#the only ice in our country is from the freezer

[becauseimswagman1]

A/N: This story will (Read: might) be uploaded in 4 parts. This is part 1 out of.... unknown. This man has been on my radar since Love, Victor, and now that he's been in Never Have I Ever, more people can see how amazing he is.

A/N#2: This isn't a fic for Victor (L, V) or Ethan (NHIE). This is a fic for the actor behind those characters, Michael Cimino.

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

What Are We?

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

There’s something about waking up naked to breakfast in bed from your best friend that seems fake as hell, except it’s not and it’s happening to you. 

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

You and Michael met at an after-party for a movie premiere a couple of years ago. The two of you bonded over how bad the movie was even though the cast of actors was amazing. 

He thought you were very pretty and tried flirting, but he stumbled over his words. You thought it was cute that an established actor was essentially fumbling trying to talk to you, so you saved him the trouble and asked for his number. 

After that night, the two of you were inseparable for about two weeks since that’s all the time he had left to stay in LA before he went back to filming. The distance didn’t stop y’all, though. He always made sure to check on you, ordering you food from across the country just to make sure you ate, sending “good morning” texts, etc. That continued over the years and sometimes you thought he was crushing on you, but you didn’t want to assume anything. 

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, when he surprised you for y’all’s two-year “friend-iversary” by showing up at your doorstep with flowers, your favorite dessert in hand, and a hand-written letter that says how much he cherishes you as a person made you swoon a bit because nobody had ever done that for you, friend or not. Maybe you’d been the one to develop a crush on him.  

“Michael?! What the fuck are you doing here?”, you moved out the doorway so he could walk in. 

He went straight to your kitchen to put the dessert in the freezer, “Thank God you weren’t taking a nap, this ice cream cake would’ve melted.”

You followed behind him and sat on the counter and watched him move around your kitchen like he lived there, the sight was so cute. If only you weren’t so afraid to tell him how you felt. 

“Um… Hi Michael?” 

“Hi hello, how are you on this wonderful day?” he hugged you tight, his face buried in your neck. The way his breath felt on you had you thinking some very impure thoughts. 

You pushed him back before you could let out an audible moan, “Wonderful day? It’s definitely a regular-ass Tuesday.” 

“It’s our fucking friend-iversary! Did you forget or something?” you did forget, you’re willing to admit that but then again you weren’t even aware that this was something that’d be happening. 

“I didn’t even know that was a thing, dude! Is that why you showed up with all that stuff?”

“Duhhh. Annnd it’s the first time we’re seeing each other in SIX MONTHS! It’s the longest I’ve ever been away from you! How are you not vibrating out of your skin right now?”

That was an easy question to answer. Every piece of excitement that would’ve exploded when you saw him was quickly taken over by a bit of arousal. He had clearly been hitting the gym every day and the tank top plus short shorts combo was doing something to you. 

“I was just working on something before you came,” you saw his eyes light up, “Woahhh before you get all excited, no you can’t see it.”

You’re sort of an influencer. You do a ton of stuff without the restriction of a company behind you. You manage yourself and do it well. Your profession is being an editor. 

“Oh come on~. You know I enjoy watching you work, even if I don’t completely understand what you’re doing.”

“The final answer is no. Anyway, what are we doing for this friend-iversary?”

He opened your cabinet and took out a bag of chips and started eating them, “I was thinking that we get dressed super fancily and go to an overpriced restaurant, then we come back here to Netflix and Chill.” 

Your eyes widened at his words, was he suggesting you two hook up? Like sleep in the bed in a non-platonic way? 

He saw your expression change, “Wait, wait, wait I didn’t mean it like that! I just meant that we chill out and have some of my famous margaritas.” 

“Oh! Right, right,” You were kinda sad that he didn’t mean it, but you certainly weren’t gonna let him sense that you were bummed, “So, what’s this letter?” You held up an envelope. 

He cleared his throat, “Oh that?” he snatched it from you, “That’s something I want you to read when I leave the state. Got it?”

You nodded your head yes.

“Now that we’ve got that straight, go get dressed. Our reservations are at eight and you take forever to get ready.” he put the chip bag down and started walking to the door.

“I do not take forever, wait, where are you going?”

“To get my suitcase. We finished filming yesterday and I thought I’d spend some time here… Is that okay with you?”

You smiled a little, “DUH! Why wouldn’t it be okay with me? Go get your bag before I purposely take forever to get ready.”

He was already halfway out the door when you finished your sentence. 

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Lemme know if you wanna be added or removed)

Taglist: @prettyisasprettydoes1306

@thatone-girly @blackerthings 

@roguekiki @enigmadivine

@novaniskye @ziayamikaelson

@twocentuar

@chaneajoyyy

[lileeethejoker]

caden always lived in his brother's shadow, since he had no aspect, and when his brother got one - ignis - and started to work more for his kingdom as honorable knight, caden became too obsessive and focused only on somehow getting the aspect. when brother tried to stop him from doing dangerous and dubious stuff, caden started to see enemy in him, and in not so long - ran away from his country.

after he became a recruit, he met other team members:

ethan, cunty genesis mage of 1 class

ferdinand, goofy soldier of 7th class

and phin, leader of the group, who had both ice and water aspects. of course, he’s excellent class.

about world:

in short, that’s 6824, planet that used to look like our world, but at some point there were an agreement between humanity in order to save their world. ecology was almost dead, that critical their condition were. all mankind decided to destroy all excessive technologies, like satellites, tv, internet, phones in a way they existed, etc. after that, era of solitude started.

humans couldn’t communicate for thousands of years, and since that planet had more water and divided continents, not much of news were there. but that changed in 2050 before war of aspects, after first ships reached other continents.

that’s where people started to communicate again.

and turned out, in every country there were a blessing — some people got some kind of magic. there are aspects, that your soul generates, and for overcoming obstacles — you’ll get a blessing of gods, which includes full power of aspect you have.

they are given for action, not for wishing

so it kinda means you’re chosen one, you’re superior, you’re doing something that made ceo of gods look at you.

original aspects include:

• ignis (fire)

• aqua (water)

• aer (air)

• terra (ground, soil, earth, any type of rocks or minerals)

• ineteritus (or inanis, like void, not destruction)

• genesis (creation, there are still options for renaming)

two last ones can transform into sanguis — blood benders. that includes wide spectrum of abilities, but it’s marginalized kinda like void/destruction aspect.

they exist to maintain some kind of conditional world order and peace, but for ordinary people the gods have made other aspects that are already possible:

a) literally pray for it but like for VERY long time

b) purchase but it’s inhumanly pricey

c) get spent in a company that recruits agents for keeping world order locally (aka searching for people of destroyed nation and kill those who survived) (they were murdered by rest of original gods because you can’t sell the darkness as a friend and protector to your people, but rather as an invader, so they were simply murdered with following ethnic cleansing, simply ground into powder together with their ceo from God; but still someone survived.)

among these aspects, which are also called synthetic:

• natura (to grow all kinds of fruits, crops, vegetables and take better care of livestock, because the aspect has a wide but limited range of possibilities, such as: weather bending, understanding the language of animals, the ability to predict natural disasters, grow plants faster and stronger, that is why it is synthetic, so that ordinary people won’t get bored like gods say)

• fulgur (electrical discharge; it can be both organic lightning and a machinery control, because a person who has this aspect can have control over any electrical device)

• frigus (freezer basically; cools any other aspect, can freeze anything + makes snow or can grow large af icicles; overall it’s about bending frozen stuff and generating it too)

but among owners of aspects, there is obviously a clear hierarchy:

the original aspect is always >>>>>>>>>> synthetic.

the human body cannot withstand more than two aspects; and two ORIGINAL aspects can only be in legends about the most powerful type that will destroy the world.

some countries are more solarpunk, dieselpunk, etc; some are steampunk and atompunk (those are more 1800-esque, but less impacted by diseases and far more safe). in most of countries there is 1 religion, and it’s mostly aspectism. but in some there are different, much smaller cults.

[woundlingus]

🌍 🎶 🐈‍⬛ 🇪🇺

🇪🇺honestly I thought about lying but really you plug it into my search bar and I post politics and memes that are really only relevant to my country so I will admit I am Australian 🦘

🎶Hozier. Forever and always Hozier. I saw him live in San Diego, changed my life. Next in line is Chappel Roan please please please like my wife she’s the best she’s soooo pretty and her music fucking slaps 😭

🐈‍⬛ I’ll be real I’m a little bit of a hater 👀 I’ve had a lot of pets and it’s not that I don’t love them it’s just that I don’t think I’m built for that kind of companionship. I like to observe foxes from afar, I’d never want to be one of those people who thinks they can tame a fox because it’s dog shaped and smaller than a wolf. That’s still a wild animal don’t be mean… but I guess if not that, then my dog is probably my favourite just because she’s my girl regardless of how annoying she is, I can’t sleep without her next to me

🌏favourite place…… I’ve been around, and honestly I don’t think anything beats the highest point in the Swiss alps. I’d never seen snow until that point, and you take the jungfrau train up to the point and then walk through this tunnel out to pure white, I’d never seen so much white in my life. Switzerland is just so beautiful generally, I stayed in this tiny village and they cooled our drinks in the run off from the mountains because it’s so ice cold it’s faster than any kind of freezer, and it’s all green, and it sounds tropical despite the chill because it’s so silent out there you can hear the thousands of tiny little waterfalls from the run off of the alps, makes you understand why they protect silence by law. It’s a little unnerving too though, it was so beautiful and exciting at first but it’s so much white nothing and a thousand foot drop at any misstep outside the bounds created by these tiny little string ropes, really gives you The Call Of The Void if you’ve ever experienced that, it’s like the little nagging feeling that says you should jump or other various really dangerous things for inexplicably no real rhyme or reason. Staring out into absolute nothingness on the highest peak of the highest mountain with nothing but blinding white surrounding you on all sides and just having the most unnerving feeling that I should walk out into the snow for miles and miles like I was being called to something was so wild I actually had to go back down the mountain before I became a statistic.

The mountain does things to people, maybe it’s just the elevation messing with the head, but it’s creepy. Beautiful. But I wouldn’t linger for too long. Godspeed to the cattle farmers living in solitude up that high- I think they might need it.

