#so yeah if the teacher asks something tomorrow I'll just try to remember what i read a week ago

[steelthroat]

Fake it till you make it? Yeah, tomorrow I'll pretend to know about the War Poets when asked about them ;D

[cowgurrrl]

She’s A Gun

Pairing: Joel Miller x fem!reader

Author’s note: *John Mulaney voice* My wife is a bitch and I love her SO much (gif by @salome-c) I also didn’t know how to end this so sorry

Summary: Somebody didn’t give the new guy a heads up about talking about Joel Miller’s family [1.6k]

Warnings: idiots in love, a quick mention of a queer slur, I can’t think of anything else!!

You catch him looking at you across the room as you sip some new whiskey Tommy traded for. He looks young and fresh-faced without many scars or littering the surface of his skin. His eyes are bright when they meet yours, and you give him a polite smile before returning to your drink. Unsurprisingly, he bellies up to the bar a few minutes later. You glance at the door, and the man follows your gaze. 

"You meeting someone?" He asks. The bartender, a kind man named Nick, flashes you a look, but you wave him off, turning to the younger man, who is dead set on making his presence known. 

"You must be new." You say, and he laughs as he holds out his hand. 

"You got me. I'm Luke," He says. You meet him halfway and shake his hand, giving him your name. "Where are you from?"

"I came here from Boston."

"You're a long way from home. What brought you here?" 

"Long story."

"Is it longer than the time it would take to get you another drink?" 

"I can get my own drink, but thank you."

"'Course," he says but doesn't move from his place next to you. "What do you do here in Jackson?" He asks, and you open your mouth to say something, but he cuts you off. "Let me guess. School teacher. No, a nurse."

"I work patrols, but good guess."

"Oh, I'm going to work patrols, too. I actually just signed up for my first shift tomorrow. Speaking of which, do you know anything about this guy… Miller, I think, is his name. I heard he's a hard ass."

"Joel or Tommy?"

"There's multiple?" He asks, and you smirk as you sip your drink.

"There's a few of 'em hanging around, yeah. What did they say? Maybe I can," you shrug and try to hide the amusement in your voice. "Help you figure it out."

"Well, this guy, Seth, said Miller shouldn't even be in Jackson. Something about him killing people to get by before coming here, but he gets to stay because he's buddies with Maria. Apparently, he's a hell of a shot, though. I heard a rumor that he once shot an Infected from a mile away, but I'll believe it when I see it." He says, and you nod. 

You remember that day well. Tommy had been bragging about his marksmanship, mostly telling big fish stories, and you finally got sick of it. Joel told you to leave it, but you had to see. When you went on patrol the next day, you and Tommy had a competition to see how far he could actually shoot. You passed the gun back and forth to see who could hit accurately and how far. You were the one holding the gun when the Infected bound his way up the hill and quickly went down as the bullet buried in his skull. You didn't think that story would've made the rounds, though. 

"What else did Seth say?" You ask, and he puffs his cheeks out as he shakes his head.

"He told me to stay away from him. Something about not fucking with people like that because he's ruthless, especially when it comes to his kid. He said Miller yelled at him last week because he said something to her. Just... totally lost his mind like a crazy person." It wasn't just something. He called my daughter a dyke, you think to yourself. Joel may have pushed him and made him leave, but you threatened to ruin his fucking life. If you ever hear him say something like that to Ellie again, you'll make Joel look like the poster child for forgiveness. You bite the inside of your cheek and save that information for later. 

Seth wasn't warning Luke about Joel. He was warning him about you.

"And you're sure he was talking about a man?"

"Pretty sure. I mean, I know people do lots of shitty things to stay alive, but I can't imagine a woman instilling that much fear in a man like Seth," He says, and you hum. "No offense."

"None taken." You smile and watch his guard come down just enough for him to feel comfortable reaching for your arm.

"I wish I had known they let women as beautiful as you out on patrol. I would've signed up with you instead of Miller." He says, and you almost gag. Joel's hand skims your lower back almost as if on cue, and you turn to face him. He kisses you a second too long before looking over your shoulder to face the stranger who looks embarrassed. His arm wraps protectively around your middle, and he's close enough that you can smell his shampoo over the bar’s stench of stale beer.

"Great timing. This is Luke. He's starting patrols tomorrow," You say. Joel reaches across the space to shake his hand, and Luke winces at his too-tight grip. "Luke, this is my husband, Joel Miller," you wish you had a camera to take a picture of the stunned look on his face when he hears the last name. "Joel, we were just talking about the last time I was on patrol with Tommy."

"You're Miller?" Luke asks, suddenly looking pale. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Oh, I thought I mentioned it. I'm sorry, I'm probably losing my mind." You echo Seth's words and smack yourself on the forehead dramatically. Luke drains his drink before glancing around the room.

"It was great to meet you, man. Um, I'm gonna run to the bathroom really fast." He says and takes several steps away from the bar. 

"Oh, so soon? I was hoping you and Joel could talk about routes."

"Maybe later." He says, and with that, he's gone. You smile and turn in Joel's arms to face him.

"Jesus, I thought he was going to have a heart attack. What did you say to him?" 

"Seth was warning him about the mercenary who's buddies with Maria and shot an Infected from a mile away, asked if I knew anything about the guy."

"Seth should learn to keep his fuckin' mouth shut." He grumbles, and you nod.

"It didn't help his case that he tried flirting with me. Even asked if I was a school teacher." You say, and he gives you a look. His warm fingers reach under your shirt collar to pull out the chain with your wedding band on it.

"Maybe if you actually wore this, that wouldn't happen so often."

"C'mon, everybody knows I'm yours. It's not my fault no one gave him the run down," you say, and he tugs on the chain to kiss you, his big hands moving to hold your jaw. He swallows your gasp when he licks into your mouth, sending a zing of electricity down your spine. He's a touch too handsy for a public space, but you're not complaining. "I don't see you wearing yours out on patrol either." You say, pulling away before he can start something he can't finish, at least not in public. Still, his hand slips into your back pocket, squeezing your ass through the denim.

"Don't want to lose a finger. Besides, everybody knows I'm yours," he parrots, and you smile. A familiar, old country song plays over the speakers, and Joel lights up at the first few chords. "Will you dance with me?" He asks, pressing light kisses to your jaw to butter you up. You lock your arms around his shoulders and let yourself forget about everyone else in the bar. 

"And to think there was a time when you hated PDA."

"That was before someone tried hittin' on my wife," he says, and you feel like your face will get stuck from smiling so much. It's been three months since the small backyard wedding officiated by Tommy and Maria. Ellie walked you down the aisle— more of a patch of grass than anything else— and acted as your maid of honor. When Tommy asked if she agreed to give you to Joel, she said, "it's not like she's fucking property, but sure." She beamed so brightly when she realized you each included her in your vows, promising to love and protect her as much as you love and protect each other. It wasn't planned, but the unexpected matching further proved that you three are a family. Still, you don't know if you'll ever get used to hearing Joel call you his wife. "Dance with me, please." He pouts into your neck, and you finally give in, grabbing his hand and leading him to the dance floor. 

He pulls you close, and you bury your face in his neck as you slowly dance to Tanya Tucker's voice. He sings along for only you to hear, his accent getting stronger as he does. You could stay like this forever, wrapped up in him and listening to him sing the same song you used to sing along to while driving on backroads. You would marry him again if you could. You think you would marry him in every lifetime.

Scary rumors of mercenaries and blood on your hands fade from your mind. To men like Seth and Luke, you are a subversion of their holy mother. You are bloody and broken, a monster beyond saving. You are a warzone with a heartbeat.

But to Joel, you are the most sacred thing he's ever held. It's not enough to erase the rumors and nightmares about you, but it's enough to knock the wind out of you and make you love your husband that much more. That has to count for something. 

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Tag list: @evyiione

[mcrdvcks]

hey, y'all! college has been hectic, but i hope to have the teacher!reader x old man logan sometime between tomorrow and tuesday.

but, i thought i'd show a sneak peak :)

---

Much to your dismay, you had to go to the store once you were already clad in your loungewear. You wanted to make pasta, only to remember you forgot to get milk after work.

So now, here you were at the small local grocery store grabbing milk and a pint of ice cream for your troubles. The store was quiet at this hour, a few other people milling about but otherwise uneventful. You grabbed a basket and made a beeline for the dairy section, trying to get in and out as quickly as possible. Loungewear was great for a lazy evening at home, but not exactly your first choice for public appearances.

Once you made it to the frozen section, you looked at the pints of ice cream, specifically looking for one of your favorites, Ben and Jerry’s s’mores. “Fuck.” You muttered, seeing a pint of cookie dough in the spot of the s’mores.

You angrily grabbed the cookie dough ice cream to look behind it, only to find a chunky monkey pint. With a huff, you looked at the pint of ice cream, mentally cursing your luck. Just as you were about to put it back onto the shelf, a deep voice spoke from beside you.

"Didn't figure you for a chunky monkey type."

Startled, you looked up and found Logan standing there, one eyebrow raised, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. He was holding a six-pack of beer and a carton of eggs in one hand, the other casually resting in the pocket of his jeans.

You blinked, thrown off by the sudden appearance. "What? Oh, no, I was just... I was looking for s'mores," you explained awkwardly, holding up the ice cream like it was evidence.

He nodded, his smirk deepening a little as he glanced at the shelves. "Guess they’re out, huh?"

"Yeah, my luck tonight," you muttered, a little embarrassed to be caught standing here obsessing over ice cream in your loungewear. Not exactly how you wanted to run into the guy you were definitely not crushing on. How could you? He was the Wolverine, around 200 years old, and looked to be the age of your father. Well, if your father was still alive. Or if you ever got to know him.

Logan glanced at the shelf again and shrugged. "S'mores is overrated anyway."

You quirked an eyebrow at him, momentarily forgetting your embarrassment. "Oh really? What’s your go-to then, Mr. Anti-S'mores?"

He smirked, that same low, gravelly voice coming through as he responded. "Not much of an ice cream guy, but if I had to choose… probably plain vanilla. Simple. Not too sweet."

You couldn't help the chuckle that escaped you. "Of course you'd go for the most basic flavor."

His eyebrow twitched slightly at that, and you could see the playful glint in his eyes. "Sometimes simple’s the best option."

You rolled your eyes, grabbing a pint of vanilla. "Well, I guess I'll take your advice tonight, then. Not like I have much of a choice."

He gave you a brief nod, and for a moment, it seemed like the conversation would end there, but then Logan shifted slightly, his weight on one leg, clearly trying to mask the limp you'd noticed earlier. You weren’t sure if it was from the adamantium or something else, but it definitely wasn’t healing like it should. You found yourself biting your lip, wanting to ask but knowing better.

Instead, you went for something safer. "Laura’s doing well in class, by the way. She’s sharp. A little stubborn, but sharp."

He glanced down at you, a flicker of pride crossing his face. "Yeah, she’s a tough one." His expression softened as he added, "She doesn’t talk about it, but I know she likes you. Keeps her distance with most people."

Your heart fluttered a little at that. Laura was a bit of a mystery, rarely engaging much with the other teachers or students, so hearing that she’d let her guard down even a little with you meant more than you’d expected. "Well, she’s a good kid. I try not to push her too much."

Logan nodded, his gaze lingering on you for a moment longer than you expected, like he was sizing you up in that quiet, brooding way of his. It made you feel both exposed and… oddly seen.

"Anyway," you said, breaking the silence, "I’ll let you get back to your shopping. I’m sure you’ve got more important things to do than stand around talking about ice cream."

He gave a small grunt that might’ve been a laugh, but it was so subtle you couldn’t be sure. "Yeah. See you around, Ms. Aberra."

"Y/N," you corrected, feeling a little awkward. "You can just call me Y/N."

He hesitated for a split second before nodding. "Y/N, then."

[thehollowwriter]

Summary: Azul meets Finn's father, and he is very afraid.

Word count: 3872

(Pls reblog and leave a comment ❤️)

Mister Clearcove

"Papa wants to meet you." Said Finn, and Azul nearly choked on his tea.

"Pardon?"

"Papa wants to meet you." Finn repeated, munching on a biscuit. "He thinks you should come over during the holidays."

He was so casual about it, as if he were telling Azul it was going to be sunny tomorrow, and not that the possibly most terrifying man Azul had ever seen wanted to meet him.

Azul gazed at Finn wordlessly for a moment. Was this a joke? Was Finn trying to prank him?

"I...I see." Azul said slowly.

Finn did not say "just kidding" as he had hoped. Instead, he licked the crumbs from his lips and carried on sketching the possible menu designs he and Azul had brainstormed.

"You're sure he wants to meet me?" Azul blurted.

Finn put his pencil down and raised an eyebrow at him. "Of course. Papa doesn't ask to meet just anyone. Don't tell me you're scared now."

"Of course not!" Azul exclaimed, frowning. "I'm just... surprised. I didn't think he would be interested in meeting me at all."

Finn sent him a small smile. "You underestimate how interesting you are."

Azul flushed. "I suppose so. Shall we set up a date, then?"

Finn nodded. "Yeah. I'll ask Papa when he's available."

The two of them went back to what they were doing, and silence reigned once more.

Azul was awake long after curfew that night, staring at the incomplete nautilus shell earings he had spent days painstakingly crafting by hand.

He planned to give them to Finn sometime, but... should he? He didn't know.

If he were to end up in Silas Clearcove's bad books, it would make any attempts at a relationship or gaining a potential seafood supplier for the lounge quite difficult.

If they were to meet, Azul wanted to make the best impression he could. Naturally, making a good impression meant knowing the person you wanted to impress, and in order to know the person you wanted to impress, one needed to do research.

Unfortunately for Azul, Finn's father was an utter mystery. Most Atlantica residents did not like Silas and preferred to avoid him, fearful of him and his origins.

"The... the abyssal mer? I can't believe some people buy food from him, if you ask me."

"Silas? I had to move my daughter to a different elementary school because that monster's son was attending hers."

"Tainted blood, that's what he is."

Rumours, often wretched and gut-churning, did their rounds often.

Azul wasn't stupid enough to believe them, of course. Call him a sceptic, but he was quite sure Silas did not murder Finn and cause Finn to become a ghost.

Most of what Azul himself knew about Silas was through osmosis and from Finn. The basic facts were: he was a cookie cutter shark from the Abyss, he was a butcher, a single father, and was married to a powerful mage named Morrigan who died before Finn was born.

"He was a mage, too." Finn would say if asked about Morrigan. "He went to Night Raven. He was a Savanaclaw student, and then he became a teacher. He was quite talented."

The cause of Morrigan's death was something not even Finn knew, and most of the city pretended it didn't happen.

"Oh, you know, Morrigan was like, fifty when he died." Some would say. "Who knows what health complications he could've had."

Azul also attempted to ask his mother about it, but she became unusually cryptic.

"It was awful." She had said sadly, dabbing her eyes. "Simply awful. Oh, poor Silas, he was heartbroken..."

Azul made a mental note to steer clear of the topic of Morrigan in case it was a touchy subject.

Azul's own memories of Silas were few and far between. They were fuzzy, blurred by time, and unreliable. Finn swam to and from school by himself most of the time, so Azul didn't see Silas every day.

All Azul could really remember was vague parts of his appearance and a presence that made crowds part and parents whisper.

There was only one clear memory that stood out, but even that one had been tainted by age.

Azul remembered cowering behind his mother, taking a peek every now and then at the large, looming shark speaking to his mother in a low, gruff voice.

He was scarred and a bit odd looking, but what truly drew Azul's attention was the ribs of... something that decorated Silas' tail, and the twin sets of orca teeth necklaces around his neck. It was terrifying to see back then. Now, though, he was concerned his seashells would be an inadequate courting gift, considering Silas was apparently very traditional.

The lack of reliable memories left Azul to rely on individuals close to him for information, although it didn't turn up much. Silas was like his son. He kept to himself and wasn't prone to chatting .

"Old man Silas?" Floyd's expression turned thoughtful when Azul asked him about him. "Don't see him a lot. When he comes to Ma and Pa's parties, he just hangs out in the corner and stares at his glass till it's over. Then we never see him until the next one."

"He'll engage in conversation if we initiate it." Jade added. "But he doesn't say much. He's not a very talkative fellow."

Azul sighed. "Do you know anything else?"

"Well," Jade tapped his chin. "He's from the Abyss. But everybody knows that."

"He's got a legendary resting bitch face." Floyd chimed in, grinning. "It puts Finn's to shame. He looks like he'll snap your neck if you look at him wrong."

"I see."

He asked his mother about Silas next, during one of their biweekly phonecalls. She had more to say than the twins, and definitely more pleasant things too, but none of it was particularly helpful.

"Oh, Silas is a dear!" Azul's mother sounded delighted. "So helpful and hardworking, and so very polite. I keep saying he should come for dinner sometime, but he's always so busy."

"Do you know anything about his preferences?"

"Hmm. No. Sorry, dear."

"No no, it's alright. Thank you, Mama."

It seemed the only one who knew anything at all about Silas Clearcove was Finn, and Azul most certainly did not want to ask him and risk his intentions coming to light early.

Azul was frustrated that his research was inconclusive, and far more nervous than he was originally. When he finally returned home for the holidays, and the reality truly hit him, the nervousness became utter stress.

It seemed he wasn't doing as a good a job at hiding it as he hoped, since when Finn arrived to fetch him one early morning, he tilted his head to the side with a bemused smile.

"You don't need to be so nervous." Finn said as he began to lead Azul to their destination. "Papa won't bite."

***

The Clearcove property was far away from the city, starting at a sand bank and stretching on to the edge of a cliff. Only the faintest tendrils of sunlight reached down there, but it was promptly snuffed out by the towering kelp forest that stretched on for miles. The kelp swayed eerily in the ghostly quiet, lit up by only a few lanterns strung about.

It was a stark contrast to the sunlit streets and bustling noise of the city.

It gave Azul the creeps, and he suddenly understood why the rumours that spread were always so supernatural in nature. It was like they were swimming through a haunted patch of sea.

They followed a stone path through the maze of kelp and rocks and fish, keeping to the light of the lanterns. It was a long swim, and Azul wished he had better endurance.

Then, the faint scent of blood made Azul stop swimming, concerned.

Finn tugged him forward. "That's just the abattoir, don't worry."

The scent got stronger the further they went, and Azul had to clench his teeth to stop himself from darting away in terror until they got to it.

The abattoir did not look quite how Azul expected it to. Rather than a dark, dilapidated building, it was a large cave with an entrance marked by the gaping maw of a whale skull. Lanterns lit the area up brightly, making it look just a little less daunting.

