#that this is a sort of anniversary thing the three of them do

[galedekarios]

🌑🌟

[atomicsuperrobot]

Man having read the first chapter of Encore now that it's translated and looking back at the title page of the last chapter I stopped at at Yet Another Failed Start At A Reread Of The Original (it was chapter four this time; p sure I made it farther last time), the difference is pretty startling. Everything looked so jank back then compared to now LMAO

I do wholeheartedly love the improvement tbh. ig it was only natural after 15+ years of drawing the guy.

[rumisgf]

❝ THINGS THEY DO THAT GIVE YOU BUTTERFLIES ! ❞ ╰┈➤ MHA EDITION (PART 2!)

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ a/n: y’all wanted a part two i shall give a part two

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ includes: katsuki bakugou, hitoshi shinsou, shoto todoroki, denki kaminari, iida tenya, kirishima eijirou

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ warnings: black!reader obv, cursing, mentions of drug usage/marijuana, suggestive if u squint, fem reader implied, mentioning of babies/children

BAKUGOU KATSUKI

�� wipes your tears sort of aggressively but only because he’s so urgent to comfort you and take care of you

✮ always hugs you by your lower waist

✮ when you go to the gym together, he’s the type to always say “c’mon, you can do one more.” or “do three more”

✮ ruffles your hair/flicks your forehead in a teasing way

✮ “act right.”/“watch out.”

✮ doesn’t remind you to drink water— he simply justs brings water bottles up to your mouth and tells you to “open up”

✮ if you have any, he cares for your pets like they’re his own

✮ just something about the sight of him holding a baby

✮ bites you just because he can

✮ pulls you into his lap whenever he’s tired of your attitude

✮ gets super close to your face like he’s gonna kiss you but pulls away just to mess with you

✮ “that’s my girl” in the most proud voice ever every single time

TODOROKI SHOTO

✮ any time he does get high he’s all over you and staring at you with half lidded eyes

✮ it’s just something about the way he curses man.

✮ loves falling asleep on the phone with you and takes facetime photos of you sleeping because he thinks you look like an angel

✮ runs his thumb over your hand whenever you hold hands

✮ loves giving earlobe kisses

✮ will casually be like “when we have kids,”

✮ sends voice memos ranging from something funny that happened in class to how much he misses you and needs to see you

✮ kisses your lip gloss off every chance he gets right after complimenting how nice your lip combo looks

✮ sends you pictures of yourself and says “you look so pretty in this”

✮ him whispering in your ear.

✮ has your contact as the only one pinned in his messages

KIRISHIMA EIJIROU

✮ pats away your tears with his finger instead of wiping them (those who watch love island usa and are kordell + serena fans know what i’m talking about)

✮ places his hand on the small of your waist to guide your somewhere or move you out the way

✮ constant forehead kisses

✮ lifts you up and spins you around when he’s excited to hug you

✮ guides you into the right form when you workout together

✮ runs his hands down your waist and hips when he’s checking you out while you’re right in front of him

✮ him around kids. that’s all.

✮ gives you flowers pretty much every week— and one time he gave you a money bouquet for your birthday

✮ flexes for you when he feels you staring at him and pretends he’s not doing it on purpose

✮ throws his arm around you and presses you flush against his chest when you go to sit on the couch next to him

✮ refers to you as his “wife” to his friends

KAMINARI DENKI

✮ you could have been rotting in bed all day and when he facetimes you he always greets you with something along the lines of “hello my beautiful princess” with a lovesick tone of voice

✮ calls you “mama” and “ma”

✮ obsessed with skinship because he aches to be able to “crawl inside your skin” and just needs to be close to you

✮ blows kisses at you from across the room

✮ for comfort, he runs his fingers through your hair and rocks you back and forth while hugging you

✮ his morning voice :)))

✮ lets you bite him and encourages it

✮ gets very touchy when you’re on his lap

✮ the king of “i know you’re probably asleep, but” texts

✮ goes on rants about how gentle and how well he would care for you when you’re one day pregnant with his children

✮ always calling you his “pretty baby”/“pretty girl”

✮ always posts pretty candid pictures of you and makes heartfelt story posts for every birthday, anniversary, and valentine’s day

HITOSHI SHINSOU

✮ has read for you + sung you to sleep on multiple occasions

✮ grabs you by your chin to force eye contact

✮ “say please”

✮ checks you every time you have an attitude with a smirk on his face

✮ has a habit of biting his lip

✮ says “there you go, babe” way too much.

✮ glares at anyone who flirts with you while tightly wrapping an arm around your waist

✮ has made multiple shared playlists for the both of you

✮ says he’s “gatekeeping” you because you’re just too pretty and he has to keep you to himself

✮ plays with your fingers when he’s bored or nervous

✮ buries his face into your neck to bask in your scent when he hugs you

✮ randomly stares at your for a full five minutes when you’re talking, barely listening to a word you’re saying, then lovingly sighs “i love you so much…”

IIDA TENYA

✮ always opens every door for you

✮ holds your hands while walking across the street or through the hallways

✮ very protective over you and will respectfully cuss anybody out who disrespects you

✮ pretty much has replaced your name is his vocabulary with “honey” and “sweetheart”

✮ never calls you hot— he always calls you beautiful, pretty, gorgeous, or stunning

✮ grabs you by your sleeve or your belt loop to take you somewhere if you don’t hear him call your name the third time

✮ the thought of ever calling you his “bitch” disgusts him, he calls you his lady or his love instead

✮ will immediately grab the nearest box of tissues to wipe your tears or your nose whenever you’re crying

✮ kisses your cheek to greet you and say goodbye

✮ has deep conversations about your future together when you get to that point in the relationship, and is open about how much his heart swells at imagining you as a mother

✮ kisses your forehead when he notices you asleep on his chest

© rumisgf

[alchemistc]

He likes occupying the same space as Tommy. It's - every time he looks across a room and sees him he just wants all the space between them to disappear. And - okay - yeah - Tommy has, like occupied space inside of Buck so there's - there's a little Pavlovian tic somewhere in the goo Tommy's smile can turn his brain into but also -

He likes the way it feels when they're side by side - naked or clothed - and Tommy arches his shoulder to smack it into Buck's. He likes the way his eyes dart, when they're breathing the same air and he's thinking about kissing Buck - which is a look he relishes now as much for the knowledge that he's about to be kissed as for the knowledge that he'd seen this look a half dozen times before they ever got to the kissing part. He likes the way Tommy occupies Buck's space - never overbearing but always close, close, close like if Buck asked they'd melt pieces of themselves and stick them together before everything cooled back down. He likes the way they can't quite hold hands without their arms brushing, and the way Tommy ducks his head when Buck exaggerates a flirty head tilt.

He likes a lot of things about Tommy.

He likes the way he grudgingly enters a gay bar because it's not really his scene and ends the night with a drag queens feather boa wrapped around his neck while he sings the Gaga parts of Shallow even if he gets a little pitchy.

He likes the way Tommy boops his nose, out of the blue while he's listening to Buck explain something that has no bearing on either one of them or the thing they're working towards together - still listening with rapt attention but also a little devastatingly charmed by Buck's rambles, of all things.

He likes the way his nose scrunches up when he laughs, soft and genuine, the way when he's really feeling it the ears draw back too.

He likes the way he sounds, that first time (and every time after) Buck found his prostate and he whined like a fucking siren.

He likes the way his face softens even when he's tired, worn around the edges as Buck flings a sock into his laundry basket and tucks his head up under Tommy's chin.

He hates the way Tommy shuts down every time Buck tries to bring up the future.

And it's not like - it's not like Buck isn't aware they'd sort of speed run some milestones. House keys swapped with the sort of flippancy you'd expect out of two guys whose schedules rarely lined up. A drawer in Bucks's loft for the clothes Tommy always left behind, because for some reason he liked to fling them over the balcony instead of stuff them back in his overnight bag. A toothbrush at Tommy's a month and a half in, which wouldn't be all that strange except for he'd gone out of his way to buy the same electric one Buck had in his bathroom vanity. The pin to each others phones, swapped and repeated until it was muscle memory and three weeks ago Buck had grabbed the wrong phone but he'd seen the lock screen of the two of them from their hike in Fern Dell and he'd punched the code in like it was rote before he'd even been fully awake.

Tommy'd hit a wall, though, the first time Buck brought up his lease. And it wasn't - Buck isn't always the best about understanding the shit going on in his own head, but he actually hadn't been going any particular direction there, it'd just been something to fill the lull that had popped in his head and -

Of course, when Tommy froze the fuck up Buck decided to poke at it like a particularly nasty yellowing bruise.

Kids - not his own, just the nebulous idea of them. (Tommy shifted to a conversation about cars so smoothly it'd taken Buck half an hour to notice.)

Marriage - not his own thoughts about it, just that Bobby and Athena had an anniversary coming up and man didn't it suck that Maddie and Chim never got the wedding they wanted and he'd gone to one once in Montana and it'd been in a barn and they'd had candles in Mason jars for their centerpieces before that was the thing to do. (Tommy booped his nose and scrunched his face and held out a ladle of tomato sauce for Buck to try and - son of a bitch he'd known it needed more acid and that Buck would get distracted with recipe talk.)

Homes - the idea of them. Tommy's century old ranch style rental and how it fit him, Bobby and Athena's hunt for a new home, how quiet Eddie's always felt without Chris there, and Tommy had spent an hour listing off all the things he'd fixed up for his landlady and the rent she'd been stubbornly stuffing back through his mail slot every time she found out exactly how much the labor alone for a full copper repipe cost.

So it's.

He's just.

He hates that he's about to do this, here, with his ankle hooked by Tommy's toes under the table at Micelli's when they're supposed to be enjoying six months but he's been on edge for weeks now and he's - God he wants this to work but if Tommy doesn't want to talk future then are they just gonna spend their whole lives stumbling into the next milestone? He doesn't want -

"I had something I wanted to ask -," Tommy starts, right as Buck opens his big mouth and blurts, "I want kids and that's kind of a deal breaker for me."

Tommy blinks.

Buck blinks back.

Not much better than Hot Chicks, as far as Buck is concerned. But Tommy's mouth quirks at the corners, and he jiggles his toes against the back of Buck's ankle, and -

Tommy blows out a breath. "Oh thank God."

"What?"

So he's -

Buck's confused.

"You've been fishing for months now and I thought you were..." Tommy grimaces. When he leans forward to reach for Buck's hand, his arms are tense and his fingers are clumsy. "I thought we'd gone too fast and you were throwing us in reverse and stepping on the gas."

"What," Buck says again, and rewinds.

Kids: where he'd tried to drop the bomb that there was one out in the world who already had half his genetic code and then blazed along to talk about how Chris was his favorite person in the world and Maddie had struggled with Jee and the whole foster debacle made him terrified of all the stress involved in state sanctioned parenthood.

Marriage: where he'd made some dumb joke about how many marriages ended in divorce and then reminded Tommy how much he hated the fact that weddings cost like a third of a years salary, and then told a horrendous anecdote about the way Eddie had asked Buck to come by one night after Shannon only to find him keyed up out back, with the fire pit going and Shannon's things still tucked into their plastic bag on a stool right next to it.

Home: where he'd told Tommy the house in Hershey was like a prison and he'd never felt more himself than wandering the continent trying to find himself and how the loft was suffocatingly open and of the two places where he always felt welcome, one had burned down and the other had been missing an occupant for so long it had felt sad and oppressive.

Foot in mouth Buckley.

"I brought up my lease and you looked like you were trying to figure out if you could hurdle three tables in one leap to get to the door."

Tommy groans. It's. Buck wants to be annoyed by it but he's charmed as ever.

"That - I did do that."

"So. I'm just. Tommy, I..." Because he's given himself time to think about it, since then, and he really doesn't want to re-up his lease but he's also not sure where to go from here.

"It wasn't what you're thinking, though," Tommy says, and there's a wry tilt to his grin. "Irene wants to sell me the house," he continues, and - there's got to be a point, here.

"Okay."

He likes that house. The lived in feel, the easy walk to a little public market where Buck can always find something healthy and Tommy can always come home with a growler of some new craft beer, the avocado tree in the yard and the renovations Tommy has spent half a decade on.

"When you brought it up I'd just spent two weeks trying to convince myself it was too early to ask you if you wanted to sign up for a mortgage with me."

Six months. A redo of their first embarrassing date. The wine, instead of pitchers of beer. I had something I wanted to ask -

"I want to be married, someday," Buck says, and Tommy's thumb skitters over his wrist. "And - the kid thing. That's still a deal breaker."

Tommy nods. Maybe not a surprise, but - still. That feels important.

"I still don't understand equity," Buck says, and Tommy. Tommy laughs.

"I can teach you," he says, and Buck swallows. He wants to call the waitress over, ask for too many canolli because Tommy's sweet tooth is a tyrant and Buck is still mystified by how he manages to always be so trim despite the amount of sugar he consumes.

Buck narrows his eyes. "How long a mortgage?"

He has a settlement from the city that's just been sitting around, mocking Buck for years. It'd make a good dent even with LA real estate. Tommy smiles. "Oh, 30 years, for sure, but we could refinance at least a few times."

"That's - a long time."

"Housing bubble might pop soon, and then we'd just be stuck in it."

"It's good we both have dependable government jobs."

Tommy's eyes crinkle, but his face gets serious after a moment. "Evan."

"Ask me."

Maddie's gonna fucking flip, Buck thinks. Eddie is definitely gonna give him a side eye. Bobby - Bobby will get it, probably.

Tommy hums. "You wanna share the tiramisu?" His grin is just this side of teasing, and Buck knocks a knee into his in retaliation. His eyes go soft and warm. "You wanna buy a house with me, Buckley?"

[qrrieterisunnq]

A week without you - Jack Hughes

jack!hughes x fem!reader Summary: Jack's on the roadie and he misses y/n so much, so he's cuddling with a body pillow, pretending that it's y/n… A/N: It's been a while since I posted something that wasn't requested, so enjoy this angst/fluff, and happy rest of the day! And it's not edited, I might edit it in two weeks, 'cause we have three weeks of practice, so I'll have time to do it. requested: yes/no likes are good, reblogs are better <3 gif, not mine word count: 1,65K warning(s): angst?, sad Jack, Luke being a caring young brother, FaceTiming

masterlist | wip's

Just eight days. Just eight days and he’ll be back at home, in the embrace of his lovely girl. Her hands would scratch at his scalp, as she’d listen to his talks about the roadie.

Jack is currently sitting on the bench in Rogers Arena in Vancouver, his breaths are heavy from the intense morning skate before the game against canucks.

“Jack?” Luke’s voice makes Jack jolt in place, his hand rising to his chest, taking in a deep breath.

“Dude, you scared the shit outta me,” he shifts on the bench, making a place for Luke to sit down. “What do you need?” Jack looks over at him, raising eyebrows in question and curiosity.

“Just wanna ask you, if you’re, okay?” there’s a concern in his eyes. He’s been observing Jack for the few days they were away from Jersey, and he can see the change in his mood. He’s been distant a lot and he was playing like shit in the last two games they had. “You’ve been acting weird lately.”

“I’m fine.” Jack tries to sound convincing, but Luke doesn’t buy it. He lets out a deep sigh, hanging his head low, thinking about how to make Jack talk.

“Jack, you know that is a lame, thing to say,” Jack nods his head, knowing damn right, that he can’t get away from this conversation. “Tell me, what is going on, J.”

Jack takes in deep breath, while he’s sorting out his thoughts. “It’s nothing…I just miss y/n you know,” he let out, fiddling with his gloves. “I know I was away from her for longer, but it just hits me hard, you know. In a month we have our year anniversary and I feel like I should be with her, you know.” he looks over at Luke his eyes already on his brother, concern in them.

“I can’t say I know how you feel, but I get it. If I had a girl and our anniversary was coming, I’d wanted to be with her too.” Luke nods understandingly and throws his arm around his shoulders to pull him close. “Come on,” Luke stands up, holding Jack’s hand to help him up. “Practice is over, and I’m sure, y/n is waiting for you to call her.” This seems to bring Jack into reality. He swiftly stood up, moving past Luke to the locker room, leaving Luke standing in the place with nothing more than an amazed expression.

“Wow, that was quick.” He mumbles to himself with an amused smile on his lips and follows his brother into the locker room.

“Lukey?” Jack turns at his younger brother with a plea in his eyes.

“Yeah?” he says bluntly not looking up from his phone as he makes his way into the room dropping his bag on the ground next to Jack’s.

“Could you maybe go to the boys for a while?” Jack starts carefully waiting for Luke’s reaction. His brows raised in confusion before he can ask why, Jack explains. “I want to talk with y/n for a while. You know, in private.”

“Yeah, sure!” he nods his head, opening his bag to pull out a wallet. “I’m sure the boys will head to a restaurant, so I’ll go with them,” he says making his way to the doors. He catches sight of Jack’s expression, chuckling to himself. “And I promise I won’t drink anything!” with a small wave he leaves the room, his phone already glutted to his ear as he’s calling Nico asking where they are.

Jack walks over to his bed popping down, he pulls his phone from his pants. A wide smile spreads across his lips as he sees his wallpaper. It’s him, hugging you tightly to his chest as you both fall asleep in a chair at a bonfire last summer in the lake house.

He finds your contact, dialing your number, waiting impatiently for you to pick up.

With a groan leaving your lips, you reach over the table to get your phone. You’re not in the mood to talk with someone. Your boss was an ass to you, giving you another thing to do, even though your work hours ends in ten minutes. Not looking at the caller ID, you pick it up, groaning. “What is it?”

“Oh, hi. Am I calling too soon? I thought you were done with work.” Jack lets out, scrunching his nose as he looks at the time. It’s 1 pm in Vancouver which means it's 4 pm in Jersey.

“Sorry, baby. No, you’re calling right. It’s my boss. He gave me another thing to do so I’ll be here for another hour or so,” you sigh, getting the call on speaker, placing the phone next to you, focusing back on your work. “Anyway, you excited for today's game?” you say with a smile on your lips. You were supposed to come to that game, but your boss wouldn't give you time off, so you’ll be cheering on them from home.

“Oh, so excited! Another time we’ll be playing against Quinn. It’s always amazing playing against him. Just sucks that you won’t be here.” You can imagine the pout he’s wearing on his lips, together with his sad blue eyes.

“I know my love, I was looking forward to seeing you play all together. I’m sure, there will be other chances I’ll get to see you play. Maybe next season, okay? But don’t think about it, tell me something!” you say in a cheerful voice. You love listening to his voice while you’re working or doing something.

His voice is so angelic. You could listen to his voice forever and you wouldn’t be bored of it.

“Okay, but I don’t know what,” he snorts chuckling.

“Anything! What were you doing today?” you asked, waiting for him to start talking. As soon as his voice sounds through the speaker you start typing on your notebook.

On the other side of the call, Jack is lying in his bed, a pillow pressed to his chest as he talks about his practice, aware that y/n is working and that she probably doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

“Y/n,” he asks when there’s a long silence.

“Yeah?” she hums bluntly her focus on the task she’s almost done with.

“I miss you,” Jack whispers shyly, his voice soft. You let out a sigh, a pout forming on your lips. “I miss you so much. I don’t know if I’ll make another day without you.” He confesses tears springing in his eyes.

“I miss you too, Jacky, but it's just eight days and you’ll be home. You’ll have four days without any game.” You say cheerfully, trying to ease the moment.

“I can’t sleep without you.” He says as he clutches the pillow to his chest, a single tear running down his cheek, dropping on the pillow.

“Jack you can, just pretend I’m here or something.” You let out a sigh, resting your face in your hands.

“It’s not helping,” he pouts childishly. “The pillow doesn’t smell like you.” y/n sighs closing her eyes. Sure, she misses him and it’s hard to sleep without him in the bed, but she knows how hard it’s for Jack to be apart from her. He’s been like this since university when they were going on short roadies. They always slept with Facetime on during the whole night. “Can I see you?”

“Sure, J,” you nod, waiting for him to turn on the camera. “Hey, my love.” A smile forms on your lips as soon as your eyes meet his.

“You are gorgeous,” he blurs out as soon as your face pops on his screen. “So fucking gorgeous, especially with the glasses on. You look sexy.”

“Thank you, J,” you giggle, your cheeks turning red at his compliment. “But I really need to work, so if you don’t mind I won’t be saying anything for another hour or so?” you cock your head to the side, watching his soft and relaxed features.

“Yeah, that’s okay, love. I’ll probably take a nap. We’re going to meet Quinn in like…” he looks behind his shoulder, searching for something. “Don't you know where my phone is?” he asks his brows furrowed in confusion.

“Love it’s next to you, we’re face-timing through it.” You laugh shaking your head at his…you don’t even know what.

“Oh, right,” he chuckles shaking his head. “Anyway we’re going to meet Quinn in like two hours for a brunch, so, I’ll just take a nap.” He rambles.

“Yeah, fine by me!”

After half an hour, when you’re almost done with your work, you look over at your phone, only to see your beautiful boy, clutching a pillow to his chest, a small smile resting on his lips as he mumbles something under his nose. You’re eyes grow softer at the sight of him.

