#the kids are smaller cupids

[jjunberry]

❝ forever with me ❞

synopsis ⟢ can't promise that things won't be broken but i swear that i will never leave,please stay forever with me…when you’re forced to sit next to the one person you despise the most during a road trip, things get tense as emotions are at an all time high.

pairing ⟢ nishimura riki x fem!reader

genre ⟢ enemies to lovers, forced proximity, non-idol au, slice of life, angst, fluff

warnings ⟢ arguments, cursing, niki & reader being assholes, jungwon and jake playing cupid??

wc ⟢2.2k mlist ⟢

your eyebrows furrowed at jungwon, who stood across from you. “you have got to be kidding me,” your arms crossed. he smiled sheepishly, “i’m sorry but this year, it’s your turn for the back seat.” the back seat which you’ve always avoided since every year niki sat back there. “jungwon, this trip is a four hour drive, you want me to sit next to him for four hours?” jungwon sighed at your question. “with the drivers rotating, you two don’t drive so it’s easier this way.” curse you for not having your drivers license.

“i am not happy about this,” your arms crossed as you plopped down on your couch. jungwon sat next to you, resting his head on your shoulder. “it’s only for the ride there, you can manage yeah? just take your headphones.” you sighed and nodded, “i’m only doing this for you and the others, don’t expect a peep out of me.” jungwon smiled at your words, knowing there was no way you’d keep quiet against niki.

the days leading up to the road trip, you tried your hardest to avoid niki. key word tried, he always finds a way to get under your skin. whether its taking your seat while out to eat, or cutting you off in line at the mall. it never failed to get a rise out of you. the boys could practically predict what the two of you’d say to each other.

“at least say excuse me, you gremlin,” jake mocked you. “move, you always take to long anyway,” sunoo was quick to mock niki’s response. they of course never did this in front of you two, afraid of even more warfare. despite how funny the arguments could be, they also got quite annoying. the constant bickering was enough to have the group want to rip their hair out.

niki was in no better spirits about having to share his precious back seat with you. he barely liked to share with the guys but to have you back there? the boy wanted to just unpack and not even go. “it’s not that bad,” jake said watching niki angrily shove the remaining items he had into his bag. “it is that bad actually, she’s insufferable. how can i sit next to her for four hours?” niki looked at jake with furious eyes. “look if you drove then maybe you’d be better off, but it’s easier this way”, jake shrugged. niki seriously needed to get his license, he rolled his eyes. “see you in the morning man, just take your headphones and ignore her i guess”, he patted niki’s shoulder before leaving.

you were the last stop before they could go on the road. niki was already annoyed. he only had his wired headphones, the car they rented had a small back seat, so he’d be even closer to you then he wanted to be. he rolled his eyes watching you stumble to the car with your bags. his eyes followed jungwon who jumped out to help you. the trunk opened and jungwon placed your bag in the back, handing you your smaller one. “thank you wonnie,” you grinned, hugging him. “you’re welcome.” he opened the sliding door to let you in.

in the second row sat, jay and jake. the middle was occupied by sunoo and sunghoon. heeseung was driving and jungwon had the passenger seat. “hi everyone,” you greeted them before climbing into the very back seat. niki furrowed his eyebrows when you finally sat down, your shoulder brushing his slightly.

with the reduced space, your legs and shoulders were touching his. niki began bouncing his leg, the annoyance of sitting next to you already bothering him. you looked at him, you wanted to scold him for bouncing his leg, but you remained calm for everyone’s sake. once heeseung checked that everyone was ready he began driving.

everyone was conversing amongst themselves, you tried to occupy yourself on your phone, by looking out the window. niki was like a statue next to you, besides his leg that was still bouncing. you leaned up, propping your head on the back of the middle row seat. “hi,” sunoo giggled seeing your head pop up between himself and sunghoon. “hi,” you grinned.

he motioned with his head, “doing okay back there?” you sighed,” i guess so,” niki let out a groan shifting away from you causing you to fall back from the seat. “stop leaning against me,” niki snapped. “spoke to soon,” you whispered to sunoo before returning to your seat. “sorry jeez,” you scoffed, leaning away from him as far as you could. niki rolled his eyes at you.

a few minutes had passed, you subconsciously began tapping your fingers against your leg. to whatever beat you had in your head, niki clenched his jaw at the rhythmic pattern. it was unbelievably irritating, “can you not?” he asked. you turned to him confused, “what?” he rolled his eyes, “stop tapping your fingers it’s annoying.” you narrowed your eyes at him, “yeah? well so are you bouncing your leg but i didn’t say anything.”

he rolled his eyes and stilled his leg, you smirked slightly before stopping the tapping. you laid your head against the window, feeling sleepy. however the small bumps the car hit were uncomfortable. your smaller bag only had a few things in it, not holding the small stuffed animal you were looking for. it was a small bear, you’ve had since childhood you literally always bring with you. turning so you could reach in the trunk, your body kept bumping into niki. the boy groaned, “what are you doing now? can’t you just sit still?,” he tried to scoot away from you. “i was looking for something,” you grumbled clutching the bear and turning to sit back down. “seriously?” niki noticed the bear you were now holding.

“that could of waited,” he snapped. “i’m going to use him as a pillow, it’s..you know what, i don’t have to explain myself to you.” you placed the bear in a spot to cushion your head. niki scoffed and adjusted in his spot. his leg pushing into yours, “could you maybe not be a dude and save me some room,” you asked pushing his leg back over with yours. “i can’t help it,” his eyes rolled. that’s all his eyes ever did when he looked at you. “we have to stop for gas, if anyone wants snacks or to stretch their legs,” heeseung spoke. once he pulled into the gas station everyone piled out of the car. your arms stretched above your head, a soft groan falling from your lips. goosebumps covered your skin as a chill breeze went by. “can i borrow a hoodie, anyone?” you spoke. they all nodded saying to just grab one from the back. opening the trunk you dug through the bags until you came across what you were looking for. pulling out a large gray zip up hoodie, you smiled once the sleeves covered your cold arms. jungwon came bouncing out of the gas station with a bag full of snacks. “here y/n,” he said, handing you a bag of skittles and a bottle of sprite. “thank you wonnie,” he smiled and got into the passenger seat.

you dreaded sitting next to him again, but everyone was ready to get back on the road. niki had his head turned away from you when you got in. your chest tightened but you refused to let him get to you. “can you scooch over a little bit?,” you asked, squeezing into your seat. his leg was partially on your side. he let out a scoff before pulling leg closer to his side. taking your seat, you pulled your hood up and leaned against the window. niki’s eyes drifted to the hoodie you were wearing, his hoodie. he felt his heart pounding against his chest, you looked so good in his clothes. sunoo turned towards you, holding out his bag of gummie worms, “want some?” you nodded reaching into the bag and grabbing two. “thank you,” you grinned.

niki was silent, a storm was brewing inside him. he didn’t think it was fair that you got along so well with the boys. why couldn’t you get along with him like that? why did you two hate each other so much? truth is neither of you could pinpoint any moment that could of caused the mutual feeling of hate between you both. “riki would you like a gummie worm?” sunoo asked holding the bag out to him. niki looked at it seeing no blue left, then he noticed the blue gummie worm in your hand. “no someone already took the last good flavor,” he huffed. your eyebrows furrowed and you handed the gummie worm to him, “here,” his eyes widened as he stared at it. part of him wanted to take it, he didn’t know what caused him not to. “i don’t want it after you’ve had it in your hand,” he grabbed a red one from sunoo before turning to ignore the both of you.

sunoo turned back around to ignore the brewing argument, but you shrugged and said nothing. trying your best to not fight with him.

it wasn’t long before another fight broke out. the bouncing of his leg? a fight. the tapping of your nails? a fight. sunoo pointing out you were wearing niki’s hoodie? a fight. “y/n isn’t that riki’s?,” sunoo pointed towards the gray hoodie on your body. you looked towards the hoodie and shrugged, “yeah i guess so i just grabbed one,” your eyes quickly glanced at niki who had a scowl on his face. “maybe ask before wearing someone else's clothes,” his voice was cold.

“but i did, i asked to borrow a hoodie.” you were quick to defend yourself. “well you didn’t ask to borrow mine so why are you wearing it?” his eyebrows were furrowed. you turned towards niki, angry. “why are you so upset about it? it’s just a hoodie, i’ll take it off. i’m trying to be nice but you’re being a prick,” your hands reached for the zipper pulling it off and tossing it towards him.

your perfume filled his senses as he folded the hoodie and set it beside him. his heart was racing for many different reasons, the glances from the boys made him more angry. “no one wants you here anyway, so of course i’m being a prick,” niki seethed. “i’ll have you know the boys want me here, otherwise i wouldn’t of been invited,” niki laughed. “you’re only here because they pity you, because you cling to them—to everyone like an abandoned puppy. nobody wants you here.”

it felt like your heart stopped. “riki that’s not true,” sunoo spoke up. you drown them out turning towards the window ignoring the boys attempts to speak to you, ignoring niki’s longing glance. his own heart wrenching as he caught sight of the tears welling in your waterline. he put his headphones in and turned towards his window. the familiar sounds of his alternative playlist playing. his leg continued to bounce yet this time you were dead silent. ignoring him all together, he hated to admit it but he missed the attention.

what felt like hours passed before niki couldn’t take it anymore. he plucked one of his earbuds out, handing it to you. you looked at the earbud, then up at him. he wasn’t looking at you, but the thought of hearing music was better than whatever silence your latest fight had caused. swallowing the lump in your throat, you placed the earbud in your ear.

the familiar lyrics of ‘if i’m james dean, you’re audrey hepburn’ filled your ears. your eyes widened not expecting niki to share the same music taste as you. taking the risk you scooted closer to him, to shorten the length of the headphone wire. he let out a deep breath, relaxing his body resting closer to yours.

niki took the peace between you as his chance to apologize. the car intensely quiet, he didn’t trust his voice to come out as a whisper. niki’s hand wrapped softly around your wrist, pulling your arm towards him. he waited to see if you’d pull away, when you didn’t he took a breath. using his finger he carefully spelled out ‘i’m sorry. your breath was caught in your throat, as your heart was hammering against your chest. niki stopped spelling but his hand remain on your wrist, his fingers itching to lace with yours.

taking a chance you opened your hand, palm up. niki was quick to lace his fingers in yours. the song continues between the two of you. sealing your feelings for each other. you leaned your head against his shoulder, your body relaxing against his. niki sighed contently resting his head on yours, his hand holding yours like you’d disappear if he let go.

your relationship was far from mended, the two of you were content with the comforting silence you created. the music and movement of the car was enough to lull both of you to sleep.

in the front seat jake and jungwon shared a knowing look, jungwon grinning knowing he purposely took your headphones. jake smirked knowing their plan worked, and they’re friendcation would be peaceful afterall.

author’s note: eeeek my first riki fic 🥳 hope you all enjoyed it ♡!!

taglist: @jjunieworld @304files @babymochibeargyu @miaroseindreamland @seuliecore @seobluv @ray0magdalene @mimisxs @ppeachyttae @capri-cuntz @eneiyri @50-husbands @riksaes @imma-jiki @luvvhaos (if your name is bold i couldn’t tag you)

love , echo ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪

© jjunberry - all rights reserved. please do not repost on any social media sites, translate, or modify any of my works.

