#like everyone probably knew they loved each other except for like maybe themselves

[kingcygnus]

roharp is really just eternal longing, cursed to never be together, always separated by fate's works

[pandoraslxna]

hello! i’m literally terrible at requesting things lol, but i thought i would ask if you would be doing another part to Stepbrother AU? i absolutely love the way you write neteyam. maybe some sweet and soft smut?

Sweet dreams

adult stepbro Neteyam x female omatikaya reader

Words: 2.5k

Summary: It’s date night, the marui is quiet and Neteyam has you all to himself.

Warnings: explicit smut, stepcest (= they’re not related by blood), fluff, praise kink, p in v, soft sex, semi-public, biting

Notes: adult Neteyam art was made by @cinetrix 🩵

Translation:

syulang = flower

It’s date night.

Date night means, his parents will be away for the night. And that means, all responsibilities fall to him.

So Neteyam makes sure everyone’s fed, goes to hunt, skins the yerik with Lo‘ak and let’s Kiri help prepare the meat, while you’re out to give Tuk a much needed bath after playing in the dirt all day.

They all eat together, while mum and dad are out somewhere flying on their ikrans or swimming in a river, spending some much needed time away from their kids, even though half of them are grown already and can take care of themselves. These days, date night is more than a ritual that they decided to keep from the early years of their mating, than a day spent away from the rest of the family. The kids aren’t really kids anymore, they don’t fight like they used to, they don’t ask too many questions that make Jakes hairline thin out and they don’t stick to Neytiri like leeches anymore.

Except for little Tuk of course, because Tuk will most likely forever keep the status of the Sully’s baby, probably even when she has kids on her own.

Lo‘ak has grown too, but he’s still Lo‘ak. Has always been him and will never change the way he is. Unless Tsireya comes over– great mother help him, suddenly he’s someone Neteyam has never seen before and it makes him physically cringe. But who is he to judge and apparently the chiefs daughter seems to be into that 'oh my voice is naturally low and raspy and I definitely don’t deepen it just to impress you' type of thing.

Kiri is, well, she’s never been one to talk much, but since she’s reached the end of her what dad calls puberty and mother calls "a test to her mental strength" her head seems to be even more up in the clouds than it was before.

Neteyam himself has long reached that age where he would like to experience these domestic moments with his own little family, living in his own marui. But he can’t seem to peel himself away from here, from home. Not when everything he yearns for is right here.

Which brings us to you.

His pretty little syulang, the flower of his life, that grew roots so deep in his heart that they took up all the space and left no room for anything or anyone else, since the day his parents had decided to take you in.

Admittedly, it took Neteyam longer than he thought it would, to realize that the way he looked at you was different from the way he looked at his other siblings. He’s always been protective by nature, takes care of those who are dear to him. But not once had he felt the same kind of jealousy when Spider or Rotxo or whoever talked to his sister Kiri, than when boys came to talk to you. When it came to you, things were different.

Neteyam himself had started fooling around with girls his age relatively young. Kissing and touching, before he turned eighteen and realized how easy it is to get them on their hands and knees just for being the next olo’eyktan.

But when you came along, things took a sharp turn. Suddenly, those girls made him feel icky. Suddenly, he had never wanted to touch anybody as much as he wanted to touch you. But he knew that such a thing was out of the question, though, so he never tried to act upon his forbidden desires.

It was you, surprisingly, who came to him first. Crossing all lines of what Neteyam thought was considered right or wrong, just for you to confess a love that goes beyond what step siblings should feel for each other.

Anyways.

Date night means, all responsibilities fall to him. And while it’s usually dad that has trouble sleeping, that stays up until eywa know when, sitting in the space that’s reserved for crafting and such things to clean his assault rifle, it’s Neteyam who sits in this place tonight. Like being away for a night ultimately means that not being able to sleep is now his burden too.

Neteyam doesn’t know the reason to his. His stomach is full and he’s happy and content, should probably sleep like a baby. But he just can’t bring himself to rest.

He hears Lo’aks snoring pick up in the other room, and it makes him chuckle lightheartedly. He‘ll keep Tsireya in his prayers, once the two of them have finally mated and will share their own marui. Eywa help her find some sleep, once this snoring palulukan lays under her roof.

Neteyam smiles to himself. His fingers slowly grow tired as they move a woven thread back and forth, then through a pearl, tying a knot and repeat. At least some part of him feels the need to rest.

While his parents date night generally means that there will be more duties than usual in his daily routine, it also means that there is no one up in the middle of the night or in the early morning hours, giving him time and peace to be lost in his thoughts. And those thoughts roam around a certain someone, more than usual even.

Because date night also means, spending time with his precious syulang is now less risky than it is on any other day or any other night.

Quietly, Neteyam tips his head back to glance into the other room. He can vaguely make out your sleeping silhouette in the dark, laying in your hammock. Like a magnet to metal, he feels himself drawn to you, so he allows his body to move without his brain having much say in this.

Everyone‘s asleep and his parents aren’t there and it just feels good to act upon his desires without double questioning everything, wondering what fleeting touches he could allow himself without being looked at weird or having to find excuses to go to the forest together for at least some alone time.

The hammock dips, and then a warm body settles to lay behind you, curling around your smaller frame like you’re two fitting pieces of the same puzzle.

A soft sigh leaves your parted lips and Neteyam can’t help but press a kiss to the nape of your neck. His breath tickles your skin, and then you stir awake with a yawn.

"Teyam?", you murmur sleepily, glancing over your shoulder to be met with two half lidded, golden orbs staring back at you.

"M‘sorry, syulang", he whispers against the shell of your ear before pressing another kiss to your cheek. "Didn’t mean to wake you."

You mumble something incoherent that he can’t quite pick up, but then you’re stretching and your tail instinctively curls around his, and Neteyam knows you probably didn’t mean to– but your back arches into him, ass pressing against his crotch, and suddenly you’re not the one only stirring awake.

"Hmm, but since you’re already up, we could…", the words are muffled into the crook of your neck, followed by more, open mouthed kisses against your skin.

"Teyam", you giggle quietly, squirming when he nips at the lobe of your ear, "stop it."

Instead of listening, his arms close tighter around your middle, pulling your back closer to his chest. His hands skim over the bare skin of your stomach, over your thighs, your waist.

"You’re so warm", he mumbles, with both of his hands now sandwiched between your soft thighs. It makes you dizzy, the way he presses himself against you, how his hands can’t seem to stay still for even a second, roaming your body to caress and squeeze and grab whatever they can reach. Your breath hitches in your throat once you feel his fingertips brush the outline of your loincloth, following the cords between your thighs, hands cupping your cunt.

"T-The others", you finally find your voice again. Swallowing thickly, you whisper, "Lo’ak and Kiri, they will–"

But Neteyam is quick to cut you off, "The others are sleeping…" Another open mouthed kiss to your throat, tongue licking along your pulse point. "And I missed you. A lot."

It doesn’t seem like he was leaving you much room to argue, especially not, because his hands then dip past the waistband of your loincloth.

"I was with you the whole day", a smile pulls at your lips, eyes fluttering closed as you let yourself enjoy the feeling of his teasing fingers.

"Hmh, and I still missed my baby sister", he hums, "Missed kissing you… touching you…"

A gasp tumbles from your parted lips when one of his digits slides into you with ease, curling up where he knows it feels best for you.

"Always so wet for me", Neteyam whispers, "My perfect girl."

His breath is hot and damp against the skin of your neck, and he nudges his now fully hard cock against the small of your back and waits for the sign that tells him you feel the same want he does.

Neteyam can’t help but nuzzle up against the crook of your neck again, trace the edge of your ear with nose and lips, because he can never get enough of the way that sends a shiver through your body. Through his own body too, and then he presses the smallest, quietest kisses to your ear until you shivers again.

Neteyam is so close to you, that he can sense and know he caused the tremble in your limbs and breath.

Those small, trembling movements are what does it for him, the way you nudge your sleep-warm body against him, the arch of your back against his chest and crotch, the scrabble of delicate fingers as they fumble against his arm, looking for purchase, the brush of your soft hair against his cheek and the taste of your skin at the flick of his tongue against your throat, neck and shoulder.

"Teyaaam", you whine quietly, two of his slick fingers now scissoring you open and you writhe and squirm, pushing back harder against his cock in need.

This time, the shiver runs through him first and you gasp once, the sound quiet and sharp.

Neteyam knows that sound. Knows that means he could fit your bodies together even better, press himself inside you now. So naturally, that’s what he does.

It’s a clumsy mess of tangled limps, soft giggles and fleeting kisses before he manages to wriggle you and then himself free from any clothes. He keeps you flush against him, back pressed against his chest, angles your leg up and holds you open with a hand to the backside of your knee.

Neteyam slides into you easily. The stretch is familiar, good and pleasant, and you moan once he’s filled you entirely.

"Shh, I know", he coos softly, "but you have to be quiet for me, yes? Don’t want to wake the others, don’t you?"

You nod, then his hips move almost on instinct, back and then pushing forwards, thrusting into you. It’s slow and languid, with muffled groans pressed against your skin.

Neteyam wants it to last. Wants to stay like this forever, soft touches and warmth and the fond familiarity of your skin under his fingertips. But he can't resist that voice. Can't resist that desperate, pleading tone.

"P-Please Neteyam", you whimper softly, pushing back against him, "more, please. More, I want to come!"

He pushes forward, just that little bit harder, then shifts to clamp a hand over your mouth, shushing you when you’re unable to contain those little noises of pleasure.

"You feel so good, syulang, so good."

The slow drag of his shaft against your warm, wet and velvety-like walls makes Neteyams tail curl in enjoyment, and his eyes flutter close as he lets himself drown in the feeling of you. His teeth are clenched shut, biting down on his lower lip, because he was just as close to moaning out loud as you were.

But then you’re clamping down, hard, when his tip nudges against that special spot inside you and– just a little faster, his thrusts become just a tad harder, deeper.

There’s drool covering the inside of his hand, where he’s trying to keep your mouth shut, tongue lapping at his palm so he switches position, sticks two of his fingers into your mouth instead for you to suck on.

You’re so wet around him, wet around his fingers too now, sucking as eager as you would on his cock and the low groan that bubbles up his throat is almost too loud. Almost.

But Neteyam catches his breath quickly, busying his mouth with your throat instead, sucking and kissing and biting, never hard enough to leave any marks, but enough to keep himself from making too much noise.

Meanwhile your tongue swirls around his digits and he pushes them further in whenever he slides his cock out of you, then out when he thrusts forwards. It’s a constant rhythm, leaving you moaning around his fingers and squeezing around his cock.

Slow and steady, he repeats the words like a mantra, trying to calm himself. But his thrusts become deeper, harder as well. They knock the breath out of your lungs, little whimpers reaching his ears, until Neteyam has to cover you mouth again with a warning grunt.

All it would take was for Lo‘ak to wake and get water, and then he would hear the obvious, he would hear the faint squelching noises coming from the other room, would hear your little whimpers and pleas.

Neteyam wanted this to last, he really did. But the thrill of getting caught was a dangerous mix to the absolute heavenly feeling of your pussy convulsing around his length as you came. The soft squeak that you gave, the way that your legs trembled and your eyes rolled back, it was all that was needed to push him over the edge.

"Fuck, fuck, syulang, baby. I‘m– I‘m gonna come", he forces out, as quietly as possible. The hand over your mouth clamped down harder, like a warning before he started to thrust into you faster, barely able to contain himself anymore.

Just a few especially deep strokes were needed, and Neteyam felt his body and every last nerve in it fill with pleasure, before he came with a grunt, biting his tongue and pressing his face into the crook of your neck.

Taking his time, Neteyam lets his body come down slowly. He’s still pressing himself into you gently, continues to move a little, thrusting, and enjoys the slippery sensations this engenders. Traces kisses over your skin and tastes salt and sweetness on his tongue while he listens to the way your breathing slowly evens out.

A tender, "I love you", is whispered against the shell of your ear. Your response comes a little slurred, voice laced with sleep and barely incoherent, but it doesn’t really matter to him. There’s a smile on your lips as you fall back asleep, satisfied and content.

And finally, sleep tugs on his tired eyelids.

Neteyam suspects, as he drifts of to sleep, that in an hour or so, for the second time that day, he'll be the first to wake. He’ll have to get up and move to his own hammock, fall back asleep there, or not. And he’ll miss you again, from afar. Until date night comes around again.

[dreamauri]

♪ — 𝗪𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗜𝗡? - part one max verstappen x reader (fluff) “. . . when he wants to be normal, he can count on you, stranger.”

( fic master list | general master list ) ( requests ) ( next )

One of the things Max Verstappen despises about being Max Verstappen is being Max Verstappen. Three time world champion, youngest race winner, mad max, f1 dominator, all the fame and media and people following him around. It's very hard to get a moment of peace or be treated normally. When people hear his name they either put on big smiles or ugly frowns. He hates the special treatment.

He misses when he could have a conversation without people recording or judging him. Without people whispering about him, or fake being his friend for whatever fame. When people would just spend time with him for the sake of spending time, or having a conversation for the sake of friendly socialization and conversation. Luckily though for the Dutch, in this day and age, Max could just enter a spare email in Discord and make a second lowkey account.

The pfp was a random photo of Max, a meme. Lowkey enough, Max decided after staring at the profile long enough before opening DiscoBoard. After scrolling and searching, he was dawned upon with a relatively small server with only 280 people online, surrounding sim racing. After he followed instructions on the welcome page like verifying he's not a robot and picking roles, he got his first ping. 

★ ☆ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Max met you in August of 2022. The way you talked and messed around with him got him constantly checking his phone for notifications over the next months. The way you befriended him and were relaxed around him once the two of you got to know each other, it kept him sane. And although Max didn't really reveal a lot about himself except that his work required a lot of traveling and effort, you trusted him enough to share about your own life up in France, ranting about your weird encounters as an employee at Cisco.

The blonde’s favorite part about getting home was plopping in his gaming chair and switching his Discord accounts. Pulling his headphones on and navigating through the server, he joined the active voice chat. It was as if he was switching lives, turning off Max Verstappen to be an irrelevant 26 year old.

“A millioooon.” you sang like you always did, a nickname you’d given him since amilian sounded like a million. 

“Laaaaa.” Max sang back with a chuckle before greeting the other acquaintances present on the call. 

“How was your weekend?” You hummed. 

“Same as always. Maybe a bit shittier this time.” He sighed, seeing you were on Gran Turismo from your shared screen. 

“I’d love to beat up someone for you.” You always offer when he’s down. The blonde would laugh and shake his head even though you can’t see. You never cease to bring him a smile with your tone and jokes and hearty aura, despite being kilometers up north. "We're waiting for Josh to take a few rounds around spa, you wanna join?" 

"Oh, yes please." friendly racing with no consequences, points or championship? just friends messing around and enjoying themselves? Yes please.

★ ☆ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"You see the new verstappen photos that just dropped, Mr. Max Verstappen nerd?" Max looked up from his phone, eyebrows furrowed as he looked at your dm chat where the two of you decided to move the call once everyone else put down the steering wheel for the night.

"This one is from Bahrain I think . . . you know, I'm starting to take a liking to him." Max rolled his eyes playfully at your words. "To be honest, I was kind of disappointed this weekend." Max rubbed his eyes, looking up at your profile picture. 

"Why what happened?" He asked even though he probably knew all too well the events of the Australian grand prix.

"Max DNFed on the third or fifth lap." You sighed. 

"Oh yeah?" Max hummed, pursing his lips, not wanting to recall the memories. "What's so bad about that? I thought you were a die hard Charles fan?" he asked. 

"Excuse you, I'm a die hard Fernando fan." You joked in a sassy tone which pulled a chuckle from him.

"What is it about Max DNFing that is bothering you then?" Max himself asked, putting his phone down to concentrate on your voice. 

"I just don't—" you sighed deeply. On your end of the call you rolled back in your chair, getting up and flopping on your bed with your phone in hand.

When you did answer his question, all Max heard was mumbles because your voice was muffled by your pillow. "Can't hear you, La. Aren't you happy about the Carlando podium? You were so happy about it last year." 

"I am happy, I am. But Max . . . well Max . . . i don't know." you grumbled frustrated. "He's such a good driver, and deserves a lot— he works really really hard."

Max never thought he'd hear you talking about him like that. He'd usually hear other people on the server dissing him and cursing him. And although you were always mostly neutral with the drivers, the way you spoke about Max tonight melted his heart. It also felt very wrong.

While you turned and laid on your back, staring up at the ceiling of your room, venting your feelings about a driver who you thought didn't know you existed, said driver folded his arms on his desk and leaned forward, resting his chin on his arms listening to you vent about how much you were amazed and proud even though you don't know him personally or him not being your favorite driver.

Max glanced up at his monitor as you sighed to gather your thoughts. "Sometimes when i look at him, he reminds me of myself. I never really got to go past karting, but for some reason I see a little bit of y/n in him." 

"—Y/n?" He sat up hearing the name. 

"I—" You face palmed upon the realization.

 "Is that your name?" Max asked. You nodded briefly with a sigh but he couldn't see.

"Unfortunately." You sighed. "Weird name, I know—" 

"I like it." He reassured. "It's not like Amilian is any better." he tried to lighten the mood, working slightly. 

"A million." you giggled making him chuckle back. 

"A million, " he repeated quieter, a small smile on his face as he leaned his chin back down on his arm.

Such a foolish thing to do, taking a liking to a woman you've never met.

Voice notes . . . ( my brain is like a zoo rn, starting projects and not being able to track anything while working on everything at the same time )Word count - ( 1, 165 ) credits for proof reading -> @classiclitfreak (check out their blog!!)

[turbulentscrawl]

I LOOVE your Luca he's soooo <3 may I please request some headcanons for him with an s/o from the future? (As in our time) like they time traveled back to the manor and are now stuck there. Sfw and if you can think of anything nsfw then go for it!

Thank you! And I love writing for Luca, he's definitely a favorite of mine <3

I may have missed the mark a tad here? I think Luca would largely treat an future-s/o the same as one who's not...but technology definately plays a factor in some aspects of the relationship.

Also the whole time I wrote this i kept thinking about what skills someone from the future would have. It would be hilarious to blare music to speed up ciphers, or maybe chug a preworkout and get a kiting boost hahah

-So first of all, everyone is completely mindblown by this development. It’s not like anyone really knew anything concrete about the manor’s time-space situation, but this just proves even the most popular theories hold no weight. Are you from a different era, or a different timeline all together? Why are you the only one—or are you just the first?? Has more time passed than they suspected, is anyone here even from the same universe???

-Basically, there’s a lot of chaos, spoken and unspoken. Everyone is varying degrees of scared, distrustful, and excited. It’s mostly the last one, in Luca’s case, which is why he’s one of the first people you get to know. Instead of avoiding you, he’s constantly around you. Question after question after question—it probably gets tiring after a while.

-But he’s just so earnest! His excitement is contagious, and despite running his mouth a lot he’s incredibly respectful and well-mannered. When he gets a moment with you alone, he concedes that this must all be more overwhelming for you than it was for everyone else, considering that you’ve lost about 100 years of development along with the regular shockers. So he asks you to come to him if anyone treats you too harshly. He promises to be a respite from that, if nothing else.

-And he is! Luca doesn’t often let people in his work spaces for several reasons…but he makes an exception for you. Just don’t touch anything, okay? You’re safe in his messy spaces. It’s during a visit there that he tells you about what happened to him, all the things he’s been told but doesn’t remember. He’s open about having been in prison, of course, but he doesn’t give the details to just anyone. This is his good-faith peace offering, strange as it might seem. And you can share your life with him when you’re ready.

-If any of your technology happened to come through with you, he’s going to want to look at them. I don’t…entirely suggest letting him? It’s up to you, but just know your phone may not survive the thorough disassembly-inspection he wants to give it. On the other hand! I think Luca could charge your phone just by holding it so no worries if you didn’t have a charger in your bag.

-Years down the line, you two will still have things to teach one another. Culture and technology both are very different in each of your homes, and the little details show themselves at the strangest times. Luca, in all his genius, does his best to replicate the things you miss most about home. It’s only fair that the manor be populated with creature comforts for everyone. It’s not that he’s trying to impress you or anything.

-At some point he starts to ask about dating modern culture. It has its perks, obviously, like being able to stay in immediate touch long-distance, but honestly he’s a bit disappointed to hear about the rush and informality of it. Luca returns the favor, explaining how courtship tended to work from his time…so you know what he’s doing when he starts courting you. He can speed things along if you really want him to, but Luca would enjoy a month or so of gentle flirting and pining. Anticipation is part of the enjoyment!

-After being together for so long, he starts to pick up some of your mannerisms and modern dialect. It’s funny for him to suddenly be throwing out pop culture references when he doesn’t fully understand them. It’s like teaching your grandparents slang; he doesn’t get it but he’s happy to be involved. I’m 100% sure there’s no wifi at the manor but if you have any funny videos saved to you phone they become Luca’s favorite thing. You are now designated manor documentarian! Make sure to catch all of everyone’s embarrassing and funny moments.

-On that note, it’s also incredibly helpful for Luca if you film the two of you a lot. Literally anything, him mumbling to himself while he works, silly jokes, him playing the piano. It’s so much easier to show him things when his memory fails, than to try and explain your relationship from the ground-up.

[phantomphangphucker]

Phic Phight - I’m Not Above A Love To Cash In

@a-closet-emo @coyotecrackers @DizzlyPuzzled @vigilant-insomniac @Kawaiijohn @fangirlwriting-stories

Danny’s kind of out of touch with humanity, that was kinda the point in the end. He had a job to do, people and ghosts to protect, a dimension to rule, and crazy bigoted ghost hunters to keep in line; potential distractions and collateral weren’t useful for anyone. Though maybe those would have been good for Danny’s well being, not that he cared too much about that.

