#plus Red and Candy do use each part as their nicknames

[jean-does-not-have-a-horseface]

Neon Silhouettes

Hello! I’m very happy to finally post this because ive been working on this for a month! This is serving as an entry to @ackermans-freedom-inc discord challenge. Behold it’s long!

Word Count: 10.538k, i’m not even sorry

Pairing: Eren/ Reader

Tags: a n g s t, vigilante!au

Warnings: blood, violence, major character death (? its open to interpretation) 

In contrast to yours, Eren's breath is hot and tainted on the nape of your neck when you push him away from your form in an attempt to get more oxygen running through your system. The hazy high of your orgasm is mighty, similar to a fairytale like dream and makes all air around you run thin with each passing second. You're not sure if you're paying much attention to it, though, because your breath seems to be completely restored before you even think about catching up with it.

Eren makes a loud thud as he plops himself into the matress with his utmost enthusiastic moves. You can tell by his reactions that he enjoyed this intercourse even more than he'll ever admit -not that he's shy to ever do so- and that he seeks a way to relax himself from his own high. For that very reason, his hands are rather quick to pull you on his panting chest, just to provide some comfort for himself but in the process your silent plea to get a breather is long forgotten. You feel you head being smashed onto his smooth skin and you relax under the touch, thinking that you could cease this moment to fall into serenity as well.

With your heart still beating through your ribs though, you contemplate on whether or not falling into serenity now is a logical idea at all. Anxiety has planned seeds in your stomach ever since a few hours prior to your solo patrol in this area of Trost, merely at the thought of bumping into Eren. You had been practicing the words your comrades had assigned you to consider one too many times, and yet, the moment you laid eyes on Eren's helmet covered face your nervousness had worked wonders on turning them into thin air. It had happened so fast that you wondered if this was an actual new power you could posses.

Nevertheless, the anxiety is back now and it's growing its bindweeds in the pits of your stomach. A chapped piece of your lip is stuck under your front teeth, ready to be ripped off as your fingers are mimicking a walk, up and down on Eren's chest. You're not sure if you can talk and consequentially, the thin piece of flesh is ripped away from your lips forcefully, allowing the thin, iron like taste of blood to conquer your senses.

And in the moment it's all you can focus on.

It's always like this when it comes to Eren and yours passionate rendezvous; your mind is drenched of any thought other than him, your heart ceases to pulse inside your body and your legs feel like the most trashy, inexpensive jello -yes the one you ought to find at random 7/11s in the middle of nowhere after a long night of patrol when you're so hungry that your stomach feels likes its going to burst throughout your mouth canal. And yes, you've tried to restrain yourself from feeling this way, but it's not easy, especially when Eren's hand comes to tangle its way through your hair, scratching softly at your roots.

Clicking your tongue in your mouth though, you can't help but let your mind wander just for you to realise it's been so long since you've had said trashy jello dessert. It's not like you exactly miss it -no, you wouldn't say you did, its taste was atrocious- but it's nostalgic to think about your debut days as a younger superhero. Especially when you think about that it was due to that that you met Eren.

The thought that feasts on your brain though is nothing more than a projection of everyone's nostalgia of Eren, not only yours. The only reason he's laying underneath you with his right hand bent under his head and catching his heavy breaths as his chest basically pulsates and squirms under your form is because you've chosen to dance in that dark sewer of a world that is the reality of anti heros. Everyone who knows about you and Eren -mostly Levi and Mikasa- have pushed you over the edge of trying to shake him off of his criminal killing rampage, but you know him better than anyone. Thus, in reality, you don't know about whether you should utter that little speech that's at the tip of your tongue.

You nervously chew onto that tiny piece of flesh you've ripped from your lip for over a minute before you dare to try and think about what to do with it. Swallowing seems like a good option, the thought of spitting it like a bitten off nail unsettles you to a certain extent, plus you're not sure if bitten flesh activates Eren's titan senses. You never truly know what triggers people with titan powers and you're not about to risk it. Ironically, that's exactly how you're feeling when it comes to your thoughts but after you feel the teeny bundle of flesh go down your throat your mouth washes the taste of iron away and parts to your brain's command.

"Eren?" You breath out, your eyes despairately trying to fixate on anything other than his form.

Eren's finger is harsh and calloused to the touch as it mellowy grazes the soft skin on the underside of your wrist. Your eyes are finally fixed to the circling movements and though you want to give in the the long for sleep your eyelids suddenly ache for, your mind, much allured by how serene everything feels, pushes you to protest against it. There's nothing you can do about your fast mouth though; resenting it hasn't ever seemed like the way to go through with it.

"Yeah, baby?" Eren half moans to your direction.

You notice how he shifts his form comfortably from underneath you, obviously in search of the perfect sleeping position. Naturally this should have kept you back from speaking further; well this and the fact that he isn't exactly expecting what you're about to say, but nonetheless you swallow hard and bite on the inside of your cheek before you open your mouth to speak once again.

"Can we talk about it, lovey?" You hesitate with the nickname, yet when you utter it you know you dont regret its sappy nature.

"About it?"

"You know," you trail off "About the Titans case."

"What is there to talk about? We'll sort the case out one and for all, we've agreed on it."

Well of course, for both you and Eren, and probably every other person in this world, this case is something that should permanently close. It only seems fair, all those years that you've spent being hunted by those monsters are starting to put an overwhelming amount of weight into modern superheros and anti-heros alike. Everyone basically had the same goal concerning this case, yet people are still split as to how it should be closed.

Eren says it's fitting for The Titans to pay for their sins with more blood than they have managed to spill; they're a top crime syndicate that focuses on abducting humans and mutating them into bloodlusting monsters, just for the purposes of creating their own sick and twisted army of mindless pawns. Eren, having fallen an indirect victim of their brutality stands by his beliefs and won't let a titan standing on their feet when he encounters one.

But he wasn't always like this. Not exactly

Back in the day when he worked as Levi's sidekick, he wouldn't brutalize them to the point where they'd bleed to death, but he would make sure they weren't going ever be healed again, not even if they were ever given an antidote. His falling out with Levi and your team of superheroes though, followed by the brutal murder of his mother had withered Eren's psyche with tormentous force.

You furrow your brows as your mind travels back to those dark memories, dipping into necessary pieces of information that need to be composed in some way for you to reply to him. Ironically, it was when Eren turned his back on your team that you found some major leads as to who run the Titans and possibly even why.

"We'll sort the case," you say "but I don't think you should be murdering them."

Eren takes the hand that acts as a comforter over your harshly and pinches the bridge of his nose as he exhales in disapproval. You know, his face must be scrunched in misery right now, brows puckered over his nose and eyes firmly closed shut. You can listen to his heart and in turn you feel the buzzing his pulse makes as it speeds up a tad.

"We've talked about this. You do you. And I do me."

For a moment you contemplate on whether you want to use your psychic superpowers on him. To think that you can change his mindset is an enchanting thought; in fact right now, it's so alluring that you feel the familiar awakening of your powers rush through your veins. It feels like cotton candy colored poison -that's probably the best way you can describe it according to other psychic's. Your powers, as naive and endearing they may seem can easily flip the cards on you at any given moment of weakness; it's like your natural instincts awaken with a mind of their own to protect and help their host. But it's merely unethical and dictating to force such change on your beloved as much as it is to do so on the next person.

Your mouth puckers to the right as you let your brain roam over every single possible outcome that this conversation can have, yet you never even flinch on Eren's chest, sternly refusing to let your body react to his words. One wrong reaction and Eren's hotheadedness will bite you in the ass.

"Dont be like that, (y/n)." Eren says

You have to admit he's catching you off guard when his hand comes to move your chin to point at his direction. It's his checkmate move and he knows it, blinking his real eyes into yours, he frees his brows from their gathering, leaving small red lines as reminders of his temper behind. You on the other hand, with your short hitched breaths and that constipated look on your face though you can't help but predict his next sarcastic plea.

"Don't look at me like that."

You cough that little angry, hot huff of air that's trapped inside your lungs for oh so long before you plough your elbows under your face to support your form in order to face him. You never detach yourself from him and you don't plan on doing so, this is probably the only way to make him feel that you take into consideration all his boiling bad blood.

"You know damn well why I'm looking at you like that."

"I do." He shrugs casually and then proceeds to shut his eyes in despair "but you're not here to question my means." Eren sighs in defeat as the words come out of him and proceeds to wrap his arm around you again.

However you pucker your eyebrows further, bringing them impossibly closer to your eyes as you boil the words you seek to speak in the back of your throat "I'm not questioning them. I'm resenting them. I'm not even playing the goody superhero on you, but really why are you doing this?"

You never fail to notice how Eren bites the inside of his cheek or how he clenches his grip on you almost like a silent warning at to what territory you're opting to walk into, but you ignore it, sighing all the way through your mouth hoping that the little oxygen you can fill your lungs with is enough to get you through this.

"Everyone misses you. Don't you care about that?"

Does he? Eren wants to believe that whatever he's doing he's doing it because all of you are excessively significant to him. I all honesty he is fuming over the fact that you don't see how this is the only inevitable option. He hates for his alter ego to be called a mass murderer in the news every other day just as much as he hates the fact that people choose to see a redeemable side to human flesh eating mutants.

"If I don't do what I do, history is going to repeat it self." He spits, harshly enough that he's sure you won't reply just yet. "You and this pretentious superhero facade are not going to be here to live it down with me though."

He watches as your face contorts in surprise as his words fall, your mouth snapping open in order to utter your quick fetched reply but he cuts you off with an even harsher tone this time.

"I'm clearing the world from all this alright? There are many people that do so as well-"

"Who? Flotch and Yelena?" You cut him off, but still he brushes it off.

With a shift in your movements you're on your back, your arms moving mechanically to grab onto the covers to bring them onto your bare chest. Eren can read the action all too well and he hates it, he hates it enough that he runs his hands painfully through his hair, despairate to get them away from the burning skin on his neck. Anxiety has worked wonders on his body, he figures.

"You, Levi, Mikasa, Jean, Connie! Want me to throw more names in your face? Me and my team finish off what you guys chicken out to do." Eren's voice is calm yet his tone is drenched in poison, that mellow sound he makes when he re opens his mouth is what's pushing you over the edge, making your blood boil inside your body. It causes you to wrap your fingers tightly onto the blanket that covers your chest, your fists turning white as you clench on it with full force. As if it can help you concentrate all of your anger on the spot.

Naturally, it can't.

"We're not chickening out Eren, we focus on containing all evil, not annihilating it. To think you can do that-"

"I can-" Eren cuts you off, though you won't let him continue until you get your point across.

"You must be really dumb to carry that mindset. What happens after you annihilate the titans, will you do the same for any other similar crime syndicate? Or are your motives personal only when it comes to this one?"

Eren bites on the sides of his tongue with a piercing force and swallows hard on the bitterweet spit that forms due to the action. He forcefully tosses his head to both left and right to shake away any unwanted thought out of his mind but it hurriedly proves to be fruitless. As much as he has liked to think that you can get past that fight on your morals one day, it's obvious to him that it's a fundamental dynamic between the two of you. It's a concrete wall that's none of you can or are willing to try to go through. And he doesn't like that, not one bit.

"Don't try to boss me into your beliefs." His eyes widen as he speaks, voice tainted in a growling anger that he can feel cooking inside his chest.

"I'm not bossing you Eren, stop acting like this."

"Why are you so fucking hang up on this now out of all times?" He spits more so that questions.

"We're so close to catching Zeke and your team is close to doing so as well, I'm just worried." You admit, shyly loosening the clenched cover from your fist in fear of ripping it. "I want us to be a normal couple after this. I care about you."

Your mind is fogged with animalistic rage, yet you still manage to swallow it down, past that lump in the back of your throat that tik dangerously on your clock and threatens to burst. It's only when you try to show the nature of your thoughts and intentions that you watch Eren's face finally contort in rage that's much similar to yours. You fall back for a brief moment, allowing him to take advantage of the silence in the room to answer back to you.

"When I catch Zeke I'm not sparing him."

Eren lets the breath that's trapped in the depths of his chest out before it manages to suffocate him. Thinking about Zeke and how he's standing opposite to him makes him feel sick to the stomach, but he has accepted that it's only just his luck that his half brother happens to be working for the titans. Accepting that Zeke wants to collect all nine original titans for the syndicate to use as they wish has been a hard task to do so, he can admit to that much but he's swore to never let his connection to the man hold him back from putting an end to this misery.

"Eren don't be so stubborn." You plea, brows impossibly covering your eyes as your voice reeks of rage.

"I'm not, quit playing the rightful hero and maybe we can have this conversation when you'll be able to see things from my side."

He can see that you're drowning in your own words, fighting to find the right syllabuses to utter, but he refuses to give you any time, his own rage is ticking like a bomb, he can feel his stomach growling in the familiar numbness anger casts upon his organs and he knows he can't hold back.

"Do what you gotta do, but I'm ending them, I'll fight your team too if I have to get to what needs to be done."

"Oh yeah?" You let out an amused, angry chuckle before continuing "You'll fight me?"

"Gladly!" Eren spits, his eyes wide as his eyebrows twitch in determination.

"Don't say things you can't take back. Don't be an asshole."

"Last time I checked the definition of an asshole was someone who won't support their partner in their decisions, whether they agree with them or not."

You glance towards Eren's drawer, fuming to the point you struggle to control your powers. Your breath is refusing to regulate even if you beg for it to work the way you want it to, causing you to try and think of the most possibly rational plan to get your self out of this situation. You can't stand looking at Eren for the time being, any glance at his side is making you fume to the point your insides coil making you think you're going to start emitting smoke.

"Fuck! Fuck! You won't even try to understand me, I don't even know what I'm doing with you."

You have a small drawer filled with your clothes at Eren's place and he has one in yours. Convently, you've persuaded him to keep a superpower restraining collar in case either of you ever go out of control, which seems to be the case for you now. Eren's last words are poisoning you, burning their way inside your veins. Thus reaching the collar becomes your ultimate goal in the moment; you resent the extend in which your own powers can reach and you refuse to cause more drama by hurting Eren without intending to.

Your ears fall deaf to what Eren is fuming about, its necessary to try and keep ignoring him if you want to focus on completing this simple task. Your head is spinning, lost in the dark colored vertigo you've entered in your effort to focus on your goal. Pushing past it is vital in any case you want to prevent anything from happening. With the sudden swing of your wrist the drawer bursts open with force, the small amount of clothes inside are shot to the ceiling.

The metallic collar shines under the light as it stands proudly in the air as clothes continue to practically spill to any direction. Your stretched fingers make a half turn, as if signing the way to you to the object, your thumb shoting as far back as it can physically can go while your pinky stands inches away from the edge of your palm and your wrist. Your heart is hammering inside your chest for the remaining seconds it takes for the object to come to you and though, even if it's coming to you at full force and speed any passing moment feels like an eon.

You almost manage to sigh in relief as the metal touches tour throat but the action is cut short the moment your breath suddenly hitches reflexively. The collar fails to wrap around your throat and click in place, rather than that its resting in Eren's palm. The veins in his arm are twitching much expectly; he's using all of his force to hold the collar back, fighting your control over the object with his inhuman strength, still you won't let go of your hold either, not caring as to what is going to happen to the object, it won't last for long with all this strength force upon it, you're sure of that.

"If you want to me to respect you enough to fight with you, you won't enslave yourself with none of these fucking shits. Handle your powers on your own."

Your eyes are twitching, your forehead finally giving in to an endless amount of sweaty droplets. There's a throb mirrored by your pulse in the edge of your neck and you throw your head back in defeat before you even manage to think about it. The collar crumbles and smashes in Eren's palm under his grip, the metal cracking slightly as his skin twitches and burns in protest.

"I want us to be free of this, you think if get my hands dirty if it wasn't supposed to end in a way that I expected and calculated meticulously?"

Despite the fact that Eren is spitting those facts, you manage to distinguish the true intention of his choice of words, pushing past his harsh tone. It's unfair that you chose to anger him to such extend, you're angry as well but you come to realise that it's only because you are both afraid. Eren is afraid if losing you and his friends to the hands of another titan and you're afraid to lose Eren in the hands of his bloodlust. The collision between good or bad is only what you try to mask your fears with; what you see as bad and evil, Eren does so as well. Your perspective only changes as to how you view the means to reach the rightful good.

War can't exist without peace and peace can't exist without war.

You think back to what you told him earlier and in a snap you realise that for the time being, that's just about as normal as the two of you can get. An anti hero with his hands clenching a crushed power restraining collar, because he detests anything that strips people off their freedom and their given right to it, and a concerned superhero with her head thrown back in deafeat, giving up on trying to get a so called noble point across. In a way, both you and Eren have chosen this when you decided to take a shared path despite the fundamental differences on your beliefs.

And for a moment you think you're going to get past it. All couple have fights, all couples gets enraged with each other at least once in their span of time but they always manage to bounce back and stand on their feet next to each other. You're not exactly sure if Eren is standing right next to you or if he's opposed to you both literally and mentally but you relax back in the comforter thinking that you'll get an answer in a moment.

Eren's breaths are finally starting to regulate and he can't help but take notice of you slipping inside the comforter, your head hitting the pillow with a muffled thud. His long bangs are sprawled over his face, some fine chocolate hairs tingling the sensitive skin on his nose, some of their edges tickling at his fleshy lips. His mind is blurry, so blurry that he refuses to acknowledge the hand that is still clinging onto the collar, his posture is finally fixed on the bed before he decides to slide down in a movement so that he can lay right next to you.

"I'm sorry." He speaks first, his left hand forming into a fist as it lands on his forehead, pressing with its back on the throbbing veins and nerves that beg to release some of the tention they have gathered.

"I shouldn't have brought it up, it's my fault."

"Seems like we can't meet halfway when it comes to this." He hazes.

“No” 

Sighing, you sink further into the matress, raising your hand to mimic Eren’s actions to cover your face with the back of your hand. You chirp a little sound of misery as you do so, finding hard to swallow down through the knot that has formed in your throat.

"Is this it?" You ask, your voice barely louder than a whisper "Is this how it's going to be for us?"

"If you think I'm going to give up on my beliefs for you then I have some bad news."

Eren turns his head to you, sternly fixing his teal eyes in yours while his jaw is clenching, his bottom lip trembling and worrying as he chews on his words. A hitched sigh exits your nose as your eyes start burning I'm their attempt to hold back tears, the corners of your lips curving downwards causing your button lip to pucker sourly. You keep on staring at Eren and he keeps staring back at you, both of your chests heaving with short chopped breaths. You don't dare touch each other, not right now when you can't hold back your emotions, but you can definitely see how hurt he looks just as much as he can do the same for you.

"Well I can't turn my back on mine either." You choke, not daring to part your mouth enough for the words to exit correctly.

"Maybe you should just-" Eren opens his mouth, twitching out the words before he manages to mumble them "go."

The tears that threaten to spill from the corners of your eyes are finally flowing, running in burning hot streaks past your nose before landing cold onto your ear. You hate it, you hate the moist sensation on your cornch and you hate that Eren's eyes never fail to notice every single tiny droplet that fall from your lips.

His constipated expression won't scatter away from his face, rather than that it only hardens as he tried to hold back and onto those tiny pools in the corners of is eyes.

He wants to speak, you know because he keeps opening his mouth to do so, but the only sounds he emits are deep growls of pain. He doesn't know how to feel about them, you've seen him cry numerous times, yet this heartbreak seems so inevitably painful to endure on his own. It's another love he has to bid goodbye because of those godamn titans and it's even more painful that he knows that by annihilating them, he'll never be able to claim you as his anymore.

He'd rather clear the world for you to live peaceful and free though.

...

The sound of your fists colliding with the back leather of a boxing sack fills the air, bouncing in between the gray marble colored walls of the headquarters. The room you're in is soundproof, causing the sound to linger in the air as you pant, holding your sour spit in your mouth as you throw another punch and kick to the sack. Sweat drips from your forehead and onto the mat beneath you yet you make no movement in trying to wipe it off, you simply let it drip while picking up your foot in order to flip it onto the dummy.

"Easy there now"

When Jean's hand comes to rest on your shoulder giving you a little comforting squeeze, you jump on your spot, startled much by the sudden action. For a moment you avoid turning your head to face him; despite the amount of mellow warmth and comfort his touch provides you with, you don't feel like you can regulate that rush of adrenaline that pumps through your veins.

Your fists, numb by the raw force you've used to launch punches to the boxing sack before you are now inevitably frozen, hugging the dummy with enough strength to make it fall in place. As the sound of the metallic chain clashing fills the air your nostrils snort hot huffs of air, your eyes squinting shut as your brows remain furrowed to forbid any drop of sweat from running down to your face. Jean inspects your constipated expression as he moves around, taking small steps as he approaches you from this new position, finally coming to face you with an understanding smile.

"I noticed you're pushing your self a lot lately." He says, his hand coming to squeeze on your shoulder once again. He presses his lips into a thin line, the action making his straight nose scrunch slightly.

"It's fine." You snark "I could use some excessive combat training to be honest. Mikasa said you and her can help someday."

"Okay then! Let's spare now." Jean says enthusiastically and his hands come to his sides, his fists clenched as a smug expression appears on his face "Ditch the dummy."

Nonetheless you snicker in response. Bringing your finger to your temple, you awkwardly scratch on the tender skin at the tail of your eyebrow. Next, your hands come to your loose ponytail, giving a little tag at the elastic loop that's used to hold them in place, pulling it down to the ends of your hair.

"Sorry, not in the mood." You bite, but Jean is irritatingly not ready to give up on you just yet.

"Weren't you just splitting your knuckles, punching that sack? Like, a few seconds ago? Drop the emo attitude and show me what you got."

Kissing your teeth you bow down, aiming to go for the towel you've neatly folded on your foamy work out mat, taking it carefully in your hands in order to bring it to your sweat dripping face. While crossing his hands to his chest, Jean throws you his signature expression of disapproval -yes, the one he liked to throw at Eren while calling him a suicidal bastard and yes, if Mikasa, not just anyone, asked him he'd admit to having missed the particular interaction with your now ex boyfriend. The male sighs, parting his mouth open, ready to utter what he thinks will help you.

"If it helps, I've been saying Eren is a dick from the very start, I'm sorry you had to be convinced of the fact in such way."

Its your turn to throw him a disapproving look now.

Jean, similarly to the next person, knows how much you hate talking about /that/ fateful night with Eren. The wound is still fresh -whether or not it took place a few weeks ago, the pain of being ripped away from your lover over your ideals isn't a wound that's easy to close and additionally it's rather hard when you know nothing can come of an attempt to reconcile. But Jean can't just silently stand to watch you destroy your self and your relationships with people who care about you.

Each passing day you trade your words for mumbles and grunts, your signs of affection into powerful punches aimed either at that old black dummy you were hugging a few seconds or at a vast amount of metas during nighttime patrols. Knowing you and how you handle such outrages, Jean is sure that at this point you've smashed your fists against each and every single one of these gray marble colored walls, only holding back your self as to not smash Armin's tech corner. But before he gets a chance to shake his head in the slightest only to get ready to mouth his comfort speech to you, the automatic glass doors to the room open.

Turning his head around, Jean is met with Connie and Armin as they enter the room, both of them sparing him their most confused look upon inspecting the scene unraveling before them. Jean shrugs his shoulders, throwing his hands up in defeat, his eyes traveling quickly between you and his friends, signaling them you're proving to be difficult to deal with once again.

As the door behind him closes with a woosh Connie sucks on the inside of his cheek, trapping the tender gum between his teeth, his lips puckering slightly as he looks at you, his otherwise playful eyes now squinted in worry.

"What?" You speak, pressing your lips together and pushing them to the side of your face. Reluctantly, you cock a brow to Connie's direction.

"Me?" With his thumb to exaggerate the word, Connie points to himself and the proceeds to take a few steps towards Jean. Finally, he bends his hand, resting his fist over his hip, throwing his weight onto one leg. "You're the one with the constipated expression."

"Give me a break everyone" you shrug, shaking your head in defeat.

"Sasha said you pushed yourself too far last night during patrol."

"Yeah, so what?" You ask, batting your eyes to the male trio. You're probably as unamused as they are at this point.

You notice how Armin is the one to let out a sigh next, his blonde hair swaying by the force of air that exits his mouth. He's angrily clapping his foot to the ground while clenching his fists to his sides, his baby blue eyes fixated on you. You bring the top of your finger to your head, scratching the skin just below your ear, your foot awkwardly rocking back and forth. It's almost as if no one in the room can avoid the the upcoming conversation right now.

All Armin sees is that your lip is split, bruised much like your eyebrow and a part of your jaw. There's a lot of dried blood on each tiny wound, but the amount is enough to make up for the lack of proper patching and the sight is heartbreaking to the point it makes the blond's blood boil. If Armin could find it in himself to utter a word he would be able to name a good amount of reasons as to why he was enraged with you. One of them being the fact that you've been brutalizing yourself in the streets every night and another one that you've been definitely pushing yourself even more during training, aiming to shut yourself off of your team completely.

"Armin, if you have something to say, then just shoot it."

The way you poke at him is reluctant and nervous in nature. Your jaws clutch together, your shivering teeth making tiny chattering sounds. Armin parts his lips, placing a hand on the gray colored wall behind him, hanging his head down in nervousness. In all reality, he shouldn’t speak his mind, he knows that very well, his personal empathetic feelings for Eren don’t exactly have a reason to have an impact in this situation. Furthermore he’s simply the intel guy, the only member of the team in the team that doesn’t participate in any heroic or vigilantic activity. To interfere with your nightime business would probably harm him more than anyone in the end. As your friend he had to take a stance on what you were going through.

“We’ve all been hurt by Eren.” That’s all that Armin manages to say before putting his feet to work, matching silently to his computer corner, “But, that’s why we are a team. We’re supposed to hold each other when things go wrong. And you need us as much as we need you.”

Rubbing your eyes with your pointer fingers, you let out a deep sigh. When you look up Connie and Jean are half smiling at you, their thumbs pointing upwards and for a fragment of a second, you manage to crack a small smile. You feel your eyes burning slightly, their fleshy corners stinging, but you refuse to let yoyr tears flow now, despite being moved by your friends’ word and noble intentions you keep your emotional breakdown to yourself. You only hope the males are convinced by your small smile.

“Armin has the intel on Zeke’s cargo shipment!” Connie says and immediately his ribs are crushed by Jean’s elbow. “What?”

“Stupiid. We’re not supposed to stress her!”

“It’s fine guys, this is our job.”

Connie links his arm with yours, your sweaty skin littering his long sleeve shirt but he pays the action absolutely no mind, not as much as you at least, and then he proceeds to stick his tongue out to Jean. Jean twitches his eyebrow at him, seemingly irritated by his friend’s smug expression and picks up his feet, marching as fast as you do, trying to catch up. The playful atmosphere is lifting you up, you can definately feel your previous mood lighten by each passing second.

“Speak Armin!” Connie playfully dictates squeishing your elbow in the process.

Armin lets out a laugh, fixing his glasses on the bridge of his nose, his eyes glimmering under the bright blue light of the numerous screens.

“Fine, look,” he says clicking on a tab on the middle screen’s task manager The tab pops up, shining a bright white light thats making your eyes squint. Armin then clicks on some folders and signs at you to wait until the images load. When in turn they pop up, they reveal numerous hsots of the titans new hideaway. Some photos are showing Zeke and his gang standing before it, then entering it. You even catch a glimpse of Pieck, the flash of raven hair is much more evident now that shes standing between her blonde team members.

“Do we have the adress?” Jean asks and you can’t help but notice that the look in his eyes is darkening in an a mere instant.

“It’s in alleyway near the port. Although the front is standing proudly on a very well lit place in 6th Avenue.” You nod steadily, sliding your hand upwards to give a comforting touch to Connie’s fingers that are still linked to the inside of your elbow. “Levi gave me the intel to investigate, he came across them the other day and then he searched for security cameras, you know the drill.”

Jean raises his voice authoritatively and sternly as he points to some photos, informing Armin that he needs to investiagte the area around them and prompts you an Connie to do the same as well. He says that it’s necessary to know the area you’ll be oparating on in the following days. You simply nod, extending yor hand to Armin’s direction to point in which pictures you want him to send you and he does as you say not even giving it a second thought.

“Please don’t send them to Eren.”

You pretend to be shocked, but in reality you're not. You understand where Armin is coming from when he mouths the statement, but you assure him that you won't try to communicate with Eren for any reason. You're in no place to put yourself through such thing, not now, not until your job is done.

...

Pushing on his feet, Eren rushes all of his power to his heels, sending his self in the air. He takes a spin mid air, opening his arms wide on either of his sides after he grabs one the guns that rest on the cases that are tied to his breeches. He manages to grab a new line of bullets moments before he lands and he proceeds to shove it to the butt of the gun, the action sending the loud sound of metal colliding filling the air.

As expectedly, he lands on his feet. The annoying rush of his whole body weight on his heels doesn't bother him anymore, he's grown so used to it that it's become a routine. He throws a quickly glance behind him, making sure Flotch and Yelena are right behind him, running silently on their own pace, jumping from building to building.

"Yelena!" Eren shouts "I'm leaving Pieck and Porco to you. Go for the kill the moment you see an opening. And Flotch" he turns his head to the redhead, his voice reeked in authority even though it was muffled by his metallic helmet "Don't let any hero follow my tracks. No casualties. We're proving a point."

Flotch nods rapidly without uttering another word and spares a look to Yelena before they take turns to opposite directions. Eren continues to run straight ahead, his heavy combat boots clashing with various rooftops as he stomps on each one of them with force.

He immediately stops on his tracks as he catches a glimpse of blond hair in an alley. Peaking his head from the edge of a rooftop, he clicks on the side of his helmet, pushing the button that allowed the goggle feature in his helmet to activate.

Zooming in he sees you, your hands clad in an x above your head as you try to avoid the metallic rock like weapons Zeke is throwing at you with full force. Your left foot is thrown back, fully extended while your right leg is bent, your position providing stability as you try to push past and through Zeke's attack.

Through the distracting commotion, Zeke manages to get close enough to you and Eren watches as he lifts his left leg up, getting ready to clash it onto your head. Eren knows, Zeke's force can easily knock you out for several minutes; if he can break through walls with raw fists, Eren can't even phantom what the full capacity of his brute attack can do to your head.

Eren hisses to himself as he stands on his knees, clenching his fists to himself. Quickly enough the skin under his gloves hardens, forming an iron like material over his knuckles. He briefly makes sure they'd hard enough for the attack he has calculated in his mind by rubbing over his knuckles tenderly.

He inhales a good amount of air, his chest filling to the max as he tried on concentrating on his breathing. Regulating his heartbeat is important but he doesn't have enough time, Zeke is in the midst of throwing another wave of metallic rocks in your way. Suddenly Eren stands on his feet for a brief moment before proceeding to take a jump into the alleyway.

The next thing he knows is that his hardened fist lands exactly where he wanted to on Zeke's face, breaking his nose, the bone crashing and shattering making a horrid popping noise that echoes through the cobblestone walls.

His foot sets to find a way to your stomach, pushing a warning kick but with enough force to send you flying in the air, only for a short period of time though. Grunting, you land in a rooftop, clutching onto your pained stomach, coughing up a few breaths that were stuck in your chest upon impact.

Eren makes a fatal mistake; he turns his head to check up on you, momentarily letting down his guard as some form of guilt runs through him. The blond only manages to grasp onto that tiny fragment of his distraction.

Zeke is out of breath as he runs at his full capacity, counting down the seconds to make it to the end of the alley to escape Eren. Eren is fast, faster than the last time Zeke encountered him and slightly more buff, the blond can make out his muscles twitching in rage as he puts his weight onto the tips of his feet, running restlessly behind him. Eren grabs the spare gun that rests on his right thigh with one hand, the shiny spikes that decorate each side of the gun that could possibly land on him at any given moment dazzling him.

Deciding he can't avoid Eren for too long -hes practically right behind him at the very moment- Zeke turns on his feet and sets his right foot behind his left one, tightening his fists as he feels strength rush through his body.

Eren jumps onto him first delivering the first blow, careful not to take the fist that is aimed to him. He bucks down for a split second, avoiding Zeke's second blow and jumps, splitting his feet so that his left leg collides with Zeke's jaw. The blonde leaves a grunt of pain through his mouth, falling back in haze.

With a mid air spin, Eren lands a few meters away from Zeke. He wastes no time in allowing Zeke to catch his breath; he jumps, knee first to deliver a second kick, thought this time it fails to cause the damage he wants. Zeke catches him by the knee the moment he runs into him, gripping with animalistic force, managing to clash the iron kneecap Eren wears for protection.

Zeke lets out a scream as he lands his fist fiercely on Eren's helmet, successfully breaking a hole in it, the kevlar enhanced plastic helmet making a huge shattering sound, its pieces falling anywhere to the concrete ground bellow, some other smaller ones digging their way into Eren's skin.

The act enrages Eren; he backs away bringing his glived fist to wipe on what he figures is blood that's running from his lip. He watches as Zeke takes the chance to turn on his tracks to leave but he resents the act, he bucks slightly to his knees and proceeds to run full speed in his direction, his ultimate goal setting on tackling his brother.

