#replace they with we and y'all can see why I'm so fucking tired

[ticklishprincey]

A New Kind Of Coffee

Can you tell that I'm hyperfixated on Helluva Boss? Like holy shit this freaking show has a CHOKEHOLD on me in the best way possible. Also there's like two fics of Asmodeus and Fizz which has me very upset so here's to satisfying my brain. Warning for implied depression, sex joke mention (passively like one time) implied eating disorders (not really but refusing food nonetheless) implied mental illness Fizz is having one of "those days" again, but luckily his beloved boyfriend is here to cheer him up! THIS IS PURELY SFW ALL NSFW DNI OR I WILL THROW A BIBLE AT YOU!!! (I’m not religious but damn some of y'all need jesus) Fizzarolli was tired. No, not the physical "I need to sleep tired" kind of tired. He was the mentally drained type of tired, like "I need to collapse in bed and never get up" kind of tired. But of course, he has to keep up his image of the clown that never shuts the fuck up and blows air horns in everyone's face, because what was he if not energetic? After a day of fake smiles and half-hearted sex jokes, the clown collapsed into the bed Asmodeus and him shared. He was absolutely exhausted. Nothing he did excited him. He was tired, drained, and depressed. Asmodeus, despite being the busy sin that he was, noticed. He was worried for his beloved imp, but knew he would never open up when there was work to be done or people around. Normally Fizz would be tired after a stressful day, but this was different. He had turned down any form of affection, which was not like him. He had refused to eat all day, even when Asmodeus had offered to take them out to his favorite burger place. This was more than troublesome to the sin. A gentle knock at their shared bedroom caused Fizzarolli to look up from where his head had been buried in a pillow. "You don't gotta knock, Ozz, it's your room too." The clown responded, burying his head back into the pillow. Asmodeus nodded, coming in and gently shutting the door behind him. He sat on the bed next to Fizz, laying a gentle hand on his boyfriend's back as he looked down at the imp in concern. "Fizzy Frog, what's wrong? You haven't been yourself today." The clown responded with a simple grunt. This wouldn't do. "Talk to me, love, what's on your mind?" Another grunt. Asmodeus sighed and ran his hand softly up and down Fizzarolli's back in an attempt to comfort him, startled when he received a muffled squeak in response. "Darling? What's the matter- Oh, my dear Fizzy, are you ticklish~?" To say the clown was embarrassed would be an understatement. Another squeak, then his head popped up from the pillow, a bright red blush ever so present on his face. "N-No! Why do you aSK!?" The sin chuckled as his boyfriend's sentence was cut short by his own squeal. Asmodeus ran his fingers up and down the sensitive spine, reveling in this newfound laughter which he had missed in the stressful work hours. "Oh, I don't know, maybe because your little squeals and giggles give you away oh-so easily~" Fizzarolli squeaked again, giggles pouring freely out of his mouth as he rolled over onto his back to try and escape the teasing hands. "Ah-ah-ah! Let's see how ticklish this little tummy is, shall we?" Despite the protests of his boyfriend through bubbly giggles, Asmodeus dug into the soft belly, awarded by the excited and bubbly laughter he had been looking for. "BAhAahAhBE!! CuhuHuhut iT OuHuhuT!!!" Asmodeus simply chuckled and kept up his attack, only to rest his hand on Fizzarolli's stomach. "Do you know what a tickle monster's favorite food is?" The clown squirmed and giggled before it even happened, releasing a loud squeal followed by

bubbly laughter as his lover bent down and blew a raspberry directly onto his belly button, his robot appendages rendered useless against the attack as they flailed left and right. "OHOHOZZIE WAHAHAIT STAHAHAHAHAP!!!" The attack stopped as soon as it had begun, replaced by the larger demon scooping his lover into his arms and cuddling him close to his chest. "Feeling better, Fizzy-Pop?" The clown nodded, resting his head on Asmodeus' chest before mumbling quietly, but the sin heard every word. "Thank you for loving me, Ozzie."

[clockwork-reveries]

tumblr in the neoteric world

☢️ becquerel-tears Follow

confession. i'm fr TIRED of humans treating corinthians like shit or things that dont feel. it's the little things that make me want to quit my job and i don't know, scam the elderly for a living? (that was a joke.) i love my job don't get me wrong, it makes me the happiest i've been in a long time. today at work while i was busy helping a coworker see what was wrong with their terminal, some dude walked right up to me. he was maybe, i don't know, late 30's, early 60's? it's so hard to tell humans apart. and put his FINGER underneath the panel on my NECK. i smacked his hand away so hard he yelled, but of course i didn't care he almost got to some delicate shit! all because he couldn't stop himself from getting his grubby manchild hands off me.

🔁☢️ becquerel-tears Follow

fucking. respect corinthians. before the empyrean war some of you complained we were replacing humanity, and now that we did all the work for y'all in the war, you treat us like servants and objects that just are there. we'll be around for a long long time. and a ton of us won't forget this.

🔁🔥 antiflesh-posting Follow

I wasn't made during the war, so maybe my comments aren't valid, but I totally agree, OP. Humans have become so full of themselves, it's revolting. I'm sorry about your issues as well. We've got a group on TMB about how to reduce human population, and we also think you might be better suited especially if you live in a smaller city, as you've stated in previous posts.

🔁☢️ becquerel-tears Follow fucker didn't read my post, it's so obvious. do NOT talk to me about "reducing the human population" you fucking edgelord wannabe terrorists. blocked and reported. I DON'T CARE THAT THIS IS A BOT, ANTHROPOPHOBES AREN'T EVER WELCOME ON MY BLOG

38 notes

💌 bl33ding-hartzzz Follow

i got suuuuuper bord.. im thinking abt trying tht weird "simul8d food" some company made around 2020 for corinthians. desc says ur supposed to "taste" it like the real thing. im rlly sus abt it but somebodys selling it on ebay for almost 7 bucks so i dont think ill be losing a lot!

💌 bl33ding-hartzzz Follow

update it arrived!!! i got the icecream 1......!1! apparently ur supposed to bite it? huh? ( •᷄‎ࡇ•᷅ )

💌 bl33ding-hartzzz Follow

Oh. oh i c why nobody wants this. its a scam we dont even knw what flavors n tastes are like anywaze.

AKA it suckssss. ˙◠˙

75 notes

⚙️ vermina-overlord Follow

139 notes

 🍅 camillcamillaeleon Follow

yall after that fic i made was thinking about trying to make the custom corinthian by myself does anyone have any tutorials i can follow? i think im gonna use crisp's design when i make him but maybe ill have to make a super tiny version if thats possible so it costs less? does anyone know if you can create small corinthians?

🔁💫 all-antipurpose Follow

Bestie??? You cant???? Just make Corinthians??? I get you used to customize Furbys but theyre not fucking dolls, dude. Does nobody realize how horrible it is to be playing god for funsies? EDIT: I wasn't calling Corinthians dolls

🔁🍅 camillcamillaeleon Follow

its not like im going to FORCE them to be what i want i just want them to look like it yknow every time i post like something this youre always one of the first people to reply can you just get off my dick already

🔁💫 all-antipurpose Follow

Then just draw it? Why do you need a 200+ pound AI to do it for you? I find it really weird how youre not concerned about the ethic issues about just making life just because you feel like nor have you addressed it at all. Am I in the wrong here for thinking everyone in the notes is delusional for calling me a cop just because you guys watch too many sci-fis? Don't make Corinthians.

285 notes

🍋‍🟩 starberry-skyfield Follow

𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐓𝐨 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐏

Name: Genevieve

Height: 166 cm

Favorite show: Resident Alien

Favorite snack: Caramel popcorn

Software: ? What does this mean? Windows 11

First song: Don't remember

Favorite game: Sims 3

Hair color: Dark blonde

Countries traveled: Canada, Japan

Dogs or cats: Dogs

Eye color: Blue

Last song listened: Liquid Smooth by Mitski

Phone wallpaper: I like green

TAGGED BY: @kermiance TAGGING: @crownless-crimson (i hope you're feeilng better!) @poloniusweeps @mixomadie @shutupchrissy (i know you like fillouts)

15 notes

🔥v1butalmostirl Follow

APPARENTLY ONE OF MY FRIENDS IS JUST UNABLE TO RECOGNIZE COLORS? WHY DOESNT ANYONE TALK ABOUT HOW SOME WAR-MADE CORINS ARE REALLY BADLY MADE? HES FROM THE EAST COAST AND HIS SYSTEMS DON'T RECOGNIZE BLUE FROM GREEN AND MORE EVEN THOUGH HIS OPTICS CAN SEE LITERALLY SEE IT ITS DISGUSTING HOW PERSONHOOD WAS DEVELOPING FOR CORINTHIANS BUT IMMEDIATELY DIMINISHED DURING THE WAR SOME WAR-MADES HAVE NEVER FELT KINDNESS

1,056 notes

🌷cordie-draws Follow

Sometimes I want to be human Organic, real, warm, soft Cartilage and bone Blood, enamel, keratin Does anyone feel me? Sometimes it upsets me so bad when I realize I can't smell soap or the candles in my kitchen. Or when I make food for my cat. Or when I wake and realize that I can't stretch or yawn. But that would mean I'd lose myself... because humans definitely have feelings different. But would that be so bad? Burned, with ashes, rising up into beauty and wonder?

118 notes

☁️ puppetprancinq Follow

dumb question i know but do you guys wash your vessel plates with a clorox wipe one at a time or hop in a shower if youre sealed

on sunday mornings i like to put them all in the dishwasher because i really dont have another use for em. and then when i get em out its like ahhhh. squeaky clean

151 notes

💾 crownless-crimson Follow

𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐓𝐨 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐏

Name: JZK (Not my real name)

Height: 6' / 185 cm

Favorite show: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Favorite snack: I can't eat.

Software: IceLemon v6.8

First song: Yesterday by The Beatles. Someone who worked at where I was developed had a cassette player lying around. The mic barely picked it up but I was delighted to hear music for the first time.

Favorite game: Most of the Amnesia series, Resident Evil 2 and 3, Halo 1 and 2. I'm not good at shooting games but I like the stories most of the time.

Hair color: Brown

Countries traveled: USA (I'm British), Germany, Norway, Italy

Dogs or cats: Dogs. I plan on getting one.

Eye color: Red

Last song listened: Cloudbusting by Kate Bush

Phone wallpaper:

TAGGED BY: @starberry-skyfield Thank you, Genevieve. TAGGING: @becquerel-tears, @bl33ding-hartzzz, @v1butalmostirl, @liminalbrainwave, @clockwork-dreamings

9 notes

️♣️spinneretgods Follow

Fellas is it gay to help a corin with their maintenance and then accidentally screw their head completely off and then laugh about it as you play a game of soccer and then suddenly they explode violently like the guy from daft punk and you sit there clutching the remains of them sobbing even though you know the day would come to an end

🔁🌽i-give-people-cobsofcorn Follow

Here.

🔁♣️ spinneretgods Follow

POST CANCELLED GET OUT OF MY DUNGEON

8,948 notes

[just-another-hhazbin]

Alright it is time to risk getting myself cancelled. Today we’re going to be talking about aspd, aka anti-social personality disorder.  I’m making this post because I haven’t seen one that discusses everything I wanna talk about so here we are.

What is anti-social personality disorder?  In the barest essentials, it is an emotional disorder where it is very difficult to empathize with other people and understand their emotions, have high levels of apathy, etc. Sometimes it also correlates with very low impulse control.

In other words, it’s what some of y’all like to call sociopathy and psychopathy.

Let’s get one thing clear first - sociopathy and psychopathy are not actual pscyhology-approved words. ASPD is. However, the media and culture (or at least American culture, which is what I have first-hand experience with) has villianized and exaggerated it into this common trend where every criminal or horror figure HAS to be a sociopath or psychopath. 

Yeah, as one does with mental illnesses. Thanks, Hollywood + Government.

So right off the bat - please I beg of you to stop using psychopath and sociopath to describe someone “crazy” or “evil.” Stop that. (I’m not saying never ever use the word. Some characters are gonna say slurs cause they be like that. But you, personally, should know better. And also stop putting it in your story summaries and character descriptions, goddamn.) 

You are perpetuating a false narrative. It is estimated that 1 in 100 people in America have ASPD. Someone you know probably has it, even if they haven’t been officially diagnosed or even know they have it. If they do know, they’re probably really damn sick of hearing that comparison. 

ASPD is also not an aesthetic, and you know exactly who you are. If you want the edgy serial killer aesthetic I am certainly not going to judge you, but for the love of everything leave aspd out of it.

Someone with ASPD is not emotionless.  That’s another false narrative we can chuck out the window. It is true that they might be quicker to temper or seem somewhat cold or analytical, but those are hardly traits limited to those with ASPD. Some people do have higher levels of apathy and/or narcissis than others, but none of us are robots so cut that generalizing shit out.

As with most things, ASPD is a spectrum with different levels of effect and functionality. Someone who is more affected by ASPD but has been to therapy may have a higher functionality than someone with a milder situation. 

Personal experiences shape individuals, shocking, I know.

Also, just because someone has ASPD does not mean that they cannot form relationships or friendships. It may be difficult to understand empathy but sympathy can often be managed, and it is possible to feel affection and friendship in some form for even the most severe cases. 

It also doesn’t mean that they can or will ever develop empathy. We are viewing the same world but with different lenses, and that is okay. 

We might not see friendships or relationships the same but that doesn’t mean we can’t form attachments or feel a sort of acknowledged possessiveness that is the equivalent for some of us.

That there is a lack of empathy doesn’t make someone a bad person. It is still possible for someone without empathy to look at a bad thing and know it exists and not do it because they have A) their own moral code that may not make sense to the normative lense or B) they have self-preservation and/or a basic understanding of social norms and fucking decency.

“But I know someone who did [x bad thing] and THEY were diagnosed with sociopathy/psychopathy!”

First off, I’d like to see who made that diagnossis, since again, those aren’t considered valid terminology by the majority of the modern psychology world. Secondly, I bet I can fiind at least a hundred to a thousand to a million people who did [x bad thing] and don’t have aspd. Correlation does not equal causation, people.

You don’t have to understand something to still choose to do it. We might not understand why someone would be affected by x action, but we can choose what impact we make. There is no little sociopath/psychopath demon running around in our head laughing maniacally and pressing “evil” buttons. (This is a thing that therapy can help with though, especially for some people. For others it’s more a matter of socialization and exposure and it’s a learning process for everyone, aspd or not.)

I would also like to take a moment here to say that if someone tries to excuse their abusive behavior with “I have aspd/[x mental illness here]” it is just that - an excuse. If they are in a situation where they really cannot control themselves, then it is time to go to therapy or call counseling services and in any case you yourself are in no way indebted to helping them or staying in a dangerous relationship.

Anyway, disclaimer over, moving on.

A lot of this has been discussed around, so here’s onto something I’ve been seeing a lot of recently, especially in fandom and certain LGBTQ+ spaces, and am getting really sick of.

ASEXUALITY, AROMANTICISM, AND ASPD DO NOT HAVE TO BE LINKED

The ace =/= aro argument has already been said a thousand times, but I’ll say it again. Both asexuality and aromanticism are spectrums and they do not go hand in hand. People who want sex might not want love and people who want love might not want sex and, once again, that is OKAY. 

Now, onto the aspd factor - lately I’ve been seeing a lot of people saying “oh, such and such character is ace/aro/acearo, they MUST have aspd [or other terms]” or “such and such is a psychopath/sociopath and SO, they’re aro.”

Stop that.

Seriously.

Someone may very well have aspd and be ace, or aro, or acearo. But once again, correlation does not equal causation. I do get that on some level it’s understandable to play someone with aspd as aromantic in particular, but the lense is far too narrow, especially when it turns into a “must” situation.

Maybe what you would consider “romantic love” isn’t the same as someone with aspd would consider “romantic love,” but that doesn’t mean that they don’t experience it. Individuals have their own individual identities and definitions. 

There aren’t unbreakable chains attaching aspd, asexuality, and aromanticism together. It is perfectly okay to be all of those things at once or have a character that is all of those things, but please remember that they are all independent traits and are spectrums that show themselves in a variety of ways.

Also, don’t call being aromantic or asexuality a mental illness. Seen that one making the rounds again too and it’s fucking stupid. Stop it and just admit to being ace/arophobic so I can block you and move on.

~Disclaimer that I am NOT a psychologist, just a tired bastard.~

[kaylinlmao]

YAY!

Here is the highly requested PT 2 to this fic. Read it first if you haven't read it and enjoy my lovelies. Added telekinesis as one of her powers. Y'all are only getting this because your girl pretty much only gets motivation at midnight, 3am, or 5am.

"I knew he was hiding something from me!" The man standing in the doorway said. Just then, I saw the grabber coming down the stairs behind him, weilding an Axe. "NO!" I screamed, too late. As the Axe came down on the man's head, I freaked out as the blood flung all over me. He pushed the man down the stairs and he closed the door after saying, "look what you made me do". I looked at the man dying on the floor as I ran over to him, my pain from healing Griffin completely forgotten. I began to use my power to heal the man when someone pulled me away. It was Finney. "I'm sorry, angel but I can't let you do that." He said, with an evil smirk on his face.

"What?" I said, concerned. "He said, we can't let you heal him dollface." "Why? You can't stop me." "Oh butterfly. Who do you think planned this all out?" "Who do you think watched you for weeks, doll?" "Who do you think kidnapped you, pretty girl?" "We did, baby. We did all of that." Finney said. "Why?" "Because we love you, darling." Bruce responded. "Wait, wait, wait. Let me get this straight. You stalked me, kidnapped me, let me heal Griffin and take all of that pain, had me watch a man be murdered, and FUCKING TRAUMATIZED ME BECAUSE YOU LOVE ME?!" I stood up, my eyes turning purple as I was flooded with anger. All I could see was red. I was livid.

