#pikachu coffee cup

[randostufforino]

[corviiids]

i think L should've tried harder to piss light off. provoking light into slipping up would not only be hilarious i also think it would be extremely easy and effective. not saying you could get light to actually confess this way, but he would definitely make more dumb mistakes if, for example, L kept interrupting their homoerotic brain chess matches to insist that kira is actually matsuda because the butts match

[sarahvilelaheart]

This is an art of Mario, Luigi, Kirby, Bandana Waddle Dee, Pikachu and Jigglypuff holding their coffee cups while celebrating the World Coffee Day of this year. So... Happy World Coffee Day 2023! ☕️ And enjoy! 🙂

[hellfire--cult]

Edit of Eddie: Sofiiel

Stripper!Eddie x Shy!Fem!Reader

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 (end)

WC: 12.9k

⚠️ +18 MDNI, Stripper!Eddie, shyness towards men, nervousness, self-esteem issues, fluff of some sort, self doubt, flirting, soft touches, skin on skin contact, kissing, kissing with tongue, pining, Stripper!Billy and Stripper!Steve at the end.

Plot: You thought you were cursed with your shyness, but after one embarrassing night, you decide it's time to change, and you believe someone might be able to help with that.

Summary: You get to know Eddie in a more intimate way, and he helps you with something you didn't think he would agree to. But friends always help eachother.

Listen to the kissing scene here, with AI Eddie.

A/N: Can't even begin to describe how happy you guys made me with all of your reblogs and boosting this story in ways I didn't think could be done! Welcome to all new followers, to all new readers and thank you for your support!

You can always support me by hitting the reblog button with tags, and I always enjoy reading your comments!

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PART 4

You ran out of coffee. That’s the first thing you noticed this morning as you got up and wanted your shot of caffeine. The fact you would have to go out to go get a cup of coffee before starting your day at work, was already making you whine with exasperation. 

You had a coffee machine at home because you always liked some nice, steamy, cup of coffee as soon as you woke up, but, you forgot to get it last time you went grocery shopping, swearing you had some, knowing you had some, so your best guess was that Robin snuck in and took it, forgetting to tell you.

You both have copies of your keys, because that’s the one lucky thing of having a friend in the same complex. If something seems out of the ordinary, or something happens at all, you could always go and check on eachother. It was safe, and you both liked feeling safe by one another.

But there were times where Robin would sneak in while you were out or something, or even sleeping, and she would get stuff she doesn’t have. You could go do that to her as well, but she probably used it all by now, so it was no use. You know Robin’s got a sweet stash at her home, so you always invade her property to steal some Reeses or some Musketeers. 

You looked at yourself in the mirror, wearing your Pikachu PJs and groaned, knowing you had to change out of the comfy clothes to get into restraining ones. You looked at the clock, 8:10. You had fifty minutes before you got into work, so you moved quickly to get dressed, with the new clothes you got during last week. 

After that meeting with Eddie and his friends, you’ve been shopping during the week, sometimes with Robin, sometimes by yourself, and you actually quite liked picking up clothes that no one could judge in the changing room but you and you only. You’ve gotten blouses, tank tops, a lot of colors, skirts, even shorts you felt comfortable in.

But you also bought something you never thought you would buy. A black piece of lingerie. Seeing it against your body, made you feel powerful, there was the obvious insecurity at the back of your throat and your mind, trying to tell you that you would not use it, that you don’t need it, that you don’t even look like the mannequin where it was displayed.

But you still felt that power. And you wanted it. So you got it. As well as a black stiletto dress, some heels, some accessories. Yes, your credit card bill will be something next month, but it was the first time you shopped, pushing so many negative thoughts away, listening to your gut only. 

So, right now, you put on some pair of jeans and a pink blouse over you, throwing on your white sneakers as well, since it was just a trip to the coffee shop that was two blocks away from your apartment complex. You grabbed your purse, threw your cell phone in there and off you went, walking into the morning sun and the soft summer breeze hitting your skin as you walked.

The days were getting hotter, and you were happy to have A/C in your apartment and mostly in your room, because that would have been agonizing. You could see people in suits walking to get the bus, or going straight to their workplace, and of course the old ladies that took their morning walks with their little dogs.

You reached the coffee shop, small, but it served coffee. You never came here, always opting to go to starbucks or another shop, because here, in this particular shop, there was always–

“Hello! What can I get for you?” Your eyes finally focused on the pair of green ones in front of you. A small knot appeared in your belly, as the nerves vacated in your throat, looking at the guy in front of you. He had black hair, and a bright smile on his face, the apron of the shop sitting on his waist. 

You licked your lips as you felt your fingertips warming up, as well as your ears, looking up at the menu as your brain started working once more. You scanned your options and took a deep breath in, pushing yourself to look down towards the guy’s eyes once again. 

“I would like a medium coffee, with half creamer in it please.” You respond to him, no shakiness in your voice, no stuttering, you didn’t even think of the words, or process anything, you just talked. And he was a handsome young man, probably beginning his 20’s, but his eyes were sharp green, yet, you didn’t feel like running away.

“Sure thing! To go?” Was his next question and you wanted to nod, because it didn’t require for you to speak really, but you still did, just to prove yourself, just to feel prouder and feel your chest gleam with victory.

“Yes, please.” You grabbed your purse and found your hands steady, a little bit of coldness at the tip of your fingers, but nothing like before. Nothing like you would have acted before. You grabbed your wallet and took out the money, and you looked at the bill in your hand and the counter. You raised your head up again, and put the money in front of you for him to take from your hand.

He smiled and grabbed the bill from the other end, and you felt yourself blush slightly as you saw he was about to give you change.

“Keep it.” It wasn’t much, but this had made your day insanely better, by a mile, and it didn’t even start yet. The sun was up, yes, but it was too early in the morning. The guy smiled at you again, giving you a nod.

“Thank you lovely.” Oh, a pet name. Your heart picked up a pace as you smiled back at him, and his back finally turned, letting you exhale a shaky breath out of your lips. Your stomach was knotting, but you kept your gaze up, hand on the counter as you waited for him to finish your coffee. There was a part of you that wanted to run away, but because you didn’t know what to take of that pet name. Eddie says them all the time, so it’s nothing special, right? It’s just a way of calling someone.

He turned around with your coffee in hand, and slid it over to you with a smile to his face, which you returned, despite feeling your neck burning from nervousness, and you grabbed your cup, putting the strap of your purse over your shoulder. You cleared your throat slightly and pushed your limits once again.

“Have a good day.” You say to him and he gives you a small chuckle and a nod.

“You too Miss!” And that was that. You turned around and walked out of the door, with a small ding as you opened it. You were wide eyed, a huge grin on your face as you walked, trying to keep your excitement inside. A month ago, you wouldn’t have done that, there was no way you would have done something like that! You looked at him, straight in the eye and even held a conversation! Tipped him! 

You were panting heavily as you finally reached your complex, looking at the time on your phone as you headed to Robin’s apartment. You had 20 minutes before logging into work, and you couldn’t wait. You couldn’t contain it inside yourself. You fumbled with the keys on her lock, and rushed inside, pushing the door closed with your foot and dropping everything, the cup of coffee and your purse on Robin’s table.

You rushed towards her room, already hearing the intense snoring your friend has, and you opened her door to see her hugging her pillow, while drooling all over it, one leg over the comforter as she slept on her side. You bit your lip as you tiptoed to her right side, and then lightly shook her shoulder.

“Robin… Robs…” You tried waking her up and all you got was a soft snore and a grunt.

“5 more minutes and I’ll get ready mom…” You giggled under your breath and shook her harder.

“Robin, wake up, I have to tell you something!” You exclaimed a little louder this time, and that made her head prop up from her pillow, doing a slurping sound as she put her spit back in her mouth, her hair almost looking like a nest.

“What the fuck are you doing? Its–” She double tapped the phone on her nightstand and looked at the time through half lidded eyes. “Almost 9 AM! I work at 10 and I wake up ten minutes before logging in.” She grunted out to you and you were still smiling widely and shaking her shoulder.

“But I need to tell you something! Look what I got!” You rushed outside the room to go grab the forgotten cup of coffee and then rushed back towards Robin’s room to see her sitting up, rubbing her eyes while yawning. You showed her your cup and she just looked at you as if you were completely insane.

“You got… Coffee?” And her eyes slightly widened as she rubbed her eyes with her fingers, pinching them as frustration hit her. “I took the last of your coffee, shit, forgot to tell you.”

“Robin, no! I got it from the coffee shop two blocks down!” You tried again and she just looked at you with a confused look on her face.

“I don’t know why you woke me up for, but I do not appreciate it–”

“The barista was a guy!” 

And Robin sat there, looking at you, blinking slowly as your news sank in. She knew about the guy at that coffee shop, she buys her coffee there, while you drive around to look for Female baristas, but now you bought coffee from the same place she does. It was a family business and the guy is the son of the owner. 

“You bought coffee…”

“Yes.”

“From the barista, who is a man.”

“Yes, and I said thank you, tipped him, gave the money in his hand and even wished him a good day without driving my eyes away.” You puffed out your chest as you took a sip of your coffee which was now cold, making you wince in disgust. 

Robin slowly started smiling widely at you and she plopped herself onto the bed again with a cheer, excitement blooming in her chest for you, because this now offered you possibilities, chances, and it opened so many doors for you, the possibility of thousands of paths you could take.

“Holy shit! GOD BLESS STRIPPERS!” She yelled out loud which made you choke on the coffee you were sipping, and then trying to shush her through your coughs.

“Robin, shut up!” You laughed as you placed your cup on her night table, sitting next to her as she just stared at the ceiling with a wild look on her face.

“This is huge! Like, now you can talk to strangers! Like, complete strangers without knowing their name! This is a big step!” She giggled as she looked up at you and you were smiling, feeling your cheeks heat up slightly because of how proud you felt of yourself. 

“He even called me Lovely, and I didn’t flinch! I blushed of course, but I stood my ground.” You tell her, and she sat up, pinching your cheek tightly.

“I am so proud of you…” And you knew she meant it as you pushed her away from the assault on your cheek, rubbing it afterwards as you laughed at her, but Robin’s smile faded slightly as she looked down at her hands. “What about the other girls? When will you tell them that you’re doing this?” She asked and yes, you have been keeping this a secret therapy from the other girls in the group, but because you wanted to surprise them, and you also felt too much pressure on yourself if many people knew about this. 

“When I get a date… I will tell them. I just feel like I have to make them proud if I do tell them, like I will force myself to move rapidly and not at my own pace.” You try to explain and gladly Robin understood, giving you a nod. Her smile returned but in the shape of a smirk as she scooted closer to you.

“You gonna tell Eddie?” You looked at her and you felt a burning happening on your ears, and you felt a cold sweat going from the bottom of your neck and running towards your chest. “You still going to his house after work?” Your eyes widened as you jumped up from the bed.

“WORK!” You rushed out of the bedroom, leaving a laughing Robin trying to catch her breath on her bed. Of course, she couldn’t go back to sleep from the excitement now, and the fact that you would be going to Eddie’s later on was making even more excited.

Because she wasn’t invited this time.

You fixed your half ponytail again as you stood in front of Eddie’s apartment door. You chose a different outfit now, jeans, wide leg this time, and a tight crop top white T-shirt, that covers your belly button of course. You had some bunky white sneakers on your feet, and you had done some eyeliner, mascara, and covered a few marks on your face that were here and there. 

The butterflies in your stomach were going wild as you waited for him, hearing the thumping coming closer to the door. Fridays were Eddie’s day off, so it would be just the two of you in his apartment. You doubted on saying yes to this when he invited you over, but you two were friends, it was something normal to do. So why are you still nervous?

The door opened and you looked up to see Eddie smiling down at you and his eyes widened slightly as he looked at you.

“All this for me?” He motioned towards your outfit and you couldn’t help the small smile that came up to your lips as well as a blush spreading on your cheeks, not expecting his praise. He opened his arms for you, raising his eyebrow up, hiding behind his fringe, his hair in a high bun, with some strands falling on his face.

You saw the black shirt, tightening on his chest and biceps as he opened his arms. The guitar pick hanging from his neck, and the black ripped pants on his legs, followed by some combat black boots. You rocked a bit on your heels as you got closer to him, feeling your stomach slowly rising to your throat. He was smirking as he wrapped his arms around you, not too tight, but it was enough to invade you with warmth, and his cologne penetrated your nostrils, making you feel slightly dizzy.

You gulped heavily as you slowly placed your cheek on his chest, feeling the warmth on your skin growing hotter, stiffening all over as his arms pressed onto your shoulders to pull you closer.

“Your arms around me, return my amazing warm hug.” He joked, but he was actually quite nervous about this. He had told you in the last video call that he would like to greet you properly with a hug, and you agreed, after catching your breath a few times, but you did. He felt his heart beat slightly faster as your perfume invaded his sense of smell, noting the sweetness of it, but also the powerful punch to it. 

You raised your arms, feeling them tremble slightly, slowly putting your hands against his waist, almost a brush, not putting pressure on your grip and Eddie shook his head, you could feel over yours, which was making your blush deepen even more as the butterflies in your belly were creating hurricanes and tornadoes from how wild they were flying.

“Your arms, not just your hands. Wrap your arms around me Sweetheart.” You closed your eyes at the vibration on his chest as he talked, taking another deep breath in, guiding your hands towards his back to finally wrap your arms around his waist. He chuckled and finally squished you into him, making you choke up at the sudden gesture, your chest pressing against his harshly, knocking the air out of your lungs.

“Eddie, what the fuck–” You choked out with a weak voice and he finally pulled away, laughing at your reaction as you took many deep breaths to get your lungs to decompress again.

“That’s a guy friend hug for you. Come on, I’ll prepare us some nice drinks, and guess what!” He said excitedly as you walked into his apartment, the blush still spread on your cheeks as you held your chest. 

“What?” He pointed towards the coffee table in front of the couch, and there you saw the bowl of Nachos and different smaller bowls that contained salsas and dip sauces. Your face lit up as you rushed towards to sit on the couch, grabbing onto one chip and dipping it into the Guacamole he prepared, taking it with one big bite. If there was something you really loved, it was Guacamole, because it was fresh, yet rich in flavor. It was perfect.

Eddie was biting his bottom lip as he saw your eyes close in delight and he almost choked on his saliva as a soft moan vibrated on your throat. He wasn’t ready for that. He really was not prepared for that sound. It caught him completely by surprise and now it was something he won’t be able to erase from his head anytime soon. 

“Good?” He asked and you opened your eyes to smile at him, still chewing on the chip, nodding your head excitedly. He chuckles at your response, happy with it, and heads over to grab some beers from the fridge, taking off the caps with a bottle opener that is magnetized to the fridge itself. He returned to you, sitting right beside you as he handed the bottle to you.

“Oh!” You hurriedly swallowed your chip as you raised the bottle to cheer. “I will cheer because today I was able to buy coffee from a shop that has a working… male barista.” You say proudly with a smile on your face and Eddie’s turns into shock, mouth falling agape at you.

“Seriously?” He asked and you smiled at him, nodding excitedly, repeating the same steps you did as when you told Robin about it. He was amazed by you, really, slowly becoming confident, in the way you talk, dress, and most importantly, you are confident in being yourself. You don’t change your way of speaking, or your topics, or what you like just to fit in. This is what mattered the most. “Well, fuck sweetheart, congratulations to that!” 

You both cheered with a clink of your bottles and instantly started to dig away onto the chips. Eddie was mesmerized at how you could work from home, because it would allow you to do many things whenever you have a few minutes to spare, and he was right. You often cleaned the house, or played on your Switch.

“Please tell me you play Mario Kart.” He said and you smirked at his words, finding out that he too owns a switch. So that was quickly plugged in, and the matches began, one after the other, Eddie choosing Mario, while you chose Peach. 

You won every game.

“This is rigged. It’s absolutely rigged.” He exclaims, putting his controller on the table with a loud thud as he sipped on his beer with an angry frown on his face, while you wore a wide smile on yours, putting the controller on the coffee table too. 

