#keep you on my side fanfic

[luxaofhesperides]

Surprise husbands + "How are you real?" ; requested by @vehan-tikkun-olam-and-stuff!

They may not have planned to get married, or even wanted it all too much at the beginning, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to treat each other right. It was rough going, with both of them coming out of relationships and having secret identities, but time had softened the hurt feelings and allowed them to actually get to know each other.

And Danny, Duke has discovered, is a really good husband. 

Neither of them ever saw themselves as married at 20, but sometimes life throws horrible curses at you and the embodiment of balance and life and death swoops in to save your life. Via marriage. 

His life is weird, okay? Duke has made his peace with it.

The thing is, if they had met naturally and started off as friends, Duke could see himself falling for Danny and asking him to marry him in a far off future. Instead, they’re doing everything backwards: married, then going on dates to know each other, and finally feeling close enough to be friends. 

It helps that Danny does his best to communicate and that helps Duke find the words he needs as well. 

He’s sweet, too, so kind and doting and affectionate. Like a really lovable cat, honestly. Duke’s never been cuddled so much in his life and he’s loving every minute of it. 

He… might be falling in love with his husband. What a revelation.

“Duke?” 

He blinks, looking up from his half-empty plate, pulled out of his thoughts suddenly. Tim and Dick stare at him, concerned, and he realizes he’s missed the entire conversation because he was so preoccupied thinking about Danny. In his defense, it was their one year anniversary the night before and Danny had kissed him for the first time after a date night spent playing video games and talking shit about their respective rogues. 

Tim snaps a finger in front of his face, and Duke startles. He got distracted by his Danny Thoughts again.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“You okay? You’ve been out of it all day,” Dick says, clearly concerned.

“Oh, uh, yeah, it’s all good. Just… adjusting.”

“To what? Did something happen?”

Duke shrugs, scooping up another forkful of pasta to shove in his mouth. “Yeah, I… this is going to sound kind of stupid, but I think I’m in love with my husband.”

Tim, taking an ill-timed drink, chokes and spits out his Zesti. Dick springs back, trying to get out of the spray zone but doesn’t move far, shocked still by Duke’s words.

“Oh, yeah,” Duke realizes, “I didn’t tell you guys, did I?”

“You’re married?!” Tim shrieks as Dick clutches at his chest, eyes wide.

“You didn’t tell me?” Dick asks, offended.

“Seriously? That’s what you focus on?”

Duke smiles as they begin to bicker. They do it constantly, but this time it’s halfhearted, as if they’re just going through the motions of something familiar to distract themselves from the bomb he’s dropped on them.

In all fairness, Duke did forget that he didn’t tell them that he’s married to Danny. He’s also only mentioned Danny once or twice and heavily implied that Danny was just a classmate at GCU. And then forgot that he didn’t tell them, assuming that they’d figure it out eventually being Batman trained detectives, after all.

Well. 

Oops.

Clearly that is not the case. Duke hurries to finish his pasta before Tim and Dick finish their joint freak out and get their senses back together enough to interrogate him. He can’t escape it, but he refuses to have this discussion with an empty stomach. 

He just barely manages to scrape the last mouthful off the plate when his fork is being yanked out of his hands. Tim and Dick close in on him, standing to either side of him, trapping him in place, and look at him with knife-sharp smiles.

Here we go, Duke thinks tiredly, and resigns himself to clearing up this misunderstanding.

Somehow, he manages to explain the situation (I got cursed, he saved my life, we ended up married because magic is bullshit, he treats me so well) and Tim and Dick both agree to not hunt down Danny to show him the wrath of older brothers on one condition: Danny has to join them for a family dinner.

“Don’t worry, we’ll catch everyone up on your… situation,” Dick says, pulling on his jacket to head out. Tim is already on his phone, no doubt telling someone already. 

“Great,” Duke says, unenthused. “You’ll also be answering all the questions because I’m not in the mood. So if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to figure out a day that works for all of us, and then I’m going to kick my husband’s ass in Mario Cart.”

He walks out the door, grinning as he hears them scramble after him, then twists the ring on his finger (not a wedding ring, but a magic portal making gift) and steps into the portal. It closes quietly behind him, leaving him in Danny’s lair, a comfortable, spacious house with high ceilings and little bits of his personality scattered about. There are soft rugs with geometric patterns on them, star maps on the wall, stained glass windows that throw colors across the floor, and a giant couch and pillow pit in the living room.

Danny’s asleep in it, curled up and looking completely at peace. Duke toes off his shoes and carefully makes his way over, footsteps silent so he doesn’t wake him up, all plans of Mario Cart fading away instantly.

