#mostly to vent about playing second fiddle

[comatosebunny09]

Don’t know why, but I feel like fighting.

Imagine being so mad you take on an entire gang just to vent. And when you wander back to Sylus’ base, knuckles bruised and split, lips and nose bleeding, cuts littering your face, and drenched in sweat, he’s mortified.

He treats your wounds and tenderly wraps your hands, wanting to ask what the hell happened to you but not knowing how. You’re uncharacteristically quiet; he can feel the ire drifting off you in waves. After you shower, he tucks you into bed. You still have yet to say a single word.

Later on, he finds out from Mephisto that you wiped out a rival faction just because it was a Monday.

[zeonomicon]

I gotta ask: I've been craving G1 Soundeave having his buttons played with, either SFW or NSFW, I just *shakes fist* I need them to be pressed. Soundwave my beloved <333

Wonderful ask, I see you are a fellow person of culture. Shout out to Soundwave, gotta be one of my favourite stim toys.

Since the pairing wasn't specified, I went with a Cybertronian reader.

Answer under the cut, mostly SFW but suggestive.

G1 Soundwave x Cybertronian!Reader

It was nice to have moments like this with just the two of you, when Soundwave had a chance to take a break from his multifarious duties keeping the ship running and neither of you were being roped into the latest of Megatron's grand plans to take down the Autobots once and for all. You were reclined on the berth with the TIC in your lap, playing some pre-war song he'd kept in his databanks while you caught up on a holonovel you'd become engrossed in. You hadn't been paying much attention to the lyrics, captivated by the story unfolding in your datapad, but as a few lines caught your attention you decided to play it back to hear the last verse again. You snaked your arm around Soundwave's waist, feeling for the raised surfaces of his buttons, and Soundwave stiffened a bit; you supposed in surprise. You pressed his stop button, then your digits found the narrow-angled edge of his rewind button and you held it down for a few seconds before pressing play. Each button lit up energon magenta when you pressed it. Soundwave's buttons were quite satisfying to press, offering a little resistance and making a pleasing click once activated.

Soundwave's servo had gripped your knee while you fiddled with his buttons, but now he laid himself against you with his backstrut to your chassis and his helm on your shoulder, leaving not much room for you to pick up your datapad and read again. You didn't mind, content to enjoy your lover's music for a little while. You moved your servo, intending to set your datapad aside, but he placed his own servo over it quickly. Curious. Experimentally, you stroked his play button with one digit, feeling the texture of the raised symbol, and then slowly applied pressure, holding it just before its active position. Soundwave's cooling fans clicked on.

Emboldened, you held down the rewind and fast forward buttons at the same time, causing the music to stutter and skip before smoothing back out as Soundwave corrected the contradicting inputs internally. He pushed up into your touch keenly. You pressed all of his buttons at once, then alternated quickly switching between each of them in random order, deriving equal gratification from the sheer fun of playing with him as from the way Soundwave arched and shifted in your hold, vents growing shallow.

You pressed the record button and moved in close to him, winding your arms about his chassis and running your digits up the smooth glass. Soundwave let out a whine filled with static when your digits left his buttons, but then you found the eject button on his shoulder and his visor brightened in anticipation. You splayed your servo over his chest compartment and pushed, the spring mechanism attempting to propel the tape deck open only to be met with resistance. He pressed himself even more firmly back against you to give it room to open, but you pushed it shut with a click, holding the button down. Soundwave's visor flickered. "Release it."

"Or what?" You massaged his compartment, pushing hard with your thumb just above his lower hinge to keep it closed, your digits stretching to mess with the buttons on his abdomen again, playing back Soundwave's melodious sighs and the hum of cooling fans.

"Or Soundwave: Will press your buttons."

[soundcrusher]

Little morning ramble incomming!

--------------------------------

So, I have mentioned it a little bit before, but Reg!Phoenix is an escape artist. Kinda.

He's able to get out of most traps, due to Second Fiddle having used him as life bait whenever they went out to hunt some Autobots. Adding to that, his past crew would oftentimes forget that Phoenix was still inside their newest trap, and with no-one else there to help him out, the kid had to learn to do it himself. He even came up with short names for the traps in order to recognize them. Mostly because it made things easier for him.

And while it was fun for him to try and figure a way out, he soon enough learned to hate it. Especially after he was trapped in a T-10 trap and forced to play bait for a gunslinger, who showed him more compassion than anyone else, next to Fools Shot. (This is also where Reg!Phoenix got his gun from. The gunslinger knew that he was going to die as soon as the kid's crew came, so, he made sure that Phoenix had something to defent himself with. The gunslinger couldn't leave a kid behind with no means of defend, after listening to his story.)

This is also one of the reasons why he's so good at getting out of rooms and sneaking through vents, next to his crew purposely locking him up in his room and leaving him there for days. (Phoenix was quick to learn to use vents as a means to escape, and to get to Fools Shot.)

-------

Side note!

I was actually planning on mentioning this in my other story "Meanwhile, in a nother Universe" (which is set in @cuppajj's Sentient Lost Light au).

Like, I wanted a good ol' standoff between Reg!Phoenix's old and new crew, just for the sole purpose on having a contrast from where he started and where he's now. But the standoff would come after a small portion of the crew, plus Phoenix, got trapped. With the kid having a small panic attack, before helping the others figure out on how to get out of a mix between T-10 and T-26.

It would also have served as an exploration on Phoenix's past, because the kid still hasn't told most of his story.

Up until then, the Lost Lighters would have known that the kid had a shitty past crew, but they wouldn't have known to what extend. (He would have also slipped up and told them why exactly he hates the colour yellow.)

And after that's over and everyone makes it back safely, Phoenix would have a long talk with Rodimus about the things he hasn't told anyone except Lightlost, before expressing his guilt over having unwillingly helped in the capture of many Autobots.

I mean, he has seen some 'bots getting either wounded or killed whenever he was forced to play bait. The feeling of guilt for helping someone like Second Fiddle is something that haunts him in his dreams. (Next to the things Reg!Tankcrusher did, but THAT's another beast entirely.)

[unusual-ly]

🎭👏🫂 for Bill and Gabriel in the uni au?

Thanks for the prompt, anon! I haven’t had an emoji prompt that I could actually think of an idea for in ages, but it only took a few days to figure out what to do with this one!! It did take quite a while to write tho, being ill for a bit then preparing for Halloween etc, sorry about that, but here we are, the second ever uni AU fic~! I think I got a bit carried away again with the conversation but I brought it back to the emojis in the end!

Read on FFN

“You can do this,” she whispered, staring down her reflection, “You’ve made it through rehearsals, you can do this.”

There were plenty of factors contributing to her nervousness right now; she had only just started her transition, she’d only performed in English once before (and that hadn’t exactly been a great success), she didn’t have her old friends anymore, Bill had written this role specifically for her. Ian was watching. Gabrielle closed her eyes, took a long, deep breath in, and exhaled. Of course she could do this. Bill would be right beside her, and he seemed pretty confident.

Right on cue, Bill appeared in the doorway.

“You have no idea how utterly terrified I am right now.”

Her face fell. All she could manage was a weak “… Oh…?”

“I mean, I know that whole disaster last time was mostly Phil’s fault,” he hardly seemed to notice, and instead started pacing around the room, “But it was still my play. And you only get so many chances at a first play!”

When she didn’t respond, he turned to her and frowned; she was staring into space, anxiously chewing her bottom lip and fiddling with the cuff of her sleeve.

“Are you alright?”

She blinked. Her head snapped round again, “What?”

“You look nervous.”

There was a pause as Gabrielle hesitated, then nodded, “I am,” she shrugged, “I suppose,” and looked down at her hands, still toying anxiously with her sleeve, “A bit.”

“But you were fine the first time, weren’t you? And you’ve been amazing in rehearsals!”

“That was just rehearsals! And a lot has changed since the first play…”

Ah…

“Are you talking about you coming out…?” he asked, somewhat carefully.

She sighed and nodded again, “Among other things.”

Bill seemed to forget about his own fears then. Or he decided his friend’s troubles were more important. He closed the dressing room door and came to stand by the mirror with Gabrielle.

“OK, what’s up?”

He patiently listened as she spilled the contents of her mind (though she did skip over one little detail), letting her vent until she had gotten everything out, then he thought for a moment.

“Right,” he said eventually, “First off, your English is great. Nothing to worry about there. Second, and this might sound a bit harsh, but I don’t think your old friends really deserve to take up so much of your attention. You’re better off without them. I mean, they weren’t very supportive, in more than one way.”

“Hm…” He did have a point, she had to admit.

“Third, I’m sorry if I put any pressure on you writing this part, but you’ve nailed every rehearsal, I’ve seen how well you can pull it off. I’ve seen you handle mistakes,” he gave her arm a reassuring pat, “You can’t exactly disappoint me, y’know.”

She couldn’t help but crack a smile at that, “Thank you.”

“And most importantly,” he cast an exaggerated sweeping gaze around the otherwise empty room, then leaned just a little bit closer, “If anyone gives you any trouble, I can always…” he trailed off and Gabrielle cocked her head, curious. Before the following silence went on too long, he dropped his eyes to the floor awkwardly, “… Well, report it to Southampton, probably.”

Gabrielle scoffed at the obvious performance and rolled her eyes affectionately, “Of course.”

“I could absolutely take care of it myself but, you know, I do tend to… escalate drama rather than alleviate it.”

“I suppose I can’t argue with that.”

Bill frowned, “Well, you could argue a little-” then she turned back to the mirror and he saw the look on her face she was trying to hide, “You’re deflecting.”

“What?” she didn’t turn back.

“You’re trying to wrap this up weirdly quick. What’s wrong?”

“We have just discussed what was wrong, haven’t we?”

“Gabs. There is clearly still something on your mind. You’ve solved the rest of it by talking, why not this?”

She went quiet for a moment.

“It’s just that… there are certain people watching whose opinions I value very highly,” she said, still facing the mirror, “I want to make a good impression…”

“Certain people…?”

“… A certain person…”

Bill quirked a curious eyebrow, “In the audience…?”

There was a slightly longer silence. Gabrielle bit her lip. Bill waited.

“No.”

“… In the cast?”

“… No.”

It only took a second or two before Bill’s face lit up.

“I knew it. It’s Ian, isn’t it?”

Gabrielle stared at him, “How could you possibly guess that?”

“Like it wasn’t obvious. You’re basically obsessed with him.”

“How so?”

“You can’t stop smiling around him, you take every chance to talk to him, you always seem to find a way to bring him up in conversation…”

“Fine,” she huffed, “But that doesn’t make me any less nervous.”

Bill just smiled and shook his head, “I don’t think Ian’s gonna judge you. If anything, he’s usually been pretty impressed with your performances.”

“You think so?”

“Definitely. Now, come on,” he got up and went to open the door, “We’ve got a show to do, and it will go perfectly.”

“Perfectly?”

Bill, already striding down the corridor, called back to her over his shoulder, “I won’t accept anything less!”

Gabrielle sighed affectionately. Only Bill could be so blindly confident. Who’s to say she couldn’t do the same?

———

An hour and a half later, Gabrielle stood onstage beside Bill, along with the rest of the cast, after their final bows. The audience was on their feet, the applause ringing in her ears. As exhausted as she was, and as scared as she had been before the play, she couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so proud of herself, and so at home.

She couldn’t believe the cheer she had gotten when she came out at the curtain call, and the moment the curtain fell, she turned and threw her arms around Bill. He just laughed and lifted her off the ground for a moment. When he put her back down, he leaned in close to her ear.

“I saw Ian watching you at the end there. I think he might have almost missed a cue.”

[struggling-with-time]

Stressful streaming [Corpse  x reader]

Paring: Corpse husband x Female!reader

Summary: “What if y/n isnt a good gamer (they do something else on yt and never really got into it) so they just really suck at being the imposter? And everyone is trying to make them feel better but they feel super crappy about ruining the game for everyone- especially when they get paired up with corpse?” Requested by anon

“can I request something where y/n and corpse are dating, she is the group's baby and everytime she kills everyone's like 'yeah, that's cute bUT YOUR BOYFRIEND THO'.” Requested by anon

Warnings: Idk, this took a complete 180 midway through, and even idk what’s going on anymore. Fluff?  Comfort? Cuddles???

Words: 2k

A/N: Open for requests. And a two for one, you know me at this point.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The two of you had been living together for quite a while now. And you had been public about your relationship for a long time, had it been up to either of you, nobody still wouldn’t know. But it’s definitely better on both of your nerves not having to tiptoe around each other when you recorded, or he streamed.

You really enjoy books, so that’s what you naturally made the topic of your YouTube channel, book reviews. You had always recorded yourself reading and made it into a time-lapse after, it was when easier now that you didn’t have to worry if Corpse said anything and you looked up to answer him. You weren’t really into gaming so it surprised you a lot when Corpse had sat you down yesterday and asked if you wanted join them in the game today. The other had been bugging him to get you on call for longer than just saying a quick hi and then leaving him again. You weren’t much of a people person, honestly neither of you were. But Corpse was still better at interacting with others. Both of your setups was already in the studio, due to you liking edit your videos when he streamed, so you could still be together. Despite you mostly reading whenever he streamed, because then there wasn’t a chance he accidentally got caught on your camera.

Your routines worked for each other, but this was new territory for you. Both being live and gaming. You were nervous. To put it out there you were straight up shaking of nerves. Sure you wouldn’t be live yourself, and it was just among us, you had seem him play it a million times, but it still scared you what if you said something stupid, or did something stupid. Then you wouldn’t be able to cut it out, everyone would know in an instant.

Corpse greet his stream, as you load up your game, you’re fiddling with the hem of his sweater, makes him feel like he’s closer than the short distance that’s between you, because right now he seemed like an ocean away.

He shows you how to join the call and you accidentally squeak in chock as someone yells into their microphone. You can feel Corpse moving beside you, as he tries his best not to laugh at you.

“Shut up.” You mumble, and lightly shoves his shoulder.

“Me?” A guy with an irish accent asks.

“No! Not you, I’m so sorry that wasn’t to you- Corpse stop laughing at me!” You cut your own sentence off. As he now is completely failing at keeping himself from laughing, inviting everyone and their mom to listen to his beautiful laugh. You sulk for a bit, before he composes himself.

“But you’re just so damn cute.” He pets the top of your head, and walks back to his own setup, where chat is going rocket speed. He tries to read a couple in passing, but he turns his attention back to you when you whine.

“I’m not a child!” you pout at him and sticks out your tongue. A smile right on your lips as he copies you. You just love this man with all of your heart.

“Never said you were.” He teases back, before he starts to greet the people in the call. You realise most of your nerves have disappeared, no longer shaking, you’re getting a bit excited to do this. You listen closely when corpse says the name of each of the people in the call. You only knew the names before joining, but not what voice that belonged to whom.

When you’re finally in the game, Corpse suggests you put on the white skin and a flower. Your reply?

You lean close to the microphone and goes. “No.” And picks the yellow skin with the plant hat, declaring you’re now a citrus fruit.

“Corpse, how in the world did you catch someone like her?” you think her name was Rae asked.

“I didn’t she caught me.” He admits, happily. “Still having trouble believing she chose me.”

Earning an awe from the rest of the call. Two lovebirds.

“Simp!” someone yells in the call, you’re not really sure who, in the sea of mixed noises. Earning a laugh from you.

Crewmate flash across your screen, and you didn’t totally mean to peak, but you saw the red flash from his pc. As the game starts up and your character isn’t moving you realise you don’t know what you’re doing. Corpse realises too when his character starts to circle yours and nothing happens.

“Babe you good there?” He looks over at you, as you’re pressing each key on your keyboard testing out what happens. He chuckles at the sight. “let me help you.” He gets up, and leans over you, as he shows you how to move. His own character standing still, as he helps you around the map and shows you how to do the tasks. You happily let him guide your hands, enjoying the warmth he radiates as he stands near you.

That’s when a warning flash over the screen. Emergency meeting. You think it said. A screen with a portrait of all of your characters comes up.

“Corpse you good there, you haven’t moved all game?” Felix asks.

“Oh, sorry, I was helping Y/N with how to play.” Corpse answers over your mic.

“Hey guys, how do I make my name red like Corpses?” you innocently ask, with a gleam in your eyes as you look up at Corpse knowing damn well why his name is red. He’s the bad guy.

Corpse furrows his eyebrows at you. Glaring at you, as the rest of the call is laughing, it doesn’t take long before his astronaut is floating across the screen ejected into outer space. He leans close to you, making sure to mute your microphone first.

“You sure you want to play like this kitten?” He whispers to you, you respond by smacking his shoulder, and once again telling him to shut up.

Corpse helps you through the rest of the game. He makes sure you’re good before walking back to his own chair and greets his chat, finally paying attention back to them. Another game starts and the two of you  are imposters together. Corpse quickly goes over the rules of impostors, and it doesn’t take long before you have made your first kill, not noticing Sean was in Nav together with Rae.  But before he’s able to report it,Corpse comes to your rescue by venting into the room and killing Sean. The relief is short lived as  Felix comes running into Nav and see the two of you standing over Seans body, quickly reporting.

“Y/N you’re doing good, but you need to press the report button when it comes visible.” Felix starts out. “Also, it’s Corpse, there was a body in Nav, Sean. Wait Rae and Mark is dead too.” You smile to yourself as you realise he didn’t discover Raes body in there too, you feel a bit of pride.

Corpse looks over to you grinning at him. “We walked in together I was showing her where the report button is and how to use it.” Corpse defends himself. “She never found a body in the last game.”

“That’s true.” You choose to ignore he fact you’re lying to these strangers, and tell yourself that you’re technically speaking the truth. You never found a body in the last game.

“I’m sus of you Corpse, but we have no other evidence.” Felix says,

“And we shouldn’t vote on 7.” Toast comments. Everyone votes skip, and the two of you live to see another round.

The next kill is by Corpse, and you immediately report it, stating you found it in… what was that room now called?

“We found it in… that room?” You try and look over at Corpse for help.

“Electrical, headed there for wires.” Corpse quickly takes over to cover for you. Knowing full well the rest very much knows it’s the two of you.

“I think it’s a self-report, Y/N you’re trying out some big brain strats, but I saw you vent from med bay.” Toast tells the rest. You curse underneath your breath; you are starting to catch on the rest are trying to be nice. But you get it, you’re ruining the game for them, especially Corpse. A few seconds passes as everyone votes and your astronaut is sent into the vacuum of space. You sigh.  You watch as Corpse, gets one kill before it gets reported.

“What was everyone’s last task?” Grease asks the group. He gets an array of answers, but all to him seems nowhere near the body.

“I’m still sus of you Corpse.” Felix says, “You either failed card swipe twice, or forgot you already faked it.”

“How could it have been me? I was with you the entire time.” Corpse responds.

“That’s not true, when lights went out I couldn’t find you, and we just split up before I found the body now.” Felix tells the other incriminating Corpse. It doesn’t take long before he gets voted off. He looks a bit annoyed at the outcome. Knowing it was a risky kill. But instead in your mind you take it as he’s annoyed you were his partner. You reach out for his hand, and he takes it, you stroke it a few times and he seems to calm down again.

“It’s been fun you guys, but I’m not really good at this, I think I’m going to get back to do some reading. It was fun though.” You announce to the rest, Corpse watching in confusion over the sudden need to leave. The others bid their goodbyes. You get off the discord call. And closes up the game and shuts off your pc.

“Hey chat, I’ll be right back, I’m taking a quick break before we continue.” Corpse mutes his setup and walks over to you. While doing that you’ve frustratedly put your head in your hands, and is onboard the blame train for ruining the game for the others. Corpse wraps his arms around you and brings you right back to reality and where you belong, in his embrace.

“Babe, are you okay? Do you need me to stop the stream?” He carefully asks.

“I’m sorry I ruined your game. I really tried my best, I promise.” You sigh, looking at him, and leaning into his hug and the warmth.

“You didn’t ruin anything, Y/N. You made it better, I had a fun time with you, even if we weren’t the best pair.” Corpse starts peppering you in kisses alround your face until you start giggling.

“There is my beautiful Y/N.” He smiles at you, he knows he’s so whipped, and he wouldn’t give it up for anything in the world when he sees that smile of yours.

“Thank you.” You mumble as you put your neck into his neck, cuddling up against him. “Can I stay for the rest of your stream?” He doesn’t need to answer, he just sits back down in his own chair, and you automatically and easily, swing a leg over him. You cuddle into his chest and listens as he starts talking to his chat again.

“Y/N says thanks for everything, but this is really out of her comfort zone, and I’m proud of her for having done it.” He praises you to the rest of the world. He looks down at you smiling. He mute his mic as he whisper to you. “You’re still my favourite impostor, kitten.” You giggle, and he turns his attention back to the game. Getting ready to be a crewmate.

[sw124]

FNAF Security Breach: Mini AU

[This AU name comes from the Six Mini Musicmen designed by the talented @erigold13261 an their other page @chaoticrobotics an the story that inspired from their design. I couldn’t resist, so I hope you like it!]

Title: New Member

Sun checked the clock, it was close to closing. He made another once around the daycare making sure everything was spick and span, once that was done he talked to Moon about the nights plans.

“Are you sure its the right time to introduce her? She’s still getting use to the place and we haven’t really showed her around the Pizzaplex.”

“Sunny, she’s been in the daycare for over a month an we’ve told her enough times about the others. Its about time they meet her and vise versa, besides we’ll be with her along the way an if she gets overwhelmed we can always take her back to the daycare to decompress.”

Sun fiddled with his fingers a bit before turning to a small little door near the ball-pit, giving a sigh he reached for the light switch.

Pausing only to ask. “Your going to be right by her side through all this right?”

“Yes Sun, I’m not gonna let anything happen to her. Why are you so worried?”

“I just don’t want her to get scared….it took her a while to get use to me an I don’t want everyone to get the wrong idea of her..ya know?”

