#like yeah not everyones main language is english but its the one almost all of us understand /and/ can at least kinda communicate with

[chotachica]

Whenever I find myself crying about how much I WISH I had the necessary language knowledge to actually write (like, fanfiction and shit) in English I vividly remember that one scene of Georgia from Modern Family and FEEL it because God y'all really will never know just how fucking smart i am in Spanish .fuckers

[roseofdarknessblog]

Family gathering (Postwar!Levi Ackerman x Reader)

Word count: 3 140

Disclaimer: english is not my first language, I apologize in advance for any mistakes

Summary: You and Levi finally introduce your baby to the rest of the family.

This story can be read on its own or as a part of my little post-war series: Learn to live again

Family gathering

Being back in the tea shop after giving birth felt even better than you expected. Even if you only came to visit Levi for short periods of time. But it was enough time to make sure that he really had everything under control even without your help. At least for a couple more weeks.

Being new parents wasn't easy, not even the slightest, but you were adjusting. Learning every single day, that having a tiny little human living under your roof was about changing or adjusting one too many things.

Despite that, Levi and you couldn't be happier. In your newborn daughter, you saw the reason why you fought so hard all those years. She truly was a beautiful representation of the future you wanted humanity to have.

„I think they know something is up,“ Falco said, when he walked into the kitchen, that was at the back of the tea shop. Here, you used to bake many of your sweet and savory goods, which were then sold alongside the best tea in the whole town.

„Yeah, probably. But that's fine, something really is up,“ you said, smiling at the boy.

Until now, only he, Gabi, Onyankopon, and Yelena knew about the little Ackerman baby you and Levi welcomed into this world seven weeks ago. Nobody else from your friends knew you gave birth, or even that you were pregnant in the first place. You and Levi decided, that it would be better not to tell anyone and let things unfold on their own.

However, now it was finally time to introduce your precious little miracle to the rest of your family. To all your beloved friends, who fought alongside you these past few years. To the people, who helped you create a safe world to bring your daughter into.

„Is everybody here already?“

Falco nodded, gently taking your daughter's hand. She loved him so much and lately always smiled when they were together. „Yeah, they're talking, having tea and sweets but you can definitely tell they suspect something. Mainly because you're not there.“

„I think we should go see them, right?“ you asked your daughter in a sweet voice, stroking her chubby little cheeks. In some way, they very much reminded you of Levi's. Just like her silky black hair, her blue-grey eyes, or her cute little nose. She was the sweetest little copy of your husband in the cutest ways possible. „You're gonna love them, darling. And they're gonna love you.“

When the little girl looked at Falco and smiled, both of you smiled right back at her with so much love. The boy truly loved her as if she was his little sister.

„Hey, Y/N! Come and join us finally!“ Jean screamed for you from the tea shop, making you chuckle and kiss the top of your daughter's head, who tried grabbing the collar of your shirt.

„I'm coming, settle down. All of you!“ you called back, taking one last deep breath. Falco walked back to the shop before you, giving you one more moment alone.

The moment felt almost surreal. Holding your baby and getting ready to introduce her to so many important people. Not even that long ago, you would never even dream about doing something so magical.

„Now, I have a very special surprise for all of you. Can you close your eyes?“ you asked them before opening the door.

When you walked into the main part of the shop, everyone was there – Armin, Connie, Jean and Mikasa. Even Reiner, Annie, and Pieck came, along with Gabi, Yelena, and Onyankopon who didn't even need to close their eyes. Together with Falco and your husband, who was smiling at you ever so slightly.

„What do you think? What is this big surprise?“ you asked them excitedly. But before anybody said a word, your daughter let out a loud cry to get everyone's attention, before she smiled up at you. Almost as if she knew what was happening. „Okay, I guess it's not a surprise anymore. Open your eyes,“ you said, smiling happily at them.

The awe on everyone's face was so worth keeping this whole thing private until now. Connie and Armin looked at you as if they'd never seen a baby in their life before. But that was probably because of their last visit when you were five months along and still barely showing. Under the right pieces of clothing, they had zero chance of noticing anything. And now, half a year later, you were standing in front of them with a baby in your arms.

„So... we called you all here today, because we wanted you to meet someone very special,“ you said, looking over at Levi. With a slightly pained expression, he stood up from his wheelchair and walked a few steps to stand next to you. „She'll be two months old in a couple of days. I hope you can forgive us that we kept such a big thing a secret until now. It was...“

„We wanted to make sure everything will turn out okay,“ Levi said when you couldn't find the right words. „And then we wanted to soak up every little moment with her. Just the three of us,“ he added, wrapping one of his arms around your waist. It was a gesture full of love and also a way to help him stand more securely because of his leg.

It almost seemed that everybody was too shocked to speak. The first one to stand up and come up to you was Jean. He smiled, looking at both you and Levi. Then his soft light-brown eyes wandered to your baby, looking her over very carefully. He offered her one of his fingers, which the little girl took with such excitement, seeming happy that she was seeing a new face.

„She's beautiful, Captain, Y/N,“ he said proudly and with a happy smile.

„Oi, where did you get that baby, Y/N? When me and Armin were here a few months back, you surely weren't pregnant,“ Connie shouted, hurrying to you as well.

„I can assure you, that I was pregnant at the time. Five months pregnant, to be more specific. I just hid it too well,“ you chuckled, stroking your baby's hair. Her eyes were wide open with curiosity while her tiny hands were playing with Jean's fingers.

„Was she, Captain?“ Connie asked Levi, not wanting to believe you.

„Where do you think we got a baby that looks like me if she didn't give birth to it?“ Levi questioned him, his brows furrowed. He may looked annoyed with all the commotion, but by the tone of his voice, it was obvious, that he was enjoying having them all here.

„She really does look like you, Captain,“ Armin said, coming to stand between Jean and Connie.

Behind him, Mikasa followed a little shily. You gave her a warm smile and motioned to her, to come even closer. „Would you like to hold her? You're blood-related, after all,“ you said to her, looking over at Levi, who nodded at your words.

She seemed a little hesitant but eventually nodded in agreement. After showing her, how to safely hold the baby, she took her from you and carefully cradled your daughter against her chest. The little girl looked confused when she first looked up at Mikasa, but after she grabbed a strand of her hair everything was okay.

„She's adorable, congratulations to you both,“ Mikasa said, smiling at both you and Levi warmly. You've barely seen her since the Rumbling, because she went back to Paradis, so her presence right now was even more precious. „What's her name?“

You knew this question would come. And you were preparing yourself to answer it without too much emotion. But suddenly... when they were all here, standing around you and waiting for your answer... it felt almost impossible to explain the meaning of your daughter's name without making everybody way too emotional.

She got her name after a person, who was very dear to you and Levi. And to all of the 104th as well. It was a person, who was supposed to be here today with all of you as well. And also the person, thanks to who you got one more chance to fight the Rumbling and win.

„We named her after Hange,“ Levi said in a calm voice, seeing you struggling a little. „Zoe. Zoe Ackerman.“

„The meaning of her name is... life,“ you added in a quiet voice, reaching out your hand and stroking your baby's back. „I guess it's more than fitting, don't you think?“ Feeling your eyes welling up with tears, you looked at your friends. A wild range of emotions was seen on their faces – sadness, surprise, and also happiness.

Armin was the first one to speak up, leaning closer to Mikasa and taking the baby's hand, shaking it very gently. Such a sweet gesture made all of you chuckle. „It's more than fitting,“ he smiled at her warmly. „Nice to meet you, Zoe. I'm sure we'll be very good friends once you grow up a little.“

The sweet tone in which Armin talked to your baby melted your heart completely. Feeling unimaginable happiness, you looked over at Levi and kissed his cheek. The way he was watching the scene right in front of you, was more than beautiful. His expression was relaxed, almost completely pain-free. The look in his eyes was soft and loving towards all the people standing around you and introducing themselves to your baby in the funniest, yet most adorable way possible. She was all smiles, while she was looking around and taking in all the new people.

So despite looking so much like Levi, she surely didn't get her personality from him.

Connie was the one, who made her the most excited. Mainly, when he held her in a way that she was able to pull Jean's hair. But he truly couldn't be angry with her for even a second.

„Hey, you three. Come on, don't be shy,“ you said to Reiner, Annie, and Pieck who were still standing a little to the side, only watching the others happily fuss around your baby, who was making a lot of loud excited noises.

Once they were your enemies, they wanted you dead. Now they were here amongst your closest friends and family. In a way, you forgave them for almost everything. After having a couple of difficult talks, mainly with Reiner, you gained a new perspective of them all. And through that, things between you and them started changing. Gabi and Falco also helped a bunch, too.

„It's okay, we wanted you here and we're happy that you came,“ you said to them, stroking Reiner's arm and smiling at the girls.

„In a twisted kind of way, but we're all here thanks to you, too,“ Levi said to them, his grip around your waist tightening. His knee was starting to trouble him after standing by your side for a few minutes.

So after you made sure, that your baby was truly in good hands, you helped Levi walk outside the tea shop and sit down on a bench right next to the door. A heavy sigh escaped his mouth when he finally sat down and took the weight off his left leg.

„Good? Are you okay?“ you asked a bit worriedly, sitting down next to him. While your left hand started rubbing his back comfortingly, you leaned closer and kissed his cheek.

„Yeah, sure,“ he mumbled, taking a couple of deep breaths to ease the pain.

„It went well, didn't it? They were all so surprised and happy,“ you chuckled, resting your head against his. The voices and laughter from inside were heard pretty clearly, so you didn't have to worry. „And right now, they have probably a couple of minutes before she starts crying. Either because she'll be hungry or because she won't be able to find us.“

Levi smirked, wrapping his arm around your waist again, to keep you close. Despite the pain, he still seemed relaxed and content with the way today turned out. Everybody's reaction made it certain, that you and Levi did the best thing when you kept your pregnancy private.

„It's all so bittersweet. Having so many of them here and still missing a bunch of people,“ Levi said, his fingers gently stroking your side.

„They are here with us. In a different kind of way, but still.“

You could see all of your fallen friends and comrades in your baby's eyes and in her every smile. All the things they did and for what they sacrificed their lives, made it possible for little Zoe to be born. You and Levi were grateful to them every single day. For their bravery, resilience, and determination to make the world a better place.

Hange, Erwin, Sasha, Miche, Nanaba, Nifa, Furlan, Isabel, Moblit, Petra, Eld, Oluo, Gunther... Eren...

All of them and many, many more gave their lives a long time ago, so you and your friends could have this life. In one way or another. Looking back, there probably wasn't a way to save them. To spare them from death. All you could do was continue living your best life and honor them by being happy.

„Who would have thought, really? That we would make it here all the way from the Underground,“ you sighed, running your fingers through Levi's hair lovingly.

„We made it far, that's true. And...“ he shrugged, smirking at his own words, „I'm kind of excited to see what's next, now that we have our little girl. She's going to turn our lives upside down so many times.“

„That's what parenthood is about, right?“ you chuckled, grabbing his free hand and holding it tight. „We're doing good. Learning and making mistakes. I'm so glad that everything worked out in the end and that we have her.“ Having a baby was an adventure like no other. In the end, all the sleepless nights were worth it, when you saw your little angel smile at you, with her eyes full of innocence and pure love.

„Just wait until she starts walking and running around. That's gonna be a disaster.“

„We'll just have to keep up with her.“ You gently took Levi's chin and turned his head, so you could see his face.

He was still very handsome, no scars or a missing eye could change that. For you, he was the one and only. Since you were a teenager to this very day. All those years, it was Levi. And you were more than sure, that it would stay like this for the rest of your life. Nothing and nobody would be able to change your mind, because Levi was all you'll ever need – with all of his disabilities, which sometimes still made him feel a little self-conscious or worried, that he wasn't good enough for you. He was more than enough and you never failed to remind him that. A day never went by without you reminding him, just how thankful you were for his love and his presence in your life.

„I love you,“ Levi said, leaning in for a kiss. His soft lips pressed against yours, making you forget about everything else.

„That's really good to know because I love you too.“ With a smile, you brushed a few strands of hair from his forehead and kissed the tip of his nose. „I'm proud to call you mine and be yours.“

His sweet little smile had a very strong effect on you every single time you got the chance to see it. Mainly, when said smile reached his eyes and made him look so carefree and young. Seeing him like that, nobody would be able to tell how many horrors he had to suffer through.

Levi rested his forehead against yours, reaching for your left hand. He brushed his thumb over your wedding band, finding your lips in another sweet and love-filled kiss. Time seemed to stop around you at that moment.

But only until you heard a loud cry from inside the tea shop. Just moments later, Connie hurried outside, eagerly trying to return your baby into your arms. „Guess she doesn't like when someone pinches her cheeks. But they're so adorable and chubby, I couldn't resist.“

„They remind me of someone else's cheeks,“ Mikasa added, standing in the open door, her eyes focused on Levi with a playful smirk. You bit down on your lower lip, trying not to laugh, while Connie was grinning so hard, he had to turn away.

Levi, a little flustered, shook his head upon them and took his crying daughter into his arms. You watched him gently cradle her against his chest, planting a couple of kisses on the top of her head, while he rubbed her back.

„The brats made you cry, huh? Don't worry, you'll get used to them,“ he said to the baby, looking back at Connie. „And you'll have them wrapped around your finger in no time,“ Levi added and kissed her forehead in the hopes of stopping her from crying more. But little Zoe knew exactly what she wanted and cried until Levi didn't hide her in his embrace from the rest of the world, while he lovingly started scratching the back of her head. Lately, this has become the most efficient way to calm her down.  „There, sweetie. That's better, right? No need to cry.“

Connie chuckled at the sight. „Well, Captain. Seems you're already wrapped around her finger. I've never heard you talk so sweetly to anyone, not even to Y/N.“

Jean and Armin came to stand by Mikasa, all of them watching the sweet sight of Humanity's Strongest being a completely different person when it came to his own daughter. All of them changed so much during the past few years. But when you looked at them in that moment, you still saw the kids they were, when they joined the Scouts. The kids you grew to love and swore to protect. The kids, who became your family long before such a peaceful life was even a possibility for all of you.

What a shame not all of them made it this far.

Not having Sasha and Eren here felt strange and painful. It felt like you failed a little. But just until you looked back at your daughter. Her cheeks were still wet from tears, while she was so adorably clinging to Levi. In her still teary eyes, you saw Sasha's dedication and Eren's bravery.

And that was what mattered the most.

Having your family here with you and showing them just how much they meant to you. How much you loved them and how happy it made you, that they came here today to meet little Zoe Ackerman.

[dfmm]

I want more accents and dialects in German dubs

like, I watch the English dub of something and yeah most of the characters have like this broadly generic American accent, but so often there's a character or a group of characters with a distinct accent, like in God of War Ragnarok, Lúnda speaks like someone from the southern US, and Mimir has a scottish accent

or Felm, in The Wrong Way To Use Healing magic

and you don't get that, really, in German dubs. You do get it in German original live action TV and movies, but very rarely in animation or games, and almost never when localizing stuff from other languages. Everyone just speaks Hochdeutsch. The only example I can think of when they gave a character a distinct accent in a German dub was when they made Wasabi talk like he's from Berlin in Big Hero 6 and I really thought he'd have a more noticeable accent in the English version because of that but no they just made him talk like that and that's super rare

and that's a shame, I think, because that was one of the funniest parts of that movie, and we need more of that in German dubs. I want a German dub to go full on Xenoblade 2 English Dub kind of hard in terms of accent diversity

actually i'm gonna say who I'd want to speak what accent in XC2 because that's why I'm thinking about this in the first place:

Leftherians like the main character Rex have a Northern English accent, from what I understand. That's easy, people from islands, northern, they should be speaking Plattdeutsch (Low German). I want to spend the entire time feeling like I'm in a Werner movie.

Gormott, catgirl nation, they've got a Welsh accent which is amazing and Nia is one of the best characters ever. Anyway, just from the way Welsh sounds I want to say Schwäbisch (Swabian) would fit them similarly well.

Uraya has an Australian accent (far to the southeast) and is a kingdom with beautiful castles so I'll say Bayrisch (Bavarian). That goes double for how amazing it would be for Vandham to speak Bayrisch. That man would call someone a Sauhund.

Mor Ardain have a Scottish accent. An empire at war with Uraya? Easy, that's Prussia. And of all the accents in that area, the idea of Mòrag speaking Sächsisch (Saxon) is too fucking hilarious to pass up.

The one website I found say that Tantal and the Nopon have a Southern English accent. For Tantal specifically I'd say its status as the neutral party in the war between Uraya and Mor Ardain reminds me of Switzerland, so Schweizerdeutsch (Swiss German) it is.

Nopons are Hessisch (Hessian). I will not elaborate

[yevmarie]

Light My Fire | Chapter 3

Masterlist

< Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 >

Plot: having lost everything you are drowned in depression, which had happened to you a year ago. Now you need to struggle with the apocalypse as well with no sparkle in your heart. But there is one man who can light your fire to live.

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Female Reader

Word count: 2.4k

Pronouns: you, she/her

Warnings:

angst;

mentions of depression;

swearing;

nudity;

a bit suggestive;

differences from the main plot may occur;

bad English (not my first language).

If I miss something, please let me know. I hope you enjoy :).

Taglist: @your-shifting-gurl

You woke up feeling shitty as the day before had cleaned your clock. The tent was becoming hot as the sun was at its peak. You started hearing people around. Everything was calm, so you assumed everyone was busy with their assignments. You saw a small posture unzipping the tent. As you shared it with Lori and Carl there was no doubt it was a boy. The movement was slow so you guessed he was trying to get sneakily not to wake you.

“I’m not sleeping,” you said, and movements started to be faster. “Hey,” you said seeing the boy. “Morning,” answered the boy walking inside. As you noticed his eyes were watery and red, you sat and offered Carl a hug. The boy didn’t hesitate a second and slammed into your embrace. “I know I can’t do anything magical, but how could I relieve your pain?” you said stroking the back of the boy’s head. The boy shrugged his shoulders and sniffled. “I saw one beautiful place near here yesterday. If you want, we can go for a walk there after I see Shane and ask if the camp needs my help. Okay?” the boy faced you as you cupped his face in your arms.

“He is sleeping; he held a night watch,” said Carl.

“God… You’re right. That was a tough day, it almost feels like a week has already passed. Then I’ll talk to your mother.” He silently nodded in agreement with your offer and went out of the tent.

After changing your clothes you went outside. Women were cooking or playing with children, some men were butchering or cleaning their weapons. You wondered how the progressive society went to its origins when labor had been strictly divided by gender.

You found Lori cooking near the campfire. “Hey, do you need any help?” you asked. “Um, yeah,” she replied confused as you talked not so much lately. “Please play with Carl or whatever. So just he can be in your sight.” You nodded and called Carl who was sitting alone near the RV where an old man, Dale, was on the watch.

“Come on,” you said to Carl and you both went to the place you had found at night.

Carl and you were silently sitting on the hill watching the sight open to you; the quarry surrounded by forest mirroring in the water. The warm wind was lingering on your shoulders. You just closed your eyes imagining the time froze.

“How did you overcome your parents’ loss?” the question asked by Carl sounded as if he was a mature man which made you confused.

“I didn’t,” you opened your eyes and smiled sadly.

“But you don’t cry for them.”

“If you don’t see me crying, it doesn’t mean I don’t do this.”

“Did Shane help you somehow?”

You silenced for a moment trying not to overshadow the man in the boy’s mind. “It’s difficult to answer, Carl.” You replied recalling him being furious at you as he had been tired of your state of constant sorrow. That’s why you split up half a year after the car accident your parents were in. Although Shane looked like alpha all the time, in fact, he was just a weak man who couldn’t cope with your mental condition. But he masterly used this like it was two weeks ago. He got drunk as fuck when Rick was shot and came to you late at night. You couldn’t resist him hoping he would relieve your loneliness. You clearly understood that was not right, you hated yourself for this action.

