#the next step with you

[shygirl4991]

Chapter 2  Boyfriend Bonding

Cover made by @lizaluvsthis do not repost!

A Reboot of the next step! Last Chapter Next chapter Summary: SMG4 and SMG3 relationship changed after realizing their feelings in WOTFI 2023, now together the pair can take the next step together. That is until a strange gift arrives on SMG3's birthday making him face his demons from his past. 

Tags: Fluff, Boyfriends, Love Confession, Watch Wotfi 2023 before reading, first love, mention of igloo

It was morning in the showgrounds, SMG3 woke up making himself a fresh cup of coffee. The events from yesterday felt like a dream, he looks around the room he is in “Living in SMG4 castle…my..” he blushes remembering the title his ex rival now carried. If someone told SMG3 back when he was a villain he would be calling SMG4 his boyfriend, he is pretty sure he would make sure that person wouldn't be able to speak again. After he grabs his cup of coffee he decides now would be a good time to catch up on reading, he walks to the guest room of the castle and settles himself in. Relaxing in the guest room he takes a sip of his coffee, then takes out ‘redeemed super villains weekly’ a magazine series he picked up after becoming friends with his ex rival.  

He flips through the pages and notices the hit new interview is about a villain that changed to a hero all for love. He wondered if that's what really motivated the change in him, the connection he felt with SMG4. The moment their hands intertwined, the surge of warmth he felt. Was that the moment he first fell for the man, seeing him fight not just for the world but for his friends. SMG3 hums to himself lost in thought, until his boyfriend kicks the door open “AHHH!” SMG3 lets out a high pitch scream. SMG4 blinks seeing the coffee fly in the air landing on the floor, he then stares bug eyed at his boyfriend “SMG3! Uh i'm sorry about that,” he lets out a sheepish smile. He places his laptop on the table in the room before running out to get items to clean the mess. 

SMG3 lets out a shaky breath as Four returns with cleaning products, he starts cleaning the mess as SMG3 glares at him “WHAT THE HELL?! You know not to bother me on Saturdays, it's SMG3 time where I drink coffee and do other things. So what is so important you kick the door down?” SMG4 finishes up the cleaning and gets up, giving his partner a wink. Grabbing his laptop he sits next to SMG3 showing him a list of locations, Three looks at the locations lost on what his boyfriend was up to. “Since we are planning to keep it low with our relationship, i was thinking we can do these couple challenges to warm up on being a couple!”

Three squints at the list, looking at all the challenges made the man want to walk out of the room. He turns to see SMG4 giving him a hopeful looking, Three sighs looking down “I have to ask man, Best chef? Dress me up? These challenges sound fucking stupid dont tell me you got them from wikihow?” SMG4 blushes at being caught, he looks to the side “un no?” He clears his throat in hopes that his boyfriend doesnt push the topic anymore. He points to the list determined to get Three to agree with one, he checked all over the internet and it all told him that the best way to bond with your partner is to do activities together.  He always wanted a relationship, sure he wanted a girlfriend but it didn't change that he felt lonely for so long. Finally understanding what these strange emotions were with SMG3, well he couldn't be happier. Sure they were rival’s for years, but after fighting for so long he finally understood this all happened because they misunderstood each other. Now that they are together he needs to work harder, nothing will break them apart. “Doesn't matter man, I did some research last night and these challenges help bring couples closer together!” 

He turns giving a soft look at SMG3, he blushes at the expression. With a sigh he looks at the list knowing he had lost to his boyfriend,  he then points to one of the challenges. Excited SMG4 peeks to see what was picked “We all know im the better chef, after all Marty wanted my pizza recipe! Heh I doubt a scrub like you could do better!” SMG3 smirks at his partner. SMG4 lets out a chuckle, a smug expression on his face “I remember you burning eggs when we were stuck together, I doubt your cooking is that amazing.”

The pair nod as they run out looking for judgings for the event, SMG4 notices Meggy and Tari arriving. With a bright smile he starts his approach only to be pushed aside by his boyfriend, SMG3 turns around sticking his tongue out at him before reaching the girls. Four glares at his partner watching the exchange “Hey Squid, me and smg4 are going to have a cooking competition. We need judges to try out our cooking.” SMG3 points to the castle, Tari gasps excited at the invitation “Meggy lets do it!” seeing her friend's reaction she lets out a small giggle “Okay, we are in!” Three smiles hearing the agreement. 

