#just realized this one’s gaining some traction so thank you thank you to everyone

[pernesophe]

I’m so glad this series is gaining traction - I’ll be posting remastered ones for each character in the near future that are more in depth like Umemiya’s Tsubaki’s and Choji’s (they will be in separate posts completely to kind of mark my progress with these works).

Currently I’m reworking Sakura’s and I’ll be working backwards from there!

Thank you to everyone who’s liked, commented and reblogged for this series - it’s been a huge motivator for me as a new writer! 🫶🏻

Wind Breaker Boys x Touch Starved Reader

Synopsis: How the Wind Breaker boys would handle a touch averse / touch starved S/O.

Characters in this post are:

Enomoto Takeshi (TW: mention of parental death / grief, reader is caretaker of younger sister, comfort, fluff)

Kusumi Yuto (TW: comfort, fluff, suggestive at the end)

Kaji Ren (TW: comfort, fluff)

Master List (I have no rights to these characters, the works they come from, or the art/screenshots/manga panels used in this post)

Enomoto Takeshi

(~2580 WC)

One year ago now your parents passed away. Leaving you as the guardian and caretaker to your younger sister - who was only 5 at the time. As a young girl and all throughout your childhood you got ample love and affection - all of it - but your sister only has you to provide that to her,. You do your best despite the immense grief you feel, but at times you worry that your sister is getting a subpar experience compared to you. Other than your little sister, you don’t really give or accept physical affection from anyone.

That is until Enomoto Takeshi walks into your life.

It's a sunny day in the Furin neighborhood and your sister is nowhere to be found. Frantically you search high and low around the buildings and down darkened alleys until you turn a corner and walk right into a Furin high schooler with slicked back black hair. Immediately he grabs you by the arms to keep you from falling backwards and you tense under his touch. After righting you he swiftly releases you from his hold and peers down at your panicked expression.

“Hey, my name is Enomoto Takeshi - I go to Furin High. You seem really worried about something - is there anything I can do to help?” Asking in a gentle and concerned tone as his brow creases, but a kind smile pulls at his lips. A small sob escapes your throat as you nod vehemently, and he leans a little closer to hear you.

In one breath you rush to tell him about your sister and that she’s missing. Before you can give her description he asks if you need to let your parents know causing you to take a step back in shock - as if you had been struck.

“I’m sorry - I didn’t mean,” he says gently. Seeing that he touched a nerve, he holds a hand out in front of him as if to convey that he means you no harm.

“No, no - you’re good. They’re just, um… dead.” The word drops from your lips like a stone and plunks into the dirt at your feet. Still, you had no idea how to work that detail into conversation and it was apparent by the shock on Enomoto’s face.

“I’m so sorry-” he starts to apologize profusely, in a genuinely remorseful tone. Shaking your head quickly with a wave of your hand to cut him off.

“It’s okay,” you say quickly with a sad smile. “I’m her guardian. I-I just need to find her, please.” Whispering softly as you look up at him with pleadingly teary eyes. Enomoto nods vigorously and asks for her description - once he has it he sends a few texts and makes a phone call before turning back to you.

“Let’s go,” he says with a nod as he starts to lead you in the direction you were heading. Together the two of you begin searching everywhere, and unbeknownst to you, an entire army was searching through the neighborhood for her as well.

Apparently, Enomoto made one call to Kaji and then sent a text to Sakura and the Jokuku Second Grade Captain who was on patrol today. With that, the entire Jokuku team and the entire first and second grade classes of the Tamon team were out looking for her. As you see more and more guys in uniforms like Enomoto’s - waving at the two of you and calling reassurances that they’ll find your sister - you turn to your companion and genuinely thank him for getting so many people to help. Enomoto bashfully waves off your thanks and says, "It's what we're here for."

As it turns out, your sister got lost and wandered into Shishitoren turf and was spotted being escorted back by Choji and Togame personally. Choji keeps her laughing the whole way back as she holds onto both his and Togame’s pointer fingers. Enomoto stays with you and helps you look until he gets word that she’s safe and where she is, and then escorts you over to Main street to meet up with her.

As she walks up, you’re holding back tears just from seeing her safe and unharmed. Ever since your parents died you’ve been terrified of her getting lost or hurt, so once you can see she’s okay you turn and thank everyone profusely for their help. They all wave you off with wide smiles and tell you to come find Furin or Shishitoren members if you ever need help with anything again.

Enomoto offers to walk both of you home - you agree as you shoot him a grateful smile and take your sister's hand. Immediately she holds a tiny hand up to Enomoto - who pauses for a moment - but before you can tell him he doesn’t have to he reaches down and gently takes her hand in between his fingers and thumb. 

On the way home he makes conversation with your sister and asks her about her likes and dislikes. Absolutely delighted by how he and your sister are interacting, you can’t help the amused smile twisting your lips as Enomoto converses with your sister like an old friend.

Once at the door, you thank him again and bid him goodbye, but before he leaves he offers you his number. A little surprised, but you swiftly accept with a wide grin as you thank him once again for all his help today. After he left your sister makes sure to tell you that she really likes him and hopes the two of you would become friends. Though you don’t voice it to her, a small part of you wanted to be friends with him too.

Luckily, the two of you saw a lot more of each other around Furin after that. Every time you did Enomoto would make conversation with your sister and ask how she’s doing - she thought he was the coolest guy and told him she really likes how he talks. And truthfully, you did too. After talking to him day in and day out - his familiar face, the roll of his R’s, his comforting presence - you found that you really like him too.

Enomoto starts walking with you and your sister outside of his patrol pretty often, and eventually asks if you want to actually plan a hang out. When you tell him that it would be difficult since you watch your sister basically 24/7, he asks if it would be okay if the three of you hung out together. Completely thrown by his offer at first, until you shake off your disbelief and gratefuly agree.

The Hang Out ends up being a trip to the local children's science museum that’s closer to the city. The three of you ride the train together - Enomoto having a full conversation with your sister like normal so you can enjoy the views out the window for a bit.

At the museum, Enomoto shows your sister some of his favorite sections - you adore watching how good he is with her, and he really seemed to enjoy her company too. Then he takes her to the play area and helps her meet some other kids to play with before coming to sit with you on the bench. You thank him for everything he’s done today and tell him that he’s really, really good with kids. He just smiles and tells you that it’s easy since your sister is such a great kid. The two of you talk about a ton of things while your sister plays - Enomoto remaining conscious and helping you watch her as well - and then the conversation turns to your parents, sister and your situation.

You end up telling him everything. Even divulging some of your fears about being responsible for someone else, and how you just really want to give her a fair shot. Enomoto listens intently, and when you’re finished he tells you that he’s incredibly impressed by you. Even going as far to say that you’re approaching the entire situation with a much more level head than most parents he’s met. A little overwhelmed by his kindness as tears prick your eyes, but you let him know that his words mean the world to you.

After a long moment Enomoto pipes up again and says with an earnest expression, “I know I just talked about how well you’rrre doing, but if you everrr need help, someone to lean on, orrr just to talk to - I’m rrright herrre.” 

Again, you’re taken aback, but immensely grateful as you tentatively accept his offer. After that day, you do start to lean on Enomoto for things. Like when you wanted to finally complete a night school program that you’ve been putting off doing to help you find a better job - Enomoto stepped right up and offered to watch your sister during your in person classes (2 days a week).

At first you weren’t sure about it, but he insisted. Between him and the help of several people around Furin - Kaji and Kusumi for one, Hiragi who found out from them who told Umemiya. Who was overjoyed to help, and even asked Tsubaki and Kotoha if they would be willing to pitch in as well - of course they agreed. Nirei heard about it from Kotoha at Pothos one morning, and was quick to offer his help too, which enlisted Suo, Sakura and the rest of Class One…

Long story short - your sister is wealthy in babysitters now.

Frequently, she comes home with stories about all the different people she gets to spend time with and how cool they are. Of course, after you finished your program and got a job in bookkeeping, you made one of your mom's old cookie recipes with your sister's help and gave them out as a thank you.

It wasn’t too long before you and your sister became regular faces to Bofurin - everyone waves and greets you, even the members you don’t know super well - which only makes you feel safer knowing so many eyes are on your sister. After this, Enomoto starts occasionally having dinner with the two of you and over time he gets up the courage to confess his feelings for you. 

At first you were stunned, which made him second guess himself, but you were quick to quell his worry by confessing too. Even though you just told him your feelings, he asks why you seem apprehensive. A little ashamed, you admit that he’s already given you so much and that you feel guilty taking more. A long moment passes and then Enomoto breaks the silence with his earnest voice.

”Take it all.” He says bluntly, which makes you gawk openly at him. “Whateverrr I have - it’s yourrrs, I wanna give you everrrything I’ve got,” he assures you with a firm nod.

Again you’re stunned, but you slowly nod in disbelief and murmur, “O-okay.” 

After that the two of you are official, but Enomoto doesn’t push physical affection with you beyond when he’s holding your sister and hands her over to you. He’s just so grateful that you opened up your heart and home to him, so he didn’t want to jeopardize the place he’s earned in your life.

Eventually, one night - when Tsubaki and Kotoha offered (begged) to watch your sister and give her a “spa” night, to which you gratefully agreed - you finally moved to Enomoto deliberately.

The two of you are sitting on the couch in your living room watching some silly movie - about a foot of space between the two of you. Ever so slowly, you reach out and gently take hold of Enomoto’s hand and he just peers at you curiously out of the corner of his eye. 

Quietly, you explain that you want to touch him, but you’re also afraid. You go out of your way to give that love to your sister because you received it from your parents, but she won’t ever get that chance so you have to make up for it.

But you don’t seek that kind of love, because you already got it - so much of it - from two people who died. Who left you - even if they didn’t want to. It terrifies you to love someone else like that when they could leave you too, or worse die. You’re fearful that you can’t handle missing another person like that again.

Or if your relationship doesn’t work out, your sister might feel abandoned by him and you were honestly barely dealing with your own abandonment issues as is. You just couldn’t shoulder any more.

Once you sadly trail off - gaze focused on the fraying arm of the couch - Enomoto reaches forward and scoops you into his lap, holding you tight against his chest.

“Just because you’re afraid doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve this,” whispering into your hair as he squeezes you tighter to make his point. As the pressure mounts around you, a warbling sob bubbles its way out of your throat. He lets you cry and keeps speaking. “And you know that you need it, because you go out of your way to give it to your sister because you know she needs it. Now, I know I can’t make that fear go away, but I can love you through it if you’ll let me,” he whispers earnestly while pressing a kiss to your tear stained cheek. Then he gently takes your chin in his hand and makes you look at him. “And as far as your sister goes - I love that little girl so much. It won’t matter if we end up breaking up in the future, because she’s my friend now. I never have and I never will abandon my friends.” Speaking firmly as he pins you with a solemn look, and you absolutely crumble sobbing into his chest. Enomoto holds you for the rest of the night, and puts you to bed after you’ve fallen asleep in his arms.

After this, you lean into him so much more. Going out of your way to hold his hand as the two of you stroll through Furin. Hugging him the moment he comes in your home with matching smiles tugging at both of your lips. Kissing him on the cheek before you bid him goodbye - the first time you did this, he turned so red that he was still a light shade of pink when you saw him later that day.

Now Enomoto will go out of his way to touch you too. Eagerly grinning at you whenever you take his hand, and holding yours back tightly. Lovingly tucking your hair behind your ear before kissing you on the cheek or forehead, which always leaves you blushing madly with a bright smile on your face.

The two of you are more prone to PDA as far as the above things go as well as the occasional peck in public. At first you were nervous about it, but the first time your sister saw you kiss Enomoto she released this joyous squeal and clapped excitedly at the display. She absolutely adores Enomoto and the relationship you two have, and that's when you realize your sister seeing you and Enomoto be affectionate to each other is actually really good for her.

In no time the two of you become Furin’s favorite couple. Especially after you and Enomoto were seen holding your sister’s hands while walking down the street. Sometimes swinging her between the two of you as she babbled to you both about starting school and how excited she was.

Now, years after the fact, your favorite thing Enomoto does is when you’re speaking to your children and he’ll come up behind you and wrap his arms around you before pressing a kiss to your cheek. It always makes you and your kids devolve into a fit of giggles as you lean back into his chest. He and your sister are still close - he’s extremely protective of her, especially after she started dating - but now he calls her his sister (in law) as well as his friend.

Often when she comes to visit from university, she’ll give you a big hug before beelining to Enomoto. A lot of her home time is spent telling him about her classes and friends while helping him with her nieces and nephews. She tells you too, but you and your sister text every day so you’re always up to date, and she only gets to really talk to Enomoto when she comes home.

Kusumi Yuto

(~1142 wc)

Kusumi has been your friend since childhood, so he is very aware of your relationship with physical touch or lack thereof. The two of you became romantically involved at the end of middle school. Kusumi had a crush on you for the longest time, and confessed to you on the last day of school.

You were completely thrown, because you’ve been in love with your childhood friend for as long as you could remember - so you confessed immediately after him. Using the opportunity, he asked you to be his girlfriend right there, and you gleefully agreed.

Both of you were overjoyed, but you were terrified that he would try to initiate physical affection after that. But he never did, even now, 2 years into your relationship and he’s never touched you romantically - nor have you touched him.

One day during literature lessons, when you were learning Romeo and Juliet, is how you found out they shared a kiss of death - so young, so sad, and such a short lived tryst. And then it dawned on you that you and Kusumi have never kissed… the two of you haven’t even held hands. The thought plagues your mind for a week and a half, which Kusumi of course noticed but assumed you would tell him in your own time, and on this Friday - sitting on his bedroom floor next to him with your backs resting on the end of his bed - you finally do.

”Hey Kusumi?” Murmuring quietly to your shaggy haired boyfriend, and he hums in response. ”Why haven’t we ever held hands?” Posing the question timidly, and he tilts his head so he can look at you through the part in his hair.

”Because you seem uncomfortable by it,” he responded simply. Bewildered, you furrow your brow, and Kusumi sits up a bit more as he pushes his hair away from his eyes so he can see and talk to you more directly.

”So… you’re just okay with that?” Uttering softly, in disbelief. Guilt and fear douse your nerves as the muscles tense up in all through your body.

”Well, yeah… you’re my girlfriend, and I’ve known you forever, so I know how you feel about physical affection. It would be really shitty if I pressured you into doing anything when I’m fully aware of your discomfort,” he explained calmly. As if this was some math problem he was helping you work out. Releasing a slightly frustrated sigh through your nose - the same one from your childhood days that makes Kusumi’s lips twitch into a smile.

”But… What if I’m never comfortable… Are you okay with that?” Muttering softly, voice steeped with apprehension - terrified that he’ll suddenly abandon you for this indiscretion.

”If that’s how you feel, then yes…” he reassured you with that same simple tone, and you blink at him dubiously as tears start to well up in your eyes.

”I don’t think that’s fair to you though…” warbling out quietly as you curled your fists into the fabric of your shirt. “Why shouldn’t you receive physical affection just because of me?” You asked in a cracked voice, the first tear dripping onto your knee and soaking into your pants.

”But I don’t want to touch anyone else, and if I have to choose between feeling your touch or experiencing you, then I’ll choose you every time. Easy.” He spoke without missing a beat, and you looked up at him as more tears began spilling down your cheeks - an unspoken question in your eyes. “But, if you think that you’re uncomfortable because it’s just not something you’ve had before, then I’ll stay right here until you do feel comfortable.” He assured you gently while answering your question at the same time. With slightly parted lips, you mutely nod at him with rounded eyes like the full moon.

”I-I think it’s the second one,” you whispered gently, ashamed, but he just nods slowly with no judgment in his eyes. 

”Then let me know when you feel ready, and if you need my help figuring out how to become comfortable with it, then I can do that.” He said gently, and it’s like your prayers have been answered - all you ever wanted was someone to show you how.

”Mhm, I want your help Kusumi - I’m ready… please,” pleading softly as you scooted slightly closer to him. Kusumi’s breath hitched in his throat, not expecting you to want his help now, but he doesn’t hesitate to reach forward and pull you into his lap.

Situating you so you’re sitting in between his legs with your back flush to his chest and his arms wrapped lightly around you - his hands holding your hands gently in your lap. Leaning forward, he rested his chin on the top of your head silently. 

”How’s this?” He asked cautiously, and you inhale deeply and then exhale slowly, relaxing more into his arms - the tension slowly seeped out of your muscles.

”Go-good…” breathing out slowly, and Kusumi gently tightened his arms around you. “Mmm, that feels good.” you whispered softly as you leaned back into his chest more and curled your body up into him. Kusumi let out a shaky breath and just relished in being able to hold you for the first time since you two were kids. 

The only other time you’ve willingly sought out the physical comfort of another was when your parents' marriage was spiraling towards divorce and they were fighting all the time. Unable to stand it any longer, you climbed over the fence into Kusumi’s backyard where you hid. When he came outside to water the plants and saw you, he asked if you were okay. Wordlessly, you started bawling and ran straight into his arms. Little Kusumi was stunned - not having the chance to meet you until just then - but still, he hugged you tightly while you sobbed and sniffled into his graphic shark t-shirt. He made it his mission to be your friend after that, and once he officially was - Kusumi stayed faithfully by your side through everything. Years he waited for the day that you felt you could lean on him again. 

The two of you stayed like that on his bedroom floor for hours until you drifted off to sleep. Eventually, he gingerly scooped you up and tucked you into his bed before he laid down next to you over the covers with one arm draped around you in your sleep. You awoke to your face buried in his chest with your arms twined around his torso with his arms wrapped snugly around you.

After this you and Kusumi hold hands all of the time - wherever you go - and sometimes he’ll even kiss your cheek or forehead in public. In private, your time is spent with lengthy cuddle and tender makeout sessions. From outside the relationship, it would be hard to believe that there was a drastic change, but - to Kusumi - the fact that you lean into him without tensing up at all is like night and day.

Kaji Ren

(~2938 wc)

The day you met your snowy haired boyfriend was random and by chance. You were scavenging for your favorite sucker at the one Konbini you’ve been frequenting since moving into town. Finally - at long last - you had found them!

But there was only one bag left, so you rushed to grab it, completely missing the guy reaching for them at the same time. Neither of you saw the other as your fingertips touched over the bag. Immediately, both of you had pulled back and stared at each other in shock. He looked rather upset about you taking the last bag, but didn’t say a word as he turned and walked away - leaving you in the aisle with the bag still on the shelf.

After you recovered from the shock, you grabbed the bag and rushed to the register to pay. Once you handed the money over you didn’t even wait for the change - apologizing profusely - as you sprinted out of the store. Stopping out front, you whipped your head back and forth until you see him - the severe looking teen with his hands shoved in his pockets, headphones on, and shoulders slumped forward as he marched away. 

“Hey, wait up!” Calling to him as you chased after him, but he didn’t turn - like he didn’t hear you at all. But then you fully face palmed yourself as you remembered the headphones on his head. So, you sprinted after him at full speed to close the distance before he rounded a corner, and since he couldn’t hear you - you reached out and grabbed his sleeve. 

Whirling around, body completely tense, he glared down at you like you were a threat, so you flinch and shrink away. For a moment he just stared at you - his glare changing from anger to confusion - until you sheepishly held up the bag of Chupa Chups in front of you. Rocking it back and forth in your hands you nervously swallowed before trying to speak.

“Um, sorry - I took the last bag - do you want to split it?” Mouthing the words to him since your voice completely failed you, but thank God he was used to reading lips. Slowly, with brows still furrowed, he reached up and removed his headphones - eyes darting between the bag and your face.

“You wanna share them with me?” He asked, completely incredulous of the mere notion, but then you nod eagerly at him. Taking a step back he slowly shook his head at you in disbelief. “Why?” This time he asked in an accusing tone.

“U-um, because… These are my favorite and it’s taken me like… two months to find them, so if they’re your favorite too then I know how it feels when they’re out of stock…” explaining quietly as you slowly started to open the bag. He just gawked at you in absolute bewilderment as you take out about half a bag’s worth of suckers and thrust them into his hands. 

“Thank you - for letting me take the last bag by the way,” thanking him genuinely as you tossed him a small, grateful smile. “I just moved here, and it’s been really stressful - it’s probably not good for me, but they’ve been a nice stress reliever.” You added, and finally the guy’s severe expression smoothed out to one of understanding.

“No problem…” he spoke quietly, “they are for me too,” he added with a grateful nod towards the suckers piled in his hands. “I’m Ren Kaji. What’s your name?” He asked - genuinely curious.

“Y/N L/N! It’s nice to meet you,” chirping as you beamed up at him. Kaji basically had to squint away from your bright eyes and smile, but he enjoyed it all the same. After that, the two of you would often run into each other at the Konbini, and whenever they were down to their last bag of Chupa Chups the two of you would split the bag.

The budding friendship continued like this for months, until one day the Konbini was out of the Chupa Chups for 4 weeks due to shipping issues. Kaji was noticeably more on edge than usual because of it. Your theory was only supported more when you started seeing other Furin members in the Konbini asking about the suckers too. Finally after 4 weeks, much of your customer loyalty had waned, so you ventured out to other areas around the city until you struck the motherload! 

