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belokhvostikova · 1 year

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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤: 𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐛 𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬

𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬 | Following Friday’s events, Eddie Munson was on a mission to apologize to you, though everything fell short when your life began to crumble in a matter of hours.

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 | Swearing, yelling, crying, self-deprecating thoughts, violence, experienced anxiety and panic attack, mentions of childhood abuse and neglect, and brief mentions of blood, body shaming, and non consensual touching.

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞 | For the sake of my sanity, I'm going to need all of you to ignore the blatantly unrealistic process of making a book in this story, lol. If there are any necessary warnings that were accidently left out, please feel free to let me know!

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 | One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐈. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐡

Whatever mantra of the Munson Doctrine Eddie had been feeding himself to believe about the highest of the social hierarchy embedded within Hawkins High was really starting to fall short, specifically when your pretty face started monopolizing every one of his thoughts imaginable.

As much as he’d like to admit otherwise, Eddie Munson liked staring at your face, and it was really starting to piss him off just how much he really liked doing it. And the situation only became worse when he steadily watched your wonted bewitching smile fade into a disheartened look of dejection, because that following weekend after your impromptu photo shoot with Hellfire, became the worst week of your life.

And Eddie Munson watched it entirely unravel right in front of him.

It never really occurred to Eddie just how much he’d casually gawk at you prior to said photo shoot. I mean, you were the face of the school, of course, you were hard to miss when you practically lit up the halls with your smile. And that’s merely what Eddie had chalked it up to; your popularity involuntarily placed you at the forefront of his attention. It wasn’t the small strands of baby hairs that perfectly framed your face, whether you decided to keep your hair natural, or styled it for the fun of it; it wasn’t your enthralling eyes that seemed to almost squint close because your cheeks became so full of delight with your spellbinding laugh; and it definitely wasn’t your apologetic reassurance that everything was okay to the kid from the drama club who accidentally bumped into you, causing you to drop your books, and you gave Andy McAvoy a stern talking to when he tried to defend your honor with violence against the poor kid.

No, it was none of that that caught Eddie Munson’s attention to you (he forced himself to believe).

But now, things are different.

He’d actually gotten a chance to talk to you—yes, that cafeteria instance was the first time Eddie Munson had ever actually spoken to you, and he berated you with dehumanizing comments—and he blew it with his rash decision to automate you into a box of prissy cheerleaders that had nothing better to do than gossip with their friends- ah yes, that box, that was formulated by sexist losers who used it to justified their mean actions against innocent teenage girls. Oh, fuck, Eddie cringed to himself at the sudden self-realization.

He had to fix this. He didn’t even have to confess his feelings—which, he didn’t have *cough* *cough*—he just had to apologize for his mistakes. What he wanted to believe to be patronizing was actually sincere on your part, and you didn’t deserve any of his degrading tirade. And his conscience was letting it be known. Resuming the campaign had been a shit-show that Friday, when all he could focus on was your crying face. It became even worse when he realized that he’d never actually seen you drive—always painfully third-wheeling with Jason Carver and Chrissy Cunningham, or silently pleading to Patrick McKinney to control Andy McAvoy when he felt entitled to nonconsensually feel you up in his convertible when they drove you to school—meaning you were probably left crying alone at night waiting to be picked up, or worse, walking home. And you did it just for him. For his friends. To be included in some stupid fucking yearbook, because he made a big deal out of it in the first place.

Oh, shit, he was an awful fucking person, Eddie thought.

So, come Monday morning, he would apologize. He had all weekend to find the right words, rehearse his apology to perfection, and plan when to actually say it to you.

But Eddie Munson never got to correctly apologize to you on Monday.

Because aforementioned, Monday was the start of the worst week of your life, and he got scared and simply watched everything happen.

“No running in the halls, young lady.” Mr. Long sternly reminded, as you zoomed past him.

“Sorry, sir.” You weren’t sorry. The second he turned the corner, you picked up the pace and ran to the newspaper room, frantically attempting to shove the slender key into the slot with shaky hands.

Earlier on Saturday, the Yearbook Committee had worked to finish the final draft of the Hawkins High 1986 Yearbook, and with the team’s effort, you all concluded the first official copy that held the recognition of all staff and students intertwined with a school year’s worth of memorabilia, squished between the glossy green and orange cover that encapsulated Hawkins High.

And now, you were about to destroy it.

Sixty minutes. You had sixty minutes. You managed to wake up early that Monday morning, practically running to school, and situating yourself within the newspaper room—sweaty and exhausted—an hour early before the bell rang to commence the school day. In truth, you’d like to say you were a badass, and demolished the yearbook with no regrets, but reality had quite literally sucked, and you were panicking for a solid five minutes before you came to a consensus.

It had to be destroyed- well, not destroyed, just unbinded. God, you were such a dramatic coward.

See, that Saturday afternoon with the Yearbook Committee, you had done your part, you really did. You gathered photos, helped have them printed, assisted Nancy Wheeler with the placement of pages, and took over binding the book together when Fred Benson’s scrawny hands cramped into oblivion. You also may have—very discreetly—had Hellfire’s picture printed, created an entirely new page to fit them between the Glee and Math Club, and it was then you realized you didn’t even know half of their names. It had never occurred to you on Friday night that—with the exception of Eddie Munson, Lucas Sinclair, and Mike Wheeler—you never caught the names of the other four members, prompting you to lose precious time after having to locate their stupid names in the student registry for identification—they weren’t stupid, you were just really frustrated at that point.

And now, on this fine Monday morning, you persevered through blistering callouses, contracting muscles, and sore knuckles to unbind and bind back the yearbook with an additional page within the “Hawkins High’s Clubs” recognitional section.

Hellfire’s page.

And it was perfect.

The pages were still intact with their crisp stiffness of that of a newly unopened book, and you cleaned off any smudges that impaired the quality of work within the creation. You stood back. You couldn’t help the soft giggle that left your lips at the mere sight of Hellfire sticking out like a sore thumb against the formality of the other photos—in true Hellfire fashion. But there it was. Their title, their photo, and their names that gave them the minimal ask to simply be acknowledged in a school that consistently disregarded their beings, and you were happy they finally got it. They deserved it. Even if Friday’s event left you crying alone in your bed feeling awful. It was worth it. Your thumb gently caressed the smooth page of their photo—Eddie’s photo—and reminisced on that night.

Had you actually done something terrible? Was Eddie right to call you out on your actions? You certainly knew you hadn’t caused this entire commotion out of pitiness, though you understood where he may have interpreted it as such. I mean, even though you never did anything, your friends made his life a living hell, villainizing his differences, casting him as a danger to society, affecting his life beyond just a superficial high school social life. It was true torment.

You understood the facade which Eddie Munson had to put on to protect himself, but what you didn’t understand was the sudden shallowness that appeared when you thought you proved yourself to be more than just a ditzy cheerleader. Why were you even trying to prove yourself to some guy? Eddie Munson was an awful person. Right? He yelled at you, judged you, degraded you, and all for nothing- well, as far as you knew. So yeah, Eddie Munson was an awful person. You may have understood him, but he was still an asshole. You’d done your part, adding Hellfire to the yearbook, and that was that. That was all you needed to do. You no longer had to think about his stupid feelings, his stupid hair—which you totally didn’t want to run your hands through—his stupid brown eyes that made you shutter as they bore into yours, and his stupidly beautiful smile. You also kinda wondered how his hands might feel on your-

“What are you doing here?”

Jesus Christ, how long has Nancy Wheeler been standing there? You didn’t even hear the door open.

“Uh, um, j-just looking at the, uh, yearbook?” You mumbled. You wished you had better control over your facial expressions, because right now, Nancy Wheeler was eyeing the fuck out of your worried guise.

“You came to school early just to see the yearbook?” She questioned.

“W-well, yeah, I mean, isn’t that why you’re here early? …Right?” You prayed.

Nancy blinked. “Yeah, I guess, just had to make sure everything was correct before Fred takes it to make copies.”

“Oh, Fred’s here?” You piqued with interest.

Fred Benson didn’t actually pique your interest all too much—though, it was quite fascinating seeing how fast his slender fingers would cramp after just a couple minutes of working—but he did give the perfect escape from Nancy Wheeler’s captious glare.

“Uh, yeah, he’s out front waiting for the book-”

“I’ll hand it to him!” You interjected, watching her face scrunch with confusion. You could only awkwardly laugh, “You know me and Fred,” you zoomed right past her, “just always so, uh… tight.” And you left without further explanation.

Shoving Mr. Long’s word of chastisement right up his ass, you ran down the empty hall, yearbook held tightly in your tired hands, as you rejected any of Nancy’s calls for you to come back. Reaching the double glass doors, you spotted Fred mindlessly tweaking with his camera in the front seat of his car.

“Fred!” You could visibly make out the bewildered “huh” that fell from his gaping mouth from your sudden appearance. “Fred, here take this and go!” You shoved the yearbook past the small crack of his window.

“W-wait, didn’t Nancy want to che-”

“No, she sent me to give this to you!” You urged. “And she said go now, or else the copies won’t be done in time!” My god, the entirety of this situation had you lying more than you ever had in your life.

“But the distributors don’t close until six-”

“Fred, I don’t care!” You whined. “Do you really want to make Nancy upset?!” If your calculations were correct, Nancy Wheeler’s flats were currently speed walking—she was one to follow the rules—past Mrs. Durberry’s science classroom, meaning you had ten more seconds until she appeared.

“Well, n-no-”

“Then drive! Now, please!” He scrambled to turn his car on, and luckily, the old piece of junk managed to roar alive with a heavy blow of carbon dioxide, and you heaved watching Fred Benson skirt past the incoming wave of students on bikes and cars, leaving tire tracks on the cracked pavements. When he came back, you’d be sure to apologize for demanding him so aggressively.

Nancy Wheeler screamed your name.

Turning around, she came pummeling towards you with a might of pure irritation. “What the hell was that?! I didn’t even get to check the book!”

You huffed with exhaustion. It was only 8:18 a.m and it had already been a long day. “Nance, come on, I’ve been on the Yearbook Committee for the last three years, don’t you trust me by now?” Admittedly, guilting Nancy probably wasn’t the best option, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

“I don’t care how long you’ve been in the committee, I have the authority to make final calls, not you!” Gee, you really had an act for getting people to yell in your face. Were you actually the problem?

“Look, I understand, but I promise everything was perfect with the yearbook. I mean, come on, you saw the finished product on Saturday when we completed it.” You reasoned.

Nancy took a deep breath to regulate herself. “This is your only strike.” She pointed a finger at you like a child. “You pull something like this again, and you're off the committee. Understand?”

You swallowed thickly. The trouble you went through just for Eddie Munson- his friends. Just for his friends. “Yes, I understand.” You submitted quietly. “But I promise, the book was fine, everything is going to be perfectly okay.”

Everything was not perfectly okay.

Because unlike your little white lie of being “tight” with Fred Benson, he actually was with Nancy Wheeler, and, boy, did he rat you out when he paged through the printed copies of the yearbook and found the seven believed satanic cultists mischievously smiling right back at him, tainting the committee’s precious work.

It was in the midst of your A.P U.S History class when the staticy call of your name over the intercom interrupted Mr. Whitney’s lecture of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and prompted you to the principal’s office at 10:57 a.m. Now, it wasn’t an unusual occurrence for Principal Higgins to often call you down as you were a valued student representative of Hawkins High, though you quickly knew your visitation had nothing in relation to an honor medal or scholarship award. No, it became quite evident that such subject matter was beyond any congratulations to you, because upon entering, you were faced with a choleric Nancy Wheeler, displeased Principal Higgins, and timid Fred Benson. You were fucking screwed, I mean, Principal Higgins quite literally had a yearbook in his hand. Crazy part of it all is that a good third of your being actually believed you may have gotten away with it, but they managed to find out in a matter of two fucking hours. Who were you kidding?

There was only so much nonchalant-ness you could mask, though your previous revelation of being unable to control your facial expressions was really biting you in the ass, and your insistent cracking under pressure was palpable.

Your wide eyes flashed between everyone as they stared you down. You didn’t speak. You couldn’t even manage to speak. And they didn’t speak. Why wasn’t anyone speaking?

“Aw, you miss me already, Higgy-”

Everyone’s attention snapped at Eddie’s sneering voice as he strutted his grand entrance, though he was quick to flinch back in surprise when he saw everyone looking at him. And you, shit you were here! You were here looking at him. He’d been searching for you all morning just to apologize, and now you were here… with everyone… why was everyone here?

“Now that I have everyone situated,” Principal Higgins cleared his throat, “I’d like to clear up a matter that has been brought to my attention. I’m sure as you all are well aware of, an unauthorized change has been made to our yearbook and I’m looking to get to the bottom of it.” Higgins turned to you, “Ms. Y/L/N,” he spoke with such care, “this is a safe place for honesty. Did Mr. Munson subject you into making these changes?” With a dramatic slam to his desk, the yearbook was turned open to showcase Hellfire’s designated spot on the page.

“What?!” Both you and Eddie questioned in unison.

“I didn’t “subject” her to shit!” He was quick to rightfully defend.

“Language!” Principal Higgins was even quicker to yell back.

The atmosphere was taut, and it felt like their judgmental stares were swallowing you into an endless blackhole of utter disappointment and failure. You couldn’t even muster up the courage to meet their gaze, simply staring at the old rug beneath your sneakers, wishing it’d come alive and consume you already.

“Ms. Y/L/N, is that true?” Principal Higgins lectured you.

A part of Eddie actually wished you would have lied and accused him of being the aggressor while you were the helpless victim, because that was the usual reality of Eddie Munson: to be denigrated. It would have justified his previous beratement against you from Friday, it would have supported his initial beliefs about you, it would have cleared him of being an asshole, and most of all, it would have changed the way he viewed you, from a genuinely beautiful person inside and out that took a sincere interest in bringing simple recognition to him and his friends to a cold-hearted superficial bitch that chalked up this elaborate plan as a vendetta with your jock friends.

But Eddie Munson knew you weren’t like that.

Which only made it hurt worse when he watched you pain through the sting of your manicured nails stabbing into your palms and your teeth sinking into your tender lip.

“Y-yes, that’s, uh, true, sir.” Your voice was so delicate, Eddie was ready to jump in and just take the blame. “He didn’t make me do anything, it was, uh, all me. I lied, and made him and his friends take the photo. And, well, I, uh, added the page and told Fred to print it.”

You shuddered at the sudden slap of the book, as Principal Higgins closed it with much despondency against you. “And is there valid reasoning as to why?!” Principal Higgins wasn’t one to be known for his placidness and he was quick to make that apparent. “You are the best student at this establishment, you should not be falling under influence of a hooligan like Mr. Munson! How have you fallen so naive all of a sudden?!”

You were really tugging on Eddie’s heart the way your eyes grew round with panic, completely helpless to the grown man scolding you, just as he did last Friday. And while he may have caused it the initial time, he’d be damned to watch it happen to you again.

“Hey, look, you can insult me all you want, but you don’t have to yell at her like she made some dire mistake!” Eddie lambasted Principal Higgins, far more harsh than any regular tone Eddie used when he was regularly being reprimanded.

Higgins could only scoff in disbelief. “Vandalizing school property isn’t a mistake to you, Mr. Munson?! Well, given your grotesque track record of uncivilized activities, it seems as though I’ve answered my own question!” He sneered back with intended offense.

“Please, ‘vandalizing school property?!’” Eddie mocked. “She fucking put our picture in the yearbook, and for good reason, too. You’re the one at fault here, excluding students from recognition!”

The thudding sound of your heartbeat was completely muting you from the onslaught of shouts that was suffocating you in the tight room. While Nancy Wheeler was beginning to contemplate if telling Principal Higgins was too far, Fred Benson was merely watching with joy that none of the blame was being casted on him, and you, well, your body was racking with stiffness, as it suddenly felt like your airway was tightening every breath out of you. Your hands began shaking by your side, unable to control the instantaneous wave of trepidation, as everything was beginning to blur around you.

And no one was noticing.

“I have rightful reasons to exclude your gang of misfits from my yearbook!” Principal Higgins walked from his desk, standing against Eddie with pure spite in his eyes. “You and your posse of cons and aberrations have done nothing but taint the reputation of our school and town, running around like imbeciles who have nothing better to do than waste their lives away! And I will not stand to have you be associated with the work I’ve done to correct this school from delinquents like yourself!”

Chest heaving and nostrils flared, the Eddie Munson from the cafeteria instance was back, though angrier, and he was two seconds from actually gaining an assault charge from hitting Principal Higgins square in the face. But the older man was quick to turn, and eject his dissonant castigate towards you.

“And you, missy!” Your eyes were blinking posthaste with fret to control the swell of tears that were burning your eyes, at the clashing outburst being directed against you. “How did you even gain the facilities to take such picture?!”

Your mouth was dry with consternation, unable to formulate words, and simply quivering your mouth open.

And unlucky for you, Fred Benson spoke for you.

“After our yearbook meeting on Friday,” heads snapped at his gravelly voice, “she said she was going to stay after to work, and that she would lock up herself. She must have taken the key, and stolen a camera.”

Higgins scoffed with great disgust as he judged you, before turning to Nancy. “Ms. Wheeler, as president of the Yearbook Committee, had you permitted her to do so?”

Nancy looked at you with guilt. She hadn’t anticipated the situation to blow up this much, though she spoke honestly to the authoritative eyes of Higgins. “Uh, no, I didn’t.” She meekly answered.

“And Mr. Munson,” Eddie rolled his eyes, trying to control his frustrations before doing something he wouldn’t be able to take back. “When did Ms. Y/L/N enforce these photos?”

“Why the hell does that even matter?” Eddie gritted with a clenched jaw of tension.

“Mr. Munson, you choose not to answer me, and I will not hesitate to place you as an accomplice, and you certainly cannot afford another detention or suspension if you’re planning on finally ending this school year as a graduate.” In a perfect world, Eddie Munson would have lied for you and lessened whatever punishment you were about to receive, but Hawkins, Indiana was far from perfect, the threat made him budge under the pressure of his potential future and your distraught eyes.

“It was, uh, after her cheer practice. After school.” He sheepishly murmured with regret.

“Ah,” Principal Higgins turned to your shaking stature. “So, not only did you make unauthorized changes to the school yearbook, but you stole school property, used our equipment prohibitively outside of school hours, and actively unsubordinated my authority. I have to say, I am awfully disappointed in the person you have become, Ms. Y/L/N, and I am ashamed to have valued you so highly when you simply choose to go down the path of delinquency.” Everything about Principal Higgins words were humiliating and slammed you into a vicious cycle of believing the worst about yourself. “Finish the rest of your day,” he sighed, “but you’ll be suspended for the rest of the week for your actions.” Your heart sank at his news, and Eddie stood dumbfounded that he contributed to it.

Your visions grew blurry under the swell of tears, and your breath was becoming sporadic with panic, and everyone just kept fucking staring at you. “N-no, sir, p-please!” You choked, “I-I have scholarships, a-and acceptances that I-I’m still waiting to hear back from, this could ruin that for me, p-please, sir!”

While your pleads were being disregarded, everyone stood stun watching your fate unfold in front of you. Eddie Munson didn’t know what to do. Nobody did. On top of being berated by him from Friday, you were now facing the worst possible consequence for something so trivial, and he watched it happen. Granted, there was quite literally nothing Eddie could do to fix the situation, but seeing you stand there, panicked about your future and trying to conceal your incoming sobs through the ache of heart palpitations, it was fucking excruciating for him to witness.

“You should have thought about that before you made your choices. Everything is on you.” His words were ringing in your ear like a loop confirming everything you’ve ever hated about yourself. “I’ll be sure to let your father know of the news, and as for your spot on the committee, it is up to Ms. Wheeler to determine where you stand. Now go, everyone back to class.”

Fred Benson was first to leave, giddy to have been cleared from any trouble. Eddie Munson should have left, but he couldn’t stand to leave, simply watching you turn to Nancy Wheeler in a flash. Your round eyes were pleading to her to let you stay, but her previous words of “This is your only strike,” was tormenting you. She sighed, “I’m sorry,” and the shake of her head answered everything before she could verbalize it.

You were off.

You stormed out of the room, bumping shoulders with Eddie, though with no malice intent, just simply needing to get out. The second you reached the clearing of the empty hall, your tears were drowning your cheeks, your sobs so unbearably hard your breathing staggered for release. Suddenly, your little cashmere sweater felt like it was sticking to your skin, giving you hot flashes that brought dizziness to your pounding head. The blood battering your ears cleared out any noise, including Eddie’s calls of your name. He reached out to hold your arm, causing you to severely flinch in hysteria, and he appeared devastatingly concerned for your state of being.

“Sorry! Ar-are you okay?” He winced at the loud sob you choked out, as he felt stupid for even asking you that question. “Look, everything, uh, everything’s gonna be fine.” He rushed to reassure. In truth, Eddie Munson was completely talking out of his ass, he didn’t know if everything was going to be fine, your panicking was just causing him to panic, and all he wanted was for you to be okay. “J-just, uh, breathe for me.” He offered.

“I-I c-can’t! I’m scared, Eddie, help me!” You pleaded with frightened eyes.

Your beg hit too close to home. Suddenly, Eddie was a little boy curled up in the corner of his trashed living room, as he watched his parents abuse one another with words and fists. He pleaded the same words to his parents, who merely ignored his shaking little body. Such horrific events disfigured Eddie Munson’s belief of healing. No one cared for his emotions, no one cared for his feelings, and no one cared to make sure he was okay. So, yes, Eddie Munson yelled at you Friday night because he was petrified. Petrified to be hurt, just as everyone else had done, because to Eddie Munson, that was his fate. To be hurt and to be forgotten. Maybe that’s why he cared so much about being excluded from the school yearbook. While anyone would have rightfully been upset, being excluded cemented the notion that Eddie Munson was disposable. His father spoke it, the townspeople spoke, his teachers spoke, and his peers spoke it. But you didn’t, and that fucking scared him. It’s why he yelled, it’s why he panicked, and it’s why he’d try anything to help you right now.

“I-I know, sweetheart, just listen to me, please.” He quietly spoke. “I’m not gonna touch you or anything, I just really need you to listen to me.”

You fervently nodded your head, and he sighed with relief, because though minor, it was progress, and progress was incredible.

“I, uh, I want you to focus on my voice, okay?” His wide eyes connected with your red ones. “I wouldn’t lie to you, and I mean it when I say everything will be okay. I-I’ll make sure of it.”

Could he physically do that? No. But would he try his damn hardest, putting his being through anything to make it happen? Yes. For you.

“Okay, I want you to-”

“What are you doing to her?!”

Eddie’s eyes screwed shut with disappointment.

Jessica fucking Lewis.

“Get away from her!” She charged past him to get to your hysterical figure. “Did you do something?!”

“No, no, I’m trying to fucking help her.” Eddie implored. “Stop yelling, she’s having a fucking panic attack.” He gritted through his teeth.

“Don’t fucking come near her ever again, you freak!” Eddie watched as you tried to get your words out, but your shrinking throat made it impossible to get your voice out, and he recoiled, watching the fear in your eyes as Jessica held a tight grip in your arms.

But before he could stop her, Jessica was dragging you into the girls bathroom, and he stood frozen doing everything in his power to not rip out his hair in frustration.

Aside from her fault-finding comments against Eddie, Jessica Lewis had actually been a fairly good friend to you through the years of cheer, connecting with the girls through the pact of lifelong sisterhood, as she insisted. Though such pact also came with unwarranted advice when she felt one of you was “falling out of line” with a pristine, perfect image. That being said, when she found you panicking at the hands of Eddie Munson, she was actually concerned, impetuous, yes, but concerned, nonetheless. She’d sat with you, decisively skipping the rest of Mrs. Otis’ home economics class, to console you, bitching out any innocent girl to leave as they attempted to alleviate themselves, while you sat heaving with the back of your thighs sticking to cold tiles of the bathroom. When you did finally manage to catch your breath and calm your heart rate to a healthy status, Jessica had petted your hair with care, constantly asking what was wrong and what Eddie had done. Through your tremored voice, you hoarsely clarified that “He didn’t do anything,” and “He was just trying to help.” That revelation had actually baffled Jessica Lewis, honestly, some part of her believing you to be lying, but she gave it a rest when you assiduously shook your head in response to her asking what was actually wrong. By then, the bell had rung to signal the start of third period.