If you were here with him, you’d probably run your fingers through his hair, massaging his scalp, and reading a book or something while he’ll be napping.

You can’t help the smile growing when you hear him mumbling your name. The boy is your entire life. In a few days, you’ll be celebrating your year anniversary as a couple, and you can’t wait for it. You let your sweet boy sleep as you start finishing the work you have to do again.

When Jack wakes up with a big smile on his face, it even grows wider when sees his girl still at the same place, a focused look on her face as she types something on her computer. He snuggles more into the pillow he’s holding to his chest, a pillow he was pretending was a girl as he was sleeping for a few hours, and lets out a quiet sigh as he watches his beautiful girl working.

[schoenpepper]

Jade Leech and the Three Breakups

Intro: He was going to break up with you on your first anniversary. He was going to break up with you before he went to internships. He was going to break up with you after he graduated.

Warnings: bad writing, awful grammar, does jade count as a warning, reader is not yuu, established long term relationship, depression jokes, not proofread

A/N: Sorry, the brainrot got to me. College apparently cannot stop me from thinking about my least favorite character ever. Also, my favorite trope is 'i think they hate me' and 'i want them so bad i'm about to kill someone'.

Masterlist

There's a thick notebook in one of the boxes. Curiosity killed the eel mer, sure, but Jade is attracted to its plain leather cover. On the corner is your name, etched in an elegant cursive he's sure isn't yours.

After four years of romantic partnership, of course he knows your handwriting.

He gingerly fishes it out of its pile—your pile of clutter to get rid of before moving into your new shared home—and decides that of course it is fully within his right to open your journal. Diary, perhaps?

He can't help the grin pulling up the corners of his lips.

Oh dear, you've gotten so lax with such things, darling. Are you banking on his love for you to stop him from borrowing your private thoughts? Such confidence. Misplaced. Such a shame.

The first page has his name.

It takes him aback, but he delightfully relishes in the thought, the possibility, that all your feelings for him over several years would be gathered and spilled into its yellowed pages. Was there a stage of hatred? Rivalry? Were you crushing on him like a little schoolgirl? Such cute (excellent) memories (blackmail) from your youth (material)~ He flips to the second page and reads with unparalleled attentiveness he usually reserves for documents on his favorite projects.

September 1st, 20x1 Sunny : | It's orientation, and I'm following my ma's words about keeping a diary of sorts to keep track of interesting things. I wore the cultist uniform of NRC (fugly ass robes) and stood in line to get sorted to my dorm by the mirror. I got into Octavinelle. I don't know if it's the dorm I would have chosen for myself to be honest, but sure. I can't argue with the magical artifact. What I would like to argue about is the vice housewarden.

His brows furrow slightly in intrigue. Did he do something wrong? He remembered being nothing but a kind, angelic upperclassman to your batch of freshmen.

He's so fucking pretty.

Jade chuckles.

He looks like he's about to eat me whole and fuck, I don't mind if he does!!! He's so tall, and so so attractive, and sevens I thought I came to NRC to study but I think I'm here to fulfill my destiny of becoming his <3

He launches into full-blown laughter. He takes his phone out from his pocket to snap multiple pictures, saving them in a locked folder labeled rather inconspicuously in his gallery.

There's a series of entries after that. Nothing too interesting (he's scanned every single page), just you detailing every second of your (at this point, nonexistent) love life. You write about how many times you'd seen him in a day, and how 'cute' he looks in his school uniform, and how 'adorable' he is when he's hanging onto his broom for dear life in PE. He ignores the fact that you shouldn't have seen him in PE classes because his schedule didn't match yours at that time. Then, there's one that you'd written right before realizing you'd fallen into his love trap~

October 3rd, 20x1 Cloudy :< I think I got tricked into being someone's s/o. I thought he's been inviting me to random outings and stuff, alone, together, as like, a threat maybe. Today I found out Floyd (and therefore Azul, and definitely also him) think of me as Jade's significant other. Which is so weird. I'm so confused???

There's a little chibi drawing on the corner of your face with a blank expression.

I thought we were friends and then his brother tells me that the guy I like doesn't think of me as a friend. Okay??????  JADE LEECH IS TREATING ME LIKE HIS PARTNER AND I DON'T KNOW WHEN IT HAPPENED. (but i like it :D)

Well, you've always been a bit slow, haven't you, darling? You never even noticed when Jade began to take an interest in you, slowly steering you towards his own hobbies, even his club activities. After all, he studied your interests, so isn't it only fair? He likes being able to converse with you. He likes the sound of your voice. He likes the movement of your lips. Is it so bad, then, that he did a few perfectly legal things to somehow shoe you in right by his side? 

In the diary, you detail every feeling in every date. You like picnics. You hated the hike up that mountain with poisonous snakes. You liked the parfait he made for you. You disliked the slightly poisonous mushroom he sauteed and put into your chicken alfredo. Shame.

July 23rd, 20x2 Rainy :(

It takes its first turn about a week before the first anniversary of the day you met him (you don't have a 'real' anniversary since you don't even know when you started dating him).

I think he's going to break up with me soon.

His breath hitches in his throat. He's not sure how to feel upon reading that sentence, but he doesn't like it. 

(Why were you so sure, darling?)

He leans back slightly on his chair. He needs to take a few deep breaths before he can even continue to read your writing.

He's going to be in third year by the time the school year comes around again. He'll be busy with the lounge and studying and vice housewarden stuff. Maybe he won't have time for me anymore.

But that's okay.

I realized something. The twins are not the type of people for long term relationships. After knowing more about Jade, I've learned he's not too different from Floyd concerning several aspects. 1.) He only likes interesting things. Jade likes weird, and fun, and spontaneous. I think he liked me then because I was new and so strange. After all, I didn't know that the guy I loved at first sight was such a feared figure, for good reason too. There was nobody in school who would stick around him so much like I do. 2.) He gets bored just as easily. Jade is the mirror image of Floyd here. Floyd is more moody, but Jade is good at pretending. He likes to play around. Until he doesn't. I know I won't see it coming, but one day, I will be predictable. And he'll get bored. I will no longer be interesting.

Has he always struck you that way?

If he doesn't want to play with me anymore, what am I supposed to do? I need to prepare myself. Someday, he'll leave me, and I need to be stronger then than I am now. Right now, I'll break if he abandons me. Surely if I desensitize myself to the scenario, I can mitigate the damage.

You talk of your own heart like a building in the middle of the Ring of Fire, and Jade's the biggest earthquake that's about to arrive since millennia.

It's not often he finds himself questioning his own morality. Gray is his preference, but then, why does he see this version of himself in your eyes in all black? Has he been anything but kind to you? He's tried, really. If it wasn't enough, he should've seen it in your eyes. He should have known.

The following pages go back to their previous light-hearted tone, slowly leaving the saccharine sweet honeymoon phase and dipping into comfortable and warm. You don't mention that entry again, or even that line of thought. He likes that. Jade would prefer you refusing to humor such blatant nonsense than actually spend time worrying your pretty little head about it. It's just a bit worrying. Like a volcano with lava filling up, is it not dangerous to block the outflow?

Why have you never discussed your thoughts with him?

August 3rd, 20x3 Sunny :<

He has to consider that it might be seasonal depression if the entries keep getting darker around the same time. Like a switch has been flipped, the words turn into blades again, cutting into his skin as though they could never draw blood.

I think he's really going to break up with me soon.

Oh sevens.

He has internships, which means he won't even be at school most of the time. It's upsetting because I think he'll find so many people out there. And they'll be much more interesting than me. And then what? I don't know where he's interning, it's probably because he doesn't want me to be a part of his life any longer.

How did he never know how prone you were to overthinking?

He hasn't gotten bored of me yet, but that's not to say it won't happen when he gets a taste of the real world and realizes how limited he is by this place. By me. Am I holding him back? I never say anything to him about these kinds of feelings because it might burden him. Which is a really funny sentence to write considering this is Jade Leech I'm talking about. It's not like he cares about other people's opinions enough for it to be a burden to him.

Why then, Jade wonders, would you ever consider yourself as 'other people'?

I hope he lets me down gently, at least.

Why would he ever let you down at all?

It's a shame to say but I think I love him.

And again, like nothing ever happened at all, the following recorded dates speak nothing of your plight. Instead, you jot down your visits to Jade in his chosen workplace, since obviously, he'd given you the details despite your previous doubts. The records of your life when not with him are few and far between, as you usually opted to write about Jade when together with him. There's an entry about the time you went to the amusement park with him, and threw up all over his jacket. There's one about the cake you failed horribly at baking during his birthday.

There's an entry about the first time you explored intimacy with him.

So it gives him severe whiplash when the entry after that is back to the same 'break up' tone as before, right around the same time as the other two.

(He should call a therapist for you.)

August 1st, 20x4 Sunny >:( He will definitely break up with me soon!

Why is this one so enthusiastic about it, though?

Maybe it's been in his plans all along. Only until graduation! This time, he'll definitely, definitely break up with me. Yes! I mean, I shouldn't be happy about it, but my two predictions beforehand were incorrect, and it makes me very nervous. So I have a plan. On his graduation, I'm going to give him a bouquet of flowers and a terrarium that I personally made.

Yes he remembers that. He still has the terrarium in his collection room.

And then, I'm going to confess my love for him.

Yes he remembers that too. You said 'I love you', and though slightly taken aback, he returned your sentiments.

And it would be the perfect gateway for him to talk about breaking up with me.

Huh. That's definitely not what he thought of it then. Is that why you were so surprised when he said 'I love you too'?

And it would probably hurt, but I think I can get away with not crying in front of him. I really love him. But I think it would be for the best that he leaves now, when I can still let him go with grace. Someday, I'll be in love with him, maybe to the point that I'd break down at his feet and beg for him to pick up the pieces. But I don't want him to see me like that.

He doesn't want to see that either.

(But rest assured, should it happen, he will pick up every piece of you and glue it back together with his love. Rather cheesy, though.)

Wish me luck!!!

Jade's lips curl up into a lazy grin, flipping to the last page on the notebook. There's not much, but he reads through it with a soft chuckle and writes in the corner with a blue pen. "Jade! The moving company will be here soon," you pop your head through the doorway, only glancing at him briefly before walking away, "I'm almost done with the kitchen."

He places your diary into his box of 'to keep', sealing the cardboard shut with some tape.

August 2, 20x4 Cloudy :o He said he loves me too. I could be wrong, but I think Jade's never going to break up with me.

June 16, 20x5 Sunny :) Let's get married soon, darling. I'm looking forward to the rest of our life together.

[moonstruckme]

i love poly! Marauders♡

could you make a one shot where the reader gives the boys flowers and handmade gifts for the first time after their first month of relationship?

xoxo

Ugh yes our boys don't get enough gifts! Thanks for requesting gorgeous :)

poly!marauders x fem!reader ♡ 1.3k words

When Sirius answers the door to the apartment he shares with his boyfriends to find you standing there with a bouquet of flowers, he very nearly panics. Naturally, his first thought is of the worst-case scenario: someone else has gotten you flowers, and you’ve decided to break it off with them and be with that fucker. Alternatively, you’re upset that they haven’t gotten you flowers in nearly a week (would those ones have died already? Sirius knows next to nothing about flowers; Remus is supposed to stay on top of that) and have brought an arrangement for them to give you as a not-so-gentle-nudge. He might be sick.

But you’re not deserving of the snappy response that comes to his lips, so Sirius swallows and tries to find his gentlest voice. “Hey there, gorgeous. What’re those for?”

You grin until your cheeks dimple, flushing in the way Sirius has grown familiar with over the past few weeks: you’re excited, but a bit embarrassed to show it. “Happy one-month anniversary,” you say, extending the bouquet to him as James and Remus come into the room behind him, intrigued by what’s keeping their boyfriend so long at the door. Your eyes dart between the three of them in that nervous way of yours as you explain in a rush, “I know it’s silly, but I’ve just been wanting to give you all gifts for a while now, and no one’s birthday is coming up for months.”

“Thanks, dove.” Remus is the first of them to reply, nudging past Sirius to take the flowers from you. James is grinning so hugely it’s pushing his eyes nearly closed, and Sirius suspects he’s staring at you like you’ve hung the moon. “These are beautiful. It’s a month today, really?”

You nod bashfully. 

“Then shit,” Sirius says, collecting himself, “you’re not silly; we’re ridiculous for forgetting! Come on in, sweet thing.” He grins at you, and when you shy, as you are wont to do, at his brash manner, James takes your hand and encourages you through the doorway. “Do we have some wine or chocolate or something?”

“We do,” Remus replies, disappearing into the kitchen. “And grapes. Are you alright with white wine, dovey?” You hum in affirmation, and Sirius thanks Merlin for his refined boyfriend, without whom he and James would stock the apartment entirely with crisps and pot noodles. 

James takes you to the living room, sitting you beside him, probably not as close as he’d like but wary of making you jumpy. Sirius isn’t so cautious, plopping down next to you so that your legs and hips are squished together simply because he delights in making you flush. 

“Leave off ‘er,” James says defensively, and Remus returns, laying the snacks and refreshments on the table before sitting beside Sirius and encouraging him to lean on his shoulder. Sirius huffs in protest, but goes willingly. 

His problem taken care of, James turns his attention back to you. “Thanks for the flowers, sweetheart,” he says, and Sirius notices that Remus must have found a vase for them while he was in the kitchen. They’re sitting in the center of the coffee table, arranged prettily in water. “You didn’t need to get us a gift, but that’s so lovely of you.” 

You bite your lip, and Sirius knows you have something to say before you say it. “I, um…” you play with your fingers. He wants to take them in his hands, spreading each one between his own. “I’m really glad you like them, but those actually aren’t the gifts I was talking about.” 

Sirius watches as James’ expression turns giddy at the plural there. Gifts. 

You reach into your bag and pull out a pair of gloves. They’re gray, and they look thick, like they’re made out of some sort of knit material. They’re also huge. You extend them to Remus. “I know you can never find ones that fit,” you say hesitantly, “so I’m hoping these might work? I couldn’t measure to get it exactly right, but I think they’re big enough.” 

Remus takes them with something akin to awe in his expression, and Sirius’ mouth goes dry as realization dawns upon him. He’d always thought Remus cut the fingers off his gloves because it looked cool (admittedly, there had been several years when Sirius had copied him for that very reason), but it was because they didn’t fit. His lengthy, slender fingers had to be too long for most gloves. Sirius felt stupid for not realizing it. He glances at James, finding a similar expression of dumbfounded epiphany on his boyfriend’s face. They’d both known Remus for years, and you’d picked up on his plight over the course of a month.

“Did you make these?” Remus breathes, taking the gloves from you gingerly. 

“Mhm,” you nod, proud and sheepish at the same time. “I crocheted them.”

“You…they’re perfect. Thank you, dove.” Remus looks the softest Sirius thinks he’s ever seen him, and he feels like someone’s scooped out his guts and replaced them with syrup. 

“No problem.” Your cheeks dimple as you duck your head, digging through your bag again. This time you emerge with something red, also crocheted, and vaguely rectangular, turning to James.

He looks at you adoringly as he takes it, but it’s clear he’s as clueless about what it is as Sirius feels. 

“It’s a glasses case,” you supply. “I don’t know if you even want one, but you’re always breaking them by knocking them off the nightstand, and I thought maybe it’d help.” You shrink a bit. “Don’t worry about it if you don’t want to use it.” 

“‘Course I’m using it.” James sounds appalled, and he takes your hand in his, squeezing gently until your smile returns. “This is so thoughtful of you, angel. Really, thanks so much. I’m going to use it every night.” 

You grin hugely, all but glowing at his praise, and when you turn back to your bag, and Sirius is almost surprised there’s still one left for him. As if sitting here, basking in the happiness of all the people he cares about most, isn't enough of a gift. 

Still, that doesn’t mean he’s not curious what it is. 

You pass him a small pouch, and you’ve made it purple with a black star in the middle. Sirius loves it without knowing what it’s for. Hell, he doesn’t even care if it has a utility, he wants to frame it on his wall. 

“I know you drop your earbuds a lot,” you say, “so I thought maybe you could put them in here sometimes, to protect them. I put little loops on it in case you want to carry it or attach it to something, but you could just keep it in your pocket, if you want.” 

Sirius takes his earbuds out from his pocket, slipping them into the little case, and they fit perfectly inside. He grins at you, and when you smile back, the corners of your eyes crinkling, his restraint snaps. He lunges for you, wrapping one arm around your shoulders and cradling your head with the other hand. His heart aches, and it's as much for the thoughtfulness and care you put into his own gift as it is for the joy you’ve given to Remus and James. He doesn’t think his heart can handle carrying around this much love. “Thank you,” he murmurs into your hair, and your arms come around his middle, squeezing tight. 

He takes his time in releasing you, but when he does you’re immediately captured by James, who kisses the side of your face haphazardly. Remus has gone mute beside him, but Sirius suspects both boys are feeling overcome by the same desperation to express their appreciation as he is. He doesn’t think they’ll ever get close. 

“Fucking one-month anniversary,” he says, and he sounds breathless even to his own ears. “I hope you’ve kept the night free, gorgeous, because now you have to let us take you out to dinner.”

[genderless-naper]

forgotten dinner

trafalgar law x gf!reader

↳ requested! sfw, angst

themes: feelings of abandonment, mentions of breakups, regret&guilt, unhappy ending

wc: 950~, lowercase intended !

you decide to set up a dinner for your anniversary with law. you planned for everything except for his common habit of forgetting things due to his work

⇣ credits to original artist

it was nothing different from a normal night. except it was indeed a unique night. it was your anniversary night. you’d think law would give you some sort of attention tonight. yet you sat alone at the small dinner table you fixed for the night in your shared living space.

you tried not to let your emotions get in the way. maybe he was setting things away in his office after he finished, and had to take extra long. there could be a million things holding him back at the moment. you kept your hopes optimistic for as long as you could.

the small digital clock echoed through the room every time an hour interval completed. one echo. two echos. three echos.

you stared at the extinguished candle and cold food. you drowned in your thoughts aoll alone at a table for two. you were glued to your seat unable to even check up on him to see what he was doing or tell him to come. maybe it was because you expected him to know to not be late.

you abandoned the entirety of the meaningful surprise, and made your way to bed. the thought of spending quality time with your loved one now a distant laughable hope you held for yourself. you sympathized with yourself. it’s not like you’ve done anything bad to be treated like this.

you drifted off to sleep with tear stained cheeks and a once smooth dress now all wrinkled up.

after a bit of time the door knob to the room opened. a deeply fatigued law entered the room. he did his usually routine before bed such as changing, brushing teeth, etc. he was so focused on the tasks that he hadn’t noticed the table, or you. it wasn’t until he accidentally bumped into the chair while rubbing his eyes that he noticed the arrangements you made. he questioned everything until the memories of your mentioned ‘surprise’ crept back into his mind.

the two dinner plates were left untouched, and the candle had hardened wax drips down the side of it. he glances at your sleeping figure that laid right at the edge of the bed. the effort you put into looking nice for him was noticeable.

law mentally cursed himself out for forgetting such an important date. you even reminded the man, and told him of a surprised that was planned, yet he still forgot. he imagined you sitting at a the table alone starring at your untouched food waiting to hear the door open. instead the man locked himself away with his work and research like he always did. the regret blazed over him.

he silently put away your set up careful not to wake you up. every step he took was filled with shame. by the time he finished it was well into the AMs. he turned the lights off and got into bed with you. he carefully pulled you close, but accidentally woke you up.

he mumbled quietly, “hey y/n.. sorry for being late.”

even in a stage of significant fatigue you we’re unable to forget what you’ve just gone through because of his lack of awareness. you pull away from his warmth to return to your spot on the edge of the bed. law tried to get close to you, but it resulted in you getting up.

law was confused by the actions, “what are you doing y/n-ya..?”

you quietly made your way around the room gathering the belongings you’ve placed. law grew worrisome with every item you collected. he followed in pursuit of you trying to grab the items and place them in their original spot. this went on for a few more times until you’ve had enough.

“stop it law! this has nothing to do with you, so go back to bed!”

you kept your head low. you couldn’t bring yourself to look him in the eyes after all the pain he’s bought you throughout the relationship.

the pressure of law’s anxiety got the best of him. it led him to fumble over sentences, “look i know you’re upset but you don’t have to make your things. come to bed we can talk this all out. i won’t let it happen again baby.”

law’s words went through one ear and right out the other. sense of his negligence was still present. the feeling of abandonment spoke your words before you could give a second thought, “am i that easy to forget..?”

law’s eyes widened, “what? why would you say something like that? you aren’t easy to forget y/n.. i just have a lot going on in my head and it slips out sometimes”

you turned your back to him. you braced yourself for your words, “maybe we should just break up… i mean this just isn’t working out.”

you swallowed a lump threatening to form in your chest, “i tried my best to always give you the benefit of the doubt but… you just aren’t going to change. i should’ve known better…”

you continued to pack your belongings. there were faded promises law tried to say to you. promises about how he was sorry, how he’ll do better, and how he would change his ways. they were all just surrounding noises your mind shut off from hearing.

the feeling of helplessness overwhelmed law as he watched you exit the once shared living space, and fully withdrawing from him.

he didn’t know what you two were at that point. the mention of you two breaking up ran through his mind. he wasn’t certain what to do now, but he knew for a fact that if he could go back in time he would redo everything to be different.