Mers darted about the place, lugging in fresh kills, nets of crustaceans and molluscs, and large containers.

A few of them waved at Finn as he passed by and gave Azul a curious look, but other than that, they didn't pay their presence much mind.

Finn and Azul carried on for another half hour or so until finally, they came to a circular clearing, and the small stone path led towards a garden of coral, seagrass, and seasponge.

Nestled amongst the garden was what one could supposedly call a "house." Really, it was a large rock that had been carved into, its walls etched with little patterns that Azul was sure Finn was responsible for.

Finn swam forwards to unlock the purple coral door, then let Azul inside.

"Papa, we're here!" Finn called as they swam in. Well, Finn swam in. Azul squeezed himself in through the door, coiling his tentacles close so he didn't knock anything over. He was skinny, but the Clearcove home was undoubtedly cookie cutter shark sized.

The first thing he noticed was the smell of food. It didn't have quite as strong an aroma as food on land, but he could definitely smell it. The next thing he noticed was the cosy little lounge slash dining room he found himself in.

Pictures and paintings that were probably made by Finn when he was a child were hung up on the walls, and large clumps of sea sponge, coral, and bone formed couches and chairs.

Azul didn't have much time to take it in, as Silas then swam into the room and dusted his hands, crossing his arms, and Azul went still.

"Hello, Finn." He said. His voice was as soft as Finn's, but deeper and more gravelly. He nodded at Azul. "Ashengrotto."

"H...Hello, sir." Azul greeted, his voice coming out far more wobbly than he wanted it to.

Silas... didn't look quite how Azul remembered. From his child perspective, Silas was large, larger than life, even. Now, though, as a teenager, Azul could see Silas was not much larger than Finn. Azul himself was several times bigger than both of them.

When Azul was trying to research Silas, his mind filled in the blanks and created an image of an older looking Finn. Now, though, he could see how different they were.

Finn was chubby. Soft, pudgy, and round. His skin was absent of any marks aside from the scars on his shoulder, the freckles on his face, and the stretch marks on his stomach. His hair and body were a lively forest green that blended perfectly with his surroundings.

Silas, on the other hand, was very thin. His skin stretched just a little too taught in some places. His body was littered with scars of various degrees of severity. On his face, his abdomen, his tail, his arms, his neck... even his gills. The long, jagged scar that sliced across the gills on his neck made Azul's own gills itch.

His fins were riddled with holes and tears that hadn't healed properly. It looked painful, and it made Azul wince when he looked at them.

He was purple in hue, and his face, aged and weathered, housed the only thing he had in common with Finn appearance-wise. A pair of bright amthyst eyes that shone like gems in the light of the lanterns.

It was then that Azul knew he was looking at someone who had seen and done things he could not even begin to comprehend. Someone very dangerous and very powerful.

Azul's gaze eventually drifted to the necklaces that hung around Silas' neck. The teeth that were strung up on them were quite obviously orca teeth. Each necklace had a volute shell and a skeletal murex shell, respectively.

Courting gifts. One belonged to Silas, the other, his late husband.

Silas' necklaces were difficult to make. There was a risk involved, a certain amount of power and skill required to get the materials. Orca teeth were not small trophies.

Azul felt like Silas' gaze had frozen him in place with magic. Those eyes, so deep and knowing, made goosebumps ripple across his skin, and his heart jump into his throat.

His unique magic had a benefit that few knew about. It allowed him to sense others' magic and said magic's essence or power, and dear Seven could he sense Silas'.

It was dark and twisted, rolling off of Silas in waves of power that made something primal in Azul's mind begin to panic.

It was ancient. Pulsing. It bubbled just below the surface and promised a taste of the horrors found leagues down below.

Abyssal magic.

Silas' magic was far stronger than Azul's, far stronger than Finn's, far stronger than some of the professors at Night Raven, and it filled Azul's heart with a mix of awe and terror.

The familiar urge to take it for himself was strong, tugging at the back of his head. But he knew better. By the Sea Witch, did he know better.

Finn once told Azul that Silas never had any proper magical training of any kind. In fact, Finn was the first person on Silas' side of the family to attend school at all.

The fact that Silas still held this much power despite that... it was incredible and terrifying all at once.

The fear that filled Azul turned his veins to ice. The overwhelming knowledge that he did not have the advantage, that he did not have the most powerful magic, and that he was neither the smartest nor the strongest in the room made him feel like a guppy in the jaws of a great white.

"Azul, you look pale." Said Finn, though he was clearly more amused than worried, the bastard. "Are you alright?"

"I'm perfectly fine." Azul said quickly. "Just tired from the trip here."

Silas hadn't said a word at all. He simply stared at Azul, and Azul stared back.

Then Silas hummed, a deep rumbling sound, and swam back into the kitchen. Azul let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and shot a glance at Finn.

Finn smiled. "Don't mind Papa." He said. "He's not big on conversations. It might not be obvious, but he's happy to have you over. He's even letting you eat with us today."

Azul looked towards the kitchen, then back at Finn questioningly.

"That's not something he usually does." Finn clarified. "Sharing food that he hasn't sold, that is. He always says it's safest to be selfish when it comes to meals."

Azul nodded slowly. "I... I see." He murmured, overcome with the dreadful realisation that he could not skip out on whatever would be served without looking like an ungrateful brat with no manners.

He was pulled from his thoughts when Silas returned with a number of plates and platters in tow, piled high with all kinds of food.

Finn perked up, finns fluttering. "Oh, he used the vents. We're lucky today."

The... vents?

The platters were gently placed down with magic, as well as three empty plates. Azul stared at the vast amount of food, trying to see if there was anything small with few calories he could eat.

Seaweed wraps, crab rolls, whole crabs, shrimp, lobsters, mussels, clams, scallops, abalone, tuna, hake, even sushi, and so much more was available to choose from.

Azul's mouth opened and closed in surpise, and for the first time since greeting them, Silas spoke.

"I was not too sure what food you preferred. Finn told me you're quite strict with what you eat. I hope this is suitable."

Azul looked at Silas and once again felt frozen in place by that stare. Floyd wasn't kidding about him looking like he would snap your neck at any moment...

"I-" Azul had to swallow so he could try to speak clearly. "It is. Thank you, sir. You're very kind."

"Alright, then. Sit down. Choose what you want."

Azul obeyed, wondering how on earth the twins managed to make Silas sound like a stone faced introvert when he seemed more like a retired soldier or something.

Silas and Finn seated themselves opposite him. Finn, ever the food lover, happily began piling up his plate. Silas simply watched Azul, silent once again.

Azul avoided his gaze and selected some Sushi (where did Silas get rice from?) and a few oysters.

He paused when he got to the lobster, which he was not going to eat due to the hugh cholesterol by the way, and stared at it. It... it wasn't raw. It was cooked..?

"Hypothermic vents." Said Silas, noticing Azul's confused expression. "They work like an oven or a place to boil food if you use them correctly."

Azul's eyes widened in surpise. "Really? That's... That's incredible. I would never have thought to use thermal vents to cook food. How do you not burn anything?"

"I use magic to alter the heat." Silas explained quietly, his lips quirking up a bit. "It's something my grandfathers taught me."

"So I assume you alter the heat to different temperatures to allow for different methods and cook times?" Azul asked curiously.

Silas nodded.

"Incredible. Have you not thought of selling this? You would intrigue a lot of people with something as rare as cooked food. I-" Azul hesitated, realising Finn was raising his eyebrows at him. "I-If you want to, of course."

Silas gazed at Azul for a moment, and Azul began to panic internally, cursing at himself and his inability to shut up about business.

"You are your mother's son," Silas finally rumbled, sounding more amused than angry. "I'll tell you what I've told your mother. I have no interest in monetizing this."

Blood rushed to Azul's cheeks, and his fear and panic turned into embarrassment.

"Idiot." He snapped at himself. "You ruined a nice conversation."

Silas didn't say anything further, so Azul went back to picking at his sushi, taking little bites every now and then.

The urge to say something, anything, to fill the awful silence was overwhelming, but neither Silas nor Finn were particularly talkative, and Azul didn't want to be the irritating chatterbox of the group.

Finn was currently tearing through his meal, absolutely delighted at the special use of the vents. He cracked open a scallop and popped the meat into his mouth with a happy sigh.

Silas hadn't eaten a single thing. Apart from the occasional glance at Finn, his eyes were completely trained on Azul.

His gaze was intense. Terrifying. It was as if he were mentally taking Azul apart, looking for flaws, for weakness. Azul wondered if this was how his fellow classmates felt when he made deals with them.

"Finn's told me a lot about you." Silas said suddenly, and Azul gulped.

"He... He has?"

"Yes. He quite likes you-"

"Papa!" Finn squeaked, flustered. "You didn't need to say that part."

"-and I hear you're starting a restaurant of your own at school?"

"Ah- yes." Azul nearly choked out, relieved. Now, this was something to talk about. "Mostro Lounge. An establishment for gentlemen, neutral ground between the dorms of Night Raven College where you can wind down after a long day."

Silas hummed. "What a clever idea. My husband attended Night Raven when he was your age. I remember he once told me he wished he didn't have to go all the way to town to eat something that wasn't served at the cafeteria."

Azul puffed up at the compliment, glad to finally feel like he had some semblance of control. "Why yes, it is a pain, especially if you don't have time for such trips. The comfort and satisfaction of my fellow students is my primary goal, and I hope to achieve that with Mostro Lounge."

Silas' lips quirked upwards again. "How kind of you," He said, and Azul was pretty sure he didn't entirely mean it. He sounded too... knowing. "I hope you're successful."

Azul couldn't hold back the smirk that crossed onto his face. "Believe me, sir, I will be."

Silas nodded but didn't answer, and Azul went back to eating.

"Finn," Silas said after a while, turning his head to his son, who had been quietly listening to the conversation while digging into a small lobster. "Could you please tell Timo to move his hunt to the fourth quadrant for me?"

Finn looked a little confused, but he nodded anyway. "Sure." He said, then sent a small smile Azul's way. "I'll be back in a bit."

He disappeared out the door, and Azul was suddenly very aware that he was alone with Silas Clearcove watching him like he wanted to take a bite out of him.

Azul put his hands on his lap to hide the fact that they were shaking and stared back at Silas like a deer in headlights.

"You've built quite a reputation for yourself around here over the years, Azul." Silas said. "With those little deals of yours. Your magic is quite impressive, I must say."

There was a long pause, and Silas tapped his long black claws against the table.

"I was concerned at first when Finn started telling me about you." He said. "You're quite a greedy young man. But... I trust Finn's judgement. I'm not going to sit here and threaten you or tell you not to hurt Finn. I know you won't. However,"

Silas' eyes narrowed. "I'm well aware that you like... collecting magic, shall we say. Abyssal magic seems to have piqued your interest recently. Listen to me carefully. Finn is not to make contracts with you, and you are not to try to convince him to do so. You're a smart boy, Azul. I'm sure you understand."

The unspoken implication hung in the air, and Azul understood it all too well. He's heard the rumours, and while he wasn't sure how true they were, he'd rather not risk having his magic sucked dry.

'He's like a magic parasite.'

'He'll suck you dry until you're nothing but a husk'

'If he can't take your magic, then he'll take your soul.'

The voices of Azul's old classmates echoed in his mind.

"I understand, sir." He said, feeling a little sick.

Finn returned shortly after, informing Silas that Timo had moved his hunt.

"I hope you didn't scare you too much." He whispered as he swam past Azul.

Azul just laughed.

***

After Silas gave Azul that little warning, the old mer was much more relaxed, though most of the conversation was still carried by Azul and Finn.

The day seemed to fly by now that the fear that had swallowed Azul whole began to ebb, and soon it was late afternoon and time for Azul to leave. He needed to be home before sundown.

"I'll come visit you." Finn said softly before Azul could exit through the door."

Azul smiled a bit. "Thank you, I suppose." He murmured, feeling his cheeks burn once again.

"Thank you for having me over, Mister Clearcove." He said to Silas, bowing his head. "I greatly appreciate your hospitality."

Silas hummed in acknowledgement. "I'm always happy to Finn's friends over. Get home safe, now, Azul, and..." His voice suddenly dropped to a whisper. "Be careful with those contracts of yours, alright?"

Azul blinked, confused.

"Of course, sir."

-End

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

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed the fear of god being put in Azul! I had a lot fun writing this.

Tagging: @distant-velleity @br3adtoasty @rainesol @theleechyskrunkly

@jovieinramshackle @galaxies-and-gore @cyanide-latte @cynthinesia @officialdaydreamer00

@krenenbaker @kitwasnothere @elenauaurs @boopshoops @am0nline

@1dont-really-know @kazumify @minteasketches @ramshacklerumble @elysia-nsimp

@skrimpyskimpy @casp1an-sea @offorestsongs @the-banana-0verlord @skriblee-ksk

@poisoned-pearls @the-trinket-witch @tixdixl @ghostiidasponk

[s3lcth]

The way back to you

pairing: myung jaehyun x reader

genre: fluff, a little of angst

n/a: so here it issss!!! it turned out pretty long hshahakak. i hope u like ittt!!! 💕💕

"I'm telling you that school's about to be the end of me, and all you can think of is inviting me to a damn study group?!" Leehan groaned at his best friend's proposal "The afternoon is for resting, right Yn?"

"Yeah, but if you used it to study a bit it wouldn't be a big deal" you opined as you sipped some of your juice. "Try not to fail so many this term, come on."

"You don't understand" he complained, offended "I don't want to be your friend any more".

"As you wish" replied Taesan dryly.

"Well, better not" he rectified himself, grabbing your arm.

"Anyways, see you later, little guys" you said goodbye, ruffling both boys' hair.

"Just because you're a year older than us doesn't make you taller, you know" Leehan defended.

"Shut up, I'm five foot seven, I'm the tallest in my class" you pleaded, making a seven with your hands.

"Yeah, whatever you say" and Taesan pushed you into your class.

As you walked in, your eyes darted to your seat, which was occupied by someone else resting their head on the window. You thought about saying something to him, but let it pass. It was the first day of term and they would still have to change places.

"Yn!" you heard your name being shouted "Why the hell haven't I seen your face all holiday?" exclaimed one of your friends.

"You know my law" you announced, responding to your friend's hug "Holidays are for resting and school is for suffering"

"Well, you could have at least not left me and the rest of us stranded" and when you were about to speak, she interrupted you "And don't tell me it's for your health" then, the girl walked towards a free seat.

When the class started, the first thing the teacher did was to change the seats.

Your friend was placed next to a short-haired girl and you next to the boy who had stolen your seat.

"Hello" you greeted him "I'm Yn".

"Hi" he replied with a shy, but at the same time big, smile "I'm Myung Jaehyun" Myung Jaehyun. For several seconds, his name kept repeating over and over in your head. It was him. There he was, after so long.

For a while, his eyes only looked at you I amusement.

"No way... It's really you?" he whispered, his eyes wide as saucers "You remember me, don't you? Don't you?" he exclaimed, excited.

"Of course I remember you, Jaehyun. How could I forget you?" you said with a smile identical to his. "What are you doing here... How come...?"

"You two in the back, be quiet!" a teacher shouted at you. You both fell silent, giggling under your breath.

The class soon began. It was merely introductory: the teacher introduced himself, talked about what he was going to teach during the course, and then had you introduce yourself to the class. You were rather absent for the whole hour, exchanging glances with your deskmate from time to time, until it was time for him to introduce himself.

"Hello, my name is Myung Jaehyun. I'm new to Seoul and my hobbies are sports, especially football. I also like dogs very much." His presentation was brief, but it reminded you of some of the childhood moments you spent with him.

......

"Jae, your mom says let's go home!" you shouted to him from the side of the small football field in your village, where he played with other children. You never liked football, so you usually stayed on the side playing basketball.

"But it's still too early!" he protested, although he was walking towards you. "I'll race you to my house, whoever wins has to buy the other a lemon candy tomorrow" he bet, before running off. You didn't take long to follow him either, but Jaehyun was always faster.

"Someday I'll beat you.... Someday" you swore, panting, leaning against the door of your house.

"Pinky promise?" he asked, showing his little finger.

"Pinky promise" you assured.

......

After school was over, you rushed to the bathroom. When you came back, you found Jaehyun at the door, talking to your two friends.

"Speaking of the devil..." whispered Taesan, waving to you. You walked over to where everyone was standing.

"We were talking about going out this afternoon, have you already started the academy, Yn?" Leehan questioned.

"I'm starting today, but I'm leaving earlier. I think around six" you reported, walking into class to get your backpack.

"So... How about we meet at the football field near your academy?" suggested Leehan, in a somewhat excited tone. If one thing was clear to you from so many years of friendship, it was that the boy loved meeting new people and befriending them, so you weren't opposed to the idea, in fact, you were even looking forward to it.

"Fine by me" said Taesan, scrolling down his phone.

"If you want to..." you commented, as you didn't really care what they were going to do. What you wanted was to be with Jaehyun, to know why he was here, what had become of his life.

Suddenly, you all looked at the young boy, who seemed lost in thought.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" asked Leehan, snapping his fingers in your friend's face.

"Me? Eh... Sure! Anywhere's fine. I'm not quite settled yet, you know..." he explained, scratching the back of his neck, smiling. Oh, that smile.

"In that case, have Yn give you the address of his academy and the two of you go there together, right?" proposed Taesan, with a small sideways smile. "After all, the two of you already knew each other before."

Jaehyun and you looked at each other, small smiles escaping your mouths. "Sure" you said.

......

"If I don't try harder this year, I'm going to fail everything!" your friend complained, leaning her head on your shoulder. How come all your friends were failing?

"It's the last year, what can you do..." you comforted her, patting her head. In the distance, you saw someone look sideways, probably looking for you.

"Oh, here you are!" he exclaimed when he saw you. It was Jaehyun, who came running up to your side as you waved goodbye to your friend.

"Shall we go?" you proposed, trying to hide your excitement. He nodded his head, signalling for you to pass in front of him.

On the way you talked about everything. You found out that he was in Seoul because his father had been promoted in his job, which made you very happy, as you remembered that, when you still lived in the village, his family had a hard time making ends meet.

When you arrived at the field, you saw your friend's mouth drop open in amazement. Although it wasn't the biggest, it was much bigger than the one in your village.

"Are you telling me this is a public facility?" he asked, surprised, hesitating whether or not to enter.

"If it were private, they'd all be there?" you pointed to your two friends and your brother, who must have joined them at some point "Come on in" you offered, giving him a little push in the back.

