#oh and can you see her little octopus earring? :D

[saradiation]

Rose 💜

[sideblogformindtrash]

SUMMER OF WHUMP - DAY 4 - ABANDONED

Mind the huge cw. Is mostly just discussing it, but still.

CW: Insinuated no-con; past-abuse; relieving past trauma; abandonment; very low self esteem; humiliation; accidental triggering; bait dog; whipping; starvation; shoved in luggage bag; bitten by mice; gross food; claustrophobia; burns; no-con drugging; no-con touching; mentioned amputation; pet whump; multiple whumpers; human trafficking; muzzle; starvation; neglect; manhandling; cruel/intimate/neglectful whumpers;

“H-hello and welcome to BB’s and Pastel’s show!” ...Pastel turned the octopus plush around as BB turned the camera on. It went from a pink, smiley octopus, to it’s frowning gray insides. Pastel pulled the blankets over his head, leaving only his eyes out “...I’ll be your host, BB, and this is my assistant, Mr.Tonsils!”

BB lifts Mr.Tonsils in front of the camera, waiving his little furry paws so he can say hello to their audience. They pick up the camera, and take it to the bed with Pastel, capturing his pretty pink-ish eyes. 

“C-come on Pastel! Say hi!”

Pastel shifts slightly under the blanket.

“I’m… Not a fan of cameras, BB'' his voice is just a whisper, as he twists the blanket. BB thinks he is kneeling “...I’ll just… be your audience today, okay?”

“O-oH! Sorry!” BB stepped away. That was right. Pastel didn’t have good memories about that. BB pointed it away, making sure only they and Mr.Tonsils were on frame. Pastel seemed to relax, even sitting back and lowering his blanket cocoon “...So, due to technical issues, Pastel won’t be joining us tonight. But that 's okay. BB and Mr.Tonsils are here to entertain you!”

BB smiled, making sure to show the missing little teeth. Just like Blue. Just like Blue… before, at least. 

“...Well, for tonight’s show me and Mr.Tonsils prepared a top 15 review!” BB wasn’t sure if it really classified as such. But it sure sounded nice “BB will be going over all of our old homes!”

They noticed as Pastel frowned, suddenly changing their expression, way more alert. BB only felt more excited. If Pastel was paying attention, it clearly meant the topic of the video was interesting! Audiences would love it! Even… Even if this was never going to be aired. BB could picture the audiences!

...With a deep breath, they braced themselves and started. They had prepared for this. They could do it.

“...BB’s begun it’s life like us all, in b-between white walls and tiled floors of the training grounds. They were worthless and ugly and dumb, BB’s smile never charmed anyone! It took a long time in the store before BB got home. It was and old lady that said BB was so ugly that it hurt, and dumb as a door, but worked well enough to, to scrub her floor” BB smiled, remembering the cozy attic, where they made their first friends, among piles of boxes that compiled their first owner’s life. Long nights they spent alone there, digging through piles of pictures, trying to piece together what a human life was like. Nonsense, it was, because it just filled BB’s head with a lot of silly thoughts.  They lifted Mr.Tonsils for the camera “...BB worked the day and spent the night locked away. In the house’s attic, BB made their first friends. They were Mr.Tonsils crowd, a family of mice, and BB befriended them all, even if they’d bite BB’s feet while it was trying to sleep! BB loved the house, their first owner, and e-every single mouse!”

BB hugged Mr.Tonsil, swinging him around. Pastel was biting his lip, pulling a thread out of the blanket. Good! He was enjoying the story! And BB felt like they were doing good, too. Better than they did at any of their homes.

“...First owner got tired of BB because the stupid Pet let her cat flee! All BB wanted to do was help and clean, but the cat saw their chance and ran away. First owner took BB to a store with a mean looking clerk. They agreed BB was ‘So ugly it fucking hurt’, hoping BB would only stay a few days and them someone would want them” BB rubbed their hand together. That didn’t count as an owner, did it? It was only temporary, in nature. Not that owners lasted very long “BB was at the store for almost a full month, during which they got to eat, sleep and there was no work. BB wanted to make friends with other pets in cages, but they never stayed for long, after all - good pets get good homes!”

...BB was still upset about the store. All of those Pets had looked so nice, so much better than they are… And they never tried to talk to BB. They were all scared they’d be beaten down if they tried, but never were. BB was the only worthless one, that got the punishments… for everyone!

“...BB was bought by creepy looking guy who stuffed BB inside a cage and on a plane and was flown away” BB gestured with their hand, copying the movements of a plane. They had to be on the chair, so it would look nice on video, but otherwise, they would have liked to run around with their arms opened “...Creepy man named BB Bait. They were a teaser for a larger, angrier Pet named Spike, who had on BB a nice punching bag who couldn’t put up a fight. They were nice to BB and even a friend, but scary and cruel when the Master decided they needed to beat them. So BB was Spike’s chew toy, but when they were nice… BB was always filled with joy!”

...They closed their eyes for a second. Those two lives were merged together. One of them had been so short, they could barely remember the second dog.

“...After Spike got tired, BB was sold again, to be another dog's punchbag. And he was the third friend BB had! He refused to hurt BB, would even cuddle them to sleep, and then I was severly punished… For making the Master's dog weak. It was the first time BB tasted a whip, and with dark bruises on its face, BB was sold again”

...They stood in that second store for a week. With no food, and no sleep. They were dirty, and cheap, not worthy of caring for.

“The next Master had BB as furniture for his house. All he did was snap his fingers and that was BB’s call. It would crawl and hold things very still and keep his glass fill, he would rest his feet over BB. If it got boring the cane was always on hand, he could crack in on BB’s back and get it all shades of purple and black. BB didn’t sleep there much at all, it had to stand still behind his bed, all night long holding a water jar upon a tray, in a perfect 90° degree, or there was always hell to pay” BB touched their arm, absentmindedly, a small scar on their elbow where bone had poke through “But BB was ugly furniture, bad and broke away, when Master tried to sit over its back one sad summer day. BB tumbled to the side, knocking Master to the floor. BB got a broken arm and was kicked out of the door!”

“...The next Master that took me in was cruel and harsh, with unusual punishments that left some scars: fingers pulled back until they snapped, weights to BB’s feet, heavy chains and painful strains and the worst - the oven’s flame” BB tilted their head. That Master, too, had scars. They didn’t know how she had gotten them, it was not it’s place to ask. They… They were happy to leave that one “...BB was then lost in a card game, and doesn’t remember much at all. Pills made BB sweet and kind and small. What BB doesn’t get is that they never needed pills - they would never disobey, even if put through awful, lingering pain, they’d love Master all the same.”

...Hazy. Foggy memories. Hands over them, and brushing their cheeks, and so much drool because they were never cohesive enough to form words or move. Blinking white lights, whispered little things that returned to them in dreams.

“...When BB was sober again, they found themselves in a shed, where they were always so alone. The Master was a mountain who only came at night to beat BB down. The days went by slowly, loneliness crushing down, it was dark and cold and hungry, and there were spiders all around“ BB stopped their speech for a moment. This next part was something… that still haunted them. They had done… awful, awful things. They covered Mr.Tonsils' ears. They were afraid of what he would think “...BB, on that shed, made things it would rather forget. Just like the Master forgot BB had to fed! BB might have eaten a few of Tonsil's friends, please don’t let him know, is just BB’s stomach hurt so much and it was the only thing that could stop the growl”

BB releases Mr.Tonsil’s ears, hearing a gasp from Pastel. They turn and smile, but his face is… Pale, horrified. BB shrugs. Pastel always worries faaaar too much. Next one… Made BB feel nostalgic.

“Next… Was the trucker! He liked BB a whole lot, and let BB on the bed and the passenger’s seat! He and BB traveled a lot, seeing magic and beautiful places. BB spoke on the radio, and… And… Had a name! Was called Oreos...” They messed up their rhymes. This… This wasn’t how it was supposed to go “...BB was… Was happy then. His spouse didn’t like me, and… And behind his back, gave me away”

BB’s nails sunk on their arms, as they hug themselves. They… missed those days. It was good, good nostalgia, but what followed made them sick. They had just learned how big and beautiful the world was…

“Next Master… Stuffed BB into a bag, small and stinky with heavy leather smell, with no room to move at all, so much BB’s limbs collapsed when it was finally left out. It travelled around so much, but BB never got to see outside. It was let out during the night to be with Master, and shoved back on the bag once he was satisfied” BB shook their head, as if that would send the memories away. They hated it, hated that bag so, so much. Terrible, suffocating and endlessly boring and aching. And worse… that’s when they lost their name Oreos. They had loved that life. They truly had. “It didn’t matter much, BB was soon thrown away again. Unlovable and worthless, no one could stand BB for much longer either way. BB was sold and sold, always on their way. Next Master was confusing – gave BB many orders and functions, then beat BB down for following the instructions! They likes to trick BB, make plenty of cruel jokes, BB was just a dumb dog, one they only named Mutt!”

...They smiled then. The next one was also nice. His name was Wolfgang, but he was not a wolf. Not that BB could remember.

“And BB’s following owner sold stuff door to door! Saw BB – or Mutt then – and thought they were good charms! BB helped with the sales, being all cute and sweet, and Master was happy at first, but eventually… Sold me!”

And the next Master was…

BB shivered. This one… Hurt a lot. A whole fucking lot. It had been one of the longest lasting homes they had. It had changed the way they saw and thought of themselves forever. It was where they became BB. Bootleg Blue. Fake, useless, worthless.

“…Next was Owner Alvin, who BB loved so, so, so much. He said he would always care for BB… if BB could be someone else. BB had never ever been loved, and the feeling was so gentle and sweet! BB finally understood why no one else had loved it, and what it needed to do so that it would. Blue, a pet who had videos and fame, who had scars BB didn’t have… But I wanted to gain! BB left their teeth rot, BB scarred their own face, Master got angry – Bad BB, bad…” No, no, no. They couldn’t start to lament now. Not when they had gone so far on the video, already, and trough some of the hardest part “Alvin gave BB a room with a  plain white dresser, four pairs of clothes and double of socks! BB knew them all by heart and cherished them, BB loved Alvin, loved him, loved him so, so, so much. 

But …Alvin wanted BB to be Blue, but wouldn’t tolerate it when BB got the knife and tried to make the change. BB watched the videos on repeat, hundreds, thousands of hours on end, BB could cite them by head!

But BB wasn’t Blue, and can never be. BB is unworthy, and no one could love me. BB was shoved in a car and Owner broke his promise – he decided not to keep me, he, he, h-he… He, he…”

BB closes their eyes, bites back a sob. They are almost done now, and even if they completely messed up the last part…. they can push through! They can still make a nice video… Maybe the audience will like that they can be a little emotive?

“...Shoved BB in a car, drove them to a dead end. Left them alone on the streets to fend for themselves. BB stayed there alone and scared and sad, hoping someone would come… Or that somehow, their pain would end. And then Paul and Reina appeared, finding the ugly pet on the streets. Reina said BB did look like Blue! So she wanted, she wanted BB too!” BB smiled a little. Reina was pretty. She gave me good headpats… But BB didn’t miss them a lot. Paul wasn’t so nice “Paul knew BB was worthless, but Reina still wanted BB. BB was taken to their house and for a short span of time, BB was pampered, happy and loved, an illusion that didn’t last. They figured BB was fun to hurt and start to get their way – not that BB cared, loved them all the same”

They turned around for a second, smiling at Pastel. This was something they’d truly love to talk about, for once.

“But the best part was that BB made a friend when living at their place. Pastel was his name! Pastel held BB and told me it would be okay. BB didn’t have to be Blue – they loved me either way. Pastel took punishment and tried to keep Master’s away. BB cuddled them to sleep and they loved each other! They did!” 

BB smiled at this, hugging the plush. One drop of joy, as small as it had been. One that wasn’t stripped away. But the show hadn’t ended.

“…Alas we got back to IF. IF my desired owner, the true maker of Blue, the one who could make BB worthy of love… If he had wanted to. He shoved BB in a cage and tortured Pastel instead, and it was so, so awfully cruel!” BB shook their head, lamenting “But last and not least, Master Fairyman appeared! He took BB and Pastel to live with him! And he has been so nice so far, giving BB colored books! Lovely, nice and nice! And Pastel Is with me too, BB don’t know how long it will last, but BB is so, so to be here with you!”

BB finished, looking back at Pastel and drawing a heart in the air with their fingers. Pastel… is tearing up. He jumps from the bed, not minding the camera anymore, and hugs BB. BB melts, leaning onto the hug. Soft. Kind. Loved. 

“BB…” He finally speaks, still not letting them go  “Did… Did you rehearse this?”

“Many times in BB’s head!” BB smiled. Many, many, many times, all those years… “Did it come out nice?”

“Yeah…” Pastel rested his head on BB’s shoulder, hugging them tight “I love you, you know?”

BB smiled.

“I know”

tagging: @summer-of-whump@pinkraindropsfell

[wonderland-in-bloom]

all for one but not for another

[malleus draconia x fem!reader]

anon asked: Hi ! I Hope you're well ! Can I have a one shot with a Fem! reader who is I love with Malleus. Sebek do not like it because she is a simple human and he keeps pushing her away from Malleus. Thank you !

yellloooos anon! i hope you’re well as well :)) 

p.s. THANK YOU ALL FOR 900+ AAAAAAA NANI IS THIS EFOWEFEWOFJOWE WHAT IS THIS ;-; im so sorry i havent been publishing as much and as frequent as i did in the past, because i really want to write quality content for you guys -w- quality over quantity i guess ? lolol BUT THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH I LOVE YOU ALL AAAAAAAAAAAAA

p.p.s ik this story is supposed to be the reader x malleus (and i promise there are parts of that), but i feel like he only appears a tiny bit oops. btw this story has a little bit of a...twist ;)) watch out for all of the foreshadowing and hints <3

♡

THE sunlight beamed through the framed windows of the classroom, casting a perfect highlight on the features of your beloved senpai. your hand glided through your notebook as you aimlessly doodled small roses and flowers while just staring at him. different scenarios if him and you just appeared inside your mind, satisfying your daydreams. oh you wished to just confess to him behind the school, surrounded by petals of flowers floating around the two of you as he accepts your love, and thus both lived happily ever after. malleus draconia managed to capture your heart. practically everyone in the school knew, probably even the headmaster knew, except for your crush himself. with the whole school knowing, this meant that malleus’s number one fanboy, sebek zigvolt knew about this too.

in classes all he can think about are ways to make you stay far far away from malleus. all the plans that he has thought of so far didn’t manage to work for whatever reason like he was jinxed. he really thought to go as far as to come crying and begging to the one and only azul ashengrotto to make a deal with him. just to keep you away from malleus. however, he kept debating with himself, was it really worth it? didn’t he have to give up his magic to make a deal with the infamous ashengrotto? well he wouldn’t have to resort to that for now. besides there were no rumors blooming around the school about you trying to confess to malleus anyways, so he could stay calm. sebek sighed as he roamed the hallways, trying to find the young master. his eyes lit up when he saw the familiar horns. “MALLEUS-SA-” before he could finish his sentence, he saw you trailing behind him as you tried your best to approach him. you were an inch close to tapping his shoulder before you felt a force pushing you back. you shrieked slightly and fell back. 

malleus was about to turn his head to see what the ‘thud’ was before sebek rushed to him and made him turn his head away. “malleus-sama! we best not be late for lunch! the cafeteria will get full!” hesitantly malleus followed sebek. the two diasomnia students walked away, leaving you trying to stand up from the cold floor of the hallway and brush the dirt off your uniform. “(y/n)-san...are you alright?” you heard a familiar voice call out with a flowery scent like someone spending too much time in the botanical gardens. it was jade leech. “yes. i’m fine. i think..?” he extended a hand and gladly pulled you back up on your feet. “ehhh did that first year really push koebi-chan?” you heard floyd from behind you. “no! it’s not like that...well...maybe...? i’m not sure.” you sighed. jade placed a reassuring hand on your shoulder. “(y/n)-san, perhaps you might feel better if you sat with us in the cafeteria today.” floyd cheered as this sentence left jade’s mouth. “yaaay! koebi-chan’s sitting with us! come on, koebi-chan! that’s a yes right~” 

well...what could go wrong? besides it was better than sitting alone and just thinking about ways to approach malleus and avoid sebek. “mm, okay. i guess...” jade chuckled while floyd took your hand and dragged you all the way to the cafeteria. he sat down right beside you as jade sat down beside azul. “oya..? it’s a rare occasion seeing you sit with us, (y/n).” azul commented after taking a bite from his salad. “ah...yeah. jade and floyd invited me. i hope you don’t mind.” azul shook his head. “not at all!” he smiled, however there was a change in his expression and a change in the aura around you. “(y/n)...” he trailed off. “you look troubled.”

“eh?! troubled? what...what do you mean...?” azul chuckled. “not meaning to pry, but is everything alright? you seem a little...off.” jade and floyd agreed by nodding. “and a little distant.” jade added. “you look a little sad too.” floyd spoke. a hint of confusion struck you. how did they..? why did they even..? you weren’t feeling like being sentimental at the moment so you wanted to brush it off. “what? me? really? no, you guys i’m fine! really.” you gave them a little smile. they didn’t buy it at all. how fake the three of them thought. “(y/n)-san please...we only want what’s best for you.” you faced jade to see his face plastered with compassion and worry. “you know you can trust us right~” floyd smiled and grabbed your hand, trying to reassure you. “please, (y/n). if there’s anything wrong, we want to be here to help.” azul finished. the octavinelle trio worked wonders with their ways of persuading people, almost like putting them under a hypnosis. “i...” their eyes sparkled. “yes?”

“i just feel slightly weird.” you shrugged. “ah, is this about draconia-san?” your ears perked up at jade’s comment. “well...kind of..? it’s related to that but it’s not entirely...” floyd pouted. “koebi-chan why don’t you just tell him how you feel?” this time it was your turn to pout. “look it’s not that easy. i don’t have the courage to tell him and besides if i did, then there’s no way i can get past his bodyguard.” azul, jade, and floyd eyed each other. “ah, you mean sebek zigvolt?” to be completely honest you didn’t mind him when the year first started. sure he was clingy to malleus but he didn’t really bother you that much. only as the year went on and as your love for the diasomnia dorm leader blossomed, he became much more annoying and hostile towards you. he sure could be very irritating at times. “is that why you fell today?” you cursed jade for being so damn attentive. 

“well i’m sure he didn’t do it on purpose. maybe it was just an accident...” floyd rolled his eyes. “really koebi-chan? you really think he didn’t do that on purpose?” you bit your bottom lip. well you were in an extremely close proximity to malleus so...maybe it was on purpose. but no! he couldn’t have done that...could he? “ah i’ve been hearing about these things. sebek zigvolt would stop at nothing to keep at others away from draconia.” the three exchanged glances once more and all chuckled. “i’m surprised he hasn’t come running to us for a contract.” azul joked. you tried your best to chuckle with them but your mind was too busy with the thought of sebek purposely harming you just to keep you away from malleus. “(y/n), he can be a very irritating first year and dangerous even! he means you harm...all for his senpai who doesn’t even consider him...so are you sure he’s not the root of all your problems?” 

“i mean yeah...but still-” floyd cut off your sentence. “i heard he pushed someone off the stairs last time.” those words rang in your ear. what? “oh no, the audacity. a rumor circulating the heartslabyul dorm said that he tried to curse the first year, deuce spade, for helping draconia-san fix something.” huh..is he..? what are they..? “how scary.” azul shook his head before facing you. “do you see how much of a threat he is, (y/n)? i don’t mean to scare you...but imagine if you tried to confess your feelings to your love, malleus draconia? surely he would do something unspeakable...” you held your own hand, feeling it tremble. “eh?! koebi-chan!” floyd put a reassuring hand on your shoulder. “you three really think...he’s a threat..?” azul sighed hesitantly. “as much as we hate to admit it, (y/n), we think so.” 

