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ravengards-rogue · 8 days ago

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bright as the morning, soft as the rain

sebastian (stardew valley) x reader

✧ tags : gender neutral reader, canon divergence, a lot of author liberties, alcohol, fluffy, pre-relationship, mildly suggestive but sooo mildly lol.

✧ wc : 3.4k (this is ridiculous lol)

✧ a/n : the thing to get me out of my writing slump being sdv fanfiction is hilarious.

hi! this is the first part to a silly little alternative first kiss series i have planned for the stardew romanceable characters. i think the other ones will be shorter (hopefully but lol).

i will link the rest of them as they get posted. i hope u like. rbs appreciated. also tagging @antique-remains (hi this is fang on my side blog lol)

✧ synopsis : sebastian wants to do anything but think of you. he's failing miserably on that front. sam and abigail are not helping.

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“Earth to Sebastian,” Sam snaps his fingers in front of Sebastian’s face. Sebastian jumps in his skin. “What’s with you today? If you’re not gonna take our pool playing tradition seriously, I’m not playing.”

He swipes a hand over his face, cursing under his breath. Half-empty Joja-Cola can sits directly besides his pool stick, the faint air of smoke and liquor in the air. Right. He’s here to play pool.

He pinches the bridge of his nose with exasperation, shaking off the feeling before scratching the back of his neck.

“No, sorry. I wanna play, just…give me a sec.”

“Got something on your mind Seb?” Abigail prods, unfortunately intuitive. Sebastian scowls at her. She stands to her feet to get closer, sitting on the edge of the pool table with her cheek turned just enough to look at him. Her smile is coy. “A certain someone, maybe?”

His scowl deepens, lip curled in distaste. “No. Move. You’re in my way.”

“You’re a bad liar.” Abigail says with a resigned sigh, arms crossed. “You weren’t this spacey last time you dated someone. ”

“Fuck off,” Sebastian sighs. “It’s not like that yet.”

Abigail grins before Sebastian can correct the slip up. “Yet. Yet, he says.”

Sebastian feels himself blush. “Ugh.”

He sighs as he stands back up, leaning against his pool stick. Sam stops whatever he was doing (messing with the pool table deliberately, Sebastian assumes), taking newfound interest in the conversation.

“Oh, you two talking about our new neighbor?”

“Not really new. It’s been like… what a year or two almost?” Abigail adds. Sam shrugs.

“That’s true. But it feels new to me anyway.” Sam says. He gives up on pool it seems like, abandoning his stick on the table in favor of navigating to the box pizza balancing on another table nearby and his drink. Sebastian watches him shimmy a slice of the pie, not bothering to blow on it as he eats. “Oh is that why your heads in the clouds? Figures.”

“I didn’t say that. Abigail said that.”

“And you’re saying she’s wrong?”

Sebastian huffs. “…Yes.”

Sam laughs good-naturedly. “Pfft. Uh-huh, yeah. I super believe you.”

“Fuck you both.”

“Come on, Seb. It’s not like everyone in town doesn’t know.”

Sebastian’s frown deepens. “Not everyone.”

Sam seats himself on the couch again and Abigail joins him. It creaks under the weight of them as they get comfortable together. Sebastian stays where he is, sitting on the tables edge with a drink in his hand and an itch for a cigarette.

Sam counts on his fingers. “Your mom knows. My mom knows. Abby’s mom knows. If they all know then our dads definitely also know. Who else does that leave? Our towns tiny dude. Like I’d say Elliot doesn’t, but he’s here on Friday’s and he catches up with gossip all the time. So basically everyone.”

“…Shit.”

“See? Told you.”

Sebastian doesn’t need everyone to know what’s going on between you. He doesn’t even know what’s going on between you. It’s taken him longer than he cares to admit to even acknowledge that there was something there. And he didn’t know it was mutual until recently when Abigail came dropped by to tell him she overheard her dad explaining old Pelican Town traditions on dating and romance.

(Abigail always describes things in excruciating detail, adding all the bells and whistles. This makes her great to play the Solarion Chronicles with.

It also makes her good at artfully recounting interactions. He can easily picture you the way she said she saw you, overalls half unbuttoned, dirt covered and leaning over the counter just slightly giving Pierre your rapt attention.

The thought of it is enough to trigger some sense of affection he’s never entirely felt before.)

It’s not like Sebastian is against the idea of dating you, it’s just—

“I think you should go out with them Seb. I like ‘em a lot more than your exes.”

Sebastian sighs. “You guys know why I’m on the fence.”

Sam shrugs. “Does they even count though? They’re not actually from here. They live here sure but they didn’t grow up here.”

“Right? That’s what I think too. Might as well go for it.” Abigail shrugs, glancing at Sebastian. “I really don’t get why you’re hesitating. Something else has to bugging you.”

“I thought that too.” Sam adds.

A faint blush creeps up his neck. He loves his friends and sometimes, he appreciates how well they know him. Times like this, he thinks it wouldn’t kill them to be a little less perceptive.

They’re not wrong. It is something of a flimsy excuse to try not to think about you. Sebastian has always had a not dating policy about people he grew up with. He nearly dated Abigail in highschool and it was a shitshow. So he’s vowed to never do it again.

But that’s not the real reason he’s been rejecting the possibility in his head. He uses it more for himself than anyone else. It’s not like he can give them the real answer because he thinks it’s one hundred times more embarrassing.

How the fuck is he meant to tell them the reason he keeps hesitating to define your relationship is because he feels like he likes you too much?

That’s the real reason he’s going in circles about it. It’s so cringe it makes him want to break out in hives but well, it is true. Sebastian likes you—like really fucking likes you—and it’s freaking him out because he thinks it’s the first time he’s really liked anyone.

Dating has never been all that fun for Sebastian. It wasn’t something that felt meaningful. He dated mostly in college and only one of those relationships lasted a significant amount of time. And even then the relationship was never all that genuine. They ultimately broke up because Sebastian realized they were fundamentally incompatible. As bad as it sounds, there wasn’t a real sense of attachment there, not once. It was just convenient for both of them. He realized at that point he should probably just focus on himself.

That was about when he moved back home to the valley to live with his family in his post graduation.

And he had honestly expected it to be another few mundane years, akin to his early adolescence. He was so sure that he would spend it with the same restless feeling in his stomach, the same longing to be somewhere else. If he could never feel any belonging, at least he wanted to be somewhere he could blend in. He thought for sure moving back to Pelican Town was going to be nothing but dreadful and boring and existential. That he would come back and remember why he wanted to leave in the first place.

Until one day, someone from the city moved into the old, overgrown farm and turned the entirety of the valley upside down.

When you met for the first time, Sebastian honestly didn’t care. Nothing goes on in Pelican Town, so he figured you’d be the main subject of gossip for a few weeks before ultimately blending into the background of his life just like everyone else. He also didn’t think you’d last long living here. You were part of the corporate rat race he so detests and you didn’t grow up in the valley. It’s a hard place to get used to after living somewhere more populated.

Against all odds though - you did stay. And you’ve integrated yourself so much with the people living—himself included here it kind of baffles him. He doesn’t entirely remember what it was like before you came here.

Sebastian couldn’t have predicted in a million years that that stupid help wanted sign in front of Pierre’s store would start actually being useful. But lo and behold, at least three times a week he finds you with full pockets - jogging after whomever last posted to give them what they need. And you do that without anyone really asking you too.

You’re just so… helpful. And social in a way he can’t describe. Everyone in town has nothing but nice things to say about you. You’ve given everyone a gift on their birthday thus far. You’re keeping the entire economy afloat with your farm right now and you regularly clear those mines out for monsters. You even paid for the bus to get repaired, too - so now it’s up and running again.

You’re full of surprises. And easy to adore, himself included.

What surprises him most often is how easy it is for him to be around you. He doesn’t turn you away even when you visit his room sharply at 9am and hover over him in bed. He doesn’t get even the slightest bit upset when you have a mundane and disruptive conversation hours before he usually gets up. He keeps everything you’ve ever gifted him, and he often thinks of inviting you to things he does with his friends. He smiles when he sees you running around doing some chore, frantic and covered in muck - all mess and sunlight.

You’re… nice. Honest, hard-working, and cheerful. Kind. Sincere in wanting to know him. You should completely and utterly exhaust him given those are your main characteristics. You should be someone he’s simply fundamentally incompatible with.

But more than anything, you’re thoughtful. And it disarms him so utterly he feels overwhelmed by the thought. From the start, you put in a lot of effort into maintaining connections and he was no different. It’s just impacted him so much more than he thought it would. If he lets himself think too far on it, he really won’t stop thinking about you.

To the point he’s been picturing what it’s like to live on the farm. He’s in deep.

Despite all of your idiosyncrasies, you really seem to give a shit about things in a way that feels utterly foreign to him. This extends to anything and everything. It extends to Sebastian, and it shows in the ways you don’t undermine him. Little things. You take his work seriously and apologize for disturbing him, you don’t immediately take the side of his family when he talks about them despite being friends with them too, you don’t interrogate him about what he is or is not comfortable with. You show up and linger in his life, and then you go off to your own thing.

More and more, he gets the urge to stop you before you go. It’s too much. It makes him act…lame and he’s not too fond of it. He’s never really felt this strongly about anyone before and he’s a little bit of a wreck about what it does to him. So it’s not that he doesn’t want to date you, but more that he does so bad he doesn’t even want to admit it.

But well.. He isn’t sure it’s even working. As soon as you walk into a room it’s like—

He’s lost in his thoughts for a while, only to get pulled out of them by some big commotion happening in the main part of the saloon.

“Ah, you’re here. What perfect timing kid,”

Shit. Shit

Only somewhat obscured by the distance and wall separating their space from the bar - Sebastian catches a glimpse of you and feels something uncomfortably warm in his chest. His friends both make little oooh sounds, no doubt planning to do something stupid. He should intervene but he gets too caught up in pretending he doesn’t see you. Turning away stiffly, he pretends to be looking at something else while he listens on your conversation. It’s not too hard to hear, anyway.

“Hi, Pam.” He can practically hear the smile in your voice. “Here’s your ale. Managed to grow a hops plant indoors this season so the brew is pretty fresh. It’s strong, fair warning.”

A beat of muffle conversations follows up with a a loud sigh. “That’s exactly what I needed. Your pretty good with your liquor and spirits, huh kid? Thanks for the drink. Here’s what I owe ya.”

“Selling alcohol under the table at my establishment? Tsk tsk.” Gus adds.

It’s at this point Sebastian lets himself look at you properly. You lean with your elbows against the counter. You look a mess like usual, but you’ve got on a cowboy hat today that Sebastian finds ridiculously cute. You smile at Gus sheepishly.

“Sorry. Can I buy myself a drink to make up for it?” You offer.

“I’ll do you one better and give it to you on the house.”

“Aw, what? Can’t let you do that Gus.”

“You can and you will. You’re always looking out for everyone. Here, it’s a nice imported IPA. Nice and cold. Have a drink and go relax. Some of your friends are here too tonight I think.”

“Oh?”

On cue, you turn your head to the group of them. When you and Sebastian meet eyes, you brighten visbly - all smiles. He’s so caught up in it, he doesn’t even catch Sam next to him until he throw an arm around his shoulder and waves you over.

You weave through the tables until you cross the threshold of their little hide-out. Abigail greets you first with a short sidehug before you go over to him and Sam.

“Hey,”

“Hi Sam.” You pause, tilting your head. “Did you cut your hair? It’s shorter than usual.”

Sam beams. “I did! And you’re the first one to notice, other than my mom. Goes to show who my real friends are,”

Sebastian nudges him, pulling away from his grip. “I see enough of your face everyday. There’s nothing for me to observe.”

“It looks nice,” You add. Charming and genuine. Sam smiles at you.

“Thanks,”

Sebastian is weirdly jealous until you address him in conversation. “Hey to you too Sebastian.”

His heart thumps. This is ridiculous. He swallows. “Hey. Uh. How have you been?”

Awkward. So awkward. You smile a little and lean on the pool table besides him with your drink, taking a sip. “Good. Busy as usually getting ready for Winter. Renovated our coop recently so I’ve got a whole bunch of baby bunnies I gotta take care of. Went and bought another heater, some extra hay. Just farm stuff. Not very interesting,”

“I find it interesting,” He replies quickly. You lip twitches in a smile.

“I’m glad.”

“Baby bunnies sound so cute,” Abigail adds. Sebastian glances at her as she joins the rest of them. “What else have you got in there?”

“A little of everything. Chickens, ducks. I’ve got a void chicken too, kinda freaky. Oh and these little dino looking guys.”

Abigail looks bright eyed. “Would it be like… weird if I asked to go over? I kinda wanna see them?”

You laugh. “Not at all. I don’t mind. You could honestly go over whenever but it’s hard to navigate the farm if I’m not there, though I’m trying to fix that this upcoming winter.”

You glance then at Sebastian, eyes almost sparkling. “You should come over sometime, too. You’d like the void chicken I think. And I’ve got a slime hutch.”

Sebastian sputters at the obvious invitation only barely managing to cover up the shock to his system. You don’t seem put off, but it’s obvious you know what you’re doing. He’s going to explode.

Abigail and Sam make not-so-subtle eye contact before Sam clears his throat.

“Well, uh, me and Abi are gonna head out. We’ve got some stuff to catch up on, but there’s still a few hours until the saloon closes so you two should stay here and finish up our drinks and stuff. Uh… yeah. See you again,”

Sam nods, quickly rifling for his things. Abigail follows in his foot steps.

“Mhm, yep. See you,”

Sam gives him one last encouraging look before turning around and leaving. The two of them scurry off in a blink of an eye, before Sebastian can get a single word in about the situation or tell them to stay. And now he’s alone with you, quietly wondering if it’s as awkward as it feels.

You’re the one to break the ice. “Do you have anywhere you need to be tomorrow?”

Sebastian blinks. “Uh no. Not really.”

“Me either. We should stay back then, for a little while.” You offer with a shrug. “Why not, right?”

Right. Sebastian is being really chill about this entire interaction. “Right.”

“I’m glad I got to see you tonight,” You say, out of the blue. Sebastian nearly jumps in his skin at the admission. “I’ve been pretty busy with the growing season ending so I haven’t been you know, able to come by as often. I don’t know if it made a huge difference to you but—“

“It did.” He blurts out. Your mouth opens then closes again, a blush crawling up his neck as he tucks his chin in embarrassment. “It was uh, weird for me. I know you’re busy and I like my alone time but I did… miss you.”

“Yeah?”

He’s almost too afraid to meet your eyes. When he manages - you’re smiling fondly, sweetly with a sense of amusement. It rolls off of you in waves and it becomes clear to him in that split second that you don’t really intend to hide how you feel despite him being so hellbent on making sure he does. You’re not hiding that you like him. It feels stupidly warm and fuzzy.

You look like you’ve been working all day and you smell a little like grass and rain in a way that makes him want to draw that much closer to you. So he does, leaving into your space.

“Yeah.” He manages, barely getting the words out without being a complete wreck. “It’s new for me.”

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder or whatever they say.” And then, even more sweetly. “I missed you too.”

Fuck. You’re… fuck.

Sebastian pretends to wipe something from his face just to cover it and make his blush less obvious. This is embarrassing. He likes you so much and for what.

There’s a million things he wants to tell you but he can’t find the words for any of them. So he tucks in on himself and wonders how the fuck he would ever go about actually dating you.

You inch closer to him. Tentative, until your thighs are touching. He doesn’t move away.

Suddenly, you’re close to him than you’ve ever been. Looking from the corner of your eye, Sebastian turns his head to meet your gaze. You’re an inch apart, and he’s looking at your lips - slightly chapped from the weather. The faint scent of alcohol on your breath makes him dizzy. Your smile is what does him in ultimately. A subtle tug at the corners of your mouth, a little teeth. Something about it precious.

“Hey,” You mutter.

“Hm,”

“Can I kiss you?”

He responds with leaning forward to do it first. It’s chaste and easy, and he does it because you’ve already taken so many first steps and he should, at least, take this one. So he leans into kiss you and it feels like his whole body is melting. It’s brief and light and he pulls away before it feels like it should be over.

You part for a breath, a single heartbeat - before your hands go up to cradle the side of his face. You kiss him deeper that time. A real kiss where he can taste you enough to know that you drank - one he would only want to do in the privacy of this confined spaced. He feels you in your entirety - returns your gesture with a careful hand on your waist that you don’t pull away from.

And it doesn’t stop. Like neither of you want it too, despite everything else. Despite the fact he’s doing this in the bar of his hometown where everyone will gossip about it without doubt, and despite knowing that - the drive to kiss you is stronger than his usual sensibilities. So you kiss and kiss and kiss, short presses followed by long, firm ones. A slight brush of tongue, the soft nip of teeth as you tease and tug. All mirth and amusement and fondness and bravery and god he is so into you it’s ridiculous.��

You manage to pull away from each other after a while. His lips are tingly. And there’s a sheepishness to you both that makes it hard for him to look your way.

“Hey, Sebastian.”

He clears his throat.

“Uh. Yeah?”

“I’m gonna ask you out tomorrow. Properly.”

He blushes. “…I’d be cool with that.”

You grin. “Yeah?”

Shit he’s happy. He is not gonna get a lick of sleep tonight. He smiles a little to himself.

“Yeah.”

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#sdv x reader #sebastian sdv x reader #sdv fluff #sebastian sdv fluff #rogues love letters

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mulletpermsicantlookaway · 5 months ago

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The Cupbearer, Part 2

This is my continuation from where @joshslater left off. The original is reblogged here as well.

Day 4, 9:28

As Tyler looked on, I put the sealed cup in my backpack. I was about to leave, but then I turned and really looked at him, trying to figure out what was going on.

“Honestly, Tyler, is there anything left of you in there? I mean, do you still care about me at all, or do you just care about me getting Steve with this…this thing?”

For a second, his cocky smirk vanished. He almost looked thoughtful. Maybe he was.

“Bro, it’s not as if I didn’t try to warn you. Why do you think I was avoiding you? You shouldn’t have pushed me so hard. I got angry and lost it, and believe me, bro, I can get super aggressive now, super fast. You weren’t on the list yet. You were safe. Probably.”

“But you were my best friend! I couldn’t just desert you, not after all we’d been for each other, not without finding out why!”

“Look, bro, now you know why, mostly. Even if I’d wanted, it’s not as if I could have just hung out with you like before. And after I – changed – you and I didn’t have anything in common anymore. Seriously, dude, you have no idea how fucking annoying you nerds are! Every time I see one of you – even, even you – I just want to stuff you in a locker. Do I remember being your friend? Is that what you want to know? I do. I’m sorry. For all the fat lot of good it does us now. But cheer up! You and I’ll be friends again now, bro. Real soon.”

Damn. I felt sorry for him, but that hateful, cocky smirk was back, and I wanted to slap that stupid smile off his face. Maybe he was a victim, but he didn’t look like one. He and I will be friends again soon? I couldn’t help it; I started crying again as I realized what was going to happen to me.

“I hate you so fucking much, Tyler. And I’m going to end up just like you, aren’t I? A big brute with a cocky smile, ready to terrorize any nerd that comes along. ‘You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.’ Damn! Fuck! I should just end this now and jump off a bridge or run out in front of a bus or something. Then this nightmare would finally be fucking over!

Tyler suddenly grabbed me by my shoulders. Hard. His eyes bored into mine. He let go his right hand long enough to smack my face before grabbing me even tighter. Shit, he was strong now! There was no way I could move. My face stung.

“Dude, seriously, none of that! DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! Stop it now! Trust me. Don’t try. It won’t work.”

He didn’t look so cocky now, but I wasn’t sure if he was worried about me or what. He still gripped me so hard I couldn’t move. Between sobs, I said: “How do you know it won’t work?”

The look in his eyes intensified. Was it anger? Pain? Fear? Was he afraid of what I might do, or was something else going on? I said, “No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. But can you at least tell me what it’s gonna be like? Can you tell me if I’ve got anything to fucking live for?”

“Bro, I wish I could. I do. But I can’t explain it the way you want. You’ll have to find out for yourself. I’m sorry. I truly am. Believe me, bro, I just don’t remember much about what happened.”

“But are you happy now, Tyler?” I said, still sobbing. “I mean, you look great and all that, as big dumb brutes go. You’re as strong as an ox, and you seem happy enough, going out with Brittney and hanging out with the guys and all that. Look, I just need to know that I’ll be okay. I just need to know that there’s some hope that I won’t be miserable for the rest of my life.”

Tyler relaxed his grip a tiny bit.

“Look, bro, if that’s what you really want to know – yes, you’ll be okay. You’ll be better than okay. You will. You’ll probably be happier than you’ve ever been. I am. But you’re not there yet. And the sooner you find Steve and do what you need to, the sooner you’ll be done. Because you’re right about one thing – resistance is futile.”

“Nerding out on me, eh, jock boy? Yeah, resistance is futile, all right. I know.”

I sighed and stopped sobbing. Tyler released his grip and pushed me away. I think he was trying to be gentle about it, but I still staggered a bit. The jock boy didn’t know his own strength yet. I rubbed my sore cheek gingerly. With that unreadable look still on his face, he said quietly:

“I’ll tell you another secret. Girls will never admit it, but they really like – how did you put it – big dumb brutes? And some boys do, too. Anyway, bro, it’s high time for both of us to be out of here before someone comes looking. Now go! Just don’t do anything stupid. You know what I mean – don’t think about doing any of those things you were talking about. Text me if you have to. Now fucking get out of here or I really will have to beat you up, while I still can, anyway.

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Tyler smirked at me. The unreadable look was gone, as if it had never been, and the cocky asshole was back. “Bro, you’re already starting to turn. Maybe you haven’t noticed. Now get lost! See you soon.”

Day 4, 10:42

That talk with Tyler gave me a lot to think about, and I’m not sure if I feel better or worse. It’s nice to have some hope that I’ll be happy again. And I think I got a glimpse of the old Tyler inside the hulking, arrogant jock that he’s become. Part of him seems to care about me still. But I was hoping to have this damn thing off today. With it vibrating all the time, all I can think of is getting off, which is the one thing I can’t do. I’m hot, then I’m cold, but I’m sweaty even when I’m cold. I’m so horny I can’t even think. I might as well have skipped all my classes, because I don’t remember anything. I really want to hit someone right now. Fuck Tyler! And what did he mean about me starting to turn?

Day 4, 11:28

At first, I was hoping it was my deranged imagination, but I’m almost certain the cup is starting to feel tighter now. A lot tighter. I wish I could believe it’s because it’s shrinking, but I know better. I saw what it did to Tyler, up close and personal. I have got to find that fucking nerd Steve today, or I won’t be able to get it on him until Monday, and I’ll be stuck on edge all weekend. These chinos aren’t going to work much longer. They’re starting to get too tight. And even worse, they’re a little highwater. Fuck! Am I getting taller?

Day 4, 14:17

Suddenly I can’t stop eating. I gorged myself at lunch. Out of nowhere I had a huge appetite. I ate two lunches and I’m still hungry. Steve is nowhere to be found. He either wasn’t in school today or was sent home early. I’ll have to make it through the weekend with vibrating junk! Fuck! I need this off now before I change any more.

Day 4, 16:57

I’d had enough. After school, I didn’t go home. I went to where there’s a nice, high overpass over a busy road. I was going to jump and be done with it. I touched the railing, thinking I would just fling myself over, but as soon as my hands touched the railing, that thing – I don’t know whether it froze me or shocked me or what. When I came to, I was sitting on the curb on the other side of the overpass with some passer-by asking me if I was okay. No, I was not okay! I have no idea how long I was out. But I told her I was fine. I got up and tried to go home, but the cup started freezing me and buzzing like mad as soon as I got anywhere near that overpass. I had to go around and go home another way. It made me wonder: did Tyler try something like this? He did try to warn me, and he was so intense about it, too. At this point, I was so keyed up that I didn’t walk; I actually ran home. Between the cup and the too-tight chinos, I’m sure I looked as uncomfortable as I felt, but I needed to burn off some of my frustration. The weird thing is that the cup seemed to vibrate a lot less when I was running. I could almost think.