There was a slight pause before Moon responded. “Thats fair, but you don’t need to worry. If any of them does something I’ll be right there, I’m taking her to meet DJ first. That way she can meet each of his siblings one by one, that’ll break the ice.”

There was another pause but Sun smiled genuinely before turning off the lights, Moon took over with ease as his sibling fell into his sleep cycle. It was rare that happened but…Moon took it as a good sign and headed for the little door.

——————————————————

[West Arcade: Ten minutes later]

He knew every inch of the arcade like the back of his own hand, despite this he was getting annoyed with the Security Bots stopping him every five seconds to examine his little companion. After a few minutes they managed to make it to the dance floor, however DJ was no where to be seen.

“Odd, he’s usually here getting things set. You wait here while I check the tunnels ok?” Moon turned to his companion who gave a nervous nod, he placed her near the stage before going into the largest tunnel behind the stage. Moon didn’t have to search long, finding DJ coming back around with Cetia, Pius and Argi in hand.

“Hey, Moon!” Called DJ, leaning down to greet his friend.

“Hey DJ, good to see you. Hey Pius, Argi, Cetia glad to see you guys too. Before we get to chatting I got a surprise for you guys.”

“A surprise?” Asked Argi, interest peaking.

“Yep, you guys know Sun an I have been really occupied in the Daycare. Well now your gonna meet the reason-“

It was then….they heard the scream.

——————————————————

Moon’s companion sat and waited…mostly playing with their fingers, unaware many pairs of eyes watching them. One of them went scurrying down the vent towards the stage, a bit overly excited to see this stranger. After getting close enough….they pounced.

“Gotcha!” An snapped down on..cloth and something solid, then came the scream.

It was a high pitched scream, suddenly they were getting waved around. From what they could feel it was metal, so not a human. The figure kept screaming and waving its arm before trying to pry themselves free.

“Pur!” Moon raced out and pulled at smaller animatronic. “Get off my sister right now or so help me I’m gonna tear one of your legs off!”

Then came a course of voices.

“Sister?!”

The smaller figure fell back when Moon pulled Pur off their sleeve, there was no damage but it was enough to scare the little one. They curled up and started crying.

“Great, now look what you’ve done!” Moon dropped Pur and raced over to the crying animatronic, scooping her up into his arms. “It’s ok Clover he didn’t mean to scare you, he can just be a jerk at times.”

“I resent that!” Pur whined. “In my defense I thought she was an intruder!”

Moon glared at Pur before turning to DJ, his glare was enough to make Pur slink back. He did try to make a run for the vent but DJ was faster and snatched up his more mischievous sibling. Moon managed to soothe his sister enough to regain herself.

DJ gathered the rest of his smaller siblings around his hand to have a look at the new animatronic, Moon gently sat them down on their own feet before turning back to everyone.

“Everyone, I wanna introduce to you Clover; the newest addition to the daycare.”

The figure turned to them, they were clad in green from head to toe. While Moon sported a nightcap the sister sported a two pronged jesters hat with two soft ringing bells at the ends. She wore an oversized long shirt with very long, oversized sleeves, her pants were flowing with green and cream white vertical stripes with matching verdant ballet shoes. On her cheeks and shirt they sported the card suit of clubs but painted green to look like a three leaf clover. Her eyes were a bright lime shade with three black petal eyelashes, she could blink too. An lastly was a tiny button nose, her mouth seemed more articulated and didn’t sport Moon or Sun’s trademark grin. Instead it was slightly smaller but from a trained animatronic eye could tell it could extend when the need arose.

DJ’s eyes widened seeing her, she was just the cutest little thing he had ever seen! All the siblings started gawking at her, though the scare from earlier did dampen the mood a bit. Only made worse when Clover gave a little sniff an rubbed one of her eyes. With tentative steps, Argi stepped forward. Going towards DJ’s middle finger.

“Awe don’t cry darlin, hey wanna hear a joke about a duck?”

She gave a nod…but Moon whispered something…

“Yes….. please…..” her voice was as soft as a silk pillow.

Argi almost cooed at the sound.

“Alrighty, so a duck walks into a bar an goes up to the bartender. He asks ‘You have any duck food?’ an the bartender says ‘No, an we don’t serve ducks here so get out!’ an the duck walks out. Duck comes back the next day an asks ‘You have any duck food?’ an the bartender says ‘No I told you that yesterday an we don’t serve ducks now get out!’ duck walks out. Duck comes back the third day an asks ‘You have any duck food?’ and the bartender says ‘For the third time no an if you come back I’m gonna nail your little web feet to the bar now get out!’ duck walks out. Duck comes back the next day an asks ‘You have any nails?’ an the bartender says ‘No!’ so the duck smile and asks ‘You have any duck food?’ Heh”

There was a pause before he heard Clover start tittering with laughter and then go into a giggle fit, yep a good joke always fixed everything.

“That was funny!” Said Clover after she recovered from her little giggle fit.

Moon gave a sigh of relief “Ok now that’s done, Clover this is Argi, Oonops, Pius, Purpur, Rupes, Cetia an lastly DJ Music Man.” Each mini moved a little when their names were called, just so the new additions could see who was who.

“Its nice to meet you Clover, you can just call me DJ.” The large animatronic gave a little nod with his head.

“Nice to meet you cutie!” Said Oonops with a little hop.

“Hello.” Replied Pius.

“Welcome to the fam kiddo.” Said Rupes.

Cetia simply bowed her head as a hello, Clover stared at her for a moment before giving her a shy but sweet smile back. Moon spotted it before any of the siblings, he could tell Cetia was gonna love Clover.

“So now that introductions are made I want everyone to know she’s off limits for attacks.” Said Moon glaring at Pur, he was shrinking back to hide behind Rupes a bit.

DJ spoke up. “So Clover, do you have special talents for the daycare?”

Clover blinked and held up a hand, everyone stared for a minute before the tip of her index finger flipped back exposing three types of needles, her middle finger tip flipping back showing a spray nozzle, her pinkie flipping back showing a small roller, flipping her hand back showed a roll of gauze in her wrist ready to use. Opening her mouth she produced a number of bandages of various designs and sizes, reaching into her sleeve to pull out breathing masks with different Glamorock designs on them. She was about to continue when Moon gently motioned her to stop.

“Sorry guys, she’s more show then tell. Clover here is designed for children with physical and mental disabilities, she’s got built in needles in her index finger to administer insulin, epinephrine and to check blood sugar levels. The masks you saw are designed to give both oxygen and vapor medication for children with breathing issues. Her hands can heat up or cool down for children suffering from chills or fevers, her eyes can scan any patron of the Pizzaplex an tell if they have an allergy or not.”

DJ leaned in, fascinated by all the little gadgets built into such a tiny bot. The rest of his siblings did the same as Moon continued.

Pointing to her eyes next. “She’s also got built in facial recognition to not only remember people but can read emotional and social cues to see if a child is being overwhelmed. She’s also programmed to handle and help children who have mental and emotional disabilities with grace and respect. An lastly she was built for children who rather have a ‘quiet’ friend during playtime, no offense to Sun but more energetic kids prefer him an since nap-time is strictly for naps she can give kids that friend who would rather talk an play quiet games. That an she prefers quiet rather then loud.”

“An she cooks too!” Oonops shouted, he got some stares from his siblings before Clover responded with a innocent tone.

“I actually can, I was programmed to also make foods for children who have specific dietary needs. My room has a small built in kitchen for that very purpose.”

Everyone stared at her then at Moon who smiled while Clover played with his hands, he was about to say something more when a voice called out.

“Hey DJ, we heard screaming, did Pur bite Vanessa again?”

Everyone turned, coming towards the dance floor was the whole Glamrock gang. Moon had to keep a tight grip on Clover so she didn’t run off, instead opting to pick her up. Though he didn’t blame Cetia for retreating to her usual hiding spot when they showed up. Roxy was the first to walk up, giving the air a quick sniff.

“New perfume Moon?” Chuckled Roxy, pausing seeing the figure in his arms. “Did a kid stay past closing?”

“Its Sun and Moons new sister!” Oonops shouted while he hopped.

There came a very long silence before Chica, Roxy and Monty recovered and unison shouted.

“What?!”

Freddy blinked an looked at the green clad animatronic. “Oh is this why you an Sun have been preoccupied this month?”

“Yes…” Said Moon with a deadpan expression.

He was hoping to introduce Clover to the glams one by one, this wasn’t going as he planned but…he improvised.

“Ok listen up, all four of you need to back up cause she’s not use to crowds. I’m gonna introduce her to you one at a time, I expect you all to be on your best behavior.” The last bit was more geared towards Roxy and Monty.

Moon knew Chica an Freddy would follow but when it came to certain sensitive things Monty and Roxy weren’t exactly…gentle but despite that they were family. Again he sat Clover down and turned her around, introducing her to the main four animatronics.

“Clover this is Freddy, Chica, Roxanne and Montgomery. Everyone this is Clover, the newest member of the daycare and Fazbear entertainment; I expect you all to treat her with respect and welcome her to the family.” He loved the glams but it didn’t stop him from giving some of them a stern look.

Freddy was the first to step forward, kneeling down to her level with his usual welcoming smile.

“Hello Clover it’s wonderful to meet you, welcome to the family.” Said Freddy offering his hand to her.

It was no surprise that Clover returned his handshake, even if it was just with her hand still wrapped in the sleeve. Freddy was the most approachable of the animatronics, Chica was next though Freddy did have to hold her back just a bit from trying to scoop the little one into a hug. Monty gave her a wave instead while Roxy knelt down to get a better look at her…

She gave a sly smirk. “So your the newest member huh?”

Clover gave a nod.

“That makes you the baby here then.” Roxy snickered.

Rupes jumped at that opportunity. “Hey yeah! She’s the baby here now, Moon you got promoted to big brother!”

Moon shot Rupes a look, now was not the time for nicknames….or perhaps it was, Argi was the next to speak up.

“She sounds more like a ‘Lucky’ to me.”

“I like ‘Baby’ better cause she also kinda looks like one.” Said Pur.

Clover shot him a look. “At least I’m not a walking, talking, moldy grape!”

There was a pause before Moon snorted and started laughing, Rupes started chuckling before nudging his sibling.

“She got you good there!”

“Oh shut up!” Pur snapped.

It wasn’t exactly what Moon planned but at least everyone got to meet Clover, he hoped in time she’s get use to everyone.

End pt1.

[There will be more so please stay tuned]

Here are the mini’s in question

https://chaoticrobotics.tumblr.com/post/683927554635235328/hello-i-actually-came-to-ask-if-i-could-use-rupes

[agerefandom]

Little Brother, Big Brother

Fandom: Homestuck

Characters: Regressor!Dave Strider & his mom Roxy Lalonde, regressor!Dirk Strider & daddy!John Egbert

Words: 5,400

Summary: Dirk and Dave are both age regressors, but they have never regressed in the same space. After almost a year of consideration, they’re finally getting together for a playdate with their two caregivers. Everyone’s a little nervous and a little excited.

Content Warnings: Brief mention of diapers. Parental caregiver names. One brief tantrum/bout of separation anxiety. (Important Note: Dirk and John’s caregiver/regressor relationship is a little blurry between non-sexual kink and regression. For example, they have rules and safewords, which I don’t typically write as part of age regression. This is only briefly mentioned in the fanfiction, and both of them still characterize their relationship as sfw agere, separate from their romantic relationship as adults. Nevertheless, I wanted to mention it in the content warnings!)

There was a knock at the door and Roxy perked up, tossing aside the phone she had been anxiously fiddling with. She made her way around the scattered toys on the floor to the front door, opening it to reveal a familiar smiling face.

“John!” Roxy exclaimed, pulling him in for a hug. He happily returned it, wrapping his arms around Roxy’s shoulders and laughing into her hair. John had been a gangly teen, but he had grown into it now, with broad shoulders and a soft stomach that Roxy loved to lean against while they played video games. “It’s been forever!”

“Too long,” John agreed, then stepped back to reveal the other visitor who had been half-hiding behind him. Dirk had his hands shoved deep in his pockets, and he moved with John as if he was tempted to dive right back behind him.

Roxy fixed Dirk with a Look and opened her arms for a hug. He stepped forwards to oblige, ducking his head so the edges of his shades weren’t a threat to Roxy’s perfect face. His hugs had become familiar over the years, brittle but genuine, all long limbs and restless fingers. Roxy squeezed him once, pressing her cheek against his hair, before she let him step back. He didn’t look like he was inclined to talk, which was fair enough. Roxy could guess that they were all nervous about their evening plans.

“Come on in, you guys. Don’t mind the mess, it’s been a busy day.” Roxy showed them in, ushering them to the couch.

“Oh, I understand,” John laughed. He had a backpack over one shoulder, patterned with little red robots. Roxy guessed that it was the supplies for Dirk, who was currently dressed in his usual outfits: unassuming, plain clothes from the newest brand that cost an arm and a leg. Roxy didn’t keep up with that sort of thing, but she could admit that Dirk always looked nice. “It’s hard to keep track of everything when someone’s over-excited.”

“You can say that again,” Roxy sighed. She and John had been good friends over the years since the game had ended, and one regular part of their relationship was chatting about their forays into caregiving. It was different, of course, because Dave and Roxy weren’t dating, but John and Roxy were still two members of the friend-group who dealt with regressors in some form or another. They had found each other a valuable resource to share ideas, tips, questions, and just to vent about their exhaustion occasionally.

“Alright, so we’re getting set up in here?” John asked, looking around the room. “Is that still the plan?”

“Yep, I think it’s the best way to do things,” Roxy said. “Help yourself to snacks, toys, anything apart from the stuffed dinosaurs. Dave’s a little protective of those guys, but everything else is fair game. Do you need anything before I head out?”

“Nope! I think I can work with this,” John said, rubbing one hand across Dirk’s shoulders. Dirk hadn’t taken a single step away from John since they entered, almost pressed against his side. “Give us about fifteen?”

“No rush,” Roxy told them. “We’re happy to watch some TV in the bedroom.”

“I’ll let you know.” John seemed pretty confident, something that Roxy had always envied. She was never sure if she was doing things right with Dave: his younger self was so different from his older self, and he was resistant to talking about it openly when he wasn’t regressed. John and Dirk had much more communication set up, and many stricter rules. Maybe it was part of their relationship, but maybe it was just what Dirk needed. Roxy knew that Dirk’s headspace was more consciously constructed that Dave’s, and he preferred to structure it with safewords and rules, while Dave wouldn’t be able to set good boundaries when he regressed.

“Cool, we’ll be around!” Roxy brushed a hand against Dirk’s arm on her way out, smiling at him over her shoulder. She was excited to see him smaller, excited to see John taking care of him first-hand. It wasn’t that she couldn’t picture it, she just couldn’t picture herself in the situation with them. She fiercely hoped that it would all go well, but of course her priority was…

“Dave!” she called as a soft warning before opening the door.

Her son/not-son was sitting on the floor of her bedroom, working on a puzzle she had bought for him. It was a little more complicated than a normal four-year-old could handle, but Dave’s hand-eye coordination wasn’t quite as bad as a bio-toddler, and Roxy tried to err on the side of something too hard instead of something that would take him five seconds.

Dave looked up at Roxy with wide eyes, his lips pressed together in an expression dangerously close to a pout.  

“Oh, baby, are you nervous?” Roxy closed the door and swept down to kneel beside Dave, pushing a hand through his hair.

“Don’t wanna do this,” Dave muttered, hands clenched into fists. Roxy put her hands over his, easing them apart and revealing the puzzle pieces he had been crushing in his palms.

“If you don’t want to, we don’t have to.” Roxy watched Dave carefully. She was excited about their plans, but Dave’s comfort came first. She knew that this was a risky situation for everyone involved, something that she’d been thinking about for over a year, but pushing it wasn’t going to help. “Little brothers are a lot of work.”

Dave visibly perked up at the reminder that he would be the big brother in this situation. The difference in age was one reason why John and Roxy found it so interesting to compare their experiences: Dave was a fairly active toddler, with a lot of curiosity and energy, while Dirk’s headspace was closer to an infant, and he was a largely reactive child, easily entertained by simple toys or a TV show.

“Do we have to play?” Dave’s question took Roxy a moment to put together.

“You mean, play with each other?” Dave nodded. “I don’t think you need to play together if you don’t want to! Dirk is pretty tiny, I don’t know if he does much playing. It’s mostly going to be you and me just like normal.”

“But John?” Dave covered his face, nerves and embarrassment making their way through his regression. His voice came back to his adult voice as he curled inward. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

Roxy hummed sympathetically, giving Dave his space. “Like I said, we can back out at any time. But I know that John is really excited about this, just like I am. He wants to meet you, little one. He already knows he’s going to love you.”

Dave made an incoherent sound of protest, flapping his hands in front of his curled-in knees.

“Anyone would be lucky to spend time with you, honey.” Roxy curled up beside Dave, mirroring his position with a bit of space between them. “I’m so lucky to be your mom. And John loves you a whole lot, he won’t stop talking about it! He’s going to be over the moon that you trust him with this. Even if it only lasts a little while, he’s going to be excited for months. You know him.”

Dave laughed, clearly still out of regression. “John’s a nerd.”

“Oh, that’s not up for debate,” Roxy smiled. “But he’s also a very good daddy when he needs to be.”

“Weird.” Dave shook his head. “Can’t picture him as a dad.”

“I don’t think I knew what I’d be like as a mom,” Roxy mused. “I’m sure that Dirk is just as nervous about it all. I don’t think anyone knows what’s going to happen with the four of us, really. I can’t imagine how much Dirk is struggling with the lack of structure.” Dave chuckled at that. He and Dirk had a mixed but friendly relationship as adults, so he knew exactly what Roxy was talking about. Whenever things didn’t go exactly to plan, Dirk tended to fly off without a single word. Roxy knew that it was his way of trying to stop himself from making everyone stick to the original plan, but it didn’t stop it from being a kind of disorienting response.

“Okay.” Roxy watched Dave as he uncurled from his little ball and took a deep breath. “I do want to do this.”

“Yeah?” Roxy stretched out her arm in an invitation, and Dave scooted over to press against her side. His breaths were long and slow, trying to calm himself down. “It’s up to you.”

“No, I really do. I was excited about it.”

“Alright, then we’ll do it.” Roxy set her hands on Dave’s waist, pulling him gently up to sit on her lap. He was a little bigger than her, but very light. He was the perfect weight when she held him in her lap like this, her arms wrapped around his waist and her cheek pressed against his shoulder blade. “I’m excited too.”

--

Getting Dave back into regression was a process, but some cuddles, a bit of calculated tickling, and an episode of Loony Toons did the trick, and soon they were both laughing on the bed, Dave’s laughter that free and louder sound that Roxy only got to hear when he was regressed.

Both of them were startled by the knock on the door, but Roxy reacted first, pausing the show and rubbing Dave’s back to calm him down.

“What’s up?” Roxy called towards the door.

“We’re all ready in the living room whenever you want to come out!” John informed them.

“Alright!” Roxy said loudly, then turned to Dave as John’s footsteps retreated down the hallway. “Do you want to finish our episode before we go play in the living room? I brought out your lego.” Dave’s duplo lego collection was a bit ridiculous, but it meant that he could build a house big enough for him to fit into. Roxy stored them in a little void-pocket in one of her drawers, and pulled out the huge rubberneck containers whenever there was a special occasion. This definitely qualified.

“Lego,” Dave nodded, already moving off the bed.

“Okay,” Roxy said. “Now, remember not to shout around Dirk, okay? He’s very small.”

“No shouting for the baby!” Dave repeated at a very high volume. Roxy shrugged internally. There was only so much she could do, and Dave would probably be alright once he was actually in the same room as his older-younger-not-brother.

“That’s right, no shouting around the baby,” Roxy said encouragingly. She opened the door to the hallway, leading the way out. “Do you think you could build a house for him?”

“For both of us!” Dave said.

“Well, I don’t know if we have enough for something that big,” Roxy laughed.

“Gonna make a big house!” Dave wasn’t willing to be discouraged.  

“Okay, you can see how big you can make it,” Roxy allowed. Dave was bouncing on each step, clearly mixing nerves and excitement into a desire to run into the room as quickly as possible. Roxy kept their pace slow and her footsteps audible, letting both John and Dirk adjust to the idea that they were entering the room.

As they stepped into the living room, John looked up with a smile. Dirk was huddled against his side, eyes closed and a plain white pacifier hiding his mouth.

“Dirk is sleepy, but he can doze through anything,” John told them softly. “I thought it might be nice for him to wake up to you, when he wakes up properly.” Roxy could tell that Dirk wasn’t really asleep, but it made sense that he would want to lay quietly for a while, adjusting to their presence and the way that they interacted.

“I hope he sleeps well,” Roxy said, and gave Dave a gentle nudge towards the boxes of lego that were stacked in the corner. “Do you think you can play quietly, sweetheart?”

Dave nodded and soundlessly glided over to the lego boxes. That wasn’t exactly what Roxy had meant, but he didn’t seem to have been jostled out of regression by the request, so it was probably alright. Triggering requests usually made Dave age up faster than anything, so his calm unpacking of the lego was a sign that he was still regressed, despite the absolutely silent movements that usually showed his discomfort as an adult.

“Dave is determined to make a big house for him and the baby,” Roxy told John. “He’s very good at lego.”

“Oh, that sounds like a lot of fun!” John swivelled his head to watch Dave start sorting the pieces from the box, quiet and methodical, glancing over to Roxy every few moments. Roxy kept her eye on him and offered a proud smile every time he checked in with her. “Dave, do you think I could help with that? I’m a big fan of lego myself.”

“If you’re quiet,” Dave said in a hushed voice.

“We don’t need to be too quiet,” John laughed. “Dirk really can sleep through anything.” He placed a fond kiss on the top of Dirk’s hair, and then carefully extracted himself, guiding Dirk’s head to rest on one of the couch cushions. John murmured something against his cheek and then moved away, letting Dirk curl up into himself a bit more, the pacifier shifting in his mouth. “I think you’re doing a good job so far, though.” He squeezed Roxy’s shoulder on his way by, kneeling down beside Dave’s boxes of lego when he reached them. “You give the orders! What can I do to help?”

