#leo’s post got them shook

[sturniluvr]

Puppy Love

Matt sturniolo x fem!reader

word count: 1.5k

warnings: none that I can think of, just fluffy

summary: for their anniversary, Matt surprises Y/N by adopting a dog for them and they become dog parents

requested?: yes/no

A/N: the whole adoption process may be incorrect as I’ve never adopted a dog or anything like that so idk if you can actually adopt them and then pick them up but hey ho😭also the photos for the IG posts at the end, just imagine the puppy in the photos is a golden lab and not some random dogs off Pinterest or Trevor, Presley or Leo Leclerc, it was hard finding photos😭

❗️semi proof read❗️

Today was Matt and Y/N’s 3 year anniversary and Matt had a big surprise for Y/N, he was going to the animal shelter to pick up their new Labrador retriever puppy. She had wanted a pet for the longest time and as much as Matt hated to, he had to say no to her since there was nobody to take care of said pet. A year later however, Y/N had started her own business and began to work from home, so she was always home and Matt thought it’d be the perfect anniversary present to get her a pet. 

He woke up fairly early that morning to go and pick up the puppy and buy her a bouquet of flowers, he had already brought her a few gifts, but he decided last minute that some flowers wouldn’t hurt aswel and he had a sweet idea on how to introduce the dog to her that involved the flowers. He got dressed, got in his car and drove to the nearest flower shop to him and brought her a bouquet of her favourite flowers, roses and made his way to the animal shelter to pick up their new fur baby. 

He parked outside the animal shelter and made his way into the shelter, immediately getting overwhelmed with cuteness at all the dogs and cats, he just wanted to take them all home but sadly he couldn’t. The owner of the shelter came over to him and introduced herself.  

“Hi, you must be Matt? I’m Marie” she shook his hand. He nodded as he replied. 

“That’s me, how are you?” 

“I’m well thank you. I understand you’re here to pick up little Leo is that correct? He’s pretty well trained for his young age, but a little extra training would never hurt.” He nodded and he followed her over to the cage that held Leo, the 2 year old Labrador retriever who looked up at Matt with big brown eyes and his tongue hanging out. He immediately fell in love as soon as he laid eyes on the puppy. The older woman passed Matt the adoption papers and he signed them, he and Y/N were officially dog parents. 

“You’re going home today little man. Do you have all the supplies for him or is there anything you need to purchase while here?” The older lady spoke as she opened the cage and passed Leo over to Matt and once Leo was finished licking Matt’s face, he put him in the little carrier he had brought the day before. 

“I have most of it, all I need is some food and a leash and then we’ll be good to go, won’t we buddy?” He replied, looking at the puppy. He had brought everything they’d need for Leo a couple days ago and hid it in Chris’ room knowing that’s the room Y/N was least likely to go in out of the house. Matt and Marie made their way over to the counter after grabbing a bag of puppy food and a leash off the shelves and Marie moved to behind the counter to scan what he needed. 

“That’s all done for you. Do you have any questions about taking care of Leo here?” Marie asked Matt as she passed him the plastic bag with the puppy food and leash. 

“Yeah. Leo’s a surprise for my girlfriend for our anniversary and I also brought her some flowers for an idea I had to introduce Leo to her. Are roses generally safe to have in his mouth?” Matt queried. 

“Yes, they are harmless to him, just make sure you obviously cut off the thorns beforehand, so he doesn’t hurt himself on them. You’re a good boyfriend, your girlfriend is lucky” she smiled sweetly causing a gentle blush to paint Matt’s cheeks. 

“Thank you that’s very sweet and yeah, I was planning to cut them off anyway, that’s all thank you. Have a good day.” Matt thanked her and grabbed the crate and bag of supplies and left the shelter and got Leo’s crate settled in the passenger seat of the car. 

“You ready to go meet your mama?” Matt spoke to the puppy, Leo panting in response, they made a quick stop at Starbucks to get Y/N a caramel latte and Matt got the same and brought Leo a puppucino. 

Before he walked into the house, Matt called Nick to come to the garage with some scissors so he could sort the roses out. He saw Nick walk out of the garage door and he passed the scissors through the car window and walked over to the opposite side so he could ‘meet his nephew’ as he said. As soon as he opened the crate and picked up Leo, he smiled at the adorable puppy.  

“Why are you cutting the thorns off the roses?” Nick asked his younger brother with the puppy in his arms. 

“I’m going to put one of the roses in Leo’s mouth and surprise Y/N like that and I’ll put the rest in a vase for her next to her card and other presents.” Matt replied, concentrating on cutting the thorns so his little puppy won’t hurt himself.  

When he was done, Nick took the rest of the flowers and took them upstairs to put in a vase for Matt while he got Leo ready to surprise the younger woman. 

“Right, are you ready to go meet mama? You know what to do?” The dog replied by licking his face causing a smile to illuminate Matt’s face. He picked the puppy up and grabbed the Starbucks and locked the car and made his way upstairs. 

He put Leo on the floor in the living room, having Nick watch him to make sure he didn’t move until he needed to, and Matt picked up Y/N’s latte and walked into his room, smiling at the sight of Y/N still flat out asleep, hugging mr wrinkleton to her chest. He walked over to her side of the bed and gently shook her. 

“Wake up beautiful. I got you a latte” she smiled sleepily as she took the Starbucks from her boyfriend and took small sips before placing it on the bedside table.

“Happy anniversary my love” she murmured sleepily “your gift and card are in the closet.” She added on, attempting to get up but Matt softly pushed her back down. 

“I want you to have my presents first babe, I have a nice surprise for you.” Y/N was slightly confused as he took her hand to lead her out of the bed and out the bedroom and her eyes locked on the Labrador retriever puppy sat in the living room with a rose in his mouth. She gasped and slapped her hands over her mouth, and she quickly walked over to him, pulling the rose from his mouth and immediately, she started fussing him. 

“This is Leo, he’s our new puppy” Matt smiled, and Y/N’s eyes filled with small tears of happiness. Matt made his way over to his little family and sat on the floor, fussing the puppy with his girlfriend. 

“Welcome home baby boy” Y/N cooed to the puppy, causing him to lick her face and she giggled. Matt took a picture of the two along with the photos he already had of Leo, one being of him sat on his lap with his head on the steering wheel that Nick had took just before he came upstairs.

“I love you both so much” Y/N whispered, reaching over and planting a kiss on Matt’s lips which and the couple smiled into the kiss before getting interrupted by Leo joining in by licking their faces making them both laugh at the puppy.

After playing with Leo, Y/N opened her other gifts from Matt and Y/N had gave Matt her presents for him, the couple quickly grabbed Leo’s things from Chris’ room, making sure Chris was awake first and the youngest triplet made his way upstairs and played with the puppy to keep him entertained while Y/N and Matt sorted his things out throughout the house such as his bed, his training pads and his food and drink bowls and everything else. 

They had finished setting everything up for Leo and the couple were now in his bathroom, Y/N, getting ready for the day and Matt was brushing his teeth while watching, almost mesmerised, while she applied her makeup. 

“Thank you, Matt, I’m so happy we now have our own puppy” Y/N smiled as she hugged Matt after she finished applying her makeup. He smiled as he hugged her back, placing a kiss on the crown of her head. 

“It’s okay sweetheart, I know how much you wanted a pet and now that there’s someone home pretty much 24/7, I decided it’d be perfect to surprise you with Leo. Happy anniversary darling.” he replied. 

“Happy anniversary baby” she murmured, her words being muffled from Matt’s t-shirt. 

“What do you say we take Leo for a walk on the beach, yeah?” He suggested, she nodded to her boyfriend and the couple left the bathroom to get shoes on and Y/N picked Leo up and they made their way down to the garage and got in the car and headed to the beach. 

Matt and Y/N announced the addition to the household a week later on Instagram. 

y/user

Liked by: matthew.sturniolo, nicolassturniolo, christophersturniolo, madisonbeer and others

y/user: the latest addition to the sturniolo-y/l/n household, welcome home baby Leo, featuring uncle Chris and Leo having cuddles🫶🏻

tagged: matthew.sturniolo, christophersturniolo

comments:

nicolassturniolo: Leo Sturniolo-y/l/n supremacy🫶🏻😌love the little fur baby❤️

liked by: y/user, matthew.sturniolo

christophersturniolo: Little Leo loves his uncle chris, he’s the cooler uncle😉

liked by: y/user, matthew.sturniolo, nicolassturniolo

nicolassturniolo: umm I think tf not

y/user: how about he likes his mama better than both of you?😌😘

liked by: christophersturniolo, nicolassturniolo, matthew.sturniolo

matthew.sturniolo: now that we have a fur baby, can I call you a MILF?😘😏

liked by creator❤️

y/user: you’ve been spending too much time with Chris 😭😂

liked by: matthew.sturniolo

user5: MATT😭😭😭

user1: OMG NOW THEYRE PARENTSS

user2: milf and dilf🤭

matthew.sturniolo: that’s what I’m sayin😌

user2: MATT LMAOOOO

nathandoe8: uncle Nate wants cuddles next time I’m in LA

liked by: y/user, matthew.sturniolo

y/user: can’t wait for you to meet him Nate, if we come to Boston before you come to LA, well for sure bring him to meet his uncle Nate😘

madisonbeer: omg Leo and Presley play dates when I’m back from tour🤭🫶🏻

liked by creator❤️

y/user: you already know it babes, Leo and Presley gonna be the baddest duo ever 🤭

user4: Leo asleep on Matt’s shoulder😭

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matthew.sturniolo

Liked by: y/user, nicolassturniolo, christophersturniolo, nathandoe8 and others

matthew.sturniolo: Leo Sturniolo-y/l/n everybody🐾❤️and the most gorgeous milf ever😉😘

photo creds to @/nicolassturniolo for the first photo📸

tagged: y/user

comments:

nicolassturniolo: he’s so photogenic just like his uncle Nick🤭😌

liked by creator❤️

nicolassturniolo: Matt giving photo creds? who is this and what have you done with my brother?

liked by: matthew.sturniolo, y/user

matthew.sturniolo: ha ha ha ha, so funny nicolas🙄

y/user: I thought he was pretty funny babe👀

nicolassturniolo: see Matt😌

matthew.sturniolo: you’re both annoying (Y/N come back to the couch, me and our son want cuddles😘)

user5: has Leo met Trevor yet??

y/user: no not yet as we haven’t had the chance to go to Boston. We’re planning to soon tho so they will meet soon💓

y/user: our fur baby🥹thank you again for surprising me with him baby❤️

liked by creator❤️

matthew.sturniolo: you’re welcome my love❤️ now will you PLEASE come back to the couch I’m getting cuddle deprived😭

y/user: on my way you needy child🫶🏻😭

y/user: and stop calling me a milf, @/christophersturniolo you’re a bad influence on my boyfriend 😭😭

liked by: matthew.sturniolo, christophersturniolo

matthew.sturniolo: but baby you AREEE a milf😘😭

y/user: anyone want a Matt Sturniolo?? he’s free on the boyfriend market😭😂

christophersturniolo: im not a bad influence missy, you’re just boring (you’re literally the funniest person i know after me)

liked by: y/user

y/user: @/christophersturniolo why thank you😌😭

liked by: matthew.sturniolo, christophersturniolo

christophersturniolo: Matt quit simping on the main😭, where’s tough guy Matt💪🏻

liked by: matthew.sturniolo, y/user

matthew.sturniolo: ‘tough guy Matt’ will be coming to kick your ass if you don’t shut up 🤺

nicolassturniolo: more like setting Leo on him, dogs got some gnashers on him😭

liked by: matthew.sturniolo christophersturniolo, y/user

y/user: leave Matt alone you two, just cus you’re both single and he’s not😘🙄

liked by creator❤️

matthew.sturniolo: thank you baby😌

user9: Leo with the rose in his mouth🥹

liked by: y/user

y/user: that was how Matt introduced me to him on our anniversary, he had the roses in his mouth 🥹

user9: STOP THATS THE CUTEST😭 IM SO SINGLE😭

user11: most iconic dog ever alongside Trevor and Presley😌

liked by: matthew.sturniolo, y/user

user7: the puppucino😭😂

user1: Y/N and Leo asleep together has got to be the cutest thing ever😭🫶🏻

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🏷️: @imwetforyourmom @luvr4miya @laurj11

If you’re an f1 fan, notice a familiar pup in here😌🤭

[severeturttism]

[SFW] rottmnt! leonardo | hurt w/ comfort - post rise movie.

'you save everyone, but who saves you?'

Leo knew something was off with you and his brothers. It was easy to spot the collective whisper-y gatherings he wasn't invited to, or the way everyone seemed to hover a little closer than normal.

He didn't know how to feel about it all.

Your behaviours, above all else, had him the most worried - ever since the Kraang invasion, and subsequent stopping of said Kraang invasion, you always had this far away look in your eyes that he couldn't quite place.

The red-eared slider turtle had, in fact, pestered his twin about the matter; insisting you needed a check up. Donnie had refused, adamantly and confidently, every time he was asked - stating there was nothing wrong with you. So the soft-shell must've known what was actually going on behind your glazed eyes.

He had noticed that Mikey seemed particular about your meals; making sure you always had your favourite dish, and, without fail, giving you a friendly pat on the head. So the box-turtle must've known what was going on behind your less-than-enthusiastic demeanour.

And then there was Raph who, despite his insistence on never sharing any of his cuddly stuffed toys with anyone, had given you several (several of which Leo knows he would've been chased around the lair for, had he stolen them). So the snapper must've known what was going on behind those occasional tremors your hands would have.

He was curious - but you were his partner, and until you were ready to tell him what was plaguing your mind... it was none of his business.

| ONE WEEK LATER | The turtles had been cleared for missions and, to no ones surprise, they had come back in pretty bad shape - it had been nearly three months since the Kraang invasion, and since their last fight, so it was bound to occur. That was what Leo convinced himself.

Until he saw you. Maybe it was then he realised the weight of his actions, now and three months ago.

The way your hands shook involuntarily as you looked him over, your brow furrowed with such contained anger, yet tears welled in your eyes in a way he hadn't seen since Mikey had pulled him through that portal. Guilt welled in his stomach as his hand grasped yours, and watched as you broke in front of him.

That was an hour ago, and now, he laid with you in his bed after promising his brothers that he had it handled - protectively curled around you, with your forehead rested against his plastron, listening intently to your soft sniffles, whispering affirmations in your ear the more you calmed and rubbing soothing circles into your back.

"I'm," he paused rubbing circles at the sound of your hoarse voice "sorry... It was just," you took a deep, shuddering breath "a lot to see - after everything that happened."

Leo hummed softly, understanding - and pressed a soft peck to the crown of your head "I know," he affirmed "I'm sorry." He stopped for a moment, letting out a gentle sigh "I'm not dismissing how it feels for you... but you know this will happen again, right? We've got people to save." Leo reasoned, almost not convinced himself.

He felt your breath hitch through the tenseness of your body "You can save everyone, but... but who saves you?" You let out a warbled sob, and Leo felt his entire world crash around him - sitting up suddenly and bringing you with him, cupping your cheeks in his hands as he tried to soothe the tears away.

"Mi amor," he began, his own eyes beginning to sting "you'll save me," he pressed his forehead to yours; eyes never leaving your own "my brothers will save me," he continued "I have my family."

Leo brought you in close to his plastron again, tightly - he was here. "I love you, I'm sorry," he felt himself croak out, burying his face into your shoulder "I'm sorry."

"I love you too," you whimpered out - basking in his touch "I'll save you." You repeated like a mantra, seemingly to convince yourself more than him.

"You'll save me." Leo reassured.

Physical wounds healed easily enough, but the emotional scars would last a lifetime - somehow, though, Leo thinks things will be alright.

[poppitron360]

Digging through my old fanfics, and I forgot I wrote this one based on a conversation I had with @four-leafed-queer-gal ages ago in this post

I wasn’t really confident posting fics at the time, and this technically never got finished, but I thought I’d post it anyway.

——————

“Hey, you weren’t at Lunch?” Jason asked.

Leo turned around to look at Jason, brushing a curtain of curly hair over the left side of his face. Jason thought that was odd- Leo hated his hair in his face.

“Oh… yeah- I was busy. Argo II stuff.”

“Leo, I know the other campers have been giving you weird looks ever since you revealed your powers-“

“It’s fine, Jason, don’t worry about it.”

A warm spring breeze danced around them. Leo put a hand on his curtain of hair, desperately trying to keep it over his face. Jason moved closer, and swept those curls out of the way behind Leo’s ear.

Leo had a black eye- his skin was purple and bruised. There was a cut on his cheek. Jason reached up to touch it but Leo grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand away.

“Who did this to you?” Jason snarled, his voice low and deadly serious.

“It’s nothing- a- an accident at the workshop. Yes. Nothing to worry about.”

“Who. Did this?” Jason said again.

Leo looked flustered, obviously trying to hide his panic.

“Was it one of the other campers?” Jason asked, “It was, wasn’t it?”

“It- it’s nothing, Jason, really. I’m fine,” Leo’s voice was high pitched and a little hysterical.

“Tell me.”

“I- I… You know I’m not good with names. Plus, I didn’t really see their faces,” Leo stammered.

“Leo-“

“Look, just drop it, okay!!!” Leo yelled, “It’s not a big deal. Besides, it was worse in the Foster Homes…”

Leo was not at dinner. Jason was worried. He said goodnight to Piper and decided to go look for him. He searched Cabin 9- not there. The forges- not there.

As he approached the basketball courts, he heard voices.

“Look, guys, I don’t want any trouble,” It was Leo. He was using his whole suave-jokester voice, but Jason could hear the fear and panic underneath it.

Jason ran towards the voice.

He heard a scuffle, and yelling. When he walked onto the court he saw two Ares kids, punching and kicking Leo. Leo was curled up on the ground, whimpering.

“Freak! Monster! Arsonist!” One of them, Marcus, yelled.

Jason wondered why Leo wasn’t fighting back. He’d seen Leo in battle, he could do more than hold his own, but he was just taking it lying down, completely defenseless.

Jason rushed forward, grabbed the two oafs by the shoulders and pushed them away. Then he drew his sword, and held it at their throats.

“If you EVER hurt my friend again, I swear to my father-“

They got the message. They ran for the exit of the basketball courts. Jason wanted to chase after them, but thought better of it. He turned to Leo. He was still curled up in a ball, trembling and sobbing. His nose was bleeding. His hands and knees were bruised where they had been covering his head. His face was grazed and covered in dirt. Jason crouched down, and tilted his head sideways to get a better look at Leo’s face. He reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. Leo flinched.

“Leo…”

He looked up at Jason, his tears mixing with the blood and the grime on his face. Jason grabbed his shoulders and sat him up against the fence. He really was shaking quite a lot. His breathing was shallow and raspy, and he clutched his side as he breathed. Jason figured one of his ribs might be broken.

“Oh my gods… what did they do to you?”

“It- it’s nothing, Jason, I’m fine,” then he got hit with a coughing fit, while simultaneously wheezing in pain and clutching his side.

“We need to get you to the infirmary.”

“I’m good. Really. ‘Tis but a scratch!” He stood up, but his knees buckled and Jason had to catch him and steady him.

“You could’ve stopped them…” Jason said, his voice low, and serious, “Why… Why didn’t you?”

Leo shook his head. “I couldn’t… not again…”

“Leo-“

“If I lashed out, Jason, if- if I lost control…”

He didn’t need to finish the sentence. Jason understood. Leo could not fight back, because if he used his fire, then someone could’ve gotten seriously hurt. Marcus was a dick, but Leo didn’t wish the fate of his mother on anyone else. So he had to just take it.

“Thanks… for helping me…” Leo said.

“We have to tell Chiron what happened.”

“I’ve dealt with bullies before, Jason, this isn’t new.”

“But camp is meant to be a safe space! For you to be accepted for who you are- for your powers.”

Leo laughed. A painful, raspy laugh, Then he clutched his side, his face contorting in agony.

“Bullshit,” he said.

It made Jason’s heart break seeing Leo like this. He wanted to yell at Leo for pretending like this was nothing. But instead, he reached into Leo’s tool belt and pulled out an antiseptic wipe.

He moved to wipe the cut on Leo’s cheek, but Leo flinched and pulled back.

“Hey, hold still,” Jason instructed. He put a hand on Leo’s waist and pulled him closer, steadying his shaking body, “Now this might sting a bit-“ He said, softly. He dabbed at the cut, and Leo winced in pain but he didn’t pull away this time.

——————

Baby boyy…

[psychesalcove]

For the 100 event could I request Leo with the prompt: ֶָ֢”I’ve been trying to get ready for like an hour and a half, because i know you're going to look so good and I need to try and match up” :D

✧.* leo valdez x fem reader

my posts are completely race and body type friendly (unless stated in title) so no descriptive words here of someone's skin tone or body shape!! feel free to interact:)

part of psyches, 'in memory of those who chose the sea' event

-> want to participate in the event?

an: thanks for requesting my love!! i love this prompt with leo so so much oh my gods. i also made this a fem reader, so i hope none of you mind. love ya 🩷🫶🏻

you stood infront of the mirror on the wall as you double checked your makeup and hair. leo and you are heading out soon to meet the rest of the seven for dinner at some college restaurant–bar that percy recommended.

well, you would be on your way, if leo wasn't still in the bathroom.

you brushes a light finger over your cheek to level out your blush more before yelling out to leo. 'leo baby! we need to leave soon if we wanna meet them in the parking lot,"

all you got in response: muffleed sound of shuffling and something falling off of the counter in the bathroom. and, leo yelping. you rolled your eyes affectionately at him, pulling out your phone from your purse to quickly text the group chat that you'll be a couple minutes late.

after you made sure the text went though, you walked over to the bathroom and knocked on the door. knowing leo was always okay with you coming in, you opened the door and was met with quite the sight.

skincare products were all over the counter; along with hair gels, brushes, and even some makeup. you opened your mouth and blinked at the sight. leo grinned sheepishly at you. 'hi amor. i promise that i'll clean up the mess,' he said, eyes flickering over to the counter.

'hon, what are you doing?' you laughed, stepping more into the room. your eyes drifted over to leos hair; which was covered in hair gel. 'leo!' you gasped. 'love, what were you trying to do?' you laughed again, taking account of the amount of gel in his curls.

'amor,' he wined. 'stop making fun of me,' he turned on the sink and cupped his hands to collect water in them.

'i'm not making fun of you, love. just wanna know what you're doing,' you giggled, watching him as he dumped water onto his brown curls and started working the water though the hair. 'so, what are you doing?' you repeated.

'baby, i've been trying to get ready for like an hour n' half because i know you're going to look so good and i need to try and match up,' he explained focus still on working the water through his hair.

your heart midly felt like exploding from the confession. 'hon, you realize that i think you're the most handsome person i've ever seen, why would i need you to match up with me?' you asked as you moved to assist leo with his hair.

leo whined again. 'amor, i love you, but please,' he said, leaning into your touch. 'both of us know you're the more attractive out of us,'

'leo, do you not realize how many girls stare at you in public on a daily basis?' you asked, finally getting the rest of the gel out of his hair.

he tilted his head to the side like a confused puppy. 'nah, they're all looking at you amor,' he said, waving his hand in dismissal to your statement. you shook your head at leo not believing you, knowing every word you said was true; girls were all over him.

you kissed his cheek. 'we'll talk when we get home, we're gonna be late to dinner' you said as you grabbed a towel from a shelve and starting drying his hair in quick motions. once you were done, you kissed his lips with a quick peck before walking out.

you grabbed your purse as leo got the car keys, both of you making your way to the door. 'leo don't forget your flannel, you're gonna get cold if you don't bring it; like last time,' you scolded.

[shreddeddescent]

hhhhh yeah ok just for funsies.....

here's a snippet (its way longer than a snippet its 4000 words) of the worst case scenario story i wrote.

idk how much of the specifics will be canon. but i do think this is such a good blow up that it would be mean to keep it to myself.

maybe im posting it just to be like YEAH OK HERES THE TONE. IF YOURE NOT COMFORTABLE THEN YOU CANT BE HERE...

Warnings for mentions of: CSA rape forced incest uhhhh more probably. nothing shown but much mentioned. possibly warnings for more im not even thinking of. Im sorry just be careful.

Don’t be fucking weird about it to me ok we are in the raw place

so context. shredder kidnapped the boys for days to get what he wanted out of them. implications are clear enough through context i think. lot of drugging. they escaped and killed him (like for real this time) shit is weird and they're handling it as best they can. everyone is aware of this. they've had one therapy session w a weirdly inhuman therapist april found (from her connections in cryptid world) and nobody wants to look their mom in the eye. least of all raph. cuz god does it ever feel bad to know she knows.

the boys seem ok to the naked eye though. hence. this.

--

When they woke up the next morning Mikey had decided to make everyone pancakes. A true feast of flavours after their days of slop.

Donnie and Leo had set the table and let Raph rest at the head of it, he was still wearing Donnie’s old ratty black hoodie, it fit him perfectly. He’d also found some sweatpants, but those only rode up to his mid thigh. It still helped though.

Mikey was making two batches of pancakes, half with chocolate chips and half without, the pickier eaters with the cool mask colours refusing to try something sweet.

The air smelled strongly of bacon, and it was making Raph’s tummy growl loudly.

“Mikey you better hurry up, Raph’s gonna eat his plate!” Leo joked as he pat Raph on the back.

“You can’t hurry perfection!” Mikey whined as he plated some bacon.

“Uuuughhhh Mikey…! I can see the light!” Raph gasped out and reached his arm out above his head, miming his own death.

Mikey huffed and chucked a piece of bacon on his plate.

“To tide you over you big baby.”

Raph gasped and picked it up between his fingers gobbling it down with a loud moan.

“So fucking good Mikey…”

“Oh you’re all up!”

Raph froze, swallowing hard.

