#outside pockets are two pockets cuz they also close and have an open pocket behind them

[awkwardlyaaron]

I finally finished this fucking jacket!

It took me Over half a year

Over 6k yards of yarn

Was up till 5am finishing it for the pride rave the next day

I fucked up the label on the video, it has pockets, it needs buttons

I also need to weave in ends

[rustboxstarr]

Pep Rally

Pairings: Eddie Munson X Girlfriend Reader, plus size of course cuz we don't know anything else and we plussize girlies need some recognition x

Warnings: Smut!!! public sex, clitorial stimulation (Ooh proper) nude photogaphy, dirty talking

Summary: Eddie recieves a little naughty photograph and has to do something about it.

AN: short but yall seem to be loving smut so i obviously had to treat ya. Also i have a such long list with different prompts so i decided to combine two of em! So I obviously have a whole list of prompts for fics and there are SO MANY so I decided to combine two of them :) 

❗️What do yall think of the idea of me posting the prompts and yall can comment which ones u wanna hear ill tick them off one by one :)❗️comment what you think!!

Masterlist

Eddie slipped his jacket over his shoulders, fixing his hair in the mirror and checking his teeth looked clean before walking out the door and locking it behind him. 

You’d slept the night but had a class before English, which you both sat in, so you’d slipped out in the early hours of the morning. 

But within the three hours you had accidentally woken up early you got bored. A wicked idea came to mind and you completed your plan. Slipping a fresh Polaroid into the notebook in Eddie's bag. 

You sat at your desk as Eddie walked in, only a minute before class started. Not having time to talk to you he gave you a quick peck on the lips and sat down next to you. Placing his bag on the floor and getting comfortable in the hard wooden chair connecting to his desk. 

“Good morning, I’m just going to dive right in to it, if you would be so kind as to take your notebooks out and continue with the essay of what classified as a classic and what characteristics a classic has” Ms O'Donnell sounded at the front of the class, a tight smile as her stern voice instructed the class. 

You flipped your notebook open, pretending to read the words as you watched Eddie out of the corner of your eye. 

He placed his notebook on the table and opened it, immediately closing it again after seeing the Polaroid concealed within the pages. He looked around to make sure no one noticed the photo and gave you a high brows stunned look. 

He cowered at his desk and sunk down, slipping the polaroid out and admiring it under the table. 

His eyes came in contact with your round rolls, plush thighs and concealed breasts, covered by his very own sweetheart, his black and red guitar resting between your thighs, the neck of the guitar held loosely with your round hands. You stuck your tongue out with a patronising smile as your other hand snaked into your hair.

He let out a cough and once again looked up to see no one noticing him staring at his very naked girlfriend in class. 

He moved uncomfortably in his seat, looking for some release against his cock now prominently hard. You flashed him a wicked grin as you focused your eyes on the scribbled words in front of you. He cleared his throat, reluctantly tucking the Polaroid away in his Jean jacket pocket as Ms O'Donnell gave him a scowl for not concentrating. 

The class passed by, only a few words written on his page as you had a whole essay. “Well we’re ending early today for this pep rally, so outside, football field everyone” Ms O'Donnell broke the silence of the class as everybody scrambled out the door and into the halls. 

You walked out the door, a strong hand grasping onto your wrist “You little minx!” You giggled at your boyfriend as you walked through the hall. “When did you do this?” He asked stunned “this morning, when you were asleep. You like it?” You chuckled with a wide grin.

“Do i?!” Eddie asked, you chuckled at his dramatics. “Ugh it's 10 am and I still look like a total corpse!” Robin complained as she walked up to the two of you wearing her band uniform. Eddie's arm wrapped around your waist placed on your hip. You chuckled at her “come on you look great!” “Ugh and they positioned me next to Vickie!” she continued as she led you out of the building and down the asphalt path “Good! Then you can woo her” you told her “Yeah even give her a dirty pic, like th-” Eddie started smirking as he took the photo up to show her “No!” you tackled him, ripping the plastic out of his hand as he stumbled backwards grinning “You know what, I'm keeping this” you said as you straightened your shirt. 

“No no no! Gimme that” he snatched it back out of your hand as Robin watched you expectantly. You cleared your throat “Anyway, listen you're gonna do great” you reassured her “Yeah yeah, where you guys gonna sit anyway?” she asked. You were about to answer her before Eddie interjected “Actually, we're just gonna take a quick detour” he grinned down at you “God” Robin groaned “Steve!” she shouted as she saw his hair flopping around, hand in hand with some blonde girl. She ran off to find out why her graduated friend was at her school. 

“Ooh where are we going then?” you asked, kissing him as you continued walking down to the open field. “I was thinking, bleachers” he smirked at you, you looked around and whispered “Eddie well get caught!” “Not unless you're really really quiet” he quirked his eyebrow as he ducked under the bleachers, his hand enclosed with yours leading you along the seats filling up. 

As soon as he got to the wall separating the yellow bleachers from the next section of green he wrapped his arms around you, hugging you tightly as he sunk his lips into yours. You pushed away from him “Eddie someones gonna bend down and see us” you whispered “So? Let them watch” he smirked “Either way, gotta get you back for the naughty little polaroid” he looked down at you as you giggled “my two best girls” you cringed “Ugh Eddie you know I hate when you refer to it as a person, it's just a guitar” “First of all, how dare you? Second of all” he interlocked his lips with yours again and pulled back with a sound “That's why I do it” he grinned against your lips. 

“Now” he placed his hands on your hips and spun you around. Stood leant against the wall he slipped his hands under your oversized t-shirt and unbuttoned your straight black jeans. “Dude, someone is seriously going to see us” you said as he awkwardly snaked his hand past your stomach and under your panties. 

“Jesus christ” he gasped as his middle finger collected your juices to bring up to your clit as lube “Shut up its just discharge” you snarked “Babe I know what normal discharge feels like,  this is not it” he chuckled as he began rubbing small circles in to your jewel. You sighed as your head fell on to his shoulder and you closed your eyes. 

Eddie's hot breath tickled your ear as he began his usual ritual of dirty talk to help you find your release. “Just wait until we get home, you're gonna be pouncing on me the second we get in the door” you groaned “just can't wait to kiss and leave my mark all up those beautiful thighs of yours.” you imagined his description as he went back down to you hole collecting more of you to bring back up. His fingers move smoothly over your clit, almost over stimulating as he moves in circles. 

You felt his hard cock pressed against you lightly, in response you forced your hips into his, earning a groan from your boyfriend towering over you. “I'll please you just as I am right now and hear your sweet little sounds youre fighting so hard to bite back” he continues “And slam into you from behind with your hands handcuffed behind your back, pulling your hair and hitting that spot that makes you scream.” You couldn't help but moan slightly at his words as he pressed his middle finger hard against you moving in the same circles. 

Your orgasm came quick, the mix of his sweet talk, his fingers working you so experienced knowing exactly how to treat you and the fear but almost longing of being caught. Before you realised it you were clenching your thighs together for dear life and shaking as a heavy orgasm washed over you. Breathing heavily you leaned against the tall scrawny man behind you sighing with satisfaction. 

Eddie chuckled at how quickly he had gotten you to come and finally slowed his movements to a halt. He slipped his hand out of your jeans and you stood up, sucked yourself in and buttoned them again. “Well that was” you breathed “Fun” you fixed your shirt to lay over your stomach “Yes it was, just you wait till after this stupid pep rally” he grinned as he kissed you. 

You sunk in to him as he wrapped his arms around you kissing your forehead. “Let's get back before anyone misses us” he said as he stood up straight “Yeah sure, everyone misses the freaks” you joked as took a step “Actually maybe just gimme a minute” you said exasperatedly, Eddie chuckled as you held a finger up and leaned against the wall. 

“Whoo ok” you phewed and stood up again. You made your way out and held Eddie's hand as you led him past students to the top row where Steve had saved two seats. You plopped down between Dustin, Mike and Max on your left, Eddie, Steve, his date and Nancy on your right. 

“What took you so long we've been fighting people off here?” you heard Steve whisper to eddie “Just” he coughed “got caught up” he grinned as steve rolled his eyes. 

You spotted Robin and gave her a thumbs up with a bright smile. She took her lips off her trumpet and stuck out her tongue, quickly realising it was not the right thing to do at such a time she reconnected herself with the instrument and nodded with the music to find her pace.  

[baby-girl-aaron-dessner]

hii, I saw your post about why you had included zendaya in that Met gala post and not Taylor and I just wanted to add alittle bit to it or atleast get something off my chest. If it makes you more comfortable you don’t have to post this or you can just reference this ask without posting it if you feel like answering back but again obviously if you’re not comfortable with you don’t have to cuz I don’t want to open your ask box up to people hounding you.

I personally think it makes perfect sense that zendaya is being used in the posts rather than any other celebrities because truthfully this whole blockout convo got kicked off with the hunger games comparison regarding the met gala coverage and it’s like a bullet was being charged up and then it was shot the minute that hayley tiktoker posted that let them eat eat in that elaborate dress.

the hunger games comparison only works if you use the images and videos of people from the met gala who were wearing very obviously extravagant dresses and to evoke a stronger reaction from the audience it makes perfect sense to draw parallels to tyla being picked up by a bodyguards with some even holding the ends of her long delicate dress and helping her be carried up the staircase alongside the video of young Palestinians carrying the bodies of their even younger siblings in bags so that their bodies aren’t left behind. The glamours nature of zendaya and Elle fanning’s dresses juxtaposed with images of young Palestinians scrambling for food just creates a much stronger and powerful image than what we would have if we put it up against Chris hemsworth’s suit that every man wears at every event.

the dresses worn by these women honestly closely followed the fashion used in the hunger games and that makes sense as well because the theme this year even revolves around such fashion, hence, one of the dresses in the actual exhibit curated for this year included a dress worn by Effie during the movies as well ( the orange butterfly one I think ). Truthfully, people making those videos would logically use images and videos of the most elaborate and glamorous dresses because that creates a more powerful commentary. It makes sense that it was those specific celebrities because these specific people topped the best dressed lists as well.

I also find it a bit strange how everybody seems to rush to give their faves the benefit of the doubt while also pretending it’s coming from a place of what’s right but I feel like it leans more towards using whataboutism to protect their faves from any criticism.

Moreover, I personally don’t agree with the idea that the blockout is distracting people from the actual cause cuz truthfully it has actually recentered Palestinians within the convo cuz none of these major media outlets were publishing articles about the actual protest outside the met gala but they did start talking about it when the article was addressing the blockout. These outlets were forced to acknowledge why this was being done, hence, were also forced to remember the Palestinians. I understand that some people at this point, now that some time has passed, are starting to get hung up on which celeb is doing what but truthfully I can’t ignore that this is what has forced celebrities to publicly open up their pockets and money and attention are crucially needed right now.

I’m sorry this was so long and I’m sorry for any mistakes cuz English isn’t my first language.

Hi sweet anon, this is a safe space so please feel free to share your thoughts anytime <3

I’ve seen many people echo your thoughts and I think it makes sense. Zendaya did have one of the most capital-esque looks of the night. Additionally, she had not only one but two different red carpet looks unlike anyone else. Also, she was the co-chair and the most recognised celebrity of the evening.

I don’t ever bother defending someone like her because she is known to wear blood diamonds and she has remained silent on genocide. It amazes me that members of the public are so hypnotised by celebrity worship culture that they would go out of their way to defend these elites so fervently.

However, it’s also important to acknowledge that POC people are more likely to receive negative coverage over these things. For example, the Jenners/Kardashians could easily replace Zendaya in these comparisons. However, their looks weren’t half as extravagant as Zendaya’s which comes back to your point. Your line of thinking is very logical and I agree with it.

Your argument about the blackout is also sound. We saw how quickly someone like Lizzo responded when the blackout was happening. The truth is, it’s working and ultimately, that’s what matters. It’s also a great way to free ourselves from the grip of celebrity worship culture so I salute everyone who is taking part in it.

Side side: as someone in the Taylor Swift fandom, I can confirm the whataboitism line of thinking/arguing is also present in this discourse (swifties are experts in this line of thinking, so I am well versed in it too). It seems to be the only way we can defend the elite and powerful. It all sounds like this to me: “You think this CEO billionaire is bad?!! But…but…look at that billionaire over there!!! He is a man which makes him 10 times worse!!!” This is why liberal/white feminism is one of the biggest headaches to me. Surprise! Women can exploit workers and hoard wealth too! This means we have fixed inequality. The height of feminism has been reached, yay.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your extremely articulate and well-thought-out opinion anon 💜

[justlydiasworld]

i know the 80s weren’t the most welcoming to gay ppl but can i pls request robin and reader getting dragged to a kissing booth, maybe their friends setting them up together. Like robin is hesitant to do anything cuz she doesn’t know if reader is straight or not (spoiler, she’s not) thank uuuuu!!

Just The Two Of Us

Pairing: F!Reader x Robin Buckley

Pairing: Nancy Wheeler x Johnathon Byer

Summary: Robin and a couple of friends head to mall to hang out. Poor baby didn’t know she would be dragged into a kissing booth with you. She’s hesitant since she doesn’t know if you’re straight or not.

Warning(s): None- that I know of.

Authors note: This will turn into a one shot for this fanfic. I love this idea and I can’t wait to write it out. Thank you for requesting,and again my inbox is open.

Summer heat was not the best at Hawkins. The sticky air and the ice cream turning into water. It was definitely not the best. But your group of friends had an idea, not original but it still works. “So we’re all heading to the mall?” You asked with confusion. They were planning on ice skating as a group or heading to a carnival tonight but they just stuck with something simple.

“Yeah we’re going to the mall at 4.” Nancy smirked a smile on her face, putting her arms on Jonathan. Eddie kicked some rocks on the ground and his hands were in his pockets,smiling. “We-Well I’m fine with it. How about you y/n?” The freckled girl asked you with such warmth. Not even the hot weather made that kind of warmth that Robin did to you.

You nodded slowly and she just smiled with all of her teeth. It was adorable. SHE was adorable. Maybe you can’t say it out loud but you wish you could. You haven’t told anyone but Nancy that you also liked girls and guys. She accepted you even though you told her you were bisexual. Something that eased your mind was when Robin came out to you and Steve after the whole incident. You felt almost relieved that somebody else in Hawkins also likes girls.

“Let’s goo! We’re hitting the road!” Eddie screamed on top of his lungs. He opened the door to his truck and sat down. The others just filling in from the back. “Hey, me and Nancy will be right behind you guys. We’re taking my car.” Johnathon said while he scrunches his brows because of the sun hitting his face. “Alright!” Steve yelled back even louder since Eddie started the truck.

So it was just you and Robin sitting extremely close to each other and Eddie and Steve singing to some random songs on the radio. You have no clue what to say to the brunette,rather your mouth did it for you. You saw how her face tilted towards the sun and how it made her glow. Her freckles becoming the most noticeable thing under the sun- truly she was breathtaking. “You’re so,breathtaking Robin.” You mouth dropped slightly and head tilted to get a better view of her face. You were dazed, caught up in a trance almost.

“I-uh- you mean that? As a friend way? Or?” Robin asked with flushed cheeks. She looked at you with her big blue eyes. “Ah,yeah. As friends..” you mumbled the last part, you head looking down on your lap with a frown. Yeah,as friends. Robin didn’t understand why you were so upset, she just genuinely wanted to know. I guess you did mean it in a friend way. Poor Robin wanted to hear something differently.

Eddie and Steve heard everything behind them and both of them only smirk. Mischievous grin that painted their faces, you didn’t know what they had in plan. But for now, you were dancing on the palms of their hands. As soon Eddie parked his truck in front of the mall, he took the keys out of it and got out.

All of you guys end up meeting up at the same place at the right time. The smell of different food mixing in the air and the laughter of kids made it seem so much better and livelier than the sticky heat outside. Steve and the others huddled up in a bunch excluding both you and Robin out of it. It was funny to look at but you were confused for the most part. So was the brunette. “Psst, you know what they’re up to?” Robin whispered near your ear. “No clue Rob. You know anything?” You whispered back with a soothing tone. “Nope,but I bet it’s something stupid. Especially if that dingus (Steve) is in charge of whatever’s going on.”

The both of you guys end up laughing, until a song plays in the mall. “Just The Two Of Us” by Grover Washington. This song was a song that almost everybody in Hawkins enjoyed,definitely a hit. Robin started doing a little dance while she lip syncs the song, moving her hips a bit and having her hands all over the place. “I wanna spend some time with you..” she lip synced while smiling at you. You joined in on the fun and dance along with her in front of everyone,” just the two of us.” You chuckled and stopped because the music stopped and played a different song instead,that was quick.

“Robin you dance? Didn’t know that.” Eddie raised a brow and crossed his arm towards his chest. Nancy pinched his arm a bit and nodded her head towards the,kissing booth? Steve had a sudden realization and cleared his throat. “Ahem, me and Eddie will go and buy some food and hang out for a second. You guys don’t mind right?” You shook your head for a second but you thought it was a group hangout day. “Save me some food dingus!” Robin yelled at him as they walk towards a cafe. “Ah, yeah me and Nancy are actually going to shop for Will and Mike. You know how boys are, growing out of their old clothes and needing new ones.” Johnathon smiled and looked at Nancy. “Ye-yeah, you guys should go into that booth right over there! We’ll meet back in 20 minutes. Promise.” Nancy turned around with Johnathon.

She winked at you before she left and now it was only you and Robin. You turned around and see how flushed her cheeks gotten. She had a day spent with you! All for herself! “I’m sorry you had to be stuck with me Rob. I-I know you probably wanted to hang out with ste-“ Robin cut you off and reassured you,” no!no! It’s,it’s fine. I like spending time with you. A lot actually.”

As Robin finished talking, you took a look at her lips. Plumped, smooth, maybe a bit sweet too. The brunette took that as a sign but she was shocked to see you glare at her lips. By the time Robin could say anything, you dragged her arm. You sat down on the cushioned seat. There was a huge red sign above you that said “KISS ME.” And a huge kiss beside the letters.

As you sat down, the tall freckled girl turned into a sweet red color. Her blue eyes widen. “You-you really wanna-“ She muttered out but of course you wanted to kiss then pretty girl. The way she smiled at you, the way she was there for you every time, this was your shot. Robin wanted confirmation that you also liked girls, and maybe this was the confirmation that she needed. Boy did she have the biggest smile ever.

Robin got nervous and rambled all over again. You aren’t mad at her for that but you were just too impatient at the moment. You wanted everyone to know that you liked this precious girl in fort f you. Even if it means to ruin your reputation. You were still in the mall and crowds of people were hanging around in different areas.

“So uh ye-“ Robin chuckled but as soon as she met your (e/c) eyes, you grabbed her chin with care. Pressing your soft lips with hers. You felt every part of her lips on yours and it felt like heaven. Her plumped lip felt like soft pillows but smelt just like the cherry cola lip balm you bought her at this exact store. You let go of Robin but all she does is whine. “I wanted more than just that..” she mumbled underneath her breath. You looked around, and met her blue eyes once again. “I mean it’s just the two of us.” You gave her a smirk and that made Robin go feral.

[deafeningmoontragedy]

Pep Rally

Pairings: Eddie Munson X Girlfriend Reader, plus size of course cuz we don't know anything else and we plussize girlies need some recognition x

Warnings: Smut!!! public sex, clitorial stimulation (Ooh proper) nude photogaphy, dirty talking

Summary: Eddie recieves a little naughty photograph and has to do something about it.

AN: short but yall seem to be loving smut so i obviously had to treat ya. Also i have a such long list with different prompts so i decided to combine two of em!

❗️What do yall think of the idea of me posting the prompts and yall can comment which ones u wanna hear ill tick them off one by one :)❗️comment what you think!!

Check out my other works!

So I obviously have a whole list of prompts for fics and there are SO MANY so I decided to combine two of them :) 

Eddie slipped his jacket over his shoulders, fixing his hair in the mirror and checking his teeth looked clean before walking out the door and locking it behind him. 

You’d slept the night but had a class before English, which you both sat in, so you’d slipped out in the early hours of the morning. 

But within the three hours you had accidentally woken up early you got bored. A wicked idea came to mind and you completed your plan. Slipping a fresh Polaroid into the notebook in Eddie's bag. 

You sat at your desk as Eddie walked in, only a minute before class started. Not having time to talk to you he gave you a quick peck on the lips and sat down next to you. Placing his bag on the floor and getting comfortable in the hard wooden chair connecting to his desk. 

“Good morning, I’m just going to dive right in to it, if you would be so kind as to take your notebooks out and continue with the essay of what classified as a classic and what characteristics a classic has” Ms O'Donnell sounded at the front of the class, a tight smile as her stern voice instructed the class. 

You flipped your notebook open, pretending to read the words as you watched Eddie out of the corner of your eye. 

He placed his notebook on the table and opened it, immediately closing it again after seeing the Polaroid concealed within the pages. He looked around to make sure no one noticed the photo and gave you a high brows stunned look. 

He cowered at his desk and sunk down, slipping the polaroid out and admiring it under the table. 

His eyes came in contact with your round rolls, plush thighs and concealed breasts, covered by his very own sweetheart, his black and red guitar resting between your thighs, the neck of the guitar held loosely with your round hands. You stuck your tongue out with a patronising smile as your other hand snaked into your hair.

He let out a cough and once again looked up to see no one noticing him staring at his very naked girlfriend in class. 

He moved uncomfortably in his seat, looking for some release against his cock now prominently hard. You flashed him a wicked grin as you focused your eyes on the scribbled words in front of you. He cleared his throat, reluctantly tucking the Polaroid away in his Jean jacket pocket as Ms O'Donnell gave him a scowl for not concentrating. 

The class passed by, only a few words written on his page as you had a whole essay. “Well we’re ending early today for this pep rally, so outside, football field everyone” Ms O'Donnell broke the silence of the class as everybody scrambled out the door and into the halls. 

You walked out the door, a strong hand grasping onto your wrist “You little minx!” You giggled at your boyfriend as you walked through the hall. “When did you do this?” He asked stunned “this morning, when you were asleep. You like it?” You chuckled with a wide grin.

“Do i?!” Eddie asked, you chuckled at his dramatics. “Ugh it's 10 am and I still look like a total corpse!” Robin complained as she walked up to the two of you wearing her band uniform. Eddie's arm wrapped around your waist placed on your hip. You chuckled at her “come on you look great!” “Ugh and they positioned me next to Vickie!” she continued as she led you out of the building and down the asphalt path “Good! Then you can woo her” you told her “Yeah even give her a dirty pic, like th-” Eddie started smirking as he took the photo up to show her “No!” you tackled him, ripping the plastic out of his hand as he stumbled backwards grinning “You know what, I'm keeping this” you said as you straightened your shirt. 

“No no no! Gimme that” he snatched it back out of your hand as Robin watched you expectantly. You cleared your throat “Anyway, listen you're gonna do great” you reassured her “Yeah yeah, where you guys gonna sit anyway?” she asked. You were about to answer her before Eddie interjected “Actually, we're just gonna take a quick detour” he grinned down at you “God” Robin groaned “Steve!” she shouted as she saw his hair flopping around, hand in hand with some blonde girl. She ran off to find out why her graduated friend was at her school. 

“Ooh where are we going then?” you asked, kissing him as you continued walking down to the open field. “I was thinking, bleachers” he smirked at you, you looked around and whispered “Eddie well get caught!” “Not unless you're really really quiet” he quirked his eyebrow as he ducked under the bleachers, his hand enclosed with yours leading you along the seats filling up. 

As soon as he got to the wall separating the yellow bleachers from the next section of green he wrapped his arms around you, hugging you tightly as he sunk his lips into yours. You pushed away from him “Eddie someones gonna bend down and see us” you whispered “So? Let them watch” he smirked “Either way, gotta get you back for the naughty little polaroid” he looked down at you as you giggled “my two best girls” you cringed “Ugh Eddie you know I hate when you refer to it as a person, it's just a guitar” “First of all, how dare you? Second of all” he interlocked his lips with yours again and pulled back with a sound “That's why I do it” he grinned against your lips. 

“Now” he placed his hands on your hips and spun you around. Stood leant against the wall he slipped his hands under your oversized t-shirt and unbuttoned your straight black jeans. “Dude, someone is seriously going to see us” you said as he awkwardly snaked his hand past your stomach and under your panties. 

“Jesus christ” he gasped as his middle finger collected your juices to bring up to your clit as lube “Shut up its just discharge” you snarked “Babe I know what normal discharge feels like,  this is not it” he chuckled as he began rubbing small circles in to your jewel. You sighed as your head fell on to his shoulder and you closed your eyes. 

