#seriously my dad had to dig us out of the house to the back yard as a kid

[femme-enby]

Also… at this point, when I’m old af, I’ll be hearing folks talk about how their parents took them to one of those home made snow ski-slopes or w/e, and how their parents loved to talk about how “real snow” was actually really different and blah blah blah.

Like… we’re fr just… never really gonna get snow like we used to. Within 20yrs it’s changed dramatically. Yeah sure, we still get the occasional storm, but that’s like… once in a few years type thing. We used to be practically guaranteed at least one good snowfall, if not two, in my area. The snowfall would even last for days sometimes. I remember my mom waking me up multiple times during winter as a kid bc it was snowing, even if there was barely an inch on the ground, and she’d get us bundled up and we’d go walk around the yard and such, leaving footprints.

I miss snow… it’s been 2-3yrs since I’ve seen any, and my off days never align w snowfall even hours away. It’s such bullshit.

I just want snow…

[twomanyideas]

The Grill Next Door

A collaboration by @mdelpin​​​​ and @oryu404​​​​

Gratsu Week 2021 Prompt(s): Impress, Smile, Smokey Pairing: Gray x Natsu

AO3

Summary: Natsu had to repress a loud snort when he caught his first glimpse of his neighbor. The guy was dressed in only a pair of black boxers, his fair skin slick and shiny from the thick layer of sunblock he had applied. His back had white streaks and missed spots all over it from where he hadn’t been able to distribute it evenly, and some of the lotion was sticking to the dark hairs on his neck.

But the absolute worst thing of all was that he obviously had no idea how to use a barbeque properly.

0-0 Summer was arguably the worst time to be moving. Who in their right mind would want to spend all day inside unpacking boxes when it was 90 degrees outside? Definitely not Natsu, and yet here he was, dragging another box full of stuff up the stairs in his new home. He was grateful for his friends, who had been there when he’d gotten the key and helped him clean the house, paint some walls, and install the larger pieces of furniture. But now that there was only the smaller clutter left, he was on his own, and he was missing out on all the summer fun. His friends were all enjoying themselves without him; spending their free time at the beach or the pool, barbecuing in their yards, raiding the ice cream parlor… “Soon…” Natsu sighed to himself. Soon, he could join them again. He just had a few more boxes filled with necessary items to go.

He’d already unpacked the ones filled with kitchen utensils and Happy’s stuff. All that was left were his toiletries and a few clothes. He’d sort through the rest of his crap bit by bit, one or two boxes every night until he was done. That way, he could still get the most out of the vacation days he'd pulled out for moving. He opened the box he’d brought upstairs with him and groaned; of course, he’d grabbed the wrong one. Instead of towels and shower products, he was looking at some of the housewarming gifts he’d gotten. A key hanger from Lucy, because he was always losing his keys. A baking set from Erza, which Natsu had to admit was the most optimistic gift he’d ever gotten, and a cute houseplant from Wendy, carefully wrapped up in brown paper, with wet paper towels to keep the soil moist.

There were a few more small gifts, but Natsu’s attention was drawn to the flat package at the bottom. More specifically, to the image that was on it, giving away what was inside: a bright pink flamingo kiddie pool. “So you can have a pool in your backyard!” Sting had grinned when Natsu unwrapped the gift. It was obviously a gag gift, and at the time, Natsu had seen the humor in it. He’d even joked that he’d call Sting for a pool party once he was all settled in, but right now, it only fueled his longing to do something fun. Actually… Screw unpacking, he’d do that later. One look through the window, at the bright blue sky and the burning sun, was all it took to finalize his decision. He picked up the box and took it downstairs again, quickly watering the plant before it could die in the summer heat, and putting it on a windowsill. Leaving the rest of the box’s contents for now, he took out the inflatable pool and started digging through one of the other boxes in search of his swim trunks.

He’d done enough for today. He was going to sit in his backyard and enjoy his stupid pool, damn it. Once he’d changed into his swimwear, he applied a thin layer of sunblock he’d found during his search for a towel. He went outside with the pool under his arm, sticking his foot out when he slipped through the sliding door to keep Happy from sneaking outside.

“Sorry buddy, you can’t go out yet,” he apologized, knowing that it was for the best.

They'd only moved in a few days ago, and Happy needed to get used to his new home. If he were to run away, he'd get lost trying to find his way back to their old apartment, and the last thing Natsu wanted was to end up like Rogue, who had spent all night frantically searching for Frosch when he had just moved in with Sting and failed to shut the front door behind him fast enough. Still, Natsu couldn’t help but feel guilty at the sight of Happy pawing at him from behind the glass. Maybe he could get him a cat leash tomorrow, so he could at least explore the backyard safely. One thing was for sure, he’d definitely give him some of his favorite fish treats to make up for a few hours of sitting alone inside. With that in mind, he smiled and took a deep breath, inhaling the fresh summer air and the delicious smell that came along with it. It was one of his favorites, and he instantly recognized it. One of his neighbors was grilling in his backyard. Too curious for his own good, Natsu followed the scent. His nose told him it was coming from the house to his left, from the backyard that was only separated from his by a tall wooden fence. Tall, but not tall enough to keep Natsu away. He was just able to peek over the top if he stood on his tippy toes.

He wanted to get an idea of who was living next to him, that’s all. Okay, and maybe he wanted to live through them a little as they indulged in one of his all-time favorite summer activities. \

Natsu had to repress a loud snort when he caught his first glimpse of his neighbor. The guy was dressed in only a pair of black boxers, his fair skin slick and shiny from the thick layer of sunblock he had applied. His back had white streaks and missed spots all over it from where he hadn’t been able to distribute it evenly, and some of the lotion was sticking to the dark hairs on his neck. But the absolute worst thing of all was that he obviously had no idea how to use a barbeque properly. “You know, your food is going to cook more evenly and taste a lot better if you close the lid,” Natsu suggested, bursting out in laughter when the guy jumped and almost dropped his tongs. “Idiot!” He whirled around and glared at Natsu, waving the tongs in the air as he stomped closer. Damn! This guy was actually pretty cute when he was mad.

"I almost burned myself. What were you thinking?!"

"That you weren't doing those ribs the justice they deserve," Natsu retorted, frustration rising within him once he managed to tear his eyes away from his half-naked neighbor and focus back on the grill. All that delicious aroma-filled smoke that would've added so much flavor to that gorgeous meat was getting away!

It was a fucking crime.

"Pay attention to what you were doing, you jackass! You gotta flip them over!"

The guy quickly returned to his grill to tend to his ribs, cursing as he fumbled with the tongs while trying to keep a safe distance between the searing heat of the barbecue and his own bare ribs.

"Man, you really suck at this," Natsu couldn't resist pointing out.

"Oh, and I suppose _you _could do better?"

In all honesty, Natsu was a terrible cook. He lacked the ability to multitask in the kitchen, always made an enormous mess, and often combined ingredients that his friends insisted should never be combined.

However, cooking and grilling were two completely different things to him. His dad had taught him how to cook meat on an open fire or a makeshift grill during camping trips since he was little, and he had it down to a fine art by now.

"You're damn right I can," he scoffed, taking the question as a challenge and being kind enough to climb over the fence and invite himself to his neighbor's backyard so he could show him how it was done.

"What are you doing?!"

"Saving your meat, of course! Move over."

Too stunned by what was happening, the guy didn't protest when Natsu snatched away the tongs. He just watched with his mouth open as Natsu flipped the ribs and set the grate to a higher level, making sure they'd cook slower. And much to Natsu’s amusement, it wasn't just the grill he was staring at.

Satisfied with his intervention, Natsu closed the lid and stepped back. "There, that should do it!" he grinned, putting the tongs down on a plate on the nearby table so he could hold out his hand in greeting. "I'm Natsu, by the way. I just moved here last Wednesday."

"... Gray," his neighbor replied, frowning warily but still accepting Natsu's hand and shaking it briefly. "Do you always stick your nose into other people's business like that?"

“Just wait, you’ll be thanking me soon enough.” Natsu said, amused by his neighbor's grumpy tone. “Anyway, you should be fine as long as you leave the lid closed for about an hour.”

“An hour?” Gray complained, “I thought grilling was supposed to be faster.”

“I mean, do you want fast, or do you want good?” Natsu drawled suggestively. He wasn’t sure if it was the beautiful weather or just the high he felt from having had a hot guy so obviously checking him out because normally he wasn’t much of a flirt, but he felt the urge to test the waters. “Cause I could show you both.”

Gray surprised him by laughing heartily at his innuendo. “There is seriously nothing subtle about you, is there?”

“Nope.” Natsu agreed and laughed along. “Well, it was nice to meet you. I’ll leave you to your grilling, gotta go set up my pool.”

He climbed the fence to get back into his yard, hearing Gray yell behind him. “You’re going to get yourself killed. Just use the gate next time.”

“But then, how could I show you my best asset?” Natsu retorted once he was safely over, chuckling as Gray muttered something he couldn’t quite make out. He wasn’t too worried, though. After all Gray had said next time.

0-0

Gray looked back at the grill, already tempted to open the lid and check on the ribs. What was he supposed to do for an hour? He’d mowed the grass earlier, and he didn’t feel comfortable staying inside while the grill was going.

The sun felt overly hot on his skin and he found shelter under a tree in his backyard. Playing on his phone had netted him ten minutes of entertainment and two group conversations he wasn’t all that interested in.

Maybe Natsu did know what he was talking about because the smell of the ribs cooking was making his mouth water in ravenous anticipation. Thinking about his new neighbor brought a smile to his face, especially since he heard odd noises coming from the other side of the fence. Didn’t he say something about a pool?

With all this time to kill, maybe he should go return the favor and see what he was up to.

With that in mind, Gray walked over to the fence and peered over it, unable to hold back a snort when he saw Natsu sitting on the ground and puffing air into a pink flamingo-shaped pool.

"Wow, I guess you really are full of hot air."

Natsu looked up at him, flashing that grin Gray was quickly developing a weak spot for. "So you think I'm hot?"

Yes, he sure as hell did, but he wasn’t about to give Natsu the satisfaction of saying so. At least... not yet.

“I think you’re having an awfully hard time blowing, which is… disappointing.”

"Huh. Never had any complaints before." Natsu shrugged, returning his attention to blowing air into the flamingo.

“Why don’t you let me show you how it’s done?” Gray said, feeling confident.

God knows he’d blown up a ton of these things for his brother’s kid. He’d quickly learned there was a little trick to it. You had to squeeze the valve as you blew into it or the air wouldn’t get in properly. Clearly, his hot dumbass of a neighbor didn't get that.

“You want to show me how well you blow?” Natsu tilted his head, looking amused by Gray’s suggestion. “How can I say no to that?”

Gray let himself into Natsu’s backyard, using the gate that connected their properties, like a normal person, and grabbed the pool away from Natsu. Using his trick, he quickly filled both rings of the pool.

“Color me impressed.” Natsu whistled in appreciation once Gray set the pool down on the grass. He filled it with water from the hose, which he oh so charmingly put between his legs, giggling to himself as he swung it around.

How the guy could go from flirting to acting like a five-year-old within the blink of an eye was beyond Gray, but he had to admit that it was oddly endearing.

Natsu jumped in with both feet as soon as the pool was filled, watching with glee as water sloshed out onto the grass from his efforts. He sat down, stretching his legs out in front of him, and immediately propped his arms around the pool’s rim.

“That feels so much better!” Natsu moaned happily.

Now that Natsu was inside it, Gray couldn't help but notice that the pool could fit two people, albeit a little snugly considering their size. And though normally he wouldn't be caught dead in one of these things- especially a pink flamingo one- it was a very hot day, and Natsu’s yard was a lot shadier than his.

"You want in?" Natsu asked, his lips stretching into a mischievous smile.

Gray’s eyes were drawn to the slightly pointy canines, finding them incredibly sexy, and he immediately wondered what kissing that mouth would feel like as Natsu patted the empty spot next to him invitingly.

What had gotten into him? He’d just met the guy, knew next to nothing about him, yet here he was acting like a hormone driven teenager. It wasn’t like him at all, but he couldn’t deny the chemistry that sizzled between them, so palpable he could almost touch it.

Besides, what was wrong with having a little fun? It was summer, and he had been in a bit of a dry spell for months.

That thought decided him.

“I suppose I could join you for a bit.”

He had just stepped one foot inside the pool when, to his surprise, Natsu stopped him. “Hang on a minute. I didn’t say you could come in. I only asked if you wanted to.”

“If you want in-” Natsu winked at him. “It’s gonna cost ya.”

“Cost me?” Gray sputtered in protest. “You can’t be serious.”

“Dead serious. I will be more than happy to share my pool with you on this incredibly hot day, but only if you share some of those ribs with me.”

Gray had already been planning on doing that, but it was infinitely more fun to make Natsu work for it.

“I don’t know,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, which only netted him greasy fingers from the sunblock he’d slathered on earlier. “It seems to me like you’re getting the better end of the deal here. This is just a kiddie pool after all.”

“Alright, you drive a hard bargain, but I can respect that. How about this then? I’ll throw in some of my world famous special sauce.”

“World famous?” Gray scoffed, “It’s probably just something you picked up at the grocery store, but… okay, I’ll bite.”

“You promise?” Natsu gave him a cheeky smirk, one that ignited a need in Gray to get in that damn pool right the hell now and show him what he intended to do.

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” Gray said. “Just don’t complain if it ends up being more than you bargained for.”

Gray was so determined to get in there that he completely forgot he was already partly in the pool, and tripped over the edge when he tried to step in. He caught himself with his hands but still ended up splashing Natsu, not to mention had the wind yanked out of his sails.

He looked up to see the damage. The water had darkened Natsu’s pink hair and flattened it against his face, softening his features and somehow making the bastard look even more attractive. Gray watched in rapt fascination as a drop of water traveled from Natsu’s cheek, joining others on its way down his neck and over his chest until rejoining the rest of the water at waist level.

“You’re right,” Natsu laughed loudly, slicking his hair back and away from his face. “That was definitely more than I bargained for. Nice entrance, by the way.”

Gray was utterly mortified, and he scrambled to sit down, desperately trying to come up with a witty comeback, but before he could say a word, Natsu had already splashed him. 

“There you go. No need to make that face. It’s a pool. We were going to get wet, eventually.” Natsu shrugged, his expression gradually changing to distaste as he looked at the water.

“Dude, what did you use for sunblock, SPF lard?”

“I burn easily!” Gray protested, smoothing out the bits of sunblock he could see on his skin.

“Yeah? Then maybe you should actually get it on all of your skin. Turn around.”

“It’s hard to reach back there! Besides, you just want an excuse to get your hands on me,” he argued, but did as he was told anyway, turning his back to Natsu.

“Yeah, that’s the idea. Are you complaining?”

Gray pouted but remained silent.

“That’s what I thought.”

It was hard to miss the smug tone in his voice.

Natsu’s hands spread the globs of lotion evenly across his back, occasionally stopping to knead on one of his muscles and then concentrating on his shoulders. Gray closed his eyes, biting his lip so as not to let on how much he was enjoying it. If this was what he got in exchange for some barbecued ribs, he'd love to know what other types of food Natsu liked.

“There you go.” Natsu said, giving his shoulders one last squeeze. “You can turn around now. It should be safe for you to walk in daylight again.”

Gray turned just in time to see Natsu lean back into his previous position.

“Are you implying I'm some sort of vampire? Cause I’m not the one with the pointy teeth.”

“No, but you are the one who offered to bite me.”

“True.” Gray laughed, and not wanting to lose the mood, he made his move, adjusting from a sitting position to a half straddle. He leaned in, close enough that he could feel the slight puff of Natsu’s breaths on his face as he murmured, “I can still make that happen.”

“You talk too much.” Natsu said just as quietly, peering into his eyes for a split second before closing his eyes and bridging the distance between them.

Gray hadn’t expected Natsu’s body to feel so warm against his, especially considering they were both wet from the pool water, and he instinctively pulled him closer. As arousing as the kiss was, and Natsu sucking on his tongue was definitely doing things to him, he realized he had no urge to push for more.

That should have been his first warning.

But he wasn’t really thinking about anything. His world had narrowed down to sensations. The torrid heat of Natsu’s mouth, the sharp sting of teeth nibbling on his lips, and the tingling pleasure of his hair being tugged, coupled with the sounds they were both making. Needy moans that would have embarrassed him if Natsu hadn’t sounded the same.

Gray liked it all a little too much. Already, the thought of separating filled him with a sense of dread. And perhaps that should have been his second warning.

He was busy running his hands up and down Natsu’s back when he felt him let go of his hair. His hands trailed down to his chest, but no lower, and he pulled away, leaving Gray to chase after him. Confused and more than a little disappointed, Gray opened his eyes. Natsu sat perfectly still, his eyes slightly widening as he sniffed the air. “THE RIBS!!!” Oh crap! He’d forgotten all about the ribs!

“Go open the lid,” Natsu urged, scrambling to get up and out of the pool. “I’ll be there in a few minutes with the sauce.”

Gray watched Natsu enter his house and then hurried over to his yard. The food smelled even better than before and when he opened the lid and poked the ribs with the tongs; he saw they were indeed done, the meat tender and ready to fall off the bone. Rather than stand around waiting awkwardly, he grabbed two beers from his fridge along with plates, napkins and utensils to bring outside.

He opened the sliding door that led to his backyard and found Natsu brushing sauce onto the ribs from an unmarked blue bottle. There was a content smile on his face as he worked away, and Gray felt a flutter in his stomach at the sight.

Shit!

He’d never been one for one-night stands, so why had he thought he’d just be able to go along this time? Because Natsu was hot and seemed willing?

Gray wanted to know more about him, but he wasn’t sure if Natsu felt the same way or if this was just a game he liked to play. What would happen if he played along to its inevitable conclusion? Would that be the end of it? The two of them- probably awkwardly- moving on as just neighbors who happened to have hooked up?

Was it wrong of him to want more?

Natsu looked up then, waving at him and gesturing him over. His smile widened when he noticed the beer bottles Gray was holding.

“Ooh, beer wasn’t part of the deal! I must have kissed you real good!” Natsu teased, accepting the bottle and easing some of the uncertainty Gray had felt about whether things would turn awkward after their make-out session in the pool.

“You’ll notice this is only domestic beer, so I wouldn’t get too full of myself if I were you.” Gray retorted, still playing along.

“Meh, beer is beer, and it goes great with ribs.”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that.”

The back and forth was nice, but Gray was itching to ask what was really on his mind.

Can I keep you? Or will you run off after the next pretty face that strikes your fancy?

The lid of the barbecue closed again, and Natsu walked over. “They should be ready in about five more minutes.”

He clinked bottles with him and took a swig. Gray followed suit and decided to just go for it. He’d rather know what to expect than hope for something that wasn’t meant to be.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” he blurted out, sounding a bit more eager than he would have liked.

“Sure, shoot.”

Natsu gave no sign he knew what was coming, or at least that’s what his relaxed posture seemed to broadcast.

“Do you do this kind of thing often?”

“Moving? God, no, I hate it with a passion. Might as well bury me here cause I’m never doing it again.”

“No,” Gray frowned. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I know.” Natsu mock sighed, “I’m just trying to think of an answer that won’t go to your head.”

“What?” Gray didn’t know what to make of that answer. Was he trying to find a way to let him down gently?

“No, I don’t do this type of thing often.” Natsu admitted, meeting Gray’s eyes and holding his gaze. “Look, you’re hot and turned out to be fun to mess with, so I figured there was no harm in seeing where that led. But I’m not expecting anything if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Gray wanted to ask if that meant that he’d like to date, but to his chagrin, all that came out of his mouth was, “You think I’m hot?”

“See?” Natsu said, sounding amused. “What’d I tell you? Right to your head!”