“But how do you stay calm?”

“There are a lot of methods,” you answered avoiding mentioning therapy and antidepressants. “The main for me was keeping the daily routines, doing hobbies, sport. By the way, seeing my friends like you and your father. I just did anything that could distract me. I struggled to do this at first, but then I got used to it… And there’s time for everything. It’s like a wound, you need to get it healed. So, this time hasn’t come for me personally.” you silenced for a moment seeing Carl trying to hold his tears. “Look, nothing is embarrassing in crying. And in expressing your emotions in general. It’s not pleasant sometimes, but you don’t need to be afraid of it. At least, if you feel you need someone’s shoulder, you should know it’s always here for you.” you said tapping on your shoulder. “I will do my best to support and comfort you.”

Carl sobbed and hugged you tightly. “I love you.”

“I love you too, my sweetheart.”

Carl and you got back to the camp. The crowd of people was loudly talking almost panicking. The group that had been assigned to the city run was standing in the middle. The men were covered with blood, and some of them were badly injured.

“Not all of them returned,” you heard Lori’s voice as she stood up beside you.

“Why?” you glanced at her.

“They said there had been zombies everywhere. Already called as walkers.”

“Bullshit!” you whispered knowing Carl was somewhere behind you.

“Yeah, but that couldn’t be collective hallucination.”

“You’re right, but now this sounds… Like someone’s stupid joke.”

Another hunting group was approaching the camp with Daryl as well. Shane as an opinion leader started to give instructions like keeping weapons in firing readiness and leaving the camp at least in pairs. If someone sees a walker near the camp, kill it and let the watcher know about this.

“I ain’ gonna listen to some dumbass thinkin’ he’s the center of everythin’ here,” you heard the familiar low raspy voice and couldn’t help but just silently agreed. Definitely, these rules make sense if you want to stay alive, but some visceral disgust toward Shane arose from yesterday telling you the opposite. Like in reverse psychology. After Shane’s speech, everyone returned to their activities.

As the night began people were gathering near the campfire where one short-haired nice-looking woman was serving food. Your stomach let you know about its presence and you decided to try to eat. As you approached the woman, she nicely smiled at you and started a conversation.

“I’m Carol,” she said while serving a generous portion for you.

“Y/N” you quickly replied then stopped her “It’s too big for me,” you heard someone’s nasty laugh as from the last seats in the classroom followed by a loud smack. You turned around and saw Daryl screaming at Merle. “Like children,” you commented emotionless and switched your attention to Carol.

“But you look weak.” Carol continued insisting on the portion.

“I can barely eat now. I’m afraid I’ll waste it if someone’s hungrier than me.”

Carol nodded and served another plate. You thanked and walked away where fewer people were sitting in case you felt nausea and you could attract less attention to yourself. You tasted the meal, which was quite nice for the field kitchen and surprisingly the stomach accepted it with pleasure.

After the dinner you found yourself frustrated as you barely knew the people around. Carl was sitting near Lori and Shane, which company you wouldn’t like to join, so you decided to have a walk down to the quarry. Not the cleverest decision knowing about the walkers, but you didn’t care. You went to your tent, grabbed the towel, change of clothes, and a gun thanking yourself you had addressed the psychiatrist willingly, so you hadn’t been prohibited from weapon. You sneakily went out of the tent walking through the dark and wooded area and headed to the quarry.

It was quite cold and the water gave you chills but you wanted to sober yourself from different thoughts rushing in your mind. You looked around and felt a bit of freedom recalling your younger years when you used to swim drunk and naked with your friends. You stripped off not being afraid of someone’s looking at you, because the hell anybody would do the same stupid thing like you. Starting gradually walking into the cold water you decided to dive not to prolong the moment of accustoming to the temperature. You got shivers through all your body so you decided to swim near the shore in case you get muscle spasms. Suddenly you saw the man with a familiar walking. The crossbow was behind his back and a bag was in his arm.

He stopped as he noticed you. “Whataya doin’ here?” he asked with obvious surprise.

“How does it look like, Daryl?” you calmly replied swimming in the opposite direction.

“Don’ ya remember you cannot leave the camp alone?” he narrowed his eyes feeling irritated as he was hoping to have some time alone.

“You are not the exception of the rule as well,” you continued replying calmly when you saw him making a couple of steps walking away to the camp.

“Hey! Why are you leaving?” you asked Daryl not expecting to get the answer but surprisingly to you he stopped and turned around to you.

“Needed to clean myself, but ‘ll do it later,” he was supposed to go away, but you continued.

“Come on! I don’t give a damn about your body and I hope you do so towards mine,” the man looked down at the clothes on the ground noticing your underwear laying above.

I went looking for trouble and, boy, I found her.

Daryl’s heart skipped a beat realising you were naked. Fucking naked. He felt his blood was running hot going down his belly. His forehead was covered in sweat in a second. He started to sink in lustful thoughts and damn, he hadn’t even looked at you. Daryl was afraid of how quickly he got turned on just because of a thought. He glanced at you inspecting your neck, collarbones, and shoulders appearing from the water.

“Don’t deny yourself pleasures especially because of a stranger. Who knows when we’ll be attacked by walkers and die? It won’t matter after all,” he just rooted to the ground and stood silently, obviously hesitating as he started biting his lips.

“I won’t be looking at you,” you turned around and dove in headfirst. He exhaled loudly and undressed himself quickly to get into the water so you wouldn’t see his arousal.

You came back up and brushed your wet hair back glancing at Daryl who was waist-deep in water soaping himself. You noticed his broad naked frame and turned your head around closing your eyes. You started dreaming how his muscles could feel under your palms but your thoughts were interrupted by Daril taking a running dive. He disappeared underwater for a moment.

“Shit, how are ya even swimming here for so long?” he asked you after surfacing cluttering with his teeth and swam to the shore. Realizing he was right you decided to follow him outside.

His back and arms appeared from the water framing his muscles. The body was covered with tattoos and scars becoming blueish because of the low temperature. Daryl brushed his hair back with his arm and continued walking opening the shapes of his glutes and strong legs. The skin glimmered because of the moonlight shining on his body. You felt a hot wave lingering in your veins. He was such a masterpiece alive you couldn’t stop looking at him.

“Y/N, stop being predatory, you stupid,” you thought as you both stood up back to back. He was wiping his body with the towel when he sneakily glanced at you. The view opened of you naked and wet, straining your hair sent him over the edge. He turned around, gulped hoping you didn’t hear, and felt that the cold water didn’t stop him from getting arousal again. “Fuck!” he swore in his head and at lightning speed wore his boxers and jeans. “Are ya clothed?” he asked still standing to you at his back. “Yeah,” you answered and walked towards the camp followed by Daryl.

You were going both silently through the forest when suddenly you heard someone rasping. You both bent on the knees and saw the walker going just several feet from you. You froze with fear for a moment.

“Fuck me!” you whispered and felt Daryl’s hand tightly covering your mouth and another one gripped into his warm body so you cannot do any other noise or move.

“I’ll deal with it. Don’t move and even make any noise,” Daryl whispered into your ear and headed a few steps toward the walker targeting it with the crossbow. His arm muscles tensed and his jaws clenched. The arrow struck the walker right in his head. The body fell to the ground. The man stalked to it, took the arrow out, and looked around to make sure there was no danger around. “Follow me,” he said in his lowered voice when he looked at you.

As you both neared the camp, you saw Dale on night watch. "Dale," Daryl called out. "There was a walker sixty feet away. It’s finished off,” you tried to slip away while the men were talking but felt a firm, and at the same time gentle and warm grip on your forearm. Turning around, you saw Daryl looking at you.

"Don' even think ‘bout walking alone," his eyes looking right into yours which made you freeze. Instead, you just gulped and nodded in agreement. He relinquished the hold and turned on his heels to head to his tent.

Retreating to your tent, you lay down on the sleeping bag and close your eyes, trying to banish the vivid images of possible death from your mind. You had been thinking about death a lot before but hadn’t met it face to face. You were so thankful Daryl was beside you as you would end your journey. Usually, you could defend yourself but at that time you couldn’t predict your behavior in such a stressful situation. You recalled how Daryl gripped you in his body and felt butterflies in your stomach along with the familiar impulses in your lower body. “The fuck, Y/N,” you thought, “What’s wrong with you? You could die but you are just thinking of a man having touched you,” you recalled him walking out of the water and felt how the excitement was filling up your body. “Oh no..,” you thought and laid on your side trying to close your eyes and fall asleep as quickly as possible.

< Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 >

[number1jaymerrickhater]

Marble hornets driving headcannons

Jay

Can not drive for shit

There are not enough words in the english language to describe what an awful driver he is

He’s the type of guy to put on his turn signal 2 seconds before trying to cut across 6 lanes of traffic

One time he gave Alex a ride to set and Alex vowed to never get in a car with him again

“Shit this is where we’re supposed to turn, hold on.”

Proceeds to slam on his breaks, jerks the wheel so hard he almost flips the car and nearly causes a 12 car pile up

It is a miracle he hasn’t died in a car crash.

He is banned from borrowing anyones car ever

Despite all this he still says he’s not that bad of a driver.

“See guys! We made it here in one piece. I told you I’m not a shitty driver” meanwhile Alex is riding shotgun with his life flashing before his eyes, Tim is in the backseat trying to make peace with god, and Brian is squeezing the door handle so hard it looks like he’s trying to break it.

They all unanimously agree to take Jay off the carpooling rotation.

Surprisingly his car would be relatively clean. Other than some crumbs and a few half empty water bottles I don’t think his car would be that messy.

Alex

Two words. Road rage.

I hc that before Marble Hornets Alex wasn’t an angry dude 99% of the time

Yeah that 1% of the time is when he’s behind the wheel

Scares the shit out of everyone in the car when he’s driving

He just gets so mad that someone’s putting him and his friends in danger because they can’t follow the rules of the road

Has a lot of anxiety about driving which manifests in him yelling for 20 minutes when some asshole cuts him off in traffic

His car is super clean, he absolutely hates it messy

He isn’t just a backseat driver he is the backseat driver

The only thing worse than letting him drive is having him sit next to you while you drive

He gets possessed by the spirit of a middle aged dad teaching his teenage kid how to drive every time he gets in the car with anyone

“Hey don’t you think you’re going a little fast? Maybe you should slow down a little?” While aggressively holding onto the ceiling handle thing by the door type deal

Idk he just seems like the type to be very passionate about road safety

His car has a “back off grumpy driver on board” sticker bc Brian put it there as a joke and Alex just never took it off

He says he hates it but secretly he does think its a little funny

Tim

He just does not give a fuck

Like he’s not going out of his way to be super reckless but he’s also not giving himself a panic attack over road saftey

He just accepted it is what it is, if he gets into an accident then it be like that sometimes

“Buckle your seatbelts everyone, or don’t its your funeral I guess. Just be on the lookout for cops I don’t want a ticket.”

His car reeks of cigarette smoke

He’s not a heathen, he won’t smoke when other people are in his car, but he smokes so much it hardly makes a difference

His car is also an absolute mess

Empty soda bottles, food wrappers, random papers, flannels, his car is so messy he could have anything in there

He’ll make an effort to clean it if he knows he’s gonna have people in his car, but his definition of clean is “everyone has a space to sit and a relatively clean section of floor to put their feet”

Does not put up with Alex’s backseat driving, if he tries it he’ll just turn the radio louder to drown him out.

Brian

Brian is also a bad driver, but unlike Jay it’s intentional

I mean what’s the point in driving if you’re not going 20 miles over the speed limit at all times?

The first time he carpooled everyone to set, he scared the shit out of them because (besides Tim) no one had ever been in a car with him

Like you look at Brian with his dorky smile, get in his car that has a million stupid bumper stickers on the back, and you expect a normal drive

Then Brian starts blasting the worst music you can think of and tearing down the street like he’s the main character in a fast and furious movie

He was also voted off the carpool rotation

Has a playlist specifically for when he’s in the car with other people and its just the worst music you can think of

Think like the gummy bear song and crazy frog (did those exist in 2006??? Well now they do)

He has actually good taste in music, he’s just a massive troll and thinks its funny

Same with the bumper stickers, bro has a million “honk if you’re homo” and “my other ride is your mom” type bumper stickers all over the back of his car

Still he’s a bad driver in a fully intentional good driver kinda way? Idk how to describe it but unlike Jay he actually knows what the fuck he’s doing

The only time he’s been pulled over was when he was with Alex. He managed to convince the officer that he was only driving so crazy because he was trying to get his friend to the hospital because he was having an asthma attack.

The cop bought it both because I mean look at Brian he looks like an honest stand up dude, and because Alex was actually having a panic attack at being pulled over so he sold it pretty well

[randomthingsicameupwith]

yandere c!ConnorEatsPants

(i just dont see enough yandere fanfics of him soo... and i dont watch dsmp anymore so its probably gonna be ooc im so sorry and english isnt my first language!)

DISCLAIMER: YANDERES AND STALKERS ARE BAD AND I DO NOT CONDONE THEM!! AND HEAVILY INSPIRED BY @/love-like-thorns THEIR REALLY GOOD

TW: KIDNAPPING, HEAD SLAMMING, YANDERE STUFF, SUPERIORITY COMPLEX

Honestly, Connor just seemed like a guy who’s insecure and jokes around by putting himself above others, well, even you don't know if he's joking or not and that's nothing compared to some people. So you decided to befriend him! Which was the worst mistake of your entire life.. You talked almost regularly with him, exploring places and just going on fun adventures with each other. Yes, it can get a little dull at times. You kept hanging out with the same person over and over, but you didn't mind.

Connor just thought that he and you were destined to be partners. I mean, can you blame him? Your looks and personality, and the way you acted towards him, were perfect; you're meant for him. He's the main character, and you're the love interest! It was all perfect! I mean, he already has feelings for you, and now he just needs to be patient and you just need to realize your love interest and get those feelings back.

However, he did notice something between you and the others. You talked to them like you talked to him! Defending them, hanging out with them, complimenting them—that's everything you're supposed to do for only him, not them. He winced at the thought of you just doing whatever you did with him with other people. Can't people just see that you are his? And can't you just see that you are his? I mean, he had every single aspect you liked about them, but a thousand times better! Humor? Looks? Personality? He has all of that; he was the only good choice. Not like you’d even have choices other than him by what he would do to them. 

He would purposely steal and break things and blame it all on you. something valuable they just talked to you about? Stolen. a gift they gave you? Broken. And if that wasn’t enough, he would be mean to everyone, publicly making fun of their insecurities and vulnerable spots, justifying it by saying it was a joke, and forcing you to agree. even if you don't.

   And everything would fall into place; everyone would avoid you, except Connor, of course. leaving your focus only on him. And as expected, you confess your feelings to him.

   You two would go on dates almost every day and talk to each other 24/7, to the point where Connor even asked you to move in with him, which you politely declined.

   Until one day, that is. You wanted to break up with him. He was just being too pushy in general; he basically has no concept of privacy; one time while you were changing your clothes, he just went in without knocking; you even found a box filled with stuff you thought you had lost and polaroids of you that you didn't even know he had taken; and he was just being too possessive with you. You were done with him. So for your last date, you decided to go flower picking with him.

You went in early to the place to better prepare yourself, and he eventually showed up. You two sat in the grass, just sitting and picking the flowers; he occasionally made jokes, and you did too. You noticed he only picked your favorite, which was sweet of him, but that wasn’t going to make you stay. You finally decided to tell him. "Um, Connor?" There was no going back, you thought. You felt like you just ran a marathon with how fast your heart was beating and how much you sweated. "Yeah?" 

"I wanna break up," you said. You stood up, holding the flowers as tightly as possible, using them as some sort of stress ball. The silence in the air was deafening. All the birds that were chirping just suddenly stopped; it's like they knew how awkward and sad it was and just stopped.

For what seemed like an eternity, he stood up too. "No," he said. You never heard his words so firm before; they scared you. "I-Connor, you can't just say n-," he cut you off. Grabbing your wrists tightly, hurting you. "We're not breaking up. You should know that. We're never going to break up," he said, his gaze fixed on you. This was the most scared you've ever been in your whole life. His glare and voice stabbed you, not to mention how much his grip hurt you. "C-Connor, it hurts," you said softly. I was hoping he’d let go. which he didn't. 

You tried running away, but you couldn't; his grip was making you stay. He yanked on your wrists, causing you to trip. You fell on all fours on the grass, and your hand hit a rock hard. It hurt, but it didn't matter; you needed to run. Your eyes were pricking with tears. "Are you okay?" he asked, his voice not as firm as before, reaching his hand out. Your wrist and hand hurt as if someone dropped a brick on them. "Fuck you!" you shouted at him.

You looked behind you and quickly ran with all of your energy. running and running through the once peaceful place, until you tripped again. Hitting a stupid rock Your eyes finally gave up, and tears started streaming  down your face. Your knees hurt badly, but you knew you needed to run.

He looked down at you, panting with that glare again. You tried to run again, your body tingling with desperation. sobbing like nothing before. You tried to prop yourself up, saying, "Stay still, bitch," as he head-slammed you into the grass as hard as he could. Knocking you out.

--

Panic and hysteria were flowing through his body the second he slammed his head into you. What did he just do? His body was basically on autopilot until this point; what was he supposed to do with you knocked out? You already wanted to break up with him; doing this would probably make you hate him. He looked at your body, wondering what he should do. Until an amazing thought occurred to him. Well, it wasn’t really amazing, but it was something. It could work. He could just make you unwillingly live with him, and then Stockholm syndrome kicks in and does its thing. He offered you to live with him; he’s somewhat prepared.

He carries you all the way back to his house. hoping no one noticed him. Once he finally went back inside and plopped you down on his bed, he felt so many emotions at once. Mostly denial. Because, fuck, he did it. He followed through on it. He takes a minute to mentally scold and prepare himself. He takes off all your clothes except your shirt and underwear. He quickly grabbed whatever duct tape he could find to tie you up to his bed. I'm hoping you don’t wake up soon. He's a little disappointed in you. If you just hadn't broken up with him, this wouldn’t have happened. But look at you now.

[womaninred15]

Steddie Thoughts

Okay so yesterday i was watching the sequel movie from enchanted, you now, the Giselle one and I finished and all and then an idea hit me like a freaking trunk. 