Danny doesn’t get much sleep, with the stress of school and an internship and ghost fights to worry about. It’s why his lair is so quiet and comfortable; it’s what he needs, and he doesn’t let anyone else in without invitation, rare as it is.

Duke is allowed to waltz right in thanks to the ring Danny gave him. It never stops making him feel overwhelmed by how much trust Danny puts in him to allow him unlimited access to what is his only true sanctuary, letting his lair be a place of safety and respite for Duke as well. 

He crawls into the pillow pit, There’s no way to do this without waking Danny up since he can’t fly, so he isn’t surprised to see Danny blink his eyes open, still looking soft and content. He smiles when he sees Duke, reaching a hand out to him that Duke gladly takes, bringing it up to his mouth to kiss his palm.

Sitting up, Danny tilts his head up in a silent request. Duke happily obliges, still reeling over the fact that he’s allowed to do this! He can kiss his husband whenever he wants! 

Yeah, he’s going to be riding that high for a while.

“Hey,” Danny murmurs, sleepy and quietly pleased to see him.

“Hi honey,” Duke returns fondly, “Have a nice nap?”

Danny nods, leaning into Duke and closing his eyes again. “Mhm. How long are you staying? I wanna cuddle.”

“I got nothing going on today. I’m all yours, baby.”

“C’mon,” Danny tries to tug him down. Duke goes slowly, covering Danny’s body with his own, but holds himself with one hand before he blankets his husband completely.

“Wait. There’s something we need to talk about.”

Immediately, the sleepy haze is fading from Danny’s eyes, leaving him alert. “What’s up? Is something wrong?”

“Not really? You know how we agreed to keep our marriage a secret until we weren’t in danger anymore and all those cultists and sorcerers were taken care of?”

“...Yes?”

“Well.” Duke sucks in a breath and offers a bashful smile. “Guess who forgot to tell people we were married after that whole mess was dealt with?”

The nervousness clears from Danny’s gaze as he stares up at Duke with incredulous amusement. “No. No way.”

“Yeah. Kinda dropped a bomb on them and they started freaking out over me being married. Anyways, they want you to come to dinner?”

“When?”

Duke leans back, sitting on his heels. “Let me check.” He pulls out his phone and sends a quick text to the group chat asking for a day they could have a family meal to meet his husband.

His phone is bombarded with texts and calls immediately until Barbara, bless her entire soul, forcibly mutes all of them and puts in a poll with a few dates, setting the poll to close in 24 hours.

“Okay, well, they’re deciding now, but probably soon.”

Danny nods. “Alright. I know these aren’t normal circumstances at all, but I’m so excited to meet the Bats.”

“You do not mean that after hearing all my stories about them.”

“No, I do!” Danny laughs, surging up to wrap his arms around Duke and pull him back down to lay among the giant pillows with him. “They sound nice!”

“The Bats sound nice?!” Duke repeats in horror. “Did you hit your head?”

“They do sound nice! You talk about them so fondly, and yeah they have problems and are dysfunctional, but they’re heroes. Of course they have problems. Even with all their baggage, they’re kind. And you clearly love them, so I do too.”

It’s hard to resist the urge to hug Danny tight enough to make him squeak while peppering his face with kisses, so Duke doesn’t. He just goes and does it, because he’s allowed to shower his husband (!) with affection (!!!) as much as he pleases.

“How are you real?” he says against the corner of Danny’s lips. “How are you so perfect! To me specifically! Honey, if we weren’t already married, I’d be going down on one knee right now.”

“I mean, you still can. We never got a proper wedding either. Think if we offer them a chance to help plan our wedding, they’ll forgive us for secretly being married for so long?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Duke says. He’s already giddy, just imagining what their wedding will look like, what song they’ll play for their first dance, where they’ll have the ceremony… He should create a Pinterest account to start putting ideas together. 

Later, though. He wants to woo Danny properly and take him on so many dates.

Dates which include dinner with the Waynes and Wayne-adjacents, apparently.

“You sure you’re okay with meeting them over dinner?” he asks, just to be sure. He knows how intense they can be, even when pretending to be normal civilians. It took him years to get used to them, himself, and he doesn’t want to push Danny into doing something he’s not ready to do.

Danny cups Duke’s face in his hands and gives him a quick, reassuring kiss. “I’m sure. If nothing else, it’ll be fun to see how long it takes for them to realize I’m not fully human.”

“I really am glad it’s you.”