Eddie's hot breath tickled your ear as he began his usual ritual of dirty talk to help you find your release. “Just wait until we get home, you're gonna be pouncing on me the second we get in the door” you groaned “just can't wait to kiss and leave my mark all up those beautiful thighs of yours.” you imagined his description as he went back down to you hole collecting more of you to bring back up. His fingers move smoothly over your clit, almost over stimulating as he moves in circles. 

You felt his hard cock pressed against you lightly, in response you forced your hips into his, earning a groan from your boyfriend towering over you. “I'll please you just as I am right now and hear your sweet little sounds youre fighting so hard to bite back” he continues “And slam into you from behind with your hands handcuffed behind your back, pulling your hair and hitting that spot that makes you scream.” You couldn't help but moan slightly at his words as he pressed his middle finger hard against you moving in the same circles. 

Your orgasm came quick, the mix of his sweet talk, his fingers working you so experienced knowing exactly how to treat you and the fear but almost longing of being caught. Before you realised it you were clenching your thighs together for dear life and shaking as a heavy orgasm washed over you. Breathing heavily you leaned against the tall scrawny man behind you sighing with satisfaction. 

Eddie chuckled at how quickly he had gotten you to come and finally slowed his movements to a halt. He slipped his hand out of your jeans and you stood up, sucked yourself in and buttoned them again. “Well that was” you breathed “Fun” you fixed your shirt to lay over your stomach “Yes it was, just you wait till after this stupid pep rally” he grinned as he kissed you. 

You sunk in to him as he wrapped his arms around you kissing your forehead. “Let's get back before anyone misses us” he said as he stood up straight “Yeah sure, everyone misses the freaks” you joked as took a step “Actually maybe just gimme a minute” you said exasperatedly, Eddie chuckled as you held a finger up and leaned against the wall. 

“Whoo ok” you phewed and stood up again. You made your way out and held Eddie's hand as you led him past students to the top row where Steve had saved two seats. You plopped down between Dustin, Mike and Max on your left, Eddie, Steve, his date and Nancy on your right. 

“What took you so long we've been fighting people off here?” you heard Steve whisper to eddie “Just” he coughed “got caught up” he grinned as steve rolled his eyes. 

You spotted Robin and gave her a thumbs up with a bright smile. She took her lips off her trumpet and stuck out her tongue, quickly realising it was not the right thing to do at such a time she reconnected herself with the instrument and nodded with the music to find her pace.  

[himbos-hotline]

Here is a random prompt: Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley sitting in an all night diner talking about the new "adoptees" of the BCC. Bonus if you can work in Regal shipping them and a serious question on how many teeth to get Danhausen to curse Jericho.

How much time ya got?

Word count: 6189 words Ship: Eddie Kingston/Jon Moxley, platonic/familiar BCC, mentions of Jay Orton/Wheeler Yuta and Jon Moxley & Jay Orton, Characters: Jon Moxley, Eddie Kingston, Claudio, Wheeler Yuta, William Regal, mentions of Jay [OC] and the young bucks, a multitude of unnamed waitresses Triggers: Swearing, Mentions of teeth, bullying Jay because of their dentist phobia, I think thats all Authors note: BOOM! god this fic grabbed my hyperfocus and would not let me go. I hope you dont mind me adding Jay I just kinda had too cuz I enjoy writing them and Mox as violent brothers. I dont even know what this is. Just enjoy!

Also on AO3

It’s one of the nights when Jon Moxley can't sleep. The air around the hotel room seems thick and it crackles through his lungs each time he takes a heavy intake of breath letting it roll out between his lips as he tilts his head back against the pillows. There’s movement in the bed across from him and for a few seconds Mox watches from the corner of his eyes as Wheeler squirms, hunting for warmth against the starchy hotel pillows. He rolls his shoulders and stretches his ankles, making Mox chuckle when he bends his toes and raises a leg to rest between Jay’s. Bryan makes a sound next to him and Mox slides out of bed, careful as his bare feet pad across the floor to the bathroom.

The bright light burns his tired eyes, making them water at the corner as he rubs his face. He pads around the bathroom, pee’s, and clicks his neck as he washes his hands..The hotel room is untouched by the world outside, it's just Mox and the flickering hotel bathroom light. He stares at his reflection, leaning his shoulder against the door. The white painted wood is cold against his bare shoulders and it startles the last few moments of tiredness from his body. He stands straight and presses his hands against the cold metal of the faucet, letting the chill soak into the calloused skin of his fingers.

Being alone in the hotel room makes Mox feel somewhat like a caged animal in the zoo. Pacing around while shadow people stare down at him, heads tilted to the side in amusement. Mox flexes his hands into fists and uses his knuckle to turn off the bathroom light, watching as the warm orange glow saturates until the world is plunged into darkness again. There’s the sound of one of the other BCC members shifting in their sleep just off to his side and Mox stares ahead at the double beds, letting his eyes get adjusted into the darkness.

He spots his suitcase, open and messy, over by the window and he’s careful to maneuver himself around the piles of dirty ring gear and suitcases, cursing under his breath when he bumps his hip into one of the bedside tables. “Asshole.” He whispers, looking slightly over his shoulder to make sure that nobody spotted him picking a fight with an inanimate object. The bodies spread over two beds lay as dark splotches, chests rising and falling and arms clinging to pillows or blankets. Nobody notices as he tugs a shirt over his head and snatches his phone out the inside of his pocket. Mox slips away into the hotel corridor and the rest of his family simply roll over and stretch, falling deeper into slumber when the door clicks closed and locks behind him.

The knock on his hotel room door would have frustrated Eddie if it was anyone else. But the knock pattern is rhythmic and familiar, so he tosses his phone onto the bed and kicks the starchy blankets off around his ankles and flings the door open. “Moxxie.” He hums, stepping aside so he can walk in. “Cant sleep?”

“One of those nights, yknow.” Comes the quick reply, muted by the subtle click of his neck and the tapping of his fingers against his shoulder. “There's an all-nighter diner round the corner. You wanna go get waffles?”

“Lemme get some pants on. Gimme five.”

And that's how Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston find themselves curled up in a booth at the back of an all-night diner, nursing thick cups of coffee and picking slightly at waffles drowning in amber syrup. Mox looks up from his phone slightly to stare out the window, using his eyes to trace the moon-kissed edges of clouds that roll slowly through the sky. “It's gonna rain tomorrow.” He states like it's the newest thing in the world and when Eddie makes a sound around a forkful of waffle it makes him chuckle. “Jay’ll be happy.”

“You’re real fond of that kid ain’t ya.” Eddie chimes in, resting his elbow on the table and lazily jabs his fork in Mox’s general direction. The words are softened by the half smile that graces his features.

Mox gives a half shrug. “Reminds me a little of myself. In a weird way.” He sips his coffee and pulls a face, licking it off his bottom lip. The cup knocks against the table when Mox puts it down and shifts in his seat, tucking his leg under him. “She's a real sweet kid, plus they're Regal’s kid if I didn't like him- I'd be outta the group” He jokes, chuckling. Eddie shakes his head and reaches over the table to take another large forkful, the two of them wincing when the fork prongs scratch against the plate. “Plus he always has cigs.” “You like that Moxxie. So how's Wheels dealing with havin’ another person there and not being the baby of the family no more?” Eddie asks after patting Mox on the hand, huffing when a waitress walks past and raises a curious eyebrow. Mox tilts his hand until their palms are pressing together, his chipped nails brushing slightly across Eddie’s veins. It soothes the fire that Mox feels growing in them and soon Eddie’s eyes are back on him, warm and smiling.

“Good.” Mox replies simply, using his free hand to smack against the coffee mug like he was a cat, slowly pushing something valuable off the end of the counter. Eddie squeezes his hand and Moxley looks up from his fiddling, smirking at the playfulness that glows in his eyes. “I mean he's winning more matches and ain’t hogging the blankets much now.” He felt like he had to add something, as much as he could without outing Jay and Wheeler's relationship. He may be an asshole but he isn’t that much of an asshole.

“Yeah he's a talented guy, got a real good suplex. Maybe he could teach you Moxxie baby.” Eddie teases, using his nail to poke his boyfriend's palm. There’s a few soft beats of offended silence before Mox scoffs and wraps his arm around the half empty plate, Eddie thrusts a fork forward and Mox pins the prongs between his teeth, grinning. “Aw c'mon babe, don't be like that!”

Eddie wiggles the fork, trying to dislodge it from Mox’s grip but his jaw only tightens, a tight string of muscles stretch against the tanned skin of his throat when his head tilts backwards. Mox feels a little like a dog, playing tug of war with his master's slipper. He makes a sound, almost like a growl before it morphs into a yelp when Eddie releases the fork and Mox tumbles backwards. His head knocks stubbornly against the wooden back of the booth and Mox feels the fork stab slightly at the fat of his tongue.

“Ow, asshole.” He bitches, setting the fork on the table and rubbing the back of his head. “I can't believe I'm dating you. This is abuse.” Mox complains, laughter badly hidden behind a thick wall of venom that painted his words. He wiggles the fork in front of him, twirling it between his fingers before allowing it to drop onto the half empty plate. “You done with this?” He asks, licking syrup off his bottom lip. Eddie shakes his head quickly, dragging the plate across the table.

He wipes the fork on his shirt, shrugging when Mox raises an eyebrow “You could have rabies or something, it would explain how you act toots.”

“Bitch.”

“Dick.”

A waitress wanders over to them, resting her weight onto the back of her feet. “If you two could hurry up, the morning shift is gonna come in soon.” An accent, thick and unplaceable coats her words and Eddie simply raises his hand in polite understanding.

“Thanks…” Mox replies softly, watching her smile and walk away. “We should get back to the hotel. It's gonna be morn-”

“It's been morning since we got here” Eddie replies playful and snarky as he uses his finger to drag syrup off the empty plate. “But yeah. I wanna grab a shower before training.” Eddie stands and shrugs his jacket over his shoulders, popping his finger into his mouth as Mox fishes out his wallet to pay. “Thanks dollface.”

Mox’s reply is only a sigh, tired and playfully annoyed at his boyfriend's terms of endearment. He counts the bills slowly as he lays them on the table, mumbling addiction under his breath. Math had never been his strong suit, the numbers shifting and moving places. A few seconds pass and Mox gives up, counting out two twenty dollar bills and placing them onto the table under an empty mug of coffee. “That’ll do right?” He asks, looking over his shoulder when Eddie doesn’t reply.

There’s a tapping at the window in front of him and Mox jolts back when he makes eye contact with Eddie, grinning and on the verge of laughter, through the mildly dirty window. He presses his lips into a thin line before curling his top lip into a slight snarl.

“I hate you yknow that.” Mox states when he slips into the passenger side of the car, pulling a leg close to his chest as Eddie starts the car and drives back towards the hotel.

“Oh I know.” He chuckles, squinting against the rising sun. “Dya want me to walk you back to your room? Y’know be all romantic and shit.” He asks, taking his eyes off the road for a few seconds to give Mox a questioning look. One that tells the other man a lot more than what Eddie means it too.

“You just wanna take a cig off Jay” Mox chirps, drumming his fingers against his jeans, picking a new hole in them as Eddie groans at his side. “I'm sure she has some spares.”

“Good.” Eddie replies simply, tapping his thumb against the steering wheel as he waits for the traffic light in front of them to turn green. Cars slowly start to flood the road in front of them and Mox stares out the window, resting his forehead against the cold glass. A car pulls up next to them and Mox suddenly feels like someone is staring at him, red paints the back of his neck.

Two children stare at him, wide eyed and vibrating, from the car opposite. He tilts his head slightly and raises a hand waving through the closed windows. The child raises their hands and flails their arms wildly, excitement drawing their fathers knuckles tight against the steering wheel. One of them pokes their tongue out, screwing the corner of their eyes up and Mox, with a cautious glance up at the traffic light smiles and wrinkles his nose, curling his tongue and chuckling when the children squeal loud enough that it captures Eddie's attention.

He watches Mox interact with the children from the corner of his eyes, pretending to be checking the time on his phone. The light turns green and the car speeds away, turning the opposite corner to Mox and Eddie’s car. “That was real cute, you're good with kids.” Eddie chimes into the silence as he pulls into the hotel’s parking lot.

A few of the rental cars Mox had seen earlier in the evening had disappeared, leaving behind a spotty patchwork of different coloured cars belonging to different rental places. Shiny reds and dirty blues, more silvers than Mox would like and as Eddie pulls into a parking lot, Mox images lining the cars up in colors so they're neat. A thought that quickly gets shaken from his head when Eddie slams the driver's side door and knocks on the window hard enough that Mox wonders if he’s trying to break through.

It's a low grumble that slips past Mox’s lips and the almost childish complaint of “will you chill? You're gonna wake people up” that makes Eddie laugh and wrap his arm around Mox’s middle for a few seconds as they walk through the half empty lobby. Mox thinks to himself about if he could get some sleep before training, or if he’ll have to curl up somewhere in the arena to nap before the show starts. He silently hopes that the rest of the BCC is still asleep and that the rising sun hasn't split through the half-closed blinds.

The elevator dings and Mox smiles to himself, making casual small talk with Eddie as he fishes the spare keycard out his back pocket. Mox barely registers the sound of the door opening and it's only when he’s poking at the clothed front of William Regal does Mox look up and quickly stuff his hands into his front pockets. “Sorry Mr Regal.” There's a bashful smile that paints itself across his face as he awkwardly ducks under Regal’s arm and plonks himself onto the bed, still dressed in his jeans.

Just off to the side, there's the sound of someone clicking their teeth and the sound makes something deep inside of Mox’s ears sting. Carefully he lowers his arm and barely cracks open one eye. “What?” he grumbles.

“If you're gonna lay on the bed could you at least take your shoes off?” Eddie complaints from the doorway, grinning like an child winning an award when Mr.Regal nods and goes to sit on a chair opposite the bed that Mox is now sitting at the edge off, mumbling complaints under his breath as he pulls his laces out of his boots and kicks his legs slightly to worm his jeans off. He flops back onto the bed, draping an arm over his eyes.

“Oh, Jay-” Mox states, barely sitting up. Jay makes a sound, rolling their wrist for him to continue. Mox watches his baby brother for a few seconds, groaning when she shakes out their shower-wet hair, droplets splashing onto his face. “Eddie wants to steal a cigarette.”

“Aw c'mon!” Jay chirps, throwing his arms up in playful annoyance. “Can we get breakfast first?” He tilts his head to the side slightly and grins when Eddie nods. “I'm guessing you two have already eaten?” There's a playfulness in Jay's voice that Mox doesn’t fully understand but he nods nonetheless. “Good. I'm gonna go get dressed.”

“Where did you two go?” Wheeler asks, curiousness floating on his tongue as he wrestles his way into a pair of shorts. He’s blinking at Mox with the wide eyes of a curious puppy and something inside of him twists, locking the tiredness away. He sits up and leans against the headboard, reaching out to fix Wheeler's shirt, tucking it tightly around his middle so his scars aren’t visible. Not for the first time since wheeler joined the BCC, Moxley feels like a mother bird, fussing and preening his youngest son. “It's fine Mox, it's fine!” Wheeler complains, flailing his hands slightly in front of him, making Mox chuckle and shift so he can sit down.

“There's some all night diner nearby here” Mox explains, flailing an arm towards the window as if trying to pull the diner closer. “I could take ya, it’s Eddie's turn to pay.” Eddie makes a sound somewhat like a squawk from his place against the closed door and Wheeler giggles slightly atMox’s side. “They make great waffles.”

“Can we Mr.Regal?” Wheeler hums, dark brown eyes wide and swirling. “Maybe Eddie can join us for training, since Bryan is out injured. It’ll stop one of us sitting out and then we can get breakfast afterwards” The words tumble out of the young man's mouth faster than what Regal can comprehend and he stands, carefully placing his hands on Wheeler's shoulders. He presses his lips together and a careful blush starts to paint itself across the base of his neck, embarrassed.

“Now, sunshine, isn’t there someone we must ask?” William states in a voice so calm that it almost dulls the insecurities floating, unspoken in the dark browns of his eyes. Wheeler nods once, squirms out of his mentor's hands and goes to stand in front of Eddie, who looks up curiously from his phone. “W-would you like to train with us? With Bryan out-”

“It's better.” Jay chimes in, running a hand through his red hair. Her skin is pale and she flops beside Mox, resting her chin on his shoulder. “What?” Jay yelps when Mox shoves him softly.

“Sure, I can try with ya kid.” Eddie answers like it was the easiest thing in the world and Wheeler smiles, careful as Claudio steps past, chucking a towel over his shoulder. “But I ain't paying for breakfast.”

“I’ll pay.” Regal answers, pinching the bridge of his nose. Eddie thinks he looks somewhat like a tired father. A mental image that only gets cemented when he takes a brush out of a small carryon bag and racks it through Jay's air drying unruly curls. They go to move her hands, flailing slightly before stopping when Regal presses a fatherly kiss to the scar on her forehead and whispers “there we go, now you look like such a handsome young man.”

From the corner of his eyes, Eddie watches the newest BCC member preen under the praise, a warm feeling of acceptance filling the small room. There’s a few more beats of silence before Claudio imageres fully dressed in this training gear.

The car ride to the gym is mostly filled with music and singing and Wheeler excitedly leaning over the middle seat to show Mox the fish that he catches in Animal Crossing. He even stops to show Eddie how to catch them, his tongue poking out the corner of his mouth in concentration. They pull up at the gym and the BCC filters out into a filled parking lot. William takes Wheeler by the hand, protectively steering him through open traffic and shaking his head as Mox and Jay run ahead, narrowly missing someone exiting the gym.

“Don't you guys have like a private gym or something?” Eddie asks, an aura of genuine curiousness on his tone as Regal drops Wheeler’s hand, shooing him off with a dismissive hand.

“Normally yes. But they need time to socialize.” He states simply, gesturing towards the small group of people, talking excitedly between themselves. “You can bring a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. Especially if the horse has gone to the creek before.” Eddie blinks slightly and nods, the smile on his face small and confused. It makes Regal puff out a laugh.

“Well, go train. We have about-'' Regal glances at the clock on the wall, double checks it against his watch before nodding. “An hour before we start our training session. Warm up young Edward.” And with a dismissive wave of his hand, Regal leans against the wall watching curiously. Eddie turns his back to him and wanders over to the weights.

“What were you and Regal talking about?” Mox asks, picking up two dumbbells and curling them towards his chest with a focus that makes his pupils blow out slightly. Eddie gives a half shrug and Mox stares at their reflections in the mirror as they work out. Eddie lifts weights and watches Jay and Wheeler giggling, seemingly trying to race each other on the rowing machines.

An hour flits past, quicker that it has for Eddie before. Regal taps Mox on the shoulder and he nods simply. “Time to run.” He replies, answering Eddie's unsaid question. “We finish on the treadmill and then later today we’ll practice wrestling. Ya know holds and shit”

Mox walks off before Eddie has time to reply and soon enough, he’s on the treadmill closest to the wall, battered sneakers knocking against the rubber, the sound off beat but rhythmic in time to Regals instructions and the other people at his left. The machine beeps as Eddie increases the speed, eyeing Mox in the mirror as he cranks it faster. Claudio shakes his head and drops his head to focus on his feet as he runs, music blasting out of his headphones. “You’ll get the runners high soon!” Wheeler squeaks from the opposite end, voice broken by eager pants and the clear tiredness that paints itself across his face, pulling his pupils tight and small and almost invisible to Eddie. He seems to focus on chasing that high, drawing his eyebrows tight and letting his chuck taylors pound against the treadmill.

Wheeler looks lost in focus and Eddie can’t help but feel something for the kid, appreciation for how focused and eager he is, the sudden softening of a new friendship? Both, Eddie finally sumerises that it's both

Jay is the first one to bounce off the treadmill, landing awkwardly on his ankle but keeping his balance on tired legs. Sweat presses dark brown curls flat against her forehead and they take comfort in Regal sweeping them away, patting his shoulder before dismissing them. “Go shower. I shall wait out front. Do not talk to strangers.”

There's the groan of gears slowing down and the unsatisfying squeak of pairs of sweat-laced shoes squeaking against linoleum.

The gym showers are small and pokey and Eddie watches Jay slowly filter to the back of the group before stopping all together. Looking between the doors, Lips pressed into a pained line of confusion. Eddie looks through the gap in the door and pushes it open, softly kicking Jay in the ankle. She startles and stares at him, head tilted to the side. “What's wrong kid? You aint gonna shower?”

“I am.” Jay starts and the smallness of zeir voice makes something in Eddie fold up like a discarded crossword. “I just dunno where.” She turns away and stares between the doors, kicking her toes into the floor. A woman pushes past them, pushing open the door to the woman's showers and Jay sucks in an awkward breath of air before turning towards the opposite door as someone exits the male showers, a towel wrapped around his waist. “I don’t fit.” Jay replies sorrowfully. Almost like they are sick with themselves. It makes Eddie feel almost responsible for the gym thinking in binary.

Eddie wraps a protective arm around Jay, pinching at her shoulder to grab his attention. “You fit with the Blackpool Combat Club and they’re all in there.” Eddie points towards the male showers. “If you wanna, I can hold a towel up while ya shower. I’ll punch anyone who says anythin’ about you being there.”

“Yeah?” Jay mumbles, looking up at Eddie with multi-colored eyes that remind him of a newborn puppy, curious and nervous about the world around them. The grip on his shoulder tightens, not hard enough to hurt but hard enough to be protective.

“Yeah.”

Eddie is the last one to the car an hour later, quickly showered and dressed in a set of Mox’s spare clothes. Regal looks up from a book and tucks it into the center console when Eddie opens the door and sinks into the passenger seat. “Sorry bout making you wait.” There's a genuine apology as he closes the door.

“It is quite fine. Young master Jay explained what you did for him. That was very nice.” William pats Eddie on the shoulder the same way he did to Wheeler back at the hotel, warm and kind and fatherly and it makes Eddie smile.

“Yeah thanks Eddie.” Jay mumbles, tiredly distracted by Wheeler playing distractingly with their hair. Her head is on his shoulder and it makes Eddie smile and make a vague sound of ‘its fine’ before the car starts and Eddie directs Regal through the busy streets.

With more cars on the road, the journey takes longer and Mox begins to tap his feet impatiently against the faux leather, the sound of his converses dragging across the dark seats bouncing off the inside of the car. “Will you stop?” Eddie grumbles, reaching around to swat at Mox’s leg.

“No, this is taking forever. I'm hungry.” He complains, kicking a leg out to knock against the back of Eddie's forearm. Eddie growls, only slightly frustrated with his boyfriend's stubborn antics before turning his whole body around and cocking an eyebrow. Mox huffs, pulling his headphones over his ears and tugs his hoodie over his eyes like a stubborn teenager.

“Why don't we talk about the match we have?” Claudio chimes from the backseat, using a closed book to punctuate the air. From the back of the car, his voice sounds motherly and guarded yet tired. As if dealing with Eddie and Mox was almost a chore. There’s a collective hum of agreement and Eddie settles to stare out the front window.

“Blood and guts, with the stupid JAS.” Jay spits their words out like they're venom on his tongue and Wheeler wraps an arm around her middle, pulling zem as close as the seatbelt will let him.

“Yeah.” Wheeler states only somewhat fearfully and places his switch on his legs. “We’re gonna win!” The fear is quickly replaced with confidence and a small brush of pride. THere’s something about his excitement that finally makes something in Eddie’s brain click- there’s a small desire for bloodlust that appears from somewhere deep inside Wheeler Yuta and that small streak of vicious protectiveness is what drew Moxley towards the young boy. It all makes sense and Eddie smiles.

“Of course we're gonna win kid” Eddie replies flashing him a confident look from the rearview mirror, one that makes Wheeler preen and press a kiss to the curve of Jay’s jaw. Giggling when a rose-like blush coats itself across his cheeks. “You've got Moxxie and I on ya side.”

“It aint that hard to beat Jericho and his fucking cronies” Mox suddenly adds into the conversation, one headphone sitting off his ear. It fills the car with echoed music.

The BCC fall into a conversation about tactics and what weapons to use. Mox suggests broken glass and Regal glances up at the people in the back seat and gives a quick nod towards Claudio who, unsurprisingly has started a list on his phone. He makes a small humming sound as he types, always glancing up at Regal before putting something down.

“I can ask Danhausen to put a curse on him!” Jay suddenly blurts out, throwing their arms out in front of them; fingers spread and hands wiggling into the space between her and the back of the driver seat. He’s laughing at that idea; high-pitched and excited.