And it was during said third period when your situation only worsened completely unbeknownst to you.

While you were in the middle of trying to focus on your quiz—which proved damn near impossible after today’s events—Fred Benson was seemingly trying to get back at you for nearly inducing him into a heart attack after your actions almost cost him his spot on the Newspaper and Yearbook Committee (In reality, Nancy Wheeler had only yelled at him for not previously checking the books).

See, once Fred had informed the rest of the Yearbook Committee of what you had done and how you were being punished, the news had spread like wildfire; nerds, geeks, punks, jocks, everyone knew one version or another. “Perfect Cheerleader Falls Under Satanic Cultist’s Influence and Vandalizes School Facilities,'' small town high school students sure had a talent to dramatize any given situation. You’d only taken a picture, that’s all it was, but the students of Hawkins High had conspired together to formulate you into a freak slut who allegedly got fucked by the Eddie Munson after cheer practice in exchange for putting his club in the yearbook.

As the students of your class hurtled to mitigate the dreaded boredom of the school day with the clashing laughter and stale food of lunch, you sighed in your seat, head pounded and anxiety still churning in your mind and stomach, slowly packing up your belongings before handing over the quiz—quite literally the worst you’ve ever performed on one. Lunch seemed like the worst possible thing to conquer, right now. Despite the horrid grumbling of your stomach, you felt no need to satiate that hunger, as your appetite was long gone for the afternoon. In addition, you’d known Jessica Lewis long enough to know that she had informed all your friends of your panic attack, and if you chose to call her out on it, you knew you would only be met with a “I’m only trying to help,” as if you needed an intervention. She’d done it to Paige Semore when the girl healthy gained a couple pounds over the summer and got ridiculed by Jess.

But when you entered the cafeteria, you quickly wished you were subjected to Jessica Lewis’ harmful “advice”, rather than the reality you got.

The sound of the heavy double doors announced your arrival, and suddenly all eyes were on you. No, like quite literally, all eyes were on you. No greeting smiles from acquaintances, no shying-away looks from crushing students, no bright wave hello from Chrissy Cunningham from across the cafeteria, in fact, she was heavily avoiding you, seemingly finding the table more interesting as Jason Carver glared at you. Everyone was staring at you as if, without notice, you had become the town pariah. Because you had. Your perturbation had bombarded you like a missile hit, as quiet whispers flooded your senses. Peering around you caught his eyeline. Eddie. His brows had severely been furrowed with much worry, because he knew. He knew how quickly it went around, and he knew just how bad the news got twisted. Now, he was no stranger to the onslaught of destructive rumors, but you weren’t, and with the day you had, his chest was pounding with dread for you.

Chalking it up to merely being in your head, you swallowed the lump in your throat, and with quick steps, you sped to your usual lunch table. But everyone kept staring- your friends were staring. “Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?” You whispered, as they genuinely looked at you with disgust.

“Why don’t you tell us?” Jason scowled. “Seems like you’re the one who caused all of this, you desperate slut.”

Your mouth dropped incredulously. “What did you just call me?”

“You fucking heard me!” Jason stood from his chair, rejecting Chrissy’s quiet ask to not cause a scene. “It’s exactly what you are.” He laughed.

Eddie Munson’s residual anger was fueling. Hard. He stood from his chair all the way across the room, metal legs scraping the floor with a deafening screech. But his presence only caught the worst attention. “Oh, would you look at that? Your little freak coming to help you?”

Eddie faltered at your watery eyes, begging for everything to just stop. If he spoke, nothing would help you. “What are you talking about?” Your voice stung with pleads to just understand what was happening to you.

“Stop acting like you don’t fucking know!” Andy’s booming voice startled you. “You wanna choose some gross freak to fuck, then fine by us, go right ahead, but don’t think that you’ll be able to with us!” Andy McAvoy was taking it far more personal. He liked you. That was obvious. But hearing the rumors simply led him to believe you chose Eddie Munson over him.

“What?” Your voice cracked in distress.

Eddie had had enough.

“She didn’t fucking do anything!” He marched his way over. All the boys of the basketball team stood in preparation for a fight that Eddie Munson was known to love to finish. Finish, not start. “Your bland lives got that fucking boring you all have to go around making shit up to make things interesting?! She didn’t do anything!”

“Aw, defending your precious little fuck toy, isn’t that cu-”

Chrissy Cunningham's shrilling scream startled the entire cafeteria as Jason Carver’s blood stained her powdery skin. You flinched at the bone-crunching punch that busted Jason’s pretty face, and everything felt heavy in your chest. Your hands were beginning to shake beyond your control, as everything was horrifyingly disfiguring in front of you. It was happening again. Before your mind was about to shut off from the assault of today’s events, your instinct had elicited all rash decisions, and you had to leave. All you could comprehend was the diffusing sounds of students instigating the fight before everything fell silent and you trudged down the hall to escape.

Staff were quick to call Eddie’s name before another detrimental hit was casted upon Jason. It was only then, Eddie’s judgment was left unclouded, and he noticed you were gone. “Did she leave?” He hadn’t necessarily asked anyone in particular, moreso questioning himself, but Chrissy Cunningham had ardently answered him with a swift nod of her head and bulging eyes of fear.

Eddie broke through the doors with force, catching you near the end of the hall. “Y/N!” You didn’t turn, though. Every repeated call of your name fell with no response, and he chased you down, following you into the zephyr of the afternoon weather outside. “Y/N, c’mon, wait!” He’d grabbed your arm.

“What?!”

Eddie staggered at your biting tone. Not once, in the four years he’d known of you—freshman to senior year—had he ever heard your voice so malicious, yet drowning in urgence to make everything stop. Your inconsolable state devastating him helplessly.

“I-I’m sorry.” He sighed so softly.

“‘Sorry?’” You affronted. “Now you’re sorry?! After everything that’s happened! Why, is it out of fucking pity?!” Internally, Eddie was begging you to stop, because if you kept yelling at him like this, his defense mechanism was going to lash out, especially when he was already angry from everything that’s just happened. “I don’t want some stupid apology, not when every time you appear, my life gets worse! I just want you away!” You cried.

Eddie scoffed in disbelief. Were you actually blaming him for all this? No, you weren’t. But after the day you just had, you were not looking to be comforted by someone who partially hurt you. But Eddie Munson couldn’t understand. His judgment had a habit of being clouded; his cynicism about anything good happening to him had protected him from a lifetime of hurt, and now, unfortunately, your rightfully pent up polemic about him was believing his suspicions to be true.

“This isn’t my fucking fault, you’re the one who wanted to take our picture in the first place!” He shouted, shielding his vulnerability.

“Because you made a big deal out of it!” You screamed with frustration. “You yelled at me first, you said mean things to me first- why- why were you so mean to me?!” You blubbered through drowning tears.

“Because- be- ugh,” Eddie pained with vexation. “You fucking terrify me, okay?! You terrify the living shit out of me!” Guarding his tearing eyes from your shattered being, he groaned realizing you weren’t going to understand unless he opened up, but he couldn’t bear to, and maybe that was the best solution to move on, run away. “It’s just fucking hard when, you know, you look like that and you’re fucking you, and I’m just me, and you have a great life-”

“‘Great life?!’” You derided through tears. “You know nothing about my life!” You shoved him. “You know nothing about me!” You shoved him again. Eddie was quick to retrain your wrist in a tight grip, preventing you from touching him again, no matter how hard you tried. “Stop acting like you know everything about me when you know absolutely nothing! I’m not going to stand here, and let you say mean things to me, when you know nothing, do you understand?! I have never done anything to you, and I never will, because unlike you, I’m not some sulking asshole who can’t handle their fucking emotions, and uses their sorry life to lash out at people because they’re too pathetic to deal with their own problems!”

And maybe your rash psycho analysis of Eddie Munson was too much, or not harsh enough, but either way, your critical comments derailed him off the edge of sanity. He aggressively dropped your wrist, and got into your face with a full might of fury. “You are such a miserable bitch!” He shouted, invading your space with intent, causing you to wince and step away from him, but he wasn’t relenting. “For once, you got a fucking taste of what your bullshit friends have been doing to me, and now you can’t fucking handle it?! God, just love playing the fucking victim, don’t you?! Maybe they are right, maybe you are just some fucking desperate slut craving fucking attention?! Is that why you did all this shit in the first place?!”

The way your face flashed with sudden dejection had him biting his tongue. Oh, fuck. He regretted it. He fucking immediately regretted it.

Eddie began furiously shaking his head in denial to what he just uttered, he couldn’t believe it. “No,” he heaved out. “No, I-I didn’t mean it, I’m s-sorry.” He could only muster a whisper.

You didn’t even have the energy to fight back, merely accepting his words as truth with a silent sob that burned your being. “Yeah,” you shakily sighed with a sniffle of sobs. “I’m sorry, too, Eddie. I would have loved being your friend, and now I just want nothing to do with you.” His heart dropped at your calmness. When he first spoke those words to you, demanding you to stay away from him and his friends, he knew a deep part of him didn’t mean it. Why would he, you were fucking perfect? But you, the stillness and tranquility of your words cemented them to be the final verdict. You were done. “So please,” you wiped your drenched face from tears, “just leave me alone and stay away from me.”

No malice, no anger, no fury.

Just pure defeat.

𝐓𝐚𝐠 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭 | This is my first time making a tag list, and I got overwhelmed—in a good way—that I simply tagged anyone who commented. If you were not looking to be tagged, I’m so sincerely sorry, and please let me know to respect your wishes and remove you!

(Big, fat kisses to all of you) @televisionboy @batkin028 @lostdreamingwallflower @cevais @myfavoritesareproblematic @btbabyy @married-to-the-music01 @super-nova-03 @deathnote6666 @cherrytc @sleepy-bunnie @eggo-segual @bambi-horror @aheadfullofsteverogers @sademoloser @averagestudent03 @freakymunson @princess-eddie @imagine-a-world-blog1 @negativity4you

@nope-thanks @allsortsedits @callingmrsbarnes @f0rgggg @hurricane-abigail @sweet-sunflower64 @redlovett @goldstars-to-all @eddiesguitarskills @goslytherin @sashaphantomhive @maxinehufflepuffprincess @emeritusemeritus @angel-upon @middle-of-the-earth @scarletwitchwhore @my-tearsricochet @pixiepaintt @ericasdumbworld @animechick555

@gewrgia-black @hookandchain @roseanddaggerlarry @prestinalove @sebismyhubby @maddsunn

(I’m so sorry, some blogs are not popping up when I try to tag y’all, if it’s an issue on my part, I’ll try my best to fix it as soon as possible)

#stranger things #eddie munson #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson angst #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson oneshot #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson blurb #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson fluff #mean!eddie munson #the yearbook: club pictures

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flowerandblood · 11 months

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The Prince and The Fox (2)

[ modern! • Aemond x friend! • female ]

[ warnings: bullying, mention of sexual abuse, trauma ]

[ description: After the events of her childhood, despite her best efforts, her neighbor and the younger brother of her friend Helaena, Aemond, does not want to know her. This state lasts until a house party organized by his older brother, Aegon, during which an incident occurs that will change their relationship forever. Slow burn, angst, toxic ex-Alys, rough Aemond. This is several anon requests combined into one fic. ]

WARNING: The main plot between the characters takes place in high school. Yes, in high school. The belief that teenagers wait with an intimacy when they are in love in high school is ridiculous to me. Aemond and the character here are the same age. Don't ask me how old they are, in my country you are of the age of consent in your first year of high school and an adult in the last year of high school, so if it is more convenient for you, think about it that way and decide for yourself. In this story, I am not following the trail that they are magically friends right away, but how they become friends and what that even means. I'm writing this fic to give the perspective of young, lost people, not adult women who want to see exactly themselves in everything they read. If that's all you expect, this isn't the fic for you.

I don't want whining about this in my comments or asks. I will delete these and block you. You have been warned.

Aemond + Evans Series Moodboard

This is my first story that has its own playlist, but yes! Get in the mood! Story Music Playlist. Songs used in this chapter: Turn Your Back on me & The Lion's Mouth by Kajagoogoo and Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N' Roses.

* English is not my first language. Please, do not repost. Enjoy! *

Next chapters: Masterlist

_____

That night she slept very badly. Her parents asked why she had come back so early and if she had enjoyed herself. She burst out crying, unaccustomed to lying, and told them what had happened.

Her father was furious, stormed out of the house and made her show him which boy had nagged and touched her. She begged him to let it go, Cregan had been away from the party for a long time, they had gone somewhere with friends.

Her father said he wouldn't leave it like that and demanded to speak to Aemond. The next morning she appeared, accompanied by her father, at their house, embarrassed, her father explaining what had happened. Their mother was shocked by what she had heard.

She, her father, Alicent, Aegon, Aemond and Helaena sat down in the living room to talk about it.

"What? God, I swear, Mum, I didn't know Cregan would do something like that!" Mumbled Aegon, shocked at what had happened, Helaena was distraught and sat beside her, stroking her hand. Aemond looked at her, some kind of understanding in his eyes.

He felt that she had done the right thing telling her parents about it.

"Aemond, my daughter told me that you stopped him and stood up for her. I am very grateful to you and I want to ask you, if his parents insisted that it was word against word, will you be able to confirm what she said?" Her father asked, and he nodded without hesitation, tightening his lips.

"Yes. It was exactly as she said. I heard him tell his mates at school during break that he was planning to fuck her here at the party." He said in shame, lowering his gaze, his mother shaking her head in disbelief, slapping her hands on her thighs in a gesture of helplessness and rage.

"And you kept silent?" She asked with disappointment and pain. He pressed his lips together and swallowed hard, overwhelmed apparently by remorse.

She felt her stomach tighten at the thought that he really hadn't meant to stop then, that he could have done something much worse to her.

Aemond lifted a gaze full of pain and shame at her.

"I-I thought he was just bragging to his mates and... I don't know, that you're into each other. That maybe you want this too. That he's actually a good guy and wouldn't do anything to you against your will. But when I saw your face when he started touching your thigh on the couch, that look of discomfort, I…" He said in a slightly trembling voice and paused, looking her straight in the eye.

She swallowed hard, understanding what he wanted to say.

He didn't expect it from him either.

She nodded, feeling warm in her heart nonetheless at the thought that he had followed them out to see if anything would happen to her.

If he would hurt her.

She covered her face with her hand, her father put his arm around her and stroked her tenderly.

"It's good that you spoke about it, sweetheart. You can't leave it like that." Alicent said, nodding her head. Suddenly she clapped her hands as if she remembered something.

"The cameras! Our security company keeps footage for 48 hours. We also have one in the garden in case of a break-in, why don't I call them and ask them to send us the video from yesterday? We'll check if we can see anything on it." She suggested, her father said it was an excellent idea.

She lowered her head, terrified that her father and others would be able to see it, that perhaps on the video it wouldn't look like sexual assault at all.

After all, she had hugged him herself.

They waited impatiently by Alicent's laptop, sitting down and glancing at her inbox, the security company employee who was in charge of her equipment said he would try to send her the footage within fifteen minutes.

They all flinched and moved closer as a new message appeared with a video file. She swallowed loudly, terrified, ashamed, feeling a tightening in her stomach and throat, afraid that it didn't look at all like she said it did, that everyone would think she was lying, that they would never believe her again.

She felt herself shaking, her knee moving up and down in an involuntary tic. She shuddered when she heard someone put a chair next to her, Aemond sat down touching her with his knees and shoulders, placing his elbows on the table, leaning over the monitor.

"It was about ten o'clock at night, Mum. I remember because by the time I left the clock was striking the hour in the living room." He said lowly, and Alicent quickly ran the cursor to that hour and turned on the accelerator a few times.

"Oh okay, mum, it's them, I can see Cregan!" Said Aegon, leaning between them, turning off the acceleration. Alicent pressed the spacebar, stopping the video.

"Do you want everyone to watch this?" She asked her quietly. She looked around and thought, in essence, that she recognised that these were people she trusted, who she hoped cared about her.

She nodded, swallowing hard.

Alicent pressed play.

The camera was up high and part of the bench was obscured by the canopy, their faces not visible. She saw them sit down, saw his arm around her, stroking her hand for a moment. She felt a cold sweat on her back as she saw his fingers lift higher and higher, heard Aegon and his mother draw in a loud breath as his hand slid under her dress.

Her father covered his mouth, heartbroken when he saw her hand immediately clamp down on his wrist in a clear gesture of defence, her whole body tense, it was obvious she was trying to pull away, to push back, to escape, and instead of letting her go he pressed her tighter against him.

She felt tears under her eyelids and lowered her head, not knowing where to look, she felt Aemond press his body closer to hers, felt his breath on the top of her head, felt him looking at her.

"− Jesus −" Muttered Aegon in disbelief, running a hand over his face. "− fucking piece of shit −"

Then they could already see Cregan and Aemond struggling with each other, her sitting down on the grass and crying, Aemond crouching down beside her and putting his arms around her, saying something to her.

The footage had no sound, but what could be seen on it was enough to clearly understand what had happened.

Her father got up and said he needed to get some air for a while and smoke a cigarette. Alicent followed him out, apparently wanting to work out what they were going to do, whether to report it to the police or not.

She felt Helaena's warm embrace, felt her lay her head on her shoulder and hugged her immediately, Aegon and Aemond looked at them in silence.

"− I'm sorry − fuck − if I had known, I would never have invited him! − I saw you two cuddling on the couch in the living room, but God, I thought you two were just in love − that, I don't know, you're together, just unofficially yet −" He mumbled, and she swallowed loudly, rubbing her eyes, trying to pull herself together.

"− please, Aegon − it's not your fault − you didn't do anything wrong − don't worry, I won't tell anyone about the alcohol −" She said quietly, tiredly, and he sighed heavily, scratching his head, clearly distraught that something like this had happened at his own party.

Aemond said nothing, fiddling with his mug of already half-cold coffee, it seemed to her that he hadn't slept well that night either.

Her father had decided that they would drive with this recording to his parents.

She was horrified.

"I will go with you." Aemond said, and her father nodded.

They drove there together in their car with Alicent's laptop. They sat side by side in the back seat, she saw that he was pulling at the cuticles around his fingernails again, she noticed with pain that he had actual wounds around them.

When he saw in the reflection in the window that she was looking at him he stopped immediately and swallowed loudly, lowering his gaze.

He was stressed too.

When they arrived a surprised Mrs Stark opened the door for them, asking who they were and what had happened.

"I would like to talk to you about your son."

She, Aemond and her father sat on the couch on one side and Cregan and his parents on the other as her father played them the video. Cregan was pale, sitting with his arms folded, feigning indifference, his knee shaking restlessly, he was biting his lower lip, his eyes red.

He was terrified.

His mother made big eyes when she saw the moment he slipped his hand under her dress and looked at him with disbelief mixed with pain. His father snorted, shrugging his shoulders.

"And what, are you going to go to the police? Destroy a young boy's life because he made a mistake, because his hormones are raging?" He asked as if it was a trivial matter, a complete nothing. She felt the rage surge in her father.

"Because of your son's hormones, he can act like a mindless monkey and grope girls who don't want him to?" He hissed, his father raising his eyebrows, pointing at her with his hand.

"Please, forgive me, but from what I can see in this video your daughter was pushing herself into his arms, after all he could have misunderstood her…"

"Mark." Said his wife, clearly not believing what she was hearing, pale.

Her father stood up, pointing his finger at her.

"My child came home crying because someone molested her. He only stopped because her classmate went out into the garden. And what would your son do if no one helped her, hm? How long would he hold her while she tried to break free?" He thundered furiously on the verge of tears, she had never seen him like this before.

She just sat on the couch, looking at her shoes, shaking all over, feeling that her biggest nightmare had just taken place in front of her eyes.

Please, forgive me, but from what I can see in this video your daughter was pushing herself into his arms.

Mr Stark raised his hands in a defensive gesture as if to show that his aim was not to argue or escalate the conflict.

"I admit, my son acted unwisely. He misread the girl's signals and behaved badly. We will be watching him more closely in this area. Is that all?" He asked, and her father closed the laptop with a loud slam and growled to them that they were leaving.

She stood up and cast one last look in Cregan's direction, he was looking at her with a hatred she had never seen in her life before.

She burst into sobs as soon as they got into the car, her father comforting her loudly telling her not to cry, that they were driving to the police station.

"No, no, please, no!" She whimpered, leaning forward, grabbing his arm, her father looked at her in the mirror.

"What?"

"I can't do it, I can't do it anymore. I… stop, I think I'm going to throw up." She mumbled, her father stopped with a squeal of tyres. She got out and immediately vomited on the grass, coughing and crying, feeling her stomach convulse in pain.

She heard them both get out of the car, her father put his arms around her saying that everything would be fine, Aemond stood beside them not knowing what to do with himself, not knowing how to behave.

The next few days at school were extremely difficult for her. Some of her friends and acquaintances were shocked and horrified, giving her their complete support and understanding, saying they were disappointed by Cregan's behaviour.

However, others thought that she was simply lying.

"Attention whore." One of his friends growled, hitting her on the shoulder with his arm as he walked past her.

She saw that someone had scratched the word 'liar' on her locker standing in the corridor. She looked at it indifferently, then opened it as if nothing had happened and exchanged the books she needed with the ones she could put away.

This time he was the one looking at her.

She felt his gaze on her back in the classroom, in the corridor, as she sat at the bus stop looking at her shoes.

For some reason, even though she was alive and everything was going on, she felt dead.

She couldn't erase his touch from her mind.

She sat on the bus in total reverie, occupying the seat at the back by the window, sitting in her earphones, listening recently to nothing but Kajagoogoo songs, 'Too shy', 'Turn Your Back On Me', 'Ooh to Be Ah', 'The Lion's Mouth' looped on her player.

Their electronic sound and the wonderful bass guitar in the background energised her when she had no strength and couldn't rouse herself.

She had just listened to 'Turn Your Back On Me' for the second time since the morning when she felt someone sit down next to her.

She glanced to the side and spotted a black sweatshirt, familiar hands clicking something on his phone, apparently pausing the song he had just listened to on his player, she saw that it was 'Welcome to the Jungle' by Guns N' Roses. She pulled down one earpiece, looking at him in surprise.

"What are you listening to?" He asked, pulling on the cord of his black earphones, which dropped gently onto his lap with a quiet click.

She handed him her earphone, which he took from her, placing it in his left ear, moving a little closer to her so that there was enough cable for both of them. He mused, listening.

"Interesting." He muttered lowly, glancing at her player.

"Kajagoogoo." She said quietly, going into the track list so he could see what their songs were called.

"Nice bass." He admitted, as if surprised by this discovery himself. She nodded and closed her eyes, resting her temple against the glass, just sinking into the sound of the music.

He listened to the songs of her favourite band with her until they reached the school.

When the bus stopped he handed her back her earpiece, their hands touched. They looked at each other, for the first time so closely. He picked up his backpack and rose, trying not to hit his head on the low ceiling and walked out in front of her, no longer paying attention to her.

She walked through the corridor of her school listening to "The Lion's Mouth", trying not to pay attention to whether anyone was looking at her or not, focusing on the words of the song, staring blankly ahead.

Hey fool watch out! (Watch out) You'll get mauled by the lion's mouth -

Hey fool watch out! (Watch out) You'll get mauled by the lion's mouth (I don't think so) -

Hey fool watch out! (Watch out) You'll get mauled by the lion's mouth -

The music suddenly stopped when someone tripped her up. She wobbled and fell over, collapsing on the floor, her earphones falling out of her ears. She lifted herself up on her arms and turned over her shoulder, noticing Cregan's hateful stare.

A moment later, several things happened at the same time. Aemond who threw him to the floor, pounding his face with his fist, holding his sweatshirt, growling that he was a fucking piece of shit, a mere abuser, a nobody, a zero.

