#steamroller wheels

[burgerking-offical]

alright here’s a compilation of all the skarloey engines

[thefreakandthehair]

you could be bad, but I wanna find out.

written for @steddiemicrofic ‘guard’ | wc: 532 | rated: mature | tags: goalie!Steve Harrington, fan!Eddie Munson, alternate universe- no upside down, different first meeting, meet ugly (but it's still cute), bars, alcohol mention, description of sexual activity, humor, big mouth!Eddie Munson, long-suffering besties Gareth and Jeff

The bar is buzzing with excited fans, humming with an energy that makes Eddie feel looser and lighter than the Budweiser ever could. Surrounded by a sea of black and red jerseys that line the long, narrow bar, Jeff and Gareth laugh and shake their heads. 

Eddie hasn’t stopped rambling since the Blackhawks won, and he has no intentions of stopping anytime soon. 

Not after a win like that— a shutout win that tore the roof off of United Center. 

And certainly not after the Blackhawks goalie guarded the net like it was his treasure and he, its dragon. 

Sure, it helps that Steve Harrington is definitely the most beautiful man to ever grace an ice rink, but it’s the competence that gets him. Watching Harrington bend and stretch his limbs into pretzel-like shapes, coming up with the puck and an unhinged grin, really gets his motor running.

“I mean, did you see him?” Eddie asks for maybe the tenth time since sitting at the shiny, shellacked bar. “Jeff, you get it, right? You see what I’m seeing, right?” 

“I see a guy who’s really great at his job, and I see another guy who sounds insane. Guess which one you are?” Jeff snorts into his beer and takes a sip. 

“Gareth, buddy, surely you can understand where I’m coming from. Remember the first time you saw Lars Ulrich?” Eddie turns, knocking his shoulder against Gareth’s. 

“Duh, dude,” Gareth leans forward and yells in response, the bar erupting into cheers and more drunken celebrations. “The difference is that I wanted to be Lars Ulrich. You want to fuck Steve Harrington.” 

Eddie clutches his chest in feigned offense and feels himself being pushed against the bar as the building fills up with what must be the final wave of fans leaving the stadium. The bartender nods behind him with a knowing smile and passes a draft beer over Eddie’s shoulder into a large, veiny hand. 

“Okay, fine,” Eddie concedes, resting his own drink on the bar. “You’re right. The way I would fuck Steve Harrington is obscene. I’d let him violate whatever obscure, unknown Bible Belt laws he wanted. He's a ride I wouldn't survive. The wheels would come right off.”

“Uh, Eddie?” Jeff tries to interrupt but Eddie’s having none of it. 

“Nope, I’m not done. That split save? The way he guarded his crease? And for a fucking 36-save shutout? Holy shit.”

“Ed—” Gareth tries but Eddie steamrolls him, too. 

“What is it you call it, Gare? A competency kink? Well, sure. Fine. Call it what you want, but he’s so good at what he does. I need him in a way that would disappoint my grandmother, and not just because she was homophobic."

A hand— the same hand that had reached over him to grab the glass just a few minutes ago— pats him on the shoulder and when Eddie turns around to see who the fuck is touching him, he nearly falls off of the wobbly stool.

Steve Harrington grins, a drink in one hand and the other still resting on Eddie’s frozen frame. 

“I think your grandmother would’ve liked me,” he shrugs. “I have a way with families.” 

[alchemistc]

He's drunk when he sends it. Pissed because Buck won't just let this die. Tired of seeing his name flash across his screen, texts full of anger and sadness and hurt.

I suspect you've already met your last and it's not me he sends, and then turns off his phone and reaches for the bottle of whiskey on his top shelf.

---

If he'd been sober he would have known better. It's not even like it's been a pervasive thought - just an inkling at the start of things that seemed to be completely off base once he got to know everyone better, but looking back... He can see it. The built in life. The steadfast support. The knowledge that they'd always, always have each other's back. The kid who hero worshipped him.

The thing is he's fielding texts from Eddie, too, checking in and then circling around to being so goddamn judgmental that it's like they've coordinated their attacks to give Tommy no room to breathe.

He ended it to save himself from slipping so far under the surface he wouldn't make it back.

The fact that he's lost them both to his own fear is icing on the cake for the demon on his shoulder that keeps trying to remind him that once upon a time he'd fully thought Eddie and Buck were amicable exes.

---

He has to blink to figure out who's standing on his doorstep. The mustache is gone.

"If you meant who I think you mean, you're dumber than you look," Eddie says, and shoulders past Tommy before Tommy can even muster an affronted expression.

Tommy wanders after Eddie into his own kitchen, immediately annoyed that he looks more at home there than Tommy has felt in weeks. He'd gotten used to the loft - the space, the echoes, the lights of the city. The smell of his own aftershave on Buck's pillow.

They never spent much time here. The loft was closer - to Harbor, to the 118, to all the things in the city that tempted them out for a night. And staying at the loft meant he wouldn't have the echoes of Buck in every room, around every corner. (The echoes are in him, instead, and he still feels the absence like a lanced wound.) Tommy has always been good at making other people think he's good at putting distance between himself and them.

Eddie digs in a drawer, pulls out the bottle opener shaped like a cow and pops two tops. Holds one out for Tommy and scowls when Tommy wrinkles his nose at the Corona.

"Absolutely screw you if you think I'm driving halfway across town for you just to get the ones you like, right now."

Tommy can't argue that. He takes a drag and swallows. Stares. Is everyone else experiencing whiplash seeing him without the mustache? It looks fine but it'd taken so much fucking work to get used to it and now it's just gone. Clean shaven, an acre of skin he hasn't seen in months.

Tommy blinked and the entire world was different. Tommy freaked and the world changed.

"What are you doing here?"

Eddie's eyebrows both lift, a frank Are You Fucking Serious look on his face that makes Tommy want to take him to the mats and have it out in the garage instead of over beers.

"Buck may be spinning his wheels trying to figure out what the fuck you meant but I know damn well what you were implying."

That seems unlikely. Eddie always seems to be the last person to have a single clue what was going on, with Buck scraping in just before him. It's a tight race.

He used to find it charming.

(He absolutely does not still find it charming, he tells his heart, and wonders if he could hire some tiny asshole gnome to go stomp around in an atrium or two and get it to stop doing what it's doing. Fucking traitor.)

"Do you actually believe that, or is it some dumb excuse because you're terrified of being happy?"

Oh, that's fucking rich.

Tommy opens his mouth to tell him exactly that but Eddie just steamrolls right by him. "You don't have to point out the hypocrisy, jackass. I'm well aware of my own issues. Thing is - you're like, almost right. Buck does make me happy. Next to Chris there's no one else in the world I'd rather have by my side, rain or shine, good or bad. I love him. He's my person."

Tommy rolls his jaw. It's not a vindication to hear it.

"Except I'm not gay, Tommy. And I don't want that. I never have. And neither does Buck, just in case that argument was about to hit the airwaves."

"How do you know?"

Something sparks in the back of Eddie's eyes. Understanding. Triumph.

"You want an itemized list or a demonstration?"

Which is when Tommy knows he's stepped into an absolute minefield. No markers. Just free balling his way through a conversation that could explode with even the slightest pressure.

Eddie's got his phone out.

None of this is ideal.

When he looks up, his eyes land squarely on Tommy, who would like in this moment to be able to curl so far in on himself he gets sucked clean through the other side. "First of all, Buck may have just been improvising his entire journey of sexuality but for once I was trying to get ahead of the curve so that whole starry-eyed newly not straight vision you have of Buck is bullshit. You let him pull you along by the shirt strings for months without pressing pause and then you freak out when he thinks his speed and your speed are the same speed?"

This is feeling a whole lot like an ambush, now.

"Did you ever even try to slow him down?"

Tommy has some choice words that aren't remotely appropriate to say to someone who is at least tangentially still his friend, so he takes another swig of shitty beer. God, this shit is awful.

"You wanna know how I know I'm not his one? How I know he's not mine?"

Tommy really, really doesn't. Honestly he'd like to kick him out.