“I am just better than you in this.” You say cockily, catching him by surprise but it was indeed something you are confident in, so he will accept you being a brat for now. He sighed, shaking his head.

“I beat my brother every time, and he is like a major video game nerd. Always gets mad that this is something he can’t beat me at.” He laughs as he slumps back against the couch and you stare at him, deciding to take off your shoes, to be able to sit and turn to look at him, propping your feet up on the couch, right under you, almost in a kneeling position.

“You mentioned your brother before, also a Lord of the Rings fan.” You say to him and he chuckles, looking at you with a smile to his face. He made an ‘oh’ sound and moved slightly towards you to be able to pull the phone out of his back pocket. 

“A little shit I tell you.” He opened the gallery on his phone and went to look for the photos of last christmas. He found one and smiled as he looked at it, handing the phone to you.

You almost snorted your beer out of your nose as you held Eddie’s phone. Eddie was wearing the ugliest christmas sweater you had ever seen, in the color of greens and reds, reindeers all over it, while the guy next to him, with curly hair as well, but did not share any of Eddie’s facial features, wore a Rudolph sweater, and the nose was lit up. 

“Well, these are… some nice sweaters!” You choke out, and he took the phone back, laughing from your reaction as he put his phone onto the table again.

“Yeah, his mom bought them for us.” He replied and that caught your attention. His mom. Not their mom. He noticed how you tilted your head at the word and he straightened up, looking at you. “My parents have been gone since I was 10. My uncle Wayne took me in, and it was just the two of us, living in a small trailer in Hawkins. Poor man had to sleep on a pull out bed in the living room so I could have my own room.” He said with a soft chuckle as he looked at his rings, playing with them as a bit of nerves filled his voice.

Talking about his past was not something he ever liked doing, but in order to strengthen his relationship with you, he knew that this conversation was coming at some point. He was glad he had alcohol to do it, even if the story of his life didn’t end as tragically as he thought it would. 

“Bet he took good care of you.” You comment and Eddie simply nodded at that, a small smile appearing in his lips.

“Yeah, I was a son of a bitch though. In order for some bills to be paid, I sold drugs at school, you know just your friendly metal head weed dealer.” You looked down at that, not because of disappointment of him, but to know that he had it that rough in his teenage years was making your chest feel some kind of pressure that you were not enjoying. 

“Sometimes people have to do things in order to survive.” You said this time and he smiled, taking your soft gesture at not making a big deal out of his past. He looked up at you with a smile to his face now, almost excitedly.

“But, when I was at a gig, playing with my band, I invited my Uncle and he showed up with a lady friend called Claudia. After that, they started dating, and I met my step brother, Dustin.” He positioned himself to begin talking with his hands from the excitement he was feeling and you were mesmerized by how entranced you were with him. “I mean, he is a nerd! Like me! Star Wars, Lord of the rings, Star Trek, Lost, The Walking Dead… We became inseparable just like that.” 

You were smiling as you listened to him, he just seemed so happy about his family, about the person he is now, how despite it all he is still himself, not letting his circumstances change him or what he likes. 

“You were in a band?” You asked him and he nodded at you, a small glint of sadness shining in his eyes for a second.

“Yeah, as you can see, I play guitar.” He said to you and motioned to one corner, where one electric guitar stood, a red one, and then next to it was an acoustic one. You nodded with an ‘oh’. “Apart from your job, what do you do?” You turned to him and frowned slightly as you thought about that. 

You didn’t really have any hobbies, you just like to read, watch movies, play on your Switch every now and then, maybe baking sometimes when you feel inspired to do so, and now you feel a certain sense of embarrassment washing you over because of how boring you actually are. Think you are. You gazed down at your beer and fumbled with it with your fingers, clearing your throat.

“I– Uh… Don’t really do anything. I was as interesting as a slug, you know. Trying to just lay low, never really took an interest in anything.” Well that was depressing. Letting those words come out of your mouth, realizing that the person in front of you had a very exciting life, was slowly making you feel like curling into a ball and just staying there. Your brain was starting to work, and it began whispering things you didn’t want to hear, not with him.

‘You’re so boring, you should go.’

‘Why is he even friends with someone like you?’

“It’s okay to not have any interests. Better than having forced ones put on you.” You hear Eddie say as you look up to see him shooting a caring smile at you, your mind simply shutting off as you stared at him. “Steve for example, he was pushed to be captain of the Basketball team, Swimming Team, Soccer team… All because his parents wanted him to be the little star.” Eddie scoffed at that, shaking his head as he looked towards the living room.

“Really? And he didn’t want to do that?” You ask and Eddie simply laughs and shakes his head.

“Fuck no. Steve, believe it or not, fucking loves cooking. That guy can cook us a five star meal, out of thin air. He can make chicken nuggets taste like they were done by Gordon Ramsey himself.” You giggle at that, feeling your nerves slowly leaving your body as he talks to you.

“I have to try that, see if what you’re saying is true.” He laughs at that, and nods, taking a chip, dipping it into the Sour Cream and crunching on it. 

“Yeah, ‘nd Billy? Billy was an asshole to Steve and I in high school. Also pushed over by his father to be the best of the school. Worse than Steve.” His expression turned sour at that, his smile falling as he looked at his beer. “When Steve and I found him on the street, with a concussion in his head… I think that’s when we decided we would take Billy with us, out of Hawkins.” 

You were stunned to hear the story of these three men you met no more than a month ago, in the weirdest circumstance of all. You saw them almost naked, thinking that those three men would just be the snarkiest, or most flirtatious people you would ever meet, but there is always more under the skin, under the flesh, under any layer they had created to prevent from being hurt again.

“And… How did you… get the jobs you have now?” You asked him and he turned to you with a playful smile on his face. 

“The first time we stepped on Indianapolis we got drunk, and went straight to a strip club, a female strip club. We were amazed by the amount of money they were getting on their thongs, like, I’m talking about thousands! We just looked at eachother and wondered if we had the power to do something like that… Turns out, we did.” He took a sip of his beer and got up to go fetch two new bottles as you put your empty one on the coffee table, taking hold of a chip.

“So, it’s not like a job you regret having.” You say to him and you hear him chuckle as two caps clinked onto the counter. He walked back towards you, handing you your third bottle of the night as he sat back next to you.

“Nah. It’s still work, and it pays really well, and you can also meet the strangest, yet greatest of people there too.” He says clinking his bottle on yours and you feel a blush coming up to your cheeks at that, smiling softly at him. His eyes were fixed on you, as you smiled and took a sip out of your bottle.

You are peeling your layers, one by one, slowly but surely becoming the person you probably always wanted to be, letting yourself be happy, and this goes beyond the talking to men thing. This was you finally having some confidence in yourself. Believing that you dressed nice, that you did your make up right, that you did your hair with confidence and you felt pretty in all of it. 

Eddie was sure he was watching a butterfly coming out of their cocoon. 

He cleared his throat and your eyes focused on him again as he shook his head to drive his attention away from you, just for a second. You tilted your head as you waited for him to talk, and after an ‘ah’ from his part, which made you giggle, he continued.

“So, let’s tackle the next scenario… What do you do on a date?” He asks you and you immediately straighten up, noticing the slight happy dizziness the alcohol was doing in your brain but you were still very much conscious, but your blood flow was betraying you, making you blush all over.

“W-What do you mean?” You ask, actually wanting him to be more specific, and he maneuvered his body to sit while facing you, just like you were doing with him.

“Well, what do you talk about? Do you know how to make a move?” You were supposed to make moves yourself? You slowly shook your head at him and he sighed at you. “Well, for example, on a date, you talk about very superficial stuff. Work, movies, food, music. That’s really the basic stuff.” You were mentally taking notes of that with a nod to your head.

“So, no talks about… politics, family, religion?” You ask him and he laughs at you, his dimples dipping into his cheeks and you felt the burning on your ears again as you saw his smile while he shook his head.

“No. And nothing deep either… A little bit of what we just did now, but less intimate. I ask about your workplace, you ask about mine. You ask about my hobbies, I ask about yours. Keep it simple and short, maybe throw a little funny story here and there about stuff.” You raised your eyebrow at that, confused by what he might mean.

“A funny story?” You ask him and he nods at you.

“Like, for example, when I asked you about your friends and you told me about Robin and the Raccoon, which it’s still very funny to imagine it till this day.” He says with a chuckle and you follow him with a giggle, catching onto what he was saying. 

“Got it, funny works.” He nods at that, and you feel him getting closer to you.

“Alright, now… Normally, on dates, the men do not make any physical moves to show interest. That’s the lady’s job. If we are already engaging in a conversation with you, we are already interested, we are as simple as that… But a woman, you have to let us know you are interested, and that is all done with body language.” He finished and you were just blinking, almost wide eyed as he stared right back at you.

“B-Body language?” You ask him and he immediately laughs at your reaction, shaking his head.

“I’m not talking about pouncing on the guy. Look, I’m gonna touch you, okay?” He says this time and that for some reason sent a shiver down your spine, and you felt uncomfortable so you moved your legs a bit as he scooted closer. “Okay, so, one common move is laughing and placing your hand on the bicep.” 

“Oh, I’ve seen that in a movie! Wait, that actually works?” You ask tilting your head slightly and he smiles at you, nodding his head.

“Like a charm. You just–” He made a funny laugh, sort of a Santa Claus one, making you laugh as well as he moved back and then forward again, putting his hand on your left bicep, running his fingers down for just one second and pulling back again. You felt the area where he touched grow hot, and you bit your bottom lip at how easy he was making this look. “You touch for a second, do not linger more than that, because that would be too obvious, or too desperate.” 

“Oh? I mean, isn’t the whole idea of it for guys to know that I am interested though?” You asked and he nodded slightly to then shake his head afterwards.

“Yes and no. It’s confusing, but we do like a little bit of a chase. If we get it too easily, our interest kind of… fades away.” You grimaced at his words, showing him a look of slight disgust. 

“And you guys say we are the complicated ones.” You say, taking a sip of your beer and he widens his eyes, looking at you, putting his arm along the backrest of the couch, towards you. 

“Hey, we are very simple! In many, many aspects, sweetheart.” You were still facing him, biting onto the inside of your left cheek, trying to hide the smirk as you squinted at him.

“Like what? Throwing big rocks into a lake and rate the splash?” You ask as your left hand starts to slowly creep up on the back rest, without him noticing, a laugh vibrating in his throat at your words.

“Exactly, we just like a little bit of a struggle, that’s all. It makes the tension grow between you and your date.” He explained and your fingers found their way onto his right forearm which were still resting onto the backrest towards you. You hummed at that, taking a sip of your beer.

“But, wouldn’t you risk losing the date? What if you take too long and don’t give in in time?” You ask him as your fingers start to trace onto his bat tattoo, still looking at him. Your heart was beating with excitement as you saw him shiver slightly but was still not realizing you were touching him at all.

“We always give in, it’s at the third move that–'' He shivered again and his eyebrows knitted together as he felt the tingling sensation on his forearm. He looked at it and saw you passing your nails on his tattoos, and his belly twisted, simply and aggressively twisted. His intestines were knotting with each other and he was sure his brain short circuited. You were touching him. You were deliberately touching him, flirting with confidence, and you made sure he didn’t notice.

How long have you been touching him like that? And why does it feel so good when it’s just your nails brushing against his skin, tracing the drawings that were inked on him, and you weren’t even batting an eye at that. He slowly turned to look at you, and that’s when he saw your amused face, biting on your tongue as you smiled at him. A laugh started coming up on his throat, as his nerves flew away from his fingers.

“Shit, that was smooth Princess.” And to his dismay, you put your hand away, taking a sip of your beer. He was still staring at your movements, completely entranced. He was feeling his heart about to burst and he looked down at his beer, deciding this would be the last one for the night. Yep. It would be the last one.

“Thank you, I saw it on Friends.” You say with a wiggle of your eyebrows and he finally let out a cackle, amazed that you tried on a move from a tv show on him, and that it actually worked. He was slightly flustered and maybe that had to do with the alcohol in his system as well.

Your laughing slowly faded away as you looked down at your beer. The dread of the possibilities of what would happen after a move being made could trigger. Possibilities you weren’t sure if you’ve done right. Things you don’t know if you ever did, and what if it were done to you? 

“Okay, what’s going on in that head of yours now?” Eddie asks, slightly worried at the change of expressions you just had. Were you regretting something? Maybe touching him? 

“What if it goes well?” Was your simple question. Eddie blinked at that, not fully understanding what you were asking.

“What if… what goes well?”

“I-I mean, what if– What if the date goes well? What if–” You were a blushing mess, almost sweating as you tried to word your thoughts out without sounding like a child, without sounding pathetic, looking everywhere but his face. But Eddie’s eyes softened, looking at you, seeing you stammer in your words, trying to let them out of your mouth with no luck, but he knew exactly what you wanted to ask.

“You mean if he kisses you?” Your breath caught in your throat at that and you hid your face into your hands in shame. You’ve kissed before, but was it ever good? Was it enjoyable? Did you do it right? Did they do it right? You knew you didn’t put much effort into them because you just weren’t attracted to the people you’ve kissed, you just wanted the experience to be over with, just like your virginity.

But kissing someone attractive, you’ve never done that.

“Yeah… I mean– I can do it but… I don’t know if I did it right…” You said almost in a whisper, ashamed of your words, of being 25 years old and still worry about your kissing skills. Voicing your worries to a man that’s done more kissing than you did in your whole life, much more, way more. Eddie frowned at your words, and shifted on his seat, raising his hand up to put it under your chin for you to look at him. You slowly locked eyes with his and the feel of his hand on your skin, just made your butterflies flutter all inside of your belly, your head getting lighter at the touch. He smiled gently at you, pulling his hand away.

“Sweets, one thing you have to understand is… Attractive people don’t have superpowers.” He says to you and you frowned at that in confusion, tilting your head to the side while looking at him.

“What do you mean?” 

“I mean, just because a person is hot, doesn’t mean they are experts at everything. You can find hot people that are lousy kissers, bad at flirting, horrible at sex, like, finish in two seconds and that’s that. Hot people that are assholes, like certified with a capital A… Just because you find someone attractive, doesn’t mean they have more experience than you, in any way.”

You drank in his words, processing them in your head. You never thought of it like that, not ever. You just thought that people that are attractive have more chances of experiences, and that leads them to have some practice. Eddie was looking at how you were absorbing that information, and he noticed how your shoulders lost their tension, slumping down a bit on your body.

He was feeling the buzz of the beer as he took a sip from it and put it on the coffee table, a warmth expanding on his body as he scooted just one jump closer to you, which made you look at him again.

“I’ll tell you a secret, and you won’t tell them I told you okay?” He starts and you nod slowly at that, straightening up once again to listen to him. He smiled at you and continued. “So, you saw Steve. Fucking handsome right? With that hair, the freckles, fucking lady killer.”

“Y-Yeah.” You nodded slightly at that, feeling the anxiety of admitting Steve was hot not as painful as it once would have been. 

“Yeah, he couldn’t kiss for shit.” Eddie says with a smile and your eyes widened at that, not believing what he was saying. A man like Steve? Not knowing how to kiss?! “You’re looking at me like I’m lying, but I swear I’m not. When we first started working at the club, and Steve kissed clients, they would complain to Joyce that he was too sloppy, too much saliva.”

“Oh god…” You giggle as you take a sip from your beer, wincing in disgust at the thought of a kiss with overloading saliva. Eddie laughed at that, nodding.

“Yep… He was so bummed out because he wanted to be one of the favorites and he knew that if he didn’t kiss he wasn’t going to get it. So… Billy helped.” You spat your drink away from Eddie at that and he started laughing hysterically at your reaction. Your eyes were almost bulging out of your sockets as you listened to that.

“Are you joking!?” He shakes his head at you, still laughing, his shoulders shaking up and down at the motion.

“Fuck no. Imagine my fucking shock when I came in here and I found them making out on the kitchen. It was traumatizing.” He says and your eyes were still like plates as you stared at him. “They aren’t dating if that’s what you are going yo ask, Steve is bisexual but Billy is straight. He just wanted to help Steve.” You blinked rapidly at that, and gave one nod, frowning at that. Friends helped eachother like that?