Day 4, 20:23

I ate everything in sight at dinner. If this continues, I might have to get a job after school just to pay for the extra food. I shut myself in my room afterward, got on the bed, and stared at the ceiling, bored out of my mind. I just couldn’t get into my comic books or video games with the constant vibration going on. I had to find another way to distract myself. I started doing sit-ups and push-ups and squats and any other exercise I could think of. It was odd, but the more active I was, the vibration in the cup either seemed to stop or was just easier to ignore. Once I’d finally worn myself out, I texted Tyler and asked him if he had a pair of sweatpants I could borrow. He didn’t get back to me right away. There was a football game, naturally. But he said he’d stop by in the morning and bring me something I could wear.

Day 5

It seems stupid to do a bunch of different reports for the same day, so I’ll just do one. After breakfast, Tyler the jock actually dropped by as promised! He probably needed to go watch a football game afterwards to purge himself of any nerdiness he might have picked up at our house, but he came. I really hadn’t expected him to show. And he brought me not one but two pairs of his old sweatpants, a pair of the kind of shorts that jocks tend to wear, and a pair of shoes. It’s good he thought of shoes, because mine were getting tight enough to be uncomfortable. This pair doesn’t fit him anymore, but they’re only a little bit big on me. For now. They smell like jock, of course, but I’ll have to live with that. I don’t see myself wearing the shorts. Maybe they’d be comfortable and practical, but they’re ugly, and I’m not a jock yet. I think the sweatpants will do a better job of covering up the stink from the cup. Unfortunately, I’ll probably have to wear sweatpants to school on Monday. Anyway, it was nice of Tyler to bring me the stuff, and he wasn’t being obnoxious. He seemed kind of chill, actually. Maybe I understand him a little better now. He didn’t stay long, but he probably can’t be seen hanging around me until I’m a jock, too. In any case, you rarely see a jock separate from the herd.

It was my mother’s first glimpse of the new, improved Tyler. She was obviously surprised, but she covered it well enough. After he left, she said something like, “Tyler’s been working out a lot lately, hasn’t he? He looks like a completely different person. I hardly recognized him.”

That gave me my opening. I finally asked her the question that had been on my mind since Day 2. I said something like: “So, if I started to get into working out and football stuff like Tyler, and I started getting big and built like him, and I started hanging out with his jock friends, would that freak you out?”

She looked at me thoughtfully for a bit. Then she said something like, “He’s your best friend. I can tell it’s been really hard on you that his interests have changed. But honey, I’m fine with whatever you want to do - as long as it’s what you want and it makes you happy.” So there I have it. I guess I can put my biggest worry to rest. She’ll be okay with a jock son.

Anyway, after that it was so fucking boring in my room that I jogged as best I could to a park that has those pull-up bars and push-up bars and other stuff for doing a circuit workout or whatever they call it. Like yesterday, it seemed that the vibrating from the cup stopped the more I stayed active. And boy, did I stay active. I did every exercise as best I could until every muscle was so sore I could hardly move. Even I knew that wasn’t the right way to work out, but I needed the relief from the cup. I also hoped to make myself so exhausted that I could sleep better. It worked. My vibrating junk only woke me up a few times during the night. But now the cup is a lot tighter. A lot. I’m not sure if that makes the vibration better or worse, but the worst part is still the constant horniness without being able get off.

Speaking of getting off, I’d better be getting this thing off on Monday!

Day 6

Judging from the little I know about working out, I should have been really sore today. I wasn’t. My guess is the cup does something to speed development and recovery, because I am already seeing some muscle. Even I know that I shouldn’t be able to see a visible change in a day! This thing is really messing with me. I already knew I was starting to smell more like locker room, but now I’m getting hairier. I don’t know what’s going on under the cup, of course, but my legs are hairier, my pits are hairier, and my abs and forearms are hairier. My nipples are super sensitive, and they’re poking up under my T-shirts. Holy shit! I’m getting little hairs all around them, too, and in the middle of my chest! I’m turning into a fucking neanderthal.

As if all this weren’t enough, my throat started to feel scratchy, as if I were coming down with a cold, and I sounded hoarse. I told Mom I wasn’t feeling well. In any case, there was no way I was going to go to church wearing sweatpants with the smell of the cup rolling off me. In the afternoon, I felt a bit better, although my voice was still really rough and hoarse. I went to the park again. I’ve never seen anyone I know there; it’s not very close to my house or the school. I wore Tyler’s old shoes, which fit me perfectly today. By the basketball hoops, there are usually a few random guys playing a pick-up game. Now, I didn’t know much more about basketball than what a basketball looks like, but I played for a while. It could have been worse. I didn’t make a complete fool of myself, and the smell coming off me isn’t nearly as noticeable outside. I was wearing Tyler’s shorts, so I looked as right for the part as I could manage. When I got home, my voice was so hoarse that I could hardly whisper.

As I’d hoped, all the activity calmed down the vibrations from the cup. Speaking of which, I keep thinking the thing can’t possibly get any tighter, but it is. And I thought I was horny before; now it’s so bad that I can hardly see straight.

When I was getting ready for bed, something about my face looked different in the mirror. I looked scruffy. I think maybe that shaving once a week isn’t going to cut it anymore. My eyebrows were looking a little thick, too. Even worse, it looks as if I’ve got the start of a unibrow. It might be my imagination, but my features seem different, I don’t know, bigger or heavier or something. A little lunkheaded. It’d better be my imagination, because I do not want to start looking like one of them. I’ve got to get rid of this thing!

Day 7

This is scary. I’m getting ready for school, and now even Tyler’s old sweatpants are starting to get a bit form fitting, if you know what I mean. And they’re a little high water, too. My T-shirt looks really tight, and I know it didn’t shrink. It’s uncomfortable, but I hardly notice it compared to the tightness of the you-know-what. It feels tight enough to pop itself off now. Maybe it will? I know I’m still growing, but the cup has got to be speeding things up. Anyway, the first order of business today is finding that nerd Steve and giving him his cup. I’m sorry for Steve, even if he is a fucking dweeb, but I have got to be done with this.

Once I got to school, the rest of the morning passed in a blur. Right before lunch, Tyler texted me that he needed to see me, so we agreed to meet as soon as we could in the most out-of-the-way men’s room in the school. When I went in, there was only one other guy there, some random nerd I didn’t know. Tyler came in a moment later, fixed the nerd with his best jock glare and said “Out, nerd. Now!”. The guy scuttled out with a look of terror on his face, but I had sympathy only for myself. Turning to me with his trademark cocky smirk, Tyler said:

“Congrats, bro! You did it! You’re second on the list now. So go down to the locker rooms tomorrow sometime between, say, 10 and 11 tomorrow and everything should be ready.”

“Dude, am I, like, missing something?” Something about me sounded way off, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. “What’d I do?”

“Well, I didn’t see it myself, but you know Derek? Blond buzz cut, linebacker and built like it? Anyway, Derek told me you got Steve O’Connor this morning between first and second period. You walked right up to Steve and popped it on him while Steve was still trying to figure out what you wanted. He just stood there, pale as a ghost, and said “What’d you just do to me?” You walked away, but then turned around and said, “Just a little present for you, nerd. Have fun trying to walk!”. And then Steve, he’s still standing there after you left, spluttering, “I don’t understand! What’s this smell?” and looking as though he’s going to throw up. According to Derek, he was still standing there in the hallway looking lost when the next bell rang.

Holy shit! I’m sure the look on my face must have been fascinating, but I couldn’t see it. The cup started vibrating like a mad thing. I should have been sick to my stomach. I should have fainted. But really, I was just relieved. Incredibly relieved. And more than a bit freaked out that I didn’t remember any of it. I said:

“Bro, seriously, I do not remember any of that shit. I don’t remember anything from this morning.” Something was still off; I sounded strange. “Wait, dude, is my voice, like, lower?”

“Yeah, actually. You sound different. But, bro, I told you were turning already. I can see it, and probably other people can now, too. You’re taller, and you’re bigger, too. I know you haven’t started to buff out a lot yet. That doesn’t really happen until the cup comes off, and it doesn’t happen right away, but you’re already starting. And that’s fast work, bro; some guys don’t start showing for weeks. You’re going to be fucking awesome!”

And then he grabbed me in a quick, hard, bro hug and patted me on the back with his meaty paw. I was stunned. My bro Tyler thought I was going to be awesome! I was so pleased, so stupidly pleased at attention from Tyler that I forgot for a minute that I had spent all morning at school and remembered none of it. That should have frightened the living shit out of me. And let’s not forget that Ty-boy was the whole reason that I was in this mess to begin with. Tyler said:

“So, dude, you really don’t remember anything from this morning?”

“No, bro. Not a thing since I got to school. Why?”

Tyler grinned at me for a moment. His smirk was smirkier than ever – if that’s a word.

“Well, bro, before you caught up with Steve, you also apparently stuffed some random freshman geek into his locker. Derek had been keeping an eye on you, you know, making sure you got to Steve. I probably shouldn’t have said anything, but that was too good to pass up. Anyway, I’ve got to go, but I’ll see you tomorrow, after you’re – well, after. Trust me, you’re gonna feel great!”

He turned to leave, but I said, “Dude, seriously, hold on a sec. I mean, stuffing some kid I don’t know into his locker, I’m not even gonna go there; I so can’t deal with that now, but is it normal for me to just – black out and forget an entire morning at school? I mean, that’s really freaking my shit.”

“Well, I don’t know how often it’s happened, but you’re not the only one it’s happened to. But you’ll be fine once the cup’s off. Later, bro!”

Yeah, I’ll be fine, Tyler. Right. The next time I terrorize some innocent kid, at least I’ll be able to remember it. Great.

Tyler swaggered out of the men’s room and vanished down the hallway. I started to follow and then stopped short: tomorrow? He said tomorrow? Really? I had to wait another day! Fuck! There’d be nothing left of me by tomorrow. Whatever happened in the locker room to complete the process, I was already starting to look and act like one of them. And if I understood Tyler, the changes started to accelerate once the cup came off. Tears sprang into my eyes, and I started to sob. I suddenly felt faint, so I went to the sink. I caught my reflection in the mirror. What I saw was bizarre, and completely outside my experience: a dumb jock was bawling his eyes out. I wanted to throw up, but nothing came, so I stood there and splashed some water on my face.

It didn’t matter at this point, I realized, looking at my reflection in the mirror. I was way too far gone already. Quick as lightning, I punched the hateful reflection with my fist. The glass shattered and fell splintering to the floor. My knuckles were a little red, but I hadn’t broken the skin. I walked out the door and never looked back.

Day 8, 6:25

Today’s the day. I’m resigned to my fate. My old life’s ending and my new one is starting. No, my old life ended a week ago. Come to think of it, my old life really ended when the bastards got Tyler. They took my best friend, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. The sooner this is over, the better. See you on the other side.

Day 68

Hey, bros, I know it’s been a LOOONG time, and you want to know the rest of the story. Sorry you had to wait, but I have had way better things to do than dweeb-ass shit like keeping a journal. A fucking captain’s log? Seriously! I can’t believe that I used to be that guy. But – I know he would have wanted to finish the story, and I owe my old self that much, I guess. So, bros, with that said, here is the rest of the story.

I know you all want to know WHAT HAPPENED, you know, down in the locker room. The problem is, just like my bro Tyler, I can’t really remember much of The Day Of, if you know what I mean. I know I went down to the lockers as soon after 10:00 as I could make it, because nothing was more important to me than getting that fucking thing off my junk. As for becoming a jock, by that point I was already more jock than nerd anyway. I wasn’t trying to fight it anymore.

Anyway, I got there, and they were ready for me this time. The old football coach was there (more on him later), and that Derek dude with the blond buzz cut was there, and maybe Tyler and a few other guys that I recognized. Maybe. After that, it’s pretty much another black hole, like the day before when I cupped Steve-o. All I remember is there were lights, and maybe some videos they had me watch, and the old football coach’s voice droning away. I think some of the other coaches were there, but his was the voice I remember. And then nothing. The next thing I remember, I was coming back after practice into the locker room and stripping for the showers. Yeah, after. I don’t remember my first football practice, but Tyler told me I really was there. I also don’t remember learning how to play football.

It wasn’t until I was soaping myself up in the shower that I realized I was free. About fucking time! I honestly don’t know when they took that thing off, but when I got the soap down there, I finally realized it was gone, and I could touch my stuff for the first time in a week. Of course, it wasn’t the same feeling. No way. I had heard that most of the guys who were jocked like me would stand there in a daze once they were free of it, touching themselves and muttering, not able to believe what they were feeling. But I already knew what to expect. I’m not going to bother describing mine in detail. I already described Tyler’s monster fuck stick and balls, so you know the drill. But you remember that Tyler had been – um – distinctly below average beforehand? I wanted to point out that that was not the case for me. You know what I mean. You can figure it out. I swear, it felt like the damn thing needed nearly a whole bar of soap just for itself, and the balls felt like lead weights in my sack. It took some getting used to, but I got used to it, and anything was better than the cup, believe me. It’s been easier since. Now that I’m stronger and my body’s bigger, everything’s more in proportion, and I don’t feel like a freak. But sorry, Becky, the manspreading will continue. It’s not as if I have a fucking choice. Between the size of my thighs and my junk, just trying to cross my legs makes my balls wince.

At least I could finally wash down there, and the funky reek was gone. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a big guy, and I can get pretty rank by the end of the fourth quarter. Fuck, I can get pretty rank by half time. And my gym shoes and football cleats and jockstraps do make my bedroom smell a bit like a locker room. But I don’t stink up any room just by walking into it anymore, not unless I haven’t had a shower.

Speaking of showers, I’ll get back to the story. I finished my shower and lumbered my way back to my locker in that jock swagger that has become an old habit by now. I know it makes me look dumb, but that’s really the only way I can walk comfortably. Anyway, when I opened my locker (and I’m not sure how I even knew it was my locker), I found some clean clothes that I had never seen before. I sighed. Under Armour head to toe seemed to be the extent of my fashion options. So I pulled on a pair of compression shorts and then put regular shorts on over those. Then I went to look at myself in the mirror.

I was bigger than the last view I remembered from the school men’s room (you know, the men’s room where I broke the mirror). I wasn’t much bigger, but shit, it was only a day later. It felt like a year! My build was still more gangly than buff at that point, but I could easily see where the muscles were developing. As for my face, well, it wasn’t quite neanderthal, but you wouldn’t mistake me for the president of the chess club. (The unibrow didn’t help, dudes.) I could still see remnants of my old face in places, though, covered over with the bushier eyebrows, five o’clock shadow, and stronger features. I had nearly no hair. I didn’t remember getting a haircut, but someone had given my dark hair a buzz cut like Derek’s, only even shorter; on the sides and back it was almost completely shaved off. I had never had my hair that short, and I felt bald and drafty. It was a striking look, but more than a little intimidating. If I were a freshman geek trying to get my books out of my locker, I would probably give me a wide berth. I wasn’t bad looking actually, but, looking at this face, no one would ever believe that I’d been a nerd. Fuck, I couldn’t believe it myself, and I knew better. The guy looking out at me from the mirror was hot shit, and he knew it. Maybe that was the whole idea. I smiled. And there it was – my own version of Tyler’s smirk.

Yeah, I know. I said I’d end up being a big brute with a cocky smile. Well, at this point I wasn’t all that big yet, but there was the smile. My reflection looked happy. Tyler was right; I felt amazing, better than I’d ever felt in my life.

I finished getting dressed, which for now meant I put on a T-shirt, socks and shoes. My hair was so short that, when I pulled the T-shirt over my head, the collar stuck to my stubble like Velcro. By this point, almost the entire team had left the locker room, but Tyler came by, rubbed my buzzed head and said, “Looking good, bro! How’s it hanging?”

“Shut up, Ty-boy, you fucker,” I said, with that shit-eating grin on my face. “I think you of all people know how it’s hanging.” I still sounded “off” to myself. I’m not sure if it was because my voice was even lower or if it was just the sound of the bro-speak coming out of my mouth. Maybe it was a combo.

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “I know. But seriously, bro,”, he said, giving me a hug, “It’s good to have you back. How’re you feeling?”

Have me back, Tyler? I wasn’t the one who left, not that it mattered now. What I said was “It’s different; I’m not going to lie, but I feel pretty fucking amazing. Better than I ever have. You were right. But, dude, it’s been a long day. I didn’t sleep last night. I just want to go home, and, like, sleep for a week. Can we get out of here?”

Tyler AND Derek walked me home. I guess I’d better get used to moving with the herd. Derek’s not such a bad dude, really. I’m pretty sure he’s a native jock and not a former nerd, and he seems about as dumb as a box of rocks, but he’s decent enough to me now that I’m part of the team. He and Tyler came in for a few minutes. That helped blunt my mother’s shock at my new look. Tyler told her I’d gone out for football, that I was learning fast, and that the haircut was part of the initiation. I don’t know if she really liked it, but she rubbed my head affectionately and said I looked cute. Cute? Really? Maybe Mom likes big, dumb brutes, too. After that, I went to my room, collapsed on the bed, and slept for, like, sixteen hours.

I guess it was really more like twelve hours. The next morning, Day 9 in the captain’s nerd log, I woke up a bit early with a morning wood that was nearly as distracting as the cup. I had fallen asleep in my clothes. Clearly, I would have taken care of business had I not been unconscious, especially after waiting for so long, but my monster cock wasn’t going to be put off any longer. I’m not sure if I was jerking it or it was jerking me. I hope I didn’t wake Mom up; I was a bit out of control. And I had to change the sheets.

After I came, I felt different. This is hard to explain: I felt complete. Finished. It was as if that step somehow took all the changes I had been experiencing and clicked them into place, finalized them. I don’t know if that was just an idea in my head or if it was really part of the process, but that was when I truly felt I was a jock. Not only that, but I felt as if I’d always been a jock, and I had trouble remembering that I’d ever not been a jock.

In any case, I finally felt at peace with myself. My mind slowed down. Now, don’t get me wrong: I’m not trying to say I got dumber. I know everyone thinks jocks are dumb, and a lot of us are. I know I can look dumb, and all the bro-speak makes me sound dumb, but I don’t think I’m really any dumber than I was before. What I mean is that I was calmer. Focused. My mind wasn’t racing every which way.

I’m only speaking for myself, of course. Now Tyler? He might be a little dumber than he was before, but he wasn’t always the sharpest tool in the box to begin with, if you know what I mean. I will admit that some of my grades slipped a bit. Part of it is that I had missed a week’s worth of class when the cup wouldn’t let me think. The main reason was my attitude. I can still do the work; I just don’t care as much about grades as I used to. Practice and working out and hanging out with the guys are all higher on my priority list right now than school subjects I didn’t like much to begin with. I’m sticking with AP Biology, though. If I keep studying biology, someday I might be able to figure out how these cups worked. And Mom already had the talk with me about how my grades need to keep up, so I will stop slacking, I promise. I’m not going to bully some nerd into doing my work for me, as tempting as it is.

Okay, so where were we? Oh yeah, nerd log Day 9, star date whatever-the fuck. As great as I was feeling, I did feel a bit sorry for Steve O’Connor. Protocol be damned (and how did I know there was a protocol?), I decided I would talk to him when I got to school and let him know it was nothing personal. Well, tracking him down wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped, and I didn’t want any of the other bros involved. As it turned out, Steve-o was the one who tracked me down.

This is how it went. I needed to drain the dragon. I was wearing a pair of Tyler’s hand-me-down jock shorts, and they didn’t have a fly. Not being used to my new, um, anatomy yet, I was a bit shy of pulling that monster out in front of others, so I aimed for that out-of-the-way men’s room where I’d broken the mirror two days and a lifetime before. The broken glass had been cleaned up, but the mirror hadn’t been replaced yet. I hoped no one would figure out how it had broken. Anyway, I was just finishing at the urinal when the scene started, almost identical to my confrontation with Tyler over a week earlier.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around. Yeah, there Steve was, pale, sweaty, and looking on the edge of a nervous breakdown. I was pretty sure he’d seen my cock, because his mouth was agape, but I wasn’t going to be rushed. I took my time stuffing it back into my shorts.

“Fuck, James, is that even you? I hardly recognized you. What the hell happened? Since when are you a fucking jock? And what in fuck’s name did you do to me?”

I was trying to do the dweeb a favor, and now I saw what Tyler had tried to explain: nerds are so fucking annoying! I gave him my best smile, “Hey, Steve-o. ‘Sup, bro? Enjoying your new accessory?

At that, he actually tried to hit me, not that I blamed him, really. The reek of the cup rolled off him. It wasn’t quite as bad as I remembered, but it was bad enough.

I grabbed his arm then, and I pulled both his wrists behind his back and pinned him up against the wall so that he couldn’t lash out again. Holding him there while he struggled, I said, “Look, bro. We need to talk; but calm down or I’ll have to sit on you. I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry. It wasn’t anything personal. I had no choice. You were next on the list, and the only way I was going to get mine off was to give one to you.”

Now he was starting to cry. “What? What’s going on? You mean someone put one of those on you, too? Who was it?”

“Not that it’s really any of your business, soon-to-be-former-nerd, but, if you really want to know, it was Tyler. Not that my bro Tyler had much choice, either.”

“Wait, Tyler. Yeah, he used to be a nerd, come to think of it. And wasn’t he, like, your best friend? So that’s what happened to him. And you. Now it makes sense! I couldn’t figure out what was going on. But why me?” And then it hit him: “Oh fuck. Fuck! No! You mean?” He started to slump down the wall. I let him go, and he collapsed on the floor and looked up at me with stark terror in his eyes. It was pitiable to watch, but I didn’t flinch and kept my gaze on him. “Tyler was a nerd, and now he’s a jock. You were a nerd, too, and now you’re a jock. And you put one of those things on me. Is that how they do it? You don’t mean I’m gonna…” He swallowed hard. “Look at you. You hardly look like the same person. You don’t sound like the same person. Do you mean?”

“Uh yeah, bro, I mean. That’s what I wanted to tell you. I figured I owed you that much. Say good-bye to the chess team and hello to the football team. Look, I don’t know. I really was trying to do you a favor, but maybe it makes it worse, you knowing what’s going to happen. But I figured you’d want to know. I did.”

“Oh yeah, thank you so much, thanks a ton!” he said bitterly. “Don’t just stick the knife in. Sure, twist it around a few times, too. Fuck!”

“Look, it’s going to be rough for a bit, but you’ll get through it. You will. Now let me give you some advice: don’t try to remove it; it just makes it worse. Don’t try to do anything stupid, like hurting yourself; that really makes it worse. And the more you stay active, the less it bothers you. I think it also speeds up the changes, but believe me, you’ll be better off in the long run. I know what I’m talking about. You won’t believe this, either, but you will be happy – after. Really.”

“But I don’t want to be like you,” he sobbed.

“Shh, dude, shh,” I said, patting him on the shoulder as gently as I could manage. “I know you don’t. Believe me, I know.” I pulled him to his feet and held him upright. “But you have to believe me when I tell you: you will be okay.”

And then I gave him a hug and left. Later that day, my bro Derek pulled me aside. I don’t know if he knew I had talked to Steve, but he had noticed that I was trying to keep an eye on him. Derek told me, “Hey, bro. Don’t worry about Steve. Jake and I and a couple of the guys are keeping an eye on him. Anyway, we think he’s starting to turn, so he should be okay.” I couldn’t really see it until the next day. By Friday, the changes were more obvious, and by the time Monday morning rolled around, most of the nerd was jocked out of him. Sometime Tuesday, a week after me, he went down to the locker room. As it turned out, I didn’t talk to him again until he had joined us for that afternoon’s football practice, but it all came out right in end, as you’ll hear.