[queenimmadolla]

I imagine eddie would have a little family time kid friendly valentines with the reader on one day and an adults only, ship the kids off somewhere valentines another day

What gifts or things do you think would happen on that day

Id imagine reader would wake up eddie by dressing the kids up as cherubs and attacking him with rubber sucker arrows to shoot at him

🦊

Family friendly Valentine’s Day is in the morning, After Hours (bow chicka bow wow) Valentine’s Day is from the evening and all through the night 😏 while the kids are sleeping over with grandpa Wayne and Maude.

I like the way you think and that’s very cute, reader buying the kids pairs of wings to wear and those annoying ass toy Cupid bow and arrows and then releases them into the bedroom to assault Eddie. It makes for a really good home movie and pictures for the family album.

Eddie OF COURSE was prepared and had to hide all of the gifts he got in the van because not a single person in the house, including reader, can be trusted not to go snooping. Eddie gets the girls and Wayne (his little Ferdinand 🥺) flowers, called into a floral shop weeks in advance to place the order and while reader absolutely loves her roses, seeing penny and wayne’s reaction to getting them is like the best thing in the world. They get all shy and happy about having received something so special, and their bouqets are significantly smaller than reader’s but it doesn’t matter; Wayne’s got his nose in his daisies, sniffing away for the rest of the day, and Penny lets reader help make hers into a flower crown, so she can wear it the entire day. They also gorge themselves on chocolate and candy, which reader isn’t happy about but Eddie couldn’t not buy some for them! Besides, the inevitable sugar high will be big Wayne’s problem.

Penny and Wayne will have made homemade Valentine’s cards that say something along the lines of “congraz” (Wayne, still says ‘happy birthday’ for most holiday greetings and gets confused with them all so it’s a congratulations from him this time). And Penny’s are just amusing (‘Happy Valentine’s Day, daddy! I gots no monies so this is what you get, i love you ps get me flowers and member i dont like white choclet’ and ‘Happy Valentine’s Day, mommy! You are my valentine now, not daddys but you can kiss daddy on the lips, but i saw hims eat some onions one time and they are stinky good luck”)

BUT, Eddie has plans for him and Reader, so the kids are pawned off to Wayne and Maude, reader is whisked away to a romantic dinner and then brought home for some very much needed alone time. They share a couple of joints on the porch, he gives her a foot massage because her feet ache a little from the heels she wore to dinner, they talk about their life; where they are in it, what they thought they’d be doing by then and how happy they are regardless, then they move things into the bedroom. Put those cuffs, Eddie now has to hide, to good use. Spend the rest of the night fucking like rabbits well into early morning, nearly depleting the box of condoms in the night stand. In between rounds, Eddie and reader finish off the leftovers from their dinner in bed when the munchies kick in, sharing a bottle of water, lounging around naked, talking about everything under the sun—weed induced peculiar thoughts, of course—and enjoying each other’s company. It’s reminiscent of the early days of their relationship, before the jobs, before the kids, before any of the responsibilities, when they were just teenagers.

Come morning light, you’ll have to go get your kids and slip back into the roles of mom and dad, which the two of you are more than happy to do, but it’s also nice to play a little pretend for the night.

Happy belated Valentine’s Day! 🩷

(P.s. part of the Pennyverse for any new readers ♡)

[weldingmetal]

Possible fic ideas for transformers

So like I have a few ideas for some docs I want to do so I am just gonna voice them here.

Most of these are Megop fic ideas so bare with me.

Megs Reincarnated

So like what if at some point in the war Megatron died but because he was on space crack he couldn’t join the allspark/well so Primus sent his spark to live again in the hopes that over time his spark would be purged overtime. Megs becomes a human woman and eventually meet Optimus. Hijinks ensues.

I also thought about doing a shattered glass version of this as well.

After Primasy

So what if Optimus met Megatron after he became a prime. This was inspired by two fic I saw on Ao3. I can’t remember what they were called but I will write the names when I can.

Miko Plays Cupid

After Miko gets captured by Megs she learns things about before the war but things don’t add up. After she is rescued and asks Op some things she realizes that there were some major misunderstandings that were and still are the cause of the continuing war. So she decided that the best way to resolve this was to play match maker. What could go wrong.

Can You Feel It Shockwave?

What if Shockwaves emotions canes back after an experiment gone wrong? I have a theory that shadowplay didn’t take away everything but left what emotion he had that was strongest, a sick and twisted form of curiosity and everything else was repressed. Then what happens when he gets them back? I plan for this to be very angsty. Can’t comfort them unless they’re broken right?

Twelve Kids, Twelve Primes

What if team prime had twelve kids to care for and through some kind of hijinks they found out that the kids were twelve reincarnated primes.

Some smaller fic ideas include

G1 bots finding out humans have valves/spikes

Bots finding out about car washes

Miko being a little troublemaker and adopting all the vehicons

Soundwave making a soundboard

Stabby by the roomba. Enough said.

Bots finding out about nuclear weapons and atom bombs.

Bots finding out humans can feel when you look at them.

Now if you want to use any of theses all I ask is that you tag or tell me so I can look over the counter as you use my fic recipes to create delicious fics that I will grab and consume like a feral animal.

[stvharrngton]

a lesson in romantics; lesson nine

summary: a multi-part series where reader is the new art teacher at hawkins high and the history teacher, mr. harrington, takes a shine to the new girl. mutual pining ensues on their road to love 🥀

characters: steve harrington x fem!reader, robin buckley

word count: 1.3k

warnings: none really

taglist: @inkluvs @dukesmebby @sweetbabygirlsworld @kennedy-brooke @gvf23 @nixrose

series taglist: @pbs-theundeadmaggot @alana4610 @onceuponaoneshot

SERIES MASTERLIST

HAWKINS HIGH, VALENTINE’S DAY 1993

Valentine’s Day soon rolled around. The communal spaces of the high school are decorated with red paper chains, shiny red and silver streamers and hearts and cupid cutouts everywhere.

The post box for the students was situated at the entrance of the school, allowing the kids to give their valentine a card anonymously or not. The teachers had their own, or course, a much smaller box that was tucked away in the corner of the teachers lounge.

It was only for a bit of fun, something to make the day a little brighter for the teachers. Steve would usually buy one for Robin and vice versa, a funny little card with a joke inside that was bad, even by Steve’s standards. But this year was different. This year Steve purchased two cards from the store.

Cards for the students were delivered to their classes throughout the day, the classrooms filled with giggles or hushed whispers, pairs of flushed cheeks dotted around the room. 

It was your last class of the day, around fifteen minutes left until the last bell would ring signalling the end of the day. There was a quiet knock on the door before one of the ladies who worked behind the scenes at the school, who took care of all the admin things, popped her head around the door. You urged her to come inside, ready to help with whatever she needed.

What you didn’t expect was the giant bouquet of flowers she was carrying in her arms. Red roses mixed in with pink chrysanthemums and purple freesias, wrapped in pink paper and tied with a white ribbon. You could see there was a small card attached and all you could wonder is why on earth she was bringing them to you.

“These arrived for you,” she said quietly even though all the students were turned in their seats to gawp at the flowers, “you’re certainly a lucky lady.”

And with that she left, leaving the huge bouquet on your desk. Your eyes narrowed at the small card that was in a pink envelope, removing it carefully from the little stick that was keeping it in place. Your jaw was on the floor, so much so you would have to use your hands to pick it up from the ground. The flowers were showstopping, petals soft and bright.

The greeting card was simple with a graphic of hearts on the front. It was what was on the inside that interested you more. 

‘Beautiful flowers for a beautiful girl. Happy Valentines, from your Secret Admirer. S.’

“Who’re they from, Miss?” Olivia piped up from the corner, a smirk on her face as she hoped for a definitive answer.

Truly you had no idea. Well, you had one idea but you’re not sure if you wanted to buy into that. Thankfully, the bell rang and saved you from having to even delve into that conversation with Olivia and your students, doing your best to hide the heat that flushed your cheeks as you read the words over and over again. You sighed with relief as you watched them all pack up and rush out the door and towards the parking lot.

Your gaze was fixated on the flowers, the words contained in the card swum round and round in your head. You were too engrossed in the whole ordeal to notice Robin had let herself inside your classroom and was making a beeline for your desk. You offered to lend her some art supplies so she could make a new display in her classroom, you just didn’t expect her to barrel through your door at 3:05pm.

“Woah,” Robin gasped, her eyes bugging wide at the bouquet that sat on your desk, “someone’s a lucky lady. Who are those from?”

“No clue, but they really are beautiful,” you shrugged, “this is all the card said.” You handed the small pink envelope over to her, busying yourself across the classroom as you searched for the supplies you promised to Robin.

Robin narrowed her eyes as she read what was scrawled in the card, her eyes widening once she realised she recognised the handwriting, the ‘S’ it was signed with piecing everything together. She couldn’t help it, the noise bubbled up from her throat that came out like an excited, shrill, squeal. 

“You alright over there, Robin?” you asked, a concerned tone lacing your voice as you spun around on your heel, markers and pens spilling out of your arms.

“Who, me? Yeah, I’m good, I’m great even,” she stammered out, trying her hardest to contain her excitement, “but I gotta go, thank you for the supplies!” 

And with that, Robin bolted back through your door, art supplies in hand as she immediately made her way to Steve’s classroom.

Steve groaned once he heard the incessant banging on his door, fingers carding through his unruly hair as he went to the door, expecting to see a kid who’d left something behind, not his giddy best friend holding a bunch of markers and construction paper.

“Robin?”

“How much did those flowers cost, Steve? Holy shit–,” she whispered, as if you or some unfortunate student would be eavesdropping around the corner.

