#like hello people like different movies and shows and aesthetics whats wrong with you leave me be

[cicidraws]

mr magoriums wonder emporium is a movie that means so much to me feeling-wise as a kid, that i bought it for myself so i can always rewatch it

[dreamwritesimagines]

Twisted [Spencer Reid x Reader]

A.N.: So, here we go! 😁 Thank you so much for your wonderful support and lovely messages during my break my loves, they mean so much to me and ily! ❤ On my break, I binged a lot of shows, and Criminal Minds and Prodigal Son were two of them, but if you haven’t watched them don’t worry because it will not be following a specific canon plot😁❤Please let me know what you think and enjoy!❤

Warnings: Murder, drug use, serial killers, violence, manipulation

Summary: No one can choose their family.

If it were another time, you could’ve at least attempted to convince yourself how everyone had problematic childhoods. Focusing on something else usually worked, per the advices of countless psychiatrists your mother had forced you to go after the-

Incident.

Just the thought of it was more than enough to make your blood freeze in your veins, but you were soon snapped out of your thoughts when your phone started ringing. You checked the caller I.D, and heaved a sigh before you touched the screen.

“Hello?”

“Please tell me you’re not going there.” Your mother’s voice filled the car and you pressed your lips together.

“Hi mom.”

“Every time you go there and visit that man in that wretched prison cell of his, he manages to get into your head!”

“That’s not what’s going to happen,” you said, keeping your eyes on the road, “You have no reason to worry.”

“I have every reason to worry!” she snapped, “We promised that we wouldn’t let him worm his way into our lives.”

“Yeah well, FBI begs to differ,” you forced yourself to say, “You’ve seen the news—“

“I don’t want to hear this,” she cut you off, then heaved a sigh, “It’s terrible enough to hear it once, let alone twice.”

You never really had the luxury of ignoring all the terrible things on the news, especially after what had happened. Ever since you were a child, the nightmares wouldn’t leave you alone, and you weren’t as good as your mother at ignoring what was happening while you were awake.

“You could’ve said no.”

“I really couldn’t,” you mumbled and she clicked her tongue.

“Well then,” she said, trying to pull herself together, “I expect to see you at brunch, even your sister is coming. It won’t take long, will it?”

“It won’t take long to see my serial killer father and find out whether he is helping another serial killer even if he’s been behind bars for years?” you asked, “No mom. It shouldn’t take long.”

“Sarcasm will give you wrinkles.”

“Oh yeah, tragedy.”

“Call me as soon as you leave there,” she insisted, making you smile. “Promise me.”

“I promise,” you said as you pulled over in front of the building. Even the sight of it was enough to make your stomach flip and you felt the bile climbing up your throat.

You did not want to see him.

You had managed not to see him for years now, but now, the news were full of different coverage about a killer whose method of killing was very similar to him.

A flower left in the crime scene, every damn time.

Naturally, FBI wanted a word with the original killer. Less naturally, the original killer refused to speak unless he talked to his younger daughter, who happened to be you.

Unfortunately.

Yet, the sooner you walked in, the sooner you would walk out, and that was the only thing that offered any kind of consolation.

“God damn it,” you mumbled to yourself as you left your car, and made your way into the building. They patted you down, made you go through the x-ray and sign the papers before you entered the hall.

There were two men that weren’t in official prison guard clothes, which made you think these were the FBI agents you had talked to on the phone. For some reason, you hadn’t pictured them like this, but you didn’t know any agents so maybe this was the norm.

If it were any other time, you could’ve noticed how handsome they both were, but your mind was way too occupied.

“Ma’am,” the dark haired one stepped closer to you, “I’m Special Agent Luke Alvez, this is Dr. Spencer Reid.”

Even if Agent Alvez looked like the ideal FBI agent that was pulled out of an action movie, Dr. Reid looked more like a young, handsome professor, the ones that you dreamed would be at your university when you were still at high school.

Needless to say, that fantasy hadn’t come true much to your disappointment.

You shook your head, trying to focus.

“Y/N, it’s nice to meet you.” You shook hands with him, and smiled at Dr Reid, “Hello.”

“Thank you for coming.” His smile was soft, much like his gaze, “I imagine it’s not easy for you.”

You forced yourself to shrug, “Yeah it’s…” you trailed off and cleared your throat, “It’s fine.”

“So far we have seen five murders all over the country, in different areas but the crime scene has your father’s signature. It most likely means there are multiple copycat killers, and given your father’s past, he might be the mastermind behind it. He contacted us, but refuses to say anything unless he spoke to you.”

The goosebumps rising on your arms felt almost familiar.

“I haven’t been educated in any interrogation techniques.” You said, “And knowing him, he’s not just going to give that information to me.”

“People give information about a lot of things even when they don’t realize it.” Dr Reid said, “We will be outside, watching and listening.”

“I’ll talk to the guards to see if he’s ready, excuse me.” Alvez said and he walked away while you nibbled on your lip.

“How does a serial killer have this many privileges?” Reid asked you, “He has a private cell, books, TV…”

“Money,” you said slowly, “Money buys lawyers, lawyers buy freedom. Or the closest thing to freedom, given the circumstances. If you ask me, he should’ve been rotting in a hole but...” you trailed off, leaning back to the wall and took a deep breath, counting in your head.

“That’s a good exercise to calm down,” Reid said and your head shot up.

“What?”

“The 4 7 8 breathing exercise. I’m guessing a psychiatrist taught you that.”

“Several psychiatrists taught me that,” you stated, raising your brows, “You’re observant aren’t you professor?”

“Doctor.”

You clenched an unclenched your fists, your eyes darting around the hall,

“This is not helping,” you said as you exhaled a breath, “I need a cigarette, or twenty.”

“What do you do?” his question was so out of nowhere that you gawked at him for a moment.

“What?”

“What do you do?”

“I’m a— I’m a wedding planner.”

He tilted his head, “What’s that?”

“Well you…you know, you help the couples with color palettes, decoration, overall aesthetic, and during the wedding you make sure nothing goes wrong with the venue and the food and the music, all that. You make sure the wedding is perfect, basically.”

He hmmed, “How do I tell if a wedding is perfect? If we were talking sense wise?”

“Well first of all, in terms of looks, the colors need to complement each other,” you said, remembering your favorite events, “When you walk in, you see the garden and it’s well lit, but not too bright. In terms of touch, I guess you would make sure the table covers and such are soft to touch. The music should be slow at first, at least until it starts.”

“How about smell?”

“You can’t really go wrong with faint flower scents. Scented candles are a nice touch too.”

“The food?”

“Something light, most of the time. No one wants to get into a food coma at a wedding and you—“ you stopped as your eyes snapped up to his, a small smile playing at his lips.

He was making you list all the things that would ground you without making you realize you were doing it, so that you wouldn’t lose yourself in panic. It was yet another trick your psychiatrists had told you to do whenever you felt overwhelmed, talking about what you could see, hear, smell, touch and taste. By making you focus on a pleasant memory and remember all those, he was offering you a safe place in your own mind.

But contrary to any doctor, he didn’t make it obvious.

“Well played, professor.”

This time, he didn’t correct you,

“Grounding works most of the time,” he stated as Agent Alvez approached you, “I know this situation is less than ideal, but we will be right outside. You can walk out any time you want.”

“They’re ready.” Agent Alvez said and you nodded, trying to ignore the way your heart was slamming against your chest, then followed them to the door. Alvez opened the door for you, and you stepped inside, digging your fingernails into your palm.

His hair had more grays since you had last seen him, and his beard was longer, but that dangerous light in his eyes hadn’t changed. He looked up, a wide smile appearing on his face as his eyes searched yours.

“Sweetheart!” he said cheerfully, raising his hands a little so that you could see the chains attached to his handcuffs, “It’s been a while, wouldn’t you say?”

Pretending to be calm was something you had practiced so many times that your body knew automatically what to do. The door closed behind you and you swallowed thickly, making sure your face didn’t show any feelings. You slowly approached the table to pull yourself a chair, then put your phone on the table and started the countdown.

He wanted five minutes, and you would be damned if you stayed there a second longer.

“You look so much like your mother,” your father shook his head, “It’s uncanny, really.”

You gritted your teeth, still glaring at him.

“Not your eyes though,” he smiled, “You got your eyes from me. The window to the soul, hm?”

“My soul has nothing to do with you.” The words left your lips before you could stop them and he tut tutted.

“My petal-“

“Don’t call me that,” you cut him off, “I hate that nickname.”

That didn’t seem to break his enthusiasm though, much to your displeasure.

“Well, we should catch up,” he said , clapping his hands together, “Are you still with that young man from last year? He’d better be treating you well.”

You blinked a couple of times, “How did you-?”

“I have my sources too.”

“Your sources are slow then.” You stated, “We broke up months ago. Is that all? You brought me here to just talk about my personal life?”

“Why did you break up?”

“Are you really behind all these murders happening right now?” you asked back and he shot you a reprimanding look.

“None of that right now, petal. Business and family shouldn’t be merged, as you know.”

You felt like you would throw up, but managed to hold it together and stole a look at the countdown.

“Why did you break up?”

“Certain differences,” you said, cracking your fingers to distract yourself, and he leaned back.

“I get that,” he said, “If you’re different, you’re different. I always felt that with your mother—“

“Stop that.” You spat out, “Anything I do, including my relationships, it has nothing to do with you. I’m nothing like you.”

“Oh but you are,” he said, “It’s all in your eyes. In that deadly glare of yours. It’s there, isn’t it? That anger? Try to hide it as much as you want, it’s still burning you.”  

“There’s nothing burning me,” you said, “You’re fucked up, doesn’t mean I am too.”

“You know, there are many scientists that say murder is in the genes,” he stated, “So it would mean you’re contaminated too, no?”

The panic was pounding through your system, but you managed to keep your expression stable.

“Do you know why I didn’t ask your sister here? Or hell, your mother? Do you know why it is you?”

You stayed silent, your gaze focused on him.

“Your sister loved your mother, but you…. You were always such a daddy’s girl.”

“Wrong.”

“I don’t even think you cried for your mother whenever you scraped your knees, it was always me.”

“I didn’t know you were crazy when I was a child, guilty as charged. Doesn’t prove anything.”

“It does,” he said, “It proves more than you know. You are going to be my legacy.”

A cold shiver ran down your spine but you took a deep breath, resting your palms on the steel desk.

“No I won’t,” you said calmly, “Sorry to disappoint. I never killed anyone.”

Your father’s smile was almost as serene as your voice.

“Yet,” he pointed out, and you felt your throat tightening. “Ignore it if you want. It’s still there, petal.”

The beep of the phone made you snap out of it and you pushed your chair back, knocking it over in the process.

“Fuck you,” you said through your teeth as you gripped the door knob, “Have fun rotting in here.”

You swung the door open and stepped outside, still trying to catch your breath, and the door next to the interrogation room opened before Reid stepped into your vision. Your hands were still shaking and you desperately needed a cigarette and some fresh air.

But what you really needed was to get out of there.

“Y/N?”

“I hope you got whatever you guys needed,” you managed to say, wiping at your nose, “Because I’m never stepping a foot here, ever again.”

With that, you walked out of the hall, every cell in your body screaming at you to get away. You ignored the looks from the guards, tears blurring your vision and you left the building as fast as you could, as if someone was chasing you.

As if that could help you escape him.

Chapter 2

Taglist: @rhabakoli​ @theskytraveler​ @danyka-fendyr​ @alwaysadreamingoptimist​   @lettersofwrittencollective​ @dreamers-wonderland​ @lilliannaansalla​ @propertyofpoeandbucky​ @iblogabout-stuff​ @thinemineours​ @itsmyblogandillreblogifiwantto @davnwillcome​ @chibi-liz05​ @demigoddesofchimichangagod​ @finnickfoxes​

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Okay, I have thoughts about the new MCU Loki show, but especially about Mobius (perfect name for a guy whose job is protecting the timeline, by the way).

SPOILERS!

That was a master class in interrogation/deradicalization/recruitment. Possibly the best I’ve seen.

First off, there’s the usual TVA protocols - and I’m highly amused that an organization with extremely futuristic technology and an amazing-looking city deliberately designed their system on a 1980s-bureaucratic aesthetic, right down to the old-style animated video. It’s like they considered every single style from every single time people, country, and planet and decided that Earth-style-1980s-bureaucratic would be the most demoralizing.

Then Mobius comes in all friendly-like. And while that starting point is just standard good-cop-bad-cop, everything he does from then on is just outstanding. And we can reasonably assume that Mobius is coming in knowing everything about Loki, from his entire history and future to his psychological profile - after all, he’s been hunting other-Loki for a while now!

First off, Loki starts with threatening him, and Mobius is giving him absolutely nothing; just cheerful, casual agreement, ‘sure, why don’t you start with burning down my office,’ none of the fear or anger that threats are intended to provoke. At the same time, he takes Loki on a route that makes it unmistakeably clear just how impressive the TVA and their technology is; it’s on a level well beyond even Asgard, and it’s clear that Loki is picking up that the world is a good deal bigger than he’s accustomed to thinking about, and he’s a much smaller player in it than he believed. Mobius takes this moment of discomfiture as an opportunity to reassure Loki, present himself as a friend and build rapport; set up the feeling of ‘we’re on the same side here’. See, Mobius finds the bureaucratic system annoying too! And then, in the elevator, he mentions offhand that he just saved Loki’s life. He engages Loki in banter and wins a few exchanges.

In the cell, he starts off talking to Loki while facing away from him, and talks in an distracted tone. Rather than a standard interrogation setup with the interrogator trying to drag out information and the prisoner trying to stay silent, this creates a situation where Loki is trying to get his attention - as he just observed, Loki loves talking (and attention) - while also giving Loki an opening to attack, an attack that is immediately not only foiled but time-reversed, and which Moebius brushes off casually, thereby reinforcing that Loki is absolutely no threat.

To get Loki to start talking, he encourages Loki to try to manipulate him for future gain; after all, that’s Loki’s best available strategy under the circumstances, and not one he’s averse to (see: Grandmaster). He again emphasizes that Loki isn’t dangerous. He offers him unspecified benefits (he sounds like he is promising to let him go if he cooperates, but there is in fact no firm promise). And this gets Loki talking - especially since the questions are about himself, Loki’s favourite subject.

Now Mobius pulls out some truly incisive questions. (Note that this wouldn’t have worked without all the prior TVA stuff - it works because Loki is bewildered, wrongfooted, and placed in a situation where he’s got zero control. If you put Loki at the end of Avengers in a room and asked him those questions, he’d just laugh at you.) ‘What do you plan to do when you’re free?’ - which immediately reveals that Loki doesn’t want to do anything in particular with power; he diesn’t have any, like, policies; he wants power because it makes him feel powerful and successful. Then he butters him up with ‘I’m a fan; why limit yourself to just ruling?’

While the rest of the fandom is freaking out about Loki’s reaction to the MCU clips, the line that got me was his one about freedom: “For nearly everything living thing, choice breeds shame, and uncertainty, and regret. There’s a fork in every road, yet the wrong path - always taken.” Hello, projection! It’s a great window into Loki’s thinking in The Avengers (albeit a retconned one). “I’ve made terrible choices for myself that made me miserable, therefore I should make all the choices for everyone else” is of course a nonsensical idea, but Loki’s not operating on reason, just emotion.

The Mobius pulls out the video clips, first emphasizing Loki’s lack of success, and then pushing harder with “Do you enjoy hurting people?” Making him look at his actions from outside his own perspective. He keeps pushing, until Loki looks genuinely uncomfortable with his actions, and then, to counter the clips of him failing at conquest, invokes his title as ‘god of mischief’ and shows him succeeding at something genuinely mischievous. Be who are you really are. Be what you’re good at.

When Loki diverts from the topic at hand to rant about the TVA and his inevitable ascent to power, Mobius shows him the real outcome of his choices: imprisonment, and his mother’s death. Loki’s clearly emotionally affected, and Mobius presses his advantage; this is the first time in their entire interaction that he’s raised his voice. But Mobius then immediately returns to calm, and plays his masterstroke. Your predetermined role in the world is to cause pain and suffering. Is that what you want? It flips the narrative: suddenly, Loki returning to his quest for power and rule is compliance with the established order, and becoming a better person is defiance of it.

I don’t know if Loki’s escape is genuinely an error by the TVA, or if this is something orchestrated; the former is more probable, but the latter is a possibility - it’s seeing Infinity Stones thrown in a desk drawer like junk that takes Loki to the breaking point.

After the escape attempt, Mobius, in another great move, leaves Loki alone in the room rather than resuming the interrogation. It’s practically a guarantee that Loki will look at the rest of his future - there’s nothing else to do in the room, and it’s an irresistible opportunity - but at this point it’s more effective for him to feel that he’s acting freely that for Mobius to actively show it to him. And he’s also, obviously, more able to engage with his emotions when there’s no one else there (though the TVA is certainly observing him remotely, he’s not thinking about that).

And only then, when Loki’s coping with all those new realizations - both that his family loved him and that his life ended pointlessly - does Mobius come back. And then he at last gets genuine emotional vulnerability from Loki and, even more stunning, an admission of wrongdoing: that he’s been acting as a bully, harmimg others so he can feel strong. And it’s at that point, when Loki acknowledges himself a villain and is unhappy about it, that Mobius can make the offer of Loki helping on the case and have it feel like something he’s doing for Loki.

It’s the same deal it was at the beginning - help the TVA or die - but it feels very different to Loki. An opportunity rather than a threat. A choice he’s been given to do something different with his life.

And all this is nested within an episode that’s about the illusion of choice. Impressive.

Short version - I don’t see Mobius as Loki’s new best friend. I see him as a man who’s very, very good at his job. And I love competent characters.

I could be misreading it - I frequently read more into superhero movies and shows than is actually there - but that’s how it’s looking to me now.

[kittyanonymity]

Marinette is the daughter of Wonder Woman X Superman

Hey have this!!!! I was inspired by @eve-valution and their wonderful art!

Also like.... It’s really just an excuse for Mari to be ridiculously overpowered tbh; plus.... the aesthetic of this tiny adorable girl accidentally breaking things all the time, and getting super flustered over it. >.> It’s cute, ok? lol

Honestly, my original plan for this was Daminette, and this version is; but I might also make some adjustments for a Timinette version (I love them, they’re adorkable together ok)? I haven’t decided yet. ALSO this is just a basic outline; not the fic itself. I haven’t started the fic yet. Feel free to ask things though!! ALSO THIS AU IS CLASS FRIENDLY!!! 

~ DAMINETTE VERSION~

So in the latest DC animated movies, they’ve been pushing Diana/Clark pretty heavily while implying that despite Clark’s attraction to Diana, he’s still in love with Lois; this is seen pretty obviously when Diana and Clark go on a date, and Lois shows up. Clark immediately puts space between him and Diana and honestly, it’s a little telling. (this is all in stark contrast to the Justice League cartoon from the 90’s/early 2000’s, where Diana and Bruce ((Wonder Woman and Batman)) were shipped pretty heavily) Talk about baby’s first OTP, am I right? XD

ANYWAY THE POINT IS THIS.

Lois and Clark are together, like they’re getting married. (somewhere in the world, Damian is turning one; this is relevant later.) One night, Superman has a ‘moment of weakness’, and him and Wonder woman bang. BOOM! Pregnant.

Diana is rightfully upset, as Clark immediately tells her this was a mistake, they never should’ve done that. He goes back to Lois, and they don’t speak outside of the Watchtower anymore. Diana does not tell him when she finds out she’s pregnant. She goes to Bruce, tells him she’ll be out of commission for up to 3 years.

Bruce is rightfully concerned, but Diana doesn’t tell him what’s wrong. He assures her she can leave; they’ll keep it together out here while she rests in Themyscira. She feels bad for not telling him, but resolves to do it later. Home she goes, to see her mom and the rest of the Amazons!

Her mother is disgusted by Clark’s conduct, but Diana has always wanted to have a child. They know it will be a daughter: it always is, Hippolyta says conspiratorially. The pregnancy is interesting, and many of the Amazons are startled at how quickly their princess can finish her projects. Hippolyta watches on in concern; her daughter has become startlingly creative during these months, and as a previous Ladybug that can mean only one thing.

Tikki will be back in the family soon.

Hippolyta says nothing about this to Diana, not wanting to alarm her daughter.

When Marinette is born with dark hair, and blue eyes there is no surprise. Diana stares at her daughter as if she is the most beautiful thing to have ever existed, and to her, she is. Marinette spends 3 years on Themyscira, learning from her mother, grandmother, and all of her many sisters. She’s an excitable child, with a penchant for marking walls with whatever she can draw. She grasps language easily, and much quicker than anyone would think possible.

But Diana has a duty. She must return to the outside world to assist the league. She thinks of the outside world, how it has taught her, hurt her, but ultimately made her stronger; and she knows that she wants Marinette to have all of that and more. So she contacts an old friend in Paris.

Sabine had left Themyscira many years prior, once Diana had cleared the way for the other Amazons to venture out. She’d fallen in love with a baker, and though the 2 couldn’t have children of their own, they were excellent people. People Diana knew she could entrust Marinette with. Sabine agreed after they discussed it extensively.

Diana would come see Marinette regularly once she was 10, giving the girl some years to mature, and come to terms with her mother’s identity. Diana assured Sabine she’d send any and all support requested, along with letters and gifts for Marinette as she grew. Diana hated to leave her daughter, but seeing as she would constantly be in danger once again, she couldn’t bear to put Marinette through that. Diana tells Sabine who Marinette’s father is, so they can be ready.

Sabine threatens to cut his dick off, which Diana laughs at. Diana and Marinette live with Sabine and Tom for a year, letting Marinette get to know and love them; and then Diana tells Marinette she has to go, the world needs her.

And Marinette just nods, giving her mother a smile.

“I know mommy.”

Good byes and I love you’s are exchanged, and after many tears, Diana finally manages to tear herself away, and she leaves. There is a hole in her heart the size of the Earth, but Diana has a job to do.

This is the world where Marinette lives now too, and she must do all she can to keep her daughter’s world safe.

Clark and Lois get married while Diana is away, and Jonathan is born; he’s only a year younger than Marinette, and 2 years younger than Damian like in canon. Clark is curious as to where Diana disappeared to, asking around, but the only one who knows is Bruce. And when Clark asks, Bruce simply shrugs.

“She told me she’d be gone for a few years. I didn’t press her for details. Everyone needs a break, Superman.”

Clark didn’t like it; he was worried. For her to disappear so abruptly… Surely she hadn’t truly loved him? Clark hates himself as he thinks about it, regret permeating him. He does his best to not think about it.

At least until Diana shows back up, 4 years later, and a little more jaded than she used to be. Bruce welcomes her back with a small smile, and a nod. Diana doesn’t even look at Clark.

And for Clark, it’s enough to just know that she’s safe. He doesn’t blame her for hating him; he kinda hates him too.

Literally none of the League know about Marinette; Diana doesn’t tell fucking anyone.

Miraculous canon happens as normal, only difference is that Lila is fucking gone after the Volpina incident. She’s gone after that, no return, nothing. I hate that girl, and honestly, I just wanna write something where Marinette’s friends love her, without the class drama. I can’t forgive the Miraculous writers for doing that to the students. Chat is still pretty pushy in his pursuit of Ladybug, but not in an exaggerated way. However, it does still cause some eventual complications that he needs to learn and grow from. Minimum bashing should be involved, and it will be centered around pointing out the toxic things he does, and him correcting those behaviors. Adrien is my boi and I love him.

ANYWAY.

When Marinette is 10, Diana shows up to see her. Marinette has known that Sabine wasn’t her real mother; Mari still calls Sabine Maman though cause like… the woman raised her, duh. Marinette loves Diana, even though she doesn’t remember what her mother looks like. Diana always remembers her birthday, and all of the holidays; Marinette has saved every letter, and gift her mother has ever sent her. She doesn’t realize her mother is Wonder Woman yet. Well, at least until she shows up on her 10th birthday. Marinette recognizes her as the heroine instantly, but says nothing; she’s seen movies, she knows secret identities are important!

Over the years, Sabine has kept Diana informed on the progression of Marinette’s… abilities. Look, the girl is a split between the Amazonian princess, and a Kryptonian. God only knows what she’ll be able to do. So far, Marinette has displayed signs of super strength and speed, and most recently flight; she’s got the enhanced senses as well, and she carries ear plugs with her when they go out. Diana is happy to know though, that Marinette has a strong sense of right and wrong. She owes Sabine a great debt of gratitude, and knows she’ll never be able to thank the woman enough for raising their (because yeah, Marinette is theirs now) daughter.

(Marinette goes to school, excited to tell everyone about her 2 mommies and her daddy. Despite Diana not being romantically involved with them…. Yet???? Maybe????? HMMMM)

After Marinette turns 10, Diana makes a point to visit every spring for her daughter’s birthday, and to check in on things. The day of Marinette’s 14th birthday, Diana steps off of the plane, and on her way to the Dupain-Cheng bakery, she witnesses her first akuma. Preparing to step in, Diana freezes when Ladybug and Chat Noir appear on the scene.

Diana recognizes Marinette on sight, and the spots are familiar. She remembers her mother, the stories of Tikki, and the adventures they had, the evils they stopped. She remembers how anxious her mother was during her pregnancy, when Diana could not stop drawing, writing, whatever she could be doing.

Marinette is a pure soul of creation, born of Tikki’s essence, and she is Diana’s daughter, an Amazon, and half kryptonian.

Diana watches her daughter fight, hands clenched at her sides. The Amazon in her demanding she see this through, watch her daughter be the fierce warrior she is meant to be; the mother in her is clawing at her throat, preventing her from speaking with the force of her panic.

And Marinette is an excellent fighter. Diana recognizes many of the moves she used to practice while they were still on the island, and they’ve been refined, polished, and put on display to show the world. It had to be Sabine’s handiwork, teaching her this. Did Sabine know she was Ladybug? No, she would’ve told Diana first thing.

Diana does not intervene, watching Ladybug win, and undo the damage.

Once the akuma is dealt with, Diana follows her daughter as she swings away and finds a quiet place to de-transform.

“My little light, you have exactly 2 minutes to tell me what is going on.”

Marinette jumps a mile, whipping around to see her mother, and then Tikki is smiling, hugging Diana’s cheek.

“Diana! It’s been too long!” Diana gives the kwami a smile.

“Hello, Tikki, mother misses you.”

Marinette is dumbfounded.

Diana explains everything, about how she knows, and why; tells her about Hippolyta, and her connection to the Miraculous. It was the most exciting and stressful birthday yet.

Diana starts making more regular trips to Paris to assist her daughter when she needs the extra help; since Diana is generally fairly good at keeping her emotions in check, it works out. Marinette works extra hard to make sure she keeps her extra abilities in check.

She uses her powers in small subtle ways; using her flight to get a better distance out of a yo-yo swing, but doing it in a way where it’s unnoticeable to the standard eye. Or using her x ray vision to avoid people she doesn’t want to see. She lets herself be clumsy, and careless with her movements in her daily life, making sure none of her friends can ever make the connection between her and Ladybug later on; before Ladybug, she’s clumsy so she doesn’t draw attention to her powers. The only one who knows she has powers is Nino.

It’s hard to explain to your childhood friend why you’re flying after all; he had been there the first time she’d accidentally used this new power. OOPS

All abilities/side effects Mari has:

-Super strength

-super senses (hearing, sight, smell, etc ((is taste usually included in this???? hm)))

-Enhanced vision (x-ray, thermal)

-Flight

-Super speed (bout as fast as Superman if she tries hard enough)

-Ladybug luck

-Martial arts/various fighting styles

-Amazon swordfighting & archery

Side effects:

-Sluggish in Winter thanks to Ladybug things; will hibernate if she gets too cold

-Has bursts of creative energy that keep her up far longer than she should be; usually crashes afterwards; these will stop as she gets older, and gets a better handle on her Ladybug powers.

-Gets sick easily during the cold months

-Kryptonite hurts her, obviously; she gets a wicked migraine, and nausea; usually her vision gets bad too.