Just to let some things on the table about this : i know next to nothign about D&D and really, i might have some idea based on the fics I have read about Eddie having these D&D moments almost in every single one so I kinda understand what’s going on but its not enough to write about this. which is basically the main point of my idea, and, on top of that, i dont do fanfic writting to be honest. I do some roleplay but not in English because its not my first language (as you can tell) so letting all this out, here is my idea;  Imagine, guys, there is Edward Munson the greatest bard of his village living all kind of adventures and challenges and shit and everything is cool, funny, exciting and D&D related until shit htis the fan and there is this big bad guy (who is obviously Vecna) who is trying to kill Eddie cuz the plot asks for it and there is magic and spells and portals and SUDDENELY he is throw through the portal and he is in a new world where there are big mechanical things with weird wheels, a lot of noise and a guy who looks like a king who is pushing him away from the traffic because one of those mechanical beast is gonna run him over.  SO YES, IT IS LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT FOR EDDIE AND SO YES STEVE IS TAKING HIM HOME JUST LIKE ROBERT DID WITH GISELLE AND NO, I DONT KNOW IF STEVE SHOULD HAVE A KID ON THIS ONE (i am choosing max for this because the squirrel its totally dustin for eddie) BUT YEAH, EVERYTHING GOES AS PLANED AND THERE IS DRAMA, AWKWARD MOMENTS CUZ EDDIE IS TRAPPED IN A WORLD WHICH IS LOUD AND DANGEROUS AND HE JUST WANNA PROTECT STEVE AND STEVE IS THIS SAD GUY WHO WORKS FOR HIS DAD IN WHICHEVER BUSINESS YOU WANT HIM TO WORK FOR, WHOM ONLY FRIEND IS ROBIN, HIS ASSISTANT AND HE IS RICH BUT MISERABLE AND DOESNT KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH HIS LIFE UNTIL THIS RANDOM WEIRDO WHO DRESSES FUNNY IS LITERALLY THROW INTO HIS LIFE LIKE A CANION BALL AND HE FREAKING WRECKS HIS WHOLE EXISTENCE.  I do not know how to end this, what to do with this or if everyone on the show should be on this, I just know THAT I WOULD KILL FOR A FIC ABOUT BARD EDDIE, OUT OF TIME AND HIS REAL WORLD. GETTING TO KNOW AND FALL IN LOVE WITH STEVE AND MAKING HIS LIFE BETTER, EVEN PERFECT.  Also i am pretty sure that eddie would not cross the portal to go back because. my friends, his heart belongs somewhere else.  PLEASE MAKE THIS A FANFIC, I AM BEGING YOU GUYS, THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN AND I WONT RUIN IT BY DOING IT MYSELF! JERFUHERF,  Please take this idea and do your magic <3 

[stxrvel]

bittersweet feelings (1)

summary: you have to deal with the harsh truth after Bucky arrives from one of his missions.

pairing: bucky barnes x avenger!reader

warnings: nothing i think, just you know English is not my native language so sorry for any mistakes!

words: +2.5k

note: hi! I've been feeling physically unwell since I last posted and have been in bed, but today I was finally able to get a moment of calm and lucidity, so, enjoy and hope you like it!

also, i've been working on a series that I want to publish soon, but I don't know why I always find it difficult to do all that planning. anyway, I really hope I can bring it to you soon! thank u for all the support!

part 2

part 3

Admiring Bucky Barnes from afar has become too much of a challenge in recent days. Before, you were wrapped up in papers, essays, final exams and projects due, locking yourself in your room at a time or living in your university library, simply too busy to wander your eyes over the sprawling figure of Bucky strolling around the Complex. Ironically, he always spent more time there when you weren't there.

But now, completely free of academic responsibilities and banned from going on missions at Fury's whim, you had a lot more time to wander the halls of the Complex, especially in the gym where the man with the metal arm used to spend most of his time. Many times (if not all the time) you felt like a lousy attempt of a stalker, and you was almost 100% sure that he realised what you were doing but preferred not to say anything so as not to embarrass you. And that was much more embarrassing.

But did that stop you? Absolutely not.

He'd cut his hair a few days ago, and although you loved the way his hair looked on his shoulders and the way it blew in the wind every time he walked, as if he were a model on a bloody photo shoot, you shamelessly admitted that you had quickly grown to love his new style. Because, honestly, did something look bad on Bucky?

Your hands moved indiscreetly across the table, crumpling the paper between your fingers that you had previously been reading, as you watched the aforementioned man's shoulders shake after hearing Sam Wilson say something about Scott's card game. You moved your eyes scanning his entire face, trying to memorise the expression on his face as he smiled so openly, as he almost never did in public.

“Am I interrupting your crazy stalker moment?”

Tony's voice startled you, and you turned your head so sharply to look at something other than Bucky that a slight twinge of pain made its way from the back of your neck to your right shoulder. You grimaced and watched the millionaire sit down next to you on one of the black chairs that were spread out in the first floor cafeteria. Ahead of you, a large glass door separated you from one of the side exits of the Complex, where Bucky and Sam had stopped to talk and, surely at first, discuss the mission Bucky had just returned from.

“I'm not a crazy stalker,” you told him dismissively, but your nerves were eating you up inside. Even though you knew you weren't entirely discreet, you still weren't ready for someone to tell you that you were too obvious for him not to know anymore.

“Yeah, sure, whatever you say,” Tony commented sarcastically and you felt a quick pang of fear inside your chest, “I was just coming to tell you that Fury made the decision to send you to Milan with Steve the other week.”

Your gaze finally shifted away from Bucky's figure, closer and closer to where you stood, to Tony and you frowned at him in extreme confusion.

“What? So soon?”

“Isn't that what you wanted? To go back to the camp?”

“Well, yes, but I thought his tantrum was going to last much longer.”

Tony let out a laugh and proceeded to open the packet of peanuts in his pocket, “If he hears you say that, consider yourself fired, kiddo.”

“Then it's a relief that no one heard me say it,” you smiled innocently at Tony, who only gave you a tight-mouthed smile in return.

“It's just a recon mission. Steve thinks there's an empty HYDRA base you can investigate, and you're pretty nimble with that non-digitized document review stuff.”

“You mean I'm good at reading physical documents?”

“You know what I mean, eagle eyes. There's nothing you're missing.”

“Ow,” you croon with a smile, “Thanks for the compliment, Stark.”

“You're welcome. Now, don't go freaking out. Barnes is walking this way.”

He then stood up and planted himself in front of you, as your heart did a wild flip and you felt him pause for a second, before resuming his march at an unnatural pace. You didn't even know if it was possible for a heart to beat that fast. You felt sweat beading on your hands and started to breathe through your mouth as you felt the nervousness take over your whole body.

“What?” you exclaimed, staring at him, sitting uncomfortably in the chair across the table they had shared.

“I told you not to freak out, you're only going to make it worse.”

You narrowed your eyes at him with a frown. Next, you took about three deep breaths to try and calm your frantic heartbeat, before Sam's figure - and consequently Bucky's - appeared in your field of view to the side of Stark's body. The man gave you a look with an arched eyebrow, as if to ask you to behave yourself, which was an exaggeration.

That was an exaggeration. You spent a lot of time with Bucky! Even when you two were alone you didn't feel as nervous as you did at moments like this.

When your gazes met, you could barely return the smile he gave you before you turned your eyes to Sam, who had just spoken but you hadn't gotten to hear everything he'd said because your head was in the clouds.

“...and that you're going back to the camp with Steve. How long since you've been out? Almost four months? You must be anxious.”

You just nodded, looking at him through tight lips.

Tony rubbed his eyes in an exasperated gesture.

“I could ask Fury to let me tag along,” Bucky's voice reached your ears like a forbidden delicacy. It had been several days since you'd last heard it and it was like a gift from the gods, “Lest he bore you with his awkward silences.”

“We don't have awkward silences,” you grumbled quickly, not knowing exactly why you were getting defensive. Tony raised his eyebrows at you and you shrugged in place, “I mean, we talk about a lot of things.”

“Oh yeah?” Bucky's jocular tone didn't do much for your nerves and sanity, “Name a topic you've been talking about for more than three minutes.”

You pursed your lips and stared at his perfect face, uninjured by the mission, as you conjured up memories of your conversations with Steve. Your almost non-existent conversations.

Your cheeks flushed as you realised he was right, but you weren't going to let him win you over this time.

“One time, we talked all night about a movie.”

“If you're going to say you talked about Lord of the Rings, that doesn't count,” Sam spoke with a half smile on his face.

“Why not?” you grumbled quickly, watching the grimace in his face.

“He talks to everyone about those movies. It doesn't even feel like a conversation anymore, it's like a monologue.”

“Careful, Sam,” Tony spoke up after several seconds, “She likes those movies too.”

“Hey! They're good movies.”

“Good for a nap,” Sam let out a laugh.

You watched Bucky pursed his lips and looked down at the floor, holding back a chuckle.

“They're entertaining,” you muttered with a frown.

Sam pointed at you, his eyebrows arched and his corners raised in a playful grin.

“Well, that's it,” Bucky interrupted whatever Sam was going to say, “You know what they say, to each his own.”

“I'm with Barnes on this one,” Tony spoke up, resting one of his hands on Barnes' shoulder and giving it a little squeeze. Bucky watched his hand and then the millionaire's face with an arched eyebrow, but Tony quickly turned his attention away from Bucky to Sam, “Speaking of Steve, he asked me to tell you to look for him in the main room. He said something about a pending conversation.”

Tony put his arm around Sam's shoulders, leaning part of his body to lead him to walk with him out of the cafeteria. They promptly struck up a conversation on their way out of the cafeteria, and you felt your hands shake once you realized you were alone with Bucky after a couple of weeks of not being able to talk properly with him.

You turned your head away from where the two people who had accompanied you a few seconds before were leaving, hearing the creak of a chair being dragged in front of you. You watched Bucky move his body into a sitting position, settling his forearms on the table and his eyes fixed on yours. Settling into the chair, you gave him a tight-lipped, tense smile. Act normal.

“So the boss finally gave in,” the black-haired man said, his lips curling as he interlocked his hands.

You nodded your head slightly, “It was quicker than I thought. I thought he'd never let me back in the field.”

“And can you blame him? You sure scared the soul out of his body,” Bucky arched his eyebrows, and the mere memory of what happened gave you a feeling of irritability.

You grimaced, “Oh, it wasn't a big deal.”

“It wasn't a big deal? Honey, you threw yourself at those people all by yourself.”

You stared at him for a few seconds, like you did every time he called you names when you were alone. He never did it in public, and it was something you didn't try to think about very often.

“So what? This was all unnecessarily dramatic,” you tried to say in the most neutral tone of voice possible as you crossed your legs under the table.

“There were twenty men,” he said, as if that explained everything.

“Do you think me incapable, Barnes?” you arched an eyebrow, speaking with courage.

“No, of course not,” he quickly replied, his gaze softening, “But you disobeyed a direct order from Natasha and put your life at risk. You know how Fury is with you, he cares too much about you.”

You rolled your eyes, letting your back fall against the back of the chair, “But I'm not made of porcelain. I'm as good as Nat, she trained me herself!”

“But Fury didn't see her grow up.”

Well, he had a point and rightly so. You had grown up with the boss, who had practically adopted you, which was one of the reasons he used to be overprotective or refuse you to do some things because he thought it was for the best. And that fact had also helped you form fraternal bonds with all the Avengers until you were old enough and capable enough to be a part of them.

Well, you saw everyone as a nice family except Bucky. And that was a big problem.

You watched him through your eyelashes with an almost imperceptible pout.

Bucky gave you a beautiful smile, the kind that could light up an entire city, “Honey, I understand that it bothers you, but the position you put Fury in at the time, or everyone for that matter, made it hard for him not to make the decision he did. Maybe he overstepped, I'm not denying that, but he was scared.”

“There were other ways...” you started to renege again.

“And would you really have listened to him?” he inquired without wiping away his smile. It amazed you how lenient he could be with you, when with the rest of the world he was a hermit and sulky most of the time.

You sighed. Yep, you could be pretty stubborn when you put your mind to it.

“Well, the important thing is that he finally realised his mistake,” you blurted out with an amused grin. Bucky frowned and pointed the index finger of his metal arm at you.

“I think you missed the point of our little debate.”

“No, no... I understand, Bucky, I do. But Fury have to trust my skills a little more. I could against all of them! It was a spectacle.”

“But you're not always going to come out on top, sweetheart. At some point someone can catch you off guard, and that's what Fury's afraid of.”

“Well, it'll have to happen at some point. Unfortunately, I'm not invincible,” you agreed and admitted what he had said, because he was certainly right, with a tight-lipped smile.

You thought Bucky would be amused, or at least agree with you, but he merely bowed his head, frowned and tensed noticeably. You noticed that his expression suddenly hardened, and it frightened you that you had said something that would have angered him.

“What?” you asked fearfully.

He looked up from the table to look at you again, waking up. He gave you a smile, but a stiffer, harder and committed one. Your chest tightened, “It's not.... It's nothing. Just try to be careful next time, more cautious if necessary. You know, strategist.”

“Yeah, I know, I don't risk it if I don't think it's necessary.”

“That's my girl.”

You froze for a few seconds, just watching him, before your face heated up into an all too violent blush. He'd never said anything like that to you before... but you certainly didn't balk at the possibility that he might again.

“Thank you, Bucky,” you smiled shyly at him.

The sound of the cafeteria doors swinging open distracted the man in front of you, but you kept staring at his profile, gawking and surely with heart-shaped eyes. How was it possible that you liked him so much? Even though it had been a while since you last spoke, it seemed that your feelings for him had only grown three times his size.

Then, you heard it:

“Bucky!”

A woman's voice in the distance.

Confused, you turned your gaze in the direction of the voice, which came from the same place Bucky had been watching for several seconds. She was the one who had opened the doors so frantically, then. You frowned at her from a distance, unable to recognise her figure or features; it wasn't usually easy for you to forget the faces of people you knew, and you certainly didn't know this woman.

However, when you turned to ask Bucky, the half-smile on his face gave you the answer without words. Your chest tightened and you clenched your hands so as not to show the abrupt change of mood you had just gone through when he turned his face and fixed his eyes on yours. All without erasing that smile.

That smile he had on his face for her.

“I guess you'll have to go with Steve to schedule everything about the mission.”

You nodded, uncomfortably, not looking away.

“Fine. In the meantime, I'll go on my date,” he crooned, and the burning you felt intensified so much that it felt like you couldn't pass saliva without straining. But you smiled at him, your lips curving awkwardly and your face reluctant to show a feeling you didn't experience.

“Wow, I thought I'd never hear you say something like that.”

“Life is full of surprises, honey,” he said smiling as he stood up, “Do you want me to walk you to the living room?”

“No, don't worry. I'll be there in a minute,” you replied quickly. It was the first time since you had met him that you wanted him to leave you alone for once.

“All right. Good luck with the old man.”

“Thanks. Good luck with your- your- your date.”

You hated the way your voice betrayed you, but Bucky didn't seem to pay too much attention to it as he waved goodbye to you and started walking in the direction of the woman waiting for him outside the cafeteria doors. You felt your chest tighten as you sighed deeply and a couple of tears welled up in your eyes.

Damn it, at what point had all that happened?

[pretoriafics]

Teenage Dream

I think this one is the most fun thing I'd ever written. Maybe it can be a new series, I don't know. What do you think?

You were just reading smut fanfics about Derek Hale before sleep. When you woke up, you find that someway, you got into the Teen Wolf universe. Word count: 1.890 Pairings: Different Dimension!Reader x Derek; Different Dimension!Reader x Platonic!Scott; Different Dimension!Reader x Platonic!Stiles Contain: It's pretty fun; You dying of shame; AU Warnings: English is not my main language <3; Inappropriate language PART 2 ALTERNATIVE VERSION TEEN WOLF MASTERLIST

It was a calm night. You were lying on your bed with your bedroom in darkness. In your hand, you were with your cell phone. You had just read on Tumblr brand new smut fanfic with Derek Hale, one of your most-loved fictional characters. You found another one with Stiles - a platonic fluff fic this time -, and you will read it when you woke up. You were almost sleeping, and you are not capable of reading it now. You just have to sleep.

You put your cell phone on your bedside table and fell asleep quickly. But when you woke up, you found yourself in a different and familiar bedroom. You sit on the waitress and look around.

It was a sunny morning outside, and you were still in your cheesy kitten print pajamas. The bed, the walls... Everything sounds familiar to you: It was Scott McCall's bedroom. At first sight, you thought it was such a real dream. However, when you stood up from the waitress, you hit your little finger on the bed.

"Fuuuck!"

You sat on the waitress, holding your foot. Damn! That pain's too real for all of that to be a dream. While you grab your foot, you look around again. You could smell cologne and some low noises from outside the house. A little bit more confused right now, you stood up and walks around the bedroom. Getting close to the window, you could see a familiar jeep.

No, no, no. It was impossible. All of this is just a hyper-realistic dream.

You walk in wide steps to the bathroom and look at you through the mirror. Well, you are the one reflected there. What the hell? Should you go downstairs? Should you stay right here, waiting for something happens?

Hell no.

You take a deep breath and open the bedroom door, walking downstairs on tiptoes. Then, you heard two familiar voices.

"I don't know, Stiles! She just appeared in my bedroom!"

"How she is? Does she have scales? Fangs?"

"She's just a normal girl. We have to do something! If she is a psychopath creature?"

"Scott, I'm serious. We need to call Derek."

"No! We don't need another sociopath near us. We need to take care of it all by ourselves."

You heard Stiles let out a long sigh.

"You even know how to control yourself yet, Scott. Derek is used to dealing with strange things like this. We have to call him."

"Shh! She woke up!"

Well, you were exposed.

You finish getting downstairs and walk close to the living room frame. Scott and Stiles were in the middle of the room, and they look at you scared. Your eyes got widen, and the room dives into a weird silence for a few seconds. Yeah, you aren't crazy: Somehow, you got into the Teen Wolf series.

And when you realize it...

"Oh my gosh." You put your hands on your head, in shock and so excited at the same time. "Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh!"

Scott and Stiles look at each other with a 'what the hell?' in the eyes. You turn yourself to look around. Yeah, it was Scott's house! Your inner teenager was freaking out.

"Scott..." Stiles looks at his friend "Calls Derek."

Scott already was with his cell phone in his hands.

"I'm already calling."

Man, how did you get there?! Excited, you open the door and runs outside without care about being in pajamas in the middle of the street. Derek finally answers Scott's call.

"Derek?! Oh, thank god!"

Scott almost could hear Derek's muscles get tense.

"...What happened?"

"There's a girl who suddenly appeared on my bed, and she's freaking out!"

"What do you mean with 'suddenly appeared'?"

"Suddenly, Derek! She wasn't there in a second, and then she just was!"

And then, you saw Stiles' jeep. Oh, man, you loved that jeep so much!! Excited and freaking out, you ran to the jeep. Stiles almost had a heart attack.

"No, no, don't touch my jeep!!"

But it was too late.

"Oh my gosh!!" You touch Stiles' jeep just as if it was of gold.

Stiles run to you, and Derek starts to understand that something pretty wrong was happening.

"Scott, who's yelling? You know what? Forget it. I'm coming. Took this girl in your bedroom, don't let her escape."

Derek turns the call off, and Scott puts his cell phone in his pocket. Scott approaches you, and Stiles hasn't the courage to approach you yet. So, he was just staring at you, praying that you don't do anything with his precious jeep.

"Hey!" Scott calls you, and you look at him. His voice was hesitant, but he was trying to control things "I think you should get into the house. I mean, right now."

You blink your eyes repeatedly at Scott, frozen in your place. Yeah, you were inside your favorite series when you were a teenager, with all your favorite characters... But, you know about Beacon Hills. The city was full of secrets and dangers. Until yesterday, you could see Scott and his friends escaping from death numerous times. This time, you will be the one who does it.

And this is not good.

"...Oh my gosh."

This time, your words were not from excitement but fear. Man, you're so fucked up.

You swallowed hard and got into Scott's house. The boy looks at Stiles, confused.

"I thought that took the girl inside my house would be harder."

They got into the house, looking at your shape sit on the couch. Now, you look terrified.

"Uhh..." Stiles looks at you, trying to find out something "How did you-"

"You guys need to send me home! Something went wrong, and I came here."

Scott and Stiles look at each other. It was Scott's turn to say something to you.

"What exactly went wrong?"

"I don't know! Look, I was just trying to sleep on my bed, and when I woke up, I was here."

"What are you?"

"Nothing, I'm just human. Do you guys did something that could have brought me here?"

They denied with his heads, so confused as you. Scott and Stiles were relatively new to the supernatural world. So, they are completely lost. You bit your inner lip, thoughtful.

"Something big made it. I mean, I'm definitely not from here."