Ask Game

[robbybirdy]

31. Baking therapy on a budget ft. Genshin Characters: Itto - Blackberry Pie

Hello, every birdy. Today we are making a pie that has been on my list of things to bake for a while now. And the reason why I haven’t made it is very simple, both the price and the quantity we get. But we were blessed with blackberries recently and a lot of them. Enough to make a pie.

Aratiki Itto (Ar-Ra-taki E-toe) the one and oni, is an oni (demon-like) character from Inazuma. He is very loud and slightly childish. His favorite type of food is lollipops. I had thought about making some cake pops or something like that. But, the main thing about this series is the budget part. I didn’t want to buy anything that I would only use once. So I thought long and hard about what recipes I should use for him. I also didn’t want to make my sister made, as he is one of her mains. So I ended up making this pie. And designed the top crust as a lollipop. 

The recipe is from “My Country Table - Homemade Blackberry Pie.” Feel free to check out the link down below. 

I just want to explain something before we get going with this recipe. I understand that some of these recipes wouldn’t be technically “budget friendly” but we are not spending any money on these expensive ingredients. The explanation of this is simple, we have a food pantry in our community two times a month. And we try to make dinner and desserts from the things that we get from the truck. 

People shouldn’t be ashamed of getting things from food pantries. They are there so that nobody goes hungry. Especially during this time of inflation. Trying to feed 7 adults on a budget gets rather tight. So the truck helps. 

I liked this recipe because of how simple it was and honestly when I am looking around on the internet and in cookbooks I am looking for recipes which I have all of the ingredients for.

The first thing you are going to do is prepare your pie crust, fill free to skip if you already have a pie crust.

If you want to make your own pie crust it is very simple. This recipe will be enough for both the top crust and the bottom crust. The link to this recipe will also be down below. 

You will need

Flour 

Salt

Shortening

Ice water

In a large bowl you are going to measure out the flour and the salt. Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender or two forks. Add your ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough clumps  together and is not too moist. 

Place your dough on a floured surface and divide it equally in half. Wrap one of the halves in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer or fridge until you are ready to use it. 

For the other half, what I did was divided it into 3rds. One of the thirds I didn’t color. The other two I colored with food gel. One of them was orange and the other was purple. I wrap each of those in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer until I was ready. 

Now onto  the pie filling, you will need:

Blackberries

Sugar, divided

Cornstarch

The first thing you want to do is preheat your oven to 350 F. 

In a large pan you are going to mix together  your blackberries and one cup of sugar. 

Let them set for about 15 minutes and if there is any juice, you will want to drain most of it. 

Add in the rest of the sugar and the cornstarch to the blackberries. 

Once the cornstarch is mixed in with the blackberries you are going to place your pan on medium heat and bring it to a boil. Making sure that you stir it constantly. The reason you want to stir constantly is because you do not want to scorch the bottom of your pan. 

Once the mixture is boiling, you will continue to stir for another two minutes. Or until the mixture has slightly thickened. Remove it from the heat, and feel free to taste test it at this point to see if you need to add any more sugar to it. 

Let the mixture cool off of the heat for about 5 minutes, or until you are done with the pie crust. 

Take your pie crusts out of the freezer or the fridge, and roll them out. The bottom crust will be just a basic bottom crust. Nothing too fancy. 

I made my top crust before putting my pie filling in and it seemed like it helped me. 

I rolled out both of the colors to be the same shape. And I shaped it into a lollipop, alternating the colors between orange and purple. Until I didn’t have any more left. I did have more pie crust left, so I used that to make a bow and a stem for the lollipop. 

In order to help your future self, you will want to place your pan on a cookie sheet so that it can capture any spillage. 

You are going to bake your pie for 50 minutes or until it the golden brown is on top. 

Let it cool completely before slicing. 

I was honestly so happy about how this pie turned out. I have never made a blackberry pie before because of the cost and the number of blackberries that we have had in the past. I this was on my list of things that I wanted to make. And I am so happy that I was able to do it. 

I hope that you like these recipes. Feel free to check it out for yourselves. See you in the next recipe. 

Pinterest: Here

Recipe: here

[ofcarnvge]

Unarmed

@annalis-e--shadowofpanem

There was a news bulletin for Shadows to read that resembled the website of most news outlets. Leslie stared at her phone screen, excessively refreshing the bulletin before feeling the weight of a gaze on her. She looked up to find her host looking in her direction. She grasped at a vaporous recollection of Floss’s words and, finding nothing, sighed. “I’m sorry, I’m just checking to see if the world hadn’t imploded while we were sleeping.” She returned her attention to her pancakes, laying her phone face down on the table.

“If it did, I’m sure I would have gotten the call,” Eleanor ensured Leslie. Her back rested against her chair. “I hate to admit it, but the Vipers feel like our distant cousins. Not quite Shadows...but people who move and think in the same manners. Once all guards were dropped, I actually took to liking them. And they may be on the way to actually liking one another, which, given Mallory’s as a relative unknown, is really something. It’s a shame this Beatrix person is about to carve through that without much fanfare.” Eleanor leaned forward, resting her chin in her hands, elbows planted firmly into the table. Almost childlike. “I hate that we can’t elongate the calm before the storm--it seems like everyone here needed it. But they have their own priorities and we have ours. I know we make a habit of going where we haven’t been expressly invited, but O-Ren seems dead set on doing this alone. Intervening, in this instance, solves nothing. It’s funny how companies, establishments, countries, are easier to defy than individual people.”  

Leslie’s mind sparked, turning over ideas. But she said nothing.

“As for how I’m feeling,” Eleanor leaned back, grasping a fork and driving its spoked points into her pancakes. She reached for her knife and began to saw through the stack. “I’m struggling to forget the piles of problems I have on my desk. So I’m drawing out breakfast for as long as possible...” She shrugged. “I might buy myself a little cottage tucked away in a forest somewhere...see if I can bottle up what I’m feeling now and give it some permanence.”

Cereza found a harmonious rhythm that saw was on track to make enough breakfast for everyone under Floss’s roof, and in time to still be hot by the time everyone had awakened. “I’m not proud enough to deny that taking refuge in this kitchen has kept some deeply rooted fears of mine. Elle was...easy. The hunt came to me as easily as the execution and I’m frightened of how easily I could just slip back into the role of ‘assassin.’” The word burned against her tongue. “...the personal sacrifices we make for our friends. May we love fiercely enough to have to make them, but heaven forbid we have to make too many.”

As if chasing on the heels of Cereza’s statement, a ghost wandered into the kitchen. A girl at peace, shaking the sleep out of her bones as her feet shuffled lazily along the tile. Only it wasn’t a ghost. At least, not according to Eleanor, whose eyes followed the figure as she made her way to the freezer. She wore a face that both Cereza and Eleanor recognized from a long time past.

While Cereza and Eleanor spent the morning wondering if such calm could last, Pan had found the reason to hold onto it, fleeting or not. it oozed into her skin and made its home there, turning the director into...

A person.

It was beautiful to see. The effort to railroad Pan back to Molly had borne more delicious fruit than anything the Shadows had done in the week prior.

Pan rummaged through Floss’s freezer before finally noticing she was being watched. She looked at the room, eyes darting around. “...what?”

Eleanor smiled and shook her head. Cereza happily returned to her cooking, and Leslie regarded her stack of pancakes for the first time.

After pulling a tub of vanilla ice cream from the freezer, Pan closed the door. She searched lazily until her sleepy eyes found Floss. “Do you have any peaches?”

--

Peace did not come easy to the guests of Floss’s estate...but it skipped Amy entirely. No matter how late it was when she first retired, her body still found reason to wake her at 5 am on the dot. She went down her list of morning exercises and stretches before climbing into the shower, where she found refuge in the cascading water for an hour or so longer than a typical shower should be. It was quiet on the floor, with all the muffled morning chatter happening in the kitchen below.

Amy packing her bags every morning had become a habit, much like treating each bed she slept in like it was only available to her for a single night. Globe hopping from Asia to the US and then finally to the UK kept with her usual style of never staying in one place for too long. But the idea of joining her peers for breakfast set fire to her nerves; she had already been in Floss’s house for too long. Running and hiding was a hard habit to break...especially when the wages of failure were being Pillboxed...or killed.

A week in Pan’s company was not enough to teach Amy’s body that it was past time to move, even if her mind and heart knew that she was no longer being hunted. Even as she approached the door, the weight of having free hands was far heavier than carrying her belonging to the door. “Drop the bag,” she muttered to herself. Over and over again. Eventually, her duffle fell from her grasp and onto the carpet. She stood at the door with her fingers on the knob for what felt like hours, forcing her feet to carry her to the kitchen rather than out of the front door.

But even as she made the journey, Amy couldn’t help but eye all possible exits.

“I am not the enemy anymore,” Amy muttered to herself.

“Why did you take Bill up on it?”

Go go’s expression was searching, but not accusatory when she asked the question.

Mallory looked down into her half empty coffee cup then out over the pastoral landscape which stretched away from the patio. She shrugged with one shoulder.

“Honestly, I wanted to be good at something. And I am. But it wasn't worth it. Not for any of us.”

Go go nodded. “Sometimes I wonder why I agreed...”

“...Because you were a kid.”

Mallory cut in, hard, certain. Go go paused.

“Because you were a fucking kid Go go. They conditioned you. What happened to you, it was wrong. It was messed up.”

“O-ren didn't condition me.” There was heat in Go go’s voice now, still low, but there.

“Yeah, she did.” Mallory wouldn't break Go go’s gaze. “But that’s kinda the worst part...O-ren was conditioned too, if not by a person then by her life. You don't need me to tell you what happened to O-ren’s parents, what happened after that. The wheel just kept turning.”

A moment of difficult silence settled between the two of them. Partly because Go go knew Mallory was right, and partly because Mallory felt a twinge of guilt. The sweet song of a thrush sounded from a hedgerow by the gate.

“O-ren wants to end it. She wants to make things right. She’s flying out today to meet Beatrix.” A twinge of pain crossed Go go’s face. “Mallory, I’m scared she wont come back.”

And then, Go go cried. Silently. Painfully. Still holding her coffee cup. At first Mallory regarded her with something like shock. Go go Yubari did not cry. Quite at once it seemed rather too real. It was one things to move the pieces about remotely. It was another to sit next to them. Mallory put her cup down. She thought about her brother, Max. 