A small, run down Konbini stood at the edge of the Red Light District, and in the back of the store were boxes and boxes filled to the brim with bags of your favorite Chupa Chups. Even better - everything was still in date!

Apparently, this is where the shipping issue had happened, but the shipper just charged this Konbini for them and sent another shipment to your regular Konbini - so everything here was extremely discounted.Maybe you went a little overboard, but you bought three boxes worth. It made sense to you - one box for you, one box for Kaji and one box to act as a ‘rainy day fund’ for the both of you.

The next day, you ventured into the Furin neighborhood for the first time with Kaji’s designated box of suckers in tow. The looks you received as some of the older shopkeepers shot you knowing glances before smiling and waving at you, to which you just smiled back and nodded at them. Completely oblivious to their knowing smirks and whispers about a certain white haired Furin member.

It didn’t take you long to find Kaji, especially since he was screaming at some thug at the top of his lungs while some guy with a shaggy bowl cut stood close by clutching his headphones. You approached as Kaji got to the end of his rant, dropping the man who crawled into a sprint, before he whirled around to find you standing right behind him.

The expression on your face was bright as ever and completely unbothered by the display you just saw. The shaggy haired guy as well as a few others in the same uniform stared at you as if you were insane - one with slicked back hair stepped forward to intervene before Kaji blew up on you. Especially since their Captain was staring at you with wide eyes and a deep furrow in his brow, but then you spoke.

“Shipping problem, but I fixed it,” speaking in a sing-songy voice with a bright grin as you held the box up to Kaji. Who finally tore his gaze away from your face to see a box overflowing with bags of his favorite suckers.

He just stood there frozen as he looked back at your face - expression unchanging. Tilting your head slightly, a small notch forms in your brow as you look down at the suckers and then back up to his face. “These are still your favorite, right?” You inquired, innocently unaware of the range of emotions Kaji was going through.

“Ye-yes,” he murmured quietly. “Why?” He demanded in an accusing tone immediately after, but you just giggled at his confusion.

“Because the Konbini has been out of them for four weeks, and I’ve been spending all of my free time searching for them because I’ve been going kind of crazy,” you laughed out sheepishly. “So, when I found a huge stock - super discounted by the way - I thought I’d grab some extra because you may not be having a great time either,” making a cautious guess as you held the box out for Kaji again. He blinked rapidly at you, but finally accepted the box and easily held it under one arm before he turned back to look at you with a perplexed expression. After a moment of silence you smiled awkwardly and clapped your hands together - breaking him from his stupor.

“Well, that’s all I really came here to do…” murmuring awkwardly as you turned to leave, but then you remembered the extra box.

“Oh, by the way,” pulling out your phone and swiped to your photos before showing him one of the three boxes - one labeled ‘rainy day fund’.

“I have an extra box in case we run out!” Trilling as you presented the treasure proudly, which only made Kaji sputter a little bit as an entire zoo stampede in his stomach. As you turned to leave, he quickly spoke, making you stop.

“Can I have your number?” Kaji asked urgently, and then his entire face flushed red - his companions’ eyes went wide as they exchanged worried glances. You stared at Kaji curiously for a moment before your face lit up. 

“Oh, duh, of course - for the ‘rainy day fund’!” You said cluelessly as you swiped over to “New Contact” and handed him your phone with a bright smile. Kaji gulped and then nodded before entering his information. Truthfully, you hoped he wanted more than just suckers from you, but you really didn’t expect him to like you like that, so this was good enough.

The friendship progressed like that, every so often meeting up to exchange a stock of suckers between each other (usually you to him since he goes through them so quickly). The whole time you were clueless to Kaji’s signals actually being signals: the shared playlists, him eventually walking you to school every day, to him asking you to hang out with him on the weekends.

Finally, when he asked you out on a date (without actually using that term) - surprised you with flowers, and took you to dinner before going on a romantic walk along the canal - and you still hadn’t picked up that he liked you, Kaji was beyond frustrated. When you said he was the sweetest friend you’ve ever had, he finally lost it.

“Y/N. Do you think I do this for my friends?” He asked incredulously as the two of you stopped on a bridge to look over the water, annoyance seeping into his tone. Turning to him in shock, you were surprised to see a vulnerable look in his eyes behind his angry expression.

“I’m not sure… I don’t see you hang out with a lot of girls,” you admitted softly. You’ve never dated anyone before, and you never had any ‘guy friends’ so, honestly, you had no idea if Kaji was just being nice this whole time. The second year grade captain sighed heavily at your response as his head dropped into his hands, his elbows resting on the railing.

“Exactly, Y/N.” He finally spoke after raising his face from his hands and giving you a tired look. “It’s not that I’m against being friends with a girl, but I’ve been trying to show you for months that I want to be more with you.” He confessed desperately, hoping and praying that you finally got it. But, you just stared at him in silence for an incredibly long time, until understanding dawned over your features like a slow sunrise.

“Ohhhh…” you whispered out so quietly. All Kaji’s tension and frustration dissipated into laughter in that moment as he watched you completely flounder as everything he’s done in the past few months and every time you were just clueless ran through your mind. Slowly, he nods as a blush creeps over your cheeks to the tips of your ears and you clap a hand over your mouth. “I didn’t know… I’m so sorry Kaji!” You gasped out from behind your hand.

“I realize that now,” he said simply with the most amused expression on his face. Still, you can’t recover from the embarrassment as you just shake your head and blush deeper under his gaze.

“Will you be my girlfriend?” He blurted out, shocking you out of your embarrassment, as he stared down at you intensely. You blinked up at him in surprise before nodding vehemently - your bright smile returning to your lips. After that the two of you were official, though for the most part your relationship didn’t change much from when you were just ‘friends’, especially when neither of you initiated physical contact with each other.

Now, almost a year into the relationship, the two of you are sitting on a bench at the park - it’s midday on a Saturday with a spring breeze fluttering past. He’s listening to music and you’re reading one of your books. For the past hour, you’ve been sneaking peeks at your boyfriend, which he has been kind enough not to mention.

Suddenly you feel confidence well in your chest as you reach out and gently take his free hand in yours. Immediately Kaji gives you a confused look, which you interpret as anger and drop his hand before pulling back and looking back down at your book without reading.

”Um, sorry! I didn’t mean to…” you say softly as your cheeks burn. Refusing to lift your gaze, you begin smoothing out the folded corner of your page - most of your books had them from being thrifted.

”You didn’t mean to… hold my hand?” Inquiring suspiciously as his eyebrows furrow at you. Looking at your boyfriend only makes you more nervous as anxiety convinces you that you crossed a line.

”Um, no… Well, yes. I did mean to, but I’m sorry if that wasn’t okay to do,” whispering softly, and averting your gaze to anywhere but him. A bluebird catches your eye so you focus up on that. Kaji just stares at you bewildered - he knew you were an anxious person, but sometimes when you apologized for things you didn’t need to he just felt guilty, like he did something wrong.

Suddenly, he pulls out two Chupa Chups and hands one to you, which you gingerly take. Unwrapping the sucker in unison, you both stick them in your mouths at the same time which makes you giggle as some of the tension dissipates. Kaji will never tell you - and you never pay enough attention to figure it out - but he always times it when he gives you a sucker so it’ll go exactly like this because you giggle every time and he loves the sound. After a long moment, you begin speaking again - just like he knew you would.

”I want to touch you Kaji,” you say bluntly which makes him jump and choke on his sucker as he shoots you a desperate look of ‘mercy please, Y/N’

“No, not like that… Well yes, maybe like that eventually?” Speaking slowly as to not risk Kaji going into cardiac arrest. “For right now, I just wanna be able to hold your hand sometimes… Maybe feel confident enough to kiss you one day?” Musing softly as your gaze returns to the bluebird. Kaji blinks slowly at you. Feel confident enough? What?

”What do you mean? You’re way more confident than I am with this stuff…” He says quietly, leaning closer to you subconciously to study the expression of your side profile.

”Well, yeah, but… I mean,” sighing softly before meeting his concerned cerulean eyes again. “It’s not like I got a ton of physical affection growing up, so it’s still really hard for me…” explaining slowly - deliberately - as you splay your fingers out in your lap to calm your nerves a bit. “I have to force myself through the discomfort of it, because it’s not natural to me… But I want to be physically affectionate with you, so I want to work on it for me and you…” trailing off quietly, suddenly self conscious that you aren’t making any sense.

Kaji blinks rapidly, stunned. Never did he consider his bubbly girlfriend who is always bouncing at his side and brightening his day had been pushing herself through something that he always thought was easy for her. Slowly, Kaji reaches out and awkwardly takes your hand in his, and just like him you jump and choke on your sucker a bit. Leaning back into the bench, Kaji turns his gaze forward before he speaks.

”I’m sorry…” he whispers out, and you don’t even know what to say, you're so stunned. “I never knew - I just thought it was natural for you. I didn’t really consider that you’ve been fighting through this the whole time, alone.” He murmurs softly, in a genuinely apologetic tone.

”It’s not like that…” Protesting quietly, but he just shakes his head as he looks at you with guilt ridden eyes causing you to pause and wait for him to speak again.

”It kind of is though…” he says gently and before you can protest further, he’s squeezing your hand to keep your attention.

“I’ll do better,” he promises genuinely. Slowly, you nod, because his expression is leaving no room for argument. The rest of the hangout is spent in silence, doing your separate activities, but still holding hands - albeit awkwardly, but sweetly too.

Kaji keeps a firm hold on your hand the whole way back to your house as well. The change in your relationship isn’t night and day, but there are some things that anyone who knows you or Kaji would notice. After that day, Kaji starts initiating more physical contact with you: he goes out of his way to hold your hand, and when you seem a little down or stressed he would give you a sucker (like normal) but now he pats your head afterwards. It's a little awkward at first, but you still blush and throw him a bashful smile every time. 

The biggest surprise to everyone, including you, are the forehead kisses. Kaji was awkward the first time he did it but he never let the awkwardness stop him - because, well, you never did. Now, he greets and bids you goodbye - anytime, anywhere - by pressing a chaste kiss to your forehead and smiling serenely at you afterwards. You're reduced to a blushing, stuttering mess every single time.

[pattypanini]

Sam Kiszka x Reader Uncharted Territory

Summary: A weekend trip with your high school best friend Sam leads to new experiences you've never had before.

Word Count: 3.7k

Taglist for Oneshots

A/N: Hi everyone! Here is @mar-rein12 and I's second oneshot. We've been in a Sam mood lately so this was so fun to write. Thank you for all the support on the last oneshot! Please enjoy our first Sam oneshot, Uncharted Territory.

Warnings: 18+, SMUT, penetrative sex, oral (f + m receiving), praise, VIRGIN SEX, fluff, dirty talk, submissive/dom, alcohol, flirting.

Y/n’s POV

“Sam, what should I wear?” You shout at him from your room. You both had rented an airbnb for the weekend, to see some of Sam’s friends play in a concert a couple town’s over. You stare at all of the outfits sprawled across your bed, as Sam makes his way in and plops himself right onto all of the options.  

“Sam. I can’t really decide what to wear if you’re laying on top of my clothes.” You giggle at him, and shove his shoulder playfully. He looks up at you from the bed with a big smile plastered across his face. “Get up, come on.” You reach your hand out, for him to grab and pull him up off the bed. He takes it and stands up beside you. 

“Okay so I have this purple corset with blue jeans. A black leather tube top, with a black leather mini skirt. And a…”

“Okay before you continue on, I’m gonna need to see these on before I can make a decision, sweets.”

Sweets. Something that Sam had called you since your freshman year of high school. You met Sam when he was a Sophomore in band. Both of you played piano and often played together in shows so you learned to become friends pretty fast. After he graduated, he started to play in a real band with his brothers and friend and they were slowly gaining traction. As a little graduation treat from Sam he wanted to take you on a little road trip to Ann Arbor. He lied to Airbnb saying that he was 21 so you guys could have a house in the area for the weekend. 

“I’m waiting, y/n.” You roll your eyes at him, picking up the purple corset and jeans. You work to remove the leggings you are wearing, when you realize Sam is still looking right at you. 

“Excuse me sir, I’m gonna need you to look away.” You give him a little smirk.

Sam rolls his eyes, laying back onto your bed. “If you insist.” After covering his eyes you wait there for a moment to see if he’d keep his promise. Like clockwork, he peeks through his fingers and sees that you are still staring at him.

 “SAM!” You playfully scream at him. “Keep them shut, or else I won’t try them on for you.” 

“Whatever you say, sweets.” He closes his eyes again and you quickly change into the first outfit. 

“Okay, you can open your eyes now.” You take a step back and let him take it all in. 

“Okay I like it, I don’t know if that’s the vibe for the night though.” He begins to grab the next outfit to throw it to you before inspecting the skirt. He holds it up in the air while making a face. “Y/n, what the fuck is this gonna cover?”

“It’ll be covering just enough.” You walk over and grab it from him along with the tube top. You shove a blanket over his face and change into the second outfit. You push your feet into the black leather boots and tell him to remove the blanket. After his eyes adjust to the light he takes a long look up and down your body, not saying a word. “Sam, say something. Is the skirt that short?”

“Sweets, I’m not going to lie. You look really fucking sexy.” You feel your cheeks blush at his words. “I have such a stunning best friend. I think that’s what you should wear.” He takes one final look at you before he gets up and walks out of the room. 

He turns around quickly when he reaches for the door, “I’ll be waiting in the living room for whenever you're done.” You can’t help but be taken aback from the fact that Sam called you sexy. You kind of liked it? Was it wrong to like being called sexy by your best friend? Maybe. You choose to push the thought to the back of your brain and continue to get ready. 

Once done with your makeup and hair you walk out to the living room and Sam grabs the keys to drive you both to the concert. After a 30 minute drive you arrive and Sam walks around to help you out of the car. He told you that you “weren’t allowed to get out yourself”, and that he would be covering you when you got out of the car “in case something popped out.” You don’t get why he cares so much, but you figure he is just trying to be nice. 

As you make your way inside the loud building, you find an empty spot in the crowded music venue. As they begin to play you sing along with some of the songs you recognize and dance along with Sam as much as you can. Sam was being recognized by a few girls in the audience. They wanted to talk and take pictures with him, and you didn’t mind. You liked that he was getting the recognition he deserved. After finally returning back to you he apologies for having to talk to so many people. 

“It’s okay, I know that they are just excited to see the cute bassist of Greta Van Fleet in public.” Sam smirks at you, refocusing himself on the band on the stage.

“How are you liking the music? I know it’s kinda different. I wasn’t sure if you would even like it in the first pl-.”

“Sam, I’m having fun. I’m enjoying the music too. But, It would be way more fun if someone would dance with me.” Sam grabs your hands and begins spinning you around before grabbing your waist and pulling you into him. He was very handsy, much more than he had been in the past, at prom and other events.You sway along with him for the next couple songs, your ass presses harder against him as you feel him growing beneath you. You knew this had an effect on him whether he wanted it to or not, you began to feel like he was enjoying it more than he led on. His hands trail up your stomach, resting right below your tits. Your legs feel like jello beneath you, and a wetness is forming between your legs. 

“Sammy, I don’t know if this is alright to say to your friend but this is really turning me on, like more than it should.” He smiles down at you, beginning to rub his hands over your hips. He leans his head down, bringing his mouth close to your ear. 

“If you think it's wrong then the stuff I think about is criminal.” He presses a light kiss to the side of your face, refocusing on the band. The rest of the time spent in the crowd was a blur. All you remembered was Sam’s arms wrapped around you the entire time, and feeling like you were gonna pass out in them. After the set finishes up, Sam says a quick hello to his friends. You both begin to make your way to the car and drive back to the Airbnb. 

Once your boots are off, you make your way to the kitchen and sit down on one of the bar stools. 

“Woah what is this?” Sam says from inside the fridge. He comes out and shows a bottle of wine. “I guess the last group to rent the house left some wine in the fridge. You want a glass?” You nod your head and he searches for glasses for the two of you. After filling two glasses, he places them on the living room table, coming back to you to carry you to the couch.

“If we're gonna watch something Sam can I at least change into something more comfortable?” You say as you feel your skirt begin to ride up on you. He looks down to see your skirt becoming smaller and looks back up to you. 

“You can just take everything off, and leave it off.” He says, placing a hand on your exposed thigh. 

“You're being very different tonight Sam, what's come over you?”

“I don’t know sweets, I mean you’ve always been hot but something about tonight is just making me realize it even more. You in that tiny little skirt and having you dance all over me, is making me lose it. Like I need you, badly y/n.”

You didn’t know what to say, or what he was alluding to. “What do you mean Sam?”

“I'm saying I’m really turned on y/n, and that I want to please you. You can say no, but I want to so badly, and I’m thinking you might feel this way too.” 

You’d be lying if you said you haven’t thought about him like this before. Thinking about your best friend late at night when you couldn’t sleep, slowly inching your hand into your underwear. 

“Sam I would I just- I never really did anything with anyone before.” You say shyly, even though you know he would never judge you. 

“And? I’ll take good care of you baby, and make you feel so good. We can take it very slow, how does that sound?”

“I… don’t know what I’m doing, but if I am going to lose my virginity to someone my first pick would be you.” 

“You're not losing anything, sweets, you're gaining an experience with someone. And I’m going to make sure it is perfect for you. So how about we take this skirt off.” You stand up and turn around, allowing him to unzip and pull it down to the floor. His hands trail over your hips, giving a light squeeze to your ass.

“So beautiful…can’t wait to have my face between these gorgeous thighs.” He says, while gently squeezing your thighs. He sits you back onto the couch, “can I take this off for you too sweets?” He grabs the hem of your top, giving it a light tug. 

You nod and he takes his hand around your back, unzipping your top. You were left in nothing but your thong, since you had not worn a bra tonight. 

Sam’s eyes take in your whole body, his eyes lingering at your bare chest. You can’t help but feel exposed, maybe that's because you were fully naked in front of your friend. You begin to close your legs, but Sam interferes immediately. His hands grab your knees and peel them apart. 

“What do you think you're doing y/n, I can’t eat that pretty pussy with your legs closed.” 

You have a sudden rush of confidence. You sit up just enough, slipping your thong off and tossing it onto the ground, and spreading your legs for him. “Go ahead then, Sammy.”

“You’re so sexy y/n. I’m gonna make you feel so good. Don’t you do a single thing, just sit back and enjoy the feeling darling.” His hands travel up and down your thighs, rubbing them soothingly to calm your nerves. You tense up a little at his touch being so close to the heat between your legs. “Just relax, and let me know if at any point you want me to stop.” 

You give him a nod and watch his head disappear between your legs. You feel his lips kissing up the inside of your thigh, as a shiver travels up your spine. You shouldn’t be enjoying this as much as you are. His lips are inches away from your pussy now and you are getting impatient. 

“Sam…please.” You practically whine out, definitely sounding ridiculously desperate. 

He lifts his head up to look at you.  “Aw, does someone want something? You're gonna have to beg for it.” His finger goes through your slit, collecting your wetness. “I wanna hear you whine for me, and beg for me to eat your pussy. You think you can do that for me, be a good girl?”

“What do you mean?”

“If I’m doing a good job, you’ll have no control over it. So don’t be holding any of those pretty noises of yours in. Got it.” You nod your head and Sam goes back down between your thighs, leaving light kisses all the way down to your heat. When he finally reaches your core he lightly flicks his tongue over your clit, something you had thought about many times but could never prepare for this feeling.

Your hands immediately connect to his hair, wanting to push him further. 

“Sammy… Oh my god.” You push his face impossibly closer, his nose resting on your clit as his tongue fucks into you. You let out a loud moan, only spurring him on. 

“There it is baby. Let it all go for me.” He continues lapping you up and you’re practically squirming beneath him. “Don’t hold back for me, yeah?” 

His voice. His filthy words. It was pushing you towards climax.

“Sam, I think I'm gonna…”

“Go ahead baby, let it go. Cum all over my face.” He attacks your pussy with his tongue, giving it his undivided attention. You were feeling the knot forming in your stomach, you knew you were close. 

“OH FUCK SAM!” He continues to lick you through your release, your whole body feels like it's floating. You’re sure you’ve never felt this good ever in your life. When you come down from high, you regain your senses. You look down at Sam, as he peels his mouth off of you. 

You pull his hair slightly, for him to look up at you. “Now, let me return the favor.” You stand up from the couch and grab his hand to pull him up with you. You position yourself in front of him, sinking down to your knees. He smirks down at you, as you begin to unbutton and unzip his pants. You slowly pull them down his legs, when you hear his raspy voice. 

“Sweets, I can’t believe this is happening right now.” You look up at him, as his pants reach the floor, with concern in your eyes. 

“Do you… want me to st-” You question, not what to push his boundaries. You are already pushing the “friend” boundary. 

“Fuck, no. Keep going.” He gives you the sweetest smile and that is all the reassurance you need. Your fingers find their way to the waistband of his boxers and give them a gentle tug, releasing his cock. He kicks the boxers off with his feet and you can’t help your stare. 

His dick was right in front of your face, you felt all the confidence you had dwindling. You gulp harshly. You weren’t sure what to do, you’ve never sucked a cock before.You didn’t want to accidentally hurt him. Sam can sense your dilemma and moves to take your hand in his. “It’s okay, sweets, don’t be scared to touch it.” 