Danny sighed at the little envelope, how the heck any of them even tracked down where he was living he had no freaking clue. Oh well, it was here now, meaning he couldn’t feign ignorance. The A-listers, or whatever they called themselves these days, had set up a reunion and had invited even him ‘Freaky Fenton’. Course they also managed to get the ghost mailman to deliver one to Phantom as well, which was slightly insane because as far as they knew Phantom had literally never gone to school at all??? Wasn’t it kinda weird to invite someone that not only wasn’t in your grade but wasn’t even in the school, to a high school reunion? Eh whatever, who was he to dictate who they invited, Dash probably demanded it actually. Ugh. So that left him with what to do about it, it would be rude as fuck for either Danny to not show and it would hurt his image in both forms. Jack and Maddie would spin some story about how it was proof that Phantom didn’t care about people, and then would say the same about Danny Fenton except that Fenton had been ‘tainted’ by Phantom.

To say they weren’t getting along these days would be an understatement. It made him very happy he never told them about being Phantom as a teen though. That would have ended with him strapped down on a table, no doubt.

His whole secret identity was the entire problem here really, his forms looked effectively identical meaning the two sides of him never being seen right next to each other was kind of important. Even being in the same room was too big a risk, if someone simply glanced from one to the other it was obvious. In photos he was fine, since ghosts messed up photographs and videos so severely.

Absolutely no one would buy it that neither one of them noticed the similarities. And absolutely no one bought that ‘Phantom stole Fenton’s face’ thing his parents once tried to spin. So Danny trying to play the similarities off wasn’t going to work.

…

Well he could simply do the aggressively opposite thing. Have Fenton and Phantom near each other constantly and clearly aware of the similarities for some reason. Just what kind of reason should he come up with? Claiming twins would get disproven in a heart beat, especially because everyone would wonder why he waited fourteen fucking years to reveal that shit. He… could, maybe, spin some soul mates bullshit. Ghosts were weird and did weird things and worked in weird ways, people would buy them having legit soul mates and being weird as fuck about it.

He should work shop this a little.

Really sell it.

Fuck.

Danny’s totally going to pretend to be his own fucking boyfriend at a random ass reunion that he still doesn’t know how he wound up getting invited to.

…

Oh Ancients Jack and Maddie were going to lose their minds when they heard about this. That’s it. He’s sold. He’s dating himself for a night. Fuck it. They put him through hell, he’s gonna put them through a little hell too.

Now how to explain it… ghost soul mates copy the appearance of their mate? Why though… hmmm… he doesn’t have a good one for that. Maybe… to recognise them while they’re still alive? Technically that could stab him in the ass if Fenton him ever died but well… unless something killed him then he wouldn’t die, semi-immortality was kinda a bitch like that. Old age was gonna bite him in the ass no matter what. And if he did get his sorry ass killed, finally rested in deaths grasp, his appearance would change to his ghost king form fully meaning that his ass actually would be covered by this dumbass excuse. Okay he is mentally swearing way too much and should absolutely go to bed at this point, sleep deprivation was absolutely taking the piss outta him right now.

He’s definitely sticking with this dumb dating himself idea though, it was just too good and too stupid.

Had Danny’s fully rested opinion changed from his sleep deprived one? not a chance. Eleven years ago this would have been utterly impossible to do, but now? he’s got duplication down pat, all his powers he was pretty solid with now. Not having friends gave him a crap ton of free time. Again, positive sides to negative things.

Heck he doesn’t even know what Sam and Tuck- Tucker were up to these days, it’s better left that way too. He’d be too tempted to keep checking up on them if he looked into it, and he gave that up the day he died and decided to keep that to himself no matter what. That no matter what had become losing his friends, his family, his sleep schedule, his unmarred body, his childhood home, his dream job, his grades, everything he used to care about except the stars. The stars he could be closer to than every living being, so he made that enough for him, it had to be.

Because he couldn’t follow his former friends, he couldn’t follow his former parents, he couldn’t follow his sister, he couldn’t follow his former teachers, he couldn’t follow his dreams. He refused to take all of that down with him, because the only one or thing Danny Fenton followed was Danny Phantom, because all Danny Phantom followed was Danny Fenton. Guess ‘dating’ was just taking it to another step, an absurd one but absurd was his half-life already so it was okay.

… Better thing to wonder about was what the heck to wear? He could slap his Phantom self in some of his more humanly normal royal wear but Fenton him? He owned one suit and it was shit. Most of his clothes were shit, he never actually paid for them so most were either destroyed or cheap enough that he didn’t feel too bad about the act of theft. His morals were another thing he gave up following, at least following it to a tee anyways. Eh fuck it, he’ll ‘barrow’ some of ‘Phantom’s’ royal wear. He’s not wasting time, money, or further morals, on trying to get something decent in a human way.

When was this happening again?

…

Tomorrow. Of course. It was fucking tomorrow. Figures that it would take a while to mail shit to a ghost and figures that they’d be lazy about sending ‘freaky Fenton’ an invite. Ugh. Whatever, he doesn’t really have energy to waste on caring or being bothered. Screw them too. He’ll be late purely to repay the audacity. That way he’ll also have to deal with everyone less, all the ‘normal’ people. Which if Tucker or Sam showed would probably be for the best, he doubts they’d approach him but it’d be painful to see them regardless. Not being in school anymore made it easy to fall out of being used to ignoring and avoiding them.

Though to be fair, he’d been out of school longer than everyone else, since he dropped out as soon as he legally could. Turning seventeen had be such a massive turning point for him, he’d been building up to dropping out and the teachers all knew it. None of them expected anything from him, Lancer held out hope longer than most but not even that man could hold out hope for a lost cause for long. Jack and Maddie thought he was joking till the day he actually dropped out though, they kicked him out of course which he expected; he didn’t even bother taking anything since nothing that was still there held any value to him.

Over time they had destroyed, one way or another, every physical thing he did care about. So he stopped bringing new things he would care about, it was a waste and only stood to hurt him in the long run. Them taking apart his telescope he spent years saving for just to make some stupid new invention was the nail in that particular coffin. So he left them everything he’d ever had but some clothes, that were barely wearable but he couldn’t exactly walk around naked. He’d been tempted to purely to make a point that everything in that house was worthless to him, them included, even if that used to be a lie.

Now he had some decent stuff, his mattress had a bed frame with stars scratched into the wood. That was something. Yeah…

…Yeah

He does have some food in the fridge right? Shit he should totally raid the free food at the reunion thing, the local town hero needed it more than they all did really. He’s seriously hoping that they have those yummy cheese tart things, those were delicious.

Fenton stretches out, eyeing his Phantom duplicate, it was so much harder to make a human duplicate than a ghost one so the choice of which one to make ‘real’ was fairly obvious. Snickering as Phantom chucks some clothes right at Fenton’s face, this kind of crap always amused him, being a goofy jerk to himself by himself. Fenton shaking his head, “dumbass”.

“You know talking to yourself isn’t supposed to be healthy”.

“As if we’re remotely close to healthy anything”.

Either way Fenton pulls the dark green knit tank top on, it looked acceptable over the black poets blouse, and the puffy blouse sleeves worked with the baggy harem pants. The shiny dress shoes stuck out bit so he’s swapping that shit out to soft weathered leather boots. Phantom’s already dressed in something more form fitting, like he always wore in that form, straight cut pants he’s sure are from the early nineteen hundreds and a borderline military tight collared and fully buttoned up jacket. Phantom sticking with the white boots and black gloves, there really wasn’t a reason to change that and he wasn’t a fan of people seeing the scarring on his left hand/arm.

Both of the hims absolutely rock the evil eyeliner though, because of course.

Fenton straightening the random bullet necklace he threw on, “so, ready to go babe”; fuck this was gonna be hilarious.

Phantom finger gunning right back, “tots babe”.

Oh here’s hoping he can hold his laughter and mocking smirks inside his mind. Everyone even in this spooky town could be so dumb though that they might not even notice even if he didn’t manage to keep himselves together. Plus he was ‘the freak’ and ‘crazy’ so he probably would get written off anyways. Fenton gesturing out the door as he opens it and begins to walk out. Phantom chuckling, “naw, I’ll fly us”; and having Fenton pretend to be startled when he gets picked up by his ‘romantic partner’. Man he’s going to make himself laugh at this point.

It doesn’t take long to get to Elmerton, at least the ‘A-listers’ had the sense to not try and hold a reunion inside Amity Park, especially when a lot of the people who were likely invited had made a point to get the hell out of dodge once they could. Amity was kinda a nightmare so Danny couldn’t blame them, even if it felt a little insulting. He thought he was doing a damn good job of keeping everyone safe! Sure there was lots of damages but no one ever got seriously injured. Living in a so called normal town just sounded boring to him these days, what did all those people even do with their time? Sleep? Eat? Did people still go to the movies these days or was that outdated? Whatever. Not his life style not his problem.

Phantom zipping up to open the door, Fenton stuffing his hands in his pockets and following along. Fenton had the loner lazy weirdo image to maintain after all. And there’s Star immediately, honestly he kind of expected either Dash or Paulina or maybe they were just ‘too good’ to greet people at the doors.

Star opens her mouth and nothing comes out, her just staring at the two hims. Yup. She noticed the freakish similarities immediately. She swallows very awkwardly and her smile is pinched, “Phantom! Danny! Glad you could make it!”. That rang about as true as a fucking potato trying to pass as a turtle. What the fuck. Did they just not expect either of hims to show up? Why even invite him then!

Phantom tilting his head, “well I was invited, someone went through a kinda weird amount of effort to do that”. Fenton scoffing, “and I can absolutely just leave if I’m not actually welcome, don’t know why y’all went to the effort to track me down if you didn’t want me here though”.

She waves them both off, “no no no! You’re both fine!”, and fiddled with all the little name plates, “it’s…”, side-eyeing Phantom’s glowing self, “just been a while since I’ve been around a ghost and wearing a bullet to see a bunch of people you haven’t seen in over a decade seems a little concerning”.

Fenton blinks, is she trying to say it came off as a threat? “If I was going to threaten people I’d do it to their face and if I was going to shoot people I’d have walked in with a gun”.

“That’s… not comforting”, she looks Fenton up and down, “you’re not armed right”.

“No!”; oh my zone just how bad was everyone’s opinions of Fenton? Ugh. Phantom gestures at his face, “I’m kinda always armed? I can’t do anything about that”.

She actually chuckles at that, handing them their name plates, “still a joker I see”.

“Death can’t kill these puns”.

Fenton snickering, “hopefully it can still off me though”. Phantom laughing lightly back, “you’re not a walking sentient pun, otherwise I feel very misled”; and makes a point to ruffle Fenton’s hair and have Fenton grin a little fondly at the action.

It was actually kinda nice to feel his hair being ruffled up again though…

Star, finally, gets the vibes he’s putting out. Vibes squared that he’s putting out. Doubly putting out. Her eyes widening, “oh my god are you two dating? Since when and how even!”.

Danny’s a little miffed she didn’t even comment on how similar the two hims look though. Like come on! If this whole thing was pointless he’s going to be annoyed enough to try setting something on fire. Nothing like arson to really scratch that destructive itch.

Fenton quirks an eyebrow, “I mean, yeah?”, sharing a glance with Phantom before looking back to her, “and pretty much ever since I dropped out, folks kicked me to the curb and this idiot showed up”.

“I’m the smart one in this relationship”.

“I don’t know about that, you dipshit”,

“Hey!”.

Oh okay, so that’s why everyone liked calling him insulting names. It was legit hilarious and weirdly satisfying… hopefully he doesn’t come out of tonight with a weird degradation kink, that would be his luck and very concerning. Would confuse a lot of ghosts though.

Star shakes her head with a more genuine grin, “I think I’m glad then, feel free to head on in. There’s food and drinks to the left”. Sweet, free food. “No invisibly stealing most of it, Phantom”. Aw. Damn. He’s still going to just… with more subtlety.

Phantom smirking, “so steal all the food, gotcha”, and winks before they’re fully inside.

It’s loud, not club loud but noisy. A second duplicate absolutely raids the table, just taking only a few things and at random. Not the toasted sandwiches though, ew. Hard pass.

Lily spots them first, nearly running over, he can tell by scent alone that she’s got kids now. Weird. “Holy crap, Danny? Phantom? Did you guys just arrive by chance together or do you- holy what the?”, she stops a bit away from them and tilts her head, “did you two always look this similar?”, and shakes herself off before coming all the way over to the two hims. “So both of you still in Amity I guess? Phantom obviously but you seriously didn’t leave Danny? With how crap your parents were to you?”.

Wow. Way to be gentle about it, damn. Fenton quirks a judgmental eyebrow, “harsh much, but Amity’s big enough that we avoid each other pretty easily. They leave my precious Nasty Burger and coffee shops alone, I stay the hell away from FentonWorks. It works”. Phantom nodding readily, “plus I would be very sad if he went and left”, and makes a point to pout goofily.

Lily hums and nods, “oh yeah I guess since most of us left, you’d miss anymore leaving huh?”.

Dense much. Fucking Zone.

Fenton and Phantom exchanging looks before staring at her. Phantom giving her that smirk that meant he was about to say something stupid, Danny loved making that smirk, “no, I’d miss sucking his face off”.

Lily squawks, scandalised, “you don’t just say stuff like that! And you’re dating!”, tilting her head, “you guys have the same name and could pass as twins, that is so weird”.

“WHAT! Oh mi god!”.

Ah that sounded like Paulina. This ought to be fun.

Paulina almost knocks Lily over and physically flings her arms around Phantom’s neck. Danny can’t resist but have Phantom give Fenton an awkward apologetic look; just to make Lily uncomfortable. That absolutely works and she shuffles on her feet and taps Paulina’s should in an attempt to get her to stop.

“I can’t believe you actually came! Oh this is the best! And you’re still so muscley! And you smell like lime still!”.

He… forgot how creepy she could be, actually. Wow. He’s nipping this in the ass. Fenton putting a hand on his hip, “you done dangling off my ghost, Paulina”; he makes sure that comes off as chastising instead of actually questioning.

Paulina doesn’t get off of Phantom and instead just turns her head to look at Fenton, “and you are? What could you possibly mean by that?”.

Holy shit. By all the Ancients. She doesn’t even recognise Fenton him. What the fuck actually. For someone who was, and clearly still is, so obsessed with a version of him she clearly couldn’t be bothered to remember him. Phantom prying Paulina’s arms off him with an almost baffled raised eyebrow, “Danny Fenton? You know? The kid you guys used to call freaky all the time? My soulmate?”.

“Your what?”. Of course the last bit is the part she really cares about. She stares at Fenton, who glares, her looking back to Phantom, “I refuse to believe that”.

You know what? Fuck it. Time to absolutely horrify everyone and do something arguable really weird. Fenton grabs a fist full of Phantoms hair and kisses him like he fucking means it. Even though all he really means is that he desires to disturb Paulina and see if he can make her throw up on command.

She doesn’t throw up, sadly. She does start waving her hands around and backing away disgustedly though; an almost win. “Oh god ew! I don’t want to see that loser kissing anyone! Especially not Phantom”. Well too bad Paulina, you’re seeing it. Lily is busy clutching her pearls and shuffling away from them like they’re physically toxic to be around; which with him being literally a ghost in one of his forms that was actually an accurate statement.

Fenton does break off the kiss though, “oh so you do remember me?”. She scowls at Fenton him so he has Phantom whole ass bite Fenton’s neck with his fangs like a proper possessive asshole ghost would. Her scowl deepens and he feels very satisfied with himselves.

She backs up a bit, “unfortunately. Now at least. I would have preferred not to have the reminder”, looking to Phantom almost hopefully, “are you sure? Serious?”.

Phantom keeps a hand around Fenton’s waist, “course! It’s pretty obvious he’s supposed to be mine so”. Fenton sticks his tongue out meanly while Phantom shrugs like all of this is a given.

“No it’s really not”.

“Holy shit Phantom!”.

“Wait really!?”.

“Phantom!”.

“Wow you’ve changed! Awesome man!”.

“He came!”.

“I forgot how freaky ghosts looked”.

“HI!”.

Fenton gets pretty much shoved to the side as Phantom gets mobbed. Ahh yeah Danny did not miss all the fangirls and fanboys shit. He really didn’t. That was one thing about being a hero he could seriously do without. It was at the least uncomfortable and at the worst actively dangerous for everyone involved. Fenton huffing and shaking his arms out, going through the motions of running his bite mark and grumbling about people hogging ‘his boyfriend’. Fuck it, Fenton him is hitting up the food table and grabbing both hims a drink. The duplicate can deal with all the damn fans and freak outs.

Phantom chuckles awkwardly when Dash smacks him a few times in the arm, “solid and tough as always I see! Man it still sucks that ghosts couldn’t be on the team!”.

“And I’ll point out that would have still been unfair”; like really, Danny, especially as Phantom, could pick up the entire school building. He could kick a football into the goddamn stratosphere.

Dash smacks him again, “oh who cares”.

“I do? And did?”. Danny liked to pretend he still had good solid morals sometimes.

James starts aggressively shaking Phantom’s hand, “man it’s been too long, wow i thought I’d been misremembering that your skin, or suit I suppose, tingled!”. Phantom only laughing awkwardly in response.

“You still doing the whole super hero thing?”.

“it’s almost weird to see you all grown up?”.

“You know you practically were part of our class!”.

“Could you imagine if he still looked like a kid?”.

“Amity’s ghost issues as bad as ever!”.

“Think I could get a signature for the kids?”.

“The Fenton’s still trying to catch you?”.

Okay this was a bit much, like it always was. Most of Amity didn’t do this crap now, everyone used to him just kinda always being around. Everyone here though? Again most of them left Amity, meaning he was now a novelty to them. Phantom him was at least.

Danny’s putting a stop to this, “Hey spooky butt”, Fenton leans his face and one drink over Phantom’s shoulder in a way that could only be described as shit-eatingly sultry.

“Holy shit Danny!”.

“Looks like someone finally learned how to dress”.

“Why are you getting Phantom a drink?”.

Paulina crosses her arms and huffs, “apparently they’re dating”, waving a hand around dismissively, “soul mates or whatever”.

OoOooIooOoooOoOooh someone’s jealous. Ha! He loves to see it. Suck on that, little miss stalker.

Everyone just kind of goes silent, zone someone actually goes and shuts off the music even. Wow. His both touched and slightly horrified. Phantom takes the drink from Fenton and sips noisily at it while everyone stares; Fenton just smirking his ass off and Danny trying not to have either hims collapse to the floor in laughing fits.

Todd snapping, “what the hell does that mean”, then scowling, “wait, why do I even care?”, and stalks off to aggressively grab a rice crispy square. That starts the shouting though.

“What?!”.

“What does she mean dating!?!”.

“There’s NO WAY THAT’S SERIOUS!”.

“How!”.

“Woah woah woah huh?!?”.

“WHAT!”.

“The hell happened!”.

“How does this even make sense!”.

Paulina looks pleased with herself actually, smirking at Fenton like this somehow proved something? Danny’s completely lost on what she thinks she’s won. Like, Danny’s winning here, mass confusion was practically ninety percent of the goal. He wanted to piss off, freak out, and annoy these people. Most of them had treated him like shit, the others didn’t care, and well, two were… okay but he was best leaving them confused too. At least he doesn’t see either of them yet.

Dash near shrieking, “Fenton!”. Danny’s suddenly distinctly remembering that this guy used to slam him into walls and try to drown him. Fenton ducking down under Phantom's arm to be able to slip under it to move in front of his ghost self, “what do you want, Dash? Feel like revisiting shoving my head in toilets?”. He makes a point to have Phantom watch the interaction like a very obviously protective hawk; protective eyes for Fenton only. He is legit enjoying seeing Fenton him standing up against Dash though, especially since Fenton was taller than Dash now and more bulked up.

Someone fell off with all their working out. Ha! As if that would ever happen with Danny, he’s mere existence was a work out.

Dash glaring up at Fenton, sneering, “Fenton, still being weird I see”.

“Let me guess, I was invited to be the freak show you lot would point at and use as a way to make yourselves feel better about how your own lives turned out? What? Upset that you were right about peeking in Highschool?”.

Dash actually clenches a fist, Danny keeps Fenton glaring straight at his face, and makes Phantom’s eyes glow dangerously in warning. Dash wilts immediately, scoffing, “gotta have a ghost fight your battles for you, Fenton. Whatever”.

Fenton cackles meanly, wandering off to pick up one of the full coolers up over his head with ease and shout, “you wanna go bitch?!? You think I’m hooked up with a combative mother fucker without getting a few hits in myself!”. Yes, fear human him even slightly, please him.

Then Star stomps over, “Danny put that down”, pointing at Dash, “Dash, this isn’t Highschool anymore, grow up”, then looking at Phantom, “please discourage this?”.

Phantom blinks innocently, “why would I? It’s hot when throws shit at people, he threw Johnny’s bike two days ago, ten outta ten”.

That gets him a lot of ‘what’s’ and Paulina recoils, “you, called Fenton hot”.

Phantom shrugging like this is obvious, “well he is”. Note, Danny is fully aware that he is absolutely not hot or conventionally attractive in anyway. He just wants to see her grossed out. The disgusted look is so worth it, worth all this crap.

Kwan shakes his head, but when he smiles at both Danny’s his smile is genuine, “well good for you two then!”. Dash glances away awkwardly, Danny’s guessing those two had a falling out. Figures, Kwan was always a kinda decent dude that was just surrounded by assholes. Kwan coming over and smacking both of the Danny’s shoulders, “how’d this happen though?”.