"You're not getting away." Eren spits angrily.

"You've been practicing on your heroic puns haven't you little brother?" Zeke doesn't turn his head back to face Eren, the end of the alley is only a few meters away now, and he'd like to think that he can make it.

The elbow that crushes onto his face and send him in a momentary haze though does definitely belong to Eren. One because despite the vertigo that engulfs him, he can still hear Eren's iron clad footsteps and two because his body never hits the ground when the elbow detaches from his face.

"Where are you running off to Beast?"

Looking up with half lid eyes Zeke smiles a crooked line with his lips, nodding his head to greet you. You huff through your nose with determination, tightening the fist of your hand, causing Zeke to feel squished by the invisible grip you have on him. He squirms in place kicking his feet and expanding his palm.

"Are you here to save me from your lover boy?" Zeke bites at you loudly and your eyes quickly follow Eren's running form, noticing how his helmet is cracked open. Even if it angers you to see him, you try not to let it show right now. It would only take a tiny slips up for Zeke to manage and take the opportunity to outsmart you and challenge you into a physical battle.

"You're not getting away this time, nice try." You shout, freezing his feet with the slightest move of your hand.

Unexpectedly, Eren jumps, gripping Zeke's foot and hanging from it, tagging at the limb with all force. The eye that isn't masked by his helmet is definitely fixed onto you, worrying its glimmer into your soul. You despairately try to brush it off.

Shaking your head you look around to find anything in which you can move Zeke to help Eren land onto. The ground doesn't seem like a good option, Zeke is smart enough to know you can't last long if you have to let go of the mental grip you're forcing on him. You panic as you figure out that he soon will realise your grip on him is able to wobble enough for him to beat your control over him.

"Hand him over (y/n)." Eren screams in your direction, batting his eye to your direction.

You notice Zeke squirming into your grasp as horrified expression proceeds his face. His eyebrows point upwards causing strong rolls of skin to appear on his forehead, his lips curl down in worry and his eyes widen to their max.

"Can't do that!" You turn to Zeke, shooting him a reassuring look, letting him know you wouldn't allow his assassination before your very eyes.

You only understand how foolish you've been to do so when you watch Zeke take a deep breath. Initially you assume he wants to fill his lungs with oxygen due to your harsh grip and you slowly process in your mind the possibilities of what can happen if you chose to loosen your hold on him. It's only when Zeke lets out an eardrum piercing screech that you curse under your breath feeling your mental grip growing weak. Zeke throws you a sorry smile, startling you enough to take a wrong footing on the brick rooftop you're standing on.

You feel your powers flicker even more, to the point it reminds you of a dying flame but you refuse to believe you've reached the end of your potential use of your own meta ability. You pay no attention to Eren and his momentarily twitching as you try to focus on catching your breath. All it should take is a moment, all you need is a moment to calm down your pounding heart and then-

Bam! Bam! Bam!

You sense Zeke slipping away from you unexpectedly and your mouth falls agape, your hands rushing to your ears, despairate to offer protection and and comfort to the buzzing pain you're feeling. Glancing around you notice Eren swirling his gun in his thigh case, smoke emitting from the small opening of the gun, the smell of gunpowder tingling in your nostrils. Even if you're hazy you immediately understand what has happened; Eren's bullets, following Zeke's coordinate scream sent warning shots to his comrades, letting them know of his exact location and if you could guess correctly, giving them information on his situation.

"AH!" Zeke screams in agony, averting your gaze to the commotion that starts to go down on the concrete ground as the Yeager bothers land forcefully on it. Eren's gun is smashed to his brother's head, the iron spikes splitting his cheek open upon impact.

"No!" Your eyes widen as you scream, your body moving to take a quick leap down the side of the rooftop, send bricks to stray into the air as you slide down onto them.

Eren's fists are bouncing quickly onto Zeke's head and torso, taking turns to avoid being overworked. Your eyebrow is twitching automatically, your head is practically on fire, your veins popping and flowing with hit throbs and painful sudden rashes of blood. Eren won't react to your screams, you assume his own adrenaline is covering up the sound of your voice for him.

You land right on top of Eren, sending him in collision with Zeke, crashing his jaw onto his brothers chest. The males let out pained mutters, cursing under their breaths as you push your body weight harder onto them.

"Eren don't do this."

You take Eren's torso into your arms, using as much strength as you can manage to press his back into your chest. You ignore the way your heart painfully spreads up, similarly to the way a schoolgirl's at the sight of her crush, you resist the urge to rest your head on Eren's shoulder from the back like you would have done had the circumstances been any different. You only squeal as you try to transfer all your strength to your hands, your feet giving in and your chest heaving as you try to pull Eren even further into you.

"Get off of me." Eren screams thrashing his hands around with enough strength to shoo your grip on him away.

"No!" You chatter, squinting him even more. "You're not killing your own brother."

"Fucking hell, let me go."

Your hand mechanically searches for Eren's thigh even though your vision is still blurry. You're practically ravaging him with one hand for a few seconds, despairately clinging onto whatever resembled the touch of a gun.

"I'm not going to let you do this." You say, pressing him further into you, your heart basically hammering in its skeleton binds.

If Eren believes the guy with gun is always right in a fight, you have to point a gun at him to prove his own point to him. Right?

You clad your arms under his arpits, securing your grip onto the top of his shoulder as you manage to flick him off, balancing his weight onto both your knees. With a jump, you land on your wobbly feet, your iron clad heels making loud thuds as you jolt your body slightly to Eren's direction. Your wrist flicks, signing to Zeke's hands and consecuentially they come together, seemingly tied up by invisible imaginary bounds.

A harden expression masks your face as you point the edge of the gun to Eren, pushing it mere inches away from his face, the cold metal flushing with the outside parts of his helmet.

"Take it off, slowly." You order, your stern eyes never bowing the the puppy like eyes Eren is pointing at you. "I'm the guy with the gun, if you're smart you do as I say." You turn your face to the right, now pointing directly to Zeke. "You too Beast."

Under any other circumstance you would have felt your heart melt at the sight to your left; bellow his helmet Eren is battered, bruised and he's glistering with swear and grease -you assume it's from the creaks of his head cover- this sight should be enough for you to throw the gun away from your hand, or destroy it with your powers.

Eren hisses as his hands move to click on the securing buttons of his helmet, the lightweight iron thrashing into more pieces as it comes undone, the damage it had undergone seemingly unredeemable. You sighed internally, Eren has more than a dozen of them back at his place, so replacing this one wont be an issue, fortunatelly. Your hard eyes never leave him, his own turqouise orbs fixating on you the moment his helmet is put to the ground. His hands shoot up in defeat, his palms extended as he stares at you with an annoyed expression.

“Fine? Got what you wanted?”

“Eren!” you utter, stomping your foot to the ground.

You don’t realise at first -yet it doesn’t slip Eren- but the gun is quaking in your hand. With your trembling hand mere inches before him, it’s hard not to notice in the end, but he spares you of the embarassment for a second, he focuses on how to get himself out of this situation first.

“Sorry, babe.” Eren smiles at you, using his feet to flip himself off of the ground, pushing his weight onto his torse for his feet to levitate off the ground. Shook and thrown off by his sudden act, the gun in your hand slips and you squeal, yur grip on Zeke unfocusing as your powers dictate Eren to come to an halt midair. His body thrashes down to the ground, grunts of agony coming out of his chest.

It happens before you even have a chance to blink; your powers are weakened, Eren screams an ear piercing screech and Zeke starts running towards your direction. Multiple bangs echo through the air and you don’t even have a chance to look up to pinpoint where their source lays, your neck is looped on the inside of an elbow but at this point all you can see is black and white as your ears ring dangerously.

“Zeke! Let her go!” Eren screams, his eyes pacing between Zeke and the new additions to the scene, Flotch and Yelena. They both point their guns to Zeke’s direction, panting and Eren is panting as well, his mouth running miles ahead of his brain. He knows he’s in a sticky situation, left unarmed hen Zeke has managed to grab the gun you dropped, shot on the left bicept, but it’s nothing compared to you

Thick crimson fell in gushes from your head, sipping slightly to the cavity at the edge of your mouth, rushing down the painful path to your neck. Your costume seeped in it, the cloth furiously sipping like a hungry vampire as more blood run over it. Eren didn't dare move his hands, only his real orbs paced between his team members, remaining wide open, despairate to light up in any frail solution he could think of.

"If I let her go, you'll let me take my leave."

Eren's brain throbbed, the coiling cavities swelling and shrinking. He examined the possibilities and went over his options like a madman, there were a few ways in which he could entrust Zeke's extermination to Yelena and Flotch, he could even manage to grab you in the midst of it and bring you to safety. The bullet Zeke has shot towards you hadn't planted its way into your head, it had only scratched over the surface, he should be able to stop the bleeding if he could manage to bring you to safety.

If he was completely honest, he could have numerous opportunies to kill Zeke, he couldn't bring you back though in any case you died.

"Fine." He said, throwing his hands up in defeat. "Get it your way."

"No funny games brother."

With a piercing look thrown at Yelena, Eren leaped a step towards Zeke. The blonde and the redhead lowered their guns pointing their cranes to the cobblestone ground. Eren's iron enhanced footsteps filled the teeny alleyway but they came to an halt as soon as they began. Zeke brought a hand to his nose, pinching the tip slightly despite the fact that his glasses had been shattered to pieces his digits still went for his habitual action of fixing them on his diaphragm.

When Zeke's footing dug into the ground, the material screeching from the intense friction Eren widened his eyes. With your head in his palm he rushed into the wall, blood drenched (h/c) tresses sticking onto his tan skin. With a huge thud he smashed your head against the wall, a roar blurting its way out of the depths of his chest. Then, his feet made the best out of their existence, running as fast as they could, if these were his last moments, at least he caused some mayhem and pain to live up to his reputation.

Eren didn't even have a chance to jump into the commotion in time yet he leaped on your side with your name falling out of his lips in the form of a scream. With no need to be commanded to Yelena and Flotch raised their guns at Zeke, shooting while launching on his direction, leaving Eren and your unconscious body behind.

...

"There's no hope for us right?"

You were dying.

Sprawled over a gray cement built rooftop that paid homage to Trost's biggest neon sign you were taking your last few breaths. And Eren was the only one to blame.

You laid rested on his lap, his hand frozen over the roots of your hair as he felt how tangled they felt with all the dried blood on them. Electric blue neon light fell over his shoulders in the mellowest way, creating a halo over his body, his messy hair and all of its stray strands sticking out as the contrasted the light.

"I'm sorry I brought you here at a moment like this. But since you always said you wanted us to hang out here"

Eren paused to sniffle the little goo at the tip of his nose. A burning sensation in his chest chocked him, it crushed his lungs under an iron grip, the splash of blood and flesh echoing inside his torso. His stomach fell and repositioned itself, his gut churned, his eyes solidified pain in the form of hot, salty tears.

"I couldn't think of anything else."

There wasn't any hope for you. Your skull was cracked open beyond saving, your forehead was jabbed and crushed, your eye bloody and scarlet where bright white should have been. Your nose was broken and crooked. It was only a matter of sorrowful moments before life left your body but Eren couldn't bring himself to help you into descenting faster into the light.

"You probably can't even listen to me. But I love you, always did, always will. I never meant what I said that night. About not knowing why I was with you."

Tears ran down his face, his chest quacking in endless sobs that he tried to muffle. But he couldn't help it, despite having grown into a silent nonchalant adult, he still couldn't push past the hurt if losing someone that close to him. Whatever facade he had ever tried to put on himself was crumbling down in seconds before you, right in this very moment.

"Levi's on his way to take you to a hospital." He announced, yet he doubted you could listen. His hands wiped furiously at his stinging and painful tears. The drops of blood that entered his eyes made him hiss even further.

A bloody palm came to cup under your jaw, and Eren hissed as he felt the bone going stiff. He refused to believe it, he refused to believe your mouth had locked, he refused to believe it was happening. For all that matters he didn't want this to be your last shared moment.

From afar he could see Levi and his former friends approaching, the sound of sirens complimenting the background as the neon sign started buzzing and flickering behind him. When Levi finally stepped his foot to your direction he spoke no word, much like the rest of the team, except for Mikasa who shot him a comforting glare and a pat on the forearm.

Eren watches as Levi checked for your pulse and took you over his back, your body laying numb over his own. He spoke no words as he watched the man pull away and roam between buildings before disappearing. As the neon sign behind him made a chirpy, electronic voice and spurt a few sparks of quickly dissolving fire three more hands came to rest on his shoulders. Jean, Connie and Sasha had all silently tried to seek for a way to comfort him, confiding into mimicking Mikasa. 

 Eren knew he wouldn't ever have the chance to see you illuminated by the cobalt neon light again.

Taglist: @levisbrat25 @nobody-knows-anymore @callmepromise @melancholicmonologue @ladyofpandemonium @alrightberries

Super special thanks to my baby @sasageyowrites and my dear @aichiin (if you don’t check out her art i will be mad!)

[ilovefandoms102]

Taking Chances-Part 3*

Pairing: College!Drew Starkey x Plus Size!Reader

Summary: The basketball star seeks help from the girl he’s been crushing on for two years…will she reciprocate his feelings?

Note: I am so in love with this man it’s not even funny...🥺 

I have missed writing this series and now I have so many ideas so I’m so excited to have this for you guys! I hope everyone enjoys!

The parts in italics are flashbacks! 

Click here to be apart of my taglist

Part 2 Part 4

=====================================

After that night, Drew and I spent every waking moment together…

I couldn’t get enough of him, he was so incredibly sweet to me, and the biggest teddy bear. He will never admit this, but he loves being the little spoon. The past two months we have been dating have honestly been the best days of my life. 

However, people seemed to have a staring problem when we were together on campus. Drew paid no mind to it, his eyes either on me or talking to one of his teammates. They constantly teased Drew about how he hasn’t shut up about me since he first saw me our freshman year, and it seemed to have become worse now that we were together. I thought it was adorable, but Drew’s cheeks always turned a deep shade of pink anytime it was brought up. 

“Baby it’s cute,” I told him one day as we sat in class after we had escaped another round of his teammates teasing him. 

“It makes me sound like a creep,” he protested, arm slung behind my chair that he had scooted as close to him as possible. 

“No it doesn’t, it’s sweet.” I pouted, reaching out to rub his cheek. 

He leaned his elbow on the table, head resting in his large hand. His eyes swept over me, causing my thoughts to become self conscious as I squirmed in my seat. I looked everywhere but at him, turning back to face the front of the class. I saw him in my peripheral leaning towards my ear. 

“You look so beautiful today.” He whispered, kissing my cheek. I flushed as I looked down at myself, wearing one of his sweatshirts and a pair of leggings with my hair down in its natural state, and minimal makeup with my glasses perched on my nose. 

“Drew...I literally look like a trash can.” I chuckled, glancing at his almost hurt expression. 

“Stop that, you’re hot as fuck.” He smirked, pinching my thigh playfully. 

I giggled as I pushed his hand away, instead he intertwined our fingers and kept them on top of my thigh. Drew glanced to see if the professor was paying attention before quickly placing a kiss to my lips, taking me by surprise. I blinked in shock, looking over to my giant boyfriend. 

“What was that for?” I asked, still shocked. 

“Just ‘cause I wanted to kiss my beautiful girlfriend.” He shrugged, winking before turning back to listen to the professor. 

=====================================

Drew lived in the dorms on campus, meaning no privacy if we ever wanted to hang out. This made me very appreciative to my parents that helped me find the apartment I have to myself. In the last few months, Drew had practically moved himself in. 

Of course I didn’t mind at all...he was good eye candy. Besides that, he actually helped around my apartment which I found odd since no guy I know would voluntarily do the dishes or run the vacuum. It honestly made me fall even harder for the basketball super star. 

“Hey baby, holy shit it smells amazing in here.” Drew called, walking in my apartment from practice. 

I was occupied in the kitchen, whipping up some dinner for the both of us. Drew sat his duffel bag by the washer, no doubt more clothes in it that he needed washed. The washer and dryer on campus was outrageously expensive, and since I have a washer and dryer I just told Drew to bring his clothes here. Drew walked up behind me, wrapping his very sweaty body around mine. 

“Drew go take a shower, you’re ruining the aesthetic.” I huffed, trying to push his arms from around me, but he was too strong. 

“Well excuse me, I have not seen my girlfriend all day and I would like to love on her.” Drew said matter of factly. 

“You see her everyday,” I giggled, they intensified when Drew started placing ticklish kisses on my neck. 

“I know, but I didn’t see her today.” He pouted, his large frame completely engulfing mine. 

“Well you smell like shit, so off to the shower with you.” I ordered, shooing his hands away that seemed to have traveled back to my ass. 

“Fine, fine you win this time.” Drew sighed, laying a smack to my behind before disappearing down the hall. 

=====================================

Drew came back a few minutes later, fresh out of the shower in just a pair of basketball shorts hung low on his hips. It took everything in me to not jump him right then and there, and he knew it too by the look he gave me. 

“See something you like princess?” He asked smugly, flexing his muscles on purpose. 

“No,” I quipped, turning back to turn the stove burners off since dinner was done. 

Drew snatched my hand, yanking me to his chest. I gasped, placing my hands on his abdomen to keep me from falling. He circled his arms around me, one hand staying on my waist while the other tangled into my hair. I moaned softly when he tugged on the strands a little, his smile bright at my reaction. 

“I think you saw something you liked sweetheart,” Drew smirked, eyes falling to my lips that were slightly parted. 

“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t.” I teased, the hands I had placed on his abs beginning to wander. His fist tugged my hair harder, my teeth biting down on my bottom lip to stop the squeal I was about to let out. 

“Such a brat,” he growled, his blue eyes darkening. 

“You love it though, don’t you baby?” I grinned, tracing my fingertips along the waistband of his shorts. 

“Fuck yeah I do,” he said as he leaned down to smash his lips to mine. 

I finally let out the moan I was holding in, my hands moving to thread them through his damp hair. I let my tongue out to play with his, both of us fighting for dominance over the other. He ultimately won, but not willingly on my part. Drew’s big hands gripped my ass cheeks in a death grip, a slight grunt passing his lips as he used his hold to pull me in closer. 

“Th-The foods gonna get cold,” I panted as I pulled away, chest heaving. 

“I want to kiss you,” Drew stated, leaning back down for another kiss. 

“But-baby-Drew-“ I tried, but was interrupted as Drew kept kissing me. 

“Eat later, kiss now.” he mumbled against my lips, my smile growing as I gave in to his request.

=====================================

“So there’s a frat party this weekend, and I was really hoping you would be my date.” Drew spoke as we cleaned up the kitchen. 

“Sure, I’ve never been to a frat party,” I shrugged, handing him another dish to dry. 

“You’re not missin’ much trust me.” He chuckled. 

“Then why do you want to go?” I asked, genuinely curious. 

“Because now I have a beautiful woman to show off.” He winked, making my cheeks flush. 

“You think you’re smooth Starkey,” I laughed. 

“Oh I know I’m smooth baby, that’s how I landed such an amazing girlfriend.” Drew smiled, leaning down to kiss my red cheek. 

“Yeah sure, whatever helps you sleep at night.” I dismissed, rolling my eyes playfully. 

“You help me sleep at night gorgeous.” he smirked, leaning down to kiss my cheek. I shoved his head away with my wet hand, giggling as he looked at me like I had ruined his favorite jersey. 

“What are you gonna do about it Starkey?” I taunted, beaming as Drew picked up some of the water and splashed me.

“That’s what smartass,” he countered, laughing as I gasped when the water hit me. 

“Oh it’s on,” I grinned evilly, throwing more water at him. 

Drew and I continued our little splash fight until my kitchen was covered in soapy water, Drew holding on to me so I didn’t fall but also so he had the advantage to get my hair and clothes soaked. I tried to get away, shoving at his chest, but to no avail he kept me in his arms. 

“Drew stop!” I squealed, his laughter making my heart flutter.

“You asked for it!” he shouted, squeezing a rag over my head.

“You better clean up this mess mister!” I yelled, giggling as he picked up a few more soap bubbles to put on my face.

“Now this, this is sexy.” Drew chuckled, my eyes rolling as I hit his chest playfully.

“Stooooop, now I need to go shower.” I giggled, leaning my head back to look at him.

“I should join you, ya know to make sure u get all the soap out.” He grinned slyly, hands traveling over my form. 

“In your dreams Starkey,” I whispered, kissing the corner of his lips before heading to the shower.

“Brat,” he growled, his eyes glued to me as I walked away. 

=====================================

The one thing I loved the most about Drew is-

Wait...did I just-did I just think love?

Wow...I couldn’t tell you the last time I had that kind of thought…

Anywho, Drew wasn’t one of those guys that pressured sex. The past few boyfriends I had always made me feel like I just had to give in, like it was my duty as a woman to please them. 

Sure Drew and I loved to tease each other, but he made it very clear that we were on my terms when it came to anything sexual. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t make my heart flutter. I truly, truly felt like Drew and I could last, or at least I hoped to. 

“I want you to feel completely safe with me, no rushing or jumping into anything you’re not ready for.” He explained, snuggled up against me in my tiny, queen size bed. 

“I do feel safe with you teddy bear,” I grinned, his eye roll at the nickname making me laugh. 

“I mean in the sense of talking about anything and everything, no lies, and no secrets.” He continued, gently brushing his finger along my features. 

“I can do that,” I agreed, running my fingers through his hair. 

“You-You don’t feel pressured to do anything just because I insinuate it right?” He questioned, a frown forming on his beautiful face. 

“No baby I don’t, I know you’re just teasing, and I like it. If I didn’t, I would tell you.” I reassured, kissing his nose to which he smiled at. 

“I’m in for the long run sweetheart, you ready for that?” He smirked, his arms going around my back to pull me impossibly closer. 

“I am,” I said nervously, feeling a lump in my throat. 

“Good, because I don’t plan on going anywhere and I won’t let you push me away.” He revealed, my heart thumping a million miles a minute. 

“Drew,” I whispered, feeling my whole body flood with emotion. 

“I feel different with you y/n, like everything feels so real. I-I’ve never felt the way I feel when I’m with you.” Drew confessed, my eyes filling with happy tears that I forced back down. 

“I feel that way too teddy bear,” I smiled, slowly caressing his cheek. 

Drew leaned forward slowly, kissing my lips gently. I threaded my fingers in his hair, smiling into his kiss. 

“Thank you,” he mumbled into my lips. I pulled back a little, looking at him confused. 

“For what?” I asked. 

“Taking a chance on me,” he smiled, kissing me again. 

I deepened our kiss, feeling my body ignite with fire and passion. Drew’s hands stayed firm, one underneath me threaded into my damp hair, and the other on my hip. His fingers felt the curve and dip, squeezing lightly which made my heart flutter. 

I had one hand holding his cheek, the other making its way from his hip bone and slowly creeping it under the wife beater he was wearing. I felt the ripple of muscles on his abdomen, tracing under his pecs. Then I felt my way to his back, smoothing my hands up and down as our kiss intensified. 

Drew abruptly sat up, yanking the fabric over his head then tossed it on the floor. My chest was heaving from lack of air, his doing the same. I grabbed his shoulders, pulling him to hover over me as I laid on my back. 

“Drew?” I panted, pulling away to look into his eyes. 

“Yeah? Am I going too fast?” He asked, his eyes filling with concern. 

“No, I just wanted to tell you that-that I want you to touch me-like...everywhere.” I stammered, my cheeks heating up slightly. 

I didn’t wait for his response however, reaching for the back of his neck to bring his lips back to mine. Drew moaned softly, sending shivers down my spine. It was the sexiest sound I ever heard, and I wanted more. 

His hands explored more of my body, taking both my breasts in his large hands. I wasn’t wearing a bra since we were originally planning to go to bed, so he was pleasantly surprised to not feel the cups of the bra. 

Drew grazed his thumbs over my nipples, a gasp flying from my lips as the exquisite feeling went straight down below. He moved his kisses down my neck, softly stroking my nipples that pebbled through my shirt. I let out a moan of my own when he gently sucked on a spot behind my ear, leaving his mark on my untarnished skin. 

“More,” I whimpered, moving one leg between his so I could grind my lower half on his thigh. 

“Ask nicely,” Drew murmured in my ear, and I could feel his smirk against my skin. 

“Let me have it,” I demanded, but my brattiness only got me a low growl from Drew. 

His hands came to my hips to stop my movements, a child like whine leaving my throat. I tried to fight his grip which only made his hands hold me tighter. 

“Brats don’t get what they want babygirl, you know this.” He reprimanded, laughing maliciously as I struggled to free myself. 

“Please,” I muttered, giving in. 

“What was that?” He teased, a frustrated groan escaping as I tugged at his hair. 

“Please Drew, please I need more.” I said a bit louder, a satisfied hum from Drew as he helped guide my hips to grind against him. 

I could feel his hardened member against my thigh, Drew’s low grunts in my ear making me even more hot as he was getting off just as I was. We both rutted up against each other, moans and whimpers from us filling the room. 

“Fuck this is so hot,” Drew moaned, making my head nod in agreement. His blue eyes almost black from lust, pupils blown wide as they stared into mine. 

“Feels so good baby,” I replied, my eyes closing as I could feel my release coming. 

“I’m gonna cum, fuck.” Drew growled, grinding both of our hips faster. 

“Me too,oh my god.” I gasped, my clit throbbing against his thigh. 

My back arched as my orgasm crashed down, stars flooding my vision. My nails dug into his shoulders, his head falling in my neck as his hips stuttered and his movement halted all together. I could feel the wet patch against my leg, making me smile slightly as I gasped for air. 

We laid there for a minute, not moving from our position other than Drew dropped to lay on top of me. I combed my hands through his now sweaty hair, his lips placing gentle kisses on my neck where his head was currently buried. 

“I need to change my pants,” Drew blurted, a giggle bursting from my lips. 

“I need new shorts,” I smirked, shuffling a little on the bed. 

“Can I tell you something?” Drew questioned, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. 

“Of course you can babe,” I chuckled, gently caressing his cheeks. 

“I’ve been dying to know what you taste like,” he blurted, my eyes widening and teeth sinking into my bottom lip. 

“Maybe you could have a sample,” I said barely above a whisper. 

“Can I?” He asked, fingers dragging down my stomach. 

I nodded, keeping eye contact as his hand dipped in my shorts. He scooped up my cum, being careful to not touch any sensitive areas. I stared downwards as his hand ascended to his mouth, sticking his two fingers he used inside. His eyes closed as he sucked his fingers clean, letting out a spine chilling moan that made me want to strip and let him have his way with me.

“How was it?” I smirked, eyes still connected with his mouth. 

He took his fingers from his mouth, wiping them on my shirt. I could see his tongue moving around in his mouth as if he was trying to savor every last drop. His eyes met mine, a sly smile forming as his lips came closer and closer to mine. 

“Delicious,” he murmured against my lips, and I leaned the rest of the way to connect them. 

=====================================

I met Drew at the frat house on Saturday, it was a pool party so I was a bit hesitant to be around everyone in a bikini. Drew was very convincing and talked me into just wearing it under my clothes so that if I didn’t want to I didn’t have to. I chose a higher cut bikini to show off his favorite body part of mine with a more plunging neckline. I wore one of his basketball shirts with his name on the back tucked into some distressed jeans with flip flops. 

“Hey baby!” Drew greeted, already in his swim shorts which hung low just enough to make every girl here wonder what’s underneath. 

I smiled wide as I came closer, his adorable grin making my heart soar. I was surprised though when he reached me and bent his knees with his hands on my hips to pick me up. I squeaked a little, not expecting it, but I liked it. I wrapped my legs tightly around him, holding onto his shoulders. I was even more surprised when he leaned in and kissed me in front of everyone. 

“That was some greeting Starkey,” I giggled as I pulled away, wiping some of the lip gloss that had smeared off his lip. His big hands squeezed my ass cheeks, another round of giggles erupting. 

“I like the ass L/n,” he commented, winking as he kept his hold on them. 

“I like the muscles baby,” I said as I felt his broad shoulders and chest. 

“You look so beautiful,” he murmured, tightening his hold on my ass. 

“You’re too sweet teddy bear,” I gushed, pinching his cheeks. 

“Damn bro, how your arms not broken?” One of the frat brothers asked, my heart stopping as I looked from him to Drew whose expression morphed into one of anger. 

“Drew,” I warned, but he ignored me and sat me back on my feet. 

“What the fuck did you just say?” Drew questioned, shoving me behind him. I grabbed his hand and used my other to grab his bicep, not wanting a fight to break out. 

“I’m just sayin’ man she thick and all but damn.” The boy scoffed, looking me up and down behind Drew. 

“Insult my girlfriend again, I fucking dare you.” Drew taunted angrily, taking a step closer. I pulled on his arm, hoping to get his attention back to me. 

“Drew it’s ok, he was just dropped on his head as a child and doesn’t appreciate what a real woman looks like.” I sassed, raising a brow at the boy. 

I didn’t give him a chance to reply however, pulling Drew towards one of the pool chairs. I stripped my clothes in front of him, his eyes widening at the sight of my bikini. I smirked as his eyes traveled up and down my body, lingering on the curves of my hips. I turned around to purposefully give him a view of the back, my heart jumping at the curse that left his lips.

“What?” I asked, grinning when his eyes snapped back to mine.

“You’re...you’re stunning, absolutely gorgeous.” he breathed, his hands coming to wind around me and pull me to his chest. 

“I figured you’d like it,” I shrugged, his head shaking as he smiled down at me.

“Let’s get in,” he chuckled, intertwining our fingers and pulling me with him to the pool.

=====================================

The frat brother that felt the need to make that comment earlier kept eyeing Drew and I, making him tense up against me. I moved to stand in front of him, wrapping my arms around him.

“You should have let me deck that guy,” Drew grunted, his hands going to my hips to pull me closer.

“He’s not worth it Drew,” I sighed, placing my hands on his cheeks and gently pull so his eyes would come back to mine.

“I don’t like it, he had no right.” Drew huffed, scrunching his eyebrows. 

“Let’s not think about it ok? I want to have fun with you.” I smiled softly, getting up on my toes to kiss him. Drew flashed a small grin, holding me closer to him. 

A little while later, the frat guy was completely forgotten. Drew and I were completely wrapped up in each other. We couldn’t keep our hands to ourselves which earned lots of stares from the other girls trying hard to get him to look their way. 

Drew pulled me to a corner of the deep end of the pool, Drew being so tall his shoulders were still above the water. He wrapped my legs around his waist, but his fingers stayed wandering on my private area of my bikini. I gasped in surprise, looking around to see if anyone would notice.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish Starkey,” I grumbled, gripping his biceps. 

“I’m not doing anything babydoll,” Drew said innocently, but with a shit eating grin on his face.

“Drew,” I whispered, his fingers moving my bikini bottoms to the side.

I stared deep into his eyes, blinking rapidly as his fingers slowly caressed me. I bit down on my bottom lip, trying hard to conceal my moans. 

“So pretty,” he murmured, leaning to place a gentle kiss to my lips.

The moment was ruined however when some of Drew’s teammates yelled for him.

“Hey yo Starkey! Wanna shoot some hoops?” they called, Drew turning to look at them before back to me. 

“Go on, I’ll be here.” I said, already missing the feel of his fingers as he moved my bottoms back.

“I won’t play for long ok?” he smiled, giving me a gentle kiss before heading out of the pool.

=====================================

I couldn’t help but stare the way Drew moved as he played, his coordination so flawless. He was going places, that I was sure of. Other girls of course walked by him, making sure they were in his line of sight with their tiny bikinis that barely left anything to the imagination, but Drew didn’t spare them one glance. 

As soon as he was done, he came to the edge of the pool and jumped back in. I turned my face away giggling, beaming as he resurfaced so his face was right in front of mine. I returned to my earlier position with my legs wrapped around him, a mischievous act forming in my brain. I trailed my fingers down his abdomen and lower, tracing the band of his swim shorts. I bravely grabbed his halfway hardened dick, feeling it pulsate in my hand.

“Baby,” he growled, his hands gripping my hips tight. 

“Hmmm?” I questioned, batting my lashes at him.

“Quit,” he griped, but made no move to stop me.

“I think you like it though sweetheart,” I winked, palming him a bit harder.

“I don’t want to get out of this pool hard as a rock.” Drew groaned, throwing his head back before coming back to meet my eyes. Our moment was yet ruined again by some of the cheerleaders.

“Hey Drew come dance with us!” they giggled, he went to respond until I squeezed him dick harder.

“Sorry ladies, he’s taken.” I fake smiled, waving my free hand at them. They glared at me before scurrying off, my attention turning back to Drew. 

“So possessive,” Drew teased, his hands moving to squeeze my ass.

“You love it,” I giggled, taking my hand away from his member to wrap them around his neck.

“It’s sexy as fuck,” Drew nodded excitedly, leaning down to plant a sweet kiss to my lips.

After a moment of us just staying like that, the party started to die down.