From afar, you watched as Leehan waved his arm to greet Jaehyun. He walked over to them, who started playing on a patch of field, while you were in the bleachers, until you decided to go for a basketball. You put on your headphones and started practising your shots, as you had a tournament coming up and it wouldn't hurt to practise.

Suddenly, you noticed someone hugging you from behind. Startled, you looked back at Jaehyun, who had stolen your headphones. They were playing 'Will you kiss me' by Playful kiss.

"Do you still listen to this song" questioned the boy grabbing the ball that you had dropped from the scare. " Wanna play?" he offered.

"And the rest of them?" you nodded your head towards where they were.

"Never mind, they're resting" he clarified, passing you the ball.

......

You were humming your favourite Playful Kiss song while playing basketball, when your ball escaped and hit the light blue radio resting on the floor.

"There you are!" shouted a small Jaehyun in the distance. You turned to him, ball in hand. "Are you done playing, Jae?" confused, you asked. Suddenly, the boy grabbed you from behind to take the ball, starting to bounce it.

"Wanna play?" he offered, passing you the ball. "Whoever loses has to buy the other one a lemon candy."

Getting carried away by the competitiveness, you played against him, although he ended up winning.

"Someday I'll beat you" you vowed, taking your ball back.

"Pinky promise?

"Pinky promise" you assured, interlocking both fingers.

......

It had been several days since Jaehyun's arrival in the city and you couldn't be happier. You were together almost every day with the others. But there was something that didn't quite fit.

Every time he gave you a smile, yours came out without a thought. His unintentional touches on your hand when you walked side by side made your cheeks turn pink. When he opened a door for you or when he shared his food with you, your stomach seemed to want to escape from inside you.

And you didn't want to accept what you felt. You didn't want to ruin what had just re-formed between the two of you over a useless feeling. That's why you tried to let it go, until that day came.

It was a hot summer afternoon and the amount of clouds in the sky ensured a storm, yet your group of friends decided to go out and play on the football field for a while.

This time, Jaehyun played basketball with you all afternoon, which was not beneficial to your plan to end your apparent feelings for him.

Suddenly, you noticed a drop fall on your face. Then another, another, another... And a great storm formed under your heads.

Taesan, Leehan and Sunho took shelter under the bleachers and, as you were about to follow them, Jaehyun grabbed your arm and pulled you, making you run after him unconsciously.

Both your bodies were covered in water from head to toe, but it didn't seem to matter. Holding hands, you and your friend ran aimlessly through the city, your laughter the only thing that could be heard. Suddenly, Jaehyun stops.

"I'll race you, whoever wins has to buy the other a lemon candy," he said, as if you had suddenly gone back in time. Then he ran off. But this time something different happened. You won.

"You kept your promise, I guess I'll have to buy it this time," sighed Jaehyun, feigning annoyance.

When he gave it to you, you quickly popped it in your mouth. "It tastes like victory" you thought.

"There's one thing I've always wondered," you began, "why do you like lemon candy so much?" he smirked.

"Because they remind me of you" you looked at him confused "They produce a bitter sensation at first, but then it's so sweet, they're refreshing and, most importantly, I love them" He looked straight into your eyes, then, he and directed his gaze to your lips, then to your eyes again.

He gently placed the palm of his hand on your cheek, still wet from the rain. Slowly he brought his face closer to yours, when an unexpected gust of wind blew all your hair into your face. He let out a little chuckle, as you felt the ground fall away from you in embarrassment.

"Wait... Let me just..." He whispered as he put your hair back in place "We're good now, can I?" you just nodded, letting yourself get caught up in the moment. At that time your plan was a thousand miles away.

His lips were soft and savoured the taste of the candy you had just eaten. One of his hands was still on your cheek while the other rested loosely on your waist. Your hand went up to the nape of his neck, playing with his hair; the other was on his chest.

As soon as you parted, Jaehyun hid his head in the crook of your neck, hugging you while smelling your scent, which was more wet than anything else.

"I love you so much, you can't imagine how this years without you have been" he said, keeping his head in the same place. You started rubbing his back up and down.

"I love you too, Jae" you said that in a really soft whisper "I mean it, I don't think I can ever let you go again" you lifted his face with both your hands, his watery eyes looked at you as if he could see your soul, and in a way he did. You ran your hand through his hair, uncovering his forehead to leave one more peck there. He coughed, suddenly feeling nervous, cheeks on fire.

"Well... Don't you think the rest of them are looking for us?" he asked, scratching the back of his neck.

"Yeah,I think so, come on" you ordered, taking his hand as you laughed.

[weird-is-life]

Can I make a self indulgent request please 😅, I'm a middle school science teacher and I'm stuck in my apartment all grading papers because procrastinated. I line alone with my little dog and I just need some fluffy comfort with Spencer. Maybe he just sits with the read on the couch with some soft indie music playing in the background. Helping her grade papers. Just a very comfortable silence and he just looks at her when she is not looking and he is just so in love.

Hiii, thank uuu so much for this cute request! I'm sorry it took a bit longer😅(0.6k)

It's Friday night and you're sitting on the couch, surrounded by a pile of tests. You've put off, grading the papers all week, not feeling like doing them at all. You don't really feel like doing them even now. But Spencer's been gone for the last few days and he called you, saying he'll be home tomorrow.

You don't want to waste the little time you usually get with Spencer by grading papers. So you decide to do them. It's easy at first, but the longer you are at it, the more tired and irritated you are.

You are now regretting, putting it off for the whole week. But you try to push through, you even put your favourite music on to help you.

It works for a bit, but the pile never seems to get smaller and you are beggining to wish for it to just dissappeared.

You are just about to give up and put a movie on instead, when you hear the unlocking of your door and a few seconds later, you find yourself clinging tight to your boyfriend, Spencer. He didn't even get 2 steps into your apartment, before you were jumping on him.

"Spence! What are you doing home?" you question. He told you, he was coming tomorrow.

"The team decided to catch an earlier flight, so here I am" he says as he hugs you tightly, he missed you a lot," I'm so glad, I'm home."

"I'm happy, you are home, too" you mumble into his chest. Spencer hums in agreement, content to have you in his arms.

You part after a few seconds, "you must be hungry, let me make you something to eat." You start to walk towards the kitchen, but Spencer catches you by your arm.

"Wait," he says and before you can ask wait for what, he kisses you. You immediately melt into the kiss. When your lips move apart, you sheepishly smile at him, give him one more peck on his lips and head for the kitchen. You fully expect him to go get a shower as he always does.

And he does. But on his way to the bathroom, he notices the mess of papers in the living room. It's like, there was an explosion of papers in the room. Spencer doesn't even need to think about why is that.

He takes a very quick shower and goes to you. He finds you making him his favourite sandwiches and quietly humming some song.

"Sweetheart?" he gets your attention, you look at him with a sweet smile, "is everything okay?" he asks.

"Yeah, why?" you look confused at him, but after a few moments, you remember. You completely forgot about the pile of papers.

"Oh."

"I-I was trying to grade all the papers. I put off grading them all week, because I didn't feel like doing them. But you said, you were coming tomorrow, so I wanted to get them done before you came, " you ramble swiftly, "But I didn't finish, it was a lot. So I'll do it in the morning when you'll sleep, I don't want to waste the time we have together by grading stupid tests."

"In the morning? Nope. We'll get it done today," Spencer's always up to help you with anything.

"We?"

"Yeah, we. I'll help you."

"But you are definitely tired, Spence. You should just go to bed, I'll do it alone-" he instantly cuts you off.

"What? Babe, I'll help you. It will be quicker this way." He doesn't give you anymore space to argue, he takes the plate with the sandwiches, kisses your cheeks as a thank you and pulls you to the living room.

You both sit down on the couch, the music is still playing. "What should I start with?" he asks and you only just think about how this man just got home from a tough week, full of work and wants to spend god knows how many minutes grading middle schoolers tests. Your heart warms up as you think about it.

"I love you, thank you for doing this" you blurt out, looking very softly at him. He pauses his looking through the piles and smiles big at you.

"I love you, too." You two spend the next hour grading the papers, while comfortly sitting on the couch and listening to the music. It's much more better doing it with Spence, than alone.

[aprillikesthings]

YAY I'M OFF WORK until Monday

IT'S TIME FOR MORE SHE-RA REWATCH

s2 ep6 Light Spinner

just read the synopsis on the wikipedia episode list and Oof this one is going to be hard

Edit: oof I jumped around a lot, including mentions of the bible, my fave art, other cartoons and (predictably, for an episode about Shadow Weaver) my own history as a child abuse survivor and my dad dying. So, uh, you've been warned?

okay

let's do this

do they mention why she covers her face at this point? I forget

okay so true story and totally off topic but I get distracted every time Micah's name is mentioned because my favorite verse of the Bible is from the book of Micah. It's the fave verse of a lot of people lol I'm not unique. But yeah, Micah 6:8:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord ask of you, But to do justice, and to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

I've half-joked for years now that if enough of your childhood report cards say any variation on "They have so much potential if they'd only apply themselves" you should get diagnosed with ADHD without further questions.

Hordak: why is Shadow Weaver still fucking HERE Catra: bc I like getting a chance to taunt her >:3 I MEAN, uh, she's a good source of information? Hordak: she needs to get to Beast Island, I don't like having her around she knows too damn much Catra: but she can't actually do anything without her fancy-ass magic rock

*power goes out*

Entrapta: ha ha WHOOPSIE Catra: wtf are you DOING

Hordak: stop bothering my girlfriend Catra: wtf??? Entrapta: Entrapta: uhhhhh did I interrupt something Hordak: no it's fine bb don't worry about it <3 Hordak: ANYWAY Catra get that witch to tell you shit and then GET RID OF HER or I'LL GET RID OF YOU Catra: >:(

In all seriousness I remember watching this episode and thinking: lol omg are they ship-baiting this???

And then the usual culprits did the "yOu cAnT sHiP tHaT" and I started reblogging content of it out of sheer fucking spite. Also at least one writer for the show is like "y'all Entrapta is in her late 20's/early 30's" and--wait hold on I know there's screenshots from twitter of the same person:

But yeah stuff in later seasons made me cackle with laughter because it's not even subtle. At all.

Anyway you gotta be careful about spite-shipping. That's how I ended up having a lot of feelings about Jaspis from SU, ha ha WHOOPS

jfc this and a previous line (talking about "gifted students") and it's like...why are y'all having her quote all the shit my teachers said trying to encourage me and only traumatizing me.

mmmm don't like that

I know I keep harping on how textbook of an abuser she is, but I love that the clues were there already. This is the kind of shit abusers do! Look at how controlling and possessive she is, but in a way that outsiders will just see as "she's a very invested/involved teacher."

gahhhhhh

plot plot plot the Horde is already invading, the Princesses are useless against them, our leaders aren't doing SHIT, anyway the sorcerers are meeting tomorrow and I hope they let me boss them around into agreeing with me

this shot of the moons over Etheria reminds me of one of my fave artists--these pieces are layered resin, and I keep meaning to buy some prints of theirs. (One day I want to own an original. ;_; I love the way they use colors and the layers and just the daydreamy vibes of so much of their work.)

(More of their stuff here)

plot plot Scorpia and Catra talk about how Catra doesn't want to send Shadow Weaver to Beast Island and Scorpia is surprised Beast Island is real and not a scary story they tell kids

Catra: but but but Shadow Weaver can tell us shit!

Scorpia: anyway I thought you hated her??? Catra: you wouldn't understand >:(

I understand. I hate that I understand it. UGH.

plot plot Light Spinner tries to convince the sorcerers that the Horde is a threat, and points out they've taken the Black Garnet, and says let's cast a big spell together and GET SOME POWERRRR

Sorcerer dude: that spell is FUCKED, absolutely not [for real the way he talks about it sounds kiiiinda like The One Ring] Light Spinner: fuck yOU

OH so I didn't quote it but Catra says the same line earlier, about Hordak: "After everything I've done he still doesn't trust me"

Catra is trying to save Shadow Weaver's life and Shadow Weaver is like...meh. But hey can you bring me an old trinket that's of sentimental value? I will never ask you to do anything else.

[I am Suspicious.]

back in time, Light Spinner manipulates Micah into doing the Big Scary Spell with her, they accidentally unleash a hORRIFYING MONSTER

(I'm suddenly reminded of the last two episodes of Gravity Falls. It never ceases to amuse me that Alex Hirsch was told he couldn't do all kinds of totally innocent things, but he could have, well, the shit in the last two episodes. I remember telling my then-boyfriend that the intro of those last episodes had shots that looks like actual nightmares I've had)

Oh also the flailing disembodied hands remind me of some of the early episodes about the Cluster in Steven Universe. Remember Garnet finding some of the early fusion experiments made with broken bits of gems?

Aaugh.

(Also remember when Peridot was still kinda spooky and scary?)

OKAY SORRy wow I'm distracted tonight.

yeah that didn't work so great

And that's what messed up Shadow Weaver's face, and she throws a fit at everyone and calls them "weak" and uhhh murders at least one of them?

face-touching! the only way she's able to show any affection at all...but only ever to manipulate people in her charge. anyway she disappears after that.

Catra is not going to get a satisfying answer. One of the reasons it was a relief when my dad died was that I could let go of ever having any hope of him explaining to any kind of satisfaction why he did what he did. (He did apologize, once; in the most manipulative and self-serving way possible, when I was 35--at the time I thought maybe it meant something, but eventually I realized he'd actually made things worse, because he'd taken away any belief I might've clung to that he didn't know any better at the time.)

In any case, Shadow Weaver's answer is basically "You're just like me, and my life was hard, so why should yours be easy?" Like that old line about how people who suffer through hard things have one of two reactions: Either "why shouldn't you also suffer, you're not better than me," and "nobody should have to suffer like I did."

;_;

I understand Catra so much. You still want that love. You can't not. You know you won't get it, not the way you need it, and you settle for a facsimile.

I'm gonna throw myself into the sun

And then we go back in time to see the arrival of baby!Adora, like as an actual infant. They don't say where she got her.

Hordak: "I arrived too late. I found something but it's useless. Put it with the other infants in the infirmary."

"It." bleh.

Shadow Weaver: hmmm that's one powerful baby. Hordak: ugh, weirdo. You can have it. But ffs it's being noisy take it somewhere else.

Shadow Weaver's just like: oh sweet I get to start from scratch with this one.

Anyway under her tray of food that Catra brought her was her sorcerer's guild...thing. That she asked for earlier in the episode. Which means Catra did bring it to her.

And Shadow Weaver's gone.

This explains part of why Catra gets worse for the next like two seasons. She tried to extend a kindness to Shadow Weaver--keeping her from being sent to Beast Island, giving her the trinket thing, offering to work together since Shadow Weaver thinks they have so much in common, right? But it bites her in the ass so bad.

So why should she be kind to anyone? When has anyone been kind to her? When has Catra being kind to anyone ever improved her life or made it easier?

But yeah the trinket had some kinda magic dust in it and Shadow Weaver escaped, and Catra had a (very understandable) meltdown about it.

Back in Bright Moon, the Best Friends Squad is using the moon alignment to get a clearer signal on Bow's track pad: "Serenia. Portal. Mara." AAAAND end of episode.

Yeah I was right. That was a rough one.

[areweevercameraready]

snippet two :>

A/N: me: oh no, AO3 is getting DDoS'ed :( and i just finished a chapter of beliefs so I can post another chapter! damn me: me: wait i can post another human chapter

anyways, please stay off AO3 for the time being and here's a post with more information, but they're facing extreme server overloading and opening AO3 pages makes it harder apparently. i don't know, i'm a communicator, not a programmer, so i'm just passing along what i know.

anywho! here's another snippet of the human au i'd been writing. if you would like to read the first part, here is the first snippet, which also has some more background on the au. check here for descriptions of the human au.

this is likely to be the last of this big story i'll be posting. i might post some of the oneshots i have in this au, as i have a few that are sorta unrelated to the plot that i'm comfortable with posting, but...well. we'll see. i finished chapter 13 of more than beliefs so i've 1) begun writing chapter 14 finally and 2) might post chapter 11 soon :D not having anything to do with my life right now is good for catching up on sleep debt and writing fanfiction! yipee!

i hope you enjoy!

Words: 7,265

WARNINGS: having a panic attack and being sad, not much more i don't think but if there is, let me know and i'll make note of it!

(in lieu of a diving image, please take this human au meme LOL)

“So. Bartender. Your name’s Eric, right? That’s what Marl’ said.”

“Mhm,” Eric hummed. 

“Thanks for driving them home. Marlowe would’ve flipped tomorrow if he woke up and realized he’d left the car somewhere else. He’s gonna flip either way, though, since the idiot teaches tomorrow morning,” David snickered a little, leaning against the car door in a casual manner. 

At the very least, the flippance was making it more evident that David wasn’t, like. Mad at him. Or something. Eric nodded again before remembering that David was now driving. “Uh. Yeah. Would have been a kinda problem.”

“Mm,” David hummed. After a few beats of silence, he added. “You got anything to do tomorrow?”

Tomorrow? Why was he asking? “I, uh, have work at four. At the bar. Other than that, no,” because truthfully, he was only scheduled five days a week at the restaurant.

He tried to get his shifts at the restaurant and his shifts at the bar to not line up, but five days a week at both jobs meant there wasn’t ever a chance of that happening. When he did need a full day off, though, for parent-teacher conferences especially now that Gavin was going to school, he managed to get the exact days precisely. Which was probably because he was so punctual and dependable. Which was what he tried to be. But sometimes, he worried that wouldn’t be enough, so he always clocked the days he’d need two months in advance. 

Tomorrow was just a lucky day though, to just have one job and not both. Often they stacked. Sometimes they didn’t. 

“Wanna meet up for lunch?” David’s proposition cut through Eric’s tangential thoughts. 

He turned to David again now, a slight frown on his lips, before asking, “For lunch?” as if he hadn’t heard properly. 

David nodded. “Yep. My treat, for bringing my boys home safe,” he shot Eric another grin. “Also you like, haven’t at all told me where the fuck to go. I’m assuming it’s closer to downtown but unless you just wanna keep driving in circles….”

Fuck. Eric looked out the window for real now, trying to figure out where they were. It was the highway going into town. “You’re going to want to take the Concord exit,” he said. 

“Okay,” David said. “But, yeah. Lunch.”

“Lunch,” Eric repeated, quickly averting his eyes back to the dashboard. “You and me and lunch?”

He didn’t really want to look directly at David, but just in case David like. Grabbed him. Or something. Eric wanted to see him in his peripheral. He saw David shrug. 

“I mean, yeah. You ever been to Lucy’s on Main? Such a great diner, I used to go with an old girlfriend every night almost,” David pulled off the exit. 

