#maybe that will successfully jinx the idea

[sigweiner]

⌁₊˚ Shiver ˚₊⌁ {P1}

Pairing: Jinx x Fem!/Gnc!/Reader

Word Count: 6.5k

Summary: There's a dance party for Isha. Jinx blows stuff up and you end up taking her (virginity) virtue. Also this has quite a bit of your bg story.

Warnings!: fluff, smut, swearing, angst, t06!c relationship, substance use, mentions of dark ses and physical stuff.

a/n: Arcane literally altered my brain chemistry so I had to put this out. Also English is not my first language, sorry for the weird punctuation and sentences. Minors and creeps dni.

{P2}

“You know what we need?!” Jinx exclaims with a wild look on her face, completely out of the blue. “A dance partaaaay!!!” She shouts excitedly, throwing her pale arms in the air and spinning on her stool chair, blue braids swirling around her and all.

She had been working on Fishbones for a while, quietly talking to herself here and there as usual, when she suddenly announced her idea to everyone present. Isha jumped up from where she was sitting on the floor, seeming very excited by the prospect of dancing around to strobe lights and loud music. You rolled your eyes unimpressed, asking yourself how the hell was she planning to pull that off since none of you could be seen in public. You were supposed to be dead, Jinx was a wanted criminal and Isha… well she was an easy target for being associated with Piltover’s number one enemy.

It's been three months since you have failed - somewhat intentionally - a mission assigned to you by your mother after you fucked up majorly with a job she gave you. A job that involved escorting the head of a highly respected and ridiculously rich family from Piltover. Madam Margot though, is one of the last remaining chem barons, and she only really held the title of your mother because she gave birth to you. The relationship between you two was downright abusive and toxic while she raised you to be the epitome of perfection – perfect posture, perfect manners, perfect body, absolutely submissive, extremely feminine and pleasant. Not to mention the extensive training for you to become the best courtesan at the Rapturewalk, so there would be no one you wouldn’t be able to pleasure.

The cruel irony of life though was you were the complete opposite of all that. Poor posture, disregard for manners, chubby, defiant and full of masculine energy. So you suffered greatly, mostly by her hands but also by any object she could grab around to discipline you. You had to learn to compartmentalise yourself and your feelings to survive but you reached your breaking point when you met Jinx, basically. You were supposed to capture her and kill Sevika in the process but you ended up in a human sized cage in her hideout. You could have done it, finished the mission successfully and returned to your mother seeking her praise and approval, but that would never happen anyway, she was too much of a narcissist to give you that satisfaction.

Margot did sponsor all your implants and shimmer “treatments” though, so you could turn into a living walking weapon, her weapon, which is the only thing you’re really grateful for other than receiving training to become a blade master which was also a requirement because you needed to learn how to defend yourself, she always encouraged you in that regard. So you became Shiv, choosing this alias to represent your "chemgoth assassin who wears too much leather and harnesses" personality. It would be pathetic if it wasn’t your entire existence, or maybe it is but you try not to think too much about it. But anyway, back to your more recent reality: a very empathetic little girl took a liking to you while you were caged and convinced Jinx to take you in, since she believed you didn't represent any real danger to them. So here you are in yet another dysfunctional “family”, though you rather this a thousand times than go back to Margot.

“What are you talking about? We can't go out in public, Jinx.” You say with an unamused scowl on your face.

“Hah! Don't be stupid, trinket! We're having the party right here.” She flaunts her arms flamboyantly referring to the space around her. Isha jumps up and down, unable to contain her excitement. “Now, I'll take care of the music and lights, Isha will take care of decoration and Trinket…” She points her wrench at you, making a dramatic pause. “Will take care of food and drinks.” She finishes with a smirk so you scoff.

“Why do I get the hardest task?” You ask rolling your eyes at her but already knowing the answer.

“Consider it a small payback for trying to capture me.” She replies through gritted teeth. “Plus you're a really good thief, I'm sure you can get your hands on some top shelf stuff for us.” She adds nonchalantly, reminding you why she still keeps you around.

“I'm not a thief.” You say stubbornly, the complement going over your head.

“Great! It's settled then, let's get to work!” She jumps off her stool and starts rummaging through a bunch of crates full of messy junk.

You cross your arms over your chest and sink further into the couch. You had no intention to start on your assigned task anytime soon. And who does she think she is anyway to order you around like that? What a stupid idea, a dance party. Sure that would make little Isha so happy. She often got bored sitting around the hideout with nothing to do other than tinker with unfinished bombs and draw on any surface she could find. But dancing and parties are really not your thing, you’re more a moping around in the dark kind of person which makes you realise you might be a little too depressed actually.

So you start brainstorming places to raid where you know there's a good stash of food and drinks and you immediately think of your mother's warehouse. But that was definitely a bad idea, since there would be a small probability you could get caught by the Vyx or be seen around, although you're pretty sure you could get in and out without any effort, since you know the place like the back of your hand. Plus thinking about the kind of food your mother had laying around made you salivate, not to mention the booze, that could definitely cheer you up.

Jinx suddenly plops down on the couch next to you interrupting your thought process by man spreading in those distracting tiny shorts and thigh high socks. You avert your gaze quickly and try to ignore her presence altogether but your hormones get the best of you. Did she have to walk around in so little clothing? Doesn’t she get cold or something? Although the shimmer probably altered a lot of sensations for her but this was just maddening. She nudges your leg with her boot lightly, refusing to be ignored.

“You know opting out of the party is not an option for you, right Trinket?” She says in a surprisingly calm voice and smirks when you glance at her sideways.

“Whatever.” You scoff, continuing to look anywhere but at her stupidly attractive grin.

“So where are you planning to snatch the goods?” she ignores your dismissive tone while playing with the ends of one of her braids. 

“Maybe… my mother's warehouse. But that's a dumb idea.” You reply pointedly. Jinx suddenly gasps and gets closer to you.

“That's a perfect idea, Trinket! Margot has stuff the Pilts eat, dude. You have to get it for us, it's gonna be epic!” She grabs at the traps of your harness that hugs your collarbones and shakes you slightly. 

“Get off!” You push her hands away with an aggravated look on your face but she just laughs at your reaction. “I'm not putting myself in that kind of danger for your stupid party.” You tell her sternly, but it lacks any real bite.

Jinx feigns a surprised look of insult and reclines back on the couch spreading her slender legs even further. “Don't be selfish, Trinket! This party is for that kid over there, who by the way, has never tasted anything like what people on the other side of the bridge have. So stop being an insufferable brat and get going!” she moves to shove you off the couch but you manage to dodge her swiftly. 

In a second you're standing in front of her, arms firmly crossed against your chest. “Fine. But just so you know I'm only doing this for her, not for you.” You let out with more anger than you intended to. There's a flash of hurt on her features before she manages to mask it so you hold her gaze a second longer before turning around and vanishing from sight.

If you were being honest with yourself you had to admit that this little rendezvous Jinx sent you on made you feel alive. Sure, the safety of the hideout brought you immense emotional comfort, even though the blue haired girl could get under your skin most of the time. But this, the adrenaline of the mission, the possibility of getting caught or even running into your mother, is simply thrilling. And you love the simple things in life.

So you are selfish after all. The motivation behind your actions, completely forgotten by you. You learn the patterns of the guards, patiently designing your path through isles of containers then you proceed to move swiftly and blend in with the shadows. You lockpick your way into a large container in seconds and your double bladed dagger cuts through the mesh nets that are covering large crates filled with aliments. 

You stash as much as you can on a makeshift bag you brought with you and when you start to tie it across your chest and back, you sense movement behind you. You move so fast your own brain can’t recognise who you suddenly have caught by putting your dagger under their throat and tightly securing one of their arms on their back. The person is wearing a hooded cloak but you get a whiff of a familiar scent coming off of them and immediately recognise the intruder.

“Gee, didn't know you were this kinky.” Jinx says putting her free arm up in redemption. You release her from your grip and push her away. She turns around with a big grin on her face.

“What the fuck are you doing here?!” You whisper harshly but she gives you a look of feigned innocence.

“I came to help you carry stuff.” She says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Her hands lower to rest on her hips and she winks at you. Damn her.

“Shh, you're going to alert the Vyx.” You reprimand her. She just rolls her eyes and turns around to steal more food from the open crates. 

You stare at her back in complete disbelief as she collects honey, chocolate, sugar, candy, meat and all the soda cans she could fit in her backpack. How in the hell did she manage to get over here without you noticing? She must've followed you, or more likely stalked you all the way over here. It is understandable that she wouldn't trust you and wanted to keep an eye on you to make sure you wouldn't run from her, but this was just a whole nother level of mania.

“I wasn't gonna run, y’know.” You say quietly. She stops what she's doing but doesn't look at you.

“I know.” She replies in the same quiet manner. “But you're so much fun to follow around, I can't help it.” She turns sideways to look at you with her signature wicked grin that you love to hate. God, sometimes you wish you could kiss it off her face.

You scoff, but look away. “More like stalking.” You mumble under your breath. “Let's go, there's a round of guards coming this way.” You warn her.

“Fineee.” She drags her response. “But I'm leaving your mother a gift, ya know, in exchange for her generosity and letting us take all this stuff.” She giggles mischievously at the confused look on your face. “15 seconds, let's go!” She warns, then runs past you.

You hear the familiar ticking of one of her monkey bombs and your eyes widen. Shit, why does she always have to make an event out of everything? Your body moves faster than your brain yet again, and you manage to see a pink colored flash of light moving alongside you, bolting to the exit. A few seconds later you hear as well as feel the blast in the not so far distance. And chaos ensues.

Back at Jinx’s hideout, the only sound that can be heard is of the girls laughing while Jinx reenacts in the most flamboyant way possible what happened an hour ago. You lay lazily on the couch, your head propped on one of the armrests, trying really hard not to stress over the consequences today's recklessness will bring. You should've known better. Of course Jinx would follow you and try to explode something just for the fun of it. Also she never did get back at your mother for sending you on a mission to try and capture her so you kind of have to admit she had the right to do so. You cover your face with one arm and try your best not to let anxiety take over. After a brief while, you hear someone approaching and by the heavy sounds of boots on the metal ground, you know Jinx is coming to bother you, again.

“Not right now Jinx.” You warn her, but the last thing you could expect is her climbing on top of you and casually straddling your legs. You look at her incredulously, your gaze jumping all over her body and her face. “What the hell-” You start to say, but she cuts you off.

“Cheer up Trinket! We're about to have the time of our lives!” She lets out one of her outrageous laughs and starts tickling your sides with her slim fingers. “Isha help me out here!” She shouts for the child to come join in on torturing you.

“Stop! You're insane!” You try to hold her hands on a tight grip but Isha is already climbing on top of you too. “Traitor! I thought you were on my side!” You try to shout with bravado but the tickling gets to you making you giggle uncontrollably.

“Raise hell!” Jinx commands and manages to free her hands from your grip. You all end up falling to the floor when in an attempt to escape you throw yourself off the couch.

Everyone is laughing now at your utter defeat, tears coming down your face, all worries and anxiety forgotten momentarily. The girls stop attacking you and you try to steady your breathing, giggles dying down slowly. Isha throws her little arms around you and lays on your torso with a big smile on her face. Following the small girl’s action, Jinx also places her body on top of both of you, though her face is close next to yours. You can smell the intoxicating scent of her hair and you can feel her breathing tickling your ear.

“Guess you're not so tough after all.” She whispers into your ear and you have to suppress a shiver that threatens to course through your body. 

“Alright, alright you got me. Now let me breathe please.” You admit defeat and the girls start pulling off of you. Isha gestures for the party to start so Jinx gets up and offers you a hand. You hesitate before taking it and she puts more force than needed to pull you up so you end up flushed against her, faces inches from each other, her hand swiftly finding the small of your back to steady you.

“Time to shake those ol’ bones of yours.” She whispers. You can't help but stare at her plum colored lips as they move. She smirks and you sigh, pulling away from her. You let out a shaky “right” and walk past her to join Isha by the work station. 

The lights are turned off and Isha's doodles glow in the dark of the hideout, making everything fluorescent. Jinx turns on colorful strobe lights, and music starts to blast through a gramophone speaker, giving life to an improvised dance floor. Before everyone starts dancing though, Jinx covers Isha's eyes as you walk over a makeshift table covered with a cloth. Jinx counts to three and you lift off the cloth to reveal a banquet to a very excited Isha, who wastes no time and dives right in.

You pour yourself a cup of a lightweight liquor, not intending to get wildly drunk tonight, or any night for that matter when you're around Jinx. You fear you won't be able to hold back your annoying crush on her if you don't stay sober. Surprisingly (or not really), Jinx doesn't drink alcohol, preferring a sugary soda instead. She is the first to start dancing, followed by Isha who has her mouth full of chocolate. You don't remember ever seeing her this happy ever since you met her, even though that wasn't that long ago.

You start bopping your head nonchalantly, lingering by the table, just watching the girls having fun with a dopey grin on your face. You decide all of that ordeal earlier was worth it because of this moment. Jinx twirls Isha around once and they giggle happily jumping up and down to the rhythm of a rock song. Your eyes catch Jinx’s gaze for a second and she starts strutting over to you.

“This is a dance party, Trinket! You need to dance!” She leans close to your face. Your stupid heart skips a beat but you manage to steady it. “C’mon! Just pretend like it's a club!” She shouts through the music. 

“I'm not a good dancer!” You retort. She gives you an unimpressed look and then you feel tiny hands pull on your own. Isha is guiding you to the middle of the dance floor so you can dance together.

Is there anything you wouldn't do for this little girl? You can't think of anything as you start moving a little unsure of how you're supposed to do this. Isha's energy is contagious so you can't help but let yourself be free as well. Jinx appears next to you after a moment and hands you a chocolate covered strawberry, munching on another one herself. You take it and savour the sweet contrast of flavours in your mouth, Gods it's been a while since you had food like this. 

You catch Jinx licking chocolate off the tip of her thumb and you're suddenly hypnotised. You wish it was you licking the sweet off of her, or the other way around would be great too. Her lips curl into that god awful smirk so you look away, thinking the liquor is already getting to your head. Isha grabs your hand and makes you twirl her around just like Jinx did so you concentrate on the small child again, happy to oblige.

After a while of just the three of you jumping around, mimicking an assortment of animals and you and Jinx singing loudly to popular songs together, you decide to take a break, sitting down by the floor with a chicken thigh on one hand and half of your cup of happy juice on the other. The girls join shortly after, eating like they haven't seen food for months. And to be quite honest, food was really scarce in the hideout since you couldn't be going out often to steal meals, so yeah, they probably haven't eaten this well in a while.

You don't let yourself dwell on the hardships of everyday life for long though, the girls are already finding a way to entertain you. This time they play with the remains of their food, making funny faces. Jinx pretends to be a vampire by sticking chicken bones under her upper lip as if they were her fangs. Isha uses the bones as horns on top of her head. You just laugh wholeheartedly at their creativity but don’t join in on the food play. After eating as much as you could though, it was time to get back to the dance floor.

A more sultry song starts playing and Jinx really gets into it. Swaying her hips effortlessly to the beat like she knew the exact moves to it. You were yet again mesmerised by her, slowing down your movements almost to a halt, just moving your body side to side. Jinx locks eyes with you, pupils completely blown by the lack of light, probably. She starts moving closer but this time for some reason you couldn't look away.

“If you think I'm pretty, lay your hands on me.” She mouths the lyrics once she is standing in front of you. Your hand lifts magnetically towards her hip, but you hesitate pulling it away slightly. “I know you can’t stop thinking ‘bout it.” She sings again, taunting you. Your head feels hazy in the best way possible when she moves even closer to you, but your body knows exactly what to do.

You rest your hand on the hip she has covered with powder blue clouds, and her skin feels electric. She wastes no time laying her hands on you though, running her fingers almost reverently through the tender skin of one of your arms. Jinx checks you out shamelessly, pink spinel eyes coursing through your body with hunger. You feel a shiver course through your spine when her hand travels from your shoulder to the back of your neck, holding you there steadily so you find yourself frozen under her spell, unable to think any coherent thoughts when she has her hands on you like this.

Jinx takes your free hand and guides it to lay on her waist, making you feel the sensual sway of her body. You swallow hard and her eyes follow the motion, making her carom her skinny fingers through your choker necklace and towards your shoulder, before brushing a strand of your hair behind it. This time you can’t help but shiver when the tips of her fingers graze the skin of your neck in the process. She puts her hand on your waist right after, guiding you to sway like her, but it's hard to do anything when your body feels like it's on fire. She giggles at your apparent lack of coordination, seemingly oblivious to the real effect she has on you.

You snap out of it when fireworks suddenly burst out of nowhere illuminating the space pink and blue. The song changes and you both hesitantly remove your hands from each other. You try to hide the scorching heat creeping up your face by grabbing your cup and downing the last remains of your drink. Jinx moves away from you to start spinning aimlessly around with Isha, who seems hell bent on making herself dizzy just for fun.

“Careful, you’re gonna get sic-” You don’t get to finish your sentence because Isha throws up all over the floor, making a mess. Jinx lets out a surprised laugh and the kid hugs herself for a moment, looking embarrassed, before her mouth turns into a frown and tears start pooling around her eyes.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay kid, don’t worry about it, let’s get you cleaned up.” You’re immediately by her side, cradling her head and wiping at the tears falling down her face. You take her hand and start guiding her to the “bathroom” right outside the hideout.  

“Ugh fine, I’ll clean up the mess!” Jinx shouts from a distance. You glance back at her and give your best apologetical smile before disappearing out of sight.

Later that night, you’re at the top of a nextdoor building trying to get some fresh air, or as fresh of an air as Zaun can provide. Your legs dangle on the edge of the long forgotten structure as you watch the distant glow of the progress city. Jinx was putting Isha to bed as she always does every night, and you didn’t want to intrude on their little ritual, besides your head was still swirling a bit with the effects of the alcohol you had earlier, making your mind keep going back to the dance you shared with the wild girl.

This was getting out of your control, which scared you shitless. You knew for certain Jinx wasn’t the kind of girl who falls in love, or she doesn’t seem to be, so she would never reciprocate your little infatuation with her, which in your opinion is childish at best. You sigh heavily, thinking back on how her skin felt under your touch, and about her damn barely there clothes, and about how her tattoos adorn her body perfectly.

“Slow down or your head is gonna explode.” You hear Jinx’s playful voice behind you. “Y’know, from all the thinking you’re doing.” She continues. You turn sideways to glance at her, and unfortunately she still looks wildly tempting. You scoff, turning away.

“Get yourself a mirror, will you?” You banter back. She giggles and plops herself down next to you so close your thighs are touching, making you tense up.

“Aw Trinket, you’re no fun! Just when I thought you were starting to loosen up a little.” She purrs her last words, propping her forearm on your shoulder, face close to yours.

“My name is Shiv, y’know.” Your voice trembles, nerves betraying you. She lifts her eyebrows and smirks at you.

“Is that so Y/N?” She whispers, her warm breath brushing the side of your face. Your eyes widen slightly, how the hell does she know that? But you quickly recover.

“Been digging up my dirt, huh?” You say casually. She smiles sweetly and moves so her head is resting on your shoulder.

“Heh yeaah, I might have…” She chuckles, watching the city ahead. You stay silent, because of course she has. You think it’s only fair since you know everything about her past too, about Powder. You take a deep breath catching a whiff of her scent, rusty with hints of something sweet you can't quite identify. It nearly drives you insane.

“Sooo… you think I’m pretty, huh?” She interrupts your internal turmoil only to cause a full blown panic in you. You tense up when she lifts her head to look at you.

“Stop fucking around, Jinx.” You warn her but it comes out more like a plea. You chance a furtive look at her and regret it immediately since she has that damn knowing smirk on her face.

“I’m not. I um… liked the way you touched me.” She says almost shily, slowly placing her hand on top of yours and squeezing it lightly. You honest to god do not know what to do with that information. You glance at your hands together and back at her face, trying to figure out what is going on here.

She’s just trying to rile you up as usual, right? There’s nothing more to this than her trying to toy with you, right? That’s what you are to her, a trinket, right? She probably just wants to use you to satisfy her needs and then throw you away, right? You can admit she is hitting on you but it’s not like she has other options, right? She just needs a quick fuck to make her forget all her problems momentarily and let off some steam, right?

Maybe then she would stop randomly blowing shit up and stop talking to herself like there are invisible people around. Maybe you should give in, perhaps this would do you good as well. But what about afterwards? How could you move on knowing how it feels when your bodies are tangled together? Or the taste of her on your tongue? Or the sounds she makes when she reaches her peak? You don’t think you could ever get over that, it would definitely break you.

“Y’know for someone who’s so quick and swift, you’re surprisingly slow witted.” She brings your attention back to her making you frown before biting your lower lip, a decision forming within you.

“What do you want from me Jinx?” You ask her seriously. The look on your face letting her know you are definitely not messing around.

“I want… you, silly.” She says tentatively, tucking a strand of your hair behind your ear. The tenderness of the gesture almost made you flinch, fuck you can’t deal with softness.

You lunge forward, grabbing the back of her head as you slam your lips together in a desperate kiss. She lets out a surprised 'umph' sound but kisses you back, throwing her arms around your neck. You brush your tongue on her lower lip before deepening the kiss, and Gods she tastes so sweet somehow, you can’t help but let out a low moan against her mouth. That seems to spur her on because she sinks her fingers on the back of your head, massaging your scalp making your eyes flutter.

One of your hands paws at her chest while the other grabs her waist roughly, pulling her towards you. The salacious nature of your kiss makes you both let out breathy moans, increasing the heat that threatens to burn your insides. You two part momentarily so you can push at her shoulder making her lay down on the rough concrete floor. You move so you’re hovering above her and you can’t help but admire the mess you’ve made of her. Kiss swollen lips, chest heaving trying to catch her breath, her pretty lipstick all smeared around her mouth.

Jinx rests her arms on the floor beside her head, and swallows harshly waiting for your next move. You straddle her hips before lowering down your upper body to kiss her again, hands raking through her sides, appreciating the feeling of her firm waist. Then they travel up her stomach right around the time your tongues swirl together, making her squirm underneath you.

You let go of her mouth to lavish her neck with kisses and bruises, biting down at her pulse point hungrily. She lets out small whimpers and quiet moans at what you’re doing to her neck, and when you move your hands to pull up her bralette above her chest, she gasps and arches her back towards you. You start kissing a path down her collarbone, towards her chest, tasting the salt on her skin. One of your hands pinches her left nipple making her moan loudly.

You take the opportunity to soothe the pink areola with your tongue but bite lightly at it soon after. Jinx is a squirming mess underneath you, hands balled into fists beside her head. You take her wrists and guide them to wrap around your shoulders, making her suddenly remember how to use her hands. You huff a chuckle and kiss her hard again, her fingers tangling on your hair.

You paw at her right breast only to be surprised by a feeling of metal lodged in her nipple. You break the kiss to get a better look at it and you spot a silver piercing on her boob, Gods as if she couldn’t get any hotter. You raise an eyebrow at her but she only guides your head towards it, so you waste no time on lavishing her nipple with attention. The sounds coming out of her, a delicious tune to your ears.

You rake your free hand down her side until you reach the hem of her shorts and she bucks her hips upwards. Her thighs are tightly clasped together which is unacceptable, so you snake your hand on the back of her thigh to pull it around your hip. She lifts her other leg and snakes it around you without coercion and you finally let go of her breast with a pop. You lower your hips on her crotch, giving it a tentative grind to watch her reaction, and she rewards you with an obscene moan. Jinx holds your back tightly and claws at it every time you roll your hips into hers.

“Should I stop?” You realise she hasn't said anything ever since you pounced on her like a feral cat. And even though this was supposed to be strictly physical, you couldn't help but check-in on her.

She frantically shakes her head no, desperation crossing her face. “Please don't.” She down right begs and cradles your face, beckoning you towards her lips. You chuckle but kiss her lewdly anyway.

You rest your weight on an elbow and maneuver your free hand to skillfully unclasp the buckle of her tiny shorts, snaking your hand inside to find no other barriers to her saturated heat. You both moan at the sensation of your lithe digits caressing her folds. She was so wet and soft under your touch but you wasted no time on this heavenly feeling before teasing her swollen bud and sinking a finger inside of her. She cries out with a hiss so you freeze your movements studying her face for any signs of pain. This confuses you a bit, since you assumed she was quite experienced at this. But she is so tight, which doesn't add up.

“Does it hurt?” You ask quietly. Her eyes are clasped shut and there's a frown between her eyebrows. Her mouth agape panting slightly. She lays a hand on your wrist and guides you to start moving again.

“S-slow…” She manages to say between whimpers. You acquiesce and start rubbing her engorged clit with your thumb as you slowly start pumping inside of her.

“You feel so fucking good, Jinx.” You whisper against her cheek, peppering kisses all over her face, before reaching her lips, kissing her sweetly.

You can feel her relax a bit, the distraction seemingly working to ease her into pleasure. You start moving a little faster, burying your finger deeper and try to find the spot that will make her eyes roll. She cradles the nape of your neck, and scratches her nails there making you shiver. You try to maneuver your fingers inside her shorts to add another one but the piece of cloth made it hard to pull that off. You ask her to hold on before giving her a quick peck on the lips, then you carefully pull your hand from inside her. She whines and pouts but you reassure her you'll be quick.

You sit on your knees to the side of her and start pulling off her shorts down her legs so she lifts up her hips to help you get rid of it. You also take off her boots in the process leaving her only in her thigh high socks. A breeze swifts by making her shiver, or was it the weight of your gaze admiring her comely body? You graze your fingers reverently through the cloud tattoo adorning her waist before laying down next to her and pulling her close towards you. One arm snaking around her shoulders and the other lifting her leg to rest over your hip.