“Yeah, me too. I’d choose you all over again if given the choice.”

“Took the words right out of my mouth,” Duke laughs, wrapping an arm around Danny’s waist.

“Can we nap now? Now that you’re here and holding me, it’s taking everything I’ve got to stay awake.”

“Yeah, we can nap now.” Duke settles into the pillows, Danny cradled in his arms and closes his eyes to bask in the quiet easiness of it all. 

He really couldn’t ask for a better husband, unexpected as he was. The others will see that too, once they meet him. It’s impossible to not love Danny once you meet him; Duke knows this all too well.

He loves his husband.

And his husband loves him back.

Duke is fully prepared to keep making that choice for the rest of his life.

[quibbs126]

Something that’s been bothering me, in Cyberverse Season 1 we hear about the Decepticon cause being made because Megatron wanted to fight against and change the corruption on Cybertron

But like, we never actually saw any of that in the flashbacks. Best you can say is Starscream having a high opinion of himself due to being a jet (or at least that’s what I think was going on? It was something about Starscream and being a jet), but you can also assume Starscream’s just being an ass, not that this is a systemic issue on Cybertron. Outside of that, everyone seems to have been doing fine, they got along and everyone was vibing and having fun, going to Cube games and chilling at Maccadam’s, going out to do some racing on a vacation to Velocitron

I do suppose we were limited to only seeing things that Bee witnessed himself, but he was there for other important events before war was declared, we could have seen some more evidence that things were bad on Cybertron before the war and why Megatron and Optimus were so intent on changing things

As it is, it feels more like telling and not showing, and I don’t really understand why the Decepticon cause was needed in the first place. Well I mean I do, but that’s because I know the story in other continuities, not because Cyberverse told me

And if I can pivot slightly, I feel like this is an issue in other shows as well. Earthspark barely went into the backstory of the war at all, only making vague allusions like the “lower-class” remark and Orion Pax getting the Matrix (which honestly I don’t remember why he got at all and if it was related to the war). And yes, Earthspark was about moving forward after the war, but also the show wanted to portray Decepticons in a more neutral light, allowing them their second chances to do better after the war. Not to mention Megatron switching sides due to realizing how far he’d strayed from his original cause. I don’t feel like telling the Terrans the original causes of the war would be out of question, it makes all the sense. Also if we’re trying to portray the Decepticons as not being pure evil, explaining the horrible conditions that drove them to starting it would do wonders. Megatron is here, he can tell the Terrans with all the correct info if the Autobots can’t

Prime also has this problem, but I’m willing to give it a lot more leeway because it was part of the Aligned continuity, which was made up of more than just this one show, and Transformers Exodus I’m told went into this backstory a lot more. So okay, it’s explained somewhere. Though personally, I wish we went into this backstory a bit more in the actual show, because all I know from it was that Megatron was a gladiator fighting for change, Orion Pax met him and agreed, then they proposed their ideas for change to the Senate and it caused them to split. I don’t actually know why they were fighting for change. Again, I know Exodus did and it was around at the same time as the show, but we don’t all have access to Exodus. And honestly it might be the reason the other shows don’t go into it much either, despite it being the only one with an excuse

Like I think this annoys me because it feels like the shows expect you to know the general backstory so we don’t have to go into it. But you’re supposed to tell us this, especially when this isn’t like Batman or Superman’s origins where everyone knows the backstory of the war

I know what the backstory is, but not because these shows told me. It’s because Emperor Kumquat told me in a YouTube video where he was explaining the Aligned backstory from Exodus, while making the point that people who only watched Prime wouldn’t know all of this. How was I supposed to know this information if I hadn’t?

And to go back to Cyberverse, I can make excuses for Prime and Earthspark; both were set long after the war started and Prime especially didn’t have much reason to go into it outside of what it did. But not only did Cyberverse have the means to show us corrupt pre-war Cybertron vis Bumblebee’s flashbacks in Season 1, it had at least a little leaning to making the Decepticons more sympathetic. They are still for the most part antagonistic, but it did make the point that Optimus originally agreed with Megatron, we had bots on both sides getting along during peace talks and Windblade being angry at Slipstream’s killer, had most of the main threats not be Megatron’s forces that had the two sides forced to team up, and by the latter half of Season 3, had Megatron be more heroic, with him saving the day from the Quintessons and wielding his own Matrix of Leadership, and working to stop the other him that he knows is coming to reclaim his Matrix. They aren’t at Earthspark Season 1’s level, but they weren’t making the Decepticons pure evil either. So I feel like we should really see what it is they were fighting for originally

[mechazushi]

Kafka Hibino

Kafka Hibino.... with visible salt and pepper side burns.

