#like i understand if we're a couple streets down yeah

[ratatatastic]

terribly in love with how stanced up he is on a tuesday afternoon

[archangeldyke-all]

I love all of the isha, jinx, reader and sev found family so much.

Was wondering about a reader who had a shaky relationship with their family. A couple of ideas. Maybe they are so worried about hurting isha, or they don't really know much about parenting and family. Maybe they are just hesitant. Or they don't talk too much either, but connect with isha.

I have no clue, would love anything, love your writing so much!! Totally fine if not I hope you have an awesome day either way :))

- 🌱

eeeee gonna combine this!!

thinking abt jinx isha and sev snuggling up to reader when she’s sad :(

men and minors dni

there are days, for both you and sevika, where the abundance of love from your new found family overwhelm you.

neither of you had the best childhoods. neither of you are close with your families now. and sometimes realizing that this is what a family is supposed to feel like kinda paralyzes you.

it's a horrible combination of grief and horror for your younger self, and for jinx and isha before they had you, and a gratefulness that you've managed to escape the cycles of abuse that have haunted your bloodlines.

it happens to sevika most often. jinx will spill a glass at dinner and you'll all calmly clean it up, giggling and teasing jinx for her butterfingers-- and sevika will get choked up with how easy it is. how little yelling, bleeding and crying had to occur for the problem to be solved.

she usually has to take a minute to herself, sometimes dragging you with her to the bedroom to bury her face against your neck and breathe in your scent as she calms down.

but after a few minutes, it washes over her, and she's back to her normal self.

it's different for you. it isn't little moments that trigger it, it just creeps up out of nowhere. you'll wake up one morning with the weight of the world pinning you to the bed, and you just won't be able to get up.

today's one of those days.

you don't know why it's happening now, but it's happening. how could you face a world that would treat a child so horribly that she can't talk? a world where doctors will fuse teenage girls' blood with shimmer, permanently altering her senses and instincts? a world where 'peacemakers' flood the streets with toxic gas?

you can't. at least not today.

"baby, it's almost eleven." sevika whispers, gently pulling the blankets away from your body. "'re you sick?" she asks, feeling your forehead tenderly.

her touch makes you weepy. you take a shaky breath. "i just--" you cut yourself off with a squeaky sob. sevika's face falls, and she quickly scrambles to join you in bed, scooping you into her arms. "i just can't do it today, sev." you say, falling apart against her chest.

sevika lets you cling to her, gently stroking your back and kissing your head as you cry against her. "that's alright, love." she whispers. "i'll do it all for you today."

this only makes you cry harder.

"sevika, where'd you go?! we're about to race rainbow road, c'mon i wanna watch isha kick your ass aga-- oh, shit." jinx cuts herself off, her eyes wide as she blinks at the pair of you. "y-you alright, sweetcheeks?" she asks, a worried little frown on her lips.

before you can answer, little footsteps come thumping toward your room. hurry up, big mama! isha signs as she comes sprinting in the room. her eyes get wide and worried, and she tugs jinx's hand pointing at you with concern. ms. baby, what's wrong? isha asks.

"she's just... having a rough day, kids." sevika explains, rubbing your back for you. a few tears leak out of your eyes at her gentle voice and her careful words. "y'know those days where you just need to be sad?"

jinx seems to understand, her eyes softening in sympathy and one of her arms reaching out to start playing with isha's hair. "yeah, i've had a few of those." she chuckles wryly. "just gotta cry in bed until tomorrow." jinx shrugs. "sorry, sweetcheeks."

you smile weakly at jinx. "'s alright. i'll be up and at 'em again soon."

isha's still worried, though. ms. baby, do you need a kiss? she signs.

you burst into a fresh round of tears, and jinx chuckles, just a little. "t-that would be great, isha." you sob. isha scrambles into bed beside you and sevika, carefully holding your face between her tiny hands as she kisses your forehead. it's surprising just how much her little kiss makes you feel better. you chuckle a little. "thanks kiddo."

"do you wanna come lay on the couch? watch us play mario? you can still cry and sleep, but at least we'll be there to keep you company." sevika offers.

you smile, then frown. "that sounds amazing, baby, but i don't think i have the energy to get out of bed." you admit. sevika scoffs and gets out of bed. your heart sinks, and you choke on a sob. "i-i know it's pathetic, 'm sor--"

"baby, shut the fuck up." sevika says, ripping the blankets off of you. you gasp and shiver, and sevika leans down and easily hauls you up into her arms. you gasp and squeal, and jinx and isha burst into laughter and screams. "jinx, will you grab a few pillows for her?" sevika asks as she starts carrying you into the living room. jinx trails behind you, your pillows and a blanket in her arms.

isha disappears into her bedroom, only to return as sevika's settling you down on the couch, placing her favorite bunny plushy in your arms. bunny will make you feel better. she signs. you start to cry again, nodding and thanking her shakily, cradling the stuffy to your chest.

isha and jinx settle down on the floor in front of the couch, and sevika covers you up with blankets before pulling your legs into her lap and sitting beside you. "you gonna be able to sleep with us screaming at each other?" she asks, grabbing her controller. you chuckle and nod.

"no different from any other nap i take." you tease. sevika grins and you sigh happily, your heart throbbing with appreciation and love.

you fall asleep after sevika falls off the track for the third time. when you wake back up, isha and jinx have piled on top of you and sevika, all three of them snoring as they enjoy an afternoon nap.

despite the heaviness in your chest and your tired eyes trying to drag you back to sleep, you take a moment to remember the moment before you close your eyes--knowing that despite all the horrible associations you've had with family in your past; from now on this is what family will be.

taglist!

@fyeahnix @lavendersgirl @half-of-a-gay @thesevi0lentdelights @sexysapphicshopowner

@kissyslut @chuucanchuucan @badbye666 @femme-historian @lia-winther

@sevikaspillowprincess @emiliabby @sevikasbeloved @hellorai @my-taintedheart

@glass-apothecary @macaroni676 @artinvain @k3n-dyll @sevsdollette

@ellieslob @xayn-xd @keikuahh @maneskinwh0re @raphaellearp

@iamastar @sevikitty @mascdom @nhaaauyen @annesunshiner

@mirconreadzztuff22 @veoomvroom @lushh-s3vik4s @katyawooga @lesbodietcoke

@lavandasz @strawberrykidneystone @sevikasfan

[drarrily-we-row-along]

Dolonia

Dolonia is defined as: a state of unease prompted by people who seem to like you too much, which makes you wonder if they must have you confused with someone else—someone flawless, selfless, or easy to understand from a distance.

Potter rolled over, pressing his too hot, too sweaty body against Draco's. And in spite of the fact that he was altogether too hot, that he was sticky, and still breathing too heavy, he couldn't find it in himself to complain.

"That was good," Potter said, trailing his fingers over Draco's ribs, brushing back and forth lightly and leaving trails of electricity shaking through Draco's chest.

He hummed, hoping it sounded aloof and noncommittal, like he wasn't trying too hard and didn't care too much about Potter's opinion, anything to convince himself that that was the truth.

"Do you want to order in some food from the Thai place down the street?" he asked, "or maybe we could go out? There's that diner a couple of blocks away, y-"

"You want to eat with me?" he asked incredulously, because fucking was one thing and occasionally sleeping in the same bed after being too tired to move made sense. But going out and eating together was something else entirely.

"Yeah," Potter said, shrugging like it was no big deal. "I'm starving, aren't you? We haven't eaten since lunch and that case was no easy thing to solve."

"Yes," he conceded, "That's what the celebratory sex was for."

Potter laughed, that bright, delighted sound that made it seem like nothing in the world was wrong. "Sure, just." He sat up, looking down at Draco, eyes impossibly large and impossibly green, "do you not want to get food with me? It's fine if you don't," he added, "just say so and I'll leave you to it."

"It's not that I don't want to get food with you," he said with a frown, staring at the mole on Potter's neck to avoid looking into his eyes. "It's just that you seem to be making this into something that it's not."

"What do you mean?" he asked, fingers carding through Draco's hair and brushing the loose strands back off his face.

He rolled his eyes, trying to make himself seem less vulnerable than he actually felt. "It's like you don't remember who I actually am sometimes."

Potter laughed, "Of course I remember who you are. You're my annoying, prat of a partner, too brilliant for his own good. You're the idiot that I come in to work with every morning wondering what sort of chaos my day is about to hold because even simple robbery cases turn into something that has years of ancestral battles and blood magic tied into it. You have very particular tea habits, and you like everything just so. I drive you mad but you still put up with me in your bed anyway."

"You're a good fuck, Potter," he said flippantly.

With a laugh, Potter leaned in and kissed the tip of his nose, like casual affection was the sort of thing that they did. "I know you."

And that reminded Draco of where this had all started, "right, but it's like you don't remember all the other parts, all of the things that came before."

He shrugged, "Why would I? You aren't that person anymore, you don't believe those things, you've turned your entire life around."

"But I am still those things," he said, shaking his head. "Sure, I don't believe what I used to, but that doesn't change that I was raised in that culture, it doesn't change that I still go to have brunch with my parents at the manor every other Sunday, or that I know how to get my way in the Ministry, or that I'm an expert manipulator-"

"Hey," Potter said, cupping his cheek. "Hey. Relax. Take a breath," he said, lips pressing to the crease between Draco's eyebrows. "You're okay. We're okay."

"I'm don't-"

"I know who you are, Draco."

"But-"

He shook his head, "I know who you are. I remember all of the things there are to know about you. I know who you were, I know all of the work you've done to be different, I know who you are now. I know you," he repeated. "Just like you know me. It's what makes us such good partners in the office and out of it." He let out a soft self-deprecating chuckle, "Please don't think that you're the only one of the two of us who's spent the past fifteen years meticulously watching the other. I know you, Draco."

He frowned up at him, uncertain where this could be going then, if Potter consciously chose Draco with all of his faults and flaws instead of just for the convenience of it.

"I know you," he repeated, "and I want you." He shrugged, "I've just been waiting for you to be ready to hear it." He grinned at him, "So, what do you say? Dinner?"

And how could he say anything but yes?

[cosmerelists]

Mistborn Era 1 Characters Read The Mistborn Era 2 Books

As requested by @foxofscadrial :)

[Spoilers, as you might imagine, from all of Mistborn Era 1 & 2!]

I've done this for Stormlight a couple of times: Stormlight characters read the The Stormlight Archive (link here) and they also read just the Kaladin chapters (link here). Now we're going to have the characters from Mistborn Era 1 sit down to read the Era 2 series: how will they react?

Now, just for the record...some of these characters are in both eras. For those characters, it's their Era 1 version doing the reacting, if that makes sense--like they're seeing their own futures.

1. Vin Live Reactions

Vin: This world seems so beautiful... So green... So vibrant... I'm gonna cry... Vin: THE STATUES OF ME AND ELEND 😭 Vin: Wow. I wish *I* had guns. Guns seem cool. Vin: It.....feels weird that everyone wants to be me. Like, sometimes I barely wanted to be me. Vin: ....Allrianne set the gender norms? I'm so sorry, women. Vin: TENSOOOOOOON! That speech about me...I can't take it... Vin: Killing a whole building of people, huh? Been there, Wax. Been there. Vin: I'm kinda glad Sazed became god. It seems like a hard job. Glad I didn't get it. Vin: ...Man. I REALLY wish we had guns!

2. Lord Ruler

Lord Ruler: Ugh, it's even worse than I imagined. Lord Ruler: Everything was so STABLE and SAFE under my rule. Lord Ruler: And now people have "freedom" and "fun"...and giraffes for some reason. Lord Ruler: You all are gonna do SO bad in the Cosmere-wide fight. Lord Ruler: Good riddance. Lord Ruler: ... Lord Ruler: Also, that guy who ends up taking over--Lord Mistborn or whatever. Lord Ruler: Who even is he???

3. Sazed

Sazed: ... Sazed: ... Sazed: I seem stressed.

4. Marsh

Marsh: ... Marsh: So, it seems that I never escape from my brother's shenanigans. Marsh: ... Marsh: Strangely comforting, I'll admit.

5. Elend Live Reactions

Elend: Heck yeah. Democracy. Elend: Huh. The noble houses stayed, huh? I just...don't know how I feel about that. Elend: Wait a sec....did they just recreate the noble/skaa divisions but with hereditary nobility versus workers? Elend: No...don't be crazy, Elend. At least it's not horrible slavery. Things are better! Way better! Elend: Ugh, are they abusing the outer cities too?? That train system is so horribly inefficient!! Elend: Is it too late for me to tutor Spook in legislative philosophy???

6. Breeze & Allrianne

Allrianne: Omg, Breeze, can you believe it? Our ancestor is the hero! Breeze: Seems like quite a...scruffy independent fellow. Allrianne: Not a Rioter OR a Soother, though... That's unfortunate... Breeze: Wears nice suits in the Rough, though. Now THAT I can get behind. Allrianne: I think we did good. 🩷

7. Spook

Spook: Well. Spook: Huh. Spook: Knowing that my street slang is gonna be High Imperial one day... Spook: That might be just enough to get me through all this alive.

8. TenSoon

TenSoon: I could imagine many fates for myself. TenSoon: Serving humans and the Lord Ruler forever. TenSoon: Being killed. TenSoon: Undertaking the Resolution and turning back into a mistwraith. TenSoon: ... TenSoon: Inspiring a line of stuffed toys for human children was NOT something I ever considered. TenSoon: I'm so glad I met the Ascendant Warrior.

9. Tindwyl

Tindwyl: It is...gratifying to see that the Terris people have survived. Tindwyl: And that feruchemy has survived with us. Tindwyl: *tsks* Naming a street after me, though. It would be more valuable for them to come to understand the real us, rather than mythologizing us to such a degree. Tindwyl: Wax naming his daughter after me, however... Tindwyl: ... Tindwyl: That honor I will accept.

10. Kelsier Live Reactions

(Note: This is the living Final Empire version of the character)

Kelsier: ........There are HOW many metals?!? Kelsier: Heh. Flowers. You would have loved that, Mare. Kelsier: Oof, no Mistborn. That's kinda harsh. Kelsier: YOU'RE FUCKING KIDDING ME--THEY CALLED IT ELENDEL?! (muttering) They could have at LEAST called it Vindale. Kelsier: "Ascendant Warrior," huh? That's my girl. Kelsier: "High Imperial." LOL. Kelsier: Omg, Marsh?! Marsh?!? Kelsier: SAZED IS GOD?! Kelsier: Heh, nice to know I have a crew in any reality. Kelsier: Yeah. I think I'm gonna be fine.