“we only want your safety. we only want you to be safe. we only want you to be safe while getting what you want...” jade trailed off. “winning the heart of malleus draconia.” floyd finished jade’s sentence. “getting your beautiful dream come true as spring is in bloom.” azul added. “then..what should i do? i really don’t want to be hurt, but at the same time...i want to be closer to malleus-senpai.” you were close to tears. your mind was clouded with different thoughts circling around and making you overthink. “(y/n) we would be happy to help. we really want to help you find and get rid of the root of this issue.” you failed to realize the hidden smirk on azul’s face. “meet us in the mostro lounge tonight at seven pm.” the clock struck one, time for the next class. the three stood up, with smirks and grins which showed the leech twin’s razor sharp teeth. “remember, we only want what’s best for you. we’ll teach him that he’s barking up the wrong tree. so please consider our offer...you can get your happily ever after easily.” azul spoke in a hushed tone before leaving you there in a state of dilemma. 

a contract with the sneaky octopus, for the sake of satisying your never-ending blossoming dreams of a happy ending and your own safety...

AT the end of that same week, sebek anxiously paced to the mostro lounge. “oh...we have a visitor!” floyd cheered. “welcome to the mostro lounge, sebek-san. what is it you need?” jade put down a pair of scissors after snipping flower stems and arranging them in a vase. “i want a deal with azul ashengrotto!” he barked. “you’re in luck...he’s in the vip room right now. please head inside and we can discuss this...civilly.” sebek gulped loudly while stepping inside the vip room. “ah! if it isn’t sebek zigvolt. talk about you has been spreading faster than weeds in a garden...” azul chuckled as the door behind him closed. “please have a seat. what is it that you want?” sebek didn’t even bother sitting down as he barged to azul. “i want to make a deal with you! i want that pathetic human to stay far away from malleus-sama!” azul’s eyes widened before chuckling. “how straightforward...how desperate...you poor unfortunate soul. trying your best to protect the young master...”

“so?! is it a deal?” jade interrupted. “if i may ask, why in such a hurry?” floyd snickered. “it’s like you’re whining ‘cause you got a thorn stuck in your foot or something...” sebek clenched his fist. “i heard a couple of rumors that...that human is going to confess to malleus-sama tomorrow after school ends in the meadow behind the school!” jade and floyd’s eyes widened as they exchanged glances. so you did decide to confess...”so please! i beg of you!” azul placed his pointer finger on his chin, thinking for a while. “well...i can’t turn a client down. especially not with this kind of opportunity...” a bright, glowing contract appeared in front of sebek. he anxiously took the pen and inched his hand closer to the contract as azul explained all the terms and conditions including the collateral. “do we have a deal?” sebek nodded confidently. he was sure he was going to beat you, in a way. he was positive he was going to stop you from confessing to malleus. “yes. we do.” azul chuckled evilly. “excellent.” oh how happy he was. he was going to get everything he wanted both from you and from sebek...oh how he was one step ahead of the both of you.

the next day, you anxiously waited at the meadows. just waiting for love. when you saw him step towards you, a huge smile was plastered on your face. “malleus-senpai!” your eyes widened when you saw a gentle smile being reciprocated. “(y/n). pleasure to be here.” you swallowed all your fear and anxiety and tried your best to plant it in the back of your mind. “i have something to tell you...” meanwhile sebek started running to the back of the school, ready to scream with all his might to distract malleus away from you and so he wouldn’t accept your confession. in the middle of the way, he felt his legs becoming heavy...what’s going on?! he felt weak...surprisingly not in pain...he looked down to see his legs...withering away into a bunch of flower petals. no NO NO NO! “as collateral for this magic amplifier, all of your magic will be given to me. if he however, somehow manages to accept (y/n)’s feelings, then all your magic will be mine.” sebek knew he was confident in beating you to it. so he agreed. but he didn’t know that you were one step ahead of him...that you signed a deal with the cunning octopus before he did!

sebek looked down at his hands which were now withering away. the magic amplifier fell out of his pocket as they started to disappear as well into a bunch of flower petals. meanwhile you poured your heart and soul into your confession as you were ready to accept whatever answer he was about to give you. you were expecting rejection...but all malleus did was chuckle. “oh (y/n). i knew this whole time. you really ought to be better at keeping secrets.” your jaw dropped. “eh...eh..? I’M SORRY! I’M REALLY SORRY! I’M SORRY IF YOU THINK I’M A CREEP OR-” he leaned down and landed a kiss on your lips, stopping your sentence midway. so this means...yes huh? your eyes widened as you were surrounded by multicolored petals dancing in the wind. this was everything you dreamed of. this was everything you wanted. this was your happily ever after. just like azul promised...

“we ensure you your happily ever after, (y/n). we’ll give you the scene you’ve always wanted. we’ll give you your fantasy. we’ll ensure your safety as well. as for your collateral, all you need to do is just confess to malleus draconia by sunset at the end of the week. that’s all...see. you can trust us. we wish for his love to bloom to ensure...all of our happy endings.”

♡

okay this was long, which i didn’t expect it to be...? anyways idk if the foreshadowing worked or not but probably didn’t lol. i just inputted a bunch of words and scenes related to flowers and plants hinting at the ending lol so sorry if it sucks. i’ll try to write more stories like this to improve it ;w; okay ik it was supposed to be a malleus x reader thing but it’s very heavily focused on you and the octavinelle bois...hmmm

but hey, at least you got your happy ending...

love, a♕

[nataliedanovelist]

GF - All Star

Summary: A deep, dark secret about Ford is slowly revealed to his family, and he’s not ready.

For Skaleigh, wherever she may be...

~~~~~~~~~~

A few days after Weirdmegeddon, Ford was exiting the basement, taking a break from cleaning it out today. Stan had been recovering from his memory loss beautifully and so Ford decided to get a certain chore done on this rainy day. He could hear something, however, that made him freeze as a shiver ran down his spine and his race turned as red as his sweater.

“... start coming and they don't stop coming,

Fed to the rules and I hit the ground running.

Didn't make sense not to live for fun.

Your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb.”

Recognizing who’s voice that was, Ford began to relax. The sweet smell of vanilla and sugar graced his schnoz and he followed the music to the kitchen. There, Mabel was in her little pink apron over her sprinkle-sweater, dancing around the kitchen as she mixed icing with food coloring in little bowls. The radio was playing on the kitchen table, a little dirty with flour, and the whole kitchen was a mess, but Ford couldn't help but smile at his beautiful niece as her hair flew everywhere as she danced and sang her heart out. When the chorus came, she banged her head and put the bowl of light-blue icing on the counter to dance more freely.

“Hey now, you're an all-star, get your game on, go play!

Hey now, you're a rock star, get the show on, get paid!

And all that glitters is gold!

Only shooting stars break the mold.”

At the words “shooting stars”, Mabel attempted a flip and fell on her face, just like she did at the dance party at the beginning of summer. Ford winced and made a move towards her, slightly emerging from his hiding spot at the doorway, but stopped when Mabel sprung up, unhurt, and declared to herself and the kitchen, “I’m okay!” Her eyes landed on her uncle and she grinned. “Grunkle Ford! Whatcha doin’?”

“I thought I would take a break from cleaning.” Ford explained casually with a shrug while Mabel turned down the radio a little so they could talk better. “Having fun?”

“Yeah!” Mabel pointed to the twelve cupcakes that were cooling on the stove and said, “I’m making everyone a snack. Want one?”

“I would love one, my dear. Thank you.”

“Ah, ah.” Mabel wiggled a finger at him. “You have to do something for it, first.”

Ford raised an eyebrow at her and held his cleft chin. “Oh?”

Mabel opened the drawer she knew Ford kept his apron in and pulled out his old My Other Oven is a Bunsen apron. “You have to decorate the cupcakes with me.”

Ford grinned and happily accepted the protective clothing against stains. “Well, I suppose it’s only fair that I help you if I’m going to have one. Do we have to share with Stanley and Dipper?”

“Nope!” Mabel giggled. “We can eat them all ourselves! Six each!”

Ford laughed alongside her and she gave him a small bowl of white icing to color however he wanted. He carefully added a few drops of green, seeing how Mabel had already made blue and red and was working on yellow, and she began to dance a little again and she jumped into song.

“Somebody once asked could I spare some change for gas?

I need to get myself away from this place.

I said ‘Yep what a concept,

I could use a little fuel myself,

And we could all use a little change.’”

Ford chuckled, mixing the icing, and he couldn’t help himself; he made himself jump in.

“Well, the years start coming and they don't stop coming,

Fed to the rules and I hit the ground running.

Didn't make sense not to live for fun.

Your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb.”

Mabel gasped in shock for a number of reasons. A) She had never heard Grunkle Ford sing before. 2) She didn’t think he would know this song, let alone the words. And D) His voice was actually very pretty. Mabel grinned and they happily sang together until the song changed to a commercial for Cam’s Camshafts and they began to decorate the cupcakes.

~~~~~~~~~~

Stan yawned as he stretched his tired limbs. He had been sitting out on the deck of the Stan O’ War II, watching the sun set, and he was now in a sleepy trance. Time to put on some warm, fuzzy pajamas and turn on the little TV in the kitchen.

Stan went into his shared bedroom and stopped when he accidentally walked in on Ford in a towel, his back to the entrance and unaware of the intruder as he dug through his drawer for new clothes. Stan was careful to be quiet and give his jumpy brother some space, planning on leaving him alone, but something caught his eye.

During the Stanswitch, Ford insisted on Stan turning away, uncomfortable with what his twin might see. Despite Stan’s insistence that it wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before, Ford practically begged him not to look, so Stan went along with it until he had shed his suit, leaving only his dark pants and undershirt, and he turned to switch clothes, but he found Ford bent over, his back littered with dozens of ugly cars, trophies for surviving out in the Multiverse for thirty years. Stan had thought that this was the reason for Ford’s modesty and thick sweaters (and okay, sure, the guy had always been a little chilly), but maybe there was another reason.

Stan grinned. No. Way. He slipped away, deciding he would enjoy making fun of Ford when he would least expect it, and he immediately left for the kitchen silently and quickly texted Dipper and Mabel.

A few weeks past since Stan knew Ford’s secret and he had pocketed it away as his “secret weapon”; of course, Dipper and Mabel knew and Stan wished he could have seen the looks on their faces or heard them laugh, but oh well. The kids swore to keep it between the two of them, but Stan wouldn’t be surprised if all of Gravity Falls kenw at this point. Something to look forward to this summer.

Stan had half-forgotten about Ford’s secret until they were at a small shop in Liverpool, England and something jogged the old conman’s memory. A CD was sitting in a 50% off bucket and Stan could have sworn a beam of light from Heaven was shining on the little box. Stan snatched it and hid it in his jacket for later.

The next day Stan couldn’t wait any longer. They were gently coasting on the Irish Sea, the spring weather being warm and calm and pleasant. Ford was out on the deck, reading a map, and Stan sat their radio down, the disc already in place. “Hey Sixer,” It took everything in Stan to hide his snicker. “Mind if I play some music?”

Ford hardly looked up from the map. “Huh? Oh sure, Stanley. Go ahead.”

With the biggest grin Stan had probably ever made in his life, he pressed play.

SomeBODY once told me the world is gonna roll me,

I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed.

Ford’s polydactyl hands clenched the map so tightly it nearly destroyed the papered material. He lowered it as his face blushed so furiously it matched his maroon sweater perfectly. Sweat was dripping from his forehead profoundly, his eyebrows were nearly hidden in his fluffy hair, they were so high, and his eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

Stan snorted, trying to contain his laughter just a little bit longer. “You like this song, don't you? Oh man, here comes my FAVORITE part!” And to make sure he could embarrass his brother as much as he could, Stan sang along.

“Hey now, you're an all-star, get your game on, go play!

Hey now, you're a rock star, get the show on, get paid!

And all that glitters is gold! (I like gold.)

Only shooting stars break the mold.”

And then Stan couldn’t hold it any longer. He busted into a huge fit of laughter, holding his ribs and wheezing as Ford sheepishly lowered his head into the map and hid in shame. When the song was over and Stan was slowing down in his laughing, Ford snapped and spun around, crumpling the map down and scowling.

“How did you find out?!” He demanded, still incredibly red in the face, even his ears were pink.

“I’m your twin, Genius,” Stan huffed, whipping his eyes dry of tears. “I’m bound to notice a couple of things when stuck on a boat with you. I gotta ask, though, why in Moses’ name…”

“It wasn’t intentional, I can assure you of that.” Ford said to try to preserve his dignity. “I had fought a battle alongside a tribe of octopus-armed warrior piglets since they shared their food and water with me. They were quite friendly, unlike the gang of penguin-finned lizards we encountered. It is customary for their tribe to have a grand party after a battle is won in which they all get tattoos. I had misjudged how… erm, intoxicated their drinks would make me, and when it was my turn to get a tattoo of my choosing, I had a certain song stuck in my head and sung it out loud, so the artist delivered my drunken request."

Stan burst into another fit of laughter, one that oddly sounded friendlier than the last one. Like, Ford was supposed to laugh with him. Ford, despite still being very red and embarrassed, couldn’t help but smile. “Oh, man! That’s gotta be your best story from out in the Multiverse yet!”

Ford saw that as a challenge and sat in one of the chairs to get comfortable. “I can think of at least five better stories.”