You see, the whole cup thing seems to have stopped, as far as we can tell. I had something to do with that, though not directly. It went back to something Tyler had said. Remember that he said I was back on the list, in second place? Apparently, whoever was behind the experiment or conspiracy or whatever it was had made some tweaks to the things along the way. I was the second guy to get the very latest cup model: second place, see? The guy in first place was some guy I had never met before named Zach Davis. My bro Steve-o, Steve O’Connor, was number three, and then there were three more nerds in process before whoever was running this show found a huge flaw in their plan. At least, it was a flaw to them. You see, every one of us that got that model turned out to be gay. Now, I don’t know for sure, but in my opinion, it could have just been dumb luck. I am pretty sure I was gay before. After all, I did have more than a bit of a crush on Tyler. It was one of the reasons I was so hurt when he dropped me and why I was so determined to find out why. And Becky was always a friend; I didn’t have, you know, feelings for Becky that way. It could have been the same for the other guys; I mean, really, gay nerds aren’t that uncommon. But it seems that the last thing whoever was running this program wanted was an army of cocky, built, gay alpha jocks who couldn’t be bullied. Too funny. Law of unintended consequences, anyone? Anyway, soon the old football coach was gone, and we had a new coach who was not involved, apparently, and had no idea that some of his star players had been nerds a short time before. And none of us are going to say anything.

Now no one knows (or admits knowing) what the goal might have been. If it was to change all the guys at school into jocks, I’m not sure how some of the bros would be able to pass their classes without some nerds to help them with their homework. Doesn’t really matter now, I guess. The jocks, new and old, are all happy with our lives, so we don’t care.

The new football coach had no problem with us gay jocks, and neither did the other bros. We were bros, too, after all. They trusted us, and the team needed us. If we happened to like dudes rather than chicks, that just left more chicks for them. As Tyler had said, girls liked big dumb brutes, and so did some guys. Even the dumbest, ugliest players on the team could always find dates, believe me.

As for me, well, turns out my bro Steve-o had a bit of a crush on me, and let me tell you bros that he’s turned into one smoking hot gay jock. We started seeing each other, and pretty soon we were boyfriends and the first couple on the football team.

Tyler’s still one of my best bros, and it was great to be friends and hang out again. Of course, we don’t spend as much time one-on-one as we did before, cause jocks really do kind of form a herd, and we don’t do the same things we used to. Now we might catch a game; then it might have been D and D, but it’s all good. Tyler and Brittney are getting pretty serious now, so she takes a lot of his time, and I spend a lot of my free time with Steve-o, naturally.

As for my old friend Becky, she wouldn’t even look at me for weeks after I had changed. Pretended I didn’t exist. And she really didn’t like jocks much, or so she said. But the funny thing about Becky, which I should have guessed, is that gay guys were her thing. As soon as Steve and I became a couple, suddenly Becky was apologizing for dropping me and asking if we could be friends again. She loves Steve, naturally. But the poor girl has needs, you know, like any girl her age, and while Steve and I were good friends, there was one itch neither of us could scratch, so to speak. Well, you won’t believe what happened next. Enter our bro, Derek. You remember: blond, buzz cut, side-of-beef Derek? The terror of freshmen and underdeveloped geeks? Yeah, that Derek. He comes to Steve and me and asks us to put in a good word for him with Becky! Thinks she’s way out of his league. Well, Derek is a great guy even if he is dumber than dirt, so sure, we did our bro a solid and pleaded his case with Becky. And she went out with him! And then she went out with him again! Now they seem to be getting as serious as Tyler and Brittney, and Tyler turns out to be right about girls again. I will admit I just can’t believe it. Brittney’s one thing; she’s the cheerleader type, and they always go for the jocks. But Becky? I have no idea what she and Derek talk about, but it seems to work for them. At least he doesn’t need to bully nerds into helping him with his homework; Becky’s got to be one of the smartest girls in school.

So, all in all, everything is going great and showing every sign of getting better. Tyler’s getting big enough that he could probably play linebacker next season. I’m not far behind him, and Steve-o’s catching up nicely in the weight room himself. Now that football season will be ending soon, I’m thinking whether I should go out for basketball. I don’t know; I’m a little bulky for basketball, and I’m not that tall. Wrestling might be a better fit. And the sight of my package in a singlet might scare any opponents right out of a match.

My room’s different too now. My old clothes are long gone. Even if I still wanted to wear that shit, none of it would have fit me a couple of months ago, let alone now. But Mom’s budget wouldn’t allow me to just lay in a new wardrobe. It would have been a waste anyway. The first few weeks after the cup came off, I was making some sick gains, and I would have outgrown anything that wasn’t super roomy or made with a lot of stretch. As it was, my appetite was already a strain on Mom. Tyler’s been super helpful, lending me some stuff and giving me what he could spare or grew out of, but Steve-o’s been the best. His parents are loaded, and his dad was so happy to have a jock son, even a gay jock son, that Steve-o can get almost anything he wants, even a few extras for his boyfriend. I eat dinner at their place nearly every night, which takes a lot of burden off my poor mother. I don’t want to be a charity case, though. I do make myself useful. And now that my growth and my appetite are stabilizing, I should be able to get some of my own clothes that I don’t grow out of in a month. Even a jock (and especially a gay jock) needs some decent outfits for occasions that don’t involve a locker room, and I’m not covering up this bod with baggy basketball shorts all the time.

As for all the nerd shit like comic books and whatever that Tyler and I used to spend our hours on, I boxed it up and put it in my closet. I don’t really want any of it, but I can’t get rid of it, at least not yet. I find it super boring and stupid now, but that stuff is all I have of who I used to be. I know it’s weird. I can barely remember being that guy, and I’m happy with my new life and would never go back, but I feel like, as long as I still have his stuff, my old self isn’t totally gone. The guy who wrote the beginning of this story is a stranger to me now, but when I read what he wrote, I mean, for a nerd, dude sure had some balls! So, yeah, I want to honor my old self’s courage – and the pain he went through, too. Reading the story now, it’s clear to me that the best part of my old self was my friendship with Tyler. Well, bros, don’t feel too sorry for the old me. After everything that happened, I’m still friends with Tyler, and it’s fucking awesome, because that friendship is what brought me everything good that I have in my life now.

So, that’s the end of my story, bros, except for one last thing. Sort of an epilogue, if you know what that means (I told you dudes I wasn’t as dumb as I sound; I can use big words when I want to). You see, Steve and I are thinking that the Law of Unintended Consequences is fucking with this story again. Let me explain. Steve-o and I are an exclusive couple. Except for once. Now, neither one of us was interested in anyone else, but there was this one skinny guy, Jeremy, that had a HUGE thing for jocks. Kind of cute, but maybe weighed a hundred pounds on a good day. Well, obviously none of the straight bros are going to help Jeremy out, but as soon as we were out as a gay jock couple, the boy would not leave us alone. Wanted to make out with one or both of us for a night, an hour, fifteen minutes; in other words, whatever we’d be willing to give him. Well, we felt like being charitable. We finally decided that a little extra wouldn’t hurt our relationship, and we’d be doing the dude a favor and giving him an experience he wouldn’t soon forget. So, with the understanding that it was a one-time thing or else we’d do him some serious damage, we invited him over to Steve’s room one night. (No way my place would have worked; Mom would have heard everything.) Well, the dude may or may not have been a virgin, but he knew what he wanted. Of course, he nearly pissed himself when he saw our cocks, but he was so horny that he managed to – um – handle way more of both of us than I would have believed for such a small guy. Where there’s a will, I guess. And at least one of our jockstraps went missing after that, so I assume he kept a souvenir. But that was the end of that. Jeremy got what he wanted, and he didn’t try to renege on our deal.

So, it’s not as if little Jeremy hangs out with the bros, right? We don’t see him again right away. But when we do, he seems a little off. For one, he’s walking a little funny, as if something’s going on down there. We guessed maybe he was wearing his souvenir to school, and it wouldn’t exactly fit him, now would it? But it did look as if he had a lot more of a package than Steve-o and I remembered seeing. A few days later, he’s starting to look a bit different. Taller, A little bigger. His cute little face is looking less cute. He starts to look a bit distracted, and he’s scratching himself a lot when he thinks no one’s looking. Okay, so maybe it’s a normal growth spurt. I mean, as far as we both know, all the cups are all gone, and we’d be able to smell that on him in any case. Steve and I sure aren’t going to say anything, but we’ve got to wonder: is he turning? If so, the dude’ll probably be pretty happy, since jocks are what he’s into. But if he is turning, then it seems obvious that it must be something about his make-out session with us that triggered it. And if we could do that, what about the other converted gay jocks? If we’re all – contagious – if you follow me, then whoever started this fucking experiment may have his army of gay jocks yet, whether he wants it or not. And after everything that’s happened, bros, Steve and I think that has got to be about the most twisted ending to this story that we could have imagined.

#nerd to jock #jockification #jock transformation #mental change #jock tf

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sweetnsour1 · 8 months ago

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9:36:03

Angsty Fluff, Bakugou x fem reader

Part 3 of Broken Collection

Go to the beginning

You glared. Just another Monday stand-off as you tried to smack the coffee maker into obedience. In spite of the risk factor, Mina didn’t hesitate to talk directly into your ear.

“Soooooo we gonna talk about-“She jumped away faster than your hand moved to smack her.

“You know I hate that. And absolutely not.”

“Ugh you’re no fun.” You could hear her dramatized pout, but you kept your eyes on your enemy. It slowly gurgled back to life before sputtering out again.

“You’re actually good though?” You turned towards her now that a steady stream of questionable consistency poured into your mug.

“Mmm probably?”

“Did anything-“

“Nope.”

Mina’s eyebrow could doubt you all it wanted, but nothing had happened. You had mostly clear memories of that night, and while you were still mortified you had shown up at his place…you hadn’t done or said anything worth mountains of regret. You kind of talked and then you woke up to an empty apartment. He was probably called in, so you cleaned up the sofa you had nested in for the night and left a note about returning the sweats after you washed them. Then you left. That was all. Nothing had changed. There was still radio silence between the two of you. Seeing each other for a couple hours a few nights ago hadn’t done anything to bridge the distance that had only been growing the last however many months.

“Hellllo?” You jerked your head back after she tapped your forehead a few times.

“Hmm?”

“I said, you think it’s gonna’ be weird this weekend?”

“This weekend…” had you insanely agreed to go out with them two weekends in a row?

“We’re helping out UA with sports festival security. Remember?”

“Oh right.” You grabbed your mug, pouring out the attempt into the sink before trying again. “Why would that be weird?”

“Oh, I dunno. Maybe because of the other agencies that’ll be there?”

“I’m guessing you’re not referring to Fatgum clearing out the food stalls?” She only rolled her eyes as a reply, waiting for you to take her question seriously. You resumed your battle with the machine to your left, sighing in relief as it poured something actually resembling coffee. “It’ll be fine. Work is work. The other stuff doesn’t matter more than doing our jobs.” You were halfway through cleaning up the counter when you realized the silence was dragging longer than it normally would with the pink hero. You turned, catching an odd expression on her face before she shook her head at you.

“Maybe not more than our job…but don’t forget that it still matters.”

“You sound worried about me.”

“Because I am, idiot two.” You stuck out your tongue as she moved to leave the breakroom.

“Wait, who’s idiot one?”

Mina laughed, swatting your question away as she headed to her office.

Sorry, this one is writing itself quicker than usual.

Masterlist

Next part

#bakugou #bakugou fluff #bakugou x reader #bnha fluff #bnha #bnha imagines #bakugou imagines #bnha angst #bnha bakugou

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delimeful · 8 months ago

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be unbroken or be brave again (3)

warnings: threats, fear, arguing, cliffhanger

The first obstacle to their little road trip was convincing Roman to dress appropriately for the journey.

The armor itself wasn’t all that stand-out. Patton had seen plenty of well-funded mercenaries out there who could afford an enchantment or two for their greaves. The coat of arms stamped on everything, on the other hand…

In all fairness, they had kidnapped the guy. He’d already been uncertain about, well, just about everything in the situation so far, and now he was being told that he couldn’t even wear his favorite accessories.

Patton would have had a little bit more sympathy if the accessories in question weren’t all emblazoned with the decorative sigil of Faerin, a kingdom that had personally victimized his best friend, as well as frequently seeming to make trouble whenever and wherever it pleased.

Plus, the other thing was—

“If you walk into town with that on, we’re all gonna get jumped,” Virgil said bluntly, waggling the blade of Roman’s dagger at the coat of arms brightly emblazoned on multiple pieces of the knight’s armor. “Seriously, ditch it.”

Roman huffed, holding a scandalized hand up to his chest as though Virgil had told him to strip down to his trousers and jump into a briar patch. “We will not get attacked! Faerin isn’t currently at war with any of the nearby territories.”

“Wow, real gracious of them,” Virgil replied flatly, and Patton jumped in to prevent the tensions from rising any further.

“Roman, kiddo, it’s not really about the war,” he explained, holding his hands up peaceably. “It’s more about all the taxes. People really don’t like the kingdom’s policies, so as soon as you get clear of the enforced territories, well. Folks out here tend to atax first, ask questions second when it comes to Faerin.”

Virgil snorted, leaning back against the wall and twirling the blade in his hand smoothly. He had flatly refused to give the dagger back to Roman even when Patton asked him in private, which was how he knew this little venture was really putting his friend on edge.

It wasn’t fair of him to ask Virgil to do this, not really, but he couldn’t help but ask anyhow. To meet another survivor of one of the worst days of his life and find that they’d developed a hatred of the very one who’d saved him that day… it was too sad to bear, so Patton was going to fix it! Or, he was going to try really hard to, at least.

The fixing process would have gone much smoother if the pair of them would stop jumping like startled cats every time one or the other did anything, but Patton had no say in that. Virgil was twitchy by nature, and Roman had proven rather reactive himself.

“These could have perfectly useful applications as well, you know!” Roman huffed, running his fingers over the embroidered underlayer he’d been about to put on. “Imagine if we run into a fellow Faerin knight out there? My kingdom’s symbol could grant us an ally, as simply as that, giving us more protection from malignant forces!”

Patton resisted the urge to grimace at the very idea.

Less restrained, Virgil reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose for a moment, and then huffed out a disbelieving exhale, sheathing the dagger. “Okay, sure, let’s imagine that. After you get done exchanging obnoxiously overdramatic greetings with this imaginary knight who somehow survived out there without getting robbed, what then? What do you think your fellow knight will have to say when you let it slip that I’m a dragonwitch, infamously the number one enemy of your kingdom?”

Roman immediately descended into sputtering, his shoulders hunching at Virgil’s sharp critiques. “We— Obviously I would inform them of the specifics of the situation, and let them know that despite what it may look like, there’s no reason to worry and nothing to fear, for I have everything well in hand!”

At the words, Virgil went still for a moment, a sudden edge of danger seeping into his rigid posture. Pushing off the wall, he stalked closer to where Roman stood, gaze flinty and mouth slanted. For every step closer he got, Roman’s shoulders bunched up further with tension, his hand dropping to his hip as though to draw a blade that was no longer sheathed there.

Patton thought about getting involved, and then decided that he couldn’t step in every time the two of them started bickering. He had to let them do some olive branching of their own! Virgil wasn’t the best gardener, but anyone could wield a spade if they tried hard enough! It would probably be fine.

… Emphasis on probably.

For his part, Virgil leaned forward slowly until he was practically looming over Roman, and let his leathery wings slowly rise like the mantle of a bird of prey, the early morning light reflecting off his scales like oil gleaming in a lantern’s glow. He tilted his head with a menacing, narrow-eyed smile, sharp teeth on full display. “Do you have everything well in hand, Princey?”

Roman swallowed, lifting his chin to meet Virgil’s gaze head-on. “As far as anyone needs to know, yes.”

Despite his bravado, his hands were clenched into shaking fists at his sides. Virgil’s malicious smile eased into something harder to read, and he rolled his eyes before backing off.

“Just get rid of the sigils. We don’t need the trouble.”

Roman’s brow furrowed for a moment, his expression hard to read, but this time, he didn’t protest.

—

The second obstacle to their road trip was convincing Roman to actually get on the road.

Or, rather, on the dragon.

“There is absolutely no way I am literally placing my life in the claws of a dragon,” Roman stated plainly, expression dour. He was trying to look aloof, but the effect was ruined by the way his gaze kept roaming back to rest on the large footprints Virgil had left in the dirt when they’d first arrived back home, unconscious knight in hand.

“That’s probably the smartest thing he’s said all day,” Virgil added unhelpfully, picking dirt out from beneath aforementioned claws with his pilfered blade. “Give the guy a prize.”

“Virgil,” Patton said, exasperated, before turning to Roman. “There’s no need to worry, Virgil is a very safe flier. Plus, you’ve already done this once before, remember?”

“You know, I actually don’t recall! How strange,” Roman retorted, re-adjusting his pauldron in short, jerky motions. “It’s almost as though someone clubbed me over the head with a big rock or something. Imagine that!”

Patton’s cheeks went a little hot, and he cleared his throat pointedly. “Well, I was there, and he was very careful to make sure neither of us got hurt! To be honest, I was pretty darn nervous being that high up, too. Really, heights like that aren’t always fall they’re cracked up to be!”

“Don’t add pun-based insult to my injury, I beseech you,” Roman replied, grimacing. “And I’m not afraid of heights themselves, I’m afraid of being dropped from them!”

Virgil snorted, finally sticking the sheathed dagger in his boot and ambling away from them. “If you want to avoid assassination attempts, maybe stop giving out free ideas, Princey. Not that it matters. If I was going to kill you, I’d do it human-shaped. More fun that way.”

Ignoring Patton’s exasperated look and Roman’s squawk of offense alike, Virgil walked over to the middle of the clearing, taking care to circle around the daffodils Patton had planted as he went. He stopped once he had a wide stretch of space between him and any potential obstacles, glancing back over briefly with his lips pressed tightly together.

Patton gave him an enthusiastic thumbs up, mostly to encourage and support him, and a little bit to remind him that no matter what happened with Roman, Patton would always be there at his best friend’s side.

Virgil offered him a slight upturn of the lips, more grimace than smile, but he seemed a bit more relaxed when he closed his eyes and turned away from them, hand lifting to press against the little purple stone set between his collarbones.

“Wait, he’s not actually going to��,” Roman started, only to be cut off by Patton flapping his hands at him in a shushing gesture, eyes still locked on his friend.

Virgil rolled his shoulders, drew his wings close around himself, and then began to stretch the leathery appendages out, wider and wider. There was a thick crackling noise, like bones snapping or lightning running through an old tree, and with a twist, Virgil shifted into his largest form.

It only took a few moments, the air around him warping strangely, and then, there he stood, tail brushing the ground as he shook himself like a very, very oversized dog after a bath. The dust stirred around them from the intensity of it.

Roman had yelped and skipped back a fair few steps, but Patton didn’t bother even shuffling out of the way. Sure enough, none of those huge claws even got close enough to think about grazing him.

He knew his friend, and so he knew that Virgil was a worrier like no other. Frankly, Virgil’s pinky finger probably held more caution in it than a grown man or three had in their whole bodies. His human pinky, not the dragon one, to boot.

Patton was probably the safest he’d ever been, standing in the shadow of Virgil’s wings. He sure felt that way, at least.

“Hey, kiddo!”

Virgil perked up at the call, shuffling around a bit to lower his big scaly head into closer range. He was rumbling low in his chest, not necessarily loudly, but still definitely big enough that Patton could feel the noise in his bones.

He reached out and embraced the surprisingly soft snout as Virgil nudged it lightly against him, huffing lightly and waiting patiently for Patton to get his fill of impromptu dragon cuddles.

Patton smiled to himself. This was a far better sight to see than the nervous, flinching way that Virgil had acted that first time he’d shifted, when he kept sneaking glances at Patton like he was waiting for him to realize what he was and run screaming for the hills.

When he finally pulled back and turned to grab their bags, he found Roman standing only a few meters away, looking more strung out than a ball of yarn rolled down a hill. His hand was once again hovering near his side as though seeking a weapon to draw, a nervous tell.

“Is he still… He’s kept his mind?” Roman asked, eyes flickering down to Patton for the briefest moment before returning to the intense stare he was directing at Virgil.

Patton reminded himself that in Roman’s eyes, the only reason a dragonwitch would take this form would be to wreak havoc, and managed to keep himself from frowning too overtly at the knight.

“Virgil is Virgil, no matter which form he’s in,” he replied, forcing some pep into his step as he scooped up the first of their bags. “He’s just a little more… caught up in his instincts, when he’s in this form.”

That was how Virgil had explained all the happy rumbling and gentle nudges the first time, at least. Patton had made the merciful decision not to tease him about the purring.

“Oh, so murder is still on the table, then,” Roman muttered, finally breaking the stare-off to avert his gaze as Patton sent him a pointed look. “Joking! Just a joke, much like the one our reptilian associate made mere moments ago!”

“Mhmm,” Patton hummed dubiously as he turned back to Virgil. “Well, Mister Jokester, it’s time to get moving! We wouldn’t want the daylight hours to drag-on without us!”

Apparently feeling more confident now that he was the size of a house, Virgil yawned loudly— the sight of which made Roman go a bit grey— and then settled into a resting position to allow Patton to clamber up onto his back.

It only took a handful of minutes for Patton to successfully haul up and tie down their bags, with Virgil’s ears carefully flicking back to listen to his humming as he made sure everything was tightly secured to the spikes along his dragonic friend’s spine.

It took more than twice that time for Roman to stop staring dumbfoundedly at Virgil and actually begin to approach.

Of course, the moment he got within a few meters range, Virgil’s large slitted pupil flicked over to watch the knight, making him freeze mid-step like a deer before a mountain lion.

Patton resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he slid down to stand at Virgil’s side. At this rate, they wouldn’t even get off the ground until noon.

“That’s Roman, remember?” he reminded Virgil, reaching up to pat his shoulder in the hopes of helping him refocus on the task at hand. “You looked after him while he was sick, and now he’s traveling with us for a bit.”

Virgil blinked, his gaze still following Roman’s every move, with far less irritation than Patton would have expected. His pupils had even rounded out slightly, making him look far more friendly in Patton’s opinion.

For some reason, this didn’t seem to reassure Roman.

“C’mon!” Patton gestured for Roman to approach, and Roman shook his head vehemently, as though Patton was insane for even asking.

As though prompted by the exchange, Virgil rumbled and shuffled around a bit in place, his paws creeping forward and head dipping lower in a pose that Patton didn’t recognize until he noticed the dragon’s tail swishing back and forth behind him.

Roman picked up on what was about to happen much quicker, going by the way he went pale and immediately attempted to scramble away.

“Virgil, wait—,” Patton attempted, and then sighed as his friend lunged forward like a cat pouncing, eliciting a terrified shriek from the knight they were supposed to be befriending.

Well. At least none of the bags had been jarred loose by the motion.

The screaming was a little concerning, but Patton was sure that Virgil wasn’t going to murder the guy or anything, so he didn’t bother rushing as he circled around to see what was going on.

What was going on was that Virgil had neatly pinned Roman down with one clawed paw, and was now snuffling at him intently.

Huh. That was a lot less aggressive posturing than Patton had expected, honestly. The more he watched, the more it looked like Virgil was checking Roman over the same way he had inspected Patton for injuries earlier, all gentle nudges and enquiring chuffs.

Not that one would have guessed listening to them. Roman yowled like he was being murdered for at least a solid half a minute after it became clear that there was no mauling going on. Patton pursed his lips, trying not to look too amused at the knight’s expense.

“He’s just checking on you,” he took the opportunity to say once Roman’s shouts had wound down to bewildered, rapid breathing. “He did the same to me, remember?”

Roman shot him a panicked, disbelieving glance from under his impromptu dragon-paw prison. “Yours was far less intensive than— than this!”

Patton shrugged. “Maybe he was just more worried because you were so sick for a while there?”

