#just put him tf on there i need to see him sharing a screen w/ jensen again for gods sake pls

[angel-fruitcake]

*holding eric kripke at gunpoint* alright listen up buddy it's really simple. put misha on the boys s5 and/or vought rising and nobody gets fuckin hurt

[princessnijireiki]

smh ppl posting screenshots of azealia banks's instagram stories bc elon musk is gonna be on snl & she's clowning him + y'all just remembered the SAGA that went down when she was locked in his house w him and grimes...

but being like "oh hee hee I hate her she's so bad BUT this is soooooooo funny"

no, you a fan! you are a fan! you wouldn't have seen this otherwise, and I know that bc I'M following her on ig & even I don't have story notifications on for her like some of y'all must, or how some of the people you follow & source your content from must, so you can feel morally pure about circulating secondhand screen recordings & gifs!

just don't be a fucking coward! yes she's said an awful, awful lot of nasty, bigoted things. so has your mom. either: don't follow people or share the content of people you feel you gotta put a disclaimer on to disavowing any connection to them; or share it, let the jokes be funny, and explain as needed rather than using a disclaimer as an excuse to trot out the exact same old discourse every time you see her or her stuff, if every time you're going to insist on interacting regardless.

grow tf up. I'm not saying you have to love her. hate her if you fucking want, I don't care. but some of y'all have more leniency in your hearts towards politicians, former presidents, and war criminals than her, and y'all don't put a sassy little "the opinions expressed are not representative of this blog tee hee!" label on posts about them, either. some of y'all LITERALLY watch hetalia.

I'm not trying to hear shit from some of you all in general re: who's "cancelled" and who's not, but y'all out here effectively got her blocked and act like it's a morality issue, but reposting her shit for clout and also acting like you only saw it accidentally, incidentally, so no one thinks you actually *gasp* like-her like-her... please. it's giving clown behavior. it's giving greasepaint and squeaky shoes next to the lion cage, ringling brothers barnum & BAILEY. madagascar 3, afro circus ad spots. that's y'all. do fucking better.

commit to yourself, if nothing else. come up with a sense of identity strong enough that your online persona doesn't crumple upand blow away in the wind if you admit you enjoy the work of someone problematic without diminishing them or self flagellating over it.

[imo-chan-imagines]

『 Haikyuu!! Week 2020 | Day 7 』

· Oct. 1st → Fly! ·

Characters: (teams) Karasuno, Nekoma, Fukurodani, Aoba Johsai, Shiratorizawa, (indiv.) Miya Atsumu, Miya Osamu, Aone Takanobu

Prompts: A. free choice!

Tags/warnings: Haikyuu!! (anime), Among Us (video game), PG, fluff, crack, video games, video game violence/death, headcanons, HaikyuuWeek2020

A/N: Among Us is a bit of a hot meme at the moment (great game. Go and play it/watch other people play it if you can. Get a feel for the game if you somehow haven't already.) So I thought, 'Hey, why not?' I mean, I do need to heal my heart after my Day 6 post, so...

What an amazing week it's been! Well done, everyone! All of my Haikyuu Week 2020 posts are SFW, but there's a little treasure trove of NSFW on my blog, too. Please peruse to your heart's content. Thanks for reading! Please enjoy! ♡

Haikyuu boys / playing Among Us

☆ Karasuno ☆

Literally the loudest games you'll ever witness

You know that grainy, electronic crackle that happens when everybody yells on Discord at the same time? Yeah. That

Kageyama can't lie for shit. It's so obvious when he's lying that it's a genuine miracle if he doesn't immediately get ejected

And he stands in all the wrong places when he's faking doing his tasks 😭😭

But he sounds super suspicious when he's telling the truth, too 😅

Noya and Tanaka buddy up no matter what, and go around trying to clear or murder people together

They also end up fuelling each other's incorrect assumptions

Asahi is way too timid to murder anyone right away, so if nobody dies in the first two rounds, you know it's him or someone trying to frame him...

Daichi is the host and tries to keep order in the lobby...tries someone help him

Hinata: Guys, please stop swearing! Natsu is watching me play!! waahhh 🙈 so cute 😇

Hinata always has to be orange. Don't touch his orange

Ennoshita is the king of self-reporting and getting away with it it just be like that

Kageyama goes around called 'Milk' 🥛

Tsukki tries to big-brain the shit out of it 🤣

He's also hella manipulative as an imposter and refuses to kill Yamaguchi 😭

Suga likes to take out the oxygen/recator and lie in wait for the people who come to fix it he will giggle adorably when it ends up working, which sounds kinda pshyco, ngl 😂

But totally screams at his screen when someone he suspected sneaks up on him and kills him

Yamaguchi low-key prefers the mini games to the actual game 😭😭

And Yachi loves being pink and wearing the little flower in her hair ngl, she nearly fainted the first time she got killed

She doesn't play with them often because it's so loud 😬

☆ Nekoma ☆

Kenma streams the gaming sessions on Twitch, and now they kind of have a cult following 🤷‍♀️

These fans be thirsting hard, too like us

Check out my smut headcanons, y'all 🙌

Kuroo is the closest to a genius player you're ever going to see

He does his tasks fairly efficiently, he's good at remembering layouts and people's movements, he calculates the timings of his kills with terrifying accuracy, defends himself pretty well, whether he's lying or not, can gaslight the entire lobby into sussing an innocent person, and pieces together other people's lies with surprising ease

Do not cross Kuroo. He's scary at this game. He's not the Scheming Captain for nothing, y'all

Lev is the kind of person to vent right in front of someone by accident, which is so awkward, but so funny 😂

The entire team must wear the bear ears hat. Yes, that is a rule

It's the closest to cat ears they have right now....