Stan quickly sat in the other chair like an excited child for a new movie and Ford dove into telling of some of the more fun-filled adventures he had experienced.

~~~~~~~~~~

Summer of 2014 was upon them and the Pines couldn’t be happier. The kids were joyous to be where they felt at home, and even though the old sailors were living the dream, it would be nice to take a three-month break and see their favorite pair of twins.

About two weeks after an emotional reunion, the kids were gently reminded of something they had on their Summer bucket-list.

Much like Stan, they planned their little attack carefully so they may truly enjoy their uncle’s misery. The gift shop was open, but slow. Wendy was behind the counter, Soos was reading a comic book and sitting on a closed barrel, and Dipper and Mabel were grinning like crazy on the porch, the screen door wide open. Mabel popped the CD in the radio and turned up the volume.

SomeBODY once told me the world is gonna roll me,

I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed.

She was looking kind of dumb with her finger and her thumb

In the shape of an "L" on her forehead.

Mabel immediately jumped into rap-like singing, dancing around the porch. Dipper chuckled, hands in his pocket and tapping his foot, but Soos laughed, put down the comic, and took Mabel’s hands to dance. They giggled as they tried to sing along, and at the chorus they stopped dancing so they could sing the lyrics as loud as they could.

“Hey now, you're an all-star, get your game on, go play!

Hey now, you're a rock star, get the show on, get paid!

And all that glitters is gold! 

Only shooting stars break the mold.”

Wendy was banging her head, red hair flying everywhere. Stan suddenly showed up in his boxers and slippers, grinning, and said over the music, “I was awoken by the sound of mockery through pop music! I want in!” He bumped his hips against Dipper to make him move and he danced obnoxiously, making his nephew laugh and dance a little more enthusiastically. 

A little later, at the halfway point of the song, Ford stood at the screen door with a puzzled look. “What’s going on…?”

“Hey now, you're an all-star, get your game on, go play!

Hey now, you're a rock star, get the show on, get paid!

And all that glitters is gold! (I like gold.)

Only shooting stars…”

Ford looked like he had a sunburn on his entire face. He swallowed, making his Adam’s Apple bobble, and his jaw was tight. Stan laughed at his face and hollered, “THERE’S the man of the hour!”

“Come on, Stan Two, you love this song, right?” Wendy teased.

“Oh no…”

“C’mon, Dr. Pines, wanna dance?” Soos asked, still dancing with Mabel.

“Oh, here comes my favorite part…” Mabel chimed in.

“Hey now, you're an all-star, get your game on, go play!

Hey now, you're a rock star, get the show on, get paid!

And all that glitters is gold!

Only shooting stars break the mold.”

Ford slammed the door shut. The five were as still as statues, wincing a little. “Did we take it too far?” Dipper asked.

“Ah, let the big baby be mad for a minute if he wants to.” Stan said, ruffing up his hat. “I’ll go talk to him in a minute…”

But then the door was kicked open by Ford’s boot and his friends and family were startled to find him heavily armed with water guns. “ONLY SHOOTING STARS BREAK THE MOLD!” He sang, and then shot everyone with water.

Everyone broke into hefty laughter and ran for it. The old scientist was hot on their tails, but Mabel managed to slip away to the closet filled with emergency water-guns and balloons. She hurried back to the battle and tossed everyone some weapons, and soon it was a confused mess of soaked clothes, loud laughter, and exploding balloons.

At one point during the fun fight, he paused to take off his glasses and wipe the water from them. Mabel accidentally bumped into his leg and smiled sheepishly at him, expecting to be sprayed without mercy, but Ford hoisted her up in his shoulders and they worked together. Up three feet higher than she was used to being, Mabel could see things she normally couldn’t. Like a certain tattoo barely poking out of the turtleneck, only visible because Mabel’s weight was pulling the sweater down enough. 

She smiled at it, finding it very pretty, and in the midst of the chaos, considered the idea of one day getting one herself.

[docmanda]

3 or maybe 34 for the Poly Pile? (Or any subset of it)

3. “I love you, I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you.”

They finally corner the ghost in a dilapidated shrine, not too unlike the one Xie Lian had at some point declared home, easily dodging the frantic attacks thrown at them, Xie Lian moving with the inherent grace of a Martial God and He Xuan simply blocking whatever came his way, the attacks too weak to do him any great harm. That was the second time this week already that some trash had interrupted one of their outings and He Xuan was getting fed up with all of it.

“I should just drown the lot of them, have my dragons rip them apart for daring to interrupt everything...”

Ever since it had become public that Crimson Rain Sought Flower and Black Water Sinking Ships had pledged themselves to a single, weak, insignificant little God challenges like this had become frequent, admittance of love being likened to weakness among the more powerful beings in the Ghost Realm after all. And so thinking that either the Devastations had grown soft and weak or, even more often than that, that it would be easy to steal their ashes from a single weakling little God and have them do their bidding they had been getting attacked from all sides.

This one, a Wrath Class ghost, old and pretty powerful even if they were a far cry from a Devastation class yet had turned out to be particularly annoying, leading him and Xie Lian on a merry chase across the country side. He was a nasty piece of work, keeping Xie Lian busy attacking every civilliain and farmer they met, forcing him to exhaust himself  keeping them safe while always just managing to slip out of He Xuan´s grasp, sneakily avoiding anything more than a puddle and continously leading them farther away from the ocean. Black Water was too strong to be weakened by that but not being able to summon his dragons did make it way more annoying then necessary.

What was even worse then that was that He Xuan couldn´t shake the feeling of knowing that particular ghost, some old memory nagging at the back of his brain but he simply could not remember, he was way too old by now to recognize every single person or ghost he had seen throughout his life. In the end it didn´t really matter. At some point he´d get a grip on him and tear him apart and then go have dinner with Xie Lian, he was -hungry-.

He is already busy thinking about where to take his A-Lian -hot pot maybe, he did like that last time, or that little fish restaurant close to his own domain that made that great sweet and sour squid- so when the dying wrath kneeling in front of him spits at him, the words dripping from his mouth like acid He Xuan is too stunned to even react

“Fucking Devastations think they´re the shit, I bet that wife of yours welcomed the knife that slit her throat!”

For a moment He Xuan is frozen, his always pale face looking even more pallid then usual with the shock, eyes wide in horror when something finally clicks into place and he recognizes the face in front of him as one of the jailors that loved to torture them back then, eating while standing in front of the bars, laughing at the starving prisoners begging him for scraps. But before he can shake himself free and tear apart the insolent piece of shit cowering before him a thin, long, black blade tears through it´s chest, bending slightly from the raw force of the thrust, an ear splitting scream the last thing they hear before the ghost shatters into a thousand pieces, ripped apart by a powerful golden blast, courtesy of the raging God behind it.

Before He Xuan can even blink the sword drops with a ´clang´ and soft warm hands, sticky with blood cup his face.

“A-Xuan? YuYu? Love, are you alright?”

The pure worry in Xie Lian´s voice finally wakes He Xuan from his stupor, making him nod while simultaneously saying “No.” much to his own confusion and before he can figure himself out he gets pulled into a tight hug, the warm body against his more familiar then even his own, the scent of incense and flowers always clinging to Xie Lian comforting like nothing else could ever be. He Xuan lets himself be held for some time until the onslaught of memories, all of them bad and painful, has subsided a bit...and then he realizes something.

“You killed him. Shattered him. Completely. You never like it when we do that.”

Xie Lian pulls back slightly, just enough to place a soft kiss on He Xuan´s mouth,worry and rage still visible in his beautiful, amber eyes.

“Of course I did.” Another soft kiss gets placed on He Xuan´s cheek and the tip of his nose,kissing away the tears that had gathered there without his consent.

“I love you, I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you.”

34. “you’re cuddly”

“You´re cuddly today. I´m supposed to practice my writing.” Hua Cheng says, sighing lightly and putting away his calligraphy brush to instead comb through the slick black hair spread all over his lap. He Xuan had been napping often these last few days, the push and pull of the Ghost Realm making him sluggish and cranky.

He Xuan snorts, curling himself tightly around Crimson Rain seated at his writing table, like a particularly clingy octopus. He knew it was just a token protest, Hua Cheng welcoming every distraction that would keep him from having to put letters on paper after all.

“No amount of practice can ever help with that abomination you call writing, honestly Crimson Rain, that stuff is a disservice to people with eyes everywhere. And I am frequently cuddly.”

“Usually not with me though, that honor belongs to A-Lian.”

But their Beloved had been gone for some hours now, attending business at his shrine, leaving He Xuan sleeping and Hua Cheng wrestling with his writing.

“Hm, just see it as a special blessing then. A-Lian always scratches my head a little, oh, yes, like that please don´t stop...”

Hua Cheng has to supress a grin as he gently drags sharp nails across He Xuan´s scalp, the other Devastations eyes closed in pure bliss, humming with pleasure.

“You are such a cat sometimes Black Water, I bet you would purr if you could.”

He Xuan blinks open one golden, lazy eye, sticking out his tongue while nearly swallowing Hua Cheng with the yawn that follows

"..meow. And don´t stop scratching.”

(there you go, hope you like them also poly pile made me laugh so hard, I LOVE IT^^)

(also google translate says that 鱼 Yú means fish in chinese, so I went with YuYu as a nickname cause it´s cute if google is wrong please tell me ^^”)

[varian-varient]

“I-I-I... to s-say... to tel-l you... I-I mean...”

Gift for @kingtamakimurder!! <3 HAPPY VALENTINES DAY. I LOVE YOU.

1- I know cherry blossoms do not bloom in February, it just fits my vision. 2- Yes, it’s 110% Valentines in the ficlette, I started this a while ago and thought I would finish this sooner than Christmas. 3- Please teach me how to format on mobile. 4- lmao y’all, good luck reading the confession, you have to fill in the stutter and pauses better than I could write.

Word Count: 2,400-ish.

KISSES!!! (ɔˆ ³(ˆ⌣ˆc)

|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|

It tumbled out of your locker when you were talking to Nejire. You didn’t notice it at first, but the gasp she made was enough to make you worry. She held your arm and jumped, repeating “oh my god!” in your ear in various pitches and volumes.

“Meet me under the old Cherry Blossom tree by Ground Xi during lunch?”

You think she squealed louder than you did. The little note was perfect- the script was neat and well practiced, something you don’t think you could recognize and the missing signature didn’t help. The little drawing of the bunny at the bottom was adorable, and oddly familiar. You held it too your face and smiled- it smelled like vanilla. You hoped it was from him...

Valentine’s Day was the only day where people could fawn over all the crushes they had without being ridiculed. However, you still couldn’t tell yours. He was... a work in progress, some times. But he was worth the work and time. His smile, his laughter, everything was worth every second it took to make him smile. Tamaki was your everything- even if you weren’t his.

You started to like him after your first year Sports Festival. After walking to the stage to fight you, he got nervous after some of the other students cheered both of you on and he accidentally activated his quirk- chicken wings to hide himself, but he was an angel. For the rest of the battle you couldn’t stop thinking about how... angelic, perfect, absolutely beautiful he looked. He eventually just knocked you out of the ring, muttering a thousand apologies. It was when he got to the final battle with Mirio did he actually fight.... kidding- those idiots played three rounds of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” and decide the winner off of that. Tamaki won.

But that was 2 years ago! You couldn’t harbor feelings like this for going on 3 years! ......... It was a lie and you knew it; Mirio and Nejire knew it; the class knew it; the teachers knew it; the only one who didn’t know it was Tamaki himself. You would laugh at his jokes, smile at him, wave to him, made sure his comments were taken care of in group activities if Mirio wasn’t around, ask him questions about his day or weekend, have him know that someone was watching out for him.

Few times did you talked to him alone- you felt your face flush thinking about him- he would turn away and nod to questions or comments. Hardly would he actually respond back to you. Sometimes, on days he’s was flushed and sick, he would avoid you all together. It was nice to think he was afraid of getting you sick too.

As you left to leave for class, you ran into Mirio and Tamaki talking in a mostly empty hallway. Mirio was giving Tamaki his daily pep talk, but this one looked more personal. A loud “YOU GAVE IT TO HER?” echoed, pride and terror both laced Mirio’s tone. As they locked eyes with you, Tamaki shied away against a window. You waved, but only one waved back- almost robotic and forced for the situation. Passing by them, you smiled to Tamaki. He only gave a half smile back- and with the small glimpse of his face you saw, he was as red as you could remember him to be. What a horrible day to get sick on...

You walked the rest of the way to class, mostly lost in thought, even with Nejire beating on your arm. Crossing paths with your homeroom teacher, Present Mic, you silently greeted him with a lovesick smile on your face. Nejire walked in behind you, talking her head off about anything and everything. You over heard a quick “Did he...? Oh my god! He did?!” and “Yes! He did!” from Nejire and Mic. Those two could gossip together more than any other student.

As you sat and got your desk ready for class, you spaced out thinking about the note, and Tamaki, and who ever else you could think of who could have writen it. There was the electric blond from 1-A; the shadow girl from 2-C; the one student from 2-B you sometimes tutored; but everything lead to Tama-

“So? You gonna go?” Nejire whispered loudly, catching you out of thought. She pulled a chair up to your desk and sprawled a crossed your table. You looked up and away from her- accidently catching Mic-Sensei; his grin was enough to make you give up. You titled your head a little, looking away from Mic, and signed. “I’ll go, but it would feel like cheating on my feelings...if I said yes.” you whispered back. Nejire sat up straight, determination on her face. She gave you a small frown and opened her mouth to make another comment.

“What about cheating?” A voice boomed out before she could though, it was Mirio with Tamaki behind him. You gave both boys a better greeting from the first as Nejire beamed at them, waving her arms and talked louder than she needed to. “Our little one here got a confession note!” Nejire gushed about. “It fell out her locker in front of her face and she didn’t even see it. And it’s got the cutest little bunny on it, and she keeps smelling it!” Most of the class comments died down, and looked at the four of you waiting on the rest of the commotion.

“S-smelling it?” Tamaki murmured, his cheeks were a slightly less shade of pink as you locked eyes. He turned on his heels and walked to his seat, not letting anyone talk to him. He knocked his head to the top of his desk, and wrapped his arms around himself. His ears peaked from behind his hair- red as the octopus he eats. Nauseous...?

Classes were more than uneventful. More homework, no hero training for the day. Something or another about a request from the other girls. Most teacher didn’t do anything and let people talk quietly. Earserhead came by last second before lunch to ask for Tamaki, you didn’t know why but the class held their breath at it. For once was Tamaki confident, walking out with one of the most hard teachers.

They left for the hallway, the class erupted in comments. “Do you think...”, “It has to be, he’s friends with the red kid.”, “Holy shit, she’s not going to believe it.”, “This is gonna be like a fairytale!” Little comments pulled you to and from person to person. What was Tamaki going to do? Did he get in trouble? Who is “she”? What has Kirishima to do with it? Your head was swamped with dread, thinking that he was in trouble.

The lunch bell rang and the class ran out of the room. Giggles and the noise following. Nejire stayed behind with you- watching you scarf down the bento you pack- thanks to your quirk you had been limited on what you can eat. She talked enough the fill the silence as you ate. Mostly about her hair, or her nails, or how Yuyu has been doing, or her training.

“For someone afraid to cheat on your feelings, you’re excited enough to go see the note writer!” was the last comment you heard before you booked it out of the classroom. Waving her a salut, you ran down the empty hallway. “Yeah,” you thought. “I’m waiting for Tamaki.”

Finding the tree was easy- it is the only tree as old as quirks itself. Generations upon generations of flowers blooming from its branches. No one was under it yet, you were alone- happily. You steadied your breath once and you walked back and forth, in front of the tree.

Was it just the wind or did you it feel like the blossoms were falling much quicker around you alone? None of the other flowers from other trees were falling as quickly. Trying to look up, the sunlight glared at you to look back down.

You stood, bouncing and walking back and forth, waiting- for what could have felt like hours. Checking your phone, you see that it’s only been 20 minutes. Just long enough for someone to eat, normally, and make their way over to the tree, when not running. You brushed your hands against your face, reminding yourself to breath. They would come when they were ready.

They would come and it would be fine- the writer of the note would be coming and you’d look cute and if it wasn’t Tamaki, you’d gently let them down, and if it was Tamaki, you wouldn’t cry and let him talk first- but if this was a jok-

“L-Lost in th-though-t a-a-again, Bun-Bunny?” a timid voice got you out of the scatterbrained thoughts. You locked eyes with the same shade indigo you were just thinking of. It didn’t click to you who it even was- blinking away. He laughed silently, watching at the gears turned before the lightbulb clicked on.

“Ta-Ta-Tama!” You took a few steps back, and bumped into the tree. You were so ready for it to be him, but now? Now you lost everything you wanted to say to him. Blank minded, you could stare.

He jumped back at same time you did. The slight of his cool demeanor gone. He grasped his hands and pulled at his fingers, a trick Mirio taught him to calm down. Taking a heavy breath, he stayed staring at the ground and begin his nervous rant.

“I-I wasn’t sure i-if you would ev-en come. Mirio sai-d I shoul-d tell you bef-before the year en-ded, but I... wasn’t sure if you-you wanted to... be w-with... me. Fat Gum tol-told me that I-I would re-regret it if... I didn’t tel-l you s-oon, since I see you ev-ery-day and may not-not get to see you as oft-often af-ter grad-gradu-ation- with us becom-becoming heroes and all.... And Kiri-Kirishi-ma and other fir-first years ke-kept giv-ing me re-really b-bad ideas t-to con-fess to... you. Yaya sai-d thi-is would be be-best.” He took a small break and kept talking. He rocked himself; from one foot to the other, and back and forth from his heels to his toes.

“Bu-t I-I did-n’t wa-nt to... em-barr-ass you a-and m-ma-ke you so un-uncom-forta-ble that-that you woul-d leave... me. You’re jus-t ama-zing, a-and st-rong, a-and you nev-never gi-give up t-to anyth-thing. You al-alway-s put other-other people fir-first.” He was rambling and shying himself away. His stutter was getting worse with every passing word.

“Tama, slow down... I would always be here for you...” you knew what he was getting at, but right now you didn’t want him to put you on this pedestal. You just wanted to help him before he launched himself into a panic. He gave a small huff, he looked down harder, twitteling his hands together then grabbing his pants. You reached forwards to grab him, before he wrinkled his pants or ripped them from his grasp, but he took a step back from you. His head still hung low.

“I-I-I... to s-say... to tel-l you... I-I mean...” His stutter was worse. He wasn’t shaking yet, but he has going to be getting there soon. You took another step forward, but he took another step back- he didn’t want the comfort, he wanted to do this. You raised one of your hands out to him, letting him come to you instead. Giving him the softest smile you could, reminding him you’re still you and still here for him. He let go of his pants and grabbed your outstretched hand and just pressed his lips to your knuckle for a few seconds. Letting go of your hand and taking a deep breath, he looked up and looked you in the eyes.

“I wanted to tell you I like you, Bunny.”

For once he didn’t stutter. You collapsed against him and grabbed the back of his shirt, and began to sniffle to stop yourself from crying. Baring your face into his chest- vanilla eloping your mind. He wrapped his arms around you and nervously called for you. You felt yourself begin to tear up anyways. The note was his- this was his declaration to you.

“B-Bunn-y?” There is was. The pauses and stutter you love. The nervous ticks you love. The person you love. He loved you back.

You pulled away ever so sightly, and looked up to him. Your smile was brighter than the sun itself. He felt the same way. He felt the same way and this wasn’t a dream. Your eyes were glossy. You held onto his cheeks and tilted, catching him onto the most chaste, most innocent first kiss. He tensed up for a second and you began to pull away and apologize.

