time for things to improve even more.”

Sonic hummed but nodded in satisfaction. “Good enough for now. You just let me know if I need to set them straight ok bud?”

“I will Sonic.” Tails nodded although Sonic was fairly convinced that Tails probably wouldn’t say anything to him. He’d have to work on that. For now he wanted to enjoy some peace with his friend.

“Good. Now wanna play some games?” Sonic smiled and the way Tails’ face lit up was all the answer he needed. Oh yeah, he was so glad Tails had found him that night.