“That does mean, we'll owe him teeth.” Claudio states, jabbing a finger in the air. Eddie feels the car pull into a familiar parking lot and the lot of them jolt. Somehow, mixed between the discussion of torturing the JAS and singing along to Mox’s music, the group had collectively forgotten where Regal was driving them. The discussion doesn’t stop as they file out of the car and pile into the same booth where Eddie and Mox had sat this morning.

A waitress pours coffee for the small group and hands Jay a kids menu, patting them on the head. Mox releases a chuckle before yelping. “Don’t kick! It ain't my fault you look like you're ten!”

“It's not my fault that they think you're a senior!” Jay retorts, poking their tongue out. Wheeler taps their hand softly and with a smile, Jay pushes the menu between them. Fingers tapping against the pictures of food.

“Are they-” Eddie starts, leaning over the table to whisper to Claudio. Who raises his head and nods before going back to tapping on his phone. “Right.”

“You said you could get Danhausen to curse Jericho?” Claudio asks eventually. Waving Jay and Wheeler into silence when a waitress walks over and twirls a pencil from out behind her ear. Regal orders for them all apart from Eddie.

“I'll just have the waffles.” He replies, collecting the menus and passing them back to the waitress who he’s sure gave Mox a dirty look for holding his hand earlier in the day. He squints suspiciously before turning his attention back to the table. Mox eyes the cutlery drawer half-open across the diner and slowly he uses his elbow to knock Wheeler’s fork onto the floor.

“Oh no! Wheeler, how could you be so clumsy dropping your fork onto the floor!” Mox replies with enough theatrics that it makes Wheeler’s hurt expression morph into one of playful, almost childishness, surprise.

“But I-” Wheeler starts, eyebrows pressing together. It makes the corner of his eyes crease and Mox pats his shoulder. Eddie swallows a laugh and leans back against the booth, an eyebrow playfully cocked as Mox squeezes Wheeler’s shoulder and sends a quick wink over to Regal, as if he’s filling the older man in on some plan that the others are clueless about.

“Here let your big brother get it. Can’t have you crawling around on the dirty floor can we?”

Wheeler shakes his head quickly, almost giddy with whatever role he’s playing in Mox’s scheme.

“Why don’t you ask at the counter for another fork? You can use this one you’ll get sick.”

“But I can-” Wheeler starts, stopping when Mox leans closer and whispers something in his ear. He sighs, trying to hype up his dramatics. “I’ll get sick.” He parrots, leaving the booth with a frustrated eye roll.

The waitresses seem distracted with Wheeler and his polite, boyish charm. Mox watches for a few seconds as he waits patiently in line, hands in the small of his back before bending down and grabbing the fork, wrapping it in a napkin before tucking it into his inside jacket pocket. “For Wednesday.” “For Wednesday.” Eddie repeats, shifting to sit further up the booth when a waitress returns with Wheeler, and plates of their food. Wheels wiggles his new fork and curls his legs close to his chest as he starts to separate his fruit. Eddie slices his waffles while Claudio and Jay share toast, talking idly about a new musical that Jay wants to see.

“I’ll ask Danhausen about the teeth.” Wheeler mumbles around a mouthful of cantaloupe.

“We can always take Jays” Mox jokes, choking on his coffee when Jay’s hands fly to their mouth. “We can ask Doctor Brit since youre fucking her boyfriend.”

“No!” Jay squeaks, small voice muffled by their hands and a mouthful of toast. “She signed a contract!” Regal gives Mox a chastising look and it's Wheesl’s turn to kick him under the table. Mox slumps against the fake red leather and screws his nose up. “Twat.” Jay grumbles, slowly uncovering her mouth and after a soft amount of comfort from Wheeler, continues to eat her breakfast.

Claudio just nods and mouths a quick ‘thank you’ to Wheeler and quietly adds fork to the list of weapons for Wednesday. The rest of the late breakfast and early lunch is eaten in silence apart from the soft whispers between Jay and Wheeler. The former falling asleep on the latters shoulder, crumbs still on her bottom lip. Claudio uses a napkin to wipe their mouth and hands and smiles when Wheeler scoops them up and carries them back towards the car.

Mox taps Eddie on the shoulder as they are wandering outside to lean against the car, politely waiting for Regal to appear to unlock the car door. “Why dontcha come back to the hotel room? We can talk more about Wednesday.” The tiredness that had been locked away earlier seems to be floating in the corner of Mox’s eyes and Eddie seems to be reminded of blowing bubbles for his young nephew in the park the last time they went to New York when he stares into Mox’s eyes.

He’s silent for a little while, trying to read the double meaning behind the tired eyes and when he finds none. He just nods and listens to the car unlock. They pile back into the car, Eddie once again curled into the passenger side chair. Everything feels quieter on the drive back to the hotel; the full car is quiet apart from Jay's muffled breathing and Wheeler badly repressing yawns against the back of his hand. Mox is twirling the stolen fork in the midday sunlight and it glints in the sunlight.

Just like the quiet journey back to the hotel before, it feels quicker in the silence. They pull up into the hotel parking lot with a jolt. Jay tilts their head up, eyes confused and startled. “We’re home.” She whispers, softly nudging Wheeler in his ribs. He whimpers and Jay kisses the side of his lips. Regal chuckles from the driver's side as he pulls up and untangles his seatbelt. Mox seems to barely register what's happening and startles when Eddie pushes his knees.

“We’re goin now” He chimes, smiling when Mox nods and uses his foot to nudge the car door open and tucks the fork into his hoodie pocket. Jay squirms out, limbs still somewhat jellylike and soupy from falling asleep in an awkward position. Claudio is the last one to join them in the middle of the parking lot, wheeler slung over his shoulder like a sleeping child. “Does he always?-” Eddie asks as they wander through the hotel lobby, waving his hand.

“Yes, he pushes himself too hard and falls asleep on the car ride home.” Claudio keeps his voice low, hitching Wheeler up his frame and chuckling when he tilts his head against the curve of his jaw. “It is always good for him to have a nap.” Eddie nods, not sure what else to say. The elevator dings in front of them and Eddie stands aside to let Claudio in, using his hands to stop the doors from closing and separating the small group.

“It keeps his brain from spiraling afterwards, y'know the emotions from working out and then feeling shitty afterwards.” Mox doesn’t speak until the doors close and the elevator starts to slowly climb the floors. His blue eyes are tilted upwards, watching the little numbers roll away with every floor that they pass. Eddie makes a little sound of understanding and leans against one of the mirrored walls of the elevator watching Mox sway from the corner of his eyes. He smiles, unable to stop the warmth that fills the pit of his stomach from flooding into his veins. To anyone else, Eddie would say that this feeling makes him feel sick. The soft squishy feeling that bunches around his heart and makes his skin feel like he’s growing wings. The soft squishy feeling of love.

The elevator dings and the door opens. Mox is the first one to move, using his foot to hold the door open for Regal, who steps past and continues down the corridor, followed obediently by the rest of the Blackpool Combat Club, with Eddie bringing up the rear. His hand rests on Jay's shoulder as they walk “I’m gonna go back to my room, get some sleep before the show.”

“Dya want me to tell Mox?” She asks, pausing briefly to wave at the Young Bucks, barely dodging Nick's terrible attempt at throwing a headband at them. “Watch what you're doing Nicky, you're gonna lose your brother!”

Nick glances between Jay and over at Matt who is impatiently waiting by the elevator, purposely not looking over his shoulder at his younger brother as he taps his foot against the floor. “See ya later! Hi Eddie!” Nick yells, sprinting down the corridor. Only for Matt to step into the elevator and let it close on his brother's face. Eddie and Jay stifle laughs as he throws his arms up and sprints towards the stairs, fast enough that his shoes skid against the carpet.

“Anyway-” Eddie starts, continuing to walk. Jay makes a small chirping sound before following him, jogging at Eddie’s side to keep up with his larger steps. “Yeah could ya tell Moxxie?”

Jay nods, watching as Eddie cracks a smile and ruffles a hand through their shortcut red hair. “You're doing great, y'know that kid. Keep going.” He tells zem before stopping beside a hotel room door. “Now go before you get forgotten” With his arms folded, Eddie points to the members of the BCC, now small and ant-like at the opposite end of the small corridor.

“Later Eddie!” Jay calls, breaking into a swaying sprint, stopping when he collides against Mox. Eddie watches as he wraps an arm around their shoulders, tilting his head slightly before looking up and waving goodbye to Eddie. Jay pulls a face and Mox pushes them into the hotel room.

Regal is standing against the bed when Mox turns away from the door. He tilts his head coyly to the side and Mox knows what question is coming. He takes a deep breath and sits on the opposite bed, jolting when Claudio places a half-awake Wheeler down with a gentle thud.

“What IS going on with you and young master Edward?”

Mox sighs, tries to swallow the half smile that spreads across his face. “How much time ya got.”

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

TAGGING:

@smallestsnarkestgirl @skyqueen3 @josiewrites @itsnoosetome @jacedoe

@golden-disaster @sincyrlee @glitchaxolol @daddywrasslin @bikenny

@katries @thegizardofmars @miru-has-thoughts @powderflower

@miserablecreachur @afterdarkprincess @mobiblackout @pinksuperkliq @harvey-dent

@thekadster

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Invisible Assistance

Prompts: If ur taking requests do you think maybe you could write about the sanders sides as kids where Virgil subtly looks out for the others when they’re afraid of things (cuz he can tell as anxiety)? Like for example he plugs in nightlights in the hallway bc Logan is afraid of the dark. He leaves sticky notes with compliments out for Roman bc Roman’s afraid of rejection/falling short. He stitched together little stuffies for patton bc he’s hates being lonely. Those kinda things. Virgil would have to do it discreetly bc the other sides wouldn’t accept the help if it was from anxiety (even if they really really wanted the things that would help). And maybe the other sides find out after they accept Virgil bc he says something offhandedly about it? However you wanna write it tho!!! <3 - renjunstolemykidneys

Can I request a Sanders sides fic where one of the sides is touch averse? - anon

Oh is it kid fic time? it's kid fic time!

Read on Ao3

Warnings: none! fluff land down below bois

Pairings: it is found family to the MAX

Word Count: 3836

When one of the others is afraid, a patch on the back of Virgil’s neck tingles.

It doesn’t hurt, which is good, because that would be really annoying, but it tingles.

Or, five times Virgil helps one of the other Sides when they're afraid, and one time they show him how much they appreciate it.

When one of the others is afraid, a patch on the back of Virgil’s neck tingles.

It doesn’t hurt, which is good, because that would be really annoying, but it tingles. He used to be scared of it. He ran to Janus the first time it happened because he didn’t know what he did wrong, he didn’t know why this thing was happening to him. Janus had calmed him down, walked him through his breathing exercises, and said that it was one of his powers.

“Powers? What powers?”

“I can grow extra arms and I can tell when people are lying,” Janus had said, “those are my powers. You can tell when people are afraid.”

And Virgil could. There was a small patch on the back of his neck that acted like a fear detector, where he could tell what was wrong. Over time, he had figured out how to tell who it was that was afraid.

Logan’s fear felt really fuzzy.

Not like the soft blankets that Patton likes from the hall closet, but the kinda weird static that the TV has sometimes when the video games won’t load properly. It’s fuzzy. It’s kind of hard to think. Sometimes, if it’s really bad, it gets kind of hard to see.

Logan doesn’t like being afraid and Virgil doesn’t blame him. Being afraid isn’t fun, that’s why he doesn’t like it.

Logan’s fear is fuzzy because Logan is Logic. Logan makes things clearer, easier to understand, because that’s his power. He’s really good at it. When Virgil gets afraid for himself, Logan is really good at explaining why it’s not so scary after all. Sometimes it doesn’t always work, but it works most of the time. But Virgil can’t do what Logan does for him because that’s not his power. He just knows when Logan is scared and fuzzy.

At first, Virgil thought it was something wrong with his glasses. After all, Logan needs them to see, doesn’t he? So if his glasses are fuzzy, he’ll be fuzzy. But Logan uses the glasses to see outside, not inside. So it isn’t the glasses. So he starts trying to figure out what Logan is scared of.

Then he notices that Logan’s light stays on all night while everybody else turns their light off.

He mumbles something about it to Logan the next day and Logan tells him that’s because he likes to read at night and so he needs the light. But Janus said his mouth felt weird after Logan said that so Logan’s lying.

Oh. Maybe Logan’s scared of the dark.

Virgil goes back to his room and opens his closet. He scrambles up on the step stool—putting his arms out for balance like Patton and Janus said—and reaches for the box of night lights. He pulls the cardboard down and rifles through it, looking for ones that Logan would like. He comes across a collection of night lights that Thomas saw at the space museum—what was it called? He pulls one closer and reads off the label.

“Planetarium,” he mumbles, “got it.”

It’s a set of nine night lights, one for each planet, and a big one to be the Sun. He scurries out into the hall and checks to make sure no one is around. There’s no one there. He tucks the box under his bed and scampers off. He needs to count how many outlets there are to see how many lights he’ll need.

There is one by the bathroom, two in the middle of the hall, one by Patton’s door, one by Roman’s door, one by Remus’s door, one by Janus’s room, one by Logan’s room, one by his room, and one at the top of the stairs.

One…two…three…four…five…six…seven…eight…nine…ten.

Perfect.

Virgil hurries back to the cardboard box and makes sure there are ten night lights. There are. Now all he needs to do is figure out where each one has to go.

The Sun is Logan’s room. Obviously. Mercury can go with Roman because those two love to play together. That would make Venus Remus because the twins are very close too.

Patton is the Earth because he takes care of all of them. Janus can be Jupiter because he likes being the tallest.

The bathroom can be Uranus.

The stairs can be Neptune because Logan likes that Neptune spins on its side, which is really cool. And the stairs are kind of sideways so it matched.

Virgil holds the last night light in his hands. Pluto. It’s small, a kind of purple-gray. It matches the sleeves of his pajamas. As he walks back to his room, he plugs the Pluto into the outlet next to his door.

Perfect.

He doesn’t feel Logan getting scared by the dark anymore and the Sun nightlight is really bright.

2.

Roman’s fear makes his neck feel hot. Almost like he’s embarrassed by something or he’s ashamed of something. He doesn’t like it, and he can imagine that Roman doesn’t like it very much either.

Roman is really loud. He really likes singing at the top of his lungs, even when there are like four other people in the room that are trying to do something. He really likes talking loudly too, even when they’re trying to do something. Sometimes Virgil thinks that Roman is too loud, but he’d never say that to him. That would be mean.

Roman gets hurt a lot. He says it’s because of his quests in the Imagination but Janus doesn’t believe him. Not about all of them. And that would be a weird place to get bruises. Virgil goes in there too sometimes, to play with Remus and Roman or to train with Roman. One of his other powers is fighting the things that come to hurt Thomas so he has to be ready. And he only gets bruises on his arms and legs from that.

Roman gets them everywhere. And Roman’s a good fighter! So it doesn’t make sense that he’s really hurt all the time.

Virgil does figure out that Roman gets hurt when Thomas feels bad about something. When Roman and Thomas have been working really hard on something and it doesn’t go well, Roman goes off into the Imagination and he looks hurt when he comes back. That’s when Virgil feels that he’s scared.

When they get a bit older and Virgil can start confidently naming it ‘rejection,’ he starts to notice that Roman slumps more when he’s hurt. Like it physically hurts to stand up straight. Which is really bad, because Roman loves to sing but you can’t sing properly if you don’t stand up straight. And if Roman can’t sing, he can’t make himself feel better.

Virgil also notices that Roman really doesn’t like it when he’s not sure what to do.

Virgil isn’t the best person to go to for this, because he’s always upset that things are going to happen and they’re going to happen and they don’t know how. But he notices that Logan, who always knows what’s good to pay attention to, doesn’t help either. Patton is the only one who seems to be able to help. And he helps by telling Roman that he’s doing a good job, that they will help, that it’s okay. Roman likes being told that it’s okay.

Virgil can get behind that.

But Roman isn’t always around when Virgil remembers to tell him that, so he decides to write it down.

On his desk, there is a pack of red post-it notes. Virgil stashes one in his pocket all the time with a pen. When he thinks of something that Roman should hear, he writes it down and sticks it on Roman’s door. He doesn’t go into Roman’s room, that’s mean. And rude. He knows better.

Things like ‘I like your singing.’ Or ‘The pancakes you made were really good.’ Or ‘You did a good job today.’ That kind of thing. Sometimes it’s just ‘I like you.’ Because Roman is good and Virgil likes him. A lot.

When he feels Roman start to get afraid, he goes and writes it down and sticks it on the door. Then he retreats to his room and waits, holding his breath, until he hears the creak of a door down the hall and the fear goes away. If he waits a few more minutes, normally he’ll hear Roman start to sing.

Then he lets himself smile.

3.

Patton’s fear feels really heavy. Like…really heavy. It kind of hurts to breathe sometimes if it catches Virgil off-guard. So he really doesn’t like Patton’s fear.

What makes it harder is that Patton is really good at hiding when he’s actually afraid. He screams really loudly when there’s a spider or when something surprises him—thank you, Remus—but when he’s afraid, it’s harder to tell.

But Virgil sometimes catches him sitting in the living room by himself, watching TV, and he’ll be afraid. Not of what’s on the TV, but of something else. So he’ll come downstairs and ask if Patton’s okay and Patton will say he’s fine, but then Virgil will curl up in a chair and that won’t be true. The fear will still be there. It’s only when someone else comes down that it goes away.

Virgil remembers very clearly the day that he spent an hour sitting downstairs with Patton and left to go to the bathroom. He had come back downstairs to see Janus next to Patton and Patton wasn’t afraid anymore. He’d gone back to his room and thought about it.

Virgil couldn’t help with this as he was, but the others could. Patton was afraid of…of being left alone?

Okay. Okay, Virgil could make things that would make Patton feel less alone.

He was never really good at making things, not like the twins were, but he was good at fixing things when they got ripped. When he wakes up in the middle of the night from nightmares he knows how to fix his blankets and pillows and pajamas. So he takes the scraps of fabric he has from all the ones he still had to fix and frowns.

Patton likes frogs. So he draws a frog on the blue sheet and cuts it out carefully. He folds the fabric over and cuts out another one. He stitches them wrong sides together, leaving a little bit at the bottom. He turns it inside out and fills it with stuffing from the pillow. Then he sews the bottom back up. It’s a little frog plushie, and it’s for Patton.

He leaves it outside Patton’s door to a squeal of delight.

When he feels Patton get lonely again, he makes another one. This time it’s from the galaxy pillow and he makes a cat. The cat’s eyes don’t come out right when he draws them but they kind of look like glasses. Logan’s glasses.

The next time, he makes a lion. The lion is fuzzy because the slipper that was falling apart worked really well for a mane. He gives it Roman’s favorite red sash because he accidentally cut the fabric in the wrong place and needed to keep the stuffing inside.

After the lion, he makes a snake. He gives it a little paper hat like the one Janus wears. He giggles when he sees the final thing, it kind of looks like it belongs in Phineas and Ferb. Agent J.

When Patton gets really afraid, he looks at the last bit of the green fabric he has and chews his lip. Can he…maybe he can make an octopus. Like Remus. It takes a long time and he accidentally pricks his fingers a couple of times, but he gets a sloppy-looking octopus. After a moment, he grabs the pen and draws a smile with lots of sharp teeth. Like Remus.

Patton doesn’t feel so lonely after that.

4.

Remus’s fear feels muffled. Not like it’s there but it’s not really, but it gets hard for Virgil to hear things. Not like Logan’s fear where everything is fuzzy, but like someone has their hands over his ears. He doesn’t like it. It makes his own head louder.

He notices that Roman is loud but Remus is louder. Remus is constantly making noise, not like Roman’s outbursts, but always. He’s tapping a table or stomping his foot or humming to himself. He’s never quiet and when he’s quiet it’s bad.

He remembers watching Roman and Remus come out of the Imagination once and Remus hadn’t made a noise. The twins had scurried off to Remus’s room and they hadn’t come out until breakfast the next morning. Virgil’s head had been really loud all night because everything else had been muffled.

Remus isn’t quiet. Remus doesn’t like the quiet. Remus hates the quiet. Remus is scared of the quiet.

Virgil doesn’t like the quiet either, but he can’t exactly make noise without worrying that he’s disturbing everyone else. But Remus doesn’t have that problem. Remus is loud and he likes that he’s disturbing everyone else.

But maybe Virgil can help.

There is another box on his desk full of fidget toys. Virgil doesn’t use them most of the time because they’re stuck in the back of the desk but he does like the fidget cube. Maybe Remus would like it too?

He figures out how to get another one and makes it green and black. He puts it outside Remus’s door.

Well, it’s not quiet anymore.

But Remus isn’t afraid, so that’s fine.

It’s all fine.

Virgil remembers too late that the reason he doesn’t use the fidget cube that often is because he can’t stand the sound of the clicking and the squeaking of the cube. But Remus isn’t afraid anymore and he has his headphones.

So it’s fine.

5.

Janus’s fear is cold.

It’s probably why Virgil took so long to work out that Janus was scared of anything. Janus didn’t like to admit that he was scared of things. Janus didn’t like to admit much of anything if he’s being real, but he really doesn’t like admitting when he’s scared. And Virgil is used to being cold so he probably didn’t notice it for a long time.

But Janus does get scared and when he does, the back of Virgil’s neck feels cold.

Janus is like a snake the same way Remus is like an octopus and Patton is like a frog. If Logan is right and he normally is, it’s like how Virgil is like a spider and Roman is like a lion and Logan is like a cat. Which means that there are certain things that Janus does that are like a snake.

Even if he has too many arms to be a snake. Like…way too many.

Janus has a forked tongue. Remus is jealous and Patton thinks it’s kind of weird. Janus has scales. Roman thinks they’re strange and Logan thinks they’re interesting. Janus hisses sometimes when he’s tired or upset. They all think it’s cute. Janus doesn’t like that either.

They’re watching a documentary for a science class and snakes come up. Logan leans forward with his notebook, Patton grabs his juice box, and Remus starts thinking of ideas to do with Roman later. Janus watches the documentary. Virgil watches Janus.

“Snakes, unlike humans and most other mammals, are cold-blooded. This means they have an inability to regulate their own body temperature. They must bathe in the sun to stay warm.”

What?

“But basking out here in the open is risky. Predators, like this hawk, can see snakes in the grass, thanks to their incredible eyesight. The snake has to choose. Being safe and cold, or risk getting warm and being lunch.”

What?

The others are focused on the footage on screen or by their own conversations, so Virgil can stare at Janus. Is that…is that why Janus doesn’t like coming to spend time with them? Is that why he doesn’t like coming out of his room? They’re not going to eat him, he’s part of Thomas! They need him like they need each other.

But if Janus is part snake…then it would make sense why he’s nervous about being in the open.

Only later, when Virgil is startled awake by how cold he feels, does he realize that he might’ve been wrong.

Janus isn’t afraid of being around the others, he is afraid of what happens when he isn’t around the others. Because Virgil never feels Janus afraid when he’s with them. He only ever feels it when Janus is alone.

When Janus isn’t in the warmth with them. When he’s safer, maybe, but when he’s cold.

Janus is afraid of the cold.

Well. That’s the easiest one to fix.

Virgil gathers up all the blankets he has and goes to Janus’s door. He dumps the pile on the floor and scampers back to his room, knowing that Janus would’ve heard something hit the ground. He waits, waits, waits, and then—

It’s gone.

The cold on the back of his neck is gone.

Virgil smiles and burrows down under the one sheet on his bed. He pulls his arms tight around his pillow and buries himself under the thin sheet. He curls up as tight as he can and feels that the back of his neck is no longer cold from Janus’s fear.

Janus is warm. That’s all that matters.

Janus doesn’t feel cold again. Janus feels warm. Janus feels warm. Janus feels warm.

Logan has light.

Roman has love.

Patton has friends.

Remus has noise.

Janus has warmth.

They’re okay.

They’re okay.

They’re…okay.

Virgil falls asleep in the cold room.

+1

Virgil doesn’t like touch.

It…it’s not that he’s afraid of it, but it…

Okay. Here’s the thing. Virgil doesn’t like that the others can touch him.

Thomas can’t touch him. Thomas is safe, Virgil keeps him safe, but he doesn’t touch him. Thomas is safe and that is Virgil’s job because he is afraid and Thomas isn’t and it’s fine. There’s a line there. Thomas and Virgil hold the line between each other and it works.

Patton tries to pull him in for hugs and Patton doesn’t like being alone but his hugs make Virgil feel like he’s trapped.

