#that's not even getting into some stuff that's kinda been forgotten on the back burner

[eldritchlittleblackdragon]

The WIP List Keeps Growing:

The Obey Me Fic

The TGAA Fic(s)

The FE3H Fic

The FE:A Fic

The Ghost of Tsushima Fic

And now I'm scribbling some Devil May Cry stuff on top of that. That's too many WIPS. I should put some back especially since these are all big projects and there's probably no way I can do them all but aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. *clinging to my WIPS*

[mimbotomy]

Little personal rant type thing bc I can’t turn my brain off right now and my husband is asleep and I need to talk about my feelings and I don’t want to feel like I’m just shouting into the void so imma blab here. Feel free to scroll past this isn’t a call for help or anything I’m mostly doing okay I just need to get some feelings out

Hope y’all are doing well 💙

So backstory in case anyone does want to read so I don’t sound completely crazy lol. A couple of weeks ago I was diagnosed with Bipolar II which is fine and honestly isn’t much of a surprise after looking at some symptoms but I feel like getting diagnosed really fucked with my brain? Like I just feel like life’s been a lot lately and I’ve been making things a lot harder on myself than I should be? And I just can’t figure out why?

I don’t even have the excuse of being on new meds bc my meds were already bipolar meds bc apparently psychiatrists don’t like to diagnose people with bipolar until they are 25 so my old psychiatrist just called it hypomania and gave me some drugs and my new psychiatrist just upped them a bit. But I think it still just took me off guard bc no therapist or doctor had ever really mentioned bipolar to me before and I had gone into my appointment expecting to talk about ADHD bc that’s been talked about a lot and always just kinda been shoved to the back burner for when my mental health was more stable. And it is now yay! Or was at least. But then after my psychiatrist was done asking her questions she basically said “Well, I’m not hearing much that really sounds like ADHD, but you’re like SUPER bipolar”

Which is fine no issues with that and it’s always good to have a diagnosis bc then you know how to tackle it, but I just wasn’t expecting it? And even after my psychiatrist told me I was basically winning at being bipolar bc I can not only recognize when my mood is being weird and I’m about to have a manic episode but also know how to change my routine to manage my shit better? I just still feel weird. Like everything is different now even though literally nothing has changed

So I’m having trouble feeling like myself right now, or even a real person sometimes, which really fucking sucks. And it sucks even more bc I had just started to regularly feel like myself for the first time in years! Like I was actually doing something right! And now I don’t know what to do with myself at all and I just feel like I lost a part of myself before I could even really find it.

And I’m failing at being bipolar now too lol. I’m definitely having a bit of a manic episode right now and it feels like I’ve completely forgotten how to handle them. And it’s the worst possible time bc I’m on vacation! Like my first real vacation in years! And now I have all this stupid stuff in my head so I can’t fully enjoy it! I mean, I was almost fucking relieved when my stupid plugged up sinuses from the flight turned into a bit of a cold bc it meant I had an excuse to stay at the hotel for the day and work off some of my manic energy. But I don’t want to stay at the hotel! I want to go to the museums! And I want to sleep so this stupid cold goes away and I can go out! Not sit at the hotel and draw and write no matter how much I enjoy drawing and writing! Because I can do that anywhere!

So now I’m mad at myself for not sleeping and working on a drawing and I’m also mad at myself for being mad at myself bc it’s a goodish drawing and I really like it or something and then I get mad at myself for being mad at myself for being mad at myself bc it doesn’t matter how good the drawing is I should not have given into that stupid manic energy like I did. And art is the one constant I’ve always sort of had in my life and it’s the thing that has always made me feel the most like myself and so I REALLY don’t like being mad at myself for creating. Which is making me feel worse and less like myself and it’s just all one big fucking cycle of shit that I just can’t escape and fuck me I guess?

But writing all this out actually helped a little so that’s nice. Or maybe my nighttime cold meds are finally kicking in idk. I might delete in the morning or something but I always get some sense of relief when ever I post art or fic or something and I’m hoping I get that same relief here so I’m going to add some stuff at the top so things seem less crazy or something.

Ummm idk how to end this? But I feel like I should in case someone did read it for some reason? So thanks? I guess? I’m doing okayish so no need to worry about me I’m just tired and having a weird night and usually I would bother my husband or my dog but he’s asleep and she’s on the other side of the country right now. So thanks for reading! Except I feel weird thanking someone for reading my little 2am mental spiral? So no thanks? Idk I hope you have a good night or morning or whatever it is where you are.

[runephoenix6769]

Think what CRWBY did this season was ballsy. 

I think a lot of what they've done over the years is ballsy. Like, there's this thing the writers seem to do which is present us with unreliable narrators, for want of a better word, and never quite do what we expect with visual story telling - bare with me on this.

TL:DR.

(It’s something I have been thinking about for a while but wanted to see if it came up again as the narrative progressed as a sort of confirmation.)

Are we possibly seeing the various antagonists through the lens of the people they pertain to most? (If we are, it would explain some of the choices made by CRWBY over the years,)

Examples:

 I'll give a few.

If we take Blake and Adam for instance. 

During v1&2 we are presented Adam through her lens, She is the one to give us our information save for a few lines Adam delivers to Cinder. (we are then left to fill in the gaps ourselves with headcanon etc) 

BUT we are seeing him how a young woman breaking away from terrorist indoctrination sees him, from a young woman who is working through a break up, a young woman who has been groomed into a way of thinking. 

She is deprogramming in a way. 

As Blake's view of herself changes and as she begins to change with the help of loving caring friendships and healthy relationships, her view of him (her lens ) begins to change. 

He chops Yang's arm off and as she sees the true horror of what lies beneath the mask, so do we. He, at this moment, is Blake's biggest/worst nightmare coming home to roost. He looms and haunts her. Then this quite literally happens in v4/v5. She faces him, breaks away from him, steps out from under his manipulations, calls him out on his behaviors. She's no longer an easily manipulated little girl anymore and she can now see clearly who and what he truly is. 

Her lens has shifted and therefore his presentation to us shifts. 

We get to go on this journey with her.

Then there is Weiss. 

In v1/3 Jacques Schnee is Weiss's antagonist but he lingers on the periphery like a shadow, and we are made aware/shown that the Schnee home is maybe not all its cracked up to be. 

In v4 Jacques looms as a large villain for her because that’s exactly how any abused child sees an abusive parent. Large, looming, etc, 

We are actively made hate him via what we are shown. 

He is to Weiss the biggest evil atm. He fills the role of her immediate priority to break away from.

 When she escapes, joins the others, is made aware of what's actually at stake, the bigger picture and the BBE, her father's brand of villainy fades to the back ground as her priorities change. He is in no way forgotten but rather put on the back burner a little while. 

Weiss grows up, over comes his control, gains her agency, stands up to him, arrests him and locks him up to face justice. 

It’s exactly what we've always wanted for Weiss. 

We are shown this, of how Weiss's view of her father changes. (how her lens shifts and we get to go on this journey.) We see him for what he truly is.

He Is nothing in the grand scheme of things, he is a sniveling coward, he is a blip with no real power. 

He dies with no huge fanfare, obliterated as if he never existed, (just like the floating kingdom of ATLAntiS.) He is not so important in the grand scheme of the world facing potential annihilation. An after thought. 

Winter telling us that Weiss is the one choosing to not leave him to perish, whilst she couldn’t care less points to the complexity of how abused children see their parents, and also how Weiss wishes to do the right thing.

What about Cinder and Salem? 

In the earlier volumes Cinder wasn’’t even on the radar of our protagonist’s until the v3 reveal. Afterwards, she was always taken seriously as a threat. As for Salem. again, our main protagonists had no context for her really until v5 with Emerald’s reveal. And that reveal in of itself is telling. We and the protagonists are presented with Salem the way that Emerald personally perceives her.  

She is absolutely terrifying. 

And then we have Penny.

I know a lot of folks are upset over Penny's arc these last two seasons. But maybe after you've had sometime to grieve you can come back and look at it with different eyes.

We know CRWBY like to set out to deliberately make us feel stuff towards a character. Look at Pyrrha, they knew all along what they were gonna do to Pyrrha and they made us love her knowing the impact it would have. They wanted a desired effect and they got it.

They did it again with Penny this season. They craftily lulled us into a false sense of security. 

“Oh Penny can't die, she just got made into a real girl, plot armor will protect her.... Winter in the other hand, oh she gonna die!"

But it was a complete bait and switch!

They used Penny the same way they used Pyrrha, to elicit a desired response.  

This means that we can't wholly rely on the information we get shown half the time or rest on our laurels when it comes to the status of a character’s survival. Just like our protagonist can’t either. 

RWBY thrives on breaking the rules.

Veering off to have a alternate dimension arc at a really pivotal moment? Seems weird, but it's also kinda clever.

It gives time for other chess pieces to get into place, i.e. traveling the world. It gives space for certain characters to explore any feelings or miss givings they might have, with out the pressure of the rest of the cast waiting in the wings twiddling their thumbs. 

Its a good device to change the pace and take a breather. 

And the aftermath...the possibilities are endless.

For all we know, RWBY might come out of that void to find Salem succeeded, or the world has moved on a number of years, or even a waste land n its mad max fury road or maybe its the same sandstorm the refugees are in and time outside the void didn't budge a second and RWBY come out like this.

(I jest!)

Remember CRWBY has always subverted tropes and bounced the narrative off mirrors.

[managedmischiefs]

north//chapter nineteen

genre: fluff!! some angst

warnings: mentions of prison, ptsd and its symptoms (flashbacks, kinda)

word count: 6.1k

summary: spencer gets home and amelia helps him keep his head on straight.

pairing: season twelve/thirteen spencer reid x oc

AMELIA

Stepping back into my apartment after being away for over twenty-four hours is such a relief. Spencer, for some reason, didn't want to go back to his own apartment, so I happily bring him right to mine.

He's half asleep in my passenger seat, his head resting against the window and his hand smushed against his cheek. Despite the challenging circumstances, at every red light, I gaze over to admire how adorable he looks with puffy cheeks and flushed skin. He's fighting sleep as we journey to my apartment, and even though I've told him that he doesn't have to, I still see him forcing his eyes open every few seconds.

When we're just a few minutes from my apartment, I finally speak up. "So," I murmur, and he lifts his head slightly, "do you wanna do anything when we get home, or do you wanna go right to sleep?"

Spencer shakes his head and adjusts his position so he's leaning more towards me, his head almost resting on my shoulder. "I'm really tired but I'm hungry. And I wanna shower too. Do you have my stuff at your apartment still?"

"Of course I do, doll," I smile, reaching my hand over to rest on his cheek, keeping my eyes on the road. "I have your go-bag too. So a shower, some food, and then sleep. We can do that," Spencer turns his head and kisses my palm, capturing my hand in his and bring them into his lap. I pull up in front of my apartment and park my car, smiling over at my hazy and sleepy boyfriend. "Here, Spence."

We climb out of my car and go trudging up to my apartment, and I push my keys into the lock. I twist it but it doesn't make the clicking sound to tell me it's unlocked, so I pull out the keys. I put them in again and twist one more time, and when the lock doesn't click, I pull the keys out for the second time. I figure that my friends might just be major idiots and have forgotten to lock the door after they left yesterday, so I tuck the keys in my pocket and twist the knob. It pops right open. Great. My door has been unlocked for over twenty-four hours.

Spencer isn't paying much mind to this though as we trudge in, kicking off our shoes. I hang up my jacket and turn to Spencer to ask for his jacket so I can put it in the washer, but his gaze is somewhere else. I follow where he's looking and find that the balcony doors are slightly open, and I roll my eyes. This keeps happening to me. These damn balcony doors. Between the balcony and front doors being open, I'm surprised that all of my belongings aren't completely gone.

"Don't worry about it, Spence," I tell him, dramatically flipping the lock on my front door so we can both hear the clicking noise and then padding across my apartment to flip the lock on the balcony door. Honestly though, my hands are trembling as I touch the knobs. Why are my door continuously unlocked? I try to brush it off for Spencer's sake. "My friends were here when I left to pick you up and I'm sure they forgot to close and lock everything. It's fine. It's not a big deal. Don't worry about it."

Spencer nods and rubs his eyes, then begins to speak through a loud yawn. "You should yell at your friends."

It's just another moment of the old Spencer shining through the armor that the new Spencer is wearing. This exhausted and bleary and witty version of my boyfriend is who I have embedded in my brain, not the version who yells at me and throws books at walls and jumps away from my touch. I wish I could frame this moment and hang it on the wall.

"Come on," I wave him towards the kitchen and he follows me blindly, falling into a barstool at the island, leaning his elbows against the granite. The sleeves of his dress shirt are rolled up and his forearms are far too distracting for anyone's good, and I have to tear my eyes away from him before I get carried away. I'm just too deprived of sex and satisfaction that maybe any intimate sight of Spencer will get me going. Even if it's his hands, or his forearms, or his fingers-- oh god, look away.

"Is there anything specific you want?" I take a glance through my fridge at the ingredients I have before turning back to him. His hands are on his cheeks now, distorting his face in that same adorable way it was in the car. "I'll make you whatever you're feeling."

"Just something, um," he speaks quietly, "easy. Pancakes, or something."

"Sure, I can do that," I reach into the cupboard and pull out the pancake mix, retrieving a bowl and a skillet.

"I'm gonna go put a record on," Spencer drags himself out of his chair and into the living room and I can hear him rummaging through the mess in there.

He's utterly exhausted. I've seen him tired after cases, but never liked this. He can barely even speak a full sentence or walk in a straight line. So I combine ingredients quickly, hoping that the stove warms up at lightning speed so I can cook these pancakes as fast as possible. I want to get Spencer food, and then into a shower, and then into bed. I couldn't care less about my needs. I just can't bear seeing him dragging himself around like this anymore.

My ears perk up when the record scratches and then the music starts, and State of Grace by Taylor Swift starts playing. I watch Spencer come back in and sit down again, his eyes closed as he absorbs the music. I expected him to put on one of the many classical records I have, like Mozart or Beethoven or Brahms. But no, he put on Taylor Swift. I choose not to comment on the music choice and instead, I pour the batter on the hot skillet.

It's only five minutes before I have a stack of pancakes and I've run out of batter. I turn off the burner and divide up the pancakes onto two plates, grabbing two forks and the maple syrup from the fridge. Spencer gives me a tiny smile as he reaches for his plate, digging in without even waiting for the syrup.

I drizzle a fair amount of syrup on my own pancakes and then pick up my fork, about to eat my first meal in twenty-four hours, but then I look at Spencer. He's scarfing down his food like his life depends on it, and I wonder if he's even chewing it at all. His head is bowed all the way down, nose almost touching the pancake stack as he snakes his fork under his chin, and his free hand is on the table with his fingers spread, and before I can blink again, he's halfway through his plate.

"Hey, hey, Spence," I reach my hand out for him, but he doesn't react. This is what happened when he threw the book. He got in his head, then I touched him, and he freaked out. I can't let that happen again. So I sit up on my knees and lean toward him, placing my hands flat against the table so, again, he can see that I don't plan on touching him or using them against him. "Spencer, look at me," he digs his fork into the pancake but his hand falters, slowing down. "Eyes up here, dove."

Spencer's eyes slowly travel up until they lock with mine, and they hold the same panicked qualities that they did post-book-throwing. I offer him a smile, but he doesn't give one back, not that I expected him to.

"Spencer," I speak slowly and calmly, "nobody's here. It's just you and me. You can slow down. You have all the time in the world to eat," Spencer takes a labored breath through his nose and shakes his head, closing his eyes. "I promise, dove, and you know I don't break my promises. You can slow down, you can just be with me. You're with me, and that's it."

"It's just--" he hangs his head and then opens his eyes, staring at his half-empty plate, "sitting like this. It feels-- it feels like-- it just-- it's--"

For some reason, I understand what he can't say. From how he's sitting in such a defensive and protected position and now he's saying that there's a problem with how he's sitting, it makes sense to me. Somehow, sitting like his makes him think of sitting and eating in prison and having to, I don't know, protect his food, maybe. I don't know much of anything about prison but I didn't think that it would change the way he eats meals.

"Okay, okay," I cut off his stuttering, nodding softly so I can seem as understanding as possible. "Come on then," I pull back my hands and grab my plate, sliding off the barstool and pressing my back against the kitchen cabinets, slowly sliding down. "How about we sit on the floor? Would that be okay?"

Spencer stares at me sliding onto the floor and it takes him quite a while to grab onto his plate and join me. He slides down beside me and extends his legs in front of him, setting his plate on his lap. He takes a long, deep breath and starts slicing into his pancakes again, much slower this time.

"Is this better?" I ask softly. "You can tell me if it's not because we could move somewhere else," I start to cut into my own food again, keeping my eyes on him.

"Yeah," he murmurs, and then he slumps down a little bit more so he can rest his head on my shoulder. Spencer is eating like a snail now, moving his hand so slowly that I have to keep looking down to make sure he hasn't fallen asleep on my shoulder. We just eat in tense silence, and as badly as I want to touch him and comfort him and smother him in love like I imagined I would be by now, I get the feeling that he would hate that and it would overwhelm him.

Not surprisingly, Spencer finishes his pancakes before me and gently places his fork down on his plate, setting his trembling hands flat on his lap. I expect Spencer to get up and discard his plate in the sink or the dishwasher and then head upstairs and jump in a shower, but he doesn't move. He stays right beside me with his head on my shoulder so I start to pick up my eating pace so we can get going. If he's not going to move without me then I don't want to make him sit here forever.

"Can I take your plate for you?" I whisper once I've finally finished my pancakes. The sun has fully risen and is blaring through the windows, and it feels so twisted to be so exhausted, so early in the morning.

Spencer nods, but he doesn't offer the plate up to me. I pick it up off his lap gingerly and wait for Spencer to lift his head before standing, putting them in the sink to deal with later. I turn back to Spencer, who's still on the floor, and hold my hands out to him to help him up. He looks at my feet first, and then incredibly slowly drags his eyes up my body until his eyes lock with mine. He seems so distant. He seems so far away and so far gone. His eyes are glossed over and his movements are like that of a sloth, starkly contrasting his quick actions just a few minutes before.

I very gently thrust my hands forward again, wiggling my fingers in his direction to get his attention. "Let's go get you in a shower, okay? I bet it'll make you feel a lot better."

Spencer looks up at me with a heartbreaking gaze, as if he can't even see me. As if he's staring right through me. As if he can't even see me at all. But then he pushes himself up by his lonesome and runs his hands down his face.

"Um," he breathes, his voice so low that I barely hear it, "thank you for-- you know, for the food," He keeps his eyes down on the floor, his body turned slightly away from me as if he's cowering from my touch again.

"No need to thank me, love. But let's just head upstairs and get you into a shower, okay?" I wave him out of the kitchen and he slumps off towards the stairs.

I watch him go, and once he gets on the first step, I go into the living room to shut off the record that Spencer has put on. Taylor Swift, huh? I have to make a mental note to ask Spencer about that when we're better rested.

Once I've put the record away, I follow Spencer up the stairs and I find him rummaging through my closet, already having dumped out all the items from his go-bag on the bed. His back is turned to me, too focused on finding clothes in my closet. I go to the pile of clothes and separate the work clothes from his pajamas, making two separate sections for him and trying to smooth out wrinkles from the fabrics.

"Sweets," even when I speak, he doesn't acknowledge my presence, "what are you looking for in there? I know you've got some clothes in there but you've got two whole sets of pajamas right here. They're clean, I've cleaned these clothes."

"I need a white tee-shirt," Spencer tells me and his voice is sharper now. It's not quiet and timid like in the kitchen. It's the exact opposite of the man that was just in my apartment a moment ago.

"Why?" I look down at the pair of pajama pants and the crew neck on the bed in front of me, right next to a different pair of pajamas, a matching silk set that Spencer commonly wears to sleep. Why isn't this good enough for him? If anything, this will keep him more comfortable during bed than just a tee-shirt. "There's two pajama sets right here for you that--"

"I need a white tee shirt, okay?!" Spencer snaps, turning his head to me, but still never looking me in the eye. "I need to wear a white tee-shirt to bed!"

I let out a shaky breath at the venom dripping from his mouth, reaching for the clothes in front of me and just grasping them in my hand, grasping for something to ground me. Although, maybe I'm not the one who needs the grounding right now.

I hear Spencer sigh behind me as he finds a white tee-shirt, and when he comes to the bed beside me, he takes a pair of pajama pants and boxers out of my hands. I move around him to put the other clothes back into his go bag, setting it in the corner of the room and then sifting through my closet for a crew neck and a pair of shorts. I do everything in my power to forgive and forget the moment that is making my hands tremble and my head dizzy. Spencer never yells. And he definitely never yells at me.

I hear the bathroom door open as I put my clothes onto the bed and pull off my tank top, but when I don't hear the water turn on, I turn to check on Spencer. He's still standing in the doorway, clutching his clothes in his hands and staring at the shower door.

"Spence?" He jumps when I speak his name as if he momentarily forgot that I was in the same room as him. And when he turns to me, he's back to the man he was in the kitchen. Quiet, timid, desperate. His eyes are pleading for me, and I feel helpless knowing I don't know exactly how to help him. I disregard my clothes and walk toward him, but don't make an effort to touch him. "Love, you can shower, it's okay. You'll feel much better when you wash off all the sweat and grossness of the--" I pause, wanting to say one certain word but knowing I shouldn't. I settle with a safer word, "day."

Spencer pouts his pretty lips and his hands tighten around the pile of clothes in his hands. "Could you-- um-- could you come with me? I don't wanna be alone right now," and perhaps it seems like a rude comparison, but he looks like a small child. He looks like a child who's woken up from a nightmare, clutching his pillow to his chest, asking his mom to come to his room to scare away the monster under his bed. But I'll never be able to scare away the monster under Spencer's bed. We both know that and we both seem to be ignoring it. For now, we'll pretend that I can remedy every issue in the world and continue on with our day.

I toss my tank top into the hamper across the room and then walk over to Spencer, leaning against the doorframe across from him. "Are you gonna be comfortable with that, dove?"

Spencer nods quickly, his hair falling in front of his eyes. "I'll be okay. I really don't wanna be alone. I want you."