But- soft and gently- his began to kiss back, gliding onto yours. His hands dropped from your back to rest upon you hips, innocently pulling you close. You hands drifted from his face to his hair, tugging the knotted strands. As you parted for a quick breath, he uttered the words against your lips.

“I love you, Bunny.”

You leaned in for another kiss, feeling the tears begin to finally fall, before you both heard it. Whoops and cheers came from above you; you both pulled away and looked up in shock. Classmates and the students from 1-A sat in the tree- waging and waving the branches to make the cherry blossoms fall faster.

“I KNEW IT!” “Go Tamaki!” “Congrats Senpais!” “I told you this would work, Amajiki!” “He finally got the girl!”

You turned away form the monkeys and looked at Tamaki. The word was breathless on your lips. He smiled and held you, whipping away a few stray tears. Your cheeks began to hurt from how much your were smiling.

“Finally?” Like the last of the the tape had been ripped away from him, Tamaki sternly looked at your nose. Keeping his eyes on your face, yes, but still to nervous to look into your eyes again.

“Bunny, I-I.... I’ve lov.... l-liked you gr-eatly sin-since fir-st year. W-ill you please go-o out with...me?” He gasped out the last of the confession and gave a small pause at ‘me’. Like he was waiting for rejection, he turned his head and held his breath. Still holding onto your waist. You placed your hands back onto his cheeks and guided him face you, kissing him again- telling him he’s been the only one in your heart.

While everyone knew about your crush on Tamaki but him; everyone knew about Tamaki’s crush on you but you.

[quickspinner]

Hey Gorgeous - Under Your Skin 9

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |  Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16

A continuation of Hey Gorgeous Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Bonus Scene | Now on AO3

“I can’t see her, I hope she’s here,” Luka said fretfully, peeking out of the backstage door after the set. He couldn’t see anything from the stage, which was probably just as well since he had a performance to focus on. He’d killed it, too, if he did say so himself, with the boost that came from the extra buzz in his veins from knowing she was out there.

“Oh she’s here,” Juleka grinned. “And she came to slay. You’re gonna be sorry you wore such tight pants.” 

“Gross, Jules,” Luka muttered, ears reddening. “I don’t want to hear that from my sister.” She came up beside him and pointed. He followed the direction of her finger and, in a lucky flash of light, spotted Marinette alone at a high top near the bar, much closer than he had originally been looking. “Shit, you weren’t kidding,” he muttered, staring. 

She was wearing the black dress and her makeup made her blue eyes really pop even under the club lights. Luka bit his lip. His stomach felt like jelly just looking at her. He had to turn way and shut the door for a minute just to breathe. 

“Chicken,” Juleka muttered next to him, smirking.

Luka scowled. “I’m going. In a minute.”

“Your mouth is moving but all I hear is bock bock bock.”

“Juleka!” Rose scolded, and then smiled at Luka. “Go for it Luka, I believe in you.” 

Luka grinned and looked at Juleka, pointing to Rose. “Keep this one, I like her.” He took a breath. “Okay,” he muttered, “Here I go.”

She looked even better up close. He wasn’t the only one who noticed, either, he could tell. Deciding not to waste any more time, he made his way to her table and leaned his elbows on it. 

“Hey Gorgeous,” he flashed her a grin. “What brings you out tonight?”

“I c-came for the mmmmusic,” she said with a one shouldered shrug that made his heart race. “But I sure wouldn’t mind some c-company.“ She gave him a slow once over and his nails bit into his palms. “You look a little d-dangerous, though.” She put her straw between her lips and looked up at him through her lashes.

“How’s that, Gorgeous,” he asked, already curious what her game would be.

“Well you know, I l-like your sssmile,” Marinette put her chin in her hand so she was both leaning toward him and looking up at him. “B-b-but every time I look in your eyes I feel like I’m l-lost at ssssea.”

Delighted, Luka leaned in, keeping his voice low. “You’re safe with me, baby, I was born on the water,” Luka murmured, fighting to keep the grin that wanted to split his face to something more like a seductive smirk. “But I gotta say, if I was lost at sea with you, getting back to shore would be the last thing on my mind.” 

“You wwwouldn’t take me h-home?” she said innocently, batting those huge blue eyes.

Luka was absolutely going to die. “I’d take you to heaven. That’s where you came from, isn’t it?” He reached up and played with a tendril of her hair, making sure to brush his fingers along the back of her neck in the process. Her head tipped back slightly, her lips parting as her eyelids fluttered for a moment. 

“Cheater,” she gasped lightly. 

“God, can you blame me, Gorgeous?” he sighed, moving his hand around to run his thumb along her jaw. “You’re a work of art, you know that? Please say I can kiss you.” 

She withdrew slightly, tugging his hand away from her neck. “T-too p-public,” she said, tangling his fingers with hers and resting their hands on the table. “Y-you ssssounded great.” 

Luka swallowed his disappointment and smiled back at her. “You liked it?”

“Y-yeah,” she grinned, and would have said more, except she was interrupted by a squeal and Luka suddenly found a body attached to his free arm. He was somewhat accustomed to this after shows, though the timing this time made it a little harder not to roll his eyes. He gave Marinette an apologetic glance before plastering on a smile and turning to get rid of his fans as politely as possible. 

The first group moved on easily enough but they only made way for a slightly more inebriated girl who got a little handsy. Luka was holding off her octopus hands and looking around for a bouncer when Marinette stepped between them and shoved the girl firmly back. “H-he sssaid he’s b-busy.”

“I’ll keep him busy,” the girl purred, making eyes at him over Marinette’s shoulder. 

Marinette turned, hooked her arm around his neck, pulled him down and kissed him, and hell if it wasn’t one of the best moments of his life. He found he was completely okay with being manhandled if it was Marinette doing it, and in fact he would encourage it in future as much as possible. He’d taken the lead in all their kissing before and it had been great but she was a force of nature now and all he could do was close his eyes, hold onto her hips, and let her kiss him stupid.

When he could process his surroundings again, octopus girl was gone and there were three girls standing there with folded arms, smirking at them. 

“Well I was going to ask you to introduce us,” the one he recognized as Marinette’s roommate, giggled. “But after that I’m not sure the boy remembers his own name.”

“Damn straight,” Luka said breathlessly, absently wooing lipstick off his face. “Holy shit, Gorgeous.” 

Marinette made an embarrassed moan and covered her face with her hands. “Alya!”

“That’s not going to save you, girl,” Alya laughed, along with her friends. 

Luka slipped his arm around Marinette’s waist and squeezed lightly, and offered his hand in the general direction of her friends. “While I’m trying to remember my name, can you tell me yours?”

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |  Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22

A continuation of Hey Gorgeous Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Bonus Scene | Now on AO3

[vellaphoria]

Tim (not Red Robin) owning a cape!

“I kind of want to ask, but I don’t think I want to know.”

Tim runs the edges of the cape through his hands, pulling the kinks out of the fabric.

“What,” he asks, turning to Dick. “You don’t get the reference?”

In the mirror, the cape’s reflection swishes along with it. A few tufts of cheap black velvet shake loose and drift to the floor. One ear of the plastic Batman mask Tim is wearing is longer than the other.

The look Dick gives him tells Tim that the question won’t be dignified with a response.

As if he can talk.

It isn’t that Dick didn’t put a lot of time into his costume. He definitely did. But the red wig, green lipstick, and gauzy, see-through leotard barely covered with leaves where it counts…

Well, the paparazzi’s going to have a field day with that one.

Tim just shrugs. The cape shrugs with him. Around the ill-fitting, plastic mask, he growls, “because I’m Batman,” in his best approximation of the Batsuit’s synths.

Dick, to his credit, almost doesn’t laugh at it.

And then almost immediately doubles over, done in by laughing.

“He’s actually going to kill you. You know that, right?” he manages to get out between bouts of it.

“Oh, I know. But I have to do something to get back at him for trying to bench me from patrol.”

That sobers Dick up.

“Tim,” he starts. “Last week you forgot to take your meds and literally almost got sepsis. You should be happy we’re even letting you go to this.”

Tim scowls at him. He hopes Dick appreciates exactly how unhappy he is with this entire development.

“This is why I never come home.”

It’s the wrong thing to say. Between one breath and the next, Dick is right next to him, hugging him. Tim’s face gets crushed against flimsy gauze and toned muscle.

Eventually, Tim resigns himself to his fate and hugs back.

“Calm down,” he mumbles against Dick’s chest. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Dick squeezes him a little tighter. “Good.”

Tim lets him have it, but after a minute he pushes away. Better to extract himself before Dick can go full octopus mode on him.

“Come on,” he says, “we’re gonna be late.”

Dick’s smirk is the only warning he gets before he’s being lifted up into the air, into a bridal hold. The cape hangs freely, brushing against Dick’s legs.

“Really??” Tim asks, letting his head fall back in exasperation.

“Really.”

Tim groans. Dick presses a kiss to his forehead, still smirking.

“Besides,” he says, lips moving against Tim’s hairline. “Ivy carrying Batman? Please tell me you have someone on retainer to take a picture of his face.”

Tim… has to concede that point. He’d thought the picture of his shitty costume would give Bruce an aneurism, so he’d talked Tam into bringing her camera. But Tim’s shitty costume, combined with being carried in by Dick…

Well, the company’s guests will all have a good laugh. So will the civilian-clothes vigilantes who are going to be in attendance, but they’ll be laughing for an entirely different reason.

“Yeah, fine,” Tim relents. “But only until we’re in the room. Got that?”

Dick smiles. There’s something adorably triumphant about it.

“Sure thing,” he says, nudging open the room’s door with his hip.

The next morning, Tim emerges from a safehouse that’s both inexplicably on the other side of Gotham and, even worse, has a doorway facing the rising sun.

He squints against the light, his head pounding. Silently, he swears to himself that he’s never drinking again. Or at least not until he and Wayne Tech’s R&D division create some sort of instant hangover cure through the power of chemistry and possibly magic.

That said, he nearly trips over a package on his way to get the newspaper.

Huh. Tim bends down, inspecting the area.

Once he’s sufficiently confident that there are no traps that’ll activate if he moves it, he picks it up, tucking it under one arm. The newspaper he rolls into a tube, shoving it, too, under his arm as he locks the door.

First, he walks through the apartment to the bedroom, tossing the newspaper in a graceful arc. It lands on Dick’s face with a firm smack.

The headline reads “WE Halloween Gala,” but the really interesting part is the nearly full-page picture of Dick and Tim’s entrance to the party. They took the shot at the perfect time, too. In the picture, Bruce is mid-turn. He has a single eyebrow arced incredulously. His drink is halfway between his hand and the floor, and people who know him outside of his corporate playboy persona will understand that particular quirk of his frown to mean that he’s frustrated he can’t catch it before it hits the ground. Or, batman could catch it. But Brucie Wayne could never.

The groan of a very hungover man creeps out from under it, adding emphasis to the very interesting front page cover.

“Mission accomplished,” Tim says, leaving Dick to the process of waking up with a splitting headache.

He takes the package to the hidden workshop he keeps behind a false panel in the hallway and gets to work.

Fifteen minutes in, he’s determined it isn’t a bomb and doesn’t contain any recognizable poison There is no return address, but the safehouse’s address is written in flowing, familiar handwriting.

The recipient is listed as “Timothy Drake.”

With a resigned sigh, Tim reaches for the nearest batarang-turned-boxcutter. It’s sharp enough to split only the tape open, leaving the box undamaged.

He flicks open the lid. There’s a note on top, written on what looks like high-quality recycled paper. It reads:

‘While your attempt at fashion is refreshing, your approach lacks a certain verve. It is my hope that this will remedy the situation before we next meet.’

Which. Seriously?

Tim tosses the note across the workbench and tips the box over. What seems like miles of green fabric spill out of it, the fabric sighing as it brushes against itself before landing in a pile on the table.

Tim picks it up.

Unfurled, Tim finds himself holding what looks like a cape made for someone his size. It’s aggressively green, with gold embroidery all along its edges.

Somehow, Tim isn’t even surprised.

The workshop’s door opens, and Dick steps through. He’s put on pants and a shirt since Tim last saw him, but his eyes seem bleary as he takes in the scene in front of him.

“…what.” Dick says. It isn’t a question.

“Someone saw last night’s news,” Tim responds, distractedly. The fabric quality on this thing is insane. Can’t have been cheap…

“Is that from – ?” Dick presses.

“Apparently.”

Dick takes a step towards the workbench and picks up the discarded note. He gives it a once-over before crumpling it in his fist.

The look he gives Tim is appraising, then proprietary.

“… please tell me you’re not actually going to wear that?”

Tim only laughs.

Later, he tries it on anyway.

He doesn’t want to know how Ra’s got his measurements.

[piddies0709]

Sam & Max- A Twisted Timeless Tale ch.2

Side note: Heeeeeey.... Chapter 2 is here. Whoo..... Just a fair warning, this one took me forever! Which means it’s a little lengthy. A lot of dialogue in this one. This is also the introduction of two of my OC’s are in this... So my apologies...

Summery: When Sam and Max decide to go to Stinky’s for breakfast, they are met by two kids from out of town, who aren’t quite what they seem

Chapter 2 Stranger's At Stinky's

“Falling? Flying? Is there a difference?

How do we know if we're truly flying?

Feeling the wind on our flesh doesn't change a thing.

We could think we are flying high, 

but in reality we could be reaching closer to the ground than we realize.

How do we know if we've hit the ground yet?Or have already made there?I wonder.....”

Delia Corrial rubbed her forehead, groggy and irritated. Stuffing her pen between the pages of her journal, she checked her phone for the time. 5:50 AM. They had boarded the plane somewhere between the hours of 2:45 and 3:00. They should be reaching New York city very soon. But not soon enough obviously! Cin-cin Rin had been running back and forth down the aisle, high of sugar, with a red view master taped to her face. Any wonder why the stewardess didn't do a damn thing about it, could either be that they had given up already or were just lazy. On the plus side, there wasn't a whole lot of people on board to begin with and non of them seem to care either way. On the other hand however, the constant raspberries and armpit noises was really testing Delia's slow burning fuse. She had to resort to scratching up the leather seat with her long black claws instead of just taking one the pillows and smothering Cin-cin to death with it.

Finally for what seemed like almost a century, they made it to New York. The most overrated city in the US. Once they were off and waiting for there bags, it was time to map out there location. All they needed to do now was take a shuttle and few cab rides until they got to their destination. Harridan Hospital of Brooklyn, right next to the Hudson river.

“Okay D, run this to me again? Why the Heck did Nevalla send us here?” Cin-cin asked

“Well I partly blame you for putting all those anchovies in the supply closet and blowing up the laundry room for the third time in the span of one afternoon.” Delia huffed, “Though she also told me it would be a good change of setting to help me practice in this new 'dark magic' thing she has me on... or something along those lines...”

“Yeah... Well look on the bright side D! At least we'll only have be staying here for six months and who wouldn't want to spend the whole summer in New York city?!” Cin-cin waved her hands in an inspirational speech of optimism. Which only made Delia scowl.

“Sane people...?” She asked

It was true that Delia's supervisor/mentor Nevalla, had made orders for Delia to be transferred from Harridan Hospital of Michigan to the one in Brooklyn New York. At least temporally... Though she didn't specify a clear reasoning why. While Delia had been studying in a certain type of dark magic, she still didn't know what that had to do with any of this. But that wasn't the only thing to be bothered by... Delia couldn't help but get the feeling that... Something wasn't quite right. As a matter of fact, she felt it the moment she got off the plane. It was a kind of dark squirming feeling that wriggled in her gut like so many black eels and plagued the back of her mind. She wasn't sure what is was, hopefully it would go away soon.

After they had finally gotten their stuff, the next stage of their journey came. During their shuttle ride, Delia sulked at the window. A fist pressed up against her cheek. While Cin-cin was busy enjoying her new view master rolls. Giggling and at every image.

“Heh, heh... Well thats an unfortunate angle.” Cling!

“Whoa nelly, hubba hubba!” Cling!

“Oh! D! Check out the head on this guy!?”

Delia who didn't even glance over at Cin-cin, made a raspy sigh, “Did you really need to bring that stupid thing with you?”

“Oh, don't act like you don't use these things. I've seen you!” Cin-cin protested, “Besides I know you have your playing cards in your pockets somewhere.”

“Touche...”

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

It was pretty early in the morning when Sam awoke to the smell of something burning, combined with the loud blare of the smoke detector going off. Nearly causing him to fall off the couch. He rushed over to the kitchen, only to find Max attempting to cook... Again... There was food and ingredients spilled all over the floor and the pan appeared to be on fire. Max was wearing a pink apron an chefs hat.

“Oh? Morning Sam! You weren't up yet, so I decided to fix breakfast.”

Sam shook his head and smiled. “Why don't you let me take over, pal.” He said as he took the pan from Max and snuffed the fire out with a lid.

“Good! I can't seem to get this bacon to burn right!”

“You crack me up, little buddy.”

“Speaking of crack, we're all out of eggs!”

“Didn't we just buy some last week?”

“We did... But then I broke them all.”Sam just looked over at Max, “How so?”

“I was trying to juggle them with my ears.”

Sam looked down at the frying pan, now scorch to Hell and back, then forth, then back again. There was a blacken meaty substance that once resembled bacon, now fused to the pan. No way would they be able to eat any of that. At least... They could try, but why bother?

“Err... Why don't we go over to Stinky's for breakfast.”

“Oh! Boy! I've been meaning to use that fungus thats been growing in the back of our fridge to put in all of the ketchup bottles and see if anyone will notice the difference.” Max gleefully plotted as he pulled off the hat and apron and threw them to the side.

“You never sees to amaze me, little pal.”

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

The bus pulled up a couple of blocks from the river. There was a diner on one side to their right and what looked like a tripped out cop car next to a run down building to their left. Delia and Cin-cin stepped out. Hauling their stuff behind. Placing her hands on her hips, Delia raised an eyebrow at the sights and sneered.

“I don't know.... It's really not that different from Chicago. I don't see why this place is so popular...”

“Where do we go from here?” Cin-cin asked, “I'm starving. Peanuts and plane crackers are just not going to cut it.”

“Well, we could just take a cab now and eat when we get there OR I do have a few 20's in my wallet that are in need of being departed. I suppose we could eat somewhere...” Delia suggested while rubbing her chin.

“Really?!” Cin-cin let out a gasp, then wrapped her arms around Delia in a tight embrace while squealing loudly, “You're the BEST!”

“Yeah, yeah... I guess so...” Delia groaned while rolling her eyes. Waiting for when Cin-cin let go, 

“Come on, pea brain! Let's find whats to eat around this tin can...”

“What about that place since it's right there.” Cin-cin suggested pointing to the place that read 'Stinky's Diner' “See? It's even open!”

Delia squinted her eyes in skepticism, “I don't know... Looks like a dump waiting to be burned into the dark abyss...”

“Well, do you have any other ideas?” Cin-cin asked in a snarky tone

“Sadly thats the tragedy of it all...” Delia muttered to Cin-cin's delight

Well it certainly was deserving of its name, that much Delia knew. Walking into the place was like being hit with a wave of some of the worst smells in to world. At least for Delia anyways, due to her hyper sensitive nose. Though Cin-cin hardly seem to take much notice. The place it's self looked like a ship wreck, quite literally in fact, given the restaurant’s sea theming. It was dimly lit, hardly letting any light in. Not much else was even note worthy say for a juke-box the corner and an empty fish tank behind it. Sitting at the counter, reading the paper was a old man. With tattoos and a sea captan's hat. He briefly glanced up at the two girls and gave a huff.

“Menu's are on the counter.” He said in a thick Scottish accent “Just grab one and maybe I might cook ya something...” He grumbled 

Cautiously grabbing a menu, Delia sat with Cin-cin at the window. “Well the service is already off to a great start...” Delia sarcastically mumbled,

“Eh, It's New York, D. What do you expect? ”

“Fair point. Though something tells me we might be here a while...”

“And that bothers you? C'mon D, whats the worse that could happen? Where just sitting here.” Cin-cin commented as she opened up her menu.

