#maybe more than a few nights more than three but point is ive had like 4 nights over 6 hours and they were all drug induced so thats awesome

[crushingsterilisation]

[narkissistikos]

"15 minutes?" "15 minutes" ~ Luke castellan

Trigger warnings : nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's just pure fluff. And also a teeny tiny bit of angst if you squint. Also 'crystal' is lukes nickname for you.

Inspired by 'Abhi na jao chod kar'

You'd seen the way Luke seemed off for the past few days, yet whenever you went to ask him what was wrong, he'd smile and say that everything was fine.

But today, today was a lot worse and you could tell. He kept zoning out from time to time. During conversations with you, or training some random camper, even during lunch. But you knew that if you asked, he wouldn’t tell you anything. So you decided to wait until next morning. If he decided to tell you what was bothering him, well and good. If not, you're grilling it out of him.

But luckily the ‘grilling it outta him’ part wasn’t necessary. Since while you were sitting at the campfire, talking with a few of your friends, you saw Luke walking in the direction of his cabin. He noticed you looking at him, and with a cock of his head you were walking beside him to the roof of Cabin 11.

None of you said anything for a few moments even after both of you were comfortable on the hard wooden roof. “You wanna say something” Luke said first.

“Somethings on your mind, and its bugging you a lot isn’t it?” You replied.

“No” Luke lied straight through his teeth, making you look at him unimpressed. “Okay yeah fine.”

“Out with it, come on”

“It's nothing. Really. It'll pass”

“I'm sure it will. In the meantime though…”

“I don’t wanna bothe-“

“If you say you don’t wanna bother me with this, I will personally push you off this roof. So spill”

“You're mean. Why am I dating you again?”

“Because im amazing. And don’t try to distract me”

Luke let out a sigh when he realized you weren’t gonna let this go. He looked out at the camp, well the part of it he could see from the point of view on the roof. The campers around the campfire, laughing along, while the Apollo cabin lead a song.

“Ive been having this dream…” he started. “same dream for like, maybe the past 4? 5 days? Every night, same thing. Im…standing on this…beach…” he paused, seemingly trying to remember the exact details of his dream as if it wasn’t the only thing he had been thinking about all day.

“I'm sitting on the sand. You're in the water. Along with Chris, Travis, Connor…all of my siblings….Annabeth's there too. And Percy. Basically everyone important to me at camp.” He continued, making you hum in response.

He takes a deep breath and continues “but then, theres this huge wave, and, everyones gone. So I start shouting your names, looking for all of you, and I keep hearing your voice, screaming for help. All garbled like you're underwater or something. But I never manage to find you… so I keep looking and I find that” He points to the thin bracelet you were wearing he had got you, excuse me stole for you, once you mentioned you liked bracelets. “Just that. Nothing else. No one else”

You knew that Annabeth was one of the most important person to Luke in the whole world, probably even more than you. And no matter how much he acted like he hated his pigs of siblings, he had a huge soft spot for them as well. And Percy, the little boy was like a brother to him. Luke saw himself in Percy, and to him he mattered a lot.

So you weren’t surprised that Luke was afraid of missing the family he had built for himself. “I mean, I know something like this will never happen. But the way we live? It could.” he said after a while, “What if I lose everything?”

“You’re not going to lose everything Luke.” You say, trying to make him believe it. Hey, no ones perfect. Not everyones good at comforting people.

“It certainly feels like I might. What if I just wake up one day, and everyones gone. Im back to how I was at 12 years old. No chris, no Annabeth, no percy, no you. What happens then?”

“You know what the chances are that all three of them leave at the same time? Extremely low. Like maybe 5%. And even if it does, I know that those three are annoying enough that they’ll come back to haunt you and tease you about the extremely dumb decisions you make through the day.”

“Are you trying to make me laugh so that ill stop thinking about this?”

“Im trying, yes. Luke, what WILL you do, if something happened to Annabeth, or chris, or percy?” you asked him.

“I-I don’t know. I wouldn’t like it much to be very honest.”

“No one would. But you see, if something did happen, you'd go on with your life. A little boring maybe. But you'll live. That’s how life works. People come and people go and you try your best to make it out.”

“That sounds an awful lot like something a fortune cookie would say.”

“Im trying ok? I know you're scared Luke. That one day everything you're trying to protect will be taken away from you. But you have to know, that honestly all of them are strong enough to fight their way through Tartarus. And you're always gonna have them. Whenever you need them.”

“What about you? What if I don’t always have you?”

“OH no. You're not getting rid of me that easy. Even deaths not getting you out of this relationship.”

“Don’t say it like that.”

“What? Look you're always gonna have me. Ill even haunt you after I die if you want. Ok?”

“How about you don’t die. Huh? Can you do that for me?” he looked at you half with humor and half you wouldn’t wanna call fear.

“sure. I'll try.”“But what if-“

“You have me. No matter what. Im not going anywhere. You're not alone. And you never will be. Ok?” you reassured him.You're only half sure he believed you, but at least he acted like he did.

“I have you.” He mumbled.

“And you always will. Well unless you want me out of the room. Which lets be honest I wouldn’t leave, probably just to annoy you.” You joked causing him to grin for real, for the first time in days. “Oh thank the gods. I was starting to get scared you'd forgotten how to do that”

“Very funny.” He rolled his eyes good heartedly. Yet he took your hand, which was resting on the wooden roof beside you in his, and held it tightly.

“But in all honesty Princey, you're perfectly capable of fighting through everything alone. You're strong. Not that you're ever gonna need to fight alone. If its not me, its gonna be someone else sitting here.” You said after a few minutes.

“Nah.” Luke said suddenly. “Nope. Its always gonna be you. Nuh uh. Theres not gonna be anyone else sitting here.”

You chuckled, “I said if not when. If by some impossible ungodly chance. I'm not leaving. Not without annoying the heck outta you anyways.”

“You're not that annoying.” Luke said with a touch of humor in his voice.

“Oh really?” you got up in his face, “Really? Really? Dam im gonna have to try harder then” you flick his nose with your free hand.

“Ow.” He rubbed his rubbed his nose without any real pain his voice, “I take back what I said. You're really annoying.”

“No no no no” you waved your finger in front of him, “You said it already, no take backs. Congratutatulations Mr. Castellan, You're stuck with me for life now, since you're the only one who thinks im not annoying. So I have made it my life mission to annoy you to death.”

Luke burst out laughing when you said ‘congratutatulations’. “Congratutatulations? What?” he said in between laughs.

You chuckled along with him, proud of yourself for making him laugh, “Yea. Remember that cake I brought you, when you were made head counsellor?”

Luke thought back for a moment, “That had congratulations written on it?” He started but was confused when you shook your head, “What?”

“It had congratutatulations written on it. You're dyslexic, you couldn’t tell.”

“That’s why you were laughing your butt off?!”

“Yes. Gods I felt so bad for the poor baker that day. He looked so tired, maybe he was dyslexic too. Either way, he was running on 5 cups of coffee so I couldn’t blame the poor guy.”

“How nice of you to do that.”

“Yes yes. Im very nice.”

“Sure honey whatever you say.”

“Hey!” you exclaimed when he started snickering. You looked down at the campfire, seeing how campers were starting to go back to their cabins, “We should get going, no?”

“No.” Luke held on to your hand a little tighter, making you look at him, “You siblings can handle themselves for one night.”

“No I know that. Im more worried about your cabin.” You countered.

“I told Chris to tuck everyone in.”

“Yes, I'm sure the Stolls are gonna listen to him.” You looked at him, unimpressed.

“They wont, but I couldn’t care less. Im staying. Don’t go?” he looked you straight in the eyes.

You huff out a breath, “fine.” Causing Luke to smile, “Its 9. Stay till 10. Then I'll let you go back to the cabin. I promise.” He said and you scooted closer to him, leading him to wrap an arm around you shoulder, bringing you in front of him.

So now, here you were, sitting between Luke’s legs, your back against his chest, while he explained why he was better than fish in all aspects.

“No. im serious. I even have a better breathing rate than fish.”

“How do you know you have better breathing rate than fish?” you asked him.

“Isn’t that what you said once? Or was it Annabeth? That there’s less oxygen in water so fish have to breath a lot more times than we do?” he asked, confused.

“I don’t remember who told you that.”

“Yes. But its true.”

“Alright fine. You're better than fish in one aspect. What about everything else?”

“I look better than fish. I mean, okay they're all colourful and stuff. But seriously. I look better, right?” he looked down and saw you dozing off, “Crystal?”

“Im awake.” You woke up and looked at him.

“Yea, you are. Stay awake. I cant sleep.” He argued.

“You're the worst. What time is it?” You turned Luke’s wrist so you could look at the time on his watch, “Its 10.” You said after you saw the time.

“Till 11?” He asked sheepishly.

“Lu-” you started, but he interrupted you, “You just came here. A little bit longer.” He said in the voice, you couldn’t say no too, so you relented, getting comfortable in your spot again.

You leaned back a little bit more, wrapping Lukes arms around you a little bit tighter when the cool breeze started getting to you.

“You smell nice. New perfume?” Luke asked suddenly. But when you shook your head, he thought back and realized it was one of your old perfume, “Nah nevermind, you’ve used this before.” And you chuckled when he remembered.

“What?” You asked when you noticed him looking at you, the same way he knew would make you weak in the knees. How did he know all your weaknesses?

“What?” he asked in return, “I can look at you. Its not a crime to look at something that’s beautiful.”

“Oh ok. Now I know you're getting tired.” You giggled sleepily.

“Huh?” Luke thought for a few moments in silence. “Hey crystal?” he asked, making you hum in answer. “What makes humans…..humans?”

“Very philosophical. But um….love I guess. Everything is always about love. And when its not. Its about the absence of love.”

“So you…you make me human.” He realized.

“I don’t make you a human. You were a human long before you met me”

“Yes, but when I'm with you, I'm not just surviving. I'm living.”

“Luke?”

“Yes darling?”

“Did you read my book annotations again?”

“NO. I remember things you know?”

“OK cool.”

At this point, you were so tired that even the slightest things were making you giggle.

“She'd laughed. And if he could have bottled the sound up and gotten drunk on it, he would have” he whispered in your ear.

“Are you quoting Kaz Brekker to me?” you asked turning to your side to face him.

“I told you. I remember things. Tell me about your day.”

“I already told you.”

“No. you told me, that you woke up late. Missed breakfast. Got to lunch first. Gobbled everything up. Had archery. 10 bulls eyes outta 12 shots. Then you got to dinner after cleaning the archery range up. Gobbled everything up. Then you went to the bon fire.”

“Yea that’s everything.”

“You really cant expect me to believe that nothing interesting happened all day.”

“Nothing happened. It was a boring day.”

“Nothing happened with you friends? What about the one…um… Rihhana? Something was going on in her life right?”

“Oh yea. Completely forgot about that. You know how she likes Aaron from cabin 6?”

“Mhm”

“Yea so. This girls really a genius. She's been ignoring him for the past few weeks, like shes been trying to get over him. But you know? His ego is crrrrrushed” you rolled the r and laughed. “I love it. I mean he doesn’t deserve her you know?”

“You think no guy deserves your friends.”

“Of course I do. They are literal works of art. They deserve better.”

“Of course.”

“I saw the look on Aarons face when she didn’t even look at him. Boy was devastated. It was hilarious.”

Luke saw your face light up with energy whenever you spilled all the juicy details about whatever was going on at camp.

Sleep long forgotten as you started telling him the whole story about Rihhana and Aaron.Which took around an hour, which meant enough time for you to recharge and forget the fact that you were falling asleep some time ago.

When you finished your daily updates and Luke was done listening attentively and laughing whenever you took to looking back out at the lake.

“Hey crystal?” He tried grabbing your attention, which lead to you humming in response. “Don’t go. Not yet.”

“I'm not going anywhere. But if the harpies eat me alive im gonna make them eat you too. Okay?”

“Okay”

“Oh fault in our stars.”

“No no no no. absolutely not. Were not doing that. Nope nope nope.”

The way he was suddenly panicky over a little books name made you laugh.

“I swear to the gods, I hope no one ever asks me what my favourite sound is.” Luke said after you were done laughing.

You look at him confused, “why? I don’t think describing the waves in the sea is that hard.”

“NO no. see that’s my second favourite sound. If someone asks me what my favourite sound is, how am I supposed to explain your laugh? Huh? A horse that swallowed a bug? A car engine that won't start? The sound someone makes when they eat something spicy?” He rambled on.

“Ok while I'm extremely flattered that my laugh is your favourite sound in the world. Im going to kill you for calling my laugh all of those things.” You turned and glared at him. And the audacity of this man to laugh. Ugh! As if. So you slapped him on the back of his head. Simple.

“Luke whats the time?” You asked him when h ewas finally done laughing, to which he replied that the time was 11 30. “Im sorry the time is what?”

“11:30?” he answered, “you know, every twelve hours when its eleven, theres also a time, mostly after 30 minutes, and that time is called 11:30.” He got slapped on the back of his head again.

“Luke we gotta get back, someone is definitely gonna snitch on us.” You tilted your head up to look at him.

“You say it like we don’t have dirt on everyone who might snitch on us.”

“You make it sound like we’re manipulative people.”

“OK yea, maybe not that. But everyone is probably asleep by now. Stay. Please. I like spending time with you.”

“You always do this.”

“What?”

“That. You say ‘please’ like that. And then I don’t feel like going back.”

“I don’t necessarily see the problem here. I like having you with me.”

“Yes but have you maybe realized that I need my beauty sleep.”

“You cant go.”

“Why not?”

“Because you love me way too much and you would break my heart if you leave” he said dramatically.

“ha ha. Very funny”

“No im serious. I just…its not enough. Let me have you till my hearts content.”

“It's never content.”

He kissed your cheek trying to make you stay. Whenever you opened your mouth to give a good reason why you should leave, he would kiss your cheek making every reason die out. Which lead to him kissing your cheek about 15 times before you relented and got comfortable again.

“15 minutes?”

"15 minutes.”

I don’t think its necessary to say that you guys stayed there way past 15 minutes. You guys stayed on the roof until the sky was getting lighter, at which point Luke suggested you guys go back to your cabin so he wouldn’t have to face the teasing looks he got from his siblings.

[vhstown]

time out (part 1)

[boxer au] — 42!miles g morales x gn!reader

summary: Miles Morales makes boxing history. Your boyfriend isn't there to celebrate.

warnings: angst-ish, description of (boxing) injuries, self-destructive behaviours, briefly implied death, pov switch (yay), gtranslate spanish

word count: 3.9k

a/n: ive never written 42 miles before but he's a cool lil guy split into two parts cuz it was too long 😭 semi-edited (for the millionth time)

PART 2 → / THE AU

"Just six rounds in, Miles Morales knocks out the Vulture!"

Screams and cheers exploded from your phone as you laid in bed, watching the recap of your boyfriend's boxing match. Your eyes were straining from how close you were holding the screen to your face; this was probably the third time you’d watched Miles’ win. After training to hell and back, he’d made it to the national league with you and Aaron to support him. He did more than just “make it”, in fact. His “revolutionary” victory was plastered all over social media and the news. Everywhere you looked was: “17-YEAR-OLD NYC BOXER OVERTAKES LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPION ‘VULTURE’ IN US NATIONALS”. Miles Morales — your boyfriend — had made boxing history.

The giddy grin on your face only grew wider as he came up again on screen, sporting the stoic expression he'd perfected over the last few months behind the overly-done editing and animations of the recap. As much as you'd wanted to go out and see him live (though begging your family to let you go to Vegas wasn’t exactly feasible), he'd made it clear he didn't want you, or anyone for that matter, in that arena. It was something about having "total focus" — and it must've worked, you thought, as you watched him give his post-fight interview.