Kafka Hibino.... wearing glasses and has salt and pepper side burns.

Kafka HIbino.... in that black turtleneck and a dark brown leather jacket and also wearing glasses and has salt and pepper side burns.

Kafka Hibino.... wearing that outfit and is an Animal Biology Professor in an College Au.

Kafka Hibino..... asking out Hoshina who is an Advanced Mathematics Professor working at the same college, to have an after-work drink with him.

Slightly DRUNK Kafka Hibino... becoming very forward with an also slightly drunk Hoshina

Slightly Drunk Hoshina... immediately matching Kafka's freak tenfold and Kafka is very much fine with this.

[stupidrant]

Do you have any fanfic recs that aren’t proships? Because all I find when I look for fics on ao3 is proships, I think even that one person who sent a ss of what she saw was having the same issue

If youre asking for any atreboda fanfics, luckily i do 💜in no particular order: 1) grounded/uzieminoy , 2) how do i fair? , 3) the stars here are different (i have no idea if deleted or is just for members. Its about angrboda having a dream of her and atreus in a field and it manifesting into them actually kissing in the golden fields of jotunheim. Its a really cute short story) , 4) of monsters and men (not really atreboda focused but they are there. KEEP IN MIND this fic is very violent and graphic but i really love how the author made this. Its not completed yet but there is a sort of happy end.) 5) window seat (was a oneshot but then author wanted it to be a series but discontinued it shortly after 💔), 6) of atreus and calliope (not completely atreboda focused and i havent been up to date with this one as of late, but it is constantly updated. I recommend for the cute and angsty sibling moments with atreus and calliope), 7) blood upon the sands (freytos focused with atreboda involved. Havent finished this either but i recommend 💚)

[wildsaltair]

today I’d like to say that I love Maximus very much. I know this comes as a shock to everyone

[saberamane]

Ugh, why does my mind keep doing this??

WWBFT is outlined, stop trying to add shit that I have to try and figure out where it'd fit in that made sense!

[courtneydeservesbetter]

Hate that my favorite character is usually the least fav in a popular ship. This happens to me so often that I can feel it when I read a fanfic. That my baby just isn’t as fleshed out as the other half of the couple, that they’re basic personality traits are off, that the blame of everything bad that happened in their canon relationship is on them. So then I’m reading like HEY leave them alone, they’re BOTH freaks!

[swiftsaltsweet]

Kyoshi's PR Manager-Prologue

Characters: Rangi and Kyoshi (Possibly characters from Reckoning of Roku)

Pairing: Rangshi

Summary:   Summary: During the later years of Kyoshi’s life, the world is imploding with new catastrophes. Kyoshi and Rangi have to figure out what might be the root shared cause. Will they be able to fix it, or will it be too late for Kyoshi and her legacy?

Prologue is spoiler free (will update summary later), but spoilers for Reckoning of Roku most likely later in the story. Obvie spoilers for Rise/Shadow of Kyoshi

(As cracky as the title is, this is NOT a comedy or crack fic, it’s a fix-it fic where I try to reconcile what happened in Roku’s canon TT0TT).

Other Sites: AO3 

A/N: NO spoilers for the novel this chapter.

Gd man, I was taking a break this week cause I was recovering from my sickness and then I see those LEAKS about Kyoshi from the Roku novel? Nah. Nope. Uh uh. Not on my watch. Kyoshi? Rangi? Get behind me I’ll protect you. I’ll sacrifice both my lungs and sleep for you two. 

Just the prologue for now, I still need to see the specifics of the novel when it comes out. But I have a decent idea where I wanna take this based on what I know.

________________________

Kyoshi ran her thumb down the length of the rough parchment as she read through it again for the hundredth time. The contents weren’t good. In fact, none of the correspondences she’d been getting for the last handful of years have been good. It was just disaster after disaster.

Kyoshi put the paper down on her desk, and leaned back into her chair, letting her full weight as well as the weight of the world be held up by some simple wooden pieces. She closed her eyes. Things had been going more or less smoothly for roughly two hundred years. So what changed? 

She let out a deep sigh. She could feel the sound of it reverberate around the study. Filling up all the empty space. 

“More bad news?” a charred voice whispered nearby. It was like music to Kyoshi’s ears.

Kyoshi opened her eyes to see her wife, Rangi, walking quietly into the study, tea in hand. Her features were laced with worry as she quickened her pace to be by Kyoshi’s side. Kyoshi wanted to smile in reassurance, but couldn’t find the strength.