His mom was behind him and he was wearing Donnie’s hoodie. He had just moaned Mikey’s name. And his mom was behind him.

He felt Leo hovering over him but he didn’t move.

“Hi mom.” Leo said gently.

“Decided to make a big breakfast?” She wandered over to look at what Mikey was doing at the stove.

Leo put a hand on Raph’s shoulder when she turned and leaned down to enter his eyeline.

Raph stared at him with a panicked expression. Leo looked sympathetic.

“Yeah, we’re all pretty hungry.” Mikey responded.

“You want some help?”

“I got it, it’s almost done anyway.”

Raph was trying like hell not to have a panic attack. Leo put both arms around his shoulders in a loose hug, leaning down to speak in his ear.

“Deep breaths, Raph, it’s just mom. You’re okay.”

He tried to breathe, placing a hand on Leo’s arm. He saw his mom turn and quickly threw Leo’s arms off him.

She stared at him sadly, but tried to smile anyway.

“How are you feeling today Raphael?”

“Hungry.” He answered quickly. “Just really hungry.”

Her smile faltered for a moment, but she tried to keep it up anyway.

“Well, good thing your brother is such a good cook.” She turned to the fridge to grab some juice.

Raph clasped his chest, he didn’t know why it hurt.

Donnie was staring at him with some concern, he looked like he was about to ask him something so Raph just glared at him and held his finger to his lips.

Donnie rolled his eyes and rest his folded arms on the table.

Raph just stared at his empty plate, trying to calm his nerves.

Leo pat him on the back and shook him gently.

“Raphael do you want me to put on some coffee? Or would you like to take a nap later?”

He stared at his empty plate. Caffeine would make his chest worse than it already was.

“No, I'm very awake right now, super okay.” He super fucking wasn’t okay and he didn’t know why.

She turned around to pour a glass of orange juice for herself.

“Enough food for me to join you boys?”

Mikey turned his head to look back at Raph in question.

Raph stared back at him with an anxious look in his eye. He then looked back at his mom.

“Of course you can eat breakfast with us we’re not avoiding you or anything that would be mean!” He tried to make his words sound as playful as he could but he was pretty sure he sounded crazy.

She gave him a puzzled look but smiled anyway, and sat at the other end of the table.

Donnie gave him the most dumbfounded look, shaking his head slightly.

Leo nonchalantly scooted his chair closer to Raph and leaned over the counter.

“So. What did our doctor tell you?”

Raph kicked him under the table but he didn’t react.

She frowned and clasped her hands around her cup, looking down at it.

“She… said a few things. She told me to give you space, but not be too far in case you needed to talk. I’m trying not to worry, but I’m a little surprised that none of you have seeked me out for anything.”

Raph frowned and rubbed his arm, looking away.

“I.. I’m sorry, feels too raw right now..”

“I think anything we need to talk about can be said to the therapist.” Donnie said.

Raph looked up to glare at Donnie for his rudeness, but he’d stood up to help Mikey bring plates of food to the table.

“Which I understand, but I feel out of the loop. You’ve spoken to April. And this doctor. But no one even looked to me for a hug…”

Raph chewed his lip and closed his eyes. He felt horrible.

“Mom, I’m so sorry I just—“

“Because trying to be physically close with anyone right now is hard, mom.” Leo interrupted. Raph thought his tone was too harsh. “We’ve been through hell and we’re just trying to be normal. It’s awkward and it sucks. But it’s hard to add other people to it.”

Raph groaned and shoved him lightly with his shoulder.

“We’re fine, mom. We’re coping.”

She eyed the two of them carefully with her hands clasped in front of her face as Donnie and Mikey placed the plates of pancakes and meats in front of everyone.

She was looking at Raph’s hoodie, she was looking at how close Leo was to him.

He looked away from her so he could pile as many chocolate chip pancakes onto his plate as he could. Leo leaned over him to add some bacon and hash browns to it, knowing he would forget to diversify his plate.

It was not helping.

Raph grumbled and took a big bite of pancakes. He couldn’t help but moan again. “These are so fucking good, Mikey…”

Mikey grinned from his seat near splinter at the corner. He and Donnie had very different plates, his full of all the variety, Donnie sticking to his plain pancakes with nothing on them.

“Thank you! Worth the wait right?” He asked with his mouth full.

“Yes, I’m sorry.” Raph whined dramatically and stuffed his face more. Eating real delicious food after all that gross paste felt so good. He’d never felt so hungry, he was going to overindulge.

“How are you coping?” Splinter asked suddenly between her bites of food.

Raph tensed and looked up at her, gulping back hard.

“Sorry?”

“You said you were fine and coping. So how are you coping?” She looked up at him with a weird look and he needed to look back down. It was making him queasy.

“I.. I don’t know, we’re just hanging out I guess.” He mumbled and picked at his food.

“Is that a new hoodie?”

He tensed and tried to make himself small.

“No, it’s Donnie’s…”

“Hm.” She washed back her food with a chug of juice.

His brothers weren’t as tense as he was, but they did look uneasy by her presence. It wasn’t unusual, he was usually the only one trying to hold conversation, and he had been the one to inadvertently invite her to join them. They all kind of wanted to be alone.

“Mikey? You should have let me help, you seemed to have forgotten the eggs.”

‘She knows she knows she knows she knows!’

Raph slammed his head down on the counter to shut the voice in his head up.

There was a pause. Leo pressed a hand to his back.

“You good..?”

He picked his head up sharply and grunted.

“Never better.” He started scarfing down the pancakes in as big of bites as he could. Maybe he could finish fast and get out of here.

“I… didn’t make eggs cuz our stomachs are a little too empty for eggs…” Mikey mumbled between bites.

‘She knows he’s lying she knows he’s trying to protect you she knows!’

He clenched his fist around his fork and swallowed hard, staring intensely at his plate. He put his free hand under the table to dig his nails into his thigh instead of hurting his head where she could see it.

Unfortunately Leo noticed and grabbed his hand under the counter to stop him. Which she also noticed.

He slapped his hand away and glared at him.

“Leo what are you doing to your brother?!”

Leo snapped his head up to look at her and he looked like a deer caught in headlights.

“Nothing!”

Raph wished he had hair so he could pull it all out.

“Oh for fucks sake, SPLINTER, we are NOT. FUCKING each other!” Donnie shouted as he suddenly stood up and leaned over the counter.

Raph looked at him in absolute horror.

Splinters eyes went wide and she looked at him angrily.

“What?!”

Donnie growled.

“I can see what you’re doing! You keep eyeing Raph up for being too close to us! You’re assuming the worst!” Donnie gestures to him with one hand without turning his gaze away from splinter. “You’re going to give him ANOTHER panic attack!”

Raph clutched his head in his hands, staring wildly at nothing as he curled his upper body over the counter, facing down at the table.

“Donnie!” He heard Mikey yell as another stool scooted back.

“I-I am not assuming anything!” His mother sounded offended and angry.

“Guys.” Leo said sternly.

“You literally asked him about my hoodie! As if it was the weirdest thing in the world for my traumatized rape victim of a brother to request items of clothing!”

“He’s just never worn anything like that before!”

“Gee Splinter I wonder why!”

“Donnie this isn’t your fight!” Mikey yelled and Raph heard a small smack.

“Someone has to fucking fight for that idiot! Everyone’s fucking dancing around it as if we don’t all know what’s wrong!”

Raph was staring at his plate so hard the colours were burning into his brain.

“No one wants to tell me what’s wrong! Everyone comes home from hell and avoids their mother like the plague! And I am just supposed to not fear the worst?! You have no idea all the things I can smell on you boys!”

“Where was that nose THE FIRST TIME?!” Donnie shouted as it sounded like he slammed both fists on the counter.

“What?!”

He was growling.

“You didn’t smell DAD all over Raph?!”

Raph stood suddenly, hands still clasped over his ears and he didn’t look at anyone, just kept his head facing the ground as he ran out of the room.

He bolted into the bathroom and proceeded to throw up all of the delicious pancakes he’d enjoyed so much. He couldn’t even have one nice thing.

He heard a gentle knock at the open door and didn’t turn away from the bowl.

“I have some water…” Leo said quietly. He made no effort to step inside.

Raph reached his arm back to take the cup without looking.

Leo passed it to him and stayed in the doorway.

Raph kept staring at the bowl, waiting to see if he has anything left before he chugged water and rinsed his mouth out a few times.

“Thanks…” he mumbled as he grabbed toilet paper to wipe his face with.

“Do you want me to sit with you..?”

Raph kept staring at the bowl.

“Yeah…”

Leo walked inside and sat beside him propping up an elbow on his knee.

“Can I rub your back?”

“Why are you asking permission?” Raph looked up at him frustratedly. He was just giving him a sympathetic frown.

“Cuz I think no one is asking how you feel before they decide they know what’s best for you.”

Raph turned back to the bowl, taking in what he meant.

“I… thank you…” he sighed, straightening his back out to look at the back of the toilet. He was pretty sure there was nothing left in him, but he just kind of wanted to sit in this quiet moment away from everyone else. Puke or not.

Leo took it upon himself to flush the toilet for him.

“If it helps, I’m pretty sure Mikey’s gonna chew Donnie’s ear off for that.”

“What does it matter, he’s not wrong.” Raph sighed.

“It was not his place to shout your bullshit at mom.”

Raph turned to look up at him frustrated.

“He’s right though. That’s what hurts.”

Leo frowned and nodded.

“He is, but it’s still not his place to talk over you about you. It’s not moms place to make you feel like shit about yourself when you’re barely holding on. And it’s not Donnie’s place to decide how you tell mom about your own shit.”

Raph looked away, feeling tears coming.

“I was never gonna tell mom. I was… I was literally never ever gonna tell her that…”

Leo scooted closer and leaned his head down to be at eye level with him.

“I get that. We all kinda knew that. I’m sorry Donnie did that to you.”

Raph closed his eyes.

“You can hug me if you want to…”

He felt Leo pull him in to a loose hug from his side, letting him lean his body against his.

“I… I know what Donnie did is fucked but… but I also mean that I was never going to be ABLE to tell mom that…”

Leo hummed and rubbed his shoulder.

“You’re half grateful. Half angry.”

He laughed a little. “Yeah… I know it’s.. it’s my fault for saying it was ok for her to join us but… but god Leo I feel so bad all the time, she seems lonely and sad and I just.. I can’t look at her and think about what she thinks of me…”

“I mean—“

“And don’t just tell me not to worry about what she thinks.”

There was a pause.

“That’s all you were gonna say.” Raph grumbled and pat Leo’s arm. “I hate that nobody ever gets along, and I hate that I’m stuck in the middle of it…”

“Sounds exhausting.”

“It is! I’m tired and I just want people to fucking… I don’t know.. I’m trying to be okay…”

Leo tugged him closer. “You don’t have to be okay, no one expects you to be okay.”

He sighed and pat Leo’s arm. “I wanna go back in there…”

Leo gently let go of him and stood up, holding his hand out to help him up. He then pointed at the sink.

“Maybe one last rinse and spit.”

Raph sighed and leaned over to gargle tap water for a moment before turning and staring up at Leo who gave him a thumbs up.

Leo let him lead the way out of the room.

He was still hearing arguing as he walked towards the kitchen.

“—have any idea how hard this was?!”

“Yes! Because you never shut up about it!”

“Oh that’s kind of you to say!”

“Does it EVER cross your mind how hard WE had it as BABIES?!”

He hovered in the doorway for a moment.

He saw his mother standing on a stool to shout at eye level, Donnie just glaring daggers still in the same spot.

Mikey had his arms folded, the expression on his face looked far older and exhausted than it should have on his sweet face.

“Of course I do! That’s why I needed to get you out of there!”

Raph walked in the kitchen and they all stared at him.

Mikey’s expression softened instantly, he looked worried.

Raph parsed the last thing his mother had said and he turned to look at her, feeling angry for some reason.

“But… you didn’t get us out… I got us out.” He said quietly.

He sensed Leo standing behind him leaning against the door frame.

His mother made a face.

“That’s not fair.” She said as she climbed down of the stool to sit normally. “I found us all a way out, I got us a home.”

“Six years later.” He almost whispered. He wasn’t sure where this was coming from.

Mikey and Donnie were staring at him in awe. Splinter looked offended.

“You know where I—“

“I know where you were. I know why you were gone.” He clenched his fists and took a breath, standing up straight. “I don’t blame you for leaving. Or being gone. I’m sorry. But…” he looked at Mikey, his sweet eyes growing larger. He eyed Donnie, whose guilty look was turning warmer. He looked back at his mother. “But when you were gone bad things happened to us, and no one came to save us.”

Her eyes were watering. It made his water too, so he turned his head to look away.

He sensed Leo step in beside him and felt him grab his hand gently.

Raph looked up at him, he was giving him a gentle smile and nodded at him to continue.

Leo had him.

He looked back at his mom’s tearful eyes.

“I-I know that! And I feel terrible about it every day!”

He gave her a dark glare.

“Did you know dad raped me?”

Her eyes went wide and she didn’t say anything.

He frowned.

“You either didn’t think about how bad we had it, or you knew and didn’t do anything about it. I don’t know which makes me more miserable to think about.”

“Raphael—“

“Stop!” He shouted. She tensed up and he felt guilty instantly, none of them liked a booming voice.

He rubbed his temple with his free hand.

“Stop. We know the therapist was April’s idea. And we know you didn’t let her get one for us before. I understand….” He sighed, “I understand that we were in hiding. That you were scared for us, scared we’d get caught, shipped back there and have the worst thing happen, but… but we could have gotten help years ago! I could have gotten help! I-I shut down mom! I forgot all about it! And you might think that’s good! That makes it all okay cuz I shut it all out but it came back to haunt me!

Tears were falling down his cheeks, he felt so angry and so miserable and so so justified.

“You said… you told me. When you found me you told me you had been watching us! Trying to watch over us right? What… what did you see dad do that finally pushed you over the edge and made you admit you were there?”

She looked so pained, so guilty. He didn’t want to break his stare no matter how much it hurt. He didn’t want to give her a way out.

“Your… the things he wanted to do to you… to your brothers because of you…”

“BECAUSE of me?!” He snatched his hand away from Leo’s to clench both of his fists.

Her tears were free roaming, she balled her fists on the counter.

“Because of how you were born! H-he got opportunity as soon as he found that out! He was going to use them on you! Because of how you were born!”

Raph shook his head dumbfounded, staring at the ground.

“Because of how I was born…” he repeated. “So it’s.. so it’s my fault guys! Because I was born like this!”

“Raphael that’s not what I meant!”

He snapped his head up to glare at her. “Isn’t it?! You just said what caused you to finally warn me was learning about that! How did you even learn that!”

She stared at him for a long while. Crying silently as she tried to find her words.

His muscles were trembling from how tightly wound he felt.

“I… saw you get examined in the lab… I was in the vent, y-you were on the table with your little legs…” she sobbed. “I-I saw what he did… i s-saw you lie there l-like you were asleep…”

Raph felt an icy chill run through his body.

He stood back, staring at her in shock and shaking his head a little.

“You… you saw him do it…”

It wasn’t a question.

Her face answered it anyway. Anguished, guilty, miserable. Sobbing away at the table.

He couldn’t move and she didn’t say anything.

“Mom…” Leo softly whispered beside him.

Donnie kicked his stool over with violent force and marched out of the room.

Mikey was staring at Raph with big wet eyes.

Raph was frozen.

“How… how could you..?” Leo asked her.

She hid her face in her hands, sobbing loudly.

“Y-you couldn’t go back! H-help would have brought attention! You couldn’t go back!” She wailed. “A-and you blocked it all out! What was I supposed to do!!!”

“SOMETHING!!!” Mikey screamed suddenly.

They all turned to look at him. He looked more furious than anyone had ever seen him, pure rage in his eyes, sitting up on the counter with his body hunched over.

He shook his head in utter disbelief and got down off the stool, marching over to Raph and taking his hand.

“We should leave.” He said seriously and tugged on it.

Raph didn’t want to move.

“H-he tried to do the deed himself Raphael! H-he tried to use himself as the donor first! H-how could I tell you that!” She slammed her fists down.

Leo’s hands were on Raph’s shoulders now.

“You… saw dad rape me…”

She kept sobbing.

“I-I couldn’t d-do anything to s-stop him!!”

He shook his head slowly and turned his body to face Leo behind him.

“I… I don’t want to talk to you…” he said softly.

Leo stepped around him to hold him from behind and Mikey tugged him once more.

This time he followed.

And just left her crying alone.

They both walked him into the bedroom and sat him down on their pile of beds, Donnie was already here curled up in the corner crying by himself.

Raph just sat very still, his feet still on the ground. He stared into space as someone put a blanket over him, someone else shut the door.

He couldn’t even cry, he felt emotionally comatose and just stared blankly into the wall.

He felt his brothers grab his hands and squeeze them.

“Raph…?” He thinks it was Leo, he couldn’t see.

A soft chirp came from his other side.

He blinked but didn’t look over.

“I… Don’t wake me up…” he mumbled. “I don’t want to feel this…”

They both went quiet, he sensed movement behind him, and then felt all three brothers hugging him on all sides.

He just kept staring at the wall.

“She watched him rape me…” he said quietly again.

The grips got tighter. Someone was sobbing. It could have been all of them. They just held on to him, and it was the only thing he was going to let himself feel.

“If mom watched him rape me, then that means she let him rape me…”

He kept staring. The grooves between the bricks started to glow from how little he’d moved his eyes.

“And if she let him do that, and then… then all these years she should have known what was wrong with me, right..?”

“Raphie…”

He closed his eyes.

He took a deep breath.

And then he just screamed as loud and long as he could. Until his lungs were fully empty and then some.

Then he finally let himself break down.

[1111jenx]

Jen haiii I missed you so much. Gurl tell me some chart placements that have completely altered your previous views on them after meeting irl. Stereotypes about signs you've found completely wrong after getting to know them. I'm dying to know the placements that truly shook you to your core, comparing your astrological studies and real life experiences with them.

Hi love,

I'm literally that one person that will ask for your birth time, birth date and location after 5 minutes of meeting yk so trust me when I say, I do have many stories to tell LOL. Before I start tho, I do need to mention that this is based off my own experiences purely and again, this is just for fun:D So please enjoy this post and let me know what you think in the comment<3

Mini Interesting Astrology Observations

- stereotypes vs. irl edition

— The amount of time I heard people telling me that Leo Rising is a ray of sunshine when in reality they can be, however not at first 100%. The way they come off are extremely practical, even a little bit distant at first. They have this powerful yet quiet aura to them. What I would say tho is that they enjoy the company of people who feels like sunshine, its just something about goodness in people that gets to Leo Rising. They adore a sweetheart always.

— I would even go as far to say that all Fire Rising initially have a hint of distance. Aries Rising can appear intimidating, truly living up to their stereotype with their nonchalant demeanor. But beneath that exterior, they possess genuinely kind hearts, though sometimes their delivery might be a bit raw. Leo Rising commands respect with their mere presence. Sagittarius Rising aligns closely with their stereotype, but remember the Water 12th houses of the Fire Risings:.

Pisces 12th house - Aries Rising: Hiding their unselfishness and uncondinational side to protect themselves.

Cancer 12th house - Leo Rising: Hiding their nurturing side and soft-heartedness to ensure they're respected or perceived in a serious way.

Scorpio 12th house - Sagittarius Rising: Hiding their devotion and secretive side out of fear of being taken advantage of.

— Libra Moon is an extremely interesting placement for me to see. People usually think they're pushovers typically but like.. lets be for real. They're just nice and they like to be perceived that way. But the second they can sense that hint of disrespect, all hell break loose LOL. They're extremelyyyy opionated people and for them, respect is something they believe they have worked very hard for. Mediators at core though, always see different sides but doesn't mean they can be one of the most stubborn people ever :)

— Scorpio Venus justifying their intense feelings is the funniest thing ever. They can 100% be very devoted in relationship but the thing is, a lot of Scorpio Venus are never ever gonna give themselves to you if they sense that you're not committed to them or even the little hint that you're not in it for real. Remember, this is a Scorpio placement we're talking about. Their pickiness can even outshine Virgo Venus on a good day. The type to genuinely stalk your socials and disappear at the blurriest red flag. For them to take you seriously, you have got to be all about them in every single way, they don't want that fleeting romance, when they're in, they're in. Playing games might be fun at first for them but they're are not going to be around to entertain anything as such for long.

— Sun conjuncts Venus gets along so well with women. A lot of their friends are usually women and it seems that they just know how to put people at ease. There's an energy of almost androgyny about them in the sense that they have a great balance of energies. Can easily befriend anyone.

— Libra Mars forgives often but usually its very logical. One of the best boundary setter I've ever seen. They are sweethearts don't get me wrong but they can easily put you in your place while still being the sweetest angel ever.

— Sagittarius Sun are extremely ambitious people. They're very very driven. While they enjoy letting loose, they're equally devoted to their work and aspirations. From my experience, they're the kind who would invest months into a project, only to celebrate grandly once it's accomplished. They truly embody the 'work hard, play hard' spirit.

— There's a stereotype that pegs Aquarius Mercury as detached and overly rational, almost robotic in their communication. But as you dive deeper, you realize this couldn't be farther from the truth. While they do possess an innate ability to see the bigger picture and communicate ideas ahead of their time, there's a depth and warmth to them that often goes unnoticed. These are some of the smoothest talkers. Contrary to the belief that they're disinterested in personal stories, many Aquarius Mercury individuals are deeply curious about individual journeys and narratives. I also noticed that since they can be so nice to talk to, people just casually open up to them about literally anything.

— I saw squares aspects synastry plays out in real life and often times its honestly super funny. Its like 2 people that speak 2 different languages trying to get the same thing but don't want to admit it out of pride LOL. I'm not a big fan when there's too much squares within personal placements but to be fair, they promote hella growth. After these kind of relationships, everyone just kinda become either more stubborn with their values or extremely open-minded LOL

— While Taurus Moon is very emotionally reliant, in the sense that they're their own safe haven and therapy guide a lot of the times. These people also may be prone to denial. They take time to come to terms with a lot of events that happened and kind of just buried it sometimes until they fully accept it. Unhealthy coping mechanisms as well but with time, they find their own peace in the truth.

— Earth Risings, lets talk. They got to be one of the funniest people alive. Their sense of humour always hits and they're the living proof for don't judge a book by its cover. Everytime I'm with them I always hurt my stomach by laughing too much PLS. However, when time calls for it, they can sit down and get all corporate on you trust😉

This has been surprisingly kind of fun, please let me know if you'd like to see more of this in the future:))

love,

saint jenx🪐

© 2023 Saintz Jenx All Rights Reserved

[demigod-shenanigans]

Love will run deep like hurt runs out

Summary: Jason is sick. Being an ex-praetor, champion of Juno, son of Jupiter, he’s pretty sure that isn’t allowed.

Leo is dealing with some residual limb pain. After roughly three and a half months of this nonsense, he’s forced to admit that that’s maybe a little more allowed than he’d like it to be. Not while he’s trying to take care of his sick boyfriend, though.

Word count: 10.5k

Rating: Teen and Up

Current last part of this little AU and also the only one of my currently completed valgrace/HoO fics I hadn’t cross-posted to tumblr yet! This part is the longest by a lot, lmao. Can be read separately of the other fics!

I used the valgrace week assurance prompt a while back to finally get myself to finish it, and I ended up having a lot of fun with this! Something something Jason and Leo are both terrible patients and massive hypocrites. Also something something couples mutually comforting each other. Truly ridiculous amounts of physical affection in this one, these boys are unbearable about each other actually and I love them so much.

Also, to avoid confusion: should be pretty clear where it happens since it’s marked differently from the other scene changes but the fic starts out as a Jason POV and switches to Leo partway through!

———

Jason woke up drenched and freezing in the middle of the night. This would have been surprising, at least sort of, considering Camp Half-Blood wasn’t supposed to have weather, but his father had been in a mood lately, so it was less of a surprise than he wished. He just hoped it was something the gods could figure out among themselves for once, and not a sign someone was about to be sent on another deadly mission with the world at stake.

There was a part of Jason that wanted to just turn around and go back to sleep, but he knew that wasn’t a feasible solution, no matter how much he liked sleeping in the grass at the edge of the woods when he was feeling anxious.

It had been a bad week, as far as nightmares went, but this had helped a little—had soothed a childish instinct in him that had learned to feel at home in the wilderness. One that had known once he’d proven himself to Lupa, the pack would protect him. He was safe.

He hoped he’d proven himself to Camp Half-Blood, after everything.

But he really couldn’t stay out here with the weather like this. He’d been feeling a little off for days, and he couldn’t afford to get sick right now. There were things to be done. The permanent housing they were trying to establish for adult demigods who wanted to stay at Camp Half-Blood long-term wasn’t going to build itself. So he shook himself awake and got up.

He was covered in mud, but with the amount it was raining, that would probably resolve itself by the time he got back to his cabin. Because he would have to go back there, even if being watched by a stern statue of his father as he struggled to fall asleep didn’t exactly help his anxiety.

He could have been running back to the cabin to get out of the rain faster, but with how drenched he already was, he figured it didn’t really matter. He was too groggy for a decent run, anyway, and he really didn’t need to slip in the wet grass and concuss himself again. With his luck, Leo had been right about the existence of an angry Roman god of head injuries.

Jason didn’t go back to his cabin. He didn’t register where he was heading until he was already there, wet clothes dripping all over the floor of the forge. 

It might have been the middle of the night, but Leo was still up, working on what Jason assumed to be a replacement part for Festus. There had been a lot of those lately, as Leo tried to figure out what was causing the misfire issues. He hadn’t been able to actually resolve them yet, but he was pretty enthusiastic about it, and Festus seemed thrilled with all the attention and Tabasco sauce he’d been getting.

Jason meant to say something when he entered, but Leo seemed so utterly absorbed in his work that for a moment, Jason was transfixed just watching his boyfriend’s practiced motions, hammering away on heated metal, changing the shape only slightly until he got it just right. 