[xetlynn]

Until Dawn- By Your Side: Chapter Two, Promise

(Joshua Washington X Reader)

[One] [Two] [Three]

“I hope this was the right thing to do.” Sam quietly says, it seemed like it was supposed to be to herself. Chris and I give her a confused expression. “What?” He questions.

“You know, getting everyone together on the anniversary.” She explains further. “I mean Josh seemed really pumped about us all doing something didn’t he.” She starts but it was more of a question in the back of her mind. I just look at her with the same expression I’ve held. “Yeah, no, he definitely did.” Chris assures her. “I haven’t seen him so excited about something in… forever.” He continues, Sam looks at me to see if that’s true and I nod my head. “Good, good.”

“It’s hard to tell with him, and I’ve kinda been worried. Only hearing updates through [Name] or you.” Sam tells the blond as I notice her avoiding eye contact with me. I mean she has every right to feel worried about him but why is she acting sort of weird with me right now. “No, no, it was a good idea.” He tells her.

“I hope everybody else feels the same way.” She whispers. “we’re here aren’t we?” I add in, leaning back. “Well thanks bros, good talk.” She playfully punches both of us. “You know what? Let’s just stop talking about what happened and enjoy the trip.” Chris suddenly tells us. “You know what? You’re right.” Sam sighs.

“You know how Josh and I met?” He switches the subject and I smile, remembering it’s because of me that we all met. “No…?”

“Ok, [Name] became my friend in second grade. Neither of us remember how or when that happened but suddenly we were just friends. In third grade Josh sat in the back of the room, I sat in the front and [Name] was also in the back with Josh. She instantly talked with him and they became friends but somehow Josh and I never knew each other existed. But the kid sitting on the other side of him started strap snapping the training bra on the girl in front of him so the teacher made him move to the front- where I was sitting.” He smiles, and I lean back, listening even though I lived through it. It’s nice to hear. “Okay, so?” Sam asks.

“So I got moved to the back!” He exclaims. “And?”

“And next to Josh, that’s how we met! And us three became friends. To this day. Well [Name] and Josh a bit more than friends now.” He chuckles, pushing me closer to Sam and I roll my eyes, shoving him back. “A match made in heaven.” Sam smirks, “Josh and Chris definitely are.” I say, laughing. Chris scoffs.

“If it weren’t for the fact that Jeanie Simmonds hit puberty like three years early and on that day decided to wear a low cut shirt that showed off her training bra. I mean who knows? You could be riding in this cable car alone or with just [Name].” He pulls out a hypothetical and I shake my head. “Right now. Or talking to some other person or persons entirely. Boom: Butterfly effect.” He does a mic drop motion with his hand. “You’re so dramatic, Chris.” I sigh.

The cable car gets to our destination and we climb out. We try to open the door but it doesn’t budge. It had been a couple minutes of trying to get the stupid thing to open. “Jessica, over here!” Sam suddenly calls and I stay in the back after hearing my sister’s name. We were supposed to come here together but after I found out she’s going after Mike, we had a huge argument and I want nothing to do with her. “Uh… are you guys having a really weird stroke?” Jess asks them.

“We’re stuck in this stupid thing.” Chris answers her. “Can you please let us out? Pretty please?” Sam asks.

“Jess, don’t play a dumb prank either, just hurry up.” I tell her, annoyed. She ignores me and presses the button, letting us out. “Oh, my God. I thought we were goners. Another ten minutes in there and I would have chewed off my own leg.” Chris exasperates. “Aw, sick, Chris.” Sam mutters. “Like I said before, you’re dramatic.” I fold my arms over my chest. “Look I got a lot of meat on my bones. This is all muscle down here.” He explains and I just walk away from them. I hear them talk about Jessica having a crush on Mike. Jessica telling them about how she’s with him.

I take my phone out and text my boyfriend. Wondering if he’s got everything set up. I don’t get a response though.

I walk behind everyone as we make our way up to the lodge until I find my way back to Chris and Sam who’s weirdly being quiet. “Chugger gonna make her big come back this weekend?” He asks me and I glare up at him. “Again with this?” I groan, both of us stop walking and I place my hands on my hips as I stand in front of him. “I’m just saying Josh found her pretty hot.” He puts his hands up defensively.

“Chris, we’re 20 years old now, Chugger no longer exists. Plus Josh still finds me hot. Obviously because we’re dating.” I scrunch my nose, irritated on this being a conversation once again. He goes to say something but has a smirk tied to his lips, I glance to Sam who was looking behind me.

Suddenly arms wrap around my waist and I’m lifted up into the air. I let out a squeal, kicking my feet. “Woah!” I get placed back on the ground and then spun around.

“Hello, my beautiful darling.” It was Josh, he pulls me into his arms and I hear him sniff my hair. I let out a laugh. “Hi, my love.” I look up and he kiss my lips. “Where have you been?” I ask him.

“Oh you know, around. Setting everything up. Or at least trying to.” He frowns. “Hm, I tried texting you.” I pull away from him.

“Sorry, haven’t really been on it much with all the running around.” He rubs the back of his head. I stare at him, my face scrunched with confusion. He’s acting weird. He gives me a wink and I roll my eyes.

We get to the stairs of the lodge.

“Man I feel like this mountain gets bigger every time I climb it.” Chris complains, he keeps walking behind me and kicking the heel of my shoe. “Oh yeah? Feels the same to me.” Josh says, grabbing my hand. “Oh come on, you grew up here. It probably feels like it’s shrinking.” Chris huffs.

“I guess that’s true.” Josh smiles, squeezing my hand. “When are you gonna install some cell towers up here? I’m getting withdrawals already.” The blond criticizes the mountain, lifting his phone in the air to try to get some sort of service.

“You got a spare million lying around and I’ll fix you right up.” Josh jokes, chuckling to himself and I smile. “Funny you should say that…” He checks his pockets as we start walking once again. “Ah I think I left it in my other jacket.” Chris points back. “Oops.” Josh shrugs. “Darn, that sucks.” I snap my fingers.

“Hey guys… Get up here okay?” Josh questions the rest of the group ahead of us.

“Yeah… well, more or less. But it’s so good to see you!” Ashley smiles to my boyfriend and then makes eye contact with me, giving a big grin. I’ve always loved Ashley. She’s a sweetheart. I’m iffy about her after the prank but Josh keeps telling me the twins would’ve wanted me to forgive them. It feels like I should be telling him that. In the beginning his anger was strong…

“Sup with him?” Josh motions to an upset looking Matt. Matt just looks away, I let out a breath. “Let’s just get inside.” I whisper, tugging Josh to come up the stairs.

“Yo yo yo! Are we gonna get things moving up here or what?” Chris asks Josh. “Yeah man!” He smiles.

He grips my hand once again and I look up at him. Wondering why he keeps doing that. “Hey… you doin’ alright?” Our friend gets serious, my eyes soften and lean closer into my boyfriend. Wanting to know the same thing even though I’m with him so much. His mind can go everywhere sometimes. “I mean I know it must be really tough without your sis-“

“Stop.” Josh warns him, letting go of my hand. “I just meant that-“

“No I know what you meant. You know seriously I’m over it and I just want us to have a good time, you know? Like we always used to.” Josh turns away from us and I frown, I know he’s not okay. I don’t know why he said he’s over it. He doesn’t have to be over it.

Chris nods his head though, “Right, Chugger could come out like she used to. But she won’t budge through this facade.” Chris pokes my side.

“Shut up about the Chugger thing already.” I throw my head back, jokingly gripping my head. “If my lady says no Chugger, that means no Chugger, sir.” Josh points a finger in our best friend’s face with a smile. Turning back around to try and open the door. “Dammit, this freaking thing.” He curses.

“It’s iced?” I ask. “What else.”

“Maybe there’s another way in.” Chris suggests. “There are a million ways in. They’re just all locked.” Josh continues to try with the door. “There’s gotta be, like, a window round the corner we can get like, get open or something.” Chris tells my boyfriend who stands up straighter at his idea.

“Wait a second, are you saying we should break in?” He questions Chris. “I don’t think it’s technically breaking in if you own the place, right?” Chris laughs.

“Hey, not if I don’t report you.” Josh jokes, making our friend nervous. “Lead the way, Cochise!” He motions him to go back down the stairs.

Once we get down Chris talks to Ashley. Josh and I watching the scene, his hand finds his way back to mine and I feel a kiss on my jawline. “I missed you.” He whispers in my ear and I smile. “I saw you three days ago.” I keeps my eyes looking ahead of me. “Three days too long.” He pulls me closer to him, kissing my neck making me laugh because it tickles.

“All right, all right, love birds. Keep it moving!” Chris orders us, shooing at us like we were cattle or a flock of birds. Instead of arguing we move it. Wanting to get inside. “Ashley was looking pretty hot today, right?” I teasingly ask the blond.

“Yeah if you don’t hit I’m sure Mike will get on that case.” Josh tells him, I pinch his hand, thinking that was a little too far. “Hey, cut it out you two.” Chris shakes his head but doesn’t lock eye contact with us. “Re-laaax I’m just checkin’ to see if there’s some blood flowin’ down there.” Josh laughs. “Tsk yeah…”

“Listen dude. Look around you. Look at these beautiful mountains. Do you see any parents?” Josh even takes a glance around him as he instructed our friend to do the same. “I mean can you imagine a more perfect, ripe scenario, just dripping with erotic possibilities? You, and Ashley, alone at last…” Josh makes up a hypothetical and I can see how these two are best friends. “You’ve laid all the groundwork… you’ve been a perfect gentleman. Now you come in for the kill!” Josh dramatically tells him. I let out a sigh at this awful conversation.

“Maybe you’re right.” Chris smiles.

“You’re a hunter bro. No fear. No mercy. I mean she won’t even know what hit her.” We walk around him and start back up to get to another way inside the lodge. “Alright, alright. I got it. Jeez.”

“You’re gross, Joshua.” I gently push him, he snickers pushing my back but we’re still holding hands. “You know I’m only messing.” He stops us to kiss me on the lips before continuing again.

“So how are we planning on breaking in to my parents lodge, bud?” Josh asks Chris. “Wait, I didn’t say I had a plan-“

“You sounded like you had a plan.” I chime in, Josh hums, agreeing with me. “You better deliver, Cochise, or else you got five lovely ladies who are gonna be freezing their bus off and last time I checked, that’s not a good way to get laid.” Josh tells him, playfully squeezing my hand and I scoff.

“All you think about is your penis.” I mumble. “Mm, maybe.” He whispers back to me. “well shoot, nobody likes cool buns.” Chris says.

Chris walks over to where an emergency axe should be but he lets out a disappointing sounding “oh.” Then he goes over to a cupboard? “Well well well. We got ourselves a thinker. Nice one.” Josh pats the thing, letting go of my hand. They push it over to the closest window. I watch them do the work.

“Who’s gonna get in there first?” Chris jokingly asks us. I shrug my shoulders. “if you want, I can do it.” I offer but Josh immediately pulls me back shaking his head in disagreement. “No, no, let Chris go.” He tells me, I look to Chris who waves it off. Climbing on the thing.

He lifts the window open and climbs inside the building. We hear a thud and him groan afterwards. I wince. “C’mon.” Josh lifts himself up and then helps me beside him but there’s barely any room. “Ugh, I’m okay!” Chris moans. “I should’ve pain more attention in climbing class…” He talks to himself. “You mean gym?” Josh furrows his brows as I laugh.

“Yeah, you know, with the climbing up the rope.” He stands up from the ground and then the light in the room shatters. “whoa.” Josh steps back, I almost slip but I catch myself. “Did I do that?” Chris asks.

“I don’t… I don’t think so. Here, use this.” Josh throws him a lighter. “Whoa- Chris, I just got an awesome idea.”

“Yeah?”

“Totally!”

“Well what is it?” Chris asks, looking up to us. “Okay. So I am pretty sure that I’ve got some deodorant in one of the bathrooms… you could use that with the lighter.” Josh tells him. “I don’t follow. How’s a stick of deodorant gonna help?”

“Spray on. It’s a can.” Josh corrects him. “Ohhh yeah, now I gotcha. “Flamethrower.”

“Just like we do with the lil army dudes.” Chris excitedly remembers and I wince at the memory. The smell of the plastic burning in my nose. “Yup. The ones we melted. Just point the spray-can at the lighter and Fwoosh!” Josh flings his arms up, almost knocking me before he grabbed onto my waist quickly. “Bye-bye frozen lock.” Chris chuckles. “Bingo.” Josh looks to the side. “Alright, so you got this. I’m gonna go sort something out- you up for hunting around in the dark for a little bit?” He asks Chris, I’m confused on what he has to sort out.

“Nope. But I’ll do it.” The blond shrugs. “Godspeed pil’grim.” Josh salutes to him before jumping down and then motioning for me to get on his back. “In the snow?” I nervously ask.

“Yes, I got you.” He says. “I… okay.” I slowly get onto his back and I feel his hands grip my thighs immediately. He makes his way back to the front of the lodge. Sam and Ashley were still sitting there. “I gotta go do something, I’ll be back.” He pats my thigh and I jump down.

“Joshua, where are you going?” I ask him in a quiet tone, we were a few feet away from the stairs still. “Just a sorting out a surprise for everyone.” He doesn’t look me in the eye and I fold my arms across my chest. “You’re acting strange, love.” I tell him.

“I’ll tell you later, I promise.” He puts his hands on my hips, pulling me closer to him. “You promise?” I raise my brows, he smiles. “Of course.” He gives me a long kiss before letting me go.

I go over to Ashley and Sam who are huddled up together. “Where’s Chris?” Ashley asks and I laugh. “He’s in the house, gonna open the door for us.” I inform them, sitting with them.

“Where’d Josh head to?” Sam speaks up and I glance off to the direction he was heading. “Um, I don’t actually know. He told me he would tell me later.” I frown, now feeling myself getting colder. “Weird.” She mumbles.

“Let’s go over to the door so we can get that fire started as soon as possible.” I pat both of them and we stand up. Walking up the stairs to the front door.

Masterlist

J. W. Masterlist

Taglist: If you want to be added lmk!

@my1fx

@scarletrosesposts

@jenepleurepasbaby

@httpvomitello

@britbratface

[arcadia-of-pluto]

Twist of Fate; Chapter One

Pairings; Rafayel x reader, Xavier x reader, Zayne x reader, Sylus x reader (Love and Deepspace)

Word count; 4,495 (sorry it's so short, I'll try to post three chapters today)

Themes; isekai, eventual smut

Rated; 18+ for swearing and some mature themes

Notes; To make things easier to read, I'm going to use emojis for who is texting.

Y/n 🩷

Rafayel 💜

Zayne 💙

Xavier 💛

Sylus ❤️

Hi everyone! This is my first time posting to tumblr so please be gentle with me! If you like this, then let me know! It would be greatly appreciated. My upload schedule will be every weekend (so either fri, sat, or sun!) Also, if the story seems similar, it's going to be verbatim with the story, just with my own embellishments to it. Without further adieu, I hope you enjoy this first chapter.

Prev || Next

Masterlist

A bright light shines within the dark room. There you lay in bed, playing a game on your phone late at night before bed. The soft background music coming from your speaker as the game loads up. You press ‘enter game’ as images of three men make their way across your screen, each one holding a special place in your heart.

Who says you need a real man? Fictional men are where it's at. They can't cheat on you, can't leave you, can't lie to you. It's a lot better than having to stress over a real person and worry if they'll leave you the next day or not. You know from experience, having two boyfriends in the past and neither lasting longer than six months- both breaking off the relationship before an anniversary. Screw men– well, besides the three on your screen right now. They were fine. Oh, and the fourth one being added a month from now.

The game loads in and you get a greeting from one of the men on screen. They take turns showing up in the Destiny Café, each able to say hello every time you log in. It was always sweet to see what they'd say, how they'd react, or any new text messages you'd get from them. You could even change their phone nicknames! You had Xavier, the sweet tired and aloof silvery blonde haired man, saved as Princess since you thought it would be cute. He'd definitely be embarrassed if you called him that. Zayne, the seemingly cold childhood friend and doctor, was saved under Snow Angel; you honestly didn't know what to have his name as that but it would just be amusing to see his reaction to it. Then there's Rafayel, the purple haired sassy and charming painter, who was saved as Nemo- again, very original. But Nemo works nonetheless. As you smile and send your daily stickers to each man to see their reaction, you get a new notification at the top of your screen.

“A new message?” You murmur, noticing that it's contact is unknown. The message was coming from the game. “It must be some new event. Weird…I wonder why there wasn't an update for it?” You back out of your message with Rafayel and click on the new message from the unknown sender.

:’Will you enter the game?’

“That's it?” Your brows furrow and you sit up in your bed, your phone lying in your lap as you scratch your head. “Wait..” You click on the message to reply and your keyboard pops up. “That's…” Usually, to reply in game, you get a choice between a few predetermined answers but for this…You just get to answer how you want to?

’What do you mean?’ You text back before reaching over to put your glasses on. Maybe you should've gone to bed earlier, it kind of feels like you're hallucinating.

You hear the chime of another message rolling in, and you look back down at your phone.

:’Yes or no? Hurry and pick one.’

This time the keyboard doesn't pop up, you only get three options.

ロ Yes

ロ No

And…

ロ Why?

You don't even think twice before pressing why, and the answer comes back quicker than you expect.

:’Please take care of them for me.’

You let out a scoff before running a hand through your hair. This must be some sort of elaborate prank. There's no way this is a part of the game, and even if it were there'd be no explanation for it. Is this the dev's way of getting back at you for sending so many support requests? Before you can think much about it, suddenly you feel more sleepy than before. Your eyes tiredly blink as you try to grab your phone to at least plug it up and get off of the game before you fall asleep, but instead you're lulled to sleep by the soft, melodic tune of Love and Deepspace.

Then a light so bright that it burns your eyes even though they're closed appears. It's hard to even force your eyes open, but when you do, you notice it's a big, deep crimson eye. Similar to the one you'd see in game. Your blood runs cold as you try to look around this unfamiliar area, but all you see is darkness. A dream? Yeah..this must be a dream. Although you've never been able to actively move in a dream before, there's a first for everything!

Right when you finally calm yourself down, you hear it. A loud explosion, the feeling of embers licking at your skin. Your ears are ringing, and you feel a sharp pain on the right side of your face. The darkness fades, and you're left with the blinding light of the sun against your back and your body lying on a pavement. Just lifting your head up to look at your surroundings feels like an extreme workout, everything about your body feels heavy. Sluggish. Though your left eye widens as you realize you're laying in front of a burning building. Something shining in the sunlight catches your eye, and once you grab the object, you find it harder to breathe. It was a dog tag with a charm on it. An apple charm with a star design in the center, and in the center of that was a ruby gemstone. The words ‘When U come back’ were written in cursive on the dog tag.

“No way..” you manage to croak out, the necklace clutched in your hand as you try to push yourself up, but the pounding in your head and the pain coming from your eye are no match, and you end up laying face down on the pavement in front of the burning home until you pass out from the pain.

Being passed out had its perks. You finally had a chance to think and put together a few puzzle pieces before you woke up. So if memory serves, what just happened was your- no, the main character's childhood home just blew up right after her best friend and basically brother Caleb stepped inside and her grandma, who adopted them both, was inside as well. They both died, and supposedly a mafia-like group called Onychinus was behind it because they were tying up loose ends as Grandma was a former researcher and scientist, experimenting on children and modifying them with aether cores. But the main character wasn't badly injured after the explosion, which never made sense honestly. You're that close to a building exploding, and you only get off with trauma and minor scrapes? That doesn't seem right…and honestly, the pain made it feel all the more real. If you were in a dream, that pain most likely would've woken you up.

So coming to terms that you're inside of the game was a bit easier that way. Though the bigger problem lies with your evol. You wouldn't even know the first step to using it, let alone resonating with another person. And firearm training. You've never shot a gun before, but you did take self defense and fighting lessons a few years back, but you can't exactly punch a wanderer. They're durable monsters that can shoot ice or anything at you and, some even have blades for arms…

“Great, it seems like she's waking up now.” You hear the deep, yet cold voice of a man. Then, you hear the higher pitched voice of a woman, “Finally! It's been three days, I just hope she doesn't insist on going back to work..” “She won't, doctor's orders.” The male voice says before you hear a door close.

Your eye slowly opens before you have to squint to adjust it to the bright white lights. A hospital? You try to sit up and the woman next to you rushes to help you. You have to turn your head to look at her since she's on your right side. Your right eye was also bandaged since all you can see is darkness out of it. The first thing you notice is her short bob cut. “Tara?” You say, your voice sounding a bit raspy and you tilt your head to the side. “Thank goodness, Y/n! We thought you'd never wake up.” She seems excited, bubbly and sweet…just like her character in game.