“Oh, sure, Robin, come right in!” Steve rolled his eyes now, swinging the door shut behind her, “What flowers, what are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Harrington. I saw the card, I know your handwriting anywhere.” Her arms were crossed across her chest now, eyebrows raised suspectly. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!” Robin exclaimed now, her hand swatting at Steve’s bicep.

All of Steve’s resolve faltered, he knew he had been found out, he knew there was no point in trying to hide it now. He sighed, slumping back in the chair behind his desk, his wire frame glasses long abandoned to pinch at the bridge of his nose.

“Fine! Fine, you got me, Robin,” Steve chuckled, holding his hands up in defeat, “and firstly, I didn’t tell you because I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist telling her everything and secondly, did she like them?”

It was true, Robin was terrible at keeping secrets but she couldn’t help but feel a little warmth in her heart at how head over heels Steve truly was for you. She couldn’t help the smile that was creeping on her face, tugging at her lips and pinching at her freckled cheeks as she couldn’t wait to spill every little bit of information that she had.

“Yeah, she did,” Robin spoke clearly, “she said they were beautiful, you did good, Steve.” A look of relief graced Steve’s features, his shoulders relaxing, a small smile creeping up on his face, “But,” Robin continued and the look on Steve’s face fell almost immediately, “she had no idea who they were from, well, that’s what she said, at least.”

It was funny really, how oblivious you both were to the situation. You, oblivious to how Steve really felt about you, to how deep his feelings ran. Any time you caught wind of the possibility, you would shut it down instantly because Steve Harrington, handsome, kind and sweet history teacher Steve Harrington could not have feelings for you, you wouldn’t allow yourself to believe it. 

And Steve? Oh, Steve was down bad. He thought about you all the time, even when the atmosphere was awkward and tense between you, he still thought about you. Thought about your smile, your laugh, the one that could light up the entire room. Thought about how your eyes would flutter closed at the first sip of hot coffee in the morning, how your nose would wrinkle so cutely in the cold weather.  Steve was hopeful that you felt the same, hopeful that one day he’d get the chance to ask you to be his girl. But Steve was done with subtlety. Done with the small gestures like bringing you coffee, remembering what your favourite pastry was so he could bring it to you the next morning. Sure, he loved doing those things for you but it was time for something bigger, something bolder.

[keepingeahalive]

Dexter Charming Headcanons:

His full name is Prince Dexterous Deft Discerning Charming. Shortening it to “Dexter” was the least embarrassing path to go down.

Dexter refuses to wear contact lenses because he has incredibly sensitive eyes.

He’s an avid bookball player, more-so than Daring. If anything, he’s a better player than Daring due to his knowledge of math and physics.

He’s very interested in ghosts, monsters, and spooky aesthetics. It’s one of the first things that led to Cupid’s crush on him and what led to his crush on Raven. His favorite stories were of mad scientists.

He’s an amazing dancer. Again, better than Daring. But because everyone wanted to dance with Daring, no one ever realized it. 

He’s a pretty decent singer, but he wasn’t allowed to take lessons because “singing is for princesses.” 

His true fated destiny was supposed to be Ashlynn’s prince, but he chooses to be Raven’s Good King. 

His parents think Raven slipped him a love potion, even though he had a crush on her first.

He’s really good at fighting and fencing. He was never allowed to thrive in those areas because his parents drilled in the idea that he always needed to be “second-best” to Daring.

He keeps an audio diary to help with his communication skills, but he mostly uses it to vent out his frustrations. 

He and Darling would alternate roles when they played “Knights and Princesses”. 

He tries to swear, but always chickens out at the last minute.

His relationship with Raven has helped him grow more confident. It also helped him realize how bad his childhood was when he opened up to her about it. Because she knows what it’s like to have a toxic parent (but also has a good parent), she lets him know that this is not normal and he is more than enough. 

Dexter was the first of his siblings to stand up to his parents about what he wants. Both Daring and Darling were in shock by this.

He finds Hunter and Sparrow attractive, but he was never romantically interested in them. 

He is a doting rabbit dad to Mr. Cottonhorn, his pet jackalope. He often talks to him like a normal person.

Dexter would secretly visit Darling when she was locked in a tower. He sometimes looks back and wishes he had helped more in some way. Darling understands how afraid he was of their parents and doesn’t hold it against him. She was happy to have someone to talk to, anyway. 

He shares a close relationship with Raven’s father, the Good King. He was super nervous about meeting him, but the King was very welcoming and put Dexter at ease almost immediately. The Evil Queen thinks Dexter’s a nice kid, but he’s not good enough for Raven. 

He found out about Cupid’s crush on him long after she had gotten over him. He apologized for not realizing it sooner, but she doesn’t hold a grudge against him. It did make him work to be more aware.

Dexter and Darling were born prematurely, explaining why they’re nine months younger than Daring. Dexter was the smaller of the two. 

[offtherailsraccoon]

TELL ME MORE OF YOUR HEADCANONS >:3 me wanna draw thema! anyones ideas to be honest-

- @cupidl0vesy0u

Cupid, my platonic beloved, you know i could NEVER ignore such a request. However, ya girl is seriously lacking in drawing worthy headcanons and just good headcanons in general so this is the best i could get, but THANK YOOUUU FOR PROMPTING ME TO TALK MORE ABOUT MY SILLY LITTLE HEADCANONS!!!!!

 —Tommy’s full name was Tommy Kraken Coward Careful Danger Innit, and on government or professional documents it was shortened to Tommy K. C. C. U. Innit. 

    The name ‘Tommy’ was given by Wilbur at their first meeting. Wilbur—even as young and inexperienced in reading people as he was at the time—was able to see the fierce determination to survive that shone in the younger's eyes as he ushered a smaller Tubbo behind him, using his free hand to wield a dirty stick as a make-shift sword; not unlike a soldier.

—Tommy's natural hair color was actually a golden brown—just a few shades lighter than Wilbur’s—but they dyed it to blonde when Tubbo dyed his natural blonde hair to brown. 

   However, he was forced to go back to being a brunette post-exile, mostly due to the fact it was too matted and unhealthy to even try to save, forcing him to get the messiest buzz cut ever.

    They re-dyed it sometime before The Prison Incident but allowed it to grow slightly past his shoulders even after revival and didn't care to deal with the brown roots. The length felt suffocating and claustrophobic, but he found comfort in the familiar feeling; even going as far as to purposefully only do half-up hairstyles. His personal favorite was half-up pigtails.

—Tommy always had, at the very least, five blades hidden in various places on his person at all times, to settle their intense paranoia; even as far as to have a razor blade kept under his tongue.

—Despite their bad experiences with heights, Tommy enjoyed sitting in high places and childishly swinging their legs off the edge. From this Tommy had grown into a very agile climber.

—Contrary to popular belief, Tommy was quite skilled in dealing with kids, so he'd often babysit the younger generation of the server in exchange for things only he found valuable such as mud, cobblestone, trinkets, moss, golden apples, bells of any sort, and cool rocks.

—Tommy found it difficult to tell that they're alive, and would occasionally spend days in a haze until someone reminded him to breathe.

   On those days—the days they felt like a mindless zombie roaming around without purpose, and he could swear he smelled of rot—plants would droop and wilt around him; a side effect of his reeking necromancy.

—Since his resurrection, butterflies have begun to flock Tommy, which left him to constantly wave them away. 

    They suspected it was due to the various flowers they kept sticking out of their pockets. Tommy does this not only because he simply likes picking flowers and collecting them, but also as a habit from war to ward away the rotten smell of the fallen soldiers.

—When they purposefully thought back to it, Tommy found that their memories of Logstedshire were oddly hazy and difficult to differentiate from the others. 

    Although, on the occasion something occurred that reminded him of the unwelcomed remembrances, he’d often undergo an intense PTSD-induced flashback, which acted as a painful reawakening for not only the same overwhelming emotional state they were in all that time ago, but also the physical pain they indured at the time of the traumatic event they "revisited".

—Tommy never cared much for their health more than the basic survival needs up until he met Tubbo and started tending to the goat’s wounds; Tubbo had very little experience with the streets when he had met Tommy, and Tommy felt a primitive obligation to help the older boy. 

    By treating the tiny injuries on Tubbo, most of which he wouldn't look twice at if he were to get them himself, Tommy learned of his natural affinity for first aid.

   Later in life, Niki taught them more complex first aid; and for as long as it took to learn, Tommy was Niki's apprentice in the earlier wars—which proved quite difficult to do considering Tommy had to simultaneously juggle the responsibility of being a young General as well as a military strategist.

—After Exile, Tommy picked up both crocheting and knitting as a coping mechanism and as a way to get used to their prosthetic hand, per Puffy’s request.    

    However, this proved to be difficult because the various explosions in Exile had eventually tore up the palms of his hands enough that they held a constant, involuntary tremble from nerve damage.

  Tommy, being the workaholic they were, would frequently crochet or knit well past the point of their fingers aching.

—Their own hygiene has never been much of a priority for Tommy, and by extension, neither were showers.

   Not only did they frequently forget, because they didn't consider it important enough to remember, but they also found it unbelievably inconvenient, both time wise and because of his scars. Tommy was covered head-to-toe in scars of various types and origins, to the point that they couldn't stand looking at himself even in mirrors, whether it was because they could no longer recognize themself, or because the scars only provided reminders. Most of the scars were so sensitive that even running water over them caused unbearable pain, especially the permanently cold water from their dirt hut. 

    As a solution, Tubbo and Ranboo would check on Tommy every few days to see if they had taken a shower—as well as his well being, but he didn't need to know that—and if he hadn't, they would have the younger come over and gently pressure him into taking a shower on low pressure with the lights off.

—The Godling of Mischief, who preferred the chosen name of ‘Drista’, was a lesser known Godling only ever found in the form of a small pixie, dressed in red, white, and black jester attire with star detailing. 

    Drista resembled a thorn covered doll carved from twisting wood,  with a large wind-up key in her middle back, and doll-like joints that would emit an eerie clicking sound with every jittery motion; her  movements were erratic and twitchy, as if controlled by some unseen force. She has a humanoid figure with digitigrade legs, a second set of arms, eight insectoid wings, and a grotesque face too hard to describe; Drista would often don a porcelain mask that covers her entire face, designed to look like an entirely different face with an glaring expression, painted with stereotypical clown makeup. (<- not too happy with this because the inspiration behind the face is a VERY difficult to explain mask i found on pinterest)

—As an effect of having to take care of Wilbur most of their life, Tommy had grown quite a skill in cooking, enough that they were considered the second best chef on the server, right behind Technoblade's potato dishes.

