#someone find a shovel and a knife

[cup1dsarch3r]

guys i hate writers block krilling myself I WANT TO WRITE A SECOND CHAPTERRRR UGHHHKHGOISEIOGSHIGEESOIGJIOES

[rileyslibrary]

A/N: Based on @salbeitraeume’s comment and that anon’s story with the coolest mom. Thank you both 💕

———————————————————————

It all started with an apple—a simple snack that you chose to enjoy under the July’s sun.

Yes, it was without your lieutenant’s permission, but you assumed he forgot to excuse you from your duties, so you decided to take that break anyway. You worked hard today, shovelling dirt, piling sandbags, and creating the perfect setting for your next field exercise. You deserved that damn apple.

However, you made two mistakes: The first one was that you decided to take the matter into your own hands without asking or reminding him that breaks are vital under such heat. Your second mistake was standing in plain sight, indulging in your snack while making yourself an easy target for the lieutenant.

He gave you the lecture of your lifetime and then some more. Rhetorical questions poured out of his mouth, such as “You think you can defy me like that?” and “Would you like me to wave a palm branch in your face while I feed you grapes?”

He made you stand on the tractor’s roof where everyone could witness your shame as a punishment. Whenever someone dared to ask why you were up there, he ordered you to stand in attention and scream at the top of your lungs:

“MY DISTORTED SENSE OF SELF-IMPORTANCE PREVAILS OVER TEAMWORK, SO I DECIDED TO TAKE A BREAK, WITHOUT THE LIEUTENANT’S PERMISSION, AND EAT MY SNACKY WHILE MY FELLOW COMRADES KEPT BUSTING THEIR ASSES OFF IN THE HEAT.”

But the lieutenant made two other mistakes of his own: The first one was that he forgot to give you and the rest of the team a break, making you work non-stop under the heat. The second mistake was that he chose one of the hottest hours to deliver your punishment.

Exhaustion was the first sign, but you brushed it off since you were already tired. Soon enough, you could feel your pulse in your throat, and your ears began to ring. You looked at the ground, and the world started spinning.

Everything was a blur after that: the lieutenant rushing towards you, ordering others to give you space, a cooling sensation against your skin, and the medic murmuring the words “heat exhaustion.”

Heat exhaustion, huh? No shit.

Blinking your eyes, you find yourself in a sterile room, lying on a bed with an IV in your arm and a cold pack wrapped in cloth at the back of your neck.

You attempt to sit up, but a voice from your left cautions you.

“Don’t,” it says softly, “You should lie down.”

You turn your head towards the voice; it’s the lieutenant. He’s sitting with his elbows on his thighs, resting his chin in his hands. He stands up and comes closer, but you flinch and back away.

He outstretches his arms to show you he means no harm. He touches the cold pack under your neck, then gently cradles your head, removing it from its position. He leaves the room and returns moments later with a fresh one. He wraps it in a dry cloth, lifts your head, and places it beneath your neck again. He joins you on the bed.

You can see him struggling to find the right words. Each time he opens his mouth, he hesitates and closes it again. Finally, he stands and walks to his chair, picking up something before returning to your side.

It’s an apple.

“You were eating an apple, weren’t you?” He asks.

You nod.

He retracts a folding knife from his pocket and begins to peel it.

“Lt.,” you say, “I-I’m sorry, sir.”

“You’re sorry?” He asks, continuing to peel the apple, “No, I’m the one who should apologise to you.”

You look at him with half-lidded eyes. He continues speaking.

“I forgot to give you a break during a heatwave, and then I made things worse,” he confesses, cutting a piece of the apple. “I’ll never forgive myself for that.”

You look at him, then at the apple. “W-well, if it gives you any comfort, I forgive you, sir,” you murmur.

He extends a piece of apple towards you. “Here,” he says, “eat this.”

You accept his offer and watch him as he adjusts your headrest to a comfortable position. He walks towards the fan.

“Is the air okay?” He asks, “Should I move the fan, or are you comfortable?”

“It’s fine, sir,” you reply with a weak smile. “I’m fine.”

He picks up a water bottle from the cabinet and opens it up. Waiting for you to finish the piece of apple, he guides the bottle to your mouth and advises you to take small sips. His other hand supports your chin, ensuring it doesn’t spill on you.

You remember your earlier conversation, and a chuckle escapes your lips mid-drinking. You begin to cough, almost choking, and he pats your back.

“W-wait, Lt., wait,” you plead, “I have to tell you something.”

He stops and looks at you, confused.

“Remember when you were scolding me?” You ask.

“I do, soldier, and I’m not proud of it.”

“No, no, that’s not it,” you reply. “Remember when you asked me if I would like you to wave a palm branch in my face while you feed me grapes?”

He signs and looks at the peeled apple, then at the fan. He lets out a huff and shakes his head.

“Yes,” he says, struggling to suppress his laughter, “yes, I do.”

———————————————————————

[connorsbonez]

Stalkers and Cryptids

Meeting the Bat Family

1. Danny

Since him and Wes got together with Tim at the same-ish time, it was decided that they’d get introduced to the family one at a time before going together, and for some reason, Danny got chosen to be the first to go.

It went surprisingly well! The siblings loved him (at least, they think Damien does, maybe Danny will have to convince him through the means of Cujo) and it took Bruce a moment but he came around

Duke thought Tim managed to bring the personified sun into the house at first before realizing ‘oh, it’s a person’ and switched to ‘what the fuck is up with you’, pulling out some sunglasses before asking Danny who straight faced told Duke that he ate a lot of glow sticks as a kid.

Duke asked what they tasted like.

Cass and Danny stared at each other for five minutes before nodding and continuing on like nothing happened.

Steph and Danny had to be physically separated and it was agreed to never leave those two alone. No matter the circumstances. Tim is terrified and rightfully so.

So everything was going pretty great.

And then dinner happened.

Fenton Curse reared its ugly head in the form of Danny accidentally touching the chicken with his bare hands. He barely got in an apology before the chicken jolted upwards in vengeful fury and dragged everyone into a recreation of the Cold War. Food was splattered on everything and everyone, the table was flipped to the side in an effort to be used as a shield, screams of the damned as the chicken descended upon them with a large butcher knife, something was on fire, and Alfred was loading up his shotgun crouched behind the table with Danny on one side and Bruce on the other looking like he was astral projecting but not at the same time.

It was agreed that this dinner was never to be spoken of. Ever.

Danny wore gloves from now on when he came over for a meal of any kind.

Dick had to wear a hat for a bit after the chicken managed to take off some of his hair, leaving a bald spot (Steph tried to shave his head completely to ‘even it out’)

2. Wes

They waited two months before bringing Wes to the manor and after what happened with Danny, the family was a touch more wary. Dick jokingly(ish) asked if Wes would bring anything alive, he replied with ‘Not unless you pay me’ and didn’t elaborate further.

You’d think they’d calm down after interacting with Wes for a bit because it wasn’t like he was horrible, he meshed well with the others and they could find themselves genuinely liking Wes if not for a small little thing or two. It was going too well. Wes seemed to know how to interact with all of them, barely making any mistakes that came with interacting with new people, it was off putting to the vigilantes. (Except Tim, he didn’t notice a thing odd about it)

Along with the fact that the ginger seemed to sometimes ask very…interesting questions that made the others pause. Wes can’t help himself when it comes to knowing things about people that he’s talking too, he held off this long and now he can’t help but slide in a few questions and comments here and there…just to see if they notice.

Wes could acknowledge that he found it a little funny how much he was driving the Waynes up the wall.

Bruce kept staring at Tim, as if trying to telepathically get answers from him. Tim pretended not to notice his gaze.

Someone tried to give the shovel talk and Wes responded by saying their credit card information in a deadpan tone.

This visit also somehow managed to go to hell, this one didn’t even make it to dinner. The disaster kicked off with Wes and Damian, no one is quite sure what was said but it ended with an absolute cat fight, with Dick holding back Damian who had a bruise already blooming on his lower jaw and Jason holding back Wes who had a small knife lodged into his thigh and promptly bit Jason when he abruptly grabbed the ginger.

Jason later got checked for rabies.

Wes refused to give the knife back, having left with it still in his thigh. (Danny got it out and was unsurprised by the series of events when told.)

(Batman definitely went to their apartment later that night.)

3. Bernard

This wasn’t the first time he met the Wayne Family but it was the first time he’d be meeting them as Tim’s boyfriend instead of just friend.

So obviously the meeting went find, they already knew who Bernard was so it wasn’t a get to know you meeting but a shovel talk meeting + meeting the third boyfriend

Bernard was the only one really intimidated by the shovel talks

Most peaceful night, Bernard told some of his theories during dinner, including how Superman, Batman, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Lex Luther were in a polygamy relationship. Jason was dying (metaphorically this time) during dinner as well as the other siblings, Bruce not so much and Damian tried to act like he didn’t find it funny (Dick swears he did).

He was the only one Bruce didn’t feel the need to heavily research. (Because he already did that when he and Tim first became friends)

( I kinda hate this but whatever, it’s been in the drafts for far too long. )

[screamforyani]

in the end, you’ll never escape

warnings: noncon, implied stalking

wc. 1.7k

a/n’s: pls stop putting drew’s photos through remini hell i can’t live like this anymore guys. also hi ik i died over here 👀

miles upon miles away from kildare, you were contentedly far from home. months ago, the distance wouldn’t have been as tempting. the outer banks and the life you’d made there were the only things you’d ever known. but when your home began to feel less and less like a safe haven, you were more keen to be anywhere else.

it wasn’t easy leaving behind your friends, god knew you missed them every fucking minute of every day, but you knew it was a good call. no danger could reach you here. to you, and to everyone involved, it was for the better.

well, except to maybe one person.

you could hear a familiar jingle rupture the air even all the way upstairs. your brows furrowed. you weren’t expecting any guests, and you knew that your parents couldn’t have been either, because they wouldn’t be back for hours.

there was a knock. not at the door, but at your heart. after so many months outside of the outer banks, it might’ve been ridiculous to still feel uneasy about being home by yourself, but the fear never quite ceased; it quietened. but those whispers could be loud if they so pleased.

calm down, you thought to yourself. would rafe bother to knock at the door?

but you knew that he would. as belligerent as you knew him to be in nature, rafe would always play nice to begin with. if needed, he would escalate things, and he was not afraid of taking things up another degree to get what he wanted. 

you knew it, because you had dealt with it firsthand. you had been underneath him while rafe stood atop, wielding his golden shovel as he tossed dirt upon your grave. metaphorically speaking, at least. rafe hadn’t literally tried to bury you alive, but you wouldn’t put it past him. 

you couldn’t put anything past him.

your heart thudded as you took your sweet time to pass the stairs, but it felt like you could only breathe after you took another step. you peaked through the windows, and blew out a breath of relief when the guy standing out there wasn’t your worst nightmare.

you unlocked the front door, pulling it open. 

“delivery for…” the man said your name.

that was odd, considering you weren’t expecting a delivery either, but you cloaked your shock and accepted the box he handed you graciously, shutting the door behind yourself and locking it.

the second you were alone again, you raced to the kitchen to grab a knife. you needed to know what was in the box or it’d kill you. curiosity getting the better of you, you cut it open, pulling the gift out of the cardboard it had come to you in.

it was a sweater you’d been eyeing, an expensive one. sure, you were a kook by kildare standards, though in spite of all that you’d been through, your parents still hadn’t forgiven your past pogue-esque shenanigans and wanted you to work to be let off.

plus it wasn’t like you had a job. you guessed all your rambling combined with your suffering made them slacken, and your heart filled with warmth, happy to clear the tension between you and your parents even if only a little.

to be fair, you’d clearly been through… something, but they couldn’t piece it together, other than the fact that someone had been intimidating you, though that was only because it was glaringly obvious.

you couldn’t tell them. you wouldn’t even know how to start. and they wouldn’t understand, so you’d rather them be upset with you. sometimes it was just easier.

the doorbell rang again maybe an hour later, the sound startling you out of your own head. you paced downstairs, less hesitant than before. it was ridiculous to think that rafe would find you or be desperate enough to go after you when it would be easier to pick another girl on the island to break.

imagine your shock when you opened the front door and there he was. the devil himself.

every inch of you was frozen over, stiff. every muscle, every bone. “rafe?”

rafe chuckled. if you hadn’t known any better, you’d say he looked happy to see you, but there was always something darker. in your shock, you spluttered, “what are you doing here?”

“i can’t come visit my favorite girl?” rafe asked, pretending to be saddened, and oblivious.

your eyes flickered and you felt moisture instinctively gather at your lashes, though at least for now, you held it back. 

he looked a little different. his blue eyes still knew how to pierce the very heart of you, but his hair was significantly shorter. though in spite of your blurring vision (the side effect of tears or the lightheadedness, you couldn’t tell the difference), your whole body knew it was rafe and it paralyzed with total fear.

still, you tried to level your breathing. “you’re not supposed to be here.”

rafe didn’t seem to care, stepping closer and leaning into your ear to mutter, “we’ve done a lot of things we weren’t supposed to. haven’t we, baby?”

you recoiled, immediately drawing back. “if you don’t leave, i’ll tell my parents…”

“your parents?” rafe repeated, that familiar sly, shit-eating grin curled onto his lips. “your parents, they love me. what will they do? invite me over for dinner? fuck, baby, you really know how to strike fear into my heart.”

“i told them what you did!”

it was a lie, and you knew it. more importantly, rafe knew it. why would you bother? your parents failing to understand you aside, it would’ve only done more damage. your parents would forever loathe the camerons and you were perfectly content not being a blip on ward cameron’s radar. 

his son was already a handful.

rafe shook his head, pressing his lips together. “nah, no you didn’t. you wanna know how i know?”

your pulse quickened when he stepped closer again, already a foot inside of your house. this time, his lips brushed your ear, heightening the uneasy sensation that got louder with every thud of your breath. 

you were trapped in his arms, with nowhere to flee. something as simple as the slightest of touches between you and rafe sent a shiver down your spine. “because you’re too afraid. you’d rather keep the peace than let them in. now isn’t that right, babe?”

your eyes stung as you glanced up at him. you were always beneath him, never on top. “please, rafe. go home,” you begged.

rafe’s true anger finally started to peek through as he said none too kindly, “no. did you really think i was gonna just let you leave me? now we can really be together. no stupid pogues to get in our way.”

you cried out in shock when rafe got a hold of you, yanking you by the arm into your own house and shutting the door before dragging you upstairs. you had no idea how he knew where your bedroom was and you were too afraid to ask.

“rafe, stop,” you shouted. “rafe, you’re hurting me!”

rafe’s grip didn’t slacken until he pushed you into your room, and hissed, “you hurt me. you think i wanted to be on that island without you? you were the only thing that made shit feel worth it...”

you swallowed, lips trembling. 

“and then you just left. vanished. no goodbye, no nothing. you wanna know how that made me feel? like shit! like killing somebody,” rafe said, approaching you.

rafe had that look in his eye, that familiar, unpredictable glint he always got when he was up to no good. you tried to get away from him, tried to do anything to keep him at arm’s length, but he was quicker and reached for you again.

at this point, your heart was thumping in your ears and the tears were pouring down your face so hard, you could barely see. all you could hear was thunder. “rafe, please. i’m begging you. don’t do this.”

“don’t do what? don’t make you pay for what you did to me?” rafe asked, shoving you onto your bed. “nah. i’m gonna hurt you just like you hurt me.”

your eyes winced close as rafe started to rip the clothes from your body, but you didn’t fight back. it would only make it worse.

it hurt to breathe, inhale after exhale. your chest was taut with pain and terror and perhaps still shock, in disbelief that your measures to protect yourself had failed. but it was rafe. and whatever rafe wanted, he got. every fucking time without fail.

the irony was killing you. right now, you would’ve been a thousand times safer on the island than you were right now in a foreign place where you knew nobody and nobody knew you. though you knew that as long as rafe was breathing, you were never truly safe.