“You ready to get out of here babe?” Drew asked, my head nodding as I was eager to have him all to myself.

“Let’s go home,” I murmured, squealing moments after as he carried me out of the pool and to the pool chair where our stuff was sitting.

This giant man of mine just may be the key to mending my broken pieces...

=====================================

Taglist: @outerbongs​ @kaitieskidmore1​ @artfork​ @ifilwtmfc​ @bolaurel​ @themaddies-obx​ @noneofmybusiness-cl @ilovejjmaybank​ @gviosca​ @runway-to-my-aid​ @nina1800​ @lemur46​ @lynlovesouterbanks​ @heresalltheshit​ @mxltifandoms06​ @bibliophilewednesday​ @deionswannabegirl​ @x-lulu​ @poguestyleskye​ @starrystarkey93​ @evaporatedrosepetals​ @ilikealotofpeople-younotsomuch​ @simpingforrudypankowonly​ @holy-spn​ @dpaccione​ @obx-direction-sos​ @haley-talks-too-much​ @kindahavefeelingskindaheartless​ @cheshirecat107​ @iamaunicorn4704

[seasonsofeverlark]

Spreading Christmas Cheer

Author: @mega-aulover​

Prompt: Everlark the movie Elf [submitted by @alliswell21​]

Rating: G

Author’s Note: This is a story based off of the movie Elf as requested by @alliswell21​ It’s from “Jovie” i.e. Katniss POV, what she would have seen and fell in love with one Peeta ‘Buddy’ Mellark. 

Special thanks to @norbertsmom​ for her betaing skill and for the name of the story. Parts 3 and 4 will post separately.

_____________

Pt 1

I watch Peeta gently kiss the top of our first born’s head. Holly’s dark hair is braided into two plaits; her blue eyes closing softly. 

“And Papa Elf said, grandpa was on the naughty list…” his voice is soft.

Suddenly Holly’s eyes widen as she remembers something. Her blue eyes are laser focused on Peeta. “Papá, es verdad que mamá estaba en la  lista de los niños malos?”   

“Y quien te dijo esto?” I ask from the door. We never discuss my role in Peeta’s adventure, or the fact that I was on the naughty list. Ever. 

“Santa,” Holly says.

Ese gordo, Santa has loose lips. I think about teaching him about keeping secrets until it’s time to explain to our child about the past. But before I can say anything, Peeta gives me a look. He always knows when I’m having evil thoughts. I sigh, and redirect my thoughts, because Peeta made me believe in love, joy, and Christmas.    

“Your papa saved more than grandpa that Christmas. He saved me too.”

Holly’s eyes lit up like her father’s before the sleepiness creeps back into their depths.

“Now go to sleep so Santa can come down the chimney.”

“Night, mama, night papa,” Holly whispers right before she drifts off to sleep. 

Together we walk out of our daughters bedroom. Peeta slides an arm around my shoulders. He dips down and nuzzles my cheek. He steers me to the living room. I drag my feet. Peeta is up to something.

“Okay, spill it, Mellark.”

He gives me a wide eyed smile.

The hair at the back of my neck stands up straight. 

He’s got that look, that please tell me a bedtime story stare, and not just any story. 

“No.”

Peeta pauses and gives me a puppy dog look with a full lip pout.

“No.”

“Come on, Sweetums, my li’l sugar plum,” Peeta says in an excited whisper.

“No…no don’t waggle your eyebrows at me, Peeta. Buddy. Mellark.” I pronounce each one of his names.

Peeta’s grins so brightly; his eyes shine brighter than Christmas lights. His hat is slightly crooked as he hops and does that stupid little dance of his that makes me want to tear off his green tights. Yep, I said tights. My husband was raised as an elf, a six foot two, blond, wavy haired, giant with broad shoulders, washboard abs, and is genuinely sweet. Sweeter than eggnog.

He grabs me by the waist. “You know you wanna,” he says in that sexy time voice of his that’s reserved only for me. 

Canasto! 

I should clarify for everyone listening to my tale; you should know canasto isn’t a vulgar or bad word. It means basket. But I like the way it sounds in Spanish. So I say it with real vehemence. It’s like peaches in Spanish sounds like a curse word. Melocotón! Tu eres un Melocotón! Which translates into you’re a peach. 

I digress.

I let out a big sigh. There’s no way I can say no to him and he knows it! Canasto!

“I love it when you tell the story of how we met from your point of view.“ 

"You’re an evil gremlin,” I say with no heat in my voice. It’s my personal nickname for him. As in the gremlins when they ate after midnight. However to be fair, if you see Peeta, he’s not scary at all, he’s more like a big teddy bear.  

Peeta laughs and my heart flip flops. Because he is anything but; he is so congenial.

Peeta puts his hands on my belly, my very big belly. It’s baby number 2; actually it’s baby number two and three. They are counted as one until they’re born. I know what he’s doing, the evil gremlin! He’s trying to distract me because I’m due to give birth. I have mild pangs because I’m carrying twins and I’m nearing my due date.

He carries me and sits me on his lap. “Now start from the beginning.”

“From the candy cane forest?” I ask.

“No from your point of view,” his eyes dance gently as he rests me against his chest, rubbing my bulging belly.

“Okay,” I say quietly.

“Don’t forget to start with once upon a time,” Peeta insists, trying to contain his excitement.

“Once upon a time.”

“This is going to be good,” Peeta whispers.

“Are you going to let me tell the story?”

“Oh yea,” Peeta placed a kiss on my nose. “Go ahead.”

Closing my eyes I picture the year things changed. Because everything in my life was about others and never myself. I was always trying to be someone else, what everyone expected of me. 

It’s hard being a foster kid, and getting out of the system is kind of like getting out of jail. Suddenly you have all this freedom, but you’ve been conditioned to follow all of these rules, so when you are free, you do one of two things. You get in trouble, and try to get sent into an institution; some of us call it the iron college. Or you try to keep your nose clean and learn in the school of hard knocks. In my case, I kept my head above the water for my sister’s sake.  

“I love my family,” I muttered underneath my breath. 

I muttered it again as my sister destroyed, no scratch that, mutilated Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas."  

Did I forget to mention that I love my family?   

I do. I love my family and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them, but at that moment I wanted to scratch my ears out with dull spoons.  

My perfect baby sister is a smoking hot blonde runway model and the muse for Karl Lagerfeld, but she has the worst singing voice known to man. You want to torture someone, hire my sister, and have her sing to the person you want to torture. Within 3 seconds flat, she can have even the most hardened of spies spilling their guts like a canary.

The one thing I could not stand beside my sister’s singing was Christmas. 

I loathed Christmas.

I was not ashamed to say it.  Every fiber of my body I hated Christmas!   If I had ever met the real Santa back then, he had better hoped that I was not holding my bow and arrow, because I would have shot him through the eye. Not that I believed in Santa then, but if I had known there was a real life Santa Claus, I’d have hunted him down, and burned the fat man’s jolly red outfit. I would then gleefully take a joy ride in his sleigh into his workshop like Bill Murray did in Groundhog Day when he allowed the groundhog to drive him off the cliff into a fiery death.

At this point you are wondering why I hated Christmas so much.

There were many reasons why the holiday was so contemptible to me. One, my father died on Christmas day. Two, my mother checked out on us that same Christmas day. The next Christmas Eve was when my sister and I were separated into different foster homes.  It took me a few months to find my six-year-old baby sister. I had been sent to a foster family who used foster kids for slave labor, to have them wipe and clean their floors while the Mrs. of the family spent the whole day in luxurious spas and getting Botox treatments, as if that was going to improve her mug. 

My baby sister was luckier. Primrose was placed in a foster home in the middle of suburbia with a 2 story house with a picket fence. A woman named Cecilia and her husband Ronald had never been able to have kids, and they doted on my sister. They brought her up to be the princess she always said she was. Honestly, they were rather shocked when my twelve-year-old cynical self rolled up into their home screaming for my baby sister, Primrose. Prim came running out of nowhere and latched herself on to my leg like an octopus. Best Spring ever, so I do love the Spring. 

But before you think we were reunited, we weren’t. The family that had Primrose never wanted me. And even if they did, we technically didn’t have the same last name. Primrose carried my mom’s last name while I carried my dad’s. My sister was Primrose Emmerson and I was Katniss Everdeen. Our parents had a silly agreement. They were also foster kids, so they decided that I would take dad’s name and the next one born would take our mothers name. 

They didn’t have family, and her parents lived a common law marriage. Their childish decision caused havoc. There was a mix up and we weren’t processed as sisters. Plus, I never stayed in the same foster home for long so even if they wanted me, they never knew where I was, but no matter where I was, I found a way to talk to Primrose, because as long as Prim was loved and cared for, my situation didn’t matter.

After our brief reunion, I had to go back to the family that I was placed in, and my sister stayed with her family. I didn’t stay with mine for very long; I became a statistic. A rolling number on someone’s computer screen. I was bounced around from one family to another in all sorts of seedy homes. 

So you can see why I’m so jaded. Every bad thing that ever happened to me, has happened on that freakin’ holiday. And there was one more reason I disliked that holly jolly holiday so immensely. For some reason, the universe hated me. 

No matter where I went, what city, what town within the state, I could guarantee you that it was a racket, a billion dollar racket to make parents crazy and buy things for their kids they didn’t need. For some reason, it pleased people to take my olive skin, dark hair, scowling self and put me into a sparkly Christmas cheer, “gag” pointy eared elf costume.

So with a week until Christmas, I was listening to my sister butcher another holiday favorite song. Then Prim screeched. And I sighed in relief.

"Katniss,” Prim said, coming out of the bathroom. “The water is cold!”

I looked heavenward. “The pipes. I forgot they’re working on the water main outside. They said there would be interruption to service.”

“Oh, you know I can get us a hotel room,” Prim said toweling dry her pale blonde locks. 

My studio apartment wasn’t what my sister was used to. She was a freaking couture runway model, six foot one, so slim nothing off the rack fit her. “I’m sorry Prim, I was so excited to see you.”

Prim smiled. “Look, I only have a few hours left. How about I treat you to lunch before I go back up to Connecticut to spend Christmas with Cecillia and Ron.” Prim smiled at me. “You know you’re more than welcome to come. They always ask about you.”

I loved my baby sister. She was amazing. And I was damned glad that the Henderson's were an amazing couple, but I knew the score. They didn’t know what to do with me. “As long as you don’t mind me wearing my elf costume.”

Primrose chuckled. “You make the cutest elf though.” She patted me on the head using a baby tone with me. Prim was taller than me by a foot. I was tiny, or as Prim said, compact size.

“I could still put you over my knee, little duck,” I growled. “Así que mira ver.”

My sister laughed and she delighted in taunting me. Prim no longer spoke Spanish, but she understood the language. “You’re adorable when you’re angry, an angry little elf, aren’t you?”

“Primrose,” I said in Spanish. I rounded my ‘r’s’ when I said her name. 

“Awe, I don’t don’t get why you hate Christmas so much.” Primrose winked going to the screen divider to get dressed. My sister was used to dressing and undressing in front of dozens of people. I, on the other hand, was not so free with nudity. Primrose said I was a prude. If I hadn’t I told her to use the screen, she would have changed right in front of me. 

“Did you know there are only three jobs an elf can have,” Prim said from over the screen. 

I sighed. Unlike me, Primrose loved Christmas. Hell, she even suggested that there might be a real Santa Claus. I told her the only people who look for ways to sneak into people’s houses were criminals. 

Prim continued her story about elves. “The type of elves that live in trees and make cookies, the types that make shoes, and the best type.”

“Let me guess, Christmas elves,” I said, rolling my eyes.

Prim grinned. She came around the screen wearing thigh high red boots, jeans and a camel tunic sweater that looked like cashmere. “Come on sis, let me treat you to breakfast so that you can go terrorize the children of Macy’s toy department.”

  Pt 2 

Peeta grins excitedly, breaking the narration. “You know she’s right. Papa says the cookie elves have high insurance premiums because their tree catches fire all of the time.” 

“Peeta,” I huff. “Do you want me to finish the story?” 

“Absolutely,” he hugs me closer. “I’m so sad you and Prim never got to grow up at the North Pole with me.”

I can’t help but smile at his sincere wish. “Oh Peeta,” I kiss his cheek.

“The only thing I would never let you do was toy testing,” Peeta whispers.

I chuckled. Peeta hated Jack-In-The-Box’s. They scare the dickens out of him. I lay my head on his shoulders. “Are you going to let me finish the story?”

“You know,” he says, blue eyes twinkling. “I’d spotted you in the city that first day.” 

“You were jumping across the lines of the cross walk, “ I grin at the memory. 

“I followed you until I saw the Empire State Building. Then I went to see my father.”

“I know,” I caress his face.

“Start from that point.”

“Okay, you ready now.” My babies were moving in my belly.

“Right, you were in your father’s office delivering the most awkward Christmas gram.” 

Peeta chuckles. “I don’t have your pretty voice.”

I sigh. “Peeta.”

“Right, I’ll be quiet.”

I give him a look. 

“But just so you know, when those guards told me to go back to Macy’s, I was curious as to why you were dressed as an elf.“

I roll my eyes. Did I forget to mention my husband is a talker. He is a chatterbox. I swear Peeta is the type who’d make friends with a paper bag.

"I thought your elf name was so pretty,” he sighs happily.

“Peeta, if you want me to tell the story. You have to hush!” I admonish, if I didn’t we would be here until tomorrow.

“Oh,” he gushes. “Yes, tell the story.” 

“So, there I was in the middle of New York, like a morsel in shark infested waters. I.E….”

“That passion fruit spray is horrible,” Peeta grumbles. “I do not know how women drink that stuff.” 

I want to laugh. There are still things that Peeta doesn’t understand about human society; perfume was one of them, and that fact endeared him to me.

“Can you start at the moment our eyes met?” Peeta gives me a wobbly smile. 

Ah, now I know why he’s interrupting so much. “Okay.”

Sighing I recall that day. Prim and I were out to breakfast. She was harping on me to find someone. Did I fall to mention Primrose was only twenty years old at the time, and at that age I was ancient at the tender age of twenty six. Seriously twenty-six. So what if I had never dated, never had a boyfriend, and never kissed anyone. My sister was right. I was a prude, but I’d seen how love could screw you over. My mom never recovered and she died alone in some home of a broken heart. All I had in the world was my sister. My Prim, and she was the only person I would love. Until that afternoon. 

“Seriously Katniss, you’re twenty-six,” Prim said. 

Eye rolling was a national pastime when speaking to a glamazon who thought I needed to date.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me,” Prim said, removing my sunglasses. “And also, sunglasses in the middle of December, so not tre chique.” 

Eye roll, eye roll, eye roll. Fake smile. CANASTO!

“You are the worst,” Prim hissed.

I knew my sister wasn’t mad at me. Annoyed, yes. Mad, no. “Prim, it’s just I’m not interested in dating anyone.” 

“Katniss, I just don’t want you to impersonate elves for the rest of your life, and when you’re like forty-six, you’ll realize you’re alone with a cat, who pisses in your shoes, and scratches your furniture.” 

I moved to pay our bill.

“No way,” Prim said, slamming her hand on the bill. “I make what you make in a month in two hours of work. This is on me.”

“Fine,” I grumbled. 

“Also, stop closing yourself to Christmas. Santa isn’t going to leave you anything under the tree.”

“Like Santa exists,” I snorted.

Prim gasped. “You take that back. Santa Claus is real Katniss, just like the rainbows, and pigs and frogs having a long term, caring relationship, and love exists.” 

My sister’s wide eyed passionate confession shook me, but the only words that came out of my mouth were, “a frog and a pig?” 

“Miss Piggy and Kermit are together, and if they can make it, no matter what the media says, anything is possible.”

“Huh,” I said, leaving the luncheonette near Penn Station. We walked to the corner, where she’d take the stairs to the lower level. 

I took a look at the stairs, knowing this was the moment I would say goodbye to my sister once again. My eyes filled with unwanted tears. I could still recall the little girl with the untucked shirt that looked like a duck tail. It’s where the nickname li’l duck came from.

“Don’t cry,” Prim whispered. “Quack, quack.”

“I hate it when we have to say goodbye,” I said quietly.

“It’s not goodbye, Katniss; it’s until the next time.” Prim grinned then she took my elf hat and put it on my head. “Go on, terrify the poor children of the city with your menacing scowl. But you better watch out, better not cry.”

I groaned. “Prim, I would rather hear seagulls squawking then you singing.” 

“I know, that’s why I do it,” Prim said.

“You’re a brat.”

“Brat, I’m on Santa’s nice list. You’re the one on the naughty list.”

“There’s no such thing as Santa…” the words died on my lips as I saw a huge man dressed in an elaborate elf outfit jumping on the lines of the crosswalk gleefully. I was struck by the joy on his face.

He looked like an angel with wavy blond hair and innocent blue eyes. It was one thing to see a six-year-old child with that wide eyed innocence, but a tall, broad shouldered man with large hands made me think perhaps he’d escaped his caretakers. His elf outfit wasn’t like the cheap one I had to wear. It was made from a rich fabric with elaborately embroidered gold thread. 

If there was something I knew about, it was fabric. I never had soft fabrics growing up and I was obsessed over soft materials. I dreamed of cashmere, Egyptian cotton, mulberry silks, and linens. His green tunic was made from merino wool, like the ones they made in England in those bespoke shops.  Even his hat, although a ridiculous cone shape, was not some cheap fabric covered cardboard that you’d find in a costume shop. It was made from genuine thick green wool felt with a yellow satin ribbon wrapped around it. A red feather bobbed up and down as he jumped.

He was so happy. He looked up, as if sensing my presence. Our eyes met and he smiled jovially and waved at me. My mouth went dry, because, gaw, Canasto!

This man-child was gorgeous. 

“Earth to Katniss.” Prim snapped her fingers in my face.

“Sorry.” I looked back to my sister.

Prim looked over her shoulder. “Are you okay.”

I dipped out of my sister’s way. “I think I saw an elf.”

Prim laughed. “It’s Christmas, Katniss. Santa’s elves are everywhere.” Prim gave me a hug before descending the stairs to the lower level of the station. 

Seeing my sister go was difficult, but I couldn’t shake the tall man dressed as an elf. He even had on yellow tights with black elf shoes. 

I made my way to Macy’s. I could see the Empire State building in the background as I took a left to head to the employee’s entrance. 

When I arrived, the floor manager Brutus headed straight to me. He was a ridiculous man with muscles in his neck and a bald head. His meaty fingers held a tiny clipboard. 

Brutus did not believe in technology. He refused to use a tablet. He said the muckety-mucks, as he called them, were out to get him. He wore dark brown pants that were too small for his large frame and even when he stood you could see his white socks. He wore a sweater vest with various pens in his front pocket and a cheap plastic necklace that was supposed to look like tree lights.  

“Jovie,” Brutus said looking over his shoulder.

“Yes, Brutus,” I smiled. Jovie was my elf name.

“Our last Santa quit, and we have no one, so until then I need you to help out in gift wrapping. Don’t forget to make sure the ribbon curl is six inches.”

“But you need more than six inches, to make a good curl.”

“Six inches.”

Sighing I walked to the station and nodded to the girls who were at the gift-wrapping station. I sat there trying to make six inch curls. People were insane at Christmas; they were stressed out to buy things, and things never made anyone happy. Things were just things.  

The line of people got shorter and I noticed the tree in the center of the sales floor was looking a little sad. So getting the ladder, I rearranged the ornaments and noticed one of the lights was out. From this vantage point I saw Brutus drag him in, the elf I saw on the street.

Heat rushed to my cheeks and I focused on the tree, eavesdropping the entire time. 

“Buddy, you need to remember you get a half-hour break when you work under six hours and a one hour break when you work over six hours. If I catch you on the floor again I’ll have to write you up.” 

His name was Buddy. My lips formed a goofy smile at his name. Up close he was prettier, his wavy hair curled up at the ends. A shiver ran up my spine at all of those curls. I could picture little boys with blond ringlets and a little girl with dark tresses in green colored elf clothing. I held on to the ladder as I swayed. 

“Wow, what’s this?” HIs eyes quickly darted to the crowded sales floor. 

“This is the north pole,” Brutus said looking at his precious clipboard.

“No it’s not,” Buddy waved at a pair of babies inside of a stroller. 

“Yes it is,” Brutus said.

“No it’s not,” Buddy eye’s traveled to the tree and I hid behind it so that he didn’t see me.

“Yes it is,” Brutus put his hands on his wide hips.

“No it’s not,” Buddy said smiling. “Where’s the snow?”

“He’s right, there’s no snow,” a six-year old girl said. She’d been listening to the conversation.  

I nearly snorted. 

“Why are you smiling like that?” Brutus brows knit together.

“I just like to smile, smiling’s my favorite thing,” he said. Bouncing to the Christmas music that was being pumped through the speakers. 

“Well stop smiling, and make work your favorite thing to do. And who gave you that outfit?”

“It’s mine,” Buddy said, splaying those large hands on his chest looking down at his elf outfit. 

Brutus looked at the intricate gold embroidery. “Fine, if that’s your story. You should make work your priority instead of shopping.” Brutus sighed, looking at his clipboard again. “I have to make the announcement.”

Buddy nodded, but once more was looking around. 

I was working on the tree lights by now and really didn’t want to get down because I wanted to keep staring at him. At his great legs. Normally tall guys had spindly legs. Not his, yum. 

“Okay I’ve got an announcement. Santa will be here tomorrow at 10AM. Keep your receipts so you can see Santa.” 

“SANTA!” Buddy yelled. He jumped, clasped his hands and a little girl next to him joined him. Soon there was a flock of kids doing the same thing, all speaking at once and he was nodding and speaking to them as if he knew Santa. 

I chuckled cause I’ve never seen Brutus look so stunned and speechless. He was carried away by Chaff, his second in command. 

Buddy turned and focused on me. I pretended that he wasn’t just a few feet away from me. I could feel his gaze as I fixed the bulb that was not letting the string of lights to turn on. The tree lit up and I swear his eyes seemed to glow brighter than the lights on the tree.

My stomach did a little flip-flop. “What!” I said defensively. I turned and saw how big his eyes were and the genuine smile. “Are you enjoying the view?”

“I love Christmas trees,” he said hesitantly. “It’s nice to see someone else who enjoys elf culture as much as I do.” 

Of course the guy that would make butterflies dance in my stomach was a wackadoo. I scowled. This wasn’t happening. Getting down from the tree, I quickly walk away, grabbing a few stuffed animals that were discarded and putting them back on the display.

“Looks like someone needs Christmas cheer and the best way to do it is to sing.”

“I don’t sing,” I muttered.

“Of course you can.” He chased after me.

“No,” I said trying to get him to stop, but liking that he’s walking after me like a wide eyed puppy-dog.

“Anyone can. All you have to do is put a group of words together in a tune,” he said sweetly.

I hopped on up on the stage where the guy in the red suit would be seated tomorrow. I turned to look at him. As I spoke to him, I couldn’t keep the hurt from my voice. Because the last time I sang a Christmas song it was with my dad, hours before he died.  “I know that, I can sing, but I choose not to sing.”

“Look, I’ll do it for you maybe it will make you smile,” Buddy said. He takes a deep breath, “I”M SINGING. I’M IN A STORE AND I AM…”

It was horrible, but I couldn’t help but smile. 

“THERE’S NO SINGING IN THE NORTH POLE!” Brutus comes running out from behind the registrar.

“Yes there is,” Buddy says grinning at me. “I’m Peeta.”

“Wait I thought your name was Buddy?”

“That’s my middle name,” Peeta said. “Is Jovie your name?”

“No,” my voice sounds breathy. “Jovie is my elf name.”

“So what’s your real name?” His voice sounded deeper and I swear I could see nothing else but his big blue eyes tenderly gazing at me.

“Katniss,” I said, wondering why my knees were so wobbly. I couldn’t fall for a guy who thought he was an elf. A very good looking, broad shouldered guy with the face of an angel, but nonetheless, a complete wakadoo.    

The ten minute warning came on letting people know they needed to go home.

“Oh I’ve got to get ready for Santa,” Peeta muttered under his breath. But before he could move Brutus appears. 

“Buddy,” Brutus grabbed him by the arm and hauled him away. I was left standing on that stage with a big old goofy grin on my face.

[dynamightsfave]

Hidden talent - Luke Patterson

(gif not mine! credits to owner)

AU: alive! luke patterson x oc

summary: in a world were none of the boys have died and instead live in the same timeline as julie, luke’s girlfriend has a hidden talent only her mother knows about

warnings: slight cursing, nothing much

a/n: this is the first thing that i publish, and i’m still trying to figure out how tumblr works, so if anyone reads this, please bear with me people

masterlist

***

Heather had been friends with Alex since they were in diapers. Every memory of her childhood she had, he was there too, since the beginning. The only ones she had he wasn’t in were the ones at family meetings. He was even there when she went to the dentist! That’s how tight these two were.

So it was kind of inevitable her meeting his band. Sunset Curve had been all he and Julie —her other best friend, along with Flynn— could talk about since they had started it. They had met the other members in the music program, something Heather had never even thought about joining, regardless of how many times her mother had told her she had an incredible voice and should definitely let the world listen to it. However, the raven haired girl preferred to keep her voice to herself, like her small little secret.

Meeting Luke and Reggie —she already knew Bobby— was easily one of the best things that could’ve happened to her. She hit it off with them instantly, as she had never really had any trouble with making friends —she was the sociable one out of the Heather-Alex duo, and the mom friend out of the “Triple Trouble” trio. Her and Flynn had denominated themselves as the band’s managers and marketing team, and the others had to admit, they were doing a pretty good job.

While Flynn took the social media part, promoting the band on every platform she could think of and posting stuff like teases of new songs, short rehearsal videos and performance dates and places; Heather had taken the people approach. She had recruited her cousin, Willie —who she suspected only wanted to help her because he had a massive crush on Alex, and not because he “wanted to help his favorite cousin”—, and they had both skated the streets of LA, putting up posters and throwing them around, telling people to “tell their friends!”, a catch phrase Reggie had come up with.

 [...]

“I got us a night at The Hollywood Club!” Heather entered the Molina garage with a proud smile and arms on the air, getting immediate cheers “I know, I know, I’m awesome” she bowed.

“Hey, I was there too” Willie pushed her aside, leaving his skate on a corner and plopping on the piano seat “In fact, if it wasn’t for Caleb owing me one, you wouldn’t have gotten that gig. I’m his messenger boy”

“Okay, listen you little shit, it was me that had to offer herself to clean the place up after the show, so I don’t wanna hear any more lies coming out from you” she narrowed her eyes at her cousin, but the skater only rolled his eyes.

Luke, beaming, reached out to Heather’s arm, pulling her onto the couch with him. The two had been dating for nearly three months, and anyone that didn’t know that could’ve thought they’d been together for years, just by seeing how deeply they cared for each other. Alex had been a tad overprotective of the girl when Luke started to flirt with her, but Julie and Flynn made him realize that if anyone could match Heather’s adventurous and forward personality, it was Luke.

Heather came up with an idea, something to do, and most people —including Alex, who over the years earned experience in this kind of things— would disregard it immediately, because it sounded, and most likely was, crazy. Not Luke. Luke would just smile and do it with her. Hype her up even. They found in each other a safe to talk, the craziest ideas and dreams coming to life. Still, they knew when to draw the line, and realize that maybe cliff diving in the middle of November wasn’t the best thing to do.

Luke liked to get the things he planned, make them real, and with Heather he felt like it was possible. Sure, he had the band to make his music dreams come true, but —and this can come out as shocking— he wasn’t just music. There were so many other things he wanted, and Heather was the first person that encouraged him to let them all out, the first person that listened to all the things he wasn’t as good at but he still liked, and forced him to get out of the studio to do them.

They were basically perfect for each other.

“Besides,” Flynn had pointed out with a teasing smirk and a knowing look that was also in Julie’s eyes “you’re going to end up dating her cousin, so it’ll be fair in no time” Alex had left that conversation blushing like a fool and with his mind a little more at peace.

“You’re incredible, babe” the lead guitarist kissed her cheek “When is it?”

“This Friday night” she answered, making herself comfortable in his arms “That gives you two days to rehearse some songs, maybe even come up with a new one. How’s my musical genius doing with that, Jules?”

“We have a few lyrics left on Finally Free, but I’m sure that we can have it done and perfected by Friday” she smiled, showing her adorable tooth gap “I’m gonna need to borrow your boyfriend for that, though”

“Sure, two musical geniuses work better than one. Meanwhile, Reggie and I have a date”

“Huh?” Luke’s head turned so fast, Heather thought for a second it would snap from his neck.

“Yeah, we’re going to watch the last Star Wars movie. We told you guys to come and you didn’t wanna, so we’re going by ourselves” Reggie could barely contain his excitement, the smile on his face making it impossible for Heather not to copy him.

“Speaking of which... if we don’t leave now, we’ll be late. Let’s go!” the girl pecked her boyfriend as a goodbye, ruffling Bobby’s hair after and blew a kiss to both girls and her best friend.

“I don’t get a kiss?” Willie pouted, but Heather only kissed her middle finger and flipped him off “Love you too, cuz!” he called, but Reggie and her were already out and the only response he got was his light laugh.

  [...]

The two friends were meeting Carrie Wilson at the theatre. Nobody would’ve guessed that the lead of Dirty Candy liked Star Wars, but Heather had known her since kindergarten, and she knew the girl.

They all technically knew her, being Bobby’s fraternal twin and all, but the boys didn’t consider her an actual friend until the girls started inviting her to their hang outs, seeing as they were all friends. Luke and her often had friendly bickering of which band was better, Reggie discovered that she could be a wonderful addition to the mischievous duo Heather and him had formed, and Alex found his perfect dance partner one night playing Just Dance. It was safe to say that she had been welcomed into the group.

“You guys are playing at The Hollywood Club?!” was the first thing he strawberry blond said when they arrived.

“Tell your friends!” Reggie winked, then turned to Heather “Damn, Flynn is fast. We have good managers”

“That you do, Reg” she passed her arm over his shoulders. It was a little awkward, because she stood on her tippy toes, but they made it work.

“Can you get me a performance too?” Carrie pouted and made puppy eyes “I need a marketing team like yours”

“C’mon Care, it’s literally my cousin and I in his skate and my roller skates and Flynn with a phone and Wi-Fi. You could do that too” Heather waved it off “Plus, you can have daddy make a call and you’ll be able to play at the Madison Square Garden. Shit, we could do that too, we have Bobby. Why am I putting so much effort into this?”

“You know I’m trying to earn my own spot, Heath. Being famous because my dad isn’t as satisfying as knowing I made a place sold out because they liked me and not the daughter of Trevor Wilson”

“You’re doing great, Carrie” Reggie encouraged “Your songs are good, and your dance moves are killer. People don’t just go to your shows to see if they can meet your dad”

“Thanks Reggie, but I’m pretty sure you only go to my shows to see Kayla” she smirked, and both girls watched their friend flush red.

“T-That’s not true!”

“Really? I guess I won’t give her your number then; she’ll be real disappointed”

“She asked for my number?”

But Carrie just chuckled and walked ahead with Heather by the arm, leaving the gaping boy behind for a few seconds before he snapped back into the real world and chased after them, asking the same question again.

“I’ll see what I can do for ya” Heather smiled “But you’ll have to fight Luke by yourself when he finds out I’m helping our rivals” she finished in a dark tone, laughing along with Carrie.

“Yes! You’re the best Heath!” she squeezed her in her arms.

  [...]

Friday arrived sooner than planned, and that left Flynn and Heather to get the band’s asses to the place. Flynn was on the phone with Caleb, assuring him that they were just stuck in traffic and they’d be there soon. They were actually trying to calm Alex down.

“Hey, look at me. Bird, look at me” Heather had her hands on his shoulders, doing her best to get him to breathe with her “You’re the best drummer I know-”

“I’m the only drummer you know, Feathers!” the anxious boy stressed.

“You’re the best drummer I know!” she exclaimed over him “This isn’t any different from our other gigs. You’re gonna get up on that club’s stage, and you’re gonna kill it. I’m gonna be on the side of the stage like I always am, with Flynn. I’m there if you need anything, which you won’t because once you get into the song, you’ll be crazy amazing”

“Okay, I can do this” he nodded to himself, taking deep breaths along his best friend.

“Hell yeah you can” she laughed softly “You good?”

“Yeah, I think so”

“Great, then let’s go people! We have an audience to impress!” the others, behind them, cheered with her and started to go to Ray’s van, were the instruments were waiting.

“Hey” Alex took a hold of Heather’s wrist “Thanks, Feathers” he smiled at her, using the nickname he gave her when they were three.

“I’m always gonna be there for you, Alex. You know that. I’m the Feathers to your Bird, we’re a package deal” she smiled back, then wrapped her arms around him “I love you”

“I love you too”

  [...]

Alex did amazing. Obviously.

The whole band was incredible, and the people in the club absolutely loved them. Heather had stayed at the side of the stage like she promised, but from where she stood she could spot Flynn with Carrie, Willie, Nick and Kayla all jamming and moving their bodies along to the song in their chairs. She clapped and hollered once the show was over, a huge smile adorning her face.