    Tommy would occasionally even practice baking as well, though, they weren’t as good at it as they were with cooking. Because of this, Tubbo and Ranboo—who both lack the ability of cooking quality food despite both being adults, tax-payers, and parents—would always rely on him to cook the important food when an occasion occurs.

—At some point in late Exile, Dream had taken to carving a crude and messy Glasgow grin into Tommy’s face as a grotesque replica of the mask the older is known so well to wear. There wasn’t much to do about it when it was still healing and delicate enough for the stitches to pop open at even the slightest movement, but as soon as it had completely healed—which was well into his stay with Technoblade—Tommy subconsciously started a habit of scratching it as a way to fidget. Over time it got bad enough that they had managed to scratch a gaping hole through their right cheek, leaving their teeth visible. (<- i totally did made this on the spot for this very post and it needs to be re-done but i have no clue how lolol)

—After Wilbur’s death, Tommy took ownership of his trench coat and adamantly refused to alter the dimensions of it to better fit them.

—Tommy had lingering slight animalistic body language from when he was raised from the age of four to eight by packs of wolves. (<- i wish i could elaborate but I DON'T KNOW HOOOWWWWAUH)

By sending this you single-handedly brought back my will and motivation to write so i thank you again !!

also its crazy how much i think about ctommy and only ctommy

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 1 Pt. 22 (Love and Heartbreak)

The Nesbitts spent Sportsball Sunday at the Gnome’s Arms with friends, watching the Henford Hens win the big game in an exciting overtime. Daisy and Neal even allowed Heather and Holly to order alcohol – they both picked wine instead of a cocktail, but while Daisy loved a crisp glass of apple nectar, Holly was into Von Haunt Estates Meloire and Heather loved Granite Falls Grappo Blanco. Neal, on the other hand, loved his sweet mixed cocktails, and even had the bartender make Cupid Juice martinis a full week before Love Day. He’d helped the bartender perfect the verdant and funk – a drink which landed her on the cover of Pub Life Monthly – and he was undoubtedly one of her all-time favourite customers.

Hazel invited Pierce Delgato while River spent time with his old friend Carlton Bell – soon enough the boys were dating, and they had the Nesbitts to thank for introducing them. All around Hazel, her friends were falling in love, but she was still too young and immature to know what they were feeling. She was grateful for Heather’s example; she didn’t need a man, and neither would Hazel. She was sure of it.

Heather entered an Incredible e-Sports tournament to celebrate the Sportsball Bowl, and this was the first tournament she ever won. It was so exciting for her – ButtercupNesbeets was practically famous in the online gaming community, and now she had a first-place prize to brag about!

She was so confident with computers that an idea struck her, inspired by her family’s many hour-long trips to Brindleton Bay. They had the resources, but not every sim was as fortunate as Heather and her family. She set to work designing a mobile app connecting pet owners in smaller towns with veterinarians remotely, to help pets everywhere stay as healthy as possible. She started carving out more free time to work on the app, even as she took advanced computing classes and attended more vet courses, learning to make treats for her pets that wouldn’t send them to the hospital.

For Love Day, Mortimer convinced Neal and Daisy to join him and Bella for an awkward double date at the Gnome’s Arms. While Neal and Daisy were loved up and happy after all their years together, Mortimer and Bella were clearly still together as a matter of course. The love between them had dwindled to polite kisses and half smiles across the old wooden bar. By the time they returned home to Brindleton Bay, Mortimer was bursting, and he finally confessed his affair to his wife. At first, she seemed unfazed by the revelation, but when Mortimer said it wasn’t just sex, that he was head over heels in love with Karl Nesbitt, too, Bella was shocked. She shed a tear and forbidden words over the truth, but it didn’t take long for her to realize their marriage had been over for a long time, already.

With her head held high, Bella went to her lawyer who drew up divorce papers. She’d keep the house and primary custody of the kids, and Mortimer was free to be with Karl. He didn’t love leaving the children for the city almost two hours away, but Karl’s job meant he couldn’t leave San Myshuno, and Mortimer didn’t face the demise of his marriage to end up living unhappily ever after without his soulmate.

Where would the Goths go from here, and would it impact Cass' relationship with River Nesbitt? ->

<- Previous Chapter | From the Beginning

[kairoot]

cupid. | a mini series

episode one : cupid, you say?

warnings : none really. use of lowercase.

author’s note : chile idk. but feedback is appreciated 😁

masterlist

the afternoon sky was gray and gloomy as the wind blew gently. it was the beginning of October which meant the air began to get cooler and everyone was still getting used to their uni classes.

leaves crunched beneath your feet as you walked and talked with your two mates, yeojin and sumin. giggles erupted from your small group from time to time as you all discussed different things.

“okay, but i’m just saying, y/n. you need someone.” yeojin shrugged, her black hair moving as she walked. you rolled your eyes at the girl who continuously repeated herself, telling you that you needed a partner.

“jin, it’ll happen with time. she’ll find someone. you will find someone, n/n.” sumin turned towards both of you, a reassuring tone in her voice. you gave sumin a small smile, nodding at her comment.

“well, in the mean time, we can all hang sometime,” yeojin spoke again, indicating that they were indeed waiting for you to get someone so you all could triple date or something. “i know unis’ had our schedules pretty tight.”

“jin, you don’t even care about uni.” you snorted, adjusting your books in your arms.

she threw her hand up defense, “hey, gotta show my folks that i’ll actually be something one day.”

“but at the same time, that’s also what i tell jake when i don’t wanna hang out.” yeojin shrugged once again.

you gasped, “you tell him that your schedules’ tight?”

yeojin nodded, a snicker escaping from her, “what? the kid is up my tail 25/8, you guys. it’s tiring.”

sumin shook her head, chuckling at her friend’s antics, “jin, give the guy a chance, he’s so sweet!”

“yeah, yeo, he really likes you.” you added, smiling at her. she rolled her eyes playfully, brushing off the comments that clearly made her feel good. you could tell by the bashful smile on her face.

you all continued talking until it was time for you to go your separate ways for the day.

walking into your favorite cafe, the scent of cinnamon and apple invaded your nostrils.

you gave the barista a smile, grabbing a seat by the window. you placed your books and case down on the table, getting comfortable in the wooden chair.

opening your book, you let yourself get lost in the story. romeo and juliet wasn’t the most exciting story to read but you knew you had to let yourself focus so your professor would get off of your back about the upcoming essay.

a few moments went by as you read through the different acts of the story. for some reason you felt your gaze gravitate to what was outside.

there you saw a red-haired boy, standing out in the drizzling rain, mirroring the expression you had on your face. he stared back at you, walking up to the warm cafe doors.

you knew you probably looked like a fool staring at this stranger, so you eventually averted your gaze. that was until he entered the cafe. once again, he looked your way, glancing over your posture.

he continued to do so until he reached the barista to order.

you knew you should’ve been freaked out because why on earth is this stranger looking at you as if you two had met? but you actually felt quite the opposite. you felt attracted to him. to his gaze. everything about him, actually.

you furrowed your brows, knowing you’d never felt like this about anyone. your confusion remained as you began reading your book again.

once again, a few moments went by but you felt your eyes avert back to the boy. he was already seated, drink on his table as he took a small sip. his eyes found yours again, blinking slowly.

you looked down, a shy smile spreading across your face. your heard his soft chuckle from across the cafe. it made your insides feel all fuzzy.

for a while it was just exchanged glances and smiles until he decided to join you at your smaller table.

you pretended to not see his red hair peeking from above your book, smile still plastered on your face.

“romeo and juliet, huh?” his voice was smooth and laid back. you slowly brought your book down to the table, looking up at him. he smiled, sliding the book towards his side. “a classic.”

“yeah.” was really all you could say at that moment, too stunned by his beauty.

“i surely need a romeo. all the guys in my life are more like a- sorry, i’m bombarding you, a stranger, with my love life.”

he laughed softly, shaking his head. “it’s okay.” his gaze came back to yours.

“what’s your name, love?” his brows furrowed, as if he were already interested in you. maybe that was the case.

“y/n,” you answered in a small voice, flustered at the nickname he gave you. “yours?”

“heeseung,” he paused for a moment. “or some people know me as Cupid.”

your brows furrowed, “why do they call you that?“

“Cupid?” he asked. “‘cause i am. i’m Cupid.” he said the last part in a hushed tone.

some part of you wanted to laugh but the other part of you believed him. if he was Cupid, why would he want you to know that?

“prove it. show me something.” you rested your chin in your hand. he cocked an eyebrow, smile appearing on his face again.

“show you something? what, like a trick?” he snorted.

you shrugged, “show me what you got, Cupid. make those people over there fall in love.” you tilted your head to the boy and girl on the other side of the cafe, giggling with each other. it kind of looked like you and heeseung with the way they were looking at each other.

he sat back in his chair, eyes focused on them. after a moment or two, they stopped what they were saying and just stared at each other. before you could blink again, the two shared a long-awaited kiss.

the furrow in your eyebrows deepened, “did you just-?”

you whipped your head back around to face heeseung, who was already looking at you. the small smile on his face telling you everything.

author’s note: let’s hope i can finish this series unlike my smaus where i gave up not even halfway through the series 😀 (i plan on fin fishing them one day)

please don’t copy, translate or repost my works to any other platform | © 2023 kairoot

taglist: @haechansbbg (message or comment to be added)

[marksbear]

Wonderful! Could you please write a Derek Morgan fic where the reader is an unsub the team chased for years but could never caught him? Maybe Derek and the team find out the kind and gentle reader murders people just for shit and giggles? I'd appreciate if it was gut wrenching (gore wise and angst wise)

Thank you so much in advance, I know it'll be a killer fic

-🇷🇺

Now this was hella creepy to write 🇷🇺! Hope you enjoy and request more

WARNINGS! Gore,Insane reader, Detail killing, organs,blood,kidnapping, worshiper,mask, creepy theme, killing animals. Manipulation, death sentence.

DEREK MORGAN X UNSUB MALE READER

You were called the American Lamb. At the start of your life long killing spree. You thought the title was stupid. It made you feel weak and small. But you were everything but weak and small and just the opposite of your serial killer name.

The way your victim was killed did not show you were weak actually like you were a monster. The old you had your victims teeth and hair and ears and tongue and finger nails and toe nails made as a necklace or bracelet as a good job gift for the person who found the body. Now what you really did to the victim was even more disturbing. You peeled the skin off the person hanging it around the house. With the face you'll keep it in your bag

With only the organs and bone being left you use the longer organs as decorations in the house blood all over the house. And using the smaller ones placing them in food. You'll keep the skull washing it and putting it in your bag. Now with the other ones you put it in the furniture and liquids. If the person you killed had a dog or a cat you'll use one of the bones driving into their skull. Now if they had a rare animal you'll just keep it going on with the day. If they had a spider or hamster or birds or some fish you'll leave it there or set it free.