“It’s like someone’s approached our little orderly web of strings and started yanking on it,” she paused, and then corrected herself. “Or more like, someone is taking a machete to it.” She folded her hands onto the desk and leaned her forehead against them. “It’s falling apart. Everything is going wrong. It’s starting to become impossible to put back together.”

Put back together. Her secret mantra. One that tied back to how she, her wife, and her teacher maintained their immortality. Catalog everything. Every weight, every breath, every scar. She would do it for her body. She would do it for the nations. She would do it for the world. 

Put the pieces back. Make it orderly. Everything will be fine.

But it wasn’t. Someone or something was making disruptions. It was becoming too much to catalog. And not just the physical world, but also the Spirit World too.

Seeds of chaos were being sown everywhere, and Kyoshi was only one person. She couldn’t be everywhere. The bison was only so fast. She had so few she could trust.

Rangi grabbed the letters off of Kyoshi’s desk and started putting them into separate piles. “We’ll figure it out. First, we need to triage. Which of these is more dire, who can we send in our stead-” she kept listing off what they needed to do. It filled Kyoshi’s chest with warmth. No matter how many years, decades, centuries passed, Rangi stayed consistent. Ever unyielding. Even more so than Kyoshi herself. 

She would’ve made a fantastic earthbender. She has the mentality for it. Kyoshi laughed in her head. 

“You’re right,” Kyoshi let herself smile just a tiny bit. “One step at a time.”

“All the time in the world,” Rangi smiled back, letting herself be happy that Kyoshi’s spirits were up off the ground. Even if it was only by an inch.

Kyoshi shook her head. “Maybe for us, but not for others.” 

She leaned down and started looking at the piles. Crop desolations, raids from outlaws, angry spirits threatening a village, assassinations were happening left and right.

Kyoshi picked up the letter about assassinations and showed it to Rangi with one hand, and grabbed a map with the other.

Rangi frowned at it. “Well this would explain where those rumors started…..”

“Which ones?” Kyoshi snorted. She had so many. Most were completely fabricated about her. Others were completely misinformed. Maybe one percent held the truth, but no one was interested in the story behind the truth. She didn’t care and it didn’t matter. Her job was to fix things, not worry about her public image. 

Kyoshi started poking the map with different colored pins. She went into her desk and started grabbing for colored string. Once secured, she began looping it around the pins that matched the same color.

“What are you looking at?” Rangi asked, trying to read Kyoshi’s intent through her actions. “Common theme? Looking for connections?”

“Yes, something like that.” Once she finished the last loop she started pointing to the various colors. “That represents all the spiritual events that are going down. That is for the assassinations. And those are raids and other criminal activities.” She took a letter opener off the desk, and slammed it down into one part of the map, piercing it and the table it layed on. “That’s where Grandfather is.” She gave Rangi a pointed look.

Here’s Lao Ge. 

Rangi stiffened at her look, then she frowned at the placement. “Good news, he’s on the other side of the map.” She pointed at where the assassinations were congregated. “‘Out of danger.’” 

I don’t think it’s physically possible he committed the murders. Not with that distance. Her eyes told Kyoshi.

Their eyes tore away from each other and flitted them across the room. 

They wondered if they were being spied on. Yangchen had advised her on how people used to get creative in their spy activities back in her day, and Kyoshi couldn’t help but wonder if the same thing was happening to her.

Paranoia was an illness, it twisted the mind. Questioned her reasoning. Nothing could cure it. Her only options were to continue worrying, or have her worst fear realized and have her paranoia be proven right.

Everyday she hoped the latter would never happen. Of all the things she’d want proven right, this was not one of them. 

“I’m afraid for his health,” pulling Rangi’s attention back to her. “He’s not as spry as he used to be. Perhaps we should pay him a visit?” 

We need to check up on him. Verify and corroborate he’s not the one behind this.

“I agree, he’s getting up in age. I’m sure he’s lonely, he doesn’t get many visitors. I’m sure he’d be excited to see us.”

Sounds good to me. We have a lot to catch up on, perhaps he has a lead?

“Then we should get packing and head out as soon as possible.”

“What about all the other problems?” Rangi asked. 

Kyoshi pointed to where the criminal activity was on the map. “We can hit these up on the way to see Grandfather. I’ll need to look at the letters again, and see if the ones pertaining to spirits can also be addressed on the way to see him as well.” She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “We’ll save addressing the assassinations in person for later. I’ll send word out to see if anyone has replacements in mind and for me to look over their qualifications while we’re in the air. I want to make sure the person is vetted thoroughly before we put them into a position of power.” 

