#my girl had bad sight in elementary

[d3vilishd00dles]

yo now wait how come the fact that Stella needed glasses as a kid isn't talked about more????

[luveline]

Eddie and Roan both catching a cold and the reader takes care of them 🥺?

thank you for your request! dad!eddie x (nearly)stepmom!reader <3 all the established relationship fluff and love i could fit into 6k cw suggestive scene (fade to black) ♥︎ eddie and roan

Eddie feels like shit when he finishes work. He's sweating so much he had to change his coveralls before getting in the car, and his head is pounding with an aggressive headache, but he pops two Tylenol with a rogue bottle of water and pulls out of the lot. He beeps at Wayne as he drives past him, and then he starts on the road that'll take him to Hawkins Elementary. 

Roan's one of the youngest in her class but she sure doesn't look small sitting on the floor of her classroom. The door to the class is open, and Eddie feels a hundred miles better than he had when she catches sight of him and smiles at him like he's the best thing sliced bread. It amazes him that she seems so happy to see him day after day, each time like it's a marvel. Almost as if she's surprised. 

"Hey," he says, bending down to catch her as she runs toward him, her cardigan soft under his hands.

"Hello," she says happily.

"Hey," he says again, and this isn't the time or place to cuddle but he does it anyway. 

He indulges himself. Hugs from his daughter always make him feel better, especially when she's ecstatic to see him. 

"Got all your stuff?" 

"Yes," she says heavily. 

"Even your water bottle?" 

She shakes her shoulders. The water bottle inside of her backpack knocks against her lunch box. "Yes!" 

"Okay– let's go home." 

She beams. Eddie puts her down on her own two feet, her new cornflower blue sneakers like flowers blooming over asphalt with each step she takes. Eddie wonders what you did with all your spare cash before you started spoiling him and his girl, and he'd asked you once. You'd been sitting on the floor of a changing room with Roan, he could see your knees in the gap under the door as he waited outside, and you'd opened the door to show off the fancy dress Roan had been trying on and said, "My savings account was much healthier, but I mostly spent it on takeout. Now I got my own private chef, I don't need to get pizza so often." 

Roan had heard the word pizza and that was it. Dress shopping was paused for the day, and the three of you shared a large Margherita in the car on the way home. 

"What do we want for dinner today?" Eddie asks, Roan's hand swinging in his. 

"What do we got?" 

"I have lots of different pasta. Or we could make chicken." There's a plastic tupperware full of wings about to go bad. "Or maybe one of Y/N's favourites?" 

Roan hops down off of the club and keeps close to Eddie's side as they cross the parking lot to his car. 

Eddie doesn't wanna tell Roan you've been having a bad week because you don't wanna tell her, and it's not fair to kids to drag them down with you, but Eddie's not going to do that. He won't tell her your problem, how work has been making you especially miserable, how your coworkers aren't exactly kind. He'll just… express that you need some extra love. 

"If we could make something for her together, that would make her so happy. She's been feeling real blue," he says tentatively. 

Roan looks up at him with a frown. "She doesn't look blue. She looks normal'd." 

"It's an expression," he says fondly. "It means she's been kinda sad." 

Roan looks up at him, thick lashes kissing the skin below her eyebrows as her eyes widen. The neck of her soft blue cardigan is falling down one of her small shoulders, and he nudges her out of the way of the car door so he can get her in it before the cold catches up with her.

"Why is she sad?" she asks. 

Her concern is clear. Eddie lifts her up under the armpits and proudly doesn't bump her head, stationing her in her car seat. She doesn't need his help getting in anymore, but old habits die hard. 

"It's like… remember when those girls were picking on Stacey K, and she wanted to stay home from school? Y/N wants to stay home from work sometimes, but she has to be a big girl just like Stacey was and keep her head up." 

"I shouted at the girls," Roan says. She sounds quizzical. 

Eddie clips her seat belt over her chest and straightens out her knitted cardigan. "You're my bravest girl, that's why. You were a really good friend for Stacey." He kisses her forehead with a sticky, "Mwah!" 

She's still giggling when Eddie closes her door and gets into the driver's seat. She tapers off as Eddie twists his key and starts the engine, and doesn't talk again until they're almost home. Eddie doesn't worry — she's listening to the kids cassette in the stereo, and she gets tired after school. Despite his best efforts he's exhausted himself. He'll ask her about school once he's in his pyjamas. 

"Could you go into her job?" 

"What?" Eddie asks, not really listening as he reverses backward into the driveway outside of your house. His house, your house together. You and him and Roan and Lucky the goldfish. 

"Could you go be brave for mom?" 

He smiles. He likes when she calls you mom more than he can put into words. "I could, but she won't let me. And it might make things worse, you know?" 

"Why would it make things worse?"

"Uh, because grown ups don't really like when you try to tell them off."

"I don't like it either." 

"I know you don't, babe." 

Eddie gets out, releases the rascal, and the two of them jog up the few gentle steps to the door. He unlocks it and Roan stands patiently by the mat for him to take off her shoes. She could do it herself, but again — old habits die hard. He loves taking care of her and doing things for her, the little things and the big. Taking her shoes off is fun for both of them. She strokes hair out of his face so he's not blind and he squeezes her sock-clad toes until she squeals. 

She makes for the living room for her after school cartoons. 

"Hey, wait, Ro! I thought you were gonna help me make dinner?" 

She grumbles but it's with a good-natured spirit, spinning on her heel but remaining in the living room. "I got to feed Lucky, daddy." 

"Oh, right. You feed the fish, I'll get some jammies." 

She nods, determined. 

"Just a pinch! We don't want him to get fat and explode!" 

"Ew!"

Eddie finishes work at 3PM to grab Roan when her elementary school ends at 3.30. You finish work at 5PM, and you don't get home most days until near 6PM. It's a big gap where they both miss you like crazy, but it usually means that dinners all done or getting there when you finally drag yourself inside. 

Eddie can't lie, he hadn't pictured himself with a business woman. Though business might be the wrong word. You work an office job, and you wear professional office clothes, and God, it gets him pretty much every day. He prefers you in your pyjamas or your day clothes, sure, but there's something about you in your little pencil skirts and your soft cashmere sweaters, make up all smudgy and wearing off, kicking your short kitten heels in a pile at the door. 

You peel out of your coat and Eddie watches from the kitchen doorway, arms scrubbed clean of grease and crossed against his chest. 

"Hi, handsome," you say, more quietly than usual. 

"Hey," he says. His throat aches a little. He puts it down to needing a drink. "Hey, sweet thing. You look tired. Want me to cheer you up?" 

"Gotta see my girl first, sorry." 

He pretends you've stabbed him, not the dramatic, fall-to-the-floor affair he might've pulled a couple of years ago, but a stabbing all the same. He rubs his heart and doesn't feel even slightly mad with you when he hears Roan's happy cry. 

"You're home!" 

"You didn't think I was coming home today?" 

"You took six years," she says severely. 

"Six!" Your cheerful laughter draws Eddie in like a moth to a light. He slides down the hall and around the stairs to watch you take Roan's face into your hands, her pale ones behind your back to keep her balance where she's standing on the couch cushions. "You don't look nearly twelve, bubby." 

Your hand climbs her face. You press it to her forehead and he can hear your frown, though he can't see your face. "Are you feeling okay, Ro?" 

Roan blinks. "I feel happy." 

"Oh, do you? That's good!" 

You pick her up, one hand behind her back and one under her butt, messy curls all in your face when Roan wraps her arms around your neck. You carry her to Eddie where he's lingering in the doorway, shifting her on your hip, a concerned tug to your brows. 

Eddie brings a hand to her forehead himself, feeling along the warm skin gently. She's hotter than she should be. 

"You're sure you feel okay?" he asks her. 

Roan is confused by the attention, but she doesn't hate it. "Yes?" 

"You feel super hot." 

"I am super hot!" she says. She throws back her shoulders and does a practised pout, a model expression, her thin eyebrows bobbing down as she tries to wink. 

You glow with love, Eddie can pretty much see it in the air as you laugh. "Super hot," you second, giggling and dropping sneaky kisses against her temple. 

"You're beautiful," Eddie says pointedly. 

"Super beautiful." 

"Where'd you even learn that?" Eddie asks. "'Hot'?" 

"You say to mom in the morning?" Roan says, like Eddie's an idiot as the three of you make you way to the kitchen. "She's so hot, and pretty, and you need to crack the window!" 

Eddie covers his mouth. "You heard that?" He meets your eyes and he knows how he looks, a rosy tint taking to his otherwise pale cheeks. 

"And when you were singing, too." 

"Oh, my god." 

You laugh like crazy, giggles bubbling out of you like a soda rocket and quickly turning to bigger, fuller peels that would usually make him laugh too. He'd serenaded you this morning, a bumpy and extremely sincere rendition of As Long As It's Not About Love. He'd been trying to convince you to come back to bed, pencil skirt and all, for one last kiss.

"Roanie, I didn't know you were awake, baby. You should come and say hi once you're up." A warning would be good.

"I was too tired to move, daddy, I already told you." 

"Yeah, dad," you say, "she already told you, so back off." 

Eddie waves his hand at both of you. "Who needs you guys? I'll just eat this delicious dinner we made by myself."

He doesn't eat dinner by himself. He pulls the tray from the oven he'd covered over and you set the table. Roan pours juice into a cup for herself and doesn't tip any of it onto the table, for which she receives a heaping mound of praise. Eddie cracks open a can of ginger ale and pours it into a darker glass so you won't spot that it isn't normal soda and worry. He'll be fine in the morning, he knows. 

When you find out they've made your favourite, you get all mushy. You wrap your arms around his neck and rub your cheeks together, and you smile around every mouthful. You eat dinner as a family, and afterwards, Eddie lets Roan fill the bath right to the top with bubbles and brushes out her curls, which hang straight with the weight of the water. He gets her out, wraps her up in a poncho, and laments the loss of her baby curls as you sidle past him to wash the bubbles out of the bath and climb in the shower.

"Her hair's not as curly as mine was when I was a kid," he says, calling to be heard over the sound of the water. He can see your silhouette behind the shower curtain, an underwater scene of dolphins and tropical fish. 

"You think it'll get straighter?" you ask between squeezes of the shampoo bottle. 

Eddie rubs Roan's cheeks dry with a face towel gently. The hot water has pretty much knocked her out, her eyes drooping. "Probably. It's already way less curly than when she was a baby." 

He picks her up. She's limp. "I'm gonna go get her dressed!" 

"Okay, handsome, I'll be right out. Make sure there's still some hot water for you." 

Eddie dresses Roan and dries her hair with a blow dryer, cold air fighting against the fatigue stealing her away. She shivers and he turns it up to the first heat, careful not to burn her scalp. Eddie could barely look after himself at nineteen, and just around seven years later he's an expert in taking care of someone else. Well, maybe not an expert. He's good, though, and he tries hard enough and with enough pure love to make up for any mistakes. 

"You're so tired, babe," he says softly, clicking off the hairdryer to rake his fingers through her still warm hair. It looks very straight now, only the ends remaining curled. "Are you sure you're okay?" 

She reminds him of the quieter girl she'd been. Roan had taken a little time to come out of her shell, tantrums aside, and meeting you had pretty much rocketed her into extrovertedness. It happened slowly and all at once — one day she was just loud, and cheerful, and so, so charming. He loves her now and he'd loved her then. Quiet Roan is like an adorable treat, but it also points to bad tidings. 

Roan is quiet when she's sick, sad, or confused. 

Eddie's betting it's the first. He presses his hand against her forehead but of course she's warm, she'd been in a warm bath only twenty minutes ago. 

She doesn't answer him. She looks small in her big princess bed, her sheer cherry pink curtains hanging down to compliment the brand new and puffy quilt he'd bought for winter. Her legs are crossed, one bare foot sticking out. Eddie crouches in front of her, scratching the sole of her foot with his pinky nail to make her smile. 

"There's my girl." He flicks her knee. "You want me to read you something, sweetheart? I don't think we're gonna make it to the couch tonight." 

"Can we have Bad Cat Saves the World?" she asks. 

Eddie drags her up to the huge pillows against the headboard and pushes her chest mildly. She tips back into the pillows with a pleased huff. Her lack of outrage clues him in. 

Roan is sick. 

"You can have anything you want if you drink some water before bed." 

"Wugh," she says. 

"That's almost a real word. Good job, babe." 

"Thank you." 

—

You step out of the shower and wrap a towel around yourself quickly. The bathroom is thick with heat, so you push open the window and stand in the cold breeze. The window must be open in Roan's room, you realise, when you hear the dulcet tones of Eddie's reading voice floating toward you. 

"And Bad Cat said, no, Mr. President, I'm the one flying the plane! He wiggled his whiskers and pushed the wheel left with one of his ginger paws, the aeroplane shooting through the sky at top speed. I'm going to save the world, Bad Cat cried." 

Eddie does the best voices, truly. He's high and low, scratchy and sweet. He takes all the right pauses and kicks it up a notch at the most exciting parts, reading line after line in a whirl. Your skin feels dry and chapped as his voice begins to quieten; you've listened for too long. 

You step into your shared bedroom, pull on some underwear but no bra, and try to lotion up before he comes in and sees you naked. You don't know if he'll have Roan with him. The door creaks open and you squeak, forcing yourself deeper into the wardrobe you'd been searching through. 

"I'm not dressed!" you say. 

It wouldn't really matter if Roan saw you naked, she's just a baby and you're a family, but there's nothing wrong with having the boundary there either. Luckily there's no Roan in tow with Eddie either way. 

"Is that a promise?" he asks, and his eyes light up when he enters. 

You cross your arm over your chest and dig for a t-shirt to wear. 

"Don't look, perv." 

"We're getting married," he says. "I've seen it all already." 

"I don't care, perv, stay back." You slip a loose t-shirt over your head and bend down again for some pyjama pants. 

It doesn't matter what you say. Eddie comes up behind you where you're bending over and leans into you, arms needling around your waist, one greedy hand under your shirt and squeezing the soft roll of your stomach. You shoot up and smile at him from over your shoulder. It's odd. Despite what you'd joked, you don't mind him seeing you undressed. How could you? You've loved one another for longer than you ever could've imagined, in ways you didn't know people did. You know Eddie thinks you're beautiful, and you don't look like someone from the magazines. They're two coinciding facts. 

"She's sleeping?" you ask. 

"She wiped out completely. I think she might be coming down with something." 

You frown. "Poor baby." 

"It's alright. We'll take care of it as it comes." 

"We will." You nudge the tip of his nose with yours, aware of how quiet the house is, and how much you've missed him all day. "Are we going to bed, too?" 

His hands come up. It's not not sexual, but it's more intimate than anything else as he grabs at the soft skin of your torso and then, tentatively, your chest. 

Your lips drift closer and closer, and when he kisses you it's achingly slow, close-lipped. He pulls your back to his front and your crane your neck, hands covering his hands, eyes shuttering as he gets a little more insistent. It can only be a couple of seconds, held-breath heart-pounding seconds that make your tummy roll with heat, before he's pulling away. 

"Baby, I think I might be coming down with something, too." 

It takes a second for his words to calibrate. "You're sick?"

"My head's been pounding all day. I want you, but– I don't wanna get you sick," he says. He sounds so torn. 

"You're sure it's not a one day thing?" you ask, frowning. 

He swallows a lump in his throat. "Regretfully." 

If he's sick, and Roan's sick, you can't get sick too. It would throw a huge spanner in the works. Eddie's immune system is a sinking ship on a normal day. When he gets sick, it's bad. 

You untangle yourself from Eddie's grasp and feel his disappointment. It's sweet that he wants to keep you from the same fate as him. 

You take his face into your hands. 