“that’s right, baby. don’t fight it,” rafe whispered, teasing his cock between your folds. the discomfort on your face was conspicuous, but you did nothing to make it stop. “i love that about you, you know. you don’t put up a fight. to you… it’s not worth it.”

rafe’s cock slammed into you, pushing in and out. he groaned, remembering everything he loved about your pussy. you gripped him, tight and vice-like, and the sounds that came from the very back of his throat were low and deep. 

“it’s always worth it to me, though. if you want something enough, you’ve gotta just take it. and all those people that don’t want you to have it? just watch them cry,” he added, not even looking at your face anymore. 

his eyes were between your legs, mesmerized as he tirelessly watched himself disappear inside of you again and again, as if he was under some kind of trance.

“cry me a fucking river,” rafe said, his other hand groping every part of your body it could touch. “you’ll get over it.”

your eyes narrowed, and you were overcome with the urge to smack him across the face, but you resisted. the last time you’d done it, in a situation way too similar to this one, he hadn’t hesitated to slap you back even harder. he was right; you didn’t think it was worth it.

to delay the inevitable was to prolong your own suffering. and in the end, you’d never escape.

[fuckyeahdindjarin]

Denim on Denim

A Seams x Grays crossover

Summary: Joel tries to get a haircut - but it turns out he can’t do anything in the QZ without getting into a fistfight, and you’re lucky enough to be in the audience.

Warnings: Mildly spicy thoughts, two sexy men fighting, language, reader was a hairdresser prior to the outbreak and has a nickname related to her job, no use of Y/N, no physical descriptions of reader, very lightly edited.

This oneshot can be read independently of the two series, but for the full experience, I recommend reading at least Grays. This is a post-outbreak AU of Grays, and is set before Seams Joel leaves the QZ. Part of the Shiv's salon drabbles.

Word count: 2.7k

Notes: A whole year after my random thoughts about how Joel's hair looks that good in an apocalypse and a random notif on this post that reminded of it, we finally get Joel to Shiv's salon... or do we? 🤷🏻‍♀️ I had a blast writing this oneshot - it's a bit silly, a bit spicy, I hope you enjoy it ❤️

‘Goddamnit.’

Joel swipes viciously at the curl hanging over eyes, like a boxer at a punchbag. Try as he might to slick it back, every time his shovel hits the dirt, the hair uncoils, bouncing obnoxiously in his field of vision.

He needs a fucking haircut. Tess usually does it for him every month or so, but she’s been in a mood - snapping at him, keeping him at arm’s length, she hasn’t even been to his apartment for two whole weeks.

This time of the year is hard for her. He knows all too well that he’s the same every September. They’re in each of their own time loops, a cage within the trappings of the QZ.

‘You look like you need a trim, bro.’

Joel barely glances up. He knows the guy, they share a surname after all. People call him Ben, or Benny, and even an old man like him knows he’s a good-looking son of a bitch.

They work the same shifts sometimes, and he knows Tess has crossed paths with him at the illegal fight nights. Joel has also seen him a few times at the bar, where he’s usually surrounded by even more good-looking motherfuckers.

Joel knows he’s a damn flirt too. He always has pretty words for Tess when he sees her. He’s harmless though, and he supposes that she deserves sweet nothings from at least one Miller since he’s no good at them.

Realising he hasn’t responded, Joel grunts noncommittally, self-consciousness prickling the back of his neck.

‘I know someone, she was a professional hairdresser before all this.’

Joel ignores him and keeps shovelling.

‘If you tell her you know me, she’ll give you a good rate.’

More shovelling.

‘Alright man, my shift’s up. See you ‘round.’

Five steps, and Joel sighs, digging the shovel into the dirt.

‘Wait.’

Joel stands on the doorway, and stares.

There’s an actual backwash in the corner of the dingy living room - well, living space. There are no doors in the tenement apartments.

‘You waiting for it to say hello back, or what?’

His eyes snap to yours, a scowl drawing his brows together.

Not that you look at all intimidated, one eyebrow arched high and an amused smile sitting lopsided on your lips, which he will admit throws him just a bit. He’s not used to having to work for it.

Giving you a tight nod, he takes two steps into the apartment. He recognises the layout, a mirror of his own, which is a few blocks away.

Closing the door with a flourish behind him, you ask brightly, ‘You’re here for a haircut?’

He’s about to answer when something winks at him, and he looks up, momentarily blinded by the reflection of afternoon light in the cracked mirror that hangs over a battered styling station.

Your apartment has windows that don’t look directly onto the next building, and sun floods the space. Even light is a real rarity in the shithole of a QZ, where everything indoors is dingy. He idly wonders if you had to bribe someone -

Distracted, he catches the sliver of a shadow moving from the corner of his eye a split second later than he would if he was on high alert. On reflex, his fingers find the hilt of his knife and he whips it out in a wide arc, swinging to his left where gunmetal catches the afternoon light.

‘Drop it!’ he barks, the same moment as the other man growls, ‘The fuck are you doing in my home with a knife?’

To Joel’s bewilderment, you chuckle somewhere to his right, amused. ‘C’mon guys. Dramatic, much?’

‘He snuck up on me,’ Joel growls defensively.

‘Frankie, put your gun away, dude’s just here for a haircut - I’m assuming anyway, he never did answer my question.’

‘Yes, I’m here for a haircut,’ he snaps, resheathing his knife. ‘Fuck would I be doin’ here if not?’

‘Fuck should I know, dipshit?’ retorts Frankie, tucking his gun in the back of his jeans. ‘You always bring a knife to your haircuts?’

‘D’ya always threaten to shoot paying customers?’

‘No, we definitely do not.’ You step into the space between the two men in case they get snippy with each other again. ‘Who sent you?’

Your customer crosses his arms, and you can’t help noticing the fabric of his shirt stretching across those broad shoulders. ‘Blondie.’

‘Blondie?’ you frown, confused. ‘Oh wait, you mean Ben? I thought I recognised you. I’ve seen you at one of his fights, with your wife? What’s her name now -’

‘Tess,’ he replies, then promptly looks like he wishes he’d stopped himself before he answered. ‘She’s not my -’ he trails off, and it’s clear he doesn’t like how you’re reading him at the moment, grumbling, ‘None of your damn business.’

‘Hey, you watch your mouth around my lady, old man,’ warns Frankie, ratcheting up the tension again.

Squaring his shoulders, the man seems to grow two inches. ‘Or what?’

Suddenly aware of being caught in the crossfire between your protective husband on one side, and this gruff, silvered stranger on the other, heat bubbles unbidden under your skin, the unexpected reaction from your body catching you off guard.

Biting your lower lip, you clear your throat, and somehow you sound steadier than you feel when you dispense the orders. 

‘Ok, this is enough. Frankie, sit down over there,’ you say, pointing him in the direction of the couch on the other side of the room. ‘And you - since you’re Benny’s friend, two ration cards.’

‘’M not his friend,’ he almost spits out that last word, as if it tastes weird.

You give him a pointed look. ‘Three ration cards, then.’

He huffs, and hands you two from his back pocket. ‘Fine, I’m Benny’s friend.’

You grin. ‘If you’re besties, it’s one.’

‘Don’t push it.’

You back off with a chuckle. ‘Fine, not besties. Maybe next time. Now sit.’

Joel does as he’s told, awkwardly, in the styling chair, a relic from the pre-outbreak days. It creaks dangerously under his weight, and it wobbles, slightly off-kilter. The cracked leather is warm from the sun, which seeps into his skin, and he finds himself wondering when was the last time he went to a hair salon.

Sarah used to love cutting his hair. She always made an afternoon out of it on one of his rare days not working overtime, putting the music on, setting up her Barbie mirror on the dining room table, and having him pick out a hairstyle from a magazine (it never looked anywhere near like the photos). She’d even put a disposable raincoat over him like a hairdresser’s cape. She really wasn’t any good, there’s a reason why Tommy didn’t let her anywhere near his curls, but he always wore her handiwork with pride -

So lost in his thoughts, he reacts purely on instinct when, for the first time in decades, fingers other than his own find his hair.

Swivelling around, he’s out of the chair in a split second, fingers wrapped tight around your wrists. You yelp as he pushes you back against the wall, which he sees from the shape of your lips but doesn’t hear over the blood pounding in his ears.

Joel barely holds you there for a second before he’s yanked backwards by a hand on the back of his collar, and he stumbles, crashing into the adjacent wall. He barely misses the fist heading towards his face, ducking just in time to save himself what would undoubtedly have been a broken nose.

He barrels into the younger man with his shoulder, expecting him to tumble back, and is surprised when he doesn’t budge. Joel’s aware he’s got a few years on him, but he more than holds his own against punks that age on the daily. This guy clearly has a background in combat, and it’s taking Joel everything to stay on his feet.

In the meantime, you’re still plastered against the wall, dazed by your customer’s reaction. Heck, you haven’t even gotten his name yet before he literally jumped you. He’s a skittish one, that’s for sure. 

You smile at the memory of Frankie’s first time with you at the salon - he’d give this guy a good run for his money. Lucky for him, you’ve always been good at wrangling the nervous ones.

Speaking of, the two men are now literally wrestling in front of you. If you had to venture a guess by the grays in the hair, you reckon your customer is pushing fifty. He’s built like a fucking tank though, and he’s giving everything he’s got.

So you decide to watch for a little while. Boys will be boys, best leave them to let off some steam. Leaning against the wall, you get comfortable, and you think wistfully to yourself that Ashton would have loved this view.

You’re not sure how you missed that they’re both wearing denim on denim, and you would struggle to pick out which is your husband if not for the hat on his head. Yes, the damn cap survived the apocalypse with him.

They are remarkably similar in build, though your customer seems to stand just a couple of inches taller. His biceps flex and bulge through the shirt sleeves as he scuffles with Frankie, teeth bared; meanwhile, your husband plants his feet, jeans stretched tight over his adorable little ass, trying to hold the man back long enough to throw a punch.

If the room was warm when they were trading barbs, it’s positively sweltering right now.

All you can see are broad shoulders and fabric bursting at the seams, grappling fingers and clenched fists. Back muscles rippling through denim, teasing slivers of skin and soft bellies when shirttails ride up and jeans fall low. The cheerful afternoon sun kisses their skin golden, casting long shadows across the creaking wooden floor.

And they’re not quiet. Throaty grunts as they jostle, panted breath peppered with cusses, fuck’s and sons of bitches as they wrestle for control.

Suddenly, you’re the one who’s out of breath despite not moving a muscle.

As much as you would’ve loved to stand and watch, you can tell both men are starting to get winded. You don’t exactly want the show to end, entertainment is hard to come by in the QZ, let alone of such a visually stimulating variety, in your own living room. But you think you hear the older man wheeze, their shirts are now stained with sweat, and the frantic energy they started with turns heavy with lethargy.

With a rueful sigh, you speak up, ‘Frankie, come on, that’s enough now.’

He growls, ‘No fucking way. He tried to hurt you!’

‘He barely touched me. It was just his PTSD acting out.’

‘I don’t have PTSD,’ the man protests, shooting you a glare before dodging an elbow.

‘There’s no shame in having PTSD,’ you admonish him. ‘Or in getting help.’

‘Why don’t you give me a hand then?’ he scoffs, tipping his head at Frankie.

‘Yeah, looks like you can use it,’ your husband taunts him.

‘Sure you can’t, asshole? Can’t even take down an old man on your own?’

‘I hope you're hungry, 'cause you're gonna eat your words, asshole -’

Hands on hips, you roll your eyes at the exceedingly average trash talk. ‘You know what? I tried asking nicely - I’m going in.’

It’s a tight squeeze, but somehow, you find a space between the elbows and shoulders and knees, and you wedge yourself in. It’s hot and humid between the two men, who are still trying to get at each other, despite the fact that you now have one hand on each of their chests, trying to pry them apart. Trapped between the two solid walls of chest, their raw strength vibrates through you, through harsh panting breath, the musk of sweat and man, and denim rubs rough on your bare skin where you’re pressed up against them.

It’s not hard to imagine being in this position in an entirely different situation, with the axis tilted, on a softer surface. Heat prickles all over you like needles, and unbeknownst to you, your thighs press together, and your panties start to feel sticky -

‘What the fuck are you doing?’ asks Frankie, incredulous as he looms over you, still grabbing onto the other guy’s shirt.

You bat your eyelashes at him, then crane your neck over your shoulder to wink at the other man. A little spiral of a curl dangles over his eyes as he glares at you, puffs of warm air hitting the shell of your ear. 

Knowing that your best chance of breaking off this nonsense is to wildly offend both men, you purr, ‘Making a delicious sandwich ‘cause I’m famished -’

Frankie flushes bright red instantly, and he roars, ‘Get your filthy hands off my wife, son of a bitch!’

Not that his hands are anywhere near you (a tragedy), nonetheless, the man jumps five feet back, as if you burned him. He may deny Tess being his wife, but the look of absolute horror of being accused of touching you speaks volumes.

You can tell he would have doubled over catching his breath, hands on his knees, if not for his pride. Stubbornly, he stands tall, hands on hips, chest heaving.

‘Bit jumpy, are we?’ you quip.

‘You always that handsy?’ he retorts.

‘Can’t help myself with beautiful curls like yours,’ you wink, and your smile widens when he flushes.

Frankie throws up his hands in disbelief. ‘Shiv, I’m standing right here.’

‘You always are,’ you tease, pressing a kiss to his pinched lips. ‘Now, go take a walk, you've made enough of a scene.’

‘I’m not leaving you here with him -’

The older man scoffs. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not interested in your woman.’

You feign indignation. ‘Hey! That’s hurtful.’

‘You should be, jackass!’ Frankie gripes, and promptly looks as confused as the other man at his own pronouncement.

Taking his hand, you pull him towards the door. ‘Go on babe, you were going to have a drink with Pope anyway. I got everything under control.’

‘Alright,’ Frankie relents, but not before he points a menacing finger at your customer. ‘If he tries anything -’

‘I know where the gun is,’ you finish his sentence.

Pressing one final kiss to your lips and throwing a glare over your shoulder, Frankie turns and leaves - and you preen at the knowledge that he trusts you can take care of yourself.

Once the door closes, you smile. ‘So… should we start over?’

 The man snorts. ‘I’d say.’

‘I’m Shiv,’ you say, but you don’t offer him your hand. He doesn’t seem to be the handshaking type.

He picks up on your perception, studying you with curious eyes. ‘Joel.’

Pushing the swivel chair back to the styling station, you gesture at him to retake his seat, and this time, you make sure his eyes are on yours in the mirror while you stand over his shoulder.

‘Hair’s a bit long, huh?’ you remark, eyeing the ringlet over his eyes.

‘It’s drivin’ me nuts,’ he admits.

You hold up your hands this time, giving him plenty of notice. ‘May I?’

He nods, and you start small, wrapping the spiral around your index finger with a grin. ‘I wasn’t just saying it, y’know. You do have beautiful hair.’

He shifts awkwardly, the chair squeaking, obviously uncomfortable with compliments. ‘Dunno. I’m all gray and shit.’

‘As someone wise once said, grays are sexy as fuck,’ you assure him. Running your fingers through his curls, you study the texture critically, noting the blunt ends and uneven thickness. Nothing a professional haircut can’t fix. ‘Trust me, I’m very wise.’

He hums, unconvinced, but you can see the lines around his eyes crease in amusement. ‘If you say so.’

You wink at him in the mirror. ‘When I’m done with you, Tess will have the hardest time keeping her hands to herself.’

‘What makes you think she doesn’t already?’

It takes you a moment to unfreeze, stunned by his retort. At his arched eyebrow, you burst into laughter. ‘You’re a sassy one, aren’t you, Joel?’

He huffs, half-amused, and shakes his head. ‘It’s a haircut, not a miracle.’

You squeeze his shoulder, grinning when he doesn’t jump at the contact. ‘Trust me, I’m just that good at my job.’

More notes: If you enjoyed this oneshot, I wrote a series of drabbles of Shiv giving other Pedro boys haircuts - you can find them in the Grays masterlist 🩶 I may write more for this universe and some point if inspiration strikes again, thank you for reading!

And if you wanted an inspo shot of Joel's hair, here you go ❤️

Dividers by @firefly-graphics

[marlynnofmany]

The Ability to Smell Beauty

“Do you smell that?” Paint asked, flicking her tongue out to taste the air, just like the orange-scaled lizard she resembled. “That is LOVELY. Where is it?”