“That's..” Before you can finish your sentence, you start coughing. “Here, let me get you some water!” She hands you a plastic cup and you take a sip before continuing, “I…can't remember much.” You squeeze your hand in a fist, the sound of metal clinking together has you looking down at your hand. “You never let go of that. You've been holding it since..” Tara trails off and you're caught off guard by a sudden surge of emotions. You take a shaky breath as to not start crying, since that would definitely hurt your right eye before you look up at the ceiling. “I don't recall how to use my evol, how to shoot a gun…Can I still even call myself a hunter?”

“Y/n…” Tara sighs before taking your free hand, “Things can always be retaught, we're all just glad you survived. You should be glad to still have both eyes being that close to the explosion!” She smiled at you before handing you your phone. “I can't stay here long, but your phone has been blowing up for the past three days so make sure you check it out.” She pats your hand and stands up. “I'll visit later with a coffee or something for you.”

“The patient is advised to not have anything caffeinated until after being discharged.” A voice comes from the door before he steps inside.

Black hair, glasses, hazel green eyes, tall…

“Doctor Zayne,” I greet him with a small smile, suddenly more nervous and I turn to look at Tara. “I'll see you tomorrow, Tara?”

“Sure! That is, if I don't get a call about a wanderer..Metaflux readings have been crazy as of late, so we've all been pretty busy- but that's not to push you into coming in or anything! Your health matters more to us at UNICORNS so only come back when you're ready.” She says before leaving the room.

“How are you feeling?” Zayne asks as he comes closer, taking a seat where Tara once was. His eyes scan your whole body to make sure you're okay before landing on your face. He leans forward to take the bandage off of your right eye and you wince at how bright the light is for your non-adjusted eye. “It'll probably scar..” he murmurs, presumably to himself.

“I'm..” You trail off, sighing before you decide it's best to tell the doctor the truth. “I'm fine, but I can't remember-”

“Can't remember what?” He cuts you off, almost seeming more worried about just what you can't remember, which makes you laugh a bit. “Calm down, I was getting to that. I can't remember how to use my evol, use my gun, or anything to do with wanderers.” “Hmm..are you sure it won't come back with time?” Zayne seems to have calmed back down as he's now writing everything down on a clipboard. “I'm sure of that.” You clear your throat, looking back down at the necklace in your hand before running your thumb across it.

“I don't mind relearning everything but I won't be as good as I was before, that's for sure.” You lean your head back and Zayne quickly corrects you, gently tilting your chin back down. “If your wound reopens, we'll have to use stitches so be careful.”

“You'll get better at it in no time. Don't forget that I'll help you out.” Zayne says before standing up. You take a glance at the clipboard and it seems like he added ‘post traumatic stress disorder?’ as a note. You guess he assumes your forgetfulness might be caused by that, but you knew otherwise. “I'll leave you so you can check up on your phone.”

With that, the doctor leaves the room and you can finally let out a sigh of relief. It seems he didn't notice anything was off with you. He was honestly the hardest hurdle since he's known the main character for a long time, but you've noticed you tend to act like her to begin with so maybe it wouldn't be as hard as you thought.

You finally decide to put the necklace down on the table next to you, your hand aching from having held it so tightly and grab your phone. There was no code on it so you easy got into it, might as well put a code on it now..and now you go to check your messages. 45 missed calls from Nemo…Nemo? Your brows furrow and you flinch because, of course, that hurts the wound on your face so you quickly straighten your face out. The nicknames are the same as they were in your game. 11 missed calls from Princess, 55 missed messages from Nemo, and 5 missed messages from Princess. Zayne didn't leave any since he works at the hospital… though on the day of the incident, he did leave two missed calls and a reminder of a doctor's appointment.

You decide to check up with Rafayel first since he's a certified drama queen. You don't scroll too far up but the most recent text messages are just him being pouty that his ‘miss bodyguard’ is ignoring him.

🩷 :’Been in the hospital for three days, sorry!’

You decide that's sufficient of an answer before nearly jumping out of your skin as he immediately calls. You laugh before answering the call, being bombarded with questions the moment you press the green button.

“Which hospital, Miss bodyguard? What happened? Are you okay?”

“One question at a time.” You laugh before you start coughing and have to take another sip of water from the plastic cup. Your throat was a bit achy from not being used for three days.

“Which hospital?” Rafayel sticks with his first question, his voice void of his usual playful banter. “Uhm..” you look around for a moment, not exactly remembering the name of the hospital in game before spotting its name on the whiteboard in front of you. “Akso Hospital, room 205.”

“Got it.” Then silence. “Uh…Rafayel?” You say, taking the phone away from your face to notice he had already hung up. You shrug it off before going to your messages with Xavier. Most of the messages were just asking if you wanted to go hunting with him, sending locations, and the most recent one was from a few hours ago with him asking if you were okay.

🩷 :’At the hospital right now, been out for three days! Sorry about that. I might need some help soon though.’

Xavier doesn't immediately call like Rafayel did, instead just exchanges a few texts with you.

💛 :’what happened? are U alright? is it’

🩷 :’Is it what? I'm fine, a bit sore though. I got caught up in an explosion three days ago and have been out since then.’

💛 :’..nevermind that how can U be okay if u were passed out for 3 days? what's the extent of your injuries?’

🩷 :’Just a few bruises, scrapes, a sprained ankle, and…’

💛 :’and what?’

🩷 :’I might have a cool new scar over my eye!’

💛 :’thats not funny..what hospital, i'm coming now.’

You pause your messages, knowing he definitely can't come now if Rafayel is. None of the love interests have ever interacted in the game before, so you're not sure of the consequences just yet.

🩷 :’I'm probably about to sleep again! You can visit tomorrow, the doc gave me some pain medicine that's making me a bit tired and I wanted to talk to you.’

💛 :’alright as long as ur okay. i can wait as long as you need.’

You pout, trying your best not to gush over how sweet Xavier is, and drop your phone as your room door suddenly opens to reveal an exhausted looking, purple haired man. His shirt was haphazardly buttoned, his hair tousled as if he just got out of bed, and panic written all over his face.

“You didn't think to describe the details of your injuries to me?” Are the first words out of his mouth before he shuts the door behind him, walking deeper in the room to grab your plastic cup to drink some water. “You've been out for three days, you shouldn't even be sitting up right now!” He sits down on the chair next to the bed and you reach toward him to try and fix his shirt buttons. The tips of his ears turn red and he pushes backward on the rolling chair. “What're you doing- you're a patient.”

“Your shirt..” You drop your hands into your lap with a small smile.

“Oh-” Rafayel clears his throat, turning the chair to fix his shirt before he rolls the chair back up next to you. With his hand gently cupping the right side of your face, he murmurs, “How did this happen?”

You assume he's probably in shock since you were never scarred like this in any of the past lives you shared with him.

“An explosion from my..” You trail off, lips pressing together in a thin line as you find it hard to say what happened, even though you know they're not your actual family. “..my childhood home. Two casualties.” You finally finish your sentence, not meeting Rafayel's bluish pink eyes as he still cups your cheek.

The silence is almost deafening before Rafayel sighs and drops his hand. “I'm sorry for your loss.” He finally says. “Do you need a hug?”

You quickly shake your head. “If I hug you, I'll cry and I really don't need to..irritate my…” You can't seem to get your words out as your eyes water and no matter how hard you try to stop it, your cheek stings as salty tears run down your still healing wound. Rafayel moves to sit on the side of the bed, guiding your forehead to rest against his shoulder as his arms wrap around you. “We can always get your doctor to fix it, huh? It won't do you any good if you keep your feelings all bottled up now, will it?”

You can't seem to stop crying, even as your breath stutters in your chest and you find it harder to breathe. Sure, you cried when they died while playing but for it to affect you like this? Maybe it's because someone offered to be a shoulder you could lean on.

“Focus on my breathing. Don't hyperventilate on me now, miss bodyguard.” Rafayel murmurs, hand still patting your back as your tears eventually fade and you fall asleep.

Rafayel pulls you back from his shoulder, moving you so you're laid flat on the bed before he grabs a soft tissue to wipe your face, wiping the trail of blood coming from your wound since the salt from your tears irritated it. He then leans forward to kiss your forehead. “I'll see you soon.”

The next time you wake up, your eyes are puffy and your nose is stopped up.

“I see you cried yourself to sleep.” Zayne comments, tilting your head by your chin so he can examine your wound. “You irritated it.” He sighs. “If you don't cry anymore, it'll probably be healed up in two weeks..then you can cry all you want.”

“Well, I'm sorry, I had to cry.” You say with a pout, knowing it's not his fault. “When can I be discharged?”

“After today, your ankle should be better to walk on so tomorrow? But if you want to start work again, I'd say another few weeks.” Zayne finishes writing something down before standing up. “I also did a routine checkup on your heart in case that was the reason you can't use your evol and I don't think that's the case. I believe your evol revolves around your emotions so if you're not confident in it, it won't work.”

“Thank you, Zayne.” You say before taking a sip of the iced coffee that Tara left for you thirty minutes ago. Then you finally shoot Xavier a text to say he's free to come to the hospital whenever he wants, that you'll be discharged tomorrow.

Not even a minute after you sent your message, there was a knock on your door. You look toward the noise before smiling behind your hand. “Come in.”

A silvery blond head pops in from the now opened door before he comes in and shuts the door behind him. “How are you feeling today?” He asks, his soft tired voice sounding a bit more emotional than usual. “Mmh, pretty good. I'd probably feel better if you came a bit closer.” You say, leaning over to pat the chair next to your bed. He quickly comes to sit down, almost as if waiting for the invitation.

“Your eyes are swollen. Did you have a rough sleep last night?”

“No, I..” it's probably best to keep telling the truth for now. “I just cried myself to sleep.” You shrug, trying to play it off as nothing but Xavier isn't falling for it. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“If I cry myself to sleep again, will you hold me?” You ask, raising your left brow before laughing to yourself. “Just thinking about what happened, not being able to save anyone, getting hurt like this…” You feel a hand on top of your own and turn to look at Xavier. “It's not your fault.” He finally says after a moment of silence. A small smile tugging at his lips before he changes the subject, “What is it you wanted to ask me?”

“Oh right!” You sit up before turning your body to face him. “I need you to teach me how to use my gun…and how to fight….aannnd how to use my evol.” You name off each one and tap on your fingers to count them off.

“You..forgot all of that?” His head tilts to the side before he nods his head. “Alright, I can do that. Is there anything else you need?”

“Uh…can you pick me up tomorrow? I don't know where our apartments are…or how to drive my bike either.” You rub the back of your neck and smile sheepishly.

“What else did you forget?” He lets out a small laugh.

“All of Linkon?” You say before adding, “I mean, I remember names but I don't remember where anything is..like Azure Square, UNICORNS HQ, Twinkle Toys, Meow's Café..”

“Don't worry, I'll help with anything I can.” Xavier smiles, his thumb rubbing across the back of your hand.

“Thank you, that means a lot to me.” You smile before looking down at your phone as it buzzes. Rafayel. He's- on his way?

“Actually, could you get me a friend for tomorrow?” You ask, a smile tugging at your lips. “A..friend?” His head tilts to the side until you say, “Can you get me a fox plushie and bring it to me when I'm discharged tomorrow?”

“I-” Xavier laughs before nodding, “Of course I will.” He stands up, looking toward the door. “I'll leave now though, since you seem a bit restless, but I'll make sure you get all the plushies you want.”

Not even five minutes after Xavier leaves, Rafayel is in the room. Almost as if he felt a disturbance in the force that someone was with his lady right now. “Was someone just here?” He asks, trying to act nonchalant as he sits down in the chair.

“No?” You phrase it as a question before you nod your head. “Yeah, the doctor just left. He was upset that I irritated my wound but, at least, I'll be discharged tomorrow! I can't go back to work for another two weeks though.”

“So does that mean my bodyguard is still out of commission?” Rafayel pouts, a hand on his hip. “Well, that's a shame. I had an art expo to go to in a few days and I was wondering if you'd join me.” “Ah…about that,” you clear your throat before telling him all about the troubles with your evol and even not recalling how to use a gun. “Why don't you try resonating now?” He asks, placing his hand on top of yours. “But what do I even do?” You murmur, closing your eyes.

“Do you feel all of that energy coursing through your chest? Try to direct that through your body to your fingers.” Rafayel whispers. “Think of it like paint. If you pour paint on a flat canvas, it spreads all out like crazy. You have to take a paintbrush and direct the paint to where you want it to go. So your evol is the paint and you are the paintbrush.”

That…helps but doesn't help at the same time.

You take a deep breath, trying to silence your mind to be able to focus but it's difficult to have dead silent thoughts. Instead you try to imagine the energy moving from your chest all the way to your hands, which were clasped between Rafayel's much bigger ones. Then, you finally felt it. You were resonati-

You flinch as you’re bombarded with a few blurry memories of your past life with Rafayel; Well, if you didn't know, you would've just been confused but since you played the game, you knew they were of your past lives with him. Though they were blurry, so you didn't catch anything besides a soft ‘my bride’ at the end.

My eyes blink open and you take one hand away from Rafayel to rub your temples. “I think it worked but..” you look at Rafayel, who was uncharacteristically silent. Maybe he saw the same images too?

“Hey, did you see it too?” You ask, which finally gets his attention. “Huh, see what?” He tries to brush it off but you don't let him. “It was kind of blurry but I remember seeing you…in a purple outfit? Oh and you said something at the end.” You tap your bottom lip with your index finger, pretending to try and recall what you saw when, in reality, you only saw a blurry Rafayel. You never saw specific details like that. “You said my bri-”

Rafayel covers your mouth with a hand. “That's enough of that.” His ears were red and he wasn't looking you in the eyes. Then he clears his throat. “Anyway, I'll contact you soon about the expo since you seem to resonate just fine and then maybe I can show you around Linkon City to try and jog your memory.”

He leaves as quickly as he showed up, clearly embarrassed by what you were going to say.

“Cute..” you say to yourself, laughing into your hand before wincing and touching the right side of your face.

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

That's it for the first chapter! Since I wrote this on goggle docs, I wasn't sure just how short the chapters were but they'll get longer as we go on! I have a few chapters piled up so even if I don't write for a few weeks, I'll still be able to post. I'd love any feedback or even any explanations of the features on here to make the reading experience a bit better. I've never posted to Tumblr before so I've been just copying what I see from the tags and word count so I think I've done pretty well for my first time. I would love to learn how to do a masterlist though and also a next button, I guess I just have to link the next chapter on it? I'll have to test it out so please bear with me and I hope you enjoyed- and stick around for the chapters to come! 🩷

[ne-videl]

𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐡

♡

yandere archon Zhongli x mean fem reader

Morax turned your new life into hell and you despise him for that.

MDNI, sub then dom then sub Zhongli, yandere, unhealthy relationship, forced marriage, kidnapping, just very very unhappy and abused reader, sexual violence, slight violence from reader, nsfw?? or just heavily suggestive, poor english!!! please tell me if I forgot anything ><

word count: ~2k

a/n: hiii everyone! welcome to my first post!! as a fellow yandere x reader enjoyer I decided to share some of my own stuff here. (it took a while bc translating any of my work is hell)

I hate violent and domineering yanderes so at the end geo grandpa gets what he deserved for being toxic ^^

I think Zhongli was a menace in his youth and you can't change my mind.

basically we just turn mean and cruel yandere morax into pathetic yandere morax

bon appètit.

you push your fingers deeper, harder, making his knees tremble and his back arch.

Zhongli exhales noisily, pressing his heated face against the cold wall.

you squeezed his throat with your long, musical fingers: the lack of oxygen made his heart beat even faster.

"why...?" he whispered with a hoarse moan, turning an intoxicated, misty gaze on you.

"for you being alive."

____*:･ﾟ✧

your new life was good, even better than the previous one – you thought. kind and affectionate parents, friends, little shop in a little village. little people doing their little things.

when you realized you were in the game, your new body was about three years old. "Liyue" fell from your mother's lips, and that was enough for you to understand.

"what a strange Liyue they have here... still in it's cradle, perhaps." – little you thought, concentrated on sorting out bright and shiny stones, sitting on the porch of your modest house.

over the years, little girls turn into beautiful women: with pink cheeks, delicate skin and lips with the color of fresh peach tree fruits.

when you, bright and beautiful you, working in the shop of your dear parents, met a man with amber eyes, you were sixteen.

even at the first glance you recognized your deity. beaming, you greeted him from behind the counter. the only answer for you was silence and his heavy gaze.

chrysanthemums silently looked at you with their curious heads, standing in a vase on an old table top.

when Morax came for the second time, you realized that he was here for you. all that remained was to silently say goodbye to mom and dad, cheerful girls at the neighborhood and to kind elders of your tiny village: you will never see them all again. while he was leading you through the corridors of his cold palace, clutching your little hand until it hurt, you were saying goodbye to your old life. It was impossible to even think about who you were before: it was as if she didn't exist anymore at all.

you wanted to cry.

from that day on, you began to hate chrysanthemums.

____*:･ﾟ✧

day 345765. your 948th anniversary is approaching.

life is akin to hell.

warrior god knew nothing about love. you've already lost count of the nights you've had to perform "marital duty", waking up with back pain and counting bloody red hickeys on your delicate skin.

your husband's stamina could only be matched by his insatiability.

you examine your neck, covered with bitemarks, with the gaze of a pathologist looking at a corpse before vivisection.

what a vile, gut-wretching sight.

over the years, the personality of geo archon's spouse has suppressed the personality of the one you used to be. and the attachment of a girl who spends the night playing videogame towards her favorite character no longer existed at all.

only hatred remained. blind, caustic, it alone forced you to get up in the morning, waiting for never coming end of this nightmare.

someday you will make him regret that he was even born into the world.

he wasn't the character you loved: not Zhongli, not the funeral parlor consultant. only person you knew now was Rex Lapis, lord of geo.

he alone was capable of destroying your pride: tearing off all the sparkling jewels from you, depriving you of the shine of false power with which you methodically surrounded yourself with decades.

it was making you angry, irritated to the point of trembling in your hands: it made the inferiority complex tear your chest with it's disgusting little claws and wail plaintively. he is the master, and you are the property.

you aren't trembling under your husband's steady gaze. you didn't like being alone with him, but on every night you spent together, your posture was stiff, like an unbending bamboo shoot. haughtily raised chin and burning eyes. burning not with passion, no. with disgust.

"I..."

I belong to you. the words you've said at least hundreds of times by now.

"I hate you. I despise you with every little piece of my soul."

Morax greedily bites into your lips, and you feel your skin cracking under his sharp fangs, while hot hands painfully squeeze your shoulder under the silk hanfu.

painful. disgusting.

he takes you, as he did on many nights before: cruelly and vulgarly.

and you scream, you grin at his impassive face: you promise your husband that someday you will kill him, will wring his neck. that you will hate him for the rest of your endless life. you desperately tear the skin of his broad back with your blunt nails, growling and whining like a hunted, beaten dog.

Rex Lapis licked the blood off a fresh bite on your skin.

pulling the maid by the hair, who dared to chatter right in your ear early in the morning about how romantic it all was, was quite in the spirit of the "noble spouse", known for her more than bad, bilious temper.

"nights and nights long, oh, what a passion! what a burning, beautiful love!"

you are so lucky, madam.

girl is sobbing, with her head pressed against the wall. you hiss, venomously and viciously, tightening your grip on strands of her hair with tenacious, elegant fingers.

"stupid bitch. romantic, huh? you think I enjoy it? what, want to take my place?" – frightened maid runs out of her mistress's luxurious bedroom in tears.

you were jealous of that innocent girl. a girl who was able to cry when after being raped. who could see something beautiful in trivial things. who probably had a loving husband and family. that pathetic maid was better than you, an icy cold shell of a human driven only by hatred and a thirst for revenge.

you pursed your lips in disgust.

you developed a habit of despising everything that was better than you.

____*:･ﾟ✧

you always loved music, and over time you became very fond of playing it on your own. it helped to keep your mind in order.

whether it's a guqin with silk strings or an elegant erhu, or, a more exotic one, a lacquered piano brought especially for you from Fontaine – over time you have mastered every available musical instrument perfectly.

it was a good way to keep yourself busy, to not think of useless things. you've had more than enough time in a couple thousand years to master all this.

thin fingers drum on the keys: furiously, with malice, while the piano obediently gives out note after note.

Morax loved listening to you play, especially erhu. his delicate dragon hearing gravitated towards graceful, gentle melodies. even in this matter, your opinions did not agree: you, his spouse, loved to play music so that the maids, shuddering, thought why their mistress was furious once again.

you had beautiful hands, as befits a great musician; and with those beautiful hands you were concentrated on running your fingers through your husband's long hair.

the tips of the strands shimmer with amber in your delicate hands.

you never took the initiative or showed affection, and Morax, although genuinely surprised by such a sudden request, gladly complied. it was nice to feel the gentle touch of your thin fingers, occasionally touching the scalp and sending shivers down his back. low, guttural rumble came from his chest as he closed his eyes in euphoric bliss.

you put the jade comb aside.

