#tha gangs all here… alright

[fulgurbugs]

Doodle comic - Path actions

[naffeclipse]

Have you considered writing a cowboy DCA au? Or a vampire AU?

I have ideas for both! I mention my Vampire AU in my Laundry List of AUs Post, but I haven't talked about a Cowboy AU yet!

For my cowboy AU, Y/N owns a prairie house and a small patch of land out in the wild west. You work hard and make do even though you're falling behind on payments and falling deeper into debt and danger of the bank taking your property back. It's a tough life. You know that.

Nothing exciting happens around here until one day you see a figure riding in from the distance. An animatronic on a horse. You're a bit weary of strangers, especially out here, where cattle rustlers and outlaws are aplenty, so you greet the rider with a shotgun. He's all smiles and hand waves, his sun rays partly hidden underneath his hat. There's a shiny pistol in the holster on his belt and a rifle hanging off his back. A large bag is strapped to the saddle. He's careful to not reach for something he shouldn't, and you let him dismount to talk to you, lowering your weapon.

He reassures you he means no trouble and that he just needs shelter for the night, if you don't mind. He's more than willing to offer a helping hand in exchange. He's a talker, sweet and charming, and you're not in a position to refuse extra farm help. You put him to work. He does it all without complaint which you appreciate.

There's a moment when you take a break from the back-breaking work to lie down in the field, staring up at the sky. Your eyes end up closing. You feel a gentle shadow over you. When you look up, Sun is there, casting blissfully cool shade and asking if it's alright for him to stand here. You tell him it's just fine. You ask him if there's any worry of him overheating. He says no, but thank you kindly for the concern.

Later, when you check in the barn, you notice that the large bag that was on his horse is now gone.

You don't want any trouble.

At sundown, when you call for him to come inside, you're greeted with a different animatronic, still smiling and soothing and promising that it's the same cowboy, please put the shotgun down. You've never met an animatronic like him. Sun. Moon. You let him come inside.

You spend a quiet night with the cowboy. He helps you clean up your dishes even though he had no part in the mess-making. There's little talk of where he came from or where he's going, but he mentions lying low for a while. You don't want to know. You don't ask. He asks if he might touch the guitar you have there in the corner. You tell him that's fine. You haven't played it in a long time. He serenades the night with plucked chords and twaining strings, and somehow, you fall asleep listening to the gentle strums and wake up the next morning in your bed.

Sun greets you all cheerful. You don't know what to feel about having another around to talk to... but you're adjusting. He asks for another day's work for another night's lodging. You agree. He smiles so big you're afraid he'll burst.

You get a visit from a fellow farmer (Sun makes himself scarce on the rare chance a visitor comes) who talks about the news, the gangs rolling through the valley, the cattle missing, and a distant bank just recently robbed. You shake your head.

Later, in the barn, you're shifting hay on the hayloft when you step back and expect to find solid flooring but there's nothing but air and you're falling—then caught in solid arms. Sun exclaims how you have to be careful! You would have gotten hurt. You wish he would put you down already, holding you like this turns you all red and embarrassed. Even when he sets you on your feet, Sun insists he finishes with the hay up top. Your pride is awfully stung but the ghost of his arms around you chases you outside and it's only there that you can finally think clearly after all the excitement.

When night falls, Moon helps you deal with a fox in the chicken pen but in chasing off the fiend, something snaps along his arm when he hops a fence and you know that ugly sound means something's broken. Wires spark in the dark. You rush to his side faster than you've ever run. You gingerly hold his arm and guide him back home to fix the damage done even though you're only a support to his injury, and he, thankfully, can tend to himself. He says he's learned how to take care of little problems like these since he's been running by himself for a while. You almost ask what he did before he came here but you don't dare. You told yourself you didn't want trouble. Getting attached will do nothing but stir up your feelings. There will be no one else to blame if your heart gets broken.

He picks at the guitar strings to test his repair and sings a little song that you swear you won't fall asleep to but, again, you wake up in your bed when you know you didn't tuck yourself in. Sun is already outside, getting a jumpstart on the day's chores.

The cowboy stays another night, then another, and then a few weeks have flown by. You get a visitor from the bank asking for payment or else they're taking your land and everything on it. You chase off the man, spitting mad, but you're still in troubled waters. You're going to lose all you have. Sun witnesses the encounter from a distance but you don't speak of it all day. Then, Sun finds you when the sun burns red across the sky.

He talks softly to you and before you know it, he's leading you by the hand and spinning you in a little dance you've never danced before. Sun leads, and you follow because he's the last light you have, and when he dips you low, you rise with the Moon in the near darkness, dancing and dancing on dirt. You've never held a hand that felt so right with his arms twirling you around and around—you almost forget you're going to lose it all.

Besides the crackle of the fire in your hearth that night, Moon coaxes you to talk about the money you owe and your pride almost bites your tongue off but you do it anyway. Moon asks when the bank man is going to come again. You tell him in the morning but you don't want charity. You don't need it. You owe enough debts as it is. He gives you a grin that is too mischievous for his own good.

That night, you lean against his shoulder when he plays a gentle song, a ballad about lovers falling and magnolias blooming. You wake up in your bed but it's still dark out and Moon is gone. You get up to find him but he's already at the door, holding a large bag—the one that was missing from his saddle. He tells you to pay the bank when they come and get a receipt. You ask him what in blue blazes he's doing with a bag full of money but he shoves it in your hands. Morning spills across the land. Then it's Sun winking at you. The bank is coming. He tells you he needs to go now, but he promises to come back for you.

You tell him you can't owe him like this—you'll never be able to repay it. Sun promises that you won't owe him anything, he'll get the money back.

You can hardly be angry before he's on his horse and taking off into the distance. You curse yourself out for being a fool and having a heart that wants to stick roots into anything that lingers longer for a day and for having this bag of money that isn't yours and for letting that cowboy dance and serenade you, but when the bank sends another man to collect, you pay it all. You get that receipt. The man accepts the payment and goes on his merry way, back to the bank that can no longer hound you. All of your debts are erased, thanks to the cowboy.

You don't know where he was hiding the money. You remember the news of a distant bank that was robbed.

It's only a few days later that you learn from a fellow farmer that the man carrying back your money to the bank was ambushed. An animatronic outlaw caught him alone. He stole the entire bag of cash. The farmer laughs when he says the bank man was madder than a wet hen. He also remarks that he's surprised they didn't come after you for more money, but you had a receipt. They can't touch you.

After the farmer leaves, you sit in a daze and then curse the cowboy out again. You still owe him.

You didn't want trouble, yet here you are, all twitterpated and waiting for when he comes down from the horizon.

[mega-punani]

ALRIGHT IVE GOT SOME IDEAS:

Celebrity vs Hitman au:

You are a rising star who stopped producing music because of your abusive manager/spouse. You hid away until you finally felt the urge to start making music again. You boom in popularity with your comeback as a strong independent foo who don't need nobody. But uh oh, your apartment is getting bulldozed, and you gotta go NEOW.

Here comes a conveniently placed ad for a mansion with cheap ass rent. Here's the catch: roommates. You move in with a bunch of really nice skeletons! And hey! Turns out they are fans of your music (but in a cool, nice sort of way). You get along with them, not knowing that they are all very dangerous hitmen. But they won't hurt you, no worries! They're your biggest fans!

This is given me allota fluff and cute stuff.

Wild West au:

You're a no bullshit sheriff of your small hometown, and your folks have recently been getting terrorized by some masked hooligans! You've heard they were a dangerous bunch, and they've been known to stage some robberies. Now they're here to bother the old rich man on the edge of town. Of course, you lowkey don't like him cause he's sexist, but it's your job, so here you go.

Right when you get to that coot's house, they would all just scamper off like they had never been there. Tired after a long day, you hop by the bar to visit your old pal Sans, the bartender. You guys talk about everything, and he's pretty transparent about his life. What he won't tell you about is the little gang he runs. That same gang that's been harassing your little town.

This is given me Romcom, like a villain flirting with a hero type beat.

Demons au:

Why is there a glowing red pentagon in the middle of your room? AND WHY IS IT GLOWING!?

Your good friend, a pursuer of science, decided that they wanted to test if demons were real or not. In order to do that, they needed to test out an old crusty book they found in the back of an antique store. And what better place to do it than your living room floor. You, being the nice friend you are, supervised them and gave them a drop of your blood (cause your friend is anemic 😔) and BAM. Skeleton demons in your fucking house.

They are insufferable at first, but they eventually grow on you. So much so that they start getting hella clingy...

This is given me slice of life. Keep it emotional though 👍

Mafia au:

Okay, so the problem w/ this is that I have way too many ideas for this one. But let me get this clear: in all of these ideas, the skellies are mobsters.

1: Y/N is a ring fighter that used to beat the living shit out of people for rich people entertained. They used to be the skelly gang's top fighter but stopped (moral reasons, a kid, injury, family, etc) and no longer affiliates w/ the family.

Hold up! There's another fight coming up, and Sans really needs to win this one, and who else to call but you?

This one's allota hurt, misunderstanding, bad communication. Angst and sad back stories galore.

2: You save this gloopy lookin skeleton man from getting hit by a bus, AND NOW HE WANTS YOU TO INHERIT HIS CRIME ORGANIZATION!? You politely refuse (cause you have no idea how to run one of those), and so he suggests you pick one of his many sons to pick up his legacy. Now you got hot skellies flirting, threatening, and bargaining with you to choose one of them. You might just snatch that title outa spite....

Romcom again. Flirty, fun, dramatic. All the jazz.

3: Alright this one hella self indulgent.

You're the only child of a nefarious crime lord, and they appoint their best men as your body guards. They body guards being hot skeleton men. Oh hey! They also like you romantically cause, who tf wouldn't??? You're so segsy and amazing 🥰. Thas all I got though, no plot.

This one's giving me elegant romance. HELLA ELEGENT 😡. Kinda the same vibe as my hotel au.

Reincarnation au:

This one is essentially a rip off of those "villianess reincarnates in a dating sim/romance novel" mangas/manhwas.

Y/N was just a regular person who got hit by a bus and given a second chance at life. Surprise, surprise! They got reincarnated into a novel where the skellies are royality and all fight for the affections of an MC. Unfortunately, Y/N got reincarnated as a villain instead of literally anyone else. Yah know what else? The villian dies in the end! Wahoo!

In order to prevent this terrible end, you pull a few strings to make sure you're alive at the end of the day. But hazzah, the main characters are inescapable, and now their affections are geared towards you!

This one is a lot of romcom stuff.

That's all I have got so far, but yeah. Just some ideas drabbled on to one post. You might see em again soon?

[wawawawawawawawawawawawawa]

HEY GANG GANG REMEMBER THAT LOSER WITH THE SHITTY META WE ALL LAUGHED AT A WHILE BACK?

he's in my notes 😳 he liked my poast 😳 (it was one of tha shizaya ones)

alright lets do what i do best: milk everything for CLOUT!

[thewholecrew]

@headstrongblake said: an  ( accidental / mutually )  drunken kiss / nate & o

it felt like a very long time since nate had been a part of something like this, a part of a group who were all good genuine friends and who welcomed him. even before duncans death his own gang had been falling apart, the tension between finn and duncan had been growing and causing a divide long before finn took over. and while nate knew that this group was far from perfect, and hell had more shit go down than his old gang, they still were able to have moments like tonight, where everyone was welcomed to octavias new loft, where the group celebrated after putting together her insane looking couch by drinking a shit ton of alcohol, playing music and drinking games.

nate's cheeks hurt from how much he was laughing and smiling, patting atom on the shoulder as he yelled to him over the music while the girls were busy dancing to their favourite song. he was glad octavia had returned, the whole group having felt very disconnected since grant, nick and her all left and though things were far from how they had been with nick still gone and rev now away with him, this was far better than it had been.

with the song ending the girls plopped down on the couch beside him, his arm going around to rest along the back of the couch behind octavia as he watched kassy clasp her hands together. "alright listen up fuckers, we're playing truth or dare," or drink! octavia added with a grin as she raised the bottle of alcohol in her hand before taking a sip. "yes, or drink," kassy agreed with a laugh as she cuddled in closer against octavia causing her to do the same against nate. alec was on the other side of the girls and a few other less familiar faces. glancing at atom, he gave him a little nudge, "think they're just going to ask impossible truths or ridiculous dares just to make sure we catch up to how sloshed they are?" he teased only to then grunt as a pillow smacked him in the chest.

"you know we hadn't but now that you've so politely suggested it," kassy mused with a devilish grin and nate hugged onto the pillow a little protectively with a sheepish look, "whaaaat? no, i was just telling atom tha you guys would never do that," he laughed as he glanced over at the other man who was far unamused. "riiiiiight," kassy scoffed, glancing at octavia, "you believe that shit?" she asked only for octavia to immediately shake her head, nope. "what??? c'mon ladies!" he laughed, shielding himself from another smack of a different pillow from octavia. "uncle uncle!" he said playfully.

the night went on and dare after dare after the rare truth the group had gotten far more drunk. but it was fun, everyone was laughing and giggling and having fun. kassy was dared to kiss alec, atom was dared to kiss nate but drank even with nate saying he'd do it. "man i'm not feeling the love here," he joked before kassy smirked, "alright i dare octavia to kiss you then," she said with a playful nudge to her best friend and a wiggle of her brows. nate laughed despite how his cheeks flushed lightly as she crawled into his lap, "well, hah, no offense to atom but you're more my type anyways," he grinned as he was told to shut up before octavia leaned down to kiss him.

his hands rested more innocently on her hips as they kissed, the echo of whoops and hollers had him grinning against her lips before he was scolded for it, hand sliding up her back a little to pull her closer and deepen the kiss a little daringly a moment before she pulled back with a triumphant smirk. his heart raced in his chest as he panted a little with a laugh, "yeah much better than whatever i'm sure atom could give me, eh buddy?" he winked with a nudge as octavia slipped off him to plop beside him once again. you're welcome, she said and nate couldn't help the drunk dimpled grin on his face.

[otaku-trash]

Chapter 2

Main Master List

Tha Gang’s Soulmate Masterlist

Previous Chapter

The shrill cry of an infant is what brought Y/n out of her dreamless sleep. Cracking her eyes open she sees two large purple beady eyes staring back at her.

Staring at each other for a good minute or two she signs, “You know this is why I don’t use an alarm clock.” she said as she picked Kaji up, getting ready to nurse him.

“I thought we said to start trying to bottle feed him?” a soft voice said by the door.

Looking up Y/n sees Mrs. Takashi standing in the doorway wearing her signature warm smile. In her hands is a tray of food she planned to deliver to Y/n personally as she had done every morning since Y/n was emitted into the hospital.

Casting her eyes to the nursing infant Y/n lets a soft smile stretch across her face. “I know but I…I just.”

“You aren’t ready yet.” Mrs. Takashi says with a knowing look on her face. Taking a seat on the edge of the bed she places the tray on the bed side table. “You know when I first had my daughter and had to stop nursing her it was hard too. It’s how we as mothers bond with them. It will get easier. Just don't force yourself or Kaji into changing into formulas, do it gradually.”

Giving the older woman a thankful smile Y/n finishes feeding the infant before passing him to Mrs. Takashi for his daily check up.

“I’ll be back with him in no more than an hour, so eat your breakfast, shower and freshen up young lady.” Mrs. Takashi said in a feign stern voice.

Giving her a small smile Y/n nods her head giving a gentle kiss to Kaji’s forehead before getting up and headed to get herself ready for the day.

Turning the shower water to be warm she undresses and steps into the shower. Starting with washing her hair with her floral scented shampoo and conditioner. Moving on to scrub the dirt off her body she stops at her stomach where the permanent scar is.

It wasn’t the one where she had her c-section and helped bring a life into the world, it was the one where she tried to take a life. Shaking out of her dark thoughts she rinses off her body and changes into black leggings, a dark gray tank top, maroon cardigan, finished off with Timberland ankle boots.

Taking her tray she takes it to the couch to eat over the coffee table.

………….

“What school are you bastards from!?”

“Yeah get the hell out of here! Both of you!”

Two voices were heard from outside of Takemichi’s classroom. Watching as the classroom door is pulled only to reveal Mikey. Leaving a shocked Takemichi.

“Hey. there he is. Come out and play with us, Takemichy.” Micky said as if he didn’t just walk into a school he doesn't go to and interrupt the teacher in the middle of a lesson.

‘What the hell. This dude is totally insane.’

Walking outside the classroom with Draken and Mikey not far behind him. The third years are left scattered all over the floor.

“Hey uh. What is all this?” Takemichi stutters, shocked to see the display in front of him.

“Well this is a school so I schooled them.” Draken joked amused with his own joke.

“Alright you wimps line up and lay on your stomachs and don’t leave any gaps in between you wimps. This is going to hurt you more than it’s going to hurt me.”

‘Yeah the Tokyo Manji Gang is insane’. Takemichi thinks to himself with a deadpan look on his face. As he sees Mikey and Draken walking across the backs of the third years.

Throwing his arm around Takemichi’s shoulder, Draken leans his head down to Takemichi’s level. “So have you been behaving yourself?”

“You only just saw me yesterday.”

“So are you free today?” Mikey asked without care in the world

“I don’t think you understand Mikey. I’m in school right now.”