Delia glared at her, “That's exactly the kinda thing what I worry about. When nothing IS happening...”

“Well look on the bright side D, at least we have each other.”

Delia let out another groan, “It's already going to be a long day, I can tell....”

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

Sam hastily threw on his clothes and hat, while adjusting his tie. He literally tucked Max under his arm like a towel and went out the door. “If we're fast enough we might get the early bird special.”

“Overly greasy egg burgers with a side of cheese covered bacon fries and green onions rings, followed up by possible food poisoning later?” Max asked with a grin

“Something like that.”

They arrived on the dot, just as Delia and Cin-cin were chewing on something that resembled food. Delia was having a particular tough time with what seem like the tentacle of an octopus that was casually slapped with runny eggs and burnt bacon. It was like rubber against her fangs. As the tentacle smacked Delia in the eye, there came a ring of the bell. Cin-cin peered over her shoulder to see who had come in.

“Say, D?”

“What?” She muttered through gurgled spits

“Remember when Bill Murray mentioned about how dogs and cats living together would lead to mass hysteria?” Cin-cin went on as she continued to stare back in the opposite direction of where Delia was sitting. “Well, I think he was mistaken. It should be dogs and rabbits living together will lead to mass hysteria.”

“...What the Hell are you getting at here?” Delia raised an eyebrow with annoyance, “Having you been snorting Pixi stix again?”

“I have... But just hear me out. One, either a hallucination brought on the crap we just consumed. Second, two furries on their way to some convention or three, an actual dog and rabbit. Take a look yourself.” Cin-cin pointed

Now puzzled, Delia peered over Cin-cin and sure enough, there was indeed a oversized brown dog and white rabbit that had just walked in. The dog was dressed in a gray suit and hat with a black and blue striped tie. While the rabbit was completely in the nude, say for the disturbingly wide grin of sharp teeth he wore.

“Looks more like the mascot to some outdated drug P.S.A special from the 80's and the result of a lab rodent fused with a bear-trap by teleportation devise...” said Delia, completely stone faced.

“Think we should go talk to them?” Cin-cin began to nonchalantly get up to walk over to them.

“No, no, no, no!” Delia snapped, pinning Cin-cin's head down to her level on the table, “Do not draw attention to ourselves...”

Sam and Max looked around the place for a bit, unaware of the two new comers. They direct their attention to grandpa Stinky, who was busy cleaning a not-so-suspicious red stain on the counter.“Morning, Stinky!” Sam greeted,

“Oh, you two! Morning!” the old man waved half-heartedly

“Glad to see you got your old body back. No more strutting around as an alien space gorilla, I see.” “Kind of a Pity, really... I was liking that ape bod. I could do chin ups on anything.”

“Yeah, I'm sure that wasn't the only thing you liked about that 'ape bod' if you know what I mean?” Max snickered with a sly grin,

 Sam just shot him a look, while giving him a smack on the head with a menu,“Well, we're gonna be over here debating on what to eat.”

Taking a seat on the other side of the diner, it was there where Max started to take notice to the pair if strangers across from them. The one facing away from them, had bright pink puffy hair that almost looked heart shape. She had on a light green t-shirt, magenta colored shorts and pink tennis shoes that matched her already disturbingly huge hair. The other girl was facing towards them was just as striking. She was pale, really pale. As white as Max's own fur pale. She had long dark hair. Some of which hung down, while the rest were pulled up into two ponytails. She had on a black dress with jagged rips at the end, (which looked almost intentional) knee high black heeled boots and long yellow and black striped sleeves.

She appeared to be hunched over, looking away. Trying not to make eye contacted at them... and failing... When she glance back, her eyes ended up locking with Max's. Now she was looking directly at him with. For few seconds she whipped her head around, from left to right, to see if there was anything else that this bunny could be staring at. Nope. Finally she looked back at him and tilted her head to one side, making a disturbing cracking noise in the process. Max copied her motion for whatever reason. Then she did the same thing for the other side and he copied her again.

“Crap...” Delia muttered to herself, “One of them's looking this way...”

“Ooo! Let's fuse tables with them.” Cin-cin suggested

“Cin-cin, unless you have the brain capacity to come up with a really goodidea, I advise you stop talking before I throw you out the window.” snarled Delia,

“As if.” Cin-cin scoffed, as she start to take a sip of her orange juice.

“What do you think, Pal?” Sam asked as he looked through the menu, “The Double-Triple Bacon Egg Clogger or the- Max?” It was at this point, Sam had started to take notice to Max's distraction.

“Hey, little buddy? What gives?”

“Oh nothing, Sam. Just looking at that creepy girl staring us.”

“Huh?” Sam turned around and noticed the pale girl in black. Her sudden motions did indeed indicate that she was indeed watching them.

“Well, 'creepy' is one way of putting it, I guess.” Sam took pause for a moment. Who ever they were, they clearly weren't from around here as far as he knew it. As far as Sam knew it, they just kids, though there was something about the pale girl, that seemed a little... Off...

“Recognize them from anywhere, Sam?

“No, actually... Probably just some out-of-towners, Max.”

“Oh? You think we should interrogate them to find out?”

“But we don't have a case to work on.” Sam shrugged

“Who cares! I feel like mildly annoying someone.” Max gleefully announced while ringing his hands with anticipation.

“But don't you do that all the time?” Sam asked, Max just placed his hands on his hips

“Yes, but I've already worn out everyone else I know!” exclaimed Max “Besides, we could make be like that one time after you got those powers and I jumped on this one guy's head and then you zapped him so hard, he wet himself.”

“Sorry, little buddy.” Sam looked away for a moment, rubbing his paws together, “But I don't remember that.”

“Oh...Right.” Max replied a bit softly, realizing again that, that most likely couldn't have happen in this time-line. Seeing that this Sam didn't have any powers. Max now looked away in the opposite direction to Sam. It started to fall quiet.

“What are they doing now?” Delia asked, while trying to hide her face with her hand. Cin-cin peered over the booth.

“Uhh... They're just sitting there, D. Looking very dazed. They almost seem kinda... Sad.”

“Guess they realized the food was terrible and now they're re-thinking all their life decision that brought them here and wondering where they went wrong...” Delia monologue while gazing out the blinds of the window.

“You sure have a way with words, D” Cin-cin frown, however. She never liked to see people sad, not even if they were a dog and a rabbit she didn't know. Pondering for a moment, her face lit up when an idea came to mind.

“I got a plan, D?” turning over to Delia, “It's time to lighten the mood.”

“Oh Lord...” Delia groaned as her face went into her hands,

Walking over to the Jukebox, Cin-cin reached into her puffy pink mane and pulled out a small chain purse with a orange bunny on it. She proceeded to select a song. Something jazzy, before inserting a shiny coin. Music fills the air, set to the swing brass horns and woodwinds and drum beats. Cin-cin began to shack her heels and shimmy her toes. Watching her actions, Delia lightly shook her head in disapproval.

“Ya know, you're only embarrassing yourself...”

“Oh, come on, D. Dance with me!”

“No...”

“But you love to dance!”

“That's besides the point.”

Cin-cin then took Delia by the wrists, lifting her out of the booth, “Lamb-sakes, D! Lets cut loose a little, remember ya only liveonce!”

“Trust me! That's the last thing I wanna do. Live...” She crossed her arms and held her nose up, but Cin-cin was persistent. Still, despite Delia's reservations she found herself starting to dance anyway. Maybe it was the rhythm of the music, perhaps it was just a ploy to get Cin-cin off her back. Whatever the reason was, there was part of her that was kinda enjoy it and even a small smile managed to creep up her face.

Grandpa Stinky on the other-hand not so much. He let out grumbled and crumpled the paper a little as he was reading. Sam however didn't seem to mind. He smiled and bobbed his head to the music, while tapping his foot. While Max was more or less confused.

“What the Hell are they doing?” Max asked

“My guess is that their either trying to summon a music loving demon to end the world in a dance off apocalypses or Stinky's Jukebox is possessed by a jazz musician who traps it's victims in a never ending string of dance moves for all customers to make a mockery of.” Sam theorized, Max just looked at him. Blinking a few times and tilting his head in even more confusion.

“...Or they could just be dancing.” Sam added

“Well, when are they gonna stop? It's really getting on my nerves...” Max fingers began to tighten against the seat.

It wasn't until Cin-cin decided that now was a good time to whip out her silver trumpet with a the red ribbon tide at the end loop and began blaring it loudly. Delia stopped dancing the moment she saw her pull out that thing; rolling her eyes while crossing her arms. The noise was worse than a freight train, swerving down coaster track to the ends of the Earth. So much so that Grandpa Stinky got up and went to the back, while swearing something along the lines of,

“That's it! I'm getting the haggis!”

Max pulled on his ears. He couldn't take it any longer! The pink girl had to go! Leaping off the chair, he went flying. Mouth wide open, ready for a chomp. Cin-cin, completely oblivious to the attack, swirled around just in the nick of time. Her back facing Max, causing him to dive straight into the pink hairy abyss. Cin-cin abruptly stop the moment she felt movement in her hair. Then a bunch of junk came flying out. Boxes of crackers, lolly-pops, crumpled napkins, a rolled up news paper and even a bowling ball. Before finally Max emerged from the puff mane, having forgot what he was about to do just a few seconds earlier. In his hand was a shiny red view master. He held it up proudly.

“Hey Sam! Check it out!”

Suddenly he felt a large paw grab him by the collar area and lift him out of the hair. Max looked up to see sudden panic strinken Sam now holding him to his chest. He yanked the view master out of his paw and chucked it clear across the room. Hitting the floor with a metallic clang.

“AW MAN!” Cin-cin waved her arms in the air, “I just got new rolls for that thing!” she yelled as she was now running over to retrieve it.

Taking advantage of this moment, Delia side stepped her way closer to the pair. “Nice one!” She said as she crossed her arms with a smug grin, “I'd thought I'd never be able to dissect her from that thing. But it looks like you did the work for me, so good job...”

But when she turned to face him, she noticed he didn't seem to be paying attention. Max looked up at his partner as well. The dog seemed to be in quite a daze.

“Sam?”

“Oh? Sorry, little buddy. I- I don't know what came over me...” He said as he put Max down.

Now turning his attention the pale girl, he noticed she had yellow snake-like eyes that looked as though they were trying to burn holes into his own, “You'll have to excuse my friend, she's a moron...” exclaimed the pale girl.

Her voice was very low and raspy. As if she had been dragged out by an ally cat and chased down a few cars along the way. In contrast her friend was the complete opposite, high strung with an equality high pitched tone of voice and just a hint of scratchiness in the back of the throat. It almost sounded like the female equivalent to Max's voice. Though not as endearing...

“So, you two from around here?” Sam asked

“Hell no. We're from Chi-town...” answered the pale girl,

“There's a town for shy people?” Max question

“I think she means she's from Chicago, Melon-head.” responded Sam

“Pretty smart there McCgruff The Crime Dog.” the pale girl remarked, much to Sam's dismay,

“Please don't call me that...”

“Oh? Touched a nerve there did I?” She smirked

“Yeah, ya kinda did...” Sam said with an unamused frown, while placing his hands on his hips.

“Get use to it.” exclaimed the pink haired girl as she walked back over, “She does it to everyone.”

“That aside, what are you're names?” asked Sam

“Delia... Delia Corrial...” She responded, arms crossed again

“And I'm Cin-cin Rin!” The pink girl announced, “C-I-N 'hyphen' C-I-N R-I-N”

“Nobody cares, Bean-Dip!” Delia growled, “So uh... Who are you guys?”

“Oh! I'm Sam and his is my buddy Max. We're the Freelance Police.” Sam said as he adjusted his tie

“Freelance Police?” Delia wrinkled her nose and squinted her eyes in confusion, “What does that even mean? You guys do detective work with no restrictions from the higher ups of the law?”

“I think you just answered your own question there.” Sam replied, with a shrug

“Got ya there, D!”

“Shut-it, Ding-bat!” Delia snapped before turning back to Sam, “So let me get this straight. Somebody actually pays you guys to solve cases in your own fashion? ….Eh whatever that fashion might be...”

“By that somebody, you mean the commissioner, than yes!” Max replied in a snarky tone, “He often gives up the weird cases no one else wants to do. We're practically professionals.”

“Speak yourself there, Max.” Sam razed

“What types of cases do you guys work on, anyway?” Delia asked, her curiosity was peeked

“Where do we even begin?” Sam pondered the thought for a moment, “Well we saved the world from a hypno rainbow loving egotist, stopped a toy mafia, saved Easter Island from a volcano-”

“Traveled to the moon twice, saved three repairmen from a TV diner creature, went up against a fish in a maniacal suit-” Max added

“Performed and exorcist on Santa, turned into Zombies, travailed across space and time itself, destroyed a virtual world, kicked Hell a new one-”

“Evaded a group of savage ginny-pigs, spent Christmas with Sam's grandma at an island prison, raised a baby crocodile, took a class of students to space to watch us defeat a big-headed alien-” Max chimed in again

“Holy Crap!” Delia said, stunned and confused, (but mostly just confused...) stood there. Her mouth agape and her often narrow eyes, were now widened ten times more than eyes should be aloud to.

“And I thought we had issues...” Cin-cin mumbled as she leaned over to Delia

“So what about you two?” asked Sam, “What made you decide to visit New York?”

“Well... We were kinda forced to come here after somebody blew up the laundry room with 12 cases of TMT fire crackers... again...” Delia grumbled while slowly turning her head to Cin-cin with one of her death stares. Cin-cin just awkwardly grinned while glancing over at Delia. Hands behind her back.

“Oh? Do tell?” Max rubbed his paws together with intrigue.

“Let's not and say we did.” Delia grunted, crossing her arms.

“Ah, come D.” Cin-cin protested “Explain to them the other reason we're hear.”

“What other reason?” Sam asked perplexed

“Well we also came because Delia heres a- OW!” suddenly Cin-cin felt the smack of the rolled news paper on the side of her head.

“I think it's time we finished our breakfast and pay the bill. Don't you?” Delia asked as she wrapped an arm around Cin-cin's shoulder. Dragging her across the room, “Let's leave these boys alone now, shall we?”

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

After breakfast was all done, Sam and Max stepped out the diner. The two young girls at this point were just a few feet ahead of them. Heading off in the direction of the river. Sam looked in puzzled amusement and placed his hands in his pockets.

“Those two girls were quite interesting, wouldn't you say Max” Sam asked

“If by'interesting' you mean ones a total humorless killjoy and while other is just plan annoying, than yeah...I guess you could say that.” pointed out Max

“You're pretty annoying yourself Max. But I never seem to complain.” Sam replied

“That's because your allured by my dashing charm.” Max beamed with pride

“That I am, little buddy.” Sam nodded, “That I am.”

With no phone calls just yet and not much else to do, the dog and lagomorph decided it was time to pay one of their friends a quick visit. Hoping into their car, the two headed off for Mama Bosco's lab.

[superparadise-ghost]

The Ghosts Can Sing, and They Ache to be Heard

hi!

this is available on ao3 if you’d like to read it there, I’d probably recommend that. you can bookmark it there!

this might be for you if you: like Drew Tanaka, wish Drew Tanaka got a redemption arc, like Halloween stories, like a hypothetical friendship between Drew Tanaka and Will Solace, uhhh like Drew Tanaka

this is probably not for you if: you do not like Drew Tanaka, in which case I respect your decision but also why

Description: "Ghosts can't sing."

But Drew is beginning to doubt that sentence. And she's beginning to doubt her memories of Silena Beauregard.

Or, Drew Tanaka keeps coming back to the same Halloween costume, despite how much she thinks she hates it, and she keeps hearing somebody sing Silena's old, favourite song, without anybody actually being there to sing such a melody...

Chapter: 1/6

Ghosts Can’t Sing

“Ghosts can’t sing. They don’t have any breath left, so they don’t have a voice.”

Drew doesn’t look up from her laptop at Lacy Liou’s argument. She’s too busy browsing mindlessly through Halloween costumes. She isn’t going to be buying one (she stitches fabric by hand every October), but she’s searching for inspiration.

One image shows a bad replica of Veronica Sawyer. Drew frowns thoughtfully, and jots Veronica, or Heather D? on her notepad. It sits beneath black swan.

“It’s a story, Lacy.” Piper Mclean’s voice sounds exasperated, tired. The distinct sound of a coin hitting wood rings in Drew’s ears. Piper curses. “Fuck. Now I can’t find it! That was a whole two dollars!”

“Maybe next time, don’t launch it at the ceiling,” Mitchell Plums suggests.

Drew’s cursor hovers over a picture of a doll costume. She purses her lips. She went as a doll two years ago, but… maybe she can pull it off again?

She scribbles the idea down.

“Anyway, Lacy, it’s a made-up story. Leo told me it. Haven’t you ever heard of ghost stories?” Drew finally looks up, feeling her neck creak with pain, to see Piper crawling around the floor, hands running over the wooden panels to feel for a coin.

“It’s a dumb story,” Lacy mumbles. She’s sitting on her bunk, legs dangling seven feet off the ground, kicking her feet back and forth slowly. Drew thinks her outfit is a little too Mean Girls for the year 2018—a pink-and-white chequered skirt, a pink turtleneck, a pink cap and white, appropriately-lacy socks.

“All ghost stories are dumb, Lace,” Drew says, closing her laptop. Her notepad is full enough that Drew can now make a comparison. “Especially any Leo Valdez tells.”

“Hey!” Piper pokes her head out from beneath her bed. “He may be an idiot, but he’s my idiot best friend. And the story wasn’t that dumb. Right, Mitch?”

Mitchell stays quiet, and Drew can see him pretending he can’t hear the girls bickering.

“So, I wasn’t listening.” Drew tucks her laptop beneath her bed and ignores Piper’s comment of ‘to nobody’s surprise’. “What was the story?”

“I can’t be bothered to repeat it now,” Piper sighs. “The main idea is that there’s this boy, and his brother, who always sang some song, dies in a car crash. And the boy lives his life in mourning and one day, while he’s in the shower, he hears a muffled singing. He gets out of the shower to look, nobody’s there. It happens a few more times until this guy just fucking rips open the shower curtains to see who it is, and it’s the ghost of his brother.”

“Spooky,” Drew drawls, and smirks. Piper rolls her eyes.

“Well, if you want to yell at someone for the story, go talk to Leo,” she says, sitting up on her knees, a dusty coin in her hand. “Ha! I found it after all. Suck on that, Fates.”

“Yeah, actually, I might go do that,” Drew says. She swings her legs off the bed and stands up, stretching. Her red Chuck Taylors thud on the floor. Piper blanches.

“Wait, what? Hold on, Drew, wait, I was kidding, I—”

“Bye, love!” Drew makes sure her red skirt swishes when she turns around—it’s a habit. “If Leo isn’t at dinner, you know why!”

She exits the cabin as Piper yells, Lacy snorts with laughter and Mitchell gasps.

The day is… fine, Drew supposes. There’s little cloud cover, and the sun is just sitting over the horizon, ready to set, dying the sky a golden shade of orange. There’s a breeze, but it’s only just cold enough to separate the weather from a Spring day. Birds are chirping somewhere in the woods, and if Drew strains to hear over kids squealing and Sherman Yang bellowing for a fight, she can hear the water nymphs gossiping.

But Drew’s never been a fan of Autumn. She much prefers Summer, when she can jump into the lake with her clothes on and nobody will whisper that’s not a very preppy thing to do behind her back. When she doesn’t have to bother with wearing a sweater, and wondering what time she’ll have to shed it, and when she’ll have to pull it back on.

Oh, well. She’s not Zeus.

Drew looks around camp. She’s not going to go make fun of Leo—she never was. She just wanted to go outside before it got too cold to do so in a skirt. But now, she’s not too sure where to go. Perhaps she can just go for a walk around camp, listening for some rumours she can either debunk or pull to the surface. Or she can head to the archery range, watch Bella Swarchovski practise her shooting (the girl had some biceps, Drew wasn’t ashamed to admit she thought she was cute). Maybe she could even pick up a spear and train for a bit, run the stick through some dummies.

Her eyes drift to the big house, where somebody’s blaring The 1975 so loudly it hurts to even try and think over it.

She knows who’s in there, making such a ruckus. She might as well go convince him to turn it down.

Drew feels dry leaves skate on her calves as she wipes her feet on the doormat of the big house. They feel like the breath of a vampire—dry and coarse. She shudders, and walks inside.

The music is ten times louder now, and she can see the culprit. Honestly, to not see him would require absolutely no vision; nobody can miss a mop of curly blond hair, or a six-foot figure that dances like he can’t even walk, or a bright orange set of scrubs. Drew almost wishes she wasn’t even friends with this boy.

“WILL!” She screams to be heard over the music. Will Solace doesn’t seem to hear. He continues to jump around while cutting bandages, which, Drew presumes, is totally not proper safety protocol. “WILL SOLACE!”