Multiple people raise their hands, clearly wanting an expilnation for this shit too; zone the music is still off. Danny knows he’s a hot topic, as Phantom at least, but for fucks sake! Phantom and Fenton exchanging glances before Fenton crosses his arms at the group, “after I got the familial boot, this shit ass”, jabbing a thumb back at Phantom. Phantom muttering, “yes insult me harder, daddy”, purely because that was absolutely taking this a step too far. Making Fenton pause and look back at ghost him, “I can’t believe you actually said that”, then turning back to everyone, most of whom look varying degrees of freaked out, “so this shit ass, helped me get back on my feet and not be contentedly homeless and you know, when a hero type starts stealing things for you you start to question that shit. And well, romance bloomed”. There are some ‘aw’s’ and some gags and some eye rolls. Expected, many here had once had crushes on Phantom him and also viewed Fenton him as a loser; most wouldn’t be happy about this pairing not that he cares.

Phantom waving at everyone with a big smile specifically to get their attention, “we’re soul mates!”, humming, “which is a ghost thing so it’s probably really weird to the living”.

Fenton nodding, okay self… selves, time to sell this shit. Fenton pointing at his face then Phantom’s face, “it’s why we look alike”. Phantom nodding immediately, “looking like our loves makes them easier to find”.

Jesse blinks, he was dressed in an actually starched suit, “so ghosts just copy their partners appearance until they find them as ghosts? Until they die? That seems a bit insane and like it would mess with your sense of self”.

Paulina stares at the ground, “so I’ve been crushing on a Fenton look-alike, ew”. Oh Danny hadn’t even thought of that reaction! Ha! Suffer for his amusement. This was a great plan.

Fenton smirks to himself, “yup. Too bad you missed out on the real thing huh?”. She scowls deeply at him and stalks off, apparently done with his bullshit; the quick glance she gives Phantom is a little odd but maybe this will finally kill her odd obsession with half of him.

Phantom hums, shaking his head in that way that makes his hair flop around detached from gravity, “oh I can look how I’m supposed to look fully if I want to”, leaning over and pinching Fenton’s cheek, “looking like this silly little human, in general body shape, is just more tolerable around all you humans”; then running the same hand through his hair, changing it to white flames as he does so. Danny lets the fire hair ‘hang out’ on and around Phantom’s head for a bit before settling back to his standard hair.

Dash grumbling, “I’d rather look like some beast than a loser. Fire hair is cool anyways”.

Brittney sticking up a finger, “but with this, then wouldn’t you have known since you first met? When you first showed up in Amity? So why didn’t you date back in Highschool?”.

Phantom quirks an eyebrow at her like the answers obvious, because frankly it is, “He’s alive? I wasn’t about to mess his life up, then suddenly he wasn’t in school or at his home. He was alone with no real human responsibilities so I decided why not? And I could hardly do nothing when my mate could use some help”. Dating any ghost, especially himself, would have gone horrifically bad while he was still living with Maddie and Jack. The amount those two would have tried to use him and this fabricated soul mate bond thing would have been absolutely insane and very very painful eventually. Even if he had dated a blob ghost that would have ended in the ghostly ultimate destruction. Even now dating a ghost came with far too much risk to them, dating himself he could get away with since he was a very powerful ghost and also knew exactly what he was getting himself into more or less. Besides, if dating himself is what gets his ass finally truly hurt by those two he will laugh.

Star grins at the ghost, “that is very adorable”, then looking at the mass of people, “okay that’s enough mobbing them, this is to mingle with everyone not just ogle Phantom”. Oh hey, look at the old queen bee lackey being the voice of reason now, talk about moving up in the world.

A couple people grumble but things do go back to somewhat normal, the music comes back on too. Nice. Star nodding curtly to herself, then to Fenton, “now I didn’t ask this earlier but are the Fenton’s going to show up? They weren’t invited but they were never big on following rules”.

Both Danny’s chuckle at that, Fenton shaking his head, “so long as no one tells them a ghost’s here, then no”.

“Glad to hear it, now I’m going back to greet people, I imagine there will be a couple more late arrivals”. Fenton smirks meanly at that while Phantom tries to look slightly apologetic, ultimately Danny didn’t really care and they should be glad he bothered showing up to an event full of people that either ignored his existence or treated him like shit except when he was saving their hides or floating around as Phantom.

Phantom finally gets to sip his, unfortunately ectoplasm free, drink and take some food from Fenton. Danny’s tempted to have Fenton fucking hand feed Phantom just to mess with people. The tarts are sadly really bland, is this what ‘normal’ grown ups liked to eat? Hard pass. But people’s tastes seriously get this boring? How sad and a bit pathetic. Live a little! Enjoy some flavour!

Kwan elbowing Phantom, “so the ghost problem still going strong”, laughing almost awkwardly, “I haven’t exactly been keeping up, the tech industry is a hard core one!”.

Ah so he worked in tech now? He’d expected English, a teacher maybe, he seemed to like poetry if Danny’s remembering right? Phantom chuckles, “of course! I doubt that’ll ever change. Serious damage doesn’t happen too much now though, since I’m pretty solid on what kind of damage is serious damage in the living world now”. Fenton nodding, “and I get the fun of patching his dumbass up when he lets himself get hit for a pun”.

“As if you don’t do the same”.

Fenton snorts, making a point to seem amused by Phantom’s antics. Phantom smirking playfully before looking back to Kwan, “besides, no ghost these days would want to actually get on my bad side with my position, you know?”. Jack and Maddie might very loudly and very aggressively deny that ghosts could possibly have a political system but everyone else seemed to accept it at least. Besides, those two hunters being loud about anything didn’t somehow make it true, even if the town believing the whole ‘ghost king’ thing made some of them a lot more leery of Phantom. Like he’d execute them or try them for dissent or something if ‘his human people’ went against him. Some folks moved out purely because they didn’t want to be in a town under ‘some ghost royals rule’, even though Danny had firmly established his Phantom self as the good guy by now. Humans could be so annoying. None of the ghosts got pissy about being under his domain and they were more under it than any human in Amity.

Kwan looks… confused? “No I don’t think I know? Are you, like, an actual ghost cop now? Man that would be so cool”.

What. Hmm. Well. Maybe most of these people don’t know? Most of his old ‘citizens’ hadn’t been citizens for a while before Danny took the throne proper and him doing so got leaked, thank you very much Vlad. Asshole. Though having very public arguments with the Observants in the mild of the fucking sky probably didn’t help, or him actually having to go scary ghost king on that one Ancient that tried poisoning the water supply with corpses. If you’re gonna mass kill people be a proper ghost and do it with your own bare hands. Danny makes a point to have Phantom look to Fenton in confusion, Fenton facepalming, “right. Most of y’all have been gone a while”, moving his hand off his face and giving Kwan a mean smirk, “Phantom’s been the current ghost king ever since he became an adult ghost”, waving a hand around dismissively, “its been, what? eight years?”.

Phantom nodding, “and my town’s, Amity’s, known for five because Plasmius is a jerk and the Observants won’t stop hassling me”, grumbling, “one of these days I swear I’m gonna start shooting them with suction darts”.

Fenton barking a laugh as if he wasn’t fully aware of what his other self was going to say, “if that works I will mock them relentlessly”.

“Please do, anyone who doesn’t give up on political assassination attempts after the third failure deserves to be mocked”.

At this point it was like they felt obligated to try at least once per year, it was very annoying and a waste of his time. At least all the other ghosts who started beef with him provided some entertainment and stretched his muscles out, let him satisfy that pesky little protective obsession of his. The eyeballs were just jerks. At least he had fun setting the last wannabe assassin on fire. Ha.

Kwan blinks before smacking Phantom’s arm hard, “wow! Congrats then! I’m busy enough just being a desk boy usually! Being a king would be awful, no offence”, then smacking Fenton’s arm one, “and congrats on bagging royalty!”.

Todd scowling from a little bit away, “fuck, right, I forgot that asshole got that throne thing, ugh I hate this town”, and wanders off further away from Danny’s hims and their everything.

But someone’s turned off the music, again ugh, it’s Lindsey by the controls and she’s gapping at the hims, “what do you mean Phantom’s royalty!”.

Oh. This shit again.

Everyone starts yelling at the hims again.

“What!?”.

“Oh that’s awesome!”.

“For defeating that dude that abducted the town right?!?”.

“For how long!”.

“That’s absurd!”.

“I could have dated a king!”.

“We sorta went to school with royalty!”.

“Oh my god!”.

“WHAT!”.

“Why are there still ghosts then!”.

“Does that make Amity, like, a royal capital!”.

Phantom buries his face in his palms, groaning loudly. Man Danny remembers going through this back when Vlad leaked everything and the towns folk realised he wasn’t joking. So many questions, an entire press conference even. Fenton crossing his arms and scowling, “there’s an entire press release on it, google it your self, hell go track it down on TikTok I don’t care”.

Phantom sighing again and removing his hand from his face, looking at the people in his line of sight, “yes it’s the throne the guy who abducted the town had. It’s only been eight years and the towns know for five. No I’m not going to mass control the ghosts to stay out of Amity, freedom is a big deal to ghosts. Amity is technically a royal capital but it’s not in the Infinite Realm so that doesn’t actually mean much. And yes it is absurd”, gesturing a hand at his head and making the green flaming crown appear for a few seconds before sending it away again.

Fenton pretty much gets shoved away from Phantom again as everyone pretty much mobs the ghost, Kwan patting an annoyed Fenton’s shoulder, “so what have you been doing? Outside of apparently dealing with Phantom’s craziness all the time”.

(Phantom holds up his hands, “alright alright, just stop shoving my mate around. Geez”. Only a couple of people apologise)

Fenton huffs, at least the man sounded genuine, after all most people didn’t expect Danny Fenton to amount to much of anything. Homeless and jobless was the expectation. It was also almost accurate, if he wasn’t Phantom at least. The only reason he had an apartment at all was because he was better at making weapons than his parents were, even if he sold his more or less illegally. The G.I.W. would never approve someone who was ‘in league with the dead’ to deal ghost tech in any form, even if they did, Jack and Maddie would try to keep him out. At least Vlad pulled his weight by letting Danny sell the more important stuff under the Dalvco brand, like shields and ghost-plant killer that secretly doubled as a Blood Blossom spray. His general weapons were blackmarket only though, fuck the government. “If I told you I’d have to kill you”. Kwan rolls his eyes and Fenton snorts after a beat, “I sell weapons on the blackmarket”.

… It takes a bit but, Kwan blinks, “oh you’re serious”.

(Phantom chuckles awkwardly, “yes I’m a lot stronger now than I was back then, I don’t flaunt that though”.)

Fenton shrugging, “it’s ghost weapons, dude. More ghost friendly, Phantom friendly, and more effective than what FentonWorks or Dalvco produce. And not legislated to the zone and back like G.I.W. tech, plus fuck those guys, no Amity Parker current or past would buy shit from those assholes”.

“Yeah I absolutely remember them shooting live rockets at little kids that one time”, Kwan shakes his head, “I guess that makes sense, can’t do it legally because of being publicly pro-ghost?”.

(Danny internally sighs as most of the group shove pens and paper and whatnot at Phantom, ugh).

“Got it in one, got it in one. It doesn’t make good money but it does make some. Enough for a place to live and cheap food, I’m not moving into the gz regardless of someone’s insistence on how cozy it is”.

Kwan actually takes that comment in stride, good for him, “I mean, you’re gonna be there one day anyways? So why rush it? Even if Phantom would probably prefer you there sooner than later”, the guy scratches his head, “man that must be weird. Being a ghosts soul mate or whatever. Chelsea marrying that old guy was weird enough, a dead guy is on another level”.

Chelsea married a sugar daddy? Really? Okay… Get that bread he guesses. Fenton snorting, “if she’s making bank and living the rich life because of that then good for her”, shrugging, “and outside of him running of to throw fists and laying on the ceiling, it’s not much different from dating a human. Getting bitched at about royal shit is way more weird”, looking down at himself and sticking his arms away from his torso some, “the clothing’s nice though”.

“That’s ghost clothing?”.

Fenton smirks, “yup. This shirt is probably older than our parents. And I think the boots are made from Minotaur hide”. He doesn’t think, he knows they are. Ghost clothing was badass like that.

(Phantom rolls his eyes at Jasper, “no I’m not going to just make people my knights when they die”.)

James pops his head over, “that would freak me out to wear, damn aren’t you worried about ecto-contamination and shit? I’d prefer to stick to stuff made by human hands, cool though”.

Was it weird? He didn’t think so. “There’s so little ecto on it that it really doesn’t matter, besides if clothing was bad for my health Phantom would kill me via cuddles”. Kwan bursts out laughing, and nods repeatedly.

James nods a little, “oh yeah! I guess that would be right huh?”.

The Danny makes a point to have Fenton jerk a little from Phantom just kinda appearing right next to Fenton. Kwan putting a hand to his chest and James yelping a little. Fenton glancing at Phantom, “got bored of being mobbed or doing signatures?”. Ancients everyone wanted signatures and if Phantom wasn’t the duplicate Danny’s sure his hand would be sore for at least ten minutes. Ugh. signing shit for Craig’s goddamn six children was wild though, his poor wife. Phantom pouting, “yes”.

“I did warn you that would happen”.

“I wasn’t going to not show up, that would be rude!”.

At least the music turns back on, thank everything. Dale spotting and hearing where Phantom disappeared to and popping over, “everyone’s glad you came, even if being around a ghost again is a little off putting and weird”.

Phantom rubs his neck, “me being more powerful probably doesn’t help”. Fenton shoving him a little good naturedly.

Dale acts like Phantom didn’t even say anything, “and yeah Fenton was kinda invited in hopes you’d be more likely to show, since both of you were seen near each other a lot”.

Kwan gives the other man a disappointed look, “dude”. Making Dale blink, “oh right yeah that was mean”, and just stares off blankly a little.

Wow. Fucking figured but damn. Jerks. Though right, wasn’t Dale the guy that had some brain damage? Eh, Danny shouldn’t be too mean to the guy. Still making Fenton scowl though, “why am I not surprised, it’s not like I was ever close with any of you shitheads”. James wanders away very quickly at that, and at Phantom growling a little. Kwan scratching his head, “sorry about that, Dale’s not the best at brain to mouth censoring”. Dale blinking and still looking a little far off but nodding, “ah, yeah no I’m not. Eh? At least dogs don’t care about that”.

Phantom brightening up immediately, “oh yeah! Cujo can be a handful but he’s a good boy”.

Dale blinks again, “I don’t think I could handle a ghost dog, all dogs are great dogs though”.

See that? Danny could agree with. Cujo might cause a lot of damage and might drag him around by his ankles but he was still just the best. And getting to have interactions with someone or something that had no expectations of him and couldn’t be disappointed by him was nice. All the pup wanted was a playmate, belly rubs, and to guard his master; nothing more nothing less. Cujo didn’t care if Danny was a king or if he was on bad terms with his biological makers or if he was a little out of touch with other beings or if he technically was an entity that should be impossible to exist in the first place. Dogs were nice like that, unlike people. So both Danny’s nod.

Then, as if summoned by the dog that ‘ruined’ her life, Val shows up. The good ol’ Red Huntress. At least they got along somewhat these days, her and Phantom at least.

Her voice is harsh, “what the fuck”. Ah so she spotted Phantom. This was gonna be fun and possibly annoying or stupid or a lot of things. She stomps over, glaring bloody murder at Phantom who whistles and glances around like an innocent little angel. Man Danny loved to rile her up sometimes, and she couldn’t even shoot him this time! She grabs Fenton’s baggy sleeve roughly and physically drags him off. Leaving a blinking Phantom, “well at least this time it’s him being pestered and not the ghost with the most”. Kwan laughs.

Fenton blinks at Val, “sup, Val. Why are you dragging me around?”. As if he doesn’t know exactly why. Phantom was here and she wanted to know why, the Red Huntress did talk to Fenton him sometimes, since he made ghost shit and everything. Plus the ‘Fenton’ knowledge he had from Jack and Maddie. Danny’s ninety percent sure she suspects him of knowing exactly who was under the helmet, She drags him all the way over to the food tables before responding to him, “I’ve been here all of ten minutes and all I am hearing about, besides people telling me what their jobs are now and Ali trying to get me to join her pyramid scheme, is that you are apparently dating Phantom. What the actual fresh fuck, Danny”.

Fenton huffs, “let me have my love life, gosh”, smirking, “what? Do you have a problem with gay couples?”; that’s not the issue and he knows it and she knows that he knows it.

She swats him over the head immediately, “he’s a ghost you dumbass”, huffing, “I know you tend to side with ghosts but dating Phantom? Really?”, rubbing her temples, “like yes, if you’re going to have a thing for the dead then Phantom’s acceptable but what are you two doing?”.

Fenton smirks, “what we’re doing is being little shits and cuddle buddies”.

“You know what I mean, you shit”.

Fenton chuckles, “and I couldn’t make this anymore clear, I could described what Phantom’s mouth tastes like if you’d like?”; of course Danny could actually have Fenton do that since Danny knew what his own mouth tasted like.

Val glares, crosses her arms, and looks from Fenton to Phantom, from one Danny to the other… then she does it again. There it was, the recognition. “What the?”.

Lily walks over to grab some food, “oh yeah let me guess, noticed the similarities? Apparently they’re soul mates”, eyeing Fenton, “ghosts am I right?”. Danny can tell instantly that Val doesn’t buy that shit, like at all. Figures, she was a ghost hunter after all… and she knew about Vlad’s sorry half-dead ass. AND she’s seen Elle’s human half which was basically just a female version of Fenton him.

Fenton smirks at Lily, “they’re weird, but exactly my kind of weird”, and fucking winks at her. Lily shaking her head and heading back over to a bunch of the other ex-cheerleader girls.

Val looks to Fenton slowly, “Danny? Are you? Are you him?”.

Fenton finger guns, “with him you mean, ha!”, then dropping his hands and shrugging, “it shouldn’t have taken you this long, Red. Like my excuse? All the reactions have been to die for”. She smacks him over the head again, expected, she always did love to rough up his sorry ass. “You know Phantom’s not gonna like if you bruise me up too much”.

“I hate you”.

“No you don’t”.

“Fuck you”.

“You wish you could”.

She throws her hands up dramatically, “I can’t with you! Oh my Zone!”, dropping her hands and glaring at Fenton, “you could have just fucking told me, you know”.

Fenton shrugging, stealing up a little rainbow rice crispy square, “eh, it was better off I didn’t. I’m a lot to get involved in and it’s better that people just don’t”, pointing the square at her before taking a bite, “tough shit or not you still die if someone lops your head off”. Sometimes he did want to try and stop her from the whole huntress thing but who was he to tell someone to not do stupid dumb reckless shit? Plus all the ghosts actually liked her, and that shit counted for a lot.

She frowns at him, “that’s a bit depressing you know? Is that why you’re such a loner?”, shaking her head and glancing at a wall, “I guess I’m not really one to talk though, huh?”.

“No shit, Sherlock. We’re both pretty irredeemably fucked, I just have less of a choice about it”.

“You have a choice“.

“Look me in my half dead god king face and say that again”.

She flinches at that, fucking good, he didn’t have a whole lot of tolerance for people telling him he could just walk away. As if everything wouldn’t go to utter shit without his asses involvement. As if people wouldn’t die or wind up experimented on. As if his realm could function and maintain itself without its king. As if there was anything better for him to do other than rot in bed. As if this wasn’t all he was goddamn good for and all he knew how to do anymore. Everything else is gone and there ain’t no getting it back. He’s fucked. Absolutely, completely, and utterly, fucked. And saying otherwise was like pissing on all his fucking suffering and sacrifices. He was needed as Phantom, as a sovereign and protector. He was needed as Fenton, as the interspecies liaison and defender. And that was all he was needed as. Never anything more and never anything less. It wasn’t his choice to make anymore, even if it’s a choice he would make over and over again if it was up to him. Nothing was changing that till either every part of him collapsed or the universe did.

Fenton huffs, “come on, let’s mingle instead of wallowing in our mildly crappy existences”.

She stands firm, making him eye her, “you do like it though, right? I do”.

Even if he didn’t, even if he hated every second of it, he’d still say yes just so she wouldn’t pity him or try to carry more of the load on her very mortal shoulders. He did enjoy it though, so there’s that, meaning it’s not a lie when Fenton says, “duh. I’m a combative mother fucker, even if somehow no one noticed that trait in Fenton”. This time she lets him drag her off with him.

Phantom giving both of them smiles, “have fun catching up, babe?”. Fenton snickering, “of course babe”. Val glares murderously at both hims but doesn’t call him out on his bullshit.

Silver waving at Val, basically killing the conversation Silver’d been having with his duplicate about their greenhouses poppy flowers. It’s was weird someone being so interested in just… growing a bunch of poppy’s. Like fuck, way to show you have a real hunky-dory life. They actually teared up a little at successfully growing an orange one… Sliver speaking up, “you still stuck in Amity?”.

Val nodding easily, “yeah, what can I say, I like the stupid town. I doubt I’ll ever leave, it’s got me for life”.

Yeah… she was probably right about that. She was married to the game less than him but still was all the same. Her it was more that she didn’t want to stop and felt responsible, rather than genuinely not being able to stop.

Phantom putting his hands behind his head, “yeah, her and her dad run a pretty solid tech shop these days, I get my thermoses fixed there since the Fenton’s are still crazy”. Fenton snorting, “tell me about it”. Did Danny actually need to be doing that? Obviously not. But it was a chance to have Phantom talk with Red outside of combat, and to familiarise her with thermoses in case the worst happened.

After all, losing all his human connections is what made Dan and that’s exactly the way things were now. It was bound to happen if he ever lost his protective drive. Protection and combat are his only drives, one without the other is a problem for his mind. So he’d keep his one connection with Val, for as little as that might be worth in the end, and he’ll keep his protective streak going till it burns him to ash.

Val rolls her eyes at the two hims, “helping the town, even that little bit, is worth it”.

“I hear ya, I hear ya”.

“Hey Fenton! Does Jazz still live in Amity?!”.

