#okay now that i uploaded it i realized i could have worded some stuff better

[chasing-that-feeling]

hydrangea love by tomorrow x together

i know hydrangea love is for a japanese drama but i think its a song that can also be about an artist showing their gratitude and love for their fans like txt and moa. i have not watched the drama but here is my own interpretation of the song as i tried to translate it without knowing any japanese

[pizzaboerr]

From nothing to something.

(Sanji x reader, part 7.)

Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6.

Summary: Sanji finally slept in your bed, and it could not be better with what happened. You realized you had night duty today so you made it the best you could.

Word count: 2.1K words

content warning: smut (if you blink you’ll miss it), Sweet and cute Sanji

Authors Note: Sorry fot the long MIA, a lot has happened. I told myself I’m not gonna pressure me writing stuff, that’s not gonna work. I’m also gonna start uploading a Eddie fanfic I held in my archives for almost a year(!!!)

P.S.: Sorry if there are sentences that are grammatically incorrect, English isn’t my first language, so my apologies in advance.

~~—~~—~~—~~

You woke up with Sanji still sleeping. You looked at the vlock and sighed. 9:34AM. You looked over to Nami’s bed, who wasn’t there anymore.

“Great.” You looked back to Sanji and shook him gently. He grabbed you and pulled you closer to him. “Five. more minutes love.” He mumbled while he put his head in the crook of your neck.

“Sanji, it’s 9:30, Don’t you have to prepare food or something?” You whispered. He shook his head. “They’ll be fine eating the scraps from yesterday my love.” He barely whispered back, trying to stay awake.

You smiled to yourself and nodded. You closed your eyes again until you heard some whispers from outside your room. You sighed and turned around. Sanji groaned and lied on his back. You put your head on his chest and looked up at Sanji, who was now awake. “Nami’s probably told everyone that I’m in your bed.” Sanji said closing his eyes again.

Nami walked inside and quickly closed the door behind her. “Good morning lovebirds! How was your sleep?” She said happily. “It was okay until we heard you guys whisper outside.” Sanji said a little bit irritated, looking at Nami and sitting up, causing you to sit up as well.

You stretched and got out of bed, climbing over Sanji in the process. “Watch it love.” Sanji mumbled as you looked down to see his growing problem. “Oops, sorry.” You whispered, now slightly blushing.

You were walking to your closet as Nami looked at Sanji.

“The reason I came in here was to tell you that the boys are, as they are saying it, still starving, after eating the remainder of yesterday’s meal Sanji. ” Nami said, gesturing he should get up. “I’ll be there in ten minutes okay?” Sanji asked while Nami walked back over to the door. “Okay, ten minutes is the max though, I will get you after that.” Sanji nodded and Nami left.

You grabbed some clothes and looked over at Sanji who was looking at you. “Well get up then lazy ass.” You teased him. He laughed and walked over to you. “Where were we?” Sanji put one hand on your waist while he looked at you lovingly.

“We were cuddling in bed but that’s not happening anymore.” You smiled putting your arms around his neck. His hands made their way to your face and held your face lovingly, his hands warm and big on your skin. He leaned in and you smiled as you felt the butterflies in your stomach went wild. The kiss was deep and so unbelievably pure, it punched the breath from your lunges the second your lips connected.

You sighed into him because the moment felt so right, so perfect. You felt yourself smile as he brushed his tongue over your bottom lip.

one of your hands ended up tugging at his hair, making him moan against your lips. He smiled and pulled you closer, if that was even possible.

“Sanji.” you whimpered when his thigh made its way between your legs. You were really taken aback from this but Sanji made you feel so good.

You ground down on his legs in rhythmic motions, trying to contain the moans. He pushed his leg higher, really enjoying all the cute little sounds that came from your lips and the very knowledge he was the one making sure you felt that good.

Sanji almost came undone from this alone, knowing he was the one making you feel this amazing.

But still, it wasn't enough. “Sanji, maybe we should continue this later.” You whispered, kissing his neck and jawline. He sighed and pulled his leg back, slightly. “I hate it when you’re right.” He sighed as he kissed you once more as he played with your tshirt. You smiled into the kiss and that made him smile too, causing him to deepen the kiss once again.

There was a knock at the door which made you both jump. “I’ll be there in a second!” Sanji yelled quickly, letting go of you, grabbing his clothes and putting it on. You changed too into a hoodie and jeans and looked at him. He was tying his tie and you smiled at him, walking over and making sure he looked perfect, fixing his tie and hair in the process.

He smiled and looked at you. “Thank you my love.” He said sweetly as he gave you a hug and a quick kiss after that.

He let you go and walked towards the door. “I’ll see you in a second?” He asked while smiling broadly and you nodded. He walked over to the door as you quickly stopped him. “One more kiss won’t hurt.” You quietly said while giving him one more kiss before sending him away.

He exited your room and you smiled. You cleaned up the room a little and did your makeup.

~~—~~—~~—~~

As you entered the kitchen you could see everyone enjoying their food. You smiled at Sanji and took a seat next to Ussop. “How was your sleep?” Ussop asked you while he was wiggling his eyebrows. “It was good, thank you for asking.” You smiled politely. He just smirked and continued eating.

You sat there, quietly eating your breakfast and listening to the plans that everyone made while you were still docked.

“What about you y/n? What are your plans today?” Luffy asked you with a full mouth. You laughed before answering. “Well I think I’m going to wander around a bit, see what this place has to offer, maybe shop a little.” Nami smiled and nodded. “We could go together?” I smiled brightly. “You can always join me Nami, would be very nice!”

“We’re going to continue our adventure tomorrow morning, so enjoy today!” Luffy excitedly yelled. Everyone nodded and parted their ways.

—~~—~~—~~—

Nami and you were walking through the busy streets and looked around. “Let’s go clothes shopping! I’m desperately in need of new clothes and maybe shoes even!” You almost yelled out of excitement. Nami laughed and followed your lead.

After telling Nami everything that has happened, except for a few parts you rather keep a secret for now and walking into a few stores, not really finding anything, you saw this beautiful little shop. You grabbed Nami’s hand and guided her through the crowd into the store.

You were never a dress person but when your eyes laid on the prettiest, most gorgeous dress you walker over to it. “It is my size!-“ you whispered excitedly to yourself. “175 berries..” You whispered sadly. “I can’t afford something like that.” You mumbled before you sighed and turned around, seeing Nami there, crossing her arms and looking at you. “What did you find?” She tried to see what you were looking at, but failed. “Nothing special, just a dress.” You silently replied.

Nami carefully pushed you aside as she laid her eyes on the dress you fell in love with. “Let me handle this.” Nami said before putting on a fake smile and walked over to the lady who worked there.

You didn’t want to see what she was gonna do so you acted like you were looking around.

You couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying, only that Nami was acting sad. You smiled to yourself and looked around. She came back after a few minutes and had a big smile on her face. “Okay so It’s now 50 berries.” She laughed silently as you walked to the counter.

The lady looked at you and smiled brightly. “Hope he treats you well and I hope you two will have a great time.” She smiled and scanned the dress. You quickly thanked her and paid.

You followed Nami out of the store before hitting her on her arm. “What did you say!” You whisper/yelled. Nami laughed and looked over at you before she started to walk away. You quickly followed her and she started explaining. “Well I might have said something about you having your first date and not having money for a dress.” She laughed. “Nami! I can’t believe you, but anyways thank you. It was very sweet you trying to get a discount.” Nami laughed and you two continued wandering around.

—~~—~~—~~—

Nami and you both found some other clothes and even a pair of shoes. After a few hours of walking around, your legs started to hurt. It was a 15 minute walk back and you sighed happily. “I had and still have a great time today.” Nami smiled back. “Me too, the boys are a bit much at times, most times actually.” Nami laughed.

As you walked back to the ship you could see that everyone was doing their own thing. Luffy and Ussop were playing some kind of cardgame, Zoro was ‘resting’ which ment sleeping, lastly Sanji who was smoking a cigarette already smiling and waving towards the two of you.

“Just in time, I gathered special ingredients for dinner tonight and I was just getting ready to start cooking.” Sanji happily explained, while walking over to help you two on the ship. “Don’t fall y/n” Nami laughed looking over at you and Sanji. “One time and then never again right?” You joked back, grabbing Sanji’s hand with your only free hand and getting on the ship. Nami followed your lead as she also got onto the ship. “Thanks Sanji.” Nami said before walking over to your shared room.

“Got anything special my love?” Sanji asked while trying to peek into the bags you were holding. “Nope, regular stuff, nothing special.” You smiled as you walked past him towards your room. Sanji laughed. “Yeah right.” He yelled back before making his way towards the kitchen.

After putting everything away and getting changed into something more comfortable. You had night duty tonight so you made sure you were warm as well. You grabbed an extra hoodie and made your way to the kitchen.

“Hey Sanji.” You smiled as you walked in the kitchen and only saw him. He smiled back. “Hello my love, how are you?” He washed his hands before making his way over to you. “I’m alright, Night duty today so mentally preparing for that.” You laughed as you gave him a long hug, both slowly swinging from left to right. “Are you going to be alright? It’s going to be cold tonight.” Sanji concernedly asked you. “Yeah I’ll be alright.” You smiled slightly as you closed your eyes, taking in his cologne and cigarette smoke.

“I can take over the night shift?” Sanji asked you as he let go of you. You smiled and shook your head. “No Sanji, I’m not gonna let you do it.”

“Let me join you then, keep you company.” Sanji looked at you lovingly. He already made up his mind and he wasn’t going to let you be on your own the whole night.

“You can join me if you want too, but only if you want.” You sternly looked at him. He laughed and took a step towards you. “Of course I want too, otherwise I wouldn’t have said anything, right mademoiselle?” He gave you a quick kiss as he went back to his working station.

“Take a seat love, dinner is almost ready.”

—~~—~~—~~—

Dinner went really smoothly. everyone finished really quick snd everyone made themselves ready to go out on their final night before heading out tomorrow morning. You had night duty which meant you couldn’t do that but that also meant you could go to bed after breakfast and sleep a bit, which made you feel a little bit better.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go out tonight Sanji?” You asked him one final time. It was just Sanji and you in the kitchen. He walked over and placed both hands on your hips. “There is nothing i’d rather do mi amore.” You blushed at the nickname he gave you. You nodded and grabbed his hand. Everyone already left and Sanji smiled. “After you.” He kindly said before you made your way up to the crow-nest.

You sat down when you arrived at the top of the crow nest. You had already placed a few blankets, in case it was going to be colder than it already was.

Sanji came up only seconds after you and closed the hatch. He sat down next to you and grabbed a blanket. He placed the blanket over his legs and over yours as well. You smiled and looked at him. “Thank you Sanji, you are too kind.” His cheeks turned a slight pink as he shook his head. “The pleasure is all mine mademoiselle.” He said lovingly as he grabbed a cigarette for the both of you and lit them casually at the same time. “Here you go my love.” He said as he exhaled while looking up.

[squarebracketsmileyface]

Back at it again with a sad song to relate to these characters!!!!

This is so!!!! This is so Alex to Jay, or at least how he would want to be to him under better circumstances. Or at least that’s how I saw it.

https://youtu.be/R2zXxQHBpd8?si=-VKZo5PAshjGBfQM

Song is: will he by Joji

you're so right. This is so alex wishing he'd been able to be better to jay. (tho there's also an argument that jay also needed to be better to alex, and cos sorry its locked is all jays pov so far i haven't been able to show that he was also pretty bad for alex just like alex was bad for him. neither of them are the good guy, neither of them are purely a victim, neither of them are purely a 'villain' -can't think of the right word so villain will have to do-)

anyway, analysis thingy

I got knots all up in my chest (Up in my chest, up in my chest) Just know, I'm trying my best (I'm trying my best) 'Cause when you look (When you look) When you laugh (When you laugh) When you smile (When you smile) I'll bring you back (Bring you back) And now I'm sad (Now I'm sad) And I'm a mess (And I'm a mess) And now we high (Now we high) That's why I left (Why I left) That's why I left (Woo)

Pretty simple, just Alex thinking about Jay and how much he really did like him. But Alex was a mess and left Jay for Amy because he didn't know how to cope with his feelings (and with some other stuff I haven't written yet, but i'm ignoring that just so this song will fit with what's already actually out there for this fic)

Will your tongue still remember the taste of my lips? (My lips, my lips, my lips) Will your shadow remember the swing of my hips? (My hips, my hips, my hips) Will your lover caress you the way that I did? (I did, I did, I did) Will you notice my charm if he slips up one bit? (One bit)

Again, Alex thinking about Jay. But also, Alex realising that Tim and Jay are together now from watching the videos Jay uploads, he's watched them slowly get closer, and then one entry something changes and Alex knows that Jay has "moved on". Alex wonders whether Tim hold and kisses Jay the way he did that last night he and Jay were together, and he wonders if Jay thinks of him when Tim messes up. He calls it his 'charm' kinda sarcastically, because he's just kinda caught up in hating himself for what he had to do.

Because unlike in uni (their uni relationship was complicated, i promise I'll write it eventually, just know that Jay did some bad stuff just like Alex did), this time Alex was the only person in the wrong for hurting Jay like he did in chapter 2 of Sorry It's Locked.

'Cause I don't need to know I just wanna make sure you're okay (Okay) I don't need to know I just wanna make sure you're all safe All safe, all safe (woo)

Alex doesn't really want to know if he's left Jay with shit from everything that happened around entry 47 (in chapter 1 and 2), he doesn't want to confirm for himself that he hurt Jay so bad that he's been left with lasting emotional shit. He just wants to know that Jay's okay, that he's safe, but every entry Jay posts just confirms over and over again that Jay is not safe, every entry posted just reminds Alex that everything he did to try and drive Jay away and make him give up on finding out what's wrong with Alex and what's going on with the whole Operator thing.

Everything Alex did was for nothing. He hurt Jay for no reason, and sure, he couldn't have known it at the time, but in his little moments of clarity he realizes that he could have done something else. He could have talked to Jay, he could have asked for help, he could have explained what was going on. He didn't have to hurt him, but he did, and it didn't even achieve what he'd wanted it to. If anything, it just made everything worse because now Jay's got someone else involved.

Will he play you those songs just the way that I did? (I did, I did, I did) Will he play you so strong just the way that I did? (I did) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Will he treat you like shit just the way that I did? (I did, I did, I did) 'Cause I don't blame you

Again, Alex thinking about their relationship, both their uni relationship and their one night stand in chapter 1. He knows Tim and Jay are together now and he can't help wondering what their relationship is like, since they keep it completely off camera except for the odd hickey just barely peeping out from under a shirt collar etc.

He can't help almost hoping that Tim treats Jay like shit, and he hates himself for it, he just wishes he could have Jay for himself but he knows he can't. Do you know what I mean. Like, he doesn't actively wish harm on Jay, and he's constantly trying to think of ways to keep Jay safe and alive, but he also can't help feeling jealous of Tim and wishing he'd treat Jay badly so that Alex could swoop in and 'save' Jay. He knows if that happened though, and Jay would shy away from him too, he wouldn't go running into Alex's arms, he'd just be angry at and scared of both of them and would probably do something stupid and get himself killed.

'Cause I don't need to know I just want to make sure you're okay (Okay) I don't need to know I just want to make sure you're all safe

Same as before, in the end, Alex just wants Jay to be okay, he want's to make up for everything he's done by finding a way to make sure Jay lives, to make sure he doesn't have to kill him.

[jonathan-cranes-mistress-of-fear]

Hello, I hope this is okay for me to send. I'm one of the blogs you blocked. (First off, this is your good right, and I completely understand and I hope this isn't a breach or invasion of privacy to send this from a different blog)

I always made sure to only tag content of Nolanverse Crane when it's really him and not any other Cillian role because I understand the frustration. And like I said, I absolutely understand that he's not a proper Scarecrow in your eyes. But it kind of hurts to get lumped into a group where I don't feel like I belong (if that makes sense)

Scarecrow in general is my favorite character in any comic related media. Arkhamverse Crane and Audio Adventures are at the top for me, and I also have a deep love for Fear State and little fan interpretations where he's just a funky little freak. My blog is Nolanverse centric atm because I just haven't gotten around to writing fics for the others. (And I'm worried I won't write them well tbh)

But all of that aside, my reason for actually sending this was because I was genuinely missing your posts and opinions on my dash. I was honestly a little worried that I didn't see anything from you before I realized what happened.

This isn't me being angry or petty and please don't think I feel entitled to seeing your posts (I don't want to be THAT person)

I guess this is just me saying goodbye to a pillar of the Scarecrow fandom, and it makes me a little sad

From the bottom of my heart, I hope your mom's recovery goes well and you have a great rest of the day/week/month. And a happy early birthday, Moffy

(ALSO SORRY FOR THIS ESSAY OMG)

A couple of things </3

I THINK I knew who this is. I blocked one person after I made that post. Looking back, that was probably a stupid mistake. I'mma unblock to check when I post this, and you let me know? (I was thinking....oh god I'm gonna get hate from the fangirls and taht legit clouded my judgement. I still fear anon hate)

See, that post was mainly about people I blocked weeks/months ago. I often only block the fangirls, for lack of a better word. I actually made the Cillian post on a whim. I needed some content for the day. (you probably know I upload daily) And sometimes, a little anger is okay. it's a valid emotion. Again, the people I block are more fans of the actor than the character. My main complaint was seeing Cillian stuff, which was not from the movies, in the tag. It just sorta....clogs it up?

Anyway, I can clearly see you're not one of them. If some reason , within the next ten minutes, you're still blocked. Send me the url. I am human. I understand. Mistakes and stupid shit happens. (especially with all I am dealing with irl) (I've been so stressed I think it clouds my brain)

You clearly love the character behind the actor, and I respect that. I think you may have been following me, cus my count went down after I blocked ya. So yeah, I did think that was WEIRD.