Jason had seen the gods do impossible things before, but this—the way Leo could create anything he set his mind to, from small toys to replacement parts for giant metal dragons to a trireme they’d spent several weeks living in—was a different kind of magic, and one he’d never grow tired of watching. 

Leo turned to grab a tool off the workbench and noticed him. He yelped, almost jumping out of his chair.

“Gods, Jase, I thought you were a swamp monster for a second,” he said, eyes wide. “You can’t sneak up on me like that! What if I’d decided to blast fire first and ask questions later?”

“At least that might have dried my clothes?” Jason suggested, rubbing at his face. His throat felt weird when he spoke. His voice sounded a little off. “Sorry for sneaking up on you. Too tired to think.”

“Which brings me to my next set of questions: why are you up, and why are you drenched? Did you piss off the naiads or something?”

Leo had put the small hammer he’d been holding back on the workbench, and now Jason had his undivided attention. It was a completely stupid reaction in this particular context, but having Leo look at him like that still made his face feel hot. In the best possible way, undivided attention from Leo was something Jason would absolutely never get used to.

“I didn’t sleep great, so I got back up,” he said, not technically lying but not really telling the truth, either. He moved closer to Leo. The heat from the forge helped, but the shivering was far worse than he’d realized. He let himself sink to the floor, pressing his eyes closed for a moment. He felt off. “As for your second question: have you looked outside lately?”

The forge had been built to be partially open, which was the only reason most people were able to breathe in here, and also meant you had an excellent view of the ongoing rainstorm.

This should have made it impossible to miss, but Leo blinked, confused, like he’d only just realized what was going on outside.

“Oh shit, we’ve got weather.”

“Yeah.” Jason sighed. “My father is apparently having a bad time and decided everyone else also needs to have a bad time.”

“That sounds like him.” Leo shook his head. “I didn’t even notice.”

“Not surprised. You seemed really absorbed when I got here.” Jason shrugged. “Not like I’m any better. Pretty sure if a building collapsed around me while I was sketching, I wouldn‘t realize until one of the rafters hit me in the head.”

“Sparky, we talked about this. No tempting the head injury deities,” Leo joked, looking him over. “How did you get this muddy on a five minute walk?”

“I didn’t.” Jason rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “I’ve had a few bad nights. Sleeping outside helps.”

“And here I thought one of my foster siblings waking me with a wet washcloth to the face was a dick move. You got a whole storm.” Leo might still have been joking, but there was an anxious edge to it now. He kneeled down next to Jason and pressed a hand to his face, eyes wide with alarm. “You’re freezing. It’s mid-December, Jason. Were you trying to compete with Khione for icicle of the year?” 

His hand was so warm that Jason wanted to melt into him. 

The words “you’re hot” were out of his mouth before his brain could fully register what he was saying. 

Leo grinned. “Yeah, I know, but it’s nice to be appreciated. C’mere, let’s get you warmed up.”

He wrapped around Jason, everything but his prosthetic leg slowly growing warm in a controlled burst of heat. After a moment of this, Jason’s clothes began to feel more moist than soaked, and the cold that had been seeping into his bones subsided. He still didn’t feel great, but he could have stayed like this forever, warm and comfortable and safe in a way he rarely felt. In a way he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt around anyone but Leo.

He had no idea how to express that, though—not even when he wasn’t sleep deprived and his head wasn’t spinning. In the current situation, all his brain unhelpfully supplied was “radiator boyfriend. Neat.”

It was stupid, and not at all what he’d meant to say, but Leo was laughing, so maybe he’d done something right. The laugh was a noise and a feeling with the way Leo was holding him. Jason’s limbs felt like pudding, and he knew it wasn’t just because of the warmth.

“I know, I know, you’ve got so much to brag about.” Leo was beaming. He was gorgeous, and also significantly blurrier than he’d been a moment ago. “Now we’re both nice and muddy, but at least you’re dry.”

“Mm.” Dry or not, Jason didn’t want to let go yet. “Do I win?”

Leo blinked. “What?”

“The icicle thing,” Jason said, and his boyfriend’s expression shifted again. Leo’s eyebrows drew together in something that was probably concern. Jason wasn’t entirely sure—mostly because the image was still swimming. That… probably wasn’t good. 

“Yeah. Always. No competition.” Leo pressed a kiss to his forehead. “You’re really out of it, hm?”

“I feel weird,” Jason admitted reluctantly. “It’s probably nothing.”

This was made slightly less convincing by the fact that he finished this sentence off with a coughing fit.

“Yeah, you’re sick. Garbage combo with being sleep-deprived and getting drenched, in my experience. You need to be inside, in a bed, like, three days ago.”

“Is time travel something you’re working on?”

“Obviously. What, did you think I was kidding all those times I talked about wanting to go back in time to kick my own ass?” Leo joked, but it was obvious his heart wasn’t in it. He kept looking at Jason like he was an unstable machine about to fall to bits. “Do you think you can get up?”

“Yeah,” Jason said, trying and failing to push himself up on his elbows. His head hurt, and his limbs still felt like pudding. “Actually, maybe I need a moment.”

“That’s fine,” Leo said, with an expression that didn’t fit the statement even slightly. “I need to get everything shut down, anyway. Just don’t fall asleep on me here. I do not feel like draggingyou all the way inside.”

~~~

Jason felt more relieved than he cared to admit that by inside, Leo meant the Hephaestus cabin and not taking him back to the Zeus cabin he’d avoided sleeping in for the past few days. Partially because he really didn’t feel like being scrutinized by his father’s statue now any more than he had a few hours ago, and partially because even after the full fifteen minutes of break he’d gotten while Leo took care of things at the forge, he genuinely wasn’t sure he could have made it all the way there.

He was exhausted and dizzy, and it was obvious enough that Leo kept anxiously joking about handing over his crutches.

The rain had stopped just as abruptly as it had started, but the cold wind didn’t seem to be going anywhere. In his infinite, severely addled wisdom, Jason tried to get it to die down himself, but all that achieved was almost making him black out on the spot, and the wind just seemed to target him more viciously afterwards.

It was a fairly short walk, but by the time they got inside Jason felt like an icicle all over again, despite Leo’s attempts to stay close and radiate warmth the whole way.

Leo had a nice room—cluttered and cozy and without any looming statues of his father standing over him as he slept. The walls were plastered with blueprints, written-on and covered in sticky notes. There were several layers of them, and even the top layer ones were partially covering each other because Leo had run out of space. In a few spots, pictures of their friends poked out from under the rolled-up edges of blueprints or had been pinned neatly to those that weren’t currently in use. The bedside table was a mess of several unfinished projects, and it was kind of a miracle it hadn’t broken down under the weight yet.

Jason liked being here. It was one of the few places in camp that actually felt private. 

All the clutter had made him anxious at first. Even without his memories, he hadn’t been able to shake the Roman discipline that had been trained into him since early childhood.

But being around Leo meant chaos, and Jason had learned that was a good thing, more often than not. There was a kind of chaos that was terrifying, and there was a kind that made him feel alive, thrumming heartbeat and all. This kind of chaos was homey and lived-in and welcoming, in a way the Zeus cabin could never be. It didn’t feel like Jason had to carve out a space for himself here. It was already there—provided he didn’t mind accidentally sitting on a wrench every now and again.

The bed was small, which meant every time they had a movie night, they were squeezed tightly next to each other. Which, looking back on it, was maybe part of the reason they’d had so many of those even before they’d started dating. 

Right now, Jason was mostly just relieved to be sitting down. The world grew a little less hazy.

“You want tea or something to get warmed up? I’d offer you cocoa, but I don’t think there’s enough sugar at camp for the amount you usually put in there,” Leo teased, sitting down next to him.

Jason immediately melted back into him, wrapping his arms around Leo’s back and pressing his face to his boyfriend’s warm cheek. 

“Sure, or you could go ahead and leech all my warmth without asking,” Leo laughed, upping his body temperature a bit more. “Is this good? Anything else you need from me or am I fully replaceable by a portable heater?” 

“You’re perfect. I love you.” 

It felt impossible how easy that was to say, considering it was only the second time, and Jason hadn’t even said it out loud the first time.

Leo’s body temperature went up more, like a full body blush. Not that Jason was complaining.

“Flirting with a heater is a little weird, Superman,” Leo joked. “But hey, you didn’t even make any typos this time.”

“In my defense, I’m both dyslexic and suck at Morse code,” Jason laughed. He was pretty sure he was smiling like an idiot. He was also pretty sure he didn’t care. “Besides, you liked it.”

“You wish,” Leo replied, soft and fond. He shifted so he could wrap his warm arms around Jason again. “Love you, too.”

Leo had tapped out the words against the table at breakfast absent-mindedly a week and a half ago. Jason hadn’t understood what it meant, just that it was probably Morse code, and Leo had refused to tell him when asked, but he’d blushed so furiously that his head ended up on fire, which got the message across, anyway.

Jason had IMed Annabeth after and asked her to teach him, then practiced for three days because he really wanted to get it right.

He’d still managed to mess up at the end because he’d gotten nervous, spelling out “kof” instead of “you”, but he hadn’t had time to feel embarrassed about it. Leo had looked at him, wide-eyed, then beamed at him like he was the sun and kissed him, only stopping when he realized he was starting to burn a handprint into Jason’s shirt. 

Maybe it had been too soon by regular mortal standards—Jason never could figure those things out, it wasn’t like he’d ever had much of a shot at a normal life—but demigod lives were short and they’d both already had one brush with death. Some things just weren’t worth the risk of waiting.

“Sorry for dragging so much mud into your room, by the way,” Jason sighed, halfway muffled by Leo’s warm shoulder.

His boyfriend snorted. “Oh yeah, because we both know I’m infamous for my clean room and even cleaner clothes. I’m basically obligated to break up with you now.” He gestured at the general chaos of the room, then down at himself, covered in oil and soot where he hadn’t absorbed Jason’s dried mud. “Pretty sure we both need a shower, but you don’t look like you’re getting back up. I can at least steal you some clean clothes from one of my siblings, since unfortunately I do actually have to shower before bed.”

“That can't wait until tomorrow?” Jason asked, not wanting to let go.

Leo sighed. “I wish. There are some unfortunate downsides to getting your leg chewed off—yeah, I know, who’d’ve thought. One of them is that if I try to skip my evening routine or shower in the morning, my stump is going to be a whiny nightmare about it.” He rolled his eyes. “Turns out I can set the whole thing on fire and that’s fine, but sometimes I’ll have swelling issues over warm water—because that makes sense. It would be kind of funny if it wasn’t so annoying.”

“Trials and tribulations of being a demigod,” Jason replied, trying to keep the mood light, because even with his brain full of fog, he knew Leo, and knew he still got anxious talking about this. “We should really get our money back.”

Hell, Jason felt like a terrible boyfriend for all the things he didn’t know Leo had to do differently since he’d lost part of his leg, but the only tidbits of information Leo had volunteered were shared through jokes, and pushing him when he wasn’t ready wouldn’t have been fair orproductive, no matter how much Jason wanted to help.

“Yeah, tell me about it. But whatever. I’ll get the hang of it eventually.” Leo smiled at him. “I have to make sure you’re properly warmed up before I leave, though. You gonna be alright here on your own? Need me to tuck you in?” It was only half-teasing.

Jason just sighed and let his head drop back onto his boyfriend’s warm shoulder.

~~~

Jason missed Leo’s warmth immediately. He changed into the borrowed pajamas his boyfriend had tossed at him on his way out, which took way longer than he cared to admit. Then he curled up under the blanket. He was immediately hit with an overwhelming sense of exhaustion, the heaviness in his limbs growing worse now that he was lying down. His head hurt.

He changed positions several times, pulling the blanket tighter around himself, but it didn’t really help.

He stared at the ceiling and tried to get his mind to stop racing. Despite how tired he was, sleep seemed impossible. Since getting back, it was like he’d been waiting for the next thing to go awry, keeping himself busy so he couldn’t think too much about whatever that next thing would be. At night, these thoughts were much harder to push away.

He should have been used to them by now, but he couldn’t deal with the nightmares, either. Lately, he’d had so many where all he could ever seem to do was watch. Watch as people got hurt and died around him during the battle of Mount Othrys. Watch Reyna fall several meters down the side of a mountain, unable to catch her because he couldn’t waste the opening she’d given him against Krios. Watch as a fight broke out between both Camps he called home, unable to stop it. Watch as they were nearly overrun by monsters because he wasn’t Roman enough for the undead legion to consider him a leader. Watch Leo turn himself into an inferno to stop Gaia, unsure if there would be anything left of him to revive.

Some hero he was.

Gaia was gone. Jason wasn’t having visions of terrible things that would happen in the future. But he didn’t feel calm or peaceful. He’d spent so much of his life fighting that he wasn’t sure he’d ever known what being at peace felt like.

Time seemed to pass in slow motion. Jason tried not to think, which was about as successful as one might expect.

By the time Leo got back, he’d worked himself into such an anxiety frenzy that when Leo flopped down on the bed, Jason accidentally gave him an electric shock.

“Ow! You don’t need to take the Sparky nickname so literally, you know.” The mattress moved next to Jason, and he briefly wondered if Leo had decided it wasn’t worth the risk of actually sharing the bed and was getting back up, but then his boyfriend’s hand was moving soothingly up and down his arm. “You good?”

“Yeah. Sorry. Still a little cold, but not sure what that was for.”

In another pointless attempt to get comfortable, Jason had moved to face the wall, so he was currently staring intently at blueprints for some sort of multi-functional weapon—a two-handed sword that could be transformed into a large shield, by the looks of it—instead of looking at Leo. It felt easier that way. If he’d been facing his boyfriend, Leo would probably be able to see how close he was to having a nervous breakdown, and then Jason would have to explain, and he didn’t want to explain. He didn’t want to make himself an even bigger burden than he already was. 

Jason was supposed to be a leader, for gods’ sake. He’d been in this life so much longer than anyone else he knew. He was supposed to be able to handle these things.

“Well, luckily for you, cold is something I’m an expert at fixing,” Leo announced, squeezing his shoulder. “Now scoot over, you’re hogging like three-quarters of my bed.”

It took Jason an embarrassing amount of effort to move. His limbs felt like they were made out of celestial bronze. Once he’d semi-successfully managed it, Leo wrapped around him, which made the effort more than worth it. 

Jason could feel himself trembling against his boyfriend’s warmth. He knew it was more than just the cold—his anxiety made him feel just about ready to vibrate out of his skin. But he closed his eyes and tried to focus on Leo’s breaths, the way his chest rose and fell against his back, and it helped him get a handle on his own breathing. That was good. He really didn’t want to give Leo another shock by accident.

“You sure you’re okay?” Leo asked quietly. He sounded worried. Jason hated making him worry.

He was going to reply, but instead he just burst into another coughing fit, which wasn’t quite the answer he’d wanted to give.

“Sorry. Stupid question.” Leo moved his arm away from Jason’s chest. “You want me to wake Will? Oh, or I could get Kayla. Her sleep schedule is pretty shitty. She might still be up.”

“How do you even know that?”

“Amputee privileges. I spend so much time in the infirmary that I get inside scoop.” Jason could hear the grin in his boyfriend’s voice. “So, you know, might as well abuse those privileges for your sake while I’m at it.”

“No, that’s okay.” Jason took the arm Leo had been moving and pulled it back to its previous spot. “I think I just want to sleep.”

“Fine.” Leo moved his head, adjusting it against the back of Jason’s neck. His curls tickled a little. “I’m warning you, though, if you get any worse, I’m contractually obligated to drag you to the infirmary. If you have an issue with that, that’s on you for not reading the boyfriend fine print.”

Jason snorted. “You’re terrible.”

“I live to annoy and be your personal heat lamp, in that order.” Leo squeezed Jason’s hand. “Speaking of, is this okay? I could go warmer, but you’re not as cold as earlier, and I should probably save some of my hotness for daytime hours.”

“It’s perfect.”

Sleep came impossibly easy, with Leo wrapped around him like this, radiating warmth. 

And even more impossibly, for once Jason didn’t dream.

~~~

Jason woke up feeling worse. His throat felt like someone had sandblasted it, his head hurt like hell and he was exhausted, despite having slept for most of the night.

Right. Nothing a little ambrosia couldn‘t fix.

He blinked a few times, taking in his surroundings in utter confusion. He was lying on his back. He distantly remembered waking at one point throughout the night to find Leo sprawled halfway across him, but the comforting weight was gone from his chest now.

The bed had folded back out of Leo’s tiny room into the bigger Hephaestus cabin, which was currently pretty much deserted, except for Leo and, for some reason, Will Solace, who was standing next to the bed with a breakfast tray.

“Huh?” Jason rubbed at his eyes, trying to make sense of the scene through the haze in his head. Light streamed in through the windows, much too bright for the early morning wake-up time Jason had rarely been able to shake due to his childhood at Camp Jupiter. “What time is it?”

His raw throat didn’t really like him speaking very much.

“You slept through breakfast. Not too surprising, considering you look about as alive as you did the time you got incinerated by Hera and you spent like half the night-” Leo paused, wincing when Jason burst into a coughing fit. He moved to sit next to him on the bed and pat his arm gently, which did absolutely nothing except feel kind of nice. “-doing exactly that.”

“Okay, but what’s with the food?” Jason asked once his body would let him, gesturing vaguely in the direction of Will, who was setting down the tray on the weirdly empty bedside table.

“I spent about an hour making a mess of Chiron’s kitchen to cook you something. Sick people privileges and stuff. If anyone asks about broken mugs in the next few days, play dumb.” Leo was clearly going for careless nonchalance, but Jason could hear a twinge of annoyance in his voice. “Crutches are seriously inconvenient sometimes.”

“I had to have a conversation with him about pushing himself beyond his recovery timeline and trying to carry things around without his crutches while we’re still working on his balance,” Will commented, glaring at Leo in the worried doctor way that all Apollo kids seemed to inherit. “Especially when it made sense for me to come along to check on you, anyway.”

“You okay?” Jason asked worriedly, squeezing his boyfriend’s hand. Leo felt kind of cold, which would have been alarming, except Jason wasn’t sure how much of that was his own body being seriously out of whack.

“Nope, nice try, but I’m the one fussing over you right now. Speaking of-” Leo turned back to Will, whose expression had softened, “I’m shit at normal human body temperatures, being the fire guy and all, but I’m pretty sure he’s running a fever.”

“Yeah, I’m absolutely putting him on bed rest,” Will said, pressing a hand to Jason’s face.

Unlike Leo’s, Will’s hand was icy. Jason shivered and tried to pull away.

“Cold.”

“No, not even a little cold. Leo’s right about the fever,” Will concluded, thankfully removing his freezing hand from Jason’s face. “Flu. Nothing a few days of rest won’t fix, but I’ll get you something to help with the cough.”

Jason opened his mouth to protest—there were things to be done, he couldn’t just leave everyone else to do all the work, especially not for several days—but the only thing he managed was another lengthy, painful coughing fit.

“Hey look, even your body could tell you were about to say something stupid,” Leo teased, doing a terrible job of hiding the concern on his face. “You wanna try and at least drink something to make your throat feel a little less like shit? I get it if you're not hungry. I wasn’t sure what you’d feel like having, so I… may have gone a little overboard.”

He was seriously underselling it. He’d brought water and tea and orange juice. Food-wise, there was a plate of cut-up fruit, plain toast, scrambled eggs and some sort of soup that was still steaming and smelled great.

Jason’s throat went tight.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, but just making food appear out of thin air felt like cheating, and I’m not gonna start half-assing the boyfriend thing already. I haven’t even had the job for that long. It’s too soon for me to start slacking off.”

“I’m not really hungry, but water sounds okay. The food looks amazing, though. I’ll eat something in a bit,” Jason promised, struggling to find the words to express just how grateful he was that Leo would do this for him. He moved to sit up. “It’s already pretty late, and I said I’d help with the roofing, so I should just take a bit of ambrosia and get on that. With how much it rained last night-”

The world tilted horribly, and if it hadn’t been for Leo reaching out to steady him, Jason was pretty sure he would’ve toppled sideways off the bed.

“Sometimes I know exactly why you’re friends with Nico.” Will may have been terribly blurry, but Jason could still tell he had one hand pressed to his forehead in annoyance. “Ambrosia is for missions and emergencies. You not wanting to let yourself rest is not an emergency. I can give you a bit to help manage the symptoms, but you still need to take a few days off and give your body a break. You’re exhausted. The ambrosia won’t fix that.”

“I can still do this,” Jason insisted, trying to fight the growing panic in his chest. He had to earn his place here. He had to contribute. He’d known since he was a young child that showing weakness was a mistake he couldn’t afford to make. “I need to do this.”

He moved towards the edge of the bed, vertigo be damned, and it took a tremendous effort to untangle himself from the blankets. For a moment he thought his glasses were fogging up at the edges—then he remembered he’d left his glasses in the Zeus cabin yesterday. The thing going foggy was his eyesight.

It didn’t matter. He needed to get up.

Before he could try, his boyfriend’s arms wrapped around him from the side.

“Hey, Superman, that’s enough.” Leo didn’t sound like this a lot—strict and decisive and genuinely a little mad. It made Jason stop in his tracks. “Camp won’t fall apart if you don’t work yourself half to death for a few days. I’ve been dead, okay? It’s seriously overrated, trust me.”

“But-”

“Jase, look at me. Breathe. You’re okay.” Leo’s voice had softened. One arm was still wrapped around Jason. The other had moved up to his head, fingers combing through his damp hair. “Stop being an idiot and don’t force your amputee boyfriend to figure out how to scrape you off the floor after you inevitably faint and hit your head, yeah?”

Leo looked terribly worried, and Jason knew he was actively making it worse. It made him feel awful. 

After another moment of hesitation, he allowed himself to collapse against his boyfriend, exhausted and dizzy and with a horrible ache in his chest. “I’m sorry.”

Leo exhaled audibly into his hair.

“Yeah, I can’t believe you’d get sick on purpose just to make me worry. That was such a dick move, dude,” he said sarcastically, then pressed a kiss to Jason’s head. “Lie back down, please?”

A part of Jason was still protesting, but he felt incredibly off and it was impossible to tell Leo “no” when he looked at him like that.

He let himself sink back onto the mattress, which at least made the room stop spinning.

“Happy now?”

“Yeah, yeah, gold star for not being a complete dumbass.” Jason could hear the smile in his voice. “Do you want a sticker or something?”

“Can you just put your hand back in my hair? That felt really nice.”

“Still here by the way,” Will said awkwardly, and Jason could feel his cheeks growing even warmer because he actually had forgotten about Will. “Doesn’t look like I’m needed anymore, though. I’ll go grab some meds.” He turned to Leo. “Make sure Jason drinks enough water and gets some sleep and he should be fine.”

“Oh, I’ll pester him as much as necessary, don’t worry. You know how annoying I can get.” Leo grinned. “Thanks for the help.”

“If you need anything else, you know where to find me.”

~~~

The bits of ambrosia Jason got still tasted like Leo’s tacos, and like Will had warned, they didn’t magically fix everything.

“If I give you any more, you’ll just try to help and hurt yourself, and then we’ll end up right back here.”

That seemed like a fair enough point, but Jason still didn’t like it. It was hard to convince his brain it was actually okay to let himself rest. When you’d learnt at two years old that showing weakness would get you killed, telling yourself it was fine and safe and nothing bad would happen to you in this specific instance and actually believing that was hard. Hell, his last stab wound had helpfully sorted itself out when he’d recklessly thrown himself into battle despite feeling like death. Keeping himself up and running was safe. This did not feel safe.

And sure, there was a protocol for handling illness and injuries at Camp Jupiter that usually included mandated rest periods. But when everyone looked up to you, expecting you to be the leader, it was hard to figure out where to draw the line. At which point was he objectively bad enough to neglect his duties?

As long as he could stand upright, it was probably fine. When he couldn’t, he’d just nibble on an ambrosia cube until he could. When that didn’t work, he was probably dead and no longer needed to worry about it.

Right now, he wasn’t dead or even dying, and so it didn't feel like a reasonable excuse to neglect his duties for something as stupid as staying in bed and doing nothing—even with Leo there to pester him and make jokes and offer him home-cooked meals that could be warmed up at a flick of his wrist.

It didn’t feel real to Jason that he was just allowed to have this.

If nothing else, since he’d taken the ambrosia he could at least sit up without feeling like he was about to topple off the bed, which meant Leo was currently pestering him into finishing his glass of water.

Jason was only half-listening, his mind continuously wandering back to all the things he should be doing instead of this.

“I can hear you thinking, Superman. It’s loud and very annoying.” Leo ruffled his hair. “Talk to me? We did say we’d give it a shot, but we’re both still kind of garbage at it.”

“I really feel like I should be up and helping,” Jason sighed. He was glad to be able to manage a full sentence without bursting into another coughing fit, but talking still hurt. “At least check on the temples to make sure nothing got damaged last night.”

“Nope. Wrong answer. Immediately disqualified.” Leo made a noise that was obviously supposed to resemble the sound of an incorrect buzzer on a quiz show, though it sounded like someone had kicked the poor buzzer down the stairs instead of pressing it. “The only thing you’re supposed to be doing right now is resting, and you’re doing a terrible job. You’ve basically been non-stop doing things since we finished dealing with Gaia. The temples, now this project… I know I’m one to talk, but you need a vacation or something.” Leo smirked. “I hear Greece is really nice this time of year.”

“Oh yeah, I’d love to spend all of our first vacation as a couple trying not to get killed.”

“You say that like trying not to get killed isn’t the foundation of this relationship,” Leo teased him. “But Greece or otherwise, you’re not talking yourself out of this vacation. Take it from the resident expert on running: you’ve got a tendency to keep yourself running when you shouldn’t, and you really need to stop.”