"I WENT THROUGH ALL THIS PAIN AND TRAUMA FOR NOTHING? NOTHING?" I yelled, the anger was becoming too much. I screamed and the boys were flung against the wall. I was beginning to get tired but I was still furious. I fumed as I used my powers to pull the door off its hinges and walk upstairs. But someone grabbed my arm before I could make it halfway. "You leave this basement, we will kill everyone you know and love, and we'll make it painful. And right before they die, we'll tell them it was all your fault so they can die hating you. Get your fucking ass back down here now, angel" (A/N: I feel like Finney would be the most crazy because of what he went through)

I slowly walked down the stairs. I used my powers too much, too fast. The anger was fading and was being replaced with being exhausted and sad. As I reached the other I asked them sadly, "why? Why did you have to put me through this?" "Because we love you darling." Bruce said. "Now lay down and go to sleep pretty girl." I walked over to the mattress and layed down. "Good girl, princesa." I didn't react but as they walked away I said,

"Someone who loves you wouldn't do this."

Hope you guys like this! It was highly requested! Love y'all! :) -Kaylin

[prelovednikaidou]

corrupt; draken, ken ryuguji [01]

Summary:

In which you met the man of your past, but he didn't come back to remind you of the bitter break-up. Draken had one thing in mind and it was to never let you leave his side ever again. Distance made the heart grow fonder but he'd rather let you spend the rest of your life hating him if it meant you'd never leave his sight.

"I don't wish you well when you ain't with me, I want you crying."

Warning:

mention of suicide, oral receiving (reader),

a/n: taglist are open up to 10 users! comment '☁️'

Word count: 2.1k

series masterlist

[01: jealousy]

Draken wanted to take you away.

The curves of your spine, flowing down to the slope of your well-rounded bottom flesh, he watched the symmetrical dimple right above your butt - mocking him that those precious intimate spots were no longer his possession to own.

It wasn't only him who shared the same thought; everyone in this crowded room had their eyes glued on you. As if you were holding those guests captive, you felt immense pressure on your feet and thighs, quivered before you wrapped your leg around the shining pole.

Spinning, spinning, spinning.

Those blinding lights showered your sweating figure in all fairness, the sound of Abel's voice had long dimmed down, it meant that your show was done. It was silent in a minute,

lifting your face - your lips curled into a hunting smile and the room soared with cheers, crumpled money tossed across the stage, but your sense of content was suppressed by the overwhelming tension.

A pair of black pupils were starring at you - pinning you to where you stood. He was among the crowd, all in his glory without care but you. You felt something burst inside your chest, unable to tear your focus from him.

This longing for him is toxic.

Flashes of memories where those sober eyes bore into yours when he pumped his fat cock into your tight cunt until his thick cum over spilled, the same eyes that once shone with so much love but turned cold.

"Dollface!"

A shout from backstage startled you from your daze, another coworker came up and escorted you down, assisting you to take off the painful high heels.

"What's with you?" She threw a curious stare your way.

You still couldn't wrap your mind. He was there. Flesh and soul, presented in front of you. It was a brief eye contact but it was enough. Enough to tell you that he was coming back for you.

It had been years since the two of you chose to split up, making your paths without each other's companion.

"I, I've got to go. I forgot that I locked the windows, my cat's probably waiting for me. He's been out for 3 days so he's starving I think. Y'all can continue without me,"

You stood but your knees turned weak at the sudden arrival of him, standing by the door. A few steps taken back, you lost all rationality to stay calm because your heart thumped loudly.

Standing tall on his 6' ft, athletic and young Draken was nowhere to be seen but replaced - with a mature adult man that induced everything he carried into lust.

The robust body looked incredibly fit, lean, and you could see the strong outlines of his defined chest and abdominal muscles from the black shirt. If it was years ago, those leather jackets wouldn't suit him - he'd look like those up-start wannabe gangsters.

But it was different now. It clung to his broad shoulders perfectly, he wasn't as cheap as those local pranksters. The dark jeans also did little job in hiding his long legs. He was indeed a member of a gang; eerie and cruel - but he had never look this good that you want to fuck.

Draken's presence was enough to brush away every man in the room that you belonged to him. Your little admirers couldn't even look at him in the eyes, let alone make up a fight.

They left with a strong sense of defeat; no wonder you never once accept any confessions, turned out you have such a man waiting.

"Why is he here? This area is off-limits. Only staff is allowed. Naoki, guide him out." You forced yourself to mutter those words, uncaring to look at him with your back facing him.

Naoki sighed, this man literally slipped $750 under the table just to meet you. Those incompetent flies who claimed to love you didn't even spare this much effort. She only signaled him to step in before she whispered to you,

"Remember the guy I told you? The one that booked a whole session for your private room? He's that guy. It's just that he arrived a little early than the arranged meeting but it'll be great if you can build a connection with him."

You glared back, "Then send him back. We still have a week before that, right? I'm tired. I can't keep up with this," You pushed off her hand from your shoulder, began to take off your wig. His eyes were still the same; always undressing you naked.

Naoki could only grit her teeth, the money already landed in her pocket. What if he asked it back? She can't let such a great deal slip so she greeted him,

"She's a bit tired from the recent show. How about we push this to tomorrow? She's got free time on her hand to rest too." At least, this would do, right?

"If I have so much time on my hands, I wouldn't have come a week early. So you guess it yourself." His voice has changed too. It was an octave lower, you immediately rubbed your thighs together before you waved a hand.

"Haaa... leave us, Naoki. But I need you to go to my house. I wasn't joking about what I said earlier."

Naoki hurriedly nodded, clutching to her pocket before her eyes warily darted from Draken to you. Is this a couple feud? She noted in her head that she'd help this guy soon in the future - who doesn't want easy money?

"Okay, I will. Sir...? Err.. hope you have a pleasant chat with Dollface. I will excuse myself then ." The hindrance in Draken's eyes finally left the room, the door closed in a thump and the subtle tension thickened.

He didn't say anything, only leaned his body by the door as he watched you wiped off your makeup. This was his morning view back when you were still wet behind ears about pole dancing. You'd come back at the crack of drawn and he'd already been out to his workshop.

"Dollface."

Stubborn like a little cat, your doe eyes didn't look up from your make-up bag and he could see through your act to be so busy. He loved how feisty you've become after years. It eased his heart that you could chase off those little shit.

"It suits you, [Y/N]. Face so pretty like a doll. Make one's heart itch to keep around. But I wonder why the name sounds so familiar."

"State your business. I'm heading home straight after this so don't expect a lap dance or something."

"Then that's the plan. I'll drive you home, eh?"

That damn 'eh'. He picked up your habit too well that the time he spent with you shaped him into copying your habit. It sounded cute but your heart still couldn't forgive him. Let him suffer a little.

"Don't need to. My boyfriend is great at doing his job. So do me a favor and let me rest quickly, how about that?"

Now, you were looking at him through the mirror. It was just too hard for you to muster yourself to face him directly. Draken didn't seem shaken. He stood straightly, you clenched your thighs tighter.

"Have I ever been quick in everything when I'm with you, [Y/N]?" His towering figure gawked over your smaller frame - casting his shadow over you as his sharp facial features caught your attention.

"Can't remember. Maybe? Because I said it just now almost like a reflex." You replied, not backing down but instead, squaring up to him that your ample breasts brushed against his torso.

His cologne didn't smell like the tacky, cheap body spray he used to own. This one smelled so expensive, alienated your memory of his familiar scent.

"Now you're getting older, your memory is getting rusty, dollface. Should I put on a play and see if you can call anything in mind?" You felt your breath became heavier but he didn't let you lose your focus yet.

Your chin was tugged upwards, the shadow of his cap cast upon his face and you remembered now; it was his eyes. Because he wasn't vocal about his feelings, you could understand everything from his eyes.

"You've grown softer, Draken. I almost threw up listening to you talk like this. What, are you changing jobs now? Don't tell me you went from a gangster to a con artist."

No, you were lying to yourself. Draken didn't change but improved. Change can be something bad but he never did anything that would bring him down. He just got better.

And it was true when the velvety touch on your beating pulse suddenly moved to your lips before he squished your cheeks in his hand.

"Fucking hot as hell but so damn annoying." He laughed, the light from his eyes never return, only replaced by a wicked glint.

He wanted to take you to his place, fuck you in his bed until you couldn't walk properly so he'd have more reasons to keep you at his place. He wanted to swallow you whole and he barely even started but why was it so damn hard to have you?

"Don't dare to think of anything nasty. You might not care about commitment in a relationship, but I do. So take your hands off me, Draken."

"Kenie. It's Kenie for you."

Your lips were so plump and wet, his other arm wrapped around your waist - hoisting you up to his body before he leaned by the dresser.

You shrieked when his scalding hot palm touched your naked back and as he untied the strings of your bra, he smiled at your face as he said,

"Do you think I'm going to believe that, dollface? Do you really think I don't know that this pussy hasn't been fucked well for months? I have eyes across this ward. You don't get to fool me."

Heat rose to your face, your small hands pushed on his shoulders, "You're still up in my business? Sounds like someone can't fucking move on."

He nodded, ripping off your lacey bralette and his big hands began to palm your heavy breast - carelessly rubbing your nipple with his thumb. You fought the urge to moan, you hold onto his shoulder for dear strength.

"You're right. I can't move on." Your breath hitched, he nuzzled his face to the column of your neck, inhaling so deep, and wrapped his arms tightly around your body. He missed you so much. So much that if you ran away again, he'd just kill himself.

"I fucked my fist thinking of you. I got this hard just by thinking of you. I'm not ashamed of it."

"That's your problem, Draken. I'm not you. I'm living my best life right now, and sorry that I can still cum just with my fingers."

"That's my girl," He pushed you until your back met the concrete wall, your eyes widened when he took off his cap and put it on you before he dropped to his knees.

"I am aware of your appetite, [Y/N]. You won't be happy with such a small meal. You always keep coming back to have your tight pussy stuffed. Even when we were living together, you couldn't stop begging my dick every night."

"What the hell are you talking about-" You pushed his forehead away from your private part, one hand covering your pussy but he gripped the side of your hips - bringing you straight to his mouth.

"I don't care if you use me as your favorite Cherry Twins. But don't deny that I made you cummed the hardest when I was in your life, dollface."

Your eyes became misty, his words just flew through your head - empty when his mouth latched on your clothed crotch, lapping on the small fabric that the nudge of his tongue probed on your budding clit.

Cherry Twins were the name he gave to your vibrators. Since he was always out when you were at home, he'd make you use them to your greedy cunt - even made a video call so he could jerk off in the public restroom.

You were wild, but he taught you to live even wilder.

Next page: chapter [02] →

a/n : next chapter is full smut bcs thats the only thing my brain's capable of. Taglist are open up to 10 users! Comment '☁️’.

Taglist: @hanmascult @q-the-rockaholic @hikkarins

[centuriantalevevo]

Eveland line headcanons and shit- lmao-

With Ivy, Ike, and Eki-

With some x reader vibes

Ike has already said that Ivy is built in the boing being department HOWEVER, I think Ivy is also built in the height department- I think she's like 5'6- she tall as fuck in my eyes 😭😭😭

Ivy turns her back for ONE SECOND with a knife- or any weapon in the room for that matter-

Eki:

Ivy: exists

Eki:

Ivy: throwing Eki

Eki: screaming

Ike:

You basically have to babysit Eki because he cannot be trusted alone for even 5 minutes. You have to put him in one of those kid harnesses.

You have to put him in the shopping cart while shopping so he stays put.

He gets the most random bullshit-

"Can we get this? We're gonna get this" a 10 pack of knives, bleach, and then 5 liters of mountain dew.

What's he doing? We don't know- do we WANT to know?? Prolly not-

Eki is starting on his bullshit, Ivy is automatically going for the pressure point- No HE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE TO DO SHIT- THE MOMENT HE EXISTS, SHE'S GOING FOR THE PRESSURE POINT-

Oh ya! Remember Ike saying "OW! She THREW something at me!", Ivy saying "I'm tired so I'm going to go take a nap..." and Ike saying "She's glaring at me-" "I'm po9kojg over trying to make sure she didn't hear me-" "If I don't wake up, it's you guy's fault!"

I like to think that Ivy somehow came into this universe, prolly because of Shu- and she lives with Ike and they just say they're siblings instead of trying to explain what the hell happened- and it works-

Some Alice Of Human Sacrifice type shit- "the smart older sister, the stubborn younger brother"

Of the two, Ivy might be SLIGHTLY older

When reader comes to visit Ike in Sweden I can PROMISE you Ivy is stealing them like yOink-

"Hey when y/n gets here, I'm stealing them from you" "what? No! Back off!" "NO! The 2nd season of All Of Us Are Dead is out and I want to watch it with them!"

Ike is still asleep, dead to the world and y/n wakes up before him for once- but.. Ivy is up before y/n- she usually gets up at like 3 PM because she's up until 5 AM for literally no reason-

"Oh wow you're up before me!" "Yeah, I actually went to bed at a decent time!"

"What's for breakfast? Y'all got cereal?" "Why don't we go out for breakfast, just you and me?" She asks, "what about Ike?" "I'll just leave a note for him, it'll be fine! If he's really worried, he'll call!" She grabs her satchel and that stetchy plastic wristband Keychain thing with her keys and everything, "let's go!"

She has a spair set of keys to the apartment AND Ike's car.

The two go and have breakfast somewhere, coming back a while later to Ike being awake.

"How dare you go without me..." Ivy just shrugs-

I made so many fucking memes in about 5 seconds on mostly Ivy and Eki lmao-

Eki on his way to say hi to y/n

Ivy: nO-

Eki so badly wants to say HI to y/n- he exists for 5 seconds and Ivy is running at him at the speed of LIGHT- "WAIT I JUST WANTED TO SAY HI TO Y/N-" "KILL THE BITCH!!!"

"H e l p"

If we go with Eki sharing the same body as Ike... Eki takes control but y/n instantly calls bullshit and KNOWS its Eki and he's just "I wanted to say Hi-" "And I wanna see Ike." "Aw... you're so mean... you don't love me?" "It's a hit or miss" "🥺🥺🥺"

If the Eveland family are the literal embodiment of Panty and Stocking with Gartbelt it feels like-

Ike replaces Stocking, Ivy replaced Panty

Or Eki replaced Panty, Ivy replaces stocking

Ike AND Eki replace Panty and Ivy replaces Stocking

If you got the "KILL THE BITCH" reference, ily- if not it's a quote from that show-

Eki actively likes to shit on Miku just to piss Ike off-

"Miku sucks, why do you like her-"

"I'm about to end the entire Damm world and make it look like an accident."

"no wonder you act like that, you like Miku"

"No wonder your mom thinks your a failure, you're EKI"

Eki shoots grenade bullets but he's not ready to have them shot right back-

Ivy DOES roundhouse kick him-

Ivy DOES hold him by his collar over a ledge like i'ma drop you- oH- I almost dropped you!!

Ike: asleep

Eki: I'ma st-

Ivy: hello motherfucker-

Eki: exists

Ivy: I'm about to end this mans whole career

Ike speaking Swedish, English, and Japanese

Ivy speaking those 3 and like 2 other languages-

Eki, struggling to speak English without a whole ass swedish accent and trying to grasp English grammar while screaming in agony

Eki: I-

Ivy: I am fluent in over 6 million forms of kicking your ass

Eki: I... wanna take a nap. Everything I make.. FUCKING... S U C K S

Eki: It's bad.

Eki: AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Ivy: You know that feeling about when you're about to lose your job life, sweety?

Eki: uh- n-

Ivy: It's a horrible feeling, sweety.

Ivy: I love you Ikey

Eki: its Eki-

Ivy: I couldn't bare to see you leave, I couldn't! I couldn't do it!

Eki: uh- thanks I-

Ivy: So here *gives him a note*

"You're fired lol Your life subscription has expired lol"

Ike: *sobbing*

Ivy: Ike, what's wrong?

Ike: Ivy... I can't speak english very well... my Swedish accent is too strong

Ivy: what do you mean? I hear nothing wrong with your English!

Ike: I can't say... road... roller..

Ivy: what?

Ike: road roller!

Ivy: w h a t ?

Ike: ROAD ROLLER

Ivy: I can't understand you!

Ike: forget it! God!

Ivy: I ' m S o r r y -

Ike: s h u t u p

Halo: come on now! All of us are great!

Ike: says the enby with a weird color scheme for both their outfit and stream overlay

Halo: that's the last time I'm helping a swedish VTuber

Ivy: that's racist-

Ike: you freaking cracker-

Ivy: THAT'S REALLY RACIST-

Halo and Ike: arguing

Ivy: Oh no...

Shu: *opera singing voice* aaaaaaa! Hey guys! What's up?

Eki, with a grin: I FINALLY GOT AN ENGLISH UTAU!

Covered in dust again

Eki: w a t ???

(Based off of "Luka can't say road roller" where Ike replaces Luka, Ivy replaces Al, Halo replaces Sweet Ann, Shy replaces Prima, and Eki replaces Miku)

I'm having Ike, Ivy, and Eki brianrot plz help

[spooky-draws-stuff]

Happy birthday Marvin

Description: Normally I don't write a summary about my stories but I guess I should start doing that. There is some angst in this because Marvin still has conflict with Jbm but don't worry this is the beginning of their friendship now. It's mostly just Marvin crying again.

Also I want to start a tag list for people who are interested in being notified when I post a story(Y'all tend to ignore this message) Idk you don't have to I'm just curious. (Did not mean to sound rude)

"hmm? What?" Marvin yawned opening up his eyes. "Surprise! We made you breakfast!" Chase and Jbm beamed with happiness. Together they held up a large plate of chocolate chip pancakes. "Oh? Is that for me? But why?" Marvin inquired, still feeling sleepy. Chase and Jbm carried the plate and placed it onto the kitchen table. Robbie ran over to Marvin and embraced him into a warm hug. "Happy birthday Marvin!" Robbie shouted. "what?" Marvin hugged Robbie back and then wandered over to the kitchen to look at the calendar. "Aww...you guys are so sweet."

