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atlabeth · 1 month ago

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bend an ear

pairing: peter parker x fem reader

summary: your boyfriend doesn't listen to you. good thing your friendly neighborhood spider-man does.

a/n: there's just something about him idk. andrew garfield spidey bc of course! look at him! this came from me playing the spider-man game after it went on sale and yearning for peter parker (will prob have to rewatch the movies bc of this) anyways hope you like it

wc: 3.6k

warning(s): reader's bf is shitty -- they argue for a while and he lowkey slut shames her. but this is basically all fluff otherwise bc childhood best friends to lovers babby!!! real yearning loverboy hours!!!

Peter just wants to go home.

It’s been… a day. He got his ass kicked by an English test (he doesn’t have time to do the readings when he’s fighting crime), got his ass kicked by Flash Thompson (it’s not like he can fight back with his super strength and pulverize his ribs), and has spent every second since his final class ended fighting petty crimes around the city.

Stopping ATM thefts and minor muggings feels good, sure, but on days like these, it doesn’t really make up for failing intro literature classes and getting absolutely zero sleep. He’s just thankful May is still letting him live with her while he studies at ESU—if he had to do all of this in addition to trying to make his rent? He doesn’t really want to think about it.

So he swung his way to the roof of some random building, and he’s taking a break. Sue him, but Peter thinks he deserves it. What’s the point of living in a city like New York if you can’t have a second to yourself every once in a while?

He’ll go home soon. Grab a bodega sandwich, maybe stop another crime, and then get home for some much needed rest. But for now, he’s just going to sit on this rooftop and relax for a second. Even Spider-man needs some peace and—

“Babe—”

“Why are you following me?”

Peter winces as the door slams open, an argument following close after as a girl storms out onto the roof followed by a guy speeding to keep up with her. His first instinct is to swing away as soon as possible, but for some reason, he stays.

“Because I want to talk!”

“God, do you even hear yourself?”

“You keep talking over me, so I really—”

“You don’t get to babe me right now!”

As if his day hadn’t been bad enough, now he’s accidentally made himself privy to some couple’s dispute. He’s about to web himself out of this third wheeling nightmare when the girl turns around with a groan, revealing her face, and Peter realizes who it is.

It’s you.

This is your apartment complex. Peter came here without even realizing it, but can he really be surprised? Your name is synonymous with peace in his brain. Comes with the territory of being friends for so long—it still calms him, even when you’re being the opposite of peaceful.

“I don’t get why you’re acting like this!” the guy exclaims, frustration clear in his voice.

Of course. Why wouldn’t your shitty boyfriend be here too? The only reason you live here is because you scored this place together; said he didn’t want you living on campus anymore. Ethan Frey might be the bane of Peter’s existence after two and a half years of him being your boyfriend.

“Because you and your posse are acting like complete jags in front of all my friends!” you shout back.

He laughs in disbelief. “I’m just being myself, babe. Besides, you’re the one who said I could invite them!”

“Because you complained about it just being my friends,” you grind out. “You weren’t even supposed to be here, Ethan! You just can’t handle the thought of me being around guys that aren’t you!”

“Well, what the hell am I supposed to think, huh?” He gestures wildly. “You spend every second with that geek and I’m supposed to believe you’re not into him?”

And now he’s eavesdropping on a conversation between you and your boyfriend about him. How could this get worse?

“God, it isn’t like that at all!” you exclaim with a mirthless laugh. “Peter is my friend— my best friend since elementary school. You knew when we got together that wasn’t going to change.”

“Yeah,” he says, nodding lazily, “but that was before I knew how obvious his hard-on for you was.”

Peter feels his face heat beneath the mask, wants to wipe the sweat off his palms. That’s how it could get worse.

Your nostrils flare as you turn away, your hands flexing while you shake your head. “Get out of here, Ethan.”

“Oh, of course that’s where you draw the line,” Ethan mocks. “When I bring up fuckin’ Peter Parker.” He pauses then chuckles. “You’d love that, wouldn’t you?”

Peter nearly intervenes right then and there, wanting to stop this mess before Ethan does anything to hurt you. But revealing himself sounds like the worst possible thing to do, so for once he listens to the rational part of his brain over the emotional.

“He’s not even here!” you retort. “I live with you, not him. I’m dating you, not him. Why are you bringing him up?”

“Because I’m not blind.” Ethan crosses his arms. “Y’know, I thought you’d get over this little thing after you let me take you out, but for some reason, it’s exactly the same. I swear you spend more time with him than me.”

Your hands clench into fists. “Get out of here.”

He scoffs. “You want me to leave you up here?”

“Yes,” you nod.

“God, you’ve been acting crazy this whole night!” he complains. “You’ll freeze up here. Just get over it—we’ll go back down, I’ll get you a beer—”

“I hate beer.”

“Then I’ll get you a fucking apple juice,” he spits. “Just stop being so dramatic.”

“You’re not listening to me!” you shout. “I want you to leave me alone!”

This time he says your name, and you shake your head.

“Go back to the apartment,” you interrupt. “Because if I have to spend another second with you, our relationship might not make it through the night.”

For once, Ethan is silent as he stares at you. You stare back with no sign of giving up. Eventually, he just huffs and shakes his head.

“Whatever.” He starts walking towards the door. “You better cool off up here, because I’m not dealing with this shit when you come back down.”

You stare at the door for a good twenty seconds once he closes the door—slams it, rather—before you angrily kick a stray soda can. Your childhood days of rec soccer must still be in you, because you get an arc on it. Just before it can go over the side of the building, Peter shoots a web to catch it wholly on instinct.

Your eyes widen as you dart around, and Peter is finally spotted from his place on top of the roof door building thing. What is that even called? He doesn’t really have time to think about it. The aluminum can crunches as it flies into his hand, and you stare at him in complete shock.

“Uh,” his mouth suddenly feels very dry, but he has to make some excuse for why he’s up here, “littering is bad.”

Good one, Parker.

“You’re Spider-man,” you say, eyes still wide.

“The one and only,” he nods.

“Oh my god,” you mumble, finally seeming to break out of your shock as you cover your mouth and turn away. “Oh my god, Spider-man just heard my relationship falling apart.”

“I didn’t hear anything!” Peter exclaims. “I—”

You shoot him the withering look he loves so much, that was able to get his bullies to shrink on the spot in high school—it feels weird being on the receiving end of it.

“I’m not stupid,” you say.

“I kn—” He has to stop himself from saying I know, because realistically Spider-man has no idea who you are. “I’m sorry.”

You huff and cross your arms. “Do your superhero duties include eavesdropping on failing couples?”

“It was an accident,” Peter says. “I was up here before you were. So technically, you were eavesdropping on my actual superhero duties.”

You laugh, and he smiles just at the sound of it. One benefit to wearing the mask, because it would expose him right on the spot. “Oh yeah? And what are those?”

“Patrolling the streets,” he says. “I’ve got a very good vantage point from up here.”

You hum, your mood turning a bit more morose as you glance away. “Well, I’m sorry you had to hear all that during your patrol.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through it,” he says. “Your boyfriend sounds like an asshole.”

You roll your eyes. “He’s fine, most of the time. Just had a little bit too much to drink.”

Peter will never understand why you defend Ethan so much. You’ve been together since freshman year and he’s only gotten worse since then—maybe he hides how he is around you, because he hasn’t really shied away from showing Peter how much he hates him this past year.

“He looked pretty sober to me,” Peter says. “And trust me, I have plenty of experience fighting guys that have had too much to drink.”

You huff. “What are you, a spider-therapist?”

“I’m good at a lot of things,” he says. “And I’m always good for bending an ear.”

“Surely you have better things to do than listen to me complain.”

Peter shakes his head. “My schedule’s pretty clear right now, actually.”

“Really?” you marvel. “There’s no crime in New York City at,” you check your watch, “11:37 pm?”

“Absolutely none,” he says. “I solved it all. At least for now.”

You laugh again at that and gesture with your head as you walk over to the edge of the roof. “Then I guess I’ll take you up on that offer.”

Peter jumps down and follows you over. You hoist yourself on top of the wall, legs dangling over the edge, and he feels himself frown as he leans his back against the wall and looks up at you.

“Isn’t that a little dangerous?”

“You’ll catch me if I fall,” you say.

“Obviously,” Peter says. “I’m supposed to encourage safe behavior in New Yorkers, though.”

You laugh and tilt your head up towards the night sky. The moonlight reflects in your eyes and Peter knows he could get lost in them forever. “Just this once, then.”

“I think I can let it slide.”

“Good.”

A comfortable beat of silence passes between the two of you, and Peter finds himself smiling. No wonder he ended up at your place out of instinct. There’s nothing else like your company.

“I always think it’ll be different,” you murmur. Peter glances up at you, your expression shifted to something more melancholic. “We’ll have a good day, which’ll turn into a good week and a good month, but he always does something to mess it up. It’s like it’s in his DNA.”

He stays silent as you think. Most of the time when you rant to Peter, you just want to be heard, not given advice. At this point, he’s an expert at listening to you. It’s not like he minds.

“I want things to work out. I— I still love him. I mean, I think I do. But everything is a fucking struggle with him. If I don’t do things the exact way he wants, if I try to do something for me instead of him, if I can’t read his fucking mind, then he loses it and we argue. And I’m so fucking tired of arguing!”

Your voice has risen by now, and you bite down hard on your cheek. Peter doesn’t realize he’s started reaching towards you to comfort you until you look back down at him, and he runs his hand over his head in an effort to cover it up.

“I’m sorry,” you sigh. “I promise, I’m a much nicer person than this. You just caught me at the worst time.”

“Don’t worry,” he says. “I know.”

Your brows rise. “Spider-man knows I’m a nice person?”

“I can just tell,” he rushes, trying to save himself. He’s doing a real good job at not revealing his identity. “I’m good at reading people.”

You chuckle and shake your head, then adjust your position so your back is towards the open air. It makes Peter nervous, he can’t lie, but it’s not like he’s not a superhero.

“So, spider-therapist,” you say. “Any advice?”

So this is one of the rare times you do want answers. Peter wonders if you’ll leave your boyfriend if Spider-man tells you to.

“He doesn’t sound great,” Peter says, inclining his head. “How many times have you argued this week?”

“Four,” you say. “Five, if you include tonight.”

He whistles. “And it’s only Wednesday.”

You tip your shoulder. “We’re efficient.”

“And unhappy, it sounds like.”

“We’re not unhappy,” you defend. “We’re just…”

“You’re up here talking to me instead of down there with him,” Peter says wryly. “That doesn’t exactly scream ‘happy couple’.”

You shake your head with another sigh. “It’s because he can’t get over Peter.”

He tries to act as nonchalant as possible when you bring him up. Is this an invasion of privacy? Letting you talk to him about all this when you have no idea who Spider-man actually is?

Instead of floundering over moral qualms, he just clears his throat. “And who’s he?”

“My best friend,” you say. “The one person who’s been by my side since the second I moved to New York. He means everything to me.”

Peter feels his heart skip a beat. “Yeah?”

“He’s like— like the opposite of Ethan, and it’s wonderful. I guess that’s why Pete irks him so much. Y’know,” you pull out your phone and start typing in your password, “maybe I should call him. He always knows what to say.”

“No!” Peter exclaims with a bit too much force, causing you to give him a look. “No— I mean, it’s late. He’s probably asleep. And— and it’s a school night?”

You tilt your head, and Peter exhales when it seems to work. “True. He’s probably studying for that biochem test.” You grimace. “I should be doing that too.”

He watches you type out a few texts and send them, and Peter’s never been more thankful to have his phone on silent. What a way that would be to blow his cover.

You shove your phone back in your pocket with another sigh. “I just hate that my boyfriend and my best friend don’t get along. I love them both—why can’t they like each other?”

“I mean…” Peter trails off when you look at him, and he gestures with his head. “It seems pretty obvious why they don’t get along.”

“Yeah,” you say dryly. “Because Ethan thinks Peter likes me, and he probably thinks I have some secret crush on him too. I swear, he’s always looking for a reason to fight.”

God, could the universe be calling him out any more? It’s honestly ridiculous how this is going.

“Do you?” Peter asks, because he can’t help himself. “Like him, I mean.”

“I don’t know,” you murmur. “I love Pete, I do. It’s always been the two of us no matter what. But I…”

He holds his breath as he tries not to look at you, tries not to make it too obvious that he might have stumbled his way into his simultaneous dream and nightmare scenario.

He’s had a crush on you for what feels like forever. Since you stood up for him against his bullies in elementary school, honestly, and it’s only grown over the years as the two of you have grown. From recesses spent together and bike rides through the city; spending the night in Peter’s apartment because it was easier for your sister to let it happen than try and drag you back home; endless nights with heads bent over textbooks trying to study for tests, over college applications trying to get into the same place, and now studying and researching near every damn weekend together because you’re both unfortunate enough to try for ESU STEM degrees.

You were there when Ben died. He’s there on every anniversary of your parents’ accident. Without knowing it, you were there when he got bit and his whole life turned upside down.

You and Peter have been there every step of the way for each other, and it’s why he’s content with just friendship—Peter wants you in his life no matter what. But he can’t lie and say he doesn’t hope.

No, actually. He yearns. He’s doomed to be a yearner for the rest of his life because he’ll never stop loving you. How could he?

“I’m not sure,” you finally say with a sigh. “All I know is that I’d rather be with Pete tonight than Ethan.”

Peter wonders if your chest compressions are still as good as they were in high school, because he feels like he’s about to have a heart attack.

You’d rather be spending tonight with him than your boyfriend of two years and seven months, and Peter isn’t even supposed to know.

You mistake his silent freakout for nonchalance, and you clear your throat as you jump back onto solid ground.

“Well, I’ve spilled my soul to you,” you say wryly, crossing your arms. “Anything a superhero can spill in return?”