Marinette’s personality doesn’t change all that much, really. She’s still undeniably kind, and selfless, always going out of the way for her friends. She’s a bit more vocal about her sense of justice, not putting up with bullies. Chloe gets her redemption a bit early because of this. Marinette is also not afraid to just absolutely throw down and brawl if you’re being a violent asshole. Like, damn. She is tiny, but she will miss you up.

ANYWHO.

With Diana making frequent trips to Paris, it catches Bruce’s eye, and he of course gets suspicious. The French government has been keeping the situation with the Akumas under wraps for about 3 years now, no news escaping the country. Marinette is currently 16, Diana has been helping her deal with hard to handle akumas for 2 years; Damian is 17, and Jon is 15.

So when Bruce looks into Diana’s activity in Paris, he’s startled to find little to nothing about Wonder Woman. An article briefly mentions something called an ‘akuma’ but then there’s no further mention. Instead he finds records of Diana Prince shacking up with a married couple and their daughter.

When Bruce finds a picture of Diana standing with the Dupain-Chengs, his breath leaves him. She is staring at the girl in the picture with such a proud adoring gaze, and he would have to be blind to miss the resemblance. The girl’s age lines up with when Diana left, and Bruce remembers how unusually concerned Clark had been about her location.

He’s the world’s greatest detective, and the pieces are too easy to put together.

SO Bruce Wayne does what Bruce Wayne always does.

Finds a way to get information.

He invites Francois-Dupont to his yearly student seminar, meant to help students get a jump start on their careers. They must prove why they deserve to attend, like all the schools invited, in the form of an essay, accompanied by a video of their school.

Mlle. Bustier’s class is selected as the class to make the video representing the school; Marinette and Alya volunteer to head the project with audio assistance from Nino, while Adrien offers to help with the budget. The class comes together to offer some kind of assistance or another, even Chloe, who goes out of her way to help the class plan. Marinette writes the basic video out, how it should look, what it should say.

But they need a narrator.

The class unanimously votes for Marinette.

“You know us better than anyone, Nette. It’s gotta be you.”

“Everyone knows you here, Mari; you’re the sweetest girl in the school.”

“A WELCOME VIDEO!”

It’s Alya who shouts it, grinning at the class.

“It’ll be a welcome video with Marinette showing a ‘new kid’ around!”

Marinette’s gotta admit, it’s genius; the class agrees, and planning begins in earnest now that they have a better idea for it.

All of their carefully laid plans fall to pieces when their high end camera breaks the day they need to film. Everyone is shouting, stress is high, and Rose is crying. Marinette knows she needs to do something before an akuma shows up, but then she hears a yelp, and she looks over to see a first year stumble back as Kim knocks into her. Marinette’s there in an instant, steadying the girl on her feet, and giving her a smile.

“Are you ok?”

She’s unaware of Adrien watching her with a fond smile, while he elbows Alya; Alya stops yelling at Chloe long enough to look over, and quickly take her phone out, and press record. The classes attention immediately shifts, the tension all but disappearing.

The first year nods hesitantly.

“Y-yes I’m ok. It’s just my first day here, a-and I’m…” The dark haired girl bit her lip, looking at the floor, “I’m really scared.” Marinette frowned for a moment before she smiled, and took the girls’ hand.

“I’m Marinette, what’s your name?” The girl sniffled, rubbing at her eyes.

“My name’s Bridgette.” Marinette nodded, her smile growing.

“It’s nice to meet you. Sorry about my friend Kim over there. He gets a little excitable sometimes.” Bridgette offered her a smile.

“It’s ok. It looked interesting so I wanted to get closer, but I wasn’t paying much attention.” Her eyes fell, and she looked off to the side, but Marinette gripped her hand gently, causing her to look up.

“I can show you around the school if you like. Everyone here is really nice, I promise. We look after each other the best we can, and you can always ask one of us for help.” Marinette gestures to her classmates, who offer Bridgette encouraging smiles. It’d been awhile since they’d seen Marinette work her particular brand of magic. Bridgette’s smile grew, and she finally nodded.

“I’d really appreciate that, Marinette thank you.” Marinette simply waved her off.

“It’s fine! We’ll make it fun!” She turned to her class, missing Alya hiding behind Adrien, still recording.

“I’ll be back in a bit guys. Come find me when you get the camera replaced.”

The camera panned around Adrien’s back as Marinette turned away, and began leading Bridgette further into the school. Alya hurried to catch up, the class following shortly after.

Marinette showed the young girl all around the building, from her homeroom class, and to each individual classroom so the girl would never be lost. And she talked to her, learning that Bridgette had just recently moved there from Italy, escaping her old school and the torment she’d endured there. It burned Marinette to know that someone had been so cruel to such a sweet girl, but Bridgette assured her it was fine since she wasn’t there anymore. Marinette in turn, assured her that no one at Dupont would ever treat her so cruelly. And if anyone did happen to do so, she should come find her immediately.

Bridgette laughed, flushing pink.

“Thanks, Mari!” Bridgette’s gaze grew wistful, “It’s been awhile since I’ve laughed with a friend.”

And Marinette was resplendent in her joy, pulling the girl into a gentle hug.

“We’ll look out for you, Bridgette. You can count on us.” The girl returned the embrace, nodding. After a moment, the two girls pulled back, and Bridgette smiled.

“Thanks for caring, Mari.” Marinette shrugged, giving her a smile.

“You’re worth it, Bridgette, remember that.” She nodded her head towards a classroom, “But you should probably get to class now. I think you’re really late. I’ll have a talk with Mr. Beaumont about why right after my class and I finish this project, ok? Just tell him Marinette will explain, and he should understand.” Bridgette nodded, thanking her again, before kissing her cheek, and heading to her classroom. Marinette watched her go with a smile, and sighed, before turning to head back to her class.

Only to promptly freeze at the sight of them behind her, grinning in glee, Alya at the front, phone held high.

Marinette flushed bright red.

“Guys, what’re you doing?” Alya clicked end on the recording and grinned at her best friend.

“Getting our video of course!”

Marinette was certain she was going to die. Or combust on the spot. God, what if she actually did though, and it was just another damn power to worry about???

Needless to say, she’s embarrassed. But once the class reviews the video, they find it to be perfect. They were able to stay close enough to hear Bridgette’s and Marinette’s conversation, and hear Marinette explaining things to her. Nino took the audio and boosted it in certain parts, and making sure to edit out any personal information the girls discussed during the tour.

The video coupled with the 15 page essay Marinette submits secures their spot in the seminar.

Meanwhile, when Diana hears Marinette gushing about their school being invited to the annual Wayne Seminar, she is immediately suspicious. She finds Bruce within the day, appearing in the Batcave with no preamble; Bruce is waiting for her.

He offers her a drink. And Diana sighs, because he definitely already knows; so she accepts his drink, and they sit.

And they talk.

He asks why she didn’t tell him, he would’ve helped her. And Diana laughs, and it’s surprisingly good natured.

“Bruce, you would’ve killed him back then. Don’t think I don’t know how much you two hated each other back then.” She sighed, “You idiots were finally about to be friends, and if I’d told you what he’d said, what we’d done…” She snorted, “I was quite sure you would’ve killed him.” Bruce didn’t deny her accusations, nor did he accept them.

“What’s she like?” And Bruce watched Diana’s whole body relax, a small smile on her face as she swirled the liquor in her glass.

“She is the best thing that has ever existed for me in this world. She’s my little light, and I will see that this world is safe for her.” Bruce thought of his sons, his daughters, and he nodded.

“And her powers?” Diana’s grin grew broad, and she raised her fist.

“She is strong, Bruce. The strongest.” Again, Bruce nodded, having a drink from his glass as Diana stared him down, “If you hurt her while she is in your care, Bruce, we will have problems. You know this?” Bruce sat his glass down, reaching for the bottle to refill his cup.

“I know, Diana. My intentions are purely curious, I promise you.” He smiled, a small upturn of his lips, “She was the star of their video, you know.”

He shows her the video the class submitted, edited to include the class singing the praises of their class president as an intro, before it cut to some footage taken on a cell phone. It followed Marinette around as she guided a younger student around the school, offering advice, and going out of her way to help the girl. The footage ended with the girl’s blushing face before it cut to an outro featuring the Journalist of the class, Alya Cesaire. Alya had said that since Marinette was writing the essay, she knew her friend wouldn’t include her own good deeds, and since Alya was in charge of the video, she’d take care of it here.

And Diana watched her daughter’s best friend proudly declare Marinette’s achievements, and her aspirations; the good she’d done, and the bad she’d prevented, or outright ended.

Bruce pretended not to notice Diana’s tears.

OOF I DID NOT MEAN TO WRITE THAT MUCH OF THAT WOW

Ok so anyway, trip to Gotham gets secured cause of all that. Master Fu will send Kaalki with Marinette as an assured countermeasure against akumas, and Diana promises she will stay in Paris while Marinette is in Gotham. This assures Marinette that between her mom, Viperion, and Ryuuko they could hold their own until she could get there.

To Gotham! YAY!

They land mid afternoon, check into the hotel, and fucking sleep. That’s it.

Next day, they have a guided tour of the Gotham Natural History museum, which is super dope, and everyone is excited; except for Chloe, because even redeemed she’s kind of a brat. I love her. Marinette meets Tim first in this one. Tim is at the Museum because as CEO of Wayne Enterprises he is donating something to the museum. They bump into each other, and she knocks him down.

Tim is kind of stunned cause this tiny pixie like girl just knocked right into him and didn’t even budge, holy shit. And Marinette is stumbling over her words as she apologizes, and helps Tim up, and wow, that is one hell of a grip for someone that size, what the fUCK. Tim is properly dismayed, but waves off her concern good naturedly, saying he shouldn’t have been standing in the middle of the hallway like an idiot; Marinette flushes brighter, insisting she should’ve been paying more attention.

And then Jason shows up, cause like damn Tim, what the hell is taking you so long?

Looks at Marinette.

Hey isn’t she a bit young for you, Drake?

(in another timeline this would probably be a fun Timinette AU, I won’t lie. hmmmmmmm…..)

Tim rolls his eyes at Jason’s antics, offering Marinette a grimace.

‘Sorry about him, he’s deplorable. Again I’m sorry for running into you’

Marinette laughs it off, shaking her head

‘I’m so sorry for knocking you down. I’ll make sure to pay more attention.’

Tim and Jason leave, Jason offering her a wide grin and a little wave; Marinette just shakes her head in amusement, and catches up with the class.

MEANWHILE, SOMEWHERE ELSE IN THE MUSEUM

Damian and Jon are hanging out; Jon has decided to come and pester him since his school, Metropolis Prep, is also invited to the seminar, and Damian likes his friend, he really does, but *god* he is suffering right now. Jon is making comments left and right, and Damian is about to lose it.

‘Ooh, am I making you mad, Wayne?’

Damian glares at his friend.

‘Stop talking. My head is killing me, and I am *this* close to killing *you*.’

Jon just laughs, and Damian rolls his eyes.

After awhile of wandering around, looking at things, they go get some lunch in the cafeteria. There’s a large group of French students taking up one of the tables, one dark haired girl standing while the others are sitting; there’s a map and a notebook spread out in front of her. Damian watches as she smiles at her classmates, writing things in the notebook, while marking things on the map.

‘Oh, that’s cool!’

Damian looks at Jon, ‘What?’ Jon grins.

‘They’re planning on what they want to see while in Gotham.’

‘How do you know?’ Jon rolls his eyes as they get some food.

‘Damian. I have super powers, idiot.’ Damian snorts.

‘Doesn’t explain your incompetence though.’

Both boys miss the wide eyed stare Marinette is giving Jon from her table.

She hadn’t MEANT to hear him, but when you can hear pretty much everything, eavesdropping is inevitable; doesn’t mean she has to like it though.

Also, wow that boy looks so much like her?? How weird.

She and the class finish planning other places they’d like to go, while Marinette turns the list of locations into Miss Bustier for her to review. They had a basic schedule set up, but their teacher had allowed them to see Gotham for what it was before finalizing things.

After lunch, their tour resumes, and Jon and Damian find themselves along the same path as Marinette’s class. They’ve moved past some of the older cultural items, and are entering the room of heroes and villains. Wax replicas of Batman, all of the Robins’, Black Bat, Batgirl, and various big name villains line the walls. Damian was on edge the entire time, not quite listening to Jon’s rambling.

And well OF COURSE something goes wrong, because you can’t have the Dupont kids go anywhere with no problems.

Two Face steps down from where his figure used to be, unloading his gun into the ceiling. He thinks he’ll have an easy time taking this French class hostage.

He is not prepared for these kids.

Alix and Kim tag team a couple of his henchmen with support from Max who has outfitted Markov with some new tech as well. Juleka (who has been tapped for the Lion Miraculous before) and Rose (who’s used the Mouse) take one down, while Ivan smashes two more henchmen together, shielding Mylene. Alya takes the knees out another one while Nino comes across his jaw with a hard left cross. Nathaniel is in front of Sabrina, shielding her when Chloe comes down hard on the henchman in front of them.

Adrien and Marinette go for Two Face, each of them a bit surprised at how the other moved.

And Damian is shocked stupid, watching this French class absolutely decimate one of Gotham’s finest rogues.

Meanwhile Jon is stuck staring at the duo. Between looking at the cute blonde boy, or the dark haired girl who is *WAY* stronger than she looks; especially if she can throw Two Face around one handed, damn.

And Marinette is more concerned with keeping her friends safe than hiding her abilities, and she probably moves too fast, and uses too much strength; her classmates buy her excuse of her extra martial arts classes outside of class.

Damian however does not.

And then the police show up, shocked to find this group of criminals subdued by a group of foreign teenagers.

The second Damian is out of the museum, losing Jon for a moment in the chaos, he calls his father.

“Why didn’t you tell me there was a meta among that French class you invited?”

Damian can practically his father shrug.

“It’s not my business to tell, Damian. Just talk to her.”

He growled as his father ended the call; the man knew something, he knew it.

And thus begins the chronicles of Damian trying to figure out WTH is going on with Marinette; which leads to friendship. Damnit.

This is where the typical getting to know you Daminette stuff will happen.. Including dates, and identity reveals.

The biggest conflict of this is honestly dealing with Superman when he finds out. Marinette has known who her father was since she was 10 years old, when she learned her mother’s identity; but Diana didn’t officially tell her until her 14th birthday, after the akuma incident.

“No more secrets, little light; I will tell you everything.” Diana had said; and she had.

Marinette is glad to have Tom, because wow her real father sounds like a dickhead.

When she officially meets Jon (Damian introduces them), she immediately realizes ‘well fuck, I have a little brother???? And he’s best friends with the boy I have a crush on, shit.’

Anyway, Superman finds out Diana had a daughter, their daughter, after the trip to Gotham concludes, and he immediately heads for Paris as Superman. He finds Diana as Wonder Woman talking to a young girl in Red with black spots, but Superman is set on speaking to Diana as he lands, and starts striding up to her.

“We need to talk.” Diana stares at him dispassionately as he walks up.

“I have nothing to say to you. Leave.”

Clark reaches out for Diana’s hand, only to have his wrist grabbed by the girl in red; who is glaring up at him fiercely. Wow her grip is tight…

“If you touch my mother, I will decimate you.”

And Clark is reeling, because holy shit, this is his daughter; his and Diana’s blood. And Clark just looks at Diana, conflicted.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Diana?” Diana shrugged.

“Telling you would not have changed the outcome. I have always wanted a child, and she is everything I need of this world. Why would I tell you?”

“Because she’s my blood too! She’s kryptonian!” And the girl growls, and then she is hovering in front of his face, blocking his view of Diana. Her eyes are a blazing blue behind her mask, and Clark realizes: she can fly.

“I may share your blood, Superman, but I am not Kryptonian; I am an Amazon. I am Ladybug. And I will not listen to you berate my mother for her choices. She told you to leave, and I can assure you, I won’t be as nice when I demand your absence.”

And Clark is just. Stunned. Because yeah, that was definitely an Amazonian level threat she just gave him; but he’s Superman, and yeah, she’s his daughter, but how strong could she be? Should he push the matter?

Clark watches as other heroes slowly appear behind the girl; One clad in orange, one in green; A fox and turtle respectively. Then there’s the one in black, green eyes narrowed at him; a feral cat, it looks like. Then there’s the one in yellow and rusty orange, a snarl marring her lips; a Bee?? Or a Hornet?? The final two are teal and red, a boy and a girl; a snake, and a… dragon?

What has his daughter been up to in Paris?

Grief swells within him, and he sighs.

“Ok, I’ll-”

Ladybug screams.

“Hello Superman, I am Hawkmoth.”

And that’ll be the final fight of this fic I think! They’ll beat akumatized Superman (batfam Zetas in to help, and so does Jon and Connor), and then Clark leads them to Hawkmoth’s base, and Gabriel is dealt with, along with Nathalie. Marinette and Adrien will both do university in America, with Adrien learning under Bruce about business along with Damian (the 2 become surprisingly good friends after a point), and Marinette accepted Audrey’s internship while she goes to school in New York. She frequently pops over to the manor to see the Batfam.

I’m gonna work on the Timinette version of this next; that ship is so adorkable and I *LOVE* it

There may also end up being a Jasonette version?? I haven’t decided yet tbh

[agustdomain]

October Ink | #1

You and Donghyuck have big plans to show off your couple costumes Halloween night. Nothing’s going to ruin that... right?

You should’ve brought your bag to school today. Huffing, you adjusted your binder and books in your arms once more, cursing Donghyuck out in your mind. How did he convince you that your backpack was going to throw off your couples costume?

It wasn’t unbelievable that the Wasp and Ant-man wouldn’t carry backpacks. 

The air smelled of pumpkins and damp leaves, and as the sun set up ahead, you tilted your head back, welcoming the chilly air. Kids ran by with their halloween bags, their giggles making you smile.

You truly loved fall. There was nothing like it. Of course, Christmas was magical. Spring reminded you that the warmth was coming, so cherish the pastel aesthetic. Fall? It was travelling to another dimension.

The book on the bottom of your stack started to slip out of your arms again, so you prepared yourself to heave them up- only for hands to jab your sides and a low voice in your ear. You jumped, your books flying to the sidewalk as you sent your elbow flying back into the attacker’s stomach. 

“Shit!” You instantly recognized the voice, reeling around to see Jeno doubled over, looking more comical than ever in his skeleton costume. “You didn’t recognize my voice?!”

“Yeah, because I’m supposed to guess it’s you by your evil growl. What’s wrong with you?!”

“I literally just saw you! We were just in stats together. We live in the same neighborhood, for crying out loud.”

“It’s Halloween. My eyes are on the lookout for dolls in striped shirts and babysitter slashers.”

Jeno rolled his eyes, grabbing your books like they were the weight of pillows. He matched your pace- well, you had to match his but that's besides the point. 

“I forgot how jumpy you could be.”

You side-eyed him, never being able to stay mad at him for long. You’d known him for the duration of high school, and he was probably the sole reason you were so bad at math. How could you focus when he was always making witty remarks underneath his breath that made you laugh?

“You and Hyuck are still going to Yeji’s party tonight right?”

“Yes, Jeno, I already told you. Besides, he insists on showing off our costumes.”

“They are pretty cool. I would’ve gone for Cap and Black Widow though.”

You scoffed. “If that were the case, it would be HULK and Black Widow.”

The two of you proceeded to argue over Black Widow’s true soulmate, eventually settling on your agreement that Natasha deserved better in general.

The conversation shifted, Jeno complaining about how Jaemin spent too much time in October trying to prank him. You teased him, throwing his own line of “I forgot how jumpy you could be”. He brushed it off with a roll of his eyes and a plan to scare the shit out of Jaemin at the party tonight. 

You humored him, daydreaming about how cute Donghyuck would look in his Ant-Man suit. 

“Well, this is me,” You nodded, like he didn’t know this was your house.

He handed over your books. Jeno waited for you to climb up the steps and unlock your front door, smiling and waving as you turned to give him a nod. 

Just before he disappeared out of view you called, “You couldn’t have come up with a better costume? I mean, skeleton?”

He stretched his arms out. “I’m Johnny. From Karate Kid? Get it together, Y/N.”

Shaking your head, you went inside. 

A few hours passed, and you spent most of the time eating too much candy and getting pulled back to the tv to watch Halloween when you should’ve been doing your homework. Why do teachers want to kill any sort of joy?

It was 8 pm, Donghyuck was going to pick you up in thirty minutes and you were cursing yourself out for watching Michael Myers running around killing people more than doing this last assignment. 

You drilled away at your laptop, muting the tv and opting to play a spooky playlist on Spotify. Here and there, you’d get pulled away from the couch to hand out candy. You really were a hero. 

There was a page left of your essay, and your fingers were aching. You didn’t want to hear Donghyuck’s whining if you weren’t ready when he pulled up. A part of you wished that you had just gone to your parents’ work party- nope. Even now, you refused to mentally agree with that.

Phone going off, you prepared yourself to come up with a smooth apology- only to be graced with good luck. 

baby                8:27 pm  

 Running a few minutes late. Should be there by 9. 

He was lucky your parents were a little lenient on Halloween. Though, that only gave you two, maybe three hours at the party. You texted him back quickly, feeling good about being able to BS the rest of your essay in time. 

The extra time loosened up your worries, even forcing yourself to take a bathroom break. When you came back, you settled in and got to work finishing up.

With a few minutes to spare, you finished and printed it out, putting it away in your bag. There was nothing like the excitement that hit you then. Yeji’s parties were always fun, though you didn’t get to go often. It was a miracle your parents let you on a Thursday. Like you said, leniency. 

You spent the last few minutes eating pretzels and catching the beginning of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Getting caught up in the movie, you didn’t realize that quite a few minutes have passed. When you checked your phone next, your eyes widened at the 9:34 pm displayed on your lock screen. Usually, you’d catch yourself admiring the photo of Donghyuck kissing your cheek, a huge smile on your lips. Not this time.

Lowering the volume, you clicked his name and called him. You waited and waited, the fourth ring passing by… the fifth. After it went to voicemail, you tried again. Still no answer. You texted him, wondering what was going on. 

A text came in and you clicked it, your shoulders relaxing only to deflate at Jeno’s name. 

jeno                  9:38 pm

“YeS JeNo. I aLrEaDy ToLd YoU-”

MY ASS! Where are you????

Texting him quickly, you realized that the reason your heart was beating so fast was because Donghyuck never did this. Even if he ran late, he always kept you in the loop. This was not the night for him to be pranking you. 

We are! Donghyuck said he’d be here by 9 and he’s not picking up the phone. 

I’m worried. He never does this. 

The three dots showed up, then disappeared. After a minute that felt like a mile, Jeno texted back. 

jeno.               9:41 pm

Don’t freak out. I’m sure it’s fine. You want me to come over? Jaemin can drive. He’s the DD. 

The thought made you feel better, and it took everything in you not to say yes. You had to think clearly though and not jump to conclusions. It was only thirty minutes. Donghyuck could’ve been driving, or fell asleep, or just hasn’t seen his phone. 

Your phone started ringing, making you jump. You breathed deeply as you answered Jeno’s call. 

“Hey,” You tried to control your tone, not wanting to ring any alarm bells. It was loud on Jeno’s end, music making it hard to hear him

“Did you see my text? Jaemin and i can head over if you want.”

He already sounded a bit gone, but you appreciated his concern. Breathing in deeply, you made a choice.

“It’s fine. I’ll give him some time.”

“Alright, well let me know. Doesn’t matter what time it is. And you shouldn’t be moping around alone on Halloween anyways. If I find out he flaked on you, I will pummel him-”

“Relax, it’s okay. I’m sure something came up. He’ll be here soon.”

You hung up, ropes tightened taut in your stomach and making it hard to breathe let alone think. Putting your phone down, you tried focusing on the tv. It didn’t work, picking it up again and calling Donghyuck. No answer. 

Sweat was beginning to build at your lower back, so you pulled off the top of your costume. It was okay, you had to tell yourself. Don’t jump to conclusions. As much as you loved Halloween, it always made you extra jumpy. 

All the candy and worry made you queasy, so you went to the kitchen to look for something to eat. Not in the mood to make anything, you pulled out some leftovers from last night. Right as you grabbed it from the fridge, three loud bangs came from the front door. 

Almost dropping the container, relief flooded your veins as you closed the fridge and put the container on the counter, beelining for the front door. 

Your hand paused on the knob, eyes finding your phone. If it was Donghyuck, he would’ve called. Peeking out the peephole, your breath went still at the lone figure on your porch, clothed in black, a wolf mask with a snarling mouth hiding their face. 

Their hands were in their pockets, no bag for candy in sight. 

This wasn’t Donghyuck. Your gut was screaming at you that this wasn’t a trick or treater either. 

Your phone went off then, but you hesitated to look away from the peephole. Debating what to do, you raced for your phone and back to the door. 

They hadn’t moved, like they were a mere decoration on your front porch. You picked up the phone, breathless. “Hello?”

“What do you want?” 

Your eyebrows drew together, pulling the phone away to see it was Donghyuck. It was him, his voice, everything. Why was he so mad?

“What do you mean? Where are you?”

“Like you care. What, regretting it already?”

Blinking, stranger on the porch forgotten, you searched for words. Your mouth worked for you. “Regret what? What are you talking about’?”

“Stop calling me. Texting me. You think you can just dump me and pretend it didn’t happen?”

You couldn’t breathe for a different reason now, mind muddled. “What? I- Donghyuck, I didn’t break up with you. What are you even talking about?”

“Y/N. You just texted me after I said I’m running late. Told me to go fuck myself and you were done. What, you have short memory now? Real nice.”

You were unable to breathe, goosebumps breaking out against your skin. Turning back to the front door, you uttered, “I didn't text you that, Hyuck. I would never...”

There was a silence louder than any party on the other side of the phone. Just as disbelief filled his tone, hitting you with, “What?” a large bang sounded at the front door, a scream breaking past your lips as you flinched.

You checked the looks on the front door, ignoring your phone in your hand as you raced to the kitchen for a knife. You could hear Donghyuck screaming, calling your name, but you couldn’t focus. Just as you reached the kitchen, you caught a shadow at the back door. 

Backing into the hall, you glanced around the room, debating what to do before running down  to the hall closet, fumbling through the dark to grab your dad’s baseball bat. 

Putting your phone to your ear, you cut off Donghyuck’s worried words. “There’s someone here. I think they’re gonna break in.”

“Call the cops. I’m on the way.”

“Okay but-”

“I’ll be there right now. Just hide.”

You did what he said, ignoring the banging at the back door. Locking yourself in the bathroom, you tried to stop your shaking as you talked to the operator. 

The nightmare worsened when they had trouble believing you, it being halloween after all. After sitting there arguing, they said they’d send a police car out to check up on you. They kept on talking to you, calming your nerves and telling you they’ll be there soon. 

The worst sound you could ever hear when you were alone at home? A knock at the bathroom door.

“Leave me alone!” You yelled, phone long forgotten as you raised the baseball bat. 

The knock came again, gentle. Just once. The doorknob rattled. 

Breathing sharply, you tightened your grip, waiting for them to break down the door. You froze at fast footsteps, a thump, then scuffles. You went cold at Donghyuck’s voice, loud and angry. 

Throwing the door open, he and the guy in the wolf mask were rolling around, trying to get the upper hand. A figure from the corner of your eye came rushing down the hall, so you swung as he neared. 

The guy ducked just in time, reaching to grab you. Instead, he went for the bat, grip tight and stronger than yours. You held on with all your might, terrified as you looked into the clown mask. 

“Stop! Stop, it’s me!” The wolf wheezed, your thoughts stilling as you looked down. Donghyuck had him in a headlock, the guy who you both knew tapping at his arm. 

Distracted, the clown pulled the bat out of your hands and let it clatter to the floor. 

“What the-” Donghyuck pushed off of him, eyes filling with rage as he pulled off the wolf mask- revealing Jeno’s flushed face. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

You turned to the clown, the mask halfway off and revealing Jaemin’s ashamed gaze. 

“Are you guys crazy?” Your voice wobbled, Jeno letting his head fall back as he gasped for air. 

“I was going to kill you, man,” Donghyuck’s voice was shaking, “Y/N just swung at Jaemin with a bat!”