He moves your hand to his shaft and you gently wrap your fingers around it. The skin is so velvety soft, unlike anything you’ve ever felt before. His hand wraps around yours and begins to help you stroke him. “That’s perfect y/n. Stroke it just like that.” His hand releases itself from yours, moving it to rest in your silky hair. 

You stroke him a little faster and in a rash decision, you let go of him to spit into your palm. When your wet hand lands on him again his head flies back. “Fuck, y/n. Feels so fucking good. Put your mouth on me, wanna feel your wet tongue swirl around my cock.” You never knew Sammy was capable of speaking with such vulgar tongue.You are fucking loving it though. You follow his instructions, leaning your mouth down to be level with his cock. 

“Yeah, Sammy?” You lick a stripe up his shaft to tease him. “You’re supposed to be my best friend. I don’t think best friends suck off their best friends, Sammy.” Your mouth encloses around his swollen, leaking tip. He lets out a needy whine. You pull off of him. “I think that’s what you like about it though, right? You like that it's wrong?”

“Y/n… please. Just fucking suck me. I’m so hard, I need to cum so bad.” You glare up at him, as he looks down at you with pleading eyes. 

You can’t let him have what he wants that easily. “Answer the question.” You grip his dick in your hand again, giving him a hard stroke, hoping to coax the answer out of him.

“Sweets, I fucking love that it’s wrong. I’ve wanted you for so long though. Just never thought you felt the same way.” He admits, you never thought you would love having power over him this much. 

“I’ve wanted you for so long too. Now, since you were a good boy and answered my question…” You take his cock in your mouth. Engulfing and welcoming him into your wetness and warmth. You moan around his cock, when you feel him twitch inside your mouth. 

“Yep… better than I could have ever imagined.” His hands are gripping at your hair, curses and moans flying off his plump lips. “I’ve pictured this so many times.” You too have pictured this too many times to count. You pick up your speed, humming lightly around him. 

“Y/n, I’m not going to last. Feels too good.” You smile around him, continuing on with your steady pace. “Y/n…” He pulls you off of him, taking a step back to look at you. He reaches up to unbutton his shirt, now standing completely bare.

“D-did I do something wrong?” You stumble out. Great, you successfully fucked everything up.

“No, sweets. Quite the opposite, but I need to feel what it’s like in that beautiful pussy of yours. Couldn’t take not knowing anymore.” He pushes a strand of hair behind your ear. “Do you want that darling?”

You soften your gaze, and quickly nod your head. You were thinking the same thing, just too nervous to initiate it. 

“Words.” He has a certain tone of authority in his voice, that you can’t help but rub your thighs together after hearing. 

“Yes, I want it so bad.” You stand up from your knees right in front of him.

“Go lay down on the couch, I’ll be right back.” He says, disappearing up the stairs. You walk back over to the couch and lay down on your back, your head resting on one of the decorative pillows. 

Moments later he is making his way back down the stairs. You look over the back of the couch, to see a shiny foil packet gripped in his right hand. He walks around the couch to stand above you. 

“Whatcha got there Sammy?” You smirk at him, he just rolls his eyes at you.

“Can’t be getting you pregnant, although I wouldn’t be opposed. It would be a beautiful baby, looking just like you.” He says pushing his fingers through his hair. After unwrapping and sliding on the condom he meets you on the couch, hovering above you. 

“Were gonna take this slow y/n, I need you to talk to me here okay? Tell me if you need me to stop or slow down.” 

“Okay Sam, I trust you.” He smiles at your comment before leaning down and spitting on your pussy to wetten it even more than it already is.

He lines himself up and pushes into you slowly, filling you up with his thick cock. A slight sting hits you but after a few seconds you get adjusted and give him the okay to continue. Sam slowly pumps in and out of you, trying to read your body language. After seeing that you were used to it he began to speed up.

“You feel so good y/n, so wet for me.” He pants as his thrusts get sloppier.

“Sam, please I need more, harder.” Your hands reach around him, leaving scratches on his back.

“Such a slut, begging for more. You think you’ve been a good enough girl? You think you deserve more?”

“Yes please Sam, I’ve been a good girl. I wanna feel you hit the back of my pussy.”

The need for him was strong, and he could tell. His thrusts pick up, becoming more direct and forceful. 

“Right there, Sammy. Fuck.” You clench around his cock, nails digging deep into his back. 

“Oh god baby, I’m gonna cum if you keep squeezing around me like that. So tight.”

That was enough to send you over the edge. As your moans fill the air the familiar knot begins to form in your stomach once again.

“Oh fuck Sam I’m cumming don’t stop.” Your body squirms around underneath him. 

“That’s it baby, all over my cock. God, you feel so good, oh fuck-.” With that, he releases inside of you. 

You feel the wave of pleasure wash over you and soon after Sam pushes his final few thrusts into you, before pulling out. Sam’s body collapses onto you as you try to catch your breath.

“God I wish we could have done that sooner.” Sam says as he begins to pick his warm body off of you. He removes the condom and puts on his boxers. You hear him run to the room and grab some of your pajamas from the room for you. As he slides them onto you, you wonder how you hadn’t acted on this before. Not just in a sexual manner, but something more than just a friend. He had always been like this and maybe you were just blind to never see before. 

“Sammy, that was amazing. Thank you for making my first time so special, I wouldn’t have wanted it with anyone else.” Sam grabs a blanket and wraps the two of you up while turning on the TV.

“There's no one else in the world I would have wanted to experience that with more.” He pulls you into a tender kiss, and in that moment it feels like there are no worries in the world, just you and him, and that’s all that mattered. 

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

Anyone else feeling fertile after reading this? Just me...

Taglist: @peaceloveunitygvf @mar-rein12 @terry-66 @jennabobenasblog

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

hi derin! i’ve been following you for a little while, and also bemoaning the nature of publishing fiction (indie or trad) for a little bit longer than that, and i only just realized today that…of course web serials are a thing i can also do!

i really love the idea of publishing serially (though i’m not totally sure i CAN, i’d like to try), so while i add this to my list of potential paths, do you have any advice for getting started? building an audience? marketing? figuring out if writing/publishing this way will work for you to begin with?

i know that’s a lot of questions, and you don’t have to answer all of them! i’m throwing spaghetti at a wall out here. i hope you have a good day though, and thanks in advance!

Getting started in web serial writing

Web serial writing has the lowest barrier of entry of any major method of publishing your story. You can literally just start. There are two steps:

start writing your story

decide how/where you want to publish it

The writing part, I assume you have handled. The important thing to note here is that you gotta see the project through. Start and don't stop until you're done. For publishing, you have a few options:

1. Publish on a website designed for web serial novels

There are a few of these around, they're usually free to publish on (although most offer a paid account to give you ad space or boost you int he algorithm or whatever), and your best choice generally depends on which one happens to gravitate to a niche that best suits your kind of work. The big names in this industry are Royal Road and Scribblehub, which, last I checked up on them (about a year ago) tended towards isekai and light erotica respectively. (You absolutely can publish outside these niches on these sites, it's just much harder to get traction.) Publishing somewhere like this comes with multiple advantages. Firstly, there's a writing community right there to talk to; there's usually a forum or something where people gather to talk about reading or writing on the site. Second, the site itself is designed specifically to publish web serials, and will come with a good layout and hit trackers and 'where you left off' buttons for the reader and all that; generally all you have to do is copy-paste the text of a chapter into the page and the site will do everything else for you. Third, there's an audience sitting right there, browsing the 'latest arrivals' or 'most popular' page of the site; if you can get high in the algorithm, you have to do little if any marketing.

The downsides of such places usually come down to the same things as the advantages. Such sites are a flooded market. Your story absolutely will drown in a sea of other stories, a great many of them terrible, and most of them with the advantage of catering to the site's niche. Gaining an audience there is often a matter of trying to game an algorithm, and the community can be... variable. Some of these places are nice but most of them are a bunch of authors trying to tear down everyone around them to make their own work look better by comparison int he hopes of poaching audiences for their story instead. If you go this route, I'd recommend shopping around for a site that fits you personality and writing style (or just posting on many sites at once; you can also do that).

These places also tend to get targeted by scrapers who will steal your story and sell it as an ebook, which is very annoying.

2. publish on another site

Plenty of people publish web serials here on Tumblr. I do not know why. This site is TERRIBLY set up for that. It makes tracking stories and updates a pain in the arse (people end up having to *manually tag every reader whenever they post an update*), building and maintaining archives are annoying, community building is surprisingly difficult for a social media site, and it's just generally far more work for both writer and reader than it needs to be. You often do have a ready-made audience, though.

This does tend to work better on other sites. Reddit has multiple communities for reading and writing various types of fiction; publishing on these is a bit more work than somewhere like Royal Road, but not very much, and many of these communities are very active. There aren't as many forums around as there used to be, but you might be able to find fiction hosting forums, if that's what you prefer. And of course, many writers who simply want to write and don't mind not being paid choose to write on AO3.

These sites are a good middle ground compromise for people who want a ready-made community and don't mind putting in a bit of extra work.

3. make your own site

This is what I did. You can make a website for free, giving people a hub to find you and all your work, designed however you like. You can also pay for a website if you want it to be a little bit nicer. This option is the most work, but gives you the most control and leaves you free of having to worry about any algorithm.

The obvious downside of this is that there's no community there. If you host your work on your own website, you need to bring people to it. You need to build an audience on your own. This is not an easy thing to do.

Building an audience (general advice)

Here is some general advice about building an audience:

1. Consistency. Consistency. Consistency.

If you want people to read your writing, the best piece of advice I can possibly give you is have an update schedule and update on time, always. If you need to take a break, give people as much warning as possible and tell them exactly when you will be back, and come back then. Do not take unnecessary breaks because you don't feel like writing. (Do take breaks if you get carpal tunnel or need time off for a major life event or something -- your health is more important than the story.) If you're taking a lot of breaks to avoid burnout, you're doing it wrong -- you need to rework your whole schedule from the start and slow down updates to make these breaks unnecessary. Two chapters a month with no breaks is a billion times better than four chapters a month with frequent burnout breaks.

Consistency. Consistency. Consistency.

A reliable schedule is the #1 factor in audience retention. If readers need to randomly check in or wait for notifications from you to check if there's an update, guess what? Most of them won't! They'll read something else. You want your audience to be able to anticipate each release and fit it in their own schedule. I cannot overstate the importance of this.

2. If you can, try to make your story good.

We writers would love to live in a world where this is the most important thing, but it actually isn't. Plenty of people out there are perfectly happy to read hot garbage. How do I define 'hot garbage'? It doesn't matter. Think of what you would consider to be just a terrible, no-effort, pointless garbage story that the world would be better off without. Someone is out there writing that right now, making US$2,500/month on Patreon.

It is, however, a real advantage if you can make your story good. At the very least, it should be worth your audience's time. Preferably, it should also be worth their money, and make them enthusiastic enough to try to get their friends into it. Managing this is massively advantageous.

3. Accept that you're not going to get a big audience for a really long time. Write consistently and update on schedule every time anyway.

It took me over a year to get my second patron. For the first year, I updated Curse Words every single week, on schedule, for over a year, and had maybe... four readers. One of them was a regular commenter. One of them was my first patron. There was no one else.

My audience has grown pretty rapidly, for this industry.

You're not gonna start publishing chapters for a big, vibrant community. You're just not. And you have to keep going anyway. These days, I have a pretty good readership, and those couple of loyal readers (who I appreciate beyond words) have grown into a much larger community, who hang out and debate theories with each other and liveblog and drag in new readers and make fanart. My discord has over 550 members, with volunteer moderators and regular fan artists and its own little in-jokes and games and readers who make a point of welcoming newcomers and helping them navigate the discord, all with very little input from me. I start crying when I think about these people, who do the bulk of my social and marketing work for me just because they want to help, and my patrons who, after writing for over 4.5 years, have recently helped me pass an important threshold -- my web serial (via patreon) now pays my mortgage repayments. I can't live off my writing alone, but boy is that a massive fucking step.

You're not gonna have that when you start. You're gonna have a couple of friends. And that's it. Maybe for a year. Maybe less, if you're good at marketing and lucky. Maybe longer.

You have to update on schedule, every time, anyway.

Building an audience (more specific advice)

"Yeah, that's great, Derin, but where can I find my fucking audience?" Well, if you publish on a web serial site, then the audience is there and you jsut need to grab their affention using the tools and social norms offered to you by the site. I utterly failed at this and cannot help you there. You can still use these other tips to bring in readers from off-site.

1. Paid ads

I've never paid for ads so I can't offer advice on how to do it. I've Blazed a couple of posts on Tumblr; they weren't helpful. This is, however, an option for you.

2. Actually tell people that your story exists and where they can find it.

I used to have a lot of trouble with this. I didn't want to bother people on Tumblr and soforth by telling them about my personal project. Unfortunately you kind of have to just get over that. Now I figure that if people don't want TTOU spam, they can just unfollow me. If you're like me and want to just politely keep your story to yourself... don't. You're shooting yourself in the foot doing that.

You need to mention your story. Link your story in your bio on whatever social media sites you use. Put it in your banner on forums. Make posts and memes about it. Eventually, if you're lucky, extremely valuable readers will start to talk about your story and meme and fanart it for you, but first, you need to let them know it exists.

It will always feel weird to do this. Just accept that people can unfollow you if they want, and do it anyway.

3. Leverage existing audiences and communities

Before I started doing this web serial thing, I used to write a lot of fanfic. The original audience that trickled in for Curse Words comes from AO3, where I was doing a full series rationalist rewrite of Animorphs. They knew how I wrote and wanted more of it. Nowadays, I still occasionally pull in readers through this route. Most of my new readers these days come from a different community -- people who follow me on Tumblr. Occasionally I bring in people who don't follow me because we'll be talking about how one of my stories relates to something different, and fans of that thing might decide they want to check my stories out.

Your first readers will come from communities that you're already in and that are already interested in something similar to what you're doing (people reading my fanfic on AO3 were already there for my writing, for instance). Keep these people in mind when you start out.

One additional critical source of existing communities is your readers themselves. A huge number of my readers are people I've never been in any group with -- they were pulled in by their friends, relatives, or community members who were reading my stories and wanted them to read them too. This is an absolutely invaluable source of 'advertising' and it is critically important to look after these people. enthusiastic readers, word-of-mouth advertisers, and fan artists are the people who will bring in those outside your immediate bubble.

4. Your "where to find me" hub

If you're publishing on your own website, you can simply link everything else to your homepage, and put all relevant links there. For example, I can link people to derinstories.com , which links out to all my stories, social media I want people to find me on (you don't have to link all your social media), patreon, discord, et cetera. If you don't have your own website, you're going to have to create a hub like this in the bios of every site where you garner audiences from. This is the main advantage of publishing on your own website.

Monetisation

There are a few different kinds of monetisation for web serials, but most of them boil down to 'use a web serial format to market your ebook', which to be honest I find pretty shady. These authors will start a web serial, put in enough to hook an audience for free, and then stop posting and release an ebook, with the intention of making readers pay for the ending. Now, to be clear, I am absolutely not against publishing and selling your web serial -- I'm doing exactly that, with Curse Words. I am against intentionally and knowingly setting up the start of a web serial as a 'demo' without telling your audience that that is what you are doing, soliciting Patreon money for it, and then later yanking it away unfinished and demanding money for the ending.

Monetisation of these sorts of stories is really just monetisation for normal indie publishing with the web serial acting as an ad, and I have no advice for how to do that successfully.

Your options of monetisation for a web serial as a web serial are a bit more limited. They essentially come down to merchandise (including ebooks or print books) or ongoing support (patreon, ko-fi, etc.) Of these, the only one I have experience with is the patreon model.

This model of monetisation involves setting up an account with a regular-donation site such as patreon, providing the base story for free, and providing bonuses to patrons. You can offer all kinds of bonuses for patrons. Many patrons don't actually care what the bonus is, they're donating to support you so that you can keep writing the story, but they still like to receive something. But some patrons do donate specifically for the bonuses, so it's worth choosing them with care.

The most common and most effective bonus for web serials is advance chapters -- if people are giving you money, give them the chapters early. You can also offer various bonus materials, merchandise, or voting rights on decisions you need to make in the future. 'Get your character put in the story' is a popular high-tier reward. If you're looking for reward ideas, you can see the ones I use on my patreon.

Patreon used to offer the ability to set donation goals, where you could offer something when you were making a certain amount total or had a certain number of subscribers. They recently removed this feature because Patreon hates me personally and doesn't want me to be happy, so you kind of have to advertise it yourself now if you want to use these goals. I release chapters of unrelated stories at donation goals, and I found this to be far more effective than I thought it would be.

The important factor for this kind of monetisation is that it's ongoing. The main advantage of this is that it makes your income far more regular and predictable than normal indie publishing -- your pledges will go up or down over a month, but not by nearly as much as book sales can. The main thing to keep in mind is that it's not a one-time sale, which means that however you organise things, you want to make sure that donating keeps on being worth it, month after month. Offering bonuses that aren't just one-time bonuses, but things that the patron can experience every month, helps here. So does making sure that you have a good community where patrons can hang out with other patrons. (Offering advance chapters does both of these things -- the patron can stay ahead in the story and discuss stuff with other patrons that non-patrons haven't seen. I've found that a lot of my patrons enjoy reading an emotionally devastating chapter ahead of time, discussing it, and then all gathering a week or two later to watch the unsuspecting non-patrons experience it for the first time.)

Whatever method you use for monetisation, rule #1 is (in the words of Moist Von Lipwig): always make it easy for people to give you money. The process of finding out how to give you money should be easy, as should the process of actually doing it. And, most importantly, the spender should feel like it's worth it to give you money. This is a big part of making it easy to give you money. Make your story worth it, make your bonuses worth it, make sure that they're happy to be part of your community and that they enjoy reading and supporting you. And remember that support comes in many forms -- the fan artist, the word-of-mouth enthuser, the person who makes your social hub a great place to be, the patron, all of these people are vital components in the life support system that keeps your story going. And you're going to have to find them, give them a story, and build them a community, word by word and brick by brick.

It's a long process.

Good luck.

.

[chiriwritesstuff]

An Apology, Reflection, Staying true to yourself, and Some News: Updates on 'The Girl in IT' and 'My Wife in IT'

Hey Guys.

I owe you all a huge apology. It's been a rough ride lately, and I want to take a moment to explain what's been going on. I think it's important to have this conversation, even if it scares the shit out of me. So, before I dive in, I want to say sorry in advance for what I'm about to share.

Firstly, I want to say sorry for my absence. Back in February, I got hit with a nasty virus right when 'The Girl in IT' was really taking off. Seeing the story gain traction was incredible, but it also came with its own set of challenges. Suddenly, I was getting hundreds of notes instead of the usual handful, and it was overwhelming, to say the least.

At the end of the day, I'm just like anyone else – human. I write because it's a passion of mine, but I also want to create something that resonates with all of you. However, in the pursuit of trying to make everyone happy, it's easy to lose sight of your own vision. That's exactly what happened with 'The Girl in IT'. I got so caught up in trying to cater to my self-created expectations that I lost touch with what I originally wanted Sugar's journey to be. Adapting to all the changes I've made from the original story became a real challenge for me, and I just... felt so lost.

Then came the burnout. After being sick, I hit a wall. I just couldn't find the energy or motivation to write, no matter how hard I tried. Burnout is real, guys, and it's something I wouldn't wish on anyone.

The turning point in all of this coincided with a major plot development in 'The Girl in IT'. Originally, my intention was to shed light on PCOS and its painful realities. However, in my eagerness to please what I thought everyone wanted and to avoid delving too deeply into darker themes, I ended up complicating matters for myself.

Enter 'My Wife in IT'. I had a clear timeline in mind for Joel and Sugar's relationship progression, but the unexpected turn of events forced me to rethink my plans. This had a ripple effect on 'My Wife in IT', leaving me facing a significant roadblock. I started to hate everything I attempted to write for Wife, and it didn't feel right to post something I wasn't 100% okay with.

I really want to take the time to emphasize that this is no one's fault but my own.

But here's the thing – I'm not giving up. I'm taking this as a learning experience and using it to grow as a writer and as a person. Which brings me to the big news...

I've decided to go back and rework the last few chapters of 'The Girl in IT' to align with my original vision. Think of it as 'The Girl in IT: Christine's Version'. But don't worry – we'll still get our happy ending. And once that's done, I'll be diving headfirst into 'My Wife in IT'.

I want to take a moment to apologize for any disappointment or frustration this may have caused. Looking back, I realize that I lost sight of staying true to myself and the story I wanted to tell. I got caught up in the numbers and metrics, instead of focusing on what truly mattered – telling a story that resonated with me and hopefully with you, too.

I want to express how incredibly thankful I am for all the love and support you've shown Joel and Sugar. Your encouragement has been like a beacon of light, guiding me through this journey. But you know, sometimes life throws us curveballs, and I've realized that I owe it to Joel and Sugar, and to all of you, to stay true to the story I set out to tell from the very beginning.