“I jus’ hope you watchin’, cause I’m here. Miles Morales made it!”

Despite his boyish, adrenaline-fuelled shout at the mic, the quiet laugh you let out was one of pride rather than embarrassment. He had every right to celebrate, and you were watching, even if it wasn’t live. Everything he'd done up until this point was well worth it: the constant training, sparring, the late nights and early mornings — maybe even the countless unanswered texts and missed calls too. Miles had worked himself to the bone, and while it might've worried you at the time, it was nothing compared to the satisfaction you felt while watching him on screen. He knew what he was doing; Miles was semi-professional at this point. You had to let him do his own thing, even if that meant letting him go for a while.

Right now, though, Miles was home from Vegas. Tapping out of the video, you scrambled to your messages. The last ones were from you, sent weeks ago, a "good luck" and "i love you" read and without a response. Your fingers kept missing the keys, and you frowned at yourself until you finally were able to hit send.

CONGRATS BABY!!! Not delivered

IM SO PROUD OF YOU Not delivered

You tried resending them, only to be met with the same red message.

why arent my texts sending Not delivered

miles??? Not delivered

Not delivered? It'd almost been three days since the tournament; Miles always had his phone on.

"To leave a message, please press one—" The call went to voicemail for the third time. Your stomach swirled with something like uncertainty. It didn't even ring at all. Miles made it a habit to always be available, so why...?

Boxers needed time to recover, he was probably just tired and turned his phone off. Or he could be busy with an interview; Miles Morales was sort of a celebrity right now — who wouldn't want to talk to the 17-year-old boxing prodigy? You knew you wanted to, prodigy or not.

It was probably because you hadn’t seen Miles in so long, but possibilities kept forming in your head, disappearing just as fast. What if he blocked you? Or he could’ve changed his number. Were you over? No. Nope. No way. Not like this.

There was one other reason that made some sort of sense, but you decided to think against it. Miles had made it to the semi-finals in entire the National League. It was over; he'd gotten what he wanted. He was supposed to be resting right now.

Miles wasn't that stupid, right...?

You pulled up Rio's contact. It was better to be safe than sorry.

Riiiiiiing, riiiiiiing…

Better for him to be safe than sorry — or stupid.

"Hello?"

"Hola, tía, uh, could I speak to Miles?" You felt just a little crazy as you held the phone to your ear, but there was no harm in calling his mom.

"Ah, he's not home right now — said he was going out with his tío."

"Oh… Do you know where they went?"

"I'm not sure. Something important. About a... contract?"

"Contract…?" you muttered to yourself. “Okay… thank you.” It wasn't like you knew anything about a contract, though it wasn't like Miles would tell you anyway. At least he was safe, and with Aaron. It was probably important, official — something that didn't involve you. Not a lot of things in Miles’ life involved you, it seemed.

"How have you been?” Rio's voice interrupted your thoughts. You had called her out of nowhere, and after a while. "Have you eaten yet?"

"Oh, um..." The last time you'd talked to Rio was… right before Miles had left for Vegas. Well, you hadn't exactly talked. All you remember is just comforting her in silence. "Yeah, tía. Have you?"

"I have, but I've just been all over the place recently. So many reporters…" Rio's voice lifted up slightly in exasperation. You could only imagine what it was like for her. Your feelings suddenly felt a lot less significant, and you were back to your comforting mode all over again.

"I see. Must be exhausting." You attempted a polite laugh, which came out more like a sigh. If only you could be as patient as Rio…

"I'm so proud, though." Her voice warmed with a smile. If your chest ached with melancholy or empathy, you didn't know. "I didn't want him to leave home so soon. I still think this whole… professional thing is a bit too much, but… I want to trust him also."

"I'm sure he'll be fine, tía. If he's in the nationals already, he's probably getting a lot of support." It was more like you were trying to convince yourself. "I'm sure he has great coaches... and he's got me and Aar— uh, his uncle, too."

"I know…" For a moment, you weren't sure if either of you had anymore to say.

"…If not, I'll have to go there myself and give them a piece of my mind, eh?" she continued. You weren’t sure if it was a joke, but a smile formed on your lips anyway.

"Yeah…" A quiet laugh leaving your mouth at the image of Rio cussing out Miles' poor manager, in two languages no less. No wonder he was such a good boxer — Rio must have passed down her fighting spirit. "Maybe you'd even get signed,” you joked, the image of that even more amusing (and a scary possibility.)

Rio let out her own laugh, and your smile only grew; talking to her always made you feel better. "Me? Boxing? Nunca (Never.) — I'll work in that hospital until the end of me."

There was another stretch of silence. You thinned out a sigh, trying not to let the smile leave your face, even if she wasn’t there to see it.

"Come over for dinner tomorrow. I'll tell Miles to come and get you."

"Sure, tía, I'd love to." He probably just needed a break. Not from you specifically, but in general.

"You know tú y Miles sois mi vida, ¿bien?" (you and Miles are my life, right?) It wasn’t often Rio said that, but you always remembered every time she did, and how it made you feel — like you were family. Rio was pretty much a second mother to you. It made you wonder what Miles' father would've been like.

"Well, it's getting late, and I have a lot of laundry to fold." Rio's tone had a fake sort of enthusiasm — tiredness? You couldn’t really tell with her; the woman was always upbeat. "Take care of yourself, okay?"

"I will." It was late, you realised, and the sky outside your window was a lot darker than it had been before. "You too, tía."

“Descansa, ¿sí?” (Get some rest, yes?)

“Sí, tía.”

The call ended, and you were left facing your messages, a bittersweet feeling hugging you from behind. Right now, Miles was out with Aaron, about some contract, probably to do with boxing…

But why weren't your texts going through?

miles are you ok? Not delivered

im really proud of you Not delivered

i wish i couldve seen you live Not delivered

It wasn’t like there was much point, but…

i love you Not delivered

Maybe it was just out of habit; maybe you just missed him. Your reflection frowned at you behind the messages, thumb hovering over the power button to shut your phone off, until your phone pinged with a notification — Aaron was texting you.

Hey man

Out of town

LMK if miles breaks in

You sat up immediately, fingers floating uselessly above the keys for a moment.

sure Read at 11:24PM

are you out of town already? Read at 11:25PM

Ping!

Yeah

@ Queens

Miles was with Aaron about some “contract”... and Aaron was in Queens?

You knew Miles hadn't blocked you, or turned his phone off — he had no signal. And there was only one place in Brooklyn you could think of that had no reception, and that MIles had any reason to be in. It was also the one place you didn't want him to go to: that damn warehouse.

The place he’d spent training all those weeks — what reason did he have to be there right after finishing the tournament? Putting on your jacket, blinking back the sleepiness and collecting the fleeting remains of patience you had left, you could only hope that Miles had even a shred of common sense with him.

THWACK! THWACK! THWA— Crack!

"Mierda..." (Shit...) Miles hissed, drawing his glove away from the punching bag. His hand was paralysed for a moment, a deep, gnawing pang running through his fingers down to the rest of his arm. The tight gloves only suffocated him more, doing nothing to ease the pain as he gritted his teeth and waited for it to dull down.

Why was he even here? It was over — that Norman bastard had blown him off hours ago. It felt like a couple minutes, the words still fresh in his mind. Searing pain shot through his hand when he tried to flex his fingers, the rest of his muscles starting to ache too. This was going to hurt after the adrenaline wore off. Damn it, Morales.

The walls flashed white all of a sudden, a faint rumble of thunder interrupting the pounding of his heartbeat as he tried to straighten himself out. It was quiet, except for the sounds of the incoming storm. The playlist he was listening to had finished ages ago — your playlist. If he didn’t want to think about you, he wasn’t doing a good job of it.

Rain blasted quietly against the windows, and Miles’ eyes stung with dryness as he squeezed them shut. There was no way he'd be able to go back now, not to you, definitely not to his mom. She'd probably go on and on about how he should've taken his jacket, how he ruined his hair in the rain again, maybe how he wasted his damn time being a boxer...

It was probably fair; his mom had enough on her plate trying to support them both — especially him right now. She’d done everything in her power to make sure he got to Vegas, and he’d just left her alone again right after. But how was he meant to face her now? He was supposed to make her proud, make his dad proud, but it wasn’t like he had any pride left after he’d lost his contract. The Green Goblin had probably set the record for fastest knockout when Miles lost to him. Of course just the semi-finals weren’t enough; Norman Osborn was the big shot of boxing, and if Miles lost to some rookie in just about 15 seconds, then maybe he wasn’t worth the investment.

It didn’t make sense — nothing about The Green Goblin (or “Harry”, whatever they liked to gossip about) made sense. He’d just debuted, but didn’t even look like a boxer; he didn’t stand right, his style was inconsistent, his head movement was all over the place, but his punch had almost knocked Miles’ brain straight out of his skull. It was almost superhuman. Even with no openings, the freak of nature had forced his way through like an animal. And he was scrawny, not nearly as built as Miles at least, like he should’ve been in the weight class down. Either way, the asshole was being celebrated, and Miles was out of a contract.

And Miles had just stood there, while Norman berated him and tore Miles’ dream apart right in front of his very eyes. Maybe he’d hoped too much as an “amateur” boxer. That’s all he was, apparently — no matter how hard he worked, or what he achieved, or what he promised.

“Why should I keep you? The Vulture was destined to lose at his age.”

“Even rigged matches wouldn’t get you anywhere.”

“I mean, you’re as good at fighting as one of those street kids.”

“That’s all you were before I decided to give you a chance, no?”

The image of the Norman’s uncanny, sneering face sent his good fist reeling towards the punching bag. Should’ve pummelled his pelirojo (redhead) ass to the ground—

"Miles!"

The glove crumpled mid-air against the bag, arm going rigid. It was silent as he let out a breath through his teeth — he wasn’t hearing things, was he?

The rush was starting wearing off, his mind starting to cloud and pain faintly radiating again from his other hand. His good fist tightened inside the glove, pushed against the bag which was still and awkwardly tilted.

You’re losing focus, just punch the damn thing—

"Miles, what the hell are you doing here?"

The noise of the door shutting made him turn around, floor squeaking under his stumbling feet. It was you by the door, breathing just as heavily as him and dripping head to toe with rain, in a jacket that was way too thin for any sort of weather.

Dios... (God...) He knew he couldn’t be hallucinating that disapproving look on your face.

Rain was pattering gently against the glass as he pulled his arm away away from the bag, letting it swing in front of him before his eyes met yours.

"It's midnight, what are you..." A sharp intake of breath interrupted your words — a shiver.

"What’re you doin’ here...?" Miles asked instead through a grimace. His voice came out wrong — hoarse. Cold sweat was clinging to his skin, and his throat was dry and tightening. A mess — that’s what you were talking to right now, barely your boyfriend. All he could do was stare as the rush died down and his senses were coming back to him. The fog in his mind made it hard to speak, even harder to look at you.

"My texts and calls weren't going through— You weren't with Aaron or your mom, I just..." You sucked in another breath through your teeth; raindrops were glistening on your skin. He should’ve just stayed home, damn it. "Was just worried."

Well, he certainly looked worrying, even more so than you. Swallowing back his breathlessness wasn’t helping; it was like he’d ran a marathon with his fists. The pain from his knuckle was starting to bleed into the rest of his hand so much so that it might’ve been broken.

"'M good... You, though?" He let out a bit of a growl to clear his throat before deciding to cut straight to the chase: you’d come here in the middle of the night, in the rain, by yourself. As much as he was being an idiot right now, the amount of times he’d told you to not do any of those things, pleaded with you even, was making you look like the delirious one in his eyes. Miles was being stubborn, but he knew you were worse.

“You insane…?” he muttered, taking a step away from the bag. “Did Aaron tell you to come here or sumn’?"

"No, he was supposed to be with you," you shot back, eyes narrowing at him from under your hood before thunder bellowed from all around. The rain was growing into a loud static noise, and your voice was muffled as your expression grew more exasperated. "You came home 3 days ago and you didn't even text me. Yeah, I probably should've texted you, and I tried, but now you're here training alone again when your mom thinks you're with Aaron and—"

"You come here to scold me?" His jaw crunched a little as he tried to keep the annoyance out of his voice. Miles wasn’t trying to be mad at you — he was just mad in general. It just so happened to be in your direction right now.

“Huh? No, I came here because you scared the hell out of me — and Aaron told me to not let you break into his place.”

If it was supposed to be funny, the laugh he let out was anything but amused. At least Aaron wasn’t here for him to disappoint too, or get a weirdly-phrased life lesson from, or both. “Well I’m not breakin’ in, and I told you, I’m good, so I don’t get why you’re still here.”

You stepped a little closer, and Miles’ heels dug into the ground to keep himself from moving. “Isn’t it obvious? Or are you just being difficult on purpose?”

“Difficult?” he mirrored dryly, trying to push back the growing exhaustion clouding his head.

“Can you not just take a break for once? It’s over, Miles; you already won—”

“I didn’t win.” The walls echoed with his voice, words having escaped on their own. It wasn’t at you, but he didn’t know what he was mad at, resolve fading as he watched your face straighten with realisation.

“Don’t tell me that’s why you’re here…”

His fingers unconsciously clawed into the boxing glove, pain shoot through his hand. Nothing came out of his mouth, but his silence was loud — incriminating. That was the reason, right? That he didn't win?

“Kid didn’t stand a chance.” What was the point of you being here?

“A one-punch concussion — on a newbie, no less.” It was over, like you said.

“It’s a shame, I bet on him too.” Everyone had given up on him.

“You should be resting right now— you’re shaking, Miles.” So why wouldn't you?

“No ‘m not…” is all he could muster, flexing his shoulders uncomfortably. Your hand was on his arm before he could realise, and he was met with a stern look as he tried to keep his gaze from shaking too.

The velcro on his gloves crunched as you started undoing them, and he couldn’t bring himself to stop you. It’s not like he had the energy.

“You coulda’ got hurt on your way here.” The croak in his voice made him sound more hopeless than reprimanding as you slipped off the first glove, pausing half-way down his palm. His bare palm.

“…I could’ve got hurt?” Miles held back a sigh as he was made to look at his own hand. Bruised, blackened, branded with anger — it hurt more to look at it than anything. “You didn’t wear your wraps?”

The other glove slid off, revealing the fresh, festering swelling coming from his middle knuckle — the aftermath of that sickening cracking noise. You took his curled hand, easing up his middle finger and making him hiss under his breath.

“Think you can straighten it?” you muttered, gently trying to do it yourself only to lose his hand from your grip.

“’S gonna be fine,” he mumbled, eyes fixed to the side as his hand closed back up.

“It won’t if you can’t move it properly.”

“You a doctor now?”

“Nah, but your mom’s a nurse.” You carefully held his hand by palm, thumb tracing over the tender, split skin, his fingers wrapping around the side of your hand in futile protest. He’d have to bother his mom again — he didn’t even think about that. “You basically just punched yourself.”

Everything you were saying was right — it always was. He hated that fact.

“You a boxing expert too?” he thought to retort.

“Thought that was supposed to be you.” Miles’ eyes narrowed, and yours narrowed in response. “I don’t get it, baby...” you sighed, shaking your head a little as you put down the gloves to the side.

Baby. His breath almost hitched. You were dating, and it didn’t even seem like it anymore. Not after all those weeks apart. The word didn’t even feel endearing, it was condescending, like he didn’t deserve it. Maybe he was being a baby, and maybe he always had been. You were the one who always had to drag him out of this make-shift gym. Right now was no different, except…

“…Why are you still doing this?” he heard you mutter, still turned away with his hand in your grip. You didn’t even know the half of it.