The girls walk into the castle ready to take their place, while SMG3 smirks at his boyfriend. With that the men go inside setting up the kitchen with the ingredients needed for the event, given this was SMG4 castle and Mario’s house they mostly had ingredients for pasta. Three looks at everything frowning “Um wont this stuff just summon Mario?” Four chuckles giving Three a pat on his back “Mario is on a vacation with Bowser, I doubt a cooking battle with pasta would bring him back!” Three rolls his eyes “You underestimate our Avatar's love for spaghetti.” 

Meggy walks to the kitchen and smiles at them “Alright ready boys? LETS COOK!” she hits a bell before leaving the room. The boys then begin to cook, SMG4 chuckles to himself as he cooks. Being friends with the plumber for so long has trained him in the arts of pasta, there was no way his boyfriend would beat him. Four turns to check on the competition when his eyes go wide,  there he sees Three picking up two cans of beans and starts to dump it in the pot. He then watches as his partner slices the tomatoes, SMG4 lets out a small smile “Oh well beans to pasta shouldn't be too bad.” 

The moment Four relaxed is when Three took out a bottle of hot sauce and started pouring it into the spaghetti sauce. Watching the sight was worse than any horror game SMG4 had to play through,  deciding to be the best boyfriend he can be, he walks up to the man. SMG3 was humming to himself as he cooks, he pauses when he feels someone grabbing his arm. He turns to see his partner giving him a small smile “Yes?” now having his attention Four points to the man's pot. Three crosses his arms staring at Four “Um Three, you do know beans and hot sauce aren't really a thing put together for spaghetti?” Three scoffs “You don’t know the true power of beans, amusing to see it will be your downfall scrub!” he then blushes slowly slipping his arm away from Four. With a sigh SMG4 walks back to his station, while he cooks he couldn't help peek at his partner hoping Three wouldn't be disappointed when no one likes his dish. 

Both men hit the bell to let the judges know they were done, as they walk out to greet the judge SMG4 gasps seeing they had an extra one. Mario was sitting with the girls waving at them, SMG3 smirks “Told you the spaghetti would summon him.” SMG4 playfully smacks Three as he grabs his plate and hands it to the judges. Three goes to the back to grab his pot, Four watches nervously as Mario vacuums the pasta in a blink of an eye. The girls took a bite and gave him a thumbs up, then noted down his dish was a seven. 

Distracted with writing the score, Mario snuck up behind them and ate their spaghetti. Meggy stares at the plate surprised before turning and glaring at him “Oh come one Red that was ours!” “Mario is hungry!” he then smacks the table demanding more pasta, Meggy sighs giving an apologetic smile to Tari. The girl just giggles at what happened reassuring Meggy. The door opened catching everyone's attention, there SMG3 walked with confidantes showing off his dish. Four couldn't help himself from blushing, if there is one thing Four loves the most about his boyfriend is that cocky confidence he has. 

To keep up the appearance of still being friendly rivals Four smirks at him “I got this in the bag, everyone loved my dish!” Three rolled his eyes amused, he then drops the plate in front of everyone . Tari tilts her head seeing the dish “Beans?” Three nods and proudly waves his hand at the dishes “Yep, It’s SMG3 special pinto beans spaghetti chili!” Each of them took a bite, Four was getting himself ready to comfort his boyfriend. To his surprise they didn't spit the meal out like he expected, instead Tari and Meggy eyes go wide as they start eating the dish as fast as Mario. The girls start crying from the spice as they finish it up, they all hold up tens for the score as Mario dashes to finish the rest of the pasta.

Four fell to his knees in shock, not only did he lose but he judged his own partner not having faith in him. He frowns, realizing how unfair he was towards the other man, slowly a plate appeared in front of him “I saved you a plate..uh! Not because I want you to try out my cooking idiot! I’m just showing off!” Three looks away blushing.

He takes the plate and slowly takes a bite, he couldn't believe how amazing it tasted. He could feel the spice burn him the more he ate, so he decided to stop eating before it got to the point he started to breathe fire. He puts the plate on the table before taking Three’s hand “This is amazing three! I had no idea you could make dishes like this, you're just so amazing.” he smiles softly at Three making the man melt. He gets closer to Four letting his own smile grow “This isn't the half of how amazing i am!”

Meggy lets out a soft cough “Hey um are we missing something here?” Mario’s stache grows as he sniffs the pair “Mario smells gay, are you two finally dating?” 

