#place ur bets will this be the year I finally pass it first try? yeah I don’t think so either

[hella1975]

I DIDNT DIE

[maybanksprincess]

satisfy you

warnings: 18+, smut, cheating, p in v sex, pet names, kissing, squirting, drinking.

summary: reader is dating rafe, and he isnt satisfying her needs, jj offers to help.

pairings: nice!kook!reader x pogue!jj

you attended this big bonfire that everyone went to every single year in the outer banks.

if you lived in the outerbanks you knew that bonfires were the core place that drama started.

usually you would go to drink one or two beers, have fun, and dance with your friends a little. but this time that wasnt the case.

Rafe had been getting closer with this bartender from the country club, and it was really starting to weigh down on you.

you tried to ignore it at first, but he had started going to the country club a lot more often, more than usual. and he stopped touching you all together.

first he stopped fucking you as often, but then it quickly turned into just no attention or affection from him at all. and it really hurt.

you went to this party to get wasted, and forget about all your problems, even if it was temporary.

you drunk a few beers, and downed a couple shots, now a bit tipsy from the alcohol floating in your system.

you were sitting in the grass, knees pressed up to your chest, back up against a oak tree with a few carvings on the bark of it.

your just staring at everyone partying and having fun, zoning out and just lost in your thoughts.

your snapped out of your thoughts as you see a fit blonde walk in your direction, stopping beside you.

"sup, can i sit?" the blonde asks

"yeah, of course." i look up at him and scoot over, making room.

as he sat next to me in the grass i smelled a mixture of alcohol and weed on him.

"so, what are you doin' alone at a bonfire?" he asks while giving you a once over, admiring the sight of ur curves in that dress.

"jus' trying to get my mind off things, you know?" i look up, finally locking eyes with him.

"yeah? things like what? i bet ur pretty little kook life is awesome." he says as he brings the joint between his fingers to his lips, taking a puff out of it.

"kook life really isnt all that great jay. not as great as you think" you say with a hint of vulnerability behind your words.

"it actually sucks," you continue "all the girls are mean. all they care about is money, and their boyfriends fancy cars. and all the kooks are assholes."

he puffs out the smoke, exhaling and listening to your rambling.

"i just feel like..im stuck in bubble wrap sometimes. i dunno if that makes sense" you put your head down, feeling like you said too much.

he turns so hes sitting in front of you, his face in front of yours.

"y'know its okay to get outta the bubble wrap sometimes..." he says, his eyes trailing to the hint of exposed cleavage from ur dress.

you dont know if it was the alcohol in your system or the way he was looking at you, but damn, he was so hot.

you find yourself staring, and look away, until he uses his index finger to tilt your chin back so your face meets his.

you felt a familiar pooling between your legs, but it wasn't like the pooling that happened when rafe was around.

you barely got turned on by rafe by the way he treated you, literally having to beg him to touch you most of the time. he couldn't commit to one woman, and the better of you knew that. you just couldn't seem to let him go.

i involuntarily clench my thighs, and it doesn't go unnoticed by jj, his eyes dart down to the exposed skin on your thighs.

his cargo shorts start to tighten, as if he wasnt already hard when he first approached.

you and jj start to pass the blunt, and eventually the tension becomes too much, the weed and alcohol is floating in your systems, and you find yourselves leaning into eachother.

your lips eventually meet, and it only escalates from there.

at first it was sweet and slow, but then it quickly got hot and heavy, your tongues tangling together.

you straddle his lap, grinding your clothed core against his bulge that was straining in his shorts. his hands start to grope your ass, as his dick seeks more friction from you.

he groans, and his arms hook under your thighs, he pushes himself off the ground, supporting your weight easily.

he carries you over to the twinkie, all the other pogues are still occupied out at the bonfire partying.

he uses one hand to open the sliding door, and lays you flat on your back on the surface of the backseat. he shuts the car door and he wastes no time in connecting your lips with his again.

in between kisses, he mutters out "'m gonna fuck you so good, ya gonna forget rafe exists."

following his words, he unbuckles his shorts and slides them down his legs, kicking them to the side, along with his boxers.

you look down at his dick and your eyes widen. you've never took dick that big before, fuck you were panicking.

he smirks at your reaction, and he slides your dress down your thighs, and off, tossing it where his boxers were. he lowers his face to angle it down with yours, his arms on either side of your head.

he strokes his hard cock, his tip leaks salty white precum on your thighs. his hands go down to the waistband of your panties and he hooks his fingers into it.

"can i take these off, pretty girl?" he asks, his ocean blue eyes boring into yours.

you nod, breathing getting heavy, the pool between your legs intensifying by the second. you were really about to get fucked by jj maybank.

you almost couldn't believe it, you both came from totally opposite sides, he grew up in the cut and you didnt. it was weird, but in that moment you didnt care.

all you cared about was getting his dick inside of you.

with the fingers that are hooked in ur panties, he slides them down your thighs with. he tosses ur panties and his eyes zero in on your spread pussy.

he groans, his cock jumping at the sight. he spreads your thighs some more, and the sudden feeling of a warm substance hitting your pussy shakes you out of your thoughts.

you look down to see his cock leaking precum onto your clit.

he spreads his precum on your folds with his tip, you both moaning at the situation. he lines his tip with your entrance and he pushes himself in.

as he slowly pushes in, he dips his head down to kiss your neck to soothe the slight pain from the stretch of his thick, girthy, cock.

he whimpers against your neck at the feeling of your tight walls fluttering around his member.

he starts to slowly thrust in and out, before his thrusts become faster and deeper. you grab onto his shoulders as a leverage, even though you weren't going to fall.

as he continues to thrust in and out of your sopping pussy, he speaks, his voice muffled by your neck. "mm what a fuckin' shame. that kook passed up the chance to fuck this pussy?"

you moan at his words, the stretch of his dick, the sound of his voice, the way his hand comes down to rub your clit, its all too much.

you start to see stars as you throw your head back, pussy clamping down on his cock. your moans and his groans fill the twinkie. the car rocking with every thrust, due to however old the junk was.

his tip nudges the spongy spot inside your pussy that makes you squirm, you start to whimper and let out long moans, signaling your close.

jj can tell by the way your clamping down on him, and the way your eyes roll back, that your close. he starts to thrust into you at a relentless speed, rubbing your clit rapidly, meeting your lips in a heated kiss.

you shout into his mouth "fuck jj!"

he smirks against your lips, pulling away for a brief moment to speak, his speed never faltering "cmon baby; tell me i fuck you better than rafe." he breathes out

i moan, tears flowing out of your eyes "fuck yes, so much better!" your eyes roll back again

he feels your nails scratching at his back, desperately trying to hold onto something. "yeah? who do u belong to now, hm?"

"you jayjay.." you barely manage to get out with the tears flowing out of your eyes.

he kisses your forehead gently, still slamming into your pussy. "cmon, give it t'me princess. cum for me baby."

following his words, you feel a unfamiliar gush of liquid come out of your hole. you've never done that before. it feels different but it feels so damn good.

you scream out, continuing to squirt on his cock.

he thrusts a few more times, groaning and moaning as he cums on your tummy, "your mine now. my fuckin' girl."

after he comes down from his high, he pulls his phone out, and snaps a picture with the flash, adding a text to it that says "jus made your girl squirt, looks like shes mine now, kook 😎"

he sends it to rafe, and then he helps u back into ur dress, then puts his shorts back on after.

"y'know i meant what i said, ur mine now." he seals his words with a quick kiss.

[misora-msby]

embarrassing moments with inarizaki

inarizaki always looks so cool but you know they’re actually dorks and i am here to provide you the content to show theyre clowns. enjoy the headcanons :)

Kita Shinsuke

firstly. kita shinsuke being embarrased? making a mistake? unheard of.

he’s a perfect man and we all know it.

anyways

you two were having a nice dinner out together. 

it was a pretty fancy place so you decided to dress in a different style today

but you were beginning to wonder if kita liked it or not because he seemed to keep looking past your shoulder instead of at you

he was an observant guy so you were wondering if something had happened behind you

but you couldn’t hear anything weird so you assumed not

you decided to just stay quiet about it at first but now it was beginning to become annoying! 

why wasn’t he looking you in the eye to speak?

midway through your dinner, kita finally spoke up tho

“y/n, your shirt is slipping... yer bra’s showing.”

oh.

right. you were wearing your off-shoulder top.

“o-oh. shin, it’s that kind of shirt, you know?” you had to explain your outfit to ur bf with a pink face.

“oh... that so... well it’s cold these days so if yer feelin’ cold lemme know. i’ll give ya my jacket.”

GOD HES SO PERFECT KITA SHINSUKE I HOPE U MARRY HIM???????

Ojiro Aran

another man with next to no flaws.

but nature says everyone has to make some mistake.

so it was a regular school day, our aran has just come to class from morning practice and there’s still some time left until class starts.

all the girls in class are gathered around a table

he’s not sure why, it’s probably watching an idol video

but ur man wants to be a little romantic!!

plus he just showered so he smells Great uwu

he goes over and hugs you from behind, placing his chin on ur head.

“hey, bb whatcha ya doin”

all the girls gasp.

he doesn’t get whats wrong, it’s not like it’s a secret y’all are dating

pda to this level aint bad either

especially compared to his teammate miya atsumu

“ojiro aran.”

why is your voice behind him

he looks down and nearly faints when he sees he hugged the wrong girl.

to be fair she looked a lot like you from behind, just maybe 1cm shorter.

“i’m so sorry!” he keeps apologising to literally everyone and all the class is giggling bc they never seen their school’s ace so red before.

“didn’t think i’d come back from the toilet and see my bf cheatin”

“IT WAS A MISTAKE! I’M SERIOUS! Y/N U KNOW I LOVE YA!” 

hes so funny i swear

the volleyball team hears of it and it gets even better 

Miya Atsumu

it’s not a secret that miya atsumu, setter of the inarizaki volleyball team and invited to national youth training camp, had a gf

he was very much in love with u 

the whole class knew it because he’d show it off whenever he could too

so here comes valentines day

last year he received like... 50 different gifts from girls and guys aiming to win his love.

you didnt even give him one lmAOOOOO 

but this year, he had been not so subtly trying to hint that “i better not receive any chocolates this year when i’ve got a gf!”

he reaches school and plops into his seat.

there’s an anonymous box of chocolates with “please accept my love, miya-kun! <3″ on it

“the hell’s this?!”

“oh? chocolates?” - osamu who just popped his head into the class to shove into his twin’s face how much chocolate he got.

especially since the blond was off limits, the grey-haired twin had a bigger following now.

“do they not know i have a girlfriend...”

“well, ya might as well eat it. ya dont know who to return it to.”

“that’s like receivin’ their love!”

“no it ain’t. it’s just food.”

atsumu couldn’t argue with that and popped a piece in.

it was very delicious. the chocolate practically melted on his tongue and was the perfect sweetness and was filled with a delicious ganache too.

it was perfect

but he couldn’t accept this!

“it ain’t even good. too sweet and the filling’s sticky.”

“ah. really? is that what you think, tsumu?” you ask from the door where you had been watching the exchange take place.

“y/n! look at this! some weirdo gave me some choco and like... samu said to test it but i’ll toss it out, promise.”

“tsumu, i made that... i wrote it anonymously because i thought you’d know it was me and i wanted to tease you a little.”

“huh.”

osamu: “yeah actually i went over to her place to teach her how to make it.”

atsumu: “you said you went to suna’s place?!”

osamu: “i went there later but i first went to help her.”

you: “anyways if it’s not good i don’t mind if you toss it out...”

tsumu: “NO NO BABE I PROMISE IT’S GOOD”

you: “you just said-”

“BABE I SWEAR IT’S GOOD I JUST DIDN’T WANT TO ACCEPT A STRANGER’S STUFF”

“you’re always so honest though... are you sure?” you were having your fun teasing him now.

“BB PLSSSSSS”

he still cringes at the memory 4 years into ur marriage

Miya Osamu

osamu would DEFINITELY make home made dinner dates a regular thing.

this alone shows he’s the better twin - miya atsumu stan

he loves cooking and eating with you so sometimes when he’s got a day off you guys’ll set aside the afternoon to make a real nice dinner

imagine candlelit dinner with miya dorito body osamu in a suit

of course some fun stuff happens after too ;)))

and today’s your third anniversary!!

so osamu adds lots of ‘natural aphrodisiacs’ to the meal

i’m talkin

garlic bread and soup for an appetiser, a nice juicy steak with garlic and red wine sauce for the main, and chocolate coated strawberries for dessert

mm yummy

you two cleaned your plates completely (it was very delicious) and as you were washing the dishes, osamu comes up behind and wraps his arms around your waist

“yes, ‘samu?” 

“i’ve already prepared us a nice bath with yer favourite scents.” he’s got his head resting on ur chin

“really? thank you~ i’ll be there in a bit”

but he doesn’t let go of you while you’re still scrubbing at the baking sheets.

“osamu, you can let go for now.”

“don’t feel like it.”

“i gotta wash the dishes since you did most of the cooking.”

“mmm, i’ll do it if ya gimme a kiss.”

you roll ur eyes bc what a cutie 

u turn ur head to give him a kiss but suddenly he 

he burps

that garlicy wine smell is just kinda there

“ew! ‘samu!!”

his face is real red but he’s also trying not to laugh because he’s still a dude and this is absolutely hilarious to him

“want another?” he starts teasing

“i’m not getting in the bath with you.”

“wait wait wait i’m sorry, i’ll go brush my teeth and give you a proper kiss”

Suna Rintarou

you two were taking the train home today

it was quite late due to practice going a little longer than usual, so he insisted he walked you back home today.

sunarin can be a good boyf sometimes ok

it was getting a little crowded on the train tho, since people were heading home or going out for dinner

luckily you had already grabbed seats so you were quite comfortable sitting side by side. 

you and suna have the type of relationship were you dont have to talk all the time

silence is v comfy.

he’s just scrolling through twitter on his phone while you’re looking around the car, lost in ur thoughts

suddenly you notice an old lady standing a little bit away from you and you stand up

“baa-san, please take my seat.” you whisper in the crowded carriage

“oh how kind of you. thank you, dearie.” she smiles and takes your seat while you stand in front of her and suna instead.

suna doesn’t realise this exchange has happened tho

(he’s on his phone as usual)

probably starting some fights on twitter

he decides to try to be a little romantic and pretends to stretch his arm around (who he thought was) you.

“rin.” 

why is your voice right in front of him?

“young man, i appreciate it but i’m married.”

suna jumps as he sees someone he did not recognise next to him.

he looks up and notices you had moved.

you’re giggling

the granny’s giggling

atsumu and osamu sitting opposite on the carriage look like they’re going to cry because they’re trying not to laugh

“i was just stretching. really.” he mumbles and crosses his arms, face red as a tomato

he’s so embarrassed.

Ginjima Hitoshi

sometimes the inarizaki vbc would go for an after practice snack at the nearby family mart

they were really hungry after an intense preparation for nationals which was in two weeks so kita insisted they all get something to fill them up on the way home

but lucky lucky ginjima hhehe

you (his classmate who he had a crush on) were working at the cash register today.

“welcome!” you greet everyone as they enter

he cant help but stiffen up a bit 

why are u so cute and cheery today

the 2nd years already know what to do.

“heyy, i think last week i bought ya that ramen right? ya owe me my konbini snacks today!” - atsumu

“yeah. you lost a bet to me last week so u gotta pay up. a pack of jelly fruit sticks please.” - suna

“forgot my money today, mind payin’ for my snacks too?” - osamu

“like hell i’m paying for all of you. especially you, osamu. you eat too much all the time.” 

aran’s noticed what’s going on,

“hey, if it’s just for today you can do it right? if ‘samu don’t pay ya back tomorrow i’ll nag him ‘til he does.” 

“fine...” his basket is full when he goes to the counter.

he’s trying his best not to have a red face while watching u scan the items, ur hair swaying slightly as u look back and forth between the objects and the screen.

“alright. 4,890 yen please!” GOD he hated how expensive it was, that’s almost all his weekly allowance but bc it’s u and ur voice saying it it’s kinda ok

“mm, ok.” he still has his eyes on you while he takes out his wallet and puts it on the counter.

yes

his wallet, not the money

“...” “...”

“excuse me, sir. this is...”

he almost slaps his face wtf he’s so embarrassed.

“s-sorry. just a little absent minded after practice.” he starts pulling out his cash.

“it’s fine! i know how hard you guys practice!” you smile while performing the rest of the transaction and pass him his big bag of goods. “good luck for nationals, ginjima-kun!”

he almost runs out of the store and is about to fight the rest of the 2nd years for watching and (suna) recording

[emu-lumberjack]

Don’t Answer the Phone Tired pt. 2

It’s the next day and Damian has gotten even less sleep, thankfully he’s not too tired after a some surprise news shocks him awake.

———————————-

Hey guys here’s the sequel everyone was super excited for. I really hope y'all like it, I definitely wrote it tired, but it should be coherent. 

Read part 1 here

Read part 3 here

Read part 4 here

Read part 5 here

He really needed coffee, especially after dealing with his brothers after they found out about Marinette. The youngest Wayne was up till four yelling at them to lay off, among more colorful terms, everyone time they called. He would’ve just ignored them but he knew that ignoring them would just wind up with him getting a surprise visit sooner than later. The fresh Parisian air felt good against his face as he stood on his balcony.

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair!” Marinette's voice called from the street.

“Only if the prince is willing to protect me from my aggravating brothers!” He cracked a smile as he shouted back.

“Alas I cannot do that, but would my damsel take this as a reward?” She held up a purple travel mug and a bag filled with a croissant.

“I think I could take that deal. I’ll be down in a few minutes.” He ran inside to grab his bag and throw on some day clothes before meeting Marinette.

“Have I mentioned you’re the best girlfriend? Because you’re the best girlfriend.” Damian said walking up to Marinette.

“You could stand to mention it more.” The bluenette replied handing him his promised coffee and croissant. He gulped down the coffee barely taking a breath until Marinette laughed and said, “Slow down there, you won't have any time to savor any of it.”

“If you want to stay up late dealing with my brothers, please be my guest but if not,” He gestured with his cup, “I’m gonna drink as fast as I want to.” Marinette nodded to that.

“Was it that bad last night after you left?”

“By bad do you mean each one of was trying to call me every five minutes out of ‘concern’ for my health or to check to make sure I hadn’t kidnapped you.” Marinette laughed again. “Anyway if I didn’t talk to them at all they probably would’ve hopped on the first flight they could to see what’s going on.” They stopped at the light, when Damian turned to look at Marinette he noticed she was avoiding his gaze. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about my brothers. Would you Angel?”

“Well, I might have gotten a text from Aurore to keep you away from school because three older guys had come and were asking around for you. One of them was half asleep and she couldn’t figure out how he was functional.”

Damian paled, after a moment he said “And why then are we going to school, I personally want to get as far away from them as possible.”

“She sent me a follow up saying to get there as fast as possible. Lila told her lie in front of the wrong person and, well I’ll show you the video.” Marinette handed her phone to Damian who hit play on the video that was up.

The forms of Grayson, Todd and Drake half asleep leaning on Jason. A voice came from off screen saying,

“Girl I can’t believe Tim’s not taking you to the Wayne Gala.” Alya, Damian thought. She was beginning to walk into frame with someone else. He knew who she was before she spoke.

“I know right. It’s just why would he invite someone else!” There in all her demonic glory stood Lila Rossi, not yet realising who she was walking next to.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but are you talking about Tim Drake? Adopted son of Bruce Wayne?” Grayson asked innocently. Damian knew that voice, it was the same one he used when he was going to demolish someone. “Well yeah. He’s her boyfriend, who are you anyway? Why do you care?” Alya was immediately there to be Lila’s guard dog.

“Well my name is Richard Grayson-Wayne. Tim’s brother and Bruce's son. I care because unless he’s as good at keeping secrets as Damian is, which he’s not, then he isn’t dating this girl.” Alya paled, the camera zoomed in on Lila’s face. She looked like she was about to be sick

“Huh? I heard my name.” Drake, who was in a rare moment of lucidness, looked at Dick.

“Are you pulling a Damian and secretly dating a girl in France?” Todd still Drake’s support was glaring at Lila.

“What?! Are you kidding me? No!” Drake looked like he was just hit with a cement slab.

“What are you talking about obviously you’re dating Lila! Stop Lying! I bet you're not even the real Tim Drake.” Alya was shouting now drawing crowds from around the courtyard. Drake looked at Grayson confused.

