#or if he did make a deal with bill he'd realize he can just call it off like he did in canon

[sunburstsandmoonshadows]

Oh, I've seen it around! And I do!

There is a specific version of Relativity Falls that lives in my head, lol.

Instead of the Stan 'o War their joint dream is to become a director and a movie star respectively, and instead of a big blowout fight in senior year, Dipper and Mabel are separated because of their parents divorcing and then each taking a twin Parent Trap-style. (Because honestly if Mabel got kicked out like Stan you can't tell me Dipper wouldn't be running out of the house to join her then and there no matter what the catalyst was; he's protective of her in a way the Ford wasn't with Stan, not to mention the difference between a girl being stuck on the streets compared to a boy…)

Mabel eventually runs away from home to both achieve her starlet dream (goes… not so well, leading a checkered life that isn't as harrowing as Stan's but is still wild as hell) and to meet back up with Dipper. Unfortunately the info her mother gave her on Dipper's whereabouts/contact info is either out of date or just flat-out wrong. So they remain out of contact for a while until Dipper sees her on the tv and he haggles her into coming to live with him in Gravity Falls. Mystery twins shenanigans ensue!

One big thing about my concept for a Relativity Falls au is I think it would be really fun to reverse the forefont weirdness. There's a lot of magic in Gravity Falls but Ford is more of a sci-fi hero/mad scientist with a smidge of wizard. So in turn I think Dipper should be a wizard/alchemist with a smidge of mad scientist. Stan and Mabel similarly go from cryptid-focused con-man to witchy con-woman.

Taking it further, I think it'd be fun to either make the portal a magical one instead, or to straight-up not have Bill be the big bad because let's be honest here, the grown-up version of Dipper "world's most suspicious 12 year old" Pines would have one conversation with Bill and go "GOD you suck. Absolutely no deal, you Mr. Monopoly wannabe." and instead Dipper accidentally gets thrown out of his dimension by messing with… idk, this version of Gravity Falls' fae population or something. And that's how Mabel keeps the house--his real first name got stolen in the process so all they can tell is that it's a deed in the name of someone with an M. So, Mabel, they guess.

And then Mabel spends 30 years not only figuring out how to bring him back but waiting for like, the right astrological alignments to even bring him back.

[peachycocaine]

some ideas for you (if you want them) <3

brothers bff!thanos who has been secretly fucking you for years and is always threatening to tell on you two to your brother whenever you’re being a brat but you always beg him not to because you don’t want your little secret to end (and then of course you have to *thank him* for not telling)

or!

reader and thanos have an only fans and they keep getting recognized for it (whether that be in the games or just in public) and people always say gross stuff to you and it makes you sad :( (this could end up being smut or angst or fluff or any combo tbh)

or!

you’re broke and the only place you can afford to rent is a room in some dude named thanos’s house… the first few months are chill but he keeps stealing your undies (he’s not at all slick about it) and whenever he asks you to come watch shows with him in the living room he sticks his hand down your pants (never actually *doing* anything but just to show you that he can)… then finally you realize you’re not gonna be able to pay rent this month and he just smiles because there are other forms of payment :) (this one could be headcannons or an actual story)

Okay cuz why did these actually eat hello?? Thank u sm noonie i've been yearning for ideas!! i'll try to do all of these, no promises though might end up procrastinating :/

Sealed deal

Pairings: pervy landlord!thanos x fem!reader

Tw: p in v, unprotected sex (rmbr to wrap it before you tap it), dry humping, mentions of drug usage, language

You had been financially struggling for a long time, you didn't have a place of your own to stay at. Though your friend let you live with her for 2 weeks, she eventually told you she couldn't let you live with her any longer. And you understood that, you were living with her free of charge and she had to cover for your expenses. She had to buy twice the amount of food and the electricity and water bills would come in double the cost due to you living with her. She was also struggling and so she had to do what she had to do. You did have a job, which paid minimum wage. Seeing your condition your friend suggested that you could live with one of her friend's, but you'd have to pay monthly rent of course. At first you weren't very fond of the idea since her said friend was a male but it was the only one thing you could afford right now. You turned up her offer and moved in with her friend.

His appearance was questionable but you had no other choice than to adjust. he wasn't really living lavish but his financial status was above average, he made his money off of his meaningless raps. At first living with him was easy, he didn't really bother you since he was always too busy doing drugs or trying to come up with new rap lyrics or he'd just be outside with his friends. But after 2 or 3 months, you noticed that alot of your panties went missing. At first you shook it off thinking they got lost, but too many of them had gone missing. And ofcourse the culprit was the man that lived with you. He gave 0 fucks about hiding it too, you could walk into his bedroom and you'd find your panties laying on his bed. You just took them back without confronting him about it, trying to ignore the fact that the man you lived with and will be living with for a good while was a pervert.

As time went on, interactions between you two became more frequent. He'd ask you to join him on the couch at times, though you'd always hesitate before you went because everytime you did he'd sneak touches to your thighs or brush his arm against your tit and call it an accident. He'd shove his hands down your pants, letting it rest against your clothed pussy as he watched your shift uncomfortably, at times he'd press his palm harder against your core. You didn't really say anything, well, more like you couldn't because you knew if you protested against him he could kick you right out. You tolerated his panty stealing habit until you found one of your panties covered in some slimey substance. You instantly dropped it when you realized that slimey gooey substance was his cum. You wanted to get out of here as soon as possible but you knew you couldn't.

You spent half the money you earned from working your ass off on clothes and other necessities, forgetting to save some for rent. You realized you were short on rent money and panic set it. Maybe you could ask thanos to give you one more month and pay off your rent after you earn more, but you knew thanos wasn't that generous or sympathetic. Later that evening he approached you and you just stood there hoping he'd forgot about the rent. "Hey, y'know its time to pay up right? Come on" he sticks his hand out, expecting you to hand him money. You chew your lower lip before gathering up the courage to speak. "U-uhm right so.. im short on money right now but could you please just give me one more month? I promise i'll pay full by next month" you heart was thumping in your chest, waiting for his response. He just looked at you and gave you a smile. His expression was unreadable, you couldn't really tell if his smile meant a yes or no. He stepped closer to you, towering over you as he leaned in "it doesn't work that way senõrita, now does it?" His breath fanned over your ear before he stepped back. You started fiddling with your fingers, growing more and more anxious about what you could do.

"I don't have the money on me, i really cant do anything about that, you have to understand, please." You pleaded hoping he'd show some mercy and let it slide this time. He rubbed his chin acting like he was thinking "hmm.. you could do one thing though.." his tone suggestive. "A-and what could that be..?" You saw right through his intentions, you knew what kind of man he was. He scanned your body up and down, practically eye-fucking you. Your body tensed at the way he looked at you. "Come on, don't act all innocent doll. Y'know what im talking about." He smirked at you and you just bit your lip. You knew exactly what he meant, he wanted you to pay with your body and you knew he had you cornered. You bunched up your shirt in your fists and just simply nodded, giving him a greenlight to do whatever he wanted to you. He was quick to jump at you, you fell back and landed on the couch as he eagerly started kissing you, almost devouring you whole. You just laid there, letting it happen as he caged you in. His hands were roaming around your body eagerly, exploring your skin like theres no tomorrow. He roughly squeezed your breast as his mouth never left yours, you moaned into his mouth making him shove his tongue deeper down your throat. He pulled away from you, panting as a string of saliva connected your mouths. You looked anywhere but at him, not wanting to see his face as he took advantage of you. He cupped your cheek and made you look at him, his thumb tracing your bottom lip as he started grinding his bulge against your clothed sex.

"Do you feel that? Feel how hard you make me?" His voice was raspy and breathy as he rubbed his groin against your crotch. You tried supressing your moans by biting your lip, trying not to give him the enjoyment of this situation. He rolled his hips and you could feel his hard throbbing cock through his sweats and of course he wasn't wearing boxers. His movements came to a halt and he started pulling his sweats down. "Undress." It was a command not a question. You did as you were told and took off your clothes while he did the same.

You two were skin to skin now, his naked form on top of yours. He looked down at you, admiring every inch of your bare body. "Fuck i can't believe you've been hiding this gorgeous body of yours from me since months." He chuckled as he spread your thighs apart further and positioned himself between you. He ran his cock up and down your slit before tapping the head on your clit a few times, earning a moan from you. Your moan gave him a head start as he began pushing his tip in, resulting in you biting your fist. He was bigger than you thought and the stretch made you want to scream. You let out a pained whimper as he began slowly pushing each inch into your tight pussy, splitting you apart on his cock with each inch. He let out a groan as he bottomed down, he was kind enough to give you time to adjust before he began rocking his hips gently. You covered your mouth with your hand trying to stop the moans that were forcefully pulled out of your throat. You hated the fact that it felt so fucking good, his fat head grazing your G spot with each thrust. He cooed and peeled your hand away from your mouth "c'mon dont hide those moans from me now, i needa hear how good i make you feel" he said as he dipped his head down, planting rough kisses to your neck. He started thrusting his hips into you faster, his dick slammed in and out of you. Your hands instantly flew to his hair, tugging on it as he bit down on your neck. He marked your neck before licking the bite mark "look at you taking dick like a good girl" his breathing heavy as he pulled away from your neck to admire your face.

The way your lips parted and tears pricked your eyes made his cock throb inside you. He pulled all the way out till only his head was in before ramming his dick back into you, aggressively fucking his cock into you as he watched your tits bounce with each of his thrusts. The sight before him made him almost lose control and cum right then. He eagerly stuck his hand between the both of you and started messily rubbing your clit. He was eager to make you cum, he wanted you to cover his dick in your cum. Your back arched as your nails dug into his back as he began rubbing your clit. Feeling tension build up in your stomach, you felt yourself getting closer with each of his thrusts. He felt your walls spasm around his cock, noticing that you were about to cum "gonna make a mess all over my cock princess? Go ahead, cum on my fucking dick like the little whore you are" he lifted up one of your legs to get a better angle, his dick pounding into you deeper now. After a few thrusts, you came undone on his cock. Your body fell limp beneath him as he kept snapping his hips into yours. His hips stuttered as he came closer to release. With one swift thrust, he burried himself deep inside you. Painting your insides white with his cum.

He collapsed on top of you, both of you trying to catch your breaths. He pulled out his now soft dick, watching in awe as his cum gushed out of your used cunt. "Payment succesful"

[citrusandrottefruit]

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

TW: Chronically ill Steve

In a world where Hanahaki is a rare autoimmune disease that is triggered by long periods of emotional distress. There is no cure, it lasts a lifetime and makes the person very susceptible to infections and can cause cardiopulmonary problems, organ lacerations, pulmonary fibrosis, liver fibrosis, esophageal varices, thrombosis, etc. In short, a disease with several complications.

Although these complications can be treated, Hanahaki itself only has palliative care and symptom control.

Steve's mother developed it when he was just 5 years old. Even though he was very young, he remembers seeing his mother coughing up blood, he remembers seeing an x-ray that showed something that looked very much like twisted roots in her chest. He remembers how she spent days in the hospital and how his father became much kinder after that. They took a trip to the coast at the time and his mother got better.

So she got worse and better and worse. She never seemed to get well enough, but they found a good treatment that made the roots dissolve and vomit them out. There was only one time when she got bad enough that the doctors had to open her chest and remove the roots.

His father was out of the country when it happened, and he didn't even have time to get back before Mrs. Harrington gave up on staying in Hawkins and decided to travel with her husband.

Steve stayed. At age 9, he wasn't sure who had triggered this disease in his mother: him or his father. But he knew he had to be a good boy, because once the disease was active, anything could make it worse.

So he never complained. Not when he started getting tired, not when his chest started hurting, not when he got a lump in his throat, not when he started having trouble breathing.

His parents only found out when he ended up in the hospital. So he started the same treatment as his mother, who stayed by his side for almost half a year before traveling again. His father stayed home more, too, and when he was away, he would call three days a week, but eventually he stopped caring, as he always did.

Growing up with Hanahaki was tough, but Steve managed. He took his medications religiously, keeping the disease at bay. When it took hold, Steve would take a cocktail of medications that made him weak and nauseous, but helped control the Hanahaki. When things got really bad, he would spend a night or two in the hospital, having whatever was compressing his chest sucked out.

He'd needed surgery to remove the worst of the tangle a few weeks after he'd found out about the Upside Down. Because he'd lost Tommy and Carol, because he was lonely, because things between him and Nancy were weird, because Jonathan might be better for her than Steve. Because his parents hadn't shown up, even though they knew he'd been in a fight and needed medical attention.

(He shouldn't have been surprised. His parents knew he was always in the hospital, of course they wouldn't notice this incident amidst a pile of medical bills. Steve realized they probably didn't even check what they were paying for. Like they only cared enough to keep him alive, nothing more.)

It was an easy surgery. His organs weren't collapsing, there wasn't much scar tissue, the medication had dissolved some of the roots… It was just the deepest parts that were still there. Steve could have lived with them, but he preferred to be safe than to risk letting them dig deeper into his chest.

They were only in the hospital for four days and Nancy showed up for two of them, even though Steve hadn't even told her the truth. He didn't even bother to make up some silly accident and a lacerated lung after he had already had surgery. Probably if she hadn't been so wrapped up in finding out what happened to Barbara and dealing with her own traumas, she would have realized the truth.

He didn't want her to know, but he was sad when she didn't ask him.

When Nancy told him their relationship was bullshit, he went home and inhaled so much scar-dissolving medicine (which Steve swore he could feel forming on his chest) that he passed out. He didn't regret it, because he woke up the next morning fine, if a little groggy, and convinced that maybe she didn't mean it.

After fighting the demodogs, he felt light, because he barely knew those kids, but he felt more liked than he had in a long time. So, okay, he thought he might die when Nancy left with Jonathan, but he was medicated and the kids… He had to protect them. Maybe his body knew that, maybe one feeling overrode the other, maybe that toxic air from the tunnels had killed the roots better than any treatment could have done. It didn't matter why, it just mattered that he hadn't needed surgery this time.

Lots of medication, frequent trips to the hospital, some aspirations, sure, but he was fine.

“If it weren’t for Hanahaki, you could get a sports scholarship,” the coach had said. That revelation played over and over in Steve’s mind for weeks, like the promise of a future he would never have. So instead of college, he went to Scoops Ahoy.

The first person to learn about the disease was Robin, weeks after the mall fire, when he ended up in the hospital again and needed another surgery. It was torture, he said, that was impossible to forget. And his parents still hadn’t come back. Billy and Hopper’s deaths… There was so much going on and he was so overwhelmed, but it wouldn’t happen again, so she didn’t need to worry. It was an exceptional situation.

After that, Robin was everything he never realized he needed. It was a little suffocating, but it felt so good to feel suffocated by love for the first time in his life.

He would never be completely well, but with Robin and the kids… It was easier. He was happy.

Eddie Munson, who had never interacted with him, caused some attacks when he became such a big part of Dustin, Lucas, and Mike's lives. Especially Dustin, who seemed different at times. Steve resented Eddie.

That all changed when they actually met, after all the Vecna ​​scare.

For a moment during those days, Steve thought he might end up getting involved with Nancy again, and he hated himself for it. Because it always felt like there was something unfinished between them, but he didn't want to get back together, because they were never good together and she just seemed confused. In '83, she had leaned on Jonathan and ended up with Steve for a miserable year, in '84 they only broke up after she and Jonathan were already together. In '85, she had been through the worst with Jonathan again, so it was okay, but in '86, with Steve being the only one around, she seemed torn between them again. Like Steve only mattered because the gates were open and Jonathan wasn't around.

They couldn’t be together again, so he got the closure he wanted, telling her about how he had dreamed of a future with her, but that wasn’t what he needed anymore.

It was like healing a little bit.