[junedenim]

put your heavy metal to the test

part one part two

if you're fucking him, you might as well take advantage of it

warnings: smut, fluff, facefucking, sex toy, piv

word count: 4.8k

It's Elizabeth's birthday on Friday. This means two things: an office party & a drinking party.

"Do you not want me to go?" Alex asks. He's in your kitchen making breakfast. Repeat: he's in your kitchen making breakfast. These things have started to sneak up on you increasingly—this pattern of waking up in his arms and making breakfast on weekends. 

You shrug with your cup of coffee. "You can do whatever you want." That tiptoeing-around habit has continued. There has been no addressing of what this is other than the fact that it's happening and you both want it to happen. 

He chuckles as he butters his near-burnt toast. "I know that. She's your friend and I don't want to overstep on your night out."

"Well." You lean over the counter, your arms prop up your boobs showcasing your cleavage on a full display for his eyes to look directly at. "Who's gonna take me home after a long night?"

Alex raises his eyebrows with a smirk. "You want me to?"

You stand from the barstool and walk over to the sink to empty your cup. "There's plenty of options."

You start to walk to your bedroom when his arms wrap around you tightly. "Who? Gunner?" You try to escape but his grip only grows tighter. You're laughing and it's too much but you decide to enjoy a moment when his touch is friendly and means nothing more than a laugh instead of some goal of pleasure. It's too much and just enough.

*

Elizabeth's birthday cake is a vanilla sheet cake bought by Ed at the grocery store down the street. It looks pretty and tastes shitty but it's the effort that counts and Ed is probably the best boss you've ever had (maybe, second best, but the other one gets disqualified for unfair advantages). 

You're sitting in a little group of people eating a slice of cake when Alex sits next to you with a mouthful of cake. "Got enough there?" You ask him. He sticks his tongue with a dusting of his chewed-up food. "Ew."

"Alex," Elizabeth calls from a few seats over. "You're joining our little party tonight, right?"

He nods, swallowing his piece. "That was the plan."

"Fantastic!" She cheers. "Everyone has to buy me a drink, well, unless you got a present for me. Your present is a drink for me."

"Okay."

With the group distracted and returning to their conversation, you lean over and whisper to Alex, "Or you could go halvesies on my gift?"

He looks over, all serene. You don't understand how he doesn't stare at himself in the mirror all day like Narcissus. "Are we at the stage in our relationship where we're gifting things as a couple?"

You giggle softly, covering your mouth. "Elizabeth would rip my hair out if that happened."

"Why?" 

"Because she's in love with you."

His jaw becomes slightly agape. "What?"

You stare at him, searching for a sign of trickery. "You can not be that clueless. You're pulling my leg."

He shakes his head.

"Seriously? She stares at you all the time."

"Well, my eyes are busy elsewhere." His browns stare clearly at you.

You roll your eyes. "She's been into you since before all our stuff."

"My eyes have been busy since before all our stuff."

You laugh. "You're full of shit."

He turns away and looks at the last crumbs of his slice of cake. "Maybe you're the clueless one. Did you ever think that?"

You point your plastic fork at him. "No, because you're lying."

"I'm an honest man." He sighs and stands with an empty plate. "Happy birthday, Elizabeth. I'll see you later tonight."

"You're leaving already?" She frowns. "Come on, Ed gave us an extended break for a reason."

Alex waves her off. "I have to work on some things with Ed. I'm lucky he gave me long enough of a break to eat a slice of cake."

"He works you too hard."

"Yeah, well, I like it. Have a good one, you guys." You've learned that Alex works too much. You told him you think he's going to have a heart attack one day for the emphasis he places on work in his life. He told you he doesn't know how to function without it. You told him that sounded sad and he should find ways to relieve that stress. Then, he fucked you and said that was his stress relief. And you said that was good enough.

*

He sits next to you at the bar, which should be suspicious to your co-workers but no questionable looks are shot in your direction. He's smooth in every way. He shaved this morning and he moves in such a way that you can only call smooth. He moves his hands smooth. He talks smooth. He kisses smooth.

When he put his lips on you outside the bar you could have slapped him because he tempts fate too much and you swear he is trying to get you both fired. But he molds himself to you, shoves his hand into the curve of your back, and doesn't let go for a second. He smiled when he pulled away and you couldn't do anything to that poor face of his. So lovely to look at and so loving in return. He's becoming too sweet and anyone who squinted could see the truth. His thigh rubbing up against yours and you laughing too hard at his dumb jokes but they keep hushed and you hope it stays that way (at least for now).

Elizabeth is double-fisting drinks and she sips one and then the other. You're drinking but you don't want to get drunk because you want to end the night cognizant with Alex. Elizabeth has other ideas...

"Chug your beer with me. Come on! Come on!" She urges. 

You wave her off. "I'm good. But I'll watch you."

She whines. "No fun! Alex!" She grabs a hold of his hand from across the table. "You drink with me. Come on! Come on!"

Alex chuckles, amused by the display. He pats her hand and then pulls away, wrapping his hand around his cold glass, caressing it with such care you're jealous of it. "I'm the kind of guy who likes to savour his drinks."

"Boo! No fun you two!" She slurs. Being referred to in a pair gives you tingles. A thing in which you wish to be shoved away through the numbness of alcohol. Feeling it in private is one thing but suffocated in a crowd of people you feel as if your skin could fall off. That you're exposed and they can see right through you with their feelings X-ray scanner. Maybe you're just paranoid.

Elizabeth leans forward, completely intoxicated with liquor and infatuation. "So, Alex, I've heard about this big project you have. I'll admit I'm jealous I don't get to work on it." She's jealous of you for working with him...she's going to kill you if she ever finds out.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom," you announce.

"Okay!" Elizabeth says, all happy and perky for alone time with Alex. 

Should you feel jealous? Probably not, you've always been told jealousy isn't a good emotion. It's weird. You feel an obligation to be jealous but you aren't. Maybe it's because you and Alex are just fooling around in a highly sophisticated we-aren't-going-to-do-this-with-anybody-else-except-each-other-but-we-are-totally-not-a-couple kind of way. Maybe because you know he won't do anything. Elizabeth has been throwing yourself at Alex since she started working here and nothing has come of it. What's the difference now? He's so blase toward anything that it's obvious when he is interested in something.

Like when he walks into the women's restroom.

"What are you doing here?" You're washing your hands and he's by the door, chest pumped out and so heroic-looking with a smolder you could laugh.

"I thought we were..." He gestures between the two of you.

"We were?" You implore him to finish as you wipe your hands clean. 

His head drops. 

You laugh. "No, I actually did just have to go to the bathroom."

"Well, since I'm here..." Alex trails off for you to get the idea again.

You finish, "Fuck you? No, not really."

"Okay," he accepts. He looks around examining the stalls and sinks as you watch on. "Do you want to leave now and go do it?"

"And have everyone watch us leave together? No thanks." You say as you toss the paper towel.

"We've done it before." He's moving forward suggestively and you'd take a step back if you weren't so into it. Into him.

You move past him, brushing shoulders like it's the greatest romance, something Austenian. "And we won't be repeating." 

He moves backward, blocking your exit. "Fine. I'll leave saying I'm loaded with work and in a half hour, you'll say you have a headache and then you'll come to my place."

"I don't want to go to your place," you whine. You're being difficult but your place is closer to here and the drive home from Alex's is always annoying it almost makes you want to stay there forever (solely for driving purposes, nothing else).

"Then, we'll go to your place."

"But if you leave first you'll need a key."

"Then you go first."

"I don't want to leave yet."

"Then I'll use the key in the potted plant." A key you put there for Alex because nobody else visits enough to warrant a spare key.

"So, you're just going to mess about in my flat for 30 minutes."

He shrugs with his hands on his hips. "I'll find something to do."

You squint. "You're gonna snoop."

"You have no faith in me."

"Well, I know what I would do if you left me alone in your place for 30 minutes."

He laughs. "You wouldn't find much." His place generally carries a stark bareness to it.

"I'd find something. Everyone hides something."

"What do you hide?"

You roll your eyes. "You'll have no fun in your snooping if I tell you what I'm hiding."

He raises his eyebrows. "So, you want me to snoop?"

"I want to get out of this bathroom but you're trapping me in here. You're lucky no one has walked in."

"I'm a very lucky guy. You should know this." 

Something in his eyes makes flutter and an uncontrollable smile covers your face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He shrugs with a wide grin on his face and steps out of the way of the door. His face is endlessly endearing and you could leave if your body would let you but it would be a crime to leave without a simple kiss. 

You hold his left cheek, so smooth. You peck his lips. Twice, for a good measure. That grin is still irreplaceable and wider than ever. "Have fun putting your tampon in."

He just gives a light slap to your ass and lets you go. For now.

*

"I have a wicked headache." You place to palm of your hand on your forehead, cringing your eyes.

Alex chuckles on the other side of the opened door. It's weird having him open your flat's door. He claps his hands together. "Stellar acting. Destined for the stage."

You bow dramatically. "Thank you."

He opens the door more, letting you pass. You toss your purse on the couch, then your body. "It took some convincing. She nearly shoved two Advils down my throat before I was able to leave."

Alex sits beside you. "What about me? I thought my clothes were gonna have claw marks on them."

"Well," you sigh, "don't flatter yourself too much. She was all over Ben when I left."

He snaps his fingers. "Shucks."

You sniffle. "What's that smell?"

"I made dinner."

"You made me dinner?"

"I made me dinner. You came back earlier than I thought you would."

You're quick to grab your purse and smack him with it. He grabs your wrist, then your hips, guiding you to straddle him. You sit on top of him. You can feel him. His every move. Your hands lying on his shoulders. His light touch on your elbows. He kisses your hand and it feels like a holy blessing. Like you're the Pope and he's kissing your ring. 

"Did you snoop?"

"I snooped."

"And?"

"You're boring." You erupt with laughter, laying your head on his shoulder. "I didn't look too hard anyway. I didn't want to invade your space."

"It's fine. I invited you to." But you don't mind how caring he is. How gentle he is as his fingertips brush down your clothed spine.

"Okay. I guess that helps because I did find your vibrator."

You hit his chest with your hands. "Ew. Don't talk about that."

"You told me to snoop!"

"Whatever. It's a common thing. Every girl has one in their drawer. We have to use it because guys never get the job done," you reason.

Alex brags, "I get the job done."

"Don't be cocky. I could be faking it."

"Okay," he easily accepts. Maybe because it isn't believable in the slightest. 

"You're being cunning. If you think we're going to do some sex thing with it you're out of luck because it's out of batteries."

"Oh, so if it's out of batteries then how are you able to use it after you're done with me."

You pull away from him, standing up, your heels clunking on the floor. "Stop it! That is a personal item. I don't talk to you about your sex toys."

"Mine's just my hand and I'm not really using it much as of late."

You cross your arms. "So, I'm your sex toy. I should be paid."

He raises his eyebrows. "You want to be my prostitute?"

You think about it. "Fair point. Pay me with dinner."

"They're your ingredients anyway."

You shake your head. "No, I mean, take me out to dinner."

"Now?"

"No!" You giggle. "Like this weekend or something. On a date," you clarify. You've slept with the guy. Why are you nervous about a date? 

Alex nods and gives you a crooked smile. "Okay."

"You're being cunning again."

"Fuck yeah. You've been blue balling me all night."

You purse your lips. "You haven't exactly returned the favour."

"You have your vibrator for that."

"Oh, okay, sure. I'll just grab some batteries." You make a point, marching over to grab your TV remote and popping it out. He follows you to your bedroom where you stuff them into your vibrator. You turn around, staring at him standing at the edge of your bed. "If you don't mind, we'd like some time alone."

He toots a laugh. "Nice try. Now put the vibrator down and let me fuck you."

"But the vibrator hits me just right," you taunt, all pouty and flirty.

His steps are controlled but powerful. You can feel his shoes thud on the floor and his gaze is controlling like he's mind-controlling you to put the vibrator down. Your grip stays steady even as his hand rounds your back and pulls you closer and closer until his lips are on you. 

"Your vibrator do this?" He teases. Your boobs are pressed against his chest and his hand is pushing your head closer to his, keeping you in a kiss. 

"They're very advanced these days," you mutter against his lips. 

He's kissing you tight and harder. Your knees buckle against your bed as you fall back onto the bed. In some chaos of tugging on clothes before pulling them fully off, Alex takes the vibrator out of your hand. He's kissing you again, distracting you. Your hand travels down the space in between your bodies and you're reaching out, rubbing your hand against his cock.

"How badly do you want me in your mouth?"

"You're presumptuous," you joke.

But he's clearly not in a joking mood as he stops your hand from moving around him. He reiterates, "How bad do you want it?" 

"Badly," you tell him. 

You can tell Alex wants to tease you more, but he's getting too worked up for verbal foreplay, so he stands up, tugging your head along with him. He grabs you by the throat and pulls you closer, so your head is dangling upside down off the bed, and then roughly shoves his cock down your throat.

"There you go," he taunts, thrusting into your mouth with brutal force. It only takes three hits to the back of her throat for you to gag on his cock, choking on its thickness. He pulls back just long enough for you to catch a breath before he pushes back in. "You fucking love it, don't you?"

You gurgle around him, trying to breathe through your nose as the pace of his pumps picks up. You do love it and wish you didn't have a gag reflex, so you could take all of him without needing a break, but he told you once before he loves it when you choke on him. 

He slows his thrusts down a bit and leans forward, palming your breasts. He plays with your nipples knowing how much you love when he does that, especially when you're in a position like this. Your squeak of surprise is muffled by his cock before it turns into moans of pleasure when he grabs a tit, roughly massaging it with his callused hands. He starts to pick up his rhythm again. Your body jerks at the action and he makes sure to shove down extra hard in response. After a few minutes of toying with your tits, his hand travels further down, running a finger through you. "Look at you, so wet for my cock already. You want it so badly, I can't believe you didn't fuck me in the bathroom. You love doing that shit, dirty girl."