God forbid if the person you chose has a family you'll kill any age besides five and under. You'll kill them as a family letting the family members watch as you skin their family members and laugh about using the person face wearing it and acting like the person and scaring them. You usually take the dads and sons first. You wear the dads face as a mask and bring the whole family in the living room acting like a family before getting back into business. With the infants you'll just take them somewhere hella far away from their home and drop them off individually at peoples houses. Fun fact you kept a boy whos only was a few months old after you brutally murder family and named him S/n. You do truly love him.

Your kills became famous and you even beat Ted bundy at being America's serial killer. Which you're proud of. You have been doing this for five years and you're already the best at it being wanted for dead. Your killing pattern is killing a total of twenty people or families every two months. You loved your pattern. Since the name American Lamp you started leaving Sheep masks on your victims beds and for the kid you placed a toy lamp on their beds.

Okay enough of The American Lamb lets learn more about Y/n Morgan.

The first kill was your step mom. You stabbed her in her eyes after she screamed at you. You were fourteen. The cops took your father instead. You had no uncles no aunts grandpa and grandma wanted nothing to do with you. And your real mom died years ago during your birth. You went to foster home to foster home. Family throwing you out because you were "Insane" or a "Psychopath" You honestly didn't care I mean one family did have a good reason why. You killed the family dog with your bare hands. But the cops didn't believe them. You found the perfect family. They were an old Jewish couple who loved you. And you loved them too.

You met Derek when you worked a summer job at a dollar store. You two had gotten stuck with Cupids bows pretty hard since you two had love at first sight. You two started dating all of the way until he left to work for the FBI. You promised him that the next time you see you'll get married.

You move to Quantico after you "find" S/n and buy your own place and hunt looking for Derek. But you didn't stop all of the murders though. Once you two find each other you never break your promise You get married and you let Derek meet S/n That's two now. Which he was confused about like did you knock up a girl those years ago but you just laughed and told him you adopted. Now since you were a complete family you couldn't be happier and wrote to your parents about your new life. He introduces you to the team and they all love you. You two were on the top of the world until he found out you were the American lamb. Your killers were in the area now and a Lot of different FBI's from across the states grouped up and got you red handed.

Once the press found out half of America hated you and wanted you to get sent to death. The other half envied you and worshiped you like a god. You loved it all you loved all the attention. Of course your family's and past family's most said you were a good and innocent boy. Just a little mad or crazy in the head. The family of the dog you killed spoke out and said you needed to be in a mental hospital.

Derek and the team were all shocked about how the sweet and kind Y/n be a brutal monster like that. Derek was in denial refusing that his husband was The American Lamb so what he had blood all over him wearing the lame mask. Who cares! Once he finally let it in that how you were the killer he cried for days and weeks.

After court they sent you to a mental hospital and once you proved that you are well your going to be sentenced to death. If only they knew a group of your followers would bust you out...

When you first escaped it was quiet no one knew besides your followers. You only had a few hours until they check on you. You went to your house wearing a lamb mask hugging Derek signaling him to stay quiet. Derek softly cries into your shoulders holding S/n. You place a lamb mask on their faces you hold on Derek's hand leading him into the bus. With the group all wearing lamp masks. You sit in the way back holding Derek and S/n tight.

"Amen to a new life where only us sheep can survive" You say looking at all of the Lamps. They're all different races,genders and sizes. They all say Amen in union "And let my lamb S/n start a new generation of lamps Amen. They all say "All hail S/n" The driver starts the bus and drives off.

To a new Era of time. A generation of animals.

THE END

[slumberingrose-fandom]

Lucien Gordon

The descendant of Gordon family.

➽──────────────❥

In the past, Lucien was the only teenager who worked on the railway with his big cerulean tender engine. He pulls the express everyday like his family done, until shares this duty with Rebecca Family.

As he always pulling the express, Lucien is a boastful, prideful and arrogant.

He used to be rude and egotistical more often than not, especially towards the drivers who drives smaller engines like Tiffany or Peter. He can also be rude to drivers who drives older and weaker engines like Willow.

Despite his ego, he has a kind heart, always ready to forgive, and uses his super strength to help others out of difficult situations.

He hated freight trains and thought he should only pull passenger cars.

Lucien expressed how much he missed Willow and Helen when they moved to other countries over the years. He seems to have a hard time accepting change, but with the help of his friends, he can pull through.

➽──────────────❥

Lucien loves classic soft music and waltzing with his wife.

He prefers to have a peace and a quiet place to live the rest of his life.

Sometimes, he was invited by Willow and Helen for chatting on tea time or hangout.

➽──────────────❥

Once he and Willow have a few of mutual love, but when they broke up, due to the reason.

Still, they are mutual friends.

As Willow and Helen leave from the Railway Island many years, Lucien met Miranda at the Knapford Station and slowly he has a feeling to her.

They married after 4 years and has two kids, Lucius and Grace.

➽──────────────❥

Lucien born with light powers and manipulates stars on the night sky, unlike his friends owns powers after they earned from.

He had rescued a white rabbit before and adopted it with the name Cupid as it was found on Valentines.

[wickedlittleoz]

random shimadacest drabble to start off the week ✨

explicit, m/m & f/f (includes genderbending spells, to female then back to male), 1770 words, features cupidzo and royal guard genji (as halloween costumes)

inspired by these messages from @nuggies69:

and like fuck the wizard right but i couldn't pass on this LMAO anyways enjoy the silly~

* * *

If you were to ask them, they still don't know how it happened.

All they know is that Hanzo and Genji were on their way to a costume party on Halloween, as one does – Hanzo dressed up as a slutty cupid and Genji, as a medieval knight. There had been a mistake with their order, which made them come in opposite sizes, so both feel extremely out of place in the other's costumes, but that's what they get for ordering last minute things. Suddenly, a storm fell around them, strong winds and lightning and thunder, and when they look around each other...

Well, the first thing Genji notices is that the person fallen to the ground beside him, that is, Hanzo, has a female figure now. He frowns at Hanzo's large breasts freely exposed by the one-shoulder cupid costume.

Then he realizes with a startle that inside his own costume he, too, has boobs! Smaller ones than Hanzo's, but he's a she now, as much as Hanzo is, and wherever they are, they're not in Hanamura, anymore.

Hanzo blinks as she takes in the world around them. Everything is yellow and dry, and very hot. She climbs to her feet and adjusts her costume, though it's impossible to hide the left side of her body in this costume. But she doesn't feel bad – these are some nice tits, however she got them.

"Where are we?" Genji asks, her voice weirdly high-pitched, and Hanzo realizes under the armor she's a woman as well. Good, she thinks. She wouldn't wanna be stuck in this mess all by herself.

"I don't know," Hanzo shrugs. "Not home, that's for sure."

Genji is forced to agree, for she doesn't recognize these dry plains. But a commotion is forming somewhere near them and when they look back, they see a house that seems to have been wrecked by the storm that's just clearing out. She grimaces. Whoever lives in there probably lost most of their belongings.

"Should we ask them for information?" Genji blinks at the people swarming the house. They look... Small. Very small. But not like kids, these are – these are full-sized adults, just short. She shrugs; nothing out of the ordinary. She just wasn't aware that they walked around in packs like these.

... Or that they were so prone to singing.

Hanzo grabs her arm and tugs her away from the crowd. "Gods, no, whatever they have might be contagious."

The two laugh as they run from the group.

After a few minutes walk, they find a seemingly endless road of yellow bricks and Hanzo suggests they follow the path, for it might lead somewhere. And maybe, wherever it leads to, they can find help from a crowd of less random-singing prone individuals. The sun is at high peak, the opposite of what it had been when they were walking to that party just a few minutes ago, and Genji finds herself sweating and heaving for air after a while. She removes the helmet and tosses it angrily to the sandy floor, as Hanzo chuckles next to her.

"That's very funny," she grumbles. "As if you hadn't picked this costume yourself."

Hanzo rolls her eyes, but doesn't let up the laughing. She had been very upset when they got the costumes and found out they switched the sizes; had even gone as far as calling up the store to complain, but there had been no time to take them back and exchange them. But now she's glad she has Genji's slutty costume on – even with her boob and half her ass fully exposed to the world, at least it's breezy.

"Just take the armor off, dumbass," she says and stops to help Genji unclasp her costume. Man, she had payed them well for a realistic suit, too...

When at last Genji is down to just a pair of cotton shirt and pants, they continue their walk.

"Well... Aside from finding our way home, how do you think we fix this?" Genji asks. She's avoiding looking at Hanzo for too long, if only out of habit – doesn't wanna get a boner, but doesn't even remember she doesn't have a cock anymore.

Hanzo just huffs, wiping sweat off her brow, and asks, "Fix what?"

When Hanzo finally looks at her, Genji just points at her exposed chest. And Hanzo has the audacity to laugh.

"You know, I don't hate it," she says, palming delicately at her tits. Genji's hands itch as she watches how Hanzo weighs them on her palms, feeling how smooth they are and how her nipples perk up, the hidden one tenting the fabric of the costume. A pulsing sensation between her legs startles Genji and she realizes she's getting excited – wet, even.

She turns away from Hanzo and the show she's putting on, blushing furiously. And like a vision of paradise, a safe haven, on the horizon she sees water.

"Is the desert madness setting in already or is that–"

"A river!"

The two share a look and a smile before dashing towards the body of water.

Hanzo is the first to shrug off her costume when they approach the shore. She leaves the dress and her underwear and the sandals and the bow behind her, one after the other, and quickly slides into the water, as Genji hesitates for only a moment, watching the gorgeous lines of her body before it disappears in the river. She too strips down and jumps in.

The water is fresh and only a little warm. Hanzo feels an immense relief come over her once she's deep in. She rests back and allows herself to float for a moment, eyes closed as she feels the contrast of the scalding sun on her face and the refreshing water around her, until ripples announce Genji's approach.

She looks down at her sister, her nimble body half swallowed by the river, and smiles. Hanzo really doesn't hate this shape-shifting thing; they both turned out gorgeous and Genji is a sight for sore eyes, all naked and wet.

"Feels better, huh?" Hanzo asks with a wide smile. But Genji isn't listening. She's floating on her back, with water up around her so only her face and her boobs and the faint indication of a bush between her legs show up above the water. Genji feels a little bit like a creep, watching Hanzo like this, but they've spent their entire lives dancing around something unamed – something mutual, something forbidden.