“We didn’t think it would escalate like that!” Jaemin argued, “We were just trying to prank Y/N. We were about to show ourselves before you came tackling Jeno like a linebacker.”

“Uh, yeah, dumbass. I’m not just gonna let masked guys attack my girlfriend. You two have a death wish.”

You let them argue, grabbing your phone and apologizing over and over to the operator. You were scolded, told they should fine you for this, but let you off with a warning. 

Helping Jeno up, you shoved him hard. “I should kick your ass, Jeno.”

He grimaced, holding his hands up. “You did say my costume was lame. I wanted to improve my pranking skills. So I recruited this dip shit.”

Your limbs were heavy as you led them to the living room, unsure if you should keep on being pissed or grateful that none of you accidentally killed each other. 

“There’s a difference between a prank and attempted murder,” Donghyuck pursed his lips, but Jaemin threw an arm across his shoulder and rubbed his knuckles on top of his head.

“Aw, you guys can get us back next year,” He pouted, coughing when you and Donghyuck showed no signs of laughing.

“Assholes,” You uttered, sitting on the couch. Donghyuck sat beside you, arm going across the back of the couch as he searched your face.

Lowly, he asked, “You okay?”

“I’m alive. Considering if we should get new friends.”

“Hey! Come on now,” Jeno said, frowning like he was the one that just got traumatized.

“Out,” Donghyuck hooked his thumb toward the front door.

“But-”

Donghyuck cut him off. “We’ll see you tomorrow. If you don’t leave, I can’t say I won’t kick your ass.”

Jeno and Jaemin looked at each other, the former wringing his stupid wolf mask while Jaemin rubbed at his neck in embarrassment. 

As Jeno passed you, he mouthed a sorry as they moved to the front door.

“Hey,” Donghyuck called out to them, “The text thing was not cool. At all. I really should knock you out for that.”

Jeno frowned. “What text thing?”

“Come on, don’t play stupid now.”

He looked over at Jaemin, who simply shrugged. “I’m serious. What text thing are you talking about?”

Donghyuck pursed his lips. “You texted me through Y/N’s phone, tricked me into thinking she broke up with me. Clever. That definitely worked.”

“But,” Jeno’s face grew with terror, “We didn’t text you.”

“Jeno, that’s enough,” You shook your head, “There’s no reason to lie now.”

“We didn’t! We only came in after Jaemin saw you run from the kitchen! We were just gonna stay outside but one of the windows in the back was open...”

Right as his words kicked in, the sound of glass striking the floor somewhere in the house made you all stiffen. Donghyuck took the lead, and you gripped the back of his shirt as Jeno and Jaemin trailed close behind. 

The air was still, everyone silent as you raced to the source of the sound. You reached the room- the spare bedroom- and all stared down at what was once the flower pot tucked onto the windowsill. 

The window was open, just like the boys said, curtains fluttering. 

“Someone else was in here. Before any of us showed up.”

Everyone looked at you, horror dawning on all of you.

A/N: It’s officially spooky season!! I’m actually pretty excited to write stuff in the spirit of fall. Send in any requests, halloween related or not! Also, this is more of a oneshot than a drabble but let’s pretend it’s not. They won’t all be creepy, unless you want that. But yeah, hope you enjoyed! 

-Angelo

[thorne93]

Inside the Criminal Mind (Part 36)

Prompt: You’re married to Dr. Spencer Reid of the BAU, and are a distinguished doctor yourself on the team. You’re sent down to Miami, Florida for teaching and as a side request from the FBI, to investigate a string of missing persons. When you think you’ve figured out who the unsub is, your life becomes more complicated than you ever could’ve imagined.

Word Count: 3232

Warnings: (throughout the fic –>) death, blood, gore, killings, language, disturbing mental notions, mentions of rapes/murder/etc (You know, Dexter and Criminal Minds related business)

Notes: Thank you so much to @arrow-guy​​​​​​​, @carryonmyswansong​​​​​​​, and @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo​​​​​​​ - without each of you, I couldn’t have finished, written, or properly navigated this story. Each of you helped me fish out details that were incredibly important to me. Beta’d by @carryonmyswansong​​​​​​​ and @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo​​​​​​​… Aesthetic by @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo​​​​​​​

This is a crossover of Criminal Minds x Dexter. First time writing Dexter.

Also, the timeline is after Season 1 of Dexter, but during season 14-ish of Criminal minds into Season 15. Enjoy!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Life got back to a better pace and your anxiety fell like a rock. No longer were you constantly worried about you and Dexter being caught. You had told Spencer and Dexter you had no intentions of keeping up the practice of killing back home in DC. So, then, life went on as normal. 

JJ’s suspension from the team had been lifted some time ago, and now she was working with you and Spencer again. In the professional setting, the atmosphere felt fine, but any chance at casual conversation with you was met with icy avoidance. Spencer and her talked, but not as much as they used to. 

Work was just work once more, but thanks to your first hand experience as a serial killer and having one for a best friend, you caught unsubs at around half the rate as it normally took. Cases were closing left and right. 

Spencer decided to go back to his therapist. You were worried at first, but he assured you it was more to do with his mom and her health issues than anything else. He just wanted to talk to someone, to work out the feelings he felt about you and Dexter. He said he’d just say you got close to someone while you were away working in Miami and he began to get insecure -- none of that was a lie, and it was the heart of the matter and he wanted to work it out with someone. Not to mention the recurring dream he had about getting killed in the office.

You encouraged his decision. Then his therapist suggested he take the day off. 

You grinned like a fool when you saw your husband’s name and photo show up on your phone. You answered happily. 

“Hey, sweetie!” you greeted. “So what are we doing today? Bowling? Putt-Putt golf? Puzzle?” You began rattling off things you two could do on your day off together, excited to spend some much needed time alone. 

“Actually, I can’t today. My therapist said I need to take my time off today to talk to someone normal.”

“Oh, well I’m normal,” you said with a wide grin, even though he couldn’t see it. 

“While that’s still up for debate,” he jovially said, “they can’t be a work related person. She thinks I spend too much time thinking about work.” 

“Oh…” 

“I’d give anything to just go into work though. Are there any cases?” 

“I don’t know, Spence, I wasn’t watching for them since I was looking forward to a day with you.“

“I know. I’m sorry. Doctor’s orders though,” he apologized. 

“It’s fine. Do what you need to for therapy. But try to do it fast so we can salvage some of the day?” 

“Will do.”

You two hung up, and you had no idea he was about to meet someone that threatened you two far more than JJ could. 

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

It was that day that Spencernot only had a conversation with this new woman, Max, they spent the whole day at the park. He came home soaking wet in different clothes. 

“Did you fall into a pool?” you asked, confused. 

“Uh, no, I actually just had my first real conversation with a normal person. She helped me realize that my dreams are all stress driven.”

“Uh, no shit, I could’ve told you that. You know this,” you said. “But you had a good day?” 

“I had a great day!” he said excitedly and you wanted to be happy for him, but your gut began to twist in a nasty way. 

But just then, you two got the text that Kristie was in labor, so you two ran out to the hospital. You waited for a long time for news about the baby, and then when it finally came, everyone headed back to see her except JJ and Spencer. You stopped a little ways down the hall to turn and watch their conversation.  

Spencer nodded, smiling before he ran up to you. 

“Hey, I’m gonna go find Max again. JJ helped me realize that there’s only so many people that can fit in that room and I can say hello to the baby next week.”

“Right now? But… Well, okay. Let me let them know we’re leaving and--”

“No, you stay.”

You frowned. “Spence, is everything alright?” 

“Yeah. But this is my non-work related friend and having you there might...change things. I just want to keep her away from our work, you know?” 

You frowned. “I guess so?” 

Without hesitation, he kissed your cheek and skipped off. 

Fire ignited inside you as JJ began to walk past you. 

“You can’t just leave it alone can you?” you asked as you spun to look ather.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I saw my best friend be happy, someone was putting a smile on his face, so I wanted to make that happen again. I’m sorry if it wasn’t you.”

She gave you a fake sad look before turning around. 

“How are things with Will?” you fired at her. “One of our marriages is very fragile, JJ, and it’s not mine. You might want to remember that.” 

In an instant, you turned and stormed away, to go to your house. You wanted to call Dexter and rant, but you realized you couldn’t turn to him every time you were upset with Spencer. So instead, you grabbed some alcohol and curled up on the couch with a random movie. By the time Spencer got home, you were asleep. He carried you upstairs to the bedroom, all the while, smiling at you. 

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

The next few weeks were similar. Spencer was in a fairly great mood, but he’d take calls from Max and go into another room and shut the door. He would meet her for coffee two or three times a week. They even went out to dinner a couple of times. They texted all the time. He even cleaned the house from top to bottom once before inviting her over, but you weren’t there for that. You saw him cleaning and he said Max was coming over. But you were due for a girls night out with Emily and Garcia. You wanted to stay behind to talk to him, to ask him what was going on, but you knew it was useless.  

In a sense, you wanted to be happy he had a friend, but you couldn’t help the gnawing feeling that Spencer was being unfaithful. Why wouldn’t he? After everything you put him through. It would make sense that he would gravitate towards someone else, someone possibly polar opposite from you. 

He did tell you a little about her. He told you she was an Art History person who taught art to children. That added fuel to your fire. Spencer loved children, and she was a teacher, and he encouraged teaching, he loved being a professor, and he met Max while she was sitting her nephew. This was all lining up to look like a good mix for him to be in love with someone else and it ate at you. 

You couldn't even call any of it into question because you knew Spencer would meet you with accusations of you having a friend outside of work, but not him. He’d say it’s no different and you have no reason to worry. But it was different. You met Dexter with a mission in mind. He met Max in a completely social situation. 

After about week two, you did call Dexter and told him a little bit about what was going on. He tried to assure you everything was fine and you were panicking for nothing, like last time with JJ. You didn’t feel reassured at all though. Spencer had this new light about him, and it made you seethingly jealous that someone else was providing it. 

You were his wife. That was your job. Why couldn’t he smile like that anymore with you? Things were better between you before you came back to DC, right? So what was wrong now? 

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

To top off your uneasy feelings, a new case came to the BAU that made you absolutely livid. 

A picture was sent to Garcia and Emily called you. You were at home, getting ready, but Spencer was already out, getting coffee with Max. When he arrived you couldn’t help but glare at him. How could he not see what this was doing to you? How did he not see how badly it hurt you for him to spend all of his free time with her? You didn’t care if it was lunch here and there or texting a lot. But if he wasn’t working, he was with her.

A woman had what appeared to be a man and daughter held hostage with a gun. Her only demand was that Cat Adams be set free. Emily said she was getting her sent there for questioning, but no one was an idiot about this -- this was all a game. 

She was brought in, chained to the teeth, and sat in the interrogation room. You stood behind the glass with Spencer. 

“Are you sure you want to do this? Last time you were in a room with her, you wanted to kill her.” 

“I know,” he said, his voice apparent that he was in thought. “Don’t worry. Thanks to Dexter, I think I can help crack her.” 

“Look at you, giving credit where credit is due,” you teased, nudging him. He gave you a quick, brief smile before walking into the room with Cat. Your eyes trained on her the entire time. One wrong move and you could kill her, without a second thought. Dexter had given you that freeing power. 

They talked quickly for a minute, and Spencer didn’t show his hand. He asked what her real demand was. Cat said she plead guilty to all 73 counts of murder, but she was bored. She asked for the death penalty.  

“But it really is funny, as you’re sitting there counting down the days, you start to wonder, ‘What didn’t i do?’ And the only thing I could come up with was… you,” she informed. 

Those words sent a torrent of hatred through you as you glared at her through the glass. 

“You haven’t done me? Sexually violated me in Mexico.” 

The awful reminder of what happened to your husband made you sick to your stomach. 

“I did? Are you sure? The drugs that made you hallucinate, they flood your brain with serotonin, right? So what does that mean when oi comes to--” she pointed at his groin area and you had never had more of an urge to break someone’s finger before. 

“Similar to MDMA, it’s hard to..” Spencer responded, trailing off that the idea of an erection would be impossible. 

“Some being the boy who cried rape, Spency, it’s not a good look. Plus we don’t have a lot of time.”

“For what?”

“I would like to go on a date with you. Hope your wife doesn’t mind.” She glanced back to the window where you were standing and you didn’t move a muscle. 

“A date?”

“Yes. I want to look pretty and I want to have fun. And I won’t even get physical okay? Not unless you want me to.” 

He took a seat across from her and said, “Come here. Closer.” He leaned far up on the table and whispered, “the only date that I’ll be there for is the one where they stick a needle in your vein.” 

You couldn’t help but grin. He wasn’t going to play her game, and he wasn’t going to get rattled.

“You’re gonna let a father and daughter die? I don’t think so.” 

“I never said father and daughter. You’re already slipping. We'll find them. We always do.” He got up, ready to leave, when Cat spoke again. 

“Not tonight. Tonight, I win.” 

“The score between me and you is two to zero, by tomorrow it’ll be a clean sweep. Enjoy eternal nothingness. It’s a metaphor for your life.” 

He turned and left quickly. He breezed past you.

“Woah, hey, slow down, are you alright?” you asked, jogging beside him. 

“Not really,” he admitted before finding an empty room down a series of corridors. He began ripping at his tie, tearing it off himself.

“Hey, hey,” you tried to get him to calm down, but he turned around and yelled before shoving all the contents on a table onto the floor. You gasped before putting your hand on his back, rubbing him. “Hey, come here,” you invited, pulling him into a hug. “We can beat her. You’ve done it before. Don’t let her get inside your head. You’re not seriously considering this date idea, are you?”

“I’m not sure if we have much of a choice.”

You bobbed your head and you all reconvened back in the conference room where you went over the next steps and plan. Emily was in the room with Cat now, trying to decide what she wanted to do for her date and you stood in the small room just outside with Spencer. 

“I’m gonna call Max, tell her why I had to leave so abruptly earlier.” He took his phone out and started to walk away, not giving you enough time to protest. You shook your head and let out a frustrated sigh as you turned back to cat. When he returned he said, “She understands. I had to tell her a little about the fact that it’s an old case.” 

“Good, glad, great to hear Max understands,” you spat, staring ahead at Cat.

“Are you… mad about something?” he asked, as if he were genuinely confused. 

“I’m mad about a lot of things, Spencer,” you responded. Just as you were about to turn to him to talk about it though, Emily came out. 

“What are her demands?’ Spencer asked. 

“She wants to go ice skating so she can skate circles around you. She’s wasting our time,” Emily informed.

The next minutes involved you finding out who had the two hostages -- Juliette. She was old cellmates with Cat. The woman on the picture from flyers posted was Susan Adams, Cat’s mother. Now everyone realized why they were hostages, it was Cat’s sister and her father, the man who had killed her mother, then ran off to start a new life. Spencer informed Cat of what you all had found, and then she told Garcia to check her email. It had a video of Juliette firing blanks at the father. 

Emily had you and Ross in the room with Spencer, watching the video. Emily was certain the next time, it wouldn’t be blanks. 

“If we give Cat what she wants, we can profile what she says on the date,” Emily said. 

“What? Are you serious right now, Emily?” you asked. 

“I know it’s not ideal--”

“Not ideal? How about we send Rossi on a date, huh? He’s married, or does no one respect that around here?” you questioned angrily. 

Emily gave you a sympathetic, but warning look. “She always trips up, she always shows her Achilles heel.” 

“And she always does it with you,” Rossi noted, looking at Spencer. “I know it’ not  great, Y/N, but we’ve got to do this.” 

“No, we don’t. We can figure out where they are. We can find them.” 

“Chances are, there’s something else going on. She hasn’t shown her hidden agenda yet,” Emily reported. “I’m sorry, Y/N, but this is an order. Spencer, you have to go on this date. We need you to extract what you can” 

Spencer turned to you. “It’ll be fine. It’s not a real date.” 

“Yeah, no shit, I know that. But I don’t like the idea of you even pretending to do one with her.” 

“We don’t have a choice. You’ll have to deal with me being with a serial killer for an hour or so,” he shot back, giving you a loaded look. You recoiled in pain. 

“Fine, but I’m gong with them,” you said, turning to Emily. 

“We’re already putting Luke on it--”

“I don’t care. My husband doesn’t go alone on a date with that psycho. I’m coming along.” 

So, you got dressed in your FBI gear, while Cat got ready for her date and they sent Spencer in to to get her. The entire team stood out between the elevators and the bull pen, waiting for the two of them. You stood ready in the elevator with Luke and two guys from SWAT. 

“You didn’t tell me your wife would be joining us. I’m not usually one for a threesome, but I could definitely do worse.” She eyed you up and down and you stared at her without expression. “Don’t wait up,” she called to the rest of your team and you resisted stomping on her foot. 

All of you loaded inside the SWAT van, you sat between the two SWAT members, Luke sat up front with the driver, and Spencer and Cat sat across from you. Spencer and you held eye contact the entire time, but not a smile or a glare passed between you. You weren’t happy with him for personal reasons, and you were unhappy in this situation from professional reasons. He knew you were pissed right now, and now was not the time to address it. 

“How’s the married life been since I’ve seen you, Spencie?” she asked him,. 

“Don’t call me that,” he cautioned. 

“Oh, so that good, huh? Does Y/N here keep you on a tight leash? I bet she does. So many women want a piece of the action, don’t they?” Her eyes leveled with you. 

“You’re not going to bother me, Cat,” you assured coolly. 

“Really? Because last time we met, you threatened to kill me.”

“You had my mother in law as a hostage. Entirely different situation. You’re playing a psychological game and I can assure you, we are better at it than you are.” 

“If you’re so much better, then where are the father and daughter, hmm?” 

“We’ll find them. In the meantime, we’re letting you have a bit of fun. Giving you what you want, oso we can get what we need.” 

“And what if what I wanted was to kiss your husband, hmm? Or sleep with him? Would those two strangers lives be worth it then?” 

“I’d kill you before you had time to finish the request,” you promised with a smile. 

Cat laughed before turning to Spencer. “She’s really possessive huh?”

Finally, you arrived at the rink. She got out and said she didn’t want this, so Spencer said fine and she could get back in the van. But then he teased her with the reminder that it was their “anniversary”. He asked for something to find the father and daughter and she only said 23. Then the lot of you started to walk towards the rink. Spencer told Cat to hold his hand because it was dark inside. You bit the inside of your cheek to keep from losing it. 

You walked inside, Spencer told the team to light up the rink, and music, lights, disco balls, and a sign that said Cat+Spencie 4-EVR!! All  came alive. She was clearly pleased with his work and he actually smiled at her. 

Your stomach turned. 

This was going to be a long night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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[booksbookandmorebooks]

Things i loved about the little women 2019 movie.

Hello lovelies, im back with another review today of the amazing Little women 2019 adaptation. Quite honestly I have a bit of a history with this story as I have tried reading the book many times (as I'm sure a lot of you who follow me on other social medias will know) and each time I have sadly DNF’d it. I cant help but feel it severely lacking something, upon reflection I think it was a number things, one of which was I felt no relation to any of the characters and couldn't find any shared similarities, I did not enjoy the pacing and the slice of life style was a bit of a struggle to keep me engaged. So when attending the movie for the first time, I didn't Have very high hopes and was still unsure about whether it would deliver but wow, I can honestly sit back and say it was just beautiful. The cinematography, the characters, the stories, just everything. I fell in love. So much so I have now seen it 3 times, and each time has been just as much of an emotional roller coaster as the first! If you have not watched the movie yet I implore you, I beg you to do so as soon as possible!

So today im bringing you a list of things I really liked. If you enjoy this post please hang around for the second part of this review ‘’what I didn’t like about little women’’ which will be uploaded very shortly.  Without further ado, here we go!

The warm and cosy aesthetic.

This movie provides such a wonderfully cosy feeling when watching it, almost like you're watching your best friends living their day to day lives with how invested and entranced you are by the smallest of interactions and conversations yet, I had no prior introductions with the characters (in a positive way) no bond with them but some how due to this intense feeling I found I care about each of the girls almost instantly. I cannot tell you how that was achieved, whether it’s the beautifully warm aesthetic of that time period or whether its down to good script writing I cannot say for sure but what I did feel was just mass amounts of affection throughout providing me with some very strong opinions and views early on.

The movie has as I stated, a warm feeling but yet is also very hard hitting at times, very raw and emotional. Of which the director leaves all of these feelings at the surface so the audience feel it just as hard. This enables the audience to really sympathise and empathise with the emotions of the characters in various scenes, thus creating a strong bond of shared pain. Whether that be through the death of a loved one, unrequited romance, career frustrations, family arguments, money struggles and many more.

The themes explored:

I really enjoyed the different themes this movie explores and how it manages to achieve this in such a subtle way to. There is never anything too in your face or extreme in this movie, which is why its paced so perfectly. we see themes of war (the girls father is away for a good portion of the movie and we have a wonderful scene where the girls are huddled round their mother while she reads his letter from the trenches out loud and we see a very raw moment they all share) we see themes of classes in the community (the extremely wealthy shown through Laurie and his father) the working families through the marches and extreme poverty through the young single mother who the marches provide constant support for, and the most common I feel, is the theme of death. I will not go into too much detail but, just be warned this is a very very constant theme, due to the time period this book/movie was set in it is only to be expected when you think about it.

The cast:

Meryl Streep. That’s it, that’s the point. No more is needed. Meryl Streep.

The Girls:

Now we come to my absolute favourite part of this movie. every single one of the girls had their shining moment, a real moment where they had to look into themselves and find their inner strength and make some very hard but real decisions in their lives and the way they were all delivered was spectacular, the amount of emotion we see from the girls was so empowering in such a way that had you experiencing a real ‘’hell yeah!’’ moment for these characters.

Amy: Her speeches to Laurie, my favourite being the one about society's expectations of women and how they are not treated as equals and are only seen as prizes given to reward men. Her issues with love and marriage and her desire to marry well for her future, that she wants to independent, she wants to great at her art and will not settle for anything less, all of which was such a moment seeing her react to such a throw away comment from a man in such an strong manner was just a powerful thing especially given the time period when women weren't seen as anything of real value and potential. They were mothers and daughters, they were kitchen staff they had their place and it was not a place equal to a man, never understood higher. The idea was strictly inconceivable.

’’I want to be great or nothing.’’

Meg: The scene where she really discovers the meaning of unconditional love in regards her husband after we have seen them in a very hard position and seen fracture begin to form in their relationship due to money worries and the stresses of a poorer life style than she had previously known, a life style we see is a lot less giving than we see her friends are blessed with. This ultimately leads meg to experience a lack in judgement, jealousy and resentment, but then we are able to see her redemption, We see her accept the selfishness of her actions, right the wrong she has caused through her thoughtlessness and welcome her husband into open arms with love and support regardless of their struggles. A really beautiful moment for the both of them.

Beth: The scene on the beach with Beth and Jo was definitely a stand out one for me, when Beth is pushing Jo to further her career as she knows how strongly Jo feels about writing . she is able to see through her sisters stubbornness, forget her own personal fear and troubles and do this one last thing for her sister, help inspire her to achieve her dreams. Which is one of many scenes that bought a tear to my eye, and just shows the immense strength Beth has after being seen as the weak and quiet one for so long, if anything this scene is a testament to that, and I see it as proof she is the strongest out of them all. She has her head screwed on the tightest and when faced with an impossible situation she chooses to help the people who mean most to her through the hardest of times instead of showing an ounce of fear or self pity.

Jo: Now lets be honest here. Jo has so many empowering scenes there are too many to list so I am sticking once again with my personal favourite...

When Jo sells her hair for help her family and mother

we see her strong and fearless in the face of others and throughout the movie. Characteristics she is renowned for, she knows what she must do for her family and she does it, she does it without a second thought and expects no praise. She takes seemingly, on the chin. but yet when doors are closed we see her become so much more human and fragile about this situation and pine for her femininity . Something she has shown no care or thought for prior yet through this scene it becomes apparent that Jo, behind this strong facade is still a woman, and all women want to feel beautiful, which I know is something we can all relate to. Jo has always been the character people want to be, shes strong, determined, career driven shes the ideal independent career woman but yet through this specific scene she becomes that little bit more human and that little bit more reachable.

And there we have it. Due to the length of this post I will be separating my review into two parts as I stated in my intro. I hoped you enjoyed this first part and have a fantastic few days, ill see you soon.

[retvenkos]

(PART ONE) Hello! Congratulations on your milestone! Can I request a :fire: for Harry Potter? I’m a straight female, My zodiac sign is Scorpio, I’m also a Slytherin. My personality type is Estp-t. I have big goals for my future such as being an actress. I also play the electric guitar and I also really enjoy skateboarding. My favorite music artists are lil peep, Ghostemane, and suicideboys. My friends say that I am very adventurous and I’m emotionally strong.

(PART TWO) they also say that I’m not afraid to take any risks. I can be a bit stubborn at times, I have a hard time trusting people. My aesthetic is a dark grunge. I am an ambivert, I’m not afraid to dream big too. I am also very passionate about witchcraft. I don’t like too much physical contact. I am very protective of my personal space unless I am with someone I’m very close with. Thank you! <3

Harry Potter:

I ship you with Regulus Black!

now, at first this may not seem like the best idea, but i’ve put a lot of thought into this and can say that this is a good idea

from what i gather about scorpios (astrology is not my strong suit) you are the stereotypical slytherin - bold, ambitious, maybe a little secretive... you definitely have the potential to swing either way on the villain/hero scale. you are sharp and intelligent, and more stubborn than anything else, but none of these qualities are necessarily bad. 

truth be told, a lot of these traits are sirius’ personality traits. you’re very similar to him, and therefore, very different from regulus.

where you are bold, regulus is cautious; where you are ready to jump into battle, regulus is patient; where you are defiant, regulus is flexible and goes under the radar; where you are prone to taking risks, regulus is calculated.... and the list goes on.

on the surface, the two of you look like you would never get along - and i’m usually not a fan of opposites attract - but i have some key points that i want to get through to help explain where i’m going with this.

(1) regulus has lived with sirius for his entire life, and since you are so similar to sirius in personality, he understands you really well. of course, he probably doesn’t like you right away, but he knows how you operate and either the teachers catch onto this and make you partners or some of regulus’ friends realize this and task him with getting you to go help them out.

(2) both of you could become either the villain or hero of the story. regulus is a bit of a tragic character, really, because with the push in the right direction, he could have made a lot of change a lot sooner than he did, and maybe the most cruel thing was the time stolen from him. he’s extremely vulnerable to influence, just due to his personality, and so had he been given someone who believed so adamantly in dumbledore and the other side of the war, regulus really could have been the hero - no need for harry potter to grow up, because regulus could have taken center stage and defeated voldemort himself, with the help of the order of the phoenix. from what i know about scorpio, slytherin, estps, you could have a very similar story. because you have all the determination and ambition to go one way, but you are also transformative and can turn with the right influence, and be adamantly the opposite. both you and regulus are perfect for redemption arcs or bastardisation arcs, depending on what influences you have.

and, since you are the more bold and steadfast, of the two, you would be a driving force in regulus’ turn to the good side - you would supply him with all of the confidence and practicality, and the two of you could have honestly stopped voldemort together, that’s in no way a joke.

(3) you are incredibly forgiving, and this is because you have faced the darkness within yourself, so you are not afraid of it when you it in others. furthermore, you are incredibly perceptive and intuitive, so even though you are slow to trust, you know deep down when you can trust someone and perhaps hold them at bay for a while until you are 100%. but when you’ve seen them, and this usually happens early on, you know. you’re just praying your not wrong. (but girl, trust yourself. you are among the most intuitive slytherins out there, and you are rarely wrong).

(4) you both think big! this is usually rare for an estp, but it makes sense since you are a slytherin. you both have goals and will stop at nothing to achieve them. when you and regulus know what you want, you get it, no matter the cost, and that’s really iconic of you.

something i love about you and regulus is that you will bring dreams to him. regulus has never really had the luxury of foreseeing an ideal future for himself, but you are not afraid to dream, and you can bring dreams to him. it’s definitely one of the reasons why he first fell for you - you talk about the future like it’s something meant to be seized, and you talk about dreams like they’re meant to become reality.

i also think that your stubborn side is good for regulus - he can often be gripped with indecision, but you will take the reins and soldier forth with the idea you know think to be the best. you are bold and direct and original, all of which regulus thinks he is not. you are the person that shows him he is, indeed, all of those things - he’s standing up to the dark lord, after all.