“Why are you still here?” His hand tried to slip away again, but you only took it by the wrist instead, now facing him.

“Why won’t you answer my questions, Miles?” Your voice deadened into a whisper, only serving to frustrate him.

“I don’t know why you care so much.” He let out a quiet huff, staring at your hand when your grip ceased to relax.

“I care because you look like you’re about to pass out and I can’t let my boyfriend kill himself over something stupid—”

“I’m not killing myse—” A pained groan escaped his mouth as you ruthlessly pushed up his injured finger.

“Don’t push me, Miles.” Oh, you were serious.

“You’re pushin’ sumn’,” he strained through gritted teeth. “Mierda… quit it already.”

The pain tore on another moment, and he was just now realising how bad it actually hurt. All you were doing was staring at him, brows knitted together. “Cariño, please…” he whispered, a wince forming on his face.

Your hand loosened, and he let out a quiet, frustrated, somewhat relieved sigh.

Still a sucker for nice words... He didn’t say them as much as he would’ve liked.

“You need to take a time out,” you stated after a beat of silence. The expression on your face was serious again, killing any sense of tenderness you might’ve shown.

He freed his hand from your grip with the opportunity, before giving you a dubious look. “Like, for kids?”

“Like for boxers, dumbass.” Your gaze followed his retreating hand for a moment before falling back on his eyes. “But if you want me to treat you like a kid…”

“I’m good.” Another roar of thunder rang out before he could add anything, and the rain was so heavy that anything you could see from the windows became a blur.

“…You got your jacket?” you suggested, without much hope.

The idea only made Miles’ eyes squeeze shut again. A shallow exhale left him, and he tried not to let his fatigue cloud his judgement. If he kept talking stupid to you, he’d probably have worse to worry about than a broken knuckle. “You think imma go outside?”

All you could do was sigh. It seemed like the two of you would be in “time out” for a while.

🕸️🔭👾

thank you for reading part 2 soon but then again its not my fav fic in the world 💔 i rewrote this like 8 trillion times and it still wasn't clicking for me 😭 idk i just got sick of editing it again and again

this isn't as short as my usual fics because i felt like i needed to add context... I've never written an au or anything remotely original so this is just yeah... im tryna figure it out! i have . too much lore for this au

reblogs appreciated lmk if you did like it (i hope this is someone's cup of tea lmao)

catch my atsv masterlist here !

[wonderlandwalker]

One Day at a Time | Finnick Odair x Reader

Previous Part / THG Masterlist / Inbox

Summary: a short collection of sweet moments shared between you and Finnick as you recover, reminding the both of you of the love you share

(part 4 of the remember series but could also be read on its own I think, you can find the other parts in my masterlist)

Content Warnings / Tags: Fluff, no use of y/n, mentions of punching, I really think that's it.

Word Count: 1.6k

A/N: It's finally here! Sorry it took so long my only excuse is that I am an absolute mess of a human being which is a terrible one but oh well. This will be the final part of the series, hope the fluff makes up for all the heartbreak I've put you through <3

It's been a week now, one week of blissful moments spend with Finnick while recovering from the attack within district 13. After all that had happened you were in need of some peace, and the universe granted it.

On the first day you were still in the hospital wing, an IV dripping steady fluids into your system. You woke up to Finnick sitting next to you, one of his hands holding onto yours while the other was holding up a book. It was one of your favourites, and you had been pestering him about reading it so you could talk about it with him, but he had always brushed you off, saying he'd get around to it eventually. It seems eventually finally came around. You coaxed him into getting in the bed with you, he was hesitant at first, not wanting to hurt you, but he wasn't above your charms either, your eyes pleading with him in a way he couldn't resist. He had settled in behind you, letting you lean against him, ignoring the dirty look the nurse gave you. You had asked him to read to you, and even though you already knew it by heart, his sweet voice added a whole new element to the story so beloved.

The second day was spent trying to convince the nurse to let you leave the hospital room, if only for a few hours, she didn't initially want to agree, but Finnick simply wouldn't drop the subject. So you walked together towards the dinner hall, feeling like little children sneaking out past the curfew.

Supper had already finished, but Finnick was friends with one of the cooks who let him into the kitchens. He told you to sit down on the table in the middle of the room and gave you a quick peck on the lips before moving over to the fridge. It was simple, it wasn't much, but it was perfect. He would let you taste the dish in-between steps, always forgetting one ingredient or another, but you didn't mind reminding him. At some point you could have sworn he was doing it on purpose, but maybe he was just too caught up in having you there with him again. You offered to help with meting the butter, dicing the vegetables, stirring the sauce, but each and every time he would insist you stayed right where you were, accentuated with a quick kiss, his hands on your face smearing flour all over your jaw, not that you minded. He claimed he was the better cook anyway, that you'd only hold him back, now that one you both knew was a lie, but it was a precious one, one that didn't need to be disturbed.

Day three consisted of a slow day back in your room, having been cleared by the doctor and finally being in your own space again. You and Finnick hadn't shared a room in a while now with everything that had gone down, but you had immediately decided to spend your nights together again, not wanting to spend more time apart than necessary. You hadn't fully recovered yet, still needing your rest, but Finnick had set his mind on moving your things back into his room today.

So there you were, sitting crossed legged on his bed absentmindedly sipping on some coffee he had brought you as you watched him bustle about. He was only gone a few minutes at a time, but you never failed to produce a smile when you saw him approaching again, hands full with some of your books, the collection of flowers he had given you over the years that you had dried and pressed in-between the pages were sticking out slightly, but he handled them with care. Even while you weren't together you couldn't find it ins yourself to get rid of them, and you're glad of it now. He goes back and forth for a while, collecting your pillow, your skin care products, your small radio that barely managed to get a reception down here, but you couldn't bare to part with. Each time he'd ask you where you wanted him to put it down, carefully creating a space that consisted of the both of you.

On day four you had finally woken up in his arms again, wondering how you could have ever forgotten this feeling. When he noticed you were awake he had moved to place a delicate kiss on your lips, basking in the simplicity of the fact that he could. He had told you he had a surprise for you today, and you couldn't help how giddy you already got from the mere thought of what it could be. But it was oh so much better than you could have imagined, because today Finnick took you to the surface. How he managed to get you past all the checkpoints was beyond you, and when you asked he had simply said he had friends in all the right places.

It was a bit of a walk to the spot he wanted to take you, but you revelled in the sunlight against your face, needing to squint your eyes to see properly with how bright the sun was but too blissed to care. The high grass rustled against your bare legs as you continued to walk, and the tickling sensation brought back so many fond memories. When you finally made it to the clearing it was a sight from a dream. The tree next to the lake provided a shadow you could both comfortably lay in as the smell of the fresh water blessed your senses once more. The wildflowers adorning the space around you were once you could recall from back home, with a few others you couldn't identify. Finnick had picked a few, placing them behind your ear as he talked about what the flower meant. A myosotis, he had called it, representing true love and dedication. He told you about the myth behind the forget-me-nots, how they had been afraid of being forgotten by the gods, and you had vowed in return to never spend a day without thinking of him again.

During the fifth day you didn't do much of anything special, but you supposed that depends on your definition of the word. Finnick had made dandelion tea from flowers he had collected yesterday, the familiar taste bringing back a sense of nostalgia for a time that you wouldn't be able to return to. You had once told him your mother used to make it when you were sick, and ever since he would go collect them by the cliffs for you. You had insisted it was too much work that he didn't need to worry himself with, he had countered that he enjoyed the view where they grew anyway, and really, he was going for himself as much as for you. Maybe he had simply been trying to get you to stop fussing over the subject, maybe it had really been true.

You spend the day talking to your friends, reminiscing in regained memories and filling in gaps that you couldn't on your own. As you sat next to Johanna she talked on about the days Finnick spent longing after you, claiming he was alright wirh being just friends, but she was convinced that if any of her friends looked at her the way he looked at you she would have suckerpunched them.

On the sixth day you had begged Finnick train with you, saying how you wanted to get your strength back, how you missed the exercise and the content feeling of aching muscles. He had been reluctant, of course he had been, but once you had managed to drag him onto the training mat he revelled in it. He couldn't deny he had missed sparring with you, the action so effortless with you. He had made fun of how you threw your punches, saying you had to extent your arms further to complete the motion, but he was the one not protection his core properly while fixating on you. It had been good to feel your body in motion again, he was still stronger than you, knocking the breath out of your lungs once be stopped holding back, but you were still faster, getting the drop on him in the split seconds he was distracted. The manner in which your muscle memory still held up, the way in which you still used the same techniques without meaning to, it was good to know there are some things people can't take from you.

The seventh day you picked your routine back up. Waking up to an empty bed but not lonely, his side was still warm as you rolled over. Once you opened your eyes you saw the cup of coffee and the note on the bedside table. Finnick knew you never slept for long after he left, somehow he still knew. He had been given some time off during your recovery, but district 13 didn't stand still and they had needed his help. You weren't expected back yet, but the sense of purpose was one that you were always glad to have. You drank the coffee he left you as you got dressed, smiling as he had made it exactly to your liking, even if he used to complain you couldn't even call it coffee anymore with that much sugar in it. And so you went back to work, moving to scribble a quick message on the back of the note if he came back looking for you, not that he needed it, somehow he would always know where you were.

In the past week you had learned that a love as great as the one you shared with Finnick could never be forgotten, not really, because no matter how many memories faded, there would always come new ones. And soon, even though you didn't know it yet, Finnick would give you his mother's ring once more, and this time you would remember everything that led you here, and you would remember saying yes.

[doodoodinklefart]

okAYYYY so ive been planning this au for literally forever and i couldnt get white diamond satoru and black sapphire suguru out of my head... ive seen a couple other hnk x jjk aus floating around but i wanted to take a crack at it!! i'll just explain these three + the setting for now cuz theres a bunch of other shit brewing in my head LOLOL honestly hnk and jjk are pretty different themes-wise i feel so i couldnt rlly help changing a lot abt the world LMAO

in this au its not just a couple gems in the school, there's a bit more of a society and structure outside of it. there are still the three major "clans" though maybe more like major cliffs?? lol?? that the gems are formed in that produce a much higher frequency of strong, high quality gems. i imagine that before the idea of working together (modern jujutsu society) had come about, gems fought to have control of these spots to assure that they would have those to protect them from lunarians (aka curses we're playing a bit fast and loose here). while there were many attempts to merge the clans, the fighting was more a waste of time if anything, so they stayed separate. jujutsu high in this au would probably just be the school, a set of gems that are trained to always be ready to dispatch lunarians and protect tengen (who is the prayer machine here), who has basically been dormant.

and THATS where we get to white diamond. i wanna say while diamonds are p common irl, its rare here for there to be a fully formed diamond lustrous that actually has inclusions. while there have been extremely strong lustrous born from the gojo cliff, white diamond is the first diamond in several centuries, filling a vacancy after others had been taken away to the moon. not only that, he's got special eyes too!! im thinking he can see sunspots from far away, or maybe can tell artificial gems from real ones, like being able to see their inclusions or something. probably both!! either way he has to wear special blackout glasses during the day. his eyes are really reflective so he can work at night too, but that often leaves him restless.

white diamond—in his mind at least—is untouchable, and really it may as well be true. due to the combat training that he's gone through and his hardness of 10, he has never sustained so much as a scratch. he had a tendency to break all of his sparring partners back home, and thus he feels he's hit a brick wall with his training, and that the only things that will come close to putting up a challenge are likely lunarians. he doesn't really care much for weaker gems at this point, and is eager to finally fight lunarians for once. eventually, he is sent off to the school to begin what he would call "actually worthwhile" training.

black sapphire, on the other hand, was born practically from nowhere, in a unremarkable place with little more than himself and a few other older gems that were around to help shape him. with a hardness of 9, he was the strongest among them and—after his first dangerous encounter with lunarians��he realized he had an obligation to protect the rest of them. his strength often leaves him feelings alienated, as he normally ends up working alone for fear of other being taken away. i wanna figure out how to incorporate his ct better but for now ill just keep thinking about it. for now, it was probably his strength that got his scouted and sent to the school.

boulder opal, or just opal, is in training as a doctor at the school, and shows extreme promise. her lax attitude reveals none of her medical prowess, especially when it comes to gems with missing pieces. she has a particularly good eye for finding missing shards, or finding pieces that she can replace missing shards with. there's nothing she can do if their inclusions reject the replacement, however. maybe she has a way of resonating with the other's inclusions to speed healing up on bigger points of damage?? idk ill figure it out

ANYWAYYY this is getting super long so i'll end this shortly BUT!!! basically, white diamond, with black sapphire (who he calls saph), and opal are all training under yaga sensei (idk what kind of gem he would be yet LOL). diamond, at first, sees opal and saph as weak, but quickly realizes they have their own feats. saph in particular is the first lustrous that has ever made sparring fun, because while he's less durable his combat skills make up for it tenfold. maybe black sapphire is the first to ever leave a break on white diamond who knows... opal is probably always having to put the two back together. theyve never lost to a lunarian before, and have certainly never come close to being taken to the moon. these two are the strongest together, and each finally feel like they have a place to belong.

alsooo..... they do get a mission to escort a "star plasma vessel" of sorts. tengen slowly erodes over the years and needs a compatible lustrous to replace their missing pieces. boleite (riko) happens to be that gem, and diamond and saph need to escort her.... lmaoaoao now i have to design riko, toji and kuroi...

[sinclqir]

something?

warnings: smut, angst? idk?, unreciprocated feelings (but not really?)

papa emeritus iv x male reader

word count: no fkn clue

——

papas moans were loud, his hands gripping the sheets as his face was pressed against the covers. his back was arched as your hands gripped his hips, his paints were smudged on the bed as tears flowed down his face, not from pain, but from pure pleasure.

“s-sei così profondo! y-y/n!” papas voice was so broken, a mixture between a whine and a moan. with every thrust you gave to him, his cock rubbed against the bed, doubling the pleasure. he couldn’t get enough, but it was too much at the same time.

papa and you’s relationship was…complicated. this was a regular occurrence, fucking him ruthlessly at LEAST three times a week. you did have feelings for him, but he made it clear that he wasn’t interested in you that way. it was fine at first, just pure sex. aside from these interactions, he would barely speak to you, not sparing you a pacing glance. he was too busy flirting and messing around with other siblings of sin, it hurt. quite a bit. after every meetup, he would send you on your way, which only hurt more. after a while, it was just normal, the feelings for him faded away.

you started to talk to more siblings of sin, sleeping around more often. before papa, you were reserved, more shyer than anything. when he proposed the idea, you accepted, already having a crush on him. then when he showed he was only interested for the sex, the feelings died down, knowing your place.

papa noticed how you started to mess around more, a weird twinge of jealousy bubbling in his chest. he tried to suppress those feelings for you that started to come, not wanting to commit. but the way you talked to him, in and out of the bedroom, it made him feel like he was young again. he hated the look on your face whenever he told you to leave after a night of pleasure, he wanted nothing more than for you to stay with him, cuddle him to sleep. tonight, he wouldn’t do that, he wanted to see you in the afterglow, and whisper sweet nothings into your ear. he even stopped flirting with other siblings, only wanting you.

he snapped out of his thoughts as your cock hit his prostate, his eyes rolling back into his head as a moan rippled through his chest. you were the best he’s ever had, he was addicted, to not only your dick, but to you in general.