Scott and Stiles stare at you with a scared gaze. Then, you all hear a car noise: It was Derek's Camaro. He was parking in front of Scott's house. Your eyes got widened when you saw it. Oh, man, you absolutely haven't the maturity to deal with Derek. Well, first of all: You were reading smut fanfic about him last night. Worse: It was an imagine! And you even want to remember the fact that, when the show got to its end, you and your best friend made tattoos. She tattoed the McCall Pack symbol on her arm, and, well, you tattooed a small triskelion between your boobs.

Man, you were dying of shame. It is such an odd situation. Anyone would never know about your tattoo or the fanfics.

Derek got into the house, and his eyes run to you immediately, and then he looks at Scott and Stiles. You felt your cheeks burning. Such an odd situation!!

"What the hell did you do?"

"Nothing!" Scott said, too nervous "She just came out of nowhere."

Derek narrowed his green eyes to Scott and Stiles, and then he looks at you. You already knew what he could ask you, so you started to talk.

"Either do I! Look" You took a deep breath, trying to contain all that mess of feelings inside of you "I was in my bedroom sleeping, and then I woke up here. But there something pretty important you guys should know about me: I am definitely not from here. When I came from, anyone of you exists. You all are fictional characters from a tv series."

The room dives into a weird silence. Scott looks at Stiles.

"Uh... Stiles... She's not lying."

"Oh, man, I was born in the wrong dimension. Hey," Stiles looks at you "What the girls think about me? Do they like me? Do I have many fans?"

Stiles began to approach you, but Derek grabs him by his shirt, avoiding an approximation.

"We don't know about her yet, so stay right there."

"Oh, c'mon" Siles looks at him and gives a few steps close to Scott when Derek unleashes him "I'm pretty sure you're curious as well."

"I'm not. I just want to know what the hell is going on."

You narrowed your eyes to Derek. You know why he wasn't interested to know about him. So, you started to talk.

"Are you sure? I mean, everyone thinks you are the most wronged of all."

Derek stares at you, unmoved by your words. You should know he would be suspicious about you. He stares at Scott and Stiles.

"She will stay with me until we know she is not a problem. I'll investigate to know how she came here."

What?! No, no, you have no maturity for that. You felt your cheeks burning again. Man, it was just like on fanfics!

You objected.

"Hell no! I'll stay here."

Without a drop of patience and calm, Derek rolled his eyes.

"You'll stay here? With Scott and his mom? So what do you will tell her about your presence at her house?"

Okay. Your plan was stupid. Also, it was funnier when Derek was rude to Stiles. With you, it was just annoying. You cross your arms in front of your chest, not so sure about what to say. He let out a long sigh of annoyance and took your arm. You widen your eyes standing up from the couch. You look at his hand on you, and then you look at him.

"Hey!"

Derek drags you in the door's direction and looks at Scott.

"Something went too wrong for this girl to be here. Tell me if you find something else."

"Wait!" Scott gives a step forward into you and Derek's direction "She can't stay a little more? We need to, uh... Investigate."

"Let your stupid curiosity for another time, Scott."

You whine in annoyance while Derek drags you in his car's direction. A few minutes ago, you would be freaking out of getting into Derek's Camaro. Now, you are just too pissed off to care.

"Let me go! I know how to walk!"

He opened the passenger's seat door and released you. Derek didn't talk anything, just stares at you in a silent order. Pissed off, you cross your arms in front of your chest, stubborn.

"I'll not come in!"

Derek gets closer to you, giving you a deadly glare.

"Get in the car. Now."

You swallowed hard. Oh man, this part wasn't like the fanfics. It was not sexy at all. Actually, it's a bit scary.

Pissed off, you get in the car, and Derek closes the door, getting into the driver's seat. You look at Scott e Stiles through the window, thinking that maybe it would be better if you stay with them. However, you haven't a choice. All you have to do now is try not to be killed by the first supernatural threat that appears in Beacon Hills.

[funtimebunnyblog]

Pillarroomates (Chapter 2: Strange introductions...)

(Summary: It's time to meet your new Roommates and things are already off to a shaky start...)

"--and you mentioned you're a student aside from your work?"

Smiling, you nodded as the violet-haired man before you scribbled away on the neat lined paper laid out in front of him.

"Yeah. It's mostly online stuff but I do occasionally go for in person lectures when I get the time." You began, making Kars hum quietly to himself as you went into more detail.

This was honestly starting to feel like more of a job interview (or perhaps more of a Police interogation) rather than a simple interaction concerning becoming a roommate with hopes of living here.

Even though you had only spoken with him for a short time now, you could tell this "Kars" (or so he had introduced himself as) was all business.

The giant of a man was asking you all sorts of questions, jumping back and forth between ones boarderline ubsurd and ones you had expected.

He asked a little about your history and about your Family (most specifically your surname and any distant relations you might have). He questioned you on your work and what you did, your wages and your work ethic. He wanted to know every single one of your habits (annoying or not) and how you spent your free time; jotting things down as he went.

Every single time his eyes fell on you, you couldn't help but feel exposed under his gaze; like you were sitting completely naked before him on an operating table, cut open, and he was taking you apart piece by piece and examining every inch with a scrutinizing eye.

Speaking of eyes, you definitely didn't miss how inhuman his were. Maroon on crimson, like thick droplets of blood splattered onto the white of a fine ivory knife and cutting you just as deeply as one.

It was like nothing you had ever seen or felt before.

You told him the truth and nothing but during the entirety of the seemingly endless line of questioning but it still felt like it was all a spew of dirty little lies falling from your lips. It only made an icky swirl of anxiety churn consistently in your stomach, like the spinning of a washing machine, as you sat there talking away.

There was no telling how you would feel if you did tell a lie or if he happened to indeed smell one lingering on your breath; which you were also struggling to keep in check.

"Interesting..." he muttered quietly, more to himself than to you. The scratching of his pen on paper filled the long silence at the round little wooden table.

Your eyes fell to his handwriting a number of times in hopes of catching a glimpse of something that would indicate whether you were "passing" this little test or not but it was inevitable.

You were beginning to wonder where exactly this man was from as the entirety of his notes were in a language you couldn't identify at all.

Even if it was written in proper English, you doubted you'd be able to read it at all either. His handwriting was something akin to what you'd find on an ancient scroll being presented late at night on the History Channel; small and scratchy letters scrawled across white in quick flicks of the wrist.

As if things couldn't feel anymore stressful, you could also feel the eyes of two others burning into you.

The one whom you had an encounter at the door with, Kars informed you that his name was "Esidisi" after the man had retreated down the hall again, was now standing in the far corner of the little kitchen.

There he loitered, a piece of pizza cradled in each hand (was that.... macaroni on top???) and munching away as if he hadn't seen so much as a morsel of food in months.

Much to everyones relief, the man had put some clothes on by the time he ran to answer the door for the 2nd time that day; his long awaited pizza finally having arrived.

At the very least he had saved the poor delivery boy from becoming as startled as you had.

You didn't even want to think of how different things would've gone if his towel had somehow slipped...

The burning intensity of Kars' glare (despite the fact it wasn't even aimed remotely in your direction) made you squirm in your seat as Esidisi came onto the interview scene with the pizza box in hand, a sunny smile stretched across on his face and the words "HOT DAD ALERT" emblazoned in bold white letters on his t-shirt.

Esidisi wasn't even so much as fazed by the look like you were. The man only smiling all the brighter, cheeks stuffed uncannily like a chipmunk storing food, each time he met Kars' sharp gaze.

Then there was the other one, the blonde with the mullet-like haircut and the stained apron. While he was doing his best to busy himself by cleaning around the stove, you managed to overhear Esidisi addressing him as "Wamuu" when offering a slice of the boxed Italian monstrosity he was savoring; which the other kindly declined.

Even through your talking, you didn't miss the fact that Wamuu had wiped down the kitchen surfaces at least 3 times during your little chat with Kars; he hadn't even moved an inch from his spot. You had managed to catch his gaze once or twice as he was sneaking a few little glances over his shoulder.

Much like Esidisi was doing (but with a lot more inconspicuous action) Wamuu was eavesdroping on the interview.

However, you also couldn't help but feel that he was was also standing guard. The man was keeping a close eye on the scene, reminding you of a bulldog protecting its Home from intruders while its master was away.

"And, uh... that's about it, I guess." You finished, a tight smile flashing across your face as you shrugged helplessly.

Kars pursed his lips, eyes skimming over his papers. For a long moment, perhaps the longest moment you'd ever had to endure, he was silent.

"Acceptable." He hummed, not exactly much emotion carried in that word, papers rattling as they were shuffled in his hands. "Perhaps the most acceptable I've seen in some time. You definitely fit our criteria."

You could only blink, unsure if you should even thank him for saying something like that.

"Uhh, I take it you've had your fair share of annoying roommates?" You asked, laughing a little, only making the man across from you hum again.

"Oh, you bet we have," Esidisi cut Kars off just as he opened his mouth to speak, wiping his hands with a paper towel as he waved the other off. "You wouldn't believe it! The last one we had was a real idiot. Lazy too, couldn't hold a job to save his life, he left the kitchen a mess every time he walked though it."

Hearing that, you could at least nod understandingly.

You definitely sympathized with them on that one, you had met your fair share of people when jumping from place to place who outright refused to pull their weight.

One of the main reasons you had been looking for a place to start with was because of one of those same types of people, afterall.

You had been happy living in an apartment closer to the edge of town for some time. Your earlier roommates had been nice, kind of fun too, and you had hopes things would stay that way at least until you finished school.

Everything had been just fine until the first one chose to move cities, then things only went downhill from there. Along came your other roommates boyfriend (better known as; the laziest, most childish piece of shit you ever had the displeasure of knowing) and after almost a year of just barely tolerating that shitshow you had decided enough was enough.

It was overdue for you to find another place to live.

Esidisi laughed as he went on, leaning on Kars' chair. "He really had it coming to him when we--"

THUNK! The table rattled, making you jump in your own chair. Esidisi's lips came tight together, a long breath sucked hard enough through his nose that the little gold ring dangling precariously on the ridge of his nostril shivered.

Kars acted as if you didn't know that he had just kicked the other under the table, clearing his throat.

"When that one was evicted," here Kars shot Esidisi another one of those looks, which the other actually paid attention to this time around. "It was unanimous that was the final straw, so we agreed to put some proper ground rules out there before allowing anyone else to even think about inquiring to live here."

Your head tilted, unable to hold back a chuckle as you pulled out the print out of their half-garbled "guidelines" you had kept for them to see.

"I'll be honest, at first I was sure this wasn't a real ad..."

Here, both Esidisi and Kars shared a pointed look, you had a feeling there was something more to the story there.

Kars' eyes fell on you again after a beat, thankfully his expression much more neutral.

"I'll ask you," he began. "Do you want to live here?"

"Well..." you honestly couldn't help but laugh a little. Even if things seemed a little worse here you probably wouldn't find yourself refusing, you NEEDED a place and you needed to jump on this before the opportunity was gone again. "Yeah."

"As you said, dear Kars, they fit all the criteria." Esidisi's voice dropped into a teasing little purr, you suddenly felt that heat you felt at the front door blooming in your face once again when the man tossed a wink and a smile your way. "They're cute too, just what I asked for at the very least."

Cute? You nearly sputtered out the word, lips tightening together as you had no choice but look away from the man and his cheeky little grin.

You sat there struggling to force down the memory of him in only his bathtowel again, face feeling hot enough to rival the sun.

Kars let in a deep breath, ignoring the way the other was shaking him in his chair, the sight of an actual smile working his way across his face brought you a little closer to reality again.

"In that case," here he stood, holding his hand out for you to shake. "Welcome to our Home."

A smile of your own spread across your face as you grasped his hand, cold and calloused and FAR bigger than your own, suddenly feeling as if a great weight had been lifted off your shoulders.

"I'm glad to be welcomed." You sighed, beaming up at Kars. Now he didn't seem so very intimidating (well, at least a little) when he was looking a tad more relaxed around you. "I don't have much stuff so getting it from the shelter to here won't be a stretch. I'll probably have it all moved by tomorrow."

Here, you were treated with the sight of not only Kars and Esidisi but Wamuu as well, still lingering by the stove, staring at you in surprise.

Here, Wamuu spoke up for the first time during this entire interview, "You... were living at a shelter?"

All you could do was shrug, feeling s little helpless. "Well, yes... I was." You sighed again as that heaviness on your back suddenly returned at their staring, a hand going up to rub the back of your neck. "Not the best place to stay, I know, but I've been looking around for a place for a quite a while."

It was better than sleeping on the street that was for sure. At least there you could shower and rest and get ready for work; really the only fears you had staying there was someone stealing something important of yours.

Not to mention, it was much more preferable than having to go back to--

The top of your head tickled as a warm and quick puff of air suddenly reached out and touched you, like a hand lovingly caressing your hair. Though the feeling was miniscule it made you suddenly stand on edge.

A beat passed before the very same thing happened again, just as fleeting as the first time. A strange itch crawled up your spine as the unmistakable heat radiating off another body sank slowly through your back, though its source not touching you directly.

Someone was behind you.

Slowly, though with much hesitantance, your head turned. You eyes were wide open as your neck rotated, the action best described as owlish, blinking at the words "seether" emblazoned across a barreled chest, only urging your eyes to seek more upwards.

Your eyes locked onto icy cold rings of blue, an unconcious shiver dancing through your body as the chill of them seeped deep within your body.

There, now right before you, was another man. It was best to assume this was your last supposed roomate as he was just as big and as muscular as the rest.

However, you couldn't shake the feeling that this one was strangely... different than the others.

A hot puff of air brushed the space between your eyes as the stranger breathed out quietly, the action only making you blink hard. He said nothing, he made no indication at all to say anything, he only... stared.

"Umm..." your mouth opened but the jumble of words sitting like a lump in your throat couldn't find your mouth.

"Y/N, this is... Santana." Kars piped up from behind, sounding more than tempted to sigh again today. "He is the 4th and last of us here."

Call it intuition but from what you could tell already, this Santana wasn't the chummiest one of the bunch. Tall and still, skin as fair as snow, almost every square inch of him was chiseled and, well, square.

That stoney expression of his didn't exactly give you an insight as to what was going on in the others head either.

Something told you you'd have to make the first move or else all this staring would get you nowhere.

A hesitant smile squirmed its way across your face, every effort you had inside to be polite straining to the point of almost breaking.

"Hi Santana," your voice nearly cracked. "It's-- nice to meet you...?"

Santana continued to stare at you as if he hadn't even heard you speak at all. A cold sweat prickled on the nape of your neck, you struggled to fight back a cough as the room fell into a dead silence again.

You were starting to wish you were back in the hallway where you had started...

"Santana," Esidisi spoke up next. "come on. Like we practiced..."

Santana exhaled again, the sound more like the huff of a disgruntled pasture bull.

A thick bubble of uncertainty ballooned in your throat as the red-heads arm extended, sticking out quite stiffly in your direction. A long moment passed, you blinking stupidly, before you realized what he was trying to do.

Your watery smile returned with much more force, reaching out to grasp his offered hand. Your fingers could just barely wrap around his ice cold palm.

Another beat. Nothing happened for another uncomfortable little eternity.

Across the room Kars cleared his throat, loudly. Another prompt.

That bubble of uncertainty in your throat dropped like a stone down into the pit of your stomach as his arm moved up and down, up and down, up and down. The movement was just as cold and robotic as his stare.

He didn't even wrap his fingers around your hand, keeping them as straight and pointed as dense meaty rulers.

You honestly half-expected to hear a feint squeaking come from his shoulder at the slight and stiff movement.

"Do not forget to smile..." It was Wamuu who whispered loudly to the other from across the room; as if that would keep you from hearing the plea.

Your own forced smile threatened to dissolve completely for good as you watched Santana's lips twitch, slowly peeling back to reveal two rows of white teeth.

Teeth of your own sank into the flesh your tongue as the glimmer of 4 very sharp K-9's hit your eye, making Santana's painfully cheered grimace all the more chilling.

Up and down, up and down, up and down.

"Nice... to... meet you..." Santana's voice was deep and gruff, the very tone of it shook your insides like an Earthquake.

Maybe it was just his voice, maybe he didn't mean to sound so very rough; the thought definitely crossed your mind. Though, you couldn't be quite sure about that by the way this interaction was going...

"Uhh, the--... the pleasures all mine..." Really, what else could you say?

The very second you let go, Santana's arm retreated back to his side, his face falling back into that stoney hard glare. And just like that, he pushed past you, marching quickly towards the fridge; a word was grumbled, too low for you to hear, but it was something about you.

It was more than clear to you and everyone else that he decided this horrible too-long-of-a-greeting was over.

The fridge door was yanked open, the movement harsh enough the bottles inside chattered. All of you watched as Santana made a grab for a container of lettuce, slamming the fridge shut and striding right out of the kitchen without so much as another grunt, let alone a glance, in your direction.

A breath you didn't even know you had been holding let go, a strange sense of relief washing over you like a warm tidal wave.

Talk about awkward. So awkward you almost wanted to shudder.

What the Hell was his problem?

You nearly jumped when a huge, warm hand clapped you on the shoulder, blinking up into the smiling face of Esidisi.

"He'll warm up to you," The man said, shrugging. "Santana doesn't care much for new people or, well, people in general I suppose. It's just the way he is..."

"We're trying to acquaint him with the concept of socializing and get him used to social norms of this time," Kars practically groaned, pinching the space between his eyes. "As you can see, it's still a work in progress..."

"It probably doesn't help that the last guy living here was the one to seriously piss him off in the end." Esidisi only shrugged again.

You, on the other hand, flinched hearing that. Like it or not, their last roomate had obviously left a lasting impression of newer people on him.

You wouldn't be surprised if Santana thought that you would be the very same thing judging by what you had been told about the last guy and the last thing you wanted was this near-to-stranger having some sort of hard feelings on you when you hadn't even so much as moved in yet.

"Would you like to see your room before you go?" You were most thankful that Kars spoke up again.

"Ah-- yeah." You said, blinking. "That'd be great."

"Wonderful, Wamuu will show you where it is." The kitchen chair creaked as Kars pushed himself in closer to the table, settling back into his comfortable working slouch as he pulled his laptop out again.

He still had work to get done afterall.

Your eyes drifted across the room, meeting the more stern gaze of the blonde, making you realize that Santana wasn't exactly the only one in the house you couldn't quite read just yet.

Nonetheless, the man made no move at all to argue with Kars for being volunteered like so.

Wamuu peeled off his stained apron with a huff, hanging it neatly on the wall.

"This way," a huge hand waved you along, Wamuu's back already to you as he was heading out of the kitchen.

You fumbled for a moment, head turning not-unlike a pet budgie, choosing to wave to Esidisi (Kars was already too focused on whatever he was working away at) before moving to catch up with Wamuu.

Something told you that he wouldn't exactly appreciate having to wait up for you.

This day was far from over yet but at least the hardest part of it was....

Wasn't it?

[okskz]

Chan’s Room. (pt.2)

Mia + Chan

chan invites mia back on his weekly vlives.

here’s for the anon who requested mia on chan’s room! hope you guys enjoy and please feel free to leave some feedback because it is always appreciated!

italics = english

[9th Member of Stray Kids]

“Today we have a special guest with us today. You guys have been mentioning this person for quite awhile now. And well I listened!” Chan chuckled to himself at the last part.

He looked over at Mia, smiling wide as he motioned for her to come over. She jumped into view right behind Chan and yelled out, “surprise!” wrapping her arms around Chan from behind after. “I’m back.” She laughed to herself before taking a seat right next to him.

“Yes, our lovely, Mia is back everyone.” Chan wrapped his arms around Mia’s head, bringing her in close as he began to ruffle her hair too. “Everyone has been wanting you to be in Chan’s room again.”

“How nice.” Mia giggled. “I think the last time I was here was your first year doing this?”