His colleagues and teachers had to separate them, Cregan spat blood on the floor.

She felt someone grab her shoulders, Helaena stood over her, looking at her in horror.

"Are you all right?"

She sat in her classroom terrified, glancing anxiously over her shoulder at the empty seat in the bench he sat in, knowing that he and Cregan had ended up at the headmaster's office.

That he was in trouble because of her, that he could be suspended because of her.

She shuddered when she heard the sound of the door opening and saw him step inside, the teacher paused his reasoning for a moment and grunted, returning to the subject of the lesson.

Aemond walked over to his bench without a word, not looking at her, and sat down in his chair, pulling off his backpack, taking out his textbooks and notebook, giving her one calm look.

She pulled her phone quickly from her sweatshirt pocket, reminding herself that she had his phone number, and quickly texted him.

She heard his phone vibrate on his bench. She sat looking ahead, feeling her heart pounding hard.

After a moment, the display of her phone lying on her thighs lit up and she saw that she had received a new message. She opened it quickly, feeling a tightness in her throat.

She turned towards him over her shoulder, his lips curving into a grin. She smiled gratefully at him and breathed quietly, turning ahead, trying to finally focus on what her teacher was talking about.

Boarding the bus after class, she dared to sit next to him. They looked at each other, he watched as she untangled her earphones and plugged them into her phone. She saw him pull his own off and pause his player.

"Are you going to listen to that band with weird name again?" He asked lowly and she nodded, smiling at him.

He held out his hand to her and she handed him her earpiece, this time with her left hand, turning on 'The Lion's Mouth'.

"This is my favourite." She admitted with a smile, feeling calm for some reason, her stomach filled with warmth.

"Mmm." He hummed, their elbows resting against each other lying on their armrest, however neither of them seemed to mind.

She understood then.

The Little Prince took a step towards the Fox of his free will.

She smiled under her breath.

He wanted her to tame him.

_____

Aemond Taglist:

(bold means I couldn't tag you)

@its-actually-minicika @notnormalthings-blog @nikstrange @zenka69 @bellaisasleep @k-y-r-a-1 @g-cf2020 @melsunshine @opheliaas-stuff @chainsawsangel @iiamthehybrid @tinykryptonitewerewolf @namoreno @malfoytargaryen @qyburnsghost @aemondsdelight @persephonerinyes @fan-goddess @sweethoneyblossom1 @watercolorskyy

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alwaysmoncheri · 3 months

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𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 | 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧

summary: in which best friends, y/n henderson and steve harrington get caught up in their feelings while paranormal activities occur in the small town of hawkins, indiana

cw: fem!reader, I wrote this a long time ago(I apologize for everything cringe), shit writing, first person pov, steve being mean, mentions of sex, 2.4k

The next day I ride my bike to school. After stopping by my locker I notice Nancy walking down the hallway a nervous look on her face.

"Hey, Nance," I say, coming up from behind her, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah..." She says hesitantly, "I just... I feel like everyone staring at me." She adds looking at the passing group of girls who seem to be whispering with pointed looks directed towards Nancy.

"Yeah, I see it too." I say, my gaze following the group of girls as we approach Nancy's locker.

"You don't think Steve told—" Nancy starts.

"Steve can be an asshole sometimes," I say, cutting her off, "But he wouldn't stoop that low."

Nancy nods, opening her locker.

"So you and Steve...?" I ask, glancing at the ground.

"Yeah." Nancy says with pink cheeks.

My heart breaks at the confirmation that her and Steve, did indeed, do something last night. My eyes brim with tears before I can stop it from happening.

"Um, I'll see you later Nance." I say quickly before rushing to the nearest bathroom.

On my way, I just so happen to stumble upon Steve. He notices my tear-filled eyes and grabs my arm to stop me from going any further.

"Hey, (Y/n), you okay?" He says softly and gently grabs my shoulders.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I snap and wipe my eyes, noticing I'm making a scene, "Just let me go, Steve."

His eyes go wide at my harsh tone. Steve then notices the people staring all around us and immediately drops his hands back to his sides. Before he can respond I brush past him into the girl's bathroom.

My fingers grip the sink's counter so hard it turns my knuckles white. With tears streaming down my face, I press my lips together in an effort to keep my sobs inaudible. Once I manage to compose myself, I splash water onto my face, take a deep breath, and head for my classroom, trying my hardest to remain unfazed.

|☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆|

At lunch, I claim my usual spot next to Steve. Tommy and Carol are across from us. Nancy didn't show up. Thankfully, Steve doesn't mention our encounter from earlier this morning.

"That's why science doesn't make any damn sense to me." Tommy says.

"No, I swear. Look at this." Carol says, proudly displaying her ankle on the lunch table, "It's totally frostbite."

"It's not frostbite, Carol." I mumble, noticing Nancy heading in our direction, a worried look on her face.

"Oh, thanks, man," Tommy says spooning applesauce into his mouth, "It's a heated pool."

"Well, if it's not frostbite, then what is it?" Carol asks.

"Ugh, I don't care what it is," Steve says, clearly grossed out, "It's disgusting!"

"Yeah, we're eating here, Carol," I say rolling my eyes, "So get it off the damn table."

Tommy tries to sneak a spoonful of Carol's applesauce, only for her to swat his wrist in response, "Ew."

"Hey, Tommy." Nancy speaks up, after sitting down on the other side of Steve. "When you left, did you see Barb?" She questions, leaning forward.

"What?" Tommy replies.

"Barbra." Nancy says, frustrated, "She's not here today."

"I seriously have no idea who you're talking about." Tommy says and chuckles at himself. Carol laughs too.

"Come on, don't be an ass, man," Steve says, "Did you... did you see her leave last night or not?"

"No, she was gone when we left." Tommy answers finally.

"Probably couldn't stand listening to all that moaning." Carol comments with a smirk.

"Ooh. Oh, Steve!" She and Tommy mock, "Oh, Steve! Oh, Steve! Ooh, Steve."

"Oh, Steve." Tommy grunts as he bangs his hand on the table.

I clench my jaw, hiding my jealousy and Nancy shifts uncomfortably in her seat.

"Okay, chill." Steve says to Tommy and Carol before they break out in laughter.

"I'm sure, she's fine Nance. She was there when I left." I say, giving her a reassuring smile.

"Yeah," Steve agrees turning to Nancy, "She's probably just... She's probably just, like, skipping, or something." He adds with a shrug.

"Yeah," Nancy says, "Yeah, probably."

|☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆|

As soon as the final bell rings, I walk out of the building, feeling exhausted. Across the parking lot, Steve is sitting on the hood of Jonathan's car, with Tommy and Carol nearby.

This can't be good.

Upon witnessing Steve stand up once Jonathan approaches, I rush over to the scene ahead.

"What's going on?" I say standing by Jonathan's side.

"Oh, (Y/n), just in time," Steve says, "Nicole, here was just telling us about Jonathan's work."

"We've heard great things." Carol comments.

"Yeah, sounds cool." Tommy says.

"And we'd just love to take a look," Steve says, "You know as connoisseurs of art."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jonathan says before attempting to walk away.

"Oh no?" Steve says, as Tommy snatches Jonathan's bag.

"Hey." I utter, taking one step forward, but Steve places his hand on my shoulder and nudges me back.

"Please, just give me my bag," Jonathan begs as Tommy throws the bag to Steve, "No just..."

"Man, he is, like, totally trembling." Steve says unzipping Jonathan's bag, "He must really have something to hide."

Steve instantly pulls pictures out of Jonathan's bag, "Ahh, here we go." He says looking through the pictures, "Oh man."

"Let me see." Tommy says glancing at the pictures in Steve's hands.

"(Y/n), take a look at this one." Steve says turning to me.

With a hesitant step forward, I cast a concerned look in Jonathan's direction. He wears a guilty expression, which only increases my anxiety. Steve hands me the picture, eyes searching my for my response.

The moment my eyes fall on the photograph, my heart skips a beat. There I am in my white bra, Steve wrapping me in a towel after everyone else went inside. In the picture our eyes meet, and there's a hidden meaning behind the glance.

I hand the picture back to Steve and look up at Jonathan with a hurt look, "Jonathan...? What..."

"Dude." Tommy says, looking at the photo.

"Yeah, this isn't creepy at all." Carol says, looking through a few of the other pictures.

"I was looking for my brother." Jonathan defends himself and sends me a pleading glance.

I look away.

"No," Steve responds right away, "No, this is called stalking."

"What's going on?" Nancy asks coming up from behind Jonathan.

"Here's the starring lady." Tommy says with a smile.

"What?" Nancy asks adjusting her shoulder strap.

"This creep was spying on us last night." Carol says, "He was probably gonna save this one for later." She says and hands a picture to Nancy.

Nancy looks at Jonathan shocked and Steve clicks his tongue.

"See, you can tell that he knows it was wrong, but..." Steve says, taking a step towards Jonathan, "Man, that's the thing about perverts... it's hardwired into them. You know, they can't help themselves." Steve finishes tugging at Jonathan's jacket, making him uncomfortable.

Steve then starts ripping the picture he handed me and throws the pieces at Jonathan, "So, we just have to take away his toy."

"Steve..." I say and gently touch his arm before he can grab the camera. He looks at me, and after a moment of hesitation, he shakes my hand off and snatches the camera from the bag.

"No, please." Jonathan says, attempting to make a move for the bag but he's stopped by Tommy, "Not that camera."

"No, no, wait, wait... Tommy, Tommy. It's okay." Steve extends his hand with the camera towards Jonathan, "Here you go, man" Steve says before dropping the camera right in front of him.

The group laughs and Jonathan looks at the ground where his broken camera lies.

"Come on, let's go." Steve says, brushing past everybody, "The game's about to start."

"Boo." Tommy says in Jonathan's face as he walks away.

Carol then rips the pictures in her hands and drops them on the ground with a gasp, "Bye." She says before strutting away.

I glance at the boy with a hurt look in my eyes. Quickly shoving pieces of the photo Jonathan took of Steve and me into my backpack. I look at Nancy who seems to want a moment with Jonathan alone and I rush to Steve's side.

"Why did you do that?" I whisper when I approach Steve.

"I... He was stalking us, (Y/n)." He says catching a glimpse of my distraught face. "I couldn't just do nothing."

"But breaking his camera, Steve?" I say gesturing back to Jonathan, "That was pretty low, even for you." I point at his chest.

"Even for me?" Steve repeats, offended, "What the hell is that supposed to mean, Henderson?"

"You know exactly what, Harrington." I glare at the boy before turning and walking away.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Steve yells, frustrated.

I throw my middle finger up, fighting angry tears, and continue on my course.

|☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆|

Nancy called shortly after I returned home from school. I found it odd because I assumed she would be at the game with Steve. Still, she said she needed my help so I reluctantly agreed to walk to Steve's house, in search of our missing friend, Barb.

"Holy shit, is that her car?" I say spotting a familiar blue vehicle.

"Oh my god." Nancy says, worriedly as we walk up to Barb's car and look in the windows, "Why is it still here?"

"I don't know..." I say before walking away, gesturing for Nancy to follow.

I successfully sneak Nancy and I through the back gate of Steve's house, which I know too well. And we continue our search for Barb.

"Barb?" Nancy yells.

"Barb?" I shout as well.

There's a crunching sound that emerges from the woods grabbing both Nancy and I'd attention. We walk into the trees and I feel a tingle down my spine.

This doesn’t feel right.

"Barb?" Nancy calls out again hoping to find our friend.

There's another crunching sound.

"Barb?" I yell.

A dark figure suddenly charges past us, vanishing into thin air.

That definitely wasn't Barb.

Nancy let's out a startled gasp before tripping on an unseen object and toppling to the ground.

"C'mon, let's get out of here." I say, helping the girl up before we both run away.

|☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆|

I sit peacefully in my bed, the quietness of the night surrounding me. Suddenly a loud ringing emits from the living room. Knowing exactly who's calling, I stomp over to the phone picking up angrily.

"Hey (Y/n). Look, I'm really so—" Steve attempts to apologize.

"Jesus christ, Steve, I really don't want to talk to you right now!" I yell before slamming the phone back on the wall.

I sigh, frustrated, before running a hand down my face and trudge back to my room. But before I can make it, I hear the front door open, and a noise that sounds a lot like crying.

As I'm rounding the corner, a figure appears in the dimly lit hallway before me - Dustin, wiping his eyes and making his way towards me. My mind races with concern.

"Hey bud," I say, softly bringing him into my arms, "What happened?"

"They... they found Will's body." Dustin croaks out before sobbing into my chest. I gently stroke his hair and guide him to his bedroom, kicking the door shut behind me.

"Hey, hey, it's gonna be okay." I say slowly tucking him into bed. "We're gonna be okay, alright?"

"Okay." Dustin replies and I kiss his forehead before I slowly make my way out of his room and to my own.

As I walk into my room a wave of grief waves over me. I slowly sink to the ground and lean my head back against my bed frame, allowing my tears to fall. I fold my knees, bringing my head rest on them before I hear taping on my window.

I walk over to the window and open it. I'm met with Steve's sad expression, "Steve?" I say, confused.

"Hey, I just wanted to apologize," Steve says as he climbs through my window. "And when you hung up the phone I just..." Steve trails off, staring at tear-stained cheeks.

"Have you been crying?" He asks, concern in his voice

I look down.

"Oh, sweetheart, I didn't mean to make you cry." Steve says bringing me into his arms and gently rubbing my back.

I shake my hand against Steve's chest and he pulls back, a confused look on his face.

"Will," I let out a sob, "They found Will's body." I choke out while grabbing onto Steve's jacket and burying my head onto his chest. With my face pressed against him, my tears trickle down onto his shirt.

"(Y/n)..." Steve whispers bringing us to sit down on my bed.

Steve stays quiet, allowing me to express my grief, silently stroking my back and gradually running his hand through my hair. His motions soothe me and my breaths begin to even out. Eventually, he carefully raises my face off his chest and gently wipes my tear stained cheeks. My lips quiver and I slowly let out a shaky breath.

"I'm so sorry." I sob again once I catch a glimpse of his soaked shirt.

"Hey, hey, hey, no, look at me," Steve says, lifting my face up again, "What are you sorry for, honey?"

"I got your shirt wet." I say stupidly as I point at his shirt.

Steve chuckles lightly, making me smile at the sound.

"You don't have to be sorry for that," Steve says, taking a strand of my hair and twirling it around his finger, "You know I can always get a new one."

Steve then discards his wet shirt and draws back the soft covers of my bed, gently guiding us underneath. He wraps his arms firmly around my body, drawing me closer, providing me with warmth and comfort.

"What are you doing?" I ask Steve our faces too close. Way too close.

"Sleeping." He says closing his eyes.

"Wh—"

"Shhhh." Steve cuts me off, bringing a finger to my lips, "Go to sleep, (Y/n)."

With that, I rest my head on Steve's warm chest, closing my eyes and letting the rhythm of his breaths lull me to sleep. My tears no longer flow, bringing me well-deserved rest.

next chapter . masterlist . steve harrington masterlist . taglist

thank you for reading, my darling! remember to like! reblog! and comment! i’ll give you a smooch if you do, ily! send requests to my inbox!

tags: @bitterspoons

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not-goldy · 10 months

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OMG GOLDY, your post where you mention catching a grenade for the one you love. I can't stop thinking about a few months back when Jk was going through his missing Jimin spiral & during one of those lives, he sang Bruno Mars Grenade. Its so painful to listen to him. He wanted Jimin so bad while he was super duper busy & now we know Jikook have had this planned out for a while, enlisting and going through the process for a while. He really meant that song, every fucking word of it.

Also Jikook are fucking geniuses. Some said they thought they were laying low publicly cause of MS & now it seems true. They didn't want added attention cause they were going through the process behind the scenes. They weren't about to gay out. Taking separate planes to meet up. Smart as fuck. Jk however, couldn't keep his emotions in check & kept going rogue on their plan & started doing his Jimin lives. Doing online stuff Just enough to let us know everything was great, even if we weren't seeing them together. Jk timing his lives when JM leaves & posting pics for Jimin to comment. You sneaky little shits. Its all deliberate. Jikook keeping it online, even though we know they were meeting up behind closed doors, due to things they were saying and things they were working on, that was picked up by k-army. Like Jimin talking about them drinking together or Jk mentioning Jimin moving his stuff. Never underestimate queers in the closet. They always get their message across. Now that the process is over and it seems to be a done deal for them. Now look. Jikook took that plane TOGETHER to Tokyo (no more separate planes) and went on one last vacation together. No more worries cause it's most likely set in stone them enlisting together and the hard part is over and now nothing can hinder it now. Damn, that must have killed Jikook having to watch people claim they weren't close after Chapter 2. Don't those people feel stupid.

I also wonder if this is why Jk tried to say that J on his finger above the M is for Jk, cause its too obvious going into Military with a big ass J M on his wedding ring finger, knowing he is enlisting with JM. Interesting.

😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢

The closet can feel so safe and miserable at the same time. Imagine the source of your security also being the one thing chipping away at your mental health and sanity.

I don't wish that on anyone.

But it's also the safest place we could ever be.

Jungkook should have been more creative than he was coming up with that cock and bull story about the JM.

When you think about how Jimin had to fight Namjoon on stage when he called him JM the whole Jm on his hand start to feel even more sus than it already is.

Like how did that conversation go?

Jk: Guys look, I tattooed my initial on my ring finger above Army. It's J for Jungkook. Not Jeon. Jungkook.

Bts: wait a damn mininute that spells..... JM not JK

JK: HOLD ON IT DOES? HUH.... THAT'S WEIRD

Jimin: don't look at me my name is J.I.M.I.N not JM

Those two are accomplices 😭😭😭😭🤣🤣🤣🤣

I want the interview where someone asks them about the JM thingy again cos it's too in our faces not to notice and surely he's seen it, noticed it- like did the thought never occur to him his hand makes so much sense if it was attached to Jimin's wrist? Cos I swear if people didn't know him and you showed them that hand they'd assume that was Jimin's hand since it had his initials on there.

If I were a director at Hybe, I'd set them up and let them talk about it head on and make a joke out of it with Jimin stating for the camera- Jungkook is obsessed with me he even has my name on his finger.

I mean he said he's always thought Jk was his copy cat it would make so much if he escalates it into obsession cos that's where we at now🤧

Imagine people start calling him JM instead of JK because they think that's his name🥲💀

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nobibiname · 6 months

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Ever wondered why the Elucien arguments pulling out Sarah’s 2016 interview and Facebook comment (yeah that one after ACOMAF came out) are SO annoying? 🙄

Ok so I ended up in a TikTok comment section today (yes I know that was my first mistake) and it occurred to me, we are once again not on the same page about some fundamental ideas on writing. The OP argued Sarah hasn’t changed her mind on the next books &elucien and that she said so in an interview after ACOSF.

Ok, but there’s a huge GLARING problem with that.

Basically, a writer makes promises in the text. I’m paraphrasing Sanderson here (I watch his lectures for fun, even tho I don’t write cuz I’m a dork) so he was talking about the first chapter and prologue of a book, or movie… but if you’re writing a multi-book epic, then you’re probably going to make promises about plots and characters of your future books, right?

So what are these promises? Basically what kind of book it is, plot&trope hints, the tone, goals, journeys and obstacles.

Ok back to SJM: why is the argument that “she said Elucien and hasn’t changed her mind infuriating? Because she made different promises in the books. And that is what Elriels mean when we say “set up”.

I mean just from the amount of interactions, Elriel have more than Elucien.. not to mention the warmth, positivity and thoughtfulness she put into their interactions over seriously 4 books. The promises are crystal clear: there is a romance that started as friendship==plot, but she has a bond w/someone else==obstacle, and Rhys forbade it in a moment resulting in her thinking he rejected her, but he didn’t == twist.

These promises need to be addressed, resolved, fulfilled. Is there something even CLOSE to this kind of story promise existing for Elucien?

I have seriously seen people claim that Elucien are both “friends to lovers” AND “enemies to lovers”…. These cannot both be true, like come on… you’re not even sure what kind of story they promise to be? You’re not sure what kinds of promises Sarah made about Elucien?

Why are you not sure? Because it’s not in the text. My personal view is that Elucien is neither… if they happen it’s kind of worse than either trope, they’re certainly not friends, they are at best indifferent to each other and at worst resentful. Mmmm … delicious “indifferent to lovers” 🫠

On a serious note, I don’t “hate” Elucien, but SJM hasn’t made a single promise in the text that I can quote in here that would make me excited about them. He gave her gifts that she didn’t throw away…. ?? Really?… she made a half step toward him… once… no, just no! And that’s how I feel, regardless if “Lulu deserves love”… sure he does, then write a love interest that brings out flirty firey fox boy from book1 and I’m on board 🫡 ….and don’t try to convince me after 4 books of a tepid nothing that all along it was Elain. Because. I. Don’t. Buy. It.

And my last point (I swear!) why did I get my panties all up in a twist… basically this: a writer makes promises IN THE TEXT, and if what you are saying in interviews directly CONTRADICTS your actual text, then you kinda have a problem. … at that point either you’re a bad writer, or you can’t blindly trust an interview from 7 years ago, it’s outdated!

The great GRRM himself said how often his “gardening style” of writing led to character arcs and romantic pairings changing… so why don’t we start treating Sarah as an adult author, and trust the text, and not an old interview?

It also comes down to trust. You don’t wanna be left feeling like “hmmm this doesn’t feel real, I don’t buy it” it takes you out of the text, and it happens when an author messes up promise-delivery . When an author foreshadows well, and sets up the story with their promises, still manages to surprise us while keeping the promises… well I trust THAT PERSON to tell me the most satisfying story.

#rant post #elriel #bad arguments that make me mad #why I can’t love Elucien even if it isn’t horrible

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thessalian · 2 months

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Thess vs Transphobes' Misconceptions

It occurs to me that I have a story that can be given to every asshole who says shit like, "Kids aren't trans - they're being brainwashed and groomed by the horrible pedophiles in the media calling for so-called 'rights'!" and "Schools have no business telling kids about that LGBT stuff; they're too young to understand that!"

Picture the scene: Montreal, QC, 1985 or so. Now, I specify the where and when because it does actually mean something: Quebec was super Catholic for a very long time, and while it was getting less so in the 80s, it was still pretty prevalent in the general mood of the boomers who were our parents, and whatever the fuck the generation was that were their parents. Not that there weren't gay people, bi people, trans people; gods, no. Just they were a lot more circumspect, and quite often in very deep denial. (Hell, my mother only came to terms with the fact that she's bi a few months ago, despite being head-over-heels in love and lust with one of her best friends when I was a kid. But she was raised Catholic, so I guess her denial shouldn't be a surprise, especially after Mum made her feelings known and the best friend ran for the hills. I swear I want to punch that woman in the mouth for being such a bitch about it, even if she probably is approaching seventy by now. ANYWAY.)

So I'm in elementary school, and one of my best friends is this kid named Alex. I remember him surprisingly well - very red hair, very brown eyes, lots of freckles. And we were both fans of the Jem and the Holograms cartoon. And Alex insisted that Kimber Benton had been born a boy (or, y'know, a trans woman - we were kids and didn't really have the right terminology available to us at that point, not to mention that the terminology has changed a lot over the last few decades). He had a whole lot of weight behind his headcanon too, and I wasn't about to contradict him - hell, even then, I knew not to harsh someone's squee when it didn't really matter to me either way.

But it mattered to him. It mattered desperately to him. And one day, I found out why it mattered so much to him. He didn't say it outright; it was a lot of very nervously dropped little comments over the course of a conversation about a recent episode. But it was pretty clear to me, even at, like, eight or so - he needed Kimber to be a trans woman because if she was, with her bright red hair kind of like his ... then he could be too. I don't think he ever came out and said that he felt like he was a girl, but I'm pretty sure he came close - that or I was just way more perceptive than the average eight-year-old.