Kenma is pretty quiet when he's playing. He doesn't normally play online games, but his streams took off on Twitch, sooo~

Kenma also has radar ears and can somehow detect when people are lying, but waits until he has proof to accuse them he smart 🤓

☆ Fukurodani ☆

'Whoever Talks the Loudest is Right' mentality 😂

And Bokuto will defend himself at the volume of an air raid siren

Akaashi stays as quiet as possible so he doesn't give anything away

When Bokuto starts sussing people, it turns into something out of Ace Attorney like, chill tf out, man 😂

But his guesses are normally completely wrong

Akaashi sets good parameters for the games, because he's sensible

If Bokuto is given the chance to host the lobby....he will set one task each, put everyone at 4x speed, give the imposter zero cooldown time, and sit back and watch the chaos

Whenever somebody doesn't have an absolutely airtight alibi–

Bokuto: That's hella sus, bro

Lots of childish nicknames, because...well, they're all mentally six years old

Except Akaashi, who has a higher mental age than all of them combined

Let me just say that when Bokuto and Kuroo play together, shit gets so funny

When one of them is an imposter, they will literally vent in front of the other one and trust them not to out them 😂😂

☆ Aoba Johsai ☆

Iwa-chan can always tell when Oikawa is lying, and constantly calls him out on it

Iwa: That's his lying voice. Shitty-kawa is lying. He's the imposter. Vote him off

Oikawa: IWAAA-CHAAAN D:<

Because Iwa's right about Oikawa when he is the imposter, it makes it easy to frame him when it's actually Iwa who's the imposter

And no-one believes Tooru 😭😭

Kyoutani has no chill as an imposter

He just murders everyone on sight, right in front of people, too

Kindaichi tends to accuse people with very little evidence, but his instincts are weirdly accurate

Oikawa gets killed almost immediately every game, so if he isn't dead two emergency meetings in, he's 100% an imposter 😭😭

He then goes around as a salty ghost when he's killed off, mumbling to himself about injustice as he refuses to do his tasks and watches the people who voted him off get murdered one by one

Not that anyone's holding a grudge 🙄😂

Oikawa refuses to be purple and always kills whoever is purple first because it reminds him of Ushijima 😭😭

☆ Shiratorizawa ☆

Ushijima refuses to play if he can't be purple give it back. N O W

And it takes him a long time to get used to the game and the rules

'Why are the lights off? What are these tasks? Why is that one flashing at me? Where is med bay? Why can I use this vent? What's this big, red button for?' etc.

You get the idea. Toshi = big noob

He doesn't really understand the concept of lying, either...

He keeps forgetting to mute himself and ends up saying some very incriminating stuff over the mic which has everyone in literal tears from laughter

Tendou is a sneaky S.O.B, using those vents like a pro and gaslighting perfectly innocent people he's a little bloodthirsty, too 🤫

And his initial guesses about who's the imposter are almost always 100% correct Guess Monster, y'all

Goshiki goes around trying to clear people by watching them doing their tasks, especially Ushijima

But then he gets called suspicious for hanging around people too much

The first time an emergency meeting was ever called, Ushijima literally asked "Why is my name in red?" much to everyone's amusement

Everyone's scared of Ushijima when he follows them, but it normally turns out that he just doesn't know where he's going

Shirabu tends to lose his shit when people start accusing him and he's innocent, and will never EVER trust a word that comes out of Goshiki's mouth

Speaking of, Goshiki and Shirabu – boy, do they bicker like eight year-olds, wasting entire voting rounds just arguing with each other 🙄😭

So everyone else decides to vote off one, and then the other at the next meeting 😭😭

Misc.

☆ The Miya twins ☆

Atsumu puts 100% trust in Osamu not to kill him, even if he is the imposter

How could he? He's his brother. His twin. His other half. They share a unique bond–

And then he screams in betrayal when Osamu slaughters him mercilessly 😂😂

Osamu is unaffected by the sudden outburst from his brother's room

Put them together as an imposter duo, though, and you're in for some trouble

They often win by executing a perfect double kill

And they're both pretty good at lying, but Osamu will not hesitate to throw Atsumu under the bus and vote him off if he's being too suspicious or the lobby has turned against him 😂

Ah, the bond of brotherhood 😂

☆ Aone Takanobu ☆

Aone doesn't talk very much

But when he does, his voice is so low and even that nobody ever suspects he's the imposter

I'm thinking like Corpse Husband, if you've seen him playing with Pewds and the gang

It doesn't really occur to people that he could be lying. He seems so trustworthy and honest

Finds it very hard to blame anyone else, though

Is fairly decent as doing his tasks as a crewmate, but it takes him a long time to remember the layouts of the ships

Almost never gets voted off the ship

© imo-chan-imagines 2020

[yyxgin]

as quick as love alarm was progressing compared to other dramas i’ve seen (usually wait ten eps for the first kiss and that’s it) it still seemed,, idk important for the story? n e way.

meteor garden is insanely messy like in the final episode daoming si just mentions everything dong shancai did that makes her so amazing and i honestly forgot they even did some of their things 😳 at one point they went to london and filmed in china town and i was just like ‘oh. i know that place’ and didn’t clock after that 😭

I GOT PEN ON THE BACK OF IT IM SO MAD AT MYSELF ✋✋✋✋✋ but come find me anyway lmao i got a changbin & minho film strip 🤪 can’t have anything nice around here and i learned my lesson the hard way.

i went through a phase when whenever i watched english tv i was like ‘why does this make sense without subs..’ and would be like squinting at the screen until it occurred to me that it was in english.

oh bruh i remember making a bank account the second summer bc my employer was like why tf do you not have a bank account ,, yeesh people had been paying by card for meals and stuff and not cash like the year before. so i made one and then she paid me in cash bc people started paying w cash 😐😑😐😑 i waitress so even though i get anxious about other things, i’m comfortable about waitressing so i am super nice to everyone. i am the designated person who orders for everyone (as long as you point at what you want in case i can’t remember everything i will say it). i know how important it is to be articulated to your server bc if they f up you get mad and they get mad bc ur mad and the chef gets mad bc the server f-ed up and the chef has to cook again and it’s a never ending circle of wishing you’d just gone somewhere else and i hate that. i also get mad at my fam when we go out bc the last time we went out (literally like two years ago now bc covid) there was a guy serving at this place we’re fairly frequent at and i was like maybe he’s training don’t be so mad at him for forgetting things just gently remind him! don’t cuss him out behind his back! there’s so much pressure about not pissing off your colleagues bc there’s a groove they’ve got and you’re just there not wanting to ruin it whilst also meeting customers needs!!

ive been waiting to pass my drivers test for over a year now bc covid has pushed it back and back and back again 😐 i finally get my next test date and i have to ask a different instructor for their car bc my instructor is on annual leave when my test is scheduled. i’m holding it together so i can ask an instructor, buy a car and yeet. the bus is okay but i need my own space sometimes.

i am good w my money im the jungkook of the working class. if there are pots and pans on the go i will take them. free food? count me in. i do have that broke b*tch mindset. although i don’t buy $300 white tshirts i will spend $200 on a day out 😃 and sis,, buy whichever one you like bc of the concept!! it’s always fun seeing the posters (personally i don’t put them up bc how am i gonna have sir johnny suh STARING at me while i get changed,, no THANK YOU) i’ll cry if i ever pull a yuta card bc he looks ✨spicy✨ in all of them.