(okay, sidebar, but now i really want to read a series with you and regulus. you are fellow pureblood slytherins who believed in supremacist ideologies because you were raised that way, but in your 6th year at hogwarts, the two of you are forced to become death eaters, and slowly from there, you realize what the death eaters truly were - murderers and thieves and terrible, terrible people who are willing to do terrible, terrible things for no real end. and the two of you decide to leave together. you find the first horcrux and succeed in destroying it, and then the two of you start to fight against voldemort alone, until you eventually join the order of the phoenix and start to take voldemort down. in this version, there is no prophecy and harry potter isn’t the boy who lived because you and regulus take down voldemort yourselves. sirius, james, and remus both join your sides (peter can still be a traitor, or not, it’s up to you. same with snape - i feel like without the harry storyline he wouldn’t swap sides.) and we get the marauders plus you two destroying the horcruxes. can you imagine how great that story would be?)

okay i have rambled too long, let me give you some random headcanons.

as i have said before, regulus listens to music religiously so i 100% see the two of you listening to music while on the run, debating about who’s band is better.

and that’s another thing! you guys have debates like no other - it’s really a wonder the two of you care so deeply about each other, because to the untrained eye, you both look like you annoy the hell out of each other, and it’s very funny when people realize you are such good friends.

(oh yeah, enemies to friends to lovers. although now i get just friends vibes, but i’ve put so much effort into this match up.... friends or lovers. your choice)

i definitely think that the two of you have stargazed throughout your travels - regulus probably told you all about his family one night, when you’re looking at the stars, and you comfort him.

oh! since you want to be an actress, headcanon that the two of you have to go undercover as muggles for a while in your attempts to defeat voldemort, and you end up really falling in love with muggle movies, and after the two of you have a marathon one night (maybe you get a night off or something, idk), you talk about how you want to be an actress. and then, regulus prompts you to dream for him - what would this actress life be like, if when it happens?

and you spin an entire story for him, a dream - a hopeful one - without the war and the suffering, without magic and death eaters, where the two of you are happy - you as an actress, and regulus as a screenwriter, only crafting the most complex of characters for you to play.

and he’s pleasantly shocked that he’s in this dream of yours, and you confidently tell him that no matter where you go, he’ll always be there, at your side. “you can’t get rid of me now, you realize that, don’t you? you’re stuck with me, black.”

and he doesn’t say anything in that moment, but he thinks that maybe that’s not such a bad dream, after all.

okay, i popped off with this one, but now i really want this regulus story to be a THING,,,,,,,,,,, ugh. can you imagine how great it would be? okay, just imagine if it were a mini series and it had the greatest soundtrack ever, and the palate was dark greens and blacks,,,,,, i got carried away but can you imagine.

[spyoikawa]

Hihi! I'm alive! Battling this history competition, but I'll make it!

So let's jump back into these requests starting with, @wakatoshiswife

(sorry I lost the request so I'll copy/paste below the line break!)

(and I am once again on a different electronic, so sorry if this looks different, I will format it to look correct later)

Request: Hello! I saw that you’re doing matchups for valentines! I’d like to request for one too if that is okay :) I’d like to matched up with a guy please...I’m a 160cm girl, ISTJ/ESTJ (I’m an ambivert), my enneagram is type 8. My zodiac sign is cancer. I have black curly hair (type 3B hair) and my eye colour is brown. At first glance, people often think I’m mean bcs I have really think eyebrows and I have a resting b face. However once you get to know me, I’m pretty fun. My hobbies are gaming, baking and editing. The characters I kin are Sakurajima Mai, Light Yagami & Osamu Miya. I enjoy working out as well! Especially jogging on a cold morning/evening. I love watching formula 1 and I would watch football if it means getting to bond with my partner/friends. I play any sports but I like volleyball and badminton the most. I also enjoy cooking Asian cuisine as I am asian, I’m a mixed Persian-Indian. My favourite weather is Autumn as it matches my aesthetic and overall aura and vibe. My favourite colour is red as if I were to be a colour based off my personality, I’d be red. Although I look best in nudes, black, white and purple...I also have the best music taste ever. I’m the chill friend in the whole group. I am very very laidback, in fact I can be a little too laidback at times but it’s nothing bad, I know when too loosen up and when to get serious, hence this is why I’m often (almost every time) a leader. I’m quite the procrastinator and the last minute person but I always know what I’m doing so its all good. I’m confident in what I do and I stand strong for what I believe in. Words, will not hurt me unless it’s said by directed to an insecurity of mine. I hate losing. I’m that one competitive friend that hates losing but I never go too much yk. I’m pretty chill when it comes to competition, that meaning, I don’t show how competitive I am. I have a blank face as I’m competing with others. I always strive to win even if it means winning in a ridiculous way, however I won’t drag it too much as I hate when a small problem gets really really big bcs people keep making it big although it’s just a minor problem (I’m so sorry if you don’t understand T^T). I’m kind, polite and pretty mature but not too mature as I don’t want my adolescent to go to waste. Therefore I try my best to loosen and up and relax! If I were to go on an outing with my friends and they’re being noisy and loud in public, instead of telling them to quiet down, I’ll leave them there so I don’t get embarrassed 🗿. I hate creating a scene in public. I’m not a fan of popularity unless it’s for a good cause. Therefore, I’m a private person with around 15 people in my circle and I enjoy it this way :) I’m also very passionate in what I do. I’m very ambitious and my hogwarts house is syltherin. I know what I’m doing as for now and I love to plan ahead so it won’t be chaotic. I’m 100% a leader and my personality is very dominant. However when it comes to relationships, I’m 100% the submissive (or switch? I’m not sure) one bcs I am very shy to actually initiate anything. My preference in a partner is someone who’s dominant and he wouldn’t mind losing for me. If I were to be an animal, I’d be a wolf or a tiger but as for my partner, I’d like him to be a wolf or a lion but deep down he’s just a bear 🥰. I also prefer guys who aren’t loud, like quiet guys but not too quiet. Ones who talk when they need to, as I’m not rly fond of people who talk a lot a lot. It can be quite annoying and I’ll probably end up accidentally hurting them. I’m so sorry if this is too long bcs I think I went overboard. Thank you so much and have a nice day :D

Alright, thank you so much for this request, and thank you for being patient with me! I'm glad I got a nice long request to get back into the jist of things! And I never like to assume, but I feel like I've been bugging you, so I'm gonna assume you were requesting tulips-

anyhoo, without further ado (lol that rhymes)

Rion's Flower Shop! Today we have Tulips! I match you up with

Kuroo Tetsuro

relationship dynamic

- its actually quite nice! A perfect balance of similarities and opposites!

- and those said opposites are harmonious!

- you guys are both admirable leaders in your own way, and can often cooperate together, and despite different approaches, reach the same goal

- both of you are really confident in your talents and areas and you use that a lot to your advantages

- he's lowkey scared of your poker face but will never admit it

- despite this, the little perks and habits the two of you have are quite amusing

- he still struggles to see how tf you get work done when you procrastinate so much, but is honestly amazed by it

- and the competitiveness you share drive the 2 of you to keep moving forward

- it's always nice to have someone supportive of you (and you 2 are, don't get me wrong) but it's also nice to have some friendly banter and competition, whether it be over music, which teams are better, opinions, which food type is best, etc.

- it keeps you two on your toes

- and (as I mentioned earlier), although the two of you can keep going back and forth, you can also lean on each other, and trust one another for support.

- he can count on you to show up to some of his games and you can count on him to have your back you want to try something new or show him your hobbies

- you guys are also there emotionally, he will always be there watching your back, and cheering you up or proving people wrong after particularly harsh, uncalled for comments, because he knows how you really are and that those people are talking bs :)

- and you do the same for him, to cheer him up, let him know he's a good captain and friend. And although he doesn't show it as much when he's older, he still gets nervous in social situations and he can count on you to be a constant in new areas

What you guys do together/ What's it like with them

- this can either be the most fun relationship or the most comforting, laid back one ever!

- and honestly both are good choices

- neither of you really want to lose your childhood, cause you only get it once

- so it's not uncommon to try out new hobbies or experience new things together to make the most of this time you have

- there are a lot of firsts with him because of that

- he doesn't mind having fun out in public, like that's the point of going out to him, but he also agrees with not wanting to cause trouble, one) that shit's embarrassing 2) he knows it'll make you, himself, and others uncomfortable, so there's really no need to do something uncalled for

- however, despite all the fun of childhood, it's also good to have calm, quiet moments in certain relationships, such as this one

- he doesn't mind, and actually quite enjoys indoor dates, like studying together or watching your favorite movies/shows

- that gives him a chance to be and focus on you only, and maybe get to know you better

- no matter what you do, you two have a silent understanding of what you enjoy, don't enjoy, and what each others needs and wants are

- and he also understands how you might not like to initiate things, he can understand to a degree

- for a while it's a matter of who will make the first move, but once he gets comfortable, he won't mind initiating it for you :D

What they like about you

- he likes your overall personality tbh

- how you can be so laid back yet confident at the same time

- yet also sweet and nice to others

- it's a nice mixture where he doesn't need to force his personality out and express everything that comes his way, but he also doesn't need to shrink to avoid overwhelming you

- and although he likes to take the charge, he likes that you can be dominant at times too, sometimes he'd rather just leave things to you, because he knows he'll like what you like

- it also feels easy for him to talk to you

- he doesn't know why but he finds himself expressing his opinions and sharing things he'd usually keep guarded with you, because he trusts you enough to understand and not share with others

- overall, its the understanding for him :)

- and he's taking this to the grave, but he's also a firm believer that slytherins should stick together

alrighty, to be completely honest, idk how I did on this one, so please, if you did not like the style of writing or the character I matched you up with, please let me know! I will gladly rewrite it for you!

[lady-indiana]

Challenge 2: “Carnival games are designed for you to lose”

((I’m breaking my header aesthetic for this this moodboard. Please enjoy :) This is my date rp with @arin-schreave​! And @emily-rose-white​ and @wylan-caldwell​ get name dropped once I believe.))

The note arrived when I got to my room one afternoon. My three maids, who I adored, had set it down on my perfectly made bed.

My heart pounded a little, excited to finally get a chance to see the Prince again. One short conversation was really not enough, and I couldn’t wait to get another chance.

I peeled open the envelope and pulled out the slip of paper. My maids pretended like they weren’t watching, but they clearly were. The fact that they were avoiding me only confirmed that they likely already knew what I was going to be doing.

The note was neat and folded carefully. It gave simple instructions to be out in front of the palace at 7 p.m. for a car to take me wherever it was that we would be going. I turned around suddenly, searching the room for all three of my maids with a playful smile.

“You guys know what I’m doing tomorrow, don’t you?” 

All three girls turned with wide smiles, looking at one another before coming to a silent agreement.

“Sorry, Indie,” the eldest one said as she cleaned a perfectly clean linen on the wall. “We can’t say anything.”

I scrunched my nose. I desperately wanted to know what I would be doing with the Prince tomorrow, but I supposed it would be better as a surprise. And, it would keep my maids out of trouble if I didn’t coax it out of them.

“Fine,” I groaned dramatically, but I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face. 

I flopped back onto my bed and stared up at the ceiling. 

---

The next day, my maids started getting me ready for my date exceptionally early. 

I knew, secretly, that they must be as excited as I was, so I didn’t actually mind. They left my hair in its natural waves, only spraying a little product in them to keep it neat. After that, they put on some light makeup and spritzed perfume on my neck.

They dressed me in jeans and a cute but casual shirt, which only made me more curious about what lay ahead for the night. Clearly, it wasn’t a fancy date, so that ruled out anything like that. But, there were still a multitude of options.

I made my way out to the front of the palace and got into the car that was waiting for me there. The driver didn’t say much except for a polite greeting, which I reciprocated. Other than that, the trip was silent, and I spent my time gazing at the window at the city that I sometimes called my home.

The city was the same as it always had been– bright and active, despite the setting sun. I was grateful for the palm trees, and I counted them as we drove. They reminded me of Clermont. It was like a little bit of my home province was always with me.

We got to the destination ten minutes early, which was perfectly fine for me as I preferred being early. A smile crossed my face as we pulled into the parking lot and I saw the lights from the carnival that was glittering in front of me.

I supposed now I knew what we were doing tonight, and I was suddenly very happy. How could I not be? I was about to go on a carnival date! And as ridiculously cheesy that was, I couldn’t help but feel a certain sense of adventure rise through me. I couldn’t wait for Arin to get here.

Admittedly, I had only had one conversation with Arin so far. There were mumblings around the palace from the other girls and the maids about what he was like, and overall, there were some pretty confusing descriptions. I, for one, didn’t want to focus on that. I just wanted to get to know him for myself, that’s all.

About five minutes into waiting in the car, I started to get antsy. I wanted to get out and wait in the fresh air. I excused myself from the car, and my driver let me go, promising me that he would wait until the Prince came to leave.

I made my way over to a short concrete wall and sat up on top of the ledge, letting my feet dangle toward the ground. The carnival was behind me, but when I looked to my left I could see the crashing waves hitting the beach. Compared to the carnival, it was so peaceful and I found myself calming down as I listened to them crash against the sand.

A little bit later, I checked my watch that my maids had slipped on me before I left. It was delicate and shiny and read the time 7:02. Arin was a couple minutes late, but I didn’t find that too concerning. It had been quite a drive from the palace and who knows what he was doing before this.

Finally, a few minutes later, Arin pulled up in his car, and my heart started beating fast. It was finally a chance to get to know him, and I was ready–even more so that it was at a carnival of all places. 

Arin got out of his car and walked around. He was wearing casual clothes, so much so that if I didn’t know any better, I could just pretend that Arin wasn’t the crowned Prince of all of Illea. He spotted me jumping off the ledge and took a deep breath, pulling at the collar of his shirt before walking over to me.

“Good evening, Lady Indiana.”

I smiled in greeting, deciding to be friendly, feeling confidence surge through me.

“Hello, Arin!” I glanced at the carnival behind me and back at him with a playful smile. “I think I figured out what we are doing tonight.”

He looked a little taken back by my enthusiasm, which I thought was a little funny, considering all I said was ‘hello.’ But, still, he tried to give me a smile and nodded. 

“You seem very excited about it.”

I laughed a little. “Aren't I supposed to be? Besides, I don't think I've ever been to a carnival. I shot a carnival scene once for a movie, but I've never been to just go.” 

That was true. The only time I had ever been to anything like this, I was a camera operator for some movie years ago. I was so busy, I didn’t even get to appreciate it.

I grinned at Arin, curious. “Are you excited?”

His answer was confirmed as “no” when he took a breath and said, “Well, I’m here.” He looked over to the carnival and nodded toward it.

Despite the clear indifference of Arin toward this date, I couldn’t help but find it amusing. It typically took a lot to make me give up on my naturally playful state, so as much as Arin maybe wanted me to, I wouldn’t falter for a while.

I raised my eyebrows at his response, an amused smile at my lips. “That's good. It'd be a pretty awkward date if you didn't show up.”

“Oh well... I don't really have a choice.” He swallowed and then started walking. His bodyguard, Kevin, trailed us from behind.

I nodded, though I’m sure my face was nothing but unconvinced and still amused. In fact, I found it kind of funny. I mean, wasn’t this whole Selection his choice? Wasn’t he the one who wanted one in the first place?

“Wow, you know how to make a girl swoon,” I sarcastically remarked, still grinning and unaffected by his indifference. 

“So I've been told.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked over at me for a moment.

I looked back, trying to read him. I said it when I first met him: it was difficult to understand what was going through his head. But it didn’t deter me. I took a deep breath, giving a small smile.

“So, you really didn't 'have any choice over this date'? What, are carnivals not your thing?” I asked, squinting playfully.

“They're fine enough I guess.” He shrugged. “I don't know what you want me to say…”

It was a little awkward, but it wasn’t a huge deal. He really didn’t need to feel like he had to say something. So, I just shrugged casually myself.

“You don't have to say anything.”

I realized that maybe I came off too strong in the beginning. I just assumed it would be better to be enthusiastic, but Arin was definitely more put off by all of this. Maybe I was reading it all wrong? I looked away for a second before looking back at him.

“Sorry if I'm not... reading this well,” I said, smiling a little. “I'm a little nervous.”

Arin shrugged, for, like, the third time in a row, and said, “It's fine.” 

We started to near all the different carnival booths. The place was busy, but it wasn’t too crowded. The bright lights of the carnival games made the place feel vivacious and a sweet smell lofted through the air. 

“So, you any good at carnival games?” I asked with a chuckle as he eyed the different booths.

“No one is good at carnival games. They're designed for you to lose,” he answered with a simple shrug. 

Alright, so that was a no on games then, I thought. I wondered if there would be anything he actually wanted to do.

“Okay, yeah, probably most of them…,” I agreed and then looked around. My eyes lit up when I saw a bumper cars arena. “What about those? Want to ride them?”

“Sure, why not.” He started to trudge his way over, which didn’t give the impression he was excited.

But, still, I let out a little, “Yay!” and I followed him over to the line. I was secretly super excited, but I tried to stay cool. I had never ridden bumper cars before, but they always looked like fun, and I couldn’t help but smile. “This is like... out of a movie.”

Arin… well, I was pretty sure he thought I was crazy. He glanced around, unimpressed, and then in a low voice said, “I think we watch different movies…”

I wanted to laugh because, hadn’t he watched any movie ever?! I mean sure, not every movie had a carnival scene, but a lot of them did. The Notebook, for one… absolutely iconic. But, still, most people knew cliches even without having seen the movie.

“Oh, come on,” I said playfully. “Every good carnival scene has a montage of bumper cars, cotton candy, and like... clowns or something.” I chuckled, thinking about it. “Although, clowns are kind of creepy... so maybe we should avoid those.”

Arin just frowned a little. “I'm not really into those movies, sorry. I like more educational films.”

At that moment, I think I suddenly started to understand Arin a little more. Definitely not completely, (definitely less than a little), but he had a way of apologizing for things that didn’t need to be apologized for. It was as if he felt like my expectations were being let down or something? What he didn’t realize, is that I was being myself. I had told the other girls to be themselves. Now, he just needed to be himself.

And then maybe this wouldn’t be so forced and awkward.

I shrugged casually, trying to make it obvious that he didn’t need to apologize for having a different taste in movies.

“No worries. Everyone has their preferences. What type of educational films do you like?”

“Documentaries,” he answered, glancing down at me, but he looked away.

Documentaries. Such a simple, but vague answer. It could mean a multitude of things. And I should’ve asked him more about that, but instead, I had to be an idiot and ruin everything.

You see, the documentary that Emily had pitched to me back a few weeks ago was still on my mind. I had been pretty much against it until my conversation with Wylan. He had acted like it was a good idea, and somehow inspired me to start considering it again.

And I was considering it. But, things had been monstrously busy with lessons and interviews and everything in between lately. I started to head back to the mindspace of where I was at before I talked to Wylan– a documentary just wasn’t feasible right now.

But, still, I wanted to know Arin’s opinion. And, I wanted to know if he would think it would be a good idea at all.

So I made the mistake of mentioning it to him.

I smiled kindly at him.

“I like documentaries,” I commented and tilted my head at him. As casually as possible, with a little chuckle, I added, “You know, I have a couple people wanting me to do a documentary on the Selection.”

I saw his jaw tighten at the suggestion, and my grin quickly faded as he said, “Of course they do.”

His body was stiff and tense, and I felt immediately horrible. He looked angry. And as much confidence I had worked building up in my life, I felt it begin crumbling down.

Sometimes that happens. It takes a lot to deter me when someone is indifferent, but anger is a different story. I can be feeling great, and then one thing goes wrong, and I immediately feel like an idiot. Logically, I knew I wasn’t. There were people who thought it was a good idea. Heck, even his best friend thought it might not be a bad idea. 

But, that didn’t stop me from suddenly feeling like trash. The tension of this date had been building up. I was so enthusiastic, and he couldn’t care less. And I supposed that was why all of my confidence got sucked away.

“Bad idea?” I grimaced.

“At the end of the day everyone is free to do what they like. They always do anyway.”

I looked away. This whole thing was outrageously confusing. I felt extreme awkwardness flooding my bones, and I didn’t even know how it happened. I rarely got upset in front of people. I usually avoided it, constantly putting up a playful front, but there was no avoiding this. I just felt awful.

“I'm sorry. I won't do it if it's that upsetting. I wasn't even considering it at first. I'm... not even a documentary filmmaker anyway.”

Another thing I did when I felt unconfident: I doubted my abilities.

He muttered, “I don't know why anyone would consider it. It's not entertainment.”

And just like that, a lightbulb went off in my head. My eyes widened and softened, as I suddenly understood what was going on. I felt like an idiot, once again, for not realizing sooner.

My voice was soft as I said, “I guess that's actually really fair. I... didn't mean to come off that way. It was actually pitched as an introspective look of the lower castes through the lens of the Selected in order to grab interest. But…” I stopped and thought for a moment. “I don't know. I can see how it would come across as making a spectacle of the event that decides your future. I wasn't even considering it at first because I'm not here to be a filmmaker. I hope you know that, Arin.”

Of course Arin would be upset. A documentary about the Selection would do fantastically well. People everywhere would watch it. And I would get credit for it. But, the Selection, as much as people tried to make it be, wasn’t an entertainment show. It was life.

It was very real for Arin, whether he chose this or not. At the end of all of this, he would be married. His future would be locked in place. There would be no going back, and however exciting that was, it was also terrifying. I can see why he would be wary of someone trying to profit off of the stardom.

But, I wanted it to be clear: that’s not what I wanted. And I hoped that he could hear the genuine sound in my voice.

He crossed his arms and looked over at the bumper cars, still tense. “Well, I’m glad to see you have a conscience.”

I took a deep breath. “I do. Sorry that your first look at it had to happen like that.”

Unconsciously, we had moved to the front of line. The next bunch of bumper cars we definitely would be on.

Arin didn’t say anything. He just took a deep breath and looked down, silently studying me. The stare made me feel intimidated, and I felt like shrinking back, but mostly, it made me feel embarrassed. This was so embarrassing.

I had to try to fix it. 

“I'm sorry, but... can we start over? I... I really didn't mean for you to hate this date. I just wanted to have fun and get to know you.” It was shaky, my confidence still lost somewhere earlier in the conversation. But, still, I smiled and pointed to the bumper cars, trying to lighten the mood. “Look, we're next.”

Surprisingly, he said, “Sure.” So, a little confidence grew back within me. But, Arin frowned, eyes going to the bumper cars. “Let's go.”

We walked into the bumper car arena, and I sat in a car near the entrance. There was a car right next to mine, but instead of sitting in it, Arin went to one that was further away. I frowned for a second, but brushed it off. Arin was clearly on edge about this whole Selection process, and I decided to go easy on him, if he would let me. At least he agreed to start over.

I watched as Arin buckled his seat belt. He pulled it tight, but didn’t look over to me. I fastened my own belt, and started to get excited again. 

The bumper cars started up, and I had to stop myself from squealing. Instead, I focused my energy on getting caught up to Arin. He was driving on the edge of the rink, purposely avoiding all of the other cars, which I found kind of funny, considering that it was “bumper cars.”

I almost got close to him, but I suddenly got surrounded and jammed into a bunch of other bumper cars that had kids that found joy from mercilessly wrecking into people. But, it was too funny, so I had to laugh.

Finally, I managed to catch up to him, and I didn’t hesitate to bump straight into his car. He lurched back as it happened, and he immediately threw me an annoyed look.

“You know the whole point of the game is to hit the other cars right?” I shouted to him with a laugh.

“I know what the point of the game is.”

I just laughed despite him being annoyed, like the bumper cars had managed to fully restore my confidence. I drove next to him, lightly tapping his car with mine once before saying, “I don’t think I’ve seen you hit one car.”

He shrugged and gave me a confused look. “So? I don’t need to.”

Fair enough. 

I shrugged, and then said casually, “Okay.”

The bumper cars came to a stop, and Arin and I unbuckled our seatbelts, stood up, and exited the arena.

When we got outside, Arin’s eyes briefly went to the ferris wheel before he looked back at me. I followed his gaze, but I didn’t mention it.

“Well, that was…,” he trails off.

“...Not much bumping for bumper cars?” I finished with a playful smile. 

“Not much I guess, but you can go again if you like. Sorry if I ruined it.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around at the various stands as we walked.

There it was again. The apologizing for no reason. Didn’t he realize I could care less about the carnival? I just wanted to get to know him.

“What? No! It’s okay. You don’t have to like bumper cars,” I reassured with a smile. “They were fun, but we can do something else now if you want.”

“Thank you,” he said and looked at me sort of awkwardly. “We can do whatever you want to do.”

I wished I knew what was going on in his head. I didn’t mind making decisions or giving suggestions about what to do. I was used to that, but I was surprised that he was more reserved about it. After all, he was making decisions for Illea everyday. Maybe he was just trying to make me feel comfortable-- you know, like… after he made me uncomfortable.

But, whatever, I understood. This situation was weird.

“Want to just walk around? We can talk, get to know one another. If we see something along the way we want to do we can stop,” I suggested.

“Alright,” he agreed and motioned for me to lead. “Lead the way.”

I smiled and started walking. Unfortunately, my brain froze on the conversation front so I backtracked to the bumper cars. Now that I had properly thought about it, he was so tense on the ride. Maybe there was more to that story.

“So, uh, do you not like rides?” 

“Not particularly,” he said and hesitated. “Do you... like rides, I mean?”

I nodded, feeling a little better now that he was attributing to the conversation. I could tell he was at least trying now.

“Yeah. I mean, I’m willing to try any of them I guess.” I thought for a moment, and asked him with another smile, “So, if you don’t like rides, what do you like to do at a carnival?”

“I haven’t been to one in a while, but I guess I just like to walk around and do the games... I just always lose.”

Part of me wondered if he even remembered the beginning of this date, where we talked about this very subject. Then again, it looked as if this night was being split in two: “the before” and “the after.” 

The “before” was before the bumper cars, when he was slightly scary and very indifferent. And the “after” was after the bumper cars because now at least, it seemed like he was making an attempt to not make this night worse.

Something was different now. He was being a little nicer and willing to participate, so I decided to roll with it.

I smiled at him. “Well, like you said earlier, they are designed for you to lose. Maybe we can try to win one tonight?”

He nodded and gave me a smile, which only made my smile bigger. Finally! I got him to smile!

“Sure.” He eyed the various stalls. “Where should we start?”

I felt confident again, and that was nice. I looked around at all of the different stalls. It needed to be one that was possible to win, but didn’t involve too much skill. A good game of chance, so that if we didn’t win, it wouldn’t hurt our ego too bad.

“Hmm... what about that one?” I pointed to the game where you throw ping pong balls over cups that are different colors. “That one is entirely chance. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“Alright,” he said and walked toward the game. After staring at it distrustfully for a moment, he nodded. We paid for the game and the employee handed us three ping pong balls. “You first?”

“Sure.” I took one of the balls and tossed it at the cups. It doesn’t hit a winner. “Dang. Your turn.”

I picked up another ball and held it out to him with a smile.

He took the ball with a nod. He adjusted the way he's standing, spreading his feet, which was honestly kind of cute. I was going to feel bad if we didn’t win. He threw the ball.

I got excited when it nearly made it, but the ball bounced off the rim and into a losing cup.

“I told you they're designed for you to lose.”

“Oh! You were so close! Do it one more time!”

He reached for a ball but shook his head. “You're probably luckier than I am.” He held it out to me with a nervous smile.

I laughed and shook my head to tell him he was wrong, which he was, by the way. It was all chance, but I decided to not fight him on it and grabbed the ball from his hand. 

I playfully waved my hand in front of my face, pretending to be extremely focused and serious. I brought my arm back, making a dramatic pose, and tossed it. It skipped a few of the cups, landing in a winner. I jumped in excitement, but at the last second, the ball jumped out, just like Arin’s had done before. I turned to him with a sheepish smile.

“Okay, so, maybe they are designed for us to lose.” I can’t help but laugh.