"Go take a shower, handsome, and then…" You stare straight into his eyes, brown honey ringed with light. "We won't kiss. Or, you won't kiss me on the lips. Yeah?" 

He pulls your hand from his cheek to squeeze your fingers, a tight bunching full of promise. "Yeah. It's gonna break my heart–" 

"I'm sure," you say. 

"–but I'll make it up." 

You walk backwards out of his arms and flop languidly into the clean white sheets on your bed, toying with the bottom of your t-shirt. "Whatever you say, bub." 

Eddie sets the record for world's quickest shower that night. 

—

Eddie wakes up. He's expecting that post-sex bonelessness, like every bit of tension has been pulled from him by your delicate fingers, but instead feels as if he'd been hit by a truck. Last night had been the total opposite of rough. It isn't the sex that's messed him up. 

He's sick. 

Shit, he thinks, rubbing his dry face with a hand warmed by your back. 

You lay over his chest, your lips to his heart, the dark tattoo covering it. One hand crushed under your side curls weakly by his hip, and the other is hidden pretty much inside his armpit. He snorts at you and your blank expression, but smiles when he remembers the sweet, soft way you'd looked at him last night, your eyelashes heavy with unshed happy tears, your arms tight around his shoulder blades like you'd worried he'd disappear. He hadn't been able to kiss you like he wanted to, lips on your lips and just a little too much tongue, but he'd found the next best thing on the slope of your shoulder. He nudges your shirt down so he can peer at the poor scandalization of skin, that purple-red mess of burst capillaries wrought by his eager nibbling. 

As much as Eddie would like to laze about with you in the afterglow at night, you're grown-ups. Which isn't to say he doesn't get his hugs in after, he does —he cuddles you, lays praise down thick, blushes without fail when you do the same— but he and you have a whole post-fuck routine; cleaning up, throwing the towel in the washing machine, changing the sheets if you need to. 

Eddie will peek his head into Roan's room to check she's still sleeping, and, exhausted, the two of you go back to bed and fall asleep yourselves. He doesn't enjoy getting back into his pyjamas afterward, missing your skin pretty much instantly, but it's necessary, and proves to be when Roan pushes into your room that morning unannounced.

Eddie sits up and tries not to disturb you, finger to his lips. 

"My stomach hurts," she says. 

He eases you off of his chest and into the cool sheets where you usually sleep. He swings his legs around and finds it takes a lot more effort than usual. 

"Yeah? Hungry hurts or like you need the bathroom hurts?" 

"Just hurts," she says insistently. 

Eddie stands, tucks you in as fast as he's able and turns to Roan. She stands at the end of the bed unsurely, hair at her neck curled up with sweat, her usually white face an unfortunate pink. He puts his arms out for her, groaning when he pulls her up his chest, her knees either side of his hip. She wants a hug and Eddie wants a second to digest what's happening, so he stops right there in the middle of the room and hugs her too his chest. 

"Think you might be sick, baby," he says gently. 

"Do I get the strawberry medicine?" she asks. 

"Depends. Can you stop when you want to?" 

"What?" 

He laughs to himself. He wishes you were awake to laugh too, but he lets you sleep. "Yeah, you can have the strawberry medicine. How bad is it hurting, huh? Does your throat hurt?" 

"Maybe." 

He frowns at her tearful voice. "Oh, no… and your toes, are they orange?" 

"Don't think so," Roan says, stretching one of her legs out and analysing her toes. 

"Good," he says, giving you one last glance before he moves to the stairs, carrying Roan down them one careful step at a time. He doesn't trust his heavy head. "I thought for a second you had Alienitis." 

"Alien-ites?" she asks. 

He nods sagely, flicking on the hallway light as he reaches the bottom of the stairs. "It starts with a bad tummy, and then you start to turn orange from the toes until all your skin is shiny and slimy like a pool toy, and then your throat hurts." 

He turns on the kitchen light and sets Roan down on the counter near the fridge. 

"But you already have a bad tummy and a sore throat, so you definitely don't have Alienitis." He beams at her relieved face. "Thank the heavens." 

He peels the thermometer off of the fridge. It's a magnet, made of paper, and you press it to your kids forehead and let it sit for a minute before you read it. He slaps it on her with a pretend aggression to make her laugh, and they both wait for it to warm up. Eddie looks down at her. She looks up. 

"Come here often?" he asks. 

"All the time. Do you?" 

"Sometimes, yeah. See the game last night?"

"Which game?" she asks, pert nose wrinkling in confusion. 

"Any of them?" 

"I saw you and Y/N do the dishes dance." 

"How'd you rate that? Out of ten?" 

"You dropped your bowl." 

"A five, then." 

Roan presses her lips together. "She's always better." 

"That's not fair, my hands get all soapy from the water." 

Roan's temperature is a solid 102. 

"It's official, you're sick." He rubs her cheek, her ear, her hair soft under his hand. "But I'm gonna fix you right up good as new, babe, so don't worry." 

Roan leans back against the microwave oven and huffs forlornly. 

"Hey, it'll be fine. It's gonna be better than fine, Ro. We'll make sure you have lots of yummy drinks and medicine and I'm sure if we ask really nicely your mom'll make her soup, and…" He loves how much Roan loves you, leaning in to emphasise the importance of what he's about to say. "She'll snuggle with you all. Day. Long." 

"She will?" 

Is she kidding? The second you find out Roan has a temperature, he'll have to pry you away from her with a crowbar. 

"She will." 

"Can we wake her up?" 

He thinks about it. You've had a really hard week. You deserve to rest and catch up with the sleep you've been missing out on, but Roan's the confessed light of your life and she wants you. If he doesn't wake you up, you'll only ask why not.

"How about I put you on the couch with some TV and I'll go wake her up, and see how she's feeling?" 

Roan pouts. "I want to." 

He'd hoped to sneak in a hug, considering how his legs and arms and head are aching. But he finds it hard to be selfish when Roan looks the way she does now, her eyes pleadingly wide, thin brows threaded together at the starts. She puts her hands together. 

"Okay, you can do it. But try to be nice. No shouting in her ears. This is strictly a hug operation." 

Roan screws her hands in his shirt and he sets her down. She tiptoes down the hall, up the stairs, and into the master bedroom, Eddie behind her all the while unbearably enamoured. 

He helps her climb into your bed. You've twisted onto your back now, and Roan carefully crawls to your side, snuggling up under the arm that isn't covered by blankets. You don't wake at first, but Roan rubs your tummy, whispers, "Please wake up, Y/N," and you rouse like magic. Your eyes remain closed by life flares into your limbs, arms wrapping around Roan, pulling her onto your stomach and chest automatically. 

"I got a tummy ache," Roan says, a hint of desperation in her voice.

Your eyes open. Eddie suspects you don't even know he's there, your gaze locking onto Roan's. 

"Yeah? What's the matter, princess, do you need me to pat your back?" 

"No… it's all twisty. We took my tempa-chure and I'm too hot." 

You look first to your side where Eddie usually lies. 

"Over here, sweetness." 

You push yourself into a sitting position with Roan locked to your front, pressing the back of your free hand to her head as you look to him for confirmation. 

"One oh two," he says. 

You sit her in your lap and flatten out her frizzy hair uselessly. Your frown melds to a put upon smile, a mom face. It says everything's going to be okay.

"Well, we better fix you up then, huh? We'll havta call Uncle Wayne for some of his tools," —you clear your throat, the tired scratchiness in your voice ebbing— "and tighten all your screws again. How's that sound?" 

"I'm not a car," she laughs. 

"What? Since when?" 

You're soft in the mornings. Your eyes are swollen and puffy still, your voice a quiet but earnest hum. You look up over her head and he knows what you're thinking. 

"I'm okay," he says easily. "I'll go get the phone." 

Roan laughs full-belly. "Guys! I am not a car!" 

"You beep like one," you say, pretending to honk her nose. "Beep beep." 

It's the calm before the storm. 

—

Roan cries and cries and cries. She's in your lap again, but this time you're downstairs on the couch with her softest throw blanket and a pillow, rubbing her poor tummy. You've spent the day waiting for her to throw up, but no dice yet. Eddie's trying very hard to help you out, though he's practically paralysed by a migraine in the armchair. Each rattle of Roan's sobbing makes him wince. 

You have her propped against your chest, her shoulders heaving. There's an empty bucket used for washing the dishes at your feet. Roan is adamant she won't be sick. 

"Do you want to go to the bathroom again?" you ask softly, rubbing her trembling arms in hopes of soothing her. 

"No, I don't need to," she insists, "just hurts. I want more medicine, mommy." 

You crumple like wet tissues. "I know, princess. Another hour and you can have more, I promise." 

"I want it now."

"It's okay, Roan," Eddie says, jaw clenched but not a hint of anger in his voice. "You're alright, bub, you just need to calm down. All this crying is gonna make it worse." 

You hum your agreement. "Your dad's right. Let's try to calm down, should we? Is there something we can do to calm down? Maybe we should drink some more of dad's ginger ale, that might be yummy." 

"Let me take her," Eddie says. His skin is pale and waxy, sweat shimmering in the light across his brow and top lip.

You nibble your cheek. "Sweetheart," you say, and mean it intensely, "you can go up to bed if you need to." 

"I'm fine. Come on, give me back my girl. I'm gonna fix her with a magic spell." 

You try to transfer Roan from your lap to his. You've seen Eddie's spells in action, how he whispers words you don't don't know from a game he plays with his friends every other week, or every other other week when life is busy, pressing raspberries into the nape of her neck and tickling her arms. They're a surefire way to cure an owie. 

Roan doesn't want a magic spell, she wants medicine. She sobs and turns in your arms, seeking your comfort. She buries her face in the soft fabric of your sleep shirt. 

Eddie stands up to help, stricken by her increasing volume, and abruptly has to sit back down. 

"Eddie," you say, more severely than you mean to. "Sit down." 

"Sitting," he mumbles, dropping his head down between his knees, hands in his hair. 

He quickly lifts it with a groan. 

"Shit," he says. 

You shush Roan gently, lips near her ear. Your hand rubs a steadfast line down the curve of her spine, and when it comes back up you take a deep breath. You don't know if Roan understands what you're doing or if her pain simply starts to lessen, but long, tense minutes unravel into half an hour and she thankfully calms down, dipping into sleep after you dot her damp forehead with kisses.

"Eddie," you say, when you're sure she's knocked out. "Baby, are you okay?" 

"I'm sorry," he says, lifting his sweaty face from his hand. He looks heartbreakingly ill. 

"That's okay, I don't want any sorrys." 

"I didn't mean to make you deal with that alone." 

"Well, I wasn't alone," you say. "You're sitting right there." 

He presses the backs of his hands to his eye sockets and breathes out hard. You can't reach him with your hands, so you extend your leg until your ankle rubs against his. 

"You have a stomach ache?" 

"I think I have everything," he says. 

You pull Teddy, Roan's one eared teddy bear, off of the seat beside you, and then move the pillows and bowl of food Roan hadn't managed to eat to the other side. 

"Come and sit by me," you coax gently. 

Eddie looks stiff as a board as he stands and walks to the couch. He sits down slow, leaning back slower. He looks at the ceiling before he turns his neck to face you, one eye screwed shut. You suspect his migraine is pretty much debilitating him at this point. 

"Okay?" you murmur. 

"I'll live. Hopefully." 

He chuckles but stops with another sore wince. 

You drop your hand onto his knee. He looks sad. He looks like he's gonna pass out.

"Baby, you gotta tell me how bad you're feeling," you say,  nearly singing the words, hoping to inject that little bit of lightness he's missing back onto his pretty lips. 

"It's just my head–" 

"Thought it was everything?" 

"–is gonna explode," he concludes, flopping his face into your arm, one of his hands cupping Roan's back beside yours. 

"I'm really sorry, my love," you murmur. 

He huffs. He knows, as you know, that you're not sorry in that you think you made him sick. You're sorry that he's sick, sorry he's in any pain at all, sorry that Roan's down for the count as well. 

He turns his lips to your shoulder and leaves them there. 

"Everything's gonna be fine." 

"I know it, sweet thing." His voice sounds like it's made of crushed glass. 

When Eddie finally falls asleep, Roan wakes. You're damp everywhere they touch you— they're like two huge hot water bottles. Roan scrunches awake and you're sorry to do it, but you push Eddie away from you and climb out from under his weight, taking his mini me to the kitchen where the strawberry medicine calls her name. You plop her down in her chair with the cushion on the seat and spoon medicine into her mouth. She's too tired to realise she doesn't really like it. 

You wet the corner of a hand towel and wipe the sticky dribble off of her chin. You're patting her clammy forehead when she looks up. 

"Thanks, mommy," she says.

You frame her face, hand towel pressed to the side of her head. 

"You're welcome." You lean forward, tap your nose into hers. "I love you." 

You say it stretchy and sweet, like taffy. She lights up at the sound.

"I love you more," she says.

"No way, madam. I love you more than anybody." 

"I love you to the moon," she tries. 

"To the moon! I love you to the sun, then." 

"Is that further away?" she questions. 

You stroke her hair back from her face with your free hand, wrists on her shoulders. You do it nicely, fingers tangling in the downy soft strands of her curls, no rush to be anywhere but here. 

"It's a million trillion miles away," you guess. 

"Woah. That much?" 

You nod, head bobbing, "That much and more." 

"That's a lot of love," she says. Like a kid standing at the precipice of the world's biggest candy store, staring out at a million different shelves, a rainbow of colour reflected on her feverish cheeks. But she's not in a candy store at all, she's looking at you. 

"So much," you say, smiling. 

"Mmm… Woah." 

"Girls?" comes Eddie's voice, calling from the living room. "Everything cool?"

"Dad!" Roan shouts. "Guess what? Y/N said she loves me to the sun and it is a million'd miles away! That's more than the moon away!" 

Eddie groans. "Wait a second, don't be lovely without me. I'm…" His voice drops to a mutter. "I'm a weak man."

You wait but don't hear any footsteps. 

"Think we better go kiss him better, Ro," you say. 

She goes all shy. "Will you carry me again?" 

"Hm, let me think." 

You swoop her up into your arms so fast she's immediately hysterical, giggling at the sudden vertigo. 

"Girls," Eddie whines. "I can't get up. Stop having fun without me." 

"We're on our way with Tylenol!" you call. 

"I don't want Tylenol, I want love to the sun, or whatever." 

You princess carry Roan into the living room and settle back down in your seat next to Eddie, who, despite desperately needing the Tylenol you've brought with you, takes the kisses you offer first, featherlight kisses, all over his cheek. 

"That definitely wasn't enough," he says. He looks at you from between his lashes, slamming them shut again when he notices you watching. "C'mon girls, I'm sick."

"So's Roan and she's not making demands."

"I never said I was a good person, you know? I'm desperate." 

You give him one last kiss. He waves his hand and Roan gives him another. 

He sighs through a happy, sleepy smile. "Thank you. Now that felt like love to the sun." 

—

Bad Cat is a character from Stephen Chbosky's novel Imaginary Friend that I borrowed, he isn’t mine! thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed! if you did, please consider reblogging because it means so much to me <3<3<3<3

[fangirlandtheories]

Do you remember when we used to sing?

Eddie is away on tour while Steve is taking care of their daughter a few hours away. Too bad she can't fall asleep without her special bedtime song...

--

Steve’s brows pinched together as the cries grew in pitch and volume, almost drowning out the familiar click of ‘Hey it’s Eddie, call me back or don’t, I’m not your mother.’ from the speaker of his phone. 

He had shifted from frustrated to desperate as he glanced over at their daughter, red faced and snot nosed. Bedtime was a solid hour past due and didn’t seem to be looming any closer. 

“It’s okay, sweets, we’ll call him again.” Steve soothed as he ran a hand down the toddler’s back. 