Dave scanned John up and down, the only sign of his discomfort the pattern of his fingers tapping against each other over and over again. “You can get all the big blue pieces and make them into a wall,” he said eventually, pushing the box between them. “No holes.”

“Can do!” John said enthusiastically, diving into the box with gusto. Roxy chuckled, moving over to sit in one of the chairs and watch. Some things never changed, and one of them was John’s adoration for Dave, clearly. She watched them build together, Dave eventually falling into John’s rhythms and becoming louder, laughing and even knocking over one of the walls on purpose to make John fake a pout at having to start again.

“Play nice, Dave!” she called over, when it was clear that he was considering doing it again. Dave aimed a little frown at her, but settled down and continued his own building.

Roxy settled back in her chair, considering picking up some water from the kitchen. Dave always forgot to keep hydrated as an adult, so Roxy tried to keep a sippy cup always in his reach when he was regressing at her house, but she had left it in the bedroom. She shifted, ready to offer John a drink while she was going to the kitchen, when she noticed that Dirk’s eyes were open and fixed on her.

Roxy froze. She could see the swirling orange of his eyes, the way his long lashes framed them, the angles of his face somehow softer without the sunglasses he wore every day. She felt afraid of the intimacy in meeting those eyes, overwhelmed by a surge of panic that she couldn’t trace to a concrete thought.

“John,” she called, trying to hide her panic. “Dirk is awake.” John immediately extracted himself from the lego with Dave, leaving the regressor with an affectionate hair-tousle that made Dave scowl. He trotted over to the couch and knelt down beside Dirk to give him an over-dramatic set of kisses on his cheek.

“Did you enjoy your nap?” John asked, nuzzling his nose against Dirk’s. Dirk’s eyes fell closed as he laughed, the pacifier garbling the sound. He wrapped his arms around John’s neck, pulling him closer, and John obediently scooped Dirk into his arms.

Roxy found she couldn’t watch the display, feeling too much like an intruder. She bounced to her feet as quietly as she could, trying not to interrupt, and made her way over to Dave, who was entirely focused on the lego house he was making. It was coming along quickly, the bigger lego blocks fitting together into simple blocky structures. Two walls of the house were almost finished, with one featuring a gap for a window. It looked like each wall was going to be a different colour, and the one that Dave was finishing was a bright green.

“I’m fetching your sippy from my room,” Roxy told Dave. “Do you want me to get Rexatorius while I’m in there?” Rexatorius was not in fact a t-rex, but a brontosaur: both of them enjoyed the name anyways.

“Yes, please.” Dave was very polite as a child, his southern accent stretching the words out. “Can I have more juice?”

“You can! Coming right up,” Roxy told him, and headed off to the bedroom without another look at the two on the couch. She collected the dinosaur plushie and the sippy cup, tucking Rexatorius under her arm as she navigated through the living room on her way to the kitchen.

“John, do you want some water or some apple juice?” she called back into the other room.

“I’m good, thank you.”

It still shocked Roxy sometimes, how much they had all grown up. Collecting water for herself in her own kitchen, with glasses she had chosen, offering drinks to guests, having people over for a dinner party… it still felt so foreign. Being twenty-three hadn’t been something that Roxy had ever considered, always focused on making it to sixteen, always focused on making it to the game that would change everything, would save the world, would save her from the empty echoing rooms of the mansion she’d spent her childhood inside.

And here she was, a part-time mother, a part-time host, a full-time adult who was involved in politics, of all things, as well as going into her Masters in ecto-biology with multiple offers for a full-time job afterwards (thanks to their fame, all of the planet-founders were highly desired as a source of publicity and funding for whatever career they wanted to pursue). Roxy, in short, had somehow become an adult.

Roxy shook the reverie away as she rinsed the sippy cup between servings of apple juice, filled a cup of water for herself, and grabbed a bag of chips just in case anyone wanted a snack. Back in the living room, John was settled on the couch and Dirk was on the floor, playing with a wooden puzzle that was made to look like a circuit board.

“One serving of juice!” Roxy dropped it off next to Dave with a kiss and Rexatorius, patting the dino on the back before retreating. Dave could handle his own lego building, and it had never been one of Roxy’s interests. She would happily come to ooh and ahh when the building was all done.

Roxy approached John and Dirk cautiously, and John looked up to give her a smile and a wave to come join them.

“Roxy! Do you want to meet the baby?”

“I would love to.” Roxy pushed away the anticipation she had been feeling and focused on Dirk on the floor, trying to push away all the past experiences they’d had, the fights and the two am vent sessions and the ill-conceived projects they’d come up with together. She knew what regression meant to Dave, but she didn’t know what it meant to Dirk, and she needed to keep an open mind.

“Hey Dirk,” John said, getting down on his level on his hands and knees. “I want you to meet Daddy’s friend, Roxy. She’s Dave’s mom, remember? We came to visit her and Dave.” Dirk glanced up from his puzzle at Roxy, and Roxy was taken aback again by the sharpness of his eyes. There was none of the hazy contentedness of Dave’s regression. Dirk stared directly and piercingly towards Roxy’s face.

“Hi,” Roxy managed. “It’s good to meet you.” She almost held out her hand, and jerked it back. Dirk’s eyes followed the movement.

“Can you say hi to Roxy?” John prompted Dirk. Dirk shook his head, and dropped his eyes back to his puzzle. Roxy tried not to feel rejected, but her heart spasmed. “That’s okay,” John said softly, and smiled up at Roxy from the floor. “Dirk’s not so good at words,” he explained. “What about sharing your puzzle?” John asked, pointing to the piece that Dirk was holding in his hand. “Can Roxy help you?”

Dirk hesitated, nodded, and then held the piece out in Roxy’s direction without looking at her.

Somehow this motion reassured Roxy, something more akin to a shy child than Dirk’s own mannerisms when he was on edge.

“Thank you,” she said gently, accepting the piece and kneeling down. “Did your daddy get you this puzzle?” It was easy enough to find where the piece went, but she took her time looking. Dirk nodded, sucking on his pacifier with a soft sound. “He’s a pretty good daddy, huh?” Roxy smiled at John as Dirk nodded more enthusiastically.

Dirk picked up another piece and held it close as he surveyed the puzzle. Roxy gave him the time to figure it out, and he eventually pushed it into the right place. He picked up another piece and pushed it into Roxy’s hands again.

“Thank you!” She took the piece from him and hummed thoughtfully as she pretended to search for the right place. “Does it go here?” She put it in the wrong place, and nodded with satisfaction. Dirk laughed and shook his head. “No? Are you sure?” Dirk picked up the puzzle piece and slotted it into the right place, still laughing.

“Oh!” Roxy hit her forehead. “Why didn’t I see that?”

Dirk rolled his eyes at her, but he was still laughing.

“I know,” Roxy nodded. “I’m a silly mom, I can’t help it.”

“G’d mmm,” Dirk muttered, his voice quiet and slurred by the pacifier.

“Sorry, sweetheart, what?” Roxy leaned closer, trying to hear him, but Dirk only shook his head emphatically and picked up a new piece of the puzzle, fitting it into place with none of his earlier hesitation.

“He said you’re a good mom,” John interpreted, rubbing Dirk’s back with a calming motion that Roxy recognized from using it with Dave herself.

“Aww!” Roxy pressed her palms to her cheeks, grinning. “I hope that Dave agrees with you.”

Dave’s voice came as if on cue, from over the couch. “Moooom!”

“On my way!” Roxy called back, more softly. She didn’t want to scare Dirk, who was leaning into John’s touch and closing his eyes. She rose to her feet, automatically helping herself with her god-tier weightlessness as she pushed herself upwards. Dave was standing by his house, which had three walls finished. “What’s wrong, baby?” Roxy drew closer, and Dave threw himself into her arms, wrapping his arms around her.

“Don’t go,” he whispered into her shoulder, and Roxy could feel him shaking slightly.

“Oh, no, honey.” Roxy wrapped her arms back around Dave, squeezing him against her. “I’m not going anywhere, I’m your mom. I wouldn’t leave you for the world.”

“I could hear you and you were gone,” Dave protested, curling tighter into her arms.

“I was just visiting the others, over by the couch,” Roxy told him, rocking slightly to comfort him. “Not gone, never gone.”

“I thought…” Dave trailed off, derailing into a mumble that Roxy couldn’t make out, despite her experience with Dave’s rambles.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Roxy soothed. “I love you so much, and I always will. I’ll always be your mom.”

“My mom?” Dave echoed.

“Yes, honey, your mom.” She cupped Dave’s cheek to tilt his face up for a forehead kiss. “No one else’s.”

“Okay.” Dave seemed to have calmed down quite a bit, but he was still holding tight to Roxy.

“Do you want to work more on your house?” Roxy cast an eye over the work Dave had done so far. “Or do you want to meet Dirk?”

“Dunno.” Dave rocked back and forth slightly in Roxy’s lap.

“Well, why don’t you come say hi? You can go straight back to your lego after that, if you’d like.” Dave nodded.

“Okay.”

Roxy helped Dave to his feet, keeping her hands on his and helping him stay upright when he was standing. He wasn’t always clumsy when he regressed, but it was usually a surprise to both of them when he had trouble walking, so she tried to be careful.

“Follow me, sweetheart.” She led Dave over to the carpet, glancing over to see that Dirk was twirling his fingers into the mane of a horse plushie, John singing a soft lullaby. John looked up when they walked in, but Dirk kept his eyes on his twirling fingers.

“Dirk?” Dave said quietly.

Dirk’s back stiffened and then he let out a breath and turned, blinking up at Dave.

Dave’s eyes widened and Roxy could practically see his excitement take over from nerves. Dirk looked quieter and unthreatening without his glasses, his plain white onesie and his long lanky pale limbs curled up against John’s chest.

“Hi!” Dave gushed, dropping to sit beside John and Dirk before glancing up at John and Roxy for approval. Roxy smiled warmly at him, and John nodded and shifted his grip on Dirk so that he was facing out towards Dave more. “I’m Dave!”

“…” Dirk looked at him for a long second, then hid his face behind the horse plushie he was holding.

“You’re a baby, but I’m really old,” Dave told Dirk seriously. “I’m gonna build us a lego house to live in.” Dirk raised his head again, smiling around the pacifier, and Dave smiled back. It was strange for Roxy, to see the instinct-driven space that Dave lived in, that she understood so well, and the difference between him and Dirk. Dirk was so clearly not as regressed, still cautious and deliberate. Maybe this was just him getting used to a new space? Or maybe this really was how he regressed. Or maybe this was how he’d been when he was a baby, making his way around his home in the middle of the ocean.

“Good job, Dave,” Roxy praised, resting a hand on his head. “Be gentle with your little brother.” She knew from talking with John that Dirk reacted well to being reminded that he was supposed to be small, regressed, a baby without responsibilities. Dave was very passionate about being a ‘big boy’ and pushed his limits further than Roxy would like. Another difference between them.

“Do you want to hold him?” John offered, cradling Dirk’s head against his shoulder gently.

Dave glanced back at Roxy, eyes wide. She could tell that he was intrigued but uncertain.

“I would love to,” Roxy said, knowing the question had been directed at both of them. “Why don’t I carry him to the couch, and you can sit with us, Dave? I can read you both a story, how about that?”

“Yeah.” Dave bobbed his head, subdued.

Roxy knelt in front of her two friends, smiling fondly at John and the tender way he handled Dirk. “May I?”

“Of course.” John guided her hands, one under Dirk’s knees and the other cradling his neck. Roxy had carried Dirk before, mostly out of his workshop before John had started taking over the task of disrupting Dirk’s manic work episodes. He had never been so unclothed, her skin touching his as she lifted him into her arms and settled him against her chest.

Dirk wasn’t light, thin but muscled. The only reason Roxy could lift him with ease was because she was taller than him, much to his ill-hidden annoyance when he’d first met her in person. He was the shortest of the eight of them, with Rose a close second.

Roxy looked down at Dirk as she carried him carefully towards the couch, and was surprised again to find him watching her. She smiled gently, even though his eyes were piercing.

“Hello,” she cooed. “Did you like meeting Dave?” The boy in question was following behind them, craning his neck to look at Dirk over Roxy’s shoulder. “He was so excited to have a baby brother.” Roxy shifted her weight back and forth, bouncing Dirk slightly in her arms as she reached the couch. “You are very sweet, I see why your daddy talks about you so much.”

That got a reaction: Dirk’s eyes crinkled, and an unfamiliar burbling laugh came from behind his pacifier.

Roxy gasped. “And adorable too! I should have known your daddy wouldn’t lie about that.” She turned around and settled on the couch, making sure Dirk wasn’t jostled by the movement as she settled him in her lap. Dave climbed up beside her and clung to her arm, wrapping both hands around her left hand and trying to pull it off Dirk’s back.

“Careful, Dave,” Roxy said. “Dirk needs a lot of support when I’m holding him, he’s only a baby.” Dave frowned, but let go of her hand and let Roxy arrange Dirk more properly, his head leaning against her chest and leaving her left hand free to hold Dave’s hand.

“John,” Roxy called. John had been sitting on the floor with Dirk’s toys, beaming quietly as he watched them move to the couch.  

“Yes, Roxy?” he called back.

“I think these boys have my hands occupied, would you mind reading us a story?”

“But of course!” John got to his feet and came over, standing in front of them with his hands on his hips. He really did have some proper dad energy, especially with the light stubble that he’d allowed to grow on his cheeks and chin. “What kind of book should we read?”

“Pigeon!” Dave shouted.

Roxy could feel Dirk flinch in her arms.

“Indoor voice, sweetheart,” Roxy told Dave quietly, stroking Dave’s arm and rocking Dirk back and forth to sooth them both. Two kids was a lot of work: she was very glad that she wasn’t a mother to both of them. Even if Dirk was very sweet, and she wouldn’t mind babysitting once in a while. She was sure that John felt the same about Dave: the two of them seemed to have had a lot of fun building the lego together. “Don’t scare the baby.”

Dirk relaxed again at those words, and Roxy held him a little closer. It was unexpectedly intimate, this age. John had talked about diapers and how they both felt like it brought them closer together, but even the experience of holding Dirk while he was this vulnerable felt dangerous, like touching a live wire, yet insanely comfortable at the same time. Where the two feelings met was what Roxy thought of as intimacy.

John was still standing in front of them, and Roxy realized that she would have to tell him what Dave meant.

“It’s on the second shelf under the TV, far right,” she said. “Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus. Have you read it?”

“We don’t read very much,” John shrugged as he went for the shelf and started flipping through kid’s books. “We have a couple board books and Dr. Seuss but Dirk prefers TV before bed instead of a story.”

“I’m not allowed TV before bed,” Dave said accusatorily, and John glanced at Roxy with clear panic.

“That’s because Dirk’s daddy doesn’t take care of you,” Roxy said. “I wouldn’t allow Dirk any TV before bed either, but his daddy gets to decide that.”

Dave thought that over for a bit.

“Can John be my babysitter maybe?” he suggested. “And then I could watch TV before bed?”

“We’ll talk about it sometime,” Roxy laughed. “He’s got his own little one to look after, just like I have you. But if you’re having a good time, we’ll try to get together more.”

“Yeah!” Dave settled onto the couch properly as John came back with the requested book held in both hands. “More time with Dirk and John is good.”

“I agree,” said Roxy, resting her cheek against Dirk’s soft hair as John flipped to the first page and prepared to start reading. “It’s nice to have a bit of company.”

[bbdaydreams]

Courage My Love// Semi Eita x Reader

Series Masterlist•next>

Chapter One: Late

You and Semi were assigned to sit next to each other in your English class during your first year which is how you initially met. About a quarter through the year Semi noticed you had the letter “X” in black marker on the back of your hand which led him to ask if you went to a show the night before. You said yes and told him what band you saw which made him light up and show you his hand as proof that he was there too.

“Dude, let me know when you go to a show! We could go together,” Semi told you with a grin on his face.

“Will do, bro,” you smiled back at him.

Since then, you’ve been concert buddies and best friends. You weren’t afraid to run up to tackle the other from a distance. Semi’s lent you multiple sweatshirts that other students immediately have identified as his considering the size difference. You’ve gone into his personal bubble many times, mostly to bother him by squishing his face. Other’s believe there’s more going on between you two but you’re both quick to shut down those comments, even if in reality you did harbor feelings for him.

You were both currently in his dorm fiddling with tunes on your guitars. “Y/n, you’re going too fast. Slow down,” Semi laughed while holding your wrists in place on the guitar.

“Dammit! I got nervous,” you responded setting the acoustic guitar down next to your body before using your hands to rub your face.

“It’s just me here. You don’t have to be so nervous.”

“I know, I know. I’ve got to get over this fear.”

Semi picked up his electric guitar and put the strap over himself so he could play properly. “I mean, I get it. It’s not easy playing in front of people, let alone perform. Did you see where I put my pick?”

“How do you do it? You honestly make it look easy. Also, dude, you have like three still stuck on your face.”

“Oh shit,” he responded before feeling his forehead remembering the guitar pick war you guys had. He grabbed one and wiped it on his shirt to take off your saliva for a better grip.  “Uhh, I don’t know actually. I definitely do get anxious sometimes but I think I get so caught in the moment that in the end I don’t care who is watching. I’m just having fun, ya know?”

“I’m so focused on what others think, I don’t think I could ever perform how you do.”

“Well, you better get over it. You gotta hold up your end of the deal since you wanted me to do the talent show so bad.”

After Shiratorizawa lost to Karasuno, Semi had more time to focus on his band, which had formed the summer of your second year. They try to put on a show every other week at a local café and managed to gain a decent amount of attention but it definitely wasn’t enough for them to break out. You wanted to push them in anyway you could which led you to annoying Semi to sign up for the talent show.

~

“Eita, you should sign up for the talent show!”

“Nah. Too many preps. They’re not gonna be interested,” Semi responded in between bites of his lunch.

“Don’t think like that. Your guy’s music is good okay? I’m not just saying that because I’m your best friend I’m saying it because I legitimately mean it. Eagle Thorns is my favorite band. I know you guys will make it big and this can help!”

“They’ve got a good point, Eita,” their bassist, Ranmaru, said.

“I think it’ll be fun,” the drummer, Subaru, added on.

“We’ll do it,” Jiro, the lead guitarist, responded as he smiled up at you.

“Thank you, boys. I’ll sign you guys up-“

“Nope. Nope, no, no, no,” Semi spoke up, leaning over to take the pen from your hand.

“What do you mean no? Everyone else said yes.”

“I didn’t agree. I’ll agree to it if you do it too. I’ll even write your name on the list for you,” Semi stated with a smirk.

“You’re an asshole.”

“Guess we’re not participating then. Sorry boys-“

“I’ll do it. I want you guys to perform.”

~

“I don’t get why you want me to participate. I’m not the one with a band,” you told him.

“I know, but you want a band of your own. This could help you too. And even if you end up not finding members, it’ll help you get over your stage fright.”

“You have a weird way of showing you care,” you laughed while pushing his shoulder.

“Oh yeah?” Semi responded while pretending to square up.

“Yeah,” you immediately bucked back standing on your toes to help you get closer to his face.

“Ranmaru, the love birds are at it again!” Subaru spoke when he opened the door to Semi’s room.

“Oi! Eita, stop flirting! It’s time for band practice,” Ranmaru scolded.

“How many times do I have to tell you? We’re just friends,” Semi retorted turning his back to you.

You made eye contact with Jiro and he gave you a sorry look. Jiro was the only one that knew of your feelings and you planned to keep it that way. He was a year younger and didn’t speak to many other third years so you felt you could trust him.

“Yeah guys, c’mon. How many times do we have to tell you we’re just friends? It’s getting tiring at this point,” you added on with a fake happy smile on your face.

“Whatever. You get a song ready, y/n?”

“Still working on it. I’ll leave you guys alone and head back to my dorm. Have fun!” And with that you excused yourself and headed off.

-

When you got back to your dorm, you immediately sent a text to Tendou asking him to come over so you could vent to him. While waiting you came up with a plan. You decided you were going to play a song that expressed your feelings and then once you came off stage you were going to walk up to Semi and confess, hoping that the high from being on stage walks off with you.

“He said that?” Tendou asked as he sat on your bed with a large plush in his lap, watching you pace around your dorm.

“Yes! I don’t know what to do! Graduation is just around the corner and I wanna tell him before we go out separate ways after high school. Tendou, I’m so scared what if we don’t talk to each other again after graduation?”

“No, that’s not happening. You guys are best friends. I doubt he’d stop talking to you after we graduate.”

“Ok, but what if I confess and he doesn’t feel the same?”

“Trust me he feels the same.”

“How do you know that? Does he ever talk about me?”

“I can just tell by how he looks at you! And I’ll be honest he doesn’t bring you up but when someone else does he immediately tells them to shut up. Incase you didn’t know, I understand guy code. That means ‘don’t talk about my girl’.”

“Okay, okay. That puts me somewhat at ease.”

“Good. Now all you have to do is play that song without fucking up.”

“Ugh, Tendou! That just made me sick to my stomach!” You exclaimed before jumping on the bed and tackling him.

“It’s the truth! Just picture the audience in their underwear!” Tendou retaliated as he grabbed a pillow to hit you with.

“It’s not that easy!” You said while lightly hitting his chest.

“Why do you care so much as to what people think?”

“I don’t care about what others think I just care about what he thinks!”

“Shit, you have it BAD, bad,” Tendou laughed while putting the pillow behind his head for support. “Y/n, he’d be an idiot to reject you. And I’d remind him daily if he did. You are such a catch, it’d be a shame if he let you go to waste,” he told you earnestly.