i think i get what you’re saying about gg’s! boy groups have a wider range. eg, haechan hits those high notes and jeno/mark rap/sing quite low but girl groups can’t. unfortunately i feel like they rely on visuals heavier bc they don’t have the same range bg’s do. itzy are good!! i personally haven’t listen to a lot/watched a lot of their mv’s. i’m more into red velvet for their mv’s. im terrible at watching content so i am slowly working through bts’ content, monsta x’s content and ocassionally nct’s content. im gonna work on mamamoo next 🤞fake fans unite 😔✊✨

it’s so easy to feel invisible here. don’t worry. i’m here to brighten your day! much like a sunflower ~ 🌻

I cant really speak about the importance of the kiss in love alarm since i didnt watch more than the first ep, but i will trust you if you really say so ?? 😳 I WANNA WATCH METEOR GARDEN JUST FOR THE DRAMA DHSNSK

dude dont fucking test me i WILL find your address and i WILL visit you in your sleep and steal all your kpop stuff. MINHO FILM STRIP ??????? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

i still watch english things w eng subtitles sometimes bc my first language isn't english so just in case i dont hear something i can always read it you know djsksk

this is my first job so i didnt have to have bank account before but now that i have it i feel very adult😩✋i am so old. i dont like it.

oh no i hate people that arent polite to waitresses like they are just doing their job and its so hard and stressful and i dont want to make their life harder so im just really anxious abt everything in my life ever.

i'm rooting for you on your driving test !! lets hope you make it after such a long time <3

JUNGKOOK OF THE WORKING CLASS NO- thats actually me. also free samples. give me all of them. also i think its completely justified to spend so much on a night out since its for the memories !! #yolo am i right

I AM SO TEMPTED TO ORDER THE ALBUM NOW 😭💔😭 i actually have my posters on my closet and i change inside the actual closet at all times bc me and my brother share a room, so no one's looking at me thankfully haha. well, i do have bts pics on the warderobe next to my bed as well so they watch me sleep every night but we dont talk about that. YUTA CARD i would cry. he for sure does look spicy half the time of his life.

i dont know that many rv songs (the audacity, i know) but seulgi... ah. i watched the sm new years concert and when she appeared i couldnt keep my eyes off her. i should really listen to more of their songs so if u have any recs i am all ears

thank you for brightening up my day sunflower ily mwah😔❤

[dachi-chan25]

So i finally watched It chapter 2...

DISCLAIMER: So I know most of y'all don't like anyone to critizise anything u like, right of the bat I am telling u I did NOT liked this movie at all, there are changes I thought were good ideas but most of it was just plain terrible in MY opinion and I need to vent. If u share my opinión or find my rage amusing read on.

.

.

I had been putting off watching this movie, cuz in 2017 I enjoyed the 1st IT movie but I had a TON of issues with it (Mike's complete erasure, Stan being a completely different character, The Losers Club moments being sacrificed to cool sounding one-liners, WTF happened to Henry Bowers and Alvin Marsh, Bev being overly sexualized, etc, etc) so I was on the fence about this one. The cast is what finally caught my attention but then I heard very mixed reviews about it, and as I am starting on a new job I hadn't had the time to go and watch it til now and oh boy was I disappointed.

First off, we have to ask ourselves was Adrian Melon's murder scene really that necessary??? I understand what they used it for in the movie (to make a R3ddi3 reference /as a side note I do not care for the ship or any other IT ship tbh i write it like this cuz i don't want this post to invade the ship tag) but the characters involved are never mentioned again and it was too gratuitous (like we can have a homophobic hate crime, slurs thrown around all the time but we can't have the gay ship this movie was going for saying they love each other in a straightforward manner??? I know this is an unpopular opinion but I am not giving Muschietti props for doing the gay closeted ship for the 1000th time, if u were gonna do it go for it!!! Do right by the characters, hell in the book they get more tenderness and they are never explicitly gay, Eddie is heavily coded as gay or asexual and Richie is super bisexual) like my queer ass is tired of seeing gay ppl die in violent gruesome ways all the time.

While I love Bill Skarsgard's performance, the excess of CGI and all those jumpscares and strobe lights, actually take away from his performance, he is super scary and eerie when he is talking and even being friendly but super hillarious and plain silly when he is actually trying to be scary or when he is eating, it looked too wierd.

TBH whyyy was Tom Rogan in this?? Muschietti had already changed Alvin Marsh from being physically violent to being a sexual predator (everything they changed from Bev took away from her character, like we can have her smoking and flirting w Mr Keene but we can't have her teaching Richie how to use his yo-yo or winning in a fucking video game or drawing or anything that remotely has to do with her character) why was Tom necessary?? Hell we could have skipped that and have Bev in Kay's house telling her all that happened instead, I mean if he wasn't gonna die in the sewer why is he even a character? It was so easy to erase him and have Kay instead. Also how tf did Alvin survive???

Whyyy do that to Audra??? I fucken hate Muschietti, was it necessary to justify Bill cheating on her??? Nope, we could have simply have Bill not kiss Beverly and that’s it, also I am kinda salty Audra is not part of the plot.

Lmao Henry, like he fell on the fucken pipe and you could hear his fucken bones breaking and craking and he gets to get up and walk home????????? Whyyy y y , Muschietti ????

We never really got to see how deeply ingrained Pennywise is in the town, he is actually Derry. And if Muschietti thinks he fixed the wtf ending everyone complained about in the 90's adaptation he is on fucken drugs, this ending is super messed up and has nothing to do with the book or with anything at all, we never get to know what exactly is Pennywise, his true form it's a clown spider apparently or something cuz the death lights were there but not really ???

STAN was fucken robbed (again) last time he was completely ereased, he was physically there on the scenes but that’s it, his personality was null. And his thing, the thing that made him comit suicide was the fact that he was the one to see the death lights, the most logical and disbelieving of them faced something far beyond anyone's comprehension and they gave that to Bev?? And the death lights apparently gave her Final Destination abilities? ?????