In these faraway lands there's no family around to tell them it's wrong. And Hanzo's eyes are as warm as the sand on the sides of the yellow brick road, and she's moving to her feet in expectation to Genji's approach, and she's grabbing Genji's wrists and bringing them to her breasts, and–

"I noticed how you were looking," Hanzo says with a smug smile.

"Hard not to," Genji retorts, but when she begins to massage them, Hanzo's eyes roll back and she sighs. And those pretty nipples are already stiffening under her palms, so she pinches at them until Hanzo moans, loud and shameless.

"Genji," she sighs as her palms drop from Genji's arms to return the touch.

Genji's hands are delicate, but her touch is determined, just the right amount of pressure that Hanzo quickly finds herself pulsing and wanting more. She grabs at Genji's gorgeous little tits with loving hands and searches for her mouth, and in that river, on those unknown lands, they share their first kiss. It's heated, full of tongue and bites, and eventually she has to let go of Genji's chest to grab her thighs, lift her up and guide her to the shallower edge of the river, so they can lie down next to each other.

Hanzo kisses her and Genji feels like she's died and gone to heaven, because this thing they have, it's a long time coming, and it's a relief that they finally got here. She laughs into Hanzo's mouth when they fall to the sand side by side and grabs her sister's hair when Hanzo trails kisses down her stomach, and she shouts–

"Hanzo! Oh, shit–" When Hanzo's lips close around her clit.

And Genji tastes better than anything Hanzo's ever had in her mouth; her flavor quickly coats Hanzo's tongue with more and more fervor as she continues to lick her up, exploring her folds and her passage, and pouring herself into the task.

Then something cold washes over Hanzo, suddenly – she thinks it must be the water, or maybe a cloud covers the sun for a short moment and releases them from the burn of the high noon, but what makes him startle and pull back is when out of nowhere Genji's clit turns into a full-size cock, and a large one, too.

Hanzo chokes and pulls back, and Genji blinks his eyes open to realize that they're home – not just back to Hanamura. They're home, they're lying by the pool in their family's backyard, and the lights are all off in the house because they had been alone earlier that night, and Hanzo is wiping his mouth, looking confused with Genji's cock in his hand.

"When did you–" He coughs. "When did you get this big?"

Genji laughs. "I've always been a grower," he cackles – can't help it, because what the fuck just happened? Did someone drug them? That has to have been the case, there's no other logical explanation for what just happened. But he's had his fair share of drugs in life and never has he had a trip that felt so realistic and wore off so fast.

Whatever, he doesn't care; Genji crawls closer to Hanzo, to pull him into a kiss, to wind his arms around his brother's frame and tell him, "Oh, I love you, Han."

Hanzo softens into the kiss; seems like Genji always knows what to say to relieve his mind, even if it doesn't help the situation. But he kisses Genji back and pulls him onto his lap, whispering, "I love you, too." And Genji feels wonderful against him, all muscles, a wide chest, strong arms. Better than Hanzo ever dreamt of – better than the weirdly vivid dream female Genji, too.

They fall into the pool together, palming and kissing at each other, and when Hanzo pushes Genji against the wall, he knows to wrap his legs around his brother's waist and welcome the heavy push of his cock. And maybe the neighbors hear his desperate cries of all the pleasure only Hanzo can give him, and they most certainly will have to have the pool cleaned after this – but neither of them care.

[abarbaricyalp]

That Time in Valentine

Rated T // 8k words // AO3

“This has got to be one of the weirder missions, right?” Joaquin asked as he bowed his head and shook glitter from his hair. It was getting far too long for regulation. Sam needed to make sure he wasn’t keeping the kid from his actual job. “Well, I mean, I guess you guys have fought aliens,” he amended.

“Hey, cupids are pretty weird,” Sam assured with an easy grin. He looked around the sleepy town they’d been dropped off in half an hour earlier and let himself breathe at the confirmation of a job well done.

“And, besides, this is a good training-wheels mission before you meet any aliens,” Bucky joked back. For the first time since he’d felt the humid Texas air, he actually grinned. He’d been joking about the whole thing on the jet and that spirit seemed to have come back to him.

Hill had called them in to deal with, indeed, possibly one of the weirder missions Sam had seen on paper. Winged creatures, armed with bows, had appeared in a sleepy Texas town and begun to wreck a havoc that even SHIELD-SWORD-Whatever had never seen before. The creatures and their arrows made people fall in love and then drove them to madness when they didn’t act on it. Hill assumed the creatures were drawn to whatever energy was happening with Marfa, Texas–about thirty minutes down the road–but, as if they knew they were cupids and what humans thought of cupids, they couldn’t help but stop off at this town instead: Valentine, Texas. Cupids were apparently very funny.

The creatures were slightly smaller than babies with short but thick white wings and large bows that they handled deftly for something that didn’t seem to have ten fingers. Sam supposed you really only needed, what, half of that, maybe, to pull a bowstring and arrow? Still, their body structure was where the differences ended. The creatures weren’t quite humanoid, too bulbous and irregular with no real definable features. 

Sometimes, though, they turned from something kind of cherubic into something downright demonic. Thin and distended and grey. Despite the arrows it still had, it went for the heroes with clawed hands instead. The first time it happened, Bucky yelped and swatted it away in a move that shouldn’t have been as endearing as it was. And when he knocked it away and then freed a knife to plunge it into the creature’s chest as it dove back, that had been far hotter than it needed to be.

Luckily the population of Valentine was less than 200 and the town shut itself down quickly. The damage by these creatures had been minimal. In fact, the whole place still looked like an old movie set. Quiet and still. Other than the glitter shimmering on any available surface, nothing seemed amiss at all.

“Man, this place is like a real ghost town,” Joaquin said when he was done sniping with Bucky about experience.

“We ain’t dead,” one of the locals called. He was a tall, broad shouldered man who had appeared during the fight like a mirage in the heat waves with an honest-to-God ax on his shoulder. For a brief moment, Sam had wondered if this was what Cupids really looked like, because the man was certainly inspiring Sam to fall in love instantly. “We’re just small.” He had an accent that was rougher than the Louisiana drawls Sam had come to expect when down south, and his voice was a deep, heavy bass that made every few beats land solidly in Sam’s belly and spread out all warm like honey whiskey, now that the heat of battle was out of the way and Sam could just focus on that voice.

“Close your mouth before you catch flies,” Bucky snapped low in Sam’s ear. He was scowling again, like he’d just noticed the humidity once more. It was funny, the way the Texas heat got to him when the Louisiana heat never did.

“Oh, like you didn’t get all maiden-like when he yanked you off your feet and covered you from those arrows earlier,” Sam scoffed. He’d never seen someone man-handle Bucky like that. To be fair, Bucky had been distracted and the guy had pulled him back hard and sudden, a hand on the structured collar of Bucky’s tac jacket and a sweep of his legs. By the time Sam had looked over, Bucky was beneath a very handsome man and Sam was contending with a lot of emotions that he couldn’t process properly in the moment. Bucky’s awe-struck expression had not helped matters. Sam had never seen his mouth make that shape and that was… Hm, Sam wasn’t even going to think about it.

Right now, Bucky’s mouth was twisted into a very familiar scowl. “I was not maiden-like,” he argued fiercely, still speaking lowly.

“Uh-huh,” Sam agreed sarcastically. “You practically laid down for him.”

Bucky jammed his elbow into Sam’s ribs meanly and stalked away. Normally, it would be the kind of thing that would have Sam grinning after him, but after a full fight, the elbow hurt more than he was going to let on. So he didn’t grin, instead just rubbed at his side when he was sure Bucky wasn’t going to turn around again.

The jet was landing a few hundred meters away and Joaquin had already taken off towards it. Sam resisted the urge to cover his ears from the roar of the engines, and he thanked his self-control when the handsome local appeared at his elbow, staring towards the jet with an unreadable expression.

“I just wanted to say thanks for having the Avengers come out for this,” he said without looking at Sam. “These things only showed up this morning. That was fast of y’all.”

“We’re hardly the Avengers,” Sam corrected. “I mean, I guess I am. But,” Sam gestured ahead of them at Bucky and Joaquin who were now horsing around with each other. Well, Joaquin was horsing around. Bucky still looked irritated by the existence of the sun, “not those two.”

The man chuckled and shrugged. “Heroes are heroes. Just glad you showed up and Michael can stop trying to come fight these things himself. Man is 84 years old, can’t even climb the stairs himself, but wanted to shoot his sawed-off at these gnats.”

“Well, hey man, with the way you use improvised weapons, you could join us and be a superhero yourself,” Sam joked.

“Nah, I’ll leave that to y’all,” he assured as he held up his hands. Less in surrender, more in a wiping-of-hands way. “I’m happy to do the work I do here. I’m the captain of the fire department in Marfa.”

Of course you are, Sam thought with another zing of attraction racing straight through his midline. “Well, if you’re sure you don’t want a free flight to DC for the decontam,” he offered one more time and fiercely banished flitting images of the man in the compound’s showers from his mind.

The effort was stymied by the man lifting his shirt up to his collarbone and spinning slowly, arms held out as much as he could. “I’m good. Didn’t get hit,” he promised. “But I’ll call the… what do you call it? The Avengers Headquarters? I’ll call if I suddenly have the intense urge to start cutting out pictures of you or your friends and making a scrapbook.”

Sam snorted and shook his head. “Alright, man. Reach out if you need anything in the next few days too. I don’t think anything will come back up, but just in case.”

The man brought a large, friendly hand down on Sam’s shoulder, grinned at him brighter than the Texas sun, and nodded. “That sounds like a plan. Thanks again for the help.”

Sam nodded, pushed away the warm feeling of the man’s hand, and watched him safely ensconce himself in the bar that had become a sort of holding space for everyone as they ventured out of basements and closets. Sometimes Sam wished missions ended at a bar for him. Maybe he could drag Bucky out tonight. If his sour mood lightened any once they were back in DC.

Despite being several minutes behind the other two, Sam still got on the jet first. Bucky was, as always, the last to climb the steps. Sam had thought it was some chivalry thing or a surveillance thing, but the longer they worked together, the more he was certain Bucky just did it to be a pain in the ass.

Bucky had already peeled out of his tac-jacket, but he was still wearing his vest. Sam was going to make a joke about how his right arm was just as shiny as his left today, on account of the glitter smeared over him, but he got distracted by how good Bucky’s arms looked against the vest. Which was ridiculous because Bucky wandered around in his vest all the time after a fight was finished up. But today, there was something about the way the pink and red glitter clung to the curves of muscle along his arm, the way the vest tucked in to his waist, the detailing in the kevlar shapes that alluded to the muscle definition beneath, the tantalizing gap under Bucky’s arm to his tight under-armor and pectorals. Sam found himself helpless against soaking it all in.