I looked around the forest-lined landing pad. All sorts of plants that I’d never seen before waved on the breeze: tree-things shaped like willows that someone had coated in enough hairspray to make them stand on end, bush-things with leaves that snapped at flies, moss and mushrooms and lumps that could have been frogs or seedpods, or maybe oddly-shaped rocks.

“I have no idea,” I told Paint honestly.

“Help me find it,” she said, striding away from the ship with her shoulder bag held tight and determination on her scaly face.

I glanced back at the captain and several others, who were passing time with an alien card game. The person who was supposed to have delivered our next shipment was late. Nothing else to do but hang around and try not to be bored.

“We’re going to look around a little,” I called, walking after Paint. “We won’t go far.”

Captain Sunlight nodded, her own scaly yellow face focused on the cards. “Scream if you need anything.” Then she triumphantly played a card that made Mur flail his tentacles in aggravation.

I said that I would, and followed my shorter crewmate as she waded into the undergrowth with her tongue flicking madly.

“So what exact smell are we looking for?” I asked, wondering if that was the right word. “Smelling for?”

“It’s kind of sharp, but in a good way,” Paint told me distractedly. “Sharp like a good kitchen knife, like string music, like a poignant memory.”

“Right,” I said, taking an experimental sniff. Everything smelled like alien plants, and not like violins or whatever. “Hm.”

“I think it’s this way. Low to the ground.” Paint scrambled under bushes, getting her bag caught on one of the flytrap mouths.

“Do you want me to carry that?” I asked.

“Yes please.” She held it up, still under the bush. Flytraps slapped at both of us, but weren’t strong enough to do any damage, even to my soft human skin. Paint probably didn’t even notice through her scales.

I shouldered the bag that held Paint’s sketchbook or novel or entertainment screen; whatever she’d brought out for waiting in the sun. I’d been about to go back in for something similar when she’d hared off on this quest.

“Over here!” Paint said, sounding more sure. She rustled out the other side of the bush and made delighted noises. When I made my way around the shrubbery, I found her at the base of a large boulder, gathering walnut-looking things into a greedy pile.

“Is that it?” I asked.

“Yes! Smell one!” Paint thrust one toward me.

I took it and sniffed. Not bad. Kind of like cloves, that sort of spicy sharpness that just felt festive. “Huh. Pretty good.”

“Isn’t it amazing?” Paint asked, holding up a double handful and taking an open-mouthed whiff. “Gimme the bag back; I’m taking these with me.”

“Are you sure they’re safe?” I asked as I handed it over. “Do you know what kind of plant they are?”

“Yeah, it’s that one from the store on the beach back home,” Paint said, shoveling eagerly. “The good one I could never find again. I forget the name. Sunlight will know.”

“All right,” I agreed. They really didn’t smell that special to me. It would be interesting to see if Captain Sunlight also treated the things like lizard-alien catnip, or if this was just something that Paint liked. A lot.

When she’d gathered everything on the ground — a few good handfuls — she looked around for more. I spotted one growing from the spindly sapling that poked out of a crack in the boulder, and Paint happily added it to the rest.

“I wonder if there are any other bushes like that,” she said, standing with the bag and studying the trees.

“We shouldn’t go far,” I reminded her. “Gotta stay in screaming range.”

“Sure, sure,” Paint said. “Just a quick look over this way. I think those plants grow near the beach, and I hear waves.”

Remembering Kavlae’s description of the landing pad as being “within dancing distance of the sea,” I put more attention toward the ambient sounds. That wasn’t all windblown foliage after all.

Paint was already disappearing into more bushes, so I hurried after, not wanting to lose track of her. “Slow down! I’m sure they’re not going anywhere.”

“Yes, but they’re so beautiful!” she said from somewhere ahead. “There are whole worlds in that smell. Don’t you think so?”

“It’s okay, I guess.”

“Okay?? It’s gorgeous! I want to decorate my room with them, and smell these every day! You really don’t think it’s that big a deal?” Paint sounded insulted.

“I think my nose just works a little differently from yours,” I said gently. “I’m sure they’re very nice.”

Paint huffed, pushing through the leaves harder and muttering something uncomplimentary about a nose that couldn’t smell beauty.

I had to laugh. “There are plenty of good smells out there,” I said. “And I don’t need my nose for beauty; I have my eyes for that.”

“Really,” Paint grumbled. “If you can’t appreciate this, then forgive my doubts.” She was still grumping about loveliness and the ability to sense it when she shoved through the last of the bushes. “Well, there’s the beach,” she said. “No trees, crackle it. Let’s go back.”

I ducked under a leafy branch to join her just as she turned to go. The view stopped me in my tracks.

Blue waves crashed against a beach made of glittering gemstones, sprawling as far as the eye could see in either direction. Every color under the sun, fist-sized and head-sized and a fine shimmering sand, washed bright by the waves. I could swear that native birds somewhere were singing a dramatic crescendo of a symphony, though maybe that was just in my head.