Eddie was robbed. Of so so much. Muschietti fuck you. Frist off why isn't Eddie the CEO of some app like Uber like he was the Losers Club compass he was a great fucking driver, he loved sports (I actually got excited when they had this scene with the baseball game cuz i thought it was gonna be an Eddie scene but nope) y not connect that with this Token bs Muschietti pulled off his ass (this is actually a great idea, and could symbolize the Losers' lost childhood IF Muschietti had been assed to give them significance or something in part 1) His death scene. Just why? Why are his last words a cheap joke instead of a love confession, fuck it Muschietti if u wanted R3ddi3 have the courage to really do it (in the books the Losers take turns to carry his body out of the sewer cuz they will not leave him there, that's more meaningful than them diving) One of his most beautiful quotes is something Bill is writing??? Lmaoooo Bill wishes he could have thought up that (I love Bill but come the fuck on)

Why make such a huge deal out of B3nv3rly or r3ddi3 when the point of it all was that the Losers Club all loved each other, apart from whatever romantic feelings, they found a family in one another and they really erased that in this movie, I was like y are this ppl friends with each other. Mike drugged Bill, Richie was awfull to everyone, they barely had a conversation in the restaurant (biihhh the 90s miniseries does this better) and show no respect for Mike at all ( I mean I am not surprised cuz Muschietti has no respect for Mike as a character at all) or bill like nah son.

Stephen King cameo was there I guess, it was fine.

The Kiss me fat boy, of all things u could have taken from the 90's miniseries why that?????

Ben building the house club by himself ???? Bullshit, Muschietti ereased another great Losers Club bonding time and hate him for it.

MIKE, I AM ENRAGED. So Muschietti is braver than King for making R3ddi3 "canon" but he destroyed Mike's entire character and that is fine with y'all mmmmm. His parents were "crackheads" apparently cuz it's not like that is a stereotype black ppl have carried on for years on end, he did not go to school, he was not the historian but now he is cuz he had to stay and he is crazy and obsesive and drugs Bill and also stole from a native american tribe???? FUCK this so fucken much I hate it with all my being .

How does such a choppy movie manage to drag on forever??? Like there were still 45 Min left and I was bored out of my mind. Why is the final arc so bad??? Like some much stuff that could have actually gotten away with erasing (Paul Bunyan, whyyy it was so silly, it doesn't even work in the book, but fine like King was super high he barely remembers writing it, why take it to the big screen u should have sticked to him being afraid of clowns like u had already messed up) and added and could have added things that actually enriched the adaptation.

I just give up. Like if they do a 3rd one like it's rumored I won't see it, Muschietti clearly does not know how to be subtle or to have meaningful character arcs, he is just good for cheap jumpscares, one líners and yo mama jokes so I pass. I really hoped the up coming King adaptations are better than this one. That being said the movie had real fun/enjoyable moments, if this were not an adaptation I would have liked it a hella lot more than I did but alas nope.

[rhosinthorn]

Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice?

‘I’m on a mission to find the best tasting pumpkin spice latte, want to join me?’

Sakura was rounding the corner of the student union when she heard the yelling.

“I’m on a mission to find the best tasting pumpkin spice latte!” a familiar looking upperclassmen was shouting from atop the chair dragged into the middle of the student union’s porch as others shuffled by as quickly as they could, averting their eyes. “Who wants to join me?”

Next to her, Sasuke hunched down even further in his sweatshirt, as if he was trying to disappear, tugging his hood up to cover his hair. “Why is it always me?” he groaned.

Snagging his sleeve before he could teleport away the way he always did when faced with uncomfortable situations, Sakura tugged him forward. “Come on grump,” she teased, heading for the doors of the student union. “You’ll be better once you’ve got some food in you.”

They had almost made it to the door when their luck ran out.

“Sasu-cakes!” Shisui crowed, abandoning his previous post in the center of the porch in favor of an easy victim. “I have a task for you!”

“No. No way, I have class.” Sasuke’s eyes were slightly wild, and his nervous twitch was back. Sakura had thought he had been trained out of it, but apparently one encounter with his cousin was enough to bring it back. “Find some other poor soul to be your victim.”

“But my little duckling,” Shisui wailed, draping himself all over his younger cousin, who froze immediately. “I need a buddy, and Itachi’s in class.”

“No.”

Before Shisui could throw a tantrum worthy of a three year old (Sakura knew he’d do it, she’d seen it before), Sakura intervened. “I’m free for the afternoon, so I’ll go with you,” she offered, conveniently leaving out the midterm she had the next day that she probably should be studying for. “Where do we start?”

“Here!” Shisui perked up immediately, abandoning Sasuke in favor of looping his arm through hers. “We’re starting with the Pit, and working our way around campus to finally finish up back here at Starbucks.”

Sasuke’s teeth grinding was almost audible as the trio made their way into the building.

He was still grinding his teeth as Shisui lounged in the chair next to him, rhapsodizing about the pumpkin spiced coffee clutched in his hand. Honestly, the elder Uchiha could put wine connoisseurs to shame, the way he talked about depth of flavor and notes...Sakura was almost impressed.

She’d be more impressed if she wasn’t constantly feeding Sasuke fresh chopsticks because he kept breaking them in irritation. Although, considering Shisui had been provoking him throughout the ten minutes they’d been seated, she was amazed those chopsticks hadn’t been used to stab someone.

Under the cover of the table, Sakura slid her phone out of her pocket and sent off a quick text.

[dr haruno] send sos 2 hot topic

[dr haruno] b4 he murders hamlet

It only took a quick second for it to vibrate in her hand, and she grinned as she saw the response.

[darwin award] kk

[darwin award] jailbreak 2 hard 2 arrange 2day

Half a second later, Sasuke’s phone, in clear display on the table, vibrated, and he lunged for it like a dying man to a life preserver.

“The idiot’s panicking over his calc exam,” he announced, already slamming the lid on his half-eaten fake chinese food and picking up his backpack. “I need to go rescue him before he jumps into the river.”

It wasn’t the best excuse either of them had ever come up with, but it worked. Before Shisui could really protest, Sakura was gathering her own garbage and motioning to Shisui. “Let’s head for the cafe in the library,” she suggested as Sasuke made his rapid exit. “I think they’ve got coffee and lattes, and I’ve been meaning to try their pumpkin chocolate chip bread.”

Obediently, Shisui allowed himself to be led away. “You made notes about what I was saying though, right?”

“Of course. What type of experiment would this be if it wasn’t properly recorded?”

The tables in the tiny cafe in the main library were crammed full of students panicking over midterms, so Shisui’s analysis of the coffee and latte that he had collected was witnessed by the crowd of desperate students filling the all-hours study space across from it.