You can't get any words out, but you jerk your hips up, trying to get his fingers to press harder or go into you or just do something. You're wet and aching for him. He lets his fingers slip through you a few times, making sure to avoid your clit, before he pulls away from her completely. Without thinking, you bring your hand to your pussy to replace his, but he immediately slaps it away.

Alex asks, "You want me to leave?" You shake your head. "Then, don't play with yourself."

He thrusts into your mouth a few more times before turning you around. He climbs up onto the bed and urges your legs apart so he can kneel between them. The heel of his hand presses against your clit as his fingers slip through you, finding your entrance and pushing two fingers into you with ease. 

He fingers you for a few moments before leaving you empty. He positions you properly and lines himself up before plunging into you.

"Jesus," he grunts. He stays inside of you for a moment to gather himself, before he pulls out and slams back into you once, twice, three times, until he's started a steady rhythm of pumps. He pushes on his toes, bending you further, giving him an even steeper angle to pound into you. He stretches, his thighs slapping against her ass loudly with each hit, before it's too much of a strain on his muscles to fuck you at this angle. 

He stops and palms your ass cheeks and brings you closer to him. You hear the buzz and can't help but roll your eyes even if you're begging for any pleasure. "Seriously?"

"You want me to stop?" He's playing with you. Dangling a carrot in front of your face and yanking it away in an instant. You're not going to tempt fate.

"No," you answer, trying to rock against him, desperately wanting him to start up again.

He presses the toy against you and you have a hard time holding yourself up. Your arms bucking and taking your face down to laying against a pillow. He bends a little at the knees so his cock is level with your cunt, and then shoves his length into you again until they meet with a smack. He squeezes your ass cheeks roughly before sliding them down your lower back, pulling your body closer to meet every one of his thrusts with as much force as possible. 

"Oh, oh fuck," you whimper, you start to clench around him as he holds the vibrator on your clit and bucks into you. You're impressed by his ability to do both at the same time while you can't even hold yourself up. "Fuck, I'm gonna come."

"Come on my cock," he tells you, his hips becoming frantic as he gets closer as well. "You fucking come on my cock. Then, I'm coming in you."

It's all you need to hear before you let go, letting your orgasm hit you in waves. You shake against him. He is still pounding into you through it, and holding the vibrator intensely onto you. Just as you start to come down, you feel him swell against the vice grip you have on him, before he lets go too, spilling into you.

His head falls into the slope of your back but he holds steady with the vibrator on you until you whack at his hand. "Too much," you cry. He looks tempted to push back but he shuts the device off before collapsing onto his back on the side of the bed that is looking more and more like his side of the bed. 

You fall on your stomach. Both of you just lie there in thought, trying to find something that will ease the shaking of your thighs and Alex's shallow breathing. "Fuck," you hear him mumble.

You make a sound in agreement but can't figure out how to do more. You feel as though you've been rewired. You feel his touch on your arm before he yanks you over into his arms. You groan, already feeling sore.

He kisses your temple before he gets up from the bed and disappears into the bathroom, returning with a towel. Loving and tender after rough and unforgiving.

*

It's late and you're in his arms and you feel as delicate as you ever have and feel like you can say anything and he would still hold you in his arms. "I think you should present the project on Monday," he tells you.

You pull your head back. "What?"

"It's really your project. I only supervised and, god knows, Jeff did nothing. It's your thing and I don't think I could—anyone could—explain the project as well as you do."

"That's a big thing."

"I'll practice with you."

"But to present to corporate and all of them. Isn't it out of character for someone like me to do that?"

"Ben has done it before." Ben is higher up than you so it's not exactly an equal comparison. 

You lift your head up to look him in his eyes and directly ask, "Are you doing this—"

He closes his eyes and tosses his head to the side. "God, don't even say that. That's two steps away from me trading sex for raises."

"Sorry."

"It's fine but it has nothing to do with that. You're brilliant," he says so earnestly you almost believe it.

"Sure," you say doubtfully.

He shakes his head and tugs you closer. "You'll see. You're the smartest person I've ever met."

You laugh. "You don't have to bullshit me now."

"No bullshitting. All those guys, Ed, corporate are a bunch of showoffs but you. You're like smart smart. Booksmart, streetsmart, emotionally intelligent. We're a bag of nothing."

"You're the smartest person I've ever met. No bullshit."

"I don't believe you."

"That's fine. That doesn't mean it isn't true."

*

On Monday morning, he kisses you in the middle of the breakroom. It's the closest you've come to nearly exposing whatever this is. It's much more risky than his office and a crowded city street. "Too much, Al," you tell him.

"I'm proud of you," he says. His thumb rubs against the corner of your lips, removing the kiss dribble. "Aren't I allowed to be proud of you?"

"You kiss everyone you're proud of?"

"Yeah, why do you think Ed and I take so long after meetings?"

"Ew!" You push him away from you, sharing a laugh between you.

The breakroom door swings open and Elizabeth walks in. It's alarming how unwilling you both are to move away from each other but she's distracted by her own cheer. "How'd it go?" She exclaims.

"Oh, yeah, she was perfect," Alex boasts, leaning against a counter.

Elizabeth claps her hands. "Did we ever have any doubts?"

"No, never," he says sincerely. You make eye contact with him and he stands up straight. "Well, I should go."

"No rest for the wicked, huh?" Elizabeth says.

"Yeah."

When he leaves she turns to you with a smile. "You better get me on the next project. God, I wish he'd talk about me that way." She's dreamy. A schoolgirl gazing onward at her teacher with her immature crush. You don't feel guilty about you and Alex but you feel shame from hiding it from her as if you're leading her on in some kind of way. But she seems to have accepted the idea of her and Alex as a fantasy. There's doubt she'll accept Alex being a reality for you.

*

You go into his office later and he's quick to attack. His lips are on you and his hands are heavy on your back. "How fucking good were you?"

You push him back. "You've mentioned it before." Alex exchanges hasty, uncoordinated kisses with you. 

"Want me to fuck you?"

"Not here."

Alex whines, you've never heard him do that before. "Quick."

You laugh. "After my stellar performance, you want me to get caught sucking off my boss?"

He seems to think about it for a moment before nodding. "You have a point."

Your arms curl around his neck, bringing him closer to you as you whisper in his ear, "I'll fuck you at my place. We'll fuck the whole night."

"Yeah?"

You pull back with a head nod and a lip bite. "Yeah."

"That reminds me I have your spare key." He moves to pull it out from his bag.

You hold your hand up. "Keep it." He's there half the week. The other half you're at his. You're fucked.

"Keep it?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

*

You don't go back to your place first. He takes you to dinner first. It's nothing fancy but it's a nice enough place that doesn't need a reservation. You drink nice wine and talk about nothing in particular but none of it has to do with work. In some ways, it feels like a first date if you didn't already know so much about him; what moves him, what makes him laugh, what makes him tick. At the same time, you know so little; where he's from, why is he in this business, what hurts him. You suppose it's the same for him with you. 

You don't talk about those things. Too heavy for a first date and whatever else you are. You end up in the back of his car with the rain pelting down. You're under him, pushing off layers and wrapping yourself around him, mouth on his Adam’s apple like you mean to take a bite of it. Alex pushes the skirt of your dress up. It’s a messy thing, hasty, a necessity. You make these sounds, hitched gasps and keening moans, rolling your hips up to match the beat of whatever tune his making with the rhythm of his hips. 

You press a light kiss on the soft skin underneath his lips, and push his hand down further, placing his fingers on top of your core. You hiss from the coldness of his hands.

His cock moves in and out of you. It's slower than usual. You're unsure if it's from the tight setting you're in or the moment you're stuck in. It's more romantic than usual, even if you're stuffed into a tiny backseat. 

Alex is leaning over and pulling you, and covering your mouth with his, his soft lips swallowing your moan. You kiss softly for a few moments. He breaks, letting out, "Fuck." 

Finding the angle a bit difficult, he grabs your hips tilting them up more so he can drive into you better. He leans over you and connects your mouths, swallowing each other's moans again.

Your hands thread through his soft hair, massaging his scalp before they drop down to his back, your fingertips trailing delicately along his sweaty skin. You love feeling the muscles in Alex's back straining as he fucks you, the way they tense each time he thrusts his cock deep inside you, hitting you just where you need it, pulling him just where he needs it. Your chests are flush together. You can feel each other's hearts pounding, the redness in your skins turning to fire.

He smiles into your kiss as you hook your legs around him, digging your heels into his ass and pulling him deeper into you each time he barrels down. He can never seem to go deep enough, always wanting more, more, more.

He picks up his pace as he watches you, his hips rocking into you as you both edge closer and closer. "I'm so close," he moans, releasing your lip and opening his eyes to find yours. 

"Come for me," you urge.

You buck up into him, desperate to come but even more desperate for him to come. "Oh fuck," he cries out. His thrusts start to get jerky as you tighten around his cock.

He only lasts a few more thrusts before he lets go inside you, something habitual now. He moans as he empties himself, feeling you wrap your legs around his waist and lock him in place as he continues to spill. 

You feel yourself come undone and it's uncontrollable as you hold tight onto him, wanting to do everything possible to keep him close. "Fuck," he lets out like a statement. With a chuckle, he tells you, "We couldn't even make it back to your fucking flat."

*

a/n: so, i think this is a series now because i have like two ideas for two more parts so if you guys want it i'll do it. thanks!

[intheholler]

hi i just found your blog and its making me very emo 😭 i grew up in appalachia (the shenandoah valley in VA near the WV border) but had to move away several years ago to central VA, and then even further away last year to the rural midwest. i've been really strongly missing appalachia for the past year, but esp so these past couple months.

i miss the people and community, the spoonbread or chicken and dumplings my mom used to make me when i was sick, the mountains surrounding you on every side, being off in the woods with no one around, picking wild blackberries with my best friend, speeding around twisty roads blasting music with all the windows down, picking and eating the wild honeysuckle growing along my back fence, all the bluegrass and folk music, hearing people's accents, the pennsylvania smartweed that would grow under my porch, looking up at the night sky at night and being able to see the entire milky way, the crick i would cross when i walked to school, etc etc etc.

i think the thing i miss the most is the lgbt community. yeah we were small and there was a lot of lgbtphobia, but we were really closeknit, and i was involved w a lot of lgbt activism in my area. city and suburbanite gays just all have such vastly different experiences than me and everyone i grew up with, i always just end up feeling really isolated around them.

also i don't think people not from appalachia understand just how connected to the land we are. its not just about "oh i like hiking" or "i think the mountains are pretty" or something like that. the land is a part of me and i'm a part of it. we're tied to eachother. and that's not even getting into the communal aspect of being appalachian.

i desperately want to move back to appalachia, but i probably won't be able to for at least 4 or 5 years and it makes me really depressed. being away feels like part of my soul is missing. however i don't think i'll be able to move back to the exact area that i'm from, both bc i'm jewish and have gotten more involved w that since growing up and wanna live in an area w at least a small jewish community, and bc my hometown is almost unrecognizable now from all of the people moving in from northern VA and building fancy sitdown restraunts and shit on main street. i remember before we even had a walmart or a target and had to drive to the closest city 45mins away if we needed to get anything more than basic groceries.

anyways this is really long and rambly, but i just wanted to say it was really nice to see someone talking about appalachia and posting pictures of it, it made me feel less alone 💛

.

[spahhzy]

Free as can be~

Ashley sighed into her sleeve for what seemed to be the umpteenth time, causing Andrew to look down from his book he was reading.

"You okay Ash?" He asked, shifting himself to next to his sister.

"Just bored..." Ashley said with a pout, and Andrew rolled his eyes.

"What? You mean living motel to motel on the run from law enforcement, cults, and an organ harvesting firm isn't exciting enough for you, " He said sarcastically as Ashley tossed a pillow at his face.

"Nope," she said, giggling before suddenly her stomach growled.

"You should probably go get something from the vending machine, Ashley." Said Andrew, which cause Ashley to grumble.

"I don't want no stupid cookie again... let's go out to eat! " Said Ashley with enthusiasm rising up and standing on the bed.

"No"

"Wah, oh come on, Andy, I know for a fact you have gotten sick and tired of cookies by now," Ashley argued back.

"What part of 'on the run' did you not understand?" He countered, and Ashley huffed before crossing her arms.

"We're only on the run cause you keep killing people," She said as Andrew breathed deeply, knowing his sister is right and wrong in what she said.

"But that doesn't mean we can't go and eat nice every once and a while" She complained.

"Ashley, it was just last week that I took you to a restaurant, and you almost stuck a fork down our waitresses' throat." Andrew complained as Ashley looked at him with a surprise look.

"That hussy was undressing you with her eyes. You could have gotten sick!" Ashley explained. 'Only I can do that!' Is what she wanted to add as well.

"Yeah, well, what's to say you won't do that at another restaurant, Leyley?" Andrew questioned, and Leyley held a hand over her heart.

"I promise to be on my best behavior...scouts honor"

"You were never a scout, Ashley..." said Andrew as he got up from the bed.

"And for good reason, you'd probably murder the camp counselor if they tried to touch me," She said, and Andrew knew she was right, he probably murder anyone their that tried to take his leyley from him.

"Fuck it, why not we'll go to a Benny's Diner how about that?" Ashley cheered jumping on the bed like she was a child.

"Yes, food! Actual none vending machine food!" She said and Andrew just smiled before tossing a pillow at her head causing her to fall off the bed.

"Get dressed dumbass"

-

Andrew looked out the dinner window as Ashley was eating happily away at her meal.

Across the street from him was a bar, he was assuming it was some sort of biker bar with how many motorcycles there were.

Motorcycles...

Looking at the machines, Andrew minds began to slip into a memory of some simple times.

-

"Wow, Andy, I can't believe you blew some of your college money on this, Mom's going to be pissed," said Ashley as she walked around a nice black motorcycle.

"I make enough to put it back Ashley, sides since when did you care about what mom thinks?" Andrew said as he cleaned off the bike a little.

"I don't, just surprised is all...my big Andy thinks he's so cool now, huh? " Teased Ashley as Andrew sat on the bike, ignoring her.

"Gonna attract all those whores to aren't you? Gonna have them ride along with you, hmm?" Ashley said with a hint of jealousy in her voice.

"That's going to be hard to do with you around," He said to her.

"Wow...tell me how you really feel?"

"Oh, leyley if I did, I'm almost certain I'd be in jail," Andrew teased back causing Ashely to blush and look away, not at all liking how her brother can sometimes...sometimes push her buttons, suddenly the bike road to life as Andrew revved it a couple times.