Jinx cradles your face with her hands again, ghosting her lips on yours before kissing you softly. You caress her thigh before sneaking your hand up to grab her ass, making her gasp into your mouth. You finally move your hand to her throbbing core, massaging her salient clit, which you noticed was a lot larger than the average you have seen in your lifetime. The way it responds to your ministrations, like it has a mind of its own, pulls wetness from your own body. You feel her bury her face on the crook of her neck trying desperately to muffle her loud moans.

“Don't try to hold back, I wanna hear you princess.” You whisper in her ear, the pet name escaping you before you could stop yourself. She lifts up her head and looks at you through half lidded eyes, hazy with pleasure.

You’re cradling her on one arm when you tease two fingers on her entrance, giving her the time to stop you if she wants to. But she just grinds on your fingers making them slip in a bit, her legs already starting to tremble. You carefully push your lithe digits inside of her again, waiting for a brief moment so she can adjust to the stretch before picking up the pace. The combination of your fingers inside of her and the palm of your hand brushing her clit is enough to make her reach her climax, dripping fluid all over your hand. You slow down your movements, helping her ride her high until she gently pushes your hand away.

You wipe it off on your own clothes before you embrace her, making soft patterns on her bare back. She takes a moment to steady her breathing then pulls you in for a sloppy kiss. You smile at her eagerness but her hands start to roam your body so you have to stop her. This has gone far enough and you don't want anyone touching you like this, especially because of what happened 5 months ago with the rich Piltover dude. Even if the person who's touching you is Jinx, you can't do this, not right now. She looks at you with a confused frown on her face.

“But it's your turn toots.” She tries to explain but you're already untangling yourself from her.

“You should head back inside, Jinx. It's getting cold.” You say sitting up, not looking at her. You gather her clothes and hand it back to her. “Don't worry about me.” You say ending the conversation.

You're a coward, you don't dare to look at her because you know the look of hurt on her face will break you. Damn your self control, you don't know why you thought this was a good idea. You think you deserve to suffer for treating her like this. But this is what she wanted, right? Just a quick fuck to forget her problems. So you gave it to her, you tell yourself it doesn't have to be more than that even though your heart is beating so fast inside your rib cage it hurts. You hear her putting her clothes back on quickly as she sniffles, wiping away under her nose with her forearm. You just sit on the ground with your head low.

“Did I… do something wrong?” She asks with a shaky voice. You swallow hard.

“No, you were perfect.” You say honestly. And that was part of the problem wasn't it?

“Then why won't y-” She starts to protest but you cut her off.

“You got what you wanted didn't you? Now leave me alone.” The harshness of your words cut through the night like one of your sharp blades.

She just stands beside you, stunned probably or pissed off, you didn't dare to look her way to find out. You just wanted her gone or for her to force you to look at her and tell the truth, you didn't know which option was worse really. She finally turns away and storms off the roof but not before kicking an innocent piece of scrap metal that was on her way. You wince and bury your face in your hands, putting pressure on your eyes as if that could prevent the tears from coming. What a mess you’ve made, it's all your fault.

Dividers by @bernardsbendystraws and @cafekitsune.

[redtsundere-writes]

Jinx | Sukuna Ryomen

mma fighter!sukuna ryomen x femalecoach!reader

Part 8. Fight For Me.

Beginning. ← Previous | Next →

Spynosis: Sukuna is a world champion with anger issues. It's believed by many that he is untrainable. Yeah, you can't train him, but you can dominate him. Contents: Fighting. Sukuna being Sukuna. Female reader being dom. Jinx AU (the BL, not the character from lol) Warnings: Cursed words. Unethical violence. Sexual harassment. I only read it once, lmao Word count: 2927 words. A/N: Another Saturday, another chapter. I picked up studying Japanese again, so far so good. Any advice is welcome :) Hope you guys like today's chapter. :) Btw I made a PLAYLIST

That was the most uncomfortable morning of my life. I can’t get the idea that I fell asleep in Sukuna's bed like it was nothing out of my head. All I could do was to get dressed quickly to get back to my house before the morning training started. Luckily, I didn't see Sukuna on my way out, maybe he slept in the guest room… or so I thought. His penthouse was huge, there must have been an extra room for sure. Upon arriving at the gym, Sukuna just scolded me for being late as if nothing happened last night, so I acted accordingly. 

Cheers and praises flooded the arena as soon as Sukuna's anthem began booming over the speakers. Even though it was the last fight of the night, this was just starting. The sound mitigated with every step we took upon the intimidating octagon where Naoya was waiting for us after making his grand entrance. I was so nervous I felt like I was going to throw up at any moment, but I had to stay strong. This was not the time to act like a coward. 

The referee checked Sukuna's gloves and body for sandbags or anything out of place. During the inspection, Sukuna gave me a serious glare. He looked so calm for someone who was about to be locked in a cage to fight another beast his size. I had interrupted Naoya's lucky ritual and helped him perform his luck ritual successfully. He was sure he was going to win, but he couldn't let his guard down. 

Sukuna stepped onto the big stage and jogged around the perimeter so that everyone could admire his greatness. Naoya instead of watching him to analyze his opponent, was focused on me. His eyes were looking at me through the black fence, conveying a message I did not want to decipher. Sukuna had to beat him if I didn't want him to escape from the cage and lock me in his clutches. I gulped hard as soon as the referee approached them to give them the basic rules. It was time. I closed my eyes to pray to all the deities of the constellations, crossed my fingers and prayed that Sukuna's sign was lucky today. 

The bell rang and the first round began. People shouted in anticipation as the lion engaged the cheetah in a dangerous dance for dominance. As we had planned, Sukuna was taking his time with him. He was waiting for our common enemy to feel comfortable enough to approach him. Naoya took the bait as he slammed in on him with a pair of jabs, he was going right at his jaw to end the fight. “He looks different,” I thought as I watched him attack Sukuna without hesitation. He was desperate to win as fast as possible, even if that meant throwing away all his energy in the first round. 

Everything was being decided by boxing in the first two rounds, so far, we were going according to plan. Sukuna was like a fish in water, dodging every punch he landed and landing a couple of jabs that connected perfectly with his body, while Naoya struggled to take him down. There was a minute left in the third round when Naoya knocked Sukuna down with a spinning kick. The cheetah turned into a dangerous boa that attached itself to his body mercilessly. Its legs wrapped around his waist to put him in a neck lock. Sukuna tried to pull away from the cheetah's grip with hopeless punches and kicks, but Naoya wasn't about to let it go so easily. 

“Hold on, Sukuna!” I yelled in desperation amidst the howls of the fans. 

I looked at the clock hoping that the seconds would pass quickly, but it felt like an eternity. Sukuna was pushing away with difficulty the arm that chained his neck to keep from fainting. My eyes were on the verge of tears, the champion could not lose, not today. 

The bell rang, and the fighters walked away. I sighed in relief and rushed up to the octagon with Gojo and Yuuji to assist him in the break. Gojo put ice on his shoulder and Yuuji gave him water. 

“Change of plans. We must go to the floor,” I said. 

“What?” Sukuna asked me, taking off his mouth guard. 

“Naoya is desperate. He wants to win at any cost, it seems that this time he doesn't want to leave it to the judges. This is your chance to use his attacks against him,” I explained, but Sukuna didn't seem to be convinced. 

“I agree. He is fighting differently from before. Use your legs, they are longer than his,” Gojo intervened. With that, Sukuna nodded before the next round was announced by a beautiful ring girl. 

Naoya's eyes were on me as he prepared for the next round. I returned her gaze in kind, I wasn't going to let him bully me just because. The bell announced the fourth round and my eyes returned to Sukuna. After a back and forth of punches and low kicks, Naoya went straight at him. Naoya knocked him down, pushing him by the shoulders. Sukuna fell backwards with a loud thud. This time, time wasn't going to stop him. I had seen this attack before. 

“Push him with your legs!” I yelled so he could hear me as I ran around the perimeter of the octagon to get a better angle on the attack. 

Sukuna understood what I meant. With the inertia of Naoya's attack, Sukuna pushed him by the abdomen. I thought he would push him away, instead, he grabbed him by the arms and lifted him up to have him at his mercy for a couple of seconds in the air. I could see Naoya's eyes as he realized he had screwed up. Sukuna threw him to turn him like a helicopter propeller to put his leg between his arms and whip him against the floor. He caged him between his legs and kept pulling him by his limb to keep Naoya in a headlock. 

“Sukuna…” I mumbled in shock. 

Naoya was hitting him by the legs while trying to free his trapped arm. The referee was asking Naoya to get out of it quickly, or he was going to call the fight over. Time paused again as the scene unfolded before me. A king demonstrating his power to a rebellious knight. I no longer heard the people, nor my team, nor my thoughts. It was just my eyes taking in the facts, tasting those uncertain moments. 

Naoya was completely trapped, so the referee announced the end of the fight. I caught my breath and came back to my senses at the decision. Sukuna broke away from Naoya and slowly stood up to regain his posture. He looked at me through the fence and gave me a slight smirk. “Mothafucker did it,” I thought before a tear of happiness slipped down my cheek. We had won, I was free and the champion proved himself the best once again. 

I met up with the team to go up to the octagon to celebrate the victory. I moved through the crowd to give him a sweaty bear hug. I wanted to congratulate him, and thank him for giving his best as always, but I was so happy the words wouldn't come out of my mouth. I could only cry of joy on his shoulder. 

“Stop crying like a bitch,” he whispered between chiding teeth as he wiped my face with the towel around his neck. 

“Can’t I be happy?!” I scolded him between sniffles. 

“You're humiliating me. I can't have a crybaby of a trainer,” he complained. 

“I'm not...!”

My eyes popped open as soon as Sukuna connected his lips with mine in a sweet kiss in front of everyone. My cheeks turned the color of his hair and my heart started beating like crazy from shock. It was not a passionate kiss as he usually kisses me in the secrecy of his ritual, it was a tender touch in the middle of an octagon full of fighters and cameras watching us. Our lips didn't last more than 5 seconds connected, but it felt like it lasted an eternity. 

The sharp sound of something metallic woke me up from the moment. Naoya had hit Sukuna in the head with his metal water bottle before anyone could stop him. The arena gasped in shock at the unsportsmanlike attitude. Team Zenin pulled him back before he could land another misplaced blow. Yuuji, Gojo and Nanami lashed out at him and his coach for not being able to control their athlete. 

“How dare you kiss what's mine?! Let’s get back together, y/n!” Naoya screamed in a tantrum as he tried to break free from the grip of his teammates. 

“Are you okay?” I asked Sukuna worriedly as I put some ice on his bump. 

“Yes, I feel better now,” he said with a proud smile as he watched Naoya in emotional agony. 

“Naoya Zenin will appear before the official UFC committee for lack of discipline and unsportsmanlike attitude tomorrow afternoon for his actions after tonight's fight, but there are already rumors that he will be suspended for more than 5 years from all events,” The commentator announced. 

Team Black howled with joy at the news. My heart had finally calmed down after drinking a nice beer and chatting for a while with Yuuji and Megumi at the same bar we came last time. My mind was finally resting at peace after Sukuna beat up Naoya and explained to Nanami that the kiss had only been to get Naoya off her nerves. “Relax, that kiss didn't mean anything, it was just part of the strategy,” I thought as I remembered how intense that unexpected contact felt. 

“Aren't you supposed to be with the Zenins? Aren't they family?” I asked Megumi curiously to distract my mind from the strong palpitations of my passionate heart. 

“More or less. My father was kicked out of the dojo as soon as he challenged my uncle Naobito and beat him. The family could not bear such a breach of family honor,” Megumi explained, not caring at all about the incident. “I never thought that Sukuna could lift Naoya with his body, it was really incredible. Did you teach him that move?” He asked me before taking a sip of her beer. 

I looked briefly at Sukuna who was chatting pleasantly with Nanami on the other side of the table. Quickly, he noticed that I was watching him. I turned around in time so that he wouldn't think I had been watching him for a long time and that we had only connected casual glances. “Why am I thinking like a lovesick teenager?”, I scolded myself.

“I didn't know he could do that either,” I agreed, to which Megumi looked at me strangely.

After a stressful day and a couple of drinks to counteract the body ailment. I said goodbye to everyone and set out to head home under the midnight stars. I smiled to myself as I replayed in my mind how Sukuna had cornered Naoya against the canvas. The sound of his bare back impacting hard played in my mind on loop. It had been a lousy day, but an incredible night I would never forget. 

“Where are you going?” someone asked behind me. I could recognize Sukuna's voice anywhere in the world. 

“Home, to rest,” I answered as I faced him fully. Why had he followed me? Whatever the reason, we were alone on the sidewalk, it was the right time to tell him how I felt. “You did amazing tonight, thank you very much.” 

“I just did my job, I didn't do it for you,” he said with that serious tone I knew so well by now, he purposely made it sound like he was annoyed. 

“I know you didn't do it for me, but I still want you to know that I owe you one,” I joked.

He didn't hesitate to approach me, I thought he would give me a hug or another kiss, so I just froze in place. Instead, he just handed me a silver key with a Team Black keychain on it. I inspected it carefully as I twirled it between my fingers. 

“You are going to live with me, starting tonight,” he announced as if it was nothing. 

“What?! Why?!” I was really confused.

“Naoya will probably be suspended from the UFC tomorrow and have to pay a stupidly expensive fine. Guess who he's going to blame for that,” I explained. 

“You?” I really didn't want to blame myself right now. 

“Do you really think he'd try to come near me after I beat him up on the ring? And I was fighting under the rules,” Sukuna smiled proud of himself for his performance in the fight. 

“Naoya promised me that...". 

“Naoya promised you that he would love you forever and not hurt you and look where you are. Just because you're innocent doesn't mean you're stupid,” Sukuna interrupted me and then turned his back to me. “You better be home by the time I get back,” he demanded before going back to the bar.

“Hey! Sukuna! What about my stuff?!” I shouted for him to stop, but he ignored me and walked into the bar without saying anything else. 

I stood still on the sidewalk while my fingers caressed the keychain. How could someone be so nice and scary at the same time? It was obvious that Sukuna wanted me to be safe, but the way he did it felt like he was doing me a favor instead of actually wanting to help me. “He wants to protect me,” I thought as I realized what he was doing. My heart skipped a beat even though he was no longer in my presence and my cheeks dyed pink just thinking about him. 

“Sukuna sure is a strange man…” I thought out loud as I went on my way to the penthouse. 

Even though I had entered his home before, I couldn't help but be surprised as I walked down the huge carpeted hallway. I arrived in the immense living room that shared the professional kitchen, the 12-person wooden dining room and the contemporary living room surrounded by huge windows that allowed me to see the entire city glowing in the dark night. What it's like to have all the money in the world. 

“I think I'll sleep in the guest room,” I said aloud to test the echo of my new home. “First I must find the guest room,” I planned as I looked at the maze I would be living in.

I avoided the entrance doors because I knew that one of them was Sukuna's room, so I had to go up to the second floor. When I got to the top, I could see through the large windows the indoor pool on the first floor, the bar with karaoke and the small zen garden that divided the rooms. “What songs will he like to sing,” I wondered curiously as I continued my search for my room. A little smile escaped my lips as I imagined Sukuna singing Single Ladies by Beyoncé.

I had finally found the guest room. It had a king-size bed with beige sheets, a small couch to watch TV, its own bathroom and a large empty closet. I dropped my backpack on the small white couch and headed for bed. Before I could throw myself out of exhaustion, I noticed a Victoria's Secret bag at the foot of the bed. My eyes widened as I realized the real reason Sukuna wanted me to come to his house. 

“That fucker is planning to fuck me tonight!” I exclaimed, offended. 

I couldn't believe it, I was really stupid for thinking that Sukuna wanted to protect me. I had escaped from the Zenin just to face a Ryomen. I am so naive for thinking he was different, but he was just another disgusting man who can't see women as equals. I really wanted him to be different. He only fucked me twice, and he already assumes he can do it whenever he wants. I wasn't going to let him. 

I took the things out of the bag to throw it in the trash, but stopped when I saw that it wasn't lingerie, it was a full set of satin pajamas. White pajamas with pink stripes in my size. I covered my face with it from embarrassment. I had misjudged Sukuna, he sure bought me pajamas after I fell asleep naked in his bed the night before. I took off my clothes to put on the soft and comfortable pajamas, they fit me like a glove. I smiled like a fool when I saw myself in the mirror. 

“How cute…" I thought out loud before throwing myself on the bed comfortably. 

Oh.

Quickly, I realized what I had said and stood still, staring at the white glitter ceiling. Did I just say Sukuna was cute? No, he couldn't be. He is a rude, selfish, impatient, serious, self-confident, independent, disciplined, strong, handsome, rich man... I couldn't fall in love with him. I was his trainer, his co-worker. I couldn't like him because he has an amazing body, takes care of me even if he doesn't want to admit it, and kisses me like no one else ever has, right? Right?! 

Oh.

I was in trouble.

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[hungryistrying]

something here (i'm biding time 'til it disappears)

summary:

What is Jinx scared of, you might ask? The chewed holes which are obvious signs of a rat infestation? The warnings from their new landlord that they should keep the toilet lid shut in case of cockroaches? Or maybe the array of loud and extremely suspicious sounds at night? Nope. Not even close. Jinx was born and raised in Zaun, then spent the last four years of her life in a college dormitory the size of a peanut. She could deal with a shabby, cheap first apartment. Especially when she’s still trying to find a job that she actually studied for. But moving in with Ekko fucking terrifies her.

In which Jinx and Ekko move in together and she feels very calm and normal about the ordeal.

rating: teen

word count: 9706

status: completed

crossposted to ao3

“Do you wanna move in together?” 

That was the fateful question that might potentially ruin Jinx’s life.

Because when Ekko casually asked her that very question– after lamenting that his lease was ending and his roommate planned to move away– Jinx just as casually agreed, too preoccupied to properly consider what living with Ekko could mean for their relationship.

In her defense, they were in the middle of binging the latest telenovela she picked up, so her priorities had lied elsewhere at that moment… Specifically with whether or not Bianca's evil mother-in-law would successfully ruin her marriage (well, that's probably what she was trying to do).

That aside, her graduation was right around the corner, she'd already cleared out her dorm room, and her only plan was to move in with Vi to leech off her and her wife until she could afford her own place (it's a younger sibling privilege, alright).

However, given that Jinx honestly couldn't stand her sister-in-law– despite Vi's impassioned attempts to remedy that fact– moving in with her boyfriend seemed way more appealing than essentially becoming Vi and Caitlyn's permanent third wheel. 

Especially when he beamed at her when she said yes, showing her that smile that spread so wide it made his dimples show. Jinx would've joked that she needed a pair of sunglasses because of him, had her stomach not been preoccupied with doing backflips at the sight.

That, combined with his excitement as he showed her different apartment listings they could apply for, made it hard for her to consider how this could be a bad idea. Now that they’re actually here, however, Jinx's mind is racing, her heart is pounding, and she comes to a singular, damning realization. 

She's scared.

The feeling hits her belatedly. Akin to the sensation of getting stabbed and the pain only hitting hours later when the rush of adrenaline has worn off (...which is totally not something that actually happened to her). It only occurs to her when she and Ekko are already in their new apartment, moving in dozens of boxes with their belongings.

And what is she scared of, you might ask? The chewed holes which are obvious signs of a rat infestation? The warnings from their new landlord that they should keep the toilet lid shut in case of cockroaches? Or maybe the array of loud and extremely suspicious sounds at night?

Nope. Not even close. Jinx was born and raised in Zaun, then spent the last four years of her life in a college dormitory the size of a peanut. She could deal with a shabby, cheap first apartment. Especially when she’s still trying to find a job that she actually studied for.

But moving in with Ekko fucking terrifies her.

“Fuck, I'm tired,” Ekko groans, setting down the last box of their haul. They've had to move everything by themselves since none of their friends had time to help them– the downside of moving on a Tuesday afternoon.

Jinx doesn’t spare him a glance while putting down a box herself, reaching for a pair of scissors on the kitchen counter so she can cut it open. Her body moves on autopilot, mind still racing with concerns.

Why the fuck is moving in with Ekko so nerve-wracking all of a sudden? Jinx didn't feel a sliver of doubt before. Not while they were apartment hunting; Nor when they had to collect a headache-inducing amount of documents to apply for this place; Not even when they were actually signing the lease. But now she's standing in their new apartment and can only think of all the ways this could go wrong.

“...inx? Jinx!” She startles at the sound of her name, a resounding clatter echoing across the still-bare apartment as the scissors fall out of her hand and onto the tiled floor.

Cursing under her breath, she bends down to pick them up, her hand brushing against Ekko's – since when was he standing beside her? – who bent down to do the same.

“Careful.” His tone is gentle, but it only sets her nerves further alight. “Are you alright?”

She looks up to find his gaze already trained on her, a furrow forming between his brow at her lack of response. Fucking fantastic, they just moved in and she's already stressing him out.

Jinx snorts as nonchalantly as she can. “What? You think a pair of kitchen scissors is gonna take me out?”

Ekko gives her his signature unimpressed look, the one he only gives her when they're bantering, and Jinx feels something in her chest ease at the potential landmine she just averted. But then, because he's Ekko and can never let things go without looking for a problem to solve, he continues, “You know that's not what I meant.”

“Of course I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?” Jinx lies because she's a fucking liar, even adding an exaggerated eye roll to sell the bit. Honestly, she should get an Oscar.

Ekko doesn't look convinced, however, so maybe she should kiss that make-believe Oscar goodbye. Before he can open his mouth and keep pushing, Jinx says, “What did you call me for anyway?”

At her not-so-subtle diversion, he gives her That Look. The one that, over the last two years, Jinx has learned to read as “We're not done talking about this.” And that's perfectly fine with her, because unbeknownst to Ekko, they are done talking about it. In fact, there's nothing to talk about. It's just her having first apartment jitters. Or something. 

After all, Jinx has never lived by herself, and that in and of itself is already nerve-wracking. She's fresh out of college, still job hunting, and her cooking expertise is limited to grilled cheese sandwiches and instant ramen. So surely it's perfectly normal to feel this way. She'll get over it and they'll go back to the way they were.

Jinx innocently looks at him as if there's nothing wrong (because there isn't!). Eventually, Ekko just sighs and answers, “I asked you what we should get for dinner. Ionian? Pizza?”

“What? You're not cooking a three-star Michelin meal for our first day together?” she jokes.

Leveling her with an unimpressed stare, Ekko walks further into their desolate kitchen, still looking at her over his shoulder. “Right, how could I forget?” He blindly reaches forward, grabbing at air. “Let me just grab some ingredients from the– Oh.” His head swivels to look at the space in front of him, before he turns back to her with feigned surprise, and says, “Oh, that's right. We don't have a fridge!”

She snorts at his dramatics before she frowns and thinks. “Didn't you already have a fridge, though?”

“I did.” He walks back to her, leaning back against one of the counters. “I let Scar take most our furniture. He has a baby on the way, so he's losing enough money as it is.”

Jinx blinks, surprised at the revelation. She's not sure why. Of course Ekko of all people would do something so stupidly selfless. 

Despite the warm flutter in her chest, she groans and says, “You know you're disgustingly nice, right?” He rolls his eyes, but doesn't deny it, so she pulls herself up to sit on the counter beside him and asks, “So now what? We go fridge-shopping tomorrow?”

“We could.” Ekko shrugs. “Or we borrow my dad's minivan and drive to the dump to see if some sucker from Piltover threw out a perfectly good fridge.”

“Now there's a good idea!”

“Know what else is a good idea?” He moves to stand in front of her, resting his hands on her knees and gently pushing them apart so he can stand between them. Without thinking about it, Jinx rests her arms on his shoulders as she inquisitively hums so he'll continue. 

“Dinner,” he concludes. “Now tell me what you want so I can pick something up.”

With a sigh, she looks up at the ceiling while considering his question. It’s covered in yellow stains. Gross. They should repaint the walls. Maybe she could even add some fun designs…She’s pretty sure Vi has spare paint cans lying around somewhere.

The hands on her thighs briefly tighten, drawing her attention back to him. Still undecided, she shrugs. “Just get whatever, it’s fine.”

Ekko stares at her entirely unconvinced, but doesn't say anything. Eventually, she cracks and asks, “What?”

“So you'll eat whatever I get for dinner. Am I hearing that right?”

“Yes! It’s fine, I'm not that picky.”

“I swear,” he sighs, “if I come back with takeout and you say you don't feel like eating it again–”

“What?!” Jinx interrupts, indignation flaring. “I never do that!”

“You do this every single time!” Ekko argues, pulling away from her. Jinx reluctantly lets him, despite the coldness seeping into the growing space between their bodies. “I’m not buying shit until you pick something.”

Jinx groans, but knows better than to doubt Ekko's stubbornness at this point, so she concedes, “Okay, fine! Get the fish stew from Jericho then.” 

Ekko's already reaching for his jacket by the entryway when Jinx yells “Wait!” and jumps off the counter, running to him. Grabbing both his cheeks, she squishes their mouths together in a chaste kiss before pulling back and adding, “And get your own fries this time, you glutton.”

“Man, whatever,” he grumbles, shrugging on his jacket while Jinx just laughs. “I'm leaving, be back soon, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Jinx shoos him away. “Go get dinner already! I'll start on the bed so we can sleep tonight.”

The door closes with a thud that feels much louder than she realistically knows it is. She turns back to look at the apartment. Their apartment. Despite its modest size, without Ekko here, it feels much too large for her liking.

With a sigh, she tries to exhale the last of her doubts, reaching for the abandoned kitchen scissors so she can cut the bubble wrap off their disassembled bed.

She can shake these feelings off. They're just first apartment jitters, right?