On his thirteenth minute of lecturing, Sakura cast a wary glance at the students occupying the table across from them, several of whom looked suspiciously wired and as if they hadn’t left that table for three days, given the clutter, general unwashed appearance, and overall demeanor of a cornered wild animal. Given that they seemed about ready to let loose a hail of assorted school supplies if Shisui didn’t shut up, she escorted him quickly to the next location. Her biology professor was a hard-ass who would require her death certificate to allow her to retake the exam, and unfortunately, whatever the crazed students might do, it was improbable that they would manage homicide.

The cafe in the engineering building was much more secluded; most of the students cloistered in the adjacent computer labs with headphones, easily-portable snacks, and their own coffee makers in the room with them. Shisui was able to wax poetic about his latte in peace, as Sakura munched through her second slice of pumpkin-chocolate chip bread and made notes on Shisui’s oration while simultaneously running through her flashcards.

That is, until Shisui realized that he did not have her full attention and draped himself across her lap.

Startling in surprise, Sakura dropped her flashcards on his face, which was suddenly in her lap. The rest of him was sprawled out across the rest of the battered couch they had been sharing, and his latte had been set on the table in front of them. He was lucky that her legs, with her feet also on the table, had been pinned, so her reflexive twitch at finding him well inside her personal space hadn’t sent the drink flying.

“Sa-ku-ra,” he said, voice stretching out in a sing-song across the syllables of her name. “Are you paying attention to me?”

“You just said that this had less pumpkin and more cinnamon than the one at the library, but much less nutmeg than the one in the Pit, which is good because that one tasted like someone had dropped a bucket full of nutmeg in the coffee,” she recited dutifully, retrieving her flashcards. “See, I was listening.”

“But you were looking at something else,” Shisui wiggled as he whined, shifting his head to a more comfortable position on her thighs and relieving some of the pressure from where his shoulders had previously been. “I thought you liked spending time with me?”

The pout that followed should have been illegal for a fully grown twenty-something.

“Shisui,” Sakura began, trying to muster her resistance. “I do have an exam tomorrow, and as you can see, I am capable of multitasking.”

“But Sa-ku-ra,” he whined, commandeering her hand and placing it on his head. Obligingly, she ran her fingers through his hair. “I thought you wanted to spend time with me…”

Just then his phone beeped, and Sakura caught a glimpse of the screen as he pulled it out of his pocket.

[weasel] How’s your grand plan going? Has she hit you with anything yet?

Raising her eyebrow, Sakura glanced down at the Uchiha in her lap, who she was gratified to see looked somewhat sheepish.

“Tell him about the flashcards,” she recommended dryly, lifting his upper body just enough so that she could slip out from underneath him. “See if that gets you any sympathy. Ready to finish up at Starbucks?”

She should have expected that Starbucks would be the second most-crowded place on campus, given the proximity to midterms, but it at least allowed her to claim a comfortable armchair and keep an eye on the adjacent one while making Shisui wait in the line from hell. Spotting him sandwiched between a pair of sorority girls, who were busy making eyes at him and the frat boys in front of him, she delighted in the anguished look on his face.

Usually, he was probably one of the smoothest talkers on campus, able to charm, flatter, and cajole his way through any situation.

Stuck listening to trivial bullshit like the snippets she could hear, he seemed to be going slowly insane.

Serves him right, she thought with a smirk, reaching for her phone. Snapping a discreet shot of Shisui, she dropped it in the group chat she shared with her two best friends.

[dr haruno] <picture>

It only took a minute for Naruto to send back the picture, now covered in enough pastel hearts that it wouldn’t look out of place in a middle school girl’s locker. Sasuke’s response was a significantly subtler thumbs up.

[Hot Topic] y r u still there

[Hot Topic] u can run away

[Hot Topic] nobody would blame u

Before she could respond back, Naruto was back.

[darwin award] y u  make out w/hamlet

Glowering, Sakura punched out her response, unaware that the poor grad student who usually got stuck teaching her biology class was slowly backing away from the empty seat next to her, coffee clutched in his shaking hand.

[dr haruno] wtf

[dr haruno] i was not!!!

[dr haruno] who tf said i was????

Another chat notification popped up. Normally she had the notifications for the group chat from her dorm muted, but they had been organizing a movie night for yesterday so she had unmuted them. Opening the chat to mute it, she clenched her phone so hard she was certain the case was going to leave imprints on her skin.

[ramen king] <picture>

[ramen king] see

[ramen king] pictures don’t lie

[ramen king] u were totally making out w/hamlet

The picture was a grainy shot from somewhere behind the couch she had occupied at the coffee shop in the engineering building, taken probably as Shisui was busy flopping onto her lap. From the angle and the bad camera quality, it did sort of look as if there was something going on between them.

Before she could respond back to Naruto in either chat, the dorm chat exploded.

[k9 king] whoa sakura

[k9 king] u move fast

[k9 king] <picture>

This time it was another picture, taken moments later and from a different angle, showing Shisui’s head in her lap, turned towards her.

[bombshell] y didn’t u tell me?

[bombshell] he’s hot

[bombshell] + y r u letting him put his head in ur lap like that

Notifications for her private chat with Ino started going off as well, but Sakura was too distracted trying to put out the fire in the group chat to deal with her roommate.

[YOUTH!!!] y not me????

[YOUTH!!!] i was going 2 bring u flowers

[Hyuuga Neji] Shut up Lee.

[Hyuuga Neji] She’s been trying to politely refuse since you met.

[cinnamon roll] Neji! Be nice!

[mulan] stfu both of u. w2g S

[bombshell] do u think he would set me up w/his cousin?

[bombshell] either 1

[bombshell] we could double?

[mothman] You should shut up now Kiba. You might need to leave the country.

[firecracker] back off bitch, sasuke’s spoken for

Movement next to her drew her attention away from the shitstorm that Naruto had caused by not paying attention to which chat was open, and Sakura scowled as she saw the spare seat she had been saving be taken by a pair of frankly terrifying graduate students, one of who seemed to be currently sporting stitches. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor in that case, she turned to look for another pair of empty seats.

“Hey, I brought your lemon loaf and tea,” Shisui announced as she was half-standing, eyeing a pair of chairs that were about to open. “Thanks for saving the seats.”

Before she knew it, he had set their drinks and food down, slid into the armchair she was attempting to vacate, and tugged her back onto his lap. Sakura squeaked in surprise, ashamed of the sound she made, and fell back into his chest as she lost her balance.

“Missed me that much?” Shisui teased gently, and popped a chunk of lemon loaf in her mouth when she opened it to respond. He was chewing on his own bite, she realized, and frowned at him around the lemon loaf.