I glance at the shower and then back at Spencer with his greasy hair and his half-lidded eyes and his hunched shoulders, and I nod. If he gets uncomfortable again, I'll just get out. He needs a shower more than me anyway, and if I need to get out of the shower because he doesn't want me touching him, then it's not the end of the world. Spencer breathes a sigh of relief and steps fully into the bathroom, setting his clothes on the sink counter. I grab two towels from the closet and start the shower, leaving the door open a crack so the steam can escape.

Spencer strips off his clothes before I do and, holy shit, I almost gasp. Now, for the millionth time, I have no idea what prison is like. I only know tiny bits of what Spencer went through, like getting beat up and eventually stabbing himself and getting thrown into solitary confinement. I don't know what he did during the time that he was stuck in his cell by himself, or what he did to pass the time when he wasn't in his cell. Honestly, I don't really know what he did at all in prison.

But holy shit. Spencer's arms are far more toned than I remember them to be and his stomach is too, and if Derek Morgan were here, I'd bet good money that he would be impressed. Even Spencer's calves and quads look more toned than before, and every time he moves, every one of his muscles flexes in the most delicious and sexy way. How much did he work out in prison? Did he work out every second of every day? I wasn't expecting this type of transformation from him, but he's been full of surprises. And after a moment of staring, I wonder if this is a good change or not.

"Why are you staring?" Spencer has just reached for the waistband of his boxers but paused when he saw me standing still and staring, then his hands stilled.

"Um," I have to physically jerk my head to the side to break my gaze and force my eye line up to his pupils, "sorry, I was just-- you--"

"I what?" Spencer retorts, and thankfully, he doesn't sound angry. He sounds genuinely curious.

"You just look different. More, you know, muscular," I try to choose my words carefully because I don't want to offend him. I don't want to make it seem like I hate his body now, or that I hated his body before prison because neither is the case. I could never hate his body. I'm not with him for his body. His body is beautiful regardless. This is just such a difference from what I'm used to seeing from my boyfriend. This is just another part of him that has been taken away from him. His soft body is gone as if he has morphed himself into an intimidating alpha male. I never wanted an alpha male. I've only ever wanted my Spencer.

"I worked out a lot," Spencer mumbles vaguely. He barely tells me any details about prison. The most he told me was while we were eating. And even still, he didn't give me specifics during dinner. He left me to guess exactly what was wrong. It's all been vague so far. I'm not sure if that's because he's protecting me or because he just can't bring himself to talk about it yet.

"Let's get in the shower so we can get some sleep," I want to nudge him towards the open shower curtain and the warm, streaming water. But Spencer moves on his own, shuffling towards the shower and quickly discarding his boxers.

He seems hesitant to get into the water at first, just standing at the edge of the tub and letting the water hit his toes first. Spencer stares at the stream of water, reaching his foot out a bit more to get his ankle and shin wet. I watch him carefully for a moment, just to make sure he doesn't freak out like he has a few times already today.

Spencer's head turns to me and he gives me a pleading look, his eyebrows scrunched up and his bottom lip between his teeth. He's clearly keeping tears at bay, trying to prevent his chin from quivering. "Lia," he stammers, but doesn't say anything else. A single tear falls down his cheek.

I quickly pull off my undergarments and move the shower door back a little bit more, stepping into the tub so I'm in the stream of water. I hold my hands out for him, and this time, he actually grabs onto them. I draw him closer to me. Not closer to the stream of water, but just closer to my body.

"It's just water, Spence," I tip my head back and wet my mane of curls, matting them down to my head. "It actually feels really good."

"It's just," Spencer shuffles just a little bit closer to me. The tips of his toes touch mine, his whole body flinching when a droplet of water ricochets off of me and hits his chest, "the showers were always cold."

"Oh," I turn and look at the knobs behind me that control the water temperature, "I can make it cold if you want. It's not a big deal if--"

"No, no, I don't want that," he shakes his head, clutching my hands tightly in his. "I don't wanna take another cold shower. It just feels weird. I'm not used to it."

I scrunch up my nose, unlacing our hands and tracing my fingertips up his forearms. I wonder if I should even let myself touch his biceps because if I do, I might completely lose my cool and want to jump his bones. Clearly, he's not ready for sex or any kind of physical intimacy. I didn't even expect us to be showering together any time soon. "I don't like cold showers, either. You know that. Do you wanna get under the water?"

Spencer nods and grabs my hands again, switching our spots so he's directly under the stream. I don't let go of him as he sighs of relief, the water falling over his face and making his hair stick to his forehead. He closes his eyes, dropping his shoulders down. This is, by far, the most relaxed I've seen him all day. He seemed to be relaxed in the car, but now, he has completely let his guard down for the first time. It's a beautiful sight, truly. It's beautiful to see him running his hands through his hair and reaching for his shampoo and fluttering his eyelids. He's always been so beautiful.

I shave my legs while Spencer washes his body, and he spends quite a lot of time doing so. I'm not surprised that he wants to wash every germ off his body, I'd expected that much. And we keep in silence, just washing away the stress and drama and hardships of the last few months. I wish that a simple shower could wash away all the pain that we've been cursed with, but I know that this pain may never go away. The pain of this time will always linger, no matter how hard we try to eradicate it.

"Are you gonna shave?" I ask, switching places one more time with Spencer so I could wash my face.

"You said you liked it so--"

"Yeah, but it's your face. If you wanna shave, then shave. Don't let me stop you," I wipe away the soap from my eyes and smile at Spencer, gesturing to where his razor still sits along the wall.

Spencer runs his hands over his face, feeling his mustache and beard on his fingertips. "I'll keep it for now. Maybe tomorrow I'll clean it up a little but I don't wanna deal with it today."

"Well let's go get some sleep, okay?" I turn around and shut off the water, wringing out my hair so it doesn't drip onto the floor. Spencer gets out and quickly wraps himself in a towel, and when I step out a moment after him, he hands my towel to me. "Thanks."

I head out of the bathroom and reach for my clothes, pulling on a pair of underwear and one of Spencer's old tee-shirts. I dry off my hair a little bit and sit on the edge of the bed, putting lotion on my legs and keeping my eyes on the bathroom door for when Spencer eventually comes out.

He takes forever to get dressed, but when he does, he's wearing a pair of sweatpants and a white tee-shirt, his hair soaked and hanging over his forehead. He drops his towel in the hamper and then he turns on his heel to join me in bed, but freezes in his spot when he sees my towel on the floor. He quickly picks it up off the floor and puts it into the hamper, then he scans the floor of the room for anything else that could be out of place.

"Babe?" I close off the lid on my bottle of lotion and put it away, watching him put a pair of my shoes into the closet and then jam the door closed. "Spencer, if you really wanna clean, do it when you can actually keep your eyes open. Come get some sleep, please."

Spencer lets out an exasperated sigh as his hands drop from the closet handle, and then they smooth through his hair. He nods silently, and his toes drag against the carpet as he brings himself towards the bed.

He falls onto his side, pulling back the duvet and slipping under, letting out a sound close to a moan as his body sinks into the bed. His head falls onto the pillow and he moans louder, his body wiggling under the covers. I smile at his pure and unfiltered ecstasy and pleasure, doing the same and slipping under the duvet with him.

I keep a bit of distance between us though. Usually, I'd slide my leg through his and wrap my arms around his waist and rest my head on his chest and get as close to him as I possibly can. But he's so caught up in the familiarity and comfortability of my bed that I don't want to overwhelm him by touching him. I want him to enjoy his first time in a proper bed in months and not worry about my hands on his skin.

I let out a roaring yawn, rolling onto my side to face Spencer. Now that I'm laying in bed, my exhaustion is setting in yet again. I pull the duvet up to my chin and close my eyes, trying to let myself drift off to sleep.

I'm just about to dip into dreamland when I feel Spencer shift beside me, facing me. I try to ignore it, try to bring myself closer to sleep, try to let us both get the rest that we so desperately need. But I can sense Spencer's gaze on me, and as hard as I try to, I can't ignore it. I just want him to go to sleep. I want him to sleep so he can regenerate and hopefully feel better whenever it is that we wake up. But my forehead is burning with his stare and I can't stop feeling it. Clearly, something is affecting him and that's why he hasn't tried to sleep yet.

To my surprise, Spencer's voice is the one to break through the silence. "Baby?" He's shaky. He's trembling. He's unsure.

I open my eyes, seeing tears pouring down his cheeks and his hand in midair, just a few inches in front of my face. "Spencer," I breathe, watching his hand drops onto the bed between us. "What's wrong?" Spencer squeezes his eyes shut, and his hand clutches the bed sheet until his knuckles turn white. He breathes in harshly through his nose and he draws his knees up to his chest, curling into a tiny ball. "Dove, talk to me."

Spencer's other hand comes down to the bed to join his other, squeezing so tightly that I fear he might rip a hole in the fabric. I see his arms start to shake with the force he's using to hold the bedsheet, hot tears streaming down his cheeks and staining the pillow. He hiccups, but not too loud. Barely loud enough for me to hear. "Lia," he sobs, completely breaking down right before my eyes, "please hold me."

I want to jump his bones. I want to get on top of him and smother him in love and affection and kisses. I want to give him everything I know we've both been craving for months. I want to give him exactly what he's asking for. But I've spent most of my day doing what I can to not overwhelm him and that's not going to change now.

I debate for a moment on how I should touch him first. Should I wipe his tears? Should I hold his hand? Should I wrap my arm around his waist? Should I drag my fingers along his arm? What could I do that won't freak him out?

But then I notice, again, that his eyes are closed. His eyes are squeezed shut and he's not looking at me. I remember how he reacted in the round table room when I touched him when he couldn't see it coming. He jumped and cowered away from me. He didn't take well to getting touched without seeing it.

"Spencer," I whisper, "open your eyes." His eyebrows scrunch up at my request but he doesn't follow it. "Come on, baby, I wanna see your pretty eyes. I haven't been able to see them in so long. Open your eyes for me," I watch Spencer carefully as he holds his breath, forcing his eyelids open, releasing more tears. "There you go, Spence. Thank you, lovey. So pretty. Your eyes are so pretty."

I raise my hand and let it linger in the air for a moment before reaching towards Spencer's face. I drag my fingers along his jawline then lay my hand flat against his cheek. Spencer's lips part when he lets out a shaky sigh, nuzzling his cheek against the palm of my hand. I give him a moment to revel in this type of contact, just staring into his eyes and gauging his reaction. He isn't cowering away and he hasn't screamed at me yet, so I take that as a good sign.

I bring my other hand forward and press my fingers against the back of his hand, feeling him already start to ease his grip. I can't attest for his other hand, but he flattens his hand against the bed, allowing me to lock our fingers together in an awkward, backwards handhold.

"I've got you," I whisper, swiping my thumb across his cheeks to rid his skin of stinging tears. His eyes are locked on mine and he doesn't dare to avert his gaze from my blue eyes that I know he loves so much.

Spencer sucks in a breath and tugs on my hand, wanting me even closer. So I wiggle my hips to diminish the gap between us, leaving some space still. I move my head so we're sharing a pillow, the same pillow that I used to clutch when I was missing Spencer so intensely that I needed to smell his cologne and remember that he would come home to me soon.

"It hurts," he slurs, and his eyelids are so heavy that he can barely keep them open. But he fights with all his strength against the sleep that wants to suck him in, sticking his eyes to me. His eyes plead for help, a type of help that I don't know if I can provide.

"Oh, my baby," I coo, bringing my face right in front of him, "you're safe. You're home. You don't have to go back to that horrible place again. You're right here and you can rest, okay? It's okay to rest now."

I feel him moving under the sheets and it takes everything in me to not look at what he's doing. But I feel his legs touching mine, and then one of his slips between mine a moment later. Even though he initiated this contact, I wait, yet again, for his reaction. His face doesn't change.

"Can I touch you some more?" Spencer nods quickly, his facial hair scratching my palm. "Can I hug you?" He nods again, and with this obvious consent, I almost sigh of relief.

I slide my hand down Spencer's neck, then down his arm, and to his stomach. I wrap my arm around his waist, pulling my body forward so I'm flush against him. With this, he finally lets his eyelids flutter closed, lips parted as he breathes heavily. His skin feels so warm against mine and I can already feel beads of sweat collecting at my hairline, but I ignore their presence.

"Go to sleep," I murmur, bringing our entwined hands up to the pillow between our faces. "I'm here right now, I'm gonna be here when you wake up, I'm gonna be here tomorrow, and the day after, and the next day, and every day after that. I'm not going anywhere. And if you need me then don't hesitate to wake me up. But I need you to get some sleep, okay? Can you do that for me?" Spencer nods yet again, and he flips his hand around so we can properly hold hands. I smile at his responsiveness. "Let me hear you say it, doll."

Spencer nuzzles his cheek against the pillow, scooting a bit closer to me. "I'm gonna try to get some sleep."

"Good," I slip my hand under his tee shirt and rest it flat against his hot skin, earning a small gasp from him, but I don't do any more than that. "I'm right here, baby boy. I'm not gonna let go of your hand and I'm not gonna get out of bed before you. I'll be right here the whole time. I promise, I'm not going anywhere."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

"I love you," Spencer whispers but his words are barely coherent as his exhaustion becomes too much to handle. His lips are barely moving and his grip on my hand, and on the sheets, are loosening.

"I love you too, dove."

I watch him closely until I know, for sure, that he's fallen asleep. I wouldn't want his eyes to pop open again and for him to panic. But I keep my promise and I don't let go of his hand, or move my hand from in his shirt, or get out of bed. I just close my eyes and drift off into the most restless sleep I've had yet.

TAGLIST

@babybloodstonebones @bxnnywriting @blameitonthenight21 @feralreid @anepiphany @reidscardigan @itsmyblogandillreblogifiwantto @4x24 @whollytaciturn @thegingerfairchild @yasminwashere @shrimpyblog @anamelessfacelessnerd @wonderlandhatter @whxt-to-write @just-call-me-non @imagining-in-the-margins @boldlyvoid @homoose @gubler-me-up @thundergunexpresss @eideticmemory @andiebeaword

[constant-meh]

personal [2:43am 20/12/21]

i wonder if i can publish this but like only for myself. something i've always loved about tumblr its the lack of punctuation. v nice.

anyway, i don't know why i had this sudden urge to post. i'll use this blog as a diary so i can come back in the future and see where my head was. i just did that with some older posts, searching through the tags, and man. what a trip. i can't believe i've been struggling with the same stuff for the last 6 FUCKNG YEARS. amazing. at least i can say im constant at comething right??

currently listening to night shift as i write this (by lucy dacus) by the way

what are some of the struggles that have remained constant u may ask?

- comphet: i just read a post that i reblogged (sp?) in like 2014 about how confusing sexuality was. and now that i know more i know it reffered to comhet. now with the rise of tiktok and its scarily accurate and tailor-made fyp i saw a lot of vids about comphet. at least its nice knowing so many, and i mean SO MANY people feel exactly the same as i do.

-lewks: judging by the tags i used when i used to reblogg pretty people, i used to struggle a lot with self image. and its not like i needed to see those tags to know i did, but i had forgotten. and those feelings are back babyyy. i had gotten over them for a while there, but my mind is cyclical it seems.

i think those are the big ones.

some things have changed as well. i don't struggle with anxiety as much. AS MUCH. it still creeps up every once in a while. but now i manage it differently. i'll talk more about that some day, in more detail. also...i think i had self diagnosed myself as depressed???i mean, i can't blame past me. i did really want to off myself lol those feeling have been back as well in this second part of the year. got kinda scary for a moment. i mean i wouldn't ever actually do it of course but i was SAD with capital letters. thats also something ill talk about in another post.

another thihng that has changed too is i don't feel as lonely anymore. i have friends, and i need alone time a lot more now. idk why.

anywhoooo, just watched wild child and its SUCH A GOOD MOVIE. ahh, i don't know what about it reminded me of tumblr's existence but i'm glad.

im gonna start using this as i've found out some people use insta. i mean, ive seen how they use like a burner account and post every day so at the end of the year they have kind of like a 'wrapped' version of their year. i really liked that idea. but i'm a text girlie it seems. i've always been the type to need to get out her thoughts in writing.

i still haven't decided whether to make these public or not. i haven't really used this in such a long time that i don't even know what kind of followers i had. all fandoms i guess.

anywhooo. thats it for now. byeee :)

[creativeskullcreations]

Outside chapter 16: Therapy Sessions

And thus, we return to Outside! Starting with this brief interlude like chapter from someone completely new!

Update schedule is gonna be once every two weeks on Monday, just like before. As for Happy Times, that's gonna be on the back burner for a while so I can get this done, but I'll try and pop out another episode at some point.

So enjoy for now, and see ya;ll again later! :D

The puppet laid on the couch, flopped over like a discarded toy, eyes staring unblinking into space. If she didn't already know better, Trina would have assumed it was something one of her patients had left behind .

It, or rather she, wasn't a forgotten toy, however. She was her new patient, and, according to what another patient, Stacy, had told her, she had trust issues. But, she could work with that. And by that, she meant do paperwork until Scout was ready to talk.

Unfortunately, it seemed like that was taking a while. Before she knew it the whole hour had passed and the alarm had gone off. When Trina looked up from turning it off, the Puppet was gone, and the door was open. Ah well. She supposed she should prepare for her next patient, then.

------

Once again, Scout was laying on the couch. A different position this time, and staring in a different direction. Trina resigned herself to more paperwork again, like the last few visits. Though she felt like they were making some progress. Sometimes she looked up and Scout was in a different position, or she was in the middle of blinking.

In her mind, that was a good thing. It meant the Puppet was starting to get comfortable with her. Maybe soon, she'd actually start talking.

------

"Did you know Hosts can bleed without getting hurt?"

The question startled Trina, and she fumbled the pen onto her crossword book. "Excuse me?!"

"Yeah they do it naturally into the toilet! And into these weird giant soft band-aids that Stacy didn't want me to mess with." Scout reached down her shirt and pulled out a bright orange square. "Jokes on her, I took one anyways."

"Ah." It made sense, actually, that Scout would have no knowledge of the menstrual cycle. "And... did Stacy explain what they were for?"

"Nope! She just yelled a lot, and turned really red." She pulled the tape holding the wrapper closed off, then stuck it to the couch. "I asked Will why she wouldn't tell me, and he said it's because Stacy's a prude. And then she yelled at him."

"Did Will explain it to you?"

"No. Because he's also a prude. Stacy said so." There was a loud tearing sound as she slowly pulled the backing off of the pad, and Trina realized why Stacy had kicked her out of the bathroom. She also made a note to never let Scout into her bathroom.

And so, Trina spent the remaining forty-five minutes giving a sex-ed lesson to a living hand puppet. Not the weirdest session she'd ever had, of course, but it was certainly up there.

She just wished Scout hadn't stuck the pad to her keyboard.

------

The next few sessions were spent answering whatever questions Scout had that for whatever reason, she couldn't ask Stacy. Whether it was about biology("But why is it brown?"), a question about porn("I just don't see the appeal of watching Hosts fucking."), or about movies("He was the best character! Why the fuck would they kill the best character!"). Most of the time, Trina would google it with her. But sometimes she would ask why she couldn't ask Stacy. Usually she'd get one of what felt like stock answers, but occasionally she'd go really quiet and only say:

"I just wanted to know what you thought about it. That's all."

And Trina would, outwardly, accept that. But she always made note of which questions were related to that answer to try and understand her better. She also started on a timeline, to try and get the two into a session together. It probably wouldn't happen soon, she wanted to try and get Scout talking about herself first. But once she'd made some progress there, they could try a joint session.

------

It took another several weeks before Scout told her anything about herself. Although it wasn't what she expected.

"And then he gave me ice cream! And I ate it, because it was solid and delicious! But it fucking melts! And it's fucking gross!" She was raging, but in a way that almost made her look adorable. Not that Trina would tell her so, of course.

"And, why is it so bad that it melts?"

"Because it soaks in! Duh!" She looked thoroughly annoyed, and Trina felt a little bad for asking.

"What happened next?" She asked instead.

"Stacy and Will yelled at each other a lot, and then Stacy went to sleep on the couch. And then the next morning they locked themselves in the bedroom and wouldn't let me in while they made weird noises."

"Ah." Stacy had told her about that. It wasn't always the healthiest thing she could do, but Stacy genuinely thought it helped so Trina wasn't able to do much to dissuade her. "Did they come out at some point during the day?"

"Yeah, eventually! But it was boring as hell until then." A pause. "They banned me from Netflix, too, cause Stacy said what I was watching was a bad influence on me."

"Well that's too bad." She kept her tone sympathetic. "What else do you do during the day?"

"Watch TV."

"Besides that."

"Oh." Scout sat up, thinking. "Nothing- Well, I do hang out with Stacy a lot."

"Hmmm." Trina wrote that down in her notes. "Have you tried to find something other than TV? A hobby of some sort, or even a game to play?"

"I do play this game called Kirby sometimes." She admitted. "It's... kinda fun."

"Have you beaten it yet?"

"I mean... no..." She looked away, playing with the edge of her shirt.

"Maybe you should try and do that. Could be more fun than just watching Netflix all day." She kept her voice upbeat, and tried to figure out something else the Puppet could do besides TV.

"Maybe..." She looked around the room, eyes never stopping on one spot for too long.   Trina waited patiently, pen tapping lightly against her notebook. "... Something happened last night. Something... kinda bad."

"Oh?"

Scout nodded. "Sometimes, when Stacy wakes up and doesn't know where I am, she'll... take over my body. Not to do bad stuff though!" She was quick to assure when she Trina's face. "It's just to, y'know, see where I am. She gets worried when she can't find me."

Stacy had mentioned that. Apparently she now brought Scout everywhere with her, including to her programming job. "What made last night so different then."

"Well, normally I just sort of... float? I guess? When she does that. But, last night, I... woke up in her body."

Trina blinked. "Well, I suppose it makes sense that would happen-"

"No it fucking doesn't!" Scout shouted, cutting her off. "It's a bad thing! Very fucking bad!"

"Well, why do you say that?"

"Because it means that our fucked up link is evolving!" Scout told her in a 'duh' tone of voice. "Who knows how it could change from here!"

"Is it possible that you've always been able to do that, but just never did before now?" Trina asked.

That gave her pause, and seemed to calm her down a bit. "... I don't know. Maybe." She shrugged. "I... never really wanted to try before..."

Trina nodded, adding another note to her paper. "What happened next after you... woke up in Stacy's body."