“Oh, so its been quite a while since you’ve been on here.”

“Yeah! Only because you failed to invite me back!” Mia turned to face the camera. “Everyone, Channie doesn’t want me on here.”

Chan let out a laugh. “Hey, untrue!” He smiled. “You just happen to always be busy, or sleeping.”

“I like to sleep.” She nodded.

Mia went closer towards the device to read some of the comments with Chan. It was a mixture of a lot of things, majority were just happy to see Mia back on Chan’s room. “Hi, everyone.” She giggled. “Mia we missed you. Oh! I missed you guys as well. Time to make this Mia’s Room.”

“Definitely not happening.”

“Shoutout to Texas, hi, Mia.” The girl gasped when reading the comment. “Texas! I miss Texas, hello to you guys!”

After a couple of more minutes of reading comments and talking to Chan, it was now time to start playing some music. And of course, Chan let Mia choose the first song to play. “You have a song in mind?” He questioned her. Mia quickly nodded her head, typing away on the keyboard to search for the song, picking Telepatía by Kali Uchis to play.

“This song has been one of my top songs I have been playing.” Mia smiled. “It has a good vibe to it. Especially when I’m listening to it while laying in bed.”

“This is a really good song, a recommendation for our Stays.”

Mia nodded her head as she smiled, Chan lowering the volume on the music.

***

“Who has been caring or looking over for you these days?” Chan questioned. They were now in the middle of conversation, taking a small break from the music.

Mia thought for a moment. “Well, all of you guys seem to always look after me in different situations, but Jisungie has been the main one.” She nodded. “Yeah, these days its been Jisung.”

“Every time he wants to go out to like the stores or to go eat, he always asks me first.”

“I’ve noticed that too.” Chan softly chuckled. “You two are always hanging out together.”

“Yes!” Mia smiled. “We always like to be with Flash. And for those who don’t know, Jisung and I have a pet guinea pig named Flash.”

“Such a cute little fella.”

“Very. I can’t believe we’ve had him for so long now. Who knew a little fur ball could bring me such joy.” She grinned.

“What made you get a guinea pig instead of a dog or something?”

Mia shrugged her shoulders. “I thought a dog in the dorms wouldn’t work out maybe, and it would be a huge responsibility. I mean a guinea pig is too but it seems a lot easier. Plus when I saw him I fell in love and needed to take him home with us.”

“He’s so tiny and cute.” Mia giggled.

Chan laughed a little as he stared at the comments. One in particular catching his eye. “Mia share a TMI.” He looked back at her, Mia raising a brow.

“TMI?” She questioned. She began to think of some things she could possibly share about herself.

“Although our Stay knows you, there’s still some things they may not know about you. You’re never one to share anything personal. Even I still learn new things about you.” Chan laughed at himself on the last sentence.

“Well I can share that I have known Minho way before debut.”

Chan snapped his finger. “Oh yeah, I remember you mentioning that. How was that? Where did you guys meet?”

Mia cleared her throat. “Storytime.” She wheezed. “Um, it was back when I had entered World of Dance Korea. Dancing has been something I’ve always been passionate about so when I saw they were wanting new dancers I decided to join. Minho had already been there before me. So I was a newbie basically.”

Chan nodded his head as he listened to Mia’s story. “Did you know the language at the time? Or were you learning Korean?”

“It was between I was learning and knowing? I guess you can say. But anyways, I remember Minho being in dance crew and I was just a soloist dancer so when it came time to perform I did a solo performance. And right when I walked off the stage, Minho approached me first and was like “wow! you really did amazing up there, are you new?””

Mia stopped letting out a small chuckle. “But then he realized I was a foreigner so began stuttering and was like “you” and then pointed at me saying “good.” With a thumbs up.” She laughed. “But he was relieved when I began speaking to him in Korean. So it all worked out in the end.”

“Did you guys see each other again after that?l

“Si, (yes).” Mia nodded. “We ended up going to the same dance studio so we saw each a lot often. He was kinda happy to see me again. And after that we became really good friends and well now we’re here. Crazy to think about really.”

“Yeah, who would of thought you guys would end up in the same group together.”

“Exactly.”

***

“We have a lot of fun stories of our predebut.”

Mia nodded her head at Chan. “Yeah, we did.”

Chan began laughing. “You and Changbin really disliked each other at the time. But not just you two, I feel like almost all of us got into arguments and such.”

Mia laughed hysterically at the thought. “Oh yeah, let me tell you about the time it was me, Changbin, Felix and Jisung.” Mia thought some more. “And Seungmin! We all went to an arcade and there was a laser tag section and the boys thought it was a good idea to put Changbin and I in one team and the rest were in their team.”

“I like where this is going.”

“Long story short I had tripped on something so obviously I fell and Changbin was right behind me-“

“Did he fall on top of you?”

“No. Even worse, Jisung was coming up to me and since I’m on the ground he thought it was a perfect opportunity to shoot at me but, Changbin literally grabbed my leg and dragged me away from Jisung. We were losing so Changbin didn’t want Jisung to get me.”

Chan let out a loud laugh, beginning to laugh hysterically. “Wait, wait. So he literally dragged you on the floor?”

“Yes!” Mia exclaimed, she started laughing when seeing Chan bounce in his seat and clapping. “He literally dragged me across that floor until we were in a hiding spot.”

“Did anyone see you two?”

“Oh my god yes. These group of people saw us and kept laughing.” Mia giggled. “And after, Jisung was telling the others and it was just a whole mess.” She shook her head. “We lost either way.”

Chan began laughing harder than usual at Mia’s predebut story, holding onto his stomach as he did so. “Remember that one time you fell off the bunk bed?”

Mia looked at Chan confused but burst into laughter once she remembered what he was talking about. “Oh yeah!” She exclaimed. “It was in the middle of the night and I had to use the bathroom but I was half asleep. So then I thought I was already at the bottom when in reality I was only halfway there so I jumped off and well... it wasn’t a pretty ending.”

The two began laughing out loud hysterically at the story. There was just too many stories to tell from their predebut. It was definitely all fun for the most part.

***

It was getting towards the end of Chan’s room when Chan was in the middle of playing one more song of Mia’s choice. The girl had chosen LMLY by Jackson Wang. “When I first heard this song, I instantly fell in love. It’s so catchy and good. Jackson really did a great job with it. I always love his music.”

“Very enjoyable to listen to, this song is great.” Chan nodded while lowering the volume on the music. He smiled as he looked at the comments, knowing what they wanted since he was going to end the live soon.

“Have you seen my rooms lately?” He questioned Mia

“Some, I saw last week’s with Jisungie and Changbin.”

“So you know what I do in the end?” He smiled while Mia nodded. “We have to give our Stays a hug.”

Mia began grinning as Chan talked. “Today you guys will be getting a hug not only from me but also from Mia.” He looked back at the girl. “First time hug from Mia!” Chan exclaimed. “You wanna do the honors and hug first?”

“Sure!” Mia stood up quickly going in to give a hug like Chan always does. She began giggling when she sat back down. “That was nice, hope you guys liked my hug.”

“A big hug from Mia and now a big hug from me.” Chan said, going in for a hug as well. He sat back down, “hope you guys enjoyed today’s live and getting to see Mia again, she will be back again, hopefully?”

“You know it!”

The two said their goodbyes before Chan ended the live completely. “Thank you for coming.” He looked back at Mia, seeing she was a bit spaced out. “Mia?”

“I just thought of something.”

“What is it?”

Mia couldn’t help but let out a small snort. “I basically put my whole boobs in front of everyone’s faces with that hug.”

[littlegiantposts]

movie night

pairing: todoroki x f!reader

warning: strong language probably. possible anime/manga spoilers! grammar mistakes :( I suck at writing

summary: It’s not that Y/n didn’t want friends, it’s just people always found her intimidating

a/n: this is completely self-indulgent lol sorry about that, so like yeah I’m gonna be saying y/n, but also i am deriving her personality, attitude, looks from a character that I’ve sort of made up in my head haha. also idk if this is like a headcanon, imagine, or like a scenaro....so sorry. And like, sort of a side note, I love making main characters that are like sorta op so y/n’s quirk and story is sorta insane, but you guys dont really have to worry about it too much because its not really in this so....yeah, i guess its just some context. I wrote this while listening to a playlist I made, titled, “ur a badass hero with class 1-a” on spotify so if ppl wanna hear it, I will post a link to it lol. OH and class 1-a are in their second year! That’s a lot, sorry! But, I hope you enjoy!

y/n’s quirk (if ur curious): controlling the 4 elements (aang from the last airbender vibe lmao); but she also got a companion named koda (think of Moro-no-kimi from Princess Mononoke for the look) 

Y/n was never good at making friends. It’s not like she didn’t try, because she did. When she was a little kid, living on Catalina Island, she made a lot of attempts to make friends with fellow children in her pre-school and middle school. It just seemed that they wanted nothing to do with her, talking bad about her behind her back or acting as if she just didn’t exist. 

It started to get exhausting for Y/n to keep trying and ending up always failing. So, when enrolling in the top hero school, UA, Y/n thought that maybe, just maybe, things would be different. 

Nonetheless, it’s not like she had absolutely no one. She had Koda! Her best friend in the whole wide world, well her only friend, which was her pet wolf. However, Koda doesn’t like being called a “pet”, let’s stick with her companion. They are quite the inseparable duo. 

Y/n looked down at Koda from her desk who was lulling herself to sleep on the floor as Present Mic was teaching an English lesson. Y/n wished she too can sleep at this moment, “It wouldn’t hurt if I just closed my eyes for just a couple minutes.” Y/n thought. Oh, she was wrong though.

“Alright! We are going take a short break since we need to get our new textbooks,” Present Mic’s voice rang through her ears with all his elongation and passion, “Y/n and Todoroki! What about you two go get the books from the library!” Y/n would have jolted at the mention of her face, but she was honestly too tired to do so. 

She nodded her head, got up from her desk, and looked at Koda if he was going to follow her. Of course, he perked up at the mention of her name and was going with her. A small smile was now on Y/n’s lips. Y/n was glad that she knew she can depend on Koda, always in her corner.

As she pushed her chair away from her desk, getting up and walking towards the door, she didn’t realize that most of the class was either looking at her or the half and half boy, for he had to endure the trip with the enigma that is Y/n. 

The class just doesn’t know Y/n that well. She was one of the new students this year, along with Shinso. However, they at least knew of Shinso from last year. Y/n was a  brand-spanking new addition to the class. Not to mention, her introduction to the class was nothing short of intimidating.

Aizawa knew Y/n had a lot of strengths. In fact, he used her skills as a type of learning lesson for the class. Not to mention, he completely singled her out during the “lesson” as he instructed the class that Y/n will have a bell that is tied around her belt. All they had to do was get the bell. Y/n, being the competitive person she was, didn’t back down at this challenge. Safe to say, no one was able to get the bell that day.

Y/n sighed at the memory. “Maybe, if you had some chill, you would be able to get a friend, Y/n” a voice in her head said, causing Y/n’s shoulders to shrink and her hands to be stuffed into her pockets. (Yes, she has pockets with her uniform. Yes, she’s still wearing the school uniform skirt. She sowed pockets into them for this very habit.) 

“Uh, hey wait up.” a deeper voice called, already identifying who it is.

Y/n turned to right, looking at Koda for a brief second. From far away, one would think he was just grimacing, but as Y/n was closer, she can see he was very close to full-on growling at the sound of his voice.

Koda doesn’t really like Todoroki and Y/n always found it funny. Koda found everyone else real entertaining. As much as Koda was a wolf, he really was a people’s person. If Y/n didn’t know any better, it seemed Koda had a better relationship with her classmates than she actually did.

Y/n adopted a tired smile as she reacted to Koda’s growling at Shoto. She then looked behind her, seeing Todoroki jog lightly towards her. Her small smile soon faded away.

“Even if you try again to be a friend, you know that people will always end up fearing you.” Y/n honestly wanted to bang her head against a wall because this annoying voice was truly the bane of her existence. 

Y/n stopped in her tracks. Koda made eye-contact with her, almost telepathically asking her, “Why are you stopping for him?!”.

“I may be aloof, but I have to at least be polite.” Y/n told her wolf companion. Koda only let out a breathe of frustration as he also stopped as well.

Todoroki soon caught up to the duo and was on Y/n’s left side. And the three began their trek to the school library.

There was some silence.

For Todoroki, it was so awkward. “Why don’t you say something to her?” he asks himself, “Or are you going to let another opportunity slip?”

You see, Shoto Todoroki admired Y/n. She was incredibly skilled with her quirk. She was confident, but not arrogant. She was an innovator, while still accepting old principles. She was naturally smart, but always open to learning. To him, she was so balanced. He couldn’t help himself as the admiration started to soon feel like a crush on the dark haired girl.

For Y/n, she didn’t think anything of the silence. In fact, she was grateful for the silence. More silence, means less time for talking. Less chance of Y/n making a fool out of herself.

“You seem more tired than usual. Trained a lot yesterday, I presume?” And Todoroki broke the silence that Y/n was trying to insist.

“Yeah, trying out a new technique with my water.”

Y/n was surprised.

She really could have been more blunt with her answer.

Theoretically, all she really had to respond with was a “yeah”, but she decided to add that last part.

Why? Why did she feel inclined to go into more detail? Now, Y/n was confused. 

“That’s cool.” Todoroki wanted to hit himself in the head. “That’s all you got to say? What a conversation this is” Shoto mentally sighs. He feels like his heart is going to burst at how fast its going. 

“I’m actually trying to freeze it, but that turns out to be harder than expected,” Y/n almost slapped her hand on her mouth.

Why is she going into more detail? This doesn’t make sense. She’s been quite blunt lately when people try to talk to her, so what gives?

Is it Todoroki, himself? “Maybe he put a spell on me or something.” Y/n didn’t think the “icy-hot bastard” would dabble in witchcraft, but things were just not adding up in Y/n’s mind. All these thoughts woke Y/n right up, ridding herself of her tiredness. 

As for Todoroki, his mind was going into overdrive. “She’s having trouble with freezing water? She must know that this is my specialty. Is this her way of spending time with me? Does this mean the feelings I have for her are mutual? Perhaps, we can train together and I can help her with freezing.” The mere thought of spending time with Y/n outside of class made his cheeks warm up. 

He was an absolute love-struck fool for Y/n. 

“Oh, we’re here.” Y/n stated the obvious as they stand in front of the school’s library, halting Shoto’s mental mumbling, which almost resembled one of Midoryia’s ever-present babbling. 

Shoto Todoroki immediately shot his arm forward to open the door for Y/n, but Y/n was thinking the same thing and they reached for the same handle.

Their hands touch. 

And Todoroki thinks he can die happy now. Y/n’s hand is so soft. Much to his dismay, Y/n immediately drew her hand back as if his hand was scalding hot water. 

Y/n mumbled a quick “sorry” and places her hand on the other handle as there are two doors to the library, she opens it and immediately walks through it as Koda follows in tow. Koda dawns an absolute confused look as he didn’t know what the hell that interaction was about.

The actual task of getting the books aren’t that hard. In fact, it was an easy and quick task.

So, why is this causing Y/n’s mind and heart feeling like they are overheating.

As they walk back to the classroom with stacks of textbooks, Y/n thought, “Okay, there’s no way in hell that he will try to talk to me again, especially after that awkward incident. Now, let’s breakdown why the actual hell you acted that way, Y/n.” She mentally scolded herself like she was a child. 

Todoroki, as always, had a different plan and decided to continue the conversation, “You know, if you need help with freezing water, I can always help you since that is part of my quirk.”

Y/n has officially short-circuited.

He is voluntarily asking? Voluntarily. Asking?

Asking if Y/n wanted to train together?

This has never happened before, and she doesn’t know how to respond. “I would like that. I typically train in the morning and sometimes after school” is what Y/n felt like saying. It is as if her mind and mouth were working against each other.

However, Y/n’s thoughts were cut short as she heard the chatter of some of her fellow classmates. They three of them were very close to their classroom as their door to the room was wide open. 

“Hey guys, if we’re having a movie night tonight, do you think we should invite Y/n?”

It was Midoryia who asked the question. Y/n, Shoto, and Koda stopped dead in their tracks at the mention of her name. Shoto and Koda looked at Y/n with a worried expression. For her own good, she probably shouldn’t be listening, but she couldn’t help but be curious of her classmates’ plan in regards to her.

“It’s not that we don’t want her there. It’s just that, who is up for asking her?”

Silence. No one responded to the question.

Koda notices how Y/n’s grip on the textbooks tightened. Shoto noticed how your head was now titled downward, hiding your face.

“She’s just so intimidating. And not to mention that training exercise we did when we first met her. She’s sort of scary, to be honest.”

“Scary. You’re scary, Y/n. Terrifying.” She couldn’t help but repeat her classmates’ thought of her. She was just torturing herself at this point. No point in dwelling on first impressions, but as this is affecting her current relationship, or lack thereof, with her classmates, she couldn’t help it.

“Y/n-” Todoroki tries to interject before Y/n gets the wrong idea.

But, it’s too late.

“No, it’s fine. Thanks for the offer though, Todoroki.” Y/n’s words were slow. As much as her brain was going a million miles per hour, her mouth was evidently slower as her breathing was heavier.

She wanted to disappear, or at least get swallowed by the ground. She kept her head down as she strode into the classroom. Her classmates being oblivious to Y/n’s knowledge of what they truly think of her, paying no attention to her.

Shoto was basically frozen in place, next to the door, but he gained composure and walked in the class as well, a couple seconds after. Y/n quickly placed her books on the front desk where Present Mic sat behind of, she sat back in her seat that was in the back of the class.

Y/n watched how Shoto was still standing in front of the classroom as he was stopped by his classmates. Now, they were just chatting, probably talking about the upcoming movie night.

Y/n felt jealousy bubble up inside her. She wished she can chat like how Shoto was effortlessly talking away to his classmates. Or how Midoryia stopped him with such ease to talk about a social event.

Y/n yearned for some friendly interaction. That’s what she wanted when coming to UA. 

She wanted to be normal. As normal as she could be. A normal teenager.

“Things don’t always go according to plan, huh?” Y/n pouted and placed her head on her desk and just waited patiently till the school day was over.

Koda worriedly looked at Y/n. “She’s going to want to train after this. And I bet she’s going to push herself harder because of today.” Koda knew Y/n very well. Knew her like the back of his hand, well, paw. 

And, Koda was right. Y/n was in gym gamma, completely exhausted. Sweat covered her body as her muscles were screaming at her take a break. Her labored breathe continued as her body was trying its best to keep up.

Y/n was frustrated. “Why? Why am I like this?” she kept repeating like a mantra.

“I want to be normal. Why can’t I be like them?”

“Why?”

“You’re a monster. It’s actually quite simple.”

Y/n threw a punch with her fist encased in water, and it wasn’t until after that punch was thrown, she realized that there was now an evident hole in the thick, solid concrete wall. 

Y/n fell to her knees. Koda hurriedly made his way to her, making sure she didn’t do anything too stupid. Once Koda was close, she was doing something unexpected. 

She was crying. 

Hot streams, cascading down her face. She started to hiccup, her breathing erratic. “A-am I scary to you, Koda?” her voice was so small.

Koda nudged his way in between her legs and nestled his head into her neck. Y/n, full on sobbing now, wraps her arms around Koda and her cries are muffled by his fur. Wailing and self-deprecating questions can be faintly heard from her if anyone were to enter the gym.

A couple minutes passed. Y/n’a breathing returned to a calm rhythm.

“Thanks, Koda. I needed that,” Y/n sniffles, “C’mon let’s go make dinner, I’ll whip you up something special for putting up with me today.” Koda’s tail immediately began to wag at the thought of Y/n’s cooking.