He actually laughed at that, which made me happier. 

“Sometimes I'm actually right about things,” he said with a shrug. 

“Hmmm…” I squinted playfully. “I guess so.”

Arin and I started walking away from the booth.

“Where to next?” he said softly, looking down at the ground.

I look around, trying to think of something. “We could... grab a snack... there’s a house of mirrors... walk around some more... I’m fine with whatever. What do you think?”

I smiled at him again, and his eyes went to mine.

“Well, what's your favorite thing to do at carnivals?” 

There it was again. The “before” part of this day was now a distant memory. It didn’t seem like he remembered me saying I’ve never been to a carnival before.

I didn’t really care though. The “after” had actually been kind of nice so far.

My answer to his question was honestly probably the rides. But, I knew if I suggested it, he would feel pressured to do it, and I didn’t want him to do something he didn’t enjoy.

“I don’t know…” Just then, I thought of something, and my eyes lit up. “Do you like cotton candy?”

“Oh, um, sometimes. Would you like some?” His eyes went toward the part of the pier that stretched out into the water. “There's a little stand down that way.”

I grinned, but I felt like I was being kind of intense about cotton candy and needed to justify myself.

“Sure! I haven't had cotton candy in years!”

“I guess it's been a while for me too.” He started walking towards the shop, motioning for me to follow him, giving me, what appeared to be, a genuine smile.

I followed him happily.

“I just feel like it's hard to be unhappy when there's cotton candy in the picture.”

“Maybe you're onto something,” he said and glanced at the ground.

There was a small smile playing on his lips, making me think that he might be remembering something.

“Brings back good memories?” I asked with a kind smile.

“Some…,” he admits, blinking a few times when he looks over at me. “Does it for you?”

I thought back to me as a child, running through the streets of Lauderdale, searching for something to eat or somewhere to sleep for the night. I probably would have cried if I had tried cotton candy back then.

But, even then, before I was homeless, my parents were Sixes. There wasn’t much money for luxuries like sweets.

I shrugged with a small, thoughtful smile. “Honestly, not really. I only tried it for the first time a couple years ago.”

I looked at the ground, thinking for a moment about how screwed up it was that I was eighteen before I ever had something so simple, so common, as cotton candy. I looked back up to him. 

“Ah, well... at least you've found them now,” he said, and I nodded. We got up to the stand, and he pointed to the list of flavors. “Pick what you like.”

I looked over the list and pointed to one. “Hm... maybe just the classic blue?”

He nodded. “Of course.”

Arin ordered the cotton candy and paid. 

“Thank you,” I said genuinely. 

He quietly nodded in response and then took the cotton candy from the employee and handed it to me. “Here you go.”

I took it with a smile, immediately pinching off a piece and eating it. Immediately, my mouth was absorbed with the sugary sweetness. It was delicious.

“Oh, yes. This is everything,” I said, laughing a little, and I held it out to Arin. “Want some?”

I was expecting him to take some, considering how he seemed like the idea of cotton candy was pleasant to him. But, instead, an odd, lost look crossed his face, and he shook his head. 

“No thanks, I'm fine.” He glanced around at the stalls and took a deep breath.

I nodded, but I couldn’t help but frown. I watched as he looked around, wondering what exactly was going through his head. 

“Are you okay?”

He looked back to me and gave me a smile. “Yeah, I'm fine. Are you doing okay?”

I gave him a kind smile and nodded, though I wasn’t sure I believed him. 

“Yeah. Yeah, this has been fun.”

His smile brightened, making me happy. 

“I’m glad. Things haven’t gone that smoothly recently, so I appreciate hearing that.”

I wondered what that meant, but I didn’t feel like it was right to pry.

“Of course! I'm sorry to hear that... but hopefully things continue to get better for you.”

I smiled and ate more of my cotton candy.

“I'm sure they will.” 

He eyed the cotton candy, smiling just a little. I pinched off another piece and put it in my mouth. I saw his stare on the cotton candy and smiled again, even though I’m sure my entire mouth was blue and I looked like an idiot.

I waved the cotton candy in front of him and, being careful not to push him, playfully said, “Are you sureee you don't want some?”

“Really I'm good. It's all yours.” He held up his hands. “I'm happy you like it.”

I silently hoped I didn’t look like a cotton candy crazy person.

“Alright.”

Arin and I walked around a little more after that, looking around at the different booths. I wasn’t going to lie, it wasn’t the perfect first date. But, considering how rough it had started, I didn’t think it ended too bad.

Arin was sensitive and, clearly, he had a lot of guarded feelings about The Selection and the people participating. We didn’t really learn too much about each other. But, at least, if anything, I had fun. I hoped he did too.

I found myself looking forward to getting to know him even more.

[bangtanfancamp]

S.U.G.A

-yoongi x reader

-10k pieces of fluff

-your flaky best friend forgets you,yet again, leaving you to spend the day with the oddest boy you’ve ever met. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

College had been the best experience so far. After growing up so sheltered and in such a small town, this new world of experiences was such an exhilarating adventure. There were so many people, so many new stories. You loved it.

You had never been in the center of things like this before. Always observed but never joined in. But you felt alive here. One of your favorite things you’d found so far was the theater department. People there had so much life, so much wild exuberance and this abundance of passion- it was infectious. Every second you were there you felt yourself coming alive, and you were beyond enamored with it.

It was also how you’d met one of your best friends here, Taehyung. Goofy, handsome, extraordinary Kim Taehyung. Every day he’d be a different character- different hairstyles, hair colors, piercings, clothes. He was constantly reinventing himself. You never knew what to expect, but the thing that never changed was his gigantic heart and his contagious laughter.

Taehyung made everything bright and impossibly joyful. He was hilarious and could turn the mood of an entire group when he walked into a room. He was kind to everyone and loyal to a fault to the people he loved, especially his best friend Jimin. He was incredibly talented in so many ways. You were constantly in awe of him. To be honest, you were battling a massive crush on him that was quickly going nowhere, but you couldn’t help it. He was … him. He was so effortlessly himself and absolutely wonderful. He was Taehyung…But, truth be told, in spite of all these wonderful things, that boy was flaky as heck.

Which is exactly how you wound up here- standing on the threshold of his house for the past fifteen minutes with no answer. The two of you were supposed to rehearse a scene for one of your classes. It had been Taehyung’s idea for you to come over to his house in the first place. But 15 minutes, 5 texts and 3 calls later, he was nowhere to be found while you froze your legs off in the chilly spring air. You were not dressed for this… this outfit had been chosen for aesthetics, not practicality.

Finally, something began to buzz in your pocket. You snatched out your phone to be greeted with the contact photo he’d been so proud of- his handsome face smashed behind glass like he was trapped in your phone. Normally, it made you smile, but right now the best you could muster was snorting in annoyance as you answered the call, bringing it to your ear without bothering to say hello. You didn’t really have to. Taehyung started in immediately with-

“OH MY GOSH, ______, I am SO SORRY!!! I totally, completely forgot we had plans today! I am so sorry. I’m the worst!! the absolute worst! Do you hate me? I’d hate me. I’m so sorry,____. Ugh. I met for breakfast with Jimin and Mina and inspiration struck and well, we’re in the middle of dying Jimin’s hair.”

Huh. That was a new one. You certainly hadn’t gotten that excuse from anyone  before.

“I’m so sorry,_____. I’ll make it up to you! I will. I promise I will. You know I’m good for it. Food later? On me? We can get your favorite- chipotle? Extra chips and everything.”

“And guac?” You added softly after a moment’s hesitation.

“YES! Oh my god YES! She still loves me guys!” He yelled back to the room.

“Yes! You can have all the guac in the world. You can have an entire swimming pool full of avocados if you forgive me!”

You rolled your eyes at him. Why did he have to be so cute all the time. How were you supposed to stay mad at that?

“Calm down,” you laughed. “You’re so Stupid. But what do I do now? While you’re still busy dying jimin’s hair…?”

“Silver! We’re dying it silver. It’s gonna look so good, ____, my piece de resistance. And maybe once he looks like a Greek god, he’ll finally have the nerve to ask that girl from economics out so we can STOP HEARING ABOUT IT EVERY- ow! Hey! that hurt! Show some respect. I hold your good looks in my hands!!” Tae shouted. Jimin must have smacked him for his comment. You couldn’t help but laugh.

“Tae,” you interrupted, attempting to grab his attention. “Tae!”

“Sorry, love. That heathen almost bruised me. What is it?”

A soft blush illuminated your cheeks at his casual endearment. You made a mental note to process the glory of his lips calling you “love” at another time- you know, when it wasn’t his fault that you were freezing your extremities off.

“I live across campus, Tae. I biked all the way over here to see you, and I really am in no mood or that kind of shape to just turn around and go back already. Plus, I’m freezing. It’s like the second coming of Jack Frost out here. I thought it was supposed to be warming up.”

“You’re totally right. The jacket I had to throw on completely ruined my look this morning. Tragic rockstar chic will have to wait for better weather,” he lamented. “Hey, why don’t you just crash at my place until I get back there? I don’t think any of my roommates are home. There’s free tv and you know where all the good snacks are. There’s a key in the mailbox.”

“Your mailbox? Isn’t that incredibly unsafe?” you scrutinized.

“Someone’s always losing one so we stuffed an extra in there. I will not be dragged out of bed at 2am to let someone and their hookup in when I have an audition the next day just because they can’t be bothered to keep up with their keys in the throes of passion,” he said disgustedly. Clearly this hypothetical had actually happened. Probably pretty recently gauging the fleeting irritation in his usually chipper tone. “Anyway, I’ll be home in two hours- tops! Promise! In the meantime, my home is your home.”

“Fine. But if you’re not here in two hours, you owe me ice cream after chipotle, and I intend to collect, good sir.”

“MUAH!” Tae blew kisses at you through the phone. “Of course, princess! Muah! love you! You’re the best!”

“Yes, I am,” you sassed, attempting to cover the spike in your heartbeat. “Now go, before you fry jimin’s hair off. He won’t know what to do with himself if there’s nothing to run his fingers through.”

“Yah! Could that happen?” Jimin’s clear voice piped up in the background. “You said this was foolproof!”

“It is! Don’t worry! I got this. I’m basically a pro” Tae hushed him. “___, bye my love! Don’t burn anything down cuz you’re mad at me.”

“No promises,” you smiled into the phone as Tae rushed to quip back before you ended the call with a click. “Well all right then, this isn’t weird at all.”

You fumbled around the mailbox until you found the key they’d taped on the inside. You debated whether you should bring the massive stack of mail in it inside with you. Clearly no one had checked it in a while but wasn’t it a crime to tamper with someone else’s mail? Did this count? Whatever. It needed to be done, and you knew Tae certainly wasn’t gonna do it so you gathered up the armful and let yourself inside.

This felt so strange, walking into someone else’s home. You’d been here before for parties and to watch movies- epic marathons of whatever Tae was currently immersing himself in or terrible foreign films you had to dissect and critique for class- and for Tae’s award show watch parties (the oscars were his film critic super bowl), but this was different. This was another animal entirely. Being in the silence of someone else’s home when they weren’t there felt vaguely like trespassing even though you had permission to be there. Tae was alright with it, but you weren’t sure if you were.

You dropped your massive canvas bag by the front door and made your way to the kitchen. He was right- at least you knew where the good food was. You’d been responsible for helping refill enough snack bowls at Tae’s parties.

Tae split the massive house with four other guys, but you’d only met a couple of them. Everyone’s schedule was so all over the place that you’d only met Namjoon and Jungkook- the first double majoring in philosophy and business so you hardly ever saw him but he seemed cool, and the latter was busy giving Jimin a run for his money in the dance department. The other two you had yet to meet.

Helping yourself to a bag of barbecue potato chips and a cold can of root beer, you made your way toward the living room when you suddenly realized how stupidly wrong Tae had been- You weren’t alone at all. There was a boy on the couch. An incredibly cute boy at that.

He was fully dressed in an over the top black and white outfit. Sleeves cut off the too long shirt, black shorts, striped socks and black high tops. He had on way too much chunky jewelry and a backwards black and white snapback. Hardly the sort of things someone wore to bum around in at home. He had a thick shock of maroon hair, and it looked like- was he wearing eyeliner? Yes…yes, he was. A thick band of it too. He was stretched across the sofa, eye closed, with a chunky set of headphones over his ears, and you could hear the bass in the music from here. That must be why he hadn’t heard you banging on the door half the morning.

You froze in the doorway, unsure of what to do with yourself. No one was supposed to be here. This was weird enough when you thought you were alone. Now this poor guy was gonna think someone had broken into his house, and he wouldn’t be entirely wrong. “God dang it, Taehyung. How do you always get me into crap like this when you’re not even here?” You groaned under your breath, about to turn around and slip out as quietly as you’d come in, when your company finally noticed you.

“Um, hello?” A low voice croaked out. It wasn’t as deep as Taehyung’s, but it had a certain kind of authority to it that made you still immediately.

“Oh…. h-hi there,” you waved meekly.

“Are you- did Namjoon- are you a guest of his?” The boy queried, squinting his inscrutable eyes at you and pushing one ear of his headphones back to hear your answer. God, he was even cuter than you’d thought.

“What? No, i’m…oh! You mean??? No! Dear god, no, I’m not one of Namjoon’s booty calls.” You balked.

He seemed to realize that he’d alarmed you and immediately sat up. “Hey, it’s okay if you were. We’re all adults here. I didn’t mean anything by it.” He puts his hands out, palms toward you- God they were pretty hands though- like he was trying not to startle an animal. You probably did look pretty jumpy at this point. What was in the water at this place that all the boys looked so unreal?

“There’s just… not usually pretty girls just wandering around the house in the middle of the day when I think I’m here alone. Just… trying to figure it out.” He explained.

“Oh,” you sighed. “That’s fair. I’m sorry there’s a…uh, stranger … in your house. I’m a friend of Taehyung’s. We were supposed to rehearse for a project today, and he totally forgot and bailed on me. I live over in the Hillman dorm so he said I could crash inside until he got here. I’m sorry. He said no one was home.”

Quietly, he nodded, taking your explanation in.

“I-I can go,” you began to drift backwards. “It’s not that big a deal. I can wait for Tae somewhere else.”

“Hey. No, it’s okay. Hillman’s clear across campus. That’s too far if you’re trying to get a hold of him. You can stay. On one condition.”

Quirking your eyebrow, you stilled at this. “Okayyy….what is it?

“You have to share those chips with me.”  Simple enough. He leaned forward, elbows to knees, to whisper the next part conspiratorially,

“And you can’t tell anyone I let you steal one of my sodas and survive. It’ll ruin my credibility around here.” For the first time, he smiled. And boy, what a smile. The intensity of his demeanor dissolved instantly, replaced by this sweet, innocent smile that warmed his entire face. Something about it clutched at your chest in a way you hadn’t expected.

“Oh God, I stole your soda?” You groaned. “I’m really battin a thousand today, huh?”

Sighing, you trudged toward the couch as he pulled his feet back to make room for you. You flopped down on the far end of it and kicked your head back to look at the ceiling. “I’m really sorry about that…?” You rolled your neck over to look at him, voice lilting up at the end in a question.

“Yoongi,” he smirked.

“______,” you huffed back, annoyed with yourself for how this entire day had gone so far. You extended your hand toward his. “Nice to officially meet you.”

He hesitated, only for a second, his feline  features sizing you up. Nobody had ever looked at you with this kind of scrutiny before. You couldn’t quite describe it. He wasn’t objectifying you. Honestly, it looked like he was just trying to figure you out. Like you might be the only person who knew the answer to a puzzle he’d been trying to solve for decades, and he’d gotten bored waiting for you to show up. You didn’t know what to do with that.

Slowly, he took your hand in his to shake it back. His hands were larger than you expected, strong with intricate veins running across the back of his palm. They were impossibly warm. You wondered what you’d gotten yourself in to.

“Likewise. I’m guessing I’m the last one to meet you?” He asked.

“Not quite.There’s still one other roommate I don’t think I’ve met yet. Tae told me his name. I think it was….is his name José..?”

“Hoseok.” Yoongi grunted, rolling his eyes absurdly far back in his head. “And no, you must not have. Trust me. You’d remember him.”

“Do you guys not get along? Sensing some tension here.” You also noticed Yoongi hadn’t seemed to let go of your hand yet. You cleared your throat, only to be met with a questioning look. You darted your eyes to where your hands were still joined as yoongi’s eyebrows shot up to hide beneath his shaggy bangs. He dropped your hand immediately like it was cursed. Geeze, He didn’t have to throw it like that. His contact had been kind of…nice.

“Sorry.. on a major sleep deficit over here. Must have spaced out.” He buried a hand in the hair at the nape of his neck .You wondered in passing if his hair felt soft.

“S’fine. So, what’s the deal with hoseok? What’s the hostility there?”

“There’s not. He’s my best friend. He just drives me nuts sometimes. He’s also the reason I’ve been up since 5am today.” He shook his head disgustedly.

“Good grief, why?” You were intrigued.

He pulled his headphones down to settle around his neck and straightened the backwards  cap he had on.

“Isn’t that awful? I was having such a good night’s sleep too…Hobi is in the dance department. He has this assignment to create a visual project with students from another complimentary major so he pulled me and Namjoon in on it. Something about learning how to network…”

“I thought Joonie was a philosophy major?” your brow crinkled in confusion.

“He is. But little known fact-  he’s also one of the best rappers on campus.”

You felt your eyes go wide before you could stop them. “Seriously?! I mean, I guess he’s got the voice for it.”

“Does the name RM mean anything to you?l

“Half the girls in my dorm want to throw their panties at him. They talk about him all the time- they never shut up about him actually. But I’ve never made it to one of his shows. Why?”

Yoongi’s eye sparkled, chuckling to himself. “That’s Namjoon.”

“SHUT. UP!” Stunned, you clapped your hand over your mouth. “you’ve GOT to be kidding!”

“No, he is. Scouts honor. So now that you know, are you gonna be one of those girls throwing your panties at him too?” Yoongi’s dark eyes glowed with mischief.

“I’ve known you 20 whole minutes and that’s already the second time you’ve insinuated that I want to be in Joon’s bed. Should I be offended by that?” You pressed your hand to your chest in mock disgrace, a challenge in your eyes.

Laughing, Yoongi ducked his head sheepishly.

“Dang,you’re right, aren’t you? My bad. I guess I’m just kind of used to that sort of traffic around here. But you seem like a nice girl. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Hmm, it’s fine.” You smiled. And it was…You had much bigger concerns- like did Tae ever bring other girls around? You weren’t sure why the thought of that bothered you so much. A boy as flirty and outgoing as him must take girls home all the time, but you couldn’t help the sharp pang of whatever this was that stung your chest. Strangely, you then wondered if yoongi ever did, a thought you quickly brushed aside as your stomach twisted. You didn’t much like that idea either.

“Honestly, I’m just waiting to find out if there’s an explanation for this get up of yours.” You gestured toward his body.

“Hey! This is a look.”  His brows crumpled in defiance.

“Oh it’s quite a look all right. Very 2013.” You teased.

He huffed at you and readjusted his hat as he soundlessly mimicked you. You couldn’t help but laugh.

“Anyway! Namjoon, hobi and I are all rappers actually. We’ve messed around with some song writing, played a few gigs. They’ve gone pretty well so hobi took this project as an excuse to make a music video for us. Jungkook’s been thinking about switching to the film department so he roped him into being our cameraman.”

“Is that why you were up before God and the sun?”

“Yeah, hobi showed up banging on the door at the butt crack of dawn and brought these God awful outfits. He insisted that we wear them and smeared this ridiculous makeup all over us. Told us to stop complaining- that he always has to wear stage makeup for performances and to stop acting like we were above it,” he gestured annoyed at his face.

“I kinda like it….” you offered softly. You caught him curiously dart his eyes at you. “What? I think it looks good …on you. Makes your eyes look-intense. I certainly wouldn’t mess with you.”

He playfully snarled, baring his teeth at you.

“Well, at least that makes one of us. I think it looks ridiculous. I just don’t know how to take it off. Every time I try to, I just spread it around. Makes it worse”

“I see that,” You giggled. “ I can help you, if you want. After  I find out the rest of the story.”

“Deal.” He arched a sinister eyebrow at you.

“So. Where was I ? Oh. 5am call time, ridiculous outfits, stupid makeup. He drags me, Namjoon and jungkook to the middle of a rooftop downtown and then hoseok decides he wants us all to learn this stupid choreography he’s come up with. For him that’s fine, it’s what he does. But I hate it- I can do it, don’t get me wrong - but I hate it. I just wanted to do what I came there for- rap- But he wouldn’t back down, he insisted on it since it was for his grade and his vision, whatever that means.

“So we spent the next 5 hours going over and over it all. I got it down too. At least I thought I did, until we started shooting and hobi became the worst director ever. I finally gave up and told him he could film my scenes tomorrow but I was done for the day. So I bounced. And here we are.” He spread his arms and crashed back against the couch, drawing a laugh from you.

“So hoseok is a dance nazi?” You asked, leaning forward to assess how to get all this makeup off Yoongi.

“Yep… i was too tired to change so I just crashed on the couch, ready to finally get some peace and quiet without him squawking at me every five seconds.” He scrunched his face in annoyance, shaking his head like he was reliving it again. He actually looked pretty adorable when he was frustrated.

“Sounds like you barely made it out alive,” you teased.

“You have no idea. I had to leave my dignity behind as a distraction.”

“Well, let’s see if we can help get you some of it  back. I think I have some of those wipe thingies that get makeup off in my bag. Let me grab it.” You hopped off the sofa, sundress swinging around your hips, and bounded toward the door. You returned moments later with your giant canvas tote.

“Dang.. You sure taehyung stood you up? I think you lost him somewhere in that bag. I can hear him crying for help,” Yoongi snickered, shoving a chip in his mouth.

Blushing, you clutched it closer to your body.

“Ha ha. I just never know what I’m gonna need- so I bring everything.”

“I can see that,” he teased.

“And if I didn’t, then you wouldn’t be one step closer to not looking like the joker anymore, so hush will you?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Yoongi smirked, raising his hands in surrender. It made your pulse quicken for some reason. Taking a calming breath, you sat back down beside him, much closer this time.

“May I ?” You asked, reaching for his hat.

“Sure.” He smiled warmly at you.

You gently moved the cap back and his thick hair flopped forward into his eyes. He attempted to blow his fringe out of his eyes, trying to sit still for you, but with no luck. You gingerly reached out to push his hair back for him and couldn’t help but notice how his chest stilled at your touch.

Gosh, you barely knew this guy. What were you doing? You’d help put on and take off makeup a million times for shows and parties. Why did this feel so different?

“Don’t let this be weird. This is gonna have to come off somehow right? So just um, close your eyes for me okay?”

“You got it, boss.” He mumbled, lashes fluttering shut over his cheeks.

“Do you- are those fake eyelashes Yoongi?” You tried to stifle your laughter.

“Did he -are you serious ? God I don’t know what he was doing. I was half asleep when he did this to me.”

“And foundation?”

“Yeahhhhh, that I know. Again, not my idea.”

“You poor thing,” a giggle spilling from your lips that you tried to pull back. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you. Just relax for me okay?.”

“This is as relaxed as I get.” He quipped, but you couldn’t help but notice the smile tugging on the ends of his lips.

Lifting his chin with your forefinger and thumb,

You went to work carefully removing the terribly applied lash strip clinging desperately to one eye. His eyeliner had been so thick you hadn’t caught it all this time. His eyelids fluttered with relief after the sticky thing was removed, his face twisting and stretching like he was trying to feel if he was himself again.

Once free of it, you carefully followed the curves of face to help him get the rest of the eye makeup off. It wasn’t until you were this close that you could take in just how beautiful he was. With his eyes closed, you took a moment to really savor his features. They were so delicate but so perfect. The ridge of his jaw was so smooth, his skin beneath the makeup perfectly polished marble.

He noticed your stillness and smiled.

“Everything all right out there?”

Startled out of your day dream, you scrambled back to work. “Of course. Just assessing the damage.”

“Whatever you say,” he smirked. He seemed to be warming up around you. He so was easy to talk to despite his pensive aura. You liked talking to him.

“What’s yours by the way?”

“My what?”

“Your major. What’s your story?”

“Nothing particularly interesting I’m afraid. I’m undeclared right now. Every person I meet here seems so incredibly talented. Even if you just look at the people who live in this house- painters, philosophers, actors, filmmakers, dancers, poets….rappers. I had no idea a person could be so many things. Every time I think I know what I want to pursue, I find out five more options and I’m back to square one.” You dabbed at a particularly stubborn spot along the corner of his eye.

“i guess I’m still trying to find where I fit. Growing up I thought you had to find one thing, stick to it, perfect it and that became your future. Became who you were. But… I don’t think it’s that simple anymore.”

“People are more complex than we give them credit for. They evolve so much over time. It’s hard to ever really know someone.” Yoongi mused.

“What about you?” You asked softly.

“Oh, uh-Music production,” he responds quietly, almost a whisper.

Impressive. That was one of the hardest programs to get into here.

“That’s… dang. You any good?”  You nudged his ribs with your elbow. Despite his thin frame, he actually felt quite solid.

“Who knows” he shrugged. “ but I love it.” He mumbled the last part almost as an afterthought. Like he wasn’t sure he wanted to share it. You tucked your feet beneath you as you got comfortable on the couch, increasingly intrigued by the boy before you.

“That’s really cool. But I meant does anybody really know you?” it felt like a strange question, but you were so intrigued by him- you were honestly just trying to figure out if there was anyone he’d let close enough to crack his algorithm.

“people know as much as I let them know.” He said thoughtfully.

“But..doesn’t that get lonely?” You brushed along his cheekbone, noting how quickly the conversation had veered in a heavy direction.

Yoongi was quiet for a beat. Slowly, he exhaled before simply answering “yes.”

Softly, your hands fell away from his face and folded in your lap. Yoongi cleared his throat, but you remained silent. You hadn’t expected him to share something like that with you so easily. What could you possibly say now?

He reached up run his fingers over his face as his eyes fluttered open.

“Are we finished? Am I myself again?”

You nodded gently. “All clear,” a smile ghosting across your lips.

“Ya! Finally!!” He stretched his arms out wide, shaking his head dramatically. “I can breathe again! Aaagh!! I could kiss you.” Yoongi didn’t seem to notice the impact of his words on you, too busy enjoying his freedom.

“comments like that and you’re busy worried about girls wandering out from Namjoon’s bed….” you mumbled to yourself.

“What was that?” He asked, neck twisting over his shoulder to look back at you. You blushed and dropped your eyes.

“Oh! Nothing. Don’t worry about it.” You tried to cover for yourself, how well you didn’t know. He shrugged, unbothered and lifted himself from the couch.

“Hey, i’m gonna change out of the rest of this.” He slipped his thumb beneath one of his chunky gold chains. “Finally got some momentum now that my face is back in order.” His smile was a bit lopsided and it made you want to kiss the corner of it.

“Glad to have inspired you. Maybe I should head out…”

“Why?” He grunted. “You just got here. Sit tight. We can watch a movie.” With that, he left. Off and down the hallway, he disappeared with a click.

Welp, this was an interesting turn of events. You crossed your legs, feet tucked beneath you as you spread the skirt of your dress over them. You felt strangely nervous now, despite his invitation. You barely knew him so why were so glad he had asked you to stay? You took a sip of your soda and glanced around the room, fidgety and restless, eventually pulling out your phone hoping that scrolling through it would distract you from waiting for your unexpected company.

Soon enough, yoongi returned, plopping on the sofa, albeit much closer than he’d been before. You were still wedged against the left arm of it but he’d planted himself mid sofa this time, not on the other end. There was still distance but not enough to calm your pulse. He’d changed into a long black sweater. The sleeves were too long and spilled over his knuckles, while his legs were adorned in fitted black jeans with a rip in the knee that stretched as he shifted to find a comfortable position. You could tell he felt more like himself this way, his demeanor had shifted. It was easier, lighter, more open. It suited him.

“So,” he broke the silence,” what kind of movies do you like to watch? And Please don’t tell me you’re as much of a snob as taehyung.” He turned his face to look at you.