It made sense, when he thought about it. Virgil had always been a real mother hen whenever Patton so much as got the sniffles, and that was with a much smaller fraction of a dragon’s instinctual possessive worry. Patton had always endured his best friend’s neuroses about illness with as much patience as he could manage, but Roman hadn’t been willing to let Virgil do so much as a checkup once he’d woken up properly. Virgil’s pride wouldn’t let him insist on looking after the slayer after he was conscious enough to be kind of a jerk again, but not knowing the condition of someone he’d been responsible for had to be driving his friend crazy.

“Worried wasn’t really the impression I was getting from Virgil,” Roman gasped out, the tension in his frame slowly leaking away the longer he remained unharmed.

“Really?” Patton asked, a little surprised despite knowing his friend wasn’t exactly the open type. “Well, there’s your first lesson: Virgil’s always worried.”

The dragon in question glanced over at Patton a little sourly, and whuffled at Roman one last time before withdrawing, apparently entirely unapologetic for nearly scaring the soul out of their guest.

Roman lay on the ground for a moment longer, looking a little like he’d been struck by a runaway carriage. He sat up and patted himself down as though checking that he was still all in one piece.

He was, of course. Virgil sent him a slanted, disdainful look for thinking otherwise.

“Are you ready to give this a proper try, now?” Patton asked with an encouraging grin, reaching out to offer him a hand up.

Roman cleared his throat extensively, looking a little red around the ears, but ultimately accepted the help without much protest. He took a deep breath, regaining his composure.

This time, when he turned to survey Virgil’s draconic form, it was with more wary determination than outright fear.

“Very well,” he said, stepping forward. “Let’s get this over with.”

—

The third obstacle to their road trip was finding a place to stop for the night.

Not, as one might assume, because of a lack of safe or viable options on the ground below. No, it was convincing his companions to land at all that was proving to be the issue.

As it turned out, Roman’s fear of the flight had lasted for about as long as it took for Virgil to do his first midair spin, at which point he’d whooped with astounded delight so loudly that even folks on the next continent over had probably heard him.

“Gods above, you’re fast!” he’d gasped, clinging to Virgil’s leg as the land flashed by distantly below them. “There’s no way you could do that from higher up, though.”

It seemed Virgil was easier to goad than ever in this form, because he’d immediately taken a sharp incline, earning him yelps from his passengers. Between the two of them, the bulk of their flight was spent doing gravity-defying tricks and thrilling dives to just barely skim the mountains below.

Patton was glad they’d found something in common at last. He would have preferred they bond over a hobby that wasn’t so terribly dangerous and liable to make him so dizzy he upchucked, but beggars couldn’t be choosers!

He really was begging to reach land soon, though. Best friend or no, there was only so much strain a guy’s poor heart could take.

Plus, he’d plotted out their course with a little detour, and if they kept racing on like this, they might overshoot it completely. They were traveling all this way, it would be a downright shame if they couldn’t at least stop by and say hello to one of Virgil’s other buddies!

—

The fourth obstacle in their road trip was that Patton had forgotten just what kinds of acquaintances a Dragonwitch might have.

Or more importantly— what these acquaintances might think of the company Virgil was currently keeping.

This particular obstacle arrived at their camp that night in the form of an arm suddenly wrapping around Patton’s neck from behind, tugging him into a barely bearable chokehold as Virgil bolted to his feet and growled out a vicious warning.

Across from him, Roman was in a similar situation, but with a wicked-looking serrated blade pressed right up against his jugular, and a pair of unearthly yellow eyes visible over his shoulder.

“My, my,” a smooth voice broke the silence, making Virgil twitch. “I wonder what business a Faerin knight and his tagalongs have in my stretch of the woods?”

Uh oh. It looked like maybe their little detour would take longer than he’d expected…

#buobba #sanders sides fic #ts patton #ts roman #ts virgil #be unbroken or be brave again #my writing #writing #if i am missing tags. sory.

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sugar-coat-it · 9 months ago

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omg first emoji anon I am honored!

also thinking about him fucking you with his shirt in his teeth so he can get a better view of where you two meet asjdlsjdlds. it’s almost hotter than if his shirt was actually off. especially in that white tank top oh I’m gonna jump off a bridge </3 -🐝

Pleaseee I am the honored one seriously

OOOOOOOOOO I HAD NOT CONSIDERED ALL THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE SHIRT BETWEEN THE TEETH IDEA, NOW THAT IS AMAAAAZING

Right??? Him still having it on and doing that has its own sort of allure beyond him just being shirtless. I can totally see it being during a quickie the first time it happens, it’s just super rushed, no time to take clothes off so he’s got his shirt in his teeth to keep it out of the way, giving him a better view of himself fucking in and out of you (he really likes to watch, it gets him GOING). But then he’d do it again during a proper session because you told him how fucking hot it was watching him bite down on it while he’s grunting and moaning and fucking you so good <3

THE WHITE TANK TOP OMG OMG YOURE CRAZY YOURE SO RIGHT

Could not find a pic of him actually doing it, but these are fairly close and I’m SHUDDERING

Can also see a more subby version of the scenario where you’re riding him while he’s got his shirt in his teeth 🤭

#🐝 anon #WHEEEEEEW #god damn dude that’s so good #I love ur mind #asks #belle thoughts

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soft-mafia · 10 months ago

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Something for my Hisoka simps

This is a small part from the oc fic I’m working on but I decided to cut this part out since I feel like it adds nothing to the plot. But I don’t want it to go to waste, I thought someone might enjoy it lol(no actual names are mentioned so this could count as an x reader fic before anyone yells at me) this was originally going to be at the very end of chapter one.

I was going up to the bridge I would always climb before the sun sets. It’s the large bridge that connects the north side to the south, the black metal arches were a pretty pattern. One day I want to take my little brother out here once we reunite and teach him how to scale these buildings and climb up the bridge. A lot of street kids climb up there too sometimes, usually to make out or something.

I do it because it’s peaceful, though I can see Kukuroo Mountain when I’m all the way up at the top of the left arch. It’s the closest I can be to my little brother, but it makes me sick whenever I look at it so I always sit up at the right. There’s a boy that sits with me sometimes and we talk. We don’t know each other’s names though, he never asks me and I never ask him. Maybe we both want to keep it that way. He looks like he’s the same age as Moza but less annoying and more mature.

I don’t see him at the lodge though, he says he spends most of his time in the north side. He says he wants to fight at Heaven’s Arena which is laughable. As if that place would ever take a street kid like him seriously. Despite how mature he is, everybody up north sees anyone from the south side as trash. Heaven’s Arena was the huge skyscraper that went past the clouds up in the north side. It's really hard to miss unless it’s extremely foggy. It’s basically the Serpent’s Den, but legal. Plus the arena’s fighters were more “presentable”, I watch the fights on the television sometimes. The fighters all wore pristine, elaborate costumes, leotards digging into their asses. Me and Hades would always make fun of them when we watched the fights that were broadcasted. Their stage looked nicer as well, cleaner, much larger and grander than the small pit in the basement of the tiny cramped bar that was the Serpent’s Den.

The winners in Heaven’s Arena, the floor masters, could also live in penthouses provided by the arena itself, rent free. Something like that would sound like heaven to anybody, maybe that’s why they call it “Heaven’s Arena.” It’s not like I hope the kid doesn’t make it, it just seems so unrealistic. But he’s confident in himself, and I can tell he’s not like any of these other kids out here. He’s skinny but not malnourished, he’s pale but that’s probably due to the fact he’s a ginger. Maybe he’ll have a shot, but nobody is gonna take him seriously. I don’t see him at the lodge, I don’t really see him at all other than when we meet up at the bridge. He probably has a place he’s staying in the north side.

I scale the buildings and make my way up to the top of the one closest to the bridge. As I go to jump, I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn to see who it was, a feeling of panic shoots through my body until I see who it was. It was the redhead. He looms over me, he’s insanely tall.

“Hey.” He says to me. I blink a couple of times and step away from him.

“Hey.” I say back to him. He starts laughing under his breath, I can’t help but feel slightly embarrassed. He scared me and it was such a stupid thing to be scared of, it was because I was about to jump from a building when he snuck up on me, that’s why.

“I didn’t know you were such a scaredy cat.” He chuckles, he’s a jerk sometimes, but not in the way Moza is. He doesn’t purposely try to piss me off. He reaches into his back pocket, “Want some gum?” He loved gum for some reason, he always had it on him. It was probably a hunger suppressant since he was too broke to afford an actual meal. He says you could chew gum for hours and you could always feel full, it doesn’t matter if you haven’t eaten. Even when the flavor would dissolve and you were left chewing some gross, firm gunk. I shake my head, I’m not a big fan of gum, it always leaves my teeth feeling sore.

“No thanks. I got some chips if you wanna share them once we get to the top.” I offer, pulling out the bag of chips I had forgotten were stuffed under my shirt. He shakes his head as he pops the piece of gum into his mouth, his soft red bangs blew through the breeze against his forehead. He has a little bit of acne but for some odd reason it looks attractive on him, maybe it’s his facial structure that makes it seem that way. He’s a handsome dude. If we met under different circumstances, where I wasn’t having to hide my identity, I would want to be friends with him.

He looks at me through his bangs as they would fall over his eyes sometimes, “No, I’m not climbing the bridge today. I’m sorry.” He says in his charming, suave voice, “I came here to tell you I won’t be coming to the south side anymore.”

For some reason his words put a pain in my chest, why was I hurt by this? We rarely ever spoke, we don’t even know each other’s names.

I stammer for a moment, “Um..” I try to find my words, looking away for a moment then looking back at him, “Why?”

“I’m gonna do it. I’m going to sign up at Heaven’s Arena. It won’t take me long to reach the top floors.” He says, putting his hands in his pockets, “I predict I’ll be at the 100th floor in no less than a week.”

That makes me let out a soft chuckle, “You’re dreaming, kid.” I tell him, “Have you ever watched an Arena fight? I mean yeah, it’s fun to talk shit, but just because they dress like pansies doesn’t mean they’re weak.” That was true, even if they were a bunch of prissies, they were violent.

“Oh I watch them every night, even in person whenever I can. Sometimes, instead of choosing to buy dinner for myself, I buy a ticket just to watch a fight.” He says, I blink a few times, then cross my arms and look off to the side again. There’s a long silence, neither of us are looking at each other. I look back at him finally, “I guess this is goodbye.”

I watch as he walks to the edge of the building, putting one foot up on the ledge. There’s another silence before he looks back at me, “I never asked you what your name was.” He says to me, I swallow, my eyes dart to the ground but then I look back up to him again. “Rinata.” I say, it doesn’t matter if I give him a fake name, I’ll never see him again anyway. He laughs at me again and shakes his head, his smile is sharp, like a predator’s, he looks up at the sky before looking back at me. He knew I was lying, but how? Did he know me by any of my other names?

“You don’t have to lie to me like you lie to the others. You don’t have to tell me. It doesn’t matter to me any less. I’m sure we’ll forget each other as soon as the sun sets.” He says, and that hits me like a bullet. Before I know it he’s gone and I’m alone. My mouth falls agape, my hands hang at my sides as I think about what just happened. He truly wasn’t like any of these kids out here, he was smart, we could’ve been friends. Why was this hurting me so much? I feel that sick feeling in my stomach, the same feeling I get when thinking of Milluki, or looking at Kukuroo Mountain from a distance. That feeling of loneliness, that feeling of what could’ve been.

I don’t feel like climbing the bridge tonight, I don’t think I’ll ever go up there again. It’ll just be another reminder of something I lost. Another place completely ruined for me, another moment that I don’t want to think about ever again, and another emotion I don’t want to feel. I jump off of the building, and some part of me hopes I’ll find the boy somewhere once I land but he’s completely vanished, probably back up to the north side. I inhale shakily, the cold is finally getting to me without my leather coat, I hope Violet is feeling extra warm right now.

#hunter x hunter #hxh #Hisoka x reader #reader x hisoka #hisoka fanfic #hisoka morrow x reader #hisoka morow #hxh Hisoka #hisoka hxh

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skyyguy · 4 months ago

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Bruh I’d give you both kidneys for a failed first date. I know we’ve chit chatted about how Gale had his doubts about them working out. Maybe John has a work emergency and now Gales helping John deliver a foal. Granted both have probably done it a thousand times…

You don’t have to give your kidneys, man, you can have this for free

John’s smiling sheepishly, phone in hand. Gale’s expression is thunderclouds as he eyes the device, annoyed. He’d already had misgivings about this date, yet he’d decided it was just paranoia, and yet, here he was.

“Seriously?”

“I tried to get someone to cover it, but nobody could,” John pleaded, pouting out his lower lip.

“You could have rescheduled this, then,” Gale suggested, motioning between the two of them. John looked offended at the suggestion.

“Absolutely not! It took this long for you to even agree to this one date, I’d die before I rescheduled,” John said firmly. If Gale weren’t so annoyed, he’d roll his eyes. John’s behaviour brought echoes to Gale’s mind that sent shivers up and down his spine.

“So, you decided being on call and taking me to a fancy restaurant, in your sunday best, was a good idea?”

“Uh… Ya, I guess,” John shrugged, “I didn’t expect to get called tonight… And especially not for Drama, she’s not supposed to foal for two weeks,” John explained.

“Drama’s a horse. They don’t operate on human time, John,” Gale bit out. He knew the horse in question, had helped train her years ago. John frowned and looked at the table, trying to figure out how to fix this.

“How about this, you come with me, help me deliver the foal, then we can go get ice cream?” John suggested. It hadn’t taken long to figure out Gale had a massive sweet tooth and that ice cream was his favorite. Gale’s expression softened slightly and he considered it, chewing his lip. John wanted to grab his chin and pull the plush lip away from those teeth. Instead of doing that, he kept one hand in his lap, one hand on the table holding his phone.

“Fine. But only cause I know Drama and Logan,” Gale sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before rising. His expensive, pale pink dress shirt bunched where it was tucked into his pants and John was gripped with the desire to completely untuck it. If only that wouldn’t block the view of the tight fitting black slacks. John breathed out a sigh of relief through his nose.

“I’ll go pay for our drinks,” John said before he said something else, something that absolutely would embarrass him. Gale just nodded and pulled his beat-up black leather jacket on, seeming to take comfort in the weight of it. John headed to the bar while Gale went to the front door, apologizing quietly to the hostess.

“Good girl, you’ve got this, gal,” Gale muttered, stroking the dun’s sweaty neck. She knickered tiredly as another contraction hit her. Logan stood at the stall door, watching nervously. They hadn’t ever had a horse foal before. Gale knew from experience, it could be quite nerve-wracking. Thankfully, John had jumped right in and was doing everything right. Which, Gale, realized, he shouldn’t be surprised about. It did things to him, to see how competent John actually was, but Gale shoved those feelings away, something to unpack later.

“Com’on Drama, you’re almost there!” John encouraged, scratching her hip, as if the horse could actually understand. It almost seemed like she could, as the mare gave another large push, squealing with the strain of it, and the foal slipped out, a mess of liquid and amniotic sac.

“Good girl,” Gale cooed, scratching behind the mare’s ear, smiling at her.

“Logan, you’ve got a nice looking colt here,” John called to the horse’s owner. He smiled up at them and nodded, encouraging them to come into the stall and see the colt. They knelt down as John was working on scraping the sac off the little grey body.

“I’m gonna get her up,” Gale announced, rising to his feet and leaning over to tug on Drama’s halter. The mare snorted in annoyance and tossed her head as best she could, but Gale was more stubborn, and she gave in to the gentle tugs, rolling herself to position her legs under her and pushing to her feet, shaking shavings off her body as soon as she was up. Logan and John rose too, stepping away from the foal so Gale could turn the dam to the baby. Drama’s ears pricked and she bent her neck to sniff the foal, shavings blowing away as she blew out on the wet, grey form. Gale was at the ready to pull her away should she show any sign of rejecting the baby, exchanging a glance with John.

Right as John was going to tell Gale to pull her away, Drama nuzzled against the baby and started to lick him, stepping closer to him protectively. Gale reached down and unclipped the lead rope, passing it to Logan, as John stepped closer to Gale.

“You make a pretty good tech, y’know that?” John said happily, smiling. Gale shot him a dirty look.

“I’ve delivered foals before,” he explained, rolling his eyes. John didn’t look surprised, but he did look impressed.

“Well, you can come deliver foals with me anytime,” John said, nodding as if that settled something. Gale didn’t want to ask.

“Thanks, Dr. Egan,” Logan spoke, their gaze fixed lovingly on their horses, watching Drama lick and nuzzle her colt.

“Anytime,” John said kindly, “but if you don’t need anything else, I’ve got a date to finish,” he said, glancing at Gale before holding out his hand to Logan. Logan took it and smiled. John made quick work of packing up his stuff, used gloves packed in a special trash bag in the back of his truck.

“So, ice cream,” John started. Gale flinched slightly, as if startled. John frowned, suddenly worried by that reaction.

“Uh… Yeah… About that, I’m feeling pretty tired after that…” Gale muttered, something John couldn’t place in his tone, “I think I just want to head home and go to bed,” he finished and John felt his stomach sink.

“Oh. Oh ya, sure, sure that’s fine!” John tried to sound chipper, “I get it, that was definitely a lot, no worries,” he explained, too fast. Gale nodded and bit his lip, not looking at John.

“I can get a lift from Logan, if you want,” Gale offered.

“No! No, no, it’s okay, I’ll drop you off, it’s on my way home, anyways.”

“If it’s not too much trouble…”

“None, none at all,” John fumbled for his truck keys, unlocking it and watching as Gale circled the front to slide into the passenger seat. He took a deep breath and got in, turning on the truck and pulling out of Logan’s ranch, waving at them as he passed the barn door.

The ride was mostly silent, with the exception of the radio, playing old country music. John didn’t know if Gale liked it– he didn’t, but he wouldn’t change it if Gale did– but he wasn’t even sure Gale was hearing it. His eyes were unfocused and he stared out the window at the dark passing by.

Gravel crunched as he turned onto the drive for Gale’s ranch, driving to the front door of the house. He threw the truck in park and turned in his seat to Gale.

“Hey, so, Gale…” John started. He didn’t get to finish as Gale turned to him with wide eyes, a panicked look in the blue, before he fumbled his seat belt off, threw open the door, with a hurried thanks for the ride home, and jumped out, slamming the door behind him and nearly sprinting into the house. John stared after him, a pit opening and his stomach and heart plummeting into it. He knew he should have gotten that night off work.

#Sky makes noise #Sky Writes #Equine Therapy AU

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andyling · 2 years ago

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Okay now that I got my Tango rambling out of the way IT’S TIME FOR A BUNCH OF OTHER PEOPLE

Jimmy Solidarity (aka the man sending team rancher fans into a collective breakdown, it’s me I'm team rancher fans)

stealth mission IMMEDIATELY failed

THE FACT THAT TANGO WAS OUT OF RANGE OF THE BOMB AND THEN RAN RIGHT UNDER IT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Tango congratulating Jimmy on killing him (even though it was Joel) Team Ranchers is still alive guys I swear, NO ANGST HERE IT’S FINE GUYS

Love how Joel is being attacked and Grian is nowhere to be found because he’s too busy hunting down Impulse

jimmy shouting tango’s name and literally jumping towards him as he places tnt counts as a rancher moment

either he’s stupid or he was confident tango wouldn’t blow him up, it’s probably the former but hey I choose how I interpret this chaos

JIMMY WAS SO CLOSE TO DYING HOLY SHIT

JIMMY’S FUCKING FACE WHEN MARTYN STARTED ATTACKING ETHO

mans was literally just :O

“what I'm realizing right is that everyone is thirsty” did ya have to phrase it like that??? I can hear the out of context compilations clipping this

Jimmy sounding so shocked that Tango was fighting Martyn as if he didn’t just spend several minutes fending him off from killing Joel

oh uh, the flower husbands are fighting

SCOTT THROWING TANGO UNDER THE BUS BRUUUUUUUH

damn flower husbands enjoyers must be in absolute misery

anyways WOO JIMMY DIDN’T GO AFTER TANGO, GUYS THE RANCHERS ARE FINE WE DON’T NEED TO MAKE ANGST FROM THIS

JIMMY AND MARTYN FIGHTING TO KILL SCOTT AJFSJAKFHDSHJGK

love how Jimmy is not even trying to find Tango he’s just there watching this chaos unfold

“guys he’s not gonna respond” Jimmy you underestimate how dumb your rancher is, there is a reason I call both of you wet cats

WHY IS THERE REDSTONE BLOOD EVERYONE?????

JOEL JUST WENT SPLAT

the way jimmy hunches over closer to his mic when he’s whispering is so funny, he’s trying to hide irl

ah yes, “the bad boys bread bridge bakery in the sky” my beloved

hey now Jimmy has been trying to protect Joel for half the session don’t kick him out, I mean he failed but at least he was trying

ending the session with robbery, how wonderful

Grain

“looking tasty” aaaaand that’ going into the out of context compilation

JOEL SOUNDS SO DISTRAUGHT THAT HE KILLED CLEO

Grian seems to be extra manic this episode, I'm blaming that on the fact that he missed a session

the entire “definitely” bit is so stupid but I find it so funny

GRIAN WAS TRYING SO HARD TO GET IMPULSE AND ENDED UP DYING INSTEAD AJFHSAJFHDSSFKJSDGF

“normally this is last episode behavior” I mean last session was last episode behavior too I think this season has just made everyone crazy

DUDE GRIAN WAS SO SURE THAT TNT MINECART FAILED AND THEN HE GOT A TRIPLE KILL

HE ALMOST KNOCKED HIMSELF OFF THE PLATFORM IN HIS SHOCK

oh my god the yellow hoard is even funnier from their perspective

the pufferfish plays are insane goddamn

THE TANGO CHASE IS EVEN FUNNIER FROM GRIAN’S POV OH MY GOD SERIOUSLY HOW DID THEY NOT CATCH HIM

THEY JUST KEEP CALLING HIM AND HE RESPONDS FROM WHO KNOWS WHERE IN THE FUNNIEST VOICE

“How about we just kill him for fun now?” SCAR NO

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE’S A WARDEN NEARBY HELLO?!??!?!

tango just has a 6th sense for wardens now

awwwwww grian’s sharing in order to help skizz (pity totem is still totem)

someone is gonna trap those ender-porters I just know it

THAT WAS SUCH A WASTE OF A TOTEM

MARTYN INTHELITTLEWOOD EVERYBODY

the mean gills chatting on their little island resort really contrasts how badly the rest of this session is gonna go

WELL DAMN SCOTT SMAJOR

THE FACT THAT MARTYN SAW THE TNT MINECART AND FUCKING BOOKED IT THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION HE WAS SO CLOSE TO DYING

Bdubs running to Etho for protection is hilarious in every POV

the bread bois and team ties have a fast travel to each other . . . we’ll see how that works out (please become allies please please please)

LOVE HOW MARTYN ACKNOWLEDGES THE OUT OF CONTEXT VIDEOS NOW AFJKHSAJKGHDKSGKH

MARTYN ON HIS PSYCHO ARC OH MY FUCKING GOD

MARTYN’S DECISION TO TURN ON ETHO WAS SO QUICK AND IT’S SO OBVIOUS HERE HE JUST LOOPED AROUND AND STABBED HIM

Martyn didn’t even realize Tango was still trying to kill him lmao

THE PUFFERFISH DIED IN THE EXPLOSION OH NO

poor scar stood in the wrong place at the wrong time

Etho trying desperately to get people to leave Tango and Impulse alone

MARTYN WAS SO FAR AWAY HOW DID THAT TNT MINECART KILL HIM HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THE RANGE ON THOSE THINGS?!?!?!

god Martyn is just having an awful time trying to stay alive this session

DUDE THE SCRAMBLE TO SEE WHO WOULD KILL SCOTT FIRST IS WAY MORE INTENSE FROM MARTYN’S POV FUCKING HELL

bruh Martyn really teasing us all with actual lore

So uh, yeah that session was bonkers SEE Y’ALL NEXT WEEK

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echoesofwisdomcountup · 2 years ago

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89 Days Until Tears of the Kingdom Release. The Trailer Breakdown is here. Sorry Tumblr killed the image quality. This is Part One of Three.