“So, that makes Billy a good kisser then.” You say and Eddie nods with a shrug.

“That must be, BUT, Billy was very forceful when handling the clients. Pulling their chairs, or turning them, or grabbing their shoulders. He really didn't know how to treat them.” He says and you tilted your head with a surprised ‘oh’ on your lips. Now what Eddie was saying about everyone, despite how they looked, had flaws was making more sense to you.

“So, Steve taught him to be gentle?” You asked and Eddie smirked, shaking his head and pointing at himself.

“Nope. That would be me. I taught him how to pull a chair with force but not a violent one, or how to grab a chin or a shoulder without digging his digits into the skin.” He explains and you were just staring at him, nodding at every word he was saying. You licked your lips as the nerves started forming a lump in your throat, looking down at your bottle of beer which was half empty by now.

“So, that would make you… Flawless?” You try to giggle and Eddie couldn’t help but feel his chest warm at your slight praise, but he was far from what you just said. He shook his head and smiled at you.

“Hell no… I couldn’t dance for shit.” He says to you and you raise your head up in complete surprise. “I didn’t know how to move my hips like Channing Tatum does, and Steve was the one to help with that. You might have noticed that night that out of the three of us, Steve is the one that moves the most.” You shook your head nervously at that, looking at the empty bowl of chips on the coffee table.

“That night is still kinda hazy, but I remember one thing or two.” You were sure you were a deep red now, remembering Steve on his knees as he prayed to Nancy, Billy’s hip grinding against Barb, and Eddie’s kiss and fingers down someone’s throat. 

“So, yeah, we all have flaws, and we all have experience and inexperience.” He finishes saying, looking up at the ceiling, not noticing how you put the beer on the table, sitting up straight now, not facing him, your feet back on the floor as you fumbled with your hands on your knees.

The knots in your belly now turned into painful vines, full of thorns as your body burned in anticipation. You knew this would cross a line, you knew this was a big step, and you knew this was not right, and for some reason, you knew this would be a mistake. 

But, there is also a part of you that knows you want this. And that part is winning over all of the other things that were stopping you.

“S-So… You guys helped each other.” You began talking and he shrugged, still looking up at the ceiling as he rested against the backrest of the couch.

“Yeah, cause we’re friends. It’s what friends do, have each other's back.” You nodded at that, slowly as you gulped down the lump that was forming in your throat and your feet turned cold.

“Friends…” You were almost breathing heavily, your nails digging onto your knees as your heart started beating into your ears, hearing every thump of it as it rapidly made your blood flow to every inch of your body. “A-And… We’re friends… right?”

Eddie’s eyes almost came out of his skull because of how wide he just stared at the ceiling. Were you actually asking him what he thought you were asking? Nah, it couldn’t be possible. It wasn’t real, right? He slowly looked down and you were already looking at him, jumping slightly as he locked eyes with you, making you flinch your gaze away in embarrassment.

He was still trying to understand that what you were asking was real. You wanted his help, but he was fighting with himself because he didn’t want you to think he was taking advantage of you for trusting him. He really didn’t want you to think that. But if you were the one asking… 

“Sweets, are you asking me what I think you are asking me?” He asks, and he wants verbal confirmation, even if it takes you an eternity to say it, he will wait. His chest was hurting from how fast his heart was beating into it, and he wanted to punch it to make it calm down. You were a friend asking for help, he has to get a hold of himself.

“I-It’s stupid, don’t worry, f-forget what I just said!” Your mind was telling you to run away. You crossed the line, you fucked it up. Why would he want to kiss you anyways? You weren’t anything special, just a friend, and he kissed beautiful women almost every night. You were inexperienced, and you would probably fuck it up, completely and he would laugh at you, or what if he winces in disgust at you? What if–

“Darling, darling, darling… Calm down.” You felt his hand on your knee and your eyes looked down to your lap, not realizing that your legs had been jumping up and down uncontrollably. Your breathing was slightly heavy as you shook your head still looking down.

“I-I shouldn’t have– I mean– We’re-We’re friends–” And Eddie wasn’t going to let you belittle yourself. He knew what was coming next, so he stopped your rambling with just his voice.

“Honey, I would be honored to help you with this.”

Your body froze all of its movements. Your legs, your quivering lips, the digging of your nails on your jeans, and even your heart steadied itself, almost non beating. His hand was still on your knee and you saw him pulling it back to himself as he waited for you to reincorporate yourself. 

Did he say honored? Why would he be honored? You have to stop thinking, you have to stop. You need to push the thoughts away, he said he will help you, it’s just that. Help. It doesn’t mean anything else, but a friend helping another friend. Nothing more. It’s nothing more.

You slowly turned your head to face him and he was wearing a soft encouraging smile as he looked at you. He wasn’t going to show his nervousness, and he didn’t even know what he was nervous about. He has kissed plenty of women in his lifetime, but you, for some reason, were making his knees tremble slightly, as well as feeling like bending over from the constant knot in his stomach.

“You okay?” He asked you and you were still looking at him, face red as you tried to mumble out words.

“Y-You’re sure you want to… kiss me?” You asked him and his eyebrows turned into a frown at your question. He knew there was more to it than simply asking him if he wanted to kiss a friend to help her. He knew there was something deeper behind those words, something darker.

“Darling, you’re fucking beautiful, I’d be more than honored to kiss you.” He said with a fist pump in the air to try to ease up the tense situation and it seems it worked, because you let out a soft huff, almost a giggle, and he saw your fingers no longer digging on your jeans. He took a deep breath in and positioned himself, sitting next to you, but facing you, crossed legs under him. “Okay, I need you to, first, let yourself go.”

He put his arms out and started shimming all over, just moving all his arms and body erratically as if trying to get a bug away from him. You laughed at his movements and sat in the same position, facing him and shaking yourself to lose the tension on your body, making him laugh at you, scanning you all over for a second as you joined him in the laughter.

This moment right here between you two, was too easy, too natural, and it felt as if it were right, and it had always been destiny that you two should meet. He was enjoying this moment with you, finally something different in his daily life. His calls with you, whenever you show him a new piece of clothing you got for yourself, and it wasn’t only with him.

Steve and Robin talked privately too, but it was as if they were soulmates, long lost souls that should have been together a long time ago. Platonically. He wondered if that was the same with you. If your relationship was platonic of some sort, only focused on it being friendship… And there’s another part of him that wished it wasn’t that.

“Right so… I’m going to start slow, okay? So first things first.” He grabbed your hand gently, pulling it up towards his lips to finally press them against your knuckles. You took a sharp intake of breath at that, feeling him against your skin in this way was something you were not really prepared for. You shivered at his touch, and you felt your belly just yearning for more, your mind no longer wanting to run away. He lingered his lips there, looking at your reaction until you met his eyes again and you took a deep breath in with a nod.

Eddie now knew you were okay with his touch, putting your hand down once again. He licked his lips in anticipation as he looked into your eyes who were looking at him with expectation, waiting for his next move. He raised his hand up towards your right cheek and leaned forward. Your breath completely stopped as you felt your stomach just contract on itself, shutting your eyes tightly and bracing for what he was going to do, until you felt his lips press gently onto your left cheek. 

It was burning your skin almost.

“No need to act so pained about it.” He let out a nervous chuckle out of his lips as he saw your scrunched up face. You opened your eyes to see him looking at you again, and dropping his hand down from your face. “Okay, now, I want you to reciprocate that. Kiss my cheek, I’ll close my eyes so you can be comfortable.” 

When Eddie closed his eyes, you couldn’t help but stare at him. He just looked way too beautiful, untouchable almost, tingles going from the bottom of your neck to the tip of your fingers. Your heart was painfully beating into your chest cavity as you slowly leaned in, keeping your eyes open just to not miss the spot on his left cheek. You had to press your hands on his knees to keep yourself stable as your lips inched closer to his skin.

You held your breath in as you finally pressed your flesh with his, yours soft, plump against a warm cheek that was tinting itself in a pink hue. You let the air leave your lung as you rapidly sat back in place, taking your hands away from his knees. He gulped heavily as he composed himself, opening his eyes to look at you. 

Your eyes were on your lap as you fumbled with your fingers, and he wanted to laugh, almost giggling he could say at how red you were looking. But he wasn’t going to do that, because you were doing good, great even, but now comes the difficult part, one of the few. 

“That was soft sweetheart, thank you.” You almost whined at the praise but because you just felt getting redder and redder from embarrassment and adrenaline. You slowly looked up at him, and you suddenly saw the hint of nervousness cross his features, making your eyebrows twitch in confusion. “Um… Now, I will give you a peck on the lips. You can close your eyes this time, and then I want you to give one back to me, that okay?” 

Oh, your breathing quickened at that. You clenched your fists tightly, closing your eyes as you nodded at him, barely, but he could figure it out. He raised a hand up, and he noticed the particular shakiness at the tip of his fingers, frowning at them because he never twitched. He never trembled. He never got nervous. He held onto your left cheek and you jumped slightly at the touch, not expecting it and you tightened your lips together. He chuckled with a shake of his head.

“Don’t tighten your lips. Relax angel, it’s just me.” He softly says and the way his voice sounds on your ears, make you actually slump a little bit, relax your muscles as well as your lips. He looked down at them, feeling his breathing quicken its pace, but he held those breaths in, trying to not show how he was feeling to you, which he didn’t even know what feelings he was feeling himself. 

He leaned down, pulling your face towards him, slowly and agonizingly. You wanted to open your eyes to see how far he was from you, as your belly just screamed at you to lean closer, but you stayed put. Waiting, and after what felt like ages, in the darkness behind your eyelids, you finally felt his lips connect with yours. A sharp intake of breath was taken on your part due to the shock, and also because of how surprisingly soft he was being. A soft subtle moan vibrated in your throat at the touch and he had to contain the urge to move his lips on yours, wanting to devour you. Your hands itched with the need of grabbing onto him, and it was shocking you because you never felt this. You never felt the need for more. 

Because that’s all you could think about now. More. You wanted more.

He pulled away from you, the peck being only for one or two seconds but to the two of you seemed like minutes. He opened his eyes at the same time you opened yours and he swears that he felt an electric shock run down his body as his pupils connected with yours. Your breaths were mixing with one another, because Eddie was still in your space, noses almost touching.

He pulled away from you, causing you to exhale a deep sigh you didn’t know you were holding in, and he dropped his hand from your cheek. He ignored the lingering burning sensation that was left on his palm as he gazed at you once again, a soft smile spreading on his lips.

“You okay?” He asked you and you could only nod. He chuckled at your reaction and scooted closer, now knees touching. “Alright, your turn.”

Fuck, that made all of your consciousness return to you in one big slap. It was your turn to kiss him. But you could do it right? It was just a peck, just a quick peck. You could do that, it was something fast, just like he did to you. You couldn’t feel your fingers as you raised your hand up to cup his left cheek. You scrunched your eyes closed and leaned in, quick, pulling him as well, but you felt him fight against your grip and you opened your eyes to see him squinting at you.

“What–”

“Slower. If you come at me that fast you are gonna knock our teeth out Angel. Just go slow, no need to be quick.” And there was a part of him that just said that to be able to be in this moment for a little longer. You felt embarrassed at his scolding and you wanted to pull away, feeling completely pathetic and childish for your actions. You took a deep breath in again as you continued to lean in, but this time slower, pulling him towards you in the same manner, gentler and he was content with that.

You closed your eyes when your lips brushed his, and he kept them open just before you pressed your lips to his to look at your face. You weren’t scrunching your eyebrows, or grimacing in pain or discomfort, so he knew you were okay right now. He closed his eyes after a second and you just wanted to stay there. Your lips on his, as your palm rested on his cheek, your nails wanting to dig in his flesh to pull him even closer.

You didn’t know if this would feel like this with every man you would kiss later on, you hoped it did. You hoped this wasn’t just happening with Eddie, because he is just a friend. That’s all he was. A friend helping another friend.

You pulled away after another second, dropping your hand from his face and this time you didn’t gaze towards your lap again. You kept staring at his face, waiting for his eyes to open, your chest now burning for the next move. 

His brown eyes connected with yours again, and he smiled reassuringly at you, as if telling you that you were doing good, that everything was fine, and that you were safe with him at this very moment. You took a deep breath in, giving him a small smile in return, feeling your cheeks aching thanks to the amount of blood that is pooled there.

“Alright… Next is the tricky part. I’m going to move my lips against yours this time. When I kiss your top lip, you kiss my bottom lip, and then the other way around.” You know how kissing works, you’re not an idiot. You have done it before just the way he describes it, but the question always lingered if you were any good at it. If you were too pushy, or too soft, or too slow, or too quick. 

You took a deep breath in to brace yourself, and exhaled, giving him a nod for him to continue. Now, Eddie was almost sweating. He didn’t want to feel that way towards you, but he was still a man, and you were beautiful. A very beautiful woman. So of course his body will react, he just has to remind himself that you are just a friend and that you need help. 

And he is just helping. 

He raised both of his hands up this time and your eyes almost went wide when he cupped your face in between them, getting a sense of feeling trapped but in a good way. The coldness of his rings and the warmth of his palms filled you with a sense of peace. You felt safe. You started hearing a buzz in your ears, knowing it was the intense flow of blood that was going all over your body, as the anxiety in your stomach was almost ripping its way out, wanting to break your skin, or wanting to crawl up into your throat. 

“Lean in with me sweetheart.” He commanded and your eyes were burning, your hands moving towards his knees again, trembling fingers finding the skin in the rips of them, your breathing hitching as you both moved towards one another, his fingers softly getting in between your hair, palms on your cheeks still and you closed your eyes.

He took a gulp, closing his eyes right after you, feeling your nails digging into the skin of his knees, softly scratching at him, almost desperately and he didn’t know if you were eager or nervous, but you were leaning in, and that was a good enough sign for him to press his lips against yours again, this time, with more pressure than before.

Your heart soared, beating wildly but not because of complete nervousness or because you wanted to run away from it, but because you were content. Content because you weren’t sweating out of a panic, content because you didn’t feel like fainting, content because the dizziness you were feeling was because of the rush, the adrenaline, the excitement of it all. 

His lips finally moved on yours, and you let your instincts kiss him back, following his lead. He was being gentle, slow, lips between lips and the smacking of them being heard all over the apartment. Your fingers were gripping on his knees as if your life depended on it, to keep you grounded to earth. There was a part of your brain that was telling you that friends shouldn’t do this, that friends do not kiss each other, not even for practice. 

But maybe those thoughts were wrong, because here you were, and Eddie’s self control was slipping. He wanted to move to the next step, but he wanted to properly warn you, he really wanted to, but with the way you were touching him, and the way you were tenderly moving your lips with his, was slowly but surely making him lose his composure of being a good friend. 

He had to be quick then, because you seemed into it, and if you stopped you might become nervous again and it will take more time for you to prepare yourself. He kept moving his lips on yours, your heads moving from side to side and you felt like you were being kissed like they do in the movies. Romantical and gentle. But something was slowly snapping inside of you, something that was clawing its way back in your throat.

More. You wanted more.

He pulled away but his hands were kept in place, his lips remained over yours as the heavy breathing of each other mixed in between you both. You opened your eyes to meet his, and he saw the hazy look in your eyes, the same look he must be having right now, and you might not even know how you are looking at him, but he knows how he is looking at you. And it was different, different than before. Way different.

“I’m gonna go further now, stop me if you’re uncomfortable.” Before you could even formulate any sentence, think of anything at all, his lips crashed against yours, this time, more forcefully than before, and it shot another feeling inside of you. It was something you didn’t experience before, something that made you magnetized to him, and you cannot pinpoint what name to give it.

You moved your lips against his, following his movements, and your eyebrows shot up in surprise when you felt his tongue brush against your lower lip, gently, asking for entrance. This was the part where your inexperience might show, and you didn’t want to disappoint him, not when he was making you feel like this, not when he was the first person to kiss you like this.

You felt him rub your right cheek gently with his thumb, trying to soothe you down, telling you that you can still stop him. But you wanted anything but that. So despite your guts trying to make you bend over in pain, despite your brain throwing red signs all over to make you run away, and despite your heart beating so fast you were sure he would be able to hear it, you slowly opened your mouth, letting him in.