Enjoying the noise it made.

Ashley shook her head, finding truth in the saying 'boys will be boys' and looking at Andrew's smiling face, butterflies began dancing in her stomach.

"Catch."

Ashley snapped out of her stupor as Andrew tossed a helmet into her direction.

"Wuh?"

"Come on, leyley, it will be just like old times on the bicycle we had remember?" She must have remembered.

Their folks got him a bicycle for his tenth birthday. Ashley didn't get a bicycle, just coloring books, so on her birthday, he stole pegs off the other kids' bike and attached it to his bike so that Ashley could always ride with him.

It was the best gift Ashley got on that day, being able to ride free with her big brother and it was a great gift for them both as It was one of the rare instances in their childhood where they could just enjoy being kids.

Andrew never forgot the big smile Ashley had that day of being able to ride on a motorcycle with him.

-

Andrew sighed, which caused Ashley to stop her rampant chewing, looking at Andrew. Ashley reached over with her fork and poked him.

"What's wrong, Andy?" She said with a mouthful, and Andrew bonked her on the head.

"I didn't need to see your mouthful," He said to her. Ashley giggled before swallowing.

"I'm sure you love seeing me swallow something else" She wiggled her eyebrows at him and Andrew almost snorted out his coffee he was drinking.

"Still...what is on your mind?" She asked, setting her fork down and taking a sip of her soda.

"Just reminiscent, I guess..." He confessed to her as he returned his gaze back to her.

"Ooh are you reminiscing about my fat fucking tits again?" this time Andrew choked on his coffee and began coughing and blushing as Ashley laughed causing the other occupants to look at the pair strangely.

Andrew tossed a piece of toast at his sister's head.

"Hey! That's perfectly good toast!"

-

The pair had finished their food without a hitch, and they swiftly left the diner after paying.

Now, it was time for a short walk back to the motel.

They proceeded past the bar where the group of bikers were, and as they proceeded to walk on by one biker in particular decided to try his luck.

"Hey sweetie, why don't you come over here and get the ride of a lifetime?" He said to her. Ashley just ignored him, giving him the middle finger, but Andrew, on the other hand, was silently fuming at how these bikers were looking and leering at his leyley...

"Lookie that boys, she's a real fiesty one, huh?" The leader said, earning a laugh from the rest of the gang. Andrew clenched his fist and gritted his teeth, Ashley sensing this took his arm and hugged it as they both walked past the biker.

"Hey, when you're done with the stooge, I'll ne waiting for you, Lil lady," said the leader as they Andrew and Ashley both rounded a corner out of sight.

-

Nothing was said as they made their way back to their motel, Ashley was a bit worried at seeing Andrew upset, but also...kinda liked how possessive he was.

Giving out a yawn, the food now giving her the sleepies.

"Get some rest, Ashley," Andrew said as he walked over and put a blanket over her.

"You...coming too...bed too?" She said, trying to stay awake, and Andrew just chuckled.

"After I clean up some stuff around the room, not really tired yet," He told her as Ashley violet eyes drooped more and more.

"Mmkay...love you," She said before finally she was out like a light.

"..." Andrew bent down before placing a kiss on her forehead as he looked at her calm expression.

He sat back down on the couch and waited a good whole hour to make sure Ashley was still asleep as he suddenly sat up from his couch, went into the kitchen, and procured his cleaver. Grabbing his jacket and stuffing the cleaver in his back pants pocket, he opened the door before stepping out into the darkness, giving one last look at Ashley before quietly closing the door.

-

"Man, did you see the tits on the dark-haired girl...what I would do that woman," said the sleazy biker as all his friends laughed and cheered him on.

"Alright, gang, I'm heading out. Don't cause too much of a ruckus," laughed the leader as he started his bike, the exhaust garbling loudly as the group cheered and said their goodbyes.

The biker drove for what was about five minutes when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw that same dude that was with that beautiful woman earlier leaving the diner.

That man was Andrew, and he was leaning against the wall next to a dark alley smoking a cigarette.

Pulling over to the curb, shutting off his bike and pocketing his keys in his black stained vest, he leaned on the same wall right next to Andrew.

"Hey buddy, so tell me, how's that hot piece of ass been treating you?" He asked Andrew said nothing as he smoked his cigarette.

"I'm sure she's a real freak in bed to ain't she" It took all of Andrew will power not to grab the man's throat and tear it out.

"Hey, I have an idea... Why not let me have a crack at her? I'll pay you for it, hmm?" He asked, and Andrew was inches away from slicing his throat.

"How much are you paying?" Andrew asked, hating himself for saying those words, but if everything worked out, then he would do what he needed to do.

"For a glorious pieace of ass like that, all the money that's in my pocket which is..." The man patted himself from pants pockets to vest pockets before finally procuring money.

"$777.77" He told him with a sick grin on his face, Andrew looked at the money as he looked like he was considering the offer.

"Let's talk about this more... discreetly," He said, making a motion to the dark alley as the sleazy biker grinned, thinking he was going to get his dick wet tonight.

Walking like he won the lottery, he entered into the alleyway, Andrew not too far behind as his green eyes glared balefully at him as he reached behind and grabbed his cleaver.

"Alright, let's dis -" he was cut off real quick as sharp steal found itself ingrained into his face, the biker could only gargle as Andrew gripped at the cleaver hard and ripped it from his face.

"As if someone like you will ever touch my leyley... see you in hell, " He said as he began relentlessly hitting the man's head with the cleaver over and over.

Andrew, finally out of his rage, looked at his work. He sighed, another body to his name. This one, though, was like that warden...another sleaze and one that he was happy to kill.

But now it was time to clean up. Luckily, he brought some gloves.

It took him less than a half hour to chop away at the body before throwing it into the dumpster.

Finally, it was time to just throw the clothes out, too, as he grabbed the bikers' vest, a key fell out and onto the floor. Inspecting it, he took a look at the end of the entrance of the alley to see the dead bikers motorcycle.

Andrew smiled.

-

Ashley awoke to the sound of the TV playing in the background. She looked at the time on the alarm clock.

10:00pm.

"Andrew?"

Silence.

Looking around the room, She called out again.

"Andrew!"

Nothing.

Panic began to set in as a million thoughts went through her head.

'Was he taken?'

'Was he killed?'

'Did some floozy seduce him?'

'Did he....leave me?'

And before she could answer any of those questions, she heard the loud rumbling a bike make its way into the parking lot of the motel as she suddenly realized that Andrew went out to go fight that biker for how he talked to her.

While she would be swooning over the fact that her Andy was fighting for her honor, she had realized that Andrew was one man, and he couldn't just take on a small gaggle of bikers and if one was here that meant...

"No! Don't think such thoughts... just go and interrogate this stupid biker and find out where your Andy is, " She said to herself, going under her bed, pulling out her revolver. She stormed the front door, ripping it open and aimed the gun at the biker.

"You better tell me where my fucking Andy is you bastard!" She shouted as the biker quickly held his hands up.

"Ashley what the fuck!?" Came the voice inside the helmet, Ashley was so close to pulling the trigger and blowing this fuckers brains out when suddenly the man took the helmet off revealing.

"Waaaaah Annnndy!?" said Ashley as she tossed the gun back inside before running up to him as Andrew caught her in a hug and spun her around.

"I'm not going to ask what the whole gun thing was," Andrew said to her as Ashley nuzzled her face into his chest, relishing I'm his warmth.

"I...I thought I lost you to those stupid bikers," Ashley mumbled, and Andrew shook his head.

"No, leyley, I wouldn't dare leave you." He told her in earnest as he suddenly stepped to the side.

"So... like it?" He asked her, and she looked at the bike and then back to him.

"How did you get this?" She asked, eyeing him suspiciously, and Andrew just whistled but was slapped on the shoulder.

"What it was Free nighty nine!" He said with a serious face, and Ashley just looked at him with an expression that said 'really?'.

"Okay, it was a generous donation," He said to her, putting a hand on his heart when he said that.

"Did you kill that man?" Ashley asked.

Andrew remained silent.

"Annnnnndyyyyy"

"Whaaaat! Since when were you the moral compass!" Complained Andrew much to Ashley's joy.

"I'm not, now you know how I feel when I have to deal with you"

"Oh go fuck yourself"

"Come fuck me yourself coward!"

Andrew just sputtered and blushed, not wanting to continue.

Ashley looked over the bike before sitting down on it.

"Very nice, hey, this reminds me of your old bike you had before our folks sold it off!" She told him as she started to reminisce about all the places Andrew had taken her to.

Andrew let her talk as he went behind her and pulled out another helmet.

"Hey Ash"

"Hmm?"

"Catch!"

Ashley caught the helmet and looked at Andrew who just smiled.

"What do you say, leyley? Shall we ride again like old times?"

Ashley smile was very bright even in the dark of night.

Starting up the bike, Ashely sat behind Andrew before straping on the helmet. She wrapped her arms around Andrew's chest.

Carefully and slowly, they both drove around the parking lot before Andrew finally decided to go onto the main road. Looking behind him, Ashley nodded to him, ready to go.

Putting throttle, the bike glided smoothly on the open pavement as the exhaust reverberated off the city walls.

Ashley laughed in happiness as she felt nostalgia and warmth over take her while also enjoying the freedom and closeness with the man she loved.

Andrew was content, regardless of his situation. As long as his Leyley was happy, nothing else mattered.

The two sailed into the darkness, free as can be.

[ahgasegotarmy116]

Just Us | Choi Yeonjun One Shot

Summary: Yeonjun wants you to notice him but you think you're just his Noona Pairing: Noona reader x Yeonjun f2l Word Count: 3.7k Warnings: No real warnings just cute needy flirty Yeonjun. a/n: Okay I'm so so sorry to my adorable anon that sent me this request a few weeks ago. Life has gotten hectic but I made this one a little longer as an apology :( I hope you like it! Also barely edited but I just wanted to get it out asap!

"Y/n, come over here, I want to show you something" Yeonjun says, calling out my name from across the room. We're at our friend's house just wasting the day away today, trying to stay out of the cold. "What's up?" I ask, sitting down next to him on the couch and looking at his phone screen. "There's a big winter festival coming up a couple towns over, look they have ice skating and holiday foods and even some vendors selling some of the cute figurines you like" he says flipping through the post and pointing out every little thing, hoping to entice me. 

"Oh wow that looks so cute! Hey guys look, Yeonjun found a cute festival for us to go to!" I say excited at the thought of all of us going together. "That looks so fun!" Kai says. "Let's for sure all go!" Beomgyu chimes in. "I'm down" Taehyun agrees. "Well if all of you are going I guess I've gotta come too" Soobin laughs. "Oh, um yeah let's all go" Yeonjun says, looking like he's lost all the enthusiasm he had moments ago. 

"Is everything alright?" I ask turning my attention back to him, leaving the excited chatter to the rest of the guys. "Yeah, no I'm fine don't worry about it" he says giving me a sideways smile. "I think I'm gonna head out guys" he says getting up from the couch and straightening out his clothes. "Wait really?" the guys ask and I look up at him confused. "Yeah I've got a final tomorrow so I've gotta get back to studying. "Oh I forgot about that! Would you mind if we studied together?" I ask looking up at him, now having his attention. "Sure" he replies and waits for me to grab my stuff. 

"You guys gonna be okay? It's coming down really hard out there" Soobin asks taking a look outside the window, seeing how much snow has fallen since we last checked. "We'll be fine don't worry. My dorm is just down the street so it'll only take us a few minutes to get there. You're okay if we study at my place right?" I ask looking up at him. "Oh I'm more than okay with that" he responds with a mischievous glint in his eye. "Okay..." I respond dragging out the last syllable not really understanding his response. 

"We'll see you later guys" I say after Yeonjun helped me put my coat on. "Let me take your bag" he says and takes it from me. "No Yeonjun that's heavy" I say trying to get ahold of the bag full of books I had just bought before I came here, not bothering to make an extra stop to drop them off at home. "And that's exactly why I should be carrying it. But if it makes you feel any better you could hold my hand to help guide me. It'll be difficult for me to make sure your books stay dry as well as making sure to watch my step" he says taking a hold of my hand after we walk out the door. 

"How does that even make sense?" I question, not really understanding his logic. "Do you want both me and your books to fall and get all wet from the snow?" he asks tilting his head to look at me. "Well, no" I say with my brows still scrunched together in confusion. "Then just hold my hand and lead the way" he says now opting to lace our fingers together instead of just holding it. I look up questioning him yet again. "So it's easier to hold onto" he says raising a brow at me and opts to take charge and head towards my dorm room with me now trailing behind him before he slows down a bit allowing me the opportunity to fall in step with him.

"So where should we start? Have you already studied a bit or are you starting off fresh?" I ask as I clear off some extra space on my desk for him to work on. "I've been looking at it off and on but I'm good to start wherever you want" he says sitting down next to me while also scooting a bit closer. He sees how I nonverbally question his proximity and laughs a bit at my slightly stiffened posture. "I left my textbook at home so..." he says trailing off looking at me apologetically. "Well I was the one who suggested studying here so that's okay" I say now understanding his motives and scooting the book over so we can share it. 

We study for a bit and I feel his place his arm around the back of my chair but decide not to mention it this time but a few minutes later he starts to lean closer and so I finally break off my sentence to scold him. "Are you even listening to me?" I ask turning to look at him, his face looking like a deer caught in the headlights. "Of course, it's just hard to see the fine print so I wanted to scoot in a bit closer" he says now purposefully cuddling in close and resting his chin on my shoulder. 

"Yeonjun you know I hate physical touch right?" I say feeling a bit uncomfortable at the suddenly cozy atmosphere created because of him. "But you don't hate it with me right? We're best friends, plus your room is freezing" he says now shivering a bit. "Really? I was thinking it was getting pretty warm in here" I say before he turns my computer chair around and leads me over to my bed. "Let's just relax for a while. We deserve a break" he says and brings my laptop over with us so we can, what I assume is watch a movie of some sort. 

"It's barely been 45 minutes" I say standing next to the bed with my arms crossed, not amused with his distractions, but he'll hear none of it. "Come on let's watch a Christmas movie together, we haven't gotten a chance to do that yet" he whines, scrolling through the list of movies they have. "We just watched a movie with the guys like two hours ago" I say raising an eyebrow at him, thinking he should probably get check for some sort of short term memory loss. 