The two older boys keep trying to convince him as a small crowd starts to form around them. Not really caring they continue to pester the younger boy not seeing the amber eyed girl stocking up on them.

“Hold on.” Hinata said strongly.

Making a beeline towards Mikey she lifts her hand and swings it down to his cheek. A deafening silence covers the hallway as Hinata grabs Takemichi’s wrist and tugs him along.

“Come on, Takemichi, you can’t let guys like this bully you.” she said strongly, but Takemichi could see her shaking. Feel it even since she still had a strong grip on his wrist.

Grabbing her wrist, Draken stops her. A vein bulging from his forehead. “Hey you got a death wish. Who the hell do you think you are? Do you think you can just go up to everyone and pull that stunt and just get away with it?”

Not meeting his eyes she shot back, “No, who do you think you are. Coming to a school that you don’t even go to. Takemichi has been coming home all beaten and bruised every night because of guys like you.”

Grabbing Draken’s shoulder in a harsh grip Takemichi demands, “You take your hand off of her.”

“What did you say? I must have heard you wrong.”

“I said you take your hand off her you dumbass!”

“Oh my you must have forgotten who you are talking to.” Draken said threateningly

“Aw. And here I thought you and I would have been great friends, but instead you decided to die.” Mikey said, turning to give Takemichi a stare that could kill a man.

“Just promise me. Just promise me you won’t hurt her. You won’t lay a hand on Hinata!”

“I do what I want.” Mikey said as he raised his fist getting ready to punch Takemichi. Only to stop centimeters away from his face. “Sike.” He says giving the younger boy a childish smile.

………….

“I am so sorry. I completely misunderstood the situation.” Hinata continued to apologize profusely

“It’s no problem.” Mikey waved off. “But that was one hell of a slap.” he complimented.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Really it’s fine it’s good to fight for people you want to protect, but you should be careful with who you slap.” he advised the pink-haired girl.

“Yep. See ya later Takemichi.” Hinata waved to her soulmate as she started to head back into the school.

“Wait, are we still going to visit my sister to have dinner?” Takemichi questioned

“You go hang out with your friends. I'll call the hospital and tell them we won’t be coming by tonight.”

Turning around Hinata jogs the rest of the way to the school doors. Leaving two curious gang members and a nervous fourteen year old.

Tilting his head out of curiosity Mikey asks “You have an older sister Takemichy?”

Stiffing slightly, Takemichi turns to face the two older boys. “Yeah she’s older by two years. She’ll be seventeen in January.”

“Great, let's go visit.” Mikey turns to head out the school gates.

“Wait what!?”

“You heard him Takemichy lead the way.” Draken demanded not sparing the younger boy a glance.

“You said you were going to visit her right?” Mikey asked. Glancing back at Takemichi he gives him a closed eye smile. “Then let's go. You wouldn’t want to keep her waiting would you?”

………….

“Takemichi, I wasn't expecting you. it’s good to see you, and you brought friends again.” Mrs. Takashi greated the young boy. Turning to the unknown boys Mrs. Takashi greets them with a warm smile, “Hello you must be new friends of Takemichi. I’m Kiyoko Takashi, but Mrs. Takashi is fine.”

Bowing, the two gang members greet the older lady respectfully. “Hello Ma’am.”

Turning to Takemichi. “Go, she is all packed and ready to go. Honestly she couldn’t be any more impatient to get out.” she chuckles.

Mikey started to walk forward along with Draken but was stopped when Takemichi stood in front of them with a stern expression.

“What’s with the face Takemichy? You look constipated.” Mikey said, eyes twinkling with amusement.

Pressing into his lips into a thin line, “When we go into her room don’t stare and don’t ask questions. She’s just starting to get better and I don’t want her having an episode because the two of you wanted to meet her.'' When he received a nod from both Draken and Mikey, Takemichi turned and led them through the different halls.

Stopping in front of the familier dark oak door Takemichi gives it a gentle knock receiving a soft come in. Pushing the door open he gently mutters, “I brought friends this time I hope that's okay Onee-chan.”

Y/n waved a hand in the air without turning to face the door, she answered while changing Kaji’s dipper. “It’s fine the boys can help take the stuff home.” she said, turning around with Kaji in her arms.

When she turns around, Draken and Mikey both stand frozen when they see the tattoo on the side of the young mother’s face. Their eyes then travel to the infant that rests in her arms. Glancing at each other Mikey decides to break the awkward tension that started to fill the room.

“Hello mother-chan.” he greeted with a closed eyed smile.

Blinking at the strange men that came into the room, Kaji points at them, “BAKA!”

Gaining an irk mark on his forehead Draken yelled, “Who are you calling baka you snot nosed brat!”

Blue eyes widening Takemichi takes small steps back not going unnoticed by Mikey who opened his mouth but stopped when he heard a crash come from behind him. Turning he finds Draken lying on his back inside a bathroom shower and a furious mother on the opposite side of the room. Following Takemichi’s example he starts to take quite steps backwards away from the angry mother’s path

“I think he was calling you and your friend baka you piece of shit.” Y/n says taking slow threatening steps toward Draken who stood up and was dusting himself off.

“Shit.”

The room froze. Everyone turned to the infant that was propped up against pillows in the cot.

“No. Nope. Nopety. Nope. We are not going down that rabbit hole. Your father is going to kill us. Wait, not us, me. Damn it.” Y/n said as she picked Kaji up and started to pace the room with him at eye level.

“Is this normal?” Mikey whispered to Takemichi.

“It was worse before she became pregnant with Kaji. She’s mellowed out now.” Takemichi responded.

“I’d hate to see what she was like before she had the bra- Kid.” Draken said as he rubbed the back of his head that was still throbbing from the fall.

“Onee-chan.” Takemichi muttered. “Onee-chan,” said a little louder. “Onee-chan” Takemichi yelled startling the three other teens in the room who turned to stare at the blond boy. “We should start heading home before it gets too late.”

“Right, let's go.” Y/n said as she grabbed Takemich’s wrist and started to drag him towards the door.

Taking a deep breath that went unnoticed Y/n trys to regain her composure. She wasn’t stupid. She knew what the shock that passed through her ment, but it scared her. You normally only get one soulmate not multiple.

She thought that she was only going to be with Kaji’s father, not others. Plus she wasn’t as innocent as her younger brother thought she was. She knew how to survive when you run into gangs on the street. It's how she met Kaji’s father.

She knew how to fight and she knew how to sell and buy without getting caught, so when the president and vice president of Toman showed up as her brother's friends it concerned her. Especially from the horror stories she's heard from Kaji’s father about the new gang.

…………

“Did they really leave us to take the luggage?” Draken asked, pissed that he already met his soulmate and the first impression she has of him is of him calling her son a brat. Not getting a response from Mikey he turns to look at his friend only to see him in a slight daze. “Oi! Mikey.”

“Text the guys. We are going to have a small meeting after we drop the Hanagaki’s off at their home.” Mikey said as he made his way to the closest bag and headed towards the door.

“Are we going to tell them about the brat?”

“We probably should. If we don’t Baji or Angry might say something stupid.”

“I think they will still say something anyways if the brat pulls another stunt like that.”

“Yeah.” Mikey smiled. “But that was pretty funny.” Mikey chuckled.

Gaining an irk mark on his forehead Draken started to chase Mikey out the rest of the way passing the three Hanagakis without even noticing.

Not taking her eyes off the scene in front of her Y/n turns her head towards Takemichi. “Is this normal for them?”

“I have no idea.” Takemichi sighed. Looking up at his sister he catches a small smile stretching across her lips as she strokes Kaji’s hair, luring him to sleep as she watches the older blondes goof off with one another.

Turing to face his two new friends Takemichi thinks, ‘How could this guy be a part of such a cruel gang? He seems too innocent to kill them.’

[cynicalone94]

Ch 13 Outside Income

When Intelligence gets pulled in to solve a case that another unit can't seem to close, evidence quickly begins to suggest that the gang they're investigating has man on the inside. But what shouldn't be a big deal, Intelligence is known for rooting out corruption, quickly becomes a very big deal when something goes very, very wrong.

Read on AO3 here.

It’s Adam’s turn to watch Jay sleep.

At least that’s what Hailey had said when she’d raced out the door on her way to court. It’s holding up thus far.

Jay had moved out to the couch a little bit after Adam’s arrival, talking about watching a hockey game but he’d fallen asleep before the puck drop.

He remembers Hailey saying something earlier in the week about how hard it was to listen to him breathe, how hard it was to hear him have to work for every breath.

He hadn’t really understood what she meant until now.

Even with the oxygen cannula on his face he’s still struggling. No wonder the guy sleeps all the time, Adam can’t imagine how exhausting it is for him to just keep breathing.

And this is after two weeks of slow but steady improvement.

This is Jay healing.

He turns the volume down and starts the game again, hoping the background noise of something normal, something familiar, will help Jay feel better.

Jay shifts, eyes blinking open.

“Sorry, man.” Adam says quietly.

“S’okay.” Jay says. “H’long was I … asleep?”

“Not long.” Adam tells him.

Jay just nods and Adam turns the volume up a little bit.

“Hawks have the puck but Tennyson is in the penalty box so they’re holding a disadvantage.” he says.

“Cross…checking again?” Jay asks.

“You know it.” Adam confirms. “It’s like he can’t help himself.”

“I… don’t think … he can.” Jay says.

An alarm on Adam’s phone goes off and he silences it before standing up.

“Alright.” he says. “Per our royal highness, Queen Detective Hailey Upton, its time for your medication and breathing exercises. Now, I know she said what medications you’re supposed to take while she was setting these alarms in my phone but I, uh..”

“Tuned … her out?” Jay says with a grin.

“Yeah.” Adam admits. “Please tell me that you know what they are so she doesn’t kill me when she gets back.”

“Will has… chart… on the fridge.” Jay tells him.

“Bless the over protective older brother.” Adam breathes, hurrying into the kitchen.

Jay is doing breathing exercises when Adam comes back with a handful of pills and a glass of water.

He sounds miserable.

Adam knows these exercises are intended to push his friend, to help him get his lung capacity back to it’s pre- injury state.

But he isn’t sure that they should be causing him that much pain.

Jay sets aside the spirometer, coughing hard.

“Here.” Adam says, handing over the glass of water.

“Tha-anks.” Jay wheezes between coughs.

He tries to take a sip but just makes himself cough harder, dropping the glass.

Adam scrambles to get the glass upright before the water spills out everywhere and then kneels in front of Jay, bracing his hands on his friend’s shoulders.

“Easy Jay.” he urges. “Just try to breathe. Easy.”

He doesn’t know what to say, what he’s supposed to do but Jay seems to have some experience with this and he’s able to stop the cough but he’s still breathing hard.

He’s wheezing with a catch on every breath and a pained look on his face.

“Hey.” Adam says. “You’re okay. It’s okay.”

Jay looks at him, eyes filled with pain and fear.

“Jay?” Adam presses. “Do I need to call Will?”

Jay shakes his head.

“N-” he chokes out. “Nnn.”

“Okay.” Adam says. “Okay. Just try to breathe with me, okay?”

He tries to distance himself from the situation, to pretend that he’s coaching a panicked victim and not one of his closest friends.

Fifteen minutes later Jay is doing better but he’s still struggling, more so then he already was.

“Jay?” Adam says, allowing himself back to the moment. “Is it always this bad? When you do your exercises?”

Jay shakes his head.

“Can I please call Will?” Adam begs. “Not gonna lie. You’re scaring me, man.”

Jay’s eyes close but he nods.

Adam reaches for his phone, looking up Will’s number.

“M- mma.” Jay gasps out.

Adam looks helplessly at him, trying to figure out what he’s saying, what he needs. Jay’s hand comes up shakily, pointing toward the end table.

Adam follows his direction and sees an oxygen mask sitting on top of the concentrator. He scrambles over to it, hands fumbling as he swaps the connectors and then returns to slide the mask over Jay’s face.

Then he returns to his phone and hits call.

Will answers on the first ring.

“Adam. Is everything okay?”

“Jay’s in trouble.” he says. “He was doing his breathing exercises and it triggered a coughing fit. He was able to get that under control but he’s still struggling, still having a hard time.”

“Switch-”

“To the mask, yeah.” Adam stammers. “He already had me do that.”

“Is it helping?” Will asks.

“I think so… maybe.” Adam says.

“Okay.” Will says. “He’s got oxygen tanks in the front closet. Get the mask on one of those and get him here.”

“Okay.” Adam says, standing up and scrambling for the closet. “Shit, I should call Hailey but she’s in court and I-”

“Just get him here, Adam.” Will growls. “I will call Voight and he can get ahold of Hailey.”

“Right, right.” Adam says. “I’ll take care of it. See you soon.”

He hangs up the phone and shoves it back into his pocket before dragging a tank from the closet back over to Jay. He moves the connection and then levers Jay to his feet.

“It’s gonna be okay, bro.” he says, tucking himself under Jay’s arm and slinging his arm around his waist. “It’s gonna be okay.”

[sl-newsie]

Chapter Two: Run-in with a Stranger (Spot Colon x Female Newsie)

(Warning: a bit of swearing)

Alright, time to get to work.

“Extra! Extra! Get ya papers here! Triplets born in Harlem! Drunken man plummets from Brooklyn Bridge! New racehorse said to be unbeatable! Extra! Extra! Get yer juicy news right here, folks!”

Some stop to buy papes, while oddas sneak odd looks at me- ‘cause I’s a goil. I don’t mind, but it’s still annoy’n.

“How’s the news today?” A kind old lady, Lucillia, wanders ova.

I beam. “A few good things, not so many bad things. And just ‘cause you’s my best customer, I’ll sell it to ya fer half price!”

Lucillia takes her pape and smiles caren’ly. “Oh no, dear. You need the money more than I do. Here’s a nickel, and spend it wisely.”

Before I can protest, she walks off. “Thank you, ma’am!”

I continue ta wander down tha street, not hav’n many more patrons, when I hear Jack call’n my name. He has tha two new boys with him- broddas by tha looks of it. Tha olda one’s cute, but I can tell tha younga one’s gonna sell a lodda papes!

“Becs! Come with me and show these new guys how it’s done!”

“Fine. This place is a bust anyways.” I look tha boys up and down. “Who are yous?”

Tha oldest gives me a questioning look. “Jack, who is-?”

“You’re a goil newsie?” Tha youngest asks outta tha blue.

“Les!” Tha olda one scolds. But I just smile at his blunt honesty.

“Yeah, I’s a goil newsie. Name’s Becs. I’m basically Jack’s little sista. Now I asks again: who are yous?” 

“I’m David, and this is my brother Les.”

Tha kid gives me a shy smile. Just like I thought: cute kid, good for sell’n papes.

“Becs here, she’s a natural at sell’n,” Jack compliments. “Ya learn from me, ya learn from tha best, as she’ll tell ya. Right, Becca?”

I grin. “You know it, Cowboy!”

Jack chuckles. “Yeah. But you learn from Becca- and you’s learn’n from a true performer! Becs can get a customer's attention from ten blocks away!”

“Well thank you Jack, for that wonderful encouragement! Alright, guys. Here’s how ya hook ‘em.” I begin to wave my paper again. “Extra! Extra! Get ya papers here! Drunken man plummets from Brooklyn Bridge! Mutilated corpse found in street!” I motion ta tha kid. “Les, can ya act?” I ask.

He nods.

“Good. Then imitate this:” I give a convinc’n cough. “Please, m’am! Buy me pape!”

He grabs a handful and takes off.

David looks at me in terror. “Those stories seem a bit far from true. What headline says that?” He begins to flip through tha pages.

“Page 8.”

He scoffs. “Dead cats? That’s lying!”

I shrug. “I ain’t ly’n, I’s just mak’n tha story sound more interest’n. Who’d eva wanna read ‘bout dead cats? If I don’t like a headline, I make one up! Right Jack?”

He nods. “That’s tha golden rule. Headlines don’t sell papes, newsies sell papes!”

Les comes back with a big smile on his face. I leave Jack ta deal with tha broddas while I continues ta sell papes. 

Howeva it ain’t been long when I see an old rival: Slick Benny. Him and his gang is always try’n ta steal my papes and take my customers, not ta mention soak me once in a while.

“Hello, Kelly,” Benny struts over, a good foot and a half taller than me, but I don’t budge. “Me thinks ya got some papes fer us,” he motions at his gang, who surround me. 

“Take a hike, little bo Ben, I ain’t giv’n you’s noth’n,” I growl.

“Aw, not even a kiss-?” He leans in, only ta get his foot stepped on by yours truly.

“Yow!”

I take my cue and split, duck’n unda Benny’s arm and tak’n off towards tha docks.

“Get that little bitch!”

I duck, dodge, twist’n turn- until I realize that I don’t know where I’s go’n! I can still hear Benny’s gang behind me, but I’s made some distance between us. I go ta turn a corner down an alley lead’n ta tha wadda when-

Smack!

I literally run into and fall down onto somebody. I look up and I’m suddenly staring inta pierc’n blue eyes. It’s a guy, anodda newsie. He’s wearing a checkered shirt, faded red suspenders, and a gray cap. Unfortunately, his shirt ain’t buttoned up all tha way, and my hand fell onta his bare chest. He looks both shocked and annoyed.