“Right. And then left at the, uh….fourth light.”

“Gotcha. Lunch. At Lucy’s on Main?” 

Lucy’s on Main wasn’t the fanciest place, but Eric had only been once, and that was for Gavin’s fourth birthday. He liked their theming, even though it wasn’t an actual children’s diner or anything, and Eric was never one to deny his brother when he asked for something achievable. 

If he could, he’d get Gavin the world. Snatch it right out of God’s hand

Going there with a stranger, though….if David wasn’t dating like, at least two other people, Eric would be worried this was a flirt attempt. And he wasn’t really in the mood to be romantic. He kinda wanted therapy first? And he hadn’t thought about romance in a while, not since his boyfriend in high school. Now he was an adult with responsibilities, he couldn’t just ditch school and smoke weed by the train station with Schmidt. 

This was just some guy being thankful, though, right? And he wasn’t doing anything tomorrow….and the idea of food, especially free food, was pretty enticing. A guaranteed meal would be nice. And at this point, he didn’t think this was going to be a trap. He knew Lucy’s on Main. He wasn’t...this was awkward, but it wasn’t like he was going to get mugged or anything.

The silence dragged, just a bit, and David sighed. “If you wanna say no, you can. I just know this’ probably way outta your ways, and you seem like you’re not gonna kill me and steal my car, so it’d be nice to hang out once and say thanks.” David sounded tired, too. 

Though that explanation was pretty straight forward. Eric nodded slowly in something like understanding. If David was worried Eric was going to be mugging him, and Eric was worried that David was going to be mugging him….well, he could just be saying this to get his guard down. Eric knew he consistently looked like his guard was up, more often willing to fight than he wasn’t, but maybe that was off-putting here. Maybe he was the scary one, here. 

Ah, the mom friend override. 

“No, I, uh. That’d be cool,” Eric said, then cleared his throat and continued. “Thanks for the offer. Would noon work?” 

“Yeah, sure,” David smiled as he took the turn onto Concord Avenue. “Meet you there?”

“Sure,” Eric said. “You can pull over anywhere on this block.”

He gestured out the window. His building was maybe two blocks down, but, well. He didn’t want to take this dude all the way to his apartment. 

Did he?

No, no he didn’t. Also, his days of one night stands were like, two years long gone. Eric wasn’t about to bring a whole adult (WITH TWO BOYFRIENDS, MIND YOU, AT LEAST TWO) to his tiny apartment at almost four in the morning with his kid brother sleeping in the same bedroom. Like, sure as fuck that wasn’t happening. Regardless of how pretty David looked in the moonlight. 

Yeah, he was tired as fuck if he was just going to start mentally waxing poetic about how pretty these boys were. Eric looked around at the car, out the window, then back at David. Who was watching him with a smile ever so slight, almost knowing, almost cocky. 

“What, you want a goodnight’s kiss too?” he joked. 

Eric snorted, shaking his head. “Nah, I’m just….” Confused. 

This was all so much, in one night. 

He had a hundred fuckin’ dollars in his pocket? 

And David’s boyfriend’s phone number? This dude just drove him home, too, for nothing, and was going to take him out to lunch tomorrow? 

“This’ a lot more social interaction in one day than I get most months,” Eric joked, almost confessed really, and shrugged. “It’s also four in the morning.”

“Huh, would you look at that,” David looked at the clock and pulled a face, as if he’d just noticed the time. 

Wouldn’t that be a riot? What the fuck was he doing awake, even? Eric snorted, hiding his eyes behind a hand as he laughed. “Stop no, it’s too-it’s too early for this,” he said between laughs as David began to chuckle a little himself. 

“Damn right. You head home, get to bed, and make sure you’re up at at LEAST noon!” David waved at Eric as he got out of the car, into the night air. 

It nipped at his nose, much colder than he thought it’d be. Granted, he thought he’d still be warm from the bar, too. Eric turned around, waving at David as he whipped a completely not-legal U-turn in the middle of the road, then headed back where he came. It looked like David was going to wait until Eric got into a building, which was kind of nice of him, but once Eric stood still and waved, he hit the reverse. Which was also fair. And also part of Eric’s plan. 

He didn’t exactly….Now okay, tomorrow morning this was all going to register as flirting. Eric was going to take off his shirts and lay down in his bed and watch Gavin sleep for maybe fifteen minutes before passing out himself out of just exhaustion while wearing his bartending slacks and without actually being beneath his pillows. He was going to not think about the implications behind the three men’s actions until tomorrow morning, while making breakfast, and he was going to be quiet enough in thought for Gavin to ask if he’d done something wrong while they were on their drive to school. 

“No, Gav, you’re fine. Peachy, actually, sweet pea,” Eric said, while he and Gavin waited at a stop light. 

Gavin was supposed to hold the motorcycle’s safety restraints while they drove, but more often than not he ended up holding Eric. He had his own safety jacket and belt buckles, which Eric installed as soon as he found out they were a thing. He’d gotten the bike before he’d gotten Gavin, and he wasn’t giving the bike away. 

“What’re you sad about?” the kid asked. 

The light was still red, so Eric leaned one arm back and gave Gavin one of their bike hugs. Positioning was always awful, but Gavin knew the drill, so he snuggled his helmeted head beneath Eric’s arm for a moment and hugged him tighter. 

Now, though, how to like. Explain this to the four year old.

“A friend asked to go to lunch together today,” was what Eric landed on.

Gavin gasped, excitement filling his voice in a way that almost made Eric feel bad. “A friend?! Yay!”

“Yeah, a friend. I’ve got those,” Eric joked. 

“Daddy’s got one friend,” Gavin said with his own snicker, and Eric laughed, too. 

“Daddy’s got more than one friend,” he said, and for a moment, thinking about the phone number written on the bill at home, he meant it. 

Gavin seemed happy with that explanation and with those jokes, and Eric was as happy as he’d let himself be. He dropped Gavin off and promised to pick him up later, told him to have a good day, that he loved him. 

Kid’s school got out at 1:38, which would be a fair reason to leave lunch, if it got like. Unbearably awkward. Which was a real possibility, if you asked Eric. Wasn’t last night awkward enough? This dude really saw Eric at his normal messiest states at four in the morning and decided that the best decision was to spend even more time with him. Granted, he was in his pajamas last night, and he seemed pretty out of it, too. It might be nice to have a real conversation outside of being ground into dust levels of tired.

Also, it wasn’t Eric’s worst, and he thought he’d held it together pretty well considering the outlandish circumstances. In nearly any other case, he would have gone running for the hills at the mention of having lunch alone together with a stranger, or even being handed a bill with a fucking phone number on it. He’d been hit on at the bar before; everyone likes the stoic type bartender, until he starts rejecting advances. Then he gets the drink thrown on him and slurs thrown his way, which like, really? The owner’s queer and they think it’s going to be okay to say slurs? Idiots. Eric knew it was a situation better than that kind of shit, but he didn’t know what made him say yes to these advances. Something about the genuine-ness of it all, maybe. 

And these like. Were definitely advances. There were no ifs, ands, or buts. He didn’t process it fully last night, but now that the lunch date was starring him in the face, he could see it for what it was: a date. 

Three people, though. That was three extra people to disappoint. And, if he really thought about it, Eric didn’t know if he could, like….handle that. On an emotional level but also on an anxiety level. 

Still, to not show up to lunch and flake would be rude, and he may be a coward but he was anything but rude. 

Eric took some time between dropping off Gavin and heading to the date to prepare. He had tried while putting his hair up, a looser ponytail rather than the pinned bun he had for either of his jobs. Usually, he’d’ve preferred to keep it down, but. Well. It got everywhere. It was kinda scraggly, probably 90% split ends. Good to have it out of the way.

He threw on a quick t-shirt, a pair of black jeans, and his regular leather jacket. If this was really just lunch, then it was a one and done kind of situation. Not much else for him to do, other than lay down and try to nap for an hour before heading out.

Lucy’s on Main was fairly crowded for lunch on a weekday, in Eric’s opinion. People were waiting outside when he got there. And he didn’t see David waiting amongst them, so he put his own name down for a table and went to go stand outside. There was a couple sitting on the bus stop bench, though. Smoking. It’d been a few years since he managed to kick his nicotine addiction, but he wasn’t exactly fond of the scent of smoke anymore, so after a moment of taking in the wind and hyping himself up to talk to a stranger, a whole ass stranger, he went back in. 

And that was when he heard a “YO! ERIC!”

Eric jumped, turning around towards the inside of the diner. Most of the tables were filled, and one had a guy with his arms up, waving him down. Literally. Waving him down.

“HEY!” David called out. 

Eric saw him crack a smile as he recognized him, as Eric waved back just a little. They were turning heads a bit. Just a bit. 

He told the host that he was with “that guy” and made his way over, sliding into the seat opposite David. And he tried to kind of avoid looking at him, because being yelled at across a public space was never something Eric was too fond of. As soon as he sat down, though, David waved in his face. 

“‘Sup, Harley,” David said. “Nice bike.”

“Thanks.” Eric looked up, briefly, then froze. And looked up again.

David’s hair was down, though it’d been brushed and was pinned back with a bobby pin or two. He was wearing a puffy varsity jacket and a t-shirt underneath, the varsity jacket covered in patches that seemed to be hand-sewn on. There was a pin, too, on the jacket’s collar, with the inclusive rainbow. Cute. His glasses were cute, too, framing his face in a way that made his smile look a bit wider as he also looked over eric.

He….Well. In last night’s dark, he hadn’t really caught what David actually looked like. He was smaller than Eric but they had similar styles almost. There was something comforting casual about David’s posture, though, and in the way he leaned back against the booth’s seat. 

Surrounded by hot men. Eric turned away as the waitress came over, hoping he wasn’t blushing as much as he thought he was, and ordered himself a plate of fries. Before she left, David interrupted.

“Nah, you can order more, dude. I’m paying,” he reached over and motioned towards the waitress. “Get a milkshake at least, Lucy’s shakes’re the fucking best.”

Now, Eric didn’t really want to be wasting someone else’s money, and the plate of fries was definitely more than he’d been planning on having today. But David was watching him. And Eric couldn’t really say no. Not when he was being watched like this. A burger did sound good, too, but….

God, he didn’t want to make David spend money on him. Eric stuffed his hands into his pockets slowly, playing with the edge of his phone’s case. “Can I, uh. Can I get a chocolate shake, too?” he asked. 

“M’kay,” the waitress said with a knowing smile. 

“And make his fries the bigger size! I’ll steal some,” David grinned at the waitress, who chuckled at his antics but wrote down the change. 

And then she left. 

Eric leaned back in the seat, and he didn’t really know what to feel. In a weird way, it was good that David just started to converse, then and there.

“Like I said, cool bike. What kind is it?” he said, as if he knew of it. 

“Uh,” oh, jeez, the bike. “It’s a 2005 Night Train.”

“Sheesh, a Night Train! And she’s still running? Do you do your own maintenance?” 

“I, uh. Yeah. Yeah, I do. Maintenance and modifications.”

And that got him talking. Which, like. Was hard. On standard, getting him to converse was hard. But then David mentioned his old bike, how he used to have a 2002 Softail Deuce, how he always found it hard to maintain. Well, ‘course it’s hard to maintain if you don’t keep checking on it, especially after not riding it for a bit. Eric installed the second seat and had to buy her new brakes, just in case and to help with smoother rides. 

He talked about how he kept his parts and mechanical tools in a case in his apartment. Usually he’d keep it stuffed under the coffee table, better than leaving it out in the garage. 

David said it was cool, that he knew enough to maintain the bike himself. Yeah, Eric just liked keeping up with it and making sure he knew enough about it. He didn’t know any mechanics in the area well enough to trust them to actually take care of it as well as he could. Plus, if anything went wrong, he’d know what the situation was. He liked knowing that. 

It was nice, to talk to someone about these things. Eric didn’t notice his tension easing up with David. It was almost natural.

David mentioned having a bike. What did he do with it? He had to get rid of it, he didn’t take good enough care of it. Sold it to someone before he moved out here. He’s originally from Michigan but relocated for work, since it’s better to be near a lot of galleries. Selling the bike helped pay for life after college. 

What did he work in? Art. He worked most in oils, something like a modern impressionist kind of painting. The big one was sculpting. He liked to chisel, but marble was kind of hard to come by. He’d gotten into wood carving, though, since the house was nearby a forest. He’d take down a tree somewhere on their property, replant a few saplings, then bring it in pieces into his workshop to carve. It was in the basement, but they’d set up a ventilation system well enough. He did like painting realism sometimes, as a hobby, though.

Eric didn’t know anything about art. He would love to see his works, one day. 

Well you could swing by. I don’t think anyone’d be home to mind. If you wanna hang out some more.

“Who’s home?” Eric asked then, almost confused. 

David blinked at him a few times, trying to process what was confusing, before realization entered his face and he snapped his fingers. “Shit, yeah. I’m supposed to….yeah. So, uh. Me and the boys wanted to get to know you more. ‘S why Princey and Marl’ were at your bar.”

“Oh.” What? Who the fuck are the boys? “Who’re the boys?”

“You’re gay, right? Just want to clear that up, ‘cause this is about to be so fuckin’ awkward if you’re straight.” David sipped his milkshake expectantly while Eric made a face, and before Eric even answered, David snickered. “Sorry, dumb question, you don’t need to be gay to like, get this. I dunno if anyone told you directly, but Phillip and Marlowe and I, and Cadence, and another dude you haven’t met named Draco, we’re all in a relationship. Poly, gay, all that. We’re all in a relationship.

“And like, we aren’t gonna reel you into a relationship with all of us. Cadence just said you were nice, so’d Marlowe and Phillip,” David put his hands up—Eric’s face must have been some kind of slack jawed, but he was more trying to decipher what David was saying than paying attention to himself. “We thought it’d be cool to meet you. Well. I thought it’d be cool. Like, as friends and stuff. And like, we move like a pack. I don’t wanna speak for the others on what they’re thinking, but I just wanted to make sure you knew like, this isn’t a date, not for me. But like, I dunno. You’ve got everyone’s interest now.

“So if you’re like, wondering why a bunch of randos’re meeting up with you out of nowhere, it’s because you seem cool and we all share one braincell that befriends people at the same time. We all wanna meet you. I dunno what everyone’s specific desires are past that, I just kinda wanna get to know you, but I think we could be friends. That’d be cool.” David leaned back, indicating the end of his explanation, and picked up his almost empty milkshake to sip from as Eric digested all of that new information.

“Oh. Okay,” Eric’s voice sounded hollow, even to himself. 

Was that like getting stalked? Was he just getting stalked now, but a frat house of gay dudes? Was that what was happening? He didn’t know. His ears were kind of ringing a little as he tried to process that. 

So he’d run into a gaggle of dudes who wanted to be his friend. All of them? They’d talked about him—of course they’d talked about him.

One of them was fucking famous? Eric didn’t know what being friends with a famous person was like, but he didn’t want cameras in his face all the time if that’s what it meant. 

Was he even good enough for that? Eric wouldn’t have considered himself friendship material for any regular person, not to mention multiple people at once, one of whom was famous.

He had a lot of concerns, off the bat. 

“It’s kinda a lot to explain. Mostly, we’re just gonna be annoying, since you seem cool and we wanna be friends. If that’s okay,” David said. “That okay?”

What would they want out of him? He didn’t have money. He barely had a personality, if you asked him. There wasn’t anything really to gain from being his friend. 

Why the fuck were these people interested in him? 

Eric barely heard him. He just. Starred. For a moment.

That was when Eric became acutely aware of where they were. Of who he was talking to. That this was...well, it was a casual conversation, but a proposition to come home. He had to—he checked his phone, it was 1:10, holy fuck. He had to pick up Gavin soon. Like, now even. He had to go. 

He had to go.

He just had to. 

“Okay. I,” what was he doing here, what did they want out of him? There was no way— “I need to go.”

David raised his eyebrows but said nothing of it. His smile faded. “Okay. Go ahead, I’m handling the bill,” his voice was a lot more gentle now, as if the fervor he’d spoken with earlier had been sapped out of his bones. 

Eric almost missed it. 

He’d been lulled into a false sense of security, out of talking about fucking motorcycles and art. He stood, one fast motion that is more abrupt than he should be, and turned down the hall. He could apologize. David seemed nice. So did Phillip. Marlowe. Cadence maybe even. It might be nice, to talk to some more people, to get to know them. 

Gavin had said earlier that he had a friend. He could stick his neck out there. Reach out to people. He had a phone number. He could turn around and talk to David right now. 

David had looked real sad when Eric left.

Instead, he walked down the hall and out the door. He tried his best to breathe evenly, because panic driving the bike was never smart, and in doing so he just. Swallowed. His feelings. 

Eric took a big gulp of air, actually, and grabbed his bike’s helmet. Already, he was just zoning out. He was going to go pick up Gavin! Then, he was gonna make sure the kid was doing his homework. And then he had a shift at the bar. 

What would they even say about Gavin? 

He revved the bike’s engine and pulled out of the parking lot without looking back. 

His brain was static empty by the time he pulled into the parking lot at Gavin’s school, a whole ten minutes early. He didn’t have to leave that fast. But he couldn’t just stay there. What would he do? Go back and talk to David? Face that kind of unknown? He...he couldn’t. He’d stormed out like something was wrong, and wouldn’t David be mad for that? He didn’t know him much anyways. He didn’t owe him anything, either. 

If only he could convince the guilt weighing in his stomach the same thing. 

When the school bell rang, Eric perked up, taking Gavin’s helmet out from where it gets hooked and clipped onto the back seat. He drummed his fingers against the top. 

His kid came bursting out from around the portables, running around to where Eric usually parked. Gavin threw his arms up in the air when he saw Eric, so Eric threw his arms up as well. He climbed off the bike and squatted down, holding his arms open enough for Gavin to launch himself into a hug. 

They did this just about every day and Eric didn’t see himself ever getting tired of it. Gavin snuggled his face against Eric’s shoulder and shouted “HI THIEF!”

“Hey, kiddo,” Eric said with a sigh. The nickname was a dour one, but it was hard to train Gavin out of it. He’d gotten upset about enough things, today, and he was waiting until they got home to do something about the rising panic he was literally just barely tamping down. 

He helped Gavin onto the motorcycle’s seat, strapping him in while he asked how school had gone. It was a Thursday. Gavin had math tests on Thursday, which he loved. They were doing fifty in a minute with addition, which the teacher said Gavin was really good at. Better than reading time, since he was bad at focusing. The teacher suggested he get Gavin checked for reading disorders or attention disorders. But Eric didn’t have the money for something like that. 