Fenton blinks, leaning away from his little group going on and stares at Dash, “fucking no?! Why would she?! She literally left the day she turned eighteen how did you not notice that?!?”, scowling, “and no! I’m not calling her for you! We barely talk anymore anyways!”. Which kinda sucked but she got to live her normal human life that she very much enjoyed.

Dash blinks, “damn!”. Ugh.

Silver blinking at Fenton, “oh? It’s ’cause of the Fenton’s isn’t it?”.

Phantom sighs, rubbing his temples, “I took her away personally. The Fenton’s, aware that Danny wasn’t going to, and in their eyes shouldn’t, take over FentonWorks, burned her scholarships and tried to stop her from leaving. I got her out and a few towns over, saw her off and all that”.

Fenton nodding, “which I was very relieved over, that had been Hell a little bit-”. Silver cringes. “-she’s doing well for herself though, has her own therapist practice and all that. Doesn’t want anything to do with Maddie or Jack, same as me”, shrugging, “she also wants nothing to do with ghosts, so I’m kinda an at arms length sibling if you will”.

“Since you’re dating a ghosts and illegally selling ghost tech? Yeah I can get that”.

Fenton nodding, “ditto. And if she did show up back here I’d slap some sense into her and tell her to get lost before she regrets it”; ahh getting maybe a little bit too real there but oh well. Jazz was a Fenton, which meant that Amity was a place she had to stay the hell away from; Jack and Maddie she had to stay the hell away from. Hopefully she never forgets that.

Then Star pops back in, “alright that’s everyone who’s coming!”. Getting a bunch of raised glasses and food stuff in return. A dark-skinned man with dreads coming in behind her, or… rolling in behind her.

That was…

Tucker was in a wheelchair?!?! What happened! Half the damn point was those two not getting fucking hurt! Was there no point? Had it been a hopeless endeavour?

It takes a bit to avoid dissolving Phantom. As it is his ghost selves eyes flare up a little and his ecto-field wiggles concerningly. Val kicks Phantom in the boot, to stabilise him maybe? He doesn’t know and he doesn’t care. He needs to know what happened, how it happened, could he have done something different? Fenton absently muttering, “I’m going to go say hi”. Val giving him a bit of a supportive back pat that he barely notices, she physically blocks Phantom him from following with a whispered, “Tucker’s Danny Fenton’s old friend, not Phantom’s stay put you”.

Sliver nodding, “I guess it’s no surprise you’re an over protective boyfriend”.

Fenton blinking down at Tucker, “Tuck”. And the guy raises an eyebrow, “been a while since I’ve been called that”; making Fenton, and Phantom, wince. Star walks away quickly, easily picking up on the awkward and probably way to private atmosphere.

Fenton blinks again, “you’re in a wheelchair”.

“Yeah I noticed”, Tucker sighing when Danny doesn’t really have a response to that that wasn’t horrifically insensitive. Tucker putting his hands on his lap, “Danny, you kinda lost the right to ask a while ago, but since you’re concerned enough to talk to me properly for the first time in nearly fourteen years, it’s genetic. I have a type of muscular dystrophy. Now can I get past and grab some food or?”.

Again, both Danny’s wince, him realising that the Fenton one was practically blocking Tucker from getting his… wheelchair past. Fenton stepping to the side with a neck rub, “sorry about that”.

“Whatever, man”.

Danny just kind of stares as the man goes, it hurt a little. The dismissal. But he expected it and it was okay. At least… at least it was nothing he could have done anything about. If anything this means that Danny was right to push him away. Being involved with ghosts would have gotten him killed probably. But… getting diagnosed and eventually having to use mobility aids had probably been crushing to him… and Danny hadn’t been there to support him. Any ounce of support he tried to give now would just seem hollow and like pity. Former friend was the right label for them and he should just let the man go, shouldn’t follow after.

He does of course. Fenton him does. Because the wheelchair and subsequent mild protective freakout has thrown him off kilter. He can tell the man’s glaring at the food table, Fenton him can see it in the reflection of some of the glasses. “Danny I’m really not interested in ‘catching up’ with you”.

Fenton stares a little before Danny can remember himself and that humans find staring creepy. Shaking his head, “right yeah, that makes sense”. Maybe he’d have better luck and less hostility with Phantom him? “Can I ask what you do at least? Then I’ll get out of your hair. You don’t have to ask me shit, or you can, it’s whatever”.

Tucker actually smacks a fist on the table, “I know the only damn reason you’re even trying is because I’m disabled now, so fuck off”.

Shit. Okay. That wasn’t how he was trying to be interpreted. “Tuck-”.

“Don’t”.

Fenton snarls, properly snarling, startling his former friend, “just because we stopped being friends doesn’t mean I stopped giving a damn. But fine, fuck it, whatever”, and basically stomps off. He doesn’t turn around when Tucker mutters a possibly regretful, “shit”. If the man wants to be an ass then fine, let him be an ass by himself. It’s better Danny doesn’t care anyways, it’s better they end on bad terms. Fuck it and fuck him.

Val’s kicking Phantom him again, since Phantom had snarled too. Shit whatever. Fuck it if he’s freaking anyone out, they’re all assholes anyways. Val eyeing the ticked of Fenton, “your mood is rubbing off on someone”.

“I’m fully fucking aware, Val”.

She smacks him over the head, “well pull your shit together, you can’t expect him to want to be friendly with you after all this time”.

“Yeah well I didn’t expect to basically get told to go fuck myself either, jackass”.

Both Val and Silver frowning, Silver shaking their head, “okay yeah that’s a little rude, but he might be going through some stuff, you don’t know. You staring at the chair probably didn’t help”.

“My mind goes to worst case scenarios so excuse me if the thought of someone I used to be extremely close with getting into some kind of horrible accident was upsetting”.

Phantom huffing and crossing his arms, “being dead or surrounded by the dead tends to do that”. Now he wishes Tucker hadn’t shown up at all. He’s going to be pissed off about this for days, fucking asshole.

Val sighs, “okay you’re not wrong on that, I thought the same. At least I didn’t freaking ask though, Danny. I thought you were just going to say hi, not be an insensitive jerk”.

Fenton scowls at her, sticking his arms out, “I didn’t fucking ask, he just assumed I wanted to, which yeah was right”, and grumbles a little incoherently before taking some breaths to avoid snarling at anyone else especially not the only human connection he still had. Ugh.

Val shakes her head at him, “okay I guess you can get to be annoyed, not mad, annoyed. Star’s civil with me even though we had our falling out”, crossing her arms, “Paulina not so much”.

Fenton grumbling, “if Sam had shown up I’d expect her to slap me at this point. Fucking zone”.

Star hums, having apparently made her way over after overhearing her name, “yeah she replied in the discord chat that she wouldn’t deign to show up to rejoin a shitty town full of people that were morally horrific”.

“Ancients that’s messed up, what the Zone Sam”. Fenton blinks and shakes his head, what the hell happened with her? He doesn’t want to know. Was she always that egocentric and holier than thou? If so it was probably better for everyone she had no say in him and what he does. Did childhood him just suck at picking friends? “Wait. There’s a discord?”.

Star puts a hand on her hip and cocks an eyebrow, “yup. All anyone could find on you was an address so we couldn’t exactly give you a code in”.

Val shaking her head and forcing a little laugh, eyeing Fenton, “if I had known no one had your number I would have sent it. I figured you just had no interest in messaging anyone, like me”, she waves a hand dismissively, “I confirmed I was showing up and dipped”.

Fucking great. Love it.

Danny notices Tucker pushing himself over to talk to Jesse. Danny chooses to ignore that. If he sends Phantom over he might just accidentally start a brawl and that was a very bad idea.

Star shakes her head, “would it kill either of you to be a bit more sociable?”.

Fenton immediately responding with, “yes”. Phantom with, “already did”. And Val with, “probably”. Making Star sigh and Silver laugh; Silver walking off right after, Danny pretending not to notice them point aggressively at Tucker. Ugh.

“Phantom! Come meet my husband! He’s heard stories about you and got curious!”. Phantom glancing to the side at Ashely then to Fenton with a quirked eyebrow.

Fenton waving him off, “go, I’ll be fine, you stupid celebrity”. Danny makes a point to have Phantom give Fenton a quick peck on the cheek, making Fenton blush a little, before running off. Val’s barely restrained look of horror is so worth it and definitely improves his mood.

Star shakes her head, “well at least it looks like you’re in a better mood now, this is supposed to be fun”.

“Then why are all the drinks liquor free?”.

“Because Todd has a liquor problem and I know you know it”.

Okay yeah that wasn’t wrong. All the local bartenders knew him by first and last name, zone some knew the middle one too. Sure they also knew Danny by first and both lasts but that was for an entirely different reason… he did also drink though so like it was a toss up. Then she glances to the side, winces slightly, and jambs a thumb over her shoulder, “anyway’s I’m going to check on everyone else. See if more people are better off not being in the same room”. Ouch. True but she didn’t need to say it. Star pointing at Val, “you’re coming whether you like it or not, you can talk to Danny whenever you want”. Val grumbles but doesn’t put up a fight.

Fenton shaking his head and laughing a little to himself, now what should he do? He frankly didn’t feel like dealing with anyone now, especially not all these chuckle fucks. He’s half tempted to just wander into the bathroom and stare at the mirror for twenty minutes self actualising or whatever. Grimacing, yeah he’s gonna do that, plus all this ecto free food was grating on his stomachs nerves.

He could eat normal foods, it’s just the ecto made it taste better and easier on his system to digest. Didn’t help that he grew up eating contaminated shit, thanks Maddie and Jack, and basically only ate contaminated shit after the whole half dying thing; it was an easy thing to do in Amity after all since everything was contaminated. But this was Elmerton and the food was definitely from outside the city, probably to specifically ensure it was ecto free. Yuck.

So Fenton meanders his way over to the gym bathroom/locker room, stuffing a hand in his pocket as he goes. Him popping into the sink and mirror area, kicking the door closed-ish and pulling out an ectoplasm vial at the same time, tossing it back without much hesitation. He didn’t hear anyone else in here and plus he also didn’t super care, which fine was partly because his attention was split into two different places and almost no one would really genuinely question him outside of Val obviously.

Granted Val would know exactly what he was doing and why.

“Did you seriously think I’d been hurt bad?”.

“Fuck!”, Fenton jumps, tossing the vial in the air, (Phantom jerking in his conversation about welding of all things) at the frankly very unexpected sound of Tucker’s voice. It took some doing to actually startle him, but guesses he was in his own head enough that someone was able to pull it off. Didn’t help that he just came from a room full of people whose scents he doesn’t recognise anymore. It bothered him a little. Fenton turning away from the mirror and looking down at Tucker, “uh?”. And then the fucking ecto vial clinks on to the ground and rolls across it in that loud way glass tends to do. Well fuck him, this shit is entirely his fault right oh wow this is instantly awkward.

Tucker stares down at the vial on the ground before looking back up at Fenton, “new question, what was that”.

See that did not sound like a question. Okay, self, shit, what to say? If this was anyone else, other than Val, he’d just say it was a weird Amity energy drink and he was tired and to piss off. Zone he’s tempted to say that crap anyways, but Tucker had sounded… apologetic, even if he’d startled Danny. He can’t not lie though. Well… technically, if he mentally twisted things around enough, calling ecto an addiction for him wasn’t wrong per say. He legit couldn’t exist without ecto, his system was dependent on it, so like, he could go with that? And now Tucker’s glaring at him like he’s thinking about ramming into Danny. Fenton blinking before shrugging awkwardly, “addiction’s compulsory, or whatever. And yes?”. Crap this was a really stupid plan of action. Way more stupid than dating himself, Ancients.

Tucker blinks, “addiction?”, shaking his head, “I don’t even care about the first question now”, frowning, “well I do, you jerk, but less”.

That’s fair, Danny thinks. Fenton shrugs, “that accident fucked me up, okay? Kinda needed ectoplasm ever since. Which sure, wasn’t exactly something I wanted to share with anyone. And maybe I didn’t deal with that well, but I think I dealt with that right. And I guess that’s all that matters”. Okay cool, so this is how he’s going to explain ditching them as friends, great. Fuck Danny’s so goddamn stupid. ‘Addiction’ was not on his bingo card of how to explain how weird he was to people… he really should update that stupid card.

Tucker’s glaring again like Danny’s done something wrong, except Danny doesn’t know why Fenton him is getting glared at this time. “Are you lying to me?”.

Fenton glaring back before sticking out his tongue, which was coated in faintly glowing green of course. Pulling his tongue back in, “do you know anything else that looks like that besides ecto? ‘Cause I sure don’t”; that had a bit more bite than he meant it to but oh well, he’s still kinda ticked off with this man so…

“And it doesn’t get you high?”.

Okay see now Danny’s getting actually ticked again. Fucking damn it. “No. Now if you’re going to just ride my ass then let me out so I can go somewhere that isn’t here”.

Tucker doesn’t move, in fact he locks his damn wheels, “no. Because that last conversation made me feel like an asshole and I refuse to feel like an asshole over you deciding to isolate yourself”, gesturing at the vial that’s still on the ground, “especially if all of it was over some stupid ectoplasm issue, you jack ass”.

“So what I’m hearing is you’re just being selfish”.

“So what if I am, I think I’ve earned that from you”.

Danny makes Fenton him relax over that, because if anything letting people take their issues out on him was something he was good for. “Ugh I guess that’s okay then”.

Now Tucker’s glaring again, “what”.

For fucks sake. “Dude, you’ve known me for years, since when did I ever put myself first? If you want to use me as a punching bag to unload your issues on, go right ahead”, snorting, “cause yeah, I’m well fucking aware it’s been earned. If you were Dash I’d tell you to piss off again”.

Tucker sticks his arms out, basically smacking the door, “so you’ll tell me to ‘piss off’ over not wanting to talk to you but won’t over me wanting to berate you?! Seriously?!”.

“Yes”. Fuck that was weird wasn’t it? Do normal human people do that? Or was he coming off as a massive hypocrite? Or as a masochist maybe?

Tucker pinches the bridge of his nose, still doesn’t unlock his chair though, “damn it, you have a bunch of mental issues now, don’t you”.

“Rude”.

“Yeah well now I just feel like more of an asshole, so there”.

They stare at each other for a beat, Danny’s trying really hard to mostly ignore Phantom having to play nice with Dale and his loose tongue again, apparently the guy really liked bluey. Fuck when was the last time Danny got really genuinely into any tv show? Had he even watched one since he dropped out? Crap probably not. If he had down time he was usually laying on the floor staring at the ceiling with a music playlist running, or having a quick drink with Val, or trying to study ghost history, or replaying an old video game he’s beaten hundreds of times just to feel young and carefree again.

Wow that had to be unhealthy. Not that he really cared about that. Blinking at Tucker, “so… what do you do for work”.

“I’m not telling you”.

“Fuck you too then I guess”.

Tucker puts his face in a hand and sighs very deeply with a muttered, “I was right, I really should not have come”, before lifting his head up and glaring up at Danny with goddamn pity in his eyes, “look, okay, I am sorry about brushing you off if you were genuinely worried about me having been badly injured and I guess I’m sorry you have this addiction issue, but you brought it on yourself. Me and Sam could have helped, you ass”.

“Tuck-”, crap he’s back to calling him ‘Tuck’ goddamn it, “-my head was a fucking mess after that shit, I have literally no memory from the three months after that crap. Just a boat load of pain cutting straight to sitting up in bed violently vomiting up ectoplasm. Excuse me for making some jack ass choices but again, I stand by those choices”, running a hand through his hair and leaning his ass back against the sink, “I thought that shit was gonna end with me dead, sooner rather than later, and I didn’t want to take you guys down with me. So I had to choose between the life I had with you guys and the moral thing to do. Kinda an obvious choice there, to me”. Honestly? Why was he explaining this shit now? Was it because his life was somehow less chaotic now? Or because he was an adult ghost and fully grown into what and who he was? Loneliness perhaps? Or did he just not want Tucker to actually hate him?

Tucker stares at him before wheezing, “Christ I wish you had just told at least me that”, massaging his temples and using the chairs arms to rest his elbows on, “if I remember right, which I might not, you basically didn’t talk and just stared blankly, it was creepy but your parents assured everyone you wouldn’t have any ‘long term’ issues. That you were just recovering and in shock. Not that dumbass fourteen year olds knew shit about shock-”.

Seriously? Seriously! What the Hell! Fenton blurting out, “what the zone is wrong with them! in what world would getting electrocuted by literally billions of volts not have a lasting effect?!”.

“-me and Sam basically carried you everywhere and babied you and then you suddenly flipped on us and avoided us like the plagu- wait what”.

Tucker looks horrified, crap that was not Danny’s goal. Oh well, he’s in it now. Fenton blinking, “Jack and Maddie sucking is what”.

“Dude”.

Fenton swallowing and rubbing his neck, “you guys were taking care of me?”. Okay so maybe Danny had been more of a jerk to them than he realised but still. Tucker glares so Danny bites the bullet and has Fenton respond properly, Tucker was an adult now not some teen who’d do stupid shit like follow Danny Phantom’s sorry ass into combat, “it was something like four billion volts, it was a miracle I wasn’t instantly vaporised into ash. As it was apparently Jazz came home to them attempting to bury what they thought was my dead body in the back yard, apparently I woke up during the argument and crawled out and ran into trees for three days”.

“They told us you were missing because you were in another cities hospital! They tried to bury you?!?”. Somehow Jack and Maddie just keep getting worse. Tucker wheezes again, “well regardless of you becoming an asshole, I’m glad you didn’t die, holy shit”, staring at Danny, “is that why you were so weird about my wheelchair? You thought something like that had happened to me?”. He takes Fenton’s wince as a yes. “Ugh fine you’re forgiven for that then, I can’t hold what’s probably severe trauma and ptsd against someone”, pointing at Danny, “you were still a jerk then and now though. And you basically shoving me away was awful and basically wrecked me mentally for a long time”.

Yeah Danny knew neither Sam nor Tucker took him pushing them away well, but being upset or depressed or confused or worried was better than getting caught in an undead fist fight or losing a limb or getting contaminated by him which he had thought back then would have been extremely dangerous. “I thought it was for the best, okay? And I didn’t mean to hurt you when I was basically hurting myself”.

“How the hell was push me away from my best friend ‘for the best’?!?”.

“Because I was all fucked up and I didn’t want my shit fucking you up”. That was part of it, at first anyways. Then it quickly became more of him having to be the hero and get into fights and not wanting anyone getting caught in the crossfires and waiting them to keep the ability to live normal fucking lives unlike him.

Tucker stares at him like he actually somehow gets it, huh, Danny didn’t see that one coming. “So you thought you’d get us sick? Or something? Just by being around us? Okay I know you’ve always been a bit of a dumbass but goddamn it, Danny”.

“I don’t know what the hell is happening in there but I’m taking a piss in the ladies room! what in the!”.

Both Fenton and Tuck (and Phantom for that matter) jerk a little from whoever shouted from outside the bathroom/locker room. Fenton cringing his face up, “right, this is a public space”.

Tucker sighing, “maybe not the best place for this crap conversation”, unlocking his wheels and roll backwards out of the little sink and mirror area doorway, “I’m still mad at you though”.

“That’s fair. I’m not looking to rekindle friendship or whatever”. Danny uses the man’s distraction to have Fenton telekinetically move the vial back into his hand and pocket.

“Seriously. Jerk”.

Fenton shrugs as he moves out of the little doorway, “I only really hang out with ghosts now and I actually am unsafe to be around too much if whoever doesn’t have a tolerance or protective gear, the ecto-contamination and shit”.

“That’s… pretty shitty actually”.

Fenton giving back a snide, “gee thanks”.

“You still shouldn’t have pushed us away. But I guess you still want to do that, so you do you I guess. Its not like I actually know you, or you me, anymore”.

“Yup”. Tucker bashes him in the back of the legs with the chair for that, “hey!”. Danny making Fenton sigh at the glare… and at Dash attempting to drill Phantom about football like that mattered anymore. Phantom couldn’t be sighing at Dash after all, images to maintain and all. “Look, Tucker, you got pissy over me staring at your wheelchair, that tells me your life’s doing pretty alright actually. If I was in a wheelchair and someone was staring I’d assume they were trying figure out how to use it to kill me. I sell weapons illegally and am dating a death god king, I’m not really shit you wanna be involved in”.

“What about Valerie?”, Tucker making a bit of a face, “that soul mate ghost thing I’ve been hearing is real?”.

Danny is absolutely about to throw Val under the bus, servers her right for still hanging around his half dead ass. “She… is a coworker let’s say, a not legal one”, not technically a lie, the Red Huntress wasn’t legally allowed to do what she did, it was just that no one could actually stop her. Thank fuck for that. Fenton huffing, “and we mostly only talk over drinks or if we run into each other during ghost attacks”. Then smirking, “and oh yeah me and Phantom are fucking match made in hell”. His own personal hell of protective desire and pain.

“You know what, you’re right. You’re an asshole, a criminal, and a necrophiliac; I’m out. I almost want to try but you stopped being worth it years ago. Still glad you’re not dead though”.

On one hand Danny wants to smack the guy, on the other hand Danny’s getting exactly what he wanted; and ain’t that just a terrible thing?

“How’d you find out you needed ectoplasm?”.

Oh Ancients, well… nothing was weirder than the truth with that one and fuck it at this point. “First time I ran into a whisp ghost I, kinda, couldn’t, exactly, stop myself from eating it”.

“You… ate a ghost?”.

“It was a really bad day and I’d rather you keep that in confidence”. Man he legit wants to get out of this damn bathroom/locker room now. Ugh. He starts walking to the door.

Tucker makes a gagging sound, muttering, “no one would even believe me anyway. I’m starting to think he did actually do me a favour as kids and that kinda pisses me off a little. I’ve spent too long being mad at that shit ass for me to feel good about that shit”.