Logan tries to touch him on the shoulder to get his attention and Logan likes being listened to but that hand feels like a live wire.

Roman tries to pull him close when they fight and Roman doesn’t like being rejected but sometimes Virgil doesn’t know whether he wants to fight the monster or Roman’s grip on him.

Remus tries to scare him by grabbing him and Remus likes noise but Virgil can’t stand being grabbed.

Janus tries to poke him because getting people out of their comfort zones is part of his job but Virgil worked hard for his comfort zone and he doesn’t want to get out of it.

Virgil doesn’t like being touched.

But that’s okay. He can…it’s not like the others normally want to touch him.

Virgil likes to sit by himself. There’s less to worry about when he sits by himself. He can sit and he can make his own noise and do his own thing and he can be fine. He can hold a pillow if he needs to and he won’t get overwhelmed. He can just…be.

He likes the idea of just being.

He doesn’t get to do it often.

So he’s surprised when he opens his door one morning and there’s a box sitting in front of his door.

He takes it back inside and opens it up. His mouth falls open.

There, on top, is the last post-it he stuck on Roman’s door. The one that just said ‘you’re important.’ He picks it up with shaky fingers and turns it over.

Virgil, these are for you. We know what you’ve been doing to help and we want to help you too. We know that you do not like being touched so we got you something that can help. You are important too.

Under the message that makes Virgil blink back tears for a second, he sees the names of the others scrawled in their colors. He puts the post-it note in the most important part of his desk and peers back into the box.

He lifts out a spaceship nightlight. It’s the one from the movie he and Logan had spotted on the way back from school. It’s very shiny and smooth to the touch.

There’s a notebook in the box that has the quote from Winnie the Pooh: ‘Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.’ A purple pen is tucked into the binding.

A spider plushie! It’s soft, it’s fuzzy, it fits right into the palm of his hand. It looks like it’s been made out of the Halloween sweater they got given for Christmas. It was a weird year.

There’s a small tin of putty. It’s purple and black, sparkly, and it makes really cool sounds as Virgil stretches and squeezes it. If he traps an air bubble in it, it makes a satisfying pop sound.

Virgil’s eyes widen as he pulls out a weighted blanket. Oh, it’s warm. It’s so warm. It feels perfect. He can understand why Janus hisses when he’s tired now, he wants to do it himself and he’s not even a snake.

There’s one more thing in the box. It’s dark, soft, and for a moment he thinks it could be another blanket. But as he pulls it out, his mouth drops open.

It’s a hoodie. A simple, plain, black hoodie, that’s soft and looks warm and looks big enough to cover all of his upper body.

They…they know he doesn’t like being touched so…so they gave him a shield.

Oh.

Oh.

Virgil doesn’t take the hoodie off until he switches it for a purple one many years later.

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[genshin-fluff]

Diluc Being Jealous.

Hello! I’ve received requests regarding jealousy headcanons, and I started to work on them. However, they turned out to be quite long so I decided to post them separately. Here is Diluc. Please enjoy your reading!  

You were supposed to meet with Diluc at the tavern around 8pm.

However, on your way there, to your surprise, you stumble upon nobody else but Zhongli, who apparently was visiting Mondstadt for business reasons.

“It may so happens that I have a few free moments, y/n. Perhaps you could show me a good place to dine in Mondstadt?”

You couldn’t say no to this man. It was 7 pm and you had a free hour anyway.

Good Hunter was closed so the only choice was the tavern.

Diluc was the bartender, and he was constantly checking the door whenever it would open, hoping to see you.

When you finally came, he couldn’t help but smile. He almost raised his hand to greet you when he saw. another man. with you.

Diluc. Was. Not. Pleased™.

He would instantly switch to his default “arm crossed, slight frown stance” and keep it for the whole time you two were there.

You are the one who asked to meet him at the tavern, and now you show up with another guy? Are you that shameless?

You greet him with a warm smile on your face, and take a seat at a table with Zhongli.

He would try his best not to stare or listen in, and he’d try his best to focus on other customers, but he just.. couldn’t help himself, especially when you were literally in the same room as him. What were you two even talking about? Are you that giddy with everybody?

Diluc was a very self-confident person, but even he noticed how cool Zhongli was. He was perfect in every way. His clothes fit perfectly, he was also undeniably handsome, and, from what he could hear, he was also very well spoken and rich. Even his ponytail was slicker than his.

As he was thinking about these things, he’d quietly brood behind the counter. Did you forget about the fact that you were supposed to meet him?

Deep down, he’d be extremely sad. He’s opened up his heart to you, which was already a difficult task, and seeing you with another man laughing and having such a great time, without any notice from you, would make him question whether or not you feel the same for him.

However, the rational side of him knew that there must be something else to it, because you wouldn’t just show up in front of him out of nowhere with another guy. He honestly just wanted to hear an explanation to ease his heart.

Eventually, you told Zhongli that you were glad you two could catch up, and that you could continue this conversation tomorrow, because at that moment you were supposed to meet Diluc.

You two went to the counter to pay the bill, and Diluc would try his BEST to be as indifferent as possible.

“That’ll be 5000 mora.”

Zhongli would reach for his pocket.

“O h n o. I am so sorry y/n, but it seems that I am out of mora again.”

“Again?? It’s like the fourth or fifth time!”

Again? Fifth time? Have you been meeting this guy all this time?

You sighed and wanted to grab your wallet, but Diluc stopped you.

“It’s fine, it’s on the house.”

“You are quite a gentleman indeed. Thank you so much for your generosity. I’m glad to know that y/n has such kind people beside her. I will see myself out, y/n. Thank you for such an entertaining evening. “

And with that, Zhongli would leave.

You’d turn your face to Diluc, only to be met with cold, unreadable eyes.

“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting for a long time. I tried to finish with Zhongli in time. Maybe we could leave the tavern and go for a walk? ”

“As you can see, y/n. I am quite busy right now. It seems that you were busy as well too.”

“It’s fine, I can wait. I was actually looking forward to meeting you.”

Diluc would almost freeze. You just came with another man and you would say such sweet things to him? He couldn’t be angry with you and he couldn’t say no. He hoped everything was a misunderstanding.

“..Fine. I’ll be done in 2 minutes.”

You two left the tavern and went for a walk outside Mondstadt.

You noticed that he wasn’t feeling well, but you didn’t say anything until you two were alone.

In fact, Diluc was waiting for this exact moment too, because the instant nobody was around, he couldn’t hold it in anymore. He had to ask you about the tavern. His mind was brimming with questions. Have you been playing with his feelings all along? Was everything just a joke to you, when he took everything so seriously?

“So, who was that guy? You seemed quite cheerful during the whole time he was there. ”

He’d try his best to seem unaffected, but you noticed the small crackle in his voice, and could tell that there was more to it.

“Oh, Zhongli?? He’s just a good friend of mine that helped me in a mission in Liyue! He never has money on him, and I end up paying for him almost all the time!! I’m sorry if I caused you trouble.”

Diluc was starting to feel more at ease.

“Fine. And how come you showed up with him at the tavern? I thought you were supposed to meet me. Or perhaps were you too captivated by his words that you forgot?”

He didn’t want to seem overtly desperate, but the words just sprung out of his mouth. He is usually very well composed, but when it comes to you, he just can’t do it.

“How could I forget, you silly!! It’s just been a while since the last time I saw him, and I thought I could catch up with him since I had a free hour before our date. I’m sorry if I made you think otherwise. I told him that I was supposed to meet you, and he left. There is nothing more. He is just a dear friend.”

Hearing you explain everything to him made him feel so embarrassed for ever doubting your feelings.

“And that’s everything, nothing more? He seemed  to be quite a charming guy.”

“Yes, he is, but I am already in love with you. I can see you and only you, everything else is just in the background.”

As you say this, you grab his hand and squeeze your body closer to his. His hand was warm, and slightly trembling. Maybe you did make him worry.

Diluc exhaled and squeezed your hand back. How could you be so so cute? He is now feeling like a fool for ever doubting your feelings. He can finally relax.

He literally stops in the middle of the road and locks you into a tight hug, while whispering into your ear “it’s fine, I just thought that maybe you.. were on a date with him and that you didn’t have feelings for me.”

His voice was low, almost exhausted. He was glad everything was just a misunderstanding. He fell hard for you, and just the thought that you took everything as a joke was making him feel nauseous.

Oh, now you understand what it was all about.

You hug him back as tightly as possible and reassure him that everything is fine.

“No, never. You’re the only one I have feelings for, and the only one person that I want to go on dates with.”

Diluc puffed with a smile on his face. You were so corny and he was so happy to hear that everything was fine.

When he let go, you couldn’t help but ask

“May I ask if you were jealous?”

“I have no recollection of such events.” he deadpans.

Pls treasure this man cuz he may seem grumpy and cold, but his heart is so so soft and sensitive for the people he truly loves. You are the only person in his life for whom he harbors such feelings, so please take a good care of him.

[worldserasingandcreatinginmymind]

Disappointment | Ivan x Daughter!Reader

Requested by @theweasleytwinsownmyjuicyass​: “so I’m really a sucker for parent tropes so maybe you could write a Ivan x daughter!reader where he had her with a non grisha woman who gave birth and later left the baby at the little palace for him. Now she is grow and Ivan being Ivan is hard on her especially because she’s kind of failing being a heartrender (cuz that’s not her real grisha power) and they have a huge fight about it and she runs away in the middle of the night. When Ivan find out in the morning he becomes very worried and asks The darkling and Fedyor to help him find her. (Maybe they find her a bit hurt cuz she was attacked. Just for more angst and feels:3)”

Pairing: Ivan x Daughter!Reader, Fedyor x reader (platonic)

Word Count: 1900

Warnings: angst, mentions of blood

A/N: As always, spelling and grammar are not my strongest skills so please be kind :)

Masterlist

- - - - -

“Ivan!” Fedyor calls as he runs down the corridor carrying a medium size wicker basket “Ivan, someone left this outside the doors of the little palace” 

“Oh?” Ivan says, uninterested as he continues walking.

“The note left with it says its for you.” 

Ivan stops walking and abruptly turns around to finally face Fedyor who hold out the basket to him. He takes it and slowly lifts the lid, freezing when he lays eyes on what’s inside. 

“What is it? What’s in there?” Fedyor asks curiously but gets no reply “Ivan?” 

He moves to stand by Ivan’s side, peering over to see the baby girl wrapped up tight inside, fast asleep without a care in the world. 

“I don't understand, why would someone give you a baby?” Fedyor asks. 

“Because she’s my daughter.”

— — — — 

Seventeen years later. 

Growing up in the Little Palace wasn’t exactly a normal childhood, especially being the daughter of one of the Darkling’s most favoured Grisha. You never really felt like you fit in with the other kids, especially since your father made you learn with Heartrender children even though you were actually a healer. He was convinced you would share the same power as him and because you wanted to please him you went along with it. 

It was hard growing up without a mother too. Your father was always honest with you, about how he had spent the night with a non Grisha woman and hadn’t even known she was pregnant until one night you were left on the doorstep. Part of you wished you could meet your mother, but the other part of you didn’t care about a woman who could so easily abandon you. 

You were close with your father’s lover, Fedyor. He became the closest thing you had to a mother figure. He was softer and more caring than your father. When you were younger he would occasionally sneak you away for fun days out playing games in the woods. Even now he would take you out on horse riding lessons when he felt you needed a break. 

Ivan did not approve. 

“She’s my daughter and I say she must attend all her training sessions!” 

“You're too hard on her Ivan, the poor girl is exhausted from all the pressure you put on her. Give her a break” Fedyor argues back as you press your ear to their door so you can hear. 

“I’ll give her a break when she earns one. Right now she’s the worst in the whole class of heartrenders. Even the children are better than her”

“Maybe because I’m not actually a Heartrender!” You say as you burst through the door.

“This is a private conversation!” Ivan shouts. 

“Not if it’s about me it’s not.” You shout back

“Y/N” Fedyor speaks calmly, trying to defuse the situation “maybe you should go-”

“No Fedyor, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t live like this” you turn and address your father “All I’ve ever done, all I ever do is try and live up to your expectations. Try to be like you. Hide my true self because I’m terrified of disappointing you. But I can’t lie anymore. I’m not a Heartrender. And no matter how much you or I try to force it, I will never be a Heartrender.”

You take off your red and black kefta and hand it to your father. There’s a silence as he looks down at it before finally looking up at you.  

“You're just going to give up on everything we’ve worked for, everything you’ve wanted?”

“I never wanted any of this Dad. You did! I just went a long with it to please you”

“Get out of my sight!” 

“Dad-”

“I have never been more disappointed in you than I am right now. I am ashamed to call you my daughter”

“Ivan!” Fedyor speaks up as you stand there silent for a moment, staring at your father.

Fedyor comes to your side, placing a hand on your shoulder but you shake him off and run out the room as hot tears fill your eyes. You hear Fedyor call after you but you ignore him, continuing to run out of the Little Palace. You don't stop running until you reach the woods, leaning against a tree and sliding your back against the rough bark to sit on the ground. You bring your knees up to your chest and let the tears flow, unaware of the stranger watching you in the darkness. 

You're disturbed by the sound of a twig snapping behind you. You lift your head up and take a deep breath, silently listening. Slowly you stand up, keeping your back to the tree as you look around you. Then you spot him, an unknown man creeping toward you. From his clothes you guess he’s a peasant from the village. 

“Are you alright?” He asks. Something about him sets your nerves on edge. 

“Yes I’m fine” you say quietly, wiping a tear off your cheek 

“Are you from the palace?” He asks, taking a step closer. You nod. “What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?” 

“I could ask you the same thing” you reply

“It’s not safe to be out here alone you know” he takes another step closer “never now who you might meet” 

“You're right, I should head back” you go to leave but he grabs your arm, pulling you back “let go of me!”

“Not until you give me something in return” he pulls a dagger from his pocket

“What do you want from me?” You struggle against him but his grip is tight 

“Whatever you’ve got. Money. Jewellery. Anything that’s worth something. You lot up in your fancy palace have no idea how hard it is to be poor”

“I’m sorry but I don't have anything”

“Then you're no use to me!” He growls, plunging his dagger into your side. You let out a silent gasp. He pulls the dagger back out and you drop to the ground, clutching the wound, feeling the heat of the blood cover your hands.

“Grisha bitch” he spits before running away, disappearing into the darkness. You try to drag yourself back toward the palace but you don't have the energy. You prop yourself up against the base of a tree and wait for the darkness to take you. 

— — — — 

“Fedyor wake up!” Ivan rushes into their room, opening the curtains to let the morning sun stream through “Y/N is missing!”

“What!” Fedyor sits up instantly 

“I went to apologise but she isn’t in her room and her bed hasn’t been slept in. Im really worried Fed. Where is my girl?” He chokes up as tears spring to his eyes.

“Okay calm down. We’ll find her” 

Ten minutes later the boys are heading out the Little Palace, searching the grounds with the help of General Kirigan. 

“Do you have any idea where she could have gone?” The Darkling asks. Ivan shakes his head. 

“I think I might know.” Fedyor announces

The three of the mount their horses and set off towards the woods. Once they enter they slow down as Fedyor explains this is where the two of you come to relax and get away from the Palace when things get too much. Ivan feels his heart sink, knowing that he’s the reason you even need a place to escape to. 

“There!” Fedyor shouts, pointing to your lifeless body laying on the ground. 

 The men jump off their horses and run to your side, Ivan cradling your head in his lap and stroking your face while the Darkling checks your wound. 

“Oh my saints! Y/N, my girl. Please come back to me” Ivan cries

“We need to get her back to the Palace. She needs a healer” The Darkling announces as Ivan picks you up and carries you to his horse. He rides faster than he’s ever ridden to get you there.

“We need a healer! Now!” The General shouts the second he enter the Palace, and instantly multiple healers come running. They follow him as he carries you to your room and lays you down on your bed. 

Ivan and Fedyor watch anxiously as the healers get to work. What feels like hours later they finally finish, turning to address the men.

“She’s stable now.” 

“Thank you, thank you so much!” Ivan lets out tears of relief as Fedyor hugs him.

“We’ll leave you three alone.” The Darkling says, ushering the healers out of the room. “I’m glad she’s okay” he smiles before leaving, shutting the door behind him. 

A few hours later you're eyes finally flutter open. You look around the room confused as to how you got there. You remember the woods. The creepy stranger. Being stabbed. You sit up, lifting your shirt to see now no wound at all. Then you look over and see Fedyor and Ivan asleep at the foot of your bed. You reach over and gently squeeze your father’s hand. He opens his sleepy eyes and when he sees you awake shoots up right, quickly pulling you into a tight hug. Fedyor also wakes up and smiles at you. 

“I’ll leave you two to chat” he says smiling again before leaving. 

Your father sits on the edge of the bed facing you. 

“Y/N. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said what I said last night, I didn’t mean it. I was angry with Fedyor but I shouldn’t have taken it out on you”

“It felt like you meant it”

“I could never be ashamed of you. You are a beautiful, intelligent, strong young woman. I am proud to be your father.” He takes your hand in his “And I am so sorry I made you feel like you had to be someone else just to please me. I always hoped you’d be a Heartrender like me, but I shouldn’t have put that pressure on you. From now on you are free to be the person you want to be.”

“Are you sure I’m not a disappointment?” 

“You could never disappoint me Y/N. You are my daughter and I love you more than anything in the world” he moves to sit next to you and puts his arm around you. You snuggle into him.

“Even more than Fedyor?” You ask playfully

“Even more than Fedyor” 

“Hey I heard that!” Fedyor shouts as he pokes his head back in the room

“We love you too Fedyor!” You shout back, gesturing for him to join you. He sits on the other side of you so you are sandwiches between the two of them. You hold his hand and rest your head on your father’s shoulder. 

You may not have a mother, but you do have two fathers. And you wouldn’t change them for the world. 

Your perfect little family. 

[curlynerd]

Just Say It

Happy gift posting day for the @starrynightdeancas gift exchange! I had two assignees, so I'm posting two fics today! My 2nd gift recipient is @deanwinchesteradjacent! She requested canon-adjacent Destiel with fluff, action, and a happy ending. I hope you like it! <3

Word Count: 7.5K Rating: T Summary: A string of violent deaths at an otherwise charming B&B was all the excuse Dean needed to drag Cas down to Florida for some fun in the sun. Things had been awkward since Cas came back from the Empty and they could finally be together, but Dean was sure that a romantic getaway was the perfect thing to help Cas get out of the training wheels stage of Angel's-First-Romance and start acting like a real couple. Just as soon as they took care of a vengeful spirit. What could possibly go wrong? Notes: Post canon, fix-it fic, oneshot, love confessions, Dean is bad at feelings, case fic, beach fic.

Also read it on AO3!

“Alright, I’m heading out.”

“Did you pack deodorant?”

“Dean…”

“Toothpaste? Mouthwash?”

“...”

“Those fancy hair products? Cuz there’s just. So. Many--”

“Dean! I’ve lived my whole life on the road. I know how to pack a damn dufflebag!”

Dean smirked, unperturbed by Sam’s whining. “Yeah but Eileen is a classy lady. She’s not gonna put up with your usual road stank.”

Sam sighed in annoyance as he readjusted the bag on his shoulder. “I’m not the one who wears his underwear three days in a row, jerk.”

“Better leave that attitude at home, bitch,” Dean said cheerfully. “It’s your anniversary, after all.”

Sam’s mouth twitched into a shy grin despite his best efforts. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll be on my best behavior,” he said, letting Dean have one last bit of fun before he left. “You and Cas too. Don’t get into trouble.” He nodded in farewell before he climbed the stairs to the bunker door.

“Oh, and Sammy?”

Sam paused at the top of the stairs and turned around. Almost like he could sense what was coming, his eyebrow twitched in irritation. Dean hucked a box up to the landing, and Sam fumbled to catch it. Dean flashed a shit-eating grin as Sam read the Trojan label and fixed him with a scowl. “Make sure you wrap it before you tap it, Sammy.”

Sam rolled his eyes as he walked out the door.

Dean laughed to himself as he turned back to his laptop, scrolling through news articles looking for a hunt. He was still at it an hour later when Cas came shuffling into the room still in his pajamas, two cups of coffee in hand.

“Mornin’ Sunshine,” Dean crooned cheerfully. Cas’ hair was in wild disarray, and between that and his worn, brown sweatshirt and loose pajama bottoms, he looked more like a bear stumbling out of hibernation than a guy just waking up. “Sam already left.”

Cas set a mug down in front of Dean before slumping down into the chair beside him. “I hope he and Eileen have fun this week,” he mumbled as he hunched over his coffee.

Dean smiled at how adorable Cas looked, all grumpy and sleep-ruffled. He was still an angel...somewhat. He had Grace, if only a little. So close to mortality, Cas often needed mundane human things like sleep and food. He wasn’t particularly thrilled about it. In fact, he was so irritated about the whole thing that Dean hadn’t been able to work up the nerve to invite him to sleep in his room, instead of alone. Dean chewed on his lower lip. Maybe after this case, things would change.

“Are you looking up a case?” Cas asked, tilting toward Dean’s screen.

“Uh...yeah.” With forced casualness, Dean turned the laptop so Cas could read a headline from last year: “Gruesome Death at Bed and Breakfast Leaves Locals Worried.” “Over the past forty years, there’ve been six deaths at this B&B. All either heart attacks or a brain hemorrhage. All without a scratch on ‘em. Always a couple. Always on the same night: this Friday. That sure screams ‘ghost’ to me.”

“Key West?” Cas asked as he scanned the article. “Florida? That’s quite a drive.”

Dean shrugged. His fingers tapped against the tabletop. “It is, but hell, why not? Sam gets the week off with Eileen, why can’t we have a little vacation too?”

Cas narrowed his eyes. Suspicious. He was suspicious. Was a little time off really so bad? “You haven’t taken a vacation the entire time I’ve known you.”

“Yeah, well…” Dean struggled to come up with a good excuse. “That was, ya know. Before.”

“Before,” Cas repeated stiffly.

Dean rolled his eyes. “Before everything.” He gestured around his head. Before Cas told him he loved him and immediately died. Before Dean rescued him from The Empty. Before they wound up in this awkward, stilted Angel’s-First-Romance training wheels relationship Dean found them in.

That seemed to placate Cas. He nodded and took another sip of coffee. “The beach would be nice…”

Dean broke into a grin. “Better than nice! Toes in the sand, drinks with little umbrellas… That’s better than paradise.” He gave Cas’ shoulder a friendly pat. Then--because he could, couldn’t he?--Dean let his hand run along the broad expanse of Cas’ shoulder and gently cup the back of his neck.

This was okay, right? He’d held back on any sort of real PDA because of how uncomfortable Cas would act. And that was okay. He understood. Angels and intimacy...Well, angels just worked differently than humans. And it was all new to Cas! It took him over a decade to say he loved Dean. It would probably take awhile before he was ready to hold hands.

But this wasn’t very much, right? Just a light hand on the back of his neck. This was about as innocent as things got!

Except Cas went stiff under Dean, and Dean took the hint and pulled his hand away as he bit back a sigh. So much for that.

His eyes trailed back to his laptop. Hopefully this getaway would change things, help Cas loosen up and finally see that they could act even a little like a couple now. A romantic beach, warm sunshine, half-naked romps in the water, a cozy and only slightly haunted bed and breakfast…

What could go wrong?

----

Three days and one slightly terrifying highway over the ocean later, Dean and Cas pulled into a parking space for a charming bed and breakfast painted in a lovely pale--

“Lavender?” Dean balked at the decidedly dainty color of the siding. “I know they like their pastels here, but geez…”

“It’s just a paint color,” Cas said as he crossed around to the trunk and started unloading their bags. The duffle full of salt, shotguns, and various iron weapons clanked ominously. He shouldered it carefully so it wouldn’t make so much noise.

“This whole street is like friggin’ Candy Land.” Dean eyeballed the canary yellow house across the street suspiciously as they made their way to the front door.

The inside was clearly the result of a scandalous love affair between a Jimmy Buffet concert and a Hallmark store--All tacky tropical themed furniture and a dizzying array of porcelain figurines.

Dean grinned from ear to ear and elbowed Cas. At Cas’ inquisitive eyebrow, Dean nodded his head to a shelf full of long-haired, sad-eyed blonde angels. Cas rolled his eyes while Dean laughed to himself.

“Hello! Can I help you?” An older woman sat behind a small reception desk, smiling warmly at them in the glow of her ancient computer.

Dean put on his best people-pleasing smile. “Yes you can. Hi, I’m Dean, and this is my, uh…” Dean glanced over to Cas and his eyes crinkled in delight. “Cas. This is my boyfriend, Cas.” Just the word caused a giddy bubble of effervescence to float inside Dean’s chest. After all this time, they were really here. This was real.