“You were right” the man himself, Caleb, clapped next to her “They are really good”

“I told you, dude. Any chance we’re able to play here again?”

“I’ll call you” he offered, and Heather didn’t think it twice before shaking hands with him “I’m closing in half an hour, and I want this place spotless for tomorrow” he smirked.

“I thought you were joking! You have people for that”

“A deal is a deal” and he left. Heather groaned and threw her head back.

“Why the frown, Princess?” at the voice of her boyfriend, the smile was back on her face.

Luke was a sweaty mess, not that she cared. She took a couple of seconds to admire his “after show” glow. Because yes, he was glowing —both literally, because sweat, and figuratively. After every performance, there was a glow to all of them, pure happiness radiating from them. You could see it in their smiles and heavy breaths, but Heather liked to see how their eyes glinted with the ecstasy of doing what they loved. It appeared while they were on stage, and it stayed for some time after performing in front of an audience. When they were rehearsing or jamming in the studio it was more relaxed, content, but on a show it was almost magical.

“What are you looking at?” Luke laughed after drinking some water, with his eyes squinting as he smiled out of pure glee.

Heather too his sweaty face in her hands and planted a firm kiss on his lips. She had never cared if the boy was sweaty and therefore by hugging or kissing him she’d get all dirty and smelly. If she wanted to show him affection, then she would.

“You guys killed it up there” she told him after a moment with a proud smile “Amazing, baby”

“Thanks, Heaths. Sang that solo for you” he added with a smirk, hand slipping around her waist.

“I saw” she answered as she passed her arms over his shoulders and around his neck “You looked really good while doing it too” the smirk widened and the hold tightened, bringing her closer to him to kiss her again.

“Take your lovey dovey acts somewhere else!” Bobby booed, nearing his friends.

“Hey, just because your sorry ass is alone doesn’t mean you have to hate on us” the raven haired girl replied with a teasing smile.

The boy scrunched his face and mocked her, which went back and forth between the two until Heather’s teasing and playful smile turned to a excited one.

“Wait! Oh, she’s looking again!” confused, the rhythm guitarist went to look behind him, but Heather shot her hand to stop him “Don’t look! Not yet... Okay now. See that pretty blond? She’s been eyeing you all night, dude!”

“For real? You think I should go talk to her?”

“Are you stupid? Of course you should go talk to her, did you not hear what I just said? Wait, here, clean some of this sweat” she took a towel and dabbed it over him, then pushed him forward when he didn’t move “Move, Bobs!”

“Thanks Heaths!”

The couple watched their friend jog over to the girl and introduce himself, saying something that she found funny. “I’m an amazing wing woman”

  [...]

The club was officially closed. After a couple of Caleb’s songs, that Heather had danced to with Flynn —more like they made a fool of themselves, but at least they had fun— and then she helped them put their instruments back in the van. Now, she held a mope in her hands, swinging aimlessly from side to side, humming to the band’s songs.

“I believe, I believe that we’re just one dream...” she picked up the pace of the song, closing her eyes as she jumped on top of a chair, spinning on her spot and using the mope as a micro “And we’re standing on the edge of great!”

The girl continued to sing her heart out, unaware of the pair of eyes that followed her very movement, watching the private show she put up for herself. When she finished the song, she let out a content sigh and a small chuckle.

“Woah” the word escaped Luke’s mouth before he could stop himself, causing Heather to jump and turn around.

The boy stood just by the entrance, an awestruck expression on his face. Red flushed Heather’s face, and she opened her mouth to stutter out something, but Luke didn’t let her, taking long strides to her.

“Heather, that was incredible! Why didn’t you tell us you could sing like that?”

“I usually like to keep the singing to myself, when I jam with you guys it’s quiet”

“Babe, you could be the lead singer of Sunset Curve! I’ll retire if that means you get to show everyone your voice”

“No” she quickly dismissed “Do not give up your dreams, Luke Patterson, you’re not allowed to do that. Not for me, not for anyone”

“But, Heath, your voice!” Luke was making big gestures, trying to get his point through.

He couldn’t understand how his girlfriend didn’t let anyone know of her huge talent. When he walked inside of the club again to help her, he couldn’t have imagined the scene that was playing in front of him, how she looked so carefree. She sounded like a goddess. It was a pleasant surprise, to say the least.

“I don’t like to be in the spotlight, Luke” she explained “You guys were born to perform in front of people, but I like to keep it behind closed doors. You understand that, right?” she took his hands, looking up at him through her lashes. He sighed and nodded.

“Yeah, I get it. But I really hope it’s not the last time I hear you sing” Heather laughed and shook his head, as Luke’s face lit up with an idea “Oh! You could perform for all of us in the studio! You’re cool with that, right?”

“I’ll sing with you and perform with you at the studio” she agreed, squealing when he picked her up and twirled her around “But you have to promise that if you guys record it, it won’t end up on social media”

“Of course, anything you need” he nodded quickly, bringing her lips to his “If I get to hear that voice again, I’ll even sell my guitar”

“I told you not to joke with that!” she chastised, hitting him on the chest and getting out of his hold. She rolled her eyes at his laughter and smirked to herself, handing him a piece of cloth “Make yourself useful and clean those tables, Rockstar”

Luke frowned, but complied.

He made her sing along with him in his car all the way back to his house, and suddenly realized that he had been an idiot for a long time. Why hadn’t he made her sing with him before? It was his new favorite thing to do.

[ahwait-no-yes]

🍬 Candy Kingdom 🍭

Casually slides and places chapter down before running away only to trip on a can of soup and collapse as miku plays ominously in the background

also apologies for how ooc they are i can’t write 

-4-

Once Shuichi arrived at the plaza, he scanned the crowded area for Ouma. He never really liked places with people bustling about. It was always too loud, too many things to focus on, and just made him want to cover his ears and sit down for a bit.

Thankfully, he spotted Ouma sitting on a bench, looking a bit bored. He assumed that wasn’t a good thing. He hasn’t known Kokichi for very long, but he seemed like a person that would be up to no good if they had nothing better to do.

Shuichi walked over to him, gently tapping his shoulder. Kokichi looked over at him quickly, he wondered if he would get whiplash. “Heya Saihara chan! Took you long enough, I was waiting here for years!” Ouma dramatically complained, drawing others attention to them.

Saihara nervously laughed, assuming part of it was true. He did sleep in a bit, not having to deal with someone waking him up and tell him he has things he needs to do. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to take so long.”

Ouma waved his hand, dismissing the topic. “Uh huh. So, Saihara chan!” He chirped, suddenly standing up. “I have a super fun and amazing cool idea! So we should toootally do it!” He exclaimed, rocking back and fourth on his heels.

“Soo! I was thinking maybe you should buy me a bunch of things, then I can murder you and take your stuff!” Kokichi smiled innocently, keenly stepping forward.

“But that’s a lie, isn’t it?” Shuichi deadpanned, crossing his arms and staring back at him. Ouma’s face was blank for a second, before it turned back into his usual smug grin. “Maybe! You’re catching on quick, Saihara chan!”

Shuichi chuckled, fidgeting with a strand of his hair. “Is that a good thing?” He asked, playfully tilting his head. Kokichi pouted in response, his eyes looking glossy. “No it’s not! It’s horrible! If Saihara chan keeps trying to figure me out I’ll have to kill him!”

Saihara nervously smiled, adverting his eyes as per usual. “I’m hoping that’s a lie too,” he murmured. Kokichi laughed, wearing a familiar mischievous grin. “Probably!” Was all he said before skipping off, leaving Saihara to catch up with him.

—

While Ouma was aimlessly walking around, (it seemed like he was at least, Saihara noted,) they ended up running into someone else.

Or, Ouma antagonizing one of his friends. Hopefully one of his friends.

“Hey, tit for brains! Come here!” Kokichi yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth. Multiple people turned to look at them, a few covering their mouths in shock. Shuichi couldn’t do much other then look down and hope they would stop.

A girl (who looked to be about their age,) walked up to them, a scowl on her face. “What the hell do you want Kokichi?” She asked, a hand on her hip. Ouma grinned and bought a finger to his lips before replying, “Well, I just wanted to give you the honor of seeing me!

Shuichi excepted a very, very bad reaction to that statement, but she just laughed and gently shoved Kokichi. “C'mon, the gorgeous Miu Iruma knows that’s a lie!” She exclaimed, placing a hand on her chest.

Iruma stared at Saihara, looking him up and down. “Who’s the twink?” She asked, turning to Ouma. The other boy scoffed, scowling at her. “Wow, already giving my iconic nickname to some rando? Im truly and deeply offended!” He replied dramatically, tears brimming his eyes.

“But that was just a lie. Even a cum dumpster like you could understand!” He exclaimed, a sly grin on his face. Miu flushed, shrinking away. “C-cum dumpster?” She murmured.

Ouma is weird. His friends are too. Is this how most people act? I really hope not.

“But! This is my new slave, Saihara chan! Say hi Saihara chan!” He said in a soothing voice, as if he was talking to a kid. Which, Saihara did not appreciate. His parents did that enough.

He still muttered a quiet hi, anyways.

“Aaanyways!! Are you just eating all alone in a cafe? How sad! I think you should totally pay for us and buy us some food!” Kokichi exclaimed, smiling innocently. “Hell no! If you want food buy some yourself!” She yelled, a scowl on her face.

“Plus, I have more important things to do than-” She was cut off by another girl, (how many people did Ouma know??) gently tapping Miu’s shoulder. “Is everything alright? I heard you yelling,” She commented, looking at the two boys.

Iruma flushed, looking a bit nervous. “Everything’s fine!” She murmured, fidgeting with a strand of her hair. Kokichi’s grinned, staring at her. Miu stared back, slightly glaring.

“Oooo! Miu’s on a-!” “Shut up! You- little twink!” She quickly yelled over him, stammering for an answer. Ouma laughed, slightly leaning against Saihara for support.

“You always talk shit about how no one’s worthy of dating you a-” “SHUT UP!” She practically screamed, her face a brilliant red. People kept turning to see what the commotion was, which kept making Saihara nervously shift in place.

The girl behind Iruma (which he still didn’t know,) spoke up, a slightly nervous smile on her face. “So, I’m assuming you know these boys Iruma?” She asked, practically glowing.

“W-well, I know the purple little sh- gremlin, that’s Kokichi,” she murmured, twirling her hair. “And this is Saihara chan!” He chirped, showing off the other boy like a trophy. “He’s like, totally deaf, so that’s why he’s so quiet!”

“No I’m not,” He deadpanned, slightly sighing. Kokichi just giggled, gently nudging him forward. “Well it’s nice to meet you Saihara kun! I’m Akamatsu!” She smiled, trying to distract Miu and Ouma from fighting.

“It’s nice to meet you too Akamatsu san,” He murmured, looking to the side. She just smiled, not seeming to mind the lack of eye contact. “So!” She exclaimed, clapping her hands together, causing Kokichi and Iruma to temporarily stop glaring at each other.

“Since we’re all here, why don’t we do something together?” She asked. Ouma smiled innocently, “Yeah, we should! Riiight I-ru-ma channn?” He teased, his smile turning into a mischievous grin. 

Miu just muttered something along the lines of, “Whatever,” and crossed her arms. “Since Iruma san and I just got here, we can all eat in the cafe. Sound good?”

No one objected, so she smiled and went into the cafe. Once they were crammed into a small booth, the whole situation finally hit Shuichi.

This whole thing wouldn’t be a problem if he knew how to talk to people without getting nervous. If that was the case, everything would be fine. Perfect even. Except, he didn’t. He had mostly been isolated most of his life, and kept to himself.

So this was a major problem.

Before Saihara could have a meltdown in public where a bunch of people could see him, Kokichi spoke up. “Sooo, are you guys friends or?~” He asked, a sly grin on his face.

“Yeah, we’re friends! We met a few weeks ago when she spilled her drink on me,” She replied, quietly giggling. “It’s probably because she was-” Ouma was cut off by Miu again, “No I wasn’t you twink! Shut up!”

Kaede gently pat Iruma’s shoulder, effectively shutting her up. “So, do you guys have any funny stories?” She asked, tilting her head. “I’m so glad you asked Akamatsu chan!” Ouma exclaimed, slamming his hands on the table in excitement, causing Saihara to flinch.

“Well, I remember once my organization and I were throwing some water balloons at some random kingdom nearby, and we ended up getting chased around for a bit! It was suuuuper fun!” He chirped, smiling.

Shuichi froze up for a second, staring wide eyed at Kokichi. He remembered overhearing that conversation when he was around seven, talking about kids in clown masks and checkered scarves.

“Why did you even-” Saihara murmured, staring at him. “Oh, you know,” Ouma very helpfully replied, a playful grin on his face. Shuichi quietly laughed, covering his mouth. “I’ll never get how you’re able to do things like that, I can’t even maintain eye contact for more than a few seconds.”

“All it takes is some practice and a fake personality!” He sing songed, gently nudging him. Shuichi continued laughing, still trying to muffle it. Miu and Kaede eventually joined in, everyone smiling.

Maybe he could stay a little longer. He still has a lot he wants to know about everyone else.

—

wwww this doesn’t feel too good but,,, needed to get done,, -DA

-

3 | 4 | 5

Read it on AO3!

[hopeatermeetsgodzilla]

Chapter 15

“-and he’s lived on Mara since then.” Madison finished, Florès humming and nodding in acknowledgment. The younger girl was currently reading the files about the Titans as the mechanic tinkered away on the new model for the ORCA.

It’s size was between the original prototype and the smaller one he had given Emma. This one was supposed to have a wider range of available sounds than just the options to make a Titan stand down or provoke them to a fight. “Damn, that’s a sucky backstory. And you’re telling me Rodan jumping in a volcano in an effort to be with his wife in death may be related to why he can live in one?”

“Yeah. I mean, Mothra can reincarnate.” Madison said with a shrug. “Magic that allowed someone to survive lava doesn’t seem that far-fetched.”

“Magic doesn’t exist.” Florès said, shaking his head as he got up from his chair, walking to the coffee machine and mini-fridge he kept in his office. “It’s just science no one has figured out yet. You want any snack?”

“Chocolate. And how would you explain reincarnation then, uh? Or Isla de Mara just... vanishing without a trace?”

Florès seemed to think for a moment. “Either Mothra is actually a really long family line of moth Titans who leave notes to each other in order to pull the longest scam in history- catch,” He threw a kit-kat at Madison. “-or the theory of genetic memory is actually right. As for Mara, I dunno. Probably something with physics...”

“What would you do if you learned magic was actually a whole science in itself?” Madison asked as she opened the candy. “Would you be mad?”

“I would be mad, yes. What about the last ones?” He asked as he started the coffee machine.

“Alright, so... Ghidorah...” Madison started. “There’s three of them, but we don’t have records of their actual names. But we do have nicknames: One who is Many, Golden Demise, Death Song of Three Storms... wow, there’s a lot.”

“Just give me facts, like with the others- powers, known relationship with other Titans, current whereabouts, and whatever backstory Dr. Chen scrounged up.”

“Alright, so: last seen near Mara, and disappeared at about the same as the Island. Everyone seems to hate them, and the feeling is mutual.” Madison turned to look at Florès, breaking her kit-kat up.

“What about their powers?” Florès asked, pouring himself a cup and coming closer.

“Uh... bio-electrical, energy draining, meteokinesis, flight of unknown nature, suspected to have a high level of telepathy, independency from oxygen...” Madison listed off.

Florès nodded, taking his seat again. “Is it noted somewhere why he doesn’t need oxygen. Like, are they deep-sea weirdos, or something?”

“... Look in the opposite direction.”

“What do you mean, look in the opposite direc- no.”

“... yeah... it says in the ‘myth’ section that they fell from the stars...”

“No no no no no no no- we’re dealing with fucking aliens!?” Madison nodded. “¡Qué cojones...!” Florès snapped, slamming his cup on his desk. His attention then snapped at the unfinished ORCA. “I need to finish this.”

“Most of the myths they’re in also all portray them as malevolent.” Madison added. “Like, ‘inspiration for the Christian Devil’ malevolent.”

“Mmm. Don’t like that.”

“What, you’re Christian?”

“Raised catholic, yeah.” Madison eyebrows shot up to her forehead. “Comes with the territory when you grow up in Venezuela. But I doubt these guys fell from grace, or anything.”

Madison hummed, going back to looking at the computer screen, even if she wasn’t reading anymore. “I talked to one of them, you know?”

“Did you?” She nodded. “How?”

“I... one of them was able to get outside of his body.” Madison started, Florès nodding and taking a sip from his cup. “And he talked to me. Brought me to mom when she came to get me in Antartica. And... told me he and his brothers just wanted to be free.” She buried her face in her hands. “I should’ve trust my instincts, should’ve known he was lying...”

“Well, you’re twelve.” Florès noted, patting Madison on the shoulder. “You can’t know everything. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Plus, you’re not the one who freed him now.” He then turned back toward the ORCA. “If I had been in your mother’s position, I would’ve done the same. And I can guarantee you that your mother would’ve still saved you if she knew all that stuff. So stop blaming yourself for getting kidnapped, alright Russellita?”

“Alright.”

-

Oh, that rock he was laying on was comfy.

Rodan never wanted to get up, curling up a bit even as he finally opened his eyes. The sun had risen a while ago, indicating he had slept in. Which made sense, seeing as he had stayed up talking and star watching with Ghidorah, who had been... surprisingly nice.  They just talked about places they remembered seeing beyond the world Rodan knew, pointing at locations in the sky when it turned dark.

Now that it was locked away from reality, the night sky had gained it’s stars back. He used to think that Ghidorah were vengeful souls back from the dead, but he supposed that stars being a map of the world beyond their own made just as much sense as them being the imprint left by the departed.

Nevertheless, the scenery this morning was still very pretty. With the sun reflecting in the water with thousand of sparkles and illuminating the golden strands of hair around him, it was as if light was bouncing off of everything.

Wait a minute...

Rodan opened his eyes more fully, looked up, and realized with horror that he was laying in Ichi Ghidorah’s lap, who had his hair undone for once and forming a curtain around him. “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

Rodan screeched, jumping to stand up and suddenly very awake, only to stumble and land on his ass. “How long have you been watching me!? And why was I sleeping on you!?”

“Since my brothers woke up a while ago. And you fell asleep while we were star watching last night. The ground didn’t look very comfortable, so I moved you.” Ichi answered, still sitting as he leaned toward Rodan, who looked around him with a panicked expression. “You asleep looked like you were agreeing...”

“Okay, don’t manhandle me when I’m unconscious. And where did those two go!?”

“Ni is exploring what’s left of the human settlement. San is looking for rocks.” Ichi answered coolly, hoping the little bird would calm down eventually.

For now, to no avail. “Why are they doing that!?”

“Ni wants to see if there’s any humans left. As for San, he just wants to find rocks.” There was a pause, Ichi debating whether or not he should open up a bit. “He will also inevitably smash one of these rocks on my head as revenge for telling him to do things, but that can’t be helped.”

“... there’s no humans left.” Rodan angrily muttered, finally taking his eyes off Ichi. “They all left some times before you came here, and those that didn’t were probably flung away when I fell for the humans’ bait.”

Ichi raised an eyebrow at that. “Bait?”

“Humans figured out how to create calls.” Rodan explained bitterly. “They used one to bait me into flying into your storm.”

Ichi chuckled. “Oh, we’d have found you either way. The whole reason we came here in the first place is because San wanted to see you.”

“Maybe, but I wouldn’t have had to fight off the three of you in the middle of a raging storm.” Rodan retorted, bringing his knees up to his chest.

Ichi simply shrugged, going into meditation. {Ni, there’s no humans left. They all left before we came here.}

[Are you sure?]

{The little bird told me they left.}

[You’re really just going to believe him?]

{What?}

[What if it’s a trick?]

{What would he get out of lying about that!?}

(Also, he’s telling the truth.)

[Hello, brother San. How do you know that?]

(Hi Ni! Humans have a really strong emotional presence despite being so small and stupid, so they’re really easy to spot. Along with Rodan, we’re the only ones here.)

{And you didn’t tell us anything for some reason because...?}

(I thought you guys already knew! I mean, I get Ni not noticing because he’s so bad at it- no offense-)

[None taken.]

(-but brother Ichi!? You should’ve noticed ages ago.)

{Okay then-}

[Brother San, we haven’t even been there for a full day yet.]

(You know what I mean.)

{You two-}

[Anyway, I think humans figured out electricity, and how to generate it.]

{What!? Are you su-} Ichi was snapped out of his thoughts as he felt something lean on his leg. He opened his eyes, looking down at Rodan. The smaller being was leaning his head on his thigh, eyes closed. Was he... was he sleeping?... no, just resting. {The both of you come back as fast as you can. Ni, bring back some evidence.}

(But-)

{That’s not negotiable, San.} Ichi ignored his brothers as he put his hands on Rodan. One under his back, and the other one under his knees.

Rodan opened his eyes, confused. “What are you- gah!” Ichi had lifted him, only to promptly set him down on his lap. He chuckled as Rodan’s face started glowing brightly, twirling a lock of red hair around his long fingers. “Wha- telling you not to manhandle me when I’m sleeping wasn’t code for ‘do it when I’m awake’-”

“Don’t move.” Ichi told him, fingers carding through long red hair and separating it. “How do you usually style it?”

“Uh... simple ponytail, and I use another twisted strand to keep it together.” Rodan explained hesitantly. He looked down as Ichi started humming a little tune to himself, taking a strand of hair right above his ear and braiding part of it.

“How high do you keep your hair?” Ichi asked Rodan, who hummed in confusion. “I know it’s not high like San’s, but it doesn’t seem to be at the base of your head either.”

“J- just do it however you want.” There was a pause were there was no movement, Rodan fidgeting. He then brought a hand to the back of his head, claws tapping the middle of the back of his skull. “It doesn’t immediately become a problem if it loosen up, that way.”

“You don’t have to be so shy, you know? Why don’t you tell me what happened to you while we were sleeping.” Rodan shrunk on himself at that. Ichi leaned down as the other started debating it to himself, taking the braid within his teeth before lifting a sleeve up. He tied off one of the short ribbons he usually kept for his hair.

“I... became the Fire Guardian.” Rodan finally admitted.

Ichi hummed, starting to gather hair for the ponytail, letting go of the braid in the process. “What happened to the last one? The bird with the colorful feathers... what was her name again?”

“Quetzalcoatl. And she... died. Out of control volcanic eruption, the smoke is what killed her.” Rodan’s voice had broken on that fourth word.

Ichi raised an eyebrow, tying the ponytail with the ribbon. “You two were close?” He was pretty sure the only people Rodan had been close to was Godzilla.

“We met after you guys got sealed.” Was the only context he offered.

“I see...” Better not push the subject for now less San’s plan gets ruined from trying to dig too deep too fast, but it would be interesting ammunitions for later. He tied the braid around the base the ponytail, passing whatever wasn’t braided under it. “Done~”

Rodan hesitantly pat the braid on the side of his head, before shaking his head a bit. It seemed to be holding better than normal. He was about to thank Ichi, before remembering he was still sitting on his lap and jumping off with a yell. This time, he was able to right himself, and looked at him. Since the Ghidorah was sitting down, the two were at mostly the same eye level. He coughed hesitantly, the flush on his face lessening a bit. “Th- thank you.”

“You’re welcome, firebird.” Rodan’s flush immediately came back, his face almost glowing a golden color.

“Still better than ‘little bird’...” He muttered to himself. Rpdan than turned, facing away from Ichi. “I’m going to go for a short flight, ascertain the damage you and your brothers did. Do not try anything while I’m gone, got it?”

Ichi chuckled. “You’re cute when you’re trying to be intimidating. And understood. I’ll be right there when you come back.”

“... Good.” And with that, a strong breeze lifted an extremely flustered Rodan of the ground, leaving Ichi alone and in a good mood.

Said good mood immediately faded away as he felt something collide with his head. He looked to his right, raising an unimpressed eyebrow at Ni who had smashed something made out of wood on his head, “Really?”

“I wasn’t finished searching, and you were getting too touchy-feely.”

“Yes Ni, that’s the plan.” Ichi reminded his brother. “Get close to Rodan in order to manipulate him.”

“You were getting touchy-feely- here’s the human tech.” Ni dumped what was left of the pole on Ichi’s lap. The older brother took a look at it, frowning. Certainly what was needed to transport energy from one place to another, but not enough to not lose any in travel, and there was too many pieces.

“That doesn’t make sense.” Ichi grumbled. “This is too primitive compared to the flying machines they had. It should be more in line with it. The other civilizations we saw always had a consistent level of tech on the entirety of their planets, if not always in line with other civilizations.” 

“Not all of them.” Ni reminded him. “You remember the Exif, right?”

“Of course I remember the Exif.” Ichi hissed. The first (and the last) civilization to ‘loan’ Ghidorah from the Xiliens for a period of time that could be counted in years. In this case, for the upper class to intimidate the lower ones into believing their Gods had come to smite anyone who would dare oppose them. And since Gods were supposed to be immortal, they had stayed for several Exif centuries.

But then the Exif ended up believing their own lies, and upon San’s request, found a way to disconnect them from the Conductor. Enveloping their planet in an endless storm and watching it die had given Ghidorah such a rush they just knew that it’s what they had been taken away from their own world for.

“Not sharing everything in an equal manner between all seems like something they would do.” Ni commented. “And humans always lived in small, separated communities with a clear leader. Maybe it became more apparent as time went on? It goes very fast to them, after all.”

Ichi groaned, taking one last, distasteful at the components in front of him. “Still. There’s never that big of a gap in technology on singular planets. If they have figured out space travel, the furthest they would be able to go to is their moon.” A rock landed on the back of Ichi’s head. “Welcome back, San.”

The youngest brother sat down, giggling as Ni gave his own snort. His arms were full of rocks “Sorry, needed to get it out after you interrupted my search for cool rocks.”

“Did you find any cool rocks?”

“Not really...” San whined, handing the rocks to Ichi, who started looking them over. Most of them had the same hard quality as the ground. “You called us back before I could find good ones... oh! But I did find this!” Out of the tissue he usually draped himself with, San got out a glossy black stone that had a powdery, golden sheen to it.

Ni’s eyes widened by a fraction, making a grabby motion for it. When San shook his head, his face soured. “Why?”

“I want to give it to Rodan. Show of goodwill.” San explained. “By the way, where did he go?”

“For a flight. He wants to see how dead his island is.” Ichi answered off-handedly. “Are you sure that plan of yours is going to work? Fire bird has... quite the temper. He might not break if we tell him the humans were the ones who did this.”

“Someone angry at us but more at our target is still easier to use than someone who’s just angry at us.” San replied, before frowning. “Also, I thought he was  ‘little bird’?”

“’Fire bird’ sounds less insulting than ‘little bird’.” Ichi answered, shrugging. “Like you said, show of goodwill. That, and doing his hair.”

“... Brother San, give me that rock.”

“No, Ni!”

“It’s not for me. I want to be the one giving it to the fire bird.” Ni answered. Upon his brothers’ confused faces, he continued. “It’s easy for the both of you to pretend to be nice- oblivion, San is actually nice. It’s not for me. But the plan isn’t going to work well if it doesn’t seem like I’m at least trying to be nice. So?”

After a few seconds, Sa handed the stone to Ni, the message in his eyes obvious. Don’t screw this up.

We cannot screw this up.

[thecandywrites]

Jewel Of The North Part 4

Ok, so in writing this part, I imagined that while there is an art of reading actual tea leaves, I saw a picture of this plate on the left edge and thought ‘man wouldn’t reading tea leaves be easier if each squigly section was part of something? Like this section is the life section, this is the money section, this is the love life section, so on and so fourth’ you know, make it even more complicated than it probably is.Also I love and adore Indian jewelry, because that is a gold temple necklace. It’s just...gorgeous. And in my mind, a priestess of Aura (who I totally made up for this story) would be wearing a fabulous shawl, that heavy gold jewelry and a head band that would match and have something akin to an Asian tea ceremony and depending on which tea people chose- told the priestess about them, kind of like what your favorite color says about you. Also, LOOK AT THAT GOLD DRESS. Hot damn. Also as an LMT, Vahva Kun is NOT a thing. Again, something I made up. 

And of course a thousand THANK YOU’s to the fabulous and super fabulous and creative @monstersandmaw​ for sharing the concept of ice orcs with me. Me and my Alaskan born heart instantly fell in love with them. Enjoy!

Jewel of the North 

Part 4

In the morning, you pulled yourself from the bed and you felt like it was noon. Thank the gods for the time difference, because it was only 9 there. 

“Well good morning sleepy head, working miracles wear you out?” Taylor teased you as she handed you a cup of coffee. 

“Yeah,” you nodded as you took it and drank it gratefully. 

“So, what’s the plan?” Taylor asked. 

“Massages today, working with Noah tomorrow, after that…” You shrugged. 

“Happily ever after.” Taylor supplied. 

“Hush or you’ll jinx it.” You shushed her in a whisper but her scheming grin was infectious. 

It took all day but by 7pm, you had gotten everyone taken care of that you came to take care of and Taylor decided to get takeout for dinner and while at the takeout restaurant that was on the other side of town, the group of pilots came striding in. 

“That’s them. The other pilots.” Taylor breathed. 

“Who’s who?��� You whispered back before she specified who was who before you had her shut up so you could overhear their conversation. They were going to get food here and then go for drinks at ‘the bar’ later. 

“What bar?” You whispered to Taylor. 

“Knowing them- it’s probably Goose’s, they have the cheapest booze around and it’s close to their apartment, like within walking distance.” Taylor answered.

“Goose’s is the seedy, underbelly place that I don’t want to go to the bathroom in? That has the awesome cheeseburgers?” You asked. 

“Yeah,” Taylor nodded as an idea bloomed in your head. 

“Are they attracted to women?” You nodded over to them. 

“Oh yeah,” Taylor confirmed before one of them wolf whistled to a group of women who came into the restaurant. Ah. Those kinds of guys. Almost too easy. 

“Could you take me there? I have an idea, it’s a dirty, underhanded idea though.” You whispered. 

“That means it’s a fantastic idea.” Taylor grinned. 

“What shoe size are you?” You asked. 

“9.” She answered. 

“Sweet, do you by any chance have any hooker heels?” You hinted. 

“Wait, wait, wait, you won’t have sex with Noah but you want to go to Goose’s in hooker heels? Every guy in that place is going to fighting for the chance to take you home if not fuck you senseless in the bar’s bathroom, if not the parking lot.” Taylor answered. 

“Oh trust me, the only one taking me home is you, I have a plan. How fast can you get dressed and dolled up?” You urged her. 

“Oh give me thirty minutes tops.” Taylor insisted. 

You got the food and barely ate two bites of it before you and Taylor quickly locked yourselves in her bathroom to get ready as you put on your most seductive makeup and a slimming undergarment under your sexiest dress that had the push up bra to end all push up bras as you brought and slipped into her hottest “hooker heels” while she wore the more sensible shoes you brought since you were the same shoe size as her. 

“How do I look? She-wolf enough?” You asked her. 

“Ah, I see, you’re going to eat them alive.” She realized. 

“Yup, my brother’s mother in law- Olga is a priestess for Aura and is Yamalian which is near Siberia and she nicknamed me Zahnochka Volchitsa which means ‘she wolf that rises again’ and just like Beyonce has Sasha Fierce, Zara Kingsley has Zahnochka Volchitsa, and Zahnochka is going to get them so wasted, they won’t be able to fly tomorrow which is good ol’ fashioned sabotage and when they can’t fly the loads, Noah will be there to pick them up and save the day.” You revealed. 

“Oooh, evil and diabolical but for the best cause ever- I love it.” Taylor nodded in approval. 

“Just don’t tell Noah, I don’t think he’d approve of my methods or like Zahnochka very much because I haven’t used “her” in a long time.” You urged her. 

“Lips are sealed.” She swore as she had you wear her fancy dress jacket to cover up so Greg wouldn’t see you or the kids. 

“Honey, Zara and I are going out for a drink, we’ll be back later.” Taylor told her husband as she quickly ushered the two of you out of the house and drove to Goose’s as you got in your wallet and slipped money into your cleavage on the way there so you wouldn’t really have to get your whole wallet out and chance any of them seeing your business card or your real... anything. Then you prayed to the gods for courage and hoped this gamble would be worth the risk to yourself and hoped this wouldn’t backfire and blow up in your face or bite you in the ass. 

Once in the bar you zeroed in the group of pilots sitting together at a table towards a wall, which was perfect and out of the way, just the way you liked it as a mischievous smirk danced on your lips.

 And then you locked your smoldering and seductive gaze with one of them who froze and stared back in awe like a deer caught in headlights as he watched as you strutted and sauntered into the place, your heels clicking on the tile and slowly slipped out of your light jacket to reveal your gold silk dress and made sure that every guy in the place with a pulse knew you were officially on the radar. You had an ability which you had perfected over your life, you called it the ‘Marylin Monroe effect’ because she had this gift that she could ‘turn on’ and she could transform from normal house wife to blonde bombshell right before anyone’s eyes and you had a similar gift and you were about to use it again. 