Nothing really changed, outwardly. We were in elementary school, in a pretty Catholic province, in the 80s - hell, at the start of what we now call the AIDS epidemic. Preferred pronouns, style of dress, even borrowing my lip gloss ... none of that was on the table for my friend. But my friend knew, absolutely. I do remember inviting my friend over for a sleepover - I think I mentioned that maybe we could play with my makeup kit. My friend said "No, Mom won't let me have a sleepover with girls" and just ... so many reasons I couldn't understand why not, but I could understand being entirely afraid of what your mother would say if you broke the rules.

My friend went to another school the next year. We never saw each other again. I don't know what happened, and I only hope my friend stayed safe until she could get away and be who she wanted to be. And I will call her she now. Whether she's out there living her best life or ... gods, please not the victim of some conversion therapy nightmare or worse ... she deserves that at least.

And she was eight years old when she knew. So don't you go telling me that kids can't know that they're trans when they're that young. My friend was eight, and she was a girl, and she knew no one would let her be a girl because of the contents of her pants and what a doctor called out when she was born. I hope she's allowed to be that girl now. Well, I guess it'd be woman now, but you know what I mean.

(As a side note - if I had a 5p piece for every non-cishet AMAB redhead named Alex I'd had in my life, I'd have ... 10p, but it's weird that it happened more than once.)

#Thess has opinions

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dragons-and-dwarves-are-nice · 1 year

Text

To the Shadows that Cry Witch /// Chapter 9

Hello! I've finally managed to access my documents which means I'm posting on time! I do apologise for the random POV change throughout, but it was the only way I could get what I wanted to write flowing properly. I also just want to say thank you to those who have given me support, you all mean the world to me. But other than that, enjoy! <3

Summary: Welcome to Middle Earth! We're currently in the Shire, though not for long. Dark times are ahead. Enjoy your stay!

Tags: Kíli x oc/reader - Fíli x oc (POV to be written soon) - Thorin's company x ocs/reader (platonic) - fluff - angst - SUPER slow burn - crack - Bagginshield

Word Count: 1716

Warnings: Swearing, Mentions of Minor and Major Injuries from last chapter.

Taglist - comment or message to be added!

PLEASE START FROM THE BEGINNING IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY OK LOVE U

Want some background music? Check out my Soundtrack Playlist!

Now available on Wattpad and AO3 (please let me know if links aren't working)

< Chapter 8 // Chapter 9 // Chapter 10 >

PART 1: Chapter 9 -

The Teletubbies could never

Numinous (Definition): Feeling both fearful and awed by what is before you. (Adjective / Origin: Latin / nu·mi·nous)

The place was almost identical to how we had pictured it.

Round hallways of cream framed by planks of dark, golden brown, with intricate furniture taking up every possible area, but nothing disorganised, each object having found it’s place.

“And you call me a hoarder.” I murmured to Kay as we both stared. She didn’t retort straight away this time, too busy absorbing the sight in front of us as I picked up and fiddled with some random object.

“Holy fuckkkk.” Was all that she eventually said.

“Excuse me!”

Damn, I almost forgot he was here. Bilbo seemed to find his voice quicker than earlier, marching over, a frown on his face at Kay’s choice of words. I made sure to discreetly slide the thing in my hand back where it was whilst watching the ordeal amusedly.

“I would very much appreciate it if you refrained from using words like that.” He lectured; one arm tucked behind his back as he wagged a finger at her. I snorted quietly at the sight of Kay looking down at him with wide, guilty eyes. And the fact that swear words existed here. “Such profound language will not fly here, especially with me.”

Looking down myself, it occurred to me that I didn’t realise that he would be this small. No matter how many times I stood a measuring tape next to me, I couldn’t really comprehend his size back home. If he headbutted me right now, his head of bouncy curls would only just reach the bottom of my ribcage. I mean I’m 5’9, so he was always going to be miniature next to me, but even comparing him to Kay, who only reached around my nose at 5’4, next to her this guy was the definition of tiny. He looked as though he couldn’t hurt a fly.

However, he most certainly had proof of denying that last statement, his feisty mothering personality most certainly making an impact, as levelled us with a stern gaze from two and a half feet below.

Oh right, we’d hardly spoken a word, let alone to him directly, and we were currently in his house!

“So sorry! I – uhhhh.” Kay began hesitantly, before elbowing me. I eyed her accusedly, but quickly looked back down at the hobbit.

“Oh! Uhm, I don’t suppose you know where we are?” I questioned.

He looked between us, perplexed as he was most likely trying to reason why two women were probably wandering unknowingly in the forest behind his hobbit hole. He had noticed earlier as he politely investigated our rucksacks, unbeknownst to us, that we carried no weapons, and the contents within didn’t look as if they would last them a day. We most certainly didn’t look like merchants or travellers. He didn’t even go on adventures and he knew us two weren’t cut out for travel.

“Why, you’re in the Shire of course!” He answered. “Now, what business do two big folk have coming to Hobbiton?”

“Um.. no business?” I replied.

“We’re lost!” Kay chimed in.

“Lost?” He frowned. “What on Middle Earth were you doing, getting yourselves lost?”

“Well… We went to visit a waterfall, near our home, and haven’t been able to find the way back since.” Explained Kay, figuring the truth was the best option.

“And we’ve errr— never been to or heard of the Shire,” I added, half-lying. “So we must be incredibly far away.”

“Never heard of the—! By Valar you must be far from home!” He spluttered, his slight irritation from them landing in his garden now replaced by a new wave of sympathy, as he realised these girls with their nervous eyes, muddy, ripped – also highly unusual – clothes, entangled hair, and just their overall dishevelled appearance, seemed to truly be a bit too far away from anywhere familiar for their liking. A slight twinge of guilt panged in his chest at his slightly unorthodox attitude earlier, clearly they were in some state of shock.

Taking in a bit more, he also noticed they seemed a lot more injured than he thought, watching as they’re expressions contorted uncomfortably whenever they moved, along with one of them nursing a bandaged hand that had blood seeping in some places.

As for me, I absorbed as much of his appearance as I could whilst he spoke. As aforementioned, he was unusually short, considering the faint lines on his face didn’t show signs of childhood youth, and observing further, I saw that he had the strangest of features. His ears, half hidden by his curly locks, were wide and pointy, reminding me that of an elf. I secretly gawked at his feet, because they were the most abnormally large feet I had ever seen, especially for someone who didn’t even look as if he hit 4ft. Not to mention they were incredibly hairy. Along with his handmade dressing gown, looking as if it was crafted from a quilt blanket from some charity shop.

How peculiar.

“Sooooo,” I began as a sudden thought came to mind, drawing Bilbo’s attention. “How did we end up in your house exactly?”

“Well,” he began, albeit slightly nervous. “I happened to find you both quite knocked out, and I wasn’t going to let you both freeze to death in the pouring rain, so I took the liberty of taking you both in and lending you the guest room.” He explained, waving his finger down the hall at the room we just came out of.

“So you’re saying you dragged two unconscious strangers… into your home?” Kay questioned, a slightly concerned look on her face.

“I mean, it’s not often that—that we get big folk around these parts.” he rambled as he shifted on his feet, feeling the tips of his ears turning pink under the pressure of our slight interrogating. “Certainly not ones that I-er, find falling from my roof.”

“Your roof?!?” We both replied, completely perplexed.

“Well by the sounds of it, you had quite the tumble!” He exclaimed with a slight laugh, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder at the front door. “Landed smack dab right in the middle of my bush, you did!”

“Oh, then where were we…” I trailed off.

My stare wandered from Bilbo to the door at the end of the corridor, and within a moment I was down the hallway, ducking under beams and through archways until I arrived at the door. It took me a second, but I managed to figure out the handle and it wasn’t long until I was in the fresh air.

Kay had followed, leaving the poor hobbit trailing after us in confusion. Coming to a stop next to me, we took in a sight we never thought would be possible to see.

Rolling green hills stretched in front of us and we stared. And stared. As if we haven’t done that enough already over the last day or so. And I then realised that it was the hobbit’s circular doors that I had tried to make out through the distance in the rain last night.

By the looks of it, and by some miracle, we had stumbled mindlessly into the bloody Shire. I mean, we would’ve known if we were in the goddamn Shire yesterday if it hadn’t been so DARK. Neither of us could even begin to describe how we felt, all I could do was really try my best not to scream or cry as I dug my fingers into my palms, and I could guess that Kay was having a similar reaction. Who wouldn’t? The Shire was literally the dream place, and we were stood right in the middle of it. Not the movie set, no, like, the genuine real Shire, and with, by the looks of it, real hobbits.

My mouth just hung open as I whipped my head around, feeling both amazement and excitement rise within me. “Whaaaaaatt the—” I started, but stopped myself from completing that sentence, feeling Bilbo’s stern glare on the back of my head.

Finally shaking myself out of it, I carried on with what I came out for. Scouring the ground, I spotted where we had landed, the now half-flattened bush twisted oddly and I gazed uncomfortably at the splots of our blood dotted around, the red shining in the morning light against the vibrant green.

Taking the path down to the closed gate, I stepped over it, not bothering to take the time to open it since it barely reached past my knees, though being careful with my injured ankle. Taking a few more steps back, I managed to be able to look up the hill Bilbo’s house resided in, following the trail of flattened wet grass and mud streaks until I zoned in on the top.

There was the grass bank we were on! Though now I realised it was a hill, with several chunks missing, along with the evidence of a miniature landslide.

Looking back at the two remaining confused at the door, I called out.

“We must’ve accidentally wandered here, and we’re travelling across the top of the hill when we fell!” I explained to Bilbo as I pointed. Kay raised her eyebrows and nodded in both agreement and realisation.

Now happy with our explanation, Bilbo clapped his hands to get our attention.

“Right!” He declared and we both looked down at him, jumping at his sudden switch. “Follow me!”

He waved his hands about, frantically beckoning us towards him as he led us back into Bag End. Me and Kay shared a quick glance, excited grins on our faces as we followed him back in. We both bent over at the low height of the door frame, me doing so the most, much to the chagrin of my ribs, but we were able to straighten out as the ceiling inside stood somewhat tall enough. However, I could still feel the ceiling brush the top of my head when I stood at full height, and I realised my time spent here would consist of me avoiding any ceiling fixtures along with the low, circular doorways. ‘But it was forever worth it, considering where I was currently’, I thought to myself, making sure to dodge the chandelier in front of me as we walked deeper into the hobbit hole.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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riddle-me-ri · 2 years

Note

The Mr steal yo girl btas riddler idea for the btas oz prompt is honestly so good XD how about riddler flirting and stuff and ozzie getting jealous :D

A/N: Ahh, say no more, say no more. I adore Ozzie and other Rogues, I do, but any chance for my husband to come out on top I WILL TAKE IT lol. I swear y’all shouldn’t give me so much green lights on my ideas rip. But thank you for indulging me anon. Not gonna lie I got so ahead of myself that I forgot about the Oz being jealous, but it’s there, rip so sorry.

Trigger Warnings: none

Word Count: 1.8 k

BTAS Riddler x F!Reader (x BTAS Penguin?) - Mr. Steal Your Girl

You hated to admit how upset you were.

You and Oswald weren’t even a thing. He never acknowledged your feelings or your advances, ever. Even if he did you were fairly certain it was out of pity, or because after all his henchmen and lackeys, the only person he ever genuinely had was you.

You were there for him for everything and for what? Just to be completely shunned out of his life.

Fine! Whatever! I don’t care!

But you did, you cared so much and that’s what hurt the most.

You couldn’t stand being in your apartment any longer though either. You’ve cooped yourself in here for atleast three days now. You glanced at the book you’ve been meaning to read…and a drink didn’t sound bad right now.

After a sigh, you’ve decided to take a trip to the local cafe a couple blocks down from your apartment. It wasn’t anything crazy, but it was a start to get you out and about. To perhaps, restart your life without Oswald in it.

Little did you know, you would bump into someone from his world.

~~~~~~~

Edward Nygma was out and about. After being deemed sane once more after years of rigorous treatments and confinement. Despite Batman’s best attempts of keeping the villain down, there was no denying his charismatic ways and the bouts of sanity he did possess when not pushed by those that thought themselves superior of him.

However, it was foolish to not think he wouldn’t fall into a familiar pattern of quizzing the citizens of Gotham and it’s Dark Knight. For now, he kept a cap on it and decided to just stroll the streets as a normal citizen. Even if the other Gothamites didn’t react as such to his presence.

Ed passed by a small coffee shop. He didn’t think much of it until he stopped when he noticed a familiar figure in the window.

Isn’t that Oswald’s squeeze? Odd, she’s not with him…

Oswald often spoke of you during the Rogues monthly poker games and meetings. He spoke with some disdain, but Edward could tell that it was all a ploy.

A man trying to deceive himself of his own emotions out of fear for an outcome he knows will likely occur…wonder what Crane would say upon the matter?

A naturally curious man, he had to see what caused you two to drift apart. It was odd to see you not latched to the Penguin’s hip.

He walked right into the establishment. He headed to the counter and ordered a drink, not to look conspicuous and to make it seem like it was a total coincidence to see each other here.

Edward fake coughed, “excuse me, is that seat next to you–Y/N?”

~~~

You were dumbfounded as someone called your name. Too lost in your novel, it took a moment to snap back to reality.

“Hello? Oh…Edward?” You quirked your eyebrow. You weren’t expecting to run into any other rogues, in fact you were hoping on it.

“Y/N! How are you? It’s been far too long!”

“I-I thought you were still in Arkham…” You commented in a nervous chuckle, as far as you were concerned that’s where they all should stay. Oswald is sane so he only went to Stonegate Penitentiary.

You were aware of Edward Nygma, how could you not be? Oswald mentioned him here and there, and you saw his escapades on the news. You couldn’t lie, he was very brilliant and handsome, but just…your focus was on Oswald. Key word: was.

“Ah, so I was…I’ve been deemed clinically sane.” He smiled. He took a seat one cushion away from yours. He leaned his arm against the back of the booth that was against the window.

“Again? Are you?” You inquired, putting a bookmark in your book.

Edward chuckled. “Do you think so?”

“You…definitely have your moments, but I suspect you’re a man of habit. It’ll only be a matter of time.” You concluded.

Ed grinned. “That’s a fair assessment. Speaking of habit, where’s Oswald? It’s odd to see you without him around the corner…”

You couldn’t stop your hands as they balled up into fists and you bit your lip to keep from scoffing.

“Um..I’m not…Oswald and I aren’t getting along at the moment…if ever…I guess.” You admitted shyly.

Well, this took the enigmatic man by surprise. You were one of the most persistent and stubborn people he knew (and he knew plenty), he was sure Penguin would cave eventually to your advances.

“Oh, oh dear, I-I’m terribly sorry to hear that…” Edward, not skipping a beat, grabbed your hands and held them in his.

You were both surprised but almost flattered by the gesture, this was the first bit of comfort you’ve experienced from someone else in a long time.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Should’ve seen it coming, honestly.” You shrugged.

Edward will never understand. He knew the life of isolation Oswald lead, he lived in one too. The bit of attention, praise, and affection he had received working with Baxter Toys, was unlike anything he felt before in years. He enjoyed it, he’d be lying if he didn’t crave it every now and then.

To see Oswald just throw that away, someone so attentive, caring, loving, and not to mention beautiful.

The Riddler was not a foolish man, when he sees an opportunity he’s sure to seek after it.

“I surely didn’t.” Edward commented. “You were there for him, for everything. Any one with eyes could see how much you cared for him…”

You tried to keep your tears down through the nervous giggles. “I-I…I didn’t think anyone noticed, Oswald didn’t…thank you, Edward.”

“No need, my dear. I’m just stating the facts.” Edward smiled. “And if you don’t mind me being so forward, if I can state another fact?”

“What is it?”

Ed leaned in closer to your face. He covered his face with his mouth, as if you two were children, and he was sharing a secret with you.

He whispered. “It’s Oswald’s loss. To have someone by his side as supportive, loving, and devoted as you…a man would have to be a fool to push you away.”

When he leaned back and let go of your hands. You took a gasp of air you didn’t know you were holding in. Your cheeks have broken out into a bright red blush.

“I-I-um…don’t know what to say…um..thank you Edward, again.”

“Please, call me Eddie.” He smiled. “No need to be formal between us, is there?”

You glanced to the side and away from his eyes. “N-No I suppose not.”

“Excellent!” Edward chuckled. You didn’t miss the way he scooted closer to you, and you couldn’t say you minded.

“So, Eddie, what brought you here? Out of all the places to go as a newly appointed sane man?” You inquired.

You two got lost in conversation. Edward made you laugh and smile more than you have in a long time. Constantly trying to bring someone up at the expense of your own happiness had weighed a toll on you, you didn’t even realize you had. You felt that weight fall off your shoulders though, like you had huge chunks of hulking ice, that was finally being melted away.

Little did you know, Oswald was taking a walk along the sidewalk that showed the wide window into the cafe. You also didn’t know that he saw you two together. His eyes immediately went red in fury. He bit his cigarette holder in half and almost attempted to break one of his umbrella’s in half. He quickly turned around and headed back to his apartment, heated, enraged, but also disappointed…especially in himself.

After an hour or two of conversation, you and Eddie decided to take a walk through the nearby park. A park you’ve mentioned to Oswald so many times in the past, you always wanted to take a relaxing stroll with him, with your arms linked together.

Much like how your arm is linked to Edward’s arm now. His hand over yours where it rests along his bicep. You couldn’t deny the butterflies that fluttered in your stomach. You couldn’t deny that even though it’s been just days since Oswald cut you loose, you were happy, elated even.

You were comfortable, delighted, and possibly…just maybe…falling for the Riddler.

Maybe you were just crazy, but in Gotham City who wasn’t?

“Riddle me this, Y/N…” Ed stopped along a bush of daisies and bent down towards the bush. “This very thing you were born with pleases us all. It's even capable of making men fall, while only experienced by few it's treasured by all.” As he concluded his riddle, he held the bundle of flowers in his hand, waiting for you to answer and receive them as a reward.

“You? Like..me specifically?” You asked.

“Precisely, your’s moreso.” Ed smirked.

You rattled your brain for a possible answer, but what about you pleases everyone? Capable of making men fall? You tried to keep your eyes from rolling to the back of your head.

“Come on, you’ve been doing so well!” Eddie encouraged.

“I-I know, but I’m at a loss…” You shrugged.

Edward’s arms fell along with his smile. “You truly don’t know, do you?”

“Afriad not, Eddie…” You admitted defeatedly, you didn’t like the idea of disappointing him.

He handed you the flowers, but not before he cupped his thumb and index finger on your chin. Ed forced your head to look back up towards him. His thumb began caressing the corner of your lips and just below your cheek.

“The answer is beauty.” He stated gently, just barely above a whisper.

“B-Beauty? Me?”

“It’s such a shame you don’t see it, but it’s okay. In due time, I’ll show you, that is…if you’ll let me, of course.” Edward inquired.

“Y-You mean, like, date? The two of us, dating?”

“Well, in layman’s terms, I guess that’s what you’d call it. I was going for courting, but yes, dating. If again, it’s not too soon for you or forward of me.”

You gasped softly, this man has developed a habit of taking your breath away. You couldn’t deny these emotions you were feeling by being with him.

You laughed, smiled. You got happy jitters around him, you enjoyed the warmth he radiated when you held his hand or leaned against him. He made you feel amazing, smart, and wanted.

You were actually wanted by someone.

“I would love to, Eddie.” You took his hands and held them strongly in yours. You’re not sure if it was the giddiness from his attention or the absolute euphoria warming your insides, but you leaned in and kissed his cheek.

For once throughout the whole day, Edward was shocked. His eyes widened and his prominent cheeks were dusted pink for a minute.

His blushes made you giggle. It pleased you to know that you too could make him a blushing mess as much as he did you.

“T-That’s amazing! Thank you, Y/N. I promise you.” He put his hand on top of yours, as your arm went back to linking with his. Your flowers by your side in your other hand.

“I promise you won’t regret it.”

“I have a feeling I won’t, not this time.”

#batman the animated series riddler #batman the animated series edward nygma #batman the animated series the penguin #batman the animated series oswald cobblepot #btas riddler x reader #btas edward nygma x reader #btas the penguin x reader #btas oswald penguin x reader #ri writes

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best-kirby-character-tournament · 10 months

Note

Ok, to preface

this spawned from the Kirby movie poll and was way too long to be a reply so I'm putting it here. It's very long, you can ignore this if you want, I just had to put this somewhere and I figured as a fellow Kirby fan you might enjoy my crazed ranting.

My original comment:

Imo crystal shards would make for the best adaption because it hits all the right notes that could make good movie:

-squad of loveable and dynamic characters

-premise with a clear goal

-iconic locations

-incredible final boss

-ending without any loose ends

Return to Dreamland (for a movie adaptation) is iffy because I can't imagine any voice for Magolor that doesn't sound absolutely cursed, and I feel like the ending doesn't work as well in a movie format...

(And that's where the original comment ended. I then proceeded to go completely off the rails and wrote like a whole essay on a random concept that will never happen)

(Spoilers for Return to Dreamland Deluxe below)

...UNLESS- hear me out- what if they adapted the bad ending from the True Arena. Not only could this be done in such a way that it is interesting for people who already know the story, but people who don't know the story already or don't pick up on the whole possession aspect still get a conclusion. To them it would feel like an epic battle and though they might question why it feels sad/desperate or why it seems like it's not a true victory, there isn't the same feeling of "where did magolor get yeeted to". (I mean there is- but like, not in the same vein, they could even make the portal at the end more subtle if they wanted) Also just imagine being at the climax of the movie as a kirby fan and all the sudden you notice something is different.. familiar.. and then BOOM Magolor Soul. Perhaps the Magolor battle happens like normal but then once the characters beat the regular boss fight instead of ending it transitions to the eyeless phase of Magolor Soul. I'm not sure exactly how it would work out pacing wise. I also have no idea how they would choose to write the ending, but this leaves room for them to write an ending that is slightly different. Plus it could end on a bittersweet tone (which is like, my personal favorite type of ending.)

I think as a representation of the Kirby franchise this would actually work really well because you have a lot of staples of the modern Kirby games

-the dream quartet/dream team entirely present (something that crystal shards would be missing)

-A story with a relatively tame beginning that ramps up a whole lot towards the end

-Dreamland/Popstar as a primary setting (not necessarily a staple of modern Kirby but important for getting the audience to care about the world Kirby & co. are protecting especially if it's the first Kirby movie)

-A soul boss

-Another Dimension

-Mentions of the ancients

-A tragedy (I mean we've gotten a few happy endings but there is still tragedy that occurs along the way)

-A what if/alternate universe scenario

Finally, and this is the last point I swear! Doing this would clearly set the movie in an alternate timeline that can't interfere with the canon of the games. Which would make the movie a lot more enjoyable as a fan because even if it's "canon" it's not in the same timeline/universe. Much like the "what if" modes it can provide more context/substance to the main story without ever taking place in the main universe.

Anyways, that's it. Thank you for coming to my TED talk

Context: The Kirby Movie Poll

Anon this is so cool!! :0 /pos

Mod is obsessing over this- thank you for sharing this with them! :D /pos

#not tournament related #not a poll #kirby questions!#kirby propaganda #<kinda?#kirby #rtdldx spoilers #krtdldx spoilers #long post #<just in case!

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barclaysangel · 1 year

Text

"Light Showers"

Here it is! My very first Junior Wheeler/Lexy Cross oneshot! This one is INSANELY long, the longest oneshot I've ever written and I worked so hard on this, so I reeeeeeally hope you all like this! Please comment because comments mean the world to me!

Enjoy! :)

Word count: 8.3K

Warnings: Mention of underage drug use, mention of food issues/eating disorder, swearing, Logan and Chucky are warnings enough, not proofread because proofreading is for losers

Notes: Junior is biromantic asexual and a demiboy who uses he/they pronouns, Junior and Lexy are the main characters of this story and everyone else are background characters, a lot of Barclay-Wheeler/Final Family elements, very tiny hint of BarclayPierce, Junior is more in touch with his Filipino side

~You are the light I've been searchin' for forever~

Junior and Lexy’s relationship at first had always been rocky at best.