In addition to Nancy, he also thought a lot about Eddie Munson, who was great with the kids, funny, a little goofy, and much more human than he seemed when he walked around the cafeteria tables. Who walked beside him through literal hell, showered him with compliments, eased worries Steve hadn’t even told him he had, who encouraged him to pursue love.

Who could blame him for falling in love?

[ckret2]

Chapter 50 of by this point human Bill Cipher is almost relieved to be imprisoned in the Mystery Shack again: Bill tells Mabel about his adventures, and Ford and Dipper tell Fiddleford about theirs.

But first Bill's gonna die for a bit.

"Guys! You're okay!" Mabel flung her arms around Dipper and squeezed him. "We were worried you were floating around and broke your legs when the gravity came back."

"N—no, we were fine," Dipper said. 

Mabel let go of Dipper to hug Ford next—and then drew back, looked him up and down, and looked at Bill. "What happened to your clothes?"

Bill said, "We fell in the lake."

"Ha!"

"Tate was kind enough to loan us dry clothes," Ford said.

"You look like big dorks." She turned to Bill last, took in his dirty haggard appearance, and said, "And you look awful. Where have you guys been the last two days?"

"Thanks for asking! I've been in..." Bill glanced at Stan. "Am I allowed to say the name of the place I've been?"

Stan shook his head. "Not in front of the kids, you don't."

Bill sighed. "Agony. I've been in agony."

"Aww!" She hugged Bill last. "I like your stupid Fishmas sweater."

"Consider it yours as soon as I can change." He wriggled out of her embrace to point at his feet. "Check out the shoes, though!"

Mabel cracked up. "Omigosh, fish slippers! Fi— Fishlers? Fishppers?"

"Fishoes?"

"Fishoes!"

Soos said, "What did happen out there?" He was in the kitchen, cleaning and reorganizing after zero gravity had tossed everything out of order. "Did you heroically save Gravity Falls from imminent multidimensional devastation?"

Ford said, "No. Aside from the effects on gravity, it... turned out to be a benign phenomenon."

"Oh," Soos said. "Like... what Bill said?"

Ford grimaced. He managed to just nod instead of saying afraid so.

Again, he expected Bill to gloat; again, Bill said nothing. He didn't even look at Ford.

"It wasn't an eclipse, though," Dipper muttered, shooting a dark look at Bill. "It would've been an eclipse if it had gotten between us and gravity. It was basically the opposite."

"What do you want from me." The question was more sighed than spoken. "It was called an eclipse when I was growing up, I dunno what to tell you."

Ford, Dipper, and Mabel all looked straight at Bill at the mention of his childhood; but he didn't say anything more. He just trudged to the kitchen and leaned tiredly on the doorframe, watching Soos work. "Grab me something from the fridge."

"Sure thing, dawg." Soos opened the door. "What do you want?"

Bill was silent for a moment. Slowly, like a spirit medium channeling a faint message from the other side, he said, "I think... the body wants a vegetable. Gimme some guacamole."

"Sorry, dude, we had the last of it with dinner."

"Fine. Just give me an avocado and salsa, I'll make do."

"You got it."

"Two avocados."

Soos started rummaging through the jumbled mess in the fridge. "So if everything was okay, what took you guys so long to get back?"

"Yeah, I've been wanting to ask," Stan said. (He hadn't been able to in the car; when everyone realized Bill had passed out as soon as he'd sat down, they'd fallen into an awkward silence.) "Was the demon making trouble or what?"

Dipper and Ford exchanged a glance; who wanted to share the embarrassing news? Ford said, "Actually, under the circumstances, he was... well behaved." Ford resisted the urge to add the modifier "tolerably." It seemed mean-spirited. Bill had constantly complained, sure, but in retrospect could Ford say the complaints were unjustified?

"Then what took you so long?"

Now Ford felt Bill's gaze on him, watching him sharply. Ford understood now. This was why Bill hadn't mentioned saving them. He was holding it in reserve—offering a deal. If Ford and Dipper didn't embarrass him, he wouldn't embarrass them. If they mentioned his breakdown, he could cut in, claim it was natural for him to be in shock after performing such a difficult, heroic deed.

It wasn't blackmail, per se. Revealing the truth wouldn't cost anybody anything but a bit of momentary self-consciousness. But wasn't that just like Bill—only passing up an opportunity to boast so he could use it to shield his ego.

"It was Bill's fault," Dipper said quickly. Ford's heart leaped into his throat. "Because—we had to climb up and down the tunnel to Gravity Peak, and he only brought dress shoes and dumb fish slippers. We kept having to slow down."

Ford felt the pressure of Bill's gaze slide off of his face as he turned away, staring back into the kitchen. Bill said, "Yep. Guess I should have brought my hiking shoes—oh, wait."

Stan said, "You could've got some better shoes when we were at the mall! You're the one who wanted those dumb dress shoes."

"In my defense, I didn't think you paranoiacs would ever let me wander around in the great outdoors—much less force me to." He leaned more heavily against the doorway with a groan, muttering, "My legs are still jelly. Worthless human body."

Dipper glanced at Ford, as if checking with him to see if he'd made the right decision. Ford gave him a tiny nod of approval. After the day they'd had, humiliating Bill just for the sake of humiliation wouldn't have served any justice; it would have just been mean.

For the past three decades, Ford had always felt that Bill deserved the strongest possible punishment, both for his prior atrocities and to prevent future ones; but, he wanted to deal with Bill swiftly and efficiently. No gloating, no torture—just one quick shot. Sure, he got some grim satisfaction from knowing Bill was unhappy—knowing that Bill's vile intentions were being thwarted—and if anyone decided to treat Bill cruelly for cruelty's sake, he couldn't say they were wrong for it... but the thought of committing it himself made him uneasy.

He tried to remember if he'd felt that way when Bill had first arrived.

"I found the salsa!" Soos called from the fridge. "Somehow it all floated onto the highest shelf? Which kind do you want?"

"That one with a picture of a sobbing baby on it."

"Extra spicy it is!"

When Soos handed over the salsa and avocados, Bill said, "Hey, Hick Junior said his father was making announcements about staying inside and low to the ground? You didn't happen to have anything to do with that, did you?"

"Oh—yeah, I called Old Man McGucket and said I had a hot anonymous tip about what was going on," Soos said. "You said it was this whole public safety thing, so I figured the whole town should probably know? He's the local respected science guy now, I thought he'd know what to do with that kind of important information."

Bill grunted. "Terrific, he gets credit for my help. But you'd all be giving me heck if I'd said nothing and half the town broke their necks, so... whatever, net zero. Here." Bill took off the Monster-Mon backpack and swung it over to Soos. "Your reward. Good job."

"Whoa, haha, this is heavy. What's in here, a bag of rocks?"

"No, just one." Bill pushed off the doorway, wheeled unsteadily around, and trudged toward the stairs.

Soos unzipped the bag. A drugged geodite blinked sleepily up at him. He gasped. "Dude! A real Monster-Mon! Is this my call to epic adventure with a lovable animal sidekick?"

Ford grimaced, remembering watching Bill feed a geodite cold medicine. "Ah."

"I think I'll name you... Rocky," Soos said.

"That—really shouldn't be here. Its natural environment is caves, I don't know if it's safe for it to be out here—for it or us." They had been known to bite.

"Aww." Soos cradled the backpack like a swaddled baby. "Do you think it would be okay if I made it a fake cave to live in?" He gasped. "I could make an exhibit for him! I'll say he's a living meteorite! People love aliens."

"I'm not sure that..." Ford sighed. Well, none of them were going back to the cave today. "Maybe you should put it in the cellar where it's darker."

"Great idea!" Soos carried the geodite through the living room. "Hey, I've already got a mattress down there. You're gonna love it, lil dude..."

Ford hoped Soos didn't get attached to that thing. He shot a glower at Bill.

Bill was already on the stairs. "Now everybody leave me alone. Except you." He pointed at Mabel. "I don't want to do anything but lay on the floor and talk about whatever Mabel wants to talk about for the next three hours."

"Cartoons and boy bands."

"Yes," Bill sighed in relief, already preparing to turn 95% of his brain off. "Wow, yes, that's exactly what I want to talk about. I can't wait." He grabbed the handrail as he climbed heavily, leaning against it for balance as he dragged himself upstairs.

Before Mabel could follow him, Ford put a hand on her shoulder. "Oh, before you go—there's something I wanted to tell you and Dipper." Voice low, he said, "You remember when you told me that Bill had mentioned Edward Bishop Bishop?"

"Yeah? When we were drawing our houses."

"Something Bill said while we were out shook a memory loose. It reminded me of a book I read as an undergraduate—Flatworld, written by Edward Bishop Bishop."

"Aww," Mabel said. "Not an artist?"

"No, although he did illustrate the book," Ford said. "It's a novella that combines Victorian social commentary with a primer on higher-dimensional mathematics by using an allegory about sentient shapes living in a two-dimensional world."

"That's what you were talking about in the boat, right?" Dipper asked. "When Bill said something about..." He scrunched his face, trying to remember, "'Up in the sky'...?"

"Upward-but-not-skyward," Ford said, "to describe something that isn't higher than us in the third dimension, but rather, in a higher dimension relative to us."

"How do you know about it?" Dipper asked. "The first time it came up, you said the name Edward Bishop Bishop was familiar, but..."

Ford sighed in irritation, "I read it as an undergraduate—in a haze of sleep-deprived exhaustion just before finals week—to get extra credit in a course on the history of mathematics. I immediately forgot ninety percent of it—which I'm sure is why I never thought of it in relation to Bill. If only I'd remembered the book thirty years ago, when it might have done me some good..."

"It's okay," Mabel said. "I forget almost everything I've read for class basically as soon as I've taken the test. I think it's pretty good that you remember anything about Flatworld at all!"

Ford smiled awkwardly. He was afraid that might say more about Mabel's study habits than about his. "Thank you, Mabel."

"And you did have a lot on your mind thirty years ago," Dipper said. "Like, Bill. Literally. On your mind."

Mabel added, "Doing creepy possession things!"

"I suppose that's true, too." What would he have done if he had remembered the book during that frenetic, delirious period when Bill and Ford had wrestled for control over his body? He'd been in no fit shape to go to the library. "I did think about it a couple of times in the multiverse—when I was visiting Exwhylia, for instance—but at the time I'd brushed it off as a lucky coincidence that I'd read a book that invented a society of shapes. It wouldn't be the first time science fiction predicted science fact. But now that Bill's mentioned it twice, I'd say it's less likely a coincidence and more likely that Edward Bishop Bishop was another of his 'students.'"

"Is there a way for us to find out?" Dipper asked. "If he was Bill's student, would he have left behind any... hints? Coded messages?"

"Like secret society conspiracy things?" Mabel asked.

"Yeah!"

"I suppose it's possible," Ford said. "If Flatworld happens to feature a one-eyed yellow triangle sharing the secrets of the universe, we'll know for sure. But, there's only one way to find out: now that I do remember the book, we can pick up a copy for research."

"That's great," Dipper said. "If Bill told the author about his home dimension... there's no telling how much we can learn about him by reading it."

"So it's basically a math textbook disguised as a story?" Mabel groaned. "That's just like doing word problems! The most confusing kind of math problems. Why does Bill keep making me have homework this summer?"

"You know what he's like," Dipper said, elbowing her with a grin. "Dastardly villain."

"Pure evil."

Ford huffed. "If it helps, as I recall the book teaches you about math concepts, but it doesn't make you do any math."

She let out a longer, more theatrical groan. "Fine. But if there's a cousin Throckmorton I'm throwing the book away."

"I dunno, sounds kinda neat," Dipper said. "It might give me a leg up when we start geometry."

"I don't remember the details of what it covers, but I bet it could," Ford agreed. "I have to visit Fiddleford this evening to return the equipment he loaned us, and... discuss the events of the last couple of days. If the library's still open when we're done I can go by and see if they have a copy of Flatworld."

"Can I come along?" Dipper asked.

"Of course. Just give me a moment to..." He looked down at himself, "change into something a little less ridiculous."

Dipper tried not to laugh. "Okay. I'll wait here. Mabel, do you want to...?"

"No thanks!" She pointed upstairs. "I've got a captive audience to teach about boy bands. I'm going to make him listen to Sev'ral Timez's entire discography."

"He's already had a pretty bad day. Don't torture him even more."

Mabel blew a raspberry. "He'll love it." She bounded up the stairs.

Ford headed to his and Stan's guest room. Dipper took off his backpack, dropped it in the living room, and stuck his hands in his pockets—then pulled one out in surprise.

The enchanted friendship bracelets. They were still in his pocket. Bill hadn't had them on since Dipper's out-of-body experience that morning.

Dipper stared at them uneasily; then hung them in their usual place on the entryway coat rack and resumed waiting for Ford.

####

It was a rare opportunity that Bill was allowed in the kids' room; but with Ford and Dipper out of the house, the one person most likely to complain wasn't around. So after having extracted a strict promise for him to behave himself, Mabel had let him in, for ease of gossip and CD-switching.

But even if Dipper had been in the room, he wouldn't have found much worth complaining about. Once Bill had finished his snack (he'd eaten the avocados like pears, skin and all, and drank down the salsa like a chunky smoothie), he'd laid down on the floor, and since then had remained a dead lump. Face buried in his crossed arms, curled up in the oversized Fishmas sweater and a set of loose stolen-from-Soos sweats to replace the towel skirt, he might as well have been a pile of laundry that had sprouted curly golden hair. Mabel had put Sev'ral Timez's first album on the boombox, sat herself on Bill's back, and started brushing out his damp, knotted curls without asking as she talked about each track.

To her delight, Bill started insisting they skip past the slow, emotional love ballads, saying he preferred the bouncier dancier tracks; she thought the fact that he was displaying a preference rather than begging to turn the band off was a good sign. He was actually listening to the music. Possibly even liking it! Maybe she'd manage to convert him into a fan. She recounted her experiences with the band's cloned members and Bill threw in the polite "Mhm" and "Uh-huh?" where appropriate without lifting his head from the floor or opening his eyes. She'd thought he might have had something to throw in about the cloning thing, that seemed like the kind of conspiracy nonsense he might have a hand in; but if he knew anything, he wasn't up to sharing it.

When she'd wrangled his hair into some semblance of order, she got to work on his fingernails. His arm was like a dead weight in her hands, loose and unresisting but not helping, either. He shifted his head over to rest on his other arm and otherwise didn't move.

"Your fingernail polish is destroyed," Mabel said. On three fingers the paint had been all but completely scraped off. When he'd left a couple of days ago, it had just been lightly chipped. She started stripping the remainder with nail polish remover.

"Is it?" Bill mumbled. "Mmh. Yeah, probably from clawing in the dirt."

"Pfff. What did you do the last couple of days?"

Bill slowly sucked in a breath so deep that Mabel felt his back lift her a little higher off the ground; and then he just as slowly let it back out. "Do not," he said, "get me started."

He got started.

He began with a tirade about the contempt that both Ford and Dipper had shown him and his far superior subject matter expertise for the last two days; and then about being hauled out and exposed during totality after repeating over and over how dangerous it was and how much he would prefer to not do that—Ford had even admitted he'd dragged Bill out into open air just because he knew how much he didn't want that!—and from there Bill looped back to listing a whole litany of gripes against what he perceived as egregious and undeserved disrespect from Ford over the last couple of weeks—"Youmight have lied to me about that glass pyramid, but at least you didn't laugh in my face about it!"

(Mabel thought Ford pretty much had the right to be as disrespectful to Bill as he wanted, after everything Bill had put him through. Lying about a silly imaginary cult was less mean than lying about taking over the universe. But part of being a good friend, she knew well, was lending a sympathetic ear to your friend's venting without suggesting that said friend might be in the wrong. She had a Color Critters episode about being honest with your friends she could show him later.)