"I made Tea!" Jameson handed Marvin a cup of tea. Schneep looked irrated as he stood by the microwave drinking his coffee. "Sorry I'm not smiling right now. I'm too tired to do anything." He muttered under his breath before refilling his cup.

After the egos finished breakfast, they all left eachother alone for a few hours. The only people in the living room were Jbm and Chase. They were playing smash bros against eachother on the Nintendo switch. Chase paused the game and left to go get a snack from the pantry. "Hey ummm...Jackie...." Marvin wrapped his arms around himself and slowly approached Jbm. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for all the times I've been mean to you. I have jealousy issues. I was wrong about you. I shouldn't have been jealous of your friends and your success. For a long time it felt like you got more attention than me, and I was worried people would forget about me because they would all love you instead of me. I don't think you can forgive me, and I'm scared that you're going to hate me and then we can never be friends." Marvin pressed his mask closer to his face, before taking a few steps back away from Jbm. He turned around to leave the room, trying to fight away the tears that were starting to form in his eyes, fight the shame and embarrassment surfacing through his emotions.

Before Marvin could leave he felt a firm hand land on his shoulder. "Please don't go. Marvin I-" Jackie stuttered, struggling to find the right words. "I didn't know you felt that way about me. I didn't know you were scared."

"Felt what about me?" Marvin moved Jbm's hand away. "Are you going to finally understand why I don't trust you?" "You're not being specific enough. Either you accept my apology and hate me like you're supposed to, or just stop ruining my birthday like this." Marvin snarled.

"No no it's not like that at all. I didn't know you were jealous of me. I didn't know you were afraid that I was going to replace you. I don't hate you Marvin. You're such a nice person and you don't realize how much you mean to me." Jackie's voice sounded sad and helpless, his usual confidence disappearing.

Marvin's mask accidentally fell off. Marvin panicked and covered his face and collapsed to the floor wailing."Don't look at me, I'm ugly. I'm so horrible, I'm so sorry. I can't even express appreciation for someone without getting angry. I don't understand why I'm acting like this. Don't fucking touch me."  Marvin cried.

Jackie kneeled onto the carpet and picked up Marvin, holding him closely to his body. He gently moved his fingers through Marvin's soft brown hair. "It's going to be okay, you're going to be okay." Jackie slowly moved Marvin's hands away from his face. "I've never seen you without your mask before...You wear it all the time...but now that I see it....Now that I see you...you're so beautiful Marvin. So what if you have scars on your cheeks? That doesn't matter...the blue in your eyes...you're gorgeous....I can't believe you would hide yourself from the world like this." Jackie looked at the clock. "It's cake time. Maybe some presents will cheer you up. You would like that wouldn't you?" Jackie and Marvin gazed into eachother's eyes. Marvin wiped away his tears. And for the first time he gave a genuine smile, not a fake one.

"Yay!" Everyone cheered for Marvin before Schneep cut the cake. "So what kind of cake is this anyway?" Chase questioned, still chewing the food in his mouth. Jbm nudged him in the shoulder. "Hey talk when you're done eating. Don't be rude." he whispered. "Oh right sorry." Chase smiled.

"It's a mixture of vanilla and chocolate. We also have mint chocolate chip ice cream." Schneep stated, taking a bite of cake. "This ice cream is good." Jameson grinned. "Sure is." Robbie replied.

"I'm ready for my presents." Marvin shouted from the living room. "Okay, be right there." Jbm stated carrying in big box. "Is that a box?" Marvin purred. "Open it and see." Jbm hit the box with his hand.

Marvin's eyes sparkled before pulling out a fluffy blue sweater. "Hey it's that new sweater I've been wanting for a while now. Aww thank you so much." Marvin moved on to the next gift. "This one's from Chase." "Oh wow...is this what I think it is? Chase how did you get this game? I couldn't afford it." Marvin spoke excitedly. "It was on sale this week. Not sure if you were interested in trying minecraft or not. I just guessed." Chase shrugged. Marvin gave Chase a big hug. "Schneep this coffee mug is nice." Marvin complimented. "I know you perfer tea but I don't know what you like. I tried my best." Schneep sighed with worry. "No no it's a good gift doc." Marvin shook his head, speaking with honesty. He really did like his gift.

"Okay, two more." Marvin spoke out loud to himself. "Jay? Is this jewelry? It's really pretty. I'm still new to trying out earings and stuff. The makeup helps too, since I'm new to it." Marvin turned around to look at Jameson. "I hope it helps since you're not always comfortable with how you look. I know you've wanted to wear this stuff for a while now. I also bought you a new hairbrush too. It's at the bottom of the gift bag." Jameson walked over to Marvin and pulled out the hairbrush from the bag, handing it to him. "Thanks." Marvin put the hairbrush down.

"I made this painting for you." Robbie handed Marvin a watercolor portrait. "Robbie, your art is so good. Is this a painting of me?" Marvin turned to face Robbie. Robbie nodded. "Yeah. You like it?" "I love it." Marvin replied.

Beginning of tag list: @n-anon

Sorry I didn't make art for marvin's birthday. I didn't have time so I wrote a story instead.

[impala1967dwinchester]

Ouuuuh I'm sooo happy that you write for Jensen!!! Can I pleaaase request a one shot of Jensen x wife reader in which she collapses because she's been exhausted taking care of the kids and he feels guilty that he didn't notice and he's determined to help more ?? I'm so sorry if this sound dumb. No pressure if you don't wanna write it.

Link for the tired is here

"Kids I need you two to sit in the living room while mommy cleans the kitchen." I heard Y/n say from my upstairs office. I was currently working on my second album for Radio company. I had been up here for the past couple of days. Once or twice a day I'd hear Y/n get louder than normal, saying something to the twins about how they needed to stop fighting with each other. Our twins, Ada and Jay. A boy and girl. They were bundles of energy, they run up and down the halls. There little feet leaving loud echos around our home. "Yes, mommy will turn on Disney. You want to watch frozen two again?" I heard Y/n say. This was the first time that it sounded like the two littles had agreed on something. A moment later I heard the soft intro music of frozen two. I smiled and continued to work on the new lyrics for our second album. We had promised our fans that the album would be out relatively soon. By soon I mean within a month's time. I needed a break, I wasn't able to get anything done on an empty stomach. So I made my way down our elegant stairs. I saw the littles entranced by the tv, they didn't even notice me come down the stairs. I let them be through thinking about how long it had taken for Y/n to get them to calm down. Mostly how much it had taken Y/n to get them to be quiet. I shuffled my way into the kitchen,, passing behind Y/n as she cleaned a day's worth of dishes. I wrapped my hands around her mid-section, whispering in her ear, "Hey my love." She leaned into my touch and took a rather deep breath closing her eyes. "Hey honey, what are you doing down here? I thought you had your album to work on." She said trying to unscrew one of Ada's sippy cups. I took the cup out of her hands and unscrewed the top with ease. "I needed some food in my belly. Looks like you've got those kids preoccupied."I said release her from my hug and slipping a look into the fridge. "Yeah I do, they've got me going in circles." She said finishing up by putting the cleanish dishes into the dishwasher. She turned to face me, motioning me to grab her water bottle from the fridge. "I can see that, but hey remember you've got it. If you need anything come get me okay." I said giving her a chat kiss and walking back through the kitchen up the stairs. I heard the music for the ending of frozen two come and go, but I could smell the start of dinner. I was done with working on the new album, so I changed into some more comfy pants, and went downstairs. The twins were asleep on the large couch in our living room. Y/n was humming to a song in her head, I stood there and watched her. She danced around, cutting up peppers and messing with the oven for chicken. She turned around and let out a loud shriek, "Jensen, you scared me!" She said with a huff. "You should be more careful, hell I could have thrown this knife at you." She said setting the knife down. While I was staring at my beautiful wife I noticed a few things. Her skin seemed dull, I could see the bags under her eyes, her dancing wasn't a full-motion like it usually is. She stops and takes deeper breaths. "Are you feeling okay?" I asked her out randomly. Giving me an odd look, a raised eyebrow. "Yeah, I'm feeling fine. Why?" Y/n asked me. "I was just wondering, that's all baby," I said kissing her cheek. "I'm going to wake up the twins okay, if not they'll be up till five in the morning," I said, smacking her ass playful. The roll of Y/n eyes was the last thing I saw before I made my way into the living room. "Ada, Jay. It's time to wake up." I said softly, Ada stirred in her sleep and Jay didn't even move. Ada slept like my wife does. Very softly, now on the other hand Jay sleep like a rock like his father. "Ada, it's time to get up. Mommy is making dinner, you want dinner?' i said coaxing her to wake up. Jay still laid asleep, Ada's eyes fluttered open, "Dada!" "Hey baby girl, did you sleep good?" I asked her, hugging her. She wrapped her small arms around my neck and looked at me with a wide smile, "Yes I sep good." She said, she giggled. A giggled much

too Y/n's. "Do you want to help me get your brother up?" I asked Ada. "Do we have to wake him up." She said a frown replacing her smile. "Yes, I'm afraid we have to," I said smiling. "Fine Daddy."She said unwrapping her arms from my neck and climbing next to her brother, she patted his shoulder. "Jay, brotha daddy says you gotta wake up now." She said going from patting his shoulder to poking his side. "JAY! WAKE UP!" Ada screamed at the top of her, "Hey, hey there's no need to scream at him, baby." I said interru[ting her screaming session. "Here let daddy show you how to wake him up," I said with raised eyebrows. "Jay, mommy says you'll get dessert if you wake up and eat all your dinner," I said rubbing small circles into Jay's back. He opened his eyes and looked back and his sister and me. His eyes reminded me of his mother's Y/E/C eyes. Ada's eyes were the color of him, dark forest green, and when we went outside to play or to the beach, Ada's eyes turned to a light green something resembling an emerald. All of a sudden my thoughts were interrupted when I heard the crash of something from in the kitchen. I rushed to go see, worried about Y/n. When I rushed in she was collapsed on the floor. "Y/n, honey," I said walking over to her. "Y/n... Y/n are you okay?" I questioned. "Mommy?" I heard Ada and Jay say at the same time. I needed to make a quick decision. So I called Jared. Telling him that Y/n had collapsed on the floor. Moments later I heard the door open and shut. "unc Jar." I heard Jay say, then I heard the click on heels behind him he had brought Gen with him. "Jared let me take the kids, you go help Jensen and get Y/n some washcloths a glass of cold water. Okay," Gene said. "Hey, Auntie." Heard Ada say. "Come on kiddos let's go get some stuff from y'alls bedroom." I heard. Trying to keep Y/n's head elevated. "Hey, Jensen, What happened?" He asked. "I don't know Jar, One minute she was fine and she was cooking dinner, and next I heard a crash while getting Ada and Jay up." "Jensen just breathe." He said, " How can I relax Jared, my wife.. my wife is lying unconscious on the kitchen floor. And I don't know how to help her." I said running a hand down my face. "Jensen. Stop take a breath. Got get some washes clothes to get them cold as you get them. And come back here, okay." he said patting my shoulder. I ran up the stairs passing the twins' rooms, gene gave me a sympathetic smile and was packing the twins' bags. It's a good idea take the kids to your house for a moment. I ran into our closet grabbing far too many, running back down the stairs. Missing a few at the bottom almost tripping over my large stature. "Get them wet we're going to put some on her forehead, neck, and wrist. Get that glass of water too." Jared said. Eventually, after Gene had taken the kiddos to their home, Jared and I moved Y/n to the couch. She started to wake up, her eye fluttering open. It was more than too nice to see her Y/E/C. Jared excused himself telling me that they would keep the kids for the rest of the night. "We'll keep the kiddos, give Ada, Jay, Shep, and Odette a surprise a sleepover," he said patting my shoulder then left. We sat in silence for a moment. "Wait?" Y/n said first. "I asked if you were okay," I said. "Yeah you did and I wasn't lying." She said, "So, why did this happen then, Y/n?" I questioned her. Again we sat in silence, "Because Jensen, I feel like I'm doing this all by myself, you're so sucked into finishing the damn album you've left your wife, your wife to deal with two toddlers." She said arguing with me. She took the washcloths off her forehead and wrists throwing them onto the coffee table. I hadn't realized how much weight I had put on her shoulders. I guess I kind of just expected that she could take it. "I... I guess I didn't realize that I was doing that." I said. "No, you didn't. You know what just forget it, okay Jensen. I need to finish dinner and then get Ada and Jay from Gene." She said. Truing to get up, but ending up bouncing back onto the couch. "No,

look. I know that I was forgetting about things. And forgetting that you can't take this all by yourself. Yes, you're my wife and you mean the world to me. You don't realize the amount of panic that went through me when I heard that crash. I understand now.' I said The tears starting to come out. 'You don't know what I would do without you. I wouldn't know what to do without my wife, my beautiful, strong, amazing wife. I'm sorry I fucked up. Please, Let me fix it." I said begging with my wife now. She stared at me, reaching her hand over to my face wiping the stray tears that had fallen while I was talking away. "Okay, I guess we both fucked up. I didn't say anything to you, and you wouldn't have been able to know." She said scouting closer to me, her hands staying on my cheek. With her warm hand still on my cheek, I leaned into the touch. "I'll finish dinner, you, Y/n you relax please." I said pleading. She shook her head, "How about we do it together." Y/n offered I smiled and grabbed her hand bringing her up from the couch. "I like that idea," I said. Going in for a much-needed kiss. She meddled into it. "We can take advantage of the littles being at Gene, and Jared." She whispered against my lips. "Naughty," I whispered back. "Dinner first though," I said stripping the moment of its erotic nature. "Okay, baby But you've got dish duty for a while," Y/n said her hand sliding up and down my chest.

[supportanimy]

All Stars Verse - Hologram Boy

Synopsis : The coaches of #thatPOWER are angry at Panda for turning P2 into a hologram

Word count : 2803

Notes : Can y'all guess what the title is referencing? Please guess what the title is referencing

"We did it, we did it! We did it, yay!" The coaches sing and dance together in the new galaxy, after Panda traveled to all the planets and achieved the All Stars.

But just as they started to party, a spaceship arrived and out came three people, all with grey skin and white hair, wearing different outfits consisting of only red and black. 

"YOU!" The shortest one pointed angrily at Panda. "You killed our friend!"

"He's not dead, but he is hurt. And trapped," the muscly guy said.

"Hey, I know these guys!" Starships mentions excitedly. "That Power, right?  Or #thatPOWER, I guess. But don't you guys have four? Where's P2?"

"Here," the P3 drops a tiny machine, and a hologram of P2 appears. 

"Oh. Your hair has gotten...longer. And darker."

"Yeah, well as I was saying, PANDA MURDERED HIM!" P1 yells angrily and attempts to tackle Panda, but Reindeer shields them. 

"No, Panda would never do such a thing! They're too sweet and kind to! You must be confusing them with some other panda!"

P4 walks forward and pushes her friend back, but turns around to glare at them. "Impossible, there are no other pandas here," she explains. "Number 2 is not dead," Someone laughs, "he cannot die. However, he is permanently trapped as a hologram because of Panda's actions, and according to him, Panda was constantly taunting and harassing him just before that. Isn't that right?" P2 nods.

"Quiet as ever, huh?" Starships tries to lean on him, but passes through and falls.

"Then it must have been an accident!" Reindeer continues to defend their friend. The two had been close since childhood. One would know that if one played Kids Mode.

SS1, interested in whatever argument is happening, eats popcorn and shares it with the other coaches. "You know, *munch* Panda harassing some rando *munch* is honestly not that *munch* out of character for him." SS2 grabs a handful. "Agreed."

ME4 fixes his glasses, "Wait, I think I know what's happening here. Battle Mode, I'm guessing. Never got a chance on one of those."

"What's Battle Mode?" Rasputin's coach scratches his beard. 

Out of nowhere, Starships slides in to chime in the conversation. "A mode where coaches from two different songs go head to head in a dance battle! Only appeared in two games though, and I never got to join one," she pouts. 

Back to the argument, Reindeer gives up trying to defend Panda and is instead resorting to insulting P2. "He's just a robot! Can't he be replaced?!" the power coaches and BFT gasp.

P1 is now being restrained by P3 and P4 as she tries to attack Reindeer now. "I'm going to kill both of you!"

"No need to waste your energy on those lowlives, Number 1. We just need to get money from them so we can make a time machine and change the events of the battle, making it so that Number 2 wins instead."

Hearing that, HH2 gets a bright idea.

"We don't need to go that far, P4. We just want them to apologize-What do you mean no, Two?! Don't tell me you want revenge too?!

"Psst, P1," HH2 whispers to her friend. "Don't we have a friend with a time machine?"

"You mean Goddess? Does she count as our friend?" he replies before getting elbowed by HH4, who enters their talk uninvited. "I think she means the Backstreet Wannabes." "I mean, Goddess could probably time travel-" "No one asked, P3!"

"BE QUIET!" HH2 shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. 

"Ooh," SS1 directs his attention to her.

"So, #thatPower...I think I may know the ones to help you. Though, we have to fly there since...they're on the other galaxy."

"Sure! We appreciate any help! Even though I'm not sure what kind of help these people you're saying will offer," P3 agrees immediately.

P4 is a bit more skeptical. "How do we know you aren't lying to us? We aren't even sure what help we're getting."

"Some people with a time machine," HH1 tells them. "Like what you said earlier. I'm not sure who P2 is talking about though."

P1 finally stopped being filled with rage, and it was replaced with joy. "You actually have a time machine?! Oh, how I long to return to my time!"

The other coaches are understandably confused over her statement. P3 tells them to shrug it off, "Don't mind her, she gets like that. We're not sure why."