Peter thinks for a good, long second. His hands itch to take off his mask, to do what he’s wanted to do since he got bitten by that stupid spider and show you who he really is.

How many times has he been a total asshole, canceling plans on you because he had to go stop some supervillain from wreaking havoc in Times Square? How many times has he been late to something important to you because he was caught up stopping dime a dozen muggings? He still remembers the look on your face when he showed up just in time to miss the entirety of Les Mis’s opening night with your first lead role.

You were a better best friend to Peter than he was to you because of this stupid mask. If he took it off, it wouldn’t make every mistake fade away, but it would sure help explain some of it.

But Peter has been doing this since high school, and he has seen far too many times what happens to the loved ones of heroes. They’re used as leverage, used for ransom, sometimes just straight up killed.

You’ve been friends with Peter since you and your sister moved into the apartment next to May’s thirteen years ago. It doesn’t matter if you never share Peter’s feelings. You’re one of the only constants in his life, and he’s not going to lose you because he’s too selfish to keep a secret.

Losing you would be the last straw. He couldn’t take it.

So Peter pushes all thoughts of secret identities revealed out of his mind and tries to chuckle convincingly.

“I’m allergic to peppermint, believe it or not.”

You stare at him, deadpan. “That’s nowhere close to all the shit I just gave you.”

“It’s true!” he exclaims, holding up his hands. “Happened after I got bit by the spider. They’re repelled by peppermint oil, and I guess I am too.”

You shake your head in disbelief. “I can’t believe Spider-man is a coward.”

“A superhero’s gotta have some secrets,” he says, and he taps the side of his head. “Otherwise this thing doesn’t do much good.”

“Yeah, yeah,” you say. “Whatever.”

A chill suddenly goes up Peter’s spine and he whips around—he can hear a distant scream followed by a distant gunshot, and he mentally curses.

“Duty calls?” you ask, drawing his attention back to you.

“Yeah,” he says. “I’m sorry—”

“Don’t be.” You smile, and it’s genuine. A nice change from the state Ethan effortlessly puts you in. “You went out of your way to cheer me up. Pretty super of you.”

“I hope it makes up for the eavesdropping,” he says.

“More than,” you nod. “Now get out of here. Your city needs you.”

Peter nods too, and he backflips onto his original spot. “Have a good night. You’re real special to somebody.”

He’s gone before you can say anything else, already zipping across the rooftops to get to the scene of the crime. Peter can only think of your face as he swings through the air—all the things he’s too scared to say to you.

The crime, which turns out to be yet another petty theft, is resolved easily enough with some punches, kicks, and a snappy one-liner. Once he’s retrieved the woman’s purse and alerted the police, he’s back in the sky.

Peter only stops once he’s swung a couple miles away, perching on the edge of some rooftop for some actual peace and quiet. He checks around once or twice to make sure he’s not somehow back at your place, and when he’s sure it’s all clear, he pulls his phone out. He swipes past all the notifications he’s racked up until he finds the one he’s looking for: the texts from you.

hey pete, I know you’re prob asleep rn but you were right. I really need to study for that test lol

wanna meet me at the library tomorrow after QM? I’ll buy the coffee this time i promise <3

as long as you use your roomie’s dining dollars to get me a croissant lol

Peter can’t help but smile, larger than anything tonight. This is why he’s okay with being nothing but your friend for the rest of his life.

Deal. Anything to get you an A

lol

asshole

Never

Try to get some sleep. No good studying on a tired brain

Three dots appear for a good long second, enough to constitute a decent paragraph—then they disappear. In its place:

I’ll try just for you

night boy genius

(How could he not love you?)

Night, girl wonder

#peter parker x reader #tasm!peter x reader #tasm!peter parker x reader #spiderman x reader #spider-man x reader #spider man x reader #peter parker x you #peter parker fanfiction #tasm x reader

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non-plutonian-druid · 3 months ago

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[ID: Drawings from darklordofawesomeness' cat Stan au, this time featuring wolf Ford.

In the first, cat Stan is standing on wolf Ford's back. Some helpful text points to them, reading "Same coat color, same eye color, same expression, NOT related".

In the second, cat Stan is sitting on wolf Ford's shoulders, and saying "Wolfy, I'm gonna teach ya how to commit FRAUD." Ford looks nervous.

In the third, there are assorted wolf Fords and cat Stans: Stan curled up on Ford's shoulders; Ford and Stan posing cutely and reluctantly; Stan and Ford sitting in front of an open book. Stan says "If I didn't need this to turn human, I would just laugh at your suffering." Ford says "noted."

The fourth is a two panel comic where Stan teaches Ford to look less like a wolf and more like a dog. Ford is standing like a wolf; head in line with shoulders and tail down. Stan says "Yeah if you wanna fool anyone you need to change your body language", then "Lift your head and tail. Smile. Put your ears forward." Ford, following his instructions, looks significantly more like a dog at a glance. He is smiling, but his eyes are narrowed, and he says "I hate you." Stan says "Better! Now just stop scowling at me."

In the fifth, human Stan drives an extremely sketchy and loosely colored Stanleymobile. Wolf Ford is standing on the door and sticking his head out the window. Stan looks annoyed.

The sixth is nearly identical to the fifth, with the addition of Carla, Fiddleford, and Emma-May in the backseat. They, along with Stan, are dressed like Scooby Doo characters. End ID.]

More cat stans from @dark-lord-of-awesomeness's cat stan series! These are mostly from Double Cursed, except for the last two, which are ostensibly from chapter 52 (How to dognap a man?) of Cat Stan Extras. Except the last one is because i made up scooby doo vibes in my head and i wanted to do something with that. Basically, this is The Post Where Ford is a Wolf.

the comic is because way back when, i saw that one post about how to draw wolves to look more like wolves, and i thought it would be fun to use wolf ford as my guinea pig to test out some of the differences. Since ford is a human person capable of changing his body language! idk if it would fool someone in real life but in image form i do think it works, the second one reads way more doglike.

#gravity falls #stan pines #stanley pines #ford pines #stanford pines #eh not gonna bother tagging the others they're present only briefly #my art #and not my au #and this is the last of the gravity falls art i had pre made #now i am caught up with my backlog from my self-imposed ford exile

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tiredofthehumanlife · 3 months ago

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Is he mine? Fucking obviously.

also btw I color code my titles I don't pick them like this for the aesthetics of it

Barbie dolls: Touya Todoroki x gn! reader

Word: 6.5k

Summary: Touya almost died on national television and disappears from from the public's eyes with no way to contact him you decide to keep your pregnancy a secret from him

Warning: You get pregnant! idc of its m!preg or abo or magic or just bareback fucking that got you there I'm just telling you you got pregnant, you keep the baby btw, your son is named Kaito (which according to name berry means sea so there), your son refers to you by Ren and Rena which is a gender neutral term for parent it's like mom and dad essentially, you fuck dabi at one point it's not smut it's just mentioned, Touya goes to rehab and so if he's ooc then it's rehabs fault not mine, I am kidding but he is definitely not exactly dabi core dykwim, you grieve Touya even tho technically he's alive it'll make sense when you read it but you cry a couple times just fyi, idk man, mentioned once that you wanted children before w Touya, 'crotch goblin' used I j feel like that's some shit dabi would say but I digress, Elmo reference tell me if you find it, possible allusions to Kaito being autistic but like boo fucking hoo idk, mention of blunts, SIDs mentioned once, also mentioned that you may or may not have anxiety especially over your son, yeah okay lmk if you any blue words I didn't do that on purpose

part two

Before the war, you knew Dabi. You knew Touya, as well. When he was watching over you from the shadows during the day, he was Dabi. When he was buried in your arms hiding under your sheets, he was Touya. You kept him close to you, there wasn’t another way you’d like to live. You hated to say it but you needed his eyes and hands on you. You didn’t care what he did during the day or even at night as long as he wandered back to you through your door. You didn’t care if you both sat on the couch and stared at the TV or if you ripped his clothes off with greedy hands, as long as you could feel the abnormal heat of his body on yours. Maybe that made you morally questionable, you didn’t care. You knew who you were and you knew who he was. You knew your lungs would collapse if you couldn’t see those blue eyes again.

After the war that all changed. Watching your lover almost kill himself on live television made you feel sick to your stomach. You had to leave the building entirely, only to find it broadcasted all over the screens of passersby’s phones, billboards, and the small television behind the counter of every convenience store. You hid under your sheets, hoping when you woke up they would smell like him because he was lying next to you.

You heard of his whereabouts through coworkers' gossip, news articles, and murmurs from the public. None of whom knew you had kissed him goodbye the morning before, having no idea what was to come. You read every article you saw. You eavesdropped on every conversation. You bought every magazine that even slightly mentioned the Todoroki family. You knew the only way you’d know if he was okay was through the third-person retelling by a reporter.

He was in severe recovery. He was in one piece, technically. His father was paying for his bills. He was likely to be alright.

Really that’s all you needed, yet somehow it still wasn’t enough. You needed to see him and hold him. You wondered if he was eating solids or if he was on a tube. You wondered if he needed you to add another row of staples. You hated when he asked that of you, you couldn’t turn him down when he looked up at you with his pleading eyes. It made you feel sick to your stomach but you were the only one, besides himself, he trusted to do it. What you would give up now to groan and complain about having to replace his staples.

Slowly as time pulled along, Touya made the news less and less. You took fewer magazines from their rack, his face didn’t make it to the television, and you felt his image slipping away from you.

Your sheet smelled more like you than they did him. His clothes had been through the wash multiple times now. You kept tossing them into the dirty hamper straight from the dryer because you couldn’t bear to throw them away or hide them in a closet. Your stack of newspapers and magazines stayed stacked at the corner of your desk. You cried when you had to sweep up the dirt from his boots by the front door. Then you cried for crying over that.

You felt pathetic the way you started to hate him for all this. You wanted to slap him and jab your finger in his face. You wanted to call him a selfish bastard. You cried in your kitchen when you realized you accidentally bought his favorite foods as second nature. You couldn’t wrap your head around the fact that he had just slipped from your life like that.

He was alive, yes but alive in the same way a relative across the world was. You knew they were out there but it’d be a cold day in hell before they were in your living room.

You slowly pieced yourself back together. His clothes were folded and put away on the shelf of your closet. You stopped looking at them when you started to get ready for the day as time went on. You stopped buying his food. You threw out most of the newspapers, only keeping the pages that really mattered. You folded them all up and shoved them into a drawer in your desk. You stop seeing him everywhere in your home. You stopped seeing him in your mind.

Just as you were getting back on your feet, the world played a sick trick on you. You found out you were pregnant. After some thinking and a lot of it, you made your decision. You were keeping it. Yes sure it came out of nowhere. Yes sure your baby would be raised in a single-parent household. You always wanted this. You thought of asking Touya about it sometimes but you always chickened out. Now you wouldn’t be doing it with Touya, but you could have the life you wanted. A child. You were ready, you felt it in your bones.

You had the baby. For months before the due date, you had scoured for name ideas. You wrote down names you heard over conversations in cafes. You read every article. You considered naming your baby after Touya. You scratched that idea after realizing you’d like to have his consent for that. You thought of him on your couch over seven months ago. He would’ve said ‘Hell no. Don’t name one of those crotch goblins after me.’ You bought books on the very subject. You slapped post-it notes to your fridge when you found one you liked. Yet all that came crashing down when you finally had your baby in your arms.

You were fucking worn out. Your hands felt like they were going to cramp from all the squeezing you did to the handrails and your poor nurse. Your hair was sticking to your face. You felt like you stinked. Your lungs felt heavy and your ribs felt tight. With your little ‘crotch goblin’ in your arms you felt a smile grow on your face.

His face was scrunched up in a cry, a tiny fist pressed against his cheek. You gently rubbed the side of his face with your finger, trying to calm him down. His cry settled as he pushed his face toward you. You whispered a hello. You were fully encapsulated by him, your son, you paid no attention to the doctor still between your legs. Your baby let out a coo as he opened his eyes, staring up at you.

You knew babies could really see at this age, he was probably just looking in the direction of your voice. Whether or not he could see you had no effect on the color of his eyes. You knew them. They were the same ones who would stare at you from across your room as you got ready for bed. The same ones that would plead you for new staples. The same ones that sat across from you during dinner. The same ones that reminded you of the cold and freezing sea.

“Kaito.” You muttered, earning a coo from him. You nodded. “Yeah? Do you like that name?” he huffed and pushed his nose towards your arm. You hummed. “Kaito it is, then.”

A year and a half went by before you ever heard from Touya again. You were doing some cleaning while Kaito was at daycare, hurrying so you could still have time for relaxation before you had to go pick him up.

You loved him dearly but a toddler was a lot to handle. Especially alone. You found a daycare nearby that you trusted, and your mental health picked up drastically. A few hours of silence on the weekends and time to work from home without a toddler trying to lick a socket was all that you seemed to need to feel whole. As you were throwing his toys back into the large basket on the other side of the living room, you heard a knock. You paused before throwing the toy truck. You moved to the front door, peeking through the peep hole.

A woman with white hair and streaks of red, glasses, and a blue sweater was waiting at your door. You pulled away from the door, unlocking it and swinging it open. She smiled at you once she saw you.

“Hi, can I help you?” You asked, smiling but feeling terribly awkward about the whole thing. She nodded.

“Hi, I’m Fuyumi. My brother, Touya, was finally released from his mess of operations and hospitals. And he-“ Your smile fell when you finally registered the name. Yes, you heard it but you just didn’t think you’d ever hear that name again. It had just floated over your head. You realize this was his sister standing in front of you. You closed the door so you were squeezed between it and the frame, smiling like it was a perfectly normal thing to do. You couldn’t let her see the tiny rain boots, light-up sneakers, and brightly colored toys on your floor. Fuyumi glanced at you over the frame of her glasses, a slightly confused look passing over her face before she schooled it. She pulled her bag from her shoulder, rummaging her hand through it.