“I-, thank you, Tendou. It means a lot-“

“Oh shit, I didn’t know you guys were in the middle of something,” Semi voiced when he let himself into your dorm, a reoccurring scene he’s noticed.

“Eita!” You greeted him, immediately getting off of Tendou to go hug the setter.

“Semi-Semi, I thought your practice was going to last longer,” Tendou said, taking note of the small glare Semi gave him.

“Stop calling me that and we finished early,” the ash blonde responded before turning to you. “What about you? Did you manage to pick a song?”

“I did!” you told him with a smile.

-

After two weeks of practicing it was finally the night of the talent show. You had your guitar in a soft case, that Semi had given you, across your back. Were you nervous? Yes. Of the crowd? Not exactly. What you told Semi and Tendou wasn’t a lie. You didn’t care about what people thought of you, unless they were people you cared about. You cared about how your friends would react. You cared about what Semi’s band members thought. You even cared about what the members of the volleyball team would think, even if you’ve only met them a few times. But most importantly, you cared about what Semi���s opinion of your performance was.

You and Semi have sang along to numerous songs in different settings, even taking turns to do karaoke in the car. All those times you didn’t care about what he thought because you were so comfortable being around him, but now that it matters, that’s when your self doubt kicked in.

“Ready?” Semi asked you from behind, making you jump.

You took a deep breath after the scare before smiling up at him, “Nope, but I’m up soon.”

“Indeed you are. You’ll do great. I know you will.” Semi’s honesty was something you always admired about him. In your three years of friendship, he’s never lied to you. He’s always evaluated the situation and told you his thoughts without a single waver in his voice. Him believing in you, gave you all the confidence in the world.

You guys were standing side to side watching the other acts perform their talents from side stage. As your turn neared closer, he raised an arm over your shoulder, rubbing it to help ease your nerves causing you to lean your head on him.

“Hey, I gotta tell you something later,” you spoke, avoiding looking at him.

“Tell me now,” he responded gently.

“Nah. After we perform.”

“Alright,” he laughed. “Ima go find the guys, we’re up after you. Good luck, don’t fuck up or else you won’t hear the end of it from me.”

“Ha, ha, ha. Okay jackass. Good luck to you too. Tell the boys I wish them luck too.”

As soon as Semi left your side, the announcer spoke up to announce it was now your turn to perform. You took a deep breath before shaking each of your limbs to make sure they were working. Once you concluded that they were, you made your way to the center of the stage.

“Good evening, L/N, the stage is all yours,” the announcer spoke before placing the microphone on a stand and adjusting it to your height while you grabbed the chair left on stage for you to use. You gave him a silent nod before he left the stage.

“Thank you,” you spoke while grabbing the mic to tilt it a little more towards you. “I’m going to be singing a song by a band called ONE OK ROCK. This song is called ‘Wherever You Are’. Please enjoy.”

Wherever you are, I'll always make you smile

Wherever you are, I'm always by your side

Whatever you say, kimi wo omou kimochi

I promise you "forever" right now

You were almost done with the song and decided to look up and scan the crowd. You were quick to notice Tendou and Ushijima sitting in the crowd, Tendou looking more impressed than the latter. When your eyes connected with the judges you remembered situation you were in and closed your eyes to put all your effort into the last three lines. It went quiet in the auditorium after you finished which only made your eyes stay shut until loud clapping and hollering commenced, one voice sticking out from all the rest.

“Wooooo! Go y/n!” You could hear Tendou yell. You looked up to make eye contact with him again. He was grinning from ear to ear while talking to the people beside him, most likely telling them he knew you.

You grabbed the microphone again and gave a small chuckle before speaking, “thank you, everyone.”

The announcer came back into the stage and gave you a hand to help you get up from the chair. While you put the guitar away he put the chair away and spoke into the microphone as you waved the crowd goodbye. “Beautiful wasn’t it? So passionate. Thank you so much for blessing all of our ears with your voice. Now, up next we have another musical performance. This next one is a group and they call themselves Eagle Thorns! Please welcome Eita, Ranmaru, Subaru, and Jiro to the stage!”

Subaru walked up first with his drum sticks in his hand and made his way to his kit. Once he got to his seat, he raised one arm up waved to greet the crowd. Jiro and Ranmaru walked up together with their instruments and waved to the crowd as they went to their spots. Semi followed them from a couple feet behind with his guitar and made his way to center stage. “Hope you guys still have some energy after all the performances you’ve seen tonight. We are Eagle Thorns and if there’s any parents in the room, I hope you brought some ear plugs,” Semi joked.

You were standing off to the side of the stage watching them. It was funny to you because they were really acting how they did for any other gig. You’ve been to almost all of their shows and we’re still amazed every time they took the stage.

“This song is an original. It’s called ‘Late’.”

I can't stop thinking it, thinking it

I can't stop thinking it, thinking it

That it's a little too late, a little too late, a little too late, a little too late

“Here we go!” Semi yelled into the mic. What followed was Ranmaru sing the first part of the hard vocals while Jiro did the second part which made you realize why Semi made his joke directed towards the parents earlier. In true Semi fashion, he found a way to include some spice into the band’s performance.

What kept bothering you was his use of the word ‘mistake’. All it did was make you question who he was talking about. You went down the list of people you thought it could’ve been but as far as you knew, Semi didn’t talk to a lot of people regularly. He preferred to keep his social circle small.

“Thank you so much for giving us a chance to play tonight. Before we leave the stage I’d like to ask someone very special to come up to the stage. They already know who they are,” Semi spoke into the mic.

A couple of performers that had gone up before were whispering amongst themselves.

“Is he doing what I think he’s doing?”

“Super bold move of him if he is.”

“Oh my god! He’s gonna ask someone to be his date for the dance next week!”

After that last comment you could feel a bunch of gazes landing on your form. The small group of students were now encouraging you to go up, but all you could do was grip into the strap that was across your body for comfort.

“Y/n! He’s talking about you!”

“Y/n go up there! What are you waiting for?”

“It’s not me guys,” you spoke. You knew you weren’t that special someone the moment Semi turned to the direction that was the opposite of where you were. “After all, we’re just friends.”

The group around you grew very confused from your response until they looked forward and saw someone else walk on stage towards the lead singer.

“I can’t stop thinking about you. Would you go on a date with me and accompany me next week to the dance?” Semi asked the girl, who you knew nothing about. He was asking out someone you had no idea existed.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” you excused yourself from the people surrounding you and bolted to the closest restroom. When you made it outside the door, you slid off the guitar and placed it on the ground so you could run into a stall. You immediately took out your phone and started texting Tendou asking him to come to your dorm so you could have a shoulder to cry on since the one you normally rely on isn’t an option at the moment. Tendou responded immediately, encouraging you to at least wait until the event is over for the awards ceremony. You were about to text him back but froze when you heard foot steps.

“I think she’s in here,” a soft voice spoke.

“It has to be this one, who else’s guitar would this be?” another voice spoke.

“Hmm,” a third girl spoke. “Hi, we’re looking for L/n Y/n! We-“

“Shhhh! You don’t have to be so loud, Izumi,” the second voice spoke.

“I don’t think it was a good idea to come looking for them now.”

“You’re probably right, but we wouldn’t have another opportunity to talk to them.”

What could they want with you? What could some strangers possibly want to talk to you about? You quietly leaned forward on the plastic door to look through the crack to judge the situation. There were three girls total, and one of them looked mean. As much as you didn’t like judging people based on their looks, the other two girls appeared to be nicer which made you take a chance.

“You’re looking for me?” You asked, stepping out of the stall while wiping your eyes.

The girl with the soft voice immediately took notice of your state and turned to grab a paper towel and wet it before handing it to you. “Here you go,” she said with a small smile.

“Uh, thank you,” you responded awkwardly.

“Sorry we’re meeting like this but we wanted to ask you a question. Would you be interested in being in our band? We’d love to have you,” the girl you were on edge about asked.

“You want me in your band? I only know how to play acoustic guitar, I’m an amateur at best,” you responded honestly while dabbing your face with the wet paper towel.

“Okay but you sing amazingly! We need a lead singer and your voice matches our vibe! At least think about it. Please. Let’s change information,” the louder one spoke as she handed you her phone.

You gave a genuine smile to the girls before accepting the device and started entering your information as you took yours out so she could do the same.

“Award ceremony is starting! All performers please make your way to the stage!” Someone yelled from the hallways.

You were about to speak but the leader of the girls spoke up for you. “Guess that means you, girly. Good luck!” She handed you your guitar back and ushered you out of the bathroom so you’d be able to make it where you needed to be on time.

-

When you made it back to the stage, Semi quickly made his way towards you, leaving his band behind, with a smile on his face. “Hey! Where’d you go?” He asked, completely unaware that you ran off to go cry.

“Not important,” you told him dryly.

Giving you a confused look he decided to continue the conversation. “Alright... well what was it you were gonna tell me?”

Now you were having an internal battle within yourself. Do you actually confess to him after he technically just confessed to someone else? Do you tell him something else? Or, do you just not tell him anything?

Knowing the last option would just cause him to bug you until you told him something you decided to go with the second option.

“I was gonna say that there’s a big name in the crowd tonight. Someone from a record label is here to scout out a new artist but I don’t know who.”

“Oh shit. No way! Hope they liked us.”

“Yeah.”

At this point you didn’t know what to do. You were upset that he’s never spoken about this person to you before. You thought you were closer than this. Don’t best friends tell each other about their crushes? Don’t best friends tell each other about things like this? Did you see Semi more as a best friend than he did for you? Were you putting in more effort into the relationship than he was this entire time? Were you so stuck in your fantasy that every small task he did for you mean nothing to him? Was he just being nice to you?

“Semi, who is she?” you asked trying not to cry for the second time in the past hour.

“Semi?” He asked taking notice of how you used his last name instead of his first name. “She’s someone I’ve been seeing on the low for about a month now.”

A month. He’s kept her away from you for a month.

“Why haven’t you ever introduced me to her?”

“I didn’t think it was important.”

“Why would you think that?” You asked with in a louder tone.

He looked at you even more confused as to why you were acting the way you were. “Sorry, I didn’t know I needed my friend’s approval to date someone?” Semi responded with the same tone you did, but with a little more bite.

His answer left you feeling as if you’ve been stabbed in the front. Out of all the ways he could’ve said, he chose to respond like that? Not wanting to draw attention you guys you decided to end the conversation before it got out of hand. “Don’t talk to me Semi,” you told him before turning to walk away from him.

He tried to reach out to grab your arm and ask you what the hell your problem was but the announcer spoke up.

“Alright, now that everyone is here and the judges have counted their votes, it’s time to announce the winners! In third place we have the dance duo! Congrats you guys!”

You were walking behind the line of performers so that the crowd would hopefully not see you walk off the stage as the announcer spoke.

“And in second place we have Eagle Thorns!” You froze at the loud cheers that erupted and the arm that you recognized belonged to Jiro as the hugged you from excitement right when you walked by.

“And in first place, drum roll please... we have L/n Y/n! Congratulations!” Now you can’t help yourself. Being too overwhelmed with emotions is never a good thing because now here you are, letting tears fall in front of a whole room of people. Jiro immediately picked you up and spun you around before putting you down and encouraging you to walk to center stage to accept the fake trophy that you weren’t expecting. You wiped your tears for a second time that night and gave a slight wave to the crowd before speaking into the microphone that the announcer was holding for you.

“Judges, thank you so much. I honestly didn’t think I’d win this but from the bottom of my heart thank you so, so, much!”

While you were giving your thank you speech, all Semi could do is question why you were so upset. As far as he knew, you had a thing for Tendou and Tendou had a thing for you, so why were you so invested in his relationship?

[dokeblr]

Sunshine In The Mountains

Character/Pairing: Mirio/Reader

Summary/Prompt: Soulmates are linked through telepathy

Word Count: 1.5k

Warnings: None

Requested By: @hazelmoonchild

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

‘Have a good day, sunshine!’

It was your bright inner alarm, nearly every morning at 7am. A gentle but giddy voice would guide you into your morning routine with a bit of variation every now and again, but always with the sunshine. Those were the best mornings.

‘Hope you slept well, sunshine!’

‘Take good care today, sunshine!’

‘Go out there and do your best, sunshine!’

It was almost unnerving, how he managed to not only remember to talk to you but kept the consistent upbeat tone.

You couldn’t exactly pin down the right words to describe his voice. It was airy in the way a tuff of white dandelion fluff floats through the air, carried by a soft wind; but grounding and solid at the same time.

Describing the voice was hard mostly because of how muffled and distorted he sounded, as if he was speaking to you through a gramophone or an old payphone with a rusty connection.

It was your favourite sound, although you didn’t get to hear it often.

He came and went, sometimes there for hours, sometimes cutting off mid-sentence. With no consistency to his intrusions into your head, you learnt to cherish the times you could talk with him.

You were six years old when you first met him

Summer was kicking in with sweltering heat that year, the kind that baited you outside just to suck the energy right out of you, which is exactly why you were finding solstice underneath a gnarled, towering oak tree.

‘It’s too hot!’

You startled, dropping the toys you were fiddling with and twisted your head left and right to find the voice. The only other kids were busy playing down by a stream, bubbling laughter only barely reach you. There was no one.

‘That was weird.’ You thought passively to yourself, getting comfortable under the tree again and fixing your toys.

‘What was weird?’

Once again you startled, yet still finding yourself alone.

“Hello? Who’s that?” There was a tremble to your voice. Home was only across the path a small woodland path and just down the street, but you were still small and young, with enough knowledge of stranger danger to realise there was something to fear.

Once again, silence reigned. Even when you circled the tree, no one was near.

‘Hey, what was weird? Also, who are you? Are you in my hea- Oh! Are you like an alien parasite from that one hero movie?!’

The voice was in your head, something your young brain was failing to comprehend.

‘Who are you? Can you get out please?!’

Despite the fear, you’d never forget your manners.

‘I’m Mirio! And sure thing, sorry!’

You waited with bated breath, waiting to hear any sign of the strange Mirio boy that was trapped inside of your head. It felt like ages but was only really a few minutes before you resigned yourself back to the safety of the tree.

‘Am I out of your head yet?’

This time you screamed out loud.

You were nine, maybe ten when the nickname started.

‘Hey, what’s 7 x 8?’

‘You need to start learning maths yourself!’

You’d never known it possible for someone to groan so much internally.

‘Ugh, I know!’ Mirio whined back. ‘Please?’

‘Don’t start sweet talking me now. Its 56.’

There was silence for a good while, before his excitable thoughts jumped back in.

‘Thank you so much, sunshine!’

‘Sunshine?’ Using nicknames wasn’t something he’d done before, always just using your name or calling you “friendly-head-alien-parasite”, this one catching you off guard, your stomach fluttering just a bit.

‘Yeah, sunshine! An old lady called me it today when I bought an ice-cream at the store, and I liked it, so now I’m using it too!’

From then out, he still wouldn’t leave your head, nor would he stop calling you sunshine, and you were glad of it.

Despite never meeting, you grew up together, sharing your moments of joy and venting about your deepest secrets with one another, feeling as though you were both extensions of the other rather than two different people.

You shared your addresses early on, realising you both lived on opposite sides of the country. However, neither of your parents would give in to your hopes of meeting the stranger in your head, both of your parents dismissing the voice as another imaginary friend.

Maybe you both internalised that, at some point unconsciously believing the person on the other end wasn’t a real person that breathed, lived and walked out to the same sun.

Not that it mattered, even at the age of eighteen you were both unmoving fixtures in each other’s lives, a near constant presence regardless of where you went.

Today you found yourself at a national park, in another sweltering summer with the sun eating at your neck but not managing to dent your determination to conquer the winding trails.

The trip was sporadic, you found yourself with a lot of spare time to fill and not much to do, so travelling a few hours to the famous park with its beautiful fauna and amazing views of the forests was an obvious choice.

‘You should see the view’s here Mirio, its breath taking!’

Mirio hadn’t been responding that day, which wasn’t entirely uncommon, but the silence always made you feel a little more alone.

Waiting for a response was useless, so you set off towards the mountain peaks and gravel trails lined with wildflowers and teeming with odd critters.

‘Beautiful day today, sunshine! The sun out here is awesome!’

The rush of butterflies in your stomach every time you his voice came back was something you’d near get used to, but you were grateful for.

‘Yea, I know! It’s gorgeous over here too, great day for the outdoors.’

Continuing on the upward path, you hoped this wouldn’t be another of the days where only one line got through followed by radio silence for the rest of the day.

‘Oh, you’re outside too? Awesome! I’m out for a walk in this beautiful forest-y place, the air is so fresh too.’

You halted your next step as you finished listening to Mirio’s voice. It sounded different, not sounding like the same crispy lilt you were used to. Maybe you were a bit exhausted from the sun, your brain dehydrated from all the constant over-bearing heat of the day.

‘Me too’ You thought back, chugging back some cold water and marching onwards. ‘It’s killing my legs though, more of an upward trek than I realised.’

‘It’ll be worth it for the view; plus think of all the extra exercise you’re getting in!’

No, there was definetely something different. His voice wasn’t the same. It was like it had almost cleared, become less distorted. Like he was standing next to you and holding conversation, not on the other side of the country.

It was almost like you were back under the tree as you looked around while you walked. You never expected to spot him amongst the trees or behind you on the trail, but you couldn’t restrain the urge to check.

“Oof!”

Suddenly you were on your back, staring up at a cloudless sky, grit and stones jutting against your skin as you struggled back up. You had bumped into something hard, headfirst.

Whatever you had bumped into seemingly suffered a fall too as it stirred from ahead of you, dusting off its shorts and standing up.

“Oh jeez! Sorry about that, totally blanked there for a second and didn’t even see you there! Are you alright?”

Crystal clear. No echo, no fading, no cutting out. His voice was right there, now you could finally see the source when you turned your head.

There was no line from where the tuffs of gold on his head ended and the sun began, it framed him from behind like a halo, shading his angular jaw and allowing his eyes to glint with the smile curled under his adorable nose.

‘Mirio?’

You couldn’t say the name outloud, could barely open your mouth to gasp.

As soon as the thought was out your head, the blonde’s eyes widened and searched your face.

“Y/N?”

It was him. Standing in front of you, breathing, sweat glistening, you could even feel the heat oozing from the palm outstretched in front of you.

“You’re real?”

It was unfathomable that there was a body to the voice, a face and a smile that framed it but there he stood.

You reached out and let your fingertips glide across his palm, his fingers gently tickling your wrist in return. His hand was big, calloused and held a soft sort of endearing warmth.

Suddenly he pulled his hand back slightly and wound his fingers through yours, then jerked you from the ground and into his arms. You hadn’t noticed how muscular his arms were until you were embraced by them and snuggling into the hard muscle you had planted your face into moments ago.

“Nice to finally meet you, sunshine.”

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀ »»————-　♡　————-««

Notes: This one wasn’t too specific on the soulmate bit but I tried to keep the soulmate theme lowkey, otherwise everyone would’ve been able to find their soulmates and there’d be no real oomft to the plot. Hope you enjoy it!

[im-a-space-gay]

Friendships DESTROYED

Gay Gamers AU. Also this is mostly unedited because I couldn’t muster up the effort to read over it.