Finally, Will freezes, and turns around. In one hand, he holds a pair of scissors, open and very sharp. In the other, a roll of bandages. A paper sticker with his name in messy handwriting, spelled with three Ls, is stuck to the pocket of his scrubs. He grins, and waves at Drew.

“Hey Drew!” He shouts. “What’s up?”

“Your music volume? Turn it down, dude!”

Will’s eyebrows scrunch together in a way Drew may have once found endearing and attractive. He dials the volume knob on his old radio to the left and bites his lip sheepishly.

“Better?” He asks. Drew chuckles.

“So much better. Now I can hear myself think.”

Will’s blue eyes convey too many emotions for Drew to keep up with. They’re always like that—they swirl and flicker like stars, matching the constellations of freckles all over his skin. He sets down the bandages and scissors and beckons Drew over.

“So what brings you to the infirmary? Other than the music, I mean.” Will prods a cupboard door shut with his foot. Drew wanders forward, picking up a framed polaroid photo on her way.

It’s a photo from last year’s Halloween party, hosted by the Aphrodite cabin, as usual. Drew’s wearing an elaborate fae costume she’d designed from scratch, all detailed and shimmery gold. She’s rather proud of that costume.

On the left of past-Drew, Will has one arm around Nico di Angelo, and one around Lou Ellen Blackstone. He grins with horribly fake vampire teeth, a set to go with his costume. To Drew’s right, Cecil Markowitz is wearing a crown made of glowsticks and sticking out his tongue.

“We need a better photo this year,” Drew says, setting the phot back down and turning back to Will, who nods cheerfully.

“Oh, yeah. I have a much better costume this year, and I’ve even convinced Nico to dress up. I hope your cabin can make the party as good as ever.”

“We’ll go above and beyond, Solace,” Drew promises, falling into a spinning chair and using her toes to push herself around. “As long as you guys can get a good playlist. Can I know your costume?”

“You cannot!” Will snips one last bandage and collapses on a cot, sprawled out like some long-ass octopus. “You’ll have to wait and see.”

“Shame.” Drew twirls her hair between her fingers, watches as the sun sends glowing, faint rays through the window and Will subconsciously absorbs it into his skin. His eyes seem to glow a little brighter. “I was going to ask for help on what I should go as.”

“I can still help!” Will exclaims. Drew tries not to laugh at the excitement in his voice. “Look, do you have a list? Because I already came up with some ideas, like, what about the girl from The Ring?”

“Samara?”

“Yeah, her! Or Edna, from The Incredibles.”

“I’m not going as her!” Drew bursts, watching Will cackle. “I’m way too tall!”

“I know, I know, I was kidding.” Will gulps down some water from a glass next to the cot. “In all seriousness, though, do you have any ideas?”

“Um…” Drew screws up her nose and tries to think back to her notepad. It’s only been a few minutes ago that she’d looked at it, but her ADHD makes her memory about as good as a goldfish’s. “Well, I know Veronica Sawyer was on it. Or Heather Duke. And, um… Wednesday Addams?”

Will nods sensibly, like he’s in the middle of a meeting, and drums his fingers on his knees to the tune of whatever song is playing now. Drew knows for sure that a black swan ballet dancer was on there, but for some reason, she feels hesitant to s it. Perhaps it’s because that had always been something Silena had suggested she’d go as when she grew older.

The comment has always bothered Drew—the black swan was the villain of Swan Lake’s story, the one who pushed Odette to her death. It wasn’t fair that Silena always saw Drew as the villain, the ‘bad girl’ who’s only motive was lust.

It especially wasn’t fair that Silena turned out to be the traitor, the sister who got so many killed. The sister who always dressed as the white swan.

And yet… the pull of the black swan costume is strong. Drew hates how appealing the idea of going in such a costume is.

“I think Veronica’s a good idea,” Will finally says, snapping Drew from her bitter memories. “I mean, her side of the story is much creepier and more disturbing than Duke’s.”

“Mhm.” Drew is only half listening. And Duke is the villain. “And, like, there’s a whole list. We’ll give it a look-over tomorrow?”

It’s a question. Lately, Will’s been pretty busy looking after his little sister, Tess, who has influenza. And, of course, he’s always on dates with Nico.

“Yeah, come and meet me at archery range at about noon!” Will glances outside, and Drew follows his gaze. The sun has finally set—time for dinner. Time to go help Piper wrangle their siblings.

“Will do.” Drew stands up and blows a kiss to Will, who pretends to catch it and grins. “See you tomorrow, love. Tell Tess I hope she gets better soon.”

When Drew arrives back at the Aphrodite cabin, her siblings are lined up, chatting about Halloween and the pumpkins they’ll carve and the costumes they’ll wear. Drew tells Piper she’ll catch up to them at the dining pavilion, if she wants to take them all now. Piper nods and herds everybody outside, leaving Drew alone with her notebook in hand.

She hesitates, but once she starts to scratch out black swan, she can’t stop. She scribbles furiously, feeling her heart clench and not stopping until she rips the paper with a harsh hiss.

[imaginetonyandbucky]

Imagine that Bucky gets flung across universes after a magical accident of some kind (exact details up to you) and winds up in a world where he and Tony are mer people (species your choice, but I am partial to octobucky). Anyway, MCU Bucky 'lands' in this world over the open ocean and this is bad because he has a metal arm dragging him down anytime he tries to swim. But Mer Tony and Mer Bucky save him, and keep him alive until MCU Tony can haul him home.

Instant Capture

A/N: also for @the-flightoficarus for her 3 word prompt Bucky, Picture, Italy that got me out of a rut, and the winteriron discord server (18+ only) for their encouragement and sprinting with me -- Tisfan

“Back up, just a little,” the man said, holding up the oldfashioned camera. A Kodak relic from the 70s, the device was one of those withthe card of disposable flash bulbs that popped and sparked and were good forone roll of film. Bucky could smell the chemicals as the flash went off; hegrinned wide for the camera.

Tony wasn’t with him; Pepper had called earlier, despite promisingnot to bother them on their vacation, and Tony had kissed Bucky’s cheekapologetically and sent Bucky out to get them breakfast from one of the nearbycafes.

The old man with his camera had implored Bucky -- an Americantourist, even if he’d been to Italy more than a dozen times in the last fewdecades, practically lived there for most of 1952, honestly -- to let him takea photo to remember everything by.

Bucky thought Tony might get a kick out of the ancient camera,might like a photo of their vacation to remember things by. Also, Tony’d givenBucky way more money than they needed to pay for breakfast -- nothing new --and Bucky tended to give the change out to panhandlers and streetentertainment.

“Say addio,” the man said, and while Bucky’s eyebrowwent up -- say goodbye? What? -- he did as he was told. The flash went off. Theman laughed, delighted. Malicious. “Goodbye, Soldat.”

Everything went white.

(more under the cut)

When Bucky didn’t come back, with breakfast, Tony wasn’t entirelyworried. He and Pepper had been video conferencing since ridiculously earlyabout the breakthrough that Wallace had in R&D and the implicationsthereof. It was exciting for him, for SI, but it scarcely fascinating forsomeone outside the company.

But Tony was hungry, and he hadn’t had caffeine, and when hechecked the clock, Bucky had been gone for over four hours, and that wasn’tright. Bucky wasn’t like Tony, not apt to wander off, distracted by the nextshiny object. If nothing else, he’d have texted (Tony checked, he hadn’t) or atleast come back with Tony’s breakfast.

Tony didn’t like feeling like he was taking his boyfriend forgranted -- and he really, really tried not to, but sometimes he still gotdistracted -- but Bucky was still struggling with his Hydra training. The manchecked in. Always.

The fact that he hadn’t sent a wriggle of dismay threading its waythrough Tony’s gut. He snatched up his gauntlet-watch and strapped it on.

“Hey boss,” Friday said in his ear as soon as the wirelessconnection did its handshake.

“Fri, where’s Bucky?”

Stalker 101 or not, Tony was already headed for the door whenFriday reported back.

“Boss, I’m not picking up any signs of him. His phone’s notonline, and there are no energy signatures emanating from the prosthetic.

“Check street cams, footage, back it up, he went out forbreakfast--”

Tony pushed through the door and a manilla envelope fluttered tothe hall of their hotel and lay there on the floor, his name scrawled in blackmarker across the front.

Tony scowled. “Scan it.”

“Not detecting any harmful chemicals, boss,” Friday said, andthrough Tony’s sunglasses, she projected an xray of the contents, a singlesheet of paper and a photograph. Primitive.

“Alert the Avengers,” Tony snapped, scooping up what was,undoubtedly, some sort of ransom demand. “We’ve got an Amber Alert.”

Funny calling the Amber Alert on someone else -- usually Tony wasthe one damselled. Funny, suspicious, not funny ha-ha.

What he wanted to know waswho the hell had their hands on his boyfriend.

There were hands on him. Bucky struggled and something ropy andthick coiled around his wrist, pulling his arm back, keeping him from lashingout. It was enormously strong. Another coil wrapped around his waist, a thirdover his mouth and nose. He couldn’t breathe.

Panic took over and he thrashed. It was wet. He was… wet.Underwater? He forced his eyes open, they stung. Salt water?

A hand touched his face, cold, but gentle. He could barely see,eyes slitted almost shut. He couldn’t breathe. Blue eyes, glowing and kind andweirdly familiar, met his gaze.

“Mmmmph!”

The face was as familiar as his own. Tony, and yet… not. This Tonyhad blue eyes that glowed like the arc-reactor. The light didn’t show much morethan not-Tony’s face. He smiled, revealing disturbingly sharp teeth. Slits inhis throat moved with each breath, showing pale pink flesh underneath. He movedcloser and the thing covering Bucky’s mouth slid aside.

The Not-Tony wrapped cold arms around Bucky’s neck, pulled himselfin, turned his head and slotted their mouths together.

Bucky would never have allowed it, but he was dizzy with lack ofair, he was confused, cold, scared. The Not-Tony kissed him, and pushed…breathing into Bucky’s mouth. Air.

Oh, sweet christ, air. Bucky gulped at it, and the Not-Tonykept opening and closing those slits at his throat. Gills, Bucky suddenlyrealized, and he almost spit out the Not-Tony’s precious gift in his shock andpanic.

Able to breathe, even if it tasted cold and somewhat of fish, andBucky’s tongue cringed away from the sharp teeth, his head cleared a little. Herealized the thing holding him was a cephalopod of some sort -- squid oroctopus, and not attached to the Not-Tony, who had a brilliant red fish tail.

Mermaid?

How the fuck did any of this make sense? Normal people, when theygot robbed while on vacation, lost some money and their passports; they didn’tget flung into some alternate dimension.

Bucky pulled his mouth free, tried to demand answers, got as faras “who--” in a rush of bubbles. The Tony-mer gave him an elaborate eyeroll anda condescending smirk that was so familiar that Bucky missed his Tony with aprofound ache. The Tony-mer held one hand to his ear and then shook his head. Ican’t hear you. I don’t understand.

Bucky struggled to orient himself. The water around them was dark,heavy. He pointed up -- or at least, he thought it was up. For all he knew,they could be upside down. Gravity didn’t make a hell of a lot of sense, thisfar down. However far it was. Wherever the hell he was.

The Tony-mer leaned in and shared his air again.

Mimicked Bucky’s gesture, up. Pointed to his own throat, thenshook his head again. I can’t go up.

Well, this was a fancy pickle. How long until Tony-mer got boredwith this?

Bucky twisted, trying to see the other creature and almostpanicked again.

The monster holding him… was himself.

Only not. The Bucky holding him was some sort of alien, half-man,half-squid. Tentacles, Bucky thought, wildly. Poor Tony’s missing this.He knew it was a squid, two of the long limbs hanging below theBucky-creature’s waist ended in flat, rounded spades, and there were… Buckytried to count, but it looked like Bucky-creature had met with an accident,himself. One of the creature’s arms was missing from the shoulder down, endingin a scarred stump, and two of the ropey arms were quite a bit shorter thantheir fellows.

No Hydra to give him a prosthetic, Bucky thought.

Tony-mer kissed him again, shared air. Despite his solicitous, theentire operation was tedious. How long before even Tony-mer got tired of this?Bucky couldn’t stay down here. The mers couldn’t go up. Two of theBucky-creature’s arms slid around Bucky and the Tony-mer, squeezing and lockingthem together, which was a lot less sexy than when he and Tony had fantasizedabout tentacle porn.

The rest of the Bucky-squids limbs drew in, then pushed off with apowerful stroke, sending them speeding through the water. Bucky tried to relax;they didn’t mean him harm. It would have been easy to just… let him drown. TheTony-mer petted his cheek a few times, one hand behind Bucky’s neck to keeptheir mouths together.

It’s not cheatin’ if I’m kissin’ you, doll, Bucky thought, and wondered if he’d ever see his Tony again.

“This is some next-level Hogwarts shit right here,” Tony said. Hetossed the photograph down on the table, where it shifted and moved like abadly filmed movie. One of those old nature documentaries from the 70s.

Steve picked it up, gingerly. There was no sound, just the movingcreatures in it, what appeared to be a mermaid and a gruesome squid-man hybrid.It was hard to see details, there wasn’t a lot of light wherever they were.

Tony might have dismissed the entire thing, except when themermaid moved, Tony got a glimpse of Bucky’s face, lit strangely from someblueish bioluminescence. Whatever this was, Bucky was in danger. He was wrappedup by the squid-thing, and, what little Tony could detect, the mer-creature waseither kissing him, or biting him.

When Tony could see Bucky’s face, he didn’t look in pain, althoughhe was, justifiably, terrified.

“Where’d you get this?”

“Someone left it outside my hotel,” Tony said. He gripped thetable with both hands, barely able to keep from screaming with rage,frustration, fear.

“He’s not drowning,” Steve pointed out, even as his own voiceshook. Steve had powerful feelings about drowning that might have even beatenout Tony’s own trauma.

“But where is he?”

“May I?” Wanda was always very, very careful whenever she spokewith Tony. They’d come to some sort of peace, but issues of consent were stilla touchy area.

Tony jerked his chin up and down, not even able to talk.

She twisted her fingers over the picture, red smoke and glitterfalling from her fingertips as she worked her magic.

Magic, Tony sneered mentally,then stopped himself. If Wanda could find out anything, any way to bring Buckyback, he’d give the whole magicphobia a rest. Probably.

Maybe.

“Oh,” she said. “Um… the man who did this had a personal grudgeagainst the Winter Soldier. This film is absolutely saturated by his hatred andglee. His… father? A defecting… oh. A sorcerer. Like Strange, but not asstrong. He passed down… artifacts, to his son. The Winter Soldier killed theman. But the boy grew up and learned to use them.”

“So?” Steve said, and Tony was grateful, because he didn’t knowhow to ask. “What do we do?”

“We get the artifact,” Wanda said. “Something like this? We shouldbe able to just reverse it, once we have the… it’s probably a camera.”

Bucky didn’t know where they were taking him, but he wasexhausted. He couldn’t rest, couldn’t think. There was Tony-mer’s mouth on him,the cold water around them. The movement of the Bucky-monster.

Another thing was moving in the water, a glitter of reddish skinand a swish of water.

Wanda’s face appeared in the darkness. Her dark hair surroundedher like a stormcloud, and she moved her hands, forming streams of red waterand bubbles, and then she reached for him and touched his throat.

The Tony-mer backed off and made an encouraging gesture. Goahead.

Bucky didn’t know what they wanted of him.

The Wanda-creature was… a starfish? Her thick legs hung below herwaist like a skirt. She was naked from the waist up, they all were, but ithadn’t occurred to Bucky that it was an issue, until he was presented withWanda’s full breasts. He blushed, or would have, if his blood had been warmer,but he was so cold, and he couldn’t breathe and the Tony-mer wasn’t moving toshare his air, and Bucky…

...gasped.

There was a splitting agony in his throat, and then water flowedinto his mouth, but it was sweet,  not bitter with salt, not cold, butcool.

“There you are,” Tony-mer said, and Bucky understood him. “That’sbetter, right?

“Where’d you get this?” the Bucky creature demanded, wrapping onelimb around the metal wrist.

“My…” Bucky marvelled. His voice didn’t exactly come from histhroat, it was as if just thinking about the words put them out there. “My Tonymade it for me.” He didn’t bother to mention that it was after his Tony hadripped the old one off him, either, or that the original one had come from anenemy the likes of which he couldn’t possibly explain. No need to share thattrauma with his doppleganger.

“Get on that, fishtail,” Bucky-creature said to the Tony-mer.“Tired of bein’ lopsided.”

Tony-mer made a gesture that Bucky both did not understand, andintimately understood at the same time; whatever the sea creature equivalent offuck you was, a pinch of thumb and two fingers and then violently spreadingthem.

“What happened to… you?” Bucky asked.

Tony-mer looked sober, almost sad. “I might have led him under arockslide. We had to cut the limbs off, to get him free.”

“We’ve been over this, seashell,”the Bucky-creature said. “I forgive you. An’ I deserved it.” He gave Bucky aconspiratorial glance. “Mighta been tryin’ to eat him, but can you blame me?”

“My Tony’s pretty tasty, too,” Bucky said, grinning back athimself, which was sooo weird.

“Obviously, you don’t belong here,” Wanda-star said, breakingthings up with a swish of one hand and two of her arms. “How do we get you backwhere you’re supposed to be?”

“I don’t even know where here is,” Bucky protested. “I wasgettin’ my picture taken, and then I was here.”

“I don’t understand this word. What’s… picture? And how doessomeone take it from you?”

“He’s teaching art class to fish,” Tony said, raising an eyebrow.“Tell me you got something.”

“What? Lemme see that,” Steve said, grabbing for the picture. Sureenough, there was Bucky, using one rock to scrape patterns on the wall on anundersea cavern. Drawing stick figures. He was bad at it, Steve had always beenthe artist of the two of them.

The mer-people had taken him to some sort of cavern, they’dobviously adopted him as some sort of mascot, which wasn’t unusual, Tonysupposed. If a Bucky-doppleganger had shown up unexpectedly around a group ofAvengers, they’d have some sort of centaur-Bucky and making do until they couldfigure out how to get him home, so it was only fair.

Wanda, Strange, Clint, even Scott, had joined in the search forthe wizard with the camera. Tony was on standby, in case they needed thefirepower, but he was too distracted to be away from the photograph for long,so for the last week or so, he’d been watching Bucky get better, down where itwas wetter.

Bucky-squid was almost always with him, a tentacle or arm wrappedaround one of Bucky’s legs, so he didn’t float or drift away. Their version ofWanda had made it so Bucky could breathe.

What they were having problems with, and Tony was gettingdesperately worried about it, was that Bucky couldn’t seem to eat much of theirfood, and salt water wasn’t hydrating him. He was getting weaker, every day.Super soldiers needed a hell of a lot of calories.

“We got it,” Wanda reported. “Clint and Sam are taking turnsintimidating our wizard, so we can reverse the spell, but hopefully they’ll gethim to tell us, soon. Stephen is looking it over, as well. He might be able toreverse engineer it.”

“I refuse to allow the word engineer to be in the samesentence as magicking anything,” Tony said. He was still watching Bucky,who was leaning heavily on his counterpart as he silently explained things tothe various sea-life surrounding him.

“All right,” Strange said, at that moment, striding into the room,his cloak sweeping along behind him. “I believe I have got it.”

“Have you?”

“He exists inside the picture, in their world,” Strange explained,and then Tony lost him because Strange started using words like aethericaltranslocation, and positively charged chakra and Tony was certain those wordsmeant something to Strange, and maybe to Wanda, but they didn’t mean anythingto Tony, and what’s more, he seldom wanted them to.

“Twelve centers of focus?” Wanda burst out, “are you insane?”

“Do you want the ocean to come flooding in? If so, carry onwinging it. I like a little stability in my transdimensional portals, thankyou.”

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose. “I hate both of you.”

“Look, there’s no reason why a Tyrean pattern won’t work,” Wandasaid. “They’re far more stable than you’re giving them credit for.”

“Perhaps, but if we do twelve, then I know at least my six areworking,” Strange retorted.

Wanda huffed. “I can hold up my end, old man, if you can hold upyours.”

“I’m thirty seven,” Strange pointed out.

“What?”

“Thirty seven. That’s hardly old.”

“Did you just… make a joke?” Tony burst in. “You make jokes? Whydid I not know that? Enough, enough, can you do it?”

“Of course,” Strange said. He held out one hand to Wanda. “Anchoryour essence, if you please.”

“Just because you had to do things the hard way,” Wanda said, butshe threw one hand gesture behind her, sending a shimmer of red energy thatgrabbed onto the ground like one of Peter’s sticky-webs.

“Together, on three,” Strange said. “One…”

“Two.”

“Three.” Tony crossed his fingers, hating himself for doing it anddoing it anyway. Tony didn’t believe in luck.

Of course, on his better days, Tony didn’t much believe in magiceither, and look how that was working out for him.

He stared down at the enchanted photograph while Strange and Wandafocused on the magic camera (Tony hated every word in that sentence.)

In the photograph, Bucky’s head jerked up, he turned and for thefirst time, Tony thought maybe he was, somehow, aware of the photograph. Helooked right at Tony. His mouth moved soundlessly, and then he was hugging thesquid-version of himself, then the Tony-mer, and then he swam toward the photograph.