-

Sadly – by the time they managed to procure a fridge from the city dump, haul it up the stairs and into their apartment – the nerves have not faded. The aggravating argument they had in the downstairs hallway did not help matters: Ekko bemoaning they should've gotten a trolley while she insisted the two of them would be able to drag it up the stairs just fine without one. 

Luckily, their landlady overheard them and did in fact have a trolley, sparing them the trouble of finding out (but Jinx knows for a fact they could've made it work anyway). She would've argued as much, but one look at Ekko's face had her swallowing any more arguments, along with the bile suddenly rising in her throat. Because Ekko looked annoyed with her. And sure, that wasn't an uncommon occurrence, but it felt different now that they were living together. 

What if he regrets it now? Regrets her. They've barely started living together, but what if he's already tired of her being in his space all the time? Of her always messing things up; of her chaos; of her stubbornness; of her impulsiveness; of her always ruining things– What if it’s too much now that he has to be around her constantly?

Jinx glances at Ekko and considers asking. Maybe it’ll be better just to rip off the bandage. 

“Let’s never do that shit again,” he says, standing up from where he sat slumped against the wall after they nearly got taken out carrying a fridge up two flights of stairs. He catches her eye before she can look away and raises a curious eyebrow. “What’s up?”

Do you hate me now? Am I annoying? Do you want to break up? The questions try to rise to the tip of her tongue but get stuck in her throat, suffocating her.

“Nothing,” she ends up saying. Because what if she rips off the bandage and finds a gunshot wound? Or what if her brain is just setting her up for failure again and she creates a problem where there never was one?

Ekko nods as if there’s nothing wrong; As if he didn’t just look at her like he hates her and regrets this– 

Alright, she might be spiraling and has to calm down. 

“I’m gonna return my dad's van and give this to Babette while I'm at it. Be right back, alright?” He grabs Babette's trolley and heads out before she can respond. 

Jinx does not flinch at the resounding thud after he closes the door.

She’s not spiraling. Definitely not spiraling. He said he’ll be back and she believes him and everything will be okay.

Sitting here trapped with only her thoughts, which predictably, fucking suck, is making her jittery. She has to do something to turn off her brain and redirect her focus. Something useful so Ekko won’t hate her.

She looks at their newly acquired fridge and feels a light bulb turn on over her head, nearly tripping over her own feet in her excitement to race to the fridge.

Before he headed out, the two of them had managed to put it in the right spot and plug the power cord in. By now it should've been running for long enough that Jinx can start figuring out what's wrong with the damn thing.

Opening the fridge (and nearly gagging at the smell), she looks around and tries to figure out what’s wrong with it. She’ll fix the fridge and they’ll have one less thing to worry about.

-

By the time the front door opens, Jinx has four boxes hauled into the kitchen, electronics and mechanical parts spilling out (because she's a hoarder and keeps everything just in case it's useful one day), her phone blasting Pentakill on the counter, and is sitting hunched inside of the fridge.

At the creak of the door, she peaks her head out of the fridge and grins at the sight of Ekko…Well, as close as she can get to a grin with four nails precariously trapped between her teeth.

“Hey.” He closes the door with one hand, balancing a tub of tupperware in the other. “You been busy?”

Jinx spits out the nails so she can respond, “Yup! Fridge is almost done. I fixed up the compressor, the seals, replaced the vents, and now I’m just changing some broken lights.” 

She carefully places the nails down on the counter, right next to the tupperware Ekko had just set down, prompting her to ask, “What about you, huh? Whatcha got there?”

Before he can even answer, Jinx is already ripping off the lid, revealing pasta covered in chicken and a creamy sauce, steam still wafting off the food. A satisfied hum escapes her mouth at the fragrant smell.

Ekko laughs at her palpable excitement. “My mom made us pasta. I'll let her know it was a hit.”

“Absolutely. Her cooking is the best part about dating you.” Jinx grins, popping the lid back on.

He scoffs, mock-offended. “That’s the best part? Not the fact that I'm smart, super funny, handsome, and always buy you those disgusting drinks?”

Jinx scrunches her nose as she pretends to consider his question for a moment, before she concludes, "Nope. Definitely none of those things."

“I see how it is…” Ekko clicks his tongue. “Know what? Let me just take this and go.” He moves to pick up the pasta, but Jinx practically launches herself at the container before he can get very far.

“Wait, wait, wait! I take it back. I'll even tolerate your Mountain Dew hatred.” Seeing his unimpressed look and steadfast grip on the tupperware, Jinx grumbles and adds, “And the best part of dating you is that you're smart and funny and hot and a great kisser– Now stop making me say embarrassing shit!”

Ekko hums in consideration, before nodding and finally releasing the pasta from his clutches. “Alright, the delivery wasn't that great but you get bonus points for the great kisser thing.”

Jinx scoffs, grabbing the forgotten screws off the counter. “You suck.”

“Thanks, love you too,” he answers with a saccharine smile. 

In a tragic turn of events, her heart flutters at his words, despite their obvious sarcasm. But she refuses to give him any more leverage over her, so just grumbles, “Whatever, I’m gonna finish up these lights so we can eat.”

“Alright, I’ll go ahead and plate this up then,” he answers, rummaging through their several unpacked bags, presumably in search of plates and cutlery.

For a moment, quiet settles over them as they get to work on their respective tasks. The apartment is filled with sounds of rustling bags and metal touching as Jinx drives the screws back in, carefully maneuvering her head so her shadow doesn’t block the dying light of the sun spilling through the windows. 

She hears Ekko begin humming to the next song on her playlist– the music scarcely loud enough to block out the rush of traffic and passing trains just outside their apartment– and her heart swells at the sound. Or maybe it’s from the realization of how…normal this is. 

Because Jinx has never really had anything normal or stable in her life. She fucks things up and people leave her and end up hating her. But maybe, just maybe, if it’s with Ekko, she doesn’t have to feel that way.

Of course, just as she has this epiphany, Ekko innocently asks, “Why’d you get started on the fridge anyway? I figured we’d do it together some other time,” and the feeling crumbles and disperses with the wind, like it was never there in the first place. 

Dread fills its place instead, and Jinx has to force herself to swallow it down before she responds, her voice carefully neutral, “Oh, you know, I just figured it’d be better to get the damn thing over with.” 

She can’t glean much from his responding hum, the sound too dispassionate for her to analyze how he feels. And how she should respond in turn. So, cautiously, she asks, “Why? Are you mad I did it without you?”

“No?” The genuine confusion in his voice fills Jinx with a contradictory sense of relief and shame. “I just thought it would be easier if we did it together, but if you already got it that's great.”

So it's nothing. Great. He's not mad at her. See? Everything's fine and she did a super helpful thing and he's taking it well and so is she and–

“Fuck,” Ekko curses, breaking her train of thought.

…Shit, maybe he is lying.

“Jinx.” This is it, she thinks, holding her breath as she waits for the other shoe to drop. “I…may have forgotten to bring any plates.”

…

Well.

That was anticlimactic.

Jinx blinks and turns to look at him across the room, a sheepish smile on his face, as he sits on the floor surrounded by a dozen ravished bags and unpacked boxes. A beat of silence. Jinx blankly stares at him. Then laughter spills from her, bursting uncontrollably from her under all the pressure.

Ekko looks at her nonplussed. “Jinx?” 

“No, no,” she wipes a stray tear from her eye, “it’s nothing.” 

Jinx just shakes her head, her brain doing its best not to lag behind this ridiculous turn of events. She begins setting her tools aside and shutting the fridge. It’s as good as done anyway, might as well take a rain check on that and leave cleaning it for tomorrow.

"Well, do we have forks?" she asks, pausing the music before walking over to Ekko. He remains seated on the floor, his back turned to her as he stubbornly continues to check all the bags despite what he just told her.

“Uh, yeah,” he raises a hand to vaguely gesture in the direction of three other bags, while the bag in front of him has his undivided attention, “somewhere in there, I think. I just can’t believe I forgot to get plates of all things.”

“Well, no point crying over spilled milk, right?” Jinx shrugs, leaning forward and resting her hands on his shoulders. He looks up at her with a frown; his face looks funny upside down like this. “How about you grab your laptop, I get those forks, and we can watch a show while we eat?”

He sighs and gently removes her hands so he can stand up, giving her a knowing look as he asks, “You mean that telenovela we should just find subtitles for?”

“It’s more fun when you don’t know what’s going on!” Jinx argues, shoving him in the direction of their bedroom. “Now get your laptop already so we can enjoy our three-star Michelin meal.”

He ends up laughing at her words, the sound breaking his facade of exasperation. Jinx just rolls her eyes as she turns to rummage through the other bags until she finally manages to spot the forks. 

With a hum, she washes the forks clean before popping the lid off the tupperware and artfully sticking the now-clean forks in. Jinx steps into their living room – if it can even be called that in its sorry state – with the tupperware in one hand, briefly bending down so she can pick up a leftover six-pack of cola with the other.

She takes a look around the bare room, trepidation filling her at how empty it is. Will this last long enough for her to see it filled with their belongings? Or will this relationship reach its inevitable end before they've even painted the walls and hung the curtains?

Two years. That’s how long she’s been dating Ekko now. Ekko, who has been in her life since that one fateful summer when she was eleven. Back when she was still filled with childish naivety and had hopes that one day somebody would love her just as she is. 

Of course, then life happened and she got a rude reality check. 

Because Jinx didn't have healthy and committed relationships; Jinx texted hot guys on Tinder and flirted with pretty girls on campus she didn’t give a shit about; Jinx had toxic situationships that were bound to crash and burn, to remind her that no one could ever really love her.

How Ekko's managed to put up with her for so long – enough so that he'd ask her to live with him – she has no idea. But she's never done this before with anyone, never been in a relationship with anyone as long as she has been with Ekko. And a treacherous part of her mind always insists that this can’t last. 

Yet Jinx can’t bring herself to leave before she gets burned either. So she lives in dread, awaiting the day he finally realizes what he's gotten himself into. She's always waiting for the other shoe to drop, for him to decide he's tired of her.

“Alright, ready?” Ekko’s voice startles her out of her thoughts. She whips her head in his direction, his smile shining through the clouded parts of her mind like a ray of sunlight.

“Yeah.” She nods, plopping down on her bean bag and taking a deep, calming breath through her nose. “So, uh, what episode were we on?”

Ekko sets the laptop on the floor between them, frowning at her while Jinx innocently plays with one of her braids and pretends she doesn’t notice.

Unfortunately, she must not be very successful, since he insistently meets her eyes anyway and asks, “What's up with you?”

“Hm?” She raises a curious eyebrow, feigning ignorance. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know.” He sighs. “You’ve just been acting weird these last couple of days. Are you–

“No.” She doesn’t know what he was trying to ask her, but she has a feeling she doesn’t want to know either. 

Ekko looks unconvinced. In fact, he looks like he wants to argue more; like he wants to fix whatever’s wrong. Typical Ekko, always ready to solve everyone else’s problems even when he already has too much on his plate. And he really has his work cut out for him when it comes to her.

With a sigh, she stands in front of him and rests her hands on his shoulders, using the leverage to guide him to sit on the other bean bag. “Look, I’m fine, okay? Just a little tired after today. Can we relax and worry about the rest tomorrow, please?”

For a moment he simply frowns at her, then his expression softens. He raises her hand off his shoulder, drawing circles on her inner wrist with his thumb, before he raises it to his mouth and places a gentle kiss there. Jinx feels her stomach flip at the soft press of his lips on her skin.

“Alright.” He nods at her abandoned bean bag beside him. “Now sit down, I'm starving.”

Any witty quip she might've come up with dies at the tip of her tongue as she's filled with warmth all over, mutely nodding as she sits back down beside him.

“Hold on,” Ekko says, scrolling down his phone, “I gotta turn on my hotspot. I called the internet provider but they can't hook us up ‘til next week.”

Jinx hums in response, popping open a can of cola for herself and setting another one aside for Ekko. Something nudges at the back of her mind at his words, but she can't quite put her finger on it.

“Okay, got it.” Ekko presses play on the telenovela, the opening song playing while he grabs one of the forks to scarf down a generous bite of the pasta.

Jinx snorts. “Sheesh, didn't know you were starving.” Suddenly a light bulb turns on over her head. “Oh, we should do groceries tomorrow! You know, now that we actually have a fridge.” She makes a face. “After we clean the damn thing, that is.”

Ekko swallows down his food, before responding, “Didn't you say you wanted to relax and forget about all this?”

“Ugh, whatever.” Jinx weakly smacks his arm. “I'm just thinking ahead and all that. Really, you should be proud of me.”

“Oh, definitely.” Ekko sagely nods, before reaching out to flick her nose, eliciting an indignant yelp from Jinx. “Now if you really wanna make me proud, eat some dinner already. I know for a fact you only ate a pop-tart today.”

She scoffs. “Like you’re one to talk, spaceboy. You ate froot loops straight out of the box this morning and you’re gonna school me on healthy eating?”

“...Let’s just watch the damn show and eat.”

It takes Jinx two whole minutes to stop laughing so hard that she can in fact watch the damn show and eat.

-

They’ve been standing in front of the herbs and spices aisle for ten minutes now.

“Your mom text back yet?” Jinx asks, turning to Ekko.

He puts his phone away with a sigh. “Nope.”

“I don’t get it. I thought you knew how to cook.”

“I do!” he insists. “But Scar usually did the groceries so I didn’t have to think about what I should buy. I just grabbed what I needed from the cupboards.”

“Hm.” Jinx squints at him. “So you’re a conman.” 

He rolls his eyes. “I don’t wanna hear that from you, you can’t even cook.”

“But I can bake!”

“Doesn’t count, baking is just chemistry.”

Jinx glares at him for a moment, before giving up and redirecting her attention back to the spice aisle. “Whatever! Let’s just grab some shit and go. We can just come back if we need more spices.” She grabs for salt, pepper, cinnamon, cajun, smoked paprika, garlic powder– whatever she can get her hands on– carelessly tossing a myriad of spice jars into their shopping cart.

“Assuming we can come back,” Ekko says, holding the cart steady so Jinx can climb back inside.

“Oh, not this again.” Jinx groans, rearranging the groceries so she can comfortably sit around them. “You get banned from a grocery store one time–

“Most people don’t get banned from grocery stores at all,” he interrupts, rolling the cart towards the checkout queue.

“Okay, but it was a Piltie store, so that doesn't even count.”

“True,” Ekko concedes, “but I got banned too even though I didn't do shit! I was just collateral damage.”

“That's cause you're my baby,” Jinx sing-songs in the most annoying voice she can muster, leaning forward to grab Ekko's face and planting a wet kiss on his cheek. The motion nearly causes him to steer them into a wall. “If I can't go, you can't either. Ride or die, right?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ekko grumbles, rolling his eyes, but Jinx can see the way he presses his lips together, suppressing a smile.

They join the check-in queue, Jinx remaining seated in the shopping cart as she and Ekko work in tandem to place all their groceries on the rolling band. A lady in front of them sneaks curious glances at her. They come to an abrupt end when Jinx pointedly turns her head around to stare the woman down. 

Ekko doesn't comment on the exchange, but she can hear him laughing under his breath. In response, she sticks her tongue out at him, before continuing to place their groceries on the rolling band. 

By the time they finish, their things have taken up all the space on the band, and Jinx has a mini heart attack when she's in the middle of packing their fourth grocery bag and she sees the total come in over five hundred dollars. She eyes Ekko incredulously, who just shrugs and takes out his card to pay for their groceries.

“...I didn’t think it’d cost that much,” she mutters when they’re outside, raising her arms so Ekko will lift her out of the shopping cart.

“Well, inflation is a bitch,” he grunts as he picks her up, carefully setting her down on the ground, “and we had to buy pretty much everything under the sun since our place is empty.”

Jinx knows it's irrational, but she still can't help but worry that she's a burden. That this is yet another reason why he'll inevitably tire of her. Her arms remain wrapped around his neck and Jinx uses the physical contact to steady her nerves as she asserts, “I’ll pay next time, okay?”

She nervously bites the inside of her cheek as she waits for Ekko’s response, but he just stares at her nonplussed. Then he chuckles, squeezing her cheek between his fingers and pulling the flesh free from her teeth. The action startles an indignant whine from her.

“I'm your boyfriend, Jinx, I'll take care of you,” he assures. “Don't worry so much about shit like that, okay?”

Her heart feels so warm and full at his declaration that it threatens to burst out of her chest. So Jinx channels the feeling by grabbing his face and peppering it with kisses. When she finally reaches his mouth, she lingers and feels him smiling against her lips in response.

She breaks the kiss, stepping out of his space and assenting, “Okay.”

“Good.” He smiles and ruffles her hair. “Now let’s go,” he says, grabbing half of their bags from the shopping cart, “next train leaves in fifteen.”

Jinx grabs the other two bags and falls into step beside him. Despite what she just said, she can’t help but still feel a deep-seated doubt that compels her to say, “...What if we return some of the spices? It should save us at least some cash.”

Ekko looks at her, affronted. “Hell no, we are not eating unseasoned food like Vi’s Piltie wife.”

The laugh that startles out of Jinx melts away the remainder of her nerves.

-

When they finally make it back to their apartment (which still feels weird but Jinx is warming up to the concept more and more) night has fallen. Neon lights from the street signs outside cast a faint glow over the otherwise dark room. Yeah, they should invest in some good curtains.

Jinx struggles to drag the bags into the kitchen, ungracefully dropping them on the floor. “Oh thank god,” she groans, rubbing at her sore arms. “I’m gonna go…” she trails off, shuffling her way into the living area and collapsing face-first onto one of the bean bags.

She hears Ekko laugh at her dramatics, turning on the lights and locking the door before making his way over to crash down beside her. 

“Hi,” he says.

She turns her head to look at him. He's smiling at her, compelling her to smile back. “Hi.” 

His hand inches towards her face and Jinx feels his thumb brush against her forehead, wiping a bead of sweat away. “You should take a shower.” 

“With you?” she jokes, with an exaggerated wiggle of her eyebrows.

“No, not with me.” He huffs an amused breath, leaning out of her space to get up. He rises with a tired groan, pressing a hand to the back of his neck to rub at the soreness, before giving her a reassuring smile. “I’m serious, go ahead. I’ll unpack the groceries in the meantime.” 

“Well, then I’m serious too,” Jinx decides, pushing herself up to stand beside him. “We’re gonna unpack this mess together, and then we’ll take a shower. Also together.” She shoots him a cheeky grin. “It’ll lower our water bill.”

“Oh, that's why?”  Ekko smirks, raising an eyebrow at her. “You don’t have some ulterior motive?”

“No!” Jinx insists, faux-offended. “Why? What were you thinking about, you pervert?”

“Whatever,” Ekko laughs, grabbing one of the bags and putting it atop the counter. “Come on then, let's get this over with so we can keep that water bill low.”

She happily joins him in the kitchen and they work in comfortable silence as they unpack everything, filling up the previously empty cabinets. Jinx allows hope to fill her heart along with them; allows herself to finally believe that this can last and their home will only become fuller and fuller with their shared memories. 

After all, they've already made it this far. Who's to say they can't do this for the rest of their lives?

“Hey, what if we pick up some paint tomorrow?” Jinx says, passing Ekko a bag of sugar so he can put it in the cupboard. “We could spruce up those boring walls a little.”

Ekko turns to look at her, taking the bag from her. “Oh, good thinking– 

Darkness falls over the room, putting an abrupt stop to Ekko’s words.

…She really can’t have shit, huh?

“What the hell?” she hears him say while her eyes struggle to adjust to the sudden darkness. Then a bright light shines in front of her. Ekko turned on his phone’s flashlight.

Jinx blinks nonplussed. “Did…Did our power just go out?”

“Looks like it.” Ekko turns to look out the window, where the neon lights still shine bright. “And it’s just us.”

“That can’t be right.” Jinx frowns, that sense of foreboding creeping up on her again. “I’m gonna go check our meters.”

Ekko nods in agreement, swiping down his phone. The bag of sugar lies forgotten next to him. “Okay, I’m calling the energy provider in the meantime.”

She tries to ignore the uneasy feeling that grows in her gut as she reaches for her phone, turning on the flashlight before making her way to their supply closet. Upon opening the door, a cloud of dust bursts out of the supply closet, nearly sending her into a coughing fit. Jinx ignores it, simply swiping away any cobwebs so she can step inside and look at their meters.

Shit. There are no digits on it. In a panic, Jinx flips various buttons up and down to see if anything will happen. However, the apartment remains dark and it steadily gets colder because their gas no longer works either.

Eventually– when she tires of attempting to magically turn their electricity back on while being held hostage by her own panic– Jinx gives up. She tries in vain to breathe out her nerves as she steps back into the living room. Ekko has wrapped up his call and is frowning at her.

“Jinx,” he starts, rubbing at his temples. She thinks she might throw up. “I thought you called the energy company last week?”

“I did!” she insists. Didn't she? Oh no. The thought that’d been locked into a corner of her mind rushes to the forefront, slamming into her like a train. She didn't. 

“If you did, I'm pretty sure we’d have electricity right now.” Ekko sighs, exasperated. “I just called them and they say you never called back when they left a message that they’d cut off our power.”

“I…” She fucked up. She always fucks up. 

“Did you really forget? Or…or is this why you’ve been acting weird? Do you actually not–

“I did forget!” she shrieks, her breath becoming shorter and shorter. “I always ruin things, so I messed up again. What else is new?” The cruel laugh that escapes her throat gets smothered by an ugly sob. “And– And I know you hate me. I know you’re tired of me. Just like everyone else. I…” she trails off, her throat closing up and preventing her from continuing. 

The beat of her heart drums so loudly in her ears that it drowns out everything else. She can’t even hear how Ekko must be berating her, now that he’s finally had enough of her. His voice is strangely far away. Like her head has been dunked underwater.

Tears and a lack of oxygen blur her vision. But Jinx stubbornly holds her breath anyway, tightly pressing her lips together so she doesn’t break down right here and now.

“Hey! Jinx! Look at me!” 

She flinches when she feels something touch her. Ekko. His hands on her arms. But his touch feels vice-like, suffocating her. She can’t do this right now. She pulls away from him as if burned, her stumbling steps turning into a full run. 

Jinx wants to crawl out of her skin. 

She has to get away from this. 

Away from another person who hates her guts. 

Another relationship she’s ruined.

She rushes into the bathroom, frantically slamming the door behind her and fumbling with the lock. Her breath comes out shallow and shaky, leaving her so light-headed that she ends up sliding down the floor. 

Her head is pounding. Or is it Ekko pounding on the door? She can’t tell the difference anymore. She covers her ears with her hands, nails digging into her scalp as she desperately tries to drown everything out. She's squeezing her eyes shut so hard it forces the tears to slide down her face.

It’s her fault. 

Always her fault. 

She’s just a jinx, after all. 

And now Ekko hates her, just like everyone else.

-

When she finally gathers the nerve to open her eyes everything is agonizingly quiet. She has no idea how much time has passed as she slowly picks herself up from the ground, her body sore and cold from how long she’s sat there.

Her reflection in the bathroom mirror is a mess, her eyes swollen, streaks of mascara running down her cheeks. She would’ve laughed at the fact that she resembles a raccoon if she didn’t still feel like crawling out of her skin.

With shaky hands she opens the medicine cabinet, unscrews the cap on her medication, and swallows the pill dry. The ensuing silence has her slamming the cabinet shut with more force than necessary. 

Ekko must be sleeping already, assuming he’s still there. She’s too afraid to find out; too afraid to leave this bathroom and face the inevitable end of their relationship. 

Instead, she kicks off her shoes and then strips off the rest of her clothes. They lie abandoned on the floor as Jinx steps into the bath and turns on the water.

The shower is frightfully cold, but Jinx is grateful for it. This is what she deserves, after all. She's shaking all over and her teeth are clattering, but at least her tears blend right in with the pour of water raining down on her skin.

Her fingers are pruning by the time she finally turns off the faucet. The iciness of the water no longer affects her, instead she just feels numb to the core. Water drips off her and onto the floor, as she steps out of the tub, leaving a wet trail in her wake when she finally gathers the courage to unlock the bathroom door and push it open.

In the dead of the night, its creaky hinges are like nails on a chalkboard. But the silence that follows is far more painful. He left. Of course he did. What did Jinx expect? She ruined this just like she ruined everything in her life. Why did he even ask her to move in with him? So he’d finally have a fucking excuse to leave her?

She makes her way to the bedroom and finds he’s not there either. One last bit of hope, that she didn’t realize she still possessed, shatters at the realization; at the confirmation that he really did leave her.

She doesn’t even have the energy to sob anymore. Her tears just quietly slide down her face as she shuffles into the room and scavenges through the dressing drawer containing Ekko’s clothes until she finds his favorite hoodie.

She’s tempted to set the thing on fire; to cut it into pieces and throw it into the trash. But honestly? She misses him. And it smells so much like him. So instead she just pulls it over her head and crawls into bed. 

Jinx firmly wraps the blanket around herself to fight off the chill, but it's little use. The duvet is a poor substitute for the warmth Ekko always radiates when he's wrapped up around her. The fact that she’s still wet from her shower isn’t helping matters either.

It takes her several hours to stop crying. Even her tear ducts end up getting exhausted. Though she inevitably passes out, it's a fitful sleep. Jinx can hardly remember the last time she slept alone, but she'll have to learn how to get used to it again.

-

To put it plainly: Jinx wakes up feeling like shit. Her head is killing her, her skin is dry, and her hair is a damp, tangled mess. 

And worst of all, Ekko isn’t lying beside her. 

She reaches for his pillow, squeezing it to her chest and breathing in his smell. Maybe if she keeps lying here, it’ll turn out that none of this is real. It was all just a nightmare and Ekko will be in the kitchen. He’ll be eating those stupid fucking froot loops as fast as he can before he has to run to catch his train to work. 