I'm sorry if you felt lumped it, it was just an error on my part. I hope you can forgive that.

and ya know, just because I'm not a fan of nolancrane, doesn't mean it's bad. I should reiterate, it brought so many into the fandom. That's great! I still reblog fan content of him. I suppose, the truth of the matter is my autistic brain doesn't do "live action" -- I can't think of one human who could play Jonathan Crane to my expectations. Voice actors yes, Dino Andrade forever lmao

But I just...live of art/comic/animation/games

and anything else feels uncanny. Like now. I dont imagine Crane as a real person. I have no image inside my head unless it's a comic illustration or game render. I Hoooope that makes sense

[hospitalterrorizer]

diary361

9/15-16/24

sunday - monday

sleepyyyy...

it's ... 1 pm ... i am trying to do an all nighter but i don't think i can do it... dang...

i worked on music and stuff, i played more sh3, i went back to the pc version i updated my drivers it seems to be a little better at least ummm...

not much else... i'm actually so tired suddenly it hurts almost, i just want to sleep, my skin feels gross, i just want to sleep.

i just washed my face. feeling a little better.

thinking about how the whole electroclash thing right now might be going up in flames faster than anyone thought. it's hard to say that seems like it would be sad because a lot of them might deserve to have their spot blown up i guess. deserve feels harsh but i don't know what other word to use. i guess i could say it's fate, it seems fated that this will go poorly. it's sad how good the music, how bad the scene seems broadly, or i guess, that it's not as popular as it could be, and there's people with people already into them, already getting eyes and stuff, like sam hyde and shed theory, so they go over to them to get more attention, and those people let them get that attention because working with new people doing new stuff is going to legitimize them slightly, it's just gross, unpleasant, on top of that there is of course the likelihood of sexual abuses. i don't like even having this in my head, but other people do and it's like the flu, it just goes from one head to the next. "explain the allegations" and then no one says a thing, messages deleted, you're like "what are you talking about" and then it's like, tweets from months ago, totally vague, deleted accounts, it's not even that it's 'shady' it's that there's so little, it's like, everything's kind of reaching a point of eternal if you know you know, and it feels like this doesn't stem from some conscious decision as much as like, okay, this is semi unrelated, it's also very related but this example is more about the dynamics of this, the hellp released a music video on dvd, no one has ripped it and uploaded it, someone ripped it, and is literally scared of putting it on mega and needs someone else to do it instead because... i dunno, they say it feels like instant gratification, and there's real fear, there were also multiple days where this person struggled to figure out how to rip a dvd. which is fine, or whatever, they don't need me to sanction what is and isn't okay but that's not the object i'm getting at, it's really just like, it feels like people are currently very bad at stuff i might describe as like, well i don't even know how to describe it. it's on one level almost a technical feeling failure, and then on the other, there's something that feels like willful ignorance, remaining confined to certain avenues of like, communicating, certain methods, almost like... yeah like they imagine the information will flow if they remain in a certain region, like twitter or whatever, the information will materialize, the truth will emerge, not realizing that not everyone knows, something might need to be surfaced at all. it's weird weird weird.

this song is good ,

i #likeit.

i also read this, it was posted by someone who i am in a server with but scarcely know:

i wasn't so sure about it until the ending, i was basically enjoying it, but the ending made it very beautiful, the three of these people as messages constantly traveling to one another, back and forth, never meeting, noncommunication, forever sending/speaking oneself without oneself, super-reduction.

here's a scan of 2 pages of a book of photos, titled "70's tokyo transgender".

i quite relate to her. i really love her outfit, and that collar.

i've just downloaded i saw the tv glow. i have a lot of friends who hate this movie, i think maybe i am going to agree with them and maybe that's no way to go into anything, i'd like to be wrong, or i don't know. i know too much about the film, there is this sense that, no matter what, what it does, i will not find it....maybe that is the final word on it, i will not find it. what it does, i will not find. or i'll see, and not sense, it's going to be like that. it might miss me, or upset me, i feel like though, the upsetting would mean it works? or it's proven something? we will see i guess. suddenly i am less tired. stupid how these things can go.

well i've watched the film. i don't know what to make of it, it's got so much around it, it's good i waited because there's less surrounding it, still, though, it comes with baggage, the way it was wheeled around and explained even before it came out, it carried that baggage, or some. it feels meaningless though, that's the feeling i get from it, meaningless, and it brings forth pity for owen, of course. i don't know, it just makes one feel bad. i also don't think the movie's as simple as people make it out to be, as in, i don't think it finds owen entirely wrong to be afraid and run away, to say this is reality, to have memories of parents, that part touched me a little, i remember playing in the snow, cooking with my mom, the mom is something hardly examined in the film, her death, it feels like that's part of the impossibility for owen i guess. not some guilt just, never attempting to begin dealing with things. maddy is the same way though, i don't think they really... i don't know. if you view maddy as correct, it poses the notion that to transition, and i guess that this intense metaphor taken up, this is all super-human, super-real, you transcend, maybe there's some kind of attempt at a dialogue between these notions and the notion that you're going to be you, also, that there's a history? are we to discard the histories? i can't tell. i can't, at least. but my history isn't so rigid anyways. i was a girl before, sometimes, i guess i was less afraid than owen, or i got over it quicker. the fear in owen is kind of, well everyone i know says it's cruel, by the end, it really is, it feels hateful, help me you need to help me i'm dying, i've seen people say 'they didn't help themselves', i can't understand that. it feels didactic, it's trying to teach you how to be yourself, if it were wholly committed, it would abandon the fuzziness of maddy's character, perhaps i'm too interested in nuance and hallucinating that fuzziness. i can't tell. my friend says he feels it's muddy too. i guess i'm at least not alone. the movie makes me think "i don't know" because i can't tell, am i supposed to see that, being what "i" "am" and experience recognition? because i felt what i recognized was some tulpa a bunch of trans people on twitter have, of how badly things could have gone. of some person unnamed, maybe a vague memory of a cluster of negativity, it feels like a meditation on that, rather than questioning why it was born at all. i keep saying i don't know. i said to my friend, it felt like someone's episode preserved in amber. i've been thinking about silent hill 4 lately, and how henry is nobody, he's so nobody it hurts, he's actual, because every one of us reacts incorrectly to things, at some point, we're obliterated by events, and we just travel through them, the terror and abjection, sad and grey transitory points, ambulate until you stop. it's only real when you're at that point of total evaporation. here, there is too much content, the suffering is too pointed, it's all about something. for others, is it the primary thing? sometimes, i feel so ugly i think i have to die. some days, i have to rescue my friend from a club while he's high on ketamine with my girlfriend's brother. in either case, i am the same, in either case, i'm nothing at all, i'm just breathing air, exhaling other stuff, spacing out and then focusing. maurice blanchot's thomas the obscure gets at the sensation of living. other books do too. clarice lispector is a luminary as well. this wants to explain to you how to live but it seems to not understand, or when it briefly does, i don't know, the fact it gestures at it, and walks past it, betrays the not understanding maybe. it would be in the non-sense of it. it's all too well put together. but i keep wondering, i don't know why it's so pathetic, or maybe i do, it's sad to see some affective range squashed down to one thing. i got disgusted at one part, where owne says, i have my own family, i love them more than anything else, then making a face while holding a cardboard box containing a samsung tv.

the face is "i just lied, or i am so disgusted by what i have said" or whatever, and it made me upset, because something bothers me profoundly about the idea of a person having children and resenting their children, maybe that's the point, that you become a worse person forever when you deny yourself. but it feels so cruel, it's this thing that's like, it's good you're afraid, it's good it's painful, because that means it's "actual" and "true," as if this isn't a cruel way of thinking, as if this isn't some nightmarish christian vision of the world that subjugates everyone to some terrible struggle of constant observation of the dimensions of your hell to enjoy some kind of truth, or that you are liberated after, it promises heaven, maybe not, maybe it does gesture at the process of the whole thing, as in, a process of pain or pleasure or nothing, of every day. it feels zeroed in on the transcendence, though. or some supposed transcendence. maybe i am not enough to know that feeling, maybe i am some minor thing, i can't tell. but as i think this film out more, or as i wander sleep deprived in circles around the pile of corpse-images that this film is, well i guess i feel worse. it reminds me of all the discourses people used to have on twitter, they still must be having them i've just stopped looking, the stuff like, it's too late, or the stuff like, you'll never be what you thought you would be (who ever is?), all that, it's all that, it's people's nightmares, it's like a figment you can imagine to torture yourself. it's like a folk tale, is the "repressor" a folk tale? it gestures at letting itself be purely about the abjection, the pain of not being able to, which might be more open, and freeing for people, to see some tragedy play out, without goal or social good in mind, it would make the moment where owen screams at the child's birthday go over better, screaming "mommy" out of pain instead of expressing pain to show you, you'd better not be this. there's a point where there's chalk on the ground, it says, you still have time left, but there's only so much filled in with chalk on that length of road. it's all limited. it's an insane vision of life, it's just a life lived under terror rather than... i'm not sure. when i attach things like this to philosophers, i promise i'm only trying to get at how they formulate things as a way to get past an issue. with bataille, he wants terror, he loves terror, and horror, wrongness, i do to, but he embraces it, surviving it, bringing to mind toreadors killed by bulls, this is one image, and the eye shot up to the girl in story of the eye, and she placing it in her vagina, life at the excesses, pregnant, bursting. the fear of schoenbrum is one which really aligns itself with the fantasy of the suburbs, that this is all just so, here are the bounds of possibility, to be queer is almost infinite youth but only if you admit it to yourself before a certain point. it is a little hideous, once again, it is cruel, cruel without...pleasure? if it seemed to hate anyone, if it had the desire to laugh, ever, outside of one or 2 times, if it laughed or were actually funny, would this solve some issue? if it knew what it was, if it knew this terror was as funny as it is pathetic, could it dredge something up out of itself? i can't tell.

i keep thinking about it, because i kept seeing people say, this movie really proved to me, what i am, this movie made me know, this movie saved me, this movie is going to save people. it might save people so the last one i have no issue with and maybe if it does it is valuable no matter what? i dunno, but i kept seeing people say, this will mean something, and i just think i have to come to terms with the fact it means nothing to me, which makes me feel cruel and terrible. because it makes me see a lot of people who feel that way, i don't know, i want to beg them to think of things differently, that the world isn't such a fucking nightmare, at least, not in those terms, it's not a nightmare of being too late, it's not a nightmare of fucking fomo, it's not a nightmare of twitter discourse come to life, it's a nightmare of these disparate visions wrestling in darkness, it is a nightmare of the fact that you are all the things behind you, or, they are the particles and history and context that add up to right now and as the event arrives, any, crossing the street to deaths in your life you are evaporated and that fine mist, the fine mist is made up of those things in miniature, impossible to taste, or sense, impossible things, they go somewhere from there, and you condense, it occurs again. it is that terrible wandering, dancing, leaping, whatever. it is a beautiful and wretched process. it does not care for that. it is locked inside a world of fearing what you missed out on in highschool, the people you don't know anymore, it is a dumb film. it is a dumb film.

though i quite liked connor o'malley. he was funny. his ability to be funny is muscular though, it is by force, a break-in, into an otherwise... whatever thing. one last note about that scene with the chalk, owen is standing right on the threshold it is so painfully, dreadfully obvious. laura palmer in fire walk with me expresses so many torments of being trapped in the suburbs so much better... or being trapped at all, being made to be someone. thinking of laura makes me want to cry. the film makes leaps at lynchisms (supposedly, i suppose i saw them but they felt so not-that (they felt how... direct to tv movies feel when they try something that can't work?? (donnie darko as directed by the sy fy channel??))) but doesn't know why lynch works. the soundtrack also, was a mess. the film ending with owen getting to watch their memories of their favorite kid's show as they remember it in a tv in their chest is infantilizing and hateful almost. yukio mishima made great art about the terror of aging, of losing the luster of one's flesh, the anxiety of losing yourself to time. he always knew the folly of the terror, he knew his own stupidity, constantly, you can see it in the book star, it's staring him in the face, his impending failure. so he kills himself. what else are you to do when you are afraid of such a thing, but die. this film contains a lookist heart. if it were 10% more evil, it would contain subliminals telling you to begin mewing.

i have to suh-leep now,

so

byebye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[stargazer-sims]

Journal Entry #56 (part one)

Journal Entry #55 (part two) // STORY INDEX

Yuri

Hello everyone.

I feel like it's been forever since I've recorded an update, or since I've recorded a sensible one, at least.

I'm more than a little embarrassed that I ended up posting my last one. Sharing it hadn't been my original plan, and my only excuse is that I uploaded it in a moment of poor self-control. Maybe I just wanted someone to feel as sorry for me as I was feeling for myself, or perhaps I thought it'd make me feel better to scream into the proverbial void.

In any case, I'm sorry.

Am I feeling better? The answer to that is complicated.

I assume Victor has told you about my G-tube? Once I didn't have any more pain from the surgery and my incision began to heal, I really did start feeling better physically. I'm able to be up and around for several hours at a time on most days, and I'm getting some of my strength back.

I'm not supposed to do anything too strenuous until my incision is fully healed, but I can do light housekeeping tasks like dusting furniture, washing dishes, and folding laundry, and I can manage all my own personal care now. I can finally give my poor neglected skin and hair the attention they deserve, and as soon as I'm up to it, I'm going for the most expensive and luxurious spa day anyone could possibly imagine. Manicure, pedicure, therapeutic massage, aromatherapy bath, facial... everything. Victor's already teasing me about it, naturally, but I don't mind.

Once I came home from the hospital after my surgery, Victor and I both got used to our new routine in practically no time at all. I was worried that Victor would be upset and stressed by the whole thing, and perhaps he was for the first day or two, but he seemed to relax when he realized how well I was coping.

Honestly, I've surprised myself a little with that. In the hospital, the nurses taught both Victor and me everything about the use and care of my tube, and I think at that point we all assumed Victor would be helping me tend to it a majority of the time. But, as it happens, I've been doing it almost entirely on my own, and it's... liberating. Yes, that's definitely the word. It's empowering to take charge of something, even if it isn't particularly important to anyone but me.

Usually, I have my formula while Victor eats, so we still share mealtimes. I can still eat and drink the usual way, so we enjoy our tea together as well, and sometimes I'll even have a small bite of whatever Victor's having. He's not allowed to feed me any more, though. The rule is that if I want to taste some of his food, I have to feed myself.

That may have been the most difficult adjustment for both of us, actually. We were put to our first test only a couple of days after I got home, when Victor made himself a fruit salad to go with his sandwich at lunch.

If I had to pick a favourite food, strawberries and peaches would be tied for top spot, and I'll confess, it was the aroma of the freshly cut strawberries that got me. That, and watching Victor handle chopsticks with his non-dominant hand. He made it look so effortless, and I marvelled at how quickly he'd mastered using them with his right hand.

The only thing at the table more beautiful and appealing than those plump, red strawberries in my husband's fruit salad was my gorgeous, talented husband, and I couldn't take my eyes off either one.

"Maybe it's a good thing you're not eating," Victor commented. His eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled at me, strawberry-laden chopsticks raised halfway to his mouth.

"What?" I stammered. "Why?"

"Because," he said. "You look so distracted, you'd probably drop half the stuff you tried to pick up."

"Oh. Sorry."

"You okay?"

"Yes," I said. "I'm just looking at your, ah... your strawberry."

Victor laughed out loud at that. "Mr. Okamoto-Nelson, are you trying to flirt with me?"

I could feel heat crawling up my neck and over my face. "Well, no. Not really. I'm literally looking at your strawberry. Could I... can I have it? Please?"

He flicked a glance down at the strawberry caught between his chopsticks, as if he was considering my request. Then he said, "Sure, you can have it," and reached across our tiny dining table toward me.

I started to lean forward out of habit, imagining he'd just pop the piece of fruit into my mouth. And then I remembered.

Victor must've realized at exactly the same time I did, because he abruptly drew his hand back. He dropped the strawberry onto the now-empty plate his sandwich had been on, and slid it across the table toward me with a murmur of, "Sorry."

The moment was jarring, and I almost changed my mind about eating the sweet fruit, but then I told myself that it wouldn't be polite to reject it after I specifically asked for it. I lifted my own chopsticks, thankful that Victor had the foresight to set out a pair for me, and plucked up the strawberry.

"You can do it," Victor said, his voice soft, as if I were engaged in some sort of contest and he didn't want to break my concentration.

I put the strawberry in my mouth, and I think I might've been close to tears with how intense the flavour was. I'm not sure why, but maybe it had something to do with not having performed the physical act of eating for well over a week. Without meaning to, I made a sound that was... Suffice it to say, it was the sort of sound Victor typically hears from me in a room other than the kitchen.

Victor was gazing at me with interest. "Okay, then. I guess you really were looking at my strawberry."

"Mm-hmm."

He pitched his voice low, and in a tone far too seductive for lunchtime on a Wednesday, asked, "Did you like it? Wanna do it again?"

I lost it, and my laughter must've been contagious because for the next minute or so, Victor and I could barely catch our breaths. My stomach was hurting by the time we both calmed down, but despite that, I felt good. Better than I'd felt in weeks, in fact. And I did eat another strawberry, which earned me a kiss from my husband who tasted slightly of strawberries too.

And before you ask, yes. 'Looking at one's strawberry' is now a playful inside joke between Victor and me, a euphemism for something entirely unrelated to fresh fruit.

Since then, I've eaten other foods, but for the most part I'm happier just to have my formula. The goal is for me to be able to eat normally and independently without the tube in the near future, but we're going to work up to that. For now, I only have to put food in my mouth when I'm comfortable doing so, which admittedly, isn't all that often. Honestly, it's been a huge relief not to have to worry about eating. It's taken an enormous load off me psychologically, which allows me to focus on other things.

There are plenty of other things to focus on. As relieved as I am not to have to struggle with food for the time being, my tube isn't a miracle cure for all my problems. There are still times when I don't want to do anything at all, even though I know I'm capable of it, and I still go to bed some nights vaguely hoping it'll be the last time.

When I feel that way, I tell Victor about it, and he does his best to reassure me. I didn’t want to talk about it with him at first, didn’t want to burden him, but I remembered what Mama had told me about keeping secrets. “A marriage can’t survive too many secrets,” she’d said, and I decided I needed to do my part to protect the bond Victor and I share, even if what I had to do would be hard.

It’s still not easy for me to open up about some subjects, but it’s getting somewhat less difficult with time and practice. I don’t think I could do it at all with anybody but Victor. He knows me better than anyone, and I trust him.

Oh… and since we’re on the subject of trust and sharing confidential information, I should probably finish telling you about my nutrition rehabilitation therapy, shouldn't I? In addition to working with the nutritionist and Dr. Kasongo, I've started seeing a psychologist, and believe me when I say that component of my therapy is not my idea of a good time.

There's no sense in mincing words; I hate it, and I don't think it's doing much good. Victor would likely say I need to give it a chance, considering that I've only been to two sessions with the psychologist so far, but I'm not certain I really want to.

As Victor might say, I'm not going to lie. I don't like the psychologist. He makes me uncomfortable and reminds me vaguely of my high school physical education teacher. That teacher was the sort of person who'd laugh and make fun of a student for not being able to catch a ball or for always finishing last in races instead of encouraging them and showing them how they could do better.

The psychologist gives off that same energy. I'm afraid to tell him my deepest thoughts. I don't trust him and I don't want to be judged by him for my anxiety and fear of something as inherent to life as eating. I'm not sure he'd even understand it anyway. Very few people do, but at least some try to, and those are the people I'd rather allow into my private life.