Before Virgil went to Florida

~~~~~

“Hello everybody!” Roman said, running around the lobby. “Prince_Of_Creativity here, and today I am with the other Gay Gamers, Mor-Pal-Ity, CoolLogic101, and Anxie_Tea&Biscuits—“

“Hi!”

“Salutations.”

“‘Sup.”

“— and my brother and his crew, Duke_Of_DEATH, SneakySnekBoi, Sleepislife and Picartoons, and today we are playing Among Us. Now, I hear Snek is good at explaining things, so would you care to explain the rules?”

“Not at all. Among Us is an online game where there are four to ten players. The crewmate’s goal is to defeat the imposters, either by completing all their tasks or by voting them off. The imposter’s goal is to kill everybody they possibly can and sabotage equipment. There can be up to three imposter’s per game depending on the settings; however there will only be one imposter for this video, then the next will bump it up to two, and finally three.”

“Thank you Snek,” Roman said. “Now, let’s ruin each other’s trust, shall we?”

——

“Oh my god,” Remy groaned as Snek won. “Gurl, you always win when you’re imposter! How did we not guess sooner?”

“Don’t know, don’t care.”

“No joke, if I’m imposter next round, I’m killing you out of spite,” Remy said dead serious, and everyone laughed.

The next round started, and Virgil muted himself like everybody else before evil laughing.

“I’m the imposter! Now, over the course of the game, I have been analyzing everybody’s moves, and have a solid strategy. Nerdy, I know.”

Virgil pretended to do tasks as he explained.

“First, we’ll kill Snek, because most the time he figures out who it is lightning quick, and thanks to Remy, they’ll probably accuse him for killing Snek. So, Snek first, Remus next, and if Remy hasn’t been voted off by then, kill him, and then Emile. I’ll save the other Gay Gamers last because they have been quick to defend me the last few rounds when I was in fishy situations, and knowing them they’ll tear each other apart from the inside accusing each other. Then I’ll kill Patton, then Logan, and I’m home free.”

Virgil was quick to spin in a circle with Snek, a nonverbal way to pack together with trust before they walked away from everybody else.

“Of course, there will be other things screwing up my master plan, but oh well. It’ll end with me winning or losing, and I’m perfectly fine with either.”

They entered electrical, and Virgil killed Snek before venting to the other side of the map, where once he left the room he saw Patton and Logan together and stuck with them so he had an alibi.

A couple minutes went by before somebody found Snek’s body. Surprisingly, Remus found it and immediately shouted:

“REMY YOU SON OF A BITCH!”

“Wait wait wait babes I didn’t do it!”

“UH HUH. THEN WHY DID I FIND MY BEST FRIEND’S BODY IN ELECTRICAL OF ALL PLACES?! AND YOU THREATENED HIM LAST ROUND!”

“Okay, let’s think about how I’m not the only meme-y one—“

“I don’t know Remy that seems awfully suspicious,” Roman said accusingly.

“Dude, what about Anx—“

“HE WOULD NEVER!” Both Patton and Logan said loudly.

“Besides, he’s been with us for a while now,” Logan said, and Virgil smirked.

“Yeah Remy, I’m starting to think it might be you,” Emile said, Virgil smiling more.

“What’s Anx’s opinion?” Roman asked, and Virgil thanked his years in voice acting.

“Well, Remy does seem suspicious, but honestly we don’t have enough information for me to feel comfortable outright accusing him at this point.”

“I agree with Anxie,” Patton said, voting. “Let’s just skip this one until we have more evidence.”

They all agreed and Virgil tried not to laugh even if he was now muted, following Logan and Patton again. When there was an intersection, Virgil turned off the lights, knowing they’d be essentially useless when turning the lights back on.

He split from Logan and Patton, hoping they wouldn’t notice as he looked for Remus. It was easy enough to find him, snapping his neck before venting away. By the time he was able to kill again, he saw Remy trying to swipe his card and killed him as well before venting.

Virgil snickered. He could see it now; Remy yelling in the call for dead people while Snek laughed, Remus probably saying something crude. Remy probably going like “I told you so” as he followed Virgil, cussing loudly.

He walked around, killing Emile once he found them and actually managing to find Logan and Patton again.

It appeared Roman found a body, as a meeting was called and Patton gasped, probably at all the people dead.

“Okay, that is a LOT more dead people than I remember,” Virgil said, holding down his laughs knowing that the dead people could still hear him.

“So it’s down to us,” Roman said dramatically before continuing. “I think it’s Logan, because Patt is terrible at lying and I feel like we would know if it was Anx.”

“Actually, it’s you,” Logan said in the perfect way of saying Uno Reverse without saying Uno Reverse. “Because us three have been together since before the last time a dead body was found.”

And Virgil had to hold his hand to his mouth so he wouldn’t make any noise because one, they didn’t realize he separated from them, and two, he didn’t think about how that would affect their view of the Roman. Dear lord, he wish he grabbed popcorn.

After them arguing for a bit, Roman was voted off and he really had to not laugh at how the other two reacted.

He unmuted himself once his kill button became an option again, and he killed Logan before evil cackling as the victory screen appeared.

“OH MY GOD,” Roman shouted, as if the truth was surprising to him, which it probably was.

“ANX YOU ABSOLUTE SON OF BITCH,” Remy shouted as well, and Virgil’s evil laugh increased in volume and length as he listened to their reactions.

“You never saw it coming until it was knocking at your door!” He said like a villain once he stopped laughing.

“I gotta hand it to you, that was really awesome,” Snek said, being the calmest of the bunch. “Before you come back into the lobby, can you please explain everything to me; the strat, the outcome, everything!”

“Sure!” Virgil said, and he smirked when they all shut up, wanting to hear it for themselves. “First, I had to kill you, because you are damn good at murder mysteries. It was just really convenient that not only did you go to electrical, but Remy had threatened you last round.”

“Fucking piece of shit,” Remy mumbled.

“Then, act like I normally do, meaning I couldn’t agree that we voted Remy off, I just had to hope it happened. Shut off the lights because we’re useless fixing stuff like that, plus it gave me a chance to sneak away from Logan and Patton without them noticing. Killed Remus because he is way too reckless in voting people off meaning it was unpredictable, and Remy would most likely be voted off because Remus was the one who planted the idea in your heads that Remy was guilty.”

“Fucking. Piece. Of shit.”

“Upon realizing that nobody had found his body or turned the lights back on, I killed Remy when I found him, same method for Emile, and rejoined Logan and Patton and waited till somebody found a body.”

“Fucking simp. Leaving them and my brother alive,” Remus said, and Virgil smirked.

“Actually, it’s the other way around.”

“Huh?”

“Throughout my time of knowing and recording with the other three, I knew that they wouldn’t accuse me unless they had no choice. Therefore, I had to make them the last to go.”

“Genius,” Snek whispered in awe. “Absolute genius.”

“Honestly,” Virgil continued, ignoring the slight heat in his face. “Once somebody found a body I was going to insist to skip the vote, kill Patton, and watch the other two tear each other apart and ‘reluctantly’ side with one of them. I didn’t take into account one thing however.”

“It was just you and those three, meaning Roman was alone,” Snek said, and Virgil nodded even though he knew they wouldn’t see him.

“Yep. It was just too easy to vote Roman off and kill one of the others once I had the chance, winning my first game as imposter.”

“I feel tricked. I feel like a fiddle who’s been played with,” Roman said, utter betrayal in his voice as the other two Gay Gamers agreed. “I do not know if I could ever see or even talk to Anx the same way again.”

“Besides the utter rage I feel,” Remy said, cutting Virgil off from apologizing. “I have to admit that I am proud of little Anxie.”

“Don’t call me that,” Virgil said with utter venom, entering the lobby and running over to the other Gay Gamers. “Only Lo, Ro, and Patty can call me that.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re not as special as them,” Virgil said, smiling as he heard Emile reassure Remy he was special when he became upset.

“I take it back, this is still little innocent Anxie,” Roman said.

“Indeed. Still as harmless as ever.”

“Just a small anxious baby,” Patton finished. Virgil frowned, walking away from the others and to Snek and Remus.

“You’ve been revoked of your title of being special. You’re all evil and heartless.”

“You cannot escape us Anxie,” Roman said like a madman, following Virgil, prompting Virgil to run away, only for Roman, and soon Logan and Patton, to follow.

Virgil turned around at the last second to boop Logan before running away again.

“Tag, you’re it!”

“Oh, it is on.”

General Taglist:

@thefivecalls @antiredhuman

Gay Gamers Taglist:

@that-spider-fan-over-there @thatonerandomarmadillo

[deviantofthemind]

Sanders Sides Ficmas 2020

↪ 𝔉𝔦𝔠𝔪𝔞𝔰 𝔐𝔞𝔰𝔱𝔢𝔯𝔭𝔬𝔰𝔱 🎁

Dec 4: Holiday Movies - Anxceit  Rating: E

Virgil is cosied up for christmas break with his boyfriend in his parents otherwise empty house. They plan on nothing but eating an ungodly amount of food, relaxing and watching mushy Christmas movies. They don’t actually watch anything.

Finals week had been freaking hell on earth. Had anyone told him just how much it was, he may have reconsidered college. Virgil had been so stressed that the muscles in his jaw were sore because he had clenched his teeth so much. And now his calves and thighs were equally as destroyed because he had tried to run the stress out of his body, literally.

He panted hard, bent over, hands on his knees. The cold air burned in his throat and lungs and the sweat on his body made him shiver in the fresh winter wind. 

With his icy hands he had a hard time unlocking the front, fingers fumbling and numb. When he finally made it inside he was immediately surrounded by a cosy warmth. The smell of lasagna his mom had made this morning, before his parents left for their vacation, was still strong in the air. 

He generally was in a pretty good mood, the holidays were here, his boyfriend would be here in a few hours, he just had to get rid of the residue of lingering anxiety and, it seemed, he’d been successful with his run. He would take sore muscles and post-sports-starve any time. That was one reason, if not the only one, while he played lacrosse and he thought it was one of the reasons while Janus was into soccer.

Between the two of them they could eat a very impressive amount of food. Virgil would forever cherish the memory of Janus being invited over for the first time to have dinner with Virgil's parents. His mom, very smugly, saying, “I’m so happy to see you enjoy my cooking!”, after Virgil had them both dealt a third helping. It was probably the only time he’d ever seen his boyfriend blush. 

He stuffed a left-over piece of pizza into his mouth at once, checking over the content of the fridge while at it and found it to be satisfactory stacked. Sitting down on the kitchen island he willed himself to chew slowly and checked his phone for an update from Jan. Nothing yet, but Virgil knew he was on his way. 

The shower was good, Virgil lingered much longer than he usually would. He only got out when his stomach rumbled to signal for more food than just a tiny piece of pizza. Also, he didn’t want to miss the doorbell. He hadn’t seen Janus for almost three weeks after all and was a bit giddy with it.

He had a snack of another piece of pizza while he waited for his oatmeal to cook and just appreciated the quiet and newly loose muscles. He took the bowl into the living room, eating on the floor while he lit the fire so he could warm his cold feet in front of the fireplace and also because it was romantic. Jan liked romantic. Virgil might do so too, not that he would admit to that outright. On second thought, he probably had already when they talked about what they wanted to do for their break and Virgil had said he wanted to be alone and watch christmas movies. 

Just when he had shoved the last spoon into his mouth he could hear a car pull up into the driveway. It was a little embarrassing how quick he was up and unloaded his clattering bowl into the sink before he opened the front door.

Janus was just slinging his duffel bag over his shoulder, smiling brightly as he walked over the short way to Virgil. He swooped him into a very nice kiss hello. Soft lips and gentle pressure. “Hi Virgil..” 

Suave fucker. "Good to see you, asshole." Virgil grinned despite himself, pulling Janus inside the house to kiss him again, a lot more sloppy. 

“You’ve missed me, huh?” Virgil had to nip that annoyingly handsome smirk off his face because turning around gesturing up the stairs.

“Wanna get rid of your bag first?”

“Would love to.” Jan still grinned that smug smile and before he could himself blush even deeper, Virgil led up the way to his room.

When Virgil had decorated that room at the ripe old age of fifteen he wouldn’t have thought that one day he might he coming home from college and maybe have sex with his boyfriend for the first time. In all fairness, he still had been fairly convinced that it would be a girlfriend back then.

He heard Jan snort on his laugh when he stepped inside the room after Virgil, letting his duffel fall to the floor by the door. The sound was nice. Deep, rich. It was more than nice actually. And it was what had endeared him to Janus in the first place. Now it made him a little nervous, not just because his incredibly cringey, teenage angst nightmare of a bedroom was on display.

Janus walked around the room, still laughing softly, downright giggling at one or the other ancient poster.

He turned back around to Virgil fiddling silently with the cuffs of his hoodie. “This is very you. Would have definitely been able to pick out this as yours under a thousand.”

“Is- uhm, is that good?”he asked, and it came out soundly a lot more insecure than he intended, making him wince a little.

Janus stepped back into his comfort zone, sighing softly, before kissing him again. Not as charged as before just...incredibly mushy and sweet. “Perfect.”

They spend the afternoon making some mulled wine, accidentally cooking all the alcohol out of it, too busy snogging on the kitchen island. And talking, mostly gossiping and venting. And it was good, it was exactly what Virgil had hoped when he offered spending the holidays together. Just, spending time, being comfortable, shaking off the stress and anxiety of the last weeks. 

They warmed the lasagna and got cosy in the living room later that evening. Shoveling his face with his mom's cooking and reminding his boyfriend of the first time they did. Janus did the endearing blushy thing again. Vorgil felt exceptionally good about his plans.

“Wanna watch a movie?” he asked when they sorted both their long limbs to get comfortable snuggled together.

They decided on Happiest Season and got about ten minutes into the stream before Virgil was distracted by Jans sharp jawline, feeling compelled to kiss and nibble softly until he could hear the breath of his very composed boyfriend hitch lightly.

“V…, Baby.” Janus hummed softly, using the nickname that never failed you make Virgil heat up all over. He let his mouth wander until he reached another pair of soft, relaxed lips to slip his tongue in. Jan gripped him more firmly, pressing him against his chest, heat trapped between them now, while they kissed. Things only got more heated between, the kiss downright dirty and open-mouthed and a little dizzying with the lack of oxygen. Both of them were hard, which was nothing new really, they often got turned on like that from kissing each other.

“Hey V..” Janus asked, right against his lips, gorgeous and absolutely out of breath, “Can I blow you?”

They hadn’t done that yet. Actually they hadn’t done anything really, except for rubbing against each other, fully clothed. Because Virgil had been to anxious about, well, everything, to do with having sex with his boyfriend. Jan had never pressed for anything more and he was intensely thankful for that. But he must have felt too that tonight was different. And holy shit, he wanted to get his mouth on Virgil's dick! He could actually feel his dick dribbling a little at that and had to hide his head in Jans neck to get himself under control.

“Fuck yes, yes, please, I’d like that.” he whispered. Again that irresistible laugh, but this time it made the unbearable heat in his belly even more intense.

“Okay, yes, sounding enthusiastic there, yes?”

“Yes, yes, very enthusiastic. Very.” he hurried to say when Jans fingers wandered to his waistband.

“Just making sure..” This time the heatwave came from his boyfriend smoothly sliding onto the floor between his outstretched legs, and it made actual sweat break out in the small of his back. The sweats were gone in an instant.

Shortly before Jan was about to strip him out of his pants he gripped his hands in a sudden bout of nervousness. They’d never been naked around each other either, what if- “Virgil, Baby.” Janus interrupted his rabid brain, “Stop thinking. I already know you are gorgeous and I want you, yes?”

He waited until Virgil cracked a small smile and confirmed that he could go on, still a little wary but also really, really excited.

In comparison to all the porn Virgil had ever seen this was incredibly sloppy. Nothing about it was tidy and very coordinated or anything like he had imagined from what he had ever seen. And it was mind numbing. Absolute bliss and it was over so fucking fast he could barely warn Jan.

“Fuck, Baby.” And again that incredible warm laugh. Virgil didn’t feel like examining how he was liking his lips while doing it or he most likely would have ended up with the next erection.

“Want me to..?” he gestured a little helplessly and dazed between his boyfriends legs which must have been a little funny because he was treated to another soft huff. “Don’t worry, V...taking care of it myself real quick. Just relax and savour that afterglow, yeah? We have all of the holidays if you want to  reciprocate.”

[potatotrash0]

Tension

i,,,just wanted to vent about braces and I ended up writing this bullshit ummmm take it and run

Tomura was seething.

Not only did he just find out that he had not one, not two, not even three, but four tests in a goddamn row, he discovered that he was failing math class and his jaw was the sorest fucker in the world right now from getting his braces tightened.

As he struggled to not rampage on the house and turn over every piece of furniture, Tomura heard Dabi fiddling with his guitar, which was electric, mind you, and Toga’s shitty soap opera anime playing obnoxiously loud.

Tomura’s nails dig into his arms while he paced the distance from his bed to his door, a chant of “fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” running through his mind as he fought the urge to punch holes into the plaster.

He lasted another ten seconds before he gave up.

With a low growl, Tomura slammed open his door with a loud bang and stomped down the stairs to the basement, over to Dabi’s section.

They each kept different things in each corner of the cellar, and mostly, they kept to their own corners. But today, Tomura was two seconds from strangling someone, and he didn’t feel like getting lectured by Kurogiri for his outbursts again.

Luckily, Dabi kept a punching bag in his area.

As Tomura stormed down the cellar stairs and flicked the light on, bright red nylon caught his eye. A small huff left his cracked lips and he sped up his pace, flexing his fingers.

He stopped in front of the bag, glancing at the crumpled picture crudely taped onto it.

Todoroki Enji scowled back at him, and Tomura sneered at the sight of the man’s ugly beard and mustache. He never liked the doctor - fucking arrogant bastard - but especially not after he discovered how Dabi got all his old scars and bruises.

A worn pair of gloves sat on the desk to his left, and he distantly remembered seeing Dabi wear them while working out

Shoving the wraps on his hands and pulling back his fist, Tomura glared at the wrinkled Polaroid before jabbing the punching bag with a right hook, a loud thump sounding through the basement.

——

Dabi’s gaze flickered from the tuner balanced precariously on his knee to his bedroom door at the sharp slam he recognized as the sound of Shigaraki’s door being harshly shoved open. It was followed up with the sound of the boy stomping down the steps, heavy enough that Dabi was surprised the stairs didn’t give out completely.

Usually, he wouldn’t bat an eye, but the bang was louder than it had ever been in the past few months. The last time Shigaraki’s fits had caused that kind of ruckus was when a power outage had shut down the lights and the mophead’s game had been taken down with it; he didn’t really give a shit, but Shigaraki was whining like a brat about how long it had taken him to finally beat that boss. Somewhere around 3 hours, Dabi vaguely remembered, or was it more?

A little spark of curiosity rang through his brain, but he set it aside for later. He had two strings on his guitar left, and it would only take a few minutes to tune.

Time passed quickly, and his fingers itched to actually start playing, but he had a weird urge to see what had gotten the mophead so riled up.

Gently, Dabi leaned the blue, flame-patterned guitar against the wall and flung his legs over the side of the bed to head downstairs.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, he padded down the stairs. Somehow, they weren’t damaged, but a few steps creaked dangerously. He noted with a hint of amusement that Kurogiri was grumbling under his breath in the kitchen, pinching the bridge of his nose in irritation.

As he neared the cellar staircase, he heard the muffled sound of fists hitting the punching bag through the door. He took a guess and figured the mophead was punching full force, and the young teenager in him cringed; the first time he did that, his knuckles were cracked and bruised for weeks. The same part prayed he was at least wearing hand wraps.

With practiced ease from sneaking down to the basement in the late hours of the night, Dabi shut the door behind him and descended the steps nearly silently, avoiding the step with a tendency to creak loudly, located at the bottom of the stairs.

The sharp thuds had increased in frequency and volume, unrelenting and surprising for someone with such a thin frame. Then again, Dabi wasn’t the most built person either, and he - in his humble opinion, of course - could pack a pretty good punch.

Shigaraki’s matted hair flew around as he punched, and barely audible grunts and curses the boy spat out slipped through the barrage of noise. Dabi leaned against the wall surrounding the stairs leisurely, his brow raising a fraction at how tense his roommate was. Maybe something to do with his braces, he mused.

Tomura hadn’t ever really shown an interest in using his punching bag, so it mildly surprised him to see the boy so eager to get his hands on it...actually, Dabi wasn’t sure if Tomura had expressed a desire to do any physical activity at all, frankly.

Half of him was satisfied just seeing what the hell the mophead was doing, but the other part of him was curious to see how long this would last. Shigaraki Tomura wasn’t exactly known for his athletic prowess, Dabi thought with a grin.

Socked feet padded over to an unused corner where they kept miscellaneous supplies; scarred, calloused hands snagged a stopwatch off one of the colored knife handles hammered into a plank of wood as a shitty DIY coat rack, courtesy of Toga. He snickered quietly as he remembered the look of pure exasperation Kurogiri had worn as he scolded the blonde for her antics.

Clicking one of the buttons, Dabi slung the stopwatch’s cord over his head, the cheap, plastic device thudding against his chest and beginning to time Shigaraki. Idly, he began fiddling with a Rubik's Cube he didn’t remember them ever having while he waited for the mophead to let up on the punches.

By the time he actually stopped, Dabi had solved the Rubik’s Cube twice over and he was browsing the small collection of books that they had accumulated from years of Kurogiri and Toga insisting on buying out the entire bookstore each time they went.

He was still somewhat floored at the fact that Toga actually...read. Read as in not just BL and romance mangas; actual, physical, hardcover books. He was more shocked to find that her side of the bookshelf was stacked full of books on physics, the paranormal, and true crime novels.

Shigaraki’s last blow was thrown with a loud thump and a heavy grunt, the loudest he had gotten throughout the session. For a moment, the only sound was the mophead’s gasps for breath. Dabi stopped the timer and hummed in surprise.

A few seconds shy of 24 minutes. Impressive for someone who did zero exercise in his free time, Dabi smirked.

A choked sound came from in front of him, and he glanced up.

——

Tomura let out a final grunt as he threw the last punch, sweat rolling down his face. His arms burned, and his lungs screamed.

It was strangely nice.

He stood there for a minute, catching his breath only to have it get stuck in his throat and escape as a strangled...something when he turned around.

Glancing up at him was a pair of bright blue eyes, almost glowing in the dim lighting. Dabi stared at him, the beginnings of what he knew was a shit-eating grin playing on his pierced lips.

“Never took you for the exercising type, mophead,” he snickered, “real great technique, by the way. Jabbing randomly? Outstanding.”

Tomura glared and opened his mouth to say something, then abruptly winced as his braces caught on his lip. He cursed, bowing his head with his hand flying up instinctively to cover his mouth as the skin inside his mouth moved with his teeth.

There was a brief stinging pain, then nothing as the skin detached from his brackets. He fucking hated that, he decided for the tenth time that week. Tomura straightened up and was met with Dabi suddenly much closer than he was before. “Fuck—”