I'm truly sorry for any bumps in the road or delays that may have caused frustration. Your understanding means the world to me. Thanks for being there, for listening, and for being a part of this adventure with me. Hopefully, you'll love what I have planned for Joel and Sugar... for real, this time.

[dramionediscussion]

Hi! So I haven't been following Dramione / Harry Potter fanfics community in a while and imagine my surprise that lots of post has been about the monetization of fanfics.

Initially I thought it was more of seller on Etsy selling their service of printing and book binding by request, so they are selling the printing and book binding service, not the actual fanfic works themselves, but then the more I read the more I realized it's actual sellers selling the fanfics in published hardcopy book form for profit without permission, which is just shocking, appalling, unethical, and really sad that this has caused numerous authors to pull the plug , so to speak , and pull out their fics as a way to protect their works. Not to mentioned with this gaining traction it increases the chances of original authors possible banning fanfictions all together since people are profiting from their work essentially.

Anyway, recently I have mostly been involved in smaller fandoms , or recently established fandoms, which much smaller community or smaller numbers of published fics, so I haven't heard much of this fanfic seller issues happening there.

Has this issue impacted other fandoms especially the big ones like Star Wars, Marvels, Supernaturals, etc? Also, aside from reporting the sellers, is there anything more proactive that we can do as readers, writers and community members? Has there been any actions towards raising this to The Organization of Transformative Works (the one heading AO3) for more concrete protection measures for everyone involves?

Thank you!

Hi!

Initially, authors said that the bookbinding profits were just from materials to make the physical book and the person's labour, but now that is not the case. Also, the binders would get permission or pay an artist to use their art in the books.

I don't know if this is affecting other fandoms, I haven't seen any Dramione author or fan say that they are seeing this elsewhere. If anyone knows, please leave a comment!

But people are saying in the Dramione tag that they have reached out to AO3, but haven't heard anything. I don't know how AO3 will stop this or help to be honest. They are just a host for the works. They give people the option to download fics. Some people on the tag were saying they were gonna try to contact AO3 and see if they can make downloading optional, so authors can choose if they want their fic to be downloadable.

But AO3 is a huge company, I don't see them caring unless this whole bookbinding thing starts getting the attention of JKR (who seems to be preoccupied with advocating for the removal of basic human rights).

BUT ALSO!!!

This is causing a lot of fans to start downloading their favourite fics before authors remove them. I am already seeing people sharing PDFs over on the Dramione subreddit. Many authors don't like this either. Download it for yourself, but do not share. So now they are gonna have to deal with this too.

-Lisa

[hanatagami]

My Unlucky Charm (Izumi Yuu x GN! Reader)

god i downloaded so many izumi gifs trying to pick one, i love him sm

i have a bad habit of falling in love with the males of romantic animes, but the problem is everyone loves the main couple together they don’t write fanfics for them and it pains me

please tell me you want more cause I want mORE

if you think of something cute for him please tell me

and i may do smth like this for Tadano from Komi-san so...if you want that lmk pwejfpwoe

it’s been like this since you were born

your good luck was an enigma to you, your parents, and god

anything that could go well for you, goes well

your lucky your parents raised you well cause boy that luck could’ve gone to your head quickly

lotteries, games of chance, pop quizzes (somehow), were always in your favor

now normally thats great and all, but it does get very...lonely

in middle school you had definitely come to the realization your ‘friends’ saw you less as a ‘friend’ and more of a ‘good luck charm’

if it was a mix of both, maybe it would of been fine

but after a certain situation and some reflection on your part, you have come to understand they weren’t really interested in you

they didn’t remember anything about you, even the simplest of things

it was very disheartening, but a very important realization

you just didn’t have it in you to stay friends with people who only saw you as some walking white cat statue

and when you cut them off they had the nerve to be upset about it

spread rumors and everything

how you were stuck-up and conceited, someone who always ordered your friends around and expected them to cover for you

they had shaped your schools image into thinking you had some god complex

you were walking home in the rain, enjoying the soft sounds of water hitting your umbrella and the ground around you

when someone-something had caught your attention

a large piece of plastic had flew past you at a high speed, which was weird cause it really wasn’t that windy today

looking ahead you saw a dark-haired male standing a little further ahead of you, staring blankly ahead of him as if he was processing something

he was holding a long silver rod- remains of the umbrella that had flown past you moments prior

your walk had slowed a little to observe the male in front of you as he seemingly had an internal monologue of some kind

he took a deep breath, straightened out a little, and gained a look of determination

he held his arms over is head, getting in a running pose, and just as he was about to take off-

“Excuse me?”

Your voice startled him out of his battle focus, feet tripping over themselves slightly, losing traction on the wet ground

as he fell you rushed towards to help him, his body weight crashing into yours

apparently not ready for the sudden weight you also stumbled back, bracing yourself for an impact with the floor

but thanks to your luck (maybe) there was a little jut in in the cement you hadn’t noticed earlier that supported your foot from slipping anymore, and grounding yourself and the boy

(the luck must’ve been the cement helping you instead of tripping you)

“Oh my god dude, are you alright!?”

The guy in front of you looks up at you and- oh my god

this is easiest one of the cutest and prettieST BOYS YOU’VE EVER SEEN-

“U-Um, I’m fine. Thank you so much for catching me!” he looked up at you with the cutest unintentional puppy dogs eyes, before he chuckled sheepishly as he stepped back from your hold

“I’m sorry, I’m pretty clumsy...” He looked down in shame, messing with his drenched hair

“No, no, it’s okay, I swear!” You were quick to try and cheer him up, such a sad face didn’t suit the boy in front of you at all, “Was it your umbrella that flew by me a minute ago?”

His face struck with realization at your comment, and it was kinda cute to see the way he began to check his hand and the area around him for the rod-remains of his umbrella that he dropped while falling.

He gingerly picked it off the ground, with the caution of something else unexpected happening that he couldn’t predict. Facing you once more, you were finally able to get a proper look at him.

He was slender, his clothes would hang loosely on his form if they weren’t stuck to his body from the rain. His dark purple hair fells just a little past his brighter purple eyes. He didn’t hold himself with too much confidence, though he seemed to try and a bit a conscious effort in doing otherwise

Overall: very cute 

“I’m sorry about my umbrella, I’m a bit unlucky so this kind of stuff happens a lot...” His face grew a slight shade of pink, as if he was admitting to something strange, his thin fingers began to fiddle with the remainders of his umbrella to help ease his own tension

“I have an extra if you’d like it?” he was taken slightly off guard by that apparently, his eyes widening slightly and hands taking a break from their actions

“No it’s fine! I couldn’t take your extra from you, what if you end up needing it?” You couldn’t help but smile sweetly at his concern, it’s incredible that he can be worried for you when he was the one currently getting drenched

 “Please don’t worry about it, I have more spares at home. I actually won the spare today at a store, so I really don’t need it.”

“Do you...really not need it...?” You had to stop yourself from making a noise at the face he sent you, you didn’t know someone could look cute with shy uncertainty, but alas

“Yep! I won’t be missing it, I promise.” 

He hesitantly accepts the wrapped umbrella from your hands, holding it like it was the most fragile thing in the world

And immediately upon opening it, you both watch in shock as the plastic part flies away in a sudden wind

You guys stare at each other in awkward silence, before he beigns to apologize feverishly for his bad luck

“Um...I have another spare if you want it?” You pull out a second umbrella from your bad, and show it to him.

“I won this at a store today too...”

que a few more moments of awkward awe

He looks at you with a bit of disbelief, you (correctly) assume that he thinks your just saying that to make him feel better about taking it

“I have pretty good luck! I get stuff like this all the time so...please take it!” You back up your words by pushing the umbrella into his chest, and gave a reassuring smile to show him your being honest

“Well, if you really don’t mind...”

“I don’t.”

He takes it from you once more, opening it much more gently then the last one, cautious something may happen again.

You guys both tense once it fully happens, awaiting for what may happen.

In sync you and the mystery boy accompany a sigh of relief with a relaxing of your shoulders, giving each other a sheepish smile at the scenario.

“Well please be careful on your way back...”

“You too.”  “...”

It took him a second to realize you had wanted his name, stuttering out a “I-Izumi Yuu!” with a funny look on his face.

“I’m (L/n) (Y/n). You better get home fast, or you’ll get sick. I’ll see you around?” You offer a slight wave with your free hand as you walk past him, making sure to smile your best smile at him.

“Yes!”

You can’t help but release a chuckle at his response, like he was a soldier talking to his superior.

As you walked away, Izumi couldn’t help but curl up a little into himself, a little flustered at your smile, the way you chuckled as you left, basically the whole interaction

And he was thankful you didn’t hear the yelp that escaped when the umbrella suddenly closed on him without warning.

You guys both made it home that day thinking of the other, hoping you each made it back okay.

(Izumi had in fact gotten a cold, but there was no way for you to know that)

(you didn’t catch a cold, but you may have caught feelings)

you didn’t see him soon after that, in fact it wasn’t until you first day of high school rolled around that you saw him again

when you had entered the school gates, you had unexpectedly run into him talking to a girl with long pink hair, and the brightest blue eyes

overall: very pretty

you walked closer to greet them but stopped when she suddenly gripped him with a serious look on her face.

“Tell me...your name.”

“It’s...It’s Izhumi...”

“Ho ho, Izhumi huh?” Both heads had whirled at your sudden intrusion, you were now able to tell they were both red from whatever conversation they were having...and at your witness of it all, they were beginning to glow a bright crimson.

You laugh mischievously as Izhumi begins to sweat violently and correct himself, while also greeting you, but also messing up your name in the process making you laugh more.

“I’m sorry Izhumi if I could’ve sworn your name was Izumi but maybe I just heard you wrong.”

He lets out a small whine of frustration at your teasing, as if he couldn’t make it anymore entertaining for you.

Chuckling out apologies you turn to the pink haired girl who had been eyeing you two, probably quietly wondering as if to how you two know each other.

“Hello, my name is (L/n) (F/n), I met Izhumi a while ago while walking home. Poor guy broke two umbrellas in a row right in front of me.” You rest your head in your hand in remembrance, your words bringing about another sound of protest from the boy next to you.

You could see her gaze go back to Izumi in which you (correctly) guess is a though of ‘wow he really IS unlucky’ 

“I’m Shikimori Miyako, it’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you, I hope we get along from now on.”

She graces you with a sweet smile as the three of you being to walk together, chatting on your way to freshman orientation.

Shikimori eventually spots two friends of hers and parts, but you stick around with Izumi who has been nervously staring at the ground for a while, probably going over the whole fiasco earlier (and thats exactly whats he was doing)

“Izhumi.”

His head snaps up to instinctively deny his new nickname, but every word seems to fizzle in his throat when he catches glimpse of your face. You aren’t able to recognize the look on his face at the time, but perhaps one day with some retrospect you’ll be able too.

“I feel so lucky to have met you again. And I feel so lucky to be able to attend school with you, and maybe if I’m really lucky, we’ll have class together too! This is looking to be my luckiest year yet.”

You don’t know the full extent of emotions that washed over him with your words, and he’d bet you might never understand what they meant to him. Although he loses all his bets, so whose to say.

As you give him what is probably the most beautiful smile he has ever seen, what once was but a sprout of feelings had sprouted into a bud, and it was left wanting more.

Was seeing him again, being around him more in the future...really good luck to you? Maybe its because you haven’t been around him enough to experience the brute force of his bad luck, that you don’t know what your getting into. If you really were so lucky all the time, would experiencing the problems that come with be a problem to you?

His mind was racked with thoughts, with feelings, and concerns. But overall, he couldn’t help but hope...

...that you meant it. And that you would continue to mean it.

your first year of class was very interesting, more for your classmates then you.

you had spent this year getting close to Izumi and Shikimori, becoming close friends with them and their respective friends, and a whole class got to witness your and Izumi’s luck clash.

Not really clash, but if you were both to be affected by the luck or lack of, the other would cancel it out. somehow.

like if its pure unlucky for Izumi, it’ll still happen, but if its unlucky for both you and izumi, your luck would act up and neutralize it.

needless to say your classmates observed you guys heavily when together cause the weirdest shit happens.

they’ll never forget when they were watching you two eating lunch together outside on a bench, and a bird swooped down to steal your guys’ food only to watch the bird get hit by a stray baseball, and you two were none the wiser.

It’s often that Izumi trips, but when he trips on you and you fall too, there's always someone miraculously behind you to cushion you both.

and perhaps the strangest thing has been happening all year long, since the first day. Izumi broke his pencil, so you gifted him an extra (deja vu), and then everyday for the rest of the year Izumi would break or lose the new pencil, and you would find or win a new pencil to give him, just for the same thing to happen the next day. Without fail.

You and Izumi when together have an aura of hidden glee that practically has the words “we’re normal!” floating around, happy that your lucks seem less prevalent together

But to everyone watching from the outside, you guys are really anything but normal together

you still call him Izhumi cause you think it’s cute and it still frustrates him. You and Shikimori often gang up on him cause his pouty face is wicked cute.

The day you met Shikimori, Izumi had messed up your name too when greeting you, so that has been adopted as your nickname and you think its cute so your fine with it. Izumi refuses to call you it though, sadly, and gets embarrassed everyone else does cause it was him who made the mistake and pronounced it that way

Izumi was by far the sweetest person you’ve ever met, much better then anyone who had gone to your middle school. you’ve never seen someone have it so rough, but be so selfless and kind

it would be so easy for him to be bitter and envious of your luck, but he never was. he was in awe of it, but it never was a driving point for his feelings towards you

to borrow a line from fruits basket, he deserves the moon but he would never ask you for it

you and izumi were picked for class cleanup after school one day

the window was opened to help keep the room cool, it was warm but not warm enough for the school to want to use the AC

that day was the first time you saw it

as in izumi-fashion, the wind had assisted him in losing balance when he had stepped on a wet spot from mopping, taking him to the floor

it was in the wind and the fall you spotted it

Izumi was quick to laugh it off sheepishly, promising he was fine and expected to hear your beautiful laugh

what he didn't expect was to see you on your knees in front of him with a concerned look on your face (though it was still one of the most beautiful looks he had ever seen, every new expression he discovers from you always makes him fluttery inside)

he stood statuesque still as he looked you in the eye, the only thing he could hear was his breathing and racing heart

his eyes couldn’t tear away from your hand as it had begun to approach him

his eyes slammed shut in nervousness and he hoped you couldn’t feel how sweaty he had gotten from the sudden heat that rushed to his face

his mind was going a mile a minute, and he would be lying if he hadn’t been expecting a kiss of some kind

he was so ready for it, but also not prepared at all!

he grew brave enough to crack an eye when he felt more firmness on the right side of his face along with a “oh honey...”

you had a habit of calling people things like that, when joking or worried

you did it to all your friends, but he couldn’t deny that it felt really nice to be called that by you

(and sometimes when he’s feeling brave, when he’s lying down for bed he’ll imagine you only calling him that oh how scandalous)

his head had cleared quickly when he had realized just exactly you were looking at, and what specifically you had been touching

subconsciously he had leaned into the fingers that traced the scar on his face, a scar that was usually hidden by his bangs

it makes that you wouldn’t have seen it before, and he couldn’t deny that the concern for it made him a little happy, even though he doesn’t enjoy seeing you so worried

Izumi could feel himself fall in love with the somehow soft-firmness in which you traced it

and he could feel himself fall in love with the idea that normally he knew you would of asked to touch it before doing so, you didn’t like to touch people without running it by them first

he hoped that instinctually you knew he would of let you touch it, and that's why it had slipped your mind to ask in the moment

“...Can I ask what happened?”

 if he wasn’t so conscious of the moment rn, he definitely would melted into your hand at the tone of your voice

“I have all kinds of scars like this,” it was flattering the way your brow scrunched in concern for him, though it made him feel kinda bad too

“I got injured a lot as a kid. I think this one came from a truck crashing into the house...”

“Oh gosh, hun, I knew you were unlucky but...”

Izumi could pinpoint this as the day he fell in love with you 

up into that point he knew something was forming, but this was the first moment he consciously thought

 ‘oh. I love them.’

“Izumi as long as I’m by your side, this will never happen again.”

 The setting sun blossomed a beautiful set of warm colors against your skin, the beams of light fell in such a way it was as if your eyes were softly gleaming, and your hair had been perfectly radiated by the ray, it was almost if you had a halo.

god you were so lovely

and it was from that day on Izumi got clumsier in front of you.

god he wants so badly to be cool, and by god does he try. 

but he wouldn’t be izumi if they all hadn’t failed in miraculously dramatic ways.

one day izumi had “accidentally” made too much food so he was gonna give some to you.

your classmates had been roughing around and knocked both over both of the bentos he had made

they froze at the tears in his eyes, and became truly petrified at Inuzuka’s and Shikimori’s fearsomely livid faces.

Though it wouldn’t be you if you hadn’t genuinely accidentally made too much food, and was willing to give him your extra bento. You had brought it so your friends could pick at it, but you were more then willing to give him the entire one.

it was also then they found out you always made indescribably delicious food

you told them you had a bad habit of accidentally knocking things in or impulsively using things to see how they’d taste, and the result is always top cuisine.

Izumi ate your food with tears running down his face, he was so blessed to eat your food but so cursed to not be able to give you his. (His pride was also a little hurt that you cooked better then him, he wanted to show off to you)

(he didn’t know you’d be happier eating his food then your own regardless, but he’ll find out someday soon)

he had prepped for a study session with the friend group, and it was ready to be really cool and teach you

He was the fifth in his year after all!

But

Turns out, everything he studied on either wasn’t on the curriculum somehow or it was something you already knew.

I mean he was still able to teach you a lot, but it frustrating that none of it was what he had specifically touched on to help you with.

Though he forgot all about that when you smiled and thanked him for helping you

(you may have just given him the drive to learn everything, which knowing him, was gonna blow up in some way)

and then in class he been staring at you for so long the teacher ended up calling him out in front of everyone and he was so embarrassed

the way you smiled at him did make it a bit better though...

The way he confessed to you was so like you guys, so unbelievable but yet so believable

it was the end of the school year when he decided to confess to you, he had begun to grow anxious as the new school year approached

You guys were in the same class this year, but it may not be the same next year.

You guys may not get as much time together, which means you’ll spend more time with others, then you’ll realize he isn’t worth his salt, then you’ll leave him and probably date some hunk with totally normally luck and you guys can win the lottery together and spend the rest of your lives together happily with kids and pets

He’s been

overthinking a lot recently

He tries to stay out of his own head, but it hasn’t been going well

He wants to show you how much he loveslikes you before it might be too late, and as he much as he can hope you guys are in the same class next year, with you and him in the mix who knows what could happen

So he decides to confess

He planned it all out

He’d ask if you guys could have lunch together privately in a spot behind the school, he’d give you his earnestly written love letter along with a bento he made (he’ll make a heart shape in it) and after you read it he’ll tell you how much you mean to him and then

he doesn’t know what next, but hopefully you’ll respond in kind

Of course the moment he decided there was a plan, every single step of that plan was gonna go haywire

he had gone through so many pieces of paper trying to write the perfect letter for you to read

he had wrote some pretty cringy stuff, but he’s sure he weeded out all the mess and made his perfect love letter

And then he thought of all the foods he’s heard you talk about, and picked out your favorites and made the best bento he could

his dad was in the kitchen so nothing went awry, but didn’t help with the cooking cause Izumi wanted to do it himself so “it could have all his feelings inside”

he was happy with the bento, and nothing had happened so he put it in the fridge and got ready for the next day

he was gonna do it

he was gonna confess!

the day started off well, he had the bento packed and he had sealed the letter in a cute pink envelope with a heart sticker (it was scratch and sniff, it smelt like roses which he thought would be romantic)

he didn’t even trip or get dirty on the way to school, maybe this was a good sign!

and all throughout the school day, nothing too strange happened so that was good

(he got called out again by the teacher for staring at you, but that was becoming frequent to the point it was no longer “strange”)

you had accepted his invite to eat lunch privately together, so that was step 1 complete

but from then onward

holy shit

the moment the bell rung he told you he’d meet you there, he just needed to do something real quick

You smile and go about your way, cute as could be

he pulled the letter and lunch out of his bag and with a deep breath he straightened out his shoulders and began his march to you

his determined face was really cute, it was a shame you couldn’t see it

but somehow

somehow

the wind in the hallway picked up? like a strong breeze through a window or something?

it snatched the letter right out of his hands and down the hall

he let out a small disbelieving screech before running down the hall to catch up, wary to not mess up the lunch in his hands, and tried to grab it with his free hand

it was sadly not going well, and the letter flew all the way down the hall, out the door, and straight into the blue sky

He squealed in panic and tried the best he could follow it, he was out of breath and red in the face (he was no athlete) but he wasn’t gonna let it out of his sight

and good for him, he didn’t!

but the wind had flew the letter all the way to your spot, and landed gently in your hands.

He tried to run up to you but collapsed out of breath just far enough so you couldn’t hear him pant

But he could hear you.