“-is finally in rehab. They’re letting him have pencils now after strings being pulled by our father. Anyway, he-um- gave me these letters. He told me I needed to find you. He said he wouldn’t trust anyone else to give these to you. He considered our mom, but he said-“

“Letters?” You repeated, watching her hands as they dug through her bag. She nodded, looking up at you for a brief second.

“Yes. here they are, finally.” She pulled a stack of three letters from her bag, sticking them out to you. You quickly took them from her, taking the top one. You shoved the other two into your back pocket, tearing open the envelope. You yanked the folded paper from the envelope, unfolding it as fast as possible. You skimmed over the words, trying to move your eyes along the lines faster than you could.

‘Love -don’t care- I haven’t stopped thinking of you- wish you could come to see me-I need to see home- your bed- do you think of me-I’m not sure how much longer-I can’t add you to my visitation-I miss you.’ You paused, staring at his signature at the bottom. ‘Yours, Touya’ was simple but he didn’t talk of his feelings. Ever.

You were lucky if you found out he liked dinner. You traced over his name with the tip of your finger. You stopped, looking up at the woman in front of you. She was watching you intently like every move was being cataloged. You slowly straightened your shoulders up and pushed the letter back into the envelope like you didn’t care at all. You put the envelope with the other two in your pocket, pretending you weren’t itching to read the other two. You cleared your throat, staring at Fuyumi like a child caught misbehaving.

“He tried to get your name on the visitation list but they wouldn’t allow it. You had to be family.” Fuyumi said, giving you a soft smile. You nodded, feeling Kaito’s finger painting on the fridge staring holes into the side of your face.

“Might’ve been for the best. I don’t know I’m really the same person he…liked before.” You said, squeezing the door a little closer to you. Fuyumi shook her head.

“I’m not sure if that’s true. He’s told our entire family about you. I don’t think the change would keep him from you. However, I don’t really know you, do I?” Fuyumi said, clasping her hands together in front of her. You nodded. It’s a bit weird knowing that she had a nephew a few blocks away and she didn’t even know if you and her brother were really dating at all. Well, you weren’t now but were you ever? You snorted and shrugged.

“It’s a lot of change.” You said, watching her closely. She hummed, pulling her bag closer too pher.

“Well I have to go, I have lunch with Shoto soon. Just, think of sending him back a letter. I think it would be good for him to hear from you.” Fuyumi said before walking away from your door and heading for the sidewalk. You watched her go for a moment, feeling stuck in your place. You felt like you were watching Touya walking away again. You sighed before going back inside to finish reading the letters.

You read the letters over and over again for a month. You read them so much you didn’t need to see the paper to think through his words. You spent your free time staring at the handwriting. You dissected the word choice, punctuation, and tone. You need to know every thought that went through his head. Kaito asked you what they were, in the words and format of a 1 ½-year-old would. You redirected him to his toys and started reading them only at night when you were alone in your room. You sat up in bed most nights, staring at his clothes on the shelf of your closet and picking at your nails.

You thought through your two options.

You could break his heart and tell him you couldn’t be with him. You had changed, you were someone new. You couldn’t see a future. You moved on. You had a new partner, one that didn’t have their face on the news. Whatever it would take to get him to move on. He needed someone else, someone not like you. Someone without a kid.

Your second option was to tell him. Everything. He had already been through what a year or so of medical operations? That’s what Fuyumi said, wasn’t it? Now he was stuck in rehab, they just gave him access to pencils. He was slowly rebuilding himself. He was obviously making progress in the right direction, communicating. That was a big word for Touya. It was over paper but still. He used the word love eight times in those letters. Kaito would have to get adjusted to his family growing up. Change is hard for young children. Change is hard for you. You‘d be forcing this responsibility onto Touya. He’d either support Kaito or not. Either way, he’d have that thought in the back of his mind. Touya was barely standing on his own two feet right now. Most likely figuratively and literally. You couldn’t add a new stressor to his life. He’d throw a table or something and get his pencil rights taken away again.

You made the mature decision to break his heart instead. You wrote it out carefully and edited it. You made sure it came off the right way. You sealed the envelope and addressed it using the information from the back of his letters. Maybe it wasn’t something that would make you liked by any of the Todoroki family, but it was better for them. You knew it. You told him it was the change. You had changed too much. You listed all the ways you weren’t the person he thought you were anymore. Of course, you jumped over the child-sized elephant in the room.

You couldn’t bear to think of him crying over your letter. You wondered if his tears were still bloody. Most likely, that didn’t seem like something that was healable. You ignored the ache in your heart, pulling your son closer to you in a tight hug. You couldn’t think of Touya stuck in a sterile rehabilitation center. You couldn’t think of him reading your letter more than once. You couldn’t think of Touya at all, so you focused on Kaito instead.

You didn’t get a letter back. You didn’t get any of his siblings at your door. Instead, you took Kaito to daycare, worked, took Kaito home, and went to bed ready to repeat. You and Kaito went on little adventures on the weekends, going to the park, play dates, swimming lessons, zoos, and museums. You couldn’t love your son and life more.

He was getting bigger. He was developing his own personality now, such a sweet boy he gave you cavities. Kaito was so bright. He was the smartest kid you knew and you weren’t biased at all in saying that. He was so beautiful and tiny. You wanted to wrap him up in a blanket and keep him in your pocket forever. Some days he would run through the living room like a plane and all you could remember was when he fit in the crook of your arm. He was so curious he asked you about the world every day. Some days he came home from daycare with a fun fact you never knew.

The day he manifested his quirk was on the weekend in the backyard. You were on the back porch, watching him run back and forth through the oscillating sprinkler. You sipped your tea slowly, easing your anxiety about him slipping.

Kaito flung his hero doll through the water. It thunked in the grass, face first. Kaito yelled that he was coming to save the hero. He pressed his wrists together, jutting his hands out like a stream of power would rush through them. He jumped up, pushing his hands out again and giving himself a sound effect.

As he passed through the water you saw sparks and flames envelop his hands and fly straight to the ground toasting the ground next to his doll to ash. Kaito landed in the burnt grass, freezing and staring down at his hands. You jolted up onto your feet, setting your tea down and rushing towards him.

Kaito slowly turned around towards you, a scared look on his face. You scooped him up, wrapping him in a hug. Kaito pressed his nose into your shoulder, holding onto your neck tightly. It’s a bit scary to see fire shoot out of your hands as a three-year-old. You stared at the ring of burnt grass, thinking back on the fire around his fingertips.

It wasn’t blue like his father’s, it was red like a campfire. A part of you was happy, he wouldn’t have to struggle to control a quirk as hot as his father’s. Another part of you was sad, you kinda liked the idea of your son growing up to be a hero and showing the world his blue flame was still hero material. Maybe Touya could find it out that way. You didn’t even know if Kaito wanted to be a hero. Maybe he’d do something simple. A third part was scared, fire is easily destructive. Kaito was new to it, he didn’t know how to control it. Your house could be in ashes in days.

Touya would’ve been worried if he had been on the porch with you. Hellfire, like his father. Like the father he tried so hard to destroy and landed himself in the hospital and rehab. What made his father like that? A father like Enji fathering Enji? That’s how it works isn’t it, like passing sand from hands to hands, the trauma follows you in a terrible circle.

Well, your son would have less sand, he’d love who he is. You pulled Kaito away from your neck, leaning your head back to get a full look at his face. His eyes were glistening and he was pressing his fist to his cheek. The image of him as a newborn in your arms passed over you. You wiped at the tears on his cheeks, kissing them afterward.

“You got your quirk, Kaito. Isn’t that so exciting?” You said, smiling widely to settle his anxiety. Kaito pulled his hands from his face, looking at you confused. You bounced him on your hip and started spinning around, squealing about his quirk. You rested your hands on his back, dipping him down so he hung upside down just a little. You passed his head through the sprinkler, making him laugh loudly. You pulled him back up, dancing away from the sprinkler and the burnt grass. Kaito shook his wet white mop of hair out, drizzling you with water.

Two and half years pass before Kaito starts school. He’s settled into the routine. He knows the time you give him breakfast, the time he gets dressed, the time he brushes his teeth, and the time you leave. Kaito would rather burn all his toys than be late for school. He’s made plenty of friends there. He’s already been invited to two birthday parties in the few months he’s been there. You wonder if daycare was that beneficial to him.

Kaito walks his clean plate to the sink, standing on his tiptoes to gently set it in the bottom. You praise him before finishing your own. Kaito heads towards his room, ignoring your words entirely. Every morning he was on a mission to get to school at exactly the right time. Once he tried to get you to force him to go to school while he was sick. He whined about his perfect attendance before you told him he could watch TV. He dropped the subject after that. A knock sounds at your door. You look over your shoulder before concluding it was the mail. Sometimes they needed your signature.

“Kaito, you better not forget your jacket! It's cold out!” You shouted so he could hear you through his door. You stared at his face peeking through his door as you swung open the front door. You pointed at him sternly, earning an eye roll. Damn you, Touya. You turned to face the mailman, face falling at the man in front of you.

His hair had grown out and the dye had long been gone. Touya’s scars looked… healthier. Healed a little, paler and a little more moisturized. His staples were removed. You assumed they had been replaced with stitches that had healed over a million moons ago. Half his piercings were gone, a stud in his nose and two in each ear were all that he had left. Or at least was wearing today. His clothes were more put together, relaxed but not in the scrambled way they were a few years ago. Touya stood bolder now like he found something inside himself during rehab that made his chest puff out. His eyes were all the same. You thought if you ever saw him again, you'd only see Kaito in his eyes. You only saw Touya.

“I finished rehab.” Touya finally said. Your silence stood in the air, like a confession of everything. You realized he could see into your home, slowly moving towards the door frame and holding the door tightly against you. Touya watched you with a look you'd only seen once before. In the middle of the night in your dimly lit living room, a movie in the background as the two of you kissed for the first time without sexual intent behind it.

“Evidently. You look good by the way, rounded, healthy. Um, what exactly are you doing here, though?” You asked, leaning back inside to look at the clock. Three minutes before Kaito left his room. Five if he was having wardrobe malfunctions. You leaned forward again, pretending you weren't on a time crunch.

“I know you sent me a letter. I know you said you didn't think I'd still care for you because you've changed so much but I think it's pretty obvious I've changed too. I just wanted to ask if you could give us a second shot we could try again as the new versions of ourselves. Every day I was in there I've been thinking about you. I haven't been able to-” You leaned back again, one minute, three with malfunctions. You put your attention back on Touya, nodding to signify him to continue. He paused, pulling his hand from his coat pocket. “-Am I interrupting something?” He asked.

You froze, dragging your eyes away from the clock. You met Touya's eyes, staring at him with wide eyes. You weren't getting out of this, you wouldn't be able to. You sighed, pinching your brow.

“No, I'm sorry Touya. It's very sweet and genuine of you to ask this but I really think there's just a big-” you waved your hands between the two of you. “-hurdle between us that we'd have to get through. I just think you should find someone else to love and cherish or whatever it is people say.” You threw your hands down, looking at his face again. He looked cold, he looked like the man who would show up at your door almost six years ago with blood staining his clothes. Touya shook his head, a new look meeting his features. He furrowed his brows. He stared at the step in front of him.

“I just don't understand. I feel like this came out of nowhere before the letters, everything was fine, and then all of a sudden you were too different-” Touya said. Your heart dropped to your stomach when you heard Kaito’s door open.

“Rena! Can you help me button my pants? The button is hard.” You could hear the pout in Kaito's voice. It reached Touya’s ears. You know it did. He froze, eyes glued to the ground. You didn’t bother trying to hide the wreck of a child’s home behind you anymore. The cat was out of the bag. You kicked the front door back, revealing all the toys and children’s books thrown across your living room. Kaito ran up to you, holding his pants up with both hands. You squatted down, pulling his pants together. As you slipped the button through the hole, Kaito greeted Touya.

“Hi! I’m Kaito. Do you have a quirk?” Ever the extrovert, Kaito wanted to be friends with everyone he met. You zipped Kaito’s pants up. You turned back, pulling his sneakers from the shoe rack. You might as well while you’re already on the floor. You glanced up at Touya to see him staring open-mouthed at Kaito. Kaito was unaccustomed with this reaction, gripping onto your shoulder.

“Touya. My son asked you a question.” You said, pulling Touya from the depths of his mind. Touya dropped down to his knees, getting on eye level with Kaito. You pulled Kaito’s sneakers on, tying the laces and pulling over the Velcro strap. Usually, he put his own shoes on but with the new friend, you thought you should do it.

“Hi. My name is Touya. Yes, I do have a quirk.” Touya responded slowly. Kaito was his, there was no way Touya hadn't realized that. It wasn’t frequent that you ran into someone with those eyes, that hair, and that smile.

You looked at Touya as you pulled Kaito’s other shoe on. Touya moved his focus from Kaito to you. His mouth was still a little agape, staring at Kaito with eyes that only you could understand. Kaito squealed, he loved showing off his quirk. You pulled back, leaning away from him, watching his hands. A whoosh came with the balls of fire enveloping his hands. Sparks flew around the edges. He grinned down at his ablaze hands like a crazy person. You smiled at his excitement, looking over to Touya. He stared at Kaito’s hands, face unreadable.

“Okay, Kaito. That’s enough. No quirk in the house, you know that.” You said, wafting his hands with air. It never put the flame out but it made Kaito laugh. He put his fire down, a few disgruntled sparks flying after. After an unfortunate incident involving your arm and his quirk, you both learned that Kaito needed a few minutes to cool off before he touched something again. The scar was still on your upper arm, a tiny handprint the size of a three-year-old. You didn’t mind it as much as you thought it would. It only reminded you of your son.