And he was so grateful for it.

His tongue slowly sneaked in between your lips, meeting with your nervous tongue. He moved, gentle and slow, small swirls which you danced with him harmoniously. He let out a huff of breath through his nose, trying to swallow a grunt because your hands had gone up to grip onto his thighs now, pulling yourself closer to him, and deeper into the kiss.

You were a good kisser, even in your nervousness, even if you told him you didn’t know if you were even doing it right, you smashed all of that in one second. One of his hands went deeper into your scalp, running his fingers through your hair as he felt the temperature of the room start to rise up. Your tongue was magical on him, so tender and delicate, yet he could hear the soft little moans that vibrated in your throat at every harsh movement he did on you. He could feel his pants starting to strain, and he cursed himself for being so easy to rile up, or maybe cursing at himself for wanting to–

The door opening caught both of your attention, your eyes widening as you both pulled away as quickly as you could. Panting heavily as you looked at one another, not even knowing for how long you have been making out with each other. It felt like seconds, but probably minutes had passed. 

“Well, shit, did we interrupt something?” Billy asks with Steve standing next to him with a bag over his shoulder. Your whole body turned red and you squealed as you hid your face in your hands, wishing for the earth to swallow you whole. They saw you. They saw you kissing Eddie. Your friend. Oh god, what will they think? You thought you were an idiot, a very big idiot.

“I uh–” Eddie was at a loss of words and he looked at his friends. He knew you were feeling utterly embarrassed at this moment, so he knew he had to ease the situation up a bit. “We were practicing kissing.” 

And that made you even more embarrassed, your head shooting up to smack Eddie on the arm. Why would he tell them that?! Now they know you have no experience in that department and that Eddie was helping you gain confidence in it. Great. You shook your head, becoming more overwhelmed each second that passed.

“No need to hit me! You are a good kisser, despite what you thought.” Eddie brushed his arm as Billy and Steve walked over to the two of you. You groaned into your hands as you felt the heat of your face transfer onto your palms, and your guts were turning, the feeling of nausea slowly filling your stomach.

“Well, I bet it went better than with Harrington over here.” Billy glared at his friend as Steve blushed all over and pointed at you.

“Dude, she doesn’t need to know about that–”

“Actually…” Eddie begins with an innocent dimpled smile on his face and Steve became red in anger, ready to start going at his best friends but a giggle was heard in the room and they all turned to you.

You were laughing into your hands, and the situation that had mortified you now was making you laugh because of their bantering. They weren’t judging you, not you, nor Eddie because they had been through it. They helped each other out with things that were either weird or too bizarre, yet they did it because they’re friends. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh.” You say, as you raise your head up again, locking eyes with Eddie who had a playful glint in them and both of you laughed with each other, or at each other, you didn’t know, but just having this moment with him felt nice, it felt as if nothing had changed. No awkwardness, no weirdness, nothing that makes you feel uncomfortable, or him for that matter. 

He was still Eddie, and you were still you.

“Alright, hang on, I have a question.” Steve suddenly says, putting the bag with clothes down. He was still sweaty from work, his hair back with a small half ponytail. Eddie and you stopped laughing and looked at Steve to keep talking. “My question is, are you fine with kissing someone you trust, or are you fine with kissing men in general?” Your smile dropped at that, the thought being processed in your head.

You didn’t even think about that. What if kissing Eddie was easy, or kind of easy, because you trusted him? What if you were able to just because you can confide that part of yourself to him, because he is your friend? Will that happen with the men you meet?

“What Steve is trying to say is that when you go on a date, you don’t trust each other on the first one, but you might kiss, maybe something else.” He said with a wiggle of his eyebrows, earning a glare from Eddie’s part, and you gazed away from that dirty joke. 

Steve stood there for a second, thinking and then he took out his phone to open his music player and choose a song from there. ‘Stereo Love’ started sounding from the speakers and you winced at the nostalgia of the song, Eddie chuckling at it and Billy simply rolling his eyes. Steve puts the phone on the coffee table and urges you to get up from the couch. 

“Come on, let’s try something.” And you gave Eddie a confused look before doing as Steve says, following him to the middle of the living room as Billy took your place on the couch, dropping himself on it and grunting in relief. Eddie’s eyes were focused on you as you stood in front of Steve.

“Harrington, what are you–” Eddie tried to talk but he was stopped by one look from Steve. His chest was not liking where this was going but he remained quiet as Steve started swaying side to side.

“Okay, so, I imagine that you go to clubs, and guys approach you, right?” He asks and you look down, playing with your fingers as you talk back to him.

“The girls always pushed them away before they could talk to me.” You reply and Steve only scoffs at that and shakes his head. He dances all around you, on your side, behind you, on the other side, as he talks.

“Well, now you will let them talk to you. He is a complete stranger, just coming right up, dancing, and introducing himself.” He stops right in front of you, with a smirk to his face and your eyes slightly widened as his friendly expressions were exchanged by sultry ones. “Do you like this song?”

“Um, a little old but yes, I do.” You responded to him and he just kept the grin to his face as his movements started making him come closer, and closer to you.

“Hi, I’m Steve.” You were already blushing at the roleplaying but he was right, what will happen when you start trying to date someone? You won’t kiss them on the first date? You won’t show your attraction to them? You won’t make a move? 

“Hi, I’m Angel.” You reply with a small smile on your lips and Eddie’s eyes widened. You were flirting, and you were flirting with Steve with a pet name he gave you, and you only. He gulped heavily as you swayed closer to him.

“That’s a very pretty name, just as gorgeous as the bearer of it.” He winks at you and you almost lose your willpower at that. With Eddie was different, way different. It was a different type of nervousness, a different type of adrenaline, a different type of excitement. This was just nervousness.

So maybe, Steve was right. 

Before you could respond, Steve’s lips crashed onto yours, and Billy was studying your body language. You went rigid, frozen, eyes completely wide at the action. He could see the slight bit of paleness starting to drain your cheeks and he was about to call out Steve to pull away, but then your eyes closed, and your lips moved against his.

You noticed the difference with Eddie’s kiss. With Eddie’s, your mind shut off, didn’t even think about anything else and just let yourself feel, feel him, feel his lips on yours, his skin on yours. And now, Steve’s, you were conscious of how your lips were moving, and wondering if you were causing an impression or not.

Steve pulled away after a few seconds to study your face and do a whole check over, before cheering with delight and clapping for you with pride.

“You kissed me back, you didn’t faint, you flirted with me… Yep, you’re cured honey!” Steve says excitedly and you couldn’t help but feel excited with him. It was a big step, a huge change in your life. Even if the nerves were still there, the anxiety was still deep in your belly, and the thoughts sometimes appeared in your head to speak horrible things to you, you finally didn’t let them control your body.

You were finally cracking your shell open.

And as you cheered, you didn’t notice the pair of brown eyes that were looking at you.

“Munson… You’re going to break the cushion.” Billy says, without even looking at Eddie and the metal head looked down at the cushion of the couch, seeing his fist gripping tightly onto it, almost ripping through the fabric, his knuckles a bright shade of white from how hard he was clenching them, rings digging into his fingers. He also noticed the tense movements on his jaw and he realized that he had been clenching it tightly shut since Steve pressed his lips on yours.

Your lips that had his minutes before. Your tongue that danced with him, your body that touched him, his hands that were on you, your body heat invading his, and his jagged breaths invading your mouth. He had you first. 

You were his, first.

You turned to look at Eddie, with a smile on your face and he tried to return the smile to you, fighting the uncomfortable feeling that was happening in his belly, trying to push away all the negative thoughts, but then he remembered the look in your eyes just before he leaned in to kiss you again. He was looking at you in the exact same way, and hope rose in his chest, because the eyes you were looking at him with, were full of lust.

And you might not even know or realize you were looking at him like that. You probably never once felt lustful towards someone. You probably never had that need of wanting someone so badly that you might explode.

But Eddie, Eddie was feeling it right now. He was feeling it alright, and had been feeling it ever since he saw you in that tight purple dress. He felt it when you smiled at him for the first time on video camera. He felt it when you introduced him to your favorite pizza. He felt it when you beat him up in Mario Kart. He felt it when you had called him beautiful. And now, he felt it when he finally had a taste of you.

Oh how he wanted you. 

Eddie really, absolutely, desperately wanted you.

End of part 4

A/N: I really do hope you all enjoyed this chapter, your comments always make me happy... we can all feel the tension building, can't we? Just a peek, next chapter will be spicy.

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[i-drop-level-one-loot]

hi i love your work a lot i've been reading it a lot during this difficult blood moon time. i have a request if you don't mind tackling it!! this is gonna be very specific, but yandere! stalker x reader, BUT the yandere is not stalking reader -- the yandere is stalking a popular girl the reader knows in passing, and reader figures "well, i could use some extra cash", so reader approaches stalker and offers to sell phone numbers of popular girl, hangs out with stalker, and unintentionally ends up becoming the new target of stalker. surprised pikachu face on reader's end that her plan has backfired. bonus points if popular girl that same morning is like "i think stalker guy has finally stopped following me" before the reveal. thank you for reading :)

Based on your post, Imma assume she/her pronouns for our darling (you know what, I relate, gimme the money lmaoooo)

(Reader) slammed her hand down onto the cafe's table, startling the nervous looking man hiding behind his long, shaggy hair. He had been so focused on staring at Jenny (❤️), the angel of campus, and his unrequited love (of three months). Axle fumbled with his camera, nearly dropping it on the floor as he scurried to hide it in his lap.

"Um.. hi?" His exhausted eyes darted around the coffee shop, too nervous to look directly at the woman standing above him. "May I help you?"

"So you're Jenny's stalker." (Reader) smiled coyly, pulling a chair closer towards Axle so she could sit uncomfortably close to him.

His pasty skin flushed deep maroon, sweating under the harsh accusation . "No, you're wrong, I-I'm not-"

The poor hooded man was cut off by (Reader) grabbing his camera, too horrified by the situation to make a scene in the packed area. (Reader) flipped through the pictures, her smile fading as her eyebrows knit into a disappointed scowl.

"Damn, these pictures... suuuuck."

Axle was shocked, not expecting that response. "What?" His face went slack like a fish, unable to compute the young woman's critique.

"They're all... blurry. And, off center? Out of focus..." She handed back his camera, now with a look of mild pity. "Dude.."

With shaky hands, Axle yanked the camera back, not knowing if he should still be scared that he was caught, or offended.

"When Jenny was talking about how nervous she felt, having a stalker, I thought.. I thought you would be different." (Reader) cupped her chin in her hands, leaning in further, forcing Axle to lean awkwardly to the side, away from the strange woman. She seemed to be debating something, carefully contemplating her next steps. "Are you going to kill her?"

Axle gasped, mortified. "No! No, I would never!" He denied, a little louder than he had meant to. Axle sat stiff, fiddling with his camera. "I just.. really like her." A cute little blush dusted his cheeks, making (Reader) pray she wasn't being a fool.

She slipped a hand into her jacket pocket, and pulled out a picture of Jenny, one not from her social media. Axle grabbed it, admiring how the sunlight looked like a halo illuminating Jenny's hair. "Where did you get this?" Axle asked, full of awe as he stroked the image.

"I took it." (Reader) replied smugly. "Do you want it?"

Axle nodded, unable to pry his eyes away from the image. (Reader) pulled the picture back out of his hands, watching him whimper with a cold, unamused expression on her face.

"Twenty bucks."

"Huh?"

"Twenty bucks, and this is yours." (Reader) sat back in her seat like a mob boss, legs spread wide and head cocked to the side.

Axle yanked his wallet out, and fished out a twenty, absolutely giddy over receiving such a wonderful picture of his beloved.

"Pleasure making business." (Reader) smiled, pleased with how easy it was to trap Axle in her web. "Of course, with how awful you are at stalking, will you be okay with just that little picture?"

The young man froze. Of course, she was right. He was clumsy and skittish, often getting noticed while following Jenny, getting chased by campus police. Even the pictures he took of her were rubbish. "What do you mean?" Axle asked only to be sure he wasn't misunderstanding the situation.

"I'll help you out. I'll continue taking pictures for you, get you private information on Jenny, whatever you want. And you pay me."

He smiled oddly. "Pay? What you're doing is a crime, and you're fine with that?"

(Reader) grinned back childishly. "As long as you pay me."

Despite how uncomfortable Axle was with the strange young woman who hadn't even introduced herself, he couldn't pass up this opportunity.

~ 1 week later ~

Axle waited behind a dumpster, not quite sure how X had gotten his phone number. He still hadn't learned the mystery woman's name, only that she was eccentric, and possibly watched too many crime thrillers. (Reader) had told him to call her X, thinking it best that he didn't know her true identity.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when (Reader) popped up behind him. "You got the cash?" Axle squeaked, grabbing his heart.

"You scared me!" Axle stuttered out, looking better than he had the first time they met. His hair was no longer greasy, and the bags under his eyes had lightened up.

'Looks like he's had more time to take care of himself, now that I'm doing the dirty work for him.' (Reader) thought, staring daggers at Axle. He became flustered under her gaze, shifting anxiously.

"What are you looking at?"

"Just wondering why you're stalking Jenny in the first place." Axle pouted, thinking that maybe this was just a set up to bully him. "You're actually pretty handsome when you've showered."

"Huh?"

"Like, conventionally speaking, by societal standards, you are attractive. Maybe stop slouching and find a better jacket? But yeah, pretty sure if you took care of yourself and just approached Jenny like a normal human being she would have liked you."

His ears became warm at (Reader's) words, trying not to smile at the image of Jenny calling him handsome.

"But, better for me that you're a weirdo." (Reader) smiled playfully, holding out a manila envelope full of pictures she had printed out. "Money!" She said it like a question, empty hand opened expectantly.

Axle grumbled, plopping a wad of cash into her hand as he grabbed the envelope, heart palpitating as he saw more exquisite pictures of Jenny. Each one was amazing, with a sense of professionalism in their quality.

"These are incredible."

"Yeah, yeah. She's, like, super hot, I know." (Reader) absentmindedly responded while counting her earnings.

"I meant the pictures, dick."

(Reader) then did something unexpectedly, she stopped counting, and it looked like a little blush bloomed ever so faintly, genuinely surprised by the compliment. "Oh. Uh, thanks."

Axle noticed the way her back went rigid and the way she averted her eyes. It was.. kinda cute. His brain short circuited. Did I just think she's cute?

~ 2 weeks later ~

Axle's door knocked insistently, rousing him from his slumber. No one ever visited his apartment, not even his parents, so Axle was suspicious of who it could be. "I'm coming!"

He unlocked the door to find X, standing their with a shit eating grin on her face. "I never want to hear you say that again."

(Reader) brushed past the blushing mess, barging into his dark and creepy apartment. "How - why - how??" Axle was almost on the verge of tears, zipping around his apartment faster than the Flash to try and clean up, scooping up arms full of dirty underpants and pizza boxes, and just throwing them into a closet.

"Because I'm actually good at my job, that's how." She smiled triumphantly, flopping onto his bed while taking off her bag. "You know, it was really easy making friends with Jenny. She's so sweet.. it makes me feel a little guilty." (Reader) faked a sniffle, pretending to be torn up. "Maybe we should end this.."

"What? No!" Axle panicked, immediately regretting acting like a fool, as "X" removed her hands from her face, revealing dry eyes and a sarcastic smirk.

"Maybe I'll stay.. if you give me a raise."

Axle looked shocked, like he had actually believed (Reader). It was cute. "Fine.. whatever." He groaned, still standing with his arms cross.

"Aren't you going to sit down? I've got some things to show ya." (Reader) patted the bed.

"No!" Axle replied way too quickly, embarrassed about sitting with a girl in his bed. "I mean.. I'm fine standing." He rubbed his neck, avoiding eye contact as usual.