"Well, we both flipped our shit, which woke Will up and then he flipped his shit. And then he and Stacy yelled for a while before he left and we managed to, uh, swap back." Scout scratched the side of her head, thinking. "And then Will came back with something, and he and Stacy fought some more."

"What did they fight about?"

"The thing Will brought back. It's some sort of a toy, like a psychic test." She scowled. "He made us sit there and do it, right then."

"The Waygetter one?" At Scout's confused look, she waved the question away. "Never mind. What were the results?"

------

"100 percent psychically linked." Stacy said, arms folded and stoic look on her face. "Not that I didn't already suspect, but I'd prefer a real test to a Waygetter "toy"."

"Of course you would, considering your past." Trina said, jotting down notes. "Did anything happen after that?"

The young woman shrugged. "Not a lot, mostly just went back to bed. I thought about banishing Will to the couch for his betrayal, but decided against it."

"Good." She nodded. "Banishing him over something so small, and when he was just trying to help, could lead to resentment building up later on."

"Yeah yeah." She kept her arms crossed, eyes trained on the floor. "Scout was pretty upset about it, though. But she's upset about a lot of stuff cause she feels guilty."

"Really now?" Trina jotted that down. "How do you know about that?"

"Psychic link." Stacy raised a single eyebrow. "Duh."

Trina sighed. "Has anything else happened lately? Made any friends at your job?"

"Not really." She shrugged. "This one woman, Chell, talks to me sometimes. She knows sign language, which is kinda cool I guess. But, I wouldn't say we're friends."

"Maybe you should focus on making friends with her. It seems like you two already have something in common already."

"Mm." Stacy looked away, tapping the fingers of her prosthetic against her flesh arm. It was pretty scary to look at, but it didn't stop her from wearing a spaghetti strap, leaving the limb on full display. Trina had also taken note of that, attributing it more to the woman's anti-social behavior than confidence or a strong body image.

"You can't rely on Will's friends forever, Stacy." She told her. "You need a life outside of him. It's not healthy to center everything around him."

"Easy not to lose everything if you don't have anything." She retorted. "I have Will, and I have Scout. They're all I need for now."

"What about your brother?" She looked away. "Or your father? Have you talked to either of them recently?" Silence was the answer, and Trina only sighed, used to it by now. "Your homework this week is to call your family for once. You need to repair your connections to them."

"I need to convince Scout to drop her guilt."

"That's my job." Trina gave a small smile that went ignored. "I'm serious about talking to your family though. Especially if you plan on getting into more... situations like this one. How would Danny feel if you died, and nobody would tell him anything about it?"

Stacy shrugged, and Trina sighed again. "Call your father. Text your brother. Make a new friend. Do one of these three things before our next appointment, okay?" She ordered as the timer dinged, signalling the end.

"Fine." The woman ground out, standing up and straightening her top. She accepted the offered prescription, then left the room. She stopped just briefly to grab her bag from Molly, the receptionist, and then went out to her truck. Scout popped out of the bag as she exited the building, and Trina sighed as she watched them.

They truly were an odd pair, and Trina hoped things worked out for them. She certainly couldn't imagine it could get any worse, anyways.

[clumsyclifford]

6, 12, 14, 15, & 21 for the writing asks? -megs 💙

hachi machi okie dokie how many more nonsense rhymes can i say ok that's it great let's go

6. What fic is on your back burner, waiting to be written when you feel your skill matches its potential? answered this one here! i'm SURE there are more though let me check my fic ideas doc (fun fact my fic ideas doc is still called "Malum fic ideas:" from back in the early days of this blog when i was chiefly writing malum because of helen). oh! well. the major league baseball au is still uh, kinda back burner-y. that's another one that i started and then ran face first into a wall known as The Wall of Trying To Realistically Represent A Situation I've Never Been In But Also Include Romance Which Would Not Typically Exist In This Setting So I'm Really Setting Myself Up For Failure Here it's a really annoying wall i know hazel hits it too so i'm just ignoring it for the moment. i also think a castaways fic (the concept, not the song) would be really awesome but tricky because, once again, i've never actually BEEN a castaway, and my knowledge of the topic is pretty heavily based on the book hatchet so like. yeah. i have a lot.

12. Where do you commonly find inspiration for your stories? everywhere! i saw in your answer you said you hear song lyrics and think they'd make good fic titles, i do EXACTLY the same thing (hence the doc "good lyrics for titles"). one day ill make that doc into a prompt list and post it on here and just fuck myself over. previously ive gotten some inspiration from movies but i shortly after completing baby driver au i realized that was a fluke and that in general i am pretty bad at making fics out of movie plots because i am very bad at remembering salient details about movies in the order that they happen. like i started a robin hood (2018) au but barely got anywhere with it because i realized i had never actually understood the plot well enough to write it. i would say the things that inspire me the most are songs (we know i loooove a songfic, mostly bc they make the job so easy by just laying out the plot and vibe for me) and also things that happen to me and feelings i have about those things. unfortunately many of my experiences are not universal (hello jewish summer camp) which may be part of why i've had so much trouble coming up with ideas lately. but as soon as i'm back at school i get the feeling i'll be doing fine again.

14. Share a few sentences of what you’re currently working on? what AM i currently working on? technically speaking i'm kinda sorta working on two things but one of them just doesn't have a good snippet and i don't wanna do a Reveal yet so ill give you this one instead, from a fic i might never even post:

“Oh, I meant to tell you, my mum called earlier, she asked if you’re okay.” Ashton’s mum always asks if Luke is okay. Exactly that way, is Luke doing okay?, like Luke gives off some kind of not-doing-okay vibe. He suspects it’s a leftover instinct from his and Ashton’s mutual breakdown a few years back, but honestly, he’s doing better now. It’s sweet of her to ask, but she could just ask about him the same way she asks about Michael and Calum. How’s Luke? would be fine.

“I am great,” Luke says. “How’s she? Is she okay?”

“Yeah, she’s okay,” Ashton says. “She’s started taking Harry to look at some universities.” He pauses. “University. You know? What the fuck?”

“No way,” Luke says, and tries to work out if he’s meant to be surprised by that. He can’t remember how old Harry is. Clearly almost uni-age. Ashton’s told him this a million times, but Luke can’t keep track when the answer keeps changing. He doesn’t want Ashton to think he’s forgotten, so he just says, “That’s insane.”

15. What are some of your favorite tropes to write? Do they match the ones you read? answered this one here as well! i've managed to get unbelievably long-winded answering every single one of these questions so far so i won't write another answer for this one

21. Do you have any stories you’ve written completely but never posted? Why? Please tell us about them? yes!! i have a handful. let me hunt them down. okay final answer, i have five!

one is an au based on the prompt "we’re at a party and someone asks what your type is and you describe me perfectly while staring right at me” which i never posted because i wrote it a while ago and honestly i don't think it's good enough to post. also i kinda don't like the background character i made jack barakat. i could edit it. but. ehh

one is a fic that is set in the daydream jalex fic 'verse, but the only way it's relevant to that 'verse is because it has ace!jack, and it's highly personal and probably the most projection-heavy fic i've ever written and i never posted it because i'm nervous to be Known like that lol

one is technically emo lashton, but not actually set in the emo lashton 'verse that i've created, and that one is ALSO one of the most projection-heavy fics i've ever written. it's usually the fics that are full of projection but in a specific way that i think isn't really relatable that i write but don't end up posting. it's a good fic honestly i wouldn't be against posting it i just never have. also partially because i'm between two titles for that fic lol

one is.......something that was originally going to be set in a different fic universe (for a fic i havent posted or finished writing lol), but now i don't know if it will necessarily fit in that 'verse, so it's kind of its own very short but complete thing. i never posted it because (1) it's super short, less than 1k, and i don't like to post stuff that short, and also (2) just in case it DOES fit the fic 'verse, i don't wanna give away the ending, lmao

and lastly there's a fic i wrote in an excited haze when sam and meghna and i made the ssf and the aces plans, which is like, ot4 meeting but they're all internet friends. guess what inspired that. i'll never post it because it really wasn't written with the intention of posting it, i sent it to sam and meghna and they were the only people i wanted to read it and they have so <3

writing asks

[keeroo92]

Something Old, Something New

My spicy contribution for the SSS zine, featuring Nero and Kyrie on a very special night!

------

Nero barely breathed as Kyrie slid the keycard through to open the door to the honeymoon suite. Her gossamer wedding dress still clung to her frame, her spine in full view between layers of tasteful satin and lace. He’d been staring at it every chance he got - never had he seen her go without a bra.

At least, not in front of other people.

Heat bloomed in his cheeks and in his belly as he imagined dipping his fingers past the fabric to touch her skin, pulling moans from her lips, mapping her curves and worshipping her skin. Celebrating their new life together.

Speaking of…

“Wait,” he blurted as she pushed the door open. “I’m supposed to carry you, right?”

“If you want,” she replied with a shy glance, the tips of her ears turning an adorable shade of pink. That blush would cover her entire body in a few minutes, if he had his way.

He ignored the thought and scooped her up with a grin, kissing her before stepping through the doorway into a scene more terrifying than Hell itself.

Instrumental music played from a speaker sitting on a heavy-looking dresser. Rose petals dotted the floor, leading to a massive bed where a pair of fluffy handcuffs sat beside a ball gag, a whip, and several condoms of assorted sizes. Massage oils warmed on tiny burners and a myriad of candles flickered from almost every available surface, their shadows dancing on the walls. It was as if Valentine’s Day itself puked all over the room.

He was going to kill Nico.

Slowly.

Nero struggled not to groan. Trust the crazy weapons expert to book a room stuffed with this bullshit. He should’ve had Lady do it; she at least had some restraint. He hoped Kyrie didn’t take it to heart. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel uncomfortable. Or worse, pressured. 

Not on her wedding night, or any night thereafter.

He sucked his teeth and lowered Kyrie’s feet to the floor. If he just found the right words, maybe he could fix this. He had to try, at least. 

“Uh, sorry. This is kinda ridiculous, huh? I guess letting Nico handle it was a mistake.”

Kyrie stepped closer to the bed, her hips taunting him with each step. She ran the flower petals between her fingers and fiddled with the sex toys. Nero’s nerves jangled with each second she didn’t speak, but she was kind enough not to make him wait long, turning to face him with a hum of agreement, her eyes sparkling in the candlelight. She flicked a rose petal as his nose and giggled when it struck home. “Just a bit. The flowers are nice, though.”

He chuckled and scratched the back of his neck. Anxiety still tickled his mind, like he’d forgotten an important detail. Why was this so hard? Wasn’t it supposed to be easy? Maybe he was doing something wrong, or what if-

“Nero.”

His eyes snapped to hers, his train of thought derailed. “Huh?”

The smile on her lips as she reached for his restored right hand was angelic, far kinder than his idiot ass deserved. Well, as he said in his vows, he’d spend the rest of his life trying to be worthy of her. Time to get started.

He wove his fingers between hers as she spoke.

“Stop worrying. You’re my husband now, you know. I’m your wife. I’m not going anywhere,” she declared.

He bit his lip and glanced away. “I just don’t want to fuck anything up.”

She pressed a kiss to his knuckles. “Well, even if you do, we have the rest of our lives to get it right.”

Nero stroked the back of her hand. She was right; she always was. He chuckled as his nervousness eased, kicking off his fancy dress shoes before taking a seat beside her on the bed. The beauty of her spirit never failed to stun him. 

“How’d I get so lucky?” he murmured, reaching out to cup her cheek.

Kyrie’s eyes fluttered closed, her lashes a dark fan against her cheeks. The fluffy comforter beneath them rustled as Nero gently pulled her closer, inhaling her scent as he pressed a tender kiss to her perfect lips. Her quiet sigh set fire to his thoughts, endless fantasies playing on repeat in his mind.

Delicate hands grazed his shoulder blades, leisurely exploring the planes of his back. He moaned against her mouth as he wrapped her in his arms, reveling in the warmth of her body and the softness of her lips. They’d been looking forward to tonight for so long, he hardly believed the moment was here.

Their first night as a married couple.

An enticing rush pounded in his veins as their kiss deepened. Butterflies danced in his sternum and left him dizzy and breathless, lost to her hypnotic appeal. The soft brush of her tongue against his only intensified the spell she’d cast on him.

Yet she pulled away just as the crashing waves of desire crested, pulling a petulant grunt from his throat. He stared up at her as she stood, begging for more with his eyes alone.

“I’ll be right back. Why don’t you get comfortable?” she said.

He swallowed thickly as she walked toward the bathroom, his eyes locked on her spine once again. 

Get comfortable.

Right.

Nero busied himself with removing his complicated attire, breathing a sigh of relief as the tight fabric released his length, leaving nothing on as he climbed onto the massive bed. What should he do with the stuff Nico left on the bedspread? It was doubtful they’d use any of it, but what if Kyrie wanted to try?

He sure wouldn’t mind. 

But not tonight; tonight was about just the two of them, no add ons or extras needed. He set everything on the nightstand, within easy reach but out of the way. Just as he set down the last condom, the bathroom door opened and his bride stepped into view.

Kyrie’s hair cascaded across her shoulders to the small of her back, gentle auburn waves left behind from her complicated hairstyle from the ceremony. A sheer piece of white lingerie clung to her chest and thighs, satin and lace taking turns to tease at what lied beneath it. Shadows and light played on her skin and highlighted her feminine curves, her hips swaying as she strode closer to join him. He couldn’t help but gape.

She licked her lips. “Sweetie, you’re staring…”

“S- sorry. You look… you look amazing,” he replied.

He’d seen her naked countless times, in her underwear just as many. Her body wasn’t a new sight, yet to see her creamy skin barely covered, fabric hugging her hips and breasts, a delicate bow in the perfect spot for him to untie… it had his blood pulsing, gathering where he’d need it soon enough.

“Thanks,” she hummed, a faint tint of pink blooming in her cheeks as she came ever closer.

The second she was within reach, Nero pulled her onto his lap. His palms danced over her thighs, toying at her suggestive clothing and kneading her muscles. After so many hours in heels, he knew she’d appreciate it.

“Mmm, that feels good.”

His breath hitched at the huskiness of her voice as her body shifted, legs spreading so her center rested over his. The fabric against his shaft didn’t have time to register before she rotated her hips, rubbing against him with a gorgeous moan.

Oh, you tease...

But two could play at that game.

Nero’s hands crept higher, up her ribs and shoulders as he leaned forward. The bow between her breasts was easy to grasp with his teeth and came undone with a single tug to show more of her flesh. Jolts of electricity raced over his nerves as his lips descended, tongue flicking as he suckled. Small fingers tangled in his hair and pulled him closer, her voice urging him on with each whimper and sigh.

His cock hardened when she rolled her hips, flames crackling across his skin with every swipe of his tongue on her body. She smelled incredible, and despite the beauty of her attire, he craved sampling every inch. No matter how many times he tasted her, he’d always want more.

He took hold of her ass and shifted, putting her on her back with him above her. His palms skimmed over her stomach, her ribs, her thighs, every spot his to worship as he crouched between her legs. Panting breaths spilled from her lips as he settled her calves over his shoulders and pulled the fabric away to reveal her core, already glistening with need.

Nero smirked and leaned in, moaning as he took a single, teasing lick.

“N- Nero, please!” whimpered Kyrie.

He hummed. “Yes, dear…”

His tongue parted her folds and delved home, tasting her walls with every stroke. Dainty hands tangled in his short hair and egged him on, encouraging whimpers telling him he was on the right track. He angled his face so his nose met her clit, expertly working her into a frenzy as her reactions overwhelmed his senses. His awareness narrowed to the heaven of her delicious body, the scent of her skin and the pitch of her cries as he drove her ever closer to bliss.

I want to do this forever, he thought.

“Ah, come on, just a little-!”

Her words dissolved into a guttural string of gasping moans as he brought his thumb to tease at her back entrance. He couldn’t breathe through the pulses of fluid drenching her thighs and filling his mouth, her legs tightening and lifting her ass off the thick comforter. Without missing a beat, he followed her and kept his lips latched over her core, tongue still hard at work just the way she liked, dragging out her pleasure as long as possible.

Finally, her limbs went slack as she came back to Earth. Nero joined her on the bed, content to watch her facial expressions as her euphoria faded. Her flavor lingered on taste buds, a tantalizing reminder he did nothing to suppress.

“Nero��” she murmured after a moment. “Lie on your back.”

He licked his lips and obeyed. Whatever she had in mind, he wanted to try it.

She crawled up his body, trailing kisses up his abs and chest until she reached his mouth. A sheen of sweat coated her skin, shimmering in the candlelight and highlighting her curves. She rubbed her core against his painfully hard cock, coating him in her warm fluids as she finally brought her lips to his.

Nero wrapped his arms around her, stroking her back like he’d longed to for hours. Her skin was like satin, smooth and rich under his touch. Heaven. 

The air caught fire as she lowered herself on him, enveloping his cock at last with a sultry groan. His thighs reacted on instinct alone to meet her, his mind lost to the pleasure of her embrace. She felt incredible, more welcoming and wonderful just from being his wife. Her perfume tickling his nose, the little noises she made, the weight of her body over his… absolute perfection.

The cocoon of her pussy sent his eyes to the back of his head, pulses of heat howling in his core like a typhoon. He drew a ragged breath and ran his hands up to knead her chest, rolling her buds the way he knew she liked.

“Ah, Nero,” Kyrie gasped, her voice too sweet a melody to resist.

He lifted his hips a fraction of an inch, groaning as her body moved with his. “C’mere,” he murmured, pulling her closer for a passionate kiss.

As their tongues met he snapped against her, slamming his cock all the way home. Shockwaves of pleasure rocketed across his nerves, blood searing through his veins. In and out, taking his time as their mouths danced, each motion heightening his lust until he was flying. 

It was too much - he sat up, moving her legs to wrap around him and crossing his own beneath her luscious ass. Her eyes were glassy and her jaw hung open, a stain of pink tinting her cheeks under the halo of her shimmering auburn hair.

What could be as perfect as she is, he wondered.

Whimpers and mewls spilled from her throat as he stretched her walls, impaling her on his cock as he peppered her flesh with feverish kisses. Her neck, her collarbone, shoulders and chest, everything within reach. He was fire and she was ice; where they met, steam followed. 

Her hands scrabbled across his spine, searching for a grip but finding little purchase. Nero moaned as her nails dug in, just enough to taunt him as he snapped inside her yet again. Her body shuddered as his cock met resistance, reaching deeper than before. 

“Nero, please! Just like that, right there!” she cried.

“Yeah? You like that?” he replied against her neck.

Her enthusiastic cries were the only encouragement he needed, and Nero coaxed more and more of them from her lips. Sparks ricocheted across his body, his own peak approaching alongside hers, but he refused to give in until he satisfied her again. She deserved every second of pleasure he could provide her tonight.

And any night she wanted it.

Nero flexed as he bottomed out, his length twitching against that small spongy spot. He had to hold on a little longer, just long enough to feel her clench around him. How could he resist on their wedding night?

He dipped his hands between their joined bodies and traced circles around her clit, her wetness drenching his fingers. She arched, angling her hips into his hand while he rammed into her, her voice rising with each pulse of his hips.

“That’s it, that’s it- I’m - Nero!”

The silken embrace of her folds spasmed against his cock as Kyrie threw her head back and moaned, her arms locked around him as if he were a life preserver and she was drowning. The sounds she made redefined his idea of music and the erratic pulsing of her walls was too much, too good and too fucking sexy to resist.

“I’m gonna - Kyrie, I’m gonna-”

The slap of flesh meeting flesh mixed with the soft music still playing in the background as his thrusts reached a fever pitch, his body coming undone mere seconds after hers. He groaned and buried his face in the crux of her neck, crooning her name like a mantra as he pulsed his peak within her. Her fluttering walls and tender embrace were all that he cared about, all that he needed or would ever need.

When he returned to himself, her hands were rubbing his back and her sweet voice whispering praise in his ear. Her fruity conditioner mixed with her sweat and their now blended juices, an aroma he adored. There truly was nothing better than being with her.

He closed his eyes and relaxed in her arms. “Can’t believe you’re my wife.”

She hummed and helped him lie down, tracing his jaw and toying with his hair as she settled in at his side. “Believe it, Nero.”

There was no point restraining the wide grin tugging at his lips as he drifted off, thanking his lucky stars that she was his and he was hers.

Now and forever.

[froggycatvest]

Title: There’s a cafeteria? Words: 1900 Ships: None Warnings: None Characters: Benrey, Gordon, Tommy, Dr. Coomer, Bubby Part 4 of 5 Part one HERE

Benrey’s POV. The group find a cafeteria, try to get some food cooking, but maybe the fire alarm goes off. (It is not because of Bubby). 

---

There was suddenly the smell of fire, and Gordon was drawn to it immediately, eyes wide as he all but ran out of the pantry. He started yelling out, “Bubby! Why are you turning on all the stovetops?”

Benry followed to see that was exactly what was happening, along with Tommy and Dr. Coomer at another stove opening up the cans and setting things up there. Bubby shrugged. 

“I’m bored. Mind your own business.”

Gordon stepped up to him, hand extended to point at the flames. “It is my business if you burn this place down.”

Bubby glanced between the stove and the other man, eyebrow raised. “How is that your business?”

“I don’t want to die,” Gordon said, as if it were obvious. “I don’t want to burn to death.”

Bubby stood there while Gordon began turning the burners off. “You’re more likely to die from smoke inhalation.”

Gordon shook his head slowly. “Don’t want that either.”

Tommy piped up. “We have--You don’t have to worry. Black Mesa is fitted with The Most Advanced Fire Protection System available.”

“You heard him,” Bubby said. “A system to protect fires.”

Dr. Coomer seemingly agreed. “Only the best in fire fighting technology here in Black Mesa. Along with our patented laser security system, automated door locks, and bulletproof windows. Safety is our number one priority.” 

“All of which did nothing to help us.” Gordon looked around the ceiling. “Is it a sprinkler system? It’d probably shoot bullets at us instead.”  

There was a lot of talk then, everyone spouting the first thing that came to mind with stuff like It’ll shoot Water at us. Not bullets and Well, we’d better shoot it first! and There’s no sprinkler system in Black Mesa and That’s for a lawn.

Gordon nodded in agreement, unable to address them all, so he just kept talking. “Look, I don’t have any confidence in anything here saving us. Just use one burner, alright? I’m going to see what else is around here.”