Warning: This will be obscenely long. I have spent hours of my life on this and I even went around Hyrule in BOTW to double check things. I have also watched only one reaction/analysis video (Limcube) whose ideas I reference a few times but the rest is all me. Now, I know many of the oddities and differences could easily be explained by saying we time travel into the past but I’m going to approach this for the most part as if we are not time traveling because it's more fun this way. Also, the colors refer to the corresponding arrows/circles on the image above it.

First thoughts: Dang the sky is mad. Do not wear metal in this weather. Red: Malice spewing out of Death Mountain. Never not gonna be interested in that. Green: Green swirlies. I’m assuming this is something that lets you travel into the sky. Maybe lets you phase through the ground like one of the past trailers has shown us. Liquifies Link even. Orange: Weird funky rock. Meteorites?? Yeah I’m gonna point these out a lot.

Red: Malice pool right next to the green swirlies. Blue: Tiny glowing dots in the distance. Other green swirlies? If so they seem to dot the landscape like shrines in that you can see the glow far off. Unless they are more of those symbols/drawings inscribed on ground/grass that we see later.

First thoughts: Keese on steroids. My friend suggests calling them Geese. Second thoughts: Actually, they remind me of the flying enemies from Twilight Princess, Twilit Kargarok, only yellow. Hmm yellow and orange… I hope they are not electric or fire although there seems to be a lack of that in the trailer. Note: The area is clearly where the Sheikah Tower near the Korok Forest (Woodland Tower) should be, except well it’s obviously not there.

Blue: Glowing towers that are clearly not Shiekah Towers. I like the spotlights though. They look kinda prehistoric. Orange: Big glowy symbols/drawing. I really want to know what these are for. Green: It’s kinda hard to see but I think it’s a big storm tornado thing in the sky. You can see it much better later in the trailer. Reminds me of the stormhead dome in Skyward Sword.

Blue: Glowing orange thing down there. Can’t tell what it is but maybe a chest? Idk why but I have this idea you might have to jump down from higher and angle yourself to land on it. You had to do this for platforms in Skyward Sword. Red: This island being at a lower altitude from the one taking up most of the shot pleases me. I like the idea of layered sky islands. Might be a nightmare for stamina and paragliders until we can get those vehicles.

General thoughts: Brand new underground area. I’ve never seen anything like this in BOTW. Green: Blue flame spirit things. These are so interesting. I wanna know what these are. They remind me of willow the wisps or maybe the Bluepee. I hope this means more spirit things in this game. I will be quite sad if they are only an environmental design choice. Red: Malice infused Lizalfos. Again I haven’t seen elemental enemies yet. Only malice ones. Huh it’d be pretty funny if they bled black but then that’d be infringing on the Linked Universe and enemies don’t bleed in Zelda games. Pink: Why are they mining? Seriously, Ganondorf, what are you having your minions mine for? You lose something? Do the bokoblins need money or ore for something? Hmm, a bokoblin run market would be interesting. Blue: This glowy snake tree thing kinda looks like a tunnel of some sort. Maybe it’s a way to travel from the surface to this. If so I’d treat it like a slide but then I’d break my knees cause you can bet fall damage is still a thing… hmm can’t wait to see people time how long it takes for Link to fall from the highest island to the ground and go splat

Note: The Bridge of Hylia is the same. Yes, I double checked. Words: “Rise, rise my servants.” I’m fairly sure this is Ganondorf. Red: DRAGON. THREE HEADED FIRE DRAGON. Yeah so this is one of the few elemental enemies shown in the trailer. I want to fight this thing so bad. I’ve heard people say it's a Gleeok possibly (an enemy from the first Legend of Zelda game.) It reminds me of a much cooler version of the Hydra enemies from Skyward Sword. Blue: Vaguely green glow that probably denotes a green swirly thing. Pink: Malice holding up the castle looks sick. I like that you can see it glowing red from far away.

General Thoughts: It’s Hateno and it mostly looks the same but not quite Words: “Sweep over Hyrule.” Yeah, yeah Ganondorf we get you have a grudge. Green: Green swirly thing is new. It’s not quite in the same place as the shrine which is absent from this picture. Blue: Purah’s furnace is gone and so are the blue flame lanterns along the road and the ancient furnace down in the village. Purah’s lab also isn’t glowing. Actually, this makes me wonder about teleportation since no Sheikah slate. Maybe we get so many new vehicles because no instant teleportation.

General thoughts: First time we see Link. Hello buddy. Also sequels and moons as enemies am I right? Words: “Eliminate this kingdom and her allies.” This Ganondorf doesn’t want to rule over people but wipe them out which makes me think about Demise’s anger and hatred. However, Ocarina of Time Ganondorf devastated the land pretty badly so maybe all of the Ganondorfs/Ganons like extreme destruction. Also, I’m pretty sure Hyrule’s allies are all the different races, Zora, Rito, Gerudo (talk about betraying your own people Ganondorf), Shiekah. I’m not holding out hope for other nations/kingdoms getting involved. Blue: You can see islands in the background. I wonder what the long trailing thing is. Pink: The shield is the same one we’ve seen in a past trailer but of course Link had a different outfit then. Also the bow is a brand new one that’s not in BOTW. The sword handle also makes me think it's a new weapon. I like the triforce triangles on the shield and the not-really-Sheikah-eye eye. It’s got eyelashes.

General thoughts: I wonder if we get a super strong blood moon in the beginning and then the cycle returns to normal like BOTW or will we get more frequent blood moons or maybe blood moons are every night but they don’t work quite the same like moon is just red everynight and enemies are stronger but every once and a while we get a super blood moon that respawns enemies. Words: “Leave no survivors.” This part really makes me think more Demise than Ganondorf. The way the VA growled this part also made me think of Pig Ganon or Ganondorf’s beast form. Blue: It's kinda hard to make out but that’s a lot of malice. It’s really consuming the castle there.

Green: Green swirly thing is already present when the Ganon moon starts raining meteors. Does this mean that this footage isn’t from the first cutscene the trailer is alluding to but a later blood moon cycle? Do the swirly things appear as soon as the green seal breaks on Ganon? Or do they appear before and that's why Link and Zelda were exploring underneath the castle? Also this one happens to be in the same spot as the Jee Noh Shrine. Pink: Great plateau walls appear to be fixed and this is the area that should be full of snow. The spot is on the south side of Mount Hylia. Trust me I double checked and Ganon was so helpful as to spawn a blood moon while I was checking out the walls so I accidentally recreated this part of the trailer. Why did the climate on the plateau change so drastically and did Link and Zelda repair the walls?

First thoughts: WTF IS THAT THING??!! Second thoughts: Either it's some form of Ganon or it's a mutated malice guardian enemy. It reminds me of the corrupted evil egg guardian from Age of Calamity. I can’t decide if I want to fight it or run from it. Black: On the third look, it has bone claws/hands. Uhhh weird bone growths line up with the other enemies but this thing is disturbing me the longer I look at it. Time to move on.

General thoughts: So besides the dragon this is the only other elemental enemy. At least I think it's an enemy. Seems like a really massive and powerful Igneo Talus. Unless it's a piece of Death mountain area rising into the sky to become a lava island but that seems like a stretch.

General thoughts: Just wanted to note that since pieces of the castle are breaking off, the layout of the castle is probably gonna be changed from BOTW. Idk how much but it makes sense that they would want to alter the interior map. Not like the Castle wasn’t already a bit of a pain to navigate.

General thoughts: The red lighting looks extremely intimidating. 10/10 Pink: Malice pools where the Magnesis Shrine should be. Did Ganon’s malice eat the shrines? Where is it even coming from? Is it bubbling From underground or from the blood moon? Considering it’s so close to that bit of water near the shrine, it makes me wonder if certain water sources will be infected with malice and what that will do to the Zora. Green: Glowy symbols again. I really really want to know more about those. Yellow: The plateau walls here are damaged unlike the more fortified ones in the previous plateau picture. I also double checked and as far as I can tell this is the same exact damage that exists in BOTW. Maybe Link and Zelda didn’t get around to fixing it yet? Also if I acknowledge the time travel possibility then this just tells me that the blood moons happen in both time periods.

General thoughts: So Ganon is spawning these guys in. What does this mean for the regular bokoblins? Were they all cleared out by Link, Zelda, and a recovering Hyrule so Ganon just spawned in evolved versions? Also I can’t quite tell where this is (unless this is on the plateau walls, the nice fixed up ones we saw earlier considering the trees in the background). Oh well.

Blue: First off this is a Redead. This is a hundred percent a Redead and I give Nintendo 15/10 for scary design. Redeads are always meant to be terrifying. That being said, I will ancient arrow these things (that is if ancient arrows still exist.) Of course this begs the question. Which unlucky dead person got resurrected and mutated to be a Redead? Did Ganon turn dead Yiga into Redeads or is he using the dead Hylians that he killed during the Calamity? I wonder what the lore on these things is gonna be. Green: Big guy. A very large dude. Reminds me of the Moblins from Skyward Sword. Yellow: Bone growth on the red Moblin reminds me of a Pachycephalosaurus (dinosaur.)

Orange: Big storm in the sky but much better shot. As I said before it reminds me of the storm dome thing from Skyward Sword. Blue: Again I really like the way the malice looks streaming up and out from under the castle. It looks sufficiently ominous enough for my taste. Like that’s an evil castle right there. Green: I hunted for this area since there aren’t exactly many paved/cobbled roads in BOTW. The best I can tell is that this is the road between the Sacred Ground Ruins and the Mabe Village Ruins. Yes, I zoomed around Hyrule Field on my motorbike dodging guardian blasts every five seconds. Yeah, I felt pretty cool right up until I failed to dodge but then I murdered those two guardian stalkers so all was well.

General Thoughts: Looks like the area where the golfing minigame is in BOTW, that same valley that leads to the Forgotten Temple. Blue: There is a Molduga in that avalanche. What the heck is that about?

Green: What is that arm holding? I know it's likely a mechanical part of some sort but I thought it was a brush at first lmao Red: Makes me think of Purah and/or Robbie but this area is definitely brand new. Maybe one or both remodeled. Or it’s neither of them but a secret third option. Still the blue glow also makes me think of teleportation so maybe it's not completely go

General thoughts: Poor Link getting accosted by Doctor Octopus arms. Blue: That’s the Shiekah eye so this is probably a Shiekah place. Still, why does this place give me Yiga vibes? Pink: Let me just appreciate actual chainmail under that Champion's tunic. Green: Clawed ancient hand. I’m very fascinated by it so just noting that it’s not glowing here.

Blue: The strange rocks. They make me think of meteorites but also the big guardian pillars that surround the castle and the material that make up the shines. Did Ganon explode those pillars and pieces of them are now littered across Hyrule? Did they just emerge out of the ground? Or, if we’re thinking about time travel, are these the materials that the Shiehka later use to make the shrines and those pillars.? Green: Big dude has a large horn. The skulls on him remind me of the bokoblin skulls that you could collect from defeated bokoblins in Skyward Sword. Also does he have an ax on his head? Pink: I went to check all the areas I could with this type of tree (Taoba Grasslands, Oseira Plains, and the area right beneath the words Gerudo Canyon which by the way has fairies lurking around) but not a single one has greenish grass with flowers. Maybe the grass literally grew greener after Calamity was defeated for a bit. Hyrule restoring itself and all that jazz.

General thoughts: Hehe look at that Hinox with his dumb little hat. Also we are in a cave. We are totally getting underground sections. Pink: This green orb looks like the one you find on the Thundra plateau. It’s also making me think of the three orbs you have to collect in Wind Waker and place in those statues. Farore vibes. Red: What is this glow? Is it the orb or something else?

General thoughts: Yes, another one of the Hinox chase. I want you to appreciate Link’s running animation… jk. I’m just noting that I’ve never seen those plants in BOTW. You must be telling yourself OP how could you expect to know every little plant in BOTW but I’m telling you I’ve played the game for somewhere around 1000 hours and I’ve watched too many BOTW videos to count. Also there are plants growing on the cave walls in the back. (I kept an eye out while I was double checking other things for this breakdown and still couldn’t find these plants. Pls correct me if I’m wrong)

General thoughts: New paraglider, yay. I mean it doesn’t seem that different but I now know we can customize it with different fabrics. I hope there are in-game customizations as well as the amiibo ones. Also, no Ridgeland Tower. I really wonder where the heck all of them went. Red: I like that you can see all these islands in the sky from down here. Also what the heck is that cube island? Limcube said he thought it was related to the mazes but I don’t wanna think of dealing with a rubix cube maze that's vertical and horizontal. I’m gonna be lost for weeks.

General thoughts: Obviously, the symbols are driving me nuts. I wanna know what they are for so badly. I do think it's funny we can just ride a horse right through them. I just know someone is gonna try and set this grass on fire to see what happens. Red: What is this thing? It’s hard to make out but it looks like it has four limbs, a tail, and tusks maybe? Yeah it looks kinda like an elephant. I wonder if it's another new enemy. Blue: Just think it's funny that there’s a random rock here.

Blue: They are like the Twilight Princess Kargarok. I know I’m not the only one getting flashbacks to that one minigame where you had to hit those fruit balloons while the Kargarok was carrying Wolf Link similar to this. Green: New weapon that looks like a primitive hatchet. Yellow: So in BOTW this is the area that’s covered in darkness (Typhlo Ruins). I wonder why it isn’t covered in shadow here. Pink: Storm in the sky. I just like pointing this out. I wanna explore the storm tornado cause I just know something is interesting there. LET ME IN!

Pink: This guy has bull horns like a Longhorn (sorry it's hard to see here). I like this design. I didn’t get a picture of it but he slams his head into the ground so I’m assuming it's a new type of attack. So that means, even if the enemies look mostly the same, we should watch out for new attack patterns. Yellow: This is the Wooden shield so not new. Green: again looks like the Pachycephalosaurus (dinosaur).

General thoughts: They really just stacked stuff on top of the enemy skull camps. Blue: What is this stick weapon? Maybe, it's at an odd angle but it doesn’t look long enough to be a wooden spear and it’s definitely not a regular BOTW stick. It’s like a slightly heavier stick lol.

General thoughts: Whoa this is such a cube enemy, a block man. Square. Obviously, it reminds me of both Tetris and Minecraft. Also I really like that it’s so bright because the islands are closer to the sun. Red: Probably very much a glowing weakness. I hope we can break that specific block. It also glows the same shade as Link’s new arm so Zonai tech?? Blue: Pointing out the sky islands again. I really like the variety of shapes and altitudes. I can’t wait to explore these.

#part one of trailer breakdown #tears of the kingdom #totk #botw2 #botw link #botw totk #loz botw2 #loz totk #loz link #legend of zelda #totk trailer #loz #princess zelda #ganondorf #picture

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specialagentlokitty · 1 year ago

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Mr Evershed x Student!reader - buddy for the day

Mr. Evershed x Student reader who sneaks their pet into class - @witchreporter 💜

It was easier said than done trying to sneak an animal into the school, but thankfully for you, it was pretty simple.

You just had to keep her under the sleeve of your blazer, and she was pretty content to be there as well.

So, you thought it was going to go well, she slept peacefully like she always did, and you were extremely careful of what you did in case you startled her somehow.

It wasn’t until English that you realised maybe you should have thought twice about this because you felt your pet stir a little bit towards the end of the lesson.

You clamped your hand around your elbow to stop her from going up that way, and realising that she couldn’t go that way, she turned around.

“No…” you whispered.

You clamped your hand around your wrist and glanced around.

The bell rang and you quickly stood up.

“Sit down.” Mr Evershed said.

You huffed a little bit and sat down.

He waited for all the students to leave, and you glanced down your sleeve to see the slightly purple scaled reptile down your sleeve.

“Hold on..”

You set your arm down, and you watched as Mr Evershed walked over and he took your work book, flicking through it.

“Another lesson of no work.”

“Sorry sir.”

“Let’s talk about this, is there a reason? Are you struggling? Having a hard time?” He asked.

You shrugged a little bit, and moved your arm a tiny bit as you felt the snake move under it.

“Have you hurt your arm or something? Is that why you haven’t worked? Because if you have we can take a look at it.”

“No sir it’s fine, really.”

You moved your arm again, and put your other hand into your sleeve and let the snake curl around your hand to stop her from trying to go up your sleeve.

“(Y/N).”

“Mr Evershed.”

He rose a brow at you and gestured to your sleeve.

“What’s up your sleeve?”

“Well my arm obviously.”

“What’s really up your sleeve.”

“Nothing.”

He hummed a little, reaching over, he touched the raised part of your blazer sleeve with a finger and he quickly pulled his hand away horrified when it moved.

“What is that?”

You huffed a little bit and pulled your other hand out, and you turned your hand palm up and set it on desk.

You gently nudged her through your blazer and you looked as her little head peaked out if your sleeve and Mr Evershed jumped back.

“(Y/N) you can’t bring animals in here!”

“It’s a reptile actually.” You smiled.

She wiggled her way out and you held took your blazer off and held your hand out, letting her slither over it and back on the table.

“How long has it been in your sleeve.”

“All day, and it’s a she.” You huffed.

“Why did you bring a snake to school?!”

“Because my mum said she was gonna sell her..”

Mr Evershed pinched the bridge of his nose and he looked at you holding the rather small snake in your hands.

“She’s a lavender blue corn snake, she’s called Spot, and she’sharmless. They’re really friendly.” You said.

“That doesn’t excuse you bringing a reptile to school.”

“Well, it’s after school now.”

“(Y/N), you know I’m going to have to call your mum about this right? And reprimand you.”

You shrugged a little bit and walked around the table, holding your arm out.

“Come on, touch her.”

Mr Evershed took a step away.

“I’m not touching the snake, grab your blazer and let’s go to the office.”

You shrugged and set spot on your wrist, letting her curl around it and you tossed your blazer over your shoulder as you followed the teacher to the office.

He held the door opened for you and you beamed from ear to ear at Mrs Oakes

“Why are you still here?” She asked.

“Show her what you decided to bring with your today.”

You held your arm out proudly and she jumped up.

“A snake?! Why would you bring that into school?!” She snapped.

“Because I could and nobody stopped me.”

“I’m calling their mum now.” Mr Evershed said.

“This is seriously disturbing behaviour (Y/N), that snake could have hurt someone.”

“She’s harmless, I wouldn’t bring her in if she weren’t.”

“That is no excuse for bringing an animal in!” Mrs Oakes snapped.

“Alright, I think they understand the severity of the situation. I just need to borrow the office so we can sit and wait for (Y/N)s mum.”

“Fine, but you and I will be discussing this tomorrow.”

Mrs Oakes walked around the room and you grinned, walking over to her you held your arm out and she quickly ran out the room while you laughed.

“You’re only making this worse for yourself.”

“I never liked her anyways.”

You sat down in front of the desk, and you let spot slide down to explore the new area and Mr Evershed carefully watched her as he explained the situation to your mum.

When he was finished he hung up the phone and he used a pencil to guide spot away from the edge of the table.

“Your mums on her way, do you not have anything to put spot in?”

“No, she’s been around my arm all day.”

He nodded his head and looked at you.

“Seriously a snake?”

“I coulda brought a chicken.”

“At least we would’ve found a chicken.”

You snickered a little and you ran your finger along the scales of your pet and smiled a little bit to yourself.

“Go on, tell me, why a snake?”

You looked at your English teacher.

“Dunno really, they’re she’s just real cute, and pretty easy to care for.”

He nodded his head and looked at you.

“Pet her.”

“I’m not touching the snake.”

“Pet her.” You huffed.

“I am not touching the snake (Y/N).”

You grinned a little bit.

“I’ll bring her back don’t worry.”

“Don’t you even think about it.”

#ackley bridge #ackley bridge imagine #ackley bridge x reader #ackley bridge x you #mr evershed x reader #mr evershed imagine #mr evershed x you #mr evershed

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giggly-moon · 5 months ago

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INTRODUCING YET ANOTHER EPIC OC!! this one is named Enne! unfortunately i don’t have a character playlist for them just yet </3 also i will be adding the tickling related info later, as i’m not very good at coming up with tickle headcanons on the spot dhfndjdn

i couldn’t decide whether i wanted to make Enne male or female so i decided to make them non-binary instead! also the pronunciation of their name keeps switching between “enn-uh”, “enn-ay” and “enn-ee” in my head so therefore all three are correct. they’re confusing like that

another demigod baby! this time they’re a child of Hermes, so of course they’re gonna be a huge trickster and troublemaker. they honestly don’t resemble Hermes a whole lot, other than inheriting the ankle wings. though theirs are smaller with brown feathers, and they have an extra pair on their wrists.

Enne’s primary ability is that they’re a shapeshifter! they have the ability to transform into any animal/creature they want, and possibly transform into people too but that’s a bit trickier for them to pull off, and perfectly mimic the sounds they make.

even if their normal and more “human” looking form, they still have quite a few animalistic features like antlers, a long tail, cat-like eyes, fangs, claws, in-human ears and paw-like hands and feet. they also have dark brown fur on their tail, ears, arms starting right below their elbows and legs starting right below their knees. they also have shorter fur on their forehead going down to the bridge of their nose.

they didn’t inherit their dad’s ability to fly (unless they transform into something that can fly), but they are very agile and sneaky and can move very quietly, and because of their animal features they can jump very high and are very good at climbing.

they don’t really ever officially join the crew, but they’ve been secretly tagging along for quite a while now. they use their shapeshifting powers to hide somewhere on the ship just to watch the crew and all the shenanigans they get up to, cause they think these guys are hilarious.

although Melia has known about them the whole time, not just because of her own powers but because the two of them are cousins and they’re pretty close as well, so Enne isn’t too worried about hiding themselves from her. they know Mel won’t tell anybody else about them.

in terms of personality, they’re very very mischievous and playful, they’re just here to have fun and they love messing with people. they don’t really take things very seriously, but they’re still pretty nice and sweet considering their trickster ways. probably fascinated with shiny objects (the biggest inspirations for the way they act are cats and crows)

for someone who is a child of Hermes of all people, Enne is surprisingly pretty quiet and not much of a talker. they can talk but only do it sparingly, they let their actions and mannerisms do most of the talking

after their presence is made known to the rest of the crew, they’ll show up randomly fairly often just to hang out and see what everyone’s up to and join in on some of the hijinks. whenever they’re not around on the ship they’re either messing with some other random poor souls or they’re with the group of forest nymphs that raised them

#roo’s ocs

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coldeternalarchive · 4 months ago

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WELCOME TO THE FAMILY

“You’re all set up.”

It was just past noon and Zack had been working since seven that morning, but the bike was fixed. He rolled the motorcycle out to the sidewalk with all the care he took in handling things that were not his. “Can I go ahead and run your card for the full amount?”

“Oh yeah, I got paid this morning, the money’s there.” The man took the bike from Zack, the name ‘Haner” glinting in bright gold script on the back of his leather jacket as he turned. “You know, you could always come join us and ride some night. Anytime, not just night.” He brushed back his black hair that was straight and several inches longer than Zack’s own emo cut and slid the sunglasses from his head down to the bridge of his nose.

“Maybe someday. Another time.” Zack promised, catching his reflection in the mirrored lenses, five foot nine, maybe one hundred and fifteen pounds if he was wearing boots, hair purple and black, black eyeliner over purple and pink shadow that made him look slightly malnourished and ill.

“Whatever, you’ve been saying that the entire time I’ve been coming here. You know, parts of you are gonna fall off if you don’t get back on the bike. It’s a medical fact.”

Zack just shook his head and the other man changed the subject.

“Hey, I’m thinking about getting a bike for my sister, she turns fourteen in a few months. First I’m going to teach her to ride like me, then I’m gonna teach her to hack computers like me. That’s what my parents get for having kicked me out at the tender, impressionable age of twenty one.”

“That was four years ago, get over it!”