“No,” you laughed. “I’m not. He is a bit hard to please in that department, isn’t he?”

“You have no idea. Last week, jungkook was watching transformers in here and Tae practically gave him an entire dissertation on how much he hated Michael Bay’s cinematography.” Yoongi shook his head, disgruntledly.

“Yeah, that sounds like him. Though transformers is hardly a masterpiece. Is that your kind of film?”

His face scrunched,” I don’t think it’s anyone’s kind of film. That movie is mindless- just bombs, butts and boobs. It’s just something to have on in the background. I’m not invested enough to care that much.”

“So, what do you like then?”

His crooked smile was back. “Ah, ah, you never answered my question,” he tutted at you. “I have seniority here and I asked you first. So spill.” There was a challenge in his eyes, but a whimsy in them too. Like if you answered,  correctly he might have a prize for you.

“Honestly?”

“Honestly.”

“Okay, you’re gonna think this is silly but….” you drew in a breath.

“Ilikemusicals” you blurted out all at once and Yoongi laughed- truly deeply big belly laughed. Shocked at his reaction, you fought back the urge to pop him in the shoulder.

“What’s so bad about that!? Gosh you said it like you were confessing your had leprosy..or herpes. Everybody likes musicals.” He said flippantly.

“Hardly. Nobody in my town growing up liked musicals. The theater kids were weirdos.” You frowned, arms wrapped protectively to your body. eyes suddenly occupying themselves with a particularly fascinating stain on the carpet as you avoided yoongi’s gaze.

“Well, that sucks. But it just means you grew up around narrow minded people. Anyone worth their fine arts credit loves La La Land around here.” He leaned over to bump his elbow to your arm, face dipping to find your eyes. “Now will you look at me again?”

You felt yourself unfurl a little bit as you reached to tuck your hair behind your ear and found that lopsided grin you felt yourself yet again reacting to. “Fine. I accept my punishment.” You attempt to sneer but it comes out far too soft, all the ferocity of a fluffy little herbivore.

“We both know looking at me isn’t a punishment.” His eyes drift sideways at you, a high eyebrow arched as he extends his neck and lifts his chin to display his profile for you, elegant hands tracing the crook of his jawline and the length of his throat. Oh god……was it normal for your pulse to hitch like that? Time to get this back under control.

“Confident boy.” You tipped your head to the side, and Yoongi’s smile grew so wide you could see all of his teeth.

“That I am- when I wanna be, I guess. I can see why Tae likes having you around,_____. You’re a fun girl.” He stated it plainly like it was the most obvious fact in the world. Tae. You were supposed to be waiting for him.You’d gotten so wrapped up in yoongi that you’d stopped watching the clock ages ago. How strange. Tae normally occupied so much of your brain space but right now the only thing on your mind was Yoongi. Shocking how quickly your attention had been usurped by this new boy.

“Thanks. You’re bad not at all, Yoongs. That eyeliner led me astray.”

He snorted with deep throaty chuckle. “Yoongs? Is that what you just called me?”

“What if it is?” You teased. Uh oh, did he not like that?

“Then I take back my previous compliments.”

“Wow. Is that really all it takes to fall out of your good graces?” You feigned offense.

“Apparently yes. Cuz that was god awful. Never call me that again. You really think that was gonna be the winner?” He deadpanned as he looked sideways at you, hand poised on his knee flicking through the TV guide.

“I was just testing it out. I’ve already seen you barefaced, I thought maybe we were close enough  for nicknames.” You attempted to shrug nonchalantly.

His feline eyes squinted over at you again. God, he was hard to read when he wanted to be. But then that whisper of a smile was back creeping up the side of his lips and you felt yourself finally exhale.

“Fair enough,” he nodded with a soft laugh. “Just not that one. There are much better names you could be calling me.” He bit his bottom lip playfully, eyebrows wiggling and disappearing behind his scarlet fringe.

“Gross. Hard pass.” You tried to make your face a mask of disinterest, but behind the veil you felt your chest collapsing. This boy. He erupted into bright laughter, almost cackling at you.

“God you’re cute when you’re uncomfortable. I can see right through you.” He reached over to pinch at your cheek. For a few dazed seconds, you let him. You were so caught off guard by his touch you didn’t know if you should stop it. Eventually you wriggled your face away, huffing at his long fingers. Was cute a good thing ? In your experience attractive boys tended to friend zone “cute” girls. It was usually a glorified step above being called their sister. But yoongi didn’t say it like that… you wondered.

“So hotshot, since my ideas out of contention, what’s yours then? What do they call you on stage?” You recrossed your arms beneath your cleavage and stared defiantly at him. His eyes flicked down just for a second before they fell away, tongue peeking out to the edges of his smile.

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“You know, what name do you rap under?” Your eyes went a little round, hoping you’d asked that right.

“Ah. It’s kind of.. I don’t know. Say what you will, I guess.” He ruffled the hair at the back of his head. “Suga. I go by Suga.”

A snort flew out of you before you could stop it. “Seriously? And you gave me crap about Yoongs?”

“I know. I know. It’s a long story. But I’m kind of attached to it now.” His smile was soft, like he truly was terribly fond of the moniker.

“I don’t know. You’re gonna have to convince me on that one.” You lifted a quizzical brow at him. His eyes glistened at your challenge and suddenly you didn’t fee quite as in charge anymore.

“It makes for a great intro on my verses when I’m working with the guys.”

“Oh really? Show me.” You weren’t sure where that came from.

“Feisty. Okay.” He reached in his pocket to pull out his phone. He thumbed around looking for something on it until he smirked triumphantly. His intense gaze returned you and his lips snaked into a smile.  Why was he looking at you like that? Like he was going to devour you and have fun while he did it.

“I have one condition.”

“Again with the conditions. What is it this time?” This was all a game to him. It made you feel like a rubiks cube- you weren’t if he was trying to solve you or you were trying to solve him-  but he was so god dang intriguing that you were willing to play along either way.

With his gaze locked on you, he breathed, “You have to close your eyes.”

“What?” You felt your brows pinch together.

“I’m serious. Close them. You’ll thank me later.” He winked, his grin all teeth.

“Uh huh. Sure… fine.” You pivoted toward him with a bounce, settling into your new position. You tucked your hair behind both ears. “Whatever you’ve got- impress me.” You waved your fingers in the air mystically.

He chuckled. “Calm down, Scarlet witch. Just enjoy.”

In the silence, you heard him shuffle and felt the couch dip. He was right in front of you now. Carefully, you stretched your fingers out only to retract them immediately when they brushed the denim on his shin. “Oof, Sorry.”

“Can’t keep your hands to yourself all ready. I didn’t even start the verse yet.” The smile in his voice was so endearing despite his cocky words. You twisted your face into a mocking smile and stuck your tongue out at him. He could be such a smug little- Wait. Oh… was he gonna? Suddenly, a digital beat started to play from his phone. It was intricate and layered-the bass in it was addictive and rhythmic. The production was impeccable. You wondered if he’d made it.

The couch shifted again and yoongi leaned in toward your ear. You could feel his breath tickling your skin and it made you shiver. After a few seconds of an intro, you heard him inhale to begin and as promised, his verse began with a velvet smooth “Suga”- a breathy whisper that tumbled out of his lips and fell tingling down your spine. Oh god.

He began to rap fluidly over the beat in a mixture of Korean and english, his voice gravelly and deep as he played with melodies and timing. You’d never heard anyone sound like that. He played with the textures of the noises he made, sometimes sounding so aggressive it almost came across as a snarl but other times sounding so smooth and gentle that his throaty voice felt altogether too intimate. He got to a point in the flow of it where the melody was delivered like a spoken word- not quite singing but not quite talking- his voice dipping into an octave that rivaled taehyung’s. It was potent and sticky like dark honey. His voice was delicious .

At one point, he was so close to you that you felt the tip of his nose drag against your cheekbone, his breath ghosting in puffs over your neck between his lyrics. And His voice then- God, it was the sexiest thing you’d ever heard. The intensity of it, even at a whisper was overwhelming.

Two verses later, you could tell from the waning dynamics in the music that the song was coming to a close. Just before it ended, he held on until the very last beat before whispering a final “Suga” against your skin to close it out, the music dropping out completely. You felt him trying to catch his breath as he pulled back from your ear. You weren’t sure if you were ready to look at him again just yet.

You swallowed thickly, hands crumpling the skirt fabric in your lap. Slowly, your eyes fluttered open to see the tip of yoongi’s nose dangerously close to yours. His smile was positively wicked but there was laughter in his eyes. He was exhilarated to see how you were going to respond to him. There was a dazzling light radiating off of him as he took in your dazed reaction.

“That was… um, wow.” was all you could manage to get out. “Are all your shows like that?”

“Oh absolutely. I just weave through an entire crowd of strangers whispering in their ears for the entire night. Real abstract. Only one person hears me at a time.” He squinted dubiously at you, his smile never wavering.

“I mean you never know, it’s an odd school. Lots of artistic weirdos around here.” You felt the dissonance between your words and your own face. Your eyes were probably soft and dreamy right now- and you could feel your mouth parting open without your permission. You were trying to keep up the witty repartee but your body felt a little like it was short circuiting.

“You’re not wrong. There’s this one weirdo who’s been hanging around my house the whole day. She even ransacked my kitchen and took all the good snacks-But between you and me, she’s kind of adorable. I’d kinda like to see more of her.” His eyes sparkled with a sincerity that caught you off guard.

“Oh? Maybe if she knew why a grumpy boy calls himself Suga, she’d be inclined to stop by more often.” What were you doing? What were you even saying? It was hard to get any oxygen to your brain when he was looking at you like that.

His laugh was soft, his cheeks pinching the edges of his beautiful eyes as he smiled. “I used to love to play basketball in high school.”

“Aren’t you a little um, short for that?” You giggled at the mental picture.

“Not too short to love it. Jerk.” He scrunched his nose at you in defiance, but his crooked smile never wavered. “I was actually a really good shooter. One of the best in my school. I had just started messing around with music back then and Namjoon was pressing me to come up with a name for myself. Basketball was what I knew best so I thought it should come from there. He made a joke about the position I played, shooting guard, but mumbled it in Korean. The first part of it sounded like Sugar and he gave me crap about how ironic it was that someone as sarcastic as me should be called that. And It just kind of stuck. Over time it dropped to just Suga, and it was stupid but i kind of liked it. It was different from everyone else, that was for sure.” His smile was a little goofy- you liked it. He was proud of his names story even if he acted like he wasn’t.

“So,….Suga. I get it now. I like it.” You looked at him sweetly.

“Yeah?” That playful spark was back.

“Yeah. Suga… suga… Suga…” You tried it out in different ways, letting it tumble out of your mouth honeyed and soft. His bottom lip snagged under his teeth, something a little darker rolling over his eyes.

“Careful, Princess. I’m not beetlejuice.” Oh. You liked it when he called you that. He was moving closer somehow. Not that he had much further to go anyway, you already felt like you were practically in his lap at this point. Your reflection was clear in his dark eyes until his gaze flicked down to your lips.

“You were when I found you on the couch.” You countered, feeling unsteady. His laugh in response was so sweet. His teeth lit up his grin as he shook his head at you.

“Touché. But I told you- not my choice.” Something in his gaze shifted, his voice getting deeper, more coarse, like he didn’t want to say the next words too loud.

“Hey…. I know.. we just met but, you- I like this. A lot. You really should come around more often. But… for me this time.” He was smiling, but there was no part of him that made this feel like a joke. There was a solidness to his words, a pleasant gravity to his expression. He was looking at you like he wanted to give you the whole world. His eyes were on your lips again, and you wet them as best you could considering how dry your mouth had suddenly become. This wasn’t a game anymore.

“And… why should I do that?” The question came out more breathy than you planned.

“So we can do this again,” and just like that Yoongi’s head dipped down, his lips pressed soft as a cloud against yours. You felt yourself gasp at his boldness, before completely dissolving into the sweetness of his kiss. It was slow and gentle, like he was in no hurry at all. His breath was sweet, his lips languid as he took his time with you. He kept his hands to himself, as if that was too much to do all at once and he could only handle so much of you. The kiss became still, crawling to a smooth stop, his lips tender as you both caught your breath with each other.

When he pulled away, his smile was impossibly wide, his nose nuzzling against yours as if he needed to find a way to prolong touching you even with the kiss ended. If this was another game of his, he was incredibly proud of the play he’d just made. He searched your doe eyes with wonder,

waiting for your counter move. The excitement was killing him and he loved it.

Something like this had never happened to you before. You’d shared awkward first kisses before with boys you’d grown up with. Clunky, nervous things exchanged on your front porch or the front seat of their car when it seemed like the logical thing to do at the end of the night that swiftly went nowhere. They’d been strange and inorganic and nothing had ever come of them.

But this- this was entirely different. Yoongi’s kiss was magnificent. Falling into his touch felt like watching a flower unfurl it’s petals in the brightness of the sun- warm and fantastic and the way it was always supposed to be. You felt your fingertips reach up to brush over where his lips had been. A crackle of electricity tingled as you replayed it in your mind. How was any of this possible? How did this happen?

“Yoongi….”

“Yes, Princess?”’ he licked his lips, happily awaiting your response.

“I barely know you. I- I don’t do this.” Your wide eyes searched his.

“That’s okay. No rush. I can tell.” He smirked.

“What ? How? Oh- god, was it bad?” A panicked line creased between your brows.

“Oh god no. That was fantastic.” He brushed his nose against yours. Laughter spilling from his lips. “Ten out of ten first kiss. I’m ready to find out how the second one goes whenever you are.” He winked. “No, I can tell because you have been the cutest shade of pink ever since I let you go. You look like a strawberry.”

Embarrassed, You quickly reached up to cover the blush on your cheeks that had given you away as Yoongi’s kind laughter floated around you.

“Hey, it’s okay. Don’t hide it. Its sweet.” He softly pulled your hands back and leaned in to plant a kiss to the apple of each of your glowing cheeks. He playfully pretended to bite one of them. “You are so cute. Not gonna lie, this is the first time I’ve ever been glad Tae can’t be on time to save his life. Something good finally came out of it.”

You felt your cheeks get warmer. You actually felt a tingle of heat brush across them under Yoongi’s impossibly happy eyes. “Hey yoongi?”

“Yeah, ___?” He answered, his smile a riot of stars and sunlight.

“I think I’m ready for that second kiss now.” Your breathing was a tangled mess but you managed to get your sentence out before Yoongi’s broad hands cradled your cheeks and pulled you in again.

“Don’t have to tell me twice.”

This kiss was brighter than the first. Yoongi held back just a little less, thumbs caressing your face, fingers slipping into your hair. You swore you could feel him smiling as he kissed you, his teeth coming to nip at your bottom lip every now and then. It caused a flurry of giggles to spill out of you that only encouraged him.

“God, you have the best laugh.” Yoongi whispered into your mouth. You felt the weight of him begin to press against your chest as you leaned back against the arm of the couch. He slipped between you and the couch to lay beside you, his hand caught on your waist, thumb brushing into your stomach. His warm tongue found its way into your mouth, causing a soft sigh to melt out of you. Your arms came to wrap around his neck, hands buried in his luscious crimson hair. You both became so tangled with each other that you didn’t hear the lock on the front door until-

“_____ ? and yoongi?” It was Jimin’s crystal clear voice floating through the house. And that meant- Taehyung was finally home.

“Shut up, you’re kidding!” Came Tae’s booming baritone. Startled, you sat bolt upright on the couch, pulling away from Yoongi. You snatched a pillow into your lap as you fussed with your disheveled hair. Yoongi couldn’t stop laughing as Tae rounded the corner, wide eyed and a bit stunned.

“What is this? How did this happen?” He pressed his palm flat to his chest in shock

“You left her alone all day! Someone had to keep her company.” Yoongi’s eyes never left you. His gaze was a little wild then, triumphant as he took in the state of you- beautiful and rattled. Once again, he found your wide eyed innocence enchantingly adorable. He looked a mess-his hair was sticking up in crazy directions, his lips puffy from where you tugged on them- and he didn’t mind one bit. He loved it.

“Tae, why didn’t you text me that you were on your way?” You couldn’t bring yourself to look at him, a fact that only made Yoongi giggle.

“I did! But you didn’t respond. I thought you were mad at me so I tried to get here sooner. But it seems I could have taken my time.” He wiggled his eyebrows playfully. “I can leave again, let you get back to what I interrupted.” He offered teasingly.

“Would you? We were having the best time before you ruined it.” Yoongi muttered, completely straight faced up at Taehyung. You were mortified as Taehyung cane behind you to scoop you up into a hug. He placed a smacking kiss into the top of your hair.

“Stop it. I don’t want to hear a single word about this, Tae.” You buried your face in your hands.

“Why? I love this! You two are so cute together! I honestly have no idea why I didn’t set you guys up sooner!” He rolled his eyes at himself.

“What?” You twisted to look up at him.

“Oh, I’ve wanted to find you a nice guy for ages. I thought about trying to play matchmaker with you and Jimin but then he got stuck on that girl in economics. Who he WILL ASK OUT NOW THAT WE SPENT AN ENTIRE DAY MAKING HIM LOOK LIKE A DISNEY PRINCE!!!” Taehyung shouted toward the kitchen.

“Ya! I will ask her out when I’m good and ready! Back off!!!” Jimin shot back. He sounded like his mouth was full. He was probably depleting the stash of Oreo cookies.

“You better! I’ll kill you myself if you let my hard work go to waste!… anyway. Yeah, I could tell you had a little thing for me. But I’m married to my career right now. I needed to find you a sweet boy to take care of you. But maybe I was looking at this wrong.  Perhaps, you’re the sunshine our Oscar the Grouch needs around here.” Taehyung prattled off, reaching a long arm to muss with Yoongi’s wild hair. Your eyes went wide at his casual profession about the feelings you’d had for him. He knew? That brat knew? God, how embarrassing.

“Hey!” Yoongi swatted at him, pulling you back from Tae’s embrace. “Are you crazy? You can’t just say things like that, you idiot. You’re gonna hurt her feelings.” Yoongi scowled at his friend as he held you protectively.

“Woah, woah woah, wait- you knew too?” You pressed yourself away from Yoongi to look in his eyes, trying to decide how you felt about all of this.

“Not explicitly. No. I’d heard that Tae had a really cute friend he brought around all the time and it seemed like he was too clueless to do anything about it. I didn’t know he was enough of an idiot to friend zone you.” He defended.

“Then why did you keep asking me about Namjoon?” Your brows furrowed.

“ Because at first, I genuinely had no clue who were. Once I figured it out, i didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. Plus, I kept trying to figure out why Tae was being such an idiot by not pursuing you.” He answered honestly.

“Hey! I’m literally right here.” Taehyung pouted.

“And that’s where you’ll stay if you ever realize how stupid you were for missing out on her.” Yoongi stated matter of factly.

“I am aware of what a catch she is, Yoongi. She is my best friend. Which is why I’ll dump all your recording equipment in the bathtub if you ever hurt her.” Taehyung crossed his arms, sticking his tongue out petulantly at Yoongi.

At some point, Jimin had silently entered the room, cheeks sure enough stuffed full with cookies as he watched the drama unfold. As promised, his hair really was a delicately coiffed silver now. The icy locks were side parted and swept off his face, making him look impossibly regal even with his mouth full of sweets. Perhaps Taehyung was in the wrong line of work altogether.

“Don’t you dare. Do you have any idea how much that equipment cost?” Yoongi’s scowl was a bit terrifying.

“It isn’t worth near as much as my best friend’s heart.” Taehyung insisted nobly.

“I thought I was your best friend?” Jimin piped up from across the room, his cheeks a bit pouty at the realization that he may have been one upped.

“And will be again once you grow a pair and talk to Sandy.” Taehyung quipped.

“Sasha.” Jimin deepened his pout.

“Whatever. Maybe I’ll remember once ive actually met her and she’s finally your girlfriend instead of just figment that you whine about all the time. Chop, chop, kid. You’ll graduate before you even take her to coffee at this point. Besides, I can have two best friends, Jiminie. There are no rules against it. But anyway! The point is that ____ and Yoongi are a great match and I ship it even if I didn’t start it.” He lifted his chin proudly.

“Thank you? I think?” You were still a bit baffled st the way this whole day had panned out. You glanced over at Yoongi again who at some point had taken your hand in his, busily brushing circles over your knuckles. His touch was grounding, and strangely pleasant on this bizarre day.

“Of course, darling. You have my blessing. Both of you.” Tae kissed you both on the forehead, an action that had Yoongi swinging at him again which only made Tae hug him tighter against his will. “You know you love it! We’ll spend even more time around each other now that you’re dating the best person I know.”

“You know me.” Jimin muttered defeatedly, popping an entire cookie in his mouth.

“It’s not the same thing, Jiminie! You know this. Insecurity is a very unattractive trait. Stella won’t give you the time of day if you keep this up,you know.” Taehyung said exasperatedly.

“Sasha. Her name is Sasha. And she likes me just fine. She said she likes sweet quiet guys.” Jimin smiled bashfully to himself. It was absolutely adorable.

“Well hey! We can work with that! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Taehyung practically leapt off the couch to congratulate his friend. “Come on, lets go regroup then. Figure out where to take it from here. ______, we still on for chipotle and rehearsal later?” He called back over his shoulder as he herded Jimin back to the kitchen, snatching the pack of cookies away from him, claiming they’d only make Jimin’s baby face more puffy.

“Of course! 4 o clock sharp this time?” You answered.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, darling.” Tae beamed back.

“Oh, but don’t worry about ice cream. Yoongi’s gonna take me to get that.” You smiled over at the boy beside you, who seemed pleasantly surprised at your words.

“Oh am I now? That’s news to me.” Yoongi’s eyes sparkled with mischief again.

“Absolutely. You owe me for saving you from that clown makeup. And for letting you survive after embarrassing me like that.” You smacked his shoulder, and he pretended to crumple into the sofa.

“God dang, woman. That upper body strength. Chill out.” He laughed warmly at you. “Fine. I’ll comply. One one condition.”

“This again?” You arched an eyebrow at him.

“Yes, this again.” He mimicked, a little too accurately. It had you biting down on your lip to keep from completely cutting him off with your laughter.

“I will take you on a proper ice cream date today- unlimited toppings, whipped cream, extra cherries, the whole nine yards- if you promise to to come to my show this Friday night.” He was poised on the couch like a cat ready to pounce, eyes meticulous as they studied your reaction.

“I don’t know if you’re prepared for how hard I go on ice cream toppings, sir. Your whole chunk of the rent is gone -pfft- that fast.” You poked him in the chest lightly.

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take….as long as you leave the show with me and not Namjoon.” His eyebrows wiggled suggestively and you smacked him again.

“OH MY GOSH! Are you serious?” You fell into a fit of giggles as a bright, smiling Yoongi pulled you close again.

“Yeah, Im absolutely serious. I’m playing from behind. Everyone else here knows you better.” The edges of his eyes crinkled as he smiled so wide they almost disappeared. He kissed the tip of your nose, leaning his forehead against yours. “Hey. Honestly though, I have a really good feeling about this.” He whispered, that sincerity flashing brilliant in his eyes again.

“You know what’s crazy?”

“What?”

“ I do too.”

This time it was you to initiate the kiss. It was little, just something quick and sweet, but Yoongi loved it.

“Aaaaawwww! SO CUTE! I could die!” Taehyung shouted from around the corner.

“Oh my god, not again.” You pulled away from Yoongi’s embrace.

“Wanna go get that ice cream now?” Yoongi stood, offering his hand to you.

“Abso-freaking-lutely.” Your eyes were wide with annoyance at Taehyung as Yoongi pulled you up from the sofa and you both headed toward the door.

“Don’t do anything too crazy, Kids!” Taehyung shouted.

“I’m going to kill you!” Yoongi deadpanned.

“But not until after you bring ____ back for rehearsal. 4 o clock sharp! Remember!” Tae tutted at him.

Smiling warmly at the two boys, you hopped over to Tae to kiss him on the cheek. “Yes, mom. We’ll be back in little while.”

“You better. I don’t know how I feel about you liking another boy better than me.I’m not used to having to share you.” He muttered, but there was a smile in his eyes.

“Hey, you’re my best friend. That’s not changing. You know that.” You bumped his hip with yours.

“I know. ____, I meant what I said about the bathtub. If he gets too handsy or becomes a total bore and ruins all your fun,  just let me know and I’ve got you. Splash, splash- just like that, okay? Gotta take care of my best girl.” He whispered, winking at you.

“I know, Tae. Thank you. I’ll see you later, okay?” You squeezed his arm lovingly as he nodded kindly at you before you bounced back to Yoongi’s side, slipping your fingers between his. His entire face lit up at the contact.

“What was that about?” Yoongi asked as you both made your way through the front door.

“Nothing. Just getting Tae’s proper blessing.” You beamed at him.

“Well in that case,” Yoongi bent down and picked you up. You squealed wildly as he carried you down the sidewalk to his car, joggers and pedestrians giving you both the most unbearable side eye as they passed by.

“Yoongi! Put me down!” You giggled.

“On one condition….”

Oh dating him was going to be fun.

~fin~

[hazelandglasz]

Prompting 'our students think we’re dating' + 'we leave each other notes on the blackboards' AUs, cause it makes A LOT of sense. Pretty please? (I love you, chérie.)

disneyklaine asked: hmm….. the blackboard notes one :)

anonymous asked:OUR STUDENTS THINK WE’RE DATING AU omg

anonymous asked:Okay, so those hs aus were amazing! maybe you could write “our students think we’re dating au” some time? (for Klaine) :) :) :)

Alright then ^^

AKA Five times a student tried to prove his teachers are dating and the one time the teachers are undeniably dating.

On AO3

Lucas knows that there is something going on.

He knows it, with every fiber of his being. And Ishrak can tell him that he’s delusional and that it’s not sane to ship real people as much as he wants to, Lucas will not be undeterred.

Professor Hummel and Professor Anderson are undeniably in a relationship, and he will prove it to his unromantic boyfriend if it is the last thing he does.

(Hopefully, it won’t come to that.)

They are fairly obvious, when you know how to look.

1. Hiding in plain sight

The way they always, always, come rain, snow or sun, always arrive separately exactly 7 minutes apart.

“That’s not exactly a proof, Lulu, it just means that they are punctual.”

“Exactly seven minutes apart, every morning! No, no no, it proves that they are coming together, and then Mr Hummel waits what he considers a sufficient amount of time for it to be inconspicuous and make his entrance.”

“That makes … eurgh, I hate you for making sense.”

“Ah!”

2. Three is a crowd

Lucas does not stalk his two favorite teachers.

(He does not.)

However.

It just so happens that their paths often cross on campus.

And whenever Mr Hummel and Mr Anderson happen to be hanging out, there is always, always, at least one other member of staff with them.

Sometimes it’s Ms. Jones, who appears to be very happy to link her arms with them as they walk and laugh.

Sometimes it’s Ms. Berry, who leads the way with a confidence inversely proportional to her size while Mr Hummel and Mr Anderson humor her.

Sometimes they can be spotted having a very animated conversation with Mr Evans--especially Mr Anderson, while Mr Hummel shakes his head and hides his mirth behind a large travel mug.

If Lucas was not intimately convinced of Mr Anderson’s commitment to Mr Hummel, his apparent bromance with Mr Evans could be another theory, but no.

Mr Evans’s constant googly eyes toward Ms Jones are legendary across the whole school.

And while Lucas is particularly invested in the Hummel-Anderson relationship, he can see how they would make a cute couple.

3. The Travel Mug

Speaking of the travel mug.

Both teachers are known for being coffee addicts of the first order.

But.

Lucas would bet his life on the fact that he has now seen the dark travel mug on both desks, on separate occasions.

From afar, it just looks like a black cup, but on closer inspection, it does bear a pattern that Ishrak kindly identified as a Darth Vader silhouette, which fits Mr Anderson’s discrete geeky chic. But, it could be misconstructed for a skull, which would fit Mr Hummel’s seldom gothic aesthetic.

Ergo, game, set and match.

“You do know that these mugs are sold by the thousand, every day, right?”

“Why would Mr Hummel, McQueen is a genius and Gautier is the last designer who understood the dramatic possibilities for movie costumes, Hummel, would have a Star Wars mug of all things?”