Cas offered the receptionist a small, tight smile before turning his studious gaze to the figurines on the wall shelves. The woman furrowed her brow, so Dean charged forward with the conversation before Cas’ awkwardness put her off. If they were going to pry into the case here, they needed her to be friendly with them. “I booked a reservation for this weekend. It--Are you guys still open? It’s kinda quiet in here.” Dean glanced around the empty living space. There weren’t any other cars parked outside either.

The woman waved off his concerns. “Oh yes, it’s just the off season right now. Some weekends are like that.” She spoke a little too quickly as she clicked through her computer. Dean suspected all the news articles about bloody deaths had something to do with it. “Not hard to find your reservation. You’re our only guests tonight.” She grabbed two keys off a hook and held them out for Dean. “You’ll be in room 4, down at the end of the hallway upstairs. It’s the largest one. If you need extra towels or anything, let me know. I’m Susan.”

Sensing they were about to be dismissed, Dean swerved into a distraction. “You know, we’ve been on the road for ages. Do you have any coffee or anything like that? A little wakeup before we hit the beach?”

Susan pushed back from the desk. “Oh of course! I was about to get some for myself, actually. I’ll be right back.”

“Keep an eye out for anything suspicious, Cas,” Dean muttered as Susan disappeared down a hallway. “Anything out of place or really old. You know, haunted stuff.” Cas nodded, and Dean covertly pulled his EMF reader out of his jacket pocket and flicked it on. It was silent. They both made a pass of the room, pretending to look around.

“Here we are!” Susan said brightly, expertly holding three coffee mugs in her hands. Dean jumped a little and hastily put his device away before turning around. “I hope cream and sugar is okay.”

“Any caffeine is fine,” he assured her as he and Cas took their mugs. “So Susan, what is there to do around here? You know, other than what Yelp says. The insider’s scoop.” Dean winked as he took a sip of his coffee.

Susan smiled. “Well, if nightlife is your thing, there are some great spots within walking distance.”

Dean chuckled. “C’mon, Susan. Does this guy look like much of a dancer?” He grinned fondly at Cas as he draped his arm over his shoulders. It was ridiculous how much his stomach fluttered from the small action, but dammit, after all they’d been through to get here, Dean had earned a few butterflies. He squeezed Cas’ shoulder even though Cas didn’t really react. Dean was definitely going to have to clarify that the personal space rule didn’t apply anymore.

“Well, the restaurant down the street also does an excellent brunch,” Susan offered instead.

“Now that’s more our speed.” Maybe if the hunt went well they could actually stay the night, instead of getting the hell out of Dodge before the cops chased them down. Keep their salt and burn quiet and enjoy a nice night in. Dean tried not to get his hopes up for sharing a bed with Cas.

And he did mean sharing a bed. Things were moving so slowly between him and Cas he’d be thrilled just to spoon, nevermind anything else. Dean bit back a sigh as he swept over all of the knick-knacks and decorations, hoping for some sort of clue as to the identity of their ghost. “I’ve gotta say, I love the decor. Is all of this your collection?” Maybe a haunted object? Or a cursed one?

“Most of it.” A faint twinge of wistfulness colored Susan’s words as she looked over the porcelain figurines. “My Marcy liked to collect the angels, but that was years and years ago.”

On a high shelf was a large urn next to an oil painting of a young woman that immediately pinged Dean’s hunter’s instincts. “That’s a lovely painting over there,” he said, catching Cas’ eye meaningfully. Cas turned around to look too.

Susan’s face melted into a quiet, sad smile. “Yes, that’s my Marcy right there. A self-portrait. She was such a talented artist.”

Cas tilted his head. “She was your...wife?” he guessed.

Susan’s face crumpled. “No. No we were never…” She took a deep breath and continued in a steadier tone. “She was my business partner, but I loved her. Very much. And I knew she loved me too. So I suppose you could say we were almost together. Should have been together.” Her lower lip trembled.

“If you don’t mind my asking, what stopped you?” Dean felt bad for pressing her for information that was clearly upsetting, but people’s lives were at stake. Possibly Susan’s own.

Susan curled her hands around her mug, staring into the steaming coffee with a far off look in her eyes. “I was afraid. Of my own feelings. Of opening myself to getting hurt. So I...When Marcy needed me to be honest about how I felt I...I let her down. She got mad...We fought...She ran off. There was an accident, and...Well...” Susan took another deep breath. Her eyes were glassy with tears and heavy with regret. “Today is the anniversary of the day she died.”

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Dean said, injecting even more sincerity into his words even though he expected as much. Marcy was the best lead so far. Was she attacking people on the anniversary of her death? She was obviously cremated, but perhaps there was something keeping her tied here?

“Not your fault,” she said with the heaviness of one who had heard those words hundreds of times. She shook her head. “You’re not the reason she--” Susan cut herself off and swallowed down her tears. Despite her best efforts, a single tear trailed down her cheek.

“It sounds like you loved her very much,” Cas said, his voice infused with genuine sympathy.

“She was my world. I loved her more than she’ll ever know...” Again Susan fell silent, this time lost in thought.

Then, with a deep, resettling breath, she wiped at her eyes with the edge of her finger and forced a cheerful expression. “But enough of that. You’re my guests. You don’t need to hear all of that! Do you need anything while you get settled in? More towels? Recommendations for restaurants?”

Dean shook his head, “Appreciate it ma’am, but we’ll probably just grab whatever’s convenient around here.”

“Well, would you like to eat here? Usually I don’t serve dinner for guests, but since it’s only the two of you, I can cook up something if you’d like. I honestly wouldn’t mind the company.”

Sensing another opportunity to interview Susan, Dean smiled his very best ‘comforting the bereaved’ smile. “We’d like that very much, Susan. Thank you for offering.” Then, carefully timed almost like an afterthought, he added, “Oh, and what’s the wifi password?”

Upstairs their room was somewhat small but airy. The walls were a crisp, breezy blue, the linens bright white. There was even a gauzy white canopy draped around the four-poster bed. Dean grinned. One bed. Surely that was cause for some optimism about tonight.

“I dunno about you, but I’m gonna sleep like a log tonight,” he said with the most casual tone he could muster as he grabbed the weapons bag off Cas’ shoulder and deposited it on the duvet. “What about you? Think you’ll need a couple z’s?” ‘Please say yes.’

Cas eyed the bed. Something strange flickered across his face. Something heavy, even sad. Dean immediately felt like a jackass for reminding Cas about his weak Grace. “I mean, who knows how you’ll feel tonight,” Dean added hastily. He started digging through his bag for his laptop. “Get some sea air in your lungs, and you might wake right up.”

Cas pursed his lips. “I suppose so,” he said, his voice carefully neutral. He turned away from Dean and started roaming the room, looking over the artwork on the walls and the little beachy decorations on the furniture. He came to a stop.

“This looks like Susan and Marcy,” he said, letting his fingers trail along the frame of a painting over the dresser.

“Yeah?” Dean looked up from his booting laptop. It was an oil painting like the one downstairs, with a young couple in bright dresses making each other laugh in front of a backdrop of a stormy gray ocean. One was undeniably a much younger Susan. Marcy looked the same as she did in the painting downstairs.

Cas frowned a little and pulled his hand back from the frame. He glanced around the ceiling and only relaxed when he saw an air-conditioning vent gently humming nearby. Dean shrugged it off and turned back to his laptop. He set right to work searching through the local newspaper archives and breaking into the coroner’s office servers. Finding their ghost was only a matter of time.

“Got it. Marcy Daniels. Died forty-three years ago tonight.” Dean flipped his laptop around so Cas could read the news article. “Hit by a car. Right outside this house. Died before she even got to the hospital.”

Cas squinted at the screen. The photo attached to the article looked just like the woman in the paintings. “And you think she’s the ghost?”

Dean shrugged. “Seems as good a guess as any. Violent death. Susan said they were fighting right before. Probably something happened between them that left Marcy pissed off enough to stay in the veil.”

Cas nodded. “We should ask her about it.”

“Nah, she’s not gonna let us grill her about her dead partner like that. We’ll strike up a conversation at dinner. That should give us enough time to figure out what’s keeping Marcy here before she attacks tonight.”

Cas deferred to Dean’s hunting experience. “Well then what should we do until then?”

Dean grinned from ear to ear. “What do you think we should do? To the beach!”

---

Dean shut the trunk of the Impala and straightened his back, lifting his face to the breeze blowing in from the sea. He breathed in deeply. “God, smell that salt air…” he said with a wistful smile. When he turned to Cas, the angel was looking at him with fondness, warmth making his blue eyes brighter. Dean’s smile grew, and he lifted up his sunglasses to flash Cas a playful wink. Cas quickly ducked his head and started walking.

Dean bit back a groan as he followed behind him with their beach bag. What was he doing wrong? He was trying to be gentle, to give Cas enough space to adjust to the idea that they were together now on his own. After all of the crap they’d been through together, after so many things keeping them apart, he understood why Cas was struggling. Hell, he’d been squashing down his feelings for so long, Cas probably didn’t know how to let himself have this happiness.

At least, that was what Dean kept telling himself. Deep down, though, he was afraid that Cas’ feelings were changing.

“There’s a good spot,” Dean said, jogging up behind Cas and forcing down his depressing thoughts before they could meet up with his self-loathing and really cause problems. He grabbed Cas’ arm and tugged him toward an unoccupied part of the sand. The weather was a little too temperamental this time of year to attract huge crowds, but there were still plenty of people out enjoying the sunshine.

Cas let himself be led, his flip-flops flapping awkwardly over the sand. Dean laughed a little, even though his footing wasn’t much better. When they’d walked far enough away from the boardwalk, Dean unceremoniously dropped their bag and dug out a large blanket to lay out.

“Perfect,” he declared as he tipped up his sunglasses to survey his work. He plopped down on the blanket and shucked off his shirt. A quick glance up let him catch the way Cas’ eyes widened for a fraction of a second before his expression smoothed over. Dean wiggled his eyebrows at Cas, but he didn’t see because he turned around like a friggin’ Victorian lady in order to pull off his own shirt before he sat down in front of Dean, facing the ocean. Dean’s gaze swept down the broad, muscular expanse of Cas’ back, and he could barely contain the heat in his eyes and in his grin.

Only then did Cas glance over his shoulder and catch Dean’s eye. Dean bit his lip suggestively, his grin widening, but Cas’ cheeks turned lightly pink and turned his head away. He rubbed at the back of his neck. Nervous, huh? Well that was alright. Dean could lighten the mood.

He held up the bottle of sunscreen. “Alright, let’s spackle your back.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary, Dean,” Cas said, not turning around. His voice sounded even more gruff than usual, which was certainly saying something.

“Nonsense!” Dean was already squirting a healthy dollop of sunscreen in his palm. “You can get sunburned, same as the rest of us.”

Cas sighed heavily. His shoulders twitched, tense, but he didn’t protest when Dean slapped his hand at the middle of his back.

Dean set to work rubbing the cream into Cas’ warm skin. “See? This is nice. It’s like a mini-massage.” He made sure to move slowly, almost caressing him. His stomach fluttered with the faintest whisper of excitement. This was the closest thing he’d gotten to action in months, after all. And Cas’ back was nice. Broad and firm and far more muscular than Dean would have guessed. His heart did a little tapdance at knowing that he was allowed to freely ogle now.

“I like seeing you out of the trenchcoat,” Dean said, now using both hands to stroke up and down Cas’ skin. Cas tensed again. “I mean, you look good under all those layers,” Dean said hastily, afraid that the reminder of his waning Grace was too painful. “When did you get so beefy?” Dean slid his hands up to Cas’ shoulders and then down his thick arms. He squeezed them playfully as he shifted closer, letting his knees bump against him.

He leaned in close so he could almost whisper, “Wish I could see it somewhere other than the beach.”

Cas’ back became hard as marble. He lowered his head. “That’s enough, Dean,” he said softly. His voice trembled with some barely contained emotion Dean didn’t understand.

Disappointment rose up Dean’s throat like bile. “Seriously? I’m almost done!”

Cas twisted around, his face pulled into a scowl. His cheeks were flushed. “Dean! I’m an angel! I don’t need this!”

Dean pulled back. “What? I can’t even put sunscreen on you now?” he demanded.

Cas didn’t have an answer to that. He only glared, his eyes flickering with something Dean couldn’t quite figure out. Pain? Longing? Regret?

Knowing Dean’s penchant for screwing things up all the time, it was almost certainly the latter.

Cas breathed out a long, frustrated breath and rose to his feet. “I’m...going for a walk,” he said. He folded his arms over his bare chest.

“Cas,” Dean pleaded. What had he done wrong? Why was Cas so mad?

Cas shook his head. “Please, Dean.” With one last glance filled with that strange, heartache-inducing emotion, Cas turned and started walking down the beach alone.

Dean stared after him as he left. “What the hell?” he said under his breath. The sting of rejection quietly throbbed in his chest as he turned his gaze to the ocean. What had he done to piss Cas off? Had he really crossed a boundary, or was something else wrong? Cas had been so weird since he’d been back. Shouldn’t he be happy? Hell, telling Dean he loved him was the happiest Cas had ever been, right? That was part of his deal with The Empty!

Did he regret it? Did he change his mind? Maybe Cas really didn’t want to have Dean. Not for real. Maybe that was why Cas never told him how he felt before. He had to have known Dean loved him long before his deal with The Empty came along. Maybe there was a reason Cas hadn’t said anything about it before.

Maybe Cas knew that Dean would screw things up if they got together. Maybe he was trying to pull away from Dean, make it easier to break things off when it all came crashing down.

Dean stewed in his thoughts, his expression dark as he watched the waves. He lost track of time until a pair of children came racing past him, screaming in delight and startling him out of his thoughts. He pulled at his phone to glance at the time. Cas had been gone over half an hour. Way too long. Dean looked down the beach, almost expecting to see Cas trudging back up the beach back to him, but he didn’t see any sign of him. But Cas couldn’t have left left. Dean had the car keys! Quietly cursing, Dean pulled out his phone and dialed Cas’ number.

...And heard a familiar ringtone coming out of their bag.

“Dammit, Cas!” Dean growled as he hung up. He stood up, but he still couldn’t see Cas. Had something happened? What if he’d gone in the water? What if he’d gotten pulled out to sea by a riptide? Despite knowing Cas didn’t even know how to swim, worry dripped ice cold down Dean’s spine, and before he knew it he was walking down the beach along the path Cas had taken.

“Cas!” he called out, but he didn’t see him. Dean started walking faster. He scanned the beach for a familiar dark head of hair and the bright orange swim trunks Dean had picked out for him. “CAS!” He was beginning to fear the worst.

“You lookin’ for someone?” a concerned voice called out. Dean whipped his head around to a small family sitting underneath an umbrella.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, my buddy Cas.” Dean jogged over to them. “You see him walk by? Kinda beefy, kinda dorky. Dark hair, orange trunks, about yea high.” He held his palm flat about eye level.

The woman who spoke nodded. “Yeah, I think so. I saw him walking back toward town, though.” She pointed over her shoulder.

Dean furrowed his brow. Did Cas walk back on his own? Irritation flared in his chest as he forced a cordial smile and thanked the woman before jogging back the way he came. He didn’t see any sign of Cas back at their blanket either.

Dean scowled. Maybe he had walked back. Running off without a word was infuriatingly in-character for him. Dean cursed under his breath as he hastily packed up their things and started stomping up the beach toward the car.

What was even such a big deal? If Cas supposedly loved him so much, was rubbing his back that bad? Dean was trying to give him space, he really was, but the way Cas was acting, it was like he didn’t even like Dean, nevermind love him!

The thought clenched tight around Dean’s heart as he drove back to the bed and breakfast. Maybe he didn’t anymore. Maybe Cas was getting sick of him. Twelve years in each other’s lives, it was bound to happen eventually.

Maybe what angels considered love and what humans considered love was just different.

Dark thoughts still swirled in Dean’s head as he returned to the bed and breakfast and marched up the stairs.

“Dude, what the hell?!” Dean charged into their room, anger burning hot as his glare zeroed in on the angel sitting in a chair. “You can’t just go running off like that! You left your phone behind!”

Cas carefully closed the book he was reading. He was fully clothed again. “It’s not a long walk back here. I assumed you’d know where I’d gone.”

“I was worried sick about you! What if you went in the ocean and something happened?”

Cas narrowed his eyes. “I wouldn’t do that. You know I can’t swim.”

“You can’t just go stomping off whenever you get mad!”

Cas closed his eyes. “I’m not mad,” he said, though the growl in his voice suggested otherwise.

“Like hell you’re not!” Dean shot back. “So what is it? I can’t touch you now? It’s freakin’ sunscreen, Cas. Is it really that big of a deal?”

Cas’ eyes flew open. “Yes!” he said, deeply pained. “Dean, does it really matter so little to you that you’re okay with just ignoring it?”

Dean was brought up short. “Does what matter?”

“Me!” Cas plastered his hand over his chest. He almost looked like he could cry. “I told you how I felt and you insist on acting like nothing happened!”

Dean blinked. “What? That’s...that’s not true, Cas!”

“Dean! You didn’t say anything! Not once since you brought me back, have you said anything about the fact that I love you! And you may think that by ignoring it and trying to force things back the way they were before that you can lock up that Pandora’s Box again, but you can’t! I can’t. I can’t…”

Dean took a step forward, his expression darkening with confusion. “Cas, what’re you talking about?” He didn’t understand. Why did Cas look so hurt? So heartbroken? Cas loved him. Dean loved Cas. So why wasn’t he happy? What had Dean done wrong? “Cas, I--”

Cold mist curled up from Dean’s mouth.

They both went tense and still as they noticed just how cold the room had gotten. The lamp on the bedside table flickered.

“Shit,” Dean muttered under his breath. His eyes darted to the open dufflebag on their bed with all of their weapons.

He made a move for it, but a figure flickered into being in front of him. She was wearing a torn, bloody sundress. Her long, straw-colored hair was plastered to the half of her gaunt face where it was smashed in, blood staining it crimson. The ghost took a step toward Dean. Thick, dark blood dripped from her head but never reached the floor.

“Marcy,” Dean breathed. Guess she didn’t need to wait for nightfall after all.

“Coward,” the ghost menaced as she took another step closer. Dean carefully backed up. “Can’t even say it. Even when you’re hurting him. Coward!”

Dean’s eyes flickered to Cas, who was edging toward their weapons bag. He tried to make the movement quick, but the ghost noticed. With a vicious growl she flung out her hand and Cas went flying into the far wall.

“Don’t worry,” the ghost said to Cas, and the venom in her voice dropped into twisted sympathy. “I’ll take your pain away soon.”

Cas struggled to his feet as the ghost rounded on Dean again. Her outstretched hand aimed directly at Dean’s head, fingers curled into a wicked claw. But before she could touch him, Cas made another attempt at the duffle. She shrieked in fury and sent it spinning through the air toward the window. A single iron poker tumbled out of the open zipper as it flipped over and smashed against the glass, shattering it. The bag tumbled to the ground below.

Cas lurched for the poker. “Dean!” he called as he tossed it through the air, directly through the ghost. She howled and dissipated into smoke while Dean barely managed to close his fingers around the weapon. Cas and Dean stood back to back as they circled the room, Dean holding the iron poker at the ready.

“Salt,” Dean barked. “We need salt!” Except all of theirs was now two stories below. Dean silently cursed. “The kitchen! Go! I’m right behind you!”

Cas nodded and made for the door. The lights were flickering again. He and Dean narrowly made it into the hallway when their bedroom door slammed shut behind them. They raced for the stairs and nearly collided with Susan.

“Cas, Dean, what’s going on?” Her eyes were panicked, taking in the cut on Cas’ temple and the iron poker in Dean’s grip. Mist followed her words out of her mouth.

“Look out!” Dean reached for Susan, but he was flung backward by an invisible force. Marcy flickered into existence over him again. “Salt, Susan! We need salt!” he cried out before the ghost clamped its cold hand around his throat. Dean scrambled from his poker, but it had fallen just out of reach. His other hand grappled with Marcy’s, trying to pull it away.

He couldn’t see with the ghost pinning him down, but he was pretty sure he heard Susan’s footsteps racing away. Good. Even if she didn’t come back, at least she was somewhere safer. Black dots started to swim in Dean’s vision.

“Hey! Marcy!” A ceramic angel went flying through the air and smashed into a framed photo on the wall next to them, shattering the glass. Marcy snarled and whipped her head around. Her grip on Dean’s neck loosened a little, and Dean sucked in as many painful gasps as he could get.

“This is what you’re about, huh?” Cas goaded. He stood next to an accent table full of figurines, another ceramic angel in his hand, fat load of good that would do against a ghost. “Exacting revenge against shitty lovers?” Dean stretched his arm until his muscles strained. He could barely feel the length of the iron rod brush against his fingertips. If Cas could keep stalling for just a little longer... “I think anger has clouded your judgement.” Cas’ lips twisted into a bitter smirk. “You have no reason to attack Dean. Can’t you tell? He doesn’t love me.”

The statement caught Dean completely off-guard. His hand stilled as he gaped at Cas. “What?” he rasped around the ghostly hand on his throat. Didn’t love him!?

The ghost growled at Cas. She raised her arm as if to psychically toss him toward the stairway, but right at that moment, Susan barreled up the stairs, a blue canister of salt in her hand.

“I have the salt!” she said, and with panic and desperation in her eyes she blindly flung the open canister at Dean and the ghost. Salt flung in a wide arc and rained down on Marcy, who screamed and disappeared instantly.

Dean rolled onto his side, coughing weakly as he grabbed onto the iron poker and clutched it against his chest. Cas ran to him, only stopping to grab the canister of salt. He hastily drew a circle around them, draining the last of the salt on their protection ring. “Susan, get in the circle!” he commanded as he knelt beside Dean.

“You don’t think I love you?” Dean choked out between gasps for air. His head was spinning. Cas’ hand on his shoulder helped a lot, but when Dean asked his question Cas quickly yanked it away. “How could you think that?” he said, genuinely confused.

“What’s going on? Why did that...that thing look like my Marcy?!” Susan nearly flung herself into the circle with them. She clutched at her chest, casting her terrified gaze around the room.

“Her ghost,” Cas said, though he didn’t take his eyes off Dean. His brow furrowed. “Dean, you haven’t--”

“Ghost?!” Susan screeched. “Then what the hell are we doing standing here?!”

“Salt repels ghosts,” Cas replied with way more patience than Dean would have had. “She can’t come into the circle.”

“What’s going on?” Susan’s eyes went huge, her face going pale. “She...She killed those people last year, didn’t she? How do we stop her?”

“Usually burn her remains, if anything is left,” Cas said, “but she was cremated, wasn’t she? So something else is tethering her here. Perhaps a locket? Something she cherishes.”

Susan frowned, panicked eyes darting around in front of her as she mulled it over. “Her painting,” she said with a gasp. “The one in your room. She finished it right before our argument! Right before she ran out into the street and was hit by the car. It was precious to her. She put her everything into it, tried to use it to confess her love for me, and I...I was too much of a coward to say it back. That’s why we fought.”

Cas and Dean’s eyes met, and they both nodded. Dean grunted as he pushed himself to his feet, poker still clutched to his chest. “Susan, stay here. Whatever happens, don’t leave the circle. Cas, I’ll keep her busy. You burn the painting.”

As one unit Cas and Dean left the salt circle.

Immediately the hallway burst into chaos. Doors slammed shut everywhere. The knick-knacks and travel guides on the accent table went flying through the air. The lights flickered until their bulbs burst, leaving only the light of the window at the far end to help them see.

They ran.

“You don’t think I love you?” Dean demanded, because a deadly ghost hunt seemed as good a time as any to have this conversation. Some things were too damn important to wait for downtime.

“Because you don’t!” Cas snapped. He threw himself at the shut door of their room, but it was supernaturally sealed. He grunted and tried again. Marcy appeared at his side, a ghostly hand reaching for his chest, a snarl on her lips.

“Cas, of course I love you, you idiot!” Dean swung at Marcy, forcing her to disappear again. Cas slammed himself against the unmoving door. “How could you think I don’t?”

“Dean, I died--” Cas slammed into the door again. His eyes glowed faintly with his weakened Grace. “Telling you how I felt. And you said--” Another crash; the door cracked ominously. “Nothing about it since I’ve been back!”

Marcy flickered into being next to them again. Dean knocked her away with the poker.

“I thought you knew! I thought you didn’t love me and that’s why you never said anything!”