But, regardless of my feelings about the psychologist, I've resolved to keep seeing him because Victor really wants me to, and I don't want to disappoint him. It'll only be for a couple of months anyway, just until our move. I'm sure I can endure an hour a week with the man till then, and perhaps once Victor and I are settled in Willow Creek, I'll be able to find someone I actually like and who I might be able to build some trust with. I mean, I do understand the point of psychological therapy, and I might be willing to work at it if I thought I was being supported by someone who cares about my well-being.

If I could pick my ideal therapist, it wouldn't be a man. I'd choose a woman, preferably someone around my mother's age, and perhaps with a soft voice like hers as well. She'd be someone I could feel safe with, and who I might eventually start thinking of as an honorary auntie, if that makes sense. I don't think that's too high an expectation, do you?

But, enough about that. Besides my ongoing health issues, a lot has happened since the last time I was able to record a journal entry, and I'm not even sure where to start describing it all. I know Victor has been keeping our journal up-to-date, so perhaps I'll just hit the high points of what's been going on since his last entry.

I suppose the most significant bit of news is that Victor and I are officially uncles. Our nephew Kinai was born a week ago, on the fourteenth of March. He entered the world eight days past his due date, for anyone who cares about that sort of thing, and according to my mother, he's a very big newborn at 4.1 kilograms. Apparently, that's nearly three times as big as me when I was born. Mama says I was only 1.4 kilograms, which probably isn't all that surprising, considering I arrived dangerously early. She used words like 'solid' and 'thriving' to describe Kinai, which I'm sure are descriptors that never would've been applied to me during my first days of life. I was probably 'fragile' and 'high-risk'.

Personally, I couldn't care less how much Kinai weighs, how chunky he is, or whether he's got Hana's nose or Ren's ears. My plan is to stay as uninvolved as possible. If you want the truth, I'm quite literally repulsed by anything that has to do with my sister Hana and her deplorable boyfriend Ren, and although I know it's not Kinai's fault that he has monsters for parents, I really don't have any interest in interacting with him in any case.

Victor knows how I feel, but we only talked about it once because I don't think it'd be very nice of me to keep bringing it up and dampening his enthusiasm. He's thrilled about being an uncle, and I love seeing how excited and happy he is. I don't want to take that joy away from him.

Victor has already been to my parents' house to meet Kinai, and I think he fell in love with him at first sight. My parents are absolutely smitten with their grandson too, and I'm sure I don't have to tell you how Auntie Yuki is taking the situation. She's positively over the moon.

As for Hana, she was quick to flee as soon as she got out of the hospital. Initially, we thought she might try to cause trouble over Mama and Papa's intention to seek an order for custody of Kinai, but she shocked us all when she said it didn't matter to her who took him, as long as she didn't have to deal with it. Our parents had already engaged a lawyer, and she was able to draw up some sort of document for Hana and Ren to sign that effectively stated they relinquished all custodial rights to Kinai. I don't think Mama and Papa even needed to go to court at all.

According to Yuki, our resident source of family gossip, Ren's parents didn't object to our parents getting custody of Kinai. I figured it was because the judge and his wife are quite a bit older than Mama and Papa and they didn't want to take on the responsibility of raising another child at this point in their lives, but Yuki had a completely different theory.

"Know what I think, Yuri?" she asked. There was a conspiratorial little gleam in her eyes that can only be produced by a precocious ten and a half year old who thinks she's more clever than most of the adults around her.

Our parents had dropped Yuki off earlier that day, to have dinner and spend the night at our place. She was standing on a step-stool at the counter, watching me prepare my formula, while Victor was at the other side of our small kitchen cutting up chicken and vegetables to make stir-fry for her and himself.

"What do you think?" I responded.

"I think Ren's parents didn't want Kinai because they don't really believe he's their grandson," she said.

That was an angle that hadn't occurred to me. It obviously hadn't occurred to Victor either, because he set his knife down and turned in our direction. "What makes you think that, Yuki-chan?" he asked.

"Because," Yuki said. "I overheard Papa talking to Ren's father about a DNA test. I watch television. I know what DNA tests are for. And I know for sure it was Ren's father Papa was taking to because he called him by name."

"So, you think your dad wants Ren and Kinai to have a DNA test to prove whether they're related or not?" Victor said. "You think Judge Kitagawa's gonna go for that?"

"I think it was the judge's idea," said Yuki. "I think he wants to make Ren do it."

"Talk about legal drama," Victor said.

I don't think there'll be much legal drama on that front. If the judge is serious about wanting to prove Kinai's paternity, Ren isn't going to have much say in the matter. I'm not closely acquainted with Nori Kitagawa, but I do know him well enough to say with confidence that I wouldn't dare to disobey an order from him. Ren may be thuggish and stupid, but even he isn't dumb enough to contradict the judge when he means business. Plus, Ren can't run or hide from him now.

If anyone were to ask me, I think the real legal battle might come from that American couple with whom Hana and Ren had been trying to arrange the so-called private adoption. Yes, the people who wanted to name the baby Arrow. I'm sure Victor has told you all about that. Of course, it's just speculation on my part. I have no idea how the American family might react. We'll have to wait and see.

I may not know anything for certain about my parents' potential legal troubles, but something I can tell you about is the tangled mess Hana is in. The judge was not inclined to be dismissive when it came to the theft of his vehicle and credit cards and his wife's expensive jewellery, nor was Uncle Kaz well pleased about Hana breaking into the home Victor and I have been renting from him. It's no secret that Mama and Papa are making her take full responsibility for her actions, and that they aren't going to try to pull any strings on her behalf. We all know that taking responsibility isn't something Hana excels at, and I think she ran because she's ashamed to face any of them.

Currently, none of us knows where she is. It's safe to assume she hasn't left Japan because the police still have her passport, as far as I know, but she's definitely not anywhere in the town of Mt. Komorebi. She's got a handful of serious criminal charges against her now, and my guess is that she's with friends in Kyoto, probably trying to concoct some sort of scheme to get out of the legal nightmare she's created for herself.

Before I move on from the judicial updates, there's even more news that I'd be remiss if I didn't mention. We may not know Hana's whereabouts, but I'm able to say with satisfaction that we know where Ren Kitagawa is. He is in jail, which in my opinion is exactly where he belongs.

Ren's trial for assaulting Victor at the fitness centre was supposed to have started on the twenty-eighth of February, but due to Victor's accident and our concerns that he wouldn't be well enough to go to court and testify by then, the court agreed to push the trial date forward until the first week of May. We agreed because we really didn't have much choice, but that date gave Victor and me just as much anxiety as the February one did. We're leaving the country on the fifteenth of May and we were worried that any further complications in the process would interfere with our move.

In the end, fortune must've been on our side. The very day in February that the trial was originally scheduled to begin, Victor received a phone call from someone at the office of Kensatsu-chō — the public prosecution service — who told him that Ren had decided to change his plea to guilty. They explained that the matter would proceed directly to sentencing, which was scheduled for the tenth of March, and they asked if Victor and I wanted to be there. Victor told them no. Neither of us had any desire to make a trip to the district court in Kyoto for that.

We found out later that Ren was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment. Papa speculated that he probably won't serve the entire time in a jail cell, but that he'll be let out about a third of the way through and then spend the rest of the time on supervised release. From what I understand, that's basically house arrest. At this point, though, I don't even care. Victor and I will be long gone before he gets out, and we'll be far enough away that he'll never be able to hurt either of us again.

I thought I'd have a completely different set of emotions upon learning that Ren is locked up and being punished for what he did. I imagined I'd feel vindicated, that I'd be happy and excited and in a mood to celebrate, but that's not how it was at all. The moment we hung up from that phone call, I just clung to Victor and cried because I was so relieved.

All I remember about the following few minutes was Victor holding me as tightly as he could with his one good arm and murmuring into my hair, "It's all right, Yuri. The worst is over. We're going to be okay."

I might not have been able to believe that before, but each day I'm finding myself a little more hopeful that the worst really is over. I don't expect my life to be perfect, or even what most people would call normal, but I'll happily settle for being okay.

[dumdumsun]

Wax and Wane

A/N: Guys, I am so, so sorry for the late ass upload. I've been so busy with this show I'm in. I wish I could say I'll be less busy once it's over, but I just got casted into another show and rehearsals start immediately after this one is done. I also wish I could say this won't ever happen again, but uh... I can't. So sorry, babes. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Warnings: mentions of blood, guns, violence, death and murder

Word Count: 7226

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Chapter Seven: The Sauna Test

The storm still raged on in the town, thunder rumbling and crashing outside the bathroom window of the Hargrove-Mayfield residence. Within the bathroom, Eleven stood before the mirror in a striped shirt lended to her for the night by Max. As she brushed her teeth, she let her mind wander against the pitter-pattering of the rain against the window.

“I’m sorry, I did not quite catch your name.”

Billy’s voice echoed in her head.

El flinched when Billy whirled around to face her, his jaw dropped. Blood-curdling screams sounded from the person on the ground before the both of them vanished.

There was something terribly wrong with him. And not only him, but-

“Help me.”

Before El could reply, Heather was yanked back under the ice. She quickly went to go after her, but the tub disappeared, El falling to her knees and panting. When she looked down, Heather was being pulled below the water El always walked on.

“Heather!!!” El cried out, reaching her arm below the water to her.

The depths of the ground deepened the further Heather was dragged, the poor girl uselessly reaching for El. The superpowered girl ducked her head into the water in hopes of reaching her, but that was as far as she could go.

“No!!!” She muffled through the water, bubbles rushing out of her mouth and nostrils.

El hadn’t realized her gaze had drifted until she brought it back up to herself in the mirror, staring deeply into her sunken eyes, heavy with fear and exhaustion. In Max’s bedroom, said girl sat on her bed with Doc sitting across from her at the foot, a pile of comic books between them. The Wheeler girl had been absently thumbing the corner of one of the volumes of some superhero comic she didn’t even read the title of while Max tried to get her attention.

“(Y/N), have you been listening to me?”

Doc snapped her head up with wide eyes. “Y-Yeah.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You know, you’re a terrible liar when you don’t actually want to lie.”

“I’m sorry…”

Max tilted her head as her friend deflated before her. “Are you still sad about Will?”

Doc shook her head slowly. “I wish I could be apart of this…”

“Apart of what?”

“Of what El is doing. Finding people, figuring mysterious shit out, you know,” She sat back against the pillows propped up behind her. “I just wish I could be helping her. I mean, we used to do this kind of stuff together.”

“You can’t help it, (Y/N), and it’s not your fault,” Max reached out and set a hand upon Doc’s knee. “And… as long as you’re here, then you’re just as much apart of this as El is. And I’m sure she’s grateful that you’re here with her.”

Doc tried a small smile as she heard the bedroom door creak open. The both of them turned to see El enter the bedroom slowly, her mind clearly anywhere else as she approached the bed. Excitedly, Max picked up a Wonder Woman comic and a Green Lantern comic, holding them up to El with a grin.

“Which one?”

El joined them in bed with a small shrug. “I don’t know.”

Slowly setting the comics down, Max looked between her perturbed friends with concern. “Hey… Guys, there’s nothing to worry about anymore, okay?”

Doc made eye contact with her sister, the two sharing an anxious look before they both looked back at Max. “It doesn’t make sense.” El whispered.

“What doesn’t make sense?”

“Heather… The blood… The ice.”

“Heather had a fever, so she took a cold bath, but she’s better now.”

Doc furrowed her brows. “You don’t actually believe that. I mean, that just… can’t be it.”

“That has to be it, (Y/N). I don’t know where that blood came from, but-”

“Which is exactly why we should be questioning this more-”

“But we saw her. We all saw her. She’s totally fine.”

“But she wasn’t. I know Heather, Max, I’ve known her for years.” Doc sat up. “She doesn’t bake, she doesn’t bring guys over to meet the parents, and, no offense, but she definitely wouldn’t bring Billy. A-And what about him, huh?”

“What about him?”

El widened her eyes. “He seemed wrong.”

Max chuckled at that. “Wrong is kind of like his default. But it’s nice to know he’s not a murderer, because that would’ve totally sucked. He and Heather probably hit it off at the pool. I mean, they do see each other just about everyday. What if he’s just trying to get on the family’s good side?”

Doc raised a brow. “Billy? On someone’s good side?”

The three broke out into chuckles, the air lifting around them. El let her eyes go to the comics before them and pointed to one of them. “Who… is that?”

Max and Doc shared a wide-eyed look before the former reached out for the book. “See, this is why you can’t just hang out with Mike all the time.”

El smiled in amusement as Max sat back against her headboard. El rested her head against her shoulder as Doc wiggled between the two of them, laying her head on her sister’s stomach. “This is Wonder Woman,” Max informed as she began flipping from page to page. “AKA, Princess Diana. She’s from Paradise Island, which is, like, this hidden island where there are only women Amazon warriors.”

Thunder rumbled along with Max as she explained the story of Wonder Woman. Elsewhere, at the Driscoll residence, police cars and an ambulance truck were parked just outside of it. Within the basement, paramedics were strapping Mrs Driscoll onto the gurney, wrestling with her flailing arms.

“Let me go! Let me go!” She cried.

“Doris, we need you to stay calm for us, okay?” A paramedic spoke as calmly as she could in this situation. “Stay calm-”

“I have to go back!” She screeched. “I have to go back! I have to go back! I have to go back!”

Outside on the porch, Nancy, Jonathan and Officer Callahan stared in shock as the poor old woman was wheeled into the back of the ambulance. “Okay, so,” Callahan shakily started. “...you two want to explain to me what in the name of Jesus just happened here?”

Within the truck, Doris struggled against her bindings as she groaned into the ventilator mask on her face. Then, as if she could sense it, her muffled groans turned to screeches as she freed her arm, reaching it towards nothing. To anyone else, it looked as if she were reaching out for thin air. But Doris knew. She may not have been able to see it, but she knew where she needed to go as the truck sped past the abandoned warehouse.

The Brimborn Steelworks warehouse.

Deep within, Tom Hollowway snapped his eyes open. Through the darkness, he couldn’t make out exactly where he was, but something was for certain, he couldn’t move or speak. He leaned forward and strained against the rope binding his wrists and ankles together, groaning and huffing past the gag in his mouth.

“Tom!”

At his muffled name, he turned to see his wife in the same state as him, already awake. The two stared at each other, relieved that the other was still alive, but both began sobbing at the situation they found themselves in.

“Daddy!”

He craned his neck to see his sweet little Brenda on the other side of Janet, bound and gagged and sporting a bruise on her forehead. Her face was stained with tears and she shook like an autumn leaf on a tree branch. His poor little girl was frightened out of her mind.

And frankly, so was he.

He snapped his head to the other side of the dark room at the sound of echoing footsteps. At the sight of his eldest being followed in by Billy, he whimpered and kicked his feet. Heather tilted her head as she came to a stop in front of him.

“Hi, Daddy.”

Tears welled up in his eyes as she knelt before him. He could have been fooling himself, but just before she reached out for the gag, he thought he saw a flicker of emotion in her blank stare and a twitch in her brows, but it was gone before he could ponder it any further. As soon as she removed the gag from his mouth, he tried to get through to her.

“Heather… sweetie…” He rasped, risking a glance at Billy. He looked just as dead inside as she did, absolutely no sympathy, doubt or remorse in his face. Terrified even more, he looked back to his daughter. “...whatever this is, whatever he’s got you into, you don’t have to do this. You can stop this.”

Heather blankly blinked. “There is no stopping it, Daddy. You’ll see.”

He leaned into her hand that gently cupped his cheek. “No.” He sadly whispered as she rose to her feet and walked away. He watched as Billy knelt before the sobbing Janet and removed her gag. As soon as she was able to talk, she did.

“Heather, please! Heather!”

But Billy placed his thumb over her lips. “Try not to move.”

As he stood again, Heather knelt down in front of her little sister, who stared at her with big, teary eyes. Even as she removed the gag, their eyes hadn’t left each other. Brenda couldn’t understand it.

Just yesterday morning, the two of them were arguing about who got to use the shower first. And then they were giggling and laughing at breakfast as if none of that mattered. Because it didn’t. They were sisters, they were supposed to argue over small and insignificant things only to make up not too long afterwards. But this person before her, the person who chased her throughout their house, the person who harmed their parents and chloroformed her, herself… was not her sister.

“Heather… Please…” She was momentarily silenced when her sister placed her index finger over her lips, but Brenda shook her head away. “Heather! Look at me! Please, don’t hurt us, please! I love you so much! I’m sorry that I’m a brat to you sometimes and that I always ask for rides to the mall! But I would never do anything like this to you! You’re my favorite person in the whole world, please! Please, please, don’t hurt me!”

At the sound of Brenda’s gut-wrenching, heart-twisting sobs, the hold loosened. Just a bit. For just a moment, Heather could feel something. She didn’t want this. This was Brenda, her baby sister. Her only sister. Her best friend.

She remembered receiving the news that she was going to have a new little sibling in her life. And at first, she was jealous of the lack of attention she would receive from her parents, but as soon as baby Brenda was carefully placed into her arms, Heather was happier than ever to have someone new to love. As much as she didn’t show it sometimes, Brenda was her everything.

She was at least glad that she could remember the last time she told her little sister that she loved her. It was the morning before she left for her last shift at the pool. There was a gorgeous gold necklace she owned that Brenda had been eyeing for months. Everytime she asked for it, Heather rudely shut her down, annoyed at her sister’s tendencies to want every bit of anything she owned. But to be truthful, Heather hardly ever wore the thing.

When she gave the necklace to her, the light in Brenda’s eyes brightened and her grin widened. Heather had smiled when Brenda squealed out an ‘I love you’, and she echoed it to her before walking out the front door.

Heather reached out a hand and gently cupped her sister’s face, thumb running along her cheekbone. “Brenda…” She gasped out, blinking slowly as her brows furrowed. “I…”

“I love you.” Brenda tearfully whispered.

“I-I…”

“Heather.”

At Billy’s voice, Heather’s stare went blank, her brows relaxed, and her hand fell away. Brenda inhaled deeply as she watched her sister rise to her feet and step back. “Heather… Heather, wait.”

“No.” Janet whimpered as the two began up the stairs. “No…”

“Heather!” Tom howled, thrashing against his restraints. “Heather!”

The sound of snarling and chittering from the other side of the room silenced the three. They immediately whipped their heads over to the source of the noise, finding a dimly lit void before them.

That was, until a roaring silhouette stepped closer to them. The six-legged, slimy and fleshy beast stepped out into the light with heavy footsteps.

“Jesus Christ.’’

The closer it got, the deeper their hearts and stomachs sank. Janet and Brenda shrieked and whimpered pathetically behind Tom as he kicked out his feet in an attempt to scoot away, but to no avail. The monster stomped closer and closer to them, leaving wet footprints in its wake. He expected the creature to pounce on them, so when it stopped just a few feet from them, Tom now expected the worst.

“No-!”