Bill seemed to gain strength as he aired his grievances, bolstered by Mabel's encouraging "mhm" "uh-huh" noises. By the time she'd finished repainting his first hand (she'd picked a glittery purple polish she thought would complement all the yellow he wore), he was sitting upright and Mabel had to sit in front of him to start on his other hand.

"—and my stupid feet hurt," Bill griped. "Since Stanford made me traipse halfway through the mountain barefoot because he wouldn't let us go back down before the gravity returned and I don't even own shoes for spelunking. And my knees hurt, and my back hurts, and I could have killed for a walking stick but do think they'd have allowed me one if I asked? Because I don't think so! I tripped over—I don't know, a hundred roots."

"Worst hiking trip ever." Mabel finished painting his second hand, and started looking through her miniature sticker sheets for some fun stickers to put on Bill's first hand now that it was dry.

"Worst in the history of your planet! Even the Donner party had a better hike! At least some of them got something to eat," Bill said. "All I got for two days was a handful of cereal and Stanford's liquid meat in a toothpaste tube."

Mabel stuck out her tongue.

"And Stanford walks too fast. And your brother kept trying to squeeze through gaps between trees I couldn't get through. And Stanford kept fiddling with his—stupid—useless antique Civil War lantern he's so proud of, and he's just lucky that I thought to bring a way to find a light source even though I didn't even need one, because I knew he would bring that stupid Civil War lantern..." Bill's complaints petered out.

And then, voice oddly quiet, he said, "And I saw my corpse." 

Mabel looked up from carefully placing a yellow butterfly on Bill's middle fingernail. There was a dark look in his eyes. "Oh," she said. "Oh, Bill. I'm so sorry."

This wasn't just a bad camping trip. This was serious. She had to treat it seriously.

She ejected the current CD from the boombox, put in another Sev'ral Timez album, and skipped to track 4: "This goes out to anyone having a bad day. Ladies, this one's for you. 'Girl, today has been—straight whack. You don't know how you're gonna—bounce back. But any time you're down, I'll always be around; I'll drive your heart back to Happy Town'..." Oh yeah. That was the exact energy Mabel was trying to channel.

"And I didn't feel anything when I touched it." Bill was staring down at his hands like he barely recognized them. "No energy, no connection—nothing. What if there isn't a connection anymore? What if I'm just a human now?"

Did that weigh on Bill? Clearly, enough that he'd decided to endure imprisonment in the Mystery Shack rather than kill his body to see if there was still a triangle inside.

But he'd never talked about it before now; she'd thought maybe he just didn't worry about it.

But that was dumb. Of course he worried about it. He was just like her. When something scared him, he just pushed it down and hoped that if he ignored it enough, everything would be okay! Until he couldn't pretend anymore.

And she'd never heard him sound this scared before.

She took his hands and hoped that would help.

He squeezed her hands so hard it hurt. His still-wet nail polish smeared on her hand. "What if I'm really gonna grow old and die in this rotting meat doll, what if I never go home again—? There's so much I haven't done, I was going to throw an eternal party, it would have been beautiful, everyone would have loved me, but now— and now—" He let out a choked noise, head bowing over their joined hands, posture broken. Hot tears landed on the backs of Mabel's hands. "And I didn't even get to, just, die and be done with it, I have to know I'm dead, I have to know everything I was going to do..."

"Hey—come here." Mabel tentatively wrapped her arms around Bill's neck and shoulders, compressing his bouncy curls. She half expected him to pull away.

Instead, he buried his face against her shoulder and hugged her back like she was the only thing keeping him from drowning.

After spending the last two days suppressing his grief and fear so hard his body couldn't function through it—after spending over a month suppressing his grief and fear—finally, finally, he peeled the tape off his cracked shell to let it leak out. He couldn't hold it together anymore. He'd barely put himself back together long enough to get on his feet and make it to the shack. This was the only place it was safe to fall apart. He muffled his sobs in Mabel's sweater.

And Mabel—who was used to being comforted by adults but who had never been called upon herself to comfort anybody but her brother and the occasional friend—had no idea how she was supposed to comfort a zillion-year-old almost-definitely-adult alien through an existential crisis.

Not for the first time, she wondered whether she might have gotten in over her head.

She pushed the worry down. Everything would be okay. Bill needed her—she could feel him trembling—and he didn't have anybody else in the world he could trust. And if she didn't know what else to do, at the least she could keep hugging him.

Voice so tight it almost squeezed out as a whisper, Bill said, "I was going to make a utopia here, but now I'm just gonna die here."

"I'm so sorry." How do you comfort someone processing the fear of mortality? She'd never processed it herself, she was thirteen, it was just another scary future thing she'd deal with when she had to. The best she knew how to do was be nice. "But... I'm here, okay? For—for anything you need." (Anything that wasn't evil, anyway—but now was not the appropriate time to make Bill feel like her support was conditional.)

"Tell me I won't die."

"You won't die! You're never, ever gonna die." Mabel hugged him tighter. "I'll fistfight Death. I'll—break his bony kneecaps."

"Thanks."

"I'll swing at the reaper with a baseball bat."

Bill laughed feebly. "With nails in it?"

"Yeah! And barbed wire! Connected to a battery!"

"Oh, we're taking Death down. Nobody's dying ever again."

"Everybody lives forever!" Mabel laughed; but it quickly petered out. "But... I'm not gonna let you die. You're my friend, and I won't let anything happen to you."

Bill's trembling had stopped, and his embrace was less death-grippy. "I owe you one, Shooting Star." From Bill, "thanks" sounded hollow, but "I owe you one" really sounded like a thank you.

"Hey. If I tell you a secret, do you promise not to do anything evil with it?"

"Sure. Promise."

Mabel doubted it, but that was as good as she was gonna get. "I've always thought you're still a triangle on the inside. You've got those creepy cat eyes that see the future and stuff! If you were just a normal human, wouldn't you have normal human eyes?"

Bill made a noncommittal noise.

"Plus, if you'd really been turned into a human on the inside, then being in a human body wouldn't feel so bad—right? It'd just feel normal."

Bill was silent for a moment. Voice hoarse, he whispered, "I hope you're right."

####

Fiddleford answered the door himself. "Stanford, Dipper, come in! I was just cleaning up." He had a broom, and the great hall's floor behind him was sparkling with broken glass. Ford was relieved to see Fiddleford had put on shoes. Unfortunately, they were fuzzy slippers. "Pardon the mess!"

"Think nothing of it. The shack's been turned upside-down, too." Ford stepped around a broken chair. "Don't you have anyone to help you clean, though?"

"Oh, I do, I do! I built me a Janitorial Executive Drone to tidy up," Fiddleford said. "I'm just cleaning up the mess JED left."

Ford and Dipper looked around at the shattered glass, broken furniture, scorch marks around the fireplace, and torn curtains. Dipper asked, "Did... JED make this place any cleaner?"

"Not at all!"

Ford and Dipper caught Fiddleford up on their scientific findings of the last couple days. Ford was almost embarrassed to admit they hadn't found any noteworthy quantities of micro-rips, as if he were confessing to a personal academic embarrassment—even after Fiddleford pointed out that it had been his own theory, not Ford's. (All the same, Ford hated to be so wrong, even by association. Being wrong felt like a moral failing.)

In return, Fiddleford told them what he'd been up to. He'd confirmed with them NASA fellas that the odd gravity effects weren't detected anywhere but Gravity Falls. At their behest, he'd set up some sensors around town, and when gravity suddenly reversed, the measurements they'd taken had allowed him to make a very loose model of the shape of the force that caused it. He showed Ford and Dipper the model on a computer in his lab, black screen with sharp glowing green lines forming an armature in the shape of a force. It looked like an enormous flying sausage that tapered down at one end. Too little detail to tell exactly what it was; but it certainly could have been an axolotl.

It was turning to look at the cliff where they'd stood.

Fiddleford wasn't pleased to find out the information he'd passed on from Soos had originally come from Bill; but he'd suspected it and already done all his soul-searching before reluctantly sharing his advice with the masses and hoping it wouldn't come back to bite him. "He didn't bother to warn us that gravity would actually disappear today, though," Fiddleford said indignantly. "So he could crow about being right and still get to see some folks get hurt, I reckon."

"Actually, this time I don't think he was hiding it. I kinda think he just made a mistake?" Dipper said.

Ford nodded. "Dipper's right. Bill was incredibly alarmed this morning when it became clear our estimates were wrong. It only made more trouble for him."

"I suppose," Fiddleford said grudgingly; then gave them a sharp look. "This mornin'? You took him camping?"

Ford and Dipper winced. Ford mumbled, "Not for fun."

"Stanford Pines—!"

It took a minute of hooting and hollering before Ford could calm Fiddleford down enough to explain the circumstances: that they'd only brought Bill because of just how much he explicitly did not want to be brought; that it had been a thoroughly unpleasant experience for everyone and Ford had never expected it to be otherwise; and that Bill had proven useful—Ford decided not to share the details—but he hadn't forgotten that Bill always made himself useful before he betrayed someone. If a man helped a little old lady cross a street, opened her door for her, put up her groceries, and then knocked her out and burgled her house, only one of those actions mattered.

(Dipper fell silent rather than help reassure Fiddleford. Ford supposed that was because he'd objected to bringing Bill, too.)

Fiddleford grudgingly admitted that under the circumstances, bringing Bill had been logical. "But that's just the thing—sometimes your logic don't account for the fact that you've got human emotions, too."

"Ah, yes, those human emotions. One of my worst flaws," Ford joked.

Fiddleford didn't laugh. "I mean it, Stanford. The most logical plan in the world don't mean nothing if he talks you into throwing it aside."

Ford thought of all the times he'd let his temper get the best of him over the last couple of days. Could he really say he'd made the logical decision when he'd made it out of anger? "Yes. I... see what you mean."

"Just be careful," Fiddleford said. "I saw you under that demon's oppression for months and never thought it was anything worse than how you always got around finals week—heck, for all I saw, I reckon he coulda started possessing you without me noticing—and I don't want that to happen again!"

Dipper winced. Ford found somewhere other than Fiddleford's face to look.

"What?"

"He... did. Possess me." (Dipper didn't pipe up with his experience. Ford didn't blame him.)

"He what? When?!"

"Remember toward the end of the project? When I started pulling all-nighters to finish the calculations...?"

Fiddleford smacked his forehead and sank down into the nearest chair.

Ford winced again. "I should have told you." During their talks over the past year, he'd been very reluctant to mention Bill or the fallout at the end of the portal project. They both had. "But—I assumed you'd guessed by now. What did you think was happening?"

"Frankly? I thought you'd started taking something illicit."

Ford snorted. "I—all right." He'd done stupider things during finals week.

"If he was possessin' you, why didn't you ask for help? I could've found somebody who knows how to do exorcisms. Did he not let you? Or—or did I miss you trying to tell me...?"

Ford shook his head. "No, I didn't want an exorcism." He wasn't sure Bill was the kind of "demon" that responded to exorcisms anyway. "At the time, I thought... that he was helping me."

Dipper reluctantly piped up, "He... possessed me once too. I didn't know that's what he was doing until too late, but... Even after you know he's a bad guy, he's really good at making you think he's just helping."

Fiddleford didn't immediately say anything to that. Ford couldn't meet his gaze.

Finally, Fiddleford said, voice low and worried, "Just tell me you won't let him get into your head again. Either one'a you."

Dipper shook his head. "Definitely not."

Ford said, "As he is now with all his powers gone, I don't think he can enter my head. Anyway, I had a metal plate surgically installed—"

"I didn't mean that way."

Right. "I won't. I promise."

Fiddleford nodded. "Didja really get a metal plate installed?"

Ford knocked on it demonstratively.

"Hmm." Fiddleford stroked his beard thoughtfully. He pointed at a contraption in the corner that looked like a ten foot tall tuning fork with electricity arcing between its tips. "Try not to get within five feet of that thing."

Ford eyed it nervously.

####

Fiddleford insisted Ford and Dipper stay for dinner. It was the first proper meal they'd had after two days of tubes mushy meat and mushy vegetables; so they tried not to show their disappointment when they received mushy meat and mushy vegetables. Fiddleford's automatic meatloaf-and-mashed-potatoes maker did its job more competently than JED did its, but Ford suspected that was partially because it didn't have legs to let it go get in trouble.

As they drove back into town, a stoplight turned red at the intersection with Main Street. Ford glanced down Main toward the library and asked, "Do you still want to stop by the library?"

Dipper, who'd nearly nodded off, blinked sleepily. "Huh?"

"To pick up Flatworld?"

Dipper yawned. "Honestly, I kinda just wanna go home and sleep."

"I hear that." He'd almost drowned today. He was exhausted. "Perhaps this weekend."

"Aren't you going to that concert with Mabel?"

"Was that this Saturday?" He'd lost track. Mabel had won four tickets from some radio contest to see Phrancisco in Portland and had asked Ford if he'd like to come. "I'm undecided. I'd like to go—I've been a fan of Invisible Plastic Yellow since they formed." He was the one who'd told Mabel about the band after their Portland trip and gotten her their albums. He'd had a phase when he'd really gotten into cutting-edge underground new wave music. It had made him feel conventionally cool, which not many things did. Now, all his musical tastes were three decades behind. He hadn't even known Phrancisco had a solo career until Mabel came home with tickets.

"But she's bringing her friends, and whoever has the fourth ticket needs to chaperone; and I'm afraid an old man escorting around three young girls would look... odd. It may be more appropriate for one of the other girls' parents to go." But he did want to see Phrancisco. "Perhaps I'll wait and see whether Mabel talks me into it."

"Better pack your bag now, then."

Ford laughed. He had a point. "If I do go to Portland, maybe I can stop by a bookstore to pick up Flatworld. If it tells us anything useful about Bill, I suspect we'll want a household copy for reference."

He was eager to reread it. He'd forgotten so much of it since college. He only recalled the vague, overarching plot: something about a third-dimensional sphere teaching a second-dimensional square about realities with higher and lower dimensions—from zero dimensions up to four—and a stuffy society based on what geometric shape you were... but that was it. He probably never even would have remembered the phrase "up but not north" if Bill hadn't referenced it. He wondered how much it could have helped him if he'd reread it sooner.

Dipper yawned again. "Sounds good."

The light turned green; and Ford drove past the library and headed on home.

####

(After going full tilt for two months, we finally get a breather lol. I hope y'all enjoyed, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!)

[red-bat-arse]

Working on a BillFord fic I'm internally calling my delusional au lol but I think I'd actually title it the Have A Heart AU

Wherein Fiddleford leaves the project but Ford doesn't confront Bill, and since Bill is very happy things are going well he decides to start actually flirting. His way of doing this is to give Ford gifts of possessed rats, hurt his body in controlled ways, and talk about dangerous things they could do together...

Oh, and be so distracted by infighting in the Nightmare Realm that when Ford starts spiraling into scared paranoia over the -to him -literal torture, he doesn't notice until Ford throws him out of the mindscape.

So now he's got to figure out how to fix what he broke, or he'll never get the portal running, sure, but worse than that is he'll lose Ford for good. With Stan on the way to the cabin, looks like he'll have to make a deal with Specs of all people so he can have a body to pilot -if Ford doesn't want him in his mind, they can talk on more even ground. And maybe Bill can start making up for his mistakes along the way.

Excerpt and rambling underneath;

Bill looked down at the nail wound and tensed up -what if he made it worse? What if he got it wrong again and Ford woke up and thought he did it on purpose, thought he just wanted to- what, torture him?