There was a way he had always hugged her, with one arm, his chin on the crown of her head. Mallory held Go go just like that, and the former bodyguard did not pull away, she just let the tears slide silently down her cheeks. 

And it was like her brother’s voice left her when she spoke, a voice she had never found in her absent father, nor in her mother’s anger. And certainly not in herself, not yet;

“Go go, I promise. I promise. We’ll get O-ren back.”

-

“We might be more fortunate than we suspect with Beatrix.” Floss answered while cutting up her pancakes. “Granted, I don't know Black Mamba but from what I’ve seen, I think we may have a rather ironic de-escalation expert in O-ren. By my guess, if anyone can talk her down it’s a woman rather famous for ratcheting any conflict up to a Shakespearean level.” Floss gave a shrug. “Strange, but there you have it.” 

Outside, Floss couldnt help but notice that Mallory was holding Go go by the shoulder. Things were so seldom exactly as they seemed.

Leslie’s reply almost stung to hear. Floss put down her cutlery.

“I hope you all know that this house, this kitchen, is a place of safety. For as long as you need it, whenever you need it.” She rolled her eyes. “But yes, I cant ignore the small mountain that’s growing outside the door. Between Agnes, the artefact and goodness only knows what’s going on with our latest museum collection...we do have full plates.” She picked up her knife and fork again, an optimism dawning on her features. “But hey, none of us has to do this alone. I’m sure we can work it out between us”

Quite on queue The Director wandered into the kitchen looking distinctly...human. As if something of a veneer of self defense and denial had finally peeled away. Somehow it made her look younger. 

“Only three left, but they’re in that cupboard.” Floss pointed with her fork. It did her good to see at least some of the weight of the world roll off of Pan’s shoulders. As if she were leading by example. 

-

O-ren toweled herself off rigorously and pulled her still damp hair into a tight bun. Clothing herself in the simple, but utilitarian black dress she had chosen for the mission before she set out from Tokyo. More practical than glamorous. Standing before the full length mirror the concept of ‘glamour’ made O-ren’s shoulders ache. But it was not an injury or a hangover from Bill’s pointless attempt at revenge; it was Minami. 

For a moment she wondered about contacting her. But it was madness. Deep down O-ren knew that to involve Minami in her life at all had been to place her in the firing line. Then again, not to undo the agency of the artist herself...she was not a stranger to it. O-ren sighed, putting the thought from her mind and pushed herself out of the bedroom door.

The sense of solitude was broken by the sudden and initially awkward presence of Amaterasu, also about to traverse the landing. O-ren knew that Go go already held her in a near epic esteem. So she smiled. 

“Amaterasu, good morning. I think we might be the last ones up.” She moved toward the kitchen. “Last night Go go was telling me all about the new meteor hammer she’s dreaming up...”

-

They were not the last to wake. 

Molly lay on her side, eyes shut. But she was not, in the technical sense, entirely asleep. It was more like, drifting. 

The gloom of dream resolved and through it a person turned, as though alerted to her presence. Clothed in scarlet from head to foot, stark, beautiful features, pale complexion. A knowing expression.

She spoke three words, but the sound was lost. 

Molly lifted her head from the pillow, her blonde hair a fluffy tangle. Returning to Cambridge, England, present day. 

“...Cure for mercury?” She uttered.

[distopea]

@nvrcmplt

Fingers slither down Gambit's nape as the butcher stands behind him - nude if it wasn't for his snug boxers and blood stain boots. His skin covered in scarring glistened from small amounts of cold sweat - the freezer space was void of corpses now, only meat strung up as if it was cow or pig. Acid baths bubbles in silence of the corners of the room - bone dust pulverized into piles slowly being pushed into running sewer drains with blood and organ mush, those that couldn't be sold of course.

"Managed to save liver, kidneys and lungs, the heart was covered in fat though so not great for anyone. The rest have been stored for transport; I take the left femur, the rest cleaned up and sold off to a collector in Asia. The broken bone crushed and disposed off." He spoke with ease, looking over the tables' company with his face still wearing his dog muzzle - it was the best way, since he did have a tendency to indulge in his niche diet whilst working.

"Skinned flesh and muscle have been packed up and handed over to family, gave you 5k bonus for the good condition." Mostly Oleg's doing, but extra pocket money for the crew. "Anyone else, love?"

A shiver traveled down his spine when he recognized the cold fingers of his lover exploring his nape. It gave him such a rush of adrenaline, he had a hard time not turning around and jumping on Maxim right away. They still needed to finish this job before they would eventually move on to even funnier activities. Gambit removed his glasses for a second, a cloud of fog covering it, while he took his time to clean them with his shirt. He observed the area with admiration gleaming in the back of his green eyes – truly, Maxim was always such a creative being.

“Oh, you did manage a lot.” He smiled while he turned around and readjusted his glasses onto his nose. His features couldn’t hide the emotions he felt for his lover, all of his body unable to remain too far away from his naked silhouette. He stepped closer, removed a tiny piece of bone that was stuck in his white hair. Gorgeous. Immaculate. He listened to the way Maxim had handled the whole situation once more, becoming such a maestro of cleaning bodies whenever there was a mess. A fairy in his own domain, even though it was surrounded by blood, bones and guts.

“If the retinas are still intact, we have a client in our clubs who’s interested in collecting them. We’re moving money in his fictitious company soon, I guess we could give him something, so he’d be more inclined for our next laundry day.” Gambit continued, before he eventually rolled his fingers around his waist. He could kill an entire nation just for the sake of having Maxim by his side every day.

“Not for today. Soon.” He purred and nibbled his earlobe, his lips traveling against his cold neck. He smelled like ethanol and dry ice, along with a lingering scent of blood. He hummed and kissed the bottom of his neck, his fingers caressing the length of his back. “I wondered what I should do so you don’t have to take that plane in a week.” He whispered, while he slowly pushed Maxim and wrapped both of his hands under his thighs.

“I’m very much disappointed whenever you fly back to your cold and very far away country.” He placed Maxim onto the surgery table, parting his thighs to stand between them, both of his hands tracing his waist with a growing appetite. “I don’t like the idea of having your genius hands busy elsewhere where I can’t look.” He caught one of his palms, brought it to his lips, while he nibbled and sucked on the tip of his finger. 

“Don’t leave, this time. Tell yourself there will be another job. I’ll kill so many people you won’t be able to stop cleaning for decades, my love.” 

[ezcater]

How to Make the Most of the Dog Days of Summer

You may be familiar with the dog days of summer, but did you know that these long, sweltering days are not named after our four-legged friends? These toasty days actually get their nickname from Sirius, also known as the ‘Dog Star,’ which is visible in the sky just before dawn during late July and early August.

Still, even if these hot days aren’t named after our best furry friends, you might feel like you’re working like a dog when temperatures are so high. Luckily, you can help your workplace beat the heat—and even enjoy the dog days of summer—with these three tips. Fetch a Few Cold Drinks Stocking the fridge with drinks can help your team stay hydrated, refreshed, and happy during the hottest days of the year. Flavored sparkling waters, probiotic sodas, and kombuchas are all great options for refreshing afternoon pick-me-ups that your team will love. If your office is located in a particularly humid region, like Ohio or Florida, consider starting a weekly tradition of catering fun, chilled beverages on Fridays. A corporate catering service can help connect you with reliable restaurants catering Columbus Ohio or Orlando to bring fresh juice, matcha, iced coffee, or lemonades right to your workplace. Roll Up Your Sleeves Plenty of workplaces loosen their ties literally and figuratively during the summer. Implementing a summer dress code that allows team members to dress casually in the summer is a great way to boost morale and keep your team from sweating through their best button-ups. As more companies adopt a business casual, approachable dress code, workplace-appropriate shorts and even open-toed shoes are becoming the norm in offices across the country, especially during late summer. Did Someone Say “Treat”? Do you have fond memories of chasing down the ice cream truck with your childhood friends or digging through the freezer for a fruit-flavored ice pop? No matter how old we get, sometimes the only cure for hot summer days is a sweet, frozen treat. Make the most of the hottest days of the year by treating your team to a nostalgic dose of summer fun. A catered ice cream bar is a great opportunity for team bonding and a tasty way to cool down. The right catering platform can connect you with reliable ice cream caterers across the country. Whether your Oklahoma-based workplace is searching for the best ice cream catering OKC has to offer, or your Portland team deserves a celebration, a catered sundae bar from Cold Stone Creamery should do the trick. The next time you notice the Dog Star on the horizon, you won’t have to wish for cooler temperatures! With these three ways to help your workplace enjoy the dog days of summer, you and your team can make the most of the heat. About ezCater How easy is it to order team lunch on ezCater? You can order a delicious meal in minutes and have it delivered just in time for lunch. ezCater is the leading catering platform and makes it easy to find reliable caterers near your workplace. You can turn to ezCater to help you cater sales calls, team meetings, and company events. Why is it so easy? ezCater puts dozens of search tools at your fingertips to find the right food for your needs. They’re also connected with over 100,000 caters and restaurants nationwide. You can order highly-rated Cincinnati catering if you’re in the Cincinnati area. In Nashville? Get the catering Nashville can’t stop talking about. Make your next meal happen with ezCater. In the mood for ice cream? Find delivery options near you at https://www.ezcater.com/ Original Source: https://bit.ly/4dFA0TW

[candy-floss-crazy]