"You know, I know I'm not Jenny levels of hot, but it hurts that you never even look at me." (Reader) deadpanned, pulling out a pad of paper from her backpack, along with another envelope of pictures. "In this little notebook I have Jenny's phone number, her mom's phone number, her dad's phone number, I have her dorm address, I have her family's home address, I have the contact info for her past three exes, and I also wrote down some stuff I learned from talking to her, like the kind of guy she likes, her favorite food, her allergies, a bunch of stuff."

Axle was shocked, and kind of startled, by how thorough (Reader) was. He enjoyed following Jenny between classes, making sure she got where she needed to go, and yeah he liked climbing up the side of the dormitory to try and watch her sleeping, but this was beyond anything he ever could have hoped for.

"Wow. Maybe you do deserve that raise." He opened the envelope, ignoring (Reader) as she bragged about how she got all that information, overwhelmed yet again by (Reader's) photography skills. "Have you ever thought about becoming a photographer?"

(Reader) paused her rambling, nervously shifting her gaze away. Axle was beginning to suspect that she didn't receive compliments all that often, which was a shame, because she certainly was talented. Axle felt his heart thump heavily again.

"I, uh, never thought about it.." (Reader) lied. "Why, you think I should?"

Why did she look so cute right now, nervously asking a creep who was paying her to stalk someone if he approved of her talents?

As he was about to answer, he found a selfie of Jenny and (Reader) together. "What's this?"

"Oh, sorry that wasn't supposed to be in there. Jenny saw my camera and asked if we could take a pic together." (Reader) made a move to grab it, but Axle held it up out of her reach. Strangely, he realized that he had never seen the two side by side, and for some reason in the picture of the two of them together Ms. X was way cuter.

"I'll keep this one too."

"Huh? Why?"

"I like it."

~ 1 month later ~

Axle stared into the bright blue light of his laptop, looking at (Reader's) face. It was difficult to find her, as she didn't have much of a social media presence, and Axle didn't know her name, but he finally found her. He kept telling himself that he was just curious in what kind of lunatic agreed to work as a professional stalker, and why the hell was she so good at it? But as he lost track of time staring at the terrible family photos her mother posted online, he started to question why he never seemed to notice her before.

It felt even worse, since she noticed him.

The pictures she took were all neatly packed in a drawer except for the selfie she took with Jenny. Axle kept arguing with himself, insisting that that was simply the best picture of Jenny by far. But he knew deep down it wasn't the truth.

He had started to lose sleep again, trying to dig up information on his partner on crime. Partners in crime. Axle smacked himself in the head, pulling his hoodie down over his mop of hair. Unfortunately, he was a college student, and had classes to attend.

Out in the corridor, he heard the most wonderful sound in the world. (Reader's) maniacal laughter. Even when out with normal people, (Reader) didn't mask who she was. She was walking with a group of popular students, all cracking up over something one of them had said, and Axle was jealous.

(Reader) looked so natural with that crowd, hanging out like she wasn't a loser like him, glowing so brightly that Axle didn't see Jenny right away. He knew (Reader) said that she had "infiltrated their ranks" in order to learn more about Jenny for him, but it was still incredible to see. Axle wondered if he would look just as natural by their side, after all, (Reader) had said that Axle was "handsome". He suddenly became self conscious, regretting not showering before he left his apartment. When was the last time he washed this coat? Why hadn't he bought a new one when (Reader) suggested it?

It was almost like he had to remind himself to look at Jenny. She didn't look as angelic as he remembered.

~ 2 months later ~

"What made you like Jenny?" (Reader) asked, scrolling on her phone while lounging on Axle's bed. Axle was watching (Reader) while pretending to look at the pictures she had taken. She was so exposed, lying there as though this was just a friend's place, not a man's bed. Axle tried not to feel excitement seeing (Reader) so comfortable in his presence.

"I'm, um, not sure." And that was the truth. Why did he like Jenny? The way she smiled? Was it simply how beautiful she was?

The more he grew to know (Reader) as a person, the more beautiful he found her to be. Jenny paled in comparison to (Reader).

It was too embarrassing to tell (Reader) the truth, that the woman he loved so much that he couldn't stop thinking about her 24/7, now simply didn't interest him. Not like (Reader) did. If I take a picture of her, would she hate me?

"You should take more selfies." Axle stated, out of the blue.

"Why?" (Reader) snorted.

"Because you're pretty.." He blushed softly, smiling at the picture of (Reader) he kept on his desk.

~ 4 months later ~

(Reader) smiled wide eyed, almost unable to contain her surprise. "What?"

"Yeah, he's just, disappeared." Jenny took a sip from her coffee, confused but not complaining. "I haven't noticed that creepy fuck following me around, like, at all lately."

Many thoughts passed through (Reader's) mind like rapid fire. Was everything okay with Axle? Did he lose interest in his beloved? And if he did, was she no longer going to get paid?!

(Reader) ran to Axle's apartment as soon as the coast was clear. Partially worried for his well being, mostly worried for her pay check.

She didn't bother knocking, instead throwing open the door like she owned the place. Axle stood in the middle of his room, confused, and pink in the face. He had a fresh hair cut, showing off his dark eyes, and he had a new outfit on, one that fit him better than his oversized stained hoodie. "(Reader)? What are you doing here?"

"I was just-" she stuttered, blushing violently. He was incredibly attractive, towering over her now that he was standing with better posture. "Wait, how did you know my name?!"

An ominous feeling crept over her, as she thought about how many times she laid in his bed, not knowing that he was falling out of love with his target. He smiled sweetly at (Reader), behind him was a new camera he had bought for her, as a gift. Axle had meant to propose a new deal with (Reader), requesting pictures of her instead, but she had caught him dressing up in the clothes he bought to impress her. He pulled her into his room.

(Reader) only noticed the pictures of her scattered across the floor as Axle locked the door.

[mellosdrawings]

I'm feeling like rambling about AI on main, ignore me if it's not your cup of tea.

So a while ago, I did check out those art prompts AI, because when I pester about something, I like to know what I'm rambling about. I like to do a minimum of research and, if possible, try the thing out before making my opinion. For AI art, my opinion was already pretty solid, but I still wanted to check it out.

I found a free prompt stuff online, asked it a super easy prompt, and asked for a handful of different images. Just to see.

The prompt was [character tripping]. Really. Super easy, right? I wanted the thing to have as much liberty as possible.

It's not just that though. I chose this prompt because it is something I did in art school. Our teacher would give us simple prompts, and we would have to draw doodles in 5 minutes or less. Imagine a class of 15 exhausted art students full of caffeine being told to draw someone tripping.

The 15 art students' results? Little boys tripping over tree roots, teenage girls falling while rollskating, business men tripping on their papers and burning themselves with coffee, old ladies cracking a hip, comical falls backwards with a leg up, realistic falls forward with pained expressions, etc etc.

See, our fast doodles weren't any better than AI anatomically speaking. We were missing hands and our faces were distorted and a foot was bigger than another, things that are also common with AI. But the DIVERSITY. I remember being flabbergasted by it. We all had the same prompt, but none of us drew the same thing. I remember drawing the good old banana peel slip from the old comics I read when I was a kid. My best friend drew a kid falling in mud.

We did several prompts like that as training, and I always loved to see what everybody was doing, because it was always so different.

Now, here was the AI result: 5 anime girls in a running position at an angle, making shocked pikachu faces. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. The angle and the running poses were the only things that changed, and even then just slightly.

The AI only did 5 times the same stuff. Art style changed a bit from one to the other, but always the same vibe, always the same composition, and always that godsdamned shocked pikachu face. It was very underwhelming.

I don't care about perfect anatomy and lighting. But I care about creativity. I love seeing things that I would never have thought to do myself. And the AI didn't provide that at all. Coz AI has no creativity whatsoever. If you don't further your prompt to be very specific, it will just reheat the same bland stuff again and again. It's just boring.

I have a lot of grievances about AI. Art theft, environmental blunder, artists being paid even less than they already were (as if people and companies suggesting to pay us in visibility wasn't bad enough). But even on an emotional level there's nothing. Yes, it's great to see one's character/idea brought to life when one cannot draw. But it'll be the blandest stuff ever. That's just a shame.

[alolanrain]

Kukui wakes up feeling super out of it, not sick but just weird, and is immediately focused on the rolling stormy clouds outside. He specifically remembers watching the news with Burnet last night and the weather man said it was going to be another scorching day. Typical mid summer weather for Alola.

So there couldn’t be any clouds. Let alone with lighting crackling across the sky and thunder rolling heavy in the distance.

He’s slow to get up like his bones were made out of led and his joints turned to gelatinous goop. Kukui’s girlfriend isn’t anywhere in the house so she must be at work, he hopes the weather isn’t worse so far out at sea.

It takes half a cup of coffee, not even registering during the process and waiting for the coffee to brew and be at a drinkable temperature, that the thunder is more… opinionated outside of Kukui’s abode. It takes him even longer to get outside to see that Burnet was indeed home and was wrapped up in Kukui’s ratty old bathrobe. Hair messy and face contorted in both fear and confusion. It takes a second for Kukui to realize why she has such a look on her face because he didn’t grab his damn glasses before leaving his room.

It is however pretty easy to see the unmistakable blurry outline of Lugia. Sitting upon the beach directly in front of the Professor’s home, growling down to an equally blurry floating blob.

Kukui doesn’t even say good morning before he turns slightly to Burnet without looking away. “Is that-“

“Tapu Koko?” Burnet finished the question, taking a sip off coffee before letting out a tense sigh “yeah.”

He shifts closer to where Brunet is leaning with one shoulder against the front pillar of the overhanging roof. “And that’s-“

Another sip and another strained sigh. “Lugia.”

Silence fell over them for a few seconds before Kukui is Kukui is quickly reminded by himself that he has a legendary magnet boarding student that Kukui has not seen at all this morning.

“Is he-“

“Uh-huh.”

Kukui wasn’t as surprised as he rightfully should be in this situation. This is Ash they’re talking about.

Though he should have known better and instead set down his cup until Ash and Pikachu, that Pokemon was never far behind his best friend, meandered their way back to the house. As the second he starting taking a sip of his coffee Burnets spoke up again with a small and even more strained voice.

“He called Lugia his dad.”

It’s been a long while since Kukui somehow shot coffee out from his nose. Though he thinks his reaction was more than given this go around, instead of being spooked by a stow-away Caterpie in his suitcase the morning after coming back from his travels through Kanto when Kukui was younger.

Silence falls over them again and in those moments Kukui’s anxiety gets the better of him. Mounting slow and heavy like a Joltik got under his skin during the night and was slowly making its way up to his brain. Zapping Kukui’s nevers every few milliseconds and causing his body to start twitching.

“I’m going to down my bottle of Prozac.” Kukui whispered before disappearing inside the house and didn’t hear Burnets dissociated hum of bare acknowledgment.

Her eyes were glued to the kid and his Pikachu, who was indeed down there with his trainer and wrapped up tightly in Ash’s arms, because Burnet couldn’t really look at the godly Pokemon. It wasn’t fear based avoidance but more so she felt like she was intruding on a very personal conversation between the two.

Burnet had only stayed out of the house after noticing the stand off between the guardian of the sea and Melemele’s guardian deity for Ash’s safety. From what Kukui has told her so far, Ash was surely a handful when it came to powerful Pokémon.

She couldn’t really see Ash’s expression from how far away he was from the house, but the fact he’s standing on the ground between the two guardians make it clear he didn’t think he was in danger. Despite the fact that conversation between Lugia and Tapu Koko felt more like a scolding with the way Burnet could hear only Lugia growling with Tapu Koko trying ti speak every now and then.

-

It takes a little while before Lugia finishes whatever verbal massacre they were on and slips back into the ocean gracefully. Though not before bending their his? Head down to gently nuzzle and coo at Ash and Pikachu. The dry lightning storm dissipates once the sea guardian leaves.

Burnet had joined Kukui back in the house after a little while. Finally taking a good look at both Legendaries and noticing Tapu Koko’s sunken and bashful form and Lugia’s own softened stance. Deducting Ash and Pikachu are truly safe for now.

When Ash does join them back in the house, he and Pikachu have matching deeply confused faces. When he notices the two adults he address them with a question both Kukui and Burnet never thought they’d face.

“Hey Professors’, how is it possible that I have a mom and two dads?”

[strayflowersstarsandlove]

Okonomyaki (leeminho)

The ache on your lower back and in between your legs really doesn't stop you from climbing on top of the chair and reach for the highest shelve in your cupboard so you can retrieve your two favourite mugs. Because that glorious first sip of coffee after a rather rough night deserves to be from the silliest Pikachu mug or else it is wasted. You grab the bright yellow Pokémon shaped mug and another pink one with a little silver enamel owl depicted on the side, and then turn on both the electric kettle and your coffee machine so you can make yourself coffee and tea for Minho.

Minho. Just thinking of him sends shivers down your whole body, the vivid pictures of your intense night still burning in the back of your head, your muscle memory still making your arms and your legs twitch a little. God. He was a fucking God. He literally looked like some Greek statue of a divinity, he ravaged you in the best way possible. You could not stop thinking about him and and the way his arms muscles flexed and throbbed and the strain and effort on his face giving way to the utter bliss as soon as he relieved himself and the wild look in his eyes and the sounds he made and the way his veins popped to the surface of his skin on his arms and hands as he gripped you and - the loud whistle of the kettle signaling the water's boiling over abruptly makes you snap out of your daydreaming. You chuckle to yourself as you shake your head, only now realizing you were gripping the edge of your kitchen counter for no apparent reason, and proceed to pour the hot water in the pink mug with the little tea bag hanging from it.

After filling up your cup with coffee you sit on the counter top and gently stir the warm, delicious liquid mixing in with the little splash of milk you had preheventively poured in as well, and as soon as you put down the metallic spoon on the marbled surface of your counter you hear light footsteps coming down the hall and soon enough Minho enters the kitchen, still damp hair from the morning shower, a soft smile and tired eyes as he acknowledges you, his stare quickly taking in you just sitting there in just a pair of boy shorts and one of his plushy cardigans he must've left behind sometime ago, "good morning, I made you some tea", you greet him lazily, pointing at the pink steaming cup near the sink, "Oh, tea but no food? You're a princess aren't you? Not just a pillow princess, a real, proper one", he says smirking, picking up the cup with one hand and placing the other on your exposed thigh, then leaning in to kiss you as you giggle and nuzzle against his face, tasting the minty toothpaste on his tongue, breathing in the aftershave and shampoo scent lingering on him, "I'll make us some quick breakfast, are Japanese scallion pancakes okay?", he asks politely and you nod enthusiastically, your mouth already watering in anticipation.

You're not sure if your boyfriend is more skilled in bed or in the kitchen, he moves so swiftly and with so much confidence it seriously makes you question just where and when he learned to be so fucking good in both fields. Alright maybe you were feeling just a little too needy for him, like you just could not get enough of him. He got you wrapped around his finger like that and you secretely loved it. You stare in awe, quietly sipping on your now cold coffee as Minho whips up the eggs and flour in a bowl, his trained arms making fast progress on the batter, his veins bulging out as he cuts up the scallion, his strong hands pressing down the blunt, smooth edge of the knife as he chops up his ingredients and expertly flings them in the frying pan. There's just something about his prominent muscles and his black tshirt moving against his torso as he sautees the pancakes, flipping them up and down with just a twist of his wrist, the focused look on his face as he checks the fire and oil crackling around the food: "those look incredible, you look incredible, you know that?".

You chew on the inside of your lip, eyeing your breakfast being elegantly plated right in front of you as Minho smirks, he cleans up the edges of your plate with a paper napkin and wiggles his eyebrows suggestively," mmh thank you sweet cheeks", he stands in between your legs dangling from the counter and then cuts up a piece of pancake and feeds you, placing his arms at your sides so you're basically trapped in between him and the counter, he stares at you expectantly, his lips slightly parted and his eyes intent on your face, "mas-iss-eo? Is it delicious?". An explosion of flavour and earthy richness settles in your mouth and you nod frantically, your eyes almost rolling to the back of your head as to emphasize just how good it tastes, "I'm hiring you as my private chef, these are just as incredible as they looked", you finally say after swallowing down the last piece of food. Minho clicks his tongue on his palate and cuts up another piece of pancake, stabbing it with the fork and bringing it up to your lips, "are you not gonna eat breakfast with me? ", you ask confusedly and he smriks again, directly placing the food in your mouth and then proceeding to kiss your jugular right as you swallow, "oh I am gonna eat. I'm just having a little appetizer first",he whispers along your collarbone which he kisses ever so slowly.