“Paint,” I said, not moving. “Can I borrow your bag? I’ll carry it back for you.”

~~~

Further adventures in backstory for this book. More to come!

[athanasius-symposium-of-writings]

For the suggestive smut prompt could you do “I’ve missed your touch” with Andrew if you write him? If not that’s fine :)

One of the characters idk how to write but did my best :-;

Rated T | Warning: none

When you first met Andrew, he was someone who you could easily see yourself not getting along with. The man kept to himself but his words were sharp, a knife held in shaking hands is more dangerous than steady hands. You knew better than to assume but whenever he was around he would tense up, and find a way out. There are a few whom he remains by, Postman and Embalmer with the occasional Prisoner.

Until one day you decided to put yourself in his space. No easy feat and one you had tiptoed a bit around until he gave up on trying to get rid of you. You are quite willful and it is not like he could avoid you—All the time.

“Want me to kiss your boo-boo?” Currently patching up the Grave Keeper after he ran to you. The Ripper did a number on him so it took a minute to use the first aid.

“(Name).” Andrew's voice sternly glares at you, “Just hurry up.” He hates it when you tease.

“Aw, didn't you miss my touch?” The damage ruined the back part of his coat into his shirt revealing his pale muscular back. The outfit he wears makes him seem small, even fragile. He is anything but that. “I've missed your touch.” Whispered in his ear causing him to stand up, stopping you from caressing the man's back, the part undamaged.

Flustered and gripping his shovel a little too hard. You tease him too much! It is as if you enjoy announcing how much he craves your touch. Well, you don't actually announce it as you only tease him when alone. Still, he cannot stop blushing and your false innocent smile is making him wish he could—

“Help me!” Great, Painter got chaired again.

“Stay there, I'm coming!” He shoots you a look knowing you were gonna make a remark about his last words, “Focus on decoding!” Telling with a finger against your chest as you stood up.

“It's primed, darling.” Grabbing his hand, “Careful.” Letting go of hand after placing a kiss on his knuckle.

[nevernonline]

✧.* grow as we go; svt smau.

entry #22 end it all.

synopsis: over the past ten years you’ve fallen in love many times. one day someone happens to stumble across your journal sitting out on your nightstand and started posting your entries online. after all of your secrets are leaked it’s clear things would ever be the same again.

𐦍 paring: svt members x afab! reader.

𐦍 feat: non-idol! svt

𐦍 genre/s: reader is super angsty low-key, fluffy, sexual themes.

𐦍 content: swearing, bullying, crazy ex’s, mentions of sexual relations, some drinking& mary jane 🍃

word count: 5.7k (some texts in between writing as well)

masterlist ▸ 021 we're so back.  ▸ 023 signing off for now. (coming soon)

Y/N sat waiting for this moment for the past 24 hours, sitting around on Mingaho’s couch, his carpet in the living room, the floor of the shower, literally any spot you can name when he wasn’t at work or out with their friends. Which was a luxury she couldn't afford as of yet. 

Mimi hurt her deep and it wasn’t just her she was hurting anymore. It was everyone around her. Somehow y/n didn’t even care enough about her own wellbeing to do anything prior to the incidents with Minnie and her further threats towards her male counterparts. It hurt her to see the people she loved despite some bumps in the road hurting more than she was. 

Even though Mimi had single handedly been the issue in her life for many years she still couldn't figure out a way to hurt her back. Of course she could publicly embarrass her, call her family, fall in love with a boy that Mimi once wanted for herself, but it wouldn’t be enough, nothing would ever feel enough to get rid of her. Well, other than murder and y/n wasn’t ready to give up one weird fucked up version of prison to get the real one. Some part of her even wanted to just say fuck it and give Mimi friendship in hopes of all of this fading away even though she knew it none of it would be enough. 

Laying her forehead on the clean glass of Minghao’s coffee table, she took in a big ass sigh just waiting for the clock to hit 5:00pm when she’d finally be in her confrontational mode. Nipping (hopefully) all of this shit in the bud. 

“y/n?”

Mingaho walked through the arched threshold of his house, the secret house apparently nobody had been too other than her. Standing in front of her staining his coffee table momentarily with her makeup, just looking at her with his concerned eyes, somehow still as statuesque as ever. 

“Yes?” 

All she could come up with was a simple response, wiping her stain not so secretly with the sleeve of her gray sweatshirt. 

“I got you some food, come on.” 

“Does this food happen to start with a “W” and end with a ‘INE?’ Or anything involving a content higher than zero?” 

“Do the letters THC sound okay?” 

“Wow, yes three of my favorites.” 

Minghao led her into the kitchen, still holding a grip on her arm from his helping her off the floor. Sitting her down at his overly modern kitchen table, where he set her lunch complete with a napkin that had a knife, fork, and rolled up joint sitting on it like it was meant to be used for her to shovel the various dishes into her mouth. 

“A real Ramsay.” 

“I do take pride in my plating and table setting.” 

“Did you roll it yourself?” 

Minghao waved his fingers to her, catching a slight smile from the girl as she beamed at the hello kitty themed rolling paper he had ordered online. 

“Feeling okay?” 

“Despite everything, yeah. I’m just ready to get rid of her at least for a while.” 

“Still not going to tell me what you planned or?” 

“No, sir. Out of the question.” 

“Ah, come on, I can keep a secret.” 

“I used to think that, but you’re friends with Jun now, he’d still find out.” 

“No way.” 

“How do you think I knew you had a garden in the back of your place, he stalked you. He’s impressive.” 

“And not scary at all.” 

“He’s harmless.” 

The pair ate the rest of their meal in silence not knowing how to continue the conversations they had been having recently, both in the same frame of mind and their end goal in sight. Minghao couldn’t lie that Y/n keeping him in the dark about what her plan was wasn’t making him nervous, he had built up a protectiveness to her, something he’d never experienced with any of his other friends. He knew that she could handle herself, but it still didn’t ease his anxiety further. 

“Hey, what time is it?” 

Mingaho just looked up at her, unaware she had been trying to ask him a question as he was in his own head. 

“Oh, uh. 4:30.” 

“Alright. Hand me your lighter and let me get a hit in before I have to dress for revenge.” 

Mingaho just laughed, handing over the black electric lighter to her across the table, being careful to not touch her fingers and go back into his trance. 

He had been doing good the past few days, not intruding on her space with his feelings to much, keeping it just how she wanted it, just friends. Hopefully, for him that just meant until she got the whole Mimi thing handled. 

Y/n took a deep exhale and blew the smoke behind her to not get it into Minghao’s space. The pair's phones  lit up at the same time, letting them know it was time to meet up for hopefully the finale. 

Minnie and Y/n stepped outside of Mingyu’s black car, weirdly the perfect car for their bondess actions, not quite matching their casual outfits to their gut feelings. Minnie linked arms with y/n as they walked up to Mimi’s apartment, waiting for their meeting of the devil they both know. 

“Honestly, I’m surprised she lives here? I thought she had a good job?” 

“Last I heard she did? Some sort of social management or something?” 

“Perfect for her huh? Managing other people's lives.” 

“Yeah, but this.. Don't tell that truth.” 

“Maybe she was lying?” 

“Or y/n, maybe it’s a set up?” 

“No. I don’t think so. Her name is on the call box.” 

“This is becoming even more bizarre than I would’ve thought in the first place, ring the buzzer.” 

“Minnie, you ring the buzzer.” 

“Why would I ring the buzzer? You have longer fingers than me, less chance of being electrocuted or something, plus you have long sleeves you can wrap your hand in. They must protect you from that stuff too, right?”

“I don’t know? I’m scared to ring the buzzer. What if she puts some sort of magic powder on it and it turns me into a frog or something, I hate frogs.” 

“Why don’t we both ring the buzzer at the same time and then if there's a chance that she is some weird witch then we both turn into preferably not frogs but maybe cats or something?” 

“Well the witch thing is true. Okay, together.. Uh, ready?” 

“Sure.” 

Minnie and Y/n reached their pointer fingers together closer to the buzzer of apartment 4C that apparently belonged to their mutual enemy. When they made contact with the sticky silver knob they both jumped as the door unlocked, Mimi must have been waiting for their arrival right next to her intercom. 

“Okay.. Call me a snob or whatever y/n but this place is, uh-” 

“Not what you were expecting?” 

“Right.” 

“Me either.” 

The girls walked through the courtyard following the signs on the side of the bricks that would lead them to the staircase up to the fourth floor to find Mimi standing outside with her door cracked, watching them timidly walk towards her. 

“I see you guys have no respect for other people's time still, you’re ten minutes late.” 

Y/n looked down at her watch. 

“Actually, we’re right on time, see?” 

She shoved her electronic apple watch screen with the exact time running across. 

“My mistake, I guess. Want to come in or are we just going to talk out here? Maybe the best idea considering you guys probably have some insane plan to tie me up and poison me or something.” 

“Why would we waste prison time on you exactly?” 

“Touche, Minnie. Come on, let’s get this over with.” 

Minnie and Y/n gave each other a look of disbelief as they walked into her apartment, clothes strung around everywhere, a board with thumbtacks of documents, pictures of her dog, some weird excerpts from fashion magazines.  Her laptop plugged into a wall socket paused on a scene from 13 going on 30, dirty coffee mugs staining on her side table. Definitely not the place she assumed Mimi was living, especially since Y/n knew her parents were unbelievably well off. 

“You guys can just sit on the couch or at the desk, it doesn't matter. Just throw the clothes on the floor. They should be clean, but I’m not sure.” 

“Is this your apartment? Like, full time or?” 

“Yes, y/n. Laugh all you want, but this is my apartment.” 

“What happened to-” 

“To the luxury one? Well after my parents found out about some of the things I’ve done, they cut me off. Luckily my job had a way for me to find vacant places I could actually afford considering I spent all my money on clothes the entire time I was working for my dad, so I had no savings. That’s how.” 

“Sorry.” 

“Sorry? That’s all you guys can say is sorry? After you basically ruined my life? You’re both part of the reason I’m here right now.” 

“What the fuck? How are we responsible for this exactly?” 

“Well, Minnie. Since you so kindly asked. You know exactly why. Your parents told mine that I am a quote bully unquote to poor sad Y/n who gets everything she wants, so I blame you for that.” 

“You blame us for the way you obsessively have been trying to ruin y/n’s life for years?” 

“Ruin her life? Please, what life?” 

“What life? Are you like.. Doing well? On drugs? Hitting your vape pen a little too much and losing all your brain cells or?” 

“Come on, Minnie. Don’t tell me you actually think her leeching off other people and making them feel sorry for her to get them to hangout with her is actually having a life? Half of you guys are just her barking dogs because she’s too much of a pussy to call people out herself. Even now, you’re here with her fighting with me over a comment I made about y/n. Barking little dog. Seokmin too, just absolutely blind to the fact that she’s a shitty friend to him while he’s picking up all her broken pieces over and over again. She can’t even get a fucking boyfriend, all the boys she’s ever loved have fallen for her best friends over her, Me and Joshua, now you and Mingyu, I wonder who’s going to come and scoop Minghao up from under her considering she’s never going to give him wha-” 

“God can you stop being a fucking cunt for one second? What the fuck have I EVER done to you to make you say this shit about me? What? Tell your parents that you were recklessly drunk driving? You almost killed my father? You paralyzed a woman from the waist down? But, you left completely unscathed, no injuries aside from a little vomit and a paper cut sized gash on your hand because your vodka bottle shattered into the steering wheel as you drove into oncoming traffic? Tried for years to get Joshua to see that the type of person you are isn’t who he sees, that you were brainwashing him? Fuck. I even left and signed your stupid fucking note claiming I was doing all of this for attention, left my life, my friends, took time off of work, just because I needed you to stop trying to take it over and just wanted to give it to you so I never had to see you ever again. You think I actually want to sit here and look at how you’re living just so I can feel good about myself? No, it doesn’t make me feel good, Mimi. I don’t think this would make anyone feel good. But, unfortunately it’s karma. Karma for all those goddamn years of you poking and prodding and sticking daggers in my back until I finally bleed out completely and give you what you want. Well it’s fucking done, it’s over.” 

“What’s over, y/n? Huh. You think you’re actually going to win? Over me?” 

“Hah. I don’t care. Don’t you see that? I don’t fucking care anymore. I want you to get the fuck and stay the fuck away from me for a good long time. If you ever pull any of this shit again, you won’t just have a shitty apartment, you’ll have a shitty jail cell.” 

Y/n stood up now itching in closer to where Mimi was standing, leaving Minnie sitting with a shocked look on her face, almost proud. 

“What? Coming close to me so you can punch me or something?” 

“No. But, thanks for the idea.” 

Y/n took one last look into Mimi’s face before taking a deep breath in. 

“Stay the fuck out of my life. Leave my friends alone. Get a different hobby or you’ll get a very unfriendly visit from me accompanied by a few police officers coming to search your apartment and I’m sure you’ll love the new pretty set of silver jewelry they put on your wrists, matching cuffs are super in right now.” 

Y/n then pulled a twenty dollar bill out of her purse, walking away from standing in Mimi’s face, placing it under a thumbtack on her board. 

“Should get you a couple more trips to the laundry room, you could use it. Let’s go Minnie. Thanks for having us, Mimi. Your place is delightful.” 

Minnie got off the couch turning to follow y/n out, but turning back around just as quickly to look at Mimi feeling her rage build in her stomach. 

“Wait, I think I forgot something.” 

“What’s that?” 

Minnie lifted her right hand and laid a slap that could’ve been heard across town on Mimi’s cheek, making her gasp in pain. 

“Have a nice life, bitch.” 

Y/n and Minnie stayed nearly silent, running down the staircase from Mimi’s apartment and all through the courtyard back through the front doors and into Mingyu’s car. 

He wasn’t sure what they were thinking or even what they did, he just drove away without a word until the two girls made eye contact and started hysterically laughing, talking so loud in between their laughing breaths he couldn’t even make out a coherent sentence. 

“I cannot believe you did that, the delivery was SO good.” 

“What about you y/n? That speech, I mean that was cinema worthy, what the hell. I feel so proud of you after I finish laughing I might just cry? Also you tacking down the twenty dollars on the cork board was such a slap in the face.” 

“Oh my god, nothing like your actual slap in the face? I have so much adrenaline right now I feel like I could run a fucking marathon.” 

“Ew, no don’t do that. Let’s go get a drink at my place. Come on.” 

“Mingyu? Drink?” 

“Yes, of course. And I’ll need a full run down once the two of you stop laughing like two little girls, please.” 

“Shut up, you love us.” 

“Right.” 

Mingyu smiled at the pair just laughing and giggling in the rearview mirror. Pulling his car into the parking lot of Minnie’s apartment, very different scenery than the one they just were at. 

“Wow, you know I just realized I’ve never seen your new place yet?” 

“Oh my god, I totally forgot about that, it's really cute. I’m trying to convince this tall bitch to move in with me.” 

“And what’s holding you back, Gyu?” 

“Nothing actually, I was going to tell her yes, might as well do it now while you guys are still on your high.” 

Y/n stopped in her tracks and held Minnie's arm, prompting them to jump up and down and scream slightly. 

“Wow, who would’ve thought THE Minnie Pinnie would have a MAN living with her. And her boyfriend at that, so adult.” 

“Hate to break it to you y/n, but we are adults.” 

“Psh, I know. “ 

“Okay, so let’s go up to my apartment first, I can lend you some clothes especially since you literally just sat on Mimi’s dirty laundry and weirdly stained couch, and we can wash yours.” 

“Sounds good to me, thank you my princess.” 

“Anytime, King Y/n.” 

“King? Excuse.” 

“It just came to me. Mingyu, do you mind grabbing the ice bucket and some wine and bringing it up to the roof? We’ll come in a few minutes.” 

“On it.” 

Minnie dragged y/n through her apartment, room by room, showing her all the new things she acquired to decorate, even though some of them are partially out of boxes waiting for their time to be hung up on the newly painted white walls. 

“Here, this was actually meant to be your birthday gift, but obviously we got distracted. Open it, open it, open it.” 

“You didn’t have to get me anything?” 

“Are you kidding me? Of course I did, I haven’t missed an y/n gift giving experience in a decade, come on.” 

“If anything I should be the one buying you a gift.” 

“My gift was slapping that bitch, hard, hurry please, I have to pee.” 

“Okay, okay.” 

Y/n tore through the tissue paper inside the pink bag, grabbing a hold of a garment inside and pulling it out, a silk black mid length dress with a matching black knit shawl on top. Something she remembers pointing out to Minnie through a car window months ago. Months before Mimi had entered their life again. 

“Oh my god, you didn’t.” 

“Hello? Of course I did, have you met me? Try it on while I pee, be right back.” 

Y/n took this silk fabric between her fingers and placed it carefully on the back of Minnies desk chair, sliding out of her jeans and t shirt and into the soft buttery fabric of her new dress, pulling the shrug over her arms and shoulders twirling a little, already wishing for somewhere to wear it. 

“Oh wow, y/n” 

Y/n walked over to Minnie with outstretched arms, hugging her tightly as another thank you and confirmation that she loved her gift. 

“I’m sorry we fought, I’m really sorry for everything, especially that you got hurt. I love you, Min.” 

“I’m sorry too, but it's over now, we’re perfect. Can I do your hair just so we can see how it’ll look with the dress?” 

“Yeah, sure. What about, Gyu?” 

“Ah, he’s fine, he has beer and a phone he can entertain himself well for ten more minutes, sit down.” 

Y/n obliged and sat down at the desk once again, letting Minnie brush her hair into a ponytail, slipping bobby pins in it, she was totally blind to what had been happening to the back of her head, Minnie came to her side brushing her bangs back and pinning them too into a perfect slicked back bun, topped off with a large black scrunchie as a hair accessory. 

“Okay, go look.” 

Y/n stood in the mirror, taking a long look at herself, some sort of light came back into her eyes, she looked almost happy. 

“You made me look good, now please sweatpants.” 

“No, you’re wearing this, I just put in all that work.” 

“But, you’re in sweats?” 

“I’ll change too, like a cute cheers to us killing a vampire.” 

Y/n smiled as Minnie very pixie floated around her room and grabbed a cute outfit to toss on very quickly all the while handing Y/n a few lip glosses and eyeshadow pallets touch her makeup up, and in five minutes she came out looking like an angel. 

“Drink time?” 

“Please.” 

Minnie and Y/n walked back out the front door and up the single flight of stairs to the rooftop, little did y/n know lying behind the door to the sunset were the rest of her friends, here to makeup for her birthday one last time. 

“Can we be up here? Sounds like someone is having a party?” 

“Yes, y/n. You are.” 

“I am? I am what?” 

“Having a party stupid.” 

“You didn’t” 

