#like he wouldnt even be able to comprehend that they’re in a relationship

[quillkiller]

thinking about my favorite mortal enemies regulus and remus

[us3rnam3-r3dact3d]

we're only like a third of the way there you say? 22 more chapters you say? babe wake up Baz just posted and im shaking. a third seems so big yet so small omg we're not even there yet and I'm already sad about this story ending,, such an amazing story im honored to witness it live

there's something so intense and intimate about 2 people being in the front seats of a car, it's like the energy of a living room, literally anything could happen. it was the perfect setting for this conversation. I felt like I was there

the contrasts in the 3rd paragraph are incredible. going from quinn's violence to his "love", to sam's "violence" to his care. it's like darlin's brain can only jump from one extreme to the next - they can't even begin to comprehend sam's gentleness for them,,,, a little too relatable 🫠 being so lost in this cycle that you, first of all, can't imagine a way out, and second, can't imagine that you even deserve it.........my heart is aching,, and david's defeat, knowing someone you care about is hurting and them being juuust out of reach HEY!!! OUCH!!

YOU WERE 16!!!! YOU WERE 16 IT WAS NEVER YOUR FAULT DAVID KNOWS IT WASNT YOUR FAULT PLEASE DARLIN NOOOOO

and when he got out of the car my stomach was TWISTINGG I thought he was going to THROW UP. I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO THROW UP. I am so so so glad that they told him and that it came from them, cuz like idk, hot take (it's really not) david was lowkey mean during that confrontation video, u just learned that your pack mate experience something incredibly traumatic and ur first instinct was to show up to their home and sass them? hey get out of my apartment by the way im never talking to you again. I'm glad it was a david & darlin vs quinn and not david vs darlin vs quinn.

he knows what it's like to go through something devastating and not being able to speak out or get help and he's not going to hold it against them, guys we're making huge strides right now

AND OF COURSE QUINN IS HERE BECAUSE WHY WOULDNT HE BE. FUCK OFF 🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕

david has picked up angel and darlin under his arms like 2 footballs and he's getting the FUCK outta there. what a man.

I felt like I couldn't read fast enough

I can't wait for what happens next, it's been a rough couple weeks for me but your stories always make me feel better (no matter how angsty), help me forget about life for a while and make me remember what really matters,,,,,hot men,,, god bless

take care of yourself!!!! 🫶

-🦀

I knooowwwww!!! I honestly thought this story would be MUCH shorter tbh?? I had no idea it would even be ten chapters, let alone 30 something. When I was first conceptualizing this story, I had like… six or seven critical scenes in mind and that was IT! I’m glad that the story has become what it is now. I’m truly so excited and happy with how it’s turning out.

Bro some of my best and most heartfelt conversations with my siblings have been in the front seat of a car. I base a lot of David and Darlin’s moments on my relationship with them, so I wanted to incorporate that intimacy and friendship. I’m so glad that the setting translated well!!

Bro the contrast between Quinn and Sam continues to be a mind fuck for Darlin’. They said it themself a few chapters ago, love has always been intimately tied with violence for them. They can’t imagine a world in which the man who loves them doesn’t hurt them. They keep trying to merge the person they understand Sam to be with the way they understand love. Sam won’t hurt them. So Sam can’t love them. For Sam to love them, he has to hurt them.

They’ll get there.

David can see how they’re torturing themself. He wants to just shake them and tell them to STOP but he knows it won’t help. It didn’t help him.

THEY WERE JUST A KID!!!! I was struggling to create the power imbalance of quite old vampire and mortal person, until I was like “Oh. He was for sure a 25 year old who hit on teenagers.” And poor Darlin’ had no support at home. Perfect target for an asshole like Quinn.

David very nearly did throw up. His internal monologue was “I’m gonna kill him im gonna kill him I’m gonna hurl oh my god oh my god I have to sell the house I’m never letting them (both Angel and Darlin’) out of my sight I’m gonna kill him with my bare hands.” He stopped the car because he knew he was going to crash it if he didn’t.

And YEAH!!! I felt like Darlin got very little agency in canon so. They get a lot in this. To mimic canon, they’re going to FEEL like David’s taking this out of their hands, but he’s actually about to give them more tools and community.