She spends several more minutes in bed, before deciding to get up and rip off the bandaid. He’s gone. Maybe instead of staying here and drowning in her misery, she’d be better off if she just left too. 

Even if the thought makes her want to cry all over again.

Her head is spinning when she gets out of bed, but she forces herself to shuffle to the dresser anyway and pulls out a pair of sweats and socks, quietly slipping them on before leaving the room. 

She stumbles into the living room. Her heart hurts being in here without Ekko. The unhung curtains, the TV still sealed in bubble wrap, the posters they securely tucked away– All of it for nothing. The home they were supposed to share would be emptied before they could even fill it.

She pauses when her foot bumps into something hard on the floor and looks down to see her phone. Jinx must’ve dropped it last night without noticing. With a frown, she picks it up, tapping the screen and cringing when she sees her battery at fourteen percent.

Then she sees her notifications: Seven missed calls, four voicemails, and six unread messages. All from Ekko. 

Jinx drops her phone as if burned. It clatters on the floor, but she can’t bring herself to pick it up when she feels panic overtaking her again. She doesn’t want to know what he has to say. But at the same time, she’s dying to find out. 

The dilemma has her pacing the room for ten minutes before she groans and snatches her stupid phone off the floor again. With her heart in her throat, Jinx opens the messages.

BEST BOY ❣️ Hey I get that you don't wanna talk to me rn so imma stay with my folks for now I'm really sorry abt what happened can we talk about it? Just tell me if you want me to come back or nah Please I love you

Jinx can only blink as she reads his messages. Then she makes herself stop so she doesn’t tear up again. She moves to sit back on the bean bag and opens the first voicemail.

“Hey.” Her heart squeezes at the sound of Ekko’s voice. It’s barely been half a day, yet somehow she feels like she hasn’t heard him talk to her in an eternity. 

“I’m, uh, really sorry for hurting you. Oh. And I emptied the fridge cause, you know, no power and all that…And I just-” He abruptly stops, and all Jinx hears is a loud sigh. “Man, I suck at doing these things over the phone. Could we talk about it? In person? I’ll, uh, give you some space, but please let me know if you’re okay, at least.”

The other voicemails echo similar sentiments. Jinx listens to them over and over again, despite the way her heart aches. 

He sounds so distraught. Stumbling over his words and his voice cracking in a way that’s so uncharacteristic of him. Just when she thought she had no tears left to cry, more fall from her eyes as she listens to Ekko speak. 

Jinx aggressively wipes her tears away with her sleeve and assesses their apartment again through a different lens. 

Maybe…maybe she can still try and fix things. She might not succeed but, fuck it, she has nothing left to lose at this point. At the very least– even if her relationship with Ekko is doomed, even if he’s already realized he’s better off without her– maybe she can try to make this less bad for him. Because he always made things better for her.

She picks up her phone, reopens the messages Ekko left her, and begins typing. And deleting her words. And typing again. And deleting her words again. The cycle only ends when her phone interrupts it by notifying her that her battery level is at ten percent.

…Alright, she should seriously wrap this up. She types out four simple words, then locks her phone and gets ready to go run some errands.

You come over at 6

-

A drop of paint falls to the newspaper on the floor when Jinx lifts the paint roller too quickly in her excitement to finish the job. The sun is already beginning to set, casting deep shadows and a warm orange glow over the room, but Jinx is so close to the finish line that she refuses to quit now.

She’s so caught up in the job, that the sound of a lock turning has her freezing on the spot and staring at the unmoving paint roller on the wall, before she forces herself to keep rolling, not looking in the direction of the front door.

Up and down. Up and down. She focuses on the motions of her paint roller; on the hyper-pop music blaring from her phone; on anything but the sound of Ekko's nearing footsteps.

“You started painting?” 

She still can't help but take a sharp breath when she realizes how close his voice sounds, looking over her shoulder to see him standing behind her.

He looks as groggy as she feels, with deep eyebags set under his eyes and frown lines marring his forehead as if they’re permanently etched on his face.

“You look like shit,” she blurts out.

He lets out an incredulous laugh. It gets rid of those frown lines on his forehead like a tidal wave washing away footsteps in the sand. “You always know just what to say.”

Jinx lets out a weak chuckle. It really does suck how even at a time like this, talking to Ekko is as easy as breathing.

“So,” he continues, while Jinx sets aside the paint roller and turns off the music playing from her phone, “black, huh?”

She looks back at the wall she just finished painting. “Yeah, I thought…” she nervously picks at her cuticles, “I just thought it'd be cool to spray paint art on it after.”

“Great minds, huh?” Ekko awkwardly chuckles.

Confused, she turns to see what he means and realizes he's holding a bag full of spray paint in one hand, and a bucket of white paint in the other.

“Oh.” Now it’s her turn to feel awkward. “Yeah, I guess they do.” 

She waits for him to respond, but Ekko looks as lost as she feels, his eyes nervously flickering between the candles decorating the apartment and her. 

Seeing him like that would normally make her feel more anxious, but at this point, Jinx has already made peace with the fact they won’t be able to salvage this. So fine, guess she’ll be the one who takes the plunge.

“I called the energy provider too.” She sighs, pacing around the room. “They can hook up the power again in two days. So I figured candles are better than nothing for now.”

She stops, closing her eyes to focus on forcing her next words from her mouth. “And I went over to Vi's place. She, uh,” she's still picking at her cuticles and it's starting to hurt, but the pain is the only thing grounding her, “she said I can stay at her place. I already packed my things, so you don't have to worry about me overstaying my welcome and stuff.”

“Wait. What?!”

Her eyes widen at the sudden outburst. She whips her head in Ekko's direction, nearly stumbling backward when she sees how close he got to her. 

But what really throws her off is the expression on his face. Ekko looks…devastated. But this is what he wanted, isn't it? And she was even gracious enough about the whole thing to give him an easy way out. 

He reaches out a hand as if to touch her, but suddenly falters mid-air.

“Why–” His voice cracks, forcing him to clear his throat. “I thought you asked me to come here so we could talk. You know, and figure this thing out.”

She grinds her jaw in frustration. Did she mess up again? She spent the whole day trying to make things right, to get out of his hair with as little mess as possible. But he still looks upset with her, she still fucked this up somehow.

“Jinx,” Ekko nervously looks down at the floor before he continues, “do you…Do you wanna break up with me?”

Wait.

What?

She gapes at him. Before she can ask how in the hell he reached that conclusion, he continues, the words spilling from his mouth, as if her suggestion broke some invisible dam.

“You've been acting off the whole week. And every time I tried to talk about it, you'd just shut me down. And I thought, I don't know, maybe I'm just overthinking. Maybe I should just let it go, but I couldn’t. ‘Cause the only other conclusion I could reach is that maybe you didn’t wanna live with me. That I’m moving too fast and let it ruin this thing we got going.”

Her entire world tilts off its axis at his confession. Flustered, Jinx can only say, “But aren’t you mad at me? You hate me.”

“What? No! Never.” He aggressively scratches the back of his head. “I did lose my cool. And I’m so fucking sorry about that…but, Jinx, me getting mad at you will never mean that I hate you. If anything, I was scared you hated me now.”

Oh. She’s so stupid. This entire time, she was so caught up in her head, so damn worried that Ekko’s behavior meant that he regretted this decision, that it never once occurred to her that he might feel that way too.

She quietly gasps when she feels his hand touch hers, his tentative hold on it preventing her from picking at her cuticles anymore. 

“Jinx…” he quietly starts again, “I think it’s kinda inevitable that we’re gonna get mad at each other sometimes. Normal, even. But that doesn’t mean I'll stop loving you. 

“We should have the comfort of knowing that despite pissing each other off sometimes, the love will stay. And if I do or say something that makes you feel like it won’t…then please just tell me.”

His words make her choke up, but she does her best to swallow it down as she finally gathers the nerve to ask the question that has been haunting her this entire time, “But aren't you tired of me?” 

Ekko opens his mouth to respond, but Jinx continues before he can get any rebuttal in.

“And do you still love me?” Her voice is so small, it makes the question even more embarrassing than it already is. 

Because she knows she’s being annoying and a burden, but she can’t stop the words from spilling out anymore, the dam breaking at the force of her insecurities. 

“Sometimes, I just can’t tell,” she continues. “And then yesterday I was here all alone. And then I woke up this morning and thought what if tomorrow I’m alone too? What if I have to wake up without you every day now? What if I pissed you off one too many times, did too much stupid shit and–”

And she’s so overwhelmed by her own feelings, so emotionally exhausted, that she falls to the floor, too tired to hold up her own weight. She clutches onto Ekko’s hand like a lifeline, who grips hers back tightly before sitting down in front of her.

“Yes, I love you, Jinx.” He says it with such confidence, with so much conviction that, for a moment, it completely halts her train of thought. “I loved you yesterday and I’ll love you tomorrow.”

He reaches forward with his other hand, gingerly brushing his thumb across her cheekbone and it’s only then Jinx realizes that she’s crying again. 

“And I’ll tell you as many times as you need to hear it, okay?” he assures, and the only thing Jinx can do is fervently nod, clumsily crawling into his space and burying her head in the crook of his shoulder as she quietly sobs. 

“In fact,” he holds securely despite her tremors, his touch grounding, “I’ll tell you so often you’ll probably get annoyed. Let’s start with five times by breakfast. Then maybe another ten by lunch.”

An ugly sound leaves her at his declaration, something between a laugh and a sob. Even at a moment like this, he’s so stupid. And she loves him so much for it. So much so that sometimes she fears her heart might actually beat so fast it’ll break out of her chest and kill her.

“Me too,” she cries. “Me too. I love you so much. And I’m sorry.” Those are the only words she manages to get out before she breaks down in his arms.

When she’s finally calmed down enough to steady her breathing, and her sobs have waned into quiet sniffles, she looks up at him and says, “You know this will never get easier, right? That I'm always gonna be like this.”

“I know.” He brushes the remaining tears off her face, his own eyes shining with unshed tears as well. “I don't want easier. And I’m not going anywhere.” She opens her mouth to retort, but he beats her to the punch, adding on, “Yes, even when you piss me the fuck off.”

She snorts, resting her head on his shoulder again while he brushes her hair. She feels so much lighter after everything that’s been weighing her down these last few days. Jinx closes her eyes and breathes in his scent, allowing it to steady her after the emotional whiplash she’s endured.

 “...Are you wearing my hoodie?” Ekko suddenly asks, breaking the comfortable silence they were sitting in.

“Well.” Jinx awkwardly clears her throat. “Yeah. And I’m keeping it too.”

At her declaration, he throws his head back and laughs, the vibrations of it traveling from his body through hers. It’s a sound so loud and bright that it leaves Jinx in awe. “You laughed…”

The mirth dancing in his eyes softens into something sweeter as he says, “Yeah, 'cause you make me happy.”

Her heart feels like it’s bursting at the seams. She grabs both his cheeks and kisses him, using the contact of their lips as a conduit to express everything she feels to him. Her love for him is simply too overwhelming to ever put into words. 

When she finally breaks the kiss, she nods to the wall, wet paint still drying. “Can we finish it together? We…we should both paint on it, I think.” He nods, picking himself up off the floor and holding a hand out to help her up. 

“Bet my shit will look cooler than yours,” he says, picking up a bottle of spray paint and tossing it at her.

She laughs incredulously, popping the lid off the can and shaking it. “In your dreams, mister!”

By the time they finish, neither of them can agree on who actually had the best graffiti (but Jinx knows it’s her). A day later, they find out that they accidentally broke their lease agreement with all the graffiti, so they’d have to paint over it anyway. 

Jinx can’t really bring herself to worry about it though, not when they’re both so happy.

[melatonindeficient]

Jayvik ramble

i don't think jayce and viktor loved each other romantically.

It was love, god it was love, but not romantic tension. They didn't need to kiss or anything of the sort to show their affection, said affection just was.

I'm not gonna try to say they didn't love each other because gahdamn you'd have to be blind to think they didn't, but there wasn't much romance there I think. Maybe for little moments, but if there was any it fizzled in and out. It was something greater than friendship, greater than partnership, greater than romance.

It's kinda shown blatantly too because their plotline is similar to that of vi and jinx's in one major way: they are, at least for some time, both cycles of moral obligation (which I could yap about forever). I'm not saying that that means that their relationship is inherently brotherly, but it's certainly not the same as romantic love. The entire show is kick-started by future timeline viktor's desire to undo his wrongdoings (and thus saving jayce's life as a child). After that, once Viktor and jayce meet in their timeline, they create hextech and the cycle begins. Jayce becomes a counselor, viktor's illness progresses, jayce feels guilt for doing things outside of work with viktor while also knowing he has outside duties. So at this point, jayce's priorities are split between the Mel+council and Viktor+hextech while viktor's were entirely directed towards the idea of eradication of flaws. That is, until he kills sky. Then jayce kills the kid and the two of them entire a mini cycle of "to hextech or not to hextech."

It's from then on that it's made obvious that the two of them are misaligned: viktor fixes his leg and begins to embody perfection, and once jayce becomes a member of the council he is the physical and societal embodiment of progress. Viktor wanted to rid the world of all imperfections, jayce welcomed and understood imperfections and hoped to heal the division between worlds. He didn't want to get rid of pain, he just wanted to heal it.

Another thing is the unequal balance between the two of them. Once they successfully created hextech, they were never truly equal again until they died together. From then on until Vik leaves his little cocoon Jayce is pretty much always always staged as higher or bigger than Viktor, and not just physically (because he is physically bigger than Mel and yet she still had moments in the earlier episodes where she was staged/lighted higher because had more power than he did). Once Viktor leaves the cocoon they are equal for moments, and then once he walks off into the unknown and jayce is left behind, he begins to look bigger, greater, and then obviously the jesus arc begins and Viktor becomes physically larger than jayce while also being very obviously more powerful. From that point on they do not become a partnership of equals again till they touch heads and skip off into the sunset.

Another big thing is that Viktor states that "There is no prize to perfection only an end to pursuit. In all timelines, in all possibilities. Only you [jayce], can show me this." That sounds almost romantic adjacent until you think about it and realize that Viktor interacted with quite literally nobody else, and that even if he did Jayce would still forever be the only person who understood the extent of hextech's power because he'd witnessed it from the start.

Now these sound like a bunch of random points to bring up but Arcane does a really good job of having actions and sentiments mirror each other (for better or worse) and it's shown. Their misalignment of values and the power difference between them mirror the state of their relationship. Their priorities and morals weren't in tune. That doesn't mean that they can't still love each other, but it kinda shows how a relationship between them just doesn't really work.

In practically every other truly loving relationship, official or not, and romantic or not, love was the means to which every other pursuit had to end (Mel's mercy on Ambessa, Jinx and Vi's entire relationship, Caitlin coming back to Vi, Ekko for some reason forgetting about his tree for Jinx/Powder, Singe doing it all for his daughter, Silco and Jinx's whole relationship, etc). But whatever love Jayvik shared wasn't enough to stop their outside pursuits because there was always something they coveted more. Funnily enough, that was also Ambessa's hamartia (she coveted vengeance and power over love and used family as an excuse) and her death kind of foretells theirs. But anyway, for a long while they had bigger things in mind than being together. Hell, they were going to kill each other. Other characters tried to kill people they cared about but they always hesitated. Always.

Love didn't trump all with jayvik.

Arcane also literally shows us what a romantic relationship should/does look like in the show by giving us caitvi, mel and jayce, even alternate dimension powder and ekko. When you look at jayvik then look at the other big obvious canonical relationships (caitvi and mel and jayce) there is less of the same kind of misalignment. Cait and vi fought often but they were always equals. This dynamic changed one major time off the top of my head—when caitlyn hit vi—and only for a moment. Even when vi was in prison, even when vi left Cait in season one after the council meeting, even when cait began her dictator arc, they were still equals. Also, they had no moral obligation towards each other; in fact, they should have been morally obligated to obliterate each other and they didn't. Cait and vi made the choice to love each other. Vik and Jayce were intricately and unavoidably bound together; they were predestined, and they were doomed. There was no choice to be made there.

To look at the other big canon relationship (and cause you kinda have to acknowledge he has an actual girlfriend), I think jayce loved mel genuinely. I also think she loved him too. There was symbolism behind their relationship, obviously, because mel started off the relationship by using him for political gain and he just wanted to change the world through science (well, magic), but, like ambessa stated, she'd grown fond of him. Through season one, jayce and Mel's relationship is used as a parallel to jayce and viktor's (the whole scene where they do the nasty while Viktor is literally dying), but this isn't done in season two like, at all (duh because Viktor was busy starting a cult, but there's more to it because that's a parallel they could have continued with but they didn't) because they became more aligned while jayce and Viktor became more opposed. Once jayce established himself as a true member of the council (at the end of season one), Mel and Jayce's power difference ceased to be. Mel had no reasons to hold on to Jayce anymore, and the same was true vice versa. They could've moved on and left each other, but they didn't. The two moments in which they seem to be growing apart are when jayce questions Mel's honesty in the council room and during the last conversation between the two of them in the show, but neither of those moments can be attributed to a faltering in their relationship: the prior was due to jayce's skepticism and rage due to what he'd been through in the weeks (possibly longer) before and the latter was due to (in my opinion) a shoddy and rushed scene on the writer's part. Both of them were preoccupied with the dramatic changes in their lives. (and they probably should have had an actual conversation about what they'd gone through like they had with literally every other issue they'd encountered in the show, but that could just be part of the writer's failure to fully flesh out Mel's powers/jayce's mental state (which should have been fleshed out too because he became so much less erratic so fast and that was honestly pretty strange))

I'm aware that people can and do love (romantically) two people at once but I just don't think that's what was happening with jayce and jayvik.

It started with jayce and viktor in heimerdinger's lab in season one. It had to end with them.

But they weren't in love.

[poisonedpowder]

MEET THE MUN

tagged by: @gntlets (thank you <33) Tagging: anyone that sees it and wants to give it a go! <3

name ? Greenlee

pronouns ? she / her

preferred comms ? I prefer discord (poisonedpowder ; add me if we're mutuals <33) just because messaging is easier on there but I'm totally cool with tumblr ims, too! I will say I do only have my discord for this account on my laptop (yes, I have a separate discord for this lmao) so if it feels like it takes me a bit to get to your messages, I promise I am not ignoring you, I just am probably not at my laptop sjjssjsjs. Feel free to hit me up on there and don't be afraid to message again if you feel like I missed it or you just wanna poke me sjsjs I enjoy random messages < 3

name of muse ? Jinx

experience in rp ? About a decade--- but admittedly, it has mostly been on and off. My most consistent time rping was in the naru/o side of the tumblr rp community as Ino (murasakiirohana). Most of my rping has been on tumblr overall.

best experience ? Just meeting people and having fun making jokes or breaking each other's hearts with angsty ideas. I'm very good at the latter lmao. I like when there is a good mix of solid writing but also not taking it too seriously so whenever I meet people that have the same energy, it is a great experience <3 I also just love reading the in-depth analysis that people bring to their muses because it shows all the love they have for them that sometimes canon just does not.

pet peeves / dealbreakers ? callout posts. I have never entertained them and I never will. If you have beef with someone or just generally a bad experience with them, settle it amongst yourselves or block them. It doesn't need to be a group affair. I also just don't like it when rping is taken too seriously. It's supposed to be fun so I shouldn't feel like I am walking on eggshells, ya know?

fluff, angst, or smut ? When I first started rping, I was into fluff, but man have I leaned into the angst of it all. I get mad at canon for ruining my faves' lives and then I proceed to double down like the hypocrite that I am.

Some of my favorite testimonials from my friend about my angst issues:

So, overall, angst is my go to but I do love me some fluff. Heaven knows Jinx could use some, she barely gets any chance to feel loved without it going horribly wrong. As for smut--- I don't really do any of that, not my sort of thing. I wouldn't mind romantic threads, but I can't say I've ever shipped successfully lmao. Just never works out.

tl;dr: angst is my bread and butter

plot or memes ? Both! I think that using memes can be a good way to get ideas going and then it can lead to plotting. Memes are also just good to get interactions going. I do love plotting things out, too. So, yeah, both works!

long or short replies ? I'm fine with either but probably lean towards longer threads? It just gives us more to work with. Short replies are good for quick little rps and interactions though and they can be really fun sjsjs

best time to write ? Night. It's just the best time for me 'cause I'm not being bugged to do anything and I can vibe with my music which really helps my inspo for my muse.

are you like your muse ? Well, up until act 3 of s2, we both had having really long hair in common but the series decided to take that away from me hmpH. Other than that, maybe in some ways but certainly not others lmao

[pinkeoni]

About a week ago I finished watching Arcane s2. Here are my thoughts:

I will be honest in saying that during the latter half of the season I was mostly checked out, and this show became something that I put on as background noise. I finished the show while I was busy cooking for a dinner party I was throwing. As such, I'm not very reliable in terms of breaking down details of the season, or even certain character arcs. The arcs I was most invested in were Jinx, Vi's and Ekko's, but other than those three I was mostly checked out. But I can definitely safely say that the season didn't do enough to hold onto my attention.

The pacing is a common complaint but a valid one at that. There are certain ideas in here that I don't really have a problem with on paper, but the way they are executed is so rushed that it comes off as unrealistic. A good example is Vi's enlistment as an enforcer. I don't think this is necessarily a bad idea, a character becoming the thing they hate is a classic storyline— but I felt like I blinked and suddenly Vi was an enforcer. This type of pacing is really what caused me to lose interest in the season. Like I said earlier, I was still invested in Vi's arc, but mostly because of her connection with Jinx (the shows best character that was done the dirtiest).

I have a big problem with Caitvi. I'll be honest, I don't think that Caitvi can work with the themes of the show, at least, the way things played out. The way I can see Caitvi working successfully is if Caitlyn realizes the corruption of the enforcers, and decides to leave the force. She kinda does this... after going through her fascist dictator arc. I honestly wish that the show would've picked one or the other, either Cait abandoning the force entirely after season one, or having a full corruption arc. Caitvi were doomed as soon as Jinx decided to nuke the council. It makes sense for Cait to want to get her revenge on Jinx. It also makes sense to be blinded by revenge and fall into fascism. It doesn't really makes to have her go through all of that and have a happy ending with Vi. But of course, the show doesn't want to break up their lesbian couple and make one of them go through a fascist arc. Except they do, and then hastily reverse it. They wanted to have their cake and eat it out too.

The show posits the idea that Vi has to choose between Jinx and Cait, and despite Vi's relationship to Jinx arguably being more important than Caitvi's, and their relationship being the core of the show, the show has Jinx sacrifice herself even after Ekko saved her from killing herself. Sorry for more Cait hate but these two should have traded places. Cait could've been the corrupt dictator that realized the error of her ways, and sacrificed herself as a sort of redemption. Idk, maybe that wouldn't have worked, but it would've been better than Vi living with her oligarch gf in her mansion at the end of the show.

The good stuff: this show has better individual moments than it does overarcing story arcs. Like the first season, the visuals are incredible, and the animation artists on this show always have visually creative ways to speed through a story beat. Jinx. Ekko. The episode in the alternate storyline with Ekko and Powder was great, even if that miniarc should have actually been three episodes long instead of one. Oh well. I loved the 4fps animation that was not only a clever nod to Ekko's time travel power but also a nice Wong Kar-Wai reference.

[negsandunpops22]

I think the Maddie reveal could've been done a lot better with just a few tweaks.

Change a bit of the dialogue in the episode 4 scene. Maddie has a line where she encourages Caitlyn to reestablish the council, but Caitlyn giving up her authority doesn't serve Noxian interests. Even though she probably knew Caitlyn's response ("Not without Jinx"), it still felt like a risk to even put the idea in her head. You could argue that maybe Maddie vocalized the idea because she suspected Caitlyn had started to consider it and wanted to give her commander the opportunity to shoot the idea down herself, but the writing/animation doesn't give much to support this interpretation. Maddie's next scene in the office even gives her an interrupted line where it seems that she's about to repeat the idea of bringing back the council.

Most of the rest of the scene works: Maddie subtly leads Caitlyn to reinforce her own belief that their recent efforts have been harsh but necessary for Piltover's safety and reaffirms the "status quo," that Caitlyn is their leader, that the Noxians' presence is beneficial to Piltover, and that she has the support of all the enforcers, particularly Maddie herself. Maddie successfully wormed her way into Caitlyn's bed (as Ambessa said, there was a vacuum to be exploited). It was also a great touch to have her be the first "Piltover" to start chest-beating for Commander Kiramman.

Make Maddie a constant presence throughout act 2. Canonically, Maddie disappears after three scenes in episode 4 (one of which she doesn't speak in) and doesn't reappear until episode 8. This is one of several wasted opportunities in season 2. Maddie doesn't even need a lot of dialogue, just continuous appearances at Caitlyn's side or following behind her close as a shadow, with a line here and there to advance the plot or serve Caitlyn's character arc. What this would do is acclimate the audience to Maddie's presence and lead us to slowly let our guard down even further (tho I realize that in this rewrite, the audience would probably still make collages of images of Maddie the shadow with captions like "I see you villain!"). With the audience firmly set at ease in act 2, the reveal in act 3 has a sharper sting. With the benefit of hindsight, the audience recognizes Maddie's sparse choices of dialogue to be evidence of her true allegiances, how she was a tool for Ambessa to stoke Caitlyn's fires and manipulate her.

When act 3 dropped, yes, Maddie's reveal was a shock, but the impact was lessened by the fact that she was barely around before the betrayal. I avoided a lot of fan reactions, but looking those reactions up now I'm seeing that others accurately predicted that Maddie would either turn traitor, get unceremoniously killed off, or shunted off the show altogether.