Rangi looked at the map on the desk. “I’ll run to the library and grab some farming material based on the regions the crop desolations are in. If anything, I can at least rule out if spirits are involved with them or not.” 

“Sounds good.”

“Kyoshi, is there anyone else we’re going to take with us?” Rangi looked at her hard, but Kyoshi knew Rangi wasn’t asking because she didn’t know the answer. If anyone was listening, it was for their ears to know Kyoshi’s intent. Perhaps Rangi wanted to archive which people who did or didn’t still ask Kyoshi if she needed someone to join her? 

Of course, they could try to cover their tracks by asking, even if they knew the answer was ‘No.’ Ah, how Kyoshi hated these mind games and schemes. So much like pai sho, and she hated pai sho. 

“No, this is an emergency. Plus, you know Grandfather is wary of new people. It’s best if we go alone.” Just you, me, and the bison. 

Rangi nodded, “Then I’ll go get Byakko ready and packed to go.” She turned and headed out the door.

Kyoshi rushed back to her desk and furiously began writing the letters she needed to send out. 

___

A/N: Lord freaking knows I’m going to have to make some changes to this when I get my hands on the book (and see a line that contradicts). But I have contingency plans and the power of lies on my side! (as well as slight vagueness in wording so I can give myself the appropriate amount of “years” to work with later).  I’ll make a note in the author notes with a date indicating if I had to overhaul/update some writing. 

[feverinfeveroutfic]

The Confectioner’s Tale | Chapter Eleven

The library not too far from my house was a cozy and quaint one, but it had nothing on the Huntington Library, however. I ran it by Pete as he and I strode on in through the glass front doors, and he treated me to a chuckle.

“Maybe when we come on back here I can take you there,” he assured me, and he lowered his voice to a near whisper.

I remembered Ben making promises to me like that.

He would come back to me. He would return to me when he felt like it. He had come about for the turtles and the Swiss roll; surely, he would come back around once again.

But Pete was different. He came back to me when I least expected it.

There was a day that Ben returned to me, and he finally offered me a date back on over to the islands, back to Bainbridge Island and perhaps on over to Vashon Island. The day would just be and me, especially since Anne-Marie was swamped with the book work at the bakery for the time being.

He had pulled up to the curb before our loft, and I was not really ready as of the time. I still had to put my shoes on and run a brush through my hair.

“Brush your hair on the ride down to the ferry,” he suggested with a little smile.

Pete waited for me, though. Once I had come out of my apartment, he knew that he made the right choice with me. He walked on over to the section about architecture, to which I wrinkled my nose at that. I had no problems with architecture per se, but I never met an architect that I liked.

On those hot July days when I stayed in Seattle, I would find myself gazing up at the buildings which lined the streets. I would find myself looking on at the Space Needle, and I thought about climbing up there to really see if it was that much of a panoramic view as everyone had said that it was. Indeed, in between my shifts at the bakery, I thought of making special cookies with blue and green frosting in the shape of the Space Needle.

I even ran it by Ben himself on the ride down to the ferry.

“I dunno, that feels a little cliché,” he sheepishly told me. “I mean, you can if you want. It’s your bakery and your itinerary. That’s just my opinion.”

Something about it left a strange feeling in my stomach and my chest. We rode down to the pier in silence, but he opened the door for me and let me board the ferry first. I still wanted to bake him a thing or two, be it more turtles or a Swiss roll. But something about the way he said that made me wonder if I was even doing something right at all.

I still wanted to try things out with him, however.

I looked on over to Peter, who cradled a book about Greek architecture in his hands and buried his nose in between the pages. I couldn’t help but smile at him.

The Seattle skyline sure did look amazing from the ferry, though, and more so from the pier on the coast of Bainbridge Island: the Space Needle stood strong and mighty adjacent to the looming sleeping snow-capped monster that was Mount Rainier off in the distance. There would be another place where I would shadow another baker, another place with spectacular architecture and one hell of view, but that was a story for later. Even with Ben putting the kibosh on my idea for the time being, I still felt it in my bones. I had always been defiant. I wanted to make those cookies lemon and lime, accompanied with a tangy lime frosting dyed blue and green.

It was an idea that stayed with me even when I left Seattle and began shadowing elsewhere.

It was an idea that stayed with me as I wandered on over to the section of the library all about cooking, which stood adjacent to the section about art. I could capture two birds with one stone from there.