“Did he actually say that?”

“Yep. Made us watch the Fifth element to make his point.”

“So he does like sci-fi.”

“... Shit, you make a point!. But still, I’m sure it’s the same than Mr Anderson.”

“So maybe they both like Star Wars.”

“Yeah they do. And they Yub Nub all night long, if you get my drift.”

Ishrak rubs his face. “I will give you that one if you never, ever repeat Yub Nub in that context, you heathen.”

4. The Post Its

That is perhaps the more damning proof Lucas has at his disposal.

Both teachers hold office hours on the same, which is not his proof.

But on the two occasions Lucas had to go and ask them for some informations--Mr Hummel for a book reference Lucas didn’t catch and could apparently save his essay, Mr Anderson to ask for an extension on a paper due the following week because his anxiety hit hard--Lucas spotted something on their respective boards.

Oh, while both teachers mostly have pictures and articles on those boards, there are little notes written on Post-Its carefully pinned to the panels.

Lucas doesn’t pry too much into them to figure out what they say--though the hearts drawn on Mr Hummel’s leave little to the imagination--but.

But.

He recognizes the handwritings.

“You can’t read what they say but you ‘know’ they’re each other’s handwriting? Babe, no more C.S.I. for you.”

“I’m telling you, Ish, they write each other little notes--I’m sure they hide them in their lunchbox, the dorks.”

“Hm. That would be cute.”

“Right?!”

“...No! Luke, you will not get me to ship two of my most esteemed professors! No! Bad Lucas.”

“Look at the notes next time you’re in their offices, and tell me I’m wrong.”

“If I do, will you stop with this obsession of yours and help me with my project?”

“What, getting Mr Evans and Ms Jones together?”

“Stop looking at me like that, it’s not shipping, it’s giving them a happy story.”

“Hm-hm.”

*Shush.”

“Hm-hm.”

“I hate you.”

“Sure you do.”

5. Too Single To Be Honest

The final point in Lucas’ case in proving that Mr Hummel and Mr Anderson are dating is the most damning, but also the most … well, convoluted, even he can see that.

Number 1: both men are handsome, if differently so, and in their prime.

Number 2: they always show up for the students shows and the balls and the mixers.

(Again, seven minutes apart, Lucas is going out of his mind with this gap.)

Number 3: they never bring a date that could be considered a date.

(“Mr Anderson’s brother does not count as a date, what the fuck?”)

Number 4: they never talk about a significant other. Never.

Number 5: But. They are both incurable romantics.

Conclusion: it is highly unlikely that both these men are still single and they are using the social events on campus to hide their relationships as a professional one instead of the romantic one that it is.

“That doesn’t make a shred of sense.”

“No, no, it does! Look: what better way to fly under the radar than making an appearance at the soirées? If they didn’t come--and I know what you’re thinking, why wouldn’t they take advantage of everybody being busy with the different events to have their own datenight on their own, right?”

“...Right.”

“Then, if they didn’t come, it would become quite obvious that both Mr Hummel and Mr Anderson are always missing on these; And then, it would be super easy to just connect the dots and figure out that the two are, um, closer than they would like us to think.”

“Shit, how do you make sense of the most convoluted and useless conspiracy theory!”

“It’s a talent.”

“Mr Anderson must love you in this creative writing class.”

“He does.”

“Why do you care so much about that? What does it matter if they are indeed dating?”

Lucas pulls Ishrak closer to him and rests his chin on top of his head. “I don’t know,” he says softly, “it would be cool to have an older couple to look up to. To see that gay relationships are not just a thing for us, but it exists for older people too.”

“They’re not that old,” Ishrak says as he snuggles up to his lanky boyfriend. “But I see what you mean.”

+1 The BlackBoard

Now, Ishrak would love to find a way to make Lucas drop the whole “Hummel Anderson” affair. 

It was endearing, at first, to see his boyfriend get all riled up, but it’s slowly becoming a Thing. Lucas even bought a corkboard to tie, literally tie with a red thread, all of his proofs.

Ishrak wishes he could find a way, really.

But what he just saw with his own two eyes is pretty damning evidence, fuck it all to the seven rings of Hell.

See, every week, Mr Anderson’s class precedes Mr Hummel’s.

Lucas and Ishrak are quite happy about that, it gives them a moment where they don’t have to rush across campus to get to their class (and some times to catch up on their making out, if they can).

Except today Lucas has a cold, so Ishrak had to leave the classroom and wait in front of it for Mr Hummel to arrive.

That’s how he witnesses it all, really.

Being the last to leave, he can see Mr Anderson scribbling something in a small corner of the blackboard. As he goes to leave, there is a small smile on his face that Ishrak can only describe as fond.

“Ah, waiting for your next class, Mr Rahman?”

“Y-yes sir.”

“Make sure to tell Mr Angos that I will send him the Powerpoint presentation later today, so he doesn’t have to worry about it.”

“That’s very kind of you, sir.”

Mr Anderson smiles at him before getting his messenger bag in place and walking down the hall.

Ishrak watches him go--he loves Lucas, but he still has eyes, okay--before looking back in the classroom.

He entirely blames his C.S.I. boyfriend on his first impulse to go back inside and read whatever Mr Anderson wrote.

He shakes his head and sits on the floor.

He tells himself that it is not his business, that for all he knows, Mr Anderson had a stroke of inspiration and wrote what went through his head to memorize it for later.

But, a voice that sounds like Lucas counters, why wouldn’t he write it down in his notebook? Or on his phone? Hell, on his hand would be more conductive to later work than the blackboard of a classroom he is not going to return to before the end of the week!

Ishrak sighs before getting to his feet.

But before he can step inside and snoop, Mr Hummel arrives, whistling.

That sounds like the Cantina song, but--

“Hello, Mr Rahman. Ah, deprived of your companion today, are you?”

“Hello, sir; Yeah, Lucas is under the weather.”

“Shame. He would have loved today’s class. Should I give you the sheet to give to him?”

“Sure, Sir.”

“Come on,” Mr Hummel says, opening the door, “I know the class starts in ten minutes, but even those wooden chairs are more comfortable than the floor.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

Ishrak approaches the desk under the pretense of getting the papers for Lucas.

And that’s how he manages to read what’s on the board.

Hi Sally. There you are. B.A.

It doesn’t make any sense, and yet.

And yet, Ishrak simply has to put the look on MR Anderson’s face when he wrote it next to the look on Mr Hummel’s face when he reads it to know, with absolute certainty, that the message bears a lot of weight for them.

Because they are, irrevocably and undeniably, a “them”.

Eurgh, Lucas is never going to let him hear the end of it, is he?

[whitleyschn33]

Something I think (or rather kind of hopes) will happen is Weiss gets a haircut. It's an age old technique in stories to show a permanent change and growth in a character and I think it would be good for her. Her off center ponytail is meant to be a silent rebellion against her father but with her family arc likely wrapping up in Volume 7 she won't need to anymore she'll be free of him for good. Either she cuts it like Mulan or in the middle of battle to escape an enemy trapping her.

Hello!

Well, I’m a bit late to this ask, but I still want to answer it (and turn it into an excuse to talk about the Volume 7 designs cause I don’t want to make a separate post that’s all opinion), so here we go!

Around the time I got this, I did remember a lot of fan-art of Weiss with short hair, so you’re in good company, anon! The fan-art was all really cute, too, even if I personally like Weiss’s hair long, but I haven’t seen any of it since the Volume 7 designs dropped. With Blake instead getting the haircut, it does seems unlikely that Weiss will do the same, and I’m sure that’s what most of the fandom thinks. There is always a chance that it could happen later in the season, though - and I would say that there is a potential set-up for that.

You brought up Mulan, and that’s a fair comparison, but my mind went to a different Disney character - Rapunzel. When Mulan cuts her hair in the movie, it’s so she can take her father’s place in the army and protect him. While a major part of Mulan is about bringing honor to herself and her family, the act of cutting her hair, while rebellious, isn’t about rebelling against her father; it’s about rebelling against tradition to protect her family. Rapunzel, on the other hand, has her hair cut, and as a result, is freed from her abusive mother. Rapunzel also wore her hair in a long thick braid once she escapes the tower, the braid is undone when she’s dragged back, and it is cutting the hair off completely that removes the burden from Rapunzel and kills Mother Gothel. So, seeing Weiss now wear her hair in that fashion, and remembering a few comparisons when Salem was revealed to be The Girl in the Tower, I can’t help but wonder if that may be an option as well. 

So, with that said, let’s talk about the Volume 7 outfits! (Note: all of these opinions are based on the artwork shown, and are subject to change based on the 3D models.)

First up, Ruby! I really like her outfit - the new boots are nice, the leather belts (yeah, meme, I know) I actually really like for the aesthetic, and I love the gloves. They remind me of gloves used for falconry, and I think that looks awesome. Her shirt looks nice, too - I believe it’s silver? Overall, this is probably my favorite of the outfits. The only thing I’m unsure about is her hair. I like how it looks in the art, but I’m unsure how it’s going to look on the 3D model. Here, it looks windswept as she’s going down, so how it’ll look when she’s not doing that may not be as nice. It can still work, and I hope it looks nice, but we’ll see.

Next, Weiss! I… am not sure how I feel about this, to be completely honest. Overall, I like the aesthetic of it, but a lot of the details of the design put me off, so I just get a lot of mixed feelings. For example, I like the boots, but not the white ruffles on top. I like giving her gloves, but something about the gloves themselves rub me the wrong way (I think I just can’t help seeing them as rubber gloves due to the lighting, even though they’re not, and I just hate that), I like the skirt in theory, but it looks so poofy in this particular pose/art, it looks like it would get in the way (and yeah, I know, none of these outfits are practical, but this just seems a bit too over the top). 

Her hair is weird for me, because in every fan-art I see of this, I like the braid, but in this art, it looks so thick and heavy, and all I can think as someone that has really thick hair is that she must feel so unbalanced having all that hair on one side of her head. Though, I do like the braid as a coincidental Artemis Fowl reference. Artemis’s bodyguard Butler, who is very much family for Artemis, has a younger sister named Juliet, who is 4 years older than Artemis and grew up in the manor with him. She eventually leaves the manor to pursue a wrestling career as the Jade Princess, whose gimmick is hitting people with the jade ring she has at the end of her braid. With all the people joking about Weiss using the braid as a weapon, that’s all I can think about, and while I doubt it’s on purpose, it’s still a pretty neat parallel. So, yeah, overall really mixed thoughts.

Blake! I’m pretty cool with this design - it comes at probably a smidge below Ruby’s for my favorite of the team. It’s a fairly simple design, and that works pretty well. I’m going to miss her longer hair, but she looks good with the short hair, so I’m okay with the haircut. It also makes sense for her to have cut it, as a way of returning to her roots, to a time when the White Fang was peaceful, to a time before Adam started becoming a monster, all of that. There’s only two things that bug me. One, out of the 4 designs, this one seems the most Atlasian. While that may seem like a “duh” statement, they are in Atlas after all, it just surprises me that it’s Blake that gets the outfit that screams Atlas. You would think that she would keep an outfit that’s a bit more reminiscent of Mantel, or Vale. This one looks like it could be an alternate version of Winter’s outfit - at least, that was my first impression (Shown below for comparisons sake). 

(EDIT: Accidentally posted fanart instead of the Wiki art. My apologies!)

The second thing isn’t so much as bugging me, as making me curious. Blake is still proudly showing her ears in this design. With them coming to Atlas, wouldn’t she have returned to the bow, or incorporated a hood of some sort? I know that she’s no longer going to hide who she is, but you would think she wouldn’t be gung-ho on making it obvious in what’s supposed to be the racism capital of Remnant. Does this mean we’ll see the Atlasian people make things a lot more difficult for RWBY with a Faunus in their midst, or is it going to be glossed over? We’ll have to see. 

And finally, Yang. I’m going to be completely honest - I hate it. I hate it, and I know exactly why. The jumpsuit. I just really hate the way the jumpsuit looks, and that’s a shame, because I like the accessories a lot. I love her boots, the bomber jacket looks amazing and completely fits Yang’s personality, it’s just that freaking jumpsuit. She looks like a mechanic to me, and while that might be fitting if she’s, say, building a new bike, it feels so drab and just flat-out ugly to me. Yang’s outfit for V4-6 was my least favorite of the team, too, so this isn’t really new for me, but I would prefer her old one to this. If you like it - great! I’m glad you do! But for now, until I see the 3D model, I really just do not like it. 

Those are just my opinions, though! What do you all think of these new outfits and hairstyles? 

Thanks for the ask, anon, and I hope you have a great evening!

[koolkvat-blog]

       hello  loves  ,   what’s  up  !   i’m  super  excited  to  be  here  &  to  finally  play  my  precious girl  ,   jade aka kool kat   .   i’m  LOLA  ,   use  she / her prounouns  ,   i am NINETEEN  ,   &   i  am  currently  in  the  gmt + 1 timezone  which  means  yes  ,  my  ass should’ve  been  awake  for  intro  posting  but  i  don’t  know  what  time  management  is  and  ended  up  swamped  w/  work  ,  so  !   everything   you  need  to  know  about  about  miss  kat  is  under  the  cut  ,   &  i’m  rlly  thrilled  to  be  apart  of  such  a  wonderful  rp  with  such  gorgeous  muses  .  corniness over  ––   if  you’re  looking  to  plot  sumn  out  ,   just  hit  that   ♥︎    &   i’ll  make  my  way  on  over  to  ur  dms  ,  or  feel  free  to  add  me  up   on  discord  which  i’ll  give  in im’s  if  anybody’s  interested  !   ♡♡♡         tw  :   family issues  ,  body image issues  &  drug mention  ( not  explicit ) . 

001 . SYNOPSIS  . FULL     NAME  .      jade        kikuchi . NICKNAMES  .      kool kat    . AGE  .      twenty - one . DATE     OF     BIRTH  .      twenty  -  seventh     of     september   ,     1993      /     libra . PLACE     OF     BIRTH  .      harajuku ,   tokyo ,     japan .         GENDER  .       cisgender     female . SEXUALITY  .     (  closeted  )  pansexual  . NATIONALITY  .      japanese  ,  now  american  too  after  successfully  gaining  citizenship  . ETHNICITY  .      asian  . OCCUPATION  .       fashion designer at katz designz      ,     former  fashion  design  and  journalist  student  back  in  her  original  timeline  . PLAYLIST  .      here  !  (  +  )     charismatic , enthusiastic , warm , energetic , adventurous , compassionate , animated . (  -  )     deceptive ,  independent ,  emotional , territorial , ambitious , impulsive , temperamental , insecure , sarcastic .  

002 . AESTHETIC  .      wheatgrass  smoothies , 90′s  anime  with  subtitles  , chanel  no. 5, speeding  on  a  desert  road  with  the  windows  down ,  painting  your  toenails  on  the  dashboard ,  neon  prints ,  cat  lazing  on  a  balcony  in  the  sun , black  lace ,  japanese  horror  films  ,  sour  cocktails  with  sugar  around  the  rim , half - smoked  cigarettes ,  stacks  of  fashion  magazines , long  hair  hastily  dyed  different  colours in  a  motel  bathroom ,  thrift  stores   .

003. INFORMATION  .

tl;dr : a flighty, inattentive adventurer: a follower of whims; personable and sociable but lacks the skills to maintain relationships because she’s entirely (and perhaps too) career focused, checks her horoscope daily and entirely relies on the stars when concerning relationships, epitome of a britney spears / gwen stefani stan back in the 2000′s, still owns a (bedazzled) flip phone, collector of vintage fashion (chanel, elle, juicy couture etc.) a subscriber to the Leonardo Da Vinci sleeping method; catch her at 2 am making soufflés or buying plane tickets to shiwei so she can really experience the culture: will tell you she loves you ten minutes after first introduction because she’s high: kind of unintentionally insensitive to those she doesn’t know and closed off but in like a cool, lovable way. 

•    heads up im running on like 5 hrs sleep so sry when this inevitably derails ! ok sweet let’s get into this . 

•    so as aforementioned this is jade kukichi, aka, kool kat. she was dubbed that by her friends due to her unique fashion style and sense of dress, and it’s stuck. lbr nobody other than her friends can use that term so if you do, she’s just going to stare at u for a quick sec before saying ‘it’s jade’. 

•    born in harajuku, tokyo to a cardiothoracic surgeon of a father and a politician of a mother, jade grew up traveling the world and becoming flighty af, never thinking she was going to make long - term friends and kinda being okay with that. 

•    her family has never stayed in one place for very long, though her aging parents eventually settled into a permanent residence in the us around the time she turned sixteen, not soon enough for jade to break the habit of wandering, but thankfully quick enough for her to meet the bratz girls who were just as adventurous and fun - loving as she. she's spent much of her teen life jumping from place to place wherever her interests are that moment, collecting people along the way, but to find friends was the only thing she was missing. jade has a brilliant mind, but she lacks patience and follow through. she needs guidance or she'll jump from idea to idea, job to job, whim to whim.

•    ngl, jade pretty much hated her home life. her parents were an overbearing presence in her life, her mother wanting jade to be a proper lady who also went into a profession like theirs (entirely serious and stifling when it came to creativity, doctor, politician, lawyer etc.) while jade herself wanted to check out the latest trends and go to the mall w her friends – so she turned all of her focus and energy into getting good grades in everything she wanted to do in the hopes that she could be the most successful fashion designer, then leaving town forever. 

•    like she spent 7 yrs in high school graduating w honours but she barely knew what was happening in 9/10 of her classes and sometimes she just slept through classes and then wing her exams which she miraculously did well at. it was just not a good idea to send jade to a public school at 11 after being in boarding school for the rest of her life and then never really enforce any rules :~\ she has trouble with that kind of thing.. as in making logical choices instead of saying "YEAH lets go watch american psycho and smoke weed!" skipping chemistry to do just that 

•    she loves fun and values doing what makes her happy over most things. it's hard to pin her down and she spends most of her life chasing after ideas that don't really follow any sort of conscious order, bc she’s really got that ‘i’ve got dreams and i’m gonna do everything in my power to achieve them’ personality. 

•    according to bratz canon she’s worked as literally everything ? she’s one of those insufferable people who r just. good everything ig and that’s just how it is on this bitch of an earth. jade’s been a photographer, a song - writer and bass player in a rock band (shout out to bratz rock angelz the best movie w the best soundtrack ever), a student studying fashion design, a fashion columnist, a quickly fired nanny, and many other things in between. 

•    so when she appears in toonsville she’s kind of out of it that she’s not doing something w her skills and sets up her own business which she loves ? being her own boss suits her fine (for now) because she’s got a Real Job and she's actually trying rly hard so she can fulfill her dreams !! like suck it mom nd dad haha !!!

•    jade has a lot of weird feelings TM about her body and her looks and struggles a lot with her self confidence :~( she had a shit time at school with boys saying she was too thin and she compensated by acting like she didn't like anyone at all for a while and now she thinks she isn't good enough for anyone when rly she is a cinnamon bun too good for this world too pure 

•    best friend ever she is so good at being a friend if u text her at 3am to go out or cry on her shoulder shes ready to go at 3:15 even if she was sleeping w lots of snacks and treats and love!!! she is sooo extroverted around those she’s comfortable w, she gains so much energy from being around people and she loves being nice and being around ppl she likes 

•    she becomes the mom of groups pretty easily (hence why she’s the leader of the bratz) bc she bottles up most of her own problems to help ppl with theirs!! which is toxic yea but she puts people first always so !! plz help her poor repressed soul!! rip kool kat.. 

•    still super into the stuff of her time so like.. she loves the x files and bad reality tv shows (i want to be a hilton) and reads gossip magazines on the reg because she enjoys that stuff! also very into girl groups.. ginger spice / posh spice is an eternal mood.  

•    anyway yes sweet adult-child of 21 (she is in denial about that tho like she doesn't want to be childish) who is v nice v kind v loyal v baked a lot of time, v passionate v silly. idk what i'm doin hope u like it < 3

004. WANTED CONNECTIONS . 

friends / best friends / ride or dies . jade genuinely loves people, loves talking to strangers and getting into intense conversations with people she’s only just met, learning other people’s way of life and bettering herself for getting. she is, however, incredibly blunt and has never once minced words to keep from hurting someone’s feelings or to ease them into a situation. she’d much rather have a one-time conversation with a stranger than make long lasting relationships. she has three very close friends –  to the point of co - dependence –  and honestly, she’d rather spend all of her time doing things she loves such as her hobbies, sticking her nose into the latest vogue, or searching for cute collars and treats for her cat mica w them instead of making new friends. she's also FUN and she'd be happy to go on crazy road trips or buy out a movie theater for a day or anything that she thinks will her buds happy. she's traveled all over, so she’s v well read and cultured. she loves people but she hates complication and won't deal with any sort of emotional labor. she wants to live in the moment and expects everyone in her life to do so as well. just be chill, y'all. 

frenemies / enemies /  rivals  . please be her enemy, she needs people to antagonize shdhshd. she grew up pretty much affluent so she’s pretty spoiled even if she doesn’t want to admit it, and that rebellious side of her hasn’t died down yet. despite the fact that she is wealthy and in good community standing, she has a hard time letting go of childish grudges. in general she’s got a lot of suppressed feelings and ready to fight everyone who hurts her friends – like an irritated cat – so, honestly, come at her ? she is sometimes a little fickle and flighty and a unintentionally stuck up when it comes to art / fashion and she has definitely said the wrong thing at the wrong time and pissed the wrong people off, she can’t stand anyone underestimating her or thinking she’s dumb bc she’s interested in fashion. like gtfo !

ex’s , fwb’s , possible love interests .  jade is fairly fluid romantically and is the type of person who hates labels but also just wants to be cherished and called cute pet names lowkey. she loves a lot and gives a lot to her relationships, but typically doesn't want to commit to anything important. she’s gone from one disastrous relationship to another, ending up with a boyfriend who constantly ridiculed her image that was essentially the catalyst for her cutting off romantic ties, quite a recent wound before she found herself on the island actually. worst thing is tht she’s convinced herself that she’s been the problem in these relationships –  that she turns good people bad or that she is too much for people to deal with, she’s not sure what the issue is and she doesn’t really want to know. so…. fuck everything amirite ? anyway, she’s a strong independent woman who don’t need no (wo)man. 

etc . pls give me people jade can give a makeover to, people she shares an apartment w on the island, people who think fashion is girly and vapid.. creatives who love what she’s doing, anything tbh << 3

[spidizzlemizzle]

Change of Behaviour

Pairings: Steve Rogers x Reader

Word Count: 2,148

Warnings: Fluff, super brief mention of violence and character death, a pinch of angst, unedited but that’s not surprising coming from me

masterlist

A/N: This is definitely not my best work but I really enjoyed writing it. Also, text in italics is a flashback in case that isn’t clear. Feed back is always encouraged and appreciated. Anyway, enjoy xx

Steve Rogers P.O.V

“Hello there golden boy, how’s the evening treating you so far?” Her flirtatious tone and loud thud of her gym bag caught my attention and making me smile softly, her attitude and demeanour always made me smile, as she knew how to make any situation fun or exciting with a simple comment.

If I was telling the truth, [Y/N] [L/N] owns my heart and has since her soft eyes and kind smile walked into my life.

“Not too bad, how are you doing?”

“I’ve been better, but haven’t we all?” She walked towards me and gave me a tight-lipped smile. She was having a bad day but didn’t want to talk about it, she never did. It took me months to learn why and be more supportive than bothersome.

“Steve I really don’t want to talk about this.” She stood from the couch and left towards the kitchen.

“C’mon [Y/N], you know you can trust me.”

“I don’t think I can trust anyone.” Her gaze was almost deadly, she threatened me with her eyes almost saying to leave her alone. I followed her to the kitchen and leaned against the bench while she began making toast and coffee.

“You hardly know me, Steve; you don’t know what my life’s been like”

“Then tell me”

“You sure you wanna hear it?”

“I wanna hear all of it” My forearms laid pressed along each other on the cool marble benchtop as I looked into her eyes, a slight, encouraging smile.

“Fine, I’ll put it simply for you. Mum left when I was a month old and dad died right in front of me when I was only seven. Two years later, my aunt decided she hated her husband and shot him between the eyes at dinner, took me to my grandparents’ house and left me at their doorstep. She had no idea I’d never met the couple and had to introduce myself and grow to trust them. That might not have been the best idea seeing as they kicked me out on my thirteenth birthday, saying I was old enough to take care of myself. Long story short, my whole family were either murdered, murderers, or straight up horrible. You want more information than that or are you gonna leave it alone now you know?” I was shocked. I knew most people in the avengers had dark pasts but she never seemed like the type to have seen such horrific things at a young age.

After exiting the gym of the tower, we both headed to the kitchen and I began preparing coffee for us both. I heard her give out a content sigh, making me turn and see her looking out the floor to ceiling window at the rain pouring outside. I knew she loved the winter. Cold weather meant more movie nights, hot chocolate, and cuddling by the fire. [Y/N] was one of my best friends and was an amazing cuddler, even if she stole the blankets and my body heat.

“I’m not up for coffee tonight” her words were simple but held a deeper meaning to them, todays date was significant to her, but for what? Her mother? Father? Uncle? Was there something else I didn’t know? I knew she had incredible memory and had a specialty for remembering dates.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Her head turned towards me and she smiled gratefully at my question, shaking her head subtly to ease any possible harshness she might’ve held.

“What about a movie night? Cuddles? It’s pretty cold out there” she chuckled briefly as I bit my lip, hoping to coax her into my arms.

“I think I’m just gonna head to bed, thank you for the offer though, Steve, it’s definitely appreciated” and with those last words, she left for her room.

An hour had passed since my interaction with [Y/N] and I couldn’t shake the feeling of concern. She never went to bed this early or deny a movie night in the midst of winter. I decided to head to her room and gently knock on the door. My only indicator that she was awake and ok with me entering was the quiet mumbled “come in” from the other side of the door. I pushed it open the slightest and squeezed through the small gap, trying to let as little light in as possible.

“Hey [Y/N], I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I know you hardly pass up an opportunity to catch me up on movies I missed over the last 70 years or a hot chocolate, you feeling alright?” I saw her silhouette sit up and lean her upper body weight on her arms, I could feel her gaze on my face, hoping for me to understand without having to talk about it.

“Look, if you don’t wanna talk about it, I completely understand, its probab-”

“It’s been 26 years since my mum left. 26 years. I never met her but I miss her so much it’s not even funny” even if she had just said it wasn’t, something about her statement made her laugh, “what did I do wrong for her to leave?”

“Absolutely nothing, it’s not your fault. People have their own reasons for their actions even if they’re the wrong choice.” I sat beside her and placed my hand on her as she changed position and put her hands loosely in her lap. She looked up from the bed and into my eyes again, cheeks stained with shed tears. My heart cracked at the look in her eyes, the loss, the betrayal, the pain.

My sadness was becoming anger. She was crying over a woman who didn’t deserve her tears. My blood boiled but I couldn’t show my emotions, the room was filled with enough of them.

“Don’t cry for her, she doesn’t deserve it”

“Thank you for being here, Steve, here with me” She gripped my hand and squeezed it slightly, looking straight ahead with a tight-lipped smile.

“I’m gonna go to my room, let me know if you need anything” I let go of her hand and pushed myself up from the comfortable mattress, ready to head to my sleeping quarters. I pivoted slightly on my heel and looked towards the door.

I was stopped as I lifted my heel when a hand gripped my arm. Her hand gripped my arm, dragging my attention back to her pleading eyes.

“Or you could stay” It was four words I never expected her to say. The fragility laced in her words tugged at my heart strings and instantly convinced me to follow her request.

“Of course” I whispered, feeling like if I spoke any louder she would break. She was in a fragile state and needed a comforting shoulder. She moved herself from the centre to the edge of the bed, making room for my frame. I placed my arms around her waist as she rested one of hers on my chest with her head on my shoulder.

She eased into sleep without another word. Soon after her, my eyelids became heavy and eased me into sleep myself.