Danny making Fenton pause at the door, one hand on it, “dude, I have freaky good hearing, go see your therapist and I hope you have one. You’re not the lost cause in this bathroom”, and then pushes his way out, leaving his old friend and the friendship more firmly behind.

He absolutely has Phantom ‘rescue’ Fenton immediately, throwing an arm around Fenton’s neck and ruffling his hair with the other hand, “I have escaped Dash and him ‘regaling me’ with his glory days”.

Danny makes Fenton sigh to seem tired, “that’s…”, brightening up, “thats good. He really did peek in Highschool, just like he said he would”. A self fulfilling prophecy, Danny pretty much did the exact same. The biggest jock and the biggest loser both fucking themselves up in the end; how ironic.

Danny makes Fenton sigh to seem tired, “that’s…”, brightening up, “that’s good. He really did peek in Highschool, just like he said he would”. A self fulfilling prophecy, Danny pretty much did the exact same. The biggest jock and the biggest loser both fucking themselves up in the end.

Then Val goes and actually rescues his ass, stomping over, “let’s bounce. I don’t want to be here or around these people anymore, and I want to get shitfaced until I start putting holes in walls or pass out on your crappy apartment floor”.

Fenton quirks an eyebrow, “you have literally never been over? How do you know it’s shitty?”.

“Because it’s your apartment”.

“Fuck you”.

Phantom quirking an eyebrow at her and tilting his head, “and who pissed you off?”.

Val grimaces, “Paulina, I swear she needs to get stabbed a couple times”.

Phantom laughing while Fenton gestures at Val with both of his hands, “no. Bad. If you start stabbing little miss pretty puddle I’ll get stuck having to clean up the blood before the cops show up-”. He can feel Tucker’s concerned eyes on him as the man wheels out of the bathroom/locker room. “-and I really don’t feel like being on crime scene clean up duty”.

Phantom perking up, “eh I could just phase it through the ground”.

“Don’t encourage her murderous desire”.

Val grins, though clearly still thinking this is super weird, “no, let him speak, he makes good points”.

“His only point is letting you make a point with a knife point”. She scowls at Fenton’s joke immediately, nice, at least that makes him feel legitimately a bit better. Either way Danny is content to leave this place before shit goes anymore south, and he has frankly had enough of humans and their weirdly boring plain interests. Looking at the crowd, it actually looked like some others had left. Todd, no surprise there. Charlie that he doesn’t think he ever even talked to as Fenton, he’s not sure if they talked in high school either though. Two of the jocks also looked to have bounced, Dash was still her of course and Scott didn’t look like he actually wanted to be talking to him. Ha. Brittany doesn’t look to be around either, meaning Sarah’s probably gone too if she was ever even here.

And then.

Of fucking course.

His ghost sense goes off.

Val’s reaction is instant, her folding out a blaster, the second she notices both Danny’s straightening up, stiff, and glancing around. Danny making both hims relax with annoyed sighs when he realizes who it is or one of the whos whatever. Phantom waving Val off, “it’s an eyeball, don’t”. The woman throws her hands up a bit, clearly annoyed that it was one of the ghosts that Danny was pretty strict on her not fighting.

Danny making Fenton scowl deeply, “oh fucking goddamn it, not those assholes”. Phantom rolling his green eyes fondly before stepping forward some and cupping his hands around his mouth, Danny should at least warn these people, “hey! Non-hostile incoming! They’re probably just showing to annoy me!”.

The reactions is immediate. Guess spending multiple teenage years in a town constantly plagued by ghost attacks tends to stick with you. Everyone pulling away from the walls, and anything box-shaped, and sticking to groups while glancing around in mild panic. The Observant comes up through the floor, jerk, in all their eye-ball shaped ugly cloak wearing green-skinned annoyance. “Phantom-”. Oh Danny can tell they’re here to lecture him or chastise him or something equally annoying and pointless. Nope. He’s not putting up with this.

Fenton smacking Phantom, “make me a suction dart gun construct”. Danny having Phantom do that without hesitation, even if it was a bit harder to make ecto-energy constructs outside of Amity or the Ghost Zone. Phantom passing over the sorta weapon, it has a pump action shotgun reload for comedic effect. Fenton pumping it immediately and shooting the Observant in the head/eye, “not today, eyeball asshole”.

“Phantom-”.

Oh how chastising, Fenton shots him again, “no”. The suction cups are actually sticking, awesome. But he’s got no interest in actually letting the eyeball actually say anything, so Fenton stalks over, putting a finger in the ghosts face, “fuck off, ‘Phantom’ isn’t your goddamn servant”. The Observant doesn’t look remotely chastised which frankly Danny’s a little goddamn ticked off about. These guys were constantly riding his ass and they act like they had some sort of high ground on him which they did not. So Danny has Fenton kick the ghost in the chest and basically jump on their chest, pointing the ‘gun’ in its eyeball/face and shooting it enough to cover its whole iris; its point blank enough to actually injury the ghost. The Observants were always more powerful as a mass than alone.

“Are you done?!”.

Fenton smirking, “no”, and smacking the ghost on the top of their head with the butt of the ‘gun’. Lowing the ‘weapon’ some, sighing tiredly, “now if this isn’t something actually important, I’m going to rip off all of your limbs”. And Danny means that, he will, he’s had it up to here with these guys.

The Observant, seeming to get this, just fucking disappears with a, “you need to be bound”; like he wasn’t aware they hated how much power he had.

“Fuck you. You exist in my favour”, Fenton hurling the ‘gun’ construct at the ground, it bouncing up a bit before dissolving into goo. Stupid jackasses.

“Geez Fenton where was that in high school, what the hell!”.

Both Danny’s jerking, Fenton looking back to Steven, “do you know how many ghosts annoy me because of that asshole?”, gesturing a thumb at Phantom who glances around innocently. Fenton huffing, “and yeah maybe I enjoy annoying the ones that annoy him, sue me”.

What makes it so clear that basically all these people have nothing to do with Amity any more is how all of them look on edge, nervous, unsettled, scared. They don’t ‘bounce back’ instantly and more than a couple eye Phantom nervously like they had just now remembered how arguably dangerous he could be. That Phantom was a ghost and could very well kill everyone in this room without much effort. As if Danny ever would do such a thing, he was a protector and if they wanted to forget that then screw them. Amity always was the weird place where humans and ghosts could actually remotely get along, even that was a crap shoot, humans would always be unsettled by ghosts and trying for genuine coexistence was fucking pointless. These people simply being away from ghosts for a few years and yet acting put off by one that was less human simply showing up was almost insulting to all his effort. Whatever, what did he care if most of humanity was too damn weak to handle not being the top of the food chain. Making Fenton scoff at everyone’s stares, “guess I should get gone, huh?”, and nods his head at Phantom.

Phantom stretching out and floating up to sort of lay in the air on his back, finger gunning at Val, “coming?”, as he moves to hover around Fenton’s head, ruffling Fenton’s hair fondly.

Jason blinking, “you know, I almost felt like I missed Highschool, thanks for reminding me why I absolutely do not”, and wheezes. While Star waves the two Danny’s off, “yeah should have guessed a ghost that wasn’t invited might follow Phantom”.

Phantom chuckling, “what can I say, I’m very attractive”. Making Fenton snort and blush, “shut up, you stupid ghost”. And making Phantom snicker meanly at Fenton.

Kwan shouting, “you better have a cute wedding!”.

Val rolling her eyes at the pair, pocketing her gun, and walking towards them while waving a hand over her shoulder, “bye. This was nice though”, muttering to herself barely loud enough for even Danny to hear, “regardless of certain people”.

Fenton rolling his eyes and waving at everyone, “I’d say you can easily visit me but I made myself hard to find for a damn reason and I vaguely hate most of your guts, peace bitches”. Phantom facepalming, watching Val and Fenton walk towards the door for a beat before looking to the people, him still floating up in the air, “everyone’s free to give me a visit of course, even though the fact that no one had before makes it kinda clear no one will, no hard feelings about that by the by. Besides, when you die we’ll met again”.

Star sighs at him, “that’s needlessly ominous, Phantom”. Phantom shrugging before floating off, “I’m dead, I don’t know what you expect. I can tell that none of you are going to die soon, so there’s that”, and giving them a thumbs up, absolutely ignoring how that doesn’t seem to actually make anyone feel better. It’s not Danny’s problem if ‘normal’ people aren’t comforted with ominous messages about the not so untimely demise, he thinks it would be a good thing knowing you’re not gonna die soon. Like really. He personally would have loved a heads up that he was gonna half die when that shit happened, a little count down or something would have been nice. A little count down to obliterating everything he used to be and wanted to be.

You know.

For the dramatics.

Danny absorbs his duplicate as soon as he’s outside of easy viewing range of the building, Val quirking an eyebrow at him, “I’m guessing you didn’t drive here?”.

“No? Why would I do that? And neither did you”.

She snorts at him, summoning out her board, “well hop on, I’m still down for drinks so”.

Danny eyes the board, “naw I probably should pass”. Bonding wasn’t really a good idea anyways.

She rolls her eyes, “come on, don’t be a stranger”.

“Being a stranger is kinda the point”. He has every intention of just going invisible and flying off, but she grabs his arm and yanks him onto the board before he can follow through on that thought, her muttering about him being a dumbass the whole time. Danny eyeing her, hands in his pockets and just sitting on the board, stupid stubborn ghost hunters.

Though… looking down, it was kinda nice to watch the city sights this leisurely. It’s filled with spots of damage and things being repaired even here in Elmerton still. It was impossible for everything to stay contained in one simple city after all, sometimes Danny debating expanding is human lair a bit more, just to keep more of an eye on more of it. Perhaps that was a speck of greed or just his overprotective nature.

Really it wouldn’t take much, honestly he had the power and ability to take over the entire planet if he so chose. And really, ghosts did crop up everywhere, and further ecto-contaminated cities and towns would just make more places possible to be common ground of sorts.

It wasn’t a bad idea…

Just not a good or human one either. He had to play human games to thrive and be accepted in the human world, even if those games were sometimes stupid and annoying and isolating. Hmmm… maybe he should get drinks with Val, she was at least slightly better with normal human things than him.

Looking down, there’s some patches of green growing in ash. Life from death, strength from destruction. Kinda like him.

She lands them on the ground, Danny standing easily as her board folds up becoming nanobots under and through her veins; an altered state of being similar and not to himself. Her making ‘come on’ gestures at him before heading in to one of the more beat down bars that don’t ask questions and assumes every patron is involved in something shady or another.

And Danny follows. Maybe he was a little too much of a loner.

End.

Prompts: Pretending to be someone's boyfriend for a night was not as high on Danny's list of crazy-ideas-he-should've-said-no-to as, say, agreeing to become the King of all ghosts, but it was definitely up there. Ten years since Danny graduated high school, and fourteen years since his accident. The former A-listers are organizing a high school reunion, and somehow both Danny AND Phantom got an invite… Seriously, how are these things still happening to him? Parents take apart Danny’s telescope for a new invention. Being dead somewhat drastically shuffles around your priorities. It's been a long time since Danny was able to remember what a human would feel to be important. Tucker Foley's terrible, awful, very bad day. No one knows au identity reveal

[13eyond13]

Something I think fiction does sometimes is make sex represent the end goal for relationships so often that if two characters sleep together it causes readers to automatically see them as truly in love / that it would solve all problems for the pair to be together forever, even when that isn't necessarily what the narrative is trying to say / depict otherwise.

I am thinking about this because of Guts and Casca... to me they sleep together initially almost as an act of friendship? A way of experimenting with each other and learning about sex, perhaps of distracting themselves from the person they're both more actually into, and of course also because they do care about each other and maybe are attracted to one another on some level, and want to see what it would be like to try to get even closer together. But I think the story also makes it pretty clear that Guts is more emotionally invested in his relationship with Griffith than with Casca, in what you might call a narratively romantic sense... and Casca is shown sort of seeing the futility of her feelings for Griffith and eventually growing apart from him that way pre-Eclipse, even though she still cares for him the most out of everyone she knows (though I don't think he ever feels nearly the same way about her). So getting with Griffith isn't end game for Casca (and she herself eventually realizes that), but I also don't read Casca as a character for whom getting with Guts is the end game character arc-wise, either. I'm not sure Miura even had a concrete end-game character arc in mind for her, to be honest. I feel as though unfortunately she was written mostly as something to be used between Griffith and Guts rather than to end up having her own fully realized narrative journey in the same way that Guts (and maybe also Griffith) will. I want to see her and Guts as friends and at peace more than I want to see them live happily ever after together as a couple, because I feel like that's actually more how they really feel for one another than anything else. Granted, there's a bit of an interesting ironic twist in the story that happens during the Eclipse, where Griffith (unintentionally?) drives Guts and Casca closer together than I think they might have been otherwise with the trauma that he causes them both (even though I think their relationship is probably something he'd be jealous of and read as more romantic than it actually might be and wish to destroy, simply due to his own insecurities and his own possessive feelings for Guts). But I also didn't really read Guts' reactions in the Eclipse scene as Guts being jealous and possessive over Casca in a sexual / romantic sense - I read it more as him feeling empathy for her pain and desire to protect her from harm / from the darker side of Griffith he maybe knew about a bit better than anybody else. I DO care about Guts and Casca's relationship a lot, and find it one of the most emotionally compelling things in the story. But I don't think shipping them together for a happily ever after is really what I'd want for them, nor something that the narrative was actually trying to work towards / suggest to be the best ending for anybody involved? I don't know if I think shipping Guts and Griffith necessarily is either, particularly because of how irredeemably awful Griffith behaved during the Eclipse... but I DO think the story intentionally hinges more around the Griffguts relationship and their emotional journeys / character developments than it does about any other pair/relationship in the series, and that both of them have intense unresolved feelings for each other that come off much more suggestive and stronger than ones of just simply wanting to be friends. And I think all of these characters are pretty explicitly aware of that themselves even in the story as well.

Haha I don't even know what I'm trying to even say here except to work out some of my own thoughts about the main 3 that I care about, I suppose!

[thesoftboiledegg]

"Analyze Piss" was a great episode but not what I expected, which made it hard to write a review at first. I assumed that most of the episode would take place in Dr. Wong's office with Rick hashing out some of his issues. Admittedly, I guess that's what happened in a more indirect (and more entertaining) way.

When Jerry's fight with Pissmaster went on for a good couple of minutes, I was like...are we seriously spending valuable screentime on this? But I guess we needed to see Jerry being a badass and humiliating Pissmaster to understand why the world was fawning over him.

The topic of change keeps coming up this season. People tell Rick that he won't change, and he doesn't want to, but he IS changing. Unfortunately, no one seems to notice.

He tries to tell Jerry that acting like a superhero is a bad idea. The family boos him. He tells them at the end of the episode that he knew Jerry's adventures would fall apart, and they boo him again.

Rick tells them that they're only praising him for trying to change because they want to feel superior--and maybe he's right. In their minds, THEY don't have to change anything. HE does. And it's 100% true that Rick's fucked up a lot of shit, he's been abusive, he's hurt Morty in ways that he probably can't atone for, and he needs therapy more than anybody.

But they talk about his therapy visits in a condescending way, like "Aww, that's so cute! Are you going to change for us, Rick? Are you going to be docile and passive?" They praise him when they think that Rick concocted some crazy plan to boost Jerry's ego for no reason. When they learn the truth, they turn on him again.

I won't say that he doesn't deserve it. They don't owe him anything, and they'd be well within their rights to kick him out of the house and never talk to him again. But Rick didn't create the toxic family dynamic that Beth and Jerry had been cooking up for 16 years before he showed up. I think they're telling themselves that everything that happens is his fault, and he's getting to the point where he's kind of letting them think that.

Rick smiles to himself when the Smiths leave with Jerry on his ship (although he does drink from his flask) and ignores a couple of the bad guys tailing him. When they start fighting each other and leave him alone, he thinks that he's got it all figured out.

But inevitably, he starts to fall apart. He gets drunk and hears people at the bar mocking Pissmaster. "Who could relate, being that much of a piece of shit?" Rick can. He and Pissmaster aren't that different--they provoke people, they're pieces of shit and everyone wants them to be the villain. He's going to visit Pissmaster so they can drink beer and bond over their shitty lives.

He arrives to find that Pissmaster killed himself. Through the door, Rick hears Pissmaster's daughter apologize and say that she's worried about him, she loves him and she'd blame herself if something happened to him--all things that Rick would love to hear from his own daughter, and probably never will hear. At least not in that same fretful, emotional tone.

Everything goes to shit for everyone except Pissmaster's daughter, who believes that her father died a hero. Admittedly, Rick shouldn't have told Morty about the note--it's understandable that he'd want someone to know the truth, but he can't trust a 14-year-old kid with that information, and he needs to stop seeing Morty as his peer anyway. He should've taken it to Dr. Wong.

But telling the truth just makes the Smiths turn on him again. And after all that, why should Rick change? Why be honest? Why not play the roles that they want him to play: the aggressive villain or the docile old man, or both?

Sometimes, the people around you don't want you to change even if it's for the best. I don't think the Smiths want anything to change. That would force Beth and Jerry to face their shitty marriage and the ways they abused and neglected their children, especially Morty, and that's not going to happen.

Just keep blaming everything on the drunk old man in the garage.

But Rick IS changing. In seasons 1-4, Rick would have taken the fact that they believed that he was always Pissmaster as an opportunity to gloat and manipulate everyone. Here, he just looks at them sadly. He tries to talk Jerry out of doing something that he knows will end badly. He desperately tells Morty the truth because he's sick of lying. And the entire premise of the episode is based on Rick willingly going to therapy.

Seasons five and six have countless moments that show that Rick's trying to grow up, show affection, be a father figure, admit to his fuckups and treat Morty gently. Even in season four, he was starting to cut the bullshit a little.

And it must be hard on him. Everything was easier when he was a monster. Beth loved him, Jerry was out of the way and he did whatever he wanted with no guilt, fear or regret while suppressing his trauma and shame. Wouldn't it be easier to be the heartless patriarch who can manipulate his family into doing anything? Go on adventures? Cook and clean for him? Stop talking to Jerry? Show him affection? Actually want to be around him? Make him feel human again?

There's no going back even if he tried--they know him too well now. And he shouldn't go back because he was a monster destroying his entire family. But he needs the Smiths' affection and encouragement if he's going to get anywhere because he's not going to get it from himself.

[year2000electronics]

Actually, I have a lot of questions about your Supernu-trollau.

1 does Bruce still have a family with Brandy?

2 does Branch get close to his brothers just because he wants to get to know them or also because of guilt for what his parents put them through?

3 When Clay decided to leave and find Branch was there any problem with that? I mean, he's one of the executives in hol'n fun and in charge of "boring stuff" like taxes or security. He certainly couldn't leave without some sort of instructions or promise that he'd be back.

4 will John ever have a will of his own? Or will he just do as he's told?

5 How much will the presence of Branch's older brothers change his zing? Will their antics and unusual behavior bother him?

6 How do the brothers feel about each other? Do any of them have a strong problem with John for doing their parents' bidding? Or maybe with Branch? Because he was the only one their parents really loved.

he does! vacay islanders LOOOVE him because he is an absolute PARTY ANIMAL, he loves pulling pranks and summoning drinks for them and stuff, brandy still falls for him because she knows despite his mischievous nature hes still a big softie on the inside!

his kids still exist, its just now theyre part-troll-part-vacay islander-part-imp :]

2. at first hes just trying to keep them out of trouble and protect pop village, but i feel like he actually ends up really happy that he had secret brothers cos he lost the rest of his family!

3. CLAY WOULD NEVER LEAVE VIVA ALONE LIKE THAT!! he found out about branch and like, it was almost like the scene in tbt where clay tells viva "i dont wanna lose my brother either" cos at this time viva probably still thinks poppy is dead... she'd understand that if there was even a CHANCE clay might be able to find this new baby brother and try to introduce himself, hed take it, just like she would go search for her sister (i dont have viva solidified just yet but im thinking either she comes along with clay, OR clay promises to bring poppy to her if he finds her, i definitely want viva to show up at some point, maybe all the bros can visit the putt putt trolls haha)

4. thats what his whole arc is gonna be about i think!! he obviously cares about his brothers a lot besides trying to get the BOY BAND back together, its like jd's canon arc of accepting that he doesnt need to be perfect except like. cranked up to 100. where he doesnt have to make other people happy he can make himself happy and do things for his own sake!!

5. HES GONNA BE REAL SCARED AT FIRST cos in this au its not like everyone in every kingdom is SUDDENLY supernatural, its only a few trolls! some trolls dont even think the supernatural is real but branch was probably raised as the superstitious type so hes always on the look out for what if monsters were real... imagine his surprise when he finds out that monsters ARE real and those monsters are his BROTHERS

6. i think the brothers like each other but not enough that they ran off together or anything! cos they were all in the same situation with their parents but they were each also the only monsters of their kind they knew, so i imagine all of them wanted to find a place for themselves

floyd and bruce probably get along REALLY well

i feel like the brothers kinda pity jd a little bit, jd really thought his parents were sweet people who loved all their kids- he wholeheartedly believes in them in a way the others don't, so all they can do is shake their heads and go "poor guy"

bruce might have wanted to get back at branch if it was a different situation, but now that hes a dad, he knows how important it is to look out for your family, so he goes to find branch because he wants to make friends with him... but cos hes an older brother as well as an imp that manifests in the form of teasing and playing tricks on him haha

i think floyd would be a little jealous of branch

[svechnikovvv]

complicated (2)

pairing: frat!jack hughes x fem!reader

warnings: profanity

summary: maybe things weren’t so complicated after all

a/n: part 1 here

masterlist: here

when jack finally fell asleep, i made my way downstairs and pretty much everyone was gone, except a couple of people.