"Because he went at our friendship at the same warp speed pace he took your relationship and it never fucking scared me."

Proof in the pudding, for Tommy. He's not the sort of jackass who actually thinks he can make a different judgement call on someone else's sexuality than the one they've made themselves, but come on.

"Shannon's been dead for half a decade," Eddie says, voice dropping so suddenly Tommy feels it like an icy draft. "And maybe one day I'll make my peace with that. Maybe one day I'll get out from under it. The point is I've lost them both and the loss wasn't the goddamn same."

"Buck came back," Tommy argues.

Eddie scoffs. Wrinkles his nose. "Jeez, he wasn't kidding about how weird that sounds." His phone buzzes on the countertop, and Tommy wonders what the hell that look on his face means. "Don't change the subject. I'm not here to talk you into anything. I'm just here to drink a beer with you and tell you how goddamn stupid it is to think that an uncertain future with Evan Buckley isn't worth every second of terror it causes you."

"You don't know me as well as you think you do."

Eddie tips the bottle against his lips. Swallows. God, why hadn't Tommy just pursued the self-proclaimed straight guy for a couple weeks before he scratched the itch somewhere else and kept a friend, instead?

"Maybe." Eddie tips his head. "Maybe I do, though. Maybe in the months and months you were invited to all my mopey nights in with Buck and all the crazy crap we end up involved in at the station and all the times you couldn't shut up about him when he wasn't around and all the times I got to see you falling ass over teakettle for my best friend, I learned a fucking thing or two about Tommy Kinard." He wags his head back and forth. "Maybe."

"Is there a point to this?"

Eddie tips his eyes to his phone, and it's probably too late at this point for the suspicion to begin to creep in.

"I mostly just came to confront you about your completely off base bullshit excuses, but there's actually a pretty simple solution to at least one of your multitude of issues, so. Now we're waiting."

Tommy doesn't like the sound of that at all.

"Chris is mad at you, by the way."

It's a distraction. It's fully a - "Why is he mad at me?"

"I should actually thank you, because it's the first time he's actively talked to me in months," Eddie continues, like Tommy hadn't asked a question. "He's pissed because Buck is sad and there's literally nothing in the world that gets a rise out of the Diaz boys like sad Buck."

"You can just say you're pissed at me and go, Eddie."

"Oh I'm angry. Don't think I'm not. Mostly I'm just sad for you. You had six months to get to know Buck and never thought to yourself 'hes going to love me and it's going to hurt' until he skipped too far ahead in the program."

And that's - kind of the final straw. He's let Eddie get his licks in. He deserves it, he knows he does. Honestly it's a little cathartic to hear - to know exactly what Buck has spent his time dissecting post-Tommy. "That's all I ever thought about. Do you think I didn't know going in? I tried to put a stop to it before it even started and he just doubled down! Do you think for a second I wasn't viscously aware that I was setting myself up for -."

No. He's not gonna say it. He's not giving that to Eddie when he couldn't even give it to Ev-Buck. When he couldn't give it to Buck.

Eddie looks victorious anyway.

"And for six months you thought it was worth it."

"For six months I was too much of a coward to stop thinking about it."

Eddie drains the rest of his beer. "I'm not gonna lie. You screwed up pretty bad. Like. Astronomically bad. Giving up your location in a firefight bad."

Tommy does everything he can not to wince.

"It's salvageable, though. If you want it to be. If there's anything I know about Buck it's that second chances are his bread and butter." He's been dancing around saying anything of substance about Buck's feelings, in all of this, but the hints are there. As if the bouts of angry-depressive texts from Buck weren't clue enough.

"And what if it's not what I want?"

Eddie's eyes dart to his phone one more time. "Then you can make it a clean break in about ... three and a half minutes."

Tommy nearly tosses his beer across the room.

[thisapplepielife]

Written for @corrodedcoffinfest.

Got You Good, Kid

Day #15 - Let's Talk About That | Word Count: 1000 | Rating: T | CW: Language, Smoking, Mentions of Unplanned Pregnancy, Eddie Being a Bit Lot of a Dick | POV: Gareth | Pairing: Gareth/OFC (Off-Screen), Background Steddie | Tags: Modern Day Setting, Road Manager Steve Harrington, Eddie and Gareth are BFFs, But Gareth's Keeping Secrets, So They're Fighting, Fucking Interviewers, Fucking Paparazzi, Fucking Eddie

Gareth adjusts the mic on his collar. Beside him, Eddie's fidgeting, Jeff is texting and Goodie's head is tipped back like he's sleeping or counting the ceiling tiles. 

It's the usual press junket. The same ten questions they all answer, over and over again. It's a goddamn bore. 

"One more question," the journalist says. 

She turns her iPad towards them. It's a picture of Gareth, standing on a sidewalk, a lit cigarette in his hand.

Yeah, he smokes when he's stressed sometimes, sue him. 

"Any comment?" 

Eddie leans forward, looking more closely, "Yeah. Don't smoke, kids."

Everybody laughs, and Gareth thinks that's it, until the reporter swipes to the left and another picture fills the screen. Eddie's not looking at the screen anymore. Now, Eddie's looking at Gareth.

Steve comes in out of fucking nowhere, "No comment. We're done here."

And they are. The room is cleared, and they make a quiet trip back to the hotel. 

Only after the door closes, does Eddie wheel on him.

"What the fuck is going on? Did you get a girl pregnant, and what? Just not tell any of us?" 

Gareth quickly looks at Steve, and Eddie doesn't miss the flick of his eyes.

"Oh, you're fucking kidding me. Steve knew? Before me?" 

And Gareth can't really determine if Eddie's mad that he's gonna be a dad or that Steve knew before he did. 

"He's Steve. He manages everything. I was waiting until the tour was over to tell you."

"Are you with her?" Eddie asks. "Is this why you've been bailing on us?"

"We're taking it slow," Gareth answers. He likes her. Could love her. But they agreed to focus on this first.

"Yeah, looks real slow to me."

"And I haven't bailed. I haven't missed shit."

"Eddie," Steve says, trying to rein Eddie in before he's too revved up.

Too late.

"How goddamn stupid are you? She got you good, kid."

Gareth clenches his fists, instantly mad, because that's not true. Not at all. He doesn't think this was some scheme to baby trap him and milk him for money. Corroded Coffin is famous, but they aren't so rich and famous that he'd be a mark for that kind of plotting. 

He had a one night stand, and she got pregnant. She told him. They made the decision together to proceed.

"That's not fucking true. The condom didn't work." 

"That's convenient. She probably poked holes in it."

"Well, it was mine, so..."

Eddie just stares at him, before finally saying, "Mark my words, because you're definitely getting an 'I told you so' when you're nothing but a checkbook and never see this kid."

"Eddie," Steve warns, and Eddie turns on him.

"And you? Not telling me."

"It wasn't for me to tell," Steve says, calmly. Because Eddie can't ruffle Steve's feathers, not like he can Gareth's. Steve won't allow it. There's no steamrolling of Steve Harrington by Eddie Munson.

"She looks like she's about ready to pop! How long have you known?" Eddie demands. 

Gareth's known for months. He just didn't know how to tell Eddie, because Eddie would be worried about the tour, the album, and everything else that affects Eddie. 

Gareth knows Eddie loves him, but Eddie still thinks he's a kid that needs tending to, even if that hasn't been true in years. 

"A while."

"Where does this girl even live?"

"She's a woman. We're both over thirty, yet you're acting like I preyed on a groupie."

Steve interjects, "I'm in contact with her dad, he's a lawyer. We're getting the parenting plan hammered out so Gareth can co-parent."

"Co-parent a kid from where?" Eddie repeats.

"Omaha."

"Omaha. That's great. Convenient for us all." 

"Well, it's centrally located," Steve offers. They both ignore him.

"She probably sold those pictures. No paps were in fucking Omaha."

"I think it was probably a fan…" Steve trails off, trying to bring reason to an unreasonable fight.

"I don't know what you want me to do, Eddie. I can't unring this bell."