"indeed, what a beautiful hair." – you drawled indifferently, noticing the hot blush on his neck, which burned even more after you pulled harder.

indeed, beautiful. how nice it would be to hit his head on an expensive countertop, wrapping it around your fist. how he would react? you would really like to see tears and fear in his bright eyes.

"beauuutiful..." – you hissed with a caustic sneer at the very ear of the lord of geo, pulling especially hard.

your husband's uncharacteristically high-pitched moan was your answer.

____*:･ﾟ✧

with each millennium spent together, your spouse has become softer. calmer, more respectful towards you. and even if you still noticed the possessive twinkle in his amber eyes, it was incomparable to the fire of poisonous passion that burned in them once.

at least now you were allowed to manage your own time. how generous of him, to end your imprisonment within the walls of the palace – you thought with caustic sarcasm, picking up another glaze lily for a bouquet.

now you even had friends – if that's what you could call the adepti and other loyal companions of Morax. all of them, of course, sympathized with your situation, but never made any attempts to help. they didn't interfere – no one ever did.

the sunset was blazing bright orange – or scarlet, or pink – didn't matter. you frowned, looking into nowhere.

Guizhong plopped a large bouquet of glaze lilies into your hands, snatching you out of your gloomy thoughts, but immediately running away in embarrassment.

"and why?" – you felt the urge to roll your eyes, but pulled yourself out of the annoying habit. goddess of dust, although considered you friends and did not hide the fact that she liked you, the wife of Morax, alone with you trembled like an autumn leaf in the wind.

piercing, cold eyes slid to embarrassed goddess, and you tried to give her a smile: the best you were still capable of, if were capable at all. so that it doesn't look like a facial muscle spasm.

"thank you. they're pretty." – goddess of dust smiled back: bright and sunny. in your gaze, for a second, shifted a non malicious envy, with which elders who have lived a long, harsh lives look at children. you yourself forgot how to smile like that a long time ago.

yes, perhaps you were really a little jealous of Guizhong. of the fact that she did not meet Morax as a young and cruel deity. the lady of the Guili Assembly knew him as wise and merciful, her faithful ally and reliable support. you didn't blame her for that, but you still couldn't help a slight tremor in your hands at the sight of your husband having a pleasant conversation with his friends.

well, after another millennia, Rex Lapis has come to love having pleasant conversations with you too.

"lovely flowers." – Morax patted you on your shoulder, smiling tenderly, but you, however, did not consider it necessary to respond in kind.

"Guizhong gave it to me." – you mumbled dryly.

"I see. do you like her?" – geo archon leaned closer to you, affection shining in his amber eyes.

"I don't know." – you closed your cold eyes, without taking your tired gaze from the bouquet.

Morax kissed the top of your head, and you twisted your face in disgust.

____*:･ﾟ✧

war of the archons died down with great noise, bringing destruction and devastation. having lost many, Morax took his place among the Seven.

and even Guizhong, sweet and kind Guizhong, fell victim to this massacre. although, of course, for the wife of the geo archon her death and the deaths of many others were not as much a blow as for himself.

slender fingers pluck the strings of the erhu, playing an elegant, long-drawn melody.

"[name]. I know you hate me, but still-" Rex Lapis looked at his wife with deep, sick affection and sadness in his amber eyes, like a beaten puppy, – "but still, please..."

you lift your eyelids, giving him a cold, indifferent look, and put down the instrument.

"you do not worth pity." – you say dryly, pursing your lips, – "at least not mine."

Morax rests his head on your shoulder, desperately inhaling your scent, as if afraid that you will disappear.

"please. just this once. help me just once, I beg you." – you feel the hot moisture staining the silk of your hanfu.

your beautiful hand rests on the top of his head, and you hear a noisy intake of breath, and his fingers tightly grip your forearm in a desperate embrace.

your little god is so pathetic. how disgusting.

see, how simple everything turns out to be? beg, even better if you cry, and maybe I'll feel a little sorry for you.

but you both knew that you would never allow him the luxury of your pity.

your tenacious fingers grabbed his hair in a firm grip, and you lift his head so that your husband looks into your eyes. into your cold, mocking eyes.

the only thing you desired to see in your former tormentor's gaze was fear, but even in that matter he disappointed you. Morax was looking at you with the same sick love that you had never been able to get used to over the last millennium.

you were waiting for fear, hatred, anything, but not this.

you huffed, relaxing your grip. your husband's arms wrapped around your waist, and he rested his head on your shoulder once again.

"you can be cruel. you can shout at me or hate me. you can do whatever you want with me, just please, please... don't go away."

there was no answer for him.

____*:･ﾟ✧

warm midday sun illuminated the domain in the Aocang mountain. fluffy clouds floated overhead while you sipped fragrant herbal tea, entertaining yourself with conversations with the Guardian of the Clouds.

"Zhongli, huh? how sweet. well, why don't you invite him to have tea with us?" – you giggled venomously, enjoying the intense gaze of the adepti. – "I will be more than glad to see him once again."

guilt will always follow geo archon, you will make sure of this.

you will be glad to see his sadness again, to hear the regret in his voice, and maybe, maybe even laugh a little when you'll see the same pathetic obsession in his eyes.

because it doesn't matter if it's Morax or Zhongli, he will always come back to you.

geo archon will always desire, and you will always despise.

always. forever.

thanks to everyone who (for strange reason 🤨🤨) finished reading this!!! honestly I was so scared to post it and my english is probably awful uuuh

maybe I'll post something else but it'll sure take a while bc as a said before, translating any of my stuff takes a shit ton of time

bye!!

[vivwritesfics]

Landoscar HC's

I started this when we got a McLaren Double Podium. That was a week ago. Here we are.

Lando x reader x Oscar

Masterlist

At first, nobody was sure what to do

Y/N was dating Lando, but then this Oscar guy came along

Both of them were in awe

The Australian was just so cute

They couldn't get enough

But, from there, it was just awkward

Lando and Y/N stumbling over themselves

Oscar laughing at them

Lando and Y/N stumbling over themselves some more because oh my god that laugh

How did they get together, I hear you asking?

It was a drunken night

None of them could remember what happened

Even when they woke up in the same bed, they still couldn't remember

But they weren't complaining

But cue more awkwardness

They couldn't talk about it, not for a good while

When they did, it was Y/N having to break the ice

She invited Oscar over, made dinner and served drinks

"We have to get this sorted," she said after they'd all sat down for dinner

Sort it out they did

They sorted it out with light touches and uncomfortable kisses

Doing this sober was a lot different to doing it drunk

It came with time

They had to keep things quiet for that time

Secret touches in dark corners

Slow kisses in hotel rooms with the doors locked

It was a weird situation they found themselves in

Y/N and Lando were able to walk around, holding hands and being photographed together

In some photographs they even had Oscar walking behind them

A lot of fans called Y/N and Lando Oscars parents

That was a haunting day

The world found out about them after five months of dating

Five months of hiding their relationship

Y/N and Lando had Oscar over to stay in their apartment in Monaco several times since the beginning of their relationship

They didn't feel they could go out to dinner, so they had a lot of takeout on the sofa, with candles lit and the television on

The day the world found out was after Lando, Oscar and Y/N had been at the club with some of the other drivers and their girlfriends

The drinks had been flowing

Maybe all of them had too much

The next day the pictures were on all of the F1 gossip sites and instagram pages

Y/N between Oscar and Lando, Lando's hips pressed against her backside as she made out with Oscar

And then all three of them were pressed together, with Lando and Oscar kissing with Y/N in between them

There were millions of these pictures, all of them following the same theme

Y/N, Oscar and Lando doing things they usually kept behind closed doors

But now their relationship was out in the public

All three of them were posting statements the next day

And then they were free, they could show their relationship to the public

It didn't come without prejudice; they were stopped on the street and berated like it was nothing

But they were in love, and that's all that mattered, right?

Sometimes it was too much and they put things back behind closed doors

Y/N kissed both boys when they got on the podium, but the PDA didn't spread beyond that

They kept things quiet

Kept it to their hotel rooms

Kisses, any kind of touches had to be hidden away

For their year anniversary, Lando and Oscar booked out an entire restaurant

It was the first time they were able to go out to dinner together in months

The boys were in suits (which Y/N loved because neeecks) and she was in a dress

McLaren media days were suddenly awkward

The boys were able to keep it together, but the McLaren staff didn't know how to act

"We're not about to start snogging," Lando had to say to them at one point

It took the people at McLaren a while to get used to their relationship, but once they did, things were perfect

The team was working at their best once everything was out in the air

They were together for three years, had three anniversaries like this before Lando finally popped the question to the both of them

[mandarinmoons]

so basically, it’s Spencer and reader’s 3 month anniversary, and so reader made them matching bracelets or some sort of matching gift. he’s so appreciative of the gift and vows to wear it all the time and he goes into work with it. Derek or Emily playfully teases him about it because it’s his first real relationship and he’s basically got heart eyes for u and is wearing the gift. but ofc they’re just happy to see Reid content in a relationship and it’s out of love for him that they joke

Your tongue poked out of your mouth in concentration as you carefully thread the beads. A blue bead after a purple one and a pink and green one after the next few, the color choices didn’t exactly match but you didn’t mind, you were doing it based on how you felt and who you were feeling towards.

It was yours and Spencer’s three month anniversary coming up and you hadn’t been this happy in a while, if ever. You thought that little tokens like matching bracelets between couples were adorable and adopted to try and make some of your own. You took inspiration from all the crazy & colorful socks Spencer has in his wardrobe and wanted to see if you could make something akin, while also adding a few details that aligned with you.

Once the bracelets were done, you put one on yourself and wrapped the other one in gift wrapping, albeit it being done poorly it didn’t matter as it was the inside that counts.

You’ll never forget the joy in Spencer’s eyes when he unraveled the mess of colorful beads from the crinkly paper. He held it up and admired each bead carefully and tried to figure out exactly why each color had been chosen.

“Don’t think about the concept too much now, I made it by feeling not logic.”

Spencer grinned as you chuckled and enveloped you in a hug, his lips pressing a kiss into your hair, “That does seem to be the way you do things.”

“Do you like it?”

“I love it, would you like to do the honors?”

“Of course.”

Pulling back you took the bracelet from Spencer’s hand and slowly put it on his wrist.

“It fits perfectly.”

“It does, doesn't it? A starter wedding ring if you might.”

Spencer knew that you were just joking, but God knows how long he could hold it out until he actually was on one knee in front of you.

Walking into work, Spencer’s eyes darted back to the bracelet he was wearing every time it came into his peripheral vision. His lips curled up into a smile and his thumb brushed over the beads as he was reminded once again how much he loved you.

Spencer was brought out of thoughts by hearing chuckling.

“You got some new jewelry, pretty boy?”

Derek patted Spencer on his back and grabbed his wrist to look at the bracelet more closely.

“That must’ve taken a long time to make.”

“Ask Y/N, they made it.”

“Did they now?”

Spencer freed his hand from Derek’s grasp and nodded as he massaged the area Derek had a tight hold on.

“Now that’s adorable. I wish I had someone to do arts and crafts with.”

Spencer excused himself and went over to his desk to start with his work, and to try to hide the fact that he could feel his cheeks turning scarlet red. Morgan always had a way of tearing down his confidence, even if he meant it in a playful “brother” like way, it still got to Spencer at times and he didn’t always know if the things Morgan said were supposed to be taken in a good or bad way.

As the day went on, Spencer’s focus was turned to his work but he occasionally heard snickers coming ahead. He saw his teammates discussing something while glancing his way and he knew that the topic of the bracelet was in question.

Spencer was a very private person and the topic of you had come up only a few weeks ago and it had been a complete accident. The team were out in a nearby bakery, ordering some treats when Spencer ordered an extra one to bring you later. When asked about the extra donut, Spencer blushed and stuttered out that it was for you, and that’s how the team learned about the special person who had made Spencer the happiest he’d been since his last relationship.

Spencer felt his eyes drooping and saw it as a sign that his body needed some coffee. Quickly rising to his feet, he tried to maneuver his way past everyone so as to not become a topic of ridicule again. Derek called out to him, but Spencer walked ahead until he was in the kitchen and turned the coffee maker on.

A moment later, Derek walked into the kitchen and stood next to Spencer and watched him pour the coffee into his cup.

“Have you got something on your mind?”

“What?”

“You’ve been ignoring us all day, what’s up?”

“I just haven’t felt like talking.”

“That’s not the Doctor Reid that I know.”

Spencer shrugged and Derek chuckled as he realized what could’ve been the reason why Spencer was so quiet.

“You know I didn’t mean any harm.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“I think it’s awesome, you know? I’m glad you found someone to be with, we all are. I’m sorry if it came off in a mean way, but I’m proud of you, I really am.”

The frown that had been present on Spencer’s face for the entire morning had now been replaced with a shy smile. Hearing someone be happy for him meant a lot, and it meant even more that it was coming from Derek Morgan.

“I’m still going to tell Y/N what you said.”

“Oh c’mon now, you know they won’t let me live it down ‘til the end of times.”

“That’s the whole point.”

Taglist: @radioactiveinvisible @whoisspence @sreidisms @lanascinnamongirls @luvkatryna @sp3ncelle @iluvreid @khxna @keiva1000 @reidstheyfriend @hiireadstuff @pleasantwitchgarden @cynbx @kimm4710 @niktwazny303 @reidsdaisies @mindfullycriminal @cumulo-stratus @themarauderseraslut @gayfor-rosadiaz @gubsbuubs @multifandomsimp69 @chyozai

If you'd like to be removed from the taglist send me a DM or a message in my inbox

If you want to be a part of my taglist go here!

You can find my masterlist here!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments and like & reblog to support <3

[alisonfelixwrites]

the deal - part 2/3 (*) [harry styles au]

//

part one, part three.

summary: harry & claire are in love and have a happy family of four. the only dark cloud hanging over them is the custody battle with claire's ex, who's atlas' dad

word count: 11, 074

content warnings: smut (unprotected sex, dirty talk), cutody battle, absent father, physical/emotional abuse (hitting leading to a hospital visit), pregnancy talk

_______________________________________________

“You’re kidding me, right?” Harry had a wide, sleepy smile on his face as he entered the kitchen. His hair was tousled, his shirt wrinkled and his skin still warm from crawling out of bed just minutes before.

The smell of fresh coffee had sort of woken him up as he blinked his eyes open in bed. Patting his hand to the side blindly to find Claire, he had found the space empty. Curiosity brought him downstairs to find a decorated kitchen and a wide selection of breakfast foods on the table.

Claire stood by the counter with his shirt on and a pair of shorts, her hair up in a messy ponytail and a steaming cup of coffee in her hands, “Happy one year anniversary.” She smiled.

“Shit, baby.” Harry chuckled, walking up to hers with his arms opening, wrapping around her frame easily, “This is so corny.” He teased.

“Oh, shut up.” Claire laughed, “I tried to be cute.”

Harry smiled, dipping his head to kiss her lips, “It is.” He murmured, “It’s very cute. Happy one year anniversary, babe.”

Claire pushed up her toes to kiss him back, her hand slipping to the back of his neck as she arched into him. “Are you surprised?” She asked against his lips and Harry nodded, “Mhm. Very. Thought you snuck off on me.” He teased again.

“You know, passing the one year mark…” Claire teased back, “I think I might stay.”

She had been staying for a year.

Exactly one year ago, Claire came back from a date where she got stood up. Atlas was spending the night at Harry’s house with Finn and Claire returned, not expecting to end that evening in Harry’s bed with him inside of her.

The next morning, Harry asked her to stay forever and Claire did. Easily.

Her and Atlas went back and forth at first, but Harry and Claire made it a point to not hide their relationship for their sons. Atlas and Finn were over the moon and Claire and Atlas just… stayed. Claire cancelled her apartment a month after and they moved in permanently.

“Y’look sexy.” Harry breathed against her, his hand dropping to her ass. He fit his palm over one of her cheeks, squeezing the flesh before tucking his fingers underneath the fabric of her shorts to touch her bare. The thong covered up little to nothing and Harry groaned from the back of his throat, nudging Claire back into the counter. His free hand cupped her jaw to tip her chin back and take her in a deep kiss.

“Do we have time?” Claire was already pushing up to sit on the countertop, sliding to the edge and splitting her legs for Harry to stand in between. He grinned, humming at their dynamic. Quickies in the kitchen were their thing. Clothes didn’t even come off but they were their most primal and animalistic moments. Romance wasn’t in sight as Harry often fucked her hard and fast, just getting them both to a high. 

Not that Harry wasn’t a complete romantic. This little anniversary breakfast was Claire attempting to match his level a little bit. Most often it was Harry surprising her with his incredible cooking skills. She’d come home to find a candlelit dinner and soft music playing. Harry treasured her like no one else and continued to surprise her like that.

Harry was about to fit his fingers into the waistband of Claire’s panties to touche her bare when they heard a door upstairs.

He paused and Claire sighed out in frustration, “I guess not.”

“Guess not.” Harry smiled, retrieving his hand and kissing her lips again, “I love you, Claire bear.”

“I hate that nickname.” She whispered and Harry threw his head back in a laugh, “I know. I love it.”

Little footsteps sounded down the stairs as two seven year-olds ran down the stairs.

“No running!” Harry shouted, but their speed didn’t cease. Claire smiled at him, still sitting up on the countertop, “Okay, dad.”

“Daddy to you.” He murmured before shortly kissing her again. Claire blushed slightly as Harry patted her thighs and then stepped back. He adjusted his pyjama pants and she bit her lip, watching him. She couldn’t wipe the smile of her face and her cheeks almost hurt. Her stomach bubbled in butterflies and Claire just couldn’t believe how insanely happy she was.

And how insanely happy she had been all year. It was surreal.

Claire watched as Harry eagerly greeted Finn, who was usually first to get up. Atlas had a harder time waking up and Finn often pulled him out of bed. 

It was confirmed again when Atlas’ sleepy face appeared while Harry was hugging Finn good morning. Claire’s face lit up at the sight of Atlas. He had a haircut recently, cutting his shaggy blonde locks a little bit. It was still covering his ears but not long enough anymore for a bun or braid.

“Good morning, Finn.” Claire greeted, also bending down to hug the seven year-old. He hugged her back and kissed her cheek as Harry ruffled Atlas’ hair and the two bickered playfully. Atlas’ dimple popped as he grinned, “Mornin’, daddy Harry.”

“Hi, bud.” Harry smiled, “Want some orange juice?”

Atlas shook his head no, “Milk, please.”

Claire hopped off the counter, also greeting her boy by wrapping him in a tight hug. She didn’t have to bend down anymore to hug Atlas, who was a bit taller than Finn. 

“Is it someone’s birthday?” Finn quipped as he took a look at the decorated table. Harry squeezed his shoulders from behind, “Nope. You know what we’re celebrating?”

Chairs scraped back as both boys joined Harry and Claire at the breakfast table. Claire smiled at Harry and he winked at her before clearing his throat. She poured the coffee as Harry filled up Atlas’ glass with milk and Finn got himself some orange juice.

“Do you know what happened exactly one year ago?” Harry mused out loud.

Claire could almost see Finn’s brain working while Atlas was clearly not awake enough for trivia. She gently stroked her thumb over his shoulder as Harry and Finn had a staring match. Eventually Harry swallowed a sip of coffee, “One year ago, Atlas’ mum and I got together.”

“That was a year ago?” Atlas raised his brows, glancing at Claire, who offered him a smile, “Mhm.”

Atlas chewed, “Whoa.”

“Yep. One year ago we fell in love.” Harry smiled at Claire and Finn raised his brows while Atlas near spit out his milk, “One year ago you kissed!” He shouted before bursting out into a laugh.

Finn laughed along and Harry blushed softly while Claire giggled. The four of them were laughing and smiling around the table and Claire would’ve loved to think it was a rare sight, but it wasn’t. Every morning was like this.

There had of course been little spats in the past year, but no big fights. Atlas and Harry got along great, as did Finn and Claire. Harry and Claire continued discovering each other but kept their relationship sort of private.

They were aware basically everyone knew, like the other mums at school – but no one really asked or confronted them. Finn and Atlas didn’t make it a big deal and usually Harry dropped both of them off in the morning.

People whispered and pointed but no one actually spoke. 

And for a year, Harry and Claire had been in their bubble. They spent most of their time here at home, both not having a significant other to care for their children if they were to leave the house.

Speaking of significant others, Claire glanced at the clock. Dread filled her body knowing she was supposed to drop Atlas off at his dad’s in about two hours. Harry followed her gaze and sent her a sympathetic look.

Their boys’ attention didn’t stick with breakfast for too long. It was winter and snowy and soon enough, they were on the couch together watching a kid’s show which had a special Christmas episode. 

Harry squeezed Claire’s fingers as she started cleaning up the kitchen, “We’ll do that later.” He whispered, a small mischievous smile on his face.

“Later?” Claire repeated. He pulled her into his chest, “Mhm, later. Let’s have a shower first.”

