#like yeah it's an important message but also we are easily scared

[thereareeyesinsidethetrees]

ae don't see the point in engaging in a fandom if you don't even really like the characters

like, yeah, folks get ford wrong, and they get mabel wrong too. but they also get stan wrong. like. a lot? just as much as they get ford wrong, even? is. is there a chance the only reason folks talk about ford's mischaracterization more is because he's made out to seem worse than he is and stan is made out to be flawless and people like flawlessness and perfection and more attracted to characters deemed as having no negative traits because they feel better projecting themselves onto said character

anyway, ae can't say anything on dipper cause ae don't even really know his character that well (was always more interested in the others unfortunately) so ae have no clue if like. folks are mischaracterizing the main character too

but the point is: you have a main cast of like four characters. maybe five, if you count bill. and three out of those four (maybe four out of those five, considering the. what would we call that. 'wet kitten'-ifing of bill, especially recently), a large chunk of the fandom violently mischaracterizes. do you get us here? like, it's one thing to throw some headcanons into the ring, tweak some bits of a character, etc.

what the fandom does with ford and stan is not that. ford is not ford, and stan is certainly not stan. and mabel? we all know how she's treated

aey don't want to say like. all the folks here are doing it for this reason. but ae'm willing to bet this is due to 1. not interacting with the actual material for a long while and 2. not being able to let go of the series due to nostalgia

and ae get that, ae do. it's hard to let things go that are important to you. but you're not the only one. gravity falls praises weirdness, the differences in beings. lots of folks are attached to the show due to this, especially neurodivergent or just generally outcast folks. it says you will find your place, where you will find community and safety. it says that things get messy, but they can always get better

1: erasing stan's mistakes and flaws and making him a perfect can-do-no-wrong was coerced into every bad thing he's ever done character fucks that up (and the stan in our head personally likes to have his gremlin shenanigans acknowledged). it means stan didn't have to work for his happy ending, he didn't have to better himself, he just had to sit and wait for ford to drop it in his lap. this means it is not equal. it's not fair to ford, if he's the only one that had to put effort into it (especially after the thirty years of being in a completely alien place??). this also becomes an issue when you take into account that a large amount of people still give stan all his canonical trauma. you are not your trauma, you are not responsible for it, but you do need to work with it. it can't get better by itself, you need to help it get to that point. and this is speaking as someone with ptsd. it will always be there, but you can ease the pain. thus, treating stan in this way yields the opposite meaning: he doesn't struggle with it. he doesn't make mistakes. he never lashes out because of the suffering as commonly occurs. he doesn't have to try. making him messy makes him real, and making him real means he can be used as a device to help those hurting to heal. his experiences are relatable for a lot: and thus making him have to work for his good ending instead of just waiting for it to fall into his hold is important. if he can do it, you can, too! you don't get that if he doesn't have to try

2: ford is a very neurodivergent-coded character. this does not mean he is canonically neurodivergent; it does, however, mean that when you demonize him, make his character worse than it is, it is very difficult to avoid spewing out ableism. saying x trait of ford is bad for y reason means you are bound to fall into a pit trap of hurting beings who don't deserve it. most folks think of autism, of course, but this also applies to a lot of other things. personality disorders, paranoia and anxiety, ocd, and a whole host of other things folks have no control over. he has a lot of hurt he was never able to process properly, and that adds to him being a messy character. this is good! he works hard to pry his life from his abuser, and he works even harder to better himself and get his happy ending with his family! and yet. the fandom does not acknowledge any of that. he is demonized for things stan does, too, and ae have never such horrific victim blaming as in the fandom. again, this hurts people. he is not irredeemable, and he is not responsible for what his manipulative abuser did to him. implying or outright saying he is harms beings that are trying to heal from similar experiences. furthermore: the emphasis on him being arrogant, having an ego. stop that. if he has a little bit of arrogance to him, so what? that's normal, that doesn't make him a bad guy. especially when folks dig so hard to find any scraps that prove this apparent trait of his. everything is scrutinized. learning to love yourself is important, and gaining a little bit of an ego is part of that. building confidence and pride in your accomplishments is good! being able to genuinely say you're cool or amazing or smart or beautiful or strong is good! building all of this up is an important part of healing, especially from trauma, and demonizing ford for it is actively working against this

pointing these things out isn't hating on stan or defending ford, either. the characters have personalities, and it's better in the end to let them keep them, as messy as they may be. stan has flaws, ford does too. but they're good people, they have good intentions, and they work to better themselves and repair relationships. they're not all the way there, yet, but they will be. you just won't get to see it (that's what fics and fan art and headcanons and discussions are for)

this turned out so much longer than ae meant it to be, but like. idk, needed to get our thoughts out ae guess

[astrologylunadream]

You and Your FS as Parents 🍼🩷✨️ (Pick a card/Tarot love reading)

Hey it's Lunadream🤭💫 This will be a cute reading on how you and your future spouse would be like as parents!🏠🩷 hope you find your message💌

Notice: Only take what resonates because the most important thing is your own judgement!♡ If anything doesn't resonate, don't worry! It's not your message right now <3 (Entertainment purpose only. All rights reserved)

Now, shall we begin~? ^w^ Think of the you and your future spouse, and pick whichever pile that fits the energy you're feeling~🧸✨️

Pile 1🩷

Pile 2☀️

Pile 3🔮

Pile 4🍑

Take your time and choose carefully with the heart~♡

On to the readings —> 💕

Pile 1🩷

Sign energy: Facial expression, Family, Irreplaceable, Crave, Bedroom, 8th house, Fire, Saturn, South node, Lilith,♉️🪚💉🧛‍♀️

👤Your future spouse's energy: They're hot😭 Okay lol your future spouse won the genetic lottery or something, they are irresistibly attractive and a very sensual partner for my pile 1's💋💞 Magnetic physical presence, Their facial expressions are intimidating yet passionate all at the same time!🥰 There is 8th house influence in their chart, Fire energy, Saturn or 10th house aspects, also asteroid Lilith!! Taurus is also a sign for them. I think your future spouse is deeply attracted to you and understands you better than anyone else, they would take a bullet for you.😢🖤 Family oriented and they have a hot voice. Your future spouse will be very intense, but they provide more than anyone could. This is not a spicy reading but there is so many messages coming through in this reading and it's already getting hot in here.🥲 You may have been set on having a family with this person pretty early on or there is like this energetic pull towards them? They make you feel like a vampire I'm hearing, like you just have a unquenchable thirst for them😳 Yeah this is a very strong attraction between you and this person, You might feel like you can't find anyone like them. Since this is about your future spouse, I'll just say they are something else in the bedroom.🔞 Insanely seductive, I don't think you could resist them easily lol. Something about this spouse feels dangerous, maybe even forbidden.💋❤️‍🔥 Someone's family may be little scared at first. I mean, your future spouse has a bad boy/girl vibe to them, I don't know why that message came out so strongly for their energy. This could be someone from your past, or their face feels so familiar to you.🤭 I think my pile 1's get sucked into their energy, I mean I don't blame you they are a very hot spouse pile 1.😌

🍼You and Them as Parents: Fan, Enchanting, Melody, Front, Yandere, Sun, 9th house, Pluto, 6th house, Libra, 🤎👢🪽😬

Wow I think it's interesting how Melody came out and this pile is represented by my melody from sanrio~ How cute🩷 So you and your future spouse are very adorable as parents, you guys would try to be responsible and teach your kids to have a broader understanding of the world.🌏🧭 I think it would feel like a fairytale. Your spouse would be very loving with you and your kids, doing their best to be stable and reliable for the entire home. Your home would look clean and cutesy. They are very possessive, so I think they would not let anyone hurt you or your kids🫂💕 I can see they will be sometimes a little jealous or possessive over you if anyone is trying to flirt with you, you might have some people you don't know well or exes romantically interested in you, trying to talk to you. And your future spouse will get suspicious of them for a good reason too they don't let any creeps around my pile 1! I can hear them say "Ahem this is my wife/husband and we have beautiful children, aren't they adorable?"💗 Haha your spouse is very cute and funny. They are set on making sure their loved ones aren't taken advantage of. I am getting, you and your future spouse may try to appear as more well organized parents than you actually are, worried what others will think of you.🥺 Actually, you may have people on the outside who are very jealous of your family life. Like again exes or anyone who is romantically obsessed with you or your spouse will not like how things are going.🔭👀 But I can see, your spouse will protect you and show them a lesson🤗💞 You guys may look angelic like the "perfect parents" and you appear very much in love. You guys may move to a different country/place to raise your kids.✈️🏡 One or both of you may feel anxious as parents, but I think your spouse will be the one to reassure you and keep you calm about it.💗 Your future spouse is honestly so in love with you that they would make sure you are always happy, and your kids. And Your kids may look up to your spouse as an inspiring figure, also they would see both of you as a good example and kind loving parents to them. You would be such good parents pile 1!🤭💫

Thank you my pile 1's! If you feel this resonated, you may tap the heart to claim this message!💌

I hope you enjoyed your reading! ʚ(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )ɞ If you did be sure to let me know pile 1 with the pink heart emoji~🩷 Thanks for scrolling through, Hugs hugs hugs!! See you in the next reading🏠💞

Pile 2☀️

Sign energy: Target, Family, 8th house, Handsome, Society, 10th house, 7th house, Earth, Scorpio, Water,😴🪤🤨😭

👤Your future spouse's energy: There are some similarities to pile 1's spouse in this pile! They are of course very attractive, it seems like the cards are really focusing on that.😂 Wow even Handsome came out so they are definitely very goodlooking~ (no matter gender) They have a classy wealthy vibe, like they could come from a rich or famous family.💳💲🏤 I just realized that family has come out in every pile how fitting, their parents might not like you at first or others view you with envy or dislike for whatever reason??🙄🥺 Oh you know what, your future spouse is a somebody, that's why. Definitely giving high status, your future spouse may feel a little "trapped" from their public image or reputation they have. Signs for them are Scorpio, Libra, Capricorn, Earth and water energy, 8th and 7th house placements or Water in 10th house. This spouse of yours is desired by many, and I even think those people may want to get them in bed😡 But your spouse just wants a loving and deep relationship with someone they can trust😭💔 People do not respect their boundaries, they think they own them just because they're pretty/handsome?? I don't think you need to worry about saving them though, they are a very powerful individual, capable of a lot.✊️🏆 They might not have the best relationship with their parents, or at least not an emotionally fulfilling one. They could have had strict or pretentious parents, honestly I don't think your future spouse really had anyone who really cared for them🥺🌧 They're viewed as attractive and definitely have pressure put on them to mantain status or wealth, even certain beliefs. They are very successful, also feared and respected by others.💼🏆 I think they are emotional inside, but they haven't ever openly expressed that. Wow pile 2 your future spouse is most likely rich.

🍼You and Them as Parents: Patience, Ex lover, 4th house, Dirty, Attempt, Gemini, 9th house, Chiron, Leo, South node, 🍵😔🖕🥂

Ohhh okay so you and your spouse would also have a reputation to keep, I think it's because of their status. I can see them trying very hard to keep you and your kids safe or even out of the public eye (it depends on how known this spouse is🫢). You both would be very patient and understanding as parents, you may even have twins!👥️💞 I can see overseas travel or moving to a different country to raise your kids, this could be because of stalkers or rumors getting spread.🗣💬 If it's serious some people might literally try to f*ck up your spouse's reputation, and this might trigger your spouse as they would feel betrayed or slandered. But I can't see that happening too much because your spouse would have it under control. I can see you two will try to do things the old fashioned way, very traditional as parents.🕰💕 You both would help your kids with their homework together, You might even decide to bring your kids to a foreign school.🛫🏫 I am getting europe for some, There may be dirt on you two as parents, lies or rumors but your spouse will literally just leave take you with them if that occurs.💬✋️ Now for others in this pile, I don't see much bad reputation but instead you might be very well known or even famous as parents. People from your past will try desperately to get in with you and your future spouse, like wanting to go out for a drink or go to expensive parties but you guys will kinda be like really🤨? Lol, you're just so cute together, really classy and luxurious vibes you guys may very well be rich and dress so nicely, you are the classy parents. You two will always put your family and children first, you will nurture and protect them so well💗🏠 You guys may live in a penthouse or mansion either big city or suburbs, Married life with your spouse will be amazing, for only some I'm seeing old exes or fans trying to ruin you or your spouse reputation or trying to sleep with one of you?? Like what, there is definitely jealousy because you guys are giving ✨️power couple✨️ Take what resonates of course, but you guys are protected, and your spouse will love you and your kids very much. Also I'll just say your spouse would be glad to finally make time for the bedroom with you, they would bring wine and all😏

Thank you my pile 2's! If you feel this resonated, you may tap the heart to claim this message!💌

I hope you enjoyed your reading! ʚ(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )ɞ If you did be sure to let me know pile 2 with the sunshine emoji~☀️ Thanks for scrolling through, Hugs hugs hugs!! See you in the next reading🏠🩷

Pile 3🔮

Sign energy: Tight, Situation, Wish, Adorable, Perspective, South node, Chiron, Lilith, 11th house, Jupiter,🆕️🎨🚺⏰️

👤Your future spouse's energy: I like the energy of this one, very cute.💗 Your future spouse has a bright innocence about them, You might have known them from online or been friends with them before they are your spouse.💍 Your future spouse has Aquarius or Sagittarius placements, Jupiter placements, and Lilith asteroid presence! For some this is a person from your past, for others it's someone new it depends here.⏳️ Your future spouse has been wishing to meet the one, and they feel like time has been going too slow.🕗😩 They're quite creative and maybe for some an artist? Only for some of you, I think they just have great ideas, and their point of view if different than most people.👀 They're more optimistic and hopeful, they could be the type to look over red flags or fall for the bad girl/boy.💜 They might want to heal you or make you feel better, always bringing positivity. Your future spouse is also really fun, they might decide the best thing to do is something completely random!🚀 They are spontaneous and like your best friend, also they find your moods amusing. They like to shift perspectives or share their own, very lighthearted person.🌟💖 There is a spark in their eyes, like a childlike wonder still. Which makes me curious how they will be with you as parents!🥰 Already it seems they're very high vibes and excited for life. I can hear them telling you good news all the time, haha like there is never bad new with them.🗞💫 For some this person might have certain emotional wounds regarding females that they don't pay attention to or realize. Also your future spouse gets out of every bad situation like?? Lol they're very lucky🤗🌈

🍼You and Them as Parents: Role, Short, Beloved, Sweet talk, Magic, Moon, Scorpio, Leo, Earth, Lilith,🥴👩‍🎤🫵🎶

Wow so this is interesting, It feels like you two would be very proud of eachother as parents.✨️ You would feel very good about it, also complimenting eachother on literally everything😭🩷 Like your spouse will be so proud of you and vice versa, you raise up eachothers ego lol it's so cute. As parents, you both would talk so softly and sweet to your kids and love them so much💞 The mother/feminine here will be a very good role model to the kids, they will be well loved and inspired by her. Also your singing? The kids will love it and your spouse will be blushing whenever they hear you sing to the kids🥰💓 You have a beautiful voice, whether it's speaking or humming. Something about you feels so enchanting, some of my pile 3's are giving mommy witch vibes😉 You may be into tarot, astrology, magic any of that stuff and it's so cute your future spouse loves that about you. It makes you so hot in their eyes🔥😭 Now a little more on that lol there is a lot of attraction from your spouse lol, they would be unable to hide it. One of you may be the shorter parent here, while the other is taller.💕 Your spouse would honestly be so turned on by your comforting nature, they might would even be a little jealous of your time. But they would think you are so good as a parent that they wouldn't mind that taking away your time together, later of course they would want to let you know how much they want you🫢🔞 I think you two would still have a life in the bedroom, it may be less but your spouse will definitely make it worthwhile and make sure you're getting what you deserve. Honestly they're really horny over you😳❤️‍🔥 Your spouse is very much that whenever they see you. You two would sweet talk eachother all the time, because you love eachother so much. Your spouse would just be so prideful about you, "like look at my beautiful wife/husband"💍💐 You make such sweet parents to your kids, and partners to eachother! Also something cute, I think you both will keep the magic going well for your kids, so they would believe in fairytales because of you both🥺🧸💞 I can see you both embracing your childhood again too when it comes to holidays and playing with your kids, very bright and caring, you are such good parents!🤭💗

Thank you my pile 3's! If you feel this resonated, you may tap the heart to claim this message!💌

I hope you enjoyed your reading! ʚ(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )ɞ If you did be sure to let me know pile 3 with the crystal ball emoji~🔮 Thanks for scrolling through, Hugs hugs hugs!! See you in the next reading🏠🩷

Pile 4🍑

Sign energy: Playful, Prove, 3rd house, Entertainment, Surface, Libra, Fire, Uranus, Capricorn, 8th house,🕳🏙🎠🪨

👤Your future spouse's energy: Your spouse seems to be very successful in their career✨️👏 They could be in the entertainment industry or own a company. They talk a lot if ideas, big ones.💡💸 They are playful on the surface but there is a deep and intense side to them. They could be trying to make it big to prove to you. Your future spouse is very unique and an individual to say the least, they could live in a big city.🏙🧳🚖 I think they're trying to turn their ideas into something solid, money making. They're real ambitous, I'm hearing "won't give up" yeah they don't. Possible placements are Gemini, Libra, Aquarius, all air signs lol, Capricorn, Scorpio, Fire energy. They could very likely have their uranus or 3rd house in a fire sign, Capricorn over the 8th, Venus in fire sign any of those could be their placements.💫 Your future spouse is fun and energetic, they could be a wannabe rapper or they like to listen to rap/hip hop.🎧😎 They are committed to their future and willing to do a lot to make it work. Either they are already rich and successful or they are trying to make it there. Business vibes, I'm hearing "top of the charts" could be a business person or entertainer.💼💲📈 When you meet this person, you may have ended a relationship or your future spouse wants to prove to you that you can start over or love isn't what you thought it was.💐💓 They are materialistic, might buy you a penthouse or something lol that energy. I can see they want to be your provider, like you are their sugar baby. They might seem like a player when you first meet them, but they are the type that is deeply committed in their relationship with their girl/boy.🌹💍✔️ Your future spouse is funny and charismatic, extroverted vibes. I think they are good at networking and getting their name out there.⭐️

🍼You and Them as Parents: Fantasize, Behind, Stress, Judgement, Highlight, Sun, 9th house, Taurus, Fire, Venus,🦇🪽🤐🪪

I'll be honest here for some it kinda looks like there is a lot of stress from you guys as parents, one of you might be behind in college or food may be an issue here😳 Maybe one of you doesn't know how to cook well, that could be it. It really kind of seems like your spouse might be kind of trying to hold on to their fantasies of big achievements still, this could be a little bit of selfishness coming from their part.🤨 Your spouse may have a hard time adjusting their focus from themselves and their career/big dreams and goals and focus on their new family life and kids.🏠🔍 I'm just keeping it real on what the cards say, but of course that won't be the case for everyone in this pile🩷 Your spouse will want to go to higher places but I think you will sort of be the one to ground them and help them to be realistic. Actually I think you compliment eachother quite well as parents because they have a lot to offer for the family and I think you can provide good judgements for their decisions.😊🙏 The masculine here will fantasize about being a famous well known figure, but they might hide this or keep it a secret because they don't want to seem irresponsible. You might get angry with them sometimes, I don't see any real fights with your spouse it just simply light scolding like "I told you"☝️🙄 and they're all "Okay bae I'm sorry let me make it up to you"🥺 lol. Your spouse will be trying hard to prove themselves to you even as you're married to them, like they will always try to get your validation because they wanna be looked up to and admired by you and the kids🥹💓 You are the highlight of their life I'm hearing, so they just wanna make you happy. I think you two will always be playfully bickering and it turns into something sweet like you're argueing about the groceries and you end up staring into eachothers eyes like "I can't stay mad at you.😍 Another thing that came out is you guys will also make great grandparents, like the funny ones that nitpick with eachother but are still so in love after all those years.😭⏳️💍 When you're feeling overwhelmed with all the kids stuff your spouse will make sure to take care of you and give you massages and all that sweetness💋💗 They will also make time to take you out at fancy restaurants and keep the romance going between you two~

Thank you my pile 4's! If you feel this resonated, you may tap the heart to claim this message!💌

I hope you enjoyed your reading! ʚ(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )ɞ If you did be sure to let me know pile 4 with the peach emoji~🍑 Thanks for scrolling through, Hugs hugs hugs!! See you in the next reading🏠🩷

Wanna see more readings like this? Check out my tumblr for accurate readings for you!💗🌊🌸

Thanks for reading! \(*^w^)/💌 -Lunadream <3

[theflyindutchwoman]

License and registration, please. C'mon, you don't really need that, do you? You should come to the party after work. We'd have fun. Yeah. I bet we would. … All right, I'm gonna let you go with a warning this time. But slow down, okay? Yeah, I promise. Thank you so much. Yeah. Have fun at that party.

| ANATOMY OF A SCENE - CHENFORD EDITION 3.14 - Threshold

Lucy's first solo undercover assignment… and it's already clear that despite her lack of proper training, she is extremely good at this. The way she is able to quickly think on her feet and adapt to any situation, while remaining level-headed is remarkable. We saw hints of this when she was a rookie but now, we get to see this side of her completely shine. Like how she catches Tim's attention : she knows she's in a perilous situation and the second she sees his shop, she immediately seizes the opportunity to get noticed, all so she can warn Nyla about the incoming robbery without raising any suspicion. I've always wondered whether she recognised Tim specifically when she sped up or not… But regardless, once she sees him in her rearview mirror, her anxiety and worry cranks up a level, with Dahrio ready to shoot their way out. And yet, she manages to take control of the situation. She uses her outward panic to sell her cover story, following Nyla's advice to the letter : You know, if you're not nervous, you're not human. Okay? So, use this to your advantage. Be scared. A nice reminder that Lucy is indeed a quick-learner.

This is also where Tim and Lucy's shorthand comes in handy and is beautifully underlined, with how well they can read and understand the other… And this, despite the fact that they haven't ridden together for close to a month. That's not to say it is perfect either : it is not quite as effortless as the next time she'll go undercover - with him. There's a slight awkwardness present between them. But it works for them. Tim getting caught off-guard at Nova's flirting makes their act more credible in a way. And even though he lets her get away a little bit too easily, it still gets the job done, from Lucy passing all the informations she has to Tim understanding her message. But it goes beyond the dialogue. It's how these two have a whole conversation without words. It's in the intense eye-contact. It's in the physical touch, with Lucy putting her hand on Tim's, using this gesture to ground them both, to reassure him that she's fine and she's got this. It's in the softness of Tim's voice when he tells her to slow down : he's no longer talking to Nova here, he's asking Lucy to be careful. It's in his last look before he leaves - a proud look, trying to infuse how much faith he has in her. And this is such a departure from his original reaction when he found out about her wish to do undercover work. He learned his lesson and he's trying to be as encouraging as he can without tipping off the bad guys. It's subtle but judging by Lucy's look, she got his message.

This is their first interaction since she went undercover… But more than that : it's also one of their first interaction since her graduation. Since her last day as his rookie, which incidentally, was when they last talked about her trying to become an undercover cop. When he last voiced his reticence and doubts on the matter. We didn't get to see his reaction at her going back under for a longer period, without immediate backup. So this little moment is the perfect opportunity to show where his head is at… how supportive he now is. Not to mention that it introduces us to that scene at the wedding, where he openly praises her. And I love how Tim will take this encounter as a reason to get involved in the operation - even from afar - and pester Nyla after that. Because truthfully, he doesn't have any reason to insert himself here : Nyla is the one in charge. He is no longer Lucy's training officer so Harper doesn't have to tell him anything or update him. But she knows how important this is for him. It's also reminiscent of their moment after Day of Death, when they were trying to figure out who might better serve Lucy for her first day back. It's worth noting that this is the first and last time so far that Tim isn't involved in Lucy's undercover mission in whatever capacity from the get-go. But it never comes across as a lack of faith in her abilities or as him being overbearing. It always feel natural, as a show of support. She's calling the shots and he follows her lead… It's a bit of a role-reversal from their former dynanic but it demonstrates how well they complement each other.