Of COURSE QUINN RUINS THIS!!! HE RUINS EVERYTHING!!!

David is about to carry every person he loves out of Dahlia and hide them in a hole somewhere. He needs to PROTECT THEM!!!! EVERYONE!!!

I’m so sorry your past few weeks have been rough buddy!!! I’m glad that my silly little stories can help! I love writing them and I love hearing your thoughts. Your asks are one of my fav parts of posting.

Can’t wait to post more for y’all!!

[cassnottiel]

I HOPE THIS DOESNT SOUND TOO WEIRD but maybe a deke prompt where he had been dating Trevor instead of Sequoia? And like, the betrayal Deke feels that his fucking boyfriend was a SHIELD operative and it's totally up to u if trevor's feelings are real or not!! and maybe the team's reaction to it, and all of that gknhknh

He didn't know when it happened.  It could have happened slowly, or faster than the blink of an eye and he wouldn't have noticed.  All Deke Shaw knew was that he loves Trevor Kahn.

Trevor had been around since before the company was, longer than almost anyone else in Dekes life. 

Deke noticed he was in love late at night, typing out the beginning of the code for a game he didn't even have a name for yet.  Trevor was asleep on the couch, and Deke glanced back and noticed how cute he was.  That's when it hit him.

And he didn't question it, just started noticing more things to love about Trevor.  And he started vocalizing some of the things he loved. 

"I love your hair like that."  Deke said in passing one day, like it was completely natural.

"I love the way you did that whole-" Deke used his hands to gesture what he couldn't say with words, excited after a beta test of their game.

"You're amazing, and I love you."  Deke smiled as he accepted a hot mug of tea that was practically half sugar.

"Why don't you drink coffee?"  Trevor asked as he sat down in his chair with his own drink.

Deke shrugged and started typing his code out again.  "My grandparents got me hooked on it.  And tea tastes infinitely better than coffee."

Trevor scoffed, bringing his coffee up to drink.  "Your grandparents are crazy."

"They're from the UK."

"If anything, that makes it worse."  They both laughed, and Deke finally looked away from his screen.  "Now I'm picturing you going to a British prep school, and it's horrible."

"Okay, that's not fair."  Deke spun in his chair to fully face his friend.  "I've never been to a prep school.  And don't disrespect tea."

"Sorry to offend you, sir."  Trevor put on a horrible fake British accent.  "Innit?"

Deke rolled his eyes and hit Trevor's arm lightly.  They were both laughing again, and they were sitting so close in the empty room.

"I love your laugh."  Deke blurted out.  He drank some more tea to hide his face when Trevor went silent.  He set the mug down and they stared at each other.

Trevor looked like he was thinking about something, something important.  Deke sighed and went to turn back to the screen.

But before he could, a pair of hands was pulling him forward into a kiss.  Trevor was kissing him.  Deke couldn't believe it, he could burst with happiness.

Everything in his life was finally going right.

---

"What happened here?"  Trevor's voice was soft in the dead of night.  He was playing with the fingers on Dekes right hand, where there was still a scar on his wrist that would never heal.  Dekes hand was gone as soon as he comprehended the question.

"It's a really long story."  He said quietly, as if he was scared to disturb the universe.  "I don't think you'll believe me if I told you."

Trevor shifted to look into those bright green eyes, almost radiant in the darkness.  "I'd believe anything you tell me."

And Deke could see something in his boyfriends eyes, hear it in his voice; truth.  Deke had always been able to tell when someone was lying to him, and Trevor wasn't lying. 

So he told his story.  It was the first time he'd talked about it since he left the Lighthouse.  It felt so freeing to reveal all the baggage and trauma to the night, that he didn't care if Trevor thought he was crazy and left.

But Trevor just listened.  He listened and didn't interrupt.  When Deke finished talking, they both stayed silent. 

It was that night, that night would haunt his future.

Deke started opening up to Trevor more, about things that reminded him of the future, about how much he missed his grandparents, how much he missed most of the people in SHIELD.

Deke trusted Trevor more than anyone in his life.  But trust is a fickle, delicate, fragile thing.

His friend Sequoia came to get boba tea with him, and commented on her model in the game when she brought him out of the simulation.