“Didn’t you tell me you were an expert at sticking around at one point?” Jason asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I can’t believe you remember that,” Leo said, laughing, like it was absurd that that moment had meant enough to Jason for him to remember it. Like Jason hadn’t built his life around the fact that his mom had promised to come back and left him instead. Like Leo, who had been runningand running and running for most of his life, hadn’t seen the fear in his eyes and chosen to stay.

“Of course I remember,” Jason said softly.

Leo gulped, clearly emotional, but then he immediately shifted back into his joke default. 

“Damn it. Should have known you keep a folder of quotes to throw back at me at the right moment. You’re exactly the type of nerd who has folders on everything.” He shook his head. “To answer your question: I’ve got layers, babe. I have to keep you on your toes somehow.” 

“I thought the point of this was to get me to rest? Isn’t that the opposite of keeping me on my toes?”

“You’re lucky I like you as much as I do.” Leo rolled his eyes, but then he smiled at Jason. “I’ll let you in on a little secret: I was trying to be supportive and also full of shit. I’m getting better at the sticking around thing, though. You can blame yourself and Piper for that one. Fourteen year old Leo would be quaking in his boots.”

It was more sincere than Leo usually was, and Jason really did feel lucky.

“Fourteen year old me would also be pretty shocked if he could see me now,” Jason admitted quietly. “He never slept past six am. He was also never this happy.”

“Six am?” Leo’s eyes bugged out of his head. “Is that standard for Camp Jupiter? Gods, no wonder Reyna is always so cranky.”

Jason laughed, which rapidly dissolved into another coughing fit. Laughing was still out, then. That was really unfortunate considering his boyfriend was right there.

“I think you’d like Reyna if you gave her an actual shot. There’s a reason we were best friends for years.” Their relationship had never quite gone back to what it had been before the whole memory wipe kidnapping incident, but Jason was back to being friends with Reyna, and he was glad for that. “Are you still scared of her?”

“Not as much. Piper’s trying exposure therapy. The results are so-so, but at least I don’t think she wants to kill me anymore,” Leo joked. Then he shoved the half-full glass of water back into Jason’s face. “Speaking of ways to prevent death: I’m supposed to keep you from getting dehydrated. Bottoms up!”

Jason sighed, but his throat still hurt, even if it did feel a little less sandpapered than before, and the water helped.

What it didn’t help with was the exhaustion—this ridiculous, inconvenient feeling of wanting to just curl up against Leo and let himself go unconscious. He may have been significantly less dizzy, but he still went between random flashes of feeling too warm and too cold and sometimes both at once.

“It’s fine if you want to go back to sleep, you know,” Leo said like he’d read his mind—or, more likely, Jason’s bone-deep exhaustion was just written all over his face. He took the empty glass and placed it back down on the bedside table. “I may be terrible at going to bed at reasonable hours, and sleep gets a general 5/10 from me because of all the nightmares, but unfortunately, it is important, especially when you’re sick. I don’t mind just sitting with you for a while.”

“If you’re staying with me, we should at least do something together,” Jason protested. “This isn’t exactly fun for you. I don’t want to just sleep and waste a whole bunch of your time.”

“You’re overestimating your influence, Superman. I have ADHD. I can waste my own time just fine without your help.” Leo smiled down at him, running his hand through Jason’s hair again. Jason closed his eyes and leaned into the movement. “Besides, we both know I’m the fun one in this relationship. Your job is more, like, mother henning so I occasionally go to bed before two am and actually remember to eat lunch instead of just disappearing down the project void for three days.”

“Shut up,” Jason laughed, which rapidly turned into another coughing fit. Gods, usually he loved how much Leo made him laugh, but it was a little inconvenient right now.

“See? Clearly, I’m the fun one. Now stop being ridiculous and just go back to sleep.”

Jason wanted to protest again, but his thoughts were turning to mush. His head was on Leo’s lap, and Leo was so, so warm that anything coherent he tried to grasp at drifted away before he could form even half a sentence. That just felt like cheating on Leo’s part.

Being sick still didn’t feel safe to Jason. This whole situation of him letting himself rest didn’t feel safe or right or like something he should be allowed to do.

But he knew so instinctively that Leo would never let anything happen to him that it was hard to feel anything but safe with him. With Leo there, Jason always felt like everything was going to be alright.

————————————————————————

Leo was pretty sure he was failing as a boyfriend. 

The thing was, Leo was kind of garbage at taking care of people. He knew that wasn’t entirely his fault—no one had properly taken care of him when he was sick since he was eight years old, and just crawling under the bedsheets hoping his foster parents didn’t realize he was sick or finding himself a slightly less drafty bridge to sleep under weren’t exactly great precedents to base your care for someone else on.

But knowing that didn’t help. Jason was great with stuff like this. He knew how to calm Leo down when he was freaking out, made him cocoa in the middle of the night and had made sure Leo didn’t go stir-crazy when he’d been stuck in the infirmary for more than a week after the Gaia fight. That Leo was fucking terrible at it and he didn’t feel like he could properly help Jason in return made him feel like shit.

After his boyfriend had dozed off the night before, Leo had realized very quickly that he absolutely should have dragged him to the infirmary—or at least he should have broken in and stolen a few ambrosia cubes. Leo hadn’t really slept much. Jason had spent the whole night sweating and shivering against him, coughing so badly that Leo had been worried one of his lungs might come up, but he hadn’t been able to wake Jason when he tried, and physically hadn’t been able to leave the bed until sometime this morning. Every time he’d tried to pull his arm away from Jason’s chest, Jason had made a half-asleep whining noise and pulled it back, until eventually, he’d turned onto his back and wrapped fully around Leo, pinning him in place like a misbehaving pup. 

It would have been hilarious if it hadn’t been so inconvenient.

Austin had been the only Apollo cabin member up when Leo had gotten there, and Leo hadbothered him into checking on Jason, but Austin’s powers were more concentrated in the musical than the healing range. He’d mainly concluded that Jason wouldn’t die and advised Leo to let him sleep for a while longer and ask Will to check in later if it didn’t get better.

Leo had then proceeded to waste most of the morning trying to figure out how to cheer Jason up.

He’d gotten a whole bunch of unhelpful advice from his friends, both in-person and via Iris Message. Reyna had said she liked to be left alone, and had absolutely no advice to offer in regards to what Jason usually did or needed when he was sick. She actually couldn’t remember him ever being sick in all the time she’d known him, which said some concerning things about the amount of off time he usually allowed himself to take.

Piper had said her dad used to tell her stories to make her feel better when she’d been little, which would have been helpful if Jason had been five. She’d also confirmed Jason was a terrible patient, which, considering he’d tossed himself into the ocean with a life-threatening stab wound at one point, didn’t take a genius to figure out.

Because Piper was just like that, she’d pointed out that Leo wasn’t much better, which, while not technically untrue, wasn’t exactly helpful advice, either.

Annabeth had said she didn’t get sick, which Percy side-eyed her for, and then she’d admitted she just liked knowing someone was there. Doing what, exactly? Who knew.

Percy was the only one who’d said something Leo could actually use: that his mom usually cooked something he liked to cheer him up. 

Leo could do cooking. 

So, as per Austin’s expert advice, he’d let Jason sleep, and after breakfast, he’d gotten to work in the kitchen.

Leo liked being in the kitchen of the big house, usually. Cooking relaxed him.

But he hadn’t done a whole lot of it since he’d lost his leg, and navigating the kitchen with his crutches had turned out to be a bigger issue than he’d expected. Carrying things around was fine if they were in closed boxes or bags, but carrying a mug with liquid? Yeah, nope, not happening.

But, after some mishaps, he’d found workarounds. He’d gone completely overboard because he wasn’t sure what Jason would actually feel like eating. It wasn’t like he didn’t know some of the things Jason liked, but none of the ones that came to mind exactly screamed sick person comfort foods to Leo.

He’d made a cup of that terrible herbal tea Jason liked for some reason, and a whole bunch of small things like cut fruits and dry toast. Leo had even tried to recreate the chicken pozole he remembered his own mom had sometimes made when he wasn’t feeling well. The memory made his heart clench in his chest, but he felt like he had to at least try.

There hadn’t been any major disasters during the actual cooking process. The main problem came after, when Leo realized he hadn’t really thought through how he’d get the food back to the Hephaestus cabin. Carrying a tray with crutches was even less possible than carrying around mugs filled with liquid. 

So, well, Leo had chosen to just not use the crutches. He’d decided it was probably fine as long as he was careful. He could mostly walk around without crutches okay.

Admittedly, most of that walking had been without carrying anything heavy and with both Will and a wall readily available in case he needed to steady himself. And sure, they didn’t do these types of exercises for more than a few minutes at a time because Leo’s sense of balance was still shit. But he’d thought he could do this.

Will rushing up to him a few steps out of the building had been the only reason Leo and everything he was carrying hadn’t ended up all over the lawn.

“Leo, we talked about this,” Will had chided him, taking over carrying the tray.

He’d spent the whole walk to the cabin trying to talk Leo through recovery timelines, which Leo had tuned out after the second sentence.

Leo knew that stuff. He was painfully aware of the fact that it usually took over six months, sometimes up to a year, to be able to walk without crutches after an amputation. They’d talked through this in detail several times.

That didn’t mean he was thrilled about this fact.

Sure, Leo was making decent progress. And he was trying to be patient with himself.

But it had been months at this point, and he’d never been a particularly patient person, and that he was doing better didn’t mean he didn’t have days like today when he really wanted to hurl his crutches at a wall.

The other issue he was currently having was that his left leg hurt.

Leo was pretty sure he knew the cause of this—Will had told him he was supposed to regularly take the prosthesis off and check if the skin underneath was getting irritated, and also give his stump breaks throughout the day.

The thing was, Leo wasn’t great about this. Partially, this was because he got hyperfocused a lot when he was working on his little projects and he just forgot. Partially, this was also because he’d had two legs for sixteen years of his life, and even after three and a half months in this new situation, he still didn’t always remember that this wasn’t the case anymore. That part felt fucking idiotic, because most of the time he obviously did know and was unable to forget if he tried, but sometimes when he was especially sleep-deprived or intensely focused on something else, his brain just blocked out this particular part of reality. Having his prosthesis on when he worked late significantly reduced the risk of him trying to get up to fetch a tool and epically belly-flopping onto the floor of the forge in the process.

…okay, that one had been a one time occurrence and very early on, but still. Never again.

Nyssa and Jake hadn’t been weird about it—Nyssa had helped him sit up while Jake had gone to fetch Will, and both of them had the decency to never bring it up again. Leo still wanted to burn a hole into the floor from sheer embarrassment whenever he thought of it.

So, yeah, staying up as late as he had and keeping the prosthesis on the whole time, Leo was pretty sure he’d irritated the shit out of his stump, in ways his evening routine hadn’t been able to fix. Again. 

He should have probably gone to Will or Kayla about this. At the very least, he should have taken his prosthetic leg off and iced the painful spots a little. If it had been any other day, he probably would have.

He didn’t.

Instead, he let Jason nap on his lap for two hours, which surprisingly did not help his leg pain.

Leo should have been better about this, especially when Will had literally just given him a lecture about not pushing himself. But the only semi-useful thing Leo had managed to do so far was make Jason food, which Jason hadn’t even eaten because he wasn’t feeling well. 

So, yeah, fucking incredible work in the boyfriend department, Valdez.

The least he could do was let Jason sleep in a position he was obviously comfortable in, even if it was objectively only comfortable for one of them.

Aside from the pain, Leo didn’t really mind this situation very much. He spent an embarrassing amount of time just watching his boyfriend sleep like a complete weirdo. 

Despite the fact that Jason was still sweating and shivering under the blanket, and despite the fact that every time he coughed it was obvious that it hurt, he looked… almost peaceful. 

Jason wasn’t good at looking peaceful. Even asleep, it always seemed like he was one command away from jumping to his feet with his sword drawn. Almost was the closest he ever got.

And almost peaceful Jason was an image Leo really struggled to tear himself away from. It made him yearn for a future where maybe he’d get Jason all the way to actually peaceful, now that the end of the world wasn’t permanently hanging over their heads anymore. Leo imagined the machine shop he wanted, and getting to come home every night to a version of Jason that laughed easily and no longer remembered how to stand at attention.

Gods, Leo hadn’t even thought it possible to be this utterly gone for another person. A year ago, he hadn’t even thought he’d ever consider a place home again. Yet, here he was, just about a month into this relationship, thinking about living together. Talk about fucking u-hauling.

~~~

By the time Jason woke up, Leo had thankfully torn himself out of the kind of ridiculous fairytale futures that had always been reserved for other people and was fiddling with one of his little projects—an upgraded eye for Festus with a few extra sensors his current ones didn’t have.

Admittedly, Leo looking down at Jason might have been a slightly less disconcerting sight to wake up to than the giant metal eye that was currently staring down at him.

Jason yelped, and Leo was barely quick enough to move the large metal orb out of range before his boyfriend punched the spot of empty air where it had just been, nearly socking Leo on the jaw in the process.

“Whoa. Down, boy. No need to give me or Festus a black eye.” Leo dropped the eye on the floor next to the bed, then held his hands up defensively for extra effect. “This is mostly celestial bronze, anyway, so it’s not like you could do any real damage with your fists. It’s bad enough that you’re sick, we do not need to add broken fingers to the equation.”

Jason looked extremely startled. “Sorry. Oh gods, I’m so sorry. I thought- You okay?”

“You didn’t even actually hit me. Your uppercut needs work.” Leo gently flicked his boyfriend in the head. “Anyway, enough about me. How are you feeling?”

“A little better, I think.” This was followed immediately by another coughing fit. Leo raised an eyebrow. 

“You are the worst liar I know.” He ruffled Jason’s hair, since he seemed to really be enjoying that today. Note for future reference: sick Jason was like a dog that enjoyed getting petted. “You need anything?”

“Maybe water?” Jason shrugged. “I don’t know. Just if it’s not too much trouble.”

“Superman, I cooked for you for more than an hour this morning. I’ll survive a three second walk to the bathroom and back to fill up your cup.” Leo nudged him. “Besides, I’ve got a leg and a half that are super asleep right now. It’ll be nice to get up and stretch them for a bit.”

~~~

Despite this bold statement on Leo’s part, the short walk in question turned into a total disaster. 

Yeah, he could have made it to the bathroom and back without his crutches under most circumstances. He’d done that before.

But currently, his stupid stump was sore and hurt with every step and it turned out he could not manage.

He had to pause in the bathroom, the cup clenched in trembling fingers, which would have been embarrassing enough. But then it turned out he couldn’t make the way back at all.

The main issue wasn’t that the pain was so intense he couldn’t bear it—if it had been anything that serious, even Leo probably wouldn’t have been this much of a moron about it. The issue was that the fact that his steps stung kept throwing him off, and made Leo’s usually mediocre balance that Will had correctly pointed out they were still working on significantly worse.

Leo only made it about three quarters of the way back to his bed before he misstepped and fell, which was really just how this day was going. The main thoughts he had as he fell were annoyance and frustration directed at himself, as well as a distant relief that he’d had the presence of mind to take the plastic cup because at least that wouldn’t splinter.

Leo didn’t hit the floor. He was stopped mid-fall by first a strong gust of wind and then a pair of warm arms. 

Jason shouldn’t have been out of bed. He definitely shouldn’t have been using his powers. In the end, Jason’s immensely stupid rescue attempt just made them both crumple to the floor, right into the puddle of spilled water, though at a much slower speed than the one Leo had originally been going for.

“Are you okay?”

Leo wanted to say something funny, but he looked at his exhausted boyfriend who’d just wasted a bunch of his energy preventing him from getting hurt and just kind of started to cry. 

“Are you hurt? What’s wrong? Can I help?” Jason asked again, placing his hands on Leo’s shoulders. He sounded really alarmed, which just made Leo feel worse.

“I’m sorry I’m such garbage at this,” Leo sniffled. “You’re always so good with this stuff, but I can’t figure out how to help, and between my stupid crutches and my stupid leg hurting I can’t- I’m sorry I’ve been so useless.”

“Leo, what the hell are you talking about?” Jason looked something between concerned and seriously confused.

“I’m- my whole thing is that I know how to fix machines. But people? I don’t- I never know how to help when it comes to people. You’re not like Festus. I can’t just switch out your gears to make you feel better. I don’t know what I can do to make you feel better. What kind of awful boyfriend-”

“Stop.” Jason looked directly at him, eyes stormy. “You’ve been amazing. You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I will not allow you to talk about yourself like this.”

“But-”

“No. Listen to me. If it wasn’t for you, I would have gone to help, and Will’s right, I probably would have ended up hurt. Most likely, I wouldn’t even have been upset about it, because that’s what I was raised to do. You said it yourself: I’m the prince of the universe. I’m supposed to take charge and get things done. It doesn’t matter if that doesn’t make me happy or if it isn’t good for me. That’s just who I have to be.” Jason’s voice cracked. “Everyone always expects me to be able to handle anything. But I’m not. You’re the only person who’s ever made me feel like it’s okay that I’m not.” 

“Oh,” was the only thing Leo could manage as Jason pulled him to his chest, holding him so gently that he could barely remember how to breathe.

And then they were both crying, adding to the stupid water puddle they were sitting in. They probably looked ridiculous. Leo didn’t care. Being wrapped in Jason’s arms like this immediately made him feel better.

“I can count the amount of times someone’s taken care of me on one hand, and that’s never involved another person sitting with me for hours and stroking my hair and cooking for me before. I almost burst into tears over a plate of cut fruit earlier,” Jason admitted quietly, gently nuzzling Leo’s neck. Gods, he still felt awfully warm. “But you don’t need to spend all day fussing, especially if you don’t feel great. It’s so nice to just have you here. I’ve been really anxious lately, and I just- all I ever wanted was for someone to stay.”

“Oh,” Leo repeated intelligently, his own voice cracking too. Damn it, that meant he’d have to tell Annabeth he should have taken her advice. She’d never let him live that down. “I can do that. I can stay.”

“Yeah, I know,” Jason sniffled. “But I don’t want you hurting yourself to help me, okay?”

“Says the guy who just almost made himself faint trying to catch me,” Leo commented, grimacing. “I hate to say it, but Piper was right when she said sometimes we’re the exact same brand of idiot. Let’s both try to work on that, yeah?”

Jason sighed. “Yeah. Okay.”