[tarotmundomonde]

Hi! I’m here again to reparticipate if possible! Thank you so much

I’d like a general reading for my next 5 months

My initials are HT and IT. Sun sign is Scorpio

The reason why I’d like to have this reading is because I’m going through a huge change in my life. It’s like I’m moving to a completely new chapter which makes me scared and excited at the same time. In the mean time, I am offered a business opportunity and I’m able to study my desired major. But because of the huge change, I will have to leave my loved one behind and start everything from the beginning again. I really want to be well-prepared for my new chapter if possible

The color that makes me think about you is wine red. Because it was the first color that popped up my mind when I first saw your account.

The gif reminds me of you, it’s bit random but you make me feel some kind of mystery but in a good way

My gif :

The gifs 😆😂

Hello HT/IT, let's dive into your reading, shall we?

It seems a lot will be going on for you for the next five months. A lot of possibilities and doors opening for you. It's going to be important to take a minute to watch and see what happens before you take any actions. Major moves and overcoming obstacles. You are shown the way forward, if you pay attention to the signs. So a lot of movements and activities taking place. Stability and emotional fulfillment. That's what it overall looks like at first glance. But let's go into the details of your spread.

First of all, there could be some losses down the road. For example you can be presented with three different options but can only pick one. And then there is the theme of trust. Not just to trust your path and that all will be well for you, as it will, but also when it comes to other people. It seems you'll be surrounded by secrets. But since you have the message of forgiveness here as well, maybe it's better to keep some things to yourself and give yourself the time to see, who are your allies on this journey. As for you everything will come to the light. Nothing will stay hidden from you. But it does require you to be patient and to not rush into things and situations. Rather when you take one step, then look at how things unfold, how your surroundings react. This is how you keep the upper hand and can easily move passed any obstacles put on your path. And also in general, get out of your own way.

But yeah, a lot of discoveries as well and brilliant ideas. You seem to be in a more creative and passionate mood for the next five months. Just be you and don't compare yourself to others. It's going to be good for you to focus on your own personal strengths and what makes you unique and stand out from others. And it seems you'll be on a journey of such discovery. Like it will happen quite naturally along the way. Be proud of yourself. And a part of being you, is that whatever you do, it comes from a place of purity. Your passion for what you do is genuine and that adds to you shining even more. You are asked to show up, to tune in and attune to the call. Let your passion guide you and carry you on.

A strong theme of self-empowerment. You are strong and you are beautiful, and you have the personal power needed to overcome all the obstacles. Love is a resource for you, open your heart. There is going to be unity as well and harmony. So one more time, pay attention to the signs, there will be plenty. Tap into your spirituality. And know that bliss is knocking at your door. A lot of bliss and contentment and a sense of security is in the cards for you for the next five months.

ps. feedback is always appreciated~

[chaotic-omnisexual-squirrel]

it's wild how much stuff that is considered "the norm" or even "creative" and "sophisticated" in film today, just came from people having like, no money.

on location shooting is pretty much the standard for big film companies nowdays, but that came from italy post ww2, because people were poor and pissed off and we're like hey, we have all these ruined buildings. may as well put them to good use. then french new wave got wind of that and stole it and made it french so it's fancy and more acceptable. then hollywood was like, "shit, people like this more than our same five studio setups" and also stole it.

lots of lighting conventions that are in horror films and crime films came from filmmakers in germany in the 1920s and 30s, who were again, completely broke. but then they had to flee germany because of the war and found hollywood and the emerging film noir directors were like "oh, they're fucking on to something". and the germans were like, "thanks, we didn't have any fucking lighting" but hollywood was just like "oooh, the symbolism" and then post ww2 decided to use the SAME FUCKING TECHNIQUES to create villains out of anyone vaguely from or associated with germany.

and everything you read about this stuff is like "oh it proves how this movement was important to create a lasting impression" and yeah, could be that. personally i think it's more like, hollywood likes to steal shit that they know does well. they're too scared to try new things because they care more about profit than making films. they started as well meaning but then realized that profit tastes a lot better and became a machine for war propaganda. then realized there's not a market for that when there's not a war. now they make a lot of their money off remakes and stories that everyone's heard a million times before. it's why queerbaiting became a thing, because they started realizing that films with queer themes sold; because people love a scandal. and it's what is so frustrating about the film industry at the moment, because big companies want money and something that is easily marketable; and that is films with simple plots, a minimal amount of symbolism and metaphor, a message that is progressive but not too progressive (i.e. one that understands the problem but doesn't tell people how to solve the problem), bends but doesn't break prewritten rules, and doesn't focus too hard on people who won't give them the money they want.

[dialovers-translations]

DIABOLIK LOVERS DARK FATE Vol.2 Chapter of the First Quarter [TRACK 2]

Original title: 月食の予感

Source: Diabolik Lovers DARK FATE Vol. 1 Chapter of the First Quarter

Audio: Here

Seiyuu: Toriumi Kousuke, Katsuyuki Konishi, Midorikawa Hikaru, Kaji Yuki, Hirakawa Daisuke & Takashi Kondou

→  LIKE MY TRANSLATIONS? SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI!

Track 1 ll Track 2 ll Track 3 ll Track 4

Track 2: Premonition of the Lunar Eclipse

The scene starts in the limousine. 

Kanato: Pwaah…

*Rustle* 

Kanato: I cannot believe all of you were having so much fun while I was still sound asleep…You should have woken me up…

Reiji: I fail to understand the ‘fun’ part about what we just discussed…

Ayato: Well, it was pretty funny to see Chichinashi piss her pants over some Wolves…

Laito: Exactly. Maybe she has gotten used to living with us, but as of late, she hasn't been getting scared at all no matter what we say or do. 

Kanato: My thoughts exactly. I also…Fufu…Fufufu…would have loved to join in on the fun of seeing you tremble with fear. 

Subaru: Even though your faces don’t look anythin’ alike…I guess the three of you truly are triplets, huh? 

Shuu: Ridiculous…I can’t believe I’m repeatedly being woken up over this bullshit. Pwaah…I’m sleepy. 

Kanato: By the way, Shuu, did you happen to head out last night? I believe I saw you leave the manor. 

Shuu: Yeah…I had some minor business to take care of. 

Reiji: Did Father say anything of importance? 

Laito: Did he spout his usual nonsense? 

Shuu: You sound very excited about it, Laito. Why don’t you go in my place next time? 

Laito: Nfu~ I will kindly decline your offer. I believe the honor of being able to go meet that guy every now and then goes to you, the eldest son. 

Ayato: Did the Old Man have somethin’ to complain ‘bout again? Is it the South Pole this time? Or maybe the moon?

Shuu: Well…I doubt I’d have to deliver this message if we could just go to the moon’s surface…The lunar eclipse has begun in the Demon World, you see. 

Kanato: Guess we’ll have to go through that struggle again…

Laito: How many decades has it been? Hmー It feels so long ago, I can barely remember, but I do recall that it was a time with much turmoil. 

You seem curious. 

Ayato: What’s that, Chichinashi? The lunar eclipse in the Demon World is…Ahー I mean, it’s pretty straightforward. We’ve got a moon and a sun in the Demon World as well. So lunar and solar eclipses happen every once in a while too. 

Reiji: Well, that being said, the perception of the sun and moon, as well as the cycle of each period, are vastly different from the human world. In short, the duration of the lunar eclipse is nowhere near the same as it is over here either. 

You ask for more information. 

Shuu: …Aah? You want to know what kind of trouble it brings along? God…Why are you such a troublesome woman? It’s exactly what you think it’d be. A bunch of unusual, annoying stuff happening. 

Kanato: What was it last time? I vaguely recall something bad happening and then one thing led to another…And we were ultimately locked up inside the castle. 

Laito: That woman made a huge deal out of it, did she not? She hated having her freedom restrained more than anything after all. 

Ayato: Aah, I remember now. That hysteric Old Hag was beyond anyone’s control. 

Reiji: So that is what happened…I was staying at the other house at that time, so I had no idea. However, it is rather odd…

Ayato: Hm? What is? 

Reiji: Vampires are easily influenced by the moon by nature. So during the lunar eclipse when the moon is slowly being chipped away at, it is not uncommon for them to act out of character or do something unexpected. However, it appears to be that Cordelia-sama was still her same old self. (1)

Laito: The last time we were still children so we didn’t really pay attention to it, but now that I think back to it…

*Rustle* 

Kanato: She was no different from usual. 

Shuu: Well, I’m sure she was just an exception to the rule. Besides, it’s possible that we simply didn’t realize because she already acted like a freak on a regular basis. 

Kanato: Shuu…I’d appreciate it if you would not talk badly of Mother. 

Shuu: Excuse me? Funny coming from the guy who played a part in her death. 

Laito: To us Vampires, killing someone is the ultimate proof of one’s love for them. No~?

Subaru: Ahーah…Fuck off. This’ll only make things more complicated so you guys should just shut up already.

*Rustle* 

Subaru: Anyway, Shuu. So the only thing the shitty Old Man wanted was to give you a warnin’ ‘bout the upcomin’ lunar eclipse? 

Shuu: Well, yeah. Also, he said that the eclipse would be somewhat different from usual this time around. 

You mention that an eclipse is coming in the human world as well.

Shuu: Exactly. It just so happens that the eclipse in the Demon World will partially overlap with the one here in the human world. 

Subaru: So is there anythin’ we should do? 

Shuu: Beats me. Well, he went on to explain a bunch of things, but in the end it was mostly just a warning. 

Subaru: That’s all!? 

Shuu: His irrational fear of the lunar eclipse has me puzzled. Honestly, it’s honestly scary how he seems to be so terrified of it. 

Reiji: Father must have had some sort of premonition. 

Ayato: And what would that be? 

Laito: Right. I don’t really understand, so I feel like he might just be scheming something instead.

Kanato: Last time he went on about ‘bad people’ being set free, right?

Subaru: Bad people…? Hah! I can’t believe there’s a bigger evil than us out there. 

You warn them.

Shuu: Aah…? ‘Be careful’? It feels kind of odd having you tell us that. Well, if we’re talking about being cautious, I think you should be the one keeping your guard up. The chances of something happening to you are much higher after all.

Laito: Yup, exactly~ Knowing Bitch-chan, she might just attract some random guy and get herself duped~

Ayato: You seem pretty happy about that.

Laito: Nfu~ Not at all! I’m super duper worried, you see? Despite what you may believe~

Kanato: Being the idiot and slowpoke she is, I would not put it past her. …Regardless, when something bad actually does happen, she makes a big drama out of it.

Subaru: We won’t die so easily anyway, but you be careful, ‘kay? …Not that I care or anythin’...

Reiji: Indeed. Right now, caution is key. After all, you could be considered ‘one of us’ by this point. You understand what I’m trying to say, right? 

You seem confused. 

Ayato: …You smell. From a mile away. Even though you’re not a Vampire yourself, you’ve still got our scent on you.

The car comes to a halt. 

Shuu: Pwaah…We’ve arrived? Haah…Good grief. I suppose I’ll go for another nap on the rooftop. 

Shuu leaves the car and heads towards the building. 

Reiji: Good grief…That deadbeat…

Ayato: Ahー What a drag! It doesn’t make sense for Vampires like us to have to deal with this shit, does it?

Subaru: As much as I hate to say this, I gotta agree with you on that one. 

They head towards the school building as well. 

Laito: Bitch-chan~! Come on, let’s go to school. You love the classroom, don’t you? 

Kanato: …What’s wrong? You seem a little out of it. 

Laito: Could it be…Bitch-chan, are you a little scared after everything we talked about earlier? Fufu…In that case…I suppose everything went according to my plan~

Laito suddenly pins you down. 

*Rustle* 

*Thud* 

Laito: Hah…Hey? Let me confirm whether you are actually scared or not?

You question how he will do that.

Laito: Eh~? I’ll easily be able to tell once I touch you…Haah…

*Rustle rustle* 

Laito: Mmh…

*Smooch* 

Laito: Nn…Haah~ 

*Rustle rustle* 

Laito: I don’t know whether you’re aware or not but…Whenever a living being feels scared or threatened, it skyrockets their desire to leave behind offspring. 

You frown. 

Laito: Do you understand what I’m trying to say…? Hahn…

*Smooch* 

Laito: Ah…Fufufu~ So you know…I’d love to confirm whether that applies to you as well, Bitch-chan~ …In other words, this is basically a biology lesson. Well then, reveal the truth to me…

Kanato runs up to the two of you.

*Thud* 

Kanato: Excuse me!? It’s not fair that you get to have all the fun, Laito! Could you please refrain from touching her without my permission!? 

Laito: Hm~? …Kanato-kun, I didn’t know you were still around! Perfect timing! Let’s give her a medical checkup together!

Kanato: …!? With you…!? 

Laito: Yup, exactly! Doesn’t that sound fun? 

Kanato: …Fine. I suppose it sounds more fun than going to the classroom. 

*Rustle* 

Kanato: However! She belongs to me, so I won’t let you do with her as you please!

Kanato gets in the car as well.

*Rustle rustle* 

Laito: …Woah there, Bitch-chan! Calm down! 

*Rustle rustle* 

Laito: Kanato-kun…I’ll keep her legs pinned down, so could you take care of those flailing arms? 

*Rustle* 

Kanato: Ugh…Behave already. Even a limousine is pretty cramped inside. 

They both restrain you together. 

Laito: Fufufu~ What a lovely position you’re in. …Well then, let’s start by taking off your shoes and socks.

*Rustle rustle* 

Laito: I suppose I’ll punish these feisty feet that were trying to kick me earlier~

*Rustle rustle*

Laito: …Nfu~ They give off your lovely scent. Mm…

*Sniff* 

Laito: Haah~ I can’t get enough…It’s the fragrance of delicious blood. Mmh…

*Smooch*

Laito: Nn…Mmh…Fufu…~ 

*Rustle* 

Laito: Are you embarrassed? 

You nod. 

Laito: Why of course you are. Not only did I kiss your bare feet, but just like this…

*Sluuuuuurp*

Laito: Haahn…Mmh…I’m licking them as well. 

*Rustle* 

Kanato: Hey, you! Don’t get distracted by Laito! You have to look at me!

You look over at Kanato. 

Kanato: Yes…Just like that. 

*Rustle rustle* 

Kanato: Come on, I’ll give you a reward. …Mmh.

*Smooch*

Kanato: You much rather get kissed on the lips, don’t you? Nnh…

Kanato kisses you deeply once more. 

Kanato: See? I can tell you’re enjoying it. Much more than when Laito kisses you. 

*Rustle*

Laito: Nfu~ Geez, Kanato-kun. You’re surprisingly conservative. But I suppose doing this can be nice every once in a while. I mean, before you can get started with any biology class, you need to put your theory to the test, right? Hahn…Mmh…

*Sluuuuuurp*

Laito: Mmh…Nn…

Kanato: Fufu~ Does that hurt? Your face looks like a mess. I can imagine it doesn’t feel very pleasant to have your toes bitten. 

*Rustle*

Kanato: However, mine will hurt even more. 

*Rustle* 

Kanato: Look, right here. I’ll bite down with all my might.

Kanato bites you as well. 

Kanato: Mmh….

*Sluuuuuurp*

*Gulp gulp*

Kanato: Nn…

*Sluuuuuurp*

Kanato: Hah…

Somebody suddenly opens the door to the limousine.

Ayato: …What the fuck are you bastards doin’...!? 

Laito: Nfu~ Welcome back, Ayato-kun~ 

Ayato: ‘Welcome back’, my ass! 

Ayato grabs you by your arm. 

Ayato: I was wonderin’ what was takin’ you so long, but this is what you’ve been up to, huh? Chichinashi, you really are one hell of a freak, aren’t you? Aah!? 

Laito: Hey, hey, Ayato-kun~! Why don’t the three of us have some fun together then? The best part has yet to come, so you should definitely join in!

Ayato: Fuck off! Shut up! Come on, Chichinashi! We’re leavin’!

*Thud* 

Ayato drags you away.

Laito: (muffled) You’ve forgotten something, Bitch-chan! Your shoes, socks, and bag!

Ayato: You can bring them afterwards! …God. I can’t take my eyes off y’all for two seconds. 

Kanato: (muffled) Uu…Ayato…How could you…I’ll never forgive you!

Ayato: Then don’t, like I give a damn!

*Rustle*

Ayato: Oi, Chichinashi! Get those legs movin’...!

You explain. 

Ayato: Ah…? You’re dizzy…? Bullshit! Just how much blood did they suck then? Ah…This pisses me off…Why do I have to…

He lifts you into his arms. 

*Rustle* 

Ayato: …go through the trouble of carryin’ you like this? Just know that I’m only doin’ it this once! If you take too long, I feel like those two jerks will corner you again. 

*TIMESKIP*

Ayato enters the infirmary.

*Rattle* 

Ayato: That stupid school doctor…He’s absent again today. 

You tilt your head to the side, asking him how he knows the doctor was absent before. 

Ayato: Aah…? I came here to skip classes yesterday. That’s how I know he was absent yesterday too, that’s all. Got a problem with that? 

He plops you down on one of the beds. 

*Rustle*

*Thud*

Ayato: Why we’re here? You’ve been complainin’ ‘bout painful feet this whole time, remember? I’m gonna disinfect the wounds. …Now show me your feet.

*Rustle*

Ayato: Why do you seem so surprised? 

You seem skeptical.

Ayato: Hah? What do you mean ‘what’s the plan’? Did you hope I had some kind of ulterior motive or somethin’? 

*Rustle*

Ayato: Heeh…I mean, I don’t mind. There’s even a bed here and everything. However, I gotta get rid of all traces of them first.

He disinfects the bite marks. 

*Psh psh* 

Ayato: Don’t make a fuss! It’s your own damn fault for gettin’ caught and allowin’ those fuckers to suck your blood!

*Psh psh* 

*Rustle*

Ayato: Come on! Behave! …Here, your ear too…

*Flap flap flap*

Ayato: …!? What was that…? I sensed a strange presence just now…

*Flap flap flap* 

Ayato: …!? Again…!? Again…Oi, Chichinashi! This way!

He pulls you close. 

*Rustle* 

Ayato: …Oi! Is someone there outside the window!? 

It remains quiet at first. 

Ayato: Answer me…!!

*HOOOOOWL*

Ayato: …!! …What? …Wolves? Could it be those Chichinashi mentioned before? …Fuck! What is goin’ on…? ーー Ugh!

*Rustle* 

Ayato: Oi! Whoever’s there, show yourself!

*Rustle* 

Shuu: Pwaah…

Ayato: …!! Who’s there!? 

Shuu: …God, what’s your problem? I was just having such a nice nap too…

Shuu moves from the bed. 

Ayato: Aah…!? Shuu…!? I thought you were up on the rooftop!? 

He walks over to them. 

Shuu: Pretty rude thing to say when you two came here after me, don’t you think? I changed my mind, that’s all. 

Ayato: …! Fuck…I got scared for nothin’...Don’t fuckin’ jump me like that!

Shuu: Jump you? Heeh…Ayato. You must really be worried about what we talked about in regards to the Old Man earlier. How unexpected. 

Ayato: …!! That’s not it…!!

Shuu: No need to hide it. I mean, I don’t think anyone can blame you for being a little worried when even the Old Man is being cautious about it. 

*Rustle* 

Ayato: Ugh…

Shuu: No point in trying to cover up your concern. …Well, I heard everything you’ve said since entering this room.

Ayato: …!! You bastard…!

Shuu: Hey, you. Aren’t you a lucky one? Even though that guy struggles to be honest with himself, he’s surprisingly nice, so I’m sure he’ll dote on you plenty? 

*Rustle* 

Shuu: …Just as you wish. Hehehe…

Ayato: …! Shut up! I’m no longer disinfectin’ crap! You’re just gonna have to deal with it yourself later! Come on, out of the way, Chichinashi!

Ayato pushes you aside. 

*Thud* 

Shuu: Woah there…

*Rustle* 

Ayato: See you!

Ayato leaves the infirmary. 

*Rattle* 

Shuu: …What was that about? …Oh well, whatever. I guess it’s just puberty getting the best of him. He just doesn’t realize that it’s so crystal clear how he gets worked up whenever somebody teases him about you. I would never run away like that though.

Shuu suddenly pins you down. 

*Rustle* 

Shuu: …What’s with that look on your face? Are you disappointed? Shouldn’t you feel satisfied, knowing Ayato cares so deeply about you? Or perhaps…You won’t be satisfied until you wrap all the men around you around your finger? Haha…Well, I mean, I personally have no issues with a promiscuous woman. 

*Rustle rustle* 

Shuu: I never expected any kind of virtuous attitude from you in the first place. All you need to do is give me your blood, as much as I desire, and whenever I want it. Sucking blood is basically like meal time to us after all. While there’s usually some physical contact as well, it can easily be done without any feelings of love or affection involved. 

*Rustle*

Shuu: So don’t get the wrong idea, okay? Also don’t let it get to your head. It does not mean we love you, simply because we crave your blood. Immature brats such as Ayato might get irritated because they’re incapable of making the distinction, but I’m different…

Shuu bites you. 

*Gulp gulp* 

Shuu: Mmh…Nn…Haah…That’s why I have no issue latching onto your shoulder like this…or even hurting you…Hahn…

*Gulp gulp* 

Shuu: Mmh…Nn…There. Let’s say this makes up for disrupting my sleep earlier. 

He pushes you away.

*Thud*

Shuu: …What’s the matter? Are you in shock because you’ve realized how wrong you’ve been? …Well, I guess that’s not it. If you really misinterpreted our actions this whole time, then all I can do is applaud you for your idiocy. Anyway, I’m going to sleep again, so why don’t you hurry and run after our teenage boy? I’m done with you…

Shuu returns to the bed. 

*Creaaaak* 

Shuu: If you get the message, I don’t want to hear another word from you. Haah…What a drag. 

You hesitate.

Shuu: Tsk…What are you doing? Get out already.

You leave the infirmary. 

*Rattle* 

Shuu: Hm…She left, huh? …

*Rustle* 

Shuu: …What was that presence earlier? It felt weird…But right now it’s gone. Ugh. What a pain. Seems like the Old Man might have been right after all, and something will happen soon. But what could that ‘something’ be…?

*TIMESKIP*

You stumble through the hallway. 

Reiji: …? Is that…?

*Rustle*

Reiji: So it is you after all. What are you doing here during class hours?

You ask Reiji the same question. 

Reiji: Me? I was just on my way to the library because one of the teachers asked me to fetch a couple of documents. 

You nearly collapse but Reiji catches you just on time. 

Reiji: …!? 

*Rustle* 

Reiji: Why are you so shaky on your leーー …Hm? 

*Rustle* 

Reiji: This scent…? …!! Could it be…Did Shuu suck your blood? 

You nod. 

Reiji: Good grief…And look at you now. What exactly happened? Of course, there is no doubt in my mind that you said something stupid again, but I suppose I shall listen to your explanation. 

Now then, why don’t you have a seat on the staircase over there? 

You walk over to the staircase.

Reiji: Here…

*Rustle* 

Reiji: So…What happened? 

You explain. 

Reiji: I see. …He approached you, correct? Well, that is nothing new but…I am somewhat concerned about this ‘strange presence’ you mentioned. Ayato failed to notice that Shuu was sleeping closeby, correct? Since we are siblings, it is simply unthinkable that we would not pick up on each other’s scent or aura. 