“Hands up.” Kaito held his arms above his head as you pulled on his laces. You looked at Touya as you tied them. Touya leaned forward and held his hand up, all fingers down except for his pinkie. Almost like a pinkie promise. You and Kaito both stared at his hand as his pinkie caught aflame. It looked like a little blue birthday candle. Kaito’s eyes lit up like his hands, a giant grin pulling at his cherub cheeks.

”Woah! Do you have fire too? It’s blue! That’s so cool!” Kaito said, his little hand reaching out for Touya’s. Touya and you both moved faster than light. Touya shot his hand away, the fire extinguishing, and his arm held far away from curious hands. You pushed Kaito’s hand away, sending it back to his side. Kaito looked confused, facing you.

“His fire is very very hot, Kaito. It’ll hurt if you touch it.” You explained, pulling the Velcro strap of his shoe over the top of his foot. Kaito hummed, fiddling with his hands over his stomach. You stood up, Touya following. Kaito looked over your shoulder at the clock and then down at the graph you had under it with a picture of the hands and what step in your routine it meant. Kaito gasped, rushing away from you for his bedroom. You smiled awkwardly towards Touya.

“Is he mine?” Touya whispered, his tone unsure if he was ready for the answer. You watched Kaito pull his jacket on before slinging his backpack on. His coat was just a little too big for him. It kissed the tips of his knees and every time you saw it you thought of Touya and his jacket hanging on your coat rack.

“Yeah, he's yours.” you wanted it to come out with strong conviction.

‘Yes, Touya he's yours what are you going to do about it.’

‘No Touya he's mine but he's genetically related to you, yes.’

‘What do you want from this information, Touya'?

‘Get off my property Touya. Kaito isn't your problem’

All those months you spent planning how you'd beat him to pulp when you finally saw him again fell apart the second you looked into his eyes. Maybe that was Kaito's effect on you or maybe it was just the effect Touya always had on you.

Touya nodded like he was accepting his fate, watching Kaito run up to you with your shoes. Usually, you didn't have your baby daddy standing on your front porch and you could get your own shoes. You pulled your shoes on quickly, keeping an eye on Kaito as he ran out the door towards the car.

“Why didn't you tell me?” Touya asked, following after you as you locked your door and joined Kaito at the side of the car.

“Not right now, I have to get Kaito to school so he can keep his perfect attendance.” You said, reaching over to pinch Kaito's cheek. He groaned and pushed you away, throwing his backpack into the backseat. Kaito pulled himself into his booster seat and buckled his seatbelt. You smiled at him, pecking his cheek and muttering praises to him.

Touya stood behind you, watching the whole ordeal and wishing he hadn't lost the first five years of his son's life. He didn't get to watch Kaito grow from a carrier that locked into the base to a car seat with a back to a booster seat. He didn't even know Kaito's favorite color. He didn't know anything about him. So with all that stirring in his mind, he whispered the one full sentence he could piece together.

“Can I come too?” You pulled away from Kaito, looking back at Touya. He looked scolded. His shoulders were slumped and he was clasping his hands together at his stomach. He stared at you with wide eyes. You remembered when you grounded Kaito for trying to sneak out of the house at night. He wanted to go to the park, you had to explain that the park was something you visited during the day. He was sad at being grounded.

“Yes! Rena, can he come? He can tell me at his fire! And his scars, they're so cool!” Kaito kicked his feet, thumping them against the back of the passenger seat. Your heart stalled at the mention of Touya's scars.

“Kaito. Don't say-” you scolded only to pause when a warm hand rested on your shoulder. You had forgotten how warm Touya was. You missed not needing to pull your space heater from storage. You stared at Touya, eyes wild with concern. He shook his head, lips pressed in a tight line.

“It's fine.” He muttered. You looked back over to Kaito who looked more than joyous to bring his new friend to school. You sighed, shrugging and moving for the front seat.

“Get in.” You said, sliding into the driver's side. Touya quickly shut Kaito's door and slid in on the other side of the back seat.

The entire drive you felt strange. You didn't like having your back to their interaction. A part of you worried Touya was teaching Kaito how to roll a blunt. Or maybe how to set your fire in your sleep. Maybe he was still bitter from the letter and all this was an act.

The moment Kaito laughed so hard he started wheezing you took back all the negative thoughts you had about Touya. Kaito leaned over into Touya's lap, patting his leg as he wheezed. Touya chuckled with him, a relaxed smile on his face. He gently patted Kaito's back, turning his pat into a rub. Kaito sucked in a gasp of air before it quickly danced behind his teeth and transformed into another laugh. Touya panicked, a new worry that he was doing this all wrong, already turning into his father. His eyes shot to yours in the rearview mirror. You didn't catch them, focused on the road. He saw your smile and small laugh and felt his shoulders relax.

Kaito had a hard time saying goodbye to his new friend in the school parking lot. Kaito complained and quickly latched onto Touya's arm, pressing his cheek into his scarred flesh. Touya patted his mop of white hair and wished him a good day. Kaito seemed to accept that, launching himself into the front seat to hug you goodbye with his arms around your neck. Kaito glanced over at the clock on the screen in the center of the dashboard. He muttered something and rushed out of the car, jogging towards the crosswalk. You and Touya watched as he was walked to the door by one of his teachers.

You both sat in silence and stare at the door even after Kaito is long gone. Touya left the back seat and plopped himself into the passenger side next to you. You wanted to pull yourself out of your head and face him, but your eyes were glued to the door.

It's been a long time since he was a baby. The first few months were hell on Earth. Everything sent you into an anxious spiral, his breaths were one second too long apart. You worried he was getting too much tummy time. You worried he wasn't getting enough tummy time. You worried about his diet. You worried about the sound of his cries. You worried about his number of cries. You worried about the cradle cap. You worried about SIDs. You worried sick over your son.

To make matters worse, you worried sick over his father. The first year and then some you wracked your brain thinking about him. Where was he? What was he doing? How was he feeling? What state was his body in? Could he still feel? What was he feeling about you? Had he already moved on, found a cute doctor, or something? Was he too far gone and close to death that he didn't even have the time to consider things like that? Why hadn't he said something to you yet? Would he even like you still? Would he even like your son? Would he even want to know if he has a son or would ignorance be bliss for him?

By the time you had finally settled your anxieties over your son's father, Kaito taking up all your capacity for worries, his letter arrived at your door.

You stared at the door to his school, the brightly painted sidewalk making you feel warm. Touya was next to you now, staring at the same school. You knew where he was, what he looked like, the state of his body, his thoughts on you, and what he was doing. You could hear his breathing in your silent car. You knew it all and yet, you still worried for him. You wanted him to touch you again. His hand on your shoulder sparked something that went dormant after five years.

“He is so…” Touya's voice fell like he wasn't sure the word to choose. You knew how the man from five years ago would respond.

Annoying.

Gross.

Snotty.

Clingy.

Sticky.

Have you had him tested yet? for anything because that child is just-

“beautiful.” Touya finished. You felt the air in your car slip out the window. You dragged your eyes from the school door, looking at him. He wasn't looking at you, staring at the school. You furrowed your eyebrows. That word you had not expected at all. You thought you'd have to drive Touya home in silence and fully cut contact this time.

“What?” you said, staring at the side of his face. Touya looked at you, finally meeting your eyes. Your shoulders sank. He unfortunately always had this affect on you.

“Your son is so beautiful. He’s just like you. I look at him and all I see is you. Kaito is just…” His eyes traveled back to the door Kaito had disappeared through. You wouldn't see him again for a good six hours.

“I can't explain it but he's just so perfect. I just don't understand how such a sweet person could have anything to do with me. Which is how I felt about you all those years ago. He is a carbon copy of you, you know that?” Touya said, a small smile playing on his lips. He sighed and stared at you, watching your face.

“He is beautiful.” You paused, keeping your eyes on Touya. You stared at Kaito some nights when he was asleep in your bed from a nightmare and only saw a chubbier and less scarred version of Touya's face staring at you.

“He looks like you,” you muttered, starting your car again. Touya sat back in the passenger seat, pulling the seat belt down.

“I have photo albums at home. Would you like to see?” you asked as you pulled out the school driveway back towards your home. Touya rubbed at his face. He quickly nodded.

“Yes, I would,” Touya whispered, looking out the window.

part two

#bnha touya #mha touya #touya x reader #touya todoroki #touya todoroki x reader #touya todoroki x you #touya x you #bnha dabi #mha dabi #dabi x reader #dabi #mha x reader #mha #bnha x reader #bnha #sorry its so long #there probably will be a second part ngl

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loveluvrs · 1 year ago

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third time's the charm l oscar piastri x reader

request/summary – Hellooo!! Would you be able to write an oscar piastri blurb with little examples of the reader showing him off and him getting all flustered? For example, drunk in a club with her friends / to make him feel more confident / ect..? 🫶

author's notes – idk if this was what anon was thinking of but this is what i imagined 😭

I walked into the paddock, hand in hand with Oscar. I was talking about the newest episode of the series I had been binge watching. Oscar, as usual, had settled into listening to me attentively, as I yapped on relentlessly without an end in sight.

I stopped when I bump into Max’s mum and sister. His family was like a second family to me, and I hadn’t gotten a chance to see them yet since Oscar and I started dating.

“Oh, hi! I’ve missed you guys so much. This is Oscar, you guys already know he’s my boyfriend,” I say excitedly as he reaches his hand out to greet them. “He loves the curry I make just like you guys do. Sometimes I think he may like it even more. I mean, he always begs me to make it whenever he’s visiting home,” I ramble on excitedly.

“Ooookay, we should get going now. Nice to meet you,” Oscar says before dragging me along with him to Mclaren garage. “What happened? I was talking,” I ask with a pout.

He laughs as he rolls his eyes playfully. “Yeah, I know, babe. You never stop talking, do you?” he says playfully, “you should remember to breathe every once in a while.”

“Ha ha. Very funny. I wasn’t even talking that much! I was just introducing them to you and telling them how much I love you!” I say defensively with a confused look in my eyes.

“Love, you were telling them I beg for your cooking, that’s embarrassing!” Oscar says with a slight laugh. It’s only now I stop and notice that he’s turned slightly red, making me giggle. Oscar gives me an unamused look before saying, “don’t laugh at me like that, you do this every time!”

“I’m sorry,” I say with a giggle, “you know I only do it because I love you. I just want people to know how great you are, promise!” Oscar opens his mouth to speak but is interrupted when some of his team members approach him to talk to him about the upcoming race weekend. “We’re going to talk about this later,” Oscar says softly as he points a finger at me playfully.

——

I screamed as Oscar won the sprint race in Qatar, and I immediately rushed over to him after the race, peppering him with kisses all over his face. “I’m so so proud of you, oh my god!” I say excitedly. Oscar’s face was already red from the heat, and it somehow turned even redder when he saw the cameras approach us. He whined slightly as he burrowed his face into my neck. “Baby, don’t embarrass me,” he mumbles quietly in a shy voice.

“My boyfriend just won a sprint race in his rookie season in F1, of course I’m gonna show you off and embarrass you. Don’t expect anything less from me,” I tease as I give him one last kiss before sending him off.

When Oscar returns to our hotel room that night, I’m already half asleep. He spends a bit of time on his phone while in my arms, trying to keep up with everyone’s messages. He stops when he sees an Instagram post from me, his embarrassed and red face that was caught on the cameras now plastered all over this post. “Did you really have to post that?” He asks me playfully.

“I absolutely did. You’re amazing, and you’re mine. Two things every person should know,” I say playfully, earning a playful eye roll from him. “But I look awful, babe!” He protests, zooming in on himself in the photo. I stifle a laugh. “Thousands of people would disagree, actually. Plus, you don’t look awful, you look happy!” I say softly.

He gives me an unamused look. “What if I don’t want to look happy?”

I giggle. “Then you are one sick weirdo, Oscar Piastri,” I tease with a soft kiss to his lips.

——

It’s Oscar’s birthday today, and I have been meticulously planning out every single detail for the past few weeks, including a party with some of his closest friends after qualifying session that day. Despite my protests, Zak also insisted inviting some sponsors to the event and key investors of Mclaren, to act as an opportunity for networking. I reluctantly agreed, although I knew Oscar wouldn’t like it.

As I thought, Oscar seemed a bit overwhelmed by the amount of people there. He was whisked away to a new person every two minutes, and it was all too much for him to handle. He eventually sat down next to me outside with a loud sigh, leaning his head on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to invite this many people, but Zak said this and that. And you know how he is, he wouldn’t have stopped until I said yes,” I say with a frown as I clearly notice how he isn’t having the best of times at this party. Instead, he just smiles, leaning in to give me a soft kiss. He stands up again, holding his hand out towards me. “I don’t care. Just be by my side while I’m being interrogated?” He asks playfully. I giggle, and with a nod I take his hand, our fingers intertwining.

We soon see one of my old friends that I knew from RedBull, and I introduce Oscar formally to her. As always, I begin to praise Oscar as a driver and as a person. And as always, he gets incredibly red. This time, however, I catch myself before it gets too bad, cutting myself off. When my friend walks away, Oscar has a frown on his face.

“Why’d you stop? You usually go on for longer,” he asks softly. I shrug. “You always get embarrassed by it, so I just realized and quit while I was ahead,” I say quietly in a kind of embarrassed tone that he even noticed I cut myself off.

Oscar shakes his head. “Oh come on, babe. Yes, I do get extremely embarrassed by it. But rambling on about me is so you, and I never want you to stop, you hear me? If I can’t praise myself then I need someone who will,” he says with a playful smile.

“Promise? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or anything,” I say softly.

“No no no, absolutely not. You could never make me uncomfortable, ever. And you rambling on and showing me off is embarrassing, yes, but I love you for it. I promise,” he says softly.