“I told you!” With one final crash, Cas burst through the door and into the room, Dean hot on his heels. They ran for the dresser. “I told you the one thing I wanted, I couldn’t have! That thing was you, Dean!” Cas yanked the painting off the wall and threw it on the ground, shattering its glass and exposing the paper.

Marcy screamed in fury and appeared in front of him. She flung him at the dresser just as Dean dispersed her with a forceful swing. He flipped the poker in his hand, readying himself to strike again while Cas scrambled to his feet, lighter freed from his pocket and held at the ready.

“Because of the Empty!” Dean insisted. Marcy’s form materialized again, and Dean raised his weapon as she approached. “You couldn’t have me because of the deal with the Empty!”

Cas fumbled with the lighter. “I can’t have you because. You. Don’t. Love me!” It finally lit. Cas threw it onto the painting, sending it up in flames.

Marcy howled in agony as her body sparked and burned. She raised her head skyward as if to escape from the rising flames, but in a flash of heat and bright orange light, she was gone, and Cas and Dean were left standing alone in the room.

They stared at each other in the sudden, violent silence. Cas’ face was a mask of frustration and pain.

“Dean, I’ve been back for months. Months. And you have said nothing about how you feel. Do not lie to me now because you feel sorry for me.” With one last heartbroken glare, Cas stomped out of the room, leaving Dean behind to stamp out the flaming remains of the painting.

Once Dean didn’t need to worry about burning the house down, he went looking for Cas. He found him outside, loading up their scattered weapons into the trunk of the Impala.

He looked shattered. His face was crumpled with pain, his eyes dull, deep furrows in his brow. It brought Dean up short. Guilt welled up so intense that Dean almost couldn’t say anything at all. Except, well, that had gotten him into this situation in the first place.

“I thought you knew,” Dean called across the distance between them. Cas stopped and turned to look at him. The bitterness in his eyes made Dean’s stomach churn. “I thought you knew,” he said again. He took a step toward Cas. “For years I thought you knew. But, you know, you’re an angel. I thought you didn’t...I thought you couldn’t…” He trailed off. Cas’ forehead was furrowed in confusion, but he was at least listening, so Dean swallowed down his discomfort and barreled forward. “I thought angels couldn’t fall in love. Except...then you died telling me you did. Telling me that the reason you couldn’t even tell me how you felt was because being happy would trigger your deal and…” He shrugged.

“You thought I was deliberately keeping us apart?”

“Because if you told me you felt the same, then we’d be together and you’d be happy and you’d die.”

The bitterness had faded from Cas’ eyes, replaced with something that Dean was loath to acknowledge looked a little bit like pity mixed with profound frustration. “So when I came back, you thought there wasn’t anything left to talk about?”

Dean scratched the back of his neck and took another step forward. “Yeah well…What else was there to say? You said you, you know, loved me. And I thought you knew that I, you know…” He trailed off.

“Dean.” Dean had never heard Cas sound so pained just saying his name. “You.” Cas scrubbed at his face. His mouth twitched as he struggled to find words for all the ways Dean had screwed up. Was continuing to screw up.

“The hoops that you jump through to avoid talking about your feelings astound me,” Cas finally said. He dropped his hand with a sigh of defeat, and Dean’s heart sank. This was it. The death rattles of a relationship that hadn’t even really started. Dean never had what he truly wanted, and he never would.

Dean ducked his head, unable to look Cas in the eye. “Right. Yeah. That’s me, alright.” He swallowed around the hard lump in his throat. The long drive back to Kansas was going to be awful.

“Say it,” Cas said softly. His words were a command, but when Dean looked up in surprise, his eyes were pleading. “Please,” he breathed, almost like he didn’t deserve to even ask, and something inside Dean cracked.

“I love you, Cas.” One step, two steps, he crossed the distance between them and threw his arms around Cas’ shoulders, clinging to him the way he wished he could have before the Empty took Cas away. “It’s you, Cas. It can only be you. It’s only been you for years. I promise.”

Cas’ next breath stuttered in his lungs. His arms wound tightly around Dean, desperate. “Dean,” he sighed, this time like a prayer.

“I’m right here, buddy.” Dean held him tightly, the way he should have when he first got Cas back from the Empty. The way Dean wanted to all these months when he thought...Well, when he was an idiot. “You can have me, you know. You already have me.”

Cas pulled back enough to look Dean in the eye. His eyes were glassy. Dean’s didn’t exactly feel dry either. ‘I wonder if I can kiss him,’ Dean thought, milliseconds before Cas did just that.

Cas’ lips were warm against his own, and Dean gasped softly as his hand wound through Cas’ thick hair to cradle the back of his head. His kiss was eager, if not clumsy, and Dean smiled a little as he let Cas take the lead anyway. When they finally pulled apart, Cas’ normally pale lips were flushed pink, and Dean’s soft smile morphed into a huge, affectionate grin.

“Hey,” Dean said, his voice surprisingly husky after a largely innocent kiss.

Cas smiled back. “Hello, Dean,” he said, and Dean couldn’t help it. He laughed. God, how he loved this angel.

“So whadya say, Cas?” Dean said when his laughter quieted. “Ready to get the hell outta Dodge?”

Cas’ hands slid down Dean’s back until they were resting on his hips. “Actually…” His gaze turned wistfully in the direction of the distant beach. “I had a different idea.”

---

“You sure this is okay, Cas?”

“Dean…”

“Cuz I mean, I want to respect your boundaries.”

“Dean!”

“And I totally understand if I’m crossing a line here.”

Cas twisted around and gave Dean and his closed bottle of sunscreen a baleful look. Dean couldn’t help but laugh. “If I get sunburned, you can get your own room tonight.”

“You’re probably not even going to sleep anyway,” Dean shot back.

“I’ll sleep just to spite you.” Cas scowled, but Dean could see the corners of his lips twitching playfully. With a rush of affection, Dean shifted so that Cas’ bare back was pressed against his chest and Dean could rest his chin on Cas’ shoulder. Cas went stiff against his body, but it only lasted a second before he practically melted into Dean’s hold. Dean wrapped his arms around him as he watched the waves.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Dean said with a sigh.

“Yes,” Cas breathed, but he wasn’t looking at the sea.

Heat rushed to Dean’s cheeks. He cleared his throat and kept his gaze solidly on the ocean. “You’re such a sap,” he grumbled weakly.

“You’ll get used to it.” Dean could see Cas’ smirk in the corner of his eye. Dean tightened his embrace.

“I dunno if I ever will,” he said quietly, a soft smile on his lips as he finally got to hold his angel.

[haitanizzz]

!contains tokyo revengers manga spoilers!

cw: angst, swearing, alcohol mention, slight violence, blood/bruises mention, slight sa? (non-consensual kiss), spelling errors

characters: draken and inui

summary: draken gets drunk and got his ass into a fight. inui picks him up and takes care of him but draken can't seem to move on from emma. inui can't tell the difference between platonic and romantic attraction, kinda one-sided love?, draken basically being depressed lol also set in the timeline where they own a bikeshop together

note: i don't ship them but i don't have anything against the ppl who do, i just thought their relationship was a great angst material :) i rushed the end a bit tho cuz i was getting out of ideas lol hope you enjoy!! also big thanks to the people who requested from us and we're a bit slow, but we're working on them don't worry!<3

-L

"hey inui! inui! seishu are you okay?"

draken was having it rough for a few days now, his nightmares about emma coming back to him each night like a curse from the past. inui noticed that his friend was more tense around him or when draken would hesitate to call out to him, but he didn't say anything since he knew that mental health was a touchy subject for his partner because of a certain girl. he was having a hard time ignoring it though as it left a bad taste in his mouth, but he didn't know why. is it because draken is his dear friend or maybe it is because he was in love? ken was so nice to him and he was his friend because he was inui seishu and not somebody else, right? he was so lost in his thoughts he didn't even hear draken call out to him.

"huh?"

"i've called out to you 3 times already! you look like you've been stressing so much lately-"

"oh no, no! im totally fine don't worry about it, i was just daydreaming a little bit!" he said as he let out an awkward laugh.

draken flashed him a gentle smile and patted his back.

"if you say so! but don't hesitate to ask for anything if you're not feeling well, aight?"

"got it boss"

"hey! i told u stop with that!" he playfully scolded inui as both of them began laughing. "anyways i just wanted to ask if you could close the shop today? i'm going out with some friends to drink, so.."

"of course! you can count on me, just give me the keys and you can go!

"thanks inupi! i owe you one!"

it was already dark outside when draken began to pack his things and passed the keys to inui.

"don't forget to close it or i'll beat ya ass if anything is missing tomorrow!"

"yeah yeah, just go already!" inui said as he pushed his friend through the door of their office.

"see you tomorrow seishu! "

he woke up to his ringtone, phone buzzing on the table as he got up and tried to wipe the sleep from his eyes. he didn't even have the energy to look at who was calling him so he just picked it up.

"yeah! see ya!" he sighed and almost slammed the door shut on accident. he was nervous but why? he could feel a pit in his stomach like when something bad is about to happen but he ignored the feeling and chose to dose off for a small nap on the sofa that was in the office.

-

"hello?" he answered the phone with a groggy voice.

"hey inui! sorry to call you this late but i need you to come here!"

"kazutora? it's not often that you call me, what's wrong?" he was dumbfounded that kazutora callled him as they barley even kept contact with each other.

"it's draken."

"what?"

"that idiot got drunk and punched a dude."

"oh god, again? " inui pinched the bridge of his nose not wanting to get up and drive there because he didn't like dealing with drunk people especially when it was ryuguji who got drunk. "im coming don't worry, thanks for giving me a call kazutora.

"thanks inui, we're at the new bar, just 2 streets down. we'll wait for you at the entrance!" kazutora said and immediately hang up.

"i swear that dumbass is going to be my death one day.." inui murmured and grabbed his jacket and the keys to his bike. "thank god it's not that far, just 2 streets down or i wouldn't even go to get his drunk ass."

the engine of his motorbike roared as he stopped in front of a bar, that had neon lights around it. everything was so bright he got a little dizzy and almost had to close his eyes. he spotted kazutora and draken sitting together at a random shop's staircase that was next to the bar. he got up from his bike and began walking towards them and it was when he got closer, that's when he noticed the blood sitting on draken's white shirt and bruises all over his face.

"what the fuck happened?!"

the two of them jumped at inui's voice not expecting him to shout at them.

"sorry to drag you out to get him this late, i could've bring him home myself but chifuyu and the others are still in there and im kinda worried what would they do when there's nobody to look out for them." kazutora said as he slightly bowed his head as an apology.

"don't worry about it man, don't apologize." inui gave kazutora a slight smile as he took draken's arm around his shoulder to make sure he wouldn't fall. "i'll be taking him home now..thanks for looking out for him."

"it's nothing. have a safe drive and call me if something is up!"

"yeah will do!" inui said as he began walking back to his bike with now draken slumped over him. it was very strange that draken wasn't talking at all, he was usually very loud.

"im not a kid you know? i can take care of myself inupi."

"oh so you now know how to talk? and it didn't seem like you were doing so good, so just shut up and let me drive you home!"

draken let out a laugh as he sat on the back of the motorcycle and grabbed the spare helmet.

"aight, aight! just don't be so loud, my head is killing me.."

"i wonder why?" inui scoffed as he sat on the front. "just make sure you don't fall off or you'll have to go to the hospital by yourself."

the drive to draken's apartment was quiet. none of them talked, the only thing that was making noise was the motorbike and those few cars that passed them. they were almost there when inui felt arms wrap around his waist and felt some weight on his left shoulder and he tensed under draken's touch, his heart hammering in his chest.

"i swear to god if you puke on me-"

"are you mad?" draken's voice was soft, almost like when a child got caught stealing candies.

inui didn't answer not knowing what to say to a question like that so he just kept quiet.

they soon arrived to draken's apartment complex and inui parked his bike.

none of them said a word and seishu helped his friend up the stairs, then to his door. keys jingled as draken searched his pockets and struggled to fit the key to his door inside the keyhole. inui gently pushed him away and opened the door and draken almost immediately went and crashed on the couch. seishu shaked his head and closed the door behind him, took off his shoes then followed draken to his livingroom.

"come on man, we need to get you patched up and change! i promise you can sleep all you want after we're done." draken just groaned and put his head on inui's shoulder s a sign to help him to his bedroom.

"i think the booze is really starting to get to me.." draken said as his words were slightly slurred from the alcohol he had consumed. inui helped him up and staring walking towards draken's room and sat him down onto the bed and turned on the lights. draken hissed at the sudden brightness and inui just let out a chuckle then went to the bathroom to get the first-aid kit. he came back with the box and sat next to draken and grabbed his chin.

"come on this gonna hurt a bit, but i'll be as careful and quick as i can so bear with it 'kay?" the tatted male just hummed as an answer and inui took it as a sign to start cleaning his bruises. he started dabbing under his eye first, then right under his jaw with careful movements. draken didn't seem to be giving any reaction so he just continued until his eyes sat on his slightly busted lip. seishu looked away for a moment then went to dab the sanitizer on his lip when draken took a hold of his wrist and he dopped the cottonball he was holding.

"what's wro-" seishu's words were cut off when draken kissed him. inui's whole body froze as memories from his high school years started to pry at his mind and tears filled his eyes. he didn't know what to do. was it the right thing that he just sat there without doing anything but his hands shaking? he will never know the answer to that. he only came back to reality when draken pulled away and smiled at him with red dusting his cheeks, inui didn't know if it was from the alcohol or because draken was embarrassed.

"i love you..emma." draken whispered against inui's neck and passed out. seishu couldn't process what was happening and his chest started to hurt. he quickly pushed draken off of him (who surprisingly didn't even budge) and stood up with wide eyes, tears threatening to spill out of them. he didn't even bother to pack the first aid kit as he was almost running to the door. he slammed the shop's keys on draken's kitchen island and left.

-

the next morning draken woke up with a headache.

"..what happened?" he said as he looked through his room, the first-aid kit on the floor. he tried to remember what happened last night as he went to get dressed for work.

he was confused when inui didn't came to work that day.

[prof-peach]

Out of all of the pokemon you have taken care of, which one do you think it was the hardest to deal with? Be cuz they were in a pretty bad shape, or just personality wise?

We get rumbunctious and rowdy Pokemon all the time, our works nature brings them to us probably more than any other issue, outside of grass Pokemon care and management. Anger and nervousness is something we have a good hold of here, and try to help iron out of various species. I do a lot of that work, and on occasion, Grey will do the odd water type with these problems, as I tend to shy away from those. For the most part, they are short stint stays, a couple months, to a couple years helping them to rewire their anger into a more productive feeling or energy. That being said, there’s alwasy the odd Pokemon who comes our way who’s just a step above the rest. So here’s some stories of the ones who have had to stay with us, for their temperament and behaviour.

On the north side of the island, we house the biggest, meanest Pokemon, and the individuals who are very timid and nervous around people. We do this to ensure they have space to live undisturbed in peace, but also to protect guests and visitors from being eaten, crushed, blasted, or otherwise harmed. Some of the northern residents are difficult yes, but most are just stroppy or uncomfortable with the majority of humans, but there are a handful that are actively engaged in harming or hunting people.

One such Pokemon is a rather nasty tempered Drampa, he came to us about five or so years ago now, kindly donated by being abandoned on our shores, it’s original trainer leaving the ball and hopping on a boat without alerting us, or letting the individual know. We figured it would be possible to rehome it, they’re usually a rather reasonable Pokemon to handle, considering their typing. We were wrong. This Pokemon when let out of the ball, went on a monsterous rampage for four days, destroying forests, toppling buildings, blasting holes in the mountain to try to burrow away, and picking fights with anything it’s size or bigger, often causing great harm to others. The island didn’t rest for that entire time, most Pokemon cowering from it, bigger species trying to halt them, all in vain. It took an entire troop of grass Pokemon using sleep powder to knock it out, the Drampa moved about so fast, one single grass type didn’t stand a chance to produce enough spores in time. It took a lot of work but we knocked the old boy out, and got a good look at him. His body was riddled with arthritis, not medicated, he would thrash about and cause himself so much pain and discomfort. He had overgrown nails, the feet hidden in the fur they have around their torso, often overlooked, and it’s ability to fly was limited because of its general condition and state. We began helping it, medicating it’s aislments, aiding it’s inflamed joints, but it never really calmed down, so now it chills out alone on the coast of the north side, left well alone, it doesn’t even like the company of other Pokemon.

We’ve done our best to interact with it, to socialise it, to generally get it use to people enough to do medical checks, but it’s still very resistant. We have decided that after two years of hard work, and it being tolerant to me, at least to check it’s health and wellbeing, that it’s best to let it live it’s life unbothered. Many would push a Pokemon to be a perfect social being, but we don’t believe it’s necessary for happiness. Some species are happy to be away from others, I wouldn’t push a human to be social, I know how awful that can be, so we didn’t force the individual to be around others either. It’s not that it’s unhappy, we spot it from time to time sitting on the rocks by the ocean, humming to itself, and the small pidgey and tailow that come by don’t bother it, and even give mild brief conversation. He seems ok, the medicine given means he’s in less pain, despite still having stiffness, and in the winter we’ve built him a unique space, rocky cover much like a cave, just above a Macargo hide where they lay eggs. The heat from those Pokemon keep its cave very hot, and help in the cold to ease the joint aches. The two species have different entrances, making sure they never meet within the hide at any point. There’s a good slab of rock dividing them, so it’s not an issue, and saves us having to pipe hot water over that far for him. He eats well, has a few items he’s kept from the labs, a toy sentret, and a large red ball, and generally is in a good place to live out his life in peace now.

Another difficult member would be a particularly timid Slazzle, gifted to us by a police member who had confiscated it from a rather mean individual close to her home town, they had been hurting the poor Pokemon, forcing it to produce an insane amount of poison liquid, throwing water on the poor thing every time it tried to ignite to retaliate, generally abusing the poor thing for its life, apparently it had been locked away since it was a young unevolved Pokemon. They’d been harvesting the poisons from the Slazzle and dropping it into various water sources to try to control the local Pokemon population, as they blamed the wild ones for the state of their land, and diminished crops yield from their allotment. Jokes on them, that water poisoning affected them too, and their garden died very quickly, and made the man quite sick through consumption of the crops he grew there. The slazzle is still very skittish, will hide at any given moment, we’ve seen her ignite an entire building in one move, and then bolt away through the flames to lose our line of sight. She managed to stay hidden for two weeks on the island, before we caught sight of her again. Generally she’s just a case fo neglect but we have been working with her now for a long while, 3 ish years, and her temperament is at least manageable amongst our staff. We have found her others of her kind to help her settle, and she’s become good friends with a Wartortle who came from the same area, they bond over memories of the place, and seem very happy in each others company.

We’ve found ways to keep her grounded, but she never goes near people when we have open days, slinks off through the big fence to the north side, and waits out the visiting hours until night. They’re not usually nocturnal but she likes the night, and spends her time looking about, foraging and feeding in the later hours. If you’re quiet you can catch her moving around the forests and the base of the mountains here, talking with the occasional individual, she seems to enjoy Murkrow too, their company seems to keep her quite social, as they usually move in large flocks here. She may never be rehomed, but for now we try to socialise her, we don’t battle her, and she has a very calm and peaceful nook to go to when she’s having a rough time. We make sure to provide support where possible, and though she’s a little skittish she’s somewhat happy to have myself and Grey, even Pari take a look at any wounds or scrapes she may gain while living here. She’s become trusting enough to come to us if we call, and who knows, maybe someone will come our way who she takes an interest in. There’s hope for her yet, we have however become quite fond of her, and she’s part of the furniture now. It may end up that she never leaves, and lives her life in peace here, surrounded by people and Pokemon who love her. Her panic makes her very difficult to pass to another trainer, and she’s prone to spitting up huge quantities of toxic liquid when spooked, and bolts at a slight bang or rumble.

One I have kept back for a number of reasons, is a rather mean tempered Aerodactyl. Normally we get Pokemon sent to us, but this one I ended up finding myself, some circus had her chained up in a box hardly big enough to turn around in, an attraction to the masses as they travelled through the area. The leader of that troop was particularly awful, treating Pokemon as commodities, items to be bought and sold, used as toys in his big performances. Boiled my blood. We called her Zeplin, and after 12 years she has still got a nasty temper on her, when not focused on a task. Her condition when we first found her was quite something, tattered wings, unable to fly straight at all, and she was littered with cuts and bruises, not in good health. Val has melted the chains that bound her, and the lock in her cage, and she just went, like a bat out of hell, flew off, blasting the tent that hid her quarters, burning a lot of the circus as she went. Little did I know, my foot was in one of the chain links, and I got dragged off with her, the ground, Val, all my other team mates, falling from my pocket, or being left on the floor where we had once been standing. She flew, and kept going, not aware I was still attached, you could see her wings were having a hard time catching the breeze, littered with holes and tears, she went for about two hours, I nearly froze that high up, trying to get a good grip on what chain was left so I didn’t come falling from that height. We came to a very sudden crash landing, she hadn’t had much chance to practice the whole take off - land thing from the feel of it, we both ate dirt, and she became very aware that I was there all of a sudden.

I had about three seconds while she assessed my presence, to get out of the chain, and dive behind a rock that gave me cover from an almighty blast of energy, chipping away bits, catching my arm a little. Trust me when I say, it’s terrifying coming face to face with something that stands a fair few meters taller than you, with more teeth and claws than you’re comfortable with dealing with, with none of your Pokemon, no weaponry, no real plan or cover other than a rock. How she didn’t eat me, I don’t know. Perhaps she knew it was me that let her go, maybe she just ran out of energy, but for whatever reason, she made a few bits and tail lashes at me, missed the lot, and gave up, turning to stomp off into the forests around us. She was still shackled with heavy irons, one on the neck, two on the legs, and was in serious condition, so I did the stupid thing and followed her, tried to sneak my way behind, though every now and then she would look towards me, and try to focus on my form in the dark of night now. It was a few days, she had stalked some prey, fed, and was starting to ooze from some wounds. Though the circus was unkind, they were providing her with medication that stopped further infections occurring, perhaps a scarred beast of great size drew more punters, maybe they were just making sure she survived to make them money, I still don’t know.

I hunted herbs, dug out roots with rocks, used river water, and common berries and managed to fashion some kind of salve, nothing amazing, especially back at that age, but it would work, I knew it would because I used it on my own wounds first. Just had to convince her it was a good thing to let me get close. Not an easy task. We physically brawled, she was clearly spent, not able to use any attacks, just thrashing about, I managed to trip her with the chains still attached to her legs, and once downed, you can jump on the head of these Pokemon to keep the jaws shut, just long enough to lather the wounds you can reach, then bolt fast. It was a small act, but she took off running again. With some wounds sort of cared for, I followed again, fishing for dinner, forraging roots to chew on. It wasn’t much but it kept me going, then one night, where I had climbed to a crook of a large tree, using my jacket to tie myself in for a nights sleep, I was awoken by loud rustling, thudding of feet, and a mighty huff.

Below where I sat, the Pokemon had returned, being no doubt well aware of my presence, following the smell of human, she had noticed the salve do a good job on the wounds I managed to reach, but the ones I couldn’t get near had become far worse, red, inflamed and weeping terribly, no doubt hurting and itching. I’d seen her rubbing her sides in the day, itching gasinst rocks and trees, smearing blood and ooze along her path as she trudged. So here we were, alone in the woods, I veeeeery carefully climbed down, staying in cover as much as possible, and over the space of an hour or two, she let me come out into the open, teeth bared yeah, but she hadn’t attacked, and other than a very uncomfortable, low growl, she allowed me to creep closer, some more of that salve made more for my own wounds than hers, being sniffed at, she licked it too, but wasn’t happy with the taste, very bitter, and I was cautiously optimistic, allowed to help her heal the rest of the cuts she had acquired from her old home. So we began our....I want to say friendship but that wasn’t it, it was a collaboration to survive.

We had landed somewhere far from others, I missed my team, and she had never experienced anything outside of the cage, and so we banded together, tentatively. We caught dinner as a team, and climbed for fruits, foraged for berries, reapplying what loose form of medicine I managed to make, before coming to some kind of comfortable companionship together. A week passed, wandering without a clue where we were, before a path was found, she seemed to want to avoid it, and while I wasn’t keen on people much either, it was impossible not to want to find my team again. They needed me, and I needed them. If they had been found, a police officer or the likes may have sent them to my original professor, waiting to be called from the PC system again, but knowing Val, she had grabbed the balls, my things, and bolted to hide, waiting for my return. In desperation I tried to explain this to the Aerodactyl, who had not experienced a trainers care before, and seemed reluctant to return.