And, honestly, he doesn't want to.

"You were smoking near her. Good job, dad."

"Did you see her when I was smoking? Fucking no. Because she wasn't there yet. Goddamn. You judgmental asshole."

Eddie huffs dramatically, "This is a fucking mess. If Steve wants to help, that's fine. But I'm not."

Gareth nods as Eddie storms off, and he'll come around. Gareth can't have a kid Eddie won't have anything to do with.

This'll blow over. It has to.

But Eddie's still mad. Weeks later. After the show, Steve's waiting with a smile, "You're having a baby. Wheels up in an hour."

"Oh shit," Gareth says, "too early?"

"No," Steve says, "just unwilling to consult the tour schedule. Already rude, just like you."

Gareth laughs, and runs towards the dressing room to shower. He passes Eddie without a word, but tells Jeff and Goodie the news.

Eddie pretends he doesn't hear, and Gareth can't dwell on the fact that he's losing his best friend. Has maybe already lost him. 

His daughter is coming, no matter how Eddie feels.

And an hour later, when Gareth is climbing the stairs of the borrowed private plane, Steve is the one behind him. Jeff and Goodie, already on board. 

The plane is crawling across the tarmac, when Goodie speaks, "Hey, wait, there's Eddie."

Sure enough, Eddie's on one of those little carts, being shuttled by airport staff, arms waving.

They must radio for the pilot to stop, and Eddie eventually slides into the seat next to Gareth.

"So, we're having a baby," Eddie says, and that's enough of an apology for now, because he needs Eddie.

There's a beat, and then Eddie asks, "Are you sure it's yours? You've never been early a day in your life."

Gareth laughs, "I'm sure. She must get that from her mom."

Eddie smiles, "We're having a girl?"

Gareth nods.

Eddie leans over and kisses Gareth's head, "Sorry, I'm late."

It's okay. Gareth thinks he's right on time.

If you want to write your own, or see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @corrodedcoffinfest and follow along with the fun! 🦇

Notes: Lord, I think one was edited and changed and fiddled with the most to stay at 1000 words but say everything I wanted to say. Take away ten, add twenty-seven. Rinse, repeat. There was a whole flash-forward at the end that just had to go for word count reasons. But just know. It works out, for all of them. ❤️

[imtheiliad]

☆ makes me wanna touch you, keep me from dying ☆ ⤷ steamroller by phoebe bridgers + buddie remake -> @lgbtqcreators event fourteen — growth

[image description: 6 square gifs of Buck and Eddie from 911 with lyrics from Steamroller by Phoebe Brigers. gif 1: from season 4 episode 13, colored blue, Buck gets splattered with Eddie's blood. The text reads, "In the darkness, I feel your fingers" gif 2: Eddie stands across from Buck and stares across the distance that separates them, Buck is colored blue. The text reads, "They don't touch me" gif 3: Eddie reaches across the pavement toward Buck. The Text reads, "But there's a danger." gif 4: from season 6 episode 13, Eddie looks on Buck playing poker softly. The text reads, "Part of me wants you" gif 5: from season 6 episode 11, Eddie looks distraught as he leans on the other members of the 118 after Buck has been wheeled away in the ER. The text reads, "But most of me needs you" gif 6: from season 6 episode 12, Eddie stands in his kitchen talking to Buck about recovery, he looks at Buck softly. The text reads, "So I won't fall unless you ask me to." /End ID]

[5-pp-man]

Ok now that I finished it, I can say that Samflam starts off fairly slow. It has a good buildup until it abruptly jerks the wheel into off-road territory.

By now we've left the road of realistic hero society and are now operating on full-on tokusatsu rules.

Then, they drive the car through a fucking shopping mall, steamrolling their way through multiple subgenres and arcs within a few episodes each. Every arc is over in the blink of an eye.

And then, when you finally get out of the mall, it turns out that we've driven off of a cliffside and are now in free fall. The epitome of absurdity has been reached.

The free fall lasts about a moment or so as it turns out we've somehow landed back on the road we were driving on at the beginning of the series. Back to a (relatively) realistic society.

Then the car you're in explodes and you're left butt naked on the side of the road. All that's left is your car radio with a cassette that only contains the song "What is love" by Haddaway.

You wait for another car to drive by and pick you up, but it never does. The show's over already. Donezo.

[carolperkinsexgirlfriend]

Aro4Aro Stancy Break-up AU Part 2

Part 1

As his fingers clutch Steve Harrington’s steering wheel hard enough that his knuckles turn white, Jonathan wishes he’d stayed at the party. The music was loud and vapid, the punch was rancid, but at least then he wouldn’t be alone in a car with a boy he barely knows past saving each other’s lives that one time in his living room.

He can still almost feel Steve’s hand in his, the way his fingernails raked over Jonathan’s still-bleeding palm until his colossus caught and held onto the bandage. Even when they’re sitting across from each other at lunch, pretending that they’re three normal teenagers, Jonathan swears they’re still in that living room. Nancy’s shooting and Steve’s still swinging the bat.

He takes a deep breath, letting it out slow.

“She said it’s bullshit,” Steve says.

Jonathan clears his throat. “What is?”

“We’re bullshit.”

“We?”

“Me and her,” Steve says. Jonathan can feel him looking at him. He keeps his eyes on the road as Steve laughs. It sounds wet. “Maybe just me.”

Silence falls in the car like a fog. Suffocating. Steve lingers in it the way he usually doesn’t. At lunch, in the halls, even when there’s nothing to say, he’s saying it anyway. Sports, schoolwork, what they’re having for lunch. It’s like silence strangles him. It’s strangling Jonathan now.

“You’re not bullshit.”

He risks a glance in Steve’s direction. He’s crying. Jonathan feels his throat close up.

“You don’t get it,” he says, voice cracking in the middle. They both pretend not to hear it, don’t question the long pause before he continues, “there’s something wrong with me.”

“What do–”

“I love Nancy,” Steve says. It hits Jonathan, suddenly, that he’s in no way equipped to be Steve Harrington’s couples counselor. His only working example of a relationship growing up had Lonnie Byers as half of it. Steve continues unimpeded. “She’s literally perfect, Byers.”

Jonathan nods, waits for Steve to continue. When he doesn’t, Jonathan says, “that doesn’t mean she’s perfect for you.”

Steve sobs. Just once, before getting himself back together. It sounds raw and wounded in his throat. Jonathan’s hand twitches.

“There’s something wrong with me,” he says again, sounding frantic. “I should love her, right?”

“Steve–”

“So, why does saying I love her make me feel nauseous?” he asks, steamrolling over any response Jonathan could even think of giving. That’s okay. He’s got nothing. “Why do the fucking date nights and the fucking parties and all the fucking gestures make me want to run?”

“I don’t–”

“I love Nancy,” he says, slamming his open palm on the glove compartment for it to open, sending CD’s spilling onto the floor. Steve barely seems to notice. “It’s good sometimes, right? Like, when we’re all sitting at our lunch table, and I say something stupid and you both laugh at me, but Nancy does it behind her hand because she at least pretends to be nice to me. That’s good, right Byers?”

Jonathan feels choked up, keeps his eyes on the road, wonders how a night could spiral so quickly, wonders where he’s going to sit at lunch tomorrow. “Yeah,” he says, swallowing the knot in his throat. “It’s good.”

“But why do I feel the same about hanging out with you as I do her?” he asks.

Jonathan doesn’t say anything, waits until they’re at a stop sign with his foot firmly on the break to glance over at Steve. He’s curled in on himself, hands shaking in his lap. It reminds Jonathan alarmingly of that night, when he’d seen Nancy and Steve unravel in the face of monsters that crawl from the walls.

“Tell me what you mean,” Jonathan says, but he thinks he knows.

“What’s the difference,” Steve asks, like he’s picking each word out of his brain with care. “Between a girlfriend and a friend?”

Jonathan thinks of Will, how sometimes he looks at Mike like he’s so bright it hurts. He thinks of the way Steve’s eyes had looked almost afraid as he’d slung slurs in Jonathan’s direction in the heat of the moment.