“Taxes,” he replied as he swallowed. “Only fair. Now, onto the final test.”

Swallowing, Sakura grimaced as her phone blew up, vibrating so hard it fell off the arm of the chair and into the small space between them. Reaching for her tea, she took a sip, and then grabbed her phone, afraid of what she was going to find.

Shisui flinched as it vibrated again, spluttering on his coffee, but she ignored him as she scrolled past the argument over Sasuke that Ino was having with Naruto’s cousin, Lee’s wailing, Neji’s caustic put downs, Hinata’s pleas for peace...and then she found another picture.

[sharkboi] <picture>

[sharkboi] update: they’ve relocated to starbs

[sharkboi] + they’re cozy

[sharkboi] look @ the luv

[sharkboi] <picture>

[chef] did u kno that feeding the so w/the leftover half of a sweet sweetens the love?

[bombshell] <3

[mulan] <3

[cinnamon roll] <3

[k9 king] ur gross choji

[mothman] Shut up Kiba

[sharkboi] update

[sharkboi] totally just groped him in public

[sharkboi] <picture>

Her head shot up as she saw the blurry shot of her reaching for her phone, the actual action hidden by their bodies, only the suggestive trajectory of her hand remaining, enough to damn her in the chat.

[bombshell] getting frisky!

It only got worse after that, and Sakura closed her eyes and resolved to murder all of them at the earliest possible convenience.

“This one’s the winner,” Shisui declared, nodding to his latte. “Nothing can compete with the original.”

Caught completely off guard, Sakura stared at him wide-eyed until he indicated the drink. “Remember? The thing I’ve been dragging you around all afternoon for?”

His quest. “Right,” she said weakly, ignoring her phone as if vibrated furiously. “I’m glad you’ve figured it out.”

“Isn’t it grand?” Shisui declared, shoving another piece of lemon loaf into her mouth. “I had a lot of fun.”

“Sure,” Sakura scanned the crowded area, looking for Suigetsu. She may not be able to do anything about the pictures he’d already posted, but she could make sure he never would post again. “It was.”

She surprised herself by actually meaning it. Shisui had been...fun to be around. Not as crazy as she had remembered him being when they were all in high school, although Sasuke would probably disagree. They had spent a fun afternoon together, and the treats he bought her as bribes weren’t unwelcome either.

A phone beeped again, and he shot her an apologetic look as he jostled her getting it out of his pocket. There was a moment of silence, and then he whistled.

“Why did my cousin congratulate me on my first public groping?” he asked, and Sakura wanted to throw every single phone around them into the river.

“My hallmates are idiots,” she ground out from between gritted teeth. “And they’re all going to go home for winter break in matchboxes.”

“I think the kid over there with the white hair is spying on us,” Shisui said brightly, giving a wave. Sakura whipped about and made sure that the grin she shot Suigetsu was savage. The little shit was going to find out the hard way not to cross her.

“I’ll make sure he learns his lesson.”

“You really didn’t have to do this.”

“Of course I did,” Shisui protested, holding the door for her. “You kept me from being murdered by angry college students on three separate occasions. And don’t think I didn’t notice you letting Sasu-cakes escape by sacrificing yourself.”

“That’s what the pumpkin chocolate chip bread was for,” she pointed out, climbing the stairs to the fourth floor (what type of building has four floors, with wheelchair accessible bathrooms on the fourth floor, but no elevators? Really?) “And all of the other things I made you buy me.”

“Pfft,” the Uchiha flapped his hand at her. “Those were bribes to make you accurately record my notes on the lattes. Anyway, what kind of gentleman would I have been if I hadn’t seen you safely to your door?”

“The only dangerous thing in this dorm right now,” Sakura raised her voice so that anyone behind the closed doors would be sure to hear, “is me.”

Reaching her door at the end of the hall, she turned, key in the door, to look at Shisui. To her surprise, he was much closer than she expected, almost on top of her, a hungry look in his eyes.

“That was...far too attractive,” he mumbled, eyes fixed on her lips. “If you don’t want me to kiss you, speak now.”

Giving her a moment, he pressed forward, lips brushing hers. First gently, but then more insistently, caressing and coaxing her into willing participation. She had always known he was attractive, but had never figured he’d be interested in her, when he had his pick of the myriad of girls that surrounded him. After the disastrous crush on Sasuke that had thankfully subsided into unbreakable friendship, she had decided Uchiha’s were too much trouble to date, and instead worked on establishing an amicable working relationship with Shisui and Itachi, to make her life less boring when Naruto and Sasuke inevitably abandoned her during their squabbles.

Sakura found herself twining her hands in Shisui’s hair, the only Uchiha she knew that sported curls instead of the obnoxiously straight hair his cousins managed. As she tugged lightly on it, drawing him closer, he complied pressing her into the door as his hands came to rest on her hips.

In her pocket, her phone started vibrating again, but she was too busy kissing Shisui to care.

[blame-canada]

I Think - Crenny

Kenny is just starting to tiptoe into the realm of boyfriend terminology with Craig when he gives him a gift he could never repay him for. The way to Kenny's heart is his family, after all, and with the way he's gotten to see all their smiles so brightly this Christmas Eve, he's about ready to pop the question. He thinks, though, he thinks.

Hello everyone! I was given the opportunity to post the Secret Santa gift fic that I wrote for @kotaii-san! It’s some Christmas Eve fluff, just in time for Christmas Eve. It’s a bit long to be posting on Tumblr, but I guess that’s what cuts are for, haha. I hope you enjoy. :) Read it on AO3 here!

“I don’t mean to be a bratty teenager, but this sucks.”

The words hurt Kenny more than he wants to let on. At thirteen, Karen has had her fair share of pubescent girl meltdowns, and Kenny’s cleaned up the aftermath more times than he can count. In Kevin’s defense, he’s helped too, but the older he’s gotten, the more detached he’s become. His mother tries, sometimes, but more often than not she gets so overwhelmed so quickly that before Karen’s even done screaming, she’s reaching for the nearest illicit drug. It’s frustrating, but it’s life, he supposes, and Kenny sometimes wonders if in a different world he could have been dealt a better hand. It’s not worth the trouble to dwell on it now though, because the three of them are busy sitting huddled in the center of the living room, touching shoulders for warmth because the heat is at a bare minimum, and finding patterns in the stains on the carpet with their mouths shut and their fingers curled around small hands of cards.