“Daddy!!!” She screamed again, choking with the effort of her sobs, as she squeezed her eyes shut. It had been love at first sight for Eddie and Steve when they had met Rayne’s mother. She was young, just turning 20 in the fall, with curly blonde hair and big brown eyes. She was looking for someone who wanted a baby that couldn’t naturally have their own and the agent connected the dots for them. After several months, little Rayne was theirs.

“I know,” Steve muttered as he pulled up Eddie’s contact again. Eddie had taken a break from touring after the adoption of their daughter but had recently started back up. It started off pretty well, the excitement of getting to have a Dad weekend with Steve pulling her through, but now the newness was gone and all little Rayne Munson-Harrington wanted was Eddie. 

Eddie usually found weekend gigs but had found a week long slot in a club in St. Louis that promised great publicity and even better payment, so Corroded Coffin hit the road and Steve held down the fort with some help from Robin and Wayne. They were obligated to babysit, she was named after both of them afterall, and he was grateful because work had been taxing enough without adding a feisty 4 year old to the mix. 

A flu bug was sweeping it’s way through Hawkin’s Elementary and it spared no casualties in Steve’s kindergarten classroom. He spent the day trying to keep the class from putting things in their mouths and making sure everyone washed their hands, sending a child or two home after seeing the greenish pale tints of nausea pass over their faces. He knew that he’d have to deal with kids puke at some point, especially as a parent, but he’d like to avoid it at all costs. 

“Pick up your phone you ass.” He hissed through clenched teeth, rocking the inconsolable girl in his arms as he dialed again.

***

Eddie first felt the familiar jolt of vibration in his back pocket  just after the first chorus. The second time was just a few verses later. He smiled into the microphone as he continued to sing, ignoring his phone. The third time was in the bridge of the song, a particularly terrible time to take a call as Eddie’s hands were preoccupied with his guitar. The fourth time happened in the final notes of the song. The fifth during the applause. Eddie frowned as he pulled the device from his pocket, ignoring a glare from Jeff.

“Hey guys, you won’t believe this but my husband is facetiming me right now. This is like the fifth time he’s called so I’m going to answer, everybody be quiet and let’s see how long it takes him to remember that we had a later show tonight.” Eddie laughed as the audience silenced quickly. Steve’s irritated yet grateful face popped up on the screen seconds later.

“Hey love…” He crooned with a cheeky smirk.

“Your daughter is very upset with you.” Steve ignored the affectionate nickname. 

“Why is she my daughter whenever she’s mad?” Eddie rolled his eyes. “Is she alright?”

“She’s been screaming since 8:30 Eds.” Steve ran a hand through his hair and blew out an exasperated sigh. “She’s refusing to sleep until you do it, that’s why I’ve been calling.”

“Steve I’m um…” Eddie glanced nervously at the audience in front of him. “Kind of in the middle of something.”

“Yeah I wanted to be relaxing right now too but our kid needs her dad and since he’s five hours away the very least he could do is sing her the damn song so that we all can get some rest.” Steve squinted at him. “You’re being weirder than usual. Are the guys there with you?”

“Yeah the guys are definitely with me.” Eddie ignored Gareth’s snicker. “Can I call you-”

“Edward, so help me God, sing the song so that she can go to sleep.” Steve interrupted. “Look at her.” Steve turned the camera to the distraught little girl and Eddie’s heart clenched.

“Hi angel, I hear you’re a little sad.” He frowned in solidarity with her as her lip stuck out. “No, don't cry, it’s okay Ray Ray.” She howled louder, tears popping from her wet lashes. He winced as he lip quivered, his resolve wearing down to nothing. He glanced over at Gareth, leaning over to whisper to him before looking back to his phone.

“Alright fine, let’s sing it, yeah?” Eddie placated. “You’re breaking my heart Bambi.” The wide eyes and long lashes practically gifted the nickname to her. He glanced back at Gareth who gave him a thumbs up before looking at the audience. “Daddy’s band is going to help him sing it, is that okay?” Rayne whimpered as she nodded, snuggled into Steve’s arms as he held the phone in front of her.

“Wait, are you on stage right now?” Steve leaned forward. “Shit, I’m sorry babe, I didn’t mean to interrupt the performance.”

“You couldn’t interrupt if you tried.” Eddie smiled. “Isn’t that right?” Steve could hear cheers from the audience. “We love our rock and roll family here and we honor our traditions, most of all the bedtime song. Ready boys? Sing along if you know it, our most honored guest is in the audience tonight and would love to hear you guys.”

With that, Jeff  played the opening notes on the guitar while Gareth tapped out the beat with the rarely used tambourine. The bass thumped along to Eddie’s singing, and though it admittedly wasn’t their usual style, the band loved Rayne like she was their niece and they would play anything to make her happy.

“-In the misty morning fog with our hearts a-thumping” Eddie held the microphone in one hand and the phone in the other, beaming at the smile on Steve’s face. “And you, my brown eyed girl.” Rayne giggled and clapped, tears still on her cheeks but sadness having finally passed. 

***

Hours and miles away, Steve smiled as he shut the door to his daughter's bedroom, the nightlight softly glowing, as he hummed the song to himself. Tomorrow there would be a series of tweets about Eddie going soft and videos flying all around the internet, but for now, and for the first time that evening, the Munson-Harrington home was quiet.

[targaryenmarvel]

Fallin’ All In You (Part 1) - Wanda Maximoff x Reader

Summary: You’ve known Wanda Maximoff since you were children. She was the shy and exceptionally beautiful twin sister of your best friend, Pietro. For the most part, you two never interacted, but that changes when against your better judgment, you begin to develop feelings for the girl. 

Warnings: Only cursing for now

Note: Hey, guys! First of all, thank you all for your support; whether it's reblogs or likes, it means a lot. Here is part one of my series, which will probably have four to five chapters. I hope you guys like it!

Word count: 4,341

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

///////////////////////////////////////////////

You loved Pietro Maximoff; after all, he was your best friend. The young boy was the first person you ran to with your issues, and he took it upon himself to brighten even the rainiest days. There was no doubt in your mind that he would quite literally jump off a cliff after you. However, it wasn’t his supportive nature that had united the two of you; your chaotic energy had drawn you to each other that fateful day at the park. Even at the age of five, Pietro was a complete flirt, and that afternoon there was no one else he would like to impress other than the courageous girl who had defended his sister from the park bully. 

Pietro had confidently appeared before you, intending to impress you with his tree-climbing skills. But, of course, there was no way you were letting a boy do something better than you, so you challenged him to a tree-climbing contest. It’s safe to say that no one won since it ended with both of you weeping at the bottom of the tree. Pietro had sprained his ankle as he landed wrong, and you with a bloody mouth since you fell face-first on his elbow. It was the first of many injuries the two of you suffered together, eventually leading your parents to conclude that you could not be left unsupervised during your early years of friendship.

The two of you were more than thrilled when you realized that you not only lived close to each other but also attended the same elementary school. It was much to the teachers’ dismay; dealing with one over-energetic child was job enough, but two? A complete disaster. Perhaps one of the most scandalous incidents was when you and Pietro had heard one of the high schoolers saying “fuck” to each other and decided it was a fun word. The school staff and parents were not too pleased when you taught the word to the other kids in your first-grade class. 

There was one challenge you ever encountered while being best friends with Pietro, and that was Wanda, his twin sister. Despite your close relationship with Pietro, the two of you seldom talked. When you visited the Maximoff household, the girl made sure to be locked away in her room; when you were together in the same space, she avoided looking at you as if the mere sight of you would scorch her eyes away. It seemed Wanda was adamant about only addressing you when inevitable. Regardless of Wanda’s dismissing attitude, you liked her and wondered if you had in any way prompted her behavior. Perhaps she believed your adventurous nature to be a bad influence on Pietro. 

One day, the curiosity became too much, so you asked him if his sister didn’t like you. 

He had only grinned like an idiot and said, “Of course she likes you. She’s just shy, especially with you, since you’re like her prince in shining armor, except the girl version.”

“Oh,” your face scrunched in confusion, not understanding what he meant. The whole thing was soon left behind, too complicated for your brain to comprehend. 

It wasn’t until years later that your friendship endured its most significant conflict. The twin’s father was temporarily transferred across the county for his job. It wasn’t the first time he was away, but it would be a minimum of a year this time—a too-long period to be away from his family. So, with a heavy heart, you departed from your best friend as he left to live across the country. 

Your eyes burned, and you clenched your jaw, feeling the burning lump in your throat as you suppressed the urge to sob. You had been a wailing mess since Pietro had told you the news, but you refused to let your friend see you in that state. “I can’t believe you are leaving me just before we start our freshman year,” your voice cracked with emotion as you desperately clutched onto him.

“Yeah, I know, I’m sorry” He rubbed your back soothingly, holding in his tears before adding, “I promise to call you every day, okay.”

“You better, or else I’m coming after you, Maximoff, and it won’t be a happy reunion,” you threatened with a sniffle before releasing him and glancing behind him.

Wanda stood awkwardly behind you two, feeling as if she was intruding on your intimate moment. Though part of her wished to receive the same treatment as her brother, her shyness would never allow her to interact with you how she wanted. She could only wait for her brother to join her side. 

You noticed that none of Wanda's friends had come to wish her farewell. You assumed they had said their goodbyes beforehand, and besides, you were only there because the Maximoffs considered you family. Still, it didn’t stop you from feeling bad for her. You tilted your head thoughtfully; there was no way in hell you were sending her off like that. 

Then, in a moment of bravery, you flung yourself towards her and embraced her with force, causing her to stumble back in shock as you mumbled, "Bye, Wanda."

It took a moment for Wanda’s racing brain to process the action and slowly reciprocate the hug. From his place, Pietro silently snickered, delighted by his sister’s scarlet flushed face and overly nervous gulp; you, in your frantic state, hadn’t noticed and sent her a small smile before their parents summoned them. 

True to his word, Pietro had called you almost daily, sharing information about the cute girl he saw at the airport or the pesky neighbor’s kid. But, even though phone calls were nice, the occasional video calls were your favorite. 

“How is it?” you questioned, looking at Pietro on your screen while resting on your bed. 

“I hate the weather, and I have to share a room with Wanda, but it’s not too bad,” he shrugged dejectedly, contradicting his own words. 

“Aw,” you cooed, your lower lip jutting out. “Poor Wanda, having to share a room with a slob like you.” you teased. “How is she, hm?” 

“She hates it here more than me. You wouldn’t guess what happened to her.” You looked at him, intrigued, “We were exploring the city when this guy walked up to us to tell her that she was dressed like a grandma. I mean, he wasn’t wrong; she was wearing that ugly old sweater. You know the one, right?” He motions with his hands as if the action would help you recall. “Anyways, she begged Mama to take her shopping afterward. She’s going emo no-” 

“Pietro!” her usually soothing voice reprimanded harshly off-screen before a pillow smacked him in the head, causing you to giggle.

“Well, tell her I think she looks great in anything, and that guy is a complete dumbass.” you truthfully reply and smile at the thought of Wanda. You tried to imagine her wearing the ugliest of sweaters and still thought she would look beautiful. Her bright green eyes were more than enough to entrance about anyone.

“Oh, she can hear you," Pietro said. "I’d show you how much she’s blushing right now, but she’d probably break the laptop on me.” Not even two seconds later, Wanda threw another pillow at the boy. 

Even with the constant communication between the two, you felt more alone than ever. Then, classes resumed at the end of summer, and you were officially a high school student. It was difficult in the beginning, Pietro had been by your side since kindergarten, and here you were, all alone. Alright, maybe you were a tad overdramatic because you did have friends aside from Pietro, just not as close. Truthfully, it wasn’t only Pietro who you missed; despite not talking to Wanda often, her presence was a constant in your life that you appreciated. 

You prayed that the year would end soon and the twins would return. To occupy yourself in the meantime, you decided to join the soccer team at your school. In reality, more like being coerced into joining the team because there’s no way your indolent self would willingly engage in any productive physical activity. Who would have the power to do such a thing? None other than Natasha Romanoff. 

Natasha Romanoff, the beautiful green-eyed redhead girl who had moved into the area, a gift from the universe you would call her. She resembled Pietro with her quick and witty personality, but she wasn’t a reckless idiot, unlike him. Your first encounter was nothing but perfect, despite her first words being an insult to your lack of stamina after the one-mile run. You and Natasha quickly formed an unbreakable friendship.

What you presumed would be a torturous year became bearable with Natasha at your side and your participation in the school’s extracurricular activities. You soon reached the one-year mark since the Maximoffs’ departure in a blink of an eye. You were ecstatic about the family’s return, already planning how to introduce your friends. Unfortunately, your excitement was short-lived and shattered during one of your video calls with Pietro. 

A large grin adorned your lips as you greeted your best friend, “So, do you guys know when you're coming back?” you questioned, oblivious to his dejected demeanor as you were too excited.

“Y/N I- Fuck,” he cursed, raising his hand to massage his temple. Your expression fell, concern supplanting your excitement.

“Is everything okay, Piet?”

“No, nothing is okay,” he whispered, loud enough for you to understand. “I’m sorry, Y/N. We- We’re not coming back,” Pietro announced, eyes glimmering apologetically. 

You were immobilized, trying to grasp the meaning behind Pietro’s words. Did he just say he wasn’t returning home? No, that couldn’t be. You must have heard wrong. But what if you didn’t? What would you do then?

“W- What do you mean you’re not coming back?” you inquired with bitterness as tears formed in your eyes. 

“Papa’s work isn’t finished. It might be a couple more months before we can return. There’s nothing I can do. I’m really sorry, Y/N,” he sighed defeatedly. 

You sniffled and cleared your throat, ignoring the heaviness that had settled in your chest. Pietro was right; there was no point crying, or at least not in front of him. There is no need to make him feel worse than what he must have been feeling. 

“I understand, Piet. So you don’t need to worry about me. We can talk like we have been, okay.” Pietro visibly relaxes at your words. “Besides, I  kind of like Natasha more than you,” you teased with a playful smirk trying to ameliorate the situation. 

Pietro scoffed, bringing his hand to his chest, “I can’t believe you just said that. I’ve given you the best years of my life, Y/N, and you go and wound me like this? Unbelievable.” He shook his head with a huff causing you to snort in amusement. 

As much as you loved Natasha, you couldn’t replace Pietro. However, that was something he didn’t need to know. 

Much to your disappointment, a couple of months turned into another year. Before you knew it, you were three months into your junior year. You no longer felt the hollowing absence clawing at your being, growing to accept the situation. It could be worse, you reasoned, imagining how you and Pietro could have drifted apart. You could handle the distance as long as you were still friends. 

What you could not handle was your mother dragging you to the airport. You had dropped on your bed, dead from exhaustion. Then, suddenly, your Mom barged in without any warning, hauling you to her car. 

You took a deep breath releasing it in a puff as your Mom parked the car. “Why am I here again?”

“I have already told you a million times, Y/N. Your cousin, Sharon, is visiting, and we’re here to welcome her.” You twisted your lips in displeasure.

“Which one is she again?” You questioned, not recognizing the name before realizing you didn’t care. “Nevermind. Couldn’t you, hmm, I don’t know, do it alone?” It’s not like Sharon would care if you were there; she would not receive a warm welcome from you.

Your Mom sighed loudly, turning to face you with an irritated expression. “No, now stop being such a grump, Y/N. Come on.”

You begrudgingly followed your Mom to the waiting area with a pout and deep frown etched on your face. Of course, your mother would scold you if you greeted cousin Sharon with that expression, but you didn't care. Sharon needed to know you weren't happy with her unexpected arrival.

Too indulged in feeling miserable and mentally cursing the so-called Sarah, you failed to notice the approaching figure before hearing their voice, “You don’t seem too excited to see me.”