*Rustle* 

Reiji: The Lunar Eclipse has already started in the Demon World and soon enough it will start here too. Could it be that we are already starting to feel the effects of it? ーー Hm? You. Keep still, okay?

Reiji wipes off some of the blood on your shoulder.

Reiji: If you walk around with blood still dribbling down your skin like this, you are basically asking to lure in other Vampires. 

*Rustle* 

Reiji: Even I am feeling a little lightheaded at the moment due to the scent of your blood. I doubt my other brothers - who have shown very little signs of self-restraint - would be able to pass up on the temptation. 

*Rustle*

Reiji: …Hm? It won’t stop bleeding yet. Just look at how much is on the handkerchief already. Haah…I suppose I have no other choice…

*Rustle* 

Reiji: Seems like I will have to stop it directly using my mouth. …Come on now, keep still. Hahn…

*Gulp gulp* 

Reiji: It still gushes out…

*Gulp gulp* 

Reiji: Hah…Let’s see if that did the trick.

*Rustle* 

Reiji: Seems like it’s gotten a bit better. ーー As you should be aware by now, our saliva is special. It is capable of closing up a human’s wounds almost instantly. Of course, it would fail to have its desired effect when the injury is simply too deep. 

Well then, how do you feel now?

You thank him.

Reiji: No, you are welcome. I got to have a taste of your blood, so I suppose you could say it was an equal exchange. Well then, I must be on my way to take care of business now.

You get up.

Reiji: You should return to your classroom. 

You start walking away.

Reiji: Right, before I forget. You probably should not venture off on your own on the way back home. For some reason…I have a bad hunch.

You frown.

Reiji: While you are technically still ‘human’, you might as well be considered one of us at this point. You should not forget that.

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー

Translation notes

(1) It is actually not surprising that Cordelia was not affected by the lunar eclipse, or reacted to it in a different way. While in the earlier games, we thought that she was half-Vibora and half-Vampire, in Dark Fate it is revealed that she is half-Vibora and half-Founder, therefore not suffering from the same symptoms as pureblood or half-blood Vampires do in regards to the eclipse.

[makeste]

BnHA 323: “I Don’t Know How to Explain to You That You Should Care About Other People”

Previously on BnHA: Kacchan was all, “Izuku, I’m sorry.” Bakugou Stans were all, “[sobs for a week straight and tearfully awards him the Nobel Prize for character development].” Deku was all, “[faints in Kacchan’s arms].” Iida was all, “[trying to decide if Ochako genuinely tried to kill him a few minutes ago].” Horikoshi was all, “NO TIME FOR HUGS WE MUST GET BACK TO UA.” The civilians holed up at U.A. were all, “WE TOOK A VOTE AND DECIDED THAT WE’RE ALL GOING TO BE JERKS ABOUT THIS AND MAKE A BIG FUSS ABOUT YOU LETTING DEKU BACK INTO THE SCHOOL.” Deku was all “[stands there looking like he expected nothing less and breaking my heart more and more with each passing moment].” Ochako was all, “that does it, looks like I’m gonna have to do something about this... next chapter, that is.”

Today on BnHA: Flashback!Rat Principal is all “I just want you all to know that I spent nine million dollars turning U.A. into a giant Battleship-style grid that can burrow underground and zoom around in a giant subway maze because Horikoshi lacks a grounded understanding of both civil engineering and economics.” Back in the present day, Jeanist is all, “EVERYONE TAKE HEED, MY COMRADES AND I HAVE DEEMED IT EXPEDIENT TO CONVEY THIS AUSPICIOUS YOUTH BACK TO THIS STRONGHOLD. WE ANTICIPATE THAT WE MAY DEPEND UPON YOUR GOODWILL AND ACQUIESCENCE TO THESE TERMS.” The civilians were all, “NO.” Ochako was all, “EMPATHY, MOTHERFUCKERS, DO YOU SPEAK IT?!” The civilians were all, “oh shit.” Anyway so Ochako is a giant badass, but I’m a little worried that she’s going to get struck by lightning. Please come down from there.

so before we start this chapter, I would just like to apologize for having not posted the ch 321 recap yet, and would like to reassure everyone, and especially Iida who is staring at me with Sad Wobbly Guilt Trip Eyes, that I will get to that as soon as I can

OMG FLASHBACK??

yes please Horikoshi please show us more of class 1-A and their Deku intervention strategy jam sessions

oh dear

Iida you are too pure and good for this cruel world. [sprays the U.A. civilians with a water bottle] NO. BAD CIVILIANS! NO OSTRACIZING SCARED AND EXHAUSTED CHILDREN IN THE HOUSE

EXCUSE ME RAT PRINCIPAL WHAT’S WITH THESE MIXED MESSAGES

???

RAT PRINCIPAL: he’s free to return to us at any time!!

ALSO RAT PRINCIPAL: but it’s too risky for him to return to us

?? ??????? ?????????????????????

so now he’s going on about how strong the U.A. Barrier is, and how it’s comparable to the defensive capabilities of Tartarus. this would have sounded a lot more impressive before chapter 297 lol

OH!!!! HELLO, WHAT’S THIS!!!

A TIMELY CALLBACK TO A CERTAIN MYSTERIOUS EVENT WHICH HASN’T BEEN REFERENCED SINCE USJ? [U.A. TRAITOR MUSIC INTENSIFIES]

so now Rat Principal says he upgraded U.A.’s security systems with his own “modifications”, whatever the fuck that means. I mean look, I’ve been saying for a long time now that U.A. is the best place for everyone to hole up, don’t get me wrong. but that was mostly on account of there not being any other practical alternatives. but you’re making it sound like you figured out a way to actually make it Decay-proof or some wild shit like that

-- hold up, DID YOU ADD A FORCE FIELD. DID YOU TRICK THIS SCHOOL OUT WAKANDA-STYLE YOU CRAZY MARSUPIAL. HOLY SHIT. because that would actually be perfect

LMAO

WHAT KIND OF GALAXY BRAIN BULLSHIT. “NAH THERE’S NO NEED FOR A FORCE FIELD, LET’S JUST PUT WHEELS ON IT”

oh okay so the whole campus is basically capable of burrowing itself underground. that’s insane lol I wonder how they pulled that off. probably got poor Cementoss working overtime

blah blah blah so basically the entire campus is split into a grid and each section of the grid is capable of its own independent movement. lol this is just the Merone Base from KHR. you thought no one would notice this casual plagiarism ten years after the fact, but YOU UNDERESTIMATED YOUR AUDIENCE, HORIKOSHI

“joke’s on you imma just lampshade it” WELL ALL RIGHT THEN

“look at me I’m so fucking self-aware” fucking swear to god. I can’t believe this man is my favorite mangaka of all time smdh

“excuse me, I wasn’t finished describing all the rest of this bullshit yet,” Rat Principal breaks in impatiently. “we also added a steel wall all around the underground of the campus that’s 3000 steel plates thick. that’s fifteen fucking meters of solid fucking steel just fyi. and if anyone fucks around with any part of it the defense system will activate immediately! and also all of the plates are independently motorized, whatever the fuck that means!! in conclusion you’re gonna need a fucking tower crane to suspend all of your disbelief by the time I’m through with this paragraph”

“also Shiketsu is almost as reinforced as U.A. but not quite because we still had to make sure we were better.” but of course. and apparently the two schools are connected via a secret tunnel as Hagakure mentioned earlier

LSDKFJLSDKJFLK

“WAIT WHAT” LMAO YOU HEARD HIM, NOW INASA CAN VISIT YOU BOTH IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND TELL YOU ALL ABOUT THE WEIRD DREAM HE HAD. GOD BLESS YOU HORIKOSHI

(ETA: moment of appreciation for Shouto and Katsuki having the same thought at the same time and making Knowing Eye Contact and saying the exact same thing out loud in perfect unison like the best friends they are. what a blessed day.)

so Tokoyami is all “but wait if you engineered all this shit all the way back during the Band arc how did you even know that Tomura’s quirk awakening would become a thing, Horikoshi -- uh, I mean, Principal Nezu”

and Rat Principal is all “lol idk”

“basically I just woke up one morning and was all ‘say, you know what this school really needs? a fifteen-meter-thick underground steel wall, and the ability to break up into little pieces that individually zoom around wherever the fuck they want.’ jesus christ. lol if money and common sense were apparently no obstacle why didn’t you just teleport U.A. to the fucking moon or something. maybe I should shut up before I given him any ideas

dsfaelkjldkjgl

you heard it here first, folks, all of this cost a grand total of nine million U.S. dollars. well technically it cost “more than” nine million dollars. never has that distinction been more important lmao. are we sure this barrier was really made of steel and not cardboard? who the hell sold it to them, Ea-Nasir??

this is my favorite manga series of all time. yes I am ashamed

“in conclusion please do your best to reach Deku-kun” SO WHAT WAS ALL THAT NONSENSE ABOUT IT BEING TOO RISKY THEN. anyway thank you for this super informative and edifying flashback, Horikoshi. I will cherish it always. I don’t even want to read another translation of this absurdity lmao, there’s something special about it just the way it is. pretty sure Horikoshi just had a cracked out fever dream one night and transferred it to the pages of the manga verbatim

anyway so back to the unruly mob

not their finest moment. please excuse me while I cover poor Deku’s ears and give him a good shoosh pap

oh wow the parents are out here too

is Mitsuki trying to hold Inko back?? that’s the last thing this fandom needs right now is more Mitsuki discourse fffwlkjs. and even Jiroudad, scientifically proven to be the best dad in all of BnHA, is just standing there silently looking vaguely unhappy. way to rise to the moment you guys

MONOMA

so this settles it for me that Aizawa is not at UA. I know a lot of people have been wondering about his whereabouts, and if I had to wager a guess it would be that something happened with Shirakumo/Kurogiri. I can’t think of anything else -- even the loss of an eye and a limb -- that would keep him from his kids at a time like this

anyway but this is excellent Monoma content right here though. I love that he apparently adopted Eri after a single interaction with her. also WHERE IS SHINSOU DAMMIT. THE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW

and Kouta’s there too looking like he wants to run over to Deku but Ragdoll won’t let him :/

it’s gotta be pretty upsetting for him to see his hero like this and not having anyone stand up for him. [taps megaphone] IS THIS THING ON. OKAY YEAH IT SEEMS TO BE WORKING. AHEM. PAGING URARAKA OCHAKO. GONNA NEED YOU TO GET OVER HERE ALREADY AND MAKE THAT BIG DRAMATIC SPEECH WHICH YOU ARE CLEARLY DYING TO MAKE. IF YOU DON’T DO IT SOON I’M GONNA HAVE TO STEP IN, AND YOU REALLY DON’T WANT ME TO DO THAT SINCE MY SPEECH WILL NOT BE VERY GOOD OR INSPIRING, AND WILL PROBABLY JUST CONSIST OF “HELLO, YOU ARE ALL STUPID, PLEASE SHUT UP AND GO AWAY”

so now Mic is telling them to calm down. at least someone’s speaking up here, geez

OH MY GOD

MY MAN JEANIST OUT HERE DOING WHAT HE DOES BEST: MAKING EVERYONE FEEL GUILTY AND JUDGED

OH MY GOD HE IS GIVING SUCH A LONG AND BORING SPEECH LMAO IS YOUR STRATEGY TO PUT THEM ALL TO SLEEP OR WHAT

truly in awe of this man’s ability to take messages which could easily be conveyed in ELI5-speak, and stubbornly convert them into incomprehensible language the likes of which you need a graduate degree in order to understand

“hey guys, so originally our plan was to use Deku as bait for the villains, but that didn’t really work and also we realized it was kinda dumb and was probably gonna get him killed, so we brought him back here instead.” was that really so hard, Jeanist. also are we all really just gonna sit back here and watch Jeanist take full credit for Bakugou’s plan just like that lmao

(ETA:

WHERE DID ENDEAVOR GO AND WHO IS THIS DIABOLICAL MASTER OF DISGUISE. lol I genuinely didn’t notice this because I was too busy digging through thesauruses trying to rewrite Jeanist’s speech; many thanks to @class1akids​ for pointing it out and making my day immeasurably better. take it easy there Dick Tracy.)

“anyway so please stop being dicks and let him fucking rest so he can save all your ungrateful asses” what an impassioned and inspiring plea. time to see if the masses will listen to reason

narrator: they did not listen to reason

oh my god finally Ochako is doing something. YEAH OCHAKO WOOOO SHOW THEM HOW IT’S DONE

hmm

this entire chapter is truly and utterly nonsensical to me lol

(ETA: on my second readthrough I’m fucking dying at how she stole the megaphone right out of Mic’s hand lmao. and how Kacchan is all “fuck yeah nothing I appreciate more than some quality fucking larceny.”)

oh I see she was jumping on top of the main building so as to scream down at them all more impressively

“ANYWAY DEKU IS PRETTY COOL ACTUALLY, YOU GUYS ARE JUST MEAN” couldn’t have said it better myself Ochako

lol uh

gotta say I did not have “Ochako reveals the secret of OFA to the entire U.A. Citizen Clown Parade” on my bingo card for this week. it’s a bold strategy cotton let’s see if it pays off

SDLFKJSL

“NO, SERIOUSLY, HAVE YOU LOOKED AT HIM YOU GUYS. YOU THINK HE LIKES RUNNING AROUND DRESSED LIKE A RUSTED OIL DRUM?? HE DID THAT FOR YOU YOU UNGRATEFUL SLOBS”

so she is basically explaining the entire Deku Angst arc to them and explaining what a good and selfless protagonist Deku is, YES, PREACH

OMG IT’S THE GIGANTIC FOX LADY

not to insinuate anything, but what exactly were you doing standing out here with the hysterical mob, Gigantic Fox Lady? you’re better than that

-- KACCHAN SIGHTING!!

sdlkfjl. thanks for weighing in with that helpful and important observation. where have you been for the last five minutes. were you asleep. was it Jeanist’s speech

never mind, now he’s yelling at the civilians so I instantly forgive him

THE FUTURE NUMBER ONE HERO, EVERYONE. THANK YOU, THANK YOU. HE’LL BE HERE ALL WEEK

“anyway so I’m just going to end the chapter here” lmao seventeen pages truly do go by so fast. at least he didn’t try to force in a cliffhanger at the end this time. dare I say, growth

so I guess the civilians are either gonna have a Kamino and/or Fukuoka-esque moment where they remember how to be decent people and apologize to this poor young man, or else they’ll remain unpersuaded, and so Kacchan will have to knock a few of their heads around until they become more inclined to be reasonable. either option is fine by me lol

[dameronology]

to all the pilots i've loved before {poe dameron} - 3/4

part three: better half of a whole

summary: you’re in love with poe dameron. it’s both the most complicated and most simple thing in the galaxy - and it’s all shoved into a shoe-box under your bed, in the form of a thousand love letters. here’s to hoping he never finds them. (series masterlist)

warnings: language, mentions of injury

i'm so sorry this took me so long to write!! i got writer's block and then i was horribly busy with a thousand others things and sadly, i cannot prioritise fan fiction over real life duties. and i would know, because i've tried

enjoy!!

- jazz

Poe didn't sleep for...well, it was probably days. Felt like years.

Dear trouble,

Every time he closed his eyes, your face would flash into his mind. The sound of your laugh echoing amongst the cries of war; the feel of your soft hands tracing the remains of battle scars and wounds. What if the hug you gave him before you left was the last? What if your slightly pained laughter at the shitty joke he'd made in the jungle the night before was all he had left? He cherished every memory he had of you but he loved you more.

I know you hate when I call you that, but it feels pretty accurate - because you do cause trouble, normally with me but more recently FOR me. Anyways, I never considered myself to be much of a letter writer, but then I saw yours and...fuck.

Love. What a funny fucking word, right? Said so easily, but meant so much. Something that felt so hard to find, but even more difficult to hold onto. His parents had found it and they'd kept it for so long, and he'd always wanted the same - nothing less, nothing more. Just the kind of unwavering, undying love that can survive a war and be happy with the domesticity that followed. The only difference between Poe and his parents was that they'd been fearless with every aspect of their lives, not withholding their ability to express feelings. Perhaps that's where he fell short. Shara had taught him a lot of things but she'd been lost before he taught her how to pull his head out his ass and just...say things how they were.

What am I even supposed to say? I love you too would be a start, because I obviously I do. I've always wanted to say it but I never wanted to risk what we had in case you secretly hated me, and now I'm going to live out the rest of my days regretting it.

The first that Poe managed to finally get some rest was four days after Leia had broken the news of your disappearance. He'd fallen asleep in his quarters, curled up into Finn's side and clutching a t-shirt of his that he'd left in your room - you'd borrowed it a few months ago, and it still smelt of you. It was a mixture of your everyday body fragrance and a little of engine oil. BB-8 was snoozing quietly in the corner and for the first time in days, Poe's jaw and shoulders weren't tense and clenched.

The little robot did stir, however, when he got a comms system message from Leia. He was awake immediately, cruising across the room and crashing straight into the nearest human he could find - and it was at that point that Finn regretted leaving his leg dangling off the side of the bed. He jumped awake, brown eyes finding the droid peering up at him.

You're not just my best friend. You're my partner in crime, my soulmate and you know that twin flame bullshit that Rey always go on about? You're probably that too because we're both flaming hot. You're the better half of this whole. You and me.

"Poe is sleeping, buddy," he quietly said.

"There's a message from the general," BB-8 beeped back.

Poe suddenly woke up at that - it could have been any message, and certainly not one about you, but something in his gut told him otherwise. If it hadn't have been, Leia would have left it til morning, or not even bothered him at all in his current state.

"What?" the pilot asked. "What is it?"

"They're back, in the med-"

Poe didn't give him a chance to say anything else, because he was already up and out the door - jacket unzipped, boots half unlaced, hair sticking up in a thousand different directions.

And even though he hadn't slept for days, he was running for his dear fucking life. The medical bay was right on the other side of the base and he didn't care. You were there - in what state, he didn't know - and that was all that mattered. He was just wanted to be with you, beside you, and he never planned on leaving.

If I see you again, I'm not gonna hide it anymore. I love you and you deserve to know that. I'm gonna give you the fucking world, I promise.

Poe skidded around the corner, stopping his tracks when he saw you across the room. You looked tired - far past it, in fact - and his entire body tensed when he saw the bruises on your arm and up your neck. Still, he took comfort in the fact that he knew you put up a good fight. You'd sparred together enough times and given him enough bruises to last a life time.

There was a slight oof as someone crashed into the back of Poe (Finn's subtle way of announcing his arrival). He placed a hand on his shoulder, shoving him forward slightly. It was clear that Poe was in a state of shock - at your loss, at your declaration, and even more at your return - because the last few days had changed everything.

Everything he'd ever wanted was about to come to fruition. No pressure.

"Go to them," Finn murmured.

With that, Poe took a few steps forward - you met him half away across the room, chests colliding with enough force to knock down an ATAT. He wound his arms you, pulling you towards him with one hand tangled in your hair and the other holding your back. He clung to you, tears in his eyes and entire body shaking, almost as though he was using the feeling of you to act as a reminder that this wasn't a dream. You were here. You were back. Perhaps a little worst for wear, but alive and standing all the same.

I don't know how I'll say it. Am I meant to just blurt it out? I've never said it to anyone before, so...what the fuck am I meant to do? Normally, I'd come to you for advice on this sort of this but that feels a bit counter intuitive.

"Hey, Poe," you gently murmured.

"Hey, trouble," he let out a shaky laugh, pulling back from the hug to clutch your face in his hands. "You're alive. You're here-"

"- yeah, I'm here," you grinned.

"What happened?" he pushed. "If I ever find those First Order bastards, I swear it's on site."

"They were trying to shoot us out the sky, so we had to lay low on a random moon for a few days, but the residents of said moon were not very friendly and - you know what? It doesn't matter," you leant into his touch, relishing the feeling of his hands against your skin. "I'm here and that's what's important."

"I was so scared," Poe admitted. "And they had me search your room for back up plans and-"

You froze.

"You...you searched my room?" you stuttered. "What did you find?"

The main thing is, I AM gonna tell you. I promise. Just...please come back.

Love, Poe

Poe's eyes widened - maybe now wasn't the best time to break the news. You were bleeding from your head and hadn't slept for days. To spring it on you before you were even cleaned up felt a bit unfair. His worst fears had been avoided, so he didn't mind waiting just a little longer.

"Nothing," he forced a smile. "C'mon, I'll clean you up."

Taking your hand in his, Poe lead you towards one of the beds. He was hardly a medical expert, but he'd been through enough cuts and scrapes to have a basic understanding of stitches. And luckily, your injuries didn't look too bad. It was more just the fact you had them in the first place that hurt him.

What if he'd gone on the mission with you? Or convinced you to stay? Fuck, he would have gone in your place if he knew what was going to happen. The last few days had been the worst of his life and he almost felt responsible for what had happened to you. Your pain was his pain, and he felt it in every fibre of his being.

But, of all things, at least he knew what love was now - and if you had never have gone MIA, he never would have gone looking in your room, and he never would have found those letters. It felt like a bit of a dick move to call them a blessing in disguise but his mother had always taught him the value of looking for silver linings. The last week had been one giant thunderstorm. There had been no breaks in the rain, or sun peaking through the clouds. It had just been darkness and thunder, but it was all beginning to clear now.

What was it that Shara had said when Poe was a kid? Things have a funny way of working out. This was all a testament to that, and also to the fact that she always seemed to be right.

Poe's hands moved gently as he stitched up the cut on your forehead. They were still steady as they moved, brown eyes occasionally moving down to meet yours. He always smiled when they did.

"There we go," he said. "That shouldn't scar, but if it does, it would make you look like a bad-ass, so..."

You chuckled slightly. "Thanks, Dameron."

"You don't have to thank me," he quietly murmured, running a thumb over your cheek. "I'm just glad you're back."

"Right," you grinned. "What did you do whilst I was gone?"

Cried. Read those letters. Cried some more. Wrote a letter myself, then cried on that too.

"I just...I caught up some on some reading," he forced a smile. "C'mon, let's go to my quarters. I have some bactaspray there for those bruises."

Poe took your hand in his again and helped you up off of the bed - you seemed okay to walk, but he didn't let go. He needed to feel you, to know that you were there. He was worried you might float away into the galaxy and disappear all over again if he didn't cling onto you.

And for you, the feeling of his warm hands against yours was a welcome relief after a long few days. You were trying to push the pain and the incoming nightmares to the back of your head, and it was much easier when Poe was beside you. You already knew that he was going to make you sleep beside him that night. Being on the same wavelength so often was a great feeling.

Poe hadn't thought about tidying his room - why would he? He'd been so preoccupied with you, and finding you, that he'd barely considered the idea. Besides, it wasn't like you were going to care about the shoes by his door, or the letters on his desk, or the unfolded laund-

- fuck.

The letters.

Your box of letters, which was sat on his desk, which was right by the door.

By the time he'd even registered that they were there, you were already half way into the room. In a somewhat half-arsed attempt to shove them back in the box and toss them to the side, Poe dove forward and knocked them into an open draw, slamming it shut.

When he turned around and saw your wide eyes, it was clear he was a little too late. You'd already seen them.

taglist: tags: @neverlandlibrarian @asphyzzz @dream-alittlebiggerdarling @ubri812 @taina-eny @dessinemoiunehistoire @fangirl-316 @princessxkenobi @brandyllyn

[ruvatia]

Sorry if this is a bit much with everything going on, but could I request a scenario where the Paladins + Matt & Lotor have a black s/o and they’re scared abt everything that’s happening in their country and are sad that racial injustice is happening? I’ve been rlly worried the past few days, but if this is smth too uncomfy I understand ;w; Thank you 💖💖💖

This got really long, I apologize but I turned it into half-headcanons with just the main paladins-- i apologize for not doing all the characters you’ve mentioned, but I don’t think they would fit all in a single post anyways www

On another note I hope you and every other reader take good care of their mental health; it’s important to be aware of what’s going on but it’s also important to be in the right mindspace to be able to tackle everything that’s being shared. It’s pain that’s been boiling for a very long time and there is absolutely no shame in taking some downtime to recover before heading back into current issues.