Y/n was an independent person. She likes doing things on her own as much as can. She doesn’t eat the food from the school cafeteria, instead, she opts for making her and Koda’s meals from the kitchen that is provided to them in their dormitory. And indeed, she made a delicious dinner for both of them. 

Now, the hard part. Because of how long her training took, showering, and making dinner, Y/n knew that her classmates were in the common space already, probably preparing to have their movie night. And, she had to pass them. It was a short distance, short walk, Y/n was trying to reassure herself. Just walk straight towards to the elevator and you’re safe.

Y/n takes a deep breathe and walks out of the kitchen. The chatter of her classmates emerges to her ears, but as she walks towards the elevator, the chatter dies down.

“Oh no.” Y/n’s eyes widened in fear. “Way to go on ruining the mood, Y/n.”

Thankfully, the elevator was quick and the doors slide open, making an easy escape for Y/n and Koda. She let out a breathe she didn’t even realize she was holding in as the doors slid shut. Y/n looks at Koda, who was already looking at her, “It’s better this way, anyway” Y/n didn’t know if she was telling Koda that, or herself.

On the other side of the elevator’s doors, her classmates collectively let out a sigh, “Well that was another chance we wasted.” Kaminari was the first to break the awkward silence.

“Tch. Like any of you have the guts to actually ask her.” Bakugo chimed in.

“Oh please, Bakugo, I know she intimidates you, too.” Mina fired back.

“Whatever.”

“She heard you guys.” Todoroki suddenly talked. Everyone casted their attention to him, “Earlier today, I mean. She heard you guys when you were talking about inviting her to movie night.” 

The once light-hearted atmosphere in the room was now tilted with guilt.

“She heard all that?” Midoryia incredulously asked, only imagining what you would be feeling because of their words.

“She must feel terrible.” Ochaco openly voiced her thoughts.

“She probably hates us.” Kirishima adds in.

“She means well, I promise. I think we just need to give her a chance.” Todoroki tries to reason with his classmates.

“First, we need to apologize.” Midoryia proposes as he looks among his classmates. His classmates collectively nod their heads in agreement

“You’re right. Well, good luck Midoryia.” Kaminari pats his back as encouragement. Everyone else either gives an encouraging smile or a thumbs up.

“Ha?! What?! You guys already decided that I’m going to be the one to apologize?” Izuku was flailing his arm around and was checking everyone else’s reaction.

“Well, yes. It’s your idea and you are one of the most apologetic people here.” Iida explained to an overthinking Midoryia.

After regaining composure, he realized that this was probably the best option, “Okay, I’ll, I’ll go now.”

Midoryia makes his way to Y/n’s dorm room. He was nervous. He only had very limited interactions with Y/n. So, he really didn’t know what to expect. Before he knew it, he was before your door.

On the other side, Y/n was chowing down on her food. She took a swig of her water, “So, how’s the food? I tried a new technique on roasting the veggies.” Y/n babbled on for a bit, but she realized that Koda’s plate was hardly touched. Her gaze landed on Koda who was sitting on her bed with a very obvious frown, staring at the door. Y/n immediately knew why.

“Hey, if you wanna go hangout with them, I can push the buttons on the elevator for you-”

Koda was irritated at how difficult Y/n was being, she can just ask them if she can join. It was simple. Koda used his mouth to latch on to Y/n’s sleeve and started to drag her to her dorm’s door. 

“H-hey Koda! Not cool, man! You know, I can’t go down there.” Y/n tugs her sleeve away from Koda. 

Koda turned to his last resort. He did his signature pout. 

“Oh, please. You know that stopped working on me awhile ago. Besides, we can have our own movie night, right?” Y/n tried to reason, but her reasoning just felt sad.

Before Y/n could step away from her dorm’s door, she heard a knock. The two quickly tuned their heads at the door as if something miraculous just happened.

Y/n took one step toward the door. 

“It’s Midoryia.” Koda began to wag his tail, “don’t get your hopes up too quickly.”

Y/n opened the door only a slit for her head to poke out, “Oh, hi Midoryia. Is something wrong?” she asks.

“U-um, no nothings wrong.” he responds as nerves start to take over and he doesn’t continue on.

“Okay.” With that, Y/n closed her door. Koda wanted to scratch his eyes out. This was her chance! For someone who was the top student in her class, she was so stupid. “He didn’t want anything. Sorry to disappoint, Koda-” another knock interrupted her.

She looked at the door, “It’s still Midoryia.” Koda rolled his eyes.

Y/n went to to open the door, again, only opening a bit, “Yes, Midoryia? You sure something isn’t wrong?”

“Uh, well I was wondering if we can talk for a bit.”

“Oh, yeah sure.” Y/n stepped out of her door, and shutting it.

However, Koda was right on her trail, but was shut out by the now closed door. He pouts at the door. And how holds his ear to the door, interested in the conversation that has yet to come.

“So, what’s up?” Y/n asked the green-haired boy.

“I, we, as a class, wanted to apologize for our words today.” Midoryia spoke in a remorseful and quiet tone.

Y/n was taken back. “So, they know that I heard what they were saying? Must have been Todoroki’s doing.”

“Look, it’s fine. I know I’m intimidating-“

“But it’s not fine. We shouldn’t have treated or talked about you that way.”

Y/n was stunned at his words. He took that as a sign to continue, “and we were hoping, if you’d be okay if we start over and become friends.”

Y/n remained cautious with her walls, “You know, friendship isn’t really a perquisite for this course.”

“Of course, I know that. We all do, but it doesn’t hurt to have them, right?”

Y/n felt like tearing up. She wanted to believe him. She wanted to put her trust in that last statement of his. 

“I’ll be be down in 5 minutes,” Y/n stated rather blandly, but it didn’t matter to Midoryia.

“Great! See ya!” He waved and started to head back to the elevator, before he pressed the button, Y/n called him once more,

“Midoryia?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“No problem.” and nods his head. He couldn’t be more thrilled that this will all work out.

As for Y/n, she opened her door to her dorm, and closing it as she stepped inside.

As soon as she was in the comfort of her own room, she broke into her happy dance. Her fists clenched, eyes shut, shoulders scrunched, jumping in the air, squeals make their way pass her lips, with the biggest smile on her face

Koda felt a wave of relief of wash over him. He was glad that she was finally experiencing acceptance. 

After the moment passes, Y/n sighs and looks at Koda, ruffling his fur on the top of his head.

“Well, shall we?” Y/n said in an extravagant manner as she opened her door and bowed.

Koda, playing along, held his head high and strutted out. Y/n let out a light-hearted laugh and they made their way down, together.

Once Y/n actually made it to the common room, all of her classmates were looking at her, stopping their conversations as well. The confidence that Y/n help was long gone, feeling now awkward yet again.

However, the silence didn’t last too long as the class enveloped her in boisterous apologies, hugs, and pats on the back. 

To say Y/n was overwhelmed was understatement. She had never been around these many people, giving attention towards her. It was new territory she had yet to cross. 

“Guys, you should probably let her breathe.”

That was Todoroki. Y/n pried her eyes away from Mina who was asking what conditioner she uses, and looked at Shoto. Y/n mouthed a “thank you” and he simply nodded.

The class went back to their seats, muttering apologies again for getting in her personal space.

Now, Y/n faced yet another problem:

Where is she going to sit?!

She kept standing where she stood for a good couple seconds, scanning the area for any good spots.

However, there was actually only one spot open. And, it just happen to be next to Todoroki. 

Y/n mentally prepared herself and started her path towards him. Of course, Shoto knew this. He was the one who made sure he saved a seat right next to him just for this occasion.

But things don’t always go according to plan, right?

Rightly so, right before Y/n could take the unaccompanied seat, Denki was coming back from the kitchen with a bowl of popcorn, plopping right down on the seat.

“Oh, hey Y/n! I’m glad you made it! You want some popcorn?”

“No, I’m good, thanks though.” Y/n was able to play it off as she chose to sit on the floor in front of the couch, which coincidentally was in front of the seat that Shoto resided. 

Shoto was irritated. He wanted you to sit next to him. For crying out loud, that was the whole reason he had this seat open in the first place. All he does is sigh, catching Y/n’s attention.

Y/n turns back to Todoroki, sending a small smile his way, but then turning back to the screen as her fellow classmates were arguing on what to watch.

Y/n put her hand to her chest. This is weird. Why is her heart rate so high? She’s not usually like this. Maybe Todoroki did cast a spell on her.

Y/n couldn’t think about it too much as the movie began playing.

[wiypt-writes]

Stark Spangled Banner

https://wiypt-writes.tumblr.com/post/644486634874847232/stark-spangled-banner

Ch58: You Have To Go Through The Worst, To Get To The Best.

Intro: In the aftermath of the battle, Katie grieves for Tony as the world comes to terms with the fact that people they lost five years ago have reappeared.

Warnings: “Language!” 

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

A/N: This is it! We head into the last part and as such, a brand new banner again from @angrybirdcr​. Only a few chapters left.

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Katie Stark and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

Chapter 57

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist // Main Masterlist

  Sorry for your loss.

Four words that Katie was already sick of hearing. Sorry. What did people have to be sorry for? It wasn’t like it was their fault. Still, she acknowledged the sympathy that came her way, completely automatically, almost emotionlessly. She barely registered the fact she had spoken to Fury and Hill, two people who had been dead five years ago, she didn’t have the energy to wish she could knock Ross’ head off his shoulders and had no idea how long she had walked what was left of the compound, maybe an hour or so? Who cared anyway? She simply did what people asked her to do to help out, whilst Steve hurried around organising everyone and barking orders. 

Nevertheless, when the crowds of Emergency Services, Armed Forces and Support Staff that had flooded the Compound left, she suddenly felt alone and found herself in their compound apartment, which had miraculously survived bar from a smashed window in the living area. She glanced around before she headed to the bedroom and slumped heavily on the large bed, staring at the wall.

Just staring.

It was quiet, but her mind was anything but. Her brain was screaming all sorts of stuff at her, a jumble of words and sounds and visions, but she couldn’t really understand any of it.

She simply felt broken.

“Katie?”

A voice broke through her reverie and she looked up to see Steve in the doorway.

“Hey.” She gave him a soft smile. “Pepper just spoke to Happy, the kids are fine. All three are fast asleep. He’s going to wake them in a few hours and bring them back.” “No.” Katie shook her head. “I want him to bring them now.” “Honey its almost two am.” He said, and Katie frowned. Okay, so she’d been walking around a little longer than she thought, then. “Let them sleep. We can go, get cleaned up and…” “Plan how we tell them their Uncle is dead.” She swallowed, gazing back down at her hands.

Steve took a shaky breath. He felt beyond guilty. Guilty that he got to go home to his kids because of the fact that Tony didn’t. Steeling himself, he made his way to the bed, sat down next to his wife and wrapped his arm around her as she lay her head on his shoulder.

“What’s everyone doing?” She asked softly.

“Rhodey is in with Ross and President Ellis…” “Ellis is here?” She looked at him, frowning.

Steve nodded. “Rhodey’s giving him a brief on what’s happened. They’re gonna need to put an announcement out so…”

“Suppose it was probably a shock everyone re-appearing again.” She reasoned, quietly.  “What about everyone else?”

“Well Lang, Parker and Bruce already left.” Steve explained as his hand gently rubbed up and down her arm. “And there’s a chopper on the way to take Pepper home and a couple more following to take the rest of us to the Tower. The roads are completely jammed, apparently there’s impromptu parties taking place all over. Might be a while before we can get back through to Brooklyn.” The thought of partying seemed alien to Katie, but as she thought about it, it wasn’t surprising. People would be greeting lost loved ones, celebrating the fact the world has returned to normal.

For them anyway.

“Clint will want to go home.” Katie nodded. “He’ll be desperate to see Laura and the kids.” “We’ve got a jet on the way for him so he can go as soon as possible.” Steve soothed, dropping a kiss to her head.

If ever Katie was grateful for having a husband with Military organisational skills it was now. He’d literally thought of everything. She closed her eyes and nuzzled into him even more, seeking out comfort like a child, before Steve reached around and pulled her onto his lap, holding her close to him, as they sat in silence.

****

“I guess this is strange for you too, huh?” Steve said as they made their way into the Tower. “Yeah you could say that.” Sam shrugged, “One minute everyone was in Wakanda and then the next minute it was just us, and the jungle had changed.” He paused, scratching his head. “Then that Strange dude turns up and tells us it’s been five years and we needed to go fight one last time.”

“Has it really been that long?” Bucky asked and Steve nodded. “So now you’re older than me?” He grinned. Steve chuckled as Katie gave a small smile. “Shut up.”

They made their way into the elevator and FRIDAY greeted them, somewhat forlornly, as Katie asked for their floor. The elevator fell silent as it scooted upwards, pinging open. Katie stepped out first, followed by Wanda then the men.

“So, where do you want-“Bucky began but he stopped dead causing Sam to bump into him.

“What the hell, Frosty?” he spluttered, frowning as he followed Bucky’s eye line, his own eyes growing wide as he saw what Bucky was staring at. Wanda was also gazing, her mouth open, and Steve immediately knew what they were looking at- the large framed photo on the wall in the living room.

Even though their home was in Brooklyn this was still very much their apartment. Katie sometimes stayed if she had a big meeting, or on occasions they would crash here when they grabbed a rare night out in Manhattan.  And it was for that reason that the photos in the apartment had been updated over the past five years as their lives had moved on. The wall their friends were gazing at contained two prints. The first was one taken by Katie at the hospital when Jamie was hours old, the same photo also adorned the wall in the lounge at home and it showed Steve asleep in the chair by her hospital bed, hair unkempt, shirt crumbled, stubble on his chin as his baby son was clutched to his chest as they both slept. He remembered the moment like it was yesterday, one snapshot moment out of God knows how many, all of which the three people stood in front of him had missed.  

The second was from last year, and showed Emmy with Alex as they sat on the sofa at home, both grinning at the camera.

“You…”  Sam gasped as Wanda and Bucky turned to them, mouth hanging open.

Steve nodded, “Yeh, err, did no one tell you?” He asked, rubbing his neck.

“No.” Bucky breathed.

“But then it never really cropped up in conversation, you know, on account of us being in the middle of a battle and all.” Sam said, a little sarcastically and Wanda thumped his arm before she turned to Katie.

“How old?” She asked softly.

“Emily is sixteen next week.” Katie said, looking at the photos smiling softly. “We adopted her after the snap, it’s a long story.”

She then looked at Steve who smiled, knowing she was allowing him the task of revealing their boy’s name to two of the men he was named after.

“And Jamie’s three.”  He turned to look at Bucky and Sam.

“Jamie?” Bucky asked thickly.

“Or to give him his full name James Anthony Samuel.”

Bucky and Sam exchanged a look, the pair of them floundering for words.

“Cap,” Sam swallowed, his eyes misting over. “Wow, I’m so happy for you guys.” “I can’t wait to meet them.” Wanda beamed.

“You might regret saying that.” Steve chuckled. “Emmy’s a sass bag and Jamie can be a handful. He’s only three but he’s stubborn, opinionated- don’t even say it.” He pointed at Bucky who had opened his mouth to comment, a grin spreading across his handsome face.

“They’re awesome.”  Katie spoke softly as her eyes moved round the apartment and fell on a photo of her and Tony taken at her wedding. Suddenly she couldn’t be there anymore. Excusing herself she headed into their bedroom where she flopped onto the bed, now feeling utterly overwhelmed, still struggling to make head or tail of her emotions. She should have been celebrating like everyone else in the streets was doing. Their friends and trillions of other people were saved, but she couldn’t because again, just like the other week when they had grieved for Natasha, there was one person who wasn’t coming back.

Her brother.

Taking a deep breath, she shed her boots before she stood up and peeled off her cat suit before she made her way straight into the en-suite.

She turned the shower on as hot as she could stand, an attempt to sooth the pain she now felt in every inch of her body. But whilst some of it was bruising from the multiple blows she had taken, some of it was coming from inside. The pain of losing her brother was physical, and hard. Closing her eyes she lay her head against the tiles, allowing the water to beat down on her, lost in her memories. “I got full marks on my English essay Tone!”  Her 10 year old self grinned up at him as he leaned against the car, looking as effortlessly cool as ever.

“Get you, you little brainbox!” He ruffled her hair. “That’s awesome, so awesome in fact I think we need to stop for pizza and a shit load of ice cream on the way home. Sound good?” “You’re the best!” She beamed as he took her pink back-pack off her and dropped it into the trunk as she climbed into the passenger seat of his BWM.

 “Oh no, you are not going out wearing that!” Tony stod up as she walked into the living room of the house. Sixteen year old Katie rolled her eyes.

“Tone its boiling hot outside, what you want me to wear? A pair of jeans and a fucking coat?” “Anything but that!” He scoffed, looking at the rather short denim skirt. “Young Lady, I can see what you had for breakfast!”

“Oh bite me, Tony.” She shot back, hearing the guffaw that Rhodey gave out from the sofa before she shot out of the front door to greet her boyfriend who had just pulled up the drive.

She was eighteen…, cruising along the cliff in Malibu, laughing, her hands on the steering wheel of her convertible bug, Tony in the passenger seat sipping an iced tea as the pair of them sang as loudly as they could to Drops of Jupiter- their song.

“Mr Rock and Roll over there, listen to you!” She laughed as the song finished and it changed to AC/DC ‘Thunder’.

“If you ever tell anyone about my love of Train I will kill you.” Tony looked at her over his sunglasses and she snorted, grinning.

“I’m so telling Pepper.”

“Err you know I can still pull my funding.” He glared “You can kiss goodbye to going to Oxford…”

And speaking of Oxford, at twenty-one, she was there, accepting her first class honours in English Literature and Mythology. As she smiled for the camera, she could see Tony stood up in the middle of the hall, whistling before he punched the air. “That’s my girl!” He yelled “Katie Maria Stark. That’s my girl! No I won’t sit down…what did you just say?” And he began arguing with the person behind him.

At twenty-six she was crying, tears of happiness as the ramp on the aircraft carrier opened to reveal her brother. His hair was longer, he looked thinner but he was alive. He was barely at the bottom before she flung herself at him, not caring that his arm was a sling.

“Hey Kiddo.” He said softly as she buried her face into his neck.

“You fucking asshole!” She sobbed, “Next time, you ride with Rhodey, you got that?”

“Trust me, there will be no next time.” He chuckled as she pulled back. “Afghanistan is a shit hole.”

A year later she was crying again, sobbing even, as Tony sat with his arms around her, gently shushing her as she sat up in her bed. “How could he do that to me Tony?” She sniffed, her tears dampening her brother’s t-shirt as he rubbed her back, laying his head against hers. “I thought he loved me…but…” “He isn’t worth your tears, Kiddo.” He sighed “Grant Ward doesn’t deserve them, or you. No one ever will, you got that? No one will ever be good enough for you.”

 And then she was walking up the aisle towards her future husband, her arm linked tightly around Tony’s. He pressed a kiss to her head.

“Remember, just because I’m giving you away doesn’t mean I won’t kick his ass if he ever hurts you.” Tony mumbled and she snorted, turning to look at him. “I love you to the stars and back, Katie, remember that…”

Like she could ever forget. Tony hadn’t been to everyone’s taste, hell, at times he hadn’t be hers, and they’d been estranged for two years. But Katie had never, not once, stopped loving the man who had brought her up as his own. Her brother and father all rolled into one.

She finished washing her hair and stepped out of the shower, the tears still not arriving. She began to wonder if there was something wrong with her. She’d cried more when Natasha died. She pulled on a towel robe that was hanging behind the door and began to dry her hair, squeezing the water out of the long strands.