“She does realize that we can sue her if she’s really telling these types of lies right? Like she can’t be doing that.” Tim stood in front of Dick and turned his back to the paled liar and fuming reporter

“Oh leave Lila alone!” Alya came towards Drake and shoved him into Grayson.

“That does it.” Todd who had moved off to the side started walking towards the brunette rolling up his sleeves. Grayson and Todd recovered quickly, and moved to hold Todd back.

“We should get there before Todd kills them.” He said calmly before handing the phone back to Marinette. “Otherwise we won’t be able to take her down ourselves.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

In no time the duo were walking up the steps of Françoise Dupont where the sounds of shouts could be heard. The scene they entered was somehow more chaotic then the one Aurore had sent in the video. Todd was hanging upside down, the rope leading up around the handrails on the second floor then back down to a corner of the courtyard. Drake was on the bench snoring softly with his head almost touching the floor. Dick was on the phone, presumably with some lawyers. The entire bottom courtyard of the school was littered with papers and balloons were strewn about. Lila was nowhere to be seen.

“It looks like they’ve taken care of the situation, and they haven’t spotted us yet so I’m just gonna…” Damian began.

“There he is! Demonspawn, finally I thought you’d never get here.” Jason interrupted. He had spun around and caught sight of Damian and Marinette walking in. Dick turned around at the sound of Jason’s voice before saying “Yeah Duke I’ll have to call you back, but we need to sort this Lila stuff out.” He put his phone away before walking over to a corner of the building where he took out his knife and slashed a piece of rope. Jason came crashing down.

“A little warning next time Dick.” Jason said brushing off some dust that had settled on his tan leather jacket. Each one of them were dressed in their civilian clothing. Dick had on a pair of blue jeans with a grey t-shirt paired with some black sneakers. Jason was wearing his usual jeans, t-shirt, and leather jacket combo. Drake was in some weird form of pajama and day clothes mixing a graphic T-shirt and red flannel with grey sweatpants and slippers.

“Now I know that we have to be dreaming. Demonspawn is actually wearing a sweatshirt. I don’t even think Alfred could get him to do that.” Damian had run out once he heard Marinette’s voice that morning so he had just thrown on a pair of pants, a shirt and a sweatshirt barely thinking about it. He had become relaxed in Paris.

“What the hell are you guys doing here.” Damian’s face was quickly beginning to match a tomato in color and he was backing out of the entryway.

“Well obviously we had to come and see you, and meet your girlfriend.” Dick who had walked over to Marinette grabbed her hand and shook it. “My name’s Dick, the grumbling menace over there is Jason. The one currently passed out is Tim, nice to meet you, uh”

“Marinette.” She supplied. “I also have to thank you for taking care of a certain person, I’ve been trying to figure out how to get rid of her for a year.”

“Oh it was no problem at all, especially after she claimed she was dating Tim.” Damian quickly interrupted the two with a few well placed coughs. “I don’t mean to cut this short Grayson but we have to be getting to class.”

“Oh don’t worry. Bruce already called you out for the day, and Marinette I’m sure you can miss one day of school.” Jason said walking up behind Marinette.

“As much as I’d love to, I have two tests today. I’ll be happy to meet up with you afterwards though.” Damian’s eyes widened as the words sunk in and he realized what that meant for him.

“Please don’t leave me alone with them.” He looked at Marinette pleadingly.

“You’re gonna have to tell us how you got him to say please, it took Alfred a month to do that.” Jason remarked.

“Maybe another time, now I’ve gotta get to class.” She gave one look at Damian and there was laughter in her eyes.

“I hate you.” He said.

“No you don’t.” She called back, disappearing around the corner.

“So how bout we wake up Timmy and go get breakfast. I for one am famished.” Jason came up and put a hand on Damians shoulder.

“Ya know that doesn’t sound so bad Jason. Then Damian can tell us all about Paris, and the people he’s met.” Dick stood in front of Damians glare gleefully looking at Jason.

“I will kill you both and Father will never be able to find your bodies.”

“Yeah but then Marinette will be disappointed. For some reason she gives off the ‘thou shall not kill’ vibe.” Grayson said. “Now how are we gonna wake Tim up.”

“Oh I’ll  take care of it.” Damian said grabbing his Ice filled water bottle.

 Tag List: 

@ur-average-reader @kristycocopop @k-laconia-bug1 @smolplantmum @dast218 @pirats-pizzacanninibles @acoursedprophetwithasmothie @g-arya @loysydark @mewwitch @itsemeanne @hauntedstudent99 @clumsy-owl-4178

[lifesabe-ch]

full scoop - jj m.

summary: after returning to the outer banks for spring break, you’re pleasantly surprised to see JJ again. Apparently, he missed you more than you thought

request: I love ur writing it’s so good :’) if ur taking requests, can u do #4 from the prompt list with jj 💕 “Are you flirting with me?” “You finally noticed?”

pairings: jj maybank x reader

warnings: spilled ice cream

a/n: reposting this bc it got no notes and I absolutely love this so ...tumblr do better

“Hey, sorry to bother you, but I was hoping you could tell me where the beach was?”

As you turned, you extended a hand towards the direction of the pier, “Yeah, it’s just down… JJ?!”

The boy in front of you grinned at your shocked expression, eagerly returning your quick hug. You hadn’t seen him since the summer the two of you had gone your separate ways.

After graduation, JJ had decided to take a gap year. Or a couple. He wasn’t sure. He had always assumed you would do the same, or at least stay local, but your plans had changed. You had applied for a school in the North East without his knowledge earlier in the year, assuming you wouldn’t even get in. But you did, and they offered you a scholarship. Even if you wanted to, your parents wouldn’t let you pass up the opportunity.

The day you had told him had been one of the worst for the both of you. It felt like when JJ had lost John B. to Sarah. Except, with that, he had gotten the chance to know Sarah. He wouldn’t be able to follow you to your school, nor would he get to meet all the people you met.

You had tried keeping in touch after you had left, but it hadn’t lasted for much longer than a few phone calls. You were busy with school, and JJ was busy with the other Pogues. You both knew during that last phone call that things wouldn’t be the same. The two of you felt like instantly, in that moment, you were shifted worlds apart.

It has been just over a year now, with you having just returned from college for spring break.

As the two of you pulled away, you tucked some hair behind your ear, subtly taking him in. He looked the same, but somehow different. Happier.

“Long time no see,” He teased. “How’s that fancy college treating you?”

You laughed as you responded, your words accompanied by a small shrug, “It’s nice. It’s big and I love it but…”

“It’s not the Outer Banks,” he finishes, gauging your expression.

“Exactly.”

The silence that followed was awkward. It wasn’t that the two of you weren’t brainstorming ways to continue your conversation, it was that you both couldn’t seem to decide on how to keep it going.

Clearing his throat lightly, he beat you to it.

“I was heading down to the beach… if, you know, you wanted to join me?”

You weren’t busy. That much was obvious. But you still took the time to think over his offer. You weren’t sure why you hesitated, but you did.

“Okay,” You nod, flashing him a tiny grin, “I’d like that.”

TIME slipped away from the two of you much too fast for your liking. You had spent the day trying to learn how to surf. It was a lot of falling off the board and getting made fun of by JJ, but you had fun. It felt easy between the two of you, the remaining awkwardness fading almost as soon as you had gotten into the water.

He’d even bought ice cream for you both.

You smile as you remembered the encounter from just hours earlier, and the way he had mentioned the hangout you two had first had in the same place.

You were both so awkward around each other. And by both, you meant you. JJ was his charming self.

“No, I swear, I was super nervous when I took you there!”

You shook your head at the boy in front of you, shoving a spoonful of your ice cream into your mouth, “Nu uh! I was nervous. I thought we were on a date the entire time and then you just mentioned that we would be really great friends at the end of it!”

He groaned at the memory, eliciting a laugh from you as you watched his cheeks tint red in embarrassment, “I can’t believe I said that. I had planned to kiss you but then I chicken out and—”

“And friend zoned me.”

“Yep,” He solemnly nodded, an apologetic look on his features, “I’m sorry.”

Waving him off, you shrugged, “JJ, don’t even worry about it, we were kids. It’s water under the bridge now. You were right, anyway.”

“Yeah,” he speaks, before pausing.

“Right about what, exactly?”

“Us being good friends,” You smile at him, gesturing with your hands as the two of you walk along the sand.

“I didn’t think we would at first, if I’m being honest. But we were. You were my best friend.”

“Were?” He nudged you, chuckling.

“Hey, you were the one who stopped calling me!”

“Only because you were always too busy with your new college friends.”

“Not true,” you reprimanded, clicking your tongue.

“I made new friends, but I always liked my old ones more.”

“How was that, anyway? Making friends and… stuff.”

Ignoring the weird infliction of voice when he said stuff, you just shrugged, “It was okay. My roommate was the one who introduced me to people, mostly.”

JJ nodded, smirking at you, “I bet you managed to land all of the boys up there. That’s why you never called, you didn’t have time with all of your new boyfriends.”

You laughed loudly, shoving his free arm with your own, “Don’t even. We both know that out of the two of us, you’re the one who pulls.”

You watched as he stumbled dramatically from your push, flashing you a smile that caused those all too familiar butterflies to flutter in your stomach.

“We both know there’s only one girl for me.”

Ignoring the way his stare burned into you, you glance down at the sand before looking back over at him. A smile instantly erupted on your features at your own idea, as you took off.

“Race ya!” Was all you could manage to call back, laughing as you heard JJ’s groans of protest as he hurried to catch up.

Naturally, you had won. You had made it to the small tree further down the beach seconds before JJ, jumping in excitement for your own victory.

“Hah! I won!”

As you hopped around, you topple over your ice cream, gasping loudly as it spills onto the sand. Just your luck that it would spill not as you were running, but rather right after you stopped.

Still trying to catch his breath, he laughs as he watches you kneel besides the mess, hurriedly scooping whatever you could back up with your spoon.

“Bet you don’t feel like a winner now.”

You frowned as you glanced over at him, still hunched over, clutching his own ice cream protectively.

“JJ… it’s ruined!”

“Just wipe the sand off.”

You stared at him in disbelief, scoffing lightly, “Right, maybe I should just wash it off in the ocean while I’m at it?”

“That’s honestly not a bad idea! It’d wash away the sand.”

He wasn’t joking. In fact, he was the most serious he had been the whole day.

“And the rest of the ice cream! It’s water. Salt water.”

JJ has to ponder your words. He was playing out different ice cream washing scenarios in his head, trying to figure out which would cause the least damage. He didn’t think you were right, but he pretended that you were, for your sake.

Sitting down besides you, he offers up his own, smiling, “Have mine, then.”

“That’s not fair to you.”

He shrugged, smiling sweetly at you, “It’s fine, Y/N. You want it more anyway.”

Taking the cup he was practically forcing into your hand, you pout, “I feel bad.”

“Don’t, it’s fine. And stop pouting, it’s cute but it won’t work.”

Blushing slightly, you roll your eyes, grabbing a spoonful and holding it out for him, “Whatever. But we’re sharing.”

Gladly taking what you were offering, JJ smirked as his lips wrapped around the spoon before pulling away, causing your blush to darken even more.

Dipping it back into the ice cream, you twirled it around before bringing it up to your mouth.

“This is kind of gross. We’re swapping spit right now.”

JJ laughs at your comment, leaning back against the tree bark as he watched you, “Too bad it’s like that. I could think of a better way.”

His response sent you into a stunned silence, your eyes staying focusing on the grains of sand in front of you. If you had to pick between counting out every grain of sand on this beach and feeling as awkward as you currently felt, you’d immediately start counting.

“I… are you flirting with me?”

“You finally noticed?”

You felt like your heart would simultaneously beat out of your chest and stop altogether. Had he really just said that?

“What?”

Moving forward to tuck a strand of your hair behind your ear, it was JJ’s turn to blush, “I’m always trying to flirt with you. You just never respond. I was starting to think you just really didn’t like me.”

“I… I thought you were joking! I didn’t think you could be serious, I’m not your type.”

He rolled his eyes in response, shaking his head, “You’re the only person who’s ever been my type.”

It was quiet for a moment between the two of you, gazes flickering from lips to eyes, back to lips. You both leaned in slowly, careful not to move too fast in fear of making the moment disappear.

When your lips finally touched, the kiss was soft. JJ’s hands found their way to your face, cupping your jaw as he held you close to him. Your hands stayed in your lap, desperately clinging to the small ice cream cup in your hands, your body leaning forward to keep the space between the two of you minimal.

You were the first to pull away, grinning widely at the boy sat across from you,

“That’s really cheesy.”

“You know what else is really cheesy? This dick!”

“JJ, I cannot stress this enough, I find you utterly repulsive.”

With a wide grin, he pulls you the rest of the way to him, resting his forehead against yours, “Fine, then I’m taking my ice cream back.”

Gasping, you pull yourself from him, holding the cup out of his grasp with a glare, “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Try me.”

As you get up, he follows, chasing you around the sand as the two of you laugh. Eventually catching up to you, he wraps his arms around you from behind, lifting you off the ground and knocking the cup over in the process.

“JJ! The ice cream!”

“Next time I’ll buy you two,” was all he muttered, lips already finding their way to your cheek.

[dameronology]

the one with the blind date {obi-wan x reader}

summary: your mother has a knack for setting you up on the worst blind dates. this time, it might be different. 

i know what you’re thinking - ‘but val! jedi aren’t allowed to date!’ but for the sake of this fic, the jedi code can suck a fat one because it’s 3am 5am and i don’t have the brain cells to work around star wars canon 

love u lots and hope you enjoy 

- jazz

You weren’t entirely sure if your mother’s judgement towards your life choices was supposed to be malicious or not, but it certainly felt like it. The fact she called you to remind you that your cousin just had her third baby! or mention in passing that your friend from school just got married (again)! always felt like it had an ulterior motive. You loved the woman dearly but maker, you wished she would shut the hell up sometimes.

It wasn’t as though you weren’t successful. You had an important job working for the Senate, you’d graduated from the University of Cloud City with honours and you owned an apartment in Coruscant. Did she know how hard it was to get on the property ladder in this city? It was probably one of the selling points she used every time she set you up on a blind date. They were usually with older men, twice divorced and with more baggage than you were ready for.

You weren’t expecting this date to be any different - your mother had mentioned he was a friend of a friend (possibly of a friend, of another friend and then maybe the colleague of that friend). She hadn’t told you what job he had, only that he was a bit older than you and ‘earned enough to support a small family’ - but you had chosen to ignore that last part. She’d arranged for you to meet at a diner downtown in the early evening, and you weren’t expecting too much. 

There were only two people in the diner. One was a man of an alien species who appeared to be roughly 150; he had a pint in one hand and a burger in the other. The other one was undoubtedly a Jedi - and a very attractive one too. He was browsing the menu, brow furrowed slightly as he frowned. He looked up as the bell on the door rang, and your eyes met. If he was your date, your mother had done well for once (though she could have pre-warned you about his occupation).

‘Hey, you must be-’ He offered you a warm smile, standing up from the table to wave you over.

Say something, dumbass you pushed yourself. 

‘- that sure is me!’ You quipped. Great start, you moron. 

‘It’s lovely to meet you.’ The Jedi sat back down as you shuffled into the booth opposite him. ‘I’m Obi-Wan.’

‘Right, yeah - sorry, my mum did tell me your name.’ You replied. 

‘What else did she tell you?’ He quipped, quirking one of his brows. ‘Just so I can try and live up to whatever lively image I’m sure she’s created.’

‘Just your name.’ You laughed. ‘She didn’t mention being a Jedi or anything.’

Obi-Wan paused for a minute. ‘Oh, I’m not a Jedi.’

You froze slightly, quickly trying to think of a response. It hadn’t been a reach - he was wearing robes, and you could see what looked like a lightsaber under the table. Not that you had been looking under the table, or down there - and maker, this was embarrassing.

‘I’m joking.’ He suddenly burst into a fit of laughter. ‘I am a Jedi. I thought it would break the ice but you look like you’re about to cry-’

‘- that was mean!’ You reached across the table to swat at his shoulder. ‘I pride myself on my intuition, Obi-Wan.’ 

‘I wouldn’t call the fact I’m wearing a Jedi robes and carrying a lightsaber intuition, more like the glaringly obvious.’ He leant back, crossing his arms over his chest as he smirked at you.

You liked this guy.

‘But what do you do?’ Obi-Wan continued. ‘Your mother mentioned that you work for the Senate.’

‘I do!’ You replied. ‘I’m a political advisor.’

‘What does that entail?’

‘I just sit there and tell the senators if they’re being just a bit stupid or completely stupid.’ You grinned. 

‘Well, it certainly sounds like a very important job.’ He smiled back.

‘You’re one to talk. You’re like..the keeper of the Force.’ You replied. 

‘That’s not quite it.’ Obi-Wan couldn’t help but laugh at your attempt to describe his job. ‘But you’re close.’

--

Two hours later - and after ordering food that you’d both been too distracted to touch - you were both doubled over in laughter at something Obi-Wan had said. He was funny; you’d figured out that much. It wasn’t in an obvious way, but more of a charming, observant way. He took an interest in you as well - he asked about your job, your hobbies and your time at college. In a way, he felt a bit too good to be true. Every guy your mother set you up with had fallen short within the first five minutes.

What could it be? Was he secretly already married? Was he a convicted criminal on the run and posing as a Jedi? 

‘I have to ask.’ Obi-Wan reached across the table, warm hand falling on top of yours. ‘You have a good job. You own your own apartment and you’re beautiful. Why do you need your mother to find you a date?’

You let out a small laugh, shaking your head. ‘I don’t meet many suitable people in my line of work. They’re either much, much older senators or...actually, that’s it.’

He chuckled slightly, squeezing your hand - you could have sworn that your heart stopped for a moment (either that, or your coffee addiction had finally caught up with you). The fact you’d been too deep in conversation with him to even look at your food said a lot. Before now, no man would ever have been able to come to between you and a burger. 

‘Let’s get out of here.’ Obi-Wan threw a few credits on the table. ‘I know a place that has better food.’

You tossed a few of your own credits, giving him a nod. ‘I’ll have to take your word for it since neither of us actually touched this food.’

‘I’m easily distracted, apparently.’ He joked, offering out his hand to you as you pulled your jacket on.

‘That’s bad for a Jedi.’ You joked, taking it.

‘I correct myself.’ He paused for a moment, shaking his head. ‘I’m easily distracted by you.’

‘Right, I have a tendency to do that.’ You replied. ‘I bet my mother didn’t tell you that I was so breathtaking.’

‘Actually, she told me I had a mission.’ He replied. 

The cold night air hit you as you exited the diner. You could hear the buzz of the city traffic further uptown, filling the silence as you pondered his statement for a moment. Your mother worked as an admin assistant for the Jedi temple - she organised transport and missions and the logistics of most their operations - and she had a tendency to spill embarrassing things about you in conversation.

‘A mission?’ You grimaced. ‘What did she tell you it was?’

‘To investigate that very diner we were just sat in.’ Obi-Wan smiled down at you, face lit up under the lights of a theatre as you walked past. ‘She only told me before I left the temple that it was a blind date.’

‘Maker, that woman.’ You muttered. 

‘I’m not complaining, though.’ He quickly replied. He let go of your hand, moving to fling his arms across your shoulders and pull him closer towards him. ‘I was a bit worried that you were going to be...’

‘...like her?’ You nudged him in the ribs slightly. ‘Because that’s something I worry about too every time I get a bit older.’

‘Oh, you have nothing to worry about.’ Obi-Wan said. ‘You have her nose but I’d say that’s it.’

--

A few more hours passed, and you found yourselves having walked all the way to the other side of the city. You were latched onto his side now, one arm around his waist whilst his rested on your shoulder. The warmth of his body against the cold of the night air was a wonderful contrast and you couldn’t help but smile at how at home you felt. He had a very calming presence (probably something to do with the whole Jedi debacle). 

‘Let’s sit down.’ You wrapped your hand around his wrist, tugging him over to a low-sitting wall. 

You were on the edge of Coruscant, a few miles away from the city centre. The lights of the vast skyline illuminated the road in front of you, the whites and blues and red of the mammoth buildings blurring into a technicolour dream. You sometimes forgot how wonderful the place was, especially when you spent so much time observing corrupt politics and dodgy dealings at your job. That wasn’t on your mind, however - Obi-Wan Kenobi was at the forefront of your thoughts. 

‘You’re cold.’ He commented.

‘I’m always cold.’ You shot back. ‘Isn’t that something you can tell through the Force?’