“Like I said before, of course I did. Let’s celebrate, come on.” 

The two of them pushed open the door to a cheer of people, Mingyu smiling holding his glass of beer next to Wonwoo and Vernon who clapped as Y/n and Minnie ran through the door, Minghao sitting next to Jun, trying to push off his affectionate hug, Joshua, Jeonghan, and Seokmin huddling around each other next to the snacks cheersing the two girls who came outside. A few of y/n’s other various friends are smiling and taking sips of their cocktails.

“I must be really dense? You had this all planned?” 

“Duh. I can’t believe you didn’t catch on. Now go, my beautiful friend. Have some drinks, I’ll catch up with you in a bit.” 

“Fine.” 

Y/n was waved off as Minnie made her way over to Mingyu, jumping into his arms, waving to the boys he was sitting with. Y/n couldn’t help but smile seeing her friends so happy, she walked on her own looking over the city to the bar on the corner of the roof and grabbed the first clear cocktail she could get a hold of before turning around to find Seokmin smiling at her like a lost puppy. 

“Hi.” 

“Hello, lovely lady. How did it go with Mimi?” 

“Seokmin.” 

“Noo, no Seokmin, it’s over now I get to know what happened, that's the rule.” 

“Then can we make a deal? Let me finish at least three cocktails and THEN we can talk about Mimi, but a hint that it went perfectly.” 

“Good, come sit with us.” 

Seokmin picked up two more drinks and led Y/n over to a spot to sit in between himself and Jeonghan, she gladly nuzzled in between them, Joshua sitting across from her just smiling shyly, clearly not knowing how to insert himself again into a conversation after the one they had at her house, the tension was obvious but hopefully with the help of her friends he would get comfortable around her again while she made up her mind. 

“Happy Late Birthday, y/n. I missed you.” 

“Thank you, Hannie. I missed you too.” 

y/n wrapped her arm around him tightly after their hug letting it still rest around his shoulders, drinking away as he and Seokmin explained their crazy night out that somehow involved jumping off the pier after losing a bet with some girls at a bar. 

Y/n couldn’t help herself looking between Joshua and Minghao all night, almost like she was trying to force her eyes into making the decision for her. She knew in her gut what she actually wanted, but also wasn’t ready to hurt someone in the process. 

But, something about standing up for herself today made her realize a part of what Mimi was saying was true, maybe she did use people to make choices for her, maybe she was always too scared to admit how she felt because she was scared of the rejection that came with it, that’s why she chose to hide it away with pen and paper, obviously never thinking those things would come out. 

Her feelings for Joshua were nearly life long, she remembered when he didn’t feel like her friend anymore and moved himself into the painful crush category. Ever since fifth grade she couldn’t stop having feelings for him, all through high school, his stint with Mimi, even after he said and did terrible things to her, she did  them back so it was an even playing field. When she first lost her virginity, when she was seeing Mingyu, and even now. Joshua was so evident in her DNA from her childhood, it wasn’t really easy to shake him from her mind. 

Only one person had done it, Minghao. She didn’t always trust him or his intentions, which turned out to make sense once he had come clean, but she knew from the night he spent at her apartment, when he asked about her life, her photos. Even the simple things about him made her like him more, the way he’s always so engaged in her stories, never looking away from her eyes or her lips as she spoke, never using his phone when he’s with her only to take photos or show her a song that reminded him of her, writing down the movies she suggests just so he can understand her weird references she makes. He was a caretaker, someone who never questioned her, never made her feel less than, he always knew how to make her happy when she didn’t want to be. He fought for her, the same way she did for her friends. 

After her two drinks dried up and much of her conversations were lost on her picking her brain of how to make a choice between two worthy candidates, she got up to use the restroom, heading back down to Minnie’s place, on the way back out she ran into Minghao coming into the front door to pick up another case of beer to bring upstairs, he put it down and let her pass by, giving her hand a small squeeze and a smile without saying anything. Subtle but effective, he let her know he’d be right behind her on the way up. 

“Those are all for you I assume?” 

“No, you know I don’t drink beer. Mingyu is a little drunk so I offered to come down and grab it for him, I didn’t want him to get hurt.” 

“How very chivalrous of you.” 

Minghao put the case down and pulled a few out to pop into the cooler, grabbing a bottle of wine and an opener, waving y/n along to the otherside of the roof where only a few people were sitting and smoking. 

“Let’s share that birthday drink I owed you last time.” 

“Sounds perfect. I’m going to steal this blanket, hold on.” 

Y/n walked over to a couple sitting at a small table smoking a joint, holding hands lovingly watching the sunset. Minghao noticed her bright smile as she talked and waved to them while stealing the stray gray blanket from the open chair and skipping back over to Minghao covering them both up as she saw on the plush floor cushion. 

“That’s Mark, the guy I work for. I think I told you about him before. He’s super nice, he’s planning on proposing to her tonight. Maybe we’ll see it happen.” 

“That would be cute.” 

Minghao smiled at y/n’s eyes, lighting up talking about their proposal. He noticed they did that alot when she would talk about people being happy. It was one of the things he liked the most about her. 

“So, Swan.” 

“Yes, Mungbean?” 

“How was she?” 

“Ah, the subtle approach, I love it.” 

“Well, the place she's living in was sort of alarming at first. It’s totally fine, but not what I had expected, especially since last time I saw her she said she was living in some highrise just a few blocks over from here, actually. I guess it’s all she can afford because her parents cut her off for what she’s doing, she tried to blame me and Minnie, but we didn’t even say anything to them this time? Obviously, someone did.. Maybe Joshua or his mom? Not sure.” 

“Well, that’d be kind of silly for you guys to tattle on her like she's a child.” 

“Right. That’s exactly what I thought. Even if she does act like a child sometimes.” 

“What else happened? You guys just talked?” 

“I wouldn’t say it was talking, it was more of a shouting match at first. But it felt good to finally stick up for myself and not let someone else do it for me.” 

“So, she’s fine with it? Going to leave you alone?” 

“I threatened her with handcuffs.” 

“Kinky.” 

“No, the police kind. I said if she ever tried any shit ever again I would come over and her small world would become a small jail cell, something like that.” 

Minghao laughed, picturing y/n upset, yelling at the girl who made her life hell as he poured them both another glass of wine, halfway through their bottle and moment alone already. 

“Surprised she didn’t try to rip your hair out or something. So you guys really just went over to talk?” 

“ No, not exactly, we did have more of an elaborate plan, but we got side tracked. Oh! And I tacked a twenty dollar bill to her board and said she needs to use it to do laundry which turned her face so red I thought she was about to, but Minnie slapped her instead and we ran off.” 

“What?” 

“What?” 

“The last part again?” 

“I know, I was so shocked I knew Minnie was a feisty bitch but I did NOT expect the slap it was so perfect. We laughed the entire way back here about it.” 

Minghao laughed, picturing the two girls running away childlike after Minnie finally let their bully have it. It seemed like the type of thing he wished they had gotten on camera. 

“But, yeah, nothing more than that. Just a bunch of girls fighting and slapping each other, something weird people on the internet would pay a lot of money for I think.” 

“Too bad you wasted your twenty on her.” 

“I can spare it, I think. Plus, she did have a lot of dirty laundry.” 

“Do you feel better now? I mean, less stressed about it? Because I was worried about you today, you looked like you were going to scream at any second.” 

“Yes, so much better. Thank you for this and for dinner and for letting me stay at your place, it was so nice seeing where you actually live, I was beginning to think you were some type of woodland creature at night or something.” 

“A woodland creature?” 

“Yeah, just you never showed anyone where you lived before. I don’t know? It’s really beautiful though, you should have people over more often, it's so cozy.” 

“You could move in.” 

“What?” 

“No, I just mean. I know you were afraid in your apartment alone after a while and I have the space, I mean you could have an office and a bedroom all to yourself, I don’t mean like-” 

“Are you ever going to ask me out?” 

“What? I-” 

“No. I mean. I’d like to go out with you, I’d say yes. We’ve moved faster in all the other steps and we’ve never really been on an actual date, so.” 

“I didn’t think you wanted me to ask you out?” 

“I thought I was the oblivious one.” 

“Oh, I-” 

“I mean at my parents house when we went outside, I thought you almost did. But, you never actually said anything. And I like spending time with you, just alone. It doesn’t have to be anything amazing or special, just us hanging out, unless you want to do something fancy? You’re kind of fancy. I like that. We kind of were getting to the maybe dating part before your art show, but that went to shit and I was dumb and went on a date with Joshua, which I’m sorry about by the way, that's complicated, but I don’t have feelings for him anymore like that, I have feelings for you. So? I’m talking too much, right?” 

“You’re not no.” 

“So? Yes? Unless you don’t have feelings for me which then makes this incredibly weird and we can just be friends. At least think about it. I-” 

“Y/n.” 

“No, really just give it a few days. I’ve never asked anyone out before so this is weird, plus someone who’s my friends and friends with my friends, so.” 

Minghao took his hand and covered y/n’s mouth for a second just to get her attention back to him and stop her rambling so he can finally get a word in through her rant. 

“Hey.” 

“Y/n, I do like you. I thought that was obvious. I thought you just wanted to be friends.” 

“I thought you just wanted to be friends.” 

“I mean I like being your friend, but I’d like to go out with you. Thinking about staying your friend while I’ve liked you all this time and then watching you date someone else would probably kill me a little. So, yes I’d love to go on a date with you.” 

“Really?” 

“Yes, please.” 

MInghao took y/n's hand, holding it tightly while he set their glasses of wine down in front of them and pulled her in for a small kiss on her stained lips. 

“The music started, should we go dancing?” 

“Shouldn’t we plan our date?” 

“That’s up to you, Mr. Minghao. I expect it to be nothing less than fabulous.” 

“Wait, but you asked me out, shouldn't you be planning it?” 

“Is that how it works?” 

“Normally.”

“Okay, I will.” 

“Really, y/n. No, I can plan it.” 

“No. I’m planning. Now come on, let’s dance please.” 

Y/n pulled Minghao up from the ground, running with him to find the rest of their friends on the dance floor, never letting his hand fall from hers almost like a claim. 

Y/n and her friends spent the rest of the night, talking and laughing. Minnie told the story about the slap heard around the world to every separate group of people she talked to. 

When it was finally time to leave, y/n and Minghao hopped in a cab to his place. A place that someday, if things go right could be theirs together. 

When they finally shut the outside world away and got ready for bed, y/n glanced at the various mentions online from her friends, pictures, tweets, instagram posts, and some texts. But, one of them stuck out the most, a text from someone, an anonymous number she never had contacted before something that made her hair stand up on the nape of her neck. 

note: hi! hope u enjoy this final written chapter, the next (two?) lil insert(s) will just to be finishing up this story and then we will be onto the next which I hope you'll all enjoy just as much!! have a good weekend my angel bb's :')

taglist:@sun-daddy-yoriichi@hipsdofangirl@kissesfrmwonwoo@minhui896@wonwooz1@porridgesblog@jasssy051@soonyoungblr@saucegirlreads@musingsofananxiouspotato@young-adult-summer@punkhazardlaw@bibs-world@the-swageyama-tobiyolo@wonuulvr@woozixo@k-drama-adict@90s-belladonna@blaycke@dnylwoo@to-mi-yo, @nonononranghaee@bee-the-loser@mxnhoeuwu

[the-ace-with-spades]

Silly idea but what if Jake's dad actually loves Bradley

So, they're together around flight school time and Jake actually has a good relationship with his dad (it's his mom that went crazy when he came out -- his parents are currently divorced because of it, too) so he introduces Bradley to his dad when they have a free weekend in Kingsville and drive up north to the Seresin ranch.

And Jake's dad instantly adores Bradley. Like, calls him son from the first day and tells Jake he has to marry him someday (when they're out of the Navy, obviously). They actually have a lot in common, same taste in old cars, same taste in oldie music, Donny Seresin absolutely adores that Bradley can play piano and sing, and they have the same old man taste in drinks and Bradley is quite good as a mechanic (repairs a tractor the first day he's there) and they just can talk for hours without feeling awkward since day one. And Jake's dad can clearly see that Jake's boy has been through a lot and he's as soft as Jake so he takes it personally.

Since then, Jake's dad and Bradley actually talk more often than he talks with Jake. Jake finds it hysterical but also a bit sweet that his old man and his boyfriend (who is mentally a bit of an old man himself) get along so well when Jake thought there would be shovel talks and treating to bury Bradley's body somewhere on their farm if he hurts Jake.

One day, Donny Seresin just tells Bradley to call him dad. Obviously, Bradley feels weird about it since he already had two dads and a pops and they're all just bittersweet memories so he's like, I'm sorry I can't call you that, my dads are just still---

Donny Seresin tells him to call me pa, then and Bradley does. Donny gets two father's day cards from Kingsville.

When he finds out Bradley's got no one to pin his wings when they finish flight school, he volunteers. Jake gets his pinned by his sisters and Bradley gets his pinned by Jake's dad.

Thing is, Mav is in the audience that day. He knew he'd be crossing a line if he showed up on the scene to do the winging but there's this strange man who's pinning the wings on his son and he can't take it, he's miserable and fuming and just so angry (with himself, mostly).

Jake and Bradley break up and Bradley stops calling Donny. Donny waits a couple of months before calling Bradley, on father's day of all days, saying I think you forgot to wish someone happy father's day.

And they start talking again. And Jake hates it. At first.

Their break up wasn't as explosive as people think --- one day Bradley was there, arguing about which cereals they should buy, the next he was packing his stuff and flying to Japan without telling Jake a thing, not picking up his phone. Jake reacts to even a mention of Bradley with disdain.

His dad says something about Bradley sending him Japanese whisky and Jake explodes.

Then a few weeks later, his dad mentions Bradley had an emergency sea landing and Jake is still pissed but also worried. Because he's still in love with Bradley.

So he allows it. Pretends he's mad whenever his dad mentions Bradley while secretly being grateful he can keep tabs on Bradley somehow.

Fast forward after the mission, Bradley and Mav (and Ice) reconcile and Jake and Bradley get back together.

Donny Seresin comes to San Diego for holidays and to visit his sons. Bradley takes it as an opportunity to introduce him to Mav and Ice and just to make their family meet officially Jake tells his dad all about how much of big names Mav and his husband are in the Navy and Jake's dad is like, well, to me they're just a pair of crap parents.

When they all meet, one could cut tension with a knife because Mav recognizes him instantly as the guy who pinned Bradley's wings.

And then Bradley calls Donny pa in front of everyone.

Mav is green with jealousy the whole evening (which later shapes into wallowing in self-pity) that this stranger got to be a dad to Bradley in some capacity throughout the years he didn't. Especially that Bradley is still feeling a bit wary and hasn't called them dad or pops again yet.

Meanwhile Jake is even more hysterical about the thing because he's just realized it means Bradley has four dads in total.

[homunculus-argument]

Alright, lest my relentless finnposting is taken for dogwhistles, I want to clarify something:

 While I might talk a lot about the finnish people or finns as an ethnicity - being one myself, and god knows I’ve got most of the distinct recessive traits of my ancestors’ rampant inbreeding - when I’m talking about Finland as a country and a nation, “finnish people” covers every person who's living here as a member of finnish society, and wants to be a part of it. What defines Finland as a country and a nation is building a country with sturdy foundations of social welfare, highest possible quality education, the highest possible standard of living, and being insufferably smug about it. None of these things has anything to do with genetics, ancestry, or cultural background, and ethnonationalists are sorry clowns who ought to find a better basis for their sense of personal self-worth than being genetically prone to having blond hair, mental health problems and heart disease.

 One can be Thai, Somali, Estonian or Greek, if you’re voluntarily here and your car tools include a shovel for shovelling snow off your vehicle every fucking morning, and a belt knife in case you have to emergency euthanise a moose that you crashed into because ice age megafauna don’t dodge cars or wear reflectors, and the sun sets at 3 fucking PM for two months of the year, and you’re willing to pay taxes to put up with all this bullshit, as far as I’m concerned you are just as much a crazy stubborn finn as someone whose ancestors got here during the stone age.

[simply-whump]

The Uncanny Counter 2: Counter Punch (경이로운 소문2: 카운터 펀치) - Whump List

Main Whumpee : So moon played by Cho Byeongkyu, Ga Motak played by Yoo Joonsang and Na Jeokbong played by Yoo In Soo

Synopsis : Evil spirits from the afterlife arrive on Earth in search of an immortal existence. The story follows a group of counters who are tasked with catching these malevolent entities. (MDL)

Genres : Action, Mystery, Comedy, Supernatural

Warning! Possible spoilers below!

So Moon

Ep 1 : None

Ep 2 : Sparring, hair pulled, screaming (comedic) — Fighting

Ep 3 : Using a lot of power, struggling a bit, shaking, sweating, collapses, nosebleed, concern for him — Sore, wincing in pain, knuckles scratched (after training too much on his own) — Sparring against all the other counters

Ep 4 : Difficult fight, bruised, bleeding a bit, pressed a against a wall by strong telekinesis power, groaning in pain — Still pressed against the wall, struggling, chocked, screaming in pain, manages to free himself after lots of shouting, shot in the arm while protecting someone, concern for him, bleeding (healed offscreen…) (Gif Set)

Ep 5 :  inhaled some gaz, coughing, collapsed

Ep 6 : Fighting, thrown and pinned against a wall

Ep 7 : Difficult fight, thrown around, choked, punched repeatedly in the face, emotional, bruised and bleeding, worried for someone

Ep 8 : Crying — Sparring, punched — Fighting, thrown around, bleeding, pinned o a wall, bleeding — Choked, fighting — Memory erased, collapses, passes out, concern for him (Gif Set)

Ep 9 : (Replay of previous scene) Unconscious, choked — Unconscious, friends try to heal him, lots of concern for him — In a coma, concern for him, looked after, locked inside his own mind, doesn’t want to wake up — (inside his mind) Seems lost and terrified, heavy breathing, thinks all of his friends are dead, devastated, crying, wakes up 

Ep 10 : Fighting, pinned to the ground

Ep 11 : Enters the enemy’s “mind”, choked, concern for him, wakes up, heavy breathing — Punched by Motak, emotional, teary-eyed — Crying — Fighting, hit, thrown around — Stays behind in a place that’s about to self destruct, concern for him, choked, slammed to the ground, choked (Gif Set), saved

Ep 12 : Fighting, blasted by an explosion, more difficult fighting, goes into the enemy’s mind, fighting, choked, punched a lot, choked until he almost passes out — Struggling to summon the enemy, screaming, heavy breathing, crying — Wakes up