“A letter? It has my name on it...” He watches as you open the letter as he desperately tries to catch his breath

you read a little message in parenthesis under the sticker sealing the letter, it had a little arrow pointing to the sticker that said to give it a scartch n sniff, and you follow said instructions

you kinda guessed what this letter was gonna be about, the color of the envelope and the sticker kinda gave it away, and you were impressed by the thought put into it

you opened it and began to read it out loud to yourself much to his embarrassment

but to his utter humiliation you proceed to read the most cringiest and childish little remarks he had ever thought about you

oh god

he sealed the wrong letter

it wasn’t ever a letter

sure it started “Dear (Y/n)” but after that it was a bunch of hearts, bad doodles of you two holding hands and small little things he thinks of when he daydreams about you

that wasn’t a letter

“The way you focus on your work is really cute”

“You look so adorable in your uniform, how are you not breaking any dress codes to look that cute”

“the way your laugh sounds is so sweet it should be illegal”

“Your sweeter than any sweet i’ve ever had, i love you so much”

“I think the smell of your shampoo and conditioner suit you so well”

“god ur the cutest wutest loveliest little thing i wanna snuggle and huggle and crush you and kiss you and-”

the more he wrote the more unhinged it had gotten

god it was literally awful to hear you speak them into the world, and it was worse knowing you were never gonna forget this

it was the paper where he wrote to just get all the random thoughts he loves about you out of his head so he could write seriously

“...I love you so much and I hope you love me too...”

“...From Izhumi.”

GOD NO PLEASE-

He lets out a violent wheeze at your words and you just so happen to hear this one, and turn, and he hadn’t even thought about what he may look like right now since he was so busy struggling with his embarrassing letter

(he had signed it Izhumi becuase theres a part of him that actually gets really happy when you call him that, it’s like a pet name and you look so cute when you say it and he wanted to indulge that part of him but that was a misTAKE-)

(and of course he wrote I LOVE YOU and not I LIKE YOU like a NORMAL PERSON)

the young fella in front of you was nothing short of a mess, he was panting heavily, face deeply red - a mix from running and embarrassment-, his uniform was completely disheveled and his hair was entirely unruly.

overall: still very cute.

“Izumi, did you really write this?” He hides his face in his hand and whines pathetically-but cutely- “You weren’t supposed to read that one...”

He can hear you approach him, but he doesn’t have it in him to uncover his face.

“...Is this for me too?” You gently tug on the cloth-wrapped bento hanging from his fingers and he lets out a small whine of confirmation

He pulls the courage up enough to peek slightly between his fingers as you unwrap it

and upon opening it-

oh god

it was the wrong bento

it was his moms, she must’ve grabbed the one he made for you on accident 

and coincidentally

it was filled with all the foods you like the least

he lets out a shout of panic and you can only stare in worry as he begins to tremble and tear up

Small streams fell down his cheeks as began to stumble through a sentence- though it wasn’t very coherent

His mind was racing and he was trying to get all the words out to explain what the letter was, how it was the wrong one, and about the bento and how he had made one that had food you actually liked and how this was supposed to be his perfect confession

He felt your hand softly grasp his wrists-that at this point had been violently rubbing away tears- and pull them away from his face

He looked at you with upturned eyes that was very reminiscent of the ones you had seen upon first meeting him

he had quiet in anticipation to your next move, he doesn’t know if he can hope that this goes well after he butchered it so bad

but he can’t deny he feels it when you gently cradle his face and wipe the tears away, humming so softly he almost couldn’t hear it

his breath is stopped when your face gets closer to him, and he feels like he may pass out when your body presses closer to his

And then he feels something completely unexpected

His hair is brushed away slightly and a soft kiss is planted on his scar

he could feel a warm tingling from the spot your lips had touched, and it spread when he saw the smile on your face

“It’s okay hun, calm down. Let’s have some lunch, okay? My boyfriend just gave me the cutest letter and some lunch and I can’t wait to try it.”

A new round of tears erupts from his eyes, but he tenses his face and snorts in hopes of getting it to stop. The brightest smile you’ve ever seen is emitted from the boy and he immediately begins pestering you with countless “Really?”s and explanations onto what he wanted to do and to please give him the letter he can’t live knowing that it exists 

(you get to keep it because he can’t say no to you)

God you just scored yourself the cutest boyfriend

Izumi may be the unluckiest guy in the world, but he feels like the luckiest to have been able to meet you and to have been able to love you, and have you love him back.

[starlight-eclipsed]

DP X Pokémon Crossover AU

Because I lack restraint. (Dark version + AU details under cut)

1. Drs. Fenton are still very anti-ghost, only in this world they argue that as dead people they should not count as Pokémon. They are especially vocal about children having Ghost-types (comparing it to grooming/they want to steal your kids away, which is not helped by certain Pokédex descriptions), which is a perspective that gains traction in some areas. 2. As you can imagine, this does not make them liked in most circles.

3. Despite that, they travel all over the globe to spread their message and research sites with a particularly dense Ghost-type population.

4. The GIW are similar to Team Galactic in this AU. They're more intense than the Fentons and automatically class all Ghost-types as threats. Everyone knows they're bad news, but they're a well established organization and nobody can really go against them legally.

5. The Fentons are invited to the Alola region by the Aether Foundation, as they're currently invested in portals-ghosts-ultra beasts-ultra space and those fields are suspected to have a lot of overlap.

6. Jazz had spilt from the family when she was younger to go on her Pokémon journey when she was 13, having originally stayed back to look after Danny. She encountered a hurt Munna when they were in the Unova region, who would become her starter Pokémon.

7. She starts to realize just how wrong her parents were when she starts fighting Team Plasma alongside two kids her brother's age, but that's a different story. A part of her wishes she'd insisted on Danny starting his journey with her--she thinks he would've liked Sam and Tucker.

8. Danny is pretty disillusioned to the thought of a Pokémon journey by the time he's 14 and his parents still haven't let him strike out alone.

9. He does have a Staryu he befriended a couple regions ago. But considering his family's affinity for Psychic-types he was essentially told he couldn't go off alone until Staryu evolved into Starmie (a Water and Psychic-type). However he can't really train with his parents' supervision when they're always busy, so he's effectively stuck.

10. One day in Alola, he spots a wild Minior. His brain essentially goes 'hey look another star-themed little space guy', and he sneaks away from his parents to go see if he can catch it.

11. Water-type Staryu is super effective against Rock and Flying-type Minior, and he gets his second Pokémon!

12. He stops by his parents' lab to tell them the news, but is quickly distracted by a strange Pokémon being kept in a ring-like passage in the wall. He enters when he hears its cries.

13. No matter the dimension, the Fentons have a tendency to put switches on the inside.

14. Young Danny Fenton woke up on the shore of one of Alola's main islands, clutching a little Cosmog in his arms. The little space guy roster has expanded.

15. With some assistance from the local professor, Danny returns to the apartment, electing to hide Cosmog as he tries to figure out what to do. And then Ultra Wormholes start opening all over the region.

16. Good news! Thanks to whatever happened with Ozzy (He can't exactly call them Cosmog in fear of being overheard), he can now sense when a wormhole opens. Ozzy can even teleport them there and back.

17. Bad news! His parents and every researcher in the area wants to catch and study the beings that get dragged through and start causing havoc.

18. Which would be bad enough without the revelation that Danny can now understand what certain Pokémon are saying (Ghost-types or otherwise space-related).

19. On the plus side, his parents were insistent that he start his journey as a Pokémon trainer so that he can defend himself should these 'Ultra Beasts' attack. Due to some confusion in which they ask the local Pokémon Professor to help him start his journey, he also gets to pick a starter Pokémon despite already having some.

20. He initially goes for Rowlet because they're nocturnal, stealthy, can fly, and he could use a Grass-type on his team. The professor is hesitant to let the son of two very anti-ghost scientists to have a starter that gains a Ghost-type in its final evolution (especially right after the debacle in which he gave them a Rotom Dex and they proceeded to chase it out of the device and into the wild), and warns Danny.

21. Danny is thrilled. One day he'll be able to fully talk with his new buddy! It isn't until he's already gone home that he realizes what the professor was trying to warn him of. Thankfully his parents aren't native to the area, so when they scan Rowlet and hear 'Grass-Flying', they don't expect that to change.

22. He meets Rotom shortly afterwards--the one that was in the Alolan Pokédex given to his parents. It was emotionally attached to its old shell, but is scared of being seen taking it back.

23. Danny switches out the Rotom Dex for a standard regional one, which his parents are more than happy to use knowing it hasn't been 'possessed'. The Rotom in question decides to stay with him, randomly taking over various electronics to help Danny out and occasionally battling alonside him.

24. (Danny is both happy to have a new partner and upset that a Pokémon normally characterized by being a trickster is so insistent on proving it's useful and staying out of the way. Cue him and the others helping Rotom play pranks and showing that it's okay to act out sometimes.)

25. Insert brief adventure involving falling into a wormhole, crashing into Hisui, accidentally befriending a weird looking Zorua, and meeting the masters of time (Dialga/Clockwork) and space (he instantly recognizes Palkia--it's the embodiment of space!) to catch a ride back home.

26. The Zorua sneaks back home with him, joining as the sixth member of his team. Danny does some research on the history of Zorua, and discovers that there was a half-Normal half-Ghost strain of them that lived in ancient Sinnoh.

27. By the time he's fifteen, he realizes that with half his team being Ghost-type (that is, when Rowlet fully evolves) and having to hide both Ozzy and his own powers all the time, it's really not a good idea to stick around his parents anymore. What if he loses track of one of his friends, and his parents find them first? And that's completely ignoring the distance that's formed as Danny started helping out the local Ghost-types and hearing all the awful things the Fentons have done.

28. So he packs his stuff, takes a Fenton Thermos (a version of the mobile box storage used in the Galar region, invented by his parents and actually made functional when he and Rotom messed with it. Danny isn't risking catching a seventh Pokémon and them being sent directly to his parents, so he sets up his own account and isolates it to the Thermos), and leaves five years late for his Pokémon while his parents are visiting Aether Foundation's main research base.

29. Cue various shenanigans as Danny and his team travel through dimensions to keep the peace between Ultra Beasts and the rest of reality. Somewhere along the line he starts literally fighting alongside his Pokémon, possibly unlocking more powers. This teenager has no hesitation and will punch a god if given the chance.

30. (His Pokémon were thrilled, thinking it was about time their trainer starts learning some moves. Rotom is the only one distressed by the implications when Danny uses Shadow Ball.)

31. Jazz hears from her parents for the first time in years when they call her panicking about Danny disappearing. She connects some dots from her last call with him and figures he must've finally snapped and ran away to journey with his Pokémon.

32. Danny proceeds to get the most confusing message in his life from Jazz as he's restocking on supplies in a Pokémart somewhere in Kalos. Why was she congratulating him and offering him a couch in a Unovan professor's lab if he's ever in the area?

33. In completely unrelated news, people start recognizing a mysterious trainer that commits acts of vigilantism and speaks in favor of Ghost-types and Ultra Beasts all over the world, resolving conflict both peacefully and through battle. Some rumors say he's a Pokémon himself, a ghost with unfinished business. Others think he's an undercover ranger, finally losing patience with trying to stop bad people the legal way and resorting to direct action.

34. They're calling him Phantom, and his interference is attracting all kinds of attention.

35. Danny just wants everyone to be safe, and is more than happy to be traveling through space with his Pokémon by his side. Maybe one day he'll try a gym challenge or whatever trainers normally do, but for the time being he's more than happy to keep getting stronger while throwing down with various Pokémon across dimensions.

[chevelleneech]

I watched all Frankie Biggs videos and he is a red flag for me.

He has stated clearly that he is NOT an Army, just a reactor. So yeah. He chose the biggest global group that has a fan base known for views. Makes sense.

He started with WHO by Jimin and wasn't impressed at all. He said it wasn't a hit. Cool. Thanks for stopping by. Keep it moving.

Next thing you know he has a Once You JimIN you can't JimOut tshirt on!!!????

He invested in that why?? It's sus. Reactors I know don't just run out and get a Jimin shirt like that, especially when they are not floored by Jimin's talent/music. Frankie is hitting Army hard with that "pick me" merch - it feels super manipulative and not genuine at all.

For AYS the guy said some totally random stuff like he heard that JK is married to a woman - like serious real housewives gossip type stuff that is not cool with Army at all. I haven't seen any reactor show up on the scene with rumors but supposedly no knowledge of the group.

Something isn't adding up.

He hates shippers and solos - okay cool - there are other channels that love everyone that supports BTS. I can watch those. Not every reactor gets my views.

Chapter 2 had been all about Solo albums so yes, solos are going to exist. They may have only heard Golden or Face because they got radio play. So there will be naturally born solos in Chapter 2. Old Army need to adapt and realize this is by design. Solos are not the bad guys. Trolls come in every flavor OT7 SHIPPER SOLO - any of them can be rude when hiding behind a keyboard.

Did he deserve death threats - no but that doesn't mean he deserves sympathy views either.

I support a lot of reactors on youtube. But I can't support this guy. He is making it all about himself and I am just not down for his victimization angle.

Also he said Who is mid. I can't support someone that can't see Who is a masterpiece. Our ace duo deserve reactors that can appreciate them from Day 1 and not add to the rumors already surrounding them.

I’m just going to go at this like a bullet point list.

• It’s obvious he’s not army, seeing as he just started reacting to them. Expecting him to be all in already is kind of silly.

• People aren’t obligated to enjoy every song the members put out. I don’t like everything, but I still consider myself a fan, because I enjoy a solid amount and adore them as people.

• Don’t know the story behind this, nor how many reactions he did before getting one, so I won’t say anything about it.

• Like I said, I don’t know his motives. If his wife is Army, maybe she got it for him? As I’m not sure where he’d find one outside of her, if he got it as quickly as your message implies.

• I was told his wife told him this, but I didn’t see whatever video that is in. I haven’t watch all his videos, so idk. That said, if it’s not his wife and I am being led astray… I don’t think him having heard this rumor without knowing anything about the group is that crazy. I see and hear rumors about celebs all the time whom I don’t follow nor listen to. The rumor mill is the rumor mill, it doesn’t prove of disprove much. However, he did have a handful of reactions to the members/group up before AYS, so it’s possible someone in the comments said something. Or his YouTube algorithm started showing him those clickbait titled videos. I don’t watch the people who make them, yet I still get their stuff recommended to me.

As for the rest of your message, cool beans. No one is forcing you to watch the guy, lol. I simply do not think he comes across as a grifter just yet, but that’s me. If I’m wrong then I’m wrong. It’s not the end of the world if someone joined the community just to gain traction to their channel. It sucks that BTS get used, but so do so many other artists and shows and etc. If he’s a fraud, I’ll stop watching him the same way I’ve done with many reactors.

In regard to your opinion on solos, I think you’re treading real close to admitting you are one, lol. I don’t like solos and I don’t care for their excuses. Obviously there will be people who only know one or two members these days, but each member is different enough with their sound and execution of craft, that I can’t take anyone seriously who thinks one member stands out above the group.

All of BTS are extremely talented, and their group music may not be for everyone, but trying to claim you like JK more than everyone else, for example, is just a way to be contrarian. Particularly because he and JM make music that is currently the most similar to the group sound. The only reason someone would get into one member, try BTS, then flat out refuse to listen to the group is because they fell into a toxic solo rabbit hole. No one who genuinely happened across one member, yet never listened to the group, would call themselves a solo, purely because they wouldn’t know what that means.

So again, don’t watch what you don’t want to watch. Don’t listen to whomever you don’t want to listen to, but solos can kick rocks right along with fake reactors. Being Army means actively enjoying BTS. Not without critique, but a minority enjoy more of their work. If you don’t enjoy them or if you only enjoy one member, you’re not Army. Therefore, there is no need for you (using the universal term) to be part of Army conversations.

[ekwolfwriter-blog]

hhi! what is your fav ship and why?

Hi Hi back! Thanks for asking. And well, I have a few fav ships for various reasons. But I will go over a few of them that I love that are off the top of my head.

First one that I am gaining more traction is Zuko/ Katara. This one ship is one of those I was not looking to fall in love with it, it just found me, picked me up and said "You are coming with us now." Lol. But also giving it thought and seeing it from a personal, literary, meta, and animation analysis, they just click for me and make me happy to think of new ideas for them. I know it is not everyone's cup of tea, but I love this idea of what could be with these two for sure.

Next is Fakir/ Ahiru from Princess Tutu. I adore this enemies to partners to potential friends/ possible lovers. And also I love the story's message about being your true self and finding hope when things seem bleak. I won't go into too much details as I don't want to spoil the story- not only because it is really good, but it is meta has hell and I love the layers that they not only capture, but the rest of the world can empathize with.

InuYasha / Kagome: my original OTP growing up when I watched the show/ AMVs that I found of them on YouTube. I love their growth as characters as well as partners and relying on each other.

Tomoe/ Nanami from Kamisama Kiss. This made me realize I have a type, lol, but I can't help it. I love their growth as well as reliance on each other to help grow and support, and Tomoe finding himself more drawn to Nanami. But the best would be how they find out a huge secret about their relationship and how it actually started and just so freaking precious.

Dan Heng/ Stelle from Honkai Star Rail. This one is more personal but also I can see there being a romance between Stelle and Dan Heng to some degree.

Oh, and one non cartoon ship I guess, lol, would be Ziva/ Tony from original NCIS. Their chemistry, their banter, their story arc, and just support, damn! I did not know much of what happened to them after a few seasons and the actress for Ziva left, but I was routing hard for them.

And one more one more, but Harvey and Sabrina from Sabrina the Teenage Witch 1996 version. Just something about their chemistry and also the cute communication between them, and even Harvey coming to terms with her secret is also so sweet. (spoilier I guess if you have not seen it)

Thanks again for the ask!

[lagingersnapz]

Some Rain Must Fall - (Fallout Fic) Chapter 10: Ancient History

Chapter: 10/?

In the past, the tension between Lucy and the Ghoul comes to a head, or rather a finger, and a good ol' fashion honest exchange... of fingers.

In the present, Lucy and Cooper settle in for a night or two in Vault 4, and Lucy gets a chance to ask about why Cooper didn't want her to know who he was.

Characters: Lucy MacLean/Cooper Howard(The Ghoul), Dogmeat(CX-404), Original Characters

Word Count: 5245

Warnings: Violence, Swearing

Author's Note: Well, we made it to the final chapter that includes a scene from the show at the beginning. After this it'll just all be fanfiction stuff. Thank you again for everyone who has read my little story so far. Hopefully it continues to be a fun read. No end in sight yet, since I still have a lot to cover in my story. I would like to reiterate, though. this is a SLOW BURN. Really... really... agonizingly slow. Though I've read ones that took longer than I intend to take, so maybe it's not really that bad.