His protests were cut off when a fleshy tentacle shot out and attached it to his face, his head moving back and forth as some sort of substance was shoved into his mouth. Janet screamed in horror as Brenda wailed in despair.

“Daddy!”

Another tentacle sprung up and shot out to Janet, silencing her screams.

“Mommy!”

Brenda violently thrashed against her restraints with horrified hollers and wild kicking. “No, no! God, no! Heather! Heather, please! Heather, help-”

A third tentacle attached itself to her face, leaving her eyes free to watch as it pumped a sludge-like substance into her mouth and down her throat. She was given no room to cry, to shout, or even to breathe as a sort of evil filled her body. She could feel it. It was cold, it was empty, it was dark.

And all she could do was watch as she and her parents were forced into that evil.

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

“Do you copy? This is a code red.”

Forgotten comic books littered Max’s bedroom floor surrounding her bed that the three girls had fallen asleep on, Doc squished between the two of them.

“I repeat, this is a code red.”

Max tiredly huffed and turned to the voice over the walkie that lay on the floor.

“Max. Do you copy? This is a code red.”

With a scoff, she scooped up her walkie and held it to her mouth. “Shut. Up.” She silenced Lucas’s voice before slamming down the antenna, shutting off the device and throwing it down. She was basically back to sleep as she turned back towards her friends, returning to her rightful spot, tucked right into Doc, who was tucked into Eleven.

“Was that Lucas?” Doc whispered.

“Yes. Don’t worry about it.”

Within the Wheeler basement, the boys all stared at each other with wide eyes. “She turned it off.” Lucas informed.

Half a minute later and the landline was ringing in Max’s room. She shot upright with a clenched jaw. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” She hissed and threw the blankets off of her, marching over to the phone and picking it up. “I’m sleeping. Go away.”

“This is Mike. Do not hang up.” The Wheeler boy’s voice halted her from slamming the phone down. “Something happened, something bad. Our very lives can be at stake.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Just come over to my house. We’ll explain everything.”

“What?”

“Hurry.”

At the sound of the dial tone, she slowly hung up and turned to her friends, who were sleepily peering up at her. “What did he say?” El questioned as Doc rubbed at her eye.

Mike turned away from his landline and to Lucas. “Try Dustin again.”

“He’s not answering.”

“So, try him again.”

Inhaling deeply, Lucas held his walkie to his mouth. “Dustin, do you copy? I repeat, this is a code red.”

But Dustin remained completely oblivious to his friends’ desperate attempts at reaching him. He was stationed on the roof of the mall as he was the night before, binoculars enhancing his view of the delivery men wheeling in boxes into a room an armed guard had given them access to. After collecting this information, he disappeared from the roof and to Scoops Ahoy to relay it to his colleagues.

“That keycard opens the door, but unfortunately, the Russian with the keycard also had a massive gun. Whatever’s in this room, whatever’s in those boxes, they really don’t want anybody finding it.”

“But there’s gotta be a way in.” Robin shook her head.

“Well, you know…” Steve spoke across from the table, tossing his sailor hat down and leaning forward. “...I could just take him out.”

Robin rapidly blinked. “Take who out?”

“The Russian guard.” At her sarcastic look of shock, he shrugged. “What? I sneak up behind him, I knock him out, and I take his keycard. It’s easy.”

Dustin raised his brows. “Did you not hear the part about the massive gun?”

“Yes, Dustin, I did. And that’s why I would be sneaking.”

“Ah. Well, please, tell me this, and be honest, have you ever actually… won a fight?”

“Okay, that was one time-”

“Twice. Jonathan. Year prior?”

“Listen, that doesn’t count.”

“Why wouldn’t it count? Because it looks like he beat the shit out of you.”

“Yeah, it was a- It was a bunch of things-”

“You got a fat lip, crooked nose-”

“-kinda in a flurry that all added up-”

“-swollen eye, a lot of blood-”

Their banter was interrupted when Robin hopped from her seat and swiped up her backpack, heading to the front of the store. When she grabbed the dollar bills from the tip jar and rushed from behind the counter, that was when Steve rushed out of the breakroom.

“Robin. Hey, Robin! Hey, what- what are you doing?”

She turned to him, still continuing her way out of the parlor. “I need cash.”

“Well, half of that’s mine. Where’re you going?”

“To find a way into that room, a safe way. And in the meantime, sling ice cream, behave, and don’t get beat up. I’ll be back in a jiff.”

Silently sighing, Steve turned his head to find Dustin licking an ice cream scooper that had been left in one of the tubs. “Oh, dude.” He groaned and snatched it from him, twirling it and pocketing it. “Come on, man, not my scooper.”

Downtown, at The Hawkins Post, Nancy and Jonathan sat outside their boss’s office with looks of dread. The both of them stared forward to the other side of the office where Bruce stood in front of a filing cabinet. As soon as he caught them staring at him, he let a sly smile spread across his face before stretching his tie upwards to act as a noose, mimicking choking noises past a laugh. The two could only glare at him with annoyed headshakes.

Suddenly, the door to the office opened with Officer Callahan exiting. “Dunno if they’ll go through with it or not, but I just thought you should know.” He spoke before walking past the two teens with pursed lips. A few seconds later, Tom Holloway stepped out.

His entire body was stiff, sweat shining on his cheekbones. It was only then that they noticed the bandage on his forehead. “Nancy.” He gave them a look as he stepped back in. “Jonathan.”

At first, the two didn’t know what to expect. They sat before Tom’s desk, the man standing with his sweat-stained back to them and his hands on his hips. They gave each other the occasional worried glance, but that was all they could do until he made the first move.

“I’ve worked at this paper for twenty-five years.” He turned back to them. “Twenty-five… years. Now, we’re a small-town paper, but we have something the big papers don’t have: trust. The trust of our community.”

“Tom, if you just-”

“Do you know how I built that trust?!” He raised his voice and kicked his chair to the side, silencing Nancy and causing her and Jonathan to stare at him in shock. “By placing my faith in something the two of you don’t seem to value a whole lot: Facts. Facts. “So, while we’re here, let’s go over the facts.

“Fact one: You disobeyed a direct order to stop pursuing this story. Two: You falsely identified yourselves as reporters, repeatedly lying to an elderly woman. Three: You broke into her home, committing trespass. Four: She almost died en route to the hospital.”

“She would’ve died if we hadn’t shown up!” Nancy angrily blurted out. “Whatever disease that rat had clearly passed to her-”

“Five! Mrs Driscoll is a paranoid schizophrenic!”

The two went into a silent shock.

“You didn’t know that, did you? Now…” He weakly chuckled. “...disease-carrying rats? The second coming of the plague? Does this sound credible to you, or perhaps does this sound more like the delusions of a very sick old lady?”

“I didn’t know that.” Nancy forced out.

“Her family’s furious. So furious, in fact, they’ve threatened litigation.”

Jonathan frowned. “Litigation?”

Nancy gaped. “That’s crazy.”

“For once, we agree.” Tom raised his brows. “This is crazy. In fact, in my entire professional career, I’ve never dealt with anything quite like it. But hopefully…” He calmly took a seat in his chair across from them. “Hopefully, you’ve learned something valuable here. You’ve learned… how in the workplace, in the real world, there are consequences to your actions. Which brings me to my sixth and final… fact.”

They stared down, bracing for impact.

“You’re fired.”

Nancy looked up to find his gaze on her, dreading the way it slid over to her boyfriend.

“Both of you.”

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

“I didn’t think it was anything at first.”

Now within the Wheeler basement sat the boys and the girls around the coffee table. Will sat on a stool, Mike and Lucas on the couch on his left, El in a rocking chair and Max on the floor on his right, and Doc in the armchair across from him. He was currently explaining what Mike explained as “bad” over the phone.

“I mean, I think I just didn’t want to believe it. The first time I felt it was at Day of the Dead.

In the theaters, the crowd erupted into cheers when the projector came to life and brought their movie back to them. Unlike everyone else, though, Will’s smile began to fade. That presence, though Doc couldn’t feel it, was still there. And he could definitely feel it. His body stiffened as he reached a hand to graze the goosebumps formed on the back of his neck.

“Power went out that night, too.” Mike added.

“And I felt it again at the field near the Nelson farm the next day.”

At first, it was the goosebumps. He reached behind his neck to feel the prickling there. But that presence that he felt at the mall was back. It had never really left, it just lingered all the other times. Now, though, it was here with them. It was somewhere hiding within the grass or maybe it was right in front of him and he just couldn’t see it.

“Then again yesterday outside Castle Byers.”

Will flinched at the prickling of goosebumps at the back of his neck. He straightened in his spot and brushed his fingers over the bumps. Immediately, he was on his feet, eyes darting from place to place to find who was there, what was there. The rain forgotten, the heartbreak forgotten, his friends forgotten. Something was here.

“Will!”

Doc swallowed. She felt horrible. Two out of the three times he felt this, she was around him. She either was too blind to see what was tormenting her boyfriend, or she forced herself not to see it in place of comfortability. Either way, she was understanding more and more of Will was trying to tell her about herself.

“What does it feel like?” Max asked, bringing her back into the conversation.

“It’s almost like…” He paused for a moment to think. “You know when you drop on a roller coaster?”

Everyone nodded.

“Sure.”

“Yeah.”

“No.” El shook her head.

“It’s like… everything inside your body is just sinking all at once, but… this is worse. Your body… it goes cold and- and you can’t breathe.”

“Goosebumps across your skin?” Doc caught his attention, the two of them looking at each other for the first time that day. Her eyes were wide and swam with horror. “Hairs standing all around your body?”

Will slowly nodded.

She nodded back. “Yeah, I’ve felt it, too. In the past. Whenever he was close.”

The hairs at the back of Doc’s neck stood and goosebumps pricked her skin. Her stomach dropped and turned as she felt a looming presence behind her. Slowly turning around, she came face-to-face with Will’s shadow monster. It towered over her, the girl needing to crane her neck up and lean back a bit to see it in its entirety. Although, there wasn’t much to observe since it was mostly a silhouette. It still managed to look frightening, though.

“Whenever who was close?” Max questioned, earning an answer in unison from the both of them.

“The Mind Flayer.”

Everything was darker, colder, wrong. But that wasn’t what frightened Doc the most. It was a darkness, a shadow that rushed around past her and to Will. It entered him through his mouth, through his ears, through his nostrils, through his eyes. She didn’t know what to do, she couldn’t do anything, too frozen in fear. Will could do nothing but stare at her with wide, haunted eyes.

The room fell into silence for a few moments with the Party staring around in fear, of what was possibly to come, of what they wouldn’t have wanted to believe.

“I closed the gate.” El reminded.

“I know, but…” Will’s voice caught in his throat and Doc wanted so badly to reach out for him, to set a comforting hand upon his. “...what if he never left? What if we locked him out here with us?”

Without a word, Doc stood from the chair, smoothing out her yellow mini skirt that clung to her waist with her same-colored belt. She silently walked over to a shelf on the other side of the room and retrieved a box of drawing paper and charcoal. “Show us.” She set the box on the table, locking eyes with Will. “Show us exactly what you mean. Please.”

In an instant, Will was on his feet and rushing over to her, the rest following him. Doc quickly handed him the charcoal and slammed a piece of paper on the table. Will immediately got to work, scribbling down a spider-like figure that Doc recognized as the Mind Flayer.

“This is him. All of him. But, that day on the field, a part of him attached itself to me.”

He swiped his hand across the drawing, smearing it and leaving black smudge on his palm. He lifted it for them to see and understand.

“(Y/N) got it out of me…”

Will and Doc’s screams filled the room as the dark entity flooded out of every place in the boy’s face it had entered before.

“...and Eleven closed the gate.”

Eleven was still pushing the Mind Flayer back, her screams never ceasing until it was back on the other side and the crack in the wall was completely sealed, leaving them in darkness.

Will flipped the paper over to its blank side. “But the part that was still in me, what if it’s still in our world?”

It swirled up to the ceiling as a way to collect itself, and when it was done, it bolted out of the cabin, crashing through the door. Nancy followed after it to see where it was heading to, but it only disappeared into the sky and vanished into thin air.

He stamped his hand on the paper to leave a faint black print on the paper. “In Hawkins.”

Max shook her head. “I don’t understand. The Demodogs died when El closed the gate. If the brain dies, the body dies.”

“We can’t take any chances,” Mike looked up at her. “We need to assume the worst. The Mind Flayer’s back.”

Doc felt her head to steady her dizzy vision. “That means he’ll find someone new to attach himself to.”

“A new me.” Will nodded.

“A new host.” Lucas whispered.

El looked up at the two with the Mind Flayer expertise. “How can you tell if someone is a host?”

Will and Doc both visibly swallowed as they looked to each other.

Elsewhere, Jonathan sped down the road away from his former employer. His gaze trained forward because, if he was being honest, he couldn’t even look at Nancy. No matter how hard he tried to dissuade her, she continued to put their jobs in jeopardy. And what was even worse, he let her do it. Though, when he really thought about it, Nancy was going to pursue the Driscoll story with or without his help. He just wanted to be by her side for it. He sees now where that mindset got him.

“It’s bullshit.” Nancy ranted, failing to notice who Jonathan’s rage was directed to. “So, according to Tom, Driscoll’s just a schizophrenic? And that rat is just a rat? And it’s all, what, some big coincidence?” She rolled her eyes before turning to him with wide eyes. “You know what I think? I think Tom was on drugs.”

He whipped his head to her, narrowed eyes glistening with unshed tears. “What?”

“Did you see him? He was sweating like crazy. And his palms were clammy. He looked awful.” She paused at Jonathan’s smirk, his headshake, his quiet chuckle. “Oh, is this funny to you?”

“No. No, it’s just kind of incredible.”

“Incredible?”

“Yeah, incredible how you just continue to convince yourself.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I told you over and over to drop this story. That it was a bad idea. But you refused, and now, I’m screwed.”

Nancy scoffed and propped her elbow beside the window, resting her head in her hand. “It’s a summer job. Your life is hardly over.”

“I don’t live in a two-story house on Maple Street,” He explained, causing her to lift her head. “My dad doesn’t earn six figures. Hell, he isn’t even around.”

“God, here comes the Oliver Twist routine.”

But he just continued. “Mortgage, college tuition. You know, they’re real things, Nancy. Things that you don’t care about, only because you don’t have to.”

“I didn’t realize I lived in a bubble!” She snapped.

“Well, you do!” He snapped right back. “You want everything handed to you on a silver platter. I mean, we were interns, Nancy! Interns! What did you expect, that you would make star reporter in a month? Crack the big case?”

“You sound just like them. You realize that, right? Just like Bruce and those assholes-”

“Yeah, yeah, those assholes gave us jobs.”

A fire surged in her as tears lined her eyes. “Is that what that was?! That was humiliating! Humiliating!”

“Yeah, the real world sucks. Deal with it like the rest of us.”

She turned to him with a dropped jaw, tears of betrayal glossing her eyes.

“You don’t know what it’s like.”

He clenched his jaw and tightened his grip on the wheel.

“Neither do you.”

She huffed out an exhale and stared out her window, a chill settling in the car despite the summer heat.

“Well, then, I guess we just don’t understand each other anymore.”

He raised his brows as the tension between them thickened.

“Yeah, I guess not.”

And that was the end of any conversation for the remainder of the car ride. Nancy scooted as far as possible from Jonathan and stared out the window to avoid getting even a glance at him. As soon as the car stopped in front of her house, she and her box of belongings were out and into her home.

When Karen heard the opening of the front door, she turned off the vacuum and looked up to see Nancy entering with a box in her hands. “Hey, you’re home early.” She called out.

“Uh, yeah,” Her voice shook as she climbed up the stairs. “Light day.”

Had she not been attentive, Karen wouldn’t have caught the faint sniffle from Nancy as she disappeared up the stairs. She loved her children, she did, but if there was one thing they had in common, it was their stubbornness and determination to hide their feelings from her. And she hated that. She wanted to be a support system for them, she wanted them to come to her when they felt they needed her.

And right now, Nancy needed her mother.

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

Robin set out a blueprint of the Starcourt Mall layout onto the breakroom table. “It is fascinating what twenty bucks will get you at the County Recorder’s Office. Starcourt Mall. The complete blueprints.”

“Not bad.” Dustin smiled in approval.

“So, this is us, Scoops,” She pointed to a certain point on the map before moving her finger towards the top. “And this is where we want to get.”

Steve scanned the layout. “I mean, I don’t really see a way in.”

“There’s not,” She removed the paper to reveal an even more detailed layout, including the vents. “If you’re talking exclusively about doors.”

Dustin gaped up at her. “Air ducts.”

“Exactly.” Robin grinned and strode to the board of Russian translation to retrieve a marker before returning to them. “Turns out, this secret room needs air just like any old room. And these air ducts lead all the way…” She circled their intended destination before drawing a pathway to their location and circling that as well. “...here.”

The three looked up at the vent in the top left corner of the back wall. It wasn’t long before Steve had screwed off the vent, screwdriver between his teeth. He switched the metal with Dustin for a flashlight and shone it into the space with furrowed brows. “Yeah, I don’t know, man. I don’t know if you can fit in here. It’s, like, uh… super tight.”

“I’ll fit.” Dustin smirked as Steve stepped down the ladder and handed the light to him. “Trust me. No collarbones, remember?”

“Uh, excuse me?”

Steve hopped off the ladder and turned to address Robin’s concern as Dustin began his ascension up the ladder. “Oh, he’s uh… Yeah, he’s got some disease. Chry, uh… It’s chrydo, um… Something. Yeah, I dunno. He’s missing bones and stuff. He can bend like Gumbo.”

“You mean Gumby.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s Gumbo.”

Dustin, already halfway into the vent, shouted down, “Steve, just shut up and push me!”

“Okay. I’ll push ya.” He rolled his eyes and stepped onto the ladder, taking Dustin’s feet and pushing the bottom of them.

“Not my feet, dumbass. Push my ass.”

“What?”

“Touch my butt! I don’t care!”

Robin watched with narrowed eyes as Steve shoved Dustin by his rear, not making much of a difference.

“Come on! Harder!”

“I’m pushing!”

“Push harder!”

Then she watched as Steve propped Dustin’s shins on one shoulder and stepped higher onto the ladder, continuing to shove his rear.

“You’re playing with my legs.”

“I’m not playing, I have terrible footing.”

“Come on!”

She shook her head as Steve held Dustin’s feet with one hand and his knees with another.

“I’m gonna shove you, ready?”

“You’re gonna shove me?”

“One, two…” Steve attempted to shove him again.

“Shit!”

“That work?”

“One more time.”

At the sound of the service bell, Robin turned and looked out the half-open sliding window to see Scoops Ahoy’s favorite regular.

“Ahoy, sailors! All hands on deck!” Erica sarcastically greeted and repeatedly hit her hand against the bell. “Ahoy! Come on. Get over here and serve me some samples.”