Birds. One of those mirror glaze cakes with birds over the top, which in turn could give me practice in drawing birds with frosting.

I rounded the corner of the bookshelf, where I spotted that head of long lush black curls accentuated by a tiny plume of white at the crown. He stood at the far end of the aisle wrapped head to toe in snug black, which only made me look on at his body more, even as he was checking out a book about Georgia O’Keeffe.

I loved boys who loved to eat. I loved boys who were soft in some way, or in more ways than one. And I especially loved boys with good taste in art.

“Hey!” I whispered, and I hurried on over to him. Alex lifted his head and he showed me a little smile, at which point he closed the book and pressed the front cover up against his chest.

“Hey, you! I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

“I just wanted to come here and check out some things,” I explained to him with a shrug of my shoulders. “Check out some culinary books and some art books.”

“How fun and how lovely, too,” he stated; a few locks of his hair dangled down from the side of his head onto his chest and his shoulder.

One thing that I could not get over with Ben was how he always kept his hair short. In retrospect, I knew that should have been a clue in how I feel so much better looking at long gorgeous hair, but he always had these soft waves around the crown of his head: his hair would curl up around his head from under the brim of his ballcap or the Stetson in his backseat.

Long soft waves down onto his chest, onto the buttons of his black silk shirt which was already nicely fitted on his slender, beautiful body; Alex nudged a lock back, and I moved in closer to him.

“Did you know that a woman’s most sexual organ is her brain?” I asked him in a near whisper.

“I had a feeling, but… no, I can’t say I have known that, though,” he confessed to me, and he lowered the book to show me the way he kept his shirt collar open. “It would make sense, though. You’re visual and you like to let yourselves imagine. Sometimes I feel that way, too. A creative person, a very cerebral person…”

“You sure it’s your brain and not your belly?” I teased him: the only thing that separated me from him was the book as well as his arm, that is until he moved the book out of the way to show me the middle of his body.

“Who says your belly can’t be erotic, either?” he asked me.

“Oh, speak my language, baby,” I whispered to him, and I rested my hand on his slender but soft stomach.

I never got that close with Ben, even when I had suggested it to him. I was lucky to even so much as hug him with his clothes on. I remembered that he was soft about the waist, but Alex was soft in that he let me in: it was like holding a fluffy little pillow, one ready to hold my head and shoulders, and one that needed to be kissed as well.

He nudged my hair back behind my ear and hooded his eyes at me.

“Oh, sweet Hannah,” he started in a low, husky voice, “the confectioner, the baker, the artist…”

He then lifted his gaze to the aisle behind me, and I followed his stare to what was behind us. Pete was apparently still on the other side of the library, still looking on at the books about architecture, which meant Alex and I could be alone. 

“You wanna go into the back room over here and make out a little bit?” he offered me.

“Please. We’ll come back to Georgia, too.”

“Always!” He tucked the book into an empty spot on the shelf where we could easily retrieve it once we had finished, and we crept around the shelves to a door to a room, which I soon realized held the entire card catalog, the long low shelves which contained the boxes upon boxes of cards for each and every book in that library. All I could hope was that the librarians would not walk in there at any given point as we ducked on behind the shelf closest to us, all the way to the back so we could be alone.

During the ferry ride, I found myself looking on at Ben and the way that he talked to the other passengers, but not once did I found myself thinking about spare rooms onboard so we could have a moment alone together. I did however think of laying down with him in the backseat of his car should we ever stay out too late there on the islands. He drove this older Impala with soft velvety seats which felt like marshmallows.

But the only thing that would make my little session with Alex in that back of that room even better was if the bakery stood on the other side of the back door there. To make out with him at work, in between bakes, in between customers walking in.

He leaned back against the wall while I stood before him so we could spare the catalog. I had just enough light to run my fingers through his hair and see what I was doing: I never liked the idea of doing it with the lights off, not even when Ben was in the picture.

Very slowly, I unbuttoned his shirt for him, and I smiled when I looked on at his soft little belly and his deep chest.

“Hey, how would you feel if I made cookies with the Space Needle in the frosting?” I asked him as I stroked his chest.

“That’d be bitchin’,” he replied with a twinkle in his eye. He then gasped. “Could you do the Golden Gate Bridge, too?”

“If you’d like!” I promised him with a touch of his face using nothing more than my fingertips.

“Could you do the Statue of Liberty, too?” he asked with a slight coy bow of his head. “Seeing as my mom and dad are from New York City?”