“i-i’m…im close, y/n,” papa whined, pushing back to meet your thrusts. your hair fell in front of your face, sweat dripping down your body. your hand laced into his hair, gripping harshly, “yeah? cum for me,” you groaned, feeling your own orgasm coming close.

with a few more hits to his prostate, papa came all over the sheets, his legs shaking wildly. his voice was gone at this point, but he managed to let out a raspy moan. you followed his release right after, cumming deep into him, painting his insides white. he panted, trying to catch his breath.

you already knew the drill at this point, pulling out of him and getting off the bed. papa whined at the loss, but was too much in a state of bliss to realize what was happening. he waited for you to check on him, but when you didn’t, he felt a pang of hurt. he flipped onto his back and looked at you, a complete mess. “y-y/n…wait-“ he breathed out. you were already buttoning your shirt back on when you heard his voice, “what?” you asked, still slightly out of breath. “where are you going, tesoro?” he asked softly, running his hand through his hair.

you looked at him with furrowed brows, “leaving.” you said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. you could see the flash of sadness go across his face, “y/n, you don’t have to go.” he said quietly.

then it came, those feelings that had died down for the man came rushing back, but the thought that he maybe wanted to go for round three whipped through your mind. you cleared your throat, “why do you want me to stay?” you asked, a bit harsher than you intended. papa flinched at your use of tone, “i-i just…want you to s-stay is all,” he lied. he wanted to tell you how much you meant to him, how he only wanted you.

you couldn’t help yourself, making papa feel bad made you feel like shit. you stopped buttoning your shirt, it halfway done as you walked over to him. you grabbed some tissues from his bedside table and cleaned his stomach, papa didn’t question it. you cleaned away the mixture of his and your cum, and sweat off his body. he closed his eyes, feeling sleepy now. “stay? please…” papa whispered, it sounded so sweet and those words were what you always wanted to hear. you nodded and took off your shirt again, stripping down to your boxers and laying down beside him. you didn’t dare to cuddle him, but when he snuggled closely to your side, you melted and wrapped your arm around him, holding him close.

he hummed in delight, laying his head on your chest. “y/n…i-…” the words died in his throat, nerves creeping into his being. your hand came up to play with his hair, and his anxiety faded away, “i love you.” he said, his voice barely audible. you froze, did he just say that? “really? you’re not playing with me?” you asked, hesitant to believe him. “y-yes, caro. i’m sorry i haven’t said it sooner…i was….nervous.” papa said, keeping his face away from yours incase your reaction was one he didn’t want. “papa…i’ve been waiting for you to say that.” he lifted his head up and looked at you, his eyes wide as a blush was spread across his face. (his paints were nearly gone at this point.) “really? you mean it, s-si?” he asked, looking for confirmation in your eyes. you smiled at his reaction and nodded your head, “si, i love you too.” and with that, you leaned in and kissed him softly.

papa was beaming, kissing your back just as softly but with his adrenaline, it was a bit more forceful. you chuckled along his lips and pulled back, resting your foreheads together. he kissed your cheek and laid his head back down on your chest, also giving it a kiss as well.

from that night on, it was just you two. the only person for eachother, soulmates.

[surveillance-0011]

I recently got to the HOTD fandom and I saw @hollybluberry's and others devil concept and I had a question which is

what are your headcanons on @hollybluberry's and the other devil concepts people made?

ah oops sorry im getting to this late!!

i don't really have too many head canons for other people's devil concepts,, but off the top of my head

@hollybluberry devil:

friendly but takes no shit

spends a lot of time preening their wings.

Enjoys the sun (odd since many creatures who are more nocturnal) but also fond of clear nights and looking at stars

Points out constellations and the like while stargazing. Holds up Tower to the sky and points to Ophiuchus and is like "look it's you!!" It's like holding up a cat to the Sphinx

Has tried to point out Lacerta to Heirophant with even less success.

gets upset/disappointed seeing the other bosses fight (ive always headcanoned that all together the bosses usually don't get along too well with only the handful of factions/little groups getting along... better??) and often has to break things up. I assume they'd listen to her.

As Blu mentioned Magician and Hangedman have seen her angry and consequentially they're a Bit Scared. Magician isn't visibly frightened but treats them with a lot of respect and is uncharacteristically agreeable+polite with them. Hangedman has started to avoid her, on the other hand, immediately stopping what he's doing if he looks over to see her looking peeved. He's like. actually fucking terrified of her and he's not someone who really gets scared all that much. So it's a bit strange and he won't elaborate on why he's so scared of them.

Most creatures are intimidated by her but none are actively hostile towards her. Some of the bosses don't always approve but it's hard to stay mad at her because she's much more gentle/lax and levelheaded relative to the others.

Likes sweet snacks with fruit.

hates thornheart and pities curien/wheel of fate, though she's not gentle with him either. WOF isn't intimidated by her at all though, though whether or not he's seen her angry or not is hard to say.

Moon, on the other hand, thinks all the eyes are cute. I mean, moon's self preservation skills are dogshit and he's biased since he's got three eyes, but hey.

Assuming that a boss fight with her, knowing how she'd let them win, would maybe have a phase where she fights out of fear or being hijacked by Thornheart?

Generally full of whimsy and curiosity for the world around them and wishes to see more of the world, and how it was before humanity fell.

@pixelcoin devil:

aggro towards most humans. Cool with creatures and other lab grown undead etc as long as they don't show aggression first

Still, anyone who could prove their worth may be shown mercy...

Kind and polite to their few closest allies

also annoyed by any fights between the bosses. much more... assertive in their ways of breaking up any discourse (read:mauling)

they get injured in the antics just as frequently though, so it balances stuff out.

a little silly. we stay silly

finds zeal and other smaller creatures cute, much to their chagrin. Especially zeal's chagrin, but he does appreciate being seen as endearing and doted upon rather than treated like some pest.

Wasn't like that at first, though. There was not a good first impression. Devil still calls him out on his bullshit now too, but he's forgiven a bit easier than most.

Also i am sure zeal is getting the (metaphorically speaking here hopefully) Webkinz Milk Plush Treatment. to be loved is to be changed.

Kuarl is not amused by this.

Strength kind of is.

Belligerent and high energy. Also a bitch to deal with when they get mad. much more violent than Blu's Devil, I assume.

A total powerhouse, often unaware of their full strength. Many an accidental energy beam shot through a wall....

Their eyes get stuck outta their head a lot. Magician is skeeved out to hell and back every time this happens but tries (and fails) not to show it as Devil often goes to him for help

Devil is a sort of tentative leader? They're treated as one of the big men on campus, yknow, but I think with their youth they may have some power struggles or find themself pushed around by the more domineering ones like Emperor or Moon.

Goatlike mannerisms but only really eats meat.

Hangedman isn't as put off by this one...for... don't know actually. Then again this Devil is more like the baby of the curien-thornheart-goldman fucked up family of all time so?? idk??

i think both the devils would manage to kind of sort of get along. hopefully. i would like them to :3c

[theoraeeken]

i can give you a plot bunny for a prompt: veb sexting to help cope with the awkwardness of val being busy car launch media shit and prepping for the new season while seb is you know. not

fhgfjfjhjfffhf this made me feral for three straight hours last night

mild nsfw under the cut.

-

"Voi vittu," Valtteri mutters, shoving his phone back into his pocket before anyone sees. They're on a quick break between shoots, a brief chance to drop his media-friendly smile and ram a protein bar into his mouth before Liza from hair and make up insists on doing a touch up and they're put back in front of the camera.

Guanyu drops into the seat next to him, looking considerably less hassled. Then again, apparantly, he'd spent most of the break jumping from fashion shoot to fashion shoot. Mostly because Lewis had sent him a few of the posts, asking if Valtteri had anything lined up himself, mirth-rich voice loud and clear even over text. Valtteri just told him to piss off and cyber stalk his own teammate instead.

"Long day, huh?"

"Really long," Guanyu nods, sinking into his chair, "I wish they would turn the air conditioning on. I'm so hot in this thing."

He gestures vaugely to his race suit. He certainly doesn't look like he's too hot. His face isn't flushed red and it doesn't look like there is an uncomfortable sweat sitting under his clothes, like Valtteri is currently suffering through. But, Guanyu probably doesn't have someone insistently texting him videos from a sunny window seat in his kitchen from Switzerland.

Right on cue, his phone vibrates again, then again, then again.

Guanyu glances at him, "Someone's trying to get your attention."

Valtteri hesitates, "It's Seb. He's bored."

It's not a lie.

"Missing all this, huh?" he laughs, waving a hand in the direction of the set.

Valtteri isn't so sure. Maybe, more than he lets on. He knows people think of Seb as being media-averse, but anyone who actually hates being near a camera or a mic wouldn't last as long in F1 as Seb did. And God knows he likes the attention.

His phone buzzes again, as if to prove a point. Guanyu just snorts, and starts scrolling on his own phone. Valtteri looks around as subtly as he can before glancing at the screen.

There's a series of pictures, the angle slightly awkward, probably because it's hard to get his wrist in the right position when his dominant hand is busy pressing three fingers into his hole. Valtteri has to grit his teeth to stop himself groaning.

The last message is a video, and he quickly mutes his phone before pressing play. He's obviously propped his phone up against the wall, leaning against the other side of the window seat. The sun is streaming through, casting a bright white lens glare across one corner of the screen. It's probably accidental, but it's quite beautiful, and it does nothing to distract from the hand he has stroking himself, or the one hooked under his leg to get behind him.

It loops three times before Seb sends another text, how's it going there?

Valtteri pauses before he replies. Like a recovered alcoholic asking innocently how the beer tastes. Valtteri doesn't think that a single reminder of the glamour of behind-the-scenes at F1 would bring Seb crawling back, but he's not sure how much these questions are about making conversation, genuine care, or some kind of peverse self-flagellation, picking at the scab of an unhealed wound. He goes for deflection.

much harder now

The reply comes almost instantly, ive been told i have that effect ;)

God, he's a git.

Another photo comes through. He's lounging across the seat, and the sun catches obscenely on the come on his stomach and chest. Valtteri shifts in his seat, but they're called back to set before he can respond.

[velvetnviolentviolets]

Get To Know The Author

name : Kay

pronouns :  she/her

preference of communication : Honestly I have a huge preference for discord. I don't trust tumblr IM to actually alert me. Ive recently learned tumblr has been eating my asks too. If I don't reply to an ask or DM me PLEAS reach out to me. I will NEVE outright ignore something. If I don't think something is going to work for our muses I will reach out to you. 

most active muse :  Kat is my loudest and most demanding. After that would be Her brother Kass, Feyre, and then our spotty maybe I'm here maybe I'm not - Emmett.  

experience / how many years : Ohhh boy. I've been doing the rp thing off and on since 2010. There was a five year chunk in recent years where I disappeared for a bit but the lovely @sharpayevcns pulled me back in a few months ago and I am so appreciative that she did. <3 

best experience : Discovering the people here that make me feel safe enough to obsess over threads. You guys have absolutely made my return to tumblr. If I were to delete my blog with nothing but my connection with you guys to show for it - Well I would be absolutely fine with that. You guys are amazing and will absolutely be tagged in this. 

rp pet peeves : I keep running into situations where I get heavily invested in plotting something (Drawing, writing head cannons, making playlists, planning cannon events. . .I literrally brushed up on a whole ass language for a plot) Only to have those people completely leave me on read. I am not a pushy partner in the least. I would be more than happy to wait a month for a reply. But I need communication. I need feedback if something doesn't sit right for you. I need reciprocated enthusiasm. You don't have to show It the same way I do but I need some show of enthusiasm otherwise it just feels uncomfortable and I feel annoying and restrained. That's not what I'm here for. I've honestly made the decision to start unfollowing people based on a three strikes basis. No hard feelings. I just don't want to follow anyone who doesn't bring the same energy I do. 

fluff, angst, or smut :ALL OF IT! While I'm becoming more and more selective about who I write smut with I LOVE writing smut ESPECIALLY if its born of post Angst fluff. Actually almost exclusively. There is nothing that gets my muses motor going like post Angst Fluff! 

plots or memes : Augh! Don't make me pick. I love Plotting but sometimes nothing really gets the juices flowing like memes do. I cant tell you how many times a simple meme interaction help set a pivotal point in a plot. ALSO- Memes are usually what help me forego my shy nature. While my muse outwardly gives NONE of the Ducks. . .I do . I give all of the Ducks so memes help  me loosen up. I'm not responsible for the haphazard neuroSpicy creature you meet once the shyness has fallen away. You've been warned.

long or short replies : It depends on my mood and attention span. There is a Adderall shortage right now so I have only been taking my Adderall on work days so Ive had a VERY hard time focusing o replies as of late. When Im on top of my Game I am LONGWINDED AF .Please don't ever feel like you have to match me because there are times where I will write you a novel and we were only supposed to be writing a sentence or two. It just happens and Im sorry.  time to write : Ha! um . . . Well I work Graveyard  Thursday- Saturday from 8PM-9:30ish AM (PST)  On slow nights I do write here and there but for the most part I can be found here pretty sporadically. If I have something going on during my weekend that I have to be a daytime person for then ill be up during the day time. OTHERWISE- Mostly evening and spooky hours . 

are you like your muses : I could draw some parallels with each of them but I dont think I am like any of them. 

tagged by: The Alluring  @wynterlanding ~<3

@grimmusings @sharpayevcns @godccmplex <3

[kraefishh]

nintento direct thoughts

yeah so hi i deliberately stayed up until 7am on a work night in order to watch this and do not regret a thing.

-> splat3 dlc looks cool!! will i play it? no. does it look cool as hell? yeah!!! I personally don't like splat3's actual single player campaign so unless im able to access the dlc without finishing the main campaign then... im not playing it lmao. it looks cool as fuck though!! i like whatever the hell they had going on with the glitchy taz hunger looking goop that produced skeleton fish. pearl + marina lore is also a win in my book -> i dont actually have all that many thoughts about the smrpg showcase but MAN it looks cool as hell. at first i didnt like the revamped graphics but now theyre growing on me.... plus the trio attacks??? HELL YEA! i hope the remake will make me actually finish the game this time around instead of start it twice in the past three years and then quit within the first few areas (<- i say as if this isnt a normal problem i have regardless. thanks, its the adhd)

-> SaGa Emerald Beyond actually looks interesting?? like I know nothing about that game series but the character designs look very cool and i like the concept of a multiple outcome story based entirely on which character you play. do i think i'd actually play this game? no, probably not. looks cool tho

-> despite me being The pokemon nerd i have nothing to say about the new detective pikachu game. i dont like the voice they gave pikachu imo. i think thats just cause im spoiled on movie detective pikachu being ryan reynolds... i joke i kid. kinda. also i never like. actually played any detective pikachu games so i got nothing

-> WAS NOT EXPECTING A TROMBONE CHAMP PORT, TO BE QUITE HONEST

-> cool that were getting a new wario-ware!! not sure how i feel about like the.... forms? is that what theyre called?? w/e regardless im not sure how i feel about em. but its a wario-ware game so its bound to be weird but like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-> FUNKY KONG DIDDY KONG PAULINE RELEASE FOR MARIO KART WAS NOT ON MY LIST. SO SO HAPPY THOUGH. peachette is whatever. no idea where she came from

-> gotta say i completely forgot among us was on switch so seeing the crewmates i was like "are they making a fucking spin-off game for switch?" no. i just forgot. the fungle is a funny name though i appreciate it

AND THEN

THE LAST THING I WAS EXPECTING

A PAPER MARIO THOUSAND YEAR DOOR REMASTER.

I was laying there in bed at 7:40am and was like. oh cool one last thing before its over. its probably gonna be just another title release of something or a sneak peek on some dlc.

and then i hear the music.