SHIRO:

If you were saddened, Shiro would suggest that maybe you switch to something else; if there was something that he knows will distract you and temporarily have you be a little more at ease, he’d do that!

But also maybe add a little twist-- extra soft blankets (fresh out of the oven! Screw the bills you’re worth it), extra cheese on your favorite dish, whatever it is that can make your smile a little wider, bigger or brighter just let him know!

Would give you hugs if you asked, but usually Shiro pets your head and brushes your cheek for comfort

He also does this when he wants to ask something of you, but thats another story

Why the TV was still on was a mystery to you, you’d stopped listening a long time ago. Your partner besides you noticed, and you felt the hand around your shoulder tighten his grip a little, bringing you out of your thoughts.

“Hey, maybe we should watch something else?” he asked softly, brushing your cheek with his hand. “I can’t really listen to this anymore.”

“Yeah… Sure.” you replied, though it felt like an automated response more than your actual opinion.

“Okay, I’ll switch to that weird show Pidge recorded the other day, we agreed to watch it, right?” he replied, quickly grabbing the remote to change the program.

The first episode started playing, but the moment that it did, you felt cold as Shiro left your side.

“Where are you going?” you asked, your interlaced fingers the only thing keeping him close.

“Ah, I thought I’d make us something. We both kinda skipped dinner….”

He’d thought about putting something together that you’d like, maybe order dessert to surprise you but seeing the look on your face, leaving your side was the hardest thing to do right now.

So he gave in, and your both fell asleep until the doorbell rang with your delivery.

KEITH:

I have this headcanon that Keith isn’t very good with physical touch but after the end of voltron and after enough time of humanitarian relief, he learns how important it is for someone that’s in a specific state of mind

So the best he has to offer when his words fail is physical touch

Over your time together he’s learned what you need depending on your mood, and it helped him out lots when you were more vocal about it-- if anything he liked it when you asked for things that he could easily deliver, he’d do anything to see you smile

A hand came over your phone screen, Keith’s fingers lacing into yours and making you drop the device onto the crevices of the sofa.

“Why did you--”

“You’ve been staring at that thing for the past hour, biting at your nails.” he said in a worried tone. “That’s enough. We’re going to bed.”

“But it’s just--”

“We’re going to bed.” he repeated in a harsher tone, lifting you off your seat.

Keith sat down onto the bed first, pulling you into him. You both fell onto the bed, Keith quickly pulling the covers over your shoulders before his arms came around you.

“My alarm is my phone.”

“That’s nice, but we both know we have nothing to do tomorrow.” he replied right away, making you chuckle.

“Keith…” you called, your hands sneaking up to his face.

You brushed away some of his hair from his face as he gave you a complicated expression, unable to reflect the small smile you wore. He knew things were shit outside, that being apart from your family and other loved ones was a toll on both you and that lately negative thoughts have plagued you more often than not but Keith, despite his good intention was still somewhat of an awkward man.

“Thank you.”

He kissed you in reply and you both left it at that, glad that he had someone like you to meet him halfway.

LANCE:

Lots of hugs the moment he feels something is off with you

Will be a brat™ for the sole purpose of distracting you, bET

I feel like post-series Lance tries his best to be as observant as Allura and tries to understand others better-- but it didn't take a genius or incredible empath to know why your eyes looked like they were about to overflow at the sight of the news.

I’d like to think that Lance, with a big connected family is one of the paladins that very easily gets what you’re going through, wouldn’t be surprised he’s been called one or two things in his past either

That being said it doesn’t mean that he completely understands your personalized struggles with racial injustices that you encounter everyday; as another minority himself + coming from a culture and upbringing that might be different than yours, its a very different experience.

Memories flooded as the news anchor spoke about “lootings” and as you scrolled down your feed to see feeble attempts at sympathy from local peacekeepers. You sigh and retweet another thread, only to find something equally as shocking right after. You stopped commenting in quote retweets a while ago, you felt like you were constantly repeating that none of this was okay and that a reform was desperately needed. Rather than typing out your thoughts you typed out your name, address and email over and over again, signing one petition after the other.

Hearing sigh after sigh, Lance eventually put an arm around your shoulder. He startled you, but his soft voice made both your shoulders and your guard lower.

“Hey, do you want to make a midnight snack with me? I’m getting kinda hungry.”

“What about that new rule we were talking about? Not eating 4 hours before we went to bed?”

“Every diet has one or two cheat days, don’t they?” he replied, kissing one of your eyelids. “Come on, I’m sure your neck is sore from being like that for so long.”

In the end you both made some soul-food until a food-coma knocked you out until tomorrow. In the morning, you realized that Lance must’ve woken up in the middle of the night because you remember cuddling on the couch, and yet you’re waking up on the bed. Of course, still in his arms.

HUNK:

Having a sensible heart, I feel like both you and hunk would struggle a little about maintaining a healthy distance with current events.

Though overtime he would understand that keeping in touch with everything that’s going on is important, but not at the sake of burning out

His best bet, to him, to pull you out of a such a dark space is with comfort food

“Ok ppl feel like they want to eat a horse but they actually cant when they’re in that mind space Hunk, let’s make something sweet and small; something direct and straight to the point! Let’s add smiley faces on it!”

Your turned down the volume from the news, let your head fall backwards and brought up your forearm over your closed eyes. It felt warm and made it you realize that you had probably been staring very intensely at the screen as a wave of comfort hit your eyes the moment they were drowned in darkness. Letting out a deep breath, you stilled and let yourself bask in your thoughts until a familiar voice brought you back.

“Maybe a little bit more sugar? No, then it would be disbalanced. The base is already so sweet-- Ah, I have to take the cupcakes out or else they might get burned!”

You felt a smile grow on your lips, making you ignore the horrid news being broadcasted to turn to your partner that as usual, seemed to juggle ten thousand things to create a whole meal.

“What’s going on over here?” you asked, leaning over the counter to note that one of your favorite dishes was made and machines that were mostly used for baking had been brought out.

“Oh you know, just a little pick me up for my most favorite person ever.” he shrugged, but a smile soon came to his face. His hands were full but he leaned over, his lips meeting your cheek. “Things outside are a little dark, so I thought we could both use a little something nice.”

He turned on the machine after dropping a drop of dye to make it your favorite color and within a few minutes the icing was finished. Hunk scooped up a small amount on his finger and brought it to his lips and nod.

“Wanna taste?” he asked you, his finger dipping into the icing.

A mischievous grin spread on your features as you took his wrist and let his finger fall on your tongue, the sweetness quickly spreading through your mouth. The yellow paladin shivered as you let his digit hang in your mouth for longer than necessary, letting out a satisfied hum when you returned it to him.

“Tastes perfect.”

PIDGE:

She knew what could be fixed, she knew how to fix it but this meant she was also aware of how long such a transition would take

I think Pidge would be similar to Shiro: whatever she remembers that helps you be at ease, she would defect to that in hopes to maybe distract you for a while.

I don’t think Pidge is a very touchy person either, so if she reaches out to you _physically_ in worry, it’s a very clear sign she’s serious/anxious

I feel like she would reach out in other ways and then if she knew you were in a specific state of mind where touch was not useful, or if she just also wanted to try things out lol

As you watched the twisted information that was being shared on screen, another message caught your attention. Rather than a small red icon in the corner, a small window appeared in the middle of your computer screen.

<I found a way to modify notifications sent to another device.>

The video had stopped, every horrible gif about police brutality was paused and there was nothing else but the small window pidge had thrown onto your screen. You chuckled, and felt a pressure behind your working chair.

Another message popped up.

<You’ve been catching up with twitter for the past two hours. Surely you’re done now?>

A soft laugh came from you, making Pidge release a breath she didn’t know she was holding. You typed out an answer:

<Is it possible to be completely caught up with twitter? I follow like 500 accounts.>

<Okay, but half of them are just cat videos and the other half are just retweets of said videos.>

<Oh here I was thinking that this was an intervention to brighten my mood. We’re dragging each other’s follows now?>

<Oh please like you don’t want to be dragged, with that kind of follow list.>

<I can’t believe you’ve done this.>

You both laughed, before Pidge turned around and tapped your shoulder. She let her hand float in the air, yours coming to join it as a soon as your turned her way.

“Wanna take a nap?” she asked, letting her head fall onto your shoulder. “I had Chip make some hot chocolate, Hunk style.”

You squeezed her hand, putting your computer on sleep mode.

“Yeah, that sounds nice.”

[dark1k]

*slides into messages*

Hello, I am here to request. there’s lots of troubles Connor in RK1K let’s have some troubled Markus.

❛ you can’t save everyone. ❜

Troubled Markus my beloved <3 I took some liberty with this quote and I hope you like the result, thank you for requesting!

•••

“You’re frustrated with me.”

Connor was walking beside him, but his eyes stayed straight ahead and Markus noticed how his LED kept switching between intervals of yellow and red. He doesn’t remember a time, barring their first meeting in the helm of the ship, where he saw the other so exasperated.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Connor said, his voice flat and distant. Angry, then. Teetering towards furious. They reached New Jericho’s main office and Connor opened it, not bothering to wait for Markus to enter first, as he usually would. Instead, he strolled across the room directly to his desk and started shuffling through his DPD files with fervent speed.

Markus sighed and followed him inside, closing the door behind them.

“You seriously didn't expect me to just stand around and watch as that helpless android got mistreated, do you?” Markus asked, puzzled as to why they were having this conversation.

“Yes, I’m aware that you had to insert yourself in a dangerous situation, despite the fact that I was standing right beside you. An investigative, police android who was specifically designed to both handle and deescalate those types of scenes, thank you.” Connor was never this cold with him. They’d never been cold with each other. Everything was warm and electric; their discussions, how they woke up tangled in blankets, and whenever they grabbed onto the other's body in a desperate intensity.

“I had to help,” Markus hesitantly answered, touching his cheek and feeling how his polymer skin was starting to cover a scrape he got in the scuffle. Turns out their perpetrator had a strong right hook, but the leader barely felt his punch in the heat of the moment. “I led the revolution, Connor, I have a responsibility to our people. I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t help.”

“A responsibility?” Connor’s tone became incredulous, “How chivalrous of you.”

Markus dropped his briefcase on his desk, his own anger steadily rising. Why was this turning into an argument? If anything, they should be brainstorming future legislation ideas to prevent these kinds of anti-android crimes; they only encountered this one because they had some downtime in between meetings and decided to take a walk in the nearby park. “Well, I had it under control. I stopped the attacker and kept him restrained until DPD arrived — I don’t know why you’re getting so worked up over this when it doesn’t even affect you, Connor!”

Connor slammed the file he was holding with such force that Markus jumped, papers scattering across the desk. “Doesn’t affect me?! Are you serious? What if he had a concealed weapon, a knife or a gun, and used it? What if he wasn’t acting alone and you were suddenly outnumbered? You just run into these situations with no regard for your personal well-being, Markus! In case you haven’t noticed, we aren’t fighting in the revolution anymore!” Connor’s face was flushed a bright blue, his chest panting from the pressure of his shouts.

“Stop needlessly sacrificing yourself! Do you have a death wish? You can’t save everyone!”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Markus was screwed. He took a cautious step forward, “No! Of course I don’t want that to happen, Connor! I won’t ever let it get that far." Yeah, he definitely feels like an idiot now.

Connor shook his head and turned away, looking out their shared office window to the bustling streets of Detroit below. “Yes, well. It doesn’t matter what you want. You’re a public figurehead, there’s always going to be a risk when it comes to your safety for the rest of your life. But you clearly don’t seem to care about protecting yourself, let alone how your actions affect those in your life. What do you think I would do if you were ever seriously harmed? What about North, Josh, Simon, or the thousands of androids who see you as an inspiration?”

Markus stared at his back, embarrassed in the wake of such words. He never thought of it from their perspective, believing it was better for him to endure the pain rather than another android. He was almost tempted to drop to his knees and beg for Connor to understand, to forgive him. It was their first argument as a couple and the whiplash felt horrible. “Con, wait a minute.”

“No, you wait.” Connor snapped, shoving his fidgeting hands into the pockets of his slacks. “I can’t bear the thought of something happening to you, don’t you understand? It scares me, keeps me awake at night. It’s exhausting, constantly being reminded of the dangers circulating you.” Markus noticed how he curled in on himself, the spark that ignited their fight seemingly drained from his body. All that remained was a weary sense of defeat.

Markus felt like the worst boyfriend in the world, having been the one who caused the android he loved and cared for more than life itself, to feel anything other than happiness.

He took another slow step forward, raising his hands in the gesture of universal surrender. “You’re right and I’m sorry. I’m sorry for being careless when it comes to my safety and I’m sorry for not being more sympathetic of your feelings about it.” He saw Connor turn his head slightly, just enough to glance at Markus for a quick moment, but not enough to fully face him. Taking a deep breath to settle his nerves, Markus closed the last bit of distance and stood in Connor’s personal space.

“I just... hate seeing our people abused. How there are injustices done against them, after months of us tirelessly fighting and advocating for the right to live peacefully. But Connor, I swear, I do not want nor would I ever do anything that might endanger you or our relationship. I would be the biggest idiot to place something so important, so special, at jeopardy.” Bending down to stare into honey-colored eyes, Markus stressed his next statement. “I promise, I won’t jump head-first into those kinds of situations again. It was stupid. I’ll be better about cautioning myself, I’m sorry. Again."

Connor quirked a reluctant smile and muttered, “You sound like a broken record.” Turning to face him for the first time since barging into their office, he continued, “Thank you for understanding, I’m also sorry for yelling at you, Markus.”

But Markus just shook his head, indicating that he had nothing to apologize for. “Are we okay?”

Instead of nodding, Connor simply held up his hand and peeled back his polymer skin, sunlight gleaming off the white porcelain beneath. Markus did the same and accepted the request for an interface immediately. Fear from the attack, unease from their fight, and immense amounts of love easily flowed between both androids. It was a loop of growth and acceptance, a learning experience.

Their argument was settled and forgiven by the time they left New Jericho that evening.

[justfangirlthingies]

Caught my eye (Corpse Husband x reader)

Soulmate AU: In which everyone has one eye in their own eye colour and one in the colour of their soulmate. However, when you are close to meeting each other, your vision will change to the soulmate's one, letting you know you are close. When your eyes meet they will change their colour to their original eye colour.

Word count: 4189 words

Warnings: cursing because that is automatically given when writing about Corpse

Another Soulmate AU from my Wattpad account let's go!

Staring into the camera were a pair of, colourwise mismatched, eyes, one iris a deep brown and the other one a shimmering (e/c).

It was not unusual for someone to have two different eye colours in one set of eyes, it simply meant one had yet to find their significant other.

Pressing record on your camera you let your eyes stay right in front of the lens for a second before rolling backwards on your chair, your torso now in frame as well "Hello all of you beautiful individuals! I'm (y/yt/n) and as always I welcome you here!" You waved at your camera, a warm and welcoming smile gracing your lips. "In case this is your first time stumbling over this channel" you paused a second and giggled "Hi, welcome to this chaos!" Slowly you neared the camera again "Leave while you still can" you whisper shouted into your microphone.

"No hold on don't leave please! I was just kidding" You joked at your camera.

A happy sigh escaped your mouth as you leaned back in your chair "Today is q & a time isn't it?" You wiggled your eyebrows at the blinking light in front of you "Well let's get to it then...hmm...lemme see. Youtubetrash asks 'how old are you (Y/n)?' Do you always have to ask that question guys?" You scold playfully "I'm 19, but I really don't get why this is so important to you that I have to answer it in every video, like do you want to know the exact amount of days and minutes? Will you stop asking it every goddamn time then?" You chuckled as you ran a hand through your (h/l), (h/c) hair. "Right, next question! SusanIsAFish wants to know which eye colour my own is. I can easily answer that with either 'both are' or 'hell if I know' I've always had two eye colours like how am I supposed to know." A grin spread on your face as you continued to interact with your community's questions...

"Alright alright these are the last two questions guys. Nightmaresscareme...honestly same" you laughed as you read the users name out aloud. When you calmed down again you cleared your throat and continued "Ahem, anyways they wanna know if I found my soulmate already and who it is....Do I look like I found my soulmate?" You asked smiling as you approached the recording device once again and pointed a finger at each eye. "I have no Idea who it is but maybe you find whoever it is because all of you people are little Sherlock's I swear, you find out everything." Laughter erupted from your throat once again as you pointed at your camera.

"Last but not least, (y/n)stan asks 'when will you collab with Jack again? The two of you promised to make a video or something together?' Woah calm down, honestly I don't even think he remembers that, it was years ago. How do you even remember that (y/n)stan? I swear to god that's exactly what I meant with ya'll being Sherlock's." You wiggled your eyebrows again "But if you do remember, Seán and you magically happen to see this video. What happened to our collab plans dude?" You giggled "Alrighty guys that's it for today's video. Stay awesome my dudes, dudettes and in betweens and I'll see ya in the next one!" You winked and waved before stopping your recording and going straight to editing your video.

Just as you were about to upload your piece of work, your phone rang, scaring you in the process and causing you to delete your video. You groan in frustration holding your head in your palms.

"This better be important..." you mumbled to yourself as you went to check your phone. Seriously?! It was a Twitter notification. You sighed and ignored it for now, saving your video was a priority right now.

After hours of retrieving and re-editing your footage you finally uploaded the video to the worldwide known platform and picked up your phone to see what Twitter wanted from you.

As you opened the app you saw that it was a private message from none other than Jacksepticeye. What a freaking coincidence you thought, a smile now appearing on your face as you read the message. All your frustration was gone and instead replaced with confusion and laughter.  "What kind of message is that?" You muttered as you shook your head laughing.

Jacksepticeye:

Hey (Y/n) what colours are your eyes again?

(Y/T/N):

What kinda question is that? Lmao

Jacksepticeye:

Just answer my question dum dum :)

■

■

■

■

A raven haired male was on a discord call with his online friend that he had just revealed his face to. "Jack what are you doing now?" The young man laughed at his friend.

"Hold on, I'm texting someone."

The dark haired man sighed and waited "that's not very polite you know" he smiled.

"Pschh I'm finding your soulmate, what's impolite about that?" The Irish man looked up from his phone and back at his Computer screen. Only to start laughing at the other's reaction.

"Corpse? You good?" He kept on laughing at the dumbfounded expression on Corpse's face.

Who as a reaction turned off his camera, suddenly feeling very insecure towards his friend again.

"What do you mean?" His deep voice asked cautious.

"Don't worry man I'm not leaking your face or any info to anyone" he smiled reassuringly. "Your eyes just reminded me of someone else with the same or very similar ones. At least I hope I remember their eye colours correctly" He rambled on.

"Oh..." came from the other line, which was now more quiet than usual.

Seán noticed the change in his friend's behaviour and immediately stopped what he was doing. "I'm sorry Corpse..." the Irishman scratched bis neck awkwardly "I should've asked you first"

"I-it's fine. I just can't imagine anyone wanting to be my soulmate" the male sighed.

His friend flashed an encouraging smile at the screen "Dude! Anyone would be happy to be your soulmate. I know I would be! You are great, I know you probably don't believe me but I mean it bud. Besides, your soulmate is your other half, it's like they were made for you"

One could hear a sigh coming from the black screen as Corpse turned his camera back on, his pink tinted cheeks now showing up on screen as well. He had put his eye-patch on, leaving only his brown eye visible. "And you're really sure?" He asked quietly.

"100% sure! Anyone with half a brain would know how lovable you are" the blue eyed male grinned. "Besides, the person I'm thinking of also has a YouTube channel, I think I still owe them a collab, sooo I could maybe invite them to play some kind of-"

He cut himself off. "They answered!"

■

■

■

(Y/T/N):

Well they're like brown and (e/c), it's such a weird mix though.

Jacksepticeye:

Interesting.

Hey (Y/n), how about we do that collab? You could fly out and we meet up

(Y/T/N):

You still remember that? XD

Yeah sure I'd love that, I just had someone ask me about that collab today.

But seriously dude why are my eyes interesting to you all of a sudden? You found my soulmate or smth 🧐😂

Jacksepticeye:

😏😌🤭🤫

Right....

So when are you coming?

(Y/T/N):

Dude!

You literally just asked me if I even wanna come! Like come on, you think I've booked a flight already? Just like 10 minutes after you asked me to travel there?

Jacksepticeye:

As a matter of fact I don't just think so, I know it ;)

So when do I have the honors of picking your jet-lagged ass up at the airport?

(Y/T/N):

:(

...

This weekend

Time skip

A happy sigh escaped your lips as you felt the plane reaching the ground of its destination. You swiftly grabbed your bag and left the plane to get the rest of your luggage.

A yawn escaped your mouth as you grabbed your stuff, staying awake during the whole flight probably wasn't your best idea, but you couldn't help it. To you it was simply impossible to fall asleep on a journey by plane.

Your eyes skimmed the airport as you were searching for your friend.

After a few minutes of looking around you decided to sit down and wait, he was probably still on his way to the airport.

Just as you decided to open up your phone you got smacked in the face... With a balloon? "What the hell?" You whispered as you were pulled up from your seat and embraced. "(Y/N)! Hey! I haven't seen you in forever"

You looked up a little confused as you reciprocated the hug. "Well hello to you too Seán"

He chuckled and grabbed one of your bags before dragging you with him. "How can you be so motivated and energetic?" You giggled and tried to keep up with your Irish friend. "That (Y/n), is simply because I'm not sleep deprived like you"

■

■

■

Setting up his stream was a curly haired nervous mess. He was always nervous when he had to stream. But today was somehow worse.

The half Mexican ran his fingers through his hair. It was just a game with friends right? However, he had never played this game before.

His nerves getting to him caused Corpse to cancel the idea of a stream. "I'll just be there and play along, that's fine too. I don't need to stream every time I'm playing a game with my friends..." he muttered to himself.

With a bottle of water beside him he started the game and went through the tutorial. "Man this game is fucking cute" he laughed before joining the discord call, just to be engulfed in a complete chaos of voices.

"Hey Corpse is here! Hi hi!" A Swedish voice boomed through his headphones along with the rest of the group greeting him. "Hey guys" he replied as he joined their server in the game. "So what are we doing? Why is no one starti-" the deep voice started but was cut of by someone else.

■

■

■

"HOLY FUCKING- Who the hell was that?! Hello by the way" The whole call erupted in laughter at the reaction of the (h/c) haired individual.

"Uhh hi, that was me" Corpse answered laughing as he scratched his head nervously "and you also just answered my question for me thank you, whoever you are" Everyone laughed once again.

"Okay but seriously who are you?" Dave asked.

"Jack! You said you told em that I'd join" you huffed as you glanced At your friend next to you, you were sharing one discord account for this call as you sat right next to each other and didn't want the quality of the call to go down because of an echo. Both of you streamed online on twitch.

"Whoops! I thought I did" he chuckled once more as he introduced you to the party. "Well then..." he coughed in an attempt to clear his throat "Drum-roll please! this is (Y/n), they came to visit me this weekend. (Y/n), that's Dave, Felix, Joel, PJ and Corpse."

"Hi" you said suddenly a little nervous because you thought everyone knew you'd join.

Luckily no one seemed to mind that you were here as they greeted you. In fact, they seemed ecstatic to meet you.

"So have any of you not played this before?" Pewds asked the group. "Uh yeah, me" Yours and the deep voice said simultaneously. "But I did the tutorial" Corpse added. "Well I didn't" you laughed. "Great then we're all set, shame on you though (Y/n)!" Seán shouted.