Robin smirked. That might just work.

Meanwhile, at the public pool, children splashed about, parents sunbathed, teens clung to their cliques. There was no trace of the raging storm that occurred just the day before, releasing the pool’s regulars back into its fenced walls.

On the other side of that fence was El, Mike, Max, Lucas, Doc and Will, stationed behind a car, their bikes on the ground behind them. Max held a pair of binoculars up to her eyes to watch a certain lifeguard on duty.

Billy sat perched upon his throne, but not in his usual royal attire. Instead, he sported a white long-sleeve with a towel thrown over his legs. A baseball cap was tugged on his head and a pair of shades blocked his eyes from the sun, aiding the umbrella in its shading. To top it all off, he was currently eating some ice straight from a cup.

“I don’t know,” She shrugged. “He looks pretty normal to me.”

“Normal?” Lucas raised his brows. “How many times have you seen him with a shirt on?”

She jutted out her bottom lip in thought. “I mean, it’s a little weird.”

“More than a little.” Mike chimed in. “He was in a tub with ice. The Mind Flayer likes it cold. Plus everything El saw-”

“But he’s lounging at the pool, which is, like, the least Mind Flayer thing ever.”

“Not necessarily.”

Everyone turned to Will with furrowed brows.

“The Mind Flayer likes to hide. He only used me when he needed me. It’s like… like you’re dormant. And then, when he needs you…”

Doc slowly reached out to touch Will’s shoulder. She opened her mouth to speak, but Will had harshly flinched and smacked her hand away just as her fingertips brushed his shoulder. All three of them froze, Mike and Doc staring at Will with startled looks. Will had only been glaring at Doc, offended.

She and Will shared a look before they both looked to Billy.

“...you’re activated.”

Max nodded. “Okay, so we just… wait until he gets activated.”

But Doc shook her head. “No, he could hurt someone.”

“Or kill someone.” Will added.

“We can’t take that chance.” Mike kept his stare on the lifeguard. “We need to find out if he’s the host.” And with that, he pushed off the car and jogged away.

“Where are you going?” El called out.

“I have an idea. Boys only.”

“Seriously?” Max frowned.

“Just trust me on this one!”

The three girls sighed as the boys hurried away from the car and into the men’s locker room. Mike led his friends past half-naked bodies towards the gym. “Okay, so we wait until the pool closes, until everyone leaves, and we somehow get him to come from here and…” He opened the door to the gym, leading them towards the sauna. “...get him into here.”

Without thinking, Mike threw open the door, revealing five sweaty men with towels covering their lower halves, all glaring at the three of them.

“Hey, shut the door!”

“Hey, come on, kid, shut it!”

Disgusted, Mike slammed the door shut and turned to his friends, who both matched his expression.

“I think I just threw up in my mouth.” Lucas grimaced before Mike turned to the thermostat that controlled the temperature of the sauna.

“And look, the controls are right here. It’s perfect.”

“Will it get hot enough?” Will questioned.

“Two hundred and twenty degrees.” Mike read the maximum temperature before peering into the window of the sauna, making sure to avoid the men. “We just have to figure out how to get him in here.”

“Then we lock him in…” Will nodded.

“Heat him up…” Lucas nodded back.

“No matter what happens, we’ll know.” Mike nodded as well. “We’ll know for sure.”

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

After briefly inspecting the vent, Erica stepped off the ladder and turned to the trio before her. “Yeah, I don’t know.”

“You don’t know if you can fit?” Dustin asked.

“Oh, I can fit. I just don’t know if I want to.”

Steve rolled his eyes as Robin raised her brows at the Sinclair child. “Are you claustrophobic?”

“I don’t have phobias.” She snickered.

“Okay, well, what’s the problem?” Steve questioned.

“The problem is, I still haven’t heard what’s in this for Erica.”

After some careful crafting, Steve was pushing a banana split across the table of one of the booths, adding to Erica’s collection of frozen treats before her. She gave the split one look before pushing it back to him.

“More fudge, please.” She watched Steve stare at the split for a moment before she waved her hand dismissively. “Go on.”

With not a word of protest, Steve picked up the float and sulked away. Robin watched him go for a second before picking up the more detailed blueprint and presenting it to the girl. “Alright. You see this? This is the route you’re gonna take.” She moved her finger along the pathway she drew. “Then we just wait til the last delivery goes out tonight. Then you knock out the grate, jump down, open the door.”

“Then you find out what's in those boxes?” Erica unenthusiastically asked as she dug into her dessert.

“Exactly.”

She hummed. “And you say this guard is armed.”

Dustin slowly smiled out of reassurance. “Yes, but he won’t be there.”

“And booby traps?”

Robin gained an amused glint in her eye. “Booby traps?”

“Lasers, spikes in the wall?”

She smiled. “What?”

Unamused with her amusement, Erica turned to Dustin. “You know what this half-baked plan of yours sounds like to me? Child endangerment.”

“We’ll be in radio contact with you the whole time-”

“Ah, ah, ah!” She silenced Robin. “Child. Endangerment.”

Dustin silently sighed. “Erica?” He gained her attention. “Hi. Uh… We think these Russians want to do harm to our country. Great harm. Don’t you love your country?”

She picked up her rootbeer float with a smirk. “You can’t spell ‘America’ without ‘Erica’.”

As she loudly slurped on her float, Dustin looked off into space, coming to the strange realization that you, in fact, could not spell ‘America’ without ‘Erica’. He slowly nodded. “Uh… y-yeah, yeah. Oddly, that’s uh, totally true. So- So, don’t do this for us. Do it for your country. Do it for your fellow man. Do this for America… Erica.”

She finally let up on the slurping with a shiver. “Ooh! I just got the chills.” She grinned, earning one from Dustin as well before she dropped the expression. “Oh, yeah, from this float, not your speech.” She prided herself in how fast his smile faded. “You know what I love most about this country? Capitalism. Do you know what capitalism is?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

Despite Dustin and Robin’s knowledge, she continued. “It means this is a free market system. Which means people get paid for their services, depending on how valuable their contributions are. And it seems to me, my ability to fit into that little vent is very, very valuable to you all.”

Dustin and Robin shared a look.

“So, you want my help? This USS Butterscotch better be the first of many. And I’m talking, free ice cream… For. Life.”

Erica made sure to emphasize her point by plucking up a cheery, biting it off, and flicking away the stem.

—————————————

Taglist: @yurtletheturtlehenderson @alexa-j-f @inthemourninglight @that-one-multifandom-chick @ariyabella @lonelywitchv2 @frogserotonin @mymomsdisappointment @hewwofriends @billieissad @get0ut0fmyr00m @143kae @satsuri3su @thegirlwhowishedeveryonelived @unordinary-simp @raquel12 @roman0ffsheart @jjjennyxii @hereiamhereigo @wizardsgrace @meowiemari

[drac-onion]

Back at it again. A year since I posted Beneath Her Mask. Same thing as last time. Fun facts or just looking back at something I done did write once upon a time exactly a year ago.

This is going to be very "stream of consciousness" and probably hard to read, but here goes.

First off, wow that title sucks. I came up with it like right before posting and then rolled with it. Nowadays I would put off uploading something for MONTHS if I couldn't figure out an original and interesting title. Oops.

Anyway, this one is a lot better than the last one. Promise. The whole thing is a little bit iffy still, but I was very new. The formatting is the main issue I have with. The concept is...fine, although I think I could have gone a little bit further with and then lead into where this one starts. Ya know, inform the reader as to the situation that lead to Makoto's desire to keep everything to herself? But I kinda made it ambiguous on purpose. Good thing I didn't have to follow up on this a few months later... Oh wait. The stakes were just: awkward. No gay panic (like the tags say, oops), no internalized anything, no worries over team cohesion with members of the PTs dating, none of that. If I would ever go back and rewrite this (don't fucking tempt me) I would definitely expand on things a lot more. But hey, I probably shouldn't try and go back and fix all my old stuff. I'd never get anything done otherwise.

Oh yeah, Makoto's "113 decibel alarm clock" is a real thing. I actually have one. I sleep through every other alarm clock out there. The thing is so good, it will actually scare you awake. Pretty nice. (If probably a little too loud for apartment living in Japan where the walls are very thin.)

Oh yeah, and the tense a few times. Annoying.

I dunno why I made it three chapters. It's just over 3.5k words. That would have been fine to keep as a single chapter one-shot, but I think I just had a hard time with having scenes switch mid-chapter. Chapters are a good way to signal a scene switch, but nowadays I'll just use a line break and go with it. I've just improved as a writer, I think, and so now my old mistakes bug the shit out of me.

If I named all the issues I had, I'd be here all day. So, what did I get right with this? I think the concept is alright. The dialogue is good at points. The scene in Leblanc is pretty good. Good guy Sojiro being cool with lesbians (very cool of him). And the text convos at the end are also pretty okay. The "out of your league" comment still gets me for some reason. It's kinda funny.

Also I made a custom dialogue option for Akira, referencing the very first thing he says at the beginning of the story. I think it turned out okay. (I'd like to do more art/edits relevant to my writing. I've thought about making cover/chapter art for my current project. I guess we'll see how I'm feeling. A little wattpad-y of me, but it'd be interesting.)

I'm just now realizing that I should've made the "third option" a little cheeky. Maybe something like "Come here often?" or whatever. Ah well. Next time.

So, overall? It's an improvement. It's not perfect, but it was the second thing I'd ever written. (Once again, I don't count the RE one. I should probably anon it tbh.)

Anyway, that was something. The next "retrospective" (I guess that's what these are now) will be on Beneath Their Masks.

That one is a doozy, and I think I'm going to have a decent amount to say about it. It's also really long, so that's also a thing I'm gonna have to worry about. I'll probably do that on 10/1 because that's when I posted the first chapter. Maybe I'll have enough time to write up mini retrospectives for each chapter? And then post those throughout October? That could be interesting. And tiring. But still, interesting. I could pull the original upload dates since I made a tumblr in between ACIFT and BHM. Although those are going to be VERY spaced out, especially near the end. So much for doing a month's worth of prompts WITHIN the month. But I'll save all my whining for when those go up.

Also, shoutouts again to my beta at the time, @makomaki5. I hope you're doing well.

Anyway, I think that's about it. See ya.

[callsign-joyride]

Bad Day | Spencer Reid

Plot: You got fired from your job and Spencer finds out when he gets back from a case.

Pairing: Spencer Reid x reader (I don't think I used gender specific descriptions/pronouns.)

Warnings: None

Word count: 848 (it's a short one, folks)

A/N: My mental health lately has been total shit but I wanted to upload something on Twosday (today) so here we are. I can probably do better but after the week that I had, this is the best I can do right now.

---

It was safe to say that you were having the worst day of your adult life. You went to work and everything seemed normal, until your boss pulled you into his office after your lunch break. You were hoping that he would give you the raise that you were wishing for, but it was unlikely considering that the only person who knew that you wanted a raise was Spencer. Your anxiety started to get worse when he closed the door. This wasn’t going to be a quick conversation.

“I wanted to talk to you about your position here. You’ve been here for a few years, and you’ve done exceptional at your job. I’m sure that you’ve heard about the lay-offs that have been happening around the office. We’ve really enjoyed having you here but unfortunately, I have to let you go. Corporate has been issuing budget cuts to multiple departments and we can’t afford to keep a full department. I can give you until Friday to get your things and submit your timesheet.”

You were stunned to say the least.

“I would really like to keep my position here, though. I can work from home if my space is an issue. I have proven time and time again that I am more than capable of doing so. Obviously if budget cuts are the reason that I’m being fired, maybe I can still work here and provide my own materials,” you tried to reason with your boss.

“That’s not going to end well with HR. I don’t want to see you go, either. They send me a list of people that they want gone and I have to do the firing. If you don’t want to come back for the rest of the week, I understand. You have some paid vacation time that you can use and the rest of it will be rolled over into your final pay.”

“Um, okay. Thanks.”

You got up and walked out of his office and started packing up your cubicle. It was hard for you to keep it together as your colleagues stopped what they were doing to watch you put your stuff into postal bins to get it to your car.

A lot of things stayed in your car because they were desk supplies. All of the valuables and pictures with Spencer and the team took a temporary spot on your coffee table. You were going to make a big dinner for yourself because you earned it, but that was essentially thrown out the window. You cried in a McDonald’s parking lot and got a pint of triple chocolate ice cream before going back to your apartment.

You put the ice cream in the freezer and grabbed a box of Triscuits. Time seemed to pass faster, because you realized that you had to take a shower. Shouting the lyrics of your favorite songs wasn’t really helping, because all you really wanted to do was cry, but it didn’t matter. After your shower, you went back to sitting on the couch. You had your ice cream this time, and you cried into it while watching a random rom-com that you found while channel surfing.

The movie was done and you were done with your ice cream, so you got up to put it away and put the spoon in the sink. Right as you closed the door to the freezer, you heard the lock turn. There was no way in hell that you could hide what happened from Spencer. As soon as he opened the door, you jumped into his arms.

“How was the case?” You asked.

“It was good. I’m pretty tired, though.”

His eyes darted to the messy dining room table and you knew your cover was blown.

“Did something happen at work?”

You sighed. He had just gotten home from working on a case, and he asked about your day. You loved it about him, but it didn’t seem right to stress him out more because you had just lost your job. He put you down and really looked at the dining table.

“Aren’t these supposed to be on your desk?”

“Spencer…” You whispered. He turned back to you and you were starting to cry.

“Oh. That doesn’t make any sense, though. You’ve been there longer than most of your colleagues, so I would think that corporate would want you to stay.”

“Yeah, well, apparently not. I don’t even know if I can find another job in the area or work from home. I don’t think that many people care about celebrity news anymore. Maybe they only care about the ones that are releasing Blockbuster hits, I don’t know. But I’m really stressed because I have to pay the bills and I don’t know how long it’s going to take to find a new job. You look like you just got an idea.”

“What if I asked Garcia about PR jobs at Quantico?”

You let out a chuckle through the tears and let Spencer talk to Garcia. Regardless of what the issue was, Spencer always knew how to help.

[andy-solo1]

Sleepless In Free Town

Words: 1,642

Warnings: None

Notes: Based on an au I thought of after watching Sleepless In Seattle

Originally posted on AO3 but I’m uploading it here now too. 

Read it On AO3 

- - - - - - - - 

Cobb got home late from a long shift at the local precinct. All he really wanted was to relax and fall asleep. He turned on the small radio in his living room as he set about throwing some food into the microwave, only half paying attention to the noise of the radio until.

"Well folks, looks like we have a caller. Do you have some story about love you want to share good listener?"

"Is this the radio station?"

"Why yes it is. We were having a discussion about love tonight, with valentines so close, so tell me young man, do you have a story for us?

"It's my dad, he's lonely."

Cobb took his food out of the microwave, looking towards his radio now, his interest piqued. The boy on the phone sounded young, maybe around 6 or 7, and it's not often you hear one phoning in to talk about their dad being lonely.

"He's lonely? How come?" The radio announcer asked, sounding interested in the boy's story as well.

"Well my dad spends a lot of his time looking after me and whenever we pass by people being lovey he looks at them. I think my dad needs somebody to love and I think it would be cool to have another parent."

"Well then it sounds like your dad needs to be set up on a date, tell me kiddo is he nearby?"

"No, he's busy right now. I just want my dad to be happy because he always makes sure I am. And sometimes at night I know he lies awake from bad dreams, he pretends he's okay but I think it's adult stuff and he needs someone to help him feel better and happier."

Cobb was deeply intrigued by the sounds of the boy's father. There was just something about the sounds of the lonely man that resonated with him, sparked his own lonely feelings along with other ones that he intended to shove deep down inside of himself. And something about the boy's voice just seemed so familiar to Cobb, almost like the son of his neighbour across the street, Grogu. However it couldn't possibly be Grogu, the kid didn't talk much and even then only talked to people he really liked, and that would also mean that his neighbour, Din, who Cobb had been hopelessly pining over ever since he moved into Free Town, was in need of someone to love and Cobb wasn't sure he could handle the hope that would bring him. He supposed it just came down to the kid being young and he honestly found that a lot of kids sounded similar when they were young, no, it couldn't possibly be Grogu.

"Well tell you what son, put your dad on the phone and we'll see if this is something he wants." The radio announcer said.

"Oh uh my dad is coming back now, I gotta go. I'm supposed to be in bed, bye." The boy said before hanging up. Cobb blinked as he realized he'd been so focused on the radio that his food had gone untouched and was now cold again. He sighed and set it aside, he'd been deeply intrigued by the idea of a little kid being so concerned for his dad being alone that he'd called in trying to find his father someone. Clearly he wasn't the only one intrigued, as dozens of other people were calling into the radio station now, men and women, claiming that they would happily be with the boy's father and to find a way to contact him. He listened to a few more people call in, asking if the station had any way of calling the boy back before he turned off the radio and headed off to bed. He couldn't help but imagine what it would be like if Grogu was the little boy who phoned in and Din was in need of someone. He would happily agree to helping Din be happier, but he knew deep down there wasn't a chance in the world that someone like him was single, or that he would want someone like Cobb.

____________________________________________________

A few days later and Cobb, as well as the town were still abuzz with intrigue about the father of the boy on the radio. Free Town was a small town, and the station was a local one that wouldn't play in other towns, so obviously it was somebody who lived in town. There were even some people going around posting flyers on posts and window fronts asking for the father to call them.

"Lot of interest over this mystery man huh'?" Cobb asked, looking over one such flyer as he followed his neighbour into the store.

"Yeah I suppose." Din mumbled, watching as Grogu grabbed one of the kid carts and started to push it around. Cobb had bumped into Din as he was leaving his house that morning, and since it was a rare day off for the marshal he decided to just go to the store with Din to both get himself groceries and help the man look after his son, who was a pure bundle of energy.

"Gotta admit I am curious who it is. I mean who couldn't resist a man like that." Cobb said as he steered Grogu away from running his cart into a stack of cans on the outside of an aisle. He'd decided to try and see if it was Grogu who called, just to see. Even as his heart already ached knowing that it couldn't possibly be. Afterall, he'd seen how close Din could be with his friend, Fett. Din blinked a bit and looked at him curiously.

"You're into...that?" Din asked awkwardly. Cobb laughed a bit, grinning over at him.

"Men or people who are good with kids? Because yes to both." He replied, missing the way Din's face turned red as he got distracted by Grogu. "Hey kiddo don't touch those." Din snapped his head over to look at his son and moved quickly, pulling him away from the lobster tank.

"But dad-" Grogu whined quietly up at Din who shook his head.

"No buddy, Cobb's right. Don't touch them." He said, setting the boy back down. Grogu pouted and looked ready to whine again when Cobb stepped in.

"Tell you what, if you behave I'll buy you a chocolate bar. As long as that's okay?" He added, looking over at Din who smiled softly and nodded. Grogu instantly started to smile and squealed softly in excitement.