"I'm still so honored that you chose me to be the sexy damsel, I love it."  She was smiling at the monitors before looking down at her phone.

"Sweet raid, babe!"  Trevor got up from his chair and grabbed Dekes hand.  "And the rendering on that blue guy was awesome!"

"Your boy's a visionary."  Sequoia told Trevor.  Deke said something modest and the three of them started walking.

She started recording part of Dekes inspirational speech, and the three of them were almost at the exit for their tea.

But then Kaya had him test something and Lindsay was telling them that a meeting was starting two hours early.  So Deke had to send Sequoia for the boba and got ready to bullshit his way through a meeting.

And the meeting was with Coulson, but that man wasn't Coulson and he was pulling a knife.  Deke stabbed the Not-Coulson and ran, and then Ray got shot and chaos erupted. 

Deke was crouched behind a table in the main computer lab, saying something to Not-Coulson, trying to come up with a plan, when a hand clamped over his mouth.  He would have fought, but it was Trevor.  He relaxed.

"On my signal, make for the northwest exit."  Trevor's voice was completely calm.  "Keep moving forward, don't look back.  I called for extract.  I got your six."  He removed his hand.

It clicked in Dekes head.  "Who are you?"

Something clicked and a high pitch whine sounded.  "Trevor Kahn, agent of SHIELD."

That wasn't the answer he was looking for, but before Deke could say that, the flash bang went off and he was being shoved and they were running.

They slowed down when they got out of the building, and Deke could finally piece together a sentence:  "You were SHIELD this entire time?"

"Did you really think we were gonna let you rip off all our tech?"  That answer, and the implications behind it, hurt.  Deke couldn't say anything to that.

When they got on the jet, May's words cut even deeper.  "Trouble with your babysitting assignment?"

Everything made sense.  Looking back on their entire relationship, Deke scolded himself for not realizing it sooner.  So much for knowing when someone is lying to him.

He would have sat silently in the Quint-Jet and thought about all the small moments in his relationship forever, but then Sequoia called him to ask where he was. She was inside that building with the crazy people and SHIELD team.

Deke grabbed a bulletproof vest and an ICER gun. He'd already lost one person today, he wouldnt lose another.

"You should get that checked out." Trevor told him, after Deke unloaded his whole clip to quell the anger in his chest. He didn't respond, only told Mack that he had a plan and started off down the hallway.

The flight back to the Lighthouse was full of small conversation, but Deke was silent. He was still trying to figure out which parts of the last year were real and which were a result of SHIELD. Our date to the escape room, was added to that list.

The jet landed in the hanger, and Deke stayed where he was. Even when everyone else walked off, he stayed in that seat, still thinking over the last year of his life.

When he finally stood up, an eternity later, he wanted to go to his room and sleep for an even longer eternity. He started walking down the ramp. A hand grabbed his arm.

Instinct kicked in and Deke spun around, grabbed the offending wrist and wrenched it away from his arm. But the other person was a trained SHIELD agent.

The other person had Deke flat on his back and seeing stars in seconds. He finally saw the face looming above and-

It's Trevor.

"Get off of me."

"I want to talk to you." Trevor didn't move. This was a position they had been in countless times in the past, but it was so different this time.

"Get off." Deke repeated, a request that fell on deaf ears.

"I want to explain myself." Trevor said. "I-"

Deke kicked out one of Trevor's legs and pushed him away. "You don't have to explain anything to me, Agent Kahn." The title was split out like it was a poison. "I understand."

"No, you don't-"

"You pretended to like me for a year for an assignment." Deke scoffed and stood up. "And you pretended to love me. You listened to me for a year, you learned everything there is to know about me for a report." As he said the words, he finally started to believe them. The betrayal was finally sinking in. "Am I close?"

Trevor didn't say anything. He looked almost desperate and sad.

Deke scoffed again, turning away to hide damp eyes.

"Well, you don't have to pretend anymore."