“What can I get you to drink Gorgeous?” The bartender John asked as he was grateful he was working tonight, and here he thought it was just going to be a normal week night with the same old regulars but low and behold, a brand new gem came walking in, you must have just come into town because you were a brand new face. Plus, you were clearly the hottest woman in the place, hell in the whole damn town and you were dressed to kill and obviously on the prowl and he was ready offer himself as your prey for the night. 

“What kind of whiskey do you have?” You asked as John began going through what he had, feeling a little embarrassed that they didn’t have a ton to choose from and what they did have, didn’t seem good enough for the goddess you were. 

“Give me some Jamie, that’s plenty good enough for me, on the rocks please.” You ordered.

“And you Sugar?” John asked Taylor. 

“Same.” Taylor agreed before John poured two very generous portions into glasses over ice and served them to you. 

“Thank you.” You thanked him.

“So I take it you’re a friend from out of town.” John hinted as he looked from Taylor to you. 

“That’s correct, I’m Zara Zahnochka Volchitsa Kingsley.” You introduced yourself, rolling your r’s and taking on a slightly Siberian accent with the roll of your own name off your tongue as you shook his hand. 

“John Wilks. Pleasure to meet you.” He shook it before it he took your hand and kissed it which got you to giggle bashfully before you pulled him towards you which caused him to lean as far over the bar as he could before you pulled a hundred dollar bill from your cleavage and slipped it into his hand. 

“Give me the lay of the land.” You purred as you twirled your finger subtly to gesture to the bar. 

“Uh, well, there’s…” He began as he listed off who was around the room, using the old ‘ 3 o’clock’ 6 o’clock’ method as you got the confirmation that all the guys at the table on the wall were the other pilots. 

“Could you do me a favor?” You requested. 

“Anything.” John offered.  

“Get me the darkest beer glass you have. Empty it so I can use it as a chaser cause I have a feeling every guy in this place is about to buy me a drink and I don’t want to get too drunk and when it gets full, get me a new one.” You proposed, your voice dropping to a low murmur so that only John and Taylor could hear you. 

“You got it.” John nodded in understanding as he got you the Milk of Dragon. Usually the beer is so dark and heavy it was black on it’s own but the glass was pitch black and you couldn’t tell except from picking it up if it had beer in it or not. 

“Are you ready to see a show?” You breathed to Taylor who nodded before you got the glass and pretended to take a long pull from it before you turned in your chair and Taylor watched as you seemed to turn something on inside you- up full blast like seeing a Hollywood star light up on the red carpet, it was like you were a beacon of light, but you were all fire and flames, burning so hot you could set the stool you sat on- on fire and every man in the place just became a moth and every man couldn’t help but be drawn to you and you were practically swarmed. 

"So what's your name Beautiful?" One guy asked. 

"Zara- Zahnochka Volchetsia- Kingsley." You introduced yourself, giving the same flourish to the name and putting extra emphasis on the middle portion of your “name” while quickly rolling through the real parts of it which they all ate up like candy. 

And instead of getting overwhelmed, you seemed pleased and basked in all the attention as you tried to give each guy in there just a few minutes of attention, remaining friendly and giving a little bit of your time to everyone so that no fights broke out for your attention, letting them spit game, each line greater than the last as your amused giggle filled the air and your smile lit up the dimly lit bar before the group of pilots came over and tried their luck and while their lines weren’t as clever as the others, you pretended to be the most affected before you offered your hand for them to lead you back to their table as you were sat down as the others grumped but watched on enviously as the group of pilots who weren’t all that handsome or all that impressive seemed to win your favor which didn’t make any sense to the rest of them maybe you just had a thing for younger guys. But you made your choice and they would respect it as Taylor sat next to you and just watched as the Zara she thought she knew was replaced by a full blown she-wolf. She didn’t know you had it in you but she knew why you were doing it and she had to respect the masterful way you were choosing to deal with the problem because no one else had the guts to do it this way. But it was genius.  

“So are all of you pilots?” You asked eagerly as you sat at the table, putting on your best doe eyes and making sure you sat in such a way that your cleavage was heaving with every breath as they all undressed you with their eyes. 

“Oh yeah, he flies…” Derek began to list off the different planes and you pretended to be impressed by it all as they ordered you drink after drink which was part of your plan, “chasing” it with your “beer” as you pretended to get tipsy, laughing at everything they said that was even slightly funny. 

“So what do you do? Other than look sexy as hell?” Evan asked. 

“Oh nothing much, just taking care of the estates and trust funds I’ve inherited when my grandparents died when I was younger, " You waived off and grinned when all their eyes practically got dollar signs in them and they were staring at you the way a hungry dog would look at a steak. Oh they would devour you the moment you let them. 

Perfect. 

“And I’m an LMT which stands for liscenced massage therapist, would you like a demonstration?” You purred. 

“Hell yeah, my body is yours to do as you wish.” Evan offered before you took his arm and started massaging it and giggled when he groaned and moaned in pleasure before you got a brilliant idea. 

“Well, as an LMT, I’m certified in using Vahva Kun, which all my body builder clients swear by and by using it, they build the biggest, most impressive muscles possible and it feels better than sex with the gods, would you like to try it?” You offered.

“Hell yeah,” they readily agreed as you went about using it on them as their moans and groans filled the small bar as you straddled their labs to get as close as possible to hit all these points in their bodies, leaving each of them feeling like a god themselves and the buzz they had already been feeling from the booze was amplified and they were feeling the most intense afterglow that did indeed surpass the afterglow after an orgasm as Taylor watched on curiously and only when you ordered another round of shots for the guys, this time of the 153, the strongest alcohol in the place, since you had massaged their necks and made sure to access their ‘sleeper mode’ muscles, then they took that last shot and promptly passed out and you used that to use their fingers tips to get into their phones and deleted the pictures they had taken of you in the compromising positions of their laps before you stood up and strode over to the bartender and slipped him another hundred dollar bill since by the time you were done, most of the other patrons had gone home for the night since it was past midnight and almost last call. 

“Thanks for looking out for me tonight, you may need to call a taxi or an uber for them. They obviously won’t be able to drive home.” You nodded over to the table before you strutted out of there with Taylor and while you weren’t drunk on alcohol, you were definitely drunk on power and the thrill of what you just did because letting your inner she wolf out to breathe and feed for the first time in forever and it felt amazing. 

“So what’s Vahva Kun?” Taylor asked as she drove you to her house. 

“Vahva Kun is short for Vahva Kun Olen Hiekko. It means ‘strong when I’m weak’. Body builders pay me a grand each to do that to them a week and a half before competitions to make every muscle in their bodies’ bulge. In massage there’s only a few ways of doing things, and that is- pain now- pleasure later or pleasure now- pain later and Vahva Kun is as intense as pleasure now pain later gets. The reason it’s so pleasurable now is I use the body’s tendon organs to “turn off” muscles from the nervous system, this gives the effect to the brain that the muscle has become completely relaxed which feels amazing in the moment. But when you turn a muscle off, especially prime movers or major primes, the muscles that are responsible for your major movements, that means they can’t work anymore because you just told them, via their tendon organs to go the fuck to sleep and go on a little vacation and they become completely unresponsive and they feel lighter than air at first. So while they’re out in la la land, and can’t hear a thing from your nervous system who’s screaming at them to move. So that leaves only the synergists and the little assistant muscles to try to do the job of the major primes which they are ill equipped and too weak to do but they try their best. So they end up bulging by the end of it because they have no other choice because your body needs to move. However another thing happens when you do Vahva Kun, the nervous system freaks out. Now we all know how ecstasy works, it floods your brain with endorphins and other feel good chemicals to the point of overwhelming it right? Well Vahva Kun does the same thing initially. So what you’re left with is a brain who can’t feel most of the muscles in their body and is overwhelmed with pleasure and it freaks out and how it does that is it suddenly feels that the pleasure is actually pain and that you’re being attacked but it only does the switch once you succumb to the pleasure and pass out and the switch happens during your first sleep cycle.” 

“So when they wake up tomorrow, they’re going to feel like they got hit by a mac truck and moving will be agony.” Taylor realised. 

“Oh yeah, and when you do Vahva Kun you’re supposed to drink at least two liters of water or preferably an electrolyte drink before you take your initial sleep because in turning off the major primes, they release all their tension and everything that was trapped by that tension in particular all the “toxins” and acids and things stored in the muscles and when you drink a diuretic, like coffee or even worse- alcohol, the toxins can be released from one spot of the muscle but simply move and spread within the muscle belly instead of getting flushed out into your lymph system which then delivers it to your liver and kidneys to be removed from your body. And once the switch happens, the brain then sends fibroblasts into all the major primes which is a heavy duty messenger to make sure it’s still there period and the fibroblasts are like little explosions of protein and collagen and other substances into the major primes. Well imagine what an explosion looks like now imagine that inside a striated muscles, the fibroblasts usually go any manner of either outright perpendicular or just plain not in the directions of the striations in the muscles. Which again, make the muscles bulge. It looks awesome when you’re done, but it feels like you were in the worst bar fight ever. And for first time receivers of Vahva Kun it can take up to a month for your body to fully recover and your body aches the whole time and it can take several hours after just to get all the new knots out of the muscles and usually body builders, the first few to several days after- they can’t hardly move, they have all these huge bulging muscles that look incredibly strong but are jack shit for strength and that’s why it’s called Vahva Kun- strong when I’m weak. It means they look strong but they are in reality, very weak.” You explained. 

“Vahva Kun was discovered by a prostitute, Jasmine Vahva, who was tired of being beat up by her clients and she found she could make a killing if she “massaged” them first using this technique, get them to pass out and steal them blind but then be gone before they could wake up and confront her. And she taught other sex workers this technique. But they only could ever do it to a client once and quickly word spread about the real “effects” of the massage and once the clients got wise to it it lost it’s “appeal.”, then the clients noticed that once they recovered, they physically looked amazing and so a few of them got into body building and then word spread and so you had the legitameate professionals going to Jasmine to learn this technique so that they could practice it on body builders which is a very lucrative discipline and her original friends who had been sex workers then got into the legitamate side of massage teaching Vahva Kun.” You revealed. 

“So you fucked them over without dropping your panties an inch.” Taylor laughed. 

“Yup, because those fuckers had the audacity to undercut Noah and put Noah and Sakura’s livelihood into jeopardy. A she wolf takes no prisoners when her den and pups are in danger. Even if she has to infiltrate another pack to do it.” You mused. 

“Hot damn girl.” Taylor praised as she high fived you.

The next morning Noah came down the stairs to find his mother already there making breakfast. 

“Good morning Mom.” Noah greeted sleepily as he shuffled over to the coffee pot before there was a knock and suddenly he was a million times more alert as he happily forgot all about the coffee to rush over to the door to open it. 

“Good morning.” Noah greeted you happily. 

“Good morning.” You greeted happily, sure that your dark circles under your eyes would scare the shit out of him but he didn’t seem to notice as he ushered you inside. 

“Good morning Nana,” You greeted warmly. 

“Good morning Zara.” Nana returned just as warmly. 

“How do you like your eggs?” She asked. 

“Over easy please if there’s toast.” You answered gratefully. 

“Did Sakura take it easy on you guys yesterday?” You inquired hopefully. 

“Yes, she didn’t wake up till 10, it was wonderful and you did such a fantastic job on the house, it was a really wonderful blessing.” Nana praised.

“Thank you, I did my best.” You nodded as you ducked your head. Appreciating the recognition. 

“I know you did, and it’s really appreciated, you have no idea.” Noah added with a proud smile that was making wish you could ask him to try to show it but with his mother there, that wouldn’t have been appropriate. 

“Go get ready Dear while I get breakfast finished.” Summer urged him and you saw the reluctant disappointment in his demeanor like a child who is told to go to bed when there was still company at the house and you could see he was about to argue but one look from her had his argument dying on his tongue before he begrudgingly pulled away and went back upstairs to hurry up and get ready as you got yourself a cup of coffee. 

“So, I thought for sure that you would have slept in this morning from eating five men alive last night.” Nana noted once she heard the bathroom door shut upstairs and the shower turn on which made you choke on your coffee. 

“Uh, how…?” You nervously asked as you tried to clean yourself up. 

“The gods see all and only they could have revealed that to me. It takes a she-wolf with nerves of steel to do what you did, and to walk away without a scratch is a feat in itself. Don’t feel guilty about it, you ensured not just Noah and Sakura’s survival but the best chance for all of us to thrive too. But I need to tell you that you need to keep the she-wolf out today, embrace your Aura heritage, it won’t scare off Noah, it’ll surprise him but it won’t throw him off or intimidate him. Don’t lose your nerve or your courage. You’ll need it to make your mission complete. Use your bag and your magnificent mind and I’ll help you with your hair.” She advised you as she held your face in her aged but warm hands. 

“Ok,” you agreed, feeling relieved yet validated and empowered before she kissed your forehead before you left just as Noah got out of the bathroom as you raced upstairs since you would need the bathroom’s larger bathroom counter to get ready and Noah looking like a god with just a towel around his waist was a delight. 

“Everything ok?” Noah asked. 

“Yeah, just had a really good talk with your mom, I need to finish getting ready though. Do you mind?” You asked as you gestured to the bathroom. 

“Not at all, but we gotta get going in like an hour or so.” Noah answered, disappointed because here he thought he would have an hour or so with just staring at your beautiful face. Even without makeup you were gorgeous. You didn’t need makeup. 

“Plenty of time.” You reassured him before Sakura woke up to the sound of your voice. 

“Paradise?” She asked sleepily as she opened her door before she saw you and immediately went to you and hugged you tightly. 

“Good morning Sweetheart, did you sleep good?” You asked her. 

“The best, I had the coolest dreams!” She eagerly told you. 

“Well I have to get ready for the day, but I need your bathroom up here to do it, you want to tell me all about them while I get ready?” You proposed. 

“Yeah!” She agreed as she took your hand and led you into the bathroom before she shut the door, leaving Noah feeling a little jealous he couldn’t be in there too but he got dressed and let you have your time with Sakura as he went back downstairs. 

“What did you talk to Para-I mean, Zara about?” Noah asked his mom curiously. 

“I encouraged her to embrace all of herself with you, and not to be scared of showing you all of herself or fear it will intimidate you or put you off. Everyone always tries to put for their best faces and the best versions of themselves to people they like and are trying to impress.” Summer hinted with a scheming grin. 

“And for that she had to put on makeup?” Noah questioned as he cast a look in the direction of the bathroom when he heard Sakura and you laughing. 

“She’ll explain it to you better once she comes down. She has to show Sakura first and Sakura’s approval will give her heart and courage to show you and some reassurance that she has nothing to worry about will be all you need to give.” She insisted. 

“But for now, eat, be patient.” She urged him as she handed him a plate of food before she continued to cook breakfast as Noah begrudgingly ate and drank his coffee as his knee bounced impatiently as his mother joined him at the table as Noah racked his brain trying to think of what it could possibly be. 

“Stop, you’ll imagine it way worse than it is.” Nana lightly smacked his arm. 

“Look, the only thing I can think of is she’s used to be a stripper or something like that.” Noah blurted before he got another smack, this one much harder than the first.  

“I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, at this point it’s a bonus.” Noah conceded before he recoiled from the third smack, this one even harder than the last as he rubbed his arm. 

“You’re going to feel like an ass once she comes down the stairs.” Summer chastised before right on cue you came down the stairs looking like a proper goddess. A heavy shall was wrapped around your shoulders and you were wearing gold and purple highlighter on your cheeks as your complexion was made to look much more amethyst purple instead of peacock teal it usually looked and your eyeshadow was a brilliant gold and purple and your jewelry was authentic priestess of Aura jewelry. He was dumbstruck by how magnificent you looked. 

“May I introduce Zahnochka Volchitsa! A minor priestess of Aura!” Sakura proudly introduced you, her freshly brushed teeth gleaming as her fresh braids that you had put into her hair showed off her silken tresses. 

“And what a stunning one at that.” Summer praised as she had you sit down to breakfast next to Noah as she got up and took your hairbrush from your hand and your special headband and beads from your hands. 

“Wow,” Noah breathed. “So, what’s the special occasion?” Noah asked. 

“Well, your mother wisely advised me to embrace my “she-wolf” and “Aura heritage” today. When I was 15, my older brother Gavin started courting his wife Natasha who we call Tasha, she’s Siberian and her mother Olga, is a high priestess to Aura and serves at the Sinai Temple in the Great Lakes, and the moment she met me, she adopted me and gave me a new name. The name she gave me was ‘Zahnochka Volchitsa’ Volchitsa is Siberian for ‘she wolf’ and Zahnochka means ‘she will rise again’. And she has insisted I was her new daughter and forbade her own sons from dating me because that would be ‘incest’ even though at the time her 13 year old son Nicoli aka- Nikki- had the biggest crush on me, but he’s married with kids and we’re friends so now so it worked out. But anyway, she taught me how to have teeth and claws and how to take no bull-er-crap from anyone and how to be a strong independent woman with all the spice and sass of a viper and if any man dared cross me or even take advantage of me in any way- how to eat him alive like a proper shewolf, how protect ‘my den and pups’ and how to turn other people’s stupidity into my own benefit and she taught me how to give blessings, read palms and tea leaves and all that. But it’s an alter ego for me, like how Beyonce has Sasha Fierce, I have Zahnochka Volchitsa. I thought if your clients saw how you were flying around a minor priestess of Aura, the goddess of gold, luck and riches, they’d be willing to do just about anything, including renewing contracts with a pilot they tried to undercut for the chance to get a blessing.” You hinted with nervous grin.  

“You don’t have to…” Noah tried to argue even though he was incredibly touched and so impressed by it. This was ingenious. Although as much as he wanted a blessing, he also knew that priestesses could not bless family. And since he desperately wanted to be your family, he would be satisfied with your presence to be blessing enough. 

“Yes she does,” Summer immediately countered. “And we deeply appreciate it and Sakura and I will pray for your success.” She insisted as she continued to fix your hair appropriately, braiding the headband into your hair and securing it so that you looked like a proper priestess with the traditional hair arrangement and no sooner had you ate than Noah got the first call from a client as you got ready by putting the shawl on to complete the look.

“Be good for Nana ok?” You urged Sakura before you left, giving her a big hug.

“Will do.” Sakura reassured you before you kissed her all over her face which made her giggle with glee before she did the same to you before you let go and hugged Nana goodbye, giving her a kiss on the cheek before you left. 

“My new Mama is amazing.” Sakura fawned as she watched the two of you go from the window and get in Noah’s truck as she grinned to see her dad open your door for you like a proper gentleman. 

“Yes she is. Now, come on, we got some prayers to give.” She urged her granddaughter. 

Once in the plane, you settled into the copilot seat with your backpack securely between your legs. 

“How much does all that weigh anyway?” Noah asked curiously as he eyed the gaudy gold jewelry as he got settled in himself. 

“About a thousand pounds.” You laughed. “It’s all real and solid so it’s quite heavy.” You revealed. 

“Could you do me a favor though?” You asked hopefully. 

“Anything.” Noah immediately agreed. 

“Could you wear this gold charm at least for today?” You proposed as you pulled the large gold charm on a masculine chain out of your velvet blessing bag that had previously held all the jewelry wrapped in the shawl and a tea set for a proper priestess tea ceremony.  

“As long as you won’t give me a formal blessing with it,” Noah specified. “I know priestesses can’t formally bless family members but your presence is blessing enough for me.” He noted which melted your heart and made you want to kiss him. You were ready to offer him a proper place in your family. But perhaps he was referring to the way you were with Sakura and meant that endearment fairly innocently. 

“That’s correct, but they can give gifts, if you wear this, your clients will assume I’ve already blessed you and will want a blessing of their own, a first link in the chain.” You proposed. 

“Ok,” Noah agreed before you turned in your seat and put it over his neck and being so close, you could smell the soap he used in his shower and his aftershave and just him in general and your brain got hazy with lust. But you feared it would be inappropriate and settled for simply kissing his forehead and offering him an adoring smile which he mirrored as he glanced from your eyes to your lips before a message came on his receiver which pulled his attention away. 

“Yeah,” Noah answered. 

“Hey could you swing by Corporal? I have a load for you this morning.” One of his clients radioed in. 

“Sure thing, see you soon.” Noah agreed before he hung up. 

“It’s working already,” Noah laughed. “That guy hasn’t had me fly a load for him all year, must be a big one.” Noah revealed. 

“Then let’s do his first.” You suggested. 

“Ok,” Noah nodded before he turned the plane on and began to taxi it out of the hanger and towards the runway before taking off and you bit your bottom lip to keep yourself from squealing. Flying was so fun!

Once up in the air you put on your blood red lipstick with gold glitter gloss over it as you had Noah tell you about this particular client. Cranky old man type.

Perfect. 

He landed the plane several long moments later and once taxied over to the loading area, you knew it was show time as you unbuckled your seatbelt and left the plane and grinned when an older gentleman practically came rushing up to you. 

“Noah! Why didn’t you tell me you were flying around a priestess of Aura today?” Mick chastised Noah. 

“Because most people are intimidated by priestesses. And since Noah has already lost so much already, I couldn’t chance him losing anymore, especially upon my account.” You easily answered for him. 

“Of course,” Mick ducked his head as his cheeks blushed. 

“This is Zara Zahnochka Volchitsa Kingsley. This is Mick Mullins.” Noah introduced. 

“Pleasure to meet you.” You extended your hand and smiled serenely when he kissed it and pressed his forehead to your knuckles as he bowed respectfully. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He greeted back. 

“Would you have time to take tea with me?” You asked Mick hopefully. 

“Of course, of course, right this way.” He ushered you to the control tower where there was a lounge with a coffee maker and an electric tea kettle which he quickly dumped bottled water into it to boil before he has you sit in his chair, in his office since it’s one of the most comfortable chairs in the place as you pull out your tea set and your trio of teas, each tin a work of art before you laid them out before him and ceremoniously took the top off of each one and sniffed each one before you offered for him to do the same before he sniffed each one. 

“Which one do you prefer?” You asked as he looked between them. 

“This one.” He specified as you nodded and smiled serenely at his choice before the kettle beeped and he immediately got up like a shot to retrieve it and brought it back just as you finished scooping the tea into the little teapot before he handed you the kettle before you poured in the right amount of water. 

“So, Mr. Mullins.” 

“Please call me Mick - Priestess.” He urged you.

“Thank you for having tea with me. And thank you many times over for doing business with Noah. That man has suffered so much loss recently. That loss has touched me very deeply. And to hear how his regular clients have taken their business elsewhere has disturbed me greatly and they will only reap disaster and misfortune for doing so, the gods told me through the leaves under no uncertain terms. Grabbing selfish hands today make it impossible to accept blessings, even if the gods are more than ready and willing to give an overabundance of them. Someone with closed fists cannot be handed anything. Even one closed fist can impede the other open one, since they cancel each other out. Even when what the gods will to give them is greater than what they already have in their hands. It doesn’t matter what their hands are physically if mentally, emotionally, figuratively and especially spiritually, since all of those are interwoven- if their figurative hands are closed, there is no blessing for them. Only a malediction. If that pattern persists, I feel I must intervene further, as I have contacts at the military bases and my more financially blessed clients may have a need for a private pilot for their jets and things and they will be more than happy to make sure Noah is paid handsomely, enough to make a move there worth his while many times over and they will be immeasurably blessed for doing so in Noah’s sake.” You proposed as you as you set up your tea ceremony as you glanced up at Mick who looked particularly embarrassed like you just pulled his pants down and exposed him. 

“But I don’t feel that will happen to you, because you are being generous and using the deserving and there is no one more deserving than Noah and you will be blessed for it. I can tell, it is written in the lines on your face and on the veins on the back of your hands.” You reassured him which had light returning to his eyes and a smile spread on his face before you poured the tea. 

“Well then let me reassure you that I would be more than happy to help Noah in any way I can.” Mick swore. 

“Please do not use pretty words in the face of a priestess just to gain momentary favor, do not say anything unless you mean the words with all truth and that you have cemented plans and will put those words into action.” You gently warned with a look of sorrow. 

“No I swear on my life and the lives of my family, what I say is in all truth and I will absolutely follow through, I will use no one but Noah for the rest of the season and for every season after this till the end of my days and I will pay him very well for it, so that he and his family may be kept in safety and security.” Mick swore solemnly. 

“Your words please me and the gods, may you feel peace and happiness and enjoy nothing but success with the fulfillment of this vow. May I give you a gift?” You proposed. 

“I will accept anything you wish to give me.” Mick answered earnestly. 

“I will read the tea leaves for you and wish to give you a charm.” You proposed. 

“I would be honored.” He agreed before you pulled out the reading plate and swished the remaining tea in the pot around before you poured the remains onto the center of the plate and watched as the tea leaves flowed out into the plate as the both of you watched to see where the tea leaves fell on the plate before you used your extensive training to read them to him. Usually people paid quite a bit of money to have this done by Olga and people used the information as if it was doctrinal truth, above questioning or reproach and Mick seemed perfectly pleased and excited about what the tea leaves told on the plate.  

No sooner had you finished before both of your phones chimed, messages that the plane was already filled with the shipment. 

You took a few moments to rinse your plate off in the sink after both Mick and yourself took a picture of it and as you rinsing it, Mick was making sure to cut Noah’s check. Mick usually paid half upon arrival and loading and then the other half upon successful delivery. This time Mick would be doubling both payments and made a note to always do this in the future as he fingered the gold charm you had given him that he immediately put onto a gold chain around his neck before his own phone went off, suddenly he was getting payments and offers from new vendors as he felt elated as he quickly prayed for forgiveness for slighting Noah in the past by undercutting him before he rejoined you as you finished packing up everything so he could walk you back and hand his payment to Noah. 

“Oh and Mick, I should warn you. If you ever break your vow, the charm will tarnish and you will lose what you gained and even would have gained will immediately go to your competition. And once it’s lost, it can not be regained.” You warmed him solemnly. 

“Wouldn’t dream of it Priestess.” Mick reassured you as he walked you back over to the plane. 

“May safety, security and blessings be with you Priestess,” Mick offered you graciously. 

“And with you.” You answered before you nodded and turned to get back on the plane, giving Noah a meaningful look with a pleased smile before Mick happily handed over the folded check to Noah and an apology for not using him sooner but quickly set up a deal to use him at least every week and a reassurance that if Noah ever needed anything at all, to let Mick know. 

“Of course, well, uh, I better get going, you have my number, just let me know what you need.” Noah returned before he got back into the plane and got ready to go before he peeked at the check before he put it into his payment bag. 

“Well that went well, I would say he’s your new model client.” You smiled proudly. 

“How?” Noah asked curiously. 

“Manta Olga charges anywhere from 3 to ten thousand dollars for the kind of tea ceremony I just had with him and to get a tea reading with her is booked up anywhere from three to 9 months in advance because she is the high priestess at her temple. Minor priestesses and newbies like me usually make a tiny fraction of that. And honestly if all I’m out is a few scoops of my favorite tea, it’s worth it to me- to help ensure that you and Sakura especially will be ok and taken care of, long after I leave and can’t ensure it with my own hands.” You confessed as you fiddled with the fringe of your shawl because you suddenly didn’t have the strength to look at him. 

Meanwhile the words were trying to eat their way out of Noah’s mouth to assure you and reassure you that you would be more than welcome to try. That he would follow you to the ends of the earth to give you as many chances as you wanted and needed to try. But then his radio went nuts trying to receive multiple messages all at once. All of these clients begging for his help to fly loads as you prepared yourself to repeat this process over and over and over today, as many times as it would take to make sure that Noah would be the most popular and sought after pilot the Frozen Tundra ever saw and prayed that your endeavors would bring Noah untold and unimaginable success.

Word spread quickly that a ‘priestess of Aura’ was with Noah and that she was giving free tea readings in exchange for business with Noah and Noah was getting money hand over fist as his payment envelope was close to bursting again, much like your bladder half the time because this tea, while beautiful and delicious, ran through you but you were getting better with every reading, like riding a bike and it was all coming back to you with ease. Like this is what you did all day every day and you had a lot of fun too and Noah made three loops around the state and flew from the morning till well into the night and every time you took tea with all these clients, they were more than happy to feed you a snack too. Mostly prepared by their wives to feed you and Noah and Noah counted himself lucky enough to sit in on a few of them while he ate lunch and dinner and gratefully drank some tea with you, enjoying the tea quite a bit. 

On the final flight home, you finally got to take off the jewelry, your ears practically tears of joy that they weren’t weighed down anymore as your chest was much lighter without the necklace on it as you gradually took the beads and headbands out of your hair before you stretched your neck before you put it all away back into the blessing bag. 

“There you are.” Noah murmured appreciatively, happy to see Zahnochka receed and his Zara come back to the forefront which made you giggle. 

“Yup, here I am.” You answered before you got a makeup cloth out of your backpack and wiped off all the makeup and false lashes which were itching your eyelids. 

“Did you really have to put all that makeup on?” Noah asked as he saw a ton of purple come off. 

“Most priestesses of Aura are of Siberian and Eastern Europa descent where the indigo violet orcs and dark elves which are just about the same color-originated from. The closer I look physically to them, the more people believe my authenticity as one. My first tea reading didn’t go well because I didn’t look purple enough and the client thought they weren’t getting an authentic reading. Thanks to the wonders of makeup, once I was able to get my complexion purple enough, people stopped questioning my authenticity despite Olga vouching for me. Even now I’m listed under the priestesses of Aura website as a chastnyy, or private priestess. Which means I don’t “officially” serve at any one temple even though I am in the same order that Olga is in. It just makes it eaiser for me. Same thing with the accent, it just helps me play the part. It doesn’t make it any less real but there are theatrics that come with it.” You explained. 

“Well maybe I’m weird but I’d rather have Zara with me in this cockpit than Zahnochka any day. She’s cool and all but I just like you better.” Noah confessed. 

“Awww, thank you. Zahnochka is...I’ll be honest, she’s exhausting. She’s fun but tiresome after a while. But thank you for not getting annoyed or intimaded by her.” You confessed. 

“Nope, not at all. So what are you doing tomorrow?” Noah asked. 

“I don’t have any plans.” You answered. 

“Well I actually ran all the loads today that I was supposed to run tomorrow. So technically I have tomorrow off and I would really like to take you fishing if you’d be up for it.” Noah offered, remembering his mother’s advice. 

“YES!” You immediately agreed with a bright, nearly blinding smile. “I would love to.” You answered. 

“We could even take Sakura too, I think with your encouragement, she might get over her squamishness with worms.” He added and grinned when your whole being practically lit up at the very idea.  

“Perfect.” You beamed, feeling super excited for tomorrow. 

[spider-manholland]

I’m Still Hurting | Peter Parker

part six of the mending hearts mini-series

Pairing(s): Ex!Peter Parker x Female Reader, Peter Parker x Michelle Jones, Brad Davis x Female Reader

Warning(s): angst, fluffy flashbacks, swearing, Far From Home spoilers

Summary: Sometimes it takes losing the person you once loved to make you realize how much they still mean to you.

Requested by @decaffeinated-turtle 

Author’s Note:  I’m terribly sorry that my updates have been slow lately.  I’m currently away for my cousin’s wedding and I’m the maid of honor so I’ve been really busy.  I promise to get the next chapter up as soon as possible.

Masterlist

The moment you found out what was on the itinerary for the class trip to Paris you lost all of your energy on wanting to go. And you tried everything, like everything you could think of but nothing worked. You tried faking that you were sick but the whole “you don’t have a fever so you’re fine,” thing happened with Mr. Harrington so that plan was ruined.

So there you were, walking through the same city you used to think was beautiful but now found horrifying, filled with memories that you tried so hard to forget but know you never can.

The memories were like deep cuts to you, wounds that you’ve tried to stitch shut for so long but always end up opening up all over again.

“Hey,” you were suddenly torn out of your thoughts at the sound of Brad’s voice, seeing him appear next to you as you and the rest of your class stepped out of the very long train, all exhausted from the ten hour journey. “You doing alright? I couldn’t help but notice that you sat by yourself the entire ride here.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” You nodded, smiling reassuringly. “Just wanted to be alone, that’s all.” You and Brad stayed near the back of your class as you all made your way towards the train station’s exit and stood by the bus stop. “Why? Did you want to sit next me? You seemed pretty comfortable next to Flash.” You teased, smirking when Brad playfully rolled his eyes.

“Oh please,” Brad scoffed, “I love the guy and all, but he never knows how to stop talking. I swear I thought my mind was going to explode if I heard him say something about Spider-Man one more time. Plus,” he paused, letting his hand slightly brush against yours. “I would’ve rather sat next to you but Flash already pulled me down with him and I didn’t want to be rude-”

“Brad,” your hand grabbed onto his bicep, cutting him off. “It’s okay, you don’t need to explain yourself. Like I said, I wanted to be alone.”