Still, it was nice hearing Gavin talk about how happy he was to finish the fifty. He was the first one done. “You’re such a smarty pants,” Eric joked, patting his hand on Gavin’s helmet once he got it strapped on. 

“Mm,” Gavin frowned at that one, then shrugged. “Not really. I just like the numbers.”

“You’re good at the numbers, too,” Eric reminded him as he sat himself back down, too. “What homework do you have tonight?”

“Wait wait, but I wanted to know,” Gavin grabbed Eric’s sides, balling his hands up around him. “How did lunch go?”

Lunch. 

Gavin was asking about. About how lunch went. Eric was really glad he wasn’t looking at him, because there’s no way he could have hidden how much his face fucking fell at the question. 

“It, uh. Went alright.” Eric put his own helmet on, not turning around to see Gavin. “I’ve got work tonight, so I’m going to cook dinner when we get home, and you’ve gotta do your homework. Okay?” 

He didn’t want to talk to his four year old brother, of all people, about that travesty of a date. It wasn’t even a date. It fucking felt like a date. 

He didn’t want to hang out with anyone. He didn’t even want to have to talk to any of them, not if they were going to all pile up on him and what if anyone ever started taking offense to him? He didn’t want to join their group. And he probably wasn’t even good enough for it. 

He didn’t want to think about how he’d walked out on David.

Shut the fuck up about it, Eric. You’ve gotta go for a bit of a drive. Then you get to panic about this.

“Okay,” Gavin’s voice was quiet, a little sad. Probably because Eric wasn’t answering his question. Usually Eric gave him an explanation before a nonanswer. But he didn’t need to. And Gavin wouldn’t understand. Eric could think of a thousand reasons why not to talk to Gavin about that. 

“It’s fine,” Eric said, as if he could comfort Gavin with that harsh statement. And he revved his engine before he could hear Gavin’s response, if any.

The drive was quick. Some kinda force must have been on Eric’s side because every light was coming up green. He parked the bike in his unit’s garage and Gavin hopped off fast, beating Eric to the door, and disappeared inside. 

Usually that was a surefire sign the kid was upset, but at the moment, Eric couldn’t really find it in himself to care. Nor fault him, really. Eric was on edge, was being pretty unreasonable. 

On the flip side, he had to make dinner. It was 2 p.m. and he had to be at work at 4, so he had to leave at 3:30, and he had to make sure Gavin was doing homework. A conversation like this could take hours. He didn’t have that kind of time. And he’d have to understand himself why this was all happening. Why he was doing this. What was so terrifying. 

Eric didn’t have the time nor the energy to confront that. So he wasn’t going to. 

Quietly, he trudged into the kitchen, jumping when the door to the bedroom slams closed. Gavin, most likely. He usually did his homework in the kitchen, but, well…

Eric slung his jacket over one of the kitchen chairs and went to work cooking. It was always a tossup, leaving Gavin home alone. He was a smart kid. Eric told him not to touch the stove or the oven or touch any of the knives on their stand, and Gavin had never done anything like that. Eric also would punch in his phone number on the landline phone and colored in the “call” button with green sharpie. If anything happened, Gavin knew to just hit the green button. That’d call Eric, and he could always get home within ten minutes. If anything super bad happened, Gavin knew to hide in the closet. All of the neighbors on their floor had been asked, please, to call him if something happened to the building or his unit. 

That was the best he could do, really. He didn’t have the money nor knew anyone well enough to let them watch Gavin. Once, he tried to leave Gavin with the neighbors, but he’d somehow escaped their apartment and gone back to Eric’s. The kid was attached, the neighbor had explained. And Eric didn’t really want anyone watching him in their apartment, when he wouldn’t be there. 

Sometimes, the kid will do the dishes for him. Once, Eric was pretty sure Gavin cut his hand while trying to wash a knife, but Gavin said a bully got his arm caught on a door hinge in a fight. That was a specific enough lie that worried Eric that maybe both had happened. Poor kid had to deal with living with him, bullies on top of that?

He made pasta with some marinara sauce. It was a solid batch, and if Gavin didn’t finish it, then Eric would have some. He’d already eaten more than enough at lunch, though. And he was used to being hungry by now. 

He stared at the cooking pasta with a blank expression. 

Once dinner was ready, Eric checked the clock. Twenty minutes before he had to leave. Which was pretty standard for him, save for how he now had to go into the room where Gavin was hiding so he could change. He wasn’t about to go out in what he’d consider his nice clothes, to a bar where he could get thrown up on.

He stopped in front of the door. And took a breath. 

“Dinner’s ready whenever you want it, Gav,” Eric said, voice soft as he also knocked on the door. “Can I come in? I’ve gotta get changed to go to work.”

“Sure,” came the soft reply.

Eric braced himself internally, pursing his lips a bit as he pushed open the door and peeked in. Gavin was curled up in his bed, backpack and shoes kicked off on the ground besides it. The blanket was pulled over his head, probably curled up into a ball under the sheets. 

He could just throw off his clothes and change real fast. But Eric only got his shirt off before Gavin’s head popped out. 

“Did your lunch make you sad?” he asked. 

The question made Eric freeze. Part of him wanted to turn around, growl at the child to shut the fuck up and stop asking. It would be easier, to be cruel. But he could never...he didn’t want to be his parents, and when the kid was worried about him? That kind of idiot’d do that. 

“A little,” Eric responded, trying to swallow the guilt that arose when he was reminded of how sad David had looked, how his smile had disappeared in the instant Eric stood up. 

“Does Thief not have any more friends?” 

Eric put on a black t-shirt and started taking off his jeans. “My name isn’t Thief, baby,” he tried to keep his tone level.

Gavin wilted a little. He hated it when Eric reminded him, but Eric hated that name, and it was going to be better to train Gavin out of it now rather than later. “Sorry, Daddy. But did your friend make you sad?”

He sighed. Persistent fucking kid. 

Too good for Eric, always worried about him. Sometimes, Eric wondered if Gavin got that from him, too. Always just a little too worried for it to be healthy.

He heard Gavin flinch back into the sheets, so he turned back around. Gently, Eric scooped Gavin up, blankets and sheets and all, and kissed his forehead. “A little,” he answered. “He was a new friend. I don’t think he meant to make me sad.”

“Okay.” Gavin snuggled a little more into Eric’s arms, and he felt Gavin hold onto his shirt. “Did you make him sad?”

Heh. “A little. We were both a little sad,” Eric gave him a squeeze, rocking slowly. “It’s okay, though. Sometimes you make yourself sad. Sometimes other people get sad. Being sad is okay. It’s—”

“It’s about what you do after you’re sad,” Gavin finished. Probably excited he remembered it. Kid’s always been bad at focusing, anyway. 

It’s something Eric’s told him before, quite a few times. He wished he could hide his panic and depression and honest despair from Gavin, but in a two room apartment? He didn’t want to leave the kid alone in the apartment, too. As little as he could. Gavin had seen him panic and Eric had pulled himself together to stop Gavin from worrying too much. The three year old kid had too big of a heart in him for Eric to keep making him sad, too. And now he was four. 

“Yep, you’ve got it. Smart baby.” Eric lifted him as Gavin reached his arms up, giving him a tight hug around his neck and shoulders. 

Gavin’s arm went around his head at that weird angle, where it was the only place where his arms could feasibly wrap around. “Are you gonna make it better?”

“I’m gonna try.” 

That seemed to be good enough for Gavin, because he gave Eric a kiss on the forehead, too, and then made a motion to go down. So Eric set him back down on the bed, ruffled his hair, and went back to changing his pants. 

“I set up dinner on the table, it’s noodles.” He always tried to get the ones that looked like sea shells, because Gavin thought they were fun. “After dinner, you can leave your plate on the kitchen counter and do homework at the table. I’ll be back before bed time, okay?”

Shift was supposed to be shorter today; he’d be off at 9, and it wasn’t like it was that long of a walk.

“Okay!” Gavin waved his hands. “Have fun! I love you!”

Eric, clothes changed and keys in hand, waved back. “I love you too!” 

He closed the door to the apartment, locked it from the outside, and hurried down the stairs. “I’m gonna try,” he mumbled again, quiet to himself.

The phone number. 

Eric still had the bill in his other pants’ pocket. He never took it out. 

It’d been a while since he, like. Had friends. And had to socialize. 

David likely told all of them that Eric had just walked out on him. He didn’t know what they thought of him. 

But he had to try. Right? 

At the very least, Phillip had seemed nice. Phillip had seemed like he knew what Eric’s anxiety looked like. And maybe that’d be….

Eric could try. There wasn’t a harm in that. 

Work went smoothly, both works. No one went too crazy at the bar and Eric left when the next shift lead came, just in time to catch Gavin brushing his teeth before bed. He’d managed to tuck the kid in, clean the kitchen, and even managed to fall asleep at a reasonable time. When he woke up, he took Gavin to school, then immediately went to his second job. Things were going well and, when he dropped off Gavin, the kid had wished him good luck in calling his friend.

Eric held onto that until his lunch break at his other job. During lunch break, he went across the street to a coffee shop, ordered a dirty chai, and took his phone out. He’d taken a photo of the bill’s phone number, wasn’t about to wave a hundred dollar bill around in public, but the picture was good enough. 

Here goes...well. Nothing, really. Everything. And nothing. 

Just call the damn number.

His finger hit the call button before he could think any more about it, and he waited. 

It took two rings for Phillip to pick up. 

“Hello?” he asked. 

“Hi.” 

That was when Eric realized he had no fucking idea what he was going to say. What, was he calling to say sorry? This was Phillip’s number, not David’s. Did he want to hang out with Phillip? What do adults do when they quote hang out unquote. He didn’t want to do anything that’d involve money too much, he wasn’t able to pay for a dinner or something. Did he even want to meet up with him, in person? And he had so many questions about the arrangement, of the what, five men in a relationship thing. Did all of them want to talk to him? Why? 

“Oh, Eric. Hello! I ha-I hadn’t expected you to call,” Phillip laughed a little, a sound that eased the tension off his shoulders. “Are you...What did you want to ta-to talk about?”

His voice sounded light. That was good. He didn’t sound mad. 

“I, uh. I just wanted to….” 

There was a pause. So Eric just took another sip of his coffee and said, quickly, “Did you want to go to a museum? Or hang out or something?” 

A museum. 

Eric hadn’t been to a single museum in the whole fucking city. 

What the fuck was he thinking. 

Phillip must have either pitied him or was picking up what he was trying to suggest, because that was when he responded, “Oh! If you want to-to walk around and ta-talk, we could go to the-the university’s botanical gardens.” 

Botanical gardens? And walking around might be nice. Eric’s never been to the gardens. To be honest, he didn’t know they existed, and also didn’t go to the city’s university. It was a little farther away from the downtown and it wasn’t like he got an education past high school level anyway. 

He’d always wanted to go into mechanics, what with working on the bike and all. It just never worked out. 

Flowers seemed nice. 

“Sure! That, uh, I’ve never been but that sounds nice,” he said.

“They are qui-quite pleasant,” Phillip hummed quietly, then added. “If you don’t mind, would it be alright if I exte-ex-ex-if I invited Cadence as well?”

Cadence. Cadence, the famous one?

“Is he, uh….is he allowed to like….” Eric, frankly, had no idea what protocol was around famous people. “Sure?”

Phillip chuckled quietly, just quiet enough for the phone to pick it up, and said, “He’s definitely allowed to be in publi-public, if that’s your worry. Being famous doesn’t make it illegal to be in places. He’d wanted to see you again, but, well. Bars are cro-cro-crowded. If you want, I won’t.”

“No, no, it’s okay. Sure. I’d, uh. That’s cool.” 

Why did he sound like an awkward teen? Why did this sound like asking someone out to prom? Eric was going to lose his mind. 

Thankfully and graciously, Phillip seemed to understand his plight. David must have spread the word of him being an anxious mess because, to some extent, Phillip was planning this date for him.

Not a date. Just hanging out. Still weird for him, but markedly less weird.

“When’s the next weekday you’re free?” Phillip asked. 

It wasn’t that hard of a question. “Monday,” Eric responded.

He didn’t have either job. Well, that was a lie, but he was picking up another late shift at the bar. He didn’t have to be there until eleven. 

“Great. Monday at ten?” 

“Works for me,” Eric said. 

Phillip hummed in approval. 

Eric almost wanted to ask about David. If Phillip heard. Things had been going well, for the most part, until David explained the polycule situation. And something about that had just made Eric’s chest seize. 

That was so many people to disappoint. They’d discussed him. Eric never liked being the point of discussion, for any people. So the idea that this group of people who were all dating had talked about him to the point that the others wanted to meet him was surreal. 

Plus, he couldn’t help but be wary of the insinuation that they just wanted to be friends with him. Phillip was very regal, pretty and polished. Cadence was so fucking handsome it was unfair. David had been handsome as well, beautiful in a casual way. Eric was too fucking gay for this. He hadn’t seen Marlowe in much other than lowlight, and while the dude was drunk, but even then Eric could tell the dude was adorable. It was un-fucking-fair.

There was a….worry, deeper down. That while they might not want him in a romantic way, he’s just going to be a nervous gay wreck the whole time. 

“See you then, then, Eric,” Phillip’s voice held something of a smirk, and then he hung up. 

Eric lowered the phone, starred at the call screen for a moment or two before things began to click on his head. He was going to hang out with Phillip. And Cadence. 

They didn’t hate him. 

That was a good start.

[daxwritesstories]

College AU Part 19: Bittersweet

Content warning: sexist language, attempted rape, violence

Scene 1: Famous Last Words

(Scene title by My Chemical Romance)

INT. Cafeteria - Noon

Jayce walks around the cafeteria, deciding what to eat. As he looks around, he passes a line of people. He notices Enzo standing in the line and he stops in his tracks. He squints at Enzo, trying to figure out if it's actually him.

After a moment of staring, Jayce walks up to where Enzo is in the line.

JAYCE: Enzo?

Enzo turns his head and smiles.

ENZO: Oh! Hey, Jayce!

JAYCE: I didn't know you went to this school.

ENZO: I don't, actually.

Enzo laughs.

ENZO: I'm visiting a friend. He's still in class though. I got here kind of early.

JAYCE: Oh. Well, do you wanna hang out while you wait?

ENZO: Sure.

Enzo nods towards the food place that he's in line for.

ENZO: Want anything?

JAYCE: Uh, yeah. I'll wait with you.

We cut to a bit later. Jayce and Enzo are eating at a table together.

ENZO: So, um, what have you been up to since the school year started?

JAYCE: Like, other than schoolwork?

ENZO: Well, yeah. I know you're doing that.

JAYCE: Hm... Can I be honest with you?

ENZO: Yeah.

JAYCE: I've been kind of having a thing with Prince.

ENZO: Again?

Jayce shrugs.

JAYCE: Maybe third time's the charm...

Enzo laughs.

ENZO: And what about Cyra? I know she's going to this school too.

JAYCE: Ehh, Prince and I have both been kind of avoiding her. We went to her Halloween party, but that's about it.

ENZO: What? Why wasn't I invited?

JAYCE: Cyra probably just forgot. She seems distracted lately. I was expecting to see Hayden at the party too but apparently he never got an invitation.

ENZO: It's not like Cyra to forget things.

JAYCE: I know. Isn't it weird?

Enzo looks around.

ENZO: I wonder if I could hunt her down.

JAYCE: I'm sure it wouldn't be hard. She's loud as shit.

Enzo keeps looking around.

ENZO: Yeah...

JAYCE: Oh, and she has band practice tonight. If I remember correctly.

ENZO: She's in a band?

JAYCE: Mhm. She won't stop texting me about their next show, asking me to come to it.

ENZO: Well now I really need to find her.

JAYCE: Why?

ENZO: She promised she'd start a band with me back in high school. We never got around to it though.

JAYCE: Huh.

Scene 2: Love The Way It Hurts

(Scene title by Cloudy June)

INT. Theater room - Noon

Cyra is sitting in her theater class, listening to the teacher give a lecture. She's sitting next to Connor, who is texting, trying to hide his phone from the prof's view.

Connor snickers at something and then taps Cyra's arm. He holds his phone out for her to see. Cyra glances at the prof and then leans over to look at Connor's phone.

We see a close up of the phone. It's a text conversation with Devin.

DEVIN (text): Whatever.

DEVIN (text): Hit on me all you want, man.

DEVIN (text): I ain't getting down with you unless there's a hot girl between us.

Cyra snickers and looks at Connor.

CONNOR (whispering): Permission to send a pic of you and me?

CYRA (whispering): Just make sure I look hot in the pic.

Connor nods and starts looking through his phone for a picture.

There is a knock at the classroom door and everyone, except Connor, turns their heads to look. Roman pokes his head through the door and he smiles at the theater prof, Jamie.

ROMAN: Can I borrow one of your students?

JAMIE: Go ahead.

Roman glances around the room until he spots Cyra.

ROMAN: Cyra.

Cyra gets out of her seat and hurries to the door, looking confused.

INT. Hallway - Noon

Cyra closes the door behind them.

CYRA: What's up?

Roman pulls a key out of his pocket.

ROMAN: Gift from Ace.

Cyra takes the key.

CYRA: Oh right. He wants me to clean his dorm tomorrow.

Cyra dramatically sighs.

CYRA: While he goes on a date...

Roman laughs.

ROMAN: Cuck.

Cyra rolls her eyes, unamused.

ROMAN: I don't think I've ever seen you not wearing a crop top. I didn't know you had normal-length shirts.

CYRA: You know why I'm dressed like this.

Roman pretends to think.

ROMAN: Hm... Nope! Forgot. Show me.

Without waiting for a response, Roman grabs the hem of Cyra's shirt and pulls it up a bit. We see that Cyra has bruises on her hip and sides, as well as a few burn marks on her stomach. They appear to have been done with cigarettes.

ROMAN: Oh, now I remember.

Cyra gives Roman an annoyed look.

ROMAN: Don't look at me like that. I know you had fun. You couldn't stop smiling the entire time.

Cyra looks down and blushes.

CYRA: It was because of Ace. Not you.

ROMAN: Hm...

Roman grabs Cyra's hips and presses his thumbs into a couple of the bruises. He presses down hard and Cyra winces in pain. She glances around the hallway.

CYRA: Someone's gonna see you.

Cyra closes her eyes and tilts her head up as Roman presses down even harder.

ROMAN: Don't worry, I'm almost done.

CYRA: Almost done what?