Ga Motak

Ep 1 : None

Ep 2 : Difficult fight, lots of punching and being thrown around

Ep 3 : Sparring

Ep 4-7 : None

Ep 8 : Fighting, handcuffed himself to the bad guy, choked, bleeding from the mouth, screaming in pain, wrist bleeding, concern for him — groaning in pain, wrist healed with magic — Sparring, being blasted around — Fighting

Ep 9 : Thrown around

Ep 10 : Thrown around — Teary-eyed

Ep 11 : Fighting, cut, knife at his throat, worried for someone, sees someone he cares about die in front of him, punches So Moon, emotional, teary-eyed — Find out his friend is alive, extremely relieved

Ep 12 : Fighting, blasted by an explosion, more difficult fighting, thrown around, choked, losing consciousness 

Na Jeokbong

Ep 1 : None

Ep 2 : Hit by a bus, at the hospital, in a coma — Wakes up

Ep 3 : Sparring — Throws up

Ep 4 : Kicked, falls to the ground, nose bleeding — Blaming himself, feeling useless — Beaten , chocked, beaten with a shovel while protecting someone, hit in the face, nosebleed

Ep 5 : Inhaled some gaz, coughing, collapsed, half conscious, out of it (semi-comedic)

Ep 6-7 : None

Ep 8 : Fighting

EP 9 : Thrown around, choked — Crying — Fighting (more like beaten up)

Ep 10 : None

Ep 11 : Throwing up — Choked, shelf falls on him

Ep 12 : Fighting, blasted by an explosion, concern for him, thrown around, choked, losing consciousness 

Bonus Whumpee : Park Do Hwi (on the right) played by Seo Byuk Joon

Ep 7 : choked, thrown to the ground, stabbed, collapses on his knees, concern for him, bleeding

Ep 8 : Unconscious on the ground, stabbed a second time, bleeding, concern for him — Unconscious, healed with magic, wakes up, weak, memories erased (such a sad scene)

>> More Whump Lists

[theboywithburninghands]

So I pushed through my writer's block. Here's the newest Funnybunny thing. Uh, well, sorta. It's got shipping stuff in it, but most of it is just Jax and getting into his thoughts, and a really nasty encounter with something horrible. The... fun kind of horrible though. Yeah, word of warning, this is a pretty violent little ditty, so if you're squeamish, I'd say either sit this one out or don't eat while reading? I'm damn proud of it either way LOL T/W: Violence, gore, vomit, horror

The Dollhouse Part 2: Reap What You Sow

Jax slid down the tube slide with his hands behind his head. You fall through enough trapdoors and they start to lose their shock value. The slide dropped into a pit full of something cottony and plush. Jax crinkled up his face upon recognizing what he just landed in. Corn silk. The cloyingly sweet smell of corn made him queasy, and he’d be picking strings of silk off of his clothes for hours. 

Jax: Not scary. Just annoying.

Jax climbed out of the pit, doing his best to dust himself off. Silk drifted off of him like hair off a shedding St. Bernard. After he was reasonably clean, he approached the door in front of him and nudged it open with his food. 

Inside was what appeared to be a disused barn, or at least an imitation of one. It was divided into a ground floor and a hayloft. The ground floor had only two things of note, a door, which appeared to be locked, and a tractor. One of those old fashioned ones that curved in the middle and had big wheels that looked more like those on a kid’s wagon than farm equipment. It was caked with rust and would probably crumble into scrap metal if someone managed to start the engine. A rickety wooden ladder led up into the hayloft above. Jax hummed and gripped one leg of the ladder, shaking it. Seemed climbable enough. 

Jax went over to the locked door, finding some words scratched into it with what looked like a knife.

Jax: “In your eye, a promise kept 

Through my eye, a line is swept

I trace the day, a circle spun

A hole in skin, a scarf begun. 

But beware, do not guess wrong

Or they will find you before long.”

Jax sniffed at the poem. Riddles, huh? Cute. Caine must’ve spent a while finding rhymes. Jax examined the lock, pausing to pick another piece of corn silk off his glove. He tried a few of the keys he had in his pocket, but they were all too thick. It was a pretty heavy padlock too, no real way to pick it. 

So what was the riddle for? In your eye, a promise kept… waaaait a minute. He was surrounded by hay. What did you go looking for in a stack of hay?

Jax: “Stick a needle in my eye.” Alright, fair point, Caine.

He smiled a bit at his deduction,  but now came the actual needle in a haystack part. He sighed, cracked his knuckles and began to climb up the ladder. It squeaked in protest a bit at Jax’s weight, and the third rung from the top made an ominous crunch when he stepped on it. He’d have to skip that one on the way down.

The hayloft was full of… well, hay. It might’ve been in bales once, but now it was a big, messy pile strewn over the baseboards. The hay on top was the usual healthy yellow color, but the hay on the bottom was damp and brown. Jax caught a whiff of rotten hay, the smell almost indistinguishable from horse manure. He looked around for a pitchfork or a shovel to make his life easier, but no such luck.

He sighed again, then began to toss hay off the loft, two handfuls at a time. It would have been easier with the others around. Heck, he could have just made the excuse that he wanted to watch for monsters down below while the others dug around in the hay. 

…Nah, it probably wouldn’t go that way anymore, actually. Pomni would scold him for it, or worse, give him those sad, wet puppy dog eyes. And then he’d do it so she’d want to cuddle with him later. 

…That, and it did feel nice to make her happy. Weird how that worked. 

Jax: *sudden coughing fit* Ugh… *hocks and spits* 

Damn haydust… it was like inhaling sand. He was gonna be feeling the grit in his throat for the rest of the day too. Man, he would have pulled out one of his teeth for a bottle of water and a hot shower right about now… Caine probably would have just thrown boiling hot soapy water on him if he asked, then told him to drink said boiling hot soapy water. Idiot.

Whatever. Maybe after the adventure he could go swim in the lake. If he did, Pomni might tag along. Or maybe she wouldn’t, since Ragatha was a thing in their relationship now. …Nah, she could come too. He could play nice with her for a little while. Come to think of it, he couldn’t remember a time when he and Ol’ Rags had ever actually hung out together. He wasn’t opposed to the idea. Other than Pomni she was probably the least annoying person in the circus. Sure, the overly smiley persona got annoying, but… it was… refreshing now and then. So sure. She could come with. Actually, thinking about it, could she even swim…? He’d never seen her in swimwear. 

…Not a terrible image to conjure up… 

Jax stopped to cough again. If Caine’s idea of an adventure had gotten to the point of just doing manual labor, the future looked bleak. He cringed backwards upon touching the rotten hay on the bottom, wiping his hand on his overalls. He wasn’t digging through that with his hands, Caine could sit and spin. He hocked and spat one more time to futilely try and get some of the grit out of his throat, then began to climb back down the ladder. Maybe the needle was in the hay he’d already thrown onto the floor. Even if it wasn’t, there had to be something down there to help him shovel the-

The pile of rotten hay shifted. Jax froze mid step down the ladder, watching the pile of rancid mush churn about, before a small patch of it slid off the greater mass with an unceremonious plop, revealing-

Revealing a-

Jax: What…?

A single red eye, the size of a beach ball, swiveled around from under the hay. Hateful, malevolent, and all too familiar. It was here. 

Jax automatically put his foot onto the next rung on the ladder, determined to leave Its line of sight and wait until It fell back asleep. His stomach squeezed into a knot when the third rung on the ladder messily snapped in two like a stale loaf of bread. His chin thwacked against the floor of the hayloft and he fell a good ten feet to the barn floor. The hay softened his landing a bit, but not much, and he felt a dull, ringing pain in his chin and lower back. He scrabbled to his feet, slipping a bit on the hay, and risked a glance up at the loft.

Its eyes, burning red like irons left in the hearth, leered down at him. Well, hello, little rabbit. How nice of you to come visit. And just in time, I’m famished…

Jax: I’m dreaming. I’m dreaming! Wake up, wake up! *slaps himself in the face# You got too hot in bed, that’s all, wake UP-

Jax yelled in frustrated terror as It lazily flopped over the edge of the hayloft, sending a shower of rotten straw clumps everywhere. Jax’s eyes darted around the area for anything that might help, something to use as a weapon or that needle where was the needle WHERE WAS THE GODDAMN NEEDLE-

Rowstalker: Gnnnnnnnnn…..

It snarled, peeling back Its lips to reveal Its irregular, shattered glass teeth and blight-blackened gums. Those teeth which hurt so badly in mere dreams were now real, and they could finally shred his skin off as easily as peeling an overripe orange. Jax scurried onto the back of the old tractor, desperate for any sort of high ground, not that it would help. It could do anything to catch him… 

Jax: Caine, this isn’t FUNNY! GET RID OF IT RIGHT NOW, DO YOU HEAR ME?!

It bellowed at him, and Jax felt nausea lurch in his stomach. The stench of Its breath was like 100-year-old corn cobs and pulverized animal carcasses rotting on a freeway. He felt his breakfast snake back up his gullet and leaned over the side of the tractor to vomit, a stream of black sludge with a rainbow sheen, like an oil slick. He could have sworn he heard It snort in amusement. “Poor thing, whatever will you do when you’re inside my mouth? Well, don’t worry, you won’t have to put up with it for long after I gnaw your head off and slurp your spine through your neck.”

Rowstalker: Gnnnnnn… CHRRR! 

It lunged for him, missing his leg by centimeters and plunging Its teeth into the left tire of the tractor. Air rushed out of it in an alarmed hiss and Jax fell backwards over the driver’s seat, his head colliding with the steering wheel. Through the smeary lights now dancing in his vision, he saw It pull Its teeth from the tire, air spouting out of it with an almost relieved sigh as the tractor sagged to the left. Jax dimly groped around for the steering wheel so he could hoist himself up before It lunged for him again. His hand slid across the dashboard, accidentally clicking a few powerless switches, and his glove nearly slipped when it ran over the slick, circular face of the odometer. 

Odometer. Something was important about the odome- 

This hesitation, coupled with the haze of hitting his head, led to him being unprepared for Its next attack. He jerked upwards a moment too late as It pounced for him, successfully plunging Its front teeth several inches into his right foot. Jax screamed, his voice raspy from the dusty air. In his dreams, this was where it ended. Once It had him, there was no escape. It would eat him now, immediately chewing him into a wet and mushy wad or worse, take Its time, snapping off his arms and legs first and saving his head for last so the pain lasted as long as possible- 

But… this wasn’t a dream. He wasn’t paralyzed in his bed by sleep. He could move. He could survive. If he didn’t survive, they would never go swimming. He couldn’t remember the last time he had wanted something. He wanted to go swimming. He was going to go swimming. 

Jax: What big teeth you have…! *hoists himself up so he can reach Its mouth and punches one of Its misshapen teeth with all his strength*

It let out a garbled roar of pain and surprise, Its tooth snapping inwards at an odd angle, rotten fluid dribbling out of the partially exposed socket. It let go of Jax’s foot to recoil, shaking Its head around violently. Had It ever actually felt pain before..? No, It couldn’t have. It was against the rules!

Jax looked at the bloodless hole It had left in the middle of his foot. Light shone right through it, and it sparked and stuttered with a glitchy shimmer. Caine’s creations weren’t supposed to hurt them this badly, anything beyond typical “stars and birdies” cartoon nonsense. That could wait, though, he had an opening. 

Jax risked a quick glance at the odometer. He couldn’t explain it, but he felt that it was somehow important. The faceplate was marred and scratchy, so he could barely see the numbers or needle- 

Needle. Of course. 

Jax elbowed the faceplate, shattering it like sugar glass. He glanced back at It, which was still reeling from Its sudden dental luxation, and he stuck his hand into the odometer. Sure enough, he retrieved a long, thin silver key from inside, a fragile little thing no thicker than a sewing needle. 

Rowstalker: GNNNNCCHHHHH!

It made a full bodied lunge for Jax, the rabbit diving off the tractor and belly flopping onto the straw covered floor. The needle-key skittered across the floor and vanished into the hay.

Jax: Nononono-NO! 

Jax attempted to stand but cried out. The massive hole in his foot flared with pain as he tried to put weight on it, jolting with glitchy after-effects as he fell back onto the floor. He glanced over his shoulder and saw It climbing around on the now upturned tractor, no doubt priming Itself to pounce. He frantically climbed forward and sifted through the hay, rotten and fresh, to find the key. A faint glint in a small pile up ahead, there it was! Jax lurched forward and gripped the key, just in time for It to leap off Its perch and land right on top of him. 

Its body was crushingly heavy and Its skin was clammy and squamous, like a reptile or worm, but nauseatingly hot at the same time. It reared back and opened Its vile maw, infected drool, rancid corn juice and a few fat cutworms raining down on Jax’s face. It lunged forward, intent on closing Its jaws around Jax’s upper half, pulling it right off of his hips with one vicious tug. Jax, yelling right back at the creature, swung his left hand, clenched around the needle key, right at one of It’s bloated, scarlet eyes. 

There was a noise like a straw being jabbed through a plastic lid, and It stopped moving. Its maw hung agape in shock. Jax clutched the key, the blade wedged into Its right eye all the way up to the bow. Without a second thought, he cranked his wrist, cutting through the vitreous humor with a fetid, wet squelch. 

It yowled in agony as crimson jelly gushed out of its eye. It wasn’t supposed to feel pain! That’s not allowed! That’s-

Jax, using his uninjured left foot, pushed The Rowstalker off of him with all of his adrenal strength. It tumbled off of him with remarkable ease, still trying in vain to process the amount of pain It was experiencing. It thrashed about on the floor, red phlegm-like goo pouring from Its eye. Jax limped to the exit door, sliding in the needle key with a rather nauseating squishy noise, not bothering to look behind him as he slammed the door shut behind him, leaving him in utter darkness. There was the click of an automatic lock. It couldn’t reach him now. 

He… beat It. 

He slumped against the door. He panted hard and fast for a good five minutes. His foot bloomed with horrible pain, and he grasped it weakly. He probably couldn’t walk on it until Caine fixed him. Caine.

Oh, he was gonna KILL Caine… Later. 

Another door opened across the way, beaming a shaft of light across the dark area. Jax tried to scramble to his feet, but found himself unable to on account of the enormous gaping hole in his foot and how achingly tired he was. Pomni: …Jax? Is that you..? Oh my God, what happened?!

Jax relaxed and fell back onto his butt. Pomni. Pomni and someone else. But Pomni most importantly. His eyes hurt. 

Ragatha: Jax, your foot..! Wh-How did th- a- *coughs, covers her mouth and nose* Oh, you reek! Did you roll around in compost?! 

Jax: Speak for yourself, Rags.  The response came automatically, along with his usual cheeky grin, but it was shaky with  exhaustion. Pomni approached him and gave him a hug, although she held her breath as she did so. Jax savored the hug. Sure, they probably weren’t safe yet. But… he had fought off his worst nightmare. And it was thanks to her. He was… really tired. 

Jax: …I love you guys.

Jax closed his eyes.

[mimbotomy]

I am high on weed and NyQuil and yet am still awake because a bad cough and a fever and for some reason decided it was a good idea to read the AC Odyssey Novelization! Here are some random things that stuck out that I think you should know:

Kassandra’s hears Nikolaos’ lessons in her head throughout the book.

She also loves Phoibe so much but tries so hard to pretend she doesn’t because her mother told her that love is weakness when she was a kid.

Kassandra finds Ikaros as a hatchling taking shelter among the bones at the bottom of Mount Taygetos.

It’s mostly from Kassandra’s POV but there’s some other brief POVs too. The Cult POVs seem to exist pretty much make sure that the reader knows they’re like super fucking evil and Stentor’s few POVs are mostly to bitch about Kassandra.

In one of his less bitchy POVs it’s revealed that a Spartan soldier in Megaris tried to grab Kassandra and kiss her and she either full on broke or just badly bruised his jaw

Building off that sorta, the only person Kassandra even kisses is Alkibiades at the symposium, and mostly to get information.

Nikolaos’ fate is left ambiguous for a long time.

Someone mocks Barnabas’ storytelling in line to see the Oracle and Herodotos later sets the guards on him to provide a distraction so Kassandra can sneak back and talk with the Oracle more.

The Cultists are way less protective of their identities in Delphi and way more obvious with their plans to get rid of Deimos. Also, Kassandra kills a lot of them on accident.

Aspasia keeps Kassandra from drinking poisoned wine, courtesy of Hermippos, at the symposium and helps her escape Athens

Chrysis is killed by her own biological son, the priest Dolpos who helped Myrrine, in revenge for both taking his tongue and killing countless children over the years.

Kassandra and Brasidas’ super badass warehouse fight doesn’t happen. Instead they are discovered by the Monger and taken captive and rescued by two heterae prisoners after the Monger burns Kassandra’s legs with an iron poker.

Phoibe dies playing hide and seek with Kassandra as they escort Perikles to see the Parthenon one last time and Kassandra first realizes something is wrong because she can’t hear Phoibe’s giggles anymore 😭

The first time Kassandra cries after that night on Taygetos is when Phoibe dies.

Aspasia only fully decides to leave the cult after Perikles’ death.

Pausanias’ super secret cult nickname is the Red Eyed Lion and he is uncovered because of a wine stained map or letter or something and a ring seal of a lion and some other super circumstantial evidence.

When they return to Sparta, Barnabas and the crew somehow temporarily sink the Adrestia in a cove to keep from being spotted by Spartan scouts.

The Kos and Arkadia storylines don’t happen at all and the Olympics happen after Kassandra and Myrrine already got their house.

At one point, Kassandra refers to her new family as Myrrine, Barnabas, Herotodos, and Brasidas, which made my shipper heart happy. Then in that same paragraph she refers to Herodotos and Brasidas as something like proud uncles, so we’re pretending that doesn’t exist

Kassandra is imprisoned in Athens for months and like in the game, is “rescued” by Barnabas and Sokrates. Barnabas still has his shovel but Sokrates has a broom instead of a pitchfork.

Also, there’s a small subplot about the woman Barnabas has a fling with on Naxos and her husband who Herodotos met that visited Thera. He’s being tortured by the Cult when Kassandra is imprisoned in Athens and is brutally murdered when he refuses to tell them anything.

Kleon was 100% planing to kill Deimos at Amphipolis.

Brasidas basically dies telling Kassandra how happy he is to see her what the fuck???

A lot of the confrontation on Taygetos is the same as the good ending of the game, where Deimos tells Kassandra that he’s done terrible things. But he also tells her that he can’t change no matter how much he wants to while preparing to throw a knife at Myrrine so she kills him.

Nikolaos and Stentor watch Alexios’ funeral at a distance until Kassandra and Myrrine invite them to join them for dinner.

Kassandra doesn’t fight the Minotaur and Co. but is just given the staff by Pythagoras, who talks to her after his death through the pyramid.

Aspasia’s fate is somewhat left ambiguous in the end because Kassandra’s focused too much on the vision from the pyramid.