"Thank you." Din whispered, smiling at Cobb who smiled back at him and winked.

"Anytime partner." He started to follow after Grogu who'd run off again but stopped when he felt a hand on his arm. He turned to look up at Din who was looking at him strangely. "You alright partner?"

"Cobb....what you said...if, if you knew who the person was, would you actually date him?"

"Well I mean, while he does sound just like my type, there is someone who's got my heart." Cobb said lowly, studying Din's face for any kind of clue, and give away at all that maybe his hopes could be answered. Din looked down for a moment, a look of disappointment crossing his features for a brief moment before it was gone. He looked ready to say something, but then Grogu was back carrying some things that definitely weren't on Din's shopping list and whatever moment they were having was gone.

__

"Thank you again for your help." Din said, watching as Cobb set down the last of his groceries onto the kitchen counter inside Din's home. Grogu sat nearby eating the chocolate bar that Cobb had bought for him. Cobb nodded and turned to leave.

"Ain't no problem neighbour. I'll see you two later." He said, waving a goodbye to Grogu before leaving the house. He got just outside when he heard footsteps behind him and turned to look at Din who'd followed him, that odd look on his face again that Cobb just couldn't read.

"Before, when you...when you said someone has your heart...can I ask who?" Din asked, looking at him with those soft brown eyes that had captured Cobb's attention from the first moment he'd looked into them. Cobb licked his lips and looked down, it was now or never he supposed. Best to just rip off the bandage, let his heart get broken so he could maybe finally move on.

"You" He whispered softly, and he was sure Din hadn't heard him at first, then suddenly hands were on his face, then lips were on his. He blinked in shock before quickly reciprocating the kiss, going until they were both left breathless. "I take it this means you like me too?" Cobb half joked. Din huffed out a laugh and nodded.

"Yes. I just didn't think you were..."

"Into men? Or into you?" Cobb offered when Din trailed off.

"Both."

"Well I thought you and Fett were possibly a thing."

"No, he's just a friend. It's always been you." Din said before Cobb kissed him again. When they broke apart again they were both smiling brightly.

"You know, I had hoped it was you being talked about on that radio show." Cobb said softly.

"You did?"

"I did, because it meant that just maybe I'd have a chance with ya."

"Well now you have your chance."

"That I do, and I don't plan on letting it go." Cobb said, leaning in and capturing Din's lips with his again, pouring every ounce of adoration he felt for the man into it. And finally, he felt happy, and so grateful that Grogu had gone behind Din's back to make that call because it had lead to this. And Cobb never wanted this moment to end.

[alreadyblondenow]

What happened on Valentines day?

▸ Mark x female!reader ▸ 1,685k words ▸ Smut, Fluff ▸ Met on a dating app, one night stand, unprotected sex, mentions of rough sex, mentions of bruises, biting, Mark bites you ▸ Requested. I’m not taking requests but here it is. Also uploaded this using my phone so theres no read more for now and next button hehe

For Valentine's day, you scored a hookup on this dating app that you used for the first time. To earn your trust, he invited you to his apartment instead of going to cheap hotels and to save yourselves from the hassle. 


Good boy, innocent, and shy. These are your impressions to Mark that changed immediately the moment after he openned your legs. 


The innocent-looking guy turned out to be incredibly good in bed and he definitely knew how to fuck. He was rough, gentle, fun, and sweet all in one night, asking you if you want another round whenever you’re calm and ready to go again. 


In other words, your Valentine’s day turned out fine because of Mark.


Days after Valentine’s day, he texted you for the first time again and asked if you’re free to come over. Of course, you said yes. Why would you turn down a good fuck right? 


And that's how you and Mark turned out to be loyal fuck buddies. The sex was so good that you remained fuck buddies for almost a year now. It wasn’t decided or anything, no negotiations, no requests. It just simply happened. 


Mark is a decent person even though it’s all about sex between you two. You’re not friends, not even close to being friends because friends know important things about each other while Mark only knows your name, cellphone number, and your good spot whenever you have sex or he eats you out. 


You on the other hand only knew him through the things that he shows to you. What you see is what you get. 


He doesn’t like kissing on the lips but he sure does know how to kiss your body. And with that, you think that Mark is scared to love or he’s easy to fall for someone and he’s just protecting himself. 


“Sorry if I bit your shoulders. I was trying so hard not to kiss you-“ he says with ragged breaths after a good round. 


He may be rough on you in bed sometimes that you go home with a lot of red marks, or your body became very sore for days and you couldn’t walk properly, but he’s nice enough to take care of you, ask if something is hurting, then get you a glass of water afterward. There’s no doubt that Mark is a gentleman. 


He is low maintenance and doesn’t have any funny business up in his sleeve. He’s not clingy and not into cuddling, he doesn’t invite you to go out with him and watch movies or have coffee. Again, it’s all about sex and sex only. 


Mark may be cold and boring like that, but sometimes he can be sweet without even trying. Like that one time when he bit you too much during sex, and he was fucking you so hard that you thought you were going to break, he asked you to stay over so he could take care of you. 


“Everything okay? Was the water warm or too cold? Are you all covered now? I’ll come in with your clothes” He was talking about the bath that he prepared for you, and for someone who has seen you naked a hundred times already he still cares if you’re now covered or not. 


“Y-yeah come in” 


“Here, these should fit you perfectly” he placed the clothes near the sink and went behind you. “Let me see?” He said, asking to take a look at the bruises he caused, whispering sweet and soft apologies that felt like kisses on your skin but they were words. 


On the next day, you caught yourself using Mark’s arm as your pillow and caught his hands around your waist, keeping your back close against his chest. Cuddling while sleeping, that’s the perfect term. 


And when you feel him wake up against you, you pretend to be asleep and feel him remove his arms and replace them with a pillow. And before he gets up from bed, he put a blanket on you just to be sure you’re not cold. 


The very reason why you continue to fuck Mark and not look for a boyfriend instead is maybe everything he does for you is exactly what you want and need from a guy. And that maybe you’ll stop seeing him if you develop feelings for him already. 


Now your problem is... you don’t know if you already have feelings for him or you’re denying it. 


On your second Valentine’s together, he texted you an address of a fancy hotel together with a room number. 


“What’s this all about? Mark Lee, making me feel special on Valentine’s hmm?” You teased him and gave him your stuff. 


“I won it from our office raffle, thought we should use it today” he explains and gave you the tour before you eat dinner together. 


After having a hot shower and drying your hair before you join Mark to bed, you caught him doing some work-related stuff without a shirt and just wearing his pajama. You always see him naked but this is the first time that you actually admired his body. 


When he saw you standing beside the bed, he put away his laptop and invited you to sit on his lap. 


He was quiet for a moment, just staring blankly in front of you while caressing your legs slowly. You wanted to ask what’s wrong, but your relationship with him is not exactly the caring type so you waited for him instead. 


“How’s your day?” He asked. That’s new you thought. 


“Fine” you answered shortly and started to undo your robe and get naked, “What time do we finish tonight?” you added and started kissing his chest. 


“Stay for the night, I don’t want to stay in this place alone,” he says and started kissing your boobs. Emphasis on the kissing because normally he sucks your nipples until it's swollen and hard. 


He came closer to you, kissing the valley between your boobs and pushing you more towards him, then you noticed his kisses were slowly going up and you thought he will stop on your neck but he didn’t. He went for your lips and kiss you softly. 


Finally admitting his feelings for you. 


“Tell me what’s wrong? I feel like I’m with a totally different Mark tonight, why?” you asked, not hiding your frustrations. He’s still not answering your question. “It’s like we’re breaking all our rules tonight and you’re not telling me why. I’m not mad, please just tell me what’s on your mind, or I will go home”


“N-no” he suddenly grips your waist but not too tight, just enough to tell you he doesn’t want you to go. “We never had rules, just the kissing. I just didn’t want to hurt you tonight and...” he clears his throat before continuing, “I’m starting to have feelings for you. I was planning to confess after we have sex to make the moment sweeter but you just have to ruin it” he chuckled and came closer to your face and boldly kissed your lips again. 

A peck that’s so sweet and meaningful for you. 


“Now will you let me fuck you now? And kiss you the whole night?” he said and effortlessly switched your bodies, putting him on top of you and swiftly removing his pajama and boxers briefs. Pumping his cock immediately and pushing two fingers in your cunt to make you wet. 


He kisses you while pushing in, something very new for both of you, and kept kissing for a few more minutes while he’s still inside you. 


When he finally rolled his hips, you feel like having sex with him for the first time but this time the sex is 10x better because of his lips. Bodies to bodies, lips to lips while he fucks you slow and good that even Mark didn’t expect that he will love fucking you slow. 


Together, you hit your highs at the same time while you kiss deeper than earlier while catching each other’s breath. 


He pulled out and lie beside you, keeping you close to his body while your hands are intertwined. This is the first time that he cuddled with you after sex and gosh you want to savor the feeling but your lids are giving up on you. 


The next thing you know, you caught yourself again, cuddling while sleeping with Mark, and tried to pull away from his tight embrace. Old habits. 


“Stay,” he says, eyes still closed but he kept you closer to him. “Sleep again,” he added and kissed your forehead. Slightly reminding you of the sudden confession last night. 


On the second time you woke up, Mark is not beside you but pretty flowers on the bedside table greeted you with a small note, ‘last night wasn’t a dream. please get up, I miss you already’ and it instantly made you smile. 


After your second Valentine’s day together, Mark courted you properly but you soon made it official because you realized you wasted enough time. And with a few months of dating, your relationship with Mark evolved into something real because you’re now officially dating and finally living together in a new apartment. And even more intimate in a whole new level that you don’t have sex too much now. 


“How’s work?” He asked, eyes still closed as you flop in between his legs and lie on his chest. When you didn’t answer him, he knew already that you had an exhausting day. You feel him wrap his arms around your body, a simple gesture from your boyfriend that says, ‘it’s okay, you’re home and you’re in my arms now’. 


“How about you?” You asked in return, he just let out a heavy sigh and you knew already that his day was exhausting too. So you did your part and kiss him on the lips softly and long enough to take his tiredness away. 


“I love you. Thank you” he said and kissed you one last time before he turns off the lampshade. “Good night, I’ll love you again tomorrow” he whispers. 

[anonquack]

| 3am Calls |

Alex Quackity x Reader, Oneshot!

Word Count: 1700

Warnings: None! Just some fluff.

Summary: Unable to fall asleep, you reach out to a friend in order to help ease you into peaceful slumber.

The seconds are passing quickly, 1am turns to 2am, and it doesn't take long for 3am to hit. Stirring around in bed doesn't make the restlessness stop, the little sheeps jumping around your head fall and get back up, attempting once again to lure you to sleep, but it doesn't work. You find yourself staring up at your ceiling, hands resting on your stomach. There is a stinging in your eyes that lets you know you are indeed tired, yet when your eyes finally close, they can't seem to stay that way. These restless nights had been going on for a while, yet you didn't want to be a bother and reach out to any of your friends. Who knew if they were either sleeping or had better things to do. You wouldn't be finding out any time soon. But.. perhaps tonight it wouldn't hurt to reach out. You felt lonely just staring up at your ceiling, and your own thoughts were eating up at you, making the restlessness feel even worse.

You reach out for your phone, turning it on and immediately being blinded by the bright light. Once your eyes became accustomed to the light, you opened messages and took a glance at all the people you had sent some to. A certain someone definitely caught your eye, but you really weren't sure if he'd be up, considering some days he'd wake up super early. He was a busy man, and fitting into his schedule could be a bit difficult. After some thought and the skin of your bottom lip slowly being bitten off, there was a single message sent.

y/n

hi

It was too late to consider his possible sleeping state or the embarrassment that might overtake you in the morning when you get a text with something along the lines of "i was asleep. sorry". You run a hand down your face, deciding to accept your fate and that your luck ran out. Perhaps you'd go back to counting sheep.

alex ((:

hi

The notification casted a bright light on your face, but this time it was welcome. Your finger quickly clicked on it, taking you to the message app.

y/n

did i wake you up by any chance?

alex ((:

i was editing a video, dw

why are you up?

"i don't know." you said out loud as you read the message. "i really don't know.." a small frown appeared on your lips as you texted back:

y/n

can't sleep

alex ((: ahh, is that where i come in?

y/n perhaps.. if you don't mind ofc

alex ((: call me

The message caught you by surprise. Of course you had talked to him on the phone before, but never this late. Never without it being planned beforehand. Never this sudden. Not because you couldn't sleep. Millions of thoughts rushed through your head as you stared at the message. call me. How could one possibly say no to that?

You cleared your throat before pressing on his contact and clicking on the call button. Soon enough, the sound of ringing could be heard, and you held your breath. Of course, he would answer, but you couldn't help the nervous feeling of talking to him this late, and just.. randomly.

"hello?"

Your breath hitched slightly at the sudden halt of the ringing, and the smooth sound of his voice. It didn't sound like it usually did. His voice wasn't full of energy, like it is when he's screaming at his screen or joking around with friends. It was calm, and sounded like he was a bit tired. Who could blame him? He was up editing at 3 in the morning. And here you were, making him talk on the phone rather than encouraging he get some sleep.

"Hi.." you said as a small smile formed on your lips at the thought of how hardworking this man was. "How's the editing going?"

"Mm.. it's going pretty well. I'll probably upload it by tomorrow. I'm planning on just working on it for a bit more before heading to bed." He stated, to which you let out a small hum, "That's good. It's important that you get your rest."

Now it was his turn to let out a small hum of approval. "What's keeping you up?" He asked. You closed your eyes, letting his voice ring and echo inside your head, letting the calmness his voice carried take over you, making you feel calm as well. "To be honest, I don't know. Whenever I close my eyes I just can't seem to doze off."

"Well, do you wanna keep me company while I finish editing? We can talk about random stuff until I bore you enough for you to knock out."

His words made you let out a small chuckle, shaking your head before realizing he couldn't see you. "You could never bore me." You admitted, thinking about his previous words for a few seconds. "That sounds good, actually. If you don't mind.."

"I offered it, didn't I?"

You hum in response. "True.. its settled then."

He let out a small chuckle in response, and the sound alone made you smile. You took a moment to really think about what was happening. You'd keep each other company until either he finished or his soft voice lulled you to sleep, and you'd talk about random stuff. It was a sweet deal.

As you lay in bed, you could hear the clicking sounds his keyboard made when he typed or when he'd move his mouse around while editing the clips. During small moments of peaceful silence, you could hear his steady breathing or light humming.

You'd asked how his day was and listened as he talked about how busy he'd been lately, some of the stuff he had planned for the upcoming month, and how his hard work would let him relax for a few days.. soon. Just hearing how hard he was working and how genuinely excited he sounded about everything he talked about made a warm feeling appear on your chest.

You gave small comments here and there, asking if he could expand on certain projects that caught your attention, as well as asking how he was keeping up with school work. He gladly answered all your questions, but always made sure to ask, "What about you?"

You hadn't noticed that it was mostly him talking, besides your occasional comment. You were just happy to listen to him speak so passionately about everything he did, and to be completely honest, the calm tone in his voice was also making you feel sleepy.

But you'd never deny that it made you feel so.. included. Yes, this was a 1 on 1 call but he always managed to make you feel like your inputs mattered just as much as everyone else's. It was one of his qualities that you adored wholeheartedly.

It could be during a stream, a group call, or even group chat. He always made sure that everybody felt included. He was just that sweet.

So even if you were now half asleep, you always made sure to respond and also tell him how your day went and what you had been up to. It was nice just being able to talk about simple things like that with him so late.

"I think I'm gonna stop editing for tonight. Just have a few things left but fuck, my eyes are killing me." He finally stated after a questionable discussion.

"As you should. You work too hard.. give your eyes a well deserved rest." You said, slightly rubbing at your eyes. The faint sound of shuffling and a few clicks could be heard, presumably him turning off his PC and heading to his bed.

A few more shuffling sounds could be heard before he spoke again. "I know. Thank you, Y/N. You always remind me how important it is that I take care of myself." The smile was evident in his voice, and he sounded way closer than before.

"Of course.. that's what I'm here for."

"I'll remind you too. Don't worry."

"Thank you, Alex." Small pause. "Are you gonna head to bed now?" You looked at how long the call had been going for and realized it had been well over an hour, making your eyes widen slightly.

"I could. Orrrr I could keep talking to you."

"You could.. but you should also head to bed and-"

"I'm already in bed. Got my blankets covering me and everything. Tucked in."

"Did you tuck yourself in? I should do it for you next time." You joked, before realizing you might have overstepped some boundaries. You froze as the call remained silent for a bit.

"Maybe you should– But you're not really down."

Your body relaxed as you realized his response had the same joking tone as yours did, and that it was okay to joke around about this stuff. You let out a small scoff.

"I'm not down? I will gladly go tuck you in. Just send your location and I'll be there in 5 minutes."

His voice had gotten raspy, quieter, and even more soothing if even possible. Each of his responses seemed to calm you more and more with each passing second.

"Well I'm already tucked in so you missed out on that opportunity." He boldly stated.

"We could tuck each other in next time." You said with a smile on your lips, and that earned a small chuckle from him. "Maybe." He hummed in response.

You felt so elated at that moment. You'd had a wonderful conversation with Alex, and he'd managed to make you feel more relaxed. At that moment, you found your eyelids fluttering shut, and at last they didn't force themselves open again.

Alex had been trying to get comfy himself while you were falling asleep. When he realized the silence had gone on for too long, he listened closely for any sound coming from you, and was only met with steady breaths.

"Y/N..?" He asked, quietly this time. Nothing. He let out a small hum, a small smile on his lips at the realization that you had fallen asleep. "Goodnight, Y/N."

[outerbanks-fandom]

Cigarette Daydreams - JJ Maybank x female reader

Description: this imagine is based on the song ‘cigarette daydreams’ by Cage the Elephant. 

warnings: swearing, violence is you squint, trigger warning it can get a bit graphic. This imagine can be very sad please read with caution. 

Word Count: 1,434

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY WORK FOR ANYTHING THIS IS MINE AND YOU DON”T HAVE PERMISSION TO UPLOAD IT ANYWHERE ELSE. 

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

Funny how it seems like yesterday as i recall, you were looking out of place.

Something was off with JJ. Normally when we were all hanging out as a group he was constantly touching me. If it was him leaning against me while i played with his hair or even just as simple as having his hand in mine. But, today he was next to me but it was like he wasn’t here. His replies were monotone, his hands never left the beer bottle or cigarette. He didn’t even look at me for longer than 2 seconds. 

It was like he was a stranger, when he did reply it would all get awkward. “Hey baby, wanna go get some more beers with me?” he shrugged and got up. Walked ahead of me, something he only ever did when we argued. Any other time he was right next to me, holding my hand or his arm wrapped around me. 