You wish you had the time to react but before you can even realise it Minho is pulling down your cardigan in one swift, super fast move, leaving your bare skin exposed and in the direct line of his eyes which become big and black and hungry by the second, his hands squeeze your breasts in a firm but not painful grip as an exhilarated sound escapes his lips, "you have the best boobs in town I fucking swear", he groans, his mouth then quickly finding your nipples which he sucks on avidly. You gasp. Thankfully you had already swallowed your food or else you would have probably spit out at least two pieces of scallion as the air leaves your lungs and you instinctively reach froward for him. Your run your fingers through the silky soft tufts of his dark brown hair that he had been growing out a little longer and you absolutely love it, particularly so when he buries his whole face in your chest and it tickles your ribcage.

You tingle. You start to tingle all over as he works his mouth and his tongue on you, his hands now pressing down your thighs to keep you as still as possible even when you pant and squirm and try to press yourself against him, "Min-", you breathe out, feeling your cheeks burning up and your lower insides throb, "you can eat, I don't mind", he mumbles, still not really detaching his mouth from you , his hands blindly reaching for the fork and platter that clink against the counter, and you find yourself chuckling, your eyes closing in delight as you savor this random outburst of lust and love and hunger and think you could easily get used to this.

[rainiishowers]

Hope all is well! 💌

Can I request the brothers or side boys reacting to poly!MC leaving small love notes to the brothers, making sure that even MC is dating them all, they are still loved immensely by MC?

A/N: So sorry this took so long, been in a rut lately, hope you enjoy ❤ Cringey puns ahead on Levi and Beel’s part lol ----

Lucifer

His day was stressful and long, and he just wanted to relax a bit when he got home, but knowing what his brothers got up to, he doubted the peace he wanted would last 

When he entered his office hidden in the library, he walked over to his desk and saw a letter with familiar handwriting

“From MC ❤“

"Dear Luci. I know you have been working hard and I want to say I'm proud of you. There's coffee I made in the pot so you can finish any unfinished documents without passing out, but be sure to get to bed early, okay? -Love, MC"

He gave a little chuckle and with the cup he got from MC not long ago, he went to fill his cup

MC may be a troublemaker sometimes but he loves this human..

Mammon

He was walking home from the casino when he got stopped by one of his crows flying over and handing him a note

“From MC ❤“

Mammon raises an eyebrow and went somewhere more private to open it

Once he does, he excitedly opens the letter

“Dear Mammoney. Surprise! It must’ve been one heck of a surprise to get a note from one of your crows, huh? Well, maybe not.. But still! I know we haven’t gotten the most time together, but I still love you, okay? In fact, I have set up a movie in my room, just the two of us, with no interruptions, so come quick okay? I miss you! -Love, MC”

Is MC trying to kill him?! He got so red in the matter of seconds

Mammon is so glad MC still loves him, it’s not hard to think otherwise sometimes.

But.. being reaffirmed like this makes his heart pound

Leviathan

He was playing games in his room before hearing a familiar knock at the door

He looks over and notices a small note that was slipped in

Levi hesitantly walks over and picks it up

“From MC ❤”

“Huh? MC”

He opens it and reads it while walking back to his gaming desk

“Dear Levi, I have a question! Are you Pikachu? Cuz you’re shockingly beautiful! I didn’t want to disturb your gaming so I thought I’d send a note <3 Have fun! -Love, MC”

What?!? Where did that come from?!

Ohhhh myyy goddddddd....

He’s a flustered tomato from this

This human is gonna be the death of him

Satan

MC has sent him on a hunt that put his detective skills to the test

The clues were mostly connected to their relationship, they sent him to a cat cafe, to a museum and other such places 

The clues the human has given him had led to a letter on the library chimney that has “From MC ❤” on it

He opens it and reads the contents

“Dear Satan, 

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

-Love, MC”

Ah, a poem, classy MC

He chuckles and puts the note in his pocket

Well, he will have to think of one to give them in return

Asmodeus

He went to his room, planning on calling MC so they can hang out

However, when he went to do his makeup, he saw a note on his desk

“From MC ❤”

Oh? A love note?

He hums happily and opens it

“Dear Asmo, I love you more then words can describe. Whenever you’re thinking the opposite, use this note as a reminder. And I hope you know I love not just your body, but I love you as a whole -Love, MC”

He squeals happily and hugs the note close to his chest with a smile on his face

Sometimes he needs the reminder

Beelzebub

He was going to the fridge for his late night food raid, and had his eyes on the pudding he put his name on

Beel barely missed the note underneath it

He grabs it and reads the words on it

“From MC ❤”

He puts the pudding cup down and opens it

“Dear Beel, I love you a latte, more than you might think! If you ever wanna talk or you have some problem, don’t bear it by yourself, okay? You can come to me! -Love, MC”

He smiles at the pun and the accompanying message

Beel really really really loves this human

Belphegor

It was when he woke up from a nap that he saw the note near his pillow

He groans and squints a bit to see who it was from

“From MC ❤”

Belphie sighs and, with a bit of a struggle, he opens it

“Dear Belphie, I love you to the moon and back! Don’t forget it, okay? I know have trouble believing it sometimes, but this is your reminder.  PS: I washed your favourite blanket/pillow case and I will return them to you later -Love, MC”

A small smile cracked through and he put the letter somewhere safer, hugging a pillow he stole from MC and is yet to return

...Not like he plans to give it back, anyways

[pikachu78109]

Random Pokémon Champion HC’s that Have Plagued My Mind since I-Don’t-Know-How-Long

((Embracing randomness is like being enveloped in a fluffy, out of the dryer blanket: comforting, cozy, and becoming a lil burrito))

Blue

Caffeine addict. Doesn’t matter what kind of coffee. As long as Blue gets a hot cup of brew, he’ll perk up in no time.

Not much of a doting Trainer, but will make time to give his Blastoise and the rest of his team some needed attention be it loving pets and special treats. Prefers to make said treats by hand rather than store bought as a way to show affection.

Speaking of affection, Blue’s love language is food. He won’t ever reveal it though (except maybe Red).

Connecting with the two prior entries, Blue’s a phenomenal cook/baker. He owns like thirty different cookbooks.

Very athletic, prefers to swim or run during hot summer days to ward off boredom or slow afternoons.

Quite a good writer and poet, much like his grandfather. Again, Blue won’t admit it (except maybe Red).

Volunteers at Oak’s Lab whenever he’s available. Usually takes care of the Pokémon or helps organizes Oak’s Lab space.

Can speak four languages: Japanese (mother language), French (fluently), English (can speak fine, but might forget a few words or phrases), and Spanish (not well, but can string together a few sentences).

Despite his name being Blue, it’s only his third favorite color. His other two favorites are orange and red.

Blue is a closeted bisexual. Has dated women, but it never escalated to anything long term. With guys, he began to have feelings for Red when they were younger, around 12-13, and that’s when Blue began to question his sexuality, which has led him to act out unfairly towards Red and others as a way to look “tough” or “cool”. Over time, Blue became aware of himself and took some time to reflect on his ill-behavior and has mended things with Red. Red isn’t aware of Blue’s feelings towards him, which Blue, to this day, is still nervous about confessing.

Red

Takes cat naps anywhere. Outside or inside, Red will plop himself down and snooze away. If inside, usually on a couch or on top of his Snorlax. Outside, either under a tree (a classic) or on some open field.

Gives really cool high fives. Like the kind of high fives that leaves your hand tingling for a few seconds. The kind of high five where there’s a pattern or method that takes forever to memorize. Red does a different high five for each of his friends and does each one perfectly.

Has a high tolerance for cold weather. I mean, bro is literally chilling at the top of Mt. Silver, the coldest peak in both Johto and Kanto. He isn’t fazed one bit.

Master at charades. You will never beat Red in games that involve miming.

Red’s love language is acts of service. He will do things that people may not expect nor ask him to do. If he feels up to it, or just wants to make someone’s day a bit easier, he’ll do something that will ease their weariness: tidying up, running some errands, babysitting their Pokémon, etc.

Can’t cook for shit, but can make some bomb pancakes!

Red owns at least a dozen Pikachu, Charmander, and Clefairy plushies. Yeah, he’s like, what, 27? He’ll still collect to fuel his addiction. Blue thinks it’s becoming a problem…

Lives with Blue as roommates in a shared apartment, so they divide the tasks evenly and fairly. Still, Red and Blue tend to make it a competition on who can get their chores done faster and within an hour or less.

Though selectively mute, Red has spoken on some occasions though this is EXTREMELY rare. I imagine his voice having a mellow tone; not too quiet but not that loud either. It sounds medium in volume where you can hear him enough but he’ll sometimes mumble incoherently.

Zones out waaay too much. Red will stare off into space, lost in his thoughts until Blue snaps him out of it. Tends to freak people out when Red does this.

Red is pansexual. For him, he loves being in the company of people who are chill, fun, and down to have a good battle. He’s very open and honest about it and, overall, wants to be with someone who values exactly the same things as he does. Doesn’t have dating experience, but, again, he’s open about it.

Lance

I’m gonna say it: Lance enjoys D&D. I don’t know much about D&D, but all I can say is that Lance would totally be down for a D&D campaign with Cynthia, Iris, and Steven.

Tying into D&D or other things associating, Lance is super into medieval stuff. Be it the history or aesthetics or stories that he has read as a kid, Lance eats it up. I can see this man participating at a Renaissance festival or LARP wearing some modified medieval outfit that he has spent months putting together. He already looks the part anyway; might as well lean into it!

Has a plush of every Dragon type Pokémon in each region. Personal favorites of his include: Dragonite, Appletun, Deino, and Goomy.

Owns a firearm since he’s part of the G-Men, a branch of the police in a way that operates too much outside of normal circumstances (that’s my understanding at least). He doesn’t use it often and only uses it if he doesn’t have his Pokémon with him (which is unlikely to happen) or if he’s forced to defend himself unexpectedly. Has fired it before but more as warning shots than anything.

Tea guy. He’ll drink coffee sometimes, but tea is his go to. Prefers unsweetened green tea or classic chamomile.

Super dense when it comes to romance. Like, I see Lance as socially awkward and picking up when someone is flirting with him proves difficult as he has never experienced this kind of thing before. He’s lived a secluded life and any kind of romantic interest in him just isn’t getting through to him unless someone spells it out. He’s gotten better at picking up flirtation, but he’s still dense to an extent.

Has very warm hands. Wearing that cape all the time has blessed this man with eternally warm hands for life.

Rarely goes into the Ice Path whenever going to Blackthorn. Not because it’s cold (I mean, that’s one part of it), but mainly because Lance sucks at keeping his balance on the icy floor. He will slip, crash, and fall on his face every.single.time. Like, yeah, Dragonite can always pick Lance up and fly out of the cavern with no injury, but Dragonite despises the cold and refuses to come out of his Pokéball to help out. So unless Lance gets good at ice-skating, Dragonite isn’t gonna lend a dragon claw.

Love language wise, Lance utilizes both words of affirmation and acts of service. He’s the kind of person who can brighten your day with a compliment, words of encouragement, or some solid advice. Sometimes he’ll go out of his way to do something, similar to Red in that regard. Lance loves to help and doesn’t mind taking time out of his day to be there for others.

Much like Red, Lance is pansexual. He may not know it, but Clair has noticed it. And Silver. And Ethan. And Lyra. And especially Dragonite. Lance is the only one who isn’t aware of this as, again, romance is a bit tricky with him. Sometimes he’ll do things that might be taken as romantic or flirty and he won’t realize it. Doesn’t matter the gender; Lance’s sudden romantic gestures/actions have caught the eyes of many but the Champ just doesn’t know it nor realize. Someone help this lad out.

Leon

It’s officially canon that this man can drive and has a license, which everyone questions to this day given his horrible directional abilities. Him and Zoro would be friends.

History buff, much like Sonia and Raihan, and owns several historical books, nonfiction and fiction.

A moderately good cook. Can’t handle anything too complex, so he sticks with recipes that are simple but fulfilling.

Leon’s relationship with Hop resembles that of Ian and Barley from Onward. Personally, I headcanon that Leon and Hop’s father passed away soon after Hop was born. While Leon has a lot of memories of his Dad, Hop doesn’t. Because of this, Leon was sort of like the closest thing to a father figure for Hop growing up, coupled with being his eldest brother.

When not focused on the Pokémon Championship and other important matters relating to Rose and Macro Cosmos, Leon spends a lot of time in Potswick with his family, helping at his Mom’s and generally hanging out with Sonia and Hop, alongside with Raihan who sometimes tags along.

Speaking of Sonia, these two go way back. At one point, they have dated during their time doing the Pokémon League challenge but broke up due to complications after Leon won. They got over it, but it sucks whenever Leon thinks back on it.

Leon doesn’t particularly like social media that much due to over exposure. A lot of the media demanded his attention when he was champion and, of course, working under Rose, he had to appear in a lot of promotional work/events that took up a lot of his time and energy. It became an integral part of his role in his position and the reception can be overwhelming (good and bad and sometimes gross). Eventually, Leon has learned to get over it and has taken extra steps to limit his time on SM to focus on other matters.

When Leon became Champion, he actually worried on how his newfound popularity would affect his family. It made him feel super nervous about whether the media would hound his mother, younger brother, and grandparents given his relation and seeing how small of a town Potswick is word travels fast. The media did swing by his mother’s home for like an interview or two, nothing too crazy, and basically left them alone after a few weeks.

While he’s not confident at cooking, Leon can bake very well, thanks to his mom and grandmother. He makes the best cakes and brownies!

I see Leon has Latino, same with Hop. He and Hop can speak Spanish quite fluently and often speak the language with their grandparents who emigrated to Galar from Paldea (it’s Spain-based region after all).

Most of what Leon earns, money-wise, he sends back to his family. He makes enough to where he can live comfortably, so he sends whatever is left (usually a lot) back to his mom to help her out.

Leon’s love language is, again, acts of service. He goes out of his way to be there for people and does his best to make sure that they are okay

Bi-guy, hands down. No, I will not elaborate any further.

[honey-minded-hivemind]

For the general X-Men Evolution aus, or at least one that is pretty similar to the shows canon (but still falls into the au/reboot), I've had a few different mutant variants for the reader. So, let's explore a few:

Time Traveler!🕰Reader: Someone who has can go back and forth through history, and has a fading grip on slang. Their ability is to go through time, from just a few seconds, a while week, or even years, to the past or to the future. This reader has to keep a notebook of which dates can't be changed, and which ones they can. They basically try to fix the timeline. Platonic yans get paranoid whenever they leave, because they don't know if reader will get hurt and not be able to come back.

Dimension-walker!🌌Reader: More illusive version of Time-Traveler!Reader. They can fall through the different timelines and worlds, leaving them always questioning their reality and what is or isn't real. They visit different places, causing and influencing certain events, sometimes on purpose. Can't remember what year it is, or the day, and somehow always finding the platonic yans in each world... who all freak out once they realize their bby has been doing this for so long they don't even have a firm grasp on what is a dream, reality, or illusion... Reader has a few dimensions they end up in more than others, and those dimensions do their best to keep them in their's, not wanting to lose them.

Electrokinesis!⚡Reader: Reader who can control electricity and lightning. Nickname for them is Pikachu (thank you, Pokemon). Is pure energy, hard to fall asleep and hard to wake up, drinks about four cups of coffee, and burns through whatever they eat. Sometimes break the lights if their fear or anger becomes too much. Can power things, and can take it away, making them a prime option for villains to try to capture. Leaves the platonic yanderes having at least one member with them at all times. Hard to keep up with the reader though, who is always on the move.

These are just three I've thought of so far, but unless I mention a certain variant for an au or a certain power skill, imagine whatever power you want. Enjoy!