Overall, it read a little bit like a weird fanfic! I saw glimpses of the characters we love from the game but since the author cut out such big pieces of the plot and every side quest - which makes sense since it was a very short book - we didn’t get to see too much of them either. Except for Kassandra, who is a lot more no nonsense than I imagine her as. There’s no flirting or and very little joking, but I really liked her resourcefulness and unique fighting style. And her love for Phoibe and her family that shines like a beacon throughout the entire book, from the very beginner where her mother tells her it is unspartan to love. Of course, our lovely Kassandra is a lover and a fighter and that does not change no matter what ❤️

Hope this list helps some of my fellow lovely wonderful odyssey fic writers I love you all so much you beautiful souls 😘😘😘

[sterekchub]

What are your thoughts on a prompt featuring Stiles having a crush on a slob!Derek and giving him food, thinking Derek is unaware of his crush. Derek, however, is aware of Stiles’s crush on him and teases him until he confesses. Stiles ends up becoming submissive to a now megachub!Derek and is often in his fatpad, pleasuring Derek while he eats?

I LOVE slob Derek: gets teased all the time for his house looking like a pack of wolves lived there, rubbing his scent on everything and not particularly bothered if smells like BO or anything else: his loft is his territory.

Which naturally means when Derek gets fat and has someone to ordered around? He suddenly gets so much worse.

Stiles is as subtle as a knife to your throat. Derek can tell he’s interested from the first time they meet. Which means when Stiles starts coming up with terrible excuses of “there was a sale” “my dad didn’t want them.” “I cooked extra”

Derek eats everything starts off with just boxes of baked goods for breakfast, then - “Love your *puff* cooking. *urrrppH* Going to make me fat *mmmpphh* if you keep bringing me *BBBRRRRp* lunches like this.”

Soon Stiles is bringing him food every meal of the day. And he can only cook so much, so Derek hands him his credit card and starts demanding takeout and fast food to fill in the meals between.

Derek admits he’s overdoing it, playing this game of chicken with Stiles has ensured he’s doing nothing but eating all day. And a constant diet of baked goods and fast food has been hell on Derek’s gut…

Eventually Stiles admits he had a crush on Derek. By which point Derek has gone up three jean sizes, has a permanent ass imprint in the couch, and has been drinking 2liters of soda by the day.

“Might *urrrPPhhh* as well move *BlrrrppffftTT* in.”

****

I just picture Derek lounging on the couch, thighs spread wide to accommodate his belly. He hasn’t bothered with pants in months, not since getting his jeans on left him winded. The black tshirt he’s wearing is practically see through it’s stretched so thin over his flabby chest, doesn’t even cover most of his belly. The color doesn’t hide the multitude of cheese and grease and god knows what other stains they cover it. Stiles can’t remember the last time Derek bothered to change his shirt. Hell, he would even wear it in the shower- if Derek bothered with the shower once he outgrew it.

Stiles is cleaning up his binge from lunch- tossing empty soda bottles and pizza boxes and burger wrappers that Derek just drops on the ground into a huge trash bag.

Derek is still shoveling fries into his mouth with a pudgy hand. Crumbs spew everywhere as he demands, “

“Still got *bworrRRPPp* that *chew* cheesecake in the fridge?”

“Sure you have room? You ate a lot for lunch.”

Derek grunts and presses his greasy hands into his belly, rubbing the top of the flabby mass. It takes a few minutes, and then he lets out a steady stream of belches and farts. “*PffpffrrptTT**Bllbbfffttt* I’ve got plenty of “OOOOUUAAAP* room.”

Stiles brings the cheesecake out of the fridge. His own creation, it’s at least 5 pounds and laden with as many calories as Stiles could cram into it. He drops the entire plate on top of Derek’s middle, doesn’t bother with a fork. Derek wastes no time in digging into, using two fingers to scoop himself sloppy handfuls.

Stiles watches eat until about a quarter of the cheesecake is gone, waiting for the inevitable next command.

“A little *nnghhmm* help?”

Stiles happily drops to his knees. “Can barely find your dick in all this blubber.”

“Shut up and *fffrrrp* suck me *brrbllpfft* off.” Derek groaned through a mouthful of cheesecake.

It’s a sweaty mess of fat folds and dried come from Derek’s constantly leaking dick that’s long buried in his fat pad, Stiles has to press himself in the enveloping balloon that is Derek’s lardy body to even be able to suck him off. Just breathes in the reek that is his massive boyfriend as he slowly teases the tip of his dick, not letting him come until the entire cheesecake is crammed into Derek’s overfed middle.

[static-scribe]

A Night To Remember | Ticci Toby Oneshot

HI! I hope you enjoy this fic! This is my first time writing for Toby and my first fic post here! I'm sorry if this feels out of character in anyway, I'm still working on how I want to portray him!

-

In times like this, you have to think to yourself, “What the fuck did I do to get here?” And the answer to that question is relatively simple; it's not what you did to get here, it's what other people did to get you here. Specifically, it's what your creepy-ass roommate did to get you both here. 

Where is here exactly though? Well to answer that lovely question, here is attempting to bury a body in the middle of the woods at 3:57 am. This was honestly not what you were expecting to be doing on your night off from work but you can’t go back now. Not when you had already killed your roommate. Oh did I forget to mention you had killed your roommate?

It wasn’t your fault at all, it really wasn’t. You couldn’t control the fact that you woke up to your roommate standing at the foot of your bed watching you sleep, knife in hand. Blame it on the tiredness but you just couldn’t control yourself when you saw that, and you admittedly let your anger get the best of you. You hadn’t even realized what you were doing until you had already choked the… well you wouldn’t say poor man out. 

Every sign pointed to the fact that you might be crazy, but you weren’t crazy. At the least, you were way too calm about this situation. You seemed to be learning many new things about yourself tonight. Like the fact you were strong enough to choke someone out, or like the other fact you were way less guilty than you probably should've been. Maybe reevaluating yourself after all of this was over would be the best plan.

The sound of a branch snapping freezes you in place. You're like a deer in the headlights. You dart your eyes around trying to find the source of the sound but come up empty. Not knowing whether to run or not, you just stay there frozen. Someone had seen you and you're probably royally fucked. There was no way they wouldn’t tell the police. Your genius plan of hiding the body and reporting him missing in a couple of days was rapidly falling apart in front of you.

Footsteps could be heard to the right of you. Whipping your head in that direction you make eye contact with a guy who was a bit taller. Upon seeing your frightened face he grabbed his stomach and hunched over laughing. You were angered and slightly embarrassed by this and couldn’t help but yell out, “What’s so funny?” You tried to sound confident and calm but you kind of just sounded way more whiny than you wanted.

The man said nothing in response. Instead, he opted to laugh a bit more before gathering his composure. As his laughs died down you felt your face flush with embarrassment. What was this guy's problem? You wanted to give him a piece of your mind, but as soon as you went to speak you were cut off by him beginning to say something. “So this is your first time, huh?” He asked while walking closer to you. The stranger leaned down to get a closer look at your face. He was expecting an answer from you.

You took a large step back from him to create some distance. You wanted to yell at him, but all that came out was an exasperated, “What?” Who the fuck would phrase it like that? Apparently, this asshole does.  

He said nothing in response to your shouting. You watched him carefully as he made his next moves. He approached the body laying on the ground, lightly tapping at it with his foot. His head turned towards the shovel that lay on the ground a short distance off. “Yeah, you’ve def-definitely never done this before.” He started with a twitch of his neck followed by a clicking sound. “You’re lucky I showed up to help you or you’d be fuckin’ screwed.” He laughed, elongating the last word slightly. This guy was really starting to get on your nerves. 

He grabbed the shovel off the ground and put it between his backpack and his back. After making sure it was secure he turned back to look at you, “I’m Toby, by the way.” He stated before he reached down to grab the legs of your now former roommate. This was quite the turn of events. You hadn’t expected him to be enthusiastically helping you but he was, so you probably shouldn’t complain about it. 

You approached the other side of your roommate’s body and grabbed him under the shoulders. Looking forward at Toby, who was staring back at you as if waiting for you to say something. You realized he was probably waiting for you to give him your name so you guys weren’t just nameless strangers. Without another thought you offer him your name to which he nods in approval. 

With little word from each other, you head off in a direction carrying the body while Toby leads. You have little clue as to where you were going, but Toby seemed to know the forest pretty well. 

It was painfully silent for a while. The only sounds being made were the crickets, your footsteps, and the occasional clicks and small words that came from Toby. You figured he probably had a tic disorder and that it would be rude to question it, so you didn’t. 

Eventually, the silence became too much to bear and you had spent who knows how long racking your brain for something to say. You eventually settled on what was probably the most awkward thing for someone to say in a moment like this but that didn’t really matter. “So…” You started, catching Toby’s attention. “You do stuff like this often?” 

Toby laughed a little but this time it was different. He wasn’t particularly laughing at you. Well, he kind of was, but he was more so laughing at what you said. You still felt a bit embarrassed at your last statement. God, why were you so awkward? “To an-” His speech was quickly interrupted by his head slamming to the left side followed by a click. He let out an angry huff before continuing, “To answer your question, I kinda have a knack for these kinds of things.” He chuckled as though he was deeply proud of himself. 

The way he talked so casually about it freaked you out a bit. It wasn’t really normal to have such knowledge on hiding bodies nor was it normal to help someone you don’t know hide a body with such enthusiasm as he had. Like you were one to judge though when you were literally doing a piss-poor job of hiding a body. You were just going to dig a shallow hole, dump the body, and call it a night before he showed up. If anything, you should be thankful he showed up to help you and that he knew what he was doing. 

“That’s pretty cool.” You told him rather awkwardly before the pair of you fell back into silence. You didn’t really know what to say, and he wasn’t talking to you much either. Toby seemed focused on getting to your destination, so you didn’t want to bother him, lest you accidentally piss him off by saying the wrong thing.

Eventually, the dense woods turned into a small-sized clearing. Toby let go of his half of the body and looked to you expectantly, you got the point and let go yourself. “Okay,” He started with a clap, almost seeming excited for what was to come. “Drag the body over there and start digging a hole,” Toby pointed towards the middle of the clearing, “and I will g-gather what we need to get rid of it!” You could tell from his tone that he was likely smiling at whatever he was thinking, but you couldn’t see due to the mask covering his mouth. 

You didn’t argue with him though and did as you were told. You spent the next hour or more just digging while he zipped around grabbing sticks and branches then dropping them off beside you when he had a sizable bunch. You wished you had energy like his. 

At some point, Toby had sat his backpack down beside you and taken his jacket off before tying it around his waist. Maybe all this moving around was making him hot. It was at this moment you decided to look at him and get a good feel for his appearance. He wore a black turtleneck under his jacket, yellow goggles over his eyes, a mask over his mouth, dark-colored jeans, and boots. You couldn’t tell what the features of his face looked like due to all the coverings and the darkness, but you could tell he was rather pale with dark brown hair that looked quite soft. 

Honestly, you hadn’t even noticed that you had completely stopped shoveling to stare at him but he did and was staring right back at you. The both of you made eye contact and you moved your gaze to the ground with a flush on your face. You had to admit from what you had seen he did have a nice body and probably a nice face to match. To say you weren’t at least slightly attracted to him would be a lie but you also knew that nothing would likely come from hiding a body together. The two of you would probably go your separate ways and you’d never see him again. Besides, you did not know anything about this man other than the fact his name was Toby, and he had a lot of experience disposing of bodies. 

When you looked back he had gone back to gathering stuff to, what you assumed, burn the body with. What other reason would he be gathering sticks for? Fetch? Of course, you guys were burning the body.

Toby jogged back with another pile of sticks and dropped them on the ground. He leaned over the hole you had dug that was around the same length as your roommate and nodded in approval. “Looks good,” He said giving you a thumbs up. 

Toby threw the body into the hole with a bit of your help. “So, you start covering the body with sticks and shit, while I get to do the fun part.” He announced, turning his body towards you, waiting for your next move. You weren’t particularly happy that you had to do most of the work, but then again it was your kill and not his. His helping you out was more than worth some labor. 

Making haste, you piled the sticks on top of your poor, poor roommate’s dead body. You probably didn’t go as fast as Toby had hoped you would because he would soon start helping you out. With the help, you guys were able to get the task done relatively quickly. 

After you were done with the sticks you looked over at Toby, expecting him to give you new instructions or to just say anything. He was squatting on the ground digging through his overly full backpack, pulling random things out, and throwing them to the side. “I know it's fucking in here.” He hisses through his teeth, his anger barely contained. His tics seem to increase in frequency and severity the longer he searches which just makes him more irritated.

Toby seems to be getting more angry the longer he searches. “Um..” You’re looking around frantically when he whips his head around to look at you, obviously frustrated that you interrupted his almost hard-to-watch search in his backpack. “Are you okay?” You ask, your eyes settling on his piercing gaze through his goggles. You both just look at each other for a moment before his head violently jerks towards his shoulder. 

“I-I’m fine.” He snaps, looking away from you and returning his attention to his half-full backpack. He lets out a frustrated groan into his hands. You watch his next moves carefully as he grabs the bag by the bottom and just dumps its contents on the ground. That's one way to solve his problem.

Toby seems to become more content when he finds what he was looking for, which happened to be a can of lighter fuel. It was rather large and hard to miss, but you weren’t going to comment on that wanting to avoid another bad reaction. His rapid breathing slows as he calms down which makes you feel less worried about him. 

You approach him from the side and crouch down to help him put his stuff back into his bag. He nods his head at you but doesn’t say anything while you help him. To his right is a small pile of things that include lighter fuel and a couple boxes of matches. 

As you were picking stuff up you caught sight of a camera. Maybe that could help ease into conversation with Toby who hadn’t said much of anything all night. You wanted to know more about him and what was on his mind but you understood his obvious distrust of you. “You take pictures?” You asked, looking over at him with a small smile on your face, almost encouraging him to talk. 

Toby seemed to perk up some at your question and quickly looked over at you. He brought a hand to the back of his neck as he looked around awkwardly, his previous confidences seemingly buried at the mention of himself. “Yeah, sometimes… I mostly just take pictures of things I find interesting.” His tone was almost as awkward as his body language.

“That’s cool!” You smile at him, extending your hand to offer the camera. “What kind of things do you find interesting to photograph?” You ask. Toby takes the camera before standing, slinging the now full backpack over his shoulder, and offering you a hand up. 

Taking his hand, Toby pulled you up onto your feet. “Anyways, I take pictures of stuff like nature, food…” He pauses while looking around, “And y’know…my victims.” He laughs at his words, clearly amused by the fact.

Toby only seemed to become more amused at your facial expression. You hadn’t even realized you were pulling a face until he started laughing more. “Really?” He asked, voice dripping with sarcasm. “What’s with the shocked face? It’s not like you haven’t killed someone before,” He said, gesturing toward the hole. Even you had to admit that he did have a point. 

You didn’t know what to say back to him. You couldn’t argue in your defense because there was nothing to defend there, nor could you think of anything clever. So you fell back into an awkward silence of your creation. Good job on finding a conversation topic. 

“I’ve been meaning to ask.” Toby said in a rather nonchalant manner “Who is this guy? Like why’d you kill him?” He asked, curiosity laced through his voice. 

“He was my roommate, and he was always kind of a creep.” You said looking at Toby who just nodded, waiting for more information. “But I always thought he was harmless until he was standing over my bed with a knife.” You finished, hoping your answer satisfied him enough to move on.

Clearly, it didn’t because he began to ask you more questions, “Yeah, and then what happened?” You really didn’t want to go into this, but since he was helping dispose of him then you guessed you owed him some explanation.

“So I strangled him?” You said but it came out more like a question. As though you weren’t quite sure of your answer. It was still hard to wrap your head around the fact you had taken someone’s life.

Toby’s only response was to pull the mask covering his mouth down and spit onto the pile, “Fuckin’ pervert.” He mumbled, quickly returning his covering into place before you could see the other side of his face. From what you saw he was rather attractive, prompting you to wonder why he covered his face to begin with.

 You couldn’t help but laugh a little at the gesture which caught Toby’s attention. “Yeah, I can be pretty funny sometimes,” He said with a slight laugh in his voice, as though he wasn’t taking what he said fully seriously. This just made you laugh more. 

It was nice to laugh. It was the first time tonight you hadn’t felt completely stressed out about potentially getting caught. Having Toby helping you was quite the stress relief, and you felt as though a heavy weight was taken off your shoulders by his presence alone. You should probably thank him after all this was over. You wished there was some way to make it up to him for his help, but you guessed a thanks was really all you could do. It’s not like they made cards that said ‘Thanks for helping me bury a body!’ 

You were so lost in thought that you admittedly got startled when he placed a hand on your shoulder. In his other hand was the can of lighter fluid that was placed in front of you. “You wanna do the honors? I mean he is your kill, not mine so...” He shook the can a little after he spoke, wanting you to take it. 

You reluctantly took it out of his hands and began to splash the flammable liquid onto the pile, slowly circling it to make sure you had as much of the body covered as possible. You had begun to feel slight excitement for what was about to happen. It wasn’t every day you made a bonfire out of some creep. 

Taking your attention off your task, you look over at Toby who can barely stand still. He was picking at his fingers while bouncing slightly, unable to contain his excitement. Based on his behavior and the contents of his backpack, it would be safe to assume that he had a bit of a passion for fire. It was kind of cute, in a rather fucked up way.