Crazy & Co. Food Trucks

Stunning Street Food Truck Hire Where Food And Style Meet Are you ready to embark on a culinary journey like no other? Look no further than our one-of-a-kind catering service. Food truck hire lets you serve from a fabulously quirky unit. Bring an explosion of flavours right to your fingertips. With a passion for crafting mouth-watering delicacies and a commitment to exceptional taste, we invite you to indulge in an unforgettable dining experience. Ranging from our flagship Vintage French van, to a replica of the little yellow 3 wheeler used in Only Fools and Horses.  Add a touch of pizazz to your event, and definitely make it social media worthy. High quality amazing food cooked and served fresh, from fish and chips to an ice cream, mobile catering is perfect from a street food van, event catering for corporate events from the Uk's No.1 team. For promotional or corporate events we can work with you to provide a fully branded service for your requirements. Hire a quirky touch for your event.An eye catching custom built replica vintage Citroen HY van. Cool Gallic style which makes a great centrepiece for your event. From a gin or prosecco bar, to any of our dessert lines or mains catering options, this one adds a touch of French flair to your event. With a large fold up top panel, and two optional end panels, this one makes a great canvas for promotional events and is our most popular food truck.Giddyup Go Built on a vintage horse trailer, but designed to have a totally different look to most of the converted Rice horseboxes on the circuit in the UK. Capable of being used for any of our catering options. Including burger and chips, gin/prosecco and a multitude of desserts. Oh, and the name? Whilst arguing over what to call it we happened to be listening to a Country and Western station and a Red Sovine song came on, called, yup, Giddyup Go!Our Little Vintage Trike Not really  a truck, but for smaller spaces or venues, the trike is a fabulous option. Obviously it isn't big enough to serve burger and chips, but if you want Pimms, ice cream, strawberries and cream or our other dessert options then this ticks all the boxes. The large freezer section and parasol provide plenty of space for branding options if you are running a promotional event. The eutectic plate means that many events can be covered without electricity needing to be supplied.Uncle Albert If you want the maximum attention at your event, then nothing beats 'Uncle Albert'  our Reliant Regal Supervan Mk. III (No Del Boy never drove a Reliant Robin). This allows most of our dessert and beverage services to be provided, and can even be used for smaller events with burgers or dirty fries. The only slight drawback is that it doesn't lend itself to being custom branded, but the menu cards can, and you can always add a pop up banner or three. Go on don't be a plonker, you know it makes sense.Betsy Another of our quirky options designed for beverages, desserts or smaller mains serving. The roof flips up allowing the staff to cook and serve a selection of treats for your event. The body of the camper provides a perfect branding opportunity for sales and promotion. Do you really want a box burger van when you can have something that's actually fun.Le Petit Rouge Originally designed as a quirky little coffee van, now able to be used with most of our dessert offerings, Little Red is like a miniature version of our Citroen HY van. Gallic charm in spades, in a stunning red, this is an eye catching option for smaller events, or sales promotions. Food truck hire in miniature. Check Me Out....John W. Sanders II Big boy's toys. (or gals, hey we are equal opportunities here). This one is designed for big events. A genuine U.S.A. fire truck. Big, beautiful and loud. (Two big air horns and a 127 decibel  Federal Signals Q2B fire siren). When this hits the scene, it will have massive cooking facilities, designed for festivals or huge corporate events. If you need to hire a food truck, then this is the one. Download Our Brochure Our newest offering, another converted horse trailer, this time fitted out with high capacity Spanish churros equipment from J L Blanco, one of the leading manufacturers in Espana. This is perfect for when you need large numbers of guests serving with delicious traditional fried Spanish churros. Check our Churros at speed!Why You Should Hire A Food Truck - Choice. You have the choice of a plethora of menu's. From the classic burger and fries, through fish and chips, to Chinese noodles. They can cater for most requirements, usually including veggie/vegan. - Novelty. They tend to stand out and attract a crowd. Whether it is a wedding breakfast they add the wow factor. Or a corporate promotion where the truck itself draws a crowd in before hitting them with your promotion, they are a huge step up from the usual boring burger van. - Unique. They add a unique experience to your event. From something like a vintage horse box, to a full sized American fire truck, you are bound to attract attention and can be themed to fit in with your event. Make yours the event they all remember. - Theatre. They add a dash of interactivity. Your guests see the food being prepared in front of them, some like churros lend them selves to a touch of the theatrical and adds some fun to the event. - Convenience. They allow you to enjoy the event with everyone else knowing the food has been taken care of. You dont need a kitchen, or serving staff, cooks as they are all provided. Many food trucks will also be self contained as far as power and water go. Street food for hire, available for events throughout the U.K. and Europe. Including Scotland, London, The North East, The Midlands, Yorkshire and Lancashire, and are ideal for corporate events, weddings, parties, military functions, college balls, exhibitions and company fun days. Read the full article

[atlanticcanada]

Scientists pinpoint when Greenland was last green, adding 5 feet to sea levels from melting ice

A new study has uncovered evidence that most of Greenland melted only about 400,000 years ago, suggesting the country may be more sensitive to climate change than previously thought.

The study, published in the journal Science on July 20 by researchers from around the world, used decades-old sediment that had been gathered from thousands of feet below the ice as part of a secret U.S. military mission during the Cold War.

Climate Barometer newsletter: Sign up to keep your finger on the climate pulse

Download our app to get breaking news alerts delivered right to you

While previous work has estimated that the ice on Greenland melted at least once in the last 1.1 million years, the researchers behind this latest study say much of the territory was in fact green 416,000 years ago, plus or minus 38,000 years.

"It's really the first bulletproof evidence that much of the Greenland ice sheet vanished when it got warm," scientist Paul Bierman, who co-led the study, said in a story from the University of Vermont where he is a professor.

"We had always assumed that the Greenland ice sheet formed about two and a half million years ago—and has just been there this whole time and that it's very stable," Utah State University scientist Tammy Rittenour, who served as a co-author of the study, said.

"Maybe the edges melted, or with more snowfall it got a bit fatter — but it doesn't go away and it doesn't dramatically melt back. But this paper shows that it did."

CAMP CENTURY

The sediment was taken in northwestern Greenland at Camp Century, a military base from the 1960s that the U.S. army claimed was an Arctic science station.

The camp, in fact, was used for an operation called Project Iceworm, which aimed to hide hundreds of nuclear missiles under Greenland's ice in close proximity to the Soviet Union.

Although the nuclear missile mission was a "bust," the researchers say the scientists there at the time drilled down almost a mile deep, collecting 12 feet of soil and rock from below the ice.

This sediment moved from a military freezer to the University at Buffalo in New York state in the 1970s, before moving to a freezer in Denmark in the 1990s.

STUDYING THE SEDIMENT

The ice core, which was rediscovered in 2017, was found to contain vegetation such as leaves and moss.

The scientists believe flowing water deposited the sediment during a period of moderate warming called Marine Isotope Stage 11, between 424,000 and 374,000 years ago.

During that time, sea levels rose at least five feet around the globe, the researchers say.

The scientists analyzed the core for a "luminescence signal," a process where the sediment is exposed to blue-green or infrared light, which releases trapped subatomic particles known as electrons.

By measuring the number of electrons that are released, the scientists could determine when the sediment was last exposed to the sun.

The researchers also studied quartz from the sediment. They say this quartz includes rare forms, or isotopes, of the elements beryllium and aluminium that build up when the ground is exposed to the sun.

Through this, the researchers say the sediment was exposed less than 14,000 years before it was buried under ice.

They add that understanding Greenland's history can help predict how quickly the ice sheet will melt in response to a changing climate.

With a melting Greenland expected to contribute about 23 feet to rising sea levels, the researchers say this will pose risks to major coastal cities around the world.

"Greenland's past, preserved in 12 feet of frozen soil, suggests a warm, wet and largely ice-free future for planet Earth, unless we can dramatically lower the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," Bierman said.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/6SlZkCi

[rabbitcruiser]

National Clean Out Your Fridge Day

Excuse the pun, but the timing has never been riper to celebrate National Clean Out Your Fridge Day on November 15! This is the perfect opportunity to tackle that science experiment that’s been growing way in the back, there. Of course, ideally, we’d all clean out our fridges far more often than once a year, but let’s be real: Making it an annual occasion provides everyone with the reassurance that at least the horrendous situation with your roommate’s long-forgotten “homemade kombucha” will be rectified eventually, and marking it as a day on the national calendar gives you plenty of scope for getting passive aggressive in the preceding weeks.

History of National Clean Out Your Fridge Day

New technology means new problems. Ever since the first household refrigerator hit the market, consumers then became burdened with a new thing to deal with – cleaning it.

From 1911 to 1922, the technological advances of home refrigerators and refrigeration technologies increased at the rate of speed rivaled only by smartphones. It wasn’t until 1927 when GE produced the “Monitor Top,” a reference to the ironclad Civil War-era ship, the USS Monitor. This model alone sold over one million units.

It wasn’t until post-war America that separate freeze box units were created and used in addition to the typical refrigerator. And then, in the 1970s and 80s, further developments helped created a the combo model we usually see today.

Regardless of what kind of refrigerator they had over the years, everyone had the task of needing to clean it out. Whether its the moldy oranges, the brown bananas, or that milk you forgot about, cleaning a refrigerator is something that American’s over the past century can relate to.

There’s no clear information about how the Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day came about. The general consensus is that this day was started by the Whirlpool Corporation, and later became popular throughout the country.

It is believed that the company intended for the day to be celebrated on the third Wednesday of every month, but the day took a life of its own. Later Whirlpool celebrated a Clean Out Your Refrigerator Week, but the date had gotten stuck.

Cleaning out the refrigerator is a big task, and it’s only natural that people would push the chore aside. Having one day to do a big clean of the refrigerator is useful because it makes everyday cleaning easier.

Refrigerators are essential in the modern American household but are frequently ignored. They store all our food, and that’s why it is essential that they are cleaned regularly. If food is left to go bad in a refrigerator, the germs can spread and affect all the food stored in them.

A refrigerator that is too full also won’t work as efficiently and will use more electricity. Regularly throwing out food that has started to go bad or you’re not planning to eat goes a long way. Spills need to be cleaned up as they happen, and it’s a great time to check what you’ve stored away in the freezer section.

A cleaning session is a great opportunity to check how well your refrigerator is functioning and if it needs any servicing. With Clean Your Refrigerator Day right before the holidays, it’s the perfect opportunity to make sure that everything is ready before Thanksgiving!

National Clean Out Your Fridge Day timeline

1755 Artificial Refrigeration Begins

Scottish professor William Cullen used a pump to create a partial vacuum in the world’s first refrigeration machine

1854 First Ice-Making Machine

And it only took about a hundred more years for the phrase “on the rocks” to be ascribed to Scotch by bar staff

1911 First Household Refrigerator

Produced by General Electric, the design was based on one by a French Cistercian monk and physics teacher, Marcel Audiffren, and primarily designed to help GE sell electricity

1923 First Frigidaire

Founded by the folks who brought you General Motors, the brand became so popular that many Americans called any refrigerator by the name of the company

1940 First Freezer

The arrival of freezers large enough to make more than ice cubes revolutionized the frozen food industry

1995 The Idea is Born

The idea begins, possibly originating from the Whirlpool Corporation.