"Jeez man, you told me to skip it and I can hear you! I'm right next to you and not deaf in case you didn't know" you sassed back, causing laughter to bounce through your headset once more.

"(Y/n) and Corpse you two haven't played before that means you count as one person for the group things cause both of you are noobs and if you count as one we have even team numbers" The swede joked.

■

■

■

"We're the Meowfia" Jack laughed, starting off with his puns for this game.

(Y/n) snorted at that as everyone chose the animals of their teams. Corpse chose the cat with an eye-patch along with his team. "Maan this is peer pressure!" Your voice called out "lucky for me I like cats"

"That is the truth" the Irish voice boomed through the call once again, "I mean you should see, even their headphones have cat ears"

"I wanna see that!" Dave shouted.

"Can we see them in your cam Jack?" PJ asked.

"Not completely, they're streaming on Twitch though, its at (Y/YT/N) on Twitch and YouTube" Seán smiled as he pat your back.

"You can't just expose me like that!" The cute voice answered panicking.

"I gotta see that, hold on!" Felix shouted as he opened up your stream smirking as he followed you. "Corpse, they'll ruin your life" he continued as your cheeks flushed a bright red, suddenly feeling so exposed and put on the spot "why...why am I ruining his life?" You asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Corpse had also opened up your account as he stared in awe at the enchanting individual now on his computer screen. Were you the one Jack had meant? No it couldn't be.

"Well you see, he wrote a song about cat girls ruining his life. Right Corpse?" This statement made him come back to reality and quite flustered at that "Huh? What-  ...ohhh uhm- uh- yeah" he responded in a stutter, the pale skin of his cheeks heating up and turning red.

"Corpse are you alright?" you asked, concern not only laced in your voice but also written all over your face, which he saw. This whole ordeal just made him blush more. There was a short pause "...Yeah.." the raven haired responded. But not even a second later a laugh erupted in the call "Did we just catch you right handed?" The voice belonged to Dave. "What do you mean?" Corpse asked confused. While he waited for a response from his friend, he started fiddling with his rings as he kept his eyes on (Y/N)'s stream which was still pulled up on his screen. "Well, did we catch you watching her stream?" Dave replied trying to hold in his laughter.

Your expression changed as your eyes went wide and you looked right at your camera "Is that true?" Your voice chimed in as a hint of pink spread across your cheeks, one of your eyebrows arched. "Well..." The man with the username 'CORPSE' cleared his throat "I had to see if Jack and Felix were speaking the truth..."

A smirk spread across your face "And? Were they honest?" you laughed as your Irish companion moved his face into the frame of your camera wiggling his eyebrows. The only answer you got to your question was silence before the deep voice continued "Alright let's start this game." Yet another laugh escaped your throat when you noticed the lack of a reply to your question. However, one could say that silence was an answer on its own.

■

■

■

The young guy sighed loudly after the game had ended, rolling back, away from his table, in his gaming chair he ran his hands through his curly hair. The game was fun, but it was exhausting for the man to concentrate on a game this long. Just as he was about to get up, turn all devices off and leave, he heard a familiar sound coming from his computer screen.

A discord call and video call at that was incoming from none other that Jacksepticeye. So, Corpse rolled forward in his chair again as he checked if his camera was turned off and covered. After reassuring himself that his face was hidden he accepted the call. "Hey whaddup?" He greeted his loud friend who immediately responded with a "Hey my man". His mismatched eyes widened as he looked at the screen, it was not only Jack on the call...they were there as well, a shy smile plastered on their face as they kept their eyes closed "Hey Corpse, tell me when your camera is off. Sean told me it might be on and I don't want you to accidentally expose yourself to me." "Oh yeah, it's off. You can open your eyes it's fine." Just as he finished his sentence their eyelids slowly fluttered open as they stared at the black screen and waved. There was no way to describe the feeling that went through him as he admired you in awe. He seemed starstruck and without thinking he blurted out "You have to visit San Diego sometime, but like soon"

Your eyes widened slightly not knowing how to respond to that "Umm...yeah I dunno, maybe someday?" Jack gasped dramatically "You never invited me over even though I'm the one you trusted enough to show your face to!"

Yet another time today, the male behind the black screen felt a blush grow on his face. "Well i-it's your fault for introducing me to your friend. And umm sorry if I was a bit too blunt there" He stuttered. "No it's fine. I'm a very spontaneous person ya know." You replied an embarrassed smile gracing your lips once more "But you could be a killer for all I know...sorry you probably hear that one a lot haha. Also, would you even be comfortable enough to meet up..." slowly you started drifting off with what you were saying. As soon as you realized you were trailing off of the topic at hand, you tried to get back to the conversation "ahem.. yeah, anyways as I was saying...someday sure. I mean...I am traveling around at the moment because I flew to Brighton. Maybe you know, we could get to know each other a bit better first" you smiled nervously as you replied.

"Ah yes...of course. Though I do have a question for you Seán. Is (Y/n) the one we spoke of a few days ago?" came back as a reply. He had a plan to gain their trust if they really were his suspected soulmate. The man next to (Y/n) nodded and gave a wink to the camera they used for the call. This action just confused you even more and it must have shown on your face because your loud friend started laughing at you. "Don't worry it was nothing bad" Jack reassured. "Hold on, is this about the random-" there was a lot of shuffling coming from the black screen. The noise had startled you a bit, causing you to stop mid sentence. "the random question about my eyes?" You continued your question, looking at that Irish friend of yours, but you didn't get a reply for there was another loud noise coming from Corpse's side of the screen. You shifted your attention back to the screen in front of you again just to be met with more shuffling and a sudden colour change of the screen. Your eyes widened as you saw a face only briefly for a split second before your vision suddenly changed. You looked around to see an unfamiliar room and as you saw the sight before your eyes you felt as though they were going to pop out of their sockets at any moment.

No...

No fucking way...

"Holy shit" you heard the words leave both your mouths. You just stared at the screen in front of you to see yourself, who apparently sat on the other side of the screen next to Seán. And you also saw the live view of a young man with black curly hair, dressed in black in a small window of the computer. You felt really dizzy all of a sudden and the light before your eyes went black briefly before returning to more used surroundings again.

Realisation dawned on you as you blinked a few times and spoke aloud "I-I just imagined that right? There's no way. C-Corpse you didn't happen to experience that right now, did-did you?"

"Holy fuck..." you heard a low mutter coming from the speakers.

Jack looked at you, eyebrows raised in confusion for a second before realization dawned on him and a knowing smirk appeared on his face as he shouted "CALLED IT!"

The two of you could not yet comprehend what was happening, let alone listen and realize what your mutual friend had to say.

After a few minutes of complete silence you tore your eyes away from the pen on Jack's desk, which had become the most interesting thing and perfect staring partner for the past minutes and shifted your gaze back to the young raven-haired individual before you, a small smile and a huge blush grazing your facial features as you spoke up, voice quiet and soft, but also full of nervousness "soo...umm...Corpse, are you gonna give me that address in San Diego?"

The question stood in the room for a few moments as silence engulfed you once again. Corpse's expression on his bright red face however, showed he was pondering."Y-yeah of course...sure...I-I'll text it to you if you give me that number of yours..." Then there was a pause. "Whe-When can I expect you then?"

This time it was your turn to think. "How about directly when you leave Brighton?" Jack chimed in. "But th-that's like in two days..." you stuttered in response. It was a nice idea and you did feel a pull to meet this handsome stranger as soon as possible. "Well yeah, that's the point is it not? I already checked for flights while you two where staring off somewhere....Sooo? Should I buy the ticket real quick? You can thank me later." Your mismatching eyes kept switching your gaze from your friend who had made this crazy suggestion and your apparent soulmate who now wore an eyepatch and was watching you expectantly while patiently awaiting your answer. A small sigh left your lips as you made your decision. When you tried to verbally answer though, your voice had left you, so you made eye-contact with the man also known as Corpse Husband, who had trusted you enough to reveal his face to you, and just gave him a small nod. He seemed to understand and gave you a reassuring smile.

"It's final then?" Seán, who had watched this whole ordeal unfold asked smiling happily as you just nodded once again "Y-yeah"

■

■

■

Two days later you found yourself on yet another plane ride, but this time it was not to England, nor was its destination your home. You sat on your seat in silence, music which you couldn't concentrate on, blasting through your headphones while you  twiddled with your fingers, bouncing your leg up and down quickly. What were you gonna say? He would pick you up outside of the airport in order to avoid bumping into things when the view-switching-thing would happen.

■

■

■

Meanwhile, the faceless YouTuber had finished tidying up his apartment and prepared everything for your arrival. He would be lying if he said he didn't look you up on the socials to learn more about you.

About half an hour before the plane would land he drove off to your designated meeting spot. He arrived there 10 minutes early so he could mentally prepare himself. About 5 minutes later he put on his black face mask and exited his car. At first he was gonna wait for you here, but his nerves and heart got the better of him, so he made his way closer inside the airport building to meet you halfway. What he didn't know was that your plane would land early. So, as he made his way through the people, which was way out of his comfort zone already, he started to see black dots clouding his view, but suddenly he came from the other side. Oh no. The body kept walking until he saw himself in the crowd.

Your eyes met as you tried to navigate through the crowd of people, it was hard as you had to control your own body somehow even though you could only see what your soulmate would usually see. Finally you had gotten somewhat closer to one another and as you came to a halt, your bodies mere inches apart as your eyesight returned to your own again. You looked up at the man in front of you in awe. Your eyes were fixated on his as you noticed the (e/c) in his one eye fade away, just to be replaced by this beautiful shade of brown that was in his other eye. The colour you knew so well because you had seen it in the mirror in one of your own eyes everyday. "Your eyes" you whispered. He smiled in return "yours too..it's nice to meet you (Y/n). My soulmate. You are even more dazzling in person" he complimented. "I can't say anything else besides the same applies to you" You smiled in return as your face went red. "Well then...Shall we?" he grinned as he took one of your backpacks and started walking. "Hey! Wait up!" You laughed as you ran to catch up to your soulmate...

[writingtoforgetreality]

I’m Only Me When I’m With You (Sam Wilson x Reader)

Request: Hello! Hope this ask finds you well! May I request a Sam Wilson x reader in which the reader is very stubborn but finds herself falling for Sam despite trying to resist those feelings? Thank you so much! I hope you stay safe and healthy during these crazy times! (by @agentmalfoy24601), [Marvel-Masterlist]

Summary: You liked Sam. Was it a secret? You hoped so but your team would state otherwise. While the teasing was funny & all, it actually made you distance yourself from your feelings even more. Luckily, there was a certain someone who could see right through you.

Words: 1,990

Warnings: language, feels, fluff, this is a cute one, I love Sam but barely anyone writes for him :(, slight TFATWS spoilers, (Y/E/C) = your eye color, REQUESTS ARE OPEN!

If you like my work & wanna support me: a coffee would be highly appreciated ❤

“Nope, forget it.” you argued with the three men in front of you. “I understand that this mission is important but I will not pretend to be his wife.” your finger pointed at Sam while your eyebrows raised.

“You could always pretend to be my partner.” Zemo reasoned. Shaking your head, you let out a scoff.

“(Y/N) & Zemo? Makes a cute couple.” Bucky spoke up & earned a death glare from not only you but also Sam. Though you did not see what Wilson was doing. Not in this moment.

“I hate every single one of you.” you snarled through gritted teeth.

“Sure.” Bucky mumbled almost inaudible, followed by a low chuckle.

The thing about this mission was that you knew if you played pretend next to Sam, it would not actually be pretending from your side. Truth was, you were falling for him. More than you would have liked to admit. You were not born yesterday, you were aware that relationships did not work out. Not with a job as dangerous as yours. Besides, this was Wilson you were talking about. Hell, he could have anyone, he would never choose someone like you. And you did not want him to choose you. Relationships complicated things. Complications led to danger & danger led to death. The rest of the team, especially Bucky, had picked up on the fact that you kind of liked Sam. And they teased the shit out of you. They even made bets on how long it would take the two of you to start dating. No way would you give in. Nope. That was not in your nature.

Though you had to admit that Sam did not make your plan of burying your feelings deep down any easier. Most of the times, he did not even realize the effect he had on you. It was simple things, really. The way he moved his body. How his shirts fit just right. This heartwarming smile of his that had you weak at the knees. His efforts to make you smile constantly, especially after failed missions. He was a good guy. And good guys never chose people like you. An acquaintance. That was what you were to him. Maybe it was for the better anyway.

“(Y/N)?” you heard Bucky’s voice coming from the closed door to your room. Jogging over there, you slowly opened it for him, checking if it really was him & not a threat or something. He entered after you stepped aside as a silent invitation.

“What’s up?” you were fixing up your appearance for the upcoming party you all had to attend. The outfit you wore made you feel like a strong goddess. The colors complemented perfectly, hugging every curve in the best way possible. It was not often when you got to dress up like that but when you did, it definitely paid off.

“Tell Sam you like him.” Bucky wasted no time with his words. Spinning around in order to face him, you gave him your best dumbfounded look. It made him roll his eyes. “I’m being serious.”

“How much money do you win if I do?” you asked curiously, knowing that this was most likely just part of one of their stupid bets.

“Zero, actually. Because I said you’d get together after this mission.” you gave him a look that he gladly ignored. “But that’s not the point…I do believe that the tension between you guys will be unbearable, though.”

“Oh, come on, dude. You’re totally exaggerating.” you gave an awkward chuckle to hide your embarrassment.

“I’m afraid I’m right.” he sat down on one of the chairs, then looked into your eyes. “I don’t know why you make such a big deal outta it. You like him. He likes you-“

“Which is not true. You’re just assuming shit.”

“He likes you. (Y/N), you’re not the same when you’re not with him.” his words were soft, the sincerity clearly shown.

“The hell is that supposed to mean?” your arms raised in confusion. Plopping down on your bed, you sighed loudly.

“He completes you. I didn’t think it was possible, actually. I used to laugh at people when they said stuff like that.” he chuckled. “You & Sam deserve to be happy. You belong with each other.” when there was a long pause from you, Bucky got up & approached the door. Stopping briefly after touching the doorknob to turn around & face you. “Please think about it, (Y/N).” shooting you one last warm smile, he exited. Leaving you alone with the silence being your only company.

Bucky was one of your best friends. You knew he would not lie to you. Not about something like that. And even though he loved messing with you, he was serious when he talked to you just now. Yes, you liked Sam. Of course you did. How could you not? His broad shoulders, muscles that you only ever got to see when he decided to change in front of you (which did not happen often enough for your liking). But why were you even thinking about that? If you were honest, you were not even sure if you would go on a date with him if he decided to ask. Was it to protect him & the others? Or was it to protect yourself from possible heartbreak? Or was it just to show yourself & the others that you were not someone who gave in easily? Not when everyone around you pushed you to do something. Wanted you to do something.

There was another knock on your door. This time, your head was thrown back in frustration. Bucky was a pain in the ass sometimes. He did not even give you enough time to go talk to Sam if you planned on doing so. Which you were not. Walking over to the door, you prepared a speech for Barnes.

“You know you’re actually an awful frien-“ you stopped dead in your tracks when the door opening revealed that it was not Bucky who came to invade your privacy again. It was Sam. Realizing what you just said, you started stuttering out an apology. “Oh God, Sam. I’m so sorry. I thought Bucky was-“

“No worries.” his laugh warmed your heart as much as you disliked to admit it. “Can I…?” he gestured to your room. Quickly stepping aside, you motioned for him to enter, apologizing once more. Why were you even saying sorry? There was literally no need to.

“You-You look gorgeous.” he eyed you up & down, taking in your appearance. Training your eyes down to the floor, you regained your composure a second later. You were not the embarrassed type.

“You don’t look too bad yourself, Wilson.” winking at him & his black turtleneck. Sam wearing this? Well, it did things to you. He patted the spot next to him on your bed. Getting the message, you walked over & seated yourself right beside him, body facing his. The most gorgeous brown eyes locked with your (Y/E/C) ones. It was hard to look away. Like you were trapped in them. But truth was, you did not want to look away. Sam was the first one to speak up. Voice only a whisper.

“What are we doing?” he asked & you furrowed your eyebrows in confusion.

“W-What?” you really had no clue what he was talking about.

“This.” he gestured between you two. “What are we doing?”

“Well, Zemo said we’ll have to pretend to be married, right? So I guess we should just stay close to each other at all times & then see-“ you got interrupted by him shaking his head frantically, a smile still on his lips.

“I’m not talking about the mission, (Y/N).” his eyes met yours once more, an expectant expression on his face.

“O-Okay?” your head tilted to the side.

“Why are you making this even harder?” he sighed frustratingly but you could hear the sarcasm in his tone.

“I’m sorry?” it was more of a question, really. Quickly, he shook his head, one of his hand moving on top of yours.

“No, please don’t apologize. You do that way too often.” he chuckled. “Am I the only one thinking that there’s something between us?” your face changed in realization. No. Whatever he was doing, you hoped he would not go that way. If he did, it could ruin your entire friendship. And you were not sure if you could live without him. You did not want to live without him.

“I’m- I mean…I think we shouldn’t-“ you started only to be interrupted by him again.

“Why shouldn’t we?” he asked, voice raising just the slightest bit. You gave him a shrug in return, eyes focusing on his hand on top of yours in your lap. “Oh, I think I get it.” Sam started again when he realized that you were not planning on giving him an actual answer. “You’re scared.” this statement made you glance at him. He smirked at your expression because he knew that he had you now. “You’re scared that this won’t work out. And you don’t wanna give in.”

“Don’t wanna give in?” you played dumb but actually, it shocked you how well Sam knew you. Yeah, you had been close friends for a while now but still, nobody else could read you like he did.

“People have been bugging you to go out with me, haven’t they?” his eyebrows raised while waiting for you to confirm this. After a few moments, you nodded slightly. “That’s one of the reasons we aren’t dating yet.” he was straight forward with all of this. Like he had been preparing this speech for ages. Maybe he had, who knew?

“Yeah? You seem pretty damn sure about this.” you smirked at his certainty. Deep down, you knew he was right. But a little teasing never killed nobody, right?

“I know I’m right.” he pointed out, mimicking your smirk.

“Is that so? And why do you think that?”

“Because you’re too stubborn for your own good sometimes. “ you should feel hurt by him calling you out on this but you felt the exact opposite. It just showed you how much he actually paid attention to you. “You’re too stubborn & you like to do things your way. So when people tell you to do something…you tend to do the exact opposite.” his bright smile plastered one on your face as well.

“Guilty.” suddenly, it was way too silent. Not the usual silence but one that was uncomfortably quiet, even more so than normal. His hand cupping your cheek brought you back to reality. Leaning into his touch involuntarily, you closed your eyes briefly. Sam took the chance & closed the gap between you two. You were frozen in place at first but found yourself melting into the kiss soon. It was better than you ever imagined. And you were glad that he was the one who took that first step. Because you were, you had to agree with Sam here, way too stubborn to deal with this yourself.

After breaking away from each other, he rested his forehead against yours. Neither of you said anything for a few minutes. You simply enjoyed being with each other. Bucky’s words made their way into your mind again & you could not help but start laughing.

“What?” Sam pulled back, looking at you with that charming smile of his. Oh, how he loved when you laughed.

“Just…” you shook your head. “Bucky told me earlier today that I’m only myself when I’m with you. And I think I finally know what he meant.”

“Yeah? What did he mean?” he inquired.

“You know me better than I know myself.” this made him smile even wider. Leaning in one more time, he pressed another loving kiss to your lips. Wherever this was going, you could not wait for your journey with Sam.

Published (04/29/2021) by Cathy

Tags: @bibliophilewednesday, @msmarvelsmain, @babygirlwilly, @patricexirene (thanks for your support <3)

[strawberryjamsara]

Keiji and Sara’s relationship throughout yttd

In which I analyze the found family dynamic between Sara and Keiji then nobody reads it. But jokes aside, I realized back when that anon asked me for my thoughts on Sara that I had enough thoughts on the relationship between these two alone for its own meta so here goes. What Sara and Keiji’s relationship means in the grand scheme of yttd.

ALSO THIS IS NOT SHIPPING SHIPPERS GET THE FUCK AWAY

Sara when she meets Keiji is distrustful of him. And how can she not be? The guy has some creepy bags under his eyes, doesn’t seem to care about the situation, and for no reason is gravitating towards her. And his response when she asks why the hell he keeps putting a random stranger in charge? “Because you’re cute.” Yeah. I’d stay within 50 feet of this guy too Sara. Especially when he’s not spilling a word about himself.

Alright we might as well get the gross part out of the way. To clear things up. In the Japanese version, the word he uses “Kawai” can be seen as a more fatherly word to use with a kid. But the comments about going on dates from himself and from Shin? Those are still there. And I still think they’re really uncomfortable and wish they weren’t in the game period but we can get thematic significance out of them.

We still don’t know Keijis reasons in game for being attached to Sara. My theory? She’s his handicap. He was told to get close to the higher scorer who could easily backstab him, and he’d be stuck with her. It just kinda makes sense to me. But since that’s just a theory I won’t lean to heavily on it for support. But let’s talk about his comments.

Keiji… well, it’s shown at many points in the game that Keiji just thinks of himself as doomed to be a bad person. It can be seen during his day two negotiations when he calls himself a killer and explains he can’t even trust himself so Sara shouldn’t really bother and more explicitly so is the classroom scene between him and Ranmaru where he says he isn’t fit to protect Sara because of his sins. The flirting is both a way to distract people, and to put distance between himself and Sara. He’s not really “protecting” her.

Okay gross bit nobody wants to talk about is over I promise we won’t talk about it again. Let’s talk about Russian Roulette. In this scene, Keiji once again tries to make Sara the leader with no explanation, but then, Sara yells at him, something he didn’t expect. And through this he actually reveals something huge. The source of his trauma. His shooting. For Keiji to have actually revealed something that big, I think that this is the first moment he began to see Sara past whatever reason he first started making her a leader. This is the beginning of their bond.

This bond gets solidified over chapter 1-2s investigation. Keiji is still putting her in charge because his handicap said to build her up for whatever reason, but they’re able to have chats, and she keeps picking at his armor. He reveals his dark sense of humor to her, and she, suspicious just sort of keeps him at arms length. Also she rides his shoulders to screw in a light and he complains which is funny. The scene post Nao also helps the two of them sharpen investigative skills together, as they discuss the mystery of Miley, and Mishimas head.

Then another significant scene. The white room. I call this scene significant because, instead of letting Sara investigate the gruesome scene of the first trial, Keiji for the first time, allows Sara to walk out. Something that will become relevant later but until then, Keiji has begun to put Sara’s well-being above serving whatever purpose he had by building her up. So keep that in your pocket while we go over the main game.

There’s only two points for the main game I want to cover. While Keiji and Sara do put their heads together a few times, Sara still doesn’t fully trust him, so I will only go over 1. When Shin brings up Kai’s emails. Keiji has been fully logical this whole time, questioning everyone’s alibis including Nao’s who he saw the emotional plea from, but when Sou brings up potentially damning evidence of Sara, he just asks if he read the emails wrong. 2. When Sara is panicking over being chosen for the final round, Keiji loudly shouts “GET A GRIP SARA!” With a serious expression. Before quickly backtracking and going back to a devil may care expression. This shows he is both already emotionally attached to Sara, but unwilling to stake himself towards giving himself to a new cause.

Anyways, he stops her from pressing the button blah blah blah, onto chapter 2! I’ve made a post about this before but it seems as early as here, Keiji is trying to talk Sara down from pushing herself further. But at this point, Sara has already dedicated herself to the role because her best friend died due to her priority to protect everyone. Keiji sees the problem and he tries to get her to rest up, but he still doesn’t spend the time to have a serious talk about it because as he says in the classroom. He isn’t fit to protect her. He doesn’t think of himself as a good person who can help her. He thinks of himself as a murderer and he doesn’t allow himself to recover from the trauma.