I blush. “Sorry.” I hurriedly get up and continue sprint’n down tha alley, with Benny’s boys still look’n fer me. Behind me I hear:

“Hey, you! Ya seen a goil newsie run by here?”

Oh God! Please don’t let them find me…

“Nah, can’t say I have,” comes a heavy-accented voice.

I frown. Was that the guy I ran over? Why would he vogue fer me? I owe him one, I put in tha back of my head.

Spot’s POV

I’s didn’t plan on com’n ta 'Hattan today, I just woke up and felt like go’n someplace different odda than Brooklyn, if I can believe it. I’s was just com’n from tha docks when-

Smack!

Someone stiff and small plows into me, send’n both of us onto tha ground. Tha foist thing I realise is: it’s a goil. And not just any goil, a newsie! She’s wear’n a faded blue shirt, black suspenders and vest, and a gray cap like mine. The next thing I notice is that her hand landed on my chest. But for whateva reason, I don’t get upset ‘bout it. Unsure what ta do or say, I just stare at her inta her big, brown eyes. 

She blushes, and it’s kinda cute. “Sorry,” she muddas. She quickly gets up and sprints down tha alley. As I get to my feet, I hear:

“Hey, you! Ya seen a goil newsie run by here?”

It’s Ben, Slick Benny and his gang. It ain’t no surprise ta me that he’d be try’n ta scam a goil. Well, I’s can’t just nark on her.

“Nah, can’t say I have,” I says smugly.

Benny frowns. “Careful who you’s ally with, Colon. That goil’s trouble- ya see her and ya report ta me, got it?”

I step forward intimidate’nly, gett’n in his face. “I don’t report ta nobody.” 

I then start walk’n back ta Brooklyn, certain that there’s noth’n more fer me here. Still, I can’t help wonder’n if the goil was ok. I’d seen plenty goils, but she seemed… different? Normally my spies woulda told me if there was a goil newsie in Manhattan. Who is she? 

Rebecca’s POV

Afta wait’n ‘bout ten minutes behind a barrel, I decide ta head back ta tha square. And yet, as soon as I get there Jack grabs my shoit and shoves me forward, and I’m run’n again.

“Beat it! It’s tha bulls!”

“All this for once sip of beer?” Les asks.

I don’t question it, I just run. We keep run’n ‘til we get ta tha lodg’n house. On tha way up, I see Skippy sleep’n on tha stairs.

“Keep runnin!” Jack yells

“There’s a guy sleep’n!” David shouts back.

“Jump!” I use tha railing ta hop ova poor Skippy, then grab David’s arm ta drag him along. I see Les fall behind, so I pull him onta my back. 

David looks at me in shock. “You’re a tough girl!”

“I’s gotta be when I’s tha only goil here!”

“He’s right behind us! He’s right behind us!”

Once we get onta tha roof and behind a wall, we hear:

“Sullivan, you wait ‘til I get you back to the Refuge!” 

We scurry ta tha fire escape and keep run’n ‘til we get ta tha Irving Theatre. I stop ta catch my breath, certain that we lost ‘em. 

“Snyder, eh?” 

Jack nods, breath’n heavily. Snyder knows just how ta ruin everyone’s day…

“I’m not running any further, I want answers!” David demands. “Who was that guy and why was he chasing us? And what is the Refuge?”

Jack catches his breath. “That guy is Snyder- he runs tha Refuge. It’s basically a slammer fer kids. He’s try’n ta get me back,” Jack explains.

“But he called you Sullivan.”

“The name’s Kelly- you think we’s ly’n? Jack and Becca Kelly,” I back up Jack.

“Well you do have a way of improving the truth,” David remarks harshly.

I give him a warn’n glare.

“How’d you escape?” Les asks.

“Some big shot gave me a ride in his carriage.”

David ain’t convinced. “I bet it was the mayor, right?”

“No, Teddy Roosevelt. Eva hoid of him?” Jack bites back.

Then I hear: “What’s going on here? Out! Out!” A beautiful lady in a purple dress comes down tha theatre stairs, shoo’n us away with a feather fan.

Jack grins. “Aw, you wouldn’t send me away without a kiss goodbye, wouldya Medda?” 

I smile widely. “Business been good, Medda?”

Tha energetic woman gives me a kind smile. “Becca! Jack Kelly! Where ya been, kids? I’ve missed seeing you up in the balcony.”

“And hang’n on your every word.” Jack kisses her hand.

I turn to David and Les. “This, friends, is Ms. Medda Larkson, tha Swedish Meadowlark and tha most talented singa in all of Manhattan.”

Medda curtsies, then notices Les.

“Oh, aren't you sweet!” She playfully tickles his nose with her fan. Les then does a fake cough.

“Buy me last pape, lady?” he begs.

Medda smiles wida. “Oh, you are good! Speaking from one professional to another, I’d say you got a great future! Just like Becca!” She gives me a wink. In return I give her a warn’n glance. Not now, Medda, not today! She gets tha hint.

“Do ya mind if we crash here for a while?” Jack asks, oblivious. “Just ‘til a little problem outside goes away.”

“Oh, yes! Stay as long as you like.” Medda leads us backstage. 

A voice announces: “And now gents, the moment you've all been waiting for. The sensational songbird. The Swedish Meadowlark, Miss Medda Larkson!”

Medda spreads her arms with a wide smile, then begins ta sing:

“My lovey dovey baby

I boo-hoo-hoo for you.

I used to be your tootsie-wootsie.

Then you said 'tooldle-dedoo'...”

Throughout her performance I can tell David’s transfixed, and Les is enjoy’n tha free candy. I have ta smile, see’n how people can be so happy. After a while we recon our troubles are gone.

“Bye, Medda!” I call as we head out.

“See you soon,” she answas, partially directed at me.

I frown. Too soon.

What Jack don’t know about me is that I’s got anodda job: sing’n in Medda’s show. About a month ago I realised that I weren’t do’n as good a job as the oddas at sell’n papes, be’n that I’s a goil and everyth’n. So Medda gave me an offer as a singa. She says I’m good, but I’s still ashamed. Because I’s a goil, I get wolf-whistled and catcalled almost every week. I make decent money, but I’s still ain’t proud of it.

“So ya like that?” Jacks asks David. “Oh yeah, I liked that.” No kidd’n!

“Hey Les, why don’t ya shine my shoes fer me?” Jack asks casually as he sits down.

I frown. Great, Jack. Make tha kid werk even more afta today!

“So how do you know her?” David questions.

“She was a friend of our fadda’s.” Jack says.

“Well, we better go. Our parents are probably getting worried. How ‘bout yours?”

“Nah. They’re out west look’n fer somewhere ta live.” He pulls out a pamplet. “See that’s Santa Fe, New Mexico. When they find tha right ranch they’ll send fer us.” Jack tells tha same story he tells everybody.

“And you’ll be a real cowboy!” Les exclaims. I have ta laugh at that!

“Yeah, he will be Les!” I give him a quick, tight hug. He gives a yawn and goes ta sit on a bench.

Just then, I hear a commotion go’n on down tha block. We turn tha corner and see a trolly engulfed in flames.

“It’s tha trolly strikers! These couple-a dumbasses must be-!”

The yell’n gets louda and drowns him out, but I try not to stray too far.

“Looks like we might get a good headline tomorrow!” Jack excitedly yells ova tha noise.

I look ova at Les and see that through all tha chaos he’s fallen asleep. I pick him up and walk ova ta David.

“I think he’s tired,” I state like it’s obvious.

“Yeah, we should get home. Come back to our place- you can meet our folks,” David offas.

I pass Les ta Jack. “Go ahead, Jack. I’s go’n back ta tha lodging house,” I call as I walk tha odda way. On tha way back, I see Race sitt’n on a barrel.

“Hey! How’d yer day at the track go?”

He gives me a stern glare. “Rememba that hot tip I told ya ‘bout?”

“Yeah?”

“Nobody told tha horse,” he scoffs.

“Sorry ta hear that. But, just shows that you’s shouldn’t be gambl’n your life away.” I shrug.

“Yeah, yeah, whateva preacher! Get ta bed!” Race waves me off.

“G’night!”

In tha log’n house, Mush, Crutchy, Skittery, Boots, Specs, and Blink are tha only ones still up.

“Hey guys. How was sell’n taday?”

“Even’n, Becs. It was ok, I guess.” Boots answas.

I nod. “Crutchy, how’s tha leg?”

He sighs. “Still no good.”

I sit down and put a arm on his shoulda. “Don’t worry, it’ll be bedda soon. Now, I knows Race ain’t com’n back for a while, so who’s in for a game-a cards?”

Mush looks up hopefully. “No bett’n?”

I grin. “No bett’n!”

“Good,” Blink sighs, relieved. “I can’t afford to lose anodda cent to that maniac!”

That night before I fall asleep, I can’t help remember’n the guy I ran into. Who is he? Someth’n ‘bout him just puzzles me- and will I ever see him again?

I’ll get chapter 3 ready as soon as I can! Thanks for reading! :)

[royal1asset-if]

Christmas Celebration

Isang Maligayang Pasko Mga Kapatid( A Merry Christmas My Brethrens)

Hello, I want to wish everyone a very nice day and more nice days to come.

So in celebration I decided to write this skit :).

Also, I'm inviting other IF authors to this kind of silly skit( If you want to of course :)

Me: Alright gang, Merry Christmas ( Cheerful)

Luna: What now Author?( Annoyed 😠😠😠)

Elric: Haha Luna, stop being a killjoy ( Bumping Luna's shoulder)

Serena: Yeah Looney livin up a little( Smirking at Luna)

Luna: I swear I'm gonna kill the both of you someday( Smiling in anticipation)

Amelia: You mean you will kill them with kindness, right Luna?( Hoping)

Conrad: No Amelia, Luna means that she will literally and deliberately murder those two!(Pointing at Elric and Serena)

Dustin: Alright can we stop and calm for a sec( Placating everyone)

Me: Dustin is right everybody and to spice things up, I even invited 3 more guess to our party.( Giving the signal)

The door opened Leon and Leona came in.

Leon: (Whistle 😙😙) So this is where the 6 of you run off too.( Smirking 😏😏😏)

Leona: I do say this is a nice place( Sounding Impressed)

Me: Thank you for the praise Leona( Nodding my head at her).

Leon: Hahaha, Leona complimenting looks like it's a Christmas miracle ( Laughing and slapping his leg.)

Elric joined in Leon's laughter but a single glare from Leona shuts him up.

Leon: So anyways, I have to say I'm a bit heartbroken when I had that you guys have these cool ask and readers wanting to know about you guys( Looking hurt)

Leona: Oh shut up Leon, stop being a drama queen( Chastising Leon)

Conrad: Author didn't you say there were 3 guest, why there is only 2.( Gesturing to Leon and Leona)

On cue Hendrick came inside.

Leon: Always leave it up to you to make an dramatic entrance, huh Hendrick( Slapping Hendrick's back)

Hendrick: You know me Leon, old habits die hard.( Chuckling)

At the sight everyone kneeled down on the presence of the king( With the exception of me of course)

Everyone: Your Majesty.

Hendrick: Now now everyone, Hendrick is just fine and I'm here as a friend not a king.( Assuring everyone)

Dustin: Even so your majesty, I have a duty to be respectful to you ( Becoming so knightly 😑😑😑)

Hendrick: Is that so?, Very well as your king I command you to call me Hendrick and postpone all formalities till the end of Christmas (Authritive)

Serena: Well you heard Hendrick( She says rising up and everyone follow suit)

Hendrick: So Author what is the reason you have gathered us here?( Curious?

Me: Well Hendrick, I want us to celebrate and I want you everyone to say your Christmas advices to our readers who is reading this( Gesturing to you guys 😉😉😉)

Luna: I will go first, when lock in a snowball fight do not let your enemy have tha advantage and if you can sabotage their supply line do it, do not give them mercy and bathe in their blood( Scary)

Serena: Me next, ny advice to you is that if you want a kiss everytime, put mistletoes in every corner of your house but expect it to backfire cuz you will be kissing everyone.( Winking)

Elric: My turn, Remember ladies and lads, it's not the place that really matters but it's the company that really counts, what good is villa if you have no one to celebrate with( Huh? that's nice advice actually)

Amelia: For me, I want you to share your blessing with those who are unfortunate ( A goody two shoes)

Dustin: Well for me, always be responsible and obedient to our parents and elders.( As expected)

Conrad: Just do whatever you want to do, I have no idea what oneself does in christmas( Conrad being Conrad 😑😑😑)

Leon: This is fun, live your life to the fullest kiddos and remember always play safe( Hmmm 🤔🤔🤔 what does he means by that?)

Leona: Obey the rules of your parents and don't be an insolent child( Well that's kinda rude)

Hendrick: Just have fun everyone and thank your parents for everything they have done to you( Waving at you readers)

Me:Well that's outta way, let's get this party started (🥳🥳🥳🎉🎉🎉)

I snapped my fingers and a bouncy castle appeared.

Conrad: What dark magic is this?( Standing and approaching the bouncy caslte like it's some demon 😈😈😈)

Me: That my dear Conrad is the magic of fun( Snapping my fingers and teleporting him inside the caslte)

Conrad: SOMEONE OR SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING I'M BEING DIGEST BY THIS ABOMINATION ( Screaming in horror and bouncing inside)

Serena: That looks fun( Started running towards the bouncy castle.)

Me: Oh I almost forgot( Getting an ask paper, who I made it secretly 🤫🤫🤫) Hendrick I have an ask for you.

Hendrick: Alright let's hear it( Interested)

Me: Do you have feelings for Leona?, you can answer with a yes and no( Crossing my legs)

Leona: HOW DARE YOU ADDRESS THE KING THAT WAY( Ahhhh defending her love, how 🎂🎂🎂)

Hendrick: It's alright Leona( Calming Leona)

Me: Oh addendum, if the Hendrick didn't say anything other than the 2 choice that are mentioned the. It's an automatic yes( The perfect trap 🪤🪤🪤)

Hendrick didn't say anything and remained silent 😶😶😶

Leona: Wha----WHATTTTT( Mouth open and blushing)

Leon: I fucking knew it, I'm gonna be an uncle someday( getting on his knees and worshipping something)

Leona: Is it true?( Clarifying for answers)

Hendrick didn't say word with a snap of my fingers a mistletoe appeared above their heads.

Serena: OH SHIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTT IS A MISTLETOE ( jumping up and down)

Leon: Hendrick you know the sacred rules of the mistletoe and it's unbecoming of a king of you disobey this rules( Coaxing Hendrick)

Hendrick: I suppose you're right Leon(Standing up and taking Leona's hands) Leona may I have the honor of kissing you?( My plan is in motion)

Leona: This can't be happening( In denial)

Leon: FOR FACK SAKE MAN JUST KISS MY SISTER ALREADY( Getting frantic now)

Hendrick started leaning close to Leona and Leona's eyes closed, puckering her lips.

Leon: Getting closer( An inch till touchdown)

Everyone started leaning close in anticipation.

Me well l, let's not ruin that part so folks sorry but I gotta end it right here.( Error broadcast ended)

[thestarwrites]

The Second Half of '85, Ch. 1; The Fun Fair

Summary; Eddie Munson had been friends with Y/N L/N since middle school. They'd done everything together; until she went to college, and he didn't. You had stayed extremely close, and now, you're back in Hawkins for the Summer of '85.

Warnings; angst, faphobia

2,757 Words

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

“Its bullshit is what it is,” Eddie grunted as he hit the joint again before passing it to Gareth, “A fourth of July extravaganza, what capitalist bullshit.”

Gareth and a few of the other Hellfire Club nodded in agreement as they passed the joint around— benefits of the club, free weed when Eddie was around. Y/N shook her head, like always, when the joint was offered to her. The freak who didn’t get high.

Eddie looked over at the girl and winked when he saw her pass over the drugs and she rolled her eyes, cheeks red. She wasn’t in his club anymore, not one of his minions. She was… his equal. She was an artist. Another loser, like him, teased for being fat. She was his best friend.

Y/N and Eddie had been friends since 8th grade. Finding their shared love of Lord of the Rings during English class. Though they weren’t inseparable, they were very very close. Hell, she was a the one who came up with the Hellfire logo in sophomore year — with his guidance of course. And she played D&D with them until graduation.

She’d graduated in ’84, when he was supposed to originally, went to her first year of art college. Not far enough away for Eddie not to be able to go see her, but far enough away for them to spend weeknights on long phone calls, and weekends where he’d bring her back home.

Now it was summer break, he’d flunked a second time, but it didn’t matter, because the dynamic duo was reunited for three glorious months.

Y/N sighed and stood looking over the festivities, “I dunno… it looks kinda fun,” when Eddie shot his eyes upwards she chuckled, “Whassa matter Eddie…? Afraid of a little fun?”

“Yeah okay kids, we’re gonna go up in there in our LEATHER JACKETS, and our LONG HAIR and PIERCINGS…” He was up, doing his court jester thing, waving his hands and making the other boys laugh and look up at him like he was their King— which he was.

“And not give a fuck?“ She whispered to him, wearing his Dio vest, because anything else would be too small for her to wear, and he wanted her to feel included, “Come on Eds…” she whined softly, “I just want us all to stop brooding for a change and have a good night.”