Did Ford think Bill hated him? Or did he assume this was all some sort of prank like his childhood bullies would pull, a betrayal like his oaf of a twin committed, or plain scorn like nearly everyone else showed him for his big ideas? For the mind that Bill thought was exceptional and shone like a star- and-

-and why was this so hard? Why was Bill even second guessing himself? He was a god! He could take care of Sixer any way he wanted and he should be glad he showed him that much care. Any other being with Bill's amount of power would've taken Ford and made him into a mere pet, would've wasted his potential instead of cultivating it, and this was stupid! Bill should already know how to put Ford back together! Ford was his! Ford was supposed to-

Bill caught his reflection in the mirror and snapped out of his spiral. The battered, unkempt body of his author stared back at him, blood slowly leaking from his eye as Ford unconsciously fought against Bill's possession.

He hadn't ever done that before. Bill wiped at the blood but just ended up smearing it around, so he grabbed a new looking washcloth and wet it, taking Ford's glasses off to get at the stain better. He cleaned the blood away carefully and closed the eye once it looked like it had stopped leaking, and when he rinsed the cloth out the water ran down the drain pink.

Ford was supposed to be fine.

"I think I screwed up," he said out loud, and it was then he realized if he didn't fix this, properly, he'd lose everything.

He'd lose any hope of the portal being completed, sure, which meant sooner or later the Nightmare Realm would finally collapse in on itself and kill everyone inside. Granted, with how bad he was feeling at the moment after thousands of years of nothing, dying like that didn't exactly sound like the worst option. Sure, Ax would be sad for a bit, the old sap, but there wouldn't be anyone actually mourning him if he went out that way.

Not even his author, not even Ford, because he'd probably be relieved. The being Bill thought he would spend the next eternity with was terrified of him and if he didn't fix it he would be relieved when Bill died. He would be glad for it and die at 92 of a petty thing like a heart attack and then they'd both be written out of existence, and that would be the end.

If there was one thing Bill hated at this moment, it was thinking about Ford ending. He'd caused so many others over the years after that first unintentional one, after bringing Euclydia to an end, and he hadn't cared at all, had reveled in it even, but with Ford the notion was wrong, was awful. And the idea of Ford dying hating him and being glad to be rid of him, it made his entire shape seize up in distress.

Ford had rejuvenated him, brought him back from an apathetic husk of a being through nothing more than his mind and his charms, and look how Bill had repaid him.

Notes;

explores the idea of Bill not really understanding why humans work the way they do -such as hallucinating after days without sleep and reacting badly when the being possessing their body starts hurting it without explanation -but having to reckon with it if he wants to keep Ford

he's from an extinct dimension and's been around for millennia, and Ford is the first being in general he's ever actually liked -this is not a recipe for well-meshing love languages. i was like "what if Bill actually thinks giving someone a wound they can easily heal is like, the highest form of showing love"? what if he saw the aftermath and went "oh shit i fd up" and wanted to fix it? could something like that even be fixed? not with canon Bill, certainly, but i saw someone point out that if Ford were a touch worse of a person or Bill were a touch better, they probably could have been happy together, so in this AU -spoilers -i think it could be fixed

will be posted on my ao3 later today

[mariposa-writes]

The Assistant - Travis Kelce Pt. 5

Kelce x Reader

Word Count: ehh, not sure

Summary: ...

You've been staying with Travis for a week and a half. You weren't originally planning on staying this long, but Travis got you to agree to staying just 3 days and then he upped it to a week and now you've agreed to stay with him until you can start walking again.

You've still been working as his assistant, but only doing around 1/3 of your original duties. Even though Travis lived in a huge house, you were starting to get tired of being pent up.

You were used to constantly being busy, whether you were doing something for Travis or something for yourself. You weren't used to having this much free time and it was starting to get to you.

Maria walked into the living room, "Do you need anything sweetie? I'm going to start cleaning upstairs."

"No, I'm okay. Thank you Maria." Maria was Travis's maid and the one of the sweetest ladies on earth. Travis asked Maria to stay with you full time when he was at practice, since he wasn't comfortable leaving you alone.

She was constantly checking in on you making sure you didn't need anything.

You threw the book you were reading onto the couch, not even bothering to mark where you left off. It's not like you were far, considering you couldn't make it past the 4th page.

This was the 5th book you had read since staying at Travis's and although you were a fan of reading you couldn't find it in yourself to read anything today. You tried watching a show earlier, but even that was boring. So was tik tok and every other social media app.

You'd finished a puzzle Travis had in his house, realizing you were not a fan of puzzles.

You felt stupid for being bored in a house with endless things to do, but you just weren't used to being so still, you were a busy body.

Travis was due to be home in an hour and then Maria would be going home, you liked when Travis was here. He was pretty fun to hang out with and he would tell you about his practice and different things he would learn about his teammates.

But today you were kinda dreading talking to him. You had been waiting for your bill from the hospital to come, but it still hand't. You were having your neighbor check for you and she hadn't seen anything in your mail, from the hospital.

You decided to call up there today, only to find out that it had already been paid for. You knew there was only one person who would've and could've been able to pay for it.

Travis had already agreed to cover some of it, but you didn't want him paying for all of it.

---

Maria left as soon as Travis got home. You were waiting in the living room when he came into the house. "Hey, how was your day?" He asked, dropping his bag on the floor.

"Fine, how was yours?"

"Good, exhausting." He sat down on the opposite end of the couch you were currently sitting on.

"Travis, I have to ask you something?" His eyebrows furrowed and he turned to face you.

"Ok..."

You sighed, "Did you pay for my surgery? I called KU medical center and they said it was already taken care of."

He bit the inside of his lip, "Yea, I covered it."

"I thought we agreed that you were only covering the portion I couldn't. I didn't need you to pay for the whole thing." You were frustrated, that he went behind your back.

"I didn't think it'd be a big deal. I have the money, so I figured I'd help you out." Travis didn't see anything wrong with what he'd done. He was only trying to help you out and make your life a little easier.

You grabbed the check out of your pocket and handed it to him. "Here, I'm paying you back." He got up from the couch and dropped the check in your lap.

"I don't want it." He simply stated, before entering the kitchen. You got up to follow him. Just as you were about to speak he cut you off, "Want anything to eat? I was gonna make some pasta."

"Travis." You frowned, leaning on your crutch.

"Y/n" He frowned, mimicking you but not for long because he broke out into a laugh. "I'm sorry," He said bending over and holding his stomach as he laughed, "I just can't take you seriously over this."

You didn't bother answer, opting to glare at him instead.

After he calmed down he saw you were still pissed. He sighed, getting serious again. "Please, let me pay for this. It's my way of saying thanks, for everything you do. You're a huge help to me and I honestly don't know what I would do without you."

"Travis, this is a lot of money. I just don't feel comfortable with you spending that much on me. Not to mention everything else you've done for me. Like you literally have given up your room for me." You weren't used to people being so generous and you didn't know what to think.

"If it helps its like pocket change to me." He joked, before heading back over to the walk in pantry. He came out a few seconds later, with a box of pasta in his hand.

"Doesn't help." You quipped, getting onto the stool as the kitchen island.

This was becoming a regular routine, you keeping him company while he cooked dinner. It was nice, you enjoyed it more than you cared to admit.

Plus Travis was a surprisingly good cook. "I don't know how I've been living without your food for this long." You said after swallowing a bite of his pasta. "You should go to jail for depriving me of your cooking skills."

He smirked, happy that you liked his food. After you guys were done eating Travis cleared the table, while you picked out a movie to watch.

He plopped down on the opposite end of the couch, "What are we watching"

"Den of thieves, I heard it's good. It has ice cube's son in it I think." You pressed play and pulled the blanket Travis had on his couch over you.

Travis enjoyed the movie and turned to you when the credits started to roll. "Good pic-" He stopped when he realized you were already asleep.

A small smile graced his lips, at the sight of you curled up on his couch.

He gently called your name, trying to gauge if you were truly asleep or just 'resting your eyes'. This wasn't the first time you'd fallen asleep during a movie and each time you always insisted that you were 'just resting your eyes'.

When you didn't respond, he realized you were clonked out. He debated over what to do. Should he wake you up? Leave you on the couch? At least it was a comfy couch.

He opted for carrying you to your room, hopefully without waking you. He carefully gathered you in his arms, and while you did stir a bit you never fully woke up.

He was half way to your room, when you nuzzled your face into his chest. His heart stopped as he looked down, to realize you were still sleeping.

Your hand was clutching his shirt, as he carried you the rest of the way. He gently set you down in his bed, on top of the covers. He went to his closet and grabbed a blanket, placing it over you.

He quietly left his room, turning off the lights and shutting the door careful not to wake you.

The Assistant tag list: @talicat713 @livinginmyfantasies @amylouwho9 @burrowingkelce @kkrenae

Let me know if you want to get added to the tag list.

[ollieofthebeholder]

either 4 with jmart or 11 with cecilos? (or both, if you want, i just couldn’t decide lol)

4. things you said over the phone

Martin almost always got twitchy when his phone rang. It wasn't like he had loads of friends who were calling or texting him at all hours or anything. If it went off, especially in the middle of the workday, it was almost inevitably the care home calling about a fall, an infection, or an unpaid bill.

So when it rang at quarter past midnight on a Wednesday, he immediately assumed the worst.

For a tempting moment, he considered rolling over, putting his pillow over his head, and pretending to ignore it to deal with the voicemail in the morning, but he knew himself well enough to know he would never do that. So, suppressing a sigh, he grabbed the phone and answered the call. "H'llo?"

"Martin?" The voice on the other end was decidedly not anyone from the home. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

"Jon?" Martin sat bolt upright and reached for his glasses, lying through his teeth. "No, no, I was still up, I - Jesus, are you all right? What happened?"

"N-nothing. Nothing, I'm fine." It was about as convincing as Martin's own protests. "I just...wanted to call and let you know I'm coming home."

"Home," Martin echoed. The word sounded so...unfamiliar in Jon's mouth. He would have expected him to say I'm coming back, but...

"Yes. I - it's going to be a while. I won't be getting in until Thursday." Jon sighed. "Best I could do under the circumstances. I just...I didn't want you to worry."

Martin smiled, because that was so Jon. And, because he was still half asleep and his filters were nonexistent, he blurted, "Bit late for that, really. But thanks for thinking of me."

Jon's soft chuckle sent a spike of warmth through the encroaching fog of embarrassment as Martin realized what he'd said. "I've done little else for the last few days."

Martin started and nearly dropped the phone. He was suddenly wide awake. It took a great deal of effort to speak normally. "Sorry, what?"

There was a long pause before Jon replied. "We'll - we'll talk more when I get home. But I - I miss you, Martin. I didn't realize how much I would miss you before I left. W-we haven't had a lot of time to talk, I know."

"I miss you, too," Martin admitted softly. "And yeah, like you said, we can talk when you get home. What time does your flight get in?"

"Early. Or late, depending on your point of view. I'll make it into the office by the start of the day."

"I mean, I - I was going to say, I'll pick you up. From the airport, I mean." Martin could feel himself blushing in the darkness and was just thankful Jon couldn't see him. "You know, so you don't have to take a cab home alone."

"Oh," Jon said quietly. "I'd...honestly, I would love to say yes, Martin, but the plane is set to touch down at nearly one in the morning. Besides, I - I don't want to risk anything happening to you. I've already been stalked and kidnapped once too often on this trip. I-it might be best not to..."

"Telegraph your movements?" Martin supplied. His heart clenched with worry. "You paid for your ticket in cash, then?"

"I - oh, goddammit, no." Jon hesitated. "Damn the worry. I trust you. I'll be arriving at London Luton Airport at twelve-fifty Thursday morning."

Martin reached for the notebook he'd been failing to compose poetry in and scribbled that down, trying not to verbally react to those three simple words. I trust you. He knew how hard that was. "I'll be there, Jon."

"I can't wait to see you," Jon said softly. "I only wish I'd been able to get an earlier flight, but at this late notice..."

"I understand. I'll be counting the hours," Martin said before he could stop himself. It took a great deal of effort not to call attention to that. "When does your flight leave?"

"Ah - not for another two and a half hours, but--"

There was a beep, and a robotic voice spoke. "Please insert an additional fifty cents to continue the call."

"Jon, are you calling from a payphone?"

"Yes, I - blast. Martin, I-I have to go - get some sleep. I'll see you Thursday. Love you."

The call disconnected before Martin could get out another word, and he stared at his phone. Had he just imagined that? Was he just filling in what he wanted to hear?

Either way, he thought, it would be a conversation for later. For now...he would just have to get through the next twenty-four hours somehow.

And then everything would be all right again. Jon would be home.

[voidshrubsquared]

Addi oc lore!!! For the only proper addi oc I have!!! She's a purple addi and her name is Mobi L. Addison (ahaha so creative I know-)

Putting a cut here cause this is. Long

As her name suggests, she does mobile game advertising! The really obnoxious and weird and annoying kind <3 Very energetic, playful and excitable before the Incident :)

Okok so. Lore. Mobi was part of a small department of 3 ads. Her, a pink and an orange. They did smaller scale campaigns and stuff like banners in less populated websites and such. One day their orange addi got a sweet deal from a big company that would have him work at a different part of town. It was a lot of cash, and the other two encouraged him to take it. With a bit of hesitation he did, and they had a celebration and everything. Big promotion day!!!

Their orange left, and for a while he'd send texts, emails, and his sum of money to take care of bills and pay off the house and such. Then... texts became scarce, he became busier, and the money trickled to a stop. He didn't come back for the vacation they had planned months in advance. He just. Left them. What a dick >:/

Realizing this, Mo and Locke (the pink, also nicknamed Lucky), both upset but not having a lot of time to process the abandonment, had to take extra work from wherever they could to keep the house, pay bills, and keep their sales up. It was very stressful, but they were able to stay afloat for a good while. They were able to keep positive about things and even grew closer together as friends! Locke was. Clearly interested in being more than friends, but Mo was very oblivious of her advances and only saw her as a friend (she didn't know until waaaaay later, but she's aroace). And things were good! Until the INCIDENT MWAHAHAHA

So one day, Mobi did her usual morning routine, said goodbye to Locke as they went their separate ways to work until sundown, and then when she came back, Lucky wasn't home yet. Which is weird!!! Because she comes home hours before Mo!!!! Mobi sends a few texts, no dice. She makes a few phone calls, straight to voice mail. Oh no.

Like how all missing persons' cases go, eventually there's a police search, posters go up, several restless nights... After long hours of waiting for something, anything, the only thing that is found is Lucky's car parked in the grass somewhere way out of the outskirts of the city. It seemed like she was planning to return to it, because she'd left it running, and they found it out of battery. That's all they know about her, and that's all Mobi will ever know about what happened to her. (Maybe. I might let her know in the future I'm not sure.)

But you get to know!!! Heck yeah!!!! So!!!

Lucky was trying her best to help Mo out and lighten the load a little, y'know? So she may or may not. Gotten into some. Reeeeally shady business. But!! It paid well!! It totally wasn't running errands and occasionally clesning up the dirty work of a company that may or may not maybe perhaps mayhaps. Abduct people to use as snuff film props. Ahaha. Noooo. Definitely not that. Uhm. Well anyways you can guess how that ended up for her. Once she made one too many mistakes and wasn't as useful as before, well!!

At least there's a tape with evidence of her on-camera death somewhere out there. Maybe that's how Mo finds out, actually!

Anyways. So obviously Locke's disappearance leaves Mobi incredibly devastated. She barely has any time to grieve though, first she has to move out of home into a smaller apartment, she can't pay everything off by herself now. For a while, she doesn't work, sales get low, and she just. Doesn't know how to cope with this at ALL.

So!! How DO you cope with this AND work to pay rent and keep yourself alive?? Simple! Work yourself to death!!!