[bratshaws]

through the hourglass 111. brb x oc

a/n: OHOHOHO yeah. YEASH YEAAAAAHHHHH stuff is going to happen and I CANT SAY ANYTHING YET

pairing: plus size!oc x rooster

warnings: none. ROOSTER IS THE BEST HUSBAND

goodness gracious (pls read this one to know more what this fic is about!!)

chapter

1/

50/51/52/53/54/55/56/57/58/59/60/61/62/63/64/65/66/67/68/69/70/71/72/73/74/75/76/77/78/79/80/81/82/83/84/85/86/87/88

/89/90/91/92/93/94/95/96/97/98/99/100/101/102/103/104/105

/106/107/108/109/110

(pls let me know if you want to be added to the taglist! )

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-

Beatrice’s week was better, she wasn’t feeling sick anymore which was a great thing considering she’d hate to feel sick during Marcus’ party. Rooster always asked her about it too, he even made her tea that Saturday morning.

And it made her a bit emotional, not being able to hold back the tears when he placed the pink mug in front of her.

“It’s peppermint tea.” he smiles, kissing her temple, “Don’t cry,pretty girl.”

“You are just so sweet.” she sniffles, trying her best to wipe her eyes while smiling, “I don’t know why that made me so emotional.” he chuckles quietly before kissing her cheekbone and sitting next to her, Nicole was nestled against Beatrice’s chest after her breakfast, light eyes lazily moving around since she had her tummy full and was completely rested.

“Because you are sweet.” he says, drinking his own coffee, then humming while gesturing to Nicole, “Give her to me, so you can drink without worries.” she knew he just wanted to hold Nicole and she wasn’t complaining at all. Carefully she picked her daughter up from her chest, then handed her over to Rooster, making the hoodie of her dinosaur onesie drop down on her nape, “She looks so cute…we should get her a Pokémon one.”

Beatrice blinks while blowing her cup, “I didn’t know you liked pokémon.”

“I only remember the first generation.” he says, tucking Nicole on the crook of his arm and kissing her forehead, “She’d look adorable with a Pikachu or a Vaporeon one.” Rooster being a secret pokémon fan was something she’d never expect…but she wasn’t complaining, it was pretty adorable.

“We can look it up.” she smiles, sipping a cautious amount of tea and wiping her nose when the steam hits her nostrils, “I can call Carmen, she knows where to find stuff like that. Cosplay queen that she is.”

Bradley just hums, gently rocking Nicole in his hold and watching as those light green eyes disappeared under her eyelids, her little chest rising and falling the second she fell back asleep. Neither of her parents cared, she could sleep as much as she’d like, it wasn’t something crazy after all she was just six months old and her energy went out in a matter of seconds.

“I got every Christmas decoration we had.” he says, “Every single one,we can start on the outside.”

“That’s okay, those are the hardest ones to put anyway.”  Bea smiles at him, holding her head up with a hand, “You sound really excited.”

Bradley huffs out a gentle laugh, looking down at a sleeping Nikki, “...it’s been a while since I spent Christmas with you…and now we have Nicole, so, yeah I’m pretty excited,gorgeous.” he says, “I know it’ll be good,I’m just…well,I kinda want her to experience a lot,I’m sure she won’t remember much but we can always record stuff and show her in the future,right?”

“Of course.” she smiles more, still holding her head up with her hand, sipping her tea carefully, hoping it wouldn’t burn her tongue anymore, “She loves colors so she’ll have a full on blast once she sees everything.”

Nicole hummed in his hold, turning her head to bury her face against her father’s shirt, one of her tiny hands clutching on the white fabric of his tee and Beatrice bit back her smile over her husband’s pained face, “Oh God.” he whispered, “I’m going to die, she’s so cute. She’s the cutest baby I’ve ever seen.”

“And we aren’t biased because she’s our daughter.”

“We aren’t because everyone agrees.”

She laughs softly, looking over at her favorite people in the whole universe with her heart filled with joy…and her stomach turning as she thought about the party later tonight. There won’t be photographers or anything, so why was she nervous? She was no longer sick, she didn’t have to worry.

She chewed her lower lip for a second, “Roos.” he looks up from Nicole with a little smile, “Are you…nervous about tonight?”

“About Marcus’ party?’ she nods, “....I dunno, maybe? I mean, he never treated us bad, we don’t have to be nervous.”

“Yeah…”

“But you are nervous, any reason why?”

Beatrice places her hand in front of her mouth as she thinks about it, furrowing her brows, “Maybe it’s just…my own self-doubt. You know…I’m not…a model per se. I have a job, I am a mom and I am a wife…what if there are people there I’ve only seen in magazines? Like fashion designers and whatnot?”

Rooster watches her wring her hands, using his free hand to hold his head up pretty much how she did moments before, “And?”

“I-I mean…I don’t know, I never- I don’t…how do you act around people like that?”

He purses his lips then shrugs,”Normally? Who cares about them,Bea? If they are pompous pieces of shit, let them be pompous pieces of shit, it’s that simple.” she made a disheartened noise, deflating in her seat a bit, “You will do fine, besides, Marcus adores you too much to let anyone put you down…and if anyone does, haha, there’ll be problems and not only with Marcus.”

“You’ll fight some famous brand designers for me,Roos?”

“As if there was any doubt.”

Beatrice’s cheeks turn red and her smile widens, her feet dangling below the table because that was so sweet. She stands up from her chair to shuffle over to him, her husband only giving her a confused look before her hands cupped his cheeks, tilted his head up and pressed their lips together in a gentle yet promising kiss.

She broke away with the gentlest smack between their lips, her eyes shining at his enlarged pupils, ‘You are so sweet.” she whispered, kissing him one more time, “I can’t handle you.”

“Yes you can.” he whispers back, trying to follow her lips when she walks away, licking them and tasting the faint peppermint, “You know you can.”

“You know what I mean.” she smiles, sitting back down and taking a larger gulp of her tea, closing her eyes happily, “Oh this is so good. Don’t the guys at work bother you?”

“About?”

She shrugs, “About the things you do with your wife, you know it’s not the most um…” she air quotes, “ ‘Bro Things’ to do.”

Bradley frowns a bit, then chuckles confusedly, “Well, if they have issues they can keep it to themselves because I really don’t give a flying fuck.” he shrugs, “I love doing things with you. My pastimes before were: bar, gym and maybe going out somewhere or watching movies. Baby, I have so much fun with you.” he moves Nikki to his other arm so he could move his body closer, scooting the chair towards Beatrice’s, “You are the best person to hang out with.”

“...yeah?”

“Hell yeah,” he smiles, “Plus, you are always open to enjoying some of my interests too. So, what’s there to complain?”

Beatrice’s smile couldn’t get any bigger and yet it did, she tried to hide it behind her mug but it was futile because he could see the corners of her mouth lifting, “I love your interests.” she says, ‘They are fun and they make me happy too, because you are happy.”

“Stop being cute or I’ll kiss you again.”

“Oh no! That’d be terrible!”

He smirks, pulling her closer by grabbing the chair’s leg and dragging Beatrice over, pressing soft little pecks against her lips while being careful of a sleeping Nicole on his hold, but their daughter was - once again - oblivious and happily dozing, still holding onto his shirt, ‘You are so cutie.”  he smirks against her mouth, “No wonder Nikki is cute too, she got it from you.”

“You are cute too.”

“True, but,” he kisses her one more time, “There’s this…weakness of mine when it comes to green eyed brunettes.” Rooster smirks, pressing their foreheads together, “I just melt whenever I see my two favorite ones.”

Beatrice’s green irises appear greener sometimes, almost unreal, like a mossy hill and he’d never tire of looking into them, “Thank you.” she whispers, kissing his lips one last time, “I’m just going to finish my tea then we can start– wait,I can finish it while we decorate the house.”

He blinks, tilting his head, “The outside?’

“Let’s start here first,” she says, “I think Nicole would appreciate it. Even if she’s asleep now.”

Nicole made a little sound, snuggling closer to Rooster and trying to get even more of her father’s warmth, which the pilot could only smile and tug the dinosaur hoodie on her head, “That’s okay. I think it’d be interesting…but I can set the tree up.”

“You sure?’

“Yeah,I’m sure.” he finishes the last drops of his coffee, smacking his lips, looking down at Nicole as he carefully stood to his feet, “I can set her on the bouncer while you open the boxes?” Beatrice nodded, being as silent as he was, the three of them leaving the kitchen with the dogs following their movements with their heads, Jolene being the first one to follow them out.

Rooster carefully set Nicole down, both him and Beatrice watched in hopes she’d stay asleep and sighed in unison when she just turned to the side without opening her eyes, “I can stay next to her,” Beatrice said, “Grab the boxes and open at a safe distance so the dust won’t hit her.”

“Good,I’m going to grab the tree.”

Yes it was a fake tree, neither of them felt it was needed to have a real one when the one they bought was as big and nice…plus they preferred it, it was easier to take care of, just shuck it back in it’s box and worry about it only months later. Beatrice sits down next to the bouncer, petting Jolene when she lies next to her and smiling at Eleanor who just nosed the boxes closest to her, filled with decorations, “Ellie, it’s not food.” Beatrice says gently after setting her tea aside and opening the first one, “Oh, Christmas balls.” the ‘B’ word immediately caught the pups’ attention.

Eleanor just shoved her head inside the box for a few seconds, with her brother watching curiously a few centimeters away, choosing how to react based off his sister….so when Eleanor just lifted her head and walked away, leaping onto the couch with an indignant ‘huff’ he followed right behind, “It’s not one of those balls Ellie, this is for decoration.”

“Jesus Christ.”

Beatrice turns her head towards Rooster, who’s just yanking piece by piece from the box, “Everything okay?”

“Yep! Just!” he grunts, tugging the base off the box and throwing it on top of the branches, “Just dandy, whew this shit is hard to come out.”

The ruckus didn’t wake Nicole up, she just turned her head the other way and sighed in her sleep, her little fists on top of her body as she slept soundly. Both of her parents shared a look of relief yet again, but they both knew how amazing Nicole was when it comes to outside noises. 

So they managed to do a little bit of everything, Beatrice eventually told Rooster to stop being so stubborn and let her help him. He agreed as long as he got a kiss out of it and of course she complied, several times. 

When they were putting the decorations however, they heard Nicole stir, the little noise from the bouncer made the two look over to where their daughter was. Light eyes finally opening up and trying to find them, luckily they were right in front of her, seated in front of the Christmas tree. At first their daughter looked horrified at this huge, triangular shaped thing in the middle of their living room, but she didn’t cry.

She just looked confused.

Her little brows, that were getting darker now making it easier to see her expressions, furrowed and they could swear she gave the tree an once over, trying to figure out what the hell that thing was, “Hi Nikki!’ Beatrice’s voice makes Nicole’s eyes drop from the tree to her mother and her expression went from confused to delighted in a matter of seconds, her gummy smile greeting her, “Hi baby, come here!” 

Nicole was wide awake when Beatrice took her from the bouncer, the little baby gurgling and squealing when she saw her father…only for it to slowly diminish the closer they got to the tree. “This is a Christmas tree,Nikki.” Bea tries to explain while Rooster holds Nicole’s little hand, kissing the miniscule knuckles as their daughter is trying to understand what this was.

“Aa?”

“Yes, Christmas tree, isn’t it pretty?’ from Nicole’s face, probably not. The little baby furrowed her brows again, making a disgruntled noise, “...well, um, okay it is a bit weird, but, look at this.” Nicole followed her mother’s hand as she leaned down to pick something out of a box, something small and colorful, something that Nicole’s eyes immediately latched on, “Look at this, do you see it? It’s a Christmas bauble!” in reds and blues, with details in gold glitter, when her mother moved it in it’s axis, it twinkled.

And Nicole was now caring only for that.

“Here,” Beatrice brings the bauble closer to their daughter, “Look! Isn’t it pretty?”

Nicole’s little slap when she touched the ball was enough to make both of them chuckle, their daughter looked so focused it was adorable, “Ooohhhh…” came out of her, in amazement and surprise, even more when she pulled back and saw the bits of glitter sticking to her little hand.

“Okay, this is not good for you.” Rooster says, licking the end of his shirt and gently wiping it off her fingers, groaning when some still clung to her soft skin and he was only able to remove it using his nail gently. “There, but yeah, pretty,huh?”

Nicole is too busy admiring the many colors it had. “Maybe she could put something on the tree.” Bea suggests, looking at the boxes “Like hm…oh! I know!” she leans down again,rummaging a bit until she finds what she’s looking for: the dawn charm she got during their first year together, “I think this works.”

“I think so too.” he said, smirking at Nicole, “...and she appears to be really happy, look at her.” in fact, Nicole’s eyes were wide looking at the little deer charm, her tiny hands reaching for it until Beatrice moved it closer, another double slap as her hands clasped around it. She brought it up to her forehead, eyes crossing to look at the inside.

“Abahbah!” she vocalizes, shaking it a bit, “Baah! Mama!”

“Yes,I know,honey, you can put it on the tree, look.” Beatrice opens the thread hoop enough for her tiny fingers to pass, then moves it to a branch, gently pushing it so it stays within a safe length on it. Nicole watches it move without blinking, her little mouth parted in a perfect ‘o’ because she was so amazed by it. Beatrice gives Rooster a look, only to see him putting his phone aside, “Core memory?”

“Hell yeah,” he smirks, “Core memory.”

Beatrice nuzzles Nicole’s neck, sighing into it and then finally frowning after a while, “...Roos,I’m still nervous.” she whispers, “I…I don’t know,I’m just…what if I do something wrong?...I don’t…want to embarrass Marcus with his friends all around us.” 

Rooster tsks quietly, kissing the top of her head, “You won’t do anything of the sort.”

‘I just…I don’t know why I feel so nervous. It’s like I’m…” she moves the hand not holding Nicole,trying to find the words, “Like I’m deep in my mind…I don’t know. It’s weird,I never felt like this when it comes to Marcus. He’s my friend and he invited us…so…I shouldn’t…feel so bad.”

“You are also nervous about leaving Nicole.” he says sweetly, “I can see it in your eyes.”

Beatrice groans, “I don’t want to get home late.” she murmurs, “I want to get back before my parents fall asleep so we can pick Nicole up.”

“Baby…”

“I know.” she kisses Nicole’s cheek, smiling at her amazed expression, “I just…I don’t know,I know we left her with them many times but I don’t know why I want to be close to her tonight. It’s weird…maybe the birth control shots are messing with me.”

“You took it three months ago, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Do they act up like that after so long?”

“...I…don’t know.” she frowns, “I need to check.” she sighs again, nuzzling Nicole, “I’m overreacting, aren’t I?” he only smiles sweetly at her, “You are going to say I’m not.”

“Yep.”

Beatrice could only snuggle close to him, enjoying how their daughter’s happiness over the Christmas tree and hope, really hard, that she’d feel better later.

[bee-saucee]

We R Who We R | Denki Kaminari Character Study

A short Denki character study with a little bit of ShinKami! This is one scenario of what I'm hoping will be a full character study I'm doing in preparation for my next fic as I'm wrapping up my current WIP!

While Denki loved his friends, there was no way in hell he was going to the club after work today. He is usually a master at brushing off the critiques and knocks at his ability, but it was different when the comments didn’t stop and half of them were coming from…him.

Denki groans and kicks off his shoes. He quietly thanks the universe that all three of his roommates had opted to go out so he had the place to himself. He shucks off his office clothes and changes into his fluffy Pikachu pajama pants and favorite baggy top. They both had holes in them, but do you really expect him to throw out his comfort pajamas? Yeah, there’s no way in hell that’s happening.

The craving for hot chocolate hits him like a truck so it’s straight to the kitchen to grab his favorite hot chocolate mix. But of freaking course Shinsou was always the one who would pick up the fancy tins from his favorite coffee shop for Denki each Christmas. He shifts the tin out of sight at the back of his cupboard. Not today. He should treat himself even more than usual today anyway so Bakugou’s fancy hot chocolate it was.

He pulls up his notes app and scrolls until he finds the recipe that Bakugou had sent him after a year of asking him to always make it.

As he heats up the milk all of the comments that chipped away at his esteem over the day come rolling back in.