This left them with the issue of how to get back off the floor.

~~~

In the end, Piper rescued them, appearing out of thin air like Leo had fucking summoned her the second he’d admitted she was right.

She collected both of them off the floor, went to get Will, and also brought some of the self-refilling cups from lunch, which… yeah, Leo really should have thought of that. 

“You seem to have food covered for now,” she said, gesturing towards the tray of still untouched breakfast items on the bedside table.

Whether he liked it or not, Leo got his second Will Solace lecture of the day, this time with strict orders to rest and let his stump breathe for a while. He didn’t mind that too much—he’d felt absolutely zero desire to put the prosthesis back on since he’d finally taken it off.

Besides, being put on bed rest with Jason really wasn’t much of a punishment, aside from the fact that even sick, Jason still wouldn’t stop with his stupid mother henning.

“You literally said that was part of my boyfriend job description like three hours ago. You do not get to complain about it now,” Jason teased him, shoving Leo’s cup and another piece of toast in his direction.

Yeah, Leo really needed to find that folder of inconvenient quotes that could be used against him and burn it.

Jason was still garbage at letting himself rest, but it seemed to be easier for him now that he felt like he was doing something helpful—even if that something helpful was just bothering his boyfriend. Leo would have to write that down for future reference.

They shared the food Leo had made, and they talked. Jason told him why he’d been so anxious while Leo petted his head and offered to fist-fight Rachel the next time she tried to speak a prophecy. Leo finally went into some of his post-amputation problems, including but not limited to his occasional desire to hurl his crutches at the wall.

“Will probably has some old broken crutches you could actually throw. If you think that’d help, I’m sure he’d let you.”

“I’ll ask, but I’ll definitely tell him it was your idea.” Leo chuckled. “If Will keeps having to put up with us I think he’s gonna need a vacation too.”

“Maybe someone should tell him to just take a couple of days off with his boyfriend. This is actually really nice.” Jason didn’t kiss him, because he was a buzzkill and refused to get him sick, but he looked at Leo with such unbridled fondness that it was clear he wanted to. “I love you. You know that, right?”

“If you’re trying to quote Star Wars to me, you’re doing it wrong,” Leo joked, putting his head on Jason’s shoulder. “But yeah, I do know that. Love you, too.”

And well, spending the next few days like this, sharing meals and curled up next to each other watching movies and taking naps didn’t sound so bad, even if it did require Leo to be a little more honest about how he was feeling than usual.

He still wasn’t convinced they were lucky enough to have any kind of fairytale future, but currently the present wasn’t looking half bad.

———————

Some notes:

-Title is from Time by Gretta Ray. Shoutout to my friend Mal for putting up with me in the process of this fic, he’s never read the books and literally doesn’t even know who these people are.

Continuation of the point I made in Late Night Cocoa about Leo and Jason both being shit at voicing it when something is wrong with them! Jason’s been in charge for so long that not being okay has simply never felt like an option. Leo still isn’t entirely used to having people who care regardless of whether he’s currently being useful.

Being in a relationship does not magically fix all your issues! But they know each other and know how to lift each other up and it does really help.

Leo will not let Jason play the hero. Jason will not allow Leo to talk badly about himself ever. They’re just good for each other, full stop, and I love that for them.

Side note: I cannot believe I wrote a 10k established relationship fic and didn’t let them kiss on the lips once. That feels incredibly mean of me. I feel like now I need to write a date fic of some kind specifically to make it up to them, lol

This was my first time properly attempting Jason POV which was kind of scary but I think I ended up doing alright?

Anyway, thanks for reading! Comments and reblogs are always super, super appreciated.

@poppitron360

[milkman-zahhak]

OC ref sheet + slightly better writing/fic

-> Part 1 Part 2 (prequel to part 1) (think of it like a flashback scene, seen as Leo and Cal drift asleep in part 1) Part 3 (sequel to part 1)

Made a visual for those OCs I made, attempting to flesh them out a bit. The art is messy, the anatomy is wack, I know.. I just wanted to get the basic info out there. Anyways, here's a different (hopefully better) story.

And as usual, WARNING, THIS IS A KINK POST, A FETISH POST. IT WILL CONTAIN FETISH CONTENT, SUCH AS BELLIES FULL OF FOOD AND WHATNOT, CHECK THE TAGS FOR THE WHOLE RUNDOWN.

Brief overview: The first character is a college boy named Cal. He's naturally thin, he doesn't overeat very often. And maybe that's for the better because he's lactose intolerant and has a sensitive stomach, prone to bloating. He's shy and antisocial, but has a very close friend named Leo who is his roommate. Leo secretly has.. well, a "thing" for bloated tummies and things of the like.. he would never push this onto anyone, much less ADMIT it. Cal has grown comfortable around Leo over the years, even though he's usually very self-consious and shy, he trusts Leo and is willing to open up to him more. ----------

It was a boring day off of work for Cal. He had no plans nor any means to act out any plans he might have. Not to mention nothing to snack on, and Cal wasn't about to make himself a whole meal. He was counting down the minutes until his roommate Leo came home from work, hanging out with Leo was always fun for him. Eventually, it was about 30 minutes past the time he expected Leo to return.

"Im so boooorreeeed…" Cal mumbles. But as soon as the words leave his lips, the door slams open. He turns around to see Leo and brightens up immediately. Leo informs him that hes sorry for being late, he won some gift cards to the local pizza place in a raffle at work and used them all at once. "I thought i might as well use 'em before I lose 'em. Or forget about them. Theres a bunch, so we can share!" Leo tries to cheer Cal up as he brings the pizza boxes to the little coffee table in the living room. Cal follows Leo to the pizza to grab a slice. "I've been so bored out of my mind all day, and hungry too. This is gonna be so kickass, huh?" Leo chuckled "Yup! Just us chilling all night. We can watch movies too, let me get one ready." Cal leans back, "hell yeah! Ok, choose something silly and fun."

Cal watches from the kitchen as Leo boots up youtube on the TV in the living room "Dude, something else please. Leo frowns, questioning "aww, not y-" Cal interrupts "NOT youtube documentaries about lost media or unsuccessful video game film adaptations, God dammit! That's all we watched last time.. don't you have any actual movies?"

Leo gets up and looks through a box of physical media he has, most of which are youtube series he's burnt onto DVDs, until he finds an actual movie "Uh. Umm. I've got one of the original copies of the Postal 2007 movie on dvd?.."

Cal sighs, giving up on being able to chose a normal movie "...Yeah, sure. Zach Ward really carried that dumpster fire"

Cal leans forward over the kitchen table to pluck a slice from the box, the stringy cheese stretching and tearing. "I could go for some soda, too," he murmurs, and Leo springs to his feet, nodding "Good call. I'll grab some." As he heads for the fridge, Cal takes an excited bite and settles back. He's practically inhaling the slice at this point, almost choking on the huge bite he took as he does so. Leo hears him cough and laughs, "God damn, Cal, chill. There's plenty of pizza, haha. It's not gonna run away from you."

Cal rolls his eyes "yeah, thanks for the advice." He takes another big bite and speaks as he chews "you have no idea how hungry I've been all day. I swear I could eat all of this pizza by myself if I could!" Cal was obviously joking and exaggerating, but Leo blushed imagining such a scenario… he shook away the thoughts quickly. He doesn't want to make Cal feel uncomfortable, he doesn't know about Leo's fetish, and Leo felt guilty for thinking of his friend as the unaware center of his fantasies. Leo's cheeks burn as he returns to the living room with the sodas. Cal had grabbed a second slice by then, but was struggling to keep up with his conversation between bites. The pizza pretty much disappeared before his eyes.

He must be starving, Leo thought.

Leo places the sodas on the coffee table within arm's reach and flops down onto the living room floor, propping his back up against the couch. His eyes scan Cal's body thoughtfully from across the apartment, but he remains silent. Cal is oblivious to Leo's silent admiration, focused solely on demolishing the pizza. In just a minute, he finishes his second slice and reaches for a third. Leo is putting the DVD in when he remembers he needs to eat too "Oh, wait let me grab a plate".

Leo walks into the kitchen to see Cal still at the kitchen table scarfing down pizza, his hands come away greasy and covered with sauce. He doesn't care. He devours the fourth slice like he's had no food in days. Leo playfully hits Cal on the shoulder, "cmon, man save some for me.. and don't eat it in here. I wanna watch the movie! Here, we can even bring the pizza boxes in there too." Leo meant that they should move to the living room after Cal finished his slice, but as Cal agrees and gets up, he shoves the whole slice into his mouth at once as they carried pizza boxes into the living room.

They settled down for the movie. Leo reached for a slice of pizza and realized quickly that it was already half gone. Cal had eaten maybe 4 slices already. He looks over to see how Cal managed to pack it all away when he realized he couldn't see his belly. Cal was wearing a loose zip-up sweatshirt and it gave nothing away.

The two watched the movie, eventually the first box was finished. Leo's eyes drifted back and forth between the TV and Cal. He can't help himself. Cal is too damn irresistible. The way he devoured that pizza—no shame, no second thought. Cal rarely even took a moment to breathe.. And there must be a reason Leo can't see his belly when he's been gorging himself, right? Cal's belly must be distended and swollen beneath that sweatshirt. His jeans must be so tight right now… Leo internally scolds himself after looking down and realizing it was in fact HIS pants – not Cal's – that were tight, albeit not because of his stomach.

He really shouldn't be thinking of Cal like this, Cal doesn't know what this is doing to Leo, he's not doing anything on purpose. Leo tries to shake these intrusive thoughts. He glances at Cal for a moment and finds him staring right back, mouth full of pizza. "Hey man, you good?" Leo tilted his head "What? Yeah, why?". Cal shrugs. "I dunno, I asked you if you thought Uwe Boll ever actually played Postal himself or not.. And you just were kinda staring off into space.." Leo blushes "oh, haha my bad, I think I just zoned out.."

Shit

Leo continued, "..Sorry, I get pretty engrossed in movies and stuff sometimes, you know?"

Cal grins bashfully and takes a big bite of whichever slice he was on now "Ah, well, I tend to talk over 'em a lot, so..." Leo waves him off, "Nah, Cal, don't apologize. I like hearing the shit you have to say about movies. Makes it more interesting." Cal grins and turns back to the screen, his eyes fixated on the television in front of him as he grabs the last slice in the third box, dropping the empty box to the floor. "Dude this pizza is soooo good. Im like, full, but I can't stop eating it."

Leo almost wishes Cal knew how he felt about these kinds of subjects so he wouldn't be so open about it, but how do you begin to tell your friend "hey this normal thing? It actually gets me rock hard, so unless you're trying to encourage that, maybe we could change the subject from you stuffing your belly with unhinged amounts of pizza, thanks". Leo takes the few seconds that Cal has his focus on the movie as an opportunity to gaze again at his now noticeably distended belly beneath his sweatshirt. The fabric is stretched taut, and tauter by the minute. His posture slowly changing as more and more pizza filled up his gut and weighed it down. His belly must be huge right now. Is there any way the shirt could hide it for much longer? Leo wondered.

The movie is almost over. Cal leans back in his seat, subtly sneaking his hand beneath his sweatshirt to try and sneakily rub his belly. He quickly stops as if trying to hide his discomfort. Maybe he's embarrassed? Leo tries not to think about it until during a quiet moment in the movie he hears a "grrgrgrrrrrrrrlllllee….." from beside him. "Woah Cal was that you?". Cal grins "yup, I think I'm *hic* getting full." Oh god. Leo was practically throbbing.

"O-oh, haha yeah I bet. You ate like 3 boxes right?" Cal looks at Leo like he's crazy for a moment before looking down at the empty boxes on the floor "no way, I only… I.. hm. Fuck, I guess I did!" Leo sees a flash of regret and fear on Cal's face for a split second before his fun attitude came back "I wasn't paying attention to the food, I was just eating while I watched the movie.." there were a few moments of silence. Cal's belly grumbles loudly again, interrupting the silence. His face is slightly flushed as he tries to hide how full he's getting from the pizza. He rubs his arm with nervous energy. "Man do you think we could crank down the heat a bit? I'm kinda hot" Leo nods and gets up, turning down a dial on the thermostat. As Leo is in the other room, Cal lets out a small burp into his fist and continues to rub his belly. Leo definitely heard it, but he wasn't gonna bring it up since Cal seemed to be trying to hide it anyways.

Back in his seat on the couch now, Leo shifts his legs and glances at his friend out of curiosity. Cal is still watching the movie, but Leo can hear his tummy churning as it tries to digest copious amounts of free pizza. He also hears Cal swallowing down burps as they rumbled up his throat. Maybe Cal thought that Leo couldn't hear these things, because he stayed outwardly confident and continued to act like he wasn't very full at all. Cal's belly rumbles loudly again, loudly enough that theres no denying what the sound was. "damn, haha" he plays it off casually before hiccuping, swallowing air as he did so and accidentally belching at the end. "hic-uRP-" his eyes widen. Leo is glad the lights are dim because hes sure that his face is probably red as a tomato right now.

"Sorry," Cal says "I guess I got a little carried away" He rubs his belly again not hiding it very well anymore, it's distended just above his belt, stretching the fabric as he stretches out on the couch. After a few moments, Cal shifts slightly, as if he's trying to find a comfortable position to relax. The movement does nothing but draw his sweatshirt tighter around his bulging belly as he leans back. The pressure is obviously becoming uncomfortable for Cal, he can't help but give a soft groan as he feels the distension of his gut. Leo looks away for a second as he feels his eyes almost roll back in his head. This CAN'T be real life. He turns back and takes a deep breath. He shouldn't be here, he feels bad. Cal is unintentionally acting out some of Leo's deepest fantasies and he doesn't even KNOW he's doing it..

Eventually the movie ended and the credits rolled. Leo yawned, it was getting late. They could probably just crash here on the couch and sleep like they usually do. Conversation continues as normal, both the boys winding down as they prepare to sleep soon. Another burp rumbles up Cal's throat and it's a wonder he can even keep up the facade. This happens a few more times before eventually, an especially forceful belch broke the barrier of silence.

"…. .. brUUUUUUURHP-Urp… urp…" Leo's head spun around, both boys' eyes were wide in shock. Leo tried to lighten the mood, he knew his friend seemed uncomfortable about letting on that he had overindulged, so Leo followed Cal's demeanor and decided to also play it cool.

Leo scrambled to think of what a normal person who isn't aroused by bloated belly aches would say in this situation. "Damn that was a big one haha, sick!"

Cal avoided eye contact and forced a small laugh "Ha, you know it… sorry though for real, that was gross of me" Leo tries to reassure him without making it obvious that he is MORE than okay with what's going on. "Dont worry about it, you're so self conscious about so many things that really aren't that big of a deal. I promise, I don't find you annoying or gross." Cal stayed silent, appearing to be studying Leo's face before sighing and sitting up slightly "Can I… be honest with you?"

Leo tries not to laugh "Dude, you can ALWAYS be honest with me, you're my best friend!"

Cal opened his mouth to speak before grimmacing as a loud airy gurgle broke the silence, followed by an involuntary soft and equally as airy burp… "I- *uuuorp*, god, my stomach is so full." He brought one other hand to the top his stomach and the other to the bottom, holding it with both hands weakly, unable to find the strength to hide it anymore "Leo, I'm not really fine, my stomach actually hurts really bad and I didnt *hic* I didn't wanna fuck up movie night so I didnt say anything." He quickly blurts out. That gets Leo's attention.

Leo is frozen for a moment, staring at Cal's tummy, bulging beneath his sweatshirt, creating a huge bump as if he were hiding a basketball underneath it. It was a wonder that his sweatshirt wasn't tearing apart from the seams. In fact, it looked like it was about to. Even with the dim light and the position he's in, it's almost impossible to hide it.

"Cal.." Leo's voice almost cracks. "You didn't ruin movie night, I don't think you could if you tried. I like hanging out with you and I like you for who you are, I don't want you to feel scared to tell me things and I'm sorry if I did anything to make you feel that way-" Cal cuts him off "no, no, it's not you.. urgh.." he paused as an overstuffed rumble made its way up his throat, he went to release it as a burp, but it got stuck in his throat. "*sigh*… it's me, I don't wanna get into it but I promise you, there's something personal about me and it's my own thing to deal with, sorry if I came off as apprehensive or unusual about it, I'm just stubborn.."

Leo put his hand on Cal's shoulder. That's what friends do, right? He assured him "Man.. As long as you're happy."

The mood seems to have lifted after that little talk. Cal sighed out loud "*sighh* but for real my stomach hurts so bad, it feels like I'm being stabbed in the gut!" He said as he slowly rubbed back and forth on the upper curve of the bloated mass in his lap covered by his sweatshirt. Churning could be heard as well as bubbles in the back of Cal's throat just barely making it up before getting stuck. Cal groaned under his breath. Leo tries to contain his own excitement at the situation. He doesn't know how long he can keep his cool if Cal keeps making sounds like that.

Another quiet moment between the boys, their conversation drifting to a stop. Leo's attention is entirely directed at Cal's body, specifically his ever inflating abdomen. He could see the pressure taking a toll on Cal. The sweatshirt was getting hard to keep down as the tightness and heaviness of the distended flesh pressed on his lap. Cal tries his best to relax for the time being, not able to do anything about his situation at the moment. The sweatshirt's fabric continues to be stretched, but still it can't hide the growing bulge of stomach.

"G-god it hurts.. fuck…" Cal suddenly whispered under his breath, breaking the verbal silence. "Leo, I can't sleep, I feel sick.." Leo had long since pulled his shirt down to cover his own crotch, he was past the point of no return and had nothing left to do but hide his shame, and his main goal now was to either relieve himself or stop being horny, and one of those was near impossible in this situation. The other coming naturally.

He still tried to give helpful advice though, "Dude, it's probably the gas. You're probably bloated from all the cheese, not to mention the stuffed crust. You just gotta get the gas out"

Cal raises an eyebrow "how? I don't know how to burp on command, and I can't seem to get anything up.." Leo rolls his eyes and resists face-palming, "You.. by rubbing your stomach? Do you need me to do it for you?" He teased playfully. Cal leaned back, "oohg.. if you're offering, go ahead.." Leo's heart practically jumped into his throat as Cal gave him permission to touch his stomach. "Really?" Cal gives him a genuine nod. Leo got up onto the couch and moved behind the other boy, his hand going from Cal's shoulder to the front of the bulging sweatshirt, his fingers lightly pressing onto Cal's belly. He was immediately greeted with a low, loud rumbling that was probably from all the pizza, cheese, and soda, as well as the gas that had been accumulating throughout the night. He could feel the vibrations even through Cal's sweatshirt and undershirt "Holy shit, dude. You really are bloated". Cal's body shook and his voice trembled "Y-*..grrrr* oulgh.. yeah I usually never eat that much. I don't know how I even fit all that in me." The noises and vibrations sent a shiver down Leo's spine. Cal was almost like a giant, fleshy drum that he could feel vibrate when he touched it. He pressed his hands onto it again, but this time he gently rubbed circles into Cal's gut, listening to the rumblings as he did so.

The sensation and the noises made him euphoric. Cal suddenly spoke up "Hey I don't want to be weird or anything but are you like, into this?" Leo's heart sank and he felt his life flash before his eyes, his hands lifting up off of Cal's belly as he froze in place. "Wh… uh. What."

Cal repeated himself "like, are you into this?" Leo doesn't know what to say. How did Cal even know? Was he being too eager, too straightforward? He knew he shouldn't have actually offered a belly rub, surely Cal was just exaggerating when he made the offer. "I'm.. what made you think that?" Cal exhaled out of his nose jovially "because I can feel your boner on my back dude." Leo's eyebrows furrowed ashamedly, he wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Cal noticed and quickly added "It's okay if you are! I just.. I wanna know and make sure that's the case because I.. uh" Leo didn't dare look up but his ears honed in on what Cal said as he continued to speak "..I am."

Leo let out a deep sigh and leaned on Cal, resting his head on his shoulder "ohthankgod… Well in that case, yeah. Uh. Was it.. really that obvious?" Cal shook his head "Not really, I was actually really worried that I was the one going over the top by using this as an opportunity to stuff myself silly, I wanted to take advantage, since it's not like we have a surplus of food to be eating on the regular." Leo lifted his head "That's kinda clever. Yeah, you went apeshit on those pizzas, how many did I bring, 4? There's only one box left and there's already half a slice eaten from it."

Cal groans, the thought of food making his stomach churn even louder. Leo put his hands back on Cal's stomach and continued to rub it again. Cal suddenly tensed up and made a painful, scrunched up face, Leo could feel a particular pocket of air beneath his hands and massaged the side of Cal's hard distended tummy. Cal began to groan before he was cut off by a huge belch that sounded like the damned and digested souls of every pizza slice he's shoved into his gut. "Ugh-hUUUUUUURRRRP..'' There was a small moment of silence from everyone and everything including Cal's raunchy belly before everything shifted back into gear. Leo had to look down and check to make sure he didn't cream his jeans.

Cal let out a relieved sigh "oh Jesus dude, that helped a lot" he sounded thankful as he took another deep breath. Leo felt a sudden surge of confidence after giving such successful belly rubs, he'd never done this before! He wasn't sure this was real life. If it was a dream he didnt ever wanna wake up.

His hand kept moving, circling and rubbing across Cal's bloated midsection, the soft fabric of his sweatshirt stretched over his stomach felt almost like a nice soft stress ball to Leo… more like a dollar store stress ball made of hard foam that's near impossible to squeeze comfortably, so you mostly just hold it and caress it. Except Cal's belly wasn't made of cheap foam, and was safely confined within his clothes. His very tight clothes. Every now and then his fingers would graze lightly against the bloated boy's chest when he would rub a bit higher up, drawing soft gasps from Cal. The sweatshirt was baggy but it wasn't all that thick, Leo could swear he felt Cal's nipples, now hard, through the layers of fabric after accidentally brushing past the area a few minutes in.

Leo didn't say anything, there was really nothing he felt he needed to say. He just kept rubbing and listening to Cal's belly gurgle and his occasional burping- none rivaled that first one though.

Leo eventually began to think aloud "So now that everything's all out in the open, I'm kinda curious, if you're okay with sharing.. uh. What do you specifically.. enjoy?" Cal leaned his head back slightly, shifting the rest of his body closer to the boy behind him in the process "honestly I just like to indulge once in a while. I- *urrrp* ah.. 'scuse me, I'm not a health freak or anything but I like keeping a slim figure and eating healthy. Mostly 'cause even small amounts of junk food upset my stomach. Not to mention my favorite junk foods usually contain dairy, and I'm lactose intolerant. So if I ate like this every day I would probably spend all my free time in pain anyways." Leo nodded sympathetically, "Yeah that sucks, man". Cal continued "s'not all that bad, it would just be really inconvenient. That's why I only go all out like this on special occasions, a few times a year."

Leo hummed and continued to rub in a circular motion across Cal's belly "Makes sense. So.. are you just enjoying yourself now or is there anything else you're uh, 'into'?" Cal let out a small groan as Leo's hand brushed against his chest again "ghh-*buhurrrp*.. mm.. I don't think so. I can't think of any better way to go about satisfying my cravings. I like to feel full every now and then, push my limits and see how far I can go. I usually get full after eating even just small amounts, but I've found that if I keep going beyond and just continue eating anyways, I can actually pack away a whole lot more before my body starts to stop just hurting and starts physically rejecting and ejecting it" he hiccuped after he spoke and giggled before finishing his sentence "..so I'm just kinda relaxing right now.. and.. the company is nice too." he added in with a small smile. "Why, what about you? You into anything else?"

Leo was still shocked that his friend happened to not only accept his freaky fetish, but SHARE it, he didn't want to move things too fast or sound too eager.. but Cal basically admitted his secrets for him just now, and Leo feels like Cal deserves the same honesty from him. "Well.. I'm into people doing what you do. I'm not really into it when it's my own stomach or anything for some reason, but I don't really mind. I wouldn't really be opposed to it, I think I'm just more into… experiencing it uh, secondhand?" Leo, lost in thought, pressed down harder than usual for a second as he rubbed, Cal let out a muffled burp into his fist "*grrrrph*.. no, that makes sense, I get it."

Leo, feeling more grounded and comfortable, added onto his explanation "I've never done anything about it before, but I.. fantasize.. a lot, and I'm really into the idea of feeding y- someone. Like being the one to help you push your limits." Leo felt a tingle run down his spine as he finally admitted his fantasies out loud, he felt Cal sit up a little bit. Worried that maybe that freaked him out he added "Sorry if that's too weird.."

Cal laughed, then sat up completely, beginning to speak before the air that had been trapped rushed up as he sat straighter, "*BUUURP* agh, phew! It's okay, Leo, that's hot". Leo blinked. Very blunt... but he wasn't complaining.

Cal put his own hands on his stomach, feeling it for himself before looking back up at Leo "I'm still super full, but my tummy doesn't feel like it's being stabbed anymore! Like, I don't feel as full anymore!" Leo smirked "It's cause I burped you like a little baby"

Cal shoved Leo lightly "Oh c'mon, you loved it! Hey, there's still some pizza left right? We could do your feeding thing!" Leo's face brightened but he hesitated to accept the offer. "I mean, we could always do this another time. I could wait however long you want until you're ready to dedicate a night to this, besides, aren't you really full?" Cal technically was full, his stomach had stopped churning as hard and thus wasn't in as much pain at the moment, but that just meant the food was sitting in his stomach undigested.

Cal's expression stayed the same as he answered unexpectedly confidently, "But I'm less full now! It hurt earlier, but I wasn't really at my limit!" Leo was skeptical "You sounded like you were gonna projectile vomit on the carpet earlier if I hadn't rubbed your belly" Cal scoffs, "No, I was just psyched out! I was caught off guard 'cause you were here with me and I didn't know if I would have been freaking you out or not. Really, I've been doing this for years" Leo stood up and sighed "If you say so 'mr professionally licensed glutton', but I'm new to doing any of this and I really don't want to push you too far and have to clean up undigested pizza out of the carpet. At least not tonight."

Cal shrugs. "I'll be fine, at least this time. I promise." Leo looked unsure, but in the end he sat down behind Cal again and started to slowly rub his hands over the mass of Cal's distended midsection once again.

Truthfully, Cal was still pretty sensitive, and the light brush of Leo's hands felt like a very comfortable massage. "Alright, Cal. I'll do this, but I want you to tell me if it's getting uncomfortable, and we can stop. Don't make me feed you until you puke, that's gross". Cal chuckled, "I won't puke if you make sure to rub my tummy!" Leo sighed as he got up to grab the last box of pizza. "Alright but I'm grabbing the trash can just in case. Get comfy, Cal".

Cal held his still quite full belly, realizing now just how bloated he was, how his sweatshirt stretched to fit over his overstuffed stomach. He carried its weight in his hands as he shifted over to one side of the couch, propping himself up against a pillow on the armrest, letting out a low airy belch as he did so. He called out to Leo "Hey grab some more soda too, I'm thirsty!"

Cal shifted slightly as he settled in on the couch, his legs stretched out in front of him. To Leo, he almost looked like he was getting ready to watch television rather than stuff himself full of greasy, processed pizza for his friend's enjoyment. Leo walked into the room holding the box and a 2-liter bottle of orange soda. He sat down beside Cal in the same manner, making as little noise as possible while he settled. The air was thick with anticipation - both boys knew what was about to happen, but neither of them dared acknowledge it outright. Cal decided to break the awkward silence and be the first to step up, lord knows Leo won't.

Cal reaches for the box to grab a slice, but his round bloated tummy is preventing him from bending that far. He recoils and grabs his stomach, "oof.. oough.. I don't think I can keep leaning down and over to grab slices.. you're gonna have to feed 'em to me.."