He put his beer bottle down on the table and traded it in for the tongs and the plates before hurrying back to the grill to check on their food. Satisfied, he turned it off and heaped a large serving of ribs onto each plate.

Gray followed him to the table, only then noticing the sliced watermelon Natsu must have brought with him from his house. He bit into one to buy himself some time to organize his thoughts.

Next to him, Natsu had already begun to dig in, messily devouring the ribs, stopping only long enough to take a sip from his beer. Gray shrugged and did the same. It wasn’t like his table manners were anything to write home about, either. The moment the meat from the ribs touched his tongue, his taste buds were assaulted with flavor. Sweet, salty, spicy… all blending together in perfect harmony. It was by far the best ribs Gray had ever tasted. He could hardly believe they’d come off his grill. He glanced at Natsu admiringly. Not that he noticed, focused as he was on his plate.

“So, what other things can you make?”

Natsu looked up at his question. There was a glob of sauce at the corner of his mouth, driving Gray all sorts of crazy with the urge to kiss it off him, but he held strong.

For now.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but this is it. I can’t cook worth a damn.”

“That’s too bad.” Gray tried but failed to suppress a smile. “Guess I’ll just have to show you all the best places to eat around here, then. You busy tomorrow night?”

Natsu shook his head, breaking into a smile so blinding it wiped every single thought out of Gray’s head. Save one.

"Nope, I'm all yours," Natsu answered after what looked like a brief moment of contemplation.

Gray sure as hell liked the sound of that.

“There’s just one thing…”

Natsu tilted his head and scrunched up his nose in silent question, which was just perfect.

“You’ve got a little something there,” Gray said, leaning in and licking the sauce off before claiming Natsu’s lips hungrily.

The kiss tasted like sauce and beer, but most of all, it tasted like more. And more was definitely bound to follow soon, tomorrow night, and many more days after.

Gray could feel it.

[thiswasinevitableid]

63. sometimes I steal flowers from your garden on my way to the cemetery, but today you’ve caught me and have demanded to come with me to make sure the “[person] is [attractive] enough to warrant flower theft” and I’m trying to figure out how to break it to you that we’re on our way to a graveyard

Danbrey, sfw, please!

Here you go!

It’s the rabbit that draws her eye; it’s not everyday a bunny the size of a Beagle stops outside the window of Amnesty House. She follows the leash from the harness to the hand holding it, and spots a much bigger issue.

“Miss?” She steps onto the porch, “could you not take my flowers.”

“Yeeeeep!” The other woman drops the pocket knife she’s using to saw off the stems of tulips and irises, scrambling to her feet and tearing her fishnets in the process, “shit, um, I’m sorry, didn’t think you’d notice, I’ve done it before and you never, um, nevermind.” She pulls the rabbit back from the fence, “anyway, I really needed this, they’re really pretty and I think she’d like them-”

“Ohhhhh, I get it” Dani crosses her arms, “in that case, I’ll come with you. I want to see the person who’s cute enough to warrant multiple flower thefts.”

“Um, or! You could not do that and I could promise to never do this again?”

“Nope, my mind’s made up.” She slips on her Birkenstocks and heads down the front stairs. Jake and Moira are both home, so she’s not too worried about locking up.

“Fine. Let me just-” The woman scoops the rabbit up and sprints away. Dani could just let her go, but those were her heirloom irises, damn it, and she wants to make sure the person who gets them knows just how valuable they are. So off she goes, soles slapping the pavement as they head towards the lakeside.

She won’t be surprised if the recipient is hot; god knows the thief is. The freckles and red-streaked hair is just the icing on the combat-boot, denim-vested femme cake.

Growing up in this neighborhood means she never loses sight of her target, even when she’s cutting through alleys and taking sharp turns. Then the woman goes straight through a wall of junipers and Dani is not interested in getting that scratched up by plants today. This is one of the borders of the park, so all she needs to do is find the front entrance to relocate her very distinct thief.

Ten minutes of hunting later, she spots a red and black pompadour on the other side of a low, stone wall. She’s cross-legged on the grass, which the rabbit is happily munching by her side.

“Okay, seriously, does the person you’re seeing know those...are...aw fuck.”

The other woman turns from the gravestone she’s sitting by to look at her, “Yeah. This is kinda why I didn’t want you to come with me. I mean, it was a hella weird thing to do anyway, but” she sweeps her arm at the cemetery, “this is super not a date.”

“I’m so sorry.” Dani sits on the opposite side of the rabbit, “That never even occurred to me. I…” she sneaks a glance at the dates; the death was only three years ago, “I’m sorry for your loss, too.”

Silence settles between them; she feels like she should say something else, that it’d be rude to just shrug and walk away, but she has no clue what words are even appropriate here. The rabbit stretches its neck, bonking it’s nose into her hand. She pets it, smiling when it nestles closer.

“Mom really liked bulbs.” The thief says softly, “when I was little we’d always go for walks in the spring just so we could see the first ones popping out of the ground. She liked ones that were unique, so when I saw the orange and black ones in your garden all I could think was how happy they’d make her. How she woulda stopped to look at them whenever she walked past. I know it’s silly but I, um, this felt like the closest I could get to giving her that.”

The breeze carries dried iris petals from the headstone into the park beyond the wall.

“You could have just asked. There’s no way I would have said no if you told me what they were for.”

“It felt too weird. Everything feels weird these days.” She sighs, reaching out to rub dust from the stone, “I thought I was ready to come back, but it’s like the whole town is haunted.”

The fresh flowers wobble, then land on the grass. Dani grabs them and puts them back, the rabbit honking indignantly when she does.

“At least Dr. Harris Bonkers is having a nice time.” The other woman rubs the rabbit’s ears, “isn’t that right, buddy?”

“What’s he a doctor of?”

A small, beautiful smile, “Psychology. He worked hard for his PhD.”

“I bet.” She gives the doctor a final rub on the nose, “I’ll, uh, I should give you two some time alone.” Dani stands, brown eyes watching her the whole time.

“Thanks for the flowers.”

She smiles, “You’re welcome.”

--------------------------------------------------------------

Moira’s expecting a package, so Dani doesn’t even look up when the older woman answers the front door.

“Um, hi. I, um, I was hoping to get some flowers? The blonde who lives here said I should ask this time. I’m Aubrey? Wait, I don’t think I told her that.”

“Which blonde?”

“The cute one?”

“....I meant the boy or the girl.” Moira replies, amused, just as Dani reaches the door.

Aubrey waves, “Hi again. Could I take a few Irises?”

“Sure. Oh, wait, let me get you the pruning shears; the knife isn’t great for cuttings.”

“Dani! Could I get a hand really quick?” From the accompanying clanks, Barclay needs said hand urgently.

“Coming! Here, you can just leave them on the steps when you’re done.”

One hour and a narrowly avoided soup disaster later, she’s herding the others to the table when there’s another knock on the door.

“I, um, I stuck these in my bag without thinking.” Aubrey holds out the shears. In the porchlight, her eyes are red-rimmed and there’s a slight smear in the black lipstick on her upper lip.

“It happens. Jake, my roommate, once went a whole day with six boxes of poptarts in his bag because he got distracted while unloading groceries. Uh, if you’re not busy we’re just about to have dinner. Seems only polite to invite my biggest admirer.”

Aubrey raises her eyebrows.

“My, uh, the biggest admirer of my gardening?” Her cheeks are hot, but her flustered tone seems to relax Aubrey.

“Sure. I just have to make sure I get home in time to feed Dr. Harris Bonkers.” She grins and steps into the house.

It’s common for Amnesty residents to bring home friends (or strangers), so when Barclay spots Aubrey he simply ducks back into the kitchen for an extra set of cutlery and a bonus bowl. As always happens when Barclay cooks, everyone is too busy stuffing their faces for the first ten minutes of dinner to say much.

“So, Aubrey” Mama sips her tea, “what brings you to town?”

“I grew up here but, um, I left a few years ago to try and kickstart my career.”

“What do you do?”

Literal sparks fly from her guest’s fingertips as she wiggles them, “magic.”

“Whoah, sweet!” Jake leans forward, “do you do stunts?”

“Nah” Aubrey’s smile is brightening under the excitement, “I do sleight of hand, card tricks, that kind of thing. I like the classics. Lots of other people do too, but I hit a spell where no one was interested in booking me, so I came back here to regroup.”

“Smart thinkin’. Pretty much everyone here knows that tryin to make ends meet on the road can lead to serious trouble.”

“Or grand theft auto.” Dani smirks at Barclay.

“That was an accident!”

“Wait, what?” Aubrey laughs, the room feeling ten times brighter when she does, “how does that even happen?”

Barclay recounts the story, blushing all the while, then points out that at least he never got stuck halfway up an off-limits slope because he was daydreaming, and to which Jake responds that that’s not even in his top ten wipeouts, dude.

Aubrey hangs around, helping Dani with the dishes while they chat about childhood pets (Dani had a frog that required her to drop food on his head in order for him to notice it). When she finally re-laces her boots, her new friend is smiling constantly and Dani never wants to look at anything else.

“Hey, uh, tonight was really fun. Do you want to come by on Friday? I’m, uh, I’m cooking, so it won’t be as good as what Barclay made, but I’d love for you to try my breakfast salad. Oh, and my muffin. Muffins.”

“I’d love to. And don’t sell yourself short, flowergirl” Aubrey winks, shooting finger guns her way, “I bet your dinner is gonna rule.”

----------------------------------------------------

“What do you think? Too much?” Aubrey turns from the mirror. Dr. Harris Bonkers wiggles his nose.

“You’re right, the heels are too much. Gotta leave some plausible deniability. And be able to run away if this goes bad.” She tosses the black heels back into the closet and squeezes into the tiny bathroom to start on her make-up. It has to be perfect, or as perfect as she can get it in the mirror that’s inexplicably high up on the wall.

Yeesh, is getting ready to impress a cute girl really the thing making her consider moving back in with dad? It would be easier to find the right clothes if she had a space to hang them up in, instead of stacked boxes to dig through. But walking the streets where mom used to hold her hand, eating at the places they’d go for breakfast, all those vortexes of memories are hard enough to free herself from on their own. Sitting in the chair she used to, expecting to see her at the table or in the yard, those things would be too much.

It’s been easier since she found Amnesty. Since she found Dani. It’s hard to be stuck in the shadows of the past when there’s a beautiful ray of sunshine sitting next to you. She has dinner there most days now, practices her new routine while Dani updates the inventory for her online plant store.

Relatedly, Aubrey now has several rabbit-safe houseplants that Dani always offers to come check on. Aubrey’s actually pretty good with plants, but she’s not about to miss out on an evening sandwiched next to Dani on her futon and the ghost of jasmine perfume winding around her when she sleeps.

Amnesty is lit only by the string lights on the porch and the glow from the kitchen when Aubrey bounds up the stairs.

“Dani?”

“Oh, hey, you’re early.” Dani leans in the doorway of the kitchen and Aubrey’s brain sounds like a cartoon, nothing but “boiiings” and “wowzas” for a good ten seconds.

Dani’s hair is out of it’s usual messy bun, and instead of her overalls or patched jeans, she’s in a short, heather green tank-top dress. Getting on her knees to kiss the vine tattoos weaving up her legs would be too forward, but boy does she want to.

“Took an earlier bus just to be safe. Man, it’s so weird to be here when it’s this quiet.”

“No kidding; I can’t remember the last time I was the only one here.” Dani shoos her through the kitchen and out into the back garden. The little white table usually piled with tools is cleared of everything but a green tablecloth and two wine glasses. That’s another point in the “yes, this is a date” category. The first was that Dani was careful to emphasize that everyone would be gone for the night for camping, work, or ill-advised urban skate stunts.

“Sit your cute butt down, I’ll be right back with dinner.”

That’s the first butt-based compliment she’s gotten, so score one for this red skirt. When Dani comes back, Aubrey can’t help but bounce in her seat; her crush is carrying a board covered in fruit and bread, and she absolutely sees a fondue pot on the counter inside.

“Since Cheesy Heat closed, I thought I could recreate it for us. Kinda. Barclay said he thinks they used a super fancy cheese that’s hard to get here.”

“That’s probably why they went out of business. Dang, why so many fondue pots?”

“Barclay keeps getting them for Christmas.” She sets the chocolate one down next to the cheese, and when she tugs on her dress before sitting down Aubrey’s mouth waters from more than just the meal.

The stars come out as they take turns making a mess of the table cloth, but the longer she sits here, happier than she’s been in years, the more Aubrey knows she can’t put the question off.

“Why the fancy dinner tonight?”

Dani dabs her mouth with her napkin, “I, uh, I, Cheesy Heat was my go-to, uh” her voice drops to a whisper, “date place.”

“Ohthankgod.” Aubrey flops back in her chair, “this is a date.”

“Did you think it wasn’t?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t wanna, like, assume.”

“Fireblossom” Dani stands, making a little half circle to reach her, “the first time we met you were stealing from me assuming I wouldn’t notice.”

“To be fair, getting caught in petty theft is less terrifying than making an ass out of yourself in front of a hot girl.” She grins as Dani straddles her lap.

“...okay you’re right, I’d hate to embarrass myself in front of you. Again.”

“A girl who can run me down in sandals is pretty hot.”

“Pfft” Dani giggles, hides her face in Aubrey’s shoulder, “not as hot as a girl who can sprint while carrying a twelve pound rabbit.”

“Seventeen.” Aubrey kisses her cheek, whispers teasingly, “you shoulda told me this was a date, I could’ve brought flowers.”

“You can bring me some next time.” Dani sits up, smiling at her.

“Sweet, I know somewhere I can get them for free.” She bounces her eyebrows, making the vision of perfection in her lap laugh.

“Nope, this time it’ll cost you.”

“How much?”

Dani cups her cheeks and dives down for a kiss, Aubrey clinging to her dress and sighing as she slips her tongue between her lips.

“Few of those” Dani murmurs, brushing their noses together.

“I’m happy to pay them.”

[gemstoneconstellations]

Little Match Maker

Summary: Single dad!Kirishima has a 8 year old wingman who only wants her daddy to be happy, by talking to the cute neighbor across the street for him.

Wordcount: 1917

A/N: this has actually happened to me and its the most adorable thing to see a child ask if you have a boyfriend while their dad is dying in the background of embarrassment when they off handily mention that they found some stranger pretty. So now its a fic. Thank you little girl for the scenario and I hope you got your dad a girlfriend.

Kirishima watched from his kitchen window as his neighbor plucked a few weeds from her front yard. She bent down to pick up a tool and he could see her shorts dig into her soft skin. He sighed as she smiled at another neighbor walking by with their dog. “So pretty…” 

He wished he was on the receiving end of that smile, even if it was just you being polite. There were a lot of things he wished for when he saw you across the street. . Maybe he’s just lonely, but he couldn’t help the crush he’d had on you for a while now, despite barely knowing you.. He groaned as you squatted down in front of your flower bed. Sometimes he feels like some dirty teenager again with how much he thought about his head between your—

“Papa! The stove!” The pot of water he was boiling to for the oatmeal overflowed, liquid sizzling on the hot burner. He quickly lifted the pot to the other side of the stove and turned off the burner. Kirishima sighed but smiled towards his giggling daughter behind him as he berated himself mentally for getting distracted.

~

Kirishima had had many plans for his future. Becoming a pining single dad was not one of those plans. His ex-wife, despite saying that she knew what she was getting into by being with a pro-hero when they’d started dating, gave up on their marriage three years in. She also left him alone with a beautiful two-year-old little girl. 

At first, they had shared custody. But over the years, he had slowly taken on all of the parental responsibility. By the time Minori was eight, Kirishima was the only parental figure in her life and lived with her father full time.

Kirishima got over his failed marriage and raised his daughter to the best of his ability, making sure to spend plenty of quality time. Even if it was an errand, he would go out of his way to make it fun. Grocery shopping was made to be like a scavenger hunt, letting his daughter lead him around looking for the needed items on the list while giving her hints, and it always ended with treats, even if it would possibly spoil both of their dinners. Even when stopping at the agency to do some quick paperwork, he always brought her around when he knew the others were on break there.

“Off, brat,” Bakugo grumbled as the black-haired child climbed up Bakugo’s back.

Minori just giggled, wrapping her arms around his throat, nearly choking him. “But Kacchan is so warm and smells like candy!”

“Seriously….what is with Shitty-Hair and his spawn clinging to me?”

“Aw, it’s not so bad, Kacchan.” Deku picked up the giggling child, spinning around the office while Bakugo sat at his desk filling out paperwork, ignoring them. Deku brought her back to his chest, hugging her tightly and her plump cheeks crushed against his own cheeks. “I want a baby!”

“You already have a screaming toddler at home,” Kaminari chuckled as he came up beside Kirishima’s desk, who was filling out some leave forms for Minori’s upcoming school break.

Deku placed Minori back on Bakugo’s lap, who begrudgingly let her sit on him. “I do?”

“Yeah. Blasty over there.” Kaminari leaned against Kirishima’s desk, shooting finger guns at Sero, who failed at covering up his snort.

Bakugo glared at Kaminari, leaning back with an arm around Minori. “I’m not a fucking toddler.”

Sero chuckled, spinning a pen between his fingers. “Notice that he doesn't deny that he screams at home.”

“Speaking of making people scream at home, how’s your dating life, Ei?” Kaminari rested an arm around Kirishima’s shoulders, who instantly went red, his hairline blending with his skin perfectly.

“Don’t be gross in front of a kid, idiots.” Bakugo pressed Minori against his chest, covering her ears before throwing a stapler at Kaminari.

The loud clatter shook Kirishima from his shock and he instantly scooted away from Kaminari, waving his hands in front of him. “D-dating? M-me? No way, dude.”

The room went quiet for a moment. “Seriously? You aren’t interested in anyone after… you know who?” Sero raised an eyebrow, asking what everyone was thinking.

“No! Not at all! Why would you say that? I need to focus on raising Minori while still trying to rise in the ranks. I have no time to even entertain the idea of d-dating! That’s completely out of the question. I’ve never once thought about—”

“You into someone aren’t you?” Bakugo stood up with Minori in his arms, interrupting Kirishima’s frantic ramble, having seen right through him. Years of translating Midoriya’s nervous rants gave Bakugo an unwanted, yet useful, skill of translating long-winded explanations. 

“It’s nothing…” Kirishima looked to the side, avoiding looking anyone in the eye. He could feel the pressure from their intense stares and sighed. “Okay, we’ve hardly even had an actual conversation… but there is this woman who lives across the street...”

Kaminari let out a low whistle. “Ooooh, a MILF for a neighbor. She gotta be super hot for you to notice.”

Bare legs bending down in the garden flashed in his mind. Kirishima could feel his cheeks get warmer as he buried his face in his hands. “Well, I…. just… she’s really pretty….”

Sero laughed and hooted for his friend, clapping loud enough that a few people started to look their way. “Go for it, bro!”

Deku waved the bystanders off to not mind them as Kirishima rested his head against his desk, groaning with embarrassment. “I don’t… I can’t…. I don't even know if she’s single…. And I'm so out of the game...”

“Dude, I’m not talking about you starting a relationship with her. Lonely housewife, single father hero; sounds like a plot to a really steamy—”

Bakugo slammed a hand over Kaminari’s mouth, Minori now clinging onto Bakugo’s back. “Dunce face, if you don’t shut the fuck up, I will cut your tongue out with a plastic spoon and shove it up your ass.” Kaminari nodded frantically out of fear. 

Bakugo huffed triumphantly, looking back at the kid he was currently giving a piggyback ride to. “And that’s how you get an idiot to stop talking. If anyone at school gives you shit, just do exactly that. Got it?”

“Got it.” Minori chirped, nodding her head in agreement.