The others looked to him and he rolled his eyes, “Alright peasants! Disperse!”

When the gang all left, he visibly deflated, knowing his audience was gone and he turned his head to the artist, “Listen… I wasn’t trying to ruin your pomp…” she frowned and walked over to him, sitting beside him in the grass, “Truth is… I wanted time alone with the real Eddie Munson.”

He quirked an eyebrow, “The real Eddie? What’s that mean, Lisa Frank?”

“The you when you don’t have an audience,” She whispered and nudged his shoulder with hers, “My friend, Eddie. My muse.”

“Muse, huh?” He chuckled, nudging her back, “What are you, Pygmalion?”

She smiled brighter at that, “I love that you know all that shit.”

“I love that you know all that shit. No one ever gets my references,” Eddie smiled and lit a cigarette, “So… you chased off all my cronies, and we’re just gonna… sit here and not have any fun a the fun fair?!” He stood and held out his hand, “Come on, Princess, I’m gonna show you the night of your life.”

“Eddie,” she warned and he just grabbed her hands, pulling her up, her cheeks lit red as she realized he must know now how heavy she really was. But he held her steady and just kept smiling, “What are we doing, going on an adventure?”

His dorky smirk spread over his face, “Why, yes, Miss Rosie Cotton, we are going to attend Bilbo’s birthday… and we’ll eat and drink, and maybe…. Even dance!" He mock-gasped and covered his mouth.

Laughter bubbled from her lips, he always made her laugh, it made Eddie swell with pride, “Well if I’m Rosie Cotton, then that would make you Samwise…” she smirked and poked his chest, “But… You don’t seem like him to me…”

“Oh? And what do I seem like?”

Y/N tapped her chin in thought before humming, “You’re so a Boromir.”

“BOROMIR!? What the fuck, Y/N! He’s the worst!”

She guffawed, “Did you even read the book!?”

“I have read that book more times than you have! Boromir is the fucking worst.”

Scoffing she took a moment and then she looked as if she realized something. She nodded to herself, tapping her forehead, “I forgot, you’re a man.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” He grunted, feeling a little strange because in the years they had been friends, the idea of her as a woman never really crossed his mind. Not that he thought she was ugly, she was just… Y/N. Just as she’d been since they were 13. But now, I guess it shifted in his mind - she was 20, same as him.

“It MEANS, Eddie Munson… that you can’t look at Boromir of Gondor with a woman’s eyes,” she paused for effect before continuing, “If you could… you would see a kind man, a strong man, someone who commands great respect and esteem from his fellow Gondorians. Someone with a sense of loyalty, but not necessarily a sense of purpose… all he wants are his people to be safe, and his father to be proud of his decisions… a man of honor, who was just a man; fallible, imperfect… but beautiful— wonderful.”

The soft look on Eddie’s face was that of complete awe as she described the person she felt he was - a man of honor. Wonderful. Beautiful. He was a bit dumbfounded at the passion she spoke for the Captain of the White City. Eddie knew she’d always been passionate, he’s seen her in her full D&D glory. But - her passion was seemingly only reserved for art, things of beauty, not men, never men. In fact, she’d never even confided any crushes in him. Not even after the whole Chrissy Cunningham thing he asked her about in Freshman year. Come to think of it, after that she never even talked about any celebrity crushes after that. The only man she ever loved was Thorin Oakenshield, who’s initials she had tattooed on her arm in dwarvish — a bat on the other arm, to match his.

Y/N cleared her throat after a long moment of him just staring at her, “So… yeah, you see, Boromir… is actually my favorite character,” she shrugged, “Though you’re a lot like Faramir as well - which, makes sense… they’re brothers.”

“Eowyn,” Eddie spoke out softly, with a definitive nod.

The artist looked up at him and made a soft noise of confusion, “Huh?”

“That’s who you are,” he smirked, standing up and putting his hands on his hips, “I don’t know why I didn't realize it before— maybe that’s why I can’t graduate,” He paused for her laugh but she looked too shocked to laugh, he he continued, “You’re a total bad ass. Kick ass right in there with the boys. Hell, you’re stronger than the boys. You’re Eowyn.”

Blushing hard she smiled, “I’m not strong or beautiful enough to be her,” her voice was soft and sad.

Eddie looked at her incredulously, “Sweetheart— Do you hear yourself. You sound like an idiot, and we know you’re not, you’re a bonafide college sophomore now!” Before she could say anything else, he grabbed her hand again, “LET'S GO My Lady of Edoras! Boromir’s gotta win you a big damn teddy bear at at least ONE arcade game!! I have to prove how galant I am,” He grinned so big it could outshine the moon.

Pulling the girl along she sighed and chuckled, “Eds—“

“Ah ah, not my name!” He replied in a British accent.

Rolling her eyes again she sighed, giving in as she always did, adopting a British accent of her own, “My lord, Eowyn and Boromir never meet… that was Faramir, remember? Houses of Healing?”

“Then, tonight, allow me to be your Faramir, my lady,” he smirked and winked, kissing the knuckles of his best friend gallantly. She looked away to hide the blush on her cheeks, but he saw it. Maybe all the years of teasing had made her fond of him. He doubted it of course, never allowed himself the thought before — she was in college, in art school and he was still in high school.

The girl stood and sighed with a smile, “I… I shall allow it, my lord,” she stuttered gently and walked close to him, still holding his hand, not daring the feeling of letting go.

Eddie smiled and laced his fingers with hers, he enjoyed her indulging in the fantasy game he laid out for them, just as she always did, “Come then, Horse Mistress,” he chuckled and led her down the hill toward the fair, “I shall make an allowance to join this common frivolity, for only your sake… for you, I would walk into Mordor itself!” He declared loudly and clasped his chest, “Through fire, even through shadow and flame… I would face down Morgoth’s Balrog if it gave me one more kiss,” he kissed her knuckles again.

The two of them walked hand in hand, her cheeks red, worried Eddie would feel the sweat on her palm, “So, what shall we do first?” She asked softly, no accent.

“Well - what do you want to do? This is your night, my lady,” Eddie’s own voice briefly returned as he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, “Whatever you’re comfortable with, y’know?” He pushed a curl of her cropped pixie cut back.

Y/N looked around, anywhere else but the warm chocolate eyes of Eddie Munson, biting her lip she noticed the people around them. Everyone was laughing and running around, and her face slowly lit up with all of the colors and lights. Eddie himself was quite spellbound. Finally she pointed, “Eddie — Will you take me on the Ferris wheel?” The Ferris wheel was definitely a ride she figured she wouldn’t be too fat to ride.

“Ah ah,” he tutted, “Not my name,” He chuckled and nodded, “Yes, dearest,” he pulled her along, and from the top of the world - or you know, a few feet off the ground of Hawkins, Indiana- she felt like she could fly.

They were both getting really invested in their little game of make believe up here alone as they moved around, Eddie pointed, “Ah look! You can see the tower of Orthanc from here! I wonder if Saruman the White is plotting any misdeeds…” He ticked her plump waist a bit and she laughed, swatting him away.

“The view is stunning atop Minas Tirith, my love!” She called out as she was laughing, not thinking about what she had called him, “I swear I can see all the way to the Shire!”

Eddie smiled warmly at her excitement, how much actual fun he was actually having with her, and he swallowed as she heard the sentiment - my love. He just cooly wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, his other hand finding hers on the bar. The two of them just sat there, cuddled up together until the ride came to an end.

Clearing his throat he stood and held out his hand, “Come along, my dear lady.”

Taking his hand again she stood, “Now, my Lord, I want you to win me a big fucking stuffed animal!”

Smirking he quirked an eyebrow, “I don’t believe they spoke in such a manner in Middle Earth.”

“I want my Eddie to win it for me,” she snapped back happily, “To remind me of you while I’m away at college. When you can’t visit with me and be with me.”

My Eddie, she said. He beamed and took her hand in both of his, kneeling in front of her, “Baby, I will win you the biggest fucking stuffed animal at this shit-hole fair, and then, I want to take you back to my place and watch a scary fucking movie.”

She laughed and blushed hard as other people walked by looking at the town freak like he was making an absolute fool of himself, putting on a show for the girl he was the most devoted to. She opened her mouth to speak, eyes soft, until…

“WELL, well,” the voice of Jason Carver called out, his other basketball cronies in tow, “If it isn’t the FREAK — what are you doing, Munson? Proposing to your fat girlfriend? What a happy home your trailer will make!”

They all laughed, some of the jocks making pig noises, until Eddie sprung to his feet - the Junior’s stupid letterman jacket clenched in both of Eddie’s fists, “What the fuck did you say, Carver!?”

Y/N moved forward and tried to grab his arm, “Eddie — Eddie stop!”

“You- you better listen to your little fat wife, Munson,” Jason croaked out.

The older boy, now about to start his third senior year, grit his teeth, “If you -ever- say anything against my fucking girl again I’ll fucking -kill- you, you slimy jock-fuck.”

Y/N gripped Eddies leather jacket tighter, “Eddie… Please… Please stop!” Her eyes were full of tears, hands shaking. She’d never felt scared of Eddie before until now. He looked unhinged, like a lunatic from a slasher film.

With another grunt, Eddie threw Jason onto the ground, “Leave my girl alone,” and with that last reiteration, he spun around, grabbing Y/N’s hand and stomping away. He dragged her for a little while, to the edge of the Midway, before she pulled on his hand.

“Eddie — stop dragging me! Where are we going! What’s wrong with you!”

“I told you!” He yelled, never having raised his voice to her before, “I told you this was bullshit! This whole fair! This whole fucked up town!” He gestured to the rest of the fair, “Why the fuck am I here!? Why the fuck am I doing this!?”

Y/N’s eyes welled with fresh tears as she took his angry outburst, after a moment she pulled her hand from his and took a step back. A moment ago, they were holding hands, talking freely and laughing and now, he was acting entirely unlike himself. In all the time she’d known him, no matter what anyone said to him, he’d never reacted like this, “I thought we were having fun.”

The boy threw his hands up in the air, “Fine! If you want to stay here and play fucking pretend at the fucking fun fair!? I’m going to go get fucking stoned and play guitar. Find your own way home, you ran off all my friends,” he spat, turning around and walking back toward the lot where his van was parked.

She stood there for a moment, humiliated, a few tears rolling down her cheeks as he stormed away, angry at her for… for what? After a few minutes of shock, she moved in the other direction, going to find a payphone to call her father to pick her up.

Jason was in front of her before she could get there. Him and the jocks with him started circling her, “Oh look boys… the pig is crying,” he smirked sickeningly sweet.

“L-leave me alone J-Jason,” She stuttered.

“Not so brave now that your boyfriend isn’t here, huh?” His friends laughed, “You’ve got that same stutter as when you were still in school.”

“I just w-want to go home J-Jason, please,” she tried to walk past him, but he started backing her up - the fireworks began to explode into a beautiful light show, so no one heard her yell for help. As she continued to back up suddenly they were upon her. Adam and Patrick lifted a huge trash barrel over her head and dumped the contents over her, letting the barrel fall over her head with a thump as she fell to the ground.

The sound of pig oinks faded into the distance as the jocks went to rejoin their girlfriends at the fair and continue with the whole facade.

The girl just struggled to get out of the trash full of greasy leftovers, melted ice cream, and all kinds of sticky reeking garbage. Finally freeing herself of the plastic bin she just cried, hugging herself as she rocked back and forth to the sound of Fireworks.

And Eddie, was nowhere near.

-----

Thanks guys! I hope you liked it! More soon :)

-KSTAR xx

[the-strange-mystery]

If you write for multiple characters,

Could you do Real World Aubrey and Spaceboy hcs for if Y/N were to get really sick and/or get badly injured? I like my angst >:D And if not thas okay too-!

My second request! And some variation in characters too! Thank you! I'll do both a version where Reader is sick and one where they're injured. The one where reader is sick will be mostly fluff, i can't do angst without fluff.

Second where reader gets hurt will be angst. Though, i'm probaply not very good at writing for Aubrey, i'll do my best!

Type: angst and fluff

Warnings: angst and blood

Real world- Aubrey

Sick-

-

-You had a fever, and you were tired.

-You decided to stay at home for the day, not really wanting to worry anyone.

-It was about 14:00 in the afternoon when you heard a knock on your door. You got up and opened it to see Aubrey, your girlfriend.

-"Why aren't you-..." She cut herself off when she saw how you looked. "Are you alright?" She asked and took a step inside.

-"Just a fever, don't worry about it." You answered. She put a hand over your forehead. "...Go sit down. I'll... Get you something to drink." She said and walked into you kitchen.

-You sat down, waited a few minute before Aubrey came back and gave you an ice cold glass of water.

-

Injured-

-

-Aubrey was casually going through her day when she found you, beaten bloody.

-"W-wha..? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!" She shouted in an angry tone with a disstressed undertone.

-"your gang doesn't... Like me that much..." You said, voice weak. "My gang did this?!" She questioned.

-You just nodded. The pain was horrible, unbearable...

-Aubrey picked you up and ran to whoever could help. Well there, she stayed by your side. She wasn't talking, not moving. She sat by your side and looked at you the whole time.

-When she was sure you were fine, she grabbed her bat and went after her gang instead.

-

-

Capt. Spaceboy

Sick-

-

-You had caught a cold. Your face was pale and your eyes were runny.

-Capt. Spaceboy realized quickly, as soon as he saw you.

-"My starlight?! Oh, dear... Are you feeling alright?" His worry showed both on his face and in his voice.

-"It's just a cold, nothing to worry about." You assured him, smiling softly.

-"Darling... Go lie down, i'll be right over." He said and pointed you to his room.

-You went there and sat down on his bed, waiting.

-It took less than a minute for him to come back, he gave you a bowl of soup and put a blanket around you.

-You finished your soup quickly. "All done?" He asked, you nodded. "I'll take that then... Do you need anything else?" He asked.

-You answered no, he walked out of the room and returned a minute later.

-"Are you sure you don't need anything, dear?" He asked and sat down beside you.

-You assured him that you were alright, that he didn't have to worry.

-

-

Injured-

-

-It was during a space-adventure, you were walking around in Spaceboy's spaceship.

-You found a room, inside was a mechanism, you looked at it for a moment.

-The mechanism suddently exploded, landing a heavy hit on you.

You then felt the spaceship land, You then heard quick footsteps approching you.

-"D-... Darling?!" You heard Spaceboy's panicked voice as he rushed to your side.

-"Starlight?! What happened here?! Are you hurt?!" He put an arm on your back and got you into a sitting position.

-"Oh, dear... S-Starlight, try to stay calm! I'll... I'll do what i can..."

You could see his hair turn green, he was horrified.

-He picked you up and teleported to the infirmary.

-You were nursed back to health, Spaceboy stayed with you the whole time, holding your hand.

-

-

-

So... How was that? I did my best and i'm happy write for Aubrey this time around. Feel free to make more requests.

[fandom-puff]

Old Man

Pairing: Arthur Shelby x reader

Requested by: anon ‘hey can i request something along the lines of that anon who was talking about reader being younger than arthur shelby and they both flirt but he is a bit insecure about his age but then she convinces him it doesn't matter and they just get at it and have the best hottest sex ever’

Warnings: smut, older man/younger woman, swearing, unprotected sex (wrap it before u tap it gang)

Gif creds to owner

“You alright, Arthur? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” you teased as you brushed past him in the betting shop.

Arthur flushed slightly. “I-yeah, I’m alright, YN,” he said hurriedly.

“You don’t sound too sure about that,” you said, perching on the table.

Arthur was, in fact, not very sure of how he was feeling. He had been harbouring a crush on you for months, and what had started off as playful banter had soon turned into straight up flirting. But every time he was about to ask if you wanted to go for a drink, alone, or go to the pictures or to a restaurant, he’d seize up. He was over ten years your senior, and he didn’t think a young, bright girl like you would want an old, broken man like him.

“Arthur?” You said softly, cocking your head to the side. “Are you okay? Tell me,” you coaxed gently.

“I... YN, you’ve gotta promise you won’t... won’t think less of me, alright?” He said, digging his nails into his palms.

“Arthur, why would I-”

“Just promise,” his voice was small.

“Alright. I promise,” you said gently.

“I love you. I’m in love with you. I have been for months. You’re... good. You’re kind and honest and funny and beautiful. You’re a special girl, YN, and I don’t know what I’d do without you. You... don’t have to say anything, not if you don’t feel the same way,”

“Oh, arthur,” you said. “Why wouldn’t I feel the same way?”

“Because... I’m an old man, YN,” he said, looking to his feet. “And I have episodes, episodes where I get really nasty. I can be a right bastard,”

You cupped his cheek, feeling the rough brush of his stubble that he had yet to shave. “I don’t care,” you whispered. “You’re only 37, Arthur, you’re only twelve years older than me. I couldn’t care less. And my heart breaks when I see you angry and upset with yourself. When you lose it, I want to help you, I want to make sure you’re okay, that you aren’t hurting yourself, but Tommy always beats me to it,” you’re forehead was pressed against his, one hand cupping his cheek, the other clasping his hand. “I love you too, Arthur, and I don’t care about all of those other things,”

He was kissing you, tenderly, gently, one tentative hand on your hip, thumb stroking gently. It was slow and soft, yet full of unspoken passion. You let out a soft whine when he pulled away, your face heating up at the uncontrolled noise. “YN...” Arthur murmured, voice hoarse.