There’s a pit sinking in his stomach. He swallows it down. “Do you–” he stops.

“Do I what?”

The air feels charged as Jonathan takes his foot off the break, continuing his drive to Steve’s house.

“Do you even want a girlfriend?” he asks.

Steve breaths in like he’s been punched. Jonathan feels sick.

No more words are exchanged. The silence hangs like a noose. Jonathan settles into it.

When he pulls up to the empty, encompassing Harrington house, he thinks he gets why silence is something to be feared for Steve Harrington. There’s no lights on in the Harrington house, no cars in the driveway. It doesn’t feel right to drive away, Steve silhouetted in the light of the moon, the shadow of his own front door hanging over him.

When Jonathan pulls into his own driveway, his Mom’s left the porch light on, welcoming him home.

[humanitys-strongest-bamf]

"get me a damned matcha" | Chapter 13: June II

{{ Chapter 12: May I | Chapter 14: July II }} Chapter Directory

ayyyye we're halfway there folks, steamrolling into the second year

if you wanna get tagged for updates, fill out this form here!

✧ pairing ➼ levi ackerman x fem!reader, college x coffee shop x roommates!au ✧ summary ➼ After you find yourself plagued with misfortune due to struggles in your personal and family life, you find yourself needing to move last minute. As a junior in undergrad with little money and little social support, you considered yourself lucky when you found a sublease that was close to campus and was relatively cheap. Unfortunately, it seemed that your roommate did not seem to be so excited regarding your presence. ✧ content/warnings ➼ fluff, slowburn, mutual pining, idiots in love, negative self-talk ✧ word count ➼ ~5.1k

You were looking for a new place to live back in April after your spat with Levi, but that intention was nowhere to be found now. You signed the lease renewal without hesitation. Part of you told yourself that it was because you just didn't have time to look for another apartment that was affordable.

A more realistic part of you was acutely aware that the decision (or lack thereof) was at least partially affected by the fact that you were growing much closer with your roommate. The idea of not being able to see him regularly gave you an odd discomforting feeling, especially after your chat on the Ferris Wheel. He really was the one major connection currently in your life and you couldn’t imagine throwing that away.

"Great," Levi grumbled as he filed the renewed lease away. "I'm stuck with you for another year?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," you mumbled with an eye roll. "You know Hange snitched to me about how you were saying that I'm much better at cleaning than Miche was?"

You glanced over at Levi as he scoffed.

"Miche was okay at cleaning, just not being organized."

You placed both your hands on your hips and gave Levi a cocky grin.

"And I'm good at both, right?!" 

"Certainly weren't at first," he grumbled, which prompted you to stick your tongue out at him again, which he immediately waved off. He watched as you walked to and from the bathroom, throwing towels amongst various items like a bathing suit and sunscreen into a gym bag.

You dug through the bag, taking a mental note of everything that was in there to check if you had forgotten anything.

"You're not bringing a swimming suit?" you asked, looking at Levi over your shoulder.

"And immerse myself in the filthy ocean water that's filled with who knows what? Fuck no."

You were much more excited for this beach trip than you were willing to admit. Unlike the amusement park, this wasn't an official outing that you had to be responsible for. Some of the freshmen (soon to be sophomores) in the Honors Society decided that they wanted to check out the beach and you elected to tag along. What you didn't expect was for Levi to also tag along.

"You know you don't have to come," you noted with a serious expression. "Even if you don't touch the water, the sand's also messy and will get into your shoes and clothes."

Levi knew that you had a point. His surroundings were going to be filthy regardless of if he swam or not. He would never willingly find himself at the beach. The water was gross, the sand was messy, and the public bathrooms were generally disgusting. There were too many people and parking was always a nightmare.

The reason he was going was because of you, although he'd never openly admit to it. Hanging out with you has been enjoyable and he found himself missing you whenever you were gone. The prime example was how he had reacted over spring break. You were gone for only a few days and he found himself feeling resentful and grumpy over it, to the point that he ended up being enough of a dick to you to drive you to somehow end up at your ex-boyfriend’s.

"It's monotonous and dull here," he rationalized. "Maybe being around you and the brats you hang out with will annoy me enough to want to come back home and be alone."

You raised an eyebrow at him.

"Are you saying you're enjoying hanging out with me, then?"

"Tch," Levi scoffed, avoiding eye contact with you. "Of course not."

You continued to give him a skeptical look, not believing a single word that was coming out of his mouth, but you otherwise didn't push it. 

"Well, if you change your mind, you don't have to come."

"I'm driving."

"I can catch a ride with someone else!"

When you looked back towards Levi, you saw that he was clearly scowling at you.

"...Just shut up and finish packing."

~~~~~

“Surprised you came along, Levi!” 

“Trust me, I didn’t want to at first,” Levi mumbled with a scoff, throwing a side glance over at Nicolo. He had just learned that Nicolo was the point of contact for setting up this trip. His connection with Sasha led to the connection with you, which is how you found yourself here primarily with the freshmen instead of with the other officers of the Honors Society that you usually found yourself hanging out around.

Levi kept his eyes on you, although he wasn’t entirely aware of that himself. He watched as you splashed around in the water, throwing a blow-up tube over you. You struggled to get onto it at first, which tugged at the corners of his lips into a small, amused smile. He wasn’t feeling malicious about watching you struggle, he actually found it quite cute.

That smile got quickly replaced with a frown as he had that disturbing thought again about you.

“_____ drag you here?”

Levi peeled his eyes away from you, trying to push down the feelings of unease and confusion that were becoming more prominent within him.

“Something like that.”

Nicolo got distracted as soon as Sasha came up to him and called his name, carrying a paper bag that was filled with groceries and grilling material. From what little Levi could see, it seemed the newly formed couple was planning on having a grill-out later in the day. At least it meant that he'd be able to get away from the beach eventually.

As the two walked off, Levi was left on his own to stew in his own thoughts. He would usually never find himself here. He even adamantly dodged answering Hange when they asked where he was going on his day off, being more willing to let them theorize about whatever it is that he was up to over letting them know that you had successfully dragged him to somewhere like the beach. He had been here for a few hours at this point and had yet to even step into the sand.

He was avoiding the beach itself, but it did end up being awkward for him to be hanging by himself when he purposefully came to a social event. His reasoning in February was because he only went to make sure you didn’t find yourself in trouble again. He had no such reason now.

Levi found himself annoyed because he really was questioning why he bothered with coming. You had jokingly accused him of enjoying spending time with you, but that couldn’t possibly be the case. It was purely because he needed to get away from the school and apartment, and your trip just happened to be at a convenient time for him.

Part of him knew that was a lie.

As he watched you floating around leisurely on that blow-up tube, he felt this strange pull to approach you. However, you were in the water and he was adamantly against going anywhere near the water. Even the thought of stepping into the water filled him with a sense of disgust.

Levi sighed and groaned to himself. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to stay here. He didn’t want to go towards you either.

Noticing a local pub and the fact that it was a little past noon, he elected to simply get something to eat.

It wasn’t much better there, either.

It was crowded, the music was too loud, and it was too small of a space. At this point, he was more than grumpy enough to seriously consider maybe leaving and hanging out by himself in his car for the rest of the day, although he knew that you would give him nonstop shit about it if you found out about it—and knowing his luck, you’d definitely find out about it.

After finally getting to order and eat something that wasn’t completely covered in grease, he wandered around the downtown area, noting an ice cream shop nearby. While he normally wouldn’t be bothered to check it out, seeing the dessert shop immediately reminded him of you. The past few times that you had been upset over something, his first thought was to get you food as soon as he found out that you were food motivated. You obviously weren’t particularly upset about anything currently, but getting you food (or making you Matchas) had become one of his ways of spending time with you.

He scowled at the ice cream shop. He had insisted that he had come to the beach for himself and that it had nothing to do with spending time with you, but he knew that wasn’t true. It was also incredibly annoying that something as simple as an ice cream shop immediately reminded him of you.

Despite how tilted he found himself, he still ended up making his way towards the shop, unable to fight off the instinct of obtaining the one thing that never failed to uplift your mood.