Cyra yelps and immediately covers her mouth when Roman pinches her skin, squeezing the bruises together on both sides of her hips. Roman laughs.

ROMAN: I just wanted to make it hurt again. You look the best when you're in pain.

Roman lets go of Cyra and she exhales heavily.

ROMAN: I'd say "don't be late tomorrow", but I kind of want to see you with a black eye again. So try to be late tomorrow! Ace hates when people are late.

CYRA: Thanks for the advice...

ROMAN: See you soon.

Roman walks away after waving to Cyra.

Scene 3: Bittersweet

(Scene title by Panic at the Disco)

INT. Hallway - Evening

Enzo walks down the hallway, checking all the room numbers as he passes them. He stops outside the band practice room. He checks his phone for the room number. Once he has it confirmed, he opens the door.

INT. Band practice room - Evening

When Enzo opens the door, we immediately hear Cyra yelling.

CYRA: I don't know what your fucking problem is, Erik!

ERIK: My fucking problem is I don't wanna do that song! When you didn't wanna do that Ghost song, we took it out of the set list!

CYRA: You never wanna do any of my suggestions! I've been singing all your songs! When are we gonna do some of my fucking ideas?!

ERIK: If you wanna do your ideas then come up with some better ones! Oingo Boingo sucks and they aren't even metal!

CYRA: But we can make it metal!

ERIK: I know, I know. You've said that like fifty times already.

CYRA: I have to keep saying it because you won't fucking listen to me!

ERIK: I'm hearing you loud and clear, bitch! We're not fucking doing the song and that's final!

CYRA: Who died and put you in charge of the entire band?

ERIK: It's my fucking band! I started it without you and we were doing just fine until you came along.

CYRA: You would've never gotten a real gig without me, you ungrateful piece of shit!

ERIK: Oh here we go with this shit again!

CYRA: What shit? The truth?

ERIK: The shit about you using your rich girl privileges to win an argument! I'm fucking done with this!

Erik stomps over to the couch and picks up his empty guitar case. Carrying the case and his guitar, Erik storms out of the room, completely ignoring Enzo standing in the doorway.

Watching Erik leave, Cyra notices Enzo.

CYRA: Enzo!

Cyra runs over to give Enzo a hug.

ENZO: Hi Cyra.

CYRA: It's so nice to see you again!

Cyra lets go of Enzo and sticks her head out of the room to yell at Erik.

INT. Hallway - Evening

CYRA: Yeah, run away, you little bitch! Run away from your fuckin' problems!

Erik turns around, continuing to walk backwards.

ERIK: Suck my dick, bitch!

CYRA: Oh, you'd love that, wouldn't you?!

ERIK: I'm not fuckin' talkin' to you anymore!

CYRA: Good!

INT. Band practice room - Evening

Cyra closes the door behind her.

CYRA: Sorry about that, Enzo.

ENZO: What were you fighting about?

Enzo and Cyra go to sit down on the couch.

RHETT: They fight about everything.

Rhett stands up from behind the drum set and walks toward the door.

RHETT: They both have lead singer-disease.

CYRA: Whatever! I'm the lead singer so I should be allowed to have that. Erik's the fucking guitarist.

RHETT: Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna go talk to him. Nice to meet you, by the way, Enzo. I'm Rhett.

ENZO: Likewise, Rhett...

Enzo feels a bit awkward about witnessing the fight. Rhett leaves the room.

CYRA: So, what are you doing here, Enzo? You don't go to this school.

ENZO: I came to visit a friend today, but then I ran into Jayce and he told me you started a band without me. So obviously I had to come find you.

CYRA: Oh right! I promised you, didn't I?

Cyra leans closer to Enzo and smiles.

ENZO: You did.

Cyra giggles and sits up again.

CYRA: Well, there's no time like the present. Right?

ENZO: What?

CYRA: Let's start a band!

ENZO: Uh... Maybe you should figure out what's going on with this band first.

CYRA: Nah, fuck them. Erik's probably gonna kick me out anyway. I'll show him that I don't need him. If he thinks he can get the band gigs without my help, then I'll leave him to it.

Enzo laughs.

ENZO: Well, I guess we could give it a go. I'm not as serious about it as your friend though. I kind of just wanna have fun with it.

CYRA: That's perfect! I'm sick of all this business talk anyway. Let's just be that garage band we always wanted to be in high school! What instrument do you wanna play?

ENZO: Uh, I should probably play bass. I'm not as good at guitar.

CYRA: Perfect! Obviously I'll be the singer because I'm the world's best vocalist.

Enzo laughs.

CYRA: Now we just need a drummer and a guitarist. You go convince Jayce to join us and I'll recruit Celia.

ENZO: You really think Jayce will wanna join a band with you?

CYRA: Oh, come on! He can't still be mad at me.

Scene 4: Forget About It

(Scene title by All Time Low)

INT. Jayce & Leon's dorm - Morning

JAYCE: Cyra wants me to join the band? I don't know, man...

Jayce is sitting in his desk chair, facing away from the desk. Enzo is sitting on Jayce's bed and Leon is lying on his own bed.

ENZO: Why not? Are you still mad at her?

JAYCE: Well, honestly yeah.

LEON: What did she even do to you?

Enzo laughs.

ENZO: He hasn't told you yet?

Leon shakes his head.

JAYCE: She cheated on me with, like, five different people when we were together. Two of which were my friends.

LEON: Ouch.

ENZO: Yeah, it was pretty brutal. I thought she apologized though.

JAYCE: She did. Multiple times. But apologies don't mean much when you just do the same thing again right after.

ENZO: You're right, but to be fair, you kind of let her get away with it. She was the one who ended up having to break up with you.

Jayce lets out an annoyed sigh.

ENZO: Look, I'm on your side, man. What she did was fucked up.

LEON: Did Cyra do the same thing to Prince? You said you were dating them at the same time.

JAYCE: Yeah.

ENZO: Yeah, Prince kind of had it worse, actually. Cyra was already doing fucked up shit to them before they were even dating.

LEON: Oh... Prince seems to get along with Cyra though.

JAYCE: Prince isn't like me. They get over stuff a lot faster. It's easy for them to just emotionally detach themself from things like that. I wish I could do that.

Leon snickers.

LEON: You make them sound like a sociopath.

JAYCE: That's not what I meant.

Enzo and Leon both laugh.

ENZO: Look, maybe hanging out with Cyra more will help you get over it. Obviously avoiding her isn't helping.

Jayce sighs.

JAYCE: It's hard to get over something like that.

Enzo smiles.

ENZO: Weren't you the one hoping that Bella would "get over it soon" after you did the same thing to her?

Jayce gives Enzo an annoyed look.

JAYCE: That was before I knew how much it sucked to be on the opposite end of it.

Enzo shrugs. Jayce has a thoughtful expression.

Scene 5: Rampage

(Scene title by Nicole Dollanganger)

INT. Ace & Zayn's dorm - Night

Cyra is in the dorm by herself. She is dusting the shelves, dressers, and desks, moving things around when needed.

There is a knock at the door and Cyra stops what she's doing. Duster still in hand, she hurries over to the door and opens it. Phoenix is standing there in the hallway.

CYRA: Oh! Hey, Phoenix.

PHOENIX: Hi Cyra! What are you doing here?

CYRA: Uh...

Cyra quickly hides the duster behind her back.

CYRA: What are you doing here?

PHOENIX: I came to talk to Ace. What are you doing here?

CYRA: Um...

Cyra's eyes dart around, trying to come up with a lie. Phoenix looks past her, into the room.

PHOENIX: You're cleaning Ace's dorm?

Cyra sighs in defeat.

CYRA: Please don't tell anyone.

Phoenix gives her a friendly smile.

PHOENIX: Who am I gonna tell?

Phoenix pushes past Cyra, letting himself into the dorm.

PHOENIX: Where's Ace?

CYRA: He's out on a date.

PHOENIX: Ah. I'll just wait here until he gets back then.

Cyra seems nervous about that, but she doesn't argue. She just closes the door and goes back to dusting. Phoenix wanders around the room, looking at everything in it.

CYRA: So, how long have you and Axel been together?

PHOENIX: About five years.

CYRA: Cute! How did you two meet?

PHOENIX: We met through Ace. We were both friends with him.

CYRA: Oh, that's cool! How long have you been friends with Ace?

PHOENIX: Apparently we're not friends anymore.

Cyra stops dusting and turns around to look at Phoenix.

CYRA: Huh?

PHOENIX: He told me at your party. Apparently he doesn't want to be "associated with me", whatever that means.

CYRA: Oh, um... Are you sure you should be in here then? Won't Ace be mad?

Phoenix laughs.

PHOENIX: Maybe. He gets mad pretty easily, doesn't he?

Cyra gives Phoenix a confused look.

PHOENIX: Don't worry, I'll explain everything when he gets back. I'll make sure he's not mad at you.

CYRA: Um... okay...?

Phoenix picks up Cyra's spare key from Ace's desk.

CYRA: Uh, please don't touch that.

PHOENIX: Why?

CYRA: It's... That's mine.

PHOENIX: Is this how you got in here today? A spare key?

CYRA: Yes, and I really can't lose that. Please put it back.

Phoenix just stares thoughtfully at Cyra, still holding the key. Frustrated, Cyra puts the duster down and tries to take the key back from Phoenix. He pulls it out of her reach though. Cyra frowns, dropping her friendly demeanor.

CYRA: I don't think you should be in here.

Phoenix just giggles. Cyra lunges for the key again but Phoenix blocks her with his free arm.

CYRA: Give it back!

PHOENIX: No.

Cyra tries to push Phoenix's arm.

CYRA: Fucking give it back!

Phoenix pushes Cyra away with an unexpectedly strong force. It knocks Cyra to the floor.

CYRA: Ow! What the fuck?!

PHOENIX: You're a brat. I'm surprised Ace keeps you around.

CYRA: What's that supposed to mean?

Cyra quickly gets back on her feet and Phoenix puts the key back on the desk.

PHOENIX: There, right back where I found it.

CYRA: Okay, I don't know what your fucking problem is but you need to leave now.

Phoenix sighs.

PHOENIX: Alright, I'll go. I didn't mean to upset you. I was just joking around.

Phoenix walks towards the door and Cyra looks somewhat relieved.

CYRA: You have a... strange sense of humor.

Phoenix laughs.

PHOENIX: You should probably lock the door behind me. It's late.

CYRA: Right.

Cyra follows Phoenix to the door. Phoenix reaches for the handle but pauses before grabbing it.

Without any warning, Phoenix suddenly turns and grabs Cyra's neck with both hands. Before Cyra can react, he walks her over to Ace's bed. He pushes her onto the bed and climbs on top of her, holding her down with his weight.

Despite being choked, Cyra manages to make a loud gagging sound. Phoenix lets go of her neck and puts his hand over her mouth. He speaks in a calm, reassuring tone.

PHOENIX: Be quiet for me, okay?

Cyra grabs at Phoenix's arm and lets out muted screams as he unbuttons her shorts. She tries to kick him but only manages to hit him with her knee at an awkward angle that does nothing.

INT. Boys dorm hallway - Night

Ace and Zayn walk down the hallway toward their dorm. They both seem happy.

ACE: I'm glad the dorm will be nice and clean. Now we can make a mess of it again.

Zayn smiles.

ZAYN: Where do you wanna make a mess first?

ACE: Everywhere.

Zayn looks surprised by that response.

ZAYN: Damn...

Ace winks at him.

ACE: Don't be gentle~

The pair stop at the door to their dorm and Ace takes his key out from his purse. Goes to unlock the door but freezes when he hears Phoenix laughing through the door. Ace's expression turns from happiness to pure rage.

ACE: What. The fuck.

Ace quickly unlocks the door and aggressively pushes it open.

INT. Ace & Zayn's dorm - Night

ACE: Phoenix!

Phoenix, still on top of Cyra, turns his head. While he is momentarily distracted, Cyra slaps Phoenix's face with as much strength as she can in her position.

PHOENIX: Ah!

Phoenix flinches from the surprise hit and Cyra takes the opportunity to pull his hand off of her mouth.

CYRA: Get the fuck off me!

Zayn rushes over to pull Phoenix off of the bed, letting him fall to the floor. Zayn immediately turns to check on Cyra.

ZAYN: Are you okay?

Cyra doesn't respond, hastily buttoning her shorts back up.

Ace slams the door shut and stomps over to Phoenix. He kicks him in the crotch with a lot of force.

PHOENIX: Ow, fuck!

ACE: What the fuck is wrong with you?!

Ace kicks Phoenix again in the same spot. Phoenix groans in pain and Ace kneels overtop of him. Holding Phoenix down by his shoulder, Ace repeatedly punches at his head.

ZAYN: Whoa!

Zayn moves to break up the fight but Cyra grabs his arm tightly, stopping him. Zayn gives Cyra a confused look. She just shakes her head, looking scared.

Ace slows down his punches to yell at Phoenix in between.

ACE: You should have never shown your ugly-ass face around here! You fucking piece of shit rapist!

Phoenix doesn't respond, he just makes pained noises as he tries to block Ace's fist.

ACE: This is my fucking turf! How dare you come here and act like you own the goddamn place! I should just beat your ass to death like you fucking deserve!

ZAYN: Okay, no.

Zayn pulls away from Cyra's grasp and grabs Ace's shoulder. Ace continues to scream insults at Phoenix as Zayn tries to pull him away.

ACE: Fuck you! Fucking rapist pedophile scumbag! Don't ever fucking show your face around here again! I'll fucking kill you, bitch!

ZAYN: Ace please.

Zayn finally manages to pull Ace up and away from Phoenix. The badly-beaten man scrambles to his feet.

PHOENIX: You're a psycho!

ACE: And you're a rapist!

Ace struggles against Zayn's grip, trying to lunge at Phoenix again.

ACE: Get out of here before I call the cops!

ZAYN: I second that. Get out.

Phoenix glances at Cyra one more time before hurrying out the door. He slams it behind him.

Ace seems to calm down a bit and Zayn lets go of him. Ace sighs and looks at Cyra.

ACE: Did he touch you?

Cyra glances at Ace, hugging her knees to her chest.

CYRA: Yeah, but I'm fine.

ACE: Are you sure?

CYRA: Yes.

Cyra and Ace stare at each other. They both look upset.

[despair-to-future-arcs]

Prepare for a world changing view.

Wh-What are you talking about...? I mean c'mon, it's just harmless bullying it couldn't be that bad, could it...?

I won't say much but I do want to ask about one of those arguments, can you bring up an example.

Hmm, there was a lot but I did remember one where she decided to join photography club, I think it was July or the last day before summer started.

...

...

...

Date: July 20th, 2007

*muffle screaming can be heard in the kitchen*

*SMACK!*

NATSUMI: WAAAAHAHAHAAAAA, I HATE YOU MOM - FUCK OFF YOU BITCH!

YUKIKO: YOU PICK ON THAT KOHARU GIRL AGAIN, IF YOU DON'T CUT THAT SHIT OUT, I'LL SEND YOU TO GRANDMA'S AND BOARDING SCHOOL!

NATSUMI: I DON'T WANNNNNAAAAAAA!!! WAAAAAHAHAHAAAAA!

*SMACK!*

I hear mom and Natsumi arguing again, should we step in...?

Let them be, after all that mom of yours wanted to keep her, I'm staying out of it.

Anyway, we got some work to do tomorrow so be sure to be up early, got it?

Yeah dad, sure...

Good, I'll be working - don't disturb me unless it's about dinner.

*walks upstairs which Peko heads for the door*

Well I better return back home, good day young master.

Yeah... see ya Peko...

*as Peko leaves, Natsumi marches over*

I-I hate mom so fucking much, why can't she fuck off...?!

I overheard a bit, what is mom getting on your case this time?

She got on my fucking case about messing with this girl that couldn't hear for shit and the teacher was forcing us to learn this thing called 'JSL' or whatever the fuck that is.

I mean seriously, why the fuck should I learn to accommodate for that bitch, she should just hear already!

JSL? The hell is that...?

It's Japanese sign language, you use your hands to speak to the person which is use for those that can't hear and it seem so damn stupid, I mean why the hell do I need that garbage...?

Yeah that does sound pretty stupid, I mean what's the point of sign language; it's not like I need it either.

Exactly, honestly I hated it so much that I decided to mess with that deaf bitch; teach her that no one is gonna be kind to ya and should speak up but of course she can't.

And then mom found out and well here we are, seriously I hate her so much; can't she fuck off or whatever? I swear this is why I hate a lot of women like her - so fucking annoying.

And even then she keeps threatening to send me to boarding school; I like to see her fucking try, dad would never agree with it.

Yeah and honestly it sounds like you didn't do anything too bad, so do you want to watch a movie or something?

Sure thing, honestly after that shitty day I need something to watch so let's go.

'...It...It can't be that bad... can it...?'

[mochafoams]

SCHOOL VENTING!!

Tw: venting, mentions of being/feeling trapped, naive writer, rejecting ones feelings, rejecting their own feelings, deep talk of hating school, mention of getting someone sick on purpose, cussing.

Written with microphone, so many grammar mistakes. Crappy mic..

Why do I hate school? That's a question that I ask myself, and I can never figure out why. I just have a feeling, a dreadful feeling every time when I walk into the building. I feel trapped because I am. People say that it's just a certain amount of days to stay there but it feels like an eternity. It's usually, like, 36 hours staying there for a whole week.

And I try to downplay it like everyone else does but it doesn't sit right with me because I don't want to be there. Teachers say "if you don't want to be here go home," but the government won't let our parents keep us there and our parents won't let us stay here. Of course it's difficult for parents or teachers to understand how kids really don't want to be at school and that their minds feel like they're trapped, even though they say, "oh yeah I used to go to school when I was younger," but this now the present.

You guys can't get mad at me when I feel like I do enough at school. Yeah all I do is homework and the school work that they give me, but that's what I'm going there for. I'm not going there for like an after-school program, I'm not going there to talk to a counselor for no reason, and I'm definitely not going there for no reason in general!

And I almost- I almost come home everyday with f****** math homework so I am doing enough! It's not like I don't have classwork to do, I always get my work done quickly because I don't want to have to sit at home and drag school into my home life. I don't care if you say homework is for home I'll do it whenever I get the chance. I will take my lunch break away from myself and do homework then because I will not bring it to the only place I have a little bit of comfort in.

And I try my best in school. I'm being serious I get- I have credit roll and I'm going for Honor Roll. I'm trying even though I hate school so much but I am trying to be the best student there possibly is! Well I wouldn't say that I want to go that far but I'm trying my best and you guys always just deny my feelings whenever I say something negative about school. My whole mood will change when you just say, "you have your stuff ready for school tomorrow?" Or, "remember you have school tomorrow?" I will never be the same after you say those words or something related to school it just messes me up that bad.