Mobi very healthily decides she's going to keep her mind off things by working herself until her circuits fry off. Very normal. So she goes to this big video advertising megacorp, takes as many jobs and errands as possible, and works as much as she can until she passes out from exhaustion. She becomes a veey reliable asset to the company, at least...?

Her only sustenance is coffee, energy drinks, anything that can keep her awake for as long as possible. She doesn't take sick days, she doesn't take vacation days, only works. And she enjoys it, in a way! After a month or two of initial struggles, she finds her rhythm and doesn't stop. Eventually, she forgets Locke. But she doesn't stop working! And she stays like that. For like ten years. Super exhausting, she's NOTHING like the fun, excitable addi shw used to be. She got to work for a big shot for a little while at least! If you get to see one of his old commercials, you might see her as a background actor in a few! Nowadays she mostly does video advert work, graphic design, banners, all that good stuff everyone absolutely hates. (Fun fact she loves targeting Berdly, her ads annoy him so much)

So this cycle happens for ages until there's a new addition to the company that changes everything for her. See, Mobi doesn't have friends. She doesn't have time for friends! She just works!! And then this GOOF of a yellow ad joins and brightens up the place so much, that she can't help but look their way and smile. Videon the silly goof. The plinko. (Listen I was so deep into Bright's addi lore here, I couldn't help myself-) Fun fact I chose Vid specifically for this because canonically they take a job where they aren't as home as often after the whole Spamton disappearing thing. So yeah

Mobi likes this ad, they're loud and playful and love hanging out and goofing off on stage, off stage, mischievous little shit. And it... snaps Mo out of her routine little by little. She starts interacting with them, saying hi when they come in, laughing at their stupid jokes, thinking 'wait that'd be so funny' when they suggest they do something clearly dumb. Why do you want to dump all those pounds of glitter on the actors for this commercial. No, get away from the glitter, gET AWAY-

So Mo warms up to them, and she starts conversations with them!! They start out casual until Vid makes one of those suggestions, and Mo can't catch herself when she gets excited and adds onto it. And oh god suddenly they are friends. Oh god oh no. We are so doomed guys. The more she hangs out with Vid, the more that playfulness and energy returns to her. She starts dropping a few of her dozens of jobs to take WEEKENDS off. Dear god her co-workers look at each other like she grew a second head. But she loves it. She loves hanging out with this new friend, talking to them, doing dumb stuff like pour a bottle of bubble bath into a fountain and running away from a disaster that ends up on the newspaper the next day (they never got caught). She likes inviting them home! Crashing at their place and meeting their department! Accidentally thrashing the place with them! (They did get caught and had to do all house chores for the next month. Still worth it.)

Finally, they get to that level of friendship where you can open up to one another about Life and Philosophy and Problems and Stuff. So they do, and Mo remembers that 'oh yeah. I never really grieved my friend's disappearance. I'm gonna cry for an hour now.' And she does, and Vid does too, they bond over their lost friends, talk about them, reminisce about their happy memories turned sour. Vid gets to talk about Spamton without any BLUE GUMBALL BITCH BOYS SHUNNING THEM ABOUT IT ahem huh what what was that. Uh. And Mobi gets to remember her fun times with Lucky, and share how much she hates that orange addi that I never bothered to name! This is when she learns she's aroace also. And Vid informs her Lucky obviously had a huge crush on her. Oh! Welp! Something new to process, hopefully properly this time.

Okay this is getting real long. I don't have much after this, except for the idea that Vid could offer helping to find anything they can about Lucky, any info at all, just to try and help her get some closure. She offers the same for them and Spamton's missing case. They wouldn't find anything Spam related, but they would find a lead for Lucky. And it leads them to perhaps a dangerous ARG-type rabbit-hole where they find documents of Lucky's involvement with the snuff film company, a copy of the tape of the film involving her death, and maybe even enough evidence for the authorities to launch a big investigation that saves dozens of missing ads and bringd closure to hundreds more. I like that, I think I'll make it canon. Like a buddy-cop thriller type thing or something idk.

Ok wow that was a lot. That's all I have/remember of the Mobi lore!!! Thanks for reading all this way if you did!! Woah!!!! I'm starving I'm gonna go eat BYEEEE

OH AND I SHOULD ADD HER REF SHEET TOO LEMME JUST

There we go!

( @emiplayzmc @yanderespamton78 and why not, @turntableart @solalunar-eclipse I told you guys about this but I don't remember how much so uhhh ye :3)

[vonne-inc]

product: yandere waiter. （ gender neutral reader ）

it's 4.00 am and keep thinking about yandere waiter. anyways, drabble with mentions of usual yandere things.

yandere, who is a server at a restaurant and you're his regular. coming in at once or twice a week and always sitting in his booth. you're always sitting alone, coming in after work or to eat dinner on the weekend. over the months that you've been visiting, he's taking a liking to you. you tip well, use mannerisms, and always make sure that you tidy your table as much as you can. although that's why he started becoming fond of you, your laugh, kind smile, soft eyes, and perfect hair made him fall for you. hard.

even if half of it was out of politeness, he was delusional and truly believed that you, at least, had a small crush on him. how couldn't you? you clearly liked him if you sat in his booth every time, and came to his restaurant on all occasions. hell, you even gave him a present for his birthday! ... how'd you even know that? he had no idea, but either way, didn't care.

tonight, he was working overtime since the restaurant was short staffed. while you? your date stood you up and blocked you, not finding out until you tried texting and calling them.

even if he was remaining professional the whole time, his blood boiled. a breathtaking person being ditched by some date, he couldn't believe somebody would do that! and he couldn't believe he wasn't the date ... even if he was a little disappointed, his anger was far larger.

although, soon replaced with adoration and worriedness, he felt his heartstrings pull at each word that slipped passed your lips. somehow, you were still managing to be so kind to him during this horrible night. he was grateful, yes, but the tears that threatened to spill made him want to hold you and tell you that everything will be okay, that he'll deal with that douchebag who stood you up.

and that's what he did. after he paid for your bill, sent you home with a desert of your choice, and waited until the restaurant closed, he went on his way to find out who made you upset. he couldn't let them go without consequences! he had to do something, especially when it came down to you.

in only a few minutes, he'd found the said person with a wide smile. all with the help of hacking. then, after gathering supplies, yandere sought his way out to their address. killing them slowly as he lectured them how to treat a pretty darling, hacking them into pieces, stuffing them in a dirty bag, and throwing their body miles into the woods. wild hogs would surely come around and eat the remains, just like the many other times he's dumped bodies.

once done, he followed his usual routine: standing outside your window, watching until you safely fall asleep, wishing his darling goodnight, and heading home where he'd marvel at his shrine of you, shower with your favorite fragrances, and head to bed as he dreamt about you.

truly, he was smitten. obsessed and crazed. yet, even so, he knew he had to wait. the time was coming, he just knew it; for you to come home with him, to love you every day and night, and murmur sweet nothings into your ear as you cuddle in bed together. he figured that, maybe, you'd be reluctant. but, he knew that you'd tell him 'thank you's and 'i love you's once you adjusted. realized what he's doing is out of pure love for you. forever and always.

© nsfw blog: vonne-inc. don't modify, translate, repost, and/or plagiarize my posts without my consent. credit to cafekitsune for the dividers.

[dr4kenlvr]

"𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐈𝐓 𝐀 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 ?" ♡

feat. platonic!draken, mitsuya takashi, baji keisuke, hanma shuji x gn!reader - fluff/comfort (0.9k+)

request: Can I request for Tokyo Revengers mens (you decide ^^) helping you going through break up? I just had a break up with my bf & it really made me sad so I want some fluffy content from my lovely anime mens!

a/n: hi love, im so sorry to hear that :( i hope this will make you feel better, your tokyo rev fav and i will always be there for you! please enjoy (some changes were made, hope that's alright!) <3

eyes stinging and red, you set your phone down on the bed after clicking "send" with a heavy sigh. upon reading the news of you and your partner's break up, he quickly responded with "give me 10, and dress comfortably. i'm taking you out." now, sitting alone in your bedroom, you try and prompt yourself up to change. however the hollow ache in your flesh and bones pinned you down, unwilling you to do such a simple task. you groan pitifully, and opt to splash cold water onto your face instead. your eyes are puffy, nose red and sore; one look, and anyone would be able to tell you were going through a plight.

by the time you willed yourself out of your clothes, a ring at your front door sounds. smiling slightly, you quickly grab your phone and keys before pacing down the steps. creaking the door open, the sun's rays greet you brightly, but behind your squint, you're met with an expected face. he sends you an apologetic smile, arms already open and welcoming you into a warm hug. he rubs your back soothingly, and pats the top of your head when you sniffle into his shoulder. the two of you stay like that for awhile, until he pulls back when you ask him exactly why he was here.

"call it a distraction, yeah? let's go."

DRAKEN takes you to your favourite restaurant, where he treats you to all your post-break up cravings. "eat up, yeah? and don't worry about the bill." he slides the menu towards you with a gentle smile. you nod, a bit overwhelmed by your friend's kindness—but it was draken, what more did you expect from such a doting person? the two of you skim over the menu, before he calls the waiter over and you gingerly order your meal (and a sweet shake for later). "let me pay you back at least?" "nah, not interested. now eat." you chuckle at his brashness, but you know he meant no harm. although draken was uninterested in the idea of you compensating him, he was up to talk about whatever it was you wanted to. he'd listen attentively, and comment his opinion every now and then. but for now, draken wished to lend you a listening ear.

MITSUYA takes you to the mall, and insists you grab whatever catches your attention. be it clothing, food, or miscellaneous items, mitsuya encouraged you to throw it into the cart and the price onto his card. "it's no big deal, i want to do this, okay?" he laughs at your concerned protests, your eyes widening every time mitsuya casually tapped his card against the machine. you couldn't help but feel a little guilty, especially when you were aware of his family's financial situation. "i know what you're thinking—" "i can't help it! it's jus—" "shh. then, stop thinking it." hours in, and the two of you are setting down bags upon bags for a quick food court meal. mitsuya discusses the things you want to, and he doesn't barge for more than you offer. today was about you, and your comfort as well as happiness. and you found yourself exactly that with him, happy.

BAJI invites you over to his place, where he bursts in and immediately situates you on his plush bed. “stay here—i’m getting snacks and drinks, yeah?” he gives you a reassuring smile and a pat on the head, before turning to rush down the stairs. baji returns with an armfull of packaged goodies and sugary treats. “nothing like some sugar to ease the pain!” he grins, before realizing it might have been too early to crack a joke. you chuckle at his energy, and feel endeared at his consideration. “it’s perfect kei, thank you.” the two of you spend the next few hours chowing down bags and bottles, and laughing your lungs out until your stomachs ached of sweet heaven.

HANMA takes you to a nearby festival he had heard about a couple days back. "i had been meanin' to ask ya if you'd like to go with me!" he shouted above the wind, as his bike roared passed cars and cyclists; a couple shouting profanities at his driving antics. "heard it's fuckin' sick, there's rides and shit!" you two arrive at the event, where crowds are bustling and loud. hanma cheers you over to purchase tickets, before dragging you to every ride and food truck in sight. from hotdogs to candied apples—to ferris wheels and bumper cars, hanma ensured you were having a blast. he declared having fun was the best medicine to sadness, and from the ecstatic grin on your face—hanma thinks he’s more than correct.

by evening's light, you and him had decided it was time you head back home. the sun was about to say goodbye and he wanted to ensure you got home early enough to rest, as well as safely. you hop on the back of his bike and rode home in silence; the day’s activities tiring you both. upon dismounting his bike, you grab his hand with a grateful squeeze, and he pulls you into another hug. “i seriously can not thank you enough for this, you’re the best.” he smiles at your words, then whispers into your hair: “i know. now head in, i’ll leave when you’re inside.

taglist: @dai-tsukki-desu @kazuhoya@gwynsapphire@sscarchiyo@reiners-milkbiddies@smileyswifeyy @bontensimp-blog (send me an ask or dm to be added!)

reblogs and comments are very appreciated <3 !

[xxgoblin-dumplingxx]

Bruce Wayne and his sugar baby? 😍

Bruce fiddled with his watch and waited.

You were, of course, fashionably late. You did like to make an entrance- and who was he to fault you. A little harmless vanity and no small amount of bravado never hurt anything.

And, making your way in the world like you did. Even though you were officially/unofficially retired now that Bruce was paying your bills- you still had to deal with people who liked to look down their nose at you. But you were beautiful and confident. Poised. And you knew exactly where your power lay.

So when you entered the dining room, in the dress he'd paid for. Hair done. Make up done. And jewelry on that would probably set you up for a good long while if you ever sold it, he smiled. Standing to pull out your chair as the owner himself lead you to the table. He barely heard what the man was saying- the effusive compliments about your beauty, promises that if he needed anything he need only ask. And when you smiled your thanks- a smile that Bruce had seen turn an appalling number of men into blithering idiots- he's not disappointed when the man flusters. Surrendering you to Bruce with a look of envy.

"All this for me?" He rumbled, eyes crinkling at the corners, "I'm flattered."

"You know I hate to disappoint," you hum, accepting a kiss hello before allowing him to seat you.

"Oh I do," he said, resuming his own seat. And for a moment, as you look out the window. At the traffic and the sparkle of the lights twinkling like the diamonds on your neck- your cynicism faded, just slightly. He can see you as he first met you. A cute, fun party girl. A model who worked nights doing bottle service- worlds away from home. With puppy fat on your cheeks still. But the most infectious little giggle when champagne bubbles tickle your nose.

You may not giggle now, but when you take a sip from your glass, your little smile is just as infectious and his own lips twitch. At least until he hears the tell tale whispers. "I don't know how she can sleep at night-"

"Naked on silk sheets, usually," you purr, pitching your voice for his hearing.

And Bruce grins, taking your hand and kissing it. "How do you feel about Paris, next week?"

"I can rearrange my schedule, I suppose," you sigh, giving him his favorite smile. Slow and teasing. "Is it business or pleasure?"

"A bit of both," he said, "You know how I hate eating dinner alone."

"I do," you answer. "I'll have Chaitra pack for your itinerary."

"What happened to Kate?" he asked, interested. It had been a while since he'd been to your penthouse. He hadn't even realized Kate had left- unusual, given that your maids were treated well.

"Greener pastures," you answer, with a put-upon sigh, "It's my own fault really. But they just made such a good couple-"

"I didn't realize you were expanding your interests to matchmaking," he chuckled.

"I dabble," you chirp, looking pleased with yourself. "At least she helped me find Chaitra, bless her. You know I'm useless at anything domestic."

"I remember," he said wryly, hiding a smile. "I never knew it was possible to make that big a fire boiling spaghetti."

"I made up for it though."

"You did," he chuckled, "But I'm sure the fire department gets far fewer calls now and will forever be sending your staff Christmas cards-"

"We send them bagels."

And his belly laugh makes everyone in the vicinity turn to look.

[iamverysmall-andihavenomoney]

Finding Out That Their Career is Over

Haikyū!! Masterlist

Pairing(s): Oikawa Tōru x Gender Neutral! Reader

Warnings: Talk of knee injuries, angst,

A/N: Apparently, I just love giving Oikawa knee injuries.

If the pain hadn’t been enough, here he was, stuck in a rehabilitation program. With a few more months, his knee was looking towards a recovery, or at least, that’s what the doctors had told him, at first.

   The pain was bearable, in his opinion. If he had his way, he’d have been back to the team, as soon as he’d recovered. But his doctors, nor his teammates would allow that. Most of all you, the lover who’d been with him, every step of the way, wouldn’t allow him to continue playing, until he was given an ‘okay’ by the doctors.

   Watching him shakily stand from the seat beside yours, in the doctor’s office, you allow him to gently grasp your shoulder, to stabilize himself. He’d only just gotten off of his crutches a month ago, and after four months of dealing with them, he was relieved.