~~~~~

It was hot enough that you were more than refreshed just hanging out in the water without a care in the world. You had just rolled into the water off of one of the blow-up tubes. You had originally elected to just sunbathe, but only lasted about ten minutes before you felt like the sun was frying you alive, prompting you to roll directly into the water.

You didn't particularly have a lot of stamina, so you were only able to swim without a floatie for about another ten minutes before you gave up and grabbed onto the blow-up tube and started wading towards land.

Once you finally got back to the shore, you tossed the tube to the side and began wringing out your hair before putting it up in a loose ponytail. You had left your bag near an umbrella for shade and dug out a towel to begin to dry yourself off, taking care to not get too much sand and water into the bag itself. 

You looked around and saw that Jean, Connie, and Sasha were still screwing around in the water. Eren and Mikasa had come along as well, but they were currently nowhere to be found. 

You didn't bring your usual group of friends with you. It's not that you wanted to intentionally leave them out, but you were starting to get sick of being the one inviting them to things. You were the one that was invited onto this trip, and for once, you weren't going to take the responsibility of who was coming or ensuring that everyone had a good time.

You couldn’t deny that you held some resentment towards them over what happened at the amusement park. You planned the whole thing, and got momentarily separated, and then they didn’t bother to check in with you for the rest of the day until they needed you for something logistical. You would be able to understand that it could have been a result of you also not reaching out, if this wasn’t a regular occurrence. It was excuse after excuse, and half the time it was you just making excuses for them. At this point, you didn’t even know if it was worth bringing it up or if you would just be met with defensiveness. You weren’t satisfied with being complacent, but you also didn’t want to put work into fixing a relationship if they weren’t also invested in repairing it.

By the time Levi had decided to actually step foot onto the beach, you had already set out a towel to sunbathe, propping up an umbrella behind you so that you had the option to take shelter in the shade in case it got too hot. Levi’s pacing slowed down once he got closer to you.

He could barely contain the discomfort radiating through his body when he saw you applying sunscreen onto your bare body. Your hands were currently roaming up and down your calves to your upper thigh, suddenly making your curves that much more obvious to him. It wasn't like he didn't see you in shorts (or even half-naked) before, but he suddenly felt the need to look away as if he was invading your private space. At the same time, he couldn't take his eyes off you.

Levi kinda awkwardly shuffled from side to side, unsure of what to do. He couldn't just stand there behind you without being a creep—plus, the ice cream would melt. 

He cleared his throat, prompting you to look up at him, your face lighting up once you saw the ice cream cone in his hand.

"Oh, thank you," you said as you took the ice cream cone from him, your cheeks heating up a bit. "Wanna sit?"

You scooted over to the side a bit to give him space to also sit on your towel. You pulled your knees up to your chest while quietly licking at the ice cream cone, the cold custard bringing a refreshing feeling to your mouth. It was perfect for a day as hot as today.

Levi tried his best to avoid looking down at you past your face. Your bikini didn’t seem overly revealing at the time, but now he felt like he couldn’t help but notice how it looked on you. Your hair was pulled up into a ponytail, which revealed the nape of your neck and the sunscreen made your skin shimmer. He felt heat rapidly rising to his face and he forced himself to look away and focus on the coldness of the ice cream instead to try to get himself out of that headspace, pissed that he found himself there in the first place.

You bit on your bottom lip, slightly anxious, as you looked at Levi, who was meticulously working through his ice cream cone, looking much more tense than usual. He wasn’t wearing a swimsuit, so he just had on a white t-shirt with some shorts on. His arms up to his upper bicep was exposed and it took every ounce of self-control within you to not continue staring at him. As usual, his hair fell perfectly over his forehead and his signature irritated scowl seemed oddly alluring. You slightly shook your head upon realizing the types of thoughts that you were having.

You shot a side glance at him, watching as he picked away at his ice cream. Upon closer inspection, you could see that he had elected for a waffle bowl instead of an ice cream cone and that he was using a spoon to scoop out the ice cream instead of shoving it in his face like you were.

When he finally looked over at you again, he immediately passed you a napkin. He had grabbed a more than generous bundle from the shop that he was just at.

"You're dripping."

"Oh, shit," you muttered as you took the napkin and wrapped it around the cone, checking to make sure the sugary liquid didn't get onto the towel. 

Your hand lingered on that spot on the towel for a bit, as if you were struggling to say something. Your finger gently rubbed the cloth back and forth for a while before your lips finally parted.

"Thank you for not being...weird after the other week," you mumbled.

"What are you talking about?" he asked in what almost sounded like a genuine tone as he finished his ice cream, but he knew what you were referring to—and you knew that he knew.

"...Nevermind," you said as you shook your head.

It seemed like neither of you really wanted to discuss what had happened—or rather, what had almost happened—on the Ferris Wheel.

You remembered the two of you chatting over your sudden grumpiness when you suddenly got the impulsive urge to kiss him. You had gotten so distracted that you could barely remember what it was that you were trying to say at the time: that Levi was the only really close and reliable connection that you had.

"...Just thank you for always being there to pick up the pieces, I guess," you mumbled. "I hope you're not too distressed about having to live with me for another year."

You looked up hesitantly at him. Your last statement was meant to be a joke, but there was a bit of actual anxiety present in your voice as well.

He glanced down at you.

"I think I'll find a way to cope with your annoying ass."

You shot him a half-hearted smile. You knew this banter was normal from him, but you couldn't help but doubt. You couldn't help but ponder on the fact that no one would reasonably want to live with you.

"Cut that out," Levi scolded with a groan.

You blinked at him.

"Cut what out?"

"You're pitying yourself again."

"What? No I'm not," you said defensively.

Levi shot you a skeptical look, not believing you in the slightest. 

"You're not as much of a pain in the ass as you think you are."

You scoffed at the irony of his comment.

"You still think that after you had to scout out the entire town for me that one night?"

"Yes."

He responded extraordinarily quickly, and with clear conviction in his voice.

You clenched your jaw and looked down and away from him.

"Do you not believe me?"

He never took his gaze off you.

"_____," he called out after you remained quiet for a while.

You let out an unsteady breath.

"I want to," you whispered. "I just feel like I'm always dragging you down or bothering you for something and there are so many times in which I regret texting you at night because I know you're busy and I don't want to be a burden. And-"

"You never shut up, do you?" Levi scolded, cutting you off. "You're not a fucking burden. Quit doing that to yourself."

He slightly shoved at you in an attempt to pull you out of your head.

You pulled away and looked at him, feeling your cheeks slightly warm up upon seeing that he was shooting you a subtle smile. You gave him a half-hearted smile in return.

"Maybe you're not as much of a dick as I thought you were."

He frowned at your comment.

"You thought I was a dick?"

"Mhm," you said with a nod. "When we first talked, remember?"

"Purged that memory," he said with a deadpan expression, implying that his first meeting with you was so terrible that he had to repress his memory of it.

"Ha, yeah right."

You hated the fact that your cheeks were warming up in his presence again. You hated the fact that you couldn't pull away from him even if you wanted to. 