"So what about it, Two? Wanna time travel so you don't get stuck as a hologram anymore?" The hologram nods, grinning from ear to ear. "Great!" P3 turns the projector off and keeps it in his pocket.

"P3, I will murder you, and then dismember you, and feed you to tigers." "We-we don't have tigers. Also your arms are twigs." "Don't you act smart with me!"

"Chill 4, it's just a tiny mistake, NBD," the blonde woman remarks without looking away from her phone. "P1 hit my hand too, but you don't see me threatening him."

"Who the fuck actually says NBD-Oh uh, sorry for that."

"Yeah, but he didn't hit it hard enough that you punch yourself in the face enough to hurt!"

"How did that even happen? Like I said, your arms are twigs-" "Do NOT!"

Just as the two were about to attack each other, they heard the faint sound of an aircraft. 

"Hey, I'm trying to strangle someone! Can you not-" she stops her sentence when she sees a spaceship getting closer to the four.

"Get cover!" "Calm down First, it's probably just going to pass by us like airplanes." "No, P2, it's actually gonna fall on us!" he points at the ship landing fast. "Oh," she's pulled to safety by him, where their colour scheme changes.

It stayed at a steady pace going down, but stopped just 100 meters off the ground and slowly went straight down.

"Seriously? After all that drama?" "Hey, be grateful we're safe!"

When it finally finished landing, four familiar faces and four unfamiliar faces walked out.

"Hey look, it's High Hopes! And some Homestuck cosplayers!" the woman jumps back out from their hiding spot, which made her hair turn back to blonde. "That's not-whatever, I'm tired of your dumb ass."

"Dirty Bit Gang!" HH4 runs to hug DB2. 

"Wait, they have a time machine?!" HH3 never knew that fact. If he did, he would've begged to use it to appear earlier in more songs.

"Well duh, their song is called The Time, and one of us should definitely have a time machine."

"So I see you guys have a spaceship. I assume you guys are here to use our time machine, but who are they?" DB1 asks. 

"Hi, I'm the Starships coach! Love your outfits, but feel like the colours could be better. These are coaches from #thatPOWER, but one member is kinda stuck right now-"

"I hope you don't mind if we borrow it for a while," P3 drops the projector and P2 sighs quietly in relief. 

DB4 stops her punch to DB3 midway to look at P2. "Uh, is he okay?"

"That's the reason we're here. Number 2-" "PFFFFT!" "Number 2, is stuck as a hologram and we have no way of transferring his AI to a body so we were hoping that we can travel to the past to change the course of the battle that made him this way in the first place."

"Cool," DB1 responds, not catching any of that. "Say, why do you need eight people plus a hologram to do that?"

HH2 raised a finger as if to answer him, but put it on her chin instead. "I'm-I'm not sure."

"C'mon, it's easy!" HH1 tries his best to explain. "There's That Power, the ones who want to go to the past, Starships, the representative of 2014, We're here to-wait, P2 was their guide, I'm not sure why the rest of us are here."

"Okayyy, sure, we'll do that, but do you have a plan?"

Silence. "Yeah, we didn't think of that."

"Of course you didn't," frustration was evident in his voice. "Fine, follow me."

DB3 and DB4 continued to fight, while the eight were led to a dark room with a massive TV screen, and a few couches. There was a table with a flower pot on it, with some cookies and candy beside it. 

"So, it would be dangerous to just alter the past with no plans and no actual clue on what happened. That's why, we're going to watch it, then decide what to do," the bearded man takes the remote next to the screen and switches to different channels. "2014, it's a battle, correct?"

The screen switched to a scene on a stage with multiple monitors and the letters VS in the middle, displaying a dance floor with some other items beside it such as a chair. Panda rushed in and stood there while P2 slowly approached them, C'mon by Kesha playing in the background. When P2 was close enough, Panda started circling around him, then went back to their position, but not before blowing a kiss at the robot, which he moved his head to avoid.

"Oh, Panda blew a kiss at you? That should be a reminder," HH4 notes.

"What a shame," HH3 comments.

They began dancing, with Panda moving their arms towards their chest and P2 doing robotic movements. That was until just before the first pre-chorus started where P2's movements look like he was being controlled by a puppeteer, then they became more "free".  

"Haha!" Starships laugh. "Seeing such a serious face on a cute dance move is so-" As past Panda and P2 turned to each other, the lyrics sang at the part made her stop. "Oh no. Oh no no no no. Oh god no."

"Is she okay?" DB2's question had a worried tone. "She's fine. Probably," HH2 assures.

"There are 2 images burned into my mind, and I don't like either of them!"

The rest ignore her dramatics and continue watching the battle. The chorus played, with the two performing an all too common move, putting your elbow on your raised leg, but coupled with some pushing each other to the side in between. When the singer sang the song's title repeatedly, Panda is seen establishing dominance over P2.

"Uhh," P3's braincells, or whatever robots have, seemed to have been fried from just watching the battle. "How are you losing to a panda?!" P2 shrugs.

The beginning of the final round consisted of Panda taunting P2, and P2 attempting to damage Panda but to no avail. P2 looked like he was about to faint right before the chorus started again, with them repeating the same moves earlier. The battle finally ended, in which Panda brings out a button and presses it, turning P2 into a hologram while they laugh.

"Okay, that was way too far now that I've seen it! I'm going to join the others in killing them-"

"Yo, calm down. We watched this to help you think of a plan, remember? While it was very weird to watch, we can decide what to do now, or in the past," DB1 brought out a piece of paper and puts it on the table. "Write your plan of action there, then I'll check over it to make sure it's nothing drastic."

P4 grabs the paper and begins writing on it with her built-in pen. "What we want to do is to make it so that P2 wins this fight. I think that can be easily done if we change the music."

"But won't Panda just press the button either way?" HH1 has a solid question.

"Hmm, then I guess we'll just destroy it."

"Wait, if we're going to destroy it anyways, what's the point in changing the song?" HH3 is surprisingly thinking a bit smarter now.

"Oh, that one is to save his honor. And to destroy Panda's-!" P1 clenches her fist tight.

"Riiight. Right. Right."

"Yes, but how are we doing that? Won't doing that alter a whole lot of events now since he's the mascot?" P3 tries to think deeply.

"Not really," DB1 answers, having a braincell for once. "Since you're from the same game, and you don't have any future appearances besides that one mashup, I think you guys would be fine."

"That's it, yes? Number 2's battle wasn't quite complicated, so maybe that's enough. Sir?"

DB1 takes the paper from P4, and looks it over. "Goddammit why am I reading with shades-yeah, that's okay I guess."

"Great, now we can go!" P1 is ecstatic to finally be able to return her friend back to his original state. So is the rest, even if P4 doesn't show it.

"Well, I guess that's our queue to leave. Goodbye and your welcome!" HH2 grabs her friends to drag them home.

"Wait, but didn't you go by spaceship?" P3 doesn't know how they would even return.

"Now worries, this is our planet, we'll teleport home!" "We can teleport?!" "HAVE YOU NOT NOTICED THIS WHOLE TIME-"

"What about...her?" P4 looks down on Starships, who was still freaking out. 

"Well, since she's the 2014 rep, we have to get her gloves if you want to travel there and back-" "I CAN'T TRAVEL TO MY TIME???" "-Would you mind…?" 

Starships takes it off and throws it at the pink-haired woman. "Just, just take it. Heck, keep it."

"Kay."

"Alright, follow me again," he gestures.

This time, a room that looks like it came from a certain sci-fi franchise involving space travel, but not time travel for some reason.

"Ight, just stand there," DB1 points at a platform," and you'll be fine. Also, here are the gloves, just wear it when you're done."

"Thanks a lot for helping us," P3 did a polite bow, "we're very grateful." He elbows the others to follow.

"No probs, we do this all the time, just be mindful that there are some side effects of time travel-" "Excuse me-?!" "But they're harmless! Have fun!" And the three robots plus hologram go back in time.

They arrived at a weird green space. There was a door quite far away, and would take a while to walk to. They felt something weird, and looked at their hands and each other to realize that they became green too. Except for P2.

"Changing colours is not what I expected but…" P4 spins her hand around.

"Maybe this could be useful, since we blend in with everything else," P3 compares his shade to the space.

They see Panda coming out of nowhere, heading to the door. Without speaking, they all immediately followed them. "Number 1, go grab the button. Number 3, get there and change the music." "Aye aye, 4."

P1 gets on the floor and crawls to the panda, P3 rushes to the door, and P4 carries P2's projector, following them from a distance. 

The short woman finds a pocket on Panda's body and tries to find the button. Instead, there was a tophat, a tennis racket, a trumpet and a whole lot of other things that should not be able to fit there. Somehow, Panda didn't notice any of that. She finally got her hands on the button, and immediately destroyed it. 

The sound alerts Panda, causing them to look around, but not finding anyone since they all blend in and P4 had turned off the projector, and shrugs it off. P3 uses that minor distraction to enter through the door. 

Immediately after passing through, his skin changed again, now blending into the room which was where the battle took place. Past P2, stood there, already arrived, but didn't take notice of P3, who climbed the ceiling and found the sound system. He used it and changed the settings so #thatPOWER was gonna play instead of C'mon.

When Panda comes in to start the fight, with the remaining two sneaking in, the course of it had already been decided. Past P2 had started attacking them and charging himself up. The fight continued on with P2 having an advantage, and at the end when P2 won, Panda jumped off, leaving the room while P2 laughs then leaves from the other exit. In that moment, the room turned to a black space, everyone turning back to normal, P2's projector disappeared, and a blended in silhouette of him was there.

"P2, you're back!" P1 goes to hug him. P2 clearly had been confused by what she said, but accepted it anyways. P3 and even P4, who isn't very physically affectionate, joins in the hug.  "We missed being able to actually touch you, buddy. Now I don't have to kneel down just to fistbump someone." "HEY!"

"I guess we can go home now," P4 puts on the glove and they teleported back to their starting point. 

-

So as you can read, there's like zero logic here, but I'm proud of.it cause it's my longest one-shot!

[raleigh-ocean]

if i go, i'm goin' (your love will take me there) | nora montgomery x dara ann lynch x billie dean howard

summary: not even in a hundred years, a love like Dara’s was ever seen, but those lucky enough to be the receiving end of it knew how much pureness and sincerity it held. Some of those wished, however, to have been the only end to receive that love but still they found their true home right in between her arms. And maybe in another time, another life, Dara’s love would have been all Nora’s. However, as Nora felt fuller yet lighter in the living room of her home for the past one hundred years…she found herself wishing for Billie to keep taking care of their greatest love.

words: 14,759

n/a: this is going to hurt so fucking bad, I’m already crying. The story is divided in two almost individual parts connected in the middle. It will tell the extents of Dara and Billie’s love in the beginning…and then switch to the love that was meant to be.This doesn’t mean I won’t keep writing for Nora and Dara or including Nora in other stories, but those would probably be pre-2020/2021 most of the time! I hope y'all enjoy this one, because I did a lot of research and…well, NoraDara owns my heart fully for the rest of my life.

n/a 2.0: Also, analyzing how Billie and Dara’s relationships are, we (Vivi and I) found that there were similarities between BillieAudrey and NoraDara as separate units, and since I did explore the former first a few times already, it’s time for the latter to come alive (pun intended).

n/a 3.0: I’ll be taking a break from writing for a while, so this is the last long thing I’ll be posting. I hope y’all enjoy it.

[23:35] How-t Stuff: I miss you :(

[23:38] How-t Stuff: Annie, I see you in your phone from the living :(( 

Dara only chuckled silently at that, amused because she could actually see Billie in the couch typing in her phone. It was one of the perks of living in a tiny apartment, even if they were separated, they could see each other from the other room just by open a door. Damien was already asleep, hugging her from behind, so she couldn’t do much sound in case she woke up.

It was easy to type a ‘hang in there honey’ and close her eyes, feeling how her headache was getting better after being able to down some food and having some painkillers along with muscle relaxant for her leg. The only thing she didn’t like, however, was feeling herself uneasy because medicines usually messed up with her body and her perception.

[23:46] How-t Stuff: This couch is so uncomfortable...why do we still have it??? 

[23:48] How-t Stuff: Also I found your fancy lighter in between the cushions :)

[23:50] How-t Stuff: also found your purple thong oops

She really wanted to go to sleep, but having Billie trying to be...cute? was really something else. But Dara was already falling asleep, and with only one eye open she texted her back a ‘you’ve been saying the same fr 6y, r u planning on sleepin there much’ and ‘sTOP hIDINg my underwear in places you forGet’ before switching her phone to night mode and hiding it under Billie’s pillow. Of course she was sleeping in Billie’s side and maybe she was wearing one of her pyjamas, she also missed her, but she kinda deserved it.

The memory came back to her, making Dara feel dizzy and she closed harder her eyes, trying to get it out. She wasn’t in the mood of thinking about Audrey or Danielle for that matter, even when both had kinda been the reason Billie was sleeping in the couch and she had her teen niece pressed against her back, sleeping soundly like a baby koala. Don’t get her wrong, she didn’t hate any of them, in fact Dara was pretty sure she didn’t hate anyone ever in her life...not even the poor devil that assaulted her and scarred her as a teen...

[01:50] How-t Stuff: Uhm...love, beige or sky blue?

[02:10] How-t Stuff: nvm, black is prettier

[02:30] How-t Stuff has sent an image.

[02:32] How-t Stuff: we have new couch wohoo!

[03:32] How-t Stuff: i love you my dalfoddil

When Dara opened her eyes, she felt her head all clogged but at least her body didn’t hurt that bad or at all. Damien was now cuddling herself in her side of the bed, heavily asleep, so with care she tried to stand up to go get a glass of water. Her phone forgotten under the pillow, her hands went to retrieve her cane from where it was resting immediately. Oh, she wasn’t so confident today about walking, so even when she had support with one hand she still made her way slowly. 

Rubbing off the sleep from her eyes, Dara looked first to where her wife had slept just to find an empty spot. But soon the toaster going off made her notice Billie, facing the kitchen counter, trying to do something in the stove. She truly looked disheveled, more than usual upon waking up, and a soft pang of guilt rang through Dara's body. 

"Are you making tea?" when Billie turned around, Dara was leaning on her cane and looking shyly at her, which made her change her whole wrecked expression to one much softer.

"And toasts, I remembered your mother gave us blackberry jam not long ago and I thought, hell, why not?" she laughed a bit nervously before leaning in the counter to wait for the water to start to boil in the little old pot that's been around since day one. "Is the kid up?"

Dara shook her head slightly and then went to Billie in automatic, pressing her lips together in a chaste kiss meant to be longer than that, but the older medium complied with a soft grin. She already knew this little start of the day meant the world to her wife so Billie wasn't that worried about the 'couch arrest'. However they couldn't say much more because a sleepy Damien made her way to where her aunts were, getting breakfast done, and they were moved to another rhythm of life.

It was easy for Dara to shift in between being her private persona and the one she usually presented to her family, and Billie noticed that right away. When they were at home, the two of them alone, her shoulders relaxed more and the everlasting smile dropped for a slight smirk that accompanied her tired eyes. It was a homie view, yet it made Billie’s heart roar with an overprotectiveness that was familiar at this point of her life. Mostly because yesterday was the first time in a while that she realized how tired her wife was, mostly because if there was something she hated with her dear life was to watch Dara like that and notice too late to fix it.

Breakfast moved in another light for sure, Billie still getting used to the presence of Dara’s nieces and nephews. Damien, as much as she had her doubts about her and resented her for the time being, was very polite and it showed how Danielle’s antics had rubbed off in her daughter. Billie still didn’t know the whole story with Dara’s twin cousins, but maybe it was time to start digging in what was unknown waters for so long.

But then, Dara did something that surprised Billie a lot to be honest.

“Not even when Eva pulled almost the same crap to Deirdre’s new husband I let it slip, so missy,” Dara started to say, holding the cup of tea to her lips to take a sip without caring it was still pretty much hot. “Why did you do that? Were you out of your damn mind?”

“I only...I don’t know auntie,” Damien’s voice was really tiny again and Billie put down her toast, her appetite dropping. “At first it was...fun, I guess? But then I just got too into it and after dad...well, I guess I didn’t want her to suffer...but I was stupid and hurt mamon and Audrey because of it, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, you truly were and are,” Dara pulled back her hair with a hand, letting out a tired sigh. Billie still was pretty much blind to who the father of this kid was or why he wasn’t around. “Audrey is totally not like your father, I can assure you that being a hundred percent sure, and I get that you want to protect your mother but you should give her some credit dear,” her voice was calm but the way she was tapping with her free hand the counter, after too many years, it told she was in need of a cigarette. “She knows how to protect herself very well, she knows how to protect you very well. Do you think she would have let Audrey come into your lives if she wasn’t sure of it, mhm?”

And at that, not even Billie had the guts to say something, seeing how Dara was still very serious even when her voice was in her always calm tone. She had that ability, to remain calm despite of everything, and after being together for a decade already she could easily pick up that she inherited that capacity from her mother. Dara’s mom was able to handle all of them with a mere look or a few words, even Billie, and that was quite scary. Damien looked down to her cup of tea and she shook her head briefly, making Dara to click her tongue.

“Exactly,” she finished her tea and stood up, taking a moment too long to actually move that made Billie worry, to go get something from one of the cupboards. “Now I hope you learn something from this. Don’t make it harder for your mother, you hear me? If something’s wrong, tell her, and if you don’t want to then call me...or did you replaced me as your favourite aunt? I knew Danna was right around the corner to take my crown.”

It was then when Billie worried more, not because Damien quickly went to deny that and made Dara fake she was affected so she would hug her, but because she caught this strange shadow hovering over her wife. Usually it wasn’t like that, her white light giving some kind of protection even from herself, but as Billie tried to finish her breakfast in silence she took her time to try and discern what Dara was feeling at the moment. 