Leo blushed, flustered, as if this isn't exactly what they had both agreed and planned to do mere seconds ago.

He was about to be the one to fill up Cal, and he wanted to do a good job. He held the slice up to the eager boy in front of him, sitting between his legs and reaching over his hard bloated tummy. His crotch just about touching Cal's as he sat there on the couch between his legs and overstuffed stomach. Cal looked at him hungrily.

"O-open wide," Leo says quietly, holding the greasy slice of pizza toward Cal's mouth. Cal, his expression eager and expectant, opens his mouth taking a large bite. His chewing speed slower than before. His stomach was already packed full, it was a struggle to force himself to choke down even MORE food, but he was determined to try. He chewed more thoroughly, as if his body was trying to delay the inevitable. He grunted and a small burp slipped out though his full mouth while he chewed. He really was stuffed to the brim. He swallows, and continues this process until the slice is gone. He looks to Leo for more.

"Another" he says, his mouth still full of his previous bite. Leo pushes the next slice close to Cal's mouth wearily "You look really full, dude. Your tummy feels tight as a drum.." Leo mumbled as he gently rubbed around the warm surface of the sweatshirt, massaging the churning belly underneath. Cal chews and swallows, before cringing, and speaking up "urgh.. wait.." Leo froze cautiously as Cal continued "..I'm thirsty, hand me the soda." Leo rolled his eyes as Cal chugged down a few gulps of the fizzy soda, resulting in almost IMMEDIATE burping.

After this, Leo was sure Cal would be finished, but alas..

"…and more," Cal commands after his belch-break, swallowing and panting as Leo continues rubbing his belly gently. A low moan escapes his lips, his gaze glued to Leo. The bulge under his tight stretchy sweatshirt shifting slightly from his breathing. Leo was getting ready to reach for another slice when Cal groaned "Wait, just a second.. for real this time.. hng.. cramp. My tummy…" both his hands flew to his belly which was rumbling ominously. His hands moved upwards to his chest as they were quickly replaced with Leo's, "We can stop now if you want, you look like you're gonna burst!"

Cal shook his head in protest, "Just a cramp, just need a break.." Leo felt the sickly churning through the sweatshirt as he rubbed it, and without even pushing, a bubbly fart escaped from Cal's behind, rumbling on Leo's crotch right in front of it. Leo winced "Oh that smells terrible.. somethings up in your belly, I think you should-" Cal interrupted Leo, "another slice!"

It was quite full in there and this whole thing was making Cal feel hot, uncomfortable, sick, and horny all at once. "Ooh, man… my stomach is just.. bulging with all this." He took the remaining crust and devoured it in a single huge mouthful. He paused for a moment, the weight of the food in his stomach shifting as he let out a stream of airy farts, every single one preceded with a vibrating rumble from his belly. "*Pfffft*… *pfffffttttt*.. oh god.. *buurp* oh- *pffft*…*pfftt*… *prrt*.. fuck.. Im sorry, I can't even stop it." Cal said. Leo held the last slice of pizza in his hand, "okay… last slice… don't pop, man.."

Cal's stomach bulged obscenely inside his snug sweatshirt as he ate the last slice of pizza. He was in such a state that when his mouth was busy chewing, several burps forced themselves free through his nose in rapid succession. He moaned after each one. Leo didn't seem to mind, though, he just stared at Cal with eyes half-lidded and a bulge full-mast. He was practically shaking at this point, Leo felt his heat radiating onto the poor stuffed boy. Cal's stomach, already full and distended from the prior intake and now the last slice was working overtime to digest said pizza. His body was heating up from all the churning. Leo could feel every bit of it, his crotch was also getting hot.

Cal was sweating. He looked almost delirious from pleasure- and pain. His face was flushed, his eyes glassy. Leo comforts him as he finishes chewing and swallows, his stomach rumbles again. Cal tilted his head back, trying to relax his cramped muscles. A long wet burp shot out of his mouth before he had time to react, and he moaned aloud. Leo, worried, suggests "Hey maybe you should.. take your sweatshirt off. You seem really hot, like you're sweating. That has to be making you even more nauseous.." Cal groaned, hiccuped and replied "y-yeah. Guhhh… gonna.. take it off.." he weakly pulled at the zipper, struggling to get it over the bump of his aching belly. He whimpered as dangerous toots slid out. Once the zipper got over the curve of his belly, it practically unzipped itself the rest of the way down on its own. He wiggled his arms out and Leo helped toss the sweatshirt to the side. Cal was just in a thin elastic tank top now. He whined "m- *muuurp* shit, my belly hurts.. so full.. *frrtt..phhhtttrrft*… hng, *bur-URP*- ugh! I don't feel good.."

Leo was rubbing faster now. Another fart, another groan. The smell was intense and made Leo's eyes water. Cal's eyes werent any better, they were glazed over, his head lolled back he let out a silent puff of air from his mouth, his belches were getting risky, some of them he was forced to swallow down to avoid anything else other than air coming up, and he only had the tingle in the back of his throat to warn him. His stomach churned angrily, gurgling and undulating in time with Leo's rubbing. His belly was still distended and full, his white tank-top riding up just above his belly button. Leo listened as Cal's stomach emitted queasy grumbles and overpacked noises that would eventually be desperately released through either end. "I told you you were gonna feel sick, dude.. you look 8 months pregnant"

Cal laughed "I sure feel like it…. *hic-bRUUUP* mnnppph god… how am I supposed to walk after this? I think I'm *hic* too bloated for my own good. Ooooh… nnnngh.. and it feels like my stomach is doing an impression of a washing machine. *UURRRPPPP* oh- don't stop rubbing.. or.. I'm gonna have a premature birth!" Leo couldn't help but laugh. Cal turned his head and looked up. They locked eyes a moment as Leo was rubbing a sensitive spot just above Cal's belly button.

Leo's eyes widened as he blushed and unconsciously grinded his hips into Cal's crotch in front of him. His breath was hot and fast. Cal noticed, and warned his friend "My tummy hurts.. I feel so gassy, I think I need to fart.. uhm.. I'm not gonna *hic* warn you anymore, mostly because I don't think I can hold in anything anymore.." Leo never broke eye contact "That's okay, you're like a blimp. Let it all out, I'd rather you gas the place up than shit your pants on me".

Cal smiled and went to laugh before he was cut off by a sick burp, followed by a stream of wet, shorter burps.

Leo looked like he had gotten exactly what he wished for and more. In the face of a belching, gassy Cal he remained undaunted. He had a gleam in his eyes and a bulge in his pants that were both growing by the second. Cal was so full that he needed more than Leo's hand rubbing him. His own two fists were working him over in between big belchy moans and groans. His stomach was grumbling ominously, begging to get it over with sooner rather than later. "*bUUUURRRRRP* ooohh.. I feel queasy.." his statement punctuated by short, painful, but constant little farts as his stomach fought with the contents inside of it.

"Your tummy is gonna feel so much better after this, Cal." Leo said, rubbing and humping with more vigor, the rubbing on both Cal's belly and.. elsewhere.. helping things move along inside of him. Leo is on his knees, rubbing Cal's distended belly with both hands, spreading Cal's legs apart with his own as he worked. Cal's own hands were working higher up on his own gut, massaging and kneading. His belly was an air filled balloon ready to burst. Cal lets out a low moan and squirms as another deep and wet burp erupts. All the while, Cal could feel tingles of pleasure building up in his bloated guts, but the queasy, sick feeling was still going strong. This whole thing was making him feel strange and oddly arousing in a way he'd never felt before.

Leo saw the look on his friend's face and his hands gripped his swollen tummy. "It's okay, mnff... you can... let it happen... anytime."

Cal nodded, his hands rubbing his engorged belly in time with Leo's rhythm, as the blonde boy sacrificed a hand from belly rubbing duty to help keep himself steady above Cal.

Cal grunted as he continued massaging his distended gut. Leo's other rubbing was growing much more intense now. He was almost shaking Cal as he did so. Cal's mouth hung open and he was moaning with a slightly desperate tone. "Come on, dude.. hurry it up.. I'm so…" his moan was cut off by another wet belch. His body shook with the force of it and he clenched his teeth in an effort to relax and hold back the next one. It was no use. Another belch, and another, and another, with rapid, short gaps in between. Leo was now the one groaning, reaching his peak. "I'm.. unf.. hah.. Cal, I'm close… just hold on.." Leo was delirious with pleasure he'd only ever dreamed of experiencing.

Cal felt his body both nauseously ache at one part and throb with desire in another. An unusual mix that left him feeling like he was gonna puke regardless. He got himself into this willingly though, and has nobody to blame but himself, and he certainly doesn't wanna ruin Leo's night. He whines and puts all his focus into keeping his food inside of him.

Cal was struggling as he massaged his distended belly in time with his buddy's increasingly feverish rubbing. He let out a long, wet belch, "Hnnnnnnnghhhh my god, my stomach is so… *huuu-UUrrrpppp*- so full, I'm… I'm gonna be so sick."

Leo was getting close, very close, and he could feel his friend's stomach and other… parts… tensing up as he got ready to finish. Leo was breathing almost as hard as Cal at this point, gripping the stuffed boy's thigh with his one hand and holding himself steady with the other, trying not to jostle his buddy's tummy.

Leo is panting like a dog, his face bright red with effort and excitement. His body was flushed and his breath was heavy with the scent of the pizza they ate. Sweat trickled down his temples and forehead as he finally finished.

Suddenly, Cal lets out another long belch as all of that food starts moving again like a train. His stomach rumbles in discomfort at the pace Leo was pushing things along, but there's no stopping or slowing it now.

Cal's face grows more and more flushed as he moans and tries to keep his guts in its place. Leo rides out his climax, barely even worrying about how he's ruined his underwear in the process.

Snapping back to reality, he realized the true state that Cal was in and swiftly grabbed the trash can, "f-fuck. I'm sorry dude. You're gonna be okay. Just let it out, don't worry about accidents, I have the trash right here.. hold on.." he shifted Cal over slightly so that if any… spilling.. happened it would be in the trash can instead of on the floor. Cal's stomach was round and rock hard, the contents inside swirling like a greasy, bubbly storm. The movement caused a rancid fart to seep out slowly from Cal, the smell making him feel even more sick.

"Ugh.. god, *hic-HURP-" Leo… I'm so full…" the smell was terrible, the pizza obviously having not digested properly. Cal tried to hold on. But he couldn't hold it in for much longer. His hands resting on the impossibly bloated tummy that lay heavily in his lap.

Between queasy, wet, uncontrollable belches that forced their way out of his system, he tried to apologize "Leo.. grrrroowl ungh.. you w- *UUUR*ere right. It was too *urp* much.. fuck! *bruuuup.. burrp.. hurp* gah.. I should have listened.. to you…" he just couldn't stand the pressure anymore and stopped trying to speak when a series of loud, wet belches forced their way out of him. The distended mass in his belly seemed to vibrate and throb in rhythm with his digestive noises.

Leo tried to reassure him, "It's okay, I shouldn't have gone along with it.. we were both caught up in the moment, just breathe.." Cal gasped for air in between belches. "Ohhh fuu-*URP*… I'm gonna… gurggl*urp* Ughhhnnn…!" Cal couldn't hold it in anymore. His full belly convulsed as the undigested remains of the greasy pizza seamlessly flowed out of his mouth. He didn't even get the chance to burp again before a second wave brought up even more. As soon as he could, Cal cried out and gasped for air… before promptly being sick once more.

It dribbled into the trashcan as Cal struggled to remain upright on the couch; he was so sick. After the first few times, every heave was followed by a long, wet belch, the air that had been mixing with everything coming up in between. Cal gripped Leo's arms tightly as his stomach cramped and growled and heaved, the force of which made his whole body jerk and shake.

Cal was too nauseated to even protest being held and rubbed by Leo as he continued to puke. As sick and unpleasant as it was, Cal felt oddly grateful. Cal continued to vomit, his face flushed and heaving as more wet belches spewed out of his mouth. "Ughhh… *hic* I'm not done.. *gurp* I know I'm not.. god I ate so much!" The next few waves felt almost like they would never pass as Cal struggled in pain, and pleasure from relief. Leo almost felt sick himself seeing just how much came up, thinking of how much went IN and how full Cal was. Cal's eyes began to look droopy as he felt his mind slipping away. He definitely reached his limit tonight. He was still sick, but moreso spitting up in the trashcan and gagging than full on vomiting anymore. His mind cleared up just enough to make a mental note to himself: 4 whole pizzas over the course of one night. That was his limit.

Leo, feeling queasy himself from having to witness Cal spewing inches away from him still let Cal rest his head on his lap, trying to avoid laying on his stomach or adding any nore pressure to it. He looked down at his friend, face flush, skin glistening with sweat, nose running, exhausted from the exertion. He couldn't imagine being in his shoes, but at least he could help him, even if it meant cleaning up the result.

"Are you okay, Cal? Do you think you're done?" Leo asked, stroking the hair out of Cal's eyes that were already starting to close. "Maybe… *hic* .. I'm getting sleepy." He mumbled, resting his head further into Leo's lap. Leo would enjoy this a lot more if his lap wasn't uncomfortably hot and sweaty, and parts of it wet and sticky inside from using them as friction to help bring him to his release earlier.

He grabbed a pillow from behind him and carefully moved it under Cal's head as he slipped out from underneath his sore, sleepy buddy. "I'm gonna go empty the trash can, I'm gonna run to the dumpster, I'll be like 5 minutes MAX, do you think you'll be fine until I get back?" Cal hummed "mmhmm.. *hic* I feel so much better… that needed to come out so bad…. oh my god I really overdid it…"

This experience, as repulsive as it sounded, was far from unpleasant to Cal. His body was still slick with sweat and fluids, and his stomach felt sore, but the relief of having gotten everything out was more than worth it to him. He didn't even mind being held and rubbed as his body expelled the contents of what he had eaten with such gluttony. He felt bad for involving Leo in it, if anything.

Cal sighed as he settled more into the pillow beneath him. His stomach still churned routinely, but he no longer felt dizzy with nausea, and he was once again in that familiar state of just being very, very full. He was in a pretty comfortable position though, it had to be said. His body felt oddly relaxed and yet, his stomach was still swollen and achy. He felt lighter, like his body had been cleansed. He also felt something… else. He turned his head as much as he could without moving his body. His eyes were drooped as his gaze was stuck forward, fixated on the doorway that Leo was to return from. After a few minutes he heard footsteps. He tried to force himself awake out of a half-sleep. "Leo?…" he tried to ask, but with the way his head was positioned and how sleepy he was, he only managed to croak out a few barely audible words.

"Leo? you back?"

Leo returned from outside the apartment door, the trashcan now empty and the trashbag inside replaced. He set it down and sighed as he crouched down to be level with Cal, who was still laying on the couch with his head against the pillow. "You awake?" He gently wiped the sweat off of Cal's forehead. Cal smiled sleepily. "Mm… sort of.. uhm. how are you feeling about this whole thing?" Cal was referring to both the pizza and their rather intimate session as a result.

Leo thought for a moment "Hm.. I feel tired, but probably not as tired as you." There was a pause before he continued "…I don't want you to feel bad, if I was in your position I think I would be so embarrassed that I would die.. I wanna be all 'I told you so' but that can wait."

Cal laughed in the form of exhaling through his nose. He understood. Leo kept talking, "I could have lived without you puking your guts out, that kind of ruined it.."

Cal was awake but still dazed enough to not think twice before speaking, "but you came, right?". Leo blushed. Cal was always so straightforward about these things. "Uh. Y-yeah. Absolutely I did. It was immediately cancelled out within like a minute, but up until then… I think I liked it." Cal grinned. "I liked it too. I mean, I definitely hated it at some moments, specifically the ones where I was barfing, but that's over now and I'm not past-me so overall I count it as a success. I found my limit!" Leo grimaced "You sure did.."

Cal continued "and I wouldn't have pushed myself to even go that far without you!"

Leo resisted the urge to lightly shove his friend in fear that he might jostle him too much. "Then maybe I shouldn't have, if this is what happens when I feed you and help you then maybe I'll just stick to watching you gobble down pizza from afar like I used to" Cal giggled. "Well now you don't have to, because my limit is 4 boxes of pizza, just never push me beyond that! Easy math!"

Leo shook his head "I just gotta say.. if this is like a yearly thing or maybe even a once-a-month thing I would be more than happy to help you push your limits.. but now that you know the result I'm not sure about 4.. maybe 1…" Cal playfully groaned "ughhh fine!", then laughed and then turned his head to face Leo. He was smiling as he looked at his friend while trying to keep his eyes open. "Hey, Leo.. thanks for indulging me. You're always there for me and I don't know if I thank you enough for it." Leo shook his head, "Don't worry about it. Thank you for not judging me. You're never afraid to be yourself and you make me want to do the same."

The two fell asleep in the living room, Cal on the couch, and Leo on the floor. They grew much closer that day, and their bond will forever be strengthened, all thanks to surplus pizza.

[aubadeatelier]

Happy 20th Anniversary D. Gray-man!

On 31 May 2004, an amazing journey began with Allen Walker making his way to the European Branch of the Black Order as a new exorcist.

And now, it is 31 May 2024, 20 years of a still on-going journey. A lot has happened and changed and yet, he keeps walking.

Happy Birthday, D. Gray-man! And thank you for everything you've brought to me and so many others!

This post contains the pieces I did for the D. Gray-man 20th Anniversary Zine. 1 Party Doodle and 2 Redraw Project pages. Please enjoy! To see the whole zine, please access the zine through the link below to the project tumblr!

✦ D. Gray-man 20th Anniversary Zine ✦

Please make sure to take a look at the whole zine! I had the greatest honor to work with more than 100+ amazing artists across the world. It would mean a lot to me and all those who worked on this zine to have our work seen together as one!

(PS. I asked a funny little question in the Party Doodle section of the zine!)

[Beyond this point are my pieces and some fun facts!]

Party Doodle || A Celebration from 35 Years Ago featuring from bottom left, Mana D. Campbell, Nea D. Campbell, ???, Cross Marian, and Timcampy. ✦ I originally made this celebration doodle with the intention of just drawing Nea, ???, and Timcampy. But upon popular demand and the power of friendship (shoutout to Hana Hazel, Kanin, and Sabhamun), I ended up adding Cross Marian and Mana! And honestly, the additions were a great idea and really make the piece feel more lively and fun! (Also we need more Campbell brothers content damn it. I wanna see them happy!) ✦ Also, if any of your are up-to-date at this point, you know Chapter 251 coming out shook so many things including this piece that was already done when it released. But! I think it's fun to keep it as is as a relic of the pre-251 era. (Who knows? Maybe I'll make a fixed version!)

Redraw Project Page 01 || Chapter 04. Page 119. ✦ The first redraw page I received for assignment! I ended up liking the page, because it felt to me an integral establishing page for the series' themes. I may have gotten a little overboard with how I wanted to interpret the page, but I thought originally I would not be doing a second page and thus, wanted to put a lot of effort. In D. Gray-man, Akuma are created when a person makes a deal with the Millennium Earl. More often than not, the person has no idea what this deal entails, only that they can bring their loved one back from the dead if they agree to it. But what happens when the person is aware or knows not to accept the Earl's deal? And we receive a heart-wrenching, but understandable answer. To have the knowledge of the Earl's tricks does not automatically save a person. The Earl preys on the vulnerable. He appears and makes his offer to those in the deepest pits of despair and grief. That is how he got Leo. He was just a kid who lost his mother. He may have known more about the Earl and Akuma, because of his friendship with Jean, but when you are grieving kid-- what do you do when someone promises you they'll bring back your mother who was taken from you so suddenly? It is difficult to say no. ✦ The books that frame the piece are meant to convey this emphasis of knowledge and study-- the days Jean and Leo spent reading through Jean's father's books and notes about the Earl and Akuma with intention to patrol their town and keep people safe. Ultimately, a book page is the last panel, showing a representation of Leo and the Earl at a grave as Leo becomes an example of a person who takes the Earl's deal and whose body is taken by an Akuma. ✦ The blue tones of Jean and the Akuma were on purpose made to contrast the warmer tones of Jean and Leo's days together. ✦ It was crazy getting to draw an Akuma's face. It was a challenge to try and draw kids, but I ended getting through it pretty well. ✦ There are a few silly easter eggs in the open books. I put a small anniversary message in one. And in the other, I tried to sketch Cornelia and the Campbell Estate with the lyrics of the 14th's song. A nod to some content in the later parts of the series.

Redraw Project Page 02 || Chapter 01. Page 38. ✦ Originally, the plan was I only would do 1 redraw page and 1 doodle, but we needed fill-ins and I took a shot at it! ✦ When I found out it was a page from Chapter 1, I was ecstatic! I had originally wanted to do one from the chapter, but they were high in demand which was more than understandable. ✦ Unlike my first redraw page, I decided to be a little more simplistic with the layout. This layout is not too far off from that of the Katsura Hoshino's, but I made a few changes such as certain angles, drawing characters closer to emphasize faces. ✦ I am not the strongest with backgrounds and drawing buildings, but I ended up enjoying the challenge of it all. Thankfully, a lot of other artists in the project tackled the building and referenced the original page, the pages and sketches of the building or interior by other project artists, and the anime to ready myself to tackle it! ✦ The spirals of the Akuma bullet gave me trouble at first, but then I ended up enjoying it as I figured it out. ✦ This page was overall a big joy to play with as it challenged me with backgrounds, certain effects, and word bubbles.

And with that, this concludes the tour of my work on the D. Gray-man 20th Anniversary Zine. I have so much to say about this series and what it means to me, but I will try not to make this post horridly longer.

D. Gray-man is the series that made me fall in love with storytelling and art. It showed me something that filled an emptiness I felt. It gave me joy and company at a time where I felt unsure who I was and felt like an outcast. My resolution after this project is to continuously grow better at my stories and art. I hope to make something as meaningful to myself and others as D. Gray-man is.

Happy 20th Anniversary D. Gray-man! I hope and pray for more wonderful chapters and for there to be a lovely conclusion someday. For now, let us keep walking together!

[manygeese]

I wrote something inspire by @huntingrays post about percy, jason, annabeth, and leo on a quest and I posted in a reblog but here it is separately. under the cut

Shoot, was the first thought Percy had when he came to.

The last thing he remembered was going to sleep in an alleyway with Jason on guard duty. Leo had cracked a few jokes about “being used to it,” Annabeth had laughed and said “same,” and they had all conked out for the night. Wait, had Jason gone to bed too? Had they forgotten to set up a guard?

Evidently so, seeing as he was now in a mysterious arena and chained to the wall by his ankles. A quick glance showed that Mr. Guard Duty was in a similar situation, but Annabeth and Leo were nowhere to be found.

Leaning all the way over to his right, Percy shook Jason awake. “Bro. Bro. Bro. Wake up,” he said.

Jason grumbled and wiped at his eyes. “What, dude?”

Percy gestured wildly at the room around them. Jason seemed to understand.

“Oh,” he drawled. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright, man,” Percy sighed, “we just have to find Annabeth and Leo and get out of here.” He stood up, using the concrete wall to support himself. He started to call out for the two missing members of their group, but Jason slapped a hand over his mouth before he could finish the first syllable.

“Percy, don’t scream like that! Do you want monsters to kill us?”

It was too late. Entering the arena from behind some boxes were a few Cyclopes, two laestrygonian giants, and a hoard of earthborn behind them. The giants had stupid, taunting grins on their faces. The earthborn just looked happy to be there.

Even before he got captured by monsters, Jason was having a bad week.

First, he got assigned to a stupid quest when he just wanted to spend his summer chilling with his boyfriend, Leo. Luckily, he got to bring said boyfriend on said stupid quest, but they could hardly spend quality time together while fighting for their lives.

Then, he got another concussion. Commonplace at this point, but he was getting tired of waking up to Leo laughing at him for being a brick magnet.

And because of this, he was feeling a little sleepy that night when he got assigned to guard duty. He told everyone the ambrosia had healed him, and it had, but Hypnos had other ideas. So he fell asleep and got everybody captured by monsters. Wonderful!

“Hello, demigods,” the lead laestrygonian greeted. “You’re probably wondering what you’re doing here.”

Percy and Jason exchanged a look, as if to say “Can you believe this guy? So dramatic.”

Getting nothing but silence in response, the giant continued. “Me and my brother have had a disturbing lack of entertainment lately, so when you and your friends came along, we figured you were the best we could get.”

“What are we, a game show? As demigods, we’re always in Jeopardy.” Percy winked to the other boy. “This is a regular Tuesday for us.”

Jason had no idea what Percy meant, but he decided to go with it. “Yeah, man. Bring it on.”

The laestrygonians laughed. The cyclopes followed suit and the earthborn just kind of stood there. “If you aim to impress us, demigods, save it for later. You’re going to need the energy… if you aim to win a fight to the death!” The leader said the last part as if it was some huge deal, like it was a WWE wrestling match. Or the Super Bowl.

“Okay. Let’s do this, who’re we fighting?” Percy challenged, acting like he was in a fighting game’s idle animation.

“You’re fighting each other, demigods,” the giant snorted.

Jason cocked an eyebrow. “You can’t make us.”

“Oh, but I can!” The monster gloated. “You see, I have your little partners.”

One of the other laestrygonians piped up. “The silly tiny one and the scary one!”

“Thank you, Clyde,” the leader sighed, saying it as though this type of interjection had happened before.

Percy stopped his idle animation and his eyes widened. “Oh. Really? Like, together? In the same room?”

“Yes, really, and yes, in the same room,” the giant answered, the creepy grin returned to his face, if a little confused now. “And if you don’t fight, we’ll kill them both. Whoever loses not only dies, but their partner will be killed as well.”

For a brief moment, a pang of fear stabbed into Jason’s chest. It quickly dissipated when he realized that they were holding Leo and Annabeth together. They were holding two of the smartest demigods alive (possibly ever) in the same room.

“Hey Jason, I still have the deck of cards we stole from that casino,” Percy pointed out. “Do you wanna play blackjack?”

Jason laughed and nodded, knowing that Percy was thinking the same thing he was.

When Annabeth woke up, she was hanging upside down from the rafters of a dungeon. There was a continuous flow of cursing next to her, and when she looked over to the source, she found Leo trying to untie himself.

She laughed quietly, reaching for her dagger. Bending upwards, she cut herself free and landed on her feet.

“Okay, Catwoman,” Leo sassed, his hand on his hips. “Not all of us have funky little daggers and the core strength of a wrestler. Do me a solid and help me out, please.”

Annabeth snorted. “No problem, Batman,”

Leo tried to stay professional, but Annabeth guessed that was hard when your back was making sudden and forceful contact with the cold floor. He let out a winded “oof.”

“Why didn’t you just burn the rope?” Annabeth asked, crouching down next to where Leo was sprawled.

“Oh, shut up. You know I did not think of that and you’re just asking to make fun of me,” Leo observed with a grin.

Annabeth nodded, standing up and looking around the room. There was a wall made of tight knit iron bars on one side, but the rest were solid concrete. Walking towards the rods, she shook them to test their integrity. “How are we gonna get out of here, repair boy?”

“Woah there, buckaroo, aren’t we gonna address the elephant in the room? Or rather, the two human sized elephants not in the room?” Leo sat up and rested his head on his knees.

“We’ll never find them if we don’t get out of here.”

“Fair enough,” Leo relented, walking over to where Annabeth was standing and ruffling through his tool belt. He pulled out a welding mask and handed it to her. After she put it on, he lit up his finger and started melting the iron with the flame.

After a minute or two, in which barely half a foot of the pole was melted, Annabeth started tapping her foot. “Any way we can speed this up?”

“Depends. Are we willing to explode some shit?”

“If ‘some shit’ doesn’t include you, me, Percy, or Jason, I’m all for it.”

Leo got a mischievous look on his face, and Annabeth probably should’ve been concerned for anybody within the immediate vicinity, but she didn’t really care- they were about to have some fun.