Tomura stumbled back a step, bumping against the punching bag, as the dick in front of him snorted at his expense.

Snarling, Tomura curled in on himself, heat coloring his face redder than it already was. “Shut it, crispy.” As the words left his throat, the urge to slam his head against the wall swelled as big as Dabi’s fucking ego.

His roommate snorted louder, “Yeah, it’s real threatening when you’re sweaty and red down to your chest,” Dabi drawled, leaning down a few inches to meet Tomura’s glare with his trademark grin, stretching across his face in a way that almost seemed like his jaw was splitting apart.

He could feel his face flush redder - the fucking traitor - and his hands, still covered by Dabi’s hand wraps, gripped his arms tighter. He hated how he was shorter than Dabi, even if it was just three inches; it gave the dick way too much leverage over him.

As he straightened up, Tomura muttered, “fucking jackass.” Dabi blinked, his grin dropped, though his lip twitched upwards. The bastard cupped his hand around his ear, “Sorry, couldn’t hear ya’ down there. Speak up some, would ya’?” His grin was back full force now, a glimmer of cruel amusement in his dull eyes.

Tomura’s grip tightened and he could almost feel his circulation being cut off. His jaw tightened for a moment, but the jolt of pain that ran through his teeth quickly forced him to stop, a barely stifled whine building in his throat. His eyes squeezed shut in slight agony, and once again, he longed to take some Advil. The brat in him swung the focus back to Dabi’s jab at his height, and he opened his eyes enough to kick at the taller man’s shin, putting as much force into it as he could.

Unfortunately, as much as he would love to see Dabi groan and writhe in pain under him, Tomura was a gamer first, a skinny ass twink second, and an athletic adult last. Easily, Dabi sidestepped the kick and swept his leg behind Tomura’s, effectively knocking his feet out from below him.

The fall didn’t register in his mind before he hit the ground, and his brain kicked into overdrive for about one second before he slammed down onto the ground. It could have been worse, he thought weakly, arching off the shitty blue mat that he really wished had more padding to cushion his poor, bony back.

----

And this is all I have to give you,,,I’m horrible at finishing shit I’m sorry--

[albionscastle]

Rainy Night

I am on a weird kind of roll right now. I blame it on the photoshoot posted the other day...you all know the one. Lowden in a jumper I mean......it’s like porn.

Anyway this is just a oneshot, a girl with a crush gets caught in the rain, queue knight in woolly jumper. 

FIC MASTERLIST

RAINY NIGHT

There were tears in your eyes as you gathered your things, waiting until you were sure that everyone else had left before you chanced opening the door. You didn’t want them to know that you had overheard them talking, not that it would matter in the slightest. In fact they would probably get even more pleasure from knowing that you had heard what was being said about you.

The lights were out down the hall and even your own people weren’t here this late. You could meander out, take your time and say your silent goodbyes. It was a shame, you thought sadly, you’d actually liked this job, even if it was only a temporary gig. Cutting it short a few weeks would hurt your bank account, but it would save your pride. Maybe.

You considered leaving your resignation on the counter, but no, your boss deserved more than that from you. You would show your face once more, tomorrow and hopefully have come up with a better excuse for quitting than ‘mean girls’ for leaving her in the lurch.

A noise startled you into jumping, spinning around with a yelp. The man standing in the doorway was the absolute last person on earth you wanted to see.

“Shit, sorry luv, didnae mean tae scare ye.”

Your heart was hammering in your chest as you levelled him with the blandest scare you could muster.

“I thought everyone had gone home for the night.” you managed to splutter.

“A few o us stayed back tae go over some lines.”

A few of us no doubt meaning his two co-stars, Tweedlebitch and Tweedlebitchier, the gossips who apparently lived just to make others miserable.

“Anyways,” Jack stepped further into the kitchen, his head tilted, frowning as he looked at you. “I came tae see if I could steal a piece o cake from the fridge. I didnae realize ye were still here.”

You’d had a feeling that he was the one who’d been doing just that, pretty much every day. Any other time it would have amused you to no end, catching him out like this.

“It’s on the third shelf.” you murmured instead, turning away and pretending to rifle through a folder. “Are ye ok lass?” his voice seemed closer and you took a deep breath to hold back your tears.

“I’m fine, long day.” you ground out, refusing turn around.

No way was anyone going to see you cry, least of all him.

His hand came to rest on your shoulder, just as it had a dozen times before. This time you shrugged him off roughly, still refusing to turn around, tears pricking at your eyes.

“Ya can talk tae me if ye need lass.”

You couldn’t help but hear the hurt in his voice which made you feel even worse. What was  happening to you wasn’t his fault, he’d done nothing but be friendly.

“I’m just really tired,” and this was the last time you would ever see him, “I’ll be fine, I promise.” Not a chance, but he didn’t need to know that.

You held your breath until you were sure that he was gone, waiting even a few minutes after that to pull your shit together. Not a chance you were going to tell him what had upset you, he would know tomorrow anyway, rumors had a way of spreading fast. At least you wouldn’t be around to see his reaction when he realised the truth to it.

Your car was parked almost half a mile away and the walk in the chilly autumn air gave you time to think about what you’d heard. Jack’s co-stars also happened to be two of the most stunning women in the world. Playing sisters, they were both young, tall, blonde and perfect. They were also two of the rudest people you’d ever had the misfortune to deal with, and you’d been in customer service for years. From day one they’d fixated on you, the most inexperienced of the catering team, but it had mostly been stupid shit. The usual demands and complaints of the entitled. If you were honest,  you’d enjoyed the looks on their faces every time that you’d been able to say no to them.

Jack, on the other hand had been a delight, charming everyone with his warmth and humor. The man had made the catering area his second home and there wasn’t a day that he was on set that he couldn’t be found there, usually begging for cake. He’d just been friendly, and since you did the baking, it was usually you that he was trying to charm.

It wasn’t his fault that you’d developed a huge crush, who wouldn’t? Even your boss, a robust matron, happily married with grandkids, sighed dreamily whenever Jack was around. You’d done a pretty damn good job of hiding your feelings, or so you’d thought until tonight. You shivered in the cool air, wrapping your arms around yourself as you trudged through the gravel, remembering what you overheard. You’d been cleaning up after a service, alone in the room when you’d heard them tittering, not realising you were still there.

‘Poor Jack,” Sonia, the eldest of the two, “I don’t know how he puts up with it, every day.”

The other one had murmured in agreement and your ‘spidey senses’ started tingling.

“I mean it’s just pathetic the way she moons over him when it’s so obvious to everyone, no shame whatsoever.”

“She’s totally clueless, and Jack tries so hard to be nice, it must be exhausting.”

You had frozen, white hot dread washing over you as they continued.

“Why she thinks he would even look at her is beyond me, not with the size of her ass.” Sonia giggled.

Your face had burned.

“Everyone is starting to notice, the silly cow is only going to be a laughing stock if she keeps this up. I mean, she makes those cakes every day just like she’s his mother.”

“She’s too ugly to even be a mother, who’d want to sleep with that?”

They’d dissolved into laughter as they left the room and you’d finished out the rest of the day in some kind of numb shock. You refused to leave the kitchen again, putting yourself on the much loathed dish duty until everyone left you alone.

You were so humiliated.

That it was apparently so obvious you had a thing for Jack was sickening, especially when you’d worked so hard to act normal around him. It was awful knowing that everyone knew, even worse, to feel like he’d just been taking pity on you this whole time.

In fact that was probably the worst part, if you were honest. You would never be able to face him again if all he felt was pity for the poor little fat girl with a hopeless crush, and you didn’t want him to be embarrassed. Jack had been so kind to you and the least that you could do was not put him in this position. It was better for him too if you just disappeared. Your heart would get over it soon enough. You hoped.

By the time you reached your car you were freezing and dying for the hoodie that you’d foolishly left on the front seat along with…..

“Son of a bitch!”

Your car keys at on top of your sweater, glinting mockingly at you through the locked door. Rummaging through your purse you looked for your phone, even though calling the lock out service at 8:30pm on a Sunday would take hours and cost a week’s pay if you were lucky. The memory of stuffing it in the front pocket of your sweater came at the exact moment you realised it wasn’t in your bag.

“Seriously!?” you yelled at the Universe. “What the fuck else could go wrong?!”

The Universe responded with a cold, fat raindrop hitting you in the nose, swiftly accompanied by several million of his closest friends. Within seconds you were soaked through, shivering and glad the rain was hiding the tears that ran down your cheeks. If you started walking now you might be able to hail a cab in town, in about an hour. Until then you were on your own, cold, wet and crying your way into a hysterical pity party.

At least your purse was waterproof.

So caught up were you in your misery that you missed the headlights coming toward you until the last minute, groaning when you recognized the vehicle.

Of course it was Jack, who else would just happen along at your worst moment? The Universe was officially a bitch.

“Y/N?” the passenger side window rolled down while Jack leaned over looking dry, warm and concerned.

“I’m fine Jack. I’m waiting for the lockout service.” you tried to smile, as if all was well, knowing you looked like a drowned rat.

Jack’s eyes narrowed.

“Bullocks Y/N, get in the car. I’m no leavin ye like this.”

“Really Jack, I’m fine.” you jumped at a loud clap of thunder, and then you saw the look on his face.

He wasn’t buying it, you could see his jaw twitching.

“Get in the car Y/N, before I throw ye over me shoulder an force ye in.”

His voice said it all, he was livid. You blinked once, trying to decide if he meant it. The look in his eyes said it all and you sighed before stepping over to the door and pulling it open.

“It’s too wet Jack, I’ll just ruin your seats.”

He stared at you, then undid his belt, hand on his door to open it. With a squeak you jumped inside, squishing into the seat and hanging your head.

“The fuck were ye thinkin stayin oot in the rain in this cold, are ye daft?”

He fiddled with the heat while he ranted at you, turning it on full blast and aiming all the vents at you. You couldn’t even answer, your teeth were chattering so much.

“Ye’re turnin blue woman!”

From the corner of your eye you saw him shrug out of his woollen jumper and holding it out to you.

“Put it on before ye freeze tae death.”

You looked at the jumper like it was offensive, it was bad enough that you were dripping all over his car. This was. No.

“I’ll be fine till I get home.” you managed through clenched teeth, hoping he wouldn’t notice you shaking.

He simply sat, brows raised until you sighed and took it from him. Aware you were acting like a spoiled child you started to pull it on.

“Is no goin tae do ye any good if ye donnae take off tha wet shirt first ye numpty.”

No way. There was not a chance in hell you were going to take off your shirt in front of him. Even if he did have a very valid point, damn him. Jack, naturally noticed your hesitation. “I’ll close me eyes an turn away if tha helps.” he shrugged, doing just that. “Is no like there’s anythin left tae hide anyway.” he muttered.

You looked down at yourself and groaned loudly, realising your white shirt was completely translucent. Jack chuckled under his breath as you quickly peeled it off, your soaked bra doing almost nothing to cover you in the cold. The heat of embarrassment flooded through you and you pulled on his jumper, wishing you could literally be anywhere than with him right now. Tears filled your eyes again as the warmth from his body and the smell of him eveloped you. He was by far the nicest man you’d ever met and, as usual, you’d managed to make an arse of yourself around him. You knew what you were, and what people thought of you, especially men. That Jack now had a taste of how unattractive you were underneath your clothing was just humiliating. You could only hope that he didn’t think any of this had been a lame attempt to lure him in.

“Where’s home luv?” Jack finally spoke up, looking at you as you slowly stopped shivering.

“Just take me to the nearest hotel.”

“House keys too huh?”

“Yup, when I decide to fuck up I like to make sure that it’s a complete disaster.”

Jack laughed, pulling the car onto the road.

“Ah’ve seen worse, fuck in school I did worse. Donnae sweat it yeah.”

“Easy for you to say.” you muttered under your breath.

“Seriously lass, we’ve all had shite happen, ye canna let it derail ye.”

Too late, you thought bitterly, watching the landscape through the rain. If it had just been the keys it would have been a completely different kettle of fish.

“There’s a Holiday Inn up there.” you responded instead, seeing the lights up ahead.

“Aye, I see it.” Jack murmured, completely missing the exit. “I’m no leavin ye at a strange place wi no phone and no clothes.”

“It’s a motel Jack, not a crackhouse.”

“Doesna matter, I’m no goin tae leave ye stranded like tha. Ye can stay at my place and we’ll call the lockout in the morning.”

The tone of his broked no opposition and inside you panicked, even though you simply nodded tightly. You were swiftly learning that there was no arguing with this man. Instead you spent the rest of the drive in silence, squishing uncomfortably in your wet jeans and feeling more guilty with every passing minute.

“Shite! I didna even think tae ask if ye needed tae call anyone tae let them know ye won’t be home.”

“Like who?” you laughed.

“I dunno, yer man mebe.” Jack shrugged, turning to look at you as you burst out laughing.

“Yeah ok Jack, funny. Do you think if I had a boyfriend I would have asked you to drive me to a motel?”

“Well, no, but still I didna wan tae step on any toes.”

“Fat chance of that.” you muttered, looking out the window again.

There hadn’t been a boyfriend in….well ever if you were honest. Of course there had been a couple of...you didn’t even know what to call them, but you’d learned early on that they weren’t boyfriends, no matter how much you’d hoped otherwise. You had come to terms with it long ago.

Of course Jack didn’t know that, but since you’d apparently been so obviously fawning all over him it should have been quite apparent.

“Why do ye say it like tha?” Jack sighed, pulling into a small parking garage.

“Huh?”

“Nevermind. Home sweet home!”

You followed Jack to the lift, cringing at the squeaky, wet noises you made as you walked and the mess you were inevitably leaving in your wake. Jack stopped in front of his door, opening it to step inside and turn on a light. One look at the immaculate and shiny hardwood floor had you hesitating. “Come on in lass, I promise ye is no a trap, unless ye wan tae be my prisoner. In which case the cuffs are in the bedside drawer.” he said with a wink that stopped you in your tracks.

You knew it was a joke, deep down, but a part of you still jumped in excitement at the subtle flirt. Just as it always did when Jack flirted, which was pretty much any time he opened his mouth. On a better day you would have countered him with a preference for scarves, but not now. Not knowing that he would probably think you were really flirting with him. Your bantering had taken on a whole new meaning now.

Offering him a weak smile instead, you stepped into his flat, closing the door behind you and standing there in your puddle. You watched as Jack walked around, gathering some things from the dryer and moving them to the bathroom.

“Go take a shower luv, there’s dry clothes fer ye and I’ll throw yer wet ones in the wash.”

The thought of hot steam and warm clothes was too strong to offer him any resistance and you soon found yourself standing under the hot water trying to figure out exactly how you’d managed to end up here. The events of the day seemed so far away, almost as if they didn’t happen. It  was only when you had dried yourself and reached for something to wear that it all hit home for you again. Even fresh from the wash, Jack’s clothes smelled like him and despite your extra pounds, they somehow still hung on you. The flannel pants were too long and you had to roll the waistband until they barely perched on your hips. Same deal with the jumper he’d given you. He’d also given you a t-shirt and you probably would have been warm enough with it alone but that did not fit well enough across your chest for comfort. No way were you going out there in that with no bra on.

Eventually you gathered the courage to exit the bathroom, wet clothes balled up in your hands.

“And she lives!” Jack was grinning at you like a loon from the kitchen. “Let me take those fer ye.”

Before you could refuse, he’d lifted your clothes from your hands, shaking them into the washing machine. Your cheeks felt hot when you saw your underthings in his long fingers, and not just because you’d been wearing what you called your ‘utility’ bra. Any underthings able to keep your ‘assets’ in check seemed to lack any kind of feminine embellishment.

Boring and uninspired and not even close to being sexy. Just like you.

It seemed that Jack’s flat was much like him, attractive but unassuming, warm, inviting and comfortable. Despite yourself it was easy to relax into the soft couch and eat heartily when he brought you a sandwich. Jack hunted for something to watch, settling on some dancing reality show, while you gradually felt more comfortable. It seemed he wasn’t aware of the rumors and since you were still determined to walk away, you decided to enjoy this while you could.

“Why’d ye let those two cows upset ye so much?” he spoke suddenly, causing you to choke on your food in shock.

His hand thumped your back a few times while you coughed and sputtered trying to catch your breath again.

“What are you talking about?” you managed between coughs, aware that his hand was now rubbing your back gently.

“Don try tae act like ye donna know, Y/N. Ye weren’t the only one in the room.”

Oh. Holy. Fuck.

“Who else heard?” you whispered, trying to physically curl up into yourself, anything to escape.

“Jus me, no one else. I didnae hear all of it, but I heard enough. They knew ye were there.”

“Of course they did.” you muttered. “I’m not stupid.”

“Aye, but ye are a bit daft luv. Ye canna let them get tae ye like that.”

“Easy for you to say Jack.” Suddenly you were angry at them, at yourself and at him, how could he just brush it all off like that?

“Did it ever occur tae ye tha they only said any of it tae upset ye? They’re just jealous.”

You scoffed, knowing it was all true.

“What reason would they have to be jealous of my fat arse? Get into the real world Jack.”

“Why do ye talk about yourself like tha?”

“Like what? I have a fat arse, it’s not like anyone can miss it.”

“I’ve spent enough time looking at yer arse tae know it’s perfect just the way it is.” That stopped you. Staring at him wordlessly you saw him shrug matter of factly.

“Tansy is jealous because she’s built like a piece o wood, and Sonia? Suffice tae say she’s a right bitch when she doesna get what she wants.”

“What?” you swallowed hard, still stunned by his bald statement about your rear end. “What didn’t she get?”

“Me, lass.”

“Why would, what, I’m confused.”

Jack laughed, his hand moving to tousle your hair before standing.

“Let me get us a drink an I’ll tell ye the whole sordid tale.”

He came back to the couch with a couple of beers, waiting until he’d taken a few gulps before he spoke.

“Now then, where were we?”

“Sordid tale.”

“Righ, ok so ye remember the first day on set yeah? All the introductions an the like?”

“Vaguely, the catering staff weren’t really a big part of that.”

“But I met ye tha day, remember? I kept buggin ye fer another piece o cake.”

“I seem to remember being following around by a child whining about thirds.”

Jack’s eyes narrowed at your small smirk.

“Yer cruel lass, tha day too. Ye told me I needed tae watch my figure.”

“Eh, I vaguely remember something of the sort.” you shrugged, enjoying his small chuckle against the bottle at his lips.

“Anyway, I took my poor, bruised ego off tae my trailer tae get settled an it turned oot I wasna alone.”

Your eyes widened.

“Sonia had managed tae get in an was jus sittin there in heels, ye ken?”

Oh you kenned, the thought of it made you cringe.

“What did you do?” Did you even really want to know.

“I told her tae get dressed and leave, tha I wasnae interested. Believe me when I say she didna take it well.”

You just stared at him blankly.

“Well first she tried tae change my mind, an well,” his cheeks reddened, “when she couldna get a…..rise, she left me alone.”

Awkward.

“But I don’t understand what her striking out with you has to do with me.”

Jack looked at you, confusion evident on his face.

“Wow, ye really don’t do ye?”

“Perhaps someone should explain it to me?” you ground out.

“First, tell me summan. Is there any truth tae what they said?”

“Which part?” you squeaked, gulping down your beer, hoping to avoid the question.

“The part where ye haf a thing fer me.”

Please, you thought, please just let the ground open up and swallow me up. Right now. Please.

You sputtered rather than answering, eyes darting around the room, looking anywhere but at him. For a second you actually thought about denying it, but really, what was the point? He already knew, everyone already knew and it wasn’t going to make things any better if you denied it.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath you met his gaze, shoulders slumping in defeat.

“I’m sorry.” you whispered. “I thought I was doing a better job of hiding it. I never meant to make you feel uncomfortable.”

And if you could just be struck by lightning right now and put out of your misery that would be great, you thought as Jack remained silent.

“You don’t have to worry about it. I won’t be back on set. I’m resigning. It was never my intention to cause this much drama.”

“Are ye oot of yer mind woman! Why would ye do tha? Can ye no think fer one second why Sonia would focus on ye like this?”

You were so startled by the harshness of his tone that you didn’t know what to say.

“It’s ye she’s jealous of.”

The laugh you emitted was sharp even to your ears, but you couldn’t help yourself.

“She’s got absolutely no reason to be jealous of me, Jack.”

Jack sighed, putting down his beer before wiping his hands on his jeans.

“She’s go every reason tae be jealous o ye Y/N. Ye’re smart, talented, kind, funny, lovely and, well hot.”

Your head spun toward him, not believing your own ears. Jack turned, inching closer on the couch, his hand reaching out to brush damp hair away from your face.

“But the number one reason why she singled ye out Y/N is because it’s you I want, no her.”

Your heart beat erratically in your throat, eyes wide in disbelief as Jack’s fingers traced along your jaw. You shivered as he touched you, your fingers twisting in the wool of your jumper. This had to be some kind of mad hallucination, probably brought on by hypothermia. Ten to one you were laying in a rainy ditch somewhere this whole time.

Jack’s eyes caught yours, bright blue and intense as he tilted his head toward you. Keeping his eyes on yours his lips brushed against the corner of your mouth, the rough bristles of his beard scraping against your tender skin. He smiled against you, your eyes finally fluttering shut as his mouth pressed firmly against yours. His hands cupped your cheeks, tongue taking advantage of your gasp to snake across your teeth and into your mouth. An arrow shot of heat travelled down your spine, stabbing into your lower belly. You shuddered, hearing him chuckle as he broke away.

“If tha doesna make ye understand then nothin will.”

You opened your eyes to the sight of him in front of you, his cheeks flushed pink, lips slightly swollen and damp, his eyes both soft and wanted. He was right, you were convinced, even if you didn’t understand why. You felt a surge of confidence, a lightness unlike any you’d felt before and your lips spread into a smile. Your usual good humor had returned.

“I’m not sure I’m there yet, I’m super hard to convince.”

“Is tha so lass?” Jack’s gaze turned positively wicked. “Lets see what I can do about that shall we?”

You yelped as he moved lightning, dragging your body to straddle his lap. He looked up you now, fingers threading through your hair before sliding down your back to your waist.

“Remember when I said tha Sonia couldna get a raise?”

“Mmmm hmmm.” you murmured, your fingertips exploring his face.

His palms slid down over your rear and for a moment you felt self conscious, until he caught your eye and you saw the heat there. With a grin he pressed you closer until, with a gasp you were pressed up against him completely, the hard length of him between your thighs.

“As ye can tell I donae haf tha problem wi ye. In fact, half the time it’s all I can do tae hide this.”

He swiveled his hips against you, his lips and tongue smothering your moan as his hardness rubbed against your aching center. The kiss grew rough as you rocked against him, fingers tugging at his hair, his hands guiding you into a rhythm that had you panting into one another’s mouths. Jack’s hand slid up under your jumper, breaking the kiss long enough to yank it off over your head before returning to bite at your mouth and jaw. The pressure between your legs was almost unbearable, the layers of clothing failing to provide the friction you needed.