“Bakubro…. please, no more defense lessons. I’d rather not get on a first name basis with the principal this year.” Bakugo rolled his eyes as he took Minori to the breakroom for a snack, continuing his lesson on how to verbally intimidate her enemies. Kirishima can’t say he didn’t try.

Midoriya sighed, holding a hand to his chest as the other patted Kaminari on the back as he gasped for air. “He’s so hot, all parental like that.”

“Oh yes, he’s the perfect fatherly figure that every child deserves in their lives,” Sero commented sarcastically, which went right over Deku’s head.

“But Kaminari is right. I think it’s time to put yourself out there again. If you want to start dating, I would be happy to ado-babysit, I meant babysit, for you.” They all looked at Deku, who was chuckling nervously while staring up at the ceiling.

“You really want a baby, don’t you?” Sero and Kaminari made eye contact before they got up and ran after Bakugo together. “Yo, Blasty! Come back and knock up Izuku before he steals Mini-shima!”

Midoriya chased after them, looking like a strawberry as he frantically tried to hold his teasing friends back. “You guys!! Stop it!”

After some more teasing of Deku’s obvious baby fever and probing of Kirishima about finally putting himself out there again, Kirishima and Minori were walking back to their home. He always checked his mail before going inside, but this time something else caught his eye. The sound of a hose had him turning around to see his neighbor conveniently spraying down a soapy car.

Kirishima’s jaw went slack as he watched water droplets run down your bare skin; those shorts should be illegal. He loves them. “You okay Papa? That’s not our mailbox.” Minori watched as Kirishima tried to put the mailbox key into the next-door neighbor’s mailbox next to theirs.

“Mhm, I see,” he mumbled as he watched you bend down in front of a bucket, pulling out a soapy sponge. 

Minori rolled her eyes. “Give me that.” She guided her father’s hand to the right mailbox, opening it and taking out the mail.

“So pretty…” Kirishima mumbled; it was a moment before he noticed his daughter crossing the street by herself. He looked down to his side; yup, she was no longer holding onto his hand. “Ah, Minori!”

She completely ignored her father as she ran up to you. “Excuse me, miss!”

You jumped back, turning off the hose as you looked down at the little girl in front of you. “Oh hello?”

“Are you married?” You blinked at her, completely thrown off by the question.

You tilt your head, not sure where this was going. “I…um…no?”

“Are you dating anyone?”

“Minori!” You see your neighbor across the street yell; he tried to cross the street but a passing car blocked his path.

The little girl just pointed back at the man who was now panting as he ran over. “Wanna date my Papa? He’s a pro-hero and Kacchan says my Papa is painfully single. My Papa also said you are really pretty. He almost burnt the house down staring at you. And you don’t have to worry about me; Uncle Zuzu said he’d watch me.”

Your neighbor, whose name you remembered was Kirishima, suddenly covered her mouth with one of his large hands but the damage was done. You giggled as she just looked up at her dad, annoyed. “Well aren’t you straight forward.” 

Kirishima chuckled nervously, rubbing a hand on his neck. “Yeah, kids, huh? They say the darndest and most embarrassing things….” You heard him whisper to her that she was so grounded, which she responded with another roll of her eyes.

You smile at their antics; they were a sweet pair. “I remember those days, I have a teenager myself.” You thought about your son, who was getting close to becoming a full grown adult.

“You have kids?”

“Just one; he’s spending a week at my ex-husband’s.” You hold up a finger on your left hand, showing off slightly the lack of a wedding ring on your finger. 

“Um, so single?” You nodded and his shoulders relaxed as a dopey smile spread on his face. It was so adorable. “That’s great….I mean, it’s not great that you are single, unless you want to be, then it's awesome…uh, I um….I don’t know where I’m going with this and I’m sorry.”

 The little girl looked up at her dad and whispered, “This is where you ask her out Papa.”

“Minori, shhhh.”

“She’s a cute one, and fiesty.” You pulled out a pen from your pocket and grabbed Kirishima’s very meaty arm and began to write your number. “I don't work on Fridays and Sundays.”

He looked down at his arm and then back at you, confused for a second before his eyes went wide. Luckily, Minori piped up for him and held out her hand. “Great, he’ll pick you up at seven on Friday.”

You giggled, shaking her hand in agreement. “It’s a date.”

[moonblssm]

everyday job au | bang chan

listen to — Tongue Tied by Grouplove

CHAN | minho | changbin | hyunjin | jisung | felix | seungmin | jeongin

、 preschool teacher!chan

teaches ages 4-5

chan always insists that the kids call him ‘channie-oppa’ or ‘channie-hyung’

“it’s not professional!”

“it’s not, but i’m not that old!”

half the time, he’s teaching seriously (in a fun way; he always makes lessons fun because he dreaded boring classes when he was younger)

the other half?

chan’s basically one with the children

sweetly scolds when one of the students gets hurt - in more of a brotherly way instead of a teacher way as he pulls them into his lap or lifts them up into a table

chan *cradling a little girl after she scraped her knees*

“didn’t i tell you to be more careful?”

other people: is he actually a teacher or is he that girl’s father?

you’ve actually known chan for a while now

you took up a job as his teaching assistant at the preschool almost a year ago

you found out that he was only a year older than you, so it wasn’t surprising how well the two of you clicked like you’ve known each other since high school

ever since the two of you bonded over an evening of setting up decorations for the surprise christmas party for the younglings and some food after, the two of you started a friendship

and a contest of which teacher they liked better

one-upping each other during the school day was a norm for the class, but the two of you knew it was all for fun

“okay everyone who wants to have fun come with channie! everyone who wants to do whatever y/n planned just go over there i guess.”

or

“raise your hand if you want to make ice cream with y/n! okay~ raise your hand if you want to help chan wash the dishes! no one? alright, point for me~”

one day, you and him are just standing at the play yard supervising and chatting with each other about your next outing together when one of the older kids ushers one of the younger students towards the two of you

“go ahead, ask them.”

you know the little girl is one of the shyer students, and your heart can’t help but melt as she plays with the hem of her dress before asking you

you make eye contact with chan before looking at the girl with soft eyes

you don’t notice the way chan looks at you with soft eyes before he follows your movements to listen to the girl’s request

“can you play house with us?”

immediately, you and chan agree because she’s one of those kids who just have that effect on people

so you completely expect yourselves to be fighting over the little girl’s heart as her favorite

“chan help.”

“are you okay?”

“my heart hurts so much, she’s so cute.”

chan: stop being so dramatic

also chan: *clutching his heart*

what you don’t expect is for her to open up to the two of you so quickly and easily and to hear something that makes you guys want to dig yourselves in a hole

one minute, you’re pretending to be setting the table and chan’s at your right peeling an imaginary banana

the next minute, you turn around to see the little girl with the older student acting as a puppy and hear

“mom! dad! can we keep it?”

yours and chan’s heads snap toward each other - faces flushed - and you also don’t expect for chan to ignore the nerves in his body and play along

you and chan’s roles were never established, but the both of you just assumed you were the nanny and the butler

chan doesn’t object to the idea, even going as far as calling you ‘honeybee’ and ‘dumpling’

at one point he even pretends to lean in for a kiss with a smirk, and you only blush and laugh as you push his face away

not that it mattered, you were perfectly fine with him snaking his arms around your waist as you ‘cooked’ at the plastic kitchen

at the end of recess, chan doesn’t let you slip away by catching you by your wrist before you turn to go inside

the way he looks at you reminds you of that same first night you first really got to talking

the decorations for the kids’ party were put up in a lot less time than you thought, so together, you grabbed some dinner at the famous kim family pizza restaurant down the street and brought it up to your apartment for a movie night which was just playing in the background as the two of you ate and talked more than actually watching the movie

they way he listened intently as you described basically your entire childhood, staying focused on everything you were saying and even asking questions when he was more curious at certain points, had your heart beating a little faster than you wanted to

and you can’t help but remember the way you fell asleep with your head against his shoulder - his arm wrapped around your waist as you curled into his body for warmth - as his hand gently keeps his grasp on your wrist

when you turn, you look up at him with those same curious eyes you showed when he talked about his past, about how he always got a long with his siblings, how he always wanted to help out at the daycare he used to go to when he was younger

there was a shine in your eyes that chan couldn’t help but fall for as he talked about what made him make the choice to become a teacher, and he felt so lucky to have someone as passionate as you for an assistant

as soon as the both of you felt like you were falling, the two of you yanked on that parachute of caution to avoid any possible drama that could unfold from an “office” romance

but as the months passed by, it was obvious that your motherly nature and caring methods

and his loving and carefree nature

just worked so well, and there was nothing to stop the oncoming feelings you had for each other

the two of you really did act like you’d known each other since high-school

as sweethearts

sure, your ‘rivalry’ was burning strong to this day

but if anything, you and chan looked like an arguing married couple instead - all the other times, you were sweet to him and he was sweet to you

like the way you always hovered behind him - where he sits at a table - if he needed your help, and you reached your arms around his shoulders to help him

or they way he would even pick you up when you were having trouble getting something from the higher shelves

it was small things like that that led to this very instant as you and chan looked into each other’s eyes, trying to figure out how to make this moment meaningful even when you had to get back to the toddlers you were looking after

the two of you only look into each other’s eyes and you hope that he’ll be the first to speak because you can’t trust what words might come out of your mouth right now

especially not when his hand is sliding down your forearm to interlace his fingers with yours

“we don’t have to be parents yet, of course, but maybe we could put aside this little war we’re having and accept the fate our student decided for us?”

[brattyfics]

I Like Him | BlackMissFrizzle 2K Challenge

Summary: Destiny has a hard time deciding which one of the Mayans she’s in love with.

A/N: Okay, I finally completed something to submit for @blackmissfrizzle 2K Challenge. The song that inspired this is “I Like Him” by Princess Nokia. It’s one of my favorite songs right now and the video she dropped a few days ago made me even more obsessed with it. It’s down below the tag list if any one is interested. I had so much fun writing this, and I hope that translates and you guys enjoy it just as much. Reblog/like/comment and let me know!

♪ I like him // Like him too // He my man // He my boo // He my type // He so cute // I want him // And I want him too ♪

Coco

Coco didn’t know how it happened, but the clubhouse had quickly become the hot hangout spot for Leticia and her college girlfriends. First it was Gabi, then Karmen, and finally, Destiny.

Despite his unexpected introduction to her, Coco liked Gabi. She was a good girl who kept Letty grounded. They were all good girls, but Destiny was Letty’s kindred spirit, another little troublemaker. Because they were good girls, Bishop didn’t mind them hanging around. They weren’t to be present during the weekend parties when other Mayans or Sons were likely to be in attendance, but any other time they were welcome.

The girls used the clubhouse to study, comparing notes with each other. Chucky made them snacks, and when no one was looking they were sometimes able to sneak alcohol drinks. Coco had caught them in them back gulping down beers too many times to count. He was doing worse at their age, so he let them off with a simple roll of his eyes.

Whenever he left Templo, his eyes automatically sought out the trouble making twins, interested to see what they had gotten themselves into during his absence. Every time Coco approached them, Destiny beamed like she was in a Spearmint commercial.

“Hey dad!” Letty would say, and it warmed his heart that she had come around to accepting him as her father. But then Destiny would greet him with the same “Hey dad!”, making him feel warm in other places. She always said it with a little smirk on her face which made him certain she knew what she was doing.

If the girls were hanging out and it got too late, Destiny would spend the night at their place. He didn’t mind because she always made breakfast and cleaned up her mess afterwards. Coco couldn’t help but eye her backside in the little booty shorts she wore.

Destiny always turned around to greet him with that playful, “Hey, dad!”. He would just shake his head and go out on the back porch, lighting up a cigarette. He listened to the sounds of the neighborhood while the girls bickered in the kitchen.

Letty would shove her friend and tell her to stop acting like a hoe. Destiny would just laugh. “It’s not my fault your dad is hot!”

“Stop saying that! Do I come to your house and talk about how hot your dad is?” Coco resisted the urge to growl at that admission.

“Yes. You do actually. That’s why we’re even. Besides, he knows I’m just playing. That’s my boo.”

Ezekiel

Destiny loved flirting with Ezekiel because he had a great smile and gorgeous dimples. Plus, when she took fun digs at him he gave as good as he got.

“What’s up, old man?” She knew the nickname drove him crazy. He was the youngest out of the Mayans, but for someone her age, he was an old man.

In retaliation, he called her the only thing that would be fitting. “What’s up, little girl?” That nickname drove Destiny equally crazy so it was the perfect response. She stopped calling him old, but his nickname for her stuck regardless.

Depending on how her hair was done, Ezekiel teased her about it. If it hung loosely, he’d tug on it, disappearing in the other direction like a schoolboy on the playground. Up in two high ponytails or buns? He teased her about looking like the old-school handlebars on kiddy bikes, or a wanna be Princess Leia.

“You’re trying to make fun of me, but you’re really just telling your age, old man.”

On weekends, the girls hung at the food truck during the day to keep Gabi company while she worked. Sometimes the guys stopped by for lunch. When they did, the girls sat on the bed of the truck, swinging their legs.

Like a kindergartner, Destiny would stick her leg out in a piss-poor attempt to trip Ezekiel. He’d retaliate by snatching her taco and running off with it. When he was feeling nice, he’d take a bite and then offer it back instead of scarfing down the whole thing.

“I don’t even want it anymore.”

“Suit yourself.” EZ shrugged his shoulders, going back to talking with the guys.

Destiny folded her arms over her chest in fake annoyance until he broke and bought her a new one. She and Letty always called about how easily manipulated he was by women.

When Gabi finally admitted to her friends she was catching real feelings for EZ, Destiny took the opportunity to fuck with her. “But he’s my man!”

Angel

The first time Destiny laid eyes on Angel Reyes she was in love. Well, puppy love, but still love.

“Who is that?” She asked, tapping Letty’s hand. The young woman rolled her eyes at her friend’s wandering eyes. “No, seriously. That’s my type.” Destiny bit down on her lip, eyeing the biker as he made his way towards them.

“They’re all your type.” She heard Letty mutter under her breath, but ignored her to watch her future husband. Angel strolled over to them, giving the customary head nod before turning his attention to Chucky. Destiny turned in her chair to watch him as he asked the other man for a favor.

“Don’t break your neck.” Letty joked. “Stop drooling, coqueta.” Destiny eyed Angel from head to toe, liking what she saw. A head full of healthy hair, tattoos all up and down his arms, big boot-clad feet. She watched him swagger away and guessed by his gait he was working with something underneath those jeans.

Angel joined the other guys across the room. Karmen and Gabi made their return to the table from the bathroom. “Who is she looking at now?” Karmen asked, following her friend’s line of sight.

“Yeah.” Gabi chimed in, grinning at the stars in Destiny’s eyes. “Which one do you like now?” The ‘now that EZ is taken’ went without saying.

Destiny nodded towards Tranq first. The older man had intricate, colorful tattoos that peaked her interest. She wouldn’t mind seeing the ones he hid underneath his clothes. “I like him.” 

Taza was a bit too old for her taste, but he had an other-worldly vibe that drew her in. “Like him too.”

Then she moved on to EZ. She tried not to marvel at the gorgeous veins on his thick arms. Gabi would just have to understand. Or be mad. Destiny didn’t really care. “He my man.” 

Destiny’s big eyes settled on Coco. He was saying something animatedly, the crook in his jaw more prominent than ever. It added character. “He my boo.” Letty groaned in annoyance. 

“He’s my type. He’s so cute.” She let out a deep sigh for Angel. “I want him.”

Her eyes finally settled on El Presidente. He was a small man with a big presence. The big dick energy was strong with him. “And I want him too.”

They thought she was done until Riz, Creeper, and Gilly came inside from the yard, setting her off on another tangent.

GENERAL TAGLIST

@WOAHITSLUCYYLU @BRIANNAB1234 @SHEESHGIVEMEABREAK @BREAKINGNEWSIN-NO-ONEASKED @ANGELREYESGIRL @BLESSEDBOO @GLIMMERGLITTERGIRL @APANTHERINMYPASTLIFE @BROWNSUGARCOFFY @MARVELMAREE @STARRYNITE7114 @SCUZMUNKIE @THEWARRIORPRINCESSXO @IFOUNDMYHAPPYTHOUGHT @SADEYESGF

ANGEL TAGLIST

@THESANDBENEATHMYTOES @CLAYTONCARDENASBABYMAMA @ADAYDREAMAWAY08

[inner-blurbs]

Dirty Little Secret

GIF not mine

Dirty Little Secret

Warnings: Pure smut, choking, rough sex- I think that’s it. 

Pairing: JJ Maybank x reader

Word Count: 1.6k

Summary: JJ was hired to mow your lawn and you decide to have a little fun.

He’d been mowing and doing other yard work about every week and a half for my dad. I new he was a Pogue, but with a body like that- it was ridiculous to focus on things like social class. I’d been trying to subtly get him to notice me, never wanting to seem too eager. Doing think like tanning when I knew he would be there and even trying to recreate the pool scene from “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” These actions seemed to have some effects, usually earning me a wink or even his bright blue eyes staring so hard that it was as if he thought my clothes would just fall off.

Seeing that I had an effect on him, I had decided to kick it up a notch. I had a glass door with windows on either side of it. It was very big and the whole room was visible if the curtains were pulled open. I had even taken the liberty of moving my room around to make sure the bed was in perfect eye shot of the window. This plan was definitely methodological.

Like clock work JJ arrived to mow the yard. I had already gotten dressed in my most revealing of underwear’s and had the curtains open. I placed a robe around my body waiting for the perfect time. As I waited for JJ to get tk my side of the house, I unlocked the door to the outside from my room and locked the one that lead to my house. Just in case thing went the way I seriously hoped.

As soon as JJ came into my sight I moved so that I could catch his attention. Once he looked at me, I let the robe fall to the floor. I was in nothing but a see through light pink bra and matching thong. His blue eyes went wide as I began to slip the bra off, not breaking eye contact with him. Once the bra hit the ground, I lightly pressed my hands on my breasts and slowly slide my hands down my body to my underwear. I slide them off and looked at him as I began to walk backwards to my bed. I could feel his eyes on me when I looked away to situate myself on the bed, spreading my legs to give him a view of my wet center.

This wave of exhilaration and confidence was only amplified when I began to tough myself. Rubbing my clit and rolling my head back in please. I then took the same fingers and placed them in my mouth. Sucking on them lightly and keeping perfect eye contact with him. His mouth gaped and I knew I had him right where I wanted him. 

I bit my lip and moved my hand back down to my core. I entered a finger and pumped it in and out. As I got more into it, I slid a second finger in, pumping faster and let out a moan. My eyes closed as my head rolled back and I continued to please myself. 

When I opened my eyes, I noticed he had moved closer to the large glass door. I winked and continued the gentle assault to myself. I was hoping he would try the door, seeing as he was so interested. After a minute more of pleasing myself, I could tell he wasn’t going to open the door himself, probably scared that I wouldn’t want him to be that forward. 

I stood up and walked to the door, standing in front of it confident in my full nakedness. I watched as his bright blue eyes scanned over my body once more. I slowly reached for the door, twisting the knob. Once the door was opened, I stepped close to him. 

“Are you just going to watch? You could be doing a lot more.” I whispered into his ear. 

This seemed to be all he needed because his next movements were fast. He quickly grabbed my face and pulled me into a rushed, deep kiss. One of my hands pushed the door closed before he walked me backwards until my back hit a wall. My hands found the hair at the nape of his neck as his hands slid down my body. Once his hands reached my backside, he griped my ass and lifted me up. My legs wrapped around him as he pushed me harder into the wall. 

I began to kiss down the side of his cheek and continued down his neck, nipping and biting. I wanted him to remember this for a while so I was determined to litter his neck, which he seemed to enjoy as his head fell back and a moan escaped his lips.

I pulled back and whispered in his ear, “Bed.” 