Lexy was controlling and Junior let her be. He knew that it had to deal with their own issues of always obeying other people, particularly his father. So Junior did whatever Lexy wanted them to do.

Well, mostly. Junior could never go further than making out despite Lexy’s insistence of wanting to do more. That was a discovery he would need to uncover later on on their own, his asexuality.

There were also times Lexy would flirt with Oliver Hayden and it made their heart clench. Junior truly cared for her, maybe he was close to loving her at the time, but what the hell did they know about love? So he held their head down and allowed it, just like how he did in their personal life as well.

Well, that didn’t last very long until Junior finally made the move to break up with her.

Ironically, it wasn’t because of Lexy’s controlling behavior or flirtatious nature towards someone else. It was her distance and all the secrets she was hiding from him. Junior hated secrets. And after just finding out about their mother’s cancer, his mind was far too occupied so they decided to end things with Lexy.

He hated seeing the tears in her eyes but felt that was the right thing to do.

Until Junior’s life fell apart.

~Feels like, man, I've really never felt the rain~

Their mother, Bree, died right in front of him.

Junior spiraled further into depression and was certain that they would have died by his own hands that night had Chucky not invaded their life and mind.

Chucky planted the seeds in his brain to murder their father and eventually, he did.

Years of anger, of pain, of conforming and destroying themself to be exactly what Logan Wheeler wanted him to be was released. Taken out onto their father’s skull over and over and over again by his own son to the point where he was almost unrecognizable.

After that, everything seemed to go blurry.

It was like Junior wasn’t in control anymore. Everything happened too fast and they continued spiraling, this time into madness, until it was too late.

The knife in his chest that they took in order to protect Lexy was proof of that.

And that was when Junior Wheeler died.

~Buried in the desert, didn't think I'd push through the dirt~

Well, not entirely.

Junior’s heart stopped for three minutes until the doctors were able to bring him back. They supposed he should send them a thank you note, but at that moment, they didn’t want to be alive. He just wanted to be with their mom. Or in hell. The latter seemed to be a more likely option since he was a murderer.

But circumstances occurred that caused their true desires to be haltered. He escaped from the hospital a couple weeks after their near survival and landed in the woods.

Practically dropped on Andy Barclay’s doorstep.

And then it was them against the world, despite their rough start. But it became worth it and after some time, he began to feel almost like they were home with Andy. Junior opened up more as well, about his daddy issues and their somewhat tumultuous relationship with Lexy.

Lexy…she was someone that he couldn’t get out of their mind. Despite being broken up, he still cared deeply for her. How could they not? He basically died for her. They remembered her crying as she held his bleeding body, begging them to hold on. But all he could do was apologize before their world faded to black.

But late at night in the abandoned cabin he and Andy shared, when Junior was still awake with their mind whirling with too many thoughts, he would pray to every single Greek god they ever heard of for her to be okay. That’s all he wanted. They just wanted Lexy to be okay and for her to one day forget about Junior Wheeler and the harm that he caused.

Please, gods, let her be okay. Junior Wheeler prayed while staring up at the ceiling that they were certain was growing mold. Just let her live the rest of her life in peace. Please make sure Chucky never gets to her again. Please let her find someone who can be whatever she wants them to be and have a family and be happy. Let her forget about the person who ruined her life by joining Chucky. Just…let Lexy forget about me.

Well, he didn’t think the gods heard them that night. Because the following day, after a year, he saw Devon…and Lexy.

~You just cleansed me like a waterfall, you came~

The moment Lexy saw Junior, she couldn’t take her eyes off them. He couldn’t blame her, they did make her believe that he was dead all this time. Besides, she wasn’t the only one staring. Devon was too although it didn’t seem to be as intense as Lexy’s. But even after explanations were given, she still wouldn’t look away.

Junior would admit, it started to make them feel uncomfortable. He was never fond of staring, it always felt like when someone did stare too much, they were staring into their soul. Trying to find out every single secret from him so they knew how to tear them apart from the inside. Maybe that was what Lexy was trying to do. He wouldn’t blame her, they did deserve it after everything he’s done.

Before their asshole side could come out and snap at her to ask if there was something on his face, Lexy suddenly reached out and placed her hand on their cheek.

The abrupt motion made Junior stiffen and flinch away slightly before he quickly gave into her touch.

Was her hand always this warm and soft?

“Umm…what…whatcha doing there, Lexy?” They managed to ask her instead once he found their voice, now staring back at her.

Wow…she still has those little green flecks in her eyes. He thought absentmindedly to themself before she gave her response.

“You’re…you’re real…right?” It was an odd question, but it was something that was yet again not that surprising to Junior.

She thought he was dead. Now they’re alive and well, with only a scar on his chest to prove their near death experience. Maybe she thought he was seeing a ghost or something. A ghost that somehow looked a little bit taller and had longer hair that was almost touching their shoulders rather than to look completely the same as when he “died”.

Then again, what did they know of ghosts? There was a serial killer possessing a doll for over three decades, anything was possible.

But instead of saying all of that, Junior just leaned into her hand and grazed his fingertips on her wrists lightly. “Yeah. I’m real. I’m alive, Lex.”

Calling Lexy by that nickname seemed to soften her more, relieved tears filling her eyes before she smiled at them. After what felt like forever, she finally pulled her hand away from his cheek.

Junior would later find out that she asked if they were real because she started to do drugs. And when she was too high, she would sometimes hallucinate and see him. However when she wanted to reach out and touch them, he would disappear.

It broke their heart knowing this but Junior still promised that he would help Lexy through her recovery. They would be by her side every step of the way.

Once again, with ease, he fell back into the role of willing to do anything for her.

Only this time, Lexy would do the exact same for Junior too.

~I'm screamin' like a kettle on a stove~

After that, it was like Lexy couldn’t take her hands off them.

Not that Junior minded, of course. He adored physical affection but had only really received it from their mother, so he had been fairly touch starved still. But Lexy wasn’t one to be so touchy with them.

Sure, she’d hold Junior’s hand at school or kiss him in public sometimes, but that was it. They never cuddled or hugged or anything like that. But now, it was completely different.

At first, Lexy would press her shoulders to theirs when they were standing or sitting close by. Then, it led to her looping her pinkie around his. That soon evolved to intertwining their fingers together when they held hands, hugging their arm, and resting her chin on his shoulder if they were sitting down.

Honestly, it was adorable. Junior was seeing a different side of his ex-girlfriend that they didn’t even know existed. Even Devon and Jake looked confused by her sudden acts of affection toward their best friend and cousin.

While it was incredibly cute, it just made him realize that she was perhaps just as touch starved as they were, maybe even more.

That was something he had no problems fixing.

Just about a week after they reunited, Junior noticed how fidgety Lexy was acting. Picking at her skin, shaking her leg, and they remembered that she was trying to go through withdrawal. So he allowed themself to finally return her physical affection.

He moved closer to her and wrapped their arms around Lexy, pulling her into a hug. It took her a few seconds to hug him back but when she did, she immediately buried her face in their chest, right where his heart was–and subsequently, close to their scar.

“You’re doing great, Lex. You’re okay. You’re gonna get through this, I promise. I’m not leaving you alone again. I’m here.” Junior told her and began playing with her long hair, twirling the blonde strands around his finger while their other hand stroked her back up and down soothingly.

He could finally feel her starting to relax and Lexy’s grip tightened around their body as if he could disappear if she didn’t. She even moved her head just slightly so she could plant a small kiss on the pink scar that was hidden under their shirt.

With how close Lexy was, Junior wondered if she could feel his heart racing.

~You cranked the heat up, I was cold~

Junior had a hard time deciphering their feelings for his ex.

On one hand, they genuinely still had an attraction to her. What he thought was an old flame was proven to be false the moment they saw Lexy again and that feeling only grew when he realized just how much she’s changed for the better.

But at the same time, there was too much chaos happening in both of their worlds. With Chucky, drugs, and self-discovery, Junior felt it was too soon for them to get back into a relationship. They were hesitant to tell her this but when he did, she understood. Lexy just held their hand and reassured him that they could take it as slow as they needed to.

“I’ll wait forever for you if I have to,” she told him with that sweet and genuine smile, “take your time. I’ll be right here when you’re ready. I’m not going anywhere, Juni.”

Gods, Junior almost gave in and wanted so desperately to kiss her right then and there when she called them by that nickname that always had him so weak.

But they did take it slow. They would still hold hands or cuddle, sometimes sleeping in the same bed, but that was it. And they were both fine with that, even with their so-called friends teasing them about their strange new relationship.

It was a little odd, Junior would agree and admit to it. They didn’t say they were “dating” and they haven’t even kissed since the last year before they broke up. But Lexy didn’t press on it even though they knew that she did want to kiss him whenever they caught her staring at his lips. Junior was tempted too, but thought it was still too soon.

This “arrangement” continued for a month until Christmas changed that far too soon.

Ironically, it wasn’t mistletoe where they had to be forced to share a kiss to honor a stupid tradition.

It was Lexy covered literally head to toe in Chucky’s blood with a chainsaw in her hands.

Junior wasn’t sure what came over them.

Although if he thought about it more, it was maybe just because the most beautiful girl they had ever seen was soaked in the blood of the piece of shit that ruined their lives and the lives of everyone they loved, with an almost maniacal look in her eyes after the deed was done.

That must have been it because before he could stop themself, he went up to her, cupped her face in their hands, and slammed his lips on hers.

Junior remembered the first time they ever kissed. Lexy’s lips tasted like her strawberry flavored lip gloss.

This time, her lips were metallic with Chucky’s blood, some of it even dancing on their tongue from how intensely he kissed her.

Junior was used to the taste of blood, having had some of it land in their mouth when he had killed their dad and tortured dozens of different Chuckys. But somehow, it felt different when it was on Lexy.

Fuck, was he in love?

When the dust settled and everything seemed to calm down after a few days, they both knew that they had to talk about this.

“So…about the kiss…”

“It was the heat of the moment,” Junior admitted while fiddling with the zipper of their jacket, “but that doesn’t mean that I…that I didn’t enjoy it.”

“Oh, I enjoyed it too,” Lexy giggled with an amused look in her eyes, easing the tension in her ex-partner’s chest, “I know we agreed to take it slow, and I’m all for that. But…do you think we could…do that again sometimes?”

Junior smiled before nodding. There was no way he could go back to not kissing her again. He had a taste and knew they needed more.

“Eh, I guess so.” He joked and she lightly swatted their arm with the back of her hand before leaning up on her toes, kissing him softly.

This time, Lexy’s lips tasted like mint flavored chapstick and they could smell the hot chocolate that she drank earlier on her breath.

Yeah, Junior could get used to this.

~My past grew mold around my heart~

“No.”

“Oh come on! Please?”

“No.”

“I wanna see!”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Pretty please, Juni sweetie~?”

“...no.”

“Damnit, Junior, you’re gonna have to show me eventually!”

“Like hell.”

The banter that was occurring was out of Junior’s hands. Well, actually, the object in question that Lexy was so desperate to see was in fact in his hands. It was an object that had been taunting him and now they finally had to have it despite never wanting it ever in his life.

Glasses.

Junior Wheeler needed fucking glasses.

They knew his eyesight was slowly getting worse over the last year or two. But they could squint and be able to see the words on a book okay, however the blurriness now grew more and more. Although it was easier for him to read something if it was further away from them.

Stupid farsighted eyes.

And now because of this, Andy finally noticed Junior’s predicament and insisted that he get glasses. Junior fought tooth and nail over this but Andy somehow managed to put his foot down and made them go to the eye appointment.

And here he was, with glasses that made him feel like a fucking nerd.

Junior was going to kill someone.

Probably Jake because that asshole kept teasing them and was practically begging to be murdered.

“Jun, I bet you’ll look so adorable!” Lexy insisted once again, now throwing her arms around his shoulders and leaning into them. “I just wanna see!”

“So?” Junior spoke with no emotion.

“Junior!” She now scolded before huffing. “Come on! I promise I won’t laugh or anything. I won’t even take a picture! Just…please?”

He grumbled under their breath, not saying anything for a moment before he ended up giving in–just like they always did. He begrudgingly opened the case, pushed the glasses onto their face, and stared at her with the same deadpan expression.

Lexy stared back at him before slowly smiling. “Juni! You look so cute!”

“No, I don’t.” Junior groaned and was about to take the glasses off before she stopped them by grabbing his wrists.

“Yes, you do,” she said stubbornly, “you look like Harry Potter!”

They raised an eyebrow, seeming unamused. “Really?”

She nodded her head quickly. “Yeah, but like, way hotter.”

Junior’s face flushed a bright shade of pink and he giggled quietly at the compliment. “Yeah, okay, sure.”

“I’m serious,” Lexy whined and let go of their wrists so she could run her fingers across the circular frames, “you look super cute. Besides, now you can see me better so you can admire how hot I look too!”

He snorted and rolled their eyes playfully. “My eyesight wasn’t that damaged, Lex. I just had a hard time reading up close, now I can do that.”

“Then that means you get to read everything I post on Twitter about how you should be casted as the new Harry Potter.”

“Oh gods no.” Lexy giggled at his reaction and then kissed the tip of their nose before standing up.

“Wanna go to Starbucks?”

Junior grinned widely. “Absolutely.”

~And all my anger, sadness, regret disappeared~

Movie nights were a frequent occasion in their house.

They had movie nights quite often, sometimes varying from twice a week to every single night. It depended on who was available to stay over and binge, also switching off on who picks out the movie each time.

Jake’s turn was three days ago and Junior was relieved it wasn’t his turn again because it was far too soon for him to see another horror movie.

Seriously, their lives were horror movies enough, they all didn’t need to watch even more of it.

It was Andy’s turn this time but he was taking far too long on the phone with Nica in his room. Gods, it was so obvious that they were into each other and if Nica was in person, they’d totally be shoving their tongues down each other’s throats.

But for now, they just had to wait for Andy to get off the fucking phone. So they sat around the living room, all talking about whatever was on their minds.

Junior was sitting on the floor in front of the seat Lexy was on. They could sit on the couch with her but he was in an antsy mood and knew they would be moving around too much, so he settled on the floor instead. During the conversations, they felt Lexy move closer to him but remained behind them still. Before Junior could ask what she was doing, she ran both of her hands through his hair.

The words died in their throat before they could even leave his lips, their eyes nearly rolling into the back of his head and they completely melted under her touch.

If Junior tried to think about it, he would remember that they did tell Lexy earlier that morning that he enjoyed having his hair touched or played with, even scalp massages felt nice, and how it always helped relax them. But right now, his brain was completely mush.

They could hear Jake and Devon laughing quietly at his reaction but they didn’t pay them any mind. Junior just allowed himself to be relaxed with her nails running across their head slowly, basically giving him a scalp massage.

This must be what Elysium feels like. They thought to himself.

Lexy continued doing this for a while, maybe ten minutes, until Andy came back into the room to start the movie. She pulled her hands away from him and Junior looked up at her with a pout.

She giggled at the probably pitiful look on their face. “I’ll do it again after the movie, I promise.”

Even during the movie, Lexy was still playing with his hair. It wasn’t like the massage but she would still run her fingers around their hair, playing with it just like he would do to her own hair. The entire experience still made Junior completely relaxed, leaning their head on her knee so she can continue playing with his hair.

And if Jake teased them about it later?

Well, Junior would wait until he was agitated again so they could yank at his cousin’s curly hair.

~It's madness, I'm not used to all this water, love, it's true~

Junior liked watching Lexy do her makeup.

They weren’t quite sure why. Maybe it was because she was very precise in her work, completely focused when she was doing a winged eyeliner. Maybe it was the different eyeshadow colors she would use, sometimes darker and sometimes brighter, depending on the occasion. Either way, it was simply fascinating.

Maybe too fascinating.

“Do you think you could do my makeup?” Junior asked without thinking before completely shutting his mouth.

Lexy had just finished applying her lipstick, a pretty shade of pink that almost matched her blush, before turning her head to look at them with an almost surprised look. “You want me to do your makeup?”

Every single part of Junior was now screaming to abort, quickly shaking his head. “I–it’s–it’s nothing, sorry, forget about it–”

Before they could do anything else, Lexy was up, grabbing his arm, and pulling them to the seat she was originally on in front of her vanity. “Oh my god, I have been waiting for ages for you to ask me that!”

“W-what?”

“Juni, your face is perfect for makeup. Seriously, have you seen your cheekbones? And your jawline is to die for!”

Junior began blushing deeply, making his ex giggle. “Well, I don’t even need to apply blush on you, so that’s one step out of the way.”

“Lexyyyy!” They whined, blushing more as Lexy laughed softly and then grabbed a beauty sponge.

He remembered calling it a clown nose before and she nearly threw her makeup bag at them.

“Hold still, babe.” She told him and they obeyed, not wanting her to mess up as she began her work.

The feeling of makeup on his face felt weird. It was a foreign sensation that a part of them enjoyed, while the other part wanted to stop.

He knew what that other part was, the one that their father molded to be what he wanted his own child to be, a traditional masculine man.

He hated that part of themself.

“This isn’t weird…right?” Junior asked her, his eyes closed since she was applying gold sparkly eyeshadow on their eyelids that she let him pick out with the tips of her fingers.

They felt Lexy falter for just a second before continuing. “No, of course not. I’ve always wanted to do your makeup. Besides, anyone can wear makeup. Doesn’t matter their gender or some other bullshit. Girls can wear it, boys can wear it, and anyone in between can wear it.”

Her truthful response made them relax a little, opening his eyes to look at her after she finished their eyeshadow. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry, I just…have that stupid voice in my head, you know?”

She nodded truthfully, reaching to grab two eyeliner pencils. “I know, but you don’t have to listen to it. It’s wrong anyway, it’s just what your asshole piece of shit dad wanted you to believe.”

Junior couldn’t help but to snort at how venomous Lexy sounded when she mentioned his father. Sometimes, it made him wonder who hated Logan more: them or Lexy.

Probably Lexy now that he thought about it.

Actually, Andy. Their guardian always looked like he was three seconds away from bringing Logan back to life only to torture him slowly and painfully whenever Junior talked about some of the things his father made them do, especially when it came to restricting his food intake.

“What color do you want? Black or purple?” Lexy asked, shaking them away from their thoughts.

“Purple.” He responded after a moment, finding the shade of darker purple nice to look at.

Junior once again closed their eyes so she could draw the eyeliner onto his lower eyelid. It was harder for them to stay still during that part, the pressure of the pencil on his eye. It wasn’t unpleasant but it was certainly odd enough that they weren’t enjoying this process as much as the other ones.

When Lexy finished, he opened their eyes again to see her grabbing mascara. “Okay, you gotta keep your eyes open for this one, Jun.”

His eyes widened almost in horror and started shaking their head. “Uh uh, absolutely not, keep that away from me.”

“Junior.”

“I’m going to get stabbed in my eyeball.”

“I’m not gonna stab your eyeball, I’ve done this a million times.” Lexy rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Your eyelashes are gonna look so fucking cute with mascara, so please hold still.”

Junior groaned quietly before giving in, his entire body now stiff. Most likely not trusting that they won’t move, Lexy placed one hand behind the back of his head before using the mascara wand to go down and up their eyelashes.

It took everything in him not to want to pull away, although they started to at one point but her grip tightened around him and she didn’t let go until she was finally finished.

Lexy leaned back, looking at them almost proudly. “Fuck, you look so hot and you don’t even know it yet.”

Junior snorted from her statement. “Does that mean I can see it now?”

“No, not until we’re done. We just have one thing left,” she began rummaging through her makeup bag, “I think red would be a good color on you. Do you want to try red lip gloss or red lipstick?”

He certainly didn’t feel like they were ready for lipstick, so he went with the former. Lexy pulled out the bright red lip gloss, carefully putting it on Junior’s lips. They couldn’t help but to stare at her as she did this, the way her eyebrows scrunched together with concentration and complete focus.

Now that was fucking adorable.

Finally, Lexy pulled away and clapped her hands together with a beaming smile. “Okay, okay, now you can look!” She told him excitedly and allowed them to look at the mirror.

For a moment, Junior didn’t even recognize himself. Their eyes were glittering, his lips shimmering and face contoured and highlighted, noticing features in themself that he never thought to notice before.

They looked…

“Pretty.” He ended up saying softly under their breath.

Lexy dropped her chin on his shoulder, still grinning ear to ear. “Yeah, hella pretty. I told you, you have the perfect face to do makeup on.”

Junior turned their head now to look at her, smiling softly. “Thank you for doing this, Lex.”

“Of course, sweetie.” She told him affectionately with them leaning forward to kiss her but she quickly backed away. “Nuh uh, no kisses yet. I’m not letting you ruin my hard work, we’re taking at least a dozen pictures and then we’ll talk about kissing.” She insisted stubbornly, already reaching into her pocket for her phone.

He rolled their eyes but knew that she wouldn’t settle on this. “Fine, but only because you did a really great job.”

Lexy giggled triumphantly, quickly taking a selfie of the two of them.

Junior would later notice that that picture she took would be on her lockscreen, and it only made his heart race.

~But you made me want to~

Junior was exhausted.

The weather was starting to get warmer now, spring hitting its highest, and the almost overbearing warmth was enough to make them tired.

So he had gone to bed earlier than usual, with only one blanket on top of him because they would struggle to sleep without a blanket–believe him, they’ve tried. He must have been sleeping for a few hours, face down and drooling on his pillow while dreaming of two of the cutest kittens they had ever seen, before becoming slightly aware of the bedroom door opening.

This still wasn’t enough to wake Junior up from his slumber. It was the feeling of a body climbing into their bed that finally jolted him awake.

“It-it’s me, Jun.” They heard a familiar voice say next to him and they sighed softly, nodding and turning to face her.

“Hi Lexy.” Junior said groggily as she shimmied under his blanket and curled up beside them.

Of course it was her, this wasn’t the same time she had slipped into his bed in the middle of the night. Besides, they had done the same to her as well.

“Hi.” Lexy replied with her voice quiet and almost shaky, as if she had been crying.

That realization woke him up a little more and even though they couldn’t see her in the darkness of their room, he could still see her silhouette. They reached out carefully and felt wetness on her cheeks, gently wiping away her tears with his thumbs.

“You okay Lex? Did you have a nightmare?” They asked her with a soft frown, still stroking her cheeks.

Lexy sniffled and he felt more tears on their hands as she nodded. “I…I lost you. You died, Juni…you died in my arms and I–I couldn’t do anything to help you…”

Junior knew that this wasn’t the first time Lexy had nightmares about that night in the theater. She had told him before, it was a recurring nightmare she had when they were believed to be dead.

“I’m here. I didn’t die, I pulled through. See?” He gently guided her hand to their chest, right where the scar was.

He wasn’t fond of touching or even looking at their scar. Well, the first part would go out the window in moments where he was overwhelmed or upset, rubbing the scar because it felt like they were being stabbed again. But Lexy would often touch his scar or place her head on it, as if it was a reminder that they were alive.

This method seemed to work because Junior could feel her start to calm down, lightly pressing her fingers on his chest. They knew that she could feel his scar even through their shirt, it was that noticeable.

Lexy was quiet for a few moments before taking a deep breath and pushing her cheek against his chest. “If you ever die on me like that again, I’ll kill you myself.”

Junior chuckled under their breath and decided not to mention the impossibility of that. He wouldn’t underestimate her, she would absolutely try if she could.

“Go to sleep, honey. I’ll be here when you wake up. ‘M not going anywhere.” They reassured her, now rubbing her back with one hand.

He heard Lexy hum in acknowledgement, keeping her cheek near their scar while fidgeting with his shirt by their waist. She continued doing this for a few minutes before finally falling asleep again.

Junior smiled fondly when he noticed she was sleeping before doing the same not long after, accepting their fate to spend the night overheating.

~Plan out my last days on earth, eating you~

There was a lot that Junior was still working through that his father implemented into their brain.

That it was okay to be feminine, to take breaks, to cry, to wear whatever he wanted, to not need to change themself to be what someone else wants him to be. Just the basics, at least that’s what they saw it to be.

But when it came to food, it was the hardest thing for his mind to work through.