   Tōru sends you a grateful smile, leaning over and gently kissing your temple, “Thank you, Y/N,” he whispers, moving his hand so he can place his arm gently over your shoulders, walking with him towards the office.

It had taken him a while to get used to putting some of his dependence on you. Tōru was an independent person. So getting used to having to place his hand on your shoulder to get up, to having to have you help him do mundane things like get up in the morning, to get into the shower, to get the bulky brace on, every morning... It was hard. He was trying to get used to it, he truly was. But going from an Olympic level athlete to, in his opinion, a below-average man who needed to depend on everyone around him, wasn't something that happened overnight.

Making it back to the room, you move to sit in the seat next to the small, plastic and paper encased bed where the patients were supposed to sit, while Tōru moves to take a seat on the bed. His legs hang over it, spread open a bit to allow his hands to rest in between his thighs, fingers picking lightly at his nails - a habit both of you had thought he'd dropped a long time ago.

Reaching over, you grasp the hand closest to you, giving it a gentle squeeze. Brown eyes shift to you and soften at the sight of your reassuring expression. Bringing your hand to his lips, he gently kisses each of your fingertips. "I love you."

   You tilt your head, "I love you too, Tōru."

The wait for the doctor to come in only worsened Tōru’s steadily growing anxiety. Long digits fiddle with the fabric that keeps his knee supported. If you hadn’t been there to hold his hand through it, you were sure he would have lost his mind, trying to just wait for the doctor to come in.

   Though the anxiety building up in you through the duration of your wait in that little room was nothing compared to the way your stomach dropped, when the doctor entered the room. His expression was near emotionless, despite the smile plastered on his old, wrinkled face.

   “My boy,” both you and Tōru visibly cringed at the display of unwanted familiarity. You’d both been in this office far too often, recently.

   “Hi, doc!” Despite his own worry, your husband manages to keep a clean face about things. “So, tell me: when am I due to return to volleyball?” He sat on the edge of the table, leaning forward in anticipation... Almost like a child might... You could only hope that there would be only good news, from here on in.

The hope that was filling his expression nearly broke your heart. He wanted to return to volleyball so badly. He deserved to go back. If only the universe wasn't so cruel.

   The mood of the room changed and the smile slipped from the doctor’s features. “My boy, I’m afraid I don’t think that will be possible.”

   Toru’s expression darkens, though it’s only for a moment. “That - That’s not true -... You and Dr.-”

   “While we thought a full recovery was possible,” the older man continues, “After reexamination, we’ve realized that your knee, while you will have the strength to walk again, without any pain, will never be able to handle the type of pressure that your jumps put on it. Even with how remarkable your recovery has gone, thus far... You shattered your patella, Señor Oikawa. You were lucky to have made the recovery you did, as quickly as you did.”

   You couldn’t breath for a moment, just staring at your husband. He’d worked to be on this team, doing what he loved, his entire life. It wasn’t fair that now he found himself not able to play. Watching the way emotions scattered through his features, you swallowed the lump in your throat. If the recovery hadn’t killed him, the grief of losing his entire career and livelihood might.

   Disbelief, anger, denial, terror... The all struck his features faster than he could stop them, leaving him not only feeling lost, but leaving him feeling vulnerable in front of this near stranger. And he hated feeling vulnerable.

But how could he stop these emotions? His whole world came to a stand-still. All of those nights he'd stayed away for hours, before coming home to find you having fallen asleep trying to wait up for him, dinner now cold, on the table; all of those weeks at different training camps, when he wouldn't get to see you for what felt like an eternity; all of those years of perfecting his techniques and making a name for himself... It was all for nothing.

   He wanted to leave. Now.

   Without a word, he shoves himself up from where he was seated, walking haphazardly towards the door. He’s swinging it open by the time you can stand up and take the steps to reach him. “Don’t touch me.” His voice holds a bite you weren’t used to as he turns his back towards you, walking... Or rather, limping, away from the room.

   You frown and turn to face the doctor, offering an apology and asking him to send the medical bill to your residence. Then, you take off after the tall male.

Making it to your car, you slide into the driver’s side, silent as you turn on the car. You don’t say anything until the car is running, “Tōru, you can’t just-”

“Why can’t I?” He snaps at you, shooting you a withering look, as if you were the cause of his injuries. “Why can’t I lose my temper? Please, give me a reason, Y/N. Please tell me why I can’t act the way I want to, when my life is in pieces."

"Since you seem to know so goddamn much, please tell me why I can't lose it. I've waited my entire life, only to fall just short of the Olympics? What good am I if I can't even do that?" Tōru wasn't made. It was upset, call it heart-broken, if you will. But all he could find himself doing was lashing out in anger, kicking his bad leg out to his the glovebox of your car.

Pain courses through his knee, making his let out a pained noise as he slowly sinks down into his seat. "I fucked it all up... I'm never gonna be..." He lets out a shaky breath. "I'm never going to make it. I should have fucking known, I-"

"Tōru, I love you, but shut up." Your tone makes watery eyes shift to you. "You are not going to sit here and tell yourself that you're useless and push me away." You grab his hand and lift it up, "You see these rings? Through hell and high water, Tōru. That's what we promised one another. You made it here. This is a setback, but it doesn't mean your career is over, with volleyball. Let's just... Go home. You can get mad, scream, hit the wall or something, whatever you need to. Then we can sit down and talk about what's next.

"I love you... You are going to make it through this. And I'm going to be here with you, every step of the way. Understood?"

Your husband lets out a shaky exhale, tears sliding down his cheeks. "I understand. I'm sorry I yelled at you," he slowly puts his head on your shoulder.

You could tell by the way his lip quivered that he was trying to hold it all in. But what good would that do?

Sliding back the center console you shift so he can lean into your embrace. No words are spoken as loud sobs begin to rip through his body. His lean form shakes against you as he cries. His sobs break your heart, though you couldn't imagine the pain he was in, at the moment.

His sobs didn't quiet for a while, in fact, as you soothed a hand through his soft hair, he only seemed to sob harder, almost as if he thought he'd disappointed you. Though, as he wore himself out, his sobs slowly quieted into soft whimpers. No matter if his sobs had quieted down or not, you weren't moving until he said something.

"I wanna go home."

That was all it took, before you were both back in your seats, on your way back to your shared home. You weren't sure how long it would take Tōru to be okay, again, or if he ever would be. But you'd fallen in love with him and made your vows. He's the love of your life and you promised that you would see him through it, to the end.

General Taglist:

@thathoneybee3 @bratkugo

[alittleprincehwa]

txt headcanons ─  ੈ♡˳ you are a content creator

a / n : this is such bold request but I love it!! Damn I can't believe you guys are this creative-

─  ੈ♡˳ choi soobin

you two were having your usual late night cravings

and coincidentally you both were craving mcdonalds

it was dark and the only thing that lit up the road ahead was the lights

he held the steering wheel with one hand while the other grips your hand

you seemed to be editing something on your phone

he didn’t bother much and let you do your thing

he pulls up in the drive thru and lowers the window

he asks you your order but you don’t reply,

to busy doing something

he nudges your shoulder and you finally respond

you apologize and gave him your order

“ Oh yeah- sorry, I’ll just have a caramel sundae. “

as an apology, you offered to pay

which of course, soobin being the kind gentleman he is, refused and offered to pay instead

it led to a playful argument where you had to use your secret weapon

( the cashier at this point was ready to yell at y'all )

the threat. A quite powerful weapon.

“ Okay, I’ll just not hug or cuddle with you for a week. “

you shrug and cross your arms while looking out the window

of course he wanted those warm cuddles so he let you pay just this time

you pull up your wallet and open it

you were finding a certain credit card

soobin's pout disappeared and was replaced by almost a choke

he lands his eyes on your wallet and chokes on nothing when seeing the thickness of your wallet and the amount of bills and cards in it

you raise your brow at him while giving him your credit card

after paying and getting your orders

soobin decides to ask you a question

“ So uh, you've told me you're a content creator, specifically what? “

you pause eating ice cream

“ Oh, I just make video games. “

you sheepishly smiled at him

he thinks he's hearing things

geeks tf out

almost spilled his ice cream

tries not to crash the car while geeking out

asks a t o n of questions

probably has your games already downloaded the next day

when a certain level gets hard

he'll ask you and act sly about it

“ You know y/n, I've been having trouble in this level so maybe you can help me- since I'm your boyfriend right? “

“ Hell no you solve that shit

─  ੈ♡˳ choi yeonjun

since you two live separately

he dosent delve into your life in the apartment much

due to his schedule

and it didn't appear to him to ask you how you have so much earnings

it was just a casual tuesday

it was break time since they just did practice

he was loudly panting

wiping the sweat on his face with the hem of his shirt

he pulls up his phone from his pocket

he takes a sip of water before scrolling through youtube to find something entertaining

he settles on a video titled " doing my makeup bc I'm bored as hell "

the title was enough to intrigue him without checking who made it or who was on the thumbnail

much to his surprise

he NEVER expected it to be you

refuses to believe it at first

continues to observe how you act or talk

and he comes to the realization that it's actually you

quickly calls you

he was sweating even more

you were recording another video so you had to pause the camera

you groan and pick up your phone that was beside you

you saw the id name and press accept

his nickname btw is “ hips don't lie “

;)

you were about to calmly answer “ hello? “ 

before a screaming yeonjun interrupts you

“ yaH! YOU NEVER TOLD ME YOU DID MAKEUP VIDEOS! “

clearly offended

“ Ok chill, it's not that big of a deal anyways. “

he swore he was about to choke you

you manage to calm him down and calmly break the news that was already broken-

“ Yes, I make videos. See? Not a big deal. “

you could almost clearly hear him say

“ Yeah not a big deal my ass. “

─  ੈ♡˳ choi beomgyu

it always amazes you how you had a huge audience and popularity

but still beomgyu didn't know you were a content creator

you gained quite a following after a few videos or so

it even grew to the point where you had paparazzi follow you everywhere

so when you and beomgyu went out for a date night

it wasn't a surprise when flashes of light was on your direction

your head hung low as you walk with beomgyu side by side to the car

beomgyu expected them to mob him but instead

they mobbed you

“ y/n!! “

“ y/n look here! “

“ when's your next line coming out?! “

gyu furrowed his brows in confusion

why were they calling you?

not because of jealousy

but confusion

you ignored all the questions and pulled beomgyu closer to you and enter the car

you finally get to breathe

“ What was that? “

“ What was what “

“ Why were they calling you out? And something about a new line? “

well shit-

you always liked how beomgyu didn't know much about your big career

it's not like you didn't want to tell him

you just liked the way things are

but you knew sooner or later he'd find out

you quickly and calmly tell gyu that your career was bigger than you've told him

he’s just “ oh “

quietly accepting it

but definitely supportive

will watch all your videos later

─  ੈ♡˳ kang taehyun

he was working out at the gym

and as usual he was working on dem arms-

he was lifting weights

when he heard someone who was working out beside him talk

“ Yeah I know this person that creates very nice clothes, I think her name is l/n y/n?? “

“ Oh yeah I know her, just ordered some of her stuff yesterday. “

he was still lifting the heavy metal up

so when he heard it he almost dropped it on himself

he stands up and walks over to the people who were just talking

“ Uh hi, who were you talking about just now? “

he politely asked

“ Oh we were just talking about the famous l/n y/n. “

he then thanked the man and asked for the website

after the guy gave it to him

he sat on one of the benches and searches it up

he clicked on it and it brought him to your website

there he could see all sorts of stuff you sell

slightly shook

“ So this is why she's busy all the time “

he walks back to your aparatment

slightly angry

bc of the fact that you didn't tell him your career

and how dumb he is not to ask

after knocking on your door

you of course let him in

he gets straight to the point

he sets down his gym bag

and says

“ So what do you exactly do? “

you kinda die inside

but sit him down and talk to him about it

he gets kinda angry how you didn't even tell him

the most it leads up to is sparking an argument

which almost never happens

he just reminds you that you have to tell him these things

─  ੈ♡˳ huening kai

you guys just established the relationship so you don't know much about him

and vice versa

you decided to go public about your relationship

after a very long talk between you two

and an even longer one with BigHit

you both posted matching selfies and whatnot

and eventually the media picked up on the clues

and when you two were asked about it, you didn't object the assumptions

so the next day you and hyuka expected thousands of articles about your relationship

but he wasn't expecting what he got

“ Famous vlogger l/n y/n in a relationship with TXT's huening kai? “

“ Recent news about l/n y/n's recently revealed relationship “

“ l/n y/n revealed to have a boyfriend “

It surprised him how all of this was centered on you

he later searched you up and saw how popular you are

gaining over millions of views on your videos

he screams in dolphin which almost gave you a heart attack

seeing that the atmosphere was calm and quiet

until he decides to transform to his final form

which is a dolphin-

you raise a brow and walk up to him

you hug him from behind and peek over to see what he was doing

you weren't that shocked

but your face said otherwise

“ Oh sorry, I hadn't told you yet “

you giggle shyly

after you tell him he beams in excitement

he's all gushing about you and how you're a vlogger

and you're just dare like 😑 bitch you're a worldwide idol-

he becomes your cheerleader

even offers to be in you videos

which you're secretly thankful since that means YouTube pays your more-

a / n : taking a break after this since my switch gon arrive 😔 but in the meanwhile send in requests if you'd like

navigation

[bumblesimagines]

Lie

Request: Yes or No

I heard you told your friends that I'm just not your type

If that's how you really feel, then why'd you call last night?

You say all I ever do is just control your life

But how you gonna lie like that, how you gonna lie like that?

"Yeah, nah, man. (Y/N) is dope, but he's just not my type, ya know? I think I was just.. Experimenting with what I like." Chuck explained to his friends. (Y/N) played with his lighter, flickering it on and off as an amused smile tugged at his lips. He pretended not to listen, headphones in but music low.

"I hope we can stay friends cause he's the chillest guy I know." He finally brought the lighter up to his cigarette, lighting it and flicking it off.

"He was kind of.. Controlling in a way? Not possessive or toxic. You know how chicks get when they think you're cheating? Like that." (Y/N) almost snorted but held it back. He pulled the cigarette away from his lips and stood up from the bench, passing by the guys without a glance.

Yeah, I heard you said I ain't the type for you

I don't regret it though, I learned from it

They should have you locked up for all the time you stole from us (Woo)

Took you out when I had no money

Only person that you ever cared about was you, that's why it's so funny

(Y/N) didn't have much of reaction when news spread of his and Chuck's breakup. He found it a bit amusing. Chuck tried to make people feel bad for him but at the same time make (Y/N) look good as well. Maybe from guilt or to keep (Y/N) as a just in case. He knew there was good inside of Chuck but he didn't expect much from the relationship. He tried to make it work but you can only try so much before giving up. The only thing (Y/N) really regretted was the time wasted on an empty relationship.

You want somebody that'll keep you warm at night

Then, tell me, why you actin' cold to me?

You ain't the only one to blame, no, I'm the one that made you rich

When I bought every lie you sold to me

Yeah, heard you threw away the pictures

But you still got the memories of us

So I guess I don't really make a difference

After the playbook, nobody really wanted to be friends with Chuck. So, when (Y/N) showed slight interest, Chuck pounced at it. Though, it seemed to have been a waste of time since he deleted all their pictures off social media. (Y/N) knew there was a romance, a spark, between Josie and Chuck. But Chuck assured (Y/N) that they were just friends. (Y/N) tried to believe him but at the end, he knew it was a lie.

Flippin' through 'em in your head

Got you texting me all hours of the night

Yeah, you told me that you needed distance

What's the deal with you?

You say you want a man that keeps it real

Then why you mad when I get real with you?