Claire dropped the spoon she was washing off in the sink and immediately agreed. Finn and Atlas hardly paid them attention, eyes glued to the screen as Harry tugged her up the stairs, favouring their own bathroom which was furthest away from their kids.

Harry and Claire usually tried to get them to spend their time not in front of a screen, but other things were of more importance right now.

They teased for a bit, standing in front of the mirror. Making eyes at one another while brushing their teeth. Harry’s eyes lingered on her nipples through her shirt and right after Claire spit out the toothpaste, he pulled at her clothes.

Claire giggled as he got her naked, stumbling under the stream of the water together.

She moaned into his mouth, fingers raking through his hair as she felt his body pressing against hers. He was soft and smooth and warm and his hands were gentle yet needy as he roamed her body. Passion easily radiated and even if it was dirty, it was still sweet and vulnerable.

It was one year of kisses, I love you’s, gifts, early mornings together. They had spent the spring tending to Harry’s garden and spicing up the house a bit with Claire’s personal things. They spent summer by the pool and running around the garden with the boys. They spent fall jumping in the piles of leaves and carving pumpkins. 

One year of incredible sex and growing together. A year of Claire letting Harry into her life and breaking down her walls and a year of Harry opening up his heart for another woman and both learning how to love and trust again.

It felt light, the both of them together. They laughed and joked and had more fun than ever before. Harry didn’t remember that he could feel like this. 

He felt so young and every day was just so fun. Claire kept him on his toes and made him feel so fucking alive.

His fingers tangled in her wet hair as he whimpered into her mouth, warm water surrounding them. “I love you so fucking much.” He panted, hands slipping towards her thighs. 

She was free of make-up and her wet hair was pushed back, blonde locks cascading down her back. She looked young and fresh and Harry’s heart skipped a million beats, smiling uncontrollably as he shook his head to himself in disbelief, “Fucking hell.”

Claire giggled before their lips crashed together. They were aware that they didn’t have all day. Harry’s dick was painfully hard, pressing into Claire’s tummy before he pushed her against the shower wall. Claire thudded against the glass door as they continued kissing and Harry grinded into her hip, “You ready?” He spoke against her lips.

“Always for you.” She panted.

He smirked and found his footing before lifting her up. Claire squealed with a grin, glancing at his bulging biceps as he pushed her up against the glass wall, her thighs locked around his waist. 

“Slip me in.” He breathed, “Fuck, please, I need you.”

Claire moaned, her hand travelling between them to quickly slide a finger through her slit. She was wet, her legs spread for him. Her hand than reached for his shaft, feeling him solid and aching for her. Harry’s lips gaped at the feeling of a delicate touch, lowering Claire in his arms while she positioned him and he slipped inside of her.

“Oh god.” Claire sighed, her eyes closing at the feeling of Harry’s cock stretching her. The feeling never got old and her toes curled against his back when he filled her so perfectly.

Harry kept his eyes on her face, watching pure bliss take over her delicate features as they were joined together. He dropped his forehead to her shoulder, “Shit, baby. Feels so good.”

“I know,” Claire panted out, “fuck, I know.”

Harry tilted his head up to catch her in a kiss, grinding back and forth before pulling back a little more to thrust inside of her. Claire thudded against the glass wall with each rock of his hips, sinking his cock inside of her pussy.

“God – Harry…” Claire moaned, “Please.”

“Need me harder?” He panted, his arms aching from the position. Claire swallowed and nodded, tugging on his hair, “Y-Yeah.”

He nodded too, putting her down on the shower floor. Water streamed down his muscular back as he flipped Claire around. Her hands were flat against the glass wall, Harry pushing her against it until her breasts flattened and she turned her head to the side.

He tugged on her hips and used his foot to spread her legs a little, sinking down a little before he pushed back inside of her. Claire welcomed him easily and Harry immediately chose a quicker pace. They both needed it, and his hand curled into her hair to pull her back as his hips clashed against her ass. 

“You’re so fucking tight.” He groaned from behind, watching the back of Claire’s body. The length of her back, the way her shoulder blades tightened from tensing up, her slender waist and the curve of her hips. His free hand slid over her body, settling on her ass to give a stern little slap.

Claire squealed at that and Harry hunched over her more, “I love you,” he moaned, “fuck, I love you. ‘M gonna cum, baby.”

“M-Me too. Just a little more.” Claire gasped. Harry nodded, tugging her hair a little more and fucking he harder. Claire cried out in sensitivity, pushed against the shower completely as her knees felt weak and Harry fucked into her from behind.

Harry’s other hand moved around her hip and Claire’s eyes tightly closed when he rubbed circles on her clit, “Oh – fuck, right there.” She cried, “Yes, Harry… I love you.”

He hardly heard her, the pulsing of Claire’s pussy pulling him over the edge too. His hips slammed forward, balls snug against her as he gritted his teeth and cocked her head back further. Claire gasped at the sting in her scalp, staring up at the tiled bathroom ceiling as Harry finished inside of her.

He stayed inside of her for a moment, gently releasing her hair and stroking his palms over her skin as he puffed out breaths and kissed the back of her shoulder. “One year of finishing inside of you.” He teased and Claire breathed out a laugh, “Wondering when you’ll get me pregnant?”

The topic ignited butterflies in Harry’s tummy as he smiled against her shoulder. They had talked about it before, about having a baby of just the two of them. Finn felt like Claire’s and Atlas felt like Harry’s, but they definitely wouldn’t mind an extension of the family.

Claire needed some time to think at first, remembering how rough her first pregnancy was with Atlas. Her situation was completely different though. She had no money after her parents cut her off and she was stuck in an abusive relationship while dependant on drugs. It wasn’t a safe environment for either her or Atlas and getting them both away from there would always be the thing she was most proud of in life.

Whenever someone complimented Atlas on how polite or nice he was, it hit Claire a little harder. She took credit for that. And then maybe the thought of raising another little person didn’t sound bad at all. 

Harry had his own thinking to do, getting over his anxiety of Claire leaving him like Astrid had. The pictures of her were all gone and her old art studio actually became Atlas’ room. Harry took him on a tour around the house and he got to pick whichever room he liked most. The garden was Atlas’ favourite part of the house so he naturally chose a room with view on the pool and the garden. At first he was pouty that him and Finn couldn’t sleep in the same room, but they needed their own little space – Harry and Claire felt.

Harry’s office had moved to a downstairs room and the memory of Astrid was gone. Finn didn’t ask about his mum yet he knew if he ever had questions, Harry was there to answer them. It wasn’t their intention to replace either of the parents, and Finn also didn’t refer to Claire as mum. He called her Claire or Atlas’ mum.

But Harry hadn’t expected to fall so fucking hard for Claire. In theory, she wasn’t his type. Her personality was so far from any other girl he had dated in the past. She was a whirlwind, a hurricane and she had a big mouth. But he learned to love that about her. Unapologetically herself, Claire didn’t give a fuck what others thought. It pulled Harry out of his comfort zone and he had never felt more alive.

They balanced each other out, Harry felt. He was the calm in Claire’s storm, and she was the tequila in his coffee cup. She was just the kind of crazy he had been looking for and life had never been more fun with Claire and Atlas in it. Finn blossomed too at their hands, and it made Harry even emotional to see it.

It was hard to know what emotional turmoil Astrid’s departure left on Finn. He was a closed book and never really spoke much. Harry wasn’t sure at what age it was appropriate to maybe take him to a therapist but it didn’t seem like that was needed anymore. Him and Atlas were the best of friends and confided in each other.

Even if they did have separate rooms, during school breaks and vacations they preferred to stay in the same room. They referred to the other as brother.

And so Harry and Claire considered the idea of maybe giving them another brother or sister. Claire wasn’t on birth control anymore. She hadn’t been for a few months now and so they let the universe decide if one month she’d be pregnant.

They weren’t in a rush.

Harry slipped out of Claire and she hummed as she got to stretch her back. His release ran down her thigh and she turned around with a blissed look in her eyes. Harry pulled her under the stream of water to share kisses and wash her hair, caring for her in so many ways.

“Mummy?” Atlas’ voice was soft as he knocked the door of Harry and Claire’s bedroom. She was pulling on her socks as she turned her head to the open door, “Hm?”

Atlas pushed open the door more, dressed in a thick jumper and his pants. His cheeks were pink because inside the house was too warm for these clothes. Claire’s stomach dropped when she saw the pout on his lips and the tears in his eyes, “Atlas?” She frowned, “What’s wrong.”

“I don’t want to go to daddy.” He mumbled, his lip quivering. Claire swallowed thickly as she glanced at Harry, who shot her a wary look. Claire opened up her arms for Atlas and he fell into her, clinging to her body. Claire fought her tears as she stroked his hair, “’S okay, baby. You have fun when you go to daddy, hm?”

“No.” Atlas whispered, “I don’t want to go.”

Claire turned back to Harry again, “Harry…” She tried but he softly shook his head, “No, Claire, we’ve been over this… The lawyer told you just a few days ago.”

“I know.” Claire sighed, “But I can’t force him to go if he doesn’t want to go?! He’s crying!”

Harry sat down too, placing his hand on Atlas’ back to comfort him and he nodded, “Yeah. But you know what they’re going to say, right? They won’t believe it until you bring Atlas to his doorstep and he refuses to leave the car.”

Claire swallowed and angrily shook her head, “I’m not putting him through that. H-He’s seen enough, Harry.” She whispered, consoling Atlas as she tried to have this hushed conversation with Harry.

“Babe, I know.” He sympathized, “But when this gets taken to court again, you’re going to need everyone on your side. If you don’t bring him, he’ll say you violate the custody arrangement. He can go to the police.”

Claire closed her eyes, resting her cheeks on Atlas’ soft hair. Her heart broke every time this happened. Atlas was supposed to see his dad on Saturday, every two weeks. It got taken to court a few months ago and even though Evan asked for a full weekend, the judge disagreed. Atlas and Evan weren’t close and Atlas didn’t feel a thousand percent comfortable there. Asking him to stay a night, was too much.

Especially considering Evan didn’t have the most stable housing situation. He had moved about six times in the past year which didn’t provide a safe space for Atlas. He was always in a house he didn’t know, usually with a new girlfriend of Evan’s and whatever children she has. Atlas wasn’t too fussy about that but it was clear that he didn’t have any room for himself.

He often came back from Evan’s, exhausted and falling asleep the moment they picked him up. He ate like crazy when they got home and crawled incredibly close to Claire, sucking his thumb again. He regressed whenever he spent time with Evan.

Claire had tried to contest the arrangement countless times. Her and her lawyer argued that Evan was old enough to make his own decisions and if he said he didn’t want to go, than they had to respect that.

For now though, Claire had to follow the current arrangement even if it killed her.

“We’re going to be late.” Harry softly added. He knew that even if they showed up five minutes late, it meant Evan would call the police on Claire. It was venomous between them and Claire regretted him more than anything in her life.

Atlas was her everything, but he was also proof of a wound that would never close. Her and Evan would always be linked together unless Atlas one day decided to not want Evan as a father anymore. He could only do that if he was eighteen or older, so they had years and years of custody arrangements, split holidays and sidewalk arguments to do.

“Yeah.” Claire rasped back. With Atlas tucked into her neck, Claire let a few tears fall freely. He couldn’t see her but Harry could, and he brushed them away as Claire let out her emotions. 

“Atlas.” Claire murmured, urging him to stand up straight, “We have to leave.”

He casted his eyes down in defeat but didn’t fight her. He shortly nodded and trailed behind Harry, going downstairs.

Claire knew she was going to pick him up in about eight hours, but it still felt like an eternity away. She had no trust in Evan as a person or as a father. He had crossed lines too often. The fact that Claire had been to the hospital twice in the past year because he had hit her, wasn’t proof enough to the court that he was an aggressive person who was unfit to be alone with a seven year-old.

But Evan had a good lawyer who continuously tried to prove that he was bettering his life. He was apparently off of drugs and alcohol – even though Atlas sometimes told alarming stories after spending the day there. He had a job or was in counselling and he was in therapy. 

Claire didn’t believe any of it.

She didn’t even believe Evan truly wanted a connection to Atlas. He just did it all to spite her because he apparently hated her that much.

Finn and Atlas were in the backseat. Claire wanted to cry again when she saw they were holding hands and everyone in the car could sense that today would fucking suck. There was no music playing, no chattering from the backseat. Finn wasn’t his bubbly self and somehow sensed he’d had to miss his best friend all day. 

Claire felt uneasy as Harry started the drive to Evan’s house. 

He insisted on coming along even if Evan refused to even look at him. They had deemed it best that Harry simply waited in the car as Claire dropped off Atlas. And naturally, Finn couldn’t be at the house by himself so they brought him too.

“Are you excited for swim practice today?” Claire tried to break the silence, glancing over her shoulder to see Atlas. His face perked up a little bit and he nodded, “Yes. Will I be big enough to play in daddy Harry’s pool then next summer?”

“You will.” Claire smiled and Atlas gasped excitedly, “Without floaties?”

Claire pressed her lips together, “We’ll see.” 

Harry chuckled from next to her, squeezing her thigh gently as they followed the GPS towards yet another new address of Evan’s. It was about a thirty minute drive and the pool where Atlas had his swim classes was actually about ten minutes away from Evan’s place.

Claire mourned the fact that she wouldn’t be able to sit at the sidelines of the pool, cheering on Atlas as he learned how to swim. He was the oldest out of the group but Claire was excited to finally get him to learn these things. Just like her and Harry had been teaching both boys to ride a bike during summer.

Atlas was such a wild child and he loved being outside, it was just necessary for him to know these things even if he was a little behind. Before being with Harry, Claire never had the funds to do anything like that for him. Without having to pay rent, she had extra to spoil him and this was part of that.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Harry slightly frowned as they drove slowly into one of the streets. Claire glanced out the window, seeing the muddy snow off to the side of the roads and the less than nice houses. She tried not to judge because she had lived in places like this for years in a row. She pulled out her phone to check the email from the lawyer, nodding at Harry, “Yes.”

He pressed his lips together, “Okay.”

She felt sick to her stomach when Harry pulled over and Claire got out, grabbing Atlas’ bags from the trunk. He exited the car with little enthusiasm and Harry got out for a moment, giving Atlas a tight hug and promising him his favourite food tonight. Atlas perked up a little and then said goodbye to Finn.

He held Claire’s hand as they walked up to the door of the house, and Claire shivered in the cold December air when she had rang the bell.

The stench of smoke and tobacco hit her nostrils when the door opened to reveal Evan. He looked dishevelled as always. Blonde, messy hair that actually resembled Atlas. He wore shorts and a shirt and the heat from inside the house almost made Claire nauseous. Evan’s previous place was cold as fuck which is why she had dressed Atlas in such thick clothes. He’d sweat like crazy inside of this room.

“Hi.” Claire forced out. Evan’s eyes dragged up her body, lingering on her breasts as always. Claire wanted to cry. He then crouched down in front of Atlas with a smile on his face, “Hey, little man.”

Atlas swallowed and Claire could tell his smile wasn’t reaching his eyes, “Hi, daddy.” He let go of Claire’s hand to give Evan a hug. Claire already knew she’d never get the smell of smoke out of his clothes. 

Claire shortly glanced inside the house, “New place?”

“Yeah.” Evan shortly answered. He then glanced behind her to see Harry’s car. Evan’s jaw tightened as he swallowed, “Still with mister perfect over there?”

Claire exhaled a breath, “Mhm. His name is Harry.”

“Don’t remind me.” Evan scoffed, dropping his eyes to the bags in Claire’s hands, “What’s all that?”

“Uh – just some of his clothes, in case he wants to play outside and gets them dirty.” Claire explained. Evan took the bag from her with little enthusiasm, “I have clothes for him here.” He argued and she shook her head, “He grew again, those don’t fit anymore.” She then held out the other bag, “And this is his swim stuff. He has practice at four.”

“What?”

“His swim stuff.” Claire repeated, “He’s in swim class now, it was said in court.” She explained, “Every Saturday.”

She wanted to add that he wouldn’t know. It was actually Atlas’ fourth class but the previous Saturday, Evan was too busy moving to spend time with his son and skipped out on his time with him. Claire had been driving Atlas for the past three weeks to the swimming pool.

“Claire, I don’t have a fucking car.” Evan frowned. Claire swallowed, “Look, it was said in court that he has swim class every Saturday and you and your lawyer agreed to take him on your time.”

Even huffed, “Am I supposed to teleport there?!”

“I don’t care how you get him there.” Claire kept her voice steady, “There’s busses you can take.”

Evan grumbled something under his breath and then exhaled, “Why does he need swim practice anyway.”

“Daddy Harry has a pool.” Atlas piped out. Evan rolled his eyes, “Of course fucking prince charming has a pool, hm?” He flicked his eyes up to Claire, “How long before your sugar daddy drops you?”

Claire swallowed and shook her head, “Stop. Don’t do this in front of Atlas.”

“He’ll learn soon enough.” Evan bit back, keeping a hand on Atlas’ shoulder, “There’s only a few correct ways to treat women, hm?” He had a sick smirk on his face before slamming the door. Claire gasped and put her foot between, “I-I haven’t said goodbye to him!” She tried to fight the door.

Evan harshly shoved it open again, near hitting Claire in the face, “Are you trespassing?” He seethed, taking a step closer to her and Claire quickly stumbled back, “No!” She shook her head, “Just let me say goodbye to him.” She leaned down and Atlas quickly fell into her hug. He clung to her tightly and Claire kissed his head a few times, “It’s okay, baby. It’s okay.”

“When will you be back?” Atlas whispered.

“At six.” Claire mumbled, “After swim practice.”

Atlas softly nodded, “Okay.” He seemed to talk to himself, counting on his fingers, “Swim practice, mum.” He whispered to himself before nodding. Claire gave him an encouraging nod and then the door got slammed shut and she was alone on the sidewalk.

Even if it was below zero, Claire was burning in rage and anxiety when she got back in the car. Harry frowned at her, “What did he say?”

“Nothing.” She quickly dismissed, “Please, drive.”

“Cl-“

“No.” Claire shook her head and swallowed thickly, “Please, get me out of here.”

Harry kept his eyes on her for a moment longer before sighing out. He did as she asked, driving away from Evan’s house and leaving Atlas behind as they drove back home.

Claire was noticeable silent every time Atlas wasn’t around. She sat on the couch, staring ahead of her and Harry didn’t know what she was thinking of. Finn was helping Harry in the kitchen, preparing lunch.

“Claire’s sad.” Finn spoke as he put the sliced cucumbers into the bowl. Harry glanced at him and slowly nodded, “Mhm. She misses Atlas.”

“Me too.”

Harry ruffled Finn’s hair, “I know, bub. It’s strange not having him in the house, isn’t it?”

Finn ate one of the cherry tomatoes and nodded, “Yes. He’s my best friend.”

“Ouch.” Harry chuckled, teasingly poking Finn’s rib as he sat up on the counter, “I thought I was your best friend.”

Finn burst out into a giggle, “Silly daddy. You’re my daddy, not my friend.”

“I can be your daddy and your friend.” Harry shrugged, “What does being a friend mean?”

Finn seemed to think hard about that before he spoke up, “Someone I can tell everything to.”

Harry hummed, “You can tell anything to me, right?”

“Yes.” Finn seemed a little stumped as he thought again, “And someone I can play with.”

“I play with you all the time!” Harry argued playfully and Finn giggled again, “You’re right. I suppose you’re my friend.”

“I’m so honoured.” Harry teased, wrapping Finn up in a hug before he put him down on the floor, “Thank you for helping in the kitchen.” He sincerely spoke and Finn proudly nodded, “Did I do good?”

“So good.” Harry spoke without missing a beat, “Couldn’t of done it without you.”

Finn’s teeth showed as he smiled, crooked and with gaps between. Harry adored him like nothing else and his insides melted as he stared at his smiling boy. He then squeezed Finn’s shoulder, “Can you maybe go cheer up Claire a little bit? I think she could use a hug.”

“I think so too.” Finn agreed. He was about to turn around before stopping himself, nibbling his lip, “Would it cheer her up if I start calling her mummy?”

Harry’s heart stopped for a moment before he exhaled a breath, “Not necessarily. It’s your choice what you call her, Finn. She’s just as happy with you calling her Claire. If you don’t want to call her mummy, that’s okay. She’s not waiting for that.”

Finn seemed to think of Harry’s words, and Harry squeezed his shoulder again, “Do you understand?”

“I think so. I can call her whatever I want? But I can also call her Claire?”

“Of course.” Harry nodded, “She’s just sad because of Atlas.”

Finn nodded too, “Atlas doesn’t have a nice daddy. Not like you.”

“That’s true.” Harry refrained from elaborating even if there’s plenty of things he’d like to say about Evan. He cleared his throat and nudged Finn in Claire’s direction. He caught on easily and made his way over. 

Claire forced a smile at him when Finn stood in front of her. 

“Hi.” He softly spoke. Claire chuckled, “Hi, bub.”

“Are you sad about Atlas?”

Claire swallowed away the lump in her throat, “Yeah, I am.”