“Well, if you insist… then I guess I could squeeze in a few rambles here and there..” I say playfully with a giggle.

#oscar piastri x reader #oscar piastri imagines #oscar piastri oneshot #f1 x reader #f1 fanfic

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multiheadcanons · 2 months ago

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MERCS AND BIRTHDAYS

scout: june 28th, 11:15AM. cancer. big birthday guy. likes and expects a full showing of appreciation for the entire month that he is the birthday boy. forgets half the time that he shares the month with snipes, and it kind of annoys him that he has to share his birthday month with snipes, so he celebrates snipe’s birth month in may so he can have the month of june to himself. this has literally never worked. but the team will indulge him come the second. likes to pregame at the base and then barhop in town. birthday meal of choice is chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes, no gravy and two fluffernutters a la mode, drizzled in caramel. a decadent dessert for the birthday boy.

soldier: july 3rd, 11:59PM. cancer. if he didn’t love his mother so much, he would hate her. she couldn’t hold him in for one more minute? just one? come ON, MOM. he was SO. CLOSE. to having the BEST BIRTHDAY IN THE WORLD. he is always the first person to fire off a firework for the fourth of july, and if anyone shoots off a firework before july 3rd, 11:59PM he will find and rob them bloody and blind. the team came to the decision to only tell soldier (and america) happy birthday at the same time, since he seems to take independence day much more seriously than his own birthday. he has corrected them before, and they have insisted so hard that he didn’t know his own birthday that he let himself believe it. he doesn’t even remember why he doesn’t like july third. so now he just robs people of their fireworks that day. soldier gets the best cuts of steak for his birthday, the coldest beer, and is always served first.

pyro: november 13th, 10:10PM. scorpio. pyro doesn’t want to hear happy birthday until 10:10PM, because that was when they were born. until then, it’s not their birthday! the next day, the whole team is going to chuck e. cheese. pyro will point at one of the items on the very top shelf, that costs fifty million tickets, and the team has two hours of unlimited play to get the amount of tickets needed to get that for their birthday. the team has found their own ways to do this, and they have never failed their objective. pyro will greatly enjoy the pizza and ice cream for their birthday, but if engie insists on cooking them a dinner on their actual birthday, they ask for rice and red beans. not canned beans, the kind that take all day to cook. the texan now knows that when pyro’s birthday is coming up he needs to start on the beans the day prior so they’re ready in time for dinner.

demo: october 12th, 9:41AM. libra. demo wants the day off. let him drink and sleep. he doesn’t want anything more than that. but the team will celebrate him anyway, because they know if he’s the only teammate that doesn’t get a party of some sort then he’s gonna be hurt by that; and they love tavish. love him enough to make him the booziest, gooiest rum cake with a scrumpy ganache potent enough to kill three elephants in an hour. and he gets the whole thing. nobody will even ask for a slice. but they’ll all stop by on his day off and tell him happy birthday. he’ll convince the entire team to “strike” for the day. it’s his birthday command, nobody will do anything for the entire 24 hours. as a matter of fact you will be banished to the battlefield if you dress up. dress in your nastiest clothes and go to bed.

heavy: august 18th, 2:37AM. he’s just a leo to me idk that’s my big guy and he gets whatever he wants for his birthday. and it changes every year. one year he demands nothing but a clean sweep on the battlefield. death is not an option. failure is not an option. give him everything you’ve got or catch his wrath. another year he just… disappears. comes up missing for a week or two. another year he wants to go on a hot air balloon ride and he wants the team with him; everyone on the same balloon. he’s never been on one before. another year he just locks the door to his room and reads. normally he is not very present for engie to make him anything that he could make confidently, so he defaults to chicken and dumplings and makes sure he has a hearty helping when he’s ready for it.

engineer: april 5th, 4:53PM. aries. oh it’s really party time. engineer learned if he wanted a party he liked he had to throw it himself, and everyone across both teams get an invite. whether they show up or not is on them, but he knows his team will be there. the blu sniper will always show up, and the blu engineer will always show up. it’s technically his birthday too, and he didn’t even have to plan the party. nobody has verbalized any issues with this, so that’s all fine, as far as engineer was concerned. the itinerary is as follows: everyone takes the day off. nobody on either team is to work. arrive in two outfits layered on top of each other. pregame from 9AM to 11AM. nobody except the designated drivers should be leaving there sober. depending on attendance, they will take up to three company vans to this bar about five hours out. ideally you arrive exactly at 4:30. park around the corner, ensure lack of cameras, get dinner, pregame again. hard. don’t worry about the drive, the restaurant engie chose is a walk away. dine and dash, be out by 5:43. move quickly, they’re racing the police force now. go to the bar. at this point he will loudly yell “it’s my birthday!” to an absolutely empty bar. somehow this will sway the bartender to give drinks on the house. get shitfaced. designated drivers are now lookout, so preferably a sniper and a scout. people who can get to the car quickly to get them out when the time comes. when the police sound to be three blocks away (scout knows what that sounds like) lay on the horn until everyone is in the car. head count. catch the stragglers. lead officers in a high speed chase on two separate highways. eliminate threats. get home unharmed. it’s fun for everyone but the designated drivers.

medic: february 15th, 12:02AM. aquarius. cupid missed him by two minutes and now the man dissects the things he loves. he shared his birthday with his father, so the doctor will normally just go home for it. he’ll be back on the 18th. he likes to spend it with his mother. they go have dinner, they drink, they catch up, they shop a little, he tells her about the team. and his mother is happy to spend it with him! she loves her little boy, and it doesn’t matter that his kill count is easily in the hundreds and he’s been a grown ass man for at least three decades, that’s her little baby boy and she will never say no to celebrating his birthday with him. they have a good time. she makes him a red velvet cake and they go to town on it. the absolute sloppiest you will ever see this man is on his birthday. guaranteed one fist fight if they go out for drinks.

sniper: june 1st, 5:53PM. gemini. he’s not used to it being hot during his birthday. chronic middle child. once scout registers that june is around the corner snipes will essentially get shafted when it comes to a birthday plan. but the team won’t let him forget it too much. he always finds it odd that they’re asking him what he wants to do that day until he checks the date. then he remembers “oh, right! it’s my birthday! i’m gonna take the day off”. engie brings him some pot brownies and he spends the day baking in his van. if he’s feeling social he’ll convince everyone to go to the lake with him.

spy: september 19th; 3:37AM. he’s a virgo because i said so. the team will buy him a bottle of wine and he sits in his smoking room with the door locked. nobody knows what he does in there on his birthday, just that sometimes they can hear his laughter past the door. so whatever he does, he’s certainly enjoying himself. takes it upon himself to cook the team dinner that night. salmon, asparagus, and gnocchi. nobody is allowed to help. makes an espresso martini with a small scoop of vanilla bean ice cream for dessert. goes to bed happy and tipsy, wakes up hungover the next day.

#team fortress 2 #team fortress two #tf2 medic #tf2 sniper #tf2 heavy #tf2 scout #tf2 engineer #tf2 pyro #tf2 soldier #tf2 spy #tf2 demo #tf2 demoman #i put the times because i was going to talk about their zodiac signs #but now i don’t want to because it might completely fuck up my arbitrary birth dates i gave them #and i’m telling you now the birthdates are canon

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yuurivoice · 19 days ago

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A few quick update notes because idk where to conveniently post all of this publicly.

Still mowing through Cameos. I'm about 1/5 of the way through them. Will be working late tonight and tomorrow.

Charlie 4/20 & Bunny Finn Easter probably not happening, or coming later than intended because I've been fighting my brain and body the past week and shit just is not happening on time.

I'm trying to work around scheduled downtime in the coming days as my current booth needs to be disassembled and the new big boy booth is assembled on Thursday. Trying to receive a big ass shipment has also proven complicated, so that's fun!

Other shit still in the pipeline, but maybe there'll be one thing scheduled in the coming days that we can scream about.

Anywho, hell of a time for my shit to go off the rails, this is why I don't like taking commissions at all, even if they're simple...because life happens and I don't like keeping people waiting when my brain and body are so unreliable sometimes.

Most people were able to follow the rules, and those who didn't haven't gone so far out of bounds that I needed to outright reject any of the Cameos, but it definitely does add to the amount of thinking required. The entire reason I went the Cameo message route is because I can pretty easily just see a two sentence prompt and improvise an in-character message covering that subject while keeping it fresh and unique to each character. I literally had someone use the same prompt for three characters and surprise, I could easily give them all a unique vibe without it sounding too similar...hell yeah.

It has largely been a good, fun experience, I just struggle with the sheer mass of all of them (there's 70+ now) and next time I may have to limit the amount of them if there's any hope for me to actually keep turnaround times manageable.

That's a lot of words for what probably sounds like the opposite of a problem (it is a very good problem to have, obviously) but I just wanted folks to know I'm not slapping these on a printing press and churning them out, or reusing sound bytes for similar prompts, etc. Each one is unique and I try to keep a fresh slate in my brain when I tackle them to avoid two people getting a thing that is too similar.

So while yeah, those quick turnaround times were REALLY AMBITIOUS AND UNREALISTIC lol the slower time allows me to do my best and make sure people get a real genuine take out of the character. If I sat down for six hours and did as many as I could, I think by the third hour I would find myself struggling to avoid saying the same shit again and again because many people want similar things. The biggest one, comfort. Because shit is scary and times are hard and a lot of folks feel like they're fighting and fighting and fighting and don't see a light at the end of the tunnel. So I don't want to just...have a bunch of talking points delivered the same way a dozen times within an hour. I want to give y'all something better than that, at least.

Again, the Cameos were an experiment, so I expected some hiccups along the way. It hasn't been bad at all, and it really is nice to be able to give people the exact thing they need to hear at the moment. There's just a lot of it!

Whew. Big yap. Enough procrastination. Thanks for your patience!

#yuurivoice

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diz-eaze · 21 days ago

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I will humbly add onto yandere! Ororon because I love him because he is so meow and like I want him to breastfeed me.

okay so I definitely think he would be a good househusband like LOOK AT HIM. He can keep you plump and well fed with all the food he grows like. I’m trying to say that I want to see him in an apron.

okay next point!! Definitely watches you sleep. Like will stand at the feet of your bed like a sleep paralysis demon and admire you. He knows your sleeping habits like he knows the back of his hand. If he sees that the cover is falling off you, you bet he is going to tuck you in like a new born baby, like just let him swaddle you. He knows best.

Nest. I feel like he definitely has a nest, steals your clothes on his stalking sprees and makes a nest for him to sleep in.

Horny Ororon doesn’t seem like much of a dom to me actually, he just seems too much like a wet bat for me to assume he would turn you on your axis and like obliterate you.

I have a feeling he is some kind of masochist, not in an Ajax way but in a public humiliation way, bring up to him the time that he got jealous in public, how he looked like a pathetic jealous girlfriend. Idk he seems like he would in fact get on his knees and take all your allegations and lower his head, long eyelashes lined with tears, his expression one of shame and absolute agony, he looked so sad that you thought you had actually made him hate you. Oh. But why did you look at his pants and find that there was a sopping wet tent? Must have been your eyes.

Would definitely try pegging at least once like he is so GRRGGR

Touch his little ears, bite them softly and watch him twitch and shiver under you. In his mind he is doing nothing but worshipping and thanking you for touching him, truly a blessing from a goddess if you may.

I’m like sure he would like being outted for stalking you, have an ‘got you!’ moment and slam him against a wall even if he is like 2 feet taller than you. His ears will pin back in shame, idk humiliate him or smth bae. Your pick.

Okay, I’m going back into my cave.. bye bye for now

THIS IS INSANE,,, THIS IS MAKING ME FERAL WHAT THE FAWKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK I'M GONNA THROW HIM AROUND LIKE A RAGDOLL WTFFFFFF. do not let ororon around me bc we'll be in a toxic relationship and he'll be the enabler </3.

; yandere, pathetic ororon, somewhat nsfw content, not proofread, he gets bullied but he's into it :/.

you can't help but think what values were instilled into his head when he was young for him to turn out like this, or perhaps, this is simply the way he is.

and there's even a secret third option: that he was doing just fine until he met you. maybe you are the reason why he's like this.

you hum. indeed, the third option sounds more probable. but then, what course of action are you supposed to take in a situation like this? are you supposed to slap him and run away, report him to his tribe's chief, berate him until your throat bleeds, ignore him until the world collapses?

there are many options. yet you choose the one that lowers yourself down to his level of degeneracy. that alone makes you two peas in a pod with him.

your foot applies more pressure on the bulge that strains against ororon's jeans. you don't know if it's natlan's climate, or something far worse, but it is unbearably hot. perspiration makes itself known at the nape of your neck, but you choose to ignore it. you can't afford to tear your eyes away from his kneeling figure.

he whimpers then, fingers curling into his palm with his ears pinned back. his face is flushed, and he's biting his lip so hard you worry he might prick into blood. yet your eyes still look down upon him. it's weird, he must feel shame, does he not? so why does he look like he's on the cusp of reaching celestia, despite his guilt-laden voice earlier?

annoyed at the disjunction between his words and actions, you remove your foot from its rightful place, intent on walking out of the entire situation altogether - after all, what were you thinking?

yet the moment you lift an inch away from the blazing heat emanating from the bulge in his jeans, ororon's left hand grasps your ankle in lightning speed. his short nails curl around their prey.

a-ah... his voice tapers off into a moan. wait..!

what. comes your snip response.

stay, please... i'm sorry. ororon openly pants, breaths coming out in puffs of hot air. it's starting to feeling stifling in this enclosed space with him, and you're starting to burn up. but you know he's not ashamed of his actions at all - he's sorry for not being sorry.

if he was truly sorry, then he would have promised to never tamper with your dreams again. yet the moment the confrontation settles, and you retire into your bed for the night, you know you're being watched - both in your dream and in real life at the foot of your bed.