“you guys need an extra hand?” they all look up at me and some of them looks confused.

“sorry, but party ended thirty minutes ago.”

“cole, don’t worry.” alex says “this is y/n, jack’s…?” i shrug my shoulders

“he says i’m his, but i don’t know.” they nod

“we could use an extra hand,” he tosses me a trash bag and i take it, opening it up.

“could you start in the kitchen?” i nod and make my way over there. the counter is littered with red solo cups and i swipe them all into the trash bag. i continue to clean and when i’m done, you can see the counter again. i tie the trash bag closed and set it at the back door.

a bunch of cleaning later, cole, alex and i are sitting on the couch.

“how’d you and jack meet?” cole asks me and i awkwardly laugh

“i love this story,” alex says, making himself comfortable.

“okay, so, it was at a party actually. jack was drunk and dancing on a table to single ladies.” cole let’s out a howl of laughter. “and he lost his footing i guess, and he fell and i caught him. i mean, he more so fell on top of me, but i caught him. he then got up and helped me up and the first thing he said was, ‘that’s how hard i fell for you.’” all three of us are laughing and cole shakes his head.

“sounds like jack,” i nod.

“and then he started to ghost me. he’d only message me when convenient. which is why i’m here tonight, actually. i told myself i’d stop messing around with him because i was only hurting myself, but it’s saturday and i have nothing else to do. so i showed up and he drunkenly confessed to me like, thirty minutes ago how he wants me to ‘officially be his.’ and how he just didn’t want to mess anything up with me.”

“when did you two start seeing each other?” cole asks and i take a minute to think about it.

“i want to say six months ago?”

“so the time he stopped bringing people home.” cole whispers to himself, connecting the dots.

“so you’re saying these past six months, he hasn’t brought anyone over?” cole nods

“oh yeah. i knew there was something going on, just didn’t know he settled down.” my heartbeat picks up because hello???

“he’d always be smiling at his phone and we’d ask him what it is and he’d say it was nothing. nice to meet you nothing.” i laugh at cole’s joke.

“i had no idea. i don’t mean to make assumptions, but given his record, i thought he might’ve been cheating on me, y’know? like, i know how easy it is for him to go out there and find someone better.”

“y/n, you’re easily the best person jack’s been with.” alex says reassuringly

“and the longest one. i mean that as a compliment. you just… ground him. make him a better person.” cole adds on and i give him a sincere smile.

“well, it’s getting late. i should probably head home.”

“no no, please, you can stay here. there’s a spare room and it happens to be by jack’s.” cole smirks and i roll my eyes.

“fine, i’ll take the guest room.” he cheers and i tell them both goodnight, heading up to the guest room. good thing i showed up in sweatpants and a big t-shirt. i get under the covers and close my eyes, falling asleep. in the morning, i wake up to the smell of something good. i get up and make my way downstairs. i let out a yawn and sit on a barstool.

at the table sat alex, cole, a couple other guys. the brunette guy standing by the stove looks at me.

“you want one or two pancakes?”

“two.” he nods and sets them on a plate, placing it in front of me alongside some bacon.

“thank you,” he nods and i take a bite out of my food.

“who’s that?” i hear one of them say and i go to speak, but then feel someone’s arms wrap themselves around me.

“didn’t know you stayed over.” jack sleepily mumbles and i hum.

“that answers my question,” the guy says again and someone gasps.

“is this who jack has been hiding from us?”

“yes trevor,” cole says and i can hear jack quietly laugh.

“you hungry?” i whisper and jack nods. he then takes a seat beside me and i slide my plate in front of him and he eats my other pancake.

“bacon is off-limits,” i point a finger at him and he pouts.

“uh uh. that isn’t always going to work on me.” he accepts his defeat and i’m suddenly aware of how quiet it went. i look over at the guys at the table and they’re all looking at jack and i.

“so, do you have a name?” one of them asks

“guys, leave my girl alone.”

“someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” one of them mumbles.

“don’t pay any attention to them,” jack says and i laugh.

“it’s okay, j. just eat your pancake.”

“he’s fucking whipped.”

“shut it, zegras.” cole says

“what? i’m just saying.”

“let the happy couple be happy.”

“what do you know about happy couples, caufield?”

“can you two please be quiet? my hangover is already bad enough,” jack says, rubbing his temples.

“he started it.” cole says

“y/n, run while you can.” alex says

“no, she’s not going anywhere.” jack says, pulling me into him.

tags: @goldenbrokenheart @liquidflyer @alhanna05 @woodruff-edwards @i-padfootblack-things @fanboysfangirl @hughesx3 @austinbutlerscaresme @theywantedplayer @jackhues @marauderzkinnie @jackhughesily @tpwkam3lia @babydollmarauders

a/n: 🤭

[hopeisgrey]

My Demon - 7/10

The announcement of My Demon literally created chaos among the k-drama fans. The Song Kang-Kim Youjung pairing was making everyone insane. The hype was unreal. But did My Demon live up to it? Well, the answer to that would be… yes or no (kissy if u read that in Na Bora’s voice). My Demon did have a very interesting plot line, good enough characters and it was successful in getting the audiences hooked with the first few episodes. The cinematography was the most talked about among the viewers and rightfully so. The wide shots of Jung Guwon’s (Song Kang) office, the underwater scene, the slow-mo shot of the waves forming a portal around Guwon and Dohee (Kim Youjung), the Dohee-about-to-fall-off-the-balcony scene and so on. Another thing that filled twitter was the fashion. And not only the female lead’s this time, but also the male leads. Guwon has secured his place among the very few male leads with impeccable fashion sense. When most male leads are shown in sophisticated suits, Guwon was rocking cropped jackets and scarfs. But then again, I don’t think most male leads are Song Kang.

Nevertheless, My Demon stands as an example that if you start with a bang, your ending should be a banger. This is where the drama failed. In the second half, it started to feel like the story line was being stretched. The cinematography and direction which was so good in the start had taken a back seat and love making montages were put in for the action that wasn’t happening. And by action, I mean just anything that would contribute to the plot. The plot was moving, but at a very slow pace. Sure, Guwon and Dohee make the best couple, the greenest flag couple, the entire amazon rainforest couple, but where is the drama? I wasn’t necessarily waiting for anything bad to happen, but for a time being literally nothing was happening. And I was mad about that. Until towards to the end, everything happened. The new trend of k-drama rom-coms only having 12 episodes, My Demon should’ve followed that. Because the more they stretched, the more Song Kang’s bad acting showed and also the writer’s inability to stitch it all together. I honestly loved Song Kang in Sweet Home, not that he had any more than 2 expressions 3 dialogues in it, but still. Jung Guwon is far more expressive, and Song Kang couldn’t do justice. He shines when the camera requires for him to be the slayest demon to walk this planet, but when it is time for the playful babygirl Guwon to get on stage, his acting feels like… acting. It’s not terrible, it’s just not the best. Also the entire past life plot is becoming more than obvious. The moment I saw Guwon dreaming of his past, I KNEW Guwon and Dohee probably died in the past life and one of them thinks it’s their fault and they will try to distance themselves from each other. You know which other drama did it? See You in My 19th Life and Destined with You and maybe more but I don’t remember. Like can we please move on? This is equivalent to the 2016 era dramas having the oh we’ve actually met in childhood and not forgotten each other since trope. But then again, they have given us the most iconic dramas, can’t the same about these though.

However, I loved the way they showed Jin Gayoung’s character coming full circle. She is probably the only one who started a certain way, learned her lessons, had character development and got her happy ending. So yeah, My Demon definitely isn’t the best drama for me. I am not going to put in on my re-watch list. But I will recommend it. It’s fun, and sweet, and great for fashion inspo!

Another thing I want to add is that My Demon is compared to Doom at Your Service a lot for having a similar concept, so I’ll just say that DAYS is a much better drama, for all aspects – storyline, acting, romance, comedy, THE FUCKING AWESOME THREESOME OF THE SECOND LEAD THRUPPLE, even the song (If Love Sight by TXT doesn’t play in my head when I look at my future partner, I’ll know they’re not the one). Except My Demon is going to take the trophy for best costume.

Ok that’s it now let me play Hyunsu’s “What should we do?” until Sweet Home S3 comes out hehe!

[sizzlingsheepcheesecake]

⭐️⭐️

For the director’s commentary thingy :)

Also some stars just for you because I fucking love your fics 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thank you so much for the ask! I hope this is interesting, you mentioned wanting to hear about 'The camera speaks the truth that I couldn't' so I'm just gonna ramble a bit about the before and after!

I love outsider POVs of relationships, you might notice I nearly always have some form of the other characters commenting on/noticing/walking in on my ships in my fics haha. So I loved the thought of seeing bokris through Damon's eyes a little. I also loved the potential for lots of sexual tension in the photoshoot set up. And Damon being an absolute menace with his Instagram flirting was so fun, and I also love him crushing on them and describing how hot they are separately. I especially loved the idea of them acting so coupl-y and having such tension that Damon thought they were dating, but they weren't. On that note, for some context on their dynamic before the shoot: when they say they've kissed 2.5 times before the shoot, I imagine those kisses as: the 'maybe it doesn't count' new year's eve kiss when Kris was about to turn 17, a drunk kiss when they were around 20 that I imagine happening maybe before they fell asleep when they crashed at the same house after a party, and when Bojan pulled Kris out to the smoking area of the gay club the first night with Damon. Basically all of them happened with the safety blanket of drink/the NYE excuse, and plausible deniability. I don't think they ever talked about any of them the next day. In some of my other fics Bojan in particular struggles with his sexuality, but I don't think this was an issue here, I think they just were so close as friends that they didn't want to mess that up and were afraid to go there, and felt more shame (although that's too strong a word) about the fact that it was eachother than the fact that they were both guys. They definitely knew they were close to each other in a different way than the rest of the band, and I think they leaned into that, allowed themselves to push those boundaries and indulge in the extra affection without actually facing it or being brave enough to talk about or name it. The rest of the band knew as well, that Bojan and Kris went together, that they were a package deal, that there was something deeper there. I think they teased them occasionally, but it had been going on for so long and was so normal and taken for granted that they almost stopped noticing it. It wasn't even a question that they would share hotel rooms, sit beside eachother, etc. But when Bojan kissed a girl at a club or Kris flirted with a waiter who gave him his number at lunch one day the whole band found it pretty jarring and uncomfortable. And I think the whole Bojere thing at Eurovision was actually quite stressful for everyone in the band, even though they're pretty sure Bojan never actually slept with him. After the photoshoot, between the first shoot and the coming out shoot, I imagine the timeline went something like this: Bojan and Kris went back to their apartment and locked themselves in the room for like three days to just fuck, constantly. I think after finally allowing themselves to go there after literal years of tension they felt they had a lot of time to make up for and also just couldn't keep their hands to themselves. The others were happy for them but also kind of disgusted, and grudgingly impressed by their stamina and the fact they weren't seeming to get bored of eachother any time soon. I imagine some sort of sex toy being delivered in pretty non discreet packaging and Jure throwing it at them with his hand covering his eyes lol. I think there was no slow transition to a relationship, once they finally admitted those feelings they were immediately boyfriends and didn't even think to label it until one of the band members asked them. I do think they probably kept it quiet from everyone except the band and Damon for a month or two though, and then told family and friends. When they were ready to come out publicly they immediately thought of Damon doing the shoot, and I think they also immediately had the discussion of a threesome and were both enthusiastic and it was almost an unspoken expectation they had anyway.

Thanks again and if anyone wants more info let me know! :) <3

[rosie-b]

Tough Luck, Tender Love

Written for @ladrienjune days 17 & 20, Bad Luck & Passionate Declaration, 5756 words

A bead of sweat rolled down Marinette’s forehead as she stood frozen in front of Adrien, who still hadn’t spoken a word. She raised an arm to wipe it away quickly as her heart stuttered out an unfamiliar rhythm, and a red and black design came into view.

She froze. She’d put on her usual outfit today, but she was very obviously not wearing it now. The black spots on her red sleeve and glove could only mean one thing: Marinette Dupain-Cheng hadn’t confessed her love to Adrien — Ladybug had.

Read the rest on AO3 or just below!

After this, nothing will be the same, Marinette thought as she bit out the last words of her confession and winced as she prepared herself for rejection.  

Adrien stared silently at her, his mouth hanging open, as whispers swirled around them like the first winds of a storm. 

Marinette bit her lip. She always knew that asking Adrien out at school was a mistake, but it wasn’t supposed to cause such an uproar! Everyone at François-Dupont seemed to know about her crush on Adrien except for the boy himself, so why did it seem as though everyone had just received the shock of their lives? 

Within seconds, people started nudging each other and exchanging money. They were probably trying to be discreet, but that was impossible when nearly everyone had a bet to settle. Some people were pumping their arms in victory; most were shaking their heads in disappointment; even Ms. Bustier had a discontent frown on her face. 

A bead of sweat rolled down Marinette’s forehead as she stood frozen in front of Adrien, who still hadn’t spoken a word. She raised an arm to wipe it away quickly as her heart stuttered out an unfamiliar rhythm, and a red and black design came into view. 

She froze. She’d put on her usual outfit today, but she was very obviously not wearing it now. The black spots on her red sleeve and glove could only mean one thing: Marinette Dupain-Cheng hadn’t confessed her love to Adrien — Ladybug had. 

--*--*--*--*-- 

To be fair, Marinette hadn’t had much — or any — luck in confessing to Adrien so far, which was something that Rose had repeated multiple times during the intervention she was holding in the park near their school. 

But maybe it was just fate! Maybe she and Adrien were destined to be star-crosses lovers, like Romeo and Juliet, or the cowherd and the weaver girl. She could love Adrien, but only from afar, as the universe confined her to saving Paris as Ladybug and sacrificing her only chance at love until Hawk Moth was finally defeated.  

I can’t tell them that, though, or I’d lose my secret identity, Marinette realized. She nervously chewed on her lip as the girls continued urging her to either take up their new, foolproof plan and confess to Adrien or give up on him once and for all. 

“—And the best part is, all you have to do is sign this card! We’ll put it on Adrien’s desk for you, and that way no one else can claim to have written it themselves or steal it before he has the chance to see it. Foolproof! Right, Juleka?”  

Rose nudged her girlfriend, who nodded her head and muttered something that sounded like a yes. 

“We all agree! Don’t you see, Marinette? This is your best chance yet. If this doesn’t work, then nothing will.” Mylene folded her arms and set her face determinedly. 

Alya sighed and pushed up her glasses. 

“I know why you don’t feel like doing this, girl,” she said softly, her gaze darting to the purse Tikki was hiding in and returning to Marinette’s shimmering eyes. “But I do think this might work. There’s no reason for Adrien to turn you down now that he and Kagami aren’t dating anymore, and he’s started smiling at you more often. That’s a great sign, girl!” 

“Alya, I can’t date anyone while I’m you-know-who,” Marinette whispered. “It would be too dangerous. Besides, I barely have time for my school responsibilities! How would I have enough time to date Adrien on top of everything else?” 

“Are you really still hesitating?” Rose cried in exasperation. She had had enough of Marinette’s indecision, and since she was certain that Adrien returned her emotions, she was determined to put an end to her friend’s struggles once and for all. “Just give us your answer, Marinette!” 

Straightening, Marinette turned away from Alya to look at her gathered friends, who were sitting on the park benches and grass, looking at her in confusion and impatience. Alix checked her watch and popped her bubblegum as she looked at Marinette. 

She sighed. 

“It isn’t that I don’t appreciate your plan, girls,” she said slowly. “I just don’t think dating Adrien is a good idea anymore. It isn’t that I don’t love him, because I do! But...” She rubbed her arm and puffed out a sigh. “I don’t think I’m the best person for him. He deserves someone who can be there for him all the time, and you know that girl is not me. I’m flaky, remember?” 

Mylene sighed. “That’s true, but that doesn’t mean he can’t love you, or that you don’t love him! Your emotions speak louder than you think they do, Marinette. Trust yourself!” 

“Yeah!” Alix said, holding back a knowing smirk. 

Rose headbanged her way through an agreeing nod. “You’ve done so much to help us, Marinette. Now, it’s finally your turn to let us help you!” 

Juleka mumbled in agreement, even brushing her bangs back to give Marinette an encouraging smile. 

“You can do it, girl,” Alya said, putting her hand on Marinette’s shoulder and turning her around so that she had to look at her. “You don’t have to, but I want you to know that you can . Put us out of our misery, huh? I want to go on a date without worrying that you’ll never go on one with your ‘Buttercup.’” 

“Please don’t remind me of that name,” Marinette muttered through a strained smile as a blush covered her cheeks. She dropped her head down and pulled Alya’s arms off her shoulders. 

The group watched her expectantly as she turned to face them all. 

“Fine,” she said in a confident voice. “How about a compromise? I promise to try to confess to Adrien on my own before the end of the school day tomorrow. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll take your plan. And if that doesn’t work—” 

“It will work!” Rose declared ecstatically. “I’m so happy for you, Marinette!” 

She hopped up from the bench and threw her arms around Marinette. The other girls quickly followed suit, forming a giant group hug around a beet-faced Marinette. 

“Thanks, girls,” she said in an embarrassed voice. She awkwardly patted their arms as they continued to hug her. “I’ll handle it from here.” 

__*__*__*__*__ 

It was bad luck. That was the only explanation for what happened next. 

Marinette had been planning to confess to Adrien with a fresh bag of chouquettes, drizzled with a chocolate heart design by Tom, after lunch ended. She would catch up to Adrien just as he was walking back into school, and that way she wouldn’t have any time to chicken out of her confession. 

Of course, an akuma had to strike just as Marinette finished scarfing down her grated carrots and was getting ready to dash over to the bakery to pick up the chouquettes. There was a new sentimonster to defeat, and so the akuma took twice as long as it should have. By the time it was over, it was time for Ms. Mendeleiev’s class to finish. Marinette would have to hurry if she wanted to catch Adrien before he walked back over to Ms. Bustier’s class. 

And hurry, she did. Focused on nothing but speed, she didn’t notice that her yo-yo never vanished as she replaced it at her hip. Usually, she’d be detransformed by now, but she’d had to quickly recharge and help the former akuma victim after purifying the akuma. Chat Noir had had to rush back to school, muttering an excuse about attendance and his crappy father’s punishment system.  

So, Ladybug had stayed behind to help the former akuma victim, who’d had some bad luck of his own. He had suffered a broken leg before his akumatization and had no one to help him to the hospital, into the ambulance she’d called and then headed back to the school. 

She found Adrien just in time, skidding into the hallway as he stepped out of Ms. Mendeleiev’s room beside Nino. 

“Adrien! I have to talk to you!” 

Marinette knew she probably looked like a madwoman, her hair frizzy and falling out of her pigtails. She licked her lips and quickly tightened her ribbons. That should help her appearance at least a little. 

Adrien’s mouth fell open as he watched Ladybug shift nervously on her feet, clasping her hands tight and breathing deeply to shake off her nerves. 

“Wha...?” He couldn’t manage to finish his question. 

Nino, who looked similarly confused, gently closed Adrien’s mouth and back away, whispering a quick assurance as he left. 

“A-Adrien, I...”  

Ladybug closed her eyes. No! She would not give in to fear this time. If Chat Noir was brave enough to take her rejection, she could be brave enough to take Adrien’s. At least then she would know his answer. 

She opened her eyes and looked into Adrien’s green ones with a determined huff. A camera flash went off to the side, but she ignored it. 

“When I first met you, I misjudged you,” she began.  

Adrien’s jaw dropped down even lower this time.  

“I thought you were conceited and superficial. But then, I got to know you. I saw who you really were deep down—someone sweet, sincere, and generous. Since then, there's something I've been wanting to tell you. But every time I try, it's like my brain suddenly freezes. But now, I think I'm ready.” 

One of the younger students hollered across the hall. Ladybug ignored whatever he said and kept her gaze steady as she finished her declaration. 

“Adrien.” The boy’s eyes widened as she said his name again, and he stared at her like he was hanging on to every word from her lips. She took a deep breath and prepared herself for the painful ending to this surreal moment.  

“I love you.” 

Immediately, the whispers and camera flashes that Marinette had been blocking out rushed into her ears. She caught sight of people laughing, exchanging money, gawking at her as they spoke with their friends. Down the hall, Ms. Bustier waited for her last students with a frown. 

Adrien still hadn’t spoken. 

Marinette reached up to wipe the sweat off her brow, and that’s when the depth of her bad luck hit her. 

Really, what superhero would be reckless enough to publicly confess their love to a civilian, especially a famous one? 

There was no way this would end well. 

“Sorry!” Marinette rushed to salvage the burning ruins of her confession. “I don’t—I’m sorry—I—” 

“I love you, too,” Adrien said, his eyes full of wonder. 

Ladybug licked her lips. “What?” 

“When you see Marinette again,” Adrien continued, keeping his eyes fixed on Ladybug’s, “Tell her that I love her, too. You were delivering her message for her, weren’t you?” 

Icy shock mixed with guilty relief flooded Marinette. 

“Yes,” she breathed. “Yes, the confession was from Marinette. Because she loves you, but I don’t love you! That would be ridiculous!” 

“Utterly,” Chloe muttered from behind Adrien. Ms. Bustier directed her back into the classroom. She rolled her eyes as she left. 

“So, you’ll tell her, then,” Adrien was saying, and Marinette snapped her gaze back to his. 

“Yes! Absolutely! She’ll be thrilled,” she said with an awkward laugh. Then she shot finger guns at him. Another camera flash went off, and she cringed. 

“Perfect,” Adrien said, holding the ‘r’ just a second too long. “And tell her I’m sorry that she had to go home sick. I’ll visit her after school, and we can talk about it more then, okay?” 

Ladybug nodded, unsure whether to swallow down the hope she felt or let it grow. “Okay,” she whispered.  