We walked inside the chateau's kitchen area and he grabbed the fridge door, “Jay, what’s wrong” again he shrugged. “JJ! what is wrong, words please” 

“Can’t i just have a off day damn, not everyone is fucking perfect Y/n!” I scoffed. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he threw one of the beer bottles at the wall behind me. I never ducked so fast in my life. “I mean I’m fucking sick of you expecting me to be someone I'm not. Well I hate to break it to you but I have fucking negative feeling. I have off days more than I have happy days, but for you I try and hide it. I’m suck of it! I’m not perfect and I hate to break it to you but neither are you!” I felt tears in my eyes but momma didn’t raise no bitch. 

“Who the fuck told you to be perfect? and when did I say I was? I practically beg you to tell me when something is wrong, but no. JJ Maybank has to put on the tough guy act and pretend like you do shit for me? No JJ you act this because you’re terrified of the truth.” If anyone walked into this room right now the pure anger radiating off JJ and I would of sent them right back outside. “And what’s that Y/n, what’s the truth?” 

“That the big and bad JJ Maybank is actually a broken teenage boy.” he had a sick laugh leave his mouth. “Fuck you Y/n Y/l/n, fuck you. You need to leave because if this keeps going like this I'll do something we ‘ll both regret.” 

The color drained from my face and I think he even surprised himself. “You... you would hit me?”  his hands ran through his hair pulling as the roots. “Like I said, I'm fucked up. I’m not perfect.” “I’m not either but I still would never put my hands on you.” 

He quickly walked up to me hands still in his hair. I felt fear cursing through my veins but I wouldn’t show him that. “Do it JJ, show me that your no better than the very man you’re scared to be like.” granted what I said was fucked up but it made him realize what he was doing. He didn’t respond he just looked at me with regret in his eyes. I grabbed my bag that was on the counter and walked back out the door. “Call me when you figure your shit out. I’ll be here when you’re ready to talk about whatever is worth threatening your girlfriend.”

That last line caused him more pain than any hit he’s ever taken.

Gathered up your things and slipped away...

JJ broke down the second she walked away. Thousands of thoughts was running through his mind. ‘I was gonna hurt her’ ‘she hates me’ ‘I ruined everything’ he looked at the wall and saw the wet stains from the beer and followed it the dripping stains and saw the broken glass. ‘that could of hit her.’ ‘I could of caused the person I love the most physical pain’ ‘I caused her emotional pain’ 

Y/n walked out the chateau and immediately grabbed her skateboard off the porch and went home without an explanation. She texted Kiera telling her she started to feel sick and needed to go home. She got home about 15 minutes later, and immediately went in her room to get my stuff together and shower. 

She thought about all the things that went down and what could of gone down. She loved JJ with her whole heart and wasn’t ready to let him go but if she had to worry that every time they fought, he would hit her. 

Cigarette 

Whenever she got out the shower she checked her phone and had 3 missed calls from Kiera, 1 from pope, missed texts from John B and 10 missed calls, 7 missed texts from JJ. Deciding to text John B back first. 

hey, are you okay? JJ is really scared since you didn’t answer anyone’s calls

no pressure but please just at least read these so we know you’re okay

switching over to JJ’s texts she read

Baby i’m so sorry

please baby, i need to know you’re okay

i know i fucked up 

i just need to know you’re safe

please y/n i love you 

you are by far the greatest thing to ever happen to me, i lied y/n. you are perfect in my eyes your couldn’t be more perfect. You’re perfect for me. I would never put my hands on you. 

baby please just answer the phone

JJ was freaking the fuck out. It was 2 two in the morning and you rode home on you’re skateboard. “Please answer you’re fucking phone baby, if you don’t call in the next 10 minutes I'm coming to your house.” 

Daydream

Y/n texted never answered their text . She actually didn’t even go home that night. That’s what JJ imagined happened when she left that night. He was worried sick though he stayed up all night thinking you were just asleep or mad. That was all until six o’clock the next day he got a phone call that will play in his head forever. 

His whole world collapsed, you didn’t make it home that night. You didn’t even make is a mile away from the chateau before a group of drunk kook’s went on a joyride and didn’t see the teenage girl riding her skateboard and texting her friend back. 

The bastards didn’t even get out and check on you, they drove away as fast as they could. You were there all night and it wasn’t until a guilty conscience ridden teenage boy went to the same spot to make sure you were gone but when he got there he saw your lifeless body. He immediately called 911, hoping there's was a chance they could save you. 

JJ destroyed everything in site. John B didn’t even stop him, he understood. Kiera and Sarah was with your mom while she cried in your room. Pope was staring at the wall at the chateau. 

“She died thinking I hated her! She fucking died! She promised me forever than she fucking dies.” JJ needed a hug from you and that was impossible. “JJ you can’t be mad at her because she passed away” pope made the mistake of saying mid breakdown for JJ. “No Pope she didn’t just pass away, some piece of shit kook’s took her away. They didn’t even have the decency to call for help until the next fucking day. She could still be alive, it was up the fucking road and I didn’t know. I could of saved her!” 

 JJ’s world was over, you were far too young to not be alive. You had so much life to live, you wanted to go to college, you wanted to get married, live somewhere with snow, have kids and 2 dogs. JJ wanted to give you all that but now he can’t.

He walked into the room he stayed in at John B’s and was immediately met with the picture frame you gave him for your two year anniversary. It held two pictures, one from when you first got together. It was you two on the beach during one of the many keggers y’all attended together. He arm wrapped around your waist while you hugged his. The other one was you two on John B’s boat, you sitting on the boat floor and his back against your chest, the biggest smile plastered on his face as you looked at him with pure love and admiration. He saw the tears hit the picture frame.

“You were only seventeen” 

[writers-worst-nightmare]

Kittens (Keith x reader)

Song you are singing

Warning(s): A TON OF CUSSING, reckless driving, got lazy at the end, Keith loosing one of his lives

THIS IS A REAL LIFE AU WHERE THERE IS NO SPACE OR ANYTHING AND THEY ARE ON EARTH

Fandom: Voltron

Word Count: 1,510

Pairing(s): Keith x reader

Genera: chaotic fluff

A/N: this is basically a Voltron version of “no braincells“ but I added a twist to make things more interesting

Request are always open!

Keith stared at the tiny kittens surrounding him, he froze in place and looked up to you as a plea of help witch was rudely declines when you started snickering before bursting out into laughter. Soon the whole crew joined in on laughing at Keith with a bunch of kittens. Pidge was snapping pictures and uploading it to their Instagram, Lance was recording a tiktok, Shiro was trying to get the cats off of Keith, Hunk was laughing, and you where adding more cats to the pile on his lap. “Y/N DON’T ENCOURAGE THEM!” Shiro scolded. You rolled your eyes before grabbing a small black and white kitten and placing it on Keith’s lap. The crew had decided to meet up after band practice and stay at your house. Little did they all know that you fostered animals, you had a couple of dogs and Birds but you mainly fostered cats cause they look so fucking cute.

“But it fuuunnnn!” You wine, only making Hunk laugh even harder until he was literally on the ground laughing so hard.

“They are kind of cute…” Keith muttered as he stared at the cats and back at you and then back at the cats.

“Why don’t Keith and I go to get some cat stuff at the mall, you three can make yourselves at home by the way!” You called as you dragged Keith into your car and hopped in the drivers side.

“Oh no…” Keith muttered as he stared wide eyed at you starting the car.

“What?”

”Please don’t tell me—“

”Oh, yeah I am driving!”

“LET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!”

You locked the car doors and started to drive on there highway. Keith relaxed a bit as he thought that you where going to be normal

Big mistake

As soon as you saw all the muscles sink into the car seat you smirked and pulled up a radio station. Since Keith hasn’t been with you in the car before (for a good reason since everyone that has let you drive a car was gotten sick) he didn’t know that you LOVES music. Probably even more then you loved anime (which was saying something).

The fuck? Hold on Bitches got beef but don't wanna fight me Quit all that barkin', ho, bite me Bitch Hold on

”What the fuck is this?” Keith asked as he started to lean forward before the song started and you higher Ed the volume all the way up

Bitch, you fat, need a tummy tuck (Yep) You dropping diss songs, man, bitch, get your money up (For sure, then)

”It is called ‘go best friend’ and it is awesome” You answered as you rolled down your window and started singing along to the beat of the song and speeding slightly.

If you 'bout it, then run it up Used to be cool with this bitch, but she mad that I'm coming up

Keith hesitated softly before pulling up the lyrics on his phone and starting to sing along slowly. Afraid of what would happen next. You turned right and got on the off-road. Keith stiffened as he has heard one to many times what happens when you go off road and onto the dirt paths that you have most likely made yourself.

You a thot, you gon' suck it up I got a white bitch in the club, wanna pump it up (Woo, woo)

You started speeding even faster the before and Keith was prepared for the worst. Looking for a pencil and a piece of paper before settling on a anime journal that you had and a pen

Fuck a speech, I'ma sum it up $hy on the track and you already know she gonna fuck it up (Ayy, yeah) Bitch need to worry 'bout a bag I'm rocking these shows, and that's why she mad (Aha)

”I am going to give Lance my fuck you energy, Shiro my Hot Topic shirts, Pidge my suicidal thought, Hunk my fuck boy energy, and y/n my outmost hatred.” Keith started to say as he wrote out his will.

“Oh come on I am not that bad of a driver!” You pouted, looking away from the road and staring at Keith. Keith widened his eyes and grabbed the steering wheel so he could drive.

After this diss, you goin' out sad Bitch, you not bougie, you don't got no class (Bitch) Turnt in the booth and I'm piped off that gas Spin on yo' block, then we hitting the dash (Shoot, shoot)

”The last time you said that Pidge ended up in a flicking tree!” Keith argued, holding back the urge to choke you out, you rolled your eyes and elbowed the emo boy out of the way to take control of driving

It's still love for you, though But, bitch, I'm 'bout to get on your ass (Haha)

You started screaming the lyrics and Keith’s heart seemed to be going backwards as he grabbed his phone and gripped it tightly in his hands before button the record button.

$hy gotta potty mouth You wanna talk shit? Bitch, let's talk 'bout your body count You stink, throw your body out Tryna hang wit' the kid, I'm the life of the party now (Yeah)

He stopped the video and sent it to the “why do we still exist?” Group chat that consist of the gang

-character development Sasuke sent a video-

Non-binary owl: WORK IT Y/N YEAAAH

Sapnap but better: oh no…

Panda dude from beastars: have you written your will yet?

-character development Sasuke sent a picture-

Character development Sasuke: already got it written out

Won’t shut up about how bisexual this man is: I GET FUCK YOU ENERGY?!

Sapnap but better: I GET FUCK BOY ENERGY

Non-binary owl: can we all collectively agree to play/sing WAP at Keith’s funeral

Your lil' sister look up to me (Yeah) Bitch, you can't rap and you really not touching me (No) Just like a virgin, lil' bitch, cannot fuck wit' me And I never been pussy, bitch, you know what's up with me (For sure, then)

Won’t shut up about how bisexual this man is: As long as I get to do the dance

Panda dude from beastars: NO ONE IS PLAYING WAP AT ANYONES FUNERAL

Panda dude from beastars: Look Keith you are going to be fine

Why this bitch wanna pop shit? We was just cool, now this bitch wanna act like a opp bitch (The fuck?)

“What happens if I go off the edge…?” You wonder out loud, Keith looks up at you with a panicked expression.

Oh, she mad she can't stop shit Said that my breath stink 'cause I'm spittin' that hot shit (Hot, hot)

“NO Y/N DON’T GO OFF THE EDGE! THIS IS NOT FUCKING MINECRAFT!!” Keith lectured as he tried to roll down the window but silently cried to himself as he realized that you had child’s lock on.

Quit all that barkin', lil' bitch, and come bite me Bitches got beef, but they don't wanna fight me (Wait, wait)

You ignored Keith and smiled up yourself as you almost ran over some ducks

Turnt to my music, but swear they don't like me You got my number, ho, FaceTime, Skype me These hoes wanna be me I'm on your radio, soon I'ma be on your TV John Cena, bitches can't see me (Nope) I'm goin' up, and it's hella fans wanna meet me (Hey, haha)

“WHY DID YOU ALMOST RUN OVER DUCKS?!” Keith screamed as he plastered himself against the window.

Bitches don't get me Bitch, why you hatin? You could've been goin up with me (For sure, then) Spear on the bitch like she Britney You could dissed any bitch, but instead, you gon' pick me (Okay, the fuck?)

You did a wide turn and Keith practically flew in the air, he got up off the floor and cursing the seatbelt for failing to protect him against your ruthless grasp.

Make a bitch wanna hit me (Ayy, ayy) Bitches be cap on my name, the shoe did not fit me (No, it didn't) Show these bitches no pity (Yeah) These bitches wanna be friends, admit it, you miss me (Go)

Keith peered over the dashboard thanks to him now being on the floor and distantly saw the mall “YESSS WE ARE ALMOST THERE!!!!” Keith exclaimed as he got exited ready to leave this hell hole that mortals calls a car

Wrap up the beat like a doobie I don't give a fuck 'bout opinions, you know I'ma do me (Hey, hold on) Bitch, you a gnat, you a groupie Told that lil' bitch it's some snacks, and we pulled up with Scoobies

you lowered the volume to one as you pulled up in the parking lot and slowed down the car before parking somewhere close to the mall. You didn’t even look bothered to the fact of your reckless driving while Keith was looking like a whole tumbleweed fell over and hit him in the rib cage.

[honey-hippie-harper]

In-Laws Being In-Laws (Re-upload)

 Hiii!

So, this is basically an old fic, which I deleted from my other account ( @dawniebb ) and was requested to be uploaded again.

This feels like a lifetime ago afgshjka, but I remember it was written for a Renegades content swap event, and it was for @healing-winston-pratt (hello, wifey!). The prompt was, basically, Nova and one of the Renegays being in-laws, and it was super fun to write! <3

If anyone’s reading this: Hi, you’re a beautiful human being, and I love you <3

In-Laws Being In-Laws

Dear Dread Warden,

I am not quite sure you will get this message because it is been a while since I last used my communicator but, in case you do: I  hope you are having a nice morning. 

The reason I am writing you this is that, as you must already be aware, right now Sketch and his teammates are taking part in the Annual Renegade Convention as special guests to be awarded for their heroic participation in the Second Battle for Gatlon. Hence, they are out of town. Due to my temporary resignation from the team, I declined the offer to attend the event and, for instance, to receive an award. This means that, unlike theirs, my routine remains the same as usual.

Unfortunately, I must see my therapist for my weekly appointment in two hours, and after that I will have to go to the supermarket to pick up some groceries and essential items. Under normal circumstances, given the nature of my relationship with Sketch, he would have driven me to the supermarket and then back to my apartment, as it happens to be located sort of far from the store and it could be pretty difficult for me to walk while carrying all those bags. However, as mentioned before, these are not normal circumstances and Sketch is not currently available.

I reach out to you with no intention to cause trouble; for instance, if I happen to be asking too much or disrupting your schedule (As I am conscious you are a busy person) and you consider you will not be able to help me, I assure you I completely understand. But: Could you pick me up from my therapist's office and take me to the supermarket afterwards?

I apologize for the inconvenience and I promise I will make sure this does not happen again. In addition, I also apologize for the alliteration in the greeting at the beginning of this message. I did not know whether you wanted to be acknowledged by your real name or your alias.

Sincerely,

Insomnia.

-.-

Hi, Insomnia!!!

So nice to see you!... Or should I say read you! Ha! It's been so long, it almost feels like an eternity! I hope therapy is going great! (We're all really proud of you!)

It doesn't bother me at all, sweetheart; of course I'll help you with that. Could you share the location of your therapist's office, please?

Oh, and also: What time do you want me to be there? (Not that I have anything to do today, I just want to be on time).  

I'm excited to see you! Can I take you to eat something afterwards? How does that sound?

Take care!

(Agh. I forgot these things don't actually allow you to write your real  name).

-S i m o n.

(Better).

-.-

He spotted Nova way before parking. She was sitting on a bench outside the building, staring anxiously at her phone. The body language of a nervous person.

Simon stopped the car right in front of where she was, and when she realized he was already here, Nova jumped out of her seat as if it had burned her skin, before jogging in an awkward manner towards the car.

Once she was inside, Simon couldn't help but feel a twinge in his stomach. He wasn't lying when he told her he was excited to see her. In fact, he was more than excited, and he had to hold himself back pretty hard to avoid hugging her, because it was evident she didn't want to be hugged right now, for she just directed a tiny smile at him and said:

"Hi."

She was the same Nova he had met some time ago, but at the same time she was different; she was wearing sneakers, skinny jeans and a basic white v-neck shirt; her hair was a little longer, too, to the point she could tie it in a cute little ponytail; Simon could tell she wasn’t wearing any makeup, but still her face looked healthier than before; less tired, with smaller under-eye dark circles and lips covered in chapstick. Finally.

She looked alive. More than before.

“Hi.” He finally responded.

Watching people get better was always satisfactory, but watching Nova get better was different. He had grown to appreciate her, since the very first moment he saw her with Adrian; since the very first moment he spoke to her and saw nothing but utter heartbreak in her eyes. Nova was hurting, and any sensitive person would’ve noticed that. So, watching her get better was a touching experience for him.

“You look so…”

Nova interrupted him almost immediately.

“I know. I...I barely had time to fix my hair. Gosh. It’s so uncomfortable and I want to cut it but I haven’t had time. I…”

“Oh, no, no, no! Your hair looks gorgeous! “ He chuckled, although he was confused by her reaction. “I was gonna say you look really good. Really, really good. The ponytail looks great on you.”

Nova gulped as she adjusted said ponytail.

“Oh.” She muttered in a hoarse voice. “...Well...Thank you. I thought…”

“No, no.” Simon waved his hand. “You look great. How.... how are you?”

She seemed to be processing the question, even though it was not that difficult.

“I’m…” Nova cleared her throat. “I’m doing great. How are you? How’s ...life going?”

“Absolutely great!” Simon smiled, clapping his hands together. “Things at home are great. You know, Hugh’s not currently here due to the Annual Renegade Convention. Adrian’s not here either (for sure, you already know about that) and Max…”

“Max went too, yeah.” Nova smiled. Her eyes seemed to brighten to the mention of Max’s name. Adrian had mentioned this fact about her a couple of times: Nova was fond of children. And even if she wasn’t, she had a tendency to protect and care about them. Since she had this type of strong personality, Hugh refused to recognize that as a truth, but Simon had no trouble believing it.

It was adorable.

“He called me when he got the invitation. He was eager to go.” She continued. “Which doesn’t surprise me. I...It’s his first time travelling, right?”