When he went for the cabinets, Benry snapped to attention and pushed past him. “I got it.” He never got to check this area from before when he was searching for food with Tommy, and didn’t want Gordon to find something good first.

“Oh, what?” Benry stopped and stared over his shoulder at the amused grin on Gordon’s face. “Am I not allowed to have food?”

Benry glanced down in thought. It had been funny riling Gordon Freeman up this entire time. It had been fun watching him trip over his words before turning away in exasperation to ignore him. Sometimes, Benry didn’t understand why the man would get all worked up when they were just talking. It wasn’t like he was always insulting him, after all.   

Gordon leaned forward, hand and gunhand on his hips, and head tilting. “You think I’m going to steal it all or something?”

He also didn’t understand why, but every so often, the man tried to joke with him, would say nice things to him, even laughed at the things he would say. Gordon Freeman was weird.

“Yeah maybe.”

Gordon parroted him with a lighthearted, “Yeah, maybe.” When he came up behind Benry to get a look in an open cupboard, Benry quickly stepped to the side.

Gordon didn’t seem to notice, still cheerful. “Hey, grab me some cereal.”

Dr. Coomer called out from a stove where he was heating up the huge pot of soup. “Make sure you’re getting a balanced meal, Gordon. It’s good for brain power.”

“You’re telling me this?” Gordon whirled on him, asking teasingly. “The soda chugger? The sewage slurper? The toxic waste ingestor?”

“You should try it,” Benry said, box of cereal held in both hands.

Gordon noticed it, and dug around for a bowl. “Try what?”

“The sewage.”

“No thanks.” Gordon placed two bowls on the counter, sliding one towards Benry.  “We’ve been in enough sewage to last me the rest of my life.”

“It’s a...it’s a balanced meal.”

Gordon finally gave him a good reaction, his entire attention on him now with amused disbelief. “How is it a balanced meal? How?”

Benry shrugged. “It has all the vitamins and minerals a body needs.”

“Maybe for you.”

There were suddenly three cartons of milk shoved into both of their faces, Gordon sputtering and leaning back at the intrusion. “Guys, guys.”

Bubby placed one on top of Benry’s helmet. “That’s a balanced meal.”

Dr. Coomer showcased his off. “Did you know milk contains almost every single nutrient your body requires to live?”

Tommy held his milk carton out in one hand. “Calcium and Vitamin D is important for strong bones. You can grow them back if you need them to.”

Benry joined in, his voice louder and almost robot-like as he emphasized every word. “Gordon Needs More Vitamin D.”

It was too much for Gordon Freeman, laughter filling the kitchen. “I can’t,” he wheezed, leaning against the counter. “I can’t deal with all of you at once.”

“Milk,” Dr. Coomer replied.

“The soup,” Gordon forced out between breaths. “All of you go back to watching the thing that has fire under it.”

Benry was content to just stand there while everyone else left, and he noticed Gordon looking him over while composing himself. “What?”

“You look...great,” Gordon said with a grin. “Like a cereal fairy.” He straightened up and grabbed the milk carton off his helmet. Benry had forgotten that was there. After it was placed on the counter, the cereal box was taken from him as well, and Gordon tried--but failed--to get the bag open.

“Tommy,” Gordon immediately called as he joined the other three. “Can you help me with this?”

Benry yelled after him with grand advice. “Just shoot it.” It would open it. It would work. But no one listened to him. He eyed the milk carton, then took out his gun.

It wasn’t like with the birds and other creatures; when he took the shot, a mess splattered everywhere.

It was quiet for a moment, everyone’s attention on him before Gordon asked, “Why?” while Dr. Coomer gave out praises of, “Nice shot, Benrey.”

Benry realized he was splattered down the front, but it wasn’t different than the blood and goop he was used to already. He put his gun away while Gordon approached him, staring and snickering. 

“What did you think was going to happen?” Gordon said, biting his lip. “You’re a mess.”

“It’s open,” Benry stated simply.

“It’s destroyed,” Gordon corrected, looking pleased. “That was hilarious and it’s your fault.”

That’s what he got for trying to help. “It was your milk.” Which meant it was Gordon’s fault. He was the one that had wanted cereal. But Gordon didn’t get it, because he gestured towards Benry.

“It’s yours now.”

Dr. Coomer interjected with a brilliant idea. “If we start the sprinkler system, it’ll clean him off in no time.”

Which meant Gordon wouldn’t agree. “We aren’t doing that. He can use the sink.”

Benry shot at the ceiling.

“Stop that!” Gordon ordered, glancing up warily at where he was shooting. “I don’t want any kind of system, of any kind, to be activated down here. Nothing good comes from that.”

Benry’s gun disappeared. “I’m the security system.”

Gordon paused, as if really thinking about it. “Huh. I guess you are.” 

Benry was sure he didn’t have to sound so surprised. He was right and telling the truth whenever he wasn’t lying. Gordon gave him a thoughtful look as he continued on. 

“Ever think about doing another job? You’re not very good at this one.”

Dr. Coomer, at that moment, yelled out in victory. “Here it is!”

Even Benry’s attention shot over to where the man was near the doorway as he stood in a fighting stance next to a fire alarm station on the wall. He punched off the plastic cover, before pulling down on the handle.

Gordon was amazingly fast to react, eyes wide. “Dr. Coomer!”

A loud bell sound clanged around the room, lights from the alarm flashing brightly, but there was no spray of water anywhere.

Tommy cried out in all earnest, “Oh no, we have to get out of here!”

Gordon walked swiftly up to him to calm him. “Tommy, it’s a false alarm.”

“No, that’s illegal,” he said, strafing back and forth in distress. “You can’t do that intentionally.”

“You’ve tripped alarms multiple times, dude.”

Tommy stopped and stared at him, before looking here and there, quietly. He didn’t respond.

Bubby spoke up, sounding offended that no one had listened to him. “I told you there’s no sprinkler system.”

Gordon raised an eyebrow at that. “I think that’s illegal,” he said, and Bubby shrugged, uncaring.

“We’re not exactly abiding by most laws here in Black Mesa.”

Benry began to use his Voice to mimic the noise of the alarm out of boredom, and Gordon gave him an irritated look. 

“It’s loud enough, thanks!”

“You don’t have to yell,” Benry scolded flatly, but Bubby started yelling, too.  

“Turn it off already!”

Dr. Coomer examined the alarm, before straightening up to address everyone. “It seems I can’t. Fire alarms are not meant to be reset without the use of a key from authorized personnel or the fire department.”

Bubby whipped out his gun. “Not while I’m around.”

“Wait,” Tommy called out. “Benrey. You have the key.”

Benry turned towards him. “Huh?”

Gordon looked a little astonished. “You have a key for the alarm?”

“Yeah I’m the...I told you I’m the security system.”

He had responsibilities. He had lots of work. He had access to secure places. It was his job. Gordon Freeman seemed to forget that most of the time. It was kinda disrespectful. 

“Do you have to be so disrespectful?”

Gordon blinked at that, then frowned. “I’m not being disrespectful,” he huffed out and gestured towards the blaring alarm. “Can you turn it off?

Benry stared at it, before staring at Gordon. “Why?”

Bubby’s voice got louder in exasperation. “Oh my god. If you don’t hurry up, I’m going to shoot this damn thing!”

It was one thing to mess with Gordon, but he didn’t care to mess with Dr. Bubby. The older man was fun and easy to listen to. Even though, sure, Bubby punched at him a few times once, but that was okay, they were friendly punches. The kind you did when you messed around with your bros. He barely felt them.

Benry took out a ring of keys, selected the correct one, and went to deactivate the alarm. When everything went quiet, there were sighs of relief.

He approached Bubby closely. “You can still shoot it if you want.”

Bubby eyed his gun and then grinned. “I should.”

Gordon groaned out, “Please don’t.”

“Yo don’t ruin his fun.”

“You know what’s fun? Not letting the food burn. Who was in charge of that? Bubby, you’re in charge of that now.” Gordon shrugged and ran his fingers through his hair. “Don’t know if that’s a good idea or a bad idea, but it’ll give you something to do.”

Dr. Coomer pumped a fist. “Excellent idea. Bubby is a wonderful leader.” He pulled Bubby along among his protest of That’s not fun. “You can burn it a little, then. How about that?”

Tommy bounded after them, and when Benry went to follow, Gordon stepped in front of him with a firm, “Not you.”

[sebastianshaw]

(I got stuff done with alt-Marauders who aren’t Haven and the Shaw! Pyro and Claudine, for @sammysdewysensitiveeyes! Sorry, I feel bad I kind of had Pyro get shut down in this one? I meant for the conversation to be less hostile but it ended up as kinda being SO THERE! at him? It just flowed that way, I hope it’s still enjoyable for you!) “Hey I know you’re friends with old Moneybags but don’t get on my ass like he does too!” Pyro had been awoken from a pile of bottles on the deck by Claudine, and he was in no mood for the talking-to she was besieging him with. “Come on, Claud, I thought we were pals!” “We are, and PALS don’t wreck my lab!” “I wasn’t in your lab!” “You were close enough that the flames you were setting off could react with chemicals in it! And then there wouldn’t be a lab! Or a ship for that matter.” “Alright alright I take your point,” Pyro said, hauling himself up, “Won’t do it again.” “I don’t believe that.” Pyro’s eyebrow raised, “You calling me a liar, love?.” “I’m saying most people don’t remember their promises when drunk.” “Well, I won’t get drunk on the ship.” Now Claudine’s brow raised. “Alright I won’t get THAT drunk on the ship,” he amended. “Right,” she said disbelievingly, “Even if you’re drinking with Shinobi so he’s not drinking alone.” “Hey now that’s not fair,” said Pyo. He felt defensive of Shinobi even though she was exactly right, and in fact BECAUSE she was exactly right. “True, sometimes it’s the other way around.” Pyro’s jaw dropped, “What is that supposed to mean?!” Claudine turned, and said over her shoulder, “I’d rather not be cruel to a friend, John. Just don’t get drunk on the boat.” “No, you tell me what that means!” St. John was NOT letting it go, hhe could TELL Claudine seen some weakness in him like she had Shinobi and he wanted to know it so he could tell her how wrong she was---especially if she was right. But she was just walking away instead, dismissing him. “Hey!” he reached out and grabbed her wrist. And Claudine Renko, Miss Sinister, turned and looked at him. And in that moment, knew he fucked up. The next moment, he was flying into the ocean.

After he’d hauled himself out, he’d been ready to torch her lab on purpose just out of sheer SPITE, or at least turn all her clothes to ashes, but after a long shower to wash away the saltwater and a nap to sleep away the hangover, he’d calmed down a  bit. He did come to her lab though. ”Hey, uh...can I come in, Claudine?” ”Sure.” Okay, she didn’t sound angry, but not FRIENDLY either. He stepped in, but not too close. “Hey, uh, listen, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t of put my hands on you.” “No, you shouldn’t have, “ she said, not looking up from her computer, though St. John noticed she wasn’t actually typing on it, “It was most unwise.” “I don’t normally uh...I mean look in a fight all bets are off, but I don’t normally grab a lady like that. Just you’re kinda like Maddie to me. She turned her head and smirked, “One of the boys?” Pyro smiled, “Well yeah, you’re fun, you know, but still a lady and it was wrong. Don’t mean to be sexist but my Gran raised me with manners. “Gran didn’t raise you with self-preservation though I guess,” Claudine was between smirk and smile now, “But much appreciated.” She turned her chair around and continued, “It’s really nothing against you, I just REALLY don’t want this place going sky-high.” “Nah nah I get it!” Pyro put up his hands, “I’ll be way more careful and tell Shin we gotta keep the partying on land. Can’t say he’ll listen but hey he’s not the one you gotta worry about right?” “Well, that depends,” Claudine said, “His phasing does disrupt electrical systems, but I’ll have a talk with him.” “I don’t recommend threats, they just make him er...” “Horny, I know. Don’t worry. If the stick doesn’t work, I’ll try to proverbial carrot. Thanks for coming by, Pyro.” “We good?” “We’re very good. And I’m sorry about tossing you into the water. I should have just knocked you back.” “Ah, it’s fine! I was wondering though---” He could tell from her face that she knew what was coming “--what you meant about---” Claudine cut him off with a sigh, “Really, St.John? We JUST made up.” “Yeah really. Come on, let’s get it out in the open.” She sighed again, “It’ll drive you crazy if I don’t, huh?” “Yup.” “Which is not my problem, but you’ll make it my problem.” “Yup.” “You’re a real pest, you know that?” “Yup!” A third sigh, “Alright, fine, here it is.” She put him in mind of exasperated older sister he’d never had. ”Shinobi parties because of his issues, you because of yours. And it’s easy to see what his probably are---I mean you’ve MET Sebastian---and I don’t know much about you, but knowing what I do, not hard to guess. You left quite a legacy.” And just like that, he was set off again, all attempts at making up forgotten. Through the slew of outraged Aussie slang, Claudine shouted, “Hey! You asked! And I’m not insulting you! I’m just saying what happened!” “Well it’s a low blow!” “Well it’s right isn’t it?” “That’s why you shouldn't have said it!” he said, and then realized by saying that he’d just admitted she was indeed right. But rather than being satisfied at this confirmation, Claudine just looked irritated, ”Look, you got a raw deal. I understand why you don’t want it brought up. And why you’ve got to just act like an idiot sometimes. But no one here is looking down at you for dying, so chill.” “Chill?! Chill?!” All the her bunsen burners in the room erupted in flames, ”Do you know what I went through?! Do you?!” Claudine addressed him in a glowering calm, “Yes. I know exactly what you went through. The way the Legacy virus worked it would begin inserting introns--junk DNA sequences--into the transcription codings of the victim's mutant RNA. It literally changed your DNA. Your disease was no longer just an invader, it was a part of you. I can relate to that, Pyro. I’m living with the same thing every day---LOOK at me!” He did. And he thought of how the longer and longer he’d had the virus, he had seen it in the mirror more and more. The lumps, the lesions, at a certain point he hadn’t been looking at himself anymore, he’d been looking at the sickness itself in a flesh suit. He still saw it sometimes. And he realized what it must be like for her to see this ghost-white face and red diamond reflected back at her in every glass, in every eye that looked at her, in every mind she read. The flames went down. ”I...” “And don’t think it’s not the same because I wasn’t going to die. I was, Pyro. What else do you call it when everything that’s YOU stop existing and becomes someone else? what else do you call it when everything that might scientifically be called a soul is no longer existent in your body?” “Alright, I...” “So I do know what you went through. Your body’s betrayal. Knowing your clock is ticking, but not when it will stop. and the simultaneous relief it’s over, but the disbelief it can really be for real, and no idea how to cope with that. So that also means... She inhaled deeply and looked down, ”I do know I shouldn’t have gone there.” There was a long silence between them. And then she put a hand on his shoulder. And he smiled at her. And she smiled back, “Now get the hell out of my lab, dude, before the sprinklers go off!”

[binary5tar1117]

I'm so big I keep hitting my belly on stuff and it's annoying!!! I did the math and am slightly terrified to realize that in 7ish weeks (possibly up to 9 depending on doctor suggestions) I will have a new born. I've been so caught up in dealing with day to day life that the whole oh BTW you're going to be bringing a tiny new life into the world that will require constant care has kinda been back burnered. Its not like I've forgotten I'm pregnant. I mean with the giant belly and wiggling going on semi constantly inside its hard to forget. (Side note.... how do those women in those shows not realize they are pregnant for the whole 9 months???) But like, I have had very little time to plan or do anything to prepare for when the baby is born. I dunno if I'll get a baby shower with social distancing and I was kinda banking on it for some basics like onsies and diapers. (Not financially necessarily, I'll be okay there.... for now.) I dunno where I'm going with this exactly but it just kinda hit me that... even with everything going on I'm still gonna have a baby in less than two months. Obviously its not a real surprise or anything just... the dates kinda sneaking up on me.

[bards-witcher]

Rivals to Lovers (OhmCat)

What about Ohmcat where they hated each other at first because they were rivals for a love interest. But when the love interest fell for someone else, they kinda realize they actually have a lot in common and fall for each other instead 

Ohm and WIldcat are ‘competing’ over Evan, so there's very very little Vanohm and a little TyVan.

So I kinda went overboard with the prompt, and I think I deviated a bit in the middle, but I still hope you enjoy it @xbananaleensyo , if not I don’t mind writing something else for you if you want :)

It may also seem kinda rushed and stuff and I’m sorry

.

[Tyler POV]

He taps his foot impatiently as he waits for his friend and not so secret crush to let him through the front door. Their whole group had decided to spend a week up at Evans’ house, no special occasion in mind, but just to spend some time with one another, last he heard Delirious was even coming up to join them, and he could already feel the excitement build up in him at the thought of the week ahead.

There was also a small curl of nervousness, in his mind, he’d determined that this week would be it, he’d tell Evan how he felt about him, feelings that had only grown and manifested into the beginnings of what he could only describe as love. There were a couple of people who knew about his plight, Brian, Marcel and Anthony namely, and they’d already agreed to somewhat wingman for him, with the reassurance that Evan wouldn’t be in his right mind not to choose him.

The only thing, well person, that could get in his way was Ohm, the masked gamer who seemed to have swooped in out of nowhere and won the hearts of all of his friends, most especially Evans’, and he was silently thankful that said man wasn’t joining them for the trip.

He’s not proud to admit it, but a couple of weeks back when they were playing a larger session of Golf It, after having heard Ohms’ voice accompanied by Evans’ laugh far too often for his liking, he may or may not have semi-threatened the older man to step back from Evan lest he earn himself an ass whooping.

Since then he’d only really seen Ohm upload with Luke, Del, maybe Anthony, and whilst a part of him felt guilty, it was soon forgotten when he was playing with Evan and the two of them were fighting zombies or god knows what together.

His thoughts were put on the back burner when the front door finally opened and looking down he saw the man who looked far too handsome for his own good, quickly leaning down to wrap him up in a tight hug which could be considered slightly too long for friends, not that Evan had any complaints.

“You took your time you bastard”

“You wanna host like 11 people in your house? Be my guest, cause this has been stressful as fuck”

“Aww, you poor thing” He quickly ruffled his hand through the smaller mans’ longer hair, which was quickly slapped away and before he knew it a hand was reaching into his own hair and roughly mussing it. “You little bitch”

It then turned into an all-out war, both of them trying to one-up the other as best they could in order to mess the other's hair. He doesn’t know how, only knows that there was a sharp kick to his ankle, a jab to his side and half his arm being licked (he hopes that’s what it was) before Evan has him in a chokehold, and he’s too breathless and silently rejoicing at the close contact to put up much of a fight.

“Keep ye foreplay to the bedroom please, I don’t think the first thing Del wants to see of his friends is them practically fucking each other by the front door”

He looked up, noticing a sly wink thrown his way from Brian before he’s released from his hold, looking down at Evan to see him flushed red that he’s sure is from the Irishman’s comment.

“When’s him and Luke getting here anyway? I wanna see if Del is as tall as he says he is” he smiled at the small laugh he got from both Evan and Brian before the Canadian looked down at his watch.

“Well their plane landed about 20 minutes ago, I think they’re just waiting for Anthony and then they’re just gonna pool a taxi, sooooooo…probably an hour?”

He nodded before grabbing his case, pushing Evan into the door frame slightly as he passed, earning a slight shout from the Canadian in protest before he returned the favor with an even sharper shove, the force having almost knocked him off of his feet.

He was quick to drop the case and go chasing after the smaller man who had already begun to run away, ignoring Brians’ shout of ‘Be careful’ as he gave a rushed hello to Scotty, Marcel, and Nogla, who were just leaving the kitchen, before shoving swiftly past them in favor of cornering Evan in his kitchen, a wicked gleam in his eye.

**********

It was almost two hours later, and they were still waiting on Luke, Del, and Anthony to show up, all of them trying to assuage their excitement as best as they could in waiting for their friends.

In order to distract themselves, they were currently gathered around the living room and playing a game of Fibbage that he was sorely losing at the moment, but Evan pressed tight against his side was a good enough compromise on his failings.

Needless to say, almost all of them jumped at the knock on the front door, Evan quick to jump up while the rest of them craned their necks to try and get a glance of their friends.

The first thing he noted was Anthony’s’ booming laugh before said man was making his way into the house, only giving a brief wave of hello as he seemed to know that all of them were trying to sneak a peek at their anonymous friend.

He heard the faint trickle of voices before he saw Evan and Luke head into the living room where they were all sat, two people trailing behind them who seemed to be having a quiet conversation with one another.

Based on descriptions he’s sure he’s figured out who Delirious is of the two people, but what he can’t figure out is who the second person is. He was definitely one of the shortest of the group, with windswept hair and red cheeks which would normally make people look comical, but actually made this man look quite dashing. The soft doe eyes with clean-shaven beard were enough to get an appreciative hum from him, and he’s sure that if he wasn’t already infatuated with Evan he may have even pursued this man, who only seemed to be getting redder as more eyes focused on him.

“Well don’t be rude guys, come say hello to Del and Ohm”

He was somewhat taken aback at the fact that Ohm was here as well, and it almost seemed like a spanner had been thrown into the inner workings of his brain as he realized his biggest threat to getting Evan was now standing in front of him.

He stayed in his seat whilst his friends went to swarm the new arrivals, instead evaluating the older man now hugging Anthony before he burst into a fit of his characteristic giggles, and he couldn’t help but clench his teeth a little at the sound.

What was perhaps the worst was that Ohm was actually attractive, although not as fit as Luke and Jon beside him you could still see he hit the gym at some point in his life. His well-trimmed facial hair framed his face well, and his mussed hair went strangely well with the glint he could see in the older man’s hazel eyes.

With a sigh he stood up from the couch, giving a brief hug to Luke and an even longer one to Jon, giving him a promise to load up some Fortnite together during their stay before he was standing in front of Ohm.

He feels somewhat guilty about the trepidation clear on the smaller man's face, but nevertheless, he holds his arms out for a hug which Ohm hesitantly accepts, leaning down slightly he whispers into the other man’s ear.

“Evans’ mine you hear”

“Evan is perfectly capable of making his own choice don’t you think” It was then that Ohm pulled away from him, giving him a somewhat patronizing smile before leaving him in favor of joining Jons’ current conversation with Evan and Brian.

He watched as Ohm inserted himself effortlessly, and couldn’t stop the clenching of his fist when Ohm said something that caused the whole graph to laugh, or more specifically Evan.