“Dude, paying rent sucks balls! Anyway can you keep your eye out for a dirt bike?”

“Yeah sure. I could probably even do some graphics on it for ya if you’ll let me know what she’s into.”

“Fucking awesome, man. Hey have you checked the heating system in this joint?”

Zack’s bike shop had been open only ten months and all of those months had been summer.

“We got a cold front coming in, you’ll want to keep at least one bay door sort of open so people know you’re....you know...OPEN. So you’re gonna need some heat. Don’t want little Zacky’s sausage fingers freezing off the way his dick is gonna fall off from not riding.”

“Fuck you, Brian. Thes sausage fingers fixed that, useless bike of yours! Not my fault you can’t steer for shit and you keep wrecking.”

“Just giving the weather report to my little buddy!” He reached over and messed up Zack’s hair. “Don’t want you to freeze or have to keep all the bay doors shut and hang a bed sheet outside that says I ASSURE YOU WE ARE OPEN.”

“I’m not even supposed to be here today!” Mimicked Zack.

“Help!! Call the cops! This guy’s trying to kill me!”

Zack and Brian turned around to see a kid running at them holding a fourth of a hard roll sandwich in one hand and a slim backpack in the other. He was smaller than even Zack which meant he was way smaller than Brian. He had a blond buzzcut that appeared to be spray painted black in places and was wearing a faded Vans tshirt and jeans that hung off him like they belonged to someone else. He and Brian sized each other up before the kid jumped behind Brian to hide.

“You gotta protect me!”

“First of all, I ain’t gotta do shit! Second of all, are you mental? There’s no one after you.”

“I got a jump on ‘em, they’re behind me....somewhere! Seriously, give me a hand!”

“I‘m not getting dirty for someone I don’t know.” Brian sniffed. “Beat it, kid!”

“Do you know who runs this shop?” The kid pointed to the inside of Zack’s garage. “Maybe he’ll let me hide!”

“Me and no I won’t.”

“You?”

“Yes me! Do I have to look like a Hell’s Angel to run a bike shop?!” It wasn’t often Zack ran into someone who was shorter than he was and it was fun staring down the kid and watching him squirm.

“I know he looks like a model for Hot Topic, he looks like he could be in AFI, no autographs, please, but yeah it’s HIS place!” Brian laughed.

“Can I hide in there?! Please?”

“NO!!” Zack and Brian yelled in unison.

“Look, if you want us to be your bodyguards, you gotta pay us!” Brian said as the kid danced nervously from one foot to the other, peering around Brian’s well muscled arms.

“t..I don’t have any money!”, the kid whined. “Uh..ham sandwich?” He held up the bit of bread and meat he was holding.

“Get that shit outta here!” Brian swatted it out of his and and the kid’s face fell like a toddler who had dropped his ice cream cone.

“There he is!!!”

Zack and Brian spun around and saw two guys about their own age thundering around the corner at the far end of the street.

“Ahhhh!” The kid screamed and took off running, the older boys half a block behind him, in hot pursuit.

“Wow, never a dull moment.” Brian started his bike and waved to Zack as he merged into traffic.

“Of course I own this shop...:” Zack grumbled to himself as he walked back into the familiar smell of motor oil and tires. “Can’t a guy with purple hair own a shop? Do I have to look like...like..Kerry fucking King?!”

Zack was not only one of the few pretty boys to have a shop of his own, he was the only pretty boy he knew who could also fix anything from a Harley to a BMW bike. He also knew he had to be the only bike mechanic on earth who did not ride. He didn’t own a bike, he didn’t own a car, he walked or took the bus, or sometimes got rides from friends. On one hand this made life pretty simple and all his profits could go right back into his shop and his living quarters upstairs. On the other hand people just didn’t seem to trust a mechanic that didn’t ride. It wasn’t like he had never been on a bike, but it had been years.

The one saving grace was that Zack was competent, he was fast, and he saw no need to bilk anyone for non-essential repairs. Despite looking like he was still fifteen, he was well into his twenties and even though he did not actively ride he understood the inner workings of bikes. He single handedly fixed them quickly and with no fanfare and they stayed fixed because he used quality parts, took his time and did not cut corners. Well, Brian’s bike never stayed fixed but that was because he insisted on riding drunk, and he was drunk a lot. He was the best customer Zack had.

There was one more bike to fix, but the owner worked late and wouldn’t be coming for it until seven at night so Zack took his time on it. Brian programmed video games by day and was a hacker for hire at night so he pretty much set his own hours. Zack had been on his own for a year now and was happy to be self sufficient after having to depend on his parents far longer than he had ever planned. He ran upstairs to his loft space, grabbed a premade sandwich and a soda, hurried back down lest he miss a potential customer, then ate quickly and got started on the bike.

Working straight through the afternoon, he finished the bike with thirty minutes to spare. He washed up and waited for the customer to arrive. The customer came in, paid, took the bike and Zack made about three hundred dollars in profit. This was added to the hundred and twenty five in profit he made from Brian (he always cut his friends a price break, even people like Brian who had more money than they knew what to do with most days). He closed up and decided to get something to eat. Some nights he was so tired it was all he could do to walk the stairs to his loft, throw a box in the microwave and eat before collapsing in bed. His freezer was full of frozen food, not the most nutritious thing on earth but Zack hadn’t put on weight since puberty so he couldn’t see a problem with it. Still tonight he felt like being waited on. Remembering what Brian said, he turned on the heater, both in the shop and upstairs, locked up, grabbed a jacket, set the alarm and set out on foot to find a place to eat.

Brian had actually been right, Zack mused as an icy cold wind, the first of the season, began to howl around the corners of the boulevard, making him put on his jacket and zip it all the way to the neck. Since he worked through dinner time, he could actually write this off as a business expense and he stopped inside a bar and grill several blocks down and treated himself to a steak and an imported beer, using his small business account card and making sure to get a receipt for his records. He had learned this tip from his dad.

A light rain had begun to fall and it was soothing to look at while he ate and glanced out through the restaurant windows, but maybe not so good to walk home in. He paid his check and opened the door, still lost in the mental debate on getting a cab or not. Little did he know it was about to be answered for him.

As he walked back out into the cold, which had somehow managed to get even colder while he had been inside, he tripped over something just outside the doorway. Looking down he let out a few choice curses before he saw it was a person he had tripped over.

“What the hell are you doing on the ground?!” The figure shrank back into the shadows, huddling closer against the building for warmth. It’s head was down and it was curled up, knees to it’s forehead, shivering in a thin t shirt and clutching a slim backpack. Zack stopped. “Hey, you alright?” There was no answer, Zack looked at the shirt. ‘...that’s a Vans shirt, it’s gotta be the kid I saw earlier.’ “Hey!” Zack tapped him on the shoulder and the kid looked up. His eyes were blackened and reduced to slits, blood had crusted from running his nose into his split lip. As Zack stared he could see cuts on his head as well. The blond buzz cut with the black splotches, he could see it now.

“Hey, what are you doing out here? Do you want me to call somebody for ya? Can I take you someplace?”

“Would I be out here in the fucking freezing cold if I had anywhere to go?!” The kid burst out, sounding on the verge of tears and ducking his head again. “Leave me alone, I’m fine. Go away.”

“Dude, no...” Zack closed his eyes, feeling guilt drop on heavily upon him. The boy didn’t seem to recognize him as the person who’d refused him help earlier or if he did, it didn’t seem to matter anymore. “You’re hurt and it’s freezing. When was the last time you had a meal?”

“Nineteen Ninety-fucking Seven! Go away! What do you care?”

“Ok comedian, I’m gonna pull you up so don’t fight me. I don’t mean to hurt you. Can you stand?”

“Seriously?” The kid’s teeth were chattering as he tried to answer, making him stutter. I just got nice and comfy down here.”

“I’m not leaving you here.” Zack leaned down, got a good grip on the kid’s skinny arms and pulled.

“Ow! Fuck, okay already, I’m getting up. I’ll find another corner.”

“No, I’m not shooing you away, I’m trying to get you out of the cold.”

“Hey....Mr. Hot Topic!” The kid grinned, looking Zack in the face for the first time. He slung the backpack over his shoulder but it obviously didn’t have much of anything in it by the way it floated weightlessly against him.

“That’s me. Normally we would walk but you don’t look like you can and I can’t carry you, though you look skinnier than I am and that’s saying something. I’ll get us a cab.”

“Where?”

“My garage.”

“Oh you wanna let me in now? Wow, that’s just great! Thanks.”

Zack held the kid up by the shoulder with one hand and hailed a cab with the other. He pulled the boy into the backseat with him and six minutes later he was back fumbling with his keys, trying to keep the boy on his feet and punch in his security code. He closed and locked the door behind them, flipped a switch and one fourth of the lights hummed to life. He could instantly tell the difference between the temperature inside and out and was glad he had put on the heat. The loft and garage were so big, he had really only planned on using a few space heaters, but had never gotten around to buying them. To run central heat would be expensive but for one or two nights it couldn’t hurt.

“Okay I’m gonna walk you over to the bathroom---.”

“Dude, you’re not gonna rape me, are you?”

“NO! I am not going to rape you! I need to wash you up---.”

“That sounds pretty dirty to me....”

“Yeah, okay it sounds awkward but you are covered in blood and dirt and I sweat I think I saw asphalt embedded in your head. It’s big enough, you can spend the night there. There’s a sink there, you’re right there if you have to pee, the door has a lock, and its small enough that it will heat up pretty quick. After I clean you up and bandage you, you can lock the door from the inside and go to sleep.” The kid didn’t reply so he walked him over to the bathroom, was careful to turn on the light first and then set him down as gently as he could. “Okay, stay here, I’ve gonna go get the first aid kit.”

“Yeah, like I’m in any shape to run anymore.”

Zack pulled the whole kit from the way some twenty feet away, dropped some quarters in the soda machine and pulled out a Coke, grabbed a roll of shop towels and returned to the bathroom.

“Here. Sorry I don’t have coffee.” He popped the top and held it out. “Drink some, I’ve got some aspirin here too. The kid took the can, his hands shaking and Zack could see his nails were ripped along the edges and the skin of his knuckles had been scraped off. “Looks like you gave a good fight at least.” The kid said nothing, gulping down a great deal of the soda before Zack gave him four aspirin. “Don’t worry about the floor being cold, I’ll get you something to sleep on. The boy took the aspirin and Zack unrolled the blue industrial use towels, tore off two and wet them in the sink after squirting some antibacterial soap on them. He then sank down on the concrete floor next to his guest.

“What’s your name? Mine’s Zack Baker.”

“Johnny. Just Johnny.”

“Okay Just Johnny, this is gonna hurt a little because you are dirty as shit.”

“You keep sounding like a porno.”

Johnny balled his hands into fists and tucked them tightly against his jeans and Zack set about trying to clean him up as quickly as possible. Through it all the kid said nothing.

“Okay, let that dry off and give me your hands.”

“What for?!”

“Ok, you can wash your hands yourself then.”

“......oh....” Johnny hesitated and then held out his hands and let Zack wash them with a wet towel.

“Okay here’s the deal. You can sleep here tonight. I’m gonna get you something to eat and something to sleep on.”

“So you wouldn’t let me in the door before, but now you’re just gonna leave me here?!”

“I’m sorry about that, I really am. I know you asked me for help earlier and I told you to get lost. I thought maybe you’d robbed somebody, I didn’t want to get involved. And I’m not really abandoning you, I live upstairs.”

“I stole a sandwich.”

“What?”

“The guy walked off and left it on his table and he was gone a long time. I thought he left it and I was just....I hadn’t had anything to eat but scraps all week---.”

“Scraps?” Zack interrupted.

“You know, from dumpsters.”

Zack swallowed, his heart falling further into his stomach.

“So fuck it, I figured someone would just come up and throw it away and hell I was just cutting out the dumpster part and taking care of it for them. But the guy came back, apparently he was just going outside to meet some friends. So I was busted. He wasnt very understanding.”

Zack gestured toward the kid.

“This was done over a fucking sandwich?”

“Yeah. It was almost worth it.”

Zack could feel himself wanting to cry. He started to pat Johnny’s leg and then thought better of it and turned away, swishing his mop of slanted two tone hair down across his face to hide his expression.

“Finish your soda. I’ll be right back.”

He stood up and started toward the far part of the garage where the stairs were almost completely hidden in shadow. He went first to the freezer upon unlocking the door, pulled out a macaroni and cheese dinner and three mini white Castle burgers, threw them in the microwave and set the timer. Here he was whining to himself about an electric he could easily afford to pay when this kid was eating out of trashcans. He then braved the clutter of the hall closet, rummaging until he found a sleeping bag he hadn’t used since a trip to Big Bear when he was 18. There was also a velour track suit someone in his family had given him for Christmas at some point that he would never wear in public if his life depended on it. However, it was warm and it looked about Johnny’s size. He went to the kitchen, took a trash back and threw these in, then went to his bedroom and snagged an extra pillow, stuffing it in before pulling up the drawstring on the bag. The microwave beeped and he took out food, wrapped it in paper towels and set it in a plastic grocery bag with loop handles Suddenly it didn’t look near enough. Opening up the cabinet he found granola bars, cupcakes, and some bagels he always intended to eat, but somehow always pushed aside in deference to cream cheese danish. This went into the bag too. He found a fork for the mac and cheese and glanced around to see if there was anything else. Something to drink! He opened the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of water and another soda. Grabbing one bag in each hand he hurried back downstairs.

“Holy shit, you look like emo Santa!” Johnny laughed as Zack nudged the bathroom door open with his foot. “You didn’t have to do that. I could have fallen right asleep here on the floor. I sleep on the ground most nights, it’s all good.”

“No, it’s not. I’m not a Top Chef I’m afraid. Everything I eat is either in a package or frozen and ready to microwave in four minutes or less.. But I’ve got plenty of food so if you want more, I’ve got it, no sweat.” He handed over the grocery bag “I’m not a pervert, I swear, but you can’t sleep in dirty, damp clothes. You’re gonna get sick. I’ve got my washer and drier down here. If you can’t get up to put them in there yourself, just leave them outside the door and I’ll do it. You can keep the clohtes, you probably could you an extra set, or at least something warm.”

Johnny nodded, his eyes lighting up as he opening the container of mac and cheese.

“Okay, last thing, you’re not a drug addict are you?”

“Do I look like an addict?”

Zack looked him up and down before he responded.

“Is that a trick question?”

“No dude, I’m not an addict.”

“Then how’d you end up on the streets?”

“It’s safer out here than being at home. Trust me.”

“I’m sorry.” Zack mumbled. “Okay, there is nothing here you can steal, I lock up all my parts and tools, everything has an alarm on it. But I do have shit like carb cleaner, kerosine, paint thinner, shit like that. Don’t drink it, don’t huff it, got it?”

“I don’t do that shit!” Johnny’s voice was serious but he was still staring at the food like he’d just won the lottery.

“Good.” Zack turned back to the first aid kit. “Okay, got bedding in the other bag with the clothes. I’m gonna put some Neosporin on your face. If I tried to bandage every cut you’d look like the mummy.”

“The Mummy was fucking cool, dude! I liked Frankenstein better though.”

Zack grinned. “I’d love to stay down here and talk horror movies but I’ve got to get some sleep. Johnny stopped eating long enough for Zack to tend to his face and Zack went as fast as he could, feeling bad for keeping him from his food.

“Sure, sure. No, it’s great. Thank you.”

“When I lock up I’m gonna set the alarms. They work on motion sensors so stay away from the door and windows. Sleep all you want. You can keep the door shut and locked if you want. I can always go back up to my place to go to the bathroom tomorrow if you’re still asleep. I don’t usually start to get busy until eleven except on Friday and Monday. If you want, go ahead and change into the clothes, throw your stuff outside the door and I’ll dump it in the wash. Goodnight, Just Johnny. Sweet dreams.”

“Thanks for the food. Thanks for everything.” Johnny barely looked up as he finished the mac and cheese and grabbed for the burgers. It occurred to Zack that he would probably eat everything in the bag at once. He made a mental note to get groceries before he opened and order lunch delivered so he could take extra with him.

Zack stepped out of the bathroom and made sure everything was shut and locked up. He checked the temperature on the thermostat and turned it up another degree. He cut the light and set the alarm and as he turned around he heard the clothes hit the floor with a plop. He scooped them up and dropped them in the washer, adding extra soap and setting it on heavy like he did for his work clothes. With one more glance at the closed bathroom, fluorescent lights still flickering and shooting out a beam from the slit underneath, he turned and went up to his own apartment and to bed.

Chapter two

Zack awoke early the next morning, two hours before the shop was to open. He dressed warmly, made coffee to go and tiptoed downstairs. The light in the bathroom was out and the door was closed. He unarmed the alarm, slipped out and locked and armed everything again. Two streets down was a small grocery store where he shopped. With Johnny in mind he bought a box each of granola bars and oatmeal bars, then some cheese and crackers and peanut butter and crackers. He thought about fruit, but fruit was easily bruised and would spoil. That gave him the idea for dried fruit and he bought half a pound of that. He tried to think of something light and easy to carry that would not get damaged but there were few options. He bought small cans of vienna sausages and some beef jerky. When the bag started getting heavy to carry he knew it was enough, and didn’t want to weigh Johnny down, even if it was with food he clearly needed.

Johnny did not come out of the bathroom until after ten am, he walked out in the track suit and bare feet, glancing around apprehensively though no one was having anything repaired just yet.

“Hey, how’d you sleep?” Zack asked, coming out from behind a counter that held a computer, cash drawer, phone and credit card machine.

“Amazing. Thank you. Haven’t slept that hard in a while.”

“Your clothes are ready but you might want to throw your shoes in the dryer. Dry socks won’t help if your shoes are still wet.”

“Okay.” Johnny went back to get his sneakers. “You need any help or anything? You know, around here?” Johnny walked over to the dryer, pulled out his clothes, tossed the sneakers in and turned it on.

“Do you know anything about engines or gears?”

Johnny shook his head, looking down. “No but I can clean, I can put things away. I could probably learn how to assist you, what tools are what if you want to show me.”

“I’ll think about that. I went to the store and bought you a few things, food, snacks, stuff you can carry around that won’t go bad.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“It’s all right. I wanted to. You seem like a good kid.”

“So where’s your bike?” Johnny looked around the shop as he spoke.

“Oh, I don’t ride.”

“You serious? That’s like teaching other people to play guitar when you yourself don’t play isn’t it?”

“More like building them, but yeah. Well I have before, a long time ago.”

“Why’d you stop?”

“That’s a very long story.” Zack sighed. “Not one for a day when customers could be coming in and out. Some night when ya can’t sleep, come by and I’ll tell ya. Where DO you usually sleep anyway?” Zack asked as Johnny’s shoes flopped around the dryer like fish on dry land

“Well about eight blocks behind here in the residential section there’s this guy who works from eleven at night. I start walking over at ten or so, wait for his lights to go off once he’s there, and then climb in the back of his pick up and sleep.”

“Does he know you do this?”

“No.” Johnny shrugged.

Zack shook his head in amazement at the risks he was taking.

“I wake up when the sun is overhead. I haven’t gotten caught yet.”

“Do you drink coffee? I got one of those fancy Keurig things. You’d be amazed how many bikers love lattes.”

“Hell yeah, I’ll take a coffee. Coffees are like three bucks apiece. I can never afford that!” Johnny followed Zack over to the corner next to a small waiting area. “So do you get any chicks coming in here?”

”Not that many so far. I’ve only been open for a year. I’ve waited on maybe three. You’d think I‘d get more, looking like a girl and all. I guess girls only want gay guys as their hair dressers, not their mechanics.”

Johnny opened his mouth, then closed it without answering as Zack unlocked a cabinet and took down and plugged in a compact coffee maker in metallic cherry red.

“Okay, caramel, cinnamon, hazelnut, mint or vanilla?”

“Uh...caramel?”

“Good choice. The hazelnut sucks but I’ve got a gang member that swears by it.”

“So do you make a lot doing this? You must. Look at this place! Did you go to school?”

“Well I’m trying to pay for the building so a lot of what I make goes back to the business loan, but I do okay. Especially since I live upstairs, I’m only paying one rent instead of two. I didn’t attend class, but I read all the books and taught myself, then went down, took the tests and go certified on each type of bike by the manufacturer. That took money to do, but now I make money because I have proof I can fix those bikes. “ Zack handed Johnny a styrofoam cup of cappuccino. “In about five years I’ll really be set.” He started a cup for himself. “How old are you, Just Johnny?”

“Twenty one!” Johnny stood up taller and stuck out his chin, taking a drink.

“The fuck you are! You look like you’re twelve!” Zack burst out laughing. “Seriously now, how old are you?”

“Nineteen!” Johnny insisted, only slightly less confidently.

“Let me see your driver’s license then.” Zack held out his hand.

Just then the door opened and in walked Zacks first customer of the day, an older man about the same age as Zack’s dad with 2001 F Series BMW bike. It was in need of a new fuel gauge, tank and exhaust. After approving Zack’s estimate he said he had a daughter with a Vespa scooter that needed and new clutch and an oil change, could he bring it by when he picked up the Beamer? Zack said that was fine and began to type up the work order for the customer to sign while Johnny stepped back into the shadows and tried to be inconspicuous. Zack estimated the BMW to be a four hour job. The man said he could come back after work at six pm, signed the paperwork and left.

Johnny stepped back from where the washer and dryer were kept, sneakers on his feet. He was holding the rest of his clothes.

“I guess I should get out of here, let you work. Johnny sounded deflated as he turned to the bathroom to get his backpack.

“You don’t have to go. I could show you a few things if you want.”

“Really?” Johnny whirled around, grinning.

“Sure, if you want. Never hurts to know how to fix things.”

“Okay, just let me clean up the bathroom in case someone else comes in.” In the doorway Zack could see Johnny folding the sleeping bag, putting the food in the backpack along with his clothes and stacking the pillow on top of the sleeping bag and his backpack on top of the pillow. Zack set out unlocking all the different drawers of tools and parts, got on the phone and put in an order for the parts he’d need to be delivered and threw a drop cloth on the nearly spotless concrete floor. He wheeled the bike over on it and circled it, holding a wrench.

“Pretty close.” Zack said eyeing the machine up and down, continuing to prowl around it. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. Since you don’t know the parts yet, I’m gonna take each thing off and drop it in a pan of degreaser. You shake the pan up, take each part, wipe it off, make sure all the gunk is cleaned out, and put it on the other side of the drop cloth according to size. What I need, once the other parts get here, I’ll put back, the rest I’ll show you where to put it for scrap.” Zack returned to the cabinet from where he’d taken the Keurig and pulled out a satellite radio receiver, turned it to a classic metal station, the unlocked more cabinets, producing the degreaser and sat it and a bowl down on the floor. Johnny poured the degreaser in until the bowl was half full and Zack crouched down next to the bike, beginning to strip off the parts. An hour later the two of them were ankle deep in nuts and bolts and screws. The air was a mixture of heat from the central unit on the roof and cold from the half open bay door, heavy with the astringent tang of cleaner and solvent.

“That is the GAYEST track suit I have ever seen!”

Both Johnny and Zack snapped to attention to find Zack’s pal Brian bundled up in a Jack Skellington skull cap and matching scarf and leaning on the counter. Zack and Johnny both sod up, working the kinks from their legs and eyeing Brian.

“Holy shit, dude. What happened to your face? It’s the tracksuit isn’t it? Isn’t there like gay fashion police or anything? Gay eye for the gay tracksuit wearing guy?”

“You wouldn’t stop two guys from trying to kill me even though I asked for your help! That’s what happened!” Johnny snapped.

“Oh shit, that was you? I didn’t know you knew Zack.”

“I don’t.” Johnny pushed past Brian to retrieve his pack from just inside the bathroom door.

“Hey, its alright! He’s not gonna hurt you or anything. You don’t have to go.” Zack wiped his hands on a towel and took a step toward Johnny.