Standing across from him on the other side of the body, you shook the final contents of the can out onto the body. Toby was still picking at his fingers when you cleared your throat. He then looked up at you. “Cans empty.” You said giving it a shake for emphasis. 

“Fuck yeah!” He practically yelled, grabbing a box of matches off the ground and waving you over. 

Taking your place beside him, he grabbed around 4 matches out of the box and prepared to strike them. “You ever smelt a burning body before?” He asked in a joking manner, looking down at you. 

 “Um... I can’t say that I have.” You stated, not really seeing the point of his question. Of course, you hadn’t smelt a burning body before. What normal person has? 

He clicked his tongue at that, “Well, it ain’t pleasant, so just be prepared and try not to breathe through your nose.” He patted you on the head twice after saying that which made you stiffen up. That was a bit weird but okay.

In one quick movement, he struck the matches quickly and out burst a small flame. You watched carefully as Toby extended his arm and dropped the matches onto the pile.

With a loud ‘fwoosh’ a raging flame bloomed into life. You could feel the heat tickle at your cheeks even at the safe distance the pair of you stood from. For a burning body, it was almost beautiful.

You noticed shuffling out of the corner of your eye, looking to see what was going on. You saw Toby pulling his goggles down to hang loosely around his neck. Probably to get a view of the fire that wasn’t tinted as yellow as his lenses were. 

Not being able to help but stare, you took note of his eyes. They were chestnut brown and the way the fire bounced off of them was mesmerizing. It was almost as though the fire provided life to his eyes and so did his excitement. He was rocking slightly back and forth as a way to, what you assumed, get his excess excitement out. 

It wasn’t long before Toby noticed you staring at him and just like earlier began staring back at you. His eyes lit up in amusement and he raised his eyebrows slightly before speaking, a smirk ever-present in his voice. You may have just inflated his ego. “See something you like, sweetheart?” He said in a serious voice but burst out laughing a minute later, completely unable to handle the bullshit that just spewed from his mouth.

“You should have seen the look on your face,” He wheezed out between laughs. You, on the other hand, were profusely blushing from both being flustered and embarrassed. It couldn’t have been that funny, but he seemed to find a lot of things you did amusing enough to laugh at. 

Toby was quick to gather himself and catch his breath before slinging an arm around your shoulder with a sigh. You stiffened at the contact but said nothing. His behavior around you was getting way more casual than you expected seeing as you spent a large chunk of the night in awkward silences filled with mostly nonverbal cues. 

You guess you didn’t mind the contact too much because you did nothing to break it. You were content with this in some odd way. Nothing about this was normal nor would it create a content feeling in any sane person. There was probably something deeply wrong with your psyche yet you couldn’t bring yourself to care about that much. You’d deal with that another day, but as of right now, you were having what was probably the weirdest, most thrilling experience of your life.

Toby cleared his throat and removed his arm from your shoulder, freeing you from the not-so-unwanted but also not really wanted contact. Your gaze met his and for a moment your heart fluttered. 

“So, you enjoying the show?” He asked sounding almost nervous for your answer. You just nodded in response averting your eyes from his. You missed when he had his goggles on, and you couldn’t see his stupid eyes too well. 

Toby took a knee, whipping his backpack off his shoulder before rifling through his bag and pulling out his camera. He zipped up the backpack and took a seat on the ground sitting criss-cross.

Toby looked up at you and patted the ground beside him as an invitation for you to sit down beside him. Making you wonder what he was up to, but without much question you sat down beside him. His body language read as nervous while he seemed to be mustering the courage to say something important. Quite different from his previously confident demeanor. 

“Co-could I take a picture of us?” He asked, looking at you with almost pleading eyes as false confidence wavered throughout his voice. The thought made you kind of nervous, what if someone got ahold of his camera and turned it over to the police? You both would get in deep trouble which is something you didn’t want at all. 

 “I promise no one will see it!” Toby blurted out rather quickly as though he knew what you were thinking. He was picking at his fingers once more while his head jerked again. He was probably as nervous as you were from asking you such a question. “I just don’t want to forget tonight,” He sounded almost sad as he spoke which made your heart clench a little.

What did you have to lose? Other than your freedom by creating more evidence of your crime but then again there was still a chance you wouldn’t get away. There was a lot that needed to happen before you were truly free of your crimes so again, what did you really have to lose by taking one picture? The answer was nothing. 

So with a soft sigh, you gave him your answer, “Fine, but only the one.” You said trying to be stern but a slight smile pulled at the corners of your lips. He seemed happy at your approval and started fidgeting with his camera, setting up to take the picture.

This whole situation was starting to feel quite funny to you. Here you were sitting on the ground with a serial killer, burning your roommate's dead body as the sun came up, and you were about to take a selfie with said serial killer so he can remember tonight. You let out a small chuckle at the thought which catches Toby’s attention briefly, but he looks away as quickly as he looked.

You’re ripped out of your thoughts by Toby wrapping his arm around your shoulder and pulling you closer so you’d fit inside the camera screen. He puts his fingers that were resting atop your shoulder into a peace sign and you flash a smile at the camera. With a click and a flash the picture is taken, and Toby is looking down at his camera happily. 

“How’d it turn out?” You asked looking over at his camera but he hides it away from you. You shoot Toby a confused look but he just shrugs before stowing it away in his backpack. 

“Don’t stress, you looked cute” He laughs a little trying to sound confident but you could see the tips of his ears and cheeks were tinged in a soft pink. It took you a moment to register what he had just said to you. Did he just call you cute? You couldn’t help but blush a little at his words.

“Don’t worry, I’ll show you next time.” Next time? You sure as hell didn’t plan for there to be a next time of you hiding a body, but seeing him again did sound nice. 

Toby pushes himself up off the ground and adjusts his backpack properly onto his back. Once again he extends a hand towards you and you accept his offer for help. “What do you mean by ‘next time’? Are you expecting to hide another body?” You question him but he shrugs again.

“Y’know, next time we hang out.” He says as if it was a fact extending his hand out to you. In between his fingers was a small slip of paper with a number scrawled on it in messy but readable handwriting. It suited him. 

“You didn’t think I’d just let you go off by yourself right?” His question was less of a question and more of a statement. He was just saying stuff he thought should be obvious to you. “Also, it doesn’t have to be hiding a body. We can do whatever you want.” 

Your eyes darted across his face waiting for him to start laughing again like he was joking once more, but he didn’t laugh or show any sign of not being serious. “We like bonded and shit. You don’t just burn a body with someone and then never meet again.” He chuckled as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

You were stunned silent but he didn’t seem to care as he grabbed you by the wrist and started leading you in a direction, “Where are we going?” You asked, dragging slightly behind him. 

Toby stopped moving and turned around to face you, letting go of your wrist, “I’m taking you home. The woods aren’t safe for people who don’t know their way around here.” He started, observing your face for a moment before continuing. “Plus it gives us more time to hang out.” He admitted.

There it was, the real reason. He was quite the character that you had grown to enjoy being around over the last couple of hours. Maybe hanging out with him again wouldn’t be so bad. Toby took your silence as a response of understanding and began walking in the same direction he was leading you. 

The way home was filled with plenty of laughter and pleasant conversation between you and Toby. You never would have thought burning a body with someone would lead to such a strange yet genuine connection. The rational part of you screamed that becoming close to him would probably bring new, yet thrilling, situations that could put you in danger. You didn’t want to listen to the rational parts right now. You were more concerned with what your heart had to say. It ached for excitement, an excitement that only someone like Toby could bring. 

With a smile on your face, you grabbed his hand, hoping he wouldn’t mind too much. He looked over at you and just shook his head before interlocking your fingers together. 

<3

[star-girl69]

Ultraviolence

Natalie Scatorccio x Fem!Reader

—-

a/n: i hope you all enjoy!!

warnings: animal death, blood, knives, mentions of sex, death, murder, dead bodies, mentions of drugs, tell me if i missed anything!!

Chapter Nineteen - The Horses are Coming

Chapter Nineteen - The Horses are Coming

—-

2021-

While Natalie is off getting her big idea, Shauna stares at Adam’s dead body. That’s what his name is, you’ve now learned. Adam Martin, a struggling artist shacking up with a married woman.

Blood stains through the sheet you had placed over him, a little red blooming flower in the midst of his cold, neutral apartment.

Someone knocks on the door- but it’s more like banging, so Taissa takes the hand she was biting from her mouth and opens the door.

She scoffs and turns around.

Misty walks in carrying a bag of what you can only assume be cleaning supplies.

“Well, aren’t we a bunch of Gloomy Gusses. Who died?” she laughs, placing her bag on the counter. “No, but, seriously. Who is this guy?”

She leans down and pulls back the sheet, revealing a pale Adam Martin, his eyes still open.

“Misty. Really?” Shauna asks, looking at Natalie, unimpressed. “This is your big brainstorm?”

You sigh. “Tell me who else is gonna get us out of this?”

“Yeah,” Nat sneers. “Do you have a better idea?”

“I think what you mean to say is, ‘Hi, Misty. It’s so great to see you after all this time. Thanks for swinging by and helping us cover up a murder.’”

“Hi, Misty,” you say, wanting to stay on her good side. Adam Martin is not worth trouble with the law. She smiles.

“Why does everyone keep using that word?” Shauna asks. “It’s not like I woke up this morning and thought, ‘Hmm. What am I gonna do today? Oh, I know, I’m find out my boyfriend is a creepy stalker and stab him to death.’” Taissa shoots her a look, silently saying to calm down. “I’m going to prison. I’m going to prison for the rest of my life.”

“No, you’re not. None of us are. As long as you listen to me and do exactly what I say. Okay? So, if you haven’t already turned off your phones-” she grabs her own from her pocket, hitting a few buttons- “I suggest you do that now. Where’s his?”

“I-I took it home, and I put it in my safe.”

“Okay, as soon as we’re done here, you’re gonna go home. You’re going to wipe it and destroy the SIM card. All right? And do the same thing to yours,” Misty nods to herself, studying the body. “I didn’t see any security cameras. Did anybody- neighbors- see you come in here?”

The few gathered around Adam’s body shake their heads.

“I-I don’t think so,” Shauna says after a moment.

“Okay, great! Then we’re just destroying evidence. Shauna, you’re the best with a knife, clearly,” she laughs, adjusting her glasses. “So you’ll handle the body.”

Silence around the circle.

“I mean cut it up.”

“Oh, God, are you okay to do that?” Tai asks.

“Yeah,” Shauna says after a moment.

“I’ll help you,” Nat says, sending Shauna a look you can’t help but frown at.

“So, then, it’s just us three on clean-up duty,” Misty smiles. You can’t help but cringe at the dead body. “Whew. Boy, he sure was a gusher, huh?”

—-

“Woah, I just got the craziest case of déjà-uv,” Misty chuckles, wringing out a bloody cloth in the sink.

“And here I thought the worst thing that was gonna happen to me this week was losing the election,” Taissa sighs.

“Really?” you ask, scrubbing hard a small bit of particularly stubborn dried blood. “I mean, you were always the smartest out of us. I thought you would win.”

“Yeah. And I voted for you,” Misty says. “And I only registered so I could get jury duty.”

Tai stands up and chuckles.

“When do they call the results?” you ask, standing up as well.

“Tomorrow,” she shifts on her feet, and the bathroom door creaks open. Shauna walks out, carrying a bright red bag at arms length. “Oh, God, is that the…?”

“The rest is, um, draining in the tub.”

“Okay, perfect. So, when that’s done, put it in his suitcase and bury it out at Hacklebarney Park. I’ve got a shovel in my trunk which you can borrow. I do want it back, and I also took the liberty of packing up seine of his clothes, some books and toiletries and stuff. And I’ll take this with me and get rid of if. That way, if anyone comes looking for him, it just looks like he went on a trip.”

“Then after that? What if an animal digs him up? What if a hiker’s dog sniffs him out?” Taissa says.

“Well, it won’t matter. I mean, torso’s are useless. Duh,” she chuckles. “That’s the whole point! You only have to worry about the head and the hands.”

“So, what’s the plan with those?” Nat asks, who you hadn’t seen walk in. She’s always been haunting you.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it.”

“Misty,” you sigh, watching as she wipes her hands. “If we both weren’t covered in blood, I would hug you, you crazy bitch.”

She only smiles, proud.

—-

1996-

You and Natalie eventually made your way back to the cabin in the early hours of the morning, catch another hour of sleep in a more proper bed- a pile of blankets on the floor, rather than the cold ground.

Metal clatters near the fire as the two of you, Jackie, Coach Ben, Tai, Van, and Misty waited for the girls who had participated in the hunt to wake up and come back.

You watch Misty as she stares harshly at Ben, more so just glaring at him- not even trying to hide it. Your place your hand over Natalie’s on the porch and move closer to her, and she looks over.

“Hm?” she hums, letting her fingers press against yours against the hard wood of the porch you sit on.

“Misty’s insane,” you mutter, and she follows your gaze. She lets out a small snort, and you look back at her with a smile.

Why even have a heart if it’s not meant to get broken? Why even have a heart if it’s not meant to stay with you through the ups and downs? Why even have a heart if it’s not going to love her?

Slowly, the girls come through the woods and into the clearing around the cabin, covered in dirt and smeared makeup, their dresses torn and dirty. Lottie leads them, abandoning the weird crown she had been wearing last night.

“Hey, I, uh, I boiled some drinking water,” Coach Ben says. “If you guys are as hung over as I am.”

“Has anyone seen Jackie?” Shauna asks.

The porch creaks behind you. Everyone turns to find Jackie standing in the doorway.

You’re still not exactly sure what happened to her last night, but she looks scared- even still.

She crosses her arms as soon as she realizes who it is.

The two of them stare at each other, Shauna’s ruined makeup giving her a ghost-like look.

“I have nothing to say to you,” Jackie says after a moment, her face curling up into disgust. “To any of you. I mean, what the fuck?” she laughs.

“Yeah, like you’re so innocent,” Mari mutters.

“Hey! I’m not the one who went completely fucking insane last night.”

“Right, no. You were too busy screwing Travis,” Van says, sarcastically, and you notice that there’s no bandages or anything on her face.

“You had sex with Travis?” you ask, looking up at her and frowning. The entire night, it hadn’t been a secret that Jackie had wanted Travis, but you didn’t think that anything was going on between them was reciprocated.

Jackie rolls her eyes and scoffs. “Why is it any of your business?! He chose to have sex with me, okay?”

“Well,” Natalie starts, “You’re fucking announcing to everyone, Jackie, so I think that makes it everyone’s business.”

Jackie looks between the two of you and rolls her eyes.

“So, what? The two of you start fucking and decide you’re better than everyone else? Because you’re not. Travis was a lame fuck, Y/N is a two-faced bitch, and you, Natalie, are a slut-”

You look over a Natalie, who seems more pissed off than anything, but you’ve spent so much time with her in the wilderness- you can see the sadness in her eyes.

And as much as you tell yourself that it’s just Jackie taking out her hunger and embarrassment on everyone else-

“Hey!” Coach shouts. “I’m sure all of us did stuff last night that we regret, on account of the shrooms, but there’s no need for any of this. I think that the best thing for us to do is-”

“Wait, wait,” Shauna says, and you notice the confused looks on everyone’s faces. They must not know. And you didn’t know either, not until Natalie told you. “Shrooms?”

“Okay, yeah,” Van sighs, and you can’t help but look at Misty out of the corner of your eye. “That makes sense.”

Natalie places her arm around your shoulder, casually, and you find that it’s the easiest thing about this day. Touching her. Being with her.

“Oh, shit. The broth,” Tai sighs.

“You drugged us?” Akilah whispers to Misty.

“No. I didn’t.”

She stands up and takes a step forward.

“Okay, yeah, it was an accident. T-they were meant for Ben.”

“Oh, my God. Do you have any idea how crazy you are?” Mari asks.

“They were my mushrooms. And you stole them to put in your stupid soup. Besides, you know, none of this would have even happened if he wouldn’t have tricked me into falling in love with him!” she’s breathing heavily by the end of her speech.

“Oh, Misty, would you-” Coach Ben says, cringing.

“Wait. Stop!” Lottie shouts, and then you all hear it.

Something moves in the brush of the forest, rustles the trees ever so slightly- and if ever bring else wasn’t still, you would have thought it a gust of wind.

“Do you hear that?”

Everyone turns, and you and Natalie stand, listening to the rustling become louder, get closer-

“Holy fuck!” you screech, watching the bear emerge out of the forest, watching Natalie’s eyes light up in terror and blood lust.

The girls all start running to the porch, back into the cabin, and Natalie turns to run inside.

“Travis has the gun.”

Natalie looks over at Taissa, her eyes wide.

“What the fuck do you mean he has the gun? Where is he?!”

“We saw him,” Akilah says, and you look at Natalie, and she looks at you- and you get a suddenly flash of the night before.

And I-I wanna die with you, Natalie. I wanna die with you.

“Shauna,” Lottie whispers, standing in front of the bear in her white dress. “The knife.”

Shauna hands her the knife after she looks between the blade and the bear.

Lottie takes a step forward.

The group erupts into a small chorus of her name, a prayer, over and over again, telling her don’t.

But she doesn’t listen, and you watch Lottie, for some reason something nagging in your head, like the beginnings of a headache.

“We won’t be hungry,” you whisper, feeling like you should have said it ages ago.

Natalie grabs your hand and squeezes, hard, once then twice.

“Shh,” Lottie says, and the bear lets out a low snark as she steps forward, bordering on a roar.

Lottie and the best walk towards each other, until they meet. Until she’s close enough.

The bear lays down before her, onto the ground like a puppy dog. How could something so vicious and wild remind you of something like that is beyond you.

Lottie stares at the beast for a little longer, before raising the knife high, and bringing it down on the bear’s head.

It screams, as much as a bear can, and the pain in its voice that you know isn’t pain like you know makes tears well in your eyes.

Blood drips down the bear’s head like antlers.

Lottie steps back while the beast lets out a few more labored breaths, before it all stops, and the forest is silent again.

Your mouth waters.

—-

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