‘Oh, my dear.’ Obi-Wan chuckled. ‘The Force doesn’t work like that.’

‘So, it’s not like mind-reading and magic tricks?’ You shuffled slightly in your seat, turning so that you were facing him. 

‘I definitely can’t read your mind.’

‘That’s a shame. It would make this whole dating thing much easier.’ You quipped.

‘You could just tell me what you’re thinking.’ He reasoned.

You paused for a moment - you were thinking about kissing him, obviously. There had been several moments through out the night where you almost had, but it hadn’t felt like the right time. But here? Basking under the glow of the city lights, sat so close to him? You’d be damned if there was a better chance than this. 

Obi-Wan met you halfway, your lips brushing against his. Like him, they were soft and warm, and you felt yourself leaning further into him. One of his arms wound around your waist, making an attempt to pull you close, though such a thing were possible. Meanwhile, you had one hand on the back of his neck, softly playing with the hair that fell onto your hand. 

There was a gust of wind, and you suddenly jumped back with surprise. He laughed at your reaction, dropping his head into your shoulder as his body shook against yours. 

‘So,’ you began. ‘Second date?’

‘I don’t think we’re done with this one.’

(Within the year, your mother finally had bragging rights about the fact it was her child getting married this time). 

there’ll probably be a part 2 to this i won’t lie to u i’ve already got it written in my head 

also shout to @karasong​ and @drinksomecoco​ for ur encouragement/ideas ily guys 

[peaches-writes]

sun shower

description: you happen to be spending your training year in adjacent villages with a certain kim seungmin  member: seungmin genre: fluff, witch/wizard au (kiki’s delivery service, a little snow fairy sugar-inspired) word count: 4k note: ‘magical people’ just doesn’t sound awesome enough to be the official gender-neutral term i therefore declare that both the words witch & wizard are gender-neutral choose ur fighter ppl

Seungmin has always had a fascination with the heavens since he was a young boy. His mother specialized in potions but his father was an astronomer, inviting him to stargaze after potion lessons until he had to leave for his training as an independent wizard some 6 months ago. He never vocally said it to his parents but when they received a letter from him in the mail informing them that he has chosen to train in the quaint countrysides of Italy a month into his training, they correctly inferred that he wanted to be specialize in astrology. 

For this reason, he finds it bothersome, for a lack of a better word, whenever you, a neighboring witch, would conjure up clouds of rain until the early hours of the night. In your defense, it always happens unconsciously, most often when you’re frustrated because you couldn’t conjure up enough clouds when the sun is still out or when you untimely create clouds right as a storm passes over the countryside.

“Excuse me!” He called to you from the skies on his fifth night in the neighboring town. This was when you first met. You look up at him curiously, surprised at finding a fellow magical person. “Are you causing this?”

He gestures over the thin veils of clouds looming over the full moon. He could tell you were a witch by the runes you read to your root crops.

“Yes, why?”

“I study astrology, you see.” He shows you a familiar book, the standard guide to astrology—you knew because your own mother was an astrologer. “And I can’t really study if it’s too cloudy.”

“O-Oh, sorry.” You stand up from squatting next to your green sprouts, scratching the back of your neck. “It takes me a long time to make them disappear, you see. I swear I’m also working on them!”

“Well, it’s already late and I still have business to attend to later on so it’d be really helpful if you get your clouds out of the way quickly.” He points out, intimidating you a bit. 

Because of his dry and rather stern tone, you managed to clear out the sky faster than you’ve ever done at the time. Suffice to say, Seungmin was impressed.

“Thanks! I’m Seungmin, by the way.” “Y/N, nice to meet you and sorry again!” 

Now at present, you only have a month left until your training ends yet somehow you can’t seem to master the art of controlling the rain for sun showers, which frustrates Seungmin as much as it frustrates you. 

“Maybe you’re overthinking it. Have you tried relaxing?” In the few months you’ve spent being sort of neighbors, you know that Seungmin never means anything malicious, he simply has a sarcastic tone by default. 

“I am relaxed.” You insist, puffing out air that resembles smoke in the cold weather. It’s nearing the end of November and you can already feel the snow coming, signalling your impending departure. You try again, concentrating and thinking about how Seungmin’s watching you, “Oh hey, look, I did it!” 

To compromise over your clashing work schedules, on the 2nd month of Seungmin’s stay, the two of you came to an agreement that you alternate between your towns, so that Seungmin can monitor you practicing with the weather and make sure that he gets to see the night sky when you’re done. Undeniably, you’ve grown closer from helping each other out (and maybe you’ve even developed a small crush on the side, but you wouldn’t tell him that).

He sits behind you on your rooftop on this particular Sunday, reading a thick book on the movement of constellations, while you levitate over your vegetable garden, eyes trained to the cloudy sky that slowly clears. 

“Is this the last thing you need to accomplish?” He asks after a while, having decided after a while to halt reading and observe the sky. You’re halfway through clearing the sky, some hints of sunlight starting to peek through from the remaining clouds. Though he doesn’t show it, he’s proud (and a bit jealous) that you’re almost done with your training.  

Without sparing him a glance, you shake your head no. “I still need to perfect my own song to conjure up a sun showers.” You correct as a frown settles on your face. 

You control the weather with music. You use a flute for snow and sleet, a harp for the rain, a triangle for thunder and winds, and your own voice to call for the sun and clear skies. The problem with creating a sun shower is that you can’t come up with your own last verse—the one that is supposedly unique to every conjurer, according to your aunt who gave you the sheet music. 

“Maybe you need another instrument.” Seungmin suggests but you both know that if there was another instrument for sun showers, your aunt would tell you as a witch who controls the weather herself. “Or the music sheet’s wrong.” 

“If it’s wrong, then I would’ve conjured up something else entirely the last time I tried it.” You point out. The last time meaning just a few weeks ago when you tried out your latest revision and conjured up enough clouds but too much rain. “I’m just missing a few measures but my brain’s already too fried to come up with any!” 

“Can I see?” 

You impatiently hum in approval, finally turning around to briefly look at him and gesture over to your rucksack. “It’s in my bag, knock yourself out.” 

You have an idea of Seungmin’s musical ability. He tends to hum to himself while he’s busy with work, you’ve heard in the events you’ve stayed in his place longer to help him see the stars better, and he plays the piano well, especially when he was asked to in his town’s festival. You’ve wondered yourself before why he chose studying astrology over taking control of the weather until he mentioned his home life before going off on his own. 

“It does sound hard to complete, especially with what you already have.” He agrees with you after a while. At this point, you’ve managed to clear the skies of heavy rain clouds so you levitate towards him, sitting across from him after penetrating the shield he’s made for himself from the rain that’s passed. “But I think you’re getting there.” 

He hums the main melody under his breath, occasionally stopping to brainstorm ideas on what could possibly be missing on your sheet music. To his right, you lay down tiredly on your back, rucksack serving as a makeshift pillow, and turn your body to face him, listening intently to the little notes and comments he makes under his breath. “I just need a balance with the sun and the rain.” You sigh. “The sun is already enough, the rain’s just a little too much.” 

“Hm, sounds strangely poetic.” He points out with the same dry tone you’ve grown accustomed to, making you chuckle. “You going through something or what?”

“I don’t know if I’d call it that.” You then turn your body up towards the sky. Now that your clouds were gone, you then realize that the sky’s started turning pink and orange in sunset. “It’s just that, there are some things and people I’m unsure of, I guess.”

He wanted to ask you what, or rather, who exactly you were unsure of. You’re not exactly known for being a social butterfly but you’re not anti-social, either, but if bothered you so much, whatever or whoever you’re referring to must be someone incredibly special to you. 

“Hey, can I keep a copy of this?” He opts to ask instead, gaining your attention again. 

You nod. “You can take the music sheets, I have it memorized by heart already, anyway.” 

“If I can come up with something, I’ll let you know.” He carefully tucks your music sheet between the pages of his book. “You don’t have some kind of deadline, do you?” 

“No, it’s okay.” You smile before turning back to the incoming sunset. “Anyway, I’ve had enough of thinking about it for today, let’s just enjoy the sunset before you go back to studying! Ah, what a day.” 

Seungmin is evidently surprised, often you mind each other’s businesses and only talk when one needs help or when one is about to leave, but you missed such a rare expression across his face “Okay.” You only hear him say as he closes his book and lays down next to you, using his own messenger bag as a pillow. 

Later that night, Seungmin decides to study on your rooftop later than usual, and you hear him singing until you fell asleep.

In the following days, Seungmin kept on humming the final measures of your song along with experimental measures to try and fill in the missing gap. He sings it while gathering (or stealing, depends on who you ask) herbs from your garden, cleaning the room he rents above a dusty bookstore, and even while writing a cohesive prediction for someone in his side business. 

It would drive you crazy if only his voice isn’t that great. 

“You know, when your training ends, you should also try picking up at least one skill related to music.” You suggest to him a week later while pacing around in his room. You’re supposed to be outside but complained because of the intense heat you can’t seem to tone down. “I highly recommend singing for sunshine.” 

“But you do it better.” He’s making you a reading on this particular day since business is slow recently. “You sing and play well.”

Internally, the butterflies already present in your stomach multiply greatly. “So? Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t too?” You manage to counter while trying to recover. “I bet wherever you’re going after your training, they’ll have extraordinarily warmer sun.” 

He chuckles nervously. He’s more than halfway through his training already but he doesn’t want to think about that just yet (mostly because he finds it weird thinking about a new place without you in it, but he wouldn’t tell you that). “Really? You think so?” 

You nod. “Yeah, I feel—well, I believe you will.”  Placing a hand outside a nearby open window, the sun still feels scorching hot on your skin. You didn’t like bringing umbrellas or wearing hats while practicing, it distracts you too much. “Aish, it’s still too hot out!”

“If I do pick up music, I might turn out even better than you.” He teases, stealing a glance over to you and softening up by following with, “But who knows, maybe we’ll bump into each other a few years from now, you’ll probably already settled with somewhere and I’m still looking for a place to call home, then you can teach me.”

Seungmin can’t actually imagine you permanently staying in one place, with your adventurous streak and passion for the outdoors, much less finding someone who makes you stay in one place forever but he forces himself to consider for the sake of theory. 

Whoever will catch their eye would truly be exceptional. 

You, on the other hand, show evident confusion in your expression while you retract your hand back from the window. “I wouldn’t count myself on the settling down part but sure, I guess, I can teach you a few years from now.” 

“Why?” Seungmin looks up at you again and even stops humming, showing you genuine curiosity. It suddenly felt strangely serious.

At this, you simply shrug. “I don’t know, I guess I don’t think it’s a priority for me. I want to see the world! Can you picture me staying in one place forever?” 

“No?” He chuckles. “What if you fall in love?” 

“If I do, whoever I fall in love with should probably start practicing flying well then.” 

When the two of you go out to the farmland behind Seungmin’s lodging later on, you conjure up an almost-perfect sun shower with only a handful of extra clouds left that needs to disappear.

“Seungmin, you’re going to catch a cold, come over here!” When you turn around to show Seungmin your work,  you see him flying circles over the empty farmlands instead. 

Drenched in light rain, he grows self-conscious of how you think of his flying skilles—all the while debating on whether he should give the last measure of your song to you now, when he’s definitely sure that he enjoys your company, or during Christmas, when it’s the cruelest holiday to leave. 

Seungmin eventually gives in after 2 weeks, not that you’d notice anyway since you didn’t know that he wanted to keep you around longer. The sky is already getting cloudy, reminding the two of you of snow, making it harder to practice during the day—Seungmin had to give in while you can still manage to clear the sky before practicing.

“This is it, Seungmin.” You breathe out dramatically through the chilly December breeze. It’s early morning, just a little after the break of dawn, because you were so excited practicing the song with Seungmin last night. “If this last measure makes my perfect sun shower, my last week here would be the best! I’d be the happiest, I swear.”

There was also the fact that you planned on leaving right after the first snow. Sometimes you’re just too cruel, Seungmin thinks.

“I’m sure this is it, I decoded it.” He says as coolly and as confidently as he can.

You say nothing more, proceeding to sing and play the harp according to your sheet music. The song is only 2 minutes long, barely providing any room to feel nervous as you slowly approached the final verse which is supposed to be different for every witch / wizard, hence why it was hard to decode.

As you play, Seungmin watches the clouds form over the pale yellow sunrise, a small smile unconsciously forming on his face that then grows into a wide grin when they stop at just the right amount and started drizzling the vast expanse of houses ahead in light rain. “Y/N, you did it! You did it!”

You didn’t even realize that you’ve had your eyes closed the entire time you sang and played, opening them only when you felt Seungmin spinning around next to you to feel the rain just as the droplets of rain started to dampen your own hair. “I—I did it!”

“You did!” Seungmin turns to you, not even hiding his happiness this time as he then instinctively pulls you into a warm hug. “I’m so proud of you!”

You hug him back tighter, his coat cold and damp against yours. “Thank you, Seungmin.” You catch your breath as you rest your chin against his shoulder. “Thank you so much.”

Seungmin only hums, speechless in being so close to you. This was the first time you hugged.

Without his face in your view, you miss the way he momentarily frowns at the thought that you’re now certain and confident to leave—a thought he expertly hides when he pulls away later on and says, “So, will you still practice or do you just leave it at that until you leave?”

You frown at him in annoyance, you really were irked he brought it up, especially since several days have passed since you’ve avoided mentioning it. “Why are you thinking of me leaving already? I have to practice a couple more times before I go, of course!”

“I’m just making sure so in case you stay outside overtime again.” He defends himself, suddenly feeling colder that you’re far away again. “Okay, now try making it stop, it’s getting really cold!”

“Alright, alright!” You roll your eyes, making the clouds disappear. You manage to dry yourselves even with a gush of warmer winds to compensate the two of you getting wet with rain. “Jeez, Seungmin, I thought we were having a moment there!”

Though you said it in a joking manner, of course he didn’t miss the way you showed the slightest hint of being hurt. Seungmin feels his heart drop to his stomach at the thought.

You continue practicing in the days that follow, both early in the mornings and late in the afternoons. Though you keep it cool in front of Seungmin, you notice how quiet he’s suddenly become, how he would hum your song less and literally cover his face with his book whenever you glance over at him for small talk.

“Are you mad?” “No.” “Do you feel awkward too?” “...A bit, yeah.” Would always be your conversation-ender. You know he meant it sincerely because he didn’t use his default dry tone on you but somehow it felt awkward.

What changed?

On your last day, you invited him to dinner.

“I told the landlord you can take this house if you want to.” You mention as the two of you ate strawberry cake. Earlier that day, some of the villagers surprised you with a going-away party since you leave at midnight—the cake was from one of the farmers you helped grow crops faster. “I still have some root crops in the garden, that should last you for a month.”

“It’s fine.” He reassures you for the 2nd time since you started eating. “I want the vegetables, though.”

For a while, it seemed like the awkwardness was gone and you laugh. “If you’re not taking the house, then you might have to have a talk with Mrs. Ross over the vegetables.”

“Then I’ll swipe them later when you go.” And then the awkwardness was back.

“Won’t you see me off later?” You ask, nervously playing with your food as you steal a glance at him.

Across the table, the lone strawberry on Seungmin’s plate suddenly seems interesting even when your gaze pokes on his newly dyed blonde hair. “I’m...I’m helping a villager’s sick child, it might take a while.” He bluffs, a heavy feeling looming over him.

“Oh...” He doesn’t see the frown before you muster up a smile. “That’s alright, I guess.”

“Where do you plan on going?” He finally gathers the courage to look up at you, searching for any sign in your eyes that you’d suddenly stay.

You ponder over the question longer than you usually would, your eyes trailing to the window behind Seungmin as you do so. “It’s snowing.” You mutter absentmindedly.

When Seungmin turns around, your windowsill already has a thin layer of snow.

“It is.” He agrees, eyes suddenly stinging. Am I crying? “It’s the first snow.”

You swore you saw faint hints of tears on Seungmin’s face when you escorted him out later that night but you chose to ignore it, diverting your attention instead to the sky—and for the first time you understood why Seungmin hated night skies wherein the stars aren’t visible.

“A bit dull, I get it now.” You comment as you walk him with him to the main road. When he gives you a questioning gaze, the dry trails of tears shining under the faint street lights, you gesture to the sky. “The starless sky, I mean.”

He follows you, frowning at the lack of stars. The sky seems to radiate off of the two of you. “Yeah, it’s so vague, you could barely read anything.”

Seungmin wakes up the following morning to a sun shower. There’s a thick layer of snow outside his window, even more when he steps out of his lodging later on, yes, but it’s the lone droplet of rain that falls on his cheek as he closes the door behind him on his way out that catches his utmost attention, casting his eyes up to the sky as it begins to drizzle.

At that moment, it fully dawns on him that you never told him exactly where you were going. 

Still, he flies to your house, in hopes of any clue somehow. Only, when he arrived, he only saw the landlady, Mrs. Ross there, tending to your garden.

“Oh, Seungmin!” She greets the evidently distressed wizard. “Do you want to take some of the vegetables?”

“N-No, I just thought that—nevermind.”

“If you’re looking for Y/N, they already left last night.” Mrs. Ross says sympathethically to Seungmin. “They didn’t say where they were going.”

Seungmin walks home afterwards, dejected.

It felt wrong, spending an entire day without you afterwards, especially when the sun was out later in the afternoon yet it felt horrifyingly cold.

The week passes by too slowly for Seungmin, even when he decides on devoting half of his day to resuming correspondence with his parents and some friends—away in their own towns. He rarely leaves the house, wandering only as far as the bookstore downstairs, utilizing the never-ending snow as an excuse to his landlord. Your landlady. Mrs. Ross, is probably the only person from outside his building that he sees whenever she drops by to hand him the produce from your garden.

His textbooks have started to blur in front of him whenever he studies and the weather has started feeling dull and repetitive for him.

And so it felt years have already passed when a knock comes to his door beyond the usual time Mrs. Ross would come by. It’s already afternoon, just as Seungmin is about to take a nap.

“Who is it?” He asks as loudly as he can in his drowsy state, almost stumbling over an umbrella stand in the process, but the knock continues, annoyingly chirpy at that.

When he opens the door, you give him no time to prepare himself as you tackle him in a hug. “Kim Seungmin!” You exclaim, throwing your arms to his shoulder.

There’s a slight delay on his part, partly because the sun is shining too warmly and too bright outside but mostly because he instantly recognizes your warmth as you squeeze him tighter. “Wha—? How—?” He stutters, eyes wide and mouth hanging open in shock. Nevertheless, he wraps his arms around your waist, quickly gathering his thoughts together to coherently ask, “Where have you been?!”

“Oh, here and there. I went home to my parents then wandered off aimlessly to some beaches in the South since it’s really cold up here.” You explain as you try and pull away from him but Seungmin uncharacteristically keeps you in place, making you laugh. “Hey, you missed me.”

At this, he buries his face on your shoulder, mumbling a muffled, “Of course I did.” that almost completely melted your heart if it weren’t for him following it with, “I thought I’d never see you again.”

“Well, I needed time to think.” When you pull away, he lets you this time, allowing you to step inside his place. It looked the same since you were last here, you notice.

“Of what?”

“Of how I feel for you.” You make sure to say it in the sincerest way you know, feeling light-headed afterwards.

Oh, Seungmin thinks, cheeks flushed, so it’s me?

Seungmin stands there gaping, completely dazed at your short confession until your face is completely red from the heat that you immediately speak again. “Seungmin, say something.”

“Why?”

“Because I didn’t know if you liked me or not.”

“Wasn’t it obvious?”

You knit your eyebrows in confusion. “No? If you were, I would’ve actually stayed longer.”

“R-Really?” Now, Seungmin just feels dumb for not being more clear with his feelings.

You nod with a hum, continuing, “I kept dropping hints as best as I can but you just keep mentioning me leaving whenever you can.”

In front of you, you can clearly see Seungmin’s frustration with himself. “I’m sorry, I should’ve still been considerate of how you felt about me mentioning your leave then and I definitely should’ve asked you to stay even when your training did end.” He frowns, more to himself than to you. “B-because I...I really like you too but I also thought that you’d want to go and explore the moment you’re allowed to leave—I didn’t want to keep you waiting if you like me too.”

You shake your head no, a small smile now forming on your lips. “It’s not like the world outside’s going to change.” You take a brave step closer to Seungmin now, cupping his cheeks in your warm hands. “So, what’s—how many months do you have left? Four?—what’s 4 months more of waiting?” 