Sara however is starting to rely more on Keiji. He’s been willing to comfort her in her times of grief and furthermore, she has something to relate to him on. They both have deaths of important people in their lives they feel responsibility for.

There’s also the fact that Keiji sees a lot of his old self in Sara. An idealistic person, being beaten down, and worrying over the idea they might be becoming a bad person. He feels the same as her.

Not to mention… Keiji follows through on his promises. He actually tells Sara about the person he respected like he said he would which establishes a further sense of trust.

However, something that tears that sense of trust apart is the tokens scene. When Keiji doesn’t even let Sara hold 50 tokens, it raises suspicion. Sara already knows he shot a person- what more could he have to hide? That scares her away. The negotiation event is an attempt for Keiji to win back her trust. But it slowly turns into Keiji’s self-loathing session. And his declaration maybe Sara shouldn’t trust him.

However, time passes enough (and Keiji supports Sara enough in the final attraction) for them to get together and investigate in 2-2. And there’s a lot of moments I can talk about there so I’ll be just doing a few rapidfire things. So first, Sara is in peak weird girl mode and Keiji can hardly control her chaos. Second, Keiji makes a full on decision at one point to go against Sara when she’s putting herself in danger of getting caught for their search so they can hide. Third, his response to “I don’t intend to die” when he asks “will you die with me” is that’s a good answer.

And fourth… a moment I really wanna touch on… Keiji watches something that could easily incriminate Sara. It’s not just some word of mouth thing like with Shin who lied about things several times before this point. But in that moment, he still relies on Sara and says he wouldn’t feel bad betting his life on her. The message is clear. Keiji supports Sara unconditionally.

Now let’s talk about Keiji totally dropping Sara’s ass with the card trades.

The way Keiji makes his trades is very telling. He first, steals a keymaster card from either Sou or Kanna to give to Sara. This is supporting Sara, but it’s doing it in a way that supports his view of himself. That he’s a scumbag who would steal someone’s immunity just to give it to someone he likes more. And would a shithead like that be “worthy” of sacrificing themselves and taking the card for Sara? (And he knew she had it. Qtaro had to tell him for their plan to happen) no. Instead he essentially opts for a revenge plot. A plan to ensnare Shin and kill him for pawning off the sacrifice to Sara. Basically, he wanted to fuck up Shin like how he fucked up Megumi. Nice going Keiji. This is… kind of his low point in the story.

But 3-1….. man this chapter hits in all the right ways. I don’t remember 3A that much, (although I do know that Keiji shows a lot of concern over Sara potentially being triggered by Joe memorabilia) and also if you fail the Keiji Midori fight you can have Sara attempt to tag Keiji and he rejects. And how can we forget… the mr policeman flashback. As Sara says, this is Keiji’s first time opening up on his own.

And then… coffin saga. Sara through everything is not willing to let Keiji die. Although she’s had her ups and downs with him, leaving him to die is inconceivable to her with everything they’ve been through together. So she opts to sign the contract both times she is offered it.

Keiji clearly is somebody important to Sara. Important enough that Ranmaru bringing him up is enough to snap her out of her murderous trance. Enough that she throws logic out the window when she has a sign he’s okay.

Likewise, the scene in the classroom for Keiji is… a huge step. When he’s alone with Ranmaru, who is unstable, in that classroom, his priority is Sara. He turns his back to the threat to hold Sara and try and make sure she’s okay- dumb move, but it shows how far he’s come.

And again, I want to reiterate- Keiji is Sara’s anchor. At the banquet when Sara is about to give up, she imagines Keiji talking to her which brings her back in the game. Much like Joe did back in chapter 2. The message is palpable. Keiji is Sara’s new Joe. And when Keiji comes back to comfort her? He’s now fully willing to sacrifice himself. It winds up not being needed seeing as Qtaro is the one that died. But in that moment, we see Keiji has made a huge leap from chapter 2. He almost sacrificed himself for Gin. And he would’ve used his final moments to comfort Sara. He’s embraced that he’s a father figure. He allows himself to be a good person.

Anyways I don’t know how to conclude this and I’ve been writing for hours. Bababooey.

[threecrowsinatrenchcoat]

So Give Me Hope In The Darkness

Dukeceit Week Day 4: Free Day

Janus comes to him scared and broken. And there is nothing Remus wouldn’t do to help him. 

AO3 Link: [here]

Word Count: 8855

Warnings: violence, dehumanization/people as test subjects, implied past abuse.

@dukeceitweek <3

-

“Remus, the transport’s here. You ready?”

Remus looked up from where he had been meticulously finishing the last fold on the absolute best paper airplane he had ever made in his life. “The what?”

Roman, leaning against the doorframe of Remus’ office, sighed deeply. “For the love of all things Disney and musical theatre, Remus, check your e-mail on a regular basis.”

Remus glanced at his desk. His laptop sat half-buried in crumpled up reject airplanes, the screen dark, so he slipped his phone from his pocket to check his e-mail with instead and… oops. One official work order, sent over 40 minutes ago, and three more messages from Virgil that all read somewhere along the lines of “Jesus Christ Remus respond to this so we know you read it.” Which, of course, he hadn’t. 

“Uh…” Remus said helplessly. Roman scrubbed a hand down his face, then motioned for Remus to follow as he stepped back out into the hallway. Remus scrambled after him.

“I’ll fill you in, but we need to hurry,” Roman said.

“The hell do they need me for? Wasn’t it just another one of those underground lab bullshit raids? Those always turn up fucking zilch.”

“Not this one,” Roman replied and, well, shit. Now Remus was interested enough to shut up and let his brother talk. “They actually found, like, the real headquarters. Evil scientists and all.”

“Fuck yeah, good for them. Logan and Virgil have been working themselves to the bone...r. But why do they need me?”

Roman gave him a look. It was his it’s time to be serious now, Remus look. “They found a, uh…” he hesitated, looking for the right word. “A test subject.”

“Oh.”

Well that answered that.

By this point, Roman had reached the door that led out to the parking garage. He stopped at the door and gave Remus a pointed look.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Remus muttered. Quickly, he emptied out his pockets and shoved his phone, wallet, keys, a small notebook, a miniature lockpick set, and a pocket knife all into Roman’s waiting hands. The last time he’d tangled with an aggressive gifted, he’d gotten the entire contents of his pockets- as well as the pants themselves- reduced to a pile of molten plastic and ash. “Right. Here I go.”

“Logan will brief you. Be careful.”

“I’ll be fine, bro, chill out.” Remus patted Roman’s cheek- which his brother couldn’t do a damn thing about with his hands full of Remus’ stuff- then pushed the door open and made his way out to the intake dock.

There was already a small crowd gathered around, a safe distance from where the armored transport van had been backed into the receiving bay. Logan, Patton, and Virgil were there, of course. But the presence of a handful of armed officers was a surprise. Logan usually refused to allow the police department to send their thugs into situations like this. This sort of thing was what Remus was on the payroll for. 

“Wasn’t expecting a party,” Remus said as he approached his team. Logan turned away from his conversation with Virgil.

“Ah, Remus. There you are,” he said. “I take it you have read the work order?”

“I… skimmed it,” Remus lied. Logan looked unimpressed. 

“Well, just in case you missed anything important, let us recap. Virgil?”

“Uh, yeah.” Virgil stepped closer, looking troubled. “We found a gifted in there, probably a test subject knowing these bastards. He’s aggressive, borderline feral, and those jokers-” He jerked his head in the general direction of the uniformed police. “Didn’t fucking help the situation. I couldn’t reach him, but I don’t know if that’s cause he’s in a state of mind where logic and reason are completely out the window, or if he’s… like us.”

Remus nodded. His own powers would work where Virgil’s had failed, but only if this one wasn’t completely immune to the effects of other gifteds like he and Virgil were. He turned to Patton. “You got anything for me, pops?”

“Of course!” From the pocket of his white doctor’s coat, Patton produced a small capped syringe filled with bright blue liquid. “I had to guess at the dosage, though.”

Remus accepted the tranquilizer and shoved it in his pocket. It would be a last resort. Looking to Logan, he asked, “Any ideas on powers? What to watch out for?” He was not pleased to see Logan grimace.

“We don’t know yet. The base is still being swept, so it will likely be some time before we will know what, if any, information was found on this subject.”

There was a heavy thunk from inside the armored van that made Patton jump. 

“Sounds like we don’t have that kind of time,” Remus mused. “Somebody wants out.”

“He was restrained when we found him. Blindfolded, too,” Virgil offered. “So he needs either visual, touch, or both.”

“Really narrows it down there, Virge,” Remus said with a huff. There was another thunk. “I’m going in. Standard operating procedure?”

Logan nodded. Remus nodded back, then looked to Virgil. 

Virgil led him through the crowd of uniforms, snapping at a few of them to move back, and up to the back doors of the van. He met Remus’ gaze. There was another thunk.

“Ok, now!” Remus said. Virgil tore open the door. Remus threw himself at the gifted on the other side, and Virgil slammed the door shut behind him.

He hadn’t been sure what to expect, so when he collided with a much smaller body, his momentum sent them both sprawling across the back of the van. Remus was bigger and stronger though, and didn’t have the disadvantage of being blindfolded, so he flipped the smaller body easily beneath him, wincing slightly at the hiss of pain he heard, and pressed a palm firmly against the bare skin of his neck.

“Why don’t you take a nap,” he growled. His power reached into the body, weaving its way into the circulatory system to slow the heart. Or, well. It tried to. He couldn't get a hold anywhere.

“Fuck. You are like us,” Remus muttered; more to himself than to the other, who was becoming increasingly difficult to hold down as he writhed and struggled against Remus’ weight. With his free hand, Remus reached around to try and fish the syringe out of his pocket. But the movement put him off balance. The gifted threw him off with a sharp jerk and scrambled away.

They both staggered to their feet on opposite ends of the cramped space, and Remus got his first good look at the gifted. His long blonde hair was a tangled mess, and he was still blindfolded- though he tracked Remus’ location enough to bare his teeth at him. Some sort of restraint seemed to be keeping his arms behind his back. Remus kind of wanted to murder whoever had done this to him.

“Hey, look, I’m not trying to hurt you,” he offered, even though he knew Virgil had already tried using his literal powers of persuasion on him. “I swear, I’m just trying to help you. But you need to calm the hell down.”

The gifted had pressed his back up against the wall of the van. Talking wasn’t going to do shit. The sooner Remus ended this the better. He rushed the gifted again; the gifted spun out of his grasp, and his hand closed on… feathers? The fuck? Whatever. The gifted had cornered himself against the back wall of the van. Remus spun sharply and slammed his weight into him. Winded, and with his back pinned into the corner, there was a precious few seconds where the gifted made no move. That was enough time for Remus to slip the cap off the syringe and jam it into the gifted’s thigh. 

His muscles immediately went slack, and Remus carefully lowered him to the floor, mindful of the goddamn wings he could now see were strapped down tightly against the gifted’s back.

“What the fuck did they do to you?” he asked sadly. He leaned over to bang three times on the van wall to signal the all clear to Virgil. A sudden, sharp pain raced up his other arm, and he jerked back with a yelp. The gifted had apparently gathered enough strength for one last act of defiance and had lashed out to fucking bite him, what the hell? Remus pushed him back down to the floor, and this time he stayed down. 

One of the back doors to the van eased open, and Virgil peeked in. Remus turned to him, and the whole world spun.

“Ah, fuck,” he managed. “Venomous. Cute.”

And then he promptly blacked out. 

-

Remus woke up in one of the dimly lit rooms of Patton’s infirmary. Patton had a vendetta against fluorescent lights, instead opting for soft, warm lights that didn’t give everyone headaches. Remus was thankful for this every time he woke up here- which was often- but especially now. His head was throbbing, and he kind of felt like he’d been hit by Virgil’s big armored transport van. Which he had before (his own damn fault) so he knew exactly how it felt.

His phone buzzed. Wincing at the movement, Remus glanced over to the small table beside the bed where his phone sat amid the pile of his other belongings. Which meant he had been out long enough for Roman to stop by and leave again. His phone buzzed again, so despite his body screaming at him for doing so, he reached over and grabbed it.

His team’s groupchat was filled with missed messages from the past hour. He scrolled through the most recent ones with a slight frown.

Nerdy Wolverine 

Patton, please give us an update on Remus’ condition.

Daddy 

He’s gonna be just fine, kiddos, he’s just sleeping it off.

Daddy’s Favorite 

👏👏👏 

Surly Temple 

Oh joy.

Daddy’s Favorite 

You were just as worried as the rest of us, Dr. Gloom.

Surly Temple

You can’t prove that.

Daddy 

Calm down, kiddos.

Nerdy Wolverine 

Patton, I would also like an update on the subject.

Daddy 

Are you sure? There’s kinda a lot to talk about.

Nerdy Wolverine 

Something brief, then. I will come by the infirmary when this meeting is over.

Remus 

Logan, texting during a meeting??? 😱😱😱

Surly Temple

Remus!

Daddy’s Favorite 

Wake up, Sleeping Beauty!

Remus 

I lived, bitch.

Daddy

I’ll be right there! Don’t you dare sit up!

Remus was already in the process of sitting up when Patton burst through the door. He winced slightly at the pain, but moreso at the disappointed look Patton gave him. 

“Uh-uh, you lay back down, mister,” he said. Remus sighed.

“I’m perfectly fine, pops,” he whined, but laid back down anyway, because even Remus knew better than to argue with Patton.

“Maybe, but you know the drill,” Patton replied. Remus made a noise of protest, but let Patton take his vitals and check him over. Then after an eternity- or more accurately, about five minutes- Patton stepped back and said, “Alright kiddo, you’re all good. Take it easy though. Maybe go home after the debrief, ok?”

Remus sat up now that he was allowed to. “I can’t believe that little fucker bit me,” he scoffed. He glanced down at his arm, where it had been bandaged up. “What happened to him? Where is he?” 

Patton looked a little uncomfortable, which more or less answered Remus’ question. The agency would be forced to hold the gifted here until the illegal lab had been fully cleared out and all the paperwork filed; and, well, there was a good chance Logan’s bosses would send in government officials to “assess the mental stability of the liberated test subject,” which was really just shitty politician speak for “see if this could become a huge scandal and decide if it was better to just make it all disappear.”

“Fuck,” was all he said. Then he got unsteadily to his feet. “Where’s Logan?”

Patton put a hand on his shoulder to help steady him. “He’s in a meeting with the chief of police. They’re trying to take the case.”

“Teach won’t let ‘em,” Remus said proudly. “I’m gonna, like. Go sit in my office. Cool?"

Patton eyed him suspiciously, but nodded. Remus gathered up all of his stuff from the table beside the bed, and darted out the door before Patton could change his mind. 

-

When Janus woke up, he immediately became aware of three things, in consecutive order.

First, he was somewhere he had never been before. That realization did not come as a surprise. He, of course, distinctly remembered the whole… “getting dragged out of his cell by people he didn’t know” incident. Usually he knew better than to lash out, but… there had been so much noise, so much unfamiliar chaos, and in his fear, he hadn’t known what else to do. And of course, it hadn’t done him any good; it never did. And now he was here. Wherever “here” was. 

The second realization did come as a surprise, as he sat up on the cot where he’d been laid, and looked around the sparse, softly-lit room: he was completely unbound. His wings were still instinctively pressed against his back, but they twitched at the realization and slowly unfurled to their full span. He winced slightly as tendons snapped into their proper places for the first time in a very long time but then he sighed in relief as the fragile bones settled. 

He had only just begun to catalogue the state of the rest of his body when a voice startled him into the third realization: he was not alone in the room.

“Damn, look at you!”

Janus flinched so hard he almost hit the wall the cot was pushed up against. He brought his wings around him protectively, and turned his eyes on the man sitting on a plastic chair near the opposite corner of the room. He narrowed his eyes as he recognized the voice of the man from the truck. 

“Hey, hey, don’t ruffle your feathers at me like that,” the man laughed. “Sorry about before, man. It was the only way to get you off the truck.”

Janus didn’t say anything. But he shifted so he was crouched on the cot rather than seated, in case he needed to dart away quickly. That seemed to amuse the man further.

“Relax, I ain’t here for a rematch. You kicked my ass fair and square. I just wanted to see how you were doing.”

Janus glared.

“I’m Remus, by the way. You got a name, snake-bird?”

He stood up as he said it, and Janus instinctively flinched back. The man-Remus?- didn’t look like the bad people, dressed in baggy jeans and an alluringly soft-looking green flannel. The bad people always wore white coats or body armor, depending on what they were planning to do to him that day. But… maybe they were just trying something new.

The man hadn’t moved closer. He was watching Janus with a look that fell somewhere between sadness and anger, and it kind of made Janus want to curl up into a ball and hide. 

“I, uh… I guess they treated you real bad down there, huh?” Remus said slowly. “Look, I know you’re scared, and you’re probably super confused, but you’re safe now. I can at least promise you that.”

He didn’t wait for any sort of response from Janus this time, instead turning to riffle through the bag that had been leaning up against his chair. He withdrew a fluffy, pale yellow blanket. He looked between it and Janus, and while Janus wasn’t the best at reading facial cues, he thought for a moment that Remus looked… embarrassed. Then, he moved forward a few paces and set the blanket down and backed up again.

“Here, uh… that’s for you. If you want it. Anyway, yeah. I’m gonna just.” He edged toward the door. “I’ll leave you alone now.”

“Janus.” His name leapt from his tongue before he could stop it. His voice was raspy, and his throat was sore, and he was still afraid- terrified- but still he ground out the words that made Remus pause in the doorway to look back at him. “I’m… Janus.”

-

The file Logan put down in front of them was almost the size of the textbooks Remus used as doorsteps in college (rather than their intended use) and for a moment, they all just stared at it. Then, Remus said what they were all thinking: “Well, fuck.”

“I hate to agree,” Roman sighed. “But yes. That.”

“Of course there will be much more to go over after I have had the time to fully analyze these files, but I thought it imperative I explain the current situation to you all as soon as possible,” Logan said. He was seated at the head of the conference table. The rest of the team was seated around the table except for Virgil, who paced restlessly nearby. Everyone- even Remus- stayed quiet, because when Logan talked, everyone listened.

“With this file, and similar documents recovered both from the most recent site and from previous sites, as well as the recovery of a live test subject, our case is more than sufficient to ensure those responsible will not walk away from this.” 

There was a collective sigh of relief. Virgil, who had been working on this case alongside Logan for years, looked especially relieved. He collapsed into the chair next to Remus, and Remus leaned over to ruffle his hair with a grin. 

“You guys should be proud,” Patton exclaimed. “You worked so hard to see this through!”

“Well it’s not finished yet,” Roman pointed out. He nodded to the file in the middle of the table, that none of them had dared to open yet. 

“Roman is correct,” Logan said. For a moment, he looked very tired; then, he adjusted his tie, and continued. “We must first ensure we have indeed apprehended all parties responsible. There are more names in these files than persons in our custody. Additionally, there is the matter of the test subject-”

“Janus,” Remus interrupted. Everyone gave him an odd look, so he clarified, “His name is Janus. He told me.”

“...Janus, then,” Logan amended. “Janus is to remain in our care until he can be evaluated. If he is deemed capable, he will be free to go once the investigation is closed.”

Logan did not, nor did he need to, state what would happen to Janus if he didn’t pass the evaluation. The agency’s evaluation essentially just looked to see if a gifted could still be considered a “person,” or if they had gone “feral”- and not in the fun way. Feral gifteds got locked up somewhere and were never seen again.

Remus, like all gifteds, hated it; but the government viewed them as dangerous. And a gifted that wasn’t in complete control of their mind, and thus, their powers, was considered too dangerous to let go free. Regardless of what trauma had made them that way in the first place, and if, with proper care, they could heal from it. It made Remus sick.

“They’re not taking Janus,” Remus spat out, interrupting whatever Logan was going to say next. “I won’t let them.”

“Ree,” Roman said gently. “We may not have a choice.”

“No. You guys haven’t seen him- he isn’t aggressive, he’s just scared.”

“Do you know how many people it took to get him into the damn truck?” Virgil snapped. “Oh and also, he bit you? You’re immune to gifted powers and he still knocked you out?” 

“Think about it from his perspective. You’ve been trapped in literal hell for who knows how long, and then suddenly you’re getting dragged out by people you don’t know, blindfolded and tied up, to go who knows where? I’d bite too.”

Patton looked heartbroken at Remus’ words. Virgil didn’t look convinced. But it was Logan who spoke.

“We have time,” Logan said. “Until the investigation closes, he remains in our custody. We make the decisions regarding his care.” He cast Remus a meaningful look, and repeated, “We have time.”

Remus understood.

-

He left Janus alone for the rest of the day, because he figured the guy probably could use some time to calm down. He even managed to persuade Patton to put off any sort of medical examination for the time being- partly for the same reason, and partly because Remus would need to be there in case Janus reacted badly, and Remus still sort of felt like shit and he just wanted to go home and sleep.

So Remus had gone home, passed out for like 15 hours, and woke up feeling a little less like death and decay. 

The benefit of going to sleep at like 2pm was that, even after his stupidly long “I got bit by something venomous” nap, he still made it back to the agency at the crack of dawn. It was quiet, none of the police department’s goons hanging around, and Remus, with his years of practice, could sneak easily past Logan’s office. 

He peeked in through the little window in the holding cell door. Janus himself was nowhere to be seen- instead, there was a Janus-sized blanket mound curled up on the floor in the corner of the room. The sight made Remus smile fondly.

“Damnit, you’re actually kinda cute,” he muttered. And then promptly decided he was not going to overthink that.

Remus camped out outside the holding cell until the headquarters came to life. The mornings were always a flurry of activity, even moreso today what with yesterday’s events. He saw the moment the noise from the hallway woke Janus up- the gifted poked his head out from under the blanket, mismatched eyes blinking sleepily, and then quickly vanished into the blanket mound once more. It was stupidly adorable. 

An intern came by with a tray of food for Janus, and Remus stopped him from approaching the door.

“I got this, kid,” he said with an amused grin. “This is way above your paygrade.”

The intern handed over the tray with a look of relief and scampered off. Poor kid.

The blanket mound stirred when Remus stepped into the room, but there was no further indication that Janus intended to come out. He shut the door behind him, and walked over to crouch down near- but not too near- the blanket mound.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty. I take it you like the blanket?”

The blanket shuffled backward a few inches. Remus set the tray down on the floor in front of him.

“I don’t really know what kind of food you like, so hopefully there’s something here you'll eat,” he said, eyeing the assorted fruits, toast, and eggs that had been sent up. “But like, if you want something else, you can tell me.” There was no response, so Remus stood up slowly and backed away. “I’ll just… be over here, then.”

He dragged the plastic chair to the opposite end of the room to give Janus as much space as possible, and plopped down in it with every intention of waiting him out.

It took about forty minutes of idly scrolling through his phone before Janus emerged, slowly and warily, mismatched eyes darting between Remus and the plate of food. Remus glanced toward him.

“Go ahead. It’s yours. Cold by now, I’ll bet.”

It took a further ten minutes for Janus to make up his mind and emerge fully from under the blanket and approach the plate- but when he finally did, he downed the food so fast, Remus was surprised he didn’t choke.

“Guess you like everything,” he mused. “Fuck, did they even feed you down there?”

He wasn’t really expecting an answer, because Janus was moving back toward his blanket. But rather than vanishing again, Janus sat down facing Remus, with his back to the wall, wings draped around his body like a blanket, and the actual blanket across his lap.

“They did, sometimes,” he replied. His voice sounded a bit rough still, like it had been a while since he’d used it, and quiet enough that Remus had to strain to hear him from across the room.