I like how the show depicts that Caitlyn was never fully open to Maddie, that their relationship was a rebound and an unhealthy coping mechanism for her grief and anger. I just wish, as with other aspects of Caitlyn's character arc, that the writers had swam into the deep end and more fully explored her new coldness, her dark side, rather than just out to the middle of the pool before treading water and swimming back to the shallow end.

[dzthenerd490]

Addendum X-7 Part 7

The four of them got off of the cable car, none of them saw anything of interest except Rebecca who went to collect more of the green herbs. Paris and New York progressed first by walking up the stairs to a door. Paris tried but the door was locked he then punched it leaving a large dent, he grunted and raised his fist to try again. 

Rebecca: Paris!

Paris and New York looked back to Rebecca who was now behind them.

Rebecca: Maybe we should try the easy way instead.

Rebecca pointed to another set of stairs leading to a much higher level, she then walked up them, and Billy smirked while going up with her. Paris sighed and followed them while New York grunted in annoyance. Up the stairs the four of them found another door and walked in finding a very old part of the station that seemed to be mostly unused for storage having lots of barrels and tanks. Since there was nothing of value here, they just moved on into the other room. Thankfully in this room they found all sorts of ammo, especially a map of the area which Paris quickly took a picture of with his Foundation Computer Screen Pad.

Paris: Alright! Now it looks like we're in a place called the Factory and... Oh, I got another message from the Red Queen. Looks like there's something she wants us to find.

New York: You're sure it's a good idea to be taking orders from this Red Bitch? For all we know it's a Neo Sarkite Trick. 

Billy: As painful as it is to agree with New York I think he's right, Paris.

Paris: It's either that or keep running around blindly. 

Rebecca: I agree, besides, I think we're more than prepared to-

Paris and New York: DON'T!

Rebecca was taken aback by the sudden shouting but did as they both demanded and shut her mouth quickly.

Paris: ... Sorry, it's just that saying crap like that tends to be a jinx that actually causes bad shit to happen. 

Billy: Yeah, I think New York can attest to that.

New York: Suck a dick jarhead.

Paris: Both of you shut up! Now let's move. 

The group walked back to the previous area and Paris pointed out a little platform that acted as a single person elevator. One by one they all rode it down and walked alongside the skywalk. It led them all too. New York looked down and nearly threw up as a result but managed to keep it down, though Billy chuckled at him for this. They made it to a door which, inside, led to some kind of engine room. They walked inside following Paris who was following the directions given to him by the Red Queen. They eventually made it to what looked to be the control area of this engine room. There didn't seem to be anything until Paris looked down and found the factory key. Just then he got new instructions from the Red Queen.

Paris: Alright looks like this is what we needed, let's get out of-

Rebecca: Wait, wait, what the hell is that?

Rebecca pointed to the only monitor that was working and on it was a black and white display of some kind of humanoid monster. 

Billy: What the hell is that?

Paris: Kinda looks like a homunculus. 

Rebecca: What's a homunculus?

Paris: Something alchemists have been trying to create for years, basically an artificial human.

Billy: Like Frankenstein?

Paris: No, Frankenstein are created from already dead bodies, a homunculus is created through natural elements infused together to create the closest to a natural body science, alchemy, or even thaumaturgy can get you. 

Billy and Rebecca were both looking at Pairs with a mixture of fear and confusion.

Paris: Yeah, the anomalous world is a lot bigger than you think, it's also unfortunately everywhere so all you need is to know where to look. But that's enough of me rambling, the point is that even if it is a homunculus then we have nothing to worry about because not even the Sarkites can create a perfect homunculus.

Rebecca: How can you be sure?

Paris: The same way no one has ever successfully created a working Frankenstein, to do so, you need to make not just the body but the soul. Without a soul it won't work, so a that homunculus is just a husk, nothing more. Now let's get out of here. 

Rebecca: Hm, roger.

The four of them were about to walk out but as they passed an engine looking device a Hunter showed up and attacked Paris. Thankfully as it lunged on him, he proved to be stronger and threw it over the side and into the seemingly bottomless pit below. unfortunately, another one came soon after, so Paris grabbed out his SMGs and started shooting its stomach until it died. 

Rebecca: Woah! You okay Par- 

Unfortunately, the fight wasn't over as the first Hunter showed itself again having clung to the railings and climbed back up. it roared at them ready to attack but Billy shot it with the Magnum and to everyone's shock the bullet was so powerful it blew up the Hunter's head making it's lifeless body fall back into the pit. 

Billy: Woah... I'm definitely keeping this. 

New York: Lucky asshole.

Paris: Alright that's enough gawking, let's get out of here before more of those freaks show up.

The four of them left the room and went out to the skywalk towards the elevator back up and went to the original control room. Paris then went to a computer and followed the Red Queen's instructions on what to do. After inserting the key and pressing some buttons, everyone heard a loud noise. It sounded like someone large rising up like a massive elevator. 

Paris: I like the sound of that, it means progression.

Billy: Or we're getting deeper into some nasty shit.

New York: In this line of work, that unfortunately means the same thing.

The four of them left the room and found a large elevator for what looked to be large equipment and even a cart to transport said equipment with cart rails and everything. Paris then pressed the buttons of the controls and after the sirens of the elevator sounded they started descending downward. They found only one way forward which was a short hall leading to a longer hall to the left, a metal door to the right, and two large metal doors in the middle. 

New York: ... Alright, what does the Red Bitch say now?

Paris: She's not sending any more messages, I guess we're on our own now.

Billy: Great. I really hope I was wrong about us being in deep shit.

The four of them walked forward to the two large metal doors first but as they did Paris head footsteps. He quickly signaled to everyone to stay quiet and stick to the sides. Paris and Rebecca got to the left side while Billy and New York went to the right. Suddenly the doors opened and out came Enrico of the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team. However, Paris, New York, and Billy didn't know this and quickly surrounded him with their guns up. 

Paris: Put your hands up!

New York: Do it motherfucker!

Billy: We don't want to hurt you, but we will if we have too. 

Rebecca: Wait! Guys stop! That's Enrico! 

The three of them looked at Rebecca in shock then to Enrico and quickly lowered their weapons. Enrico was silent in shock but was clearly about to talk so Paris quickly processed his name into the recording.

Enrico: ... I... Wha... Rebecca?! Wha- What?! What one earth is going one here who are these men and... who is this?

Enrico then pointed to Billy who was now looking around in panic.

Enrico: Don't tell me, are you-?

Rebecca: No Enrico! He's not Billy Coen, I uh... I think Billy Coen is dead.

Enrico: ... How can, you be sure? Ah, wait just let me... Huh? Damn it, I lost my file and picture on Billy Coen. 

Paris quickly grabbed Billy's dog tags while Enrico was checking his pockets. He then quietly handed them to Rebecca who quickly held them out.

Rebecca: Be- Because this is all I found of him...

Enrico looked at the dog tags and sighed in relief.

Enrico: ... What a relief just makes things easier for us, that bastards deserve to rot after what he did.

Billy clenched his fists in frustration, but Paris placed a hand on his shoulder to help comfort him a little. 

Enrico: especially after all the nightmares I've seen tonight. I assume you've encountered them too. 

Rebecca: Yeah, I was worried you weren't alive. 

Enrico: I though the same about you and the others, speaking of which where are they and who are these men.

Paris: CDC Lambda-12 special forces for anomalous pathogens spread through aggressive vermin. We were told leeches spreading a deadly pathogen were on the train we found Rebecca on earlier but uh... we ended up finding more than we bargained for, I already lost two men and we have to work with this civilian and Rebecca in order to survive. We were very lucky to have them both by our side, otherwise we might not have made it this far. 

Enrico: Damn, I'm sorry for your loss.

Paris: And we're sorry for yours.

Enrico looked at Paris confused then to Rebecca who looked at him with sadness.

Rebecca: ... Edward is dead, and I haven't had contact with the others so I think they might be dead too.

Enrico: ... Then we have no choice but to regroup with Alpha team, I got a message from Albert Wesker, Alpha Team is going to rendezvous with us at a mansion not far from here. We should expect them tomorrow so if we can make it tonight, we can rest there while we wait for them come on. 

Rebecca: Uh, actually I'm going to continue working with the CDC.

Enrico: What?!

Paris: Rebecca, you don't need to.

Rebecca: But I have too, whoever is responsible for all of this is still on the loose we have to catch them now.

Enrico: Rebecca that's suicide. If someone really did create all of these monsters, then we're clearly unmatched. Just let the CDC handle this... actually no, you guys should come with us, if we all go to the mansion you can radio for backup and then come back here with stronger numbers. 

Paris: We can't, we have to deal with this now, whoever is behind this probably knows we're here and is trying to kill us so they can escape. Besides we have some valuable information, but we still need more to confirm some things about who is behind this.

Enrico: ... I see, but still Rebecca, I insist you come with me, you know this is too much for you. You're just a rookie after all.

New York and Billy both shuttered when they heard Enrico say that and looked to Rebecca who seemed greatly annoyed. However, she quickly inhaled and exhaled allowing her to calm down.

Rebecca: Thank you for worrying Enrico but I'll be fine, I will catch up with you but for now I can't leave things like this. If I can, I have to find out what's going on here and stop it. 

Enrico: ... sigh alright fine but be careful! If you run into too much trouble just wait for me and the Alpha Team okay! We'll be here by tomorrow! As for you CDC Soldiers you better watch over Rebecca or else I'll sue the CDC! You get me!

Paris: You have nothing to worry about.

Enrico nodded and ran off to head to the mansion.

New York: ... If he was actually worried about Rebecca, wouldn't he have stayed or something?

Paris: No point in worrying about him anymore anyways. If he's survived this long on his own, heading to that mansion would be fine.

Billy: Paris, I know it's a bad time to say this, but shouldn't we go with him, I don't think he's wrong about finding a place to rest and call for backup. 

Paris: Backup was supposed to be here an hour ago actually, I don't know why it's not, but I have a feeling of what happened, and I really don't like it. Though I wasn't lying before... Billy, Rebecca, if you both don't want to stay here, you're under no obligation too, you can still catch up with Enrico and take a chance on the mansion. 

Rebecca and Billy looked at each other in shock while New York looked at Paris in shock.

New York: What the hell boss?! Protocol "Join or Die" states that any government body weather police or politician has to obey the Foundation once they are exposed to the Anomalous World.

Paris: I'm not concerned with Protocol right now New York I'm concerned with survival. Rebecca and Billy's life matter even if they are not with the Foundation, I'm not some Foundationist bastard who abuses Foundation power. Are you?

New York grunted and looked down in shame. Paris huffed and looked to Billy and Rebecca again who both smiled at him with their answer. 

Billy: Sorry Paris but you're not getting rid of me that easily.

Rebecca: I'm not leaving either; I owe it to London and Hong Kong to get the bastard behind this. 

Paris: ...When this is over, I'd like to offer you both positions within the Foundation, though I wouldn't be surprised if you'd both want to say no. I'm just saying the Foundation needs more strong and brave people like you two.

Billy and Rebecca looked at one another and smiled again, though this time they just remained silent.

Paris: Ahem, alright I think that's enough. Let's get this done tonight. 

Suddenly Paris received another notification form his Foundation Screen Pad. As he read he walked over to the corner and picked up a key.

Paris: She says there's an elevator over there it will lead us to where we want to go.

New York: sigh I hate to admit it, but the Red Queen is actually kinda usefull.

Billy: Let's hope it stays that way.

The four of them travel to the other side of the large elevator platform and go to the doors of another elevator right next to a collapsed tunnel. Paris activates the elevator and presses the correct button. However, Rebecca notices the rubble moving and sees on top a large humanoid monster walking forward into view. 

Rebecca: Uh guys? What's that?!

New York: Huh? HOLY SHIT!

Paris: FUCK ENEMY CONTACT, BACK UP! BACK UP!

They all backed away as the monster jumped down from the rubble towards them Rebecca was on its right, so it quickly swung its blade infested hand at her. She dodged and rolled forward in time but still the resulting damage showed she would have died painfully otherwise. 

Paris: Hostility is confrimed! Engage!

Rebecca got up quickly and started firing with her assault rifle while Paris shot at the Tyrant with his dual SMGs. New York quickly fired with his Shotgun expecting it to make quick work of the Tyrant. However, even as large patches of its skin were getting eaten by the necrosis venom these patches quickly dried up and fell off and were replaced with regenerated flesh super-fast. 

New York: What the fuck is this thing?!

Paris then unloaded both magazines in his SMGs into the Tyrants head hoping the overwhelming damage would kill it. However instead all the damage quickly healed, and it just glared at Paris in anger. It then charged at him with great speed and raised its blade arm to strike him down. Paris only barely caught the blade in time, but the Tyrant still had great strength and forced him down hard. Paris's feet dug into the metal below bending it badly and clearly showing the inhuman among of strength the Tyrant was forcing on him. 

Thankfully just in time Billy shot it in the back with the magnum making the Tyrant cry out in inhuman pain. New York then loaded his Foundation spray gun with the flame canister and started blasting the Tyrants back while Billy kept shooting. Paris then grabbed one of his SMGs and started shooting at the legs of the Tyrant further weaking it. Rebecca aimed for the other completely throwing it off balance. Billy then finished it off by shooting it one last time in the head making it explode. However, it quickly regenerated for a moment making it seems like the battle was still going, only for all the pieces to fall apart and fall to the ground dead.

Billy: Ha... Okay I think it's actually dead this time...

Paris: We all good? Ugh... No one is dead?

New York: Not so far, thank God.

Rebecca: Paris! Your hurt!

Rebecca ran over to Paris and quickly opened up the Foundation Medical Case she was given thankfully the visor Paris gave her started working and showing her what medicine to use and in what dosage. She quickly filled up an injection tool and placed it onto Paris's shoulder to inject it. Paris grunted but then popped his shoulders as he seemed to quickly start recovering his strength.

Paris: Thank you, Rebecca. 

Rebecca: I see you weren't lying when you said you wouldn't have gotten this far without me.

New York: Hmph, beginner's luck.

Billy: Hey! I think the elevator has finally come.

Paris: Would have been nice if it came sooner. Well, it's here now but before we leave, New York you got any more Necrosis Venom Gernades?

New York: Just one boss, but uh, you sure we won't need it? Could be more leech men where we're going. 

Paris: I'd rather make sure this thing, whatever the fuck it is, doesn't get back up again. 

Rebecca: Isn't this the homunculus? I thought you said bringing them to life was supposed to be impossible.

Paris: Yeah, it's supposed to be, whatever this virus is, it sure is full of surprises. All the more reason to find the bastard and kill him before he decides to do some real damage.

The four of them then got onto the elevator and as the doors closed New York pulled the pin and threw the grenade at the Tyrant.

New York: Wake up from that you fuck. 

Once the doors were closed the sound of the grenade going off and the necrosis venom gas disintegrating the Tyrant could be heard. 

Rebecca: which floor.

Paris: Fourth Floor definently.

New York: Did the Red Queen tell you that?

Paris: ... Her last message was her just laughing over and over. Then she said that even if the Tyrant didn't kill us then Doctor Marcis will. 

Billy: So, he is still alive, and probably behind all of this.

New York: God damn it I knew the Red Bitch couldn't be trusted.

Paris: Doesn't matter anymore, it's her own fault for leading us down here, now we can get Marcus and end this damn nightmare for good. 

Once they made it to the 4th Level, they found themselves on a metal bridge over water, they simply just walked over it and through the doors leading to another bridge. This one had a large control station office and a small elevator near it on the other end. without being ordered the four of them went to the office first and quickly found some ammo but not much else. They were about to leave before New York noticed a control pannel for the power routing of the dam.

New York: Oh, hey check this out... huh... this right here... then there... then... Aha! That should do it!

Suddenly the entire underground area lit up showing a large workplace factory like area. 

Paris: Woah, otherwise, we would have been walking in the dark, nice one New York.

New York: You got it boss. 

New York was clearly happy though he turned to Billy and Rebecca who were staring at him in confusion.

New York: What?

Rebecca: ... it's just... weird to see you being useful.

New York: Oh, fuck off, both of you. 

Billy: Ah, there's the New York we know. 

New York grunted in annoyance as they all left the control office and went to the elevator taking it to the lower floor. There they were on another walkway but this time there were zombies down there waiting for them. 

New York: Oh, thank God!

Rebecca: Can't believe we actually reached a point where I miss dealing with zombies. 

Billy: Guess that's part of the fun, now time to earn some points. 

Paris: You're all getting way too into this... but I guess I am too. 

Paris walked out first and started shooting zombies down with his dual SMG's. Rebecca and Billy decided to go back to their pistols as they shot them down, headshot after headshot. Everyone expected Billy to shoot well but Rebecca wasn't expecting herself to be so good at aiming. Rebecca smiled at how much she improved in just a single night, she only wishes everyone in S.T.A.R.S. could see her now. New York on the other hand was just hanging in the back, using his assault rifle to shoot down the zombies the others missed. Once they made it around to the other side, they found a metal green door, and on the other side led to another walkway. However, this time upon entering a Leech Mimic slipped in from the other end of the walkway and started walking irregularly towards them. 

New York: Stand back I got this! 

Everyone back away for New York who stepped forward with his Foundation spray gun loaded with the flamer fuel canister. He quickly scorched the Leech Mimic but as it was flailing around in pain, he quickly switched out the canister for the sterilizing chemical canister. He sprayed the Leech Mimic with that and not only did the leeches start burning more but they were quickly drying up too. What was left of the Leech Mimic started falling apart and quickly fell over the railings into the unseeable ground. 

Billy: Holy shit, you're on a roll New York. 

New York: about time you noticed.

Paris: keep it up while we move along.

The four of them moved down the walkway, then around the corner where they saw two doors one that was closest was a large metal rusty door and the other was a clean metal office door. Everyone then looked to Paris which left him in confused.

Paris: ... What?

Rebecca: Oh, come on, we all know you're going to do it.

Billy: There's no point in playing dumb Paris.

New York: It obviously needs a wheel or something to unlock the door, and I bet you it's on the other side of that door, right behind a bunch of other doors. AND I also bet it's the ONLY valuable thing in all the rooms beyond that door. Sooo...

Paris: Alright! alright, stand back all of you. 

Prais raised his fists and started punching the door, he looked at his hands in shock after the first four punches as the door was sturdier than he thought. But after relaxing a little was back to punching and soon the door finally came down. Unfortunately, as it did come down, on the other side was a whole lot of zombies. However these ones were different, they were clearly the result of experiments with all the stitching and clear surgical cuts on their bodies. 

The four of them were clearly disgusted but knew better than to stand around, so they all started shooting. It didn't take long for the zombies to all die but the disgust lingered in all their minds for a moment. However suddenly another zombie dropped in from the ladder in the corner of the room, but Paris quickly killed it by stomping on his head. Though when he looked up the ladder, he saw more zombies up there slowly inching towards them.

Paris: Move now!

The four of them quickly went to the other side of the room where they found a green door. On the other side of the door were two hunters ready to pounce on them. Though Paris, Rebeeca, Billy, and New York looked at them unimpressed and started shooting until the mutants died. Though as they walked by Rebecca spat on one in disgust.

Rebecca: That was for Hong Kong you freaks.

New York chuckled, as he walked down the hall toward the next room where they seemed to have found themselves in a living quarter. They found a few corpses but thanks to the visors Rebecca, New York, and Paris had they knew there was no virus in them and therefore no risk. 

However, Billy didn’t know this and shot the corpses in the head which spooked the other three. They all quickly glared at him in disappointment.

Billy: … What? Better to be safe than sorry.

New York: Fuck sake! At least warn us! We could have told you the corpses weren’t infected.

Billy: Oh… sorry.

Paris: Ugh, let’s just get the hell out of here. 

The four of them moved out of the room and into the next area which as just a hall with a set of stairs. Though as they walked by they noticed some leeches, a few of which they accidentally stepped on.

New York: Augh! Fucking gross! 

Paris: Shit! Try avoiding stepping on them as much as possible, for all we know doing so releases a pheromone that will draw in more zombies and monsters.

The Four of them moved out of the area and entered another area with a walkway, this time they were able to go through without conflict or leaches. However after passing through they found another longer and more zigzagged walkway, filled with zombies. They shot them all down with ease and made their way to the other end where they found a lift that led to the lower floor. At first this area seemed clear as they were passing one of the walkways around the water level, the same giant humanoid monster form before only now it darkened skin that was hardened yet slippery. 

New York: What the fuck?! 

Rebecca: H- How?! I thought that Necrosis Venom was supposed to burn through anything!

Paris: Worry about that later! Take this fucker out!

The four of them started shooting at the Tyrant, it was clearly doing damage, but the Tyrant didn’t seem to notice as it charged at them. When it slashed down its claw, Paris pushed Rebecca and Billy away but used the momentum to push himself out of the way as well. Thankfully this resulted in them all dodging, and with the Tyrant hunched down New York shot its head with his shotgun blowing it apart and hitting it with necrosis venom. However, he didn’t stop as he actually used what was left of the necrosis shells to shoot the Tyrant’s chest full of holes in hopes of killing it completely this time.

It however, started swinging it’s claws around blindly, despite not having a head it kept moving and nearly killed all of them had they not stayed low. Though as it kept swinging it started getting farther from them alluding the four to raise their guns again and start shooting, aiming for its legs to destroy its balance. Once this was achieved its right leg fell apart and the whole body fell back into the water line. Billy, Rebecca, and New York looked into the water wondering if it was dead, though Paris pulled out the grenade launcher and shot a grenade into the water. The resulting explosion made a splash, but it was unsure if it actually hurt the Tyrant. 

Paris: It better be fucking dead this time. Come on, let's move.

Though Paris said that they ended up quickly reaching a dead end, or at least that would be the case if Billy hadn’t found a button on the wall and pressed it. Suddenly a ladder started unfolding itself and extended down to allow them all to climb up.

New York: … If we go up this ladder doesn’t that mean, we’ll have gone around in a circle?

Paris: I don’t want to hear it New York, we’re all frustrated by the way.

Billy: Yeah it’s just you that complains all the time.

New York: … fine whatever.

One by one they all walked up the ladder, and they were back on the upper floor, however this area wasn’t the same at all. Furthermore, Rebecca noticed a chip falling out of a fuse box and walked over to pick it up.

Rebecca: Well, look at that, I saw a fuse box form before that needed this, guess it was worth coming this way after all.

New York: whatever…

Paris: Let’s just get back quickly so our big and ugly friend doesn’t get the chance to follow us. 

***

Thankfully on the way back there were no enemies to encounter but also nothing worth recording. New York took the chip from Rebecca and placed it correctly into the new fuse box and suddenly the gondola powered up. The gondola started moving across the factory area and towards where they were.

New York: What the hell are we supposed to do with that thing?

Rebecca walked up to the gondola box and opened it, to show that it was hollow and large enough for two small people to fit in.

New York: … No, no fucking way! Absolutely not!

Rebecca: Come on New York, don’t you want to leave this place? 

New York: Ugh, this is such bullshit!

Paris: Sorry New York, no other way to progress at this point.

New York and Rebecca got into the gondola and Paris went over to turn it on. Once they made it to the other side they both stepped out and surveyed the area. 

Paris: Paris to New York, can you guys hear me?

New York: We hear you boss, it seems to be all clear here, we’re progressing now. Over.

Paris: Good, if anything goes wrong head back to that Gondola as fast as you can because there’s no way we can fit in there to come after you guys. Over.

New York: Well maybe Billy if you force him inside. Over.

Paris: Not happening, now see what you can find and report back once you're ready to return to us, Paris out.

Rebecca: Hey New York, give me a hand here!

New York looked to Rebecca who was trying to turn a lever, he quickly ran over to help and the two of them managed to turn it. Once it was complete, the water levels to certain areas started lowering, allowing access to new areas. 

New York: Cool… so can we go back now?

Rebecca: Hey what about that metal door back there.

New York: Oh come on!

Rebecca: You come on! What if there’s something important back there?

New York grunted and followed Rebecca to the back door, where they found a lab-like area with lots of giant camel crickets. New York quickly loaded the flamer fuel canister into his spray gun and started flaying the crickets. Rebecca shot down the ones that refused to die so easily, with their team up the crickets died quite quickly. 

New York: Oh gross, were they breeding the bugs here?!

Paris: Honestly not the weirdest nor the most messed up thing they’ve done. 

Rebecca and New York raised their guns at the stairs only to see Paris and Billy there.

Billy: Woah hey! Take it easy, it's just us.

New York: What? How did you get here?

Paris: Thanks to you guys actually, after you lowered the water we found a bridge to cross, though uh, as we crossed it there was a giant frog that tried to stop us.

Billy: Paris punched it to death.

Rebecca: Not surprising. 

Paris: Alright I get it! Let’s move on now. That door should lead out of here and where we need to go.

.

End of Part 7

.

Continue to Final Part

Go back to Part 6

.

Go back to File: Resident Evil - T Virus

[lcvlettrs]

Kyumin feels as if he can see the cogs turning in Jeremy's head, and he senses that he'd successfully planted the idea that Jinx isn't one to be trusted. She's not. And, he feels a jitteriness rustling beneath his skin at the thought his leader may slowly be coming around to that realization. "I think maybe it's time to throw her a welcome back party!" He's not sure what Jeremy will say. Jinx; Or, rather, Sooji has been a card he's kept tucked away for a special moment. However, the girl was his, and he felt it was his right to determine what her rise or fall would be. "Everyone's missed her for so long. I think we need to remind them who she is, and show them, who she's become."