They both let go of each other embarrassed, they got so lost with each other they forgot about the others. They panic unsure what to do, as SMG3 thinks over the situation, he knew he could trust them not to spill anything. With a deep breath he takes Four’s hand surprising him “YEAH WE ARE DATING AND IF YOU TELL ANYONE THERE IS A BOMB WITH YOUR NAME ON IT!”

SMG4's face goes red, he wasn't expecting Three to make the announcement to them so suddenly. Shyly he intertwined his fingers with Three, they both stayed there waiting to see how their friends would react. Tari giggles clapping for them “Aw I’m so happy for you two!” Meggy nods “Yeah i'm with Tari, It’s awesome you guys are finally together!” she then smirks at Three “Also the threat is hard to take seriously when you're so red in the face there Three.”  SMG3 glares at her “Shut it squid!”

Mario silently stares at them, it felt like a dream for the plumber to hear those words. After years of knowing them and seeing the two at each other, even seeing the event that happened in  a certain igloo, he couldn't believe the day came that finally they were dating.  Seeing how close they were standing to each other and holding hands, slowly a huge smile grew on his face along with his mustache "YIPEE!!! Finally Mario knew you two were gay for each other!" He runs hugging the two guardians.

The boys smile hugging him back, the girls smile at the moment then run up to join the group hug. They spend the day chatting and telling the group how they got together and wanting to keep things low, as they happily talk about random topics a strange package dropped off at the castle along with other gifts. Hearing the sound outside Four nods at the girls to distract Three, he runs and smiles seeing the gifts “Finally it's here, now to figure out how to distract Three tomorrow to throw the best birthday party he’s ever had!” 

[mysillycomics]

[elexuscal]

fandom friendships can be so weird like

yeah this is my friend scrumblyj97. no i don't know their 'real' name i just call them scrumbly and they live over 1000 miles away. we've written 50k of fiction together.

[cairafea]

my favourite genre of seventeen is when they're straight up lying

ref:

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The girls are here!!!

[probablybadrpgideas]

I like to think that most Monster Banishing Rituals are just kind of working on the assumption that really deadly things kill you.

"You need to tear out its heart, cut its head off, burn the head, cut the body into quarters and nail each quarter into a separate coffin buried miles apart"

"And that will stop it coming back?"

"Look buddy, if that doesn't stop it coming back then I think we probably just need to accept our new lives as vampire minions."

[katabay]

ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WAS A KNIGHT...

the visual inspiration for this was a combination of Frederic William Burton's Meeting on the Turret Stairs and also Bernardo Cavallino's The vision of St. Dominic receiving the Rosary from the Virgin

this was supposed to be just a one off illustration to get the thoughts out of my system, but then I started thinking about medieval politics and warfare and plagues and a castle and home as both a place of refuge, a prison, and a tomb, so perhaps they will end up as ex voto characters as well.

you may say, hey! that rosary looks like it has too many beads! it's a fifteen decade rosary, probably. dominicans are really into marian devotions. it works out.

also. spiral style stair cases. oh boy. it was that unexpectedly more difficult than I originally thought it would be to draw. the more I think about it, the less I understand them, even though I had a million photos of the stairs in front of me while I was drawing it.

⭐ I have a tip jar (ko-fi)!

⭐ and other places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app

[lamaery]

soooo, on a vacation trip a week ago, I stumbled over @xiranjayzhao's Iron Widow in a book shop in Copenhagen and devoured it last weekend. It was quite the fun read. (And I am not that inclined to mechs 😄 but the rage filled female power fantasy and the setting felt rather refreshing to me) And after finishing the book I had to get at least some art out of my system. As usual it didn't end up what I really intended it to be in my head initially, but also, as usual it has to suffice for now or I'll never post it.

[chio-chan2artbox]

Step Forward - Part 3 They are going on a date!!! Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 Check out my tags for fun facts XD

Kofi

[damianbugs]

comics are in and of itself, an unreliable narrator.

i say this because i started my comic journey with jason todd. i read all his robin appearances, pre and post crisis, then read hush and under the red hood, and all i could think about was what the fuck. what the fuck batman. how did you become this. what happened between 1988 and 2006. how did the the man who's life revolved around caring for this child, teaching this child, learning from this child, protecting this child, losing this child — become hurting him.