“Shit, man, these people fucking suck. How long'd they have you?”

Janus seemed to consider the question, but ended up just shaking his head. “I don’t know.” He avoided Remus’ eye for a few minutes, but he looked like he had more to say; Remus just waited in silence until finally, Janus asked, slowly, “Why am I here? Who are you?”

“I’m glad you ask, bud,” Remus answered. He stood up, and Janus flinched back slightly, feathers puffing up a bit. Remus moved a few feet closer, and then sat down on the ground so he was level with Janus. “It’s kinda a long story, but the short version is that it’s our job to go after the kinds of people who do this sort of shit. And the people who took you are gonna go to jail for the rest of their fucking lives for what they did.” He hesitated for a moment, then added, “They ain’t gonna lay a finger on you ever again. I promise.”

Janus eyed him carefully, like he wasn’t sure if he could believe what he was hearing. Remus couldn’t blame him. And then he was gone, vanishing back under the yellow blanket. Remus cleared his throat awkwardly, and stood up.

“I, uh. Yeah. I guess I’ll leave you alone then.” He paused at the door, and glanced over his shoulder. “You want more blankets? Some pillows, maybe?”

A muffled “Yes,” was the reply. Remus, again, could not help but smile fondly to himself.

-

Sleeping on the floor meant that Janus could stay alert to anyone approaching his cell, by sensing the vibrations in the ground. By his third visit, Janus could easily discern Remus’ gait from that of the others that passed down the hall.

He brought pillows and more blankets, just like he said he would. And then he asked if he could bring a friend in.

“He couldn’t give you more than a quick once-over when you first got here,” Remus explained while Janus sat on the floor and inspected his new blankets, marveling at how soft they were. “But he wants to make sure you’re not hurt anywhere.”

“I’m not hurt anywhere,” Janus said quickly. It wasn’t totally a lie; he wasn’t hurt anywhere specific, he just sort of hurt in general. That was normal though. 

“Ok, I’m gonna pretend I believe that,” Remus huffed. “But even so. He’s gotta do it sometime soon.”

Janus cast Remus a sideways glance. He still wasn’t sure what to make of the situation, and he still wasn’t sure how much he could trust these people. The ones before had never shown him kindness- he’d been grabbed off the street in his early teens and treated like an animal ever since. This new place… it felt different from anything he’d experienced before, and that made him wary. 

Being shown kindness and then having it taken away was worse than having never been shown it at all.

“Okay,” Janus said finally, because he didn’t think he was actually being given a choice in this. 

“Okay,” Remus echoed. He seemed unconvinced, which sent a small spike of anxiety into Janus’ chest, because the last thing he wanted to do was upset Remus. The man had brought him blankets, for goodness’ sake. “I’ll text him.”

Janus decided to busy himself with nervously running his hands through his oily feathers. His wings badly needed grooming, but he didn’t know how to ask for brushes. Would they let him have brushes here? He wasn’t allowed them at the old place. He was so lost in that thought, that he didn’t sense someone approaching the door until it was being opened.

“Hey, pops, come on in,” Remus said. Janus glanced over, and was immediately gripped by panic. 

He didn’t recognize the man, and his expression of “cheer fading into concern” was an unfamiliar one, but it was the white coat he wore that Janus recognized. He knew what the white coat meant.

He got caught in his pile of blankets as he tried to scramble to his feet. He tripped and crashed to the ground; out of the corner of his eye, he saw Remus make a grab for him. But he was too quick, kicking off the blanket that had tangled up his legs and springing to his feet. He used his wings to balance himself and buffeted Remus over the head in the process.

“Janus- fuck-” Remus staggered back to avoid a second blow from Janus’ thrashing wings. The man at the doorway looked torn between rushing in to help and backing away. Janus bared his fangs at him, but he was shaking so badly, he felt like a small breeze could topple him.

The man took a step closer, hand held out, but Janus barely heard his words- “Oh gosh, kiddo, I’m not gonna hurt you!”- over the blood pulsing in his ears. His back hit the wall behind him, and abruptly his legs gave out. He slid down to the ground and curled his wings over his head. 

“Janus?” Remus’ voice sounded far away beyond the curtain of feathers. “Hey, you gotta talk to me here.”

“I’ve been good,” Janus managed to choke out. “I- Please don’t, I’ve… I’ve been good.” He curled further in on himself, fully expecting to be struck. 

But nothing happened. The door opened and closed. Then silence. Janus risked a quick peek through his feathers and found that the other man was gone. Remus sat a few feet away.

“It’s ok, he’s gone,” Remus said quickly. Janus did not lower his wings, but the shaking abated slightly. 

“I’ve been good,” he said again, a little more firmly this time. “You promised.”

Remus looked unnerved. He scooted a few inches closer and asked, “What did I promise?” 

“That they… they wouldn’t hurt me again,” Janus hissed. Then, softer this time, “I’ve been good.”

“You have been good, but that doesn’t have anything to do with… wait, did you think…” Remus looked confused, his brow furrowing slightly. “Patton isn’t one of them. Is that what you thought?”

Janus just glared.

“Oh, snake-bird.” Remus’ eyes softened. “Patton’s one of us. He’s ok.”

“He looks like them,” Janus growled. “White-coat.”

“White coat… oh, shit, man, I didn’t even think.”  The sudden volume of Remus’ voice made Janus shrink back into the safety of his own wings. “Oh, shit, sorry. Hey, come back. I’m sorry.” 

Janus folded his wings back with a huff, and gave Remus an unamused look. Remus gave him a soft smile in return.

“I mean it. Patton is one of us. I can tell him to take off his coat. He won’t touch you unless you tell him he can. And you can tell him to leave, at any point, and I’ll throw him out myself. Deal?”

Janus searched his face for a long time. Remus seemed… so distressed. What would be the point, of faking that? There would be no reason to fake any of this, would there?

(Or maybe there was, and he was just too blinded by the hope that his nightmare had finally come to an end to see it.)

But slowly, reluctantly, but unable to shake the small seed of trust in Remus that had just started to take root, Janus said, “Deal.”

-

After the small fiasco that was Janus and Patton’s first meeting, things actually went rather smoothly. Patton wasn’t able to give as thorough of an exam as he was hoping. Janus was too skittish for that. And he had flat out refused a blood draw, which Remus had kind of expected. 

But at the very least, Patton was able to sign off that there were no signs of physical trauma that demanded immediate medical care, which was really all Logan’s bosses wanted. 

Despite his initial reaction, it seemed like the experience with Patton actually helped Janus feel more confident in his new situation. He grew more comfortable exercising his new control over his body and his space, even going so far as to tell Remus to go away when he wanted to be alone. And when he asked for brushes for his wings one day, Remus left work then and there to go get them. When he came back, Janus was waiting at the door for him.

“Well then, eager beaver, I hope I got the right stuff,” Remus said. He handed over the bag. It was way more than the two brushes Janus had asked for, but Logan had given him the company card and, well, Logan should know better than to do that. 

“Anything is better than a rag and my own hands, which is what I usually use,” Janus said. Remus very politely did not make the joke he so desperately wanted to make. “Is that… a bottle of dish soap?”

“Sure,” Remus answered as Janus pulled the little blue bottle of Dawn dish soap out of the bag. “They use it to clean crude oil spills off penguins and shit and, like, a penguin's a bird, right?”

Janus sighed deeply, but he was smiling, and Remus would steal him the sun if it meant Janus would keep smiling.

“Anyway, uh…” Remus shifted awkwardly. “I can, like. Leave you alone, I guess. If you want. Unless you want… uh, never mind, I’ll go-”

“Would you help?” Janus asked. He glanced down at the bag in his hands, and added, with much less confidence, “Um. There are parts I can’t reach.”

“Yeah, of course,” Remus said immediately. “Just tell me what to do?”

Janus guided him to sit down on the ground, and then plopped down next to him. He carefully spread one of his wings out and, after a moment of hesitation, let it drape across Remus’ lap. Remus tried not to feel too overwhelmed by the incredible amount of trust Janus was putting in him right now. 

“Here,” Janus passed one of the bristle brushes to Remus- one of many that Remus had bought- and then chose one for himself. “Just go with the growth, please. But if you find any loose feathers go ahead and work them out. Gently, though.”

Remus obeyed. He brushed carefully through the feathers, marveling at their soft golden-brown color. Even covered in oil and grime, they were beautiful. But after a few minutes, Janus frowned. 

“Everything ok?” Remus asked. He was suddenly afraid he was brushing too hard, or hurting Janus somehow, even though Janus had given no indication that he was in pain.

“It’s just…” Janus sighed helplessly. “They’re so dirty.”

He looked almost on the edge of tears when he said it, which was enough to put Remus immediately into I will do anything for you mode. “Do you want to try the Dawn? One time Patton used it to wash a cat he found that was all grimed up and shit, and it worked real well.” 

Janus seemed to consider it. He glanced over toward the door that led to the little private bathroom attached to the holding cell, then shook his head. 

“There’s not enough space in there,” he said. “We’ll make a mess.”

“We can go downstairs,” Remus suggested. “There’s showers in the employee locker rooms. Plenty of space.” 

Janus looked skeptical. “Is that allowed?”

It was, technically, not allowed. Janus had not been evaluated yet, and he wasn’t really allowed out of holding until he was. But… well, if they were quick, no one would notice. What was life without a little risk?

“Sure!” he said. “It’s fine.”

“...Okay. Sure.” 

Grinning, Remus got to his feet and gathered all their supplies back into the bag. Then he beckoned for Janus to follow.

“Logan’s in meetings for most of the day, and Roman’s off on assignment,” he said. He eased open the cell door and peered out into the empty hall. “And Patton’s usually swamped with paperwork in the afternoons. Everyone else who works here is too scared of me to say anything.”

Janus didn’t question it. Remus led him down the hall and paused to make sure the stairwell was also empty before leading him down the two flights to the ground floor. Janus seemed nervous in the unfamiliar surroundings. He clung close to Remus, close enough that he almost ran into him at several points. Remus tried to give him reassuring smiles and the occasional word of encouragement. 

There were voices in the break room, so they had to go around to get to the locker room. It was usually empty at this time, and today was no exception. Remus held the door open and ushered Janus inside. 

“The showers are over here.” Remus pulled back the curtain and leaned in to turn on the water. “You a warm water person or a cold water person?”

“Warm,” Janus said quickly. “Please.”

As the water warmed up, Remus helped him to pull off his soft flannel shirt (one of many Remus had bought because the agency-provided shirts were those horrible starchy t-shirts and Janus had hated them.) Remus was amazed at how much healthier the scaled half of his face and body looked after just a week of proper meals and consistent rest.

“Are you sure this isn’t going to turn everything blue?” Janus asked when Remus passed him the bottle of Dawn. He still looked vaguely unconvinced about this whole thing. 

“Nah, it won’t, don’t worry!”

Janus sighed. “Ok, but if it does, I shall never forgive you.”

“If I turn your wings blue, I’ll buy you so many blankets, they’ll fill up your whole room. Ready?”

“Well that makes me want my wings to turn blue,” Janus said. He followed Remus into the shower stall. 

It took longer than Remus was expecting to wash out all the years of grime from Janus’ wings. It was especially difficult closer to the point where the wings met his back, because Janus couldn’t reach there on his own. Remus worked through those spots carefully, and it wasn’t until he was almost done that he realized Janus had gone silent. 

“Hey, you good?”

“Mhmm.”

Remus leaned over to catch Janus’ eye, only to find his eyes were closed. There was a content look on his face.

“...did you fall asleep?”

“No.”

“You totally did!” Remus grinned. “You fell asleep standing up!”

Janus opened his eyes to glare at him, but the glare was tempered by the obvious half-dazed look of someone who had, in fact, just woken up. 

“...Ok, maybe I did for a moment there,” Janus huffed. The glare became a pout. “It just feels nice.”

Remus let his grin soften into a smile. “Good. I’m glad.”

The sound of the locker room door opening and closing startled them both. Remus pulled back the curtain just enough to look out into the locker room- and he immediately came face-to-face with Virgil. 

“Oh. ‘Sup, Virge.”

Virgil was eyeing him suspiciously. “What are you doing?”

“Uh… a smoothie?”

“That’s not… Remus, that’s not how that meme works. And you’re not even holding a smoothie.”

“Worth a shot.”

“Are you showering with your clothes on?”

“Sure, doesn’t everyone?”

Virgil’s eyes flicked toward the ground, then back up to Remus. “You realize I can see there’s someone in there with you, right?”

Remus also glanced downward. The curtain stopped about six inches off the ground. “Uh…”

“And I can also see the pile of feathers on the floor that you sure as fuck better not try and wash down the drain.”

“I’m not that dumb.”

Virgil sighed. “Hello, Janus.”

Janus hesitantly poked his head out from the other side of the curtain. “Hello.” 

“The fuck are you guys doing?”

“We’re not having sex if that’s what you’re thinking,” Remus said. Janus made a choked sound and vanished back into the showers.

“There is no universe in which I was thinking that,” Virgil growled. 

“No universe? Not even one?”

“What the fuck are you doing down here?”

Remus rolled his eyes. “If you must know, snake-bird here looked like a penguin in an oil spill. We’re washing his wings.” A pause. “Hey, since you’re here, wanna hand me a couple of towels? The big fluffy ones Patton hides.” 

Virgil walked away grumbling, but by the time Remus had finished rinsing the soap out of Janus’ wings and shut off the water, Virgil was waiting outside with a stack of Patton’s fluffy light blue towels. Remus took one and wrapped Janus up in it.

“What’re you up to, Emo?” he asked as he took a second towel and started toweling off Janus’ dripping wings. 

“Logan sent me to find you,” Virgil answered. He was watching the scene unfold in front of him with a look that Remus didn’t bother trying to decipher. “You weren’t answering your phone.”

“Probably ‘cause it’s sitting on my desk. What’s Teach need me for?”

“He wants to talk. Work stuff.”

“Oh.” Remus looked at Janus. “We should, uh. Probably get you back upstairs before he comes looking for me himself.”

Janus nodded. He gathered up the brushes and, after a moment of eyeing Virgil cautiously, reached over and snatched up one more of Patton’s fluffy towels and shoved it in the bag as well. At Virgil’s look of incredulity, there was nothing else for Remus to do but burst out laughing. 

-

As it turned out, Logan would probably not have been upset over Janus’ field trip downstairs, because when Remus finally made it to his office, the first thing Logan said to him was, “Would you be opposed to letting Janus stay in your home?”

Because apparently, Logan had pulled some strings with his bosses to get Janus out of holding; he had argued that spending his time in a home environment- instead of a type of confinement similar to what he’d endured for a large portion of his life- would vastly improve his chances of passing the assessment. The higher-ups had agreed, with the stipulation that Janus be released into the care of one of Logan’s team.

“Of course he can come home with me,” Remus had said, almost automatically. It was a chance to get Janus out of the box he’d been stuck in all this time. There was nothing that could make him say no.

Janus had seemed hesitant at first, but ultimately agreed to it. So the next day, they had packed up the mountain of pillows and blankets, the bag of brushes and stolen towels, the couple of books Logan had sent up to keep Janus occupied when Remus couldn’t, the snake plushie Virgil had apparently dropped off the night before, and the multicolored cake Patton and Roman had brought by for him that morning that was now half-eaten, and hauled it all over to Remus’ apartment. For a guy who’d been dragged out of hell with only the clothes on his back, Janus sure had a lot of shit to move.

Janus had balked at getting into a car, so Remus talked Patton and Roman into driving his stuff over for him, and then walked with Janus to the apartment. It wasn’t that far, and, Remus realized with a stab of guilt, it was probably the first time Janus had seen the sun in a long time. He kept pausing to close his eyes and tilt his head up toward the sunlight for a few moments at a time, before darting after Remus. Remus didn't stop him. 

It slowed them down to the point that when they finally got to the apartment, Roman had let himself and Patton in, brought all of Janus’ stuff up, and then left. Which was just as well- Janus had met Roman only once, and had seemed oddly jumpy around him.

“So, yeah,” Remus said, after showing Janus around. “You can just grab anything you need. I don’t really keep anything fragile in here ‘cause I tend to break stuff, so don’t worry.”

It was odd, seeing Janus standing in the middle of his living room, with his wings- which after their scrubdown, actually had a soft golden sheen to them- folded carefully against his back. But he seemed relaxed in a way Remus hadn’t seen before. Logan was right.

That evening, Remus got Janus settled into the bedroom.

“Where will you sleep?” Janus asked tentatively as Remus dumped all of Janus’ blankets onto the bed. 

“Huh? Oh, I’ll just be in the other room,” Remus replied. “I sleep on the couch half the time anyway, no big deal.”

“Oh.” was all Janus said. Remus made sure he was comfortable, and then went to pass out on the couch.

When he woke up sometime late in the night, he wasn’t quite sure what had woken him. Remus was, historically, a heavy sleeper. He’d once slept through a monsoon in a cheap tent. If he was tired enough, he could probably sleep through an earthquake. 

He turned his head to squint out into the dark apartment, and could just make out that the bedroom door was ajar. Remus stood up to go check on Janus- and then promptly tripped over Janus.

Remus yelped, and collapsed into the blanket nest that had appeared on the ground next to the couch; Janus yelped, on account of being tripped over, and scrambled out from under his pile of blankets. They both stared at each other through the darkness for a moment, and then both spoke at once.

“Are you ok-”

“I’m sorry-”

They both paused, and then Remus laughed.

“Shit, J, almost gave me a heart attack there. You ok?”

Janus looked a little sheepish. “Yes. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, it’s ok. What’re you doing sleeping there, though?”

“Um…” Janus looked down at his hands where he was clutching the snake plushie. It was stupidly cute. “I couldn’t sleep, alone. I thought I’d sleep better… out here.”

Remus blinked at him, still half-asleep. And it was probably because he was still half-asleep that he said, “Do you want me to sleep in there with you?”

Janus, after a moment, nodded.

“Ok. I can do that, snake-bird. It’s ok.” 

Remus helped Janus stand up, and they moved the blanket mound back into the bedroom. The rest of Janus’ blankets and pillows had been made into a nest wedged into the space between the bed and the wall. Remus smiled fondly. 

“Didn’t like the bed, huh?”

“I feel safer on the floor,” Janus said, looking embarrassed. “I can… sense vibrations in the ground. I know if someone’s coming up to me.”

“Oh. That makes sense.” Remus glanced between the nest and the bed, and shrugged. “I got the bed, then.”

He laid down, while Remus clamored over the bed to get to his nest and then promptly burrowed under the mountain of blankets. And as he was drifting off, Remus could have sworn he heard a soft sigh from Janus, of something that could, perhaps, be contentment. 

-

Janus had never slept so well before. Tucked into the space between the bed and the wall, in a room so unlike the cement-walled cell he’d spent years calling home- and with the soft snoring of Remus, the man he had tentatively come to trust, nearby, Janus slept through the night. And the night after that, and the night after that.

So when he woke with a start the fourth night, it took him a few groggy minutes to piece together why he was awake. He was still curled up comfortably under his blankets. Remus was snoring away in the bed above him. And then the people in the kitchen took another step toward the bedroom, and the vibrations in the floor raced up to Janus’ body. He sat up in a panic.

“Remus,” he hissed. No response. He reached up and grabbed at Remus’ shoulder to try and shake him awake. “Remus!”

Remus grumbled something incomprehensible, and did not wake. Starting to feel frantic, Janus crawled up onto the bed and shook Remus harder. At the same moment that Remus’ eyes fluttered open, the doorknob turned.

“Janus?” Remus asked, voice rough with sleep. Then the door was flung open. Flashlight beams fell across them both as men poured into the small room. Janus turned, baring his teeth, and spread his wings to shield Remus behind him.

“Take him, alive,” one of the men ordered. Janus squinted through the harsh glare of their flashlights to pick out who was speaking. “Kill the other.”

No. Absolutely not.

Janus caught the leader’s eye and summoned his powers to him. The man tried to look away, but even in the gloom, Janus’ powers held him rooted to the spot. 

“Sleep,” he snarled, forcing all of his power and will into the command. The man dropped to the floor.

In the seconds it took for him to wrest the leader’s consciousness away, the other men had fanned out around him. Janus whipped around to his left, but froze when he felt the cold muzzle of a gun touch the back of his neck.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a voice behind him sneered. A man to his right reached to grab him. There was a crack and a grunt of pain behind him, and the gun fell away- Remus appeared on his right and swung what looked like a crowbar. There was another sickening crack, and the man grabbing for Janus immediately collapsed in a heap. 

The momentum of the swing propelled Remus up off the bed and into the next armed goon. They both fell backwards- Remus knocked his gun away, and as they hit the ground, a whack from the crowbar meant only Remus stood back up.

“Janus, get down!” he shouted suddenly. Janus turned- there was one man still standing, and he had his gun leveled at Janus’ chest. Janus froze. A gunshot rang out.

Janus felt himself hit his mound of blankets. Remus had shoved him off the bed. Hesitantly, he peered up over the edge.

Remus had bowled the man over onto his back amid the sheets and now sat on top of him, a hand grasping at the exposed skin of his neck. The man, rather than struggling against Remus’ grip, was clutching at his own chest. He convulsed, then fell still.

Janus put a hand on the ground. There were no more in the apartment. He climbed up onto the bed.

“Remus?” 

No response. Janus hesitantly reached out to touch his shoulder. At the same time, Remus slumped forward and slid to the ground.

“Remus!” Janus cried out in alarm. He vaulted over the bed and crouched down next to Remus. There was blood soaking his shirt.

“Remus, fuck. Why’d you do that?” Janus hissed. He gathered Remus up into his arms and tried to put pressure on the wound. Remus gazed up at him with glassy eyes.

“I promised,” he said weakly. Janus looked down at him.

“What did you promise?” he asked, probably sounding a little hysterical. Remus gave him a gentle smile.

“I promised they’d never touch you again.”

-

A neighbor had heard the gunshot and called the police, which was just as well, because Janus had no idea how to work Remus’ phone. The police had come and whisked Remus off to the hospital in an ambulance. Virgil came to take Janus back to the agency so that he wouldn’t be left alone in what had now become a crime scene. Janus made sure to bring his pale yellow blanket, the first one Remus had given him.

The investigation that followed revealed the intruders to be the extra names Logan had been searching for, and had returned to try and reclaim Janus before leaving town. With this, Logan could finally put the case to rest.

Remus was fine. When Janus was finally allowed to see him a few days later, he had just grinned and said, “Still not as bad as that time Virgil hit me with his truck.” Janus was not amused.

With the investigation closed, the agency could release Janus to be evaluated. Everyone gathered in Logan’s office to wait anxiously.

“He’s gonna be fine,” Roman said in what was probably supposed to be a reassuring tone. It did nothing to soothe Remus’ frayed nerves.

“Yeah, but what if something goes wrong, like they spook him or something-”

“If he can tolerate Princey randomly belting out Disney songs, he can tolerate anything,” Virgil scoffed. Roman glared. Patton stifled a giggle. Remus opened his mouth to reply, but in that moment, the door opened. Logan stepped into the office- behind him came Janus. 

“...Well?” Remus asked impatiently. His eyes were fixed on Janus. 

Janus glanced toward Logan. Logan gave a slight nod, and a smile spread across Janus’ face.

“I’m free to go.”

Remus sprang up and engulfed Janus in a hug. Janus clung to him tightly, and his tears of joy soaked Remus’ chest. 

[sweatersstyles]

or the one where you forget harry’s birthday and try desperately to make it up to him

just wanted to write something small to try to get back into writing after my break! thank you all for your encouragement, excitement, and patience and I apologize for it being a few days later than I wanted it to be! this is probably the closest to angst that you’ll ever get from me :)

thank you to @1980holland, @summertimestyles, @tbslenthusiast, @bigspoonstyles​, @angryinternetduck, and @iconicharry for letting me run my ideas by you and being so kind in general. more thanks to @tbslenthusiast and @bigspoonstyles for being the most wonderful beta readers and just lovely friends overall!

this is another part of my dad!harry series so as always they are linked in order if you want to re-visit them or read from the beginning if you choose to!