He complied and carried me to the bed, as he went back to kissing me. When he got to the bed, he lowered me down and quickly took off his shirt before he climbed on top of me, settling between my legs. I decided that since this whole rendezvous was because of me, I wanted to show that I had the power. I pushed JJ’s shoulder so that he would roll over onto his back. I straddled his hips and kissed down his body. When I got lower, I quickly undid the button to his shorts and pulled down the zipper. I pulled his shorts off and began to palm his erection over his boxers. I kept my gaze on him, wanting to see his reaction to me toughing him. His mouth was slightly gaped as he rushed his hands to the hem of his boxers, I stopped him and pulled them down myself. 

Once his boxers were off, I placed a hand around his cock and began pumping. He moved himself closer to the edge of the bed and I knew what he wanted. I got on my knees in front of him and placed my lips around him. I began to bob my head up and down, going down further and further to show him just how much I could take. As my mouth worked on his cock, I brought one hand to his balls and massaged them lightly, knowing many people ignored this when giving head- but it is a great source of pleasure. He moaned and rolled his head back.

He let a, “Fuck yes Y/N, that’s so good!” roll off his lips. His hands made their way to my hair and he started to guide my head down further and began pushing his hips up. He started going faster, moaning louder as he fucked my mouth. I let him do this for as long as I could until I pulled back to breath, replacing my mouth with my hand. I looked at him, enjoying his reactions as I moved my hand up and down, paying close attention to the head. 

“Fuck me JJ, I need it.” I said.

He quickly grabbed me and laid me on the bed and climbed back on top, resting between my legs as he had earlier. His hand moved down my body and stopped at my core, a single finger sliding between my lips as he felt how wet I was. Seeming happy with what he felt, he positioned himself and pushed his cock slowly inside of me. I moaned as he filled me up, my nails digging into his shoulders. He began to thrust at a slow pace. 

“Faster JJ!” I moaned out. His pace got faster, his hips meeting mine with every thrust. His hands were on either side of my head and he continued his fast pace. I grabbed one of his hands, picking it up and putting it on my throat keeping eye contact with him as I did so. He got the message and applied just enough pressure to make me moan as he continued to ram himself in and out. One of my hands was gripping the sheets and the other was scratching down the arm that the belonged to the hand around my neck. 

“Doggy, please Y/N?” He moaned out. I nodded back in response. 

He removed his hand from my throat and flipped me over. I arched my back, allowing him to slide in. He didn’t need me to tell him to go hard and fast. He gripped my hips going at a relentless pace. I grabbed the sheets, balling them in my hands, as I moaned into them- not even caring if anyone heard us. JJ grabbed my hair and pulled me up, my back touching his front. He continued his movements of going in and out at a fast pace and one hand went to my neck and the other to my clit. My hands had found themselves gripping JJ’s. I was shaking and moaning as his movements began to get sloppy. 

“I’m so close Y/N!” JJ moaned loudly. 

It only took a few more thrusts combined with the work of his hands to send me over the edge. I moaned as I felt my orgasm wash over me, the clenching of it causing him to let out one more loud moan as he too finished. We rode out our highs with his hand still around my neck. 

Once he released me and pulled out, I fell on the bed trying to catch my breath. He did the same, except lying on his back and looking as the ceiling breathing heavily. 

“That was great.” I said between breaths. 

He laughed, “Yeah it was, who knew a kook could be so dirty!” I laughed back and looked at him.

“When I see what I want, I get it.” I winked at him and added, “How would you feel about making this a regular thing? Not telling anyone of course, with reputations to keep up and all.”

“I would like that Y/N, and of course- it will be our dirty little secret.” 

[palettepainter]

I’ve got post vaccine (moderna gang) shivers so I need to express fluff headcanons to spread good vibes

When Ecto was planning to propose, he had to keep it so hush hush because Higari can easily find things out. He didn’t tell anyone but higaris mother and his own parents. He was very happy that Higari was actually surprised with the proposal. Higari wears the rings on a necklace- his quirk doesn’t exactly make wedding rings easy to find.

As much as Higari prefers being a support hero, search and rescue jobs that go smoothly it’s very rewarding. He often checks up on those he’s managed to rescue, keeps in touch with some too. There’s this lovely older woman who he rescued from a crumbling retirement home who sends him baked goods every holiday. He visits her every month for tea.

When Ecto is sick, Higari cares for him easily. Even when Ecto acts like he isn’t sick. He’ll make him soup, make sure he’s resting, cold compress on his forehead. As stubborn as he is, ecto appreciates it.

Higaris favorite memory with his dad is digging around in the yard with him. Since they had the same quirks, it worked out. He showed him how to carve tunnels without the ground crumbling, or just played around in the dirt. There’s a picture of Higari when he was three, covered in dirt with his head peaking out of a hole. His dad was grinning, sitting near by like he was cheering him on. Sometimes, especially on days where thinking about his dad is hard, he’ll tell Ecto stories.

As someone who also got shivers after getting a vaccine I know the feeling, how you’re doing well!

Ecto proposing, Yes! I love the idea of Ecto proposing to Higari, and his rugged flirting smirking self just crumbles in the face of Ecto holding a ring to him. Ecto’s eyes are so full of love and he has such a soft grin on his face that Higari can’t help but tearing up, he tries to think of something flirty to say back, but he just can’t. He’s overwhelmed - probably ended up tackling Ecto in a hug with a big kiss, which threw Ecto off guard, thinking at first maybe he’d overwhelmed Higari when he started crying.

Higari wearing is around his neck, also yes. Higari’s wedding ring is the only thing that he will spend careful hours cleaning and polishing at the end of each day to make sure it stays in good condition, wears is around UA proudly - though I imagine for interviews outside of UA or when he’s called out for hero work he leaves it at home in a special box on his dresser or safely tucks it away in a drawer in the design studio, as much as he loves wearing the rink around his neck he dreads the thought of loosing it in a rescue, or having some nosy reports pester him for answers if they catch sight of it. 

With Higari’s gear I’m a firm believer he’d be a great rescue hero in say like natural disasters or if a building collapsed. With his giant robotic suit and his know how on construction he could easily map a safe route to evacuate citizens from an unstable building, or quickly find a way to clean up after a land slide. Need to move a giant tree? No problem he’ll move it no prob. Citizen can’t move because they’re leg hurts? He can carry em out to safety. Kids they rescued are bored while they’re waiting for parents to pick them up? Higari tolerates them clambering about on his hero suit like it’s a jungle gym

Anything with Higari caring for Ecto or vise versa is so wholesome! In my NGAU I imagine Higari prolly knows all the tricks to help when someone is sick, he grew up in a big house with tones of little siblings, as kids they got sick a lot with how often they played in the garden and mud, they’ve all got very strong immune systems so it’s rare Higari or his siblings get sick - but Higari still knows all the tricks to help nursing someone back to health. He remembers to give Ecto some medicine, make him some soup, hot water bottle if he’d cold, flannel if he’s too hot and plenty of liquids. A teenie tiny part of Ecto might even enjoy all the attention, appreciating Higari’s concern. Too bad Higari is too stubborn to actually treat himself when he’s sick, with how little he gets sick he doesn’t take it all that seriously - thankfully Ecto is a patient man with many clones, so is willing to drag Higari back to bed if needed XD

And the last one with his dad...

Anon: Are you trying to make me cry-

In my NGAU Powerloader’s dad was all over him, spoiled Higari so so much. Spent many lazy afternoons slacking off work when the missus wasn’t looking to play around with Higari (bragged for like a week straight that he got his quirk, proud dad moment). Higari’s mother came out into the garden to see how the boys where doing, she finds her husband and toddler son covered head to toe in dirt and mud. She gets angry at them, insisting the two need a bath if they want to have dinner. Toddler Higari hated baths from the day he was born apparently, and it’s only until dear old papa gives him a bath is he willing to get clean. His dad puts bubbles in Higari’s hair, and Higari splashes bubbles onto his dads beard, who then makes a silly face to make Higari laugh. Too bad only one hour after tea the two got dirty again-

The first time Higari used his quirk was when he was outside with his dad. His dad was working on fixing up the shed, Higari sitting in a small play pen outside with some toys while his dad stood close by, able to work while also keeping an eye on Higari. Higari, bored of playing with his building blocks, begins to drag his little hands at the ground, and before he knows it he’s tunneling his way to freedome beyond the bounds of his baby playpen. This kind of scneario probably ensued:

Kaigo (PL’s dad): Phew *picks up tool box and turns around* Alright sweetpea, time to go back insi- *freezes when he sees the playpen is empty, and no baby in sight* W-WHAT?! *drops tool box, and rapidly looks around* Uh- H-Higari?! Sweetpea?! Where’d you go?? Come to dad, this isn’t funny! *rushes around a bit*

Higari: *tunnles his way up to the surface in his mothers flowerbed, a small pile of dirt with a flower sticking out the top sitting on his head*

Kaigo: *searching in the bushes* H-Higari?! Higari! Where are you?! *mumbles* Shit I took my eyes off him for two minutes! Where the hell could he-

Higari: BAPA!

Kaigo: *jumps and whirls around*..*heaves and sigh and rushes over* Oh thank god! *scoops him into his arms for a hug* You stupid lil’ ankle biter! Don’t you ever do that again! *holds him out at arms length* How in the world did you even get out??

Higari: *sneezes from the dirt, making the flower fall off his head*

Kaigo:..Wait. Did..D-Did you, DIG your way out?!

Higari: *incoherent baby noises*

Kaigo;...Ooooh you are in SO much trouble young man, you know how many years off my life you just took? Huh?...*scowls as Higari giggles* Oh so you think this is FUNNY?-

Higari: *grabs his nose* BA!

Kaigo:............*sighs* You’re damn lucky you’re cute, you know that?...Uh, how about we DON’T tell your Ma about this, okay?

Ever since then his dad had to watch him like a hawk, one minute Higari was sitting playing with his toys, the next he was trying to dig his way to the other side of the world. When he was old enough his dad did give him some lessons in how to dig safely so the ground wouldn’t become unstable. I imagine Higari may have madea  few tunnels as a kid that where too close to the surface, and his very unsuspecting mum and dad would just sink into the ground collapsing an old tunnel Higari made. And Higari having pictures?? YES. His mum probably has a whole stash of pictures of Higari as a baby playing outside with his dad and her. Including the embarrassing photos, the kind of photos Higari would never want Ecto to see, but his mum showed him anyway. 

Now I wanna write angst with Powerloader and his dad aaaaa-

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

TATMILB, CHAPTER 3

Penelope spent her life writing love letters, which didn’t seem like a terrible idea until the letters were mailed out and Schneider received one of them. Hoping to fool their exes, they agree to fake a relationship. But are they lying to everyone around them, or to themselves? aka my To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before-inspired AU.

Penelope x Schneider, ODAAT. available on ao3 with extra author’s notes.

Chapter 3: Penelope tries to bond with Alex during movie night; he and Lydia bring the family’s donations to Goodwill. Schneider returns from vacation and confronts Penelope. She panics.

While Schneider was away with Nikki over the weekend, Penelope splurged on a trip to the movies--luring Alex with the promise of food he didn’t have to sneak in.

She was trying to focus on silver linings instead of her anxieties about Elena, and the upsides included her new availability for Alex. Twice as much parent to go around could only lead to more bonding, right?

He had lobbied for an R-rated comedy, which she was definitely not willing to pay for. On her own, she would’ve headed right for the newest Bradley Cooper drama, but no amount of chocolate could convince Alex to sit through that.

So they compromised on an action movie--which would have the added benefit of covering up the sound of her soda later. Agreeing to buy concessions for Alex didn’t make her a different person. Her discount snacks were better than their overpriced junk, anyway.

He grinned at her over his bucket of popcorn while they waited for the lights to go down, and she considered her bribery a success. See, she could be the cool mom. Even if she had Raisinets in her cargo pants.

“Hey, Mom?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you still miss Max?”

Where did that come from? The question hurt, mostly because it was so unexpected. With Max exiting her life right before Lydia’s stroke, neither Alex or Elena had mentioned him much in the last year. They’d all had other things on their minds.

She let the pain pass by before she answered.

“Yes, Papito, I still do. It’s hard to let go of people you love. Sometimes, a part of you misses them even after you’ve moved on.”

He nodded, sipping his soda.

“Do you think you’ll start dating again anytime soon?”

That question was even more out of character for her son, whose world had been so often self-centered since he first came into it.

Penelope narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you suddenly so interested in my dating life?”

“I was just wondering.”

”Well, I’m having fun the way things are. You and me, catching a movie on a Friday night, mother and son time with Elena away. Why would I want to date when I could be doing this?”

She grabbed a handful of popcorn and caught the way he cringed. Or flinched. Whatever it was, there was guilt there. Her mom radar went up.

“Alex, what is it? Is something going on?”

“It’s nothing!” He assured her in a rush. “It’s just...I kind of--did have a date.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. You wanted to go out together, so I rain checked it with Chloe for next weekend. But I mean, let’s be real, Mom. This can’t last forever. I’ll go off to college too, or modeling school, whatever, and then who will you hang out with?”

The trailers started playing, just in time, letting her wallow until the movie started.

Penelope couldn’t keep the sadness off her face as she watched Alex settle in with his snacks. He was growing up so fast on her. Too fast. And Elena was practically out of the house already.

She didn’t want to date just to avoid being alone, but hearing that concern from her teenage son? Ouch. So much for being the cool mom.

Now Penelope was glad that they’d picked an action flick. She was ready to watch some stuff blow up.

****

Alex emerged from his room the next morning waving his phone at her.

“Mom, that was the third text I’ve gotten from Elena since she left reminding us to take that stuff to Goodwill.”

“Good morning to you, too,” Penelope replied. 

She was almost out the door, but her son had the luxury of sleeping in on Saturdays until baseball season started. He was taking full advantage of it.

“Seriously, she woke me up--and I need my beauty rest. She’s not gonna stop bugging me until you drop it off.”

“Alex...” Penelope shrugged into her coat, kissing her Mami on the cheek in thanks for the quick cafecito she had substituted for breakfast. “It’s all boxed up, we finished it before she left; it’ll get there.”

“I’m just saying, she’s gonna start texting you next, and I don’t think you’ll enjoy the lectures any more than I do.”

“Well, I’ve got plans with Jill today--and I’m about to be late. Mami?” She raised hopeful eyebrows in Lydia’s direction.

“Hmm?”

“Can you go with Alex to the Goodwill donation dropoff? I won’t be back until dinner.”

“Si, Lupita. Go have fun with your friend, we will handle it.” 

“Great. Thanks. The things I’m getting rid of are in my room, next to the closet.”

“You know, this would be much easier if Schneider had not taken his girlfriend on a vacation.” Lydia frowned. “He could carry much bigger boxes than myself or Papito.”

“Hey, I can lift heavy stuff,” Alex protested. 

“Yes, but you should not have to! You should save your strength for wooing your future wife.” Lydia patted his face.

“Luckily for us--and Alex’s future wife--none of the boxes are all that heavy,” Penelope said. “And there aren’t too many of them. Now, I really have to go. I’ll see you both tonight.”

****

Absorbed in work and school, Penelope didn’t give their Goodwill donations another thought until Tuesday, on her way out of the hospital. The two boxes she’d packed in her room were gone, concluding that chore.

Or so she thought.

Penelope was  digging in her purse for her keys when she saw Schneider striding her way. “Oh, hey! I thought you were gonna be off the grid with Nikki for another couple of days.”

“No, that trip is kind of...over. That whole thing is kind of over.” 

“Again?”

Hurt crossed Schneider’s face before he buried it. He was really good at that, she’d learned--mostly from moments when she was the one hurting him. Way to go, Penelope. 

“I mean, I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

“Eh, I will be. Eventually. It’s not like we were engaged, right?”

Schneider shook his head. “That’s not why I’m here, though. Nikki may have dumped me for one of the jock dads at St. Bibiana’s, but that doesn’t mean I think you and I should blur the lines on the rebound.”

She stared at the creased blue paper he held up as he continued.

“Not that I’m not flattered, obviously. You’re the most badass woman I know, an amazing mom, anybody would be lucky to--”

Penelope’s field of vision narrowed to the letter in his hand, a letter that she definitely recognized. She didn’t hear the rest of his sentence. She could only hear her heart pounding in her ears, making her wonder if she was about to pass out there, next to her car.

How did Schneider get that? What was happening right now?

“I found it slipped under my door when I got home. And honestly, Pen, if you needed to tell me this stuff, you could have just done it in person--we’ve had enough late night chats that nothing’s really off limits at this point.”

She took a deep breath, trying to focus on a technique that worked for her during panic attacks and after nightmares. Since the moment felt like an actual waking nightmare, slowly counting backwards didn’t help much. He was still there. Waiting.

“Schneider, that letter--it’s not what it looks like, I swear. I don’t want to date you. At all. I wrote it because...”

She was still trying to find the words to explain something much too complicated for a parking lot when she saw motion past Schneider’s left shoulder.

Max was exiting the hospital and heading straight for them, holding a bright white envelope in one hand.

It didn’t take a genius to know what he was coming over to say.

Which was good, because Penelope’s mind was not exactly in top condition. It was already a five-alarm fire up in there, and every part of her was screaming I cannot deal with this.

In the fraction of a second she had to consider her options, Penelope acknowledged that the mature response would be to face it now--to explain the situation to her ex-boyfriend and her best friend at the same time.

Or, she decided, as she felt both men’s eyes on her and her palms started to sweat...she could do literally anything else.

Going with her first impulse, Penelope reached up and grabbed Schneider’s shirt with both hands, pulling him toward her. Before Max could get one step closer, she kissed Schneider like her life depended on it.

She couldn’t have explained to anybody why kissing Schneider seemed like a better idea than letting Max think she was still pining over him. Right then, she just needed Max to stay back. To leave them alone. 

Did it work? She wondered. She couldn’t check without breaking off the kiss, but the silence seemed promising.

Of course, the quiet only emphasized the situation she was now in. She was kissing Schneider. She was in a hospital parking lot, a few yards away from her ex-boyfriend, kissing Schneider. 

Pressed against her, Schneider didn’t react. Not after the initial moment, or several more. He let her kiss him, but he didn’t kiss back. And that was fine, Penelope told herself. That was better.

“Thank you,” she said when she let Schneider go. He stood there, flushed and baffled, looking at her like he had never seen her before. 

Though confusion was written all over his face, Schneider nodded. “You’re...welcome?”

Penelope wasn’t willing to push her luck any further. She couldn’t avoid the embarrassment forever, but at least she had managed to postpone it until she got home. She needed time to figure this out.

Without another word, and without glancing back to where Max was probably still holding his own letter, she got into her car and drove home.

****

Her reprieve was brief, not that she’d expected any different. She caught the aroma of dinner as soon as she walked through the door, and barely had time to praise her Mami’s cooking before Schneider arrived.

“Oh, good, Schneider, you are home from your vacación,” Lydia said. “I made enough for you to join us, just in case.”

“Hey,” Alex added from his spot at the table. “You’re back early, right?”

“Yeah, Nikki and I broke up.”

Schneider offered that explanation to Alex, but he was looking at Penelope. She shook her head in response, hoping the tiny movement would go unnoticed by the others. Hoping that Schneider would understand. Not now. Not in front of the family. Please.

His shoulders tensed where he stood, like her silent plea was a blow he had to absorb. But when he finally looked away from her, smiling at Lydia and taking his seat, Penelope knew he would let it go for now. “So you can see why I needed a nice, comforting family dinner this evening.”

“Oh, pobrecito Schneider,” Lydia said, patting his back before she sat down across from him. “You can do better.”

They were waiting for her to settle into her place at the table, but Penelope couldn’t join them until she knew for sure. She headed for her bedroom, straight to the spot where her army duffel would be. 