He noticed Ohm give him a quick side-eyed glance before turning back to the conversation, so without another thought, he sidled himself between Brian and Evan.

Ignoring Brians’ protests he put an arm around the Canadians shoulders, and he couldn’t help the slightly smug look on his face when Evan leaned into his hold slightly.

He unconsciously began to lightly run his hand up and down Evans’ shoulder, but the smaller man said nothing of it, and pressing them a little tighter together when he felt Evans’ slight shiver at the touch, and he swears he could see his cheeks getting red.

He couldn’t help the smug smile he aimed at Ohm, watching as the older man sent him daggers, as he half-heartedly listened to Evan and Jon chatting beside him.

He was slightly startled when Evan pulled away from him, earning a laugh from the three of them before Evan began to grab Jons’ suitcase and told Ohm and Luke to follow him to their room.

It was only when they’d disappeared up the stairs that he felt someone slap their hand onto his shoulder before holding on as if to comfort him, and turning he saw Brian looking up at where their friends had gone.

“And people thought I had it out for Ohm” He shrugged off Brians hand before turning away and heading back to the couch which he promptly fell onto, letting out a sigh and rubbing a hand across his face to try and cure the headache beginning to form behind his eyes. “Well it looks like you’ve got your work out for you this week”

“Do you ever shut up Brian”

“Not when I get to annoy you” He threw a glare at the Irishman now sat next to him, a bright smile on his face.

“You’re supposed to be helping me you fucking Irish bastard, not laugh at me”

“Yeah an’ I will, but I don’t know how our motley crew is gonna help you compete with Del and Ohm”

“Delirious?” He turned back to Brian only to see a somewhat sympathetic smile on his face before the Irishman’s hand came up to ruffle his hair.

“Oh, you poor thing. You’re so unaware aren’t you” He ducked away from Brians’ hand and slapping it away for good measure before putting his face in his hands.

He was startled once again when he felt someone practically fall on top of him in their bid to get on the couch and looking up from his hands he saw Evan trying to squeeze between him and Brian.

The majority of his thoughts at that moment being to try not to focus on how the Canadians’ hand, that was rather well placed for coincidence, on his thigh felt hot enough to burn him.

“So, what do you guys think about Ohm and Del? Lookin’ pretty fine if I do say so myself”

He couldn’t help but grit his teeth a little, instead leaving the question for Brian to answer, only adding his own hum here and there to contribute to the conversation.

He heard Jon, Luke, and Ohm before he saw them, the three of them clamoring down the stairs before joining them in the living area. He refuses to look at Ohm, instead watched as Luke moved to sit next to Brock on the other couch when all of a sudden the warmth of Evans’ leg against him is lost as the Canadian makes space for the other two.

Of course, it had to be his luck that Ohm would sit beside him, taking his opportunity to be next to Evan. He’s also quick to nudge against Ohms’ leg when the older man first nudges him, almost as if he’s trying to test how far his buttons could be pushed.

It quickly became a competition between them, and it wasn’t until he poked the other man in his side, causing him to squeal almost as he jerked away from the touch that Ohm finally stopped.

Yet even as he watched his friends begin to set up a game of what looked like poker, in the corner of his eye he noticed that Ohm kept glancing back at him, in particular, right before he was about to do something like lean against Evan or put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and all he could do was nudge hard at Ohms’ leg to show his disdain.

This was going to be a long week.

**********

Over the next couple of days, it didn’t get any easier, wherever Evan was Ohm wasn’t too far behind, but he was still able to catch some rare moments with the Canadian, a chance to make him double over laughing, or wrap an arm around him in a half-hearted hug.

Try as he might to ignore Ohm he simply can’t, the man always being in the vicinity of Evan and therefore himself, meaning that he was privy to Ohms’ conversations to their friends about his life. About his hometown as well as his likes and dislikes, and a whole manner of other stories that he can’t help but smile at, never letting it last long though so as not to give himself away but from the look Brian gives him, he knew.

He also can’t help the fleeting thoughts that had he not fallen for Evan, Ohm would’ve been exactly the type of person he’d have gone for, but he was quick to shoving those musings to the very back of his mind.

Yet try as he might, when he was alone but for his thoughts, he couldn’t help but tempt himself with what if.

At the thought that maybe he could cause the giggles to spill from the older man’s mouth or cause his cheeks to dust with red when even the slightest explicit thing was said to him, how he could watch the color of his eyes change from hazel to blue with the faintest flecks of gold specks if the light hit them right.

Wait when did he even notice that.

Silently berating himself he reminded himself that he was in fact here for Evan, not Ohm, but if on the odd occasion he decided to seek Ohm out of his own accord just to check on what he was doing, no one else had to know but him. Although from the smirk Ohm gives him sometimes when he catches his eye, the older man knows his plight.

That night the group of them had gone out to dinner, and although having snagged a seat beside Evan courtesy of Marcel, he couldn’t help but feel he was playing second fiddle to Jon, so in turn, he found his eyes wandering over to Ohm across the table from him.

He jerked his leg back when he felt another foot brush against it, but looking around his friends were unaware of what had happened, at least that was until he saw Ohm smirking slightly as he tried to eat, and he swears he saw the older man wink at him but due to the dim lighting he pens the action down to the fact he’s going crazy.

Needless to say, when he moved his leg back it wasn’t long before the foot was back against his calf, almost trying to tease him for a response but he gave none. Instead, he leaned back in his chair, putting a loose arm over Evans’ chair beside him as he watched the blush deepen on Ohms’ face before the foot quickly receded.

He doesn’t know why but he chased it with his own foot, almost challenging Ohm when the man looked up at him somewhat shocked, which was quickly replaced by a smirk as the foot returned. The rest of the meal spent playing a game of footsie for a reason neither of them could properly explain, and one he didn’t plan on addressing any time soon.

**********

He walked into the kitchen to find Ohm seemingly wrapping up a present if the wrapping paper and frustrated way he tried to peel away the cello tape gave any clue. A part of him was intrigued as to what the older man was up to, or more specifically what he’d obviously gotten for Evan so that he’d know just what he was up against.

However, he only made it a couple of steps before Ohm looked up and noticed him, immediately becoming defensive and trying to hide the present as best as he could.

“I ain’t gonna take your present bitch, just wanted a look” Ohm narrowed his eyes at him a little before looking down at what his present was and after a moment he removed the now shoddy wrapping paper for him to see.

He walked the rest of the distance separating them to have a look at the box and couldn’t help but let out a whistle of appreciation as he picked it up to take a closer look.

“This thing real?” Ohm just nodded, he noticed how the older man’s cheeks were a little more flush than normal and he seemed to avoid looking at him. “Didn’t take you, or Evan in fact, as Lord of the Rings fans” He took one last moment to appreciate the seemingly life-like replica of the sword Sting before placing the box it was in gently onto the table and slid it towards Ohm.

“I’ll have you know I was president of our schools’ Lord of the Rings society” He couldn’t help but laugh a little at the statement, although with it he saw the smile on Ohms’ face disappear. Despite their competition for Evan, he couldn’t help but think it was wrong to leave Ohm without the smile that was once on his face.

“You’re shittin’ me, your school had a society too?” Ohm then looked back up at him, he swears he could something akin to hope there, but doesn’t question it, instead choosing to expose this part of his life he hadn’t let see the light of day, even if it wasn’t exactly true.

“Well it was more so a handful of people who met up each week, thought we were the only people in the world sad enough to do it”

“Oh, at my school we did the whole shebang, even dressed up and recreated scenes” He can’t help his smile when he hears Ohm laugh at the comment, but also tries to ignore the way his heart also seemed to skip a beat.

“I’m calling bullshit on that, there’s no way the great Wildcat would dress up for fun”

“You can bet your ass we did; think I still have PTSD or some shit from where my cloak was choking me” Unconsciously he raised his hand up to his throat as if remembering his youth, where he grew far too quick that his clothes didn’t last too long before he outgrew them.

“Damn, I was hoping to choke you out tonight”

“Oh yeah, try me, bitch, come at me now. C’mon Ohm, choke me daddy, choke me, you know you want too” He held his arms out wide as if to tempt the older man who simply sputtered and giggled as he tried to form words, his face now a bright shade of red. “That’s what I thought pussy”

He didn’t even know that he and Ohm had gotten closer to one another until they were almost chest to chest, and he hates how his breath hitches when Ohm looks up at him through his lashes, but even though part of him is telling him to leave, the other part is transfixed at the sight of the other man.

“Who did you play?” He hesitated for a moment, despite how harmless it was he couldn’t help but feel somewhat vulnerable talking about his childhood with Ohm, however, Ohm was quick to taunt him into an answer. “Don’t tell me you’re chickening out now, lemme guess, you were…a…Hobbit with a late growth spurt. I can see it now, young Tyler with cute little chubby cheeks”

He batted away the hand Ohm was trying to pinch his cheeks with, and he couldn’t help but puff out his chest to somewhat validate himself, only earning a small giggle from Ohm.

“I’ll have you know I played Boromir, thank you very much. Clearly, someone’s insecure about their own role” He chuckled as Ohm crossed his arms defensively in front of him, and seemingly tried to turn his nose up at him, which would probably work if it wasn’t for the fact that he towered over the other man.

“Well, you better bow down bitch, cause I was the King of Gondor” Now he really couldn’t help his laughter, only made worse by the pout now on Ohms’ face.

“Now I know you’re shitting me, Ohm, there is no way in hell you could be Aragorn” the older man simply snorted at the statement.

“I was the president so I could be whoever the fuck I wanted, which just so happened to be Aragorn, so as my steward you’d do well to show me some respect”

The both of them couldn’t contain their laughs anymore and looking at Ohm he was now breathless for more than one reason, quickly putting that thought to the side as he recomposed himself.

“I bet you’d love that Ohm, me on my knees pledging my service to you”

“I’d prefer it if you were on your knees to service me” It took him a moment to understand the innuendo but when he did it had him laughing again, which was quickly stopped by the sounds of new voices joining them.

“You two are probably the biggest nerds I’ve ever met” He turned to see Marcel enter the kitchen, quickly followed by Scotty and Nogla who seemed to have a glint in their eyes.

“Yeah, can you guys just fuck already, I’m sick of walking into this all the fucking time, it’s driving me crazy” Scotty whined at them, the statement was accompanied by agreeing nods from Marcel and Nogla who were trying to hold back their laughs.

He knew the comment was meant to rile him up, but he couldn’t help but feel somewhat pissed at the remark, although a small part of him realized that maybe they had told him something he wasn’t yet ready to admit to himself, maybe he did have feelings for Ohm, however, messed up they were.

It was then he realized just how close he was to Ohm, they were practically brushing against each other and he was quick to jerk away, ignoring the momentary hurt look he saw on the other man’s face, even as he cursed himself for causing it.

He looked between Ohm and his friends who were still stood smugly in the entryway until everything just became too much and with a growl he darted out of the kitchen, making sure to shove between his friends with a quietly muttered ‘arseholes’.

He headed straight for the patio doors, swiftly opening them before striding out into Evans’ rather expansive garden in order to try and clear his thoughts, not realizing Ohm had followed him until he heard Nogla shouting for him to ‘go get that D’.

Turning he saw Ohm a little ways behind him, but he paid no mind to him as he continued walking until he was about halfway down the garden before rounding to face the other man.

“The fuck d’you want now Ohm?” He saw the smaller man huff slightly as he tried to bridge the gap between them, but he made sure to keep some distance between them.

“Are we not going to talk about this, about us?”

“There’s nothing to talk about with you”

“Not according to our friends there isn’t, clearly they’ve noticed something between us. Can you honestly say you haven’t felt anything between us?” He hates the way that Ohm is pleading up at him as if begging him to listen, but he was always too stubborn for his own good.

“No. I don’t know. Look I came here for Evan okay? I like Evan, I want to fuckin’ hold his hand and see his stupid face when I wake up in the morning and have him laugh at my corny jokes, I don’t want your pasty ass”

He swears he can feel his own heart break at his words, a lump quickly forming in his throat that makes breathing already harder than it is, especially when Ohm looks up with what seem to be tears in his eyes.

“That’s pasty fat ass to you” He couldn’t help but huff out a laugh, but it did little to get rid of the unease he still felt.

“Look Tyler, I came here for the same reason you did, but things have changed now. Being around everyone now I realise that maybe Evan isn’t meant for me” He tenses up slightly as Ohm takes a couple of steps towards him, a small smile on his face “A part of me doesn’t know what to do anymore because I think I have feelings for someone else, everything’s just so…confusing”

He slowly let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, he knew beyond a doubt that Ohm was talking about him, that the older man had caught feelings for him, and he still couldn’t come to terms with it.

His mind instead settling on the fact that he was here for Evan and Evan only, and refusing to acknowledge that Ohm had somewhat managed to smoothe some of his sharper edges, the thought that someone had that kind of control over him was too frightening to consider right there.

“I’m here for Evan, Ohm. You bowing out now just makes it easier for me”

“So that’s it then” He hates the way Ohms’ voice breaks at the end, and yet he can’t stop his mouth from speaking.

“That’s it Ohm”

He watches as Ohm gives him a final look, seeing a tear begin to fall down his face before the smaller man turns away to storm back to the house. He feels sick to his stomach at the sight, at the fact that he caused so much hurt to Ohm and yet he couldn’t will himself to follow after him, wouldn’t even know what to say to him even if he did.

With a sigh he rubbed a hand down his face, resisting the urge to scream as he turned away from the house to head down to the end of the garden, hoping his surroundings could help calm him down.

However, his thoughts were racing so fast that he couldn’t spare a moment to enjoy anything around him, only a bitter taste being left in his mouth. As if reaffirming his choice of Evan to himself he headed back to the house in search of the Canadian.

He doesn’t have to go far before he hears the shouts of Jon and Brock, coupled with Evans laughter, but even that did little to cheer him up as it had done so often in the past.

He walked into the next room to see the three of them and Brian playing Zombie mode on COD, with Jon screaming at the rest of them to revive him. It was enough to put a small smile on his face, even if there was no emotion behind it.

He diverted his attention from the screen to look at Evan, watched how he furrowed his brow a little in concentration before he broke into a smile as he set off an explosive that saved them for the time being.

Too caught up in his thoughts, that it was Evans’ voice that pulled him back to his surroundings and he was quick to duck his head and rub the back of his neck in embarrassment at the realization of being caught.

“You alright Tyler? You’re not looking so good, dude”

“I’m just tired is all, think I’ll go up and take a nap before we head out tonight”

“See you later Grandpa” He smiled a little at Evans’ taunt, making sure to pass him by on his exit to ruffle at his hair, laughing a little more when it got him caught by zombies and cussed out by Brian.

The joy didn’t feel tangible though, as soon as he left the room he was back to brooding, taking his time walking up the stairs as if hoping for some sort of epiphany to come to him which would magically solve all of his problems.

Luckily, or rather unluckily for him, Ohms’ room was opposite to his, and he couldn’t help but steal a glance into the others room through the slightly opened door, watching the older man slowly unpack some of his belongings from his suitcase and placing them somewhere in the room he couldn’t see.

Before he could talk himself out of it he steeled himself to knock on Ohms’ door, peering in and trying to ignore the way Ohm immediately turned away from him, mentally beating himself up when he notices how red the older man’s eyes were, showing that he’d been crying.

“Look Ohm about earlier, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to come off-“

“I get it Tyler, truly I do, I forgive you. I hope you and Evan will be really happy together” He clenches his fist a little at Ohms’ curt smile, one that lacked any joy or warmth it normally did, hating how he was the cause for it.

Before he can say anything else he’s startled by a hand on his back, quickly moving away as Luke practically shoves into him as he enters the room he’s sharing with Ohm, the southerner giving him a look that caused a spike of fear to travel down his spine.

“I’ll see you later Ohm, Luke” He gave a brief nod to the both of them, not bothering to see if either of them bothered to spare him a glance as he turned to his own room, quickly opening the door to enter the room and shutting it behind him.

He leaned forward to rest his head on the door, lightly bashing his head against it a couple of times as if to will his thoughts away before he turned towards the bed, and with a sigh fell on top of it, rubbing a final hand down his face, trying to ignore all the thoughts racing through his mind and demanding his attention as he shut his eyes and tried to will himself to sleep.

**********

“Wake up fucker, we’re going out now” The shout as well as the violent shaking that accompanied it quickly woke him up, Evan standing over him with a devilish smirk on his face that made his heart skip a beat.

Despite being awake though, Evan kept shaking him, dodging the arms he flung out to try and get the older man away from him until eventually he managed to hook an arm around the smaller man’s neck, pulling him on top of him where he could then rough up his hair, ignoring his shouts asking for help.

Eventually, he took pity on the Canadian and let him go, only when he got up off of him he placed a swift smack onto his ass, earning a curse from the other man before he renewed his efforts to shake and hit at him.

Their playful fighting quickly got out of hand, ignoring the sound of something smashing beside them when Evan landed a bit too heavily against the bedside table. He now had the younger man practically pinned below him, completely at his mercy when a soft voice broke through the room.

“Is everything okay? Thought I heard something break?” Both he and Evan turned to see Ohm staring at them in the doorway, although by the way he kept avoiding their gaze and the red blush coloring his cheeks he’s sure the older man thought he walked into the beginnings of something else than a wrestling match, and were those tears at his eyes?

He was quick to pull away from on top of Evan, kneeling back to allow the other man to sit up whilst he moved to stand up and away from the bed. He couldn’t help but nervously scratch at the back of his neck at the thoughts that were probably running through Ohms’ head.

“Fight just got a little outta control, sorry for worrying you Ohm” He looked up at the older man who simply gave a seemingly empty gaze before leaving he and Evan alone again in the room. He let out a sigh whilst rubbing at the bridge of his nose, unable to make sense of his current situation.

He jumped slightly when he felt a warm hand rest on his shoulder, looking up to see Evan giving him a sympathetic smile, and whilst a small part of him exalted at the comforting touch he couldn’t bring himself to enjoy it, a bitter taste being left in his mouth.

“Just give him time Tyler, he’ll see how great you are soon enough”

“What?” He couldn’t help but look shocked at Evans words, unable to make sense of what the younger man had said, but it only earned a small chuckle from the Canadian. With a final comforting pat on his shoulder, Evan left the room, a final call of five minutes all he said before he was once again alone in the room.

A part of him wanted to shout out to Evan that he was the one he liked, that he wanted nothing more than those feelings to be reciprocated back, however he couldn’t bring himself to say them even to himself, knowing that at this point they would be lies, as flashes of a no longer masked gamer flashed through his mind.

**********

He makes it downstairs just as everyone starts to pile outside to the taxis now stationed outside for them, a quick question to Brock and he learns that they’re going to some sort of steakhouse, a thought he can’t enjoy the prospect of as he looks around in search of Ohm.

He spots him about to get into one of the taxis outside and makes a beeline for it, only just before he can get a hand on the door, Luke is blocking his path with what could only be described as a death stare aimed straight at him, causing him to take a step back.

“Taxis’ full” was all the older man said before he climbed into the car which quickly peeled out of the drive, Brians’ shout of his name behind him, brought him back to attention and he quickly made his way over to their car and it wasn’t much longer before they too were on their way.

********

Their car was the last to arrive to the restaurant, but luckily their friends had waited outside for them, silently thanking whatever force was out there that he still had a chance to slip in and sit beside Ohm without Luke looming over him.

He was quick to spot Ohm, heading towards him but still keeping a somewhat healthy distance away before they started to pile into the restaurant, and despite having seemingly pre-booked the table he could see the slight hints of worry some of the waiting staff had on their faces.

Immediately he saw an open seat beside Evan, and whilst a few days ago he may have jumped at the chance, he quickly turned his gaze in search of Ohm. He groaned a little when he saw the older man sit beside Luke with Anthony seemingly moving to take up his other side, but a quick whisper that he’ll record any game with Anthony some point in the future was enough to make the smaller man relent his position beside Ohm, a knowing look on his face.

He saw Ohm look at him through the corner of his eyes and felt a slight pang in his chest when he edged slightly away from him and into Lukes’ side, the older man giving him a stare he’s sure could freeze Hell.

“For the record, it wasn’t what you thought Ohm, Evan was bein’ a little shit and needed to be put in his place” Ohm simply gave a hum in acknowledgment before opening up his menu.

He quickly opens up his own menu, half-heartedly scanning it before his eyes catch sight of something in particular, immediately turning to the man beside him, a twinkle in his eye.

“Hey Ohm, if I order the wiener do you promise not to squeeze it?” Ohm simply turned to him and he couldn’t help but feel the slight joy he’d just felt burn out, until he heard the beginnings of Ohms’ chuckle beside him, his own smile easily returning to his face “Or is it only a particular type of wiener you squeeze?”

Ohms’ laugh began to get louder now, and his own chuckles were being brought into the mix, their noise catching the attention of some of the guys sat around them, and after a couple of attempts, he managed to relay the scene back to Anthony.

Soon Anthony’s’ booming laugh fills the restaurant and was quick to get the attention of the others, only further igniting Ohms’ laugh, and he swears he can feel a weight lift off of his chest at the sound.

He also couldn’t help the way his heartbeat sped up a little when Ohm sat a little closer to him, their legs now pressed against each other under the table.

The rest of the evening seemed to fly by, and Ohm seemed to become ever more comfortable around him, especially when he was in a fit of laughter and could do little else but lean into his side for support, and if he put an around Ohms’ chair to keep the other man close, nobody seemed to take notice. Well except for Luke who’d throw him cursory warning glances here and there.

It was just after they’d eaten that Ohm got up to go to the toilet, but whether by purpose or accident the older man tripped over his chair leg and practically fell on top of him, his arms quick to wrap around the other man to help steady him.

He felt his arms curl just a little tighter around the smaller man when Ohm looked up at him, his hands now resting on his chest, and he swears he could almost combust from the contact.

Just before either of them could say anything, they heard a couple of wolf whistles from their friends, at which Ohm was quick to make his escape towards the bathroom.

He simply scowled towards Marcel and Scotty, throwing a few pieces of the leftover bread at them, however, Brock was quick to stop them retaliating before anything could escalate further.

Giving them the finger, he quickly got up off his own seat and headed towards the bathroom, ignoring any remarks his friends made behind him as he opened the door to find Ohm standing over a sink, the older man was quick to look up at him at his entrance.