Your breath hitched, and it felt like slow motion when you lifted your head, turning your bewildered gaze to the blond-haired teenage boy standing a few feet away. It only took a rise of his eyebrow for a grin to break onto your lips, immediately recognizing him.

“Pietro!” you exclaimed, causing a few curious heads to turn in your direction, but all you focused on were his wide-open, welcoming arms. Then, with no care in the world, you sprinted forward, crashing into his muscled chest as his arms surrounded your figure. A hearty laugh erupted from your chest as Pietro lifted you from the ground and spun you around. 

Even after he had stopped, you remained enclosed in his warmth with closed eyes savoring the moment. All the annoyance was replaced with happiness. God, you couldn’t believe this was real. Finally, after all these years, Pietro was actually back. Your best friend was back. 

You opened your eyes, ready to pull away and face your best friend, a teasing remark at the tip of your tongue. However, your words cut short as your eyes landed on the approaching figure of a beautiful brunette. That brunette was none other than Wanda Maximoff. 

In the past two years, your only view of the Maximoff girl had been her brief passings in the background of your video calls with Pietro. Never enough to fully take her in.

The brunette was distracted, looking at her phone, unaware of your little reunion, and honestly, you were glad because it gave you a moment to admire the girl. You had always thought that Wanda was pretty, but an entirely unrecognizable feeling swelled in your chest as you looked at her at that moment. She wasn’t wearing anything extraordinary, a baggy rock band t-shirt and simple joggers. Her neck held a black choker, and multiple rings adorned her fingers. She looked stunning.

“Wow,” you had thought you whispered, but when Wanda lifted her head, you realized your error. You stared into her emerald eyes briefly, conscious of the vibrant red hue spreading through your face. You released Pietro, desperate not to show how affected you were by the girl. 

“Wow, what?” he asked with a lifted eyebrow.

“Wow, as in I wasn’t expecting you,” you lied with a nervous chuckle. “I thought I was here to greet cousin Sharon.”  

Wanda stopped next to Pietro as you finished your sentence, eyes still on you as she sent you a smile with a slight wave. She wished she could greet you as affectionately as Pietro but didn't want to make you uncomfortable. What Wanda didn't know was that you would be far from uncomfortable. In fact, the simple smile she sent your way made your pulse quicken embarrassingly by how beautiful she looked. 

"H- Hey, W- Wanda," you stuttered, swiftly pulling her into your arms. Unlike Pietro, whose strong arms nearly crushed your body, Wanda delicately placed them on your back. Your body burned, and you had to resist the urge to relax in her arms fully. When Pietro cleared his throat with a smug look, the two of you let go. 

“Hi, Y/N. It’s good to see you?” Wanda responded, sounding more like a question with a blush of her own. You had a habit of unknowingly leaving her in an embarrassing daze. 

“I know it’s been a long fight, so why don’t we head home,” interrupted the Maximoffs’ mother, who you had failed to see in your excitement. 

 “I would love that,” Wanda huffed out exhaustedly, with Pietro nodding. 

You were disappointed that your reunion was so brief, but you knew they had to rest. You’d have plenty of time to catch up later. “Well, I’m so glad you’re here, both of you.” Looking from Pietro to Wanda, who looked surprised at your words. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Pietro frowned. “Aren’t you coming with us?”

“I wouldn’t want to intrude or anything.” You glimpsed at their Mom, knowing she’d probably want to rest without disruption. 

“Nonsense, you wouldn’t be intruding on anything. You know you’re part of this family, Y/N,” Olga reassured with a warm smile.

You turned to your mother, seeking permission, which she gave with a nod. The five of you walked out of the airport before parting ways. 

“Mom came here before us to fix everything up, and Dad has to stay for one more month,” Pietro tells you as you approach their mother’s car. 

“Oh,” you reply, too distracted by how Wanda’s brown locks dance with the breeze. You had probably seen Wanda in the same situation numerous times, but something was different now. 

“I call shotgun!” Pietro announced, pulling you from your daze after putting the luggage in the trunk.

“What? No, I’m riding in front,” Wanda protested, hastily looking at you.

“Only if you’re faster, sistra.” Pietro quickly sprinted to the passenger door, leaving an angered Wanda behind. You and his mother could only laugh at his antics.

Your laughter died down, replaced with nervousness as soon as you realized how close to Wanda you would be. You distracted yourself by talking with Pietro for most of the ride, though occasionally, you glanced at Wanda admiring her side profile. Her high cheekbones, sharp jawline, soft-pink lips, and mesmerizing green eyes. Or how astonishingly attractive her long and delicate ringed fingers emerged. Why hadn’t you ever looked at her this way? Were you really that oblivious?

Wanda, too, was tense about your presence. But, in contrast to you, Wanda had years of experience dissimulating her feelings as she put her headphones on and closed her eyes. She immersed herself in the music, succumbing to sleep. 

It was a relief when you arrived at the Maximoff household. You were sure someone would notice your staring if you were there any longer. The four of you exited the vehicle, Pietro being tasked with taking their luggage to their respective rooms, but you decided to help him as any good friend would. 

You reached Wanda’s baggage, her sweet voice still filled with sleep, momentarily stopping you, “Oh, you don’t have to do that. Pietro will be back in a second.” She stood awkwardly to the side, fumbling adorably with her hand, and you flashed her a smile. 

“It’s fine. I can take them," you countered, already hoisting her bag, entirely ignorant to Wanda’s staring at your exposed biceps muscles, finding them incredibly attractive. She heard from Pietro that you had started to participate in school sports. The physical effects of your extracurricular activities were noticeable in your physique. All Wanda could think about was running her fingers over your exposed bicep. 

As she led the way to her room on the second floor, Wanda shook her head, flustered by her indecent thoughts and your chivalry. You set her bags down, eyes roaming the walls you had only glimpsed from the hallway on your way from and to Pietro’s room. You recognized a few posters littered across the wall and even realized you liked some movies or artists. Like Percy Jackson, you loved Percy Jackson. You enjoyed anything with mythology, but Percy Jackson was fun and easy to comprehend, so it was your favorite. Oh, then there was the Taylor Swift vinyl album cover. Taylor was your guilty pleasure for many years as you were too embarrassed to admit you liked her music, especially in front of Pietro. You were confident he would tease you, so you chose to keep it to yourself, though you had eventually concluded how absurd your reasoning was. Now you would gladly profess your love for the artist. 

You wished you would have realized how much you and Wanda had in common. You would have appreciated someone to fangirl with, and who better than Wanda? Maybe now you could finally get closer to the girl.

On the other hand, Wanda felt exceptionally self-conscious about having you in her childhood bedroom. Would you judge her for her geeky taste? And for God’s sake, her mother had left her plushies on the bed. You were undoubtedly going to laugh at her now, she assumed. But, in reality, you thought it was adorable. 

 “Thank you,” Wanda awkwardly stated, biting her lower lip afterward, eyes wandering around the room. 

“No problem,” you retorted mindlessly, drawing your attention to the small action. Her soft pink lips hypnotized you, and you discovered yourself wishing to feel the softness. It would be easy to break the short distance and run your thumb over the seductive flesh. The mere thought made your heart race. But, no. You couldn’t do that. So why were you having such irrational thoughts? Knowing you should probably leave, you turned around before Wanda noticed your uneasiness. “I’m uh, I’m gonna go help, Piet,” you excused yourself, avoiding looking at her.

You fled to Pietro’s room, finding the boy messily stuffing his drawers with his clothing. To think Wanda had to share a room with him, even if it was only for the first few months. You truly pitied her. You approached Pietro, elbowing him away, intensely disturbed by his lack of organization. How hard was it to put already folded clothes into a drawer? Maybe it was his plan all along because when you turned to tell him so, he looked at you smugly. Of course, he did. 

You fixed him with an annoyed glare though you were content you could tease eachother that way. It had been so long since you could, so you weren’t bothered. 

You helped Pietro put away the rest of his stuff and rearrange a few things in his bedroom. Then, once you had left the room decent enough, you set up his PlayStation and game. 

You played Injustice 2 for hours, teasing each other incessantly. Pietro became unbearable as he kicked your ass at the game, but only because he spammed the controller. There was a lingering thought in the back of your mind throughout the entire time. A certain brunette held your mind hostage, as you kept replaying the moment your eyes landed on her in the airport. You tried to reason why you were so flustered around her and felt like drowning in her jade eyes. You were grateful when Olga called you to dinner, dispelling the thoughts.

The three of you sat at the dinner table, waiting for their mother to finish the paprikash. It was not only the twin’s favorite dish but also your own. Paprikash was the most savory of all the Sakovian dishes you had tried. 

“When do you guys plan on going to school?” You inquired, realizing you had forgotten about the responsibilities of school. 

“We're going in the afternoon tomorrow, but only to speak to administration. We won't be starting classes until the next day. So I guess you'll have to endure another boring day without me,” Pietro shrugged nonchalantly, causing you to roll your eyes, and Wanda giggled. 

“Well, I'll probably be in class, so I don't think we'll see eachother at all tomorrow,” you concluded before seeing their confused faces. “I have soccer practice after school. I was supposed to go today, but Mom said she needed me home early. Then there’s all the homework I need to catch up on, so I won’t have time to come over,” you explained with an exhausted huff. "We can game online if you want, though. I-"

Your conversation stopped short as your phone screen lit up and buzzed on the table. 

“Natasha? Is she your girlfriend?” Pietro teased, reading the screen as he reached for your phone, and you slapped his hand away. 

“You have a girlfriend?” Wanda chimed with furrowed eyebrows and lips twisted in displeasure at the idea. You eyed her warily, uncomfortable with her thinking that. 

“No, I don’t have a girlfriend.” You glared at Pietro, punching him on the arm, “You know Natasha isn’t my girlfriend. She’s my friend.”

Wanda’s features softened, pleased by your answer, though only Pietro noticed. However, Wanda was still curious and voiced her thoughts, “I didn’t know you were into girls.”

You looked to Pietro, raising a questioning eyebrow, surprised he hadn’t told her. “Yeah, well, I didn’t realize that until after you guys left. Though I figured Piet had opened his big mouth and told you.”

“Sorry, I didn’t think my sister could do much with that information. It’s not like she’d want to date you. No offense, Y/N,” he maliciously provoked, watching as you both blushed intensely, staring at anything but each other. Pietro was really having the time of his life. 

Thankfully for you and Wanda, their mother arrived with dinner before he could continue embarrassing you. After dinner, you thanked their mother and joyously hugged Pietro, saying you would talk later. Then, you waved to Wanda, refraining from embracing her and further embarrassing yourself in front of her. However, Wanda wouldn't have minded a hug and felt slightly disappointed. 

Their mother offered to drive you home, but you refused, considering your house was only a few blocks away. So instead, you used your stroll to reflect on the day’s events. You realized that the Maximoffs’ return had not been the most unexpected thing but rather the unexplainable surge of feelings towards Wanda Maximoff.

[wosieposiecozy]

Finally got the balls to post this

Candybats rambles and HC and individual stuff. Turning these freaks into OCs fr

🦇🎀 Rambles under the cut bc talk of mental health, also note pink text is for things that are more personal to me/ based off my life. I project onto these freaks a whole lot, especially streber! The pink text range from silly to not so silly 🎀🦇

Enjoy!!!

-kevin is a nerd/freak, no way he's friends with Radford and isn't a nerd, bro def has a fixation on sonic the hedgehog but only owns 06 (he borrows other games from rad)

- streber is not an engineer but a theater prop maker, he enjoys the stage and probably was in a robotics club in college but engineering/ robotics was not something he wanted to go into directly. He dose prop commissions and is a teacher assistant at an elementary school.

-streber is great at math and calculations, but my boy can't read/spell well.

- streber likes to fidget with Kevin's hands

-kevin likes to just flop on top of streber. Streber likes the pressure. Kevin's like a cold weighted blanket, and streber is a heating pad.

- streber struggles with depression, it's been a year since Bob and while he's doing better, he struggles with not feeling anything sometimes, he's nervous on how his response to his trauma isn't like others. He kinda pretends it didn't happen and continues on, and only really thinks about it when he's alone at night. (Based on my own experiences with grieving a lost one)

- streber has mixed feelings about people who survived Bob, he never blamed them but he's just is extremely upset he couldn't get the same treatment from that monster. He stopped going to support groups and just dose 1 on 1 therapy.

- streber lived with his parents for a while after getting out of the hospital (the rats stayed with Leon 💪) , and kinda just wanted to rot in his bed, but eventually went to some sort of support. Mainly because of fears of going to the mental hospital (yes, again,based on irl experiences)

-streber refused to talk to news outlets regarding the incident.

- he fluctuates wanting to get a prosthetic arm to not wanting to.

-kevin is on depression and anxiety meds. (Literally hc he has the same as me, bro take them everyday or else bad shit happens!!! )

- Kevin doesn't talk about work when he's not at work, it makes him pissed, mainly because the most interesting thing is skid & pump, police, teens stealing, or killers/demons

- Kevin hates work and dose experience fear of "god, what I'm if I go into day and I die" but the anxiety of having to get a new job and change his norm over powers his fear of death.

- streber bites Kevin, like just a stress and comfort thing, Kevin is okay with it. Streber kinda bites his arm sometimes

- streber and Kevin rent out apartments, they don't live together.

-streber loves his rat children. We got Socrates🐀, motor oil🐀, and Mr. Girl🐀!!

- Kevin had a love at first sight kinda thing but didn't act on his feelings, mainly because he likes to get to know people first before asking them out and bc work has him in a choke hold.

- Kevin would like a pet cat but.... Work 😔

- they met because of Radford 💪 the real hero of spooky month's 18-30 year olds 🫡.

- streber became pretty good friends with Kevin at first then he fell for him, bro just loves cringe fail men (and women). Kevin was beefing with children, no way your gonna find a better boy failure /silly

- streber disassociates during slasher films. He still loves horror and Halloween as it was his comfort growing up, but Bob left a stain that will forever haunt him.

-streber's favorite horror movies are silent & psychological horror.

- Kevin isn't a huge fan of horror movies but he appreciates "Dave made a maze" & probably "Willard", he's like " Dave just like me fr!!!" (Go watch the movie, it free on Tubi 😎)

- both can't drive, streber takes the bus, Kevin takes his bike.

-I like to think they're both touch starved.

-kevin likes physical affection and wants to give it to streber but kinda forgets how to

-streber is very big on physical affection but isn't use to it

-

- freak 4 freak

-insert Kevin is a fan of young Sheldon here-

🎀🦇 Oki rambles over 🦇🎀

If you liked it, that's kinda epic

[elvisslut]

Grades and results|| pt.1

Warnings- none really, strong language, liking a older man you’re hardly legal for

School had always come easy for you, always having a’s and being the good girl you are once it came to your responsibilities as a student. Starting this school year was exciting, waving happily to the other students as you walked through the halls. Everyone knew you and you knew everyone, they all seemed to love you even the people who were a little bit more harder to please. The football boys especially enjoyed you, you were like their best friend. Also having them as a protection plan..wasn’t so bad.

You smiled your way down to your new class that had the new teacher, once you walked in you seen him standing at his desk looking down at papers. His outfit was black with a pink scarf hardly hiding his chest. He was handsome there was no doubt about that but once he looked up at you, your idea of handsome changed. He was just plain gorgeous. A very gorgeous man.

“Hello” he said with a small smile. He had a accent to his word. Southern you believe but being in Memphis that wasn’t unusual. “Hi, sir..uh do you have a seat plan or can i just pick my own?” Your voice held innocence and he sensed that immediately looking you down and up then shaking his head. “Choose your own” he said looking back to the papers that were probably to be handed to the students later this hour.

You took a seat quite close to his desk and patiently waited for the other students to pile in, a few of the football players sat by you, quipping up a conversation with you about their summer. Davis was your main best friend, he and you just really clicked when you first started hanging around the team.