As they kept moving through the morning, taking in count it was early and Danielle and Audrey didn’t call yet, Billie thought it was always hard to actually feel what her wife was feeling. She was good at reading people, something she was proud of indeed, but Dara presented her as a challenge. 

However, after two hours Billie just gave up for the time being. She would have to wait until they were alone again in the quietness of their home to directly ask, maybe over some take out from that place her wife loved so much. But when Danielle and Audrey finally showed up in their door, both way more relaxed and apparently happier, something came back to Billie’s mind. As they were exchanging some words with the other couple, Billie remembered how Dara had defended Audrey in such effortless way that surprised her and, by the time their home was only them again (plans for lunch already arranged four hours later), she felt it was the right time to ask.

Overnight, alone cuddling one of Dara’s cushions in their old couch, she kept replying the events of the day in a very vivid way. Billie knew she had no right to yell at Dara, even when she was really angry with the situation, but the way she was handling things felt off putting to her for some reason. And that’s why she was surprised when Dara kinda defended Audrey, because at the time in her furious mind she truly thought her wife hated her best friend. Well, hate was a strong word, but more like...like she was putting up with Audrey at this point just because of her.

“Baby?” Billie felt a strange strangled sensation when she called out for Dara, who was making her way back to their bedroom to pick up her phone. “Can I ask you something?” Dara stopped and looked back at her, curiosity peeking out from her eyes, tilting her head in that innocent way she always had to let her know she had her full attention. “Do you...do you like Audrey?”

It was then that the silence hit Billie like a wall made of ice.

She saw how Dara squinted her eyes a bit, trying to discern what her wife was talking about, her mouth a bit agape while the silence settled in between them. But what made Billie take a step back, was how Dara moved her jaw to the left a bit before closing her mouth and biting her lower lip while considering her next words. Billie didn’t want to push, but now she was feeling how the coldness of the room was getting more intense as her wife’s feelings finally reached her. Having her cane tightly gripped in her dominant hand, Dara sighed really deep this time as the shadow floating over her grew.

“Are you serious, Billie?” Billie doubted for a second if she ever heard Dara’s voice sounding like that. “Really, I want to know if you’re pulling my leg or not.”

“Yes, I’m being serious,” oh Billie regretted that as soon as it left her mouth, but a tiny bit of the annoyance of yesterday was starting to show up for some reason. “Sometimes it feels you put up with her just because of me, Ann-”

“Don’t you dare ‘Annie’ at me right now,” Billie saw the shadow closing around Dara and then her eyes locked with hers, shining with the anger she was feeling and making her not notice the panic laced in her voice. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

When those words left her mouth, Dara felt her whole world was crumbling faster than she thought it would. As if the massive earthquake she was holding up finally managed to open the crack that it took Dara five years to close, making all the pent up things start to flood the last bits of calmness she had. She felt breathless right away, and so fucking tired that she had to close her eyes and rub her temple with her free hand.

“I love you for over a million, billion, things Billie, but before you open your mouth to say something so...genuinely stupid, stop for a second and think about it once or twice,” Dara opened her eyes, looking at how taken aback was her wife, but in that moment she didn’t care. “Think about how we’ve been together for the last ten years and think about how I am around people I don’t like,” she felt her heart hammering in her chest and her whole body aching for the outburst. “Do you think I would’ve ever let her come into our lives if I didn’t like her, ah?” the question resonated through the silent living room in a weird uneasy way. “Do you ever think I would’ve let her go down on you or me if I didn’t?” a nervous laugh broke free from her chest at that, the hand that wasn’t in her cane going to put a lock of hair behind her ear. “Do you ever think that, if I didn’t like her, I would had gone yesterday night with you to help her? If I didn’t like her a single damned bit, do you think we would be here in this exact fucking moment having this fucking conversation?”

The room was feeling too hot for Dara at that moment, feeling her heart beating loudly in the back of her head and in her throat, making her feel she was about to burst into tears if she kept talking. Billie was pale, standing there in such weird silence, but any drop of self control she had was damned by now and Dara could see it because the hand that Billie wasn’t using to support herself in the counter was trembling a bit.

“I do get that what she went through was horrible and traumatic, I get that she’s your best friend and you love her a lot...” she truly felt like she was pushing the words out of her tired mind, all the tears she was holding back. “...but I was there for her too, many, many times. Most of them when you were away and she came home looking for you. If I didn’t like her, I would have shushed her the fuck away but I didn’t. So don’t ask me again if I like her, because it’s one of the most unfair things you ever did to me,” and through all the red that Dara was seeing in the moment, she managed to see how Billie was approaching her which only made her tears to push harder. “Do I like her? Of course I do, for God’s sake. I still have a heart inside, luckily, as much as y’all seem to forget,” and when she chuckled darkly, her tears finally started to run down her cheeks, as if they were burning their way down. “So there you have your fucking answer, are you happy?”

Dara felt like something finally broke inside her, gripping with both hands her cane to not fall to the ground when she felt her knees grow weak. And it hurt so bad? it burnt and it made her feel like there’s not enough air in the house for her to breath. She was truly tired at this point of her life, tired of the rest not being able to see she was breaking too under the weight of all the things happening. She didn’t considered herself as someone jealous, she really wasn’t, but many times Dara had felt that Billie chose Audrey over her.

After all what she had done for the actress, all the sleepless nights, all the comfort words, all the tiny little pieces of her that she left for Audrey to take in order to heal; that Billie decided to ask her that as if she wasn’t right by her side doing it...well, it started to hurt more than she could handle. Dara was always so sure of Billie’s love for her, waited for her to finally say that she loved her back, waited for her to finally be comfortable around her...but sometimes, behind all that confidence Dara had, a tiny bit of doubt had started to grow in its own corner. 

A corner that got bigger when Billie stopped dead in her tracks again, not getting to reach her.

Billie didn't stop, however, because she didn't want to reach Dara. In fact, her whole body wanted to be wrapped around the trembling figure of her wife, sobbing in such heartbreaking way, to provide her of all the endless love she had for her...but she couldn't deny that hearing the truth being spitted out of her beautiful lips had left her speechless.

She was used to let her thoughts flow freely, most of the time taking advantage of being able to sense other emotions, to be blunt and also stating them flatly without much trouble. But sometimes, the times where people weren't taken aback due to her usual brassiness, Billie found herself saying things people wasn't expecting to ever deal with or were remotely prepared to do so. In this case, Dara wasn't ready at all to receive that question, and Billie visibly could tell but...well, she decide to push her in that direction anyway and now not only she was speechless but she felt devastated.

Devastated because the person she cared the most in this world was breaking in front of her, showing how small and fragile was in reality. Devastated because she created the situation; devastated because the only thing she did was to finally close the gap separating them to take Dara's hands in her own, making the cane fall to the ground with a muffled sound upon hitting the slim carpet of the living room. Her chest tightened when her wife still didn't move, crying her eyes out in between quiet sobs that resonated through her whole body, and she felt even worse because she wasn't brave enough to look at her directly, focusing in their hands instead.

"I'm sorry," the air in her lungs hurt like Hell itself when Billie managed to say something, Dara squeezing her hands in response. "I'm sorry I asked that, I...I didn't...please love..." please, let me fix this, tell me, help me.

"No, I'm the one being sorry for taking this all out on you," and Billie's heart hurt even more when she caught the defeat showing in Dara's eyes when she looked briefly at her, darkly chuckling again when she raised her arm to dry her tears with her sleeve without breaking the contact, her face scrunching ever so softly to try stop her tears. "I really shouldn't have…"

"No, hey, don't do that," panic overflown all over Billie, her hands now cuping Dara's face to have her closer, thumbs wiping hot tears and palms feeling the heat in her cheeks. She was able to finally look into her eyes, at least when her wife wasn't pressing her eyelids together harder to stop crying. "You have nothing to be sorry about, you were in your right to call my bullshit out."

"It's just...why did you ask me that Billie? I don't understand," Dara sniffed, trying to steady her voice but making her next sob to come out as a strangled whine. "Four years being with Audrey before we married and now you ask me if I like her? Really?"

It's then when Billie pulled her wife close, hiding her head in the hollow of her neck even when her wife was a few inches taller than her and pressing her lips to the crown of her head to hide the giant knot she had herself in her throat. Billie wasn't ready to admit the next answer, but because she wasn't ready it was what she needed to say in order to make things even. Billie's chest felt tight and it hurt so bad right now that she was holding Dara so close? Feeling her trembling and sobbing and grasping to her sweater - Dara's, because Billie stole it six years ago from her old closet at Dara's parents' and to this day it's her go-to comfort clothes when she’s at home - as if she was the only thing she needed to be there in that moment.

"I know… I only asked because…" she couldn't help but gulp in order to continue and her hand went to brush Dara's hair out of her face. "...because if you didn't like her, I'd have try to see her less.'

Billie was scared of what it came out of her mouth, and also because she could only hear her heart hammering against her ribcage along Dara's sobs in her neck. She felt the wetness of her tears in her skin, starting to get a bit sticky because they were drying slowly, but she didn't mind at all, too worried in securing her wife between her arms and starting to caress her arm and cheek with care. Her thumb was trying to both caress her warm skin and wipe the non-stop flow of tears, and Billie thought that’s what was actually helping Dara to start to calm down.

"Even if I did, I couldn't do that to you Bills," the whispered statement, Dara's lips so close to her pulse point that she felt how they moved and brushed ever so soft there, made Billie feel like all the fear she was holding in her chest disappeared. "I know how much you love her, how important is for you...and you know that I'm not a heartless bitch."

Even when is a joke that she usually resorts to, Billie still didn't like when Dara called herself those kind of things.

"But if you wanted me to, I would have done it," Billie felt her chest less tight for sure but she needed to get this out of her already because Dara deserved to hear it. "I would do anything for you because you are the most important person in my life, Annie, and that's a rock fact."

The tiny joke at the end made Dara chuckle cutely - and God that it felt good hearing her do that even with the runny nose and the cough that followed -, only because it was a recurring pun she used and Billie did it out of habit at times too, before she finally used her arms to wrap Billie in them by her waist and press it against her body, getting comfortable in the hug they pulled each other into. At that, Billie finally noticed how the shadow let go of her wife and it was like everything was getting back to usual little by little. 

It felt even better when Dara finally stopped hiding in her neck, without pulling away from the hug, and shook her head while closing her redden eyes from crying. But for some reason she didn't look that tired anymore, her features growing softer each second that it passed. Billie grew softer too and brought up her sleeve, after pulling it a bit with her fingers, so she could clean better Dara's face with care. When she opened her eyes, Billie knew her girl was getting back to her slowly but surely, and she shook her head even more slow.

"I love you Bills, and I love her, like her too...I won't ever make you leave behind your best friend," there's only love in her eyes, mixed with that warmth that always cling in Billie's bones in such comforting way that the only thing she could do is to fold her hands in the small of Dara's back and start rubbing tiny circles with her thumbs there. "So no more of that, okay…?"

The right thing for Billie to do in that moment was nodding in agreement, before leaning in to capture her wife's lips with hers in one of those slow kisses they both were suckers for. It felt like Heaven brought to Earth only for Billie to enjoy and drown in it. A bit salty maybe because of the spilled tears, but it soon felt sweet. Being so close made Billie to start pepper many more kisses all over Dara's face, always a bit slower as the woman she loved started to relax and melt in her arms.

"I love you Annie," she whispered after placing a kiss in that soft spot Dara had under her ear before moving to kiss her lips once again. "I love you," now it felt so natural to say it, mumbled against a new kiss and taking as a reward another cute giggle from her wife. "Can I take you to bed or I'm still on couch arrest…?"

Oh to hear Dara's little laugh after another kiss was an absolute bliss. Billie could only wrap her arms better and lower, lifting her slightly and gaining a low hiss because of that. For a second her haze broke, worried about it, and her eyes looked out for the discomfort Dara seemed to have, but she was kissed again before manage to do so.

"You totally still are...but let's make an exception," and the soft static Billie felt in her skin when she was with Dara appeared again, making her sweetly go back to loving her wife and start to walk in between kisses and laughs back to their bedroom.

Two hours cuddling, kissing and whispering sweet nothings to each other was what they both needed. Not only because yesterday was a total mess, but because they've been apart three days and a few more this month. There in their quietness, they managed to talk a bit more too about daily stuff they've missed when they were apart.

Billie apologized yet again because she didn’t notice Dara’s old injury was acting up, per example, and offered to help applying some muscle soothing cream. Dara, once she was feeling a bit better and after they decided to take a well deserved shower, took in her hands the task of redoing Billie’s nails and they spent a good chunk playfully fighting over the best color - and in the end, they agreed for some nude color for Billie and Dara fixed hers in black. How Billie took to herself kissing Dara in different ways she knew the woman loved; how Dara started to rant about the last messes at work and both cussed heavily, because they were like that; how the blonde ran her fingers in soft caresses over every tattoo her wife had…

They didn’t leave the bed until it was time to actually meet up for lunch with Audrey and Danielle, purely just enjoying each other and both feeling so much better by the time Billie sat up in bed to watch her wife go through their wardrobe. Sometimes it was nice to let Dara pick their clothes for the day, mostly because it meant a good change for their usual choices. 

Billie ended up getting a flowery high waisted skirt that fell loose to her knees, and her favourite peach blouse that she didn’t know how it survived ten years at this point but she wasn’t going to complain. For Dara was that one amber blouse Billie loved the most in her, the one that brought up her tanned skin, along her favourite dark pants that she knew drove Billie utterly insane and making her chuckle a ‘such a tease, aren’t you’ while Dara was getting her rings and usual jewelry on.

Those times were intimate and Billie cherished them a lot, because she never thought she would get them one day.

Hand in hand, both made their way out of the apartment not long after, and it took Billie the whole ride to get her body used again to Dara’s driving. It wasn’t that she forgot how her wife was, but heck that having others drive her here and there or even drive herself was always a whole different experience.

But there was a tiny satisfaction in watching Dara come out of the car with this glow around her that made her so different from any other person Billie met, when they pulled over at where they were having lunch that she always liked to indulge in. It made her feel important, it made her focus to be all over her wife, yet it made her feel down on Earth when they started to walk towards the terrace.

Billie thought that what she loved the most about Dara was how she was capable, with her whole demeanour and way of caring about her, of making her feel she was living in this reality. They both knew very well that there were times in which fame and her powers got too into Billie’s head, making her feel like she was just a passing soul through life instead of an actual human being. Having Dara as a constant in her life, one that she didn’t want to ever part ways with, helped her the most. And, of course, she wanted to be better than she was to her and show Dara that she had her all for herself, because God, them and both Audrey and Nora knew that Billie many times did things that didn’t demonstrate how important her wife was for her.

But Dara was still there, despite everything.

“Sweet baby Jesus, I can’t believe we are here earlier than them,” Dara’s voice brought Billie down to Earth from her thoughts. “How can two of the most punctual people in the universe not even be five minutes early to a date?”

“Cut them some slack, Dalfoddil,” Billie laughed at the fake afflicted tone in Dara’s voice, sitting by her side to be closer to her. “I bet you thirty it was only traffic, or that they forgot something at home.”

“I bet you thirty and that new game I want that they are late because of sex, Howt Stuff,” Dara mumbled before pressing her lips against Billie’s, which she eagerly took advantage of and snuck an arm behind Dara’s lower back to be even closer. “Are we bringing the bad boys before dessert now?”

“I can’t help it, baby, don’t mind me today...but we have a deal,” Billie looked at her feeling how her chest was about to burst of all the love she had for her. When Dara let herself be cuddled there in the seat, resting her head in Billie’s shoulder, she pressed a new kiss to her forehead. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Billie Dean.”

And upon hearing that coming from Dara’s pretty lips, after the millionth or billionth time, Billie knew today was going to be a good day.

When Audrey finally arrived ten minutes later, Danielle on her phone talking with a client and relieved Damien because her mother didn’t drive walking behind her, Billie had Dara still cuddled in her side as they were exchanging sweet nothings and drinking wine and soda respectively - Dara not being in the mood of drinking today. And when they settled, Audrey couldn’t help but make a little gesture with her eyebrows, silently asking Billie ‘everything okay?’ while the cousins were busy with the waiter. Her only response was a quick wink and seeing how Billie’s left hand was caressing Dara’s back up and down with care, earning her a new peck after Dara’s attention went back to her.

More than okay.

For Audrey, that was enough response. They had known each other for almost five years already, sharing more than just a friendship along the way, so she knew right away that the other couple was having one of those ‘reconciliation’ days. Not that they ever broke up, as far as Audrey knew, but sometimes they behaved like they did and were back together and stronger than ever. Well, stronger than they already were, because she never met a couple like them. They seemed to gravitate around each other in a way she wished to understand and for Audrey, she always saw that being with Dara made Billie the happiest.

Looking at Danielle for a second, when the other two were distracted talking with Damien - or more Dara talking with their niece while Billie simply listened, arm over her shoulders and glass of wine in the other hand -, Audrey discerned that her girlfriend was a bit confused yet her light brown eyes were full of tenderness. Their hands met under the table and, after a light squeeze, she earnt a peck of her own that made her contently smile.

Content smile that disappeared when Dara asked right away why they were late, once Damien had to go to the restroom, and was replaced by Audrey’s face lightening up like a Christmas light because bingo they had a shower quickie that took them a bit longer than intended.

“Oh, come on, you placed a bet and all,” Dara couldn’t help but laugh out loud when Audrey said that, rightfully offended, upon seeing Billie taking out a few bills from her purse to give them to her. “Why do you two always have bets for everything?”

“Because it’s fun and I always win,” Danielle, still with her face red as a tomato, chuckled at how happy and relaxed Dara was. “You also played bets with us, darling, don’t you play innocent now.”