But her eyes narrowed as she continued gazing up at Adrien. He seemed like he’d figured out more from her speech than she’d thought. How did he know it was Marinette’s confession? Had someone told him? 

It had to be Chat Noir. But why would he tell Adrien? 

And who else had he told? 

Ladybug felt a stab of betrayal. 

“No,” she told Adrien, clenching her fist and ignoring the wild pounding of her heart. “I’ll come visit you after school. I mean, if Marinette is sick—”  

That was another thing. Adrien had provided her with the perfect cover for her tardiness, but how had he known to do that? 

If he knew, then Ladybug might as well personally deliver her Miraculous to Hawk Moth. 

“—If she’s sick, then you’d better not visit her, or you might catch whatever she has. I’ll deliver your message to her and keep being your go-between for the day. Is— is that okay?” she finished nervously. 

Her excuse didn’t make sense. If Adrien didn’t know who she was, he would just suggest he and Marinette talk over the phone, something way more normal and far less complicated than communicating through Paris’ busiest hero. 

But Adrien only nodded, stars in his eyes, and Ladybug’s heart sank. 

“I’ll be waiting by the window for you, m— Ladybug.” 

Yeah, he knew. But he looked so excited to see her again that Ladybug almost didn’t care. It was hard to remember that her world was crumbling when the boy of her dreams was gazing at her like she’d granted his every wish by just existing. 

“All right, if you’re done delivering Marinette’s message, you can leave now, Miss Ladybug,” Ms. Mendeleiev’s nasal voice called out. 

The superhero jumped and whirled around. “Oh! Sorry! Yes, good students don’t hold up class time. Er, good heroes! Heroes like me,” she said, giggling nervously as she walked into the wall. 

Adrien caught her as she fell. She practically leapt out of his arms. 

“Byedrien! Bye, Adrien! And Ms. Mendeleiev! And the other students who I definitely do not know! ” Ladybug pushed the nearest door open and scurried through it. 

It led to the bathroom, but that was okay. She was very experienced in escaping from bathroom windows.  

And there were definitely no pictures of Ladybug entering the men’s room being posted right now. Nope! Those thoughts could wait for another time. Marinette had finally confessed to Adrien!  

And it had only cost her secret identity. 

Was it bad luck, she pondered, or had its opposite led to her passionate confession? 

__*__*__*__*__ 

After she managed to convince her mother that she really was sick (of school, at least), Marinette sat in her room, watching the video of her confession play in a loop on the news. Apparently, superheroes confessing to supermodels on behalf of other, normal girls was headline material in Paris. 

It was amazing that Marinette hadn’t noticed what she was doing, that she hadn’t felt her suit on her fingers and known before she opened her mouth. It was also amazing that Adrien, although he had figured out her secret identity, had protected it instead of sharing it with anyone. 

It gave her hope when she shouldn’t be able to feel any. 

Well, she had to feel some hope now that she knew Adrien loved her, too! It was the best outcome of a love confession she’d dared to dream of (almost, after the one where they got married and moved to the beach with their cute, fuzzy hamsters). 

He’d really said that he loved her! She hadn’t dreamed it up, Marinette marveled as she watched the video for the fifteenth time. As soon as it ended, she went to hit the replay button again, but Tikki landed on the mouse and blocked her from clicking it. 

“Marinette, don’t you think this is a bit excessive? School has been over for almost half an hour now. Shouldn’t you go visit Adrien like you said you would?” 

Tikki had seemed very excited by the prospect of her visit, though Marinette could not fathom the reason why. After all, she’d just lost her secret identity to the same person who’d found it out before in a doomed timeline that led to her poor kitty being akumatized. 

Oh, right, Marinette remembered. That was the real reason she was watching these videos. She needed something to distract herself from the sense of impending doom she’d been feeling. 

“Well, the Gorilla could be late to pick Adrien up,” she said to Tikki, offering her weak excuse with a wide grin that was probably less reassuring than she’d hoped. “I don’t want to be caught by M. Agreste if he’s the only one at the mansion now.” 

Tikki quirked her brow. 

“You need to talk to him, Marinette! How else will you know if he figured out your secret identity or not?” 

Marinette sighed. “I already know he did! He even knew I’d panic about it and made up an excuse for me to go home instead of staying at school!” 

“He was also the first to suggest that you talk more after school! Which means that he’s probably in his room now, waiting by the window for the girl he loves to come say hello! But instead of doing that, you’re watching a scratchy recording taken on a phone for the umpteenth time! Marinette, when I picked you to be my holder, I thought you’d be much braver than this.” 

Oh, Tikki could play dirty when she wanted to. The other kwamis snickered to themselves as they watched their Guardian splutter her excuse as she evaded the only true course of action. 

“I can be brave! But right now I’m being cautious, which is another heroic quality I should have! After all, the whole ‘leap before you look’ is Chat’s thing, not mine!” 

Tikki giggled. “Well, leaping before you look sounds an awful lot like what you did earlier today, Marinette. The two of you are more alike than you might think! Now,” she said, moving off the mouse and clicking the power button on the computer, “Get off that chair and go visit Adrien! If you still haven’t transformed in one minute, then I might murder you before Alya gets the chance to.” 

Tikki’s eyes glittered playfully as Marinette glanced at her discarded phone, which was still blowing up with ignored notifications from her reporter friend and what seemed to be half of Paris. 

Marinette swallowed. “I guess anything’s better than that. Tikki, spots on!” 

Throwing open the trap door, Ladybug flung her yo-yo around a distant building and took off towards Adrien’s house, swallowing the butterflies in her stomach back down.  

Why, oh why had she confessed to Adrien as Ladybug? Why hadn’t she just taken the girls’ idea and signed a card as Marinette, or would her awful luck have ruined that plan, too?  

Would she have signed the card as Ladybug? Or worse, would she have asked for more constipation medicine instead of drawing a heart by her name? 

Why do some people think ladybugs are lucky? Marinette wondered as she deftly avoided crashing into Adrien’s window. If I was lucky, I would have never fallen in love!  

Ladybug straightened up on the windowsill and looked into Adrien’s room. He probably wasn’t home yet, because Tikki had been exaggerating about the time and oh no he was looking right at her!!!  

Ladybug did a panicked dance that looked a bit like she was Vogue-ing and fell off the windowsill. 

She landed in a tree. 

“Ow,” she commented blankly while internally slapping herself. The fall had been so short that it hadn’t hurt! 

 But Adrien didn’t know that. Clapping his hands to his cheeks, he gaped at Ladybug in horror. 

There’s the reaction I was expecting earlier, Ladybug thought drearily as Adrien threw open the window and started climbing down the wall to help her out of the tree. 

“Ladybug! Are you okay? I am so sorry; I didn’t mean to scare you like that! I thought I told you I’d be by the window earlier!”  

He reached out for the branch that Ladybug had landed on, but just barely couldn’t reach it without coming in danger of losing his grip on the wall. 

Ladybug’s eyes widened.

“Adrien, be careful! You’re going to fall!” 

Adrien shook her worries off. “It’ll be fine, my lady, I’ve done this a million ti—!” 

He grabbed onto the end of the branch and let go of the wall as he started speaking, but the branch was not as strong as he’d given it credit for. Unable to support his full weight, it cracked off from the rest of the branch and fell, dragging the model down with it. 

“Adrien!” Two voices cried out in harmonized horror. 

Ladybug jumped up and tossed her yo-yo to catch Adrien as a black blur zoomed out of his window and dropped down after him. 

The yo-yo string wrapped around Adrien’s waist while Ladybug’s brain short-circuited as she registered both the reason the black blur’s voice was familiar and the nickname Adrien had just used for her. Unable to handle the surprise of finding out her partner’s identity, she fell off her perch for the second time that day. 

Plagg moved out of the way as she tumbled past him, and milliseconds later, she wound up tangled upside down in the yo-yo string with Adrien about a meter and a half above the ground. Luckily, Plagg hurriedly wrapped the end of the string around a thicker branch, which brought their progress to an abrupt and jarring halt before they could come to a crash landing. 

“Ugh,” Adrien groaned, and Ladybug nearly shivered out of her skin. 

“I am not a cat!” she snapped, and Adrien twisted around to look at her. The yo-yo string spun around accordingly, intensifying the queasy feeling in Marinette’s stomach. 

“I beg your pardon?” 

Why had Ladybug ever opened up her mouth? She should have known only gibberish would come out! Still panicking, she did it again without thinking. 

“It’s pawdon! And you’re not getting any until we get out of this tree!” 

Adrien blinked. It probably would have been adorable if Ladybug hadn’t been looking at them upside down while she got spun in dizzying circles by her own weapon. 

“My lady, I really am sorry about the reveal, but I was so scared when you got hurt! And I can’t think straight when the girl that I love is in danger!” 

He pulled out his best pout while Plagg sat on top of the yo-yo string tied around the branch and stared wide-eyed at him. 

“Transform, you rollot-headed cheese curd! Transform and destroy the string!” he cried impatiently. 

“But then we’ll fall,” Adrien pointed out, and Ladybug craned her neck upwards in the direction Plagg’s voice had come from. 

“Why don’t you just untie the string, Plagg? That would be a lot easier!” 

“Yeah, I thought you hated transforming!” Adrien called. 

Plagg flew down and landed on the string tying Ladybug and Adrien together.  

“You’d still fall if I untied the string, you solid slices of Swiss! Only Adrien wouldn’t be protected from it, because he wouldn’t be wearing a suit!” 

“But it’s only a meter drop,” Adrien protested. “I’ll be fine!” 

Ladybug jerked, swinging the string in a sideways motion. “Do you want to get hurt? Take Plagg’s advice!” If you really are Chat Noir, she added silently. 

Adrien stared up at Ladybug for a moment. “Whatever the lady wishes. Plagg, claws out!” 

Good, we’re at this part of the dream. Shouldn’t I wake up now? Ladybug asked herself.  

But that must not always be the way dreams worked, because there was that one time after Oblivio when she’d dreamed that Adrien turned into Chat Noir and then he’d kissed her and she— 

As she was still thinking, the string disintegrated around Ladybug and she and Chat Noir fell to the ground in a tangled heap. 

“Your foot is covering my eye,” Ladybug complained. Chat Noir moved it immediately. 

“Sorry,” he apologized as he moved Ladybug’s heels off his chest and stood up. Offering Ladybug a hand, he pulled her to her feet. She nearly fell over again, and he steadied her with a hand. 

“I really am sorry,” he repeated as Ladybug carefully stretched out her arms, which had been pinned to her sides by the string. 

“It was my fault, I should have remembered you’d be at the window,” she said sheepishly. “And, as for the identity reveal? I wouldn’t have figured it out if it weren’t for Plagg.” 

Adrien detransformed and frowned at his kwami.  

“I’m entirely innocent,” Plagg said, crossing his arms. “I am also starving. I need cheese!” He looked pleadingly at Adrien. 

“I don’t think now is a good time for cheese, Plagg, but if you need some, you know where it is.” 

With a cheeky wink at Ladybug, Plagg zoomed off to Adrien’s room before she could say a word. 

“All this because of a poorly executed confession,” she grumbled, scuffing the dirt under the tree. 

Adrien tilted his head. “Poorly executed? My lady, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven because I was so happy! Your delivery was perfect. If it wasn’t for the fact that you were Ladybug at the time, it would have been purrfect!” 

Ladybug pursed her lips. “You made that joke before,” she said, wagging a finger at him. “I can’t believe I didn’t get it! I can’t believe I didn’t notice you were Chat Noir,” she groaned, covering her face in embarrassment. 

Adrien laughed and delicately peeled her fingers apart so he could peer into her eyes.  

“I can’t believe I didn’t notice you were Marinette,” he said in a voice so sweet it made her heart skip a beat. “But I guess that’s the way the Miraculous work, isn’t it? Or else we would have figured it out on the first day.” 

Ladybug giggled as she lowered her hands from her face. “We really should have,” she said. “But I guess I was too busy falling under your spell, instead.” 

Adrien blushed. “You— really?” he squeaked.  

Ladybug smiled as she reached up to ruffle his hair. He leaned into her touch the way he always did. 

 “Yes, really,” she said softly. “Weren’t you listening to my confession? It’s always been you, Adrien,” she said, tapping his cheek with one finger. “I fell for you the moment you gave me your umbrella and showed me who you truly are.” 

Adrien grabbed her hand and held it to his cheek, gazing into her eyes with a look so tender it made her want to melt. 

“I fell for you on the first day, too,” he breathed. “You were so scared, but so courageous! You stood up to Hawk Moth and gave hope to all of Paris. I’ve never met anyone so brave.”  

Turning his face, he pressed a kiss to the inside of her palm, and Ladybug gasped as a blush took over her face. 

“I said to myself back then that I’d love whoever you were under that mask. And I was right,” he said, tracing its edges with a smile. 

Marinette looked at him in wonder. “You do? Even though I’m the worst Guardian ever? A-and even when I can’t talk right to you most of the time?” 

“Even then,” Adrien assured, pressing a kiss to the tip of her nose and smiling when her blush got even darker. “For the record, I think you’re a wonderful Guardian. And I think your stuttering is quite adorable.” 

Surrendering her face as a total loss to the flames licking at it, Marinette dropped her head onto Adrien’s shoulder. 

“You’re abhorrable,” she said into his shirt. Holding up a finger, she took a breath and tried again. “Adorable! I think you’re adorable, too. And now that we’re finally out of that tree, I think I know how you can earn my pardon.” 

Wrapping his arms around her, Adrien hummed quietly. “What is it?” 

“Take me on a date. Next Saturday, in the park, after your piano recital. I’ll bring the pastries,” Marinette said as she returned his hug. 

“I’ll bring the flowers,” Adrien said happily.  

Marinette felt her heart swell as he kissed her hair and held her closer to him.  

“I’m so happy it’s you,” he whispered into her ear. 

“Me, too,” she confided. “I’m so happy. I don’t think Chat Noir could be anyone else.” 

A camera flash went off in her eyes as she lifted her head.  

Ladybug pushed herself away from Adrien and spun him around so he could see the problem. 

“Alya!” she gasped. “What are you doing here?” 

“You weren’t returning any of my calls, girl,” she said, putting a hand on her hip. “All you did was send one text panicking about how Adrien knows who you are now. Listen, all of Paris knows that you were planning to visit Adrien after school. You guys are lucky it’s just me who showed up. I was expecting there to be at least a dozen camera crews here already.” 

“Hold on a minute,” Adrien said, scrunching his eyebrows. “Do you know?”  

Alya hesitated, her gaze wandering from Adrien back to Ladybug. 

“She does,” Ladybug said, wrapping her arms around herself. “Alya knows. I’m so sorry, but I had to tell someone!” 

“Ma—Ladybug was basically having a panic attack when she told me,” Alya said, defending her friend to Adrien. “It only happened because she needed the support, and she couldn’t see another way. She hadn’t been planning to reveal her identity to me, or you for that matter.” 

“Trust me, I know she wasn’t,” Adrien said. “I only figured out who she was because of a weird coincidence, actually.” 

“Oh? And here I thought it was obvious,” Alya commented. “We’re lucky you covered for our girl, or all of Paris would have figured it out from that confession. Which you had better have accepted, by the way, or I will have Chat Noir cataclysm you for me.” 

“Oh-h, you will?” Adrien asked in a strangled voice. 

Ladybug laughed nervously. “Well, we won’t be needing that, Alya! He said yes.” 

“Good,” Alya said, folding her arms with a smile. “I’m so proud of you, girl! You finally faced your fears and confessed to Adrien. And see where it got you!” 

Ladybug grinned at her friend, but as Plagg reappeared behind Alya’s head and zipped back into Adrien’s pocket while she wasn’t looking, she remembered something important. 

“Actually, Alya... there’s another reason that threatening Adrien with Chat Noir wouldn’t work. Right, Adrien?” She looked up at him imploringly, hoping that he got the message. You don’t have to tell her, but we need to think of something to say!  

Adrien cleared his throat. “Oh, yeah! Are you sure it’s okay for her to know that, though?” 

Marinette shrugged. Telling Alya would be simpler than trying not to act like she was in love with Chat Noir or coming up with some explanation of her sudden turn to polyromanticism. It also carried a large danger with it, but she’d proved herself to be capable of handling it before. 

Alya was frowning as she looked between Adrien and Ladybug. 

“What’s going on, Marinette?” she asked quietly. 

Adrien twisted the silver ring on his finger. “I’m Chat Noir,” he said, watching Alya’s reaction closely. 

She blinked twice, then adjusted her glasses as she peered at him. Plagg peeked out from Adrien’s shirt pocket, and her jaw fell open. 

“Oh, wow,” she breathed. “You really are him! I totally called it!” 

“What?” 

Ladybug flushed. “You put a filter on a photo of him one time as a joke, Alya. That does not count as calling it.” 

Alya grinned. “Was it a joke? Or was it my awesome reporter skills coming in handy? Because I seem to remember you being the one who thought it was a joke.” 

Adrien smirked at Alya. “But you didn’t guess who Ladybug was, right? I did,” he bragged. “Back during Kwamibuster. Of course, my lady was clever enough to cover her tracks, but I knew there was a reason Multimouse looked so cute!” 

Ladybug let out a squeak, which made Alya smile. 

“You didn’t tell me about using the Mouse! I bet you looked adorable,” Alya said, and Adrien nodded his agreement. 

“You should have been there! It was the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen.” 

“It wasn’t that impressive,” Ladybug said, wishing the fire in her cheeks would cool down. “I just did what I had to do.” 

“She’s so humble, too,” Adrien said, looking at her with a smile. “My heart never stood a chance.” 

Ladybug spluttered and hid her face in her hands as Alya laughed good-naturedly.  

“Well, since you’re safe from the paparazzi, I think I’ll leave you two alone now so you can keep talking. You should probably keep an eye open, though. Oh, and if you ever want to formally announce your relationship as Ladybug and Chat Noir? You know where to find me,” she said with a wink. 

“Thank you, Alya,” Adrien said politely. “We’ll think about it later, once we figure all the details out.” 

“I wouldn’t expect anything else. All right, then, Alya out!” 

With a cheeky salute, she turned and walked toward the wall around the mansion, which she scaled with an ease that would have sparked the opposite feeling in M. Agreste had he been there to see it. 

“Alya was right about the press, you know,” Adrien said casually as Ladybug watched the spot Alya had disappeared from. “If you want, we could go somewhere else to talk. There’d be less of a chance of causing a scandal.” 

“I think you mean causing another scandal,” Ladybug sighed. “You’re both right, of course, a press intrusion is the last thing we need right now. Still, it could always be worse! I might have messed up my confession, but I was lucky enough to have— well, you. You’ve always got my back, kitty.” 

“You and me against the world,” Adrien said in agreement. “I think I got lucky, too. Until recently, dating you seemed like an unattainable dream. And yet, here we are,” he said, lifting her hand for a kiss. “I finally get to be with the love of my life.” 

Ladybug couldn’t stop a smile from blooming on her face as she gazed back at Adrien warmly. 

“And I, mine,” she said, her breath tangling with his as she moved closer. “I love you, Adrien Agreste.” 

He didn’t need to say anything back as he leaned closer and wrapped her in his arms. 

The kiss said more than enough.

[charleecat-bat]

"So, what's the scariest thing that's ever happened to you? What happened?"

Tiberius' Story- Summer Camp Sighting

Okay. I haven’t really spoken about this to anyone but, what’s a better time to finally get it off my chest better than now, right? 

I just hope no one gives me shit for this story. I’m not trying to fake nothin' for attention or exaggerate and all that bullshit. This happened. 

I was around like... 9? 10 years old? I wasn’t TOO young, but not a tween yet, pre-pubescent. Anyway. My parents had decided to sign me up for Summer Camp. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be into the whole thing, but my gramps had signed my dad up as a kid, and while he hated it at first, he wound up loving it and going back to it for years. So I guess my old man hoped the same would happen for me. 

If only it turned out that way...

I’m embarrassed to say, but… I wasn’t as popular as I wished I was as a kid. I was picked on a lot for a lot of bullshit reasons. Especially to do with stuff I couldn’t help, like my fur colour or how small I was. I hated it. I was a huge target for a lot of the big kids. And for those asking ‘What about the counsellors?’ Well, you know those typical teenager-20-year-old counsellors in horror movies? That were less focused on the kids and more on smoking, drinking and putting their tongues down each other's throats? Yeah, those were the type of counsellors I had, and the few decent ones- well, just didn’t really do much to help me. 

What made it worse was that despite this, I was so desperate to seem cool to most of the kids. I did a lot of shit that wound up just making me look stupid or getting me hurt. Kids can be fucking cruel.

Anyway, not important.

It was evening time and just about everyone was sat around a giant bonfire, just doing their own thing. Honestly, due to how most of the counsellors were focused on themselves, I'm shocked that I don’t remember a lot of the kids sneaking off. Maybe they did. Wouldn't surprise me. I don’t remember quite what happened at this point, but a bunch of the little shit ‘cool kids’ that I wanted to be friends with so had just finished doing another hazing ritual to me. I even don’t remember what it was, but I do know it was embarrassing and upsetting enough to make me come up with some excuse to leave.

(imagine illustrated by @btm-txt)

I remember announcing that I was gonna ditch this place and go into the woods alone, and as a plus for me at the time, a lot of the kids thought that was ballsy since it was getting dark and not really recommended for any of us to be out there after dark. Didn't stop me, though, and probably didn't stop other kids doing it either. I didn’t care, though. I just wanted to go somewhere to cry alone without being picked on anymore. As pathetic as it sounds, this wasn’t the first time I came to the woods to cry. In fact, I was caught doing it once, but that just made me go deeper into the woods to avoid getting seen by the other kids. 

I was trying really hard to like it there, but I didn’t. I hated it. I hated it SO much. I wanted to go home so bad. So, out of my embarrassment and homesickness, I just started to bawl my eyes out.  I must’ve sat there crying for a good 10 minutes maybe, until a sound made me go quiet.