“Alright, hello everyone..’m mr.presley but outside of school i don’ like formalities so call me elvis. Only outside of school” he says sternly, you liked that name. It had a great ring to it. He was quick to get into giving out work sheets and lectures. He was quite harsh with people especially if they interrupted him.

“Miss..” he sighs and shoves his hand in his pocket going to the seat of the girl talking. You look back at him to see his ass perfectly framed in the black pants. Your cheeks redden up before you look away closing your eyes and swallow back. You’d just stared at your teachers ass and you were bot about to apologize for that amazing sight you got.

You never thought you’d find any teacher attractive but here you are blushing over a man you don’t even really know. “Thank ya. Now shut your damn mouth” he says, you frown and look back at him again to see him heading back towards his desk. You’ve never heard a teacher be so strong with their words, but in all honesty you found it quite attractive.

The class was quick to end and you gathered your stuff looking up as you heard a cough infront of your desk. “Oh-..hi mr.Presley.” You say a smile growing on your lips. “‘M goin’ to need ya to stay back” your smile fades a bit. “But sir..I’ve gotta go to the elementary to help with the pre-school kids..” he frowns and crosses his arms. “W-what is it you needed mr.Presley?” You ask feeling bad about not being able to stay.

“I don’ know my way around the school all that much and ya seem like ya’d know” he looks away then goes to his desk silently, you did feel bad and to be around him longer would be quite the experience. “I can show you around after my last class. I just cant be late i got something to do to help the teachers in the classes” he looks back to you and nods staying silent. You smile and skip out of his class heading towards the elementary side of the school.

“Miss Y/n!” You hear a few small voices yell as you go through the kindergarten hall. You look back and smile hugging the kids as they come up to you. “Hey guys, you have a good day so far?” Earning nods and ‘yes’s from them. “Good. I have to go to mrs.Holly’s class.. you guy be good okay?” You happily say standing up fully and going to the class you’re supposed to help in.

They day went by fast and before you knew it you found yourself walking back to mr.Presleys class. He had his feet kicked up on the desk and..sunglasses? No his face reading a paper his thumb on his lip. Your lips part slightly as you look at his position. “Hi sir. You ready for your tour?” You ask getting his attention. He sighs and puts his feet down, setting his glasses and papers down on the desk and standing. “Yeah lets get this over with” he nods walking towards you, scooting past you out the door. You showed him the more important things before taking him to the other classes taking him to the hot shots class first. Ms.noel. Once you stepped foot in the class you can tell she caught his attention. She was perfect how could he not. Her body just seemed to fit everyone’s standards and really..it gave you some insecurities. “Mr...presley? I believe? I've heard about you around school all day” she says walking towards him.

You could tell she was into him too really you had some jealousy and it confused you as to why. “I was just showing him around” you speak up with a smile. Elvis looks to you and quirks up a brow. “I got it from here” he shorts. It kinda broke your heart that he was blowing off your tour for ms.noel. “Yeah? Well let me..show you some students” she says, you nod to yourself and leave the classroom. You might be clueless to alot of things but you knew what sex was you knew that’s definitely the look he had in his eyes to ms.noel.

The next day as you walked into mr.Presleys class ms.noel was there feeling all up on his exposed chest. That had to be against dress code. “Morning” you say happily, sitting at your seat. Ms.noel looks to you and pulls her hands away from mr.Presley pressing a kiss to his chest and leaving to her class.

“Mornin’” he huffs grabbing a stack of papers and pulling one from it. He goes to your desk and lays it down. ‘F meet me after school’ a F? Youve never gotten a F..your mama would be real disappointed if she saw this…hopefully you can redo it.

Tags: @elvispresleygf @elvisalltheway101 @emma181873

[earth4angels]

I would love a prequel for “To Love” showing how they got together cause you know Jace fell first and he fell hard and I live for pining Jace with a crush persuing his girl and being all nervous and stressed around her because he wants to impress her

Was it love at first sight? Like did he look at her when he was a teenager and he instantly was like “This is my future wife and mother of my children?😍”

Jace, always with the heart eyes

maybe i shouldn’t spoil it too much and i should just write it down already for the next part but the anon on to love have been massive so im pouring my love for my silly stories jsjsjsj

so rough spoilers(!!!!!)

daemon and reader’s mom were actually uni best friends. jace and reader never met until like elementary school? and that was only because you and jace were at a family dinner, and you accidentally (not really) ate the last piece of strawberry cake that was meant for luke and jace found you, he being a big brother (luke snitched on you with tears in his eyes) was gonna snap at you for having bad manners but he became nervous, stuttering and running away bc you were the angel princess his mom used to read to him about and you were too pretty. since then you guys were attached to the hip. of course it was all innocent childhood love, until high school where jace started to feel weird over the constant talk in the locker rooms where the guys betted on taking you to junior prom. he knew he liked you more than a friend but he wasn’t sure how to express it feeling TERRIFIED he might lose you if he confessed until you came clean to him, you needed to make the move first feeling you had nothing to lose. so yes, it was love at first sight with jace 🫧

[2apples-tall]

Mr. Snake and Mr. Owl

A small kinda funny kinda sweet fic about a class taking refugee from a rainstorm in Aziraphale’s bookshop and Aziraphale having no idea what to do with them

A school trip was all it took to ruin Aziraphale’s day. Well a school trip and a rainstorm. Well a school trip, a rainstorm, and a very overworked teacher who was also having a bad day.

The local elementary school’s 4th grade class was taking a trip to a few museums in the area, all within walking distance, so the teacher took her class through soho to the museums. Until it started to rain and they were all escorted by a very lovely older man into a warm bookshop.

You see Aziraphale, being the angel he is, couldn’t stand seeing those poor kids and that poor teacher get drenched out on the street “Oh no, I insist it is no trouble at all.” He assured the teacher, who informed him her name was Ms. Jones “I’m sure this rain will let up soon”

“Thank you so much, I would run to get some umbrellas but I can’t leave them” Ms. Jones said apologetically, “It’s a small school so there were no other chaperones and I technically didn’t need any for just 10 kids”

The poor girl sounded exhausted so Aziraphale, the angel, got her a nice cup of tea and offered her a seat. This was the particular and exact second things began to go horribly wrong, the kids began…

….I shan’t say it….

pulling the books off the shelves.

Aziraphale did not spend enough time around any sort of children to realize this would happen because kids, especially 9 year olds, we’re very curious.

“Hey mister why don’t these have any pictures?” Said one little boy with snot dripping dangerously close to a first addition of Pride and Prejudice.

“Oh dear,” Aziraphale pulled the book as carefully as he could from the boy’s sticky fingers. “We’ll these books are very old and very uninteresting to you kids, how about…” he paused frantically looking at the books that had already made their way onto the ground. “A magic show!”

“My mommy says magic is devil worship” pipped up a little girl as she flipped haphazardly through a very old and expensive copy of The Invisible Man.

“Right” probably not his best idea anyway.

Ms. Jones, much to Aziraphale’s dismay, was quite proud of her students for taking an interest in the literature at the store and made no efforts to keep them away from books, what kind of teacher would try to STOP kids from reading?

Aziraphale began feeling very un-angelic as he thought of ways to get these kids away from his precious books. Maybe un-angelic is exactly what I need.

Aziraphale opened the door to his back room to find Crowley napping on the sofa. More often than not Aziraphale would walk into this sight and stare, sometimes until Crowley woke up, but there was no time. Very sadly Aziraphale shook the demon’s shoulder until he awoke with a groggy “ngk”

“Good morning dear” Aziraphale beamed down at him

“What’s wrong?” Crowley asked, waking up quicker than he had his whole life. He could practically smell the angels distress.

“We’ll I need you to get some.. people out of the bookshop” Aziraphale said sheepishly

“Why? What’re they doing?” Crowley stood up ready to destroy any human that thought they could mess with his angel’s shop.

“It’s umm just some kids” He admitted quietly

“What”

“It’s a class of kids! They’re going to ruin all my books! I want you to scare them away” Aziraphale crossed his arms looking expectantly at his demon.

“Really angel?” Crowley smiled and shook out his shoulders, slowly slithering down until he was a huge black snake.

Crowley lurked through the shelves until he saw a young girl all pigtails and floral bows. One good scare and the whole class’ll leave

He crept slowly towards her and brushed his scaly side against her ankle, just enough that he expected a scream but instead received gentle fingertips running down his back. She began to pet him.

“Oh what a cute little snake” She crouched to her knees and ran her hands all down his back “Such pretty scales”

Great I got the one little girl in the whole world that actually likes snakes.

Crowley darted back to his sofa and resumed his former shape.

“These kids are tough Angel” Crowley said as nonchalantly as he could after being practically cuddled.

“Please Crowley” Aziraphale gave him that look, that damned look that made Crowley’s knees buckle and head go foggy.

Crowley sauntered out, ready to throw each pesky kid out by the collar if he had to. Or at least that’s what he told himself until the little girl with pigtails looked up at him with tears shining in her eyes.

“Sir did you see where Mr. Snake went? I wanted to be his friend but he ran away”

Dammit.

Crowley kneeled down “You know that um snake is actually a… particularly good friend of mine, and he asked me to tell you erm that he would love to be your friend but his.. owl friend needed him for something very very important” He struggled with the words but thankfully the girl didn’t seem to mind. She just laughed a little and grabbed his shirt sleeve to pull him into the center of the class.

“This guy is funny! And he knows a snake that’s friends with an owl!” She announced

“Ooh” The class gathered around his legs and sat on the floor gazing up at him “Will you tell us about Mr. Snake and Mr. Owl?”

“Oh absolutely” Crowley smiled, he had 6000 years of stories, most, well at least some of them had to be child friendly.

Aziraphale watched, with hearts in his eyes, as Crowley began telling animated stories of the two of them. The children hung onto every word as Crowley spun the tale of Mr. Snake and Mr. Owl as knights, then told them about the pair seeing Shakespeare, then he told about them preforming a spectacular magic show. Aziraphale flushed a bit as Crowley told that last story but he had kept it tame enough. Aziraphale quietly cleaned up all of the books thanking Crowley and God none of them had been damaged.

“Oh look at that, the rain stopped” Ms. Jones said almost sad to leave the warm shop and fun stories “Thank you so much for letting us stay here for the moment and tell your husband he’s an amazing story teller, he should write a novel”

“Oh we’re not, um, I’ll, I will tell him” Aziraphale blushed and stumbled as he opened the door for her.

“Come on kids,” she waited a second while none of them moved. She sighed and called out “Are you ready kids!”

“Aye aye Captain!” 10 tiny voices answered as they quickly lined up behind her.

“Lovely” Ms. Jones counted each head twice then turned again to Aziraphale “Thank you again this was a much better day than I had hoped for”

“Bye bye Mr. Snake, thank you!” Called Pigtails

Crowley chucked and waved at the class as they walked out the door.

“I had no idea you were so good with kids” Aziraphale remarked

“I had no idea you were so rubbish with them” Crowley smirked.

“Well now,”

[jojoturnip]

Maybe what I needed you to understand was the love I had for him.

The love I still have.

I've been making a timeline of my life in therapy. It's split between good memories on top and bad ones on bottom. There's so much bad, that much you were willing to accept, but there is a lot of good, too.

Sometimes it's the good that keeps me up at night more than anything.

A younger me runs around our old apartment carrying the wand he hand-carved me from cherry wood ("all purpose, good for a young girl to learn all sorts of magic on"). I asked him to keep a crystal point off the top unlike the other wands he made because I liked to wave around, and I was afraid I'd hurt something I had a sharp tip. Besides, I loved that wand so much I kept it under my shirt, at the ready for playing pretend any chance I got. I'd have scratched myself to hell and back if he had added a point. He put a piece of polished, smooth citrine on the other end of it so I could at least channel some energy.

Citrine was my favorite stone. Because it was yellow. Because I loved the color yellow. Because it meant happiness and joy and sunshine. Because that's who I was.

He wrote me a song once, before he even got with my mom officially. He named it, "Sunshine Girl." My mom recorded me singing to myself in the mirror as I blow-dried my hair once and sent it to him as he wrote it. I was so embarrassed.

He would pick me up from school a lot, and I loved that part of my day. My elementary school got out earlier than my sister's middle school, so it meant riding around with him and getting fast food while we waited. He would teach me about music on the radio, tell me my voice was much prettier than Melissa's, and listen to all the drama I would bring home from my day.

When he went to auctioneering school, we practiced the tongue twisters together in the living room, laughing about Betty and her butter batter. He graduated as the valedictorian of his class. I cheered him on from the audience.

He taught me to shoot a bow, adjusted my draw weights and sights, cut me grips from his leather scraps, and fixed up the old long bow when I snapped it from pulling it too far. His hands over my shoulders as he taught me how to stand, over my three fingers as he taught me to aim. He made a quiver with me by hand with buffalo rawhide and sheep leather and sinew. He brought home horse hair for fringe but I was too freaked out to add it. He made the fringe from leather and pony beads instead.

The wand and the quiver and a locker we painted together and so many more things he gave me, made for me are sitting in that storage unit I'm supposed to empty. I don't know how to face them all.

I love him. I miss him. I think that's what you'll never be able to understand.

You didn't want to understand.

I have to juggle what he did, how he hurt me, with how he loved me.

We can call it grooming or gaining my trust or a false childhood built in manipulation, but that doesn't change the fact that it was my childhood. My reality. What I know love to be.

You said you couldn't handle cognitive dissonance. Can't you see I was born from it, bred from it, grown and germinated from its hard and rocky substrate?

A friend told me she thinks I drove you insane. The way I hold and stitch these contradictive truths together. I think that's the most reasonable explanation I've heard so far.

A part of me wants to apologize here. I am sorry that my life was too much for you to bear. That it scared you to see me go back to my family, to love people who hurt me time and time again. I know that must've been hard. I do understand where you are coming from.

Another part of me knows that I never asked for you to take that problem as your own. I never asked you to deal with my parents. I never asked you to save me. I didn't want that. I just wanted someones shoulder to lean and crash on while I carried the burden myself.

Instead, you told me that it was too much for you.

Instead, I supported you through every goddamn second of you refusing to take care of yourself. How was that not too much? You had the option to change. I cannot change my memories, my childhood.

You ask me to lose my family but you cannot get new parents like you can a boyfriend.

You like to compare my situation with you and your ex, a fool's comparison. Your abuser did not raise you. You keep your life when you walk away. You were not made of a boyfriend you met in college. Our situations are different. Our lives are different.

We are different. You never seemed to get that.

My life is tainted. I can't look through rose colored glasses, the stain remains. But I can't get rid of the memories either, or cast them out in distaste. They are a part of me. They are what made me.

I think I needed you to see that.

Remember a week before you broke up with me, you called asking for the explicit details of quite possibly the worst events of my life. Things I can't write about, much less talk about. You said you wouldn't be able to understand me without knowing.

You left me crying on the phone. It was never about understanding.

It took me one and a half years to tell you the bad stuff. It was harder to tell you the good, you know. It's all racing around, conflicting inside of me, too. But if you wanted to understand me, know me like a partner should, it required knowing the good. Seeing me, and how I am built of cognitive dissonance. Seeing the power that it gives me in empathizing with you and others, and the pain that it gives me, too. My existence is a fragile thing.

They were not excuses. They were glimpses into my mind. Into what I go through every single day.

When I let you in, you only wanted to see the bad. But you have to see the good, too. The gut wrenching good that bleeds out of me in yellow. The citrine stones and bamboo arrows and rainbow cheesecakes and Annie lockets.

I'm a storyteller, and I wanted you to know my story. You only wanted to hear a parroted version of your own sung back at you.

I am not you. I never will be.