“Alright, just wanted to make sure.” Brad smiled, relieved that you weren’t upset with him. “So, what are you most excited for to see in Paris?” He asked, picking up his bag that was resting on the floor against his leg when the large bus meant for your class pulled up in front of you guys. “I really want to go to the Eiffel Tower.”

Peter wants to take MJ there, you felt your heart stop at the sudden reminder, remembering when you accidentally overheard Peter tell Ned his entire plan on confessing his feelings to MJ on the plane ride to Venice. Brad couldn’t help but notice the softened expression on your face, immediately feeling guilty when realizing what he said. “I��m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that.” He frowned, “I heard from Betty about Peter’s plan-”

“It’s okay,” you interrupted him, putting on your fakest smile. “You don’t need to keep apologizing for stuff that isn’t your fault.” You gave his bicep a small, reassuring squeeze. “And I’m not really excited for anything. I’ve seen pretty much everything the last I came here.”

“Oh that’s right, you came here with-” he paused, smiling sympathetically. “Sorry, again.”

You rolled your eyes playfully as you gently pushed past him to step onto the bus where the rest of your class were already at. You then sat down on one of the empty seats, Brad sitting beside you, both of you sharing quick smiles before he pulled out his own pair of earphones and began to listen to his music.

You didn’t realize how long you kept your gaze on Brad until you heard him clear his throat, staring at you with a small smirk on his lips. “Is there something on my face or you just enjoy staring at me?”

“W-What?” You froze, your eyes wide and your cheeks turning bright pink from embarrassment. “N-No, there’s nothing on your face, and I don’t like s-staring at you.” You stuttered, shaking your head.

“Whatever you say, sweet cheeks.” He chuckled, returning his attention back towards his phone. “Sweet cheeks?” You questioned, feeling your cheeks become even more brighter and your heart flutter at his nickname for you. “What?” Brad shrugged, heat also traveling up his neck and up to his face. “Whenever you blush your cheeks remind me of my favorite candy, Strawberry Taffy, and they’re sweet. Sweet cheeks.”

“You’re an idiot.” You giggled, shaking your head as you pulled out your book from your backpack and began to read it, unaware of the pair of brown eyes that belonged to none other than Peter Parker, who watched and heard the entire conversation between you and Brad, can’t help but feeling his heart beat anxiously at the sight of you two.

But the longer he stared at you the more he get his heart beat slowly turn from anxious to warmth when his eyes then traveled down to your chest - not pervertedly - and landed on the Red Dragon necklace that he got for you, resting on your chest.

- - -

After you and your entire class got to the hotel and settled in, everyone was now walking around the city, following Mr. Harrington and Mr. Dell as they led you all to the first destination on your guys’ itinerary.

“Where are we going anyway?” Brad asked, who was walking beside you near the back of the class, sweat beading on his forehead from the heat and exhaustion. “We’ve been walking for nearly two hours. Mr. Harrington,” Brad called out for your guys’ teacher. “Are we almost there?”

“Don’t worry, Brad,” Mr. Harrington replied, glancing back towards his student before returning his gaze back to the city map he held in his hands. “The Pont des Arts is just on the other side of the block.”

“Pont does Arts?” You questioned, feeling yourself freeze in your spot and your heart stop at the mention of the one place you completely despised. The one place that made your mind get consumed by what used to be heartfelt memories but was now replaced by dark, empty ones. “W-We’re going there?”

Peter was the first to notice your frozen state, concern and worry immediately filling his veins but before he could get the chance to confront and comfort you, Brad beat him to it.

“Hey, you okay?” You felt Brad’s hand on your arm, shaking you back to reality, turning to face him and see concern clear in his eyes. “Y-Yeah,” you lied, shaking your head, trying to hide the crack in your voice as the memories you’ve tried so hard to forget began to resurface in your mind and remind you of all the times your heart used to be bright. “I-I’m fine.”

You were there, standing on the Pont does Arts, or what others know it as the “Lock Bridge”, admiring the many different locks, both old and brand new. You found them all beautiful and unique in their own way. But you couldn’t help but wonder, how many of these loves actually lasted?

You didn’t realize how focused you were on them until you felt a pair of strong arms wrap around your waist from behind, a chin resting on your shoulder. “Hello, pretty lady.” You smiled at the sound of Peter’s low voice in your ear, your knees going weak when he pressed a soft kiss against your neck. “Hey, handsome.” You blushed, placing your hands over his, feeling your heart flutter at his delicate touch.

“I got us something.” Peter said, causing you to turn to face him and see him dig for something in his front pocket. “Oh my god,” you gasped, covering your mouth with your hands when saw him pull out a simple lock, your initials along with his written on it with marker. “Are you sure? We’ve only been dating for a year-”

“-and three months and six days exactly,” Peter finished, grinned widely and nodding his head. “Of course I’m sure. Are you okay with this?”

“Yes,” you answered without hesitation, your smile getting even more bigger when Peter leaned down and pressed a quick, passionate kiss against your lips. Peter then grabbed your hand pulled you down with him, the both of your kneeling in front of the railing where dozens of different locks already were.

You watched as Peter slowly unlocked your guys’ copper colored lock and attached it to the metal railing. You then felt his hand slip into yours and gave it a small squeeze as the two of you stood back up onto your feet and stared at your guys’ shared lock. “It’s perfect.” You smiled, standing up on your tip toes and pressing a quick kiss on Peter’s cheek. “I love you so much, Peter Parker.”

Peter swore he never felt his heart beat so hard before from your words. Yes, you’ve told each other “I love you” before but right now, in this moment, the two of you being in the City of Love and practically sealing your love for each other, that’s when Peter knew he wanted to be with you for the rest of his life.

“I love you with all my heart, Y/N L/N.”

It’s was like going through the worst pain you have ever felt all over again but this time, it’s a hundred times worse. There were you, standing on the Pont des Art with the rest of your class, staring at the lock that you and Peter left nearly a year ago—when your relationship was strong and where you thought you would be with him forever. Oh, how wrong you were.

You tore your gaze away from the now slightly dirty lock and turned to face where your class was, seeing them also admiring all the different locks that covered the bridge, your heart clenching in your chest when seeing Peter and MJ standing beside each other very closely, their hands brushing against each other every now and then, both checking out the same lock. You then felt your eyes drift off towards a medium-size rock that was on the ground and it was like all the pent up anger and heartache you’ve kept locked away took over and finally exploded, because next you knew you were bashing the rock against you and Peter’s lock, completely unaware of the confused and concerned stares you were recieving from your classmates.

Thoughts of all the nights you spent crying over Peter, every date he missed without an excuse, every text and call that was forgotten, every day you wondered what caused your what used to be strong relationship with him to collapse consumed your mind and fueled your anger, making you bash the rock onto the lock harder and harder until it finally broke and the sound of it clattering onto floor breaking you from your strance, your breathing heavy and your eyes filled with tears.

No words came out of your mouth, only tears streaming down your face as you stared at your class before walking away, ignoring the calls you were getting from your teachers and Brad.  All you wanted was to be alone.

As the rest of your class left the Pont des Arts, Peter decided to stay behind, curious to see what you were so aggressive towards. But when seeing the lock you two left behind almost a year ago—or six if he was being specific because of the “blip”, Peter swore he could feel his heart ache inside his chest and drop into the pit of his stomach.

The lock was broken, just like your guys’ love for each other.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Let me know if you want to be part of this series taglist or my permanent one.

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[cherryrogers]

Halloween.

Loki x Fem!Reader

Contains: Pure fluff.

Synopsis: It’s Loki’s first Halloween, and you’re determined to make sure he enjoys it.

__________________________________________

“Halloween?” Loki asked, a confused brow raised as he sat across from you at the kitchen counter.

“You don’t know what Halloween is?”

The god didn’t react, indicating to you that his answer was no.

“Well,” You started. “It’s a holiday where everyone dresses up in a costume, usually something scary. People decorate their houses with creepy stuff, carve pumpkins, eat way too much candy... it’s basically a day to celebrate all things horror.”

Loki just stared at you for a couple of seconds, comprehending your explanation before deadpanning at you. “That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of.”

You sighed, knowing that he would have that reaction to Halloween. Sure, it was pretty stupid. Was their any logical, important reason for the holiday to take place? Not particularly. Did you waste a tad too much money on Halloween decorations? Certainly. But it was fun. While you knew Loki wouldn’t intitially like the idea of Halloween, you knew that with a bit of persuasion, he would be dressed in costume and jamming a knife into a pumpkin in no time.

“I read somewhere that people originally started wearing scary costumes on the day to ward off ghosts.” You stated, pulling out your phone and going to your camera roll. Perhaps showing Loki consumes from the previous Halloween’s you’d celebrated would get him more in the spirit.

Usually, when it came to getting Loki out of his bedroom and stopping him from brooding, you were the one making him do those things. Watching him trying to settle into living in the compound was hard, seeing as the rest of your housemates didn’t tend to give him a second glance when he was around. Of course, Thor would occasionally have brotherly banter with him, but other than that, Loki didn’t have much of a relationship with anyone else. You’d been in his place before - being new to the compound and feeling like the odd one out. You knew it wasn’t a nice feeling, and you were determined to make the compound feel like somewhat of a home to him.

“Look.” You placed your phone in front of him on the marble counter. The picture on the screen was a photo of you and Natasha from the previous Halloween, before Loki had arrived at the compound. Natasha had her back to the camera, showing off the makeshift wings you and her had spent days crafting to try and resemble Sam’s outfit. She was looking over her shoulder dramatically, standing directly next to you in your costume. Red boots covered the bottom half of your legs and stopped just below your knee, hiding the blue leggings that you were wearing along with a long-sleeved, shoulder-less top. The top was plain white at first, before you painted the top part blue and added the red stripes to the bottom of it; not forgetting the star in the centre. To top off the costume, you were holding Cap’s actual shield in front of your body, which you’d begged Steve for you to use for the night.

Sam and Steve tried to act like your costumes were terrible, but they secretly were quite impressed.

“These were mine and Nat’s costumes last year. Clever, huh?” You attempted to get a positive reaction out of Loki, but you unsurprisingly failed.

He didn’t take his eyes off your phone as he replied. “And these costumes were meant to ward off evil spirits? I’m not sure the image of the almighty Captain America will do that job.”

He wasn’t wrong, honestly. However, he just didn’t seem to be grasping the idea of Halloween. You couldn’t necessarily blame him, considering he’d never celebrated any seasonal holidays before moving permanently to Earth.

“Halloween’s not really about that anymore. Like most things, it kinda lost its traditional purpose and became something more... fun. I mean, it’d be weird if I dressed up as Steve on any other random day. But on Halloween... totally fine.” You took your phone back and shoved it back into your pocket.

“So, it’s now just an excuse to dress up in outfits that aren’t usually socially acceptable?”

“...Yes.”

“Again, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

You smacked a hand against your forehead, letting out an agitated sigh. He just didn’t get it. Maybe if the guy actually tried dressing up and enjoying himself, he wouldn’t be so critical of it.

Loki had a smug smile on his face when you looked back up at him. “Look, there’s two days until Halloween. We’re having a party on Halloween night, and everyone is gonna be dressed up. Please tell me you’ll be there? With a costume?”

His smile faded slightly. “I don’t like parties.”

“But it’s a Halloween party.”

“That doesn’t change my mind.”

Your eyes widened hopefully, leaning closer to Loki across the counter. You weren’t going to say it aloud, but you really wanted him to be at the party. You liked Loki a lot; as a friend, and perhaps even something more than that. It was important to you that he didn’t miss out on things just because he doesn’t feel like he belongs. While he hadn’t directly told you that, you could tell that was what he thought of himself. You noticed how he tended to leave a room when too many people were on it, how he never joined in on movie nights, how he would disappear during missions despite Tony scolding him for it every time.

Loki shouldn’t have to feel like that, because he was a person - he was just as important as everyone else living in the compound. And you wanted to make sure he knew that.

“Come on, Lokes.” His nose scrunched at the nickname he supposedly hated (he didn’t really). “I’ll make sure you have fun. I’ll even help you with your costume. We’re running a little short on time, but I’m sure if I finish all my work now and get started as soon as possible I can put something tog-”

“Fine.”

“You’ll come?”

He exhaled reluctantly, a small grin playing on his lips. “Yes.”

As soon as he said the word, you rushed out of the kitchen to your office to get started on the paperwork you needed finished for the 30th. Your handwriting was slightly messy, and you could barely focus on what you were meant to be doing as you thought of a million ideas for a Halloween costume for Loki. Would he want something more on the creepy side? Something more playful? A character from a movie, or something original? Thoughts whirled around in your mind as you got yourself hyped for the party, hyped to see Loki.

While you were in the middle of working, Natasha wandered into your office and sat herself on the chair across from you, making herself comfortable. The red head often came in when she was bored - Nat was incredibly fast at finishing paperwork. The woman did it as soon as it was handed to her and never had to worry about deadlines. You wished you had her work ethic.

“You got a costume for Thursday yet?” She spoke up.

“Please,” You chuckled, putting down your pen and resting your chin in your hands. “I’ve had a costume planned since last Halloween.”

Natasha raised a curious brow. “And that is?”

You smirked, holding up a finger, telling her you’d be one minute as you fled to your bedroom to grab an element of your costume to show her.

When you returned, you instructed Natasha to close her eyes while you carefully put on the small part of your costume. Once you were happy, you allowed her to open her eyes, and she let out a laugh at what she was looking at.

You had put on two black gloves, but that wasn’t all. Attached to each glove was sharp, long scissor blades that followed the movement of your fingers when you moved them. You weren’t too sure about the idea at first, as you could hear Steve’s voice already telling you about how your costume was a ‘safety hazard’, but it was for Halloween. As long as you didn’t get too drunk and forget that literal blades were sticking out of your hands, you were sure you’d be fine.

Nat tilted her head to the side, examining the makeshift gloves. “Edward Scissorhands?”

“You guessed it.” You beamed. “So, if anyone asks why all of the scissors in the compound have disappeared, don’t rat me out. It’s for the cause.”

“It’s for a Halloween costume you’ll be wearing for a couple of hours.”

“I’m sure Tony won’t have an issue with buying some more.” You shrugged. “Plus, now that my costume is sorted, I need to think of something for Loki.”

Leaning forward in her seat, Natasha furrowed her brows. “Loki? He’s coming to the party?”

“Yeah, I asked him to.” You said the gloves off your hands and laid them gently on your desk.

“And he said yes?” More confusion was laced in her tone.

You nodded, feeling proud of yourself internally for being the only one that could actually get Loki to come to the party. “Yep, but he needs a costume. Something that he won’t hate. I want him to enjoy himself, you know? If he has a shitty costume, he’s gonna hate me for making him go.”

A smirk made its way onto Nat’s lips, and her expression gave you hope. “I have an idea.”

* * *

As you skipped down the hall to Loki’s bedroom, you couldn’t shake the excitement that was practically making you glow. It was finally Halloween, and there was two hours until the party started.

After Natasha suggested an idea for Loki’s costume, you and her spent a good amount of time putting it together. She made you a list of everything you needed to buy from the costume store, and while you were at the store buying all of it, Natasha planned his hair and makeup. Yes, hair and makeup. If Loki was going to look amazing in his costume, he was going to have to venture a little out of his comfort zone.

Loki was aware that you were planning out his costume for the night, but he was definitely underestimating you. He was thinking at the most you’d give him a prop and a headband. Little did he know...

Knowing that you’d be very busy getting Loki prepared for the night, you had your hair and makeup done early, as well as your full costume on - except for the scissorhands. Although they looked cool, they were quite impractical. Your hair was curled into tight ringlets, and the dark coloured shadow on your eyelids made your eye colour pop. Several thick belts tapped around your black t-shirt, and that was complimented by a short black tutu and knee high combat boots. You looked hot, honestly. Sure, maybe your hair should be a little messier and your skirt shouldn’t be so short, but you were hoping to impress a certain someone tonight, and you didn’t want to ruin your hair by dousing it in hairspray. Plus, the skirt was just cute.

Using the hand that wasn’t carrying the bag of Loki’s stuff, you knocked quickly on his bedroom door. It wasn’t long before the door opened slowly, revealing the god wearing a surprised expression at your costume. Maybe it was the makeup that accentuated your eyes, or the tutu that didn’t quite cover your thighs; after whatever it was that caused Loki to gulp nervously, you smiled warmly at him.

“Happy Halloween, Lokes.” You greeted him, sliding past his tall frame and setting the duffle bag down on his neatly made bed. “You ready to see your costume?”

The mention of his costume snapped Loki back into reality. “I’m not quite sure, if I’m honest. But, go on.”

After fumbling with the zip of the bag, you pulled out the main part of his costume - the headpiece.

It started out as a plastic hairband, but you and Nat worked your magic, and it became something pretty awesome. The hairband was painted dark green, and long, green and gold snakes, which honestly looked sort of realistic, stuck out from it. It didn’t look like a crappy two dollar hairband from the costume store - it looked professionally made. Even Loki was pretty impressed, yet a little confused.

He reached out and took the hairband from you, examining it carefully. “This... looks like you spent a lot of time on it.”

“I did. Well, we did. Natasha and I made it together.”

“So... what is my costume? Some sort of snake man?” Loki questioned, causing you to glare playfully at him.

“No, you’re not gonna be a snake man. Do you still have all of your green, Asgardian stuff?” You asked.

He nodded cautiously. “Yes, why?”

“You’re gonna need it for your costume.”

* * *

An hour later, Loki is in a long, green cloak over a simple black tee and tight leather pants. Admittedly, you picked them out because his legs looked fine in them. He is sat on his desk chair, which was moved in front of the long, vertical mirror in his room so that he could watch as his makeup and hair was done. Initially, he was a little reluctant to having a large fuss being made on his appearance, but he secretly loved the feeling of his hair being combed and the soft bristles of makeup brushes touching his face.

Natasha was on hair duty. She’d brushed through his locks gently before adding semi-permanent green dye to certain streaks in his hair. Meanwhile, you were setting the light layer of foundation you’d added to his skin and beginning to do some subtle eye makeup on him.

“You excited for the party yet?” You murmured, tapping the eyeshadow brush against the palette to rid any excess green powder and lifting it to his eyes.

“I’d be more excited if you told me what I was going as.” He responded.

You chuckled with a roll of your eyes. “I thought you would’ve figured it out by now, Loki. You’re wearing a headband covered in snakes, you’re all dressed in green...”

Loki just looked at you cluelessly.

“You’re Medusa! The one with snakes for hair, and if you look into her eyes, you get turned into stone.”

A look of realisation overcame Loki’s expression. “Ah, I see. Sorry, I don’t tend to pay that much attention to Greek mythology. I’m more interested in the Norse type.”

“Hm, I wonder why.” You scoffed at his words. “How’s the hair coming along, Mrs Incredible?”

“Just about done, Scissorhands.” Natasha replied, sliding the snake hairband on top of Loki’s head. As always, the girl looked stunning. She was dressed as Elastigirl, and the outfit was practically identical to her outfit in the movie. You and her really didn’t mess around when it came to Halloween costumes - if you weren’t going all out, what was the point? You let Nat know that the eye makeup was finished too, and put all the makeup products back in your duffle bag.

Clapping excitedly, you ushered Loki to stand from his chair. “Alright, Medusa. Let’s get a full look at you.”

The god stood up, groaning slightly at the pain in his legs from being sat down for so long. His gaze trailed from the ground up to his full reflection in the mirror. His outfit was something he was pretty used to wearing, as it was his own Asgardian attire. However, his eyes widened at the slight green-gold colour that had been brushed over his eyelids. He eyed the headband that was sitting on top of his dark locks, surprised at how much it... worked for him. Loki was honestly sort of crapping himself, worried that he’d show up to the party looking like a joke. Though, he wasn’t so concerned about that now.

“Do you like it?” You asked hesitantly, stepping closer to him so you were staring at both of your figures next to each other in the mirror. Honestly, you thought you looked like quite the duo.

There was a short silence, before Loki cracked a smile. “You’ve pleasantly surprised me, (Y/N).”

You couldn’t prevent the grin that took over your face, and your hand raised to Loki’s shoulder, squeezing it assuringly. “I’ve gotta say, Lokes. You make a pretty good-looking Medusa.”

Loki couldn’t tell whether his breath hitched from your words or your touch, but both made him genuinely glad you’d pushed him into dressing up for Halloween.

You looked behind you, seeing Natasha packing the duffle bag and then throwing it over her shoulder, getting ready to head downstairs. You mouthed a ‘thank you’ to the red head, considering the whole Medusa constume was her idea. In return, she mouthed a ‘have fun tonight’, winking playfully before pulling open the door and leaving.

* * *

As soon as you heard music blaring through the speakers downstairs, you pulled on your gloves covered in scissors and motioned for Loki to follow you out to the party, apologising with a giggle when you accidentally wacked him in the arm with one of your blades.

You and Loki manoeuvred in between the crowds of people in their costumes; considering the party was for people in the compound and anyone else Tony approved to come, there was a lot of people dotted around the usually empty ground floor.

Once you made it to the bar, you ordered drinks for the both of you. Not something too strong, but just something to take the edge off. To take the edge off you, anyway. The regular alcohol wouldn’t have an effect on Loki, but he still liked drinking the stuff - the bitter yet sweet taste was comforting in its own way.

After thanking the bartender, you went to pick up your drink, bit were soon reminded of the impracticalities of your costume when one of the scissor blades clinked against your glass. Loki noticed your frown, chuckling gently as he sipped his own drink before placing it back on the counter.

“Allow me.” He leaned forward and spoke next to your ear over the loud music, causing your body to freeze at you being in close proximity to the god.

His own hand clasped around your glass, and he lifted it up to your mouth, tipping it towards you. Feeling the liquid against your lips, you opened your mouth slightly and let yourself sip the drink, savouring the sugary taste on your tongue. Your eyes never left his as he took the glass away and placed it back next to you. There was something oddly... alluring about Loki doing that for you, especially since his bright eyes were piercing into yours the whole time. It made your stomach turn with nerves in a way it never had before, a way that you were sure could only be caused by the man in front of you.

“Thank you.” Your voice was slightly raspy, since your previous interaction made your throat go dry, ironically after you’d just taken a drink.

“I was meant to tell you before,” Loki dropped his gaze to the bar for a moment, before bringing it back up to you. “Your outfit is marvellous.”

He wasn’t speaking next to your ear that time, so you couldn’t quite hear what Loki had said. You took a step closer to him, your chests almost pressing together. “Sorry, I can’t hear you over the music. What did you say?”

Colour arised in his cheeks as he leaned in next to your ear again. “You look incredible tonight, (Y/N).”

Your stomach was doing flips at this point, but the compliment also gave you a surge of confidence. It was Halloween, after all. Not that that had anything to do with making impulsive decisions, but if you made one and it backfired, at least you were at a party where you could drown your embarrassment with alcohol.

Before Loki could pull back away from you, you reached up and pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek. Your lips lingered on his soft skin for a moment, and you could tell his whole body had stiffened. However, judging by the smile playing on his lips, you assumed that he appreciated the gesture.

“Thanks, Loki.” You practically whispered, but because you were still so close to him, Loki heard you very clearly.

Quickly, you pulled off one of your gloves and grasped your drink, chugging the rest of the liquid in two gulps. After putting the glass aside, you replaced the glove on your hand and pushed yourself away from the bar. Tilting your head to the side, you motioned for Loki to follow you to the dance floor.

With you walking in front of him, you didn’t notice the smile that had widened on face. To think that he was going to completely ignore the existence of Halloween. He reminisced on the moment you had shared only a minute prior, still feeling his skin tingling from your soft touch. Hopefully, that would be the first of many intimate moments you’d share.

“Ow.” A voice pulled Loki from his thoughts, and he searched for the source of the cry, eventually assuming it was blond in front of him who was rubbing his arm with a pout on his lips.

“Those gloves are a safety hazard, (Y/N).”

“Shut up, Steve.”

[pancakebutton]

Teacher X Reader Part II

Summary: Your teacher is having a hard time keeping it together with you constantly on his mind. Teaching your class period is when it gets the worst, sometimes he has to step out of the room just to recompose himself. It’s beginning to be the same for you, even when you hang out with your new friends, he is always in the back of your mind. And one of your new friends wants to get a little too close for your teachers comfort.

Warnings: Foul Language

Word Count: 13,250

Genre: Romance, Slice of Life, Sexual, Series.

Pairing: Insert Teacher X Reader

Masterlist

Part One

.

God why the hell did she have to be so beautiful.

It had only been a week. One week is all it took for this girl to drive me insane! I pushed the stack of papers on my desk aside knowing there was no way I could get through them, especially now. I couldn’t help it anymore, this week’s pent-up special tension made my cock swell from the dirty thoughts I had for her. And that Matt kid is the worst of it, he’s been relentlessly flirting with (Y/n) every day up until now. I knew if it were my way, she’d be bent over my desk this second.

I stood from that very desk and gathered my things, I had to quickly get home, my body-no my cock ached to be touched. Right before I made it out the door to my truck a familiar voice stopped me.

“Hey (T/n)! Going home already? Finally got done with those quizzes huh?”

Madeline Crossland. Or Miss C for short, she’s the English teacher across the hallway from me and she has been driving me crazy since I’ve gotten here.

“Misses Crossland, ha, so nice to see you again. How’s the vocab card grading?”

“You’re avoiding my questions (T/Nickname), why in such a rush?”

“Just a little tired. Especially since I’m not used to getting up so early, it being by first year and all, also please don’t call me that Miss it’s not formal”.

She looked a little displeased at my last remark but I could honestly care less.

“Oh (T/Nickname) I thought we were friends? Well I could help you settle in with some dinner, how about that new place downtown?”

“I’m a little preoccupied at the moment Miss Crossland. Goodnight”.

I didn’t wait for a response as I pushed past the door and walked towards my beloved truck. But of course she followed, that’s just the type of person she is, however this time she wasn’t taking no for an answer. Madeline then ran in front of me and blocked me from walking away, “look (T/n) I’ll cut to the chase, I think you’re attractive and my type and I know you’re single so stop beating around the bush and just give me one night”.

I sighed, “I’m sorry Madeline, but I just don’t feel the same way. Plus, I’m not looking for a one night stand”. After that I pushed myself through her superficial barrier, got into my truck, and quickly drove off.

Ugh I hate whores like her who think they’re entitled to every man they look at just because they think they’re attractive.

This then only got my blood pumping again. My mind crept into the depths of my thoughts that held endless fantasies about (Y/n). Who was I kidding, she’s barely about to be eighteen and with a student to teacher relationship it would never work out. Maybe I should have taken up Madeline’s offer just to keep her off my mind.

Stupid (T/n) what are you thinking! I’m supposed to be the one she looks to for help not to fuck. Ugh, maybe just keeping to my thoughts and fantasies are what’s best and I shouldn’t act on them.

But damn did she not make that statement easy.

.

I scanned over my notecards one more time, double checking I knew every answer to every question.

Amendment eight; right to no cruel or unusual punishments, fifteen; right to vote, twenty-fifth; presidential disability and-

“I knew you were a good student Miss Maine, but I hope you don’t find my quizzes that hard”.

I look up to a smiling Mr. (T/C), amused at my pre-test study situation.

“Good morning (T/C), and no but I always doubt myself into thinking I don’t know anything. Also did you see Matthews’ goal last night? What beauty!”

Mr. (T/C) simply laughed that basically dunked my panties in a bucket of water every time.

“He’s the man Miss Maine I can tell you that eh.” He then clapped his hands, grabbing everyone’s attention.

“Alright class ready for that quiz?”

Everyone except me groaned in response.

That quiz was my first one-hundred percent and I felt as if I were floating on the moon when Mr. (T/C) beamed when he saw my score. It’s so hard not to think of him, at first I just thought he was a chill teacher and don’t get me wrong, he is, but I’ve slowly found more and more things enticing about him.

I wouldn’t call it stalking, I just so happened to be in the right place at the right moment. Like how when I was picking up my little sister from middle school, I saw him slowly pass me in the school zone in his shiny, gorgeous, white truck. So now I know where he parks. Or how Mr. Rielly, one of Mr. (T/C)’s close friends, was talking to my math teacher about how he so happens to be single. Small things.

Morgan is what snapped me out of thought.

“Hey (Y/n), the guys are gonna go out to Stella’s tonight, Al’s treatin’, it’ll be fun you should come. Kaitlyn offered to take everyone.”

“I guess why not, got nothin’ else to do.”

And so I was then rushed into a nice looking black SUV packed with my closest friends. We were only halfway through the semester as winter was coming close.

Music blared through the speakers and we all were basically screaming the lyrics.

“I KEEP IT JUICY JUICY, I EAT THAT LUNCH, SHE KEEP THAT BOOTY BOOTY, SHE KEEP THAT PLUMP!”

I couldn’t help but laugh, these people were the ones that truly made me happy and it was nice to have a night out. Luckily for passerby’s, we finally stopped screaming bloody murder as we had arrived at the sit-in restaurant.

We walked in as Allen and Matt began greeting people over the counter. Anyone could tell they were close friends with the owner, and managed to squeeze us in a good spot at the back where it was quieter. We sat down, ordered our food, got drinks, and began conversing amongst ourselves. Occasionally someone would say a joke to the whole group and we’d all laugh along, but I mostly talked to Mo and Matt.

“So Matts, when does high school hockey start here?”

“Oh here in a few weeks, I’m so excited to be back on the ice, you’ll come to my games right? You know hockey is better seen in person and not on your phone.”

“Oh haha, but yes I’ll gladly come watch the other teams whoop your ass Williams.”

“Puhlease (Y/L/N) you don’t even know how to play hockey.”

“But I sure as hell know how to watch it.”

He chuckled in an obviously flirtatious way. I could tell our little jabs at each other meant more than we were letting on. It was obvious he was flirting with me because he liked me, the problem? He’s sweet and totally handsome, it’s just he seems more like a brother than a boyfriend. I just hope he doesn’t think I’m leading him on.

I take a bite into my burger and look up to see Mr. (T/C) with a drink in hand by the bar with a few of his buddies. They were watching the Leafs play the Jets and I caught a glimpse of his eyes quickly dart away from our direction. I nearly choked on a piece of hamburger at the site. There stood Mr. (T/C) in all his glory, after teasing me about every loss my team had faced, here he was in a Maple Leafs Jersey.

Honestly it was probably the hottest thing I’ve ever seen him wear, and I love a man in uniform. He looked back over, this time directly at me, and I smirked in such utter cockiness I could have been a Bruins fan. He smiled meekly and pointed down at his jersey that just fit him so well. I could tell he was laughing and turned around, there on the back was the name ‘Matthews’ and it really did surprise me.

That’s why he likes me so much.

I smiled to myself at the memory that I would keep in my mind forever. I smiled through our meal, our way back home, and when I got in bed, gently falling asleep.

The next morning when Mr. (T/C) greeted me at the door, the first words out of my mouth were:

“Did you see Matthews’ hat trick last night? I bet you loved that.”

“And I bet there is no way they are winning against Tampa tonight.”

“What’s the prize?”

“Whatever you want.”

.

“What if we spiced the assembly’s up a little bit?”

I was sitting next to Allen in our leadership class, we were basically the ones who organized all school social events like homecoming, prom, dances, candy grams, bake sales, rose giving, that sort of thing. One of our newest projects was to help the principal with the assembly’s and he wanted more involvement from the students.

So who better to go to? Me and Allen were basically the brightest social lites in the room. Allen with basically half the entire school on his snap, mostly girls to fuck, but still people. To others I was extroverted, loud, fun to be around, but only my closest friends knew I was really the exact opposite. So who better to lead it?

“I would like to volunteer myself to lead the assembly Mrs. Schroeder, I have some friends who would love to help out too and I have a lot of ideas for the assembly.”

“Well let’s hear em Williams.”

The day of the assembly quickly came as the obnoxiously large gym and risers were filled with hundreds of students of all ages. After principal Dubois settled the room, he handed the microphone over to me and I’d do the rest, “give it up for Matthieu Williams!” The gym then was filled with applause as the lights dimmed, popular music boomed, and smoke machines and lights went off.

“Good morning Rochester High!”

A smattering applause followed.

“Thank you all for participating in our first spirit week here at our school, with freshman white.”

Part of the freshman class stood to cheer but cringely fell short.

“Sophomores red.”

The entire sophomore class boomed in comparison to their lower classmen.

“Juniors blue.”

The junior class rivaled the sophomores of course.

“And seniors red, white, and blue!”

And though the senior class was the smallest, they managed to out-do the other classes.

“Now at the end of the assembly we have asked our counselors to judge the classes spirit based on a point system that includes: the loudest, the most inclusion of color, the most participation, best cooperation, and bonus points that will be determined with smaller competitions lead by none other than the stunning (Y/n) (Y/L/N)!”

The entire gym exploded with cheers. I had briefly looked over at (Y/n) to see her smiling. Good.

“I’ll hand it over to her then.”

I handed the microphone to (Y/n) and her bubbly personality shone through her voice.

“Good morning Rockets!”

While the students applauded again, a spotlight slowly began to appear and move around.

“Now, our football team is about to head off to face our rivals today...the Skyview Hawks!”