[star-and-the-motherverse]

Chapter 6 - Off She Goes

The Butterfly Who Lost Her Wings

Word Count: 3476 | AO3 Mirror | Previous | Next

Summary: Marco tries not to think about summer. A familiar face realizes he’s out of the loop.

✧·ﾟ: *✧·ﾟ:* ☾ *:·ﾟ✧*:·ﾟ✧

It didn’t really feel as if summer had ever arrived, to Marco, but it wasn’t like that was a trait unique to this particular one. When he was little, summer was the most exciting time of the year, but as he’d grown up, summer started to feel like it was getting shorter each time it came around. It had sort of lost its magic, in a strange way.

Not to say it was unwelcome—far from that, really. Summer break still probably was one of the better parts of the year. He got to spend a lot more time with his friends when they weren’t in school, and it was nice to take a couple months of break, not having to worry so much about the future.

But as days went by, he was starting to realize that he was… bored. By almost all of it. And it was strange, so strange. Really, this summer was equally as mundane as those that preceded it, and yet, here he was, feeling overwhelmingly alone.

You know exactly why that is.

Marco tried his best not to think about it—about her—as he went about his day-to-day life. But over half a year had passed since his everyday life had been upheaved. He’d practically forgotten what the bathroom countertop actually looked like when it was completely clear, or how small the guest room really was before it belonged to Star. They were little details that he was sure never would have stood out to him, not in the past. His painfully normal life had never stuck out to him like this until now, after everything that’s happened.

He missed the unpredictable nature of having Star as a housemate. The excitement, the danger, and everything else. He missed it so much.

Everything is still about Star.

He rolled over in bed, groaning, not able to find the motivation to get up just yet.

Some of his old friends hadn’t spoken to him in what felt like ages. Did he miss them too? He couldn’t tell. He thought that he did, but couldn’t even begin to think of how he might reach out. Jackie and—to a lesser extent—Janna were really the only friends from school that he regularly talked with anymore. He wasn’t exactly doing a good job of keeping in touch with anyone else.

Before he could think on it any longer, his phone vibrated. It took a surprising amount of effort for him to sit up and grab it off of bedside table. Reading over his lock screen, he saw that Jackie had texted him twice, the first message being from about an hour ago, and the other happening just now.

Jackie: Hey! How are u doing?

Jackie: Just realized you might still be asleep, sorry! xoxo

12:30 in the afternoon wasn’t a completely unreasonable time for a teenager to sleep in to, but Marco rarely ever stayed in bed for that long. He’d been up since noon at least—on a normal day, he’d be annoyed after wasting time, laying there and feeling sorry for himself.

Marco: Nah, I wasn’t. Sorry, missed your first text

Marco: It’s been a long morning 😅

Jackie: No worries :) Just checking in on u!

Jackie: Have u had lunch? Theres a food truck fair in town at the park, I think it would be fun to go!

Jackie: I bet theres a nacho truck somewhere, probably not as good as urs tho :)

He wasn’t really hungry at all, but he could certainly use the distraction. And he loved spending time with Jackie, more than anything. She always knew exactly what to say to make him feel better.

Marco: That sounds great. Did you want to meet there?

Jackie: Sure! Is 1:00 too soon?

Jackie: Also, hope u don’t mind but I invited Janna to come too!

Janna was one of the few people he’d managed to keep up regular conversation with, mostly over text. She didn’t give off the impression of a very social person, but then again, their unusual friendship probably didn’t make a lot of sense to outsiders, either.

Her reaction to the news of Star’s disappearance had been about in line with he was expecting, which wasn’t really saying much. Janna was an absolute wildcard, and he had a hard time figuring out what was going through her head even when things were normal. So her complete non-reaction, which might have caught other people off-guard, was just another Janna thing, in his mind.

She never liked talking about her emotions, and this would be no different. All he could really do was let her know that he was available to talk if she never needed to.

Marco: 1:00 is fine. And that’s cool with me

Marco: She’d probably find a way to invite herself if you didn’t.

Jackie: Lol ur probably right :P

Jackie: I’ll see you then💖

He let out a sigh and set the phone down on his bed, finally convincing himself to stand up. It wouldn’t take him that long to get ready to go out, mercifully. Such was the benefit of wearing a hoodie every day—even if the summer weather wasn’t exactly kind to him for it. He’d have plenty of time to get to the park and meet up with his friends, provided nothing weird happened.

Of course, as luck would have it, a lone laser puppy came wandering into the room, his tail wagging in excitement.

“Oh, hey… Sajak?” Star was the only one who could ever tell them apart, but he liked to believe he was getting better at it. “Yeah… Sajak.”

The puppy gave short little barks as he hopped around the room, coming to a stop in front of Marco and rearing up on his hind legs to demand his attention.

“‘Scuse me, buddy,” he said, carefully stepping over Sajak so that he could better reach his closet. “Sorry, but I’ve got things I gotta do today. No more lounging around.”

Sajak kept running circles around him and the room, occasionally pausing to stare at him expectantly. Marco tried to head out to the hall and towards the bathroom, but nearly tripped over the puppy as he rushed out in front of him before flopping down in front of the closed bathroom door.

“What in the world has gotten into you?” Marco asked, laughing, mostly to himself. He scooped up the dog with the intention of moving him. “You don’t feel like shooting me with a laser today? No?”

It was sort of a joke. He couldn’t quite remember last when the puppies had used their laser eyes. He wondered if it was related to whatever was going on with magic. It was a bit nicer to pretend that Sajak was just being particularly nice today, though.

Before he got the chance to move, a horde of laser puppies charged up the stairs, yapping excitedly. Barko Diaz brought up the rear, dragging in a multi-leash with him and nearly tripping over its cable several times as the lugged it up to the second floor.

“Seriously?” It was pretty cute at first, but now this was getting kind of ridiculous. “Guys, come on! I’m trying to do things!”

But he knew better than to tempt fate. These puppies were absolutely ruthless when it came to getting what they wanted. Truly, how could anyone say no to those adorable little faces?

He let out another low sigh. “Okay, okay, fine!” He’d had stranger mornings. If anything, he was getting exactly what he’d asked for with a distraction. His bad mood from the early morning was a distant memory by this point, which was a rather impressive turnaround.

He made his way slowly through what felt like a minefield of dogs, back to the side of his bed and picked up his phone once more.

Marco: I’m gonna be a little late, I have to take the dogs out on a walk first. They won’t leave me alone, haha

Jackie: Aww, so cute! That’s cause they love u so much ^^

Marco: Just doing my civic duty o7

Marco: See you in a bit ❤️

Jackie: 💖💖

“Settle down, Barko!” He cried out, once he’d turned his attention back to the excitable puppies. “I can’t put a leash on you if you won’t sit still!!”

✧·ﾟ: *✧·ﾟ:* ♥︎ *:·ﾟ✧*:·ﾟ✧

“What the heck?”

The phrase wasn’t really intended to be a question. It was more like... some sort of out-loud expression of Star’s ever-growing confusion. She’d only been free falling for a few seconds or so, but as she blinked, she somehow found herself standing in front of Echo Creek Academy. She had no idea how or why. She didn’t even remember landing on the ground, which she was sure would have injured her under normal conditions.

“School? Again?!”

What even were the odds that she’d end up on the school’s doorsteps? Unless, for some reason, it was doing that thing where it was in every place she looked—

Oh no… it absolutely was. There was another school right in front of her. When she turned away, there was another school there, too. She turned again and again. Another one, each time.

“You’ve gotta be kidding..! Why?! Why here?!”

She was most definitely somewhere inside of the wand. She shouldn’t have been that surprised—it was one of the most likely options that she’d narrowed down, for cob’s sake—but there was still something deeply unsettling about how she’d found her way back to this place. Not long from now and she’d probably start bumping into past versions of herself, following in her current footsteps like some sort of video game. Only this time, she had no idea of how she was supposed to get out. Hopefully Glossaryck would know to come rescue her if things got bad.

At least those weird disembodied voices hadn’t managed to follow her here. Somewhere along the way she must have lost them.

“I’m not going in the stupid school,” she grumbled, having nothing but negative memories associated with its strange, magical realm counterpart. It’s supposed to be summer! I do what I want!

Instead, she took to the sidewalk, putting her hands in her dress pockets and wandering along, looking around for a glimpse of something, anything else.

There certainly wasn’t any shortage of weird things to look at in the wand. Everywhere she looked were pieces of Echo Creek and Mewni, awkwardly stitched together in ways that didn’t make much sense at all. Street lamps and sidewalks wove between wells and Mewnian carnival tents. Spanish-style houses were dotted between the fields of corn that stretched out into the horizon, from what she could see past the school. Cacti and coniferous trees were growing side by side, as if they were always supposed to be that way. But even with everything going on, the looming silhouette of Butterfly Castle towered over all other set pieces, only dwarfed in size by the mountainous terrain that made up the background of this strange place.

“Ack!” she cried out suddenly, stumbling a bit as the ground beneath her transitioned from sidewalk to an empty parking lot—save for a single chariot parked on the other side. Just ahead of her, a little puddle rested on the uneven pavement, made up of that same green sludge that Toffee had left her to drown in.

She was so overcome with anger and frustration at the sight of it that she kicked it out of impulse. Just before her boot made contact with the puddle, though, she swore she saw a glimmer of light hiding within it—but not nearly soon enough to stop. When her foot landed back on the ground, and the puddle stilled, nothing was there.

A bit shaken, her gaze wandered upwards. The star-shaped insignia in the dark purple sky looked the same as it had before, split in half and all. But as she watched it, she couldn’t help but think it looked a bit dimmer. It’s fine. You’re gonna be fine, she wanted to say, but she never spoke it aloud, not entirely sold on the idea herself.

Was it fine? Is that really why she wasn’t running into any timeline duplicates of herself? She was still alone, sure, and maybe that was a good thing. There wasn’t any immediate danger, or anything like that. So why am I worried?

She wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to quell her doubts.

Surely nothing had changed, right?

✧·ﾟ: *✧·ﾟ:* ☀ *:·ﾟ✧*:·ﾟ✧

Tom rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his hand as he made his way out of his room and towards the dining hall, headed out in search of coffee. He never was much of a morning person, and that fact probably wouldn’t come as a surprise to many people. He was never thrilled about having to wake up early for meetings, or summons, or whatever else, but that was something that sort of came with the territory of being a prince.

He’d been trying to avoid Star ever since he’d failed his anger management final exam, following the suggestion from his life coach. It didn’t make sense to him at first—how was he supposed to know when she wanted to talk to him again?—but he’d ultimately come around to Brian’s advice, even if it was with reluctance. It was clear that she still wanted space. He needed to respect that.

It sure was frustrating, though. Patience wasn’t exactly his strong suit.

He was drawn out of his irritated thoughts when a messenger demon nearly crashed into him as he appeared around the corner. “Watch it!” Tom snapped, but the messenger didn’t acknowledge him as he continued in a hurry down the corridor. He couldn’t help but be a bit curious why this particular message was so important that it demanded such prompt attention.

Weirdly, the demon suddenly skidded to a halt, whirling around to come back down the hallway and stop in front of Tom, bowing. “Master Tom! Would you perhaps know where King Dave would be at this hour?”

“Uh… probably in his office?”

“Thank you, Master Tom!” Just as quickly as he’d returned, he was off again, headed back down the hall.

That was weird, Tom noted. He watched the messenger instinctively head towards the throne room, only to remember where he was supposed to be headed and travel down the adjacent hall instead. It wasn’t often that they received news worthy of any interest, so before Tom could convince himself otherwise, he was chasing after the messenger—too intrigued to stop himself from prying. It’s not like I have anything better to do, he remarked inwardly, somewhat dejected.

Light on his feet, he followed the smaller demon at a short distance so that he wouldn’t be noticed. They both quickly arrived at the king’s office, and the messenger disappeared through the towering doorway. Tom was able to catch the conversation before it had really started, listening through the door.

“—uncement from the Butterfly Kingdom, my lord! The Silver Bell Ball has been indefinitely postponed!”

What? If he was being completely honest, he’d sort of forgotten that it was almost time for the Silver Bell Ball again. He had some fond memories of the event from over the years, but he wasn’t really the dancing type. It was more boring than anything else, and it was quite funny how Star agreed with him wholeheartedly. But she always made the point of how it was nice to see everyone again, and he supposed that was one of its better aspects. It would feel weird to not go to it every year.

His father’s thought process mirrored his own. “What?” Dave exclaimed. “But the ball is a yearly tradition! Why would they do such a thing?”

Tom overheard the messenger clear his throat as he unraveled a scroll. “In the words of the Queen and King themselves: ‘it is with great reluctance that we inform you of our decision to cancel the Silver Bell Ball this year. We believe that this is the right thing to do, as the ongoing magical fritz is a pressing issue that requires our full attention. This is a difficult time for our kingdom, and we sincerely thank you for your patience and understanding.’”

“A magical fritz? What in the Underworld does that even mean?”

“The announcement does not clarify it, my lord.”

Tom heard the groan of table legs against the floor as Dave adjusted his chair. “I know that the Butterfly Kingdom is quite dependent on magic, but enough to cause this level of instability? This is preposterous!”

Admittedly, he didn’t have that much of an understanding of how magic worked, either. Most of the cities across Mewni had close ties to magic, but none of them were quite as clear cut as the Butterfly Kingdom. They had been an incredibly powerful force for centuries. If something weird was happening with magic, Star likely would have been one of the first to notice, since she was in possession of the magic wand.

“There could be something more serious at play here…” The messenger demon’s words trailed off.

“In what sense?” Dave asked.

“Well…” He lowered his voice, and it immediately became more difficult for Tom to pick up on their conversation, much to his frustration. He had to listen incredibly closely in order to make out what was being said, leaned up against the door. “There’s a rumor going around that something happened to the princess.”

Tom swore he could feel his blood run cold.

“What do you mean?” the king asked. “Is she sick?”

“Something like that. People can’t seem to agree on what’s happened to her.”

Dave paused for several moments, likely thinking over the implications of the messenger’s words. “You think that the Butterflies are lying?”

“Not necessarily. Perhaps it is an indirect lie, or a lie by omission. Whatever is going on, it appears the royal family are trying to hide it while they're so vulnerable.”

It had to be impossible. Star must’ve been fine. She was on Earth! Who did this messenger think he was, to present such a baseless claim as an actual reality? No, he’d prove him wrong. He could call her, right?

Of course! Why didn’t I think of that sooner?

Before he could even stop to remind himself that, no, Star still needed space, he shouldn’t bother her, she’ll come back to him when she’s ready to talk again—he was clicking through his contact list and tapping on her displayed nickname. Starship. He’d never brought himself to change it from that.

“Calling Star,” read the text-to-speech voice, before it was cut off by a screen tear and replaced with loud, crackling static and white noise. Startled, he snapped his compact shut immediately to silence it.

“What was that?”

“Huh? I didn’t hear anything…”

“Oh… hmm. Sorry. Perhaps it was nothing.”

He wasn’t listening to them anymore—no, he was panicking. Fear was getting to him, badly. He hated this, he hated feeling scared. This didn’t make any sense! Even if something had happened to her, the call should have gone through. It still should have let him leave a voicemail, or something! Not static and nothing else!

This was strange, this was wrong. Something was wrong, and he had no idea what it was.

“—h well,” he overheard Dave start to speak again. “I suppose it’s not—“

Unable to stand there any longer, Tom threw open the door and came storming in, glaring accusingly between them both. “That’s not good enough!”

“Thomas!” Dave scolded, standing up from his chair. “What have I told you about eavesdropping on my conversations?”

Ignoring him, Tom stared directly at the messenger, his eyes fiery with anger. “What did you say happened to Star?!”

The demon flinched, scrambling for words as he stepped backwards. “I-I’m sorry, Master Tom! I truly wish that I had more information, but I don’t. So long as the Butterfly kingdom keeps its borders closed, I’m not sure we’ll ever get an answer…”

“Then do your job!” He snarled, clenching his fists. “Go out there and find the answer, and don’t come back until you do!”

“Thomas, that’s enough!” Dave stepped between them both. “We don’t know what’s going on, and that’s how it’s going to be for right now. It’s ultimately not our business, to know what’s happening in the personal lives of other royals.”

“It is mine!” Tom hissed. “I care about her! I need to know that she’s okay!”

But no matter how much shouting he did during that confrontation—and it certainly was a lot—he never got an answer he was happy with. No amount of sulking around the castle was going to change that. He wasn’t going to find an answer here on Mewni, not anytime soon.

[hey-hamlet]

BNHA AU Ideas : Quirkless Erasure

Also on AO3!

TL;DR: 

In some worlds, Midoriya Izuku is the first quirkless hero. But not in this one, not by far.

Because his homeroom teacher is the hero he's always looked up to: UA's first quirkless Pro Hero.

----

Izuku isn't the only quirkless one, and Aizawa gets into the hero course via emotional devastation against his opponents.

anyway so: quirkless aizawa bc i need that

everyone thinks he has a quirk like emotional manipulation of something but no he's just fucking savage, he gets into the hero course bc he blasted the absolute shit out of mic

everything’s on youtube it’s one of the most viewed videos of all time

this aizawa's eyes are permanently gold bc i headcanon it's his quirk that makes his eyes black, not the colour they flash

"you yell because you have a constant fear no one is really listening to you. you play the class clown and don't try too hard so when you look back you think "i failed because i didn't try" not "i failed because i wasn't good enough""

"bro,,, bro what the fuck did i do to you"

aizawa isn’t even salty he’s quirkless tbh

"you're pushing this on me because it hurts, right? your loud, flashy but damaging quirk means the only thing people think you're useful for is heroics. did you want to do this, or is this the only way society will let you feel comfortable in the role it presses in on you"

"well being quirkless is rough but at least i cn be whatever i want to be"

mics just shell shocked mics not even using his quirk and everyone’s just uwu he’s erasing mics quirk

all aizawa does is walk is close and mutter "society thinks im worthless, which is rough. but you have to put your life on the line or you're nothing better than a villain to the people"

and just, lightly pushes him out of bounds

pls mics just in Love this guy tore him to fucking pieces but Damn

aizawa  helps him up off the floor

"so im probably not wrong but im a little sorry for saying it on live tv"

mic "youre amazing"

aizawa just goes bright red and starts sputtering

aizawa: the emotional devastation hero weakness: genuine compliments

consider 1A teacher aizawa just still made of emotional devastation, nezu made him promise not to use his powers of destruction on his children unless he was expelling them 

this is a quirkless izuku au too, mirio got ofa, allmight encouraged izuku to be a hero after the fight but had no quirk to give him and he manages to make his own way into the hero course

so izuku is a little analyst, gets mostly hero points but uses sharp rebar and poles to smash in the sensors of some robots, getting him a few non-rescue points either. Aizawa is watching like "oh interesting a non-combat quirk" and beside him allmight is vibrating with excitement

"he might actually do it!"

"who might do what"

allmight turns sheepishly to aizawa

"young midoriya on camera 6, he might just be the first quirkless student to pass the enterance exam to heroics straight up"

and aizawa can hardly watch anyone else for the rest of the exam, he adopts this kid on the fucking Spot

hes on the edge of his fucking seat, when nezu sends out the zero pointer. "this kid only needs 10 more points, just ten more" and izuku turns around to look at the 0 pointer and aizawa is like "fuck kid i hope you know what youre doing"

he manages to shove a piece of rebar into the treads, stoping it in its place. it tries to swat him like a bug but he just dives out of the way, picks up ochako and sprints and aizawa is like "holy shit holy shit these bastards better give this kid hero points for that"

like they are assigning final hero points and aizawa has to awkwardly put his hand up "i,,, should probably be excluded from giving midoriya hero points because i went from 0 to bias very very quickly"

allmight just nods sagely

"young midoriya be like that sometimes"

pls aizawa tries to act extra tough bc he can’t let anyone know he’s Adopted this child

for all izuku's brain hes useless w social stuff and thinks aizawa hates him but everyone else k n o w s

also izuku is the only person in 1A who knows ab aizawa's "quirk" and hes like, constantly vibrating w glee around the guy

aizawa walks in the first day, hears bakugo asking how this "quirkless bastard" got in, grabs bakugo w his scarf and yeets him into vlad’s room

"ok students, looks like we are a class of 19. any other comments before we start?"

and like everyone is so lost no one questions it

bakugo is screaming bloody murder until vlad "kindly" tells him ua has a strict no discrimination policy and aizawa would have been well within his rights to expel him

please nezu is like "uwu take one of 1B to make the classes even" and vlad is like "no ive already bonded tough cookies" vlad just adopts bakugo instantly

monoma and bakugou become bros, the baku-squad is 50% a thing, but its mostly 1B students but with pinning kiri. kendo and bakugo both keep monoma in line, monoma and kendo keep bakugo in line

during the sports festival shinsou is like "you must have a blessed quirk to get into the hero course"

and izuku just has this "really. this si what we're doing now" look on his face. hes just gesturing to shinso in exasperation, trying to make eye contact w aizawa hidden up in the commentary box

all you can hear from the box is aizawa quiet snickering as mic tries not to give the game away. he yeets shinso out of bonds and just hauls him back to his feet

"im quirkless you nonce"

"oh,,,"

"yeah, oh. what, gonna be embarrassed a quirkless kid kicked your ass?"