I awoke around two hours later to an odd feeling on my jaw. I opened my eyes just enough to see what was happening, [Y/N]’s content face while her figured gently ran along the edge of my jaw. She was at peace in my arms, relaxed as a result of my comfort. I didn’t want the moment to end so I shut my eyes and pretended to be unawakened by her actions.

I awoke to the smell and sound of sizzling bacon. The dim, aesthetically pleasing room I had woken up in was empty of other life, just my form surrounded in empty white sheets and a slightly warm spot next to me as if another being had just been there. Standing from the bed, I looked around at my surroundings, [Y/N]’s room. It was a simple room, a few trinkets here and there to give away it was hers.

I left the small room, making my way down to the kitchen. Her back was facing me, unaware of my presence. Or so I thought.

“You should be thanking me, I’m making you breakfast.” My expression slightly dropped at her words, her flirty demeanour was back. She’d put her walls up again. As much as I liked her witty and playful attitude, I loved her most when she was vulnerable, open with me.

“Do you want me to make coffee?”

“If you don’t mind” She finally looked over her shoulder at me with a cheeky smile but lost it when she looked into my eyes.

“Everything alright Steve?”

“It’s fine”

“You really think I don’t know what that means?”

“I’m not sure I understa-”

“C’mon Steve, You know you can trust me” my mind filtered back to that night, the one she had told me everything and first opened up.

“It’s not that important” I didn’t want to talk about it. It was stupid for me in a foul mood because she was hiding behind her walls of flirtation.

“Fine, but I’d really appreciate some honesty” She turned away from me once more and turned off the stove, plating the food and handing it to me and pacing towards the table. I sighed, I knew she was bothered with the situation. She had been so honest and fragile around me last night and I couldn’t even tell her what was wrong, I was foolish.

“You really wanna know what’s up?” I took a seat across from her, stealing her attention from her food and giving me a simple nod.

“Your gonna think it’s weird”

“I work with you, Steve, I can handle weird” she chuckled and winked at me, clueless to what she was doing to me.

“That’s exactly what’s wrong”

“I’m sorry? I don’t think I understand what you mean”

“It’s you” Her smile fell instantly, pain and confusion filled her eyes I had hurt her.

“What?”

“The way you change so quickly. One minute your emotional and open with me, but the next you’re a completely different person and I don’t understand” I couldn’t believe what I was saying, I was taking my anger out on her for no reason. My missions over the last few months were tedious and annoying. My mind screamed at me to shut my mouth and run away but I couldn’t stop, My voice escalating in volume I was almost screaming.

“I’m sorry that you think that but I don’t know what you’re talking about” She was trying so hard not to scream and hit me. The tears filled her eyes; she bit her lip trying not to let them spill.

I gave myself a second to calm down, I couldn’t do this to her anymore.

“Last night, you were crying and I stayed with you. I woke up later and you were so content with running your finger down my jawline. But now you’re all flirty and back to how you were earlier in the day yesterday”

“I did what?” She looked shocked as if I’d accused her of murder.

“[Y/N], it’s fine, you don’t have to hide it from me”

“What does it matter if I did that?”

“It doesn’t matter, I’m just confused why you can’t be open and honest with me all the time��� I turned my head on a slight angle.

“I’ve told you my story. You know I haven’t been open with anyone since my grandparents and we saw how that turned out. In my mind, being vulnerable to others gives people a reason to leave or throw me out with the trash. I’m just scared that exact scenario will happen with you and I can’t have that because you’re the most important person in my life” Tears ran down her cheeks and she couldn’t look me in the eye.

Her sadness made me stand from my seat, make my way to her side of the table and bend down in front of her hunched form. I held her chin and lifted it so she locked her gaze with mine.

“I would never do that to you. You have no idea how dependant I am on you and how you manage to keep me smiling in dark times. You don’t have to worry about anything because I’m right here, I’m here to protect you and let you be yourself with me” I smiled softly and placed a hand on her knee. Her eyes never left mine and mirrored my expression.

She leaned forward and embraced my shoulders, placing her chin on it. I responded by putting my arms around her torso and rubbing her back, comforting her. I felt her heartbeat slow down to its normal pace and her breath even out, she was relaxing under my grasp.

“Thank you so much Steve”

[skeletonscribbles]

Wishes - Chapter 12

there was really no getting around including Star Wars Weekend.

Disney folks  - I KNOW you can't get specialty drinks at Starring Rolls but I'm too lazy to make them go to a kiosk, okay? also I haven't been to SWW in a minute. they probably have different food now, but all the Disney Food Blog entries I looked at were back from like 2015 so I'm operating under the assumption that the novelty shit doesn't change.

Anyways.

Chapter Title: “Cantina Song” (Stan)

Warnings: unintelligible memeing, “Luke Skywalker is gay” discourse, some discussion of discrimination

meme references: I Have The High Ground Now THIS is Podracing That's....why I'm here....  (Comment your fave prequel meme if you have one - mine’s Obi Wan’s “Hello There” but I couldn’t figure out how to fit it in to the chapter RIP)

READ ON AO3

Tag List:  @roobarrtrashmouth @jem-carstairs-is-perfection @tozier-club @aizeninlefox @stanheartsbill @imrichie @softeds @pretzelstoday @melancholypurple @wheezygreens @ayyyymichele @loser-marsh

STANLEY URIS FRONT DESK COORDINATOR, YACHT CLUB RESORT but more immediately DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS MAY 4TH 11 A.M.

“It’s not that I don’t think Star Wars looks interesting,” Stan explained for what felt like the zillionth time that day. “Aesthetically, I’m all about it. I saw a PBS special one time about how they painted some of the sets - that was really cool.”

“So the reason you haven’t seen any of the films is…”

“Purely meme-related, yes.” Stan sighed and rubbed at his eyes. “I don’t understand what’s so hard to grasp about that.”

“Everything, Stan!” Mike all but shouted (though there was a tell-tale wobbliness to his voice that suggested he was on the verge of laughter). “Everything!”

Star Wars Weekend was one of the more baffling annual events on property for Stan. Aside from his never having seen the movies, Stan also wasn’t sure why the entire shebang took place in Hollywood Studios (his least favorite park), especially because the Star Wars Land expansion wasn’t even finished yet. All Studios had to offer for the event was boring old motion-simulator Star Tours and the giant stomp robot it was housed in (“the AT-AT, Stan,” Mike had sighed at least 15 times in the past hour alone). That said, though, Mike loved Star Wars and had apparently been looking forward to getting his picture taken with the round rolling robot (“he has a name, Stan, call him BB-8!”) for quite some time now. Since February and the veritable relationship shitstorm they’d weathered, Stan had been extra determined to compromise wherever he could to show Mike that he was in this for the long run, and as compromises ran, Star Wars Weekend wasn’t a bad one by any means.

“Do you want me to watch the movies, Mike?” he asked, resigned.

Mike laughed and pulled up the bottom of his Rebel Alliance shirt to mop the sweat off of his face. Stan didn’t even bother to hide the way his eyes slid down to Mike’s newly exposed stomach, and made a mental note to ask a Cast Member how long Star Tours was so he could gauge whether or not it was feasible to fool around on the ride. (So far, they’d managed some light groping on the 11 minute ride through the Haunted Mansion, and would have gotten even farther on Pirates except that Stan had Richie’s voice in his head the whole time reminding him of “all the fuckin’ shit I’ve seen on those cameras, Stan, I swear to whatever Jewish God you pray to”.)

“I should have asked if you liked Star Wars, like...weeks ago,” Mike said sadly. “I guess I just assumed. I’m sorry.”

“No worries,” Stan assured him, putting a comforting and not at all lascivious hand on his bicep. “I love Star Wars Weekend. It’s like living in another country for two days. I don’t understand shit about what’s going on, but the food is good and it’s pretty fucking funny if you play your cards right.”

“Another country?” Mike smiled. “Another planet, more like.”

Stan laughed. “Now you’re getting it. Speaking of miscommunications, do we have word from Richie and Eddie?”

“Operation double date is a go,” Mike confirmed, pulling out his phone to double check his texts. “Eddie said they’d be here in like twenty minutes.”

“Cool,” Stan said, and was surprised to find that he meant it. Richie had been in the apartment less and less as his relationship with Eddie had gotten more and more serious, which had culminated in Stan seeing Richie maybe twice over the entirety of the past two weeks. (Stan hoped that meant that they were finally having sex. It would be such a relief to know that Richie had built himself back up to a place where he was finally ready to make that happen.) Stan would never admit it to Richie’s face, but he was starting to miss having Richie around. He was running out of things to clean in the apartment, because no one was around to leave dishes in the sink or leave toothpaste smeared across the bathroom counter. It should have been a relief, but instead it was weird. He’d had Richie around for so long that the idiot had become a central part of his daily routines, and while he was happy that his friend was finally getting his shit together, it was going to be tough to reimagine his life with less Richie.

But. That was a problem for Later Stan.

“So,” Mike continued, “I was thinking maybe we grab food and then head for character meet-and-greets once they arrive? I’ve been waiting to eat chocolate Darth Vader cake all day, and if we don’t do that before Richie shows up, he’ll try to steal off of our plates.”

“True!” Stan brightened at the idea of food. He’d seen people walking around with some kind of blue drink that he’d been dying to try all day. “I think they’ve got cupcakes and stuff at that bakery over by Sunset?”

Mike shrugged. “Sounds right. It’ll be deserted over there, too - no one wants to ride Tower of Terror during Star Wars Weekend. Wanna walk?”

“I do,” Stan said, taking up a brisk pace towards the Sunset Boulevard themed area of the park. “I might be wrong about the cupcakes, though. I really don’t know this park at all. I only come here with Richie.”

“Let me guess,” Mike said knowingly, following Stan across the park, “he takes you here because he likes to feel like he’s doing better than someone at the Toy Story Midway Mania game.”

Stan almost stopped in his tracks. “How did you know?”

“He took me here the first time we hung out solo, too,” Mike said, catching up with Stan during his momentary lull and taking his hand. Stan couldn’t help but smile a little bit at the gesture, even though he was sure he’d drop Mike’s hand sooner rather than later - May in Florida meant that things were already almost unbearably muggy. “I think he takes everyone here so that he can gauge their Toy Story shooting skills.”

“And you were better than him?” Stan guessed.

“I wasn’t worse,” Mike agreed. “His hand-eye coordination needs some serious work.”

“No, my hand-eye coordination needs some serious work,” Stan sighed, spotting the bakery he was thinking of and making a beeline for it with Mike in tow. “Richie just can’t see. He has to wear the 3D glasses on top of his regular glasses.”

“Well, if we ever ride that ride together, I’ll let you win, sweetheart,” Mike promised, and Stan reached up to pull his curls desperately down over his ears so as to hide how red they’d just gotten. Mike really was the least selfish person on Earth. How had he, Stanley Uris, gotten so lucky?

But...now wasn’t the time to reflect on selfishness, because that would just make both of them a little bit sad. Neither of them had reached out to Bill at all since early March, and while they’d admitted to one another that they felt a little bit like they hadn’t given him enough of a chance (although Mike still felt worse about it than Stan did - it was in Mike’s nature to hope for change, and it was in Stan’s nature to know that things were going to stay the same), their residual guilt hadn’t been enough to warrant a check-in with their ex-partner just yet.

It would have to be soon, though - they both knew that. The seven of them were booked to visit Anaheim in just two short months, and if they weren’t amiable by then, Bev would kill them.

Soon wasn’t now, though. They’d be ready when they were ready.

“Let’s just never ride that ride together, okay?” Stan suggested, stopping in front of the bakery and checking out the menu signs out front. “Is this the cupcake you wanted?”

“Are these the droids I’m looking for?” Mike joked, but it fell on deaf ears. Stan knew a fair amount of Star Wars jokes as a result of his longtime dedication to r/funny (and he was absolutely positive that they’d be made less funny by his actually having seen the films, he just knew it, which was the real, core reason why he hadn’t bitten the bullet and watched the goddamn movies), but he had long since resigned himself to the fact that there were some references he was just never going to get.

“Chocolate Darth Vader,” Stan continued, trying to save them both some embarrassment. “Or was it this Jabba the Hutt….thing?”

Mike squinted at the menu, paying special attention to what was apparently a new item as of this year’s Star Wars Weekend. “That is the ugliest fucking cupcake I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“Can’t be uglier than Eddie’s mom!”

Fuck. Eddie’s stupid homing beacon brain had obviously struck again. Sighing heavily, Stan smoothed down his navy polo and turned around to greet his roommate.

“Hello Stan!” Eddie was three steps ahead of Richie, beaming as he bounded across the red concrete towards them. The shirt he was wearing had really obviously belonged to Richie at some point - the first clue was that it was white with Han Solo silhouetted in black on the front (Eddie didn’t know shit about Star Wars), and the second was that Eddie was absolutely swimming in it. In spite of both of those things, Eddie was in better spirits than Stan had maybe ever seen him, to the point where Stan was almost afraid that Eddie was going to hug him when he got close enough.

“Eddie,” Stan greeted, raising a hand slowly to wave cordially at their two friends as Mike slowly shifted his attention away from the cupcake selection. “Richie.”

“Stanakin Skywalker,” Richie grinned, coming up behind Eddie and sliding a hand easily onto Eddie’s shoulder, “here with Pad-Mike Amidala.”

Stan stared at him, wondering vaguely if he’d actually forgotten that Stan had zero knowledge of the Star Wars films. “Who?”

“Never mind.” Richie waved a conceding hand. The motion of his wave drew Stan’s eyes to his shirt, which was the most hideous brown monstrosity Stan had maybe ever seen (modeled after that creature that was always with Han Solo whose name Stan always forgot), and he wondered: had he actually missed Richie Tozier, or had his mind just gone soft and nostalgic from being alone in the apartment?

“How’d you find us, Eddie?” Mike asked, smiling warily down at the top of Eddie’s head. “I didn’t text you that we were getting food, did I?”

Eddie shrugged. “Had a hunch. Richie saw one of those blue drinks and thought that Stan would like that, and I know you can get those here, so.”

Stan looked at Richie, who was smiling at his giant, converse-clad feet, and felt a little bit sad all over again. His empty apartment nostalgia brain had nothing to do with how big of a hole Richie’s semi-departure had actually left in his life.

But again - that was a problem for Later Stan.

“Come on, Rich,” Stan said, moving towards the doors of the Starring Rolls Cafe and beckoning to his friend. “I’ll buy you a cupcake.”

Richie’s resulting smile was enough to make Stan consider skipping the fireworks show - it was that much of a spectacle. “He does care!”

“I always have, dipshit,” Stan muttered, walking pointedly away from Richie and into the air-conditioned cafe. Immediately, he let out a sigh of relief - the Florida heat fucking sucked, and he could practically feel his hair going nuts with it at this point in the day. Behind him, he heard Richie following along and chattering enthusiastically, but he tuned that out in favor of locating the blue drink he wanted on the menu. Once he found it, he couldn’t help but scowl...there was no way he was going to be able to pronounce the name of that cocktail well enough to order it. Reluctantly, he turned back to Mike.

“Hey sweetheart,” he began slowly, “the blue drink....”

Mike glanced at the menu, and then he threw his head back and let out a long laugh. Embarrassed, Stan tightened his shoulders and turned around.

“Never mind, I don’t--”

“Alderaan,” Mike said, still wheezing with laughter. “It’s pronounced All - deh - rahn...although if you want to pay homage to that meme you like about the high ground, you should get the red Mustafar thing--”

Stan considered that. On the one hand, he was mortified enough at this point to be seriously considering just skipping the drink altogether, but on the other...he did love that meme...

“Richie?” He glanced off to the right, scanning the room for Richie, who had become suspiciously quiet since they’d entered the bakery. “Tell me what you want so I can ge--”

The sentence dried up in Stan’s mouth as he locked eyes with one Bill Denbrough, who was standing next to a sheepish looking Richie. Stan vaguely registered the presence of Eddie, Beverly, and Ben behind Bill, but it didn’t matter that they were there, not really.

Well, it did, kind of. He tore his eyes from Bill and quickly scanned each of their faces - Richie looked uncomfortable, Eddie looked kind of sick, Ben looked embarrassed, and Bev...Bev looked…

Stan turned back to the left to glance at Mike, and when Mike met his gaze, a small nod confirmed Stan’s suspicions: this was Beverly Marsh’s doing, most definitely.

Bill himself looked more gaunt than Stan remembered - as if someone had taken the face that Stan remembered and stretched it thinner, made it longer, made it sadder, almost. His blue eyes stood in stark contrast to the circles around them, and they looked scared.

Bizarrely, that detail was almost comforting to Stan. It was good that Bill was a little frightened. That was better than Bill being indignant, or having that Denbrough fiery conviction in his eyes. No...frightened, Stan could work with. It gave him leverage, at the very least.

Mike would feel bad about it, though - and Stan could see him already starting to feel bad about it, guilt was creeping across his face and sinking his shoulders. Damn it.

Bill spoke first. “You didn’t t-tell me they were going to be here, Bev.”

Oh. That was new. Stan knew that Bill had stuttered in his youth, but he hadn’t ever actually heard him do it. Was it a ploy, or was it legitimate? Was it shitty of Stan to even be thinking that question?

“You guys were never going to get here on your own,” Bev said cooly, and Stan felt a little spike of anger at her - who was she to dictate the terms of this revisitation? They weren’t ready. None of them were ready, and Hollywood Studios was the wrong venue for any kind of confrontation.

Before he could collect his thoughts well enough to voice his displeasure, though, Eddie was speaking. “Should we go, then?” he asked, twisting the hem of his shirt in his hands nervously. “We could get in line for Star Tours, maybe? Or the Luke Skywalker meet-and-greet?”

“Do you know the names of any Star Wars characters that aren’t Luke Skywalker?” Richie asked fondly, re-situating his hand on Eddie’s shoulder. Eddie leaned into the touch, smiling quietly to himself.

“I like Luke Skywalker.” Eddie defended himself without any real heat, sliding a hand up to cover Richie’s. “He’s gay.”

Ben half-covered his face with his hand. “Oh, Eddie…”

“We’ll go,” Bev decided loudly, grabbing for Ben’s hand and leading him towards the door. “Text me when you’re ready to join us, boys. We’ll be in line for something or other, probably.”

Bev, Ben, Richie, and Eddie swept out of the restaurant together, and all of Stan’s angry words were left to fester as the four of them disappeared into the crowd, chattering about the merits of meeting Princess Leia (Bev’s choice) versus meeting Luke Skywalker (Eddie’s choice).

For the first time since February, Stan, Mike, and Bill were alone together. It was almost funny that they were reconciling in a restaurant, Stan thought, except that it was really not funny at all. None of them had moved, so they weren’t even set up to have a private conversation - they were stuck just staring at each other across the bakery as patrons entered and exited.

After a long thirty seconds, Mike strode forward, and gestured to Stan to follow him. Stan clenched his fists and entertained the idea of resisting - he didn’t want either of them to be drawn back into the vortex they’d been in before, the last two months had been so good - but in the end, he followed, because this wasn’t about going back, not really. It was about moving forward.

How have you been, Bill?” Mike asked softly, offering out a hand for Bill to shake.

Bill stared at Mike’s hand as if it were going to bite him, but Mike held firm, and after an excruciating moment, Bill relented. Stan was surprised at how visibly Bill relaxed when his brain finally processed that Mike and Stan weren’t going to be hostile. He deflated like a balloon, sagging his shoulders and sliding his hand into Mike’s.

“Okay,” Bill said, and Stan could almost feel the way his face immediately synched up with Mike’s as they raised their eyebrows at Bill skeptically. Bill stared at them for a second, and then choked out a laugh, eyes widening incredulously. “Okay, not great, not really even okay, actually. Holy shit, you guys.”

“Sorry,” Mike said, at the same time that Stan said, “Now THIS is podracing,” and Bill let out another hoarse laugh.

“Is that a meme?” he asked, smiling up at Stan, and Stan felt his stomach clench upon seeing the little crinkly smile lines around Bill’s eyes. How fucking odd, to remember the things that you were attracted to in a person without experiencing the actual attraction.

“Yes,” Stan said, and found that his voice wasn’t nearly as sharp as he’d anticipated it being. “Of course it’s a meme. You know me.”

Bill looked like he had something to say on that point, but to Stan’s great surprise, he kept it to himself.

“Guest Relations still going okay? I never see you in the tunnels,” Mike continued, already grasping for straws as far as small talk topics were concerned. The conversation was going to have to get serious soon - Stan wasn’t sure why Mike was delaying the inevitable.

“It’s fine,” Bill shrugged. “Kind of boring. I see Richie and Eddie sometimes, but mostly it’s just the usual sitting at the window and fielding complaints. How’s Splash? And Yacht?”

“Splash is great, actually,” Mike said, smiling slowly. “I’m glad I transferred there. I’m having a lot of fun.”

If Bill was upset about that, he was doing a good job of not showing it. “I’m glad. And you, Stan?”

Stan nodded, trying to be as agreeable as possible. “We’ve got wings closed for renovation, so it’s pretty quiet. Once we’re full steam ahead again, though, I’m going to put in for Manager.”

Bill swung his eyes over to meet Stan’s, and Stan was surprised by how open his expression was. “Good. Sounds like you’re both doing well.”

Mike and Stan exchanged a nervous glance. “We’re fine, yeah.”

There was an awkward silence, exacerbated by Bill turning away for a few seconds to look at the cupcake case. Once he turned back, Mike spoke again.

“I’m sorry for what happened in February,” he said, and Stan straightened up. Finally, finally, finally they had reached the meat of the conversation - and the sooner they got through it, the sooner this terrible interaction would be finished. “I know I wasn’t fair.”

Mike turned his head after he was finished speaking and fixed Stan with a look that indicated that he expected Stan to apologize too...but Stan wasn’t quite there yet.

“Have you thought about what we said?” he asked instead, and he felt rather than saw Mike’s cringe.

Bill didn’t seem upset, though. In fact, he looked as though he had expected that line of questioning. “If I said yes, Stan, would you believe me?”

Stan didn’t really know what his answer to that question was. Fortunately, Mike was able to make a quicker judgement call.

“I would,” said Mike. “February Bill would have been pretty mad that we were doing well without him, I think, and you seem….you seem calm, Bill. Have you been talking to someone?”

“Just Bev,” he said, cutting eye contact with both of them and looking at the ground sheepishly. “We still live together for the moment, but I think she’s looking at moving in with Ben? Is that true?” He looked specifically at Mike for that question, and Mike nodded carefully.

“I think so? I’m pretty evenly split between my place and Stan’s, so I don’t know for sure,” he said, and Stan’s eyes snapped back to Bill’s face, trying to gauge his reaction about Stan and Mike spending time together. To his credit, he didn’t seem fazed at all.

Fuck. Maybe things had changed over the past few months. Maybe Bill was trying to self-improve after all.

“But I’m thinking about seeing a therapist,” Bill continued, shuffling his feet a little bit, “just to like, talk to someone, you know? And I’ve been thinking about what you guys were saying about the not listening, because...well, Bev said it too, and I’m not...I’m working on it.”

Mike smiled sweetly. “I can tell.”

“Me too,” Stan admitted, and Bill’s eyes snapped up at that. He had obviously not expected Stan to be kind.

“I have a question, though,” Bill asked, in a tone that quietly indicated that he only half-wanted to ask his question.

“Shoot,” Mike and Stan said in unison, and Bill shuddered.

“Fucking weird, you guys. Anyways,” he said, taking his time as if trying to word it perfectly in his head. “I just...what happened? Why me? I know that’s probably like...ignorant or something? Maybe? I don’t know, but...I deserve to know that, I think.”

Stan smiled thinly. The old Bill - the “deserve” Bill - was not quite dead, after all.

Mike, as always, was kinder than Stan, and launched quickly into an explanation.

“Well, the minority versus non-minority thing was bigger than you thought it was, I think,” Mike said thoughtfully, and Stan nodded.

“Yeah, ditto that. There are some things you just can’t understand unless you’ve lived them.”

Bill frowned and shoved his hands into his pockets. “But Stan’s white.”

Stan exhaled lowly. “Yeah, and that’s not the same as Mike and all the shit he deals with, I know...but the Jewishness, Bill. It’s a thing, even if I haven’t really practiced in a minute...it’s a thing.”

Sighing, Bill inelegantly pushed a hand back through his hair. “Okay, I guess. Was that it?”

Stan looked at Mike, and Mike nodded back at him, giving him the non-verbal green light.

“The dynamic was weird,” Stan said, willing Bill to look him in the eyes for this part. It wasn’t happening, but it felt like it was important to try, so Stan persisted. “You like to be in charge, and the two of us aren’t really people that like having people in charge of us.”

“Yeah,” Mike agreed. “We’re not Richie and Eddie, Bill - heck, we’re not even Ben and Bev. We’ve got a whole different thing going on, you know?”

Bill’s eyes were all but glued to the floor. “That makes sense, I guess.”

“You don’t like it,” Mike said flatly, and Bill hesitated for a moment before nodding.

“I don’t,” Bill agreed. “But. It helps to know.”

“We should have explained it better,” Mike said, and Stan nodded shortly - almost indecipherably, because part of him was still resistant to apologizing, but he nodded all the same. “It’s just so fucking frustrating in the moment, you know?”

Bill barked out a laugh. “Yeah, I definitely know.”

Another silence fell upon them, but it was more comfortable now. Stan could practically see the other side of the conversation, and he was desperate to get there. The staff was starting to be weirded out by their continued presence.

“Are we going to be okay, then?” he asked, trying to drive the other two to a more practical place.

They both looked up at him with matching fond smiles, and he felt heat curl in his gut. Fuck, that was...something else.

“I don’t know about hanging today, if I’m honest,” Mike said, more blunt than usual (and Stan knew that was for his sake), “but we could try another day and see? That’ll give us time to prepare.”

Bill nodded thoughtfully. “Time to prepare sounds good. Bev really threw us under the bus today, huh.”

“She really fucking did,” Stan agreed sourly. “Which day?”

“I’m pretty tied up this month,” Bill admitted, “but maybe beginning of June? Do you guys have Universal Studios Season Passes? I haven’t been on Kong yet.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Mike smiled. “Cool. You staying for the rest of this Star Wars crazy, Bill?”

“Nah,” Bill said, waving a hand dismissively across his face. “I’m more of a Star Trek guy. Bev knows that, so I was a little confused about why she asked me to come today...I guess I know now. Anyways. I’ll probably go home and watch reruns of Arrested Development.”

Stan nodded, feeling light. “Well, godspeed, then.”

Bill looked between the two of them, looking half pleased and half exasperated. “God, Stan, you’re so--”

“I know,” Stan said, reaching for Mike’s hand. To his great relief, Mike took it immediately. “I know.”

There was still more to say - the air was thick with conversation they weren’t having, but it was time for Bill to go, and he knew it.

“Goodbye, then,” he finally said, backing towards the doors of the restaurant.

“Goodbye,” Mike and Stan chorused, waving him away until he pushed his way out and back into the Florida sun.

They stood there like that for a moment, hands clasped, and then looked back at each other.

“How do you say the name of that drink again?” Stan finally asked, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

Mike opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, someone tapped Stan on the shoulder.

It was one of the Starring Rolls employees, holding his blue, blue drink.

“Couldn’t help but overhear,” she said quickly as Stan read her nametag (‘Patricia’, and she looked like one, too, all dark curls and dimples). “This is on the house. Sorry about your friend.”

Stan blinked back at her, too surprised to speak, and Mike clapped a hand on his shoulder, laughing softly.

“In another life, he’d be considering asking you to marry him right about now,” Mike informed the girl, who laughed in response.

“Sounds like it would be nice,” she said, beaming at the two of them. “Alternate universe Patty Blum is pretty lucky. But for now, enjoy, okay? May the fourth be with you.”

“Thank you,” Stan said, thirty seconds too late - she was already headed back to her post.

“Pull yourself together, sweetheart,” Mike chided jokingly, holding up his phone, which was lit up with new text notifications. “Bev’s wondering where we are. You up for doing more shit? I know that was a lot to handle.”

Stan looked down at his drink, and then up at Mike, and felt his face split into a huge, crazy grin.

“That’s...why I’m here.”

Mike’s responding groan propelled them out of Starring Rolls and all the way back to where Bev, Ben, Richie, and Eddie were waiting for them.