A wave of boos followed as our mascot ran onto the gym floor followed by a student sloppily dressed as a hawk.

“Lets cheer on our mascot Rocket Richard as he beats Hathaway the Hawk like our football team will tonight!”

The “fight” had obviously been staged so Richard won but you could almost feel the excitement and adrenaline flowing throughout the room that only made us crazier. After the match more wrestling mats were rolled out along the gym floor.

“Now for our next event, I need your guys’ help. I need a boy and a girl from each class to come down to the center of the gym floor with me please!”

As expected, the most athletic and popular students from each class came down.

“We also have a fun surprise for ya, they weren’t told this, but I also need the following teachers and administrators to the center too! Mrs. Hansen, Mr. (T/C), Mr. McKinney, Miss Crossland, Mr. and Mrs. Sikes, Principal Dubois, and Vice Principal Mr. Ladel!”

This was Kaitlyn’s idea. A student versus teacher competition would most certainly rally everyone especially when you take the most popular teachers. The lights then came back on so everyone could see the set up we had.

“Now everyone will have a partner who helps them in this race. First, one person will start back here at the end of the court, run to the center, pick up a basketball and shoot it. After they make one shot they must run back where their partner will be in a sleeping bag and they will have to drag them down and back.

Then, they will be placed in front of those tables filled with delicious food and will have to eat all of it. They then go to their respected classes and take a selfie with them. And lastly they must be sitting in chairs that will be set in the middle, there are only twelve chairs so four people will be kicked out.”

The students then “oooo’d” in excitement. Then the teams lined up with their partners in sleeping bags behind them. I noticed Mr. (T/C) ready to go with his other senior teacher Mrs. Hansen behind him. Then a buzzer went off to start the race, and damn it was intense. At the end a teacher threw a student right before they sat on a chair, and the senior students came in first, but that wasn’t the end of the competition.

“Now for a fun game of musical chairs!”

Everyone laughed and cheered as the students and teachers walked around the chairs in a circle. When it was just Mr. (T/C) and a popular freshman left, Mr. (T/C) pulled the chair right under the kid and stole it from him. It was hilarious tons of people were bent over or on the ground laughing their asses off. I knew this would be great.

“Thank you all for participating and congratulations to the cheater Mr. (T/C), any words?”

“I did what I had to do.”

This made everyone laugh even harder if that was even possible.

“And now for the spirit competition results!”

A random counselor passed a paper over to (Y/n) and she opened it.

“...And the winners are...The Seniors!!!!!”

[kitanoko]

In which Todoroki and Kaminari ‘studied’

Note: HEY EVERYONE, I haven’t written in a long time (a year at least?) but I want to dedicate this to @selephi and @foxxhunter44 ‘cas they’ve always been very supportive of my fanfics and heck I hope y’all enjoy this!

This hit, that ice cold, Michelle Pfeiffer that white gold… This one for them hood girls, Them good girls straight masterpieces~

Todoroki tapped along with the rhythm unexpectedly, unaware of where the upbeat song had seeped from until he saw from the corner of his tired eyes that the boy studying beside him was grooving with headphones on. The music was loud enough for Todoroki to wonder if it would prove any hearing damage to the electric hero chilling beside him, leg propped up.

“Are you even studying?” Todoroki had his cheek pressed against his hand, eyes fixated on the biochem notes Midoriya had kindly lent him. The candy wrappers and biscuit crumbs lay grubbily on the scratched up table and he took a refreshing sip of his ice cold coconut water.

Kaminari didn’t hear him, head swaying like he was at the club. Spreading his notes further across the table, Todoroki shook his head in disapproval. He had hoped his classmate would at least try to focus on the upcoming exam. He didn’t have to come after all; he was perfectly appeased with reviewing his lessons in the quiet midst of his room. It was really Kaminari who had asked him to join.

Todoroki nudged him with his elbow after emptying his drink. The blond boy unwantedly pulled down his red headphones and curved a brow, steadily shooting Todoroki a questionable look.

“Yah?”

Kaminari had the audacity to give him a nonchalant one-word response, seriously?

Todoroki gave a grunt, meeting his golden irises with discontent.

“As much as I’d like to stay here and watch you throw your grades away,” Todoroki started, rough hands gathering his notes, “I’m gonna go take a breather.”

Come to think of it, if he left now, he’d probably be able to squeeze in time for the weekly hero special on channel 9 which Midoriya and Iida were for sure going to be watching in the common room. He could already see his best friends’ eyes unblinking towards the screen and letting out the occasional laugh. Not to mention the scent of Yaoyorozu’s relaxing lavender tea tickling under his nose as she walked by in her comfy robe (yes he’s imagining this too)…her soft hair flowing like in her latest commercial and…

Wait Todoroki Shouto. Just stop. Stop whatever you’re thinking.

“Aww, come on Todoroki, don’t be a bum! I was studying I swear!”

That snapped the duo quirk boy back to his senses.

Todoroki peered at him at the corner of his eyes, hands readying to stuff the papers back into his backpack.

“…were you though?”

Kaminari sheepishly scratched the nape of his neck, legs easing back down onto the wooden floor. Hearing his friend’s challenging tone, he quickly said, “I mean…I WILL be studying. Dude, I totally invited you mainly just to like…hang out and you know…get to know each other. This biochem stuff is easy peasy. I could do the test in my sleep.”

“Big words Kaminari. Last time I heard, Jirou hit you on the head ‘cause you couldn’t even draw a water molecule.”

“You sure that was me bruh?”

“Yes. ‘Cause I saw your paper and you drew two oxygens linked to a hydrogen.”

The electric hero stuck his tongue out. “My bad. Silly mistake really…..ANYWAYS” The blond waved his hand in attempt to change topics, “….let’s have some bro time.”

Todoroki didn’t like the sound of that.

“And what does that entail?” He questioned, bending his knee onto his seat.

Kaminari flicked a piece of loose hair.

“Okay question 1.”

“Wha—“

“Who would you choose out of the girls in our class?”

“Choose for what scenario.”

Kaminari smirked. “As a girlfriend bruh. Girlfriend.”

Todoroki shrugged. “Probably Yaoyorozu. Why?”

At that the fire and ice user felt a shook on the ground as Kaminari slumped flat, rolling in laughter.

“OH MY GOD MINETA SO OWES ME 10 BUCKS. ”

The former stared blankly.

“Wasn’t that obvious, who else was I supposed to choose?” Todoroki tried again to shrug it off.

Kaminari’s eyes beamed, “Wait…” He fished out his phone, finger mischievously hovering over the red button, “Can I record this confession so I can broadcast it to all of UA. Not that it needs broadcasting though since anyone who doesn’t have grapes for brains know.”

Todoroki ran a hand through the whites of his hair before he reasoned. “Well, we met before during the recommendation exam. Then there’s the cavalry battle. And of course our fight against Aizawa. Plus, we worked quite well rescuing Bakugou. Yaoyorozu is the most logical choice.”

“Only you would explain that with ‘logic’.” Kaminari mocked and rested his chin against the cup of his hand, “There isn’t anything other than you two having that ‘bond’ that made you say Yaomomo’s name so fast?”

Todoroki actually gave it a thoughtful five seconds before coming up with, “Uh..her personality’s not bad and I wouldn’t doubt she’s the most intelligent student in UA.”

“And?”

“I really don’t know what else.”

“Bro, she’s nicknamed ‘Goddess’ …class B calls her ‘Queen’. Ya sure there isn’t even a slighttttt chance you’d say you’re also attracted to her face?”

Kaminari dragged the word rather mischievously, lips upturning into a cunning yet generous smile. It sent shivers down Todoroki’s spine and not in a pleasant manner. The latter stood up to put away the bunched up jacket that had slid down from the arm of a chair. Oh Thank God. It was something to distract him from saying the wrong words.

“Haven’t thought much about it.” He nonchalantly uttered, mouth parted in an exhale. He turned around wanting to say more when he noticed a noise.

Steady three knocks were heard behind Kaminari and he gestured for his friend to grab the door. What stood on the other side was the girl of topic playing with the ends of her hair which had been fixed straight and held with a bowtie clip above the right of her forehead. Her glassy doll eyes happily danced from Kaminari to Todoroki which seemed unusually fixated on her.

It was different. Nice. Ponytails on her were good too, no, it was great! But this was refreshing. Like seeing the sun rising just after thunderous rain. Okay that’s exaggerating. But heck, he liked it.

“Something on her face?” Kaminari asked and if Todoroki had eyes behind his head he’d be able to see his annoying grin again.

The duo quirk boy rolled his eyes.

“Sorry to interrupt Todoroki-san!” Yaoyorozu did a slight nod to Kaminari as well, “I was wondering if you two would like to enjoy some thumbprint cookies I made?”

At that the electric blond jumped over. Todoroki looked down from her rosy-cheeked smile and saw that indeed she had some baked good in her hands. Circular shortbread with an oval imprint in the middle filled with what looked like raspberry jam.

“That looks delicious Yaomomo!” Kaminari quickly grabbed a few and popped it into his mouth ignoring all common etiquette. But it was Kaminari so ‘etiquette’ didn’t compute to him.

The other two watched as he chewed, sweat starting to bead on his forehead while his jaw completely stopped moving. He also didn’t swallow.

Yaoyorozu frowned. “Is it…not good?”

Kaminari faked a chortle while his face folded into an ugly grimace.

“Ahw no! It zo ….yummmmmmy,” the blond had managed to cough out and nudged Todoroki with his elbows. His voice was obstructed by the mixture of cookie dough and jam that had sat on his tongue. Kaminari rubbed his tummy.

“YYuuummm,” he mumbled again.

The white and red haired boy wanted to roll his eyes again at the thought of how fake Kaminari’s acting was and noticed the girl in front of him slump in defeat, hands lowering the plate of cookies sadly. Todoroki immediately extended a hand to receive the plate and took one of her creations to taste.

Oh god. Now he knew why Kaminari had that expression.

Yaoyorozu’s eyes glinted and sparkled with anticipation, watching his every move.

“So? Todoroki-san?”

Should he…say something?

A whole 20 seconds had passed before he turned to give Kaminari an awkward look as if they could read each other’s minds.

Todoroki swallowed.

Man, it felt like sand and tasted like chalk. How he knew what chalk taste like he didn’t know. At least the jam was somewhat normal.

“It’s,” He swallowed again just to get rid of the aftertaste, “very well-done, Yaoyorozu.”

Good thing he usually had no expression ‘cause now was the best time to look neutral.

“Aww thank you!” The girl appeared zealous, white teeth beaming with her lovely façade. She pushed the rest into his hands. “Enjoy these then. And oh! They’re great with jasmine tea! I’ll head back out now! Can’t have Jirou and Ashido waiting.”

“Sure thanks,” Todoroki nodded in acknowledge and waved once as he watched her stroll-skip along the hall back to the elevators, the flutter of her flowery pajamas catching his attention.

Kaminari hurried to push the door to a close and spat out what looked like cookie sludge into the closest garbage can, some missing the target and ending up on the floor.

“Holy crap that was the worst decision I ever made. It tasted like dirt.”

Todoroki sent him a heated glare.

“Bro I know you were dying inside when you gulped that thing down too.” Kaminari’s gaze rested on the cookies in Todoroki’s hand, eyes narrowing as if they were poisonous.

“Well I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.”

“You’re in too deep my man.”

Todoroki pretended to not understand what his friend was implying and started to open his tea cabinet.

“What are you doing dude.”

“Making jasmine tea as Yaoyorozu suggested.”

Kaminari could only facepalm and slumped back down onto his previous seat. “Don’t tell me you’re actually going to eat the rest of her cookies? I’ll help you flush them down the toilet okay?” Kaminari sent a wink. “And I’ll keep it a secret between us.”

Todoroki shook his head. “I feel like she made it with all her effort and I’m wasting that.” Tapping against the hot kettle that was beginning to bubble from the boiling water inside, the fire and ice user felt a small, appreciative tug along the curve of his lips.

“And seeing her this happy? That was worth it.”

He turned around noticing Kaminari’s sudden quietness and found him leaning forward with his phone in hand, his right thumb just releasing from the red button on his screen.

“—ANNNNDDD DONE. RECORDED!”

Todoroki froze as he dropped what he was doing

“What.”

“I’ve just recorded the oh-so-great Todoroki admit his crush like a giddy teenager.”

“I was not giddy.”

“Oh, were you not? Okay sorry, I’ll say ‘lovesick’.”

Todoroki took a step. His aura begin to build, even Kaminari could feel the heat emitting from his left side. A wave of warmth gradually began to waft over and the blond quickly stood in defence.

“Yo, calm down bro, alright I won’t show anybody.”

“Then delete it.”

The blond crossed his arms, teasingly wiggled a finger. “Sorry man, this is hard evidence.”

“Fine.”

Kaminari felt uneasy. The boy in front of him loosened his expression so quickly that it felt almost ominous. Something was up.

“You give up quick dude.”

Todoroki’s shoulders slacked and continued to brew his tea, taking it in stride. “It’s nothing. Just remembered that I have a picture of you crying because you didn’t know how to write Jirou a confession letter.”

Kaminari’s jaw fell open in a big ‘O’.

“WAIT WAIT WAIT HOLLLL UP BRUH.” The electric user stumbled in his steps as he shook Todoroki from side to side. “YOU HAVE WHAT? SHOW ME.”

The former scrambled to find Todoroki’s phone and the duo quirk hero fished it out of his pocket and began to swipe the screen a few times. A smirk finally formed on his chapped lips.

“Yeah. Still here. I forgot to delete it after Bakugou sent it to me.”

“BAKUGOU?!” Kaminari pulled it off Todoroki’s hands. An embarrassing picture of him, eyes red, holding a piece of paper and pen in hand in the corner of the dorm lobby surfaced on the 6 inch screen.

“Guess we’re even then.” Todoroki shrugged. “You can keep that and I’ll keep this.”

Kaminari fell onto his knees in defeat.

“NO PLEASE.”

“Too late.”

“I’ll delete your recording! Come on!”

“Nope.” Todoroki took a heavy sip of his tea as the aroma tickled his nostrils. He grabbed a cookie. Mmm, it was better with tea for sure. Or was this what petty-ness tasted like?

His heterochromic eyes fixated on Kaminari’s frantic expression as he instinctively pulled it back into his pocket.

“To be honest, I don’t even care if you showed what I said to other people. It was a comment I’m not ashamed of and heck, everyone knew I voted for her for class president. It’s not shocking I’d support her in any way I can.”

Kaminari finally came to his senses and forced a sigh.

“Fine. You win. But I swear to all that is holy, Todoroki Shouto, if you EVER show Jirou this I will not hesitate.”

Todoroki almost outright laughed. “Okay, okay.”

“Bro date over now.” Kaminari slogged out the door, sounding unappeased, “Goodnight.”

“Oh, already?” Todoroki teased.

Kaminari’s head swung low as he head towards the hallway and Todoroki mumbled a short ‘Mm.’ before helping him close the door.

Good thing he didn’t mention that Bakugou had sent it to Ashido as well, Todoroki thought, or else he’d worry if Kaminari could even sleep tonight.

[shadowofmytime]

>> some of my absolute favorites ! like and reblog if you save and enjoy ! happy reading and give some kudos to these amazing writers ! always feel free to send me some of your favorites ! ! <<

>> There is a bit so for your convenience they are in alphabetical order ! The ‘s’s are some of my all-time favorites ! ! <<

>> min yoongi x park jimin <<

All the seasons of your love - 5k+ [college au]

The movement in the library was still slow in the first week, so Yoongi could easily remember the few people who came by. That's why he pays so much attention to a certain dark-haired freshman who walks in on a Wednesday afternoon - or at least that's what he tells himself. He goes over to the front counter and asks Yoongi for directions to the Economy 101 session and, God, his voice is as sweet as his eye-smile.

Or how librarian Yoongi fell head over heels for cute freshman Park Jimin who, unfortunately, was very much straight - or so Yoongi thought.

Bon Voyage - 47.9+ [tourist! au]

Yoongi was meant to be taking the trip of a lifetime with his boyfriend. But now he's in Paris, alone and miserable. That is until he collides - quite literally - with one Park Jimin.

Boys who talk shit - 26k+ [college au]

When Yoongi enrolled in BTS (aka Boys who Talk Shit) Boarding School, he wasn't really expecting to be the only 'straight' (to be read sarcastically) guy in a room of seven geniuses (aka children aged five to ten, honestly). Plus four pet spiders. Yes, plural.

Chaotic episodes in A Place of Love and War, where Yoongi learns all about True Love via Park Jimin, Music and Marriage. Sort of. Brain bleach and earplugs are strongly recommended.

Conflicting arrangement - 162k+ [fake boyfriend au]

"Absolutely not," Yoongi deadpanned. "Namjoon-ah. I value you as a friend, and I think I'd even go as far as to say that you're my best friend, but absolutely fucking not."

"You owe me," Namjoon pleaded. "Come on, Yoongi, it's not a big deal."

"Your boyfriend's best friend's best friend needs a fake boyfriend to come out to his family this Chuseok, all the way in fucking Busan," Yoongi repeated drily without pause, making Namjoon wince. He flipped a page of his textbook, picking up his highlighter. "Not a big deal, Namjoon. Amazing."

Cotton Candy - 240k [high school rock band]

"He could get used to sitting next to Yoongi like this. To have him around. To have the band around. To smile and feel happy. To see Yoongi sitting in front of an instrument and having him play just for him.

'If this was my happy ending,' Jimin thinks, resisting the urge to lean his head on Yoongi's shoulder, 'if I wasn't who I am, I'd just let you have me whenever you want. You could have me anytime.'"

As spring turns into summer, school band Cotton Candy unexpectedly loses its singer and the members are forced to look for a new vocalist. Six boys find one in the form of the promiscuous pink-haired boy Park Jimin who makes a home in their hearts and finally finds a place he belongs

Daegu drift - 53k+ [motorcyclist / playboy au]

Jimin stops in Daegu for a big motor show and gets caught up with the locals. Specifically one Min Yoongi.

Sneak Peek:

Yoongi has his arms folded as he stares Jimin down.

“Are you going to join the rally, or not?”

Jimin takes his time answering because he likes the way Yoongi is looking at him. “Sure. I guess it could be fun. But you do realize none of you have a chance against a Bugatti, right?”

“It’s not the car that wins the race,” the other man says. “It’s the driver. You could have the fastest, best-equipped car in the goddamn universe, but if you’re a shit driver, it doesn’t make a difference.”

Goodbye from lonely - 65k+ [uncle yoongi!]

Park Jimin works two jobs that he loves and is going to college to get his teaching degree.

Min Yoongi is a personal assistant who hates his job and spits in his boss' coffee every day.

Kim Taehyung has been infatuated with his clueless co-worker for the better part of a year.

Jeon Jeongguk has a three-year-old daughter that he'd do anything for.

Somehow the tiny human brings them all together.

Or

Tae is in love with Kookie -> Kookie's daughter takes Jimin's ballet class -> Yoongi is Kookie's stepbrother -> Jimin and Yoongi meet because of Kookie's daughter.

In your eyes (it’s where I wanna be) - 5.5k [coffee shop! au]

Jimin pauses with his marker inches away from the cup, because — is he really going to do this? Isn’t it a bit old-fashioned to write something flirty on a coffee cup? But no matter what his churning gut says about the danger and what the hell are you doing do you want to die, this guy is — with no better way to put it — totally Jimin’s Type with a capital T.

(Or: Jimin accidentally starts a nickname war with the cute blonde who likes his coffee way too bitter.)

Inked flowers - 6.4k [tattoo artist / florist au]

Something stopped him. A sound of a piano. He looked around and saw a light coming from the window on the other side of the street. On the third floor was an open window. A light and the sorrowful sound of a piano flew out of the room. Jimin looked closer and saw a figure or at least a top of someone's head.

The melody was so sad and sorrowful that Jimin wanted to cry. He started thinking, what could possibly go inside that person’s head? What were they thinking? Jimin just hoped that they weren’t sad and alone.

(let me see you) get high then low - 4k+ [photographer/model au]

"The light-haired model is the kind that fascinates Yoongi, and at the same time, he prefers to steer away from. He's all smiles and flowers, drawing you in with his cuteness until he's not anymore. Suddenly, he’s something else entirely; he's that false calm, the ocean that looks smooth on the surface but will drag you down to its depths if you dare to touch it."

or

Min Yoongi works in a photography studio with some (very questionable) friends that can't get any work properly done without making a bit of a fuss.

Park Jimin is a model handcuffed against his will and bored. Also a little bit horny, maybe.

Math Tutor - 11.7k [bad boy! yoongi]

Min Yoongi is the school's resident Bad Boy™. He's covered in tattoos, is pierced, curses like a sailor, smokes like crazy, doesn't give a shit about anything, possesses a hot temper that has people steering clear of him, and is desperately in love with Park Jimin, the adorable math nerd. When Jimin is tasked with tutoring Yoongi in math, who is in danger of failing the class and being held back a year, both boys are hesitant. Yoongi because he can't think straight around the boy with startling red hair, and Jimin because Yoongi is scary as hell and looks like he can easily kill someone. Gradually, though, the two grow closer, and Jimin finds that Yoongi is nothing like how he'd imagined.

Maybe I hate you can be our always - 35.9k [enemies to lovers]

When Yoongi thinks about it, really gives it genuine thought, it's possible that Park Jimin isn't the worst person in the world.

//

(Or, Yoongi and Jimin get off on the wrong foot.)

Ode to yoonmin - 4k+ [texting]

yoongi and jimin are in very much in love but they're the only ones who don't know it

OR

chat fic with a bunch of bad jokes and memes ¯\_(ツ)_/

Out of my system - 101.6k+ [one night stand]

Yoongi likes one night stands and he understands how they work. What he doesn’t understand, however, is how he ended up in bed with a probably-not-legal kid crying in his arms about his broken heart, because he’s pretty sure (and correct him if he’s wrong) that a babysitting job was not what he was looking for when he went to the opening of his friend’s new club

Standing on the brink of 376 - 42.9k+ [street racing]

When Taehyung woke him up at three AM to go to a street race—an illegal one, no less—claiming it would help his social anxiety, Jimin never actually expected it to do much for him, except maybe make him cry hysterically. He found that he really wasn't too far off-kilter with that assumption, but it was only after he'd suffered through countless bouts of insecurity that he realized, hidden behind each stuttered breath, every inevitable tear, every spark of unavoidable fear, and even the customary cloud of cigarette smoke itself, lay a tremendous amount of affection for a certain platinum haired street racer that he can't even begin to justify. But when his opinion of fact, fate, and even life itself continues to blur with each push of the gas pedal, he thinks he just might be able to forgive himself for falling in love with a criminal, when the nonsensical moonshine of the present mutes the anxiety that had been a constant within his heart up until this November.

Strawberry lube - 82.7k+ [college au]

Yoongi remembers little to nothing of their crazy drunken night out. But of two things he's absolutely sure, one: he's not gay, two: he just slept with Park Jimin

The Paradiso Lounge - 192k+ [photographer/stripper au]

“Do I have to pay you for that service?”

This isn’t a dream (let me love you) - 26k+ [highschool au]

As captain of his high school’s basketball team, Min Yoongi dedicated all of his attention to his team and their games. His focus on the game never waned, not once for anything or anyone.

Well, until head cheerleader Park Jimin flashed his abs during a solo cheer and made him fuck up his shot

Trying to Behave (but you know we never learned how) - 329k+ [non-idol! au]

It's been years since Yoongi's last seen him and the younger boy is a shell of his former self in a way that makes his heart twist in his chest. And yet, after all this time and countless days of convincing himself to let him go, he's still unconditionally, head over heels in love with Park Jimin.

(Jimin and Yoongi grow up together.)

Valentino Summers - 657k+ [‘80s gangsters]

Whether or not Jimin was smuggling drugs really didn’t matter. He was hustling, and these days that was all there was to it.

Hustle and survive or struggle and die.

Y/N masterlist  << check it out !! xoxo

[mai-takeda]

The Voyage Part I ft. Mai Takeda and Asande Stormborn

The wind seemed to run past her which brought a smile to Mai’s small pink lips. She pushed some of her apple red hair behind her ear and just remained motionless against the side of the boat watching the waters pass them by. She lost herself in the moment so much she didn’t register the newcomer’s presence beside her.

“Fuckin’ hell of a thing, eh?” Asande Stormborn said in her songlike but strong voice. “The waters that is. Nothin’ like sailin’ upon the waters. Don’t think even ridin’ in the clouds can compare. Tis the reason I am savin’ coin in buyin’ a second ship for the seas and not one of expensive things in the clouds. Let that be some others. I belong on the waters.”

Mai turned her head to the captain of The Stormdancer. She had a hard time saying she met one like this captain. Well, when she thought on it, that wasn’t precisely true. She held many similarities to her twin brother, Kaelivh, who also served to be Mai’s teacher and trainer. She also had similar qualities to that of Mai’s lost love, Veda.

The memory brought pain to wipe away at Mai’s smile. Sadness took her almost immediately. She had not heard from the one she had been certain to be a fixture in her life in so many weeks now that she refused to keep counting the days that rushed by. Wetness seemed to form in her eyes on her own and before she knew it Asande’s voice break into her thoughts again.

“Thinkin’ on her again?” Asande said. “Yer lover that is? Or the one who was or whatever the damned thing ye have now.”

“Always a way of putting things in poetic fashion, San’s,” Mai said with a small sad sigh though a light smile touched the words. “B-but yes. Sometimes it’s hard not to. I mean, I know I have so many seasons turn ahead of me at my age and I am only now experiencing and living my life and finding my way and my path. And I know that I have so many things ahead of me and new people that will come into my life. I also know that--”

“That ya ramble so damn much that ya can power the Dancer cross these waters on that energy alone?” Asande interjected.

Mai’s mouth audibly clamped shut. A blush warmed her cheeks shyly followed by a nod. She sheepishly began to open her mouth when a cry sounded out.

“Sail ho! Ship starboard!” the male youth clamored from the crow’s nest.

Asande and Mai snapped their heads in the specified direction. The ship was nothing more than a speck in the distance without the spyglass The Stormdancer’s spotter held but it was enough to get Asande’s muscles tensing. Mai glanced the older highlander woman’s direction and her eyes widened. For on that face she saw a devilish grin coming to the other woman’s lips. 

“The game it is!” Asande announced pushing from the rail. “Ye might get the chance at puttin’ that blade of yers to work,” she said to Mai. “Wit me.”

Mai nodded, her hand falling to the handle of the katana at her hip before trailing Asande. The two women hurried along the now busying deck headed for the helm. The movement along the deck would seem chaotic to outside eyes, Mai knew, because she thought the same. When she looked more intently on the movements she realized that had not been the case. Everyone moved with a purpose and no one seemed to ever get in the way of another. Their movements were practiced and in sync that spoke well of the crew she had gotten to know over the many days.

“Helmsman!” Asande barked. “Move us three clicks starboard!”

Mai gawked at Asande. “Th-that will take us toward them!” 

“Yer damned right!” Asande said still wearing the grin turning her head upwards to the crow’s nest. “Ye got a sail?”

“Looks like The Black Orchid, Captain!” the youth responded.

“Well shite. Didn’t expect that.” Asande glanced Mai’s direction and noticed the expression. “The captain of that one is a good sort. Coin chasin’ bloke but no salt water in his noggin’ so why he comin’ our way I have no word. He know The Black Orchid can’t take Stormdancer. Get my damn mages up!” Asande barked. 

“We’re here, Cap,” a Midlander with a dusky skin said in a tired voice with another standing beside him. “Though why wake me when you can handle what it is to come without me I no idea. Rather sleep myself.”

Asande rolled her eyes and swiftly smacked the man on the back of the head. “Yer always sleepin’! Damned man will sleep his life away if I let ye. Get to your positions. I may not have time to go slingin’ aether ‘round myself. Sometimes the fun is in close and personal like.”

The man gave a groggy nod while rubbing the back of his head before walking off. Asande watched them go without the grin slipping from her face. Her hand went to her opposite hip of her rapier and pulled out her own spyglass. She extended the cylinder and looked starboard marking the pace and direction of the ship. 

“Oh that bastard is comin’ for us alright. Intersect course indeed. He got the swifter sails wit a bit of wind plus I know the mages he has ‘bout his girl there that give it a bit more push than my louts. Probably could outpace her wit the lead we got but what fun in that, eh?”

Mai found herself gawking at the taller woman again. “Y-you’re as bad as your brother!”

Asande laughed at that while returning her spyglass. She clapped Mai on the shoulder. “Yer ‘bout to learn what dealin’ with the Stormborn is like little Mai. Wet yer blade a bit too but if somethin’ happen to ya that damn brother of mine will have my hide. We watch each other backs, right? Just remember what Kael taught ye and some o’words I sprinkled in. It’ll be fun.”

Numbly, Mai nodded, her grip tightening on the hilt. I take it back. She’s WORSE than her brother, Mai thought. She’s insane! 

“Raise the red, Cap’n?” a voice called out from no direction Mai could discern. 

“Nay! When we near a we’ll run one ‘cross the bow and then meet. I know the bastard. He’s likely to give quarter if the coin is right.” Asande turned her gaze to Mai. “Though don’t know how our cargo is worth it. Not to take wit Dancer.”

“You’re thinking he’s after something else?” Mai asked while feeling the sweat forming on her brow. “I-I haven’t taken a life with my sword sin-since the bandits on the way to my father and brother’s grave. I-”

“Ye’ll be fine, lass,” Asande said with a reassuring smile. “Ye been trainin’ wit my brother and he’s a damned killer in his own right. Yer goin’ to be surprised in what he got in yer head. Believe me. Keep to who yer are, feel the fight ‘round ye and all will be well. Be wit ye every step. Just remember the bastards will take ye and do what they will if ye let them. Can’t have that. Kael will curse us both and come to our rescue. Then I’ll have to hear ‘bout the shite for all days. Let’s be ‘bout it, shall we?”

Taking a deep steadying breath Mai gave an affirming nod despite the knots tying themselves in her gut. She remembered her training with her father and brother when she was younger. She remembered watching Veda swinging her axe and their sparring session. She remembered her lessons from Kaelivh Stormborn and intensity of their training and fights. Even Asande had taught her some things and the Stormdancer’s boatswain.

“I am ready,” she announced in a small yet confident voice more for herself than any other ears.

OOC Notation! This is a collab piece by myself and some person! They aight and I decided to let them hitch onto my--what? Okay, okay! This was a joint effort with Big Z! @zhauric though he’s the main writer :-p I was a bit lazy on images and gifs. Wasn’t easy. Sowwy! Need to take some new ones! More to come! And Mai’s name came first because I’m cuter. I mean my nickname is Candy and his is Bear and Deuce??? Get real! 

P.S. @nattaitshanil We know you can write! You getting in this too with the next chapter! Be prepared! Always on the prowl for more too! 

[davidthetraveler]

A warm thick liquid dripped down his arm. A hot shame flashed on his face; he had embarrassed himself. (2 sentence thing) ( I really like sending you these :) )

Our Growing Boy

Characters:  Virgil, Logan, Roman, Thomas, Patton

Pairings:  Parental Analogical, Romantic Logicality

Trigger Warnings:  Blood Mention, Remus Sanders Mention, Deceit Sanders Mention, Zombie Mention

Squick Warnings:  Giant/Tiny Content

Word Count:  1988

Read it on AO3

(I’m also using one of the prompts from @hiddendreamer67‘s list of October Giant/Tiny Prompts, specifically Day 24:  Blood)

***********************

If you’d like, you can send me two sentences, and I’ll continue them like they’re part of a fic.

***********************

Crunch.  Chomp.  Smack.

With each noisy bite, more red streamed down his face, coating his jaw and dripping down onto his dirty mangled shirt.  He chewed up the massive bite in his mouth, allowing the liquid to flow freely over his form before finally swallowing.  He leaned back over his prize and was about to take another messy bite, when a slight creak behind him made him freeze.

“And just what do you think you’re doing, young man?”

Virgil slowly turned around, the warm thick liquid now dripping down his arms.  A hot shame flashed through his face, embarrassed for himself at being caught.

There in the doorway to the back porch was Logan, his brow creased in stern disapproval.

Virgil nervously gulped, swallowing down the juice still in his mouth before trying to find his voice.

“I-I-..I was, was just, just trying to…to, uh…I was just, just…isn’t this a little early for you to get home?”

Logan allowed a small smirk to show on his face.  “Yes, but school let out early today since it’s a holiday weekend.  Now, would you care to explain why you’re covered in giant cherry juice?”

Virgil’s embarrassed blush deepened, almost starting to blend in with the red juice staining his face and clothes.  “I was…I…”

After a few false starts, he finally sighed in defeat as his slouch deepened.  It was ironic, really, how small his Papa could make him feel, even if he was almost twice as tall as him at full height.

“I wanted to make the blood for my costume look more authentic, and when I remembered what happened the last time Dad cut open a raw cherry, I…I figured he wouldn’t mind if I…I borrowed just one of them.  I mean, you remember how long those stains lasted, even after Dad tried wiping himself down.  I figured it would really sell the look.  Plus, as long as he didn’t know, I figured he…he wouldn’t miss just one.”