“We’ve got him,” Strange reported, and then-- with a wet splash,the photograph tore in half and Bucky, dripping wet and shivering, was gaspingfor air in the middle of the floor.

“Oh, god, Bucky, honey,” Tony cried, and then he was there, hisarms around his shivering, soaked boyfriend, as Bucky coughed and spluttered.

“I’m okay,” he said, finally, tucking his face against Tony’sthroat. “I’m okay, baby. I’m here, I’m home, oh, god.” And then Bucky was sobbing,clutching Tony tight. “Didn’t know if I’d ever see you again. They didn’t knowhow t’ get me back. Oh, Tony.”

“Honey,” Tony said, seriously, “I will never stop looking for you.Never. Promise.”

Bucky was nodding, and Steve threw a blanket down over him, whichTony used to start rubbing him dry and warm.

“I tell ya, babe,” Bucky said, after a while, “I never, ever wantto go deep-sea divin’ again.”

“Yeah? Under the sea’s not for you?”

“Well, you had a real cute tail, down there,” Bucky mentioned,“but I think legs are to be preferred.”

[recycledcactus]

im here with a cheeky little update on life and other stuff

hello rece!!!

1. I did not know you were Canadian!!! i think that's pretty funky!! :D

2. there was fire alarm the day after the one at the escale room at school

i was late to science bc of it

but we move

3. my friend gave me the cat ears he was gonna give his gf but then they broke up but turns out she stole another pair of cat ears from him and now she says we're twinning but also wants to fight me for 'stealing her bf'

4. everyone inmy science class got A*'s on the test! :D

5. the guy i like is my academic rival

6. also one time at primary school my friend and i were locked in the library during a fire alarm (fire alarms really dislike me)

7. im moist

and that's all from me

how are you?

do you like cats?

is purple your favourite colour? you have the vibes

do you think geese or swans are superior?

hi! hello! hello hello sunny!! (btw i love that name because it reminds me of humanity)

1. I did not know being Canadian was neat. yay!

2, 6, & 7. you good there? why are you moist? why do fire alarms go off a lot in your life?

3. is it genuine malice or is she just a little guy. she sounds like the kinda person to be mean but i can't tell...

4. Yay! I'm so proud of you!!!!

5. nooooo.....? sounds like you're in a movie tbh....

how am I? I'm good! I had a really busy day! hmmm school was pretty normal. i had a math test, absolutely hated my fucking english teacher again, you know, the usual. but oh, you know what heinous crime my english teacher, Ms. T, did today? i'll tell you...

she handed our tests from last week back and the 3 written answer questions were all worth 10 points, right? when she's giving one of my friend's test, my friend was confused because they got a five for each answer and they were sure they deserved more. upon asking why that was, Ms. T says, in the most petty fucking voice, "well nobody in the class got even close to a 10." Like. GIRL. IF NOBODY IN THE CLASS GOT IT, THAT'S YOUR FAULT??? BUT IT GETS WORSE. my other friend then asks why all of us got 5s (because he could see all our papers) and she had the audacity to reply with "I figured I'd make it 5/5 instead, so you still got a good mark!"

DOES SHE KNOW HOW FRACTIONS WORK??? THATS THE SAME FUCKING THING MA'AM

anyways, i ended up making a 'ms t hate group' groupchat on insta and we just shit talked her all period.

what else happened today?

oh! my friend took me to this place in one of the more artsy/cultural districts of my city. it was this little, teensy shop. not even room for sitting and eating. and we got these little octopus bits (very tiny) fried in a thick layer of dough and lots of sauce??? pretty sure it's called takoyaki. it was really good! after, i got kripy kreme for the first time and it was also so good that i almost cried (ive been stressed lately, very emotional now).

I do like cats! i have a cat named nala but she only responds to 'kitty cat' or 'cat'. i can show photos upon request :]

you're really close. purple was, until just recently, my favourite colour. it has since been replaced with orange. orange gets such a terrible rap but it's because everyone thinks of a specific bad orange in their head when they think of it. it's actually really pretty and i think it's the colour of humanity. (i could probably expand on that).

i can't tell. there's plenty of canadian geese around in my hometown, as well as swans in the rivers of the park, but i don't really... notice them? geese are better for the memes, but i think swans are beautiful.

i'm obsessed with daredevil <3

do you like honey? you remind me of honey. maybe you don't like honey, that wouldn't be good considering you're honey to me

what's your favourite fruit? i think you can tell a lot by a person by their favourite fruit.

[edsbrak]

Will Byers/Coming out fic: I hope you find your peace

3k; complete warnings: foul/homophobic language rating: gen

read on Ao3

summary: Will Byers had grown up without a father, thinking that what he felt for his best friend was wrong. He just needed someone to tell him he wasn't, and that he was still loved. 

.

(When Will is four years old, he meets Mike at the playground.)

“Um…”

Will snapped his attention away from a bug at his feet and looked up, startled to find a boy standing next to the other empty swing. He shuffled around, seemingly shy. Will felt suddenly shy as well. Did this boy want him to leave so he could have the swings to himself?

“Can we… can we be friends?”

Will gripped the chains of the swing tighter. Nerves crept up his spine, but in a good way. Friends. He knew that word – knew what exactly it meant. He nodded fast, as if the boy might change his mind.

“Yes. I wanna be friends.”

The boy smiled brightly and sat down on the other swing. He held out his hand, and Will took it without hesitation. Maybe he was supposed to let go when the boy gave him a strange look, but then he smiled again.

“My name’s Mike. What’s yours?”

“Will. I’m Will.”

Mike nodded, like they had just shared a secret.

Together they swung back and forth, still holding hands, and Will had made his first ever friend in the world.

*

(When Will is five years old, he comes home from school one day and overhears his mum and dad fighting.)

He crouched down low outside the front of their house, hidden from sight. He could hear his dad stomping around inside the kitchen, voice bellowing and slurred. His mum was much quieter, as if trying to calm him.

“What the hell’s wrong with him, huh? He’s not normal, Joyce!”

“He’s only five, Lonnie. You’re drunk, just – calm down, okay, please?”

“Ah, shut up! The boy’s a nutter!” his dad yelled back. “I try to take him out to play ball, but he’d rather spend his time inside drawing pansy-ass rainbow shit in his room!”

Will looked down at his shoes. He thought of the latest character he’d drawn from his dreams: a purple octopus with pogo sticks for arms. There’s more movement inside, followed by a shattering of something made of glass. Will imagined he’s that glass.

“No, no! Everything’s wrong! I got one kid who’s too pansy to shoot a damn hare and another who’s a fucking fag!”

Will wondered what that meant. It must not be good.

“Don’t you say that,” said his mum sternly. “I cannot believe you, Lonnie—”

“It’s true, he’s a goddamn queer and you’ve been encouraging it!”

“Lonnie—” his mum tried to reason with him, but then there’s more smashing sounds and footsteps heading toward the front door.

Will scrambled away, not wanting his father to see him. The door banged against the wall of the house and he watched behind some loose boxes as his father stormed away to the shed.

Even after the dust had settled, Will could not bring himself to move, limbs unwilling to cooperate. He could hear smothered sobs echoing from inside. Instead he curls in on himself and stays there for a long time.

*

(When his father leaves, he asks his mum about it.)

“Sorry, sweetie, what was that?” his mum said, having been too distracted to notice the question. The house was a mess, left behind after she had kicked Lonnie out in a spout of utter rage. Jonathan hadn’t been here to see it happen.

“Did dad leave because of me?” he asked again quietly.

“Oh,” she breathed out, and pulled him onto her lap. “Of course not, sweetie. Never. You’re his special little man, okay?”

“But Dad said I was wrong. He said I was a… fag?” Will hoped he used the right word.

“No, no,” she said quickly, somehow squeezing him even tighter. “You’re not wrong at all. Your dad was just angry at himself, not you, okay? Will, listen to me: you are not wrong. You are special, and good, and there is nothing wrong with you.”

After a pause Will nodded, if only to make his mother happy again. He still didn’t quite understand it all, but as long as his father hadn’t left because of him, then maybe it would be okay. Maybe he would come back to them.

Joyce held him close and hummed for a very long time, until Jonathan came home and her tears started to fall again.

*

(When Will is nine years old, he hears that word again at school.)

“What are you fags doing over here?” said Troy, a bully who liked to pick on them at school. His friend James stood next to him and laughed.

“It’s none of your business,” answered Mike. Will thought he was brave for always standing up to Troy.

“It don’t look like none of my business,” sneered Troy, stepping closer.

Will had been busy showing his friends his sketch book earlier. He sometimes liked to bring it to school to show his art teacher what he would be drawing at home. Dustin enjoyed introducing him to characters in their D&D handbook, and Lucas had said Will could “totally make up his own character” because he was really talented like that. Mike had been in the middle of saying how much he liked Will’s drawings when their bullies interrupted them.

“Just leave us alone,” said Dustin as he tried to stand strong.

Troy and James laughed again. “Easy there, newbie. You might hurt someone with that lisp of yours,” he mock imitated.

Will shook his head, wishing he could say something to make them go away. Troy turned on him, eyes trailing down to the sketch book and Will tried to hide it quickly. He wasn’t fast enough, and in the end Troy managed to snatch it from his hands and began flipping through it.

“Look at all of these drawings,” said Troy, showing it to James as well. “My, you’re very good.”

Will swallowed, thinking maybe Troy actually did like his drawings. But then Troy began ripping pages out and throwing them to the ground, and all Will could see was his dad being disgusted of his son’s vivid imagination and leaving him behind without another word.

“Hey, stop that!” shouted Mike, and Will watched as his friend struggled to get the book back for him. Eventually Troy grew bored and shoved the book toward Mike, muttering “Bunch of faeries you lot are,” as he and James left them once the bell started to ring.

With trembling hands Will bent down to pick up a drawing he’d done months ago. It was another version of his ‘rainbow ship’. He remembers how his mum had loved it so much she kept the very first one, and since that day Will had felt so good about his talent that he never stopped sketching his ship over and over again.

“I’m sorry, Will, I tried to get them back,” said Mike, holding in his hands all of the drawings Troy had ruined.

“I know. Thank you,” said Will gratefully. Mike smiled sadly at him.

They all went back inside to go to class, and when Dustin and Lucas walked on ahead, Will reached out to hold Mike’s hand in his. Mike squeezed back, and Will felt unconditionally loved.

*

(When Will is eleven years old, he gets beat up for the first time.)

He was alone when it happened. School had finished and he was waiting for Jonathan to drive by and pick him up in the family car. Will thought his brother was badass to already be driving like their mum did.

“Hey, fairy-boy!”

Will tensed, not knowing if he should run away or hope that Jonathan would get here soon. Before he could make a choice he was being shoved to the ground and two figures loomed over him, both with menacing grins.

“You daydreaming, huh, Byers? Too busy being stuck in queerland to pay attention to the real world?” taunted Troy.

“Go away,” whispered Will.

“Oh, what was that?” said Troy, cupping his ear. James bent down to clench the front of Will’s jacket, hoisting him up to spit in his face. “We didn’t hear you.”

Will felt tears prickle at his eyes. He tried to think of his mum’s voice, calm and gentle. “I said go away,” he repeated, growing brave and looking directly at James.

The next few minutes are a blur.

He’s thrown to the ground again, with James holding down his feet and Troy at his front, pulling at his hair and grinding dirt on his face. He tried to get them to stop, yelling and begging, but neither boy listened. Instead, Troy pulled his hand back and it formed into a fist, and after a moment it’s colliding with Will’s nose.

His entire vision goes fuzzy and he can’t focus right. Troy’s voice is fading fast and there’s a ringing in his ear. Another hit lands in almost the exact same place, and Will felt something crack as pain begins to throb over and over from his nose.

“Hey, hey!”

Will didn’t know what happened next, except the bullies left him alone and then a dark figure was trying desperately to lift him up.

“… Dad?” he thought he asked, and it’s the last thing he remembered before his eyes slipped shut.

When he woke up it must be much later, because now it’s dark when he looked out the window. He noticed his mum next, sleeping soundly in a chair, her hand warm and tight over his own.

“Hey, buddy,” said a familiar voice. Will turned to see Jonathan on his other side, expression relieved. “Hey, you’re okay now. You’re safe with us.”

Will observed his surroundings; they weren’t recognizable, until he saw a doctor walk by the open door. “Why… am I in the hospital?”

Jonathan held Will’s other hand. “Those kids hurt you pretty bad. They broke your nose, so we had to bring you here to fix it,” he said, and he sounded angry.

Curiously, Will reached up to touch his nose, and hissed when he made contact. Jonathan laughed sadly.

“Don’t touch it for a while, okay?” he warned. Will nodded, and felt another wave of tears threaten to spill. Why was he so weak? Jonathan shifted closer. “Will, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry they hurt you. I should have been there to stop them…”

“You can’t always be there,” said Will.

Maybe his dad had been right.

Jonathan said nothing more, and Will fell back to sleep and dreamt of his rainbow ship taking him far, far away.

*

(When Will is thirteen years old, he meets Eleven for the first time.)

Everything that had happened in the past few hours were still trying to catch up to him.

The gate had been closed. The Demogorgon’s had fallen dead. The… the shadow monster wasn’t controlling him anymore.

“It’s all over, sweetie, you’re okay,” his mother kept repeating, clutching him tighter and refusing to let him go. Will only wanted to sleep, complete exhaustion crushing him further down onto the bed.

Eventually, they drive back to their house. Everyone is there. His friends all come over to say hi, to hug him and to check on him and make sure he was back to normal.

Do you want to be normal? To be like everyone else?

His brother had said that to him.

Did he want to be normal? Was he normal? Or was he still a freak?

There was a girl standing in their living room, and Chief Hopper’s arm was wrapped around her shoulders. Will has never met her before. He thinks she must be Eleven.

Eleven would understand.

Mike had said that to him.

Mike.

Will looked around for his friend, suddenly needing to see him. He was talking to Nancy, expression anxious before finally walking over to where Eleven still stood. He smiled at her, features soft, and she smiled back. And then he reached out to hold her hand and their fingers intertwined.

Will’s breath catches.

It used to be him holding Mike’s hand. Just him.

Then we’ll go crazy together, right?

Yeah, crazy together.

No one wants to separate tonight, it seems, so both his mum and Chief Hopper set up beds around the house, and soon everybody is collapsing, all falling into deep sleeps and holding each other close for fear of the unknown. Will still dreamt of the shadow monster holding him in its clutches, but when he wakes up the next morning, he can remember it was finally over.

One by one they all leave – first his friends, with a reluctant Mike stepping closer to Eleven before being pushed along by Nancy and Steve.

Will found a moment to walk over to Eleven as Chief Hopper talked to his mum, and Eleven spoke before he had the chance.

“You’re Will.”

He nodded. “And you’re Eleven,” he said back.

There’s an awkward pause between them. From how often Mike had talked about her, how she would understand, Will felt as though he should know what to say. There were so many questions he wanted to ask, should ask, but what came out was: “So, you and… Mike?”

She tilted her head, eyebrows furrowed. “Mike?”

“Yeah, you…” he trailed off, unable to finish.

“You are best friends.”

Will looked at her, surprised. “He said that?”

“He spoke of you a lot when we were trying to find you.”

Will felt warm, if only for a moment. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, Mike talked about you a lot when you were gone, too.”

They fell silent again. Chief Hopper came over to tell Eleven they’re leaving. She said goodbye to them and Will watched them drive off down the road until they were out of sight. His mother ushered him back inside, saying she was going to make them all some breakfast.

Will thought about Eleven and Mike, about what it all meant, until his mother started screaming about a Demogorgon in their fridge.

*

When it came time for the Snow Ball dance, Will wasn’t worried about finding a date.

He spent his time standing and talking with Mike. His friends all seemed keen on dancing with a girl, though, and Will tried hard to see the appeal.

“Do you wanna dance?”

The question was aimed toward him, and Will felt instantly paralyzed as the girl waited for an answer. He looked to Mike almost subconsciously, and his friend urged him to say yes. With a timid smile he stepped out onto the dance floor with her, but something just didn’t feel right.

Later, he glanced over to see Mike dancing with Eleven. He looked so happy. Will wondered why he didn’t look at this girl like that, too.

The further the night went on, the more Will felt his smile disappear.

*

(When Will is fifteen years old, he learns the real meaning for it all.)

Will knew he must be different.

Because normal people don’t watch their best friend from afar, wishing it was himself softly kissing Mike instead of the girl huddled close to his side – the girl, El, who was also his friend now.

He should be happy for them, right?

Only every time he looked at them, smiling and together, Will only felt hollow.

What the hell’s wrong with him, huh? He’s not normal, Joyce!

His dad’s voice still rang clear, even now. After choosing to draw instead of play catch, he had lost a father. After his time in the Upside Down, people had called him Zombie Boy and avoided him in the halls. After being possessed by the shadow monster and almost losing himself, people had thought he was crazy.

And now… now he…

He got up and left hastily, ignoring the curious calls from his friends as he goes, Mike’s voice standing out the most.

There’s a feeling, growing bigger and bigger in his chest as he rides, peddling faster and faster away from something he’s never been more afraid of. He pulled up to his mum’s work, running inside and searching around for her in a panic.

“Mum? Mum!”

There’s some noise from out the back, and then he heard: “Will? Is that you?”

The second he sees her he breaks, tears falling big and hot, and she dropped whatever she was holding and pulls him in. They stand there for a long time in the quiet of the store, until she guided him out the back to sit down and fetched him a glass of water.

“Honey, did something happen? Did someone hurt you?” she asked.

Will shook his head no, trying to find the words. There were a million lumps forming in his throat, all stopping him, and all that comes out is a wretched sob, his face buried in his hands. His mum rubbed his back comfortingly, patient like a mother is, and Will is so, so scared.

“Mum, I think I… I’m…”

“What, sweetie?” she asked, and her hand never once stopped rubbing in soothing circles.

“Was dad right?” he whispered into the air. “I’m I a fag? I don’t care for playing sports. I… don’t like girls like my friends do, I think. I tried, I really did, mum. But I just…”

The weight grew heavier. He felt sick, he felt wrong, wrong, wrong.

“Will…” his mother cried, too, and Will prepared for the worst. She cupped his cheeks gently, and brought his gaze up to meet hers. “There is nothing wrong with you. There never has been, okay?”

Will choked up. “But—”

“No, Will, listen to me,” she said, lips trembling when she smiled. “You are not a fag. ‘Fag’ is a horrible word, okay? And you are not horrible, you are anything but.”

“Okay,” said Will, but sounded unsure.

His mum kept talking. “There’s another word for it, and it’s ‘gay’. And if… if that’s how you really feel, then that’s what it’s called. That’s the word you use.”

Will sucked in a deep breath, hands clammy and tongue heavy. “Gay,” he repeated.

“Yes,” she nodded, stroking his cheek with her thumb. “And someone who is gay isn’t wrong. All it means is that you like other boys, and that’s it.”

“That’s it?” he asked.

“That’s it,” she said.

“Are you… are you mad?”

“No, sweetie. I could never be mad,” still smiling, she pulled him closer again, and just like that Will felt like he could breathe again. “I love you, and whoever it is you choose to love.”

Fresh tears run down his cheeks, and then Will closed his eyes and thought of his mum proudly showing off his drawings. He thought of his friends, and he thought of all of the girls he’s never liked and of the one boy he does like.

He imagined his rainbow ship and felt, for the first time, that maybe one day he could be truly happy.

*

*

*

[comingsoontoaskalt2d]

Beg, he signs.

2D trembles. “P-please, daddy. Oh, please, I-I need it...” Stuart is barely an inch deep inside him, just enough to tease him with a hint of the tantalizing stretch 2D craves so badly.

Need what?

“Y-your– your c-cock.” He tries to grind down, tries to take him deeper, but Stuart firmly holds his hips still. “I n-need ya inside me. I need t-to feel ya, I need ya to f-fuck me. I feel so empty, daddy...”

Greedy whore.

“Only f-for you.” It’s a submissive murmur, but laced with a playful smile. Stuart smiles back and raises a hand to trace over his husband’s lips. 2D opens his mouth automatically, drooling shamelessly on Stuart’s fingers as they slip into his mouth. “Pleathe?” he whispers, lisping around the intrusion.

Stuart answers with a hard thrust upward, burying himself to the hilt inside his husband’s deliciously tight warmth.