"nah i just feel bad for being a dick"

"ok you are the only valid person ive ever met, come meet my not-dad"

"wait what"

izuku fireman carries shinso into the announcers booth and just presents him to aizawa

you can just vaguely hear "no not kid" "but he'll be perfect" "kid this is live ask me after the festival" "but! hed be perfect! and you could train him to carry on your legacy of soul-crushing burns" "... hmmm"

"do i get a say in this?" "no" "nope"

mic just loudly saying "SO BEFORE WE WITNESS A CHILD CRY LIVE ON AIR AGAIN, AS ALWAYS HAPPENS IN THIS FESTIVAL, LETS START THE NEXT ROUND!"

there’s a counter “days since someone last cried: 0”

please its like "times cried durring all sports festivals" "average cry events" "number of times cried this festival"

aizawa being even more of a dad than canon, like hes a mess he sees on sad kid and he's like "wow that's my kid now"

he makes them soup when they get sick and leaves it outside their doors, refuses to admit its him doing it

soup cryptid

please mic is like 100% in love with him and had been for years but aizawa still has internal bias against the quirkless and thinks he's not good enough for mic so he cant make himself see the flirting for what it really is

“haha he’s just being friendlyL

“aizawa i literally want to marry u”

“awww ur so nice u mean as friends tho right?”

in this au ive decided that quirkless heroes are a thing, but pretty rare, in japan they are all underground bc villains go after them a l o t. there are some public ones in america but they tend to,,, die,,, pretty quickly

and bc there are some quirkless heroes everyone acts like discrimination isn't a thing anymore and quirkless people should shut up while quirkless people are still getting killed and committing suicide at like 500% the rate of people with quirks

also the suicide rate is,,,,, significantly higher in japan but no one ever talks abt it bc japan the “ideal place for people with quirks” so that surely means nothing could ever go wrong

izuku does the "its your power" speech in like 3 parts, before, during and after the sports festival bc he needs he bones w no quirk

stain asks izuku what his quirk is and izuku does the "wouldn't you like to know, weather boy"

",,, where are your parents"

"one abandoned me straight up and the other is giving it a red hot go right now, try me coward"

izuku but everytime he roasts a villain he does it in vine quotes

tl;dr in the au inko is like,, not ok w izuku being a hero and she's trying to do the "leave the school or you can't live here any more" ultimatum and it's not working for her

bc izuku said "ok bye then" and now lives out of his backpack. no one knows. he just like,, sleeps on the train

and iida is like "owo could i come over to your house" and izuku is like

"aaaaa its on fire. yep. made of arsenic and always in flames, why dont we go to the park"

everyone in 1a is like betting on what his house is like. they harass katsuki in 1b but he refuses to talk

hes like "hell no i got thrown into another class for talking ab that nerd eat my left tit"

they only fucking work it out when aizawa and allmight go to izukus house to talk ab dorms and there is literally no one there

aizawa asks izuku ab it like "kid you need to update your forms with your current address" and hes like "oh worm, she moved? wack."

“u,,,,didn’t know,,,,”

“nah lmao i sleep on the bench in a park near here��

“my boy,,,,,l

"what, ochako lives alone!"

"yeah, in a fucking house, kid"

aizawas just: this is literal child abuse i’m ur guardian now

allmight "hes my kid too dont be greedy"

"fuck off all might you already have mirio" "and you already have shinsou!" nighteye, from around the corner "ill take him!" aizawa and allmight "NO"                                  

mic adopts him nezu just sitting in the distance "well, its my school. i get the kid" one whole school full of adult heroes "NO ITS MY SON,,," izukus like crying "wait,,, you guys aren't sick of me? wild" while sobbing

afo out of nowhere: i’ll take the child :))) everyone collectively: N O

for self-indulgence, izuku is the youngest in the class for this au so they all call him their little brother

consider: quirkless aizawa is very similar to normal aizawa but he does practise self-care, he just tries to make it look like he doesnt because hes like that

if i dont take care of myself ill never be able to stand up to the heroes w quirks but also do i deserve normal good human things

tl:dr: he can cook well and is trying to teach izuku that 2-minute noodles and apples arent hero fuel

inko is like: "uwu i wont change what i cook for you so you'll just have to make do owo" in like, a pathetic attempt to get him to stop training so izuku runs off protein bars, electrolyte drinks and raw vegetables

just like, his bento at school. its only raw mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes and 2 full carrots

the only time he gets like a kinda valid balanced meal for a hero in training is when he pops by bakugous place and mitsuki forces him to stay for lunch

izuku is like "oh hi bakugo i have ur book-" "HI ITS LUNCH GET IN PIPSQUEAK"

hes just thrown into a chair, bakugo isnt even confused. izuku is like ",,,, so vlad gave me your book bc your house is near mums." "fair enough. hope you like miso salmon"

izuku just looks stary eyed

"f i s h ??? warm food bakugo id kill for you"

"deku wtf"

"i had nothing but 3 scoops of protein powder and 2 tomatoes today"

“dEKU WHAT THE FUCK”

"i had to eat the protein podwer with plain water kacchan. protein sludge followed by two raw tomatoes. i would commit real actual murder for you"

mitsuki always packs an extra bento after that

so like when it’s dorm time izuku gets rly stressed out bc he doesn’t know how to cook for himself??? bakugous in the 1b dorms and even if he wasn’t he definitely wouldn’t cook for him

1a goes on a fucking shopping trip, chaperoned, obviously

and they’re lining up and aizawa sees that izukus cart is only filled with like??? instant noodles and like two (2) fruits and he’s losing his mind bc yes okay he’s a child but he’s also a young hero and he’s going to get a heart attack by 20 if he doesn’t fix his diet

aizawa is like "izuku, you cant eat that" and izuku just goes "oh ok" puts the noodles back and comes back with a tub of protein powder and like 11 vegetables and a bag of kale

okay this is an improvement kinda, how do u cook it

,,,,,c

cook?

izuku just has a totally blank face

"i was just gonna like,,, eat it"

"raw."

"uh, yeah, is that not how u eat vegetables?”

"thats a potato. and some leeks. thats a fucking onion"

"it wont kill me though"

"thats,,, that not how you pick food kid."

“but vegetable??? good????”

"kid do you even fucking like any of this"

"wait, im supposed to like?? my food???"

yagi in the fucking health food isle hearing this is 50% laughing but 50% crying

aizawa: “izuku ur supposed to eat a well balanced and tasty meal”

izuku: *surprized pikachu face*

please even todoroki is like ",,, at least fuyumi could c o o k"

oh god imagine having a worse diet than shouto todoroki from 1a who eats nothing but cold soba and drinks juice

also please aizawa is like "kid i thought you just happened to be thin but now im seeing thats not the case"

bakugo in the distance "like inko ever fed him enough anyway lmao"

aizawa "WAIT WHAT"

whys bakugou shopping with 1a? its actually all 40 of the first years just descending on this poor little store. it’s this little mom and pop grocery store and a billion hungry hero hopefuls just burst through the door like 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒏 𝒏𝒖𝒈𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒔

izuku is like "oh its too expensive" and aizawa is just holding a bag of rice, aizawa is like "its cheaper than the protein powder you have"

and izuku is like "yeah i mean its empty calories and im not paying that much for empty calories"

",,,"

"thats what you taught us sensei!"

"EMPTY CALORIES ARE ONLY A PROBLEM IF UR EATING TOO MUCH"

"and?"

"YOU HAVE 3 POTAOES FOR THE NEXT 2 WEEKS"

"i can put some back if you want?"

"THATS EXACTLY WHAT I DONT WANT"

[imclumsy]

Livestream

(peter parker x actress!reader)

Summary: the reader is an actress starring in stranger things. she starts a livestream as she chills with her best friend, peter. they get flustered when her fans point out their flirting. the fans go crazy once something happens.

Warning: idk, language maybe? if that counts??

A/N: i found this in my drafts on wattpad lmao. thought it was cute and decided to continue writing it for my first tumblr imagine post. oh and ‘Y/c/n’ means ‘your character’s name’.

“Hey, guys.” You smiled at your phone screen, holding up a peace sign as you started a live stream on Instagram. Comments started to flood in.

avengersfan01 - OMG UR LIVESTREAMING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AGES

y/niswifey - WHERE HAVE U BEEN,, LAST TIME U POSTED WAS A MONTH AGO

msmarvel19832 - notice me senpaiiiii 😭

strangertingzz4life - hiiiiii ❤️❤️💖

"So, I'm kinda bored, my parents aren't home and I thought 'Why not do a Q&A?' since I haven't been so active on Instagram lately because I’ve been busy filming." You shuffled, trying to find a comfortable position to sit in.

"Stop moving, Y/n. I’ve almost got a 10 streak kill." Peter nudged you, keeping his attention on his video game as he ran someone over with a car.

Who knew Spider-Man would enjoy running over pedestrians.

"I'm trying to get comfortable, dickhead, let me be." You smiled, moving the camera so it was away from you and Peter. You finally decided to lay your head on his stomach as he let you lay between his legs.

"Ok, sorry about that, technical- well, physical difficulties." You laughed at the camera, making Peter chuckle, "Anyways, questions anyone? I'll answer as many as I can."

You waited for the comments to load and read out the first one you saw, "From captainamericaswhore, love the username by the way, 'Who's legs are those?'" You giggled as soon as you finished reading.

Everyone in the comments started to freak out.

y/n.y/ln.is.my.queen - YO I BET IT'S PETER SKSJAK

dontreadmyusername - who tf is peter-

peterxy/n.otp - ALJSSJAK IT'S MY SHIP OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M WITNESSING THIS

madmax751300 - [dontreadmyusername] get outta here u uncultured swine

elevenseggos - those r some thicc legs wInK wOnK

suziep00 - [elevenseggos] and i fucking oop-

“Are you livestreaming?” Peter asked, pausing his game and taking his headset off, reaching away to place it on the table.

“Yep,” You replied, popping the ‘p’. Your fans already knew who Peter was since he made a regular appearance in all your social media, especially your stories. “It’s Peter’s legs by the way. Say ‘hi’ to everyone, Pete.” You turned your camera to him.

“Hey.” He waved, sending the fans a charming smile.

“Alright, next question-“ You said, sitting up before hitting your head on Peter’s nose.

“Fuck.” He held the bridge of his nose. You laughed, letting your head fall forward as you clutched your stomach. “That fucking hurt, you idiot!” He shoved your shoulder, laughing to lighten up the mood instead of making it serious.

You turned around, looking at the tears welling up in his eyes, “Aww, alright. I’m sorry.” You reached behind him to grab a tissue from the tissue box on the small table and wiped his tears, “You good?”

"Yeah, kinda hurts, but I'm fine." He laughed, giving you a smile to reassure you that he's okay.

“You’re such a baby.” You playfully rolled your eyes before quickly kissing his nose. “You know, my lips kinda hurt too.” He smirked.

“Nice one, Parker.”

“I try my best.”

“Well, it might just be working.” You flirted back, making Peter blush profusely.

You completely forgot that you were still livestreaming as you felt your phone violently vibrate in your hand. Everyone was going crazy; crazier than normal.

noahpotatoes - WTF WTF WTF WTAF I’M SCREAMING

lucasisunderrated - Y'ALL SHE SAID 'WELL IT MIGHT JUST BE WORKING' OMFG ALL THAT FLIRTING IS GONNA PAY OFF I’M GONEEE

finnwolfhardofficial - real smooth peter,, real smooth

dustybun4life - i wonder what’s gonna happen after this livestream ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

steve_the_mom - [dustybun4life] SOME OF Y'ALL ARE NASTY OML-

Your face heated up after reading some of the comments. “What can I say, Finn? Practice makes perfect." He managed to say one last bold comment before his face turned completely red after reading all the comments shipping you two.

ironlad01762 - PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT-

elizabethz04 - SO I WASN’T HALLUCINATING LAST LIVESTREAM WHEN Y’ALL WERE FLIRTING OML I’M GONNA PASS OUT

sadiesink_ - you guys better get together by the end of this live otherwise we’re no longer gonna have movie nights in my trailer

therealcalebmclaughlin - your flirting is so cute it makes me want to puke

gatenm123 - just saying.. i better be in the front seat for your wedding

elevenseggos - I'M LOVING THIS INTERACTION AND ALL BUT PLS CONTINUE THE Q&A, I WANT THE TEA SPILT ALL OVER THE TABLE CLOTH

You felt really flustered now, feeling Peter’s body heat radiate as he wore his headsets to continue his game in order to avoid showing his flushed face. You cleared your throat, “Alright, guys, come on. Elevenseggos is right, let’s continue the Q&A.”

elevenseggos - OH MY GOD I'VE BEEN NOTICED, WHAT A BLESSED DAY

gayforrobin - [elevenseggos] CONGRATS

milliebobbybrown - [elevenseggos] "I WANT THE TEA SPILT ALL OVER THE TABLE CLOTH" I'M USING THAT FROM NOW ON

flayedforbilly - [milliebobbybrown] MILLIE OMG @elevenseggos IS HAPPY-CRYING ALL OVER ME RN, WHAT DID U DO

You waited until some questions pop up and read the first one I see, "From stony4life, 'What's it like playing a fan-favourite character in Stranger Things?'" I bite my lip as I think of an answer, "I mean - obviously - it's really cool. I actually originally auditioned for a smaller role since this was my first big thing but ended up getting the role of Y/c/n. It’s really fun to be able to play this character; she’s strange but in a mysterious yet cool way, she clicks with everyone in the group and she just straight up vibes.”

You waited for another comment, “Ooh, from peterxy/n- oh, hah, okay.” You blushed because of the username, “Have you met your celebrity crush? See, I actually ran into him 3 years ago but that crush has worn off now.” You shrugged, “But! But this guy,” You turned the camera around to face a deeply concentrated Peter, “does have a celebrity crush and he won’t tell me who it is.”

He immediately paused the game again and took off his headsets, “Because it’s embarrassing.”

“I’m sure it’s not, don’t be so dramatic.”

“Trust me, it is.”

“You know I can probably get my agent to get you to meet them.” You pointed out.

“Yeah, but what if I already met them?”

milevenisrealmfs - OH MY GOD GUYS BRACE YOURSELVES IT’S GONNA HAPPEN

eggosaresuperior - SHIT SHIT WAIT LEMME GET MY SCREENRECORDER ON

milevenisrealmfs - omg y/n better get what he’s saying otherwise i’m gonna cry

“Oh my God, when? Why didn’t you tell me?” You asked. He looked at you like you were joking, “Seriously?”

“What?” You furrowed your brows in confusion.

“You’re actually so dumb.” He said before softly grabbing your jaw and kissing you. You almost dropped your phone from the sudden action but he pulled away just before you could.

You were left with a dumbfounded gaze, you glanced at your phone and saw all the comments flooding in again, “Alright, gotta go guys, bye.” You quickly ended the live.

You sighed then looked at Peter, “You like me?” You asked.

“Well, yeah. I thought it was pretty obvious.” He shrugged, nervously avoiding your eye contact.

You studied his features before gently placing your lips against his. He kissed back, leaning into your touch as you held his cheek. You pulled away, both of you smiling, “Then it’s a good thing I like you too.”

-

-

-

[cozymochi]

How did Yamcha and Marzi reunite?

Short answer: Yamcha runs into her in a remote jungle thanks to rampaging dinosaurs.

Long answer: 

Okay okay, honestly I never told this story before because I couldn’t think of anything that worked properly ever, and yknow after a good 2ish years of having avoided really getting into that, I suppose now is as good a time as any to tie up this gaping loose end. And I’ll start by copying and pasting an icloud note I found that was written back in 2018 that detailed at least half of it, because at this point- I may as well go with this absurd thing instead of having nothing. Past me went into an outline about some kind of story setup but didn’t get to finish the “payoff” per se, because I suppose I thought I would come back to it and add more details later. BUT GUESS WHO DIDN’T BECAUSE I FORGOT??? SO, bear with me under this read more cut. 

(2018 OUTLINE NOTE)

Once upon a time fortuneteller baba held a day where she was telling peoples fortunes (amongst other shit) for free because she lost some kind of vague bet with Master Roshi. Thousands of people show up, and Yamcha is one of those people (along with pu’ar and yantan whom he dragged along). This occurs nearly 8 years after Yantan was spawned into existence.

Yamcha wants to ask Baba about love shit. Cuz oh boy. That love life still ain’t working out. But hell if he knows where to look maybe he’d have better luck. 

Yantan hates her life cuz waiting in line for like 10 hours is actual hell. But so long as she’s fucking there she might as well ask Baba something. Pu’ar is just along for the ride to make concerned quips. (He has nothing to ask he’s just there for moral support) 

MANY HOURS PASS THEY FINALLY REACH BABA and Baba is rightfully pissed. She could’ve been making a lot of money that day, like, the fuck man. Yamcha asks Baba if he’s destined to meet the girl he’d ultimately end up with. 

Baba just says “looks like you already met her.” And Yamcha is just like WAT And Baba is just like “Yeah. You already did. Don’t think u noticed tho. That’s ur own fault.” 

So at this point yamcha is pretty fuckin shook and asKS WHERE SHE’S AT NOW AND WHERE HE CAN MEET HER. And Baba jus denies answering that question and if he wants to ask more shit he better pay up a hundred million zeni. “NEXT.” 

Out of desperation, Yamcha now begs his cynical child to ask Baba about his own bs. Yantan doesn’t want to. They make some kind of deal that i do not know the details of as of yet that ultimately makes Yantan agree to waste her free question about her future on her wacky father. 

So SHE asks where tf Yamcha can meet this lady and Baba reveals her location. THEN THEY IMMEDIATELY FUCKIN LEAVE TO DO JUST THAT. And by “they” i mean Yamcha leaves and Yantan and Pu’ar have to follow behind. #Comedy

So Yamcha ends up in the general area of where this “person” is. It’s off putting a bit - and by a bit I mean A LOT because it’s a frickin’ jungle full of mega-flora and wild animals everywhere- totally the last place any person would be at all. Yamcha ultimately lets that slide. 

Yamcha suddenly freaks out at the realization that hE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT HE’S GONNA SAY and that he really didn’t think any of this through. What SHOULD even say? That he came all the way here to date this woman and come across some kind of weirdo or creep?? And if he already met this person WHEN DID HE MEET THEM? It could literally be any girl he’s ever met in his life. He doesn’t even know her name so how would he know who the right person is?? Amongst a fuckton of other million miles a minute thoughts. 

(2018 OUTLINE NOTE END)

When it comes to that specific set up prior to the jungle, idk if I still wanna follow it. But It’s something. 

Here comes my end of 2019 “I haven’t thought about this in eons” amendment: 

Leaving off of Yamcha’s panic attack I’m pretty sure he and Marzi run into each other via some kind of dinosaur hijinks. I’m pretty sure if memory serves Marzi was TRYING to feed dinosaurs as she usually does (she’s living her life after all), but for some reason on this day she had a technical failure. THIS would also have to serve as Marzi’s first proper introduction ever, so this event would also have to function as a way of establishing who she is as a character as well. God knows what that would entail.

Which, in this situation, she’d mostly come across as a person whose “eyes emoji” appearance doesn’t line up with being in an untamed jungle decking around with a carnivorous and predatory animal. 

The only reason Yams wouldn’t remember meeting her was because their actual first meeting was more of a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it encounter 30 years ago that wasn’t really relevant to his own memory. (Not even worth getting into here tbh, it’s so brief) So, y’know. Fuck you Baba.

It’s hard to say if Marzi herself would recognize Yamcha right away considering the last time she saw him, Yamcha was soft-faced with short hair and all cutesy 21st tournament looking, which THAT to NOW is quite the jump— but rest assured she does. It’s hard to say what her initial reaction would’ve been in response to suddenly running back into your one-sided high school infatuation after 3 decades of absolute radio silence. My mind always pictured some kind of comical reaction. 