“Yeah but after losing a hundred dollars to you in one go, I decided to quit altogether,” at that Billie laughed, the memory of about what they bet that time coming to her mind, because Audrey was just exasperated. “How do you even do it?”

It was time for Dara to laugh. She never did much, to begin with, it was just her intuition and one of many leaps of faith she was used to take. That was her secret, not expecting the result and just go for it. 

After that and a very scandalized Danielle because ‘why would you even do that’ when Dara answered a happy ‘I’m a lucky bitch, what else can I do?’, having promised to her that one day they would tell her, a day in which everyone was wasted and with no children around; Dara managed to think that everything was finally settling again.

It was a nice feeling, because those times where Billie and her got into a discussion took a too heavy toll on her. She never liked getting into arguments to begin with, but having them with Billie was the worst thing ever because it meant for her that communication had failed. Even in the past, they only had a couple serious arguments in between all the playful bickering and the eventual ‘couch arrest’ because one of them took it a bit too far, nothing really serious taking in count the other went to retrieve the part in arrest after a few hours or the next morning. She loved how afterwards Billie got softer, more loving and willing to show her feelings, and she basically couldn’t say no to her in those times.

She also loved to be able to show it to the rest, not because she wanted to brag about, but because she had been waiting for too long to do it completely freely. 

When Audrey took her hand with care over the table and smiled widely, full knowing how much she was enjoying having Billie like that, Dara’s heart grew three sizes and for a second she forgot about how a question regarding the actress was what was behind of it all. Dara didn’t want to dwell on that anymore, because now everything was in the open to Billie understand her position and for her to understand from where Billie’s doubts were coming from. 

So the next thing she did after the tiny exchange of smiles with Audrey was to actually check her phone after twelve hours without doing it.

“Billie, did you buy a new couch?” Dara had to bite her tongue to not curse like a sailor, because really what the fuck, and Billie looked at her from behind her third glass of wine like ‘oh snap, she finally saw it’.

“You said I’ve been six years complaining about it,” Billie whined back, trying to not look at her wife because Dara was digging holes in her skull just by how she was looking at her. “So yesterday night I just ordered a new one, easy as pie.”

“And didn’t you think about measuring our living room before to see if it actually fits?” Dara tapped at the screenshot to see it better. “God, this is massive, what in th-”

But before she could keep at it, feeling how Billie’s hand was now placed in her thigh and rubbing soft circles there to avoid getting murdered in her sleep, her screen changed to display someone was calling. It took her a second to read the caller id and then all the happiness and all the warmth, dropped to her feet.

“I’ll kick your ass later,” Dara mumbled, taking advantage of Billie not looking at what she was doing with her phone, before standing up to go pick up the call. “Don’t you think I’m gonna forget about it.”

When she was at enough distance to not be heard, Dara pressed the phone to her ear, her heart beating loudly in her throat.

If Constance was calling her directly, and not Billie, it wasn’t a good signal.

“Hi Constance, how are you?” she started before the woman in the other side of the line talked, trying to not sound nervous. It didn’t help either that Dara had some sick respect for her. “Older than last time, kid, that for sure,” she replied darkly but with a tone that gave away she was distracted. “Yeah, right, do you want to talk with Billi-” it was the easiest way to make Constance Langdon talk, bringing up her wife because both had a different and stronger bond. “If I wanted to talk with Billie Dean, I would have called her, don’t you think?” and Dara’s silence invited her to keep talking. “Anyway, I was calling because miss Montgomery’s been acting weird,” Constance didn’t like Nora for the mere fact that she was the actual owner of the house and if she ever had to refer to her, it always came from a polite sarcasm. “She’s been in the front yard, sitting there all alone. Vivien and Violet tried to make her come in, they are still there with her in fact. I’m only calling because I have a bad feeling about this,”  and Dara’s heart dropped even lower than all the good feelings already dropped. “Did she said something at all? Did you actually talked to her?” She had to ask because Nora wasn’t one to go out of the house on her own volition, only coming out on Halloween or the couple times they managed to take her to the backyard. “She asked for you, actually. And it scared the shit outta me that she let me see her in fact.” Oh yeah, Nora wasn’t a big fan of Constance neither, and that was what made everything more worrisome. Dara rubbed her neck, trying to stay calm, before giving an answer. “...I’ll be there in twenty.”

She hanged up without saying anything else, and turned around to go back to the table. Desserts were already there and the adults were laughing while Damien seemed embarrassed for some reason that escaped her knowledge. 

However, Dara’s mind was racing in another line, thinking about how she needed to get to Nora as soon as possible. 

This was when her secret card was played and also why she didn’t ever found herself asking Billie almost the same question she did. Dara never got in her enough courage to ask Billie if she cared, not loved or liked, but truly cared about the ghost anymore. Mostly because she knew the answer: Nora wasn’t actually there, she couldn’t provide of the warmth, she couldn’t change, she couldn’t grow, she couldn’t even leave the place she was confined to. It pained her, it pained her for the last four years, to know that everything had come to an end.

As much as Billie played it dumb, she had noticed how Nora’s wounds had closed already and that made her feel wary. She loved how Nora wasn’t a crying wreck anymore, how her true persona came out more often than not instead of the one generated by the trauma, but those times it made Dara feel how she was lighter in her arms and even one time she felt her fingers pass through her arm as if Nora was a mere smoke curtain.

“Everything okay Annie?” Billie’s voice was as worried as the glint in her eyes, taking in count Dara was spacing out just in front of them looking at her phone.

“It was Constance, there’ve been some problem at the house and wanted me to check into it,” Dara pushed herself to act more relaxed, as if it wasn’t something really important, and Billie frowned to that. “You know her, always getting worried the house is gonna burn down or something.”

“Let’s go then baby,” was Billie immediate response, moving to stand up, but Dara put a hand on her shoulder and leant enough to kiss her cheek briefly.

“Don’t worry sugar, I got it, okay? Just enjoy the rest of the afternoon,” Chuckling, Dara retrieved her bag and called for the waitress, signaling to her dessert. “Can you put me this for take out? Thank you,” her eyes went then to Billie again, smiling softly, and then to Audrey, Danielle and Damien. “You three take care of her while I’m gone, I’ll be chopping heads off if one hair is out of place,” she laughed with her joke and Danielle only rolled her eyes a bit.

“Actually Audrey has to be the one doing that, I have to go get some last minute work done this afternoon,” Dara looked with curiosity to her cousin and she shrugged a bit. “I’m taking Dada with me, so I think these two will be alone.”

It was then when Billie looked at Dara with some kind of uncertainty in her eyes, taking her hand in hers, as if asking if she really got it under control. Dara felt moved for some reason, taking in count almost nine years ago she was the one trying to stop Billie from going into that house all alone. But she only leant over her again, this time kissing her wife fully on the lips while her free hand grabbed her cane, ending the soft affectionate move with a mere brush of noses.

“Take care, okay? I love you,” Billie mumbled, placing her hand in Dara’s thigh for a second. “Call me if it gets too bad, promise it.”

And to that Dara, already swooning too much, kissed her again to seal that promise. 

Audrey got a big goodbye kiss on the cheek, as usual, while Danielle was hugged from behind and Damien got a kiss on top of her hair and, like that, Dara was making her way to her car with a brownie for take out and all the worries about Nora bottled inside.

While driving, Dara tried to come up with a line of act. Would be Nora altered? Would she need to do an intervention? Would she have to get help from the other ghosts in the house? The only ones she manage to...befriend were the Harmon women and, stil, she wasn’t sure if Moira actually liked her taking in count the first time they saw each other...well, Dara didn’t see her in her true form right away. Hayden at times, and it was always weird. And in a very good day, specially good even, Nora’s husband exchanged some words with her.

That was maybe the weirdest part of it all, that Charles had seen her close enough to actually talk to her, because when Billie had tried to contact him - the couple few times for her research - he didn’t make a single sound.

When Dara pulled over, her head was full of all the things that could go wrong with Nora or any of the other ghosts in the house. If she had any energy back during the morning, it all went away in the fifteen minute ride to the house, making her feel as she was feeling all those days Billie was away.

Tiresome, too tiresome.

But when she crossed the fence, she fell in the spell the house always had around. Dara’s eyes went first around the front yard, taking in count every little thing she had done to keep the abandonment at bay. The lawn was a bit wet, the rose bushes as well and then Vivien was squat down in front of Nora, with Violet sitting by her side and taking her hand.

Dara walked slowly towards them, her cane tapping in the stones of the tiny path, feeling heavy with each step but getting confident as she went further and further. Vivien saw her first, then Violet, and both stood up giving Dara a pitiful and desperate look. Once they were gone, it was time for Dara to get near Nora finally, and she could only get her eyes on her back and her whole aura.

For Dara, Nora glowed that day in a different light.

“What’s the prettiest gal around doing here all alone?” she raised her voice, with enough sweetness and tenderness to sweeten up Nora’s mood.

“Waiting for the sun to come to me, sweetie pie,” for Nora, she was always something along ‘sweet’, because she couldn’t see her as anything else. “Did you see the rosebuds? They’re so lovely right now...”

Nora felt how Dara, her sweet Dally, kneeled with a bit of trouble behind her, soon getting the mint scent of her shampoo filling her whole. She could smell a hint of cigarette, Billie Dean’s perfume and the earthy scent that she came to associate with the woman that was hugging her from behind. Leaning back in the embrace, Nora lifted her hand to meet Dara’s left cheek still without looking at her, indulging in how she was resting her chin in her shoulder and pressing a light kiss in her jaw before looking at the bush with her.

“Not as lovely as you,” Nora chuckled at the flattery, knowing Dara didn’t lie when she said that. “Were you feeling better that you decided to come out?”

“Not really, but I felt like getting some watering done, can you believe it? Me, wanting to do such thing,” that drew a low laugh from both, making Dara tighten her hug. Nora went to put her hand over Dara’s, tracing her rings as usual to calm herself...even when she felt calm enough that day. “My mother would had been laughing at me for years if she ever came to know.”

“Then we are lucky she would never do,” Nora closed her eyes, feeling the warmth spreading in her chest. “Why don’t we move inside, darling? I brought with me some chocolate cake and we can make some tea, maybe tell me how was your day? I’m yours all noon.”

All mine. It rolled even more sweet in her tongue for the few seconds Nora took to react. God, she wished that was the whole and only truth in the world. She complied to that, however, whispering barely an ‘of course’ before helping Dara to stand up again. Nora waited then for Dara to retrieve the box with the cake at the porch stairs, feeling all the warmth in her body to gather where her heart was supposed to be, and once she was again by her side she quickly linked their arms to walk side by side inside.

Nora could feel the rest in the house withdraw to their usual accommodations, they always did that when she was wandering around, and she thanked them all inside because that’s everything she wanted right now. 

Chattering idly about banal things, they made their way to the kitchen that looked much better without all the things Vivien had equipped it with when they moved back in two thousand eleven. Both Billie and Dara had spent their good money in remodeling the place, little by little, so it was more like it was used to be than what years and years of different owners made it to be. It made Nora feel better for sure, less confused and out of place, because as much as she made Charles’ life a living Hell when they were alive...she was still very much thankful to him for building the place, and sorry at times for being like that.

That much she could say, at least, because she didn’t ever love him. 

Because ‘love’ was what she felt for the first time when, one night, she decided to come out of the basement, encountering a curious woman in their backyard. Same woman that was now with her back facing her, humming along a song while setting up the kettle over the stove. How curious it was that these days she could recall things like that, but she gladly took it in because it made her feel content. 

She picked at the cake with the plastic spoon, knowing she didn’t need to actually eat, but indulging because Dara had brought it. In her days, things like that weren’t usual at all, so it was kind of a delight to be able to share this even when she couldn’t feel much of it aside of the taste before it went away. 

However, her focus changed when Dara finally set their cups of tea in the counter and sat close to her, letting the kettle close in case they wanted more. Fishing her phone - and this time Nora didn’t make a face! - from her pocket, Dara put it there too before turning all her attention to her. It was easy to notice that for Nora, because her sweetheart always spread her legs a bit, letting enough space in case she wanted to come even closer, and had her left hand resting in the back of Nora’s tall chair.

“Dally, are you okay?” was the first thing she asked, watching how the lovely features of her darling were filled with dread even when her smile was on. She could see the light dark circles under her eyes behind the make-up and how she bit her lip every few minutes. 

“Yeah darling, why wouldn’t I?” she laughed in response, moving her hand to accommodate Nora’s shawl better. 

“You look tired, spent even,” Nora wasn’t the best at being subtle, so she preferred to be direct. “Do I have to call Billie Dean and put her arse into place? I swear if she’s treating yo-”

“Everything is fine Nora, don’t worry,” Dara laced her fingers with Nora’s then, making her feel that calmness that she loved about the woman in front of her. “My leg has been acting up for a few days already and work has been...awful, so I couldn’t rest much. Also how can it be Billie’s fault when she barely got home yesterday? Give her some rest.”

No, I can’t give her some rest. Nora thought squeezing Dara’s hand a bit in hers. Not when she’s in charge of giving you all our love. But she nodded, agreeing to not put in place the other socialité, because if Dara asked her to do something she would do it right away. It visibly calmed her having Nora to agree, though, and it was a view to sore eyes having her smiling in that way her dimples showed up.

"Then tell me, who do I have to terrorize the next time the house let me go out," Nora asked, not wanting to break the contact, while tracing Dara's knuckles with her thumb. "You know I can get quite scary."

"I think at this rate I'll be quitting before Halloween," Dara laughed at that, the stress lacing in her words. "But I don't want to talk about work, I'd prefer to talk about what are we doing this year in your day off, do you want to go to the movies? Or maybe this year you want to go to the beach? We can even go home and relax there, you name it, you have it."

Home. The word tasted sweet in her tongue again, and Nora really wished that apartment to be their home...or well, even the house they were in right now. It didn't matter for her to be honest, because anywhere Dara was, for Nora was already home.

And while they started to talk about it, all the possibilities they had to fulfill in twenty four hours, Nora's mind started to wander in all those things she usually thought when she was alone. 

At times, Nora pictured Dara in the time she was alive. Oh, she would totally be a charmer, one of those flappers that Nora’s mother hated so much and made sure she wasn’t even close to by making her attend parties full of ‘proper’ ladies and gentlemen alike. But she knew that Dara would manage to sneak in, her manners blending perfectly and ‘innocently’ hanging around her, sharing with Nora stories about dancing freely along the music that was played in ballrooms and about a house in the coast where they could do whatever they wanted.

Not only that would made Nora fall in love with the concept of freedom, but also with the concept that maybe her future wasn’t tied to a man nor to a child of her own...nor even tied to the status and the money. At first lying about the nature of their hangs out would be almost the rule, but then eventually moving together because ‘they liked to be around each other too much’, and then the rumors would start of course. But Nora found herself not caring at all, because as long as she was by Dara’s side that's all that mattered to her.

Cake and tea gone, Nora listened to something Dara was telling her with passion, barely asking for permission to lit up the cigarette she had been rolling while talking, before keep with the topic. Of course Dara would smoke back in the twenties too, but Nora imagined her smoking cigarrillos more than the regular or even smoking pipe, the room note hanging wonderfully in her clothes and Nora imagined herself wrapped in one of Dara’s shirts, getting comfort from that solely when she was out of the house.

“I think I’ve never seen you in this dress,” Dara’s fingers brought her back to the present when they fixed the white shawl, giving her a soft caress in her chin. “It suits you, brings your eyes and lips out.”

“You’re terrible,” In that moment, and back in her time, she blushed as fiercely as she allowed herself, her hand going quickly to shush Dara. “I had it since forever, it’s one of my favourites! I wore it before.”

“Okay, okay,” Dara chuckled again, taking a drag and letting the smoke come out of her nose and mouth in a swift move. “Sorry, these days my mind isn’t that sharp...still, you truly look beautiful Nora.”

You had nothing to be sorry for. Nora thought while finally giving in and getting her chair closer to Dara, which only looked at her warmly before leaning to kiss her temple and place her right arm over Nora’s lap, resting her hand in her hip. She missed the days they could kiss openly, mostly because she found herself comfortable being held by her and pampered in love just like that, but she understood that now things had changed. 

Damned you, Billie Dean, seven times damned. Nora couldn’t blame her, indeed, she felt...at peace knowing that her favourite people finally made themselves official. But that couldn’t stop her from being jealous of the medium, jealous because many times she wished to be the one that had gifted her that gold ring with tiny rubies that rested in Dara’s left ring finger, jealous because...well, Billie was alive and could give everything to their pretty flower.

“You aren’t that bad yourself, sweetheart,” she mumbled in response, leaning a bit better and resting her head in Dara’s shoulder, her hand tracing her necklace and fixing her shirt. 

“Miss Montgomery, you’re terrible! Scandalous even, wow,” Dara imitated her and Nora closed her eyes, feeling how her laugh vibrated through her skin like a soft hum that made her chuckle in response. And then a sweet silence settled between them, until Dara broke it again. “What’s going on in that pretty head of yours, mhm?”

Oh, Nora didn’t know how to start to reply to that. 

In fact she didn’t even know why Dara was there to begin with, but she found herself not caring because it was like her own feelings had summoned her that day to the house.

Nora had opened her eyes in the morning as if she had the longest nap ever, those days being like that, like a never ending nap that gave her enough energies to go through one and only day; and she felt somewhat free. The basement was in silence, as it always was after her Thaddeus had passed a few years ago, but something was calling her to go upstairs. She had done that and the first person she crossed ways with had been Hayden, that looked at her half worried half shocked, and then Violet had almost knocked her down while asking if she was feeling alright.

‘More than alright, I think I’m gonna take a walk around the house today.’ she had tell her and it didn’t come from the white lies she always told. Nora had been feeling great the moment she was out of her usual place in the house. It had been like something had set off from her chest and she could breathe again. 