"Yeah but we haven't gotten the chance to do it, with just the two of us. I want to watch a movie with my best friend, what's the harm in that?" he says pleading with me and giving me those puppy dog eyes that honestly I can hardly resist sometimes. "Fine, but just one!" I say setting the ground rules "We still need to make sure to get at least an hour or two of studying in, otherwise I'll just kick you out right now. Deal?" I question holding out my hand for him to shake. "Deal" he says and takes my hand, using it to pull me onto the bed with him and wraps his arm around me when I finally settle into place. 

"What are you doing?" I say sitting up to look at him properly. "What? I'm cold" he says, now confused with my behavior. "I have more blankets" I say standing up to walk towards the basket full of them and hand him one. "That's still not warm enough" he complains, he's not usually like this I think to myself so I decide to place the back of my hand on his forehead. "What are you doing?" he says laughing at my face scrunched in concentration for a moment. "Checking to see if you have a fever, but it looks like you're fine" I say. pulling my hand away, intending to grab my thermometer. 

"Where are you going" he whines, watching me walk over to the bathroom, dragging out the last syllable. "I'm going to take your temperature just in case you're actually sick and could possibly be contagious" I say, soon returning with said thermometer. "You sai-" he starts but I place it under his tongue before he tries to continue and he automatically closes him mouth around it, preventing the possibility of making him gag. 

"Put that under your tongue" I order, hoping to get a clear reading on the first try. "I kno-" "And stop talking or we'll have to do it again" I order and he quiets at that, hoping to get back to picking out a movie for us. Once the thermometer beeps I pull it out and it shows me that he's actually a few degrees colder than the typical 98.6. I turn it towards him to show him and he looks up at me with an almost triumphant gaze, "Told you I was cold" and he again ends up pulling me in by my wrist now causing me to fall into his chest. 

"Oops, my bad" he says before I can look back up at him, losing my patience more and more. I lean back intending to scold him but get surprised at how close he is to me, feeling a sudden intimate tension growing behind his eyes. "Y/n" he says in a low tone, his eyes flickering down to my lips for a second. "F-fine let's just watch a movie" I say instantly pulling back halfway through my sentence and take that opportunity to quickly sit next to him. 

He clears his throat and I glance over and see him offering to share the blanket with me and I just end up taking it, hoping to avoid any other conflicts. "You wanna watch this one?" he ask, selecting a random one that I don't really care to comment on, hoping we can just start the movie to dissolve any weirdness that was just created. He thankfully starts it off without another word and we both keep our eyes somewhat trained on the screen though out half of it, not really saying much before he starts to comment on how cheesy the romance is. 

"Oh come on, who still uses that stupid yawn trick to just put your arm around the girl. Like..." he say but trails off as he demonstrates it, letting out an exaggerated yawn and stretches his arms out and lands one right behind me, yet again holding me close to him. "Yeah it's pretty stupid" I say and wait for him to bring his arm back over to his side but he makes no moves to do so and simply goes back to watching the movie. 

"Yeonjun?" I question trying to get his attention. "Huh?" he lets out, barely sparing me a glance "Aren't you gonna?" I question motioning to the hand he's placed lightly on my shoulder. "What? It's comfortable" he says and pays no mind to how awkward I feel. I decide to ultimately just deal with it and focus on the movie as much as possible and I soon get lost in it, not noticing the fact that I start to lean into him a bit more, subconsciously feeling more comfortable being in his embrace.

As the movie wraps up I get a little emotional seeing how the characters ended up together after all that they went through to get there and Yeonjun starts to notice my sniffles. "Hey, are you okay?" he says now leaning forward and angling his face down a little bit to try and catch my gaze.

"Yeah" I say between the sniffles that have started to get a little worse. "Come here" he says and pulls me in for an embrace that I surprisingly don't hate this time. he ends up scooting us both down a bit so we're now fully laying down and I hide my face in his chest to avoid him seeing the tears. 

"You feeling a bit better?" he questions, continuing to rub my back. The times when I'm upset are when I don't really mind being held like this, and he's been there to comfort me a few times so this is somewhat normal for us. I nod my head but refuse to bring my face back up, knowing how swollen my eyes are gonna be. "Did something happen?" he questions, hoping to know what it really was that I was crying about. "Nothing really, school has just been really stressful these days" I say while trying to steady my breathing. 

"But you're one of the smartest people I know" he says, confused as to what might be bothering me. "Really? Then why is it that I've had to take a class that I was meant to complete in freshmen year three times? Like do you know how embarrassing that is?" I say, getting frustrated with myself. "That's a really hard class though" he says trying to make me feel a bit better.

"But you're a freshman and you're doing even better than I am" I say, embarrassed that as a Junior I'm having to ask him to study with me and explain things to me that I don't understand, which is a lot. "I like helping you though" he says and I decide to sit up now, feeling too upset to try to relax anymore. 

"But you shouldn't have to, I should've gotten this down already, It's required for my major and I have to pass it this time or it could push back my graduation date and-" "Noona" he interrupts, catching me off guard at how he's almost scolded me with what is meant to be a term of respect. "I thought I told you not to call me that" I say feeling a bit breathless, knowing how much that term affects me. "I don't care, I just know that that's what get's you to shut up for a bit so let me just say this. You are incredibly smart and strong and I respect you so much, and it makes me sad seeing how much you beat yourself up about every little thing. Plus I hate it when you cry, but you always look so pretty when you do" he says tucking a strand of hair behind my ear making my breath hitch. 

"I- what?" I say somehow flustered by his simple words. "I said, you look so pretty when you cry Noona" he says now bringing a hand up to caress my face and brushes away a tear. He takes that time to glance down at my lips again and I notice how close he's already gotten to me and I take in a sharp breath as he leans in closer but he stops right before our lips can touch. "I won't do it if you don't want me to" he whispers, warm breath fanning my face almost ghosting his lips over mine. I take a second to think and he says in place and waits for my move but as I decide to lean in a bit he leans back. 

"Words Noona" he says in a deeper voice, laced with a hint of dominance that catches me off guard. "I want you to" I reply softly and he takes that as a green light and leans in to kiss me before I have the chance to change my mind. It's nothing rushed or forceful but it's a kiss that full of longing, a kiss that feels like it should've happened long ago. We lock our lips together for what feels like only moments and before I can start to move my lips against his he pulls away. I lean in, almost chasing his lips which leaves him smiling against mine. 

"What are you doing?" I whisper, confused as to why he's stopped. "Just checking to see how much you want this" he says and before I have a chance to answer he connects our lips again, now moving his against mine, still not forceful but a bit deeper, showing a touch of urgency to keep going. He lies back down but makes it a point to keep his hand on the nape of my neck, pulling me back down with him, giving me the option to pull away when I want to. 

He does however trail his hand down my waist past my hip and brings one of my thighs over helping me straddle him which I surprisingly go along with leaving me to be the one wanting to deepen the kiss, me the one full of longing, longing for him.          

 "Hey y/n come here!" Beomgyu calls over to me, wanting me to come see the different wood carvings they have but before I'm able to leave I feel Yeonjun taking hold of my hand, again lacing our fingers together. "What are you doing?" I question, clearly having shown interest in joining Beomgyu. "Stay with me I want to show you the stall with the little glass figurines I pointed out to you before" he says dragging me along down the path. I look over at Beomgyu with an apologetic smile and follow Yeonjun. 

"You could've just showed me afterwards" I say shaking my head at his almost possessive nature. "We were already over here" he says, making excuses for his behavior but I follow him none the less, not wanting to give him an opportunity to pout. Once we do reach the stall though I am blown away by all the cute glass animals. I walk further into the stall and give a shallow bow to the stall owner and go up to their table to take a closer look. 

"These are beautiful" I say looking over them, taking an interest in the koi fish, seeing although an inanimate object how much life and movement was breathed into it. I take a look at the price and see that it's a little out of my price range and place it back looking to opt for a smaller version which I do but instead of a koi I go with a fox. I bow thanking the stall keeper and soon make my way onto the next one with Yeonjun trailing behind me trying to catch up. 

"What took you so long?" I question watching him jog up to me. "I got stuck looking at some of the knives down there" he explains. "You could've stopped me so we could look together" I say tilting my head, confused by his actions. "No it's okay it looked like you had your eye on something else so I didn't want to interrupt you" I look down at the bag he's now carrying looking somewhat suspicious. "That's a pretty big box for a knife" I comment, narrowing my eyes at him, knowing he probably got me that koi fish, thinking I wouldn't notice. "It came with the supplies to clean it as well" he says and quickly grabs my hand and leads us further along to look at the other venders making a loop around until we reach the last stall, the one that Beomgyu had called me over to. 

"Took you long enough" he says, standing up from a nearby bench. "Yeonjun wanted to check out a few more stalls over there, sorry" I say before walking closer to the stall with Yeonjun just a step behind me still having a hold on my hand. "Oh" I hear Beomgyu say. "Huh?" I respond to his sudden voice of confusion. "Oh nothing I just remembered I was going to meet Taehyun by the food stalls. You guys want anything?" he asks making eye contact with the both of us. "Nah that's okay we'll go later" Yeonjun answers for the both of us which I decide to go along with. "Alright" he says making an interesting face at Yeonjun before scurrying off to meet up with Taehyun. 

"You've been acting weird with all of the guys today" I say turning to face him fully. "What do you mean?" he questions still watching Beomgyu to almost make sure that he's actually leaving. "I mean you've been trying to keep me away from them all day. I have hardly spoken a word to any of them" I say waiting for an explanation. "You wanna know why?" he says making purposeful eye contact with me to which I just nod my head and keep that same eye contact but suddenly for a different reason. He leans down a bit and brings his face closer to mine like he had done a few days ago in my room and I feel like all the air has been sucked out of my lungs. 

"Because this was supposed to be a date before you invited everyone else to come" he whispers, glancing down at my lips for only a second before bringing them back to my eyes, regaining that shared stare. "Oh..." I trail off, now realizing why he reacted the way that he did that day. "Yeah, so you're gonna stick by me Noona because I don't want you to go around flirting with them right in front of me anymore" he says now coming in closer and nudging his nose against mine, not really kissing me but close enough to be able to. "I don't flirt with them" I say scrunching my eyebrows at him in defense. 

"Sure, let's say that" he says and places a quick kiss on my lips that's gone before I can even register it, leaving me having to rush after him as he walks away so I don't get lost. "We're not dating you know" I say pouting when I reach him. "I know" he says and continues to make his way towards the food stalls. "So you can't keep kissing me like we are" I say confused as to why I should have to explain it to him then. "It's practice" he says plainly. "Practice for what?" I say even more puzzled. 

"For when I ask you to be my girlfriend" he says and runs away now really making me run after him. "Choi Yeonjun get back here" and all that can be heard is his mischievous laughter and for some reason I can't help but laugh right along with him, nervous for when that day might come. 

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[toomuchracket]

YESYESYESSSS i would like to go insane w you, thank you very much <3

he’s such a dilf isn’t he

GOD yeah. maybe baba has been really good at school and she's completed all her swimming lessons and idk generally has just been a really cool kid, and matty's like to you "we should get her a present"; you're like "yes. and you know, i think it's time she had her own guitar. i know she can use yours, but babe she's tiny lol she needs one she can actually play without hurting her hand", and matty's eyes just light up like "YES genius idea, sweetheart". so he brings it up to your daughter one saturday evening when they're washing the dishes, and she's so excited she nearly smashes a plate lmfao - the next morning, she barrels into your bedroom at half 7 and jumps on matty like "dad! it's guitar day! wake up!", and matty's like "right yeah ok give me a minute go and get some cereal". as soon as she's out of the room he snuggles back into you like "regretting my decision a bit now", and you giggle like "nah, you'll have the best day with her, you know that". and matty's like "yeah. what are you up to today?", and you're like "hmmm idk. maybe a little pampering day? a bubble bath sounds good"; matty kisses your neck like "mmm, sad i'll not get to see you in it", and you're like "matthew come on get your head out of the gutter", and matty's like "an impossible task when you have a wife as hot as i do" lol. and yeah, you do indulge him for a minute and make out, until your daughter shouts from the kitchen "dad! stop kissing mum and get up!" lmao - once you're both up, matty's like "how did you know we were kissing?" and she's like "because you're ALWAYS kissing", and matty shrugs like "ok yeah fair. we're just in love, though, munchkin, you'll understand when you're older", and baba winces like "no thanks" (you're like "that's my girl!").

anyway, the two of them head into london to go guitar shopping - baba runs full pelt down the street towards the shop, matty lowkey out of breath trying to keep up with her lmao (but he's grinning the whole time at how hype she is). she gets a little bit shy and overwhelmed once she's actually in though, clinging to matty's leg quite adorably as the staff (who know matty fairly well because he's a regular lmfao) ask how they can help - matty ruffles her hair and encourages her like "go on, sweetheart, tell them what you're looking for", and she clears her throat and says "i'd like a 3/4 size acoustic, please. but i don't need a beginner one cos i've been playing dad's so i'm not a beginner" (her pride is evident in the last bit, and matty has to fight to not get emotional about his talented baby lol). and the guy from the shop is really good - he leads her and matty to the correct section, talking them through some of the features of various guitars (matty crouches to her level and patiently explains a bit more about some of them too) and helping her narrow down what exactly she's looking for. he takes one down from the wall for her to try, and as she sits and automatically tests each string to see if it's tuned right the guy from the shop turns to matty like "wow, she really does know her stuff. and i didn't want to bring it out immediately and stereotype her, but we do have that exact guitar in rose pink through the back, if she'd be interested..." - matty's like "oh my god she'd love that lol. yeah, please bring it through", and as the guy goes to get it matty goes and sits with his daughter, who's placidly strumming chords with a little concentrated look on her face. he's like "will you play something for me? anything you want. just to see if you like the feel of it", and she nods and starts strumming something he soon recognises as the only exception by paramore, and he hums along to it a little bit emotionally (his baby!) - he's like "when did you learn that?", and she shrugs like "a couple of weeks ago. mum likes that song, so when i was at uncle adam's i asked if he knew the chords and he wrote them down for me. haven't played it for her yet though", and matty honest to god gets a bit teary like "that's really sweet of you, munchkin, i think mum'll love that" and gives her a little hug. anyway, the shop guy comes back with a guitar case like "how are you getting on with that one?", and your daughter's like "i like it a lot i think i want to get it", and the guy's like "well, before you take it home with you, i thought you might want to see the other colour we have it in..." - he hands your daughter the case to open, and matty gets his phone out to film just as she unzips it and GASPS like "it's pink?! dad, look! they have it in pink!" in total awe. matty giggles like "is this the one for you?", and before he's even finished speaking she's nodding frantically like "yes please can i get it please please please" - she looks so like you all excited that he wouldn't be able to resist her even if he hadn't agreed to buy her a guitar, bless her. so yeah, the guitar is bought (with a shoulder strap to match) and lovingly carried home by your daughter, but not before matty snaps a pic of her grinning as she holds it and sends it into the band fam gc (everyone is Overcome by how cute she is) and makes it his lockscreen. and maybe a week or so later, she gets another guitar-related gift from matty - a set of picks with her name on them, just like the ones the boys use onstage <3

[stacywaters]

Just Pretend (BEOMGYU) CH4 - The Group Project

Prom went way better than I thought it would. Don't get me wrong, I was stoked to be going with Beomgyu. But knowing that the whole time, he was doing me a 'favor'? I thought it would be super awkward. Especially when I realized that neither of us had tickets to the dance, I thought I blew it right then. But I didn't.