“Please...” you replied, grasping onto him.

“Not here. Want it to be special,” he mumbled, pressing gentle kisses to your neck. “Mine?” He murmured.

“Oh, god, yes,” you hummed, letting him take you to his car, to the short drive to his home just outside Small Heath. You were barely through the front door before you were in his arms again, kissing one another with a renewed frenzy, months of pent up passion pouring out. You could feel Arthur’s erection pressed against your thigh as you kissed, and the movement of his lips and hands was making you dizzy, heat and wetness pooling between your thighs. “Arthur,” you mumbled into his mouth.

“I know,” he replied, and together you managed to stumble up the stairs to his bedroom. Biting your lip, you reached behind you, undoing the clasp of your dress as Arthur kicked off his shoes and trousers. As your dress pooled around your feet, leaving you in your underwear, Arthur’s mouth went dry. “Fuck,” he said. “C’mere, love. You’re fucking beautiful,” you nibbled your lip shyly as you approached him, standing between his legs. You grabbed his hands, bringing them close to you, sighing softly when he ran his rough palms over your hips, squeezing gently and feeling the material of your slip. “Can I take this off you, YN?” He asked and you nodded quickly. He gave you a lopsided smile as he lifted it over your head, groaning lowly at the sight of you in your knickers, bra and stockings. You moaned softly as Arthur nuzzled his face in between your breasts, kissing over your heart gently, holding you upright by your knees as you trembled, reaching down to tug at his shirt. “You want this off?” He asked you and you nodded again, helping him unbutton it and push it off his shoulders, leaving the two of you in just your underwear.

You bit your lip hard before ducking your head down to pepper kisses along his freckled collarbone, gasping as he tugged you by the thighs to straddle him. You lowered your hips down slowly, shuddering at the dull throbbing of his member against the heat between your legs, even through the two thin layers of yours and his underwear.

Moaning softly, you captured his lips against yours again, hands coming up to tangle in his hair as you experimentally rocked your hips, whimpering at the delicious drag of his cock against your clothed clit. Arthur let out a guttural groan, grasping onto your writhing hips. “Fuck, YN, I can feel how wet you are, even with your underwear on,”

“Take it off, Arthur, I want to feel you,” you moaned, licking the shell of his ear. Arthur’s eyelids fluttered briefly before he got to work, removing your underwear (and his too) as quickly as he could. He then laid you on your back, reaching behind you to unclasp your bra, fumbling slightly. “Here, let me,” you murmured, helping undo it and casting it aside. Arthur gulped, staring down at you for a few seconds, eyeing up your hardening nipples, noting your thighs shifting closer together, searching for a morsel of friction.

“You’re amazing,” he murmured, and before you could reply he had captured one of your nipples in his mouth, flicking his tongue and grazing the nub with his teeth. You gasped, arching your back as his hand moved to part your thighs, knuckles tracing over your wetness, his thumb rubbing soft circles over your clit. You cried out, before biting back the moan, tipping your head back and twisting the bedsheets in your fists. “Don’t quiet yourself,” Arthur said, muffled by your breast. “Let me hear you, let me hear your noises,”

“Arthur...” you breathed, voice trembling as he eased his finger inside you.

“Tha’s right, love. Say my name, let me make you feel good,” he groaned, sucking a mark on your shoulder before allowing you to pull him back for a kiss. You rocked your hips up to his slowly thrusting hand, hands tangled up in his hair, his moustache scratching against your face.

“Arthur, please,” you moaned, your thighs quivering as he added a second finger, his thumb returning to you with your clit. “Please, I- I want you, Arthur,” you said.

“I’m all yours,” he rasped, kneeling up, grasping his heavy cock by the base. “YN, I don’t have...”

“I don’t care,” you murmured, eyes hazy with desire. “I just want you,” Arthur nodded slowly, pushing your thighs a little wider apart so he could fit comfortably between them, before he pushed in, grunting, hair falling into his face, eyes shut tight.

“You alright?” He asked as he bottomed out, taking in your parted lips, your heaving chest, the slight sheen of sweat on your forehead as you were stretched out.

“Yes,” you moaned, voice shaky. “Move, please,” you whispered. Arthur nodded, bending down to kiss your forehead as he began to move his hips in a slow pace, hooking your leg over his hip. You groaned at the deeper penetration, your arms winding around his neck as his hips rocked. “I love you,” you whimpered, kissing him messily, all teeth and tongue as you both gasped for air, lost in the sensation of one another. You rocked your hips up to meet his steady thrusts, eager for more. You got more; Arthur increased his pace, face buried in your neck as he groaned, the sound of skin slapping filling the room, paired with your moaning, which was gradually getting louder and louder as you both chased your high. Arthur felt the first spasms of your orgasm and grunted; he wanted so desperately to feel you milk his cock of everything he had, the full your womb with his seed, but he knew better, pulling out and jerking himself to completion against your thigh, watching as you twitched beneath him, back arched high off the bed.

Gasping for air, you fell back, staring at the ceiling and seeing stars as Arthur got up. He soon returned with a damp cloth, carefully cleaning away the mess before he slipped into bed with you.

“You’re amazing, you are,” he said softly, tucking you into his side as you rested against his chest.

“Mmm... you too,” you mumbled, kissing his chest gently. “I love you, Arthur,”

“I love you too, darlin’” he smiled, rubbing your back. “Go on, you have a little sleep, love,” he said softly.

“You’ll stay with me?” You asked, lifting your head slightly.

“Of course,”

Tags: @liliputbahn @lilymurphy03 @imareallygrumpyme @acciosiriusblack @shelundeadxxxx @peakyswritings @lazyotakujen

[cyberrat]

61st Batch Of Fics: 6th Fill

Hanzo/Cassidy – Trucker AU – Part 8 – Bit of snoopin' around.

---

“Hey, kid. You look pasty white. Why don’t you go lay down in the back; don’t want you puking out your guts or somethin’.”

Cole has kept peering over to the side where Hanzo had been sitting almost folded into the foot area of his seat even after they’ve long since moved out from the truck stop. He doesn’t really think the kid will puke, the expression on his face is too grimly determined for that, but he really is rather pale and exhausted looking.

It’s been a lot of action, after all; with a lot of hits to his pretty li’l head that must have left him with a mild concussion or something.

His dark eyes shoot up to Cole, throwing him a baleful look as if he were the one responsible for whatever predicament he’s in.

“Don’t you go lookin’ at me like that. Get your ass in the back and sleep it off. You better not’ve done any drugs while you were in the bath. I ain’t taking along a whore with addictions.”

He’s suitably sure the kid didn’t take anything but he doesn’t want him to know yet that he’s seen his pursuers.

After another moment, Hanzo quietly crawls to the back and onto the bed. He’s taken his backpack with him and is holding it clutched tightly to his chest, obviously not trusting Cole to not have a peek. As well he should; he absolutely would have looked if he did have a chance.

It’s quiet for about an hour during which they have started getting back into a more civilized area. The first traffic lights are starting to pop up. During one of his halts, Cole reaches back and tugs the back of Hanzo’s hoodie up, staring at the tattoo that is coming into view. He had hoped that he had just somehow imagined it or not seen it properly, but this… yeah… that spelled bad news.

Hanzo did not move a muscle; he must be completely out of it. Cole grabs his phone and with one eye on the road, types out a quick message to one of his old colleagues.

Yo can you do me a favor? Look up a gang tattoo for me. Blue dragon going at least over the back. Probably yakuza?

Just a few minutes later he hears his phone vibrating on the dashboard. He grabs it blindly, the reply short just as he is used to.

What’s in it for me? 🐷

He snorts, waiting to reply until he’s stopped by another traffic light to send back: got some pussy for ya. bet you’d like.

Hm. we’ll see. 🐷

Cole nods quietly to himself and throws his phone back onto the dash board. Hog might be an asshole and a lazy fucker, but he is absolutely loyal, so there is that. Probably won’t say no to a piece of ass, too. It’s not like the guy gets a lot of opportunities to get his dick wet, given how absolutely massive it is.

Shortly before Cole arrives at his destination, Hanzo wakes up and crawls out from the back to grab a water bottle. He does look a lot more alive after a good two or three hours of sleep. There’s more color in his face and he looks more… alert, though Cole thinks that might also be related to the fact that he’s on the run from something or someone.

“Alright. Listen up, princess. I’ll be hoppin’ out now; get all the paper work in order and oversee them unloading the cargo. That can take a while. You stay in here and don’t make a peep, you got it? Better get back into the cabin and sleep some more or somethin’.”

Surprisingly enough, the kid does not argue with him this time, just nods and relaxes a little into his seat. Cole suspects that that is only the case because he’s gotten a scare earlier; not that he minds much.

He stares at him for a moment longer just to make sure, then kicks his door open and hops out to do his goddamn job.

.oOo.

Hanzo does not feel particularly comfortable sitting in one place for so long, especially not after seeing his father’s men searching for him so close that he could smell their aftershave, but… there was nothing to be done about it now. He was already sitting in his best bet of getting out of this situation and toward Genji as fast as possible.

That is, if he still is in Las Vegas, though from all Hanzo has found out about the place, it was absolutely perfect for his brother. Wild, over the top, shrill; at least at night time or somesuch.

Hanzo listens to the gruff voices outside, feeling the odd vibration throughout the truck’s cabin as they unload whatever it was that the fat man had loaded. Hanzo had never bothered to ask and Cole had never volunteered the information.

With his head feeling somewhat better after his nap, he slips the postcard out from his sleeve to quietly look at the garish front picture for a while. The edges are starting to fray no matter how careful he is about handling it which… annoys him more than he would have thought possible.

He flips the card over eventually to stare at the back. There’s a picture here too, though this one has been put there by Genji himself. He looks a bit more grown-up than the last time Hanzo had seen him in person but still very much himself; standing in front of what he assumes is a diner and flipping off the camera with both hands. There’s a huge, carefree grin on his face.

Hanzo’s thumb slides over one of Genji’s hands, petting it as if his brother’s complete disregard of manners was something cute.

He startles when the door is suddenly opened, instinctively pushing back against his side of the door and reaching for the small pocket knife that he… realizes is no longer where he had tucked it away.

Seeing that it is only the fat bastard slipping back into the cabin for a moment, Hanzo can focus on patting himself down, anger bubbling low in his stomach. When… where…?!

He’s about to accuse Cole of stealing from him when he realizes that the most likely culprit is the asshole he tried to ride with just before meeting the fat bastard. The corners of his mouth pull down and he carefully slips the postcard back where it belongs.

“Somethin’ the matter?”

He looks up just in time to see that Cole is glancing at him before focusing back on a paper he got pressed against the steering wheel and is carefully filling out.

“No,” Hanzo mutters. “We going?”

Cole replies on an exasperated sigh: “Soon. Gotta check some things over and then we’ll grab the next cargo.”

Hanzo frowns slightly. “So soon?”

“Yeah. Always got some jobs lined up in advance. Don’t wanna have a lull, ya know?”

Hanzo doesn’t know, not really, but he nods even so, just sitting there quietly until finally they get back on the road.

[miraculouscontent]

*rubs hands together*

The first thing to talk about with this episode is the pacing, and I think this might contribute to why people think it’s the best/least bad of Season 4 (personally, I’d rather watch “Furious Fu” but that’s just me; also, this isn’t the only contributing factor as to why I think people might feel this way, but I’ll get there later).

The episode has a very serious pacing issue, particularly with its more intense scenes. There’s only one minute of time dedicated to Ladybug landing on her bed, de-transforming, and her snapping at her friends plus them leaving. More time was spent on Chat Noir and Ladybug in the movie theater and Ladybug storming out.

I particularly remember watching the episode and getting eighteen minutes in, at which point I had the realization of, “It feels like nothing’s happened?”

This episode is supposed to be a big gut punch, but the season has been going by at the speed of sound, like they’re trying desperately to play all their cards at once (Lukanette break-up, Adrimi break-up, then Alya is told Marinette’s secret identity). Instead of letting things build and play out for a while in the interest of suspense, the show just throws whatever will get a big reaction out of the fandom (whether positive or negative) and it doesn’t care how shoddily put together everything is. The first two episodes feel like hastily put together drafts, and while this one is technically more put together, it still feels like a draft.

Let’s just start with Chat Noir, who feels completely out of place in the episode. Not only does he imply that he intentionally calls Ladybug “Bugaboo” (which she has told him to stop doing) in order to get a reaction out of her, but when Ladybug insists that she doesn’t want to talk, he tricks her into thinking that he has a good location to do so (and my heart breaks a little at how readily she trusts him) only to then take her to a romantic movie, then shush her when she calls him out for it because she “said she didn’t want to talk.”

Gee, and people wonder why she didn’t tell him her secret (even outside of “Chat Blanc” existing)?

And... look, I know it’s a joke, but I do not find it funny. The “joke” is basically that Chat Noir is taking advantage of the situation to flirt with Ladybug, and though I find it at least mildly cathartic that Ladybug is unaffected by all the people staring at them while Chat Noir is embarrassed, this episode is coming right after the one where Kagami broke up with Adrien, and here Chat Noir is getting his flirt game on. I already talked about all my problems with “Lies” so I won’t do it again, but I’ll just say that it’s not a mystery why Ladybug doesn’t want to talk to him and would rather avoid her problems.

(Not to mention that Ladybug knows that Chat Noir likes her, so talking about her romantic problems with him is awkward to say the least and would come off as insensitive.)

Honestly, at this point I feel like they must be building to something with Chat, like Ladybug finally going off of him with no mercy and that forces him to give up/fall out of love for her because reverse love square, but if that’s what they intend to go for, then that means Marinette is going to fall for this guy who’s repeatedly disrespected her feelings for multiple seasons, almost abandoned her and let Paris drown because she wouldn’t tell him a secret that wasn’t hers to tell, and just generally all the other things he did????

Ugh, I don’t wanna think about it. Let’s just move on.

Talking about Ladybug and her rant next, it basically summarizes the whole show in a nutshell, but simultaneously casts a shadow of sorts over “Truth” for people who maybe missed the episode entirely (which is also sort of the show in a nutshell). I mean, Ladybug confirming to the audience that she was genuinely in love and happy with Luka (you can’t watch how depressed she was over the break-up and not think that) was great, but Ladybug’s dialog implies that Luka “hated secrets” and that’s why they broke up, when Luka was more just... hurt that she couldn’t be honest with him, and he didn’t actively hate secrets. Marinette broke up with him because she felt like she had to; because she had to keep ditching and lie to him.

In addition, what she says also hints to the audience that they’ve both held and kissed each other, which not only indicates cowardice on the part of the staff (”yeah this happened but--um--off-screen; we’d still like credit tho plz”), but may perhaps go back to the theory I had about how Adrimi and Lukanette were supposed to last longer in Season 4 but their arcs got cut (based on the Adrimi kiss having supposed to have gone off). This could mean that Ladybug’s statement was originally accurate to canon but the scenes got cut and the scriptwriters just awkwardly left it in, which is made more awkward by the cinema scene in “Truth” that felt like Luka and Marinette were kissing for the first time (again, alluding to the whole, “this entire season has been a draft” thing).

Also, if you think about what that actually means - that Luka and Marinette did have successful dates and kisses but they were off-screen - then all it adds up to is that showing Marinette happy and comfortable was something that the series didn’t deem as “interesting/fun enough” to show, because Marinette being happy isn’t something they want to see; only watching her be miserable, which is exactly what Ladybug says, along with how everything was “almost too simple, too easy,” because Marinette isn’t allowed to have nice things without being jammed through the wringer first.

And... sure, let’s say that Chat Noir thought the movie was genuinely a good idea; let’s assume that it could be a joke, him wanting to flirt, and him believing that it’d make her feel better somehow.

If that’s the case, then where’s the apology when it fails miserably? Ladybug goes from her semi-anxious state at the start of the episode (a little scatterbrained but ultimately just looking for a distraction), to outright enraged by the movie, and then to this upon leaving the cinema.

She just got her heart broken from being forced to break up with a boy she genuinely wanted to be with and there’s not a single, “Okay, maybe coming here was a bad idea, I’m sorry,” (which could’ve been seen as another joke with the audience like “lol no duh Chat Noir” so there’s no excuse not to have it) or, “My bad, that was insensitive of me. I really thought this would’ve helped but I wasn’t thinking about what you would’ve wanted.”

No. The only people Chat apologizes to are the other people at the theater because he’s embarrassed by Ladybug’s reactions, yet he himself feels no remorse for taking her there and has the gall to go on now about how he’s “there for her if she wants to talk.”

Again, it’s no wonder Ladybug doesn’t want to open up to him.

And I’m sorry, I just don’t buy that Marinette suddenly has all this free time. It’s one thing for her to have a little more time now that she’s broken up with her boyfriend (likely avoiding spending time with him altogether now), but “Truth” went out of its way to talk about all of the emergencies she had to deal with and how she doesn’t have any spare time. which is causing her to become forgetful and lose track of certain events (patrols with Chat, dates with Luka, etcetera), yet Marinette spends most of “Gang of Secrets” simply sulking on her bed. It’s so jarring to go from “Truth” where she was doing “too much” (which I called them out on for not describing what the “too much” she was doing was) and now “Gang of Secrets” where she’s not doing anything.