Or where it used to be.

“Mami?” She returned to the table and sat, trying to sound calm. “What happened to my duffel bag?”

“I don’t know,” Lydia said, pouring herself some rum as though her daughter’s world wasn’t spinning out of control in front of her. “Where did you see it last?”

“I keep it in my closet,” Penelope snapped back. “It’s been there for years. Where did I see it last,” she added in a mutter.

“You do not need to take that tone with me,” her Mami scolded her. “I did not touch your ratty old bag. I do not know where it is.”

“Well, I know I didn’t move it, and it’s gone. So can anybody explain to me how it up and disappeared?”

Lydia thought it over. “I suppose...if it was in your closet...it might be at the Goodwill.”

She clamped down even harder on her temper. “Why would it be at the Goodwill?” 

“As I said, Lupita, I have done nothing wrong. But your boxes were next to the closet. So if it is missing, that may be why.”

“It was just an old duffel bag, right, Mom?” Alex was halfway through his dinner, but he couldn’t ignore the tension in the room. “You can get a new one.”

“Not everything’s replaceable, Alex. That old bag had a lot of memories attached.” She picked up her fork and tried to focus on her food while her mind reeled. It also had five incredibly personal love letters tucked into the inside pocket. Letters she’d never wanted their subjects to read.

Now Max knew she never got over him, and wanted him back. God, after more than a year, how pathetic he must think she was. 

And that didn’t begin to address the other letters. How long until those came back to haunt her, too? What about the man currently watching her while he ate, pretending that he wasn’t? How could she possibly explain any of this to Schneider?

She stabbed at her salad, lost in thought until she was done eating. 

Worried she might snap at him next, even Schneider was quiet during the meal. The scraping of utensils against dishes filled the silence until Penelope cleared her plate and went to her bedroom.

Schneider swallowed loudly after Penelope left, but didn’t offer up his usual attempts to paper over the unease that lingered behind her. 

Instead it was Lydia who broke the silence. “Lupe hasn’t used any of her old bags in years. I do not understand why she is so upset about this one.”

“Maybe she’s going through menopause,” Alex offered up.

Schneider’s fork clattered loudly onto his plate. 

Lydia shook her head. “No, that can’t be the problem, Papito. She is far too young.”

“It can start between the ages of 40 and 50,” Alex argued, ignoring the way Schneider was gaping at him. “Mom’s just inside the window.”

“This is very inappropriate talk,” Lydia scolded him, standing up to clear the rest of the plates.

“Elena wouldn’t stop lecturing me about it, okay? She wanted me to be ready when it happened in case she was moved out already. You know how she never shuts up.”

Schneider left Alex sitting alone to go find Penelope--normally she would be back out with the family after dinner, but if she was going to try this hard to avoid him, she wasn’t giving him much choice. 

With Lydia at the sink and Alex’s face in his phone already, Schneider doubted the others would even notice him gone. 

He tapped lightly on her door. “Penelope?” 

The long silence wasn’t comforting, but eventually he heard a quiet “Come in” and let himself in. 

“Hey,” he said as he shut the door behind him. “You know, Max seemed just as confused as me, back at the hospital. He just sort of stared at me, once you drove off, for the longest five seconds in history, and then he left without saying anything.”

“Yeah?” Penelope was looking at the floor more than him, but he could tell she was listening.

“Yeah. I think he wanted to talk to you too. Which made me even more confused. What’s going on?”

A brisk rap on the door sounded before it opened--not giving either of them time to respond. 

“Mami.”

“It’s time for dessert,” Lydia told them. “What are you two doing in here?”

Penelope ignored the gossipy insinuation in her tone--she knew better than anyone that it was her Mami’s way of hoping something interesting was about to happen, whether it actually was or not. “We were talking about dessert, actually. I was asking Schneider if he wanted to go with me to get ice cream.”

She raised her eyebrows, hoping he would follow her lead. “What do you say? Dessert run?”

Whatever he was thinking, or feeling, Schneider kept it to himself. “Sure, Pen. Sounds good. My treat.”

“Oh, Schneider, you are such a generous man,” Lydia told him with a hand on his arm--laying it on a little thick even by her usual standards. 

“Mami, calm down. It’s ice cream, not new shoes.”

“Lydia, did you want new shoes?” Schneider perked up, and Penelope grabbed him by the arm to pull him past her mom before they could get any ideas. 

“She doesn’t need you to buy her shoes. Let’s go.”

Penelope rushed him to the door with one hand on his back, nudging him forward as she opened it.

She was in such a hurry, she almost shoved him directly into Ben--who was standing on the other side, hand raised to knock. 

“Oh, hey, Penelope. Is this a bad time?”

[kasdeyathebitterwoman]

Maybe She’s The One - HenryxReader

I got an amazing request to write a fluff piece about Henry’s family teasing him about finding the one. I hope I did good! I don’t know why I chose Easter weekend as the theme for this particular piece, it just happened 🤷🏼‍♀️ lol

Thank you to everyone for sending in your requests! I have loved writing them and I can’t wait to bring y’all the next one! 

Word Count:  1,549

CW: None, ALL FLUFF

For Easter weekend, Henry wanted to have his family come by. Henry planned to have them over for a get-together and an egg hunt for the younger ones. Mostly, he just wanted them to spend more time with you. He was absolutely and completely in love with you and he wanted to share that with his family. When his parents arrived, he helped them unpack their car then shuffled everyone into the kitchen to start making snacks.

You and his mother chatted while you made deviled eggs from scratch. Henry and his father talked about sports while they filled plastic eggs with candy. Occasionally, your conversations overlapped and everyone talked with each other from across the kitchen. Henry laughed and joked with you in ways similar to the way he got on with his brothers, much to the surprise of his parents. Rarely was he this open with a woman, especially in front of them.

“Who are you and what have you done with my son?” Marianne asks at one point. Henry looks up at her surprised.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he returns.

“Well, I’ve just never seen you tease a girlfriend this much,” Marianne replies. “You treat her like you treat Charlie,” she adds laughing. You smile over at Henry and see his dad smirking as he fills another egg.

“What can I say, she’s just special,” Henry says, winking at you. You snort in reply, then go back to making deviled eggs. Once you finish the eggs, you begin making batches of sugar cookies. Henry gets busy making a lamb shoulder while Marianne pulls out a chicken salad she’d made earlier and brought with her. By the time you’ve got the last batch of cookies in the oven, Piers, Nik, Simon and Charlie have all arrived with their respective families. It’s a mad-house of chaos and calm and you can tell Henry is thriving off of it. All the kids want to talk to you, asking you questions about the egg hunt and more. You don’t notice the way that Henry watches you interact with his nephews. More than that, Henry doesn’t notice the way his family watches him as he watches you.

Not long after everyone arrives, it’s time to eat. The group circles around the kitchen and holds hands, bowing your heads. Colin says grace then gives everyone the cue to dig in. The chatter resumes again as everyone dives for plates, serving spoons, and cutlery. After eating, you direct all the children back into the kitchen.

“Okay!” you announce to the smaller Cavill’s. “All you need to decorate the cookies is right here,” you gesture to the arrangement of frosting, sprinkles, and decorations on the counter. “Begin,” you say, tossing your hands up. The kids shout and dive for what they want. Everyone watches with amusement as the kids excitedly decorate their cookies.

“Henry,” Nik calls out as you help one of the younger boys with some icing. “I think she takes care of us better than you do,” he says, smiling wide at you. Henry’s jaw goes slack.

“Yeah, if you two break up we’re keeping her,” Charlie says pointing at you and laughing at Henry’s expression.

“Hey now!” he exclaims as everyone laughs.

“Seriously, Hen,” Charlie’s wife, Heather begins. “Y/n is great and we want to spend more time with her,” she says. You smile back at her. “But only her, you can stay home,” she adds, causing you to bust out with laughter. Henry sheepishly looks around at his family members as they all laugh. Several of the kids announce they are satisfied with their cookies and are ready to hunt for Easter eggs.

“Right!” Henry says, clapping his heads together. “Let’s go!” he gestures toward the backdoor where he begins walking. The kids squeal and chase after him with Kal hot on their heels. Outside, everyone grabs baskets that you and Henry purchased for the kids.

“Y/n, y/n, help me find them!” one of the boys exclaims, grabbing for your hand. He pulls you to the edge of the porch where Henry is waiting for everyone.

“On your mark, get set, go!” Henry exclaims once everyone is gathered and ready. The kids take off and Henry’s nephew holds your hand as he drags you out into the yard. Henry laughs at the scene then steps onto the porch to watch with his family. Henry watches with a giant smile on his face that everyone in his family notices.

“I see y/n got involved in the hunt,” Nik points out and Henry bobs his head, smiling. He glances back out at the yard to see you chasing the children around. They squeal as Kal runs through them as he attempts to figure out what he can snatch and what he can’t. Henry chuckles at the scene unfolding in front of him. He can’t stop the smile that breaks out across his face every time he sees you. Add in the way you are with his nephews and there is a perpetual smile on his face.

“She’s great, Henry,” Nik states. Henry glances at him. “I mean it, Hen. Y/n is truly great,” he says. As he does, Simon and Piers saddle up to them.

“What are you two mumbling about over here?” Simon asks, patting Henry on the shoulder.

“Y/n,” Nik states. Henry rolls his eyes as Simon and Piers make silly faces and cooing sounds.

“Oh yeah, we’ve been wanting to tell you, Hank,” Simon begins. “Y/n is absolutely great,” he says. “We really like her so you can’t screw this one up,” he says and all his brothers nod their head.

“Seriously Hen, you can’t let this one get away,” Piers says. Henry’s jaw drops as he looks around at his siblings.

“Why does everyone think we’re going to break up?” Henry whines. His brothers laugh in response at first.

“Because something always happens,” Simon begins.

“Then your girlfriends leave,” Nik adds.

“Which means we miss out on getting to know the woman that could be our future sister-in-law,” Piers says, knocking Henry gently on the shoulder. Henry scoffs and looks at the ground. Everyone looks up when a loud screech erupts from the yard. Kal had apparently gotten excited and ran straight through the kids, knocking kids down, sending baskets and eggs flying.

“Kal,” Henry complained. The Akita perked up at his name and came trotting over. Hot on his heels was one of Charlie’s kids dragging you by your hand. “Look what I found!” he exclaims, letting go of your hand for a moment to pull out a blue egg covered in stickers.

“Whoa!” everyone says to the beaming child.

“Hey bud, I’m going to take a break,” you say to Henry’s nephew.

“Okay,” he says before turning around and darting off to find more eggs. You turn to look at the Cavill boys smiling.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” you ask as Henry, Simon, Piers, and Nik smile broadly at you. “What?” you repeat.

“Nothing, babe, can you come help me with something?” Henry asks, reaching out for you.

“Uh, sure,” you reply. You watch as Henry’s brothers watch the two of you with teasing smiles as he leads you back inside, into the kitchen. “What’s going on?” you ask.

“Nothing,” he replies, turning around to face you. “I just wanted a few moments with only you,” he adds. He smiles coyly as he weaves his arms around your waist, pulling you closer to him. In turn, you wrap your arms around his broad shoulders.

“Oh?” you murmur before Henry leans in and kisses you sweetly.

“They like you, you know?” Henry states, leaning back from the kiss. You smile.

“Who? Your family?” you ask. Henry nods. “I like them too,” you reply, your smiling deepening. Henry kisses you again before letting go.

“I did actually need to get the chocolate eggs to pass out,” he explains, turning to the fridge. From it, he produces the chocolate eggs you had made the night before. Together, you bring them outside to share with everyone. Once again, everyone teases Henry that you treat his family better than he does. He takes it all with a smile on his face and a teasing remark for anyone that comments. At one point when you are in the restroom, his family really lays into him.

“Henry, I’m serious. You can’t fuck this up with y/n,” Heather asks quickly. “Because I really like her,” she adds. Henry looks at her then around to his family to realize they all agree with her.

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” he asks a little slack-jawed.

“Because Henry,” Marianne begins softly. “I think we’re all trying to tell you, we think she’s the one,” she says to him gently.

“We love her, Henry,” Charlie states. “And we can tell that you love her too,” he adds. Everyone nods. Henry softens hearing this.

“So you can’t screw this up,” Simon says. Charlie, Piers and Nik snort while Marianne and Heather shake their heads, chuckling.

“Oh my god,” Henry scoffs, shaking his head at his brother. Everyone is laughing when you walk back into the room, unaware of the conversation that just took place.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #400

“it’s an age-old story: the first will be last, and the last will be kings  /  the small will be great, and the great will be weak”

Who was the last person you sincerely thanked? My mom; I thank her every time she cooks for me/us, and I really do mean it. What’s the longest you’ve ever stayed as a guest at someone’s house? Somewhere around a month. What was the last thing to really surprise you? My brother has a fiancee and is having another son! :') Have you ever found out that you have been sleep walking? No. Have you ever tried making something from one of those short cooking videos? How did it turn out? No. Have you ever written a review for a product you bought online? No. What was the last thing you had the urge to do? Idk about anything notable. Is there anyone you feel that takes you for granted? No. What is the last thing you had a craving for? A donut. Do you ever read the comments on social media posts? Sometimes. What was the last thing you felt like you wasted money on? It's so rare that I buy things with my own cash that I really don't know. What was the last thing you wanted to buy, but couldn’t afford? Venus' terrarium on my own. Mom has to help me with buying it. What is a recipe you’d like to try to make for yourself? I don’t cook, so. What goes through your mind when you look back at old photographs of yourself? More than anything, I get sad over how much weight I've gained. I was so healthy once upon a time. It also just makes me miss my childhood. What was the subject matter of the last email you sent? I believe it was about setting up an appointment with my therapist. How do you get your news? Facebook articles, really. What do you think about lizards? I love them! I was that kid that always tried to catch them when I saw 'em. Now I just observe because I don't want to terrify them by trying to pick them up. Have you ever done consumer testing (testing products before they come out on the market)? If not, would you ever want to? No, but sure, I'd do it. Have you ever received anesthesia or morphine? Both. The time I received morphine, it did jack-all for me. If you had to choose which video game to be in, which would it be? Hmmm... I would say Azeroth from World of Warcraft, but too much shit goes down, ha ha. Perhaps the top of the temple in Shadow of the Colossus? So long as I could have someone I love with me, I'd be in Heaven. Although... I doubt there's WiFi there, so I might drop that answer, lmfao. I really don't know. Between the two, would you rather live in a place where it’s only night or where it’s only day? Day. I need the natural light of day sometimes, and if I wanted to sleep, I could just find shade. If you had to be an actor/actress in a movie, what genre of the movie would you be best at? Fantasy. Out of fire, earth, water, wind, light, and dark, which element appeals the most to you? Dark. What’s one thing that you wish was real? Friendly dragons, haha. Is there anything (show, comedian, etc.) that you constantly quote or make references to? No. What’s your favorite Disney Channel movie? I have absolutely no idea. I don't even remember almost any of them. What’s your favorite holiday? Christmas. Do you ever have to do yard work? No. Do you have any live versions of songs in your music software? Yes. Did/do you listen to Britney Spears songs? Yeah, sometimes. I genuinely don't mind her. Do you still make Christmas lists? Yeah, because I'm asked to. Do you watch the show Dexter? Never seen it. Which musical instrument do you think sounds the prettiest? I'm torn between the violin, harp, and piano. Is your mom or dad the older parent? Mom, by a year. Do you and your parents like any of the same bands/singers? A lot, actually. Is there any food in your bedroom? What? I have these tictacs I keep in my purse in case of a dry mouth. Medication makes me have that severely, and my psychiatrist recommended me to always have a hard candy available to suck on since it forces salivation. Do you know anyone who has road rage? Who? My younger sister, badly. How far away do your grandparents live from you? They're all dead, but they lived in far away states. Do you know anyone who wants to be the president one day? No. What kinds of chips are in the cupboards? None. It's a bad idea to keep chips in this house, haha. Do you have your mom's or dad's hair? Well, I was born with dirty blonde hair like my dad, but my hair is thick and more similar in color now to my mom's before the cancer completely drained the color. If you were going out with your celebrity crush, what would you wear? OH MY GOD LA;KSDJFAKLWJE I DON'T KNOW I LOOK AWFUL IN EVERYTHING. Have you ever cried when a teacher retired? Teared up, yes, multiple times. Do you swear and yell while playing video games? I might swear under my breath, but that's the extent of it. If you were adopted, would you want to know? At this point in my life, I don't really know. I kinda find myself leaning towards no. Has a best friend ever ditched you for a girlfriend/boyfriend? Pretty much. Do your pets chase after bugs? Roman sure does. When’s the last time you were so excited you couldn’t sleep? Why? I want to say that was the night before I was getting my tattoo redone. Do you own any flip-flops? Yeah, considering they're like... all I wear, ever. Did you ever really believe that the stork brought babies? I don't believe so, no. Have you ever had a dream about sleeping with a celebrity? (You don’t have to give details.) It was the only lucid dream I've ever had and I'm not complaining about it lmao. Have you ever had a dream that upset you or made you cry? Oh I'm sure. Has anyone ever told you that they needed you? Do you think they meant it? Not to my recollection, no, and I don't believe you should ever adopt that mentality and say that to someone. Do you own a laser? No. Is there anything you like to put on a sandwich, that some might find odd? Nah. I do enjoy a layer of potato chips on some sandwiches, like ham and cheese, but I know that's like an actual thing some people just like. What colour are the shoes you wear most often? They're black flip-flops. When was the last time you were required to put on a mask? In the morning when I go to the TMS office. And what colour was the last mask you wore? It's one of those normal blue and white medical ones. The last time you were in a queue, what were you waiting for? To see the woman who would give me my APAP mask. Have you had your Covid vaccine yet? Which one, if you have? Yes, Moderna. If you've had your vaccine, did you experience any side effects? None for the first shot, but my second shot bruised badly and I felt seriously shitty the following day. I was perfectly fine afterwards, though. Can any of your friends sing well? Which one has the nicest singing voice? Sara has an AMAAAAAAAAAAAZING voice. When was the last time you wore make-up, if ever? What shades/colours? I don't even remember, but I'm sure it would've been black. What is something that seems popular, but doesn't interest you personally? Fashion, various TV shows, etc... Are you clumsy or graceful? I am STUPID clumsy. Like it's just ridiculous. Do you like gloves? I like fingerless gloves. Does your sibling(s) have braces? My older sister did as a kid. Do you ever say "OMG" in person? No; it's a random pet peeve of mine, "Internet talk" irl. What was the last thing your parents got mad at you for? Dad, no idea. Mom, uhhhh. Not "mad," but "annoyed" probably better fits how she felt about me leaving the heating pad I use for my cramps on the floor. Do your pets have favorites? I'm definitely Roman's favorite seeing as he is my literal shadow, and I'd assume Venus trusts me more than anyone else, but realistically, she's in contact with almost no one else, so. Who was your first boyfriend/girlfriend? Why did you break up? The first guy to have the title of "boyfriend" was Aaron, and I broke up with him 'cuz I just wasn't as romantically into him as I thought I might be. It was puppy-dog love, and I feel I knew that. My first *real* boyfriend was Jason, who broke up with me because my mental illnesses began to affect his wellbeing. Which I now accept is fine, but he seriously coulda gone about things differently... When was the last time you got a new bed? Is your bed comfy? Late into my teenage years; idk the exact age and don't feel like doing the math. Teddy kept peeing on the bed to where it was just unrecoverable and needed to be thrown away. My current bed is comfy enough. What kind of games did you play on the playground when you were younger? My absolute favorite was digging tunnels in the sandbox, pretending to be a meerkat. The only trend I ever created, haha, seeing as my classmates got into it with me, allowing us to make huge tunnel systems. It was really cool. I also liked playing 4 Square (which I now don't even remember the details of) on the basketball court. Do you remember the first time you ever drove a car? Who were you with? Yeah, my driver's ed instructor and the guy who was on the same route as me. What’s your favorite thing to do when drunk? Would you do this sober? N/A Are you a fan of dogs? Do you have any as pets? I'm picky with dogs. I like interacting with any dog, but I don't plan on ever owning another. I don't like how hyper they can be, and I prefer more independent pets, like cats. Basically, I'll be hyped to meet a random dog on the street and give it some loving, but I don't want to take it home to be my own. Are you an elitist (even a little bit) when it comes to anything? What? No. I cannot stand elitists. Is just being fond of something enough, or does it take more than that to be a ‘real fan’? And I hate gatekeeping in fandoms even more. There are varying intensities of "being a fan," but regardless, if you like something, congratulations, you're a valid, "real" fan. What type of fabric is most comfortable for clothing? I don't pay attention to this, honestly. If you wear one – bras with or without a wire? I'll wear either, but without is way more comfortable. If you wear one – are you able to find cute bras in your size? God no. What length do you like your shorts to be? I don’t wear shorts. What was the last disappointing movie you saw? Warcraft, but not because it was bad. I've talked before how in the theater, the orcs' voices were just so fucking baritone that I couldn't understand almost ANYTHING they said. Kinda ruined the experience for me. What was the last disappointing book you read? Don't recall. Do you ever watch compilation videos? Of what? Very rarely. If I do, they're mostly of animals being silly. Favorite Disney character who isn’t royalty? Probably Dory, but idk. There's WAY too many options to fish through.