It's harder now. It was easy to have a crush on him when I figured that was all it would be, and maybe that's the same. However, now I know so much more about him. And I feel like there's a connection between us, like he's not as unreachable as he used to seem to me.

And when I said that I might understand him, he said maybe!!! Maybe! And that he had a good time! But... that doesn't mean that it'll mean something after that. He could've just been responding.

Despite that, I don't want to think that way. As I walk into the classroom and sit at my desk, I find myself getting excited for class. I grab my notebook and pencil case, thinking what my color scheme should be for today's notes. Well, it's raining today, maybe blues? I grab a dark blue pen and match it with a light blue highlighter. And maybe... a bright red! Red like the vibrantly colored umbrellas and raincoats. I title my page and add the date. Mesmerized by the notebook in front of me, I'm pulled out of my trance the second a certain someone walks in.

It's Beomgyu. And he looks perfect. He always does to me. His long hair is fluffed up as he saunters into the room. What do I do? Should I wave, or is that too much? Should I pretend I don't see him? Is that rude??

He looks over and meets my eyes. He brightly grins and waves. My heart skips a beat, eyes widening. I give a short wave back and stare down at the paper facing me.

Why do you have to be so awkward, Y/N! You're losing your chance!

----------

When the bell rings, I stroll over to his desk. I hesitate, but we're friends now, right?

"Hey" I greet.

"Hi" he grins, "how was your weekend?"

"Mine was good! What about you?"

He starts, "Mine was-"

"How's the new couple doing?" Yeonjun says a bit too loudly.

But it's fine, because most of the class had already left, right?

...Wrong.

I turned in horror as the rest of our classmates stared from the door. I guess I took for granted how small our class was. They all were much more invested than I feel they should be.

"YOU TWO ARE DATING?!" Someone yelled.

"Um, uh.." Beomgyu stutters.

Yeonjun interjects, "Yeah, they went to prom together. Did none of you know that?"

As he's talking, he turns to us. His face gets confused as he whispers, "What's wrong? Are you two trying to keep it low key or something?"

I grimace as Beomgyu finally answers the other students, "Um, yes. This is my uh, girlfriend, Y/N" The students that remain in the class seemed shocked, but most of them fled the classroom quickly.

Once they'd all left, Yeonjun asks, "What's up with you guys?"

"We aren't actually dating," I answer, "Beomgyu was just pretending to be my prom date, 'cause my mom wanted me to go, and.. yeah"

"Ah, I'm sorry.." Yeonjun apologizes, "you're a super bad liar though, Beomgyu"

He laughs as Beomgyu glares at him, I look down at the ground in guilt, "I'm really sorry Beomgyu. You're in this mess because of me. I'll help you fix it"

"Oh, It's not your fault! It's his," he glares at Yeonjun, "besides, I don't mind. We're friends, right?"

I nod. Friends...

He puts his arm around my shoulders and grins, "C'mon, girlfriend, we gotta get to our next class!"

I, however, am a fantastic liar. Because as we laugh together about how "we're just friends", my heart tears itself apart.

------

Rain pours from the sky, dripping down the window panes and onto pedestrians passing. A selection of patterned umbrellas shower the streets. I watch from the table on the second floor as people walk past.

It was our second class of the day now, history. And I'm feeling even more tired than this morning when I woke. I can't seem to focus, my mind cringing at the former scene and how my peers now know of my crush on Beomgyu, in a way. And yet, he still doesn't.

"-and you'll be choosing your own groups for the project"

What did the teacher say?? Choosing groups? This is the worst part of my classes. If I could just do the project on my own, that'd be easier. Now, I have to awkwardly glance at acquaintances and hope that someone partners up with me. If not, we'll have to do the whole "everyone without a partner raise your hand!" And I've had just about enough attention from my classmates today.

(BEOMGYU POV)

I turn to my friends, "should we all group up together?"

They aren't listening, they're talking about something else. Without me. It might be nice to work with someone else for a change, instead of having to nag them to do the work and feel like such an uncool friend.

"Oh! You all weren't in our first period, were you? Everyone knows about Beomgyu's girlfriend now, it was hilarious" Yeonjun laughs.

Huening Kai just gives him a blank stare, "Beomgyu has a girlfriend?"

Yeonjun stops, "yeah, they went to prom together? Y/N?"

Huening gasps, "YOU AND Y/N ARE DATING?!"

"It's not-" I begin.

"Shouldn't you work with her then?" Soobin questions.

"Yeah, yeah! You can get closer with your girlfriend" Yeonjun teases.

It feels like they're trying to leave me out again, like they dont want me in their group. I attempt to join back in, "but, aren't we always a group?"

"Well, yeah, but the groups can only have four people, so it just makes sense for you to work with her" Taehyun reasons.

Before I know it, they've pushed me in front of Y/N. And now we've made eye contact, and I'm making a fool out of myself in front of a pretty girl.

"H-hi"

"Hey" she says.

"Can uh, can we work together?"

"Sure!" She replies.

The class settles as everyone sits down with their group. However, the teacher notices our group of two and questions, "what's going on here? I said groups of four"

"W-well sir, we are going to work as a group of two" I stutter.

"It's gonna be a lot more work as just a pair, but if that's what you want"

I gulp as I turn to look at Y/N. She's turned away from me, staring out the window. I might be wrong, but I can't help but notice a faint blush on her face.

[cosmicanger]

“ppl talk abt the george floyd uprisings as failing i just dont think thats true. energy from them went into the revitalized labor movement and the clarity from them have been informing the pro-palestine movement, ppl need to see this as a long process rather than being defeatist.”

“Yeah but the goal was defunding the cops and police funding increased. I'm not knocking energy and joy, but at some point, morale has to create a material result. We can't just "long process" ourselves forever. Believing in ourselves enough to go back to the drawing board and start figuring out how to do more is the opposite of defeatism. I marched with Occupy Boston. I marched after Michael Brown was killed too. I understand that *in theory* it is a long game. What incremental leftists don't understand is that the 21st century does not have to be like the 20th. The whole idea that long games work is based on 1) the civil rights movement, 2) smaller policies that marching has more consistently worked for. In both cases the results came from convincing people in power, which involved A LOT more than just marching. The electoral organization, the militant wings, the ability to overcome resistance from the right, none of those pieces are in place for big stuff because the country is structurally different now. We have a lot more people, A LOT fewer at the top, and multiple info bubbles. The "long game" argument is based on the idea that the majority will eventually win out, but the country is now structured in such a way that that's simply not true. Billionaires & politicians have figured out how to game the system to keep us constantly in a state of cope. This is why I've been doing threads on how they're playing us with Palestine. They do not care one bit that we're shutting down the streets. There does not eventually have to be a stop to the genocide just because the majority wants it. Those are 20th century assumptions. I understand that this is scary because it throws out the model of activism that incremental leftists have become entrenched in. But I expect that, as leftists, you should be able to face that fear head on. Otherwise you all are just street party Democrats. Also, finding new models of activism doesn't mean violence. There's more tactics in the world than marches, symbolic shutdowns, and violence. I'm begging you all to stop being so complacent about the long game and start thinking bigger. On Palestine, the past month has gone from "If we threaten not to vote for Biden, the Democrats will call off the genocide" to "Maybe if we get everyone in the streets?" to "Well, it's a long game, Palestine will be free eventually." Seasoned activists on here pivoted very smoothly from "The people united can never be divided" to "Well, look, boycotts take a year to really work, and movements are a long game." THEN WHY ARE WE USING THESE TACTICS, WHEN GAZANS MIGHT MASS STARVE IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS?????? If you see a short term problem and funnel everyone into long term tactics that OBVIOUSLY will not work in the scheduled timeframe, then as far as I'm concerned you are just as complicit as our entire government.”

[stormcried]

CRACKS KNUCKLES TIME TO LORE DUMP. (i blame bravo SAKDSHF)

Okay, so we're going to start off with the fact that Drake lives on the streets, yeah? Drake ACTUALLY and PURPOSEFULLY avoids going to find another family because Drake HASN'T moved on from his grief or his childhood. He pushes it down as hard as he can to say "yeah my childhood was kinda shit lol". There's a reason for that.

Drake lives on the streets that way he does is because he actively avoids dragging other people into his mess. There are two reasons. A. He believes he's so fucked in the head and unable to control his urges to do the things that the older kids do in the Misfits (drink, do drugs / weed, smoke, get into arguments / fights) and to him? That's just a normal thing he believes older kids do, and he copies that to copy their coping mechanisms. You have to remember that Drake living with The Misfits are a bunch of runaways, orphans and outcasts in the late 80's / beginning of the 90's, so, stealing was a LOT easier than it is in modern times.

SECONDLY; Drake believes he's too fucked in the head and isn't lovable because he pushes people away for a reason so they either don't get killed because of him or because they don't want them to become a target of the bad people that hasn't been seen in the nearly three years he's lived on the streets. He's just not a good kid and he believes people could do better than him if they want to take in Drake. Drake STILL grieves and hates himself for supposedly being the one to finish off his parents murder, so he still is scared he'll end up killing someone just out of trying to protect himself.

Drake actively steals from other Misfits members at this point because he doesn't even see them as family or allies, the only ones he leaves alone are the ones he knows are younger than him (mainly the kids under 11/10), otherwise his actions are fair game for the Misfits which end up either A. getting into arguments of who stole from who, or B. Drake is your main culprit because he got caught a couple times with the hand down the cookie jar so to speak. So, they immediately point the finger and ofc Drake denies, denies, denies.

So; his actions warrant him to believe he's not exactly 'top kid model' for people to adopt him. Plus, he's gotten to the point now where Benjamin will actively start kicking Drake out of the Misfits as a punishment (not that he gives a shit anymore since he's found the abandoned office building). Another issue that he has is that he's got NO respect for authority since said authority in the past had abused him and made him hate the system. Because of the actions of the Orphanage when he was just nine / ten, he hates ANY and ALL adults that he comes into contact with. Muses that Drake interacts with that are adults who aren't quite close to Drake yet get this treatment of "your my enemy, fuck off." type of deal. Adults HURT him. They took his family away from him. He gets notified three weeks later in the hospital that he's going to be sent to a foster home and he's barely had time to grieve his loss.

Once sent to this facility, the adults there (again the fucked-up system) don't give him time to grieve much less understand WHAT was wrong with him and why he believed he killed his mama and dad. His innocence DIED at ten years old when he spent the first time alone on his tenth birthday crying his eyes out when he realizes no one is going to help or save him. No matter how many times he prayed, no matter what 'supernatural' being is out there, nothing came to help him which is why the Misfits when they came when they did was his ONLY answer and he craved people who were just like him in a way, only to find out WHOOPS it's still a fucked up system and the older teenagers there are fucked in the head with their own issues and they take it out mainly on everyone there, so now drake hates teenagers and adults believing they're all the same.

If someone WANTS to try and take Drake in, they're going to have to understand he's lived almost THREE years in the Misfits where bad behavior was essentially never punished, so Drake doesn't give a shit what he does and what he says. He's a bad mouthed and disrespectful kid whose only coping mechanism is his underage tendencies of again drinking and smoking (he'll try to hide it sometimes from your muse if he feels like it's going to get taken away) and his 'best friend', a stuffed dragon toy that he stole from a kid in the orphanage a couple years back and just like his scarf he is DEATHLY defensive of that thing.

TLDR since I know I rambled a lot: Drake got fucked over by the system and adults and the Misfits haven't given him any positive room for growth so he says and does what he wants MAINLY without consequences because he'll hurt people who try to stop him too. He's shanked a few adults with his powers in the past for stopping him from surviving and stealing. So everyone is essentially his enemy now and if by some miracle you have Drake become docile towards your muse, he WILL be clingy and overprotective of the ONE good thing he's got in the life of shit he's lived.

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Cass Cain #11

Batman: Gotham City Secret Files #1, "Night Games" Story by Scott Peterson & Kelley Puckett Written by Scott Peterson, Pencils by Paul Ryan

Now that's an interesting lineup. Paul Ryan is a different artist, but Scott Peterson and Kelley Puckett is the initial story team behind Cass's solo title - only usually Kelley Puckett delivers the actual script, and here it's Peterson instead. I wonder if I'll be able to notice a difference? Probably not, it's been too long since I read the Batgirl title - I've been holding off on going back to it to try and preserve some fresh thoughts for this re-read.

Story opens on this cute little fight scene where Cass takes down a group of street toughs in the time it takes for the bottle one of them drops to hit the ground. As I often call out when it happens, I like that the artist draws her face through the mask in the first panel there, but what I like less is that I don't particularly recognize that face as Cass? Just doesn't look like her facial features? But this is comics books arts, so different artists draw characters differently, can't get too annoyed about that.

The gratuitous butt shots, though, that I will get annoyed at if it keeps up. Come on, Ryan.

Agh! Selina! What happened to your waist! Your poor organs!

Yeesh. I won't complain about this all issue, and it's not like so bad I'm submitting posts to escher girls or anything, but yeah.