It’s almost like they invented that plot point to break Lukanette up and it served no purpose outside of it.

Furthermore, the scenes of her finally talking to Tikki and then deciding to live as Ladybug does nothing outside of making the plot more predictable, the latter because of the “Alya almost sees Ladybug” moment (an obvious indicator that Marinette is losing control and is struggling to maintain her secret identity due to her emotionally breaking down) and the former because of Tikki herself and what she doesn’t say.

Because, really, think about what actually goes on in the scene. Marinette (eyes rimmed red and filled with unshed tears, as she is for a good chunk of the episode) is venting to Tikki about - yes - her love life, but also that she has to lie to everyone in order to keep her identity a secret. The fact that Tikki focuses solely on the note of Marinette’s love life and not say a word about the identity/lying issue or even consider telling Marinette, “hey, this is clearly too much for you, you should tell someone, I think the benefits outweigh the risks right now,” really proves that the episode tried to avoid the topic altogether to try and make the ending more shocking (which ironically made it more predictable).

So yeah, not only does Tikki’s dialog with Marinette provide nothing except for a line about how she can’t help Marinette with love issues due to kwami not falling in love (alright, I guess aros can’t give good love advice then or have any input whatsoever), but Marinette’s line about lying to everyone being why she can’t pursue Adrien nor Luka is repeated in the very last scene of the episode. The only reason that scene and the scene after exist is because the writers needed Marinette to be emotionally devastated enough to leave for her balcony as Ladybug for the almost-reveal to Alya and so Rose would get close enough to the dollhouse to have an almost-reveal with the Miracle Box, making the scene feel further contrived because the emotional punch of Marinette wanting to live as Ladybug lasts for barely any time at all.

And it could’ve served a purpose, like if Ladybug had genuinely left and Alya finds her goggles and towel, recognizing them from a news story about how Ladybug had gone to the swimming pool after losing her temper at the cinema, which could’ve led to Shadow Moth making the girls believe that Ladybug was no longer heroic and had kidnapped Marinette, or... heck, Ladybug coming back inside would’ve been so much less jarring if she came back because she heard the girls’ voices talking about the dollhouse and had to hurry (but of course, then they’d have to point out the ridiculousness of Ladybug not hearing Alya calling her and the girls not hearing Ladybug literally shouting for Shadow Moth to come fight her, even though the kwami heard the girls calling for Marinette from the balcony).

But instead, the entire scene feels off and unnatural, forcing every part of it in order to get to where Marinette has to snap at the girls to make them leave.

(Oh, by the way, just a little detail to add to the annoyance: they bothered putting Tom and Sabine in the episode when the girls are leaving, clearly saddened by something that happened, and neither parent even bothers to go and check on Marinette to see if she’s upset or just to see what might’ve happened. They’re such a “blink-and-you’ll-miss it” moment in the episode and it’s not like I’m surprised because they’ve done this multiple times by now but really?)

As for the girls themselves... oof, where do I even begin?

Alright, first off is the annoyance that they assume Marinette’s problems relate only to lovesickness. Marinette has been an anxiety-prone mess throughout the entire series, and suddenly now the girls care about Marinette’s love problems on an emotional level rather than “we’ll meddle sometimes unless we don’t feel like it and be wholly inconsistent on how much we push for it.”? It’s not that I don’t see how they came to the conclusion (hearing that Luka and Marinette broke up and now seeing Marinette is depressed, it checks out), but considering they bothered noting that Marinette hadn’t told them anything, one would think they’d come to the conclusion of, “okay, we haven’t talked to her, we have no idea of what’s going on, maybe we don’t know her as well as we thought then and shouldn’t make guesses.”

Secondly is the “eternal friendship bracelet,” which comes off as a copy of the “Secrets” game from “Syren” extremely manipulative. Mylene goes on to explain that one is supposed to give a secret to the pearl “mentally,” yet when the girls actually show up to see Marinette, they expect to be told the secret directly. I’ve already talked at length about peer pressure and the mental stress Marinette goes through when they mock her and/or meddle for her, but this idea of, “well we all used this friendship bracelet after we mutually agreed to it so now it’s your turn because we said so!” just comes off really bad. I know the episode is going for this idea that their hearts are in the right place, but they’re really not. It feels like they’re the ones in denial and are trying to compensate by forcing Marinette to prove that they’re friends, unable to handle the idea that they might not be as close to her as they thought.

Thirdly, the show acts as if the girl squad are her only friends when we know that’s not true because we’ve seen episodes like “Befana” (the guys in the class), “Reverser” (Marc), “Ikari Gozen” (Kagami), and “Silencer” (Ivan) that all established Marinette having more friends than just them, but for the sake of “drama” and the depressing line of, “at least I don’t have any more friends to lie to,” the episode just pretends like Marinette’s friends are limited to Luka (who she had to break up with) and the girl squad (who she forced to leave and refuse the friendship of).

Fourthly is the actual set-up and the sheer grossness of it all. The girls call Marinette and leave a message about how they much they love her and how she can talk to them “where and when” she wants, and then - immediately afterwards - decide that they’re going to go straight to Marinette’s house completely unannounced, go into her room completely unannounced (not even knocking, by the way), and when Marinette begs them to leave, Alya basically tells her that she’s overreacting. When Marinette demands that they leave, Alya refuses and makes demands right back that they won’t leave until she tells them what’s wrong.

So much for “where and when” she wanted, right? It’s already one thing for the girls to invade Marinette’s privacy and demand/guilt-trip answers out of her, but it’s another thing to give the illusion of respecting her feelings and personal space only to actively plan to go back on it. I can’t tell if it’s a bad draft that they didn’t catch in quality check (you know, the quality check that they definitely don’t have) or just an intentional way to make them seem more sympathetic so Marinette looks worse for driving them out, but either way, it’s awful and I hate it. I would’ve rather had them be all in on invading Marinette’s privacy and learn a lesson in the end than outright contradict themselves.

There are also little nitpicks I could make (like Juleka’s constant mumbling despite Luka’s crush on Marinette playing a role in the episode, Horrificator getting sidelined due to being mute, and the girls’ akumatization ultimately being for spectacle and nothing else, serving no purpose to the plot and being furthered by the fact that Timebreaker goes after Marinette despite it being a bad idea and Reflekta’s power clearly not lining up with any sort of plan), but the real issue issue here comes down to the fact that these are Marinette’s so-called “friends” and the episode refuses to address their actual issues.

Alix, who is known for making rude comments at Marinette (”Gigantitan,” “Chat Blanc,” “Miraculous New York”) and then gives mixed messages by going along with meddling anyway.

Mylene, who is the closest thing to a background character in the girl squad but nevertheless finds her way into being definite voice against Marinette in “Chameleon.”

Juleka, who blamed Marinette for things she didn’t do in “Reflekdoll” and got huffy with her until Marinette apologized for said things.

Rose, who outright screamed at Marinette in “Chat Blanc” over a freaking stuffed animal, which pressured Marinette enough that she snuck into Adrien’s room to deliver her gift which nearly led to the end of the world.

And, of course, Alya; freaking Alya. I don’t even have to go into every single thing she’s ever done because I have a history of giving her absolutely no mercy.

...But let’s go through some anyway because I want to.

“Copycat” - Alya gives Marinette a script and tells her to memorize it, then immediately pushes the “call” button when Marinette hesitates after Marinette had just told Alya that she’s awful at improv.

“Darkblade” - Alya takes a jab at Marinette when Marinette says that she’s too busy to be class representative, implying that Alya thinks that Marinette does absolutely nothing with her time.

“Gamer” - Alya is busy recording the gaming competition when she and Marinette were supposed to be researching for a term paper. Alya then scolds Marinette for wanting to use the competition to get close to Adrien only to do a 180 and put up a fight about it when Marinette decides to quit.

“Animan” and how “The Puppeteer 2″ follows up on it - oh, I’m not going to touch that particular point right now, but keep those in the back of your mind, because I am going to absolutely go off later

“Simon Says” - Similarly to Marinette’s parents, Alya gives zero damns about whatever might be going on in Marinette’s life that's causing her to miss classes.

"Despair Bear” - Alya laughs at Marinette being forced to kiss Chloe’s cheek and then outright compares Marinette to Chloe after knocking Chloe multiple times during the episode (sure, just compare your “best friend” to her multi-year bully, how "hilarious” of you).

“Gigantitan” - Alya has no qualms about mocking Marinette’s over her failures, even if it embarrasses her and she’s been through enough already.

“Frozer” - Alya tries to find ways for Marinette to prevent herself from third-wheeling for Adrien, but when Marinette tries to show character growth by wanting to go, Alya gets into a shouting match with the other girls over how Marinette has “liked Adrien forever and isn’t going to give up now”.

“Catalyst” - Alya claims that Marinette is only salty over Lila out of jealousy when “Frozer” exists and literally is the prime evidence of Adrien liking another girl and Marinette telling Alya outright and very genuinely that she’s not jealous.

“Chameleon” - Alya doesn’t care about her best friend sitting in the back by herself while Alya herself get to sit next to her boyfriend and everyone else in general gets to sit where they want (Alya even acting confused at the mere suggestion that she’d tried to engineer things to let Marinette sit next to Adrien), then not only believes Lila over Marinette but contradicts herself twice (asking Marinette for proof when she has none herself, then claiming that she wouldn’t let her best friend sit by herself).

“Christmaster” - Alya leaves Marinette to babysit so she and Nino can go out on a date.

“Desperada” - Alya suddenly is for Lukanette for literally one episode and doesn’t know how/doesn’t even try to cover for Marinette’s Adrien blindness despite mocking her for multiple seasons over it.

“Reflekdoll” - Alya invites Adrien to something that’s crucial for Marinette to focus on after Marinette has already told her not to and continues meddling to the point where it gets Juleka akumatized (she also doesn’t get punished for it and the blame gets thrown onto Marinette).

“The Puppeteer 2″ - Alya pushes her luck with Nathalie to try and get Marinette to come with her, Nino, Adrien, and Manon to the museum, then traps Marinette in a room with Adrien to force her to spent alone time with him, even abandoning and forgetting about the child that she offered to watch for Marinette so she and her boyfriend can go off alone.

“Miraculous New York” - Alya is told directly by Marinette that she needs help seeing Adrien as a friend, which leads Alya to do the exact opposite throughout the entire special, at one point shouting at Marinette and pressuring her to chase after a car, in the rain, while there’s a supervillain rampaging through Paris, and all of this right after the scheme that Alya had set up caused both Marinette and Adrien to go missing.

And just saying, as Marinette’s supposed “best friend,” Alya sure doesn’t know how to handle her. It was acceptable back in “The Bubbler” when she asked Marinette about signing the gift too late and the same goes for “Dark Cupid,” but by the time we get to late Season 2/3 and Alya refuses to learn Marinette’s weak spots (unless it’s to mock her) and adjust accordingly (like if she’d already made sure the gift was signed in “Chat Blanc,” which would’ve prevented Adrien seeing Ladybug at all due to the time difference), it starts getting infuriating.

A best friend is supposed to cover for their friend’s weaknesses. Alya doesn’t do that; she meddles and often drives Marinette’s anxiety even further up a wall with absolutely no consideration for Marinette’s feelings (”Dark Cupid,” “The Puppeteer 2,” “Reflekdoll,” “Miraculous New York”).

And here, she and the other girls are rewarded for it. Luka actively resisted his akumatization whereas the girls gave in immediately, yet Marinette still opens up to them in the end, likely because they had pressured her and made her feel bad for the secrets she was keeping while Luka was willing to actually wait for her to be ready to talk to him. I can’t put into words how frustrating it is watching these girls trample all over Marinette’s feelings, not have their worst actions called out, and then jump cut post-deakumatization to Marinette telling them exactly what they wanted to know about her love life.

You know what this entire episode is really missing, outside of a coherent plot, properly-paced development, and a basic understanding of rewarding a character for things they’ve held firmly to?

It’s missing the apology. Chat Noir apologizes to a bunch of moviegoers and Rose apologizes for the broken dollhouse, but no one apologizes to Marinette for how they treated her, especially not the “friends” who got rewarded in the end.

“Sorry, we shouldn’t have told you that we’d respect your feelings and then showed up unannounced to make you talk about them.”

“We’re sorry we came into your room and invaded your privacy. You were right to be mad at us.”

“Oh my gosh, Marinette, we got akumatized and we’re so sorry for literally all five of us going after you and probably scaring the living daylights out of you.”

And as if that wasn’t enough, guess what else this is missing? It’s kind of important and brought up directly in the episode, yet the episode simultaneously goes out of its way not to bring it up again.

It’s the reason why Marinette didn’t tell the girls about her relationship with Luka. It’s not there - it’s missing - and the girls never try to pursue the subject. They talk about how Marinette didn’t tell them but don’t think for a second that maybe it’s them who have failed as friends. Instead, they don’t guess anything about why Marinette wouldn’t tell them (which is already strange considering how much they already assume about her) and jump straight to, “well clearly we just need to push for her to talk to us.”

Gonna just go out on a limb here and say that maybe - just maybe - Marinette didn’t tell them because they are habitually pushy in everything they do.

Because they would’ve teased her relentlessly about, “ohhhh you’ve got eyes for Luka? what about Aaaaaadrien~? aren’t you sooo tooorn between both of these cute guys?”

Because they would’ve meddled to force her and Luka together and gotten on her case when/if she ever had to bail on him.

Because their intrusion on her feelings for Adrien had caused her nothing but problems and she just wanted to be with Luka in peace without them forcing their way into things.

Because--hey, wild thought--maybe they’re not really friends???

But the episode completely avoids it, because that would’ve meant addressing it; it would’ve meant acknowledging that they messed up, which - fun fact - they actually don’t do in the episode.

They invaded Marinette’s privacy, insisted that she tell them how she feels (not about them of course because that would imply that they felt like they screwed up), and in the end it’s Marinette who gives them exactly what they asked of her, and the closest thing we get to acknowledging anything is Alix telling her/joking with her that they’ll help her confess to whoever she likes as soon as she tells them she’s ready.

That’s not an apology. That’s not an acknowledgment of wrongdoing. Even when the five of them are about to get akumatized, it’s not a circle of them saying, “here’s how I screwed up, I could’ve done better but I didn’t and I lost Marinette because of it.”

No. It’s just them talking about how sad the situation is. Mylene has the closest thing to remorse in saying, “I hoped it would work,” but where does it go? A grand total of nowhere, especially because Marinette still takes the bracelet in the end instead of the girls mutually deciding, “okay, maybe the bracelet was a bad idea; how about we all agree on making something together instead, no requirements attached?”

And then the episode has the gall to act as if Alya has gone through character growth when all they did was put Alya through the same thing that Chloe did. I’ll explain that last bit momentarily, but first let’s talk about the whole “growth” thing.

Because there’s no apology or acknowledgement of wrongdoing, all Alya does when she’s finally alone with Marinette is do a 180 from where she was at the start of the episode, going from, “friends have to tell each other everything,” to, “hey, if you don’t want to tell me, then that’s your right.”

The crucial part that’s supposed to go in the middle is missing. Instead of acknowledging her failures, Alya just cuts straight to “””being a better friend,”““ but storytelling doesn’t work that way.

It literally would have taken zero effort to fit an acknowledgement into that scene. “You don’t have to tell me everything, I get that now. All my meddling’s done is hurt you and I’m so sorry. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t trust me.”

In a world where Marinette has to apologize for everything, has to learn lessons and suffer because the narrative says so, I will not accept anything less from other characters who are trying to develop and improve. That’s not fair to Marinette, nor has it ever been.

Instead of properly developing Alya, the show does whatever it can to get its audience to root for her as Marinette’s “best friend” (ugh) without having to put in the effort of admitting that Alya hasn’t been Marinette’s “best” friend.

Remember when I brought up Chloe? Yeah, “Malediktator” did a similar thing, showing Chloe doing something awful, then being sad (while not actually acknowledging the thing she did wrong), and in the end she was rewarded with a miraculous prematurely.

One show of character from Chloe and Marinette gave her a miraculous. One show of character from Alya and Marinette told her that she was Ladybug.

(Also, for the record, I think Chloe is far worse than Alya character-wise and I’m not comparing their characters; this is just the simplest comparison I can draw here from a narrative standpoint.)

“Miraculer” is another apt comparison, perhaps even more so. Chloe got Hawk Moth in her head after an akuma landed in her photo of her and Ladybug, but Chloe resisted and fought back, ultimately forcing the akuma out of her and freeing herself from Hawk Moth’s control.

But it wasn’t to develop her character; no, it was to convince the audience of Chloe and Sabrina’s friendship so they’d feel something during Sabrina’s happy flashbacks, then lay the foundation of tricking viewers into believing that Chloe might not go to Hawk Moth’s side.

At the end of the day, it was doing something that’s “never been done before” in order for the character to earn brownie points for something that the writers can just have them do because willpower is an easy thing to just write in. “Gang of Secrets” does the exact same thing when Lady Wifi breaks free from Shadow Moth, with Ladybug even hammering it home by talking about how no one’s ever done it before.