You want someone to pay the bills for you

Went from feelin' you, now I feel for you, liar

(Y/N) had to put his phone on mute thanks to Chuck. If he didn't, he'd be up all night hearing the nofications from Chuck and his texts. Crazy how Chuck wanted distance yet he was the one trying to stay close. (Y/N) had started to like Chuck, mostly going out with him out of pity, but that changed a few months into the relationship. People had started warming up to him again and (Y/N) quickly realized that he was just a tool to get on everyone's good side again. It was annoying.

I heard you told your friends that I'm just not your type

If that's how you really feel, then why'd you call last night?

You say all I ever do is just control your life

But how you gonna lie like that, how you gonna lie like that?

"Hey, (N/N), how's everything going?" Betty asked, nimbling on her bottom lip as she watched him. He furrowed his brows.

"Good, why wouldn't it be?" He questioned.

"Because of the breakup?" It was Betty's turn to be confused. (Y/N) blinked and nodded.

"Oh, right, yeah." He nodded, giving a sheepish smile. "I've got a lot on my mind. I'm actually sketching out a new idea." Betty smiled.

"Really? That's good. At least you've got your mind off Chuck."

"I've been through breakups before, Elle Woods. Chuck is the last thing on my mind, but thanks for worrying. Honestly... He's not really my type."

Look, let me guess, you want to stay friends?

Tellin' people that's how we been?

Tellin' everybody, yeah, that we was barely speakin'

Ah, that's kinda funny, why'd you call me every day then?

It's immaturity, you goin' off the deep end

"I'm glad you and Chuck are still friends."

"Friends?" (Y/N) repeated Ginger's words. "We don't talk. At all." That was kind of a lie. Chuck called and texted everyday but (Y/N) barely replied. (Y/N) shook his head, sighing. He spotted the jock and sent him a text, straying away from his friends. Chuck jogged over, flashing his charming smile.

"What's up?"

"First of all, can you not blow up my phone? Second of all, quit lying. We don't talk and we aren't friends." Chuck frowned at his words.

"What are we?"

"Acquaintances? Exes? Strangers? Take your pick but this isn't friendship." (Y/N) rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

You just want somebody you can chill and get some drinks with, cool

Then don't hit me on the weekend

Tellin' me you missed the way we talked and how I listen, yeah

Why you playin' with my mind, huh?

Why you playin' with my time, huh?

"Listen, (N/N), why don't we talk about this at Pop's? Like we used to. I wanna be friends with you again."

"No, Chuck. I'm tired of.. Of you." (Y/N) confessed. "You got brownie points from everyone, congrats, but can you leave me alone now? I know I sound like a dick but you're wasting my time. Either be my ex or be a stranger, I don't care which. Go find Josie or Moose to keep you company."

"No, baby-" (Y/N) rolled his eyes again at the pet name. "We aren't together anymore, you can stop pretending to like me, Chuck."

Told me, "We should let it go and put it all behind us"

That's what I did, now you askin' me what I done, I was

Waitin' for this day, I saw it comin'

I think you just like attention, tryna tell me all your problems

I got issues of my own, I ain't got time for all this drama

You told me that you don't really wanna talk—then why you callin', huh?

"Let's put the past behind us-"

"I did but it seems like you can't." (Y/N) took out his cigarette pack, glancing at a disapproving Chuck.

"I'm just trying to fit in again, (N/N). I haven't figured out what I want in school yet." Chuck watched as (Y/N) raised the rolled up blunt to his lips.

"You have problems, I have problems, we should just fix them on our own with different people, Chuck." (Y/N) said, glad school had been long over or else he would've definitely been caught and suspended.

"Fine, if you don't wanna talk, we won't talk."

"Good, don't call or text me about anything other than school, aight?" (Y/N) spun around on his heel and went back to Ginger and Tina.

I heard you told your friends that I'm just not your type

If that's how you really feel, then why'd you call last night?

You say all I ever do is just control your life

But how you gonna lie like that, how you gonna lie like that?

(Y/N) grinned, shaking the spray can as he stared up at his finished masterpiece. He was glad Keller let him do art around the town as long as it wasn't offensive. (Y/N) took out a cigarette and lighter, trying to light it but he had run out of fuel. He huffed and pouted until a muscular arm moved around him and lit the cigarette.

"Thanks." He mumbled, looking at the curly haired male.

"You did that?" He asked, taking a seat beside the older teen. (Y/N) nodded.

"It's dope, shit looks professional." (Y/N) chuckled, eyeing the man.

"Yeah, I got inspired by an 'ex', I guess." He looked back at the art on the wall.

"You go to that high school nearby, right?" The man questioned, motioning to the Riverdale sticker on his bag. (Y/N) nodded. The man hummed.

"I suppose that shithole has some talented kids, the rest are nosy fuckers."

"You've hit the nail on the head, my friend." (Y/N) grinned, tossing the spray can off to the side.

How you gonna lie, how you gonna lie like that?

Baby, how you gonna lie, how you gonna lie like that?

How you gonna lie, baby, how you gonna lie like that?

No, no, how you gonna lie like that?

"Back onto this 'ex' of yours, what's the story?"

"He got into a bit of trouble with the school, everyone hated him for a while so he got with me to earn brownie points and then broke up with me. He's an annoying little shit though." (Y/N) told him, shrugging lightly.

"Those types are the worst. Bring out the worst in you." The man said, leaning against the wall. (Y/N) looked at him, admiring his handsome features.

"You don't look like someone from the Northside. So, what brings you here?"

"Wanted to wreck havoc but got caught up with the artistic babe." He replied smoothly. (Y/N) smiled, shaking his head.

"You've got fuckboy written all over you." (Y/N) cooed, ignoring the buzzing of his phone. "Plus, I don't even know your name, sir."

I heard you told your friends that I'm just not your type

(Baby, how you gonna lie like that? No, no)

If that's how you really feel, then why'd you call last night?

(Tell me how you 'bout to lie like that)

You say all I ever do is just control your life

(No, no, no)

But how you gonna lie like that, how you gonna lie like that?

(Oh, yeah)

"Malachai, and yours?"

"(Y/N)." (Y/N) replied, taking out his phone and seeing the texts from chuck. He rolled his eyes, muting his contact before putting his phone away.

"Will I see you again, Malachai?" (Y/N) asked with a grin. Malachai nodded, eyes looking him over again.

"Definitely." He purred in return, sending him a wink before walking to his car.

Tell me how you 'bout to lie like that

Tell me how you 'bout to lie like—

Yeah, yeah, hey

[themadauthorshatter]

WELCOME BACK ONE AND ALL!

Welcome back to MY take on Toppat!Charles, the series that gives you... angst and cliffhangers in every chapter, just like Game of Thrones😅.

In case you haven't read them yet here are links to the first three parts, which I recommend you read because the brief recaps don't do them justice.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

BRIEF RECAP AND HEADCANON TO FOLLOW FOR THE POST TIME!

After his attack on Burt, Charles has caved and is now open to what Right has to say and vice versa. Henry and Gerneral Galeforce, more Galeforce, have been contacted by the Center for Chaos Containment and offered their men for one Henry Stickmin. Ellie has been good emotional support, but Henry goes against Galeforce and Ellie in order to save his friend.

Got that? Great!👍

So what's the headcanon this week? Well, @triple-threat-toppats and @azuri-the-imperfect-artist have AU's/headcanons that Toppat-ing is in Henry's blood, whether that be biological or otherwise, and we'll be meeting a new character this chapter who ties this all together perfectly😈.

We all good? FANTASTIC!

LET'S DIVE IN!!

We pick up where we left off with Henry outside as a receptionist, of sorts, freaks out that he called, telling everyone on the floor and shouting for an official to take the call.

Through this entire exchange, Henry rolls his eyes at how much of a fan boy the receptionist is, groans that no one can find an official at two' in the moring, and eventually takes a seat and listens as a few mid-ranking officials argue about who gets to talk to him; 10.6 anomaly, he's a pretty big deal to them.

They all fall silent when a man shouts, "Hand 'im over to me."

Henry should be scared, but he's glad that FINALLY someone is on the other end to talk to.

"Mr. Stickmin," says the official. "Nice of you to call."

"Who am I speaking with right now?" Henry asks as he stands up, not at all interested in playing games. (The irony that hit me after I typed that🤦‍♀️😂😂)

The official scoffs, "Not one for banter. I respect that. Son, name's Corporal Bill Bullet, leading official of the Center for Chaos Containment. How can we help you at this hour?"

Henry paces as he continues talking. "You talked to General Rupert Galeforce, right?"

"We did, actually. About you, but you probably already guessed that."

Henry looks back at the toppat orbital station, staring at it as he stays silent. Again, he is not in the mood for games.

Bullet sighs on the other end of the phone. "Guess you calling means you've made you're choice?"

Henry is quiet for a second and swallows a lump in his throat. "What happens if I agree to the terms?"

"Take a guess, kid."

Henry sees flashes of his life if he is in the CCC's custody and groans at the migraine said flashes give him.

"You're quite the interesting person, Henry. Robbing a bank with a bag, breaking out of prison by dogding and throwing bullets before stealinga police car, stealing a diamond by pushing yourself off a bridge, taking down the toppats, and escaping a maximum security complex with barely even a scratch."

Henry bites his tongue as he remembers those moments and their alternative paths INCLUDING the fails.

"But you didn't just get a few scratches, you did? 10.6 is a pretty high rating on our meter. Can't imagine what would happen to a person who causes as much chaos as you."

Henry shakes his head and snaps, "Just tell me!"

Bullet is silent once more, disappointed at how he can't at least tease what is essentially a rabbit walking right into an easily seen trap.

"We'll study the source of your... ability. How one person can live one life before jumping to the next, but existing like he did before that life ended.

"You may be a young man, Henry, but you've probably lived longer and died more than the rest of us put together. Why is that? How, excatly?"

Despite the knot forming in his stomach, Henry nods and hums to let Bullet know he's listening.

"There's also a certain balance to the world, one that shouldn't be bothered, 'less we want to cause A LOT of collateral damage. Lead to a lot of people getting hurt, cause a lot of casualties. You already lost one person you care about. What if you lost all of them?"

Henry gulps as he remembers the complex riot and how a robot was sent to tear down the museum he stole the Tunisian Diamond from.

Any of those people could've easily been Ellie or the General or, if he'd gone down the Toppat route, the entire clan.

Bullet may be manipulating emotionally, but he kind of has a point.

The chaos Henry causes is extremely dangerous, if what we've seen in StD, ItA, FtC, and CtM are any examples. Imagine if he had caused that sort of chaos in a major city, like real world New York or Detroit.

I don't know about you guys, but if something like any of the games happened IRL, all caused by Henry, there would easily be cities flattened to the ground with COUNTLESS fatalities.

"Helloooo? You still with me, Mr. Stickmin?"

Henry snaps out of his stupor and takes a deep breath before talking again. "Promise me you'll help. I want your honest word."

"Which I'll stay good on as long ad you keep your end of the bargain," Bullet retorts. "A quarter of our forces at your disposal to help you get your friend back as long as you turn yourself in to our facility. Deal?"

Henry is silent again, but when he speaks again, he tries something:

"Will I still talk to anyone outside? Send them any letters?"

"Not really. Think the government would handle our research well? Or what you can do?

"Last chance, deal or no deal?"

Henry stares up at the sky, counting the stars and moon, and then watches orbital station drift across the sky, covering part of the moon.

"Sir, we have a situation!" Someone yells on the other end.

Bullet does one if those angry growls or snarls. "Don't keep me waiting on your answer, Henry. Our resources are limited, too. Make your decision and call me back the second you do."

"Sir-"

"I'M COMING!"

The call ends and Henry lets out a sigh as he drops to his knees and then hugging them to his chest, shaking and now doubting whether or not he's making the right choice.

Unbeknownst to him, however, Ellie had followed him when he walked out and is struggling very badly with hiding her tears and sobbing from Henry, who is over a few feet away.

JUMP TO SOME FAN SERVICE!!😍🤩

Er, Charles. Jump to Charles. I SAID CHARLES!!!!!

Charles is mostly done showering, mostly because he's done washing and cleaning himself up, even shaving because he looks better without facial hair, and is now simply standing in the shower and letting the water fall on him.

He can't exactly remember how long it's been since he showered last, but he doesn't bother trying to because it only makes him think about how the government destroyers were blown up and anyone who managed to get on the station was killed as a message to the government and Henry and Ellie, and as an example for Charles, in case he gets any ideas.

He keeps thinking about how Henry looked at him before he went unconscious, how Henry did nothing to help him even though HE could've done something. He had before on missions, so what had stopped him then and there?

"I was wondering the same thing," Right says, though Charles doesn't hear him over the water running.

Charles gasps as he slips to the ground and realizes how he's thinking about his friend, forgetting Right was standing on the other side of the wall and curtain to keep an eye on him, just in case.

"N-no," Charles says to who he thinks is himself. "He... He wouldn't just leave me. None of them would."

Right rolls his eyes at this and steps closer to where he's in front of the curtain, though he does grab a towel. "You know, you talk to yourself a lot. 'S kind of freaky."

Charles curls into himself and into the corner of the shower and covers his ears. "Shut up! Just shut up and leave me alone!"

"How long have you been here?" Right asks as he looks up at the ceiling. "And why isn't Henry here to get you out? Aren't you two supposed to be friends?"

"Stop it!" Charles cries, curling into himself further.

Right smirks and decides to twirs the knife. "He helped that Ellie girl, didn't he? When she needed his help? I wonder if what they say is true? Birds of a feather flock together? They're both criminals, so I wouldn't really blame them for teaming up."

"SHUT YOUR STUPID MOUTH!" Charles screams. "YOU'RE WRONG! ALL OF YOU ARE WRONG! HE'S COMING TO SAVE ME, THEY ALL ARE!"

Right's smirk drops and he raises and eyebrow before drawing back the curtain.

Charles flinches back, covering his head and waiting for the strike.

But it never comes.

He looks up at Right, who's standing and giving him a look that says very clearly, 'I'm getting sick of your shit, stop.'

The two stare at each other for a bit, Charles wide eyed and scared before glaring as hard as he can.

Right keeps his bored expression because while he's probably in the best shape he's been in in a WHILE, Charles has lost at least twenty-five pounds and is cowering in the corner of a shower with long hair and clean shaven face; one lesson they teach you: you don't always need a mirror to shave your face.

The two continue their staring contest until Right slings the towel over his shoulder, takes off his top hat, and reaches into the shower with his cybernetic hand and turns off the water, flicking any off his fingers before stepping back and putting his top hat back on, Charles staring the whole time in case Right attacks him.

Right doesn't, of course, and tosses Charles the towel before pointing to a set of clothes hanging behind him and , just something neat but comfortable, not exactly a sweater and sweat pants, but close enough.

He then walks away until he's facing the door, his back to Charles.

"Hurry up and get dressed. Your room's ready."

Charles dries off and does get dressed, but he's careful to not take his eyes off Right.

First this guy got Charles captured and isolated him from everyone else, and now he's letting Charles shower and have his own room?

What's he up to?

Don't worry, he doesn't talk to himself this time.

Charles finishes putting on the clothes Right gave him, and looks at the towel he'd just hung on the hanger that held his clothes. Then he looks at Right, who's back is still turned.

You know EXACTLY where this is going.

Charles takes down the towel, careful that it doesn't hit the wall, and starts twisting it up as he sneaks up to Right, who either looks down at a wrist watch or checks a pocket watch because now he's getting a little bored.

Just as Charles is about to get the jump on him, Right pivots to face him.

"Good. You're done. It took you long enough."

Charles is absolutely speechless as he goes completely pale his face drops.