Previous Next

Ao3

~~~

The sounds of the Wasteland had faded away, replaced by the pounding of blood in Lucy’s ear. There was nowhere to go, but she was going to try anyway. Ahead of her was a car. There was no time to go around, she needed every second she could get out of this head start. Rather than running around it, she slid over the hood, almost catching herself on a piece of jagged metal.

Rounding a corner, Lucy ran a few more steps and then stumbled to a stop in shock at the sight in front of her. Their surroundings had been a fairly standard broken down city, but suddenly all of it gave way to a massive crater, the likes of which Lucy had never seen before. It could only have been from one thing: a bomb.

Before she could finish processing what she was seeing, let alone figure out a way to get around it, something wrapped around her torso. Lucy had just enough time to look down and see that it was a rope, a lasso, before it pulled taught and she was sent flying backwards, butt over tea kettle through the dirt, her neck bending painfully. Thrashing, she tried to gain some traction on the ground, but the lasso stayed tight, and she was being pulled back in the direction she had just come running from. It didn’t take much to realize the Ghoul must have caught up with her. Where the heck had he even been keeping enough rope to make a lasso with?!

“Where d’you think you’re goin’? The pulling stopped and he threw down the rope, moving to stand over her. “You ain’t goin’ nowhere.” The Ghoul reached down for her, one hand grabbing the lasso still wrapped around her chest, and the other reached for the front of her jumpsuit, trying to get a hold of it to stop her squirming. Lucy became more frantic, and the hand came up to her face. She felt fingers trying to grab her jaw, and knew he was probably trying to make her look at him so he could threaten her some more and tell her how futile her escape attempt had been.

As Lucy felt the fingers brush over her lips, an instinctual reaction took hold and she bit down, feeling something crunch between her teeth. She swung her head, ripping, and felt something come loose, and as blood dripped into her mouth and over her chin, realization of what she had just done set in. Lucy had just bitten off the Ghoul’s finger﹘it was still in her mouth﹘and the two of them locked eyes.

“There you are,” the Ghoul said, more calmly than she expected. “You little killer.”

Lucy turned her head, spitting the finger as far away as she could manage, hoping he would never find it again. It didn’t seem likely that medicine up on the surface would be able to reattach a finger, but in this case she was hoping to make sure of it.

Hands closed on the fabric of her jumpsuit and the Ghoul pushed himself to his feet again, hauling her up with him, bracing her legs against his to make sure she stayed upright. With one hand he held hers, pointer finger extended, and with the other he drew a knife. Lucy realized what was about to happen, shrieking as she tried to get away, but his grip was like steel and she was stuck fast. The knife slid in a circle around her finger, slicing cleanly, though not painlessly, and Lucy screamed again in shock before the finger finally fell away into the Ghoul’s hand.

Holding the finger up in front of her, he twisted it around a little, driving home what had just happened. She had taken his finger, and in return he had taken hers. Ma June’s voice echoed in her recent memory, commenting on how telling it was that Lucy still had all ten of her fingers. Well, that certainly wasn’t the case anymore.

“Now, that right there is the closest thing we’ve had to an honest exchange so far,” he said.

Lucy was shaking, breath trembling in shock as she looked between him and the finger he held in his hand. The smile she hated so much, his self-satisfied, smug smile, returned to his face and Lucy hated that he felt like he was coming out on top in this situation. Even worse, she hated that she felt he had as well. She was right back where she started, in his custody. The Ghoul shifted his grip and took the finger back out of her field of vision, grabbing the lasso wrapped around her and pulling her back in the direction of the puddle they had been drinking from. On the ground next to it was his saddlebags, which he must have left there when he came after her.

“Sit down, Vaultie,” he drawled when they got closer, and he pushed her down so she was sitting next to a rusted out car. Her mind was still reeling, and the stump of her finger burned and ached in equal measure. While she sat, he pulled the rope off of her, coiling it back up and stuffing it into one of the bags. Then he pulled out a roll of cloth, and unrolled it enough to store her finger in there before returning it to the bag.

“Now, I feel it’s only fair to warn you that if you try anythin’ like that again, I’ll be obliged to cut off more fingers.” The Ghoul spoke as he pulled his gloves back on over his hands, covering his freshly missing finger from sight. Lucy still felt his blood around her mouth, and tasted the tang of it on her tongue. Rather than answer, she glared at him. She wanted to spit some of his blood at him, but considering her state of dehydration she didn’t think she could even work up that amount of saliva.

“Come on, now. We’re almost there.” Reaching down, he pulled her back to her feet and pushed Lucy in front of him, and their march continued the same as it had been before, minus a finger or two.

The Ghoul had been telling the truth, and after only another hour or so of walking, he steered her in the direction of a massive building behind a half collapsed chain link fence. The pair stepped through a hole in the fence, and Lucy looked back at him with uncertainty, feeling her stomach start tossing with nerves again. A sign on the side of the building proclaimed it to be an old Super Duper Mart, though what purpose it served now she couldn’t have guessed, and that inability to guess was terrifying.

Every step seemed more difficult than the last, and Lucy could feel herself stumbling more often than stepping. The Ghoul grabbed her by the arm, tugging her along, half guiding and half keeping her upright. Finally the pair came to a stop in front of an intercom, and the Ghoul pressed a button, holding it down to speak.

“Transaction,” he said. Lucy felt the world tilt violently on its axis. A transaction? What kind of transaction?

A voice crackled at them from the speaker. “Yes?”

The Ghoul pressed the button again. “Two month supply of vials. Exchange one female. Mint condition.” He glanced over at her, his eyes landing on her maimed hand, which she had tucked against her chest. “Near mint condition,” he amended.

“Condition grading requires physical evaluation. Please send her in.” The voice on the intercom was startlingly cheerful, considering they were discussing trading her like livestock. A door nearby buzzed, and she heard the sound of a lock disengaging. The Ghoul heaved a sigh, running his tongue over his lower lip as he turned to face her. Lucy’s mind was slow from fatigue and a lack of water, but she still realized what was happening. The Ghoul drew a knife and stepped towards her, but Lucy was suddenly more afraid of what was in the building than she was of him.

“What’s in there?” she asked as he cut the ties on her wrists with the same blade he had used to cut her finger off.

“You’re ‘bout to find out.” His voice was flat as he looked at her, sheathing the knife, eyes squinting at her from under the brim of his hat.

“You’re selling me?” Lucy didn’t know why she was so surprised. Nothing he had done up until this point had indicated he was capable of kindness. If he was willing to eat another person, what was selling someone into slavery by comparison?

The Ghoul drew one of his guns, only half pointing it at her. “You got problems out here, too, Sweetheart. Best you try your luck behind that door.” He nodded his head in the direction of the opening. Lucy met his eyes again, searching for any sign of humanity. Any sign that he might change his mind. She found nothing, and shook her head at him, wondering why she continued to be surprised at how much cruelty he was capable of.

He indicated to the door with his head again. “Go on.” His voice sounded tired. When Lucy still didn’t move he reached out, grabbing her by the arm and half pushing and half shoving her towards the doorway. Lucy started to shuffle forward, head spinning. Stopping just outside the open door, she gave him a last glance over her shoulder. She watched the Ghoul gesture her forward with his gun, the threat lazy, like he knew she didn’t have enough left in her to fight him on it. Then, steeling herself, Lucy trudged forward into the waiting gloom while the door slid shut behind her.

The next time the door opened, Lucy was coming back out, though she didn’t feel quite like herself anymore. In her head she heard the words ‘My name is Martha.’ repeating over and over. In one hand she held a gun, and in the other a handful of little glass vials filled with amber liquid. On her way out of the store, after witnessing the carnage of the feral ghouls, Lucy had been debating which hand she was going to need if she found her Ghoul still waiting outside. Her new finger, helpfully attached by the Mr. Handy that had met her inside the store on arrival, tapped the side of the gun. It still felt a little numb, and she wasn’t used to it quite yet, but at least she had a finger again.

The sunlight outside was nearly blinding after the darkness of the store, but the ground under her newly boot clad feet felt more sturdy now. The Ghoul was still waiting outside, though in a vastly different state than she had last seen him in. Rather than standing, gun in hand, he was laying in the dirt, with a growing puddle of drool around his mouth. As Lucy approached, she saw his eyes flicker up to her, but he apparently lacked the strength for anything else, and continued to wheeze from where he was.

Lucy stood above him, feeling the weight of each item in her hands, still deciding which one she wanted to use. The events of the store were telling. She was smart enough to put two and two together. Roger, the ghoul they had met in the gutted clinic, had been in the process of going feral, and the Ghoul had put a stop to it when he killed him, saving him from losing his humanity slowly. The process could apparently be prevented by the little vials she now carried. The same ones that had been destroyed by the gulper when she had thrown his saddlebags into its mouth to save herself. The same ones the Ghoul had just tried to sell her for to save himself from the same fate.

It wasn’t clear to Lucy what stage of the process drooling in the dirt was, but it didn’t seem like a good sign. The Ghoul, who had been her tormentor, was reduced to this. He was pitiful. Pathetic. Weak. Lucy sighed.

“You don’t get these, you turn into one of those?” She gestured vaguely back at the store, knowing she didn’t have to elaborate on what ‘those’ were. He was clearly familiar with this place. He knew what it was they did here, and what was going to happen to her once she had gone inside. “That how it works?” It was obvious he wouldn’t be answering her, but Lucy didn’t need him to.

Crouching down, she looked at the gun in her hand again, making sure he could see her doing so. She had made up her mind on what she was going to do. She had thought she made it up the moment she saw him, but maybe she had already known from the start, because Lucy knew who she was, and she knew what was important to her. Still, she tapped her new, grey finger against the trigger guard.

“I may end up looking like you,” she said, making sure to look him in the eyes as she spoke, “but I’ll never be like you.” Reaching down, Lucy placed the vials right next to his gloved hand where it twitched in the dirt, before rising back to her feet, looking out over the Wasteland and back to him. “Golden Rule, motherfucker.” Then she turned her back on him and strode across the parking lot, away from him, and away from the Super Duper Mart.

***

Despite herself, Lucy felt her body relax a little moving through the halls of the Vault. Even when their group was herded into the quarantine rooms to wait for doctors to come and look over them. Cooper, on the other hand, looked like he was ready to jump out of his skin. His hand hovered over a weapon the entire time, gaining him wary looks from the Vault-dwellers, though none of them tried to disarm him. After Lucy’s last visit to this place, she couldn’t fault them. She and Max hadn’t set the best example.

Their wounds were treated, and a few were recommended IVs for dehydration, but overall their physical health could have been much worse. Their mental state, on the other hand, was abysmal. Although everyone felt a sense of relief at being inside the Vault and supposedly safe, nobody had had time to mourn and it was all starting to catch up to them.

Once they were all cleared by the doctors to be placed in housing units, the main group of survivors was placed in a large housing unit so they could be kept together. Lucy and Cooper, however, were placed in a separate unit close by, as they would not be staying long term. Kelly begged to be allowed to stay the night with them in their unit, and eventually Lucy relented.

The children had never experienced life in a Vault, and so much of it was like magic to them. Lucy showed them the bathtub and let them play in the warm water with soap and toys graciously provided by the Vault until they were all cleaned up, while Cooper sat stiff-backed in a chair against one of the metal walls of the living room, looking around like he saw ghosts wandering the halls and refused to let any of them sneak up on him.

Afterwards, the kids sat huddled in clean clothes on a couch, watching the Atomic King television and snacking and passing bits of food off to Dogmeat, who alternated between gobbling up every morsel and snuggling with a small stuffed bear she had managed to find, while Lucy put together something resembling a meal for them. It felt hauntingly domestic. None of them had had good sleep yet, and before the food was even finished the children had fallen asleep.

Lucy heaved a sigh and clicked off the stove top burner, leaving the pot of Blam-Co mac and cheese to cool before she could put it in a container for the refrigerator. “Cooper, can you help me?” Their unit had two bedrooms, and she gathered up Nate, leaving Kelly for Cooper to handle, bringing the little boy into the kids’ bedroom and tucking him into bed. Cooper was right behind her, and settled Kelly into the same bed as her brother. Dogmeat watched, teddy bear in her mouth, then jumped up in the bed with the kids, settling at the foot of the bed, putting the bear down between her front paws, nose turned towards the door like she would be keeping guard over them all night. Lucy brushed some hair out of Kelly’s face, tucked the blanket further around Nate, gave Dogmeat a thorough scratch on the ears and muzzle, then moved out of the room, clicking on a nightlight on her way out.

Back in the living room, Cooper looked around and shook his head, rubbing at his eyes. Lucy felt like her body was about to give out on her, and she debated whether she had the energy for a shower or not. Cooper’s hands clenched and unclenched until Lucy finally walked over to his side and stood, trying to think of what to say to him. There was so much that needed to be addressed. His name, for one thing, and his hatred towards the Vaults, but Lucy had no idea how to bring up any of them.

“I’m going to go shower,” she finally said. Cooper grunted in response, and went back to his chair by the wall. Water had never felt so good, and Lucy let herself stand in it for far longer than it took to get clean. It wasn’t until she started to sway on her feet and was afraid that she might actually fall asleep standing up that she made herself get out, dry off, and get dressed. She chose not to put on a vault-suit, instead putting on a pair of pajama pants and a tank top.

Cooper was right where she had left him in the living room, sitting in his chair, staring off into space. His hat rested on the table next to him, and the food remained untouched on the stove. Lucy ran her fingers through her uncombed hair, feeling them hit a snag as she chewed uncertainly at her lip. Eventually, she went and settled herself on the couch, facing Cooper where he sat in his chair.

“You’re Cooper Howard, right?”

***

Cooper almost laughed at the way Lucy ripped the band-aid off of the questions surrounding his name. It would have been funny if he wasn’t dreading it so much. The fact that she had figured out who he was shouldn’t have surprised him. He knew Lucy was smart, and maybe he hadn’t been as secretive about himself as he should have been. There was definitely a part of him that was happy she had figured it out. It felt good that there was someone who knew who he was again. But then he reminded himself that he wasn’t Cooper Howard anymore.

“Don’t call me that here,” he said, keeping his voice as even as he could manage. Lucy cocked her head to the side, her still damp hair falling over her shoulder.

“Why not?”

It was hard to say for sure why Cooper felt so on edge. Not that he had no reasons, but that he had far too many. The lack of sleep usually wouldn’t have been so difficult for him, but between the stress of getting the survivors here, the difficulties of losing people, and the discomfort of being inside a Vault, and not just any Vault, but one he had been in before, Cooper knew his nerves were completely shot.

“Because that’s not who I am anymore, so I don’t need anybody comin’ up to me asking questions about ancient history.”

Lucy continued to look at him with her big, hazel eyes, and Cooper squirmed a little in his chair until finally he couldn’t take being still any longer and rose to his feet to start pacing around the room.

“Why didn’t you just tell me that? Why didn’t you want me to know who you were?” Her voice was so soft and non-judgemental. Whether it was because she was truly not passing judgement on him, or because she was just too tired to be angry in that moment wasn’t totally clear, and Cooper realized he didn’t have a good answer for her, either. Why didn’t he want her to know who he was? His full identity of Cooper Howard wasn’t one he handed out often, but he had introduced himself as Cooper to people in the last 200 years.

“How many of my… How many Cooper Howard movies did you watch growing up?” he finally asked. He couldn’t bring himself to refer to them as his movies.

Lucy shrugged. “All of them, probably. My dad was a huge fan. Still is, I guess.”

Her answer stung a little bit. She knew what he had been before all of this. Before the ruined face and the harshness of the end of the world had changed him. Not just in a physical sense, but in every way. Cooper didn’t doubt that Henry would have talked about who Cooper had been if he was still enough of a fan to watch all of his movies with his kids. Had he told Lucy that Cooper was a good man? That he had been kind and generous and other bullshit from the time before?

“And how about you, Lucy MacLean? Were you a Cooper Howard fan?” In his life, Cooper had heard people say not to ask questions you didn’t really want the answer to, and as soon as this one left his mouth he knew he didn’t wanna hear what she was going to say to him. Rather than answer right away, Lucy continued to look at him with her searching eyes, taking in every detail of him as he stopped his pacing, waiting for her answer.

“Yeah, I was a fan,” she finally said, and the word ‘was’ was surprisingly painful.

Swallowing hard, Cooper pushed himself on. “And how about now? How do I compare to the man your daddy told you about growing up, huh? Am I everything you dreamed I’d be?” Cooper couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice. He spread his arms wide so she could take in the full effect of him. Skin scarred, practically hairless, nose rotted away, and clothes tattered and filthy. Every cruel thing he had done to her and everyone else in the last 200 years passed through his mind. It wasn’t that all he had done was bad, but she hadn’t exactly seen him at his best since they met. He could almost taste the coppery tang of Roger’s blood on his tongue.

“You helped save these people,” Lucy said. Cooper fell back a step like she had struck him physically. Nothing she could have said would have startled him more.

“I ain’t done it outta the goodness o’ my heart, Sweetie.” Cooper’s voice was taking on the thicker drawl that he used when he wanted to get mean. The further he got from himself and the more he tried to be like one of the characters from his films, the thicker the accent. He wasn’t about to let Lucy see him as anything but what he was.

Lucy stood up and took a step closer to him. “Those kids,” she pointed off towards the bedroom they had laid Kelly and Nate down in, “are alive because of you.” Cooper opened his mouth to interrupt, but Lucy cut him off and continued, taking another step closer. “Whatever your reasons were, you stayed. Nobody tied you up or forced you. You made that choice yourself. If you hadn’t stayed with us, those Raiders might have killed all of us.”

She took another step. “I’m not going to sit here and tell you that everything you did over the last couple hundred years was good or justified, because I’m sure not all of them were. I’ll bet there’s plenty of things you would take back if you could, and even more things you wouldn’t take back. But whatever has happened, it brought you here, and because you were here, these people are alive.”

Now she was toe to toe with him, and Cooper’s throat felt swollen and thick as he tried to think of what to say to her. Lucy didn’t give him the chance. “It’s not just about the bad you’ve done that makes you who you are. It’s about the good, too. I told you before I wasn’t familiar with your circumstances. That’s true. I don’t know what keeps you going through it all. But I know there has to be something, and I hope when you’re ready you’ll tell me.”

The two of them stood in silence, the only sound the background hum of the Vault, almost too quiet to hear. Lucy was seemingly unwilling to back down, and Cooper felt about two feet tall under the scrutiny of her gaze, even as he was looking down to meet her eyes. Her soft breath puffed over his face, and he smelled the mint of toothpaste. Her newest wound was visible on her chest above the neckline of the tank top from when the Raider had been trying to kill her, cleaned and with a butterfly stitch applied. When she had screamed out his name for help, he’d been terrified. When he found them he thought he’d been too late.

“You…” He started to speak and then didn’t know what he had been about to say. His eyes flickered down to her lips, which were set in a tantalizingly stubborn line. With a start, Cooper realized he was wondering if they were as soft as they looked, and if she would taste like toothpaste. So he said the first thing he could think of to make her take a step back before he did something they would both regret. “You’re a terrible judge of character. You don’t know me, Miss MacLean, so don’t pretend you do. I ain’t the men from my movies.”

Rather than be offended, a slight smile broke out over Lucy’s face and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Maybe. Now go shower. You could use it. I already put some clean clothes in the bathroom.” She held up her hand to silence him when he started to protest. “It’s not a Vault suit, so don’t worry.”

Was he really about to let this young woman tell him what to do? Apparently so, because Cooper grunted at her, half in annoyance and half in amusement at her willingness to boss him around, then he turned and stalked off towards the bathroom.  He wasn’t sure what the name of this little battle they were fighting was, but mentally he knew this was another tally in Lucy’s favor.

Cooper’s clothes were practically a part of his skin by this point. They were the same clothes he had been wearing the day the world ended, other than the duster, and he hadn’t bothered with washing them often, if at all. The hot water of the shower felt like stepping back in time, and for a moment Cooper closed his eyes and imagined it rinsing away the scarring on his skin, returning him to the handsome Hollywood man he had been. If he still looked like that, would he have let himself kiss her?

Snapping himself out of his thoughts, Cooper turned the temperature of the water down and hurried to finish. When he stepped out of the shower, he found his clothes had vanished. How the hell had he not heard her sneak in to take them? Growling in the back of his throat, Cooper dressed in the clothes that Lucy had said she left for him and hated when he looked in the mirror. He looked fucking ridiculous. In fact he might just have to kill her over this. Clothes was not the right word for the shirt and pants he was wearing. These were god damn pajamas. And there were actual slippers left out as well. Hell would freeze over before he put on a pair of slippers. Cooper stalked past them and out of the bathroom barefoot.

“Where the hell are my clothes?” he demanded as soon as he saw Lucy. She was putting away the food that the kids had fallen asleep before they could eat.

“In the washer. Don’t worry. I set it to gentle. Otherwise they looked like they might disintegrate.” She wiped her hands on a towel hanging from the oven. “Hungry? Or ready for bed?”

Maybe he was in Hell. Cooper had actually died in the swamp, and every moment after was Hell. That was the only explanation for how he was standing in a Vault dressed like this. “I sure as shit ain’t hungry, Sweetheart,” he snapped.

Lucy shrugged off his comment. “Alright. Let’s go to bed then. I want you to sleep in the bed with me.”

Cooper just blinked at her for a second. “I ain’t sleeping in the same bed as you.”

Now she was rolling her eyes at him, and Cooper felt his jaw tense. “How is it any different from me sleeping next to you on the ground? Besides… I have a very practical reason for it.”

“And what would that be?”

Shuffling her feet, Lucy held his eyes, though he got the distinct feeling she wanted to look at the floor. “After everything that happened… I’m afraid I’ll have nightmares. I don’t want to be alone if I do.”

“And you think my presence is gonna help if you have a bad dream?”

Lucy nodded. “You make me feel safe, Cooper.”

That took the wind right out of his sails. Cooper wanted to argue that safe was the last thing he should make her feel, but the look on her face made him bite his tongue. Rolling words around in his mouth for a little bit, he let them out as a long, put-upon sigh. “Fine. But I better not end up with kids piled on top of me again.”