Anyway, we do have the premise, though. a pal-around team up with Selina and Cass. Which will doubtless have Selina trying to pull some tricksy business, and Cass seeing right through her, since it's not like Peterson and Puckett are going to forget how her body reading works. Should be fun.

There's something very DCAU about how Ryan draws the city. I don't dislike it, but I feel like a similarly cartoony aesthetic to the characters would fit in better with the surroundings.

So Selina's tailing some guy, and when a group of muggers start moving in on him she and Cass step in before he notices.

I like the big smile on Cass there. Again, she likes being Batgirl. She's having fun. It's an important glimpse into the kid she really is underneath the guilt and self loathing that provides an essential counterpoint to her angst, and it's an extra twist in the knife too the angst, in a way that I don't want to get into now because I'm saving that bit for... when does that dream sequence happen?

... holy shit, Batgirl #18? That's way later than I remembered it happening? I thought that was in the very earliest days! A year and a half into her comic? I don't know if I can wait that long to talk about that. We might have to have an out of order interlude to bring it up early.

Not today, though. For now we're sticking to this rare Batgirl/Catwoman team up. Selina's not used to fighting as a team and isn't sure exactly how to do it, but Cass doesn't really need the help, so Selina just leans back and throws in the occasional whip crack when she's bored. It's a fun little sequence.

Cass is still a brand new character, one with her own title starting at issue one the same month as this book was released, so the writers are very clearly having Selina talk her up here, but it works in character since playful complimentary banter to put people at east and get them to expose weaknesses is just part of Catwoman's whole deal.

And I like the way Cass is arching a brow there in the first panel, & shrugging in the second. No words, but very expressive. The face feels a bit more like her too, here.

There's a couple pages of cutaway to Barbara and Bruce wondering what Cass is up to. We get confirmation of her age here - 17. Though I'm not entirely sure how they know that, as I'm not sure that's something Cass would know herself. Sadly there's some sort of issue with the next page in the scan I'm working from, but it mentions that despite not knowing how to speak, Cassandra seems to understand more or less what people are saying to her, and Bruce mentions that he hasn't quite figured out how that works yet. He'll have figured it out by Batgirl #1, but it's a mystery to be hinted at in this book.

Meanwhile, Selina and Cass track the guy they've been following to a meetup with a buyer for whatever it is he's got in his briefcase. The buyer turns out to be the Penguin, and item to be sold...

Well, the new construction in Gotham is mostly down to Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor. If documents detailed hidden surveillance that might be Lex, but hidden entrances feels more like Bruce taking advantage of the rebuilding effort to make his little appearing/disappearing trick a bit easier.

Obviously these would be valuable for a thief, like the Penguin, or Catwoman herself, but Selina views it as cheating, and opts to destroy the blueprints instead.

Thankfully she wasn't actually pulling anything particularly nefarious here. Thankfully for Selina, I mean. She can hold her own in a fight, but Cass, at least this version of Cass, is supposed to be in the Richard Dragon / Bronze Tiger / Lady Shiva tier for DC comics martial artists, and that's just not what Catwoman's about.

Catwoman's curiosity is piqued, though, so after saying goodbye she doubles back to follow this new Batgirl home and find out more about her.

But much to Selina's suprise, Cass knows she's following and cuts her off. Selina thinks there's no way she could have been heard, and Cass must have known she'd follow somehow, again hinting at but not outright stating Cass's body reading gimmick.

...

And that was that. This book's an anthology issue, with different stories by different creative teams, but this is the only one with Cass in it. It was a nice, lighthearted change of pace from the last Cass story. Kind of short, not too much going on, but we do get a bit of Cass having fun and a look at some of her books gimmicks - not just hinting at her body reading ability, but also the gimmick of interspersing Cass's adventures with Bruce and Barbara talking about her. Not essential reading by any stretch, but not bad.

Next time, at long last, we finally get to Cassandra Cain's solo book. Will it be as good as I remember right from the start? I'm eager to find out.

[machifuwa]

Autumn Cafeteria | Episode 3

Tsukasa: In summary, we are working as Volunteers to help this place.

Yuuta: I see, so that's why you're all here.

But I'm a bit disappointed that even my seniors used to come here. I thought it was a hideout that only I knew of because there are never many customers no matter when I come.

Shu: I used to think the same way before. Because there are few people, it is calm and comfortable.

However, when I put myself in the position of the store, I realized that the number of customers is proportional to its profit.

Even though it's a holiday, this situation is simply terrible... It's not a viable business at all.

Koga: Even though you're just volunteers, seems like you guys still have time to talk to usーcutomers.

I mean, what about work? Is it okay for all three of you to be relaxed like this?

Shu: It's a bit of a bummer, but it's not a problem. As of now, you two are our only customers.

Yuuta: Oh, that's true. But there was another couple there just now.

Tsumugi: By the time I had brought the food to you two, they had already paid the bill and left afterwards.

Even though it's pretty busy during lunch time. It's still a lonely sight~.

Koga: …So, how's that workin' out for you? Do you guys know how to solve this, huh?

Yuuta: Why is Oogami-senpai acting like he's in charge?

Koga: I didn't mean to meddle, but I'm pretty sure you're also curious about all this, ain'tcha?

Tsumugi: We've been looking for ways to improve the café while we work, but we haven't thought of any good ideas so far.

The menu has a wide variety of items, the prices and tastes are perfect, and the customer satisfaction is high.

The only thing wrong is the location. If this store could be moved to the front street with just a "bang," it would be an immediate solution.

Tsukasa: As expected, it's difficult. We don't have any more land left to move this place…

Tsumugi: No no, I'm just kidding. Don't take it seriously.

Shu: What are you doing, teasing a serious child, Aoba?

Tsumugi: I was trying to make the situation more relaxed~. After all, we won't gain anything staying still like this.

Yuuta: Is that so? I can't believe they're closing, even though I found a great hideout. I'd hate to see it go down the drain without being able to do anything about it...

I don't have any good ideas. But can I help you?

Shu: Umu, you are very much welcome. This place means a lot to me too.

Koga: Dammit. This reminds me of "Special Music Zone".

Seems like the number of closed shops and collapsed buildings increased due to the influence of ES over there, too.

Yuuta: So, this means Oogami-senpai will be joining us.

Koga: Haa? Why would I?

Yuuta: Eh, am I wrong? In the spring, when I was making a fuss about helping the live music clubs in the "Special Music Zone".

"I'll help you," you offered. So I was expecting that you would cooperate with me this time again.

Koga: Ah…Well, since I've stuck my head in so far, I can't just ignore it, huh?

Yuuta: Really? Fufu, Oogami-senpai is very caring, isn't he?

Koga: Shut up. Don't be comfortable just cuz there are more people. It's all meaningless if you don't have any ideas.

Tsumugi: Even if there are volunteers like us, there are no customers and this place is deserted in the first place.

We're still having a lot of free time, and now that we've increased to five people, we're going to have a lot more...

Aah, yes. If you guys don't mind, Yuuta-kun, Koga-kunーand Suou-kun, can you three inspect the site?

Tsukasa: Inspect?

Tsumugi: If we all stay stuck here, we'll just end up wasting time, so I think it might be a good idea for you to visit other stores to gain some insight.

I want you to leave this place to me and Shu-kun.

Tsukasa: Hah...I understand. Oogami-senpai, Yuuta-kun. I'm looking forward to working with you.

Yuuta: Yeah, same here! What are you going to wear? Are you just going as you are?

Tsukasa: No, I'm going to go change. Could you give me some time?

Koga: Alright. We'll wait for you outside.

Yuuta: See you later~!

Alrighty then, we're off for a visit!

Tsumugi: Take care~.

Shu: ...It's such a pity. I had no idea I'll have to stay with you, out of all people.

Tsumugi: I'm simply worried about leaving it to only Shu-kun and Suou-kun, who have little customer service experience.

Even if you went with them, will you be able to blend with them?

Shu: Excuse me. I'm more used to collective action than I was before. In Paris, I'm always surrounded by free people who pretend to be artists.

Tsumugi: Oh~. You must be a good influence there, then.

But still, Paris, huh... When I was still a student, I remember making the "French Special Corner", even though I haven't set foot in the country myself.

If I come visit sometime, will you show me around?

Shu: Non. I don't want to.

Tsumugi: Even if Natsume-kun and Sora-kun came along?

Shu: ………

...I never came to Paris to become a tourist guide.

However, it'll be troublesome if they go missing, so I'll simply lend a hand.

Tsumugi; Fufu, thank you very much.

Shu: Somehow, I feel like I'm being tricked into this.

Tsumugi: You are kindhearted.

Shu: Hm. You saying that won't make me feel proud at all.

Tsumugi: Aw, that's pretty harsh~♪

Prev | Masterlist | Next

Translated by mars | Proofread by machi

[lovesongbracket]

Reminder: Vote based on the song, not the artist or specific recording! The tracks referenced are the original artist, aside from a few rare cases where a cover is the most widely known.

Lyrics, videos, info, and notable covers under the cut. (Spotify playlist available in pinned post)

She Keeps Me Warm

Written By: Mary Lambert

Artist: Mary Lambert

Released: 2013

This song is an extension of her collaboration with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis on “Same Love.” Where “Same Love” advocated a message of equality for same-sex couples, this song celebrates the love and attraction within same-sex relationships. It is a pure love song meant for all people, intending not to exploit or provide shock value, but to paint a graceful and powerful romantic picture. Written by Lambert, the song utilizes the familiar chorus and coda of “Same Love,” while employing a string-laden production and pop structure.

[Verse 1] She says I smell like safety and home I named both of her eyes Forever and Please Don't Go I could be your morning sunrise all the time, all the time, yeah This could be good, this could be good [Chorus] And I can't change, even if I tried Even if I wanted to And I can't change, even if I tried Even if I wanted to My love, my love, my love, my love She keeps me warm, she keeps me warm [Verse 2] What's your middle name? Do you hate your job? Do you fall in love too easily? What's your favorite word? You like kissing girls? Can I call you baby? [Pre-Chorus] She says that people stare Cause we look so good together Yeah, yeah, yeah [Chorus] And I can't change, even if I tried Even if I wanted to And I can't change, even if I tried Even if I wanted to My love, my love, my love, my love She keeps me warm, she keeps me warm [Outro] I'm not crying on Sundays, I'm not crying on Sundays I'm not crying on Sundays, I'm not crying on Sundays Love is patient, love is kind Love is patient, love is kind My love, my love, my love, my love She keeps me warm, she keeps me warm

Heaven Is a Place on Earth

Written By: Ellen Shipley & Rick Nowels

Artist: Belinda Carlisle

Released: 1987

Re-recording included: 2017

“Heaven Is a Place on Earth” was the lead single from Belinda Carlisle’s second album, Heaven on Earth. The single was released in September 1987, shortly before the album, and it reached the top of the charts in at least nine countries. The song features Thomas Dolby on keyboards, and among the backing singers were Michelle Phillips (of the Mamas and the Papas) and the song’s writers, Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley. When Carlisle reprised the song for her 2017 album Wilder Shores, she slowed the tempo and sang only with piano accompaniment.

[Chorus] Ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth? Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth They say in Heaven love comes first We'll make Heaven a place on Earth Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth [Verse 1] When the night falls down I wait for you and you come around And the world's alive With the sound of kids on the street outside [Pre-Chorus] When you walk into the room You pull me close and we start to move And we're spinning with the stars above And you lift me up in a wave of love [Chorus] Ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth? Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth They say in Heaven love comes first We'll make Heaven a place on Earth Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth [Verse 2] When I feel alone I reach for you and you bring me home When I'm lost at sea I hear your voice and it carries me [Pre-Chorus] In this world, we're just beginning To understand the miracle of living Baby, I was afraid before But I'm not afraid anymore [Chorus] Ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth? Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth They say in Heaven love comes first We'll make Heaven a place on Earth Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth [Interlude] (Heaven) (Heaven) (Heaven) [Bridge] In this world, we're just beginning To understand the miracle of living Baby, I was afraid before But I'm not afraid anymore [Break] (Heaven) [Chorus] Ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth? Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth They say in Heaven love comes first We'll make Heaven a place on Earth Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth (Ooh) Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth (Ooh) Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth (Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth)

[the-fiction-witch]

Super Life

Media IRL X Superheros

Character Thomas Brodie Sangster

Couple Thomas X Reader

Rating Sweet + Sad

Concept Life after Superhero Ban

I stood outside the tall thick green gates watching the waves of children scurrying out into the arms of parents and guardians. I waited patiently doing my best to stay unphased. Not that people were ever rude or anything at least not to my face. People would always be thankful, kind and smile to me but often muttered and mumbled when I turned away. Until I spotted her the sweet beautiful blonde pigtails bouncing as she skipped down the path her pink lunch pail in hand, "mama!" She smiled immediately hugging my leg as tight as possible

"Hi sweetheart. Did you have a good day?" 

"Yeah”

"Good come on then if we're quick we'll catch daddy" I smiled taking her to the car buckling her up and heading away from the school. I did my best just driving through the busy streets getting further and further from the pleasant city, escaping past the sweet suburbia and onto the driveway of our little backwater house. Almost as soon as I stopped the car she bolted inside making me laugh a little as I gathered her things and followed her inside our little house and immediately saw the most sweet of sights.

"Daddy!"

"There you are, my sweet baby girl" he Cooes 

Thomas stood on the living room rug In Front of the log burner picking little theia resting her on his hip as he pulled her as close as he could giving her kisses and telling her how beautiful she was and how much he loves her as he does every time he sees her 

"How was your day?"

"We learnt about the Romans"

"Ohhh very nice that was always daddy's favorite lesson too" he laughed, setting her down "did you miss me?"

"Of course I missed you daddy" she giggled

"Come on then let's fix you a nice dinner before daddy goes okay" 

"Okay" she giggled running to her room to put her things away 

"Hi" he smiled giving my lips a peck 

"Hi. How was your day?"

"Fine" he shrugs "you remember about tonight right?" 

"Yes babysitters booked she'll be over once dinners done" I explained heading to the kitchen to start on dinner

"Good," he nods, following me "you okay?'

"Ummm" I nod 

"Y/n?"

"Fine Thomas. Just… stuff" 

"You sure you're okay?"