Desperate for breath you broke away, chest heaving as you dragged air into your lungs.

“Fuck love, ye are incredible.” Jack growled, staring at where the thin cotton of his shirt strained over your breasts. Another body part that you were particularly sensitive about and Jack noticed. He liked his lips, mouth open as he continued to stare, raising a hand to palm your breast, his thumb stroking your nipple to life. You sucked in a breath, your hips grinding against him as he ran both hands over you, scraping and pinching, every touch a dart of want into your belly.

“Jack!” you hissed, his teeth scraping you through the fabric.

“Ye haf no idea how much I’ve wanted ye, luv.” he muttered. “I know ye didna know it, but every time I saw ye I had tae try so hard tae hide it. I dreamed of touching ye here…” His hand cupped your breast gently.”....every where Y/N, I’ve dreamed o touchin ye everywhere.”

A brief and unwelcome thought flashed into your mind, was he just the same as the rest of them? Only interested in one thing from you? Jack must have seen it in your eyes because he stopped everything, his knuckles stroking your cheek.

“I’m mad fer ye darlin, and it’s no jus fer this. I need ye tae know tha, I didna intend fer this tae happen. I was actually working up the courage tae ask ye out tonight, till those two bitches fucked that up. Nothin is going tae happen tonight…” Jack smiled ruefully. “..well nothin more than this. I wan tae at least go tae dinner a few times before we jump intae bed. I’m pretty sure that neither one o us  are lookin fer a one-time or casual thing.”

“Right.”

“Obviously, when the time is right….” his eyes swept hotly over you. “You and me are goin tae be dynamite.”

“You seem pretty sure of yourself.” you arched a brow at his smug grin.

Which quickly turned into a look of panic.

“I mean….if ye wan tae go out wi me tha is….”he stammered for a moment.

“I meant about us being dynamite you goob.” “Ohhhhhhh.” he looked abashed for a second before his eyes glinted wickedly again. “I can give ye a preview if ye wan.”

You leaned down, your nose brushing against his.

“I wan.” you whispered, mimicking his accent. “Then we can talk about dinner.”

He sucked in his breath with a hiss as your teeth bit at his neck.

“Ye’re goin tae be the death o me aren’t ye lass?”

“I’m going to try very hard.”

“Speakin o hard.” his mouth was hot against your ear as he grabbed your hand from his hair, guiding until your palm rested against his length.

“I would say that qualifies.” you agreed, tentatively squeezing him through his jeans, just enough for him to throw his head back and moan.

His hips bucked under your hand, thighs shaking beneath yours. Every slide of your hand gave rise to a new noise ripped from his throat. The sight of him below you, his teeth biting his lip, fingers gripping your hips as he jerked and sighed was almost enough to finish you off. You wanted his mouth again, brushing your lips over his until he pressed back. His head surged forward, one hand cupping the back of your head as he almost devoured you. His other hand slid over the front of you, his fingers dipping just under the rolled waistband of your pants.

Jack’s mouth left yours long enough to mutter, “Jus a preview, right?”

He waited for your nod before kissing you again, his hand moving to cup between your thighs, his fingers rubbing gently along the center of you. Your cry was swallowed by his tongue, his hips grinding against your hand. You could feel him throbbing through his jeans, the knowledge that it was your touch getting him off pushing you almost to the edge. His fingers moved against you, your hips rolling against them until they were exactly where you needed them.

Your whole body shuddered as your movements feel into matching rhythms, his fingers, your hand, your hips all moving perfectly. So close, you were so close and you couldn’t breathe, your head falling to rest on his shoulder. His ragged breath was hot in your ear, his free hand tangling in the hair at the back of your head, yanking your head back so he could run his tongue up the front of your neck. “Now imagine mah mouth instead of mah hand, or both,” he gritted his teeth as your nails scraped over him through his jeans in response. “I’m good wi both.”

His toungue flicked out against your mouth as his fingers dipped and stroked the center of you. I was almost enough, and yet you still wanted so much more. You whimpered, hips rolling against his hand, feeling him twitch under your fingers.

“Look at me.” he said roughly, tugging your hair until you met his eyes. “I wan tae see yer face when I make ye come.”

Your body jerked, the heat in your belly boiling as you felt the telltale ripple inside you.

“Yes, jus like tha darling. I’ll be right behind ye.”

You were so ready, but you didn’t want it to end, you had never felt this good, no one had ever worked your body this skillfully. Certainly no one had ever made you orgasm without even touching your skin, this was, just…….

You wailed at the moment his thumb pushed in as far in as your clothing allowed, just that tiny penetration was enough to make you fly apart. Your thighs clenched around his hand as your body writhed and shuddered on his lap, whimpering as his fingers keeping rubbing, drawing it out longer than you’d ever experienced before.

“Christ love, tha was gorgeous.” he grunted as you started to breathe again. Your hand still had him in a vice grip, his length jerking and swelling under your fingers. As he had done you watched his face as his head fell back, gasping for air as you slid your other hand down, cupping and scraping his balls, matching the rhythm of your hands.

“Fuck! God, that’s good, I’m so close….” his neck and face were red, sweat on his brow as his whole body strained against you. His hips started jerking uncontrollably and he let out a yell as he came, his back arching and his hands gripping the couch.

You watched as he shuddered back to Earth, his limp arms reaching up to wrap around you, pulling you against him as he breathed into your hair. Long minutes passed as you burrowed into one another’s necks, your heart finally beating at a normal rate, his breath now calm. Pulling back you ran your eyes over his face, still pink and sweaty, his hair sticking up all over the place. He looked…

“Well tha was satisfying. In fact tha was fucking incredible Y/N.” Satisfied was the word you’d been looking for. It was perfect, you could only imagine how satisfied you would feel when he was finally inside you.  

You could barely form a coherent thought, let alone articulate one, which led to a self assured gleam in his eye. He knew exactly how good he had made you feel and he certainly wasn’t ashamed of it. Or of you.

He proved it all night when every time he woke his mouth would brush against your neck as you snuggled against him. It felt amazing and unreal to wake up to his alarm, his arms tight around you until you both absolutely had to get up. For the first time you didn’t feel self conscious changing in front of him, in fact you enjoyed the frustrated grunt he gave when he watched you pull off your shirt leaving your chest bare to his hot gaze.

“Do me a favor today?” he came up to you as you tucked your t-shirt into your pants, all clean and dry now.

“What’s that?”

“Wear this over your shirt.” he handed you a button down shirt, specifically one that was uniquely and obviously his. Everyone would know it was his and the thought made your cheeks feel hot. “It will make me very happy tae see ye in mah shirt all day, and it will show everyone I’m the luckiest man in the world.”

Had he put it any other way you would have refused. Instead you pulled it on, tying it at your waist, knowing the buttons wouldn’t meet in the middle.

“Better?” you spun in front of him with a giggle.

“Perfect.”

He held your hand in the car all the way to work, constantly reassuring you that it was fine, that you were precious to him and that he would personally destroy anyone who hurt you. It didn’t take much thought to realise who he meant, you knew they would probably think you had stolen his shirt like a creepy stalker. That thought worried you.

Sure as shit, the two of them were right there as Jack pulled into the lot, tapping away on their phones as they waited for him, he’d told you that they did it every day. You gained satisfaction from the look on their faces as you stood up to close the car door, Jack coming around to take your hand. “Hey luv, I know it’s childish but….what do ye say we put them in their place?”

You nodded your agreement, barely managing a smile before his body pressed yours up against the car door, his hand holding the back of your neck. His lips were on yours, surprisingly gentle and your arms wrapped around his waist. He took your breath away, softly, sweetly and thoroughly, taking his time and kissing you slowly. It was the kiss of a lover, of a man who believed you were something precious to behold.

“That wasn’t just fer show, jus so ye know.” he smiled, brushing your nose with his. “The show is jus a perk.”

“I know what you’re doing Jack, if you think kissing me like that is going to get you an extra piece of cake today well….”

He cut you off with another kiss, short but just as sweet, leaving you feeling all wonky.

“You’re absolutely right.” you finished, enjoying his cheeky grin.

“Course I am, now let’s get tae it.”

“Get to what exactly?”

He slung his arm over your shoulder, neither of you even remembered that anyone else was there as you walked inside.

“The rest of our lives darlin.”

[thepilotanon]

Hiding.

Trying Kylo again with something a bit more deeper. I gave the {reader} a name this time, because that’s what I’m currently most comfortable with but I will still keep trying! I really like playing with the {reader}’s place in the First Order and still maintain an unusual happiness.

Warnings: mention of death, sad {reader}!

Supreme Leader Kylo Ren.

Powerful leader of the First Order, in control of a new form of Empire that will bring greatness to the galaxy, he plans to finish the job of that his grandfather could not do before his death. Promising to end the war and bring peace to his loyal followers, Kylo Ren was a man of all seriousness and order; no one was to disobey the Supreme Leader, lest they have a desired death wish with his cross-bladed lightsaber. Everyone knew to fear him, and never go against his orders…

Everyone, except his wife. Nova.

Everyone knew that Nova, the Supreme Leader’s wife, was different from anyone else in the First Order, even far different than General Hux’s hair or the new tech in the repaired control panels. She was something that many people had a hard time believing being Kylo’s other half, much less still breathe after being married for as long as they have. She was the only one who ever dared to approach him during his tantrums to ask him random questions (What would you like for dinner? Do you need your uniform cleaned tonight? Have you seen the medical droid for your headaches, or did you destroy it again?). Each defeat by the scavenger girl or trying to get her to join him in ruling the galaxy, she was the first one to go to his side and keep him calm. Nova was the only one who ever dared to laugh or bring happiness around the decks, mostly to annoy Hux and distract her husband from the General’s annoying lectures; as well as hugging, smiling and making people’s day cycle a little bit brighter in any way that she can.

Sometimes people forgot that she was the new Commander and the trainer for the Knights of Ren.

Yes, people wonder all the time at how anyone such as Nova could capture the black heart of Kylo Ren, but that was something that neither husband or wife will exploit any time soon with the war still raging. People are sometimes caught daydreaming by the Supreme Leader of the married couple telling their children - a daydream instantly shot down by reminding them of their place and get back to work. No one but his wife was really allowed to wander off when there was nothing important to do.

Speaking of his beloved, Kylo Ren was currently in the midst of searching for her.

Knowing that she had finished training the Knights for the day and even taking on some stormtroopers for extra conditioning, Kylo expected Nova to return to their quarters or find her attempting to annoy Hux. When he couldn’t find her anywhere in their rooms or at the command deck, Kylo slowly came to the idea that he was to find her in one of her hiding spots among the vast ship of the Finalizer, using the Force as a guide. Knowing how his wife had a miraculous talent finding nooks and crannies that many people in armor can’t fit into, Kylo is having his work cut out for him.

Entering and exiting different control rooms without a word, startling many officers and stormtroopers by his sudden appearance, Kylo paid no mind to anyone taking a break or conversing among one another when he didn’t find a familiar Force signature within the room. He went to every mess hall and even pushed his abilities to search within the women’s lockers for her, only to come up empty of a bright and shiny light. When he went to the medical center and casually stared at one of the nurses, it didn’t take long for them to let him know that they haven’t seen his wife lately, much less one of his own Knights and stormtroopers who were being treated from Nova’s ministrations during training.

“She appeared to be fine, Master,” one of his Knights answered from his cot, his helmet still on while a nurse applied ointment to a dagger cut on his ribcage. “Did not sense anything wrong with her, even while we remained to help clean the training facility. No sign of intending on hiding anywhere...”

“Do you know which way she went after dismissing you?” Kylo asked in a low voice, ignoring how the unmasked stormtroopers did everything is their power to avoid looking at him out of habit.

“She said something about the observation deck, but I did not see her there when I passed by on my way.”

Realizing that he found what he was looking for, Kylo simply turned around and made his way to the only observation deck he knew Nova would want to go to.

The previous Supreme Leader had an observation deck installed above the throne room, where Kylo only casually stole a glance in before moving on (normally Nova would sit on his throne, if she waited for him), and he could recall the many times Snoke complained about the “brainless” brat ignoring his threats about lounging up there whenever she pleased. It still appalled Kylo, looking back, how Snoke never raised a finger at Nova when she did what she wanted, even though she would technically be out of his way… Snoke never used the Force to make her submit, or even threaten her life when she began behaving naughtily after being hired. It was like Nova had a way of getting what she wanted, regardless whom it may be in power, she didn’t care. As far as the Supreme Leader’s observation deck went, it was one of Nova’s best hiding places.

Climbing the stairs with his long limbs, his cape flowing from the breeze of the vents, Kylo could finally pick up his wife’s Force mark. It was quiet, which was very unusual to find from a usually extremely hyper and bright aura that often reminded Kylo what he was fighting for in this war. Seeing his wife’s back as she sat on the ground, he waited for her to acknowledge his presence as he made himself known of coming up the stairs. He heard her mumbling under her breath softly and moving her hands and arms around, as if fiddling with something, but she gave no response to her husband’s arrival. She was quiet, and Kylo knew that this was not his wife’s usual behavior, even when she was having a hard day…

Stepping onto the hangar of the deck, Kylo listened as he began picking up his wife’s words. She was trying to say something, struggling with the pronunciation and vowels.

“Doba...min - val tru,” Nova muttered before sighing. “Doba val tru...do ba…”

“Doaba ol’val tru,” Kylo corrected in a soft tone, making his way to stand next to her sitting form. With his hands placed behind his back, he glanced to the vast view of the stars and distant moons. “You want to say ‘Doaba ol’val tru’, otherwise you’re speaking gibberish and probably drunk.”

“Doaba ol’val tru,” Nova tried carefully, her voice slow as to try and copy her husband’s guide. In their reflection, Kylo nodded.

“Very good, my darling.” Kylo finally looked down to see Nova for the first time all day. Beautiful as always in his eyes, he noticed the tear tracks sparkling faintly on her cheeks and her usually curious and loving eyes seemed distant and tired. Her bottom lip had obviously been chewed on, probably to keep her sobs quiet. In her hands, though, was a rock.

The rock was roughly the size of Kylo’s large hands, oval-shaped and roughly mixed in different colors of grays, browns and speckles of a bright blue on top. Nova has to use both of her hands to hold it properly to avoid making a ruckus, her thumbs rubbing around the surface of the rock. Kylo recognized it from the bookshelf back in their quarters, as Nova kept it within her reach next to her collections of scrolls and books he had given her throughout the years. Of course his wife had a collection of unique trinkets (or...useless), and Kylo sometimes found it interesting in contrast to his otherwise boring collection of books and manuals.

Kylo knew where that rock came from.

“Who were you saying the funeral prayer to, love…” Kylo spoke quietly, already knowing the answer as to why his wife was trying to recite something in Olys Corellisi. Sometimes Kylo would read his wife something in his father’s language, translating and teaching her some phrases.

“Phasma.”

Sighing, Kylo slowly got himself to sit on the ground, crossing his legs before taking off his gloves and setting them to the side. Reaching over, Kylo carefully picked up his wife and lift her to his lap. Once settling her comfortably with her rock still in her grasp, Kylo held on to Nova by wrapping his arms around her body and pressing a light kiss to her temple, nuzzling his forehead against her head.

Since the battle that lost many lives on both sides of the First Order and the Resistance, it took a while before the disappearance of Captain Phasma was brought to light and the official documents declared her as deceased, Nova was the last one to be notified.

Phasma was one of the very, very few who took an instant liking to Nova since she was brought to work for the First Order, originally thinking she would become her second in command with her expertise with weapons and ability her fight anyone without fear. Phasma actually took care of Nova when she was confused by many rules and guidelines of serving Snoke, taking time to teach her the basics - even though Nova eventually neglected most of them. Kylo assumed that Phasma saw his wife as bit of her younger self, when she first got into the war, confused and only knows surviving is important. Once Nova got accustomed to her position as a trainer, being tied to the ship, Phasma made it a secret habit to bring small gifts to her as gifts to teach her about the worlds Nova never knew.

When Kylo began secretly courting Nova without Snoke’s knowledge, he had an idea that Phasma knew something was up and supported Nova’s presence near him as often as possible.

Captain Phasma was the only friend she had, and now she was gone.

When the announcement of Phasma’s death was revealed to the First Order assembly, Kylo knew Nova wanted to burst out into tears and begin mourning for her friend. But, as Hux kept going with the future plans and Kylo becoming the Supreme Leader, Nova knew that expressing emotion was not an option for the time. As soon as everything was in place, everyone was put to work right away, Nova and Kylo included. There was rarely any time to mourn for lost comrades in war, no sense to give or receive comfort…

Kylo can only guess that Nova wanted time to miss her friend in peace, and not shame her husband’s public reputation. Not that anyone would dare to look down upon Kylo’s wife, but she knew that her strong image also influenced the image of her husband.

Crying was not an option. Attachments are meant to be a distraction, thus mourning was looked down upon.

“I miss Phasma,” Nova said with a sore throat, looking at the rock the old Captain had given her a few years ago. “I wish that they found her body…”

“There were many that were not found,” Kylo informed her, “you know this.”

She nodded, feeling tears well in her eyes again. “I know that, but...Phasma and the others fought for you and the purpose of the First Order, they should at least be honored. Phasma would have pledged to you as Supreme Leader as soon as she found out. I just want her body back to say good bye.”

Kylo nodded, silently agreeing. Feeling her sobs starting again, Kylo carefully pulled her head to tuck into his neck, cradling her against him as she began crying. His fingers rubbing her scalp as he rest his cheek against her head and holding her tight, he quietly hushed her. “Nova…”

“I never had anyone like Phasma in my life, Kylo,” Nova confessed. “I know it’s terrible of me to be so sad with something that’s expected in war but -” she turned her head into his shoulder and broke down “- I miss Phasma, I can’t stop the feeling of missing her.”

The Supreme Leader kept silent, allowing her to release a tired cry. Her hands dropping the rock to her lap as she wrapped her arms tightly around him in a desperate embrace; she needed comfort, her mind and heart a confused mess and lost in emotions. Kylo knew that his wife never experienced death so personal before - her prior life to the First Order was all about survival and killing anyone who was a threat to her. She had no one. She was alone with her bustling planet of employers and those seeking her advice before being taken… As someone still new to the vast galaxy, she was also new to many emotions she never thought existed inside of her and Kylo knew that all too well.

And, as her husband, Kylo wasn’t going to let his wife experience loneliness any longer.

The memories of Ben Solo slowly crept to his mind, and Kylo found himself remembering the times as a small boy crying to the holographics of his father, demanding that he came home. The time he watched his mother proudly project to the council while sitting on either his father or servant’s lap, how he reached his then-small hands to her, wanting her embrace instead. The good-bye kisses his parents spoiled him with and the hello hugs and snuggles every time he went to train with Luke Skywalker. Kylo knew that Ben Solo experienced the mourning of the death of his father, and…

Cradling Nova’s head with one hand, Kylo pressed a long, firm kiss to her forehead. Thumb brushing the back of her skull as he tucked her closer to him and allowed her to cry as much as she wanted.

“Doaba ol’val tru,” Kylo began reciting the funeral prayer that he remembered fluently as a young man. His father taking him to visit the graves of his parents and paying respect. “Ol’val, min dul’skal, ahn guld domina…”

After crying for what probably felt like forever to her, Nova fell asleep in her husband’s embrace as he waited patiently for her to calm down. He kept his gaze to the outside, minding the reflection of his wife in the window as he recited the funeral prayer in his father’s language about a few dozen times, his deep voice vibrating comfortingly against her as she let out all of her negative energy. He repeated the full chant for her, in a sense that he was saying it for Phasma and the other hundred stormtroopers who were never accounted for in the cleanup. For him, he didn’t really care for the deaths, as it was expected...but he found his wife’s thoughts swelling of her fears that she didn’t voice.

Who will pray to Kylo if he died? Will he get time to mourn if I were to die? What if I can’t remember how to say the funeral prayer correctly?

Kylo Ren knew he wasn’t going to die on her, much less have her die on him from war. He made his vow to her in their secret marriage that he will destroy armies and slaughter anyone who dared to try to keep them apart - Snoke included, if it were to happen. He promised her on his knees that he will protect her with everything in his own power, should his own Empire turn on him. He had given her a silver whistle for a first gift that she cherished like treasure everyday, same goes for the wedding band he forged himself with awe and loving gaze when she couldn’t wear it out in public; Kylo Ren had given the remains of his black heart to Nova as a sign to his love, his allegiance and life to her. Kylo Ren had given her all he had and planned on giving her the galaxy as his queen…

If Nova were to ask him to spar with her, he would for her own amusement. If she were to tell him that she wanted to see a planet he was going to go on, he instantly readied his ship to have her sit by his side. Kylo Ren made it clear on a daily cycle that she mattered to him, even when he couldn’t return her affectionate gestures infront of other officers or General Hux; he would voice it in coded messages and return the kisses, touches and embraces later in their quarters. For all that Nova did to keep him sane and reminded him of his goal, Kylo knew that it still wasn’t enough to return the favor to her.

So, if she desired to mourn for her friend, then let it be done in his hold.

Carrying Nova in his arms through the private passages restricted for the Supreme Leader and very few, trusted staff, Kylo entered their chambers and made his way to their bed. Placing her sleeping body on top of the sheets, he was careful to remove her shoes and socks first, then unbuttoning her trousers and peel off her uniform coat. Undoing her hair and removing the silver whistle from around her neck, Kylo placed that and her wedding ring on the nightstand by her side.

Combing his fingers through her hair to ease the roots, Kylo then shifted her body to properly lay on the bed, her head resting on one of the many pillows. Nova inhaled deeply in her sleep, whining a bit, but settled into the sheets and curled a bit as he waited for her to relax before undressing himself. Not bothering to fold their clothes as they normally would out of habit, Kylo was careful to pick up the rock still lying on the bed, the blue specks sparkling from the outside light and seeming to glow.