Neither of them said anything as Lucy led the way to the bedroom and crawled under the blankets. Cooper looked at it like another swamp monster was going to come bursting out from between the sheets, before resigning himself to another sleepless night. He’d felt more at ease in his coffin than he did between the covers of the soft queen sized bed. Rather than keeping her distance, as Cooper had assumed she would, Lucy immediately tucked herself up against his side again, and this time there was nowhere for him to rest his arm but around her.

“How the fuck did I end up here?” he whispered quietly to himself.

“Go to sleep, Cooper.” Lucy’s voice was soft, and he could tell she was already starting to drift off.

The silence lasted long enough that he thought she had fallen asleep, but then she started talking again. “Hey, remember how you said you didn’t want anyone asking you questions about ancient history?”

“Yep.”

“Know what I did for work in my Vault?”

“What?”

“I was a history teacher.”

“Well… shit.”

[safespacespence]

what happened to angstyalex

alright, long post ahead. but please read. it's a hard truth we need to face and change. takeaways in bold.

first. alex left because she was an underappreciated writer tired of the toxicity of tumblr hustle culture. simply put: she deserved so much more love than what she was giving out, and it can be tiring asf. writers, artists, and anyone who are just starting out will understand. she prioritised her mental health, which i hope everyone remembers to do.

second. with that said, reblog the shit out of writers and artists' works. it is unsustainable to continue producing content for people who will just scroll past it or leave a like. yes, i personally started writing for my own outlet, but we wouldn't post it if we didn't want anyone to appreciate it.

third. tumblr hustle culture is a toxic, sorry excuse of a pro-content community. i am lucky to have gained traction as fast as i have, but i know there are smaller accounts who are just as talented as all of us. and deserve the traction. we all started somewhere, so let's support each other and work alongside to have a fruitful and diverse community, yeah? everyone brings something to the table, let's make room. if you are a small creator, please don't hesitate to send me a message! always looking to expand the breadth of my cmblr reading :)

fourth. what in god's name is up with the hate anons? good lord. it's unnecessary, i don't know what you intend to achieve with it, and stop complaining about their work if you dont like it (move on, find a work you do like). grow up. press the heart for a lovely list of compliments if you'd like some ask box ideas! 🫀

fifth. writers and artists, please don't feel like you need to chuck out content constantly just to maintain an audience. i'm so sorry if you feel like this. the best works are the ones that you enjoy creating. please, let's not make this an environment where we have to dread creating. we'll have no blogs left to follow.

lastly. thank you for reading this. i'm tired of seeing and hearing what my friends and people go through. i'm sending love to everyone today and my asks and message are open for anyone who needs to talk. i'm going to shift gears on my tumblr from now on--i'll talk about this another time, but i'm happy about the realizations i made and i'm going to do my best to squash the micro-toxicity we shouldn't have to tolerate everyday.

[katnissmellarkkk]

for a vague writing idea…. i’m in love with any type of overprotective peeta???

Sooo I love this prompt so much thank you, lover. I had two different scenarios (completely different actually) for protective Peeta but this is the one that won out. If you want, I can also write the other 😘. Just lemme know.

Okay also sorry this got violent so trigger warning ( tw ) : sexual harassment and violence.

I help Peeta in the bakery as often as I can. Well, maybe not as often as I can, but as often as I feel needed.

Peeta spent the vast majority of early life helping his parents and older brothers run their family business. He was the assistant, the runner, the one to take shifts neither Rye nor Wheaton wanted, the one who was made to man the counters and keep people captivated when it was becoming too busy and the witch worried her customers would give up and leave.

Being the youngest member of the Mellark family, he was also the low-man on the totem pole, taking orders from everyone else, doing things their way. So it was natural, I suppose, that when Mellark’s Bakery was rebuilt and Peeta became the sole owner — at least until he married someone last spring — that he didn’t want me bossing him around, telling him what to do and what not to do, day in and day out.

That’s how I knew today he needed me. I had stopped by after my hunt to drop off the lunch he’d forgotten at home — not that he necessarily needed it. He does own a bakery — and because I needed to stop by the butcher’s and trade with Rooba.

The very moment I stepped through the back door today, I became completely overwhelmed with the amount of people crowding in the front lobby. I became accosted with frantic looks from Thom and Kanon Bagley and Wellesley Green and Peeta’s other new worker that I don’t know yet. It took me a solid minute to realize they were looking to me for help, because as Peeta’s wife, I’m technically their boss.

I was already planning on staying at that point, already realizing the bakery needed help and I’m one of the most experienced in this area now, as I’ve been hanging around this place for two years now. I was already intending to stay but when Peeta caught me by the waist, only noticing me as he rushed past in a frenzy, and asked without preamble if I could help out, I knew he was desperate in need of my assistance.

Turns out I’m a good merchant. After all those years of living in the Seam, hunting illegally, haggling in the Hob and barely scraping by, I apparently have a talent for service work. Or maybe Peeta just said that because he was feeling grateful after I took over managing his staff and corralling his customers — who, some of which, weren’t very nice at all to the people who were making their food — so he could go back to baking loaves and pastries by the dozens. Maybe he was just building me up because I’m his wife. Either way, I took the compliment at face value.

The crowd has evaporated now, having left as quickly as they filled in. There must be a festival in District Eleven coming up soon. Peeta’s bakery has gained traction and popularity over the last couple of years and celebrations in our neighboring districts tend to correlate with the bakery’s busier days.

Already knowing the crowds will probably be just as bad tomorrow, Peeta sent all his staff home as soon as the customers filtered down. He even tried to send me home but I insisted he be the one who took a long break, who went on a walk around the town while I manned the counter and swept the floors, seeing as it’s him that works himself to the bone here, morning to night.

That was my attempt at giving back to my husband for everything he unknowingly gives me. That was my attempt to provide for him in an act of service — besides shooting animals and skinning them for him to cook and eat.

But the moment the bakery’s next customer entered through the glass doors, I knew I’d made a mistake sending Peeta away.

District Twelve is a close knit district in a lot of ways. We watch out for each other, we genuinely try to help one another, we even have a solute of respect that other places don’t — well now they do, since it became prevalent due to the rebellion. Thanks to me.

Even the merchants and the Seam, who were set up by the Capitol to be rivals, didn’t disrespect each other, didn’t make the others feel unsafe. Indifference to those we dislike was more Twelve’s style.

So I’m utterly unprepared, I realize, for a man such as the one who just entered the store.

He’s tall, he’s weird looking and he’s staring at me like I’m the dessert he’s hoping to buy.

Even Cray, the head Peacekeeper when I was growing up, who took young women into his bedroom for money, who my father would never let me anywhere near when he was alive, was never like this.

I don’t even manage to say a greeting, feeling eerily scared by my complete solitude now. “Well, hello,” the man says in a voice that sends a chill down my neck. He drags out his syllables in a way that may be intended as sexy but comes off as downright frightening.

“Get out,” is all I can manage, the words tumbling out in a blunt, rude tone of voice.

But he isn’t deterred in the slightest. Instead he merely laughs and causes me to practically turn red in fury.

If there’s one thing I cannot stand, it’s being laughed at.

“Calm down, pretty. I’m just here to pick up,” he takes a long pause, walking up to the counter, leaning over as I take a step backwards. Finally he smirks — an absolutely hideous smirk, I’ll say — and finishes his sentence. “Some biscuits.”

I stare at the man for only a beat now, my anger winning out over my nerves. “We don’t sell those. Bye.”

“Well what do you sell?” He prods, his eyes moving down, landing on my chest. I cross my arms over it defensively.

“To you? Dirt.”

Apparently nothing affects this man because he doesn’t even blink before continuing, his smile never once wavering. “Don’t be like that, sweet girl-“

“I am not your sweet girl,” I snap, my eyes heading towards the back exit, wondering if I should just make a break for it. Peeta will forgive me, I already know, if this man robs the place in my absence.

Oh, how I wish I hadn’t sent Peeta away on that walk. I wonder — somewhat sardonically — if he’s having a relaxing time like I wanted him to. Because I’m definitely not right now.

The creep keeps going though. “Oh? You’re not my sweet girl? Do you have a husband?”

“Yes,” I automatically say, realizing only seconds later that I’m telling the truth. “And he’s going to be back any second now.” At least I hope he will.

If I ever questioned if Haymitch was telling the truth all those times he claimed I was an awful actress or a terrible liar, I have my confirmation now.

The man’s grin grows bigger and wider and more disgusting at my words. “No, he’s not,” he plainly says.

I don’t hesitate for a moment more, already running towards the back door as the man races around the counter. I’m almost to the exit when I feel a hand grip my braid, yanking me by the hair backwards, eliciting a loud yelp.

Automatically, I spin around and punch him right in the jaw. My fist throbs with the contact and for a second I believe I hurt myself more than him.

But then he cries out in pain. He cries out rather pathetically and I wonder then why am I even afraid of this person? After all, I’m the one who survived two games, who sparked a rebellion, who fought handfuls of people and survived against all odds. I’m the one who he should fear.

At least, that’s what I’m thinking as his open palm swings back and smacks me right across the face, sending me down to the ground.

It’s then I go into autopilot. I go right into fight or flight. My every instinct goes right back into survival mode, as if I’m in the arena again and instinctively I’m aware that I can’t flee so I have no other choice but to fight.

I kick my leg upwards as he leans down and manage to make contact with his head, causing him to yell out in pain this time. My leg, which is surprisingly strong for the only real exercise I get being walking, kicks again, hoping to get him in the eye this time.

But it’s unnecessary. Because he abruptly is shoved or knocked or thrown in the opposite direction of me.

By none other than my husband.

“Peeta?” I gasp, relief coloring my tone as I feel someone — not my husband but someone familiar — pull me up from behind.

“What did you think you were doing?” Peeta demands, his arm crossed over the man’s throat, pining him against the wall. “Did you really think you were going to get away with hurting my wife?”

“I thought she was bluffing on having a husband,” the man chokes out. His voice is hoarse now, from Peeta cutting off his air supply. He seems to have shrunken inches in a matter of seconds. Abruptly, the man no longer seems tough. He no longer looks like he could harm me.

Standing compared to Peeta now, I can’t help but realize how large my husband is. I can’t help but realize how strong he must be, to pin down a man that I estimate to be close to six foot three against the wall.

What the man has over Peeta in height, he loses out in strength. Watching now as Peeta’s arm tightens around the man’s neck, I can’t help but feel relief that I married someone who’s main hobby growing up besides baking was wrestling.

“Well, she wasn’t,” Peeta snarls — and suddenly I’m back in Eleven’s Justice Building and remembering the Peacekeepers getting their guns shoved away because they stuck them too close to me and Peeta wasn’t having it. “But either way, you had no right to lay a finger on her,” he continues, his voice now more deadly than I’ve ever heard it.

“Okay, I know,” the man quickly grovels. “I’m sorry-“

“Don’t apologize to me, you bumbling idiot. Apologize to her.”

“I’m sorry, Miss,” my assailant — or my assault victim, considering I think I hurt him more than me he hurt me — wobbles, his eyes large and terrified now.

“Peeta, let him go,” I murmur, suddenly finding my voice. “I don’t want his apology.”

Haymitch, the person who picked me up off the floor and has been keeping a hand on my shoulder while watching Peeta, speaks now as well. “I’ll take him out.” Like my husband, there’s an edge to Haymitch’s voice that I don’t entirely recognize either.

But Peeta has one last thing to say. “Get out of Twelve. I don’t know where you’re from but if I ever see you, or better yet, if you ever try to come near my wife again, you will leave this district in a casket. An unmarked casket.”

I chuckle dryly, a little at the threat and more so at the way the man looks two seconds from soiling himself.

Haymitch roughly shoves the man out the back door, showing no care or concern for how he has yet to catch his breath or trips frantically over the cobblestones.

The moment they’re out of earshot, the moment I accept that the man is truly gone as quickly as he showed up, the moment I feel as if a massive weight has been lifted off my chest, Peeta is rushing towards me, his hands lightly grasping my arms, his eyes big and concerned and kind now.

I don’t know what exactly makes me burst straight into tears. The fear I’ve felt in the last few minutes finally seeping from my body, the sweetness in my husband’s blue eyes, the awful hot feeling spreading across the right side of my face.

But whatever it is, Peeta isn’t surprised. I reach out and wrap my arms around his neck and say something like his name and he’s lifting me up against him, holding me tight, encasing me in his warm, protective embrace.

I say a bunch of embarrassing things, I make a lot of rather vulnerable admissions into the safety of his chest, but after a brief crying jag I finally calm down.

Peeta sets me on the counter, his lips finding my cheek now, kissing right where it stings the most.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner,” he whispers but I shake my head, absently rejecting the apology.

“He just came in out of the blue. As soon as I was alone, he just appeared. I didn’t know what to do-“

“Katniss,” Peeta cuts off, hearing the struggle in my tone, noticing my avoidance at eye contact. “You don’t have to give me an explanation, sweetheart.”

I deflate, closing my eyes and nodding gratefully, because I really don’t want to talk about it, to relive this occurrence right now. I will soon enough, when I’ve had time to process it, but not at this moment.

At this moment, all I want is just to go back to our house, load up my bow and double lock the door.

Taking a deep breath, I swallow down the lump in my throat and murmur, “Peeta, I want to go home. Please, let’s just go home.”

I already knew he wouldn’t refuse me anything right now but I still feel a wave of relief when he immediately nods. “Let me just put the closed sign up and lock the doors. Then we’ll go home.”

I nod as he brushes a piece of tangled hair — the part that man tugged out of my braid — back tenderly before placing a soft kiss on the shell of my ear.

I wait patiently as he closes up shop and grabs his coat. “It’s raining outside,” he explains.

I nod, feeling a bit distant. “I didn’t bring mine,” I add, hardly aware of the conversation.

Until he speaks again. “I know,” he says in a tone that catches my attention. I peer up at him, as he slides me down from the counter.

Slowly he helps me into his warm jacket, buttoning it up gently, his hands lingering for a moment at my neck, tickling me unintentionally.

He’s giving me his jacket. He’s giving me his warmth and safety and protection, just as he always does.

Just as he always has.

And then, without warning, I throw my arms around him again, burying my face right where I can feel his heartbeat.

“I love you,” I mumble quietly, barely intelligible at all. But he catches it effortlessly.

“I love you, sweet girl,” he whispers back, rubbing my shoulder blades now.

“Thank you for protecting me,” I say, closing my eyes and breathing in the comforting smell of my husband and his skin and his clothes and his bakery. Our bakery.

His lips press tenderly to my crown. “Always.”

[kuipersorbit]

politics dont work on dsmp like you think they do: a badly written analysis

ok ive been seeing posts about techno being ancap because he teamed with quackity and purpled so I thought Id write something out to get my thoughts out there. (not only those, those are just the ones that felt like a punch to the gut) nobodys gonna see this but none of my friends are into this fandom (understandably) that i can talk to so here we go!!!

warning, this is p long!! there are 3 sections:

Anarchy v. democracy (differences to real life)

tubbo v. schlatt: minecraft governments

specific types of posts that we hate to see/dont make sense

Anarchy v. democracy (differences to irl)

So the fact that there are differences from minecraft rp to irl is pretty obvious, but i still see people talking like its not so heres some points. I see a lot of people defend c!tubbo and lmanburg for making a government, but I dont think they see the imact of government (even democracy) on the dsmp because it works for countries irl. so here you go: theres like 20 active members on dsmp. only half are in lmanburg.

why does this matter? because (as techno has mentioned in a couple of streams) thats a very small amount of people. lmanburg as a country could operate as an equal nation, as they could all fit at one table to talk. literally. Imagine someone in your household or in your friendgroup declaring themselves president and then actually having the power to make laws and exile people. weird right? It doesnt matter if the friend is well-liked or elected, they still have the power to control everyone else with no repercussions. Technoblade and Philzas perspective is this: nobody here should be given the power, because it always changes them and turns sour fast. they advocate for anarchy, which sounds crazy and violent, but what they really want is the friend group to be back on equal terms.

compare this to united states politics and then you open up a completely different can of worms. Those who argue for a system to hold people accountable and to make a system for orderly mass change are still justified. principles of anarchy built for large nations are still valid, but MUCH easier to achieve on a small minecraft server

tubbo v. schlatt: minecraft governments

SO. lets talk about tubbos rule. he seems to have good intentions at first, and is definitely not as bad as schlatt, but things start to go badly as he realizes he can get away with more and more. say we give him a by for exiling tommy because he was manipulated. (even though a government allows those systems to happen IN THE FIRST PLACE).

Technos execution is the first glaring red flag of his presidency. you could say that he was doing it as revege for?? two withers?? but then quackitys speech and the existence of a hit list immediately counter that. IF the execution was for JUSTICE they would have let him have a TRIAL. thats why its called the JUSTICE system. They have a pre-built courthouse and everything!! Another example of tubbos presidency souring is the destruction of phils house. they kept a man who constantly moves around in house arrest for the crime of?? being friends with someone?? as well as break his windows and loot his chests, the very same thing he condemned tommy and ranboo for. (ranboo is not innocent either btw, i have a whole nother rant about why i lowkey cant stand ranboos character, but thats for later.)

Not to mention pressuring ranboo to hurt people he didnt have qualms with, continuing to force a no-armor rule despite residents having reason to be wary, and selectively choosing who to be in his "cabinet", pushing people like Niki, who have been there since the beginning, to the side for QUACKITY of all people who has a very scuffed moral compass.

What did schlatt do again? he raised taxes, especially for niki (one of the only things he is very much at fault for), broke trees and buildings, enforced borders, killed tubbo, and exiled two of his competitors. Personally, I'd say tubbo and schlatt are equally bad here, schlatt just seems worse because he made his intentions known.

specific types of posts that we hate to see

we as in me. i hate to see em. Political compasses??? ew. bad. dsmp has only 20 people and no economy. (quackity wants to make one to gain power, purpled made a unsucessful real estate buisness for laughs early on.) People associating the syndicate/anarhcy with violence and chaos?? NO. BAD. they just want the friend group to be equal again. they just want a system where they cant be betrayed, ignored, and stepped on for no reason.

-extra snowchester point because this gets on my nerves. the syndicate was not expecting tubbo to be there. they did not go in any buildings without permission. they were very upfront about their goals and suspicions. not once was violence threatened, even after learning about nukes. also do not try me with "but techno has withers!!" EVERYONE can get withers. withers are a nuisance but destroy land maybe 4-5 blocks deep.

TUBBO and MANY OTHER SERVER MEMBERS have stolen and walked on technos land and he did nothing. He SAW tubbo, knew about connor, etc. and he did nothing. If youre upset about techno stepping foot on tubbos land, be upset at tubbo for doing the same to techno first.

conclusion

anarchy in a server is just "hey can we not?? dictate the lives of out friends??" and governments of ANY KIND have hurt people on all occasions. this is not the same irl. please know the difference.

IF YOU READ ALL THIS: holy fuck. thank you. this is my first long textpost here, i dont expect to get any traction or anything, i just wanted to put my thoughts in order.

[paintingdragonfeathers]

Whew! Survived Nekocon 2022! But no rest for the wicked—I immediately went home to finish packing things for the movers this weekend. Then I can get back to creating AAAARRRRTT.

Thank you everyone who stopped by the Painting Dragon Feathers booth in the artist alley and either taking home some art or signing up for commissions, and thank you everyone who came to the “Dragons, Cryptids, and Dinos, OH MY!” Panel. While it was only my second time ever vending at Nekocon, and my first ever pro-row booth, it was one of my most successful conventions to date! And thank you cosplayers for showing off your craft!

Special shoutout to my stellar friends and booth beard for all their help manning the booth and keeping us all sane over the weekend.

I also had a chance to meet some new faces and make some new friends. And I had a humbling interaction with a particular congoer—a young man approached my booth and said he came to the con specifically to see ME and my work after seeing it on social media.

This is already heartening as it’s proof my social media posts don’t end up yeeted into the void, lol.

Anyway, this young artist came seeking advice on how to pursue a career in the arts as he heads off to college. Now, I’ve looked out for and helped newbies and first-timers in artist alleys over the years, but this is the first time someone made a pilgrimage to talk to me. I can remember when I was in his shoes, and now with close to a decade of experience between college and cons, I had a split-section realization of “Oh crap…I’m an ADULT ARTIST and can offer this kind of advice.”

So, I didn’t sugar coat it—I was frank that I was very fortunate to have a foundation of supportive friends and family to pursue the arts in school, and as a career I’m at the point where it’s still feast or famine, but I encouraged him that perseverance is key. A lot of times something worth doing is a long gambit and requires patience since stuff rarely happens overnight. A typical rule of thumb I go by is for small businesses of most ilks (including creative work) they tend to either gain traction or “fail” between 4-6 years. Fun fact, until the pandemic hit and set EVERYONE on the planet back, I started gaining traction as a professional artist at years 5-6 of Painting Dragon Feathers. It’s good to be ambitious, and it’s healthy to be pragmatic; I’ve seen so many talented writers and artists flounder because they lack a lick of business sense and don’t know how to apply their skills. And that a lot of skills, whether creative or business-y, can be learned.

I told him that there are so many resources—books, online groups, etc.—that can help him make connections, study artistic principles, and learn the trade to make life as an artist easier. And when he showed me some samples of his art, I could tell based on his expressive line work and composition that he has the creative chops. I recommended him which digital art programs (something he asked about) and tools best emulate traditional media, yet emphasized that it is just a tool, and that you still need to know the principles of art—shading, hue, tone, composition, etc.—whether you’re picking up a paintbrush or a stylus.

All in all, I count myself blessed that I have had excellent guidance and mentors myself over the years from bigger, “adultier” artists, and that if I can hand down some of those sparks and advice to make younger artists coming after me walk a smoother path while I’m still learning and bushwhacking the road for myself, then I’m doing something right at the end of the day. I have no doubt that that young gentleman is gonna go on and create cool stuff.