“I remember when you used to do that for me.” She grinned, watching Tony as he sat with Morgan between his legs on the lounger round the pool at her Brooklyn home, rubbing the little girl’s wet hair ferociously with a pink beach towel, making the three year old cackle with laughter. I remember…but Morgan won’t.

And then the cry ripped from her chest, like someone had reached down her throat and pulled it from the very depths of her heart.

***** Steve made sure the guys were settled in a spare apartment a few floors down, the three of them opting to share, none of them particularly wanting to be alone.  Making his way back into theirs, he headed straight to the bedroom and heard Katie turn off the water to the shower. With a groan he stripped off the top half of his uniform, dropping the grubby item to the bed. His eyes were drawn to the silver star in the middle, and he ran his fingers over it, the material torn in places having seen better days, much like him.

With a deep breath he reached to pull off his compression shirt, but before he got chance, he heard a noise from the bathroom, a primal, raw, broken scream that chilled his every bone. Quick as flash he crossed the room and pushed open the door to the en-suite and found his wife slumped on her knees on the floor, screaming and crying uncontrollably.

“He’s gone! He’s gone, he’s gone!” Steve had known this was coming and it broke his heart that he could do nothing to help, nothing to take away the utter desperation and pain and anger his wife was feeling. Without hesitation he dropped to his knees and she turned to him, fisting her hands around his top as he pulled her close, one arm round her back, the other in her hair.

“Let it out,” his voice was croaky as he rocked her, gently stroking her hair as his cheek pressed against the top of her head, “I got you, sweetheart, I got you.” How long they stayed there for, with Katie screaming and crying over the soft sounds of his soothing, Steve had no idea, but eventually her sobs became sniffles as she regained some form of composure.

“Steve,” she managed to stutter as she pulled back to look at him, “Tony’s gone, he’s gone, why? Why did he have to do that? There had to be some other way!” “Oh, Doll.”  Steve’s voice cracked, his own heart ached with grief and sympathy and love as he dropped a kiss to her forehead, pulling her onto his lap as he sat back on the floor, making no attempts to move her. He buried his face into her hair, his own sobs catching in his throat.

“All my life Tony has been there.” She whispered gently as kissed her head. “Even when we were apart those years I knew that if I needed him, he would be there…but now…he’s gone and I don’t know what to do.”

“You do what you always do.” Steve whispered softly as he pulled back, cupping her face in his hands, wiping her tears with his thumbs. “You get up, you dust yourself off and you act like the amazing, strong, beautiful woman you are. My wife, my baby momma.”

“I don’t know if I can. Katie spluttered.

“Yes, you can. You’re the strongest person I know.” He implored her, sniffing a little.

“I don’t feel strong.”

“You won’t.” He shook his head. “Not yet. But I’m here. Okay? And we’ll do it together.”

Katie looked at him for a moment before she moved once more to bury her face into his t-shirt again, simply breathed him in. His warmth and familiar smell, even if he wasn’t as fresh as he could be after the exertion of battle, was a comfort, a balm to her broken soul.

Tony was gone, she knew that, but she wasn’t on her own. She’d never be on her own as long as she had Steve.

****

“Don’t be sad Momma.” Jamie whispered, as Katie’s tears tickled down her cheeks, her son on her lap. TO her right, Emmy sat on her father’s, despite her age meaning she was normally way past that stage, as she cried into his chest, his arms gently cradling her. “Uncle Nee isn’t on his own.” “What do you mean, baby?” Katie asked, sniffing as he played with a strand of her hair.

He looked at her with his baby blue eyes and shrugged, as if the answer was obvious. “Because he’s with Auntie Nat-Nat.”

“Yeah,” Katie stuttered, a soft sob escaping her. “You’re right. But I’m still sad, but you don’t need to be worried about that okay?” Jamie nodded, before he blinked and frowned. “I can kiss it better, like you kiss my ouches better.”  

Katie smiled as he leaned up, connecting his lips to hers with a loud smacking noise.

“That’s it, you just made it all okay.” She smiled, wiping her eyes.

“When can we go home?” Emmy asked, sitting up slightly, her voice croaky.

“Soon, I promise.” Steve looked at her. “I think we’ll stay here for tonight, your mom and I both need a rest.”

Emmy nodded “I expect kicking alien butt for hours takes it out of you.” Steve snorted. “A little.” “You did it though. Everyone came back.” “Yeah, and on that note,” Katie picked up, “we have some people we’d like you to meet. That’s if you’re feeling up to it.” “Is it them? Bucky, Sam and Wanda?” Emmy asked, her wet brown eyes opening wide.

“Yeah.” Steve smiled. “And, if it’s ok with you, we thought we could all have breakfast together.”

“Pancakes?” Jamie asked hopefully and Katie nodded, dropping a kiss to his head.

“Pancakes” She affirmed.

“Now?”

“Do you ever think about anything but this?” Katie chuckled, prodding his tummy. He pondered for a second.

“Legos.” he said, nodding. “I think about my legos sometime.”

Emmy snorted and Steve let out a little laugh “Pancakes and legos eh, son?” he reached out and ruffled Jamie’s hair. “What more could a three year old want?”

****

Manhattan was in utter chaos and going out in public was the last thing Steve or Katie wanted for fear of being mobbed. However, the kitchens in the tower were well stocked and after sending Emmy to forage what she could, it was easy for Katie to whip up a batch of batter and throw some bacon into a pan.

She set Emmy to work chopping some fruit, and never one to miss out, she stood Jamie on a chair in front of her and gently guided his hand as he held the whisk to stir the batter.  Katie was literally grabbing the ladle to drop the first load into the pan, when the door to the apartment opened and Steve’s voice carried in to the kitchen.

“Hey guys?” Jamie squealed in excitement and Katie moved so he could get down. He shot out of the kitchen, barrelling into the lounge where he skidded to a halt by his dad and gazed up at the three strange adults in front of him.

The first thing that hit Bucky was just how like Steve the little boy was. Stocky, bright blue eyes and a shock of dark blonde hair.

“He looks like you.” He smiled, nodding to Steve as Katie stepped into the room with Emmy and smiled.

“Jamie, Emmy, this is Bucky, Sam and Wanda.” Steve introduced them all, as Emmy raised her hand shyly in greeting.

Meanwhile, Jamie simply gazed up at Bucky, his attention focussed directly on his metal arm and Bucky suddenly began to worry that it would scare him. He was attempting to move it out of view by standing side on, until Jamie stepped forward with all his usual boldness and pointed.

“Is that metal?” “Jamie.” Steve spoke, his tone soft. He couldn’t scald his son for being curious, but at the same time he had seen the apprehension in Bucky’s eyes. Apprehension that had now turned to amusement.

“Yeah it is.” Bucky chuckled, crouching down so he was eye level with his namesake. He held his left hand up, wiggling the fingers. “Wanna touch it?” Jamie reached out and placed his palm against Bucky’s prosthetic and grinned, “Cool,” before he looked up at Steve. “Can I have one?”

“Absolutely not.” Steve shook his head with a grin.

“You think that’s cool you should see my wings.” Sam crouched down next to Bucky, smiling at Jamie.

“You have wings?” The little boy’s eyes grew wide “I want…”

“No!”

“Fine I’ll just ask Santa.” Jamie shruggged and Sam let out a loud laugh.

“I like this kid!” he grinned, standing up.

“You can have him.” Steve winked, as Bucky stood up straight and grinned. “Saves us sending him to The Children’s Prison.” “Morgan told me there’s no such place.” Jamie looked at his Dad and Steve let out a sigh. The threat of the Child Prison was their biggest bargaining chip when he was being naughty. Especially as the naughty step wasn’t an option, because the first (and last) time they tried that they caught him climbing up the staircase and sliding down the bannister.

“I told you titch, it does.” Emmy gave a dramatic roll of her eyes. “I lived there before mom and dad adopted me. And all they give you to eat all day is slugs and slime…” Steve shared a look with Bucky and let out a loud laugh.

“Don’t.” Bucky shook his head with a grin.

“You gave Becca nightmares for days with that story!” Steve laughed as he recalled Bucky telling his sister about a hole in the ground where bad kids went. “She wouldn’t go near a manhole for months!”

“I can still feel the blow round the ears my Pa gave me.” Bucky automatically reached up to rub at the back of his head. The well natured chatter continued as they made their way into the kitchen. Steve went to brew the coffee as Sam, Wanda and Bucky took seats round the table with the kids. Occasionally he caught the odd snippet of their chat as Jamie told Bucky about his toys at home, informed Sam all about his friend at day-care, whilst Emmy was busy talking to Wanda about school and what she wanted to do in the future. But all the time Steve had one eye on his wife as she stood, silently, cooking enough pancakes to feed a small army.

Which, to be fair, was probably what they would need with two super soldiers and a hungry three year old to feed.

Moving over towards her, he slipped his arms around her waist and dropped a kiss to her cheek.

“You ok?” He asked, before he sighed “Sorry, stupid question.”

She chuckled and shook her head. “No it’s not stupid, I know what you meant. And honestly, no. I’m not. Not really. But I will be, in time. I hope.”

Steve dropped another kiss to her cheek and winced as a loud “GET A ROOM!” sounded across the kitchen and he turned to glare at his son. Bucky and Sam exchanged a gleeful look as Steve raised his hand and pointed at Emmy accusingly. “That was not me!” She scoffed, indignantly “It was Bucky that told him to say it.” “If this is the impression you have on my kids after all of fifteen minutes, James Buchanan Barnes, then I’m going to have to seriously consider letting you near them again.” Katie shook her head as she dropped the plate of pancakes into the middle of the table.

“Why did you just call him James?” Jamie asked, frowning

“Because my name is James too.” Bucky answered for Katie.

“No, it’s Bucky.”

“He only gets called James when he’s been bad, bit like you, pal.” Steve chuckled, placing Jamie’s plate of food in front of him. “Now eat that, and then you can show Buck your legos.”

“My legos are here?” Jamie said, grinning.

“Yeah they’re in your bag, we brought them from the compound.” Steve answered, dropping a kiss to his son’s head.

“What the hell is a Lego?” Bucky asked, his face contorted in confusion. The room feel silent as all eyes turned to the man who glanced around, suddenly feeling very self-conscious.  “What?” ****

Rhodey called later that morning to give them a heads up that the President would be addressing the nation later that afternoon, and to also inform Katie that they were talking about honouring both Tony and Natasha posthumously. Katie had merely snorted, not entirely sure what Tony would have said about any of that, until Rhodey made her laugh about the last time he had received an honour, getting stabbed with the pin by the Senator awarding it to him,  Senator Stern.

Who had turned out to be HYDRA.

True to his word, just as he had done five years ago, President Ellis’ address rang out across the nation at precisely three that afternoon, on every TV and Radio channel there was.

“I know there is much speculation surrounding the events of the last 24 hours, and it is for that reason I find myself addressing you all once more, with regards to the Decimation. Only this time I am happy to greet you all with much better news. Thanks to the brave actions of the Avengers and countless others who fought in a ferocious battle Upstate, the Vanished have been returned to us in the same state in which they left.

But it isn’t without cost.

Unfortunately, I have the very sad job of confirming to you all that the rumours are true. Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff both lost their lives in the mission to bring everyone back. My sincere condolences and thoughts are with the rest of the Avengers, in particular the Rogers and Stark families, and I’m sure I speak for the entire world when I say we will be forever indebted to the two fallen heroes for their brave sacrifices which ensured that friends and families across the globe could be reunited.”

Katie glanced down at her hands as she took a deep breath, the tears falling into her lap as Steve’s arm curled round her shoulder, sniffing a little as his own eyes were once again misted over.

“I know you will all have many questions, some of you will be at a loss as to what to do, and unfortunately I don’t have all the answers, so it is for that reason, if I may, I’d like to address those who have been returned to us.

Over the past five years the world has become a very different place to the one you knew. People lost entire families, friends, husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends. We had to rebuild, make sense of living without you. So I ask you , please be patient with us whilst we try once more to make sense of events, only this time they are a lot happier as you have all been returned to us. Don’t take it too personally if we seem a little, well, astounded.”

Ellis paused, wiping his eyes as he smiled, licking his lips.

“Thank you all, God Bless America, and God Bless the Avengers.”

****

That night fireworks exploded across the skies all over the country. The current occupants of the tower sat on the roof watching the symphony of colours and explosions as it light up the Manhattan sky-line, Jamie opting to sit on Bucky’s knee instead of his father’s, because of course Bucky was now his favourite person on the planet.

But Steve didn’t mind, well, not too much anyway.

The next few days passed them by in a bit of a blur. They moved back to the house in Brooklyn. Sam and Bucky came with them. However, surprisingly to Steve (but not to Katie) Wanda opted to head to Clint’s after the archer called and offered her a room. Steve’s time was divided between speaking to the UN, various people in the senate and government alongside Rhodey as they started to make plans to help those people who had returned because reversing the snap had raised a whole cacophony of different problems, just as Tony had predicted it would.

Some of the vanished had come back to find their wives or husbands had re-married. Others found themselves with no-one left as they’d passed away. Some found themselves homeless as new occupants had moved into their apartments which had been left vacant. Two of those people were Peter Parker and his Aunt May, who were now residing in the Tower until Katie could find them somewhere permanent.

And then there were the kids who had been adopted, suddenly finding themselves with two sets of parents.

Katie, on the other hand, had no time or energy for anything other than planning Tony’s funeral with Pepper, and a service of sorts for Natasha with Clint. Natasha’s was to take place first, a small ceremony at Clint’s farm where they would be planting a red maple tree in her honour. Tony’s, however, was slightly more tricky.

Her brother had, at one point, led a very public lifestyle and naturally (even if unfairly) he was attracting the most public interest. They’d been approached by President Ellis, who had asked if they would be open to a full, state public funeral. Katie had been horrified at first, until Pepper had snorted and reminded her that the Old Tony would have loved the attention and fuss.

But New Tony wouldn’t.

Which was why, in the end, they compromised and chose to celebrate the two sides to Tony’s huge personality.

For the Genius, Billionaire, Play-Boy, Philanthropist they would hold a service at St Patrick’s Cathedral and for the husband, father, brother, friend they would then hold a more intimate wake at the lake house, where his ashes would be scattered eventually.

It was draining, emotionally and physically, so it was no surprise to Steve that Katie was constantly tired and a little irritable and the Solider felt the harsh side of her tongue on more than one occasion. But he never bit back, he knew how she was feeling. He’d had to do it with his Ma. Instead he listened to her bounce ideas off him, helped with the organisation where he could, and simply comforted her, holding her close whilst she cried when she needed to.

A week post the return of the Vanished, people seemed to have reached a half-way point, so to speak, between what they had been like before the Snap and what they had become post. But what was noticeable to all of them was that they were persistently mobbed in the street, people wanting to thank them constantly.

Jamie found the whole thing hilarious, waving to people as he walked with his Father one morning to the play-ground. Steve, however, after half an hour had returned home because he couldn’t stand it anymore.

“It’s mad.” He shook his head with a sigh, flopping onto the sofa next to her. “I mean…”

“It’ll die down.” Katie yawned. “Just gonna take a while. People still don’t know what to do. Hell, half the time I don’t know what to do.” She took a deep breath, the back of her hand pressing to her mouth as a queasy feeling washed over her for the umpteenth time that day. “You still feeling crappy?” Steve asked, watching as Jamie sat on the rug with his trucks.

“A little.”

“You thrown up again?” “No.” She shook her head “I don’t feel sick anymore just a little funny, drained almost. I don’t think it’s anything serious. Probably just the stress of all the organising and stuff.”

But as she said the words something in her mind clicked and she sat bolt upright, Steve giving her a curious look.

“What’s wrong?”

“Bruce’s Snap.” She whispered. “The one where he brought everyone back.”

“What about it?”

“What if it brought everyone back?” “Well we know it did…” Steve frowned, not following her line of thought.

“No I mean,” Katie took his hand and placed it on her stomach, “everyone.”

It took Steve a second to cotton on, but when he did he blinked, looking into his wife’s eyes, a faint buzzing ringing in his ears.  

“Shit.” He spluttered out.

“Language.” Jamie reprimanded him almost immediately, but both parents ignored him.

“I didn’t,” Steve swallowed, “I mean, I didn’t even consider that a possibility. Do you think it has?”

Katie took a deep breath. “I dunno, I mean the first snap took it away…”

They stayed still for a moment, simply looking at each other, both thinking the same. If one snap had taken their baby, the second snap could quite as easily have brought it back.

“I think I need to go to the store.” Katie muttered.

**** Less than an hour later husband and wife were stood in the bathroom looking down. Down at four different tests. Four different tests that all told them the same thing.

“I can’t believe it.” Steve whispered, his arms wrapping around his wife from behind as he stared down at the test in her hand.

“Me neither.” She whispered, turning to face him, tears in her eyes.

“I’m gonna be a daddy, again.” His hands fell to her hips, blue eyes shining as she gave him a smile, the tears falling down her face.

“And I’m gonna be fat again.” She spluttered, a watery laugh. There was a pause, before Steve’s face cracked into a huge grin and he pulled her to him. She wrapped her arms round his neck and he hugged her close, the pair of them laughing through their tears.

“I like you fat with my kid.” Steve pulled away, wiping the tears that were trickling down her face with his thumbs. She smiled and returned the gesture, brushing the back of her hand over his wet cheeks.

“I love you. So fucking much.” He whispered softly as he dropped a kiss to her lips.

“I love you too.” Her voice croaked before Steve pulled her close once more, his huge arms holding her tightly to him, as he breathed her in, his face pressing into her hair.

And for the first time in a week, Katie’s heart felt a little less broken.

 **** Chapter 59

**Original Posting**

[yunahyartsofficial]

HEWO I FORGOT TO INTRODUCE MY SELF SO UHM HERES QNA

(SKIP THIS IF YOU WANT) \SHORT:https://yunahy.carrd.co/

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Accounts

(You can follow me here!)

Wattpad- @Yunahy

Tiktok-@mweheheyunahy/@yunahyofficialblog

Instagram-@Yunahy_ocsuwu

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GAME USERS

Cookie run ovenbreak- ID: BSHJC4948

Cookie run kingdom:!HOLLYBERRY SERVER! Kittycolektorkin

Fer.al user: yunahyofficial

◇Feel free to friend me!♡

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Rules

This account can be ok with swearing

Ask is open

No lemon or NFSW stuff here

There will be a reblog even a reblog fanfiction

You can search who i followed

Everyone can like and follow this acc

This acc is the main acc of yunahy

Dares, request and ask can be only be ask

Comision is only for ajpw payments (money payments in the future)

This is an art,reblog ect post there will be no lemon or nfsw posts/reblogs just arts

This acc might be really on undertale, fandoms and ocs

No bullying

Gifts are apriciatted >w<

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Allowed Requests

● OCS (mine or your ocs)

● Fandoms (you can request undertale stuff also)

●Theme arts

●Sketches

●Art gifts

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Fun fact:

This account was actually one and all the past pictures are been deleted and been replaced a new one if you saw a old picture of mine in this account I CONGRATS YOU! >W<

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Q and A

Can we reblog your posts?

Yeah sure if your gonna repost please ask permision

Gender and be called?

Female she/her They/Them and call me yunahy

Whos your favorite character in undertale and its aus?

Ink,flowey,sans,charas,asriel and storyshift asriel

Why you princess of logics?

Cuz i am. i BEILIVE IN LOGICS SCREEEE

What aplications you have?

I have instagram, facebook,tiktok, tumblr and twitter (i dont use twitter and tiktok anymore sadly but you can still follow my tiktok account.)

Is your comisions open and where do you do it?

Comisions are open for animal jam play wild users and i receive comisions at facebook, instagram and tumblr just pm me!

Are you new to this acc?