Either way, this shit should happen only after the wacky hijinks, because!!! THAT’S THE KIND OF WORLD THIS IS! I wanted a bizarre action set piece that ends comedically quickly because Yamcha essentially has god powers. (WHICH, YEAH. HE DOES. Especially in comparison to how he was in early DB. By this point this guy went from above-average martial arts protégée to full on superhero) If I still had the energy for DB I would have scribbled a possible visual demonstration but, I really doooon’t jgvhgbkhjj

A wise man made this summarizing prediction really and I think this is the best thing to follow: 

“I sort of figured Marzi ran into him one day after everything kind of settled down and he wasn’t dead or in space or something, and there was an awkward period where she wasn’t sure what to do about him being so accessible. And Yamcha didn’t know her well to begin with, so to him she’s just an eligible bachelorette, and he fusses over how to impress her, because he has no idea that she’s been fascinated with him for decades.” - a wise man, 2019.

So yeah. That. 

[lloydskywalkers]

Survivor Ninja!

Angst week took it out of me, so here's something less angsty to balance it out! This is partly the fault of watching Sharknado 3 at 2 am, and heavily, heavily inspired by a Voltron crack video that showed up on my dash, which was taken from The Try Guys Try Not to Die at Sea, or something. It's kind of crack, that's what I'm trying to say.

Takes place immediately after season 2!

"Da dum."

"Stop."

"Da dum."

"Stop it, Jay."

"Da dum da dum da dum da dum-"

"Jay!"

Jay ducks Kai's irritated smack, laughing. "Come on, you're not actually scared right now, are you?"

Kai scoffs, glaring at nothing in particular. "We're floating on a tiny, fragile, cheap piece of plastic in the middle of the ocean. Excuse me for being a little uncomfortable."

He certainly does look uncomfortable, huddled up in the middle of the raft, his arms wrapped around his knees as he glares at the ocean around them. "I hate this," Kai seethes. "I hate water. Water is the worst."

"Don't take it out on the water just because you can't swim," Nya says. Kai shoots her a venomous look of betrayal.

Lloyd frowns. "Weren't you gonna try to walk across the ocean back to Ninjago, when we were stuck on the Dark Island?"

"I had adrenaline then," Kai mutters. "It was life or death. This is just dumb."

"Aw, come on, it's not that bad," Jay offers, consolingly.

"Yeah, just boring," Lloyd sighs, flopping his head against the side of their raft, staring up at the cloudless sky.

"Stop that, you're gonna blind yourself," Cole says, putting a hand over Lloyd's eyes.

"Am not." Lloyd throws an elbow over his face in placation, though.

"Well, I'm having fun," Nya says, from where she's draped over the side, her legs hanging in the water, her head in Jay's lap. "This is the most relaxing training we've had in months."

"Speaking of, how did you weasel your way into this?" Kai says.

"That better not be a dig at me being part of the team," Nya glares at him. "Sensei Wu apparently thought I was necessary. Admit it. You guys would all die without me."

"Debatable," Kai mutters, while Jay agrees enthusiastically.

"Also, Sensei Garmadon still feels bad enough about the whole 'captured me and turned me into a brainless, purple-eyed minion' thing that all I really have to do is look at him and he'll let me do anything," Nya says, shrugging.

"Aw, he isn't like that with me," Lloyd whines. "And he swallowed me in a vortex of dark matter. And broke my ankle."

"Sprained," Zane supplies.

"It was broken when I got to the hospital!"

"That's because you ran up a skyscraper on it," Cole says helpfully.

Lloyd sticks his tongue out at him.

"We should probably start trying to find a way out of this," Zane says, attempting to reign them back in. "That is the mission objective, is it not?"

"I thought it was not to die in the middle of the ocean," Kai grumbles.

"No, we need to be trying to find a way back to the island," Lloyd sighs, finally sitting up straight. "It's been an hour already, we need to get moving."

This proves a problem, as none of them really have any idea where they were. Having been unceremoniously kidnapped from their beds early that morning, blindfolded, and dropped on a small raft in the middle of the sea, the most progress they've made so far is to complain about the general situation. They're off to a fairly rough start.

Kai eyes the note left by Sensei Wu cheerfully ordering them to "Find your way home!" in distaste. He'll bet anything this is Sensei Garmadon's fault.

"No powers, no Spinjitzu, no mechs," Jay says, dismally. "Face it, Lloyd. We're all hooped."

"C'mon, we can do this," Cole says, trying to inject some positivity into the conversation. "We trapped a giant snake on our own. We defeated the Overlord, for crying out loud!"

"No, you didn't," Kai says. "You got hit by purple goo and turned into a snarling nightmare two flights up Borg Tower."

"Oh, like you lasted much longer."

"I did! I didn't even get hit!"

"Oh yeah?" Cole sneers. "Then why'd Lloyd end up climbing all the way to the top by himself?"

"Which was totally not cool, by the way," Lloyd sulks.

"Hey, we tried, alright, it was an off day for us," Cole winces.

"Su-ure."

"Oh, come on, Lloyd," Kai says.

Lloyd huffs. "All I'm saying is that you better not leave me to face the big bad guy of the week all by myself again. It sucks."

"What, the golden ninja can't handle it?" Jay smirks.

"Nope."

"Geez, not even trying for subtlety there."

"I've been a ninja for like, what, a couple of months?" Lloyd throws his hands up. "And suddenly I'm supposed to be some invincible master? I'm still only like, fourteen-ish. Give me a year and then I'll be unstoppable."

"Technically, you're like ten-ish," Kai points out.

Lloyd narrows his eyes. "Fourteen-ish."

"Ten-ish."

"Fourteen-ish! Tomorrow's Tea counts!"

"Does it, though? Does it really?"

"It counts when it comes to being taller than Jay."

"You are not taller than me, you miniscule shrimp of a pipsqueak-"

"FSM help us, we are all going to die," Nya mutters.

"C'mon, guys, we're all exhausted, and tempers are high," Cole cuts in. "Fighting isn't going to help us any."

"Perhaps we would not be so tired if we hadn't stayed up so late watching movies," Zane says, innocently as always.

"Za-ane, you're not supposed to put the blame on us," Jay groans. "Pass it off to someone else."

"Words of a ninja, right there."

"Besides," Cole defends. "Attack of the Six-Headed Shark is a classic."

"In what world?" Nya says.

"Don't bring up sharks," Jay says. "You'll lure them to us."

Cole blinks. "You were literally singing the Jaws theme five minutes ago."

Jay waves him off. "That was to mess with Kai. Different case." He groans. "Ugh, now I'm thinking about it. This is exactly like the scene in Shark Frenzy 4."

"Just don't think about the sharks, then," Zane says.

"I can't help thinking about them!" Jay throws his hands up, glaring at Lloyd. "After someone made us watch all those dumb shark horror movies last night."

Lloyd shrugs innocently, making no comment.

"You knew," Kai suddenly says, his eyes narrowed on Lloyd. "You knew!"

"Knew what?" Lloyd says, even more innocently.

"You knew Sensei was gonna do something like this to us!" Kai accuses. "That's why you had us watch all those shark movies last night!"

"No, I didn't!" Lloyd defends himself as Jay gasps in wounded betrayal. "I just - okay, I had an idea, maybe, of what he was going to do." He glares at the raft. "I didn't know it was going to be this."

"You still knew," Kai glares at him.

Lloyd folds his arms. "It's not my fault you're scared of some dumb shark movies."

"Snotty brat."

"Arrogant jerk."

"Child menace."

"Spiky-haired hothead."

"Demon spawn."

"Okay, okay, enough," Cole sighs, as the two wrestle, Kai burying his knuckles in Lloyd's hair he cackles. "Does anyone have an idea of how to get back to land?"

He's ignored.

"Let him go, loser," Nya says, splashing water up on Kai with her foot. "Lloyd scaring us with shark movies is pretty tame, for him messing with you."

"I wasn't trying to scare you guys!"

"Uh-huh," Jay says, skeptically. "Then why'd you terrorize us with all those shark movies?"

"Maybe I picked all those shark movies because I like sharks," Lloyd folds his arms. "They're one of my favorite animals."

"Why?" Jay says, scandalized. "Why have you chosen aquatic death creatures as your favorite animal?"

"Your favorite animal is a rat, don't judge me!" Lloyd shoots back. "Besides," he inhales, getting the patented Lloyd-Look-of-Righteous-Justice on his face. "Everyone goes around trying to force sharks into this box of vicious murderers, painting them as bloodthirsty monsters with their shark prejudice, when sharks are actually just wildly misunderstood creatures trying to live the best shark lives they can, and-"

"Okay, National Geographic, chill out," Kai says, clapping a hand over Lloyd's mouth even as he grins in amusement. "There will be no shark murders today."

Lloyd shoves Kai's hand off, grumbling. "There better not."

"I didn't know you felt so strongly about sharks," Zane says, bemused.

"It's a metaphor," Jay tells him, in an obvious whisper. "Lloyd is expressing his feelings about past prejudice against his father and himself by channeling it into the defense of fishy teeth monsters."

"I am not," Lloyd scowls. "I just like sharks, that's all."

"I mean, if that's true, then what's that say about you and your passionate defense of rats?" Kai directs at Jay. "Do you too feel the urge to run around making a pest of yourself, squealing loudly at everything-"

Nya yelps as her head hits the raft, having been upset as Jay moves to tackle Kai.

"Guys, stop, you're gonna tip us over!"

"We're never going to make it back to shore," Zane sighs, sadly.

"Captain's log, day fourty-five lost at sea," Jay announces, a glazed look in his eyes as he hangs over the edge of the raft. "Morale is fading. We'll probably have to eat Kai soon to survive."

"Lloyd would definitely be first to get eaten," Kai says through a yawn. Lloyd shoves him.

"We're gonna need water before food," Nya says. "If we're actually trying to survive."

"Both of which we have none of," Cole fumes. "Nothing, we've got nothing in here!"

"The raft barely fits us, what'd you expect?" Kai says.

"I don't know, some kind of help!"

"It's my uncle, he likes to be funny like that," Lloyd says.

"Well its not very funny to me," Cole grumbles, sitting back down with a huff. Kai yelps as the raft is slightly upset in the water.

"Look, Cole, this assignment is ridiculous," Jay yawns. "We'd never end up in a situation like this anyways. Worst comes to worst, Lloyd can just fly us out on his dragon."

"But that would be cheating," Lloyd frowns.

"But we wouldn't be roasting out here?" Jay offers.

"Lloyd is right," Zane says, glaring at Jay. "We need to figure out how to get out of here without breaking the set rules. We're trained ninja - it shouldn't be too hard."

"I'm with Zane," Nya says, finally sitting up. "Okay, first things first - we need to actually figure out where we're going." She pauses, shielding her eyes with a hand as she looks out over the sea around them. "Does anyone have any idea what direction we need to head in?"

"Ask Zane," Kai sys. "He's the one with the built-in GPS."

"I have no such thing," Zane says, looking miffed.

"What do you mean, you don't?" Kai gapes. "You have everything!"

"I'm not a computer!" Zane snaps. "Besides, we were specifically banned from using any excess means to complete the training. That includes hacking into the nearest satellite or navigating system and using it to send a distress signal the nearest ship."

Zane looks disappointed by the time he's reached the end.

"Cheating, Zane," Jay says, trying tempt him. "Join the dark side…"

"Maybe…we can use the stars, or something?" Lloyd says, hesitantly. "I saw it in an episode of Starfarer once, you can follow certain ones home. Or something."

"Yeah, except it's the middle of the day, genius," Jay says.

"At least I'm trying!" Lloyd glares.

"We can use the sun, though," Cole says. "Which is, technically, a star. So good job, Lloyd."

"I got it." Kai frowns, shielding his eyes as he looks up. "Okay, so the sun is there, and it's heading there, so that direction must be east."

Nya looks at him. "No, it's heading in the other way," she points. "That way's west."

"Are you blind? It's clearly setting over there!"

"It's obviously moving that way-"

"No way!"

"Why dont'cha just stare at it for a bit, and see what way it moves."

"Lloyd," Cole chastises. Lloyd makes a face at him.

"Ungrateful, sassy child," Jay mutters. He sits up, taking a look himself. "Nya's right. The sun is setting that way, which means if we head in that direction, we should run into Ninjago. Eventually."

"Great," Lloyd says, squinting over the water. "So the island is that way, which means now we just have to reach it." He glances back at the rest of the team. "Did anyone bring a paddle?"

"While we were being captured and set adrift on this piece of garbage?" Kai mutters. "No."

Lloyd rolls his eyes at him. "How about, does anyone have anything we can use as a paddle?"

"Does Jay's head count?" Cole says, innocently. Jay makes an indignant sound.

"Seriously though," Cole says. "If two of us can plank for a bit, maybe we can-"

"Oh, for FSM's sake."

"Maybe we can all lean over the sides and like, paddle with our hands," Lloyd suggests.

"Or we could tie someone to the raft and they could pull it to shore?" Jay says. "I saw that on TV once, this girl rescued a whole raft of people by swimming them in."

"Okay, but who's pulling?" Cole narrows his eyes. "'Cause it better not be me."

"Unless we had sufficient tether, I don't believe we'd make it very far," Zane says. "This raft isn't built to be dragged by a single person. With our combined weight, we might risk tearing it."

"Ugh." Jay flops back over the side, his arms dragging in the water. "Maybe we should all just swim for it."

"Kai can't swim," Lloyd says. He yelps as Kai whacks him in the head.

"We could drag him along?" Jay says.

"I also do not believe it would be wise to leave our raft behind," Zane says. He looks over the gentle waves. "Did you know that approximately three hundred people drown at sea in Ninjago per year?"

Everyone gapes at him.

"Why would we need to know that?!" Jay yelps.

"That's only the unintentional ones, though," Zane adds, thoughtfully. "The intentional ones are outliers, I suppose."

"Prepare to be an outlier, Zane," Kai growls, attempting to stagger to his feet. He fails, the unstable bottom of the raft sending him stumbling into Nya, who nearly pushes him overboard for it.

Cole, who's been watching them in boredom, suddenly goes still. "Is that a shark?" he says, squinting at the water.

Kai immediately sits back down, drawing into the middle of the raft. "Nope, nope, nope."

Jay follows Cole's gaze, then gives a brief yelp. "It is, oh no, oh no-"

"Calm down, I'm sure it means us no harm," Zane says. "Sharks are not known to normally attack sea vessels, unless provoked."

Cole grabs one of the pliable rods that like the raft, pulling it out of the casing and hoisting it up like a spear. "I'll chase it off, just to be safe."

"No, you're going to hurt it!" Lloyd yelps, grabbing the rod away from Cole.

"It's a plastic rod, how am I going to hurt it with that-"

"Guys, look out-!"

In the sort of slow-motion that comes from the worst of the B-movie hour films, Cole and Lloyd wrestle themselves into the edge of the raft, crashing against the side and sending Lloyd toppling into the water.

Kai isn't even surprised.

"Oh no!" Jay cries, as Lloyd sputters in the water. "Quick! Pull him up before he's eaten!"

"Guys, I'm fine-"

"It's going to tear you limb from limb, just like that girl in the movie-"

"Guys!" Lloyd splashes water up on them, glaring at Jay. "I'm fine!" He swirls his hands around in the water for emphasis. Meanwhile, the shark swims beneath him, utterly uninterested. Lloyd gives Jay a superior sniff from where he's treading water.

"See?" he says. "They're harmless little fi-"

The shark turns in the water, moving steadily upwards toward Lloyd.

"-ishhhh pull me up! Pull me up!"

Kai grabs Lloyd's right arm and hauls him up as Cole does the same with his left, catapulting him back into the raft just as the shark reaches him.

"Harmless little fish, huh?" Jay smirks.

Lloyd crosses his arms. "Well, I'm not going to tempt fate. Destiny already has it out for me."

"Aren't they the same thing?"

"Don't ask me.

"Guys, don't look now, but it's circling back around," Nya says, squinting at the unmistakable shape of a shark fin knifing its way above the water toward them.

Kai turns the color of Zane's gi.

"Oh, FSM," Jay mutters. "This is just like that one movie, y'know, where it jumps up and eats their heads-"

"Look, if we just remain calm, it should leave us alone," Zane says, trying in vain to calm them down.

"I'm not taking that chance," Cole mutters. He pulls a knife out from his pant leg.

"Have you had that this whole time?" Nya stares.

"Yes! Cole! Stab it!" Jay yelps, tugging at Cole's gi from where he's clinging to Nya. "Stab the shark!"

"No!" Lloyd cries, tackling Cole by the legs. "Let it live!"

Cole wobbles precariously. "Guys, stop, I'm gonna-"

Cole trips sideways, falling hands-first against the raft. There's a sharp pop, followed by the hiss of escaping air.

The chaos is immediate.

"Cole!"

"You stabbed the raft, why did you stab the raft-"

"I didn't mean to!"

"Quick, it's deflating! Stop it!"

"How?!"

"Duct tape! Put duct tape on it!"

"Nobody has duct tape, genius-"

"The shark is back! It sensed our weakness!"

"No, no, we're sinking, no-"

"Kai, get off of me!"

"Sacrifice yourself for your older brother Lloyd, it's your duty."

"No!"

"You owe me for the fire temple!"

"Just put the life jacket on, dummy!"

"It clashes with my hair!"

"Are you kidding me-"

"Water! We're taking on water!"

"Bail it out, we might be able to save the-"

"Shark! Shark!"

"Oh no, no, we're all gonna die-"

"This is the worst idea Sensei Wu has ever had."

The ocean is quiet in the late afternoon sun, the waves calm as they lap gently against the ninja's sodden clothes and skin. None of them say anything, each floating in their various positions where they've tethered themselves together. Or, in Kai's case, where they cling to Nya, balancing carefully on two life jackets.

"Well," Jay says, breaking the silence. "We suck at this."

Cole groans. Zane trades looks with Kai, then they both turn to Lloyd.

Lloyd glances at them, and sighs.

"Yeah, okay, let's cheat."

The sun is just dipping below the horizon by the time Garmadon hears the trudging footsteps of his brother's students. He casts a glance heavenwards. It certainly took them long enough.

He feels a sharp flicker of relief when he catches sight of Lloyd's windswept blond hair. He immediately winces as he catches sight of his son's face. Right, he was supposed to give them sunscreen, wasn't he. Misako will have his head.

Garmadon is debating the merits of smothering Lloyd's face in Wu's healing tea before Misako can catch sight of it as the troop finally reaches the top of the monastery, dragging their feet up the stairs.

They're a sorry sight, if anything. If Garmadon had to name it, they rather resemble a collection of drowned rats who were mercilessly tossed into a laundry machine, their hair stuck up at awkward angles and stiff from salt. Sweat has collected on their brows, and Lloyd and Jay in particular are sporting truly blinding sunburns.

"I take it you survived the training?" Garmadon says, carefully.

There's a chorus of tired mumbling, a few groans of exhaustion.

"And? How was it?" he tries.

Kai gives a tired half shrug. Lloyd tries, but the sentence is so hopelessly mangled by a yawn that Garmadon really has no idea what his son's just said to him. Nya gives him a grudging thumbs up.

"It was okay," Cole mutters.

"Lloyd flew us out on his dragon," Zane says flatly, his voice booking no argument. He brushes crusted saltwater from his elbow, looking altogether done with the universe.

"Lloyd also almost got eaten by a shark," Jay yawns.

Garmadon sighs. He expected as mu-

"What?" he blinks, finally registering the last sentence.

"I did not," Lloyd moans. "It was a harmless creature of nature, dad."

"I - alright."

"Don't kill it, dad."

"I…wasn't going to?"

"Don't murder the innocent shark population, dad."

"…you need to rehydrate," Garmadon says, firmly guiding his son toward the monastery. "The rest of you, as well," he says, with a pointed look at them.

The most he gets is a few tired murmurs of agreement, and Kai mumbling something about stuffing himself in the refrigerator. Garmadon suppresses a snort of amusement as he drags Lloyd over to a kitchen stool, silently praying Misako doesn't come back any time soon.

"Sorry I cheated," Lloyd says hazily, as Garmadon presses a glass of water on him.

"It's alright," he says, failing to stop the snort this time as Lloyd misses his mouth, staring in confusion as the water splashes down on the counter. Lloyd shakes his head, redirecting the glass and draining it.

Lloyd leans his head against Garmadon's side, yawning. "Y'know, if I could be anything else, I think I'd be a shark," he says.