“Denki, can you please try to focus a little bit? These mistakes are all so simple. I know you get distracted easily, but I also know you can do better than that.”

Denki bangs his head against the cabinet. He could deal with the jokes, but Shinsou didn’t joke. He only told the cold, hard truth and today the truth was that Denki made a shit ton of dumb mistakes. The truth is that he’s also falling for the jerk like crazy.

“Being mean is so not sexy,” Denki grumbles and adds in the cocoa powder and sugar.

Except his lizard brain totally thought that Shinsou with all of his dry humor and painfully accurate comments was sexy as hell. What the fuck, lizard brain?

Right now was Denki time, though and he was not about to spend all of it worrying about the bitch ass commentary from his crush. So, his good bitch Kesha it was.

It was almost a ritual at this point. Linking up his phone to his bluetooth speakers. Testing out how slidable the kitchen tiles were beneath his fluffy sock-clad feet. And, of course, preparing to shake some major ass. 

He tosses his phone against the counter and starts to rap the first words he’s imbued with true confidence all day.

Hot and dangerous

If you’re one of us, then roll with us

'Cause we make the hipsters fall in love

The ass shaking starts as he revs himself up for the chorus and he tries to let the events of the day roll off his back.

Got that glitter on my eyes

Stockings ripped all up the side

Looking sick and sexified

Even if no one else would gas him up, Kesha always did and he would too. He made a killer cup of homemade hot chocolate and was funny as hell. Tonight was for puffing his chest back out and being okay with all of the dumb mistakes he makes. So just for tonight, fuck Shinsou and his opinion.

You know we’re superstars, we are who we are

Thanks for reading! ( ͡ಥ‿ ಥ)━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

✰like ✰ reblog ✰ follow ✰ comment ✰

[anythingredfox]

I drew this to look like those designs with quotes for a coffee (or any drink) cup / mug! Lineart was done in maybe 1 minute(?) Inspired by Detective Pikachu Returns, which is finally out in the Nintendo eshop and at retailers!

The fabric texture thingy I did for Detective Pikachu’s detective cap was done with an experimental brush I made!

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🖼️ Check out the rest of my POKEMON fanarts, in the “POKEMON” folder at my deviantART gallery for easier browsing! 🌸❗🎇🌅🌃🏞️🌇🌁🌆🏝️🌉🌄💖⭐🎆🏜️ I currently have uploaded 106 Pokemon fanarts!

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Title: Detective Pikachu Coffee Mug Design

[askthechronoverse]

Last Chapter •||• Next Chapter

Ken was the only one of the five who didn't leave the TARDIS the next morning. As the four children passed the Hi-Hat Cafe to go to the museum to see the plate together, Kit felt a hand on her shoulders. She turned and saw the man with the red jacket, who looked from her to Bellamy’s retreating back.

“Can you come with me?” The yellow rabbit stood by his side. Kit felt like it was studying her somehow. “Come on. I'll buy you a coffee.”

“I'll catch up!” Kit shouted to her friends as she followed the man in red into the cafe, unsure if they actually heard her. The man in the red jacket sat in an isolated booth on the side facing the door and Kit sat across from him. She wasted no time and spoke. “Who are you?”

“I was wondering the same thing.” The monster with the sombrero came to the table and brought three cups of coffee. It put them down on the table and waddled back to the bar. “Can you tell me your name?”

“I'm Kit.” She took a cup and saw that the rabbit took a cup, too. Were the animals of this world able to drink coffee? That didn't seem terribly healthy. She used the cue to take a small sip. It was an earthy blend that tasted very faintly of something fruity that tasted familiar, but she didn't know from where. It wasn't unpleasant, but definitely could use some more sugar and milk.

“My name is Tim and this is my partner, Pikachu.” He took the last cup of coffee and took a sip. He must have noticed a subtle reaction to the coffee, since he pushed a small bowl of sugar and a tiny pitcher of cream over to her. “Can you tell me why you were in the museum yesterday?”

“My dad loves dinosaurs. I wanted to take pictures of what I saw in the museum to show him.” Kit pulled out her dad's phone, unlocked it, and glanced at the home screen.

“What's a dinosaur?” Tim lifted an eyebrow.

“The Tyrantrum skeleton. He would have loved that thing.” Kit’s voice was starting to get quiet. She began to dump heaping spoonfuls of sugar into her coffee cup.

“Oh! The fossil Pokemon exhibit. I like Aerodactyl. It's pretty cool looking.” He took another sip of his coffee. There was something genuinely disarming about his voice. He spoke calmly and carefully, which only made Kit wonder if she should be on her guard. “Is that why you and your friends are in Ryme City?”

“Uh…” She looked down at her phone again. What would her dad do? How much should she tell him at this point? This didn't feel like talking to Ken.

“Don't be scared. You aren't going to get in any trouble unless you do something wrong.” Pikachu made noises that sounded like cooing. “Kit, where did you go after you went to the museum?”

“I've been traveling with a friend of my family. I just went back to her place.” Kit tilted her head. “Why are you asking this?”

“I should probably just cut to the chase. I'm a detective. We,” he gestured to himself and his Pikachu. “help the police with difficult investigations. A few artifacts have been stolen from the Ryme City Museum and you and your talking Pokemon are a suspect.”

“Artifacts were stolen? What artifacts?” Kit’s blood went cold. That stranger couldn't have already found and stolen the plate yet, right?

“The 19 plates of Arceus. Eyewitnesses did see you and your Pokemon in that exhibit with a strange device. Can you tell me what that device does?” Tim was very gentle, even when he said she was suspected of a crime. It somehow put her at ease, made her more willing to talk. Maybe that was the point, but it was easy to be sucked in. She sighed.

“It helps me find items of great power. Ancient items that have been around since the dawn of time. I know this looks incredibly guilty, but I promise I didn't steal them.” She looked down at her father's phone again to calm herself. Pikachu had disappeared, only to reappear a few moments later in the same spot. It got Tim’s attention for a moment before that attention returned to Kit.

“What were you looking at just now?” She showed him the phone’s home screen. “Are they your dads?” Kit nodded. “I bet I can guess which of your dads is the one you went to the museum for.”

“OK. Which one do you think it is?” Tim scanned the photo. The home screen had cycled to a more recent family photo which had been taken in selfie mode by RJ. It's clear to see why Kit would have used this photo to ground herself: the three of them were happy. Everyone, even Richard, had a goofy expression on their faces. Tim occasionally glanced at Pikachu, almost like he was waiting for an answer. After Pikachu made a triumphant noise, Tim spoke.

“It's the guy taking the photo. Am I right?” Kit nodded. “I'll tell you how I know, too, if you want.” Another nod and Tim continued. “It's hard to see, but your dad has a small pin that has a shovel and some dirt on it. It might have to do with archaeology. Am I right?”

“Yeah! It says “I Dig Archaeology”.” She smiled a little, but the smile was fleeting.

“Nice pun.” Tim chuckled. “Are you a Pokemon trainer? That's the only reason I can think of for a kid your age to be traveling without her parents.” He finished his first cup of coffee.

“I…” She debated on continuing to be honest with him. The worst thing that would happen is he just wouldn't believe her. She took a breath. She may as well. “I'm from another world. So my friends. We're looking for items called foundation elements, the building blocks of the multiverse, so a bad guy doesn't get them. I'm hoping that isn't who stole them.” Tim and Pikachu exchanged confused glances before Tim spoke again.

“I want to believe you. If you are what you say you say you are… What would the bad guy look like?” He pulled out a pencil and a notebook and got ready to take notes.

“We haven't seen their face properly just yet. We just know they wear a big long cape and a gold chest plate. We've never heard them speak either.” Kit looked at her mismatched sneakers awkwardly. “They look like they be about as tall as I am and look like they're made out of a galaxy. Lots of stars in whatever I can see of them.”

“That's really helpful. I appreciate that and your honesty. Do you know which of the plates is what you're looking for?”

“I don't think we figured that one out. I felt one of them draw me in, the one that talked about an original one watching.” Tim looked through his notes.

“It's the Legend Plate, the most under researched and mysterious of the plates, according to the museum curator.” He put the notebook away in his pocket. “Can I borrow your phone? I'll give you my number. This way, if either of us get any information about the plates, we could get in contact.” Kit unlocked and slid the phone over to Tim, who took a few minutes to navigate through the menus until he sent a text to himself. “You must be from another universe. I couldn't read anything on that phone.” Kit took the phone back, head tilted. Tim got up and put his hand on Kit’s shoulder. “Thanks again. I'm sure we can get to the bottom of this together.” He and Pikachu left Kit at the table with a farewell before she started to head to the museum.

When she got there, she was predictably met with police tape and doglike Pokemon who tried to look tough but failed out of virtue of their cuteness. She approached her friends who were now talking to a police officer with a larger version of these dogs.

“We have to get in there! There's something important we have to ask the curator!” Charmy shouted, her brother tapping her shoulder as Kit approached.

“Where have you been, Kit?” Bellamy looked her over, making sure she wasn't hurt.

“I was talking to a private detective. He said the foundation element was stolen and I think we know who did it.” Kit adjusted her headband. “He took other items like it, too.”

“What, those stone plates? Why take ‘em all?” Bellamy folded her arms.

“He might not know which one was the actual foundation element or thought they were all one unit.” Vito suggested. “I mean, the last one we found was Ken’s roller skates. Plural.”

“Tim, that's the detective, sounded like he was willing to help us. But if we can find the guy who took Ken’s skate, we find the foundation element.” Kit looked around and saw Pikachu run under the police tape. Tim was speaking with a large man in beige. Kit walked slowly over to the two to listen in.

“...right about it not being the girl and her strange Pokemon.” The man stated. “The security tapes show what looks to be some kind of Pokemon, but our experts believe it's one that has been discovered. It's hard to focus on it, so we can't say for sure.”

“Could it be a kecleon?” Tim offered. “What you described sounds kind of like camouflage.”

“It's not out of the realm of possibility right now. I don't know for certain, however we can't eliminate any possibilities.” Before Kit could get any further information from eavesdropping, she noticed a shadowy figure go around the back of the museum. She followed the figure at as close to a shadow’s pace as she could. Once she got in close, she saw him: it was the man with the galaxy body.

“Hey! What are you doing?” She got closer. “I thought you already found it.” He put a claw to his face and rolled his glowing eyes.

“Your father sends his regards.” The being’s voice was low and whispered.

“My… father? How do you know him?” She got closer, but a hand was extended to stop her.

“I hear him often. He is scared, paralyzed by his trauma and pain. I wonder if he realizes his only daughter is out in a cruel multiverse. Would he be disappointed? Or would he finally let his fear take hold?” There was something oddly non threatening backing his voice. It was hard to say what, but it didn't make the words any less terrifying to Kit.

“Who are you?” Kit whispered.

“That isn't important. Our parents are enemies. That means we are enemies. That's all we need to know. We're just soldiers in a war that was started long before anyone we know can remember.” He looked through the window at the scene beyond, of investigators moving to and fro.

“I'm not.”

“Your parents have been lying to you if you think that's the case. Ask yourself something: why are you here?”

“I'm here because I want to help.”

“Your father. You're here because you want to help your father. Because maybe, if you're a good little girl and do the right thing, it'll look good enough to Unitron so they can possibly offer a war criminal leniency and you don't have to visit your dad once every month on a distant planet with heavy supervision for the rest of his life.” He shrugged. “The way I see it, that makes us pretty much the same.”

“I don't know what you think I'm doing, I actually want to help. I didn't steal things that aren't mine.”

“No, I suppose you didn't steal anything. But you also haven't done anything of merit either. Do you really think that going with a stranger who claims they are being good and taking a man out of his home makes you any better than me? No. It really doesn't. Again, you and I are a lot alike. The only difference between you and me is I'm not convinced that I'm doing something righteous. I know my place. Do you know yours?” He turned to leave.

“Where are the plates?” Kit finally asked.

“How should I know? It looks like the foundation element of this world is going to be more trouble than it's worth right now. Have fun playing detective.” A portal opened in front of him and he disappeared through it. After the portal closed, Bellamy was behind her.

“What happened?” Bellamy stared at the space where the portal once was. “What was that?”

“I'll talk about that later. The guy who stole Ken's roller blades isn't the culprit.” Kit turned to go back to the others. “If I can believe what he's saying, anyway.”

Unknown to all of the parties involved, they were watched the whole time. The telltale black tipped yellow rabbit ears quickly disappeared from the window, the owner of those ears running to his partner.

[acewithapaintbrush]

Hey @lunamadrigal I hope this tickles your Ash and Misty cravings

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"Tadaaaa!" 

Misty just stares. It's early. The sun has barely risen above the hills. One of her hands is still trying to untangle a knot in her hair while the other holds an empty coffee cup that she had been about to fill to the brim when the doorbell interrupted her. 

She is tired. She is grumpy. 

She is so not ready for whatever this is. 

Her visitor still holds his pose, his arms outstretched, a big grin on his face. The grin threatens to fall, but only for a microsecond. He keeps it right where it is by sheer force of will. After another second of uncomfortable silence he repeats his grand gesture, arms going to his chest and then spreading out again, with even more gusto than the first time. 

"Tadaaaaaaa!" 

"Yes, Ash. I heard you the first time." 

Pikachu is holding two small sparklers in his tiny fists, waving them around erratically. He is balancing on Ash's head. If Misty weren't so sleep and coffee deprived she might have felt a tiny bit of worry for her friend's hair. As it is, a single strand of black hair catches a spark and starts smoldering. The mouse pokemon notices and immediately starts to pat at it until the glimmer disappears. His eyes beg Misty not to tell and the girl can't help but snort, her mood lifting quite a bit at the familiar and beloved antics. 

Ash didn't even notice. He is too used to Pikachu patting his head from time to time in affection or annoyance. At the sight of Misty's upturned lips he bounces up and down on his feet. "You like it?" 

The girl sighs and steps closer to the monstrosity her friend has brought to her doorstep. 

It's a bicycle. At least she thinks it is? It's hard to tell under the horrible color and all the paraphernalia hanging off of it. The frame is bent but it actually looks intentional. Like an art student went to town on it. Maybe it's supposed to be modern? 

Her silence is loud. 

"You hate it." Ash concludes sadly and damn it, it was so much easier to be firm and resist his big teary eyes when he was still an annoying little kid who got on her nerves most of the time. 

"Hate is a strong word." she hedges. She lifts the cup to her lips to buy herself some time, too late remembering that there is nothing in there. She pretends to take a sip anyway. Ash, once again, doesn't notice, but Pikachu sends her a shit eating grin and she just glares back, twirling a single strand of her hair between two fingers. 

And because Pikachu is the smart one in this duo he gets the message loud and clear. 

"It's…" Misty tilts her head and purses her lips. "It's something else." 

"It's a limited edition. And it's in your favorite color." 

He sounds ridiculously proud so Misty does her best to keep a polite little smile on her face. She can't even tell what color it is. She's never seen a color like this. 

"Not that I don't… appreciate it," Wow, that was a hard sentence "but… why?" 

Ash plays with the handles and the bell (which sounds weird, how in Arceus name can a bicycle bell sound so weird?). He is still smiling but also not meeting her eyes. A bashful Ash is rare enough to garner her attention. 

"They finally transferred my prize money from the championship." 

Misty does a double take. In the back of her head she has always been aware of the prize money. How could she not be? No one really talks about the sum of it, but rumor has it that it's enough to set you up for life. A small fortune. 

Knowing that Ash will come into a lot of money and hearing that he did are two very different things though. At the same time she is not surprised at all that he is still wearing his old threadbare shoes and cap and is apparently still traveling by foot. 

Knowing him he's probably just transferred it all to his mother to do with it as she pleases and a big chunk to Professor Oak for taking care of his Pokémon. 

And a (hopefully small) amount apparently went towards a new bike for her. 

"You waited so long for a new bicycle. I wanted it to be a special one." 

It's the ugliest bicycle she's ever seen. The frame looks weird, the seat uncomfortable. No way in hell will she ever ride this thing through town.

"I love it." Misty says and pulls Ash into a tight hug. "Can't believe you found one in my favorite color."