“I would love to,” I vowed to him, and I moved my hand down his chest to feel his heart beating hard and fast in his chest. He was anticipating it, and I was anticipating it as well. “Maybe you could take a few back to your parents, too. Any specific flavor? Basic shortbread? Gingerbread? Lavender and lemon?”

“Ooh, lavender and lemon,” he said with a quick flash of his eyebrows. “My mom would like that with her cups of tea. I think my dad will like shortbread.”

“It’s butter, flour, and sugar,” I explained with a stroke of his exposed chest with my fingertips. “I’ll add a little citrus or spice flavor to it, too. Some orange zest or a little kiss of cinnamon with some cardamom. You know. Something for a…” I curled my fingers over his skin, over the curls of hair in the very center of his chest: the feeling of the hair was enough to make me tingle right in between my legs. Ben hardly ever gave me that feeling; Pete was on his way. But Alex gave me that feeling right away. “…something for a good time.”

I could feel my hips swaying right before him, and he showed me a little lopsided smirk.

“Blood sugar, baby,” I whispered to him as I stroked the side of his face and softly kissed him on the lips. I hoped Pete wouldn’t mind at all as we very slowly made out there in the card catalog.

“Be careful with cardamom,” he whispered to me.

“…aphrodisiacs,” I breathed in between kisses.

“You know it, my naughty little baker…” His hands drifted up under my shirt as he unhooked my bra for me.

“Take me to the Huntington,” I whispered to him.

“Gladly,” he whispered back to me as he slithered his tongue into my mouth like that of a snake. His fingers slid up into the roots of my hair. His body was soft and tender, and in communion with mine, a feeling that I had never experienced once before. 

Not even with the way Ben’s body felt and looked soft to me.

I ran my fingers through his hair, and then I pressed my hands on either side of his face. I kissed him so slowly, so deeply, and with such force that I forgot I was there with Pete. I forgot about Ben.

I especially forgot about Ben once Alex slid his fingers down inside my pants and fondled me. I gasped right into his face, and I showed him my tongue.

“What’cha doing, big boy?” I asked him.

“Pushing your buttons,” he replied. “Your pleasure is my pleasure.”

“Aw, aren’t you sweet. You’re getting all the cookies for that—!” I gasped as he slid his index finger onto my clit. It was like I was riding waves, waves of sugar of which he was stirring about with his wooden spoon. I let out a low whistle and kissed him.

“That’s good,” I whispered to him. “That’s so good.”

I was never a screamer, and especially not in a sacred place like the library, but rather, I leaned into his body and rested my head and my hand up against his chest. He bowed his head over the top of mine: I could feel him smelling my hair.

And all the while, a voice in the back of my head asked me why Ben never made a move like this on me.

[valkyurii]

I hope this isnt rude to ask but I see you talk about ocs but do you ever write about them?

it’s not rude to ask. i do write about them only i don’t post it anywhere. from what i’ve seen people are kind of weird about non tarnished ocs and to be honest it makes me a little anxious lmao

[whereistheonepiece]

Real.

[fitzrove]

Rant in the tags... I am insufferable

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

hang on are cougars like panthers

[poppyseed799]

I feel like life series fanon jimmy is kind of mischaracterized and there’s an easy way to make sure you’re doing it right: he has a lot of unearned confidence

[wait-a-minute-lassie]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Jo Gar Series - Ramon Decolta Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Jo Gar - Character, Sadi Ratan Additional Tags: Original Character(s), The Magician Murder, The Magician Murder AU, Abuse of Authority, not-quite accurate depiction of legal processes in pre-Revised Penal Code era, mixed opinions on American-era occupation, it's set during the American occupation of the Philippines (duh!), no beta we die like every murder victim of every Jo Gar story ever, sadi sounds more like a spurned lover fight me Summary:

“And you will be brought to trial for lying to me, a police officer!” Edilberto heard Lieutenant Ratan fiercely threaten Jo Gar. “‘Lying to me?’” he repeated the words mockingly as a greeting to the lieutenant. He closed the door behind him a little too strongly and raised a brow at the lieutenant. “Who the fuck do you think Jo Gar is, your wayward husband?”

When a chat about the case of the murdered magician goes ugly, one of Jo Gar's longtime acquaintances walks up into the scene and chooses figurative violence against the lieutenant of the Manila Police Station who thinks he is right in accusing an innocent man of a murder he may not commit. Or "The Magician Murder" AU in which someone puts Sadi Ratan in his place. Title from Taylor Swift's "Karma".

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

most unfortunate thing ive learned about getting into jr.wi is the overlap with genlo.ssers