"Oh, would you?" Garmadon says, trying not to laugh.

"Sharks don't hav'ta fight the Overlord," Lloyd mumbles. Garmadon looks down, wincing.

"But then Kai couldn't be my brother, 'cause he can't swim," Lloyd continues. "So I guess I'm good."

"You are good," Garmadon says, quietly.

"Don't turn it into another morality lesson, dad," Lloyd yawns. "I think I'm lessoned out for the day."

Garmadon rolls his eyes heavenwards. "One day, you'll appreciate it," he says. "You know, someday, you'll be giving these lessons yourse-"

A snore from his side cuts him off. Garmadon glances down where Lloyd has passed out, half slumped on his side, half pressed against the kitchen counter.

Garmadon sighs, but he wraps an arm around his son, fondly.

Maybe he ought to go slightly easier on them next time. They did manage to pull off quite a victory with the Overlord, even if they apparently can't survive a simple day at sea. Garmadon shakes his head.

…now, how to best excuse this to Misako…

[sugarpun-fairy]

BET ON ME - CHAPTER ONE

Summary: Serena is back to her first day of senior year and to finally meet her online best friend irl, just to find out her best friend has two more best friends. 

Word count: 1,141

Warnings: welp we got sum drama but when it comes to the boys it’s normal and there’s a small anxiety attack in the beginning too.

A/N: I hope everyone likes it, really. The idea came to me when I was reading an old draft I did years ago and it felt perfectly so yeah. Please like & reblog and tell ur friends about if it u guys like it okay? xoxoxoxox 

-x- 

I took a deep breath before stepping inside the school, cursing myself for turning down Reece’s offer of walking with me to school. The halls looked exactly the same as they did the first time I entered there.  

I felt my knee getting trembling and my air leaving me. Freezing in front of the school door wasn’t the way I wanted to start my last year but I had no other choice. It wasn’t my fault not wanting to be there after all that happened.  

Two warm hands held my shoulders and turned me around.

“Oh my God it is you!” Reece said with a huge smile. He hugged me really tight and held my hands while analyzing me. I hid a sob while he hugged me again. “I have to admit I was so happy when you told me you were moving to London! I couldn’t believe how close we would be and now you’re here!”  

“I don’t wanna come in.” I whispered. “Don’t make me do this. I’m begging you.”

His smile faded as he held me tighter.  

“Come here.” He pulled me to a corner and sat on the floor with me. “Everything is fine. Breath with me. You’re safe Serena.” He said calmly in a low tone. “I’m here with you.”

“You don’t know what happened here. I don’t wanna go there.” I mumbled shaking my head. “I’m sorry Reece but I can’t do this!”  

“Serena Hawthorn you are the most badass girl ever born in this whole continent! You can do whatever you want!” He assured me cupping my face. The other students passed by giving us curious and concerned looks, making everything just worse. “We’re not going there until you feel confident enough to. I swear.”  

“Well then we’re not going there!”  

“Serena!” He held my face tighter. “You have to face whatever is haunting you and making you react like this.”

“I know that.”  

“It’s okay if you don’t wanna go today but you eventually will have to!”

I hid my face on his shoulder and sobbed silently. I knew my reaction would be terrible but not like this.  

“It’s not the first time I study here.” I confessed between sobs. “But last time I met a guy. And this guy made a bet with his best friend where he would have to make me fall for him. And I knew about this all the time and still let him get close.”  

“Is it guilt that’s haunting you?” He deduced.

“Sorta.”

“Are you scared of meeting him again?”  

“Sorta.”

“Did you ever feel something for him?”

“I don’t know.”  

I took a deep breath and lifted my head. Reece used the sleeve of his stripped sweater to dry my tears.  

“Are you feeling better?” He asked helping me to get up.  

“Sorta. Don’t you hate when I only answer you like this?” I asked cocking an eyebrow.  

“Sorta.” quoted with a smile. “Ready to go there and rock this whole year?”

“No. But I’m gonna try anyway.”  

“That’s my girl! Let’s go try finding my boys.”

He held my hand while we walked around the school before the classes started, looking for his so called real-life-best-friends. I finally realized he had his guitar case with him all that time and smiled to myself remembering the time he tried to teach me how to play over skype calls.  

“Found them!” announced pulling me to a still empty classroom. “Wassup!” A blond guy and a brunet playing their own guitars turned to us and I froze again before even closing the door. “This is Serena. She’s new here and she’s pretty much my soulmate, so be nice to her! Rena these are George and Blake, they’re usually pretty nice but you know boys and their moods.” Reece said playfully without realizing the elephant growing in the room.  

“Serena.” George said slowly putting the guitar over the table.

“Hawthorn?” Blake asked repeating the act.  

“Yes. How do you guys know that?” Reece questioned looking between us from second to second.  

“That wasn’t the reunion I had in mind but I think I can take it.” I laughed sarcastically. “I’ll give you one shot to find out who was the best friend that betted if the other could make me fall for him, and who was the other. Just one Reece. Think carefully. Like they didn’t.” I continued, putting my arm around Reece’s shoulders with an evil smile.  

His face went blank before turning beet red.

“Guys? Really?” He stuttered. “Why would you do that? She’s one of the most sweet, smart and strong people I’ve ever met! Why would you do this to her? What did you guys win with that?” Reece’s arms found place around me while he spoke as if he was trying to protect me from his friends.  

“Look we were kids at that time...” Blake tried to explain.  

“Nothing.” George cut his speech. “We won nothing. Especially me, the one who tried to make her fall for me. Everything you’re saying, Reece, I learned after getting to know her better. When I saw that, when I realized what I was feeling, it was just too late to repair everything.” He admitted.

“What is he talking about now Rena?” Reece asked.  

“It was when I moved back to Canada. You know what they say: you only know what you have when you lose it.” I had to admit it. The look in their faces, the guilt in their eyes was almost pleasing. I took a deep breath and shook my head. “But I’m guilty too. After all I still let them do what they wanted.”  

“How are you guilty if you’re the victim here?” Reece insisted.  

“Ree you’re just adorable and the way you just defended me was awesome, but you have to stop treating me like I’m all rainbows and sunshine.” I whispered making him let me go and turning to him. “I wanted to break George. And I did. That’s why I freaked out before coming here. They had their guilt on the bet. I had my guilt on the way I played them.”  

“Serena.” George tried to say, reaching out his hand to touch mine. I stepped back. “I’m sorry for what I did to you. So is Blake. Can’t we just start over again? Like nothing happened?”  

I looked at Blake who remained quiet all this time and sighed. They did look regretful. He tried to reach me again, holding my face softly. When I looked in his eyes I stepped back again.  

“We won’t ever forget what happened. You know that.”  

“We can try.”  

The bell rang before I could say anything else.  

“Come Rena, I’ll walk you to your class.” Reece said holding my hand again and pulling me away and out of the classroom without looking back.  

-x-

Taglist: @batboys-and-other-messes @southside-sweets @grandmascottlang @underoosstark @imaginesandideas 

if you wanna be tagged just hmu <3 

[inoahthingor2]

No Place Like Home

When: November 17th

Time: 10 PM

Noah wasn’t sure why he hadn’t resented his sisters, even though he had grown up behind all four of them. There were four different ideas about who a Nakamura was before Noah stepped into place, and sometimes, it was annoying. No, he wasn’t as good at maths as Lily, and no, he wasn’t interested in joining the drama club like Hannah had, and if one more person asked him if he had inherited any of Ryleigh’s affinity for public speaking, he just might tear his hair out.

But, he was still so proud of his sisters. Yeah, he had no clue what the hell an integral was, but Lily had gotten a full-ride to go study Statistics. And Noah was good at singing and dancing, but Hannah’s performance as the lead in The Sound of Music made him tear up. And you bet your ass Noah was the loudest one screaming after Ryleigh’s valedictorian speech.

And then Kelly.

Since Noah could remember, Kelly had been dancing. Uncoordinated and clumsy when she eight as she led him in circles with Ryleigh, her pointe shoes messily laced up. Noah, who was five at the time, was delighted by the clumsy pirouettes. Lily and Hannah watched with a mixture of caution and amusement from the side lines, only stepping in when he and Ryleigh knocked heads.

Noah watched as Kelly ditched her pointe shoes in favor of a leotard and chalk, and at age nine, he watched her land her first pike, and that was the exact moment he knew he wanted to be out there with her.

His other sisters seemed to share his sentiment, but not nearly to his degree. Lily like it because she thought it made her look elegant, Hannah liked it for the drama, and Ryleigh liked it because Noah liked it. But he and Kelly actually loved all of it.

They loved the rush as they bounded across the mat, making sure not to get lost in the feeling of flipping through the air so they had a clear enough mind to land each move. Loved the burn that came with holding their balance on a beam, forcing their shaking muscles to cooperate and keep them upright. Loved the way their pulse beat in their ears as the flung themselves off of the bars, that .2 seconds in the air before they were latching back onto the metal and throwing themselves around it once more.

Perhaps their coach had taken a shine to him, but in Noah’s eyes, Kelly was who really encouraged him to practice his heart out.

“I mean, I'm good Noah, don't get me wrong. But you… you could really go somewhere with this,” she had said as she gently bandaged their hands after a particularly rigorous practice. And with Kelly gripping his hands with her own dusty ones, he knew then that he was gonna go somewhere for the both of them.

Lily, Hannah, and Ryleigh all dropped it after a couple of years, but they never stopped loving the sport. They were there when Noah dominated State Championships, sitting in the front row with their parents, waving obscenely large signs and screaming his name. Kelly was standing with the rest of their gym on the floor, beaming up at him, and in that moment, behind the joy and adrenaline, he hated being up on that podium, because his victory was nothing without them.

So when he moved on to win Nationals, he yanked Kelly up on the podium with him and grabbed her hand with his own, pressing his metal into her open palm. She stared at him for a moment, before she burst into tears, quickly followed by Lily, Hannah and Ryleigh, who jumped from the stands to rush the stage almost as soon as Noah had reached for Kelly. Yeah, pandemonium was one word for the mess that broke out after that, but if that wasn’t the Nakamura’s, Noah wasn’t sure what was.

They stuck together. If you had one of them, you had all of them.

Which was why he should’ve driven back with them after that meet. He should’ve skipped the review session with his coach. He should’ve just left with his win. Left and eaten with his family, throwing ice at Ryleigh whenever their parents weren’t looking and stealing broccoli off of Hannah’s plate when she forgot to guard her greens.

But instead, while his family was sleeping, full and happy and still buzzing with Noah’s victory, Noah was being thrown about in a crushed car that wouldn’t stop rolling, the feeling of flipping familiar and horrifying.

And then he was… broken. Broken, and all he could think about was how much he was hurting, how angry he was, how heartbroken he was. He couldn't think of anything else for those four years. But, he had forgotten that Nakamura’s shared everything.

He didn’t get to see Lily ripping his coach a new one with Hannah holding her back by her coat, begging her not to get arrested on top of everything. He didn’t see Ryleigh straightening out his hospital sheets, crying and crying but trying not to be loud in case her grief was strong enough to wake him from a medically induced coma. Nor Kelly, gripping his Nationals medal that he had given to her tightly in her hand, holding it to her forehead before throwing it in a fit of rage at the wall. The dent was still there.

No, Noah hadn’t seen any of that. Instead, he saw his future in ruins, his family disgraced, his uselessness. Every time he looked one of them in the eyes, that’s all he saw. Pity or disappointment. He couldn’t see the fondness in Lily’s eyes when he playfully tripped her with his walker on one of his better days. He didn’t see the adoration in Hannah’s when she presented him with a knot blanket for his legs, nor the relief in Ryleigh’s when he opened his eyes for the first time since the accident as she stood in the corner in order to allow the doctors to work. And he certainly hadn’t seen the pride Kelly felt when Noah took his first wobbly steps by himself before he collapsed into her arms.

He couldn’t.

Which was why when his phone buzzed, he didn’t answer it. He watched Kelly’s face flash on screen until it dimmed and the vibrating faded. There was the missed call notification, then a voicemail notification, and finally a text message. He clicked on the text, already knowing he was going to delete the voicemail. He couldn't handle her voice yet.

Kelpy: Answer one of us, you asshole. We miss you

Noah shut his eyes and sighed through his nose, before finally taking a look at all of the other texts from his various sisters that he had muted.

From Lily;

Lil: how’s college, college boy? Meet any hotties yet?

Lil: let me know if u need help with ur math

Lil: r u seriously ghosting your whole family u dork?

Lil: R u coming home for thxgiving?

Lil: I’ll give u 5 bucks and some graduate school gossip if u do

Lil: hey, give mom a call soon, will ya? You know how she worries

From Hannah;

Bananah: hey, let me know how ur first day was when u get a chance!

Bananah: are your midterms soon? Call me if you get too stressed!

Bananah: stay warm, okay? I know it’s warmer there, but still. If you tell me ur dorm room number, I’ll send you a scarf!

Bananah: audio.mp3

Bananah: “this is my audition for a Christmas musical! Let me know how it is!”

From Ryleigh:

Rye: I can’t believe you went to college so far away fucker. I was looking forward to dipping ur hand in cold water when ur passed out drunk

Rye: bro, wtf r u gonna be for Halloween? If u don’t send me a pic, you’re disowned

Rye: image.png

Rye: I went as Columbia from rocky horror

Rye: woooow silent treatment?

Rye: if u don’t come home for thanksgiving, I’m gonna convince Hannah to help me kick ur ass

From Kelly:

Kelpy: dominate this school year noah! We’re all rooting for you!

Kelpy: image.png

Kelpy: I got a dog. Help me name him?

Kelpy: I named him pudge.

Kelpy: hey, call me? We should catch up! I wanna know how school is!

Kelpy: Hey noah, we’re all kinda worried about you. We’re trying to give you space, but we’d really like to hear if you’re okay

Kelpy: mom and dad almost drove up to surprise you, but I convinced them not to. Just answer us noah. We miss you

And then the text from today

Noah pressed his phone to his forehead, his brows furrowed. He should go back. He knew he should. He missed his family, as much as he tried not to think about it. But it was going to be so hard going back to a place where everyone knew how much better he used to be. They were gonna ask him what he was doing, and he couldn’t just not talk about the Vixens. But he wasn’t ready to share. He just… couldn’t. He wanted to stay in this space where he was just Noah, the energetic Vixen. He was scared if he looked away, the illusion would break.

But they deserved to hear him say he wasn't coming home.

So naturally, he texted it.

N: srry for the radio silence Kelly! I’ve been sups busy! I can’t make it back for Thanksgiving; I’ve got something I need to do here. Give everyone my best!

Kelly answered almost immediately, but he was already tossing his phone in his gym bag and getting ready to head to the Court. The sooner he improved, the sooner he could feel comfortable going home.

[thesestrangeimagines]

Mystery Musician (Steve Harrington)

Steve Harrington x Reader

request

Hey! Hope ur doing Good! Could you possibly do one where the reader is a musician and steve falls for her so he tries singing and it’s just a lot of fluff?

THIS IS SO CUTE. For a musician I used guitar and piano because I wanted to give duet-ability and those are things I have experience with so I can try and make it as accurate as possible. If this isn’t what you had in mind I’m super sorry. I did this one a little different than I would have just because both sides are important, so you see your POV and then Steve’s. So there’s a bit of POV jumping. I hope you like it.

You sat in the empty music room practicing after school that Thursday, agonizing over a new piece. Your band usually played “You Really Got Me” and wanted to do the whole lead in song “Eruption”. Sure, no problem you thought, until you tried to learn it. Each piece individually was hard, and all together it seemed impossible, but you still had to learn it. You had the metronome going as you zipped through the first 40 ish seconds of the 1 minute 40 song. You were so happy you could scream. You had made a ton of progress today.

Since the intense guitaring had really stressed you out you decided to unwind before you headed back home, by playing some piano. One of your favorite songs to play is “The Greatest Love of All” because Whitney Huston was one of the greatest vocalists of all time. As you played along you couldn’t help but sing a little. Of course, you thought that you couldn’t do it justice, but it was one of your favorites.

After finishing up the song, you stood, gathered up your sheet music and tabs, packed up your guitar, and walked out. On your way out you saw Steve Harrington staring at a wall of lockers, but he’s been super weird since last October so, you didn’t even take a second look.

Steve’s POV

For the last couple weeks, Steve had been hearing the most beautiful music floating out of the music room after school. He assumed that it was the music teacher, Ms. Gemo, but one day as he was walking passed the room, listening to some quite piano, he saw Ms. Gemo scurrying about carrying piles of sheet music and running out the door of the school. “So it can’t be her,” He said, thinking out loud.

On that special Thursday was the first day he saw her, her, the beautiful girl with the beautiful music. He didn’t know who to expect. In a small town, you know everybody, and he didn’t know anybody who could play guitar, piano, and sing like that. That day Steve’s mystery musician was playing eruption just as good a Eddie Van Halen does. Steve was sat on the floor, leaning back onto the lockers, just outside the music room door. Much to his dismay, the music stopped earlier than usual, he thought, until he noticed the piano music that began to flow out of the room. Before he processed the talent and skill contained within those notes, you began to sing. It wasn’t belting, it was quiet, timid, but it sounded fantastic. At this point Steve was trying to convince himself that he should get up and go in there, finally unmask the mystery. He was so drowned in thought that he didn’t noticed that the music had ended. In the past he would just leave, once he thought the music was done, but today he didn’t have time to get out, get to his car, and pull away before this mystery musician saw. Steve stood and began to walk down the hall, if he could get into the next hall that would be great. As he was walking, he heard the door open, and all bets were off. He was just going to pretend that he was at his locker and steal a look. When he turned to face the locker and the mystery musician. It was Y/N Henderson. Y/N Henderson, the older sister of Dustin Henderson. The same Y/N Henderson that moved to Hawkins in 8th grade Y/N Henderson. The one that was still in the dark about everything that happened in the last 2 years. The one that was literally never around. The one that Dustin never really mentioned. Of course he knew she existed, she is one of the most gorgeous humans he’s ever seen. In retrospect it makes sense. She was never around because she was always practicing with her band or at a gig. You’d been to Dustin’s house a million times and if she is there you won’t see her. She’s quite, but her music says so much. “Did she see you” he thought. “Oh no I’m just staring at lockers now” he thought in a panic. She walked out and Steve let out a breath that he didn’t even realize he was holding. So it was Y/N. As Steve started to walk out of the school he began to develop a plan. And this plan started with learning how to sing.

—��——

Your POV

When you got home you were surprised to see that no one was there, which was really nice. You didn’t like playing when your family was around, you always thought you were annoying them, no matter how many times they insisted that you weren’t. So, instead of starting on your math homework, you picked up your guitar and continued working on eruption. You worked and worked and worked for hours and eventually you made it through the whole song. You made a couple mistakes, but nothing a little more metronome training couldn’t fix. You kept drilling the song into your muscle memory. Even though hours had passed, you had completely lost track of time when you were playing. Minutes felt like seconds and you only stopped when you heard, “Y/N, dinner!”

Crap, you thought to yourself. Your whole family had heard you playing, and you hadn’t done your homework yet. You placed your guitar down on the stand and dashed out into the kitchen. You took your seat at the small square table with your brother, who,thankfully, seemed to be too engrossed in a comic book to comment on your playing. Your mom however, who was now approaching the table with a bowl, was smiling and was clearly not going to let this incident go. “So...Y/N, what were you playing?”

“Eruption, as per the request of the band.”

“It seems very guitar centric?” She replied, trying to relate to you.

“Uhh yeah, it’s a minute and a half ish solo. It goes before another song we already play. So they wanted it for our gig tomorrow.”

“Oh you have a show tomorrow!! Where I wanna go!” Your mom said, snagging the comic away from Dustin, “Eat.”

“Oh no you really don’t have to,” you stated hesitantly, pushing food around your plate.

“I want to, where is it?” Your mom asked, clearly not going to take no for an answer. You noticed Dustin perk up at the mention of your gig’s location, which was strange. Not that you and your little brother didn’t get along, you were just shy and he was confident, despite everything that he’s gone through.

“It’s at the bowling alley, they pay well” You said quietly.

“Wait really!” Dustin said, “I’ve been looking forward to being Lucas and mike’s asses at bowling for a while, this is the perfect way to get us all there!”

“It’s all ages, so yeah you can go”

Dustin smiled, and dinner continued with intermittent small talk.