“What do you want from me Tyler?” The pleading tone that Ohm used is enough to pull uncomfortably at his heartstrings, seeing pain reflected in the eyes he’d seen joy and possibly something else only a moment ago. “One minute you’re messing around with Evan and the next-“

“I’m sorry…for how I treated you earlier, it was a real dick move all because I’m too pussy to do anything with my emotions”

“I don’t want you’re sympathy Ty, I told you, you won, you have Evan all to yourself. Why do you keep doing this to me, it’s not fair”

Tyler bit back his tongue, wanting to shout out that that’s not what he wanted, not really, but he had no idea how to address to the man in front of him who had already had his mindset.

“I thought I knew what I wanted, had a whole plan set out for this week to win Evan over, and now…” He rubbed a hand down his face as tried to comprehend his own thoughts, one part telling him that Evan was still out there and could still be won over without competition whilst the other told him to stay here and comfort the man in front of him.

He was surprised to look up only to find Ohm a couple of steps away from him, having moved closer to him during his mini-crisis, a soft look on his face.

“And now?” He looked up at Ohm, seeing the flicker of hope in his eye that looked so much better than the sadness he’d become accustomed to seeing during the day. He bridged the remaining space between them, both of them still just looking at one another almost waiting for a signal telling them what to do.

The sound of the bathroom door opening brought them out of their trance, quickly pulling away from one another as they turned to see Brian staring at them with an eyebrow raised.

“You guys’ havin’ a dick measurin’ contest or somethin’? Cause you know I’ll have you guys beat” He simply scowled as the Irishman laughed at his comment, not sparing a glance as he quickly left the bathroom, ignoring questions from his friends as he retook his seat and played with edge of the table as he began to work through the thoughts racing through his mind.

*********

He turned to lay on his back, looking up at the ceiling as Nogla’s soft snores sounded beside him. In the morning he’d quite easily blame his lack of sleep on his friend, which won’t earn anything more than a slight ribbing contest, whilst in actual fact, he couldn’t clear his head long enough to be able to sleep.

For months now he’d had feelings for Evan, or at least it was only several months ago that he came to terms with them, but now, within the space of a few days, everything had seemingly blown up in his face.

Whilst he couldn’t deny the fact he still had some feelings for Evan, the thought of them potentially having a life together was enough to leave a flutter in his chest that made him want more.

But then there was Ohm, a simple thought of the other man laughing or even teasing him was enough to leave him breathless and with butterflies in his stomach.

He wasn’t sure how long he lay there as tried to work his way through his feelings, only knew that it was like wading through thick mud, until he finally forgoes that avenue and sat up to sit over the edge of the bed, resting his elbows on his legs as he rubbed at his face for a moment.

Casting a look back at a still sleeping Nogla he got up and quietly made his way out of the room and downstairs to the kitchen, getting himself a glass of water before moving to the adjoining living room to stare out the long glass patio doors as the moonlight cast the earth in its ethereal glow.

He was quick to let his thoughts consume him again, however, the sound of a half-shouted curse startled him, and he turned to see Ohm standing in the doorway, hand on his heart as he looked at him. He chuckles at the sight, earning a quiet ‘fuck you’ from Ohm before he returns to staring out at the landscape in front of him.

He’s slightly startled when he feels something brush against his arm, turning to see that Ohm had moved beside him, letting out a breath to calm his heartbeat, before turning back to look outside just as Ohm was now doing.

“You know how much of a creep you look standing there like that in the dead of night? Almost had a heart attack, thought you were Michael Myers or something.”

“That’s cause you play too much Dead by Daylight” Ohm chuckled a little at that, and he was quick to join him, however, it wasn’t long before silence once again reigned over them. “Besides, if we’re talkin’ about creeps what about all your innuendos and moans during recordings, swear I have to put a disclaimer up each video with you in it”

Ohm once again chuckled and he can feel the older man’s eyes on him, only he can’t bring himself to return the stare. It’s only when Ohm makes a move to leave his side that he can make his thoughts known.

“I’ve been thinking about everything you said earlier…” he almost hates how quiet the night is around them, how you could hear a pin drop, leaving him nowhere to hide.

“We said a lot of things earlier”

He simply sighs, earning a small chuckle from Ohm who he gently nudges, “I’m tryin’ to confess my feelings here and you’re bein’ a smart ass like usual”

In the moonlight he can make out the motion of Ohm zipping his mouth shut, his comment of ‘if only it were that easy’ was enough to get a round of giggles from the older man, letting his own chuckles until he waited for the other man to quiet down.

“As you know, originally I came here to go after Evan, had a plan and everything, even had some of the guys going to wingman for me. But then you swooped in and fucked everything up” He could see Ohm about to protest but he simply shot the older man a look that was quick to stop any attempt to speak. “I wanted to hate you, I really did, especially when I saw you and Ev hanging off of each other all the time. I don’t know when, don’t even really know how but my feelings started to change, even now I’m trying to work through them, but I think I finally know what I want”

He then turned to look down at Ohm, watched as the moonlight only enhanced the beauty of the man in front of him and he couldn’t help but feel a little star struck at the sight. He was taken out of his thoughts when he felt a hand grab onto his own and give it a reaffirming squeeze that he was more than happy to reciprocate.

“I was the same when I got here, although probably not to your extent” He saw Ohm laugh nervously before avoiding his gaze “I knew I had feelings for Evan, but I just wanted to see if anything could ever happen between us you know? And then you had to go and fuck everything up for me”

He couldn’t help but chuckle, glad when Ohm looked back up to him so he could memorize the way the moonlight highlight the small smattering of freckles across his nose. “I’m not gonna lie you messed me up pretty bad earlier when you cast me away like you did, serves me right for catching feelings too quickly I guess but…”

Ohm could only finish that sentence with a shrug, and he could see the beginnings of tears begin to brim his eyes. Without another thought, he gave Ohms’ hand a reassuring squeeze whilst his other hand came to rest on his cheeks, his thumb gently rubbing against his cheek as they both tried to comprehend what was happening between them.

“I’m sorry I did that to you, I’m not lyin’ when I say I have the emotional range of a chainsaw” Ohm smiles at that and the sight is enough to bring a smile on his own face as he moves a little closer against Ohm “But I want to get better, to be better, for you…If you’ll give me another chance? or are you gonna get Luke to castrate me first?”

He couldn’t help but laugh as Ohm let loose his own peals of laughter into the quiet night, instead of an answer Ohm simply leaned forward, standing on his tiptoes to close the difference between them and he quickly caught on, bending down the rest of the way until their lips connected.

It was almost as if fireworks went off in his mind celebrating his chance at something more, all whilst his heart was beating a mile a minute. His lips move leisurely against Ohms’, both of them simply drinking the other in, and when he pulled back he wants nothing more than to dive back in but instead settles on resting his forehead against Ohms’ both of them smiling.

“Fucking finally, now can you both go back to bed so I can fucking get some sleep”

The both of them break apart at the sound of Marcel now in the room, but when they look around there’s no one to be seen. Just as he starts to think he’s going crazy he sees movement from the couch.

It’s only then he remembered the sleeping situation, how there wasn’t enough space for everyone to have a bed, resulting in a rota on who would sleep on the couch, silently cursing at himself for forgetting it and letting Marcel be privy to his moment with Ohm.

Even as Ohm began to pull him away back upstairs, he sends a veiled threat to Marcel that he better keep his mouth shut about them, before following behind the older man.

It’s too short a time before they’re in front of their respective bedrooms, Ohm giving him a cursory goodnight before he starts toward his room.

Just before he can leave though, he grabs onto the older man’s wrist and tugs him back to him, quickly covering up his small shriek by covering his lips with his own.

Just as quick as it started, he pulled away, not wanting to tempt himself further, giving a final brief kiss to Ohm before wishing him goodnight and watched him silently go back into his room.

With a small smile on his face, he turned to his own room, opening the door just as silently as Ohm had before slipping in, but the sounds of Nogla’s snores were quick to wipe the joy from his face. With a final sigh, he lay back in bed and hoped despite everything that had happened,  that he’d be able to get some form of sleep tonight.

*********

He was woken up at some point by Nogla, not paying much mind to the plans for the day that he relayed to him, too busy trying to push him away and delve deeper under the blankets. It was only the promise of a cooked breakfast from Ohm, Brock, and partly Brian that had him slowly climb out of bed.

He stretched slightly before leaving the warmth of the blankets, feeling like an old man as he slowly rose to his feet and dragged his feet towards the door, swearing as Nogla rushed past him in a bid to get first helpings of the food.

Once downstairs he quickly glanced around the living area, noticing how pretty much everyone was up and dressed already, and sighed as he realized his fate of getting the scraps of food that were left. However, when he arrived at the kitchen he was met with a full plate of food loaded with toast, scrambled eggs and several rashers of bacon.

He gave a small smile to Ohm, thanking him for the food and earning a small blush from the smaller man.

“I gave you extra bacon, so don’t go around telling everyone or you’ll get me in trouble with Brock”

He simply winked at Ohm, grabbing one of the bits of bacon and quickly scoffed it down, much to the amusement of Ohm who simply grabbed his own plate and followed him to one of the couches, Ohm sitting down next to him.

He was just about to tuck into his food when Nogla beside him caught his attention.

“What tha’ fock is this? How come this focker gets like 20 pieces o’ bacon an’ I get 3”

“Cause unlike you I ain’t a pussy ass bitch” He quipped back before grabbing another piece of bacon and slowly eating it right in front of Nogla to taunt him, several of their friends laughing at the situation.

“This is fockin’ bullshit, did ya’ suck Ohms’ dick or somethin’” He heard Ohm half choke on his bite of food whilst their friends broke out in laughter.

“And what if I did? Still got more bacon than your bitching ass”

Nogla simply huffed his disdain, the rest of their friends still coming down from their laughter, whilst Ohm finally got through his near-death experience, face now bright red as he swallowed down a glass of water.

When Ohm finally returns to his food he gives his leg a small nudge to get his attention, giving him a small smile and another small wink before turning back to his food, casting each other small glances when they thought the other wasn’t looking.

********

An hour later and they’re all piling into taxis to go out into the town to explore. As opposed to the night before, he and Ohm get into a taxi together, thankfully without Luke who was now seemingly watching over Evan and Jon.

Although it was somewhat cramped in the back seat with the both of them and Nogla, they were somewhat able to hide the fact that he and Ohm were holding hands during the car ride, their fingers linked together whilst his thumbs traced any and every pattern on the back of Ohms’ hand.

The journey was regrettably short before they arrived at the Town Centre, but with a final squeeze he released Ohms’ hand as they left the car, but he made sure to stay next to the smaller man, even if they did get the odd knowing look from Marcel or Anthony.

Slowly they started walking through the mall, and whilst everyone was focussed on the shops and/or vlogging he quickly got bored with the whole ordeal.

After the fifth shop the group of them had perused through, he pulled Ohm to the side and away from the others as they began walking to the next store.

“Do you wanna bail and just us go around? I know a couple good comic stores if that’s your thing” He could tell Ohm was conflicted by the idea by the way he was fidgeting and started to bite on his lower lip, the whole thing more endearing than it should have been.

“I dunno Ty, we really shouldn’t. They’ll notice-“

“They won’t notice shit, there’s like 10 of us, they’re not gonna notice if 2 are gone”

Ohm still didn’t seem too convinced, looking past him to the shop which their friends had just entered, and just when he thought he’d lost, Ohm turned to him and nodded.

“Okay, let’s do it”

He gave a wide smile to Ohm in return, holding out his hand, glad when Ohms’ fingers interlinked with his own before they headed in a different direction their friends had gone.

“Besides, if they ever ask where we went I’ll just say you wanted a wiener” He couldn’t help but chuckle at Ohms’ noise of indignation, but even so Ohm couldn’t help his own giggle. “Y’know I’m talking about hotdogs Ohm, dunno what you’re thinking of”

He smiled brightly at Ohm as he let the older man slap him slightly with his free hand.

“I’m never gonna live that card down am I”

He laughed lightly as he pulled his hand away from Ohm to put it around his waist in a bid to hold him closer, Ohm easily wrapping his own arm around his waist as well.

“Doubt it, but it’s iconic, you should be proud of it”

“You try being the face of the most PG way to ask for a handy and see how proud you feel” He hugged Ohm a little tighter against him for a moment in some sort of sympathy as he gradually lead them out of the mall and into the Highstreet until they found a store that looked semi-interesting.

They ended up in some type of comic store, which sold not only comics, and manga and somewhat out of place memorabilia as well as the odd thing here and there that looked better suited to a thrift store than a comic shop, but nevertheless both he and Ohm went their separate ways once inside.

He couldn’t say how long he spent looking at what was available to him, having picked up some Pokémon packs to open later, he was idly perusing the anime when Ohm finally joined him.

“Find anything good?” He looked up at Ohm who had a smile on his face before the smaller man put his hand up between them, and looking down he saw a small ball with a pig’s face on it and tentatively he reached out to pick it up and examine it.

“It’s a stress ball, thought it would be appropriate for you, although I doubt it’ll last long, so I also got you…” It was then that Ohm raised his other hand and he saw a small piggy plush, his own smile gracing his face as he picked it up also, noticing how it felt like his heart was in his throat.

“You got these for me?” Ohm simply nodded, looking eagerly up at him as he waited for the verdict.

“Jesus Ohm you don’t make it easy for the rest of us” He noticed Ohms’ smile fall then, unsure as to why but just that he hated seeing it.

“Do you not like them or… I can return them-“

“I love them, Ohm, all I’m saying is you’re already far too good for me”

He swears he can feel his heart sing when he sees that bright smile return to Ohms’ face, the one he’s quickly realizing makes him lose all other thought but for the man in front of him.

He leaned forward to press a light kiss to Ohms’ lips, letting the smaller man deepen it slightly but once again he pulled away before they could become too wrapped up in themselves.

“You can call me Ryan, by the way” He looked towards Ohm who simply gave him a small smile before turning to the anime’s in front of them, he quickly pocketed his gifts in his coat before moving behind Ohm and wrapping his arms around him.

He swears his heart is going to beat out of his chest when he felt Ohm relax back against him, allowing him to rest his head on top of Ohms.

“You want anything, Ryan? I’ll get you whatever you want” He feels more than hears Ohms’ hum of thought, holding the smaller man ever so tighter and earning a small giggle from him.

“No, I’m good thanks”

“You sure? I don’t min-“ Before he could finish he felt Ohm start to move in his hold, he quickly moved his arms away to allow Ohm to turn around and face him before his arms were back around his waist. Ohms’ own arms coming up to loop around his neck, enjoying the grateful look Ohm gave him when he bent down slightly so it wasn’t so much of a strain on the smaller man.

“I don’t need anything cause I’ve got everything I need right here”

He couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the comment, sighing a little bit as he leaned forward to rest his forehead against Ohms’.

“That was both smooth and cheesy as hell I hope you know that” Ohm simply kept on giggling, and when clear he wasn’t going to get a retaliation he leaned forward to bring Ohm into a kiss. It was long and languid, everything and not enough at the same time as the world around them fell away until it was just them.

When they pulled away he was breathless, feeling somewhat proud of the red cheeks and glazed eyes that now accompanied Ohms’ features, and he couldn’t help himself but to lean in for another short kiss before he pulled away completely, the cold air hitting him immediately, allowing him to clear his head somewhat.

“We should probably catch up with guys don’t you think?” He simply nodded at Ohms’ question, pulling out his phone to text Marcel on where the group were.

By the time he and Ohm had left the store Marcel had messaged them back, luckily they weren’t too far away, having left the mall themselves, and apparently were going to go to lunch after this last store.

He electively ignored the series of eggplant and droplet emojis accompanied with the message as Marcel said he’d look out for the both of them.

Grabbing a hold of his hand once again, they make their way towards the store they’re friends are currently in, the both of them deciding to venture into different sections of the store to avoid suspicion.

It wasn’t too long before he found Nogla, simply following the Irishman around as he looked at the series of shoes available, whilst it would normally be an interest of his he couldn’t stop his gaze wondering in search of Ohm.

After about ten minutes of looking around and criticizing Nogla’s’ taste in shoes, they head out of the store, and as predicted no one makes note of either his or Ohms’ earlier absence, giving the older man a smug smirk to further show that he was right.

Gradually they make it to some sort of sushi restaurant for lunch, where when they’re given a table he’s quick to take a seat, and shortly after Ohm follows to sit beside him, giving the older man a small smile before resting a hand on his knee.

Ohm doesn’t seem phased by the touch, at the fact that at any given moment any one of their friends would be able to see the display of affection, and sure enough, he saw Luke, on Ohms’ other side, give him a warning glance at the touch.

Lunch went by without much mishap, only when they were leaving did Luke pull him aside and warn him that if he ever hurt Ohm again he was going to lose not only his dick, but his hands as well, and try as he might to look otherwise, Luke was probably the one member of the group who could actually take him on in a fight.

He gave the older man a quick promise that he was going to look after Ohm and with a final threatening glare Luke let him go, giving a quick pat to his shoulder in a gesture of friendliness before leaving the restaurant.

Letting out the breath he was holding he straightened himself, putting his hands in his coat pockets he was reminded of the gifts given to him earlier, a small smile on his face as he gave a couple of test squeezes to the stress ball before joining his friends outside.

********

After lunch they made the journey home, once again he’s by Ohms’ side and they share small glances throughout the journey that has him struggling to keep the smile off of his face lest he be asked about it later by one of their friends.

By the time they make it back to Evans’ house, everyone disbands to do their own thing for a bit, some go to their rooms, others load up the Xbox in the living room, he briefly notes Luke playing Chaperone to Evan and Jon once again.

Following Ohm upstairs he quickly drops his coat and shoes off in his room before following the smaller man into his room, quickly laying down on the bed where he was soon joined by Ohm, who was quick to curl on top of him.

He wrapped his arm around the older man and held him tight against him, hating how his heartbeat increased when Ohm seemed to snuggle his head into the crook of his neck.

“So, I just got the talk from Luke” He almost swears he can hear Ohm thinking before the older man decides to respond.

“The talk? The fuck you on about”

“The ‘you hurt my best friend and I’ll hunt you down and chop your dick off’ talk”

He expected to get some form of sympathy, only Ohm simply laughed at his predicament, feeling slightly put out he started poking at Ohms’ side causing the smaller man to laugh even more and on one particular occasion got a proper shriek from him.

Still, he kept up his actions in an effort to garner an apology from Ohm about Lukes’ threat to his manhood, but the other man simply climbed on top of his lap and pressed their mouths together.

He hates how the distraction worked, using the hand that was previously poking at Ohms’ side to instead begin to gently trail up his side until it came to rest on the older man’s cheek, keeping them together.

He felt Ohm bite gently at his lip, and with a moan, he opened his mouth to give the other mans’ tongue entry to explore his mouth, his own tongue quickly becoming entwined with Ohms before he pulled away slightly for air, noticing Ohms’ diluted pupils looking back at him.

He quickly leaned up to press their mouths together again, one moment they were almost feverish in their need and in another they were slow and languid as if they had all the time in the world for one another.

“Don’t think…You’re…off the hook…that easy” His statement was broken up by kisses between them, the both of them unable to stay away from the other, eager to make the most of this time together as they were unlikely to get another chance.

With his statement he once again poked Ohms’ side, causing a small shriek which was somewhat silenced by their mouths still pressed together, however it caused the smaller man to jerk in his place currently resting on his lap, causing a nice amount of friction that brought his attention down south, only, he wasn’t the only one to notice.

“You happy to see me, Ty?” He was panting now, watching Ohm who was positioned above him, the light almost giving him a halo, but the smirk on his face was anything but innocent as he ground down, harder this time, in his lap.

“Fuckin’ bitch” He couldn’t help but lean his head back at the shot of pleasure that ran through him as Ohm continued to grind on him, his hands quickly going to the other mans hips in attempt to gain some control, that was until Ohm bent down and starting pressing gentle kisses and little nips along his neck, careful not to leave any marks.

On a particular movement, he couldn’t help his cry of pleasure, earning a small snicker from Ohm who was still working at his throat.

Without any warning he rolled them over, Ohm quickly clinging onto him but still laughing somewhat even as Tyler loomed over him.

Without another thought he pressed his mouth against Ohms’, easily taking control and making sure to keep the pace slow in order for him to get his bearings.

Ohms’ legs were wrapped around his waist, and even now he was trying to angle his hips up to get some form of contact between them, but he made sure to pull away just before they could touch, and he could tell it was slowly driving the older man crazy.

He enjoyed their kiss for a few moments more before pulling away from Ohm entirely, detangling himself from the mass of limbs before laying down next to the other man, giving him a smile despite both of their predicaments.

“Before you say anything, we’re not doing anything in Evans’ house”

Ohm simply pouted before turning to face him, and with a light finger, the smaller man began to trail patterns from his biceps up to his shoulder and down to his chest.

“I wasn’t going to do anything you know”

He couldn’t help but snort at the comment “Course you weren’t, you just wanted to be a little shit is what you were doing”

“And it worked perfectly”

He silently lamented the fact that he was unable to take care of his ever persistent issue, certainly not made any easier by Ohms’ hand still trailing over his chest and gradually getting lower.

It was then he grabbed Ohms’ hand, bringing it up to his face to press a quick kiss to his knuckles, before letting it go so that he too could turn to his side and face the other man.

“Well you’re gonna regret doing it later”

“Can’t wait” The smile that accompanied Ohm’s statement was nothing short of mischievous, the fact that Ohm had an idea on just exactly what he was going to do sent a curl of pleasure in his stomach, silently cursing himself as he tried his best to avoid all thought that could tempt a reaction.

“What’re we gonna do after this week? Feel like I just got you and now I have to let you go” He closes his eyes as Ohm lifts a hand to begin gently carding through his hair, letting the touch help put his worries to rest.

“I have to get back to Chicago, my dog sitter’s going away this weekend so I need to be back in time for Tiny”

He huffed out a laugh at the name “Can’t believe you named a dog Tiny”

Ohm simply scoffed at the comment “You don’t see me criticizing what you call your pets”

“Because you’re too chicken to do it”

“Too chicken huh? You wanna start round 2?” With that Ohm moved his knee so that it was pressed against his clothed erection that had just begun to die down, but with the touch, a moment of weakness came with it, and he couldn’t help but ground a little into the others’ leg.