“It’s going to take forever to get this out of all the mechanics,” Bucky complained instantly. He shifted the plates of his arm and glitter billowed up into his face, which made him scowl all over again. But it also made him scrunch his nose up, which almost stopped Sam’s heart.

“Use a blow dryer,” Joaquin suggested, to continue irritating him. Sam wondered how Joaquin was immune to the entire show before them. The scowl turned into a baring of teeth and Jaoquin laughed freely. More glitter fell from both of them.

Sam shrugged out of his suit-jacket and then collapsed back against the bench seating. He gave Bucky and Joaquin a full ten seconds to decide if they wanted to follow and then let himself lay out across it. He ignored the three different pops that creaked out of his back as he did so. When a shadow came over his face, he peaked open an eye and found Bucky standing over him, looking over him with a studied intensity.

“I didn’t get hit,” he assured. Bucky’s eyes snapped up to Sam’s like he’d been caught doing something.

“Good,” he coughed out, then turned on his heel and moved back to the end of the hold that Joaquin was sitting at.

Sam threw his arm over his eyes and tried to relax, despite the turbulence of the jet taking off. He let the drone of Bucky and Joaquin’s voices wash over him without paying too much attention to their argument about who had more kills in the fight. It wasn’t until he heard Bucky moving around and a sharp intake of breath from Joaquin that he sat up again.

“Hey, uh, Buck?” Joaquin started uncertainly. Bucky was halfway through tying his hair back, a rubber-band in his mouth, hands swooping up a pony-tail. He raised an eyebrow at Joaquin. “There’s, uh… Well, there’s something on your neck.”

Sam was on his feet immediately. Bucky’s hand went from his hair to his neck, obscuring whatever Joaquin saw. The rubber-band fell from his mouth. The scowl was gone.

“Move,” Sam ordered, prying Bucky’s hand back from his neck. Bucky let him–Bucky always let him do what he wanted–and then closed his fingers around Sam’s wrist tightly. Sam let him because Sam always let him.

On the back of Bucky’s neck, just along the curve of it, next to a particularly knobby vertebrae was something that looked like a scar, but which Sam knew definitely hadn’t been there. It was cartoon heart shaped with a break in the line on the far right side and a simple arrow cutting through at a sharp angle from the left bottom to right top.

“Oh, shit, is that–” Joaquin started and Bucky elbowed him away.

“Why didn’t you say you got hit?” Sam demanded.

“I didn’t know,” Bucky grunted. But his hold didn’t slacken on Sam’s wrist, which Sam thought meant he already had a pretty good idea of what was on his neck. He eventually admitted, “I didn’t know it was an arrow. It was sharp. Cutting. I thought it was their talons or something. I didn’t pull an arrow out of my neck,” he added drily.

Sam turned Bucky and held his head still as he ran a quick examination. He didn’t know what Love Struck would look like, but he figured he’d at least check Bucky’s pupils and temperature. “How do you feel?”

“I don’t feel like sticking my tongue down anyone’s throat, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“You’re going to need a full evaluation. Hill’s gonna keep you for observation for ages.”

The scowl came back, sudden and fierce but like a flash in a pan. His gaze met Sam’s and he softened again. “I hate staying at the compound.”

“It’ll be fine,” Sam assured. He took another glance over Bucky’s face and then let go of him slowly. “But you actually have to be honest if you start feeling weird.”

“I got nicked however long ago and I feel fine,” Bucky insisted again.

“Can I make a rude and untrue joke?” Joaquin asked. “I mean, it’s just laying there.”

Bucky turned to land a flat gaze on him. “How does someone without a heart get cursed by a Cupid?” he ventured.

Joaquin grinned and knocked his shoulder into Bucky’s. “Hey, I wouldn’t really mean it. Besides, maybe the other arrow hit a building or something. We should circle back around. See if you suddenly have an appreciation for architecture.”

The lore Hill had given them suggested that Cupids shot two arrows at a time. That’s how the match was made. The lore also suggested that Cupids never missed. Sam assumed that statistic did not include a caveat for inanimate objects as a target. He was almost certain the arrows had to hit two people.

“We’ll work it out later,” he said. “You just focus on, like, checking in with yourself or something.”

Bucky scowled again and stepped around Sam, throwing himself over the bench Sam was supposed to be napping on. He mimicked Sam’s previous position, throwing an arm over his eyes and stretching out so no one could sit near him.

“Yeah,” Joaquin agreed, taking up residence on one of the passenger seats. “He’s fine.”

Sam rolled his eyes, but let his gaze linger on Bucky for a moment longer. When he was sure there was nothing he could immediately diagnose, he turned to slide down the wall, drop his head back, and close his eyes. The rest of this could be handled later. It’s not like Bucky was about to go raving mad right now.

Continue on AO3

[glasshcvse]

I always thought Stupid Cupid would be on the same level as Red Velvet in terms of popularity! In your opinion which real group would you assign for your fic groups in those terms?

AINE ! ⠀ › ⠀ SAYS. omg you're being too nice anon!! i think red velvet is wayyy up the scale when looking at stupid cupid's popularity– took me a hot second to cook something up, but under the cut, you'll find all of my important groups / ocs ( including both npc & under co. groups! ) and their popularity based on irl kpop groups!

first, we have lilypad, aka the saviours of glasshouse! i'd definitely say that they're on par with kara! they've been releasing bops from the getgo, and have been doing so until their unfortunate ( or fortunate in this case ) disbandment, so kara would be the best group to mention in this case, especially when back in 2009, glasshouse only had crumbs and a handful of trainees to go with.

next on the list is raevil, aka the dead women walking! raevil = twice, and you can't prove me wrong!! the fact that each member comes from a different country just goes well with the public ( international more than domestic, bc we all know how knetz are about these types of things ), and they for sure know how to charm people to at least listen to their songs occasionally. their popularity grew as time passed, so raevil being on the same scale as twice right now would be a plausible answer!

sorry to disappoint you, anon, but stupid cupid's popularity goes lower than red velvet's– i'd say ive or kepler would be more of an appropriate answer, especially because everyone can clearly see the favouritism in stcp ( looking at tomie ). it's a good thing that their discography is full of mostly cute songs, otherwise, i don't think stupid cupid would've been supported this much if it their concept was anything else... i imagine them being compared to lilypad a lot if they had a different concept, and they'd kind of flop. yeah, their fandom is definitely smaller compared to raevil's, but they have some crazy ass fans out there ( think orbits during that twitter era )–

at the beginning of their career, i surely saw nextone go hand in hand with stray kids based on popularity, especially because prdx had a different concept from any other artists from the company, were their first bg and they were promoted a lot during their pre-debut era by stupid cupid. however, after the whole scandal happened with one of the members and they went on a hiatus for a year, the hype kind of died down, so now i'd say they're kinda like monsta x / the boyz!

hero is 4th generation's taemin! of course, his popularity slowly grew as he went through a shitty survival show, but once he actually debuted as a soloist, the fandom significantly grew, and it's still growing as time goes by. there's a reason why he's called an all-round and ace of kpop! although, if you asked him, he'd deny being that popular, but the receipts don't lie, nor do his album sales that get sold out after every comeback!

and last but definitely not least, we have crystyle! && just like everyone expected, i imagine them to have the same popularity as got the beat! they also have some similarities; as they're both project groups with members from different groups ( or are soloists ), so saying they have the same popularity as got would be true. not only that, but each member has their own fandom that just combined in the end to support the girls as a group!

and that's it ( for now )! come back later if there are any updates to this~

[isabelopaque]

jay do u have ... future swiftli (is that how u spell it) hcings .. the sillies ever :3 ?

u are literally an angel for indulging me in my insanity i love u cupid. YEAS i have so many bc i am. not normal about them LMAO. shout out my bff chippy (@onesadfroggy )for getting me hooked on future au originally. SORRY THIS GOT SO LONG. MY BAD

in my mind its like 10-20ish years post where they are now so theyve already saved the world :-) its a happy future au just for me to smile about. the sky isnt red anymore and theyre old enough to understand themselves better and linc has figured out his sexuality and it makes me ouughh... linc gets top surgery and taylor starts on hormones and originally i had imagined a little sunset marriage BUT NOW THEYRE ALREADY MARRIED... i think after everything they had a little vow renewal with just the two of them not in space and its just their friend group and linc is super nervous and blushy and taylor is like its no biggie and then gets super scared like 5 minutes before because its Real now and oh my god he has a Husband and they love each other so much.... nicky comes back to help officiate and they invite their families so grant and marco can see the wedding this time. its at a smaller beach venue near san dimas and everyone gets dressed up even though theres only like 20 people coming total its really cute. norm and scary help them get ready individually i think and theyre the worst and most passionate hypemen. they get real wedding rings and taylor wears one on his horn where he used to wear his friendship bracelet from linc :-). later they get a little house together near the others so they can keep in touch with their codependent bffs but still have a space just for Them :-) they have a really cute domestic life and at first they try really hard to be romantic even when alone like tay dressing up and trying to cook a big breakfast for linc and its like that one meme who is burning down my kitchen. cooking breakfast for my beautiful wife. idk theyre very silly... i think taylor adopts a stray cat off a the street and linc is like i dont know if i want a pet right now but it immediately bonds with him and he gives in so easy. i dont have a name picked out for their kitty cat yet but shes dear to me... shaggy hair grey cat i think. older lady. taylor uses crutches as he gets older and gets more help w his disability stuff and linc relaxes a lot more as they get older. i think taylor volunteers at art studios and he and linc have cheesy mug decorating dates. linc doesnt really do a lot of soccer himself anymore but he coaches little kid soccer on the side and he likes being able to see them find joy in that :-) idk this is very rambly

[aajjks]

TC!dad!JK

“no” you smile “i’m not gonna divorce you but you didn’t answer my question”

you brush jungkook’s bangs out of his face to get a good look at him and when you do, you’re reminded how much the children look like him. from his sparkling, doe eyes to his cupid bow lips and even his round cheeks, each of them have some kind of resemblance to him, especially jinseoul.

“i want to be far away from this with you and the kids but i know the kingdom and people of this country matter a lot to you. but is being king what you really want? i want to know what jungkook wants, not what the king of goryeo wants”

you scoot closer to jungkook and use the same hand that played in his hair to wipe the tears that was previously shed.