Leo and Annabeth were hunkered down at the opposite end of the room from the iron bars. With an activation button in hand, and a makeshift bomb taped to the rods, they were getting ready to blow this popsicle stand.

“Three, two, one,” Leo counted under his breath, pressing the button when he hit the unspoken zero.

The explosion shook the whole room, possibly even the whole floor. Dust rained from new cracks in the ceiling, and when the smoke cleared, the bars were all broken into thirds. Leo pumped his fist in victory.

Running over to the shattered wall and beckoning (an only slightly shaken) Annabeth to follow, Leo tumbled over the gaps in the poles and onto the other side. Eyes darting back and forth, he noticed there was nowhere to go except towards a lone staircase.

“Come on man, this place is gonna collapse, we gotta go!” He hollered. Annabeth chuckled and upped her pace, dashing up the stairs. Leo followed.

“Come on man, this place is gonna collapse, we gotta go!” Annabeth parroted in a stupid impression of him when Leo reached the top of the staircase. Leo mumbled jokingly at her to shut up.

They emerged behind some boxes and a water spout in what seemed to be an arena. At one side, there was a crowd of monsters, fixated on something that Leo and Annabeth couldn’t see. It was a miracle that they hadn’t heard the explosion. “Need another bomb?” Leo asked, already rifling through his tool belt.

“No, no,” Annabeth put an arm around him to keep him from advancing. “Think- we were captured by monsters.”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“And we haven’t been able to find Percy or Jason.”

“Yeah.”

“Those are a bunch of monsters. And they are gathered around something- or some ones.”

“Ohhhh.”

“So how are we gonna get them away from that corner?”

Leo shrugged. “Distraction?”

“That’s what I was thinking. I lure them away, you free them?”

“Aye aye, Captain,” Leo saluted and watched as Annabeth ran to the wall and started climbing up.

When she got to the top, she mounted the rafters and called down to the monsters. “Hey! Help!”

One of the giants- Leo thought they were called lie straight bunions? Whatever, he was just gonna call them giants- turned to the giant next to him and sighed. “Clyde, did you trap one of the earthborn in the dungeon on accident again?”

The other giant, Clyde, apparently, shook his head adamantly.

“Clyde,” the taller giant scolded. “Go let him out.”

“I don’t have the keys,” Clyde lied.

“Oh, fine. You know, if you’re scared of the dungeon, you can just ask us to go with you.” The two giants went towards the dungeons where Annabeth and Leo had emerged, the cyclopes and earthborn following them like ducklings.

Leo jumped when he realized they were headed towards him. Looking for a hiding spot, he grabbed a box missing its top and pulled it over him. Now, he could only hope he blended in enough.

He let out a relieved breath when he heard the hoard disappear down the stairs. Pushing his boxy shell off, he booked it over to where the monsters had been gathered. He sighed again when he saw Jason and Percy, seemingly alright, and… playing cards?

Not wasting any time, he brought out a Bobby pin from his belt and started to unlock his boyfriend’s cuffs. “Guys, glad you’re safe and all, but why the hell are you playing cards while me and Annabeth have to do all the work?” He griped once the chains snapped off. He moved over to Percy as Jason clambered to his feet.

“Because we knew we could let you do all the work and we’d still be okay,” Percy answered, perfectly confident.

“No work ethic in you, man. You hear that, Annabeth?” He called, facing the ceiling as he continued to unlock the chains. “Your boyfriend has no work ethic!” There was an echoed laugh from the ceiling.

The chains clicked off just as he heard the giants climbing the stairs. “Percy, dude, I’m pretty sure I saw a water pump by the dungeons so if you could do your Katara stuff, that’d be great,” Leo suggested. He heard Jason chuckle behind him.

Percy nodded and, from the spout, a thick wall of water covered the entrance of the dungeons. It froze over, effectively trapping the monsters in the collapsing cellar.

At this point, Annabeth called down from the rafters. “There’s a hole in the ceiling we can climb out of,” she informed.

Leo looked up at the wall behind him. He whistled skeptically. “Forget cores, not all of us have the arm strength of a wrestler, Catwoman,” he commented. She scoffed.

“You have a boyfriend that can fly. I think you’ll be okay for now,” she snarked. Jason looked surprised to be mentioned, as if he was just finding out he could fly. Leo hoped he didn’t have amnesia from the concussion he got yesterday.

Jason smirked and scooped Leo up bridal style. “Don’t worry, I won’t drop you,” he said with a goofy smile.

Leo huffed. “You better not. After I did all that work- I blew up a dungeon for you!”

“Thank you,” Jason hummed gratefully and flew up to the rafters. Percy was already three quarters of the way up the wall.

When all four members of the quest party had arrived at the hole in the ceiling, they left the arena with the sound of giants banging on ice in the background. They all sat on the flimsy metal roof and looked out into the stars.

“Hey,” Jason whispered, “anybody remember what this quest was about?”

[itzzaira]

TMNT Fandom Family Reunion - Campfire event || short story

Based off of these tags below from this post (tags belong to Allyheart707, their tumblr tagged below)

You thought you could hide these there and I wouldn’t notice? ✨️

Cabin 10 - the besties

Little Subjects - @allyheart707

The Wrong Side of the Portal - me!

@tmnt-fandom-family-reunion

--------

Heishi was not someone who took breaks.

He fought, he thought, he planned, he trained, he was on the lookout- the little slider was always doing something.

Anything at all.

Don't stop.

Just so he wouldn’t be seen as weak, or a waste, or-

Just to hopefully make his Master proud. Just to be enough. Just once. That's all he wanted.

Keep going.

But as if that hadn't been hard enough before, these other three stupid turtles made it so hard!

Like seriously?! Sitting around a stupid campfire listening to stupid stories and making those stupid snacks that actually tasted amazing- aaaugh Heishi no!

He shouldn't be liking those snacks. They weren't healthy. They made him weak.

Weak.

Heishi refused to be weak.

...Yet, against his will, he was still roasting a marshmallow above the campfire.

Mikey had pushed one into his hands- heck, he had even invited Heishi to join him and the other two, but the young warrior had simply huffed, shook his head, crossed his arms, and looked away. He shouldn't be here, he had things to do! Like train! Or anything! Just more! He had to do more!

Not enough.

Curse the other big Raph for managing to convince him to stay.

"Say, none of these guys have had any training, right?" The big Raphael had said, watching as his own version of Heishi- who he kept calling 'Leonardo' was handing Mikey a s'more. "And there's a lot of new people here... so wouldn’t they need a tough warrior to keep an eye on them? Just in case they got into trouble?"

...Well.

If he was stuck here anyway. He might as well keep watch.

Keep working.

It wasn't the best thing to do, but... it wasn't the worst thing either. Heishi liked these guys.

Currently, both Mikey and Donnie were asleep, leaning against the log they had been sitting on earlier with a blanket tugged around them. Raph sat on said log, having been dozing off but woke up when the other Raphael tried to tuck a blanket around him too. "Go back to sleep, kid." The big one whispered, patting his shell. Raph, however, slowly shifted his gaze to look at Heishi.

"...Leo." The snapper whispered, holding out am arm sleepily. The slider scoffed.

"Heishi." He corrected.

"Leo."

"Heishi."

Even though he acted annoyed about the name, 'Leo' didn't feel as bad as it should. Which just made poor Heishi feel worse. Why did the name sound right? He didn't want it to! Master Draxum would be so angry at him for disrespecting the name his creator had given him-

"Don't you feel tired, bud?" The big turtle asked- he wasn't the same species as Raph. He didn't even have freckles- he did have a crack in his plastron and wore a red bandana. "It's late."

"No." Heishi shook his head, stubbornly facing the fire, ignoring the other three tots completely. "Warriors don't sleep. Need to keep watch." Even if his eyes were drooping. Even if he felt exhausted. He had to keep awake and finish the job he had been assigned.

Try. Harder.

"...Ah-ha." Raphael looked a bit confused but didn't argue. He wasn't as nice as Raph. "...Aren't you like- four?"

Excuse me? "No! I'm big!"

"Five?"

Heishi huffed, puffing out his cheeks and glaring in an attempt to look angry- but in Raphael's eyes, he just looked stupid. However, there was something else...

This was familiar.

"...Alright, bud." The turtle decided- and for a brief moment, he looked at 'Leonardo', so fast Heishi almost missed it- but he noticed. Why did he look at Leonardo like that? Why did he give that same look to the tiny slider? "But you do know you need to be close to those you guard, right?"

...What? Heishi looked up, confused. Raphael nodded, a serious expression on his face.

"Come on, every warrior knows that." He said, placing both his hands on his hips. "How are you supposed to protect those you guard when you're far away? Evil will get to them before you can!"

Humans.

Heishi had never heard of such thing before- Master Draxum never told him. So. Was Raphael lying? But Raph didn't lie. And Raphael was Raph. Just from another world, but older. So Raphael wouldn’t lie either, right? Did that mean master Draxum hadn't taught him something? But why?

'Well duh.' His mind supplied. 'He probably thought you weren't ready for such a responsibility! You fail all the time!'

This was Heishi's chance to prove he could do something.

With a newfound determination, the young turtle nodded and got up. This caused him to remember he still had been roasting a marshmallow- and cringed when he saw how burned it had gotten. Raphael patted his back- that felt nice. Why did it feel nice-? "I'll get you a new one, kiddo, just sit down."

Heishi nodded, threw the marshmallow on the ground, and held the stick in front of him as some sort of sword as he marched over to where his brothers the other three turtles slept. He could do it! He would do great! Because he was Heishi. The greatest warrior of them all!

He saw down, stick in his lap.

He wouldn’t fail. Not this time.

.......

.........

...........

Okay this was boring.

Heishi yawned, shook his head, then looked at the fire. The fire was pretty. It was bright, warm, and... so cozy. And useful. For keeping warm, for cooking...

...Okay. Those marshmallows were not as bad as the young turtle had claimed them to be. He hoped the other Raph would bring more soon he actually wanted one. Plus! Food is important! To grow big! And strong! It wasn't his fault that that happened to be sweet treats.

...Not like Master Draxum was there to tell him no.

A soft murmur had him looking to his left- Mikey shifted slightly in his sleep but didn't wake, holding a bit more onto Donnie, squishing his cheek onto the other's shoulder. Heishi couldn't help but snicker. But he yawned afterward and leaned his back on the log behind him.

...Actually... now that he wasn't sitting up anymore... he was pretty tired.

But- no! He said he would watch over these guys! That's his job! He couldn't just abandon his job. No way!

Try harder.

But he was so tired.

Not enough.

Tiredness didn't matter! This place was new. He didn't know anyone. Who knows what kind of dangers there were lurking around?

Failure.

But the campfire was cozy. Everyone was laughing and talking. There were blankets and marshmallows shared everywhere. Best of all- barely any humans at all.

So.

This place couldn't be that bad, right?

His eyes drooped, and the little turtle looked up at the ceiling, trying to think.

...The ceiling was pretty.

Colorful, sparkly, glittery- were all caves this pretty? And dreamy. And soothing... and...

He hadn't even been aware that he had been dozing off until an arm wrapped around him.

Heishi blinked his eyes open (when had he closed them?) Surprised to see Raph- his Raph, (just barely) awake, no longer sleeping on the log but now sitting in the floor next to him, trying to pull the young slider close. "You looked cold..." he murmured, pulling the blanket and clumsily trying to cover Heishi with it too.

For whatever strange reason, the younger turtle didn't push him away as he should.

Instead, he let Raph pull him into a hug, just like when he had done in the lab. Curling up in his lap on instinct, his tail doing a little wag when he felt the older one's arms wrap around him. Raph put his head on top of Heishi's, blinking slowly, while lifting his knees- causing Heishi to snuggle closer to the snapper. That was fine. The slider nuzzled into his neck. This was nice.

...Maybe Heishi wasn't watching over them right because he was tired?

He yawned, and snuggled closer to Raph. The snapper shared his blanket with him, making sure he was fully covered before leaning back. The blanket was thin and soft. So soft.

So... if he was messing up because he was tired. That meant he should sleep, right?

"Sorry it took so long, kid, apparently someone tried to take the marsh-...oh."

"Shh." Raph shushed above him, pressing his fingers to his lips. Raphael nodded, unsure what to do with the marshmallows now. Sad. Heishi had wanted some- but he was sleepy. He would take some tomorrow, then, he was already drifting off.

At some point, a second blanket got thrown over them- Heishi opened his eyes a little bit to see his own counterpart, 'Leonardo'- the one in blue smiled gently once they made eye contact. "Go back to sleep, baby blue." He whispered- Heishi didn't understand that nickname. He should ask tomorrow, once he was awake. He instead hummed for now, relaxed, and fell asleep for real this time.

But not before he felt arms tightening around him, and hearing the softest 'Goodnight, Leo.' whispered to him that he ever heard, while another, bigger hand, patted his head.

[imashoe69420]

what about raph with a reader who is kinda like him and is willing to get themself hurt in order to protect raph/his brothers/really anybody? and what would he do if the reader took a bad hit and when they woke up raph was chewing them out but also thankful because they were protecting him or one of his brothers???? idk this just popped into my brain

I love these types of dynamics 😩

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stubborn

Rise!Raph X GN!Reader

Genre: Angst

Pronouns: Gender Neutral (They/Them)

Relationship: Ambiguous

Timeline: Post-Movie

Warnings ⚠️: Mild Language, Mentions of Death

REQUESTS ARE OPEN!!

===================================

Stubborn.

That was the one word many would use to describe (Y/N).

Of course, the word for them to a T.

(Y/N) hated rules and policies and people telling them what to do. Growing up with only brothers made their rebellion and disliking for authority all that much greater. Every time they’d come home from playing with the neighborhood kids, some part of her body would be bruised or scratched or something of the sort.

Their mother would always scold them saying that roughhousing isn’t okay if they end up injured every time, but that was (Y/N)’s favorite part.

Getting hit wasn’t the enjoyable thing. It was seeing how far their body could go; how much pain could be inflicted on them before all they could do was collapse in exhaustion.

Of course, they would never listen to their mother.

(Y/N)’s life was centered around violence, so they were very intrigued when they met the likes of Raphael. Out of all the things they thought they would experience, meeting a walking talking mutant their age was the last thing on their mind. And relating to him was the very last thing.

Both of them were the oldest in their families. Protecting them was their job no matter if they got on their nerves or didn’t want it. This mindset reflected on others and soon all the people they cared about needed protection. Was it mentally weighing on them? That never mattered. All that mattered was their families were safe.

So when (Y/N) took a blow for Raph during an encounter with a supervillain, he took it personally.

He took it personally because how could they do such a thing knowing it would absolutely destroy him? Most importantly, how could they take a blow for him specifically knowing that he’s a literal fucking tank? Raph surely could’ve taken the hit the same way he did for Leo when he was being attacked by the Kraang.

But that didn’t matter to (Y/N). They were never able to relate to someone the way they did with the red clad turtle. Raphael became important to them in a way that rivaled the affection they had towards their younger siblings.

Weeks prior, (Y/N) and Raph had been training in the lair. When the red turtle handed them their water bottle during a break, they seemed almost upset as they took a swig of their water.

“Is somethin’ the matter?” Raph asked gently as he planted himself next to the human teen.

“Y’know…” (Y/N) exhaled through their nose, “if I was in trouble and a villain was trying to kill me, would you take the hit for me?”

Raphael furrowed his eyebrows, not expecting this type of existential question. “I mean… of course I would. If that’s what I had ‘tuh do, I’d do it.”

Although (Y/N) smiled up at him, he could sense their doubt, which annoyed him. “Okay. Then I’d do the same.”

This in particular perturbed the turtle. Even though they were a bit buff, they were so much smaller than him. Enemies would attack him a lot harder than (Y/N) or his brothers.

The mutant shook his head. “Ya’ shouldn’t do that, (Y/N). You could get really hurt tryna take a hit for me. I can handle a blow or two.”

“Sure but, if you were in the scenario I just said, I’d still do it.”

And now it was real.

Raph was beaten so badly, he could barely move, nor could he sense the attack behind him. (Y/N) knew they couldn’t just do nothing; they couldn’t just let him get hurt. Or worse.

• • •

(Y/N) didn’t wake up for a few days after the battle. But even when they woke up, Raph was the only one who didn’t visit them in the Medbay. They’d asked Donnie about Raph, but each time he would make an excuse.

“He’s training.”

“He’s out on a mission.”

“He said he’d be here soon, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

One night, they awoke from a horrific nightmare about the events that had happened about two weeks ago at this point. Instead, the red clad turtle was actually hit and (Y/N) knew without a doubt that he was dead.

The nightmare was all too real for them not to at least see Raph alive. They acknowledged it was silly to think he’d died just because of the dream, but this was something they had always done with their younger siblings.

Though painstakingly, (Y/N) sat up and swiveled their body to the side of the gurney. They planted their feet against the cold concrete, then taking a few breaths before standing to their feet. A bolt of pain stung their gut, but that didn’t stop them from leaving the Medbay and heading into Raph’s room.

The oversized mutant laid silently on his mattress, facing away from the entrance of his room. (Y/N) knew he wasn’t asleep as the red turtle usually snored loudly when in a deep slumber, so they parted their lips slowly to ask a foreboding question.

“Why won’t you visit me?”

There’s silence for a while. So long that the injured party began to question if he was actually asleep. But when they turned to leave, Raph stirred slightly.

“You should be resting, (Y/N).” He said simply.

They sighed in annoyance at Raph’s comment. “You should be visiting me. I thought we were friends.”

Another long silence, causing (Y/N) to become further annoyed.

“Why are you acting like this? You never act like this! I told you what I would do if I had to do it, so why—”

Raph suddenly sat up, his angry gaze directed at his friend. “And I told you not to.” He spoke through gritted teeth. “I told you you would get hurt and look at you now! You can barely stand.”

But when he observed their stunned expression, Raph backed down. “Look, I get you feel like ya’ have to protect everyone. You know I get it. But that was dumb. Real dumb.”

(Y/N) scoffed. “I don’t think saving you counts as dumb, Raph.”

He only looked at you for a few seconds. They swore tears began to form in his eyes, but the turtle quickly stood to his feet and scooped (Y/N) in his arms. Raph held them close to his plastron, squeezing them tightly in a hug.

“I know.” There’s a brief pause. “I know… and I love ya’ for it. Just don’t do it again. I can’t lose you. I won’t.”

(Y/N) stood shocked for a moment before exhaling all the tension away, wrapping their arms around his neck and pulling him even closer.

[izzy-prizzy]

They were sitting outside, revising for exams. Evan and Dorcas, Barty and Pandora, cross questioning each other while Regulus silently revised from his notes.

"And this one?" Pandora asked Barty, pointing at a star on the astronomical chart.

"Oh, That's Regulus. The heart of Leo constellation." He replied.

Regulus. The heart of Leo constellation.

These were really common words. Regulus has heard, read them thousands of times, in astronomy lessons, in test questions etc.

But unexpectedly, he doesn't know why, right now hearing these words took him four years back, to that Christmas.

They were sitting around the dining table at Black Family's Christmas feast. 11 year old Sirius sat there, with his eyes downcast as their mother berated him yet again for bringing shame to their family by being sorted into Gryffindor. Regulus saw how Sirius would bite his lip at one insult, how the spoon would shake in his hand at other. Regulus himself felt all those emotions for Sirius at the time, he could feel the clouds of sadness rumbling over Sirius and he couldn't help but feel the same.

When the dinner ended and they were told to go back to their room, ever so obedient Regulus left the dining room without a glance back.

On the way back to his room however he was suddenly pulled aside and what met him was Sirius; smiling ear to ear and the black clouds of sadness seemed to be replaced by welcoming white clouds adorned by Sirius' smile that felt like sunshine, like home, like Sirius.

"Reg!" Sirius exclaimed.

"What?" Regulus asked, dazed at the suddenness.

"Do you know what your name means?" Sirius' eyes shimmered.

"Huh?" Regulus furrowed his brows, dumbfounded at the sudden question.

"Do you know what your name means?" Sirius repeated.

"Yeah..?" Regulus raised his brow, confused.

Sirius tutted, shaking his head. "Regulus. The heart of Leo constellation." Sirius said, looking up at Regulus, his eyes sparkling.

"Yeah..? I know." Regulus nodded lightly.

Sirius shook his head again, clasping his hands on Regulus' shoulder, shaking him. “It’s the heart of the Leo constellation!” He beamed.

“Yes, Sirius, I know,” Regulus nodded, trying not to sound exasperated.

“Well, Leo is a lion, right?” Sirius asked, looking a bit put out that Regulus didn't immediately understand his point. 

“Yes?”

“And Gryffindor’s mascot is a lion, right?”

“Yes?”

“So,” Sirius breathed out, motioning his hands like he was explaining an easy concept to a child and then pointed at himself, grinning “I’m a Gryffindor," he pointed at Regulus "You’re Regulus," he paused. "You’re my heart.”

Regulus blinked, as if frozen for a second and then his eyes turned crescent-shaped, and his face broke into the widest smile ever.

At that moment he felt enveloped by warmth, he felt happiness as if he got his Hogwarts letter, as if as if...

But right now he felt his chest tighten, his throat constricting.

As his eyes zoomed to the other side of the black lake where four Gryffindors boys sat, laughing amongst themselves. His eyes locking on the boy with shoulder length black hair, as he swallowed hard.

Sirius won't be coming home for Christmas anymore.

Sirius won't be coming home anymore at all.

And Regulus, as Sirius said, Sirius' heart, he actually took Regulus with him and left this shell.

----

Inspired by @my-castles-crumbling this post.

[peaky-shelby]

Define me | Neymar x Oc [1&2]

Summary: Famous Singer and Actress, Gabriella Hamill, travels to Qatar after being invited on live television by her favorite player, Lionel Messi. Despite the invitation, Ella tries to avoid the cameras and hide in plain side, wanting to enjoy the games without the chaos that comes with being in Public places and it all seems to be going well until she meets Neymar Jr. in this bad boy meets good girl story, the definition of good and bad is lost between the lines and redefined by the past and future.

Writer's note: originally posted in Wattpad, for quicker updates you can follow me there. Let's see how much you guys wanna read 👀

GABRIELLA’S APARTMENT – BOSTON

“Are you sure you packed everything?”

Gabriella zipped her suitcase closed and let out a big sigh, letting her body fall on It. “No but it doesn’t fit anything else anyway.”

Maggie was standing by the door, her eyes stuck on her employer and friend of course. She didn’t say anything, she just stood, hands crossed on her chest and biting her lip.

Ella glanced at her, frowning her eyebrows. “thought we were over it Maggie.”

“Can’t say we are.”

“I’m going.”

“I know.”

“Then why are you looking at me like that?”

“There’s a lot of controversy around this Mundial.”

“Not this again.” Gabriella got up, lifting her suitcase with one hand “I’ve been invited by the Goat himself.” She smiled and the repeated “I’m going.”

NEYMAR’S HOTEL ROOM – QATAR

He reached his hand over to the nightstand and slapped the alarm on the floor, breaking and shutting it off. He groaned a little, hid his face on the pillow, groaned a little more and eventually sat on the bed, rubbing his eyes and letting out a deep sigh. Just a few seconds later, there were repeated knocks on his door by his captain that passed every morning though everyone’s bedrooms, yelling for them to get their asses of the bed.

Cold water woke him up. It sharpened through his skin, his face and his eyes and it got him ready for training. A quick breakfast, a quick run by himself outside the hotel where he met his buddies from different teams and then straight to their training area. More running, kicking balls, drippling, laughing, falling, sometimes fighting with the opposite teams that were training at the same time and then a break on the bench.

He was drinking one of his energy drinks, watching his teammates still going round and round with each other. Silva was kicking Richarlison’s ass again about something and Neymar smiled at himself, having being in that position many times in the past. Raphinha came and sat next to him. Patting him on the shoulder.

“Ja disistiu, amigo?” [Already gave up, buddy?]

Neymar laughed at his comment and shook his head “Nao. Estou a chegar.”

“Falta apenas uma hora”

He nodded and went in the field again with Raphinha. Just one hour left for the scheduled training, good news was he could finally take an actual break after 9 hours of running around non stop. Bad news was that he never felt his training was enough, he always wanted more. Today it felt even worse, his mind wasn’t all there, he was distracted and tired like a someone had put a spell on him to be this way and when training was over and all his teammates went to their rooms he felt… lonely.

QATAR UNIVERSITY HOSTEL – ARGENTINA’S BASE

Gabriella walked in her mouth hanging open behind her mask while Maggie was talking with the security to check their invitations. When she was done, they walked deeper into the building, enjoying the beauty and how expensive everything looked.

A man run up to them from the other side of the hallway smiling.

“Ola! Ms. Hamill, welcome!” he reached out his hand smiling. “I’m Leo’s assistant. He left a few minutes ago for his training.” He said in his broken english.

“Bad timing. Its ok.”

“No no. He has told me to help you find your way to the pitch.”

“That won’t be possible!” jumped in Maggie. Stepping forward. “Ms. Hamill doesn’t want to risk been seen.”

“I understand. We have a private car that will drive us there and she can stay with her mask on until we reach the training area.”

“That could work.” Said Ella under her mask, giving maggie a look. Maggie thought about it but pretty much knew she wouldn’t be able to stop her.

The truth was Gabriella was excited. She hadn’t been this excited about something since the first time she met Meryl Stripp at the oscars. She hated being surrounded by many people unless she was drunk or unless it was the right people. Through the whole drive she’d look from the window at the views, spotting flags from different times and listening to the foreign language on the radio. Suddenly this great feeling crept on to her that she was a nobody here. She had managed to escape from the chaos of the states where everyone was chasing for a picture and screaming for a comment. No one knew where she was, she was under the radar, hiding in plain sight. Most of all she had the opportunity to do something she loved, watch football, meet heroes she had grown up with and admired with her father.

She smiled at the thought, little her sitting on the couch next to her dad who was yelling at the tv for Messi to score as if he would listen to him through the screen. She laughed, “silencio!” her mother would yell because she had just put her little brother to sleep and when her dad would yell again she’d throw him one of her flip flops to shut him up.

Her smile faded suddenly. It was weird, how one second thinking about them made her happy and the other it made her feel lonely.

They reached the pitch a few minutes later, Gabriella came out wearing her sunglasses, her hoodie and her mask. If it wasn’t for leo’s assistant, security would proably think she was part of a gang or something. She could hear the balls getting kicked, their feet running, it sent chills to her skin. She reached for Maggie holding her arm tightly. Maggie glanced, scoffing but didn’t say anything. They walked in slowly through the large hallways and then sunlight blinded her and she saw them all around the field, running back and forth. Tackling each other, playing with each other until her eyes fell on her childhood hero. Messi.

He waved when he saw her and gave her a smile. Gabriella felt safe enough to take off her disguises now and pulled down her hoodie, her wavy long hair falling like a curtain on either side of her face. She pulled off her mask as well and only kept her sunglasses, letting her hazel eyes covered for a little longer. Messi signaled for her to wait a moment for him to finish and she sat on the bench with Maggie taking in the beauty of the large stadium.

“For the record I still think this is a bad idea.”

“bloody hell can you stop whining for a second?” she asked, nudging her shoulder.

“Are you happy?”

“Haven’t been this happy in a while.” She admitted, smiling. Maggie smiled back. Truth is Gabriella would be nothing without her. She was her best friend and her protector and she knew how much she cared. She had seen her at her worst and she had stayed.

“Listen. Just cause I don’t enjoy watching men sweating as much as you do, I’ll go walk around the block. You stay here and call me if you need anything.”

“Yes mum.”

“I’m serious!”

“Go!”

Maggie rarely did anything for herself ever since she had started taking care of Ella. So whenever Ella had the opportunity to encourage her to take time off she’d take it.

A little after Maggie was gone, the legendary Messi called for her down on the field. She sprinted down the stairs quickly. Messi kicked the ball to her, smiling and she caught it with the side of her foot, laughing.