[sparklingmusicofstars]

Hamefura Bonus Short Story : Happy Twilight (a story about Astuko "Acchan")

It's a story that you should read after "together again" in the light novel 2 when we have Atsuko's POV. I personnaly found it very sweet.

I, Atsuko Sasaki, enter the classroom with a slightly lighter step than usual.

It's a melancholy classroom where I usually spend my time with my face down... but today is a little different.

On the way home yesterday, when I was walking alone, a girl suddenly fell from the top of a tree overhead. She, who said she was a classmate, reached out and said, "Please support me from now on"

And the hand I held was warm, and somehow my chest felt warm, and even after a day, I still feel that warmth.

Yesterday's words could have been just a social comment.

Maybe she just felt bad because I fell underneath her and she was just trying to be considerate. But maybe it really was -.

When I sat down in my seat and sobered up while thinking like that,

"Good morning~"

With a cheerful voice, the girl from yesterday entered the classroom.

I straightened my spine involuntarily.

I thought maybe she would come and say hello to me.

But,

"Oh, good morning."

"You're amazingly sleepy today too."

"You're not late today, are you ?"

In no time at all, her classmates had gathered around her, and she disappeared from sight.

She is such a bright and sociable girl. She's popular.

Why did I think we could get along ?

As usual, I took out a book from my bag, flipped through the pages, and dropped my eyes.

"Good morning, Sasaki-san."

I was surprised when someone called out to me near me, and when I looked up from the book, the girl from yesterday was standing there with a smile on her face.

"... Oh, um, oh, good morning."

I didn't expect her to come to me from that circle of classmates, so I bit down in a panic. Embarrassing.

"I'm sorry I fell on you yesterday. Have you been okay since then ?"

I see, she was worried about yesterday and approached me.

"Yeah. I'm fine now. Don't worry about it."

I thought that if I said that, this girl would surely return to those happy-looking classmates.

"Thank you. Sasaki-san is really kind. Ah, what are you reading ?"

"Oh, this ?"

"Yeah, that."　

Saying that, she pointed to the book I was holding in my hands.

"...This is a book I brought from home."

It's one of the books I bring with me to pass the time alone.

"What kind of story ?" She said and brought her face close to mine.

"Well, uh, this one. It's about a girl who wanders into another world and has adventures there ―"

I suddenly realised that before I knew it, I had become passionate and was introducing the book.

I love books, but …… almost no one ever asks me about them, so when people ask me about them like this, I get so happy and do it from time to time.

Even when I was in elementary school, I talked passionately like this several times.

The person who asked me casually was turned away, and the next day, I was backbited, saying, "That girl is weird, isn't she ?"

Even though she went to the trouble of talking to me, …… this must have made her pull back again. I'm an idiot.

When I couldn't come up with words to continue in front of the other person who was rolling her eyes in front of me, …….

"Sounds interesting !"

"Huh ?"

"That book looks very interesting."

She looked at me with sparkling eyes saying that.

“When I heard Sasaki-san’s story, I really wanted to read it ! Sasaki-san is a good storyteller. However I'm not very good at reading books"

It may be a social comment, but her eyes are serious for that.

"Um, this book is also a manga, so if you don't mind, can I borrow that one ?"

When I tried to say that while my heart was pounding, she turned to me with a happy smile.

"Really ? ! Thank you ! ."

It seems it wasn't a social comment. I was so happy that heat rose in my cheeks.

The next day, when I brought the book to her as promised, she was very happy.

And the next day she came, looking excited,

"This was really interesting ! Sasaki-san, if you have any more book recommendations , please let me know."

I said yes.

She became my first friend, who listened to me earnestly and did not back down when I talked passionately about my favourite books.

And time passed, my first friend became my best friend, and I was able to enter the same high school after working hard on my exams.

We were in the same class, so we went to class together in the morning.

"Acchan, what's your recommendation for this month ?"

"This month's recommendation is this book, a girl who was reincarnated in another world―"

As we walked to the classroom, my best friend's eyes sparkled as I briefly told her about the contents of the book.

"Uh~, that looks interesting ! Acchan's recommendation won't go wrong, right ? I'll tell everyone about it during lunch break."

After entering high school, my otaku friends grew even more numerous, and we all got together more and more often.

Among my peers, I have established a sister-like position as the caretaker of this slightly off-kilter best friend of mine.

Now, people might not believe me when I say that I couldn't speak well to people until I entered middle school.

"Hmm. What should I do ?"

When I arrived at the classroom, my best friend said so and folded her arms.

"What's wrong ?"

"There are so many books and goods I want to buy that I don't think I have enough money."

"Oh, it's a complete pocket money system."

“Because New Year’s money is also forcibly saved.”

My best friend has an allowance every month because it's bad if she wastes it.

“Then, would you like to try a part-time job ?”

"Part-Time Job ?"

“Yeah. You can buy books if you work part-time."

"Are you sure ? It's reassuring if Acchan is here !"

My best friend said something like that, but that's exactly my line.

I thought that my first part-time job would be okay if I was with my best friend.

After that, we both worked part-time at a family restaurant near the high school, and were able to get the books and goods that we had been longing for.

"Fufufu, I'm happy~"

At dusk after school, the two of us stopped by a shop and got the long-awaited book and goods on the way home.

My best friend told me that while holding the item she got to her heart,

"You got the book you wanted, didn't you ? That's great." I replied,

"That's one thing, but I'm also happy that I met Acchan like this."

"! ?"

I was surprised by the unexpected answer and my eyes widened, but my best friend gave me a faint smile and continued.

"When I was in primary school, I used to think that climbing trees quickly and catching fish and crayfish were the most fun things to do, but thanks to meeting Acchan, I realised that there are so many other things that are even more fun, so I'm happy~", she said again.

That's my line.

I used to only enjoy the world in books, but thanks to meeting my best friend, I really got to know a lot of fun things.

I thought that, but my heart was too full to give anything back.

I hurriedly looked up as I almost burst into tears.

There was a beautiful orange sunset.

★★★★★★★★★★★

"... Lady Sophia, Lady Sophia ."

I heard someone calling me and slowly opened my eyes to find a worried-looking maid by my bedside staring at me.

Apparently she was calling me.

"……What's wrong ?"

I asked back, still in a daze.

"... Um, tears were flowing."

"……tears ?"

When I touched my cheek after being told that, it was definitely wet.

"Did you have another sad dream ?"

I had had sad dreams before, so she was probably worried that this might be the case this time as well.

"Uh-huh. I don't really remember the details, but I feel like I had a very happy dream."

“…Is it a happy dream ?”

"Yeah. Yes. I'm sure these are happy tears."

"Is that so ? Then I'm glad."

The maid looked relieved.

In the past, there were times when I thought that everyone, except for my family, hated me, but now I realize that many people care about me.

This is also thanks to meeting Lady Catarina.

“Lady Sophia, the daughter of the Claes family is scheduled to visit today.”

"Yeah, that's right. Let's get ready quickly."

Today, Lady Catarina is planning to visit our house.

I got ready and started.

I finished preparing for the greetings and Lady Catarina came with Mister Keith a short while later.

As usual, we went to the library together and I introduced her to the books I recommended.

"And this story is really good --- Oh, I'm sorry. I talked too much at once..."

I tend to talk too much when it comes to books, and I did it again today.

"No. Really, when I hear Sophia's story, I really want to read it ! Sophia is a good storyteller, isn't she ?"

Lady Catarina told me that. I was so happy that heat rose in my cheeks.

After that, we talked a lot about books, and before we knew it, the time passed quickly.

"Fufufu, I'm happy~"

When it was time to go home, Lady Catarina said so while holding the book I recommended to her heart,

"I still have more recommendations, so I'll lend you another one."

I replied,

"Yeah, for the books too, but I'm also happy to have met Sophia like this~"

"! ?"

Lady Catarina smiled softly at me, who was surprised by the unexpected answer and continued.

"Even though I was talking about novels, I only knew about a fraction of them, but thanks to meeting Sophia, I found out that there are many other interesting novels, so I thought to myself "I'm so happy~"."

Those words filled my heart.

I was so happy that I was about to burst into tears, so I looked up.

The orange sunset was floating there, and I felt a strange nostalgic feeling.

[marmorafarms]

Gridball Jerseys and Cigarettes

Sebastian x Alex

☆ Chapter One ☆

Hey guys and welcome to my latest fic! It is a multiple chapter fic! I don't know how long it will be just yet, and I don't know the update schedule as of right now. I'm really excited about this and I hope you enjoy!

Summary: Alex has had a crush on Sebastian ever since they were kids. Their friendship fell apart, but Alex is determined to fix it. Will their relationship work? Or is it doomed to fail due to Alex's Grandfather's strict views?

Word count: 1,686 words (sorry for the short chapter, it just ended naturally at this length)

Warnings: Weed use, implied suicide, parental death, implied homophobic slurs, OC farmer

Sebastian was weird. Always wearing black, tattoos on his hands and a face full of piercings when he put on his concerts. His nails were always painted black, and his pierced ears always had a black plug in. A cigarette was always in between his lips. He was weird, bad news, the kind of guy your mama warned you about.

Or at least that's what Alex kept trying to tell himself. 

In reality, Sebastian was sweet, polite, and had a laugh that was infectious. He didn't laugh often, but when he did? The sound was magical. Alex always wished he could be the one making Sebastian laugh, the one making his lips quirk into a lopsided smile.

Alex could pretend that he wanted this out of a need for friendship. He could pretend that he wanted friends who weren't girls, weren't men ten years older than him. But it just wasn't true.

He wanted these things out of a different need.

It had started when he was a kid, seeing Sebastian sitting on the swings by himself at recess. Alex had felt bad, but another boy approached the noirette. A blonde boy with a friendly grin. And at his approach, the seemingly lonely boy looked elated. His face lit up, eyes bright.

Alex had felt a strange swooping sensation in his gut when he saw that look. He didn't know what it meant, but ever since that moment, he couldn't help but seek out that boy with his eyes.

He learned the boy's name when he was tossing a gridball with his friend, and accidentally nailed the poor kid in the head.

"Sebastian!" the blonde boy cried out.

Alex stuttered out an apology, but Sebastian glared at him and stormed off. His guts twisted, and he felt a pang in his heart. Alex nearly abandoned his game to chase after Sebastian, but felt that might be strange.

A week after this incident, Alex and his mom came to Pelican Town to visit his grandparents. Usually they would come to the neighboring town to visit Alex, but his mom had insisted on coming here. It took ten minutes before Alex caught sight of him.

Sebastian was sitting by the river, feet dipping into the cool water. The blonde boy from school sat near him, showing off the wheels on the heels of his new shoes.

Did they live here?

Sebastian caught sight of Alex and frowned. Terrified, Alex darted back into his grandparents house, heart beating fast. Was Sebastian remembering the gridball incident? 

Luckily, that didn't seem to be the case. The town was small and Alex couldn't avoid him forever. He learned the blonde boy was named Sam, and they decided it would be fun to wander through the forest together. Alex couldn't believe his luck.

They even started hanging out at school. Elementary school went by in a breeze, and the three boys were overjoyed when they learned they would all be going to the same middle school.

But then Alex's life flipped upside down.

His grandmother showed up at the school, and Alex was called out of class.

"She was…sick," his grandmother said. "This…sickness…caused her to have to go to the hospital. She's with Yoba now, Alex. She's not sick anymore."

His grandmother's words barely registered. Alex's mother, the one constant in his life, was gone. Dead. Never coming back. It wasn't until years later that he learned about depression, the "sickness" his mother had.

Alex didn't cry, not once. He was too numb, too shut off. He took off that year of school, trying to heal. His grandparents took him in, uprooting him from everything he knew, bringing him to a new town.

Sebastian and Sam tried to visit, tried to help. But Alex shut them out, occasionally lashing out at their attempts to cheer him up. Their friendship became strained, and eventually dissolved.

He watched Sam and Sebastian grow into the men they were from a far. His grandfather however, did not approve of them. He used cruel words to describe them, throwing in a slur every now and then. Alex's grandmother was distressed by these words, but you could only tell that from her expressions. She never said a word.

Alex met a nice girl in town named Haley. She was beautiful, but didn't come close to Sebastian. Her lips were plump and soft, but anytime Alex looked, he immediately thought of Sebastian's mouth. He wondered what those piercings would feel like if Sebastian kissed him.

Alex's grandfather seemed to approve of Haley, and always asked when Alex would finally grow up and ask her out. Eventually, Alex finally did, but was turned down.

"I don't like guys," she had said, eyes challenging him to say something rude.

"Oh," Alex said. "I guess we can check out girls together!"

Haley had laughed, and it wasn't long before Alex confided his deepest secret to her.

"I think I like Sebastian," he had said quietly, watching Haley take a picture of a cute rabbit.

"Really?" Haley had said, thrilled.

"Yeah. I think I have for like, years. I dunno." Alex said, shrugging.

"Are you gonna tell him?" Haley asked.

"Haley, I don't even know if he likes guys," Alex said, exasperated. At the look on Haley's face, he frowned.

"What's that look?" he asked.

"Sebastian is bi," she said. "I thought everyone knew that!" She whipped out her phone and began texting furiously. Her phone dinged a few seconds after she put it down, and she giggled when she read the message.

"Who're you texting?" Alex asked.

"Oh, Emily and I are making fun of you for thinking for even a second that Sebastian is straight."

Alex glared daggers at her, and Haley cackled. But it kind of made sense. Alex thought those slurs his grandfather said were based on simple appearance, but maybe that wasn't the case. He suddenly felt angry. 

"My grandpa says…things…about Sebastian and Sam," Alex admitted. "But I didn't realize he knew."

Haley made a sound like an angry cat. "George is an ass," she said furiously. "I wish I was surprised by the fact that he said that."

Alex nodded. His grandfather was an ass, he couldn't deny it. He tried to ignore it though. George and Evelyn were the only family members he had left. He couldn't lose them.

Making the decision not to tell Sebastian was an easy one. They weren't on bad terms, but they never hung out. It was easy to avoid him, easy to pretend he felt nothing. 

That is, it was easy until the new farmer showed up.

His name was Léo, and he had moved into the rundown farm at the edge of town. Supposedly his grandfather Davíd had left it to him, and Léo had decided to move in.

Alex wouldn't have given him much thought normally. But he couldn't help but notice how close the new farmer was getting to Sebastian. He was getting equally as close to Sam and Abigail, but Alex didn't notice that. 

Léo was making Sebastian laugh. Léo was catching frogs in the rain with Sebastian. Léo was going over to Sebastian's house and hanging out with him. Alone. In his room. Alex had to shoo unpleasant thoughts out of his head when he had first heard about Léo's visits. 

"You are so jealous," Haley had said one day, watching Alex pout as Sebastian and Léo walked past the ice cream stand.

"Am not," Alex mumbled.

"Looks like "denial" isn't just a river in Egypt," Haley said in a sing-song voice.

"That was bad and you should feel bad," Alex said, rolling his eyes.

"Doesn't make it any less true," she fired back. "But I think if you paid closer attention, you'd see that Léo is not your competition."

"What?" Alex asked, confused.

"I was visiting Leah–"

"Nice," Alex said with a grin, making Haley blush.

"Shut up asswipe," she said, but a smile gave her away. "As I was saying, I was visiting Leah, and we happened to pass by Marnie's place. Marnie was outside talking to Mayor Lewis, and I overheard her saying that Léo keeps making "sad cow eyes" at Sam, and that they need to hurry up and get together already."

"Sad cow eyes…?"

"You'd understand if you looked at Léo while he stares at Sam. It's ridiculous. Honestly, I think he got close to Sebastian in order to get close to Sam."

"Oh," Alex said, looking shocked.