And you absolutely hated the fact that you got this close to your aloof roommate that was insistent on being a dick to you right off the bat.

~~~~~

"You went out to get a sandwich?"

"Not touching that oil-soaked patty."

You looked over across the alley and saw that Nicolo was in the middle of teaching Sasha how to grill. He had brought his own patties that he had prepared earlier on in the day. Given the fact that everyone had been screwing around in the water all day, they were more than ready for burgers—except for Levi.

He was making a face of absolute disgust at the burgers. He was sure it tasted great—he knew of Nicolo's cooking abilities—but just the sight of the coat of grease over them made him scrunch up his nose in disgust.

Instead, he had walked over to a nearby restaurant to order a sandwich. You knew he had walked off to do that. What you didn't expect was that he was going to come back with one in hand for you too.

You didn't have a problem eating the burger, but the sandwich did admittedly look more appetizing than the burgers that everyone had begun digging through. 

"So?"

Levi raised an eyebrow at you as you spoke.

"So?"

"You regret coming yet?"

He looked at you without responding, unsure why you were randomly bringing up the question.

"I saw you smacking your shoes earlier to get the sand out."

Levi's breathing paused for a moment. He didn't expect you to notice that. He had made sure that you were out of sight when he went behind his car to get the sand out, not wanting to give you the satisfaction of an "I told you so". 

He grunted in response.

"Whatever. As long as it doesn't get in the car."

"Maybe I'll make you go swimming next," you mused.

"Don't you dare."

You chuckled at his reaction, taking a sip of your beer. You looked up towards both Nicolo and Sasha as you finished your sandwich and saw that Sasha had already picked up how to use the grill, despite having only been introduced to it around twenty minutes ago.

You knew all the way back in November that they were beginning to become a thing, so you weren't surprised when they arrived at the beach as an official couple. You watched them interact with each other and found your eyes flashing over towards Levi.

You mentally slapped yourself for doing so. The fact that you automatically looked at him when thinking about a "new couple" meant that those feelings that rose up at the amusement park were still there, and they didn't seem to be going away any time soon. Your housing situation would be made a hundred times more complicated if you ended up falling in love with your roommate. You continued trying to convince yourself that that wasn’t the case and that there was some other explanation for your feelings that didn’t involve a more intimate relationship with him.

It was Levi. He was supposed to piss you off and you were supposed to piss him off. Him being kind to you was a fluke. You just happened to have multiple flukes in a row. It couldn’t possibly mean anything.

You awkwardly shuffled around on the bench, trying to shake off the feeling. Levi immediately noticed that your body posture had changed.

"What?" he asked with a frown.

You looked at him with flushed cheeks. You weren't sure if it was from him or from the alcohol beginning to hit you. You'd prefer if it was just the alcohol.

"Nothing," you mumbled, shaking your head. "Just the alcohol settling in."

He blinked at you a few times with a raised eyebrow. He didn't believe you.

This had turned into a common theme between the two of you. Whether you were intending to or not, lying to him has become significantly more difficult as of late, and vice versa. The tension and mind games were killing you, but you weren’t willing to address anything, if you even knew what “anything” entailed of.

You grimaced as everyone began swarming the table now that the burgers were done and everyone had grabbed their food. The small table that you had been peacefully eating your sandwich at soon became chaotic and messy. Everyone chatting at once became incredibly noisy and it was wearing away at your nerves. You were soon no longer processing anything that was being said, your world simply turning into a haze that vaguely involved people running around and screaming something about summer break that you were too overwhelmed to fully tune in to.

Levi got up and placed a hand on your shoulder, sensing the tension.

"Come, talk a walk with me. It's-"

"-getting too rowdy?" you finished his sentence with a slight smirk. You shared the sentiment, however. It was much too noisy for either of you. Although Levi had pulled you out of your dissociative state, you felt it quickly returning.

He responded to your comment with an eye roll, but otherwise motioned for you to follow as he began to wander back towards the shoreline.

~~~~~

"Oh c'mon, at least dip a toe in!" you shouted back at Levi from the shoreline. 

"Fuck no."

You were barely in the water, just close enough for the waves to wash over your feet, but remaining dry otherwise.

The beach was starting to cool off now that the sun began to go down. The sky had a relaxing pink hue to it that was speckled with white clouds drifting about. It had gotten chilly enough that you had a thin, translucent pullover on so that you weren't wearing just a bikini. 

You tried to coax Levi to step into the water, but he adamantly refused. After seeing that he wasn't going to budge, you sighed and stepped out of the water, slightly bumping into him as you walked up next to him. 

He slightly pushed back against you with an annoyed look. He had invited you on a walk to get away from everyone else, not expecting you to try to drag him into the ocean. 

His frown lines softened as you looked up into his eyes and your cheeks heated up as he gave you "that" look again. It was the one you saw for the first time on that Ferris Wheel—a gentle, compassionate look that you rarely got to see from him. 

You broke eye contact, feeling your entire body begin to heat up just from being around him. You mumbled something under your breath.

"What?"

You shook off your nerves and spoke up.

"Thanks...for always being there to pick me up."

He sighed in irritation.

"Quit thanking me for it."

You had thanked him for the exact same thing repeatedly over the past day and while he wasn't necessarily sick of it, he knew how excessive it was. He was acutely aware that it had to do with a sense of shame or guilt, but he hoped that you'd eventually be able to just accept that it's okay to need or ask for help.

"I'm sorry if it ever seems like I'm not grateful," you mumbled. "I really don't know what I would've done without you this past year so..."

Your hand grabbed at your other arm in anxiety.

"...so I guess you're not as bad of a roommate as I thought you would be."

You had to end your comment with a joke. At this point it seemed to serve as a protective factor against whatever it was that was brewing within you whenever you were around him. You were hesitant to test the waters with him. It was why you didn't text him when you were on the bus ride back from the amusement park. 

You didn't want to screw up what you already had. You didn't want to mess up this delicate friendship that you had finally been able to forge.

When you finally gathered up the courage to look at him again, you saw that he never took his eyes off you the entire time.

He looked into your eyes for a bit before he spoke, as if he was also contemplating about the best way to word his thoughts.

"Did you mean it?"

"That you're not a shit roommate?"

He let out an annoyed tut.

"Not that, dumbass."

You tilted your head a bit at him, genuinely unsure of what he was referring to. 

"At the amusement park," he said quietly, and you felt your body freeze upon him bringing it up. "On the Ferris Wheel. Did you mean it?"

He was referring to what you had been saying about being close to him. You remembered musing about the fact that you didn't really have anyone that you could call family, or anyone that you could rely on to be there in case shit hit the fan—except for Levi.

Levi was always there for you, even if it seemed like he didn't want to be. Levi would drop everything to make sure you were okay. You could confidently rely on him. Whether you had wanted to or not, you had formed somewhat of a close bond with him, to the point that every minute that you spent with him involved you being incredibly confused over what your relationship actually was.

You felt your cheeks continue to heat up and you turned to walk away, pausing as your hand brushed up against his.

Your hands lingered near each other for a bit as the both of you stopped moving. You even felt his fingers slightly grasp at yours, although you could easily convince yourself that this wasn't intentional, but it still sent chills throughout your body nonetheless.

"Uhm..y-yeah," you stammered, "I guess I did...Is that okay?"

Neither of you pulled your hands away. The desire to get closer to him was destroying you, but you held agonizingly still as you anxiously waited for his response.

"Sure."

You looked into each other's eyes and you felt that same tension, that same alluring feeling drawing you towards him, that same temptation to gently plant your lips against his. Your face only continued to heat up as you stood next to him, fingers crossed with his, the both of you unmoving, waiting to see what the other would do.

Levi cleared his throat before finally stepping back away from the shoreline.

"Should head back. It's getting dark."

It took you a minute to reorient yourself to reality. 

"Yeah," you said quietly as you let out an unsteady exhale. "We should."

You lingered behind him a bit, letting him walk forward. You watched him from behind, appreciating the way that the breeze was blowing through his hair. Your eyes dropped down to the bottom of his t-shirt, where it slightly rose up so that you could ever so slightly see the bottom of his bare back. It wasn’t anything special, but just simply seeing his shirt rise made your body heat up in ways that you weren’t willing to admit to yourself. Besides, you still weren't sure how he felt. Part of you wanted to think that whatever was building up in you was reciprocated, but you were much too scared to act on it without explicit confirmation that he wanted it too.

Even if it was reciprocated, you weren't even sure if you wanted to officially go there. Things were too chaotic and you had never planned to fall in love with your roommate that you had hated so much a year ago. 