“Thanks for your help and the food. Thank you. Just for giving a shit.” Johnny hurried out the front door, down the street without looking back. Brian said nothing, his expression showing he knew he must have done something wrong but was at a loss to figure what.

“I...I didn’t come to start trouble. Matt wiped out last night coming off the freeway at first street.”

“What?! Shit, is he okay??”

“He didn’t have to go to the hospital but the gun shop will have to do without him for a few days. He’s not gonna be able to get out of bed for a while. He’s scraped all to hell and sore as fuck. He’ll be okay though. He wanted to see if you’d look at his bike. I brought it over in the back of his truck.”

“Well I’ve got two customers ahead of him, but of course I’ll look at it.”

“What’s the story with the kid?” Brian nodded to the door.

“Those guys chasing him? They were chasing him because he took a sandwich they had left on their table that he didn’t think they were coming back for. He’d been eating out of a dumpster for two days and an abandoned sandwich was just too tempting.”

Brian said nothing, stunned. Finally he bit his lip and slipped a lock of hair back under his cap.

“Fuck. Well, I’m gonna bring in the bike.”

There wasn’t much Zack could do in the interim fifty seconds or so it took Brian to pull down the crashed bike and wheel it in, but he started Brian some cofee anyway.

“Jesus!” Zack swore as he saw the bike. “Is Matt really okay? Be honest.”

“Dude, he’s gonna be fine. I wouldn’t lie to you, unless you asked me if I was drunk, then I probably would, though I’m not now.” Brian grinned and accepted the cup of coffee. “I can take you to see him if you want.”

“Nah.” Zack sighed. “I got too much to do here right now. Just let him know I asked.”

“Back to the kid? Is he helping you out now?”

“Eh, I don’t know.” Zack shrugged. “I went out to Molly’s after I saw you, got steak and a pint of Guiness. I’m leaving and the kid is there laying in the doorway, it’s freezing cold and raining, the kid has no jacket, just that t shirt he was in yesterday---”

“Oh shit! The gay tracksuit! That was yours?!” Brian started laughing and nearly choked on his coffee.

“Yeah, it’s okay, it was ugly! Why do you think I gave it to someone else?! But fuck man, it’s warm, you know? So he spent the night in the garage. We talked a little, I got him cleaned up, gave him a bunch of food. I just felt so bad. He’s seems like an okay kid. He was sort of hinting about asking for a job but I have no idea how old he is and he’d never worked on a bike before. I just felt bad, dude. That could have been any of us, any time.”

“Hey!! Speaking of that!! I think they’re letting Jimmy out of jail next week---If he doesn’t fuck

w/ anyone else. I’ve been pleading with him to please, please please just behave and do what they tell him . I really think if he fucks up again, they’re just gonna lock his ass in the state hospital.”

Zack shook his head emphatically at the thought.

“I’ve known too many kids that ended up there. They weren’t even crazy when they went in, but they were fucking insane, like bat shit crazy when they came out because of the drugs they gave ‘em.”

“I think Jimmy’s actually trying to get in FOR the drugs. You know, it IS free.”

Zack slapped his forehead with his palm.

“Words fail me. Tell him to chill the fuck out. I got you drinking, Matt crashing, Jimmy in jail and a homeless kid I think I wanna adopt.”

“Good luck with that. Don’t trust these street kids, you’ll end up with your kidneys taken out or some shit.” Brian glanced out the door. “You know Matt doesn’t like anyone driving his truck so I’d better get it back before he thinks I wrecked it. I’ll tell him you’re worried about him.”

“Don’t make it sound so gay.”

“But it is.”

“That is COMPLETELY beside the point.” Zack laughed and Come on man, you know Matt, piss him off and you’ll get the silent treatment for months.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll catch ya later.” Brian waved as he walked out the door. As Brian walked out the delivery guy walked in with the parts for the BMW. Zack signed for them and then risked a few moments staring at Matt’s wrecked Kawasaki. At least it wasn’t the Harley Matt kept saying he’d buy one day, to wreck a Harley was damn near unforgivable. He’d text Matt later, not wanting to wake him if he’d managed to get some good pain killers. He took a breath and went back to work on the BMW. He worked through lunch like he usually did if he was busy, taking his time and not rushing, making sure every part was cleaned and put back in place, tightened as much as it could be before moving on to the next.

The sun had gone down just as he finished. It was now freezing and he closed the bay door entirely to keep warm. With one job done he could start to catalog the repairs on Matt’s bike. One fender was gone, the frame was bent as was the rim of the front tire, there was a hole in the radiator and the gear shift was hanging loose. Zack could feel his breath catch in his throat just looking at it. The opening of the front door made him jump and the customer with the BMW came to retrieve it and bring in his daughter’s Vespa. He paid with a platinum credit card and even insisted on giving Zack a tip. As soon as he was gone Zack began preparing to close. When he was sure no one else was coming in, he turned off the lights and texted Matt.

Instantly his cell rang.

“Hey.” Matt sounded groggy but it was still good to hear his voice.

“Are you okay? What happened? I got your bike by the way. I’ve got one repair before it and its going to need some welding, sanding, a new fender and new gear shift....are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I’ve been hurt a lot worse. I was exiting last night and this dick didn’t yield to me. My head wasn’t really in the game and I didn’t realize it until I had to swerve hard to keep from hitting him. Asshole didn’t even stop to see if I was okay, but if he had I would have beat his ass anyway. I’m hurt but nothing’s broken.”

“It’s good to hear your voice.”

The other end of the line was silent, Zack had no idea if this confession pleased him or not.

“Brian said you were worried. It’s okay. I’ll be laid up a few days. Already got the time off from the shop. I’m gonna be all right.”

“Good, I’m glad. I’m locking up so I’ll let you get some sleep. Thanks for calling.”

“Thanks for asking about me. “ Matt hung up without further conversation.

Zack felt his heart swell a bit, then deflate. He took a look around, locked the door and closed out the register. Almost no one paid cash these days so there was nothing to deposit, just get the credit card transactions sent to the bank and the numbers reset for the next day. Zack was still thinking of Matt when the bite of cold from under the bay doors broke his reverie as he clicked the locks in place. Where was Johnny? Had he found a place to stay? Zack walked over to the door, opened it and peered down the street. He looked right and just as he was about to turn left he bumped into someone.

“Dude!! I was just thinking about you. You got a place to stay tonight?”

“Not really. You said when you had time you’d tell me the story of why you don’t ride bikes. I figured maybe I could come back after hours and.....well fuck, I’m freezing and I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

Zack found himself smiling and stepping back to let Johnny enter. Johnny was still wearing the ugly powder blue warm ups, still clutching his back pack.

“Okay we’re gonna do something a little different tonight. I’ve got two bikes down here. I can’t let you stay down here with them. I just...I don’t know you and I can’t risk it. As he talked he put up the radio and the coffee maker. “So, would you be willing to leave your backpack and the jacket----because it has pockets---down here and come spend the night on my couch? I don’t have much steal and you can only fit so much in your crotch. So I’m protected and you’re not tempted.”

Johnny looked at Zack carefully for a moment, seeming to take a while to process what Zack had just said.

“I wouldn’t steal from you, but I’m not about to turn down a warm place to stay. That’s fine.” He sat his backpack on the counter and unzipped the jacket and took it off revealing another ratty t shirt underneath.

“Cool! The sleeping bag is still in the bathroom. Go ahead and grab it and follow me.” Zack set the bottom alarm and headed for the stairs. “You didn’t have to go. I wouldn’t have let Brian start shit with you.”

“I know, I was just pissed off. He could have helped and he didn’t. I mean, I can’t blame him, but still.....I just didn’t want to be around him.”

“I can understand that.”

“I was embarrassed I couldn’t take care of myself. He probably thinks I’m a faggot.” Johnny tried to bite back the word and it left his mouth as a bit of a question. “Wow, this place is huge!” Johnny marveled as they stepped from the landing into Zack’s loft.

“It just looks this way because I don’t have any furniture.” Zack laughed, ignoring what Johnny clearly didn’t mean to say.. The space was big. He had a futon couch in the middle and a tv against one wall. The rest of the loft was open space aside from the kitchen and the door to Zack’s bedroom. There was a skylight, but that was the only natural light in the place. Zack had purchased several floor lamps and installed them each with a different color of bulb: red, green and blue. There was one lamp at the furthest corner that cast regular white light. The walls were brick, painted in vivid flourishes of paint that looked more at home on boxcars targeted by taggers than someone’s home. Zack could tell by the look on Johnny’s face that he was mesmerized. “Sorry, never got around to getting a table or chairs because I either eat on the couch or downstairs at the shop while I’m working. If I have people over they don’t mind sitting on the floor.” The floor was unfinished concrete, covered over with the type of novelty rugs you’d see for sale in empty parking lots. There were baseball team logos and motorcycles of differing brands and makes and an Angry Birds one just outside the bedroom door. “The couch isn’t huge or anything, but you can make it into a bed and it’s comfortable.” The couch was actually a black futon with a red mattress that went well with the oddly comical and spartan look of the place. “ So, you wanna know my life story, huh?”

“Yeah, I do.” Johnny smiled but he was still looking around. “You could like, split this off into three other rooms.”

“Yeah, but I like the space.”

“Yeah, reminds me of a club. I bet you have some killer parties.”

“Sometimes. Since I can’t really go out and....I don’t actually have an oven yet....want me to order us a couple of pizzas? I mean we could microwave stuff, but my microwave is small so we’d each have to wait...”

“Dude, those are like the sweetest words in the English language! Of course I wanna order a pizza.” Johnny continued to wander around, looking at the art on the walls and floor.. “I feel like I’m in a museum!”

“Go ahead and sit down. Pepperoni, beef and bacon okay?”

“Yeah, yeah! Totally. I’m no vegan, man!”

“Perfect. Just have a seat. You’re making me nervous. Turn on the tv. As soon as the food gets here I’ll tell you why I don’t ride and how I came to own this shop.” Zack made the call and sat down next to Johnny on the futon.

“Okay, you first.”

“What?” Johnny looked panicked.

“if I’m gonna be up front with you and honest and tell you my life story, you need to do the same. How old are you? And don’t lie!”

“I’m seventeen.”

“Wow...shit.”

“I can work though, I’ve had a work permit since I was fifteen.”

“Did you finish school?”

“No. Did you?”

“Yeah, with my folks it really wasn’t an option. Plus, the baseball team needed me too much, I couldn’t quit.”

“My folks didn’t care.”

“That why you split?”

“Dude, they were fifteen when they had me, and that’s cool, that’s fine, shit happens. But they never grew up. They never wanted to stop being fifteen. My house is like, someone’s house when they’re folks go out of town only my folks aren’t kids, they’re my folks.” Johnny stuck a finger in his mouth, grabbed on to the edge of a fingernail by his teeth and began to nibble it down. “Sorry.” He said when he saw Zack staring at him. “Sometimes you can trick your stomach into thinking it’s food. It’s a habit, can’t stop.”

“Dude, it’s cool, it’s not big deal.” Zack fell silent, waiting to see if Johnny divulged anything else. Finally he spoke.

“So yeah, like, I like to drink as much as anyone, but there were times in my house where that’s all there was, like no food, no milk, no nothing but vodka. They’d have these wild parties, trash the place, then beat the shit out of me the next day if I didn’t clean it up by the time they woke up from being passed out. I’ve walked in on shit you never ever wanna see your parents doing. If I wanted to live with a bunch of thugs I could have joined a gang. It would have paid better.”

“I’m sorry. I would have left too.”

“That’s it. That’s all there is to tell. Why talk about it and bring it up again? It just makes you think about it and get pissed off all over again and you can’t do shit. When I left I called the cops and left an anonymous tip that they were dealing. Which they were, I just don’t know what exactly. I never looked back.”

“Any brothers or sisters?”

“Probably, the way they both fucked around, but none I know personally.”

“Shit, I forgot I set the alarm downstairs. Let me go down and wait for the pizzas. I’ll be back as soon as they’re up.” He stopped halfway to the door and turned around. “Thank you for being honest.”

“Thanks for feeding me and not trying to rape me.”

Zack nodded thoughtfully and continued down to the shop.

Chapter Three

It took about ten more minutes for the pizza to arrive, Zack gave the delivery guy the entire tip he was given, even though it was twenty dollars more than the pizzas. He figured it was good for karma. He then locked and set the alarms again and took the pizzas upstairs. Johnny was sitting on the couch, the tv on to ESPN.

“God that smells good. And I never get to watch tv, not a whole lot of rec rooms in the shelters.”

“Did you try foster care at all?” Zack asked, dropping the boxes n the second hand coffee table that was made out of a surfboard.

“There’s a reason why I keep asking if you’re going to try and rape me.”

“Okay dude, that’s horrible. I feel so bad even asking you stuff because every answer is worse than the last. I am so sorry.”

“I do okay out here. I just miss eating sometimes.”

“No worries about that here. I was pretty chunky at one time but..” He handed Johnny some napkins and sat down next to him. “Okay I guess it’s time for my story. Dig in.” Johnny waited for him to take a slice so he did and then Johnny followed suit, a little sigh of pleasure escaping his lips.

“I’ve known Brian since high school, he was alway into riding, I was more into sports but he convinced me to get a bike and I got one for high school graduation. It wasn’t anything special, a 2009 Honda, but it ran really well. I was driving one day on a two way road with ditches on either side. An eighteen wheeler was coming from the opposite direction toward me, but that was fine. However there was another truck, a smaller truck behind it, the kind that delivers sodas or beer with the panel sides that slide up. It decided the semi was going too slow so it was going to pass it in a no passing area. He started coming right at me. He wouldn’t go back behind the 18 wheeler. There was nothing the 18 wheeler could do without rolling over or jack knifing. I thought--and the thoughts happened so quickly yet were so fully formed it was like everything around me was slow motion. i thought “Either he’ll hit me and send me right into the semi head on. I’ll die instantly. Or maybe he’ll clip me and I’ll go under the wheels. Maybe it will only crush my legs. Maybe I could live, but then maybe it would crush my chest. I couldn’t imagine how much that would hurt, and the funeral and not having an open casket. So I thought maybe I could skirt around it somehow. I wasn’t just going to willingly drive off the edge, I just couldn’t do it. Fuck, we need something to drink.” Zack got up, taking a breath and going into the kitchen.

“Jesus, dude! What happened?” Johnny looked up and accepted the can of soda.

“The guy in the smaller truck clipped me sent me over the edge, I don’t even know how far down. Again I was trying to figure out, should I hold on to the bike, will it hurt if it falls on me? It felt like I was falling forever, luckily I don’t remember landing. My last thought was that I was going to die and it would break my mom’s heart.” Zack sighed, took a bite and set down his pizza on a napkin on the table. “I woke up in the hospital, on morphine, I had landed on my side and thank god I was wearing a helmet or I’d been braindead. Everything was broken. I did not get out of that bed for a whole year.”

“I am so sorry. That’s awful. How did you do it?”

“By the time I woke up, my folks already had a lawyer. The driver was clearly at fault. I was so scared about the hospital bills, bankrupting my folks, so much to deal with. But the suit was settled out of court, I can't say what company the driver worked for, that was part of the deal. Thank god it covered my medical expenses, four surgeries in a year plus physical therapy to learn to walk and use my hand again. I started studying in the hospital, studying mechanics guides, I couldn’t do shit else. I figured life was too damn short. I came out of the closet to my folks---what the fuck could they do anyway? Kick me out? I couldn’t fucking get out of bed.”

“Dude, I would have killed myself.”

“I thought about it. If they had said straight off that it would be a full year in bed I would have tried. But it was like ‘ok we’re going to do surgery on your wrist. You’ll recover in three weeks’. Three weeks later, ‘okay we’re gonna do surgery on your leg to put that bone back together and put in some pins.’ Two months later ‘Ok your gallbladder was ruptured, let’s just take that out.’. Before I knew it a year had gone by.”

“Wow.”

“We got money from the suit but after we paid the lawyers and paid all my medical bills there wasn’t a whole lot left over. Not that it mattered, bankrupting my parents was the thing that worried me most. But sitting there in the hospital I started thinking “What if I can’t walk again?” What could I do for a living on crutches or in a chair. So I decided I wanted to fix bikes. My folks helped me out when the time came, once I’d passed all the exams and graduated mechanics school. We paid a down payment on this space with the lawsuit money and they fronted the cost of tools, furniture, etc. We kept money back, my mom was so afraid that if I could not get my own insurance right off something might happen to me again, so we kept some back for emergencies like that. I have now paid them back one fourth of what they fronted me. In five years, between paying them and paying the rest of the loan, I’ll own it outright.”

“Wow, that is fucking amazing!”

Zack smiled.

“So you can’t ride? You walk just fine. I mean, on TV Dr. House rides and he has a damn cane.” Johnny reached for his second slice of pizza while Zack was still nibbling at his first, all the memories dulling his appetite.

“Physically I probably could but I’ll never know. If I get close enough to do anything other than fix it, if I straddle one, try to start it, I panic. I feel myself falling off over the side of that ravine, flying through the air, having no idea when I was coming down or if I’d survive. For the longest time I had to be medicated just to get in a car or taxi. I’m better about that now, but I’ll never drive myself I’m afraid.”

“Don’t give up. You’ll beat it one day.”

“Or I’ll just get so rich I’ll hire a driver.”

“I’ll be your driver.”

“Ok, Just Johnny you got a deal.” Zack stuck the rest of the slice of pizza in his mouth.

“So how many guys have you been with?”

Zack nearly choked on his intake of breath.

“How many guys have YOU been with?!” He countered.

“I, uh, I ...well..I never...not really...shit! Why are you asking?”

“Why are YOU asking? You don’t just say that to someone you don’t know!”

“But I know you.” Johnny looked like he was going to pout.

“Yeah, two whole days. We are on the road to being friends but we ain’t there yet, pal. Not to where I can tell you who I sleep with.”

“Fair enough.”

Zack nudged him and handed him the remote. “I got HBO. Find a good movie for us to watch.”

Johnny smiled broadly.

“I miss tv, it’s not the homeless shelters have rec rooms.”

Johnny found a movie and they sat side by side watching until the end.

“If you want anything else from the kitchen help yourself. Oh.” Zack snapped his fingers. “I’ll bet you want a shower. Again it’s really stripped down, no tub and no sink b/c I figured I could wash my hands at the kitchen sink and sometimes my legs hurt getting up and down so no baths. But yeah, I got a shower and soap and towels. So knock yourself out. Just do it before I got to sleep cuz you have to go through my bedroom to get there.”

“Okay, I’ll do that now. God, thank you. You have been the coolest guardian angel I have ever met.”

Zack felt himself blushing. He let Johnny have his privacy and waited out in the living room for him to finish showering. Twenty minutes later he came out in just the sweat pants, toweling off his chest and arms.

“Would you like me to put some more anti bacterial stuff on your face?” Zack asked, knowing fully well Johnny could do it himself at this point.

“Sure.” Johnny shrugged.

Zack went to get some more Neosporin from his bathroom, he kept a lot around because there was always something lying in wait to scrape off his skin in the shop. When he came back Johnny had spread the sleeping bag on the futon.

“Here, let me show you how to pull it down.” Zack gave a tug to the back and the mattress fell flat with a clatter.

“Cool.”

He and Johnny sat down on the edge, Johnny turned his face to Zack and closed his eyes, exhibiting far more trust than Zack would have if it had been reversed. Gently Zack slid his fingers over Johnny’s skin, not even touching the parts where it was broken but letting the gel be the cushion between Johnny’s cuts and the pads of his fingertips. He resisted the urge to kiss Johnny’s forehead when he finished. He could not understand the pull towards him, like they had known each other far longer and already had a history together.

“All done.”

Johnny opened his eyes and smiled.

“I meant what I said about staying up all night if you wanted and watching tv. Whenever you wake up, get something to eat and if you want, come downstairs and I”ll try and show you some basics. If you want, I still have my books, you could just hang out and read. If you wanted, I’m not trying to push you into anything.”

“Dude, no one else is bending over backward to hire someone with no permanent residence. I’m not much for reading, it’s beter if you just show me things.”

“Sure.”

“So your big friend with the bike, does he know you like guys?”

Zack tilted his head to the side, wondering how Johnny could possibly know about Matt.

“The guy with the long black hair that’s a dick?”

“Oh Brian. That’s Brian. And yes, I did tell him a while back that I liked guys.”

“What happened? How’d he react?”

“Oh I screwed up all my courage to tell him and he laughed at me. So I punched him in the face. After that we were good.”

“Holy shit, dude. You’re my hero.” Johnny grinned.

“You like guys then?”

“I’m …..not really sure.”

“That’s cool.” Zack patted him on the back. “You’ve got your whole life to find out. Okay, I’m going to bed. Finish the pizza if you want.”

“Goodnight Zack.”

“Goodnight.” Zack took Johnny’s towel and went to his bedroom, closed and locked the door.

Chapter Four

Zack woke at he the usual time and tip toed into the livingroom. The tv was still on with the sound down and Johnny was asleep in a lump on the futon mattress, covers up to his ears. Zack was going to make coffee there but decided to take some bullets for the K Cup machine and just have breakfast in the shop to save waking Johnny up. He had almost made it to the door when Johnny sat up in bed, throwing off bedding in all directions.

“Hey, wait up! I’ll go with you!”

“You don’t have to. You can go back to sleep if you want.”

“No, I want to help.” Johnny hopped out of bed, snapped the futon back in place and stretched.

“Okay, cool. Well let me get you some coveralls because there’s no sense getting what little clothes you have all greasy.” Zack was wearing black coveralls with the BMW logo on the breast pocket and baby blue trim. He pulled one out for Johnny and brought it to the living room.

“Here, it should fit okay because these things are meant to be baggy anyway. I bought half a dozen of these when I passed my test to fix BMW bikes.” He held it out to Johnny who took it with great trepidation.

“Are you sure? I... I haven’t earned it. I have no idea how to fix a BMW bike.”

“It’s okay.” Zack smiled, going back to put on coffee. “No one will know the difference. When a customer comes in you can just fade in the background and when they leave I’ll start showing you stuff. When you finally know what you’re doing you can hang out up front with me and field questions if you want.” Zack pulled out a box of cheese danish he’d bought in bulk from Wal Mart.

“Oh my god, I love these things! I used to beg outside a gas station. Everyone thought it was going for drugs but it was really going for the 79 cent cheese danish!”

Zack started laughing. “I feel the same way. When I was in the hospital I was supposed to be eating healthy and having fruit and oatmeal for breakfast but I’d have Brian sneak these in to me.” They both tore open a package and began to eat as the coffee brewed. “I’ve got a scooter that’s going to be pretty easy, I’ll walk you through that. Matt’s bike is a mess. There’s a lot to replace. If it’s slow, I’ll start walking you through that, but if not you’ll have to leave me to it.”

“Okay.”

“I know you said you didn’t want to read but I’ll need you to look at a list of parts and get familiar with them. I’ll show you that in a book. Then we’ll get started on the Vespa.”

“Okay.”

“You don’t have to hang out here all the time. I mean if you have friends or somewhere you like hanging out.”

“There’s no place but on the streets, no one I know that I hang out with by choice. You see the same people in the food lines at the churches and shit, maybe once in awhile you’ll know the person in the next bunk at the shelter. You can’t have friends out here. Most kids out here...” Johnny sighed. “They’ve been through so much, all they know is to steal and run. And you can’t blame them, but you can’t get close to them either. Either that or they’re already hooked on drugs and you just know someday soon they’re gonna die, one way or another.” Johnny reached for the coffee pot to pour a cup as soon as it stopped brewing. “What about you, man? What do you do for fun?” He poured both he and Zack a cup and Zack took out the milk and sugar.

“Since I got out of the hospital? Not much. No time. All the time trying to get the shop off the ground and get myself back to normal. I’ve had a few parties. My friend Jimmy is getting out of jail real soon though, I’m definitely having a party for that.”

“Yeah?” Johnny opened up another danish, took a bite, then washed it down with coffee and breathed a contented sigh.