"I really think you should at least start talking to Sebastian, even if you don't tell him your feelings right away," Haley said. "I think you'll feel better."

It took about a month before Alex finally walked up to Sebastian, determined to speak to him. The man was smoking, but it wasn't a cigarette. Alex wrinkled his nose.

"That's not a cigarette," he said bluntly. He internally cursed himself. What kind of shit opener was that?

"No shit," Sebastian said, amused. Alex swallowed thickly at the tiny smile that graced Sebastian's lips.

"What is it?"

Sebastian finally looked up at Alex, his face neutral, but his eyebrows raised. "Are you serious? You don't know what this is?"

"Way to make a guy feel dumb," Alex said looking down and kicking the dirt.

"Don't feel dumb, I was just surprised. It's weed," Sebastian said. "You want a hit?" he asked, offering the joint.

"Oh um…I've never smoked anything before," Alex said. "How do I…?"

Sebastian paused, and then smiled. "Let's try something simple," he said. "I'm gonna take a hit, and then I want you to open your mouth."

Alex was confused, but did as asked. When his mouth opened, his heart began to race. Sebastian was leaning in. He was close, too close! Alex's brain nearly shut off as Sebastian opened his mouth as well, their lips so close to touching.

Slowly, Sebastian breathed the smoke into Alex's mouth. He pulled away, and Alex knew his face was burning.

"I uh…I gotta go…" Alex said, flustered. "But um. We should hang out sometime!"

"Sure," Sebastian said, and winked at him. "See you 'round."

[frostbite-yinny]

*gets inside the sanctuary* Hello ^^ I'd like to adopt a Pokemon... That would be able to be friends with a Hisuian Typhlosion (don't ask how idk how my jothonian quilava turned into a ancient Typhlosion) ,Driftblim, Noivern, Mimikyu and galvantula?

I'm currently in paldea for school reasons

Hey there! We can definitely find you a fit :D So, it seems that you are not looking for one specific type, has fully evolved Pokemon so I'm assuming you battle and you probably won't be able to take care of a Pokemon with heavy special needs since you are in a region for school and likely to move back and forth a lot.

With that in mind, I mostly went for paldean pokemon with a few mentions and suggestions of eggs at the end:

BEEP BEEP the dudunsparce: BEEP BEEP's egg (he is registered with full caps but responds to just beep) has been bought by a private elementary school. You know, small, generally weak, and lazy Pokemon. Perfect class pet, right? Wrong. BEEP BEEP wanted to battle the second he hatched, he was hungry, for blood. The school tried to keep him relatively satisfied by letting the students battle him but it was never enough for him. On a Monday, he was found fully evolved, sleeping in the classroom. This little psycho sneaked out every night to fight anything and everyone that he came across. Regular exercise and battling are a must for him to get ahead of his… destructive behavior.

Grafaiai A.K.A the little asshole: I talked about him in the shelter before, he is still here, please take him. This little shit used to have a teenager trainer who teaches him to flip people off. The teenage girl's mother dropped the grafaiai saying that it was a bad influence, like her 'little angel' wasn't the one who thought him to flip people off. So, yeah, I don't like him. I once had to come to the shelter at 3am cuz a newbie was freaking out about him getting sick because he has no idea what to do. Apparently, he was feeding a sick ponyta treats to raise its mood and it started to act sick for treats. I tried to scold him for his behavior. He flipped me off. Take him. (I don't actually hate him, he is adorable and deserves a good home, I'm just salty)

Dame Agatha the Tinkatuff: Dame Agatha is a Pokemon that earned the Dame title through hard work. She used to belong to a company that provided personal bodyguard services. She was dropped here after the company was sold to a bigger one and they made it private. She is a very loyal Pokemon. She is strong, level-headed, and even trained to not attack any steel types unless given the OK. I must warn you thought, she is pretty close to evolution.

Now, a few pokemon that I think could interest you: Blitz the Grumpig (he used to be a circus performer), a grimer, around 24 morelull (I hate shiny breeders with a burning passion) a VERY chonky Clodsire, a poor-sighted Rockruff and a Sentret

Finally, a few eggs if you are interested in those: A sunkern egg, 4 different eggs from Paldea (we have no idea whats in them), a Minccino egg, 2 larvesta eggs, a sneasel egg, a Flittle egg and what we think is a charcadet egg (might be any fire type)

And anyone else that is interested in adopting, can feel free to ask me for more or adopt these pokemon I put up here :D

[authorele97]

CHAPTER ONE - SHIRO MAE

SHIRO

As I walk passing through the back door of our household my mom insists I give one of my graduation pictures to my dad. She left us by pardoning herself that she had got to cook dinner. As I continue to walk in our backyard I sight my dad doing something on our broken air conditioner. I took a deep sigh holding the pocket-size picture that I'm about to give to him and I suddenly felt like I was trembling but I didn't know why.

"Dad," I shyly mumbled to him before he turns his head up, and there was a sudden luminous glaze upon him that makes me feel like I'm floating in. It's already 5 o'clock in the afternoon and the evening seems approaching but his smile will always be the brightest and sweetest smile I have ever seen.

I am constantly asking myself these questions: How come a person used to be so optimistic and gentle? And how come a person like him is my father?

"Congrats my dearest daughter" He gleefully tells me in a calm manner. He removes his working gloves and pats my head very gently. I smiled back at him then I took a deep sigh and finally lent my picture.

"Wow! You are so pretty! Just like your mom" He exclaimed with exaggerated movement while looking at my picture.

"Thanks, Dad but I'm really sorry I didn't make it... I mean to be a part of the flying colors--sorry to disappoint you and mom." I said after I murmured my last word.

"It's fine who told you that we were disappointed? We cannot explain how happy we are because of you. The fact you are finally graduating from Elementary School is a great success and pride to us." He smiled once again and I nodded.

"Those medallions are just bonuses. They were actually useless in real life!" He jokingly said with his awkward laugh.

"Hey you two, come inside and help me. Dinners coming" Mom said with her raised voice.

"Yes, we're coming!" Dad responds to her.

We are about to walk on our way home but dad stops, "Oh anyway!" He delightedly said and ran towards his toolbox on the working table. He grabs a fancy package and comes again to where I'm standing.

"Here." He calmly said with a smile on his face.

I am thrilled to open it, I giggled as he gave it to me, and as I opened the present; I saw pastel blue-green hue headphones.

"Wow! I was looking for this headset yesterday at the mall! How come you knew about it, dad?" I excitedly told him.

"Hmm... Just guts!" Dad told me while he gleams and looks at me happily. With the excitement I exhibited to him earlier, I abruptly become awkward for I am not usually that sweet even to my parents. I heard him chuckle and he finally talked.

"Shall we try it on your phone dear?"

"Uhm," I responded. I grab my phone and he assists me to operate it. He places the headset on my ears. I look at him again and see as he shines and it makes it hard for me to glimpse him. I gradually close my eyes and the music starts to play.

As I opened my eyes hastily, I was shocked by my surroundings becoming gray and dreary. I quickly turn my eyes and look where I am. A sudden realization twitched my consciousness as I heard my alarm clock—I am just inside my room and I am dreaming vividly that dream again almost a thousand times. Did I consider it a dream? It is more like a memory. And through all the good and bad memories I had, that memory seems to be a notable one as that simple conversation always appears in my dreams almost every day.

"Hey, Shiro breakfast is ready. Get to turn yourself up and be prepared for school." Mom said with her forceful voice.

"Uhm, I'm getting up" I mumbled while pulling out my blanket and mending it before I stood up. After I took my breakfast and prepared myself to leave, I reached out again to my room and organized my stuff. I put on a bit of makeup and glanced in the mirror. A girl that has a pinkish pale face with a pouty dead rose-colored lip, almond-shaped dark eyes with a mole under it near on cheekbones, and short black hair with sided bangs shows on my reflection.

I crack a little smile and try not to fake it. But in the aftermath, I think It was just too shallow to do it behind these four sides of my room. Because, in the innermost depth of my heart, I know that sadness and frustration are still lurking and seem to make my soul darker and darker. However, I know to myself that—this feeling will never set me my precedence to stop me from doing things I wanted to.

[Beep] My dazed stopped as I heard my phone buzzing several times. I quickly fetch it and catch a glimpse of Lynx calling me. I stand up but never answer his call because I know he's already outside of my home.

"Mom I'm going!" I shouted as loud as possible so my mom would hear me from the kitchen. I never waited for her response and instantly opened the door, running towards the gate to open it, as I also settled my bag pack at the same time.

"Still not answering my calls ha?" Suddenly my best friend Lynx speaks up with his arrogant voice as I'm busy latching the gate to lock it again properly.

"You have known me for almost 5 years and you still didn't know I-HATE-CALLS?"

I finally turn myself into a tall, with fair skin, straight undercut jet-black hair guy as I annoyingly emphasize the last words I let out.

"You have known me for almost 5 years blah blah blah!" he said as he tried hard to mimic what I have said.

"Shut up ugly!" I told him before I shove his bike he is riding using my feet and that makes him almost fall over.

"Stubborn!" He said it while snapping a smile on his face. Some girls are very delighted by their so-called, refreshing eye smile he always perpetrates when he deceives girls. What a pain—he just looks like a sleeping guy while smiling for me. Girls are sometimes hard to comprehend when it comes to a guy they like.

"Let's go!" He happily said with his manly raspy voice while I'm at the back of his bike and he drives it faster than he could. As we went down and placed his bike we decided to enter our University. I lift my ID so my bar code will get detected and I get surprised when Lynx is getting his ID on his bag.

"Whoa, I thought that was lost?" I rashly told him.

[Beep] "I went here yesterday and used my charm to Student Affairs. Eventually, I got it that smoothly without any effort." He boastfully explained whereas he nudged my shoulders at the same.

"Charm? Eww," I rolled my eyes while I mumbled those words. We continue to amble our feet as we have our first subject which is the Steno and our professor will be our Dean Gabuat and she's also referring to it as Ma'am G.

"Arghh Second-year seems so Harsh, we got Steno this morning with Ma'am G. and Research before lunch" Lynx complained while sulking in disbelief about the subjects we are going to take this sem.

"You are good at Steno the last sem you know. Unfortunately, not as much as I am."I boastfully told him and tap his bag aggressively because of what I did, some first years mostly female peeps are looking at us but this idiot seems no idea about being popular in our University.

"I envy you for having an Office Administrator graduate mom. He said while we continue walking inside the room. I never had a chance to respond to him as Dean Gabuat came even though the first class is not yet starting.

"I have to apologize to class 2-1 for some errors about your schedule." She calmly tells the class.

"My schedule for your class will be before lunch. On the other hand, your Research will be right now."

After Ma'am G said it, the class suddenly uproar a bit. Some of them are happy and some of them are not. Well, I think that's me and I don't know why I don't have a nice feeling about these switched subjects.

"Professor Kim Younghyun will be your Research this semester, and I hope you'll also welcome him for he is new to Cháo Yáng University." She snaps a smile as she continues to speak.

"Anyway, BSOA and BSBA 2-3 are merging for this subject. That's why I'm warning you to act professionally towards Mr. Kim for he is a Business Administration graduate, maybe he looks younger than you expect..." she continued.

"Yeah, that's why his name is Younghyun for he is obviously YOUNG right now maybe Oldhyun next year or so," Lynx whispered his non-sense jokes to me to the fact that Ma'am G is still talking.

"Ha-ha-ha shut up ugly," I said without looking at him and he chuckles a bit and finally focuses on our professor.

After the discussion, we had a chance to meet Mr. Younghyun who is unexpectedly that young to be a professor. His aspect might scout him as an actor if there's a chance or so. He gave that actor vibe with tall, fair skin, intimidating narrow or fox eyes as well as broad shoulders, and neat straight black hair. Obviously, at the moment, some female students are annoyingly chuckling around.

"Ohhh, our professor gives me goosebumps like the first day I met you!" Lynx murmured.

"What the hell do you mean?" I told him with a sinister gleam.

"Nothing, nothing," He said after he widens his eyes forcefully.

"Oh gosh is that Asher Ning? She's our classmate!" A sudden commotion suddenly comes up after my fella classmate exclaimed.

"Sorry Professor Younghyun I'm late," the girl said with a kinda captivating expression to make all the boys except Lynx giggle like insane squealers.

"It's fine we're not yet starting. Hope you'll never do that anymore in my class." Mr. Younghyun coldly asserted without looking at her while turning up his specs whereas he only focused on his laptop connecting to the projector.

"Thanks, Sir." She insisted while she gently flipped her red bright hair as she stepped towards her chair. The class won't stop gossiping about our merged classmate who undeniably stands out for her fancy eye makeup making her Asian almond eye a bit bolder, her pouty red ombré lips with a glossy texture that makes her lips glower as well as her dazzling fair skin.

"How come she will never stand out with that hair? Looks stupid." Lynx said before he sneered as he said something to her.

"I feel like I'm in the wrong building because of BSBA. Almost all of them look like they are from the Model department." I told him while twirling my pen to my fingers.

To make this time quick, Mr. Younghyun talks over certainly everything about the subject we are going to put up with. We have groupings for this Research and we are going to propose our title tomorrow. The group I have has two from Office Administration and three from Business Administration. Luckily, Lynx and I are in the same group.

"Hi everyone!" The prominent girl named Asher cheered at us with her two girl classmates behind her. As we place our chairs circular, I get surprised for the reason Asher is seated beside me with her strangely intriguing smile for me.

"Hi, Shiro! Your name is so cute just like you!" She confessed to me and giggled like a kid at the same time.

"Thanks." I coldly respond in shock and glared at Lynx with his lonesome expression.

"So now who's the Leader and Secretary?" Lynx suddenly interrupted Asher's odd behavior.

"We are appointing Ash as Secretary," Our two groupmates declared while pointing to Asher.

"Oh hey why me?" She said in her high-pitched voice.

"You are the Secretary of Student Affairs so we are confident you will do your job that easily." They rationalized to her while looking at her like they forcibly convinced her to say yes.

"Oh... Yeah sure." She spoke up while stuttering.

Lynx frowned as he is inquisitive towards her and said why he never saw her at council yesterday, for he was there to get his ID. Asher just strangely answers him that she had her magazine shot for understandably, her hair is color red right now.

"Ahh... okay," Lynx coldly said to her.

"So who's the Leader? Shiro?" Asher tells us with enthusiasm.

"Okay." I said to her, "...but make sure to do your responsibilities right." I said with an authoritarian tone.

"Y-Yes I will!" she nervously told me.

From there on, we brainstorm everything for the Research titles we are going to propose tomorrow. Like Mr. Younghyun said, the research title must be persuading, encouraging, and related to a charity that also talks about Business. After we decided on the title we will present, we chose three titles among our suggestions.

First, A correlation study between the profitable dog breeding industry and animal welfare; Research on organic food produce and sustainable market consumption, and lastly, An evaluation of the effects of the underground market on LGU revenue.

"I wrote each explanation about our topic. Now Asher it is all to you for the presentation and makes sure to keep the written report I made. Don't lose it, I don't have my laptop since It was broken, I hope we can keep in touch with you." I formally announced.

"Yes, I will! No worries Shiro!" She gleefully told us.

As time passed by I finally, get home safely. My foot almost got numb strolling Chào Yang University just for different classes but even though I am extremely exhausted, I sort everything about our Research using my phone. I really hate being useless, for my laptop is unsteady and I don't have enough money to purchase it. Being a scholar in an elite university sucks most of the time.

Meanwhile, I accumulate my agendas and told my groupmates to come as early as one hour or so before the class as soon as possible tomorrow. After that, I cannot help myself but sleep.

As the moment I shut my eyes, I heard the door creaking and it was sound so creepy along with its sinister smile I've seen from unknown until he's about to open his mouth and shouted:

"HEY IDIOT WAKE UP!"