It wrenches a cry of pleasure from 2D, and Stuart quickly claps a hand over his mouth to muffle it. Quiet, he signs with his other hand. His fingers are trembling– the feeling of 2D clenching down on his cock, inner muscles fluttering with the effort of keeping still, is as overwhelming as it is wonderfully familiar. He slowly draws his hand away from 2D’s mouth, grips his hips, and drags his body down, controlling every movement like 2D is a doll.

“Daddy,” 2D moans, surrendering blissfully to Stuart’s skilled hands, letting himself be moved and manipulated. “Oh, daddy...”

Stuart can’t answer with his hands busy, but he shows how pleased he is with 2D’s words by angling his thrusts just right, rubbing the head of his cock mercilessly against 2D’s prostate. This draws another gasp from his husband, who throws his head back and trails a hand up to caress and pinch at his own nipples.

He’s so lost in his own pleasure that he doesn’t notice that one of Stuart’s hands has drifted off his hips– until it gives him a firm spank, cracking across his bum and making him clench even tighter around Stuart in response.

“Fuck! Fuck, daddy, please, d-do that again–“

Stuart grins up at him and gives him what he wants, cupping his arse gently before delivering another hard smack. 2D whimpers, moving his hips of his own accord. This time Stuart lets him.

“I l-love ridin’ y-your cock, daddy,” 2D tells him, voice slurred in delirious joy. “Love f-feelin’ ya...” He arches his back, practically purring as he works his hips in little circles.

It’s ecstasy feeling 2D like this, seeing him like this. Stuart lets out a tiny moan, unable to help himself, and 2D gazes down at him, vaguely worried but mostly still overtaken with pleasure.

“Shh, shh. Don’t– ah!– d-don’t hurt your...mmm– y-your throat...” Even while caught up in the lovely sensations rippling through his body, 2D is as attentive to Stuart’s health as ever. It’s as hot as it is sweet. “Oh, fuck, daddy–“

With his back facing the door, and with all his attention on his husband, 2D doesn’t notice the door to the hospital room open.

But Stuart does. Stuart sees it open, and he sees a nurse step in and stop dead in her tracks.

If he were in his right mind, he’d alert 2D. He’s stop him and apologize to the nurse and 2D would go out of his mind with embarrassment. But Stuart isn’t really in his right mind. 2D is rocking his hips and panting and whimpering “Daddy, daddy, daddy,” as he clenches down around Stuart’s cock.

So Stuart doesn’t say anything. He just looks up at his husband and signs Good boy. Beautiful. Mine.

The nurse can leave, or she can watch. Stuart couldn’t care less.

“Daddy, I’m– I’m c-close,” 2D gasps, reaching a hand down to touch himself. “Please, make m-me cum...”

Stuart gives him another hard spank. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the nurse put her hand to her mouth. Good boy, he signs with his other hand, looking back up at 2D and smiling. Cum for daddy. Good boy.

“Ah–“ 2D’s eyes slip shut as his hand works over his cock even faster. “Oh, daddy– fuck, oh god, Stu!” He cums with a loud cry, sinking down onto Stuart’s cock as he paints his chest with white.

Stuart surges up to kiss him, ignoring the sharp pain that blooms in his newly healed ribs as he does. He’s so close to orgasm himself– and when 2D tiredly picks himself up, trembling and smiling, and starts to roll his hips again, riding his husband slowly, Stuart falls apart completely. He cums just as 2D raises his hips off his cock, and it spatters obscenely onto his arse.

“‘At’s it, daddy, make me yours...” 2D kisses him, nipping playfully at his lips as Stuart gasps for breath. “Mmm, love it when ya cum on me like tha’. I love feelin’ like your slut.”

Stuart’s head is spinning, but he has the wherewithal to glance towards the nurse. She’s gone. He hopes she hasn’t called the police or something.

“Stu?” 2D tilts his head. “Ya spacin’ out?”

I’m here, he signs, smiling back up at him. You feel wonderful. Good, good, good. Thank you.

“Glad to ‘ear it.” 2D lets out a sleepy sort of giggle and reaches for the box of tissues by the bed. He cleans himself up somewhat lazily before flopping down and curling all his limbs around Stuart, like some sort of leggy blue-haired octopus. “We...we...we...” He lets out a yawn. “We gotta do that more often.”

Do what? Stuart’s brow quirks as he signs. We already have sex a lot.

2D looks up at him and grins mischievously. “I mean, we should ‘ave a audience more often. I like bein’ watched.” He curls against Stuart’s side, sighing happily. “I saw ‘er watchin’ in the reflection of the window,” he explains, eyes sliding closed. “It was hot.”

With a little disbelieving chuckle, Stuart kisses the top of his head. Goodnight, silly. Since 2D’s eyes are shut, he takes his hands and guides them to form the gestures. I love you.

“I love ya too.”

[askmissthunder]

(A note from Miss Thunder: Cassie had the idea to spice things up a bit and film our responses like in the American game show, Love Connection. I wasn't familiar with the show but in the UK, we had the show Blind Date so I knew the gist of the format. Cassie filmed us on my couch at my flat.)

Miss Thunder: Are we ready to record, Cass?

Cassie: Let me get the tripod set...aaaaaand there! It's on!  *Ahem!* Okay, Penny, Eli, how was your Valentine's Date?

Miss Thunder: Well, it wasn't quite what I expected but I'm certainly not gonna complain! Looking back, I should've known something was up when Eli brought his duffel bag to my flat.

Eli: I sauntered up to Penny and asked, "When was the last time you went out as Miss Thunder?".  Very discreet, if I say so.

MT: "Oh, the day before yesterday, why?"

E: I reached into my bag and pulled out my Black Dog mask, "Well, do you think, for Valentine's Day, Miss Thunder could use a partner?"

MT: I'll be honest, I was totally flabbergasted by this. A trillion thoughts probably raced through my mind in a split second.  Not all of them good.

E: Why's that?

MT: Because, luv, there's like countless ways a patrol could go wrong. What if you got hit by a stray bullet? What if you fall off a roof and I can't catch you in time?  What if some old lady turned out to be a shapeshifting dog-eating alien and grabbed you in her slimy tentacles? It's hard to prepare for all and any eventualities, y'know?

E: I remember you making a lot of "Uhhhh...."' and "Hmmm" noises.

MT: I was thinking! But... you seemed really eager and it was Valentine's Day so I thought "What the hell? If nothing else, it'd be a fun if cautionary story to tell.".

E: I glad you said yes, otherwise I don't know how I would have gotten around to the other steps of my plan.

MT: You gave a little cheer, I remember, and started changing clothes right on the spot.

C: Ooh! Things were already getting steamy!

E: Penny yelled out, "ELI! WAIT!"

MT: I didn't yell, you just caught me off guard! I spun around and went straight to my room to change.

E: You were blushing.

MT: Well, of course! If your exceedingly handsome boyfriend started stripping in front of you, you'd go red in the face too!

E: (Mumbling) I don't know about "exceedingly", but go on.

MT: So we got into our costumes and headed for the roof.

E: I was hopping up and down, I was so excited!

MT: Hee hee! You were! I had you cling onto my back as I leaped into the sky.

E: Oh! Getting to go jumping with you is so fun, Penny! If I could jump like you, I'd never stop! It's like flying!

MT: You weren't scared of falling off?

E: Nuh-uh! I had a good grip on your scarf and shoulder. Plus, I knew you'd never let me fall.

MT: Blimey, I'm glad to hear you have so much trust in me.  I'd prefer to carry you in my arms but I'd doubt you want to look like I'm carrying you like a baby.

E: Well, Eli wouldn't mind...(Deepens voice) but the Black Dog's gotta look tough! He's no baby!

MT: Heh, that's what I thought.

C: So how did the patrol go? Any bank robberies or fires?

MT: Uhmm...Well...not really. It was a bit of a slow afternoon.

E: Don't get me wrong, it was fun sniffing around and keeping my eyes peeled but nothing was really happening. Not even a jaywalker or litterbug in sight!

MT: I had been jumping around the city for over an hour but it was as calm as a church mouse.  I was starting to feel peckish so I asked Eli if he wanted to stop in the park to grab a bite.

E: Yeah, I was feeling hungry too so I sniffed out a hot dog cart in a little plaza in Hamilton Park.

MT: Something cute did happen, though. Since the hot dog cart was by a playground, all the little kids playing there saw the two of us land and rushed towards us in a mini stampede.  I could see Eli get into character. He started grimacing and growled softly.

E: The Black Dog doesn't care if you're a child! You even look at this dog funny, you're gonna get bit!  (In normal voice) Also, I noticed you changed your voice too, Penny.

MT: Oh, you loike me Cockney accent, do ya, guv'nah?

E: (Laughing) What is that voice?! It cracks me up when I hear it!

MT: (Tickling Eli) You wot, mate?! You wanna have a go?! You think you can dress oop like a black shuck and have a go at Miss Thunder?! I'll tickle you silly, I will!  I swear on me mum!

(All three break into a loud giggle fit)

C: Ha ha ha! Oh! Oh my goodness! Hee hee! So, so what happened with the kids?

MT: Oh, they were all "Miss Thunder! Miss Thunder!" and "It's Black Dog the wrestler!" It was so cute! We took pictures, signed autographs, the whole celebrity experience.

E: I did my patented Black Dog Howl!

MT: (Rubbing ear) I know, Eli. I can still hear it a bit.

E: It was fun getting to see our fans but danger finally reared its head at the worst time.

C: What happened?

MT: *Sighs* A big "villainous" nuisance, that's what!

C: I'm gonna stop you right there, Penny. When we come back, we'll find out who our mystery villain is! I'm Cassie Paxton, the fabulous Red Rabbit, and we'll back in two and two!

C: We're back! When we last left our heroes, they were on a Valentine's "patrol date" and enjoying the adoration of their young fans. But the hero's call of duty beckoned as a mysterious villain has mysteriously struck! So, who was it? El Toro? Technopunk? Oh! I bet it was Dr. Chimera! I heard he's been seen around town lately!

MT: *Scoffs* No, we weren't graced with their presence. For context, for every A-list Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus and Electro, there's a D-list Stilt-Man, Hypno-Hustler, and Paste Pot Pete. What we got, for Eli's first patrol, was Doctor Devil.

C: ...Ugh! That wannabe creep?

E: I take it you girls are familiar with him?

MT: Unfortunately, yes. He's some office worker who got bored with his job and decided he wanted to be a supervillain, of all things. So he grabbed a doctor's coat and a cheap devil mask and has gone on a "crime" spree ever since like dumping trash on the street or spray painting curse words on school playgrounds.

C: So what was he doing now?

MT: Well, he went and stole an ATM.

C: *Gasps* He's finally moving up in the world!

MT: You'd think but the idiot had hijacked a towing lorry and was dragging the ATM behind him like a wrecking ball so the police didn't have a hard time following him.

E: I could hear the racket he was making from clear across the park. We said good bye to the kids and told them to stay close to their parents in case the situation went sour. I hopped on Penny's back and off we went.

MT: I'm not sure what happened but when we arrived, his lorry had flipped on its side and he was standing on top of it, having a shootout with the cops.

C: Who gave that maniac a gun?!

MT: It wasn't just a gun either, it was some sort of experimental gun that shot fireballs or something. It was basically like shooting Molotov cocktails because his shots would land on the ground and they'd set the ground ablaze. I don't know about you but that just screamed like something the Buzzards would have.

C: Tsk! They would sell him something stupid and dangerous like that!

E: He was certainly trying his hardest to be a bad guy because he was laughing all "HA HA HA! Feel the heat of my hellfire, pigs!".

MT: I told Eli to stay low and try to sneak behind him. While he scurried away, I leaped into the fray, right between him and the cops. He just laughed, "Ah! Miss Thunder Thighs! How nice of you to join us! I suppose the smell of roasted pork might have lured you in!"

E: Penny just rolled her eyes, "Har har. I'm fat. I bloody get it. Now, why don't you just put down your wee doofer and we'll get you a nice room at Greyshore. Maybe one with a view."

MT: "Oooh! Not this time, fatty! Not when I'm packing HEAT!" He twisted some knob on his gun and gun became like a flamethrower as a huge stream of flames shot out at me. "BURN BABY, BURN! AH HA HA HA HA HA HA! MELT BEFORE THE FIERY GAZE OF DOCTOR DEVIL!"

E: I remember feeling scared, seeing Penny engulfed in flames like that but I could see she kept walking towards him like it was nothing. "HA HA HA HA Ha ha ha heh heh he he...ooh."

MT: I was standing just inches in front of him as I pinched the barrel of his gun shut. My scarf was a bit singed from the fire but other than that, I was fine. He must've been desperate as he actually had the nerve to swing at me.

C: No!

MT: It went as well as you'd expect as his fist just embedded itself in my cheek fat. "Really?", I asked him. After that, his whole demeanor changed. "Heeeeeeyyy...sorry about that whole 'fatty' crap. Just let me put out that fire on your shoulder there. Th-there's really no need for you to hit me or anything, is there?"  I cracked my knuckles and smiled. "No, no, no, mate. I'm not gonna hit you. He might, though."

E: When he turned around, that's when I struck, doing my leaping Wild Dog Punch right in the face, knocking his mask off. I grabbed him before he could fall off the truck and did a Top Rope Suplex.

C: Damn, Eli! Did you pin him too?

E: You better believe it! Sadly, there was no one there to count me though so I had to do it in my head.

MT: I'm sorry, sweetie. I would've done it but I didn't realize what you were doing until the cops pulled him from under you.

E: That's okay. He was just a jobber anyway. Now if we get one of your big supervillains, that would be worthy of a countdown!

MT: (Grinning) I'll be sure to keep that in mind, luv.

E: With Doctor Devil on his way to jail, I remembered the next part of my admittedly slapped-together plan. I had asked Penny a few days ago what building had the best view. "Personally, I'd have to say the Imperial Hotel.", she answered.

MT: It's not the tallest building but it has a fantastic view of the bay and boardwalk.

E: So, with great cunning, I asked Penny, "Hey, that Imperial Hotel is nearby, right? Maybe you can show me this 'beautiful view'?".

MT: Apparently, I'm more naive that I like to think I am because I answered, "Sure! It's just a hop, skip and jump away!"

C: (Rolling her eyes) Oh God, Penny! How long were you waiting to unleash that one?

MT: (Winking) Everybody gets at least one cheesy line from me.

E: Indeed, we did hopped, skipped, and jumped to the roof of the hotel. I'll be honest, it was really pretty up there. The ocean waves, the sailboats cruising by, all the couples on the boardwalk.

MT: Told you!

E: We stood for a while, enjoying the "golden hour", as they say, when we both heard a knock on the service door.

MT: I got a bit worried because I though it was gonna the hotel staff, telling us we can't "loiter" there. Remember that time at the Chez Poisson, Cassie?

C: That was bogus! We weren't bothering anybody! We were just catching a breather on the balcony during a patrol and the hostess starts screaming at us that we can't be there. I don't care how nice that place is, I'm never eating there!

MT: It turns out it was a pizza guy with an order of six extra large pepperoni pizzas and two 20-liter Cokes for a "Mr. Black Dog".

C: Wait.  When did you call for delivery, Eli?

E: During our time with the kids, I had slipped off for a few moments to "use the restroom". When actually I had ran to the nearest pay phone to place an order.

C: Ah, sneaky!

E: It turns out the delivery guy was a fan of mine so he knocked a few bucks off the order in exchange for a picture and autograph.

MT: And that was pretty much the rest of our evening, just people-watching from above while we enjoyed a delicious meal together as Miss Thunder and Black Dog.

E: Penny?

MT: Yes, luv?

E: I'm sorry it wasn't quite the Valentine's Date you deserve. I forgot about all about it and I couldn't take you to a nice concert like last time.

MT: (Holds his hands) Oh, Eli. Don't fret about it. I know I was being a bit of a worrywart at first but I had a wonderful time going on patrol with you! And frankly, now that I think about it, a lot of the dates we go on are about you trying to make me happy and you going out of your way to do that. That's not fair to you. I have to contribute to our relationship, too and if that means letting you go on patrol with me, I'd be more than happy to.

E: (Tail wagging) You mean it?

MT: Of course, Eli. I love you.

(Eli leaps from his seat and plants a big kiss on Penny's lips)

C: Oh my! Well, I think that concludes our time here on The Love Connection. On behalf of us here in Ocean City, I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day and may all your dates be good ones!

*THUMP!*

(Camera pans to Penny and Eli on the floor, passionately making out)

C: Theirs certainly was.

[niceness-before-knives]

7, 9, 11, 42, 44, 54, 64, 70, and 98 for either Mir or Tabris? (or both!)

Thank you for these questions! :D I’m missing two of them atm but my laptop is working for the minute, so I really want to post what I had while I have it.

7. Which of their relationships have impacted them most positively?

Mir: Everyone in the Inquisition? Is so Good for Mir? Like holy fuck. For Inquisition people, I'll go with Sera because I love friendships and theirs is one of the best. The positive mainly comes down to her and Mir being a lot alike. They're both a bit scattered in their thoughts and speech, excitable and occasionally violent. But! While Mir can't stand those traits in himself, he adores them in Sera and I think it just helps him come to terms with himself better. Also, the fact Sera is mostly just his friend is largely beneficial to him. He really needed a friend in the early days and Sera was honestly the best person he could've asked for.

Outside of the Inquisition, Iseult & Asa. They're a couple that Mir used to crash with when he was making rounds in Starkhaven. They're ...not the first people to accept Mir as himself (plenty of people in the Clan do like him) but unlike the others, Mir actually has pretty clear memories of them and their acceptance which is a rare thing for him. Like he knows they were his friends without a doubt, they gave him a safe space to be himself at a time when he desperately needed one and Inquisitor!Mir would have never been a thing without them. He still writes them a lot during DAI and Iseult does visit him at one point too.

Tabris: Shianni, definitely. But only is she his best friend, Shianni was the best just letting Tabris grieve in his own way when his mother died. Not that Cyrion and Soris didn't support him, but Shianni was the one that trusted him to be fine and just let him do his silence thing without a question of worry. He appreciates that more than he ever voices.

9. Describe the way that they sleep.

Mir: Haha! Wait, Mir sleeps? This is news to everyone in Skyhold! :D Ah, Mir is a bit of an manic insomniac and sleep is rarely one of his main proprieties in life. When he finally gets some shut eye, it tends to be whatever he passed on. He'll sleep happily anywhere, at be staircases, cabinets, a desk, scaffolding, whatever. He doesn't give a fuck. If it's a vaguely horizontal surface, he's sleeping on it. End of story.

When people do get him in sleep in a bed though, he enjoys a) hogging up as much space as his tiny self can take up because hey, live it up while life is good or b) if he's sleeping with someone, he's sleeping as close to or on top of whoever followed him to bed. There's no big/little spoons for him, just Mir uses you as his own personal pillow.

Tabris: Okay, okay, okay! Tabris actually loves to sleep. The shittiest part of the Blight was camping it for a frickin' year because camping does not make for good sleep. >:c!! He prefers lots of ...stuff when he sleeps? Like blankets or pillows or whatever you have because he tends to cocoon himself around them. If that stuff involves another person (darling former assassins for instance), you can bet Tabris will instead just happily octopus himself around them. If not, he likes sleeping in a ballish shape. c:

44. Why might someone love them?

Mir: Has no idea. Like, why would you honestly? He's kinda an exhausting soul to be around. :/ He is ...slowly making peace with that in his own way so, okay! Real answer! I'd imagine his compassion and enthusiasm for life is pretty endearing initially. Like all things aside, he likes to live and experience life and he wants to live and experience life! I always kinda picture Mir comes off a tad Maniac Pixie Dream Type like sometimes when you first met him. And It's gotten him in trouble in the past. :'l

Tabris: He's cool, calm and collected. Those are pretty ~*desirable*~ traits, yeah? Yeah, he thinks so. If not, people always seem pretty taken by his height but I think his generosity & altruism are probably the more honest answers. He likes to give and he likes to help.

54. What is their MBTI type?

Mir: ENFP, for sure! He fits the E, N and P ends of MBTI like a glove~~ Very turbulent too.

Tabris: I'm not super sure? Either ISTJ or INTJ. I'm learning towards INTJ because that sounds more Tabris when I read about the two. Either why, he's an Assertive type.

64. Upon seeing a slice of chocolate cake, what is their first reaction?

Hehe. Neither of them are big sweet-eaters so I imagine it's nothing special. xD Just 'oh, cake, neat' and Mir would then keep babbling on about whatever he was talking about before the cake enter his line of version. c:

70. Which TV Tropes best describes them?

Mir:There’s, like, too many so I’m just gonna go with Cloudcuckoolander or possibly Bunny-Ears Lawyer though since those are pretty close to the original starting traits I had for him all those years ago. At the very least, he definitely leads the Inquisition with massive Bunny-Ears Lawyer tendencies.

Tabris: The Quiet One. Obvious ones are there for a reason, I guess.

98. Something that they regret?

Mir: All that went down at Adamant is kinda high on the list. He wishes it ended  better, wishes he hadn't gotten so screwed up mentally by the Fear demon but mostly, he wishes Hawke didn't sacrifice herself because of him. She deserved better. :( :( :(

Tabris: Not doing more to save his mother or Shianni. He’ll always regret any time his family got hurt and he couldn’t do more to stop it. :(