“Oh, yeah.” Responded Simon. “We’re planning to go on vacation this year. Because, you know, the convention’s being held not too far away from Gatlon and sadly he’s probably gonna get bored.”

“Bored?” Nova shifted herself in the seat, awkwardly. “Why?”

“Well...those conventions are...well, conventions.” Simon shrugged, smiling at her. “There are a lot of speeches, one after the other and, sure, the guests that represent Gatlon can skip some of them, but others are mandatory and they’re like 2 hours long and it’s so boring and…”

Nova hissed, grimacing, to which Simon nodded in agreement.

“I’m glad I didn’t have to go.” He admitted. “Though I do wanted to be there when Adrian and Max received their award. Too sad.”

Nova tried to speak a couple of times, until she finally had found the correct words to said her thoughts out loud.

“Why...why didn’t you go, then?”

“About that.” Simon chuckled. “Tamaya is going to be there too, as a speaker. And she’s also receiving an award. So...somebody had to take care of the Headquarters and Kasumi and I were left with that responsibility. However, it’s been pretty peaceful, as you may have noticed.”

“I have.” Nova nodded. “Not that I...go out very much, but yeah. Things have been calm.”

“People are behaving for once. And it’s awesome.” he sighed.

Then they stayed in silence. For a while.

Nova stared out the window, avoiding eye contact, while Simon whistled as he tapped his fingers on the wheel.

Not a word. No small talk.

Nothing.

“Sooooo…” Said Simon. “Shall we go?”

“Perhaps we should.” Nova said, immediately, as a flash of relief crossed her face.

So Simon smiled at her once again as he turned on the engine, while Nova put on her seatbelt next to him.

-.-

It took her so little time to come back Simon confirmed she was one of those people who would strategically write their shopping list so they wouldn’t be going back and forth through the aisles. It also surprised him that, being a person so young, she was so...focused on everything.

She really had only bought groceries and essential items. No junk food. No silly things she swore she would need and then she didn’t. Not even candy from the checkout area.

Simon hurried himself out of the car to help her put the bags in the trunk, but once she saw him and guessed his intentions, she quickly said:

“It’s okay. I can do it.”

“I know you can.” He clarified. Because, well, she indeed was a strong person. “But maybe you could use some help. That’s...a couple of bags.”

“Yeah. I know.” Nova nodded, already carrying the first two of the bags. “But I can do it. Please. I’m already causing you too much trouble.”

Simon was yet again confused by her reaction, and he tried to talk to her about it. But just like Nova looked like she didn’t want to be hugged right now, she also looked like she didn’t want to talk about it right now.

So he just opened the trunk for her and held it in case it would go down by its own. It had never happened, but just to be sure. Sometimes Simon’s anxiety made him overanalyze some situations.

Less than 10 minutes had passed by the time Nova finished putting all her stuff in the car, Simon figured she was still training, since she was as agile and fast as she was the day she notified them she would be taking some time off from the team and the Renegades in general.

They got in the car again, and before the silence could get as uncomfortable as the previous one, Simon took the initiative to speak.

“I think...you forgot to answer a part of my message.” He said, carefully. “You know...the part where I told you that maybe we could...go to a restaurant or something?”

Nova’s face, ears and neck turned so red she became a human-shaped cherry, and although in other circumstances he would’ve considered it adorable, this time he couldn’t help but feel sympathy for her. He had been there and done that many times; the messages Nova had sent were peak odd. The type of messages one would overthink over and over again because they had to be perfect. And if something, anything sounded off after you sent it, your world would be in shambles.

So he just smiled to assure it was okay. That he didn’t mind. That those messages didn’t have to be so formal in the first place.

And that, obviously, didn’t work.

For his experience, it never did.

“I...I...Yeah.” Nova scratched her brow. “Pretty much I...I...can recall not knowing how to word that so I just left it blank and I...must’ve forgotten to…”

“Nova.” Simon said, softly. “It’s okay. I don’t mind.”

“Did I...offend you or something?”

“Absolutely no!” He said. “Why would you think that? It’s just a slip. I know it wasn’t your intention and to be honest I still want to take you to eat something so...yeah, there’s no reason to get weird about this. There’s no need to worry.”

Nova took a deep, hasty breath. She was flustered, son Simon tried to keep her calm; to make her feel like she was in a safe environment.

Why wouldn’t she be, in the first place?

She was his son’s girlfriend.

Why would he want to hurt her or make her feel bad?

“Nova, darling.” He said again. “Do you have something on your mind?”

“I do.” Nova cleared her throat, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t really...can eat out right now. I barely manage to afford my groceries, you know? It’s been…”

“But you’re not gonna pay your own bill. I mean, why would you do that?” Simon raised an eyebrow at her, genuinely confused, but still laughing nervously. Sweet rot, who had hurt this child so much? “ I’m the one who’s taking you to eat. You wouldn’t have to…”

“You don’t have to either!” She snapped. Not mad, but rather distressed, while breathing heavily.

Simon went still, afraid he would make it worse. Still, he couldn’t leave it like that, so he gulped and, once he reunited enough courage, he dared to speak again.

“What’s really on your mind, Nova?” He asked, this time in a more soothing voice. Nova’s whole being went red again, but the shadow of confusion in her expression was noticeable and hard to ignore. For this reason, Simon decided to provide some kind of scaffolding.

“For example: Why would you write a message that is directed to me in such a formal way?” He asked, patiently. “Why would you ask me to pick you up as if you were asking me to help you commit a crime? Why would you act so uncomfortable around me when it’s not the first time that we’ve met? Why would you…?”

“Because it’s you.” Nova answered, avoiding eye contact.

And he expected that answer, yes. But, at the same time, he expected to understand the statement once it slipped out of her mouth.

However, he didn’t.

“Can you elaborate?” He requested.

Nova clicked her tongue as she rubbed her neck, staring at the dash right in front of her.

“...I can disappear if you want me to. Would that make you feel more comfortable?”

“No. No, no.” Nova nodded, waving her hands, finally looking at him. “That won’t be necessary.”

“Then...would you tell me what’s wrong?”

Nova thought about it. She squirmed in her seat. Gulped. Coughed. Squirmed again.

Then, playing with her own hands, she spoke.

“...I’m ashamed.”

“Ashamed of what…?” Simon tilted his head to the side. “Ashamed of who…? What exactly are you ashamed of? ...Dating Adrian?”

Nova flinched.

“I would never.”

A spark of pride illuminated his thoughts and his insides in general, but Simon tried to pay little attention to it.

“I’m just...ashamed. Of everything.” Nova said, sighing. “I…”

And she cut herself in the middle of the phrase, realizing that once again she wouldn’t be able to finish it.

Simon didn’t realize he was frowning until he felt the muscles of his face slowly giving in. He understood.

And he knew that anything that had happened during the Second Battle for Gatlon had been her fault. She might have contributed in some way but, at the end of the day, she was just a child.

A very confused and manipulated child who just needed someone to listen without twisting her words as they pleased.

“...I just think that...if I were you I wouldn’t like me either.” She wasn’t crying, nor did she sound like she was about to any time soon. There was so much resignation in her voice that her words weighted as much as a giant rock. “Hugh gave me his blessing to...you know, date Adrian…”

“I can recall giving you my blessing too.”

Nova tripped on her own words.

“I mean, you did. You both did.” She said. “But still… It’s because… because you want him to be happy. And I get it. I really do. And I understand because, like I said, I wouldn’t like me either...I know I am loved. I know I matter for some people...but I also know I did...bad things, and I carry this sort of cursed last name…”

She stopped and breathed for a second before continuing.

“And I…” She finally looked at him. “I get it. You don’t have to pretend you like me, after all that happened. After I stole stuff from your house; infiltrated into your system; caused a terrorist attack...You really don’t have to pretend.”

Simon blinked, and if it wasn’t for her specific and controlled body language, he would’ve thought she was making excuses or even joking.

But Nova was telling the truth.

And it was heartbreaking.

“Perhaps you should think outside the box and picture a scenario in which you realize we’re not pretending.” That’s the only thing he said.

“Perhaps you should realize that we love you and you matter to us.” He reached for her hand and softly touched her knuckles. Her hands were shaking. “And that, yes, we want Adrian to be happy, but we also want you to be happy.”

Nova’s eyes seemed to be covered in crystals, but she remained in silence.

“You’re part of this family now, Nova.” He smiled. “And I’m sorry, but you’ll have to deal with that.”

Nova sniffed, swallowing, while lacing her hand into Simon’s.

“Artino and everything?” She muttered.

“Artino it’s not what defines you.” Simon chuckled. “You’re Nova. Just Nova... And we’re really proud of you. Not ashamed.”

She smiled back at him, wordless, and Simon gave her a quick handshake before putting his hands around the wheel.

Because even now, that her walls were crumbling right before her eyes, she didn’t look like someone who wanted to be hugged at the moment, and he accepted and respected that.

“I was planning to take you to my favorite restaurant, but maybe we can prepare a homemade meal instead?” He suggested. “You know? In-laws being in-laws? … Not to brag, but I make the best lemon pie in the world.”

Nova chuckled. Relaxed.

Happy.

“Sounds great.” She said, nodding.

“Excellent.” Simon turned on the engine.

“Let’s go home.”

[t0wnspersonb]

The Eagle and The Rabbit (Ushijima Wakatoshi x Reader)

Anonymous said:

hiiican i request wakatoshi having a small and shy manager s/o who got lost in one of their matches and someone was tryna hit on her so, that so happens to be a player from the team they are playing against

~~~

Word Count: 1,839

Summary: Your directional skills weren’t the best, but it never mattered as long as Ushijima was by your side. But what happens when he’s not?

~~~

I hope you guys enjoy some more Wakatoshi bullshit lol. I still have quite a bit of requests I’m still shuffling through so please be patient with me with uploading new content. I’ll probably be doing two more requests before I close it for now. I want to write a bit more stuff that isn’t related to Haikyuu. I hope ya’ll are Kuroko no basket fans and Naruto fans😂👀 because that’s probably going to be my next set of fics coming out!

I would also like to dedicate this to not only this wonderful anon who had such a cute idea but also to my @sunshinewitchz​ who is a fucking simp for Wakatoshi. but aren’t we all?

Anyway please enjoy!:)

~~~

“Wait.” Ushijima said, grabbing you by the collar of your team jacket, yanking you back to his side.

 You looked up at him in confusion, the rest of the team heading towards the changing rooms.

 “What is it Toshi?” you asked quietly.

 He stared at your sweet face for a moment, appreciating the cuteness that you were displaying right now. 

 “Your sense of direction is terrible. I’m worried that you’re going to get lost.” He said simply.

 You pouted at his words, while there was truth to it, he didn’t have to phrase it so bluntly.

 “I’ll be fine. We’ve been here before.” You said softly, fidgeting at the ends of your hair, a habit that you always had.

 You were Ushijima’s childhood friend turned girlfriend, as well as the manager of Shiratorizawa. A damn good one at that.

 The only issue was that - well yes, you got lost easily.  It had always been that way. Even as a child your sense of direction was extremely poor, and it didn’t improve as you got older. But to you it didn’t matter, Ushijima was always by your side, a constant protector in your life, so you never really thought about improving your directional skills.

 As long as he was with you. You were always safe.

 Ushijima frowned at your words. “You still get lost in places you’ve visited before.”

 You sighed softly, gently straightening his jacket. “It’s fine Toshi, you need to change. The rest of the team is going to start wondering where you went. Besides I have to finish doing my manager duties before your game starts.”

 He studied your face once more, his expression softening slightly. He rested his large hand on top of your head, gently ruffling the hair. “You work too hard. Don’t overdo it.”

 “You guys work harder, I just want to make it a little bit easier for you all.” you said quietly, giving him a sweet smile.

 Ushijima’s heart thumped hard in his chest, you were the sweetest thing he’s ever laid eyes on, and the fact that you were his… he had never been more content in his entire life. 

 He gently pressed his palm against your soft, plump cheek, feeling it warm under his touch. “I’ll see you in a bit. Pay attention to your surroundings.” he warned, before walking off.

 You giggled quietly to yourself, watching his retreating figure. Sometimes he was too overprotective.

 Not that you minded though. 

 You hummed quietly to yourself as you began filling up the water bottles, planning to make their drinks and finishing up the rest of your manager duties.

 By the time you had finished your duties, you hadn’t realized that it was getting close to the meet time with the boys, right before the match.

 But… where was that again?

 “Oh no.” you said quietly, mentally slapping yourself at the fact that Ushijima was right. You hadn’t been paying attention when you went to make the drinks for the team, you couldn’t remember how to get back to where you were before, because at least you could find your way to the gym from that point.

 You reached into your jacket pocket for your phone, only to come up empty handed. You slapped your forehead with your palm. Ushijima was holding onto it for you.

 “I guess I’ll just start walking and see where I end up. Hopefully, the boys are looking for me now.” You mumbled to yourself and turned down one of the hallways.

 But after making three wrong turns and still having now idea where you were, you started to get nervous.

 Ushijima was definitely going to lecture you. A lot.

 You were too wrapped up in your thoughts to even take notice of your surroundings. It wasn’t until you ran into something hard and warm that you realized you bumped into someone.

 You looked up and saw a guy with black spiky hair, he was wearing a volleyball jersey that you weren’t familiar with, and he was big… very big. 

 You looked away from his face immediately, a red blush coating your cheeks in embarrassment as you bowed to him carefully. “I’m so s-sorry.”

 Unbeknownst to you, the tall player was checking you out, a small smirk overcoming his features.

 “No worries. Are you here to cheer on your boyfriend or something?” he asked.

 “Um… n-no… actually I -” you stuttered out nervously. “Are you lost?” he interrupted, his eyes continuing their up and down movement on your small form.

 You started to feel uneasy, your eyes darting around to see if there was anyone else. The halls were empty.

 “Umm… kinda…” you said softly, trailing off. 

 His smirk widened, his hand resting on your shoulder forcefully. You winced in pain and fear from the sudden contact.

 “I can help you find your way… or we can have a bit of fun before my next match starts.” He said slyly, leaning down closer to your face.

 You flinched away, your heart racing like a hummingbird at this point, genuine fear prickled at your skin; stung at the backs of your eyes.

 “N-N-No thanks. I sh-should be going now…” you whimpered out quietly, attempting to free yourself from his grasp that was now clutching at your elbow.

 “What’s the hurry cutie?” he asked, backing you up against the wall, his hands now resting on either side of your head, preventing you from escaping.

 Your lips trembled as you bit back tears. Your heart was thumping painfully in your chest at this point, your body shaking like a caught rabbit, and the guy that was cornering you was the snake, preparing himself for his next meal.

 “It turns me on when you shake like that.” he whispered, eyes flashing dangerously as he leaned closer to your now tear stained face.

 “Waka-” “What the hell are you doing?” just as you were about to call out for your savior, he was already there.

 Your boyfriend’s large frame shook in anger, his glare was piercing as he stared down at your attacker.

 Rage was rolling off him in waves, his demeanor resembling that of an angry eagle, ready to kill.

 He was already in his uniform, his team jacket hanging off his broad shoulders, large hands clenched tightly into fists at his sides.

 The tall male that cornered you froze in fear, sweat beading on his forehead at the immense amount of pressure he was now feeling from the Shiratorizawa ace.

 “O-Oh, is this your manager?” the guy stuttered out, now noticing the similar jacket you wore.

 “That’s my girlfriend.” Ushijima stated, his voice a deep and dark baritone. “Get away from her. Now.”

 The male nodded rapidly, immediately stepping aside. “I’m s-sorry Ushijima-san. I didn’t know…”

 The icy glare that overtook Ushijima’s face sharpened, if looks could kill… that guy would be six feet under by now. He quickly walked over to the trembling volleyball player, grabbing the front of his jersey, and yanking him up to eye level.

 You had thought that the male that cornered you was huge, but compared to Ushijima, he was considerably small. A snake in the talons of a great white eagle.

 “It doesn’t matter that you didn’t know.” Ushijima said. “You shouldn’t be putting your filthy hands on any girl. People like you make me sick.”

 You had never seen anyone more scared before. But the same could be said about Ushijima as he glanced over at you. He had never seen you so fearful before. It made his blood boil as he took in your trembling figure and tear stained face, you had collapsed onto the floor at this point, your shaky legs no longer being able to hold you up.

 He gritted his teeth in anger before setting his eyes back on the figure in front of him. “I better not see you again.” he all but tossed the said male to the side, watching as he whimpered and scampered away.

 Before you knew it, Ushijima was at your side, his large and powerful body crouched down to your level. “Are you okay?” he murmured tenderly, hands already moving to cup your face.

 His eyes searched your face and body, making sure that you weren’t hurt. He didn’t notice any visible injuries to his relief, but he couldn’t stand the sight of the tears falling down your face.

 “Toshi.” you sobbed out, throwing yourself into the ace, not that the sudden movement moved his solid body. He pulled you tighter into his chest, his large hands rubbing against your back soothingly as you cried.

 He didn’t say anything as you cried, but his gentle touch, and the way that he held you, the way that his body crowded your small one, made you feel protected and loved. The heat from his hands sent a gentle comfort into your distressed heart, the coldness slowly seeping out of your body.

 Once your tears had turned into quiet hiccups, he gently moved you out of his chest so he could look at your face.

 His expression was soft as he gently wiped the remaining tears from your cheeks. 

 “Feel better?” he asked, tenderly cupping the side of your neck, his large thumb gently rubbing along your delicate jaw. 

 You nodded wordlessly, sniffling slightly as you rubbed at your eyes. He leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to your forehead, gently trailing more delicate kisses down your face before capturing your lips in a heartfelt kiss.

 A gentle claim that he was here, that you were safe, and that you were his. 

 All too soon he pulled away but pressed his forehead against yours. “Good. We need to go meet up with the others. Everyone was worried when you didn’t show up at the agreed time.” 

 “I’m sorry.” you whispered softly. “I got lost.”

 “We figured, that’s why we all went to look for you. I’m glad I got to you in time.” he said frowning, anger once again bubbling up as he thought of the position he had found you in. 

 He stood up, gently grabbing your hands, and pulling you up to your feet with ease. He tangled your fingers together as he tugged you along to the gym their match was going to be held out. 

 “Toshi?” you said quietly, gently squeezing his hand. 

 “Yes?” he asked, glancing down at you.

 You beamed up at him, the sweetest smile coating your lips, your eyes held nothing but love and adoration for the tall ace.

 “I love you.”

 He looked away from you as a soft blush covered his cheeks, his fingers squeezing you back. “I love you too.”

 ****

 “How come that guy is deliberately avoiding you Wakatoshi?” Tendou asked, cocking his head to the side as he watched a guy with spiky hair flinching and running away from the ball whenever it was Ushijima’s turn.

 “Because he knows I’m going to break his arms.” Ushijima said bluntly, causing the familiar male to bow and apologize, much to everyone’s confusion.