#outro's interlude <3 #outro's asks <3 #my writing is so very rusty but this was too good to pass off as silly headcanons in bullet format #tw yandere #yandere genshin impact #yandere genshin x reader #yandere genshin #yandere ororon #ororon x reader #genshin drabbles #soft yandere

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swiftsrqmantic · 1 year ago

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Hi! Outer Banks request here:

Could you please write a JJ Maybank smut where the reader is John B's ex? One day JJ is at a party without the pogues and he's a little bored because there nothing really interesting going on, so he goes to the only familiar face he sees: the reader.

and it's their first time seeing each other after a looong time, and idk maybe the reader has like more confidence than before so they start to drink together (just a bit not enough to get drunk) and they ended up having like giggly sex.

make-outs & mai tai’s — j.m.

summary : you, john b’s ex, happen to run into jj maybank- john b’s best friend. will a couple of mai tai’s cause you to explore your deepest and dirtiest fantasies, or will you remember that “bro-code” does exist? 18+, smut,

pairing : jj maybank x fem!kook!reader

a/n : first of all, i’m horrible at writing summaries 😭 but second and most importantly, thank you so so much for being my first request!!! and my first story!!! i can’t wait to write so much more but for now, i hope you all enjoy this story!!! reblogs are greatly appreciated :) !!

you were a kook. he was a pogue. you lived on different sides of the island, and were never supposed to be seen with one another. that was until he showed up at your job for the third time asking for your phone number.

if you were to ask anyone, they would say you and john booker routledge were absolutely inseparable from that point on. the two of you were seen around the island almost every day; going on dates, hanging out at the beach, and all that fun stuff.

that was until john b meet sarah cameron, the kook princess. they began to hang out every day, which used to be a plot to get information about the royal merchant, until they shared a passionate kiss on the ferry dock.

although you two ended on good terms, you rarely spoke, which means you didn’t speak to any of the other pogues either; at least not until tonight, where you were going to attend the annual bonfire. you sat at your vanity applying your lip gloss when you got a text from your friend.

savannah: be there in ten!

you grabbed your purse and made your way to the white jeep pulling up to your doorstep.

“ready to get shit-faced tonight?”, savannah asked rolling down the passenger side window while you rolled your eyes and opened the door. “no one is getting shit-faced tonight, especially not you”, you replied buckling your seatbelt as she stepped on the gas.

— ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ —

savannah pulled up to the lot as you put your phone in your purse and squinted at the bright fire that burned ahead. “ok so before we get out, some of the girls said that john b was gonna be here”, she said unbuckling her seatbelt and turning towards you.

“okay, whatever i guess”, you said chuckling and pulling your compact out of your bag to check your makeup one final time.

“so you’re not bothered by that? because if you want to leave then we can totally leave, your call.”

“we’re not enemies, savannah. we ended things on good terms, remember?’

“okay then, let’s get our party on!”

you stepped out of the car, scoping the scene, before making your way over to your other friend, emery, by the cooler. she greeted you with a warm hug and a canned mai tai while the three of you got lost in conversation.

meanwhile, on the other side of the fire, the pogues were drinking beer out of plastic cups, looking around at their rather drunk peers.

“ok, i’m gonna be honest and just say that this is seriously lame”, jj maybank announced to the crew and took the last swig of beer out of his cup. “you didn’t have to come you know”, an annoyed kiara replied. “but he is right jb, this is pretty lousy”.

“look, sarah’s here and there’s plenty of beer to last a couple more hours, so why don’t we at least try and have a good time”, john b replied as he threw his arm around kie. jj rolled his eyes and looked towards the cooler, when he saw you holding a can, laughing and talking to some other kooks. he smirked and made his way towards you as he saw your friends running off with topper.

“care for another mai tai, m’lady”, jj asked as you turned around, shocked at the sight in front of you.

“well, well, well”, you smiled, letting a tiny laugh escape from your lips. “if it isn’t jj maybank.”

“in the flesh”, he smiled, extending his arm out to hand you another can. “i noticed you were standing alone; thought i might give you some company”.

“well please accompany me somewhere more quiet”, you said laughing and taking a sip from your new can. jj smirked and said “come on, i have somewhere we can go”.

you took his hand as you guys walked down the lot towards the beach. “so, what brings you to this party”, you asked jj. “because if i’m being totally honest, i did not expect you to be here”.

“why not?”

“i don’t know, i just…i guess i thought that things like these weren’t really your scene.”

“they’re not.”

“then why’d you stick around?” you took another sip.

“i was going to leave” he paused, “but then i saw you.” you glanced over at him and smiled lightly while taking another sip.

“so, how’ve you been? it’s been a while y’know?”

“good, why’d you ask?”

“i don’t know, i’ve just been thinking about you lately.”

“aww, i’ve been on your mind, cupcake?”

you smiled and took another sip of your mai tai. “maybe just a little.”

jj laughed to himself as your feet hit the sand. “just a bit further”. you eventually found a nice spot on the sand and wobbly took a seat.

“woah there, pretty girl, don’t fall now.” you laughed, sipping your mai tai once more and looked him in his eyes. “why do you keep giving me all these nicknames?”, you ask, slurring your words and taking the last sip of your drink.

“do you want me to stop?”

“you could do anything you wanted to me and i would never ask you to stop,” you said with a chuckle as you moved a little closer to him.

“well someone’s feeling a little confident tonight, aren’t you?”

“oh c’mon j, somewhere deep down, i know you know i’ve always had a little thing for you.” and whether it was the mai tais or not, you know what they say: drunk words are sober thoughts. and with that being said, jj swiftly put his hand to your cheek, and pushed your hair behind your ear.

“did you really mean that?,” he caressed your cheek as you leaned in closer to him. “when you said i could do anything i wanted, and you would never ask me to stop?”.

“well we’re here now, aren’t we?”

jj stared at you, and as he opened his mouth to say something, you wrapped your arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. while he was surprised, he moved both of his hands to your hips and kissed you deeper. both of you continued to deepen the kiss as jj took the reigns and laid you down on the sand.

“wait, wait, wait,” you said as jj kept kissing your neck. “what if john b finds out?” jj raised his head and thought for a second, that swift thought followed by: “well that’s not really his problem now, is it?”

“i guess not, pretty boy,” you pulled him down to you buy his collar as you continued kissing each other, more hunger and passion followed by each kiss. you unbuttoned his shirt while he started taking off your shirt. “lift your hips for me, baby,” jj asked, unbuttoning your shorts to follow. if you weren’t already drooling at sight of him, you were positive you were now. you tried to hold back your moans as he swiftly pulled your shorts and panties down your legs, but with how close the two of you were, jj was sure to pick up on every last sound you made.

“oh no, cupcake, don’t hold back now. i want to hear all your pretty sounds,” he kissed a trail down your body as he buried his head in between your thighs. you moaned and tugged his hair as he kissed your heat and licked up and down your sweet spot. your body began to convulse as you felt yourself reaching your release.

“j- fuck, i’m almost there,” you moaned out, not caring about your volume as your back arched in immense pleasure. “let go for me, sweet thing.” your breath hitched as you sucked in a sharp breath, allowing your eyes to roll back in pleasure, finally reaching your climax. you steadied your breathing while jj kissed his way back up to your mouth.

“that was…amazing,” you spoke, regaining your breath. “oh, we’re not done yet, baby girl,” jj replied with a shit-eating grin. “trust me,” you said, reaching down to unbuckle his belt, “i know.” jj let out a small chuckle as he released himself from his boxers, smirking at your reaction to his length. “mmph, i want you so bad,” you moaned out as you kissed him, a string of saliva attached to your lips as you broke free from each other.

“you sure about this, cupcake?,” jj asked, caressing your cheek. you wrapped your arms around his shoulder and kissed him once more. “i’m absolutely positive, j. i need you.” without a second thought, jj slid himself inside you, both of you moaning at the sensational feeling you just shared.

“geez princess, you feel so good,” jj moaned on your neck, his warm breath sending shivers down your spine. you moaned as you gripped on to his shoulders, tapping twice to signal faster pace. as jj sped up, you could feel yourself tighten around him as he twitched inside of you.

“j, i’m close,” you whimpered as you felt him graze your g-spot, eyes rolling back at the glorious feeling.

“i know baby, me too, comin’ up right behind you,” jj replied, slurring his words. he sped up a bit more, making him more and more irresistible to you. your nails scratched down his back as you tried to utter out the words “i’m coming”, but instead were muffled by your pleasurous moans. jj pushed deeper inside you, following close behind. you two shared a breathy kiss while jj started to kiss down your neck, helping you get cleaned up. once the two of you regained composure, you sat up and watched the waves.

“that was… truly something,” you said sighing. jj looked over at you and chuckled, saying “trust me, i know.” you and jj watched the waves for a second before you both looked over to see the bonfire spot emptying.

“looks like everyone’s heading out,” you mentioned, while checking your phone to see two text messages from savannah. “shit, my friends are about to leave, i should probably go”.

“me too, me and the gang have an early surf sesh tomorrow,” jj mentioned while he stood up, extending his hand for you to grab as he pulled you off the sand. you two held hands and walked towards the bonfire, but you stopped him before you got to close to the crowd.

“hey thank you for tonight, i had a lot of fun,” you said swinging your interlocked hands back and forth as jj spotted his friends near the parking lot. you looked down as your feet as you said “it was nice getting to see you again. i probably won’t for a while.” jj laughed as he let go of your hand and grabbed your waist tightly, pulling you towards him. you choked on a breath as you abruptly placed your hands on his shoulders for support, looking deep into his eyes as he caressed your cheek. “you’re a very funny girl, you know that?”, jj questioned as your eyebrows tilted in confusion.

“you think after tonight i’m just gonna let you run off with some other guy?” you tried to tell him off but stuttered as he forced deeper eye contact between you two. “you’re mine now, cupcake. and if i have to see you every single day to remind you, best believe you’ll be seeing a lot of me.” you smirked as jj pulled you in for the last kiss of the night. “you have a good night,” he winked as he walked off towards his friends. you exhaled as you spun on your heels, walking to go find your friends.

little did you know that tonight would be the night you became jj’s girl. forever.

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cheri-2047 · 1 year ago

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Idk if it's a good request or nah, but can you do a imagine in which the reader got adopted by Lyney, Lynette and Freminett family? Not like adopted by the HoH and arle. The trio adopt us but keep us away from Fatui business. We are obviously young and just got isekai'ed to Teyvat. I hope it's not a weird request, I just really want some platonic time with the trio :')

DUDE THIS IS SUCH AN INTERWSTING REQ, ID LOVE TO WRITE THIS !!

I’m gonna make it so the ages are like, freminet is 16, lyney and Lynette are around 20 and they found you when you were like idk 6

This is so badly written in sorry it’s cause tumblr deleted my progress thrice and my lazy ass lost my motivation on this.

This went from a third person perspective to a first so MY BAD. I’m really sorry like genuinely 😞

Hearth siblings adopt you <3

Tags: none this is in a family situation

Characters: Lyney, Lynette, Freminet, mentions of Arlecchino

Lyney and Lynette were in a mission together, to gather some information from a well-known noble in Fontaine.

The pair had gotten tickets to go to a banquet as requested by father, to “extend connections” and to fulfill their task.

They were in their usual get up, with small extra details such as some pearls on Lynette’s hair and as for Lyney, he had temporarily glued on extra sequins on his hat.

The two introduced themselves, blending in with the crowd smoothly as they had the noble in sight.

“My if it isn’t the greatest magicians in Fontaine!”

The noble recognized them, after seeing them in the Steambird countless times.

“Ah, hello! Pleased to meet you! But ah sir, you must be quite wrong. For we are actually the greatest in all Teyvat!”

Lyney joked, extending his hand for the noble to shake.

“Lyney and Lynette, correct?”

The man said, shaking the boy’s hand. They both nod, as Lynette bowed her head.

“Pleasure to meet you.”

The three chat, as there was a sudden commotion from the food area.

“OUT!”

The Gardes yelled, pointing to the door. The crowd looked curiously, to see a small child running out of the building.

“Ah little dumb kids. Which noble would bring their child to a grand place like this?”

The noble chuckled. The twins (though they didn’t want to) laughed along with his remark.

The twins were smooth, they knew how to talk so they would get answers. They got all the information they needed and decided to linger around longer, to promote themselves as well.

“Ah well sir, we are going to take our leave for now. Thank you!”

The two introduced themselves to others.

“We’re Lyney and Lynette!”

They said, showing others small card tricks.

After a few hours they got all they needed and more, and left the venue. As the two walked out and made their way to the Hotel Bouffe D’ete, they heard small cries.

“….brother look.”

The cat-hybrid pointed towards a bush, walking towards it a little. They saw…a child, a child who looked barely an age over 5. Hugging their knees while shivering and crying.

“…hello..”

The cat hybrid held out her hand, only for the child to look even more terrified.

“We won’t hurt you…”

The hybrid kneeled down to the child’s height, as the young boy approached them and kneeled down as well. The child only looked more scared.

“Hey…your knee is bleeding…”

The young boy said, reaching for his pocket to grab a handkerchief.

“May I?”

The child didn’t speak.

“Ah..parles-vous francais?” (Do you speak French?)

The child shook their head. “Ah…”

“What’s your name little one?”

The boy said, suddenly reaching his hand out with the handkerchief.

“I’m just gonna wipe your wound okay?”

The child nodded, as if saying it was okay before telling the twins their name.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Lyney and this is my sister”

“Lynette. Where are your parents?”

The child shook their head. the hybrid understood.

“I see… are you from here?”

Lynette tried to not talk about parents, since it might have been a sensitive topic for you

“No…”

Her eyes widened in shock, but decided not to question it.