[audiblesmirking]

erratic heartbeats ~chapter 2: you got a friend in me~

⚠Minor Swearing⚠

Legend: "English unless stated otherwise" --- 'Thoughts' --- "Telepathically speaking" --- [Authors' Note]

==========

'Japan's quiet,'  Azumi commented, her gait slow in order to appreciate the peace and observe her new neighborhood. A bag containing PK uniforms hangs on her fingers. There would be light breezes from time to time, blowing through her hair and rustling the leaves of the trees around. Compared to London, there were less cars driving by, despite the day being a weekend. 'School starts tomorrow and yet I still haven't finished the last level of "Dynasty and Descent". Seriously, what was wrong with homeschooling?' Azumi's mind wanders, stopping herself once she reached a tall metal gate that stood out from the rest of the houses. The meticulously twists, turns, and engravements of the metal is able to have anyone gawk.

She stood in front of her new home, raising a brow at the lock that secures the gate shut 'They both left?' Azumi questioned herself before fishing out her keys in the bag she held, unlocking the padlock and a few gate latches that pegs the metals to the ground and to each other. She made sure to secure the latches back, before proceeding to unlock the front door 'They probably went to greet the neighbors'

The walk to Azumi's room is tiring. The grandiose house's entirety was what her flamboyant mother envisioned, Akina was the one who took charge in the renovation of their new property since the beginning stages of planning. The conglomerate CEO is often one who basks in her success, hence the lavish abode. Azumi passed a few flights of stairs before freezing, slapping a palm on her forehead, 'I could just fucking teleport' Azumi cursed at her forgetfulness, having been used to the life before her powers came. Within no time, she arrived in the comforts of her own room. Placing the uniforms in the wardrobe, she lay plump on the bed.

——————————

"What the fUCK, YOU DICKHEADS," Azumi was seething with rage as her brother and his friend ran as fast as they could away from the infuriated, soaking wet girl, stifling their laughter as they dashed. Her reaction was more than what they had expected, and turned out to be funnier than they thought. They sprinted around the campus of the boys' college, running through stairs and empty hallways, desperate to arrive at their laboratory to successfully separate themselves from Azumi until she could either burn out from exhaustion or cool down from her anger "COME BACK HERE. I WILL FUCKING OBLITERATE YOUR FACES, DASTARDLY HEIFERS"

Atsuhiro huffed a breath of annoyance, the sound not going undetected by his companion despite the wind whipping at their faces as they ran as fast as they could "I fucking told you so, Kusuke"

"Well, wouldn't you know it, she's mad. Who's idea was this again?" Kusuke panted, sounding quite proud of Azumi's reaction despite the consequences they were facing.

"This was all your idea, jackass"

Kusuke simply laughed as they ran out of the building and are now crossing the field to their laboratory "Have you seen your face when she looked at us? It was a mixture of repressed laughter and instant regret"

"I swear, I WILL trip you if you won't shut up" Atsuhiro threatened, now was not the time to be distracted when the she-devil was chasing them. His friends' laughter immediately was cut short when a shiver went up their spines at the voice that whispered behind them "You both run like hookers"

——————————

The memory was when Azumi first met her brother's friend. The girl blinked a few times, confused at why she thought of the memory, before her hand reached up to her ear and fidgets her ear cuff. Gradually, voices start to flood in her mind. She laid unmoving, concentrated on trying to locate thoughts involving her family or their recent moving. She succeeded. The Saiki's, what a coincidence, were hosting Azumi's parents. 'Kusuke's family. They would likely talk for another hour or two, seeing as Kusuke' s mother is just as chatty as mine'

Azumi sat up, her beautiful hair swaying at the sudden movement. Whilst fidgeting her ear cuff, the girl walked over to her monitor. The screen lit up after she plugged it in and pushed the button, the fantasy game "Dynasty and Descent" placed in to be played. 'I'd probably finish this before they come back' Azumi challenged herself.

•°●•°●•°●

‘Saiki Kusuo, huh?' Azumi laid on her belly as she eavesdrops on his thoughts regarding her parents. She finished the game and cleaned up the room twice before she thought of listening in on her neighbors. 'A curious one, aren't you? But I can't blame him, he must have been lonely growing up being the only psychic he knows' She empathized with the boy, swinging her legs absentmindedly.

After some time, Azumi sighed, before teleporting to their kitchen. She opened and closed cabinets and cupboards in search of something to appeal to her boredom-driven hunger. She grabbed her favorite snack and a drink, immediately digging in. Because her teleportation required some time before she can use it again, she walked back to her room. Azumi had most of her attention on her phone while her food levitated around her, following as she walks. Her mind flitted to the topic of cellphones in Japan, 'I haven't seen anyone with their phones since we arrived. Is it some kind of unspoken rule or something?' The girl contemplated over whether or not she should use her device in public so as to fit in.

Azumi walks through one of the hallways that overlook the front yard, the sun’s setting rays casting an orange tinge on everything not under a shadow. She took a moment away from her phone and glanced at the road in front of their residence, there she saw her parents and the rest of the Saiki family. Akina and Aiken pushed open the gates lavishly for the guests, earning a sigh from their daughter as she continued her walk 'They'll likely call on me as soon as they enter', Azumi groaned as nervousness bubbled in her at the thought of greeting their guests 'I don't want to though'

She arrived in her room, throwing away her litter in the trash can at the corner, before proceeding to clean her room for the third time. Aiken knocked on the door the moment she laid down her bed after sweeping the area under it, "Come on down, Zumi, meet Kusuke's family" She walked next to her father in silence until they arrived in the living room.

==========

Azumi secured the gate latch, adjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder. She was surprised to see Kusuo standing in front of his house, seemingly waiting for her. Azumi tried to make sense of the situation, she walked to him and gave a small wave, before continuing passed him 'Maybe he's waiting for his dad' She thought, before shooting down the idea the moment Saiki moved to walk with her. The familiar feeling of nervousness rose from within her, her thoughts crowding her mind 'Should I say something? Or is the silence okay for him? It's certainly okay for me. Why is he walking with me though, I thought we agreed—' She cut her own thought when she remembered the events of last night 'Nevermind, he didn't say anything then. Is this about what my mother said? Did she bribe him without my knowledge? But, mom won't stoop that low. Maybe if I look into his mind—no, he'll suspect my fidgeting and he'll know I'm uncomfortable or he'll think something's wrong with my ear and ask about it, and I would not want to be in either situations'

"... So," Azumi started—at the protest of her brain—dragging out the 'o' "You don't need to walk me to school, you know, I can do it on my own. I appreciate the thought though" She gave a tight-lipped smile, hoping she did not sound too rude. Kusuo just looked at her and then back in front, Azumi felt awkward at the lack of response and returned her gaze to the road as well.

Just as he expected, at the reaction of his companion, he deduced that Azumi could not hear his voice when he was speaking telepathically. He mentally took note "It's fine" Kusuo spoke, not only mildly surprising the girl beside him because of how late he responded, but also confusing her.

' 'It's fine'? How do I respond to that?' She just nodded her head, mentally facepalming at her response. 'I guess I have to get used to this'

•°●•°●•°●

'This is some next level coincidence shit' Azumi thought, sitting next to her assigned seatmate, Saiki 'I was just fine with how we were classmates, but seatmates? You have got to be joking'

"Open your textbooks to page 3. An introduction for our lesson this week" The teacher started, writing on the chalkboard the lesson title "Kindly answer the practice questions, 'What You Know', numbers 1-5. I will give you ten minutes to answer"

'This seems easy enough,' Azumi searched for her writing tool in her bag. Confused, she knit her eyebrows 'I left it at home? Great, first day and I'm already failing this'

The boy in front of her took notice of her furrowed brows when he turned to get his pencil case. He stretched a bandaged arm at her, offering to lend his pencil "H-Here, " He said, "you can borrow mine" Azumi blinked at him, then at his outstretched arm, before smiling softly at him.

"Thank you, I'll make sure to give it back to you after class," Azumi wrapped her fingers on the writing tool, watching as her classmate withdrew his hand meekly "May I know your name?"

"Ka-Kaidou Shun" His stuttering reminded Azumi of herself before. Kaidou awkwardly lets out his hand again, seemingly to shake with hers. Azumi's soft smile turned tight at how she responded with stretching the wrong hand to shake. She shuffled to replace her hand, clasping it with his.

"Um, Kanasawa Azumi" She mentally kicked herself, he already knows her name because she just introduced herself to the class. "Nice to meet you, Kaidou-san" They shook hands shortly before the teacher reprimanded the two to start with the activity.

•°●•°●•°●

A slow and pitched tune, that reminded Azumi of the announcements in a mall, rang through the hallways, signaling the end of the first class and break for their class. Some students leapt out of their classrooms, their friends in tow, ready to be the firsts to arrive in the cafeteria, while the rest took their time in arranging their things. "Thanks again, for, you know, lending your pencil" Azumi had stood up in unison with Saiki, her wrist in view as she gave back the pencil she borrowed.

Kaidou added the pencil in his case, placing it in his bag. "Are you sure? I, uh, mean, we still have classes after break"

Azumi let the corners of her lips tilt up a bit at the thoughtfulness of the boy "Yeah, I'll go buy my own"

"I don't mind if you borrow my pencil for the rest of the day," Kaidou lightly frowned, not wanting his classmate to spend money when he was fine with lending. He went to dig through his bag for the pencil case, but Azumi stopped him with a hand on his.

"It's okay, really-" She was cut off with a booming voice next to her, in her peripherals, a tall blonde hooks an arm around Saiki's shoulders. "Hey pal, the nurse wanted to ask about the thermano-something that the guy used this morning" He wasn't yelling, but his voice was loud enough to resonate around the half-empty classroom. Azumi turned her head at the two beside her, attention fading from Kaidou as she withdrew her hand. During the intensively long speech of their principal, one of their classmates fainted and a teacher ordered Nendou and Saiki to assist the student to the nurse's office. When they've been gone too long, the same teacher instructed Azumi to check on the two, and just before Nendou witnessed Saiki burn a thermometer to ashes, she came in and distracted the brute, feigning confusion on the dust on Saiki's palm. It was a coincidence, and if she weren't there Nendou would most likely find out about Saiki's powers. Is what Azumi initially thought, but looking back, her first impression with the blonde was idiotic, so maybe it would have gone differently.

Azumi grabbed her wallet and turned back to Kaidou "I'll be going first" She went to walk out the door but felt a presence following her, before the voice of Nendou reached her again.

"Where're you going, pal?" Azumi turned and, as she thought, Saiki will be following her around school. She resisted a sigh when the aforementioned raised a hand, moved his finger and pointed at her twice. "You're gonna show her around? I wanna come with!" He strode towards the two, and Azumi swore she saw the facial expression of the boy beside her contort into that of displeasure.

"I-I-I w-wanna come too" She barely heard Kaidou as he stood up and trailed behind Nendou, fiddling with his finger as he do.

Azumi just wanted to buy a pencil, alone, and now she felt awkward as she walked next to Saiki, Kaidou and Nendou following right behind them. She slowly reached a hand to her ear, but laid her arm back on her side after a while. Perplexed at the silence from Nendou, she turned back to look at him. He was teasing Kaidou, bickering as they filled the hallway with noise. Azumi tried to look for answers in Saiki's mind, staring at the boy before turning her head back in front. 'Never thought that being too dumb would be a reason for a silent mind, but okay'

'WhatshouldIsaywhatshouldIsay [What should I say what should I say]. Hello-no, that's too formal. Would "hi" be fine? Let's go with "hi". Hi, I'm Teruha-wait, no, she would see me as too eager if I introduce myself that quickly. Hi, you must be the new transfer student-OH MY GOD SHE'S HERE' The frantic thoughts of a blue-haired girl filled Azumi's mind. She was standing beside a vending machine outside of the cafeteria as the four walked passed her. Being too engrossed in her mental rehearsal, she did not notice the group since they appeared from the corner of the hallway. Teruhashi sulked when Azumi entered the cafeteria, but immediately fixed her façade when she remembered there may be people watching her.

'It must be tough to be that popular' Susurrus reached Azumi's ears and the students in the room turned to look at the people who recently came in. She felt self-conscious and turned to walk to the first stall in the row, the stall that sells school materials. After she purchased her pencil, she tried to convince her companions to spend their recess with what they want to do instead of following her around. She failed, and so they ended up touring the whole campus, conversations being held up by Nendou as he told story after story about anything that relates to whatever Azumi said.

"Kanasawa-san, you're from London, right?" Kaidou asked, they were sitting under one of the trees after the latter announced a break from the walking. At his words, the other two turned to look at Azumi, and now she was on the spotlight. "What was it like? Do you miss your friends?"

"Ah, that... I was homeschooled, so... I didn't have any friends until recently," Azumi paused "I have a brother, he's in London right now, and he was my only playmate until he left for college... My tutors change every year, and they mostly just teach me then leave after our sessions... Add into that how unapproachable they are, and they're just like robots, stiff and straightforward"

"Homeschooled?" Confused, Nendou asked, and Kaidou silently answered him. Azumi waited until all was clarified, fidgeting with her thumbs.

"Although, now that I think about it. I... think I had a friend around my age...? But he was just visiting London at that time... a few years ago... so I don't think we're close anymore." Azumi caught the short time when Saiki knit his brows, before remaining stoic. She knew from reading his mind that he wanted to know more about her connection with Kusuke and his involvement with her family. Azumi was about to open her mouth, when a nagging voice in her mind scolded at her for having already talked too much.

When Azumi looked like she was to stay silent, Kaidou spoke up "Th-then... I'll be your friend" His voice gradually softened, but she heard him nevertheless.

Nendou hooked his arm around Saiki's shoulder, to the surprise of the psychic "We'll be your friends too, right pal?" Kusuo looked annoyed at the arm pushing him closer to Nendou, but he didn't deny what he said. Azumi gave them a soft smile, her eyebrows low.

'I guess it won't hurt to have friends'

[reggierightsactivism]

4, 18, 22!

Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

I like both these parts from Like A Tough Guy Would: 

Sometimes, though, he starts talking again even before he’s aware that it’s happening.

“Hey Munroe,” he starts, catching a rogue black olive and piling it on a stray piece of sausage so he can eat both together. “Now are we even?”

“Hm?”

“You know…” Reggie glances over, sucking some salt and grease off his fingers. You know how I was a dick to you and never really apologized, probably never really intend to either (at least not in so many words), but then you kept quiet for me, and I bought you food at Pop’s and gave you a ride home, and you let me stay the weekend, and I helped you do yard work, and you gave me football tips, and I ordered us all pizza… “Like, in general.”

Munroe shrugs, which is not the answer Reggie was hoping for, but also one that doesn’t surprise him.

“I haven’t been keeping score,” he says. “But I’m good if you’re good.”

“Yeah,” says Reggie with a slow nod. “I’m good.”

& 

“NYU? Right,” laughs Marty derisively. “So you can major in Philosophy and Tap Dance? Or-- Lindy, what was that music class you said they had?”

“Music Therapy.”

”Music Therapy.”

“They’ve got a good--”

“Why don’t you just save us the tuition money and drop out of school now? Go down to the Southside and get fitted for a Serpents jacket so you can spend the rest of your life slinging sugar and blowing homos in parking lots to get your next fix. When did you become such a damn sissy, Reggie?”

Reggie says nothing, wrinkling his nose as his dad shakes his head and shovels more food into his mouth.

“And then answer me this, who’s going to run the dealership after I retire, huh? Maybe I should hire that Munroe kid, since clearly he gives a damn. Does that sound good to you?”

Reggie glowers silently, prodding at his food.

“Well? Does it?” Marty whacks the back of Reggie’s head with his palm. “I’m talking to you.”

“Ow-- no!”

God, he hates it here. The amount of times he’s seriously considered getting into his car and just driving until he gets to New York City is not insignificant.

“You know, when I was your age I had these dreams of moving out west and surfing all along the coast,” Marty goes on. “I didn’t have what you have, Reggie. Your problem is that you have it too good-- I didn’t go west, I invested in my future and built that damn dealership from scratch, you hear me? From the ground up. And do you think your grandfather just stroked my hair and gave me handouts? Hell no. This?”

He gestures around the dining room, but what he means is bigger than just this room; what he means is ‘the dealership, this house, this life.’

“This is all thanks to me and your mother.”

Reggie can’t stand this lecture no matter how many times he hears it. His parents are both assimilated to hell and back, especially his dad, but that never stops them from digging their heels into a good lesson on bootstraps whenever they think Reggie isn’t falling into line fast enough to their liking-- like it isn’t enough he’s already basically resigned himself to a lifetime of selling cars for the family business instead of figuring out his future for himself.

Not that he really knows what he’d do instead, though. Reggie has always told himself, and anyone else who would listen, that he is not going to peak in high school, but all the same he hasn’t given much thought to what his life could or should be like after graduation. He always figured college would help clear that up for him, because growing up in Riverdale makes it hard sometimes to imagine ever actually leaving, or growing out of whatever identity high school creates for you.

Who is Reggie Mantle without football, without Riverdale High, without his reputation in this town and the comfort of his family’s money? He doesn’t really know. If he takes over the family business, he doesn’t ever really need to.

“I don’t need an MBA just to sell some old cars,” he mutters, although he knows he won’t change their minds.

“He thinks he doesn’t need business skills to run a business, Lindy,” Marty quips. “A kid whose only A’s have been in gym class since he was in middle school.”

“Reggie, while you’re grounded I expect you to catch up on your music lessons,” Melinda says, looking at him sharply from across the table. “At least an hour per day. Honestly, when is the last time you’ve even touched your violin?”

“Mom, everyone plays violin! Do you know how basic that’s gonna look on my transcripts?” Reggie has to bite back a more inflammatory version of that comment, but then continues with: “I’d rather play guitar.”

“Everybody plays guitar,” Marty says dismissively, sipping his beer. Melinda makes a hum of agreement. Reggie can only imagine she’s thinking something like, ’Fred Andrews played guitar, and now he’s dead. What do you have to say about that, Reggie?’

Death would probably be preferable to this conversation, but Reggie soldiers on.

“Archie said he’d show me how. He could give me lessons,” Reggie says slowly, chewing a mouthful of noodles. “He has this bass he doesn’t use that I could--”

Neither of his parents are listening anymore. Reggie stops talking and just eats in increasingly sullen silence.