THAT NOSTALGIC MUSIC THAT MAKES ME FEEL LIKE IM SEVEN YEARS OLD AGAIN

-> yeah anyway so i screamed "WHAT!?" at the (metaphorical) top of my lungs (because it was 7:40am and people were sleeping). ttyd getting a remaster is so so cool. and now that i know its possibly getting a re translation that makes me even more happy. give us trans vivian....... i also just think its very funny that ive been playing ttyd on twitch for the past. year now? (ive taken a shit ton of breaks) and theyre making a remaster?? now? not complaining im having a blast playing it with my cohost but HHADGHGAKDFJ

-> i'm mostly just excited for the remaster cause it'll hopefully bring traction back to the paper mario series. idk about like the general consensus of the fandom but like. the paper mario series has been needing a pick me up for a HOT MINUTE.

-> no i am not going to play the remaster of ttyd for stream. maybe on my own time. we'll see. i dont see the point of finishing the og only to then, like a year later, play the remaster. especially when i have a TON of games backlogged on my list since i only stream once a week. more often than not, not even that. i am planning on doing rpg tho

[courtney-deserved-better]

if you don't mind could you please give me some insight into how you outline/plan your writing, it's one thing I really struggle with. Hope asking isn't to much trouble.

no trouble at all anon! i love giving uneccessarily long responses about my writing process. speaking of which you asked at the exact right time because i have spent all day trying to outline that roti rewrite ive been babbling about. answer under the cut because again. i am incapable of being concise.

since what drives the plot is characters, i like to start by making a list of characters in my story that have arcs. this does not have to be all of them. in fact it will make your story a lot more complicated for every character that shows up to have an arc. some characters, even important supporting characters, can be fairly stagnant and that's okay as long as your main characters have an arc (in longform writing which i'm assuming you're doing because you're asking for outline advice)

so! since what drives the plot is characters, i like to list all the characters with arcs and write a few sentences describing their arcs throughout the story. for example:

ezekiel - starts out thinking girls are inferior until a girl saves his life and he begins questioning his beliefs. he befriends more open-minded people and finally realizes he was raised badly and rebels against his parents. 

katie - is in love with sadie but is super secretive about it because she’s scared of ruining her friendship. after sadie decides to ask out a boy, katie realizes she has to take a risk and tell sadie her true feelings. her feelings end up being reciprocated and she ends up in a happy relationship with her best friend

then i like to pretty much brainstorm onto the page about what my plot is. any major events, any tiny details, just put it all onto paper. this can help generate more ideas than the ones already floating around in your head and it’s good to have all your random bits of story written down rather than subjected to the whims of your mind and yes, as i was writing this i remembered i had a character idea for a wip last night and thought it was too good to forget and now ive forgotten it. agony. anyways.

once you have all that out, see what you can shape into a chronology. maybe your story is:

the campers at playa de losers in season one discover a portal to another planet and must close it before aliens take over earth

start asking yourself/writing down questions about your plot

what happens leading up to the portal being discovered? how is it discovered? when do the aliens launch their first attack? how do the eliminated campers fight back? etc.

once you start asking yourself questions on how to get from point a to point b (in a very broad sense) you can begin to answer them. and that helps contribute to your plot. for example:

question: how is the portal discovered?

answer: justin was getting a late night snack and saw a mysterious light coming from the bathroom and saw a glowing blue portal in the toilet

that's a whole new scene for your story right there!

and not all of your brainstorm is going to make it into a chronologically ordered outline! if one of your notes is:

eva and noah do an intricate handshake involving three pineapples

but you don’t know where that goes in the story, stick it at the end of your timeline in a section i like to call “miscellaneous notes”. its where you stick ideas you have that you don’t know where they’ll go

and then you see how your list of character arcs can overlap with your chronological outline. if ezekiel needs to be saved by a girl to rethink his beliefs, and one of your plot points is

beth gives her life to hold off the aliens

then one of your major plot points can be

beth sacrifices her life to save ezekiel from the aliens which makes him doubt his sexism

you can start to see how your character arcs interact with the overall story and sometimes that means going

“hey i don’t know why the alien leader turns evil but i know he needs to turn evil for the sake of the plot. oh wait. i know that sadie going to ask out a guy is what gets katie to confess her feelings. what if the guy is the alien leader. so when sadie decides to date katie instead, the alien leader takes that rejection to heart and decides to destroy the world.”

one important lesson ive learned, that slippery slopes has definitely helped teach me, is that you don’t need an outline to contain every little detail to write your story. i used to not even start writing something unless i had every single scene planned out and summarized. but then when i started writing slippery slopes stuff i didn’t plan for just happened organically in the writing.

noah’s backstory wasn’t really planned, in the process i just kind of went, “this guy needs some more motivation” and thus jael and the quiz shows were born. ill never get over the fact that courtney and alejandro rose from the fic itself to inform me that they were best friends with similarly complicated relationships regarding family, friends, and ambition and i just went “okay yeah” and proceeded to create my favorite character dynamic ive ever written.

that time travel au ive been working on since july and have 17 chapters written for? i didn’t even know who was in the final three until last week! in fact, i have very few specifics planned for that fic besides a few major plot points and the structure of season one, and though it’s been difficult it’s been super fun to write because i’m going on such a journey with it. 

that’s a lot to say that while making an outline for fics is super useful, don’t get so caught up on it to the point where you're not writing the fic at all because you think you have to plan out every little thing. as long as you have a sense of the general plot points and roughly know how you’re going to get there, then go ahead and write that fic!

[whore-for-murdock]

Can’t You See That You’re Lost Without Me? - Chapter IV

Nameless Ghouls(Ghost band) x Black!OC

Series Summary: Asteria is forced out of her home and old life, but maybe it’s for the better.

Chapter Summary: Asteria is scared for the first time since she arrived at the abby, having walls starting to get broken down always is.

Warnings: Lowkey boring meeting, Asteria probably being dramatic, probably bad writing, and idk what else

I would love and very much appreciate any constructive criticism, please interact (like or comment, reposts if you really want to) if you enjoy. Comment or dm me if you want me to start a taglist.

Mountain and I spend hours under the sycamore tree, talking about everything and nothing all at once. I learn that he plays the drums, his favorite plant is a blue wisteria, and other small things are shared. I tell him that I have a less-than-optimal relationship with my mother, to say the least, not going into full detail or explaining the healing wounds on my face when asked. I also share with him my love of drawing, baking, and rollerblading.

“No way!” I say before laughing loudly.

“I’m serious!” Mountain says through a laugh himself. I laugh to the point that I can barely breathe and begin leaning against Mountain, trying to catch my breath. Throughout our lengthy conversation, we made a lot of progress as he slowly stopped flinching when my hand neared to get where we are now.

“So, you’re telling me that,” I pause, a small giggle escaping my lips, “that you didn’t talk to any of them for three days because he said he doesn’t like the color green?” It wasn’t as funny as our laughter made it seem, but the way he told the story made it seem like the most interesting and, in this case, the funniest thing in the world.

“Well, yeah, it really offended me.” He said looking down at me, my head now calmly resting on his shoulder. I comfortable silence now rests over the garden, I glance up to find him still looking at me, a soft look in his eyes.

His head turns quickly towards the door I came through. I turn my head in that direction to find another ghoul standing stiffly, her hands resting behind her back. The hair on her mask is far more embellished and full compared to the display on Mountain’s.

“It’s time for practice,” she says simply before scurrying inside. Mountain shifts beside me and I quickly lift my head so he could stand. He holds out a hand to help me up and we walk inside together before parting ways.

-- -- 

I make my way to the dining area, to try and get a midnight snack. I hadn’t even bothered trying to go to sleep for the night. Any attempts would have been fruitless anyway. Before I could make it all the way to some much-desired food, I notice someone sitting by one of the very large windows along the hallway walls.

The slivers of moonlight peeking through the clouds gleam off the silver mask that rests on the person’s face. The ghoul’s head turns to me, and I quickly come to a halt. Vibrant light-blue irises shine from behind their mask. My eyes trail down at their outfit to find more casual, comfortable clothes, compared to the slightly restricting uniform I had seen the ghouls and ghoulettes wearing in the band room. I rack my brain to try and remember how I can identify this ghoul without finding the symbols on their uniforms.

Water Ghouls - Light-blue

The calmest of the ghouls. 

Quickest to form a bond with, even without gifts or trinkets.

Maintain a calm and slow approach, and allow them to accommodate to your general presence before attempting to speak to or even touch them.

I slowly walked to and sat across from the water ghoul in the wide ministry window. I stared out the window with them, watching as it begins to rain, small droplets gliding down the window panes. I stole many glances towards them to find their mask was identical to Mountain’s. We made eye contact a few times, however, he always broke it first, not seeming threatened by my presence or gaze.

Almost an hour had passed before I first spoke.

“Hi,” I whisper, not wanting to disrupt the quiet atmosphere that surrounded us too much. He quickly moves his gaze to me, his eyes analyzing me for a few moments before he responds.

“Hey,” he pauses for a moment or two seeming to gather his thoughts. “I’m Rain.”

“Nice to meet you, Rain,” I say smiling kindly at him. “It’s really pretty tonight, huh?”

“Yeah,” he responds, his focus on the clouds once more. “Why are you up so late? Don’t humans need a full night's sleep?” Curiosity fills his gaze as he turns to me again, however, I continue looking outside and avoid, what seems to be, concern in his eyes.

“Some. I can’t sleep anyways, so I thought I’d wander for a bit.” He hums a response, looking outside once more. Silence settles again as the sky slowly brightens, the time spent here becoming apparent.

“Thanks,” I pause, gathering my thoughts a bit. “For bringing me back here. I have no idea where I would have gone if you hadn’t.”

“It wasn’t a problem. Plus you had passed out, it would’ve been wrong to just leave you there. Speaking of which, how’d you end up out there? With all those injuries?”

I suck in a quick breath, my mind wandering back to my mother and her afflictions towards me. Tears build at my waterline without me realizing as I continue looking up at the sky.

“Sorry, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” he quickly back-tracks so as to not upset me. I blink away the tears once I look at him and smile sadly as the sun slowly peaks out from behind the tree line. I stand, ready to continue my way towards the kitchen. Before I leave, I glance at the ghoul again.

“Oh, uh thank you for yesterday,” I said quietly.

He tilts his head cutely, confusion clouding his gaze.

“For protecting me, when I accidentally set off one of the other ghouls. I appreciate it.” I say, waiting before walking off to gauge his reaction.

His gaze scans my face thoroughly, his eyes conveying an emotion I can't decipher about what he was feeling. He glances away as though to gather his thoughts.

“I didn’t want anything else to happen to you after how we found you. Out in the woods,” he turns his eyes back to me, the look in his eyes now registering as protective and care, something I have seen very rarely. 

My cheeks heat up at his word, his voice dripping with care, a truly foreign substance to me. I duck my head and hurry down the hall, continuing on to find the kitchen, not exactly knowing how to process, let alone respond to his words.

Once a fair distance away, I slow to a moderate pace, realizing that I might get close to people here, the ghouls especially, and that scares me.

[writing-ardent]

So I hit the apps again today

I used to be alone. It’s not that I didn’t have friends. I had plenty of those. All kinds of friends. Cool friends, scared friends, sad friends, party friends…you name it. I guess there were a lot of people in my life. A lot of numbers in my phone’s contact list.

But for some reason, it wasn’t enough. Maybe I’m selfish. Maybe I don’t appreciate them for who they are. I don’t know why but, I always feel so empty, even when I’m around the people I care about the most.

That’s why I spent the entire day on dating apps. They’re what everyone seems to be using now a days to find friends, lovers, and a nice quick fuck. Man, I wish I could find any three of those. Whenever I get lucky enough to find one it always turns out to be the things I don’t want at the time.

I really don’t see what’s so good about these apps. Sure I get a lot of hits on them, but they never mean anything. I’m not exactly self conscious about my appearance above the belt, but you know that problem I mentioned before? Yeah. It’s a frustrating numbers game I’ll never hope to win no matter how low I can force my expectations with a few drinks.

I guess this one is a little better. More friendly to pansexuals my friend said. I guess she has a point, but it’s still not really going to get a gold metal from me just for being mediocre instead of outright bad.

It was swipe after swipe. I tried to be optimistic. There were a few cute people here and there. Maybe I’ll finally have a decent conversation that isn’t just a copy paste of the exact same one I had the last time I was on one of these apps.

It’s boring. I really hate it and I don’t even feel excited anymore when I see someone I want to swipe. I guess I’m smart enough not to get my hopes up anymore on a subconscious level.

I decided to take a break and prod around on some other things I have on my phone. Probably not the ibuddy app though. That was one of the biggest wastes of time you’ve ever tried. It felt like you were talking to a brick wall. Advanced robot my ass. You would have a better time talking to the guy on meth that likes to roam around your street at night.

Time to go on the forms you like to surf. Forms isn’t really accurate though. It’s just a subsection of Paradise, which is one of those big companies that used to be a bunch of small ones. Ive lost track of how many are left now. The last time I checked there were three I think?

The forms were much more interesting than the dating app. This was much better. The kind of thing to finally bring my mood up after an exhausting day. Some memes usually cheer me right up. Or they at least come about as close to it as I’m going to get on a REALLY bad day.

There were a lot of good anime ones this time. They aren’t as good as the cute animal videos, but they’re still pretty nice I guess. At least when it’s for a fandom I’m part of and actually know about. If it’s not I have to sit there quietly and pretend like I didn’t see it. It’s pretty rude to like something for a fandom you aren’t in.

It looked like there was a new format I wasn’t aware of. It was little icons of characters sending people text messages, but with some logo in the corner I didn’t recognize. I thought that maybe this was one of those new surreal ones where it looks like it’s normal unless you get the very specific niche joke. This was something I had to look up right away so that I could start spamming all my friends with them. Well, the ones that like these kind of memes anyway.

That was when I got a phone call from my uncle David. David is a nice guy, but he’s pretty out of touch. He’s from the olden days back before we had things like self driving cars and self serving plates. It’s nice though to talk to him sometimes. My friends all think I’m crazy because I still grow my own plants and eat parts of them. He might be a funny guy that doesn’t know how to text, but I love him and he’s great.

“How’s it going Tripp? Did you get that email I sent you?”

“Fine. And yeah, I did.”

This was a lie of course. He sends me so many emails with random articles about things like climate change and animal facts. It’s almost always something I already know and am bored by, but I know it would break his heart if I told him that, so I just go along with it since it’s usually something I’m already aware of anyway.

“Wonderful! I know it’s hard to get a job these days. Hang in there.”

I was about to start my new business this week actually, but that’s not exactly something I talk about in polite company, especially not in front of uncle David.

“Thanks, that means a lot. It’s really hard, you know?”

There’s a pause before he speaks again.

“I know it too well. Did I tell you the story about the strike of twenty thirty five?”

“You did. And it was a really good story. I’m glad you got heating and cooling back. You probably saved a lot of people by doing that.”

“I’m glad you remember it. Listen, I just want you to be ok. Your generation is out future you know.”

“I know.”

He’s said that a thousand times now. Everyone his age is always saying things like that. I’m surprised I didn’t end up seeing one of the thousands of memes about the kind of things old people say before I picked up the phone actually.

“Did your kale grow any bigger yet?”

“Yeah, I can’t wait to eat it! That shit is so good!”

“I have another plant for you if you want it.”

Oh no. Not another plant. I have so many of them that I don’t have any room left for another one. This was something uncle David is known for. While I love to learn about plants from him, he also seems to have an endless supply that he won’t stop giving people. And the worst part is that I can never stop myself from saying no to another one because god damn it, I just love plants ok?!

“Oh damn, that’s great! I’m free Tuesday if you want to bring it over!”