"Fine" I smiled 

"Okay" he smiled giving my head a kiss as he cuddled me close as I cooked "I love you"

"I love you too" 

"I missed you"

"Missed you more. Come on then if your going to be attached to my hip least you can do is help" I told him hitting him with my hip

"Course" he smiled, giving my cheek a kiss, we worked on dinner together, all of us sat up at the table having our food Thomas and theia chatting it up like always. Once dinner was done the babysitter arrived so we got everything settled and sorted, grabbing our coats "I know I know I’m sorry sweetheart we'll play all day tomorrow promise. You know daddy has to go to his meetings" 

"I know, goodnight daddy”

"Goodnight sweetheart" he Cooes giving her a kiss 

"Goodnight mummy" she smiled hugging me too

"Goodnight theia go on now be a good girl" I told her "Back at eleven maybe later any problems call"

"I will" the babysitter smiled so we locked up and headed out to the car I drove as I know He’ll be nervous driving ourselves all the way across town in silence until he spoke up 

“Any news yet?”

“Yes. Got the call today”

“And?”

“She has a place.”

“Thank fuck I was starting to worry” 

“Me too. But she has a place paperwork comes though next week”

“You think she’ll be happy?”

“No. But it's what's best for her. She’s a big girl she’ll understand the risks” 

“God knows we didn’t have that luxury” 

“Yeah, I would have killed for it”

“Me too. You can Imagine what I was like stuck in class unsure what was happening to me or how to control it. I’d walk down the corridor and black out all the lights” he laughs making me chuckle too

“I kinda loved it. Everyone always gave me their phones to charge” 

“What do you think it’ll be like for her?”

“I don’t know. Could be me. Could be you. Could be both. Could be neither.”

“I hope neither. For her sake”

“Yeah me too” I nodded as I parked up outside the familiar dull grey building gathering my handbag and keys 

“Y/n?”

“Yes thomas?”

“Thank you” 

“Well it's important-”

“I know, But really. I appreciate it.”

“Your welcome” I smiled, giving him a kiss “You know I love you thomas. More than anything”

“I love you too. More than the world” he cooes 

“If this is what we have to do to live a somewhat normal life. Then its what we have to do”

“Okay. Come on They’ll panic if I’m late” he says 

We each climbed out the car and I took his arm letting him lead me inside on the surface a small grey office lobby with nothing much going on but if you knew the right door, One we passed though the door it was busy bustling with people going back and forth to deal with all the matters delt with by the SHPS, given this was such an important place many people were here tonight but we walked though trying to keep out of the way having to walk on the darker side of most things until reaching a small desk. 

“Scan your card Room 7” she snapped without even looking up from her magazine 

Thomas seemed nervous but got the small card from his wallet that he was now forced to carry everywhere scanning it which allowed us in though the doors so we headed down to room 7 a small open room with chairs laid out in a large circle, a table at the back with coffee and a few small snacks. The moment we got inside I made sure to hold thomas’ hand tightly as we got coffee and found a corner to lingerie in as others did too.

“This everyone?” I asked as quiet as I could 

“No, few more yet.” 

“You okay?”

“Yeah. always get a bit… funny coming here”

“I know” I smiled giving his cheek a kiss noticing he was flipping his card around in his hand for a second really looking at it and all the horrible things it meant. The small card the same sort of size as a driving license, the card an off white with red banner that caught the light making the red unavoidable His name, his picture, his abilities written across it, this card now a permanent part of our lives and it had affected so much of it. Were we could live, the jobs we could have, The card meant one thing to people if they ever saw it, that he was dangerous. Even if I knew my thomas would never hurt a fly, atleast not nowadays. But still he had to carry it everywhere, his privileges revoked if he did something wrong, A sign to all those who understood that he couldn’t be trusted. with large letters across the back ‘VR’ They meant almost nothing as they had been their for years but they gave him privileges others didn’t receive. I did my best to take his mind off it all “Who’s the twitchy guy sitting down already?” I whispered 

“Mitch Jacbson. Once the Electric Rat” He explained in a whisper 

“Really? I thought he was dead.”

“So does everyone every two weeks” he chuckled 

“The girl in the green?”

“Ahh that's Lillian Litwick. Used to be The gardeness” “Ooohhh… I thought she was against all this?”

“She is. But custody deal with her kids”

“Fair enough. What about the guy with like twelve sandwiches?”

“Berent Polov.”

“Ohh god. Gusher?”

“Yep”

“Ohh my god. Has he gained weight?”

“Yes. Not vomiting on half the city once a week will do that to you”

“I guess” I giggled 

“Okay everyone if we’d all like to come and pick a seat we can begin” The Staff Guy said as he came in I gave thomas’ hand a squeeze as we headed to the circle sitting down I made sure I moved my chair a little closer so I could still holding arm at least while he flipped his card over and over in his hand “Well it’s lovely to see so many turn out for family week” He explained glancing around the room to see how many had visitors with them “How about we Go around and say who we have with us this week? Echoer Lets start with you” he turned to the man sat beside him in the circle 

“Uhh okay, I uhh I was once Echoer and this is my sister Lisa.” 

“Lovely, How are you feeling Miss lisa?”

“Uhhh frankly confused I’m not sure why I’m here”

“Uhh okay. Moving on what about you Gardeness?”

“Hey, Gardeness. This is my cunt of an exhusband”

“I can go if you want me too lillian?” he snapped back at her��

“Do what you want I was told to bring you I did you wanna fuck off thats your problem” she yelled 

“Okay okay let's keep the circle a positive place” the staff man said continuing to go letting everyone introduce there guests until it got to us and thomas didn’t want to speak “You going to grace us with some words this week lightbreaker?”

“Please don’t call me that” he pleaded

“You know the rules as well as I do,”

“Fine, I was once lightbreaker. And I brought my lovely wife” he cooes holding my hand 

“How are you feeling being here then?”

“Good, happy to help out if I can” I smiled squeezing his hand tightly 

“I know you” A voice spoke up I turned and saw a familiar face “You’re Electa? Aren’t you?” He smirked at us

“I was. Once” I nodded trying not to mention it given who i was surrounded by and he just laughed like crazy 

“Electa married lightbreaker? Guess you did have a bit of the dark side in ya. Even if it was only lightbreakers cock”

“Enough Widower!” Thomas shouted at him causing every light in the room to go dark immediately I pulled him into my arms holding him close 

“It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay.” I muttered letting him hug me tightly until the lights returned 

“I’m. so so sorry.”

“It's alright” The staff nodded “Out.” he demandred to the widower 

“But my-”

“Out! You can return next week if your attitude is fixed” 

The widower seemed angry, marching out angrily so everyone returned to the meeting, going over exercises worksheets and all the usual stuff. Until we finished up the meaning, meaning they could all scan their cards and have them updated that they attended the meeting this week and the staff guy handed out the small paper bags. As soon as Thomas got his we headed out to the car.

“Well that went better than I thought it would” I smiled as we sat in the car

“Yeah, it could have been worse,” he sighed, “Sorry.”

“Its okay, thank you very much for letting me come” I smiled giving him a kiss “And we’re all good for another two weeks.”

“Yeah at least its over with now” he says 

“How long do you have of the program anyway?”

“Uhh another year,” he sighed

“Well atleast one more week over with” I smiled starting the car up “It’s for baby girl.”

“Yeah for baby girl for theia” he says “Can we get ice cream?” 

“Of course we can get ice cream” I smiled, we drove home and got some ice cream on the way back sending the babysitter home as I sat down putting the tv on as thomas checked on theia “How is she?”

“Sleeping like an angel” he says coming and sitting beside me 

“Good, How are you feeling?” I asked 

“Like I do every meeting. Like utter shit”

“I know. I have to admit I thought it would be more productive then that”

“Thats more productive then most weeks”

“How do you not wanna kill everyone in there”

“Ohh I do” he sighed “still its better then the alternative” 

“True. Sometimes I wonder it if was all easier before”

“Ohh god it was y/n. It was way easier before. But… this is for the best. Or so they keep saying. I admit its overboard and some of its shit but its the only choice we have”

“I know. Come on lets get to bed” I told him 

He nodded and we locked up out little house and got ready for bed “Goodnight y/n”

“Goodnight thomas. Sleep well”

“You too” he cooes giving me a little kiss before he clicked off his light and got settled to sleep, I sat up a little while longer with my book as I almost always did nowadays, I waited till he was asleep and then put my book away and clicked off the light. I smiled widely as always seeing him there laid in the covers his skin slightly glowing, his hair glowing bright enough to make shadows on the walls. I always loved to see him this way, the only way I could ever see him like this now was when he’d sleep, when he had no control of it anymore but I just found it so beautiful stroking my hand across his cheek as I sat watching him sleep I found it impossible to escape my memories of the time before this all changed. 

Believe it or not there was a time for this city, where people flew across the sky, where those of us who were different were treated like gods. When I was young it was amazing to sit and watch the epic fights between hero and villain across the city, Those blessed with Superhuman abilities would usually choose a side A hero or a villain depending on what they wanted out of life, some hero mantles had been upheld by families for generations. But their identities always kept secret from  the media, the government and of course the public you could have been best friends with the top hero of the city and never even know. But these Abilities would often be passed down though families but some were utter coincidence. Luckily superhuman abilities never show until puberty, I remember mine like it was yesterday sat in an IT class in more pain then I had ever felt as my period ripped though my body, and suddenly Zap! I received a shock from the computer I sat at, I looked and saw as I got closer a trail of almost blue lightning would move from my fingers to the Pc as if I was taking or controlling the electricity that went though it. I quickly bolted for the bathrooms and faked being ill, my father picked me up and I explained to him what was happening. He sat me down told me it was normal and that I like him had the abilities of Electricity. I could move it, control it, create it, and manipulate almost anything with an electronic current. But told me I had to hide my powers from the rest of the world, Unless I used them to protect. 

And given the amount of those in our city that had abilities they used for evil I found myself using my powers a lot. And I became a Hero known across the city as Electa. I fought many a villain in my life time but none more so than lightbreaker, we were strange to say the least becoming nemesis very early in our lives given we were only seventeen, He had the powers of light the ability to take light from anything that used it hold it in his body and repurpose it into attacks and blinding sparks we had quite a few fights in our time but all it took was one long ride up to the police station in the back of an armored Villain transporter, it was so long because well another hero and villain were having a fight leaving us stuck on the freeway together and after a while, we started talking. About our lives. Our powers. Our families. Found that we had alot in common and from then On… I didn’t see lightbreake as a bad guy anymore, just… someone in a rough place due to his powers. Slowly but surely our nemesis relationship became a couple relationship only really seeing each other to hang out and maybe go for ice cream until he told me everything. His real name, his real face, and So did I. from then on we met up properly for dates and days out and we fell utterly in love with one another he even gave up his villain life to be with me, and just two weeks after my twenty first birthday we were married. 

But our wedding is not what anyone remembers about that day. 

All anyone remembers is… The bomb. 

We had just got married rushing out of the chapel on Westland street hand in hand about to climb into the car to head to our reception when suddenly the ground shook like an earthquake and this wave of screams erupted as a shockwave went out across the city luckily we were not injured but at our reception we saw the news.

A villain known as The bomber had caused an explosion in the city sewers during his fight with Strongman but this was no normal explosion it was a BTA bomb capable of incapacitating any superhuman with five miles and killing any human within ten. It broke though the ground sending shockwaves across the city, thousands dead superhuman and not the damage was insane ripping though office’, houses, schools, roads. We were lucky only a a mile out from being dust ourselves. Understandably there was uproar, complains, government meetings and within two weeks our lives were changed forever. 

Every Superhuman Hero or villain now had to be government registered with there powers, abilities, costume, name and Real identity. All of us had to go into a system protected by government security. Hero’s and villains all were banned from using our powers, from fighting or even just wearing our costumes in public. We all had to carry cards with our information on proving what we were. We couldn’t have certain jobs or live in certain places creating almost superhero reservations in cities and towns. And the school was created For any new children who got powers, or the children of those who did to be kept locked away trained to never use their powers and to hide them from the world. 

But Villains had it worse. If you had ever so much as robbed a bank you were put into the system as a villain given a different card and labeled as Dangerous no matter what your powers were. You were put under surveillance, many had their children taken away from them by the government and put into care. And You were forced into two groups VR and IR Villain rehabilitation or Incarceration Rehabilitation. The main difference is your willingness. If you were not willing to go through the rehab to be labeled as a ‘reformed villain’ then you’d be forcefully incarcerated. You’d be drugged, imprisoned and left to rot until you either willing enter rehab or you died. But VR wasn’t peaceful either you still were unable to be given jobs, unable to live outside of villain specific areas, forced to carry an identification card that would tell everyone your crimes and that you were dangerous meaning many places would turn you away, hotels, restaurants, banks and such like. Some places would even put out signs ‘no villains’ or ‘no Superhumans’ at all, you'd be looked own on like scum, all while the SuperHuman Protection Service or SHPS would revoke any privileges if you so much as coughed wrong, they could take your house, your money, your children if they wanted to. Those in the program would have to attend meetings every two weeks and complete worksheets and such like, like a therapy or training course and at the end of it all they’d be labled as reformed giving them a better, more peaceful life. Even if the SHPS could remove it if ever they saw fit. 

Thomas being a villain once, choose to go into VR as the other was not really an option. But he had been in the program for four years and our lives were no better but he had to stay even though he hated it. In the first year he argued with the staff at his meeting saying how it was all pointless, stupid busy work to prove he wasn’t dangerous, that his word that he’d given it up should be enough. That he had given villainy up for me and for our newborn daughter. And the SHPS didn’t think to kindly of that. 

They came to our house broke anything they could and took Theia away while she was no more then two months old. Leaving us utterly distraught. We did get her back of course five months later, after a thousand meetings and forms even if it meant he had to take ‘medication’ or so they called it. They were drugs given out at the end of each meeting the low level of what the I’m prisoned villains get, it dulls their powers, makes them sleepy, and unable to fight back and unlikely to argue. And they were purposely extremely addictive meaning anyone given them more then once would forever crave them. Their way of keeping dangerous villains in check to get them hooked on hardcore drugs that you could only get by attending your meetings and sessions, if you didn’t go or you didn’t do as you were told the wouldn’t give you your paper bag, so no medication, thomas had been stripped off it a couple of times and it was horrible, he could barely move, barely think straight, unable to even do the simplest of things like eat or use the bathroom until he got the medication again. 

As horrible as it all was we had little choice, as to live a somewhat normal life we had to bend to their will and their decisions.