                              ❛⠀hmm,   that's   good   to   know,⠀❜    jeremy   mused,   a   wry   smile   playing   at   the   corner   of   his   lips.   of   course,   he   was   well   aware   of   where   jinx   resided-- such   knowledge   was   hardly   concealed,   and   if   it   were,   the   man   would   have   taken   swift   measures   to   rectify   that.   the   question   of   how   the   girl   afforded   such   a   place   occasionally   flickered   through   his   mind,   but   it   lingered   there   as   a   passing   curiosity   rather   than   a   pressing   concern.   what   truly   captured   jer's   attention   was   the   tidbit   of   information   kyumin   divulged   about   her   being   followed.   the   implications   were   manifold,   and   the   fact   that   she   had   kept   this   incident   under   wraps   until   now   left   him   mildly   troubled.   it   hinted   at   a   certain   level   of   secrecy   that   piqued   his   interest.   should   he   intervene?   the   notion   danced   at   the   periphery   of   his   thoughts,   though   ultimately,   a   sense   of   relief   washed   over   him   when   kyumin   disclosed   that   jinx   had   dealt   with   the   pursuer   herself. 

                              ❛⠀that   could   prove   useful,⠀❜     jeremy   remarked,   his   tone   weighted   with   a   mix   of   admiration   and   contemplation.   yet,   one   question   lingered,   casting   a   shadow   over   his   reassurance.   ❛⠀what   exactly   do   you   have   in   mind?⠀❜     he   inquired,   his   gaze   probing   yet   measured.

[wheeler-things]

Henry Creel, Vampires, the Consumption of the Soul, and Will Byers with Powers

Oh look it’s time for yet another longwinded s5 Thinking Thoughts post with an off the rails ending. I feel like I’m getting predictable.

Well, anyway, I talked about this in the tags of a post that I reblogged at one point, but it's currently 20 minutes to midnight and I should either be sleeping or working on writing for the campaign I'm DMing in the new year, but instead all I can think about is Henry Creel and Will having powers and the way that Henry talks about his victims/how they appear in his mindscape. And, you know, also the fact that I've read all the currently available The Locked Tomb books and they left me scarred, and also altered my brain chemistry in such a way that once I thought about this possibility I couldn't stop thinking about it..

So, yeah. Time for me to talk about Henry Creel, and the way he talks about his victims, and I know I put this in the Byler tag, and I promise that's not just because of the target demo. I will eventually circle around to talking about Mike and Will in the context of this post in an unnecessarily angsty way.

But for now... Henry.

In s4e7, Henry tells El: "I could not do that. I could not close off my mind and join in the madness. I could not pretend. And I realized, I didn't have to. I could make my own rules. I could restore balance to a broken world. A predator... but for good. […] With each life I took, I grew stronger. More powerful. They were becoming a part of me. But I was still a child, and I did not yet know my limits. And it nearly killed me."

This monologue is, honestly, full of a bunch of really interesting things, and I'm can think of at least three posts that I currently have on the brain that I'm going to pick it apart for, but in terms of this specific post, I've bolded the bits I'll be focused on, and I'll be back to it in a bit.

Later in that scene, El looks to the dead bodies of the other lab kids, and Henry says: "They're not gone, Eleven. They're still with me. In here."

What I think is really important about this whole scene, right off the bat, is that Henry is not immediately hostile upon realizing that El has disobeyed him and left the closet. Regardless of whether you believe he had any amount of genuine affection for her or not, I think it's really important to note that the way in which Henry bonds with El/gains her trust is through teaching her things. He teaches her how to use her emotions in order to harness her powers more effectively. He teaches her to start questioning Brenner's motives. He teaches her about Sotaria (which also ties in with the previous thing). He teaches her how to escape the lab through the sewers (which I believe it's implied is how she got out of the lab in s1, though I'm not going back to check because I'm rewatching s1 for a different analysis and I don't want to lose my place). So the fact that he's still using his gentle voice with El here, and the fact that he's stopping to explain not only his motivations, but the fact that the people he kills are "not gone" and are "in here" [gestures to his head], suggests to me that he's attempting to teach her one last thing. Something that might make her okay with the fact that he just murdered a whole lab full of literally every person she's ever known save Kali and Brenner.

And this is so easy to dismiss as the ramblings of a mad man, or as him saying something to the effect of "I never forget any of the people that I kill". But I think it's a little dismissive to ignore what Henry says as simply the words of someone entirely disconnected from reality. Obviously, he is deluded. He talks about himself as though he is not also human, and he actively seems to want to kill everyone except possibly El and Will? But having delusions about his importance and identity and ideology is not the same thing as being deluded into believing something untrue about his powers/into falsely believing that his victims are kept alive inside him somehow. Moreover, although this last line in isolation could make sense in the context that he keeps the memories of his victims alive in his own mind, the rest of what he says does not line up with that. Nor does the fact that we see Chrissy's mangled body (and possibly some of the other victims, I'm so sorry I cannot remember-- but definitely at least one of the victims is seen in the mindscape) twisted into his mindscape.

So... now I'm going to go back to the earlier part of his speech and pick apart the bolded parts.

"I could make my own rules." The last time we heard that, it was El was saying it to Mike, in a misquote of Max's "we make our own rules". When Max was saying it, she was reassuring El that respinning the bottle was fine because, as the only two playing the game, they could make their own rules about what to do. However, when El uses it, it's because Mike has realized that she spied on him without his consent, and his offended response is to that "that's against the rules" (from context, it's difficult to know if this is a reference to rules that Hopper set out for her, or rules that she and Mike established together for their relationship-- the former isn't a great look for Mike, and the latter isn't a great look for El). El bites back, saying, "I make my own rules". When she says that, she is essentially saying "I have the ability to spy on you, so if I choose to do so, that's my prerogative" (let me just say: Mike did a lot of things wrong in s3, and he absolutely started the fight between him and El, but this specific action was not great of her). This parallels with Henry saying that he made his own rules, because when he says that, he seems to mean that he had the ability to read peoples' minds (and possibly more than that), and as such, it was his prerogative to do whatever he wanted to whomever he wanted, at any time. El is not the same as Henry (by any stretch of the imagination)... I just think this parallel is interesting (and also the contrast-- ultimately, El did what she did because she was having fun with a friend, which still isn't great because spying on people when they're supposed to be in private is not a good thing to do, but it's in an entirely different league from what Henry has done with similar power).

"A predator... but for good". So... the word "predator" has a lot of meanings, and I don't want to get too deeply into the conversations about whether Henry is or is not worthy of that title in the entirely too human sense, because it's far outside the scope of this post. However, we do know from the context of his monologue that when Henry talks about predators/apex predators, he's talking about spiders. That gives us context to know that when he calls himself a predator, it's likely that he means in the same way that a spider is a predator. Why are spiders predators? Because they hunt and kill other animals for food. The "for food" part of that is really important, because it's a key, defining factor in whether an animal is acting in a predatory way. However, predators are not inherently good or inherently evil. They are, by their nature as animals, inherently neutral. So, when Henry says that he could be "a predator... but for good", we know that he is essentially saying "a predator, like a spider... but with the human capacity to use that predatory status in order to enact what I believe to be good [which, in the context of Henry, means a complete disruption of "normal" human society] in the world".

"With each life I took, I grew stronger. More powerful. They were becoming a part of me." So... this is the line. This is the line that, to me, solidifies the idea that Henry's power grows specifically through the murders that he enacts. And that the people he kills in some way become part of him after death. It's exactly what he says and, although we have reason to doubt some of the other things that he says, this would be a very weird thing for him to lie about from an in-character POV, because it was never brought up as a possibility by anyone else, and weird for him to lie about from a narrative standpoint, because the characters don’t seem to really do anything with that information in s4 (nobody even suggests that Max could be inside Henry’s mind), so if it’s not literally true… why have him say that at all? Because if it isn’t meant literally… it’s a really odd line, and there would be other ways to phrase it if the implication was supposed to be “killing people made me feel stronger/improved my skills, and I metaphorically hold those I kill with me because remembering them gives me perverse glee”. Like, is it possible that’s what he means? Maybe. But personally I think the literal read makes more sense, because the metaphorical read doesn’t make sense in context of him trying to convince El to understand his perspective. Also, just, from a narrative standpoint, if it’s literally true, that opens up avenues to allow previously killed characters to make a re-appearance and, possibly puppeted or twisted by Henry’s mind, screw with the protagonists. Via the UD, Henry killed/directed to be killed: Barb (Nancy), Bob (Joyce or Will… lord if I have to watch Will face down Bob telling him that he killed him, I don’t know what I’ll do), possibly Max (Lucas and/or El), Eddie (Dustin), and technically also Will in s1 if they want to turn the Harry Potter allusions on their head and do a reverse horcrux situation where a sliver of Will’s soul is still in Henry and that’s what’s keeping them connected in which case hhhhhhh (Jonathan, Joyce, and Will could all have interesting reactions to this, but dear god if I have to watch Mike Wheeler face down a twisted, puppeted fragment of Will’s soul and suffer all the abuse Henry can use it to throw at him, and still look at it like s2 Mike looked at Will in the shed? I don’t even know what to say I’ll simply collapse I think??), and then obv if he kills anyone else that would add to the possible haunts. Like. You’ve got a character who can dip into people’s heads and the implication that he literally keeps his victims souls in his mind in some way… you could totally do some interesting stuff with having people meet their tortured and twisted dead loved ones is all I’m saying. Anyway, that’s a tangent. I just think it’s interesting.

So... anyway, in short, we know that Henry is willing to do whatever he wants in service of his own interests, just because he can, regardless of how others feel about it. We know that he considers himself a predator in the animal way (which implies the use of whatever you kill as food or at least a source of energy in some direct way), and that he believes he can specifically harness this predatory nature for his idea of "good". And we know that the people that Henry kills are, in some way, "part of" him, and that taking their lives makes him somehow "stronger" (presumably in his powers).

And... we also know that Henry has been compared to Dracula (or, more broadly, vampires in general via arguably the most famous vampire).

So... the connections to Dracula are pretty obvious on the surface. Scary undead/less dead than originally anticipated dude who was once human but now very much is not lives far away in a spooky old house, surrounded by spooky animals that Aren't Quite Right. And then there are all of the OTHER connections-- a protagonist named Jonathan who is very far away from the woman he loves, SO many letters (I say, thinking about Max's letters and El and Mike's letters and Mike and Will's copious lack of letters, and.... hhh), and a large group going to kill Dracula, including a young woman/girl who has been "marked" by him and, though they have found a rather simple way to keep him at bay from her, if he gets his way she will be killed and will join him forever... I'm just saying. The parallels are there.

But, also, I want to think about vampire myths more generally. Because vampires have a history which dates back at least as far as Mesopotamia (in various forms/in root forms, not necessarily by the name "vampire"/in any forms that are particularly similar to modern interpretations— being clear because I think vampire history/mythology through time is legitimately interesting and many cultures have vampire-like creatures but very few of them are literally called ‘vampires’ and… ugh I’m sorry I’ll get off topic if I let myself rant about this but these myths are so cool!!), so vampires have been a lot of things over time. But at least today, they're very associated with blood in popular culture (nosebleeds), they don't show up in mirrors (traditionally this was because mirrors had silver in them but something something the UD or at least the Mind Flayer doesn't like water, Henry says he holds up a mirror to everyone else... I don't know just interesting), they're associated with bats and wolves (demobats and demodogs), sometimes they're said to be able to turn into mist (the shadow monster?), and there are potential ties to the more general anxieties about blood born or sexually transmitted diseases/to incubus/succubus mythology (a little more abstract here, but this may tie into the way that Henry often appears in dreams/visions which prey on his victims' anxieties-- not to mention, for a show set in the 80s with a gay teen at the forefront, there are copiously no allusions to the AIDS crisis, despite the fact that we see Will being violently bullied for being gay, so, you know, if you take the UD as a metaphor for that reality— a topic so wildly outside the scope of this post that I cannot say more about it even though I actually think it’s a really interesting metaphor that seems to exist in the show— then, yeah, that's another metaphorical tie to blood born/sexually transmitted disease).

But there is also a potential connection between vampires as blood drinkers and the concept of blood as some sort of physical representation of life force/soul. They're not necessarily 1:1 on a spiritual/religious level, depending on your tradition, but it's pretty common to associate blood in some way with the soul. So, when a vampire drinks the blood of their victim, they are, on at least a metaphorical level, essentially consuming the soul of their victims (which gets into some interesting stuff with the common idea that a vampire does not have a soul, or that to become a vampire, one must not only have their blood consumed by a vampire, but must also consume that vampire's blood as well). So, if Henry is allegorically a vampire, and vampires drink something that is metaphorically like soul, and Henry's a predator whose victims make him stronger... hm.

All of which is to say, I think the show is telling us, through the vampire allusions and through the implications of everything he's said, that Henry in some way consumes the souls (or minds or life forces or potential futures or whatever) of his victims (thus making him a true predator who not only kills but also eats what he kills).

This seems to be what he's trying to teach El in that final conversation before she banishes him to the Upside Down, and the fact that she could not (or would not) understand what he was saying seems to have been the thing that turned him from trying to keep her on his side to deciding to attempt to kill her (or to simply make her watch as he kills and presumably consumes Max). And we know that El doesn't learn it, because we can clearly see that killing doesn't make her stronger, so she's clearly not consuming any of the people she's killing. She can mimic Henry's methods of killing people physically (we see this in s1, and that's highlighted when the military suspects that El's doing the murders in s4 because Henry's style is so similar to her own), but she can't or won't do whatever it is that he does to consume souls.

But this poses a problem, though.

Because, El's already had her training montage. She became stronger and went off to face the big bad, and she lost. Max died and Hawkins fell. That's a failure of the "love confession saves the world" trope, as people have discussed, but it's also a failure of the training montage trope! El is at her strongest, and she still cannot defeat Henry alone.

Which brings me to Will. I'm not going to get into all of the details which suggest that Will has powers of some sort, beyond his Henry-sensing abilities. Other people have done that, and there really isn't room for it here. However, what I would wonder is, even if Will discovers his powers at some point before the potential time skip... how is he going to be strong enough to (in tandem with El) defeat Henry, when an entire lab full of trained and superpowered kids weren't able to? Because Will is still a child, himself, and at best, he won't even know about his powers for more than about three years, presumably WITHOUT the intense level of training that El received from birth?

And... here's where I'm going to bring things back to something I've said in another post which is... this late in the game, if they're going to introduce any established protagonists besides El having powers, those powers are going to have to feel like a loss when they first appear/quickly after they appear. The character who has them has to be hurt by them, so they don't feel like a cheap win for the characters. Would it be sudden for Will to develop powers? No, not really. The clues have been there from s1. But they're also subtle enough that if you're not into ST analysis or prone to regularly rewatching the show, they're easy to miss, so a fair bit of s5 would have to be devoted to showing Will realizing that he has them and growing into using them in order for any use of them against Henry to feel earned. Incidentally, these are all the same things which are equally true for the establishment/on-screen development of Byler, so I wouldn’t be shocked if there was a connection there.

And this is where I'm about to go wildly off the rails, but... what if Will has powers and gets a power boost in the absolute worst way possible? Because, depending on how Henry consumes his victims (obviously just killing them isn't it, because that does nothing for El)... I mean. Mike has all those death flags going on (even though I highly doubt he'll end the show dead). I don't know.

I'm just saying... Mike's prone to self-sacrifice, if he thinks it will help the people he loves. I'm just saying, if he were already dying, and if they already knew that Henry has the advantage because he's consuming the souls of the people he kills(/absorbing them into his mindscape in some capacity that allows him to use them to fuel his own abilities), and if they knew that Will had similar powers but with less strength because he only had his own self to draw upon... I'm just saying, would Mike Wheeler do anything else, except beg Will to make his death mean something? Would he honestly trust anyone else enough to literally give everything that he is to them?

I'm just saying, it would be an absolute gut punch of a scene, it would tie back into Mike's s1 character issues of self-sacrifice, it would give narrative weight to what seems to be the fact that Henry in some way keeps or draws power from the people that he's killed. And it would be incredibly easy to write it in such a way that there's more power in a willing sacrifice/in a soul that is willingly with you/willing to work with your own than in a plethora of souls that you have trapped in your mental "web" in order to feast on. Something something gay love saves the day (plus, El's almost certainly going to figure out a way to put Max back into her own body at some point in s5, so it's not even like there wouldn't be a way for Mike to come back to life, as long as they managed to keep his body alive-- also because, as I said in the notes of the post where I first commented on this concept, there's not a snowball's chance in hell that they're ending the show with Will as Mike's devastated living mausoleum, like, it's just not happening that way).

So, uh. Yeah, that’s the thought that keeps spinning in circles around my head, and I hate it so much. I’m aware that this is an out there idea and almost certainly won’t come to pass, and frankly, I’m glad for that.

But the fact that it’s far fetched doesn’t mean that I can unsee the mental image of Mike/Will in a HtN Gideon/Harrow style situation where Mike and Will are both in Will’s head, and Mike, whenever he’s lucid, is begging Will to just finish the job, to consume him properly so Will and El/the Party can be even a step closer to defeating Henry, and meanwhile Will’s doing everything he can to avoid dousing the last bit of Mike he has left, especially when he still hopes to put Mike back in his body. Like. I know this won’t happen, but even the thought that there’s a 0.01% chance that it could has me shaking in my boots.

[theprettyarachnid]

i'm the previous anon, i hope i'm not bothering you with my requests but i'd like you to write an arcane char reaction to their s/o trying to catch their attention.

a/n: of course you aren't bothering me, i love the requests im getting! also i noticed some of you wanted me to add caitlyn so here you go :)

warnings: suggested themes, maybe a little nsfw

characters: jinx, vi, caitlyn, viktor, jayce, silco, vander

Jinx

🕷 She would probably find it cute

🕷 Unlike some of the others, if Jinx is working she doesn't straight up ignore you but her focus usually shifts

🕷 "jinx... i'm bored..."

🕷 She would glance at you before pulling you over to where she was sitting

🕷 Let's you lay on her lap and makes you hand her tools

Vi

🕷 Vi would find it funny and pretends not to notice you looming over her broad shoulders

🕷 You would try distracting her by tracing her tattoos or repeatedly saying her name

🕷 Eventually she gives in and throws you on the couch, getting on top of you

🕷 "what is it, sugar?"

🕷 "i just wanted your attention"

🕷 Vi would just laugh but there would be a look in her eyes

🕷 Prepare to get that attention you wanted

Caitlyn

🕷 Do y’all remember this scene? Yes? Good.

🕷 I can see Caitlyn pulling you onto her lap while she does whatever she's doing in that moment

🕷 You still get embarrassed everytime even though she does it often

🕷 She's kind of a tease so she likes to see you blush

🕷 "happy?"

🕷 She won't ask you but please play with her hair

🕷 If you talk while she's busy, she'll listen but sometimes she gets a little side tracked

🕷 "and then—caitlyn? are you listening?"

🕷 "Hm?"

Viktor

🕷 Viktor is pretty sensitive to your presence, so even if you're in the room he can get a little distracted

🕷 But he's also very disciplined and can get very involved in his work so you might have to try a little harder to successfully get his full attention

🕷 If you brush your fingers against his neck or shoulders, his breath will hitch a little but he'll quickly get back to whatever he was doing

🕷 Might give you the side eye, whether it's a warning or just to see where you are is always a mystery

🕷 he will moan just a tad if you play with his hair

🕷 If he still isn't giving in, you'll try and grab whatever he is working on out of his hands

🕷 Horrible decision on your part

🕷 Viktor will grab your wrist pulling you closer and raise an eyebrow at you

🕷 "and what do you think you're doing my Котик?" (Kotik - kitten)

Jayce

🕷 He'd be getting ready for a council meeting when you would wrap your arms around him expecting a kiss

🕷 I feel like if he was in a hurry, he'd kind of just brush you off without realizing it

🕷 im sorry

🕷 If you were determined to get his attention, you'd grab his wrist just before he'd leave, forcing a small sound of protest from him before grabbing his tie and pulling him down for a kiss

🕷 I dont care how cool that man acts, he will blush a BRIGHT red

🕷 "okay, now you can go"

🕷 You'd straighten out his suit before practically pushing him out the door

🕷 He isn't very focused at the council meeting

Silco

🕷 Because he's so busy, unfortunately you two don't have a lot of time for affectionate moments

🕷 As well as that's just not really Silco's style

🕷 He'd be going over a plan with his gang members while you just sat there listening

🕷 Eventually the idea of catching his attention might be fun

🕷 You would lean forward across the table, playing with your hair or with your wedding ring

🕷 And Silco noticed, he's not stupid

🕷 Every time he'd glance over at you for a second you would just give that innocent look

🕷 Unfortunately, you caught more than just his attention, you caught some other gang members too

🕷 After the meeting, Silco tells you to meet him in his office and whoever was stupid enough to check you out too ended up "mysteriously" dying a week later

Vander

🕷 Between the kids, running the Last Drop, and being in control of Zaun Vander is extremely busy

🕷 It would be a late night at The Last Drop, Vander serving the last few drinks after sending the kids to their room to go to sleep or do their own thing

🕷 It had been a month since the last time you and Vander had any actual alone time and you were about to change that

🕷 You'd go down to the bar to help Vander close up wearing one of his favourite outfits that hugged you perfectly

🕷 Vander would probably choke on his drink, even though you two have been together since forever he still tends to get a little dazed whenever you dress up

🕷 It would only get worse if you ran your hand up his back

🕷 "Alright, everybody out!"

🕷 There would be protests but he'd just kinda crowd everyone together before shoving them outside

🕷 Would probably pick you up bridal style before bringing you to your shared room

[strawberrymilkgeorge]

Part Two. Jackbox Shenanigans

warnings: swearing word count: 2.6k (not including pictures) behind the screen (irl dream x reader) series masterlist ultimate masterlist

Y/n flinched awake, startled by the sounds traveling from the kitchen. Once again, the frosty air pricked her skin, trying to convince her to not move, to stay in bed under the warm blankets. Despite the feeling pulling her into her bed, she rubbed her eyes and sat up, grabbing her phone from her nightstand. Texts from Karl flooded her screen and she replied as she took her comforter off her mattress and wrapped it around herself. She pattered to the source of the noise to find her roommate was making food.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" Naomi asked, eyes wide with concern as she looked at Y/n. "I dropped a pan."

Y/n, who was observing the world through one squinted eye, shook her head and she sat at the counter in the kitchen. "No, I should be awake anyway."

"You're usually awake much earlier. Late night?"

Y/n nodded. "George streamed and we all talked for a little after."

"Oh, yeah, I watched his stream this morning..." she started, eyes focused on the food in front of her but Y/n still caught the mischievous glint in her roommate's eyes.

"Of course you did," Y/n laughed through a yawn. "That's your lover."

Naomi rolled her eyes. "Maybe if you gave me his number he would be."

"He doesn't give it to many people. I just barely got it and I've been friends with him for a year. I'm pretty sure Karl doesn't even have it."

Naomi groaned, though Y/n knew it was a joke... for the most part. She got another text from Karl, and consulted Naomi for a second opinion.

"Should I post this?" Y/n asked, lazily holding up her phone with a picture on the screen. Naomi squinted as she looked back over her shoulder. "Karl keeps yelling at me too."

"Yeah! That's a cute outfit. Make sure to credit Karl or he'll yell at you for that as well."

"No chance I'm doing that."

.

Incoming FaceTime... karol <3

Y/n hit accept and held the phone up to make a face at Karl. He mimicked the position. "Hello, sir."

"Hello, ma'am."

"What are you doing?" she asked him, walking to the bathroom to brush her teeth, her comforter dragging on the floor behind her as it continued to protect her from the cold.

Karl got distracted and started messing with something out of the camera view. "Um, trying to figure out what to do for my stream tonight. What about you?"

"I'm waiting for you to give me a fit check!" Y/n yelled. Karl quickly looked at the camera and smiled. He set his phone down on his desk and ran backward so his whole body was in frame. He posed awkwardly a few different ways before running back and resuming his position.

"Yes!" Y/n hyped with a mouthful of toothpaste. "Let's go, Karl! Karl with the old man sweater!!"

He giggled. "You're the one that told me to buy it."

"Because it's sick. Doesn't mean it didn't belong to an old man before you."

Karl pouted before his face lit up. "Guess what. I met a girl."

"Oh?" Y/n cooed. "Where? Do you have pictures? Is she cute?"

"She's Jimmy's new cameraman. Camerawoman. I don't have pictures, and yes. She's very cute." His cheeks turned red and Y/n smiled, flipping off the bathroom light and heading to her closet. She threw her comforter back on the bed and tried to pick out an outfit.

"Come on, bud, elaborate. What's her name? Have you asked her out yet?"

"You don’t get to know her name, I don’t want to jinx anything. Plus, you’ll just look ‘Mr Beast crew’ and find out anyway. Also, no, I haven’t. I'm pretty sure she thinks I hate her because I have not said a single word to her. I get so nervous when she's around I freeze up and just like... act weird. And then as soon as she's gone, Chris freaking roasts me so bad."

"Aw, I can teach you how to flirt if you want!"

"Yeah, okay," he scoffed, sarcasm dripping from his words.

"What's with the attitude? I'm great at flirting."

"No, you're not. I watched Gogy's stream last night."

"What does that have anything to do with anything?"

"I heard the way you spoke to Dream."

"What?!"

"You have zero game, Y/n. Absolutely none. Zilch, if you will."

"Yeah, because I wasn't flirting with him?"

"Not successfully, at least."

"Karl, what?" Y/n laughed but she was so confused. "No part of me was trying to flirt with anyone in that stream."

"Oh, come on," Karl groaned. "Don't do this again. Don't pretend to not like a guy and then cry to me when you're wack ass attempts don't win him over."

"Karl," Y/n started, looking directly at him. "I genuinely have no idea what you're talking about. I wasn't flirting with him. I do not like him."