Junior still counted their calories, still sometimes slipping and asking Andy how much he was allowed to eat, hardly asking for seconds even though they did want more food. Thankfully, Andy seemed to know when Junior did want more and would always serve him more food without needing to ask them.

Andy’s mother instincts were something he was still getting used to.

But on good days, Junior could eat as much as they wanted without hearing his father’s voice in their head, even eating the occasional sugary and sweet desserts without much hesitance.

However on bad days…he would barely eat. They would have maybe some snacks, or a fruit, but would throw himself into reading or writing or playing their guitar that he would genuinely forget about eating until someone reminded them.

This week had been a bad week for Junior. He was lost in their mind and did what he could to distract themself. Unfortunately, that included skipping meals. But he thought that they had it under control.

Until the day before when Junior nearly fainted in front of everyone after he lied about eating when in fact they went the entire day without eating.

Now, he hadn’t meant to lie. It was a reflex when Andy asked them since he hadn’t been home that morning. He always said “yes” even if it wasn’t true. By the time they realized it, he didn’t want to go back on their answer. He figured that they would eat later on.

That was proven to be false, of course.

Junior would admit, it was a little scary. He stood up too fast and suddenly got punched in the face with dizziness and saw black spots over their eyes. He would have landed on the ground had Jake not been close by to catch them.

His cousin and Andy were quick to get food for him, despite how embarrassed they felt. The embarrassment only continued when he noticed that they both were keeping more of an eye on him. All Junior could hope was that they wouldn’t tell anyone else about their little “incident”.

Once again, the gods were not on his side.

“Junior, I’m going to kick your ass!” Was the first thing Junior heard the next afternoon from Lexy, startled out of their reading and staring at her in both surprise and confusion.

“What did I do this time?”

“More like what you didn’t do. You seriously didn’t eat all day yesterday and almost passed out?! Are you kidding me?!” She nearly shrieked in frustration.

He didn’t say anything for a moment before mumbling angrily under their breath. “I’m living with a bunch of snitching bitches!”

Lexy stomped over to where he was sitting on their bed, snatching the book from his hands despite their protests, and replaced his book with a chocolate chip cookie that they hadn’t noticed she was holding.

Junior went quiet, staring at it for a moment before looking up at Lexy. “I already ate breakfast, plenty of it. You can ask Andy or Jake, I’m sure they’ll attest to that.”

“Oh I know that,” she started, “but I already decided to bring over cookies, there’s plenty more downstairs. I still want you to eat that.”

He didn’t want to, their father’s voice kicking in the longer he stared at the cookie. They weren’t sure how long he was sitting there, staring with their hands beginning to tremble until Lexy sat down beside him and placed her hand over theirs. “What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?”

The phrase that Junior often said to his ex got them smiling a little, inhaling before speaking. “It’s just…been a bad week. I’m stuck in my head with everything my dad told me. I really really didn’t mean to not eat yesterday. I just needed a distraction and forgot to eat. I even lied about it, which really wasn’t my intention. I don’t want you all to be worrying about me.”

“Juni, we’re gonna worry more if you’re almost fainting from not eating anything all day,” Lexy said gently, “if you’re struggling, you can talk to any of us. We’ll help you. You know that, right?”

“I know,” he replied, “but we both know that me asking for help isn’t my forte.”

“It’s not either, but I’m still trying.” She told them with a small chuckle, running her hand through his hair which caused Junior to close their eyes. “Now, will you please at least take a bite from your cookie? I’ll give you a kiss if you do.”

Lexy truly was persuasive, wasn’t she?

And just like he always did, they gave in to her wishes. He opened their eyes and took a bite from his cookie–fuck, that tastes really good–, and after they swallowed the bite, he leaned in to kiss her softly.

She kissed them back for a moment before pulling away just enough to breathe. “You taste like chocolate.”

Her statement made both of them laugh before Junior said something. “Mahal kita.”

Lexy raised an eyebrow as she looked at him. “What does that mean?”

Junior had been learning to speak Tagalog for the past few months. It was a way to connect more with their Filipino side and even understand his mother more. Learning the language felt like they were forming a bond with his mom, even though she was gone now. So far, the only other person who was trying to learn Tagalog as well was Andy. Well, Jake too, but he mostly wanted to know the curse words so he could understand if Junior was swearing at him.

“It means ‘you’re sweet’.” They lied.

Of course Junior had to lie. He couldn’t tell her that it meant “I love you”. That had to be far too soon, even though they had been together now for eight months, just without making it official.

Besides, what Lexy didn’t know wouldn’t kill her.

And she believed them too, smiling more at him. “That sounds so cute when you say it,” she told them truthfully before suddenly going serious, “but if you go an entire day without eating again, I will kick your ass. Got it?”

Junior chuckled, knowing that Lexy wasn’t kidding or exaggerating, and took another large bite from his cookie. “Got it, Lex.”

~The tips of your teeth fit perfect in me~

Lexy loved to go shopping.

She could spend hours in the mall if she wanted to, spending money and splurging on clothes and makeup.

As for Junior…

“I’m going to strangle myself with a hanger.”

They had a raging headache. They both had only been in the mall for a couple hours, but Junior was bored and tired. He hated shopping even though they did know that he needed some more clothes–their style kept shifting and changing because he kept exploring their options–but right now, he needed a break.

“Jun, we haven’t even been here for that long.” Lexy looked at them, seeming almost exhausted by his antics while holding up a red shirt to see if it would look good on them. “Come on, just a little longer.”

“We can stay for another half hour as long as I can lay down on the floor.” He bargained.

“Okay, that’s super gross and unhygienic. How about another hour, maybe a few minutes over, and I’ll buy you some food and coffee later.”

Junior thought about it for a moment before nodding. “Fine, we have a deal.”

They shook hands on it, both of them giggling before they went off to look at other clothes while also remaining within eye view of each other.

They were still incredibly bored, browsing through different shirts and sighed loudly. He checked their phone and only five minutes had passed.

It was going to be a long hour.

Some time had passed, certainly not enough for Junior’s sanity, but he was managing to cope. A girl about their age even came up and started a conversation with him for a few minutes. She seemed kind enough and at the moment, they didn’t mind the company.

Someone else, however, did in fact mind.

Junior didn’t realize Lexy came back until she was almost right next to him. Before they could even greet her, she grabbed the collar of his shirt and slammed her lips on theirs with enough force that it made him take a step back.

It was almost reminiscent of the passionate kiss they shared after Lexy killed her first Chucky. But this one was more rough, teeth hitting their own and he wouldn’t be surprised if she made their lips bleed.

He almost struggled to breathe during the forceful few seconds kiss until she finally pulled away and looked at the girl they had been talking to. “Hi there. Who are you?”

Uh oh. Junior knew that tone. It was the condescending, passive-aggressive tone she would speak in when Lexy was either pissed or about to say some of the most heinous things he had ever heard in their life. He hadn’t heard her use that tone in a while, so it did take them aback a little.

He wasn’t the only one, the girl now looked nervous, stuttering over her words before coming up with an excuse to leave. When she did, Lexy stared daggers into Junior’s soul that had them nervous but confused as well.

“Why are you looking at me like that? I should be the one looking at you like that! What the hell just happened?!”

Lexy glared before spinning away on her heel and storming off. Junior was quick to catch up with her, his confusion growing. “Can you please explain to me what’s going on?!”

“She was flirting with you!” She snapped and it had Junior blinking a few times.

“What?”

“I was watching you, she kept on flirting with you and you let her!”

“Flirting with–no she wasn’t!”

“Yes she was! I know girls and I know how they flirt, she was flirting!”

“I didn’t know that! I thought she was just being nice!”

Lexy stopped and whipped around to face them, a look of disbelief on her face. “You cannot possibly be that oblivious, Junior.”

Junior threw his arms up in the air. “Yes! I can be that oblivious! Lexy, you were the one to ask me out on a date back in eighth grade. I didn’t even know it was a date until you told me! I thought you were just being nice and wanted to hang out with me. I can’t tell these things!”

She stared at them even longer, running her hand through her hair with a look of pure frustration. “Are you sure that you and Andy aren’t actually biologically related? Because of how unaware you both are to women flirting with you has got to be a genetic thing.”

“I don’t know, we haven’t taken a DNA test.” Junior replied lightheartedly, shrugging his shoulders before a lightbulb went off inside their brain. “Wait a minute…are…are you jealous?”

Lexy seemed to flush red, her glare returning. “I was not–!”

“Oh my god, you’re totally jealous,” he chuckled and a mischievous grin grew on their face, “I never thought I’d see you jealous before. Wow. I mean, I don’t mind it, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t cut my mouth open when you kiss me due to your jealousy.”

She was quiet, huffing under her breath. “If it makes you feel any better, I think I chipped two of my front teeth on yours.”

They both laughed before Junior reached out to twirl her blonde hair around his finger. “You don’t need to get jealous, Lex. I’m not going anywhere. Trust me, I’m definitely not interested in anyone else. Alright? Mahal kita.”

A certain look flashed in Lexy’s eyes but it was gone as quickly as it came before they could try to identify it. “What-what does that one mean again?”

“It means that you’re really cute. That’s all.” He once again lied, feeling grateful that she didn’t understand Tagalog.

She just hummed and nodded, making Junior smile. “Now, can we get out of here? I really am hungry and am in desperate need of coffee.”

“You’re too obsessed with coffee,” Lexy rolled her eyes but giggled, “let’s go, we just gotta pay for these clothes first.”

“Fine, just don’t get jealous of the cashier.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

~You're a shower of light I'd devour any day of the week~

Junior always struggled with remembering what day it was.

They would blame the year he spent with Andy in the woods, away from civilization and only remembering the days from recent newspapers Andy would bring back on supply runs. Sometimes, the days felt like they were just merged together. Sometimes they would think it was Friday when actually it was Tuesday.

God, maybe Devon was right. He needed to get out more.

But it really didn’t matter that much to them anyway. If he wanted to know what day it was, they could just look in the calendar app on his phone. Simple and easy.

But while Junior didn’t always remember dates, including important ones, imagine their surprise when he was woken up with their door slamming open and light turning on in his room. “Junior, wake up!”

Lexy’s voice absolutely shot them awake, protective instincts kicking in and bolting upright and grabbing his favorite switchblade from under their pillow. “What–what?! What happened?! Is it Chucky?! Where is he?!”

“Woah, Jun, relax, there’s no Chucky, it’s just me–...why do you have a knife under your pillow?”

“I think the better question is why don’t you have a knife under your pillow?” Junior threw back before lowering his weapon, now a little more relaxed. “What’s going on? Did you have a nightmare or something? What happened?”

She didn’t say anything for a moment before jumping up onto their bed and settling next to him. “Happy birthday, Juni!”

They blinked at her, quiet for a few seconds. “...what?”

“Happy birthday! It’s your birthday today, September 26th. You’re sixteen now!”

Junior slowly turned his head to look at their alarm clock before turning back to stare at her in bewilderment. “Lexy…it’s 4:30 in the morning?! You couldn’t wait another six or seven hours to wake me up for my birthday like a normal person?!

Now it was Lexy’s turn to blink. “Wow…Jake was right, you are really grouchy when you’re woken up this early.”

“That fucker knew about your little plan?!” He hissed, already now coming up with a dozen ways to murder their cousin and pin the blame on Chucky.

“Yes, but it was just because I wanted to make it special for your birthday since I missed your last one due to you faking your death!”

“I did not fake my death, I was nowhere near as elaborate to fake it.” He grumbled, pushing their switchblade under his pillow and started to lay back down. But Lexy prevented them, grabbing his shoulders and pulling them back up as he groaned even louder.

“C’mon, Jun, work with me here.” Lexy whined, something she didn’t do often but made her sound adorable whenever she did.

Junior’s eyes began slowly closing. “Can I work on it when I’m not running on three hours of sleep?”

“No,” Lexy insisted stubbornly before cupping their face in her hands and the action made him open their eyes again, “I need to say something first and you have to listen.”

Her serious tone was enough to make him wake up more, raising an eyebrow. “Uhhh…okay? What is it?”

Now, she looked nervous. Shy even. Maybe even anxious. They were looks that Junior certainly wasn’t used to seeing.

“I…ummmm…uhhhhhhh…”

“...are–are you having a stroke?”

It took another couple minutes until Lexy took a deep breath, looked into their eyes, and spoke slowly. “Mahal, masaya ako na nasa buhay kita. Ibig mong sabihin ang mundo sa akin. Mahal kita.”

Junior’s heart stopped.

He understood every single word she said.

My love, I'm happy to have you in my life. You mean the world to me. I love you.

Holy shit.

“W-what?”

“Look, I know I butchered the pronunciations, please don’t make me say them again.”

“No, it’s–it’s just…when did you…?” Now Junior was the one struggling to get the words out.

“I started learning Tagalog a couple months ago,” Lexy admitted, “I wanted to surprise you for your birthday. I mean, I’m definitely not fluent yet, but I understand the basics. And I…definitely know what mahal kita means now.”

They closed his eyes for a moment and sighed quietly before opening them again. “You…you knew at the mall…?”

“Yeah, I knew. ‘Sweet’ my ass, Jun.” She teased with a playful smile before looking serious again. “Why didn’t you just tell me what it really meant?”

Junior wanted to look down but her hands prevented him. “I…I didn’t know if it was too soon. Or if you were ready to hear it. But…I did mean it. I…ummmm…”

“Are you having a stroke?” Lexy repeated their previous question with a smirk.

Knowing that he deserved that, they chuckled quietly before finally growing a pair and saying it. “I love you, Lexy. I always have. It just took some time for us to find each other again. But I love you. Mahal kita, maganda.”

“That last one means ‘beautiful’, I know because you say that one a lot to me,” she grinned and it made them both laugh, “but I love you too. It took losing you for me to realize that. But now that I have you back in my arms, I am never letting go again.”

“Good,” He smiled at her, leaning one side of their cheek to one of her hands, “so…does this mean we can be official? Like…you’ll be my girlfriend?”

“Just as long as it means that you’re my partner.” Lexy grinned, amusement yet adoration in her eyes.

Junior could drown himself in her eyes if they could.

“I would love that, Lex. I’ll be the best partner you ever had. I know I’m oblivious and kind of an idiot, but I’ll still be by your side no matter what–”

“Juni?”

“Yeah?”

“Kiss me.”

“Okay.”

~Baby, cleanse me~

#Luna talks #admin #Chucky #Chucky 2021 #Junior Wheeler #Lexy Cross #Jexy #Andy Barclay #Jake Wheeler #Devon Evans #Nica Pierce #Barclay-Wheeler family #Final Family #oneshot #Chucky oneshot #Chucky fic #Light Showers

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wildestdreamsblog · 2 years

Text

I posted 1,231 times in 2022

That's 934 more posts than 2021!

280 posts created (23%)

951 posts reblogged (77%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@wildestdreamsblog

@angrythingstarlight

@obsidian-fury

@unfortunate-brat

@delightfullittlesunshine

I tagged 764 of my posts in 2022

Only 38% of my posts had no tags

#ari levinson fic - 165 posts

#ari levinson x female reader - 156 posts

#ari levinson x y/n - 154 posts

#ari levinson x you - 151 posts

#soft!dark ari levinson x reader - 136 posts

#daniella answers 💜 - 131 posts

#ari levinson x reader - 129 posts

#ari levinson - 115 posts

#ari levinson au - 107 posts

#ari levinson angst - 105 posts

Longest Tag: 127 characters

#you have no problem consuming labor without giving anything back and then wonder why evenutally there's nothing left to consume

My Top Posts in 2022:

All’s well that ends well to end up with you

Pairing: Ransom Drysdale x Reader

Summary: Ransom decided to finally face the music. And you might as well forget about divorce, it won’t happen. Not if he has anything to do with it.

Warnings: Soft!Dark Ransom, Swearing, Breeding kink, Sexual themes, If you’re not 18+ please, PLEASE, do not interact. Be mindful of the warnings. Let me know if I miss anything.

A/N: hi loves! It’s been a while~ Life has been busier than usual. Finally made time to write and it feeeels so therapeutic to me, thank you for sticking with me! I really thought I could wrapped this series up with just 2 parts, but I guess there’s going to be another one for the ending. And I hope you enjoy. If you like it, don’t forget to reblog or leave a comment 🌸

Masterlist, Part 2/2, End

“Can I tell you something?”

Marie, your closest friend next to Ransom looked at you with brows furrowed. She sat straighter, silently closing her laptop as she gave you her full attention before she wiggled her brows at you, “That sounded juicy. What is the tea, sis?”

You sighed before looking around the cafe you both frequented in ever since you were teenagers. Your eyes scanned the room, making sure that no one could hear what you were about to say.

“Promise me first,” you insisted, looking at her intently to let her know that you were dead serious, that what was to be said would not be repeated to anyone else. It was not that you didn’t trust her, it was just that you didn’t want to harm Ransom. After all, you married him to keep him away from any harm. She frowned at you before nodding her head, gesturing a cross on her chest as if promising that she would keep this a secret.

“You know I married Ransom, right?”

Marie rolled her eyes dramatically before lifting your left hand up and pointing at the ring, “Duh, who could missed this big ass ring that Ransom got for you?”

“Listen,” you sat nearer to her, which piqued her interest. “This is not a real marriage.”

She was silent for a moment, her mind digesting what you just said. “What do you mean this isn’t real?”

You silently told her your situation. It had been eleven months since you kept the secret alone, since you agreed to his plan, since you had started lying to everyone else, including your Marie and even your own family. You told her everything, even the thing that occurred last week, one that rendered you speechless, one that turned Ransom into a hulking bull every time you approached the topic of divorce.

It took her a moment to digest everything you just revealed, her hand rubbing her chin absentmindedly, “Huh.”

“I don’t know what to do. I’m at lost here,” you admitted, the ring on your hand heavy as it twinkled at you, as if reminding you that you were his, as if you could ever forget that you were legally married to him despite this marriage not being real to you. “We said it would only last for a year, but every time I mentioned that, he shut off.”

She watched you with a funny look on her face, and then a flash of realization crossed hers, “You really didn’t know…did you?”

“Know what?”

“He sees you as a wish come true.”

You brushed off what she said so easily, as if you were sure that the two of you were only really friends.

“Marie, I don’t know what to do. I’m at loss here,” you started, playing with your ring as you confessed to her. “During that time, I just wanted to save him. I just wanted to ease his burden… I didn’t think of what would happen to us, to our friendship when this finally ends.”

“It won’t end.” She said so assuringly that you almost believed her. “I don’t know how Ransom would be if ever you weren’t in his life. Even I’m scared to see what he’s capable of if you ever leave.”

Days passed by, and everything was in reverse. When before, Ransom was avoiding you, now you were avoiding running into him which had proven to be impossible numerous times. You didn’t know what was happening, wasn’t actually certain about the situation, but lately he was just always…there. The other morning, you ran into him with just when he finished his workout. You were on your way to your room just around the corner, your eyes glued to your phone as you walked when Ransom rounded the corner and lo and behold, you found your self eye-level with his glistening, muscular chest. You couldn’t helped but noticed his firm body, his well-sculpted torso. Your eyes widened, his scent invading you as you felt yourself plastered on his front. His skin on yours was warm, his look heated. Slowly, you looked up to your best friend, only to find him already looking down at you with a smirk on his lips, strands of hair falling on his forehead from his tedious workout.

“You okay there, kitten?” He drawled slowly, his voice slowly. And you didn’t know why you shivered, but you did. And the next thing you knew, you were running to the safety of your room, slamming the door as you went as if you could escape the confusion you were feeling from actually feeling something from the close proximity you shared with him. You meant, for God’s sake! You had always been close with him, you had seen him topless numerous times and felt nothing! So why in Earth did you feel something weird in the pit of your stomach?

You wished that ended there, but no. You woke up ready to start the day ahead, absentmindedly humming to yourself as you got ready. You walked into your bathroom, wearing only your thin sleepwear when what greeted you was Ransom, and his body that was naked as the day he was born under the stream of water pouring down on him. Your jaw slackened, you wanted to unsee what you just saw..his perfectly sculpted backside and his hard maleness. Ransom opened his eyes and saw you-and that was when you woke up from your reverie and slammed the door shut.

“What are you doing in my room, Ran!” You asked from the closed door.

“My shower broke, kitten,” he replied with his lazy drawl. It didn’t take a minute before he opened the door and looked down at you. You still couldn’t meet his eyes. Ransom leaned against the door, his face sporting an innocent look as he crossed his muscular arms over his chest, his lower body wrapped with a white towel. “I really need to call the plumber,”

“Yes you should. In fact, I will call one right now,” you sputtered out, you could feel his gaze on you and if you only looked at him, you would see the cocky smile he had.

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775 notes - Posted March 27, 2022

I know heaven’s a thing, I go there when you touch me

Pairing: 6’4 Steve Rogers x Reader

Warning: Soft!dark Steve Rogers, Yandere!Steve Roger, size kink? Bad words? If you’re not 18+ please, PLEASE, do not interact. Be mindful of the warnings. Let me know if I miss anything.

Summary: You just wanted to try one night stand- for the sake of your sanity. But who knew you would be doing it with the Captain America himself?

A/N: I came back bearing gift for you! Thank you so much for always supporting me my loves! Also quick life update, I have 13 days left in my job before I’m finally free~ will probably rest for a month before I look for another job for my sanity uwu. I hope you enjoy this! Also!!! 4kish fic, first time I wrote a one-shot thing long

“You!”

Sam jumped from his seat upon hearing your loud shout. Steve, who wasn’t expecting the loud sound coming from you, only calmly looked behind him from his seated form on the bar. He was still nursing the whisky despite his inability to get drunk, only accompanying Sam in what he called “boys night”, sans Bucky who was busy guarding his little bird. Or rather, stalking his little bird. He watched you over his hooded eyes, the dimmed lights from the bar making him looked dangerous, but it was the way he looked at you that almost made you stopped walking to him. He waited patiently for you to reach him, his form completely relaxed, his posture leaning against the bar and even seated, he managed to tower over your small form.

“Me.” Steve stated with a smirked on his face, the blue shirt he was wearing brought out the beauty in his eyes. You felt Sam’s dark eyes on you as if in thought why you were screaming at the Captain America.

Only that you didn’t know he was a hero. You weren’t from around here, you weren’t even from around this state. Or this continent. You were here for an overseas job that you just couldn’t not accept- a job that would get you out of your comfort zone and one that would broaden your career. Who could say no to that?

You squinted your eyes at him, taking his confidence and masculinity in.

“Do you find me attractive?” You asked with false bravado. At this point, you were beyond frustrated with the way you just finish. You meant, you were doing your part, you were putting yourself out there. You just got out of a three-year relationship, in which you never came, not even once. You could not help but think that maybe there was something wrong with you.

Were you not doing it right? Were you not putting more effort? Were you not just enthusiastic? You meant, how hard could it be? Other people did it on a daily basis- then why could you not orgasm? And you felt sorry for your then partner. You could not help but think that maybe you were the problem? Maybe there were just women who couldn’t come. Yeah, right. So you tried again with someone else for months. And. You. Still. Couldn’t. Come.

And so you promised yourself that this would be your last great effort in trying to achieve it. You told yourself to find the most attractive man in this fancy bar, and go home with him. So here you were, trying to stand taller than you actually were, and asking the handsome man in front of you if he found you attractive.

Steve tilted his head in the endearing way of his, looked down and up at you slowly running his eyes over your gorgeous form and met your eyes. His blue ones twinkled as if he found this amusing, “Yes.” His velvet voice affirmed.

“Then do you want to have sex with me?” You sputtered, hoping that your voice came out sure and not shaky, as what you felt inside.

Steve tilted his head, his long lashes fluttering as he blinked, as he regarded you. He looked like he was considering what you asked seriously.

Sam chuckled, in his own way of easing the awkwardness he was feeling after a moment of dead air, “Good luck with that. This man is as decent as-“

Suddenly, Steve rose to his feet, his huge form towering over you little one before he collected his leather jacket.

“I would love to.”