You weren't sure—but you couldn't deny that a deep part of you left you longing for more.

they're so stupid skjdfksdf #: @levisbrat25 @gothgril69 @sckerman @berrijam @notgoodforlife @meowjaa @averysmolbear @roseofdarknessblog @bejewelledd @hhighkey @ayame236 @sad-darksoul @velouria17 @kamyru @l1zk4 @layenacreates @lamees004 @whoami-72 @highgoon69 @chaotic-on-main @levishotgf @nube55 @chosos-mascara @heichoucleanfreak @svftackerman @alexkibutsuji @moonchild-angel

[mythicalmagical-monkeyman]

I wrote this for me and my beatie because THEMES and PARALLELS but hey yk tumblr also gets my deranged thoughts too

under cut besties @fruity-legos @murkystarlight

Summary:

Cooper accidentally catches Mrs Garcia on her way out

Additional Tags:

Author is running on 3am crack juice. gummie trio flows through my veins. turning Cooper over in my brain like a hot pocket. what if, fight me. the parallels. Mrs Garcia’s name is Maria in this. no beta we die like me. Aged-Down Character(s), Cooper and Garcia sibs are tinyyy

Did she regret it? That was the question, it was aquestion that she knew she’d never know or be able to answer with the right answer.  Did it pain her heart to be the one responsible for the small cries and screams that echoed from the apartment behind her as she closed the door harshly behind her and entered into the crisp wintery world outside? 

Yes. 

Did it also make her bite her lip to keep her face neutral as her husband stared at her with those big sad, doe eyes as he silently begged her not to? 

Also yes. 

But this was for the better. 

For the better, it’s what she kept telling herself and maybe one day she’d believe that. 

Maria let out a slow exhale that turned into a puff of white cloud as it hit frosty air as she tightened her scarf around her neck. 

Just one foot in front of the other and she’d be on her way. 

Maria placed a hand on the railing and began to walk down the stairs of her home, well what had been her home. It took a cautious second so as not to slip on the ice but before she new it she had planted both feet on the sidewalk. 

She didn’t dare to risk a look back, no that wasn’t something she wanted to do, this was a new beginning for her and looking back would simply ruin that. Instead she tighten her grip on her briefcase and started to continue on down the sidewalk towards where her car was parked and packed with all her things. 

“BLACK SUDAN!” A high pitched voice yelled. 

Maria jumped and glanced around only to find a small, red clad child crouched down and staring intensely at the wheels of the car in front of her own. She blinked and stopped to peer closer at the child, oh she knew this one. It was Cooper, the weird little kid from across the street, but what was he doing outside looking at car wheels at seven in the morning? 

Maria shook her head but before she could force herself to simply walk away from the boy, he jumped up, a twig clutched in his hand. 

Cooper turned towards her happily and it seemed he was going to move onto the next car in the row, parked along the curb side, before he noticed Maria standing there and tilted his head up to look at her. 

The boy’s big brown eyes blinked owlishly. 

Maria blinked back, “Hello,” 

“Ollo,” Cooper responded as a grin split his face, “Is Mateo already up!?” 

Maria bit her lip, “Um, yes-“ yet before she could continue a thousand more questions and thoughts started steamrolling from Cooper. 

“Waoh, but it’s so early! He likes sleeping in, he told me that on Thursday. Oh hey, you have a beefcase, is it really full of paper and not beef? Because that very misweading, they should call it a papercase instead,” 

A small sigh slipped from Maria as Cooper kept going. She was sure he could keep talking and talking until he talked himself hoarse, just like her Izzie. 

“Where are you going?” 

Maria gave Cooper a blank stare as one of the things he said suddenly registered with her in her brain. 

Slowly she responded, “I’m … I’m going away,” 

“Ohhh,” Cooper said, sounding very thoughtful even though it had been the bare minimum of a word, “For how long?” 

“For a long time,” Maria mused, she hadn’t thought about returning at all. 

“Awww,” Cooper whined, looking down as he started to poke the snow on the ground with his stick, “Mateo’s gonna be sad, he loves you a lot. And Izzie,” 

Cooper then took a few steps closer and muttered, “She’s making something special for you for Christmas!” 

Cooper started to smile again and he vibrated a little like he was thinking about how cool whatever Izzie was making was. 

Maria bit the inside of her mouth, shame. 

“Is that so?” Maria breathed, she still couldn’t believe she was entertaining this conversation. 

Cooper nodded vigorously, “I can’t tell you what it is though because it’s a surprise! But I guess if you’re leaving you won’t know it is for a long time, like ten years!” 

Maria nodded, forcing a smile to stay on her face, and began to shuffle away a little bit, “Yes indeed I won’t.” 

Cooper’s face scrunched up as he thought of something and he asked, “But why?” 

Ugh, children and their why questions. 

“Why what?”   “Why are you leaving?” Cooper asked. The question so small and simple yet it truly was quite heavy.  Maria could admit it took her a second to think of a response. She crouched down carefully so she could look Cooper in the eyes. 

“Well you see,” Maria started with a shaky breath, “Sometimes people just don’t belong somewhere. Everything they do feels unimportant, and it’s as if what they currently have isn’t what they actually want. Sometimes a person just wants to escape that and find out where they truly do belong even if it does mean they have to leave everything they currently have to find whatever it is they’re looking for. And also sometimes life is just too much, so they leave, they runaway and try to figure things out again.” 

Cooper blinked at her again and Maria was left to wonder if anything she had just said made sense to him, he still was quite young so she wouldn’t be surprised if nothing actually stuck. 

Slowly, Cooper tilted his head to the side, “Oh, bu-but what about Mateo and Izzie? You … love them right?” 

Maria hummed and she placed a gentle hand on Cooper’s shoulder, “I’ll tell you what, since I’m going to be going away I’m going to need you to do something for me ok?” 

It took a second but Cooper nodded. 

“I’m going to need you to take care of Iz and ‘Teo for me. They’ll need some extra comfort and someone to be there, so I’m going to need you to be that person.” Maria told him, grabbing the hand of his that held the twig and holding it up, “And you’ll need to protect them too, from all the scary storms and monsters under the bed. So do you think you can do that?” 

Cooper’s eyes seemed to glaze over just a small bit before he fixed them on the twig and he nodded, “Yeah! I can do that! I’ll fight off all the big bullies for them!” 

Maria forced a grin. She then pat the boy on the shoulder and stood, “Good, good, now quick! Get inside before your nose freezes off!”

Cooper giggled and tapped his twig on the ground before running off in the direction Maria had just come from. 

With a sigh Maria pulled her scarf tighter around herself again and headed off to her car. 

Damn kid. 

[gluttonygirls]

10 + Any Pokémon Muse! (A Wild Alcremie tricked the trainer into letting their guard down, and now they're paying the consequences by steamrolling to near immobility before they can even begin to wobble away~)

"Hihi! Whosawhatsit, my little spark plugs~!"

Grinning into the camera as she planted the tripod into the ground, Iono winked. Spinning on her heel as she wheeled away, the gym leader waved as she gestured to the forest around her.

"I'm here to show you a shocking good time! I get asked a lot how you catch a pokemon when you're starting out, if you don't live in a town with a professor! The answer is easy, you just use your hands~!"

Grinning, Iono beamed as she wandered towards the tall grass, eyes locked on the camera, not watching where she was going.

"So, I promise to show you the proper way to wrangle one, so you can-"

Splat!

"Huh?"

Looking down at her shoe, Iono looked at the strawberry colored swirl that she'd stepped in. Forming around her foot, puffing in anger, was an Alcremie.

"W-Wait a secon-"

That was all Iono had the chance to say before it lifted up its arms. A torrent of cream shot up, pouring into Iono's mouth. Shoving her backwards, landing on her butt, the trainer blew up like a cream filled balloon. Belly bloating outwards, her jacket was torn away, leaving her only in her shiny silver top and bottoms.

Her hips grew wider, spreading across the grass as her ass expanded too, growing fat enough to squash a couch in a second. Zigzagoons and applins darted out to avoid getting squished as she grew.

And grew.

And grew.

And after the very least, as her arms wave on the sides of her body, thickened arms too fat to do anything, the stream is going to end soon.

...When her fat ass rolls over and squishes the camera.