—————

Steve’s POV

“She has a gig tomorrow, at the bowling alley!” Dustin whisper yelled into the phone, pretending he was talking to mike or someone, even though he would just use his walki talki for that.

“I’m watching you and the other little shits tomorrow, I can’t go,” Steve explained, saddened by the revelation.

“Just bring us, they play while people bowl, so just take us bowling!” Dustin really whispered this time.

He heard a distant, “Dusty get off the phone!”.

And then Dustin screamed, “FIVE MINUTES!” So loudly that it practically blew out his ear drums.

“Fine, fine, we’ll go bowling.”

Steve hung up the phone and re-evaluated his plan. Learning how to sing wasn’t feasible, he decided that he just needed to know the words. And since he had made a point of learning the words to every song that she had ever played it should be too hard.

———-

Your POV

The next day at school you practically floated through your day in an anxiety fueled stupor. You had this show and you had to play Eruption straight into You Really Got Me and to say you were nervous would be an understatement.

When you finally made it into the music room after school, Ms Gemo didn’t care, she was just glad to have a kid so interested in music, you rushed to begin practicing. You practiced both songs twice and began your third round. After finishing Eruption and playing the pre lyric part to you really got me you heard a voice. A voice start singing, “girl, you really got me now, you got me so I don’t know what I’m doing”

You thought you were imagining things and kept playing, you’d just played to much, you thought. Then the voice kept singing. At this, you stopped playing and turned around, confused. When you turned you were face to face Steve Harrington. “Wha- what are you doing here?”

“I just forgot my bag,” he said calmly, grabbing his bag. “You’re a fantastic musician,”

“Thanks,” you answered quietly, cheeks turning red.

“See ya later, Y/N” He said, walking out of the room confidently.

“Bye,” You said, but the boy was already gone.

——————

Your POV

You stood on the stage that was hovering over the lanes, finishing up tuning your guitar before the set was set to begin. You looked around and saw that the lanes were pretty packed. Every lane was being bowled on and there were a bunch of people just hanging out at the tables by the lanes. You really weren’t paying attention to who was there until you saw a ball rolling down the lane that your part of the stage was over. You looked up to see you little brother and his group of friends standing in front of you, waving and behind them was the one and only Steve Harrington. You didn’t have time to question it before your bassist/lead singer nudged you and said, “showtime” you nodded and turned to your brother, waving and mentally preparing to start.

It was almost time for the end of the set and the bowling alley was packed. The grand finale was the “Eruption” and “You Really Got Me”. The bassist gave you a look, you started and the crowd went wild. You made it through the solo with why sounded like no mistakes and you let out a sigh of relief after you stated “You Really Got Me”. You looked up at the crowd to see Steve Harrington “serenading” you from the crowd. You played the rest of the song and closed out the show.

When you stepped off the stage your brother ran into with a huge hug, “You did so good, I knew you were good, but I didn’t know you were that good!”

“Thanks?” You said, a smile across your face.

There were a chorus of “You did so good!”s and other phrases of the like coming from the boys. As the boys went back to their lane, Steve wondered up to you.

“Hey,” He said cooley.

“Hey,” You replied, confused.

“I brought your brother and his friends, your so good, I mean of course you’re good, your great, your am amazing singer and piano player too-“ he rambled, stopping after he realized he’d said too much.

“How did you know I played piano and sang?” You questioned.

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” He drawled for a few seconds, voice shifting up with every moment. “I may or have not listened to you from outside the music room occasionally.” He explained, cheeks reddening.

“That’s so sweet,” You said hugging him, you have no idea where all this confidence came from, probably still stage adrenaline.

“So you wanna bowl?” Steve asked, gesturing to the open lane next to the boys.

“Yeah, sure!” You replied giggling.

“Alright, But I have to warn you, I’m a killer bowler” he said with a huge smirk growing on his face.

As the night continued you and Steve intensely flirted in the form of bowling banter. When the night was over you and Steve said that he would drop Dustin off at your house as he was already dropping all the other boys off at their houses. You had to drive a couple band mates home and equipment to the garage that you guys used as studio space.

———-

When you arrived back home, Dustin was just climbing out of Steve’s car. Upon seeing you Steve jumped out of his car and walked over to you on the driveway.

“Hey,” You said sheepishly.

“Hey,” Steve said, looking cool, but voice wavering with nerves. “So do you maybe wanna.... I don’t know, go see a movie or something?”

“Yeah, that would be cool.” You replied, smile on your face.

You and Steve leaned on the hood of your car for a while talking about everything. When there was a moment of quiet you two leaned together, foreheads touching. He placed his hand on your cheek and your lips connected. You pushed your hands back into his hair. When you both pulled back for air it was like everything made sense in the world,, and that’s when you knew Steve Harrington was the one for you.

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED READING THIS AS MUCH AS I ENJOYED WRITING IT!! If you want to read my other stuff my masterlist link is in my description and also if you want to request anything that link is also in my description (even if it’s not Steve, I’m willing to write it, for the most part, as long as I know what it is !!!)

[kashmiresims]

Winner Takes All

First Post | Previous Post | Next Post

Reggie had never been so frustratingly angry before. To learn that he was being blacklisted from a fraternity that he had the right to be in, to know that the object of his affections wasn't any closer to reciprocating those feelings, and to know his robot could likely not make the cut to get into the collegiate robotic championship all weighed his mind down until his thoughts were nothing but a whirlpool of darkness.

He was still consumed with them by the next day but had at least gotten to work on his robot after meeting with his father. That was one step closer to solving the latter problem.

He went back to the engineering building Sunday afternoon. No surprise, Shane Calhoun was also there fiddling around with his pathetic luxury gardening robot. Who needed such a thing? Was there a demand for a service so dull?

Information was a commodity—the ability to gain knowledge and use it against your enemies or in your favor. Now that was worth something. Shane of course, didn't say anything to Reggie and vice versa; both young men were on chilly terms, especially now that the mayor's election was so close and their fathers were toe-to-toe in the polls.

They had been classmates, not close, but cordial enough in high school. Shane didn't exactly put himself out there but then again, Reggie wasn't the most social boy either. He briefly looked to Shane, who was ignoring him and tightening up his robot chassis, and still felt a pang of regret for snapping at Alanna and driving her away—and into helping Shane the previous night.

Shane eventually left, docked his robot in its stand and Reggie took the rest of Sunday, well into the evening to finish programming his spypot to accept audio feed. He tested a recording, it sounded faint, so he cracked open the robot and adjusted the microphone to be near the bottom. Alanna had been right about the sound being more clear from that point.

Now it was Monday; he stayed in his apartment all day, playing Rush Hour and grinding out wins like it was nothing. Every win would gain an amount of in-game credit he could use to purchase custom car parts and upgrade the racing vehicles he used. He hoped that Violet_Fire would return soon so he could show it off, and then if luck permitted, win a race against them again. They were the only one, it seemed, to be good enough to make a race interesting—because he never knew for sure if he'd win against them.

Then just like that there was a *ping* and a chat box appeared in the corner of his screen.

Violet_Fire: Wanna race?

MegaZoom: k if ya wanna lose : P

Violet_Fire: Keep dreaming you N00b ;)

Reggie smirked. They were just trying to shake him up before he began. He went to main screen and started up a co-op game. Violet_Fire immediately entered into the instance and picked a classic car with a high-ranked engine they must have bought through in-game credits. Reggie's custom racing car, was a sports car with an engine that had top speed stats. He had put together and, it was in his opinion, a perfect racing engine for this game.

Violet_Fire: what is this?!?!?!

MegaZoom: :D

He wondered if they would chicken out and withdraw but they stayed in the instance. Stubborn as usual.

Violet_Fire: lets race the valley map

MegaZoom: why, so you can make tighter turns and try to get past me?

Violet_Fire: I don't need tight turns to beat ur behiney ;)

There was that word again. Alanna had said it the other night. What were the chances...the cosmic chances of her being his Rush hour rival all along?

MegaZoom: Wanna bet?

Violet_Fire: I do ;P

That took him by surprise. He was only joking around but now he was intrigued...

MegaZoom: What do you want if happen you beat me? Not that it'll happen

The ‘Violet_Fire is typing’ notice seemed to last forever before their message was submitted.

Violet_Fire: I want your custom car

That was untoward. You could trade cars in the game but Reggie's custom car was worth hundreds of hours of grinding and racing randoms. What would be worth the equivalent? He still wondered if Violet_Fire could have been Alanna Thackery, but was that information worth the potential loss of his custom car?

MegaZoom: If I win, how about you get on the voice chat channel and trash talk me without hiding behind a wall of text?

Violet_Fire: Fine lets do this

Though, Reggie immediately had a flick of nervousness in his gut and dryness in his throat because on the off-chance Violet_Fire was Alanna, she would surely recognize his voice! Would she think he was stalking her all this time? He had gone to some length to find out her class schedule but that was only recently when he realized how much he still liked her and it was handy to know where she'd be on campus so he could conveniently 'bump' into her. Evelyn Jane had done stuff like that in the past and he always thought it was dishonest but he could see the merit in it now.

Another *ping* interrupted his thoughts, Violet_Fire was impatient to begin and told him to start the game already. So he did.

He selected the valley map, which had its roads through tunnels, across rivers and especially tight turns. It wasn't his favorite but he'd won races on it before. The trick was to drift on the corners and his custom car had a sweet drift, fine-tuned to withstand the sharp curves of the road.  

The screen counted down 3...2...1 and Reggie slammed the up arrow on his keyboard, dragging his mouse to the left. His car peeled out and was hair ahead of Violet_Fire's. The first bend was a corner but not the sharpest and he drifted around it with ease. Annoyingly, so did Violet_Fire.  

His heart sank a bit as they passed him and took the fork in the road that was a shortcut on the map, but had more perilous obstacles. He didn't ever take the shortcut because of them. So he relied on his speed-tacular engine to make up the time as he made up the distance.  

He came up behind Violet Fire's car and gave them a bump of warning, but not enough to send the off road into a crash. He managed to get ahead after passing the start line. They had two more laps to go.

He maintained first place all throughout the second lap but then the third the tides changed when Violet_Fire spun out and took him down as well. All momentum was lost and it was a scramble to get the cars pointed the right direction and the speed up again. That dirty move put them back into first place and Reggie couldn't lose! He just couldn't! He was tired of losing all the time!

So instead of taking the safe path, he was desperate enough to try the shortcut to make up the lost distance. He was already behind and so he took a calculated risk to see if it would pay off. He avoided getting stuck on a collapsed bridge and drove through a waterfall, finally a dark tunnel with no light until he turned a corner. He sometimes ran his cars into the tunnel walls when he took that map shortcut. Finally, the light at the end of the tunnel appeared and he hit his booster. His sports car nearly flew out of the shortcut and landed in front of Violet_Fire, who must have thought their win was inevitable since he was so far behind and therefore didn't bother taking it in the first place.

He nearly flipped his keyboard in excitement after zooming across the finish line in first place. He'd get to keep his custom car, and talk to his biggest racing nemesis voice-to-voice. To find out if they were who he suspected they were. He quickly typed in into the chat box.

MegaZoom: I'm on the RH05 channel.

He flipped his headset microphone to ‘on’ and had to swallow a few lumps in his throat. It was just a race in a video game but his adrenaline was high. A second later Violet_Fire's avatar popped up in the voice chat—it was of a purple flame. Plumbbobs, what was he going to say?

"H...h..hi there," he stuttered out but lowered the register of his voice significantly.

"I want a rematch," came the clear voice of Violet_Fire. Definitely female, definitely familiar and his heart seemed to stop beating and all the saliva in his mouth dried up entirely.

"Sore loser much?" he finally asked. It had seemed like minutes between when she spoke but in all-reality was only a few seconds. He would never speak in this way to Alanna face-to-face but it would just make her suspicious if his online persona suddenly started being super nice for no reason.

"I thought crashing into you would have pushed you far enough behind, and I never would have thought you'd take the shortcut on the valley map."

Reggie laughed, "I knew you wouldn't."

"Anyway, I got on chat like you wanted. What now? Want me to trash talk you like you asked?"

"I didn't ask you to trash talk me! I just figured it'd be interesting to hear you do it with your own voice."

It was kind of surreal, to hear her talk so candidly. It made him wonder how calculated her words were in a regular basis; he’d always assumed her kind words were the norm but she was really quite brash behind the mask of anonymity.

"So, you're a girl,"

"How observant of you," she snapped back before he could get to his point.

"No, I knew when you first talked but I'm wondering if I could ask your advice on something?"

She made a long, low sound that gave of the impression she was apprehensive or even inconvenienced, "Suuuuurrreee."

"What is your idea of a perfect date?"

"Why are you asking?" she teased.

If she only knew.

But he was glad he had the upper hand and she didn’t know who he really was.

"There's this girl I like and was going to ask her out but I haven't been on a date for years..."

There was nothing but silence, and he dreaded she recognized his voice or figured out his identity but after a few moments, her voice rang through with a suggestion--"Take her stargazing."

"Stargazing?"

"Yeah, like cuddling under the stars or something. I know it's pretty nerdy and all but I'm just kind of fascinated about the galaxy, are we the only ones out here? You know? I had a telescope when I was little, but my sister kept hogging it and we'd fight over it."

It was even more evident the person he was talking to was Alanna with that fact. He knew she had a sister, and her sister was kind of unpleasant and snide from what he remembered. He could feel for poor little Alanna being bullied away from her telescope and her suggestion and anecdote only made her more adorable.

"Hey, it's okay. I mean we do play a lot of video games so that makes us nerdy anyway, right?" he tried to reassure her.

"Speak for yourself, video games are the new cool!"

He laughed as did she and he felt more at ease, like he was talking to her normally as if they were chemistry partners in high school again. Well, all besides his lowered voice, which he had been careful to maintain the lowered tone as he talked as not to arouse suspicion.

"How long have you been playing Rush Hour? You're pretty damn good." Reggie asked.

"I started about a year ago. My brother gave me a link to download the free trial and it got me kind of hooked on it."

Reggie recalled that Alanna had a brother as well.

"How did you get into it?" she asked in turn.

"I saw it was a recommended play in a gaming magazine and so went out and bought a copy. I've been playing since I started college."

"What college?"

"Sim State. You?"

"I didn't say I went to college."

He inwardly cursed for giving away info that he knew more about her than she knew he would know.

"But do you?" He asked, covering over his blunder, “I mean you sound like you could be a student.”

"I do and I am."

"Where?"

"I think...I've given enough personal info for one day. Good luck on your date and let's race again soon, Zoom." she said then added, "That is, if you want to lose!"

With that, she disconnected and he wasn't even offended by her last needling comment.

How could it be that a girl he thought was perfect had somehow become even more so? What was more perfect than perfection? Divinity? Was Alanna Thackery, in fact, a goddess?

He stood to stretch his legs because he'd been sitting for a while at his computer. The lightness he felt at winning, and knowing that the girl of his dreams was his one and only gaming rival made him feel as though he could lift off the ground at any moment--happy enough to fly if he could. He only took a few steps back until he felt the bed frame behind his knees and fell onto his mattress with a heavy sense of satisfaction. Something, something had gone his way for once.

His imagination ran wild thinking of what other games she could have played, a fierce spark in her eyes as she raced, the determined smile between her lips when she was focused on winning. He fantasized about this side of Alanna he'd never seen—the competitive, sassy, unapologetically candid version of her.

Picturing her, in all her perfection behind closed eyelids--made him smile and hope that his plan to ask her out would work. He could plan her idea of a perfect date and then she’d have no reason not to fall for him.

A different *ping* sound suddenly went off--a faint little note coming out of his headphones which he had taken off before standing up. It was a chat box on a tab he’d left open on a web browser. He sat up, and curiously went to check it out.

The web page was sitting on the student profile site--a place he often visited to see if Alanna had added any new pictures or updates he could use as conversation fodder the next time he saw her. She hadn’t messaged him though. It was, to his very ultimate surprise--Marshall Cosgrove.

Marshall Cosgrove: Hey u there?

Reginald Orbinson: Yeah why? What do you want?

Marshall Cosgrove:  Meet me at the coffee shop on the east edge of campus.

Reggie felt himself frown. Why would the Hoh Fruhm President suddenly be interested in meeting with Reggie when the day before he had made it clear that Reggie was never going to be allowed in?

Reginald Orbinson: Why would I?

Marshall Cosgrove: Cuz I have a proposition that could get you in.

He didn’t have to specify as to what Reggie could get ‘in’ and Reggie felt like his luck was on a roll that evening. If he got into Hoh Fruhm, everything would be right in the world. 

It was downright chilly outside, and Reggie could feel himself shivering in his jacket even. There weren’t any cricket chirping which had been a constant for the past three seasons. The night felt kind of lonely as he made his way to the edge of campus. He was to meet Marshall Cosgorve at the same coffee shop where they had seen each other the day before. Reggie headed toward the entrance, eager to get out of the cold but a voice stopped him.

“Orbinson.”

He halted and looked to the right to see Cosgrove backed up against one of the decorative fences that contained a tree with his arms crossed. The front of the coffee shop was a charmingly landscaped area that he didn’t mind sitting in between classes when the weather was nice. 

“Cosgrove,” he nodded and approached, waiting to hear what Marshall had to say, “Why the change of heart?”

Marshall merely glowered, as if he didn’t want to be offering Reggie a way in but he had no other choice, “To put it plainly, I need you to get some information on someone--I can’t use any of the guys at Hoh Fruhm because we are all being watched rather closely after today.”

“Why, what happened today?” 

Whatever it was that was bothering Marshall, seemed to explode as he threw his arms out, “We got raided! The police showed up on an anonymous tip that illegal substances were being used at our parties. They found pills, and now the charter is in jeopardy--Hoh Fruhm is on probation!”

“But not double-secret probation?” Reggie asked with a smirk. Marshall wasn’t amused by the reference and he slumped back against the fence.

“I’m sure I know who tipped the police off; the guy that left the frat a week ago--and the entire Greek Society like he was better than us.”

“Okay but what do you want me to do about it?”

“I want you to get some dirt on him. I’ll use it to ruin him. If he thinks he can just walk away and then drag us through the mud afterward then he has another thing coming. You get this information on him and I will let you join the vacancy he left behind.”

Reggie felt himself shiver but wasn't sure if it was because of the cold or the absolute hatred and determination in Marshall's voice. Reggie’s cleared his throat, he didn't know who this person was yet but it was possible that it would be impossible to deliver what Marshall wanted, "What if I can’t find any dirt on him?”

Marshall let out a scornful laugh, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree as far as the Calhouns are concerned. Nick’s dad is one of the slimiest son a bitches I’ve ever seen and you can probably agree since he’s running against yours in the election. So help me get dirt on Nick–he’ll go down like he should, and you get into the frat you've been wanting to all these years. It’s a win-win.”

Nicholas Calhoun.

Now there was a name that Reggie hadn’t heard for a long time. Reggie didn’t have to think long about the offer, because unbeknownst to Marshall, Nick and Reggie weren’t on friendly terms anyway. He had no emotional conflict in trying to cause Nick any embarrassment or hurt Marshall would have him suffer. It wasn’t like Nick Calhoun ever considered how much his words would affect young Reggie–getting every kid in school to laugh at him on a weekly basis when they were children.

But as much Reggie wouldn’t mind digging up dirt on Nick, he wanted more than what Marshall was offering for it.

“If I can get you the information you want to bury Nick, I want a position in the frat--vice president.”

Marshall nearly growled in response, “I can’t guarantee that, those positions are voted on by the members every semester...”

Reggie whirled around, a knowing frown plastered on his face, “The Calhouns aren’t the only slimy son of bitches in Kashmire--your father orchestrated the entire election between my dad and Elm Calhoun. You haven’t been fraternity president all these years because of your popularity, so don’t  tell me you can’t rig your own house elections.”

Marshall’s livid expression let up slightly at being called out, seeming to mull over Reggie’s demand. Reggie wasn’t naive, he knew Marshall would try to find a way to screw him over once he got what he wanted, especially now that he’d demanded a place of rank within Hoh Fruhm. He half expected Marshall to withdraw the offer but to his surprise, the blond straightened up and nodded.

“Okay, I’ll see what I can move around--but only if you get what I want. Nick Calhoun will pay for what he’s done.”

“Shake on it,” Reggie demanded and Marshall lifted his arm, extending his hand. Reggie took it in a firm grasp and they shook. It was a good thing Marshall came to him for this task--Cosgrove likely banked on Reggie’s desperation to join the Greek society as a sure way to obtain what he needed but Reggie could do one better. He had a spybot and that made all the difference between failure and victory.