“It’s not your fault,” she adds on, because apparently he hadn’t hid his disappointment well enough to keep it a secret and she reads him like a book anyway. “You do your best. It just kinda sucks.”

Kevin shivers while he nods, and the guilt in the pit of Kenny’s stomach weighs him to the floor so that he sinks further into the circle they’ve made, nearly touches noses with the discard pile. Sometimes in December he dreams of Stan’s house, or even Cartman’s, where it’s warm and there are soft lights and candles everywhere and pine needles wrapped around the banisters and fallen on the tree skirt that adorns the very bottom of their Christmas trees.

The McCormicks have never had a Christmas tree. He isn’t sure if it’s because his parents never thought it was important, couldn’t afford it, or both. He’d been planning on surprising them all with one this year with a meager savings he’d accumulated from the jobs he’s been working to help pay the bills, but it had to go to an emergency window fix, the glass punched out in a fit of rage. Kevin’s hand is still scabbed over and bruised on the knuckles.

“Do you think mom will be home in time? For midnight? Uno,” Karen asks as she drops a card onto the pile, because for some reason they still care that their family is together while the calendar turns to the twenty-fifth. Their father walked out ages ago, which was probably for the best. Now their mother works late into the night and early in the morning, and they don’t see her very much anymore. Kenny understands, but they all miss her, regardless of how horrible she can still be. It’s not a perfect place, and maybe when they move out they’ll each have their own revelations about just how toxic and abusive the household they came from was, but for now it’s all they’ve got.

“Dunno, Kare,” Kevin mutters, and Kenny puts his cards facedown on the ground to pat the top of her head instead. She protests with a whine and ducks away, but he still messes up the top layer of her thin hair. When she straightens up, she’s smiling, and Kenny smiles too.

“Love ya, kiddo,” Kenny says, because they don’t say ‘Merry Christmas,’ because it doesn’t really mean anything. They never were taught the story of Santa Claus. There isn’t much merry about their seance for warmth in a cold, dark house.

“Love you too, Kenny,” she replies, her voice small and fragile, and she adds, “love you too, Kevin.” Kevin grunts.

They finish their game and fall back into silence, and Kenny reaches for his phone, practically a burner several years out of circulation. He has a new text message, and he feels a flutter in his chest, because the name of the sender is a short string of emojis and there’s only one person in his contacts without a regular name.

His phone buzzes in his hand as another text comes in, from the same tiny spaceship between two stars.

   You home

   Answer if youre up for a good time :P

Kenny licks his lips, glances up at his siblings while he contemplates the offer. They’re each using one earbud to listen to music. The screen from the old iPod they still use is lighting up their faces, because night is setting in and the last drops of sunlight are fading from their profiles so that they turn to silhouettes. Ordinarily he would say yes, of course, in a heartbeat, because his spaceship crush is a deadly combination of addicting and rare. Tonight he hesitates though, because it is Christmas Eve, and as he realizes this, he thinks to ask him why he’s looking for a quick visit today of all days.

  tf u doin xmas eve that u wanna fuck around instead @_@?

The response is almost immediate. His spaceship is always lightning-fast, the same way it traverses the galaxies like ponds and hops stars like lily pads.

   Nothing important

Before Kenny can reply, he sends another.

  Thats not true. Im doing important stuff. Which is why I need to know if you are part of the important stuff.

Kenny sighs. Though it’s tempting, and he feels like maybe it’s selfish, his family needs him more. Maybe they’re fine, he doesn’t know. It just doesn’t feel right.

   i gotta spedn it w the fam dude. xmas sux but u kno. its family

  *spend

There is a long pause in which Kenny does nothing but stare at his phone. There isn’t much to do on it like the newer models, so it feels like more of a brick than anything else. He switches between watching the clock tick by and watching his brother and sister share music together. It’s approaching eleven, and he isn’t sure his mother will make it home in time after all. The pile of cards they’ve abandoned sits neatly at their feet. The brick vibrates.

   Well. Dont go anywhere.

Kenny’s curiosity is piqued, but he’s not sure if it’s too forward to ask what he’s talking about. His spaceship likes to keep secrets sometimes, within its indestructible metal walls. That’s not quite true, Kenny corrects, because he knows how to destruct it, and it’s one of his favorite things to do. The faint high of excitement and nerves makes his stomach flip, and he tucks his phone away in his pocket, reaching out to hold Kev and Karen’s hands again per tradition.

Karen drops her head on Kenny’s shoulder and starts to doze off then, and he starts blinking away sleepiness himself as the ambient noise of his house lulls him to sleep. He doesn’t want to fall asleep though, so he keeps snapping back up to attention, jolting his head up and blinking his eyes rapidly awake. Kevin seems to be doing the same thing, and eventually, Karen starts gently snoring against him. He adjusts his arm so she can rest her head on his lap and in her sleepy stupor she obeys- something she hasn’t done since she was nine years old. He pets her head with his now free hand and tries not to think about how much she deserves better.

A knock on the front door startles all three of them so that they sit up straight, and Karen gasps as she returns to the waking world. “Mom?” Kevin asks, and Kenny shakes his head.

“Nah, she don’t knock. Lemme check by the window.” Kenny stands, walks across the room carefully to avoid the squeakiest floorboards, and peeks out the window to check out the scene.

He’s met with a view of a mass of dark green.

He is even more confused than before. He looks back at his family and nods his head roughly to the left, silently telling them to hide behind the hallway, and they obey quickly. Kenny takes the metal bat he keeps by the door in his hands, shifting it in his grip carefully and weighing its potential fatality, and in a streamlined motion he’s practiced before, he yanks the door open and pulls his bat up behind his head, ready to swing.

“What the-” a familiar voice rasps, and its owner leans backwards, his eyes wide with surprise. “Kenny what the fuck,” he exclaims, and it takes Kenny a moment to take in what he’s seeing.

Craig, his spaceship between two stars, is standing on his doorstep, and in his arms is a big pine tree as tall as he is. Kenny drops his bat down against the wall, and takes a deep breath in through his nose. “You answer first. What’s goin’ on?”

Craig blinks, then shakes the tree a bit to his right. “I said important stuff.” He shrugs, a motion made awkward by his bulky cargo, and Kenny points at it.

“What is that?” he asks, not wanting to get ahead of himself, but he thinks he knows. He has a pretty good idea that he knows.

“The fuck does it look like?” Craig shivers and Kenny realizes he’s left him standing outside inappropriately, and he jumps to the side so Craig has room to enter his humble abode- emphasis on humble. “I got you a tree,” he says as he lugs it in, and with a small grunt of effort, he leans it against the wall beside the door.