“Ah..I see..”

The boy finished wiping your knee. He could have sworn he had seen you somehwere.

“Can you walk?”

You nodded. Standing up. Suddenly, the magician regcognized you.

“…ah! You were the child who got chased out by the gardes!”

You froze. Were they going to get angry at you? Tell you to scramble off? Were the-

Your stomach grumbled.

“…you were looking for food Weren’t you?”

You nod.

“Well in that case..why don’t you come home with us?”

Lyney turned to his Sister in shock.

“Lynette- we can’t possibly just bring another child to the hearth. You’ve seen how the other kids reacted..”

“They have no home. Where else are they to go?”

“Anywhere but the hearth.”

They kept whispering to each other, not wanting you to hear anything.

Lyney didn’t mean to sound rude, he just wanted to keep you out of fatui matters. He wanted to keep you safe especially since it looked like you didn’t know anything.

“…”

“…fine”

“Alright Reader… we will take you to a new home okay?”

Lyney sighed. as he carried you up in his arms and started to walk with you.

“We’ll introduce you to our little brother once we get to the hea- at home.”

Lynette pulled some extra sweets out of hee bad, she fed you while her brother was carrying you. As all 3 of you walked, you fell asleep in his arms.

Lynette and lyney were trying to figure out how to take care of you. They didn’t want to tell father, since they didn’t want you to suddenly be forced to enter a life full of a murderer and a criminal.

After awhile, you suddenly woke up in a bed, with a short boy sitting on the edge of it.

“Ah..um…you’re awake…”

“Hello there…I’m freminet..”

The boy introduced himself, as he Pat your head.

“I’m their little brother.. and I’ll be taking care of you today since they’re in a missio- ah- since they’re busy”

You nodded

The three would keep you in a different place outside the hearth. They would do everything to ensure that nobody from the hearth knew you and father would never find out

You hang out with freminet mostly. He makes the clockwork machines a lot while he’s in your room.

The twins always check on you everyday, and entertain you with magic tricks.

Any attempt of calling them your father or mother, they would immediately shut it down and say “no no you don’t have to-“ and laugh afterwards

Whenever you get sick one of the twins would make an excuse to father to not go on a mission, and instead take care of you.

Freminet often gives you some toys, he gets slightly happy whenever he comes back to your home to see you playing with them.

As you grow up, the three teaches you more things (like for school) and they even let you watch some of their shows. On the condition that “you must act like you don’t know us personally. Got it?”

Honestly they would be really nice older siblings to you, they also feel pride in themselves that they “raised a kid normally”

They let you leave your room whenever you want, on the condition that you must say a fake name and call them whenever you go out (and when you’re back).

Sometimes on missions, they feel bad for leaving you out so if they go to another ball, they have an extra ticket for you. They often tell you they’re just “promoting the show” but you don’t mind it.

You get really suspicious and weirded out sometimes, but then freminet would just make an excuse like “since you’re not from Fontaine, people might look for you…”

I bet the three genuinely think they’re being so slick but in reality, arlecchino knows about this. I dont know how she found out, maybe the way all three of them have gotten more food than usual? But she knows about you. She knows your real name, your age and how you look like, but she pretends to not know a thing. She finds it amusing that her 3 kids are trying so hard to give you a normal life and she wants to see the outcome of this.

All 4 of you become really close. Lyneys always there if you need someone to cheer you up, lynette is always there if you want comfort or desserts, and Freminet is literally like your best friend.

They set your birthday in the day they found you. Whenever it’s your birthday, all three give you presents and gives you their favorite food.

On their birthdays, they visit you late (since the hearth also celebrates) but whenever they do, they have their favorite foods and you have a gift for them too that they always appreciate. (And they would always use)

Whenever you’re alone for long periods of time, they would apologize and make up for it by staying with you the entire day the next day.

I’m actually so sorry for the shitty writing like genuinely and this wasn’t proofread either 😔 but thank you so so much

#lyney #freminet #lynette #genshin #genshin impact #genshin x reader #fluff #headcanons #lyney x reader #lynette x reader #freminet x reader #arlecchino #house of the hearth #lyney x you #freminet x you #lynette x you

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justcallme-ange · 8 months ago

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Happy 1 Year Little Comforts!! <3

Give or take a couple days - oops ^^;

One of the longest projects I've done to date!! <3 <3 <3 Thank you all so much for the support, as well as all the comments and tags! I love going through them and reading all the lovely messages. They're a great pick-me-up whenever I'm feeling demotivated. So thank you again <3

So for the anniversary I wanted to do a little thing where I point out some details in the comic I'm very proud of XD (Yes I'm tooting my own horn - shhh)

Three Wishes Dream asks Techno to promise him something 3 times. And only on the third one does Techno agree. I tried to frame it as both Techno being cautious about agreeing to things Dream proposes (a la favor) but also as Techno finally agreeing when everything was laid out and there was nothing Dream had left to hide. (It's like a fairytale trial - 3 challenges with the last having a great reward.) Forget-me-(k)not I don't know how prevalent they are now a days, but growing up I was a really forgetful child, and learned somewhere that by tying a knot on your finger when you need to remember something supposedly helps in you actually remembering. Which idk if true, it didn't really work on me, but the knot itself actually stuck, so in this case I used it for 3 things: A reminder that Dream was stuck in prison and needed help, a reminder that Phil needed to get Techno out of prison (eventually), and a reminder that Techno promised Dream he would free him. Scars So all the scars that I drew Dream with all actually have canonical reasons. So in order - the one across his nose was from Techno during their duel, the ones on his neck and chest were from Tommy taking two canon lives, the one on his lips were from Sam after first being detained, and the last on his chin (and arms) are from Quackity. Continuity The armor that Phil is wearing at the end is a reference to another illustration I did of the Doomsday Trio. It's post prison break so maybe it's a sequel? (This is less a detail and more just a personal thing - but my favorite page has to be page 7 - where Dream's image crumbles. It usually takes me at least 2 tries to get the look I want - this was one and done ^^) More behind the scenes - this comic (final version) started with the hug. I said initially the comic was supposed to be 6 pages at most, but I wanted to make the hug work so bad that I literally rewrote the comic. Only the first two pages are part of the original draft. Everything else was new. My brother literally sat with me for days going over each scene and making edits. OTL There were so many iterations - in the end I think there are at least 7 drafts of this comic. Cut Content Bonus: Unlike my other comic where the vision was there from the beginning, Little Comforts had some growing pains, and a few scenes had to be cut for it to work. So here ya go!

This was cut in favor of the shaking scene, some levity was needed to let the scene breathe, plus quoting my brother "It's more Techno".

Also wanted another hug, but editor and I felt that it took away from the pay off in the end.

Alternate version of 'he's a child' - originally it was supposed to go at the end of the comic, as an epilogue. Timing wise it ended up not working, which ended up with an even better gut punch so I'm not too upset. I may still render this....

#Little Comforts #Little Comforts Comic #behind the scenes #rivalsduo #rivals duo #c!dream #c!techno #my art #long post #long post is long #thank you all again for all the support <3 <3 <3

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theeternalwomb · 2 years ago

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spirit baby reading 🧸

Disclaimer: I usually speak to the feminine collective when I do these so if you’re not mom and you’ll be dad switch things up so they may resonate for you. <3

I’ve literally always been so obsessed with Bey as a mother so I refuse to use anybody else for my banner. Sue me if you’re mad, otherwise have a great time, I’m gonna do these as channeled messages this time, so if you’re in a high-level soulmate or twin flame connection these could be really good to get some insight and understanding from a different perspective. When we talk about spirit babies, we’re speaking of the spirit or the souls of babies that are waiting to be born and spiritually connected to you.

Often when you’re in a soul connection or a twin flame connection, the person you’re connected with is part of your soul family and the children you’re meant to have will choose the two of you as parents are a part of your soul family as well. They love you both unconditionally, free of judgment and misunderstanding because they see everything before they come to you and forget everything about their soul's purpose and about why they chose you as a parent, and what it was like to choose you. They often play a huge role in you and their other parent getting together as well. They protect and guide your connection just as much as the divine. Hope that this is helpful if you’re in a high-level soulmate connection or a twin flame connection, love you! 🧸

pile one:

Before I begin, I just want to say someone’s child is really obsessed with the chicken dance song, idk if you remember what that was from when you were a child but here’s a link to a weird YouTube video with the audio.

“Mom, the best thing you can do right now is to relax and release your control and enjoy yourself. I know that dad is taking a long time but he’s coming to marry you and be with you very soon and you just have to be patient.” For some reason, I’m getting we you could be expecting multiples at some point soon. “We know how much you care about Dad and how patient and gentle you’ve been with him and we ask that you send him lots of love and encouragement even though you guys aren’t speaking that much.

Don’t think that he doesn’t love you or doesn’t want you just because he hasn’t said so because he does. All he wants is to be with you and to build a family with you and that time is coming. He’s closing out karmic cycles and making sure that everything is perfect before he comes towards you because he knows it’s what you deserve. We told you this when we spoke to you in your dream. Dad is making sure that he gets lots of money and gets everything ready so that you will be comfortable and well taken care of and he can buy us lots of stuff.

Please don’t become discouraged or try to forget about Daddy because it hurts that he’s away. We connect with you every day and we’ve been sending you messages through your social media so that you know we’re here waiting for you. Remember that separation and time apart are only an illusion and only exist in one realm of existence. Time to us over here goes by very quickly and you and Dad are not truly separated because you are connected spiritually and are married and in union with one another in spirit.

You and Dad are taking the time out to do the inner work and grow and that’s why you’ve been given this time apart by the universe so that everything can be perfect and ready when you guys come together because the two of you deserve nothing less than perfection. You and Daddy both are doing the inner work and have been working very hard. Continue to do things that you care about and enjoy and take care of yourself in the ways you deserve. Dad is releasing karmic energy within his life, leaving behind third-party interferences that are standing in his way because he’s no longer going to allow anything to get in his way of loving you and being with you. He’s learning to love beyond his fears and his ego and he’s learning to follow his heart every single day after a long time of living for others.

And when he comes to you, he will be completely unrecognizable and he’ll be different from who he was before, when he had a hard time and couldn’t be there for you the way you wanted him to. You’re going to be so proud of him and so happy to see him again. Let go of any self-doubt Mom or any negative ideas about if Dad loves you or if he’s coming. I know you know he is so hold onto what your heart and your spirit are telling you and just relax. Everything is going to be okay.

Dad needs you to release the past and fully let go of past versions of your connection and even let go of the present because it is not a full representation of what he feels for you. After all, he’s not where he truly wants to be right now which is right by your side. There was a lot of hardship that the two of you went through but even you feel in your heart that it was ages ago and we know that you love him and we know that you love him because you can forgive him and show him so much grace even the second he makes a mistake. Cycles are coming to a close. Your time is coming. Please, just rest. “

channeled messages or things I picked up on during the reading 👣:

multiples or a set of twins to be specific (a boy and a girl)

“Take me out to the ballgame” one of these children may really like baseball or grow to like baseball as a sport. You could have an elder family member who enjoys baseball as well.

May enjoy gardening as a hobby

Blue and green as well as purple and orange

Heavily adorned scrapbooks or photo albums

A boy or son being born first or older. He protects.

Close sibling/twin relationship. Irreplaceable to each other. Incomplete without each other. They may grow to enjoy a lot of the same hobbies, I'm getting swimming and recreational sports or arts and crafts they may share together. Not shying away from twin-ness and pride themselves in being very much alike because they respect one another so much.

Boy/son is very caring and emotionally intelligent and compassionate

The girl/daughter may be very shy in nature and very petite and take after her mother in face and stature. I'm hearing she's a diamond. People will really be fond of her beauty and adore her and people who know you or knew you may find her face very nostalgic because she looks so much like you.

I'm also getting that she's got a timeless beauty. She's someone who will grow up to be very stunning and beautiful and would've been that in every era or point in time.

I'm also getting that she may grow up to be fond of music and the arts.

She may like to dance (getting ballet) or do gymnastics.

I'm hearing whoever she marries Daddy is gonna make them pay a big fat dowry or go to the ends of the earth for her and her brother will see it through

***

pile two:

The divine masculine in your life could be tall or something or this baby may come out heavy or just be in a larger percentile for his age group. I instantly got that song Sza sang on SNL “I Need a big boy”

“Mom, things will be made right. I really don't want you and Dad to fight or have trouble but sometimes conflict is necessary because things have to fall away and come out in relationships and sometimes things go wrong for a reason and we have to be strong enough to deal with them. I know that you're sad or you're not feeling hopeful right now. And you may feel like everything is going wrong and everything is against you but that’s just not true. You have to trust in the divine and trust that things will come together and work out for you in the end.

I know that there have been delays and blockages within your and dad’s relationship and with you really getting what you truly desire. And these circumstances have given you bad dreams and made you very scared and anxious but I want you to get some rest and relax. Nothing good comes of being tired and exhausted. Take care of yourself and focus hard on what you can do to make things good around you and enjoy yourself even if things are rough with you and Dad or in other areas of your life. Remember that you and Dad are both growing and sometimes we don’t have all of the answers and don’t have the solution to everything.

The universe is trying to teach you to find wholeness and happiness within yourself right now Mom because that’s what you need the most. You may feel like you need dad or other people and things to feel happy and that’s not true. All the things you’re stressed about aren’t good for your health and aren’t all your responsibility to carry with you so you have to take some time to release your control and release all of this stress. I see what’s going on and I know that you’re unhappy and having a hard time with your current circumstances but things are always capable of getting better and these feelings and these times are temporary.