2000 The Day Starts to Appear Online

November 15 is to be labeled as Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day, on e-cards and blogs.

2004 Whirlpool Partners with Glad Products

This union is to set up 4 to 10 April as Clean Your Refrigerator Week, but it doesn’t catch on.

2005 Chef Emeril Writes About the Day

This is the first time that Clean Your Refrigerator Day is acknowledged by the food industry.

National Clean Out Your Fridge Day FAQs

How often should you clean your refrigerator out?

A refrigerator needs a deep clean every three to four months. But if you can’t you should definitely try to clean it out once a year on Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. Should I turn off the refrigerator when cleaning?

You should definitely unplug your refrigerator before cleaning it out for your own safety. What’s the best way to clean out your refrigerator?

Clear out everything in your fridge, and wipe down everything, including the doors and drawers with hot soapy water.

National Clean Out Your Fridge Day Activities

Give far too much heavy-handed and serious notice

Help a friend or family member

Actually clean out the fridge

Nobody likes to check for their precious turkey and Swiss cheese sandwich at lunch time and find it’s been chucked out with the furry pasta that was last touched last month. The trick to this part of celebrating National Clean Out Your Fridge Day is to give a series of increasingly escalating pieces of overwrought and deadly serious-sounding notice. You might print out a picture of a nuclear mushroom cloud and fix it to the fridge, writing, “days to National Clean Out Your Fridge Day,” and count it down on a daily basis. Send an office-wide email, cc’ing your boss. Or if it’s your roomies, send a series of group texts over the days before you do it.

Cleaning out a refrigerator can be hard work, so go on and lend a helping hand.

The chances are, if you’ve made a big enough deal out of it, that you might even have roped in some help for cleaning out the fridge by the time the big day rolls around. Apparently cleaning your fridge requires things like “warm, soapy water” and “a sponge,” and unplugging it if you’re planning to have the door open for a while, so you don’t waste energy. But hopefully one of your friends or coworkers will be better with the details, after all, you’ve spent so much energy on the promotion. It’s only right to share the work.

5 Cool Facts About Refrigerators That You Probably Didn’t Know

Refrigerators use less energy when they’re used

The U.S. uses a lot of refrigerators

Colorful refrigerators are fairly new

They took a while to become popular

It’s a major power sucker

It is believed that not filling and overfilling refrigerators make them use up more electricity.

Over 8 million refrigerators are sold in the country every year.

Until the 1950s, the majority of refrigerators were white.

Only 8% of households had refrigerators in the 1930s when they were first introduced.

About 10% of the total power usage in a household is because of the refrigerator.

Why We Love National Clean Out Your Fridge Day

More of us than ever are sharing living spaces

Food safety is important

You didn’t run out of that after all

The number of adults sharing a household with a roommate has surged as rents have risen more quickly than incomes across America over recent years—25% of adults now share with a roommate. The fridge is a major source of roommate tension, and cleaning it out is great for your roommate relationships. It also is good for your health—by diffusing tension, it lowers stress.

A clean refrigerator is the best way to make sure no food ends up contaminated by the other.

When your fridge is cluttered, it's easy to forget you have a long-lasting sauce tucked away in the back there behind the stuff nobody wants to touch. So before you buy that second bottle of sriracha, check your own fridge! You'll save money, time, and get what basically amounts to free condiments. What's not to love about free condiments?

Source

[ogygiacalypso]

im casually watching yuzu programs and edits when i slowly realized

that tomorrow

will be the very first time

i will skate on ice.

:o

im actually excited

[banananutsmuthie]

32 Flavors

Idol(s): Minju [IZ*ONE]

Word Count: 2.3k+ words

A/N: Just a little quickie for Minju's birthday. Just a bunch of ice cream euphemisms. A little background for those who don't have a Baskin-Robbins in their country: it's an ice cream chain known for its "31 flavors" slogan, with the idea that a customer could have a different flavor every day of the month.

*bing bong*

The sweet smell of 31 flavors packed an overwhelming punch even before opening the door. Mint chocolate chip, pink bubblegum, and cookies ‘n cream all permeated through the store in a combination of strong sugary goodness. Yet, it all paled in comparison to the sweetness of the girl behind the counter.

Her eyes looked up from her phone to greet you with a warm smile. She was as beautiful as the day you first met her.

“Welcome to Baskin-Rob—oh, hey babe! What are you doing here?”

“Well, I figured I’d pick up my little Minju angel after she finishes her shift. Plus, it’d give me a chance to see you at work.”

There wasn’t anyone else in the shop. Based on her bored-to-death slouch when you first walked in, it seemed like there may not have been anyone in here for a while. Understandable, especially in the middle of winter and so close to closing.

She reached over to give a kiss across the counter. Minju’s chilled lips left a subtle aftertaste of chocolate, no doubt a sign of Minju stealing free samples of her favorite ice cream flavor on the company’s dime.

“I’m still on the clock for the next 20 minutes. Do you want to sample some of our new flavors?”

“Sure, why not?”

Ever the professional, Minju returned to her salesperson voice, trying hard to sell you on the ice cream she was desperate to sell. She grabbed one of the tiny pink spoons from the container on top of the counter and slid the freezer door open, digging into a barrel filled with yellow ice cream sprinkled with walnuts.

“This one just came in yesterday, it’s banana nut bread. If you like it, we can also mix in some milk and blend it into a banana nut smoothie.”

The walnut crunched between your teeth, pulverizing into a fine dust that paired well with the explosion of banana in your mouth.

“Banana nut smoothie? Sounds interesting, maybe next time. What else do you have, Minmin?”

“Try this one. It’s my favorite. It’s like sex in my mouth. If it were a person, I’d let it do me,” she said, handing you another pink spoon overloaded with sugar.

Pieces of moist chocolate cake squished between whipped cream and subtly sour cherries. It wasn’t hard to see why Minju loved it.

“Why does the nameplate for this flavor just say, ‘Fill in for later’?” you asked.

“Because customers don’t know how to properly pronounce ‘Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte’, so we’re still waiting on Corporate to instruct us on a name. Do you like it?”

“I do, but what else do you have? Got anything that will take me out of this world?”

Her eyes darted past the glass door entrance. There was nothing but an empty parking lot smothered in snow. Minju’s gaze slowly found its way back to yours with devious eyebrows clearly filled with wild machinations.

“Well, I don’t think any of our current 31 flavors will satisfy you, but I do have a special flavor just for you. You’ll need to come behind the counter if you want a sample.”

With haste, you hopped over the counter with curiosity. What could be so special that Minju couldn’t hand over in another tiny pink spoon across the counter? Questions were answered when she turned around toward you, back facing the store entrance and butt leaning against the cold metal ledge of the freezer.

“We’re running a special, only valid today,” Minju said.

“Well, I’d love to hear the special.”

Minju pulled off her blue apron. Then her pink Baskin-Robbins polo. All that remained was her black lace bra, but even that fell to the ground.

“Well, the Flavor of the Day is called ‘Minju’,” she said as she lightly fondled her breasts. “It’s two scoops of vanilla topped with pink gumdrops.”

Minju grabbed at your hands, redirecting them onto her perfectly delectable mounds. It was just the right amount of firm. Fingers came together and pinched at her yummy pink gumdrops, standing tall atop each scoop. Minju cooed in delight.

“Go on, have a sample,” Minju suggested.

Minju’s samples up until now were just too small, not enough to fully appreciate the flavors blasting about in your mouth. But this—two gratuitous scoops of Minju’s supple breasts—was more to your liking. You dived in, lips slightly open and tongue grazing her chest.

There was only one correct way to eat ice cream. Too much at once and you’d get a brain freeze. Linger too long and it’d melt past the point of satisfaction. You started to lick at her pink gumdrop with just the right amount of pressure, taking her all in and eliciting a strong response from Minju. Her back straightened against the freezer’s glass door as she let out a drawn out moan.

“That’s it, take all of it. It’s all yours,” she said as you continued to lick at her perky nipples, massaging the velvety goodness with your tongue and slowly making your way outward. With still another scoop barely touched, you slid your tongue across the schism between her mounds, mirroring the same motions on the other side of the vanilla-flavored valley.

You could’ve spent all day melting into Minju’s chest like ice cream on a summer day. But even a sugar rush can be too much sometimes. She nudged you off her chest satisfied, both of you admiring her breasts that were now glistening in a light layer of saliva.

“In addition to the two scoops of ‘Minju’, you also get this,” she said.

Minju slowly unbuttoned the khaki shorts that hugged at her delicious thighs. It slid down with ease, revealing Minju’s inviting pussy that hadn’t been properly pleasured since she started her shift. Minju hopped onto the metal ledge of the freezer and split her long legs open, grasping onto the counter to keep her balance.

“It’s a banana split: I split my legs wide open and you put your banana in me. You can even sprinkle some nuts in me, too,” she said without an ounce of sarcasm in her tone. It was almost hard not to laugh at how serious she was with her puns.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Do I need to spell it out for you? Come over here and fuck me,” Minju demanded.

Your pants and shirt joined Minju’s shorts on the ground. You moved forward with your already-erect cock in hand, aligning your banana with her split. Minju was so tight when you pushed into her, and yet she was so easy to slide into, a product of Minju’s familiarity of being filled up by your cock on a nightly basis.

“Split me open, babe. Fuck me so hard that I can’t walk properly and I’ll have to call in sick for the rest of the week,” Minju begged. There wasn’t a need to start slow. Not when Minju wanted it rough. You grabbed onto her wide hips and began to fuck her like she asked.

Cherries Jubilee. Her pussy was Cherries Jubilee, or at least it used to be, anyway. You had taken Minju’s cherry a long time ago, but the jubilee of doing it over and over again like the first time still remained. She moved on to more complex, adventurous flavors the longer the relationship went on. With Minju buck naked in a Baskin-Robbins, it was clear she was more of a Rocky Road kind of girl now: she loved it rough and scratchy with a heaping helping of nuts and gooey white.

“God, you feel so good, babe.”

Minju’s bottom lip quivered from the combination of the rough sex and the cold freezer pressing against her back. With every thrust into Minju’s tight pussy, the heavy appliance she anchored herself to screeched against the tile underneath. The force of each shove slowly pushed her further into the dining area.