And the pacing is - again - awful. Not only is Ladybug banking on this working when she herself says that it’s never been done, but the conversation between her and Lady Wifi where Ladybug tries to convince her doesn’t even take a minute.

It also has nothing to do with Marinette herself; Ladybug relies on Alya’s adoration/friendship with her as Ladybug (you know, after Alya took a photo of LadyNoir kissing and posted it online without Ladybug’s consent, betrayed her by putting information on the LadyBlog that Hawk Moth was able to take advantage of, and is the only hero outside of Chloe to resist returning a miraculous) in order to break from Hawk Moth’s control, because talking about Marinette with Lady Wifi didn’t even work.

(Ladybug also uses her yoyo as a portal to the Miracle Box when this has never been pre-established to be a thing despite Ladybug acting as if she knew it was; further proof that this episode was rushed.)

And of course talking about Marinette didn’t work, because that would’ve meant convincing Alya that her reason for getting akumatized was “wrong” and the episode didn’t want to do that. It didn’t want someone else actually learning something and feeling bad; surely, this is just Alya being manipulated by Shadow Moth and having the power to break free because Ladybug “needs Rena Rouge” and not because Lady Wifi and her friends are chasing after their supposed best friend and that’s--you know--wrong???

Rena Rouge’s reappearance is also yet another thing the episode refuses to address because it avoids the topic of “but my identity--”. At least “Heart Hunter” had the tact to have Kagami question why Ladybug was giving her the dragon again, but “Gang of Secrets” treads as lightly as possible on any discussion of identities outside of Marinette saying that she can’t, as if it were Marinette who made the choice of concealing her identity and not the basic idea of heroing that has been stressed over and over for the whole show.

Even Plagg of all kwami stated back in “Origins” that no one is supposed to know about secret identities, a rule that continues becoming flaky and muddled with each passing season, almost like they kept attempting to retcon and make the audience dulled to the idea so that the reveal in “Gang of Secrets” would be more acceptable.

But now, with the way they did it and how they don’t even have Tikki comment on the matter, it once again has it look like they’re making it - say it with me, everyone - Marinette’s fault.

Alya says that Marinette has a choice in telling her secret, Marinette insists that she doesn’t and goes on and on about how it’ll change everything, and then just... tells Alya her secret in the end.

And remember all the way back in Season 2? “Sapotis”?

Alya: What were you saying about her secret identity?

Marinette: Ladybug needs it to protect her family and friends. Otherwise the villains could use them to get to her.

Alya: Well, if I knew who Ladybug really was, I'd keep it a secret. I would even help her! Like say, if you were Ladybug, I'd cover for you — when you needed to transform in school, go fight the "baddies", you know?

Marinette: Oh yeah? Well, if I was Ladybug I wouldn't even tell you, to protect you from the "baddies", you know?

Alya: You serious? If I was Ladybug, I'd totally tell you! Because I tell my best friend everything.

And now here we are in “Gang of Secrets,” as if the narrative is saying, “See, Marinette? Alya was right all along, you were just being ridiculous and making yourself suffer for no reason!”

Yet Marinette had a right to keep her secrets. When Alya and Nino learned each other’s identities, Alya took a hit for Nino in “Catalyst” and both of them fell to Scarlet Moth’s akumas. Chloe was a mess and a half because of Hawk Moth knowing her identity. Fu had told Marinette that her miraculous would get taken if she and Chat Noir learned each other’s identities.

The only ones who received no consequences due to someone knowing their identity were Pegase (who Chat Noir and Markov knew), Ryuko (who Chat Noir, Ikari Gozen, and Hawk Moth knew), and Viperion (who Adrien knew). “Chat Blanc” also exists where Marinette got the impression that people discovering her identity would be a disaster, and even all the way back in “Lady Wifi” insisted that not telling anyone her identity was “listening to her head and not her heart,” and the narrative has relentlessly humiliated her for going with her heart, so yeah, probably for the best.

I hate that the episode avoids talking about anything identity-related outside of what comes out of Marinette’s mouth to make it appear like it was her choice all along. I hate that they had Tikki fixate on Marinette’s love problems instead of having her actually support Marinette and admit that Marinette should tell someone before she has a mental breakdown. I hate that the episode inserts Rena Rouge into the plot as if to brush all identity issues away so as to make Marinette’s identity reveal seem less jarring.

Now, of course I’m glad Marinette told someone. Of course I want her to get love and support from someone. Of course I think the benefits outweigh the risks, or I wouldn’t have written multiple fix-its where her identity gets revealed in some way or someone already knows.

But I didn’t want it to be Alya, because I knew how they’d do it. I knew they’d do it wrong and I knew that they wouldn’t have the courage to address Alya’s issues properly.

Those familiar with my blog will know that I’d been taking negative predictions for future seasons for a while and adding them to cards whenever they were proven right. Does anyone remember the Season 4 predictions that were proven correct for “Gang of Secrets,” specifically these ones?

- “Alya will suddenly be portrayed as a good/worthy friend to Marinette in/if there's an episode where Marinette tells her that she's Ladybug”

- “Alya resisting Shadow Moth/fighting back against him will be used to excuse telling Alya Marinette's secret identity“

- “Alya will know that Marinette is Ladybug first because "BFFs" despite being one of the worst candidates for it“

- “The secret that broke Lukanette up will be resolved in episode 3 when Marinette tells Alya“

Each and every one of those were mine, because I knew that whether Season 4 had a proper chronological order or not, the writers would not have the guts to develop Alya first and then have Marinette tell her in a future episode after Alya has properly earned it.

I knew that they wouldn’t take time to develop Alya. I knew that they would have Alya resist Shadow Moth to make Alya look “worthy” of the secret. I knew that Alya would swoop in during the last minute and a half of an episode, insisting that Marinette “didn’t have to tell her anything” when Alya had been pushy and insistent for the entire rest of the episode and the whole series in general, and would ultimately be rewarded with the big secret simply because she’s “the best friend” and that’s it.

The Alya at the end of the episode isn’t the Alya I’ve known for the entire rest of the series before this, or at the very least they turned her into an Alya I don’t recognize.

Alya claims during the ending scene that she knows that Marinette is hiding something beyond her love problems because she - as a reporter and “her best friend” - can sense such things, and all I’m left wondering is

w h e r e ?

Where and when has Alya been suspicious or worried about Marinette keeping a secret from her? What, back in “The Pharoah” where she didn’t immediately disregard Marinette for the role of Ladybug, or “Simon Says” where she vaguely teased Marinette about having a double life, both Season 1 episodes?

Where was Alya in “Truth” saying that she didn’t know Marinette’s secret but knew that she was keeping one? Where was Alya anywhere in Season 3 being concerned that Marinette hasn’t told her something? Where was this “supposedly very observant” Alya when Marinette needed her to out Lila because Lila got her expelled--oh wait, Alya “observed” that Lila did nothing and Marinette was just jealous.

What, is it only now that Alya suddenly “knows” that Marinette is hiding something else? Now, after Alya has already not known that Marinette was literally dating someone, even when Alya had multiples pictures of Marinette and said someone giving each other heart eyes and saw Marinette leaving school with said someone riding on the same bike together, you know, like normal, typical, average friends would?

Where’s the line where Alya acknowledges the problem? Where’s Alya sitting down with Marinette and admitting, “hey, I’m sorry I haven’t noticed this stuff, but I promise I’ll do better starting right now, and that’s how I know now that you’re hiding something else, and I’m sorry it took me so long to realize that it’s been hurting you”?

I can’t tell you where it is, but I can say that it’s certainly not in this episode. 60% of the episode features the Alya we knew from the rest of the series and then switches her out the second she’s de-akumatized for another Alya who hasn’t done anything that the old one has because she pretends like it didn’t happen.

You know how I know? Because of this absolute gut punch of a line that showed that the series wanted to handwave everything away.

“I know how to keep a secret.”

...Really? Does she now? Well, I hope everyone remembered my point about “Animan” and “The Puppeteer 2,” because I’m bringing it right back.

Considering that “Truth” has been burned into all of our memories, we all definitely remember when Truth shoots Alya and questions her on Marinette’s secret, to which Alya states that Marinette’s secret is, “She’s in love with Adrien Agreste.” Now, at the time of Season 4′s airing, this is very much not a secret, as most characters already knew about Marinette’s crush, to the point where it’d been broadcast on television during Season 2.

But do you know when it was actually a secret? Back in Season 1, specifically in the episode “Animan” where Alya told Nino.

And not only did she tell Nino, but she lied to Marinette by claiming that she didn’t, acting as if Nino knew that Marinette had a crush but didn’t know who she was crushing on, which is then directly proven false as Nino accidentally implies that he does know who it is. This is also after Alya had gotten on Marinette’s case for trying to set her up with Nino, and then she had the gall to say that she wouldn’t spill Marinette’s secret because she, and I quote, “doesn't go around making decisions for other people,“ a statement that is directly contradicted by this little thing known as everything Alya has ever said and done in the entire series.

And while Marinette meddling in Alya’s love life actually ended up working out for Alya, Alya meddling in Marinette’s by telling Nino who Marinette is crushing on comes back to bite Marinette - not Alya (because of course) - in the infamous episode of “The Puppeteer 2,” where Marinette realizes that Alya really did tell Nino that she was crushing on Adrien.

Marinette: You told me you wouldn't tell Nino!

Alya: I haven't told him. Right, Nino? I didn't tell you anything. (elbows him)

Nino: She didn't tell me. And besides, I told her I wouldn't tell.

Then, when she’s called out on it, Alya lies again, and shamelessly so.

Marinette: Why did you tell Nino everything? You promised you wouldn't!

Alya: I didn't, I swear! Besides, even if I had told him everything, he would still be clueless. Ugh, who cares anyway? I've set everything up with Nino, who doesn't know a thing, so you can finally pour your heart out to Adrien, girl!

And now, here we are one season later - and not even half of a season if you go by production code order - and Alya claims that she knows how to keep a secret.

No. No, she does not. In fact, she does even worse because she won’t even admit when she’s spilled said secret. I absolutely refuse to accept that Alya is “worthy” or “deserving” of learning that Marinette is Ladybug when she couldn’t even keep a basic secret like who her friend was crushing on.

And no, it didn’t matter that Nino was her boyfriend, or that maybe she thought it would work out because Nino was friends with Adrien. By that logic, Alya would tell Adrien that Marinette is Ladybug if she heard that Ladybug is who Adrien was crushing on and we all know how that would’ve gone.

Marinette has a right to tell her secret to whoever she wants and I’m glad that a burden has been lifted from her, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy that it’s Alya. That doesn’t mean I have to be happy that, after so many moments of Alya disrespecting Marinette’s feelings, she is the one who gets to hear the big secret that the fandom has been waiting for someone to find out about since the very start of the series.

Luka said it best in “Truth” that the truth is meant to be shared, not taken by force, but Marinette was forced to tell Alya by the narrative because Alya is her supposed “best friend.” It pushed Marinette to her breaking point, forced her to break up with the guy who has respected her agency and feelings since the day they met, and gave her a version of her “best friend” with the same name and face but with none of the responsibility from previous events so that said version was there at the right time and the right place to hear what had to be heard.

And in the end, I end up feeling nothing. Marinette doesn’t even have a “Marinette” reaction to saying it as one would expect; for her to blurt it out and then immediately start panicking until Alya hugs her to calm her down. Instead, Marinette just says it and stares silently at Alya - after blabbing this huge, very big deal of a secret - until Alya goes in for a hug (the “happy/hopeful” ending of which is why I feel like this episode also gets less flak, as the previous two ended off rather depressing/upsetting).

It’s off. Everything is off. The pacing, the delivery, and the logic that the episode uses. The emotion in Marinette’s voice when she’s rambling about how hard it is to keep her secret is so powerful, but then the ending hits and she just says it, breaking the momentum they had going. They pulled the card of Alya walking away too soon when they could’ve saved it, having Marinette go quiet and letting Alya take a few steps away in order to let the moment build before Marinette finally blurts out the secret she’s been painfully holding in.

But they didn’t, and I’m so many levels of dissatisfied. I wasn’t against the idea of Alya learning Marinette’s secret at some point (though honestly, Alix would’ve been a better pick considering that Bunnyx will know eventually anyway, and I say that not even liking Alix!), but not now; not when Alya had so much to work towards.

And now what? What happens now? Now Alya will turn against Lila, not because she learned to have faith and believe in Marinette, but because Marinette is Ladybug, which disproves Lila’s ultimate lie that got Alya’s attention in the first place? Now Alya will be supportive and less teasing/mocking whenever Marinette will be late, not because she understands that Marinette isn’t perfect and has so many other things on her mind, but because she’s Ladybug and has “hero stuff” to take care of? Now Alya will be careful about what she puts on the LadyBlog, not because she respected Ladybug and what Ladybug would want, but because Ladybug is now her best friend and that changes everything?

Because now, Alya has a free pass to all of that, the show making her spontaneously “developed” now so they won’t have to develop her later, and disappointing doesn’t even begin to describe it.

[moral-turpitudes]

Just Business:

Trigger Warnings: Angst, Some Fluff, Slight smut?, Swearing, Drinking, Neglect, Fighting, Blood/Gore, etc.

Word Count: 3,195

Characters: Thomas Shelby x Female!Reader 

Requested by: Anon

Request: “Could you make one with Tommy where he married the reader for business purposes and she wants to make things work but he’s cold towards her so she spends most of her time with Charlie, and when the whole family have to go back to Small Heath they become close but he gets jealous. Angst/Fluff and Smut if you think it fits.”

Summary: A marriage done for business seemed fitting at first, but as tensions rise among the family, Tommy eventually finds it in him to love again, but it falls on deaf ears as Y/N struggles to cope with his antics. 

The clock struck midnight as you lied awake, the door ajar where Tommy had left to go to his study. He’d often leave you in the middle of the night when his thoughts became too much and when his emotions would threaten to take over. He had only cried around you once before, and it was when his wife Grace, had passed. Other days his mood would swing like a fragile ball on a pendulum, and you being one of his assistants at the company, you got to see almost every face of Thomas Shelby first hand, except one of genuine love. His love seemed to only be reserved for ghosts.

The next morning you would awake and hear Charlie crying, and scuffling down the hall looking for his father. He was a toddler, hell-bent on trying to run through the house any chance he got, so mornings were often spent chasing him around the vast expanse of rooms. Unfortunately, Tommy was already gone for the day, leaving you and the nanny to care for him until it was time for you to come in during the afternoon.

At some points while at home, you swore you could feel the portrait above the stairwell giving you daggers as you carried Charlie up to his room, Grace’s glistening, painted eyes boring a hole into your soul. Tommy hadn’t been the only one affected by her sudden death though, as the whole family was facing his wrath lately.

Your marriage had been a quick business arrangement ordered by Polly. She grew tired of Tommy’s antics, thinking him finding someone else would help him move on despite Grace’s death being only 6 months prior. And so here you were: a diamond ring and signed paper here, a nice dress and a family portrait of fake smiles there, and nothing but tense conversations and awkward attempts at affection getting you by until now.

Tommy was never one for love, at least not with you. You knew that deep down the only time that he seemed to love you was when he fucked you on the nights that the business became too much for him. When he’d come home needing some sort of release that wasn’t opium or whiskey, something to keep the memories of Grace and the shovels at bay, if only for a little while.

As the clock down the hall drew nearer to noon, you finally got Charlie down for a nap and got ready for work, a tear threatening to flow down your cheek as you put on your makeup, thinking about how much you had loved him secretly, even before Grace died. You’d always steal glances at him and would stay after to help him with paperwork, and it didn’t take long for Polly to know. She hated Grace, seeing as she betrayed them years before, almost destroying the family. But she’d always see the way you interacted with him and the rest of the boys and Ada, and how you immediately helped with Charlie when things got too much for Tommy. She loved you and the rest of the family did too, seeing as you were one of his most loyal assistants, and so it only made sense at the time that maybe you would be the perfect fit for Tommy. You never wanted his wife dead, and you could’ve gone your whole life just admiring from afar like all the other women would do on the streets, but you didn’t think you’d end up how you were now. Taking the place of his dead wife, being a step-mom to Charlie, and trapped in a loveless marriage to the man you felt so strongly towards.

As you blotted your tears away, you quickly finished up your makeup. Attempting to look somewhat alive despite your loneliness inside. If it wasn’t for this union being for “the sake of the business” as Tommy harshly put it when you’d overheard him talking to Polly, you’d be out finding someone who actually loved you, but in your twisted turn of events this was what had to be done.

The nanny came by the room, giving you a sympathetic glance as you tightened the belt around your waist that was accentuating your dress, you mentally kicking yourself for wearing such a revealing dress without thinking about the cold weather outside.

“I’ll have Charlie for the rest of the day as usual Mrs. Shelby, and I’ll let the maid know to straighten up and the cooks to start prepping for dinner later.” She said softly.

“Alright, thank you...truly. I...I mean we don’t know what we’d do without you all. I know Tommy doesn’t say much...but thank you for all your work.” You say, giving her a small hug. She was your only friend in the house it seemed. She’d help you when you’d drink yourself into a crying fit when Tommy was off on business, and she’d listen to you when you needed reassurance on if it was the right choice by marrying him.

“If he didn’t love you, you’d be sleeping elsewhere my dear. He’ll wise up, just give him time.” She would say, helping you back to the bedroom on those cold, dreary nights.