[Beep] I quickly open my eyes as I heard the alarm starting to rattle my heart like crazy. I never realized that it was morning already. I was not able to remember my dream or maybe a nightmare for the only aspect I recall is some bratty voice dude called me an idiot. If ever that came about in the future I'll make sure to tear his face instantly. CYU has a lot of brat problematic kids but no one lures me at least once. Coward brats.

"Hey you look grumpy as hell to start a day, don't be a jinx!" My best friend told me in a sarcastic voice.

"I bet Jinx and Lynx are alike," I irritably told while we were walking down the aisle of the Main Zhong Building.

"Are you worried about the presentation?" He spoke up.

"Not really but I don't have any motivation to cheer up or so today. Dunno why," He raised his eyebrows and looked away again.

"That is not the Shiro I knew every time we have this kind of stuff. Common man what's wrong with—"

"I-I'm sorry, I think it's lost!" Suddenly a girl freakishly cried to make Lynx and I stop talking. And as we go through we sight our members frowning at Asher while she is looking for something in her bag.

"Hey what happened? Seriously, It's 7 in the morning for you to cry out like that." Lynx told Asher and she nervously faced us with tears.

"I-I'm really sorry, Shiro, Lynx, Kate, and Lean. I really don't know why It's not on the laptop, It was unexpectedly formatted and I never save it on the flash drive, I-I even lost the written report that Shiro made for us yesterday. I'm sorry!" Asher confessed to us and cried like a fool.

Because of the headache, I feel since yesterday, I decided not to respond to her and sit down on my seat covering my forehead with my palm and biting my tongue just to control myself to say something bad to her. Lynx is frustratingly seated beside me and trying not to make a commotion for some of our classmates are already here too.

"Seriously, how come you are the secretary of the council? Huh, sounds like you were just elected because you are popular!" Lean said with her annoying tone.

"You are right Lean! What a famous for nothing! So what should we do now ha?" Kate said while Asher is still trying her best to find the documents in her bag.

"Contact your bodyguard or maids right now common make it fast!" Lean exclaimed which makes the class gossip about Asher.

"Okay, okay, I will... Sorry..." She mumbled as she is trembling to hold her phone.

[BLAG] I don't even care what I'm doing right that's why I fiercely whack my desk with my fist because these two nuisances keep on barking like frenzied ugly canines. I stand up and look at them as they nervously stutter saying their reason for being furious with Asher.

"Hey Lean and Kate before you complain, make sure you contribute a lot yesterday. I don't even feel your existence more than Asher. She participated a lot compare to the two of you. So please, just stop." I can't help to keep quiet anymore not because I am the leader but also because I despise what they are doing to her. I instantly glared at Asher while her eyes were still swollen while looking at me like a kid.

"And you stop taking responsibility that you can't even handle," I told her and fetches the notebook she was clasping.

After this uprising scene, I decided to gather everything again about what I remembered. Thankfully, I take down what part I'm going to present, or else this day will be chaos. Lynx also do something beneficial to our group as well as Asher for they also remember their parts.

Moreover, the presentation is not satisfying but still, the three of us made it at the end of the class. We are gratified for at least Mr. Younghyun approved our Title that fasts even though It's so obvious that Mr. Younghyun notices some inadequacy in our report.

"Damn it that was intense, I've never been so stressed like this!" I told Lynx as I am still annoyed about what happened. I even stamped my feet when Mr. Younghyun left the room as well as the BSBA students. I've seen Asher apprehensively looking at me but I can't avoid being furious.

"Shiro..." I didn't know if I'm hallucinating or what for I just heard Asher murmuring my name then I stand up and see her still looking at me while biting her lips but I just ignored her for I still needed to leave for my next class plus I am not mad at her.

It is just I hate myself trusted her like that so easy. I never been like that to anyone before.

[mithliya]

Hi Mena. This is gonna be long. I'm an 18 year old girl and it's been a year since I'm utterly unable to study. I've dedicated my childhood and most of my teen years to studying mostly, to the point where I barely leave the house for any other reason than to go to class and school. My elementary school was especially vicious even though there was no need for me to spend most of my childhood studying to the point where my homework wouldn't end even at night. I was insanely stressed because the amount of homework they gave us was so much that I'd call my friend 6, and yes 6 times a day to make sure I haven't missed any homework. Teachers at elementary would usually take advantage of the quiet students' lack of self confidence and unconditional politeness to be absolutely vile to me and quiet students like me. They'd legit passive aggressively or aggressively lecture me for an hour for something I had no part in and was done by my other, more confident and vocal classmates who'd clap back at the teacher if lectured. Once one of them beat me and my friend up for using the restroom at the same time. No we didn't goof around. We just used the restroom and came back...and she gave us the permission for it!! Students were vicious to each other and even more vicious to me as I couldn't stand up for myself. That's my fault, but anyways. I do not know if I should blame the teachers, but some of them visibly self harmed in our presence and now that I'm older, I realize they had sadistic tendencies too. But I don't think that's their fault. I hope they're doing better now.

Fast forward to high school, the homework was still too much, still had shitty classmates, but at least they didn't attempt to murder me twice. But teachers were excellent! They didn't try to bond with us or have heart to heart talk with us about anything. Didn't try to act like we're their children. Didn't pretend to care about us. Didn't do "tough love" or whatever the fuck that means; they just didn't let anyone disrespect them and that's it. Didn't act like they owed us anything other than teaching. Didnt try to teach about morality or religion. They'd teach, help us with our academic problems, and then just leave. It might sound bad, but I don't care. I loved my teachers for being teachers, for being good at their jobs, not more or less. I'm still in contact with some of them and they are absolutely awesome. I told about my experiences in elementary school to my classmates and they told me to stop midway because it upset them. That was when I understood what I experienced wasn't normal.

In Corona, our online education was basically torture as it lagged 13 times per session, so I had to study on my own. Now the school is finished. I haven't had legitimate education for I suppose two years now, and I'm actually privileged to not be one of the girls in villages who can't and couldn't afford the technology to be connected to the exams at the very least, and had to give up on education. My heart absolutely goes for them, but I'm powerless.

But still. I'm struggling, and I'm tired of hiding it. Being a student was most of my identity. It was and is more important to me than being the daughter of my family, or being a sister to my little sibling. That was my most important identity. Please tell me how I can go back to studying the way I did? Im overwhelmed by bad memories when I try to study and I struggle to breath. I can't stand the sight of books anymore, and I'm being shamed and called lazy for it. I can't enjoy the subjects I used to enjoy. I didn't sacrifice everything that I did to be a jobless woman who will have to rely on a culum who will legally have the right to my body and more than half of my life choices under the law. Actually, my father, despite being very misogynistic on a lot of instances, cared about me enough to have a heart to heart with me and tell me what's up, instead of trying to marry me off and tell me it's safe to rely on men. He was honest with me, he told me as it is, and his biggest fear is me relying on my potential SO, and I'm privileged for it.

Now...how do I get back to studying? Do you have any suggestions? I can't bring up my issues anymore because it's used against me to justify barring women from education, while boys can unashamedly drone about their struggles with school.

your reaction to studying honestly sounds a lot like your former experiences with education deeply traumatised you. bad associations, what sounds like panic attacks, being flooded with negative memories… that’s either trauma or anxiety rooted in trauma. if seeking a therapist to help break these associations and instead associate positive things with studying is not a possibility for you, then i guess you’d have to break that association yourself. the way i’d suggest doing that is to break it down to very small steps. if you can’t stand the smell of books, would you be able to stand the smell of certain books or some papers or sth else? or perhaps have books around you (the kind u can smell) & do something positive & that u enjoy while smelling the scent of the books. this’ll at least help you not associate the smell of books with something deeply negative. the same can be said for other aspects, like if studying itself is automatically associated with negative memories for u is it possible to perhaps break down studying into very small sections, ensure you do it in a happy + safe environment and reward yourself before, after, & in between the study session? while doing these things, it also helps to write yourself notes about how it felt, if negative think of how you could think of the situation differently or feel better about the situation. if positive, make note of that too bc it’s good to show urself that its nothing too bad nor out of reach. basically i’m suggesting that u try to condition urself into associating studying with positive things rather than the very negative experiences you’ve had. it’s hard to do it on ur own, but it’s possible. trying to be consistent with this pattern and with the positive things you make the situation better with can help. besides that, practicing mindfulness around it can help. for example just dedicating some time to focusing on a book (look at it, hear the sounds it produces when u flip it and such, smell it, feel it… can’t taste it for obv reasons). while that sounds boring & dumb it can perhaps make u also associate book smells less with negative things.

those are the tips i’ve got off the top of my head but honestly it’s probably easier to find a therapist who perhaps specialises in therapy against phobias (such as exposure therapy) bc they generally can figure out how to break it down into smaller steps (better than i can at least dhdhshs). if thats possible id advise that above u trying to do it alone (requires a lot of discipline which i personally do not have & strength too). idk if that helps and i cant think of any other tips so if anyone has better advice.. pls feel free to help here 😭

[lewmagoo]

The final part of we own the sky was fantastic!!!!

‘Off to Amelia Elementary you went, with Amy talking up a storm, far too awake for the early morning hour. You simply listened to her, amused, as she asked Rhett question after question. He answered them all with patience, happy to entertain her curiosity.’

‘When he pulled into the carpool line, he threw the truck into park and slid out of his seat, boots scraping against pavement. He reached out and took Amy’s small hand in his, guiding her out of the truck. You watched fondly as the girl wrapped her arms around his middle, and he leaned down to kiss the top of her head.’

That part just made my heart swell and my eyes tear up. It’s so sweet how rhett is very patient when amy asks a lot of questions and then kisses her on the top of her head before she goes to school

Reading the part where they were looking for amy and driving away from the twister had me biting my nails the entire time

‘Both of you turned, eyes on the tornado. You reached out, grabbing for Rhett’s hand, fingers intertwining, holding on for dear life. He moved quickly, his body shielding yours and Amy’s. If things went south, he could not protect you, not from this, but he’d be damned if he didn’t try.’ 😭😭😭

That last line is where I stopped biting my nails and just started crying

‘He thought of all she’d lost. She had endured the worst loss that anyone could suffer, and yet, she was the picture of strength and grace. He was so grateful for the mother he had. He knew that he put her through a lot by choosing to chase, after that very same thing had been what took her oldest son from her. And yet, she never once told Rhett to give up what he loved, even if it scared her to no end.’

Rhett being so appreciative of his mom and understanding the grief and hardships she’s had to go through made my heart ache so bad 🥲🥲🥲

“No. You did so much more than that. You go from bein’ fuckin’ terrified of twisters, to conquering one of ‘em. Pretty amazing if y’ask me.”

I love this part so much!! Not only because rhett is being his sweet self but because it’s so true!! The reader is so badass how she conquered her fear!!

‘He couldn’t hide the smile that tugged at his mouth at the sight of you, so effortlessly beautiful, and all his.’

I really needed a cute and fluffy moment like that after all the previous crying lmao

The ending was perfect with them moving in together, the reader getting a job overseeing the field-testing of weather devices and rhett testing storm chasing vehicles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Ready, honeybee?” Rhett asked you as you climbed into the truck. 

With a confident nod, you replied, “As I’ll ever be. Let’s go own the sky, baby!”

I LOVE IT SO MUCH WHEN THE TITLE OF THE FIC IS MENTIONED IN THE STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT MAKES ME LOSE MY MIND!!!!!!!!!!!!🫨🫨🫨

Thanks for the tag!!! 🩷🩷🩷

hehe, i love reading your little commentaries on each chapter! seeing all the little parts that stood out to you always does my heart good. thank you for always showing so much support, i'm very grateful. i had so much fun writing this series and knowing it has resonated with so many people means a lot to me. thanks for reading! 🥹💜

[chickenpeep77]

List of interesting stuff from when I was in school because I felt like sharing

My middle elementary school gave me and other children asthma. It was a moldy dusty super old school that got closed down a few years ago. A local church bought the playground equipment and its so weird seeing it there.

My class played the telephone game and there was some mean kid that bullied me so I changed the message to "*so and so* is an idiot" and it was said out loud at the end and no one knew it was me that changed it to that.

I got bullied for having misophonia.

One day in kindergarten I brought a stuffed toy dragon to school. I was told I had to put it in my backpack in this weird long closet area thing where everyone else's was hung up. End of day. Got my backpack. Toy was gone. Teacher checked everyone else's backpacks. Not there. It was just vanished. Still no idea what happened to it.

For some reason in first grade I refused to do the morning warm-up work thing and instead drew creatures in my journal. Teacher took pictures of the pages and sent them to my grandma. I also headbutt other kids during carpet time because Spyro. That was also the year I was started on meds.

In music class it was around Halloween time and spooky music was played. There was this one that was like "there once was a woman all skin and bones wooooooooo". It scared me. The teacher made fun of me for it. I went to the art class next door and crafted a kangaroo bat out of construction paper.

For some reason I was just out early and waiting for the bell to ring to tell us to get to the buses. Principal was there. I had this bad fear of missing the bus ride home for some reason. The sight of the area being empty before bell rings looked the same as the sight of the area being empty after everyone got on the bus and so my brain was screaming at me that they were about to leave me so I ran to the buses early even though the principal told me to stop. Yeah anxiety problems started early.

Multiple basketballs got stuck in the rafters of the gym building.

I think I heard one time someone had to call an ambulance because some kid sat on a pencil wrong and was stabbed in the butt.

Convinced my teacher to have a field trip to my place because it was a cool farm.

Got ISS (in school suspension) at least twice because I scratched up bullies.

Fitness gram pacer test. This one girl keeps running long after everyone else has sat down. Eventually just stopped the timer.

Brought this bionicle toy to school. It was this cool big one I had built out of pieces of older bionicles. Had long neck wings and a tail. Should try to draw it from memory at some point. Anyways the day I brought it everyone was brought into the auditorium for an assembly. One of the things the principal talked about was the problem of kids bringing toys to school. It was in my backpack the whole time lol.

Science class had a garden we worked at. In particular I enjoyed digging with a particular tool. I said I wanted it. Learned hoe was also a slang term. The outside world is full of nasty freaks so I would sometimes over think every word I ever say because it might also be a nasty slang term I wasn't aware of.

Grew watermelon there. It was harvested too early. Me, with farm living experience, kept saying that was not ripe. It wasn't. In the teacher's defense though if we waited too long the raccoons would just get it.

My school did a lot of field trips. Went to sciport many times. Saw a film in the IMAX theater for the first time. It was about scary weather phenomenon. I was terrified. From then on skipped IMAX time and hung out with a teacher. One time around Christmas I helped hand out reindeer candy canes to the staff. Few times later I decided to try IMAX again. It was amazing. I loved it so much. Saw it two more times at that school. I'm still angry that the film we experienced first was one that scared me and made me miss out.

One day there was a nothing day close to the beginning of a break. Some kid brought in a movie to watch. DVDs were getting to be the norm I think, so it was kind of weird that he brought in a VHS. It was a recording of that movie Hop from a video camera at the theater. Teacher stopped it when she realized. We almost watched an illegally obtained movie.

In high school there was this chemistry teacher I didn't like. I had this habit of correcting teachers on things. Her worksheets spelled aluminum as aluminium. I told her about the spelling mistake. Later found out that's just how it was spelled in England. I have no idea why she used that spelling.

Something in that chemistry class I'm still upset about. We were doing this lab thing in groups. Were growing crystals on pipe cleaners. The directions included the word tare. I had no idea what that word meant. I don't recall whether we we taught briefly on that word or not previously. I asked her what it meant. She said to ask the others in my group. None of them knew it either. Didn't let me ask another group. So we had to skip that step. Our group was the only ones who didn't get pretty crystal ornaments. Just wet pipe cleaners.