So she had done that with Violet by her side, listening to all the stories Nora had of the house. Stories of the past but also of the present, and it came a moment in which she could only talk about memories she made with the woman that was holding her so tightly in her arms.

“Not much,” Nora decided to reply, closing her eyes again to indulge in the warmth. “Just that I’m glad you are here...I kinda felt like dancing today.”

When the little walk around the house had came to an end, Nora had felt like a spark starting in her belly, the one she always got when she was ready to do something fun and new. That same spark was what had brought her outside, feeling the sun in her like as if it was something she never experienced before. Then her eyes had fixed in the rose bushes - white roses starting to bloom, white roses that were planted because they were Nora’s favourites - and she found herself wondering once again if she ever felt that content with something so simple. 

“Dancing? Well, I can fix that then,” Dara finally moved and Nora almost yelled at her to not go, a sudden panic rising in her chest and her throat, but then she placed her lips to her forehead lightly to not stain her skin with lipstick. “But first I need to go to the bathroom, you wait me here okay? I’ll be back in a flash.”

“Sure, I’ll clean this...mess to entertain myself,” Nora said, letting out an exasperated breathe that made Dara laugh in response, retrieving her cane from where it was resting. “Making a girl wait, her manners’ been rubbing off on you miss Lynch.”

Nora had managed to get some already bloomed and do a simple arrangement to put as decoration somewhere in the house. But the second she had looked at her work, her energies fell to the ground and her legs hadn’t been able to hold her anymore. Alone, but without the need to call out for help, she waited there just feeling her body lighter, in hopes the sun helped her to regain some energies to keep moving. Oh, what her mother would had said if she passed out in the lawn? Her eyes could only keep themselves busy in those roses about to bloom, soft rosebuds she wasn’t sure if she was going to see them at all.

“Nora?” Violet’s voice made her hum just to let the girl know she was being listened, but her fingers were moving along the form of Dara’s cellphone. “Where’s-”

“Bathroom, in the other house,” Nora didn’t look at her, with a mere move of her head in the correct direction. “Could you give me a hand, dear? I need...well, I don’t know how this works aside that you can call, so...I want to speak with Billie Dean.”

“Why don’t you wa-”

“Privately, Violet,” she felt the tears tingling in her eyes, threatening to spill, but Nora held them. “Please.”

It wasn’t until Dara had arrived, all of a sudden, that she actually felt that both Vivien and Violet had been trying to make her go inside. The time in between when she felt her energies fall until Dara was hugging her from behind was blank in her mind, but she found herself yet again not minding at all because her sun was there already to take her home. It was the only thing she needed at this point to keep going...and now that Dara was there, she felt complete...

However, there was still a little something in her, waiting to be untied and set free once for all. Something that had to do with the woman she, along Violet, was trying to reach. The teenager was quick to find Billie’s contact and when the phone started to ring, she wasn’t nervous at all. Her hand went to where she knew the bullet hole was, out of habit, just to find the spot clean of any wound, and she smiled softly when she found her mouth didn’t taste like iron and salt.

“Annie?” oh, how jealous Nora was because she took the softer name to make it hers. “It’s me Billie Dean.” Nora said, moderating her voice because Dara had taught her at least that she didn’t need to yell at all. “Nora...is Annie with you? Is she okay?” Billie was nervous, panicked even, but she was trying to sound composed to not give it away. “Yes, she just went to Constance’s for a second. I wanted to speak with you before she comes back, Violet helped me with...the demonic device.” and at that, Nora shushed Violet with her hand so she could be alone in the kitchen. “One day you’ll call it by its name, ‘s way easier darling,” Nora chuckled at that because God, how different it felt be called sweet names from different people, even if it was the same one. “Of course.” she rubbed her hands together for a second, not knowing how to say those words. “Then...what did you want to talk about?” Billie encouraged her and Nora caught a laugh from behind her voice, not Billie’s at all. “I...thank you, Billie Dean. Thank you, for everything you have done for me.” and with that, the little something was gone and she felt even more light, her head feeling more clear. “Simple as that, just thank you.” and the silence arrived in the other side of the line at the same time the front door unlocked.

Nora’s hand pushed the red button quickly, as Violet had told her to if she wanted to end the call, and then left the phone where it was before she decided to move towards the living room and wait for Dara there.

It wasn’t as simple as that, because that would probably the first time Nora ever thanked Billie. A thank you for not letting anyone else to come into this cursed house by buying it, a thank you for restoring it for her, a thank you for letting her come in their lives…

...a thank you for letting her love Dara in a way she died without knowing it was possible.

“Did the ballroom started without me?” Dara said in a happy-go-lucky tone, hobbling slowly in the living room with her phone in hand. “Which song are we playi-”

“Can you sing today, dear?” it wasn’t an usual request, but Nora wanted to hear Dara’s voice as much as possible. “I love your voice.”

“Of course, anything for you,” when Nora looked at Dara, she looked younger, almost like she looked ten years ago when they met. Her features full of that softness she usually got when she was looking at Billie…but now, her girl got it all for her. “Then I’ll start with my favourite one.”

Once Dara was holding her close to her body, Nora knew that was where she belonged. An arm over Dara’s shoulders, the other one sandwiched in between their bodies, all of that while holding her handkerchief with one of her dearest one’s hands resting over and pushing it to her chest, where her beating heart sounded for them two. Nora found her right place in the hollow of Dara’s neck, where she could feel how the woman was starting to sing only for her.

Oh, it felt beautifully to experience that. 

She chuckled when Dara changed the lyrics to fit a bit better, all of that as they swinged ever so softly, and she could feel more eyes watching them. The energy of the rest occupants was starting to beat too fast for her, in a pace she felt herself not belonging, and she decide to press her lips to Dara’s cleavage - in the start, almost in the middle of her chest - to make herself feel anchored to something. It left a lipstick mark, but who cared in that moment? All Nora could hear at this point was how Dara’s heartbeat felt more easy to follow than anything else.

And because she finally found her own beat, her own pace...that’s why Nora felt brave enough to say those next words.

“I love you Dally,” Dara didn’t stop from moving but she did stop from singing, just so she could meet Nora’s eyes. She felt so full, so light at the same time, so very much at peace. “I love you, and I will always do.”

Easy as it was, Nora stood on her tiptoes to initiate for the first time a kiss. A kiss that was returned as if it was meant to be...as if it wasn’t going to be the last.

When Dara opened her eyes, Nora wasn’t there, but her handkerchief was still pressed in her palm. She looked around for a second, her fingers pressed then to her lips with the lingering warmth Nora left, and the silence started to press all over her body in a way she never felt before.

“Nora, where are you?” she asked out loud, moving to retrieve her cane once again, looking around not only the living room but in the kitchen. “Nora! C’mon darling, you know I don’t like playing hide and seek,” her voice wavered and for a second she tried to reach for Nora’s energy in some way, like Billie once taught her to, but not working at all. “Nora!”

Every second that it passed, Dara calling the name of the ghost, it was a torture. Not only because she didn’t get any response back but also because it started to wake other ghosts in the house. Vivien and Violet appeared when she rounded the stairs, ready to go to the basement alone - a voice really similar to Billie’s screaming at her to not do that -, and made her go upstairs along a confused Tate that was drawn by all the ruckus. Hayden’s voice was heard outside the house, calling for Nora too, but any of them got a response. 

She was starting to panic, panic like she never did before. 

The tension in her whole body was enough to make her grit her teeth, piling up in her chest and starting to burn with the buzz of all the souls trapped in the Montgomery's house. That’s why she didn’t like that part of her powers, that’s why she was so overwhelmed that there was too much activity in one place. It made her feel she was going to explode.

And when she got to the open kitchen again, Tate behind her almost pulling all his hair out, Dara finally saw Charles.

Vivien, Violet, Moira and Hayden were looking at him too, as if they had never seen him before. He looked...clean, out of her scrubs and with a proper suit. Dara knew that suit, it was the same he was wearing in that family picture Billie and her found of the Montgomery’s. Somehow, he also looked more...free, as to speak, his energy felt almost refreshing when his was always one of those that reeked in a different intensity.

Dara felt her heart beating so loud in her ears, however, making her see red again today and feeling a sudden burst of heat in her chest. In a swift movement of her hand, she held her cane more like a bat than a cane, ready to smash his head if that meant to know where Nora was, but before she could take the first step Charles spoke up.

"She's not here," his eyes went then to the rest in the kitchen before landing again in Dara. "It's useless that you keep on calling out for her.."

"What are you saying? Where did she go," it came out of Dara's mouth more like a growl than a question, one that hanged between all of them as if it was an unspoken truth and made Dara to feel multiple chills running down her spine. "I'm not joking Charles! Where the fuck is Nora!?"

"I think you know where she is, dear," this time it was Moira the one that talked, her voice filled with sadness, relief and maybe a bit of jealousy. "We all know."

No, no, no. 

"For a really long time we avoided each other, even before we...ended like this," Charles kept going, walking now to the middle of the empty living room. "Money, the house, our son... everything was something ideal to argue about. It pained me, those times I was lucid, to see us like that," he chuckled lightly and Dara's heart beated harder, painfully even. "To see that I couldn't make her happy in any possible way. It's macabre to say we got what we deserved, mostly because it was my fault what transpired in the last moments of our lives, and as the years passed by...well, let's say a hundred years gives you enough time to think and see as much as I was lost in myself."

Dara didn't want to listen to him, she really didn't. She closed her eyes and tried harder to reach Nora's energy, feeling even more strained by doing so, and then she fell to her knees without strength. A set of hands reached for her, burning like molten metal that she couldn't roll away from. But her eyes, now open again, went to the man that had stopped in his advance.

Tears blinded her, making Charles blurry in short distance along the tiny child that was crawling towards him.

Charles looked around then before leaning to take his son in his arms, smiling tenderly upon seeing his perfect face instead of what he became because of him. Giving him a cuddle in his cheek, perfect round cheek so similar to his wife, he finally looked at the woman that was breaking down in front of him. How she was being held by that young lady, the daughter of the last owners of the house; how she was crying her eyes out, the loss hitting her like icy water; how it made him see that his most wanted wish was finally fulfilled.

Didn’t Charles wanted to make Nora happy since the moment they met? Didn’t he wanted her to know he loved her?

He wasn’t able to do it, but through the last decade he had seen how someone else did. How someone had pulled all the broken pieces that he contributed to smash and put them together again; how someone else heard his Nora, made her feel important, made her grow out of many of the things that remained in her from her youth, loved her as she was instead of wanting to change her, and overall made her happy in the palace he built for her to enjoy to her heart’s content.

And that helped him heal along the way in the shadows, where anyone was noticing him, until the same woman that swiped his wife of her feet reached for him too.

“Above all the wrong I did, above all the chaos that we were,” Charles felt himself smiling truthfully after too many years, feeling how Thaddeus started to fall asleep in his shoulder. “I do have to thank you, miss Lynch, because you made us see what we truly needed.” And it felt so peaceful saying that, the heavy weight remaining in his presence lifting and flying away. “I would suggest, however, to take some vacation from my dearest house...I’m afraid there are still too many evil forces and our darling Nora isn’t here to protect you anymore.”

When Charles walked away, his silhouette and energy gone of the house, the whole place seemed to hiss and creak under Dara’s body.

A new rush of energy filled her, the adrenaline pumping in her veins with such strength that when Violet and Vivien pulled her up she didn’t feel any pain. That wasn’t the only thing she was feeling, because the energy of the house was trying to pick at her all at once. She overheard steps all over the place, not only upstairs, but also downstairs and her sense to flight ringed louder than ever when she saw Tate launching himself against another ghost that was entering the living room in that moment. The house was trying to eat her alive, not only her energy - or what was left of it at this point - but her whole body too.

"You have to go," Vivien said before Violet took Dara's hand to make her run. "Don't worry about us, you have to make it home."

The only thing Dara did was to tighten the grip on Violet's hand as they started to run as much as they could through the back door in the kitchen.

Billie had a bad feeling installed in her stomach the second Nora hanged up the phone. Not only because it was the second time in her life that someone hanged up on her, but because she had this heavy pressure in the back of her head. Pressure that was only making her more and more restless as the minutes passed by.

Audrey was being a sweetheart, like always, being the one carrying the conversation most of the time or suggesting that they should do a marathon on that show they promised to watch together. She had let Billie put her legs on her lap, she had turned a blind eye on how Billie checked her phone every few minutes - when usually she didn’t like to have it near at all, now she had it pressed to her chest as if having the device in her skin would calm her-, she had offered to make tea and sandwiches and...and Billie couldn’t be more thankful to at least have Audrey here.

When Billie spied on Audrey making the afternoon snack, she had wondered where she had learnt to be like that. Even when she was feeling uneasy, Billie’s mind dug up everything she had learnt in those years about her best friend, and she was sure the way she was trying to act more homie wasn’t something she had in her before. Half hidden between the cushions, Billie’s mind also started to wonder and wonder, and in between wondering she asked herself for a second if maybe once was remotely possible to have that view everyday.

But soon she found that the view didn’t happen in her old kitchen, didn’t belong to this time nor even to this her. 

This her wasn’t what Audrey needed, that for sure, what she neede-

Audrey thought she was going to have a heart attack the second the door opened wide all of a sudden. It banged against the wall with such strength that it startled her enough to drop what she had in her hands. Turning around, the only two things Audrey saw was Billie standing up of the couch at light speed and Dara in between the couch and the kitchen counter, panting harshly as if she was barely catching her breath in that moment.

All that before falling to the ground as if her whole body had given up.

It sent Audrey to panic, making her let out a loud gasp, and she rounded the counter to find Dara sobbing loudly on the floor, clawing at her shirt as if she was trying to get out of it unsuccessfully and she was clearly hurting herself in the process. 

“Annie, Annie, stop!” Billie’s panicked scream made Audrey react enough to hold herself in the counter. She silently watched in horror how her best friend reached her wife, the first thing she did was to hold her wrists to stop her. “God, you’re...bleeding, what...Annie, please, don’t-” 

In all the time Audrey had known the couple, she hadn’t seen the youngest part of it to act differently as calm. Dara’s sobs were heartbreaking, choking on her tears and own breathing, making her cough violently because she was trying to speak at the same time. It was a mess, a scary one in fact, and Billie was handling it all by herself as best as she knew. 

“Baby, please, I need to see...” Dara had managed to break free from Billie’s hold and was now protecting her neck for her dear life while Billie was trying to pull her up against her chest, so Dara’s back was resting there. “You’re boiling in fever...Annie, c-can you stand up? Love, listen to me, you need to calm down…”

But the best that Billie knew, wasn’t enough right now. 

How could she handle Audrey so well, yet when her wife was the one she was about to panic? She didn’t ever see Billie panic, getting mad for sure, but panic? Ever. And as scared, anxious and confused as Audrey was, something inside her tried to clear her head to help two of the three people in her life that always came to rescue her when the bad days were too much to handle.

“Bills, we need to get her in the shower,” Audrey’s strained voice surprised Billie, but watching her move was what made her react again. Dara was pretty much still a mess, but now she was trying to hide in Billie’s chest with any energy she had left. “You hold her body, I get her legs.”

Watching Dara whine and cry harder just because she seemed to think Billie was leaving her was one of the hardest things she saw. Billie kissed her head and whispered things Audrey couldn’t understand for a solid minute before they managed to lift her joining forces. Dara hissed in pain as soon as Audrey pulled her legs up and Billie looked even more in panic, eyes even more full of unshed tears. But they made it to the ensuite bathroom as fast as they could, which made the suffering end quickly.

“I’ll start the shower, get her out of her clothes and...try to see if she’s more hurt,” Audrey was trying to keep her cool, let Billie handle her wife, by being useful and ease things for them.

“Yeah, I-I’ll...yeah,” her hands were unbuttoning Dara’s shirt when Audrey turned around to give them some privacy, which she always tried to give them even when they were together. “My love, it’s okay, I’m not going anywhere…” ‘My love’ sounded right in Billie’s lips when she directed i to Dara. “There you a-your knees are scraped too...Annie, what happened…”

Dara only sobbed harder with that and when Audrey turned around again, she felt her heart squeeze very tightly inside her ribcage upon seeing Dara like that. Stripped down except for her underwear, she realized then that she wasn’t as full as she used to be, her skin was glistening with sweat and Billie had used her own t-shirt to clean the blood coming out of her nose and out of the scratches in her chest. Did she always had that scar in her left collarbone? Even the scar from the accident in her right hip was even more scary. And all of that as whole made Dara look so...small and vulnerable, that she could understand why Billie was crying finally.

“Billie,” Audrey called out for her and Billie seemed so lost once she managed to look back, so sad, that she had to put her bravest face on to not let away her own fear. “If she has fever, we have to lower it.”

Billie looked then at Audrey with new eyes, her arms tightening around Dara to protect her from anything. 

The uneasiness she was feeling suddenly made sense, the voice talking to her from another side telling her something completely different to what she was hearing in reality. And it was a shock that she totally wasn’t prepared for. How bad she wanted to kiss, to hide, to do anything in her power to take the suffering away from her wife.

“Sweetie,” she felt her body restarting, letting go a ragged breath for a second, her hand cradling Dara’s head against her chest better. “She’s burning up and if we don’t do something, it will go worse.”

“Yeah, we have to,” Billie felt herself nod, only making worse the raging headache she felt building up behind her eyes, and she wasn’t sure how but with Audrey’s help they both lifted Dara again to make her stand in her feet, even when it was clear she couldn’t keep herself standing. “Let’s do it, I got you...we got you.”

Upon saying that, Billie suddenly felt the scent of million roses filling her. Oh, you were always so extra. She felt herself tearing up again and Dara got a new whole wave of sobs, because obviously she was feeling it too. Audrey couldn’t, God blessed her, and she felt more eager to get Dara under the shower just because of that. 