“Oh, some good news,” says Marty after about ten more minutes, dabbing his mouth with a napkin. “I talked to my insurance this afternoon, convinced them to cover at least a third of the repair cost. Maybe more. The guy I tore into on the phone said his higher ups wouldn’t be in until tomorrow.”

He looks at Reggie, who just flinches and nods.

“We’ll stick to half your allowance and every other weekend at the lot. After school I want you focused on improving your football game.”

“Yes sir.” Reggie resists the urge to roll his eyes. Like he doesn’t want to be doing his best out there? Please.

“Great.” Marty looks satisfied. “Good talk.”

Because 1) I just like working in things that canon should have digged into and finding a way to explore them, or even examine their lack of exploration, in an in-character way that helps paint a better picture of the characters and their dynamics. And 2) I weirdly enjoy fleshing out the Mantle family. 

Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

Yes and no...! I feel like I don’t diverge on my characterization very often, except in whatever minor ways are necessary to serve the differing plots of my stories (e.g. what ship I’m writing, what the character(s) do or don’t still need to work through, etc.) (though I did once receive a very lovely comment about how much my writing had improved between one fic and another), although I definitely have a lot of plot lines I’ve gone in very different directions from what I’d first intended. 

WRT Riverdale specifically I just haven’t written enough yet, I think, to have a lot of abandoned ideas of things I’ve actually published in some form, but in the case of When The Morning Comes I’ve already got a lot of competing ideas of how to do certain things, as well as discarded plans. I guess one thing I “abandoned” was a Joaqevin horror fic idea that involved Joaquin being brought back to life, but it’s only abandoned in so much as I decided to just fold it into this fic. 

Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?

Sometimes... I get so nervous about this because I’m so easily embarrassed by my old writing, I’m always afraid I’ll look back and notice how poorly written it is or how I went on and on about something that doesn’t actually fit the story. Which is why before I wrote Everybody’s Lonely I went back and edited out portions of Lightning in a Bottle 😭

✍🏽Ask me meta fic questions ✍🏽

[popculturebuffet]

Loud House: 11 Louds A Leapin Review or It’s My Bobby in a Box

Happy Holidays errybody! Christmas returns to this blog after a bit of a break to tie up some loose ends, and celebrate my birthday with a return to the loud house.  It’s honestly good to be back. While it can be a struggle to cover a pure comedy, I genuinely like the show a lot, even with it’s flaws i’ve gone into, and my regular reviews gave  me a running gag in my hatred of rusty and a new respect for the show. It’s just with a buiser schedule and me not actually trying to have something resembling order to things, I kept shoving Banned Together back despite really wanting to see it since.. you know.. Luna episode.. until it ended up sliding into ANOTHER set of episodes. It’s things like this why I have a queue now: while it’s not set day by day, in case I want to do more than one i na day, it is there to keeep some semblance of order and keep me on track so this dosen’t happen again.  So with all that being said.. why did I choose to do A DIFFRENT loud house episode for the second time in a row before getting back to the current season? Simple.. i’ve been putting this episode off personally for even LONGER. I meant to watch 12 louds a leapin back when it first came out at the start of season 2... and just never got around to it. And just kept never getting around to it, wanting to watch it at christmas but then forgetting to do so for the last 4 years. Spare a thought there.. 4 years. In that time 80 years have passed, an era of marvel movies have come to an end, a tick series has come and gone, She Ra has come and gone, ducktales premiered then annoucned it was ending.. my point is way too many shows are ending too soon, and i’ve let this slide for far too long. So I bumped this one up to finally take a look at it, as i’ve waited this long and didn’t want to risk missing it a fifth fucking time. So yeah i’m taking look at what’s probably a classic episode in the fandom with fresh eyes. Let��s see what I thought shall we? It’s Christmas Eve at the Loud House and Lincoln is once again Zach Morrising it up .

Not what I meant.. whatever that is. It’s been 30 years since that episode aired, probably a good 12 since I first saw it and I still have no idea why they did this or if it was giong to end in a three way before the girls showed up. We just don’t know and the greatest minds in the country are baffled.. and you know working on the vaccine and making sure it’s safe. 

No Linc is talking to the camera about it being christmas while gearing up to go sledding with his sled big red. Meanwhile the rest of the louds are doing their usual christmas activities which we get introduced to as Lincoln gets ready. The girls sub-plots here are, outside of Lori’s., less plots and more running gags, various shenanigans by the girls tying into their personalities and christmasy stuff. It works perfectly.. while it’s a bunch of gags.. the gags are funny and it’s neat to learn more about just how the girls celebrate christmas and what they get up to every year. It’s part of what’s to love about holiday specials as you get a once or twice in a series chance to see how our heroes celbrate the holiday and thus a look into stories, gags and character stuff very unique to the holiday. It also uses the fact LIncoln was the protaganist at the time very well, using him as our viewpoint to set up all the christmas goings on as he makes his way out of the house, so we can cut back to them later as his plot goes on. It’s really good stuff. So what are the girls up to? Let’s go down the list by age shall we?

Lori: Lori has the most involved plot anyway so it’s best to start here. Lori and Bobby are having their first christmas together... though it does bring up the fact that they’ve only been dating 2 years at most, yet plan to get married.. I mean that is a lot but your also 18. Then again time is nigh incomprehinsiable to unpack in the loud house, and at least 3 years passed in the one year it took to get them all aged up, so I wouldn’t think about it too hard.  Lori, still being in huge bitch mode as she was early on, pressures bobby to get a good gift. She later gets said gift but despite being told to open it immideitly, her siblings chide her on her habit of tearing presents open and thus get her not to open it. So that’s a runner through the special, with Lana even putting her on a leash at one point, which I found hilarious. Less hilaroius is the conclusion as it turns out in the box on christmas day.. is BOBBY, who understandably is not looking so good...

Thankfully bobby’s not dead or they all would be, but still the poor boy missed christmas eve with his mom  and sister for this stunt. I mean I get it’s his fault, he’s apparently LITERALLY too dumb to live it turns out and should’ve you know made a noise sooner and probably didn’t want to ruin the suprise.. but we still nearly got an episode where a 4 year old had surivviors guilt for letting her older sisters boyfriend suffocate in a box. That’s dead santa from gremlins levels of fucked up. Thankfully Lori loves it and I assume bobby’s worried family joined them for christmas eve. That image fills my heart with hope. But seriously bobby never again we can’t loose you. At least not before Sergio. 

Leni: Leni’s is very simple it’s just a running gag of her taking various christmas things, making them into outfits then saying shhhh to whoever’s around when she hears, or in later cases is right there, with the person asking. Just a funny bit.  Luna: Is working on a christmas song. It’s one of the weake runners as the failed songs just aren’t that funny, but the payoff for the main plot makes up for it. WE’ll get to that.  Luann: Has one of my faviorite bits, her 12 puns of christmas which is both really adorable and leads to an adorable moment with her dad. Always loved their relationship. 

Lynn and Lucy: Are teamed up this episode which makes me genuinely miss how the two would be used as a pair ocasionally earlier on but just .. arne’t anymore> The rest of the girls status as roomates is used liberally but not so much these two. IT’s just weird and disheartning to me. That being said their plot is simply the two digging around to find where the presents are hidden, which I never got as why would you want to know weeks ahead of time. You can’t use any money to buy the stuff you dind’t get or they’ll know and they usually figure out you knew ahead of time and it just brings thigns down. But from a kid’s perspective I guess I get it and while it’s weird to have Lucy be one of the ones following I like it, as it shows that benath her gothy demanor she’s still just an 8 year old girl excited for christmas, and that’s adorable. A decent enough runner. 

Lana: Gets  a good one: She keeps accidently catching people, and a passing car in one case though she has a jack to help, in her reindeer traps. Its not only funny but really adorable especially since she dosen’t care about trapping SANTA persay, she just wants her own pet reindeer and frankly who wouldn’t want a rideable woodland critter who can fly. Dammit now i want one too. 

Lola and Lisa: Lola gets a fairly standard one tha’ts still pretty damn funny; She wants to get offf the naughy list by playing good for a day. What makes it funny is that last part.. that instead of doing it over a few days like most of this plot she’s trying to cram it all into one day while also trying not to strangle Lisa, who keeps showing up to say santa’s route is impossiuble. As ducktales covered he slows down time.. also you know.. not every kid celebrates christmas so ther’es probably a good number of houses he dosen’t have to cover in one night.  Lily: Just randomly pops out of stockings a bit. it’s precioous as it sounds.  The Parents: It had honestly been so long both since i’d seen a season 1 episode, and since the two had been both given actual names and fleshed out considerably, that i’d forgotten Rita and Senior had their faces obscured for all of season 1. It’s REALLY weird and jarring to go back to after getting to know them as fully formed people of their own over the past 3 seasons, and especally gorowing to love Senior, as he’s a loveably goofy dad but without the incompetence of most comedy dads. He can bumble but he’s also genuinely supportive, talented and pulls his weight in his marriage and family.  We do however start to really see their fully formed , full member of the cast perosnalities here: Rita is clearly tired from the sheer amount of shit she has to juggle, but is also nice and warm and while Lynn Sr.’s goofiness was established already, here it’s tempered into his current shape and his love of cooking and through role as the family chef is established. While he was established as cook earlier he goes from someone who’d use frozen food just to get by to a master chef who probably does use a lot of frozen stuff but can make anything taste good and will eventually have his own restraunt. It’s really fascenating to see them slowly emerge. They don’t really have plots themslves, and Lynn’s only real gag is wanting everyone to try his figgy pudding. 

So with the rest of the family covered let’s get to our main plot. Lincoln is sledding.. on the slide out back.. for some reason. 

The reason is simple.. his sled ends up in the yard of Mr. Grouse, their neighbor and old man who yells at louds. Lincoln explains grouse keeps everything that ends up in his yard and has taken a lot from the Loud Kids over the years. So lincoln.. uses the slide to sled.. DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF HIS YARD. 

I’ve been wanting to use pigtail kim since I made that one recently. But her points stands. What?!. I mean Lincoln can be stupid, he’s  only 12 it’s allowed, but usually more out of not realizing what he’s getting into or using kid logic. He’s not this brain dead. That’s Leni’s job. It just feels like plot contrivance. Just have him build some sort of contraption as a makeshift hill and tell the audience he’s doing this because his family dosen’t want him going to an actual hill on christmas or is too busy to take him. There are easier ways than this half assed rube goldberg machine of a setup. So naturally his sled ends up in the yard.. and he calls on Clyde to help....

Now if you’ve been reading my reviews for a while, you know that reactoin is normally reserved exclusivley for this guy. 

But since Rusty was in his larval state with only a few apperances and hadn’t emeerged from his coocoon as the douche I know and love to take pot shots at, there was actually something WORSE. Something more obnoxious. And with far far worse implications. And that my friends was seasons 1 and 2 Clyde.  Clyde in the early seasons CAN be fine, and the self we know now. In fact I wish he interacted with the sisters more as the slumber party episode early on gave him a nice dynamic with all of them and the episode with him and leni was terrific. The problem one there was running gag with him, one character trait that utterly sucked the joy out of the room at best and made him into an unlikeable little shit at worst; HIs crush on Lori.  When she’s around at BEST he has a Master Roshi nosebleed, stammers her name and passes out, something that wasn’t funny the first time and quickly became grating the 80 other times they did it. But at worst, as he is here? He’s creepy, obessevie and worst of all. .a real dick to bobby. Who as we’ve established is...

So that was NEVER going to go over well and even ignoring that is still very bad. The little creep just constantly treats Bobby with hostility, which given this is Bobby, he dosen’t realize is going on. Any time their relationship is threantned Clyde’s main goal is to swoop in during the aftermath and win lori over. He constantly wants Bobby out of the way, The ONE TIME he dosen’t come off as a massive dick is when Lincoln thinks Bobby might be cheating, and that’s because Clyde isn’t planning on swooping into the wrecakge of someone’s relationship to get a girlfriend, but to punch the guy out for cheating on her. Bobby wasn’t and Clyde obviously isn’t capable of that, but it’s a bit more understandable and even CLYDE wants to make sure there’s evidence first. But more often than not he’s just under the assumptino Lori will be his despite the massive age gap, her having made it obvious she’s not intrested, and her being in  longterm relationship she’s really happy in with someone else. And this was season 1 lori who reacted to this, so the fact she’s not being the queen of all bitches about it only makes him look that much worse. And to add to that, Bobby not only KNOWS he has as crush on Lori but is suppportive of clyde, cheering him on when she kisses him once for doing something noble, and generally treating “Clydsdale” like he would any of Lori’s blood siblings. It was excurating then to sit through this every few episodes.. and it’s even worse now because the gag’s complete dissaperance from Season 3 onwards really paints the picture that this gag was entirely because series creator Chris Savino thought this was FUNNY and no one else did. And given he got fired for, you know, HARASSING WOMEN  AND NOT TAKING NO FOR AN ANSWER  you kinda see how an already bad bit was made worse. So yeah while the sled thing is bad this.. is objectively worse and drags the special down more. It’s thakfully not omniprescent but man is it hard to watch.  Clyde being in full dickhead mode is trying to get a kiss from lori and is using a missletoe hat for it.. And can we just agree that while Missletoe can be used well in stories, to help two shy people finally kiss or to ramp up romantic tension or what have you, that it’s often used by creepy douchebags to get kisses they don’t deserve both here and presumibly in irl before the plauge hit? We can? Good. But yeah that’s his plot, no suprise he gets one, bah hum bug. He also throws in some Bobby bashing by fantasising about him ending up in the yard and clyde ending up with lori since Grouse keeps bobby.. even though instead Lori would just ignore clyde, storm over there and rip an old man’s spine out mortal kombat style. 

So yeah Lincoln wants his sled back, but he can’t do it alone as the old man scares him, hence Clyde coming in. They make an elaborate plan using some careful blueprints. 

Their real plan is to have Clyde disract grouse while Lincoln grabs the sled but it fails and mean mr mustard finds it and takes it inside. Desperate, Lincoln prepares to do some crimes and head into his house. Clyde is afraid he’l end up in jail and never get to visit because only family can. Clyde you are family. Plus Prison visits aren’t limited to relatives only, any show with a character in jail storyline will tell you that. But Lincoln makes a valid point that Grouse stole his property.. I still dont’ think this is the right way to handle it and his parents should just go over and ask the loud, irate asshole to give the kids stuff back he stole to be a dick, but this is a kids show and again we wouldn’t have a plot but unlike last time my head dosen’t hurt from this. He’s desperate, he knows that probably wouldn’t work and again he’s 12. 12 year old logic is fine.  Naturally he ends up getting caught as Grouse didn’t leave for long, though having found a photo of Grouse with a sled as a kid, understandably fires back on him that he wasn’t always like this. Why he like this. He also has the much farier point that again, it’s his property and “My yard my rules” is about as much a legal rule as a note saying “I can do what I want, ron”. But Grouse understandably, hey he’s a dick but the boyd id be and e, makes him clean up and after Grouse fails to get the loud parents Lincoln, via a comination of a charming family photo and Grouse talking to his sister on the phone, finds out the real reason he acts like this: He misses his family and being on a fixed income can’t visit them often as he tells his sister he won’t be home for christmas to see his sprawling family. 

And while it doesen’t excuse his actions.. it does explain why Grouse is so bitter: you would be too if you had a massive family who clealry loved you and your on good terms with.. but through no fault of your own and presumibly despite working hard toa fford retirment you just.. can’t see them. Their there and you have the phone, but you don’t know how to work the internet and it’s just.. not the same as seeing them. Your just seperated from them and can’t be near them or hear their voices or get hugs. Which.. given the current pandemic i’m sure MANY of you can relate to that.. to being seperated from your loved ones and trapped, and especailly many people mr grouses age are facing that. While this special is good even without the context of seeing it this year it especailly resonates and i’m glad I waited this long simply beaause it came at just the right time. Grouse tells him to leave not planning on calling his parents.

So in christmas special fashion, Lincoln is touched byt his story, and feels bad for the old curmudgeon. Sure they don’t get along and the bastard broke his sled.. but again you’d be bitter too in his shoes. The guy has nothing and is alone.. and Grouse has done nothing to deserve that, even with his actions resulting from it. No one should be alone on christmas.  So Lincoln tells his sisters, all of whom rally around him, including Luna whose writer’s block is broken as she finally realizes... 

And not singing about that was holding her back. Luna has her song and Lincoln, as expected has a plan.  And we soon see that plan as Grouse gets a knock on the door.. and finds the Louds, parents included, and The McBrides all there singing him a christmas song. It’s pretty decent and the first time we really get to see Nikka Futterman sing and i’ts beautiful> Ther’ed be better, and worse luna songs to come but this is still pretty neat and sweet. THey came to offer him deocrations, dinner, company.. and a one way bus ticket to his family... presumibly the family will pay the other way or he can easier the day after christmas. Point is he’s touched, and genuinely and sincerly thanks them and invites them in, with Grouse’s actor John DiMaggio REALLY selling it hard. 

So our heroes gather for Christmas Eve all together, and under Grouse’s roof with Grouse giving the kids their stuff back having had a change of heart. Sure he misses his family.. but the Louds and Mc Brides have shown him he dosen’t have to shut everyone out as a result. And while Grouse apologizes tht his sled is gone.. Lincoln’s fine with it he got something better.  So the next morning we end on the kids opening presents, and Lori saving her boyfriend from axphisxiation, seriously between this and strife of the party i’m really starting to sour on lana. Regarldess Lucy finally belivies in santa both due to gifts nd seeing him last night, while Lincoln finds a sled from santa.. and then goes outside to see Mr Grouse off, recognizing he’s the one who played santa in  a really sweet and senitmental bit. The two part on good terms even if Lincoln breaks another window. Things have changed if not that much.  Final THoughts:  If it wasn’t obvious, I REALLY loved this one. While it has it’s flaws, and Chris Savino sucks dirty ass in thunderstorms obviously.. it’s still a really sweet, well constructed special and I really recommend checking it out. It’s on the nick app if you have cable and on CBS All Acess if you have that. Until next time merry christmas to all and to all a good day. 

And if ther’es an episode of the loud house you’d like me to review leave it in the comments or you can comission a review of it for five dollars. Just direct message me to work out the details or send an ask for my discord. 

[daffietjuh]

Alex Manes would like you to stop pointing guns at his alien, please

A/N: I’ve had this Roswell/Supernatural thing in my documents for ages, I figured I should probably just put it out there at some point. Seeing as it’s Halloween, why not today. Not that this is particularly spooky or anything, it’s more of an excuse to write Badass Alex. Also, I haven’t watched Supernatural in like.... ten years? 

Alex was just sitting around Michael’s fire pit, it was daylight so it wasn’t lit up, but the heat of the sun felt really nice on his back. Him and Michael had been working on the whole “let’s be friends before we jump back into this cosmic love we’ve got”, that meant hanging out and actually talking to each other. So here he was, watching as Michael tinkered around with an old car and gave oil changes to the sedans and minivans of middle aged house wives. It was his day off and he’d been here almost all day.

It was almost five when a car pulled into the yard. Alex wasn’t an expert on cars by any stretch of the imagination, but even he recognized that this was a beautiful car. Michael whistled at it.

‘Wow.’ He said when two men unfolded themselves from the car. ‘She’s a beauty.’

Alex may not be an expert on cars, but he was an expert on recognizing dangerous people when he saw them. These two, were dangerous. Alex sat up a little straighter in his chair.

‘Thanks man.’ The shorter one of the two was still about 6’1 and build. He carried himself with a dangerous grace and his smile was just a tad too sharp. The taller one, who was at least 6’4 and build like a brick wall, had immediately taken in the surroundings and Alex. Like a soldier would.