With a scowl he pulled away from Ohm entirely, moving so that he was once again on his back whilst Ohm who was now chuckling curled back around him.

“What if I come to Chicago with you?” The look on Ohms’ face when he leaned up to look at him was almost comical. “I’m serious, I can get my parents to look after the dogs for a few extra days and I can change my ticket, if you want that is. I don’t wanna rush anything between us, but it’ll be nice to have some extra time togeth-“

Before he could finish his sentence Ohms’ lips were on his, and he indulged the older man for a moment before pulling him away, where he was then met with a bright smile from Ohm.

“If it’s what you want to do then yeah, you can come to Chicago with me” At that he pulled Ohms’ head back down to kiss him again, slowly this time, and just with every other time he quickly became lost in it.

Luckily for them, before they could go much further they heard a knock on the door, breaking apart to face Luke who was now entering the room looking somewhat relieved.

“Guys are getting’ a game of Fibbage ready if you wanna join us”

“Yeah, we’ll be down in a minute, thanks Toonzy” Luke simply rolled his eyes before he left, closing the door behind him.

Just as Ohm made a move to get up off of the bed, he pulled him close so that he could kiss him again, taking his time to explore and drink in Ohm before they would have to leave this moment that was just them.

“What’s that for?” Ohm whispered against his lips, the touch feather light and only left him wanting more.

He smiled up at Ohm, resting his hand against his cheek to keep him where he was to kiss him a couple of more times before finally moving away from him.

“Figured this is the last time we’re gonna be alone like that for a bit, gotta make it count”

Ohm simply chuckled, pressing a final kiss to his lips before he sat up and began to move off of the bed, and he followed soon after, casting a quick glance in the mirror to check his appearance, and yeah if people were observant enough they’d be able to tell exactly what he and Ohm had been up to.

Deciding to cross that bridge when they come to it, they leave the room and make their way downstairs, noticing that they’re the last to arrive, and he tries to keep his head down to avoid the gaze of their friends.

He follows Ohm to one of the couches and squeezes himself onto the end, ignoring the complaints from Brian who was also being crushed on the other side of the couch. He instead pulled his phone out to get the game ready, easily leaning back to rest his arm on the back of the couch, or more specifically behind Ohm.

He doesn’t know how many rounds they play, only knows they set up a type of league that somehow Brock manages to win. It’s not too long after that someone suggests playing Truth or Dare, but he can’t help but feel a little uneasy at the prospect of playing in fear of somehow he and Ohm being caught out, but ultimately agreed lest he be ridiculed for it by his friends.

The first few rounds are pretty tame, with the most adventurous thing being Brian having to lick Anthony’s’ nipple which almost everyone made sure to film, much to the chagrin of Brian.

Things start to get a little more interesting when Nogla dares Jon to kiss Evan, it’s entertaining to watch the both of them turn somewhat bashful, but not one to chicken out Jon completed the dare, even if the kiss barely lasted a second.

He felt the faint stirrings of something, maybe jealousy, at the kiss, but the fact that Ohm was pressed up against him, a comforting warmth that meant that feeling didn’t last too long had any other thoughts about Evan quickly dispelled from his mind.

He only paid half a mind to what his friends were doing after that, his mind too focused on Ohm and watching him laugh and blush at the antics of their friends, but eventually, it was a call of his name that got his attention.

He felt an unpleasant feeling begin to rise in his stomach as he turned to face Marcel who was looking right at him, mischief in his eye.

“Truth or Dare”

“Dare, I ain’t a pussy” Even as he said it the slight glint in Marcels’ eye was enough to tell him he wasn’t going to like it.

“I dare you to kiss Ohm” He heard a couple of gasps and oohs from their friends all while he stared daggers at Marcel.

“I can’t kiss Ohm, he’s like my nemesis” He heard a couple of snorts from his friends, and yeah he didn’t really expect anyone to actually go with that lie. “Look it’s a complicated relationship, he’s like my…” He couldn’t think of anything to say, the only answers coming to mind would too easily out them, but he breathed a sigh of relief when Ohm interjected.

“Frenemies. We’re frenemies and you can’t go messing around with that”

It was then that Scotty interjected “Well you two are looking pretty damn cozy up on the couch there”

He glared briefly at Scotty before he turned to Ohm, a somewhat panicked look in his eyes that was mirrored in Ohms.

“As the receiving party don’t I get a say in this?”

“Nope” God he hated the way Marcel popped the P on that word “Either you and Tyler get smoochin’ or I’m going to grab the packs of yogurt in the fridge and empty them into your pants Tyler. Your choice”

He heard a couple of laughs from his friends, all looking up at them in anticipation, and ignoring them, he turned on the couch slightly to better face Ohm.

“Pucker up Ohm” He waited for Ohm to also better turn to face him, and whilst in private he wouldn’t have hesitated to kiss the man in front of him, he was somewhat intimidated by having all of their friends watch them.

They slowly leaned in, but just before their lips connected, Marcel interrupted.

“By the way, the kiss has to last 15 seconds” He turned away from Ohm to throw a heated gaze at Marcel who simply had a smug look on his face.

“What the hell kinda bullshit is that, them two got to do a peck on the lips” he vaguely waved toward Evan and Jon in an effort to plead the case he already knew was lost.

“Scotty would you mind grabbing the yogurt from the fridge for me, please…Oh and the pack of hot Cheetos as well, might break up some of them to join the party downstairs, sound good Tyler?”

With a final death glare towards Marcel, he turned to face Ohm before grabbing the back of his head and moving them closer together until finally, their lips touched.

He couldn’t stop himself from deepening the kiss, his hand slowly moving from the back of Ohms’ head to rest on his cheek, whilst both of Ohms’ hands came to rest on his cheeks in an effort to keep him close.

In the background he heard their friends cheering at them, even hearing a few wolf whistles, but as he’d come to learn when kissing Ohm, the background simply melted away, so he didn’t notice Marcel smugly announce time, and instead kept on kissing Ohm who seemed all too happy to kiss him back.

It wasn’t until he heard someone clearing their throat rather excessively did they break apart, earning a few more cheers from some of their friends whilst all he did was give Marcel the finger, who just laughed at it having accomplished what he wanted.

“Maybe I should go sleep in Nogla’s’ room tonight” Lukes’ voice broke through the din of their friends’ voices, earning chuckles from the few people who heard it.

“Yeah boys make sure you put some headphones in tonight, I know I don’t want to hear whatever the hell they’re doing” He turned to flip his finger at Nogla who only laughed, as had the rest of their friends all now participating in their torture.

Looking beside him, he saw Ohms’ cheeks were bright red and he could feel the slight wave of uneasiness come off of him. Now feeling somewhat protective of the smaller man he quickly wrapped an arm around him, glad when the older man let him pull him closer to his side.

It was then that Anthony piped into the conversation “Honestly though Nogla, I feel like I’ve already heard Ohm climax like 20 times in recordings, I don’t think much else could phase me at this point”

It was then that everyone broke out into a laugh, relaxing somewhat when he felt Ohm giggling beneath him, simply pulling him tighter against himself as he let out his own small chuckle.

*********

As the rest of the week progresses, he and Ohm make no effort to hide their relationship any further, both of them learning more and more about the other as time passes, and whilst he’d like nothing more than to spend most of his time kissing Ohm, he’s mindful to keep that kind of PDA behind closed doors.

That is until one of their friends are being particularly annoying in which case he and Ohm would ramp it up to 1000, at which they’d get a couple of disgusted noises until finally, they heard a disgruntled apology.

Too soon their time at Evans’ was over and everyone had to make their respective journeys home, originally he had planned to stay a couple of days longer, but as he was now leaving with Ohm that meant he was one of the first to go, not that he would complain.

Sure enough, he was somewhat enamored by Chicago, having never been there and it being the place Ohm had grown up in. Ohm was somewhat amused by it, pointing out the odd landmark or one of his favorite places as they passed it by in the taxi with the promise to show him around at some point in his stay with him.

He’s not sure how long the taxi ride took them, far too focused on his new surroundings and the gentle fingers that were tracing patterns on his hand, but eventually, they made it to Ohms’, and he could almost feel Ohms’ anxiety levels rise.

He dropped Ohms’ suitcase beside him having carried it up to the front door along with his own, to place a comforting hand on the small of the older mans’ back. He smiled slightly as Ohm turned to give him a reassuring smile, more so to himself than for him, but he moved the hand on the other man’s back to his hip to give it a gentle squeeze in comfort before the smaller man turned back to his front door.

It didn’t take long before Ohm had the door open, but before he could even think about taking a step forward he found his way blocked by a rather rambunctious dog currently trying to jump up into Ohms’ arms.

He hates to say that he’s endeared at the sight of Ohm crouching down to pick up the small Jack Russell, laughing slightly as the older man tried to hold the dog back to have some form of control, which didn’t last long before Ohm gave up and let the dog practically maul his face.

He heard someone clear their throat and he looked up to see a woman standing just inside the doorway, a small smile on her face as she took in the scene in front of her. He gave a small wave of hello, which she reciprocated before she moved forward and pried the small dog away from Ohm, allowing the man to stand up and catch his breath.

“Thanks, Lucy, I trust everything was okay? Didn’t get into too much trouble did he?” He hates how he can feel a curl of jealousy go through him when he hears her laugh at Ohms’ question, the woman then lifting the dog still in her hands slightly to bring him closer to Ohm, the dog renewing its effort to get to the older man.

“He was…relatively good. Got a couple of bites down on the table leg, but otherwise, he’s been perfect”

He watched as Ohm bent down so that he was now face to face with Tiny still in the woman’s hold, the dog doing its best to stretch as far forward as it could to reach Ohm.

“What are we going to do with you huh? Thought you were gonna be a good boy for Lucy?” All he could do was roll his eyes and chuckle a little at the interaction, only made worse when Ohm shot him a glance before turning back to the dog and taking him from the woman. “Who’s that Tiny? Who’s that?”

A small smile graced his face even as he rolled his eyes again as Ohm started pointing towards him, the small dog soon taking notice of him. He walked up the few steps till he was by Ohms’ side, intending to just stroke the dog a couple of times, however, Tiny apparently had other plans.

The small dog managed to slip through Ohms’ hold until he was beginning to start climbing up his arm, quickly he reached forward to hold the dog now trying to lick fervently at his face.

“God he’s like a little flea isn’t he, he’s so small”

“Hey, don’t be rude” He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised at Ohms’ slap on his arm as the older man chastised him for the comment, holding the dog up to his chest whilst Ohm finished his conversation with Lucy and bade her farewell.

Over the few minutes Ohm was away, Tiny had become quite comfortable in his hold given how he now seemed to be beginning to fall asleep, Ohm turned to him and stroked Tiny before looking up at him with a small smile on his face.

“Looks like someone’s made a friend” He leaned forward to give Ohm a small kiss before he went to go inside the house. “Tyler, aren’t you gonna help me with the bags”

He simply turned around and motioned his head towards the still resting dog in his arms.

“Got my hands full” He laughed a little as Ohm just sighed before lifting up both of their cases and making the short journey into the house, dropping them just inside the hallway before closing the door behind him.

Ohm then approached him and began to pluck Tiny from his grasp, giving him a pointed look when he began to protest, even if he was only doing to get a reaction from the older man. Ohm then carried the small dog into what looked to be the living room, leaving him to pick up their bags.

It wasn’t too long before Ohm reappeared, giving him a small smile and a motion with his head he began following the smaller man through the relatively small house until they found themselves in Ohms’ bedroom.

He dropped the cases by the door before striding across the room to pull Ohm into a kiss, simply taking his time knowing he had plenty of time over the next few days to have his fill of the smaller man. He laughed into the kiss a little when he felt eager hands begin to unbutton his shirt, however, he was quick to grab a hold of the two wrists before returning them to Ohms’ side.

The older man then pulled away from him, a small pout that made him look far too cute for his own good, and he couldn’t resist the temptation to lean down for another kiss.

He was quick however to pull away and back towards his suitcase to pull out his sweats, intent on relaxing the rest of the day with Ohm by his side, and if he flexed a little when removing his shirt, he didn’t hear any complaints from Ohm.

The older man simply walked up to him, wrapped his arms around him, and pressed a feather-light kiss to his collarbone, but before he could even wrap his own arms around Ohm, the man was gone, now delving through his cupboards for his own clothing, a smug look on his face as if he knew the effect he had on him.

Oh, if only he knew.

[hallucinosims]

Hiya! For all the new people reading your story, and unable to go back to the beginning, could you possibly tell us what’s happened so far to where you are now?:) Thankyou in advance if you can!

yeah, totally! First things first, if it’s more of a time thing then I totally understand reading stories takes up a lot of time, but if you ever do get the chance to check out the beginning you can find it right here! Each post has links back to the beginning, the post before and the post after! Now, into the summary. Under Read more for your convenience.

In Short: Play the Game is a story about Love (come to), Loss (Never is an awfully long time), and Found Family told (Hide me safe away) throughout three intertwining stories.

The story “technically” begins shortly after Marion Galere (Rowan and Reid’s biological mother) and Damon Benj (Reagan’s biological father) get married. This is marion’s second marraige and Damon’s first technical marriage even though he was in two long term relationships before hand that he would consider being life partners with but whatever. These two getting married basically fulfills this on going fate/prophecy/curse that hundreds of years ago was made that established the two families. One with a long long history of being monstrous and like the first of the leviathans/ first monsters (Benj, the current iteration of the line goes by that last name even though the majority of the rest of the family has a different last name). The other side spun into something of a culty, no way in no way out sort of idealogy (Galeres. I know this is technically mispelled but I don’t have a steady enough internet connection to copy and paste accent a cute) The Galeres, ever paranoid throughout their human existence, ends up cursing the lines in such ways that when they join again (which they inevitably will) it’ll be a fight to take over the line that supposedly got the better half of the deal. The Benjs are pushing a solid Zero in the wins department so far but their own side started to grow in prominence and power as time continued on so they were pretty solid without the winning thing.

Anyway, their grandfather (a Galere) tells them all these things and they end up finding proof of that in the form of these chess piece totems. Life continues on poorly. Marion and Damon are married but unhappily. Reid has already lost his other mother (Annabeth, worked as a drug mule and tough guy basically but that’s more All that matters today stuff) to a huge fire incident. Reagan is put on a pedestal due to Damon’s fear of loosing her to the game/curse. Rowan is almost forgotten about by his mother and step father so he kinda gets identity crises and doesn’t have a strong sense of self (mood). There’s an incident with Reid in which he almost gets killed at school for kissing a boy and before he can get officially expelled (not because he’s gay but for other stuff he did) they move across the country and try to start over. Well, not start over more like run towards their past because act 1 and 2 ends with all the kids learning this story about their identies that were bestowed upon them. They learn about their totems and what they represent (Reid = Knight: leader, determined, stubborn, headstrong. Rowan = Rook: dedicated, loyal but to a fault, always has walls up. Reagan = Bishop: Spiritual, follower, personality depends on what they believe in) And uh... then the stories kinda split. Reagan and vampires is a big plot point. Rowan and finding his sense of self (ie Maren Goodall his best friend who disappeared one day) and Reid trying to find comfort in himself by the means of other people Wahoo.

Reid and Dorian start dating (i forgot to mention he has a girlfriend who’s basically his beard that his mom told him to get but they’re still dating even though Reid and Dorian are also kinda together) More and more of their past keeps brings itself forward in ways such as visions headaches and other things whenever they are in the old house that they moved to in Mass (that Marion grew up in) and the connections to their totems beginning to click more into place. Come To and the knight because knights and doomed romance. Reid falls for Dorian sort of even though he feels he isn’t good enough for him and is still dating Makenna. Never is an Awfully long time and the rook and Loss. Rowan starts almost spiraling from person to person as he attempts to find someone to fill the whole in the walls he had built up for himself and ends up finding Evie Del Gato who is almost the antithesis of Maren and they decide to become good friends and she even helps him look for Maren as well as a few other friends. The Bishop and Hide me safe away and the idea of spirituality and family. Reagan has a hard time finding where she stands in the middle of things because she begins having visions about Vladislaus Straud, who is revealed in this act to be apart of her family line. She is also connected to the Vatores who are basically in resistence to Straud and the leviathan order (the name hasn’t been revealed technically in story yet but it’s not a spoiler so) which is a power heirarchy of all the humaniod creatures that walk the earth. But vampires wrote it so they put themselves pretty high on the list.The siblings don’t really interact heavily in this act as they got their own arcs going on. 

This act ends around a little after the winter holidays

Rowan starts dating someone a lot more like the best friend he lost (Kyle jackubus) Reid and Dorian are getting rockier as more people begin to find out their little secret. Reagan is...still trying her best. She learns about her bio mom (Harper Bridges) from Damon but then decides to leave and stay more often with the Vatores for her own safety as whenever she isn’t there she feels like Straud could just pop up and ruin her life whenever. Which begins to happen more and more as nightmares of him hurting people she love start to become more frequent. Reid has visions of his mom (Annabeth Holtz) more frequently as well in a sense of guilt and stuff about her death. Rowan starts seeing Maren in a paranoid frenzy after her dissapearance. So they’re all having a generally pretty bad time on the mental front but they keep trying to put that on the back burner to lead normal lives and disregard the stuff their siblings are going through because “I’m dealing with stuff too damnit” Even though in this chapter they are beginnig to find more trust in each other because they are the only other people who would genuinely get it. Marion and Damon are often in and out of Massachusetts right now because as the game continues on they want less and less involvement because they’ve done all they can do to save their kids and now nothing they do would make a difference anyway so they decide it best to stay away and not watch their family turn against each other. And this act isn’t done yet so that’s pretty much all I can say

Sorry this ended up being long and unintelligble at some moments, this is a WIP and will be in my ptg extras tab so it can be checked up on if you want to speed through the story.

[pachathegreat]

Day 13: Godzilla (1954)

This...this movie is different.

The others have had some moments where you can take time and wonder about the tragedy of the monster like in Frankenstein or The Wolfman, but this is rare. Godzilla as a character in this film represents two things. The one that stands out and is the one people make reference to constantly is that Godzilla is a symbol of horror due to the rise of the atomic age.

This movie is set in a post-war Japan, 9 years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That is still a fresh wound in the eyes of the Japanese. And Godzilla is the epitome of that terror. Senseless, destructive, horrific, and powerful beyond imagination. Only those who survive know true its terror.  

The other side of this coin is that Godzilla is a representation of Japan itself. Godzilla’s backstory is set up as a 2 million year old dinosaur that slept deep within the sea only to be awakened by hydrogen bomb tests. It crawls out of the sea with black and burnt skin. One of our main character’s says something that supports that idea. “Godzilla was baptized in the fire of the H-Bomb and survived.”, clearly a parallel to the Japanese people in this regard. 

Godzilla’s connection to its homeland is interesting to say that least. I think that’s way it can play hero or villain in its movies. 

The movie starts off as a slow burner, much like the 2014 American rendition of Godzilla. We don’t see Godzilla till the end of the first act. 

The movie plays it like a mystery. Something is attacking boats off the coast of Japan, no one knows what or how it does it. The first attack begins with a flash of light (they weren’t fucking around when they made this movie). It leaves only burning wreckage and few survivors. Next it roams through a town, leaving only footprints. No official knows what to make of this. Not until Godzilla appears at least.

The question that follows after is “How do we kill it?”. 

The opening credits due a good job instilling the mystery early. Over the intro credits all that’s heard is that famous roar, leaving the audience to wonder what could make such a noise. 

The use of a big rubber suit and puppet can be a bit...cheap at times, but suspend some disbelief and you’ll get drawn into this movie. 

Godzilla comes in this movie without warning. There is no inciting incident in the film for it to appear. They figure out is was awoken by h-bomb testing (only two countries were doing testing like this during the 50′s, care to guess?) and is pissed. It shows up throughout the movie without any warning. Our characters would be talking about something when the radio comes on signaling another attack. It was something I wasn’t used to watching this one. In other Godzilla movies, they usually show Godzilla arriving, and then the human reaction. 

Now I know the use of tiny village models is kinda cheap when so many of these movies have done the same things over and over, but it’s the fact that they play it all straight, they even show the people affected by this tragedy. 

While Godzilla burns a building, a mother trapped with her children inside comforts them saying “We’re going to where daddy is now!”. One of the characters screams in terror as his house is stepped on, his family still inside. 

Usually you just go with it in these big monster movies, but the film sets out to make it personal to you, by making the human characters deal with this walking  calamity. 

There’s two plots in this film at come together in the end. Our main plot follows Godzilla and the Japanese government’s efforts to understand what’s going on and how to handle it. Which ends being “It needs to die, and it needs to die now”. Our second follows Ogata, Emiko, and Serizawa. There’s a sort of love-triangle between them. In the end Serizawa is probably the most important character.

Serizawa is a WWII vet and scientist with a sweet eye-patch.

While working on understanding oxygen...I think. Anyways, he figures out to use a bomb to destroys the oxygen in the water by liquefying it. He shows the results to Emiko who reacts in horror to what happened and promises not to reveal this info to anyone. She does this because Serizawa explains that he can’t let what was intended to be a scientific discovery become a weapon of mass destruction like the atom bomb and hydrogen bomb before it. He reiterates this again when Emiko breaks her promise by telling Ogata, who both plead to Serizawa after witnessing Godzilla’s attack on Tokyo. 

“...if the oxygen destroyer is used even once, politicians from around the world will see it. Of course, they'll want to use it as a weapon. Bombs versus bombs, missiles versus missiles, and now a new superweapon to throw upon us all! As a scientist - no, as a human being - I can't allow that to happen!”

Let’s talk about that attack by the way. Unfortunately I can’t find any good videos of that scene. What I can show you though, is the aftermath of the attack and compare it to what we’ve been talking about this whole time. 

Tokyo, 1954 after Godzilla

Hiroshima, 1945 after the atom bomb. 

Like I said, the film isn’t trying to be sly about its intentions. Not one bit, and I don’t think it should be. I think we’ve forgotten some of that though with all the big monster fights, as awesome as they are. Godzilla originally was made in the wake of tragedy and how humanity must be held responsible for it. 

After Godzilla is killed in the end, a character says “...if we continue conducting nuclear tests, it's possible that another Godzilla might appear somewhere in the world again.“

Godzilla being a stand in for the nuclear horror that the atom bomb resulted in. 