I don't get bullied or anything in school it's just a school air that brings negative energy to me. Just going to bed and knowing that I have to wake up at 7:40 a.m. in the morning to get up and go to school before 8:30 or 8:45 just puts me in a bad mood. And I know people have to wake up earlier for school or work and 7:40 doesn't sound that bad, and I really don't care about what time I need to get up and leave.

But if I try to get myself sick so I don't have to go to school, you should know how much I hate it.

[dirty-brainrot]

Josuke Higashikata ii (Pocky Day)

Here's the 2nd one. I plan on making 4 of these since 11.11 but I'll do the other two tomorrow.

☆

Everything went surprisingly well! Seems like you're favorable of lady luck today. The teachers didn't announce any quizzes or assignments, you got a perfect mark in math, gotten free food from the cafeteria, it's the last day of the week meaning no school tomorrow too, and lastly you got a gift from a friend! At least you think it's from a friend? It was wrapped in a blank piece of paper, taped together messily. After inspecting the odd rectangle-shaped present on your table, you opened it gently.

While gently tearing the tape, you notice scribbles on the inner side of the paper but not only that, you also noticed... inside laid your favorite pocky flavor!

Unwrapping the paper from the box, you placed the pocky down on the table and read the note wrapper. Weirdly, it's in two different handwritings? Most likely it was from two persons. A gift from a couple of friends, perhaps?

_________________________________________

Hey Y/N!      ʸᵒ

            We got you this pocky so you can finally confess to josuke!       Gₒ ᵧ/ₙ!!

            If you thought we didn't see how you look at josuke with heart in ur eyes then ur wrong. >:P We want our 2 closest bffs to get together.      ₜₕₑ ₜₑₙₛᵢₒₙ ᵢₛ ₜₒₒ ₘᵤ𝒸ₕ!

              you can do this we believe in you! ♡

-Koichi & ₒᵤₖᵤᵧₐₛᵤ

ₚₛ. Wₑ ₛₑₙₜ ⱼₒₛₖₑ ₜₒ ₚᵢₖ ᵤ ᵤₚ ₛₒ ᵤ   ʷₒₙₜ ᵣᵤₙ ₐₙ𝒹 ₑₐₜ ₜₕₑ ₚₒ𝒸ₖᵧ ᵦᵤᵧ ᵤᵣₛₑₗᶠ.

________________________________________

"Oh... Oh!" You don't know whether to be thankful by the free pocky or nervous since Josuke is on his way and it would be just the two of you in the classroom. Unprepared to see him, you scrambled to grab all your school items and stuffed them in your bag in a hurry as well as crumpling the note more.

The moment you turned around to make your great escape, you bumped into someone's soft chest. "Gah!" "Ah!" Both of you let out a surprised squeak and you stumble back on the chair, bag on your lap while the other person was unaffected. "I didn't mean to get too close! I thought you realized I was behind you-! Hey... Are you good? You look like you've seen a ghost." Shaking your head sideways, you held in the blush threatening to show. He was towering over you, checking your face if you had hurt yourself.

"Well, glad you're okay. And by the way, Okuyasu and Koichi told me you needed my help with something?" 'Curse those two loveable idiots!' "Oh uhm...." Trailing off and mumbling incoherent words, he watches you become a mess. 'WhatdoIdoWhatdoIdoWhatdoIdo-' Too busy internal panicking, you failed to notice Josuke grab the Pocky from the table. He shook the box first, making sure it had the contents before asking your permission to open it. "I love this flavor, one of my favorites! Do you mind if I open it?" Surprised by the sudden question, you look back at him still panicking. "No- sure?-" He raises one of his sharp brows at you in suspicion but shrugs it away. He tears the upper side of the box and placed it back to your table then he grabs the wrapper-filled pocky and opens it.

"Oh hey! Wasn't there a game with pocky?" He grabs one piece holding it in his hand while trying to remember. "Yeah..." He offers the single piece of pocky to you. "I don't remember it... Mayyybeee you can show it to me? If you don't mind of course." Huh. "Sure." Grabbing the pocky, both of your hands brushed against each other. "Uh... So..." You place the treat in front of your lips as you go through how to play the pocky game. "The... objective of the game is to be the first person to reach the center without breaking or dropping the stick." He nods excitedly and eager almost as if knows what's gonna happen.

'... Maybe he was the one who planned this! Wait wait... I shouldn't get ahead of myself...'

"Alright... Follow me." You inserted the end into your mouth, waiting for him to follow suit. "Em thenm chou tamke small nibbwels." You hoped he understood what you said. Slowly, you nibbled and he follows, although he is taking larger nibbles. Feeling your cheeks heat up you advert your eyes and stop, not leaving your lips on the pocky.

Josuke didn't stop and continued past the middle point. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see him still going, and then...

Chu!

He gives you a short sweet kiss on the lips and took the pocky out of your mouth. And he didn't even look flustered about it! Only a small tint of pink was visible on his cheeks. "These sure are tasty! Do you wanna try it again since you lost?" He bashfully grins while you try and compute what he just said. "A-again?!" You jolt back in surprise at his offer. 'Now this is very suspicious!... Maybe there's hope!' "Did I make you uncomfortable? I'm sor-" Wildly shaking your hands and your head, you grab the pocky from him.

"I don't mind but... There's something I need to say first...?" Josuke tilts his head, his pompadour bouncing. He does a little hand motion to urge you to go on. "I..." 'Here it comes... No backing out now...' Fiddling with the packet, you mumble. "I actually have a crush on you... I've had it ever since you saved me from a stand user..." You raise the packet to your face, hiding your blush but also muffling your words.

Josuke laughs and beams at you. "You're literally the cutest person I've ever seen." He grabs your hands in his. His blush becomes much more prominent. "Actually... I planned this whole thing...—" 'aha!' "Soooo... Will you be my significant other?" You smirk and remove your hands in his, grabbing a pocky stick. Gently placing it against his lips, you winked at him with your newfound confidence.

"Let's do the pocky game and see."

Jjba Special Pocky Day: Jotaro

[takamishinko]

karasuno and nekoma scenario + headcanons for ftm reader

pronouns: he/him

warnings: dead naming, slight harassment and tranphobic comments like using the wrong pronouns.

a/n: this was a request from @mi-ts i hope you enjoy this and this is what you're looking for :) i added in some headcanons of my own as well. pls tell me if i said anything offensive in there by accident, i was also super tired when i wrote this so pls excuse me for any mistakes :'D

karasuno:

i feel like the entire team is pretty supportive and definitely not transphobic

the only person that i could possibly think of that doesn't understand transitioning would be tanaka but even then he'll still support you in whatever decision you make

let's start off with the first years

hinata and kageyama definitely uses correct pronouns though i feel like kageyama might forget sometimes but he'll just use they instead

tsuki doesn't care much and i don't think he cares a lot about anything other than maybe yamaguchi

yamaguchi would be really sweet about it, correct pronouns 100%, no mistakes or mess ups. he'll probably pay more attention to you and help you with whatever you need

kinoshita and narita are both super supportive people so they wouldn't care that much but they would definitely use right pronouns and all that

ennoshita is kind of the leader of the group right? i feel like he would advocate your pronouns only if ur comfortable with it though

alright third years

suga.

supportive supportive supportive super supportive

makes sure your absolutely 120% comfortable with your surroundings and if there are people bothering you he's not scared to get asahi and daichi to square up with them

daichi is pretty lowk about it. respectful of course. always tries to help you with suga but doesn't end up helping a lot but that's ok

lastly asahi would be…

pretty nervous about making sure he doesn't use the wrong pronouns or make you uncomfortable

like overly cautious but you find it funny and adorable

__________

"yo y/n! what took you so long? practice started 10min ago." tanaka shouted from across the gym.

"sorry…i got caught up with something." you replied with a sad tone in your voice.

the team immediately noticed something wrong. you were usually a pretty cheerful person and sulking like that didn't seem right to them. 

"woah woah, you good man?" noya said while tapping you shoulder.

"yah i'm fine guys, thanks." you lied.

"even a dumbass like hinata and king over there would know you're not fine, what's wrong." said tsuki.

"hey we heard that! but seriously y/n-kun, is everything ok?" hinata said while walking over with kageyama. 

"it's nothing much really… some second years called me uhh… "baby girl" today and asked me if i had anything to do after school. they wouldn't let me go either even after i told them i had somewhere else to be…. and the fact that i'm not a girl anymore." 

"they fucking what now?" suga said with an incredibly hostile smile on his face. 

"do you know their names?" daichi asked.

"yah its f/n l/n and f/n and l/n…" 

"those two sons of bitches??" tanaka and noya screamed in unison. 

"yah do you guys know them or something?" 

"they're in the class beside ours, we don't know much about them except that they're annoying as fuck. they've been making girls uncomfortable all year long." noya replied.

"oh… they must've thought i was a girl since i didn't wear a… y'know." 

"that's still no reason to do that to you y/n. first of all you weren't comfortable with them flirting with you, second of all you also told them that you're a guy and they still called you that." asahi said 

"yah that's true." daichi said with the rest of the team nodding their heads in agreement.

"don't worry y/n, we all know it's not your fault the binders don't work. no matter what you wear or how you look, the team will always see you as who you want to be!" suga said with a bright smile on his face this time.

a smile appeared on your face with warm thoughts entering your mind. knowing you have friends that care about you this much is truly a blessing you don't want to lose. 

"on a side note, suga and i know those 2 as well. in fact we know their homeroom teacher too, i'll go report to their teacher tomorrow. he loved suga and i, we were his best students." 

a small giggle came out of you and so did some happy tears. 

"thanks guys! it really means a lot." you said to all of your friends.

the rest of the practice was filled with joy and laughter. a few days later you received a handwritten apology from the two assholes you were talking about.

__________

nekoma:

same as karasuno i'm almost 100% sure none of them are transphobic and they would all be supportive. same case of tanaka with yamamoto though if anything

after you came out kuroo just gave you his signature smirk and a big thumbs up and continued to do his chemistry.

kai.

omg don't even get me started

he is SO supportive and just the nicest person possible

he's not aggressively supportive like suga but he's literally just always there for you. before you even realize you need something he already has it.

water, food, whatever it is.

yaku (personal nekoma fav), super chill about it

"oh cool, just let me go tell lev so he doesn't mess up your pronouns."

"lev for the last fucking time it's y/n and he/him it's not that hard to remember."

bonks lev everytime he messes up but he eventually got it

fukunaga just goes: 

":3 👍" 

so precious, never messes up your pronouns and names

kenma definitely doesn't mess up, remembers it well and i think he would just be like:

"cool, make sure you let the team know. especially lev…"

yamamoto would maybe mess up but he's trying his best

inuoka and shibayama:

i love these 2 so much btw^

inuoka would be excited cuz this is the first time someone ever came out as trans to them.

shibayama is just beside inuoka also being excited and nodding his head agreeing with everything he says

in conclusion these 2 are baby

__________

"hey guys what's up!" 

"ah y/ns here." kai said with s bright smile on his face, greeting you to practice.

"yo! what's up we're just getting started can you help me set up the net?" yaku said while waving over to you.

"yah i'm on my way give me a sec." 

"kenma go help yaku-san get off your game." kuroo said while poking at kenma.

"give me a sec. I'm almost finished." 

inuoka and shibayama were on the side listening to yamamoto talk about something. you and shōhei rushed over to help yaku with the net. 

"there, all done. thanks guys. kuroo let's start practice." yaku yelled

"yah everyone get ready-" 

just as kuroo said that, two boys entered the gym. they didn't look like they were up to anything good so kuroo stepped up and asked them what they're here for. 

"how can i help you two?" 

"we're just here to find d/n, oh there she is. hey~ you haven't answered our question yet, you free this weekend sweetheart?" one of the boys said as he attempted to move closer to you.

kuroo lost his shit immediately and pushed them away from you. 

"first of all his name is y/n, second of all it's he. lastly if you don't have anything else to say, please leave, our practice is about to start." 

"chill captain~ we just wanted to talk to this beautiful lady over here." 

"for the last fucking time you bastards it's-" yaku cut off kuroo before he could finish.

"leave it to me. you, tall one on the left, f/n l/n from c/n right?" yaku asked.

“y-yah why?” 

“your chemistry mark, 53% and you didn’t pass the test you took on thursday.”

“w-what ??! i don’t even know my mark yet how do you-”

“and you, the stick on the right, f/n l/n. you’re even worse, 49% as your total and your test? i’d embarrassed for you.”

“what the fuck?? w-who are you?!”

“yaku morisuke, 3rd year. the assistant for your chemistry teacher. now if you don’t want your marks leaked to the entire school i suggest you leave y/n here alone and get out.”

“tch yeah whatever !” the 2 boys said as they scurried away. 

“yaku-san!! that was so cool!!” everyone said.

“don’t worry about it! it’s what y/n deserves” he said with a huge thumbs up.

[xneens]

hoe hoe hoe - part one

Warnings: dark!Steve, student/teacher relationship

Word count: 2.2k

Pairings: Professor!Steve Rogers x Reader

Summary: Your dad's best friend isn't exactly who you thought he'd be.

chris evans masterlist

Walking in the front door, the smell of eggnog, and pine hit your nose, mixing in with the warmth of the newly cooked food in the kitchen. Looking around the house, you registered how much decorating you had left your father to do, pondering whether or not he strained his back putting up the Christmas tree. You'd have to make it up to him somehow.

"Dad! I'm home." you yelled out, stepping out of your shoes. Even with the amount of work he had done, he still had the time to shovel the driveway despite the heavy amount of snow that had precipitated last night. The mixed-breed boxer pawed his way to you, the dog panting as he snuggled himself against your leg. "Hey, cutie."

Your father stuck his head from the kitchen, motioning for you to come into the room. "In the kitchen. I was getting worried that you got stuck in traffic. It's an absolute nightmare coming into the city from 122 right now."

Entering the kitchen with Dodger, you went to hug your dad, your arms wrapping around his waist. The man chuckled, giving your cold body a hug back before kissing your forehead. You sighed, pulling away, looking around the kitchen to see the dining room covered with food. "Traffic was a bitch, but I managed to get out of it. Although, I may have made a couple of people mad, but you gotta do what you have to do, right?"

"You got that right, pumpkin." he replied. For someone with a 20 year old daughter, the man was young, having you with his high school sweetheart at 19. He gestured at the food. "You hungry? I made all of this and I'm not sure that everyone at the party will eat all of this."

"Jesus, Dad, were you drunk when you made all of this? This is enough to feed the whole country." you commented, walking up to the table to grab a mini quiche off the plate. Your tongue swirled around the food, relishing the flavor. It was a gift having your father as a successful chef.

"I may have went overboard with the cooking, but I got excited." he explained, chuckling. Pouring some eggnog in a mug, he offered it to you, taking a sip of his own before announcing his news. "An old friend of mine is coming for the party. My best friend in college. He's in town for the holidays, and he'll be staying with us for a few. That okay?"

You nodded, washing the remaining quiche in the eggnog, swallowing it down. "Yeah, that's fine. Who's this friend of yours? Have I met him before?"

"You used to call him Uncle Steve, but he left for Brooklyn when you were four. I doubt you'd remember him but he gave you that necklace last year when he couldn't make it. He's a professor in Brooklyn now, but he wanted to come to Boston, spend the holidays with us."

"Wait, he gave me this necklace?" you asked, holding up the golden angel wings between your fingers. Your dad nodded, untying the knot on his apron. "Oh, wow. Hey, I officially get to thank him for it."

You dad agreed, nodding again as he popped a mint in his mouth, his teeth grinding down on it. "Yes, you will. He'll appreciate seeing you again. He's been talking about seeing his favorite girl—shit."

"Something wrong?"

"I forgot to pick up the ham today. I've been so busy making everything for today that I completely forgot about the main course for tomorrow." said your father, rubbing the bridge of his nose, mentally slapping himself. He sighed. "Can you take the pie out of the oven when it's ready? I have to run to the store really quick and get the ham."

Shaking your head, you stopped him, pushing his clearly exhausted body into the nearest chair, shaking a finger at him when he tried to stand back up. "No, no, no. You're tired and you need to rest. I'll get the ham, and anything else you need. Text me a list."

"Pumpkin, you don't have to do that. You just got home—" he was cut off by your insistent expression, the man relenting. "Okay, fine. Go to the Costco, they have a better selection there. And drive safe, it's supposed to be snowing tonight but with Massachusetts weather, you never know if it'll start early."

"Gotcha. I'll be back soon. In the meantime, you sit, rest, and text me a list of things I need." you said, grabbing the keys from the table. The cold air hit your face, your cheeks stinging from the impact. You winced, wishing home was somewhere warmer.

The drive to Costco was nostalgic, the familiar buildings and roads bringing back memories so deep you forgot they existed. The little ice cream place reminded you of your first kiss with your first grade boyfriend. You had immediately broken up with him the next day, claiming it was the way he walked when he asked if it was his sloppy peck on the lips. You had lied through your teeth.

Slosh was fun, it made it that much gross to walk through the barely shoveled parking lot, nearly slipping as you reached the entrance. One of the employees by the door handed you a cart, giving you a curt smile before returning to his spot.

Pushing the cart down the aisles, you immediately head to the grocery area, getting a text from your dad of all the food to get. With how short the list was, the cart had been unnecessary, but you decided to get all the last minute Christmas shopping out of the way, grabbing a Christmas card to match the present you had gotten for your father.

You had just bent over, reaching for the ham when you heard your name called, the familiar voice making you look up. A few feet behind you stood your history professor, a surprised smile on his face as he took you in. You returned the smile, stunned by the sight of you professor. "Professor Rogers? Hey, what're you doing here?"

The blond raised an eyebrow, his piercing blue eyes flickering to the necklace visible. He smirked inside, his heart warming at the thought. "I'm in the city for the holidays. I'm staying with a friend, catch up with them. What about you? Any exciting plans for Christmas?"

"Just spending it with my dad." you replied, reaching behind you to randomly grab a ham, not looking at the brand, and dropped it in the cart. "To be honest, I didn't think you could even leave Brooklyn. I mean, you practically worship the city, it's a surprise seeing you outside of it."

Professor Rogers laughed, his laughter was what you imagined angels to sound like. To say you had a tiny crush on the hot professor was understandable, although, so did everyone who had eyes. The professor leaned against the freezer, his eyes never breaking from yours. "Brooklyn's nice but it's nice to get out once in a while. That's a beautiful necklace you have there."