She managed to get out another word even through the rough, rhythmic ramming. “You know there’s ice cream in a banana split right?”

Right, the ice cream. It was a not-so-subtle hint that Minju still wanted to be pleasured on her chest. You reached out and grabbed onto them, pinching at her still-perfect gumdrops.

“Yes, take it. Everything, it’s all yours: ice cream, bana—fuck!”

Minju couldn’t even complete her sentence before cumming. Her pussy tightened around you even more, pulsating against your shaft as her warm juices gushed out. Minju spasmed uncontrollably, leaning against the glass display and letting her orgasm take her through shut eyelids. You continued fucking her through her orgasm, looking to sprinkle some of your own whipped cream on top of the Minju sundae. She finally opened her eyes when she came down from the cotton candy bliss.

“Are you close yet, babe? I have to close up shop soon,” she said.

If there was one thing aside from ice cream that Baskin-Robbins was known for, it was their ice cream cake. Minju must’ve been tired holding herself up against the freezer, and so when you saw Baskin-Robbins’ ice cream cakes displayed in the upright freezer across the store at that moment, an idea popped up into your head that would’ve solved both your needs.

“I want some Minju cake.”

“Whatever you want, babe. Fuck me however you want, and don’t even worry about the mess, I’ll clean it up.”

You helped her off the metal ledge and turned her around. Her tight ass cheeks beckoned. After enjoying her ice cream and banana split, ending the sugar high by glazing that cake with icing was icing on the cake, a poetic tautology.

You grabbed at her hips to pull her close then pushed on her lower back until the side of her face pressed against the glass freezer. Without giving her a warning to prepare, you slid all the way inside her. A surprised Minju winced at first but let out a moan louder than anything else that would’ve been heard inside the ice cream parlor; if there was a fire, Minju’s screams would’ve doused the sounds of the alarm.

“God, babe, just fuck me! Do it and fill me up!”

Your hips went into auto-pilot, thrusting back and forth against Minju’s ass while your hands slowly crept up onto her mounds of ice cream that were still slightly wet from earlier. Even her perfect pink gumdrop nipples were still erect and ready for the taking.

No man should have to choose between cake and ice cream, and so it was nice to be able to take in Minju’s tempting scoops and her delectable cake at the same time. Whoever said, “You can’t have your (ice cream) cake and eat it too” was definitely wrong.

“I bet you wanna just fill my cake with icing, don’t you babe? Come on, I know you’re close. Fill me up with that pralines ‘n cream.”

Minju swayed back and forth trying to coax you along, slamming into your cock with each thrusting motion. Her hands grabbed onto the top of the counter, readying herself for the inevitable icing. Her body radiated heat in the moment, fogging up the glass pinned below her. Even on a freezing winter day in an ice cream shop, Minju was a sweaty mess.

“God, Minmin, here it comes!”

“That’s it, babe, I want all of it in me!”

One final thrust and Minju’s dream of pralines ‘n cream started to come to fruition as you nutted in her, filling her with the warm, gooey icing that completed her cake. You pulled out slowly, watching as your cum oozed out of her. It dripped down her inner thigh, running parallel with the stream of her own fluids from the banana split earlier.

Minju hopped onto the metal ledge once more. Her fingers swirled around in the pool of icing that was starting to form underneath her. It dripped off past the ledge, dropping down to the floor in one long continuous string.

“So what did you think, babe? Did you like our Flavor of the Day? Did it take you out of this world?”

“I could have that every day of the month.”

“Well, I guess you should start picking me up more often, then we can—”

Ahem.

Both of you turned toward the dining area. In front of the counter, a man stood weary from the cold and ready to order. As he took off his puffer jacket, he revealed the black polo shirt underneath, embroidered with the words “Idol Club” on the left side. On the opposite side of his chest, his nametag read “Joon”, and in a smaller font underneath: “Professional Sanitation Engineer”. What a lousy way to make his job sound more dignified than it actually was. Imagine being the poor fool who had to clean up the rooms after rich clients had their way with their idol playthings. What a fucking loser.

Minju hopped off the freezer. She clutched onto her apron and hastily pressed it against her naked frame, just enough to cover her lapped-up breasts. Her warm juices soaked through the polyester and created a dark blue stain on her uniform.

“What do you want, fucker?” Minju asked. She was understandably in a terrible mood, what with a customer coming into the shop one minute before closing in the middle of winter. No one in their right mind would crave ice cream in this temperature. Except for this fuckface. It didn’t help that Minju broke enough health codes and sanitation regulations to shut the store down, either.

Joon was willing to look past all that. He looked over at you, still naked with the exception of a waffle bowl that was now covering your lewdness. It was the only thing you could think of grabbing in the sudden interruption. Then, he pointed at you with a smile.

“I’ll have what he’s having,” he said.

You tossed the waffle bowl that had been blessed with your cock at his smug face.

“Get lost, creep!”

A/N: Ending inspired by my answer to this ask

[bomberqueen17]

long drive

for the record it takes almost exactly the same amount of time to go up thru western PA and come up 219 to come back from Baltimore as it took to go down via 90->390-> wherever that gets you. So. Avoiding the Thruway is possible!

Ironically enough we were only inspired to try this to avoid the snow. i know! Drive up thru ski country and the Snow Belt? But from the weather maps, the lake effect seemed to be mostly in a long corridor right along the Thruway, so like. It’s easy enough to avoid lake effect if you just don’t go where the wind is. Normally the wind angles down southward, that’s why that’s the snow belt, but when it doesn’t, it’s perfectly save to drive there.

Unless the wind shifts. Which it didn’t. So we left Maryland in 55F fog, and arrived in Buffalo at 20F ice, and I still haven’t chipped my car out. Dude said he wasn’t going in today so I just took his. Mine is like. Encased in ice.

It’s convenient that it’s cold though, BIL gave me a pile of nicely-packaged venison since he has too much in his freezer now, but Farmsister had just given me a bunch of beef from their last cow processing, and I do not have a chest freezer, and my regular lil freezer is kind of full of.... I’m not sure what. So I need to do a cleanout and rearrange, and meanwhile it’s 15F and I have a cooler sitting outside with venison frozen solid in it. Very nice.

(I’d been saying on Discord I couldn’t live anywhere that never let me use the outdoors for cold storage at least occasionally. That, and killing off all the bugs. When I mentioned this to my sister she had a third thing that winter gets you but I forget now. Anyway as we drive into our next whiteout I’ll chant my lil mantra of porch fridge, kills bugs to remind myself why anyone would want to live somewhere like this.

This incidentally marks the first time this winter I’ve located my winter coat. I did wear it today. I do own a down parka. I should’ve dug it out a week ago for that COVID test where I waited two hours in the parking lot, but I didn’t know I was gonna wait two hours.

By the way. It is now seven days and I never received the results of that test. Thank heavens I did not need them! The rapid test served my purpose.

God, we’re all fucked, we’re all so fucked.

Anyway I’m back at work and I’m just exhausted about it. I might take a couple of days off sometime this month. I’ve taken tons of days off work but like. None for me, and anyway there’s not that much work for me to do here, I’ll be caught up with the post-Christmas WTFery in no time.

I need a day to sit at home. I need like, three days; two to sit around and feel guilty, and one to actually do some shit. I did manage to get a lot done last night-- I got out of the car and immediately made dinner, since it was 3pm and we hadn’t eaten since 7am, and then I did all the dishes from dinner, and then I put together a loaf of bread to rise for today’s dinner, and started rearranging the freezer, and then Dude went grocery shopping, and I pre-packed today’s lunch and got the meat out of the freezer (well out of the cooler in the driveway) for this week’s meals (BIL for some reason packages everything in 2-lb increments which is an insane amount of meat for two people but I have a plan, at least for this package), and anyway we’re having hangover soup and venison hot dish this week because it’s fucking cold and I need to expand my horizons, culinarily.

[vernalseason]

Minority opinion: I loved working in food service.*

Sure, there were all the usual terrible parts that time has helped me forget. Terrible hours, terrible bosses, terrible pay, etc., etc.—but for all of the doubles and close-opens and enduring wrist injuries and Pavlovian startle responses whenever I heard a door open, I really enjoyed what I did.

As I've said elsewhere, I managed an ice cream shop for about five years. It wasn't fine dining, but it was still definitively food service. As I've also said elsewhere, it was a complete madhouse during the summer tourist season, because we were the only good ice cream shop in a small town that had five (at least) summer camps, tons of restaurants, and a bunch of huge events after which everyone would inevitably say, 'let's go for ice cream!' and head to our packed shop to join the line that was already out the door.

Here's the thing about me and customer service. I am not, by nature, an extrovert. I can do a decent job pretending if circumstances require, or if I am in a good mood. Recently I have even made an effort to be more consistently outgoing, to speak up, and even to continue conversations where before I would have coughed awkwardly and tried to get back to work. Five years previously, I was not doing any of these things. If I was not at work, I was at home, alone, enjoying the blissful silence of an apartment in an area my partners have since dubbed 'axe murderer country'.**

But here's the thing about food service: there's a pattern to it. And I'm great at patterns.

Even at the very start, when I had zero previous service experience, the job was DEEPLY calming. That's not to say it was EASY, but once I learned the basics it was a short leap to build a kind of mental flowchart: if this, then that. Customer wants to know about a flavor? Here's a perfect little paragraph I memorized, which I'd recite in the exact same intonation every time, like a song. Customer wants a scoop? Same motion, same size, same little dance of steps to get to the freezer. We're out of spoons? I know exactly where they are, and I'll bring up a couple more packs so we've got some backstocked. It was beautifully predictable, and even on the craziest nights it was mostly a matter of prioritizing all the tasks I already knew how to do.

And sure, there was some stuff I enjoyed less than the rest. Milkshakes were always annoyingly labor-intensive (try scooping four scoops of ice cream from a box that's just been brought up from a -20°F walk-in and see what I mean), and cleaning always, always sucked. But I loved the routine of opening the store, getting things ready for the day, getting a brief period of alone time before the first customers—usually looking for lattes—trickled in.

But up until working in the shop, I'd felt like I was drifting from one position to another, not really connecting with anything, never motivated or interested enough to do an especially good job. But this was work that made me feel stable, and comfortable, and grounded. Sure, every so often someone would try to engage me in small talk, and I could listen and nod politely and then excuse myself to take the next customer. But it was also a job that felt like it had a more urgent purpose: making people happy.