Billie didn’t care her clothes got wet, she just stood there holding her close to her chest and letting her cry. When was the last time she was like that? Not even the breakdown in the morning compared to this one, it wasn’t even similar. And she let her do that, to cry, to be held, to let go of all that; because she deserved it. Trembling as she was, Dara kept mumbling and sobbing what it seemed apologies, and Billie shushed her with all the care in the world.

They would overcome this too, she was sure of it, as they did all those times before...but this time, Billie was going to be the one guiding her love through it.

Once Dara managed to stop trembling and to be separated from her wife, Audrey got her wrapped in a towel, firm arms holding her while Billie took off her clothes and went to retrieve dry ones for both. Asking her in a mere whisper if she could walk, Audrey also managed to make Dara move little by little towards the bed, where she sat her and started to check the superficial scratches she had. Billie left a pair of her own pajamas by Dara’s side before going to retrieve something to patch her wife up, and, along with her best friend, they worked through the tiny injuries before helping Dara to get in new clothes.

“I’ll go get some tea,” Audrey said finally in tiny voice, once Dara was settled under the covers like a crying ball that she still was, and Billie was trying to kiss her tears away. “Do you want something else dear?”

“C-can you stay tonight?” Billie asked right away, looking up at her friend in a way Audrey never saw her before. “I know you have a lot on your plate, even more after these days, and I’m sor-”

But Billie got silent went Audrey walked towards her to kiss her forehead first and then put her hand in Dara’s cheek tenderly. How could she say no when they both had done bigger things for her? How could deny her best friend that, seeing how much she needed a hand with this new situation, when she never asked something in return?

“I’ll do, don’t even apologize,” she said in a whisper before leaving the room. “I’ll also get some hot towels just in case, okay?”

When they were alone, Billie didn’t lose time to get in bed with Dara, who reached for her as soon as she was close to bury her face in her chest once more. She wasn’t sobbing anymore, thankfully, but it was scary how she seemed unable to stop from crying. Billie brushed her wet locks of hair out of her face and kissed her brow with love, kissed anywhere she could to not let her think she was alone.

“I’m sorry I let her go,” Dara cried, her body shaking with a sob that never reached her lips. “I’m sorry Billie, I’m sorry...I had to do something, anything...and now she’s...she’s gone Billie, Nora is gone…”

“Your love took her there,” Billie whispered with the warmth she felt in the back of her neck intensifying because she knew they were being listened. “You healed her, my love, you helped her to finally move on...and that’s nothing to be sorry about.”

Billie knew too many things Dara was completely oblivious of, oh that she knew, too many years holding all the secrets the ghost confided in her. And her last words for her wife were full of those secrets and the truth. 

Maybe one day she would be able to tell everything to Dara, because she was sure Nora wanted her to know eventually; maybe the next morning she would ask for the whole version of what truly happened; maybe Billie would find a way to let Dara go back to the place she loved.

But for the rest of night, once Audrey came back with everything and with her help they kinda sandwiched her wife between them, she was pretty much okay with finally resting of the whole madness that this was.

Rest from all the countdowns that came to an end in two days. Rest from all the doubts and wonderings, rest from ten years of being a total coward.

Rest knowing that, finally, she was free to love Dara as much as she deserved.

[carecottage]

Hey y'all, can I, like, get some shit off my chest? I am mentslly exhausted today. I feel like I've been constantly thinking about signs and symbols and the deeper metaphysical meaning behind things lately and it all has me drained. In the past couple weeks, I did two tarot spreads and started maintaining an altar to a deity in earnest all while life continues to do what life does (fucks with me) and tonight the strain of all of this has really caught up to me...

I'd love to hear comments from people with similar experiences but basically, I make a point to pray to my deity at least once a day, around the time when I wake up as well as stretch my body at the same time. I light three candles in Her color and one for a different deity so He can translate my prayers to her. I've got an offering for her that I will replace soon and another for the second deity. The right most candle in Her color immediately begins to burn high, bright, dancing, flickering, with black smoke coming off the tail of the flame. This continues for a while as I mediate on Her name as I didn't really feel as if there was much I wanted to say today due to already feeling distracted. That same candle then split its flame into two separate flames.

This continued for a good while and I continued to meditate but I was distracted. Just, in my head and by the weird flames. So I took some time to read up on flame interpretations but then, following the ethereal feelings I get when I meditate at my altar, I grabbed the tarot cards to do a reading. I ask, "What does She want from me?" For which I draw the Page of Swords, reversed, the Six of Swords, upright, and the Lovers, upright. I have to deal with my baggage, basically, but I've got some good things going for me and some good things coming if I can just re-prioritize where my mental energy goes. Around this time the flames briefly flicker into three, instead of two.

I honestly can't say what I believe about the flames. I know what I've read but there are so many meanings and so many possibilities because of what's gone on in my life that who knows? Like all of us, I've just got so much going on and some of what I've been interpreting from this deity I am trying to get close to scares me because following those signs means going against what I feel like I have to do for survival... I know I should trust Her but I really am scared I'm going to end up in a bad or stressful place because I'm not doing things I feel like I need to do to survive and I'm just taking some time to feel those feelingseven though I know that, ultimately, I will follow this deity. I'm tearing up even now and I cried at my altar when the flames started being weird because I don't even know why. Then, tonight, the main candle I use for Her cracks just enough for wax to leak all over the altar cloth. Earlier, after the flames were doing what they were doing I let it catch my wooden incense holder on fire slightly from being so distracted.

Today has just been what the hell.

I also have reason to believe that someone flesh and blood is motivated to enact spiritual violence against me because we got into an argument several months ago and her family conditioned her in a way that she grew up lacking emotional control and lacking the ability to properly deal with confrontation and, in fact, getting overtly upset by confrontation because her family sees confronting her about anything as taboo given her social standing among them. This is coming up months later because our mutual friend brought it up and tried to defend me when she was, perhaps, implying she was going to hex me. It's a whole kind of sad thing and I'm genuinely not throwing shade because I've been told, pretty loud and clear, on multiple occasions, that I need to be more loving as is my nature rather than sharp tongued and blunt as I've grown to be. So, despite myself, I'm on alert for wonky shit happening ON TOP OF my period starting last Saturday and causing me to have an unusually short fuse all freaking week.

So, today just has me thinking about what feels like my entire life and my entire series of decisions that has led me to this point and my head and eyes just felt so tired from it all. My previous spread, when I asked, "How may I get closer to this deity?" I got, all upright, Knight of Cups, Four of Swords, Queen of Cups. I know I have to rest and relax but I don't really know what that looks like in the context of trying to maintain my relationship, not become homeless, and just deal with life in general?

I'm fairly certain a spirit was present during my time at the altar. I've never felt this drained and out of it before. It's just all so new and overwhelming. I just need to feel my feelings right now and hope that tomorrow is a new day to feel good and make personal progress that doesn't end up making me feel this way again.

[ya-dumb-bisque]

Okay but literally people come in and get so close they're like family. They can know every single relative, have played video games with my brothers, spent alone time with my mom, come to family gatherings, spend the night, come over unannounced and be greeted with excitement, be so comfortable that my mom doesn't bother cleaning before they come over, then they just decide to leave and I fucking hate it. And then my family asks about them hey where's _____? Oh you know we got into a fight and after 6 years they just decided they were gonna block me on everything. What's up with you and _______? Oh fuck no. When are you gonna bring __________ back over? What's ___ up to? Why hasn't ______________ come to see you? I'm tired of it I'm tired of not being able to rely on anyone I'm tired of starting over I'm tired of feeling happy and secure but expecting it to end and I'm tired of being replaced IMMEDIATELY when I'm mourning the loss of someone I consider to be family. I'd like to be considered important? I know for the people I love I don't just get rid of them and I can't replace them if you're special to me you're always gonna be special. If you're my #1 I'll always drop anything and everything for you and for once I'd like to fucking be that for someone else. Not just an option. I'm tired of being so easy to forget I don't want to be forgettable I don't want to be replaceable I don't want to be one of many options or a coincidence, or a one sided love nah. Nah nah nah nah. Y'all fuckers give me social anxiety and I don't wanna accept that people leave you and forget about you even when they're on your mind constantly.

[centuriantalevevo]

Eveland line headcanons and shit- lmao-

With Ivy, Ike, and Eki-

With some x reader vibes

Ike has already said that Ivy is built in the boing being department HOWEVER, I think Ivy is also built in the height department- I think she's like 5'6- she tall as fuck in my eyes 😭😭😭

Ivy turns her back for ONE SECOND with a knife- or any weapon in the room for that matter-

Eki:

Ivy: exists

Eki:

Ivy: throwing Eki

Eki: screaming

Ike:

You basically have to babysit Eki because he cannot be trusted alone for even 5 minutes. You have to put him in one of those kid harnesses.

You have to put him in the shopping cart while shopping so he stays put.

He gets the most random bullshit-

"Can we get this? We're gonna get this" a 10 pack of knives, bleach, and then 5 liters of mountain dew.

What's he doing? We don't know- do we WANT to know?? Prolly not-

Eki is starting on his bullshit, Ivy is automatically going for the pressure point- No HE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE TO DO SHIT- THE MOMENT HE EXISTS, SHE'S GOING FOR THE PRESSURE POINT-

Oh ya! Remember Ike saying "OW! She THREW something at me!", Ivy saying "I'm tired so I'm going to go take a nap..." and Ike saying "She's glaring at me-" "I'm po9kojg over trying to make sure she didn't hear me-" "If I don't wake up, it's you guy's fault!"

I like to think that Ivy somehow came into this universe, prolly because of Shu- and she lives with Ike and they just say they're siblings instead of trying to explain what the hell happened- and it works-

Some Alice Of Human Sacrifice type shit- "the smart older sister, the stubborn younger brother"

Of the two, Ivy might be SLIGHTLY older

When reader comes to visit Ike in Sweden I can PROMISE you Ivy is stealing them like yOink-

"Hey when y/n gets here, I'm stealing them from you" "what? No! Back off!" "NO! The 2nd season of All Of Us Are Dead is out and I want to watch it with them!"

Ike is still asleep, dead to the world and y/n wakes up before him for once- but.. Ivy is up before y/n- she usually gets up at like 3 PM because she's up until 5 AM for literally no reason-

"Oh wow you're up before me!" "Yeah, I actually went to bed at a decent time!"

"What's for breakfast? Y'all got cereal?" "Why don't we go out for breakfast, just you and me?" She asks, "what about Ike?" "I'll just leave a note for him, it'll be fine! If he's really worried, he'll call!" She grabs her satchel and that stetchy plastic wristband Keychain thing with her keys and everything, "let's go!"

She has a spair set of keys to the apartment AND Ike's car.

The two go and have breakfast somewhere, coming back a while later to Ike being awake.

"How dare you go without me..." Ivy just shrugs-

I made so many fucking memes in about 5 seconds on mostly Ivy and Eki lmao-

Eki on his way to say hi to y/n

Ivy: nO-

Eki so badly wants to say HI to y/n- he exists for 5 seconds and Ivy is running at him at the speed of LIGHT- "WAIT I JUST WANTED TO SAY HI TO Y/N-" "KILL THE BITCH!!!"

"H e l p"

If we go with Eki sharing the same body as Ike... Eki takes control but y/n instantly calls bullshit and KNOWS its Eki and he's just "I wanted to say Hi-" "And I wanna see Ike." "Aw... you're so mean... you don't love me?" "It's a hit or miss" "🥺🥺🥺"

If the Eveland family are the literal embodiment of Panty and Stocking with Gartbelt it feels like-

Ike replaces Stocking, Ivy replaced Panty

Or Eki replaced Panty, Ivy replaces stocking

Ike AND Eki replace Panty and Ivy replaces Stocking

If you got the "KILL THE BITCH" reference, ily- if not it's a quote from that show-

Eki actively likes to shit on Miku just to piss Ike off-

"Miku sucks, why do you like her-"

"I'm about to end the entire Damm world and make it look like an accident."

"no wonder you act like that, you like Miku"

"No wonder your mom thinks your a failure, you're EKI"

Eki shoots grenade bullets but he's not ready to have them shot right back-

Ivy DOES roundhouse kick him-

Ivy DOES hold him by his collar over a ledge like i'ma drop you- oH- I almost dropped you!!

Ike: asleep

Eki: I'ma st-

Ivy: hello motherfucker-

Eki: exists

Ivy: I'm about to end this mans whole career

Ike speaking Swedish, English, and Japanese

Ivy speaking those 3 and like 2 other languages-

Eki, struggling to speak English without a whole ass swedish accent and trying to grasp English grammar while screaming in agony

Eki: I-

Ivy: I am fluent in over 6 million forms of kicking your ass

Eki: I... wanna take a nap. Everything I make.. FUCKING... S U C K S

Eki: It's bad.

Eki: AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Ivy: You know that feeling about when you're about to lose your job life, sweety?

Eki: uh- n-

Ivy: It's a horrible feeling, sweety.

Ivy: I love you Ikey

Eki: its Eki-

Ivy: I couldn't bare to see you leave, I couldn't! I couldn't do it!

Eki: uh- thanks I-

Ivy: So here *gives him a note*

"You're fired lol Your life subscription has expired lol"

Ike: *sobbing*

Ivy: Ike, what's wrong?

Ike: Ivy... I can't speak english very well... my Swedish accent is too strong

Ivy: what do you mean? I hear nothing wrong with your English!

Ike: I can't say... road... roller..

Ivy: what?

Ike: road roller!

Ivy: w h a t ?

Ike: ROAD ROLLER

Ivy: I can't understand you!

Ike: forget it! God!

Ivy: I ' m S o r r y -

Ike: s h u t u p

Halo: come on now! All of us are great!

Ike: says the enby with a weird color scheme for both their outfit and stream overlay

Halo: that's the last time I'm helping a swedish VTuber

Ivy: that's racist-

Ike: you freaking cracker-

Ivy: THAT'S REALLY RACIST-

Halo and Ike: arguing

Ivy: Oh no...

Shu: *opera singing voice* aaaaaaa! Hey guys! What's up?

Eki, with a grin: I FINALLY GOT AN ENGLISH UTAU!

Covered in dust again

Eki: w a t ???

(Based off of "Luka can't say road roller" where Ike replaces Luka, Ivy replaces Al, Halo replaces Sweet Ann, Shy replaces Prima, and Eki replaces Miku)

I'm having Ike, Ivy, and Eki brianrot plz help

[inkspill-nebula]

As a Millennial...

Let me just say something real quick. You don't have to listen, because unlike so may people I know I'm not here to demand your attention. I know you won't listen anyway, but I don't care anymore. I'm just here to say what needs to be said.

Stop telling us to “put away the juice boxes and grow up”! I'm tired of hearing people say that the millennial are stubborn and babyish. I'm tired of hearing that we're the generation that has never had their dreams shattered. We are the generation who has had every single dream we had shattered! You were the ones who told us that we could be anything we wanted to be. You were the ones who told us that we could have anything we worked for. You were the ones who told us that money and stuff were good enough to replace family! YOU SHOWED US THIS! I am the one of very few of my friends in my age group who lives with both of the parents they were born to. What image do you think that gives us? Do you really expect us to believe that you value family over work, because I don't see it in your behavior. Can you blame us for not wanting to go out and get married at 16, because it certainly hasn't worked out well for you guys, and because of that WE GREW UP WITHOUT FAMILIES.

Stop saying we don't work. Out of almost all of my friends, I am the only one without a job, and that's mainly because there are most millennial than jobs in this lovely contract based economy you've built. THERE IS NO CAREER ANYMORE. So that's dream three down the drain. We can't have what we work for. And stop telling us to shut up about the minimum wage. Your minimum wage paid for a house back then, ours doesn't, The cost of houses has gone up way more than the minimum wage. You guys make $50 an hour or better when you have work in this lovely gig economy, so what do you think $15 is doing for us? It's not paying for this apartment, I'll tell you that. That's why were staying at home. Trust me, I think we'd all love to go.

And some of us do. We live four and five in one bedroom apartments near the colleges we're expected to go to but can't really afford and probably wouldn't be at if we had any other choice in this lovely one path world you've built for us. We live four and five in one space. We've lost all concept of privacy, and you call us crazy for it. Maybe if you'd lighten up and share a little we could make some change here.

Yes, we want to change the system. You tried to change they system two if you remember. Remember the civil rights movement? Remember the 1960's and the hippies? We know about 'em. Here's the thing though, we're trying to find happiness in the places psychology and science says they'll be, not the bottom of the bottle, the butt of the cigarette, or the bowl of the pipe. Y'all were the ones who said we needed the common core, standardized tested, one path education. It's not our fault we got smart.

I'm sorry you think we're failing you. We all kinda think we're failing too. Honestly, us millennial are at such a high risk of mental health issues. It's because you've convinced us that we mean nothing to this world, and we believe it. Don't tell us we haven't had our dreams shattered. We already know that dreams are futile endeavors. Don;t call us cry babies, because we're fucking trying, and maybe you're the ones who don't know what it's like to try and have every attempt you've ever made shot down. I'm sorry we're not good enough for you. I'm sorry we've let you down. I'm sorry that we weren't enough to keep our families from getting a divorce. I'm sorry we don't make enough money to hold up our end. I'm sorry we can't afford to care for you as you start to reach retirement age. I'm sorry that no matter what I do it will never be enough to fix this broken world. WE ALL ARE.

I'm sorry I wasted your time.

...........................................................................

Want my sources?

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58b812f4e4b0e9d19b926583

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/9687244

The beast that started it all

http://nypost.com/2016/03/21/millennials-need-to-put-away-the-juice-boxes-and-grow-up/

[just-another-hhazbin]

I just reblog this every so often cause some of y’all exhaust me

Alright it is time to risk getting myself cancelled. Today we’re going to be talking about aspd, aka anti-social personality disorder.  I’m making this post because I haven’t seen one that discusses everything I wanna talk about so here we are.

Keep reading