"Thanks, I got it from my dad's friend." you said, blushing slightly at the compliment. Taking a quick look at your phone, you noted you had everything your dad had asked for. Glancing back up at the Professor Rogers, you noticed how close he was, barely a few feet away. You gave him a smile. "It was nice seeing you, Professor. I'll see you in class."

Before you could move your cart, the professor placed a hand on it, motioning for you to pause. The blond scratched the back of his head, rocking back and forth on his heels. "Do you need help with anything? I can help you load this in your car, if you want."

"I didn't realize you worked at Costco, Professor." you teased, earning the cutest blush from the blond. Giggling, you shook your head, enjoying his company a lot more than it was allowed. "Don't worry, it's fine. It's not a lot, and I wouldn't want to bother—"

"You're not." he interrupted, sheepishly staring at the floor. The professor made himself look up, smirking when he realized you were blushing. "I wouldn't have offered if I didn't want to. Humor me?"

Call it stupidity or side effects of Steve Rogers' presence, but you wanted to spend more time with him, no matter how domestic the chore. Your smile widened, if possible, and you nodded. "Alright, if you insist. I've gotten everything I need, so I can tag along with you."

"All I really needed was some coffee," Professor Rogers held up the little plastic container filled with coffee grounds. Your thoughts immediately went to his hands wrapped around the cylinder, mentally slapping yourself for finding the simple action hot. "I'm ready to go if you are."

"Oh, okay. Let's go then."

The wall from the grocery area to the checkout was rather fun, the professor making you blush too many times to count, the smile on either of your faces never leaving. It wasn't a secret how many people fought to be in his class, guys included, mostly trying to "bond" with the professor only to get turned down every time someone had the balls to ask him. But it never stopped anyone from trying. It was almost pathetic, but very amusing in a sadistic way.

Professor Rogers held your grocery bags in his hands, effortlessly carrying them while you tried to take them back, feeling bad for having your professor help you out. The man would wave away your pleas, and you gave up as soon as you neared your car, unlocking the doors, and opened the trunk, Professor Rogers unloading all the bags inside. You bit back a smile, admiring the view, jealously wondering who would be lucky enough to end up as his wife.

He closed up the trunk once he was done, shifting his weight between his feet. "So, are you staying in Boston for the whole break or...?"

"Yup. I haven't spent much time with my dad since summer, and I've been guilted to stay in the cold since he's too stubborn to go somewhere warmer." you answered, playfully rolling your eyes. Professor Rogers walked you to the driver's side while you played with your keys, not wanting to say goodbye to him already. "What about you?"

"Me, too." said the professor, tucking his hands in his winter coat. He sighed, the smile dropping. "It was really nice to see you. I'll see you soon, sweetheart."

You nearly swooned at the nickname, cursing your heart for being so easily affected. "You, too, Professor. Happy Holidays and all that."

He laughed, walking off with a wave, the smile that had fallen now impended on his face as he walked back to his car. Steve turned around to see you get in yours, unsubtly staring at your ass. He sighed once again, a wave of sadness washing over him, the feeling he got every time he had to say goodbye to you. It would only be a couple of minutes, but it didn't make him hate it any less.

You drove off after a few seconds of getting your shit together; seeing your unbearable hot professor made you feel like a disgusting head-over-heels in love teenager. Or in other words, it made you the same as those desperate girls back on campus. You scoffed at the thought, starting your car. Hopefully, you'd see him again before class starts, but you highly doubt it.

Snow was falling, the little flurries making it harder to see through the windshield, only to stop suddenly when you reached your house. You grabbed the groceries from the trunk, easily carrying it into the house, so focused on not slipping that you hadn't noticed a very familiar car in the driveway.

Opening the door with ease, you entered the house, almost getting knocked out by the eager dog, jumping up on you. Laughing, you placed all the bags in one arm, reaching down with your free one to pet Dodger. The dog panted happily, his tongue sticking out of his mouth as it dismounted it's paws off your legs. The house had gotten awfully warm, even for you, and you immediately set the bags down to take off your coat. You hadn't noticed the shoes besides the door.

"Dad, I'm back." you announced, picking up the bags and headed to the kitchen, your gaze on the floor, careful not to slip.

Your father clapped Steve's back, the broad blond's presence gone unnoticed by you while you dropped the bags on the kitchen island. Your dad smiled. "Thanks, pumpkin. Honey, this is Steve, my buddy from college."

You turned around, facing them, a grin on your face, only to drop slightly when you saw who Steve was. There, standing in the middle of your kitchen, stood your history professor, all six feet of him, nonchalantly grinning at you. He engulfed you in a hug, leaving you breathless. "Professor?"

"Hello, sweetheart."

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[cocobeanncteez]

ATEEZ Wooyoung- School President (Oneshot)

Genre: light angst, suggestive/steamy, high school au.

Pairing: SchoolPresident!Wooyoung x badgirl!reader

Warnings: none.

"Miss L/N, detention after school till 4 p.m." your chemistry teacher said, making you mentally groan. It was the last class of the day and you were dying to go home, but now you had to stay for an extra hour. All your classmates turned to look at you, but they weren't surprised. "You still haven't submitted the assignment."

"Can I just submit it tomorrow?" you asked in a bored tone.

"No, you were supposed to submit it a week ago," she said, gathering her stuff to leave the class. "Detention with Mrs. Hwang today." You heard people around you snicker. Well, fuck. Mrs. Hwang was the strictest teacher in school. Even you were scared of her despite your badass attitude.

You got up from your seat, leaving the classroom with an annoyed expression on your face.

"Detention again, Y/N?" your bestfriend asked as she made her way to you with your other friends.

You rolled your eyes. "Ms. Jang will never fucking let me live in peace. I'll see you guys tomorrow," you said, making your way to detention.

You were surprised to find the room empty. Usually, there would always be about three or five students. Since no one was here, you decided to ditch; you would skip school the next day so that your teachers will forget about it. You turned around to leave, but ended up bumping into someone, slightly startling yourself.

"What are you doing here?" you asked, raising an eyebrow at your school president and heartthrob—also called 'senior's eye candy' at your school—Jung Wooyoung.

You had to admit, he was certainly the most handsome guy you've ever seen. Jung Wooyoung was absolutely perfect. Every girl wanted him and every guy wanted to be him. You were sure half your school tried to hit on him despite the fact that he has a girlfriend.

"Unfortunately, I'm here to make sure that you won't escape detention as Mrs. Hwang is busy, so take a seat," he said, moving around you to sit on a chair and taking a notebook out of his bag.

You always found Jung Wooyoung very interesting. Other guys like him—the nerdy ones—can't even talk to you, let alone look you in the eye. Jung Wooyoung was the complete opposite.

You sat on one of the chairs, immediately taking your phone out.

"You can't use your phone here," Wooyoung said, not looking up at you from his notebook. "Why don't you complete your assignment?"

You scoffed. "And if I don't? What are you gonna do about it?"

"Nothing," he said, looking at you. "It's not affecting me in any way, so I don't care. However, Ms. Jang is gonna fail you again if you don't submit your assignment."

You knew he was right. And that annoyed you; you really just wanted to shut his pretty mouth up.

"Whatever," you mumbled, taking out a notebook and the assignment sheet to start working on the reactions you had to write.

However, you were completely blank. You didn't know or understand a word given on the sheet. You bit your lip as you stared at the sheet, wondering what to do.

Finally, you took out your phone and googled all the reactions, easily finishing the assignment in less than half an hour.

"You know, you won't be able to copy during finals," Wooyoung said, closing his notebook. "Even if you're copying now, at least learn what you've copied."

"I didn't ask for your comments," you retort. He was about to say something, but his phone rang.

"Hey, baby," he answered. " . . . I'm in charge of detention today . . . Oh, that's okay," his face fell slightly. " . . . No, it's alright. We can go some other day . . . Hmm, I love you too. Bye!"

You snorted, feeling bad for the boy. You were surprised someone as smart as him hasn't figured out that his girlfriend has been cheating on him. You've seen his girlfriend shoving her tongue down random people in the club, and hitting on people at your school. You remembered how shocked you were when you first found out that she was cheating on him; because why would anyone cheat on someone as perfect as Jung Wooyoung?

"You can leave now," Wooyoung said, getting up from his seat. "Detention is over." You nodded, leaving as fast as you can, just wanting to go home and sleep.

"Your grades aren't very bad, but they aren't great either, Y/N," your class teacher said. "You'll get into an average college with these grades. But I know you can do much better. So I've asked one of the prefects to tutor you in Chemistry and Physics."

You groaned. "Can I do it by myself?"

"You wouldn't do it by yourself," she said. "Anyway, Jung Wooyoung will be tutoring you. Discuss and decide your timings with him. I expect you to score well on the next exam. I do not want to see you fail in any subject again." Before you could say anything, the door to the staff room opened, revealing none other than Jung Wooyoung. "Ah, Wooyoung, I just told Y/N that you will be tutoring her," she said. "I'm expecting you to do a great job."

Wooyoung smiled. "I won't let you down, Mrs. Park. But Y/N must put in efforts or else there's no point," he stated in a polite tone, and you rolled your eyes.

"Yes, that's true," she turned to look at you. "I'm expecting nothing but your best efforts, Y/N." She's always expecting something, huh, you thought. You only smiled, bowing politely.

"I'll do my best."

-

"What the actual fuck is this?" you mumbled, staring at the lengthy derivation written in Wooyoung's notebook. He rolled his eyes, so tired of hearing you say that to literally everything you saw written in his notebook.

"Ah, why did they have to make me tutor you of all people?" he whined. "You clearly haven't paid attention in class for even half a second."

"No one told you to accept it," you said, ignoring his last comment.

"I had to," he scoffed, stretching his arms out, making you glance at the veins on his arms. "Extra credits, you know?"

"Nerd," you muttered under your breath. He heard you, but didn't say anything. He began teaching you how to derive it; you paid attention for the first few seconds before zoning out. When you zoned back in, he asked you to explain what he just explained. You bit your lip, thinking of what to say.

He sighed. "You didn't pay attention again."

"I zoned out, sorry."

"That's what you said for the previous derivation," he said, a disappointed look on his face while he packed up his things.

"You're leaving already?" you asked, glancing at the time on your phone; you still had twenty minutes left.

"I'm not going to waste my time teaching you right now," he said. "You clearly aren't in the mood to focus." You only scoffed, watching him leave the library. You bit your lip, feeling kinda bad for not paying attention when he was making an effort to teach you.

The look of disappointment he showed you had somehow made you determined to prove that you could focus and do better.

You were at Wooyoung's house, sitting on his bed and scrolling through your social media while waiting for him to finish changing out of his uniform. You spent an entire two weeks studying your ass off, and you were proud you made a big improvement, thanks to Wooyoung. He was quite surprised that you were actually making an effort to understand whatever he taught you. You both even became friends, and you were quite happy about that.

"I'm done," he said, coming out of his bathroom, making you look up from your phone. You held your breath at the sight of Wooyoung dressed in grey sweatpants and a black tank top. You couldn't stop yourself from checking him out: the veins running down his muscled arms, his exposed collarbones, his sharp jawline, his plump lips . . .

You were so immersed into checking him out, you didn't realize he was doing the same to you. He loved how your uniform skirt rid up your thighs, and how another two buttons on your shirt were unbuttoned, exposing a little bit of your cleavage. Before you knew it, he was slowly making his way towards you, eyes now locked with yours.

"Let's start, hmm?" he said with a smirk; he knew you were checking him out.

You clear your throat a little. "Yeah, let's start."

You spent the next half an hour trying to pay attention to whatever Wooyoung was teaching you. It didn't help that he absentmindedly placed his hand on your knee, or brushed your hand with his; he knew exactly what he was doing to you. Your mind kept wandering to the things you want him to do to you right now on his bed.

" . . . and now you should tell me," he leaned a little close to you with a smirk, making your heartbeat speed up. "Which formula should be used?"

"Fuck this," you muttered, pushing the books aside before straddling Wooyoung's lap.

"Took you long enough," he chuckled, and you crashed your lips on his. He instantly kissed you back, hands moving to grip your waist. You wouldn't admit it to anyone, but you have been dreaming about kissing Wooyoung the second he talked back to you a year ago.

You pulled away to litter his neck in kisses, sucking the skin gently. He groaned softly, making you smirk. "Fan of neck kisses?"

"You have no idea," he said, hands moving underneath your skirt to grip your bare inner thighs. He gave it a squeeze, making you involuntarily grind down on him. He moaned at the feeling, encouraging you to do it again. You moved your lips back to his, grinding on him even more. Wooyoung's hands slipped into your panties, grabbing your ass to help you grind down on him faster. The friction made you moan, craving for more. You tugged on his shirt, breaking the kiss to let him pull it off. You ran your hand down his toned torso in awe, loving the feeling of his abs beneath your fingertips. Your eyes widened at the tattoo above his hip bone. "You have a tattoo?!"

Wooyoung gripped your hips, moving you off of him so that he could hover over you. "Mhmm, bet you never expected the nerdy school president to have a tattoo, huh?" Your hands moved to his hair, playing it with while he began to kiss your neck, driving you crazy.

Wooyoung kissed down your chest till where your shirt was unbuttoned. He glanced up at you, fingers toying with the buttons. "Can I?" he asked. You nodded, letting him unbutton your shirt and slip it off you. You sucked in a breath when he ran his fingers over the lacy material of your bra.

"Take it off," you whined, making him chuckle.

"Patience, baby," he said, one hand gently rubbing your thigh.

But you really didn't have any patience right now.

You brought his lips to yours while you moved his hand to touch you where you desperately needed him, surprising him a little. He kissed you back hungrily while his finger moved on your clothed clit, applying pressure, making you get wetter. Your moans made him smirk; he loved how he was the reason behind it.

You both got startled at the sudden sound of his garage opening. He halted his movements, pulling away from you instantly.

"One of my parents is back from work," he said, quickly putting on his tank top and handing you your uniform shirt. You quickly buttoned it and straightened out your hair; you really did not want Wooyoung's strict parents to suspect anything since they already did not like the idea of him tutoring you in his final year of high school.

Wooyoung's father knocked on his bedroom door before opening it, finding you and Wooyoung busy writing equations.

"Oh, hey, dad! How was work?" Wooyoung asked with a sweet, innocent smile like as if he wasn't smirking a few minutes ago while touching you.

"Hello, Mr. Jung," you said politely.

"Hello, Y/N," he said. "Work was all right, as usual. How is your tutoring session going?"

"Good, dad," Wooyoung said, trying to control himself from smirking. "It's going really great."

[sherry-babyforme]

Really? Why would you want that?

pairing: college!bucky x college!reader

note: it's my first time. Hope you guys like it.

"Here, the notes you asked for" - you said passing the notebook to your pal. "Thanks! Sweetie. How do you manage so many things at once? I can't." ,said Bucky tugging them in his bag. "What are we upto for tomorrow's plan?", he continued. Packing up your stuff ,you said "Now that's something easy for me til I obey my teachers and abide by the rules. Iwon't come you know why, Steve said he'll get the tickets and Peggy will get the snacks".

He looked at you as you said in a rush. As you turned to him suddenly he squeezed his eyes...like he was trying to recall something. He got up went to his locker, grabbed a packet out. Walked back and passed the thing to you. You jumped up ,throwing your hands around him and said ,"These popsicles!You remembered. I thought you...Thank you much Buck, I love you. He hugged you back "Won't be coming with us this weekend too,right?"

"I can't. You know ma would never allow.

"Hmm... so why not this weekend I crash over your place? We have lots of fun Sweetie. You can also help with my maths.

"Perfect. I love this plan."

"I'll be there by 10. Ok?

Pressing your lips 'round the popsicle you nodded. That was the moment it got hard for him to control himself. But he managed as he had been doing for last 2 weeks.

Two of you bid goodbyes.

{♡♡♡•••♡♡♡•••♡♡♡}

"Coming!" You replied to the continuous knocking at your door. "Be quick Doll. Got lotta stuff",the man on the other side said.

"That's my pal.Prepared as ever."

"Only yours...pal". He said with a flirty smile across his face, his eyes shining bright.

"Ooh! Today's something special for my Buck." You teased as you settled all stuff on the table,the flowers, the candies.

My Buck. The pair of words kept echoing in the back of his mind. Nothing he hasn't heard before. But since last few days it had a different affect on him.

"Yes madam. But it can get a lot better if you want to..." he uttered with his usual charm. But his charismatic manners never caught you. How could it when you have been freinds with this fool for last 2 years.

"If I want to...? I will try my best pal just say it."

"We have friends for a long time now".

You replied with sarcasm, your hands folded around your chest ,"Yeah. It takes me aback that I have beared this top-to-bottom douche bag for so long".

"I agree on that. But I want you to handle this douche bag for a lifetime." He said as his shut his eyes real tight scared by how his Sweetie would react.

An uncomfortable silence consumed him. And when it could not be beared, he opened his eyes. Surprised to see you sitting on the couch devouring on the candies he had given you last day. "What happened to my pal? Of course you piece of shit will be my friend forever."

"Sweetie! That's not- not what I meant...I- can we be together...like...uh. Will you be my girlfriend?

"Really? Why would you want that? Your crushes change like every month and I-"You said straightening yourself up calmly.

"No one knows me... the way you do"

"Look Buck. I don't want our...our friendship to ruin. You're understanding-" you stopped as you saw him constantly looking down at his favourite pair of shoes. Of course you know that.

Then a watery drop fell upon them,you walked to him. Caressed his beautifully carved face in your hand, turned those eyes to look into your own. Seeing tears roll down on that face and pretty blue eyes turn red ,you tried to somehow not let him breakdown.

"Hey Buck. Look at me. LOOK AT ME." You almost said it in a instructing way. You mumbled lowly Thank god!!! They aren't home.

But he heard that. "I think y/n I should leave."

"James - " you said aloud as the door shut in your face. You knew he was gone. You dig your face in your palms thinking by yourself ,That was something I never thought would happen even in my wildest dreams. Though one of your friends had mentioned that sorta thing in a conversation almost a whisper "I think James really likes you, the way he looks at you,talks to you. It's just different. See he is still looking for a spot next to you"

"Have you lost that? C'mon it's 2021. A girl and a boy can be casual bestfriends. And maybe right now he has got the pie for me."

With that you had shove it off. But with what had just happened you couldn't help but overthink his every act of affection. You stared down at those flower and candies he had got for you as you sank deeper in your thoughts.

You didn't know how you'd talk to him the next time he sees you. All I knew was that you won't let this ruin your friendship. And that you can't bear the loss of your best pal.