No not really ;~;

Do you have a youtube channel?

Ye but not really on at it..

Can we ask you questions anytime?

Yeah sure!

Who thought you to draw?

My art teacher and my self most of the times

Do you like undertale aus ships?

YES OFC >:3

Is it ok spamming?

Yes hehe-

Do you sell things?

No

Do you gift people arts?

Yes

Are you a fangirl fandom?

I mean i am kinda.

What are you into now?

Playing with my friendo and draw some stuff and reading fanfics!

Do you do reposting and reblogs and is your arts all yours?

All arts here are mine except for the reblogs. And no i dont repost people arts just reblogs

Will you show your ocs?

Yes might can

Country you live in?

Philipines

Language?

Filipino,Engkish,Español/Spanish and Japanese

Birthday?

July 24

Aplication use on doing arts?

Clip studio paint, Ibispaint and Sketch

Hobby?

Painting/Drawing,Piano,Biking and gaming

Are you kind?

Yes ofcourse!♡

Can i be your friend?

Sure!

Redesighn your arts?

Sure you can please give credits thanks!

Shipper?

I mean i am kinda.

Using your pictures as your pfp?

Sure no need for credits

Multi fandom and shipper?

Yes but not uh posting always

Fav color? :>

Almost every color but uh ill go with any Light color

Can you read english?

Most of the time yes. But i dont really know how to pronounse so yeahh.

What are you mostly are you?

Im mostly an filipino artist and editor

What are you scared of?

Im really scared of being alone. Ngl im really lonely i know what it feels like but i have friends now :D

What are your likings?

I pretty much have many, Which are light color arts, Spotify musics (mostly calming and rocking musics)and food ect

What was your very first usernane you have?

From the old time, i really like lost kitty toys, and i saw one character i like. Beebles >:D and thats how i got the very first username, but since i got animal jam and changed my user to yunahy. I change myself to yunahy (yunahy isnt a real character)

Nickname?

Yunahy.

When do you post?

Friday-Saturday.

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Tags for me to know

#officialyunahyfanart #officialyunahy

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Fandom i am in

HUNTER X HUNTER, UNDERTALE/AUS/UNDERVERSE, DEMON SLAYER (kinda),NINJAGO (left), MHA (MY HERO ACADAMIA), LITTLE NIGHTMARES 1/2, CC (CAMP CAMP), TOH (THE OWL HOUSE), FNF,DANGANROPA, Fnaf (five nights at freddy)

HTF (Happy Tree Friends) sonic

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TYPES OF OCS I HAVE

Tricksters

Bunnies

Aus

Opposites

Old oc

Hell oc

Axotles

Fersona

Persona

Ect

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Other info

Request:Open

Ask: Open

Comision:Open

Art trade: Open

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Plannings to this blog

Adding oc ref sheets link

Adding sites link

Doing other fandom blog

Doing a oc flowey ask blog

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EXTRA COMISION INFO

●I wont do NFSW

●Please sent me a sheet of the oc/characters

●I dont do comics only arts

----------------------------------------- COMISSIONS

info:https://dmawdmwa.carrd.co i have to change due to quitting and not using my phone.

[takadanobaba]

Takahashi Minato’s Birthday PriZoom 8/21/2021

TABETAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII~!

Reminder that PriZooms are accessible to everyone regardless of region!! If you’re interested in attending, please go and support King of Prism!!! 

I’ve written a guide for participating in PriZooms   👉 here 👈 !

This time I went for the showings with just the Masashi Igarashi talk show bonuses, so the second and third showing (SSS part 2 and Best Ten’s Over the Rainbow route)!

MINATO’S PRIZOOM WAS THE LOUDEST I’VE EVER HEARD SOUNDBOARD HELL!! IT WAS SO FUN!!! There were a lot of people attending too!! I’m so glad!! Especially since Masashi Igarashi (the voice actor of Minato) was there as a guest star and he deserves all the support he gets!!

For reference, I went back and checked my recordings to collect the participant numbers for every prizoom I’ve attended so far:

86 in Jin’s text-only

30 in Rei’s text-only

142 in Minato’s regular cheering for the 3rd showing

105 in Minato’s text-only for the 4th showing,154 in cheering according to Luna! *EDIT: It ended up being over 160?*

You can really hear the difference! Rei’s prizoom was fun but definitely not as wild as Jin’s and Minato’s. I’d say that even though Minato’s cheering was more full-sounding, Jin’s birthday is still my favorite event because there were more participants going all-out with their camera/screens to show their love (almost every Jin fan went text-only). Also Jin’s prizoom holds a special place in my heart since Jin already does and it was my first prizoom, I don’t think anything will top Jin’s for me (though Joji’s is next month...... so.....)  Seems like there’s a pretty even spread of participants between both rooms?

It also seems like the same soundboard link is used for not only all of the showings, but shared between both cheering and text-only rooms? Nice to know that if I choose cheering then I won’t miss out on the soundboard activity!

The screening of SSS part 2 was also my first time trying out a regular cheering room, it seems like soundboard hell is becoming the main cheering style there too? WHICH IS GREAT FOR ME because I was worried about being annoying as one of the few soundboard spammers....... There were only about a handful of people on mic (special thanks to Luna and everyone tried to do regular cheering!! it seems like it’d be difficult with everyone using the soundboard haha)

The cheering for Kakeru’s episode is relatively tame and mostly consists of going “そうだ ！ そうだ！/ RIGHT! RIGHT!” and “そうなことないよ！/ That’s not true!” when there’s arguments about business and stuff. Wh.... who was the other person shouting “大好き” at Sanada..........wwhy......

The cheering for Joji’s episode is CRAZY.... pretty much the whole episode is basically inaudible because everyone’s just going KIIIITAAAAAA and KAKKOIIIIIIIII over EVERYTHING. Which is understandable because Joji’s episode has a lot going on and is the best episode of anything ever. I might be a bit biased. Anyways I love rewatching Joji’s episode even more now (THAT MEANS A LOT... JOJI’S EPISODE MEANS A LITTLE TOO MUCH TO ME.... longest I’ve gone without revisiting it is a week). It also had the most regular cheering out of every episode in part 2 which is cool! There wasn’t much since the cheering was mostly soundboard hell but hearing the “Joji! Joji!” cheers in Joker Kiss was just really nice.... it’s just like in the recording of Shiny Rose Stars/the sss stageplay!! There’s no soundboard substitute for that so the voice cheers had a chance to really shine. The “Joji! Joji!” cheers for that part makes the song so much more emotional to me (especially since Joji’s name has so much significance to him.....he’d appreciate the affirmation a lot;;;;.....okay I’m getting sidetracked so I’m just gonna shut up now and wait to gush about Joji’s episode on the right birthday) SO YEAH I LIKED THE CHEERING ROOM JUST BECAUSE OF THAT PART!!! I’m actually going to die from joy at Joji’s prizoom next month.

Minato’s episode mostly consisted of spamming “食べたーい！/ I wanna eat it!” whenever food showed up, that happened for everything though (like the ramen in Joji’s episode), but Minato’s episode was more food-centric so there were more opportunities. “TABETAIIIIIIII” isn’t usually used that much (m... much less for the Shin/Louis kisses...??)! I guess everyone tried to use it as much as possible in celebration of Minato, seeing as he is the food character and all? Really cool!

I was in the text-only room for the 4th showing so it was strictly soundboard hell for Best 10. Its cheering is great as expected! Just a whole showing dedicated to the YO button. For the language lessons part everyone just spams YO along with the karaoke-cues since nobody can actually voice along! I LOVE IT

It’s fun getting an idea of who’s a regular prizoom attender! Notable participants for me this event were Luna and the Kouji cosplayer preparing food the whole time??

Bonuses:

These took SO LONG to process because they’re over 20 minutes long each. And youtube just hates me so it kept messing up the blur so I had to keep going back to set them again and wait for that to process and repeat. I wanted to post this as soon as possible!! but youtube wouldn’t let me. Anyways!!!!!!!!!!!

The bonuses were supposed to be 10 minutes but Masashi Igarashi just had so much fun interacting with the participants and gushing about kinpri aaa.... HE’S JUST SO HAPPY TO BE MINATO;;;;;;;;;............... I like Minato just because of him. I hope my super simple and also in English text contributions made him feel appreciated ;; 

(Also that was the most I’ve ever seen people use the actual text function......... c... can we do that more.... kinda awkward calling it the text-only room when it’s really just soundboard-only....)

First bonus is here!

Second bonus is here!

I actually messed up recording Minato’s birthday letter so I wont be posting that, but thankfully Luna had it screenshotted and plans to translate it so it’s not lost forever ^^;;; 

You can read Luna’s translation of the bonus PrismChat and letter here!

Anyways, reminder that Luna and I aren’t exactly the most reliable source of prizoom coverage (seeing as we skip showings + just have mishaps when it comes to archiving), so if there’s a screening you want to attend, please go and see it yourself! I wrote a guide to help with buying tickets and everything!! It’s also just more fun experiencing the event firsthand than just through tumblr posts!!

And with that....... I wait for Joji’s prizoom.......

[izlaria]

Someone you like (part 1)

This work is inspired by the animatic called Someone you like by honestlyprettychill. I don’t know if I’ll have the energy to do all of the povs showcased in the video, but I just really loved the idea that Lance would eventually come to like Pidge, a romance born from  years of friendship. Friends to lovers is my jam.

I’m posting this on tumblr in case I never finish it, because I just wanted to share what I’ve written so far. I might upload the whole thing to AO3 later.

I made some changes to the video’s initial idea, because I wanted to follow canon ages and I didn’t want a 14-year-old to fall for a 12-year-old. At that time, it’s a pretty big difference in development. So I wanted to establish the basis for Lance to eventually romanticize their first encounter, despite not having been attracted to young Katie.

Spanish to English translations at the end.

14 years old

The truth was that Lance went to Space Camp because Veronica could be a little pest. She knew their parents wouldn’t let her go alone and so had enticed her younger brother with the promise of travel and foreign girls and no parental supervision.

Veronica had obviously left out the fact that they were essentially going to school on steroids for a month, smack in the middle of their summer break. Cool as Miami might seem, Lance wasn’t exactly excited for all the extra work the camp would entail.

“No es un acampamiento,” his sister repeated for what felt like the thousandth time. He wasn’t listening anymore. “Tú sabes que el campo de explotación espacial no está muy desenvuelto en Cuba. Si realmente quieres trabajar con eso, entonces simplemente cállate y no insultes a nadie.”

“¿Cuando he insultado a alguien?” he shot back, defensive. Veronica didn’t dignify that with an answer.

As much as Lance might like to think himself very smooth, there were still times when he stumbled over his words, especially in English. More than once he’d meant to pay someone a compliment and had accidentally started an argument of some kind.

Veronica looked impatiently at her watch. “Mira, tengo una reunión con mi orientador. Y tú tienes por lo menos dos artículos para leer para las clases de mañana, ¿por qué no vas a la biblioteca para trabajar un poco? Prometo comprarte una hamburguesa después.”

Lance pouted at her, arms crossed over his chest. “Me debes más que una hamburguesa y lo sabes, Ronie.”

His sister snickered, but it was as much of an acknowledgement as he was going to get. Veronica pressed a quick kiss to his hair, already turning to go into the main building.

“¡Gracias, hermanito! ¡No te arrepentirás!”

In all honesty, Lance wasn’t as irritated as he made Veronica believe. He knew that a summer program in Miami was a really good opportunity, especially if he wanted to get into the Garrison in the following years. It was just difficult.

He was diligent and studious, but not as naturally gifted as some of the other kids. Besides, he hadn’t been to the US in a couple years, since his parents had mostly settled down in the family farm, which meant he still had to fall back into his English, a task made even more frustrating by the xenophobic comments from one of the boys in his AP geometry class.

The teacher had put an end to it right away, but the words stuck with Lance, for some reason.

With how much humanity had progressed in terms of technology, one would think they would be able to get past petty rivalry between nationalities and usually that was true, but the influx of foreigners following the establishment of the Galaxy Garrison in the US desert still annoyed some people, despite its existence as a multinational center for space exploration. It irritated Lance to no end, especially when so many of these scientific advances came from international collaboration.

If only he could shrug off the inadequacy that now grew in his chest.

Straight ahead, there was a path that led to a green area in the middle of the campus. The other students had taken to calling it the Woods, though it was more of a middle-sized park, with benches and picnic tables where anyone from the Institute could go to relax. That’s where Lance went, mind too full to really focus on homework.

He wondered if people would react that same way if he ever made it into the Garrison. He didn’t know how Veronica dealt with it all, especially when she was alone in Arizona most of the time. Barely a week had passed and Lance already missed his parents, the tenderness of home-cooked food and well-intended lectures.

No, he had to believe that Billy Underwood was an exception. The other kids hadn’t joined in on his taunts, even if no one had moved to defend Lance. It was still too early to make conclusions on his colleagues, especially when everyone had seemed so charmed by him before then.

Lance was so lost in thought that he didn’t realize he had been standing in front of one of the benches until a new voice broke through the peace of the park.

“Are you just gonna stand there?”

The words were somewhat harsh, but when Lance lowered his eyes to their source the girl winced, grimacing. She seemed to have spoken impulsively.

“Hmm, yeah.” Lance blinked at her for a moment, before finally sitting down on the bench. He made sure to leave space between him and the girl, not wanting to make the situation even more awkward.

“I didn’t mean to snap at you,” the girl said after a moment of silence. She looked at him sideways and her brown eyes seemed almost golden in the sunlight. There were freckles spread across the bridge of her nose and across her cheeks, and the green ribbon in her hair swayed in the wind. It was a soft sight, a contrast to the steeliness of her posture and gaze.

“It’s fine,” Lance hurried to assure her. She looked young, but so did he, and talking to complete strangers never failed to make him nervous. “Nothing like a little girl yelling at me to bring me back to earth.”

He gave her his best grin, the one reserved for first impressions and fancy parties. It was supposed to project confidence and kindness, even though Luis said he ended up looking a bit smug.

“I didn’t yell,” the girl pointed out with a light frown. Then her eyes shifted into a more calculating look. “You’re a bit of a goofball, aren’t you?”

“I prefer the term good-humored,” he replied jokingly.

She continued to stare. Lance got the feeling that the girl did this a lot. She had an untamed intelligence to her that Lance couldn’t completely understand. It was the sort of air that teachers sometimes carried, as if they could see something deeper in you if they looked long enough.

“It didn’t seem like you were feeling all that good-humored just now.” She tilted her head to the side, letting the words hang between them.

“Yeah, I suppose that’s true,” Lance found himself saying.

“Do you… want to talk about it?” She looked so doubtful that it almost made Lance laugh. The feeling, however, was overcome by the relief of finally having someone who would listen.

He had spent the week trying and failing to explain to Veronica what was truly making him feel down. She was too busy or too happy for Lance to tell her the truth, especially when it left him so vulnerable. After all, Veronica had taken to her work on the Institute like a fish to water. Lance was supposed to be more adaptable than this.

With the rest of his family away in Cuba, he felt unbearably lonely.

“Yes! Thank you!” Lance shifted in the bench to face the girl. She was taken aback by his enthusiasm, but didn’t move away. “There’s this cabrón in my class, who thought it was a good idea to mess with me, just ‘cause I said fábrica instead of factory in our first day here. He hasn’t really left me alone since…” he whined. “I speak two languages but somehow I’m the uneducated ass here!”

The girl nodded, eyes downcast. “I know what you mean.”

“You do?” He eyed the fairness of her skin and the almost ginger of her hair. “Sorry, but you look white.”

Lance’s comment must have taken her by surprise, because she actually laughed.

“I am white. I’m also Italian.” She rolled her eyes, but there was amusement in the tug of her lips. “I can be both.”

“That’s true.” Lance grinned sheepishly. It was good that she wasn’t offended by his lack of filter. “You don’t have much of an accent, though.”

“Neither do you,” the girl bit back, no real animosity in her tone.

He shrugged. “My family spent a lot of time in the US when I was younger. It used to be second nature to me. Now, I keep feeling like I have to hold back the instinct to roll my R’s.”

“I get that. My parents moved here right after I was born, but we used to speak Italian in the house.” There was a pause here, something that she couldn’t bring herself to say. “I think it’s cool that you can speak Spanish. It’s useful.”

“Yeah?” Lance sat up straight, feeling suddenly boastful.

“Sure!” she continued, encouraged by his interest. “The Bouman Aeronautics Research Institute really values multiculturalism! It is a hob of different nationalities and perspectives, created to foster new minds from around the world! Or that’s what my brother says, at least, and he is rarely wrong.” She gave him a smirk that quickly shifted into a grimace. “Don’t tell him I said that or he will never let me forget it.”

“Older brother?” At her nod, Lance smiled. “I got older siblings too. Sort of the reason I’m here in the first place, actually. One of them was accepted as a researcher and she tricked me into applying too.”

“Same, actually.” She seemed startled for a moment, pulling out her cellphone. “Freak, I have to go! I completely lost track of time while reading.” She got up to go, collecting the book she’d apparently put down to talk to him. It was a thick volume with numbers on the cover, but it didn’t look like math.

Another green ribbon fluttered to the ground, having escaped the pages of the book. Lance bent down to pick it up.

“Here.” He stretched it out to the girl. “Wouldn’t want to lose its pair,” he said with a wink.

“Thanks for reminding me!” She grabbed the ribbon hurriedly, then paused, turning back to Lance. “And for the conversation, I guess.”

Lance grinned at her. She was a little awkward but in an endearing way, like she wasn’t used to having the attention of others on her. Given she empathized with his circumstances in the Institute, it wasn’t that big of a leap to assume that she had trouble making friends.

“Bye bye, Italian girl.” He waved, glad that he could spend these few minutes with her.

“Farewell, Spanish boy.”

Lance meant to correct her about his nationality, but she took out running, clearly late for something. He laughed at the way she stumbled across the uneven ground, careless like a little kid. It was a strange juxtaposition: the thoughtfulness of her earlier words and the childishness of her smile now.

He settled back into the bench, feeling much more content than he’d been earlier. It was nice to talk to people outside of class, for a change.

And, well, Italian girl was pretty. A bit young-looking for him, but he thought guys her age should be tripping over their feet for a chance to talk to her.

“Hey, you’re Lance, right?” A boy had approached while Lance observed the girl disappear from sight. He was tall and robust, with shortly cropped hair, but his expression was friendly. “You’re in my Analytics class.”

It took Lance a second to place him. Analytics was one of the classes Lance struggled with the most, so he hadn’t had as much opportunity to joke around there.

“And you’re Hunk!” Lance snapped his fingers, smiling. “Sit down, man! What can I do for ya?”

Translations:

“No es un acampamiento.Tú sabes que el campo de explotación espacial no está muy desenvuelto en Cuba. Si realmente quieres trabajar con eso, entonces simplemente cállate y no insultes a nadie.” - “It’s not a camp. You know that the field of space exploration is not very well developped in Cuba. If you really do want to work in this area, then simply shut up and don’t insult anyone.”

“¿Cuando he insultado a alguien?” - “When have I insulted anyone?”

“Mira, tengo una reunión con mi orientador. Y tú tienes por lo menos dos artículos para leer para las clases de mañana, ¿por qué no vas a la biblioteca para trabajar un poco? Prometo comprarte una hamburguesa después.” - “Look, I have a meeting with my coordinator. And you have at least two articles to read for tomorrow’s classes. Why don’t you go work for a bit in the library? I promise to buy you a burger later.”

“Me debes más que una hamburguesa y lo sabes, Ronie.” - “You owe me more than a burger and you know it, Ronie.”

“¡Gracias, hermanito! ¡No te arrepentirás!” - “Thank you, little brother! You won’t regret it!”

Cabrón - Bastard