SNAP

The break of a stick.

I immediately sat there in dead silence as I quietly began looking around. Now, my first thought would’ve been it was more kids that found me, but you know as much as I do, kids aren’t that sneaky. You’d be hearing giggling and a lot of movement. Hell, a lot of kids I knew at that camp would’ve just barged through to laugh at me, not hide from me. And if it were a counsellor, they’d immediately be approaching me, not hiding either. So… the idea that someone was trying to sneak up on me was already really fucking creepy. 

I didn’t see anything for a bit, no matter where i looked there was just nothing around me except more woods.

Until I turned my head towards another crack of a branch. This time it was closer and louder. I quickly turned, and I saw this... figure. This tall, lingering figure; just standing between the trees in the darkness. it was hunched over, and its arms were long and dangly. It just… wasn’t normal. The one thing I could see clearly were its eyes. At least I think they were. These small white glowing orbs just staring at me. 

(Illustrated by @btm-txt)

You know those times when you’re so scared you just can’t move? That’s what happened. I wanted to scream, I wanted to run but I just couldn’t. I was frozen I just stared at…whatever this fucking thing was. 

I don’t know how long i was locked in a staring match with the thing for. But eventually, it just vanished from my sight. I don’t know where the hell it went, but as soon as it left. I booked it. 

I just ran in a random direction into the woods, which looking back now, was a dumbass move; I dunno why I didn’t go back to the camp, but I guess I just wasn’t thinking. I was just a scared kid who wanted to get away from whatever I saw. After running out of breath and hiding under a fallen tree, I just curled up, trying to catch my breath and calm down. That wasn’t easy, considering I was JUST crying, holding my breath in fear and THEN ran for it. So I may as well have sounded like an asthmatic. Eventually, my breathing calmed down, but I just stayed in that spot. I was too scared to move as you could expect. The woods were eerily quiet except for a few of the typical noises but that didn’t make me feel better. The coldness began to get to me, too, so now I was shaking both out of fear and the cold. 

(Illustrated by @starlitskvader)

“Tiberius?”. I heard someone call my name, I looked up and around but still didn’t see anyone. “Tiberius? Where are you?”. I heard it again; this time the voice was clearer… it was my dad's. My dad’s voice. I had no idea how it was possible but my kid brain didn’t care. I was happy, and I crawled out of my hiding place immediately. I started calling out for him. “Dad?! Dad?! Where are you?” “Come here, Tiberius. I can’t find you”, the voice spoke out again in a weirdly calm tone. If I wasn’t in such a stressful situation, I maybe would’ve picked up on the strange way my dad was talking, but like I said, I didn’t care at the time. I was just relieved that my dad was here and thinking I was gonna finally get out of there and go home. I started going through the woods, following the voice that sounded like my dad but my excitement started slowing down and it started to hit me. The more closer I got to the voice, the more I realised it sounded... off. The strange calmness was still not a warning sign for me, but what was is that the voice just sounded so… shaky? Fake? It sounded like my dad but something about it just didn’t FEEL like it was from him. More like someone trying to do an impression of him, but how was that possible? He was back on the island, ages away from here. No one here would possibly know what he sounded like except for maybe one or two counsellors but that was way too much of a longshot. Why would some counsellor be doing an impression anyway, it made no sense...

I soon stopped when I saw a figure again, the dark outline approached slowly and as it got closer it started to look like my dad. I smiled but… something felt wrong, really wrong. Something in my gut was screaming at me that I needed to run, but I didn’t know why. It was my dad; it had to be, I thought. The figure of my dad stopped, I could see some of the details, the salmon pink fur, the long curled spines, even the clothes, the hiking boots, and all the gear he wears on him. It had to be him, It was uncanny!

But something still felt wrong... “Hello, son. Come here, let's go home”, it stretched it's arms out. My smile vanished… now that I was right there, I really picked up how weird his voice was… something was really wrong with it. ‘Till this day i still can’t pick up on how it was exactly. You just kinda had to be there to know. You could just tell it wasn’t right, and listening to it made you feel like something was crawling up your spine. I didn’t move. “Tiberius? What’s wrong?” it spoke, taking a step forward. I started to notice this-this thing. Its arms were way too long for the body, and 'my dad's hair was starting to move, almost like tentacles or some shit... I couldn't understand what I was seeing.

(Illustrated by @starlitskvader) Stupidly, I spoke up out of nervousness. “W-...who are you?”. “It’s me, son. Come here, give me a hug”. The long arms stretched out even further and closer to me and the figure took a few steps forward, coming completely out of the darkness of the trees showing its face… it was not my father. That face. I don’t know if I could begin to describe it. The smile was huge and unnatural, going all the way to the cheeks, full of uneven teeth that made me think of a fucked-up shark. Rows upon rows of these janked up teeth. The eyes were open wider than I thought possible, the pupils tiny and barely visible. Staring into my fucking soul. And to this day the gaze of this thing, pretending to be my father, has haunted me.

“Come here, son. Come to me”, it spoke as it started approaching me. The voice fell apart and sounded more unnatural. It started moving with a strange twitch and making these strange sounds. After being frozen in utter fear this entire time, my legs finally moved, and I booked it. Just running back as fast as my little legs could take me. The entire time, I could hear a slurry of noises. The best I can describe them was like a bunch of demonic feral sounds, along with fast, savage movement coming after me from behind. I knew it was chasing me; whatever this thing was, it wanted me. I had no idea what it wanted to do with me, but I knew it’d probably result in me being fucking dead. 

I only looked behind me once… and the image of this thing, still trying to appear like my father, running around like a fucking animal. Running on all four of its distorted limbs and it's fucked up face looking up at me. It was at this point I started screaming my lungs out in terror; I didn’t even care if I was crying anymore. That was the least of my worries.

When I finally got out of the woods, I scrambled my way to whatever was closest, which was the stairs to a cabin, I think. I don’t remember how many people approached me at first, but i remember hearing a lot of voices, and eventually, a bunch of counsellors came running over, trying to calm me down. I was screaming, crying and thrashing around for ages. Not even the little shit kids were laughing; everyone was wondering what the fuck was wrong with me.  It took me ages to finally calm down enough, but even then, I just couldn’t explain. I tried to, but it came out as nonsense. I was a scared kid who saw something that was worse than any horror movie I’d heard of at the time. 

Eventually, the adults kinda gave up on trying to get an explanation from me after they kept asking me to ‘stop lying’ or to ‘make some sense’, but I wasn’t. They just assumed I'd get over it after that night or so and I'd be fine.

I was the furthest from it. That night I didn’t get a wink of sleep. I laid awake, shaking and hiding underneath the covers. I don’t remember speaking much, if at all, after that. I just shut down. I didn't do any of the activities. I barely ate. I was practically a shell of a person. I didn’t know how to process what the fuck I just saw.

(Illustrated by @btm-txt) After a few days. Yes. I know. DAYS. My family was finally called, and the counsellors told me my dad was coming to get me ASAP. I couldn’t even be happy about it. I think at that point they just made sure to have a counsellor with me at all times. Dunno what for exactly, since I wasn’t really doing anything and it's not like them being around made any difference to begin with. I guess I just made them super fucking worried.  When my dad got here, with my mom and grandpa, they all rushed towards me. My dad quickly hugged me and picked me up, but I don’t even remember reacting much other than curling up a little into him. Meanwhile, my mom and grandpa went from fussing over me to yelling at the counsellors at the blink of an eye. They were furious. I don't remember what went on with that conversation but I could only imagine what went on.

(illustrated by @btm-txt)

I didn’t hear much else about what they talked about, as my dad just put me in the car with my things already packed. He sat in the back with me on the drive home, just holding me as I laid my head against him. When we got home. My family, mostly my grandpa, wound up suing that summer camp over what happened to me and not helping me much at all during the whole time and not even seeing me go into the woods at all. The camp wound up being charged with gross negligence and closed down not long after. I don’t even think I said anything on the drive home or when I got home. I don’t remember when I started talking again, but I didn’t talk about this that’s for sure. It was hard though, I had nightmares and apparently night terrors for weeks, I’d apparently wake up screaming and when my parents would come to comfort me, I’d fall back asleep and not remember the next morning.  Speaking of no memory, I actually didn’t remember this for a long time. I guess I tried so hard to forget most of this nightmare that I eventually did. Well, most of it. I still remembered two things. One. I always unconsciously remembered something bad happening to me in the woods, so it made me permanently uncomfortable with the idea of going into any woods, forests or any of that shit. To the point I was even terrified of letting my daughter go camping with my dad. I couldn’t even give an explanation as to why I just said I didn’t like it but I didn't stop them. I just made it painfully I didn't like it. I'm not surprised if my Dad was a little disappointed at how much I grew to hate the forest. I know he loves the outdoors and camping, and I knew he was really sad he couldn't share that with me I could see it with my daughter too, how she'd beg me to take her camping to let her try it and I just refused At least they had each other. I always felt bad that I was so against any sort of activity to do with the woods without even having a proper reason for them…until now at least. They never held it against me though, and I'm grateful for that.

And two, even after all of that… I had never forgotten that face. I think after a few years, I thought it was some messed up dream, but it’s imprinted itself into my brain. That horrible fucking face. 

Now that this is fresh in my memory, I actually decided to look up stuff on the area of that camp and that forest… and it turns out. Some weird shit has happened in those woods at night. A lot of people have had stories Stemming from being stalked by an unseen pursuer, being chased by a weird animal, or even like me, having some… thing… look like someone they know approach them and talk to them. After doing more research, a few people think that it’s not a paranormal occurrence or some weird spirit or demon doing this. Instead, these people believe it’s a shapeshifting creature; it goes by many names, but it all means the same. It takes the form of animals and people in order to lure people toward it so it can kill and eat them and or then take their place as their doppelganger.

I don’t believe that entirely, but… I know for sure now that something definitely happened to me in those woods. It wasn’t just a nightmare or a fucked up scenario I imagined. It was real. I honestly don’t know what scenario is worse, if it actually was a dangerous person after me that went way too far, if it was something paranormal or… if there really was a creature in there. Something dangerous. Sometimes, I wonder if… despite all of these years, it’s still there. In the woods. Waiting to lure another person… Not like I’m ever gonna find out for myself, though. I am never EVER going back there. Never. 

If you read this far. Thank you and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

[ozlices]

about kanna's route vs shin's route

maybe im just biased, but kanna's route has always felt... off to me. and not in the ways people usually talk about.

hear me out. idk if much of this will make sense, but. im throwing out Thoughts and Feelings, ok. (under a cut bc this winded up being v long. adhd infodumping abt a hyperfixation at its finest)

when it comes to people discussing kanna's route, and preferring shin's over it, they usually refer to kanna's route as "it feels too good to be true. it's too happy" and, like, it does have a very distinctly hopeful tone to it, but i wouldn't call shin's route hopeless in comparison.

obviously, much more drama and hardship happens in shin's route that is exclusive to his route. but, like... he isn't involved with them directly.

"oh but joe's ai being corrupted is his doing" ok, but... is that Actually, blatantly confirmed? no.

it is very suspicious to me that in chapter 2, it is shown that the game masters are willing to corrupt ai of deceased characters to fuck with the cast. they literally did it with mishima's ai, and shin went out of his way to ensure that ai was taken down.

i think his "final gift" in kanna's route was finalizing his decorruption of joe's ai, and that joe's ai was made by the game masters specifically to fuck with sara. because they are aware that joe is sara's anchor. quite literally. he anchors her in reality, and keeps her from leaning into her malicious side. that is why he was the sacrifice in the first chapter. he had to be sure to be the first one to die, so they could ensure sara could be skewed into her ""true self"".

it is very possible that they made joe's ai with the intent of manipulating sara. and, what better way to use that than to frame shin? something that comes with the added bonus of causing a rift within the group, because everyone would default to believing it was him who did it as revenge for kanna, or revenge for himself should he have been voted out.

he and sara already had tension between each other. nobody would've questioned it, nor would his defenses for himself have mattered.

he probably knew that all along. knew that plan all along, and in the route where kanna survives, i think he gave his "final gift" to sara on kanna's behalf. because he knew that kanna loved her. and he wanted to ensure she would be able to protect her in his stead at her full strength, with joe's legacy on her side.

meanwhile, in his own route, he has nothing to motivate him left. he has no reason to quell the tension he has with sara. he's not gonna do it for his own personal gain when he has so much self hatred. so, he doesn't. if he was the one who did it, i think he still would've gone back on it for kanna's legacy. but, if he wasn't the one who created it, he has nothing to atone for except knowing it existed and that's it.

as far as reko/alice's fate... he quite literally has absolutely nothing to do with their death at all. that is entirely a result of sara being successfully corrupted or swayed by successfully being forced to forget joe. shin didn't do that. he wasn't involved with it at all. nor was he present for any of it happening until it was all over.

that's not to say shin has never done anything wrong ever, because he has. but, i think trying to say shin's route is depressing or hopeless in comparison to kanna's when he isn't involved with the differences between them is... hm. hard to find the right word. but maybe those actions themselves just feel off to me.

so, then, all that being said, why does kanna's route feel off to me?

i've concluded, that given the tone of the game, the reason kanna's route feels off to me is that shin's route feels more realistic in this game's universe. and, in comparison, kanna's route doesn't necessarily feel unrealistic. it comes across as "...this is not how things are supposed to go/would go in this universe."

kanna's route comes across as a scenario the characters made up in their heads to cope. it is such a drastic tone shift from the rest of the game. and, it's not like everything is peachy in her route, either.

the dummy's fates are still the same, regardless of who you choose. it is only the humans who hang in the balance of your decision. isn't that weird? in a game where human lives being toyed with is the entire point, one person being chosen as the survivor in one chapter, can so starkly determine which other humans survive in the next?

it's suspicious to me.

and, it's even more odd given that shin directly has a connection with midori/sou, who is arguably the most vile enemy the group has faced thus far.

i highly doubt that with how openly midori has had a hand with so much of the game, that he would truly be satisfied with shin dying before at least getting to see him again. he's far too possessive to just be like "awe i woulda liked to kill him myself </3" and also not do everything in his power to make sure he can revenge him. or make the people who caused his death absolute hell.

but, when it comes to midori, not much changes in his personality between the routes. the only exclusive thing either route gets with his involvement is that only kanna's route gets the "shin was actually kanna's biological older brother" reveal because kanna finding out both of her older siblings that she looked up to died because of her is the closest midori can get to ruining her.

he doesn't really have to do anything like that with shin since he's already had his claws in him since shin was in high school. he knows exactly how to push him, and he does, but not in a way exclusive to him per se. the shin ai is a thing in both routes. that's probably the worst thing he does to shin that we actually see, and he does it to him whether he's there to see it or not.

i really wonder if kanna's route is going to be revealed as just another simulation. because there are so many things in it that felt so weird. i really felt like nobody was acting like themselves. including kanna.

her newfound confidence is sweet and all, but the kanna we see throughout the game would not have that shift that quickly. she was in absolute shambles over her sister. she and shin spent so much time together, i really cannot see her knowing he died for her to be spared and just... suddenly becoming shounen protag of the year, you know.

it feels off, and it feels like that's on purpose. and, with how your time to shine's happy routes always end with sara saying to delete it and restart it as many times as it takes... i wouldn't be surprised if that's foreshadowing for the main game's ending for kanna's route.

i think both routes will have a "true ending", but in vastly different reveals and ways. shin's connection to the person who literally brought everyone into the game is going to be important in his route, without a doubt.

kanna's route just feels like an opportunity to expose the full depths of the simulations, and just how deep they can get.

yeah. very scattered and rambly i am sorry for the HUGE post but. i had to get all this out. lmao.

[zoyalannister]

yes exactly, she used that space to gain representation points, even if it makes no sense the way and that obviusly is going to be awkward for flora to be with anna and ari in their first travel together because if cc sees anna as grief-free and happier than ever, then she would be affectionate with ari. maybe they even have to share suites even with different rooms, or share even rooms as women in that time wouldnt take a room to themselves in certain places, so it would be awkward.

also i noticed the end also has family scenes in one way or another of everyone except gabriel and cecily, which i don't get if it is to say they get excluded from the group , as in the last scene everyone was talking to someone not from the direct family except them that were alone with their youngest.

in the end there is also a scene where thomas and alastair are mentioning domestic stuff related to zachary like getting him a dog, they have been together so little, and zachary has a mother, why do they talk like they are the parents? there is not this approach with james and cordelia with him who are more solid in that moment

In my opinion giving more space to Gabrily would have made CC gain representation points, since they’re the ones who canonically accepted their daughter’s homosexuality and, unlike all the other characters that accepted their non straight children without beating an eye in 1903, for them it actually make sense.

Or, another representation, could have been revealing that Thomas is so scared of letting anyone know he is gay despite literally no one has problems wirh Anna being out and proud, is that he overheard Gideon tell Gabriel something like "are you sure you’re actually okay with Anna liking women?" and in ChoT Thomas and Gideon could have had an emotional talk about Gideon accepting him. It would have made more sense both for Thomas’s character and because we know Gideon since TID and the readers care about him.

But Flora popped out from literally nowhere, I don’t even remember if we knew her name before ChoT and now she is suddenly one of the best mothers.

Anon, don’t let me start about how shit Gabrily were treated in this book. Gabriel sees his batshit crazy sister holding a knife against his toddler's throat and says nothing?! Are you fucking kidding me?!

I totally believe that if Gabrily's personality hadn’t been devastated in this shit series, they would have probably sorted out the entire plot, resolved the miscommunication between Anna and Ari and saved Grace from Tatiana all in 40 pages.

But they had to be treated like shit and put aside even in their important moments. They were literally brought their son’s body but we are told that Tessa and Will cry because the idiots they have for children are alive in London and Gabrily aren’t even mentioned. Are you fucking kidding me?? Why should I care about Wessa??

And the fact that they are isolated in the end it makes sense to me, idk where you live, but unfortunately in my country is quite common that people leave alone a grieving family and since no one of the others cared about Kit, except for Henry Fairchild, in my head it makes sense that they all left Gabrily alone in their grief.

I will tell you a hot take, anon: if Wessa was done dirty one tenth of how much Gabrily was done dirty in this shit book (and series), the general consensus would be our opinion.

About Thomastair you’re 100% right: no one in their right mind thinks about family, a dog, adopting children with the person they've been dating just six months. Also Thomas and Alastair are so emotionally immature that they couldn’t even talk to each other about their own feelings until after they have sex, but somehow I have to believe they have this strong and pure love just because they're a MM couple.

They're barely able to take care of themselves, they shouldn’t have dogs or, god forbid, children at least for 5 or 10 years, when they'll maybe be mature people.

I think that Cassandra tried to recreate Malec 2.0, with the difference that Malec are more mature than Thomastair and they adopt Max after two years of relationship, since at that point both Magnus and Alex are mature enough to take care of a child.

Thomastair instead are too immature to have a conversation, why should I believe they are ready to adopt a child?

This book is just nonsense garbage.

[ch1llyic3y]

See no one talks abt it so I keep it to myself but I have to tell y’all about this.

Once upon a time has been my favorite shown since I was five years old and that’s something that’s never changed. And there’s so many things they’ve missed in the show or they had and did badly with (season 7) and some of it is talked about and some isn’t.

So firstly. Can we please talk about how Regina didn’t love Robin at all. I feel like (as much as I love that show) they’re so based on one thing. “You can only have one truly” and I think that’s utter bullshit. Now listen I know it’s a fictional show. But Regina barely knew shit about him. She just yearned to be loved SOOOO much. She settled for the first person to except her. And it’s the same person, that ignored her dark side. And I’m 100% the kind of person who thinks. You can’t love someone without loving them wholly. And I don’t think he did that. He literally left her the minute his wife got back talking abt some fucking “I made a pack” oh shut up you shit head.

Secondly. I think they had so much potential with Zelena and Emma. And you’re probably like… bitch what? IM TALKING ABOUT FRIENDSHIP! I feel like zelena would definitely make a group chat and name it “coven sisters” with Emma and Regina. I think Emma and Zelena has sooo much in common. They would be really quick friends. And see each other as sisters. And maybe even best friends eventually.

Wtf was that aging shit. The seventh season was so confusing. I mean we got so many characters we DESERVED. But it was so fucking confusing. There’s so many doppelgängers and everyone is DEFINITELY related to everyone. And this is suppose to be a whole other universe but y’all saying when Regina was the evil queen she was with dr.faciler. Idk how to spell homeboy name. All I know. Is they wanted money. And that wasn’t the way to get it.

And lastly Emma is the fucking savior. STOP MAKING HER SUFFER. Im so tired of Regina this regina that. Who’s the main character? WHO IS IT? Also. She wasn’t in the last season. What were you trying to accomplish by NOT putting her in there?! Also the truama she has. The pain she has. Emma has had red in her eye-line from season four to season SEVEN. That girl is in pain. Unspeakable pain. And no one talks about. They say she got her happily ever after but home girl still suffering. Also that girl ain’t love hook. This is not some swanqueen agenda. This is me giving it to you straight. Hook said he HATED her. Even as dark ones. Emma still loved him. And Henry. Rumple still loved Neal. SO MUCH HE CASTED A CURSE FOR HIM. Even as a dark one they still were able to love the ones they love most. And shit LOVE THEM EVEN MORE. That’s how the dagger did it. Show you what you desire and STRIP IT FROM YOU. Hook ain’t love shit. NOTHING. NOT A DAMN THING. I think it was something they fed to themselves. They both desired to be loved. Him not wanting to me alone. And her simply because she’s the product of true love. She thinks she NEEDS it. She HAS to have it. And honestly I think she’s better alone.

Anyways… rant over. It’s 7:24 am. I haven’t been sleep. Goodbye children.