I loved working specifically in an ice cream store. Cafes have to deal with people cranky for their caffeine; restaurants have to deal with picky and demanding customers on top of the many complications inherent in both waitstaff and cooking positions. But with ice cream, you're getting people who start off in a good mood and only get better. Teenagers on first dates, families bringing their young kids for their first ice cream or for a treat or celebration, or, more commonly, people who just decided 'screw it, let's get ice cream.' Because everyone loves ice cream.

I took customer happiness seriously when I was just a low-level scooper, and I continued to take it seriously as a manager. In retrospect, I think I was a bit of a zealot. My then-colleagues, now-partners were not shy in telling me so. But I believed very earnestly and sincerely that the point of my being there was to make people happy, and fulfilling that purpose made me happy in turn. If I could move a little faster, smile a little more honestly, give people just a few more interesting tidbits about the ice cream (did you know how dramatically the flavor of vanilla differs between regions? here, taste these three different varieties—) then that was a win. It quieted something in me, and for as long as I was working there, working a straightforward floor shift was kind of like meditation. Zone out, follow the flowchart, and wake up when the shift was over. Relaxing.

Anyway. Food service can and does suck a lot of the time, and I'm glad I'm not doing it any more. But there are some things I glad I got to experience, and some I still miss.

*I never encountered any axe murderers, but with a nearby lime quarry and only an iron bolt from the 1700s to lock my doors with, it would have been pretty easy for one to get in, and pretty likely that the neighbors—who were a healthy distance away—would not have heard anything.

**I never encountered any axe murderers, but with a nearby lime quarry and only an iron bolt from the 1700s to lock my doors with, it would have been pretty easy for one to get in, and pretty likely that the neighbors—who were a healthy distance away—would not have heard anything.

[moonttaeil]

Hii, if requests are still open can I request for Jeno + Positions by Ariana Grande + Fluff and a little angst and maybe a little suggestive or smutty? If you're not comfortable then just fluff and angst, hope it's not too much!

[00:10] “Well, that went better thane expected” Jeno’s humorous tone of voice said behind you, as you both entered the house you’ve been sharing for over a year now. It did not. It did not go better than expected. A disaster, chaos and very, very hurtful words were shared on that dinner. But you kept silent, not saying a single word to him, letting him live in his little bubble of happiness. “You know, I think my mother accepts you” he kept commenting, following you around the house. You had taken off your heels, leaving them laying down on the entrance, now making your way to the kitchen. “Oh, do you think so? I thought her feelings towards me were a mixture between disgust and hate” you finally spat out, sarcasm dripping from your mouth. 

He stopped on the other side of the kitchen isle, looking confused as you took out your ice cream, now sitting in front of him with a passive face on. “What?” You asked, realizing how his brows were still furrowed, now understanding what was going on. “What are you even saying? She loves you” he fought back, “loves me? Yeah, she’d love me out of your life, that’s for sure” you responded back, letting another spoon of ice cream go into your mouth. He sighed and closed his eyes, “this is none sense, and you know what? I won’t— I won’t stay here to discuss this with you” he tried to reorganize his thoughts. “Yeah, better go and talk it out to her” you muttered, retrieving your eyes from him. 

“Y/N” he warned, now turning around to look at you again, “you’re crossing the line” he pointed at you. “What line? I thought this was a free country” you said standing up, now leaving the ice cream inside the freezer, walking past him. “Hey! We’re talking here” his voice came out louder than expected, following you. “I thought you didn’t want to discuss this with me?” You forced a smile back, entering your room. “Yeah, well now I want to discuss it” he responded back. You shook your head and entered the bathroom that was connected to the bedroom, now taking off your jewels. “What is it? Why do you hate her so much?” He asked, leaning on the threshold, looking at your every movement. “Who said I hate her? It’s not my fault she’s a witch with very very bad intentions towards me” you hissed under your breath, letting the earrings fall down on the counter. 

“A witch? Better watch your mouth” he warned again. “A lovely witch, how ‘bout that?” You narrowed your eyes at him. “I think she hasn’t said anything bad all this time—“, but you interrupted him, “excuse me? I can quote some for you if you want” you leaned your hand on the counter. “Maybe that one time she accused me for not being a good match for you because I drank alcohol, which obviously makes an alcoholic!” You widened your eyes, “or maybe that other time she told me I wouldn’t be able to marry you ever because I didn’t spend enough time on the kitchen!” frustration took everything from you, and he decided to look at the other way. “What? Isn’t that none sense to you?” You asked when he kept silent. 

“Look Y/N, she— she just wants the best for me” he said when you turned your back towards him, now taking off your clothes. “Yeah, and Im not the best for you, obviously” you let the words slip past your lips before you could even think about what you were saying. “Don’t say that” he said back, now taking a step closer to you. His hands fell down on your hips, and he looked at your reflection on the mirror. Your pout was visible, and the once angry expression had now disappeared. “You are the best I could ask for” he kissed down your naked shoulder, up to your neck. “I don’t need you to change your ways for her, I don’t need you to change positions” he murmured on your skin, now nearing your ear. 

“One day I’ll marry you, and she’ll jut have to live with it” he finally added giggling, making a smile finally appear on your face as well. “And then she’ll hate me until our marriage ends” you said, turning around, pressed against his body and the cold counter. “Then she’ll have to hate you for a very long time— endless” his lips finally pressed against your, slowly taking you by your legs and sitting you down on the counter, positioning himself between your legs and finally making you feel like the only one. 

[hankwritten]

Disapprobation

Demoman/Soldier, 3k Warnings: Mild Sexual Content, Internalized Homophobia

n. Moral disapproval; condemnation. Tavish’s life has a lot of shouldn’ts

Tavish’s life has a lot of shouldn’ts

For instance, he really shouldn’t be risking life and limb to meet up and have drinks with some barmy American he met at a projectile weapons convention. He shouldn’t be breaching contract over a bloke who’s got so many screws loose he could open up a hardware store, shouldn’t be sneaking around when the best case scenario is a few good laughs and the worst case scenario is losing a multi-million dollar salary.

He shouldn’t keep his lunch in the same place he keeps his potassium chloride. He shouldn’t drink so much, but he’s heard that one so many times anyway it’s hard to pay attention to. The voice of self-preservation is constant and buzzing, putting a churning in his gut, reminding him that he could be making friends with folks who aren’t a walking death sentence. He shouldn’t be going out for ribs. He shouldn’t be accepting invites to Las Vegas for the furlough.

He definitely shouldn’t be pressed into the mattress, another man’s tongue in his mouth.

The hotel bed creaks as Jane kisses him harder, and he thinks, oh god he wishes he could just not think. Their bodies are hot pressed against each other, their fancy jackets gone for the evening as they’re down to their undershirts as insubstantial barriers between skin on skin. Jane is heavy on top of him, and he shouldn’t like how that feels, to be held down while he and his best friend suck the air out of each other’s lungs. Jane has each of his wrists pinned to the sheets, and he shouldn’t like that either, how Jane’s taken control, how Tavish is slowly letting himself come undone.

There’s this plop at the loss of suction as Jane lifts his lips off Tavish’s and onto the Demoman’s neck, whisper-hissing, begging, praying, “Tav, Tavish. Oh god Tav.”

It’s slippery where time is now and where it was minutes ago before he was like this, before he was craving Jane's everything. It happened because they were laughing or maybe fighting or maybe…no they just tripped. They tripped and Jane landed on Tavish, and it wasn’t different at first. It just knocked the wind out of him. It wasn’t until Jane was chuckling and trying to push himself up that they had stopped, that they’d locked eyes and Jane’s smile had slowly fallen away, a mask lifted to something underneath. It was hunger, small and fiery at first when Jane’s eyes openly raked Tavish’s body, not disguising the fact as they took in his state of undress since—unlike Jane—Tavish had been successful at getting out of his dress pants. The hunger had grown hotter, burned brighter, a bonfire as someone kept shoveling more on, and Tavish drank in being looked at like a dying man in the desert. He’d never been desired like that, not in his entire life, and when Jane finished his tour of Tavish’s body he couldn’t suppress the hitch in his breath when their eyes finally met again.

He’d swallowed when Jane leaned closer. He’d closed his eye as Jane had pressed that first, tentative kiss against him.

Now his back arches, shoving his stomach up into the human canopy above him. His nipples are hard and he didn’t know they were so damn sensitive until they scrape against the solid plane of Jane’s chest and he whimpers. He shouldn’t be doing that either. He’s a damn mercenary, a Demoman, and he shouldn’t...

“God Tavish,” Jane’s muttering in his mouth in-between rough kisses. “I fucking. I love you. Want you so damn bad.”

And Jane must be a fucking mind reader because those words are a switch in Tavish’s brain. He can’t censor the moan that comes out of him, no matter how weak, how pathetic he sounds as his hips jerk upwards. Jane is moving his arms, and it takes him a second to notice that Jane is taking time to pin down both his hands with one of his own, and his free one now slides down until it can toy with the edge of Tavish’s undershirt.

“Jane…”

It’s the only thing he’s said in ages. He shouldn’t be saying anything at all, let alone confessing what’s coursing through his system, revealing how I want you isn’t quite right but I want you to want me is just so damn conceited. So the only thing he can do is breathe Jane’s name in a plea.

The roaming hand snakes up under his tank, the pretense of attire gone as the too-cold fingers press against unbearably hot flesh. Jane further displays his mind reading powers tweaking Tavish’s nipple with his thumb, clawing out another gurgle from the Demoman.

It’s so dangerously similar now, edging so close to fear, the shouldn’ts piling in his head as his breath increases. He tries to lift his arms and can’t. He tries clear his mind and can’t. He tries to make his voice behave where his body will not, as Jane’s knee begins to move up-

“Jane,” he yelps, only this time he says it in panic as his eye snaps open and he jerks upward. “Shit Jane- shit we need to stop. We’ll- shit.”

Jane freezes. The constriction around Tavish’s wrists lessons, and then disappears entirely and Jane rears back onto his haunches. Tavish wriggles until he’s against the headboard, panting heavily.

“Holy shit,” he coughs.

“You alright Tav?” Jane is looking sideways at him, but not in the way Tavish is expecting. The expression on his face is inscrutable.