It was only upon mentioning revenge, to burn the circus to the ground, that I regained her attention, and we came to a slow agreement to get aid, gather items, and return to where she had been released from. She waited in the forest while I went to town, checking my PC space to see if my team had been handed in, which they had! It was lucky, I was reunited with Val (vulpix), Booker (teddiursa), and Potato (bulbasaur) who I took back, and returned to the woods with.

We had to get some revenge, and in turn we devised a plan to free the Pokemon first, sneak in and pick the locks, melt the chains and gates, and then finally, let the aerodactyl do her thing once the vulnerable individuals were loose. I did my best to hold back my own personal rage, and simply aid the demise of a group who were awful towards Pokemon through this one big flying type. I wint go into details but no one perished in the fire, they were arrested and charged for unsafe work conditions, and abuse towards Pokemon, not to mention false advertising, having no worker’s Compensation in pace for injury, which many staff complained of, and several incidents of sexual harassment in the work place that were brought to light.

Once one started to talk, the others all joined in, and the fire was put down to unsafe working conditions and a lack of health and safety. From what I heard, the whole circus worth of Pokemon were rehomed, helped and generally lived much better lives after that. However now we had one very mistrusting angry Aerodactyl on our hands, a Pokemon I had not worked with before, who had seemingly become quite tolerant of me, but would snap at just about anyone who clocked eyes with her. So I kind of just kept her, no ball, not for a fair few years, we both didn’t think it was important. She was nursed back to health, and we had to go through a lot of training together, she bit booker once quite badly, but we’ve all put that in the past, and have worked on it together.

She is still testing, she won’t be ridden by anyone else, she doesn’t care for other Pokemon much, crowds will spook her, she doesn’t like when people talk with raised voices or hostile tones, and gets real irritable if you come at her in any kind of way that isn’t open handed, calm and slowly. She’s now a very capable flier, wings healed up, spending her first half of life locked up made her long for the open sky, so now we take time together to go off and ride winds when work is slow, and she’s helped in many ways to make the island functional, by moving logs, clearing paths, helping lift building materials around, and generally being there for me when I’m full of rage, which is actually annoyingly often. We’re anger buddies hah, kind of get on the same level with it. She’s become so much part of my family, and I feel like i’m part of hers now too, so I doubt she’d be rehomed, but should she find somewhere she would rather be, we wouldn’t stop her going. She is difficult, angry, snappy, tempermental, difficult, won’t be touched by strangers, likes to fight, but I’d not change her, she’s our testing monster, who we love and adore.

Went off a bit, but I figured why not, I know her, and can write more about her life and story than the others.

[undertaker1827]

ohayo ! how are you ? a headcanons for bassy, edward (cuz i cant find too much hc for edward) a s /o who knows how to shoot and rebuild a broken gun cuz she's russian thank you >~< ❤️❤️

Ohayou!! I’m good thank you, how are you? Absolutely, sorry these took so long and hope you enjoy!

Masterlist

❗️Warnings; canon typical violence, guns (obviously), death all that stuff. Also Book of the Atlantic spoilers but I guess everyone’s seen that by now??

-

Sebastian

Alright, so when Sebastian first found out about this ability, it was during a life and death situation (for you at least)

You had ended up going with him and Ciel on a chase to catch the group behind a recent string of especially violent murders, something the Yard had been pushing to get through as quickly as possible

Sebastian hadn’t wanted you to go, back time was of the essence and he didn’t have any spare to argue with you about it, so you went anyway

Needless to say it went decidedly wrong

The three of you ran straight into an ambush

Whilst Sebastian had thought it was a distinct possibility, it didn’t happen at all in the way he expected and he hadn’t been able to take out any of the shooters because he was having to protect both you and Ciel

A bullet just clipped the collar of your greatcoat and you yelped, out of surprise rather than pain, diving behind a discarded wooden crate

Sebastian and Ciel joined you moments later

You were, much to your distress, unarmed and waiting very impatiently for Ciel to bring out his own gun

When he didn’t, you called him out on it

“Y/N don’t you think I would already be using it if that were an option?!” He rebutted, more than irate

“Well what’s wrong with it?” You whisper-shouted back in frustration, jaw dropping open when he said it was broken

“For God’s sake, give it here”

A few minutes later and with only a key someone had dropped at the side of the road and the corner of a thin piece of metal, the gun was back to rights and fully functional once more

Ignoring the earl’s flabbergasted expression, you leapt up and, using the crate as cover, began to take down your attackers

Each bullet you fired hit one of them square in the chest and in seconds only two were left standing

You cursed when the trigger clicked and nothing happened; out of bullets

The last two men realised this at almost the same time and started firing back, giving you very little time to crouch down behind the crate once more

You glanced between Ciel and Sebastian, both of whom had very wide eyes

When neither said anything, you gave an indignant cry about how you were still getting shot at and neither of them were doing anything

Sebastian quickly dealt with the last two then walked back to you and Ciel, letting you know it was safe

Ciel went to check the shooters’ pockets, presumably for some kind of identification, whilst Sebastian remained standing with you, an appraising gaze locked on your eyes

When you asked him what it was, he just smirked

“I had no idea you were hiding something like that, my darling”

You grinned back

“Perks of being Russian,” you offered as explanation, “my whole family can do everything I just did, really it would be a travesty if I wasn’t able to”

“A travesty indeed,” was Sebastian’s reply, then Ciel called you over to carry on the search once again

Edward

Edward on the other hand, found out aboard the Campania

You had been staying in a smaller suite that was fairly close to his and his family’s, disturbed from the book you were reading by a sudden bout of screaming from just down the hall

You glanced out through the spy hole in the door to be met by the gaping maw of what could only be described as a monster, groaning and beginning to pound against the door

The smell emanating from outside was rancid and you stumbled back from the door in surprise, frowning when the hinges started to rattle

A determined look came over your features and you rushed to the desk your room was fitted with, opening the draw and pulling out your loaded twin handguns and multiple spare magazines

You ripped open the door and shot the creature point blank in the chest once, twice but to no avail

When it didn’t so much as flinch you went for the next best option; the head

That seemed to do the trick

You stepped over the body, mindful it didn’t move again, then made your way out into the hallway

Bodies of the nobility littered the bloodstained carpet, but the moans of the monsters and the screams of their victims had disappeared around the corner

You twirled your guns once then took off in the opposite direction, every sense strained to make sure you weren’t caught off guard

Edward’s suite was clearly still in the thick of things and you took out as many of the undead as you could before they could make their way through the doors

You rushed inside as soon as a path was clear at the same time as a butler dressed all in black appeared, Ciel Phantomhive’s if you remembered correctly

“Y/N!” Edward called out, eyes quickly scanning the blood on your face and the guns in your hands

He asked if you were alright, concern in his voice, but gave an annoyed huff when the monsters resumed their attack once more

Yourself and the butler told the Midfords to aim for the monsters’ heads at the same time, but in doing so you were caught off guard

You yelled in protest as one of the undead ripped a gun from your grasp, leaving you no choice but to let it go lest it were to rip your hand off as well

You shot it regardless before the others had time to attack, but that didn’t prevent you growling in frustration over your gun

Edward told you not to worry about it, that he would be able to find you another one, but you had already picked it up again

You grabbed a butter knife from the table behind you and immediately set to work, returning the gun to its full glory in just a few minutes, before the monsters even had time to return

You smirked at the look of surprise adorning Edward’s features

“Wipe that look off of your face, Edward,” his mother admonished, “she’s Russian, what did you expect?”

He was starting to smile now, then asked how long you’d been able to do that

“Pretty much my whole life,” you told him proudly, reloading and turning to face the fight ahead

[moonlightsolo]

Drunken Pursuit

pairing: the mandalorian x reader (kind of platonic, kind of not)

warnings: angst and MORE ANGST also numerous drops of the f bomb

wc: 2.6k

a/n: hope ya like it cuz i do ;)

-

The familiar robust stench wafts into your face once you open the door to the cantina you’ve grown so fond of— Stale liquor, cheap cologne and sweaty bodies.

As you slyly stalk around the bar in the middle of the room, your eyes roam the countless people drinking inside. You’re not sure if you’re looking for a particular person or an empty seat to slide into.

When a large horned humanoid stumbles away from the bar with the stench of alcohol on its body, you slip your way into the now free spot.

Your pants stick to the tacky leather stool as a bartender slides around to take your order, “One blood sour and two shots of mijura.” You slide the memorized amount of credits to the bartender and the droid begins to shake up your drinks.

It’s become a routine for you to visit this hole-in-the-wall at late hours of the night, but since you’ve finished catching your bounties for the day, you’ve decided to take a break in the daylight.

You down your drinks quicker than anyone around you, the alcohol buzzes through your veins almost instantly and clouds the nerve-endings throughout your body splendidly.

Soon you’re blindly shoving credits over the bar, the people around you buy you drinks as you do the same for them. The usually annoyingly loud music you can’t understand begins to sound like the best beat to dance to. “Come on!”

You decide to grip your neighbors wrists to pull them onto your the makeshift dance floor. You can’t help but sway your hips as your feet somehow expertly tap to the beat.

A huge obvious smile is plastered on your face as one of your new friends, grabs your hands to spin your bodies in circles playfully.

Maybe it’s the alcohol, but you feel confidence like no other. Shot after shot and song after song. Your stomach begins to turn and flutter uncomfortably. This is how your night usually ends.

As quickly as possible, you tug your hands away from person in front you to sprint to the bathroom. The handle jiggles but doesn’t open. Fuck, it’s locked. Someone behind the door squeals obscenities in a language you don’t understand.

The floor is your only option. Your back curls as you hunch over with your hands on your knees. Your abdomen tightens as the burning contents hurl from your stomach onto the already messy floor. You’ll have to leave a big tip.

You wipe your mouth with the back of your hand, sniffling as you attempt to calm the tears and snot flowing down your face. “Disgusting.” You mutter to yourself.

As you hobble into the main area, you slap the rest of your pocket money onto the bar and head outside. Unfortunately it’s still quite bright outside, causing your body to seize from the sensitivity of your eyes. You blindly reach for the surface of the dome shaped exterior wall, running your fingers over the rough texture blindly.

You lean your back against the wall as the cool wind whips against your skin, calming you slightly. As you take long deep breaths and listen to the ships fly overhead, you feel a slight tug on the hem of your cargo pants.

Is your brain hallucinating now? It’s just the wind, you tell yourself.

The sensation happens once again so you gently slide your hand toward your blaster on your hip before you snap your head toward your feet. The grip on the stock of your gun loosens when you see the odd child-like creature cooing at you with their exceedingly large eyes.

It’s green and adorably fuzzy with large ears. The child is wrapped in brown fabric with a little tint of pink covering it’s cheeks and teeny nose. You notice a little black bowl sitting in it’s free hand full of some sort of liquid.

“Oh hello.” You giggle as it’s tiny arms reach up for you, now the soup is spilled onto the ground. Of course, you can’t decline the cute offer of holding such a delicate species.

Your arms swoop down to carefully pick up the baby, surprisingly heavier than you thought it would be. You can’t take your eyes off of it, a smile grows on your face as it giggles at you.

You bounce the thing on your hip like a baby, it seems to enjoy it from the coos of awe muttered at you. “Wheres your mom or dad, hm?” You tickle the child’s belly causing a small laugh to escape from their body.

Suddenly, a shadow covers the sun above as it looms over your smaller frame. Nervousness bubbles in your chest for a moment, then your motherly instinct kicks in as you hold the kid tighter to your chest.

As your eyes slowly rake up the expanse of the person in front of you— The shiny silver armor, the hidden weapons in the steel plates upon their arms, and the helmet. The T shaped pitch black visor and the same matching Beskar surface.

A mandalorian.

You instantly recognize who it is, well what it is. Your blood runs cold as you back up against the wall as far as possible, wishing the barrier would envelope your body to aid in your escape.

“Give me the kid.” The Mandalorian speaks. His tone is menacing under the voice modulator, monotone and deep.

You gulp as the child looks between you and him and continues to stay cuddled to your chest. “Why should I?” Your voice slurs slightly and you hiccup.

The statue in front of you takes a step closer, cornering you into the wall. Your eyes dart around in attempt to find ways to flee. “Don’t.” He threatens as he’s even closer to you now.

You gulp as you stare up at your own warped reflection in his eyes, “What are you going to do with it? You’re a bounty hunter... like me. How do I know you’re not going to sell the poor kid off?” Your breathing shudders when his forearm comes to press against your chest, now pinning you. He is dangerously close to your neck and his face is much too close to yours.

“He is mine. Now hand him over.” Your arms outstretch as much as you could as you refuse to look at your own reflection in his helmet. He grips the baby protectively and brings him to his chest.

A soft relieved sigh crackles from the helmet. The green thing murmurs incoherently and settles against his armor as he tucks it into a sack resting on his hip.

The tall man turns toward you once more, angry and close in proximity. “Why were you holding him? Were you trying to take him?” His voice booms as one of his hands slam next to your head.

A few drunken idiots stumble from the entrance, talking gibberish and laughing. The Mandalorian swings his head to the side to stare intensely at them as they walk by.

When the pair notices the Beskar-cladded man hovering over your shuttering body, their mouths clamp shut, eyes avert to the ground and they speed walk away.

Stars! You need to be saved. Fucking assholes.

The bounty hunter in front of you turns his attention back to you, “I-I—I promise, I was—wasn’t trying to kidnap h-him...” Your voice stutters helplessly, the alcohol doesn’t help your brain as it already is working slowly.

He glances down at the alien child who is peeking over the rim of the bag nervously, “He gr-grabbed my pant leg. He was wandering... He was wandering... by himself. Why was he by himself?” You suddenly gain confidence as you question the man.

“You’re interrogating me when your kid was wandering around by himself?” You scoff as you cross your arms over your chest, “What a great dad. You want to protect him? Well you didn’t. I could have stolen him, but at least I’m not a crazy asshole, right?” You grumble as you mumble obscenities under your breath.

The man scoffs under his helmet as he leans backward from being close to you, his arms lifts from your body. “You’ve got a point.” He grumbles in defeat, one of his gloved hands rest on the bulging sack which the child is in.

“Exactly. Now if you’d let me go, I’d appreciate it.” You go to push yourself off of the wall but your knees buckle which causes you to fly forward.

Your forehead slams against his steel chest plate, making a loud bang echo from the contact. You groan as the pain radiates through your head, your vision goes blurry as if you were drinking once again.

You stumble backward to fall, your arms reach for something sturdy to rest against but two hands grip your shoulders to steady you. Your body is slowly leaned back onto the curved wall of the building.

A sound almost like a chuckle emits from the Mandalorian, “Ouch.” You mumble as your hand goes to your forehead to feel the bump already forming under your skin.

You open your scrunched eyes to see your fingertips are lightly covered in crimson, “Is-is that blood?” You gasp softly as the man brings his hands to your head to inspect the cut. He pushes your hair from your eyes and gently peels the strands off the wet surface of your skin.

“It’s small. Might need sutured.” He sighs as he looks down at the baby who is now curious of what just happened.

“I’m assuming your system is full of alcohol which makes your blood thinner.” He grumbles, “Come on. Follow me.”

Your vision is still slightly blurry, either from your new concussion or maybe your own tears. Follow a Mandalorian? Fuck no.

“Excuse me? Follow you? How...How am I...” A new wave of dizziness overcomes your body as you stumble forward and gulp down the bile rising in your throat, “Am... I supposed to... Follow you..?”

The silver armor fades in and out of your sight, his image is distorted as you sway from side to side.

The alcohol has finally gotten to your brain, it’s your time. You’re going to die. Hitting your head on Beskar (the strongest metal in the universe) and drinking yourself into oblivion is not a good combination. Especially mixed along with your blood on your hands, it’s not one of your strengths.

His arms reach out to you to hold you steady once again, he opens your drooping eyelids to look at your dilated pupils. “You’ve got a concussion.” He lets out a sniffle as he leans in to smell your breath, obviously smelling the liquor. 

You fall forward in a slump, slamming your face against his Beskar once again. He stands there awkwardly with a random girl resting on his chest. His arms hook under your arms to drag you to the nearby alleyway. He carefully places you on the ground, sitting upright with your back against the wall.

He glances at your pockets, seeing a flashing red light through the tan fabric. He opts to fish whatever is is out. Finally gripping the disc shakes object, a tracking beacon.

“For the kid?” He mumbles with a sigh. He glances to see the blaster in your pocket.

He debates in his own head on whether or not he should leave you here or kill you. He grumbles frustratingly as the kid squeaks angrily in his pouch, “I know, I know.” He groans.

He drops the beacon to the ground then stomps on it to shatter it to pieces, the wiring sparks and with another stomp it puffs out. His hands reach down to scoop you up, throwing your drunk self over his shoulder before making his way back to the Razor Crest. He can’t help but think of how idiotic this idea is.

The stares of the passerby’s don’t make the Mandalorian nervous, rather more smug than anything. He knows his image is powerful.

Once aboard the ship, he drops you on his cot that he pulls out from the wall. He locks your limp wrists together with handcuffs so you don’t attempt to hurt anyone or escape the moving ship.

He scoops out the kid once in the cockpit, sitting him in his floating bassinet as he clicks a few buttons to ready the ship for departure. His hand grips the throttle to lift it into the sky. 

The jolt startles you awake. A loud groan falls from your lips from the splitting headache. You roll around in the bed, not realizing it’s not your own which causes you to fall onto the floor.

As you attempt to catch yourself, you realize your arms are bound together. “The fuck?!” You yelp loudly as look at your surroundings. Terror runs through your veins when you realize you’ve been abducted.

The ship hits hyper speed, causing your body to roll like a hot dog across the floor. You let out a loud screech as you kick your feet wildly in front of you so you wouldn’t ram into the wall, “Let me go right now or I will rip you to shreds!”

The stomping above your head shuts you up as the person climbs down the ladder. The beskar cladded man makes you gulp with wide eyes.

“You?” You growl as you attempt to push yourself up from the ground but you’re unsuccessful.

“You’re awake.” He stands to the side with his arms crossed over his chest as he watches you struggle.

You screech through your clenched teeth as your abdominal muscles fail to pick your body off the ground. “Let me go, you fucker. I’m serious.” Your face is flushing red with anger by the second.

He chuckles as he walks toward you, planting one foot on either side of your body now standing above you. “Feisty, hm?” He presses a button on his arm to unlock the cuffs around your wrists.

The metal hisses as it drops onto the floor next to you. You scramble to your feet, standing in front of the large man with an angry face. “You took me.” You poke your finger against his chest. Your nail makes a ‘ding’ sound against the metal.

“I did.” He hums simply as he stares down at you through the same black visor.

“Why?”

“Because.”

“Because, why?”

“You had a bounty for the kid.”

“So you put me on the same ship with the kid?”

“Yup.”

“You make absolutely no sense, Mandalorian.” You huff as you begin to pace the belly of the ship frantically as you talk to yourself under your breath. How will you get home? Is he going to kill you? What about your life?

He chuckles under his breath, the modulator illuminates the lovely sound. No, stop. For all you know he could be a creature under all of that.

“You’re gonna stick with me for a while. I’m going to need your help. I know you’re strong. Just gotta keep the alcohol away from you.”

Your head snaps toward him with a look of bewilderment, “Stuck with you? And—and the green baby?” You almost laugh in disbelief. He’s really kidnapping you.

Mando nods his head, you can almost sense a smile on his face.

And so you do. The child and the Mandalorian slowly grow more fond of you as  as months go by- as you do with them. Sometimes, you’ll catch yourself gazing in awe at how well he takes care of his tiny elderly child. You’ll never want to leave because the irreversible attachment that has cemented them both into your heart.

Countless bounty hunts by his side, combat and capturing. Sometimes, well most of the time, you’re forced to sit on the sidelines with the kid in the Razor Crest because it’s too ‘dangerous.’ 

Of course, you’ll whine and complain, but you always have more fun with the little squirt anyway. 

After the first few months of living with them, you meet his friends along the way, Cara Dune, Greef Carga and a few others. Mando slowly opens up to you, letting you know his name and where he came from. Eventually, you find out he’s more human than you thought. Tiny bits of tanned skin peek from underneath his pile of armor when he stretches or moves; it makes you feel a certain way. (Especially, if he walks around the ship in regular clothing and only his helmet,) You’ve grown quite a fascination with his bare hands. 

Through everything, you and Din are each other’s shoulder to lean on. Even when countless people attempt to take the kid away from you both, which crushes both your hearts. Maybe, you found your own little family. The universe brought you both together for a reason; to protect the child from the Empire. If you weren’t drinking that day, or if the kid never greeted you unexpectedly—Your life wouldn’t be where it is now. You’re content and happy.

Arguments still happen though. Mando and you are both stubborn creatures. No matter how bad it gets, he will always be yours as you belong to each other unofficially.

Whether it’s platonic, or a little bit more than that...

tags: @duchessnibenhu-ofpyromania @mylifeisactuallyamess @onaheroicmission @3strogen @jupitersmoon167 @unexistant​ @kimbachan​

[backtobackbakubabe]

I am the Alpha Now Part 18

Bakugo x Reader

Words : 3023

Masterlist

Reader is from America and somewhat of a delinquent with an alpha quirk that allows her to turn into a wolf as well as bond with dogs. She is sent to UA to straighten out her attitude. She ends up in a power struggle with none other than our favorite hot head. Words in Italics are words said telepathically.

************************************************************************

Bakugo started pacing, his boots stomping, his fists clenched in anger. If he wasn’t sure Hawks was somehow in on this before then he was now. The asshole slipped out at the first chance he got. “Mother fucking bird brain! I can’t believe him! I’m gonna find the son of a bitch and pluck out every last feather.”

Kirishima and Midoriya had followed him outside and where giving nervous glances to each other, neither one wanting to bet the one to talk to their ticking time bomb friend first.

Finally, Karishma’s shoulders slumped as he decided he was a little less destructible. “Hey bro. I know this is a stupid question… but are you doing alright? I mean besides the obvious y/n situation.” Kiri could see Bakugo open his mouth to argue but he cut him off before he could. “I mean you just look a little, I don’t know… unhinged. Have you slept at all since you left UA? You look exhausted.”

Bakugo growled, “I’ll sleep when I find her. It’s already been two fucking days, almost three since she went missing! Just cuz you extras need to take your little nap time to function doesn’t mean that I do.”

Kiri gave him a nervous look, “Bakugo, believe me, we all want her back safe. But you have to make sure you’re taking care of yourself. You won’t be much help if you pass out. Maybe we could just head back for a little bit. You can catch us up on what you’ve found since we left this morning maybe catch a quick couple hours of sleep.”

“I said I don’t need a fucking nap. I don’t have time…” Bakugo chewed on his lip as debated on whether he should tell them his new theories. He knew they probably wouldn’t believe him. He understood how crazy it sounded. But if they were going to help then they needed to know. “I think I know who took her… but it doesn’t exactly make sense.”

Midoriya could see the hesitation in his eyes. “Kacchan, whatever it is, you can tell us. We’ll keep it between us. Well us and Todoroki. He’d be here now, but he’s busy trying to get the new house put together. He’s still working on this though. He’s keeping a close eye on internet activity. He’s using his dad’s hero agency’s software to scan through for anything posted about Y/n.” Midoriya rubbed his neck, “It’s not exactly allowed, but I don’t think he cares either way.”

Bakugo looked around to see if anyone was listening. He gestured for the other two to follow him. He was nervous Hawks might still be hanging around somewhere. Finally, when he deemed it safe, he stopped and spun around to face them. “I think the League of Villains took y/n. Well specifically I think Dabi did.” Both Midoriya and Kirishima’s eyes bulged. Bakugo’s nostrils flared, “And I think Hawk’s is helping them.”

***************Y/N’S POV***********************************

Your eyes filled with tears, but it wasn’t the pain of Dabi burning your skin that provoked them. It was the helpless, useless, frustrated feeling that was festering in your chest. You couldn’t do what Dabi was asking you to do. You were trying, but you just… couldn’t do it.

You dug deep, you gave it everything you had, and yet you still had nothing to show for it.

“Come ON! Do you want that crusty creep to turn you to dust? Is that what you want? You want to leave that annoying loudmouth and precious little puppy behind.” You could feel your anger boiling over. But what was its source? Were you mad at yourself for not being able to do it. Were you mad at Dabi for trying to force you to do something you clearly couldn’t? Or maybe you were mad at both Dabi and Hawks for getting you into this fucked up situation. “What do you think will happen to them once you’re gone huh? Will your pooch go back to being just another dumb dog? Will their connection die without you? Will THEY DIE WITHOUT YOU? Who’s to say, maybe I’ll get mad and just kill them myself”

“STOP IT!” You fell to your knees. Fists clenched, eyes squeezed shut. “Shut up! Just shut the fuck up! I’m sick and tired of your annoying ass voice!”