You blinked owlishly, craning your head up just to look at his eyes as he neared your little form, the soft lights from the bar was making him looked ethereal, as if he was an angel, one that looked at you with a dark glint in his eyes. He bowed his head a little so he could see better. He could not help but likened you to a little kitten, one that was hissing and standing up more than its actual height. Your head was just leveled below his chest. You were so small that Steve didn’t know how you survived life so far. He knew what it was like to be little, he was no stranger to being small. But back then, he had Bucky. And despite how brave Steve was back then, he knew he would diminished without someone protecting him. You reminded him of Steve before the serum. You were brave, so brave despite the tremble in your lips when you approached him. You were scared…but you still did it. There was something about your gentle courage that made him want to go with you just to see this through. He wasn’t like that. To be honest, he had always thought of women as something that he could survive without. After all, he lived a long life without a companion. He had never understood why Bucky was so enamored and captivated by his little bird.

But strangely, all he wanted to do was get to know you…so he could protect you.

So…was there someone protecting you, little kitten?

He smiled at you, his nose picking up your sweet fragrance. He wanted nothing but to smell you more. He cocked his head to the side, his hand going in his pocket as he watched you involuntarily take a step back.

“You can back out,” his baritone voice teased you. He didn’t know why he said that, perhaps it was his way of giving you a chance to get out of this predicament. Perhaps, he was scared to find out how he would be like if his incessant need to protect you deepened beyond going back. He watched your brows furrowed as if you were seriously considering backing out. He hoped you wouldn’t. For both of your back, he hoped you would. He was torn, but he wasn’t going to make the decision for you. No, you have to decide for the both of you.

“Are you scared, little kitten?”

You snapped your eyes back at him, the strong resolve he saw mere minutes ago was now back, stronger than ever. You stepped closer to him, and without thinking, you reached for his hand and pulled him, leading him out of the bar and into the life you would inevitably have with him when you made the decision to touch him.

Steve opened his apartment door, sidestepping and gesturing for you to enter his lair. You eyed him but he just gave you an innocent smile before tilting his head as he waited for you to enter his apartment. You stepped foot inside his apartment, your eyes roaming over the place of the man you wanted to sleep with. Your eyes found the hanged black and white photograph of him and a dark-haired man wearing what looked like an old military uniform. The next photograph was of a group of huge men wearing..costumes? Was Steve a model? You frowned before walking deeper into his apartment. His apartment screamed masculinity, it smelled clean and with a hint of his distinct smell. You jumped when you heard the door closed, Steve locking it as he put his car keys on the table. He smiled innocently at you before perching himself on the edge of the table, his stance completely relaxed like nothing could falter him. His heart swelled of approval when he asked you where you wanted to go and you suggested his place. Smart girl, he thought. You should not let anyone in your place.

You cleared your throat, standing awkwardly in front of this massive and handsome man as he looked at you with a smile on his lips as if you were amusing to him, “I like your apartment.”

“I like your lips,” he smiled sweetly at you before reaching his large hand at you, urging you to take it, “can I kiss you?”

You chuckled as you walked near him, “Is this how it usually goes?”

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986 notes - Posted May 1, 2022

Nothing’s gonna hurt you

Pairing: Lloyd Hansen x Reader

Summary: There was nothing more dangerous than a clingy villain.

Warnings: Violence, Swearing, Possessiveness, Manipulative behavior, Sexual themes, If you’re not 18+ please, PLEASE, do not interact. Be mindful of the warnings. Let me know if I miss anything.

A/N: One shot that has around almost 6k words. Also, happy birthday to me <3

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1,033 notes - Posted August 24, 2022

All’s well that ends well to end up with you

Pairing: Ransom Drysdale x Reader

Summary: Ransom inherited the company. Ransom is now a changed man. Ransom needs a wife. And you are the only one he wanted to marry. What will happen if the lines get blurred and he ended up not wanting to let you go?

Warnings: Soft!Dark Ransom, Swearing, Breeding kink, Sexual themes, If you’re not 18+ please, PLEASE, do not interact. Be mindful of the warnings. Let me know if I miss anything.

A/N: Hola, my first fic for 2022! Also my first ever Ransom fic! A classic marriage of convenience trope hehe. This is will be a two-shot story. Enjoy my loves and please, please help us content creators by actually reblogging our stuff!

Masterlist Part 1/2, ending

"You will marry me."

You sputtered out the water that you had been drinking when you heard him uttered those words. You swore you felt the water reach your nose. You didn't know whether to laugh or cry or look at him like he was crazy. So you opted to do those three.. well, the crying part was mainly due to your sudden drowning from the water.

Calmly, Ransom passed you a napkin and stood up to rub your back as you tried to breathe properly. You accepted the napkin and wiped your face. Your coughing ceased and once it did, you turned to him and pointed at the seat in front of you. He returned to his seat with so much seriousness in his eyes that you weren't sure what was it that happened to him. You meant, fine he had grown up as he should, straying far away from his easy-go-lucky version of himself and instead, underwent 180 degrees changes. Ever since his grandfather died and unexpectedly passed to Ransom their company, he had man up. The sudden death of his grandfather rattled him like no one else. In his family that was so hell-bent on destroying just about everyone else, Harlan was the only one who showed him real love. The final act of love that he gave Ransom was the unexpected passing off of the company to him. Everyone was shocked when Ransom took the job seriously, and above that, he performed way better than they were all expecting. You were happy for the man he was becoming. You knew Ransom was smart, you knew he was capable, the only thing he lack was the motivation to achieve greater things. But now, he was a serious businessman. The only thing you probably missed was him hanging out with you, or him always being there for you. That was why when he invited himself in your house over the weekend, you promptly agreed. Cooking him his favorite dish, making his favorite drink, and baking him his favorite cookies. He loved them so much you had always packed him boxes of those treats for him to take home.

You had known him ever since you were young, the two of you the polar opposites with him being an asshole just about to everyone else except you, his little kitten. Your friendship with him confused everyone else, well it did confuse you at the start because they kept warning you about him, but all you saw was a charismatic and patient young boy when it came to you. He swore he would do everything for you, and you swore it, too.

"I never thought my second engagement proposal would be a command, not a question," you giggled once you had calmed down. You looked over at him, his leg crossed over the other, his large hands clasped on his knees, the watch you gave him back on his 25th birthday was gleaming over the reflection from the light.

"Second?" he began, his voice roaring loud in your apartment, "What do you mean second, kitten? Who is this fucker who-"

"Didn't I tell you?"

"Well, I'll definitely remember who that fucker is if you had told me!"

Your brows furrowed, "Why are you getting mad? It was Neil? My ex-boyfriend? The one you hated so much you 'accidentally' ran over his car?"

He smirked. That fucker deserved it for trying to steal you away from him on his birthday party, no less.

"So, do you want to take the cookies home?" you asked as you stood up, proceeding on cleaning the dishes.

"Why are you asking me that? Of course I do," you heard him scoffed before you felt his huge hands on your waist. "Don't ignore my proposal, kitten. You know I hate it when you ignore me."

Ah, yes he did. He really hated it when you withdrew attention from him, hated it when the two of you were in a party and you wander off away from his side. Absolutely hated it when you didn't tell him where you were going regardless if it was a family outing, or for work.

You sighed before facing him, giving him your undivided attention. "Fine, Ransom. What is this about?"

He smiled before picking off the strand of your hair that fell of your bun, putting it gently behind your ear. He held your left hand captive before bring it to his lips, gently kissing it. "Marry me tomorrow."

"May I ask why?" you smiled at him patiently. You never understood some of the things he did, but you trusted him. After all, you had been friends since you were five years old and he was nine. He looked at you, pointed his chubby hands at you and proclaimed that you and him would forever be together. His little kitten.

He was silent for a moment, you could almost hear the wheels on his mind turning, "The board of directors meeting is due next month. I am currently the CEO, right kitten? But there are whispers that Linda is planning to get me removed, claiming my wild days would ruin the company, that I would be tempted to return. But you know I won't, right? I respect Harlan so much to just ruin the company. That's not the case with Linda, you know her. She will do her absolute best to destroy me. She knows shit about the company, all she knows is spending money. I-" he paused, before closing his eyes so hard. You could see the toll his 'mother' was bringing to him. You felt bad. No mother should be able to do this to her own son, so out to destroy him. You ran your hand on his broad back, rubbing his tense muscles.

"So what do you need me to do, Ran??" you whispered quietly.

He looked up to you, his eyes so hopeful, "I need a wife to show the board that I am now a family man, that I am never going to return to my old ways."

And that was six months ago. Ransom said that the two of you only needed to pretend for a year, that he only needed time to ward off Linda, to buy her shares from her and in turn, she wouldn't have a say in the company. With reluctance, you agreed. You knew if the tables were turned, Ransom would do anything for you without batting his eyes.

"Smells good, kitten," Ransom praised you before putting his hand on your waist and landing a kiss on your cheek. He smiled sweetly at you, his suit on his hand, his eyes tired from work. This had been your routine. Your work was not as demanding as his, so you got to go home early. You loved cooking, and Ransom loved eating your food, always praising you. You smiled cheekily at him before shooing him away to do his own business before dinner.

You watched him eat with gusto, smiling appreciatively at you. "I keep bragging about you at work, I told them my wife cooks the best."

You laughed, your cheeks blushing from his praises. Your friendship had been stronger than ever. He treated you better than ever, bringing you flowers almost weekly, buying you food he thought you would like from his drive from work. He was kinder even to anyone, softer, and he was doing better than ever in work. The Linda fiasco was almost over with Ransom down to buying the rest of the 30% shares she owned little by little. Still, the two of you slept in separate beds, you weren't going to think that this was a real marriage, you knew this had a deadline. And you didn't want to think that this would be anything but a fake marriage.

"Oh, I almost forgot. I would be gone from the 13th to the 17th," you casually said over your glass of wine, looking down at your phone and checking you emails.

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1,170 notes - Posted January 2, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Your Protector, Forever

Pairing: 6’4 Bucky Barnes x Reader

Warning: Soft!dark Bucky Barnes, Yandere!Bucky Barnes, size kink? Bad words? If you’re not 18+ please, PLEASE, do not interact. Be mindful of the warnings. Let me know if I miss anything.

Summary: How could you, the one he had been bickering with for the past months, be so small? How could he not protect someone as small as you? or Basically, a fic where Bucky saw you in person for the first time and proclaimed himself as your protector..and man.

A/N: hola!!!! I come again bearing a gift to you for my 600 followers celebration! IDK if this is considered as a long one-shot, but alas, please enjoy my loves!!!

Steve’s story

"Left!" you shouted over the microphone, your eyes following the dot on the screen where he was heading- right towards the enemy, right to the opposite direction that you pointed at him, "I said left, you idiot!" you hissed. Eight men were awaiting him right around the corner, but he was moving as if he was goading you, as if your irritation at him elated him to no extent. This sadistic as fuck bastard.

"I swear once you get back I will report your ass!" you promised him as your fingers tapped away on your keyboard, sending him reinforcements. You alerted Sam that his adopted friend was being an idiot once again, making your job more difficult than it already was. It was your job to take care of the logistics, to make sure that these agents, no matter how strong they were, would get to do their jobs without injuries, or if you were lucky, with minimal scratches.

But with you being assigned to that bulky and always sarcastic, no-good, smirking man, with his shoulder length, brunette hair on a bun, your job was ensured to not be easy. In fact, the two of you always bickered, with you throwing insults at his face (or mostly just shouting at his ear piece) and him doing whatever he wanted with a devil-may-care attitude, the two of you were bound to crash. You were almost sure he was making sure of it. No one had gotten into your nerve more than James Barnes, or as his friends called him, Bucky. Mostly you just called him an idiot or a pain-in-the-ass, or God's nastiest mistake. Well...you hadn't seen the man in person but from the pictures that you had seen, he was far from nasty. He looked like a gentleman, one that knows how to treat his girl like a queen. Pfft, that was what you thought before you got paired up with him.

Now you just missed Natasha and your dynamics when working together.

"I'd love to see you try and report me, little bird. And maybe then, I'd actually see the woman who has been constantly screaming in my ear, and not in the good way," his deep, baritone voice remarked over the line. You swore your blood pressure just got up to a new record from hearing his voice. You someone approaching him from behind, and with a measured voice, "Someone's approaching you from behind."

You could hear several grunts, and what you could assume were bodies falling before you heard his voice, "Thanks, little bird. I knew I could count on you-"

"Shut up."

"YOU'RE SUSPENDING ME?" Bucky's angry voice could have been heard on the whole floor, if not for Tony's sound-proof office. Bucky's tall form was almost shaking from anger, his usual stoic face was betraying his irritation from his suspension.

Tony rolled his eyes before he looked at Steve who was beside Bucky, his eyes apologetic when he failed to calm his best friend down. "It's only for a month-"

"ONE MONTH?" He looked at the two men as if they were out of their minds. How could he sit down and do nothing for the next month? He had always done something with himself, he wasn't used to siting idly. What was he supposed to do? Watch the birds fly? Wait for the flowers to bloom?

He was hulking out, screaming his frustrations out, when Tony raised his hand, "If you only know how to follow orders, you wouldn't be in this situation, Barnes. What was your problem with Y/N?"

"Oh, so she reported this?"

Bucky slammed his massive hand at the table, and cracks appeared on the edges before he leaned down, his iced-blue eyes sharpening at Tony, "I'll deal with her." Tony just shrugged at his announcement, knowing that Bucky really would not kill you. He turned around abruptly, his long legs carrying him to the door when you opened the door from the outside, and he almost crashed into you. Well, he did but he was able to steady you before you fell.

You watched his brows furrowed, his eyes confused before he took a step back and regarded you once again. His eyes followed your form from head to toe and you could not believe that even in person, Bucky was getting into your nerves. He was being insufferable once again.

Narrowing your eyes at him, you took a step forward as if asking him to a fight when he uttered words that angered you further.

"Oh, you're-" he started, fueling fire to your ire, "-you're so little."

"What?"

"You're physically small. How do you survive life?"

"EXCUSE ME? I am five feet and almost two inches."

You saw Steve buried his face on his hands, before he touched Bucky's muscular back. "Bucky, that's not polite."

"But Steve, she's small-” he turned to Steve as if he could not believe his own eyes and had to show his best friend you, “Do you have someone protecting you?" he leaned in to look down at your eyes, his tone was serious and you weren't sure if he was being real.

Your eyes found Captain America’s eyes, asking him quietly what was wrong with his best friend’s brain.

You were appalled at this point, and the only thing that signaled that this wasn't a dream was Tony's voice laughing in the background. "Pr-protecting me?" you stuttered before you squinted your eyes at him. "Are you high?"

Bucky ignored her, snatching her arm closer to him and turning to Tony, “Where is her protection, Tony? How do you protect your employees? How do you protect her?” he asked in confusion. You glared at him, trying to free your arm from his grasp. “God, is this because I reported your ass?”

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2,685 notes - Posted January 7, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

12 notes · View notes

electrasev5nwrites · 1 year

Text

Ninja Daily: Vapors 70

Donkey shrunk down a little further in grudgingly given sympathy, not really paying attention to his own spar. Fish gritted his teeth and pushed the older man, trying to get him to focus. It was a lost cause.

"Are they really that fascinating?"

His subordinate jolted at the exasperated tone, glancing back at him. "No." Donkey snorted. "Just glad I didn't get paired up with the rookie. She must be on the rag."

His eye twitched, and Yukimasa reflexively moved to swipe Donkey's feet out from under him and unceremoniously spill the older man onto his ass. "Inappropriate," he scolded lowly, putting away his blade to turn their match into taijutsu. 'Not to mention it's an idiotic comment to make. It seems far more likely that Aiko-san has a personal grudge against Boar to work out.'

Despite the hypocrisy, Yukimasa's eye wandered over to the other spar. He cringed a little as the big man barely dodged yet another barrage of those bizarre glowing chains, getting his standard short-sword tangled up in a failed attempt to block them and having to abandon it. Oh- no, not completely dodged. That was just cruel. Yukimasa resisted the temptation to cover his own behind to ensure that he didn't get spanked. How embarrassing.

'Whatever Boar did, he probably deserves the workout,' he tried to tell himself. But really, to be honest… 'Better him than me.'

In a head-on fight with intent to kill, he knew he would be able to overpower Butterfly. But that repertoire was completely out of reach in a training match. As far as he could tell, she was both exponentially faster and more vindictive than he'd pegged her as.

A grudge could explain her enthusiasm, but the drastic increase in speed was frankly baffling. There were more than a couple times when he literally could not see her move. It seemed as though she was suddenly in another position without even moving to take a step. His best assessment… 'It's creepy. Really creepy. I should probably ask her what's going on. Either that or work on my own speed and perception time until I can figure out how she's doing it.'

Most of the time, he could see the purpose of her bizarre bursts of speed—she was pushing Boar into a corner, or pulling away his weaponry, or otherwise harrying him. But occasionally she flickered somewhere and then immediately moved, as if she'd miscalculated the first time. So she probably hadn't mastered whatever she was doing to increase her speed, or at least hadn't mastered her ability to perceive as quickly as she could move.

Yukimasa didn't particularly treasure the possibility of being outmatched by his youngest soldier. Finding out that she wasn't nearly as much of a rookie as he'd initially thought was a good thing, but that didn't mean he wanted to be surpassed so soon. He'd always thought that he was speedy himself.

He shook his head, casually sidestepping Donkey's attack and letting the other man take the offensive entirely, only blocking and dodging. Donkey's hits hurt, but strangely enough his attention kept being drawn to his elbow where Butterfly had touched him to get his attention at the start of practice. He could swear that her chakra signature was lingering… But that was ridiculous. Of course, it was in the one place he couldn't look at, he scoffed quietly. Typical. So his paranoia would just have to fester.

With a frown, Yukimasa determined that he would have to follow up on that later. It hadn't occurred to him at the time, but it was unusual for her to touch him, and she'd… she'd actually touched the other two as well, hadn't she?

'Methinks the rookie is up to something tricky…'

His lips quirked into a smile under his mask as he rolled to the left and darted from pole to pole in the training ground, Donkey hot on his heels.

'It almost fits. She didn't speed up until she got her first hit in on Boar, and then he couldn't avoid her at all.'

But he just couldn't think of a way to connect that. She was a tracker, so it wouldn't surprise him if she had a way to zero in on a target that required some sort of physical contact for a genetic sample or something, but that couldn't possibly explain how it could help her when she already had an opponent within short-range.

'If I can't figure it out in a month, I'll ask her,' Yukimasa promised himself silently, holding up a hand to signal that practice was over. It would be a blow to the ego to have to come slinking to her for information, but better that than do nothing about apparently being far slower than he'd realized. Three masks swiveled to take him in, and he had to blink for a moment to readjust to the situation mentally and recall what he needed to say.

"We're on patrol tonight. Dismissed until 2300 hours, team."

They were just barely too disciplined to groan about their on-call status being bumped up to active duty, but shuffled off. Yukimasa was eager to take advantage of what relaxation time he could, even though they only had about three hours. He spent his time taking a shower, raiding his aunt's fridge for leftovers (she was the best cook in Hi no Kuni, he'd swear it on his headband) and flopped down for a short nap before he re-dressed in uniform and met his team. They seemed good-naturedly resigned to the extra shift, though admittedly it could be hard to tell when they were all masked and silent.

'There's something exhilarating about running a four-man team through Konoha in the dead of night.' The wind was whipping through his hair, his heart was pounding, and his unit worked in perfect unison covering their patrol designation only by the grace of shockingly white starlight. It seemed like the city was theirs at this time of night.

'Rather romantic musings,' he chided himself, not really feeling guilty about his good mood.

Donkey and Butterfly stiffened in unison. He caught the movement in his peripheral, but had sensed the intruder so soon after they did that he hadn't had time to wonder what was wrong. He pushed slightly farther ahead of the group, pushing them to fly down out of the cover provided by the rooftops to land in a diamond around a figure in one of Konoha's outskirt training grounds.

"Name and identification number," he demanded brusquely.

Occasionally, shinobi were out training in the dead of night. There wasn't a problem with that, at least when there wasn't a wartime curfew. Inadvertently intimidating poor, hard-working Chuunin was the most entertaining thing that usually happened on these patrols, but it wasn't a big deal. They would stutter out their information politely, white-faced and clearly unnerved by their ANBU protectors.

This person—a woman, he thought it was a woman—blinked at him. "Of course." Slowly, she reached up to cover an involuntary yawn- that turned into a spray of what had to be a liquid poison. Shocked, Yukimasa jumped back, noting that some of it had made contact with Butterfly on his right, and grabbed for his sword.

"Capture, not kill!" he barked, throat nearly closing up.

That didn't mean that they couldn't maim her, of course. She just had to be able to be taken into interrogations.

Heart pounding, he swerved inward, catching the fist that flew at his face- and then blinked stupidly when a shock of those blue-colored chains sprang out and wound around the intruder. She looked just about as surprised, comically wiggling like a worm with her hands bound awkwardly (one snugly held to her torso, the other poking out and still caught in his grip) before she teetered over with a whumph.

Boar cleared his throat, shifting his weight from foot to foot uneasily. "Well."

"What?" came the muffled reply, sounding honestly perplexed. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, no." Yukimasa stifled a snicker. 'Just something anticlimactic, I suppose. Whoever taught her had a very poor flair for the dramatic.' He knelt, pulling out a length of wire from his hip pouch and beginning to secure the prisoner in a more permanent fashion. "Could you move this bit- yes, thank you."

He bit his lower lip in concentration, completely binding both of the woman's hands before he moved to secure them together so she couldn't even try to whack them with her wire-wound hands. As he worked, Butterfly obligingly wiggled the chains keeping the woman immobilized, at times moving them up or out, dissolving a few links altogether, or shrinking an area to wire-sized tendrils that left him plenty of room to maneuver while still keeping their prisoner still. He had to take extra wire from Boar—this woman was rather tricky, and had nearly managed to get a leg free to kick at him. She was cursing up a storm now, but he paid it little mind. When he was done and Butterfly had slipped the last of her chakra generated chains off, he patted their prisoner's head just once before slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of rice.

The mask hid his grimace. She was heavier than they looked, but it could have been all the metal restraints. "Donkey?"

It took a moment for the man to catch on, but he stepped forward and put his hand to the woman's forehead to force pulse of chakra in that caught her in what was probably a rather nasty sleep genjutsu. At least she stopped struggling. It would have been rather embarrassing if her wiggles managed to put him off-balance. He wasn't the largest man.

"Lovely."

Surprised at her tone, he glanced up—and blanched. "Ah. That was an acid that she spat earlier, wasn't it," he said rather faintly.

If it was possible to communicate a glower from behind a mask, that was exactly what was happening. It could have just been his imagination though. 'I feel a little guilty… I should have realized that she was injured before now.'

Butterfly must have dodged most of the spray, as the only damage he could see was splotches of blood poking out from holes in her left glove that had not been there before. Just droplets, then. She must have miscalculated the force used and how widely it would spatter. Idly, he noted her move to clench and flex her hand, as if making sure it was still in working order.

As the highest ranking member, he'd taken it upon himself to keep the rookie close in their formations. Unfortunately, that did increase the likelihood that she would get caught up in attacks meant to take out the largest threat. As she had today.

It was the type of injury that would be discomforting, but nothing that a half-decent medic couldn't fix given half an hour and a large quantity of sanitary water, he assessed. 'After we report, I'll take her to the hospital to get patched up.'

"Boar, Donkey. Take the intruder to the holding cells and report to Ibiki-san. You'll be at his discretion for your next orders."

They nodded in unison, and Boar moved to pick the woman off his shoulder and into a princess hold. As they left, he turned to the remaining member. "Come."

The order was probably unnecessary, but he thought it polite. At this hour, the Hokage was certainly not in her office, but all reports of actual intruders had to be made directly to the highest authority for further orders. Doubtlessly Ibiki would send out at least another full patrol to check for any other breaches in security, but Tsunade might have more insight.

He found the woman in what looked to be her bedroom, sleeping in—"oh my," Yukimasa said faintly, hoping to god that he wasn't about to get a nosebleed while the Hokage moved to pull on a nightgown.