“I miss him too.”

“I know you do.” Claire sighed, opening her arms and Finn hugged her. He stood in between her legs with his arms around her shoulders. Upon pulling back, he cupped her cheeks. His small, warm hands felt gentle around Claire’s jaws and he pulled Harry’s move, using his thumbs to wipe away a few stray tears.

The sentiment melted her heart and she was so, so glad for Finn that he learned how to be a gentle person because of his father. Harry was an incredible example and it only amplified how horrific of an example Evan was.

“I wish Atlas had a nice daddy, like mine.” Finn spoke.

Claire exhaled, “Me too. I wish he had your daddy as his daddy.”

Finn nodded too, “And I wish you were my real mummy.”

Claire shot him a soft smile, “You do?”

“Yes.” He nodded immediately, “You’re a really sweet mummy to me. You always hug me and take care of me when I’m hurt.”

“Well that’s because I love you.” Claire smiled. Finn nodded again, “Mhm. You love me like a real mummy.”

Claire closed her eyes as her and Finn hugged, and for the rest of the day she could tell they both tried to cheer her up. Her and Harry did some online Christmas shopping together. Claire couldn’t bring herself to go into town and hit the shops without Atlas there. Her mind was constantly with him and she kept checking her phone every few minutes.

She helped Finn with some of his reading and busied herself by cleaning a bit in the afternoon, until her phone rang at about four thirty.

Immediate panic seeped into her bones when Evan’s name showed up on the screen. Atlas was supposed to be at swim practice and the worst case scenarios popped into her head. What if something happened? What if Atlas was hurt? What if he was in the hospital? Evan would never let her live it down, knowing Claire signed him up for those classes in the first place. 

“Hello?!” She instantly picked up the phone, dropping the laundry she was holding in her hand.

“Mummy?” Atlas’ hushed whisper sounded through the phone and Claire’s stomach dropped, “Atlas, baby? W-What’s going on? Why aren’t you at swim practice?”

She heard his breathing on the other side of the phone and Claire pressed her lips together, “Atlas, where’s your dad?”

“He… He’s asleep. I think.”

Claire pressed her palm to her mouth to stifle a whimper, “Asleep?”

“He went upstairs a few hours ago and… and I haven’t seen him.” Atlas sounded small and Claire could hear the sadness in his voice through the phone.

She closed her eyes, “A few hours ago, you say? What have you been doing the entire time, baby?”

“Nothing. I waited.” Atlas whispered, “Mum, can you come pick me up?”

Claire sniffed as she hopped down the stairs, “Yes, me and Harry are coming to get you right away, alright? Sit tight, sweetheart, we’ll be there soon.”

Harry’s head lifted as he heard Claire speaking on the phone. He put down his newspaper, “Babe? Everything okay?”

“Atlas called.” Claire rushed out, grabbing her coat, “Evan fell asleep hours ago, he’s been by himself in that house trying to keep busy.” Her voice trembled from emotion, “He didn’t bring him to swim practice and he begged me to come pick him up.”

Harry quickly got up his feet, “Are you serious?”

“Yes.” Claire sniffed and Harry cupped her cheeks, “Baby, calm down.”

“I can’t.” Claire’s voice cracked, “He’s asleep at four in the afternoon, Harry. I-I don’t trust this one bit. What do you mean you leave your seven year old fucking kid alone?! In the few hours you get to spend with him every other week?!” She was rambling now, “He fought so fucking hard in court for those few hours and then you climb in bed and leave him in that boiling house?! No fucking way.” She seethed, “I’m going to pick him up.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“Harry, I’ll be f-“

“No, I’m not arguing with you on this. I’m coming with you.” He sternly spoke before turning towards the stairs, “Finn!” He shouted.

Only a few minutes later, the three of them were in the car again. Harry’s knuckles were white around the steering wheel as he tried to drive quick but the snow and traffic prevented him from doing so. “Tell me what he said again?” He asked.

Claire took a breath, “He said his father went upstairs a few hours ago and Atlas thinks he’s asleep. He’s been by himself, doing nothing all afternoon. And he’s not at swim practice.” Right as she said it, she got a call from his swim teacher. Claire winced under her breath, “Now this.” She showed the screen to Harry and he held out his hand, “I’ll take the call, I’ll explain.” He offered.

“No, no, you’re driving, it’s fine.” Claire shook her head, answering the call and explaining why Atlas didn’t attend his class today. The teacher was understanding but felt a little worried because no one let them know in advance. Claire promised he’d be there next week and they talked shortly about Atlas’ progression in swimming.

By the time Claire ended the call, Harry’s Tesla was in Evan’s neighbourhood. The car was hardly to a stop before Claire jumped out and ran through the muddy snow towards the front door.

Harry knew it was no use trying to stop her, but this wasn’t going to turn out well. Evan called the police for everything these days. Claire showing up here at least thirty minutes early would probably not sit right with him even if it was in Atlas’ best interest. Evan got the lawyers involved when Claire showed up just a few minutes early. It was unnecessary but he just made sure everything got dragged out and he hit Claire where it hurt.

“Evan!” Claire shouted as she banged her fist on the door, “Open the door.”

It took long. Too long, Claire felt. Her fingers were itching to fucking open the door herself but after a bit, she heard the fumbling of the lock and then the door opened. The insane warmth of the house greeted her once more, almost like she opened up an oven. 

Evan was frowning, his face angry as he stared at her, “What the fuck?!” He sneered, “It’s not six yet.”

“He’s supposed to be at swim practice.” Claire breathed, “Where is he? Atlas!” She shouted into the house.

Evan stepped in front of her, wearing the same clothes as before, “He’ll come out when it’s six.”

“Don’t fucking pretend you’ve been spending time with him.” Claire bit, “I know you’ve been asleep all afternoon.” Her eyes glanced over his features, “Are you high?”

“How fucking dare you.” Evan near growled, “No, I’m not fucking high. I’m not using anymore, Claire.”

“Then why are you asleep at four in the afternoon when you only get to spend a few hours with him?! God, I can’t fucking believe you.” She muttered under her breath, “Atlas!” She shouted again.

Finally, he appeared from behind Evan. His eyes glanced at his father and Evan stood in front if him, “No, he’s not leaving yet.”

“You’ve been asleep all afternoon.” Claire repeated, “You made him miss swim practice.”

Evan’s jaw clenched, “How the fuck do you even know that? You’ve got no proof of anything.” He looked at Atlas, “Atlas, have we been playing together all afternoon? We have, haven’t we?” 

Atlas pressed his lips together and looked at Claire, who shook her head, “No, come here. It’s okay, baby. Come on.” She coaxed him. Evan’s hand yanked on Atlas’ shoulder, “No, he stays here. You can wait in your car until it’s six. He’s not coming out sooner than that.” He warned, “Claire, I swear to fucking god…”

“Don’t touch him like that!” Claire immediately intervened, stepping in as Atlas was between the two of them. Evan gave him a firm yank until Atlas was behind him again, “I said no!”

“Mummy…” Atlas whined softly from behind Evan. Tears formed in Claire’s eyes and she swallowed thickly as she stared at Evan, “I hate you.” She murmured, “I hate you so much.”

He didn’t do anything besides smirk a little, “There used to be a time that you loved me, C. You loved all of me. Even begged for me.”

“Stop.” Claire shook her head. Evan’s eyes lingered on Harry’s car on the street, jealousy evident in every little detail of him, “Six. No earlier.”

Claire felt powerless and glanced at Atlas, who pleaded with her through his eyes. And Claire took a breath, “No.” She tried to sound firm, “I’m taking him now.”

“Then I’m calling my lawyer.” Evan warned and Claire bit her tongue, “Then I’ll call mine and explain what Atlas said on the phone.”

“What?!” Evan’s eyes blazed fire as he looked at Atlas over his shoulder, “You took my phone?”

“Evan, h-“ Claire tried, panic making her ears ring as Evan’s shoulders tensed, “You fucking little piece of s-“ He raised his arm towards Atlas and Claire’s eyes widened, “No!” She grabbed his shoulder and Evan briskly turned around, shoving her harshly. Claire stumbled back into the wall behind her with a smack, gasping from the pain in the back of her head. 

She hardly had time to really feel it before her head whipped to the side, a sharp sting in her jaw from where he slapped her.

“Mummy!” Atlas shouted desperately. Claire heard a car door and urgent footsteps, “Hey!” Harry barked, “Did you fucking hit her?!”

Her sight was blurry as she was down on the floor, pain somehow everywhere before she realized she fell right into a plant pot and it’s why her stomach was burning so much. She blinked a few times, tasting blood in her mouth before her vision focussed on Harry – who had Evan pinned up against the door.

Evan struggled, but Harry saw red. He had never felt such anger in his life and he wouldn’t ever consider himself a violent or aggressive person. It took a lot to get him riled up and he had never been in a physical fight before.

Sitting in the car, he had been restraining himself from intervening. He knew Claire didn’t want him to because it made everything messier. But he cared for Atlas like he was his own, and he cared for Claire in a way words couldn’t even explain. He adored both of them tremendously and so when he saw Claire’s body colliding with that wall, he gasped in a way that Finn jumped up from the noise in the backseat.

When he saw Evan raising his hand, Harry opened up his door on instinct. And when Evan didn’t even hesitate to strike Claire across her face, Harry was already running up to him. She collapsed from the force, falling down to her side with a whimper as Harry quickly shoved Evan up against the door, holding him against it.

“Harry!” Claire gasped, getting up again and ignoring the sharp pains running through her body. Atlas was frozen in the doorway as Harry used every ounce of strength to not punch Evan’s teeth out. “Harry!” Claire grabbed his shoulder, “Don’t!” She tried to pull Harry off, “Please.”

Evan was breathing heavily and Atlas took it as his moment to run out of the house. His bags were right where Claire had left them when dropping Atlas off and when she finally managed to pull Harry off of Evan before things escalated even more, she quickly reached for Atlas’ stuff.

Her eyes were wide and teary, a line of blood running down the side of her mouth from where Evan had hit her and her entire body sore and aching. She sniffed and stared at Evan, “I will literally fight until you never see him again.”

“You can’t take him away from me, Claire.” Evan shook his head, “He’s mine too.”

“Unfortunately.” She mumbled. With that, Harry gave him one last shove before he helped Claire to the car. Evan didn’t come after them, but watched as Atlas hurried into the car to get away from him and then they drove off.

Finn was silent but held Atlas’ hand again, who worried for his mum. Claire breathed heavily as she used a tissue to clean off the blood. 

“I’m driving you to the hospital.” Harry spoke. Claire winced and shook her head, “No, I’m fine. J-Just take me home.”

He swallowed and shook his head, “No.”

“Harry, I swear, just d-“

“What if you’re pregnant?” He softly spoke. He kept his eyes ahead and felt Claire’s gaze on him. His hands were tight around the wheel and he clenched his jaw. Claire’s face softened when she saw the clear worry in his face and she took a breath, “Yeah. Okay. We can go to the hospital.” She had fallen on that fucking flower pot and bruised her abdomen. They had been sort of trying for a baby and this couldn’t be good if Claire actually was pregnant.

The car ride progressed in silence and Harry pulled up to the emergency room soon after. He was on the phone with the lawyer and the cops when Claire got taken into a separate room by the doctor. They took pictures of her injuries first as proof and then the nurse helped clean her up.

Claire explained to them what happened. Her cheek would be bruised and she had a slight scrape in her forehead. Lifting her shirt, she could see bruising and swelling and she winced out when the doctor gently prodded her.

“There’s – uh… there’s a chance I might be pregnant.” She mumbled, staring up at the ceiling and avoiding the doctor’s eyes, “Me and my boyfriend have been trying. Not too actively, but we have been trying. I haven’t taken a test yet and I don’t feel anything, but…”

The doctor nodded, “Alright. Let me get an ultrasound machine to check. We need to assess internal damage either way. Afterwards, I can have a look to get you some pain medication.” His voice was soft and gentle and Claire exhaled a breath she felt like she had been holding for a long time.

Nerves took over as the doctor spread the gel over her skin and Claire held up her jumper. 

“How long have you been trying?” The doctor questioned as he had his eyes locked on the screen. Claire swallowed, “I stopped my birth control about four months ago.”

He nodded, “Okay.” He moved the transducer and tilted his head to the side, “I don’t see anything, I’m afraid. I’m sorry if that’s not the news you were hoping for.”

“No, it’s okay.” Claire breathed, “I didn’t think I was.”

“I’m not sure how to say this, but it might’ve been for the best.” He turned off the machine with a sigh, “If you did have a little foetus in there, chances of it surviving a fall like this would’ve been slim.”

Claire lowered her eyes, nodding to herself, “Right.”

“I don’t see any damage inside. There’s no internal bleeding and this will just be a painful bruise. I’ll prescribe you pain medication and a follow-up appointment next week to do another ultrasound. Your ribs aren’t broken either, so I just advise you to rest and not move around too much.” He spoke.

Claire swallowed and forced a smile, “Thank you.”

“No problem.” He shook his head and glanced at his beeper, “I see police and social services have arrived. Do you feel ready to talk to them?”

“Mhm.” Claire bit her lip as she tried to get up but the doctor shook his head, “I’ll get you a wheelchair and those painkillers first. Like I said, you need rest.”

Claire had a band-aid on her forehead and bags underneath her eyes when she was wheeled back into the waiting room. Police officers were talking to Harry and Finn and Atlas were colouring a little bit in the kid’s corner.

“Hey.” Harry rushed over to Claire when he saw her, crouching down and stroking his fingers over her jaw, “Hey, baby.” He crooned, “How do you feel?”

“Okay.” She nodded, her voice soft. She offered Harry a smile, “Really, I’m okay, Harry. Thank you.”

Her words pained him, because she shouldn’t be okay. It went to show how often Claire had been in here, in that same position for her to hardly flinch from Evan’s behaviour. She was used to being thrown around by him. Harry bit his lip, “A-And… are you?”

“No.” She breathed, shaking her head, “I wasn’t.”

Harry felt relief, knowing there wasn’t a baby inside of her who would be hurt because of what happened. He kissed her knuckles, “Okay. Yeah, okay.”

“Nothing’s damaged, I’ll just be black and blue for a little bit.” Claire sighed and Harry nodded, “Okay.” He leaned in to softly kiss her, “I love you. And I’m really proud of you.”

“I love you too. Thank you for everything.” Claire whispered back, nuzzling her nose with his. She knew she came with baggage. If either had a choice, Evan wouldn’t even exist. But it was Claire’s life and Harry was a part of that.

He took a breath, “Social services want to talk to Atlas. Alone.”

“Alone?” Claire frowned and he nodded, “Yeah. He’ll be fine, babe.”

She sighed, “Yeah, I know.” She glanced at the social worker, who shot her a warm smile. After a short moment with Atlas, Claire watched him disappear in one of the rooms with the woman. Someone else was talking to Finn and Harry and the police was talking to Claire.

She explained everything and they wrote everything down, asking her some questions. Claire sent them the pictures of her injuries and she was sure that if they laid hers, Harry’s and Atlas’ stories next to one another, they’d add up.

It was dark by the time they drove back to the house. Not many words were spoken and glancing the backseat, both Finn and Atlas had dozed off.

Harry had a hand on Claire’s thigh, gently squeezing every once in a while. She let out a breath, “This is not I wanted this anniversary to go.” She mumbled.

“We should’ve celebrated months ago.” Harry spoke. Claire turned to face him, “What? Why?”

He had a small smile on his lips, “Because I fell for you months before we first kissed.”

“I know.” She smiled back, “I knew you had a little crush on me.”

“Was more than a little crush.” Harry admitted, “I felt so jealous knowing you were going on dates with these other guys.”

“You called yourself an eternal bachelor.” Claire remembered, “Didn’t sound like you were available.”

Harry shrugged, “And I didn’t think I was. You proved me wrong. Haven’t been available for anyone besides you and I don’t plan on it.”

Claire held his hand as they drove through the dark streets, “You cursed me out the first time we met.”

He shortly glanced in the rearview mirror to see both boys asleep, “I was an asshole.” He muttered. Claire giggled under her breath, “A bit, yeah.”

They both smiled to themselves when they remembered how their relationship came to be. How unconventional it was. They came from different worlds and backgrounds but somehow both found their perfect match in one another. A blended family with some rough edges, but so much love.

Harry remembered their first time. How nervous he was and how he fell in love with Claire’s body. Even the scars from what Evan put her through. He loved on her scars, kissing away the memories as often as he could. In bed, in the shower, in the kitchen, in the car… Wherever they could get some time for themselves.

And Claire remembered the huge change in her life when she accepted Harry’s love. When she accepted Finn into her life and nurtured him like he was her own. Harry’s fingers played with Claire, “What do you want for dinner tonight?”

“Didn’t you say we were having Atlas’ favourite meal?” Claire smiled. Her heart felt heavy thinking of Atlas and the conversations they were yet to have. He saw too much today. He didn’t have to live through those hours feeling like his father didn’t want him. Claire wanted to promise him he’d never have to see him again if he didn’t want to. 

It was a horrible position, wanting your children to have two parents. She didn’t want to take it away from him, the possibility of having a father. But she also didn’t want to witness him being so disappointed by Evan over and over again. He saw her get hit today and he saw violence, even in Harry. He was too young for that. Claire wasn’t sure how he coped.

Atlas crawled into her side later that night. On the couch, he fell asleep almost immediately with his thumb in his mouth and his head on her chest. It hurt her breasts and his knee pushed into her sore stomach but she let him. She stroked his hair in comfort and when Claire had to get up to pee, he cuddled into Harry instead. Finn and Atlas both leaned into a side of his and he kissed both their foreheads as Claire watched.

They tucked them in bed and allowed them to sleep in the same room tonight. It would comfort Atlas, they both thought. And Harry spooned Claire later that evening. He was careful and gentle, sponging kisses over her bare shoulder as she felt warm and safe against his chest.

“Are you sure?” He asked and Claire nodded, staring into the darkness of their bedroom, “Yes. I’m taking him back to court. I-I can’t keep doing this.” She decided.

Harry hummed, “I’m so proud of you, my love. I think it’s the right decision. Atlas is safest here with you.”

Claire thought back of the entire day. How the lady from social services came to her after talking to Atlas, how she told Claire that apparently Atlas heard Evan cursing Claire out. Calling her a whore. No seven year-old should know those words.

Social services were also going to have a chat with Evan, but the proof spoke for itself. According to her lawyer, it’d be an easy win in court to get her full custody. 

“Do you think it’s what Atlas wants?” Claire softly asked.

“I’m sure of it.” Harry spoke without missing a beat, “You’re the best person for him, Claire. He’s not an idiot, he knows how much you do for him. He respects you so much and he loves you so much.”

Claire let out a breath, rolling on her back with a soft wince. Harry stared at her face and leaned in to kiss her, “You’re so strong.” He murmured against her lips, “I admire you so much. I could never do what you do.”

“I don’t think I have a choice.” Claire whispered back. Harry hummed and kissed her again, “Maybe not. But Atlas will never forget this.”

“I just want to move on.” Claire spoke, “Without him. Like close that chapter of life and… move onto the next. With Atlas and you and Finn. Start our family like we want to without constantly looking over my shoulder. I-I don’t even want or need his money, I just want him gone.”

“I know.” Harry nodded, “We’ll get there.”

She sighed, “I hope so.”

“And we can start trying again whenever you think you’re ready.” Harry assured her, kissing her softly again. Their lips kept brushing together as they exchanged soft whispers.

“I am ready.” Claire spoke, “So ready. I-I think I’ll start tracking it better too, like when I’m ovulating and everything. I really want this baby, Harry.”

His heart skipped a beat and he felt Claire’s hand running through his curls, “Me too.”

Claire licked her lip, “Would you want a boy or a girl?”

Harry smiled and puckered his lips, “I’m honesty fine with either. I think I’d be so worried if it’s a girl though. Like I’d go all dad-mode on her and overprotect her. She wouldn’t be allowed to leave the house ever.”

Claire giggled, fighting the pain in her stomach as she did so, “That’d be funny.”

“For us, yes. For her, no.” He chuckled, bumping his nose with Claire’s, “How about you.”

“I like having boys.” She whispered, “I think I’m a boy-mum. But I wouldn’t mind having a girl either.”

Harry hummed, getting slightly more comfortable, “How many more kids do you want?”

“Two.” Claire whispered.

“You want four in total?” Harry raised his brows and Claire nibbled her lip, “Mhm. I like Finn and Atlas being close in age. I’d like that for the next two also.”

“How about twins?”

Claire breathed out a chuckle, “I’d be huge.”

“You’d be amazing.” Harry smiled back, “And so sexy. Your tits would be incredible.”

“Oh my god.” Claire laughed, “You’re unbelievable.”

“I love your body, Claire. Pregnant or not. I’ll always worship you.” He promised, “Kiss you and make love to you.”

“I sense an obsession.”

“You sensed correctly.”

They laughed while kissing and Claire stroked her fingers, playing with the curls in the back of his neck, “When are you going to put a ring on my finger?”