Let’s get away from the serious stuff for a bit. The camera techniques in this are actually kinda interesting. A lot of what we’re used to in Kaiju films are guys in rubber suits standing in frame of the camera as they duke it out . Occasionally we go back to the humans, but the techniques are kinda basic. This one stands out, and we don’t see any interesting camera work till maybe the 80′s? Maybe even the 00′s? I gotta brush up on my kaiju movies. 

Godzilla isn’t always some guy in a suit, its also a puppet which allowed some turning and head work, that look a little silly from time to time, but at least they tried. I appreciated that. 

Guys, I love Godzilla, this movie only reinforces that. Just give it watch, regardless of the context you view it, it’s still a very enjoyable movie. 

Tomorrow (or later on today) we watch Night of the Living Dead

[motleymoose]

The Reunion, Part 1

Requested by  @symbaboo15 :

Can u do a cross over between supernatural and star trek? Tks. Team free will n reader, they save reader n she has trouble figuring out who she wants to be with.

Fandom: Supernatural x Star Trek

Pairing: Dean x Reader? Sam x Reader? Cas x Reader? I AIN’T TELLIN’.

Words: 2,098 ish

Warnings: Language, flangst, alcohol consumption

A/N: This is going to be a little bit of a slow burner (*eep*), so be patient, please! We will get to a happy ending, maybe sorta kinda =/

*gif not mine

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It felt different… a good sort of different… to be back at Starfleet Academy. Several long years had passed since I’d stepped foot on my old stomping grounds, and I relished in the nostalgia that washed over me. Everything looked almost exactly as I remembered it; the shimmering San Francisco Bay lay beyond the smooth, silvery buildings that ringed an expansive plaza, with small parks and rolling knolls interspersed between the concrete pathways and intricate brickwork. Even the smell of the freshly cut grass mingling with the ever-present exhaust from the constant shuttles bussing newly minted graduates to their off-world starships brought forth some distant memories of good times and young love.

Especially the smell of the shuttle exhaust.

Shaking my head to rid myself of the long forgotten sentimentalities, I continued strolling along the winding path that led to the professors’ dormitories. The squat, plain building lurked in the shadows of its taller, shinier brethren, surrounded by ancient oaks and elms that had been planted at the campus’s founding. As I passed through one of the arboreal tunnels, I let my gaze wander upwards. It was beautiful, the way the branches intertwined overhead to create the perfect canopy that allowed the faintest greenish light to pass through the thick foliage. A slight breeze rustled the leaves as I neared the end of the tunnel, the brilliant sunlight almost blinding, washing the color from everything it touched.

Inhaling deeply, I paused, still several yards from the dorms, biting my bottom lip as I looked up at the greenery, likening it to a shield that protected me from all the painful memories threatening to tear their way to the surface. It was useless to pretend I was here simply to visit an old friend.

Heart pounding painfully in my chest, I squared my shoulders and steeled myself for the reunion.

After all of our conversations, both in person and over holo-com, I was ready to take the next step.

I was going to ask Sam Winchester on a date. …………………….. “Y/N/N!” Sam hooted as he bounded towards me, scooping me up into a solidly warm hug.

Feet dangling at least six inches from the floor, I gasped, “Sam. Air.”

Chuckling softly, Sam Winchester gently lowered me to the ground, a wide grin spread across his features as he ran a hand through his wavy chestnut hair. “Sorry about that.” He blushed apologetically. “I’m just so freakin’ excited you’re back! After that last holo-com, I was afraid you weren’t going to come.”

I shrugged. “I almost didn’t. And then I remembered that thing you use to say to me when we use to study together...” Pausing, I tilted my head to get a better look at him. “How did it go? Oh, yeah.” I did my best impersonation of his deep voice, scowling as I waved a fist in the air. “‘Dammit, Y/N! I’m a doctor, not a researcher!’”

Sam burst out laughing as he pulled me in for another, less bruising, hug. This time, I was able to return it, burying my face into solid chest as I tightened my arms around him. After a lingering moment, he released me, one arm casually draped across my shoulders as he steered me toward the couch. “Sit, make yourself comfortable. We’ve a few minutes....”

I was lost in my own thoughts, wistfully studying the lines of his body as he stood in front of me. The years had definitely been good to Sam. He seemed stronger, more mature and down-to-earth, than the last time I saw him. The tall, lanky kid who use to take the jump shuttles for a joyride had turned into a well-proportioned, devastatingly handsome man with a medical degree and professor’s salary. If I were to be truthful with myself, I’d admit that he could play doctor with me anytime...

“That sound like a plan?”

I blinked, giving him a quizzical look. “Huh?”

“Pizza. Beer. At our old hangout. Dean and Cas?” He cocked his head, eying me with concern. “You all there, Y/L/N?”

“Y-yeah. I’m good. Just a… a long flight,” I stammered as I scrubbed the back of my neck with a hand, unsure of what I had just agreed to. “So…”

“So, give me a minute to change. You can leave your stuff in my rooms, if you want.” He gave me that huge smile again, the one that reached all the way up to his eyes.

The one that was, interestingly enough, making me warm in all the right places.

Just my luck to fall for another Winchester... …………………….. It hurt. And, God, I wished it hadn’t.

It wasn’t like I hadn’t expected a little bit of the pain to still be nestled inside my heart. We were together for a long time, almost the entire time we spent training at Starfleet. It was passionate and torrid, something that you just can’t break away from without getting deeply scarred. Years had passed since Dean Winchester and I had split, and I was just hoping I had shed enough of that baggage that the sight of him wasn’t going to kill me.

Dean, already slightly drunk and overly animated, lit up when he saw the two of us walk in. Stumbling towards us, he held his arms wide. “Y/N! Sam! We were just talking about you!” Cas followed close behind, a concerned yet warm smile breaking his usually stoic features.

Fighting back the urge to flee, I pasted on a smile as I leaned forward to give Dean a hug, feeling my mouth go dry. “Hey, Deano,” I murmured, my face squashed against his shoulder.

Fuck, he even smelled the same.

Wrapping his arms tightly around me, Dean pulled me into his chest, nuzzling my hair. “Hey, Bug.” I could smell his warm, soured beer breath as he kissed my temple. “Long time, no anything.”

My chest constricted as I leaned back, my hands resting comfortably on his upper arms. “Yeah, I know.” The corners of my mouth twitched as I looked at him. He hadn’t changed one bit since I had last laid eyes on him. Whereas Sam had grown broader and sharper with time, Dean was still the same boy I remembered from my days as a Starfleet cadet. Even those beautiful green eyes I had spent many an afternoon staring into hadn’t changed.

“Earth to Y/N,” Dean laughed, pulling my hips flush with his. “What do you say? Want to show these losers how to play a <<<real game of pool?”

Looking from Dean to Sam to Castiel, I shrugged. “Why not? It’s not like I’m going to be out any credits.” ………………….. Four games of pool and countless pitchers of lukewarm beer later, Cas and Sam finally threw in the towel.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear you guys were cheating,” Cas growled as he returned his cue to the rack.

Smiling innocently, I fluttered my eyelashes. “Aww, are you upset you were beaten by two drunken Med flops?” I crooned mischievously as I leaned over the corner pocket he had just sunk the black 8 ball into. “Because we can make this best out of nine, if you want…”

Blushing slightly, Cas averted his eyes as he reached across me for his beer. “I’ve lost too much already this evening.” Those crystal blue eyes of his flashed hungrily at me, and for a moment, I was lost.

Either I’m stupid drunk and seeing things, I thought, or Cas is checking me out.

Dean sidled up between us and flung an arm around my shoulders. “Since these guys seem to be short on cash this evening, let’s head back to my place and drink all of Cas’s beer!” He emptied his glass and slammed it on the table before leaning into me. “You can share my bed, if you want,” he whispered, his warm breath tickling the delicate hairs on the back of my neck. “It’d be just like old times…” ………………… It was still pretty early in the evening when I drunkenly wandered out onto the balcony of Dean and Cas’s apartment. The small living area was becoming too warm, and after one very long round of Fizzbin, I was needing a breather.

The cool night breeze felt heavenly on my face as I gazed out beyond the densely-packed cityscape to the dark waters of the bay. Tiny red and yellow lights blinked periodically in the distance, marking the comings and goings of both air- and watercraft. It was peaceful, and, for the first time since arriving, I truly began to relax.

I was silently watching a ship pull into the docks when the balcony door slid open. Dean padded up behind me, placing his hands casually on the railing. His presence had a dual effect on me, being both calming and electrifying; it made me want to slap him and kiss him.

Leaning in, he rested his chin on my shoulder, a hair’s width of space between our bodies. “It’s been a long time, Bug.”

“I think you’ve already said that,” I replied as I pressed my gut into the rail, willing myself not to give in to the lusty memories begging me to do otherwise.

Chuckling, Dean straightened and stepped to the side, a hand trailing the middle of my back as he came to rest beside me. He planted his elbows on the railing, his gaze landing somewhere in the middle distance. “I just don’t know what to do around you anymore, Y/N/N. We haven’t seen each other in ages, but this evening… it felt like you never left.” He paused, his voice rough. “And I missed that. Missed us.”

“How drunk are you?” I joked stiffly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him turn his head towards me.

“You know I’m not even buzzed right no, Y/N. Seriously, I missed you. Things didn’t end so well between us, and well…” He stopped, his brows furrowed as he watched me closely. From the way he was standing, I could tell that he had been trying to get up the nerve to get me alone, to talk to me.

Goddammit.

I scrubbed at my face with both hands, trying not to jump to conclusions.

Maybe he was just trying to get lucky tonight. And hell, I was hankering for a little action myself. But this was a bad way to go about getting any.

Whatever it was, I needed to nip it in the bud, or else…

Or else I might fall back into habits I’d much rather forget.

“Yeah, it’s been nice being back,” I tried again, tracing a weathered groove in the railing. I was unsure of how to continue.

Luckily, he jumped right in. “I’m not sure how long you’re plannin’ on staying… I couldn’t get much out of Sam. But I’d like to try it again. I-I want to try to make things work, Y/N.”

Groaning internally, I turned to him, crossing my arms across my ribcage as I cocked an eyebrow. “But I enjoy my life now. I’ve got a job that makes me happy, the freedom to do whatever I want....” I tilted my head, peering at him through squinted eyes. “Getting away from this place has been a godsend. What we had… It was toxic. Yeah, there were good times, but-”

“We were young, immature! C’mon, Bug…” He took a step forward, closing the distance between us. “We’ve got too much history to just toss it all away.”

Gazing up at him, I couldn’t help but smile a little. He was right. After all, we did already have a solid, albeit tumultuous, foundation, and it would be a waste to just chalk it all up to our inexperience.

But, then again...

Sighing heavily, I pulled him in and hugged him tightly. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I had to do something. I had to let him know that I didn’t have those feelings anymore.

Breaking from the hug, I leaned back until I could look him square in the eyes. “Listen, Dean. I’m sorry, I-”

He cut me off, his lips crashing clumsily into mine as he pulled me back into him, a hand at the back of my head, the other wrapped around my waist.

Caught completely off-guard, I brought my hands up to his chest to push him off.

“Oh, sorry. Didn’t know what you guys were doing out here.” Sam’s voice cut through the dark.

Oh, goddammit.

Part 2

[hachidorinoko]

# all the odds >:3

50 headcanons || Accepting anything with an even number...!

Ya gotta be odd to be Number One!

OHHH BOY HERE WE GO… (the rest are under a cut because oh YES, I did all 25 of them and thoroughly enjoyed it.)

1. what’s your muse’s favourite album of all time / favorite artist?

Start with an easy one - Tenji’s favourite album is FAKE STAR ~I’m just a Japanese Fake Rocker~ by Kuroyume, and his favourite artist is Kuroyume’s lead singer Kiyoharu. Do NOT get him started on this topic of conversation because he Will. Not. Stop.

3. do they take baths or showers? do they prefer one over the other?

Showers to clean off, but Tenji loves a soak when he can. Back home in Gifu, his family have a traditional small tub which is heated from beneath by a wood burner to keep it warm so that the whole family can make use of it, one after another. He kinda misses it, but he’s also a big fan of onsen/sento, so since moving closer to Kamurocho, he goes there rather than waste water at home.

5. how many blankets / pillows do they like to have on their bed?

Tenji likes the idea of having a bed covered in fluffy blankets and pillows, but in reality he tends to kick them all away in the night so he’s given up bothering. In his apartment, he has a futon bed frame with a light comforter and a sheet - if he could choose, he’d just have a roll-up futon, but as he’s living in a furnished apartment at the moment, he’s stuck with the bed taking up too much space. (He does keep one fluffy blanket in the cupboard for winter though - cheaper than using the heater!)

7. do they wake up groggy or alert? do they like mornings?

Very groggy and gravelly until he’s had a coffee. Mornings are the WORST as far as Tenji’s concerned. He’s absolutely a night owl, and will stay out all night and get the first train home to sleep if he can. Generally, the only time he sees 7am is if he’s approaching it from the other side. He thinks 11am is an early start…

9. what do they smell like? do they use perfume or cologne?

Cheap cologne - and far too much of it, most of the time. Because it’s budget, it wears off pretty quick so he’s constantly re-applying it. He likes fruity scents on other people, but his own choice of cologne is quite… distinctly aftershavey, with sandalwood, neroli and vanilla. His favourite is Chanel Platinum Egoiste, but it’s so expensive he’s been carrying an almost-empty bottle around for a year in the hope one of his customers might buy it for him as a gift. (It’s nose-curdlingly strong, so it’s probably for the best that he doesn’t have it because he‘s usually half-drowned in it!!)

11. bar soap or liquid? do they like loofahs?

Liquid! He’s somebody who really hates the idea of finding hairs on the soap, and he’s so not about that arse/face soap life 😂 and as for loofahs, he could tell tales of loofahs which would make your hair curl in his Dragon’s Ward/Fourth Chairman verse, phew! 😳 Overall he’s not exactly a fan of bathroom paraphernalia because he feels that most of it just collects mold, but he has a pair of exfoliating gloves that he swears by �� because if you wear that much fake tan, you gotta be smooooooth!

13. do they like the room cold or hot when they sleep?

Cold! He’s big on cuddling close for warmth, but he’s also one of those evil creatures with ice feet and yes, he will put them on your back when you’re least expecting it. He’s quite weak to temperature change and tends to overheat in the night though, so a cold room suits him better and makes it easier to regulate. Just don’t be surprised if you wake up wearing him like a scarf because he was having a cold shiver.

15. do they know how to drive? do they like to drive?

Tenji is a paper driver! His parents paid for him to learn and take his test, but he’s never owned a car and he hasn’t driven since. He doesn’t really enjoy driving much, and when he moved to study in Yokohama, he found that the transport systems in the bay and Tokyo areas are so good that there was never any need to bother with his own wheels. His friend Arata loves driving though, so they have hired a car together and driven out to the beaches in Chiba a couple of times. Tenji always says he’ll help with the driving, but he never does…

17. do they have pets? what kind? dogs, cats, etc?

No pets, and they’re not really on his radar. He likes animals well enough, but he never had pets at home growing up so it doesn’t really occur to him to get one. If he had a pet though, I imagine it would be a small ‘fashion breed’ dog like a pomeranian or french bulldog that he could carry around in a bag on his shoulder and spoil with all the snazzy accessories and tasty treats.

19. what are their phobias? do they have any at all?

Tenji doesn’t really have any phobias as such, but he’s a small fish in a big ocean, so he’s viably scared of quite a lot of things. The things which truly frighten him and keep him awake at night tend to be quite philosophical - he fears being forgotten, being outshone in the eyes of those he cares about.

21. did they have any fears growing up that they’ve since conquered?

Tenji has always had a sort of logical/illogical fear of falling off his bicycle, and it’s one of those things which is sort of like vertigo - the more mental space he gives the concept, the more he has that strange urge to engineer a crash outcome. As he’s gotten older and as he uses his bike more often to get to and from the station/supermarket, it has lessened, but it’s still very much present if he were to give it headspace.

23. how do they show fear? sweating, shaking, blankness, anger, etc?

It’s very obvious to see when Tenji is scared - he shrinks into that fight-or-flight pose as if ready to flee, and becomes visibly anxious, looking around, licking his lips. He tends to just start talking at this point - yammering on about anything, pointing out weird details, making odd conversation to try and distract from his fright. Saying that, talking is pretty much his coping mechanism for everything.

25. do they get scared easily? does loud noises, shouting, etc, scare them?

Yes, Tenji gets scared pretty easily. Sudden loud noises definitely make him jump - you’ll probably see him hit the deck if something goes bang close to him. That said, loud places like clubs, gigs, raves and parties don’t bother him at all - it’s just that sudden sharp shouts/screams/alarms etc will make him jump something awful. Good luck extricating his grip from around your neck if he jumps up on your shoulders to hide. 😂

27. what do they never, ever want to speak of, ever?

I can’t tell you, or I’d have to kill you……… truthfully, not so much, but there are certain things he would never tell certain people. For instance, he would go to extreme lengths to keep his parents from finding out that he dropped out of university after just one year and frittered his student loan (and extra money they sent him) on fancy clothes and nights out to live his host lifestyle. He’s not even sure what they would do if they found out, but he wouldn’t be able to cope with the weight of his father’s disappointment.

29. is there something they’d like to change about themselves physically?

Quite a lot, really, though most of it he changes cosmetically. He would like to be quite a bit taller, and so he always wears heeled boots to try and add a couple of inches. He’s 163cm/5’6”. He would also like to be naturally tanned, but he is quite pale-skinned really so he slathers on fake tan to get the look he wants - most of the collars of his shirts are stained orange as a result. He dyes his hair and wears contacts - he’s happy with how he looks with all these alterations, but it belies a dissatisfaction in his natural appearance, which is a shame.

31. do they have good fashion sense? or do they just wear whatever?

I don’t know about *good* fashion sense, but Tenji definitely has a passion for fashion! He wears mostly whites/greys/blacks and muted hues like khaki with silver accessories, and favours a distressed look, torn jeans and fashionably ripped shirts/sweaters. He’s a walking Men’s Egg model and is very taken in by trends - he will buy things because they’re ‘cool’, and then never wear them again if they fall out of style. A victim of fast fashion, he does have a few timeless things which he will always wear no matter what.

33. are they too hard on themselves over the little things?

Not so much hard on himself - he doesn’t really tend to think too much when he doesn’t have to - but Tenji finds it very hard to take rejection/correction from other people. He takes criticism very personally and can get very defensive and upset over the tiniest thing.

35. are they possessive over their things? or over other people? both?

Not particularly. You can bet if he lends you something precious, he’ll be asking for it back, but generally he doesn’t mind sharing. Arata tends to walk all over him and take his stuff, and he just kinda lets him do it because he doesn’t like confrontation. As for people - so long as he feels like he is important in a relationship, he’s not particularly possessive in a general sense - however, he can get extremely jealous if he feels that somebody is getting more affection/attention than he is. (This goes hand in hand with his fear of being forgotten or left behind - ‘what if he/she likes them more than they like me??’)

37. what do they think about polyamorous relationships? would they do it?

Being that his job requires the upkeep and management of many semi-intimate relationships (some closer than others, generally more romantic than physically intimate), Tenji can see the value in polyamory. He probably would consider entering a polyamorous relationship, but there would have to be a lot of communication and reassurance involved in it. Polyamory requires a certain amount of maturity which he doesn’t really have, but could be guided into if his partner(s) had more experience. He’s kind of wound up in a polyamorous relationship in his Diamondé verse - he’s been tied up with Sakurazawa while Sakurazawa is publicly with Paprika. Both Tenji and Paprika are aware of this, and are aware that the other partner supplies something they cannot or would not want to. The communication between Sakurazawa and his partners is terrible, but Tenji and Paprika stay in touch and have a relationship of their own (whilst neither romantic nor physical) which gives this arrangement some balance it might otherwise lack - Paprika understands Tenji’s immaturity and weakness, and tries to protect and mother him to an extent. Paprika does all the heavy lifting in that particular relationship - she is too kind for her own good, but an incredibly strong woman trying to hold her own heart together. Tenji is totally oblivious to the effort required in holding up the sky in that sense.

39. do they have siblings? if so, how many? do they like them?

Nope, Tenji’s an only child. Mummy and daddy’s perfect little boy… if only they knew.

41. where would they want to live if they could live anywhere? why?

A swanky penthouse in Kamurocho! He’s not particularly imaginative when it comes to that kind of thing - once he has a goal in mind, he will plough everything into achieving it. Right now, that’s Become The Best Host In Tokyo, and everything he wants are the trappings which go with that. He’s got grand designs on a walk-in wardrobe with automated hangars… heated floors, smart lighting, you know the drill.

43. do they like living alone or with another person / other people?

Tenji currently lives in a share house with roommates that he doesn’t know and barely sees outside of passive aggressive notes on the fridge, and he’s not really a fan of the setup. That said, he would relish living with friends or partners, but they might need a spare room to get a break from him following them around and chatting at all hours of the night 😂 ‘ Whatcha watching? Is it good? Did you see the first one? Is that Ishikawa? Man, did you see…’

45. what’s their dream job / profession? do they have one?

Tenji loves being a host more than anything else in the world (to an alarming extent, if you ask his peers.) If you ask him, he’ll tell you that’s his dream job. Besides that though - and he has no real intention to pursue this at this stage - he loves acting, and thinks he would make a great talk show host/TV personality. If he got scouted, he would totally go for it! (There was a host TV personality about 10 years ago who always wore a white suit and carried a bunch of red roses - his gimmick was mainly just flirting with the camera, I wish I could remember his name cus I’d show a picture otherwise - Tenji feels like a guy like that is wasting his opportunities, but he’s also a little jealous that a guy like that can get such airtime.)

47. do they like tv shows or movies? or neither?

Tenji is more of a movies guy - hasn’t got the attention span for a box set, he gets twitchy and distracted - but he loves variety TV shows, the daytime and late night dross. He learns a lot of odd facts and trivia from these shows, and they prove useful in his day job. How else would one discover the signature dish of Ehime?? And that Tsuyoshi from SMAP is allergic to peas!? Or how they flush toilets in space???

49. do they have a creative outlet? if so, what is it?

Tenji is more of a consumer than a creator - the closest to having a creative outlet is probably karaoke, which he LOVES. He doesn’t write music or play an instrument, but he sure can sing, and he’ll sing just about anything so if you need a duet partner, he’s your man!