“That sounds great. I’ll talk to you later. Murphy wants to play.”

“Please let him and throw a frisbee for me!”

“I will. Talk to you later. I love you.”

“Love you too.”

I hung up the phone and sighed. It was nice talking with uncle David, but I always just feel so drained after I do it every time. I’m not really sure why. I love him and he really shouldn’t be this hard for me to talk to, but he just is.

God damn it, I was going to need more coffee. I pull up a delivery app on my phone. The nearest place was probably be the quickest. I typed in what I wanted on my phone and went to my porter. It’s actually a porter printer hybrid, but I don’t use the printer part of it very often because art just isn’t really my thing and those machines are way too complicated.

It didn’t take long for the coffee to show up. It’s pretty easy to port things when there’s nothing organic in them. It’s why most foods are synthetic now a days. This way we can have something delicious whenever we want it. If you ask me, that is an amazing invention.

I sipped the coffee. It was burned. But that’s pretty much what I would expect from a fast food place. They aren’t exactly known for being quality, but the upscale franchises are too far away and I was kind of lazy that day.

I looked out the window. It’s was a nice day in the ocean. That’s the window I picked out. It was either that or the neon pink one with the anime girl on it. I figured I would go for the more tasteful option even if it was kind of surreal. Oh who am I kidding. I was drunk when I picked it. Still one of the best decisions of my life.

I finally remembered what I was going to do before uncle David called. I was going to finally look up what that weird as fuck meme was about. I can’t believe it slipped my mind so easily on that day. I guess I’m just easily distractible like that.

I decided to check out the Paradise page of the one who posted the latest version of the meme. That’s usually the best way to find out what an in joke is if you don’t have enough information to search an actual archived wiki for it. Paradise always loads faster anyway because they shell out the big money to ISPs that nonprofit archives can never even hope to scramble together.

They were talking about how they made it using this new app. It was called DJINN. Weird name for an app. Kind of made me think of the genie from Aladdin or something out of an RPG. That was a weird name for a shitposting app, but hey I’ve seen weirder. Penguin was definitely an experience.

Might as well check it out. I decided to just click the link directly. It probably wasn’t a virus if this many people were using it and I was way too lazy to try to dig up the wiki. Sponsored links didn’t have the same lagging problem because Paradise got money from it if you clicked.

When the page finally loaded, I almost spat out my coffee.

[adrianastrix]

Well, I already talked a bit about Bram & Vlad, but now that DD ended, I can share The Spoilery Things about B&V-verse and link to the fanfics that could spoiler book details to people.

The whole premise of the comic is that despite their families' differences, Abraham van Helsing IV and Vlad Dracula II become fast friends (or, rather, Vlad becomes Bram's friend, Bram becomes Vlad's "person he will kill last in an anger fit"). And then kids descending from the other characters, plus other books start to pop out, like Johnny Seward and Bessie (Karnstein) Báthory.

As time passes, though, it becomes very clear that something is weird. For one, since Van Helsing very explicitly had a mad wife and a dead son, how exactly did he produce descendants?

Something seems awfully suspicious about the Harker Papers and the fact that barely any of them is written by hand (and the ones who are, are really short).

The Big Twist in B&V? Yeah, Van Helsing obviously didn't have any descendants. He gave a copy the "Harker papers" to Bram Stoker with the only stipulation that he should keep a rough outline of the events and preserve as much of the names of the characters as possible in his novel (Stoker follow them much closely than expected in the final draft). But those papers weren't exactly diary transcripts and all. In B&V, the novel "Dracula" is a big collective fanfic that the whole crew of light plus Dracula and Lucy wrote together (some of them might have been sliiightly intoxicated at some points) to cover up the fact that the two vampires ended up very alive, very married and not willing to put up with vampire politics bs. To make things believable, the places they go and things they do in public are not fictional, but the motivation behind most of them were (except Harker going to castle Dracula in the beginning, that part was 100% real - Dracula was just not as murderous as he seemed and was genuinely looking for real state to live peacefully in and not for world domination).

And those married vampires needed to live somewhere no other vampire would look too hard, to have some peace. Dracula, then, got a fake ID as Van Helsing's illegitimate son who ends up recognized by his "father", and there's where Bram actually comes from. He and Vlad are basically cousins, a few generations removed.

The OTHER big twist (this one 100% meta)? Yes, the novel was mostly fanfic. But this fanfic is weirdly prophetic about the major events of the descendants of its writers in the 21st century. The only weird snag is Jonathan's life not directing one of Lucy Harker's brothers, but Vlad's (maybe because Lucy is madly in love with him, and it would be weird for her to marry one of her brothers). And, while Bram looks and acts like a child Van Helsing, let's remember who he actually descends from, and the comic's finale will make much more sense.

OK, now let's me organized the scattered material I have, in case you want to see glimpses of this all playing out.

FANFICS:

I sort of "novelized" the first season of comic strips on those four short stories. Be warned that most of them were written ten years ago and I was barely better at English than Van Helsing. All three are self-contained because I used to distribute the Portuguese originals for free in Brazilian comic cons:

Prologue to B&V: A mother summarizes Dracula to her son as a child's story. The boy is enjoying an internal joke the whole time.

Welcome to Exeter!: After being trapped for way too long in a castle in Transylvania filled with vampires that want him dead and being emotionally damage by all the trauma and neglect, Vlad Dracula II goes to England, where he spends his very first night fighting ghosts with an eccentric smart guy. Or, in other words, 10-years-old Vlad is sent by his absent parents to go bother the Van Helsings for a few years. Their same-age son, Bram, immediately thinks it's the coolest thing ever.

Harker's Guest: Bram wants Vlad to meet his neighbours and semi-family, the Harkers. All is well until a stranger without a reflex comes knocking.

Legacies: Danger lurks around since Harker's mysterious guest vanished, so the Exeter Hunters team of vampire hunters give their kids the Legacies, six everyday objects that their ancestors unknowing imbued with a powerful magical protection. But those legacies won't work if the kids don't understand the magic that powered them in the first place.

Those are some side stories from B&V-verse (also standalones):

The call of the Mountains of Madness: William Dyer just want to forget the horrors he met in the unknown depths of the Antarctic, when he receives a visit of some "Captain Maarten van Helsing", who claims to have being there in his dreams and asks Dyer to guide him into a desperate rescue of two aliens in distress. The smart thing would be to turn the young man down, but let's be real, old Bill hasn't been sane enough to be smart in a long while. (This fic is giant, all the others are short stories. This here is a novella, the peak of my fanfic days. Most jokes are riffs on Lovecraft, but there are some Dracula bits too. Be warned.)

Victor Frankenstein's last wish: Richard Walton just wants to deliver some weird letters to the intended recipient and be done with his promise to his dead father. However, Franz Frankenstein is somehow even weirder than he expected.

To look death in the eyes: Every year, in the All Souls's Day (November, 2), Bram's family always go and make a picnic in the scariest place in England, which is… A beautiful countryside? This year, Vlad Dracula and Henry Jekyll find themselves dragged to it.

Bram's Vampire Hunting Handbook: A non-standard fic in the form of Bram's summary of the Van Helsings' Vampire Hunter Handbook, an encyclopedia of everything a vampire hunter needs to know to not die on their job.

(I have it on good authority that you can enjoy the Handbook without ever reading the strips, but if you want maximum context on how Dracula fits on it, read the chapters on The Amsterdam Treaties first for a quick shot of Van Helsing angrily staring at a bunch of vampires and hunters until they act civil, then come back to the beginning.)

COMICS:

Non-spoiler B&V Character Guide

The comic in Tapas

The DeviantArt folder with so so SO much extra content

And the AMA that would include Dracula characters whenever I was re-reading the book.

Here's some gratuitous JonMina, as a treat, if you got all the way down here:

Nina reads Dracula 🦇

November 7th — Epilogue!

Seven years ago we all went through the flames; and the happiness of some of us since then is, we think, well worth the pain we endured.

How eerily relevant to current world events!

It is an added joy to Mina and to me that our boy's birthday is the same day as that on which Quincey Morris died. His mother holds, I know, the secret belief that some of our brave friend's spirit has passed into him. His bundle of names links all our little band of men together; but we call him Quincey.

I love you Quincey Jonathan Abraham Arthur Jack Harker 🥺❤️

When we got home we were talking of the old time—which we could all look back on without despair, for Godalming and Seward are both happily married.

I see it. I see it. We only need to remove one (1) word to make it work. Technically we could even leave it untouched. I see it.

We were struck with the fact, that in all the mass of material of which the record is composed, there is hardly one authentic document; nothing but a mass of typewriting, except the later note-books of Mina and Seward and myself, and Van Helsing's memorandum. We could hardly ask any one, even did we wish to, to accept these as proofs of so wild a story. Van Helsing summed it all up as he said, with our boy on his knee:—

"We want no proofs; we ask none to believe us! This boy will some day know what a brave and gallant woman his mother is. Already he knows her sweetness and loving care; later on he will understand how some men so loved her, that they did dare much for her sake."

Don’t you love it when the Family is Found?

JONATHAN HARKER.

THE END

Dracula Loop™ one final time 🖤🦇

Final thoughts

I LOVED IT!!!!! Which will certainly not come as a surprise to my Tumblr friends. Themes of monstrousness and humanity and love and resilience are my everything. This is one of the stories that will stick with me forever!

Quincey and Renfield remain my favourite characters. Jonmina has me in a chokehold. Van Helsing is such a funny character and was the topic of many debates with my sister. It says a lot that Dracula himself, the title character and overarching menace of the book, pales in comparison to the protagonists — sometimes kindness is more interesting than evil!

See you next year, everyone. For now, I will leave you all on a question:

Fanfic recs please? 🖤🦇

< Prev 🦇

[thefreakymunson]

Can you please write about reader being in a hospital and Eddie not leaving there side... maybe some angst like him fighting with your parents cause they didn't call him to tell what happened ...

Love your work btw ♥️♥️♥️

Everything was still a blur. The last thing you remembered was being on your way home from Eddie’s on a stormy night. You knew better than to speed, especially down the back roads, but you were trying to make curfew so you didn’t get in trouble. Eddie normally drove you on the stormy days but the argument you two had earlier was what made you leave.

It was a silly fight. Eddie had said something about a girl at school and you jokingly accused him of having a crush on her but deep down, you knew Eddie hated it. It was a cheap shot and you were so stupid for taking it. Of course it irritated him.

“Maybe you should just leave for the night, yeah?” Eddie snorted, “I’m not in the mood to fuckin’ argue with you.”

“I was just joking,” you frowned.

“I’m not laughing,” Eddie stared at you, “You do this shit all the time – accuse me of having a crush on another girl. Don’t you know how much I love you, Y/N? It pisses me off to hear that bullshit.”

At some point, you hit a standing patch of water, causing your car to skid and then flip three times. Thankfully someone was passing by and seen it all happen and rushed to help you. Your parents were notified and met the ambulance at the hospital but the one person you wanted to see more than anything wasn’t there. Did he know? Did your parents tell him?

Everything hurt. Your leg was fractured in two places and you had numerous cuts and bruises. Your lip was busted from the impact of the air bags and your face was starting to bruise. Maybe it was a good thing he didn’t come. You didn’t want to be seen like this.

It had been nearly three hours since you arrived and your parents were watching over you like a hawk, standing guard at your door. But all you could think about was making it right with Eddie. If you would’ve died in that crash….

The sound of shuffling sneakers filled your ears and you sat up a bit. You caught a glimpse of wild dark hair and your heart started beating faster, the monitor telling on you.

“Why didn’t you call me?’ You heard his voice, anger and sadness evident.

“Eddie-” your dad was cut off by him

“No, I know you don’t like me.” Eddie said sternly. Even though you couldn’t fully see him, you could hear the tears in his voice, “I know you think I’m a real piece of shit and she deserves better than me. I get that. But that girl is my fucking everything and I love her. Where is she?”

There was silence for a few seconds as your parents looked at each other silently.

“Let him in, please.” You called out to them.

He heard your voice and immediately was brushing past them and into your room. You knew the sight looked scary – all the blood and the IV’s. He walked over to you and cupped your face, ignoring your bloodied chi as he looked down at you.

“Jesus, Y/N.” Eddie blinked away tears as he looked down at you, “What can I do? What do you need, baby?”

“For you to not be mad at me anymore,” you whispered, voice brindled with tears of your own, “It was stupid. I know. I’m-”

He carefully leaned forward and kissed you, effectively shutting you up. His hands slid down to the side of your neck, thumb gently swiping over your jaw. Your tears fell unashamedly as he kissed you so tenderly, making sure not to hurt you but putting as much love into it as he could.

“I would’ve been here sooner,” he mumbled as he laid his forehead against yours, “But I heard from Max...nobody else told me.”

“You’re here now,” you said softly, your hand resting on the ripped knee of his jeans, “I was so scared, Eddie.”

“I bet you were, baby.” He sighed, watching as you leaned back against the bed, “I was too.”

He picked up the rag and dipped it in the warm water basin, ringing it out before he brought it up to your face and started dabbing the dried blood away from your lip. He didn’t stop until your entire face was clear of any blood, and then started working on your arms and hands.

“What all hurts?” He looked up at you as he scrubbed the back of your hands gently.

“Everything,” you smiled despite the pain, “My leg is definitely broke...my car’s totaled.”

“Fuck the car,” he snorted, “You can get another car. I can’t get another you.”

“Yeah but that just means I’ll have to hitch rides from you all the time now,” you sighed.

“I see no problem with that, baby.” Eddie smirked, “You’re never driving again...it’s too risky.”

[angelicyoongie]

Abundance (XVIII)

— summary: You never expected that you would end up adopting a hybrid, and if someone had told you that you would end up with seven? Well, you would have thought they were crazy. But here you are, with three different packs of hybrids that don't get along – but all want to stay with you. Yeah, it turns out crazy is an understatement.

— pairing: hybrid bts x human f!reader

— genre: fluff, angst

— word count: 6.5k

— tag list: here (the tag list is closed/full!)

Part: I / II / III / IV / V / VI / VII / VIII / IX / X / XI / Find more chapters here!

“Guys..” You whine.

Your voice is muffled by the loud purrs and soft growls surrounding you, the two packs trapping you beneath a pile of limbs and tails that refuse to move. The moment you even attempt to twitch your arm, Hoseok only clings on to it tighter, not allowing you to budge an inch from the bed.  

On your left, Jimin presses his nose against your throat, thoroughly working to cover the overpowering scent Seokjin and Jeongguk left behind. He lets out a low hiss when the touch makes you flinch, your neck tender and sore despite the ice packs you tried to cool them with the night before. The cat hybrid places fluttering kisses on your skin in apology, his chest rumbling with discontent. He silently curses the preys in his head as he moves his gentle lips across your neck, miffed that he can’t properly mark you without causing you discomfort. 

You tilt your head easily when he nudges your throat, his soft hair tickling your cheek as he carefully kisses his way closer to the back of your neck. Jimin suddenly stills as he reaches a specific point beneath your ear, the sharp intake of air making you nervous as the cat hybrid’s body grows tense.

It dawns on you a little too late what he’s picking up on, your lips parting to explain just as Jimin’s head snaps up from your neck, his dark eyes finding Taehyung’s across the bed as he bites, ”Why does she smell like you?”

The fox hybrid’s tail swishes languidly behind his back as he sits cross-legged on the bed behind Namjoon and Hoseok, his demeanour suspiciously calm for someone who hasn’t seen you in over two days. Jimin scoffs at the smug smile Taehyung gives him, the fox hybrid's chest puffing out slightly as he says, ”Because I marked Y/n last night too.” 