Kenny is silent for a moment. “You sure fuckin’ did,” he replies, weakly, because he’s not really sure what else to say. “Where the fuck d’you find a tree on Christmas Eve?”

“Farms sell them till the last minute. I knew you didn’t have one this year. I got a stand and shit too, because, you know.” It’s unspoken that Craig most likely knows that it isn’t just a this-year thing that they don’t have a Christmas tree.

He can’t really help himself; Kenny wastes no time in planting a sloppy kiss on Craig’s lips, not caring that maybe their relationship status isn’t the most defined or that his sister might see. He doesn’t care at all about anyone except the angel gone rigid in front of him who then wraps his arms around his back like he’s hugging him for dear life, like he always does. He feels tears prick at his eyes and tries to blink them away, but he’s not entirely successful. He wants Craig to know how much he loves this moment so he doesn’t try too hard.

Kenny doesn’t say anything at first because there’s not much that he can say to make it better. The silence between them is their usual comfortable normal, the adoration in Kenny’s heart beating so rapidly he’s sure Craig can feel it against his chest. “Thank you,” he finally decides on, whispering it, and Craig hums, the vibration of his Adam’s apple tickling Kenny’s cheek. “Is this real?” he breathes against his collarbone.

“I think so?” Craig replies, but the way it sounds genuinely like a question makes Kenny laugh.

“Craig, I don’t,” he begins, but he truly doesn’t know what to say, and so he says, “I don’t know what to say.”

“Then don’t say anything,” Craig murmurs, and he kisses the shell of his ear, and suddenly Kenny is floating miles above his own body. His soul dances in his chest like a ballerina, jumping and spinning in joyous circles that make him laugh. He must look crazy, doing that, laughing for no outward reason, but he doesn’t care.

“Kenny..?” a timid voice calls, and he remembers he banished the other two-thirds of his family behind the corner of his house for their protection. He leaves Craig’s arms as he turns around and Karen is peeking around the corner, her tiny hands gripping the wall and hair spilling straight down towards the floor.

“You can come out,” he says softly, his smile warm and glowing, “it’s just Craig.”

He can see the sigh of relief in her shoulders before she hops out from the hallway. She catches sight of the tree and gasps. A big smile is slowly growing on her face until it becomes too strong to hide behind her lips and her teeth poke out with glee. Kevin saunters out behind her, but rests his back against the wall, crossing his arms and keeping watchful distance.

Before she can crash into them, Karen screeches to a halt in front of him and Craig. She looks back and forth between the two of them, her eyes crinkled slightly closed from the pure intensity of the blissful grin on her face. “Um,” she begins, suddenly growing shy and clasping her hands in front of her sheepishly, “is that for us?” She looks over at the tree then back at Craig, waiting patiently.

Kenny looks to Craig too, whose expression is essentially unreadable at first but melts into a gentle smile, the kind that makes Kenny melt too. “I had an extra, so.” Karen giggles and Kenny sees Kevin chuckle a bit too before he kicks away from the wall to join the rest of them. “We gonna put this shit in the window or what?”

The rest of their evening is punctuated by happy chattering and giggling while they put together the small string of lights and miscellaneous baubles that Craig has likely stolen off his own Christmas tree for them, and Kenny wishes he could have recorded it. He wishes he could have committed every single second to memory, to savor the glow and genuine joy that pulsed from each of their chests so that every moment felt sweet, soft, and safe. He can, however, memorize the little flashes of things: the way Craig’s eyes get so dark they look black when the room is lit only by Christmas tree lights. The way Kevin smiles when he’s truly, really, happy, with one side of his mouth higher than the other and his tongue stuck between his canines in a smile. How Karen looks at him when no one else is looking, with so much innocent hope in the rosiness of her cheeks that he’s forgotten his worries entirely.

The way his mother looks shocked, confused, then overjoyed when she walks through the door at twelve fifty-three in the morning, officially Christmas Day.

They hold their breath as she steps quietly across the room and looks up at Craig, who struggles to keep eye contact and has to look away after only a few seconds. “Um,” he starts, but she pulls him down into a tight hug, and she starts to cry.

“Thank you,” she says, “oh, thank you for doin’ this for my babies. Thank you so much, Craig. Yer a good kid, you know. Your momma must be proud.” Craig’s cheeks are flushed with embarrassment after that, and Kenny can’t help but giggle at him, his heart in the clouds. “Well come on in now, kids. It’s Christmas, come on!” she insists quietly, her arms opened wide on either side of her, and Kevin, Karen and Kenny pile into them with Craig squished between them all.

She sighs, but it’s happy, and she holds them for a moment longer than usual. “Look, look,” she murmurs, twisting each of her children around by their shoulders- Craig too. “Look at all them pretty lights. You ever seen somethin’ so beautiful in this room?”

Kenny looks up, studies the way the white lights glow against the window and the wall, and he thinks to himself that he has. He’s seen four things so beautiful in this room in fact, and he sees them all around him, and it’s the most beautiful this room’s ever felt for as long as he can remember. Craig’s shoulder is bony against his own, and, remembering his proximity, he twists his hand around his forearm to search for his fingers. They find his and wrap together, warm and clammy, and Kenny breathes out deeply. For a moment, as his lungs empty, so do his troubles.

“Craig,” Kenny mumbles, his eyes struggling to stay open, the streetlight outside the only thing telling him that Craig’s eyes are open too across from him on his mattress.

“Hmm?” he hums, the way he does where his lips buzz and resonate with the vibrations of his heart. Their hands are clasped between them, meeting in the middle between their pillows and bathing in the white light that paints crescents in Craig’s dramatic knuckles.

“I think I love you,” he whispers, letting the smile in his heart overtake his lips, and Craig’s eyes widen before they return to half-lidded. Kenny watches his lips stretch into the widest closed grin he’s ever seen on Craig’s face. He looks so silly, like a caricature of a smitten cartoon.

“Oh yeah?” he questions, and Kenny laughs a bit.

“Yeah,” he says, “I think so.”

“Well,” Craig murmurs, in the deep, raspy voice that he adores that precedes his sleep and preludes his mornings, “I think I love you too.”

He squeezes his fingers in time with his racing pulse and closes his eyes, resting his forehead against the soft, flat back of Craig’s hand. “Thank you,” he whispers, and Craig hums again, and he falls asleep dreaming of the day he isn’t afraid to leave out ‘I think.’

Not yet, but maybe next year.