As you left the insanely large house you drove out onto the gravel roads, nearing Small Heath gradually. Your heart raced as you parked the car along the black dirt roads, the smell of burning wood filling your nose as the sounds of pounded metal filled your ears from the warehouses in the distance.

Other women and children would move out of your way as you swiftly walked down the narrow sidewalks and through the doors of the shop. The sound of papers flipping and typewriters clicking as you made your way silently over to your desk that was next to Tommy’s office.

“Good afternoon Y/N how was the drive?” Polly asked sitting near you. You sighed and looked at the stack of papers on the desk as you answered.

“It was fine. Quiet as usual up until arriving here of course.” You said with a small smile. You hoped she wouldn’t see the silent pain behind your eyes but you knew she did because she lingered there for a bit longer.

“Trouble at home?” She asked, her eyes flicking to Thomas as he sat in his office smoking a cigarette and looking at his own stack of papers.

“Always.” You said shortly, getting out your own cigarette and lighting it.

“Am I doing something wrong Pol? I’ve tried my best to be there for him. To be there for Charlie. To try to love him even though he couldn’t give a damn about me...” You said looking out at the lobby of the shop, wanting to be anywhere but here.

“You’re doing the best you can my dear. I’ll have a talk with him.” She said, an annoyance in her voice as she said the last part.

“Thank you.” You said as she walked off, knocking hard on Tommy’s door. You could see in through one of the windows, but you willed yourself not to look at him as your anger bubbled up inside you.

The stack of papers in front of you seemed like a mountain at the time, business proposals, unsigned license agreements, betting numbers, bank statements, anything and everything under the sun needing to be signed by the end of the day, and so while you heard Tommy shouting at Polly, you poured yourself into your work.

After awhile you saw Polly leave in a hurry and so you got up, following her out the door with your coat draped over you.

“Where are you going Polly?” You asked, the chilled air almost taking your breath away.

“To the Garrison. I need a drink. Do you care to join?” She asked.

“I thought you’d never ask.” You said sighing in relief as you both hurried into the bar. The familiar scent of smoke and whiskey filling your nose as a few people sat inside drinking their woes away.

“What will it be?” The bartender said.

“I’ll have a gin and tonic, what about you Y/N?” Polly said.

“Whiskey.” You said eyeing the bottle you’d grown to love only because of your bastard of a husband.

“He’s already rubbed off on you. Whiskey was never your drink till now.” Polly said sipping her gin.

“Well, now it is. Needed something strong enough to deal with his bullshit.” You said, knocking back a shot.

“What did he say when you talked to him?” You asked, bracing yourself for the worst.

“He told me that he’s wanting to move you and Charlie back here to Small Heath due to the recent gang problems.” She said.

“Is he mad? He can’t up and move right now! Why would he do that? He doesn’t care about us! I practically see his son more than he does.” You said, grabbing the bottle from behind the counter.

“Hey that’ll cost ya!” The bartender said. You and Polly shot him a look and he glanced at the huge rock on your finger.

“Oh...I apologize Mrs. Gray...and...Mrs. Shelby. It’s on the house.” He said before turning to serve the other patrons.

“Why would he fucking move us down here...if he doesn’t love me why would he want to protect me? I was just a fucking business deal after all...right?” You said, a tear slipping down your face as you knocked another shot back.

Polly glanced at her drink as she let you continue.

“He told me he wants to keep you safe because he loves you, I know my nephew well enough to see that he does love you, he’s just god-awful at showing it recently.” Polly said.

“Well when he wants to actually care about me more than his dead fucking wife then let me know.” You said before taking the shot glass and whiskey bottle and walking to one of the booths in the back of the bar.

Polly sighed and finished her drink, watching as a blonde haired man came over to your table and sat next to you, draping an arm around your shoulder.

The shots slowly made their way into your system as you poured yourself another one, barely acknowledging his presence at first.

“Why are you alone and wearing a dress like that with a ring around ya finger aye? Old husband getting ya down?” He asked, whiskey tainting his breath as he spoke in your ear.

“How about we go somewhere more quiet. I can love you like he couldn’t.” He said. You knocked back a couple more shots and smirked as you awkwardly ignored his advances and made flirty conversation to pass the time. Polly stiffly turned back to her drink, striking up a conversation with the bartender as you soon let your hand wander down the mans chest as he got closer.

You felt wrong for making moves on him as he wasn’t your husband, but at this point you had no love to really lose, or so you thought.

Just as you and the blonde haired man started making out, you heard the doors to the Garrison fly open, revealing your emotionless shell of a husband. His stoic face looking towards the bar to see Polly nursing another gin and tonic and chatting up the bartender.

“Thought you were working, Polly.” He said annoyed.

“I am. I’m trying to work on your love life because you won’t. I love you but you don’t know a good thing until it’s gone.” She said, her words stinging him a bit as he thought of Grace.

In the distance he heard a familiar giggle and his head shot up, his eyes glaring at the woman he desperately came to love, wearing a revealing evening dress, kissing and giggling with some blonde haired worker from god knows where.

“Is that what you call working on my love life Polly?” He said pointing to you in the distance, your face burning as the now half-drunk bottle of whiskey coursed through you, helping you not to have a care in the world as you giggled at the mans joke as he reached for your waist.

“If that’s what gets you to see reason, then yes.” Polly said sipping her drink as she watched you two making out.

“As much as I want to I can’t. I’m sorry...I’m married...” You said breathlessly, stopping his hands from traveling further.

“He doesn’t have to know.” He said.

You looked up through your slightly blurred vision to see the familiar peaked cap of your husband getting closer to your table.

“He already does.” You said, a nervous edge to your voice as you watched everything unfold before you.

Tommy yanked the man off you by the back of shirt and spun him around to where he was facing him.

“What are you doing here messing around with my fucking wife aye!?” He said pushing him roughly into the wall before landing a fist to his jaw.

The man smirked, spitting out blood right onto Tommy’s shirt before speaking.

“I was just about to do what you couldn’t.” He said.

You cringed and took another shot as you heard the sound of the mans jaw break as Tommy’s fist landed on his face once again, rendering him unconscious.

As you watched in silence, he grabbed his cap and cut a gash in his face that was deep enough to need stitches.

“Tommy stop!” You yelled, struggling to get up and stumbling towards him, nearly knocking him over. His breathing was ragged as you clutched onto him, his arms gripping your waist and steadying you.

“I-I can explain...” You said wiping a stray tear from your eye as you felt your mascara streaking down your face.

“Explain fucking what Y/N!? That you wanted to fuck him? Am I not enough for you? You had to go find some random man just because I’m busy?!” He said shouting loudly.

You shakily stepped forward looking him in his eyes which were burning like blue flames from jealousy.

“If I did why would you care? Just say it Thomas...you don’t fucking love me! You love Grace, and no woman will ever amount to her even though she’s six feet under. You’ve never loved me...and you just expect me to act like everything’s fucking fine, but it’s not!.....Hell! I even see your fucking son more than you do, now how is that love Thomas? If you don’t love me just say it. Because I’ve loved you as best I could...and I’ve loved you long before that. If you did love me, and I mean actually loved me...then this wouldn’t have been a “business deal” it would’ve been a proper fucking marriage!” You yelled, throwing your shot glass on the ground, watching as the glass shattered into a million sparkling pieces on the wooden floor.

He stood there silently as you stumbled off towards the restroom, shooing Polly away as you closed the door behind you and locked it. You practically collapsed on the floor sobbing as the cold tile soothed your burning skin, the room spinning the longer you laid there.

“What are you going to do Tommy?” Polly asked as she eyed him from her seat at the bar.

“I’m going to try to get my wife back. It’s not a fucking business deal anymore Pol. Never was. You think I didn’t notice the whispers from you and the lads when she’d leave the room? About how she liked me and how we’d be good together? You think I didn’t notice her eyes watching me as I worked despite being married to Grace? Of course I loved Grace but she’s not been the easiest fucking thing to get over. I know I’ve been a terrible husband, I can see it in Y/N’s eyes every day...I can see her withering away from me as well as Charlie and it kills me inside...I’m just not the best at loving people and you know that...ever since Grace died it’s like a part of me has too, but I’m going to get that back. I have to.” He said, his eyes glistening a bit as he headed for the restrooms.

He knocked lightly and waited before calling your name, panic coursing through him as you didn’t answer.

Without a second thought he shoved his shoulder into the door, busting the lock and stumbling in to find you on the floor barely conscious.

You mumbled something unintelligible as he crouched down and picked you up, bringing you out to his car as Polly followed quickly behind.

“My god where are you taking her?” She yelled over the start of the engine.

“Home. Tell the lads I’m taking the day off.” He said before speeding off towards the house.

Once there, he carried you to the lavish bathroom that connected to your all’s bedroom and sat you down in a chair. He quickly got a cold rag and wiped it on your forehead and around the rest of your face trying to keep you conscious. You perked up slightly at the cold sensation but were quickly overcome by the all too familiar feeling of nausea, your body cursing you as you stumbled towards the toilet almost blindly. Tommy held your hair back as best he could, waiting for what felt like ages for you to stop getting sick. With a weak hand you flushed and stumbled up, shakily brushing your teeth and staring at your tragic reflection in the mirror as Tommy kept an eye on you from the door frame. He held a pair of your sleepwear and one of his t-shirts in his beat up hands.

You looked at him as you grudgingly took the clothes from him, changing into them carefully as your balance was still shit.

After wrestling them on, you went straight for the bed, barely acknowledging Tommy’s presence as he watched you carefully.

“I’m going to bed Thomas. You can leave for all I care.” You said wrapping yourself in the plush covers and closing your eyes.

“I’m not leaving Y/N.” He said as you heard his footsteps softly move towards the bed. The mattress shifting a bit as he climbed in next to you, letting you snuggle up against him.

“You should be at work.” You mumbled.

He stroked your arm lightly as he laid there, an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips.

“I’m not going anywhere. Not while my wife’s a mess.” He said.

“Why should you care?” You asked, sleep threatening to take over.

“Because I love you, Y/N. I’ve just been terrible at showing it. To both you and Charlie. I love you and I’m not going to lose you. I can’t lose you.” He said quickly, knowing you’d fall asleep at any moment.

“Tell me you love me when I wake up then, because I won’t remember this.” You said, listening to his heartbeat as you let the darkness overtake you.

“I will, I promise.” He said, gently kissing the top of your head as he laid there with you, hoping sleep would take him too.

Tag List:

(If you’d like to be added/removed from the Thomas Shelby tag list, just shoot me an ask/message)

Main Tag List

@msbzowy, @nofckingfighting, @aranoburns, @sighonahurricane, @ugly-crying-over-bucky-barnes, @gaytommyshelby, @wowjeena, @fifty-shadesof-tommyshelby, @inglourious-imagines, @thebloodyshelbys, @tsolomons, @blinder-secrets, @reveparade, @shelby-fanatic, @ta-ka-shi-ma, @psychkunox, @peakyxtommy, @captivatedbycillianmurphy, @dreamwastakenx, @lovemissyhoneybee

[theyscreamjade]

Confessions

This is dedicated to a very special person, They’ve been here since I started and I wanted to show my appreciation for them. I hope you like! @twddybe4r 🤍

————————————————————————————————————————

"Why in the hell are we having this damn slumber party as if we're kids again?" Bakugo questioned while annoyed by the rather strange party that was suggested by Mina. You walked from the kitchen, holding the bowl of popcorn in your hand as Denki whined loudly from losing to Kirshima again. "Are you kidding me?! How do you do it?!" He screamed in frustration. 

It was a rather strange sight to see a collection of Pro-Hero's in a large basement. Shoto, Midoriya, Kaminari, Kirishima, Jiro (Who just left from a tour), Mina, Ochako, Momo, Hitoshi, and strange enough, Bakugo. It was a funny sight to see him walk in with his red friend by his side as always. It was a small get-together like old times ever since graduation. You were conflicted to see the explosive monster here. Before you two graduated, you and Bakugo were close, Kirishima and his relationship close. You two always trained together, when you would fight together it was like watching a perfect pair in the midst. You could handle his explosive matter while he began to mature a bit. When graduation came around, he gave the coldest shoulder possible and left you high and dry. 

You glanced at him before setting the large bowl on the mini-theater which was all inside one room.  Momo's parents gave her the large family home while they ventured off to their wildest dreams around the world, who would've thought the mansion was that big. The basement alone was the same size as a regular one-bedroom house. It contained a kitchenette with a stove, microwave, and two-door refrigerator. Everyone had their room with a bathroom inside. 

"This is starting to get boring!" Denki commented, whining as if he was five. Jiro looked at him confused before she shook her head, looking to Momo. "Do you have any board games or something?" She suggested as the Host started to think. "I usually have learning games from my childhood, I could make some cards." She thought as Denki shook his head. "Nah, I've got an idea! Let's play Seven minutes in heaven!" He announced as a few members groaned a bit. "What a dumbass idea!" Bakugo yelled annoyed as he rolled his eyes. 

"Come on! It'll be fun, You agree don't you, Lulu?" Denki asked, standing to his feet. He smiled, grabbing your hand as Kirishima's eyes widened a bit. "What about Truth or Dare?!" Izuku quickly suggested as well as regretting it. 

"Even better! Let's do it!" Denki responded as everyone prepared for the game. The adults sat in a circle in the middle of the warm plush carpet. You avoided eye contact with Bakugo while you sat between Momo and Izuku. The game started off great, laughter echoed within the basement as everyone confessed their issues and did the dares they had. "Okay, Okay, You guys can get off me having a crush on Gang Orca!" Mina said, embarrassed before she turned to you. "Alright then Lu, Truth or Dare?" She asked while you tried to calm yourself down. 

You smirked and looked at her, being the type to never back down from a challenge. "Dare." You answered as her eyes glowed a bit. "I dare you to text your crush." She said as you blew a raspberry. "I don't have one." You retorted. "Fine, Your high school crush." She said as your eyes widened. 

"I-I doubt he even has the same number." You spoke as Mina handed your phone to you. "Wouldn't hurt to try." She finished, holding your phone out to you. 

You reached out to grab your phone as the power suddenly snapped off as a large boom of thunder rumbled from upstairs. You silently thanked god before realizing you were surrounded by darkness. You quickly snapped your phone's flashlight on, seeing the confused students think of a plan to fix the issue. "Well, the generator's in the backyard, upstairs. Kirishima? Could you join me? I could use your help." Momo asked, walking towards the stairs that lead you upstairs.  "Yiu still gotta do the dare! You can't get away just like tha-" Mina's voice was silenced to the soft ringing noise of the gate's bell. "Pizza!" The microphone announced as Mina groaned. 

"Come on! Let's get this pizza and Soba!" She said, obviously annoyed knowing they ordered a bunch of things they were going to carry back to the house. The sounds of shoes leaving sent chills down your spine while you stayed completely still. You had a secret no one knew, the obvious darkness that ensues around you just sent chills down your spine. It was such a terrible problem but became worse due to a past that was nothing but darkness.

You held your phone in your hand as every waking minute felt like a century, your phone's battery was blinking, notifying that it was close to death. Considering the fact it was charging when you were dared and it was nearly dying then, this just made your fear increase. "Hey, Lean back." A voice intrusted, making you jump when you realized it was Bakugo. You leaned back, your back touching his back as his heartbeat beat with yours. "Are you okay? It was stupid of you to let your phone die, Dumbass." He said while you sighed. You forgot you confided to him your fear of the dark back when you two were close. "Why do you care?" You asked, feeling his heartbeat a bit faster. 

"Tch, I just remembered your fear of being in the dark, Who can forget something like that?" He said as he leaned his head back. "You forgot me though.." You spoke softly as the hurt you felt that day rushed back to your heart. You'd never admit that you were hurt by his random actions but you were. He was your best friend, You've convinced him to wear a facemask a few times, dragged him to the fair with the help of Mina, and many more memories. You admired how he'd risk it all for someone else's safety even if it was yours, he'd still risk it. 

"Why did you avoid me? I kept trying to talk to you and you shrugged me off as if I was never there." You questioned as a soft sigh slipped from his lips. "I was afraid to admit that I was in love with you." He confessed, blushing softly though you couldn't see it. Your eyes widened at his unexpected confession. You weren't expecting that at all. You opened your mouth as the power snapped back on, hearing the soft cheers of your friends who were happy to have the power bag and their food barely wet by the sudden storm. His back moved from yours and he was found on the couch when your friends walked downstairs. "Hey, Lu! I've got your favorite!" Kirishima tempted while holding your plate in his hands before you glanced at your phone. 

You quickly placed it on the charger and went to eat your meal with everyone. While everyone enjoyed the food, Mina suddenly remembered. "You didn't do my dare yet, Now you've got to call them!" She ordered as Jiro sighed. "Give it a rest, You're just getting her back for laughing at you. What if they don't answer the phone." She said while you walked to your phone. It was now on twenty percent when you pulled it free.  Your fingers dialed a number you knew for a while and placed the phone to your ear. Bakugo's phone suddenly started ringing right beside him which made the argument stop between Mina and Jiro. 

He snatched it up and answered unknowingly. "What?" he demanded suddenly, still not knowing what he answered to before you smiled. 

"I love you too."