This is a good time to decide what you want to do with your time Mom or want you want to do with your life and how you want to live. Sometimes when there are blockages, separations, or dramatic changes and events in our lives that means that we need to focus on ourselves more. Dad has lots of internal wounds, karmic cycles, and blockages that he needs to work through before he can be there for you the way you need him to and so the best thing to do is to show him grace and compassion and focus on finding happiness and support within yourself. “

channelled messages or things I picked up on in the reading 👣:

TikTok, social media, or clinging to social media or using social media as a distraction or a way to cope with emotional pain

Umbrella by Rihanna “ooo baby it’s rainin’ rainin’”.

NFL babies /sports babies

“Somewhere over the rainbow” and it’s lyrics

The Wizard of Oz, the cowardly lion, or the Tin Man and their meanings

Miscarriages/infertility/struggle to conceive or complications during pregnancy, or post partum

Plays, performances, or the theater

A boy/ a son

The color blue

Sports teams/mascots

***

pile three:

“I see that you’ve been working very hard Mom, taking care of yourself and taking care of your responsibilities and taking responsibility over your life. It’s time you start thinking about what direction you’d like to take in life or what you really truly want to do so that we have a good foundation for ourselves. Sometimes I’ve seen that you’ve had a hard time focusing or a tempted to put your energy into other things. But you know that nows not the time to be distracted and it’s a lot of progress being able to be tempted and have the strength to stay focused and I’m very proud of you. I know that you’ve been feeling alone or have been alone but I want you to know that in isolation the universe brings us growth.

And that sometimes in life people have to walk away from us or we have to walk away from people and even sometimes we drift apart from our friends and loved ones. It’s a natural part of life and when doors close new doors open Mom. The universe gave you time alone so that you can establish things for yourself and really decide what you want for yourself and take initiative over the directory in which you’re going. All the times we’ve had a hard time. All the times we’ve undergone lots of change in your life, all the times there was chaos and we were confused were all for a good reason, and in life we have to learn to see the lessons in our experiences.

It’s time for you to branch out on your own mom and remove your dependence on others and other things in your life that keep you from living authentically and really growing into the beautiful woman you’re meant to be. And one day you’ll be happy and you’ll be celebrating just how far you’ve come all along. There’s so much potential for you to grow and for experiences and endless opportunities to reach you. And don’t worry about not having found Dad yet Mom because soon you will meet him and soon you’ll finally get the love and the relationship you’ve dreamed of all along, all this time. “

channelled messages or things I picked up on in the reading 👣:

This sounds like a girl or a daughter

“Alright” by Kendrick Lamar

You may choose to be a single mother or look for a donor when you’re ready to have a child

You may not know who your person is or haven’t met your divine counterpart yet or received the love or the relationship that you’ve desired for a long time

This child is going to be really attached to you and take after you in many ways. The two of you may bond over fashion or you may end up being the primary parent and main support system

This child may come at a time where you’re going through a large transition or you’re entering a stage in life where you want something new or different

This is a big girly girl. A huge fan of pink and flowers and may like to get her nails done with you.

She may come out looking a whole lot like you as a child or as a baby

This baby is going to heal your inner child by being able to live the life or have some of the experiences you would’ve wanted for yourself.

***

I hope this gave you some guidance or was something you really wanted to hear tonight 💕 If you ever need a personal reading, you may go to my Instagram and click the link in my bio to book a reading with me! Love you!

#self love #self care #self improvement #self discovery #dream girl #self expression #healingjourney #self healing #manifestation #divine feminine #divine masculine #spirit baby reading #pick a card #pick a card reading #pick a pile #tarot #tarot readers of tiktok #tarot readers of instagram #tarot readers of tumblr

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queenlua · 3 months ago

Note

your post about adding excitement to a story by increasing the pressure on a character was not something i’d heard before and i found it super useful. are there any other pieces of writing advice you find foundational and would be willing to share?

glad you found that tidbit helpful!

first, i’ll give my default caveat of “i’m just some guy on the internet, so take this with however many grains of salt you need”

plus my general caveat on… all writing tips/tidbits/advice? which is:

i find that, past the basics of “knowing about exposition/rising action/climax/denouement” and such, most writing advice ends up operating as a dusty old toolbox i open up now and again. something in my story's not working; i’m not sure how to fix it; i pull out my little toolbox of tidbits i’ve accumulated over the years and see if any of the screwdrivers and wrenches in there actually fit. the kinds of tidbits that are useful for me may be ACTIVELY DETRIMENTAL to someone else; someone who chronically overtightens their screws probably shouldn’t be told “have you tried tightening the screws more :D;;;;” or whatever. and in particular what works for me is probably oriented towards genre-y stuff.

BUT, Y’KNOW, GIVEN ALL THAT

here’s the tidbits i find myself returning to over & over!

* three is a very powerful number. i have a tendency to write myself into situations where you have Two Interesting Characters Doing Verbal Head-Games With Each Other, and that stuff can be tremendously fun, but it tends to run out of steam very quickly. adding a third character to the scene combinatorially increases the dynamics available for you to play with. so if you’re stuck, throw someone else in there. (relatedly this is why awful dinner parties are Peak Literature™)

* if you’re writing a romance: put a sticky note on your monitor that says “WHY CAN’T THEY BE TOGETHER NOW?” if at any point you don’t have a good answer to that, you’ve fucked up; rework the plot.

* this is a shlocky tidbit from the South Park creators that totally works: list all the scenes in your story, and then, between each scene, see if they are connected by THEREFORE or BUT versus AND THEN.

so., e.g., “the ocean levels in Tellius are rising, THEREFORE kilvas wants to migrate from their sinking islands and onto Serenes, BUT Reyson is opposed to that move, THEREFORE…”

that gives you a stronger structure than, like, idk, “the war ends AND THEN kilvas moves to Serenes AND THEN Reyson and Naesala get in a fight…”

you want it to be mostly “THEREFORE/BUT” and very few “AND THEN”s. just a tighter overall plot structure

* each scene should accomplish at least two things. the most common two things for a scene to do are “advance the plot” and “develop a character”; i have a hazy memory that when i first read this advice, there was a list of, like, 1-3 other things a scene’s allowed to accomplish? but i cannot REMEMBER that list, lol. but use your imagination; i’m sure you can think of another valid thing.

i think this is more useful as debugging/editing advice than upfront advice—often, when you’re writing something, every scene will *feel* necessary, but upon reread, you’ll notice your attention is drifting, this doesn’t quite feel tight enough… and you’ll realize, oh, ugh, i just had three scenes in a row that existed Solely To Hit A Plot Beat; why don’t i combine those three scenes into one, condense the action, and also make sure a character’s doing something actually interesting/new while i’m at it.

(i think i see this plaguing a lot of novels that come out of nanowrimo in particular. i mean, not me, because i don’t have the fast-twitch muscle required to do nanowrimo, but when i read other people’s nanowrimo stuff, it often feels like it was galloping through a bunch of plot beats without bothering to do anything else interesting.)

* if you're stuck on a particular scene/chapter, stuff to try:

delete the current sentence and start over

delete the current paragraph and start over

change the font and reread what you've got so far

open the document on a different screen and reread what you've got so far

print the thing out and reread what you've got so far

open a brand new document and rewrite the whole scene/chapter/etc from the start (NO PEEKING AT THE ORIGINAL VERSION)

go outside and look at a bird for a bit

take a nap

shoot a whiny discord message to a friend about it (even if it's solely rubber ducking, this can be helpful) (though if you have any friends who are good at writing AND ALSO willing to put up with your shit and offer helpful feedback AND ALSO you're not too mortified by your writing dilemma to share it with them, that's even better) (btw, any friends reading this: if you want to opt-in to messages like this from me, LET ME KNOW lmao, i'm really shy on this front!)

if you're DESPERATE: open a new document and just write out, like, "Character X wants Y. Character Z wants Q. These are the sources of pressure on character X. These are the sources of pressure on character Y. I want R to happen but I feel stuck because of M" and so on, just... really trying to dissect what the scene's trying to accomplish? most often, the outcome of this is, i'll notice in that "thinking aloud" document that i'm circling around some central question that I Don't Know The Answer To, and i need to answer that question to usefully proceed. sometimes this will be painfully obvious in hindsight. (e.g., sometimes you'll go back to your outline and you'll realize you've literally just hit the bullet point that says UGH OKAY THEY GET TOGETHER SOMEHOW I'LL FIGURE THIS OUT LATER, and you're like, ugh, fuck, it's now later, why is past-me such a bitch!) but them's the breaks. (in particular, i remember getting catastrophically stuck on a "meet the parents" story until i realized i was... avoiding actually writing out the "meet the parents" scene... which feels "well duh" in hindsight! but, like, hey, in order to write that scene, i needed to commit to some specific decisions on What The Story Was About, the same way artists gotta eventually erase a bunch of sketchy lines to commit to the Lines They Will Actually Be Inking, and that decision point feels hard and scary and no wonder i waffled lol)

okay so that's all the super-specific-concrete advice. here's some stuff that's more big-picture but i've still found personally useful:

* i once went to a talk where a novelist said she doesn't start writing a novel until she knows exactly what she wants it to look like on the bookshelf. as in: is it a schlocky trade paperback or is it a beautiful hardcover thing with fancy paper? does it have IMPACT FONT for the title or something handwriting-y? how many pages is it? and so on.

in service of this aim, she never writes any of the novel (no notes, no outlines, no snippets of dialogue, nothing) until she has that image vividly in her mind + she can't physically STAND not writing it any longer. for her, this process allows her to be sure that she knows what her novel is about—not necessarily in every single detail or plot beat (though, often she has a lot of that in mind before starting), but in terms of "what am i trying to say," "how do i want the world to look at it," etc, and she's found through hard experience that, while it's easy for her to start novels, it's often hard for her to finish them unless she has that crystal-clear image in her mind.

i can’t quite do her purity-of-method (my brain is scrambled eggs; i HAVE to write down snatches of dialogue and such before i get started on something or it all leaks out of my ears), but i see a lot of wisdom in it. i do a lot of prewriting & thinking & scribbling out little snatches of dialogue and such before i really begin writing. i think everyone develops their own little heuristic for when they can be reasonably confident they know what their story is about, so you should try and figure out what that heuristic is for you & learn to trust it if you can? (a common one you hear a lot is "i have to know how the story ends / what the ending feels like," which makes sense; endings usually have a lot to do with what a story is About. i know NK Jemisin mentioned once she can't really start until she's nailed down the voice, and that also makes sense to me—you read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and it's very clear that her choice of voice is a large part of what drives the story, it has a propulsive force of its own; it's The Thing that blasts the whole thing open for her. for me, i'm not sure i have a tidy heuristic, but there's a point where i've written enough snatches of dialogue plus bits of scenes that i've unlocked some core thing that i'm really excited about—i keep spinning out bits of dialogue and setting and such that are related to that thing, i'm so excited to see how that thing plays out across the story, i look at my outline and see only possibilities and wonder instead of connective tissue that needs to be filled in... and then, yeah, i'll know i'm cooking, but not one second before!)

note that the story is allowed to surprise me & change on me once i get properly started—my longfic changed substantially when i realized Reyson’s perspective needed a LOT more room to breathe than i had accounted for in the outline, and then changed substantially again when i realized the butterfly-effect-style implications that keeping Leanne around had for my entire storyline—the ending wound up being TOTALLY different than what i'd originally planned!—but like, in that case, i don't think my sense of what the story was about ever fundamentally changed; i just added two more huge elements that orbited that about-ness. if that makes sense.

* i think about this passage from Bayles & Orland's Art and Fear a lot. i'm actually not sure that advice is helpful for literally everyone—i do see people who somehow manage to write the same fucking thing over and over, for years and years, and never seem to develop their craft or make any movement toward saying something interesting.

but i do think most people are developing something even when it feels like "the same thing over and over," and as someone who probably tends toward too little output, i found it a useful reminder that returning to familiar forms, themes, and characters across pieces is intensely useful if it gets you in front of the keyboard again, so don't stress over novelty too much. (i find, if i'm still returning to a particular form/theme/character, it's because i feel like i still have some interesting new perspective on it that's genuinely worth exploring. if i have actually exhausted a topic, i'll know it because i myself will get bored, but anyone else's opinion is irrelevant!)

* ursula k le guin's steering the craft is more focused on craft & nuts n bolts than plot-debugging-type-things but i thought i'd give it a shout-out here because i've just found it so perpetually useful over the years. in particular we could all stand to read our stuff aloud more often; that fixes a lot of problems and she goes on about that in detail in chapter 1 haha

* oh, also, re: my "put more pressure on the characters" advice—you've probably already intuited this, but i think i found that framing more useful than the kinds of "raise the stakes / make sure every character has Stakes / Wants Something" advice you're likely to find in screenwriting workshops, because this framing feels like a more... abstract... way of talking about the same thing?

like, often those two types of advice are addressing the same problem, but when i start off thinking about "where is the pressure on these characters," i don't just have to think "time to heap more pressure on them," i can also, like. observe. where the pressure points in my work are. i'm not presupposing a solution. maybe there's a ton of pressure but it's the wrong kind of pressure. maybe there's a ton of pressure but there's nowhere satisfying for that pressure to go. it's very woo/fuzzy but yeah i use the general principle of "pressure" to frame a LOT of how i think about story construction; maybe that'll be useful to you!

* FINALLY, i don't have a nice packaged heuristic/tidbit/tool-shaped thing for this one yet, but i've been thinking a lot about how much perspective really Changes Everything about a work. your choice of PoV should be exceedingly deliberate; you should be taking maximum advantage of your choice of PoV at all times (what do they know? what don't they know? how do they think about the world? etc); also if you're editing something and you're noticing a lot of unconscious perspective breaks, that's a warning sign something's going badly wrong in how you're approaching the story overall—perspective should just be unconsciously correct if you're hitting stuff right imo

OK WOW SORRY THAT GOT SO LONG but hope at least one of these lil bullets are useful for ya! happy writing~

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