“So impatient.” Harry teased, kissing down her throat, “You’ll see.”

Claire’s cheeks flushed as she smiled up at the ceiling, “So you plan on it?”

“Of course. I’ve been planning for a long time.” He murmured, “Wife you up.”

Claire sputtered out a laugh, “You sound like a frat boy saying that.”

“What can I say, you make me feel young again.” Harry smiled. He felt so light and breezy around Claire. Like there were no worries around them and they hadn’t just had this shitty day. Like all was well in the world. She just made him feel like that, every single day.

No stress, no hurries, no nothing.

“How about after Christmas break we drop the boys off at school together?” Harry suggested, “There’s family meet-ups too in January. I want us to go together, as a couple. For Finn and Atlas.”

“You do?” Claire asked and Harry nodded, “Mhm. I mean, I think it’s obvious already since you went to pick up Finn when he was sick that one time I was with a client.” He remembered the moment right before summer and Claire hummed, “Yeah. Dolores looked like her eyes were going to pop out of her head.”

“You know she’s going to invite you to play golf with her, right?” Harry teased, “When she finds out we’re together?”

Claire huffed, “I’m sure she’ll ask all sorts of questions, she’s obsessed with you.”

“She thinks you’re a bad influence on me. With your foul mouth.”

“Oh, please.” Claire laughed, “She just wants to hop on your dick. I’m sure she’ll ask me all sorts of details.”

“Yeah?” Harry rolled on top of Claire again, a shit-eating grin on his lips, “Are you going to tell her how I make you scream?”

Claire arched into him, “Mhm. Big time.”

“And how I make you squirt?”

“That was one time.” Claire deadpanned and Harry laughed into her neck, “Yeah, the first time we had sex. It was fucking hot.”

“You’re never going to let me live that down.”

“I felt like I’d won the lottery.” He admitted and Claire shook her head with a laugh, “You’re insufferable. And you still won the lottery with me, hm?”

“I sure did.” Harry murmured, kissing her deeply again. He could feel Claire’s thighs tensing around him, her foot trying to slide the boxers down his thighs. He smiled into her lips, “Are you going to tell Dolores about my tongue?”

Claire bit her lip, “You might have to remind me.”

“Fuck, gladly.” Harry ducked underneath the sheets in an instant, not wasting any time. He loved going down on Claire more than anything. She was sensitive to him and she breathed out shakily by the time Harry spread her thighs with his fingers and pulled her panties to the side.

His eyes closed when he got his mouth on her, licking and flicking to drive her crazy. She tasted sweet and familiar, a sense of comfort washing over Harry to be so intimate with someone he felt so comfortable around. It was a dream, being like this with Claire.

His nose pressed into her clit as his tongue pulsed in and out of her. Claire gasped and stuttered out praises before pulling his hair and Harry caught on, feeling how wet she was. He locked his lips around her clit to suck in soft pulses, and her fingers tightly grabbed the pillow next to her as she bucked her hips back into him.

Claire finished on his tongue and begged for his cock next. Harry laced their fingers together before easily sliding inside of her. Claire keened, exhaling in relief at the feeling of his cock filling her again. She was greedy for him and so open.

“Are you gonna tell Dolores I make you cry?” He rasped, keeping his thrusts slow and savouring, yettaking Claire deep and hard at the same time. She lolled her head to the side, “Stop talking about Dolores when you’re fucking me.” She squeaked out and Harry breathed out a laugh, “I wanna get you pregnant.” He whispered.

Claire moaned and nodded quickly, “Yes – fuck, yes. Please… Get me pregnant. Fill me.”

“’M gonna make it stick, babe.” Harry promised lowly, squeezing her fingers as he rocked his hips passionately, taking her in missionary and catching her breaths between his lips, “Gonna get you all filled up and stay inside of you.”

“Yes.” Claire lazily breathed, “Please, please… I need it.”

“I know.” Harry panted, “Fuck – I know. Claire, ‘m gonna cum if you keep clenching like that.” He warned lowly. She gasped at the feeling of a rough thrust and nodded, “Uh-huh.”

Claire kept bucking against him as Harry came inside of her for the second time that day. He buried his face in the crook of her neck to keep down his moans, his knuckles white from squeezing her fingers so hard. Claire squeezed back, their hands interlocking as he filled her with his release.

She kept clenching and he kept grinding, giving her every little drop until he shuddered and whimpered in sensitivity. Harry tried to hold up his weight and not hurt Claire, but he couldn’t. His muscles gave up as he panted out harshly, gasping into her neck. His cock twitched between her warm walls and Claire sighed out too.

The position was slightly painful but not too uncomfortable. Harry kissed the swell of her breast, “Fuck, I love you.” He breathed.

“I love you too.” She whispered, “So much.”

He hummed and closed his eyes, staying entwined for a bit.

Eventually Harry want back to spooning Claire, using the tip of his softened dick to scoop up any of his spilled release and pushing back into her. She squeaked at that, melting into his chest as he held her close.

The next few months would consist of trying to get rid of Evan for good. It’d be a battle and something Claire really rather wouldn’t do. For her, and mostly for Atlas. She felt incredibly guilty putting him through all of that. But Claire felt loved and supported and Harry was steady as a rock behind her, catching her every single time.

And knowing that, Claire and Harry knew they’d always have their happy ending one way or another.

[thepenultimateword]

Absentminded

“Good morning, love,” Civilian beamed.

Villain slumped groggily on the stair rail, rubbing the leftover sleep from their eyes. “What’s got you so chipper?”

“I don’t know.” Civilian threw themselves around their neck. “Just woke up extra happy I guess.”

Villain trudged toward the table, but Civilian didn’t loosen their grip, stepping with them until they plopped into a kitchen chair.

“You going to give me any breathing space?” Villain said, even as they gathered Civilian into their lap. They were always a little resistant to affection first thing in the morning. Civilian was pretty sure they got shy. Almost like each day was a restart of their first, like they had to be sure Civilian was talking to them. It was sweet.

They shook their head into their collar. “Mm-mm.”

Villain gave them a gentle squeeze around the waist. “Just how happy are you?”

“Brimming. Overflowing. Oh! I made breakfast!”

They hopped out of Villain’s arms and swept a great plate of chocolate chips pancakes from the counter.

“You’re pancake happy?” Villain said a little surprise in their tone. “You usually only get pancake happy on your birthday or our anniversary.” They stiffened. “It’s not our anniversary is it?”

Civilian smiled, placing a reassuring hand on Villain’s shoulder. “No. It’s sort of weird I suppose. I just woke up early this morning and I was looking at you—“

“Creep.”

“Shut up.” Civilian punched them in the shoulder. “I was looking at you, and I just started thinking how happy I am that I found you. You know from the moment we met…it was like I knew you. Like I’d always known you. I guess that’s how I figured it out.”

“Figured out what, my heart?”

“That we were meant to be together.”

Villain’s smile froze, thawed into a sort of grimace, then froze again wider. A sort of thin, strained thing, like a wash rag wrung out too many times.

Civilian backtracked. “That’s cheesy isn’t it?”

“No! No! It’s wonderful! I just feel guilty! You knew much sooner than I did. I let you chase after me for far too long. I don’t…I don’t always think I deserve you.”

Civilian grinned. “I didn’t mind. You’re just more cautious. I like that about you.”

They kissed Villain’s cheek and plopped down in the seat beside them, dividing pancakes between their plates. Villain’s eyes followed their movements as they slathered the stack with butter and cream and doused it all in syrup.

“How’s work? Any schemes planned for the day?”

Villain cut their stack in section and skewered three pancake pieces on their fork. “Not until evening, but I have to leave in a couple hours to organize it. It’s a museum heist, so I’ll be home a little late.”

Civilian nodded. “Are things smoother for you without Hero around?”

Villain choked on their breakfast. Civilian leaped for the pitcher, messily pouring a glass of water, and shoving it into Villain’s hand, then rubbing their lover’s back as they chugged it down.

“Hero?” Villain croaked once they had a hold of themselves. “Why are you thinking about them all of a sudden?”

Civilian didn’t stop rubbing their back. “I saw on the news they’re putting up a memorial statue in the park this afternoon. It’s been three years since they went missing, right? How well did you know them?”

“Fairly well.”

“Oooh?” Civilian rose their eyebrows.

“Not like that. I don’t know. We just fought. It wasn’t like we actually knew knew each other.”

Civilian nodded idly. That was about what they had expected. It was just their reactions around mentions of Hero were somewhat guarded. They supposed one didn’t have to be close to somebody to be struck by their loss. “What do you think happened?”

“They probably just settled down.”

“You think they’re ok?” It was the first they’d heard that theory, most everyone thought the vigilante was dead or kidnapped or undercover.

Villain nodded. “They weren’t the type to let someone get the jump on them. Besides they were always miserable as a hero.”

Civilian cocked their head.

“They were just always exhausted and angry and breaking down. I don’t think they liked being a hero, even if they were good at it. Anyway…” Villain ate the last bite of pancake and stretched their arms over their head as they rose. “I better get dressed and get going. What are you doing today?”

“Just grocery shopping,” Civilian said. “I’m going to make orange chicken for dinner.”

“Stop spoiling me,” Villain said, kissing them first on the head.

“I guess I just can’t help it. …I love you.”

Villain hesitated, but eventually, they took Civilian’s face in their hands and pressed a long kiss to their lips. “I love you too.”

***

Civilian swung the grocery bags in rhythm with their steps. The music blasting from the speakers in the square had them swaying and skipping like a dance more than a walk. A crowd of people were gathered across the street, some dressed in blue masks and capes.

Right. The unveiling.

Civilian idly crossed the street toward the crowd. They couldn’t stay long—they had ice cream in their bag—but they couldn’t say they were uninterested in this memorial. Hero intrigued them. What sort of person was willing to sacrifice so much for other people? Even after they disappeared, they were still making an impact. There was something sort of amazing and sad about all that.

The music died down and the microphone squealed in the hands of a smartly dressed woman in a grey pencil skirt and puffy, white blouse standing on the steps in front of the covered statue.

A dull pain started behind Civilian’s eyes. Was getting up so early affecting them?

“Welcome, everyone. I appreciate you all coming out this afternoon for Hero’s statue unveiling. Hero was my friend. No, more than that. They were my mentor. And I was with them the night they disappeared. You've probably all read the story. We got a call for help at an old factory, and Hero ran ahead.

“I was only a few feet behind when I saw a flash of light through the windows. When I got inside, Hero was gone. I never saw them again. Sometimes I still expect them to turn a corner or walk onto our old training grounds. To come back into my life.”

The pain spread up into Civilian’s forehead and temples, a throbbing sensation like someone knocking on a door to get in. Or maybe to get out.

Civilian clutched the side of their face. What was going on? A really bad migraine? They probably should just head home for some pain medication and lie down. And yet…they couldn’t seem to move. They picture the scene the woman had described clearly. Almost like each painful throb was focusing the picture clearer in their head. Had they been to the same factory? Maybe they’d seen a picture in the news when Hero first went missing.

The woman stared out across the crowd.

"It left me wondering, what do we do when the person who does the saving needs saved?" She paused. "We step up. We become the heroes. Hero inspired me to be better; they wanted all of us to be better. And today we honor their belief that ‘everyone possesses a little bit of heroism; they just have to be brave enough to use it.’”

Another stab of pain, worse than the others. Almost like their skull was being ripped in two. A scream pushed up their throat, lying threateningly just behind their teeth.

Villain. They should call Villain. They dropped one grocery sack and fumbled for their phone.

“Hero was always secretive about their identity,” the woman continued in the background, “but for the first time, I would like to share with you all the face of a hero. I would like to give them the honor and credit they deserve. Ladies and gentleman…our Hero.”

The sheet dropped.

Civilian’s scream was lost in the ecstatic shouts and applause. They dropped to their knees, legs and heads and bags blocking everything the bright spots flashing across their vision did not. For moment all they could do was tuck their head into their chest against the concrete and wait, trembling fingers still a button click away from calling Villain.

After what seemed like forever, the pain dulled and they were able to stumble upright.

Slowly, they blinked the blur from their eyes, taking in the horror of what they now already knew: the statue wore their face.

***

Villain flicked on the hall lights just after midnight.

Hero sat at the center of the room, kitchen chair dragged right into the entryway.

“Sweetheart?” Villain blinked a few times. “What are you doing sitting in the dark?” They seemed to quickly read the wrongness in their face. “Is this about missing dinner? I’m sorry, I should have called, but—”

“I’m Hero.”

Villain froze. Reddened. Paled. Ever the chameleon.

“Ah, so you did know.” They weren’t sure if that was better or worse. If Villain had fallen in love with them as a civilian maybe Hero could have excused them and saved some of the aching, quivering shards of their broken heart. But knowing that the deception had been intentional, well, now Hero had the freedom to explode.

“How did you…?” Villain swallowed. “Do you remember everything?”

“Not everything, but I remember you. And I remember me. And enough events between us to know this never should have happened.”

Villain took a step forward, and immediately, Hero stood to take a step back. Another step forward. Another step back. Forward. Back. Forward. Back. Until Hero was up against the wall and Villain only an arms length apart.

“We can talk about this,” Villain said, outstretching their hand.

Hero only stared.

“In what world is this getting solved with a talk? Our entire relationship, the entire three years we’ve been together, are a lie.”

“But you’re happy! You said it yourself! You’re brimming with happiness! Overflowing with happiness! With me!”

Hero slammed their fist into the wall behind them.“Happy? You took advantage of me! Manipulated me!”

At that, Villain looked affronted. “I didn’t manipulate anyone! You approached me that night! I tried to send you away; I tried multiple times to avoid you; you didn’t want to. And when I did give in, I never pretended to be anyone other than I am. I even told you what I do, and you were all too accepting, like you’d dealt with it every day.”

“Because I had!”

“Then what was I supposed to do?” Villain cried, throwing their hands in the air.

“You could have told me!”

“That would have defeated the point!”

Hero went rigid. Villain covered their mouth. Their eyes plead for mercy Hero was not capable of giving.

“You did this?”

Villain’s lip trembled. “It was meant to be temporary. A few hours. I didn’t know it was going to last three years! I tried to make it right at first! I tried to trigger memories or to come up with some sort of reversal machine, but I couldn’t figure it out, and meanwhile, you kept coming and coming and you just seemed happier this way! And things got so good, I got scared of ruining it!”

Hero stared them down, waiting for the ramble to sputter out. Their reply was slow and cold.

“You gave me amnesia and then made me love you!”

“I didn’t make you love me.” They took Hero’s chin. “It just happened.”

And that was what hurt the most. Hero couldn’t deny it. No matter the false circumstances or how their returned memories rebelled, the feelings had been real. But veracity did not make any of it alright.”

“Then I guess this is where it ends.” Hero smiled weakly. “Goodbye, Villain.”

They felt past feeling as they edged around their lover ex-lover nemesis’s shocked form, picking up their bag, packed and ready for the last six hours, at the door.

“Hero!” Villain lurched forward, seizing them by the wrist and yanking them around. Their other hand tangled in their hair as the pulled into a desperate kiss, gruff and noxious and pleading.

Hero stomped hard on their foot, ripping away as Villain yowled and fell back. The criminal barely allowed the pain a second thought, scrambling after Hero’s determined stride.

“Hero! Hero, I love you! I love you, I love you, I love—”

“You do not!” Hero shouted. Regrettably some emotion edged in on their fury; a few tears slid down their cheek. “You loved a version of me. A dead one. A made up one. Maybe I made them up. But they are not me.”

They stormed out without another word, leaving Villain crumpled and weeping on the floor.

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[thankskenpenders]

IDW's Fang the Hunter miniseries! All four issues are out now! I don't have as much to say about it as I did with the Knuckles show, but I do have some thoughts.

So! This is a pretty fun miniseries. I liked it.

It's fun to see Ian get to write a four-issue arc starring the Hooligans, his precious boys, with a B-plot showing Sonic and Tails' perspective on this little adventure. As always, Ian captures the characters' voices well. In particular, I really liked Bean in this, who despite being a slapstick screwball is actually a pretty perceptive guy. He often acts as sort of a voice of reason for Fang, seeing right through his sweet talking and pointing out how badly all of their schemes go but sticking around nonetheless just for funsies. And the art (illustrated this time by Mauro Fonseca for the first issue and Thomas Rothlisberger for the rest) is as good as we've come to expect from IDW's Classic Sonic output. Overall, this is a fun little romp that captures the vibes of the Classic era very well.

...But...

Well, as I've said before with the Amy and Tails anniversary specials, I feel like we're kind of seeing diminishing returns with these Classic spinoffs. They're fun, sure, and very nice to look at, but their writing always leave me wanting more.

A big part of this is just that there's just less to work with compared to the Modern universe. The Classic cast is much smaller, and within that cast there are a bunch of characters currently going unused, some of which are currently off-limits. Aside from the appearance of the Witchcarters in Tails' special, we've pretty much just stuck with the cast of Sonic Mania and the Hooligans, as established in the first special. No Chaotix, no Battle Bird Armada, barely any Honey. (Classic Vector was able to get a tiny cameo in the Amy special only because he was so obscured that it gave the IDW team plausible deniability to say it was actually a different character if Sega complained.) It's a very small box, and Ian's recent Classic comics haven't particularly expanded the boundaries of that box. They're just excuses to play the hits for old times' sake. And that was a lot of fun the first time around, but the novelty is starting to wear off for me.

I will admit, sure, the tighter focus on a specific set of characters from the games is a big part of the appeal of these Classic comics. They're simpler. They're nostalgic. They're shining the spotlight on characters that can't be used in the main series. They're the slavishly faithful old school Sonic comics that we could never get in the '90s, because the comics we did get diverged into their own continuities with tons of new characters. I get all that.

But the thing is, the Sonic comics have always added all those new characters because you can just do so much more with them. The game cast is great! But they're corporate mascots Sega keeps on a tight leash. You can do so much with a character like Sally or Surge that you could never do with any of the game characters, and by pushing into new territory with these new characters you can also bring out interesting new sides of the game cast. Maybe Sonic himself can't have some crazy complex character arc, but you can see how he'll respond to the things going on with these other characters, and how these other characters' arcs are informed by their relationships with Sonic.

So I look at the Fang miniseries, and I'm like. This was pretty fun. But by the end, what was the point of the story? What did we learn about the Hooligans as characters that we didn't already know? Is the point just to depict an adventure where things go off the rails a little and Bean and Bark end up a little miffed, explaining why they weren't with Fang in Superstars? There's potential for an arc there about the dissolution of the group, but it really does come off more as the type of spat these three probably get into all the time before coming back together for the next job. It's neither super dramatic nor super funny, feeling more like it ends on a fairly matter-of-fact note where Fang's like "welp, time to go do the events of Sonic Superstars" at the end, not particularly plussed by anything that happened in this arc. What we're left with is four issues of the Hooligans encountering recognizable characters and visiting recognizable locations from the Classic games, with little that really feels new or fresh here.

Ironically, the most interesting story element to me here (aside from Bean's characterization) is its tie to the main comics, something previous specials couldn't do since Sega had yet to reunify the Classic and Modern timelines. The plot of this comic revolves around Fang following the myth of the "eighth Chaos Emerald," riffing on both old playground rumors and Sonic the Fighters. What they actually end up finding isn't an extra Emerald, but rather the Warp Topaz that would eventually end up in Starline's possession in the Modern era, having apparently been found by the Hard-Boiled Heavies in the cave seen in the 900th Adventure special.

That's kinda neat, and the abilities of the Warp Topaz are used in fun ways. But this isn't exactly something to write home about for people who aren't lore nerds like me. There isn't a particularly meaningful connection between Fang and Starline's arcs here due to the presence of the Warp Topaz, it's just a thing for the wiki. Again, Ian's in his connect the dots mode a little more than I'd like here.

(...So wait, if Starline didn't find the Warp Topaz himself, did he track down the cave where the Heavies found it to leave that "greatness began here" graffiti? Eh, I guess that sounds like something he'd do. He's known for nothing if not his obsessiveness.)

So, again. This was a pretty good miniseries. This all makes it sound like I hated it, but I did like it overall. I particularly liked seeing the Hooligans fight the Hard-Boiled Heavies. But it leaves me feeling less fulfilled than something like Scrapnik Island or Tangle & Whisper or Imposter Syndrome. I get that, by the very definition of the word, Classic Sonic is always going to remain trapped in amber to some extent. This isn't the version of the franchise that's supposed to grow and change. That's what Modern Sonic does. Classic Sonic will always be trapped in the early '90s. I'm not asking for them to add a dozen new characters with complex dramatic arcs to the Classic comics, since that's not what Classic Sonic is about. But I think the other Classic Sonic stories not written by Ian - i.e. the driving school story by the McElroys and the two stories about Amy by Gale Galligan - show that you can tell fresh new Classic Sonic stories that aren't just about remixing the hits from the games.

If we're going to continue getting Classic Sonic comics from Ian (and I hope we do!), then I just hope he's able to find a better balance between familiar and new ideas, like he and Evan do so consistently with their Modern Sonic output.