it was so baffling to me i found myself slipping into the batman shaped void that many never return from (lol). and so now, i have read over 1500 batman comics, over 300 different writers, spanning over 80 years of publication. i finally get to what happened between 1988 and 2006, and how batman as a character has become as unrecognisable as he has remained familiar. i see the events of alpod, knightfall, cataclysm, no man's land, the 200 individual batman issues and 200 individual detective comics issues alone that had passed, not taking into account the the other long runs, mini runs, short stories or collaborative comics that were released in those 18 years. the people he had met, lost, been betrayed by, abandoned in those stories.

it has only been about 5 years since jason todd died for bruce wayne. 5 years that have felt like two decades.

it has only been around 4 years for jason since he climbed his way out of his grave. 4 years that felt like less than three.

so when reading as jason, i felt betrayed. how could batman do this? how can't he see? he knows how i would have mourned him, he knows how fiercely i love him, how all i want is for him to prove he ever loved me the same way. how can he not change after all these years? how is he not aware that he is not the change gotham needs? (how does he not see that he is what i need — needed.) how will he save gotham? he can't. he can't save gotham. he can't save me. but i can. i can fix it.

then i read as bruce and i am betrayed. who is this? why does he doubt how much i loved him? what changed? why did he change? (am i the one who changed? no, surely not.) after everything, the people i have hurt, the people i have lost, the people i have sacrificed for gotham, how can he doubt? he would have never asked me to do this before, he understood, i'm sure he did, before. i won't choose. i can't choose. where is my son. where am i. i can't save gotham. i can't save you. but i can fix it. i can fix you.

they're both wrong.

[tired-demonspawn]

safe to say Dipper, in fact, did not regret asking! :D

anyway always did think Stan had the bestest luck under the sun with the truth telling teeth

i mean not one single person said something to him that would make him spill, like he was one "Stanford" away from "Oh that's not my name actually. That's the name of my twin brother who i've been impersonating." Like this man's luck is absolutely cosmic istg.

[nezz-cringe-crib]

society is dumb draw anatomically incorrect yaoi.

if mia and light turner can make out during kira time then lawlight can too.

[nonbinary-vents]

This has been an absolutely horrible couple weeks for the Jewish and Israeli community, so I want to throw in at least a tiny bit of hope in here. Amina Hassouna, the Bedouin girl who was severely hurt in Iran’s missile attacks, has been recovering well and seems to be in good condition! She is described as being ‘fully conscious’ and ‘communicating and smiling’. Two bomb shelters have been placed in Al-Fura, the town that she and her family are from, as well.

[swordheld]

do the silly thing. if you do not do the silly thing time will pass and it will not be the same silly thing it could have been. it will still be silly, and it will still be yours, but it will not be the same. this is both a blessing and a curse, but so is living; and if you do not do it now when will you? who will? it has to be you, it was always meant for you, waiting for you.

[soupysundae]

🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍

[brighteuphony]

I love Chiyo- and I kind of headcanon her as a Witch of the Woods (Sands???) archetype- a bitter old woman who has sacrificed too much, experienced and committed more atrocities than anyone can imagine, and who knows the truth about what lies in the hearts of men to live among the villages anymore.

In my AU she's got a pretty dark backstory. Back in time when Villages were just getting established, women weren't allowed to be shinobi in the same capacity as men. There was too much warring and death among the clans to risk women, so they were only ever allowed to serve as spies or medics. (Chiyo started off as a medic).

And like any military/fascist dictatorship, serving the state was more important than anything else- so women who were kunoichi were given missions to steal and return with powerful bloodlines. Even before villages, this was a common fear among clans (which is why so many of them have protective measures and inbreed/arrange matches very carefully).

Chiyo was one such woman, who took a X-rated mission in her youth because she was told it would 'serve her nation'. There was a powerful bloodline whose Kekkei Genkai could harden sand to something akin to Steel- something Suna very desperately wanted.

Chiyo succeeded in her mission, but despite the veneer of 'serving your nation', when she returned, she was considered, in her words, "Just another whore."

Then when her son didn't manifest the bloodline- it was worse, but Chiyo was happy because that meant her son was HERS. (This is when she met Enji, and he saved her son's life at great cost- so Chiyo owes him a blood/life debt.)

Then the war came, and they needed women to fight so now serving the nation meant something different, and Chiyo became a full fledged 'shinobi' and turned her healing towards poison and death- especially when she had to fight the Salamander.

Then she sealed Gaara and that was the atrocity straw that broke the camel's back and she dipped out Suna and retired to an oasis. She's still a healer, but adamantly refuses to serve shinobi.

Once again, thank you so much for these asks and all the support for this AU?

@youngpeacearbiter