“No. No! Of course not, we almost just-” The ghost of Jane’s body is on him, the memory of seconds ago where his hand was so close to Tavish’s waistband. He tries to shake it away. “If I hadn’t said something just now, we would have both crossed some damn lines.”

“Uh. Yeah. Probably.”

Tavish looks up and is bludgeoned upside the head with understanding. He realizes why Jane’s expression is so damn weird: he’s not ashamed. He’s not ashamed in the slightest.

“Jane,” Tavish says cautiously. “You know why we can’t do this, right?”

This when they’re still half-undressed on the bed together, breathless and sweating and the only thing keeping them back is Tavish’s self control. No one else’s. He’s alone at the wheel and Jane’s only refraining out of personal respect, not any sense of how screwed they are.

Jane squints at him. Thinking hard, peering deep into the soul he sometimes claims a RED can’t have, (and at the next drunken moment declaring that if it existed, it would be the purest, bravest soul in the damn world.) “Because you are…no longer in the mood?”

“Because we’re in enough trouble as it is!” Tavish throws up his hands. “Do you know how bloody condemned we are? Already RED and BLU can catch wind of us at any moment, I can’t go into half the places you can in this blasted country, and we want to add shagging each other in our Vegas hotel room to that bloody list?”

Jane’s forehead wrinkles, his features that Tavish has only ever seen go soft in the past few minutes now toughening up again. “Were you not…wanting that?”

“Fuck, Jane of course I wanted it,” the admission falls out too quickly. Too late to grab back and saying it aloud is its own line crossed. Having already failed to keep it packed down, he tries to at least get to his point. “I just shouldn’t.”

Jane stares at him blankly.

“Right. Of course.” Tavish presses the heel of his palm against his forehead. “Look at who I’m talking to here. Man who’s never suppressed an impulsive urge in his life.”

“It is not an impulse Tav.” Jane almost sounds…offended. Or something like it, as though he's irritated he has to make such an obvious correction. “It’s not an impulse if I’ve thought about doing it nearly every day since I’ve met you.”

That desire, that hunger Tavish had seen. He knows Jane has looked at him before, can now recognize it for what it was, those eyes flickering at him sometimes with the smolder beneath. It feels unwarranted. He feels undeserving, that Jane has been fancying him for months, and he diverts, “if that’s what you want, there’s a lot better sheep in the field.”

Jane narrows his eyes. “Gross.”

“Ach it’s an expression-” Tavish huffs. “Look, if men are to your tastes, you can find a hookup that’s a lot less dangerous. You don’t have to lower your standards just because I’m…around.”

“My tastes?” Jane scoffs. “What do you know about my tastes, DeGroot? Every time we go to the pier, you get me the wrong flavor of ice cream—even when I tell you exactly what kind to get.”

“I told you lad, they were out of ro-”

“My tastes,” Jane carries on, “are rocky road and handsome Scotsmen. So you can take that to the bank and sign it.” Jane crosses his arms.

A new, cool feeling runs down Tavish’s spine, the freezer-burn of fluster. “Jane,” he groans, running his hands over his scalp, craning his neck backwards until Jane finally falls out of his vision. “You’re not making this any easier.”

“I don’t understand why it’s can’t be easy. I love you. You, uh…” Jane trails off. “Like me. I think.”

Not since they stopped groping each other has Tavish wanted to touch him this bad, to assure him that he wants what Jane had given him, wants his hands, his mouth, to feel him again-

Tavish lets out a strangled cough, hard minutes of trying to cool off down the drain. Jane notices his state, the dilatation in his eye, and that only adds to his embarrassment. “Ach, please Jane. It’s not that simple. I just need you to listen, just a few minutes.”

“Fine. I will listen. But then you have to listen while I tell you what I think.”

Tavish allows it. He starts, “doing...” He waves his hand, disturbing the humid air between their still cooling bodies. “This, would be risky. More dangerous than anything we’ve ever done.”

“Un. Like. Ly,” Jane scoffs. “We’ve been sneaking around for ages by this point, and we’re damn good at it. Face it maggot, you didn’t want retreat with your tail between your legs until sloppy makeouts came into the picture.”

Tavish folds his arms. “I was thinking about it before then too. That we should break it off.”

“Ah bub bub bub!” Jane points out gleefully.

“It’s ‘bup bup bup’.”

“Quiet. You thought about it, but you didn’t actually do anything. So what is it Tavish? What’s the difference between then and now?”

An awkward silence hangs between them.

“…C’mon lad, don’t make me say it.” Tavish tries to look away, but he can still feel the solar rays of Jane’s glare socking him in the jaw. “Ach, it’s- what we got here isn’t right Jane. It’s not a natural thing for a pair of mates to do.”

“Ha! Natural?” Jane laughs. “I don’t buy that ‘natural’ crap from hippies and I certainly don’t buy it from you. I do not care about how natural the devil’s lettuce is! I do not care how much natural they cram into those granola bars, or how much fiber will help my bowel movements! Natural is for suckers.”

Tavish stares at him, long and hard, and finally, finally something small and brittle inside him crumbles away just enough that he’s hit with a weak chuckle. “You know, sometimes I don’t know how crazy you really are, and how much is just insight disguised as malarkey.”

“Good,” Jane smirks. “Keep it that way.”

“But still we need to-” Tavish rubbed his eye. “We need to think about this. It feels like I’m the only one here who’s trying to keep us both from getting killed.”

“Why?”

“Well someone has to, and it certainly isn’t going to be you.”

“Why?” Jane is angry now. “Why does one of us have to be holding the goddamn reigns? I didn’t ask you for ribs because I thought you would keep me back, I asked you for ribs because you broke that cop’s back and it was the most glorious display of patriotic strength I have ever seen!”

“Patriotism for where, exactly?” Tavish asks tiredly.

“You damn know well where. Don’t ask stupid questions.”

So Tavish doesn’t deign him with anything, just sits there massaging his head. He knows his rationality is eroding. That Jane is sitting here chipping away with his donkey’s indifference, his stupid, (literally) hardheaded attitude that Tavish can’t just turn away from.

“So,” Jane says. “I listened. Now you listen.”

“I barely got a word in edgewise,” Tavish complains.

“And they were all bad words. Now,” Jane sits crosslegged, stripped in the half-light coming in from the window, painting him radiant. “It’s clear you have some hangups about your latent bisexuality.”

Tavish puts all the power of a two-eyed stare out the focus of his singular optic, hoping the pure concentration gets his disdain though.

Jane carries on. “It is nothing to be ashamed about.”

“Ach, it's just that...I shouldn’t have wanted…shouldn’t have even…”

“You and your damn shouldn’ts,” Jane frowns.

The frustration, the embarrassment, all the waves of different emotions Tavish has been put though are washed away in the new torrent of shame. “Ah fuck.”

“Tavish,” Jane says sternly as Tavish begins to clutch his head. “I have been dying to put you in a supportive yet comforting hug for the past twenty minutes. Permission to embrace you?”

Fuck he could use a hug right now. He could use Jane right now. He nods.

He leans in to the enveloping warmth as Jane holds him in a touch that is scored all different than before, yet the same strange intimacy he’s starting to suspect relates to what Jane said before that knee-shaking I want you so damn bad. That he didn't say that in the heat of the moment or because he feels sorry for the sad Cyclops that happens to be his friend, but because he genuinely wants this as much as Tavish does.

Oh god does Tavish want this.

“Tav, has that stupid voice in the back of your head telling you not to do things ever made you happy?” Jane asks the back wall over Tavish’s shoulder.

“Kept me safe,” Tavish sighs.

“That’s not what I asked, private,” Jane reiterates. “Has it made you happy? Has it ever actually helped you find the man you’re supposed to be?”

Tavish thinks long and hard, bringing his hands up run shaky fingers through Jane’s hair. “No,” he admits. “I don’t think it has. You?”

“Me? I crushed that voice years ago under the heel of my American-made double buckle combat boots. Like a goddamn ant.”

Tavish snorts. “Figures.”

They stay like that, holding each other, for a long time. They stay like that until the neon pizza sign across the street winks off, until the digital clocks on the matching nightstands read long past 4am.

“I don’t know what to do about this,” Tavish admits finally.

“Fair. Even if you did, I wouldn’t listen. You’ve changed your mind so many goddamn times tonight I’d tell you you’d have to sleep on it first before I believed you.”

“I have not,” Tavish laughs. “Just…there’s a lot. And I’m scared. I’m scared every day RED or BLU’ll find out and we’ll be…” He sighs. “I guess it wouldn’t matter at that point if we were friends or…anything else. We’d be dead either way.”

“That’s the spirit!”

Tavish leans back and finds it in him to grin at this stupid, crazy, reckless man that is certainly going to get them both killed. No, no he’s not going to think like that anymore. They’re in this together, and they’d share the blame just as much as they shared each other.

He squeezes both hands to the side of Jane’s face and says, “I love you too, you crazy, crazy Soldier.”

It’s worth it to see the light flare up in Jane’s eyes, the dopey grin that springs to his face. “Well, then that makes you just as crazy as me.”

“Aye, I suppose it does.” He presses his forehead to Jane’s. “We’re already doing a spicy shimmy on what’s taboo and what isn’t. I suppose we shouldn’t give a damn what’s considered crazy.”

Jane’s face is so beautiful, the only shame being how long shouldn’t has kept that realization at bay. But Tavish quashes it, watching as a new question forms in Jane’s brow.

“I know I told you to sleep on it but,” Jane bites his lip. “Can I stay here? While you do that.”

Tavish likes Jane's warmth against him. He likes him here, where their atoms are pressing out against each other in the closest the universe can approximate as touch.

“Aye. Come here.”

They lay down on Tavish’s bed, and Jane rolls around until he’s nestled in Tavish’s arms. As their breathing slows, in sync then out of sync then back again, Jane says, “even if you weren’t freaking out, it’s a good thing you stopped us when you did. We don’t exactly have any condoms.”

Tavish’s jaw locks, and he quickly scoots his pelvis back a few inches. “You’re doing that on purpose,” he snarls into the nape flush with his nose.

“Maybe. I’m craaaaazy, remember.”

Tavish hates him, and loves him more in that moment than he ever has. If this is the night where he’s cut everything off, where he’s chosen this Soldier over the world’s approval, then so be it. He makes a little mental image of an ant, and steps down.