[burgerking-offical]

sir handel & peter sam are here

[fuckingguide]

saw today a strong contender for the stupidest car I've ever seen. it was one of those luxury sporty cars except it was so flattened and low (as in close to the ground) it was downright comical. and of course loud as shit because this guy simply Must attract the attention of every single person in town as he blesses them with his presence driving by. I can just picture him signing the papers when buying it, having visions of how all the ladies will flock to him once they see his super cool new car. "they'll think my dick is so huge when they see me driving this pinnacle of automotive design". sorry mate your car looks like it's been steamrolled in a freak looney tunes accident. you look like you're driving a pancake with wheels.

[buttercupbuck]

"(and mind you, the little we do know already looks pretty hopeful for us)" Could you explain please I need to feel hope.

sure thing chicken wing 🐣

everything about the way natalia was introduced in 6.15...her fascination with buck's death and her fascination being the focal point of their conversation, when we know from everything they've ever shown us with buck that it's probably not the healthiest start to a relationship for him (as always, a disclaimer that natalia's not wrong or weird for being fascinated by it all - it's just not great for him)

the writers choosing to include the cemetery scene, which isn't necessary to the plot at all if natalia and buck are supposed to be endgame. a) that time could've been used to expand on their date a bit more and develop the relationship and b) why show eddie explicitly telling buck he's making the same mistakes and buck steamrolling right past that concern unless they want us to understand that he is...making the same mistakes

buck sounding absolutely delulu ("i feel like she sees more in me than i even see in myself") when the audience wasn't shown anything on the date that would provide any substance or backing to those feelings - which, again, just seems to confirm what eddie tried to tell him, that he's making the same mistakes

them bringing back marisol instead of felisa, who eddie had an actual connection and chemistry with and who the GA was likely expecting to come back in 6b with all the set-up they had in 6.07

the writers cramming this all in the last two episodes of the season, when they could have used the entirety of the season to flesh out both of these relationships if they were intended to be serious

all of the buddie content we've gotten so far in 6a/6b - the couch metaphor being established in a scene between buck and eddie and then buck crashing on eddie's couch when he felt like he needed to escape everything else, everything about the lightening strike scene (us seeing buck's body from eddie's perspective, eddie screaming his name and being the one to lower him down, That shot of the two of them, eddie shoving past bobby to look at buck, etc), eddie yelling at the doctors to do more as they wheel buck away, eddie avoiding buck's hospital room until he can't and then seeing him struggle to hold onto his emotions as chris talks to buck in his sleep, buck confiding in eddie that he's not sure if he's okay and then confiding in him again that he doesn't feel like the person he'd been before he died, buck and eddie scamming the firehouse together, eddie taking buck out on a silly little poker date, all of the buckley-diaz scenes we got in the episode before eddie starts to date again, the CEMETERY SCENE, etc etc....

so yeah, overall i'm definitely more optimistic than i am worried. i hope this helps love <3

[amethystfairy1]

This is an oddly specific question that may have been answered in-story, but I’m liable to miss details. How much has the Labs/Biotech Director replaced parts of herself with machinery? I remember a metal arm being mentioned, but clearly a lot more of her is inorganic for her to survive getting steamrolled by a fucking forklift.

(Also, just want to say, I love how the story’s expanded beyond the original premise. Yeah, it’s still a HotGuy superhero AU, but it’s also found family, addressing trauma, overcoming adversity, and at least four equally interesting side ships.)

Hello hello!

She survived? Whatever do you mean??? She totally died 25 years ago when she got knocked off the bridge!!!

😱

I’m shook.

But yknow, for the fun of it…if hypothetically we just pretend she survived, let’s see…I think some people are confused, and that might be my fault.

I’ve seen a lot of people saying that she got run over by a forklift…which she wasn’t.

She was hit by a redstone pallet which is basically like a floaty handcart that’s got an engine, it doesn’t have wheels or anything…think like the flying machines you can make with redstone and slime blocks. So she got hit by that thing at a high speed, yeah, but it wasn’t enough to do more than some blunt force damage. The REAL thing that did her in was the fall from the bridge, which the redstone pallet knocked her off…because we know Etho hears her scream on her way down…and no one caught her, so surely a fall from that height would kill her…right?

To answer your more specific question, the only parts of her that we know of that are augmented is her metal hand with the knife blade in it, but we only ever see her from Doc or Ethos POV, so it’s anybodies guess if she has more augmentations than that hidden beneath that lab coat. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Aw, thank you! I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed seeing the series expand from just a Hot Guy AU into something bigger with all these different themes! I’ve had such fun working on it, and I’m far from done, so I hope you’ll look forward to more! ☺️

Also, I love the little detail questions, they’re a big reason why I opened my asks over here, because I was so curious what others were wondering about to do with the AU, so please keep them coming! Any and all questions, as many as you like, and while I might take a bit to reply sometimes I am always super happy to get the chance to ramble about my AUs! 💖

[hazel-of-sodor]

Thank you for defending Sir Handel he's one of my faves and I get dreadfully tired of every post on tumblr being about what an angry/selfish/etc bastard he is

*shrugs* the more I look over the RWS, the more I realize that the good Reverand was heavily biast against some characters, and the stories reflect that.

Sir Handel goes through alot. He loses friend after friend as the Mid-Sodor fails, till its just him, Staurt and Duke.

The he loses Duke and the only home hes ever known, sent to work at the Sodor Aluminum Company for three years build an extension... then he and Stuart are sheeted over and left stting for a year.

Then hes saved by the Skarloey Railway...but they take his name. Hes given a new one, but we're never told if they were asked. I somehow doubt it. He doesn't even has his name any more.

Hes then in trouble constantly in the early days, never measuring up to "Peter Sam"...except...

IT"S NOT HIS FAULT!?!?!

He derails several times...but its fixed when hes given his steamroller wheels....which means it was a mechanical problem the whole time!!!

He wasn't derailing because he felt like it, he didn't fit the rails! Irl this happened to Sir Haydn bc the Talyllyn had intenionally laid the track wider than the 2' 3" they were supposed to be by about half an inch to accomodate Talyllyn's long wheel base. Considering Talyllyn and Skarloey are identical mechanicaly...they prolly had the same issue

Can you see why hes bitter?

[number1spongebobfan]

Non Rail Vehicle Headcanons Part 1

Bertie!

Sodor's bus boy! He rollerskates on road and not rails.

He and Thomas are friends. They like to race against each other.

He dresses in 90's fashion. He wears a backwards baseball cap and an oversized t shirt.

He's a bloodhound with bus wheels on his legs in his animal form.

He says, "Beep beep!" and "Vroom vroom!" a lot.

Caroline the Vintage Car is his best friend and grandmotherly figure.

His favorite song is, "The Wheels on the Bus go round and round".

Cranky

He is ginormous. The reason why I don't draw him often is because of how huge he is compared to everyone else.

He works at Brendam Docks, where he picks up crates with the hook on his hand.

He is one of the few vehicles on Sodor that doesn't wear rollerskates. He wears sandals instead.

He is often lonely, and likes when others give him company.

He is, well, cranky, and "rough around the edges". But soft and loving deep down.

He is a crocodile with barb-like scales on his hide in his animal form.

Harold

He has helicopter blades on his back that he uses to fly.

He says, "Vrr vrrr!" a lot.

He rescues people. He works with Flynn, Belle and Captain in a team: Sodor Search & Rescue.

He is a Cockatoo with extra helicopter wings on his back in his animal form.

He is an age regressor. He sleeps with a pacifier and plays with blocks. Percy has playdates with him.

He is brave.

George

This guy has severe anger issues.

He is very loud, gruff and unhappy.

He hates railroads. He wants to turn the rails into roads with his steamroller skates. He gets along with Bulgy quite well ...

He is a sly, carnivorous fox with steamroller wheels on his legs in his animal form.

He thought of teaming up with Diesel 10 to kill Thomas and Lady but thankfully decided not to.

He is mean to Caroline, and Bertie does not allow that.

Buster is his brother, who has complicated relations with him. George was going to be part of the pack, but Jenny chose Buster because George is a jerk.