Logan hummed in response, looking his son over.  Finally, he reached behind himself and pulled out a towel, which he handed up to Virgil.

“Regardless of the fact that you do look rather terrifying with all that red dripping off your mouth, especially in conjunction with the use of these old tattered clothes you’re wearing, your Father and I have both expressed how important it is to follow our rules, especially in regards to the garden.  Might I remind you what happened the last time you took something from there without permission?”

Virgil paused briefly before resuming wiping himself off, the flash of remembrance bringing up all the old memories.  He could remember very well the taste of that massive orange the size of a basketball.  How delicious it had been, how quickly it seemed to fill him up with its juices, and how that filling-up feeling had kept getting stronger and stronger as he outgrew his clothes and doubled in height.

And after that, all the memories of having to go to school as a freak of nature, permanently transformed because he broke his dad’s rules and had ended up getting dosed with his parents’ secret experimental growth formula designed to help grow larger, stronger sources of food for distribution in impoverished countries.  The stares, the fearful murmurs, the endless teasing from the bullies who, even if he was big enough and strong enough to fight them off, he was too afraid of his own size and power to confront them.

Luckily for him, the year after that his dads had let him switch schools, which had allowed him to meet his new friends Roman Alteza and Thomas Sanders.  They didn’t care that Virgil was a giant.  They just liked this quiet but caring, if slightly intimidating, boy who was snarky and fun and willing to help out when something got stuck in a tree.  Not to mention he was pretty good at getting Roman’s weird twin Remus and Thomas’ bratty cousin Daemon to leave them alone with his slightly threatening quips, once his new friends managed to help bring him out of his shell.

Virgil couldn’t help but smile at the recollections, but Logan’s lecturing tone as he continued brought him back to the present.

“Considering your current status, I would assume that you would have been more anxious about taking another sample from our experiments.  We still have no way to reverse the formula’s effects, and even if we’ve managed to mostly work out the side effects from consumption of the fruit, there’s still the possibility of another reaction, especially for someone who’s already been dosed with the formula.”

Virgil hung his head, shame welling up inside him at his foolishness as he lowered himself down to sit on the porch.

“I’m sorry, Papa.  I guess I just got so excited at the idea that I forgot about the consequences.”

Logan sighed, but reached out to take the towel from Virgil’s hand.  While his long and lanky stature meant that he was quite a bit taller than the average man, he was barely taller than his son’s seated form.  In truth, his son’s condition was just as much his and Patton’s fault as it was Virgil’s.  After all, had they not been more careful about keeping their experiments protected, Virgil would not have even managed to get a hold of the altered orange.

With these thoughts in mind, he picked up rubbing off the excess juice from his son’s face where Virgil had left off, reaching out to grasp his shoulder with his other hand.

“Well, it would seem that there were no additional side effects from your consumption.  And considering your previous record of exemplary behavior, I believe we can forego the need for a punishment for tonight.”

Virgil’s head shot up in excitement.  “You mean, I can still go out with Roman and Thomas tonight?”

Logan nodded his head.  “So long as you make sure to be home by ten.”

Virgil frowned.  “But my usual curfew for weekends is–”

He came up short at Logan’s raised eyebrow, and immediately backpedaled.  “Home by ten, got it.”

No sooner had Logan finished wiping off the remaining drips, a call from behind them announced Roman and Thomas’ arrival.  Roman was decked out in a full-on classic Dracula get-up, complete with flowing cape and high collar.  Thomas’ werewolf costume, by comparison, was much less intimidating, giving off more of a human-dog hybrid feel than that of a monstrous nightmare creature seeking human flesh.

“Hi Mr. Logan,” Thomas called as they came up to the porch.

“Greetings, Thomas.  You are looking exceptional.”  Thomas blushed but gave his thanks.

“Hey, Mama Lo,” Roman greeted, a playful smirk on his face.

Logan frowned slightly.  “I believe I have mentioned my feelings toward that nickname more than a few times, Roman.”

“Ah, come on, Mr. Berry.  You know how much you love it.”  Roman looked as if he would have gladly kept on needling Logan, but the slightest increase in the crease of his brow told him it was best not to continue.

“So, are we ready?” Thomas asked after a brief awkward moment.

“Yeah, I think so,” Virgil replied, looking to his Papa for confirmation.

Logan smiled.  “Yes, I believe you are.  Remember, be home by ten.  Otherwise, do have a good time tonight.”

Virgil smiled and pulled his Papa in for a hug.  “Love you, Papa.”

“Love you too, son,” Logan answered as they pulled apart, Logan beaming at his son.  Virgil smiled back and got to his feet, turning to join his two friends as they headed back to the rear gate they had first come through.

“Just remember to try and bring some of the candy back tonight.  Just because you can eat eight times as much as the other boys doesn’t mean you should.”

“Okay, Pops,” Virgil called back as he carefully stepped over the fence into the back alley behind their home.

Just as Virgil turned to follow Roman and Thomas down the block, Logan heard the back door open and close behind him.

“Oh no, did I miss him?  I wanted to wish him well before he headed out for the night.”

Logan turned to look down at his husband.  Patton’s short, squat form was slumped slightly in disappointment.  Logan wrapped his arm around the shorter man’s shoulders, pressing a kiss into his hair.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine.  I’ve told him to be back by ten, so I’m certain you’ll still be able to see him tonight.”

Patton frowned up at Logan.  “Ten?  But didn’t we agree he could stay out later on weekends?”

“Yes, but I felt it prudent to pull back on that for tonight, considering the fact that he got hold of one of the new cherries.”

Patton paled at that.  “What?!  Is he okay?  Did it do anything to him?  Do we need to–”

It took a few moments to get Patton to calm down enough for Logan to explain what had happened.  Once he did, he allowed Patton to rant out his feelings, from relief that nothing else had happened to Virgil because of their formula, to anger at Virgil’s poor decision, to the exuberant joy at having finally managed to get the formula to stop affecting humans when consumed via the fruit.  By the time Patton had tired himself out, the sun had fully set, and the two were seated together on the back porch swing, lazily rocking back and forth and staring up at the stars.

“Logan,” Patton suddenly asked, “do you think we’re bad parents?  I mean, Virgil wouldn’t be stuck like this if we had done a better job of taking care of him.”

Logan didn’t respond.  He thought back to his own ruminations on that subject from earlier.  But then he remembered all the times they’d had this conversation in the past, both with each other and with the counselor they’d sought out after the original incident.

“We’re not perfect,” he finally replied, but quickly continued when he felt Patton deflate slightly beside him.  “But just because he’s not completely normal doesn’t mean we failed him.  We’ve taught him what’s most important in life:  to be kind and generous, loving and helpful.  To be a good person and to take care of himself and others.

“Even if he’s a bit bigger than normal, it’s not the size of his body that’s going to really matter.  It’s the size of his heart, and his is the biggest I’ve ever seen, except for maybe yours, mon couer.”

Patton giggled slightly at the old nickname and leaned up to meet Logan’s lips in a loving kiss.

The two would have probably gone on like that for some time, had a series of shrieking laughs not broken them out of their reverie.  Looking down to the end of the alley, they could just barely make out a group of kids running down the alley from a towering zombie with dyed purple hair.  Virgil was doing his best to keep up the act, but he couldn’t help but break character briefly to wave at his dads as he passed, Thomas and Roman jogging behind him to keep up.

Logan chuckled lightly at their son’s antics.  “No matter what happens, I’m sure our boy is going to be just fine.”

Patton nodded in agreement, leaning his head into his husband’s chest as they resumed staring up at the stars.  Logan was right.  They weren’t perfect parents.  But they had loved their son so much, and would always do so.  And they knew they didn’t have to be perfect to know they had raised a son who was doing his best and who loved them just as much.

And if Virgil coming home on time that night and kneeling down to give his dads a big, strong hug before bed wasn’t proof of that, then they didn’t know what was.

[post-itpenny]

Dear Diary about whoever you want ^^

Finally got something to write for this. 

Tagging @grotesquegabby since a few of your clowns are mentioned.

Jelly was at Maggie’s tent with the intention of meeting fora quiet picnic in the park. Some much needed girl’s time since they both seemedjust so busy anymore.

Except Maggie wasn’t home.

She had texted to say she was on her way from Billy’s officeand for Jelly to just let herself in. Jelly sat down on the couch, barleyregistering how it seemed to give way as she read over the text message. Whatdid she actually do at Billy’s work? Jelly knew her friend could be clever but Maggienever seemed like the business type.

Jelly sighed and got up to poke around the small home. Itwas just as she found the box with all the pearls Jelly had given her friendthat she stumbled upon a book. It was a faded red lining and clearly old yet itdidn’t seem that all the pages had been used. Jelly say back down on the couchand flipped open the book to a random page:

The fair has moved onwithout me, I just see a need to stay a while. Plus, I found a nice place toset up home, a park on the edge of a large wood. It’s nice.

The candy kid cameback to visit again for his fortune. I decided not to tell him about the womanwith pink hearts I kept seeing in his timeline. Just told him I hope he likedrabbits.

Jelly slammed the book shut with a gasp, this was Maggie’sdiary. Her best friend’s diary. Jelly looked down at the little book in herhands for a moment. Then opened it back up again.

 Candy Kid’s name isPepper. He has a brother and sister named Cosmos and Jelly. She seems nice, Ilike to call her Jells-bells.

 Jelly smiled at the nickname and kept flipping through,reading random pages as she went.

 I keep seeing visionsof this thing hunting through the city, people willingly dying for it. It’s aclown with a lot of blue, I don’t think its safe to be near but it seemsimportant for some reason.

 Jells-Bells has acrush on the librarian. Should I tell her he’s a clown? Nah, more fun to watchthem figure it out.

 Jelly frowned, realizing that Maggie knew the whole time shean Lennie were being awkward and shy around each other because they were afraidto show they weren’t human….. wow, thanks Maggie.

Jelly kept flipping through the diary, reading the stages ofMaggie developing a crush on Billy. Her first meeting with Mama Carol, laughing at the single entry “Billy is a wonderful dancer”, then when Vespersfirst came to town. Maggie predicting he and Cosmos would become a thing but apparentlyeven she did not see the Vegas Incident coming.

And then the Rhyder entries. Jelly grimaced at thedescription of him first meeting Jelly’s friend but found one entryparticularly interesting:

Rhyder can go step ona lego brick, Rhyder can go step on a lego brick, RHYDER CAN GO STEP ON AFUCKING LEGO BRICK IN A DESSERT OF LEGO BRICKS.

He’s and asshole and Idon’t like him.

I tried to warn him towatch it but he just laughed. He knows about Marguerite……. Don’t tease her likethat. We made a choice together. We I am nothing like them.

I’m going to laugh myass off when he gets what’s coming, I hope Jelly rips his spine out, she doesit in 2/3’s of the possible timelines.

Jelly frowned, not just because she really should haveripped out the slime ball’s spine but because this was one of the few entry’sMaggie referred to herself as two people. Jelly knew about it but at the sametime it was just… odd. And she wondered which made which part of Maggie.

 Ula is going to be sosad when Atlas leaves but it’s for her own good to grown through it. I hope shepulls through ok.

 Jelly grimaced with this entry, she knew her little oysterwas upset with her friend leaving, she would have to keep a closer eye on Ulathen.

 I’ve started keepingfurniture shoved out of the way since Faline likes to sleep stretched out onthe floor. Zilla sleeps on the couch but she’s too big for it and I think itmight break if she keeps flopping down on it. I want to talk with Magpie butthey said no. I used to hate how much Jelly complained about family drama. Shewas so damn lucky to have a family. But now I got one and I don’t know wat todo.

 Jelly jumped up from the couch and brushed off her clothes,worried the corpse smell would stick. She read the entry again and felt a ballof anger in her stomach. She hadn’t forgiven Maggie for everything with thesisters, learning her friend had hid her jealousy added fuel. Jelly tsked andturned the page. I was coved in tear stains:

 I want someone,please.

 The entry was dated the same day Cosmos called saying Vesperscame home upset after an argument with Maggie. Other entries that followedseemed the same. The sisters bullying Maggie to give them a place to live whilethreatening to go after anyone if she talked. The entries became less frequentand shorter as if afraid to write and Jelly felt the anger cool to pity, just alittle. There was a gap of several weeks before the next entry.

 I haven’t written in awhile because I’ve been living with Billy and Ama. I would have done anythingfor this a few months ago but I’m just so tired. I just want to take thingsback and I can’t and I’m so sorry.

 Jelly sighed and turned the pages until she was past anyentries about the sisters. Not wanting her anger to ruin her day. Soon theentries became normal again, talking about Davey being born and Jack’s suddenappearance.

Billy keeps findingways to keep me at his home one more day:

But what about this?

But it’s raining.

But Ama wants you toplay with her.

But what about that?

But its too late,might as well stay the night… Again.

How does he do that?!

Do I mind?

But I’m sitting herein my own home and its so damn empty, when did it feel empty?

 Jelly snickered and filled this bit of information awayalong with several short romantic poems Maggie had written.

 Bridgette won’t leaveme the hell alone. Creepy old lady needs to just mind her own business.

 Jelly frowned, who was Bridgette?

“Hey! I’m sorry I took so long I-“Maggie explained as shewalked through the front down and caught Jelly red-handed with the diary.Maggie’s face blushing in fear.

Jelly grinned, “So I like this one poem. Tell me, who is ityou’re talking about with eyes like the shining stars and moon?”

Maggie shrieked and chased after Jelly around the smallhome. Worth it.

[imagineaworlds]

Caught In Your Eyes(Part Five)--Billy Hargrove

Written By @rune-of-a-writer / @hellimagines

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

Original Request: “Hi. I love your work. I was wondering if you could do a billy imagine where the female reader is new to town and she’s a bad girl and billy instantly falls for her and tries to get with her. Thank you!!”

Warning: cursing, mentions of abuse and neglect

Pairing: Billy Hargrove x fem!reader

Summary: You find Billy at Gunther’s, and the two of you bond over shakes and a cold night spent in the back of his car.

Word Count: 4,053

Listen To: Stay Alive by Jose Gonzalez

A/N: So I had no intention of bringing a song into this (because I’m horrible with them). BUT THEN! I had my Pandora station on shuffle and this song came on while I was writing and I was like !!!!!!!!! that is literally (Y/N) and Billy’s theme song?? Like?? The hell. Perfection.

As you walked up to the illuminated lights of Gunther Tooty’s, you noticed a familiar blue Camaro recklessly parked out front. You couldn’t understand what Billy was doing here, after all, you had never known him to come here unless he was with the group. Pushing your (h/c) hair out of your face, you headed inside. The double doors opened, and you looked around for the familiar curly blond hair. You spotted him in the very back of the restaurant, his back facing the door. You could see his fingers mindlessly playing with the small jukebox on the booth’s table, his denim jacket tight around his shoulders. Giving Gunther a quick wave, you signaled your usual shake and headed over to Billy.

“Hey there, asshole,” you grinned, ruffling his hair as you passed to sit across from him. Billy’s entire body jolted when your hand landed in his hair, his head snapping up to look at you. Underneath his eye was bright red and slightly swollen, a scabbed cut on the bridge of his nose, and a dark bruise on the hollow of his cheek.

“Shit,” he breathed out, realizing it was only you. “Hey, princess,” you raised an eyebrow at how restless he was. “What are you doing out here so late dressed like that?”

“Nothing much,” you sighed, pulling your knee onto the booth’s bench and wrapping your arms around it, “just decided to go for a stroll. How about you, Hargrove? Didn’t know you were into the solo act anymore,” you smirked, flashing him a wink. Billy laughed, leaning back into the booth.

“Got me there. You and the Goon Squad managed to rope me in,” Billy joked, “But I just had a rough night, I suppose,” he admitted, casting his eyes back to the tiny juke box. You nodded in understanding, tracing one of the skulls on your pajama pants.

Gunther walked over, two shakes in his hand. He handed you your chocolate shake, no cherry, and Billy his vanilla shake with two cherries. Billy’s hand reached into his pocket to pull out the 3$, but Gunther stopped him.

“It’s on the house, son. You five kids have given this place it’s revenue. Two shakes won’t put me in the ground,” Gunther spoke, flashing the two of you a soft smile before walking back to the diner bar.

“That man is too good for Hawkins,” you complained, shoving your straw around in your shake, staring down into it. “Thanks for trying to pay for mine by the way. I just realized I don’t have any money on me.”

“Yeah, no problem. I kind of figured you weren’t hiding a wallet in those pants of yours,” Billy laughed, motioning his knuckle towards your knee.

“Yeah, didn’t have time to grab much, let alone a wallet,” you chuckled, a puff of air leaving your nose. Billy looked up at what you said, and so did you, your eyes widening.

“Yeah? Why’s that?” Billy probed, biting his straw and taking a sip. Staring at him, you eyed him slowly.

“Alright, let’s make a deal,” you proposed, taking your straw out of your shake and sucking the whip cream off. “If I tell you about my ‘rough night’, you’re gonna tell me why your face is beat up while your knuckles aren’t bruised. If you had gotten jumped, you would’ve fought back. That is a damn fact, Hargrove.”

“Fine,” Billy sighed after a minute, crossing his arms and leaning away from you and his shake. He had one of the candy cherries in his mouth now, rolling it around. Nodding, you let out a jagged breath.

“For starters, my uncle’s a dick. Let’s just get that straight,” you began, “I had to move here with him because my dad couldn’t handle me anymore, not after what happened at my old school. I used to bounce living between him and my uncle, neither one being ideal. My uncle is a sex addict and my dad a drug addict. Run’s in the family, guess that’s why I’m addicted to fighting,” you laughed, trying to lighten the conversation a little. “But anyways, my uncle kicks me out a lot so that his girls can have places to stay if tricks go bad, or their rent is past due, or he’s lonely. Those things. He hasn’t done it since we moved here, I figured he wouldn’t since he still has his own place back home. But I was wrong,” you growled, flicking the glass of your shake, “While I was sleeping at the apartment, he barged in and pretty much shoved me out. Didn’t give me a chance to put on shoes or my jacket. Didn’t give me my keys, nothing. Survival of the fittest I suppose,” you finished, finally taking a sip of your chocolate shake to clear your dry throat, and avoid Billy’s stare.

--

Billy’s tongue pressed along the inside of his cheek, rolling his cherry underneath. He watched you carefully and silently for a while, not wanting to say anything yet. Your (e/c) eyes were cast out the window, the blue luminescent lighting of Gunther’s shop clashing with their natural color. You had whip cream on your bottom lip from rolling your straw along it, and your hair was down for once. Billy hadn’t really seen your hair down before, you usually had it in a ponytail with strands in your face. It was nice, he had to admit, subtle waves going through it and little pieces sticking out; most likely from being rushed out of your apartment. You were still wearing your Mickey Mouse shirt from this morning, and Billy knew you weren’t wearing a bra-he’d seen enough tits to know. He didn’t say anything of course, but god did he know. The only thing that took him by total shock, were your mismatched socks. One was bright pink, and the other was bright green.

“Ya gonna say something, Hargrove, or keep givin’ that cherry a good time?” you finally spoke up, moving your eyes to look at him. Billy grinned, showing off the cherry between his teeth and making a show of rolling it along the top of his mouth before finally eating it.

“I’ve got a lot to say, (Y/L/N),” he spoke up, after swallowing, “First of all, your uncle is indeed a dick. Throwing a teenage girl out at the end of winter without a jacket or pair of shoes is fucked up. You deserve better than that, princess,” Billy murmured, leaning forward.

“Thanks, asshole,” you said sincerely, no malice attached to the nickname. “Now, what about your face?” Billy sighed, now taking his turn to look at his shake.

“Coach ended up telling my dad about everything that’s happened between Tim and I when we almost went at it again today. We didn’t get in a fight, but we screamed and cussed each other out. My dad got really pissed off when I came home. He’s been losing his temper a lot more easily now, ever since my mom died I’ve noticed. There’s not a whole lot I can do to please him anymore. This didn’t help,” Billy explained simply, sparing you of the details. You nodded, resting your chin on your knee.

“Yeah… I sort of figured something was going on. When you came in after the game Hawkins lost with that busted lip and bruise on your shoulder and clear knuckles? Something wasn’t up. You can’t just confront someone about that shit though. It’s not easy to deal with, let alone talk about. Plus, we’re basically always with the other three,” you huffed, fishing out more whipped cream with your straw. Billy’s face paled at your analysis, looking up at you with his mouth around his straw.

“I-I… I uh…” Billy spluttered, not knowing how to react to being caught in his various lies.

“It’s fine, Billy, I get it. Some of the fights I pick at school are just because I get bruises from my uncle. Do you really think I actually wanted to get in a fight with Jacob when he tipped over my water bottle in Environmental class? I’m not that psycho, but I had to find some way to cover up the bruises,” you passed, waving your hand in the air. Billy let out the panicked breath he was holding in, relaxing again. He ran a hand through his hair, pushing it away from his eyes.

--

“So where are you gonna go tonight? Gunther’s closes in an hour,” Billy questioned, after a while, tilting his head in the vague direction of where he thought the old man would be. You shrugged, having no idea. You didn’t know it was already 2 a.m, you thought it was only midnight, possibly 1 a.m.

“Not sure. I’ll most likely head to a park again, the tunnel slides are oddly comfortable,” you snickered, winking at him. “What about you? Does your dad cool down quick?”

“Yeah, he’s asleep. I can sneak back in if I need to, but I most likely won’t. I let him cool down until the next day. You can sleep in my car with me if you want? That’s what I usually do. I park it down at Golden Ponds and then head to school whenever I wake up.”

“I’ll have to hit you up on that offer. But I need you to drop me off at my house in the morning so I can change. Gotta keep up that reputation,” you smirked, pulling at your pajama pants.

“I don’t know, princess. Skull pajamas? Pretty badass if you ask me,” Billy retorted, flashing a wink back at you and you shook your head.

“Yeah, right,” you scoffed, scooting out of the booth. Billy followed after you, your finished shakes abandoned on the table. “Thanks for the shakes, Gunther. We’ll probably see you tomorrow!” you called out to the back of the diner, hearing a ‘have a good night, kids!’ before the two of you left the store.

Billy unlocked the car for you guys, ducking into the driver’s side, you following into the passenger side. You shivered at the temperature drop, Gunther’s diner having been much warmer than the inside of Billy’s car. Starting the car, Billy was quick to get the heater going as he drove off.

“Sorry, it usually takes a minute or two for it to get going,” Billy apologized.

“It’s fine, it’s better than being outside,” you assured, grinning up at him. He gave you a soft smile before turning on the radio, his rock music instantly streaming through. He kept the music quiet, so that it was more of a buzz than anything. When the car came to a stop at a red light, Billy began taking off the denim jacket he was wearing.

“Here, I’m wearing a long sleeve under this,” Billy said, handing the jacket over to you as the light turned green.

“You sure?” you questioned, hesitantly taking it from him. The last time you had worn the jacket was when you were high, out in the middle of a road. It didn’t bring back great memories, but the jacket was still warm from him wearing it, and it was comfortable.

“Yeah, don’t make me change my mind, princess,” he warned, but his tone was teasing. Huffing, you pulled the jacket on, relishing in the way your freezing arms were finally able to escape the bitter cold.

A comfortable silence fell over the car, Billy’s music barely being heard over the car’s engine. He was driving slow, taking his time to get to the ponds. Your eyes were starting to close, your head leaning against the cold window. The occasional bump or turn would jolt you awake, and you’d rub your eyes, trying not to fall asleep. In about 20 minutes, you guys had made it to Golden Ponds, and the area was completely vacant. Billy parked the car under a large tree, it’s bare branches brushing against the hood. His headlights shined over one of the ponds, illuminating the ice.

“It’s nice,” you murmured, looking at the ice intently.

“Yeah, it’s even better in the morning. Nobody comes here in the winter I’ve found out. In the fall this place was swarmed with people all the time. I always had to make sure I was gone before 6,” he said, “But now, I can sleep in as late as I need to, and nobody is ever here. The ice is way too thin, and the ponds too small, to ice skate, so there’s not too many reasons to come out here.”

“Except for people like us,” you joked, giving him a toothy grin, which he returned.

“Yeah, except for our kind,” he said. Our kind. Billy hadn’t found someone to relate to before, mainly because he never opened up. It was a strange feeling, but it wasn’t one he wanted to go away. Not this time. Billy shut the car off, the pond losing it’s light and the car it’s heat. “I can’t keep it running. But there’s a blanket in the back.”

“Alright, that’ll work. Come on, I know you’re tired as hell,” you ordered, beginning to climb into the back. Billy watched you, biting his lip as you squeezed yourself between the seats and finally into the back. “Fuck, that was harder than I thought. Why is your car so small, Hargrove? You trying to match your dick or something?” you asked, barely able to duck in time as his hand came flying to hit your shoulder. Once you were settled in the back, Billy climbed over.

“It’s not that small,” he grunted, falling into the corner of the car, letting out a huff. He kicked his shoes off, tossing them into the front and began unbuckling his belt.

“The car or your dick? Because the answer is ‘yes, it is’ to both,” you grinned, but stopped when he started unbuckling his belt. “Alright, asshole. Just because you’re hot and I’m sleeping in your car, doesn’t mean we’re sleeping together,” you snapped, narrowing your eyes at him suspiciously. Billy stopped, giving you an incredulous look.

“In your dreams, princess. Who the hell sleeps in a belt? I know your cute ass isn’t wearing a bra right now, your nipples are ripe as day. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna start fondling them,” he scoffed and continued pulling the belt out of its loops.

“Wha- how did you?” it was now your turn to be shocked, looking down at your chest to see that he was right. “Why the hell were you lookin’, Hargrove?” you yelled, trying to hide your chest.

“It’s hard not to. When a hot girl is in front of me and her boobs are right there? My eyes are gonna go down for a second,” Billy said, rolling his eyes and tossing the belt in the front of the car as well. “Now would you quit arguing about your nipples and lay down? It’s cold, I’m tired, and I’m gonna get angry really quick.”

“Really? My bad, I thought you were already angry,” you snapped, but did as you were told, laying your head down and spreading your legs out. They hit Billy’s thighs, and he reached over you, grabbing the blanket from under the seats. It was a giant, dark blue fleece blanket that would be sure to keep the both of you warm.  After throwing the blanket over you, Billy moved behind you and laid down, covering himself as well.

“I know it’s not ideal, but it’s better than freezing to death,” he said, his voice coming from above your ear. The warmth of his breath was nice compared to the cold air, and it relaxed your neck.

“Yeah, it’s alright. But if I wake up with your boner against my back, you’re walking into school with two black eyes,” you informed him, turning your head to give him a glare. Your faces came eerily close, but you kept the glare, wanting him to get the message.

“I’ll try my hardest,” he smirked, licking his lips. Your eyes rolled so far back, you thought you were going to see your IQ level.

“I swear to god…” you grumbled, turning forward again, and pulling the blanket up to your nose, trying to get warm. Billy’s arm wrapped around your waist, keeping you from falling off the back seat. Both of your hips were digging into the seat belt clicks, and it was not comfortable, but you would most definitely take this over your usual slide tunnel any day.

“Thanks, Billy,” you sighed out, beginning to drift off.

“‘Course, (Y/N/N). You’re here forever and you’re by my side,” was the last thing you heard before you fell asleep, your head rested between his elbow and his leg thrown over your hip.

I will stay with you tonight

Hold you close ‘til the morning light

In the morning watch a new day rise

We’ll do whatever just to stay alive

We’ll do whatever just to stay alive

Light had been streaming in through the windows for the past few hours, bringing you in and out of consciousness. Your body was warm, and even though it was cramped and incredibly uncomfortable, each time you felt yourself beginning to wake up, you’d force yourself to fall back asleep. But when fingertips began gliding along your cheekbones, over your lips and into your hair, you couldn’t push it off any longer. Your head was no longer in the crook of Billy’s arm, but on the seat, and your legs were sandwiched between is, keeping them warm. He had his own head propped up on his hand, the other one running along your face and through your hair. Letting out a soft groan, you scrunched your eyes open, Billy ceasing his movements immediately.

“You don’t have to stop playing with my hair,” you couldn’t help but whine, admitting that the feeling was nice. “But I can’t feel my arm,” you groaned, slowly pushing yourself up from the seat so you wouldn’t knock your head against his. Once you had successfully sat up, you stretched your arms and your neck, working the kinks out of them.

“You sleep okay? At least better than in a plastic slide?” Billy questioned, sitting up and cracking his neck as well, leaning his back against the door.

“Yeah, decently. Kept waking up, but that’s to be expected. Do you know what time it is?”

“9:24,” Billy answered, propping his foot on the divider, leaning his knee against the driver’s seat. “Do you wanna stop and get something to eat, or head straight to your place?” you yawned, and gave him a shrug. You were never all that hungry in the mornings, and you knew James was gonna pissed at you for not being at school that morning.

“If you’re hungry we can stop, but I’m not really. So it’s up to you,” you told him, stretching your feet out along his on the divider. Looking through the window, you could see the ponds vividly. The morning light was shining over the ice, making you understand why the area was called Golden Ponds.

“Nice, huh?” Billy asked, noticing what you were looking at. You simply nodded, not wanting to look away. It was beautiful compared to the majority of Hawkins, and you didn’t want to stop staring. “I don’t want to leave just yet. I’m not awake enough to drive,” Billy informed you, trying to use his fatigue as a justifiable excuse.

“That’s fine. Third period doesn’t start until 11:15 anyways,” you hummed. Looking over at Billy, you saw him looking through the gap of the driver’s seat and the window to look at the ponds as well. His eye was bruised now, and the cut was a red irritation mark. The bruise on the hollow of his cheek was more prominent, but despite all the marks, he looked at peace. With the light bouncing off the ice and through the Camaro’s windows, his blond hair looked shinier, and his blue eyes brighter-almost like the ocean he was always talking about. The feather earring he wore dangled just above his shoulder, and you couldn’t stop yourself from reaching out to flick at it.

“It was my mom’s,” he said, not even flinching from your touch. The feather was soft, the small beads on it bumping together. You dragged your nail through the fibers, tilting your head to see how it looked in the sun. The reds and oranges resembled a fire, or a phoenix even, the way it moved so peacefully along your finger.

“It’s pretty. It matches the thing on the back of your door. I noticed it when you brought me back after the party… Was that hers too?” you asked lightly, knowing he usually became guarded and angry whenever anyone’s mom was brought up, let alone his. He nodded quietly, the earring moving with him and out of your grasp. “Bet she liked you a lot.”

“Yeah… we were close,” he smiled softly, and so did you. Billy rarely smiled without his teeth or tongue, and when he did it was nice. It was hard not to do it yourself. “This was her car. She’d take me down to the beach all the time, we’d get seashells, all of that. One time I found a starfish, it was the best day of my damn life, princess. Let me tell you,” he laughed, tilting his head back and looking up at the roof of his car. “It was a dark grey, I almost thought it was fake. I didn’t think they came in colors other than pink. My mom was real happy too, but she made me keep it against the rock. Taught me how to touch it with the back of my knuckle. The whole deal,” he explained to you, his fingers twitching against the denim of his jeans. The story came so easily, unlike all his others. It flowed so smoothly, as if it happened yesterday. This had to be something he thought about a lot. “That was the day I decided starfishes were gonna be my favorite animal, my favorite thing. Whenever we would go back, I’d spend the whole time looking for them. Fuck the shells, I wanted to see another starfish.”

“Did you?” you asked, pulling your knee to your chest and looking up at him.

“Yeah, quite a bit. I never noticed how many there were until that day. But each time I found a new one, it was like the first day all over again. She was the only one who understood that feeling…” he trailed off, casting his eyes towards his jeans before looking back at you.

“Starfish are fucking awesome,” you agreed, giving him the best grin you could after just waking up, “I’ve never seen one in person. I haven’t been to an aquarium or a beach before, but from what I’ve seen in the books, they look cool as hell,” you said, and Billy gave you a look of pure horror.

“You’ve never been to a beach? An aquarium?” he asked in astonishment. You shook your head, rolling your eyes slightly.

“Not all of us are blessed with California genes, Hargrove,” you laughed, shoving his shoulder.

“Tell you what,” he began, mocking you from earlier.

“Oh my god, another deal?”

“You bet your ass. If you go as my crash-date to the dance, I’ll take you to the aquarium. If they don’t have any starfish, we can sue them. Sound like a deal?” he offered, running his tongue along his lips. Even though it was an offer, you knew he wasn’t planning on taking a ‘no’.

“Yeah, alright, asshole. You’re paying though,” you snickered and Billy grinned.

“Fine by me, princess. Looks like it’s just James and Vance who have to find a date now,” he sighed, looking back out the window. Your eyes widened, not realizing that none of you had told Billy yet. You leaned against him, resting your head against chest and your arm on top of his knee.

“Won’t be necessary. They’ve been eye-fucking each other for years, and now they’re gonna be actually fucking each other for the rest of time.”

“What the fuck.”

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