Read on ao3

[gendryw4ters-blog]

a couple skip/penk headcanons that i cant stop thinking about

these are for you @snowmedics my love (and also thank you for helping with some of em in that chat the other day!!) and also!! are set in the same universe/time/etc as this piece i did the other day. they might be a lil dumb too but i believe in them nonetheless;

they lived together as friends before they started dating, and so the living situation has remained pretty much the same with only a few minor changes, like:

both of them still have their separate cupboards and halves of the fridge except now it’s slightly more of a big deal when they steal or “borrow” from the other’s (”i just cannot BELIEVE you would eat the last of my fruit loops like. like i expected this from you as a friend but we’re so much more than that now and honestly? i’m hurt. i’m betrayed. i’m reconsidering this entire relationship” “babe those were mine and you moved them into your cupboard yesterday when you thought i wasnt looking” “thAT MIGHT BE TRUE BUT STILL”)

they have a spare room now. they decided it would be easier to move into skip’s since his was the biggest, and so penk’s got turned into a room where friends could stay and also a place where they could finally house their shrine to dwayne ‘the rock’ johnson. it’s a modest shrine, and one that started out as a joke but then accidentally became an integral part of their life when penk took his name in vain in a tipsy rant about the casting of tom cruise in the new mummy film. skip never let it go. (the shrine stays up even when they have visitors, and while it makes most of them uncomfortable to some degree, malarkey stays over so often that he now sometimes feels uncomfortable sleeping WITHOUT the rock watching over him and keeping him safe)

it’s actually so much tidier than you’d maybe expect. it’s lived in, sure, but they do their best to keep it neat. it was messier when they were just friends- and skip often makes jokes about how dating has turned them both into domestic goddesses and penk just smiles warmly because yeah maybe that is true but also he wouldnt change the set up they have now for the world

other relationship-y things:

they have SUCH a loving and wholesome dynamic though perhaps not in the most conventional sense, like they have this kind of humour between them that to an outsider might verge on mean but between them is just another way of showing love. nothing is ever Too Serious, they’re on a level of comfort and intimacy that they can literally just say anything and the other will instantly know what they mean. the humour and love just rolls off of their tongues, snappy retorts to dumb comments being used in place of simpering sweet nothings, and it’s dry but not always deadpan- with a lot of exaggerated movements and playful slaps to the arm and things like that

they'll sometimes throw more shade at each other than at other people, but when they ARE throwing it at others its a whole different game of subtle hand brushing like "hey iiiiii think theyre being an asshole we're going to analyse this later" and loud conversations like "well i know i wouldnt let YOU act like that in public babe" and they’ll gossip about it later over wine and takeaway pizza at home 

dumb or strange late night conversations are!! commonplace because skip sometimes takes a long time falling asleep, and even if penk IS 90% asleep he can’t resist joining in because he loves skip so he still ends up mumbling back like “i dont think youre ever gonna be able to fuck sean bean, no babe” and they have such in depth discussions over the most ridiculous things like whether liam neeson would appreciate an aquarium date or not but also!! chats about life and shows they watch and just about anything because theyre in love and also best friends and they can be real with each other no matter what

they also!! watch a lot of cartoons. they watch other shows too but cartoons especially have become a source of comfort for them if theyve had a not so good day or “simply cant be fucked with trying to work out what’s gong on in [insert movie that’s not even that difficult to comprehend but penk’s just too lazy to even try]”. they’ll sit around in their underwear and eat cereal and stream them for hours

late night shopping trips!! are absolutely a thing. they’ll ride the cart up and down the aisles and end up buying a bunch of junk they dont really need and always have a good time doing it

there’s almost always music playing in the flat if they’re not chatting or watching tv, it’s on quietly in the background because skip doesnt like total silence and penk sometimes likes to pull him up to dance (casually grabbing him on his way past to finish cleaning the kitchen or whatever he’s doing and spinning him around and kissing him on the nose). it’s not ALWAYS memey music though they do both know pretty much all of the dance routines to all of the late 90s early 00s classics and still sometimes teach themselves new ones on tipsy saturday nights (and use them to cheer each other up!! as with the macarena in that thing i did)

HELLO SORRY I HAVE BEEN RAMBLING FOR QUITE SOME TIME NOW GOOD ON YA IF YOU MADE IT THE ENTIRE WAY THROUGH AND ALSO I COULD PROBABLY GO ON ABOUT THESE TWO FOREVER AND EVER <3