“What?”

Jimin’s hiss is drowned out by Namjoon’s voice as the wolf hybrid detaches himself from your hip, his eyebrows furrowed as he turns to look back at Taehyung, ”Is that why you smelled like her last night?”

Taehyung’s smile quickly grows sheepish, his orange ears twisting back as he refuses to meet Namjoon’s eyes.

“Maybe?” 

The confession makes the wolf hybrid growl, disapproval rumbling deep from his chest as he says, "We all agreed to leave her alone until today, pup. You told me you only smelled like Y/n because you had cuddled with her clothes.” 

… Wait, what?

No wonder your shirts seem to be permanently wrinkled! 

Taehyung lowers his head with a whine, looking small under Namjoon’s hard gaze as his bushy tail wraps around his waist. ”I was in the kitchen to grab a snack when Y/n came downstairs. I didn’t seek her out on purpose, hyung.” He pouts.

Namjoon searches Taehyung’s face with narrowed eyes, something in his expression softening as the fox hybrid lets out a low, distressed whimper.

”I believe you,” Namjoon sighs. There’s no reason to fight over something as harmless as a little scenting, especially not since Taehyung found you after the prey’s rut were over, but still–

The wolf hybrid reaches out to tilt Taehyung’s chin up, the sternness in his voice mellowed by warmth as he says, ”But no more lies, Tae. You know we don’t do that.”

You bite down on your lip, unsure if you should speak up or not. It wasn’t Taehyung’s fault that you happened to stumble across him in the kitchen, and well, truth be told you probably would’ve felt a little hurt if he hadn’t hugged you after a few days apart. But, even so, this seems to be about something more than just you and you don’t think it’s something you can fix. They obviously decided to leave you alone after Seokjin and Jeongguk’s rut for a reason, and while you might not completely understand why, you know enough to realize that it’s something they need to work out on their own. 

“I’m sorry, hyung.” Taehyung mumbles. 

Namjoon lets his fingers linger on the fox hybrid face, making sure he knows he’s not in trouble.

“It’s okay, pup.” Namjoon hums.

The prolonged touch makes Taehyung slowly relax, his tail unwinding from his stomach as his ears peek up through his hair. Namjoon’s instincts are itching to pull him into his arms like he normally does after a disagreement, to scent his packmates until they’re all calm and happy again. But he can’t, not when he has to use the time he has left before you leave to properly scent you, to make you smell balanced.

Namjoon gives Taehyung's chin a tap before releasing him, a quiet promise of cuddles later before turning his body back to plaster himself against your hip. The intense fragrance of after-rut feels heavy, lodged, in his throat, and he can’t push it down no matter how hard he tries. Your scent is so faint under Seokjin and Jeongguk’s that he can hardly pick up on it, their marks covering every inch of your body. Namjoon grumbles under his breath, rubbing his cheek against your trousers a little more aggressively to leave behind his own claim. You’re not leaving before you smell like all seven of them.

“Weak.” Jimin scoffs. Namjoon is too soft to be an alpha, too easily swayed by Taehyung’s pretty face to put him in his place even though he directly disobeyed his alpha’s orders.

The cat hybrid bristles as he watches Taehyung snuggle closer to Hoseok, a flicker of something mischievous twinkling in his eyes as he catches Jimin’s hard gaze.

Jimin doesn't even think twice before baring his teeth in response, confused at the immediate guilt that blooms in his chest when it makes Taehyung cower. He should relishin the alarm that crosses the fox hybrid's face, but instead it just tugs at something in his chest, making his heart hurt and regret settle heavy in his stomach. 

Jimin quickly lowers his gaze, avoiding Taehyung’s upset expression by tucking his face back into your neck. He tries to convince himself that he doesn’t care, the tip of his tail flicking with annoyance as he works around the spot the fox hybrid marked you. It’s not because of Taehyung that he makes sure to avoid it, no; Jimin is just too sleepy to move his head enough to touch that particular area.

He frowns as he breathes in your scent, another pang of guilt hitting him as he picks up the faint trace of Taehyung’s smell combined with the preys. He huffs. He wouldn’t have to be the bad guy if Namjoon just kept Taehyung in line, making sure his packmate didn’t do things he wasn’t supposed to. Jimin tries to ignore the little voice inside his head that tells him that Yoongi would do the same, that the older cat hybrid is just as soft as Namjoon is– No, he’s sure Yoongi is just as annoyed, that he was just silently judging the two canines and giving them his best glare to back him up.

Jimin angles his head, peering down your body and expecting to find his alpha ready to pounce on Namjoon for not doing his job correctly. Instead, he’s met with Yoongi clinging on to your thigh, not having moved an inch from earlier when you let them into your room. The small hope that the older cat hybrid would be as irked as him dies the moment he picks up on Yoongi’s deep purrs, the sound rumbling so loudly from his chest that Jimin doubts he even heard the conversation. 

Yoongi is completely lost in your scent, the smell so intoxicating he can’t focus on anything besides wanting more. He dips his pale fingers below the edge of your shirt, gripping the side of your hip to keep you locked in place as he rubs his face all over your thigh. Jimin watches with wide eyes as Yoongi slowly moves up your leg, not stopping until his nose is skimming against the strip of bare skin he exposed, his dark eyes almost fully dilated. Yoongi is obvious to what’s going on around him, obsessed with how your scent riles him up in a way it’s never done before.

Jimin sucks in a surprised breath as it dawns on him why his alpha seems so out of it; the preys must be affecting him too. The lingering smell from their rut must be messing with Yoongi’s senses, making him drunk on your combined scents.

Yoongi purrs even louder as he finds an unmarked spot near your hip, his tail swishing happily behind his back as he gently bites down on the skin. Jimin feels your body twitch as Yoongi drags his tongue over the fresh mark, soothing the sting with his soft lips. 

You startle as Yoongi marks your skin, the sudden nip bringing you out of your daze. Jimin’s sudden hostility had made you freeze, your mind working overtime to figure out what made him so upset. You know that the boys are still slowly warming up to each other and becoming more comfortable, but for the most part they’re all getting along well. Jimin isn’t an exception to that, but sometimes, something will seemingly set the cat hybrid off out of nowhere, and you don’t understand why. Clearly he isn't fond of Taehyung scenting you last night, but considering Namjoon let it slide you doubt it can be serious enough to warrant such a switch in his attitude.

You sigh, feeling Jimin’s head rise and fall with the movement of your chest. It can’t just be jealously that’s making him act like this. You know you have to let it slide for now, but it can’t go on. Honestly, it might even be a good idea to bring it up with Yoongi first, he can probably shine some insight on what’s going on with his packmate, and then you can take it from there. 

An unexpected knock at your door seems to bring everyone out of their thoughts, Yoongi’s loud purrs stuttering to a halt at the noise. You can barely make out the top of Seokjin’s head from where you’re plastered against the bed, the other boys cuddling even closer as they catch the two familiar scents drifting into the room.

“Good morning.” He chirps.

The blinding smile you receive as he gets closer makes your breath catch in your throat, the hamster hybrid looking way too soft and put together for someone who almost made you forget your own name yesterday. The small grunt that follows Seokjin’s words makes your eyes drift down to the bunny hybrid clinging to his back, a pair of sleepy doe eyes watching you over Seokjin’s shoulder. 

“Morning.” You smile.

Your traitorous heart begins pumping a little faster as you watch Jeongguk sleepily smack his lips, the images of what you’ve been doing for the past two days flooding your brain. The bunny hybrid nuzzles his face into Seokjin’s neck, wrapping his arms around his alpha's waist to keep himself standing. The memory of those strong arms holding you in place and Seokjin’s tapered waist underneath your hands makes you flush, heat slowly creeping up your cheeks.

Jimin makes a confused noise as your heart rate picks up, nosing against your throat in an attempt to calm you down. You wish scenting would affect you in the same way it does to hybrids, but instead of soothing your nerves it just fires them up more, your blush deepening as Jimin’s plush lips ghost over your skin.

“How are you feeling, petal?” Seokjin’s eyes move meticulously up your body despite the hybrids mostly blocking you from view. The pet name almost makes you whine, your throat bobbing as you fight to keep it down. Seokjin’s expression grows pleased, satisfied, as he notices your struggle, a smirk curling at the edge of his lips as he says, ”Is it easier to walk today?”

There’s a beat of silence as the implications of Seokjin’s words sink into the room, your skin burning so hot it feels like it’s going to melt right off your bones. The thing is, you can, but barely. Your body feels like you’ve been working out for a week straight, muscles tight and sore in places you’ve never experienced before. Hell, you were this close to hobbling your way to the bathroom this morning.

You flinch at the sudden chorus of low growls that echo around you, Namjoon and Hoseok’s ears falling flat against their heads as they glance back at the preys. Yoongi hisses something under his breath as Jimin’s eyes narrow, their tails thrashing behind their backs. Taehyung simply tilts his head, intrigued at the shift in the prey’s presence. 

“Noona.” Jeongguk’s soft voice fills the silence, the amused glint in his eyes going unnoticed by you as you struggle to take in just how cute and sleepy the bunny hybrid looks. ”Is your throat okay? Were we too rough on you?” 

“I’m okay, I can take wors–” You splutter, squeezing your eyes shut and cutting yourself off as you register just what you’re saying. Jeongguk’s question had made Namjoon choke, the wolf hybrid’s shocked coughs thankfully drowning out the sound of your voice.

Jeongguk muffles his giggles against Seokjin’s back, ears perked as he takes in their scandalized expressions. Yoongi in particular can’t seem to close his mouth, pouty lips parted in surprise as his gaze shifts between the two preys.

He turns back to Jimin, slapping his equally dumbfounded packmate’s shoulder with a huff, ”I told you he wasn’t innocent!” 

“Clearly not.” Jimin grumbles, his narrowed eyes trained on Jeongguk. The bunny hybrid seems surprisingly unfazed by all of the undivided attention, but still, Jimin catches the moment he tightens his grip around Seokjin’s waist just a smidge, moving his body an inch to the side so that his alpha covers him more.

You welcome the darkness behind your lids, trying your best to ignore the embarrassment that’s heating you up from head to toe. God, why did you say that? You can’t even properly think with all of them in the room, and having four of them plastered against your body doesn’t exactly make it any easier. You just need to escape for two minutes, just to splash some cold water on your face and calm down.

“Shit,” You jolt upright; the abrupt movement somehow managing dislodge the tight grip the four hybrids have on you, making it easier for you to slip away. ”I’m going to be so late for work!”

The nerves you’ve somehow managed to suppress during Seokjin and Jeongguk’s ruts come rushing back up to the surface all at once, making you stumble as you get out of bed. You have no idea how you even managed to temporarily forget about the syndicate you’re taking to court unless you can convince your boss otherwise; but now that the thoughts are back, you can feel them rooting themselves deeper than ever.

The group on the bed whine at the loss, not ready to let you go just yet (–or ever, really, but they’re trying to compromise). The amusement in Seokjin's face is replaced with concern as he reaches out to steady you, keeping you from tripping over your own feet. 

”Are you okay, petal?” 

“I’m fine, I just–” You take a deep breath as you catch Jeongguk’s worried gaze, forcing your frazzled brain to calm down as you pat down your clothes. You carefully smooth out the wrinkles, suddenly thankful that you managed to get ready before you were ambushed. You might be running a little late but you just need to grab your bag, make sure that you have all the files you need, and get in your car. You can do that. You slowly release another deep breath, giving Seokjin a smile that feels somewhat collected.

“I’m fine, I promise. I just can’t be more late than I already am.” 

“Okay,” Seokjin nods, letting go of your arm, “Drive careful, Y/n.” 

You quickly scoop up your bag, double-checking that you have everything you need before turning around to say goodbye. The guilty faces that look back at you almost makes you jump back into bed, but you can’t postpone your meeting with Mr. Gwan any longer.

”Guys, it’s okay. I missed you all too. We’ll spend more time together when I get home, yeah?” You sling your bag over your shoulder, relieved as you see the canines' tails slowly begin to wag, the felines agreeing with matching pouts.

“See you later, noona.” Jeongguk smiles, nodding his head in the direction of your bedroom door.

You throw them all one last smile before hurrying out of your room, clutching your bag to your chest. You breeze down the stairs, barely stopping long enough to throw on your coat and slip on your shoes. You have to make your boss reconsider the case, there’s no other way.

“What do you mean we can’t drop it?” You hiss.

Mr. Gwan leans back in his chair with a deep sigh, complexion paling as he stares down at his desk. You’ve given him everything – all of the documents and pictures you got from your client, hell, you’ve even presented him with the clip from the news report to make sure you weren’t mistaken. This case is much bigger than what you’re equipped to handle, and all the proof is right there in front of him.

“Listen–” You rub at the side of your temple, feeling the telltale signs of a headache brewing. ”Sir, we have enough evidence to prove the client’s claim of money laundering, and that in itself is huge when it comes to Lim Enterprises. I know prosecutors who would be frothing at the mouth to have this case handed to them. They’ll be able to use their own in-house lawyers to crack down on the case quicker, and they’ll probably even get a special unit on board to investigate the trafficking syndicate.” 

Mr. Gwan shakes his head, raising his hand to cut you off as you open your mouth; “It’s not that simple. Hwan Lee-suk personally expressed his gratitude to the company for taking on the case.” 

You sit up straight, hand falling from your face as you stare back at your boss, dumbfounded, ”You mean, Hwan Lee-suk, the mayor?” 

“Exactly.” He says. Mr. Gwan’s wrinkles seem to deepen as he picks up one of the pictures from the desk, looking more tired than you’ve ever seen him before.

”You know better than anyone that this business is all about reputation, Y/n. If we give this case to someone else after the mayor’s public support, people will talk. Our clientele consists almost exclusively of important people with a lot of money to spend, so how do you think it will look if we suddenly drop the case? Best-case scenario we’ll be dubbed as untrustworthy, worst case they’ll think the company is outright trying to offend the highest-ranking person in the city. Either way, it will ruin us.” 

“I understand that,” You swallow dryly, desperation creeping into your voice, “But this is too big for us – for me.”

“My hands are tied, Y/n, there’s nothing I can do about it.” Mr. Gwan sighs, eyebrows pinched as he gathers up all the documents on his desk. “Just keep working with your client and continue to build the case for Lim’s money laundering. I’ll bring this ... new development to the chief, and he’ll take the investigation from there. The money laundering is our ticket in, we just need to make sure everything is airtight.” 

“Fine.” You snap.

You briskly exit his office, resisting the urge to slam the door behind you. You ignore the concerned look Soohyun gives you as you storm past her desk, not stopping until you’re sat in your own chair, blinders shut and office door locked. You just need a moment to collect yourself, to figure out what you need to do next.

What you hate the most about all of this is that you understand where Mr. Gwan is coming from. His concerns regarding the company are valid, and with the mayor complicating everything you’re not so sure you would be able to make a different choice even if your positions were switched. You understand, but it doesn’t make any of this any easier to accept. It’s not like you have much of a choice either – you need this case to succeed, to win, so that you have a higher chance of getting that promotion. You do want to spend more time at home with the boys and this is the key to make that happen, no matter how dangerous it might be. 

You rub your eyes as you wait for your computer to boot up, feeling done with the day before it’s even begun. You already know you’re going to be spending the evening cuddled under a pile of hybrids, and that sounds like heaven right now.

The amount of unread emails waiting for you in your inbox just makes the dread settle a little deeper, your hands heavy as you open up the first one.

You curse under your breath as you recognize the sender, Kim Hajoon’s name staring back at you. You haven’t had the chance to start working on his case yet and he’s already asking for updates. You already know that you can’t help him without getting a little help yourself, so you grab your phone, pulling up the contact of your trusted private investigator.