“Estas Bien?” he asked nearing her.

“Si! Gracias por la invitacion!”

“Sin problemas. Quieres jugar?” he smiled, looking at the ball.

She still remembered the basic words in spanish. She’d speak it often with her mother when she was a kid and speaking it again now, even though hers was more than broken, it made her emotional. So.. did she want to play?

“Si!”

“Espero que juenues mejor de lo que hablas espanol!”

“Hey I understood that!” she complained and kicked the ball back at him. He caught the ball with his foot without even looking when it was close enough.

“No english!” he said “you need training.”

“Why don’t you train in english instead?”

Messi laughed “you win. I speak Ingles with you. You lose you speak espanol.”

She shrugged, knowing exactly what she was getting herself into.

She wondered why she was even trying to steal the ball from him. Everytime she’d end with her back on the ground, groaning and the few times she managed to kick the ball it was while she was falling and messi was distracted trying to keep her up so she wouldn’t fall on her face.

After her 20th fall, she stayed on the ground, laying down and breathing loudly. Messi looked at her, almost like he was enjoying it. A wide smile on his face.

“You win!” she said, begging with her eyes to let her off the hook. Messi put his hand behind his ear, like he was expecting something else. Gabriella shut her eyes, took a deep breath and repeated what she said this time in spanish “Tu ganas!” she mumbled. Messi clapped for himself and sat besides her, patting her knee.

“It was good try.”

Gabriella smiled “Garcias!”

“You spanish… no that bad.”

Ella laughed and lifted her body, balancing it on her elbows “Yo no lo hablo. Um… mucho tiempo.” She nodded towards him “Tu ingles… no tan malo?” she wasn’t very sure if she had said it correctly but messi didn’t try to correct her.

“I try. It is hard.”

“Easier than you think.”

“LEO!” It was a man’s voice behind her calling. She pulled her sunglasses down to her eyes again. Messi got up to greet whoever it was, suddenly he was speaking spanish quicker making it harder for her to understand anything that he was saying. She got up, rubbing the dirt off her knees. She thought she heard messi saying her first name and she turned around, automatically raising her hand as well to greet the new guy.

“Nice to-“ her words trailed off. She knew him. She had seen him play, she had even read articles about him and his horrible behavior. She tried not to show it and finished her sentence quickly “nice to meet you.”

Neymar held her hand only for a few seconds before letting it go and turning his attention to Messi. Like she wasn’t even there. He hadn’t recognized her, not even a little. She felt relief, she felt happiness. Yes, he was rude to ignore her existence the way that he was doing but she was more happy than not.

Suddenly The vibration of her phone on her pocket rang and she picked it up quickly.

“Si?” She stopped herself “I mean yes?”

“Listen I found a great place with food.” Maggie went on to tell her about all the dishes they had and what she would prefer for lunch. After Gabriella made her order they agreed to meet each other at the airBnB they had rented. Ella would go with her driver and Maggie with a Taxi.

“Messi!”

He stopped talking with Neymar and turned to face her, smiling.

“I need to go! Garcias por hoy!” she leaned in, kissing him on the cheek “I’ll see you tonight!”

“Nos Vemos! Adios!”

She waved quickly at Neymar as well and she left.

The car was outside the stadium but her driver was nowhere to be seen. She waited for about 20 minutes until she got bored and her new talent of being a nobody took over her. She decided to walk, taking in the sunlight as much as she could under her hoodie and getting lost in the crowds of people. She stopped in the edge of the sidewalk, stepped on the street while she waited for the light to turn green and just when the light sparked her entire body was pushed on the ground.

TRAINING STADIUM - QATAR

He went to Messi because truth was he was his closest friend in the sport. He was there are at his worst and the first time he ever felt like giving up, and every time after that. Ney didn’t expect to see anyone else on the field and wasn’t in the mood to have small talk with fans either.

When she left he noticed a mark of white paint in the back of her hoodie, he looked at Messi questionably.

“¿Quién era esa chica?”

Messi smiled and ducked to pick up the ball, put it in between his arm and his chest.

“Gabriella Hamill. Una actriz”

“¿Te gusta la Actriz, amigo?” asked Ney, teasing him. Messi slapped off his hands, laughing.

“Basta! Basta! Es una Amiga!”

Neymar smiled. Messi invited him on today’s dinner in his suite but he declined quickly and said he needed rest and he left.

He headed down the street, walking slowly in between the crowds when he noticed that same white paint mark on the black hoodie. He knew it was Messi’s friend. He walked a0 little quicker closer to her when he realized a bus was driving directly towards her. She mustn’t have noticed because she didn’t seem to bother. Ney jumped on her pulling her down on the ground last minute.

“¿Estás loca?” he yelled.

The girl kicked and punched to be let go. She released herself and got up.

“what the fuck are you doing?”

Neymar stood up and pointed at the street, looking shocked “you almost died.”

Gabriella reached for her shoulder, stroking it gently “you fucking Pushed me.”

“it was me or the bus Linda!”

“Who the fuck is Linda?”

Neymar sighed and let out a chuckle. He lowered his head and rubbed his eyes.

“just be more careful! People usually look around before crossing the street!”

With that he left. He turned his back on her but something in his chest told him he’d regret leaving her alone. According to Messi she didn’t want anyone to know she was in Qatar and Neymar knew all too well what it was like to get chased down by fans and paparazzi. He stopped on his tracks and walked back to her.

“You need a ride?”

“my driver is gone.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“you need to learn some manners!”

“you need to learn to say thank you! Now do you want a ride?” Gabriella didn’t answer and Neymar walked closer to her. Both of them hidden by their hoodies, their masks and their sunglasses. “I know who you are. Leo told me. I can help”

She crossed her arms and frowned her eyebrows “thiught you didn’t understand who I was”

“I didn’t. But I do now. Let me help so you don’t get ran over by a car again.”

She kicked on the ground, looking down “thanks for that. Sorry for reacting the way I did.”

Neymar signaled for her to follow him. They got in his private car. Gabriella was trying to distract herself by looking out of the window but ones in a while she’d glance at him.

“you sure I’m not taking you out of your way?”

“Brazil base is very close.” He answered her, giving her a kind look. He had taken of his sunglasses but she had stayed with her disguise. “You can take off the mask now you know.”

She looked away immediately. He scoffed and looked out his window. This girl was a piece of work. “I’ve watched a couple of your movies”

“Thanks- this is it.” She pointed outside of the window and Neymar called for the driver to stop.

”it was nice to meet you linda” he laughed when she frowned her eyebrows again, he reached for her sunglasses, taking them off her. “it means beautiful in  Portuguese.” For just a few seconds he could enjoy her hazel eyes, they honesty in them, the mix of brown and green. But then she slapped his hand away and took back her glasses.

“my knowledge cause as far as Spanish.”

“I could teach you.”

“Im good.” She opened the door quickly and left. Neymar stayed looking, smiling.  Then he turned towards his driver.

“Vamos, por favor”

The driver turned a corner and just a minute later he was outside Brazil’s hotel. The Westin Doha Hôtel and Spa.

GABRIELLA’S APARTMENT – QATAR

Maggie got up from the couch when she heard the door opening. She moved quickly to the entrance holding her hands wide open in aspiration.

“Where the hell have you been? The driver couldn’t find you.”

“He wasn’t there when I went to find him.”

“So you decided to walk over here?”

Gabriella walked over to the living room, the packages with the food were still closed. She took one and opened it, taking in the smell “what’s this?”

“Kapsa” Ella squinted her eyebrows smelling it again, she picked a fork from the table and took a quick bite “Are you gonna tell me what happened?” Maggie sat on a chair close to the table and put herself some water.

“I started walking here-“

“It’s a 20 minute distance with” She took a sip from her water.

Gabriella sat on the couch, placing her legs on it “Then I almost got hit by a bus.”

Maggie chocked. She coughed and ducked her head down. Gabriella watched, feeling guilty but she didn’t say anything.

“I leave you alone for 2 minutes.”

“I’m fine. I promise. Nothing happened, somebody saved me.”

“And I repeat. I leave you alone for 2 minutes and you’ve had an almost death experience and met a guy. Sounds exactly like you.” Gabriella stared at her like she was expecting her to ask who the guy was and Maggie took the bate. “oh my god who was it?” she left her glass on the table.

“Neymar.”

“The famous one?”

“how many are the chances it was juts a random guy In qatar?”

“Unfortunately low.”

Gabriella laughed and took another bite from her food. “Don’t worry I don’t even like him.”

“He’s exactly your type.”

“No he is not! Don’t you remember? My type is white privileged horrible men. E! News wrote a whole article about it”

“That’s 3 out of 4. So you get my point.”

Gabriella took one of her pillows and threw it on Maggie’s face. Maggie caught it quickly and shot her a smile. She liked to believe that no one knew Ella as well as she did. She knew from when she was a kid and they had been through all the stages of her career together. Despite their difference in age which was 15 years, culture and ethnicity, they were each other’s best friend, sometimes more like sisters.

Being worried for her was maggie’s 6th sense.

NEYMAR’S HOTEL ROOM – QATAR

Of course he googled her. It would have been the first thing he’d do if he didn’t have to shower and spent a couple of hours just give interviews. She hadn’t been in a movie for more than 4 years and her tv credits for those 4 years were too small.

He scrolled through the articles about her break ups, the list would go on and on but there was one name that stood out the most. Peter Evans and then articles about an abortion-

He put his phone down when someone knocked on the door. He got up and opened it, returning to the bed before even checking who was on the other side. Richarlison came in, mumbling about something and laughing by himself at his own jokes. Neymar kept scrolling through his phone, not even trying to pretend like he was listening. Richarlison sat on the chair across from the bed.

A few seconds later Neymar felt a sock on his face, he sat up on the bed cursing.

“Que porra e essa?” he yelled, throwing the sock back at him.

“What are you looking at?”

Neymar laid back on the bed, focusing on his phone. “I met someone.”

Richarlison laughed and clapped! “That my boy!” he teased “you checking the instagram?”

Neymar glanced at him “google. She’s Gabriella Hamill.”

“the famous one?”

“They very famous one apparently.”

“Nice!” he smiled “when did she get here?”

“I don’t know. But don’t tell anyone. It’s supposed to be a secret! She doesn’t want people to know.”

“Are you gonna see her again?”

He shook his head and he shrugged “Leo invited me over for dinner. But I don’t know if I should go.”

“Dude are you dumb? Get your ass off the bed and get dressed. She’s literally a goddess.”

A picture of her on his phone, he looked at it. She was a challenge and he was never one to shy away from a challenge.

MESSI’S SUITE – QATAR

Neymar knocked on the door twice. There was a lot of music coming from inside. Eventually Antonella opened the for him and let him in. Everyone was helping set up the table while the kids were running around being chased by… her.

Her, with her long brunet curly hair and her white like snow skin. Her laugh was loud, like a kid’s laugh. She bumped into him while trying to make a quick turn to watch one of leo’s kids. Ney held her, she raised her eyes at him, he was finally able to examine every feature of her face. No mask to hide her red lips or her charming smile. No Sunglasses to hide her shiny eyes or hoodie to hide the rest of her face. She was much prettier in person than she was in any of the pictures and he wondered how he barely noticed her the first time they met.

Gabriella’s smile faded quickly when she realized it was him, she pulled away, mumbling another quick thank you and running behind the kids again. While watching her Messi came up behind him, patting him on the back.

“Has Venido!” he said excitedly and neymar turned to hug him.

“Si! Garcias!”

Messi told him to sit down and called for everyone else to come as well. When they sat on the table Ella made sure to sit as far away from Neymar as possible. Her friend, who looked Asian to neymar, would translate most of the conversations for her when she couldn’t follow. He found out later that maggie could speak 4 languages, including portoguese. Her spanish was broken but not completely horrible, when he got the chance he changed the subject and made it about her.

“We’ve missed you on the screen.” He said, watching her closely. Ella paused on her movements, staring at her plate for a while. Messi asked for Antonella to translate and then he agreed.

“Si! Si!”

Gabriella looked at messi smiling. “I have some new projects coming.”

“Really?” asked Neymar, trying to get her attention. “What are they about?”

“Can’t say yet.” She said without looking.

“Anything good?”

“what do you care?” she snapped, finally giving him a look. Maggie held her hand as if to tell her to calm down.

“I just asked a question. You asked a lot about football.”

“Eh! Que pasa? Que pasa? Tranquilos chicos!”

Gabriella already fell bad. Neymar kept his look on her, while taking a sip from his wine. Maggie changed the subject of the conversation again, something about christmas that Neymar didn’t give any attention too. Sometimes she’d glance at him and she’d find him looking but he wouldn’t look away.

The group moved over to the living room, Neymar noticed her absence while Antonella was serving the cake to everyone. He stood up and looked in the kitchen, he found her on the balcony, smoking. He glanced behind him to make sure no one else was there and walked over to her, hands in his pockets.

“Got one for me?” he startled her, so much so that she jumped a little. He chuckled at her reaction and mumbled an apology.

Gabriella looked in the pocket of her jacket and took out the box of cigarettes she had, offering one to him.

“Don’t tell messi” he said while holding the cigarette in between his lips, lightening it “he’ll have my head.”

“Don’t tell Maggie, cause she’ll have mine.” She mumbled.

“Deal.”

For a while they didn’t say anything. The smoke was making up for the silence, as if the signs it would draw on the wind were words that they were keeping in their mind.

“I’m sorry for before.” She said, surprising him. He looked at her, the way she had the cigarette placed in between her lips. He smiled.

“You get very feisty around me, should I get it as a compliment?”

“I’m feisty around everyone I don’t know.” She shook the ashes of her cigarette over the railing of the balcony and he moved closer to her to do the same.

“we got that in common”

Gabriella faked a smile and looked away. Neymar kept his eyes on her, trying to pick out one by one the thoughts on her mind. He moved even closer, but discreetly so she wouldn’t step back and balanced both his hands on the railing of the small balcony.

“so you like football?” he asked, taking a quick drag.

Gabriella laughed, keeping her eyes on the street below. She shrugged. “I do”

“it’s a little weird isn’t it?” he said, instantly regretting the words that came out of his mouth when she glanced at him threateningly.

“Why? Cause I’m a girl?”

He laughed awkwardly and looked away, nodding. “I mean…” he looked back at her, smiling “its just not usual. I saw your interviews-“

“You googled me?”

“you didn’t Google me?”

She didn’t answer. He knew that he was right but he let it go and continued to what he was saying “usually girls don’t get so obsessed with it unless they are playing.”

“who said I didn’t play?” she asked quickly. For a moment he wanted to take back everything he said, he wasn’t sure If she was just trying to bait him or if she was being honest. But he liked it.

“do you?”

She didn’t answer, she looked at the sky again. Ones more managing to keep some sort of mystery around her. He let out a laugh and threw his cigarette from the balcony.

“You like playing with people’s minds, don’t you?”

She smiled. Threw the cigarette over the railing the same way that he did before, she went to walk passes him but he grabbed his arm, pulling her close to him. Their eyes met, a combination of green and hazel. But no matter the difference in color, he saw something he knew all too well from looking in the mirror: pain.

“Are you gonna come to the next Brazil game?”

She pulled her arm away from him but kept her eyes on his. “I don’t know. But right now I wanna go home.”

“Ill drive you.”

“no thanks.”

“Its on my way.”

She scoffed “im sure it is but it’s not necessary.” She moved away from him but before she walked inside.

“I’ll score a goal for you.” He said. He wished he could see her face, the possibility of making her blush made him proud but he’d never know if she did.

A little later she left with Maggie. She was silent during the drive, looking outside the window. His touch was still on her skin, tattooed like she could still feel him holding her. She stroked the part of hers he held, a smile tremble playing on her lips. That’s when she noticed the Brazilian flags outside a hotel, security and fans standing outside. She twisted her body as the car drove away, surprised.

“What’s wrong with you?” asked Maggie.

She didn’t say anything at first, she watched as the building hid in the distance. She sat back down at her seat normally and shook her head “it was the Brazilian base.”

“so?”

”nothing is just awfully close.” She said quickly.

The two women reached their apartment and went straight to bed, in their separate rooms. Gabriella spent most of her time scrolling through his pictures on Instagram, he was the definition of a fuckboy. She laughed at couple of the videos and felt her heart beat a little faster in a few pictures. She didn’t hit the follow bottom because she knew that would define their relationship for the media. She closed her phone and left it by her side as she fell asleep.

Little did she know that a few seconds later he hit that bottom himself.

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[piningpercussionist]

(ooc: the following takes place some time after the last roadtrip thread posts and before any asks I've assigned with a "nebulous future" placement. Enjoy!)

[LEO'S PLACE, TORONTO, CANADA]

"I DON'T FEEL GOOD!"

As Stephen shouted out the last line, Kim let a grin cross her face; that had been a pretty decent performance, in her opinion. In the opinon of their audience too, it would seem, who were cheering and looking up at them eagerly for more. Kim was feeling pretty proud of herself- she'd apparently paced herself nicely for her bandmates, the crowd was soaking it up, and she could spot some familiar faces at the bar from her spot at the kit- each one enjoying themselves, even if it wasn't necessarily because of the band.

Ramona, Wallace, Joseph, Hollie, Neil- she thought she'd even caught a glimpse of Knives at some point or another, near the start of their set. If she let herself admit it, she was feeling warmed, even- genuinely touched to have so many people actively in her life, now. Sure, they still annoyed her, (and at least Wallace was there for Scott, she figured,) but they cared; she could afford them that luxury in turn.

So, when Stephen turned to face her, she didn't drop the grin- she even grinned a little brighter, amused by his brief shock. He shook his head and flashed a grin of his own, waving Scott over so he could be sure the bassist heard him.

"We're doing Herself The Elf next, got it?"

Scott gave him a thumbs up in response before getting back into position, beaming down at his bass. Kim gave him a nod, sitting up a little straighter with a twirl of her sticks; she was starting to get a little tired, but she had a few more in her- the show shouldn't last much longer, anyway. She waited for Stephen to give her a glance over his shoulder- the subtle signal to start- before Kim raised her sticks high over her head.

"ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!"

Kim prepared to get right back into the flow of things, drumsticks already soaring down towards her instrument- when suddenly, she found herself interrupted by a loud crash, and an eeriee feeling of deja vu washed over her...

[happyk44]

Jasico prompt for @butt-puncher based off this tweet

---

Leo peered over Jason's head. "Who's XghostkingX?" His chin came to rest on Jason's shoulder. "Sounds likely a freaky dude."

Jason swiped away the notification and kept watching the dog training video Piper sent with the caption "You" and a pink heart emoji. "Just this guy who sends me recipes." Jason frowned as the video ended and typed a quick rebuttal back at Piper that just because the dog was a golden retriever did not mean it was him. "I don't know him."

Leo's breath went hot against his cheek. "Then why," Leo said, drawing out the "I" sound for as long as his breath lasted. He rolled over, locking his head backwards over Jason's shoulder, face to the curling and finally inhaled. Coughing briefly, he continued, "is he DMing you?" Leo flicked his cheek. "What, he is a potential booty call?"

Jason scowled. "I don't do that, Leo."

"You should," Leo huffed. "I got pegged on Tuesday by a hottie boom-booty and her boyfriend. All with the sweet send of a "You down to clown?" meme."

Rolling his eyes, Jason shifted ever so slightly and grinned when Leo slid off his shoulder and crashed to the ground. "You give all aroace people a bad name."

From the ground, Leo swatted at Jason's ankles. "Just because I don't get the attraction part doesn't mean I don't know what good feels like. And there are some angles only the thick fingers of a college football player can hit, alright?'"

Jason snorted and opened up Instagram. He switched to the messages section and clicked the top one. A link to a recipe popped up. Above it were a thousand other recipe links. No messages, no words, no comments.

Just other people's posts.

Jason didn't know who this Nico guy was. It was spring break in his sophomore year of high school. His step-mom dragged them all out to some meditative retreat that banned all use of electronics. It was supposed to be some kind of spiritual cleanse. All Jason remembered was doing yoga, eating really bland meals, and Thalia sneaking out of their room through the window in the middle of the night and coming back six hours later smelling like weed and wearing someone else's bra.

She had a lot more fun than he did.

But when he finally got his phone back, he had twenty-three messages from XghostkingX, all recipe posts from different accounts. He checked out the account, trying to figure out who "Nico" was. But the account was private. He checked out the recipes too. They weren't weird. Seemed like completely normal recipes. Bread, pasta, Mexican dishes, Indian dishes, pastries, keto, high protein, vegeterian. Pretty much everything except Italian.

Which Jason found interesting. He wanted to ask about it but...

He turned and flashed a sprawled out Leo the messages. "They're just recipes. He started sending them to me when I was on that no-phones thing with my family."

Leo snatched the phone from him and begin scrolling at top speed. "Wasn't that, like, five years ago?" Jason shrugged. Leo stared at him unamused. "Seriously, man? And you haven't said anything?" He shook the phone. "You don't even know this guy!"

Jason reached for his phone but Leo rolled away, spring up to his feet. "Leo, give me my phone."

"Just one second," Leo said, very clearly typing something.

"Do not talk to him, Leo!" Jason shouted, shooting out of his chair and towards his best friend.

"I'm just gonna hit him up!" Leo yelled as he scrambled away on his gangly twig legs. "See what's up!"

Jason grabbed a pillow off his bed and hurled it at Leo through the doorway. Leo squawked loud, without dignity, as it beamed him in the back of the head and knocked him down. Darting through the doorway, Jason threw himself over Leo. All the air fwooshed out of his lungs.

Grunts and grounds filled the air as they wrestled for the phone. Leo curled inwards of himself. Jason rolled him over onto his back. Leo kicked at him. Grabbing at his legs, Jason pinned him down and started tugging at his arms. He ripped the phone of Leo's hands and sat on his chest in retaliation.

Leo spread his hands behind his head and fluttered his eyelashes, before wheezing, "Why, why Mr. Grace, you're so forward."

Jason shoved his foot in Leo's face. Leo shouted and slapped it away with spluttering indignation. "Fuck off and suffocate, Valdez." He turned to his phone. His heart exploded in his chest. Panic induced upwards his throat. "Oh my fucking gods, Leo." He shoved both his feet into Leo's face again, kicking at his jaw.

Ignoring Leo's protesting yells, Jason scanned the string of messages in the chat. The first one started off okay. Yo, who is this? Then they slowly began to deteriorate into complete nonsense. Probably as Jason and Leo were fighting over the phone.

Crap, crap, crap, he thought, as he began typing out apologies.

Sorry for that, it was my friend, he was wondering why you keep DMing me even though we don't know each other. He sent the text and closed out of the app before planting both feet beside Leos face and flaring down at him.

Jason bonked him again then twitched as his phone buzzed. The notification read XghostkingX sent you a message. Leo squirmed under Jason's weight. "Did he respond? Is he telling you why he keeps sending you messages? Is he hot?"

Leo batted his eyelashes Sweetly. Jason bonked him on the head with his phone. "I am going to eat you one day, Leo."

"I don't care what you do to me, so long as I get to come first," Leo said.

Jason swatted at him as he opened up the text.

Haha, no problem. I was wondering when you were going to say something. I'm Nico. Sorry for all the recipes. I was sick with the flu and couldn't remember how to save them to my notes app. I meant to send them to my sister, but I messed up on her username. I'm dyslexic. Powered through it but it does get worse when I can't think straight. Actually using speech to text right now. Filling in the punctuations after the fact. Anyway, you never said anything so I just kept saving there here to refer back to. Kind of easier than opening my notes app all the time to be honest.

Another text popped up. A picture this time. Followed by a series of more pictures. All of food. Jason recognized some of them from the recipes he'd clicked through out of curiosity. The plating was different. A little less professional, but they looked just as good as they had in the videos.

Some of the photos had a cute boy in the background. He presented the plates with a shy look on his face. His dark shaggy hair was pulled back in a few photos.

Some of my successes, the next message read.

Quickly Jason texted back, Is that you?

Yeah, Nico's reply read. My sister took them to send to my grandma in Venice. I usually just photograph the food. I have other pictures on my page. You can follow if you want.

Jason didn't hesitate before replying, Okay.

He clicked Nico's username and hit the follow button before waiting patiently. A second later the page opened up for him. Nico had a lot of pictures of food, dogs, paintings. There were few pictures of him as Jason scrolled mindlessly through his accounts. The ones that did feature him were always flocked by two other girls - one white and tall, with a braid tucked over her shoulder and fierce eyes, the other short and black with a wide smile, typically tucked under one of their arms.

Jason clicked on a picture of what looked to lasagna roll-up but much fancier and sent it to the chat. That looks good. I don't remember seeing a post for it.

That's my grandma's recipe, Nico typed back. It's a chicken cannelloni. Trade secret though. Can't give it to you. There was a brief lull before another message popped up. But I could make it for you, if you're interested. Make up for spamming you these last five years. Laughing face emoji.

Jason paused. Then, Does it travel well? Who knows if the USPS will keep it fresh.

My dad lives in the Bay Area, Nico replied with a laughing face emoji. And I'm here for the next couple months. Another brief pause while Jason's mind caught up with the air in his lungs. If you didn't want people to know where you lived, you shouldn't post pictures of yourself at university. Congrats on your win by the way.

A deep heat crossed Jason's face. So Nico had checked out his page? What did he think of the personality Jason exhibited through carefully selected photographs and captions? Did he think he was cool?

Beneath him Leo was still struggling and wheezing. Jason ignored him as he typed. I'd be creeped out, but that cannoli thing looks too good, so yeah, why not?

Nico's reply was a cute smiley emoji. Here's my number, he wrote. Call me when you wanna come over. Takes a while to make the pasta from scratch but I'm sure I can keep you entertained. Another smiling emoji.

Jason swallowed around his rising emotions. Sounds good. I'll let you know when I'm free.

A thumbs up and another smiley face.

Finally, he slid off of Leo's chest and landed on the hardwood floors. Leo inhaled dramatically then coughed rapidly before flipping over to his stomach. He groaned as he pushed himself up to his knees. Jason exited the chat.

"So, you getting that dick or what?" Leo drawled. Jason shoved him back as he laughed deliriously.

"Shut up." He pushed up to a stand and dragged Leo off the floor. "He's gonna make me one of his recipes."

"Ahh, dinner date."

Jason cuffed Leo's shoulder before wrapping him in a headlock. Leo laughed boisterously and didn't fight back. Instead he licked a long line down Jason's arm. Jason rolled his eyes and pinched his ear before letting him go.

"It's not a date." He smoothed down his shirt and began looking through his calendar. "He's just trying to make up for spamming me these last five years."

"Uh huh," Leo said, with a twinkle in his eyes that Jason sometimes loved and sometimes hated.

"Yeah, uh huh," Jason muttered back.

Another notification popped up. Without a second thought, Jason clicked it. A picture of a small cake with elaborate icing work and chocolate drips. Nico was in the background, crouched low so all you could see was his face, flour in his hair, a little bit of icing smeared on his cheek. He was smiling wide, eyes glancing up at the person taking the picture. Underneath the photo were the words, For dessert?

Jason hearted the photo immediately and wrote, Sounds good. It looks delicious.

Leo leaned over his shoulder. "He does look pretty delicious."

Jason swatted him away, cheeks burning. "Fuck off, Valdez." Leo cackled behind him before jogging back into Jason's bedroom. Jason turned back to the photo. Nico did look really nice. Messy in a cute way.

Maybe if Jason played his cards right, he could score more than a free dinner and a cute dessert.