"Here, let me take that for you." Right pulls the towel out of Charles's hands and unwinds it. "Shouldn't do this to a wet towel. Could get moldy."

Right nods his head as a 'follow me' and leaves the showers.

Charles remains shell shocked for a minute and tries not to burst into tears at how his plan blew up his his face, but ultimately walks after Right, who strides ahead with a smile on his face.

Think Henry got away with that call? Weeeeeeeelll...

CUT TO THE GOVERNMENT

Galeforce SLAMS his hands on his desk, making Henry jump slightly in his chair and Ellie flinch against the wall, her arms crossed and shoulders hunched.

"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND!? ACCEPTING THE DEAL MADE BY THOSE NUTJOBS!? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?"

Henry's sign is sloppy and fast, but the general still understands it. 'Wanted Charles safe.'

"So do we, Henry, but not by selling one of our best!"

Henry shakes his head and signs again, this time more clearly. 'You can't make me change my mind.'

Ellie speaks up after being silent for so long: "Henry, think about what you're doing."

'Already did. Made up my mind.'

"Son, it's not worth it."

Those words hit Henry harder than they should, making him grit his teeth.

"Trust me. Those CCC guys are nothing but trouble. We can't accept their help."

Henry shoots up to his feet. "I DON'T CARE!" He screams. "CHARLES IS TRAPPED IN SPACE WITH NO ONE TO HELP HIM AND IT'S MY FAULT HE'S UP THERE TO BEGIN WITH, SO LET ME FIX THIS!"

No one talks as Henry pants, falling back into his chair and holdong his head in his hands, pulling slightly at his hair and shaking.

"It's all I can think of doing. It's our only option. I can't think of anything else."

Ellie and Galeforce exchange glances before turning back to Henry, who leans heavily on one hand or arm as he meets their gaze.

"You're sure you know what you're doing?"

Henry looks at them both for a moment while not speaking before nodding slowly. 'I can't think of anything else. The corporal hung up before I could say yes. Someone talked about a 'situation.''

Ellie and Henry stare at each other, the former more puffy eyed than she was last night because this could very well be the last time she sees her friend.

She doesn't want him to leave, but if it's really his choice, who is she to not support him after all he did to help her?

"When do you-"

'I'm going in to visit later. Called back and told them I'd gove my answer AFTER I talked to someone.'

Both look at him incredulously.

"Talk to who?" Galeforce asks as he turns his head to look at Henry through the corner of his eye.

Henry takes in a deep breath through his nose and holds either of his hands at the top of his head, raising them up and down, gesturing a top hat to them.

BACK TO CHARLES

Right leads Charles to the room and watches him walk inside and look around, almost confused because it's been so so long since he'd last been in a normal bedroom. And because there's a chance this could all be a trick.

"Been a while since you had a decent room. Prob'ly nicer than what you're used to."

Charles takes a seat on the bed and keeps his head down, confused and tired of Right's games.

"You don't really believe Henry's gonna save you, do you? It's been a while since the last destroyer was sent and the government has more pilots. You military people are pretty easy to replace. You are just a pilot, after all."

Charles keeps his head down and lets his hair hang; it's obviously grown longer and Right gave him a razor but no scissors.

"Why are you doing this?" Charles asks. "What do you want from me?"

Right fights a smile and approaches Charles, taking a knee infront of him and waiting for the pilot to acknowledge him, which Charles does by picking up his head and meeting his eyes.

BACK TO THE CCC HEADQUARTERS!!!!!

Henry is being led by four guards and Bill Bullet. He hasn't gotten a lot of sleep, but he's good at not showing it.

"Weird request to visit someone before you make your decision. Usually we don't allow visitors." Bullet turns and sees Henry keeping up behind him, zoning out slightly but snapping out of it when he sees him looking. "You're not as talkative as you were on the phone the other night."

'Only way to contact you,' Henry signs.

Bullet smirks a little bit. "You deaf in one of your ears?"

'If I need to, I'll talk. Otherwise, I'll sign. Now where is he?'

Bullet sighs stops at an acrylic wall, seeing a doctor talking to a man.

Henry bristles slightly before calming himself back down.

"Guessing you two haven't talked in a while. I love reunions."

Henry narrows his eyes at Bill and gestures to the room. 'Private?'

"Enough. Don't worry, we won't listen in." Bill then grabs Henry by his jacket lapel and shoves him against the wall, catching the attention of doctor and occupant. "But I'm warning you right now," Bill growls as he leans close to Henry's face. "Try anything funny while you're in there, and I'll make you regret ever being born."

Henry nods and Bullet backs off him, letting him collect himself as the doctor walks out.

"Sir? He's done with his tests. His vitals and mental state are stable. He's also ready to see his visitor."

Bullet sweeps a gesture to the door. "He's all yours, Mr. Stickmin."

Henry nods and enters the room, his eyes on its occupant.

The two stare at each other for a bit, taking in each other's features.

"Hello, Henry."

The man in this room used to be moderately fit, and a REAL charmer, but years spent in the CCC's facility have taken their toll. He's gotten skinnier, his face is wrinkled and sunken in, and his hair, while it's slightly longer than Henry's, is greying and becoming thin. He doesn't look terrible by any means, but he has definitely seen better days.

He has cybernetics for both his arms and one leg, along his spine, neck to tailbone, and in part of his jaw. Where his left eye used to be, the eyelids are closed and flat; he's not even allowed to have a glass eye.

Being overthrown by Reginald Copperbottom, both literally and figuratively, forever left him with a permanent reminder.

The two stare at each other for a little while longer before Henry replies to the notorious worst leader in the toppat clan's history.

"Hi, Dad."

The two continue staring, Henry shuffling in place and Terrence rubbing his neck.

Henry signs, 'How is it here?'

"A hell hole. Nothing to do, no one to talk to, and you only get something when they say you can. Other than that, it's peachy."

Terrence's eye darts to the guards and Bill before moving back to Henry. "Guess what they said was true. You're actually coming here so you can save your friend."

"Yeah," Henry replies after a second.

I know I'm putting in a lot of pauses, but these two don't even send letters to each other, so sharing a room and having a conversation for them is awkward and extremely uncomfortable.

Back on track, Terrence scoffs at Henry's line of thinking, commenting, "And I thought these doctors were crazy. Let me guess: Reggie decided to take something from you because you took something from him? He always was a child."

'Reginald's been in prison since I arrested him.'

"You arrested him?" Terrence repeats as he stands. "The leader of the toppat clan, the most infamous group of bandits and thieves, and you just turned him in to the government? Why didn't you join him, you would've been perfectly fine!"

'Right hand man has my friend, I need to get him back. That's why I'm here.'

Terrence puts his hands on his face and groans. "No. Do not tell me I'm hearing this." He meets eyes with Henry, who nods with a shrug.

"You broke out of prison with a bar from your own cell, stole a diamond on a scooter, and escaped a maximum security prison, but you arrested the leader of the toppat clan, the son of a bitch of did this to me-" Terrence holds his arms out to gesture to his cybernetic body. "- and gave him to the government, but didn't see his lap dog wanting to settle the score or even the odds with you!?"

'A lot goes through my head on missions, okay!?'

Terrence nods, humming cheekily. "I'll bet. Think it would've gone better if you'd used that gun you had? We both know he wasn't going to do anything."

Henry sees himself charging at Right rather than throwing away his gun, but signs back, 'You don't know what he would've done. You haven't seen him.'

Terrence points to a tv in the corner of the room, one right next to the camera. "Saw how he got an upgrade. You can groom and pamper a dog all you want, its bark will still be worse than it's bite."

Henry spots Bill talking to the guards before waving at him and tapping on his wrist, more specifically on a watch. 'Don't take long.'

"Saw their orbital station, too. Like hell you're getting your friend out of space. And like hell sunglasses over there is gonna let you out of his sight if you're serious about that deal."

Henry looks Terrence directly in the eye and nods. 'I know.'

Terrence's face drops as Henry continues.

'During the mission, I hesitated because I was scared he'd kill Charles, my friend. I helped the government by giving them plans, but nothing worked. This is my last option. You are my last option. You weren't around then to tell me what to do, but I need you now because for once I have everything I could ever want, and I'm about to lose it all for being a coward. I know you're not going to like it, or even care, but I just need you to be here when they bring me in. Just be there and tell me I did enough for once, when you're really around. That's all I need right now.'

It's this that makes Terrence drop the "tough loving father" act and makes him realize that this is for real. This is not his son saying, "I made a mistake, fix it for me." This is his son telling him that this is his plan and he needs support to know he's doing the right thing.

Henry is extremely shaky because this is something he does not do with his father. They aren't usually open with each other, as in they do get emotional; toxic masculinity at its finest... and daddy issues.

Regardless, Henry collects himself before signing again.

'I'm going to agree to the terms. If they can send a piece of the ground to space or erase the universe, then they can help me. It's all I can think of doing that'll work.'

Terrence is quiet for a moment, looking at Bill and the guards as they gossip about something before turning back to Henry.

"Are you absolutely sure about this?"

Hebry nods. 'It's all that I can think of that's going to work. Again, if they can send a chunk of land of space or erase the universe, then they can help me.'

Terrence steps back and shakes his head.

"You're going to die here. You know that, right? I'm telling you now it's not worth it."

Henry's face drops.

"Look, I get it. You never were good at keeping friends, but, Henry, I'm telling you, just let this guy go. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life locked in a cage?"

Henry shakes his head as he signs. 'No, but I'm not going to abandon my friend like you abandoned us.'

"I had a clan to run, Henry!" Terrence snaps. "I wanted you to stay, have an easy life, but no. You two just ran off on me!"

'Just because something's easy doesn't always make it right,' Henry signs. He begins signing something else, but stops before continuing. 'Look. I'm accepting the terms. I wanted to tell you now ao you're not disappointed later.'

Henry holds up a hand in farewell and turns to leave, ready to get back to the base and start forming a new plan.

"Henry?"

He turns to see Terrence staring once again, but also sees his throat bobbing, like he's coughing or about to be sick.

"Good... Good luck. Getting your friend back."

Henry's eyes widen and he shakily nods. 'Thanks.'

The two stare at each other like before, but this time they slowly advance towards one another, maneuver their arms until they're in an admittedly awkward, uncomfortable, but welcome embrace; again, emotion is not their strong suit.

"You're going to regret it. Turning yourself in. Life's for living, and you're throwing it away."

Henry pulls back and waves 'goodbye' once more and leaves the room.

"Took you long enough," Bill says as Henry rejoins him. "Have a nice visit?"

Henry narrows his eyes.

"Well, you got your visit. Hope you know how to get into that station."

Henry takes one last look at his father before nodding.

'The terms-'

"Same as advertised," Bill interrupts. "A quarter of our forces as long as you come quietly so we study your ability."

'AFTER my friend is rescued and safe.'

Bill waves him off. "Fine, yes. After your friend's back home and safe." He holds his hand out infront of him and Henry. "What do you say, Henry? Do we have a deal?"

Behind the acrylic, Terrence watches the two of them, his hands against the wall and his eyes on his son.

Henry keeps his eyes on Bill's hand before looking into his eyes. With a mental push, he claps his hand into the corporal's and shakes it, nodding.

"Deal."

Terrence bumps and shakes his head against the wall. "You idiot," he murmurs. "What are you doing?"

AND THAT'S A WRAP ON PART 4!!!!! Oh my goodness, did I enjoy writing this one! A lot of twists and turns and opportunities to just leave you all hanging, I'm not even joking. I haven't really written manipulation or character dynamics like Henry's and Terrence's before, and I think I did pretty well.

Again, check out @multiverse-madness and @azuri-the-imperfect-artist for their Terrence Suave AUs because they are both amazing artists and, honestly, do better with the character than me.😅

For real, all of you, thank you, thank you, thank you, so much for your patience with this one. Like I said in my update post, I have a lot going on in my personal life and just couldn't get in a good creative mindset to do this.

I know we didn't see a lot of Charles this time around, but that's gonna change in Part 5😈

ANYWAY, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!

[bigoofbrandon]

She'd returned to an empty home

Only the dogs would welcome her back

She was used to feeling alone

It no longer felt like an attack

She starts to cook or study a bit

She likes being productive

Always scared when she had to sit

Always fearing he'd become destructive

She finishes whatever she was doing

He's still not back, so she calls a friend

They start to talk and it all comes spewing

She admits she thinks it's come to an end

The sound of keys and the doorknob turning

She hangs up and braces for the worst

The same old feeling of her gut churning

At times she wonders if she's indeed cursed

He walks in slow and says hello

She responds with hi and starts to calm

Her worries start to sink below

Her sweat still sliding off her palm

"How was work? It sure was hot!

Did you make sure to drink some water?"

-It was fine, I sweat a lot

But I thank God it wasn't hotter-

He acts as if the night before

She wasn't crying from their fight

He sits and places his backpack on the floor

-I want to try to make things right-

-Please take that ring off of your finger

The promise one I bought on sale-

The way he spoke with so much vigor

Made her heart sink and skin turn pale

She took off the ring and handed it over

He opened a pouch and dropped it in

He looked in her eyes and moved in closer

She wondered if she should atone for her sins

-I know I'm sick but I want to get better

That's no excuse for how I treat you

I know to you I am a debtor

But I want to ask you something new-

-In the event I stay the same

I don't improve or even get worse

I want you to state and make a claim

That you will stay and not disperse-

-You no longer feel the pressure of the ring

I want you to think and answer with truth

I don't know what the future will bring

But I will work hard and you'll see the proof-

-And while you think I want you to know

That I love you and always will

And though I reap what I have sowed

I'll never stop climbing this battle uphill-

She didn't quite know just what to say

They've been together for a few years

Yet from his face she could not survey

If he would laugh or break into tears

She pictured life without him there

No fights or worrying all the time

She could finally let down her hair

She would finally see the sun shine

But in her heart she loved him so

The way he laughed and the love he'd give

She's seen him suffer and struggle front row

He'd have to fight for as long as he lived

She pondered more on what to answer

He sat there patiently without a word

The silence hurt as if filled with cancer

Made better by the groaning floorboards

At last she looked at him to address

He tensed up and started to brace

"The answer to your question is yes"

Some tears had made their way to her face

"I know you love me and I love you too

I want to grow old and die together

But our fights have made our happiness few

I'm tired of going through stormy weather"

"I see you trying to fix yourself

You see your doctor and take your pills

But I'm also struggling with things myself

And not just about paying bills"

"When I see you I feel so happy

I feel at peace and fill up with joy

But at times you get so snappy

You act like you're a young boy"

"I want our future to be filled with light

Where I know what you feel and try to help

I don't care about the occasional fight

I just don't want to feel like a useless whelp"

-I understand just how you feel

You've got my word to give you that

I will hold up my end of the deal

And that is 100% fact-

He then stood up and reached out his hand

She took it into hers and stood next to him

-I want to prove that this I can

And what comes next I hope you not condemn-

He reached back into the same pouch

"Oh no, I don't want it back"

He was a bit shocked and sat back on the couch

"If you give it back I'll give you a smack"

"I'll wait until the real one comes

Not just a promise but a commitment

Until that day I won't succumb

I'm sure we can come to an agreement"

She stared and saw a grin start to form

And again he started to reach

Her thoughts in her mind began to swarm

He wasn't even trying to be discreet

He pulled not the ring but a small box

And from the couch fell to one knee

Her racing thoughts came to a stop

As he opened the box so she could see

-I bought this earlier today

When I realized exactly what I wanted

I wasn't sure what you would say

I didn't want to take your thoughts for granted-

-I had this planned right from the start

And I prayed you'd say what you just said

I love you with all my heart

And I ask if you and I can be wed-

The shock forced her to cover her mouth

Her heart beat faster than she could tell

The hint of tears now without a doubt

"I would like to marry you as well"