"I'm just saying, you talk about him a lot. Like, you always panic when he interacts with your posts because you're scared he's going to DM you right after. And you gush about him a lot."

"I do not gush. I admire the hard work he puts into his videos but I talk the same about him as I do with George and Sapnap. The only difference is I'm friends with them and not Mr. Minecraft. He's intimidating, that doesn't mean I have a crush on him."

Karl stared for a moment, trying to read Y/n's expression to detect any lies. "You'd tell me if you did, right?"

"Karl, I tell you everything. I'd tell you if I murdered your family." They both laughed. "It's impossible to hide anything from you, you're my best friend."

"Okay, sweet, but please don't murder my family, just to be clear."

"I won't. I love your mom too much."

"Well, how was meeting Dream, then? Despite apparently not being in love with him?"

"It was cool. Terrifying because it felt very forced but the four of us hung out on the call after George ended his stream and he was much more relaxed."

"That's true. Aren't we all?"

"Not you! You're the exact same person on and off camera. Just a little ball of giggles."

Karl giggled which made them both laugh more. Suddenly, as if he completely forgot until that moment, Karl sat up quickly and yelled, "What am I going to do for the stream?"

Y/n shrugged. "See if anyone wants to play Jackbox. Chat always loves those and it's relatively easy to throw together last minute. You just need to find people that are free to play."

"Genius. Who should we invite?"

"We?"

"Yeah. It was your idea, you have to play."

"But, I've never played! And I barely know all your friends so I wouldn't get half the inside jokes. I'd be a boring addition."

"Please? They're your friends too! You just talked to Sapnap and George for four hours yesterday and George was the only one playing anything. That's friendship if I've ever seen it."

"But... others.... like literally everyone besides Sap and George...."

"Things like this are how you get to know them better. Besidessss, you're never boring."

"Fine, I'll play."

"YES!" he shouted. "Okay, who should we invite?"

**********

**********

Y/n huffed and scooted her chair closer to her desk. She pulled up Discord and hovered over the voice chat everyone was in. An overwhelming number of voices chaotically spoke over each other as soon as she joined.

"Oh no," she mumbled.

"AYYEE!!" a voice yelled, the green bubble lighting around Quackity's name confirming her suspicions.

"Aye," she said back less enthusiastic. "Hi everyone."

"She's here!" George cheered.

Y/n could hear Sapnap huff. "Finally. Geesh."

"This isn't even your stream, calm down." Y/n's eyes scanned the names on the left to read who else was involved in tonight's games. She had suggested a few people to Karl but wasn't sure about the final list. Besides the boys who had already greeted her were BadBoyHalo and Dream.

"Hello, Bugsy! It's nice to meet you! I'm BadBoyHalo."

Y/n smiled widely at his voice. "Hi, BadBoyHalo! Nice to meet you too."

Her eyes slowly traveled to the last name on the list, which had yet to greet her. She wasn't bitter, but she was curious why he hadn't said anything yet. The boys hyped up him talking about her so much but she had yet to feel that energy from him. She picked at the bottom of her hoodie, eyes darting between the names as they lit up when someone spoke.

"Is Dream still AFK?" Sapnap asked.

"I think so," Bad replied.

Maybe that's the only reason he hadn't said anything. Y/n felt stupid for thinking it had anything to do with her.

"He's probably coding something or something like that," George teased.

"Haha nerdy ass man," Quackity cackled.

"Language."

"Don't you also code shit, George?" Sapnap called out. "You're probably helping him test something after this, huh? As Quackity said, nerdy ass man."

"You know what, Sapnap? I'm not sure I like your attitude all that much."

Y/n smiled. Despite feeling nervous, she was already having fun just listening to everyone talk. The real nerves would kick in when they were live in front of tens of thousands of people and she would have to be funny.

A message popped up in the general chat, notifying everyone that Karl was joining the voice call soon so they shouldn't say anything bad.

"Everyone say something weird," Quackity directed.

Discord dinged and Karl's name joined the list on the side. "AAAHHHH-!" he started yelling over everyone to let them know he was here in case they were saying anything bad. With his luck, they were going to say stuff anyway to mess with him.

"So, yeah, that's how I lost my virginity," Quackity said as if he just finished a story.

"To a prostitute?" Sapnap added quickly. "Wow, I never thought you... oh Karl!"

"Language!" Bad gasped.

"What the..." Karl laughed loudly. "What did I just join?"

"Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry," Quackity apologized, which was hard to make out since he was laughing so hard, surprised at what Sapnap added to his joke.

"Bad, you can't say language about a prostitute," Sapnap defended. "That's really rude of you. Maybe it's a little unconventional but they're just tryna make some money the best way they know how."

George laughed with Quackity as Bad sputtered. "I-I said language about what Quackity said!"

"What, virginity?" Karl asked innocently and Bad yelled again.

"Bad hates people who have had sex!" Y/n called, causing Quackity to laugh loudly.

"Bad! How could you?! That's so messed up!"

"Wait, guys, is everyone here?" Karl asked.

"Dream isn't. We don't know where he went."

Karl groaned and started typing something, presumably yelling at Dream to join.

"Let's goooo! We're popping off!" Quackity started saying, stalling. "We're popping off!" George joined him, becoming absolute fools to keep the chat entertained.

"Okay, he's here!" Karl said. "Everyone's here!"

"I'm here, I'm here, sorry. I was... yeah, sorry," Dream stuttered out.

"Welcome back, Dream!" Bad chirped.

"Hello!" he replied. Unexpectedly, his next greeting was directed at Y/n. "Hi, Bug."

Y/n instantly got shy for no discernable reason. She blamed it on his voice and its ability to manipulate emotions any way he wanted. That and she was getting attention from someone first. "Hi," she squeaked back, hoping the contrast of her icy hands would cool her face enough to focus on the game.

"Bugsy, you are adorable," Bad stated simply.

"Sapnap! What did you just send me?" George asked loudly, and just like that, the attention was off of her and she could breathe again.

"What?" Sapnap feigned innocence.

This was going to be a long game.

"Let's play!" Karl decided. "Should we warm up with some Quippy?"

Y/n focused intensely on her answers, silently hoping the others would find her funny.

"Oh my gosh," she mumbled as everyone else finished writing. "Y'all, I'm about to get Quiplashed so hard. Don't make fun of me."

"I seriously doubt it," Dream said. "You can't possibly be worse than George at this game."

"Shut up, we always-  it's like 3 am my time. I can't, like, think of things 'cause my brain isn't functioning."

"Yeah, that's why," Sapnap teased.

"Surreee," Dream said.

The first round wasn't too bad. Y/n was in 5th place but she got quite a few laughs so she didn't care too much about where she stood. She got a notification from Dream on Twitter as everyone laughed at one of Quackity's answers.

Y/n looked back at her screen and saw the new prompt and answers. She read them quickly as everyone was laughing and with a few seconds left to choose, voted for the one on the left. It was funnier anyway.

She loosened up substantially after another round, and she knew it was mostly because Dream had reached out to her. Something about him comforted her and made her feel safe, which warmed her heart.

"Bugsy! What the hell, that's so messed up. You're so messed up," Quackity yelled, laughing at the answer on the screen. They were playing Survive the Internet and her comment got taken way out of context, just as the game intended.

"Oh my gosh!" Karl cackled loudly. "Bugsy, I didn't know you felt that way. Oh my gosh? They're just kids?? Bugsy out the gang?"

Y/n hid her face in her hands and laughed. "Noooo!! Wait I never knew- I didn't know I was ever in the gang?"

"She really said, 'infant children? slaughter them all'," Sapnap joked.

"You know, I think you'd get along really well with Technoblade," Dream added. "Though his specialty is orphans, as it appears."

"No, no, no, whoever wrote that heading is SO messed up!" Y/n defended, rereading the heading that made her comment look bad. She knew it was a game but all the attention on her was making her embarrassed. "Who would think to put that?"

"Everyone cancel Busgy!" Karl yelled.

"Karl, no! You're supposed to be my best friend!"

"I don't know how I feel about my best friend killing children..."

"Karl!!"

"Nooo," Bad protested softly. "I like Bugsy. Don't cancel her."

"Everyone vote!"

The article with Y/n's name turned out to be Dream's. "Dream! What the hell is wrong with you?" she yelled, causing him to wheeze loudly.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I wanted point."

The whole night ended up being like that. Y/n had a lot of fun and by the end, she felt a lot more comfortable with all of them. Quackity, Karl, and Sapnap were loud and very high energy while George and Bad were quieter. Dream was half and half, sometimes matching Quackity's volume and sometimes going a while without saying a word. Overall, Y/n had a lot of fun and hoped to let back in the gang in the future.

**********

PREVIOUS • NEXT

**********

A/N: WOOO PART TWOOO!! Hope you guys enjoyed this part! Also thank you so much for all the love on the first part!! I did not expect it to get as much attention as it did!!!!!

we clearly haven’t got to dream and yn being close yet bc they literally met the day before this but i added a small little dream/yn moment :] pls let me know how you liked this part!!!!!!!!!!!! 

taglist: OPEN (at the time) @hydrate-tion @loraleiix @tinaswagbd @charsdummb @smileyyuta @1ghoste1 @cerberus-hellhound @gaysludge @queestionmark @carnations-red @letsloveimagines @the-fictionwriters-hairdo @boiled-onionrings @a-cryptic @fee-btheweeb @letsloveimagines @erwinss @just-a-stan

[arcane-ish]

*urge rising to post a “Some people apparently don’t understand the concept of shipping” lecture*

Like... you do realize that shippers don’t actually magically make stuff appear in canon, right? That like writers make those decisions? Especially on a show like Arcane that probably has already finished their scripts for season 2? 

So if you don’t like something in canon then maybe you should take it up with the writers and not the shippers?

And you like know that shipping isn’t really bound by canon? Like not every shipper even wants their ship to end up in canon and I would say an even higher percentage understands that there is a good chance that whatever they like won’t end up in canon. Again, see large list of shipping for non-canon/unlikely to end up in canon ships. Because like, a lot of people use canon just as a jumping off point to spin their own ideas? 

Furthermore the position “aww, they look cute or hot or cool or fun together” does not imply that your position is also “and I want them to take over the show and the show to be only about that anymore”. People are capable of finding multiple things cute in a casual manner. It’s totally a thing that people do. Plenty of time, shipping is not that deep for people that they go “omg, I’ll die and start boycott campaigns if my ship does not become canon and get all of the screentime”, plenty of time for plenty of people it’s just “hey, that looks cute together, let me doodle a picture of them/like a cute picture of them”. 

(not to mention that in the case of Arcane, some of that shipping actually predates the show, so what, you are gonna try and shame people for shipping something because YOU think it shouldn’t be part of canon Arcane when it is something they liked before Arcane was even a thing?)

Never thought the need for a rant like that might be prompted by a ship as comparatively vanilla as fucking Jinx and Ekko. (who on top of everything they are are borderline confirmed that they are NOT going to have a relationship in Arcane canon because the writers hinted heavily that they are not going to put Jinx in a romantic relationship with anybody) 

Like that’s usually the kind of “it’s just fiction” and “yes we realize it’s not going to be canon” debates people have over like the hardcore incest/age difference/protagonist&antagonist/A tried to kill or actually successfully killed B or B’s family ships. Not over “two teenagers who are not related and neither is in a relationship with anybody else nor does it to our knowledge violate their sexual preferences as neither of them have defined in that regard in one way or another to this point”.  (especially since the actually controversial part of “oh and btw, she’s kind of maybe a mass murderer” at no point entered the conversation) 

Once more: 

- Not all shipping means tht the shippers expect or even want to have it to end up in canon - Some shipping uses the canon material only as a jumping off point and lives happily in a fantasy version of the show that is quite removed from the source material - The vast majoriy of shipping is fully aware that their shipping (ie that 300 chapter hardcore porn picking out the curtains fic) will never end up in canon, that like even in the best circumstances only a fraction of what they can imagine will ever be part of canon - Fiction is not reality. ie just because a character like Jinx for example murdered fictional people in a fictional world does not mean that people who think she is cool or interesting murder people in real life or condone other people’s murder in real life - It’s up to the writers to make responsible writing decisions for their pieces of media. Writers likely make writing decisions on their own shipper preferences or if they follow something just because it is popular (again debatably so, imo it’s unlikely to really get writers to write a ship they don’t connect with at all/that they don’t already like on some level) that would mean that they are very weak willed, which is a writing problem in itself. 

[musicalbird04]

What Are YOU Doing Here??: Chapter 3

Read on ao3

It started about a month ago. At least that was when she first noticed it. Peter had come home for dinner, actually using the front door, which was weird enough already. What made it worse was that when she asked about his after school Spider-Manning, which she always did, he froze up before responding like normal. May tried to ignore his reaction. She figured if it was something important, he would talk to her about it eventually.

As they ate, she noticed that he also didn’t seem to want to talk about himself at all, which was a tad suspicious. He then practically ran to his bedroom as soon as they finished eating. At first she had written it off as a bad day and tried to ignore it, but then it started to be a reoccurring problem.

Needless to say, May was beginning to worry quite a bit. Ever since that day, every time she would ask Peter about Spider-Man, he would immediately become extremely awkward and stutter through a response before attempting to change the subject completely. The weird part was that other than that, Peter seemed to be happier than she had seen him in years.

She really didn’t want to do anything to jinx this streak of happiness, Peter certainly deserved a break from the pain and suffering he has gone through, but clearly there was something going on that he wasn’t telling her. That something also clearly was related to Spider-Man somehow. The only problem was how she was going to figure out what it was. Peter had made it fairly clear that he wasn’t going to tell her. She had tried to push him on the subject a few times with no luck. He somehow always managed to successfully change the subject.

At one point, she decided to try looking in other places for information. She pulled up several news sites that she recalled mentioning Spider-Man before in the hopes that maybe there would be something useful there. Unfortunately, there had been no recent mentions of him at all recently.

Finally one day while Peter was at school, she had an idea. If it was superhero related, who would Peter be most likely to talk to about it? Tony Stark, and she just so happened to have his phone number. Quickly, she pulled her cell phone out and pushed the call button. It rang a few times before he picked up.

“May!” Tony’s surprised voice rang through the speakers on her phone, “What’s going on, you never call me.”

“I wanted to ask you about Peter,” She responded. She paused for a moment, not entirely sure how to explain the situation to him. In hindsight, she probably should’ve thought about that before calling.

“Is Peter okay?” Tony asked, his voice suddenly filled with concern. It made May happy to hear how much he clearly cared about her nephew, even if he wouldn’t admit it in those words.

“Actually, I was hoping you could tell me,” May began, hoping she wasn’t wasting her time. “He keeps dodging the subject every time I mention Spider-Man. I don’t suppose you would know of any reason why he would be doing that.” Okay, maybe that last sentence came out a bit more accusatory than she had intended, but she was worried, and getting increasingly frustrated about the situation. If there was something that they were hiding from her, she had a right to be upset about it.

“Not that I can think of, to be honest I haven’t seen the kid in a while. I can pull up the stats from his suit and make sure he hasn’t been hiding any injuries or something though, if that’ll make you feel better.” May immediately agreed. She wasn’t sure if she should be happy that Tony wasn’t helping Peter hide something, or even more frustrated again because he didn’t know what was going on with her kid either. After a few moments of silence, where May assumed he was looking up whatever he needed to, she heard his voice again.

“That can’t be right,” Tony said quietly, sounding extremely confused. Before May could ask what he meant, he spoke again. “May how often would you say Peter had been going on patrol, in, let’s say the past month?”

“Almost every day, why?” She asked, confused as to where this was going. Briefly, she heard Tony curse under his breath. What was wrong?

“FRI, please tell the lovely May here what you just told me.” 

“According to Karen’s reports, Mr. Parker has only put on the Spider-Man suit a total of two times in the past 30 days.” The slightly robotic voice calmly stated. May was not happy to hear that information. If he hasn’t been wearing his suit, then what the hell has he been doing when she thinks he’s out as Spider-Man.

“Well that’s just great,” She exclaimed, now pacing around the living room. “He’s not dodging my questions about Spider-Man because something happened that I should be worried about, he’s dodging my questions because he’s lying to me about where he’s been going.” Tony had the audacity to laugh at her anger. “Don’t you laugh about this Stark.”

“I’m sorry,” He said, clearly still laughing. “Just ask him where he’s really been going. I mean, it’s gotta be something he enjoys more than Spider-Man, which I wasn’t aware was possible. Maybe the kids got a girlfriend?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, he would tell me about something like that.” Wouldn’t he?

“Oh, because he tells you everything?” Tony teased, and she just hung up. She got the information she needed from him, she didn’t need to listen to his sarcasm. Checking the time, she realized that it wasn’t too long before Peter usually came home. As soon as he got back, she would confront him about where he’s really been going after school and on the weekends.

Peter apparently had other plans. At first she wasn’t too concerned about that, because it was a Friday night. If there was any day that it was normal for him to be a tad late coming home, it was Friday. Even so, it was a couple hours after he usually arrived back when he finally walked through the door. He wasn’t technically out past curfew, but any later and he would have been. Clearly he hadn’t seen her right away and was quickly walking towards his bedroom as soon as he was inside. If she didn’t know any better, she would say it looked like he was trying to sneak in, but if that was the case, he would’ve gone in through his window.

“Not so fast there buddy.” May said, standing there with her arms crossed, causing Peter to jump.

“Hey May,” He started, his hand moving to scratch at his neck nervously, adjusting the collar of his shirt slightly as he did so. “I didn’t see you there.”

“Mmhmm. How was patrol?” She asked pointedly, hoping he would notice her tone, and realize that she knew. It would save him a lot of trouble.

“Oh, it was good, nothing too interesting.”

“Oh really?” She asked incredulously. He was clearly starting to get nervous.

“Yep.” He answered quickly. He shifted awkwardly, causing the collar of his shirt to move from where he had adjusted it before and that was when she saw it. There was a decently sized bruise covering the part of his neck where it met his shoulder. Maybe Tony had been right about hiding a girlfriend from them. She pretended not to notice it at first.

“Any injuries at all I need to worry about?”

“Nope.”

“Really? Then what’s that on your neck?” Immediately, Peter’s face began to turn red. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, with no words coming out. She let him stand there stuttering awkwardly for a moment before talking again as a form of minor revenge for making her worry so much.

“Except I know that can’t be from your Spider-Manning because I had a wonderful conversation with our good friend Tony Stark earlier, and he told me that you’ve only been out twice in the past month.” Peter honestly looked absolutely terrified. “Tony seems to think you’ve got a girlfriend, which seemed ridiculous at the time, but seeing that thing on your neck, I’m not so sure it is. So I’m gonna ask you this one time Peter, and I want the truth. Where have you been going?” Of all of the reactions she had been expecting, it hadn’t been this. As soon as she finished talking, Peter started crying and began to repeatedly apologize.

“I’m so sorry May, I know I should’ve told you, but I was scared, which is stupid, but I just don’t know how you’re going to react. I really didn’t mean to lie to you for so long, and I am so so sorry. I know I should’ve told you what was going on sooner, and I know you won’t be that mad but it still scares me and…” “Peter, I need you to tell me what’s going on.” May interrupted, realizing that Peter was starting to talk in circles and wasn’t really getting anywhere. She pulled him down to sit next to her on the couch. “Just tell me, whatever it…”

“I was with my boyfriend.” Peter suddenly blurted out, interrupting her sentence. As soon as he said it, his hand flew up to cover his mouth, and he seemed to feel about as surprised at his own words as May did. She stared at him for a few moments, blinking as she processed what he had just said. 

“Why didn’t you just tell me that in the first place?” May asked him after a few seconds.

“I’m sorry, I know I should have, it’s just, I never really told you that I wasn’t straight, and I didn’t know how you would react. I know it’s stupid, because obviously you don’t have a problem with it. I just didn’t know how to tell you, and I kept getting too nervous at the last second any time I wanted to bring it up.” She let him ramble for a second before pulling him into a hug, which he immediately accepted. Pulling away, she looked at him for a moment, thankful he had stopped crying.

“So tell me about this boyfriend.” When Peter didn’t respond right away, she decided to ask something more specific. “What’s his name?” “Harley.” Peter responded quietly, looking down at his hands.

“That’s a nice name. You got a picture of this Harley kid?” Peter smiled and pulled out his phone. As soon as he turned the screen on she saw the picture. It was a selfie of two boys smiling happily at the camera. One of them was obviously Peter, who seemed to be the one taking the photo. The other was a slightly taller, blonde boy, who had his arm wrapped around Peter’s shoulder. As she was looking at the photo that was clearly Peter’s lockscreen, a text notification came through, and she saw a glimpse of it.

Harles <3: Did you make it home okay? Usually you text me by now…

There must have been more than that, but that was all she could see in the brief notification that popped up. Peter pulled his phone back and typed something, probably in response to his boyfriend, before putting his phone away.

“You two look cute together.” She said looking at her nephew with a small smile. He looked so happy. Peter blushed slightly at her statement. “Obviously he makes you happy, and he’s clearly worried for your safety, so I can almost forgive him for that.” She finished, pointing at the now obvious hickey that was on Peter’s neck. He blushed even deeper as his hand quickly flew up to cover his neck. 

May laughed at his reaction as she walked out of the room to go to bed. She felt much better now that she knew what was going on, and she couldn’t say she blamed him for not telling her right away. Sure, she was still a bit upset that he had lied about where he was, but she also understood how hard coming out like that was for him.

A few days later, May hadn’t been thinking much about the whole situation anymore. Briefly, she thought about how it might be a good idea to tell Tony what had happened, since she had pulled him into this mess. He might like to know that there was nothing to worry about. She walked to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, but froze dead in her tracks at what she heard as she passed Peter’s bedroom.

“I think I’m gonna tell Harley about Spider-Man.” What? She knew Peter had been pretty happy with this Harley boy, but she hadn’t realized that the relationship was already that serious.

“I’m serious Ned, I love him. I don’t just wanna keep lying about it.” Okay. Definitely that serious. Without thinking that much, she burst into Peter’s room, causing him to jump and almost drop his phone.

“I want to meet Harley.” She stated before he got a chance to say anything.

“I gotta go, I’ll call you back.” He said into the phone before setting it down, and turning his full attention to May. “What?”

“Harley. Your boyfriend. Clearly it’s a pretty serious relationship, so I want to meet him.” Peter stared at her for a few moments.

“Okay?” He answered, still looking a bit startled by her sudden entrance.

“Invite him over for dinner this weekend.” She finished before walking out of the room. Now seemed as good a time as any to call Tony back, while she was still thinking about it. She got the glass of water she had originally come out to get before going back to her room and selecting the contact. As usual, it rang a couple times.

“Hey May.” Tony began. “You figure out what’s going on with Peter yet?”

“Yes I did. You were almost right. He doesn’t have a girlfriend, but he does have a boyfriend.” Tony was silent on the other end for a while so she added. “Kid came home the other night with a massive hickey on his neck too. Made the conversation slightly awkward.” At that, Tony started to laugh.

“Really?” He asked,  still laughing. “Way to call the poor kid out.”

“He shouldn’t have lied to me.” May said, chuckling slightly as well. “I’m meeting the boy this weekend so hopefully that goes well. Just thought you might like to know what was going on after our last talk.”

“I do appreciate this information, thank you.” She hung up the phone after that. Now she just had to wait for this weekend and she could meet this Harley kid who had stolen her nephews heart.

[reinerispretty]

beneath the moon. (sokka x f!reader) pt7

hi and welcome to another chapter!!! thank u very much for reading :D i hope u enjoyed the last one as much as i did!! this chapter is a little shorter than the rest, but i had to get through it to be able to get to the good stuff :) 

pt1

pt6

pt8

During the night, when the moon was high, she quietly made her way to Yue’s room to look through it. She took only three things: Yue’s fluffiest purple coat, the portrait (Y/N) had given to her on her birthday, and the small wooden fish that Sokka had carved for her.

(Y/N) rocked back and forth on her feet with the motion of the waves. She had been on many boats before, but none so far out at sea. The air was crisp and salty and the sea spray that splashed up made her face feel sticky. This could be another kind of life that she would enjoy, she thought. There was something about the ocean that seemed so freeing to her. She wondered if all waterbenders felt that way.

She watched as they floated past massive icebergs three times as tall as their ship. She had learned once that icebergs were even bigger on the underside, like massive mountains, but she didn’t exactly want to find out for herself.

After Hahn’s visit to the palace, more suitors started lining up outside of the heavy wooden doors. She figured that they thought with Hahn out of the way, they might actually have a shot at getting within the Chief’s good graces. She had refused each and every one of them and provided no explanation why. Some accepted defeat gracefully, while others tried their best to argue with her. And despite living in the coldest place on earth, (Y/N) was extremely hotheaded. She shot back at their arguments with arguments of her own, daring each man that fought to challenge her to an actual duel. This had caused rumors to float around the city about her.

In her healing lessons, she heard girls whispering about how cold-hearted the princess must be to turn down so many sweet boys. The servants talked about her when she wasn’t near and wondered how a sweet girl like Yue could ever have such a disagreeable sister as (Y/N). The idea of staying in a tribe that would never fully accept her struck fear into every inch of her body. It was in everyone’s best interest that she left.

So when Sokka had approached her after her healing lessons one day and informed her that she needed to pack because they would be leaving the very next morning, (Y/N) had not hesitated. She gathered a pack of all of her most important items, like clothes, shoes, brushes, and money. She had thought about packing her paint supplies, but she figured they would be too heavy to carry from city to city. She wrapped them gently in a cloth scarf and slid them underneath her bed. Maybe one day she would visit her parents and be able to take them with her.