You type out a quick text, the message barely having enough time to be delivered before you get a thumbs up in response. You give her the basic details, scheduling a meeting for later in the week. There’s nothing Kang Yujun can’t get to the bottom off, and luckily for you, money embezzlement seems to be right up her alley. 

“I’ll never forgive you!–”

Jeongguk perks up at the sound near the front of the house, one ear turned in the direction of the door. Realizing it’s a false alarm, the bunny hybrid slumps in his seat, pouting, as he turns his attention back to the TV. He chews absentmindedly on a baby carrot, mind somewhere else as he tunes out the plot that’s unravelling on screen.

Jeongguk misses you.

It’s been days and you’ve hardly been at home since their ruts passed, always coming back late and leaving early. He knows you’re busy with work but that doesn’t mean your absence sucks any less. You did tell them it would only be temporary until you manage to catch up with everything, but even that feels too long. Jeongguk just wants you home with him, with them.

“I miss Y/n.” Hoseok’s whine drifts down the hallway, the muffled shuffling of footsteps coming closer to the living room. Jeongguk stops chewing, eyes widening as he instinctively scoots over to the edge of the couch. He draws his feet up, making himself take up as little room as possible as he hugs his knees to his chest.

“Me too.” Namjoon sighs. The wolf hybrid’s voice is heavy with longing, and Hoseok lets out another quiet whimper in response.

Jeongguk holds his breath as the two hybrids enter the living room, eyes locked on Namjoon and Hoseok as they move closer to the couch. The dog hybrid notices the stiffness in Jeongguk’s body first, his knuckles turning white from how hard he’s gripping his legs.

“Hey, Jeongguk.” Hoseok offers him a gentle smile, grabbing Namjoon’s elbow to steer him over to the other couch.

The wolf hybrid makes a confused noise - there's more than enough room for all of them next to Jeongguk - but he lets himself be moved easily, taking a seat on the smaller sofa. It isn’t until he offers Jeongguk a greeting of his own that he realizes why Hoseok gave him the look. The bunny hybrid is looking painfully tense, his ears twitching with uncertainty of where he needs to be paying attention. 

“Hyungs.” Jeongguk murmurs, wide eyes barely resting on them for a second before they snap back to the TV.

Jeongguk swallows thickly, the word feeling foreign on his tongue with Seokjin nowhere in sight. The bunny hybrid hates how shy he gets the moment he’s alone, he never realizes just how much he depends on his alpha to be a buffer until he’s not there. What he hates more though, is how his instincts act up although he knows he’s not in danger anymore. Namjoon and Hoseok are just lounging on the couch next to him, their bodies relaxed and no signs of aggression in their scents. Yet still – still, Jeongguk’s prey instincts aren’t convinced he’s safe. 

“What are you watching?” Namjoon’s calm voice shouldn’t make Jeongguk flinch, but it does. Embarrassment floods his cheeks as he forces himself to meet the wolf hybrid’s warm eyes, Namjoon’s face nothing besides welcoming as he waits for Jeongguk’s answer.

“I–I don’t know, wasn’t paying attention.” Jeongguk stutters.

He’s not sure what he was expecting, but it wasn’t for Namjoon to simply just smile, shoulders pulling back into a faint shrug as he says, ”Must not be a very good show then, if it can’t keep you interested. Would you like to try watching the first episode of Burn the Soul instead? Tae said it was good.” 

“S-sure, it’s probably better than this one.” Jeongguk nods. The flush spreads to his neck as his eyes flicker over to Hoseok, the dog hybrid giving him such a tender look that it makes his heart skip a confused beat.

“Nice!” Namjoon’s sudden enthusiasm almost causes Jeongguk to squeak with fright, the bunny hybrid biting down on his lip just in time to silence the sound. He misses how Hoseok elbows Namjoon, the excited wags of his gray tail losing momentum as he realizes he was a little too abrupt.

The wolf hybrid clears his throat as his ears twist back, his voice much slower and contained as he says, “I mean, uh, that’s nice. Thank you, Jeongguk.” 

“S’okay.” Jeongguk mumbles.

The bunny hybrid’s quick pulse slowly begins to settle as Hoseok puts on the first episode of the show Taehyung recommended. It is good, and Jeongguk is so distracted by the plot that he doesn’t even notice when his body begins to relax, legs shifting from his chest to rest more comfortably by his side. Jeongguk’s ears are perked in the direction of the TV, so enthralled by the music and sounds that he completely forgets to listen for anything happening outside of the living room.

It’s only when the TV goes dark before the new episode begins that Jeongguk lets his gaze drift from the screen, his eyes finding Namjoon and Hoseok easily in the dimmed room. The two hybrids are cuddled up on the couch, Hoseok tucked against Namjoon’s side, squished between the wolf hybrid’s strong body and the couch. Despite the lack of room, both of them look so comfortable and utterly relaxed that Jeongguk finally takes notice of the stiffness lingering in his back, his posture still uncomfortably tense.

Jeongguk twists, ignoring the alarm that tries to go off in his head as he turns his back on the two predators. He knows they’re not going to hurt him, so he just needs his prey instincts to accept it too. Jeongguk takes a deep breath as he leans against the back of the sofa, arm folded beneath his head and feet tucked under the pillows behind him. As soon as the new episode begins, the bunny hybrid melts into the couch, mind and body finally calm as his attention is recaptured by the show. 

Jimin walks into the living room just as the TV goes black, the sudden darkness making his pupils dilate as he searches the room. He grumbles under his breath as he only finds three people, the extra set of ears on their heads making it obvious they’re not who he’s looking for. Jimin sighs, voice softening automatically as he notices Jeongguk’s curled up form on the couch, ”Is Y/n not home yet?”

He sees Hoseok shake his head, keeping quiet as he pulls a sleepy looking Namjoon behind him across the room. The displeased rumble Jimin lets out earns him an understanding look from the dog hybrid, Hoseok feeling just as anxious about you being so busy.

”And the bunny? Why is he sleeping out here?” Jimin asks, voice low, once the two canines are close enough to pass him by in the doorway.

Namjoon leans heavy against Hoseok as they pause, the wolf hybrid resting his head on top of his packmate's as he looks drowsily down at Jimin.

“He’s waiting for Y/n to come home, he’s been there all afternoon.” Namjoon mumbles, deep voice slurred as he fights to keep his eyes open. 

“I don’t think he’s planning on leaving until he gets to see her. He missed her this morning before she left for work.” Hoseok adds quietly, ears drooping in sympathy as he glances back at Jeongguk.

Jimin purses his lips, offering the pair a nod as they shuffle past him. He turns his head, watching with keen eyes as Hoseok drags Namjoon along down the hallway, the wolf hybrid curling an arm around his packmate’s waist to keep his balance. The fondness in Hoseok’s gaze is so obvious as he helps Namjoon to their room, his face filled with affection as the other stumbles, his big tail almost knocking over a vase. There’s clearly something going on between the canines, but Jimin has no interest in getting involved with that - they can figure out their mess on their own.

The cat hybrid shrugs, taking a few steps into the dark living room as his eyes find their way back to Jungkook. His tail puffs up as the slightly chilly temperature settles against his skin, goosebumps rising over the area of his arms that’s by unprotected by his t-shirt. Jimin frowns as he gets closer to the couch, noticing the small trembles travelling through the bunny hybrid’s body as he shivers in his sleep.

He hesitates, hand hovering over Jeongguk’s shoulder as he looks down at him. He might not like Jimin, a predator, touching him, but he can’t allow Jeongguk to get sick now. It’s not fair if you have to take care of him again so soon after his rut. You already abandoned them for two whole days, and Jimin refuses to have that happen again just because the bunny hybrid won’t go to bed. 

“Jeongguk.” Jimin gives his shoulder a quick nudge, eyes narrowing when it doesn’t do more than make Jeongguk grumble in his sleep. The bunny hybrid’s lips are parted in a soft pout, his cheeks puffed up from being squished against the back of the couch. 

”Hey, bunny.” Jimin tries again, hand curled around Jeongguk’s shoulder to give it a firm shake. He ignores the little tug at this heart as Jeongguk whines, not letting up on his hold until he sees the bunny hybrid’s eyes slowly blink open.

“'hat?” Jeongguk mumbles, confused, as he brings his arms closer to his chest to fend off the chilly air.

“You have to go to bed, you’re going to get sick.” Jimin huffs, tail flicking with annoyance behind his back.

Jeongguk takes a deep breath as he sinks deeper into the couch, staying silent for long enough that Jimin almost believes he’s fallen back asleep until he slurs out a tired, ”‘m waiting for Y/n.” 

“She’s not going to be home for a while.” The cat hybrid hisses, irritation creeping into his voice as he other refuses to listen.

Jeongguk drowsily shakes his head, long ears lying relaxed down his back as he softly repeats, ”‘m staying.” 

Jimin exhales heavily through his nose, Jeongguk’s stubbornness making his own rear its head. The bunny hybrid is not going to get sick if he can help it.

Jimin stalks over to the large basket at the foot of the other sofa, nimble fingers quickly searching through the contents until he feels soft fabric against his skin. He lets out a triumphant chirp as he pulls out the white blanket he was looking for, bundling up the large throw in his arms before he marches back over to Jeongguk’s curled up form.

He dumps the blanket over the bunny hybrid's head with a satisfied huff, covering him completely under the fuzzy fleece. He stares down at the unmoving pile, eyebrows slowly pinching as the seconds pass and he can’t pick up on Jeongguk’s soft breaths.

It’s just the blanket that’s blocking the sound, he’s fine.

Jimin rolls his eyes, taking a step back to leave when he finds that he can’t. He can’t look away from the heavy throw that’s covering Jeongguk’s head, his feet refusing to move as a sudden burst of anxiety grips him tight, rooting him to the floor.

What if the blanket is too thick? What if Jeongguk doesn’t get any air and slowly suffocates and dies and then you’ll hate him and–

Jimin quickly grabs one end of the blanket, yanking it down and away from Jeongguk’s head. It pools around his shoulder, leaving his face exposed to the fresh air in the room. Jimin reaches out a shaky hand, ears pulling back with distress as he places a finger under the bunny hybrid's nose. One, two, three–

Jimin lets out a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding, shoulders slumping as a faint rush of air hits his skin.

He collapses down on the couch in relief, shooting Jeongguk a glare as the bunny hybrid continues to sleep undisturbed, oblivious to Jimin's inner turmoil. He scoffs as the only movement Jeongguk offers is pulling the blanket closer to his chest, ducking his head down to rest his cheek against the soft fleece.

He side-eyes the top of Jeongguk’s head, his hair a mess after after the blanket was pulled off it. There’s a stray lock in particular that makes Jimin’s fingers twitch with the need to brush it back into place, the strands resting on the slope of Jeongguk’s nose. The cat hybrid balls his hands into tight fists, palms sweaty from the weird urge to groom Jeongguk.

He doesn’t like the bunny hybrid, he’s not doing it because he wants to groom him, it’s just .. his fault that his hair is messed up, so it’s his responsibility to fix it, isn’t it? He’s sure you would be disappointed if he didn’t. Jimin bites down on his lower lip, sharp teeth digging into the soft flesh as he twists in his seat. Yeah, that’s it; he just doesn’t want to let you down. 

Jimin watches Jeongguk’s face carefully as he reaches out, brushing the strands back into place. He tuts under his breath as the piece immediately falls back into the bunny hybrid’s eyes, the rest of his hair such a mess that it won’t allow it to stay.

”Jeongguk.” Jimin hisses, repeating his name louder and louder until he finally gets a response.

”Hmm?” The bunny hybrid’s hums, one of his long ears doing a half-hearted rise to show that he’s listening.

”Your hair, I– Can I fix it?” Jimin grumbles, his chest uncomfortably tense as he waits for Jeongguk to process his words.

”Sure, hyung.” Jeongguk slurs, voice barely above a mumble.

Jimin swallows thickly at the softness in Jeongguk’s tone, scooting closer on the couch. He's not so sure if Jeongguk even knows which hyung he’s really talking to, but he tries to be gentle as he untangles his hair, mindful not to disturb his sleep too much as he smoothes down the stray locks.

Jimin pauses as he tucks a piece behind Jeongguk’s ear, the bunny hybrid looking so young up-close. He knows there’s only a two-year difference, but Jeongguk is technically still the baby of the household and Jimin hasn’t really been making any effort to make sure he’s okay. The bruises after his assault may have faded, but Jimin can still picture them if he tries hard enough.

He clears his throat, swallowing around the lump forming there as he resumes his grooming. Sleep makes Jeongguk’s features look soft and unguarded, and for once, the cat hybrid allows his protective instincts to get the better of him. He moves closer, his thigh flush with Jeongguk’s knee and the warm blanket brushing against his arm. Jimin's tail flicks behind his back as he encounters a piece that just won’t lay flat, the rest of the bunny hybrid’s hair moved perfectly back into place.

He doesn’t think twice about it before leaning in, tongue dragging through the rebellious lock to wet it. He quickly smoothes it down, fingers running through Jeongguk’s hair to make sure every strand is in the right place. Jimin sits back, a pleased rumble escaping from his chest as he observes his handiwork.

He freezes as his eyes drift back down to Jeongguk’s face, the bunny hybrid’s shocked wide eyes meeting his. He feels Jeongguk grow tense from the close proximity, Jimin's fingers still buried in his silky hair from where he was combing through it. The bunny hybrid’s gaze flits over his face rapidly, trying to make sense of the situation as he tugs the warm blanket closer to his body. His eyes linger momentarily on tip of Jimin’s tongue that’s peeking out of his mouth, the concentration from how carefully he was grooming him still present on his face. Jeongguk regards him silently for what feels like forever, his expression a mix between shy and something Jimin can’t quite place.

The cat hybrid's heart beats funny when Jeongguk decides to close his eyes, body relaxing as he nudges his head into Jimin’s hand.

”Feels nice, hyung.” Jeongguk whispers, and Jimin’s hand trembles as he resumes his grooming, fingers carding through the brown locks in light motions.

Jimin pulls his legs up on the couch, mirroring Jeongguk’s position as he folds his unoccupied arm against the backrest to support his head. As the bunny hybrid’s breathing begins to even out, Jimin finds himself growing drowsy too. He figures he might as well just stay in the living room until you get back, just to make sure you come home safe. He’s a light sleeper after all, so he knows he’ll wake up the moment you step inside the house.

He tugs one corner of Jeongguk’s blanket over his own legs, covering himself from the chilly air. Smoothing and running his fingers through Jeongguk’s hair is oddly soothing, and Jimin can’t stop the content purrs from rumbling low in his chest. The whole situation feels surprisingly nice.

As sleep starts settling in Jimin’s eyes, his arm becomes to heavy to hold up, his hand dropping from Jeongguk’s head to his waist. He curls his fingers into the fabric of the bunny hybrid’s shirt, seeking out the warmth radiating from his body as he inches closer. His gray tail wraps around the both of them under the blanket, providing them with even more heat to fend off the chilly air in the room.

Jimin falls asleep with Jeongguk’s gentle breaths puffing against his chin - the faint memory of your scent in his nose and soft lips pressed against his cheek lingering in his dreams until morning.

a/n: hello!! i hope you’re all doing well. there’s a little less of y/n in this update because i decided to move the final scene i had planned for this chapter to the next one! it just makes more sense overall, so i hope y’all don’t mind it too much. but hey, at least we’re finally seeing some character development for jimin?? 👀 and maybe some for JK too?? 

see you all soon, stay safe! <3 if you’d like to support me, you can buy me a ko-fi! 💖