“Yeah, he went to jail while I was still in the hospital. He hasn’t seen this place at all, I am so excited to show it to him.”

“What’d he do?”

“Well, Jimmy’s....” Zack tapped the side of his head. “he’s not wired like you or me. That’s not a bad thing really, but it’s how it is. He can’t stand authority: cops, adults, parents, bosses, he can’t deal with that stuff. He’s not a bad guy and he’d never hurt another person unless they hurt him first and only then if they caught him on a bad day. But...Jimmy also has some problems with drugs.”

“Oh....” Johnny looked away.

“You know what a mad scientist is, right? Like Dr. Frankenstein?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Johnny looked back up.

“Jimmy’s like that. Normal people take drugs to feel the way Jimmy feels every day of his life normally. Jimmy takes drugs so that once in awhile, he’ll feel like you or me and can turn off the shit in his head long enough to have a conversation or get some sleep.”

“Wow.” Johnny took a deep drink of coffee and then looked unsettled once more. “I’m not taking his place, am I?”

“What do you mean?” Zack frowned.

“Here at your house, in your shop? I’m not taking up a place that would have gone to him, am I? I don’t want to be in the way or take anything away from anyone.”

“Oh no. He’ll be staying with Brian. Brian’s the only one of us who can sort of keep him reined in. Brian is one of the few people Jimmy will listen to and will sort of calm down around. So, no, don’t worry about that. As amazing as he’d probably be at fixing bikes, I think Brian’s going to set him up fixing computers for the clients who buy his software. When he’s not hacking them.”

Johnny gulped, a bit of coffee spilling on the counter.

“You didn’t hear that from me though. God I hope he doesn’t teach Jimmy to hack. The world would not be safe.” Zack slapped him on the back. “Drink up, we can get more downstairs.”

Johnny nodded, downing the last of his coffee and following Zack out. Zack locked up behind them and then set to disengaging all the locks and alarms and turning on lights. Once everything was open he turned to the cabinets, unlocked one and pulled out a thick book. He opened it to a basic index of motorcycle parts and handed it to Johnny.

“Okay, study that. I’m gonna start calling in orders for parts on Matt’s bike. When I’m done we are going to do the oil change together and then I’m gonna show you how to put in the clutch. It’s pretty easy stuff. I’ll show you and then I’ll let you do it yourself. I’m not going to expect you to remember every single thing over night but if we keep at it and do it every day, something’s gotta stick.”

“Every day?”

“Yeah.”

“I can stay?”

“Yeah, I want you to stay. I’m not the richest guy on earth, but I’ve got food and plenty of room. I’ve never done much in trying to fix up the loft. I still need to make an outside entrance so I won’t have to deactivate the shop security every time someone comes over. You can start out on the futon and then I’ll see what I can do to get you something better to sleep on.”

“Dude, the futon is great, the futon is perfect! I just....” Johnny stuck his hands deep into the pockets of the bulky coveralls. “I don’t know what to say. This is literally a dream come true. A safe place to stay is all I’ve ever wanted, but to stay with someone cool like you and learn....this and hear stories about your friends.....I don’t....you can’t imagine....I haven’t done anything to deserve this.”

“Yes, you have. Trust me.” Zack smiled, resisting the urge to hug him or run a hand down his arm. “Okay, read and learn and I’m gonna make those phone calls.”

If Johnny had any problems reading or understanding, Zack was not aware. He caught on, was able to do everything Zack showed him, and started to name some parts by sight just minutes after learning them. The day passed at a steady pace. Zack didn’t break for lunch and he got the idea that Johnny would rather die than ask for a break of any kind. He closed the shop a little early when no new business came in and

“I know some GED courses you can take online if you want. I don’t think you have to have it to get certified in any of the mechanic courses, but I’ll check. I have a laptop I hardly ever use. It’s got a lot of gay porn on it.”

Johnny laughed.

“Yeah, sure. If you want me to I will. You can’t really study when you’re sleeping in people’s doorways and the shelters are so fucking loud.”

“Shit, I can imagine.”

Johnny followed him upstairs and they microwaved a large tray of lasagna and had ice cream for dessert. They watched pro wrestling on television and even though Johnny claimed to have outgrown it when he was ten, he was soon cheering and calling out the moves before they were made.

“Yes, yes! Dragon screw leg whip! Into the submission! GIve, bitch! Give!!”

Zack watched him, trying not to grin outright, afraid Johnny would think he was being laughed at and not that Zack felt so good just to see him happy.

“Okay, I’m going to bed.” Zack stood and stretched.

“Do you still get sore, from the injuries? From your accident?”

Zack sighed.

“Yeah. I do. I don’t talk about it, no one really asks but my folks and I don’t want them to worry. It’s not bad, it’s just.....I sort of feel like I’m already an old man.”

“You don’t have to worry about being cool with me. If you have to go to sleep early, or you need to take a break when we’re working or you just need me to do shit for you, run errands, go get stuff from places that you’d have to walk a long way to get to, I can do that for you. It’s not a problem. I’m just saying cuz I get the idea your friends can be dicks and I’m not like that. I’m not gonna make fun of you if you just wanna call it a night early or... you know, whatever.”

Zack could not help the smile that broke across his face as his heart beat just a little faster.

“Thank you. That’s the nicest thing I’ve been told in a long time.”

Johnny waved him on and told him goodnight and Zack put the dishes in the sink and went to bed. As Zack fell asleep he was already trying to figure out how to make Johnny his own little living space within the the loft.

When Zack woke up the next morning Johnny already had the coffee brewing and had heated up some cinnamon rolls in the microwave.

“Can I shower?” Johnny asked as Zack walked up to the kitchen counter and grabbed a roll off the paper towel that caught the dripping icing.

“Yeah, sure. Bring down the towels and we’ll wash them downstairs.” Zack looked around. “We really need to do some shopping. I never got a table, you need socks and underwear...”

“I’m okay!” Johnny called over his shoulder.

Matt was the one with the truck but he was still recovering and Zack wasn’t going to disturb him. Maybe furniture could wait but they did need groceries and Johnny did need clothes. But now there was an extra set of hands to carry bags and legs to walk home with him. Zack smiled and poured them each a cup of coffee. Before long Johnny was back, hauling laundry behind him. They ate a quick sugar filled breakfast and went down to open the shop. Zack worked alone on Matt’s bike while Johnny poured over Zack’s old textbooks. A Honda was brought in for an oil change and a Suzuki needed shocks. Zack walked Johnny through the oil change that Johnny was able to do mostly on his own and tended to the Suzuki himself. By the end of business Matt’s bike was fixed. Johnny was cleaning up and Zack was preparing to close out the register when Brian came in smiling.

“Hey man, tell Matt his bike’s done. It’s gonna be about $800.”

“I’ll tell him its a grand, I know you never actually charge us what you’re supposed to and if you’re barely charging me over cost, you’re probably taking a loss for him. He can pay, we’re not beggars.” He then glanced at Johnny and flushed with shame for a moment. “Hey! Great news! Jimmy’s gonna be out in two days!”

“Oh my god!” Zack dropped the rag he was wiping his hands on and ran up to Brian. “That is the best news! But shit, I don’t have time to plan a party.”

“Well that’s why I’m coming by. I was thinking. You probably don’t need a lot of people you don’t know coming in and out of the shop. Why don’t we do the big party at my place and have a smaller gathering, just us, at yours? Is that okay?”

“Yeah, sure. I’m just....wow, it’s happening so fast! But I’m happy! Yeah, sure, have it at your place and we’ll do something small here, rent some of Jimmy’s favorite movies and get lots of booze and yeah....it’ll be great.”

“I’ll bring Jimmy here as soon as he’s out. I know you want him to see your place. And as soon as you close we’ll send someone for you or I’ll try to come myself.”

“Does Matt know?”

“Not yet. He’ll know soon enough and I’ll tell him about the bike. So he’ll be paying you a visit too.” Brian grinned. “Bring your apprentice.” He nodded to Johnny.

“Oh..no..that’s okay. You don’t have to invite me. I could, uh, watch the shop.” Johnny stammered.

“It’s all right, man. You’re Zack’s friend, I’m Zack’s friend. It’s all good. You’re one of us now.” As Brian turned back to Zack Johnny looked so happy he practically glowed. “Okay I got stuff to do. See ya day after tomorrow.”

“See ya.”

Zack turned back to Johnny. “Okay tonight we’re good but tomorrow after work we have to go shopping. And as you know I don’t have a car. If I’m really and truly out of everything, I take a cab across town to the Mega Super WalMart. But Christ that place is big. I get tired about half way through. There’s a place about five or six blocks. Go with me and help me carry the stuff back?”

“Of course.” said Johnny.

That night Zack made hot dogs and they watched horror movies on Netflix and ate Oreos and milk before bed.

Chapter Five

Zack’s first customer of the day came limping in and anyone could tell he was a man not accustomed to limping. Matt was tall, tan and muscular. He stood slightly taller than Brian who was a good head taller than Zack, which mean he towered over Johnny. His hair was cut close in a high and tight military fade and Johnny could not tell what color it was from the white Under Armor baseball cap he was wearing, but Zack knew it was brown and Matt never let it get below his ears. Matt had been raised in a strict Southern Baptist family that prized country, service, and manifest destiny. He idolized Ronald Reagan and Ted Nugent and had been a member of the NRA since he was ten. His dream job had been to join the military for the sole purpose of killing things for sport that fought back more than deer and javelinas, but when he turned seventeen Matt’s mom broke down in tears and begged him not to enlist. So Matt has stayed, quickly got hired on at a local gun store where he and his father shopped and began to learn about and collect every gun he could possibly get his hands on. When he was not hunting he rode bikes and took Jeet Kun Do classes with Brian. He had known Zack since high school. He strode in as confidently as his limp would let him, grinning and hurrying to give Zack a hug until he saw Johnny.

“Wow. It’s Mini You.” Matt mumbled without enthusiasm and immediately stepped back.

“Hey!! You didn’t have to come out right away! You okay?”

“Yeah, I uh, fucked up my knee.” Matt’s hazel eyes would not stay on Zack for more than a few seconds and he looked ill at ease. “I think I tore some cartilage. I’ll probably have to admit defeat and go get it looked at which I’m sure is gonna mean surgery. My own fucking fault for not paying attention. The wreck I mean. Any other time I could have swerved into the clear. I kept thinking it would get better if I just stayed off my feet but it never did. Then I thought maybe I could just go to the gym and work it out.” He sighed and glanced down. “Bad fucking idea.” He tucked the hem of his Affliction t shirt back into this jeans even though it really hadn’t come out to begin with. He shifted his weight and looked around the garage again, looking over Johnny as if he was a piece of furniture.

“I’m sorry Matt.” Zack’s voice was soft, eyes traveling all over Matt, wishing he could make all the aches and pains go away. His arms were still out for the hug he obviously wasn’t getting and he finally dropped them at his sides. He had started to touch Matt’s arms but both were covered in scabbed over scrapes.

“Ah shit, listen to me. Complaining to a guy who spent a year in the hospital. I’m fine dude.” He straightened up to his full height and reached in his back pocket for his billfold. From it he pulled out a cashier’s check, handing it to Zack.

“Twelve hundred?! Is that what Brian told you?! That’s too much!”

“Dude, you think I’m stupid? The last time you did repairs for me, I looked it up online. There was no way you could have charged me what you did and made any money at all. That’s not right, man. I get that I’m your friend.” A blush developed around his dimples and he cleared his throat and looked away. “And I knew you’d say no, which is why I got a bank check. You have to take it.” Again Matt blushed hard and started to cough.

“You got your truck?” Zack asked, ringing up the amount on the register and printing Matt up his receipt.

“Yeah, hard as shit to drive stick with a fucked up knee, I tell ya that much.”

“Johnny will load up the bike for ya. Johnny?”

“Yeah, sure!” Johnny sprung to life from where he was watching Matt in the corner of the garage. He grabbed Matt’s bike and carefully wheeled it out.

“So that’s your sidekick, huh? Brian told me.”

“Yeah, that’s him.”

“You’re a good guy, Zack. Always taking in strays.”

Zack smiled and touched Matt’s hand a little longer than necessary as he handed him the receipt.

“You gonna be okay for Jimmy’s party?”

“Oh you’d better believe it. I’ll get shot up with some kind of painkiller for the night. I’ll be there! You bringing little orphan Andy there?” He nodded toward the door where Johnny had just left.

“Yeah, Brian said it was okay.”

Matt only nodded, looking deep in thought. When the door jingled again he jumped.

“Okay, well see ya at the shindig. Thanks for taking care of my bike.” He turned around and shuffled out as fast as he could.

“And that was Matt.” Zack said as the door closed.

“Is he on drugs? He looked awfully nervous.” Johnny raised an eyebrow as he stared at the door.

“Nah, I don’t think he was expecting anyone to be here.”

“For a big jock guy, he sure does act squirrely.” Johnny stopped. “Wait a minute! There’s something going on between you two isn’t there?”

“Uh...” Zack grinned. “We’re not there yet, Johnny.”

“So you ARE fucking him! You’d come out and say it if you weren’t! Sex is the only thing you won’t talk about!”

“No! NO! I.....Christ. It’s extremely complicated, all right? The day after Jimmy’s party....if I’m still drunk....maybe I’ll tell you about it then. MAYBE!”

“Okay, fine!” Johnny held out his arms in surrender.

“All right, no one’s here so we should clean. You wanna do floors or wipe down everything?”

“Whatever is hardest for you to do.”

“Well I’m feeling pretty good today. I’m usually not hurting until the end of the day and then only sometimes. I’m fine, really.”

“Okay, well I’ll wipe down everything I guess.”

Zack turned on some music and they got to work.

“Is it always this slow?”

“Yeah.” Zack sighed. “I’ve been thinking of branching out for a long time, adding new things, carrying gear like jackets, reflectors, helmets. I’ve been teaching myself a little airbrushing. I can do a few basic designs. You have to offer more than one thing to survive. I guess....I just needed a kick in the ass to get started.” He smiled. “I’ll need to order racks for the jackets, keep them chained on, nothing too expensive though, a case for the helmets, and I need to find a really cheap bike I can buy and customize to keep here to show off my designs.”

“And then you could sell tickets and raffle it off.” Johnny added.

“Good idea. See, it’s good to have you around.” Zack took a breath. “Okay, after Jimmy’s party, after we’re over our hangovers, you and I are sitting down with fixture catalogs and the classified. We’re gonna get fixtures and a bike and then I’ll see how much I can afford to buy and stock for the first run and we’ll see how it sells.”

Johnny grinned.

“Cool! I can’t wait to help out.”

Just then, the human hurricane that was Jimmy Sullivan ran through the doors. Jimmy was even taller than Matt which meant to Johnny he looked like a man on stilts. If all you glimpsed of Jimmy was his face, you’d think he was chubby but that was part of the whole optical illusion that made up Jimmy’s body. His face was round, he had full cheeks and the hint of a double chin, yet the rest of him was long, tall, lanky and all angles. His hair was dyed black and stuck out at all angles on the top of his head while the back lay flat against his neck. His nose was long and straight much like Matt’s and his eyes were glittering bits of blue ice. Jimmy was apparently wearing what he had been wearing the day he was thrown in jail a year previous: a silk dress jacket, no shirt, a bow tie, jeans that barely stayed on his narrow, emaciated hips and Converse ultra high tops that laced up to just below his knee.

“I go into jail and you’re in the hospital, I get out and you have your own place, a business and you’ve given birth to a son! Awesome!” Jimmy clapped Zack on the back before pulling him into a bear hug and then turned and bent down to talk to Johnny as if he’d found him lost in the grocery store. “Hello little boy! I’m Jimmy. Is Zack your daddy?”

“Uh..no...” Johnny looked up at Jimmy unsure of what to make of him and whether he was joking. “I was homeless and he gave me a place to stay. Now I’m helping him out in the shop.”

“For real?! I was homeless before I went to jail. I used to live in a laundromat.” Jimmy boasted straightening up.

“Really?” Johnny’s head tilted all the way back, looking Jimmy in the eye.

“Yep. And you know what the funny thing was? I still smelled like shit because I never even washed my clothes the whole time I was there!”

“Well of course not! You only had one set and you couldn’t run around naked. You’d scare people.”

“Exactly! You get it! I like this kid!!” Jimmy got Johnny in a headlock and began rubbing his head. “Zack can I adopt your son?”

“He’s not my son!”

“Wow! You are so punk rock!” Johnny gushed, poking Jimmy in the stomach with his finger just to make sure he was real.

“And you’re so short!!” Jimmy let Johnny go and looked him up and down. “Do people steal you off your front lawn at night?”

“I never had a front lawn.”

“You’re a homeless gnome! Oh my god! That’s my next band name!! Jimmy Lawnmower and the Homeless Gnomes!” Jimmy looked down and laid his hand flat on Johnny’s head like he was palming a basketball.. “Hey did you spray paint your head?”

“Yeah, I did. Spray paint is sometimes easier to lift than hair dye. Just depends on who you’re stealing from.”

“You were into Good Charlotte weren’t you? Don’t lie.”

“Yeah....” Johnny looked down.

“Fucking A little dude! I liked The Backstreet Boys. Its all gravy. If you ever get mad at Daddy Zack, come live with me~ I’ll adopt you! We’ll live in a junkyard!”

“Cool!”

“Stop calling me Daddy! That sounds so....sexual! Ew.” Zack protested. Jimmy began to wandered around the shop, touching and looking at everything.

“Wow, Zack this is so cool. I’m so happy for you. You can walk, you have this place. Just wow, man. You did so good.”

“I’m glad you’re out of jail.” Zack came up from behind and hugged Jimmy. “Please be good and try to stay out this time. Where are you staying?”

“I’m staying at Brian’s right now. He thinks he can get me a gig fixing broken computers. Wouldn’t that make us quite the team?” He snorted.

“Good, I’m glad you have a place to stay. Oh speaking of that, Johnny, will you watch down here while I take Jimmy upstairs?”

“Upstairs?” Jimmy stared at the ceiling.

“Yeah, that’s where I live.”

“You live on the roof?!” Jimmy appeared to be astounded at the thought. “That’s amazing. Don’t you get wet when it rains? Ya got a tent?”

“No, no, I’ve got a loft type space up here. Like in the movie Big.”

“Ohhhhhh......” Jimmy followed Zack upstairs. “Wow, dude, you could throw a rave up here! Or film a porn! Or throw a porn rave!”

“Ha. No, no. But I do have Matt and Brian over for video games sometimes.”

“How’s Matt?”

“Okay. I’m sure he wants to see you but he wrecked his bike and he’s been laid up. He’ll be okay though. Tell Brian to take you by there. I know you’re gonna wanna wrestle with him but go easy, I think he’s gonna have to have knee surgery.”

“I will.” Jimmy threw his arms around Zack and hugged him tightly, nearly knocking him down. “I’m so happy for you, dude! You deserve it. I hated going to jail with you in the hospital, not being able to see you, not knowing how you were. God, this is so great.” He leaned down and kissed the top of Zack’s head.

“It’s good to see you too. I know you don’t like anyone telling you what to do but please, do your best to stay out of jail, cuz when you’re in jail you’re away from us and we miss you.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m dumb sometimes. I’ll do my best t stay out of trouble.” He squeezed Zack one more time and let him go. “You really are taking care of that kid?”

“Yeah. He’s been okay so far.”

“That’s so awesome. You’re my hero, Zack.”

“So how’s you get here?”

“Oh, Brian dropped me off. He wanted to go buy some more stuff for the party. I just now got out, like an hour ago. We went and ate and came here! I had to see you. Brian told me about Matt, said we’d call him later, make sure he was up. So what did I miss when I was gone?”

“Eh, about thirty of Brian’s girlfriends, Matt’s assistant manager of the gun store now---.”

“Oh Jesus Christ. He’s still out being a cross between Abercrombie & Fitch and Elmer Fudd?”

Zack started laughing. He went to the refrigerator and got Jimmy a soda.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Wow, I can’t get over this place! It’s like a movie set. I’m just so proud of you.” He popped the top and glanced around. “You kinda need furniture though.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been so busy working I just never go around to getting anything more than a futon.”

“Futon is the gayest word in the English language. Get a damn couch! Something you can have sex on. No one’s gonna fuck you on a futon.....unless they’re French.”

“Okay, I’ll get a couch. I promise.”

“So you....fix bikes?”

“Yep.”

“When did you learn to do that?”

“Started reading up when I was in the hospital. Just in case I never walked again, I wanted something I could do from a wheelchair.”

“Fuck dude, I’m so glad you’re okay. I fucking hated going away when you were being in and out of surgery and you were so banged up. That was the one thing I regretted and I make it a point not to regret a lot. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.��

Zack leaned in and hugged Jimmy again.

“It’s okay. You couldn’t help it. I know you didn’t mean to bail.” Zack ran his hand up Jimmy’s ribs and Jimmy giggled. “You’re like the only person I know that went to jail and didn’t put on any weight.”

“Just magic I guess. Come on, you’ve got a business to run, thanks for showing me around.”

“Any time you ever want to come and stay, I’ll have a couch with your name on it. “

“Sweet.”

=+=

“Pop quiz, kid!” Jimmy yelled as he came down the stairs. “Describe me in three words.”

“Emo Big Bird?”

“He’s a keeper! You get tired of him, send him to me! I’ll make him me and Brian’s evil minion.”

The door opened but instead of Brian it was an actual customer asking about a quote on getting a bike fixed. Zack brought him over to the counter, began typing up parts and labor prices into the computer and handed him an estimate and offering a guarantee of service, nodding to the five different certification plaques he had hanging on the wall behind him. The customer took the quote and promised to return the next day.

“Wow.” Jimmy said softly as the door closed. “You grew up.” For a moment he looked at Zack like he was seeing a ghost.

“He didn’t break anything did he?” Brian stuck his head in the door.

“No, he’s great! Thanks for bringing him here first.” Zack grinned.

“Not a problem. We’re gonna go see if his folks will let us in to get his stuff and then it’s home sweet home. Come by tomorrow as soon as you get off. The party will be in full swing. Hell we’ll be drinking tomorrow from the time we get up, right Jimbo?”

“I got a lot of catching up to do!” Jimmy grinned and cocked his head. “And on that note, I’m gonna make like a baby and head out!”

Chapter Six

Johnny continued to stare at the door after Jimmy had left.

“Wow, you....you have the coolest friends, ever. Next to you, that is the coolest guy I have ever met. Ever!”

“Yeah, Jimmy’s one of a kind. He’s a handful sometimes but we love him.”

“I hope he gets some clothes.” Johnny shook his head, still looking at the door.

“Oh that reminds me. We need to get you some clothes for the party.”

“Can’t I just borrow some of yours?”

“Well you could, I wouldn’t mind, but everyone knows what I wear. If they see you in my stuff....” Zack sighed. “I want them to judge you on you, not judge you on where you came from or why you’re staying with me, or that you’re staying with me at all. It’s no one’s business. As far as they know you’re my apprentice. And I’ll start paying you as soon as I figure out the details of all that. I’ve never hired anyone before. I have no idea how it works with the government and taxes and stuff.”

“You don’t have to pay me! You don’t have to buy me anything, Zack! Don’t you understand how bad I feel taking things from you? I just....I feel like I should be doing something.”

Zack motioned Johnny over to some red vinyl chairs in the waiting area and they both sat down.

“Johnny, think of me like your brother. If you had a brother and he wanted to do something for you, would you immediately think of paying him back?”

“No, probably because he gave me so much shit in the past I wouldn’t question it.”

“Well maybe there will be a time when I give you shit too, or make you work longer or not give you a day off or something. I’m not.....I’m just a kid like you, only older. There’s nothing special about me except the fact that I got some money and am determined to use it to do good things and make a life for myself. I’m nobody’s hero, I’m nobody’s savior---.”

“Don’t say that.”

Zack sighed.

#band slash #A7X slash #slash fic #synacky #johnnyxzackxbrian

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