During the night, when the moon was high, she quietly made her way to Yue’s room to look through it. She took only three things: Yue’s fluffiest purple coat, the portrait (Y/N) had given to her on her birthday, and the small wooden fish that Sokka had carved for her. She had seen it many times, lying on Yue’s dresser, and figured that he might want it back. She had shoved each of these things deep into her pack so they wouldn’t fall out.

(Y/N) had spent the remainder of the night lying in wait for the sun to rise over the horizon. She only had a few moments to escape the palace before the servants awoke, so she had padded through the icy halls and made her way to her parents’ room. They both slept soundly as the sun barely filtered in through the windows. She kissed the both of them on their foreheads and left her goodbye note on their dresser. Then, as quietly as she could, she had crawled out of the lowest windows of the palace and fell on her back into the snow. She had held in her groan of pain and instead ran directly for the docks to wait for the others.

Now, she stood on Master Pakku’s ship as it headed for the Southern Water Tribe. Aang prepared Appa for their impending flight, while both Sokka and Katara gave Pakku a list of things to share with their grandmother. (Y/N) leaned over the edge of the railing and watched the waves as they crashed against the boat. She waterbended a small sliver of ocean water up so that it could just barely touch her fingers and smiled at its coolness.

“Are you ready?” Katara asked as she appeared at her side. (Y/N) nodded and picked up her bag from the ground. She gave Master Pakku a curt nod.

“Wait, Princess,” He called to her. She turned to face him.

“It’s just (Y/N) now.” Pakku nodded.

“Your father told me to give you this.” He placed a light blue velvet bag in her hands. When she opened it, she found more gold, silver, and copper pieces than she had ever seen in her lifetime. (Y/N) looked up at Pakku, her eyes wide with shock.

“He knew I’d be leaving?”

“I think he always knew you would leave, one day,” Pakku said with a small smile. (Y/N) swallowed and slipped the bag into her pocket.

“Thank you,” she said. She walked over to her friends, where Katara helped her onto Appa’s saddle. As soon as everyone was seated, Aang shouted, “Yip yip,” and Appa soared into the air. (Y/N) watched as the only place she had ever known shrunk further and further into the horizon. For the first time since her sister had died, she felt happy.

---

There were a lot of things she had never done, and setting up tents to sleep on the cool, hard ground was near the top of that list. But she had been asked by Katara to set up their tents and she wasn’t going to refuse! She was part of a team now, so she had to do her fair share of the work. How hard could setting up tents be?

As it turned out, very hard. Just as she had set up one tent and moved onto the next, the first tent would collapse behind her. After an hour, she thought she had successfully set up four tents, only to watch them crumble to the ground. (Y/N) felt like she could nearly tear her hair out from frustration. 

How could she be a part of this team if she couldn’t even put up a tent? She felt absolutely useless. Maybe coming with the Avatar and his friends hadn’t been a good idea after all. She wasn’t properly equipped for life outside of the North Pole, and it was so hot! She had never felt heat like this before and it was nearly unbearable! She wasn’t sure how Sokka and Katara put up with it!

Aang walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Here, let me help!” 

(Y/N) gave him a small smile of gratefulness as he showed her how to set up the tents. “It was tricky at first for me, too,” Aang reassured her as he dug the poles into the ground. “But it’s all about making sure you have a good foundation. Here, try on that one.” 

(Y/N) walked over to the other tent and tried her best to replicate Aang’s movement. The pole successfully went into the ground, and she smiled up at Aang. “Thank you!” She said excitedly. 

“No problem! We can split the rest of the work.” The two swiftly set up the tents and (Y/N) clasped her hands together, smiling proudly at the tents. It was a small and ridiculous thing to be proud of, but she had never accomplished anything like this at home. 

She helped Katara catch fish for dinner by waterbending them from the river and into the basket. (Y/N) watched intensely as Katara cooked stew for them. She had always had servants in the palace to make her food for her, so she was intrigued at the mix of herbs and spices Katara was putting into her concoction. By the time it had finished cooking, it smelled lovely, and (Y/N’s) stomach rumbled from starvation.

She devoured her dinner as they sat around the campfire and discussed their plans for tomorrow. “We’re heading to the Earth Kingdom,” Sokka explained. “There, we’ll be escorted to King Bumi, who will teach Aang earthbending.” 

“You’re going to love Bumi,” Aang said to (Y/N). 

“I’m not so sure,” Katara interjected. “Bumi is...a lot.” 

“He encased Katara and I into rocks the last time we saw him.” Sokka scooped a spoonful of stew into his mouth. (Y/N’s) eyes widened in shock and she looked frantically at Aang. 

“It was rock candy,” Aang said, as if that made the situation any better. (Y/N) looked back down at her stew. 

“Maybe I regret coming with you guys just a little bit,” She said, and while she wasn’t necessarily trying to be funny, the rest of her team laughed. 

---

Tag List!

@aangsupremacy , @treestarrrrrrrr , @beifongsss , @mdgrdians , @aroyaldarknessblr , @musicalkeys , @aimee1602 , @plxstic-rose , @davnwillcome @squeamishdionysus , @clowninfortodoroki @thia-aep , @jinxed-tea @sara5208 @valiantprincessthea @alrightazula , @awesomelupe , @itsivyberry , @thebluelcdy , @samsmultifandomblogs , @loganrwebb , @minifruity , @cuddlykoala101 , @dionnaea , @alive-ahahah-fuck , @pipsqeak1326 , @krxliesdexd , @wastelandbbyg , @milk-n-cheese , @the-firebender-girl , @zukosvice , @justab-eautifulmess , @awkwardnesshabitat , @tomshollandz , @mmmidek-blog , @lavendercrystals , @dailytrashypanda , @bigbuckyenergy , @honey-ruel , @jackbamexpress , @astralsaf , @thebluelcdy , @solarsuki , @sometimeseverythingsucks , @nataliahaslosthershit , @teenbiology , @eridanuswave , @izzieserra , @astroninaaa , 

[freckled-petals]

The Relationship: Part 1; Talbott/Reader

Summary: When Talbott’s “fan club” causes him trouble, Penny’s idea for you to step in causes quite the uproar.

Word Count: 3970

It was a brisk, fall afternoon at Hogwarts, half way through the semester. The castle was lively with students running to classes and to meet with their friends, and there was still enough interest in school before the winter holidays brought that interest to a halt.

You were on your way to your last obligation of the day - a study period in the great hall. It was probably your favorite time of the week, mainly because it allowed you to get quite a bit done and have a place to hang out until dinner time arrived.

After entering the large hall, you made your way over to your typical spot by the fireplace, unsurprised to find Penny there waiting for you.

“Afternoon,” you hummed, placing your things on the table before dropping into your seat. “All right, Penny?” you questioned, and she finally looked up. It usually took a few tries to pull her attention when she had her favorite potions book in hand.

“Hi!” She chimed, flashing a smile before turning back to her book. You couldn’t help but laugh to yourself.

“Always predictable,” you grinned, pulling out a few books of your own.

“There’s a really interesting part here on Mandrake root—“ she began, but you were quick to interject, lest she go off on another one of her tangents.

“No Charlie or Liz today?” You questioned. “Talbott?” You added as an afterthought. The two of you had become friends at the end of last year - at your insistence, of course - and he’d been occasionally joining your group during this period. Glancing around the hall, you didn’t see any of your other friends.

“Charlie and Liz stayed to help Professor Kettleburn,” Penny answered, creasing the corner of the page she was on before closing the book. “Something about an angry Bowtruckle,” she giggled.

“Of course,” you grinned, adjusting your robes as a chill blew through the hall.

“And Talbott?”

“I’m...not sure,” she trailed, her lips forming a pout. “He’s been skipping class again, you know. I hope he’s all right...”

You frowned as Penny elaborated on Talbott’s whereabouts - or rather, her lack of knowledge on that. Based on what he’d told you, you were pretty sure it didn’t have to do with the reason he’d been skipping last year - it wasn’t near the anniversary of his parent’s passing. Then again, he hardly spoke, so you were at a loss.

“Hm,” you hummed in thought, resting your head on your hand. After he’d opened up to you just the slightest bit last year, you’d realized just how fragile the silent boy was. You couldn’t help but be a bit concerned for him. “I’m sure he’ll turn up,” you said, though Penny had already returned to her book. 

——

The study period passed...unproductively. You learned absolutely nothing from the passage on the history of wandlore that you’d been trying to read, and you found yourself glancing towards the door more often than not. By the end of the period, you’d all but decided to go hunting for Talbott.

Then you scoffed. Why were you thinking so hard on this? You barely knew him, and you were hardly friends. Hell, you were only friends because you’d practically forced it on him. He certainly hadn’t been keen to the idea.

The next hour and a half dragged on dreadfully slow, and Talbott had yet to make an appearance. Your huffy attitude had once again given way to concern.

“Hey!” Penny suddenly called, jolting you from your thoughts. Looking at her, then the direction she was suddenly waving, your eyes settled on the slender form of Talbott, now failing to slip into study hall unnoticed from the attention Penny was drawing.

He hurriedly made his way over to the two of you, ignoring the frown Professor Sprout was sending him.

“You’re too cheery, Penny. It’s a real fault,” Talbott grinned at the Hufflepuff before slipping into the spot beside her.

“This is a perfectly appropriate tone, thank you very much,” she responded indignantly, though her smile didn’t fade. Sometimes you couldn’t help but wonder how the two of them became friends.

“Sure,” he responded simply.

You couldn’t help but watch him as he settled in. He let out a deep sigh, definitely looking a bit stressed. He didn’t look nearly as hopeless or distraught as he had last time, though. He pulled out a book and ran his fingers through his hair before looking up, his eyes meeting with yours. You quickly opened your mouth to ask him something - anything - to cover up for your blatant staring, but thankfully, Penny had beaten you to it.

“You weren’t in potions today,” she spoke, turning towards Talbott.

“Is...everything alright?” She questioned, her concern evident on her face and in her tone.

Talbott turned, clearly looking taken aback by her question. Maybe he was surprised she had even noticed.

“I...” he began, casting another glance at you, then Penny again, before his gaze settled on a spot of nothing on the table. “It’s a long story,” he sighed, scratching the back of his head. He didn’t elaborate further, so you spoke up.

“Is it...about your—“ you began, though he was quick to look up and shake his head.

“No, no, it’s not,” he said, continuing to shake his head. You were vaguely aware of Penny glancing between you in confusion. You raised an eyebrow, prompting him to elaborate.

“It’s...?” Penny trailed.

“It’s these bloody third years!” Talbott erupted, surprising both you and Penny with his outburst.

“Excuse me...?” You questioned, your brow creasing in confusion.

“Talbott, you’re not making any sense. You’re going to need to explain to us what’s going on,” Penny said, her voice soft and caring.

Talbott let out a huff, rubbing his forehead in an act that looked almost like annoyance. It wasn’t long before his expression morphed into one of embarrassment.

“There’s these third years...a few Ravenclaws and one or two Slytherins - it really depends on who they grab at the time...” Talbott sighed, shaking his head as if to rid himself of a bad dream. “They won’t leave me alone,” he frowned.

“Are they...bothering you?” Penny questioned, clearly following just as well as you were.

“Jinxing you...?” You offered, your confusion evident. You didn’t understand how a group of third years would keep him from class.

“They won’t leave me alone,” he repeated. “Following me everywhere, leaving me notes. I think one tried to sneak me a love potion,” he said.

You couldn’t help but laugh, which clearly wasn’t the right response, because Talbott shot you quite the glare.

“Come on,” you said, glancing between him and Penny. “They’re just third years. How bad can it be?” You questioned.

“Love. Potion,” he repeated unhappily.

“Have you tried...I don’t know...asking them to leave you alone? Expressing your disinterest?” Penny suggested, clearly trying to help.

Talbott sighed again, pursing his lips. “I think they like it when I get annoyed,” he frowned. “Like they want a rise out of me.”

“Talbott Winger, the ladies man,” you grinned at him. He shot you another look before turning back to Penny.

“I barely have a moment to think before one of them’s chirping in my ear or—“

“Ruffling your feathers?” You grinned, unable to let the opportunity for a bird pun fly by.

“You’re as bad as them,” he drawled, crossing his arms over his chest.

“So words don’t work on them...” Penny hummed, ignoring your bantering. “Have you tried actions?”

“I don’t follow...” Talbott frowned, his thick brows knitting together.

“Well, you can tell them you’re not interested all you want, but maybe it would sink in if you showed them you’re not,” Penny mused, her eyes bright like she’d just successfully brewed Draught of Living Death.

“...meaning?” Talbott frowned, glancing over at you briefly before looking back at Penny.

“You need a girlfriend,” she said simply. You couldn’t stop yourself from laughing aloud, especially at the flustered look on Talbott’s face.

“Doesn’t that defeat the purpose, Pen? He clearly doesn’t want that or he wouldn’t be complaining about all of this,” you said, continuing to giggle in amusement.

“I certainly don’t want to date third years,” Talbott responded, his eyes narrowed.

“It wouldn’t be real, of course. Just a show. You know, to get them off your back,” Penny said, tapping her chin in thought. “But who would fit?” She hummed.

“I don’t know about this...” he frowned, glancing between the two of you at the table.

“Chiara, maybe...?” Penny continued to muse, ignoring his hesitation. “Just for a few weeks to get the third years to leave you be...”

“It can’t be that bad getting attention from some girls, can it?” You questioned him. His eyes met yours and you felt a slight jolt at the intensity of his gaze.

“You know I don’t like attention,” he responded, quirking his lips. It was true, you did know. You knew just how much he preferred being left to his own devices. It was his way to avoid getting hurt. But maybe Penny’s plan did have some merit. He definitely needed some more friends, as far as you were concerned.

You listened to Penny list off names, watching as Talbott remained stoic, as usual. The more you listened, the more you felt a slight nagging in the back of your head. The thought of Talbott with a girl - real or not - didn’t quite sit well with you. You didn’t want to dwell on why that was the case, though.

“Maybe Badeea if we want to keep it in your house...” Penny hummed.

“No,” you spoke up quickly, drawing looks from both of them. “I-I mean,” you frowned, clearing your throat. “Who would go along with this? It would be an odd request to approach someone with. Plus, those girls don’t know him that well.”

Talbott caught your gaze, holding it for a moment before you quickly looked away.

“Its just...I mean to say that it might appear fake, and then the third years would never leave him be,” you quickly tried to clarify, ignoring the heat rushing to your cheeks.

“You’re right, you’re right,” Penny hummed, quirking her lips. “It can’t be just anyone,” she hummed. “They’d have to play the part well, and it has to be someone the third years wouldn’t walk all over. Someone well known and respectable,” she mused.

“Sounds like you, Pen. You’re the most popular witch in our year,” you chuckled, scratching the back of your head. Mentally, you were kicking yourself for even suggesting that. You saw the looks she and Talbott would exchange on occasion. You couldn’t help but wonder if there was something there between them. Penny was his first friend at Hogwarts, after all.

“I wouldn’t mind,” Penny offered, turning to Talbott with a warm and inviting smile. You suddenly felt nauseous.

“You’re too bubbly for me. No one would believe it,” Talbott grinned at Penny and she playfully stuck her tongue out at him. You couldn’t help but think of how couple-ish that exchange looked.

“Actually...I was thinking you would be perfect,” Penny said, and your eyes doubled in size when you realized she meant you.

“Wh-what...?” You asked dumbly, chancing a look at Talbott who was silently observing you.

“I don’t know why we didn’t think of it sooner. You’d be perfect!” Penny continued.

“I...I hardly think I’m someone people would respect or anything like that,” you denied.

“Rubbish. You’re a top-notch student, prefect, everyone’s seen what a star you’re becoming at Quidditch,” Penny rambled, your cheeks darkening as she went on. It didn’t help that Talbott was staying silent on the matter either. “And how many cursed vaults have you broken in to? Everyone’s heard about that and I’ll tell you: everyone’s impressed. Shall I go on?” She grinned.

“N-no, that’s quite alright,” you murmured, quirking your lips. You chanced a look in Talbott’s direction, finding his gaze still locked on you. It was...unnerving, to be honest. “Well?” You questioned finally with a relenting sigh. “How ‘bout it?”

Talbott gazed at you for a long, hard moment. You felt as though you’d melt on the spot. “Alright,” he finally spoke, and you released the breath you hadn’t realized you’d been holding.

“Great!” Penny chimed, clearly looking pleased with herself. “This will be fun,” she added and you caught Talbott rolling his eyes.

“Fun,” he scoffed. “I fail to see the fun part,” he drawled.

“You’ve got a fan club and a new girlfriend. How is that not fun?” You questioned sarcastically. Talbott shot you a look, though for a moment, you thought you saw amusement flicker in his eyes.

“So, how should we go about this...?” Talbott questioned, turning back to Penny.

“Well, you two will need to get close. Really close,” Penny grinned, glancing between the two of you. “In fact, you should be sitting over there,” she told Talbott, pointing to the spot beside yourself. “Go,” she nudged, grinning at him.

Talbott let out a grunt, pushing himself up from the table before walking all the way around it.

“You’re way too excited about this,” you drawled as you waited for Talbott to rejoin you.

“It’ll be fun, trust me. Messing with a couple third years? Pretending to be in a relationship? It’s all very amusing. I wish I had someone to fake-fancy me,” she giggled.

“You passed on the opportunity,” you reminded, just as Talbott slid into the spot beside you.

“Sit closer,” Penny urged, a bright grin on her face. Maybe the fun was just going to be on her end, you thought.

Talbott begrudgingly slid closer, his arm momentarily brushing yours. “Okay?” “Well, you have to look happy about it. She is your girlfriend, now,” Penny hummed, and it was your turn to scoff.

“He’s never happy,” you drawled. You could feel Talbott glaring, but you forced yourself to keep your eyes on Penny.

“What’s going to sell this? The third years are unrelenting,” Talbott grumbled. “Obvious things. Things only friends wouldn’t be doing,” Penny grinned, looking between your two. “Hold hands, keep the physical contact whenever you can, longing looks - no more glaring, Talbott,” Penny giggled.

By this point, your cheeks were on fire. It hadn’t sunk in before that you’d actually be doing all of this. You suddenly felt very self conscious.

It certainly didn’t help that in the next moment, Talbott had reached over and taken your hand. Without thinking, you quickly snatched it back, ignoring the pleasant jolt you’d felt from the brief contact.

“What are you doing?” You asked hurriedly. “There aren’t any third years around now,” you said, though you felt your face growing hot.

“You two really should practice,” Penny frowned at the exchange. “So it’s believable when the third years are around,” she said.

You couldn’t even glance at Talbott in that moment. You were embarrassed and unsure of why the contact had felt so nice. Sighing, you reached for his hand, allowing him to take it once more. You watched his hand shift for a few moments before his fingers ended up slipping between yours.

“More comfortable that way,” Talbott mumbled, refusing to look directly at you.

“So cute,” Penny giggled. “Besides, the more people that see you acting like this, the better. Word travels, you know,” she hummed.

“You probably shouldn’t tell your friends about this,” Talbott spoke up, glancing down at you beside him. “That it’s not real,” he mumbled.

“Good point,” Penny chimed, nodding her head. “If your closest friends believe it, there’s no double the third years will too!”

“This all seems rather involved, don’t you think?” You drawled, letting out a sigh.

“Come on. It’s just for a week or two until the third years lose interest,” Penny said. All you could do was sigh.

“If they lose interest,” Talbott grumbled, turning to his unopened books.

——

Eventually the study period came to an end and the great hall began filling with students eager for a meal. You friends began filing in as well, each one casting glances at where Talbott’s hand remained linked with yours. He hadn’t let go once, and you were sure your cheeks were a permanent shade of red at this point.

“Evenin’ everyone,” Charlie chimed as he joined you and your already seated friends, including Talbott and Penny from before, plus Ben, Liz, Barnaby and Tonks. “This is...new,” he remarked, raising an eyebrow as he gazed at your linked hands.

Despite the looks, none of your other friends had remarked on it yet, and you felt a fresh wave of embarrassment wash over you.

“Thank Merlin someone said something,” Tonks exclaimed, slamming her hands on the table in excitement. “I thought we were all gonna avoid the giant hippogriff in the room!”

“Isn’t it wonderful?” Penny supplied, grinning brightly. “They just told me this afternoon,” she hummed.

You glanced over at Talbott who was clearly trying to melt into his seat, though he hadn’t dropped his hold on your hand. You quirked your lips, unamused he wasn’t speaking. This was all for his benefit, after all!

“Yup, it’s true,” you said, resting your head on your palm.

“I didn’t know the two of you were that close,” Barnaby remarked, looking over at you curiously.

“Well, Talbott’s a very private bloke,” you playfully drawled, patting his hand that was linked with yours.

“You should have heard him gushing during our study period,” Penny grinned at the two of you. You felt your cheeks burn - clearly, Penny was determined to mortify you.

“Good on you, mate,” Charlie said approvingly before beginning to eat. The rest of your friends quickly followed, changing the conversation to an array of things that thankfully did not focus on your new relationship.

“Maybe next time you can speak up,” you quietly grumbled to Talbott, shooting him a look before beginning to eat.

About half an hour passed - both you and Talbott remaining awkwardly silent. Well, at least with each other. You chatted with a few of your other friends, though they didn’t miss the opportunity to ask a few questions about you and Talbott along the way. You were definitely looking forward to hiding in your dorm for the remainder of the evening. This was far too much for one day.

“That’s them,” Talbott’s deep voice spoke quietly, his hand clenching the slightest bit around your own. Looking up, you found him staring across the hall at the table on the far side of the room. Penny turned as well, craning her neck to get a good look.

Huddled in a group were three Ravenclaws and two Slytherins, just as Talbott had initially described. They were giggling loud enough that you could hear them from across the hall, waving their wands exuberantly.

“You have your own little fan club,” you grinned, observing the third years with interest.

“Very funny,” Talbott grumbled. “The blonde is the ringleader,” he jutted his chin in the girl’s direction. You observed the girl he singled out, inspecting the Ravenclaw girl with long, curly blonde hair and deep dimples. She was truthfully, very pretty. You were surprised he didn’t have at least some interest in her.

“That’s Isabella Mott,” Penny said. “Her parents work in Hogsmeade,” she informed. Leave it to Penny to know everything about everyone.

“She’s a pain in the arse is what she is,” Talbott scoffed. “Can’t even sit in the common room in peace anymore.” You couldn’t help but grin at his frustrated remark.

Beside the blonde was another Ravenclaw with short, red hair and a Slytherin with jet black hair and sharp, arched eyebrows. Penny was quick to identify them as Ella Wilson and Avery Thorne.

Amelia Stevens and Madison Lee were the remaining Slytherin and Ravenclaw, respectively. The former was quite small with frizzy chestnut locks while the latter had a thin face framed by dark hair with slight waves.

The group chatted boisterously, unaffected by the looks they were garnering from a few surrounding students. You could definitely see how Talbott found them annoying.

“They’ll leave you alone soon enough,” Penny tried to assure the unamused Talbott. “This plan will work,” she nodded.

“That remains to be seen,” Talbott drawled before letting out a sigh. You could tell he was at his wit’s end with these girls and you couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for your earlier teasing. You were quick to decide that you’d make sure to see this plan though as best as you could.

——

By the time dinner had finished, you were beyond exhausted. Keeping up a façade in front of your friends wasn’t as easy as you’d been anticipating, but you supposed it was good practice.

Letting out a small yawn, you stood and bid good night to your friends, only for your brow to crease when Talbott pulled himself up as well. You turned to give him a questioning glance, but he was silent packing up his things.

“What are you doing?” You frowned, speaking just loud enough for him to hear.

“I’ll walk you,” he said, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “It’s a boyfriend’s job,” he added cheekily.

“Have a good night, you two,” Tonks called, a knowing smirk on her face. You felt hot all over again.

Once you had your things gathered, Talbott was quick to reach for your hand once more. Thankfully, you didn’t pull away as you had earlier. After holding his hand for the last few hours, you supposed you were used to it.

You headed out with Talbott, hearing your friends playfully jeering behind you. When someone let out a whistle, you were sure you’d die on the spot. It caused multiple people to look and you just wanted to hide.

You quickened your pace, forcing Talbott to hurry as you slipped out of the great hall. You were quick to drop his hand, flexing your fingers to ward off the stiffness that had formed.

“Well, that was something of an event,” you said, turning to glance at him as you slowed your pace, the two of you headed for the grand staircase.

Talbott cracked a smile, nodding his head as he continued gazing straight ahead.

“Do you...think it’ll work?” You questioned softly, pursing your lips.

“I...would hope so,” he murmured, casting you a glance as you climbed onto the first staircase. “It has to,” he said, steeling his voice. You offered a nod at his determination.

“Well...I’ll be as convincing as I can,” you said, leaning against the railing after moving to the next set of stairs. “Where do you usually see these girls?” You questioned, gazing at him steadily. He looked as exhausted as you felt, maybe even more so.

“After potions. One o’clock,” he responded shortly. “When I’m trying to leave. They have the period after me,” he said. “Then of course, they always seem to find me around the castle,” he sighed.

You quirked your lips, nodding intently as you listened to him. “Alright. Tomorrow at one. I’ll meet you after your class,” you said.

“Huh?” He questioned, confusion spreading across his face.

“I’ll meet you,” you repeated with a slight laugh. “We’ll let those third years get an up-close look at us,” you grinned. “Sound good?”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, sure,” Talbott nodded, gazing down at you. “I...” he trailed, biting his lip. “I didn’t, y’know...thank...you...for doing this...for me,” he stuttered out, unable to meet your surprised gaze.

It only took you a moment to recover before you offered him a smile. “Have a good night,” you responded simply, just as you reached your house’s portrait. “Boyfriend,” you added, before quickly ducking inside. It was only then that you allowed yourself to acknowledge how fast your heart was pounding.