They were both armed too. They hid it well, but Alex wasn’t stupid.

‘What can I do for you?’ Michael didn’t seem to notice as he wiped his hand on a rag hanging from his back pocket and he approached the men. Alex wanted to tell him to stop, to not go closer, but he didn’t want to alert them. He wasn’t sure what they wanted, maybe they were just passing through, no need for bloodshed.

‘Her engine has been playing up a little. We can usually figure it out ourselves, but I can’t seem to find the problem. We were told you’re the guy to see when you have car troubles.’ The shorter one said. He’d now also glanced at Alex at least twice.

Objectively, they were both handsome, but Alex was a little too busy trying to figure out how to keep Michael safe to really care about that. Alex decided to head closer. He pushed himself off the chair, his leg protested but he ignored it. The tall one was immediately looking at Alex, his eyes flickered down to Alex’s legs almost immediately. Observant.

‘What kind of car is it?’ Alex asked, it seemed like a good enough excuse to mix himself in the conversation.

‘She is a ’67 Chevy Impala.’ The short one said, bristling over Alex calling the car an “it”. Michael laughed, warm and friendly.

‘Don’t mind him, he wouldn’t know a Mustang from a Volkswagen. It’s tragic, I know.’ Alex huffed and rolled his eyes.

‘Yeah, and you wouldn’t know the difference between a Remington 700PSS and a SVD Dragunov, but you don’t hear me bitching about that.’ It wasn’t particularly subtle, using rifles as an example.

‘I don’t even know what half those words mean.’ Michael grinned at him. ‘I’ll take a look at it.’ Michael said to the guys. He headed over to the car with the shorter one, leaving the tall one with Alex.

‘So, what brings you to Roswell?’ Alex asked, he could do a little digging.

‘We’re just passing through. We’re heading to an uncle down in Texas.’ The tall one said. Alex hummed.

‘Taking the long way there, huh?’ Alex asked. The guy shrugged, shit he was huge, fighting this guy would suck.

‘We’re not in a hurry.’ He said, Alex could see the outline of the gun at his back and the knife in his boot. Alex nodded.

‘So you’re brothers?’ Alex asked. The tall one looked at him from the corner of his eye.

‘Yeah.’ He should probably try to get a name out of them.

‘I’m Alex.’ He held out his hand to the tall one.

‘Sam.’ He shook his hand, they were big and strong and these guys definitely knew how to fight. It was in their entire way of being. Probably raised by someone who could fight.

‘That’s Michael.’ Alex said, nodding at where Michael was leaning over the engine of the car. From what Alex caught of the conversation, Michael had yet to spot anything off.

‘That’s Dean.’ Sam and Dean, alright.

‘So, did you serve?’ Alex asked, and Sam stilled.

‘What makes you ask that?’

‘Just the way you hold yourself.’ Alex shrugged.

‘No, my father was a Marine, but we never served.’ Sam said, he sounded like he was trying to decide if Alex was a threat or not. ‘So tell me about this town, lots of weird shit happens here right?’ Sam asked and Alex looked at him for a second.

‘Alien enthusiast?’ He asked, Sam shook his head a little.

‘Nah, just heard a lot of stories about this place. Unexplained blackouts, disappearances, strange healings and other stuff like that.’ Alex nodded slowly.

‘It’s a small town, people like to talk, everything gets exaggerated by tenfold.’ Alex said. Whoever this guy was he was very well informed. Too well.

‘I don’t know man, I can’t find anything wrong with her.’ Michael straightened up, shrugging his shoulders. He sounded like it pained him to admit it.

Dean made eye contact with Sam something passed between them. Alex narrowed his eyes.

‘That’s alright. We weren’t really here for the car anyways.’ Dean said, a chill ran down Alex’s spine.

‘Michael.’ He said. His tone must have said enough because Michael tensed. He could go for Sam’s gun. It was probably his best bet. He moved the moment Dean did. He was lucky Sam was on the side of his good leg, because it gave him the speed to snatch the gun away before Sam could swipe at him.

When everyone stopped moving again, Alex had Sam’s gun pointed at Sam and Dean was pointing his at Michael. Dean studied the way Alex held the gun. He looked dangerously comfortable with the weight of his own weapon in his hand.

‘Alright. Let’s take it easy here.’ Dean said.

‘You’re the one coming in here armed.’ Alex said, his aim not wavering from Sam’s chest.

‘You’re not really going to shoot him.’ Dean said, with much more bravado and sass than necessary. ‘That’s murder, murder isn’t very nice.’

‘If you don’t put your gun down, I most certainly will shoot him.’ Alex said firmly. ‘Listen buddy, he means the world to me and I left nice back in the Middle East.’ Dean’s eyes flickered down to his leg.

‘Do you even know what he is?’ Michael, who’d been shifting uncomfortably, stilled.

‘What he is?’ Alex asked. He almost hoped this was some kind of racist thing.

‘He’s some kind of creature. We traced all the weird stuff in this town to him and two others.’ Dean said, as Michael tensed even further. They knew about Isobel and Max.

‘How do you even know about the weird stuff, that’s not exactly public record.’ Alex said, still keeping his emotions in check. He didn’t want to shoot Sam, but if Dean didn’t give him any other choice, he would.

‘We got the intel from someone local.’ Sam spoke up. He sounded much too relaxed for someone with a gun pointed at him. So Alex took the safety off the gun. That ramped up the tension.

‘Who?’

‘Jesse Manes.’

‘What?’ Alex said. He suddenly felt cold all over.

‘Your dad?’ Michael said, and that had both Sam and Dean look surprised.

‘Jesse Manes is your father?’

‘Unfortunately.’ Alex said. ‘Look, whatever the man told you, it’s probably a lie. He’s insane.’

‘You didn’t seem all that surprised when I said this one was a creature.’ Dean said, motioning towards Michael with the gun.

‘If Michael was a danger to the people in this town, I would kill him myself.’ Alex said, even though it made him feel sick.

‘Really? You just said he means the world to you, that you would kill an unarmed man for him.’ Dean said with a disbelieving look on his face.

‘I’ve killed people I loved before.’ Alex said, and for the first time he saw a hint of doubt on Dean’s face. ‘He’s not the monster here.’ Alex added.

‘Alex.’ Michael sounded like someone had punched him in the solar plexus.

‘Look, if you just get in your very nice car, and get the hell out of this town, I won’t report you to every single agency I have contacts in.’ Alex offered.

‘How do we know you’re not the crazy one?’ Sam asked. He shifted closer and Alex stepped back, making a tutting sound at him.

‘Don’t try anything stupid. I can pull the trigger before you can do any of the things you’re thinking of.’ Alex warned. ‘Look, there’s a reason I outrank my father. He’s a terrible man and he hates anything that different from what he believes to be normal. In my experience, humans are the worst thing out there. We’re the monsters.’

The brothers shared a look. They were having an entire conversation without saying a word. It ended with Dean sighing and going:

‘Fine. But we’re keeping an eye on this town. If more weird shit happens here, we might come back.’

‘It’s Roswell, weird shit always happens here.’ Alex argued.

‘More deadly weird shit.’ Dean rolled his eyes.

‘Alright, that’s fine.’ Alex shrugged.

‘Are you going to stop pointing that gun at my brother now?’ Dean asked, and Alex shrugged.

‘Are you going to stop pointing that gun at Michael now?’

‘Are we seriously going to have to count to ten?’ Sam asked. Michael sighed.

‘On three?’ Alex asked with a smirk. Dean rolled his eyes, but nodded.

‘One, two, three.’ Michael counted impatiently.

Both Dean and Alex lowered their weapons. Sam held out his hand for the gun, but Alex wasn’t about to give it back.

‘No, you can leave that with me.’ Sam seemed to want to argue, but Dean was already heading to the car.

‘Sam, come on.’

Alex kept the gun, keeping his eyes firmly on the car, almost forcing them out of the yard with his glare. They both stayed silent until they couldn’t hear the rumble of the engine anymore.

‘So, what the fuck just happened?’ Michael asked, startling into motion. Alex shrugged.

‘They were here to kill you.’

‘And you saved me.’

‘You could have used your telekinesis, I’m sure you could have handled them.’

‘They could have shot me in the back of the head while I was looking into the car, you saved me.’ Michael repeated, stepping closer with a heated look on his face. Alex swallowed.

‘I care about you Michael, of course I saved you.’ Michael grinned.

‘My hero.’ He stepped into Alex’s space. It was a move so familiar he should have seen it coming.

‘I thought we were still doing the friends thing.’ Alex said as Michael slid his hands up his chest. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off Michael’s mouth or anything, but still.

‘You never said just friends.’ Who was Alex to argue with that?

He let the last of his resolve slip away and kissed Michael. He hummed happily in the back of his throat and Alex was inclined to agree.

[kricketwritesstories]

Trick or Treat (PT 2)

Fandom: Shazam!

Pairing: Freddy Freeman/Fem!Reader

Summary: You were the Ice Queen of the school and you’re assigned to tutor Pedro Peña. Are you really what people have been saying you are? And what is going on between you and Freddy?

You jumped as a tray was placed on your table in the library. You looked up to see Freddy.

“What are you doing here,” you whispered.

“No one should have to eat lunch alone,” he said seriously, “so I figured I’d come here and eat.”

“What about Billy,” you asked.

“If you want, you can come to the cafeteria and sit with me and my family. If you would rather stay here then I’ll stay with you,” he said smiling at you.

You smiled brightly at him.

“Wow Ice Bitch smiles,” a girl a few tables over said loudly, “it’s freaking creepy.”

“Shhh,” the librarian warned.

You’re smile faded and you stood up grabbing your lunch bag, “Let’s go to the cafeteria.”

***

Over the next few weeks Freddy and his family took over your life. It wasn’t bad, it was just a 180 from your normal way of doing things.

Monday through Friday you tutored Pedro in their living room after school. Eventually, the whole family came in to help him during this time. All the support helped him catch on faster and he didn’t need to spend as much time studying.

At first that made you sad. However every time you made a move to leave, someone would kidnap you to do something else. You played dress up and dolls with Darla; played video games with the boys; and gossiped with Mary.

More often than not you stayed for dinner too. You quickly became another member of the family.

At school Freddy and Billy started walking with you to classes, and you sat with the family at lunch. The gossip mill was up and running with word that the ice queen was melting. That part didn’t bother you. What did bother you was a creeping fear that you would eventually wear your welcome out with these people you’d grown to love, and you’d be alone again.

Freddy was the only one to notice you start to seem sad and distant again. He wanted to talk to you about it, but when you two were alone he kept getting tongue tied.

It was because of this and his worry for you that had him finding himself knocking on Mary’s door.

“Hey Freddy, come in, what’s wrong,” she asked concerned.

“Can you talk to Y/N,” he asked suddenly, “she’s really sad and I don’t know why. I want to fix it but I can’t if I don’t know and I can’t talk to her because when I do my tongue swells and my palms sweat and I feel as smart as a freaking caveman and -“

“Freddy, breathe,” Mary said smiling.

Freddy took a breath and sat on her bed.

“Looks like that crush has gotten worse,” she teased.

“Crush? I’m in love with her,” he said honestly without even thinking.

Mary gaped at him. She wasn’t expecting that to come out of his mouth. It surprised him even more that he didn’t backtrack. He must really love you.

“I’ll talk to her,” she promised.

Freddy sighed, relieved, “Thank you.”

***

“Y/N! Y/N,” Darla said jumping up and down excitedly when you came through the door, “can you take us trick or treating, please? Freddy said he’d take me and Eugene this year but I really want you to come to, please?”

You smiled at her enthusiasm and pretended to think about it.

“Can I still wear a costume even though I’m not trick or treating,” you finally asked.

“YAY,” Darla squealed as she jumped up and hugged you.

“Hey, Darla I need Y/N” Mary called from the top of the stairs.

“Be here, October 31st at 5pm sharp,” Darla whispered before she skipped off.

“Will do,” you laughed as you headed up to Mary’s room.

You shut the door and walked over to Mary’s bed and sat down.

“Is everything okay,” you asked a little nervously.

It was Saturday and you had planned to just hang out in your room and read when Mary had called and said she needed to talk in person.

“I’ve noticed,” Mary said carefully, “that you’ve been seeming a little worried or bothered lately. Is everything okay?”

“Umm,” you stalled as you played with the hem of your shirt, “Yea, Yea I’m good.”

“Y/N,” Mary said in a warning tone.

“It’s nothing, it’s stupid,” you said as you looked at her, fear in your eyes.

Mary walked over to sit on her bed with you.

“I know we haven’t been friends for long, but you can talk to me,” she encouraged.

“For how long,” you said sadly, “how long until I get too annoying or too clingy.”

“What are you talking about,” she asked confused.

“I’m over here like 6 days a week. We hang out in school,” you said like the problem was obvious.

“So,” Mary asked.

“So when are you guys going to have enough and I won’t be welcome here anymore and then I’ll have to go back and eat in the library by myself again,” you said tears spilling over onto your cheeks.

Your hands were formed into fists and digging into your legs. A panic attack was coming on fast and strong. You’ve never had one in front of another person and it was making your anxiety even worse.

“I know I’m too much,” you said through gritted teeth as you tried to control your breathing.

“Y/N, breathe,” Mary said calmly as she got on her knees in front of you.

She calmly helped you through your attack.

“You’re not too much. Whoever has you believing that you’re too much is an idiot,” she said sincerely as you calmed down.

“My old friends,” you said softly.

“What,” she said surprised.

“I used to have a group of friends,” you explained, “but they said I was too much. I’ve been through a lot, but I’m lucky compared to most. I don’t know my dad...my mom was in my life but she straight up told me to my face she didn’t like me that I look too much like my dad and I’m not fun and she left. A lot of people feel bad that my grandparents got stuck with me so I’ve tried so hard to not cause trouble and to make good grades so they don’t have to worry about me. I’m always too much.”

“Look at me,” Mary said seriously, “you will never be too much for this family. Ever. You’re stuck with us...and I promise you you won’t ever have to eat in the library alone again unless you want to.”

“Are you sure,” you asked still unsure.

“Trust me,” she said her eyes glittering playfully, “especially if Freddy has anything to say about it”

You immediately felt your whole body turn red.

“Oh my gosh you like him,” Mary said in happy shock.

“Shhh,” you said standing up and walking to her door.

You opened it and looked around cautiously before feeling safe enough to close it.

“I know what you’re wearing for Halloween,” Mary said suddenly, “let’s go!”

“Where are we going,” you asked as she pulled you out the door.

“To get your costume.”

***

*Halloween Night 4:45pm*

“Mary, why am I wearing this,” Freddy asked feeling slightly uncomfortable, “I mean I love The Dark Knight and all but I was going to be Superman.”

“Just trust me, okay,” she said with a knowing smile, “Now I’ve got a party to get to, Y/N should be here in about 15 minutes.”

“Wait! Y/N is coming,” Freddy called after her in a panic.

“I asked her to take us,” Darla said happily, “with you too of course.”

“Oh great so I’m in costume and she’s going to be normal because we’re just waking you guys and I’m going to look like a total d-“

“THAT’S Y/N,” Darla cried as she ran towards the door you had just knocked on.

Freddy nervously adjusted his Batman mask and tried desperately to think of someway to look cool in front of you. He stopped short when he saw you come in. You were dressed in a short, tight Wonder Woman costume complete with a lasso of truth.

“Looking good Batsy,” you said as you saw Freddy in his costume.

“You look incredible,” he said without thinking.

You wished Wonder Woman had a face mask like Batman, because if she did he wouldn’t be able to see how red she turned at his compliment.

“If you two are done flirting I’d love to get some candy,” Eugene interrupted.

“Okay let’s go,” you laughed.

***

The first few houses you took them to were decorated on the scary side. Darla got nervous and Eugene started to tease her.

“Darla,” you said crouching to her level, “Halloween is a special night. It’s when we can be anyone we want and we can face our fears and laugh at them.”

“We can,” she asked amazed.

Freddy watched you with a completely lovestruck face as you calmed Darla down with ease.

Later on, you went to turn down a particular street and Freddy stopped you.

“There are some extreme houses that way, Darla won’t go down this street,” he said quietly.

“Let’s go,” Darla said puffing out her chest bravely, “Halloween is a night where we can laugh at our fears!”

She marched down the street and Eugene quickly followed. You were shocked at how brave Darla became because some of the houses freaked you out. One house had things popping out of their yard that caused you to jump. You grabbed Freddy’s arm on instinct and he leaned in close to you.

“Check out Eugene,” he whispered.

You shivered, and it wasn’t from the cold. When you looked at Eugene you noticed that he looked more than nervous.

The yard the four of you approached had strobes, smoke, and creepy music blaring. They also had life sized statues of Michael Myers, Jason Vorhees, Ghostface, and Freddy Krueger. Darla went up without fear while Eugene inched up the driveway cautiously.

You saw movement out of the corner of your eye. As you watched carefully your eyes widened at the realization that these weren’t statues...these were real people in costume. They stood stock still and every few moments they would move ever so slightly. When Eugene and Darla reached the end of the driveway Freddy and Ghostface jumped at them.

Eugene screamed and ran behind you and Freddy. Darla just laughed and skipped to the next house.

It would’ve been amusing if that were the end of it.

It wasn’t.

Freddy Krueger followed you four for 6 houses. At first you and Freddy used this opportunity to tease Eugene. You both sang, “1,2 Freddy’s coming for you...”

Eventually you noticed that Eugene was on the verge of a panic attack. That stopped you in your tracks. You turned around and faced Freddy Krueger.

“Hey it was funny, but your really freaking my friend out,” you said seriously, “can you please go back to the house you were scaring at?”

“I’m sorry,” came a deep voice behind the mask, “I’m honestly not trying to scare you guys. You’re gorgeous and I’ve been trying to work up the nerve to get your number.”

Freddy turned his back on you and the horror legend. He’d been trying to work up the nerve to ask you out for weeks now, and here he was being shown up - by another Freddy no less.

“I’m really flattered,” you said honestly, “but I’m in love with another Freddy.”

Krueger sighed and put his head down, “Fair enough, at least I tried. Sorry kid for scaring you!”

You turned around to face Freddy, your Freddy, not even registering what you said within earshot of him.

As was his habit around you, words spilled out of his mouth without him even thinking about it.

“What Freddy are you in love with,” he asked hopefully, “Highmore? Mercury? Prince Jr.?”

You took a deep breath, screwing up your courage you walked over to him. When you were inches from his face you said, “Freeman.”

You looked at him with your infamous Ice Queen face. You didn’t want him to see how desperate you were to kiss him. You didn’t want him to do anything out of pity.

It took Freddy all of thirty seconds to crash his lips onto yours. Your breath was taken away. For a first kiss it lasted longer and held more passion than you could’ve imagined. Freddy was an incredible kisser.

Freddy pouted as the need for air made him stop kissing you. He gently put his forehead to yours and asked, “Will you be my girlfriend?”

“Definitely,” you said enthusiastically, “especially if it means we can do that more!”

Freddy chuckled, “We can do that whenever you want...all the time even.”

You giggled and then your giggle turned into full blown laughter. He found himself smiling at you in spite of himself.

“What’s so funny,” he asked.

“I told you Batman and Wonder Woman were a thing,” you said as you pointed to your outfits.

“Okay this was cool and all, but let’s get candy,” Eugene interrupted.

Darla sighed dreamily, “Don’t interrupt their moment!”

“It’s okay let’s get back to trick or treating,” Freddy said to them before whispering to you, “sooner they’re tired out the sooner we can get home and makeout to a scary movie.”

“I love the way you think, Batsy,” you teased.

“There’s no way I can get you to change my nickname to Supes is there,” he teased back.

“Not if you want to make out with this Wonder Woman,” you said half joking.

“I am Batman,” he said instantly in his grittiest voice.