You felt his scared hand grip your chin harshly, “Show me your eyes. Or are you scared I’m going to see you cry and finally understand how fucking weak you are?!“

Your eyes snapped open. They glowed brighter than you can ever remember. The bright blue only reflected in Dabi’s eyes. You could see that he had to squint just to see through it. The words that left your mouth were eerily calm. “I said… shut up.” You gripped the wrist that held your chin with one hand and with your other you broke his thumb and he screamed. “You don’t get to talk about my Mercy like that.” Your grip on his wrist tightened as you pulled out a staple on his hand, watching the blood flow. “How dare you threaten my pack.” You ripped out another staple. “My family.” Another staple. “The love of my life.”

Your eyes glowed brighter and you could feel pure Alpha power coursing through your veins. “Look at you. All stapled together like a patchwork quilt. And why? Because you’re the weak one.” You could see something in his eyes now, was it fear or something else you didn’t know. “I’m an Alpha.” You let go of his wrist and punched him in the face.

Dabi spit out blood and cradled his bleeding hand to his chest. “Oh yeah? Prove it.”

********************** Bakugo POV**************************

Midoriya paced, “Kacchan. You have to know how crazy that sounds.”

Bakugo groaned, “I wouldn’t expect you to understand dumbass Deku. Did you even listen to anything I just said! I have proof!” His eyes bore into Kirishima’s “You believe me right Kiri?”

Kiri rubbed his neck nervously. “Come on man. You have to give us a little more to go off of. All of your proof is just guesses and gut feelings.” He raised his hands up in defense before Bakugo could start yelling at him. “Before you get mad at me, just know I’ll follow you wherever you go, no matter how crazy. But you really need to think this through. You say Dabi has her because you think you felt her being burned through the bond. A bond you also say she’s turned off. You think Hawk’s is in on it because you think you heard her moan in the background of a phone call. You say you think you know where she is because saw something in your head. Something that none of us could see, not even Mercy saw it. You have to understand how that’s not proof right?”

Bakugo started to grow. “Did you follow him like I asked?”

Kirishima looked back and forth between Midoriya and Bakugo in concern. He really thought his best friend might be losing it. “Did we follow who? Who are you talking to?”

Mercy walked out of the shadows. “He’s smarter than you think. He may not have seen me, but he knew he was being followed. I got a good whiff of him though so I should be able to track him down. Even now I can tell he still hasn’t left his apartment.”

“Good. Continue your patrol and report back to me in an hour.”

Bakugo could sense Mercy’s frustration. His fur was sticking up slightly as he showed his teeth. “I know we’re packmates, and I know we’re doing this for Y/n. But you need to remember that you aren’t my alpha any more than I am yours. Quit bossing me around.”

Bakugo rolled his eyes, “Oh give me a break. Are you really going to be a brat right now? You know I didn’t mean it that way. How about instead of bitching about who’s in charge of finding Y/n, we just focus on actually finding her huh?”

Mercy growled, “I’m not bitching, you’re just bossy.”

Before Bakugo could even respond, both of their eyes glowed bright for a brief moment. And in that moment they surged with power. So much power that Bakugo accidentally let off a small explosion.

Bakugo was staring at the hand that had just sent an explosion into a nearby dumpster while Midoriya was up and pacing again. “Okay. I’m just going to say it… What the fuck was that?”

************** Y/N POV*****************************

You could hear you heart pounding in your ears. Your vision started to tunnel. You smelled ash and you could taste blood. But feel? You couldn’t feel anything. You were completely numb. You looked down and was surprised to see your skin had a weird glow to it. You and Dabi had been going at it for a few minutes now. But it honestly felt like an hour had gone by.

All the power you summoned was draining and draining quick. It left you almost as fast as it came. You had blacked out during most of it so you assumed you had gone feral. It had been years since you had done so and you had forgotten about the toll it would take on your body. Were you hurt? Were you dying? You couldn’t tell. You were just numb. You sank to the floor, back pressed against the charred remnants of what used to be the couch. You could see Dabi’s chest rise and fall over to your right. He had passed out, but the fucker was still breathing.

You crawled over to him and fumbled through his pockets. You groaned as fatigue attempted to pull you under. Your fingers finally found what they were looking for and yanked it from his pocket. You focused as hard as you could on the screen in front of you trying to scroll through Dabi’s contacts. Dabi only had like ten numbers and yet you still struggled to find it in time.

You clicked dial and the name feather dick popped on the screen. After a few rings you heard him pick up. “Listen now’s not a good time. I think the mystery gang is onto us…”

Mystery gang huh? Would that make Katsuki, Fred or Shaggy? You chuckled, “It’s me.” You threw up rather loudly. “I think I need help…”

********************* Bakugo POV************************

“Did you seriously just say fuck? Mr. Perfect just swore?”

Midoriya narrowed his eyes, “God Damnit Kacchan! You’re the one out here having one sided conversations with dogs and spouting conspiracy theories, and your worried about me saying FUCK?”

Mercy cocked his head. It would have been cute if he hadn’t been baring his teeth only moments before. “This idiot knows you weren’t having a one-sided conversation, right?” He sniffed Midoriya causing him to stiffen, “I don’t like him.”

Bakugo snorted, “Yeah get in line.” He looked at Midoriya, “Listen if you care about your balls at all I’d stop talking about Mercy as if he’s not here. He’s smarter than you and shitty hair combined.”

Mercy nudged Bakugo’s hand in approval before resuming his sniffing. He went up to Kirishima and shoved his nose in his side, “This one I like. He smells sweet. But not too sweet.”

Kirishima chuckled, “I think what Bakugo’s trying to say is they have a bond we don’t understand.” He rubbed Mercy’s head fondly, “Just because we can’t prove they’re right, doesn’t mean they’re wrong either.” Mercy gave an exaggerated nod and a bark of confirmation. “I say we just go with it.” He shrugged. “If they’re wrong, the only thing we’ve wasted is time. If they’re right, then we find y/n…. seems worth it to me.”

Midoriya gave a long glance at Mercy before leaning down putting his face level with his, “I’m sorry if I offended you. It wasn’t my intention to belittle your intelligence… I’m sure having your alpha torn from you is hard and having Kacchan in your head 24/7 is probably making it even worse.” He ignored the seething look he was getting from Bakugo. “If you can promise to look out for him, and to somehow let me know that what he’s saying is true. I’d really appreciate it.”

Mercy gave a low humming noise, as if he was sizing Midoriya up. He was about to go off on him for even doubting Bakugo but suddenly his head whipped to the side. All of his muscles tensed, and a growl ripped through his chest. “Bakugo. Hawks is leaving his apartment and he’s moving fast.”

“Shit… Okay lead the way. Guys Hawk’s is on the move. Last chance to back out.”

After a few tense moments they both nodded and followed as Bakugo and Mercy took off.

It wasn’t long before they were back in the same district, they had been patrolling earlier that morning. Mercy came to a stop and looked up. “They’re here, now that we’re close enough, I can smell her.”

“Okay Deku and I can start from the top while Kiri and Mercy start on the bottom and we’ll work our way to the middle. Mercy and I can keep each other updated so-“ He pointed to his friends now, “you two idiots stay close to us.”

Without even waiting for a confirmation Bakugo blasted himself into the sky towards the top of the building with Midoriya quickly following after him. Kirishima sighed and looked at Mercy, “Not exactly subtle, is he?” Mercy whined and walked towards the entrance of the building. “Lead the way man. I’ll watch your six.”

*********************Y/N POV********************************

Thankfully you hadn’t passed out, but you still felt like shit. Three days of torture and hard work will do that to a person. The door slammed moments before you felt Hawks pulling your head into his lap. “Hey kid! Open your eyes and look at me.” You groaned at the idea. Even lifting your eyelids felt impossible. “You’re okay, you’re fine. You’re safe. Big bad Dabi is passed the fuck out. Let’s just get those eyes open yeah?”

You just groaned again like a petulant child before letting out a weak, “…no”

Hawk’s sighed, “I’m just trying to make sure you’re okay kid. But fine. Be stubborn. I’ll just have to-“

A loud explosion sounded from outside the building. Your heart pounded because you’d know that sound anywhere.

Before you knew it your head was being dropped back to the floor with a dull thud. “Shit.”

You could hear Hawks scurry over to Dabi, “Hey! Patchy! You need to get up and get the hell out of here. There are heroes here. I can still spin this in my favor. But you need to leave. Like NOW!”

You heard Dabi hiss as he tried to sit up and if you had the energy you would have smirked at the fact that you were the reason he was hurting. But then you remembered that you weren’t much better at the moment.

Dabi shuffled over to you, leaning over to speak directly into your ear. “You go along with whatever he says. Do you understand me? You air our dirty laundry and I’ll air yours. I just need to hit a button on my phone and your little secret is out.”

You took a deep breath and forced your eyes open. You could tell by the shocked look on his face that they were still glowing. This had to be a record. Usually they stopped as soon as the adrenaline wore off. “I’d get going if I were you. I may be too exhausted to kick your ass but I don’t think Katsuki will feel the same way.”

Dabi growled before forcing himself onto his feet and leaving the room.

You figured there was no point trying to hide from them anymore. They found you, the jig was up. You looked at Hawk’s pacing. “So what are you going to tell him?”

Hawks played with a feather as he brainstormed, “I’m going to say I received an anonymous tip and flew out here as soon as I could. Found you here, by yourself and that Dabi must have gotten away. I mean look at the place you guys tore it to pieces. It’ll be obvious I didn’t do this.”

You nodded knowing full well that Bakugo wouldn’t believe a word of that. “So is it okay for me to tell him where I am? I mean if you just “rescued” me then that would only make sense, right?”

You reached out before Hawks even said anything and felt for pack. The bond opened up and you were flooded with relief. Your eyes even teared up a little at the empty spot in your chest felt warm again. You could tell Bakugo was two floors above you while Mercy was three below. Sneaky boys. You hoped Mercy caught the chance to sink his teeth into Dabi.

“Y/n. Baby! I’m here where are you pup? Please tell me you are okay.” You brushed a tear aside. You could feel Mercy’s presence as well, but he must have been focusing on something else because he remained quiet. Maybe he did find Dabi after all.

“I’m fine. I’m two floors down from you-“

You heard a loud bang come from the other side of the door. Naturally your impatient boyfriend couldn’t be bothered to use the stairs. Nope. He came straight through the ceiling. Next thing you knew the door was blown from it’s hinges and he and Deku were rushing in.

He looked around frantically until his eyes met yours. He crossed the room in seconds and fell to his knees in front of you. He scooped you into his arms as his lips found the top of your head. “I’m here now pup. It’s okay. God damnit please don’t ever do this to me again.”

You gripped the front of his shirt and just breathed in his comforting scent. You allowed yourself to relax into him, “I’m sorry. I didn’t really have a choice. I’m so sorry.”

***********************************************************************

Tags: @tspice283 , @realityisoftendisapointing , @imbi-101 , @thoughtfulpandazine2, @hotarumorikawa , @huh-iwasntpayingattention , @starfishlovingbnha , @weebnumber3622 , @mixedfeeelings , @munchmunch01 , @inumorph@xxoperatexx @runrabbitrun3 @insane-without-delirium @yolei94

[verymuchimmortalcat]

Maribat March Day 4: Internet Friends

ao3

@maribatmarch-2k21 

Marinette looked up from her phone as she heard a notification go off on her laptop. She had just finished posting the pictures from the photo shoot for her first official line. After years of making items for mainly Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale, she had released her first line under the pseudonym of MDC at the age of 17, a year after Hawkmoth’s defeat. One message from Arrow Girl, it was a message from Cissie, which given that she had just released a new line wasn’t that surprising it just meant that Cissie had stayed up past midnight again. It should be around 3 am for her right now. Opening the message, she laughs.

Arrow Girl: HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEW MDC LINE, M????????

ITS SOOO PRETTY

WHO AM I KIDDING YOU LIVE IN PARIS AND WANNA BE A DESIGNER YOU’VE DEFINITELY SEEN IT ALREADY

So, yeah Cissie didn’t know she was MDC and sue her, Marinette found it funny how Cissie ranted about her designs to her. It’s not like Cissie didn’t laugh when Marinette obsessed over the costumes on TV and the people wearing them.

Designs&Coffee: Ya, I did

Which one’s your favourite piece?

Arrow Girl: The second one

It’s a master piece

Designs&Coffee: I love that one the most too!!!!!

That was true, the only thing Cissie didn’t know was that she designed that piece.

“Marinette, Adrien’s here,” her mother called suddenly.

“Coming Maman,” she replied.

Designs&Coffee: I’ve got to go, my mom’s calling

Talk later. You should sleep.

Arrow Girl: Says the girl with Coffee in her username

Bye.

Closing her laptop, Marinette headed downstairs, grabbing the Black Cat miraculous on her way. Adrien visited from London once a month but he had left behind his miraculous saying that he’d rather put it all behind with everything his father did. But both him and Plagg missed each other so Plagg came along on their monthly visits. Marinette still wore her earrings and Tikki went with her everywhere but she was more of a pocket best friend at this point then a pocket goddess who gave her the ability to become a superhero. Both Cat Noir and Ladybug had retired after Hawkmoth, they dealt with a miraculous threat and if another arose, they’d be there to help, but for right now the two of them were focusing on their goals and dreams outside superheroing. That was actually how she had ended up talking to Cissie, some random person had started questioning young heroes retiring online, and Cissie and Marinette had both jumped to the defence and they had just continued talking. That had been about six months ago. Now, they spoke almost every day.

Marinette hugged Adrien as soon as she saw him, calling out a bye to her parents she dragged him out of the bakery and they headed to the park. They had a few hours to catch up before they had to meet Alya and Nino.

.oOo.

A week or so later, Cissie was stuck in the makeup chair when she heard the notification that she had set for M’s messages go off.

Designs&Coffee: DID YOU KNOW THERE’S A NEW CISSIE KING-JONES MOVIE COMING OUT IN A FEW MONTHS.

IM SO FREAKING EXCITED

Arrow Girl: I could tell.

Designs&Coffee: I feel like you should be more excited.

ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING ACTRESSESS WHO SHARES A NAME WITH YOU IS STARRING IN A MOVIE

Sometimes, Cissie wondered how M didn’t figure it out. Her username was Arrow girl, she knew her first name was Cissie and M knew that she was working in the movie industry. But then M treated her like a normal human being and not like those other fans and Cissie really didn’t want that to change that at first, she knew now that she would not treat her differently but Cissie had no idea how to go about telling her that I’m the actress you fangirl about.

However, before she could reply to M she was called so they could start shooting. Telling her that she had to go, she’d talk later and that she should take her own advice about sleep, she rushes out onto set.

.oOo.

A few months later, Cissie’s agent gets her an audition for a period drama set in the 1800s when women walked around with corsets and large skirts and Cissie for some reason agreed to audition. So, she auditioned and got the part. The first week on set was just them going over the beginning measurements for the costumes and other things like that. When she asked the director, who was going to be designing the costumes, he said that it was a rather high-profile designer who would be arriving in L.A. next week. That confused Cissie, this movie wasn’t that much of a big deal that they got a high-profile designer. She decided to ask the assistant director who seemed to be a boy around her age, so maybe seventeen or eighteen, who seemed to be always wearing a cap and headphones.

She went ahead and introduced herself to him, holding out her hand and saying, “Hi! I’m Cissie King-Jones.”

He laughed and shook her hand, “I know dudette, you’re the star in the movie. I’m Nino Lahiffe.”

He had an accent she thought was French but she wasn’t quite sure. “I was wondering about the designer, the director said it was a high-profile designer and that they would be arriving next week-“

“And then he asked you to talk to me?” he asked with a smile.

“No? Should he have?”

He chuckled, “The designer is one of my best friends, we’ve been friends since we were about five. She wanted to work on something different and when I suggested this she agreed immediately. Honestly, I think she only agreed because you’re on this movie but who knows with her.”

“Well then, I look forward to meeting her.”

.oOo.

Marinette had arrived in L.A. the day before and was now headed to set with Nino. She was nearly shaking with excitement; she was going to meet the Cissie King-Jones. Nino was laughing at her excitement, “you’re being mean,” she said.

“And you’re acting like a little child, when all of us know when you actually meet her, you’ll be too busy in your designing mode to actually say anything to her, so I took the liberty to do so for you.”

“You did what?” she screeched, earning weird looks from people around them.

“I told her that her being in the movie was probably the actual reason you agreed to work on it. Which is undeniably the truth. Feel free to thank me later.”

“I’m never going to thank you. She probably thinks I’m some crazy fan now.”

“You need to stop catastrophising, Mari. It’ll all be fine in the end.”

“Why am I friends with you?”

“We’ve been friends for too long and now you no longer know how to survive without me.”

She snorted at that, “keep telling yourself that, Nino. Keep telling yourself that.”

.oOo.

Cissie was talking to one of the other members in the cast, when she saw Nino walk in with a petite girl, with shoulder length black hair and blue eyes, who was carrying a few sketch books and a bag that looked really heavy to be carried by someone that small.

When the makeup artist told her she was done, Cissie headed in the direction of Nino and who was probably the designer. Joining the two of them, she held her hand out to the designer, “you must be the designer, I’m Cissie King-Jones.”

“Hi, it’s wonderful to meet you. I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Cissie definitely didn’t know that name, her confusion must’ve been clear on her face because Marinette laughed, “I don’t go by that in the fashion industry, I’m MDC.”

Cissie took a bit to process that bit of information, she was meeting one of her favourite designers ever who was apparently a fan of hers. She was in heaven, she had to be.

“I love your work. Your new line was breath taking. I loved the second piece the most, the colours and design were amazing,” she blurted out, before she could think clearly.

Marinette just laughed, a clear sounding laugh, and said, “Thank you, I’m really glad to hear that. The second piece on the line happens to be my favourite too. And I think your work is amazing too.”

Cissie smiled, “Thank you.”

And then they proceeded to talk while Marinette showed her the designs and ideas she had.

.oOo.

Marinette and Nino returned to the hotel late in the evening and were hanging out in his room.

“I told you that you need to stop catastrophising and everything turned out fine.”

“Why yes, thank you Nino,” she drawled sarcastically.

“I thought you were never going to thank me?”

“Sarcasm, my dear friend. Sarcasm.”

“So, you were being sarcastic when you said you would never thank me ‘cause it sure didn’t sound like it.”

Throwing a pillow at his face and calling out a Good night Marinette ran to her room. She opened her laptop to check if she had missed any messages. There were 10 messages from Arrow Girl. Opening their chat Marinette wondered what Cissie had sent. What she saw left her feeling shocked and incredibly stupid. In hindsight it was extremely obvious but then again she didn’t know Adrien was Cat Noir until he detransformed in front of her.

Arrow Girl: M!!!!!!!!!!!

I MET MDC TODAY AND MADE A COMPLETE FOOL OF MYSELF

SHE’S DOING THE COSTUMES IN THE NEW MOVIE IM DOING

AND LIKE HER FRIEND TOLD ME YESTERDAY THAT SHE LIKES MY WORK

AND THAT WAS PROBABLY WHY SHE HAD AGREED TO WORK ON THIS PROJECT

AND THEN I GO UP TO HER AND INTRODUCE MYSELF AND SHE INTRODUCES HERSELF WITH HER REAL NAME AND I MUSTVE HAD A BLANK EXPRESSION CUZ THEN SHE SAID I GO BY MDC

AND THEN I BLANKED OUT

AND IF THAT WASN’T BAD ENOUGH I BLURTED OUT I LOVE YOUR WORK YOUR NEW LINE WAS BREATH TAKING AND I LOVED THE SECOND PIECE THE MOST AND THAT THE COLOURS AND DESIGNS WERE AMAZING

AND THEN SHE WAS SO SWEET AND NICE TO ME AND THANKED ME AND SAID THE SECOND PIECE WAS HER FAVOURITE TOO AND THAT SHE THOUGHT MY WORK WAS AMAZING

M!!!!!!! ANSWER ME PLEASE IM DYING OF HUMILIATION.

She thought about her reply for about a minute and the sent it off.

Designs&Coffee: I’m sure she didn’t think you were awkward.

She was probably concentrating more on the fact that she was talking to CISSIE KING-JONES

Her response was instantaneous.

Arrow Girl: How can you be so sure?

Also how did you finally figure out that I’m that Cissie

Designs&Coffee: I’m so sure because I’m that M

As in the M in MDC. Also how I figured you were that Cissie

Hi again! I’m Marinette. I’m 17 and sorta run a fashion empire

Arrow Girl: Cissie King-Jones. I’m seventeen too and currently an actress.

Marinette breathed a sigh of relief, she was worried that this might’ve ended badly

Arrow Girl: Wanna actually hang out tomorrow?

Designs&Coffee: sure!

.oOo.

Cissie woke up two mornings later to nearly a hundred notifications on her phone. About twenty of the notifications were from news channels, which was strange she was supposed to get those only when her name was mentioned in an article and 20 articles in a day were strange. There were another fifty from Bart, which happened occasionally. Ten each from Cassie and Marinette. And a few messages each from Tim, Kon, Greta and Anita.

Checking the news articles first because they would probably give some insight on the dozens of messages, she saw that someone had seen her out with Marinette yesterday and taken a photo which the tabloids had eaten up like starved wolves.

Bart had clearly lost patience fast, his messages were getting more and more pleading as she scrolled through all fifty. Laughing she told him that she had just woken up and would answer all his questions, and she and Marinette weren’t together it was just a misunderstanding, like the one Tim deals with all the time. Kon, Anita and Greta used to the several articles that came with Tim had picked out articles that had the most ridiculous theories and had sent it to her. Cassie had done the same along with several other questions. Choosing to answer Cassie first, she calls Cassie and spends nearly an hour talking to her even though it took Cissie only five minutes to explain the whole tabloid mess. Tim had sent a message saying “welcome to the world where if you’re seen outside your house with someone, everyone is going to believe you’re in a relationship.” Cissie just responded with a laughing face emoji.

Marinette had apologised for her friends’ behaviour, strange as that was. Saying that if she gets e-mails from Adrien Agreste, Luka Couffaine, Alya Césaire or Kagami Tsurugi it would be best to ignore them. They were just over protective and annoying. Cissie pointedly ignored how Marinette had casually brought up four very prominent people in the world. Apparently Marinette’s friends not used to the whole invasiveness of paparazzi had decided to deliver Cissie a shovel talk over e-mail before Marinette could clear up the confusion with her friends. She had also added that they were supposed to apologise and to please tell her if they didn’t.

And that was when she remembered her own friends’ highly similar behaviour and sent a text in the Young Justice group chat that she’d use them as moving target practice if they decide to induct her into their group with threats, and then sent another message to Tim to stop whatever extensive background check he was doing. She groaned as she got a smiley face in reply. Then the notification she had set for Marinette went off.

Designs&Coffee: I’ve been meaning to ask you about why you had all the points you had for young heroes retiring???? so, uh, why did you?

Groaning she flopped back onto the bed, this was going to be one hell of a day.

So my thoughts on how it would go ahead:

Marinette and Cissie meet up to talk about her text but Cissie doesn't really tell her about Arrowette. She changes the topic, after all Marinette was also ready with several points on the same topic. Maybe they eventually tell each other maybe they don't, i don't exactly know.

Marinette's friends calm down pretty soon after, Alya takes some more time but eventually calms down too.

When Cissie says, 'Marinette had casually brought up four very prominent people in the world', Its because at this point Adrien's run as a model still hasn't died out with it being only a year after Hawkmoth's defeat. Kagami is a world famous fencer, Luka joins Jagged Stone on tour and becomes pretty famous too and Alya listened to Marinette, (It ends up being Marinette and Adrien after the reveal who get through to her), she ends up making a name for herself in the year after Hawmoth's defeat, though her work still focuses around heroes/vigilantes which is why Cissie knows her, she's not really that prominent outside France.

Sometime after Cissie finishes talking to Cassie and sees Marinette's text Bart shows up demanding answers. They don't actually know it's Marinette, as in they don't know her name. Marinette Dupain-Cheng isn't really well known, MDC is, and no one knows who MDC is. Tim would probably do a facial recognition scan find out who she is and continue on with his extensive background check and probably figures out she's MDC somewhere along the way. Traya asks about Marinette the next time she sees Cissie