"What is it," she barked.

Eyes still averted, he swallowed, hard. "Reporting an intruder in sector two, Hokage-sama. She was taken captive and should be in Ibiki's custody by now."

A lowly ANBU had no reason to expect the Hokage to pay attention to him, but he still felt a little uneasy when her gaze drifted right over him. "Is that all?" At his nod, she rubbed at her eye. "Alright then. Come here, Aiko-chan. What happened to your arm?"

His heart dropped to his gut.

'I'm dead.' Yukimasa realized dully. 'Not only did I not get some random rookie as a snub, I must have been assigned someone important. Someone the Hokage knows by name. And I let some amateur hurt her. I'm a terrible captain, and I'm dead.'

Aiko sighed, rotating her wrist and periodically bending her elbow to be sure that the new patches of skin didn't stiffen. She was lucky, really. If she had gone to another medic, she would have shiny patches of scars dotted on her arm.

'I wouldn't have gotten burnt at all if I wasn't a twit in the first place,' she moped, giving a sad little kick that scuffed at the floor as she struggled out of her uniform one-handed.

It was embarrassing, but it probably served her right. She'd been beaming under her tacky little mask about getting so much better about using three moving Hiraishin tags to navigate. (It was hella hard, especially since that bastard Fish just wouldn't stay still while she'd been working out her frustrations on Boar. Fish was fast.) Making a rookie mistake like underestimating the way that stupid acid was going to carry on the wind was just karma for getting arrogant.

Tsunade had dismissed Fish (and good thing too, he'd been terribly twitchy) and healed her right away. Of course, that had meant that Aiko was sitting on the edge of Tsunade's bed and wincing with her eyes squeezed shut while the Hokage grew her new skin when a shame-faced messenger from T & I had come by to sheepishly admit that their hostage had woken up and used some sort of suicide technique.

He hadn't given details, but he'd had a bit of what looked to be brain matter in his hair and more than a bit of blood on his front, so Aiko had taken a guess.

At least seeing her had reminded Tsunade to take her ANBU team off active patrols and first reserve lists. She was really starting to feel stressed and like she had a little too much to juggle at once. Aiko was only free from regular ANBU duties, but that probably also took her away from her Root project, since she hadn't moved to actively sneaking around.

At this point in time, Tsunade was hoping to gather what information she could about Root's infrastructure before she made a move against Danzo. If it fit her fancy, she could have had him arrested at any time. But that would have left him with an unknown amount of resources with unknown orders. The more that she could find out – where and how many bases they were, what financial and human resources they had, what Danzo was trying to do and might have as safeguards if he needed to be rescued from the law—was better, as far as the Hokage was concerned.

Of course, nothing could be perfect and her break wasn't complete. She'd immediately been given other orders for a project she'd start in the coming week. At least it would be less time-consuming than ANBU patrols and guard shifts interspersed with occasional midnight summons from Danzo.

'At least, it is since I have Hiraishin,' she reminded herself wryly. 'If I didn't…' Aiko shuddered.

Apparently Terumi Mei had included a proposal for some sort of conference in the documents she had sent back in Kakashi's care. Among other things, she was angling to get included in the Chuunin exam rosters, so that she could boost her tourism and mission requests.

Thankfully, Aiko had dodged that bullet. She hadn't managed to evade getting stuck as the designated messenger/delegate from Konoha to help Terumi put together the conference. Tsunade hadn't gone into much detail, but she understood a fair bit of what was going on. Terumi was looking to adjust her contracts with pretty much every country that she could. In order to be competitive, anyone who had anything to do with Water Country would have to send representation to ensure that they didn't get stiffed. Of course, if half the countries in the Elemental Nations were sending representatives, then the other ones would get suspicious and sneak in to be sure they knew what was going on, so Terumi was skipping the middle man and obligatory spies by just inviting them all in the first fucking place.

Supposedly, Nadeshiko was the other host for this event. In honor of that, it would be restricted to kunoichi participants.

Tsunade had growled something to the effect that Terumi just wanted to make things difficult and didn't want to let the Raikage into her country.

'To be fair… I'm not sure I could blame her.'

Aiko had never met the man, of course. But his reaction to Gaara's call for international action had been a pretty poor first impression. The Raikage couldn't actually be a total idiot, but …

'No, there's no point in lying to myself, Aiko snorted. 'Of course he could be a moron. That's what happens when you choose your leader by strength instead of intelligence or political mien. Them's the breaks.'

She toed off her boots, not bothering to fix them when they fell over. The only sound that greeted her in the apartment was her fridge humming. Aiko grimaced, half-wishing she'd taken a tv from the other house so she could have some background noise. It felt like she was living in a cemetery sometimes. To fill the air, she absentmindedly began singing whatever came to mind under her breath. 'Kiss the Girl' had turned into 'Mac the Knife' by the time she found what she had been looking for in her room.

"Aha!" Triumphantly, she flicked through one of the notebooks she'd filled while traveling with Jiraiya and Naruto. He had shown her something that at the time had seemed paranoid and stupid, but now… "Why wouldn't I want to put up a seal that prevents foreign chakra constructs from getting into my house," she muttered under her breath, half-mocking herself but partially serious.

It was a nasty little piece of work—or she'd thought so when she looked at it last. At this point, it seemed gloriously simple. Unlike the last seal she'd put up, this one hardly needed to be interlaced into the overwhelming security system that spider-webbed through the apartment, over walls and across the ceiling.

Instead, she ran a simple line around the borders of her apartment, tracing the baseboards and crown molding to ensure that she had specified the relevant area in all three dimensions, and attached the threads to a single seal that she tapped onto the ceiling. She bit her tongue between her teeth and breathed slowly as she did it, less because the seal required concentration and more because she had to do that part while perched with one foot on her kitchen table and the other braced against the wall that separated the kitchen from the living room.

If her balance had been any less good, she probably would have hurt herself falling when the seal flickered into being, out of pure shock.

"Ah!" She slipped and dropped to the floor in a crouch, tears rising to her eyes and both hands cradling her jaw. 'Owww.' Aiko swallowed, as if that would end the burning on the very back of her tongue, almost to her throat. 'How on earth did I forget about that?'

Of course her root seal was using Danzo's chakra. It was just a little trace, but it was enough to cause discomfort. It faded to manageable levels even as she focused on breathing calmly, and after a moment she waveringly rose to her feet and stumbled to her bedroom with one hand to her temple.

By this point, the pain had radiated out to give her a seriously wicked migraine. She couldn't let that distract her, though. The notebook she had been working out of had provided an array that would allow her to adjust the wards to let certain chakra constructs in. She was going to have to allow the Root seal, potential problems be damned, because she couldn't live with this in her own home.

'Again, I'm an idiot,' she berated herself, trying to concentrate on the details she was reading. It would be important that she adjusted her wards to accept just the root seal, and not Danzo's chakra in general. She didn't want the man himself being able to send clones or the like in her apartment, no matter how unlikely that was.

'It may have been easier to just tolerate Sai's stupid ink roaches.' She huffed indignantly. Fucking roaches. Why was it never ink butterflies, or ink puppies? What was wrong with things that weren't completely foul offenses against nature and good taste?

The thought had been meant to convince herself into taking the seal down entirely, but instead it bolstered her to focus better on the modifications she needed to make. No more fucking roaches, thank you. Granted, she didn't see a reason for him to spy on her any longer, now that they both knew the other was in root. But still, as long as Danzo was paranoid, there was a chance that people would be spying on her, and that just wasn't acceptable.

Even after she struggled through altering the seal (and thank all the kami that she'd gotten around to replicating it, because otherwise she wouldn't have been able to tailor the security seal to allow Danzo's chakra when in a root tattoo), her headache lasted. It faded, though, so she pawed through her cabinet for pain relievers and swallowed two down dry because the thought of waiting for tea was unappealing. She made the tea anyways, of course, because it helped her get to sleep and she desperately needed that.

'I really don't want to be alone,' she realized, feeling oddly lonely.

It was a little late to do anything about that, though. It was four in the morning at that point, and she was feeling far too worn down to stay up until nine am to meet with team seven. Aiko could be pretty rude at times, but she wasn't feeling bold enough to bother anyone at such an awful time just because she wanted company. She was far too old to climb into bed to cuddle with Naruto now anyway.

Hot tea settling in her belly, she set her alarm for eight twenty and pulled the covers up to her chin. What little sleep she got was fitful, but that was a problem she periodically had and nothing new.

"I feel like shit, and I probably look like shit," Aiko muttered when her god-awful alarm when off, but dutifully pulled on the first outfit in her drawer and avoided mirrors. That part was easy, since the only one was in her bathroom attached to the medicine cabinet. The heather grey leggings and sleeveless top set with a peach skirt she had found most certainly did not fit her mood at all, but she couldn't muster the effort to give a single fuck, or the determination to sort through her mostly dirty mission appropriate attire for something plainer and more somber. Awkwardly, she gathered her hair into a messy spritz high on her head while attempting to shove her feet into her boots, an apple held between her teeth all the while.

At least the juice and sugar from the fruit seemed to revitalize her on the short trip over to the training grounds where she could feel everyone else congregating. Naruto was already there with Yamato and Sai. Kakashi was lingering by the memorial stone, but she still didn't have a tag on Sasuke.

'I should take care of that today. I might as well ask him, though, instead of just sneakily touching him. No matter how funny it is to see Yukimasa trying to see the end of his elbow, it's not really morally upright to do that to comrades.'

She'd been a bit gung-ho about planting her seals wherever and on whoever took her fancy lately. But when the target in question was a teammate who already knew about her Hiraishin, she might as well be honest. As she walked up to the group, she noted that they were only waiting on Kakashi. It figured.

'Then again, Sai doesn't necessarily know about Hiraishin, and he'll be there.' She frowned contemplatively, distracted by her earlier train of thought. 'I don't exactly plan on telling him that I tagged him, especially not with an explosive.'

"Morning," Yamato nodded. She gave a grunted reply an instant before Naruto seemed to spot her and launched into some discussion that she couldn't focus quite enough to follow. His enthusiasm did make her smile, though.

"What?" she asked distractedly, turning to blink at Sasuke. He'd muttered something.

Sasuke frowned, creasing his forehead. "I asked if you were alright. You look terrible." Behind him, Sai looked up and gave one of his clinical once-overs, seeming to catalogue her hideousness for himself.

She gave them both a dirty look. "Thanks. You really know how to perk up a girl's ego."

"That's not what I meant," Sasuke scoffed. "Your eyes are glazed and you're clearly half-asleep."

When all he got in reply was an imperious sniff and a raised jaw, the Uchiha rolled his eyes and seemed to give up. Yamato got them all started on some conditioning while they waited for Kakashi to show up. Aiko couldn't help but wonder about what such a large group would do. Six people? It was a little ludicrous. Really, this was two different teams that just happened to both be headed by Kakashi. She felt a little out of place practicing with Naruto and Sasuke. Yamato gave her a weary look that communicated he might be on the same page.

"-why you gotta be such a bastard all the time-"

"Same reason you're an idiot, probably," Sasuke jeered, flipping a bit of bang off of his face and pushing to touch the tree that he and Naruto had established as the goal first.

Sai looked confused at it all, but kept longingly veering closer to the bickering boys. Yamato heaved a tired groan, but his expression brightened almost immediately after.

She would have known that visible relief meant Kakashi had shown up even if she couldn't feel the seal he carried.

"All right boys, break it up," Kakashi sighed. He didn't sound particularly invested in whether or not they listened, but they stopped shoving each other long enough to pay attention. "If you're really feeling that frisky, save your energy."

Naruto was practically vibrating with excess energy. "Can we have a battle royale again?" He pumped a fist and crowed, "Yes, yes, yessss," when Kakashi nodded with an amused air. "Last one standing picks where we go out for dinner!"

"No," Sasuke interjected with a cruel little smile. "If Kakashi isn't the last one standing, he buys dinner for everyone."

"Now hold on just a-"

"Alright! Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"

What followed was hideous chaos. Aiko had reflexively taken higher ground to get out of the mass, but Yamato had jumped after her almost immediately. 'Alright. I should use this as time to practice more triangulation. It's probably going to be even harder with extra seals around to choose from and not everyone on the ground level.'

Thus committed, she pulled on seals and bounced around like a rubber ball. At least, that was what it felt like.

Sometimes it worked really well, like when she tugged on Kakashi's stationary seal (he was hiding in a tree) along with Yamato and Sai's in order to spring herself up behind Yamato, completely baffling him.

Other times… Well. It only happened once, but she was ridiculously glad that no one was paying attention when she accidentally materialized a foot to the left of the tree branch she had aimed for and started to fall. Her expression was probably embarrassing. After a while, Naruto seemed to catch on that she hadn't been hit at all, and veered away from the three-way fight he'd been having with Kakashi and Sasuke to provide Yamato with an assist.

She might have had to worry if Sai didn't side-swipe him with a magnificent ink cockatiel, which he then rode to higher ground when Naruto staggered to his feet ready to knock Sai's block off.

"Aiko, switch me!" her otouto rasped, turning to barrel at Yamato instead. She snickered.

"Of course." She crouched and sprang straight upwards as if she planned to jump directly up to Sai, despite the fact that he was far too high for that to work. There was just enough time to giggle internally at how much this could fluster him when she used Sa i's seal to rubber band herself directly above his ink bird and land like fucking Batman.

Sai was too disciplined to look surprised, instead moving to confront her with taijutsu as much as was possible in the limited space they had. When his split attention caused the bird to veer off course and tilt over, he jumped straight off.

She probably should have followed, but instead she sprang up to the bird's head and spread her arms wide, grinning into the artificial breeze. "I'm queen of the bird! Wheee!"

It wasn't quite 'King of the Mountain,' but it was close enough to rouse competitive feelings in Sasuke. Light-footed, she trotted off the ink beast even as it crashed, ducking under his initial blow and weaving around him, letting her arms sway and not even attempting to get her own hit in. 'He looks so serious,' she giggled, easily flipping backwards and landing facing him. His eyes widened and he moved to say something, coming at her with a fist cocked. She readied herself to grab his fist and use him as a brace to flip over the blow-

The next thing she knew was pain in her upper back and that her nose was in the dirt. Dizzily, she braced her palms on the ground and attempted to push herself up, swaying a bit.

"Sorry!" Yamato called out from somewhere behind her. He really did seem apologetic. "I was aiming for Sasuke."

"You suck!" she managed to hack out, collapsing onto her side. "I'm out. Avenge me, Sasuke!"

'At least I didn't even break a sweat and I'm not gross. That was an abrupt ass-kicking. I forget how powerful his wood ninjutsu really is,' she thought, feeling terribly sorry for herself while the now five-sided battle raged around her. That thought cracked her up. It hurt to laugh, but she couldn't help it.

Apparently, that was just a little bit too strange, because her teammates turned some level of attention to her.

"I could swear I didn't hit her head!" Yamato called, sounding a little panicked. "Sasuke-"

"No, I'm fine," she gasped, wiping away tears. "It's just- I was thinking that your wood is soooo hard, Yamato," she crooned, curling further in on her side.

The silence that followed was aghast, only broken when she collapsed into a fit of giggles, slapping the dirt. "I don't know you," Naruto muttered, an inappropriate grin stretched across his features nonetheless. Yamato looked like a tomato.

It took another six minutes of merry hell, but Yamato and Naruto apparently decided that they wanted a free meal enough to work together. She watched with interest while Naruto scattered what she would have assumed were pre-prepared explosive seals and over charged them while Yamato penned everyone into a wooden cage to prevent Kakashi from sneakily escaping. The seals turned out to be paralysis seals. She managed to dig into some reserve she didn't know she had in order to laugh at his morose expression when he woodenly fell over, resigned to paying for lunch. She dragged her sorry carcass over and picked at the chakra threads restraining him, grinning all the while. "I'll pay for half of lunch," she offered. "Since we were the first two out."

He heaved a sigh and gave her a very sad looking stare.

"I'm not paying for all of it. You lost, fair and square." Her lips twitched. "No arguing." The last bit of the seal unraveled with what seemed to be a sense of a snap to her, and her eyes flickered to watch the chakra she could sense but not see. It dissipated when she didn't try to hold it together, wisping away into its two components and then to nothing. She had wondered if he had bought the tags, but it really was Naruto's chakra, so he'd made this on his own. Impressive.

She looked up to find that her captain was giving her an odd look, having traced her gaze to see there was nothing there.

"The seal network," she explained vaguely, waving a hand. "When it snapped, it…" Aiko trailed off. "What?"

Kakashi's brow was furrowed, but he just shook his head. "Nothing, nothing. You're talking about sealing concepts that are over my head again."

She scoffed, shoving him with a shoulder. "You're a lying liar who lies."

"I'm serious."

Aiko rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever." She drew her knees up and rested her elbows on them, wincing a little at what felt like a massive bruise on her back. At least it wasn't so bad after she'd managed to get her breath back, but it sort of felt like she'd gotten in a fight with Gai. Yamato really was formidable in a fight, even if he was rather silly outside of it. "You're just propping up my ego, like how you let those two catch you."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Her reply was a withering glare. 'No way do I buy that. He let them get him out of the match, probably because he was bored with sparring.'

She pulled up a bit of grass and tossed it at him instead of continuing to argue. In companionable silence, they watched the shifting alliances and fights among the remainders. A glowering Sasuke was the next to join them, followed by Yamato. The last fight made her shift uneasily, twisting her fingers together.

"Maybe we should stop them," Aiko ventured.

Kakashi shook his head. "I think it's best to let them fight it out and get this out of their systems.

Displeased but obedient, Aiko watched Naruto and Sai go at it. They'd abandoned all finesse in favor of beating on each other with their fists. She cringed, covering her face with her fingers, but peeked out with one eye nonetheless. It wasn't pretty. She couldn't quite hear, but they seemed to be arguing, and Sai actually looked visibly upset.

-even have any feelings-

-such an-

-Of course I-

"Wow, that's ugly," Yamato muttered, scratching at his head. He gave an awkward laugh. "Those boys really want to be able to pick dinner, huh?"

The joke fell flat. So did Sai, physically pinned by about 150 lbs of angry, confrontational Uzumaki.

"Alright, that's enough."

Naruto took a long moment to get off Sai, but huffed, stretching, and turned to the group.

"Whatever you say, nee-chan. Kakashi, I hope you're ready to buy a whole lot of ramen."

Sasuke groaned and started some argument about lunch, but she was focused on peeling Sai up off the ground. He followed silently, a little depressed looking. It tugged at her heart strings, so she moved closer to his side and stretched her arm over his shoulder. At his inquisitive look, she shrugged sheepishly. "I'm barely standing," she lied, giving a fake smile that was much more convincing than his because she knew to crinkle her eyes and duck her chin to feign embarrassment. Wordlessly, he tucked an arm around her waist to steady her.

Of course, her sneaky way of getting a half-hug in backfired on her at Ichiraku, where the group kept an embarrassingly close eye on her as if they thought she was about to sway off her stool. At that point, she could hardly claim to be fine without Sai realizing that she'd just been trying to distract and comfort him, so she scowled and bore the mothering as patiently as she could. Her vice was probably pride—it galled to let people think she was less capable than she really was, but she could do it in a pinch.

Worst of all, the difficulty she was having focusing on conversation and the yawn that came unbidden indicated that perhaps she really should be lying down. Granted, it was because she was sleep-deprived and not because of injuries, but she really should be more disciplined than to yawn in public.

Her pride might be stinging, but at least she had her self-satisfaction to keep her warm on cold nights.

'I think I was right earlier.' Aiko pushed her empty bowl away and drummed her fingers on the wooden bar surface, waiting for the boys to finish eating. 'Sai is unconsciously leaning closer to me. He may not have realized it, but he definitely wants physical affection.'

Not surprising. Touch was a human need, and he'd been denied a lot of the things that humans need. If Naruto really had hurt his feelings, he would be more vulnerable than usual. Either he would open up or shut down… making today a good opportunity to work on making sure he was emotionally reliant on her and less loyal to Danzo.

"Also, what the hell was that, Aiko?"

"Huh?" She glanced up. "I wasn't paying attention."

"The thing you were doing in practice," Sasuke clarified for Naruto, leaning forward onto his elbows. "It wasn't quite…" His eyes drifted to Sai. Pointedly, he finished, "the usual thing."

'Was so, just because I wasn't ending up anywhere near you guys doesn't mean anything.'

She gave an intentionally catlike smile, turning her face up. "Not telling."

Sasuke scoffed, but abandoned the subject. Kakashi slumped slightly out of her notice, apparently not willing to ask but curious as well.

Underneath her stool, she tapped her boot against the metal bar and tried not to grimace. Kakashi had been doing that ridiculous trick where he distracted the others before taking off his mask to eat, and was now slumped contentedly in front of three empty bowls. Her stomach hurt in sympathy just thinking about overeating like that. Yamato was futilely trying to hold a discussion with Ayame, who was staring wide-eyed at Kakashi and none-too-subtly tugging at her clothing as if she was overheating. Teuchi was cheering Naruto on in what appeared to be an eating contest with Sasuke.

'There is no way that can end well. Sasuke doesn't even like ramen.'

With a scrape, she pushed her stool back to stand and bent to dig into her boot for the pouch she kept inside. "What's the bill, Teuchi-san? I'm paying for half." Intentionally, she swayed just a bit. Subtle enough that it looked as though she was attempting to stay steady, but drastic enough to catch Sai's attention. Straight-faced, she counted out bills and laid them out on the counter, noting his conflicted attitude out of the corner of her eye. "I'm heading home, guys."

Sai didn't say a thing while she waved and exchanged goodbyes with those few who were paying any attention at all, but he stood and walked with her as if there had never been a question. She didn't call him out on his spontaneous chivalry. It would be a mistake to make him feel uncomfortable.

He might turn her down if she invited him in. So instead she just held the door open and moved to the side as if there was never a question that he'd come in, taking off her boots and gesturing to a pair of house slippers. "Those are for you."

With strange reluctance, he switched out his foot gear. Maybe he thought she was going to steal it when he wasn't looking? Ridiculous. She'd only do that if he ran off with the house slippers.

'Don't smile,' she sternly commanded. 'No matter how cute his uncertainty is, do not smile.' Sai didn't appear to know what to do in her home when not spying on her, so she determined that she would have to play hostess properly to avert awkwardness. "Why don't you have a seat on the couch? Do you need anything?" He was silent, so she moved to fill the air as she started tea to get the taste of lunch out of her mouth. "I was hoping to show you the next book Ino wants to get published, since they liked your other illustrations so much."

When she came out with tea, (rubbing at her temples because that damn headache was back, making her head feel muffled and about to pop) Aiko saw that Sai had found the book in question on her coffee table and was paging through it. She set their cups down relatively close together and sat down at his side to peer over his shoulder.

'Damnit, not another yawn.' Vexed, she rubbed at her cheek with the hand that wasn't cradling her hot beverage, but it was a losing battle. Somehow she managed to focus enough to at least begin a discussion, but hell if she could remember a thing that they said. Whatever it was must have worked for Sai, because he pulled out his sketch book and began to languidly trace something out.

He was looking like a really good pillow at that point in time.

'I was just noting that he longs for human touch,' she justified, unknowingly pouting. Black eyes flickered from her and back to the paper. 'It's not just a nap, it's a step towards my ultimate goal. Does that story logically hold together?' Aiko rubbed at her eyes again. 'I think it does.'

She turned onto her side, pushing her feet out to the far end of the couch and letting her head drop in a smooth motion.

Sai stiffened as if he was afraid the head on his lap was about to turn to bite him.

"Washboard?"

"Can I take a nap, Sai?" she muttered into his tummy, curling her knees up into the back of the couch. With her nose poking into his bare skin, Aiko couldn't see the slightly wild-eyed look he gave her, or that his grip on his paintbrush shook slightly. 'He didn't say no…' She gave up entirely on staying awake.

#vapors #uzumaki aiko #electrasev5n #ninja daily #fanfiction #naruto fanfiction

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