⭐ I Want Your Belly ⭐ Wonderful and Warm ⭐ Washed Away in You ⭐ Do You Want to Build a Snowman? ⭐ A Styles Family Christmas ⭐

word count: 3.6k

“Harry, I’m running late do you think you could drop Sterling off at the sitter’s on your way to set?”

You’re already dressed, pulling on your shoes and grabbing your bag and keys from where they were tossed next to the dresser from the evening before. You dart into the bathroom to quickly brush your teeth.

Harry pokes his head around the doorframe, a wrinkled shirt in his hand, rushing through his own morning routine, “Thought she was coming here?”

“She can’t today, remember? Today’s our day to drop him off.” You put your toothbrush away just as he joins you, taking the toothpaste from your hand to use for himself.

“Alright, yeah. Y’ll have to pick him up later though, think it’ll be a late one for me today.” 

“That’s fine. I’ll throw his bag together and leave it by the door for you to grab on the way out. He’s already been fed and changed so he should be all set. I’ll transfer his car seat to your car too, so you won’t have to worry about that.”

He still has the toothbrush in his mouth, so you stand on your tiptoes to give him a peck to the cheek, adding a “bye, love you!” on your way out the bathroom door.

“Wait..y’don’t have anything else to say to me before you leave?” His mouth now rinsed, he crosses his arms and leans against the doorway, a tired smile working its way across his lips.

“Um..be careful? Don’t drive too fast with Sterling in the car.” 

“I never drive fast,” He takes a quick peek in the mirror, running his hands through his messy curls before turning back to you, “S’that all? Nothing else to say?”

You search your brain, trying to remember anything else you may have forgotten, “Oh! Right..”

His face lights up then, thinking maybe he was gonna finally hear the words he’d been waiting all morning to hear from you.  

“Make sure you tell the sitter there’s an extra pacifier in the right side of his bag that she can leave there in his cubby in case we ever forget one..and that I’ll drop a pack of diapers and wipes off when I pick him up cause I know he’s running low.”

His brow furrows slightly with disappointment, but you’re too busy to notice, blowing him another kiss before rushing out the door of your shared bedroom and down the hall to get Sterling’s bag ready.

He’s still pouting as he opens his top drawer to select a pair of socks for the day.

He couldn’t believe you forgot it was his birthday.

In your opinion, 6 weeks was not long enough for maternity leave. You’re sure no amount of time in your happy bubble with Harry and Sterling would’ve been enough. 

You were somehow able to push those 6 weeks to 12, your boss kindly agreeing to let you do what work you could from home. Eventually, that extension had to come to an end though and there was no other way you could avoid returning to ‘normal’ life.

You’re an hour into your work day but you still can’t shake the feeling that you had truly forgotten something. Harry’s words from the morning ring through your head again and again but you still couldn’t pinpoint what was special about this particular day. It was a Monday..was there some sort of significant anniversary from your relationship over the years, something small but important to him? 

You grab your phone when you have a chance, a quick lull in your morning that allows you to scroll through your phone’s calendar to double check anything your phone may have not yet notified you about. There’s nothing saved, and it does nothing to jog your memory of what importance today’s date holds. 

A text from Anne comes through and your heart stops when you read the message: Tell the birthday boy his present from me is on the way! I was a day later than I should’ve been sending it out so hope he won’t be too upset with me. All my love to you and Sterling as well!

No. Oh no. Guilt bubbles up through your chest and you cover your mouth to stop from cursing too loudly and scaring your nearby coworkers. You have to steady your hand so you can navigate your way through your contacts to Harry’s number, trying to calculate where in his schedule for the day he may be now. It was too early for him to be taking a lunch break, but you silently prayed he would be on a break in between filming scenes that would allow him to answer.

He had told you in the past that even if he wasn’t able to have his phone with him, it was always nearby. Especially now that you had Sterling, he tried to make himself available no matter how busy his schedule would be for the day. Even if he wasn’t able to answer, he would always make time to call back. 

So when you try 2 times with no success of getting through, you stop. You had both agreed before that 3 calls was your distress signal, and you didn’t want his mind to think the worst when he did see you’d tried to get through to him. A text seems too informal, too little for the man you love and adore. He deserved better than that, better than you, a partner who forgot one of the most important days where he should be made to feel special and loved every second.

It wasn’t like you didn’t know this day was coming, you did, of course you did. Being a new parent had well and truly ruined your memory. Turns out birthing a tiny human requires learning a ton of new information to keep your little one alive, meaning that even almost 3 months later your brain hadn’t been fully restored and you weren’t sure if it ever would be. 

How could you make up for something like this? You suppose you could pretend that it was all a joke; that you’d had this elaborate plan all along to surprise him and make him think that you had forgotten his birthday. But you couldn’t lie to him like that, it would only cause you to hate yourself even more later for covering it up. Plus, Harry knew you too well and would see right through that, and then whatever hurt you’re sure he was feeling now would only grow. 

You know he would eventually forgive you, if he hadn’t already, but that didn’t stop guilt from overriding your thoughts. If anything it made you feel almost worse knowing that he would be so incredibly forgiving.

God, you could only imagine the reaction of the fans if they found out. Some of them already had some questionable opinions about you, a few even going so far as to speculate if Sterling was truly Harry’s child, claiming that you had somehow “trapped” Harry into a relationship with you and that it would eventually fail. Harry had tried to ban you from going too deep, but sometimes your curiosity got the best of you, prompting you to scroll through Twitter or Instagram occasionally. It usually ended with you getting your feelings hurt and Harry having to remind you once again to stay away.

You try to find something in your memory, anything that he may have mentioned wanting (or at this point even needing) over the past few months. Aside from the mundane, everyday things like laundry detergent and shampoo to add to the shopping list, you couldn’t recall a thing. You only had 6 hours before you had to pick up Sterling, so you had to come up with something fast, something amazing.

What do you get for the golden boy who has everything?

You couldn’t believe you didn’t think of it before. It was something you had discovered not long after Sterling’s birth, but like many other things it had gotten easily dismissed and pushed down to the bottom of your list. 

Today, it only takes a few clicks through the website, a double checking of the spelling of the name that will be on the certificate, and a quick selection of a location for where you want it to be for Harry to now be the (hopefully) proud owner of his very own star in the sky.

After all it was Harry who found the name Sterling for your child, it was him who whispered “buonanotte nostra piccola stella” each night as he helped you put Sterling to bed; a phrase he had been most pleased with himself for learning, the Italian to English translation being “goodnight our little star”. If he couldn’t be there to say it, he made sure you knew the proper enunciation of the expression so that you could pass it along from him. It was always followed by 3 kisses to the top of his son’s head.

Thankfully, you were able to use the printer at work to print out the certificate and the map, slipping them both into a manilla envelope and tucking it away in your bag before you clock out for the day. Though you wished you had time to stop and select a nice frame, you only have 30 minutes before having to pick up Sterling, so you opt for a speedy trip to the nearest bakery and grocery store to gather what other supplies you’ll need for the rest of the evening.

By the time you and Sterling make it home, you still haven’t heard anything from Harry. You send up another silent prayer, more for his safety than anything, but also selfishly for yourself and his forgiveness towards you. It wasn’t unusual for you to not hear from him most days, and you remind yourself of his words from that morning about most likely having to work late. 

You push away the guilt that threatens to invade your thoughts again, doing what you need to do for Sterling to keep him content while you start preparations for dinner. Once you have him settled in his swing nearby, you take a moment to scroll through your music selection on your phone, deciding that having something playing in the background would be better than being alone with your thoughts while you work. 

You’ve just washed the veggies to chop for the salad when your phone dings, indicating a new message. You know it’s from Harry, and you’re almost scared to look. Instant relief floods your body when you do have the courage to take a peek: Home in an hour. Love you! Give bub kisses from me xx

The “love you” fills you with overwhelming comfort; takes you back to the day you first met him and how your heart skipped a beat when you realized it was you he was trailing through the crowd of people to approach, a cozy smile plastered on his face. You’ll never forget the gentle way he had spoken and how even though you were surrounded by at least a hundred other people at the party, he didn’t take his eyes off you the whole night. You let out a huge sigh of breath you hadn’t realized you’d been holding in and contemplate the best way to respond, finally concluding that simple was better.

Be careful, baby. Love you more!! Bubs and I miss you

His text gives you more motivation than you already had to power through making his favorite meal for him. An hour is plenty of time to get everything done, so when Sterling gets fussy and wants to be held, you tuck him against your side, doing what you can with one hand while keeping a tight grip on your son. You know he had missed you when he almost instantly relaxes at being close to you, and your heart hurts at the thought of ever being away from him again, even for something important like your job.

It still takes you a minute to get him calm enough to rest his head on your shoulder, so you don’t hear the sound of the door, or the clink of Harry’s keys or the sound of his footsteps falling down the hallway.

“Need some help, lovie?”

His voice, which normally calms you, nearly makes you jump out of your skin. So when you turn and say, “I thought you said an hour!” it comes out more like an attack than grateful to see him again.

“S’what I thought but we rushed through so I could leave earlier. Is that a problem?” His face is unreadable, somewhere between confused and disappointed with your tone.

“No! Of course not, Harry, I just..” That’s when your voice breaks, your guilt and emotions of forgetting his birthday finally being too much to hold back.

“Hey, don’t do that,” He’s moving the rest of the way through the kitchen to you, a hand smoothing a small circle over your back as you try to wipe your tears, “Please don’t cry.”

“I just wanted to have everything ready by the time you got home, to make up for this morning. For forgetting it was your birthday in the first place. I’m so sorry, H.” 

“You’ve got nothin’ to apologize for, angel. You don’t have to make anything up to me. We’ve both been crazy busy lately, I’m surprised I even remembered what day it was. Here, why don’t I put Sterling in his swing and help you finish dinner?”

“No, absolutely not. It’s your birthday and I know you’re tired. Plus, I think he missed us today. You know how much he loves his swing but I didn’t get very much done before he got upset.”

“Alright, well, I’ll take him while you get everything else done. How’s that sound?”

You nod an agreement at his plan, transferring Sterling from your shoulder to his. There’s a few whimpers of disapproval, but he lets out a small sigh of contentment once he realizes it’s Harry who holds him now. Harry turns his head to smack a few kisses to the baby’s cheek to further pacify him. Sterling’s eyes open briefly, gazing sleepily up at his father. 

“Hi, bub, missed you. Let’s go see what kind of trouble we can get into while Mummy makes dinner, huh?” 

“Not too much trouble, boys. It’s almost bedtime,” He winks at you as he turns to leave and you stop him, “Hey, wait, try this. Tell me if it needs anything.”

You stir a spoon through the pasta sauce you’ve had simmering away on the stove, bringing it to his lips with a hand underneath, careful not to drip it down the front of his white button-up or the top of Sterling’s head. He lets you feed him the spoonful, but doesn’t take his eyes off your lips.  Before you even have time to ask him how it is, he’s trapping his mouth against yours, a satisfied hum at the sauce mixing with the taste of you.

“Delicious.” He runs his tongue along his bottom lip, catching a bit of sauce that ended up smudged at the corner of his mouth.

“Really?”

“Really, darling, it’s perfect.” 

At this point it’s obvious he’s not talking about the sauce, and you push yourself up to plant another kiss on his lips.

“Another,” He gently demands, and you oblige, but he doesn’t pull away yet, “C’mon, few more.”

“Looks like Sterling’s not the only needy baby in this house tonight. How many more kisses do you need?”

He smirks down at you, “It’s my 27th birthday, innit? Think I deserve 27 kisses, don’t you?”

You send him away with the promise of fulfilling his request for the rest of his kisses later, finally able to rush through finishing the last of what was needed to complete the meal and call him back to see the table full of everything you’ve prepared. 

Sterling is bright eyed in Harry’s arms again, and you hope that feeding him will lull him back to sleep for the night. With him having to stay with a sitter on the days that you and Harry were both working, you’d recently had to switch to using bottles for some of his meals. The sitter had assured you that he was adjusting to the bottle well when he was with her, but it had been a frustrating transition for you. 

“You’ve just spoiled him to the usual way, love. It’ll get easier. Want me to try?” He holds out his hand, offering to take the bottle and Sterling back, but you refuse. You know Harry’s right, it will get easier eventually, but right now you know he’s just still tired and hungry. So you give in, lifting your shirt and tossing a blanket over him while he eats. 

“Eat so you can blow out your candles and then open your present.”

He sets a plate of food in front of you and passes you a fork so you can eat with your free hand.

His mouth is full of food but his green eyes light up when he looks at you, “I have a present?” 

“Of course you do. It’s your birthday, isn’t it?” 

“Can we skip cake and do the present first?”

You giggle at his excitement, but the truth is you’re nervous. You know he will be nice enough to tell you he loves it, but you also know him well enough to read the truth on his face. 

“Sure, birthday boy, whatever you want.” Sterling’s finished eating by now so you rest him on your shoulder, tapping his back a few times until you hear a small burp. Harry’s plate is mostly empty now, as is yours, so you tuck Sterling into his swing while you go to retrieve the envelope from earlier in the day. Your heart races as you may your way back to where he sits at the table, his eyes covered dramatically as he waits.

“You can open,” You slide the envelope in front of him and prop your chin up on one of your hands as you watch his fingers work to open the clasp. The papers sit upside down on the table and you inhale a deep breath as he flips them over. His face is full of curiosity as his eyes scan the page. 

“Did you..is this real?”

“Well I’m not sure how official it is but, yes, it’s real.” You take the map from behind the certificate and point out the location, “According to this it’s..”

“Is my star right over our house?” His eyes are wide as he studies the coordinates, “Can we go see if we can see it now?”

How can you say no to that? You let him lead you out the back door of your home and out into the cool air of the night. He only lets go of your hand when he reaches the edge of the yard, pointing straight upwards.

“It’s gotta be that big one, right? That mine, right?” You look over his shoulder down at the map and then back up to where he’s pointing.

“Yep, I think that’s the one. Unless..do you have the map upside down?”

“No! Do I?” He squints his eyes, bringing it closer to his face in an attempt to read it in the dark. 

“You definitely did. It’s that one there..to the left of the big one we thought was yours.”

“S’gorgeous, baby,” He tugs your hand until your smushed against his side and he tosses his arm around you, letting out a deep sigh as he continues to stare up at the sky, “Thank you so much.”

“You really like it?” You’ve got both arms wrapped around his middle now, enjoying the feeling of his chest rising and falling.

“I really do, angel. Can’t believe you named a star after me twice.” 

“Twice?” You tilt your head upwards to look at his face.

“Yeah. Twice. That one,” He points up again, “My favorite one though, the greatest gift you will probably ever give me, is probably snoring in his swing right about now.”

As sweet as the moment is, you can’t help but snort out a laugh at that, “If he’s anything like you, he’s definitely snoring right now.”

“Hey, I don’t snore!”

“Oh yes, you do. Feel like I’m sleeping in a cave with a bear sometimes.”

That earns you a big, booming laugh from him, and he pulls you even closer to kiss the top of your head. You turn your body to face him, squeezing him once and kissing his chest through his shirt.

“Happy birthday, Harry.”

“Thank you,” He places his hands on either side of your face, thumbs rubbing along your cheeks, a slow smile sneaking its way across his face, “Can I have the rest of my kisses now?”

The next time Anne and Gemma come to visit, he’s sweeping them down to the end of the hallway leading into your living room, to where he now proudly shows them the framed certificate and map sitting side by side on the wall. Of course they had both already heard about it before. The day after his birthday he had spent 10 minutes on the phone with each of them bragging about it. He’s got Sterling in his arms as he shows it off now. He holds him up next to the two frames.

“How lucky am I, huh? Not every man can say they have two stars named after them, can they?”

thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!

as always likes, reblogs, replies, and feedback are welcome!

tag list: @1980holland, @summertimestyles, @la-cey, @tbslenthusiast​

[missymurphy1985]

Nobody's Perfect (part8)

Warnings - injury / surgery / smut

Also - I have zero medical training so if I've got something wrong, please let me know!!

Taglist @queenshelby @margoo0 @being-worthy @peakyscillian @ntmynouis @janelongxox @elenavampire21 @noctvrnalmoth @ysmmsy @cloudofdisney @lauren-raines-x @namelesslosers

You arrived at the hospital with Cillian's parents and a nurse ushered you into a private room. Sitting the three of you down, she took a deep breath, making you nervous.

"He had a seizure around an hour ago. He's been taken down for surgery again, we'll know more afterwards. It looks like a ruptured spleen, it could have been a stray fragment of glass or the sheer blunt force of the stabbing, we can't tell just yet. It's a significant bleed into his abdominal cavity, Mrs Murphy we need to perform a blood transfusion." His mum started to cry, his Dad holding her. You just felt sick.

"How long before he's out of surgery? Will he be okay?" You asked, shakily.

"We don't know yet. Once he's out of surgery we'll know more, but for now.. it could go either way. I'm so sorry..." You took the nurses hand and squeezed it, thanking her. You could see her welling up a little too.

It had been hours. How many, you didn't know but the sun was up before you knew any more. You were waiting in the hallway on the phone to your mum when the double doors behind you opened. You saw the trolley being pushed through, with nurses either side, and a body covered in wires and tubes. You choked when you saw his Peaky haircut under it all.

"Mum he's back from surgery.. I'll call you later okay? Love you.."

You desperately wanted to follow him into the room but you held back, instead going into where his mum and dad were waiting. It was then, you burst into tears. His Dad stood and wrapped his arms round you.

"Stop trying to be strong in front of us y/n..."

"This is all my fault... All of it..." His dad squeezed you tight and shook his head.

"I'll hear no more of that, understood?" He was stern, but still gentle with it. The doctor came into the room.

"He's okay for now. We've sedated him to allow his body to recover. His spleen ruptured and bled out into his abdominal cavity. Luckily we've managed to stop the bleeding and save his spleen. He's had a significant blood loss, so we've given him a transfusion. He'll be out of it for a few hours, but you're welcome to come see him." The three of you walked through the doors into his room and his mum was beside herself.

She took his hand, careful of the cannula, and held it. His dad squeezed his eldest son's shoulder. You stood at the foot of the bed, watching the love of your life lie still, wires in him, a mask over his face, machines beeping everywhere, a massive bandage around his middle.

"I'll call his sisters and brother.. let them know what happened?" You asked his mum, before his dad turned to you and shook his head. You felt useless, you needed to be doing something.

"No, I'll call them. You stay here with him. Talk to him - he can hear you."

"How do you know?"

"He's squeezed my hand a couple of times. He knows we're here. Just too tired to wake up yet."

He left the room to make the calls, and you took his hand, kissing his head lightly. His dad was right, he squeezed your hand a little.

"Hey you... You trying to scare me away again? No chance Murphy, I'm not going anywhere." Another gentle squeeze.

You knew he wouldn't wake up for a while, but you were happy to wait, just talking to him. Even the Peaky cast had sent video messages so you could play them to him.

You were dozing in the chair, exhausted from no sleep for what felt like days, when he woke up.

"Y/n...." You'd never woken up so quickly. Instantly you were by his side and you pressed the button for a nurse.

"Right here, I'm right here. It's okay.."

"Did I get hit by a truck?" He smiled. The nurse came in and removed the mask from his face. Checking over everything as you stood back. Once she'd finished, you took your phone out to call his parents. They'd headed home to feed the dogs and get some sleep. Hanging up, you kissed his lips gently.

"Stop trying to scare me away Murphy..."

"I'm getting out of here and you and I are going away. Somewhere just us, yeah?" You nodded, unable to form words. Your tears slipping down your cheeks as he brushed them away with his hand, his own eyes watering a little.

*************************************************************

He was in hospital for a week recovering, then another week at his mum's being fussed over and interviewed by police about the stabbing. You were now at his holiday home in Kerry, a full month after Silé's wedding, relaxing on the patio in the warm July sunshine. You'd arrived a week earlier, and had no plans to leave any time soon. Your family had even sent get well cards and gifts through the post for him, even though they hadn't even met him yet.

You got off the phone to Orla as Cillian came outside. Still limping a little but getting stronger every day. The sea air definitely helping.

"Liane's been charged. Attempted murder, Cill."

"She came very fucking close y/n."

You watched him sit in the lounger next to you and he took your hand in his, interlocking your fingers and leaning back.

"The press are going wild. They've found out everything - Liane having Mark's baby, the stabbing, and us. They're desperate for a statement, my agent keeps calling me."

"They can wait. I'm alive, that's all they need to know. The rest of it isn't important. Come here.." he pulled you to sit across his legs. You hesitated before you sat down but he nodded and you relaxed a little. You could feel his erection under your shorts and he pulled you closer to kiss him.

"How long has it been?"

"Long enough... You sure you're okay?"

"Shut up y/l/n and ride me..." You didn't need any further encouragement, and your shorts were off followed by his, discarded on the floor next to you. His hard cock, already leaking, sprung up against his stomach, the scar across it already healing well.

"No one can see us out here, right?" You asked, suddenly remembering your neighbours.

"I don't care if they can.." you lifted your body over his and sunk down on him easily - you'd been aching for him for a month, hesitant to initiate anything in case you hurt him, but he'd clearly been aching for you too, his hands on your hips moving you up and down his shaft.

"Fuck... I missed this...." He groaned, finding your lips with his before you leaned back and rocked against him slowly.

He found your clit with his thumb and rubbed circles over it, making you squirm against him and grind quicker. This wasn't going to last long, both of you knew it, he needed you to come and quickly. He brought your hand down to rub yourself as his hands rested on your waist again, rocking you faster against him. He wanted desperately to pound up into you but the discomfort in his stomach stopped him, allowing you to take the lead.

"I'm close..." You whimpered, a powerful orgasm building in your stomach, before throwing your head back and panting his name as you came over him.

"I'm gonna come... Y/n...." His release quickly followed, hot streams of cum flowing into you in bursts, leaking out onto his thighs. You rested your head on his, both catching your breath.

"When did you stop taking the pill?" He asked.

"Two weeks ago..."

"That did it, I've got a good feeling."

"Quite possibly Mr Murphy..."

"You sure you want this? It's not too soon?"

"I think we've gone well past the 'too soon' part of our relationship, don't you think?" You laughed.

"Very true. You're going to look incredible with my baby inside you..." His hands found your belly and he rubbed it gently, making your heart flutter.

"Love you..."

"Love you more."

********************************************************

Six months later

"I'm sorry, Mr Murphy, the chances of you conceiving naturally are extremely low." The doctors words cut him like a knife. His head fell back and he unclasped your hand to run it over his face. You both knew there was a potential problem - after all, he'd be been trying for a baby with Liane for years without any success, so there was always the possibility he would struggle with you too. He didn't want to wait a year to find out, so he'd paid for a private sperm count test.

"We do have a few options here though," the doctor spoke again. Cillian looked to you, you nodded in return.

"Cill, it's okay. We prepared for this, didn't we?" You took his hand again and looked back at the doctor.

"We have IVF, as many rounds as you need. I have leaflets on how it'll all work right here." Cillian took the leaflets and shook the doctors hand, before walking out of the room. You apologised and thanked the doctor before chasing Cillian down the hall.

"Stop, for god's sake!" You shouted, making him pause and turn to you.

"It's one thing thinking there's a problem y/n, it's something else entirely to have it confirmed..." He leaned against the wall and looked at the IVF leaflets. "What if it doesn't work?"

"We have to at least try, don't we?" You took his face in your hands and pulled him in to kiss him. "We'll make a father out of you yet, Cillian Murphy."