“and you better tell me exactly what you’re thinking. all of our kids are sleep and you’re on bedrest so you have no excuse to dodge my question. we need this anyways” you say while fitting your smaller hand in jungkook’s link your fingers with his.

jungkook takes a minute to respond, does he really want to leave or does he want to stay?

what will it be?

~🫧

How is he supposed to answer this question?

“Yn… I want to stay here with you, with our children. I love being a king.” Honesty is the best policy, this power allowed him to have you, and he also promised his mother to always protect this nation and to be a king that was like the father to her homeland.

“D-Do you want me to give up everything? Be honest with me.” Jungkook asks you, with a serious look, he’s confused because you’re such a responsible queen to goryeo and he’s taken aback.”

“I’m nothing if I’m not a king yn.” He says with sincerity because this is his life, and he loves it. “Being the conqueror as my people call me- this is my identity.” Jungkook is scared that you’re going to be offended or you might rethink your decision about not leaving him.

“It’s been years. I’ve been king since I was 17 yn… I can’t give this up.”

[purplegn0mes]

Ok so in an attempt to overcome my stupid creative block I wrote a little one shot about my OCs Niles and Lucia

For context; it takes place in a human AU that I was going to write (the story’s called Times Like These and I posted the first chapter on Wattpad if you’d like to read that first, but you don’t have to to understand what’s happening in this) and so I’ll just post it here since I can’t really show it off anywhere else Lmao

Musical Remedy

A small huff exhaled from Niles’s mouth as he marched his way down the flight of stairs so familiar that he felt no need to hover his hand over the railing like he would anywhere else. At the moment the house was silent, one would assume it was empty aside from him if they were to enter through the front door. But no, every occupant of the house was within its walls, in separate rooms, with no desire to leave their respective spots until supper time.

It was a quiet afternoon, cloudy skies making the interior exceptionally dark for this time of day, gentle droplets of cold rain dripping down the windows of the living room. Niles paid no mind to the faint whispers of thunder in the distance as his sore feet carried him past the abundance of couches and coffee tables in the spacious living room. Crossing his way into the narrow corridor hidden behind the wall and fireplace, he made his way into the smaller, more old-fashion styled den in the corner of the house that was almost always vacant. There really was no purpose to this room other than just being an extra space for Juliet to clean. Although the bay window that provided a view of the backyard was a pleasant feature.

Inside the small den was furnishing you’d expect from someone born in a generation older than Niles’s parents. Floral sofa with a crocheted blanket sitting atop its frame, and equally tacky throw pillows propped up on either side of the cushions. Various mundane portraits of landscapes hung on the crepe-colored walls. A closet that was used for storage, possibly containing broken vacuum cleaners or dusty board games that haven’t been touched in a decade. A lamp provided with a shade painted with Cupid angels dancing about in mid-air. Yeah, it was obvious that when Gnomeo and Juliet moved into his grandfather’s house that they didn’t bother changing much with this room. However, recently it had been used more by Niles, due to the mahogany piano that stood against the wall parallel to the sofa.

Niles had always loved music. As a kid he always found himself humming along to the background music of his video games or movies he watched a dozen times. He would (rarely) dance around his room singing melodies he had heard over the radio in his parents’ car. But only a few months ago did he realize he could actually make music.

And he loved it. He loved every second he spent at the piano. Loved every note that he played, loved the way it sounded in his ears and the fact that he was creating such beautiful sounds. He loved singing along to the beat. He loved listening to a song and immediately repeating it on the instrument as if he’s played it a hundred times, yet he only just learned the notes by simply listening to them.

Niles had a talent, and a good ear too. His family had noticed this. His father was the first to come to the revelation when he came home from work early one day to discover the boy singing “Your Song” to himself at the piano. And to say he was in awe at what he witnessed would be an understatement. Gnomeo was enamored with the way his son played and sung so gracefully in a way that took professionals years to accomplish. He immediately suggested Niles pursue it as a regular hobby, a career even. He let the rest of the family and their close friends in on the little hidden talent of his, and from then on Niles was known as the musician of the family.

Everyday after school, once he finished his work for classes (that he would often have done before the final bell even rung), he would sit at the piano and practice, playing whatever he felt like. He would often challenge himself by playing a fast-paced or upbeat song that normal beginners wouldn’t be able to keep up with. Today, as he placed himself on the bench and hovered his fingers over the keys, he decided to take a break from the pop/rock ‘n roll music he’d normally attempt and opted for a calming, slow rhythm of harmony.

Not five minutes into his practice was he abruptly interrupted by the sound of a door opening and slamming shut, and hard footsteps coming down from the hall outside the door. He turned around to find an annoyed blonde entering the den, throwing her backpack to the floor and plopping down on the sofa with her head in her hands.

“Where’ve you been?” Niles dared to ask, despite easily picking up on his sister’s irritation. But he was curious. He thought she was home already.

Lucia let out an exasperated groan as her palms ran down her face, stretching out the skin of her cheeks, rolling her eyes so much that for a second Niles couldn’t even see her pupils. “I was at lacrosse practice and had the most stupidest conversation of my life with the coach. Oh, and guess who almost got in a wreck on the way home because some asshole decided to cut me off!”

Niles just nodded, quietly taking in the information given. He had some questions, such as why the conversation with her coach was ‘stupid’ and if she was okay from the near-miss of a collision. But he’s known Lucia his entire life, and he knew better than to pry when she wasn’t in a good mood. It was best to just sit silently and listen, to let her do the talking.

“And on top of that, my stupid fucking medication didn’t work again so I was up all night.” The girl huffed and slouched back against the sofa, arms crossed firmly over her chest. “Mum says I need a refill but I think she’s just wasting money on these damn things. The only way I’ll ever get a good nights sleep is if someone puts a rag full of chloroform over my face!”

Niles resisted the urge to laugh at such a statement. He knew she was only exaggerating, but it wouldn’t surprise him if Lucia actually went to that extreme measure. Though it did concern him that that wasn’t a possibility to rule out. “I’m sorry.” Was his sympathetic response after letting his sister breathe for a moment. He truly felt for her. He was there to witness her battle with insomnia since they were 12-years-old. Lucia was a naturally energetic person but that shouldn’t hold her hostage from a decent amount of rest every night.

Lucia let out the heaviest of sighs, shaking her head as her eyes averted to the floor where her backpack laid. “Yeah, well, nothin’ I can do about it now.” She dismissed rather quietly, and in a defeated slouch she reached down for the bag in her sight and pulled out a notebook and folder. Niles instantly realized she had silently decided to get some homework done, and felt the need to warn her that he was in the middle of practicing; hinting that she should take her studies elsewhere. But Lucia shrugged in indifference, insisting that she didn’t mind the background noise. His lips curled inwardly in reluctance. He was still getting used to playing in front of other people. Even if it was just his sister, he wasn’t all that comfortable with his musical productions being presented to her judgmental ears.

But for some unknown reason she had no intention of leaving the den, so with a sigh, Niles turned around and picked up where he left off. He decided to try a different piece, something peaceful but not classical. Something well-known to him and possibly other people around his age. “Ylang Ylang” was his immediate choice, and so, softly as ever, keys emitted the gentle notes of the familiar melody. He was able to ease back into his routine quite easily, tuning out Lucia’s presence almost entirely. Aside from the rustle of paper moving or the harsh movement of her hand brushing eraser shavings away, she was as quiet as a mouse and had she entered the house this silently he wouldn’t have even known she was there.

Maybe it was the serene melody playing just three feet away from her. Maybe it was the gentle sounds of raindrops at the bay window and thunder creeping up in the sky. Maybe it was the warm, soft lighting of the lamp on the table beside her. Or maybe it was all of these combined that were putting Lucia at ease. Every ounce of frustration and stress that had been plaguing her mind for the last half hour started to dissipate, and a weight was momentarily lifted from her chest. For a moment, she could actually breathe. She could inhale, and exhale. And inhale. And exhale. And repeat this pattern over and over. It was a rare time in her life where she actually felt…calm.

Her eyelids grew heavier by the minute. Her brain was being pulled away from alertness, her train of thought making a detour away from the homework and towards a peaceful place in her mind she never knew existed. This was a task that not even her insomnia prescriptions could accomplish. Eventually Lucia gave into temptation and placed her school stuff aside on the table. She couldn’t continue working if she wanted to (which, of course, she didn’t). Quietly as ever, the blonde girl slowly laid herself down on the sofa she never considered comfy that was now a sanctuary for her heavy head.

Hours could’ve passed and Niles would have never known. He was so lost in his own world of music and harmony that the world could’ve imploded and he would be the only person to not notice or even care. This always happened whenever he was at the piano for a long period of time. He took his craft very seriously and at every chance he got, he would patiently play until he was in “the zone”.

Perhaps he should consider this as his career. The thought had crossed his mind several times, but self-doubt and anxiety always held him back from taking the leap of faith of actually pursuing such a goal.

Oh well, that was a problem for later. Right now Niles decided to finish up and get himself a pre-dinner snack from the kitchen. After letting the last note fade into silence, he pulled the cover down to shelter the keys and stood up away from the instrument. Just as he was about to make his way out, something peculiar in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He stopped and turned, spotting Lucia lying on her side, head rested atop one of the throw pillows, eyes screwed shut and mouth parted open slightly to release tiny snores and exhales.

When did she fall asleep? For how long? Niles did a brief glance towards the antique clock on the wall. Huh, it hadn’t even been fifteen minutes yet.

The corners of his lips curved up into a small grin. Rather or not it was specifically his playing that put her to sleep, he was just glad to see his sister finally getting the rest she needed. His first thought was to leave now to avoid accidentally disrupting her slumber, but something held him back for a minute. The brotherly urge to care her was hard to fight and could not be ignored. Lucia deserved a proper recharge, something more cozy.

With a quiet sigh, the boy went over to grab the crocheted blanket, and ever so carefully draped it over Lucia’s figure, sheltering her from her shoulders down to her socked feet. She was absolutely going to tease him about this later, he was well-aware. But it would be worth it as long as she was content and at peace. Her body moved, and at first Niles winced, thinking he had woken her up, but was relieved to see she simply shifted to a more comfortable position, hand instinctively holding the edge of the blanket to hold it closer to her face. For a moment he swore he saw a smile on her face. But maybe that was just hopeful imagination.

Turning off the lamp, Niles then left the room, shutting the door behind him, only leaving it open by a crack merely to avoid making any noise. With a sealed grin, he strolled to the kitchen to fetch himself the snack he’d been craving.

From then on, Niles would put his talent to good use. His music would be the medicine Lucia had been needing for years.