Holding the rock, Kylo remembered when Nova first received it from Phasma and just had to show him the gift, as if it was the most interesting thing she had ever seen. He remembered asking what was so special about it, even bringing it up to Phasma that she should know better than to bring rubble onboard, but the response from Phasma herself made him rethink of how he interpreted his then-secret crush and her lifestyle.

“She sees everything with new eyes, but she also sees the good in everything,” Phasma had said, looking at him through her helmet with an amused tilt. “You would think, if something as simple as a rock would bore her...but she adores so much of what she has been hidden from. I’d rather watch Nova take something good from any job I do, to see her happy for me.”

Instead of putting the treasured rock back on the bookshelf, Kylo was careful to place it on the nightstand beside Nova’s sleeping form, having it closer to the edge so it can be near her when she wakes up. Moving around to the other side of the bed, Kylo waved a hand to summon the lights off as he climbed in and faced her on his side, hand supporting his head. He watched her for a few moments, hand reaching to her face as his fingertips barely traced the dried teartracks skimming down her face, tracing her bottom lip before finally holding her cheek. Kylo leaned over and kissed Nova’s forehead, then under her eye...her cheekbone, temple, brow and finally her lips with the most gentle care.

Keeping his strong arm around her as he took one last look to the rock, Kylo rest his mouth against the crown of her head. “Min Larel, min turhaya...don’t be afraid to cry,” he whispered in a low voice against her hair. “I’ll be there to hold you.”

You know that Phasma would have a soft spot for someone who would end up being Kylo’s wife - she knows that the crabby space man needs a balance and she could see it in Nova/{reader}. The lines written in Olys Corellisi can be found online, too, if you’re interested!! I had some fun writing this and I hope you enjoyed reading this, despite failing to use Y/N like in “silver whistle”. 

I also want to take a moment to thank everyone who liked, reblogged and left comments on my other works - I was honestly not expecting such positive feedback from amazing people and it makes me so happy. I hope to hear from you guys soon, and hope you enjoyed!

[toxicityrp]

                      GINGER ● THE RUNAWAY ● CLOSED

       ❝ This beauty is just as fleeting as the word that   describes her. She’s been places but you really can’t   fuckin’ tell where. She’s a sight to see at the Garden    and the Vices. My preference? The Forbidden Vices                        Club for sure! ❞

THE SINNER. TW: IMPLIED EMOTIONAL ABUSE, MURDER, PTSD

Carmen was born a poor suburb on Long Island—an area off the coast of Manhattan, where poor was relative but all the same, they struggled. Carmen’s earliest memories were of darkness. The colour of night, the colour the room was without electricity, the colour of a flame in the darkness. Rent was hard to make and bills were harder. Both of her parents worked full time; every now and then, some relative would come and stand-in. Mostly, Carmen grew up knowing the word ‘want,’ knowing what it was to be without something. It wasn’t all terrible, but it was formative.

Her parents managed lower middle class by high school, but it was of little comfort to Carmen: they found a note her girlfriend had written her in her trash can. Confronting her, Carmen didn’t have the right words, then—not that it would have mattered. Bisexual was just as bad as gay, to her parents, regardless. At seventeen, she was disowned and kicked out of her house. She relied on the kindness of friends and strangers, couch surfing to finish her last year of high school, but she wound up relying also a little too heavily on alcohol to get her by.

Carmen didn’t actually get to finish high school, making a mess of the kindnesses she’d been shown. Without an education and without any true allies, Carmen moved out to Brooklyn and got a shit one bedroom apartment she split with three other girls. She didn’t have the experience or skills to live on her own, but she picked them up—she had a charming smile, after all. Carmen made her way, at first, as a grifter and a thief, hustling tourists in Manhattan and stealing whatever didn’t make ends meet. She was poor, but then again, that’s all she’d ever known, and she had bottles of moonshine for company.

She had dreams, as teenagers often do, of being a singer—and she was pretty good at it, but she didn’t have the connections to make it happen. Scraping her life together left little time to get gigs or plan for a future. From her bedroom in southern Gravesend, she could hear the sounds of Coney Island taunting her with a jubilation she couldn’t feel. Carmen grew jealous of her flatmates, whom she assumed were trust fund kids, able to lay about all day in the apartment laughing and drinking while she was on the streets hustling. After a comment she couldn’t help slip, they fixed her assumption.

They told her they were pros, and were willing to show her the ropes. Learning to separate love and sex in order to survive didn’t seem like that bad an option at the time: she was eighteen and alone and these girls were the closest thing she had to a family any more. It was more work than Carmen expected, learning how to adapt to each client, putting on a show, learning how to act half in love with everyone she met. The learning curve was steep, but Carmen found it worth it. She made connections in bed she couldn’t have made slumming it from venue to venue with a tune in her heart.

And who said sleeping your way to the top wasn’t hard work?

Carmen was a natural, a Coney Island queen. She got a regular, a promoter who helped her get gigs and soon she was performing on stages as well as in bedrooms with songs for each. At one of the venues, Carmen met the friend of the owner, a man named Salvatore who took a liking to her—and she to him. Her work transitioned from the streets into the strip club, where he promised her she didn’t have to do extras. Their relationship also included some sugaring, which she delighted in—for the first time—feeling spoiled by someone else. Having her needs not only met but her wants indulged.

For a girl of 21, this was heaven, and she still got to perform her songs once a week for anyone who’d come to listen. She conflated money, power, and attention with love—but it was her first requited love. And like anyone in love, Carmen had more than a few blinders up around Salvatore and how he ran his strip club, the Dollhouse. While she loved making connections to get where she wanted to go, charming the right people and saying the right words, she didn’t understand the darker side to such connections yet. For years, for the wildness of her 20s, Carmen was lost to the lights and the liquor and the glory.

Around the time Carmen was 25, her music career really kicked off. She received an offer to record and album and took a lot of time in the studio to get it right, though she was very nervous about it. Unfortunately, it took her time away from Salvatore and his club and he was very protective of her, to the point where Carmen felt suffocated. It almost seemed like he was trying to sabotage her music career just to keep her under his thumb. She broke off her relationship and arrangements with Salvatore, thinking it was that easy in a world where men like him always got what they wanted.

Shortly after, she found the producer she’d been working with dead.  Two in the back of the head.

Carmen wasn’t naiive. She knew she had to get out—out of her apartment, out of this life, and get far, far away, to some little town she’d never get found in. Dertosa fit the bill: across the country and often overlooked by the rest of the world, full of curious figures and drenched in mystery. Carmen thought she could run and recreate herself there. Her dreams of being a singer were lost perhaps forever to the PTSD that ripped through her as a result of that moment, but she’d been through hard times before and would make herself strong again. She just had to get out. And so Carmen disappeared in Dertosa.

After the midnight move, Carmen made sure to clean up after her trail. She took a job at Forbidden Vices doing what she loved second-best: stripping. The Drinks became her family; they named her Ginger, because she was a mixer who went well with everything and everyone. For 4 years, Carmen hung up her dreams and aimed instead for safety, only slowly, so slowly, learning to exhale and look over her shoulder a little less. That is, until last year; she had the misfortune of meeting Eve. Eve herself wasn’t the issue, but apparently Eve knew Salvatore, and Salvatore was not a quiet man when licking his wounds. Eve had half a mind to throw Carmen over to him for a favour—but Carmen begged her not to.

The only way Eve operated was to never give something for nothing, which is how Carmen came into a three year contract as a Flower: the price of Eve’s silence, the price of Carmen’s freedom. Being a Flower was more emotionally degrading than anything she’d done before, but if she could really be free of Salvatore after, it would be worth it. And if worse came to worse, well, Carmen wasn’t a little girl any more. Stripped bare of her dreams, if it came down to it, Carmen would end Salvatore. This, she knew in her heart. She’d find a way to freedom by word or by deed, one way or another.

And in the meanwhile, she’s Eve’s little spy inside Forbidden Vices. Sure, Carmen goes out as a Flower when the price is right, will strip at parties, will be arm candy or the girlfriend experience per her expertise—but the real boon for Eve was winning a Flower at her beck and call that was entrenched body and soul in another sanction. Except now, Carmen’s soul was sold to Eve. So when Eve says jump, Carmen says how high… though jumping is rarely the dirty work Eve has in mind. And so Carmen remains a stripper at Forbidden Vices, not the head dancer, but one you don’t want to miss.

THE FACTS.

Carmen is personable, sweet, flirtatious, and playful. She’s charismatic and outgoing, easy to talk to, easy to approach others. Carmen is genuinely observant and attentive, the kind of person who notes your favourite soup and brings it to you if you are sick, or picks up a gift “just because” you mentioned you liked it in passing and she was thinking of you. She’s a sunshine sort of girl, on the surface, but she hides a bitter heart. Love is a missile, and people will do a lot for those they love; so Carmen loves to have people love her. Nothing turns faster, though, than love betrayed—so she needs to make certain no one finds out exactly what she’s up to, or at least, the extent of whom exactly she sold out for what. Secrets and favours will take you farther than money, in the right hands. Dancing is a prime job for an informant and spy; it’s a passing place between strangers, people who assume they’ll never see you again, or will pretend not to know you if they do. They’re here to vent, to feel seen and loved, and to move on. A client will tell you anything if you phrase the question right. They make the mistake of seeing dancers as unimportant. Carmen doesn’t at all mind playing second fiddle to the head dancer at Vices—it’s better for her to be just out of the spotlight, anyway. In a way, Carmen has grown up in the gutter but always had rose coloured glasses; the kind of perspective that believed the best in the world and also in others. Even when grit showed itself to her, she believed that people were just doing whatever they needed to get by. She could never blame someone for the methods and defenses they created to survive; Lord knows she had enough of her own. Lying, stealing, cheating—these were soft offenses to Carmen, things that were—if need be—revocable. She didn’t take what the person couldn’t get more of, metaphorically; she didn’t take lives. A life, you can’t give back.

THE MUN.

☾ May | EST | She/Her

[neo-cherryy]

Bill’s Book || Bill Denbrough

Request: jungkooksbowlingskills- “Could you do 9 and 49 with bill denbrough? 💕”

49: “I don’t wanna screw this up”

9: “You’re in love with her.”

Summary: Bill has trouble expressing his feelings for (Y/N), and Eddie can see him struggling. Whilst (Y/N) talks to Beverly about her feelings for Bill.

A/N: so I kinda used my feelings for someone who I proper like who looks so much like Jaeden so it kinda helped with this, so I hope you’s enjoy it bc this is basically the situation im in rnnnn lol help. I also wrote this while listening to Appalachian Moon by Kevin Reilly (bc Charlie Heaton in As You Are) on repeat to get that feeling you knowwww, so I suggest listening to it whilst reading if you can. (I also wanna do a lil story of Bev x reader, so I guess let me know your thoughts on that bc I have an idea and it’d be helloooooo emotional- and based off of ‘as you are’)

Bill had never been so unsure, confused and scared of something so much in his life. He was unsure of his feelings, confused as to why he couldn’t pinpoint how he felt and scared that she would disappear. Ever since Georgie, Bill had trouble getting close to someone, too terrified of them getting hurt and leaving him. He was a very quiet person; he didn’t want the rest of the group to know about these uncertain feelings he had: the first secret he’d ever kept from them all. But if one thing helped him the most, it was that she was the same: terrified however, she was pretty certain of her feelings towards him. It had taken her a while to adjust to the new feeling of liking someone, but she soon came to the realisation that, yes, she completely adored him. Yet, neither one knew about the other.

“How ya doing Bill,” she smiled, nudging him lightly as she sat beside him on the wide library steps. He smiled in return, but couldn’t seem to get any words out, and so he just decided to nod. “What are the plans for today, then?” she watched as everyone discussed about the layout of the day, but gradually she zoned out. Voices becoming background noise to the shuffles of Bill beside her, of his flu sniffles and his nervous breathing. She turned to him, seeing that he was already slightly looking at her too, before the two quickly looked away from each other.

“Were either of you, shits, actually listening?” Richie asked, suddenly bringing her focus back to them. She looked up and nodded, before looking down to her feet, the points of them facing inwards to each other. “Liars,” he shouted in a British accent, causing everyone to roll their eyes.

“Shut up, Itchie,” she joked, standing up and flicking his forehead, causing a small laugh to escape Bill’s mouth. This made her turn round sharply to look at him, but he just closed his book and stood too, feeling slightly embarrassed.

“W-we should g-g-get going t-t-t-t,” he tried to get the words out but they didn’t seem to want to. Richie laughed to himself and she shoved him lightly.

“Seriously, Rich, shut up,” she said. “Bill, take your time,” she nodded towards him but he just shrugged.

“I-it doesn’t matter,” he said quietly, which led the group to look at each other. They didn’t understand why Bill had been acting this way for the past week, but Eddie had his suspicions. He knew Bill too well, knowing that certain behaviours of his meant something deeper. Eddie looked at him as he walked away, chasing to catch up to him. Bill turned to his side at him, saw Eddie’s concerned face. “It d-d-doesn’t matter,” he repeated reassuringly but Eddie wasn’t convinced.

Beverly and (Y/N) were sat on (Y/N)’s roof, the sunset gradually coming to an end. “Do you know what’s up with Bill, lately?” she asked but Beverly shook her head. (Y/N) sighed, looking out to the sky, knees close to her chest as paranoia and sorrow formed. “I’m worried about him, Bev.”

Beverly looked over to her, a weak smile held limply on her face. “We all are,” she took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. For the rest of the day earlier, Bill had kept his distance and tried to speak as little as possible. “What about you?” she asked, looking to (Y/N) softly, “Are you okay?” Beverly had been seeing the way that she looked at Bill for the past month, an ache in her chest of empathy.

(Y/N) just shrugged, “I don’t even know anymore,” she spoke quietly, biting the inside of her lip. She stayed staring out towards the sky, absent-mindedly. “Like my whole focus has been on making sure Bill’s okay, you know, because of everything with Georgie, so much that I forgot to take shit seriously for myself,” Beverly listened intently as she vented. “But lately he’s been so dismissive with me over the littlest of things,” she quickly turned her body to face Beverly. “Have I done something? Is there something I should’ve picked up on, like what- what am I meant to do?” she ran her hands through her hair, frustrated and upset.

Beverly placed her hands on her forearms as they rested on her head, “(Y/N) you haven’t done anything,” she reassured her, looking her directly in the eyes. “It’s probably just Georgie,” she took her hands away and (Y/N) lowered her arms. The two looked at each other softly before they both turned to look at in front of them again.

They stayed in silence for a while, listening to the sounds of cars and birds in the distance. They could hear her neighbours playing music loudly, clearly drowning out the noise of a family argument. They could see lights in the far houses gradually dimming to black, almost as if they played a Mexican wave of turning off lights.

“Bev,” she said, barely above a whisper, wanting to keep the secret to her ears only. Beverly hummed, indicating for her to proceed. “I think I like Bill,” Beverly’s heart stopped for a mere second, she had always had the thought that she did.

“At least you finally admitted it to someone,” she laughed lightly, an elegant sound through the night. “What are you going to do about it?” she asked, not wanting to make any eye contact.

“I don’t know,” she breathed out, laying down on her back, hands underneath her head for comfort. Beverly turned to her this time and rested on her elbow beside her. “What do you do in this situation?” Beverly stayed quiet and just shrugged in reply.

“Maybe just tell him,” she suggested.

“I don’t want to screw this up,” (Y/N) took a slow blink, sighing louder than she had before. “I don’t want to ruin the group, it’s the only place I’ve felt comfortable.”

“I can’t tell you what to do,” Beverly sat up, as did (Y/N). Beverly held her legs close to her whilst (Y/N) had her legs out in front of her, she rested her head on Beverly’s shoulder. “This whole thing is up to you.”

Eddie followed Bill that evening, determined to find out why Bill was acting the way he was. Bill had spent the journey continuously telling Eddie to go home, but Eddie stayed put beside him. When they reached Bill’s house, the two sat on his steps together. Bill had finally given up with crying alone in his room, and whilst he stared towards the road that Georgie had followed, his lip began to quiver. Eddie placed an arm around his shoulder, rubbing his back as he did so, and let Bill sob without pestering.

Bill sat up from his hunched position, wiped his eyes with his palms before Eddie passed him a tissue from his fanny-pack. He looked at his friend, his chest aching with empathy as much as Beverly’s did for (Y/N). “I’m s-sorry,” Bill muttered, slightly embarrassed.

“Don’t be,” Eddie spoke quickly, crushed that Bill felt the need to apologise. “Don’t ever be sorry for crying, Bill, you’re allowed to grieve,” he removed his hand from Bill’s back and placed it on his lap. Bill sniffled and mumbled something that Eddie couldn’t make out. “I’m sorry for following you home but you know I’m worried about you, we all are.”

“I’m f-f-fine,” he managed to get out. Eddie sighed and shook his head, “What?” Bill asked, confused at Eddie’s reaction.

“You’ve been different,” he said. “And that’s not just because of Georgie, is it, Bill?” he raised his eyebrows, knowing full well there was more of an underlying issue. Bill shook his head. “Thank you, now, you’re going to talk about it with me,” he spoke with a firm insistence.

“Ed-d-die,” he spoke quietly, looking to floor away from him. “I don’t th-think I c-c-can,” he shook his leg nervously.

“Why not?” Eddie asked, concerned and worried for Bill. “How bad is it, Bill?” Bill stayed quiet, fiddling with thumbs. He didn’t know if he should tell Eddie or just lie, but he wanted to tell someone. He wanted to tell someone what he was afraid but that only made him more afraid of losing his friends. “Bill?” Eddie’s voice was muffled behind Bill’s paranoid thoughts.

“I,” He stopped himself from speaking, he tapped his book before passing it to Eddie. At first Eddie was confused, but when Bill nodded towards he realised that the answer was held within the book. He looked at Bill, making sure he had 100% permission, and then looked down. He carefully opened the book to find drawings of Georgie at first, then to some small stories he’d written, next few pages of the Losers Club, until finally he came to the pages in which she covered. Her face, drawn perfectly and painted perfectly, covered them: laughing, crying, side views, almost everything.

“You’re in love with her,” Eddie whispered, mostly to himself but enough to let Bill hear him. “Bill, these are amazing.”

Bill took the book back gently, closing it and rested it on his lap again. “I don’t know h-how I f-f-feel, Eds.”

“Yes you do,” he said plainly. “You’re just scared, which is understandable but at least tell her. Let her know, Bill, let her see those,” Bill shook his head. “Bill.”

“I don’t th-think it’s the s-s-same thing for her,” he muttered and Eddie laughed lightly, causing him to look up at him.

“You’re joking, right? Have you seen the way she looks at you, looks after you and acts around you?” Eddie stood up, energy fuelled and excited. “Tell her, Bill, trust me.”

Beverly had made (Y/N) think for the remainder of the night and for the week after. Eddie had made Bill contemplate his feelings and contemplate admitting them to her throughout the week, also. None of the others in the group had even noticed the difference in atmosphere when the two were near, as well as having Eddie and Beverly knowing.

(Y/N) had woken up one morning with the instant need to tell him; the feeling had been brewing through her sleep and as soon as her eyes opened, she knew. She got up, earlier than usual, and got dressed into her jeans, large knitted jumper and quickly took a piece of toast from the middle plate from the middle of the dining table. She sat at the bottom of the stairs and put on her worn out converse, stumbling slightly as she stood up and finished tying the second shoe. She opened the front door, breathed nervously and then closed the door behind her, finding her way towards Bill’s house.

Bill had done the same, woken up with this sudden desire to tell her how he felt. His feelings had become a lot more certain after his discussion with Eddie and his contemplation week. He woke up and took a second as he looked at Georgie’s door, instantly becoming overwhelmed by his fears of loss. He walked passed the door and let them float away from his mind, now confident with his decision. He got dressed, green Tracker Bros. shirt and half-length jeans already laid out for him to wear. He grabbed his book and shoved it into his rucksack; made his way downstairs and to the front door. He breathed nervously, a small hint of him filled with doubt and regret, and then opened the door, walking outside.

“C’mon, (Y/N), keep it together,” she spoke to herself, rubbing her clammy hands together to lessen the sweat. She walked fast and was unsure if she was shivering because of nerves or the because of the breeze. She went over the specific words she wanted to say in her head, constantly shaking her head and mentally changing them.

“B-Bill,” he muttered. “You’re ok-kay, y-you can d-d-do this,” he tripped slightly on his way, looking around him to see if anyone had noticed. He, too, went over his exact words, more so his actions of giving her the book and his explanation of each drawing of her. Then he thought, what if she finds it weird? He shook his head, in attempts to get the thought to leave his head and then he stopped in his tracks.

She looked up and came to an abrupt halt, staring at the boy in front of her. “Hi,” they said at the same time. They both blushed and laughed, looking away from each other anxiously and then back to each other. “I was just coming to see you,” she said.

“S-s-so was I,” he smiled. “I mean, I-I was c-c-coming to s-see you,” he corrected, scrunching his face in embarrassment and regret. “S-sorry,” he mumbled.

“Don’t be,” she smiled warmly towards him, the two still standing opposite each other. “I wanted to tell you something, Bill,” he opened his eyes and looked at her, hope written across his face.  

“I have something to give you,” he trailed, slightly unsure if he should go ahead with the idea.

“I like you, Bill,” she spoke fast, desperate to get the feelings out in the open. He froze. “I think I love you.” His eyes widened and he couldn’t get any words out, all he could was smile. He then quickly rummaged, holding a finger to her as he did, for the book.

He passed her the book and nodded for her to open it, she gave the same look to him as Eddie did, making sure she was allowed to and making sure he was okay with it. He waved for her to open it and she turned the pages, seeing all of the things that Eddie had seen. Her eyes scanned the pages, she trailed her fingers across the paintings and drawings.

“Bill,” she whispered, amazement and adoration filling her eyes in the form of tears. “Bill, these are… these are incredible,” she looked up to him, seeing his smile wider and he looked a lot more at ease. He didn’t look as stressed, dismissive or scared.

“I’m in l-love w-w-with you,” he said. “I wasn’t sure a-at f-first, I w-was s-scared because of G-G-Georgie,” he struggled with his brother’s name so she placed her hand on his upper arm for comfort. “Then E-Eddie t-told me I did,” she laughed lightly.

“Eddie told you that you loved me?” he nodded. “That’s really sweet,” she smiled. The two shared a look before she leant forward and kissed his cheek, a lingering and caring type of kiss, to allow him to take the moment in, and to allow him to know she wasn’t going to leave him.