Go forth and make cool things young artists. The world needs them, and you never know who’s watching your work. And my digital mailbox and art booths are open if you want some wisdom too. ;)

#nekocon #nekocon2022 #nekocon24 #convention #anime #animeconvention #artist #artistalley #cosplay #cosplayparade #costume #fursuit #furry #lifeadvice #paintingdragonfeathers

[duuhrayliegh]

Fuck Misogyny

request: Bucky uses his newly gained knowledge of feminism to squash misogynistic interview questions. @ptrs-prkrs

warnings: language, creepy men, feminist!bucky

a/n: hey babes!! i hope this lived up to what you wanted! i couldn’t find the exact video you were referencing but i know what you’re talking about, so i drew inspiration from a few others.

p.s.: my requests and tag lists are open!!

xoxo ray

full m.list

The set up was simple. A long row of fold out tables covered in black fabric, microphones in front of each seat. Black papers were taped to the backs of the microphones with each team member's name. Bucky had told Evie that he wasn’t going to be able to work out with her today because of this so it better be worth it. The PR manager for the team, Amanda, had set everything up. Hired the mediator, notified the press, everything. Ever since they announced that they were going to be hosting an Avenger’s Q&A Panel, the internet quite literally broke.

Of course Bucky had been doing lives on TikTok with the group of five for the past couple of weeks now, so he was becoming quite comfortable in this format. He’s become increasingly active on his social media accounts, gaining more and more followers everyday. Granted, there were still haters, as Freddie called them, but Bucky ignored them for the most part.

Bucky was actually excited for this press meeting. He was finally gaining traction in the media and he knew how to correctly answer their questions. As Amanda had explained, there was going to be several questions from the mediator, tons from the press that they had invited, and then some fan questions as well. They apparently were going to be live streaming the conference on YouTube allowing them to read the comments and questions as it went on.

“Okay, everyone. You have two minutes until we start.” The team was in an empty board room in the Hilton hotel. Tony didn’t want everyone on the compound’s grass because he just had it fixed. Bucky scanned his fellow teammates. It was impossible for everyone to dress for the same event. Steve was wearing a shirt that was almost bursting at the seams with a pair of jeans and sneakers.

Tony was wearing a lovely Tom Ford, three piece, two-button, of course. Natasha and Wanda were wearing ripped jeans and casual tops. Vision was wearing a sweater vest and slacks, Bruce was clad in slacks as well a jacket covering his shoulders. Sam was wearing a button-up shirt and pressed jeans and he couldn’t find Clint anywhere, probably hiding in the rafters again.

Bucky had his iconic leather jacket donning his shoulders, a pair of slightly ripped jeans. His outfit was picked out by Cassie and Penny. “You need to look like you care but like you don’t at the same time.” Is what they said, the phrase made Bucky shake his head. His hair had finally started growing back and he wasn’t quite sure how he felt about it.

He had gotten help from Evie before he left Cassie’s apartment. She had pulled back the top half, braiding back two sections into the bun at the back of his head. There were pieces dangling in front of his eyes, “to accentuate the facial features, trust me they’ll love it.” Was Evie’s explanation as they pushed him out of the apartment, so he wouldn’t be late.

“Alright guys! They’re calling your names!” The team filed out of the board room and into a large ballroom. Bottles of water were placed beside each placemat. Tony went out first, followed by Steve, then Bruce, Natasha, Clint, Wanda, Vision, Sam and ending with Bucky. They all settled into their seats, Bucky peeled his jacket off himself, placing it on the back of his chair. His black short sleeved shirt highlighted the gold inlays of his vibranium arm.

“Oh, I see we’re showing some muscle today huh, Buck?” Sam teased as Bucky took his seat next to him. Bucky groaned in realization, covering his microphone so it didn’t pick up what he planned to say.

“Good God, is this what it’s going to be like the entire panel? You just bugging the shit outta me?” They shared a laugh making the rest of the members look at the pair. The audience clapped as they were introduced and continued clapping as they assembled before them.

“Thank you. We would like to welcome everyone to the first, of hopefully many, Avenger’s Q&A Panel.” The female mediator, Stacey, read the assigned lines off the sheet on her podium. “We are going to start with questions we curated for the team and then open it up to the members of the press. After that we will turn to our live stream and answer some viewer questions.” The press rustled in their seats, pulling out pens and journals as well as their phones to record. “Okay, starting off with a question directed at the Avengers in general. How are you feeling about coming before the media in this type of format?” Glances were exchanged between the members, not sure on who was going to start.

“I feel that this is a great way for the general public to learn a little bit more about each individual team member.” Vision was the first to respond and Steve added on.

“Yeah, I definitely think that there’s a common misconception that we don’t want to engage with the media or the general public. We do, unfortunately due to the amount of research and training that we are doing behind the scenes, it just goes to the back of our minds.”

“Right. So Tony and Bruce, we all know that you two are geniuses. What are your feelings on expanding the teachings of STEM courses to not only high school, but as far back as elementary school or even kindergarten?” The pair thought about the question before answering.

“Well, I definitely think that offering STEM-based classes at a younger age would be beneficial, especially if we were to allow the kids to continue to switch what they want to focus on.” Bruce started. “It’s incredibly anxiety-inducing for teenagers to have to decide what they’re going to do with their life right before they are thrust into an unforgiving world.”

“Yeah, I’ll never understand why we do that to our future leaders, it’s honestly baffling. Why do American schools wait until high school to require our children to learn foriegn languages, they aren’t going to retain that information. The same applies for such comprehensive courses like STEM-based ones. If you wait until their brains are already developed so far, then they’ve already decided what they think is interesting and if they don’t find those courses interesting then they aren’t going to pay attention.” Tony finished Bruce's thought before nodding to each other smugly, obviously proud of themselves for answering the question so well.

“Interesting that you see it that way. This last one goes out to everyone and then we’ll open it up to the reporters. How do you deal with the stress and anxiety that comes with being an Avenger? Do you feel a certain amount of pressure to always do the right thing?” Stacey shuffled her papers, tapping them twice on the podium.

“We all have our own routines and ways that we decompress after missions so that really just depends on the person. Like I think that Bruce listens to opera music, and Wanda mediatates, Tony tinkers. It depends on the person.” Natasha answered concisely, making Bucky nod his head. He could recall all of those things to be true.

“Oh definitely, and it doesn’t hurt that we have a former VA Trauma Counselor on board to help us work through the harder stuff.” Steve added a gesture of his head to Sam.

“Speaking of that Sam, just a quick question before we open it up. How difficult was it for you to transition from regular Air Force missions to Avenger level missions?” Sam made a face at Stacey before answering.

“Um, I mean, it’s not that different. You’re always fighting one of the Big Three-- aliens, androids, or wizards, no matter what department you’re working with. The only transition I had to deal with was the Tony Stark-erized suits. Now that I think of it, Tony, can we make it tighter?” Sam quipped making the room laugh with ease.

“Alright, well now we’re going to open it up to the reporters. Starting with this gentleman in the front and then if we could also give a microphone to someone on that side of the room. Okay, thank you.” The first reporter stood up, holding the microphone in one hand and his phone in the other.

“Hello. John from Huffington Post. The Avengers inspire almost everyone around the world, so we would like to know who inspires you? Who do you look up to in terms of your idols?” He sat back down as the team contemplated their answers.

“Gandhi.” Bruce said, Tony snapped his fingers and pointed at him then added. “Pepper, she’s so amazing.” Steve looked down to Bucky, who shrugged.

“I would probably have to say that my sister, Sarah, inspires me. She raised her two sons, Cas and AJ, by herself after the Blip and was able to keep the family business going.” Sam’s answer made Bucky smile. Sam had brought him to their house in Delacroix, he remembered waking up to Cas and AJ playing in the kitchen, happy giggles filtering through reminding him of his time in Wakanda. By the time that Bucky had refocused on the conversation they had moved on without his answer. Several different questions went by, all directed to the team at large, until Chad.

“Hi, I’m Chad for the Daily Mail. My question is for Wanda and Natasha.” The pair of women perked up, excited to have a specific question. “Do you find that your equipment hinders you in doing your job as well as your male counterparts?” Stunned expressions settled over the womens faces, then annoyance. Bucky’s brows shot up to his hairline, appalled that someone had the balls to ask that. Wanda and Natasha handled the question with grace and much more restraint than Bucky would have.

“Well for me, I am able to move things with my mind so I can throw things randomly at people even if I’m not in the room. I’ve been very fortunate to work with Natasha who has Widow training, so my hand to hand combat is improving immensely. And being able to work with Princess Shuri in Wakanda to learn how to fully control my powers. It’s an ever evolving process that I’m always excited to take on.” Bucky nodded and turned his attention to Natasha.

“My favorite thing is training with either Steve or Bucky because they push me to do my best. We all have our specialties here and it’s nice to learn new skills or improve old ones with people who support you.” Natasha sat back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest, throwing daggers with her eyes at Chad in the audience, waiting for him to say something else. Chad stood again, yelling so he could be heard over the crowd’s commotion.

“That’s great, ladies, but forgive me, you didn’t answer the question I asked.” Bucky pushed forward in his seat, leaning into his microphone.

“I’m sorry, I think I misunderstood what you asked them then. I would like for you to clarify what you mean by equipment.” Chad balked, not expecting a male’s voice to respond.

“You know what’s implied by equipment, sir.” Bucky’s jaw clenched at the man.

“Did you just ask two of the most capable women that I’ve ever known, if their equipment, which I’m assuming you’re referring their breasts, made it to where they couldn’t do their job as good as the rest of their male counterparts. Just to be clear, that’s what you’re asking?” Chad stuttered as he answered yes.

“Right, well first off that’s disgusting. Just a bit of background for you, Wanda is the strongest Avenger here, plain and simple. As for Natasha, she’s the smartest woman I’ve ever met and she can take down every single male here.” Bucky took a breath before continuing. “So, what I think you really want to know is how they encourage their teammates to keep up with them.” He dropped his head to look at the two women down the line.

“Don’t worry Chad, I’ll ask them the right question, since you can’t quite seem to understand how to respect women.” The team was holding back snickers at Chad’s reaction. “Wanda, Natasha. Chad wants to know how the hell you push your male teammates to be just as good as you are. What are your strategies to keep us on our toes while training?” Claps sounded from the women press members and Bucky awaited the pair's response. The next press member stood and asked a question.

“Hi, I’m Chloe from Vanity Fair. This question goes to everyone on the panel.” Bucky settled in for another question that didn’t matter. “How do you continue to be aware of things happening in our society today? Do you keep up-to-date through new channels, or social media?” The answers were rather generic from the team, all of them rather uncomfortable from the tension that Bucky and Chad had created. Stacey interrupted after Chloe’s question.

“Okay, we’re going to open it up to viewer questions from our live stream.” An iPad was placed on the podium in front of Stacey and her eyebrows rose. “Okay, there’s quite a variety here. Here’s one for Steve and Bucky.” Bucky perked up, nervous to answer because his adrenaline had worn off.

“One viewer asks, ‘Steve and Bucky, being from the 40’s, women were treated like second thoughts and were talked about like objects. Now, you’re in the 21st century, not much has changed. What have you been doing to support feminist causes?’”

“I just want to say that everyone should be answering this. It’s true that during the 40’s women were not treated the right way, and they still aren’t today. An 18 year old can’t walk down the street at nine o’clock at night without being catcalled. I am a proud feminist, as everyone should be. I think that as a team we are doing pretty well in that department. As far as what I’m doing to support feminist causes, I’m doing as much as I can. I actually recently enrolled in online classes to expand my knowledge on many subjects, seeing as how I am from the 40’s and all.” The crowd laughed along with Bucky.

“Almost all of my classes have to do with either psychology or gender studies, it’s a fascinatingly haunting subject. One book that I’m reading right now was suggested to me by my friend Cassie, it’s called Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot. The author doesn’t let up and I’m only halfway through it. Look, I’m still educating myself, but I’m a strong believer in doing what is right for everyone, so I’m trying. Thankfully I have a few people keeping me in check as far as my actions.” Bucky thought his response was well thought out for being an on the fly question. He was new to the concept of feminism but that didn’t change the fact that it made total sense.

“I’m with Bucky on this. The 40’s were a rough time. I remember the first time I met Peggy Carter, I was astonished that a woman could be in such a powerful position. One of the first things she did after I met her was punch out someone who made a sexual comment to her. I’ve been supporting feminist causes ever since working with Peggy.” Steve added, a sad smile spreading on his face reminiscing Peggy.

“This one says, ‘As a total fan of all of you, I love seeing what you post on your social media accounts. When are the rest of the Avengers going to follow Bucky’s lead and download TikTok?’” Bucky’s head flew back into a full body laugh. Tony shifted forward in his seat, pointing his finger at the laughing man down the table.

“I would just like to say he didn’t get that approved before doing it. However, it did go over really well, so we’ll consider it.” Wanda’s mouth rolled inwards, stifling her laughter.

“We’ll consider it, you’re such an old man. Most of us have TikTok already, we just don’t make content on it like Barnes over here.” Sam said, tossing his head in Bucky’s direction.

“I’ve got like three videos on there!” Bucky and Sam began bantering back and forth.

“Yeah and one of them is dancing to a Cardi B song! Who even showed you that? I thought you only like 40’s music?” Bucky made a face at the man.

“Uh, just because I didn’t like your suggestions for music doesn’t mean I don’t have taste. My Spotify playlist is filling out quite nicely, Wilson.” Bucky and Sam didn’t quit fighting from then on, just little jabs at each other under the table.

“Here’s a good one,” Stacey had a smile on her face, “Are you allies of the LGBTQ+ community?” Bucky responded quickly with no hesitation.

“Yes, many of my friends are members of the Alphabet Mafia. Why wouldn’t we be?” Wanda nodded at his question, laughing at his use of the phrase Alphabet Mafia.

“Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I’m dating a fucking android, I’d be pretty hypocrictal if I wasn’t an ally. Nat, Clint what about you?” Clint bobbed his head in response.

“Oh yeah. We all are, even the Star Spangled Man with a Plan.” Steve’s shoulders shook with laughter at Clint’s nickname for him. The team broke out into laughter, joining Steve. Stacey cleared her throat, commanding the attention of the room again.

“Alright, everybody! That’s it for today.” She glanced down at her papers. “We would like to thank everyone for coming out today and joining the Avengers Q&A Panel. At this time we are unaware, if we will be conducting another one of these, but the odds look good based on the response.” The team filed out of the ballroom and into the empty boardroom. Bucky was the last to get into the room and he was approached by Natasha and Wanda immediately. Wanda wrapped her arms around him in a bear hug.

“That was so sick, Bucky!” She stepped back and Natasha offered him a side hug as well. “Where’d you learn all that? And since when are you taking online classes?”

“That guy was being an asshole, he needed to be put in his place. I hope you guys didn’t feel like I overstepped or anything.” Bucky hung his arm over Wanda’s shoulder, leaning his weight on her. “And I started about two months ago. They’re going really well, I’m learning a lot and enjoying it surprisingly. It’s a good thing to do in my free time since I’m not always on missions.”

“I’m proud of you James, that was impressive.” Natasha complimented him, she wasn’t usually a woman of many words so that was a lot. Bucky smiled at her, nodding his head. His phone began buzzing in his back pocket, so he excused himself from their conversation. His screen displayed one of Evie’s senior pictures, signalling that she was calling him. He pushed the green button and brought the phone to his ear to answer her call.

“Hello?” She ignored his greeting with a squeal.

“Check your Twitter! Bucky, you’re trending! Here I’m putting you on speaker, we’re all here Buck!” Shuffling noises were heard through the speaker as Evie began reading the tweets to Bucky. Laughs from Cassie, Freddie and Penny could be heard behind Evie’s voice.

“Oh my gosh Eve! Just let the man get back to what he was doing!” Freddie yelled at an excited Evie, who retaliated with a scoff.

“Okay, okay! Just remember we have a movie night tomorrow! It’s Penny’s turn to pick so we don’t know what to expect.” Evie mumbled the last part into her phone speaker. Bucky heard the impact of a pillow hit Evie, causing her to grunt in pain. “Okay! We’ll talk to you later, Buck! See you soon!” She hung up the phone before he could get a word in edgewise. Bucky shook his head as he shoved his phone back into his pocket. Amanda approached Bucky asking to speak with him privately.

“So we’re getting a flood of interview requests from networks and papers. We would like to start running with this. We’ll have to go over everything with our PR guy, Ryan, but it should work out. As long as you’re comfortable with all of this.” Bucky smiled and nodded, following after Amanda as she continued explaining what would happen going forward.

He was nervous, of course, but he could tell these nerves were coming from a place of excitement instead of fear, which was a new sensation for the man. It wasn’t unwelcome, it was the same as when he first started hanging out with Cassie, Penny, Freddie and Evie. It was the same when he went on his first mission with the team. Bucky was ready to tackle this next adventure, whatever it would entail.

[tarantulas4davey]

Youtuber!Ralbert Au - Part Two

once again inspired by the wonderful and fabulous @we-are-inevitable and you can find her original concept here

part one to this series can be found here

and my valentine’s concept can be found here

i finally did it guys are you proud ✨

LETS DO THIS THING

now that we’re here, i realized i forgot some vital information last time (aka i hadn’t come up with it yet but ranting to jorja helped me solidify the world thank you mother goose)

so race’s online handle is radioactive racer, and albert’s is, as we know, chaotic red

both of these come from when they were in middle school and had just made vine accounts

albert’s entire account was just videos of race doing dumb shit while he cackled in the background

race’s was just memes

but because this was middle school, race looks WILDLY DIFFERENT compared to now

he was in his full dyed hair and guyliner phase, and before he grew 8 inches the summer before freshman year, so he’s fairly unrecognizable in the vines of him (plus,,,, they were dumb 13 year olds, only their friends saw their vines)

but there’s just,,,, an account full of very cringe videos of 7th grade racetrack higgins on the internet that nobody’s connected to them yet, so we’ll do something with that eventually

now back to your regularly scheduled programming ✨

so race and ‘red’ announced they were dating about a month ago, and it’s getting increasingly difficult to make sure al’s face isn’t visible in any clips

also both of their channels are gaining more traction, and race is getting recognized more in public (which he adores, i might add)

but it means that eventually someone’s going to make the connection between the redhead race is walking around with and chaotic red

so despite how anxious it makes him

how genuinely terrified he is that he won’t live up to expectations and everyone will be disappointed

he decides to post a Q&A video to his channel and reveal his identity

it starts with him adjusting the focus onto the couch in their living room, before his stocky frame, black sabbath shirt, jewelry and freckles walk on screen, and he sits down

if anybody had any idea what to expect, the crooked grin, lip ring and custom snapback probably weren’t terribly high on their list

he lets out a breath and his grin gets a bit wider, before he waves into the camera “hey guys! so,,,, this is probably a bit out of left field, but i wanted to properly introduce myself. i’m albert, nice to meet you, but please, call me red.”

his eyes flicker to behind the camera and he rolls his eyes slightly at race’s chuckling that barely audible to the audience

“don’t you dare laugh at me, i’ve never done this before!”

“you’re doing great babe, you’re just a massive dork.”

“stuff it, blondie.”

al can’t really hold back his laughter, not completely, so he huffs a bit before turning back to the camera and properly answer questions to “let the people get to know me”

the dynamic from race’s original video revealing their roommates is flipped

the audience finally getting to see that albert’s grin pulls up slightly farther on the left side than the right

or that he fidgets with his lip ring when he’s thinking through an answer

or the utterly s o f t look he has in his eyes when he looks at racer, one that seriously doesn’t match his mischievous expression or abrasive voice

he answers questions with more ease than he expected, excited to finally be sharing, but once it comes time to hit upload he freezes

“race i don’t think i can do this”

“of course you can sweetheart, everyone already loves you”

“but what if they’re disappointed? what if i’m not cool or interesting or attractive enough? what if-“

“al i k n o w you did not just look at me with t h a t face and claim to not be ‘attractive enough’. attractive enough for who, red? people that are gonna say mean shit anyway?”

al ends up hitting the upload button and promptly hitting his forehead on his desk in anguish cause holy shit what’d i just do

all his worrying ends up being for nothing because everyone absolutely adores him and won’t stop saying how p r o u d they are and how pretty he is

“i told you, dumbass. you’re the prettiest person i know.”

“stop it, you sap.”

he starts using face cams for his (and race’s, when he’s on the chaotic red channel) gameplays and his focused face is s o c u t e

race finally doesn’t have to be sneaky or beg him to take pictures anymore

race is also incredibly excited to not have to aggressively edit all his videos to make sure you can’t see al’s face/hear his name in any of them

race “accidentally” leaves the clip of them slow dancing in the kitchen to ed sheeran in the vlog right after the face reveal

when al next films a sit down video, race is behind the camera, and they’re going through old pictures of albert from childhood (most of them have race in them too, he might as well be there)

this is when the fans discover albert blushes when he’s embarrassed

this video is also how everyone connects the old chaotic red vine account to them and race is m o r t i f i e d

they make it to a picture of them just after they got together, race leaning into albert’s side loosing his shit at something jack is doing off camera, but in-the-picture albert is too busy looking completely head over heels for race to notice whatever they’re doing over there

al just grins and looks up at race with the same stupid mushy expression

“that’s when i knew i was really in love with you”

you can basically hear race m e l t behind the camera and he just tackles al into a hug on the couch and it’s SUCH a cute couple-y moment

“yeah, and you were calling m e the sap earlier. s u r e, whatever helps you sleep at night, albie.”

“it ain’t sappy if it’s true, tonio.”

and editing-al cuts it off, but race had untucked his face from al’s neck and dragged him into a kiss

when he finally got back to filming, al may or may not have had to use cover up on his neck to make it less conspicuous, but that’s neither here nor there to be honest

also this isn’t a necessary addition but every once in awhile race or al will forget to cover up marks on their necks before filming and get absolutely ROASTED on twitter

i have a thousand more ideas for this au so i promise i will be making more at some point but here’s ✨this✨ for now

lmk if you want me to add you to a tag list or whatever cause i’m down with that

ok fín